comfort.  She had good reason.  The provinces of the Netherlands were disunited, no sway imposed upon them with strength enough first to restrain and then to knit together.  On either side of the Zuider Zee lay two bitter enemies:  Holland, which had accepted the Burgundian yoke, and Friesland, which after a long struggle against foreign domination, had been reduced by the rule of Saxon governors, Duke Albert and Duke George.  To the south was Gueldres, which, under its Duke, Charles of Egmont, had thrown in its lot with France against Burgundy, and was continually instigating the subjugated Frieslanders to rebellion.  Then was war in the gates.

This was the kind of thing that happened.  In 1516, after a fresh outbreak of the ceaseless struggle, Henry of Nassau, Stadhouder of Holland and Zeeland, ordered that all Gueldrians or Frieslanders who showed their faces in his dominions should be put to death; and some who were resident at the Hague were executed on the charge of sending aid to their compatriots.  A raid by the Gueldrians ended in the massacre of Nieuwpoort.  Nassau replied by ravaging the country up to the walls of Arnhem, the Gueldres capital.

Duke Charles had terrible forces at command.  A body of mercenary troops, known as the Black Band, had been used by George of Saxony for the repression of Friesland in 1514, and since then had been seeking employment wherever they could find it.  At the same time, one of the conquered Frieslanders, known as Long Peter, had turned to piracy as an effective way of revenging himself on Holland.  Proclaiming himself ‘King of the Sea’, he seized every ship that came in his way, showing no mercy to Hollanders and holding all others to ransom.

In May 1517, the Duke, violating a truce not yet expired, renewed hostilities.  The Black Band, some of whom had strayed as far as Rouen in quest of fighting, flocked back.  At the end of June 3000 of them crossed the Zuider Zee in Long Peter’s ships and disembarked suddenly at Medemblik, in North Holland.  The town was quickly set on fire, and everything destroyed except the citadel; the fleet carrying back the first spoils.  Then they marched southwards, burning what they list; and happy were those whose offer of ransom was accepted, to escape with plunder only.

There was no fixed plan.  The murderous horde wandered along, turning to right or left as fancy suggested.  After burning five country towns, they appeared at Alcmar, the chief town of North Holland, into which the most precious possessions of the neighbourhood had been hurriedly conveyed.  By a heavy payment, the burghers purchased immunity from the flames; but for eight days the town was given up to the lust and ferocity of an uncontrolled soldiery, from whose senseless destruction it took thirty years to recover.  Egmond, with its great abbey, was pillaged; and then it was Haarlem’s turn to suffer.  But by this time resistance had been organized.  Troops