t his noble efforts to liberate the country. Two brothers of the
young captain had fallen in the service of the republic. He, too, had
distinguished himself at Ostend, and his gallantry during the recent
siege of Sluys had been in every mouth, and had excited the warm applause
of so good a judge of soldiership as the veteran Roger Williams. The
scars of the wounds received in the desperate conflicts of that siege
were fresh upon his breast. He had not intended to commit treason, but,
convinced by the sophistry of older soldiers than himself, as well as by
learned deacons and theologians, he had imagined himself doing his duty,
while obeying the Earl of Leicester. If there were ever a time for mercy,
this seemed one, and young Maurice of Nassau might have remembered, that
even in the case of the assassins who had attempted the life of his
father, that great-hearted man had lifted up his voice--which seemed his
dying one--in favour of those who had sought his life.

But they authorities were inexorable. There was no hope of a mitigation
of punishment, but a last effort was made, under favour of a singular
ancient custom, to save the life of De Maulde. A young lady of noble
family in Leyden--Uytenbroek by name--claimed the right of rescuing the
condemned malefactor, from the axe, by appearing upon the scaffold, and
offering to take him for her husband.

Intelligence was brought to the prisoner in his dungeon, that the young,
lady had made the proposition, and he was told to be of good cheer: But
he refused to be comforted. He was slightly acquainted with the
gentle-woman, he observed; and doubted much whether her request would be
granted. Moreover if contemporary chronicle can be trusted he even
expressed a preference for the scaffold, as the milder fate of the two.
The lady, however, not being aware of those uncomplimentary sentiments,
made her proposal to the magistrates, but was dismissed with harsh
rebukes. She had need be ashamed, they said; of her willingness to take a
condemned traitor for her husband. It was urged, in her behalf, that even
in the cruel Alva's time, the ancient custom had been respected, and that
victims had been saved from the executioners, on a demand in marriage
made even by women of abandoned character. But all was of no avail. The
prisoners were executed on the 26th October, the same day on which the
sentence had been pronounced. The heads of Volmar and Cosmo were exposed
on one of the turrets