should be a battle; it had not even been proposed by anybody, but the
discussion that now arose proceeded from the supposition.

It was soon decided that patriots and Spaniards, not Greeks and
Persians, were to appear in the lists against each other; but when the
burgomaster's son, Adrian Van der Werff, a lad of fourteen, proposed to
form the two parties, and in the imperious way peculiar to him attempted
to make Paul Van Swieten and Claus Dirkson Spaniards, he encountered
violent opposition, and the troublesome circumstance was discovered that
no one was willing to represent a foreign soldier.

Each boy wanted to make somebody else a Castilian, and fight himself
under the banner of the Netherlands. But friends and foes are necessary
for a war, and Holland's heroic courage required Spaniards to prove it.
The youngsters grew excited, the cheeks of the disputants began to flush,
here and there clenched fists were raised, and everything indicated that
a horrible civil war would precede the battle to be given the foes of the
country.

In truth, these lively boys were ill-suited to play the part of King
Philip's gloomy, stiff-necked soldiers. Amid the many fair heads, few
lads were seen with brown locks, and only one with black hair and dark
eyes. This was Adam Baersdorp, whose father, like Van der Werff's, was
one of the leaders of the citizens. When he too refused to act a
Spaniard, one of the boys exclaimed:

"You won't? Yet my father says your father is half a Glipper,--[The name
given in Holland to those who sympathized with Spain]--and a whole Papist
to boot."