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The Lily of Leyden By: William Henry Giles Kingston (1814-1880) |
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THE LILY OF LEYDEN, BY W.H.G. KINGSTON.
CHAPTER ONE. The warm sun of a bright spring day, in the year of grace 1574, shone
down on the beautiful city of Leyden, on its spacious squares and
streets and its elegant mansions, its imposing churches, and on the
smooth canals which meandered among them, fed by the waters of the
sluggish Rhine. The busy citizens were engaged in their various
occupations, active and industrious as ever; barges and boats lay at the
quays loading or unloading, some having come from Rotterdam, Delft,
Amsterdam, and other places on the Zuyder Zee, with which her watery
roads gave her easy communication. The streets were thronged with
citizens of all ranks, some in gay, most in sombre attire, moving
hurriedly along, bent rather on business than on pleasure, while
scattered here and there were a few soldiers freebooters as they were
called, though steady and reliable and men of the Burgher Guard,
forming part of the garrison of the town. Conspicuous among them might
have been seen their dignified and brave burgomaster, Adrian Van der
Werf, as he walked with stately pace, his daughter Jaqueline,
appropriately called the Lily of Leyden, leaning on his arm. She was
fair and graceful as the flower from which she derived her name, her
features chiselled in the most delicate mould, her countenance
intelligent and animated, though at present graver than usual. After
leaving their house in the Broedestrat, the principal street of Leyden,
they proceeded towards an elevation in the centre of the city, on the
summit of which rose the ancient tower of Hengist, generally so called
from the belief that the Anglo Saxon conquerors of Britain crossed over
from Holland. Mynheer Van der Werf and Jaqueline reaching the foot of
the mound, slowly ascended by a flight of winding steps, till they
gained the battlements on the top of the ancient tower, the highest spot
for many miles around. Here they stood for some minutes gazing over the
level country, of which they commanded a perfect panoramic view. Below
them lay the city, surrounded by a moat of considerable width and stout
walls, which had already been proved capable of resisting the attack of
foes eager to gain an entrance. Here and there bridges led over the
moat, protected by forts of no mean strength. In all directions were
silvery threads glittering in the sun, marking the course of the canals
which led to Haarlem and Amsterdam on the north, and Delft, Rotterdam,
Gouda, and many other towns on the banks of the Yessel and the Meuse on
the south, while occasionally wide shining expanses showed the existence
of meers or lakes of more or less extent, while westward the blue ocean
could be seen, and to the south west Gravenhague, or The Hague, as the
place is more generally called. On every side were smiling villages,
blooming gardens, corn fields, and orchards, betokening the industry and
consequent prosperity of the inhabitants. The city at this time bore
but few traces of the protracted siege it had endured for a whole year,
and which had been raised only three months before, when the Spanish
force under Valdez, a lieutenant of the ferocious Alva, had been
summoned to the frontier, in consequence of the rumoured approach of a
patriot army under Prince Louis of Nassau. At the period when our story commences, the heroic Prince William of
Orange, loyally aided by his brothers, Louis, Henry, and John, and by
other noble patriots, had struggled for seven long years to emancipate
Holland from the cruel yoke imposed upon her by the bigot Philip of
Spain and the sanguinary Duke of Alva. Their success had been varied;
though frequently defeated, they had again rallied to carry on the
desperate struggle. Several of their most flourishing cities had been
besieged by the hated foe, some had fallen, and the inhabitants had been
mercilessly slaughtered; others had successfully resisted, and the
Spaniards had been compelled to retire from their walls... Continue reading book >>
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Genres for this book |
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Fiction |
History |
Religion |
Teen/Young adult |
War stories |
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