manufacture any fresh beer. "What will liberty be to us, when we're cold
in death? Let whoever means well go the town-hall, and demand a
surrender before it is too late."

"Surrender! The mercy of the King!" shouted the citizens.

"Life comes first, and then the question whether it shall be free or
under Spanish rule, Calvanistical or Popish!" screamed a master-weaver.
"I'll march to the town-hall with you."

"You are right, good people," said Burgomaster Baersdorp, who, clad in
his costly fur-bordered cloak, was coming from the town-hall and had
heard the last speaker's words. "But let me set you right. To-day the
credulous are beginning to hope again, and the time for pressing your
just desire is ill-chosen. Wait a few days and then, if the relief does
not appear, urge your views. I'll speak for you, and with me many a
good man in the magistracy. We have nothing to expect from Valdez, but
gentleness and kindness. To rise against the King was from the first a
wicked deed--to fight against famine, the plague and death is sin and
madness. May God be with you, men!"

"The burgomaster is sensible," cried a cloth-dyer.

"Van Swieten and Norden think as he does, but Meister Peter rules through
the Prince's favor. If the Spaniards rescue us, his neck will be in
danger, when they make their entrance into the city So no matter who
dies; he and his are living on the fat of the land and have plenty."

"There goes his wife," said a master-weaver, pointing to Maria. "How
happy she looks! The leather business must be doing well. Holloa--Frau