"AND ROUSED IN MANY AN ANCIENT HALL THE GALLANT SQUIRES OF KENT" 142 HIGH CHURCH, EDINBURGH, BEGINNING OF THE RIOT IN THE 283 RECEPTION OF CROMWELL AT BRISTOL ON HIS RETURN FROM IRELAND RUPERT'S TROOPERS AT A COUNTRY INN 398 241 346 PORTRAITS. PAGE BLAKE, ROBERT CHARLES I. CHARLES II. CONDÉ, PRINCE OF DRAKE, SIR FRANCIS ELIOT, SIR JOHN ERASMUS FAIRFAX, LORD FARNESE, ALEXANDER FROBISHER, SIR MARTIN GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS HAMPDEN, JOHN HAWKINS, SIR JOHN HENRY OF GUISE HENRY OF NAVARRE JAMES I. OF ENGLAND 418 384 ........ 316 400 179 357 128 ... 315 ......... 4 361 54 140 249 321 144 173 175 131 208 William the Silent; to relate the story of that great Armada on which King Philip so confidently relied; and afterwards to sketch some of the busiest scenes in the days when King Charles and the Parliament did battle here in England on many a well-fought field. All the stories are of strong interest and each will be complete in itself, our object being not to write the history of Holland or of England, but to furnish some striking and illustrative narratives of the Wars of both countries. In the first place, we solicit our readers to accompany us to Holland, and to gaze for awhile upon this Northern Venice. "To men of other minds my fancy flies, Embosom'd in the deep where Holland lies; The territory now called Holland shared the fate of most other nations in the days of Roman supremacy. When all kindreds and tongues were rendering the humiliating confession, "We have no king but Cæsar," it is no discredit to the ancient Dutchmen to have joined in the chorus. It should, however, in justice be observed that they were not conquered, but concluded an alliance with the Romans, and only fell into subjection by degrees. When the yoke of the Romans was thrown off, the Saxons, as they did in the case of England under similar circumstances, overran the country and made themselves its masters. Then came Charles the Hammer, smiting like some mighty Thor, and dashing into fragments all who opposed him; and after him came Charles the Great, the man of ironof iron will, iron heart, and iron hand-uniting the Netherlands to his dominions. In the middle ages, that is from the tenth to the fourteenth century, Holland was divided into petty sovereignties under the Duke of Brabant, the Counts of Holland and Flanders, and others of less importance. Towards the close of the fourteenth century the whole of the territory passed to the House of Burgundy, thence to Austria, and in 1548 was brought under the rule of Spain in the person of the Emperor Charles the Fifth. Throughout the whole history of the Netherlands the people were marked by one prevailing characteristic, the love of liberty, the instinct of self-government. They raised dykes to keep out the sea; and in a similar spirit they endeavoured to erect barriers that should effectually preserve them from the inroads of despotic power; while, on the other hand, the constant effort of the oppressor was to undermine these bulwarks. The struggle between the Hollanders and the Spaniards became in tensified when the voices of the Protestant Reformers were heard asserting religious liberty-spiritual freedom against Ecclesiastical Authority. "Let us have freedom in matters of faith," was the firm demand of the Dutchmen:-"Be so obliging, priests and prelates, to recognise the fact that our souls are our own-we will render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, but unto God the things that are God's." Ecclesiastical Authority, unaccustomed to this bold language, proceeded to argue the matter with the spiritual revolters; reasoning by flaying alive, burning, hanging, drowning, and similar infallible arguments. It thundered its anathema, cursing the Protestants, "in praying, in speaking, in silence, in eating, drinking, and sleeping;" it blew out waxen tapers with the view of showing how the |