The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Lily of Leyden, by W.H.G. Kingston

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Title: The Lily of Leyden

Author: W.H.G. Kingston

Release Date: October 25, 2007 [EBook #23189]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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The Lily of Leyden, by W.H.G. Kingston.
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THE LILY OF LEYDEN, BY W.H.G. KINGSTON.

CHAPTER ONE.

The warm sun of a bright spring day, in the year of grace 1574, shone
down on the beautiful city of Leyden, on its spacious squares and
streets and its elegant mansions, its imposing churches, and on the
smooth canals which meandered among them, fed by the waters of the
sluggish Rhine. The busy citizens were engaged in their various
occupations, active and industrious as ever; barges and boats lay at the
quays loading or unloading, some having come from Rotterdam, Delft,
Amsterdam, and other places on the Zuyder Zee, with which her watery
roads gave her easy communication. The streets were thronged with
citizens of all ranks, some in gay, most in sombre attire, moving
hurriedly along, bent rather on business than on pleasure, while
scattered here and there were a few soldiers--freebooters as they were
called, though steady and reliable--and men of the Burgher Guard,
forming part of the garrison of the town. Conspicuous among them might
have been seen their dignified and brave burgomaster, Adrian Van der
Werf, as he walked with stately pace, his daughter Jaqueline,
appropriately called the Lily of Leyden, leaning on his arm. She was
fair and graceful as the flower from which she derived her name, her
features chiselled in the most delicate mould, her countenance
intelligent and animated, though at present graver than usual. After
leaving their house in the Broedestrat, the principal street of Leyden,
they proceeded towards an elevation in the centre of the city, on the
summit of which rose the ancient tower of Hengist, generally so called
from the belief that the Anglo-Saxon conq