204 Hans Brinker

entrance into the city, promising protection and forgiveness to
all except those whom the citizens themselves would acknowl-
edge as deserving of death.”

“You don’t say so!” said Lambert, quite interested.
“That ended the business, I suppose.”

“ Not a bit of it!” returned Ben; “ for the Duke of Alva
had already given his son orders to show mercy to none.”

“Ah! there was where the great Haarlem massacre came
in. I remember now. You can’t wonder that the Hollanders
dislike Spain, when you read of the way they were butchered
by Alva and his hosts; though I admit that our side some-
times retaliated terribly. But, as I have told you before, I
have a very ‘indistinct idea of historical matters. Everything
is utter confusion, from the flood to the battle of Waterloo.
One thing is plain, however, the Duke of Alva was about the
worst specimen of a man that ever lived.”

“ That gives only a faint idea of him,” said Ben. ‘ But I
hate to think of such a wretch. What if he bad brains, and
military skill, and all that sort of thing! Give me such men
as Van der Werf, and— What now?”

“Why,” said Van Mounen, who was looking up and down
the street in a bewildered way, “ we’ve walked right past the
museum, and I don’t see the boys. Let us go back.”