n by William the Silent
when he was assassinated at Delft--the blood-stained shirt, the jacket
made of buffalo skin pierced by bullets, the wide trousers, the large
felt hat; and in the same glass case are also preserved the bullets
and pistols of the assassin and the original copy of his
death-warrant.

This modest, almost rough dress, that was worn at the zenith of his
power and glory by William, the head of the Republic of the
Netherlands, is a noble testimony to the patriarchal simplicity of
Dutch manners. There is perhaps no other modern nation, equally
prosperous, that has been less given to vanity and pomp. It is related
that when the Earl of Leicester, who was commissioned by Queen
Elizabeth, arrived in Holland, and when Spinola came to sue for peace
in the name of the King of Spain, their magnificence was considered
almost infamous. It is further said that the Spanish ambassadors who
came to the Hague in 1608 to negotiate the famous truce saw some
deputies of the Dutch States seated in a field, meanly clad and
breakfasting on a little bread and cheese which they had carried in
their saddle-bags. The Grand Pensionary, John De Witt, the adversary
of Louis XIV., kept only one servant. Admiral Ruyter lived at
Amsterdam in the house of a poor man and swept out his own bedroom.

Another very curious object in the museum is a cabinet which opens in
front like a book-case, representing in all its most minute details
the inside of a luxurious Amsterdam house at the beginning of the
eighteenth century. The Czar, Peter the Great, during his stay in
Amsterdam, commissioned a rich citizen of that town to make for him
this toy house, in order that he might take it back to Russia as a
souvenir of Holland. The rich citizen, whose name was Brandt, executed
the order like an honest Dutchman, slowly and well. The best
cabinet-makers in Holland made the furniture, the cleverest
silversmiths the plate, the most accurate printers printed the tiny
books, the finest miniature-painters painted the pictures; the linen
was prepared in Flanders, the hangings were made at Utrecht. After
twenty-five years of work all the rooms were ready. In the nuptial
chamber everything was prepared for the confinement of the young
mistress; in the dining-room stood a microscopic tea service on a
table which was the size of a crown; the picture-gallery, which was
seen through a magnifying glass, was complete; in the kitchen was
everything needful to pr