Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1909 edition. Excerpt: ...of our clubbing together, the king paying only a double share. Ruysum. Let him! under protest, however! 'Tis his master's fashion, too, to be munificent, and to let the money flow in a good cause. (Wine is brought.) All. Here's to his Majesty! Hurrah! Jetter (to Buyck). That means your Majesty, of course. Buyck. My hearty thanks, if it be so. Soest. Assuredly! A Netherlander does not find it easy to drink the health of his Spanish majesty from his heart Ruysum. Who? Soest (aloud). Philip the Second, King of Spain. Ruysum. Our most gracious king and master Long life to him. Soest. Did you not like his father, Charles the Fifth, better? Ruysum. God bless him! He was a king indeed! His hand reached over the whole earth, and he was all in all. Yet, when he met you, he'd greet you just as one neighbour greets another, --and if you were frightened, he knew so well how to put you at your ease--ay, you understand me--he walked out, rode out, just as it came into his head, with very few followers. We all wept when he resigned the government here to his son. You understand me--he is another sort of man, he's more majestic. Jetter. When he was here, he never appeared in public, except in pomp and royal state. He speaks little, they say. Soest. He is no king for us Netherlanders. Our princes must be joyous and free like ourselves, must live and let live. We will neither be despised nor oppressed, good-natured fools though we be. Jetter. The king, methinks, were a gracious sovereign enough, if he had only better counsellors. Soest. No, no! He has no affection for us Netherlanders; he has no heart for the people; he loves us not; how then can we love him? Why is everybody so fond of Count Egmont? Why are we all so devoted to him? Why, because one can..