by lingering torture, the strongest would form a square,
placing the weakest in the center, and rush in a body to their death,
with the faint chance of being able to fight their way through the
enemy. The Spaniards received a hint of this, and believing that there
was nothing the Dutch would not dare to do, they concluded to offer
terms."

"High time, I should think."

"Yes, with falsehood and treachery they soon obtained an entrance into
the city, promising protection and forgiveness to all except those whom
the citizens themselves would acknowledge 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 en, "for the Duke of Alva had already given
his son orders to show mercy to none."

"Ah! That 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 sometimes retaliated terribly. But as I have told you before,
I have a very indistinct idea of historical matters. Everything is
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 HAD 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."

Leyden

The boys met at the museum and were soon engaged in examining its
extensive collection of curiosities, receiving a new insight into
Egyptian life, ancient and modern. Ben and Lambert had often visited the
British Museum, but that did not prevent them from being surprised at
the richness of the Leyden collection. There were household utensils,
wearing apparel, weapons, musical instruments, sarcophagi, and mummies
of men, women, and cats, ibexes, and other creatures. They saw a massive
gold armlet that had been worn by an Egyptian king at a time when some
of these same mummies, perhaps, were nimbly treading the streets of
Thebes; and jewels and trinkets such as Pharaoh's daughter wore, and the
children of Israel borrowed when they departed out of Egypt.

Ther