daggers in the Senate House. From these lands came the skilled Batavian
cavalry, which followed Caesar in pursuit of Pompey and forced Pompey's
flight at Pharsalia. From here afterward came other Batavians, who served
as the Imperial Guard of Rome from Caasar's time to Vespasian's. In race,
as in geographical position, the Netherlands have belonged in part to
France, in part to Germany, the interior long remaining Gallic, the
frontier Teutonic. From Caesar's time down to the fifth century, the land
was Roman. Afterward, in several periods, it was in part, or in whole,
included in the domain of France--in Charlemagne's time and after; under
Louis XI., who sought, somewhat unsuccessfully, its complete submission;
under Louis XIV., who virtually conquered it; under the French Revolution,
and during Napoleon's ascendency. On Belgium soil Marlborough fought and
won Ramillies, and Wellington Waterloo.

Belgium and Holland were for long great centers of European commerce--at
Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Amsterdam--rivals of English ports,
Holland an ancient adversary of England and her valiant enemy in great
wars. A still fiercer struggle came with Spain. Perhaps an even greater
conflict than these two has been her never-ending war with the sea.
Holland has been called a land enclosed in a fortress reared against the
sea. For generations her people have warred with angry waves; but, as
Motley has said, they gained an education for a struggle "with the still
more savage despotism of man." Let me not forget here Holland's great
school of art--comparable only to that of Spain, or even to that of Italy.
F. W. H.




Contents of Volume III