With the money Balthazar bought two pistols from a soldier (who afterward killed himself when he heard the use which was made of the purchase).  On the next day, June 10, 1584, Balthazar returned to the convent as William was descending the staircase to dinner, with his fourth wife, Louise de Coligny (daughter of the Admiral who fell in the massacre of St. Bartholomew), on his arm.  He presented his passport and begged the Prince to sign it, but was told to return later.  At dinner the Princess asked William who was the young man who had spoken to him, for his expression was the most terrible she had ever seen.

The Prince laughed, said it was Guyon, and was as gay as usual.  Dinner being over, the family party were about to remount the staircase.  The assassin was waiting in a dark corner at the foot of the stairs, and as William passed he discharged a pistol with three balls and fled.  The Prince staggered, saying, “I am wounded; God have mercy upon me and my poor people.”  His sister Catherine van Schwartz-bourg asked, “Do you trust in Jesus Christ?” He said, “Yes,” with a feeble voice, sat down upon the stairs, and died.

Balthazar reached the rampart of the town in safety, hoping to swim to the other side of the moat, where a horse awaited him.  But he had dropt his hat and his second pistol in his flight, and so he was traced and seized before he could leap from the wall.

Amid horrible tortures, he not only confest, but continued to triumph in his crime.  His judges believed him to be possest of the devil.  The next day he was executed.  His right hand was burned off in a tube of red-hot iron; the flesh of his arms and legs was torn off with red-hot pincers; but he never made a cry.  It was not till his breast was cut open, and his heart torn out and flung in his face, that he expired.  His head was then fixt on a pike, and his body, cut into four quarters, exposed on the four gates of the town.

Close to the Prinsenhof is the Oude Kerk with a leaning tower.  It is arranged like a very ugly theater inside, but contains, with other tombs of celebrities, the monument of Admiral van Tromp, 1650—­“Martinus Harberti Trompius”—­whose effigy lies upon his back, with swollen feet.  It was this Van Tromp who defeated the English fleet under Blake, and perished, as represented on the monument, in an engagement off Scheveningen.  It was he who, after his victory over the English, caused a broom to be hoisted at his mast-head to typify that he had swept the Channel clear of his enemies.

LEYDEN[A]

[Footnote A:  From “Holland and Its People.”  Translated by Caroline Tilton.  By special arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, G.P.  Putnam’s Sons.  Copyright, 1880.]

BY EDMONDO DE AMICIS

Leyden, the antique Athens of the north, the Saragossa of the Low Countries, the oldest and most illustrious of the daughters of Holland, is one of those cities which make you thoughtful upon first entering them, and are remembered for a long time afterward with a certain impression of sadness.