History of Protestantism in the Netherlands - James Aitken Wylie

is seen drawn up on the banks of the Sambre,
awaiting the approach of the master of the world.
We see them closing in terrific battle with his
legions, and maintaining the fight till a ghastly
bank of corpses proclaimed that they had been
exterminated rather than subdued.[1]
The tribes of Batavia now passed under the
yoke of Rome, to which they submitted with great
impatience. When the empire began to totter they
rose in revolt, being joined by their neighbors, the
Frisians and the Belgae, in the hope of achieving
their liberty; but the Roman power, though in
decay, was still too strong to be shaken by the
assault of these tribes, however brave; and it was
not till the whole German race, moved by an allpervading
impulse, rose and began their march
upon Rome, that they were able, in common with
all the peoples of the North, to throw off the yoke
of the oppressor.
After four centuries of chequered fortunes,
during which the Batavian element was
inextricably blended with the Frisian, the Belgic,
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