236 DISCOVERY OF PRINTING. The first book he printed is kept in the town-house, in a silver case wrapt up in silk, and is always shewn with great caution, as a most precious relic of antiquity. The glory of this transcendent discovery, which spread light and civilization over the world, and formed a new epoch in its history, was for a long time disputed between Haarlem, Mayence, and Strasburg: the latter, after a laborious investigation, has renounced her pretensions, and the general opinion seems to bestow the palm upon the first city. The manner in which Coster imbibed the first impressions of this divine discovery, is said to have been from his cutting the letters of his name on the bark of a tree, and afterwards pressing a piece of paper upon the characters, until they became legible upon it, which induced him to continue the experiment, by engraving other letters upon wood. Those early principles were soon diffused through France, with considerable improvements, by the enterprizing ability of the Etiennes ; by the learned Manutius, a celebrated Venetian painter, and the inventor of Italian characters through Italy; and through the Netherlands by Christopher Plantin, whose printing-office at Antwerp was one of the principal ornaments of the town, and who was distinguished for his skill, erudition, and prodigious wealth, created solely by a successful prosecution of his important business. ANECDOTE OF FEMALE FORTITUDE. 237 Mayence contests the honor of the invention, but it is generally believed that a servant of Coster, of the name of Faustus, stole the types of his master on a Christmas-eve, whilst he was attending his devotions at church, and fled with his booty to Mayence. The portrait of Coster is to be seen in most of the booksellers' shops at Haarlem, and in other principal towns. A memorable, but not an unusual instance of affection, and of female presence of mind, occurred in this city many years since, at a spot which is still shewn with no little degree of national pride, whereon an antient castle stood, the lord of which was severely pressed by the burghers of the town, who laid siege to it, on account of his tyrannical conduct towards them: driven to the last extremity, and when his life was upon the point of paying the forfeit of his crimes, his lady appeared on the ramparts, and offered to surrender, provided she might be permitted to bring out as much of her most valuable goods as she could carry on her back; which being complied with, she brought her husband out upon her shoulders, preserved him from the fury of the troops, and gave up to them possession of the castle-thinking in the language of Shakspeare, "If I depart from thee, I cannot live; Henry IV. Part 2d. Act 4. 238 SIEGE OF HAARLEM. History informs us, that Haarlem presented a glorious example of resistance to the Spanish yoke, so heroically imitated two years afterwards at Leyden, which experienced a better fortune than befel the wretched inhabitants of the former city. Whilst the provinces were bravely opposing their invaders, a long and memorable siege in 1573, which was carried on against Haarlem by Frederic of Toledo, the son of the sanguinary Duke of Alva, during which the female inhabitants, like those of Leyden, assisted the garrison in their duties, underwent every privation, faced every horror, and rushed to certain destruction in defence of the town, with an alacrity and fortitude which have rendered them immortal in the annals of their country. Those horoines, when the garrison refused with indignation the conditions which were offered them by the Spanish general, fought with unshaken courage by the side of the men, in their desperate sorties against the besieging army, and in their fury put every prisoner to death, whom they took in these attacks. This unjustifiable conduct, and the derision which from the ramparts they expressed of the Roman Catholic worship, induced the Spaniards to retort with terrible vengeance. In consequence of a correspondence which the besieged carried on with the Prince of Orange by means of carrier pigeons, being discovered by the Spaniards, they shot every pigeon which came within the reach of their musketry, which rendered the situation of the garrison hopeless, and they at length surrendered, on condition that the lives of the soldiers and inhabitants should be spared, to which Frederic Toledo consented, entered the town at the head of his victorious troops, and in cold blood butchered two thousand of those who had submitted to his arms, and trusted to his honor. When it is considered, that at this period, the Spanish monarchy was predominant in Europe, that its armies were mighty, its generals experienced, and its treasury overflowing, the triumphant prowess which the Dutch displayed in finally driving their powerful invaders back to their own frontiers, will render the Dutch name illustrious as long as the record of history endures. The Dutch ladies have rivalled in fame the most renowned heroines of Greece and Rome. The Hollanders treasure up these gallant exploits in their memories, they form the favorite subjects of their songs, and the old and the young recite with enthusiasm the great deeds of their ancestors. The Haarlem lake which I mentioned, presented a very bleak and dismal sheet of water from the canal; it is about fourteen miles long, and about the same number broad, is said not to be above six feet deep, and lies between 240 ANECDOTE OF WOUVERMANS. Leyden, Amsterdam, and Haarlem: its waters are slimy, and abound with eels, some of which are of a prodigious size. This lake can have no charm but for a bleacher. The fuel used here is Newcastle coals and turf. Having described what is worthy of notice at Haarlem, it would be indifference indeed to an art which I worship, were I to quit this city without briefly adverting to some of the principal distinguished artists which it had the honor of giving birth to. The first in chronological order was Philip Wouvermans, who was born at Haarlem in 1620, whose sweetness of colouring, correctness of design, beautiful choice of scenery, and perfect knowledge of the chiaro-scuro, or as it has well been defined, of light and black, have excited the admiration and applause of posterity: the subjects which he was particularly partial to were huntings, hawkings, encampments of armies, farriers' shops, and all those scenes that admitted of his introducing horses, which he painted to great perfection. Notwithstanding his transcendent merit, for a considerable period he met with no encouragement, and encountered many difficulties which greatly depressed his spirits, of which the picture-merchants knew how to take every ungenerous advantage: at length he was relieved from his indigence and dependance, by the bounty of his confessor, who seeing his uncommon genuis, was resolved |