History of Protestantism in the Netherlands - James Aitken Wylie

meet, but they never dreamt of having to confront
the ocean. Against such an enemy what could their
or any human power avail? But when they saw that
the rise of the waters was stayed, their alarm
subsided, and they began to jeer and mock at the
stratagem of the prince, which was meant to be
grand, but had proved contemptible. He had
summoned the ocean to his aid, but the ocean
would not come. In the city of Leyden
despondency had taken the place of elation. When
informed of the expedient of the prince for their
deliverance they had rung their bells for very joy;
but when they saw the ships, laden with that bread
for lack of which some six or eight thousand of
their number had already died, after entering the
gaps in the outer dyke, arrested in their progress to
their gates, hope again forsook them. Daily they
climbed the steeples and towers, and scanned with
anxious eyes the expanse around, if haply the
ocean was coming to their aid. Day after day they
had to descend with the same depressing report: the
wind was still adverse; the waters refused to rise,
and the ships could not float. The starvation and
misery of Leyden was greater even than that which
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