If there were no printed record, the churches of Holland would almost tell her story. I will not enter into the subject here, except to say that Ben--who had read of her struggles and wrongs, and of the terrible retribution she from time to time dealt forth--could scarcely tread a Holland town without mentally leaping horror-stricken over the bloody stepping-stones of its history. He could not forget Philip of Spain nor the Duke of Alva even while rejoicing in the prosperity that followed the Liberation. He looked in the meekest of Dutch eyes, for something of the fire that once lit the haggard faces of those desperate, lawless men, who wearing with pride the title of "beggars" which their oppressors had mockingly cast upon them, became the terror of land and sea. In Haarlem, he had wondered that the air did not still resound with the cries of Alva's three thousand victims. In Leyden, his heart had swelled in sympathy as he thought of the long procession of scarred and famished creatures who after the siege, with Adrian van der Werf at their head, tottered to the great church to sing a glorious anthem because Leyden was free! He remembered that this was even before they had tasted the bread brought by the Dutch ships. They would praise God first, then eat. Thousands of trembling voices were raised in glad thanksgiving. For a moment, it swelled higher and higher--then suddenly changed to sobbing--not one of all the multitude could sing another note. But who shall say that the anthem, even to its very end, was not heard in Heaven! Here, in the Hague, other thoughts came to Ben--Of how Holland in later years unwillingly put her head under the French yoke, and how, galled and lashed past endurance, she had resolutely jerked it out again. He liked her for that. What nation of any spirit, thought he, could be expected to stand such work, paying all her wealth into a foreign treasury and yielding up the flower of her youth under foreign conscription. It was not so very long ago, either, since English guns had been heard booming close by in the German Ocean; well--all the fighting was over at last. Holland was a snug little monarchy now in her own right, and Ben, for one, was glad of it. Arrived at this charitable conclusion, he was prepared to enjoy to the utmost all the wonders of her capital; he quite delighted Mynheer van Gend with his hearty and intelligent interest--so, in fact, did all the boys, for a merrier, more observant party never went sightseeing. XXVIII THROUGH THE HAGUE