"Yes, with falsehood and treachery they soon obtained an entrance into the city, promising protection and forgiveness to all except those whom the citizens themselves would acknowledge as deserving of death." "You don't say so!" said Lambert, quite interested; "that ended the business, I suppose." "Not a bit of it," returned Ben, "for the Duke of Alva had already given his son orders to show mercy to none." "Ah! there was where the great Haarlem massacre came in. I remember now. You can't wonder that the Hollanders dislike Spain when you read of the way they were butchered by Alva and his hosts, though I admit that our side sometimes retaliated terribly. But as I have told you before, I have a very indistinct idea of historical matters. Everything is utter confusion--from the Flood to the battle of Waterloo. One thing is plain, however, the Duke of Alva was about the worst specimen of a man that ever lived." "That gives only a faint idea of him," said Ben, "but I hate to think of such a wretch. What if he _had_ brains, and military skill, and all that sort of thing! Give me such men as Van der Werf, and--what now?" "Why," said Van Mounen, who was looking up and down the street, in a bewildered way. "We've walked right past the Museum, and I don't see the boys. Let us go back." XXV LEYDEN The boys met at the Museum, and were soon engaged in examining its extensive collection of curiosities, receiving a new insight into Egyptian life ancient and modern. Ben and Lambert had often visited the British Museum, but that did not prevent them from being surprised at the richness of the Leyden collection. There were household utensils, wearing apparel, weapons, musical instruments, sarcophagi, and mummies of men, women, and cats, ibexes and other creatures. They saw a massive gold armlet that had been worn by an Egyptian King at a time when some of these same mummies, perhaps, were nimbly treading the streets of Thebes; and jewels and trinkets such as Pharaoh's daughter wore, and the children of Israel borrowed when they departed out of Egypt. There were other interesting relics, from Rome and Greece, and some curious Roman pottery which had been discovered in digging near the Hague--relics of the days when the countrymen of Julius Cæsar had settled there. Where have they not settled? I for one would hardly be astonished if relics of the ancient Romans should some day be found deep under the grass growing round the Bunker-hill monument.