condition and moderate abilities, made as good show of argument as he
could, but was evidently no match for his antagonist. He was soon
vanquished in the wordy warfare. Well he might be, for it appeared that
the stranger was no less a personage than Peter Rythovius, a doctor of
divinity, a distinguished pedant of Louvain, a relation of a bishop and
himself a Church dignitary. This learned professor, quite at home in his
subject, was easily triumphant, while the poor dissenter, more accustomed
to elevate the hearts of his hearers than to perplex their heads, sank
prostrate and breathless under the storm of texts, glosses, and hard
Hebrew roots with which he was soon overwhelmed. The professor's triumph
was, however, but short-lived, for the simple-minded congregation, who
loved their teacher, were enraged that he should be thus confounded.
Without more ado, therefore, they laid violent hands upon the Quixotic
knight-errant of the Church, and so cudgelled and belabored him bodily
that he might perhaps have lost his life in the encounter had he not been
protected by the more respectable portion of the assembly. These
persons, highly disapproving the whole proceeding, forcibly rescued him
from the assailants, and carried him off to town, where the news of the
incident at once created an uproar. Here he was thrown into prison as a
disturber of the peace, but in reality that he might be personally
secure. The next day the Prince of Orange, after administering to him a
severe rebuke for his ill-timed exhibition of pedantry, released him from
confinement, and had him conveyed out of the city. "This theologian;"
wrote the Prince to Duchess Margaret, "would have done better, methinks,
to stay at home; for I suppose he had no especial orders to perform this
piece of work."

Thus, so long as this great statesman could remain in the metropolis,
his temperate firmness prevented the explosion which had so long been
expected. His own government of Holland and Zeland, too, especially