CHAPTER VII

THE DUTCH HAVE TAKEN MNOLLAND

AND so, though Roman, Saxon,
Austrian, Spaniard, Belgian, Eng-
lishman, and Frenchman in turn
flourished a scepter over them, it
comes, after all, to be true, that only
“the Dutch have taken Holland.”
It is theirs by every right of in-
heritance and strife—theirs to hold,
to drain, and to pump, for ever and
ever. They wrested it from the sea,
not in a day, but through long years

 

of patient toil, through dreary years
of suffering and sorrow. They have counted their dead, in
their war with the ocean alone, by hundreds of thousands.
Industry, hardihood, and thrift have been better allies to
them than were Ciesar’s Roman legions to the old Batavian
forefathers.

For ages, it seems, Holland could not have known a
leisure moment. Frugal, hardy, painstaking, and perse-
vering, her spirit was ever equal to great enterprises.
With her every difficulty was a challenge. Obstacles

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