! I shall hail the presence even of your spirit. Once more: let me
but see you--let me be assured that you are dead--and then I shall know
that I have no more to live for in this world, and shall hasten to join
you in a world of bliss. Promise me, Philip."

"I promise all you ask, provided Heaven will so permit; but, Amine," and
Philip's lips trembled, "I cannot--merciful God! I am indeed tried.
Amine, I can stay no longer."

Amine's dark eyes were fixed upon her husband--she could not speak--her
features were convulsed--nature could no longer hold up against her
excess of feeling--she fell into his arms, and lay motionless. Philip,
about to impress a last kiss upon her pale lips, perceived that she had
fainted.

"She feels not now," said he, as he laid her upon the sofa; "it is
better that it should be so--too soon will she awake to misery."

Summoning to the assistance of his daughter Mynheer Poots, who was in
the adjoining room, Philip caught up his hat, imprinted one more fervent
kiss upon her forehead, burst from the house, and was out of sight long
before Amine had recovered from her swoon.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

Before we follow Philip Vanderdecken in his venturous career, it will be
necessary to refresh the memory of our readers, by a succinct
recapitulation of the circumstances that had directed the enterprise of
the Dutch towards the country of the East, which was now proving to them
a source of wealth, which they considered as inexhaustible.

Let us begin at the beginning. Charles the Fifth, after having
possessed the major part of Europe, retired from the world for reasons
best known to himself, and divided his kingdoms between Ferdinand and
Philip. To Ferdinand he gave Austria and its dependencies; to Philip,
Spain; but to make the division more equal and palatable to the latter,
he threw the Low Countries, with the few millions vegetating upon them,
into the bargain. Having thus disposed of his fellow-mortals much to
his own satisfaction, he went into a convent, reserving for himself a
small income, twelve men, and a pony. Whether he afterwards repented
his hobby, or mounted his pony is not recorded; but this is certain--
that in two years he died.

Philip thought (as many have thought before and since) that he had a
right to do what he pleased with his own. He therefore took away from
the Hollanders most of their liberties: to make amends, however, he gave
them the Inquisition; but the Du