ANECDOTE OF BARNEVELDT.

99 to define the very subject on which they dispute. The leisure they enjoyed during the truce, unluckily gave those ignorant people an opportunity to fill their heads with theological disputes, till at length, out of a scholastic controversy, there arose two parties in the state. Maurice, Prince of Orange, headed the Gomarists, and the pensionary Barneveldt supported the Arminians.

Du Maurier says, that he had been told by the embassador his father, that Maurice having proposed to the pensionary Barneveldt, to concur in giving him the supreme power, this zealous republican shewed him the danger and injustice of the proposal, and from that time Barneveldt's ruin was resolved upon. This however is certain, that the Stadtholder endeavored to increase his authority by means of the Gomarists, and Barneveldt to check it by means of the Arminians: that several towns levied soldiers who were called Expectants, because they expected orders from the magistrate, but would take none from the Stadtholder that there were insurrections in some cities, and that Prince Maurice vigorously persecuted the opposite party. At length he convened a calvinistical council at Dordrecht, composed of all the reformed churches in Europe, except that of France, the deputies from which were not permitted by the King of France to attend.

100

ANECDOTE OF BARNEVELDT.

The fathers of this synod who had exclaimed so loudly against the fathers of various councils, and against their authority, condemned the Arminians, just as they themselves had been condemned by the council of Trent. Above a hundred Arminian ministers were banished from the United Provinces. Prince Maurice chose twenty-six commissioners from the nobility and the magistrates, to try the grand pensionary Barneveldt, the celebrated Grotius, and some others of the Arminian party. They had been kept six months in confinement, previous to their trial.

One of the chief motives of the revolt of the Seven Provinces, and of the house of Orange, against Spain, was the Duke of Alva's severity, in suffering the accused to languish for a long period in confinement, without bringing them to trial, and in appointing commissioners to condemn them. The same grievances which had caused such complaints under the Spanish monarchy, were revived in the bosom of liberty. Barneveldt was beheaded at the Hague, more unjustly than Count Egmont, and Count Horn at Brussels. He was an old man of seventy, who had served the Republic forty years in the cabinet, with as much success as Maurice and his brothers had served her in the field. The sentence imported, "That he had done all "he could to vex the Church of God."

NOBLE FEMALE ANECDOTE.

101

A charming anecdote is related of the admirable conduct of the widow of Barneveldt. After he had perished on the scaffold, his sons, René and William, entered into a conspiracy to revenge his death, in which they were discovered. William fled, but René was taken and condemned to die. His mother solicited his pardon of Prince Maurice, who replied, It appears strange "that you do that for your son, which you refused "to do for your husband;" to which she nobly replied, “I did not ask pardon for my husband, because "he was innocent; I ask it for my son, because he is guilty."

The view from the steeple of this church is esteemed the most beautiful in Holland, and is remarkably fine and extensive; but the beauty of the scenery is principally at a distance, as the land immediately surrounding the town. is boggy, dotted with piles of white turf. The chimes of this church, or as they are called, the Carillons, are very numerous, consisting of four or five hundred bells, which are celebrated for the sweetness of their tones. This species of music is entirely of Dutch origin, and in Holland and the countries that formerly belonged to her, it can only be heard in great perfection. The French and Italians have never imitated the Dutch in this taste; we have made the attempt in some of our churches, but in such a

miserably bungling manner, that the nerves of even a Dutch skipper would scarcely be able to endure it.

These carillons are played upon by means of a kind of keys communicating with the bells, as those of the piano forte and organ do with strings and pipes, by a person called the Carilloneur, who is regularly instructed in the science, the labor of the practical part of which is very severe, he being almost always obliged to perform in his shirt with his collar unbuttoned, and generally forced by exertion into a profuse perspiration, some of the keys requiring a two pound weight to depress them: after the performance, the Carilloneur is frequently obliged immediately to go to bed: by pedals communicating with the great bells, he is enabled with his feet to play the base to several sprightly and even difficult airs, which he performs with both his hands upon the upper species of keys, which are projecting sticks, wide enough asunder to be struck with violence and celerity by either of the two hands edgeways, without the danger of hitting the adjoining keys. The player uses a thick leather covering for the little finger of each hand, to prevent the excessive pain which the violence of the stroke, necessary to produce sufficient sound, requires: these musicians are very dextrous, and will play pieces in three parts, producing the first and second treble with the two hands on the upper

THE CARILLONEUR.

103

set of keys, and the base as before described. By this invention a whole town is entertained in every quarter of it; that spirit of industry which pervades the kingdom, no doubt originally suggested this sudorific mode of amusing a large population, without making it necessary for them to quit their avocations one moment to enjoy them. They have often sounded to my ear, at a distance, like the sounds of a very sweet hand-organ; but the want of something to stop the vibration of each bell, to prevent the notes of one passage from running into another, is a desideratum which would render this sort of music still more highly delightful. Holland is the only country I have been in, where the sound of bells was gratifying. The dismal tone of our own on solemn occasions, and the horrible indiscriminate clashing of the bells of the Greek church in Russia, are, at least to my ear, intolerable nuisances. I afterwards learnt that the carillons at Amsterdam have three octaves, with all the semi-tones complete on the manual, and two octaves in the pedals; each key for the natural sound projects near a foot, and those for the flats and sharps, which are played several inches higher, only half as much. The British army was equally surprised and gratified, by hearing upon the carillons of the principal church at Alkmaar, their favorite air of " God save the king" played in a masterly manner, when they entered that town.