ower, and
tell us if ye can see the ocean coming over the dry land to your
relief"--and day after day they did go, up to the ancient tower of
Hengist, with heavy heart and anxious eye, watching, hoping, praying,
fearing, and at last almost despairing of relief by God or man. On the
27th they addressed a desponding letter to the estates, complaining that
the city had been forgotten in, its utmost need, and on the same day a
prompt and warm-hearted reply was received, in which the citizens were
assured that every human effort was to be made for their relief.
"Rather," said the estates, "will we see our whole land and all our
possessions perish in the waves, than forsake thee, Leyden. We know full
well, moreover, that with Leyden, all Holland must perish also." They
excused themselves for not having more frequently written, upon the
ground that the whole management of the measures for their relief had
been entrusted to the Prince, by whom alone all the details had been
administered, and all the correspondence conducted.

The fever of the Prince had, meanwhile, reached its height. He lay at
Rotterdam, utterly prostrate in body, and with mind agitated nearly to
delirium, by the perpetual and almost unassisted schemes which he was
constructing. Relief, not only for Leyden, but for the whole country, now
apparently sinking into the abyss, was the vision which he pursued as he
tossed upon his restless couch. Never was illness more unseasonable. His
attendants were in despair, for it was necessary that his mind should for
a time be spared the agitation of business. The physicians who attended
him agreed, as to his disorder, only in this, that it was the result of
mental fatigue and melancholy, and could be cured only by removing all
distressing and perplexing subjects from his thoughts, but all the
physicians in the world could not have succeeded in turning his attention
for an instant from the great cause of his country. Leyden lay, as it
were, anxious and despairing at his feet, and it was impossible for him
to close his ears to her cry. Therefore, from his sick bed he continued
to dictate; words of counsel and encouragement to the city; to Admiral
Boisot, commanding, the fleet, minute directions and precautions. Towards
the end of August a vague report had found its way into his sick chamber
that Leyden had fallen, and although he refused to credit the tale, yet
it served to harass his mind, and to heighten fever. Cornelius Va