pieces like thread; how fishing boats and bulky vessels floating
up into the country became entangled among the trees or beat in
the roofs and walls of dwellings, and how, at last, all Friesland
was converted into an angry sea. "Multitudes of men, women,
children, of horses, oxen, sheep, and every domestic animal, were
struggling in the waves in every direction. Every boat and every
article which could serve as a boat was eagerly seized upon.
Every house was inundated; even the graveyards gave up their
dead. The living infant in his cradle and the long-buried corpse
in his coffin floated side by side. The ancient flood seemed
about to be renewed. Everywhere, upon the tops of trees, upon
the steeples of churches, human beings were clustered, praying to
God for mercy and to their fellow men for assistance. As the
storm at last was subsiding, boats began to ply in every
direction, saving those who were struggling in the water, picking
fugitives from roofs and treetops, and collecting the bodies of
those already drowned." No less than one hundred thousand human
beings had perished in a few hours. Thousands upon thousands of
dumb creatures lay dead upon the waters, and the damage to
property was beyond calculation.

Robles, the Spanish governor, was foremost in noble efforts to
save life and lessen the horrors of the catastrophe. He had
previously been hated by the Dutch because of his Spanish or
Portuguese blood, but by his goodness and activity in their hour
of disaster, he won all hearts to gratitude. He soon introduced
an improved method of constructing the dikes and passed a law
that they should in future be kept up by the owners of the soil.
There were fewer heavy floods from this time, though within less
than three hundred years, six fearful inundations swept over the