a proclamation
of Philip of Spain, all the inhabitants of the Netherlands, three
millions of them, had been condemned to death. Men's minds were full
of terror, for on every side were burnings and hangings and torturings.
Without were fightings, within were fears, and none knew whom they could
trust, since the friend of to-day might be the informer or judge of
to-morrow. All this because they chose to worship God in their own
fashion unaided by images and priests.

Although so long a time had passed, as it chanced those personages with
whom we have already made acquaintance in this history were still alive.
Let us begin with two of them, one of whom we know and one of
whom, although we have heard of him before, will require some
introduction--Dirk van Goorl and his son Foy.

Scene--an upper room above a warehouse overlooking the market-place
of Leyden, a room with small windows and approached by two staircases;
time, a summer twilight. The faint light which penetrated into this
chamber through the unshuttered windows, for to curtain them would have
been to excite suspicion, showed that about twenty people were gathered
there, among whom were one or two women. For the most part they were men
of the better class, middle-aged burghers of sober mien, some of whom
stood about in knots, while others were seated upon stools and benches.
At the end of the room addressing them was a man well on in middle life,
with grizzled hair and beard, small and somewhat mean of stature, yet
one through whose poor exterior goodness seemed to flow like light
through some rough casement of horn. This was Jan Arentz, the famous
preacher, by trade a basket-maker, a man who showed himself steadfast
to the New Religion through all afflictions, and who was gifted with a
spirit which could remain unmoved amidst the horrors of perhaps the most
terrible persecution that Christians have suffered since the days of
the Roman Emperors. He was preaching now and these people were his
congregation.

"I come not to bring peace but a sword," was his text, and certainly
this night it was most appropriate and one easy of illustration. For
there, on the very market-place beneath them, guarded by soldiers and
surrounded with the rabble of the city, two members of his flock, men
who a fortnight before had worshipped in that same room, at this moment
were undergoing martyrdom by fire!

Arentz preached patience and fortitude. He went back into recent hist