German patriot was neither braver nor wiser than the Batavian, but he
had the infinite forests of his fatherland to protect him. Every legion
which plunged into those unfathomable depths was forced to retreat
disastrously, or to perish miserably. Civilis was hemmed in by the
ocean; his country, long the basis of Roman military operations, was
accessible by river and canal, The patriotic spirit which he had for a
moment raised, had abandoned him; his allies had deserted him; he stood
alone and at bay, encompassed by the hunters, with death or surrender as
his only alternative. Under such circumstances, Hermann could not have
shown more courage or conduct, nor have terminated the impossible
struggle with greater dignity or adroitness.

The contest of Civilis with Rome contains a remarkable foreshadowing of
the future conflict with Spain, through which the Batavian republic,
fifteen centuries later, was to be founded. The characters, the events,
the amphibious battles, desperate sieges, slippery alliances, the traits
of generosity, audacity and cruelty, the generous confidence, the broken
faith seem so closely to repeat themselves, that History appears to
present the self-same drama played over and over again, with but a change
of actors and of costume. There is more than a fanciful resemblance
between Civilis and William the Silent, two heroes of ancient German
stock, who had learned the arts of war and peace in the service of a
foreign and haughty world-empire. Determination, concentration of
purpose, constancy in calamity, elasticity almost preternatural, self-
denial, consummate craft in political combinations, personal fortitude,
and passionate patriotism, were the heroic elements in both. The
ambition of each was subordinate to the cause which he served. Both
refused the crown, although each, perhaps, contemplated, in the sequel,
a Batavian realm of which he would have been the inevitable chief.
Both offered the throne to a Gallic prince, for Classicus was but the