arts which he so well understood.

The Duke's military fame was unquestionable when he came to the
provinces, and both in stricken fields and in long campaigns, he showed
how thoroughly it had been deserved; yet he left the Netherlands a
baffled man. The Prince might be many times defeated, but he was not to
be conquered. As Alva penetrated into the heart of the ancient Batavian
land he found himself overmatched as he had never been before, even by
the most potent generals of his day. More audacious, more inventive,
more desperate than all the commanders of that or any other age, the
spirit of national freedom, now taught the oppressor that it was
invincible; except by annihilation. The same lesson had been read in the
same thickets by the Nervii to Julius Caesar, by the Batavians to the
legions of Vespasian; and now a loftier and a purer flame than that which
inspired the national struggles against Rome glowed within the breasts of
the descendants of the same people, and inspired them with the strength
which comes, from religious enthusiasm. More experienced, more subtle,
more politic than Hermann; more devoted, more patient, more magnanimous
than Civilis, and equal to either in valor and determination, William of
Orange was a worthy embodiment of the Christian, national resistance of
the German race to a foreign tyranny. Alva had entered the Netherlands
to deal with them as with conquered provinces. He found that the
conquest was still to be made, and he left the land without having
accomplished it. Through the sea of blood, the Hollanders felt that they
were passing to the promised land. More royal soldiers fell during the
seven months' siege of Harlem than the rebels had lost in the defeat of
Jemmingen, and in the famous campaign of Brabant. At Alkmaar the rolling
waves of insolent conquest were stayed, and the tide then ebbed for ever.

The accomplished soldier struggled hopelessly, with the wild and