etermination at which they had arrived. "The
tyrant," he continued, "would rather stain every river and brook with our
blood, and hang our bodies upon every tree in the country, than not feed
to the full his vengeance, and steep himself to the lips in our misery.
Therefore we have taken up arms against the Duke of Alva and his
adherents, to free ourselves, our wives and children, from his
blood-thirsty hands. If he prove too strong nor us, we will rather die an
honorable death and leave a praiseworthy fame, than bend our necks, and
reduce our dear fatherland to such slavery. Herein are all our cities
pledged to each other to stand every siege, to dare the utmost, to endure
every possible misery, yea, rather to set fire to all our homes, and be
consumed with them into ashes together, than ever submit to the decrees
of this cruel tyrant."

These were brave words, and destined to be bravely fulfilled, as the life
and death of the writer and the records of his country proved, from
generation unto generation. If we seek for the mainspring of the energy
which thus sustained the Prince in the unequal conflict to which he had
devoted his life, we shall find it in the one pervading principle of his
nature--confidence in God. He was the champion of the political rights of
his country, but before all he was the defender of its religion. Liberty
of conscience for his people was his first object. To establish Luther's
axiom, that thoughts are toll-free, was his determination. The Peace of
Passau, and far more than the Peace of Passau, was the goal for which he
was striving. Freedom of worship for all denominations, toleration for
all forms of faith, this was the great good in his philosophy. For
himself, he had now become a member of the Calvinist, or Reformed Church,
having delayed for a time his public adhesion to this communion, in order
not to give offence to the Lutherans and to the Emperor. He was never a
dogmatist, however, and he sought in Christianity for that which unites
rather than for that which separates Christians. In the course of October
he publicly joined the church at Dort.

The happy termination of the siege of Alkmaar was followed, three days
afterwards, by another signal success on the part of the patriots. Count
Bossu, who had constructed or collected a considerable fleet at
Amsterdam, had, early in October, sailed into the Zuyder Zee,
notwithstanding the sunken wrecks and other obstructions by which the
patr