than a thousand perished. The rest effected their escape to the Hague. 6. Meantime the citizens had grown wild with expectation. A dove had been despatched by Boisot, informing them of his precise position, and a number of citizens accompanied the Burgomaster, at nightfall, toward the tower of Hengist-" Yonder," cried the magistrate, stretching out his hand towards Lammen, "Yonder, behind that fort, are bread and meat, and brethren in thousands. Shall all this be destroyed by the Spanish guns, or shall we rush to the rescue of our friends? "We will tear the fortress to fragments with our teeth and nails," was the reply, "before the relief so long expected shall be wrested from us." It was resolved that a sortie, in conjunction with the operations of Boisot, should be made against Lammen, with the earliest dawn. 7. Night descended upon the scene; a pitch-dark night, full of anxiety to the Spaniards, to the armada, to Leyden. Strange sights and sounds occurred at different moments to bewilder the anxious sentinels. A long procession of lights issuing from the fort was seen to flit across the black face of the waters, in the dead of night, and the whole of the city wall, between the Cowgate and the Tower of Burgundy, fell with a loud crash. The horrorstruck citizens thought that the Spaniards were upon them at last; the Spaniards imagined the noise to indicate a desperate sortie of the citizens. Everything was vague and mysterious. 8. Day dawned, at length, after the feverish night, and the admiral prepared for the assault. Within the fortress reigned a deathlike stillness, which inspired a sickening suspicion. Had the city, indeed, been carried in the night; had the massacre already commenced; had all G this labour and audacity been expended in vain? Suddenly a man was descried, wading breast-high through the waters, from Lammen, towards the fleet, while, at the same time, one solitary boy was seen to wave his cap from the summit of the fort. 9. After a moment of doubt the happy mystery was solved. The Spaniards had fled, panic-struck, during the darkness. Their position would still have enabled them, with firmness, to frustrate the enterprise of the patriots, but the hand of God, which had sent the ocean, and the tempest, to the deliverance of Leyden, had struck her enemies with terror likewise. The lights which had been seen moving during the night were the lanterns of the retreating Spaniards, and the boy who was now seen waving his triumphant signal from the battlements had alone witnessed the spectacle. So confident was he in the conclusion to which it led him, that he had volunteered at daybreak to go thither alone. 10. The magistrates, fearing a trap, hesitated for a moment to believe the truth, which soon, however, became quite evident. Valberg,' flying himself from Leyderdross, had ordered Colonel Borgia' to retire, with all his troops, from Lammen. Thus the Spaniards had retreated at the very moment that an extraordinary accident had laid bare a whole side of the city for their entrance. The noise of the wall, as it fell, only inspired them with fresh alarm; for they believed that the citizens had sallied forth in the darkness to aid the advancing flood in the work of destruction. All obstacles being now removed, the fleet of Boisot swept by Lammen, and entered the city on the morning of the 3rd of October. Leyden was relieved. Patient endurance and dauntless bravery had had their reward. Not only Leyden, but Holland, was saved. Holland was part of the Spanish dominions in the time of Philip II., who had been the husband of our English Queen, Mary. He determined to extirpate heresy wherever he could, and for this purpose began a war against Holland in 1566, which lasted till 1597, and ended in the independence of Holland and the Netherlands. The story of the struggle, which is one of the grandest in history, is magnificently told by Motley, in his "History of the Dutch Republic." TO MY SOUL. GEOFFREY CHAUCER.-Born, 1328; Died, 1400. FAR from mankind, my weary soul, retire, Read well thyself, and mark thy early ways, Wav'ring as winds, the breath of fortune blows, Repose, and ease, and contemplation dwell. What heav'n bestows, with thankful eyes receive; Who restless in this world, receives a fall; LINES COMPOSED THE NIGHT BEFORE HIS EXECUTION, IN PROSPECT OF DEATII E'EN such is time, that takes on trust, * These verses are modernized, and given in the spelling of the present day, as Chaucer's obsolete words and old mode of orthography would not be intelligible to young readers. THE PILGRIMAGE. GIVE me my scallop shell of quiet, My gown of glory, hope's true gauge: THE CRUST OF THE EARTH. DR. CUNNINGHAM GEIKIE. 1. WHAT the thickness of the floor on which we stand may be is unknown. Darwin thinks that there are regions where it is not more than twenty miles down to the molten abysses; but Mr. Hopkins cheers us by setting down the crust as nowhere thinner than six hundred miles. Still, it is certain that large districts, even below the deep sea, are uncomfortably near the bellowing flames. It appears to be proved that there is an active submarine region, six hundred and twenty miles long, and three hundred miles broad, under the centre of the Atlantic Ocean, many points of which may be red-hot, in spite of the mysterious depths of sea beneath which it lies buried. The sudden elevation of volcanic islands, and the undoubted volcanic origin of many which have risen in geological periods, go far to make this beyond question. What if, some day, the crust should rend and let in the volume of the ocean waters? How could our earth stand the explosion of the infinite steam-vapour instantly generated? Would it not burst our old home at once to fragments, and scatter man and his works into |