hough they
were in a fort--always in arms against the sea. A host of engineers,
dependent on the minister of the interior, is scattered throughout the
land, disciplined like an army. These men are continually on the
alert, watching over the waters of the interior, anticipating the
rupture of the dykes, ordering and directing the works of defence. The
expenses of this warfare are distributed: one part is paid by the
state, the other by the provinces; every proprietor pays, besides the
general imposts, a special tax on the dykes in proportion to the
extent of his property and to its proximity to the waters. Any
accidental breach, any carelessness, may cause a flood: the danger is
ever present. The sentinels are at their posts on the ramparts, and at
the first attack of the sea, give the war-cry, whereupon Holland sends
out arms, materials, and money. And even when great battles are not in
progress, a slow, noiseless struggle is ever going on. Innumerable
windmills, even in the drained lakes, are continually working to
exhaust the rain-water and the water that oozes from the earth, and to
pump it into the canals. Every day the locks of the gulfs and rivers
shut their gigantic doors in face of the high tide, which attempts to
launch its billows into the heart of the country. Work is continually
going on to reinforce any weakened dykes, to fortify the downs by
cultivation, to throw up fresh embankments where the downs are
low--works towering like immense spears brandished in the midst of the
sea, ready to break the first onset of the waves. The sea thunders
eternally at the doors of the rivers, ceaselessly lashes their banks,
roars forth its eternal menace, raises the crests of its billows
curious to behold the contested ground, heaps banks of sand before the
doors to destroy the commerce of the cities it wishes to possess;
wastes, rasps, and undermines the coasts, and, unable to overthrow the
ramparts, against which its impotent waves break in angry foam, it
casts ships laden with corpses at the feet of the rebellious country
to testify to its fury and its strength.

Whilst this great struggle continues Holland is becoming transformed.
A map of the country as it was eight centuries ago would not at first
sight be recognized. The land is changed, the men are changed. The sea
in some parts has driven back the coast; it has taken portions of the
land from the continent, has abandoned and again retaken it; has
reunited some of