open their sluices, inundate the whole level country around Leyden,
and wash the Spaniards and their forts utterly away!

39. It was truly a desperate measure, and it was only in the last
extremity that they could bring themselves to think of it. All that
fertile land, which the labor of ages had drained and cultivated--to
see it converted into a sheet of water! There could not possibly be a
sight more unseemly and melancholy to a Dutchman's eyes. But, when the
measure was once resolved upon, they set to work with a heartiness and
zeal greater than that which had attended their building. Hatchets,
hammers, spades, and pickaxes were in requisition; and by the labor of
a single night the work of ages was demolished and undone. The water,
availing itself of the new inlets, poured over the flat country, and
in a short time the whole of the region between Leyden and Rotterdam
was flooded.

40. The Spaniards, terror-stricken, at first resolved upon immediate
flight; but, seeing that the water did not rise above a certain level,
they recovered their courage, and, though obliged to abandon their
forts, which were stationed upon the low grounds, they persevered in
the blockade. But there was another purpose to be served by the
inundation of the country beside that of washing away the Spaniards,
and the Prince of Orange made preparations for effecting it. He had
caused two hundred flat-bottomed boats to be built, and loaded with
provisions; these now began to row toward the famished city. The
inhabitants saw them coming; they watched them eagerly advancing
across the waters, fighting their way past the Spanish forts, and
bringing bread to them. But it seemed as if Heaven itself had become
cruel; for a north wind was blowing, and, so long as it continued to
blow, the waters would not be deep enough for the boats to reach the