of Cæsar. It was much enlarged by John, the first Duke of Brabant, in
1201; by John, the third, in 1314; and by the Emperor Charles V. in
1543: it has always been a place of commercial importance, and about
twenty years after the last mentioned date, the trade is concluded to
have been at its greatest height; the number of inhabitants was then
computed at 200,000. A few years subsequently, Antwerp suffered much in
the infamous war against religious freedom, projected by the detestable
Philip II. (son of Charles V.) and executed by the sanguinary Duke
of Alva, whose cruelty has scarcely a parallel in history. In this
merciless crusade, Alva boasted that he had consigned 18,000 persons
to the executioner; and with vanity as disgusting as his cruelty, he
placed a statue of himself in Antwerp, in which he was figured trampling
on the necks of two statues, representing the two estates of the Low
Countries. Before the termination of the war, not less than 600 houses
in the city were burnt, and 6 or 7,000 of the inhabitants killed or
drowned. Antwerp was retaken and repaired by the Prince of Parma, in
1585. It has since that time been captured and re-captured so frequently
as to render its decreasing prosperity a sad lesson, if such proof were
wanting, of the baleful scourge of war. The reader need scarcely be
reminded that the last and severest blow to the prosperity of Antwerp
was occasioned by the overthrow of Buonaparte, when, by the treaty of
peace signed in 1814, her naval establishment was utterly destroyed.[3]
The population has dwindled to little more than one-fourth of the
original number, its present number scarcely exceeding 60,000.

The annexed view is taken from the _Téte de Flandre_, a fortified
port on the left bank of the river Scheldt, immediately opposite to the
city, and now in the possession of the Dutch. The river here is a broad
and noble stream, and at high water navigable for vessels of large
tonnage. A short distance below the town the banks are elevated, like