us a vivid description of how he passed his time here and what was the effect upon his mind of his absorbing historical studies. "I am in a town which for aught I know may be very gay. I do not know a living soul in it. We have not a single acquaintance in the place and we glory in the fact. When I say that I know no soul in Brussels I am perhaps wrong. With the present generation I am not familiar. En revanche, the dead men of the place, are my intimate friends. I am at home in any cemetery. With the fellows of the sixteenth century, I am on the most familiar terms. Any ghost that ever flits by night across the moonlight square is at once hailed by me as a man and a brother. I call him by his I call him by his Christian name at once I go day after day to the Archives here (as I went all summer at the Hague) studying the old letters and documents of the sixteenth century. Here I remain among my fellow worms, feeding on those musty mulberry leaves of which we are afterwards to spin our silk."

...

It was at Dresden and Brussels that Motley wrote his first work, "the Rise of the Dutch Republic." It was written in the midst of that natural trepidation which comes with uncertainty of success. The author then feels constantly coming down upon him like a pall-or perhaps it is better to say like a "wet blanket"the sense that after all what he may be doing is in vain. The volumes

may not find a publisher. They may fall dead from the press even if published. Here were three ponderous octavo volumes forming under his pen. Would any one feel the interest in the subject that animated him, and which the thorough acquaintance with the minutia of the story, or the intense love for that sort of study perhaps alone created, and was not therefore to be expected to exist in the general reading public. It was an untried subject, somewhat away from the immediate sympathies of the two English speaking nations. whose commendation was of course first of all to be gained. These doubts assailed Motley with peculiar force, because he was given to melancholy, despondent moods, "blue devils" as he calls them. In writing to his uncle, Mr. Edward Motley, he remarks: "The truth is I am So oppressed by a constitutional melancholy, which grows upon me very rapidly as to be almost incapacitated from making myself agreeable. You know how to sympathize with this frame of mind, and I should apologize to you for talking about my blue devils." But this very condition of uncertainty as to success brought out the finer qualities of authorship: the devotion to a scholarly ideal per sethe love of labor for its own reward. Assured success and an established fame may have-do have-their own advantages; but that sublime forgetfulness of self in the pursuit of literature as a divinity worthy of our best

can only or sincerely possess us in the days when we are namelessly striving to accomplish some work which the world may, or may not, willingly let die. While writing on the Dutch Republic at Brussels, he observes in a letter to Dr. Holmes: "I came here, having as I thought, finished my work, but I find so much original matter here and so many emendations to make, that I am ready to despair. Whatever may be the result of my labors, nobody can say that I have not worked hard like a brute beast: but I do not care for the result. The labor is in itself its own reward and all I want."

And when at last the book was finished that is the "Rise of the Dutch Republic,”—early in 1854, discouragement took material shape in the distinct refusal of the great London publisher, Murray, to undertake the issue of it! "Murray received me most civilly," he writes on May 10, 1854, "and impressed me very agreeably. He seemed interested in my subject, and entertained the question of publishing as favorably as I could expect. When I went away his porter accompanied me to my hotel, which is only one street from Albemarle street where Murray resides, took away the whole of the manuscript in his bag, and it is at present in the publisher's possession. Murray is to give me an answer in a fortnight at farthest." We do not learn from the letters whether it took Murray quite the fortnight to come to the

conclusion he would not publish it. At any rate some one else had to be found, and it was finally published by Mr. John Chapman at the author's expense, his father and uncle generously assisting to a considerable amount. About Christmas, 1854, the volumes came from the press, and now the question of success was immediately settled. Everywhere the history met with the most enthusiastic praise. The fame of the author spread over civilized Europe, and he was appreciated no less by his countrymen.

It was with all these blushing honors thick upon him that Motley addressed himself to the task of preparing for his second work, "the History of the United Netherlands," continuing the story of the Dutch Republic after the death of William the Silent. In view of the final result, it is amusing to note what the extent of the work appeared to him to be before he began to write: "If I receive enough encouragement, which I don't expect, to finish this work, I shall write three more volumes, in order to bring my history down to the Peace of Westphalia, 1648." The four volumes of the United Netherlands only brought him to the beginning of the "Twelve Years' Truce," or 1609. The two volumes on Barneveld just barely enabled him to touch the end of that Truce; and the whole of the Thirty Years' War, from 1618 to 1648, which ended contemporaneously with the Eighty Years' War (1568

his history in Dresden and in Brussels. For his final work, that on "John of Barneveld" and treating of the period of the Twelve Years' Truce, he established his residence or his headquarters in Holland, at the Hague. As we had an opportunity of personally tracing the spots identified with his brief stays and longer residence there, and as it is no more than natural that we should want to observe somewhat closely his connection with the country whose history he so nobly illustrated-we shall devote the remainder of our space to these traces of Motley at the Hague.

From his letters we gain the information, as already mentioned, that he made a visit to Holland in the summer of 1851, immediately upon his arrival in Europe. His mind was then saturated with the reading of Dutch printed authorities; the whole outline-not very meager either-of the story was vividly present to his mind. And so with all the points of historic interest clearly before him, he doubtless made a visit to every historic spot, in order to be able to give local coloring to his subsequent writing. In the summer of 1853, he spent six weeks at the Hague. "The six weeks we spent at the Hague," he writes to his mother, November 20, 1853, "were pleasant for Mary and the children, and useful for me. The children were ducked in the North Sea. and I was buried in the deep bosom of the Dutch Archives, much to the invigoration of all." He does.

not mention the hotel he stopped at then, but to judge from his description of the hour of table d'hote, and (still more convincingly) that of the character of the guests" many members of the Chamber of Deputies and of the Senate, ex-Ambassadors and Cabinet Ministers"-it must have been the same one he stopped at when alone in the summer of 1858, of which more anon. He was now of course quite unknown: but a few of the officials in the office of the Royal Archives and in the Royal Library knew what he was about. But from these he experienced the most cordial assistance and interest. One of them mentioned with gratitude in his preface to the "Rise of the Dutch Republic," Mr. (since Dr.) Campbell, who was assistant librarian. at the time of his labors on the history but who became chief librarian later— it was our fortune to meet frequently during a stay of six months at the Hague in 1889. The name indicates descent from a Scotch family, but for generations the Campbells have been Dutch. English was well spoken by the venerable Doctor, but as a foreign tongue after all. In 1890 he died. A flying visit was made by Motley to the Hague in January, 1858. He was now but too well known, that is, for purposes of quiet historic research. No sooner was it ascertained that he was present in the country than the newspapers spread the news broadcast. Both to the American historical student and to Motley himself it

was of great importance to discover what impression his work had made there. As he properly observed: "I think it is something better than vanity which causes me to take an honest pleasure in finding my labors appreciated and commended by the persons most fit to sit in judgment upon them. I own that I should have been deeply mortified on arriving in Holland to find that nobody had heard of my book." He discovered that this was far from being the case. Groen Van Prinsterer and Bakhuizen Van den Brink, the Archivistgeneral, both spoke highly of his work. "They assured me that almost everybody in Holland had read it, and that there was but one opinion about it, that it had made a very deep and general sensation." A Dutch translation under the scholarly supervision of Van den Brink was already under way. In this same year 1858, Motley again spent six weeks at the Hague. While the writer was at work one day in the Archives in the summer of 1889, after he had signed his name in the book kept for that purpose, the attendant turned back the page to the date July 28, 1858, and there was Motley's autograph. On July 25, he had arrived, and he staid till September 12. This time we have indubitable evidence that he stopped at the Hotel Vieux Doelen, or Oude Doelen. Having become quite confidential in our relations with the keeper of this hostelry in 1889, he informed us that the number of the

room Motley occupied was, we believe, "35." Two elements of doubt, however, exist. We are not sure we remember the number as it was given; neither are we sure that the number as given was the correct one. Our Dutch friends in giving reassuring information to foreign inquirers are apt to be too perfectly sure, quite independent of the exact facts. They dislike to disappoint any person kind enough to be curious about bits of interest in Holland. In January he explained to his wife: "I should have stayed a little longer, but for a reason which seems ridiculous enough to state, but you know me well enough to acquit me of affectation-I could hardly have remained longer without going to see the Queen. Finding that I should be obliged to abandon my beloved solitude, you will think it is very natural that I should decamp." That is, presentation to the Queen would have meant a round of social engagements, and his work was too pressing to allow that.

But now with

a longer stay before him, he could not avoid being presented to her Majesty. She was reputed the most accomplished and cultured ladycertainly of her exalted station, and even as compared with ladies of lower rank-in Europe. She had, therefore, with avidity and delight read Motley's volumes, and had expressed a strong desire to meet him. He had in the meantime met intimate personal friends of hers in England.