that there had been a surfeit of hangings in Rotterdam.  It is moreover not easy to distinguish with exactness the lines which in those days separated regular sea belligerents, privateers, and pirates from each other.  It had been laid down by the archdukes that there was no military law at sea, and that sick soldiers captured on the water should be hanged.  Accordingly they were hanged.  Admiral Fazardo, of the Spanish royal navy, not only captured all the enemy’s merchant vessels which came in his way, but hanged, drowned, and burned alive every man found on board.  Admiral Haultain, of the republican navy, had just been occupied in drowning a whole regiment of Spanish soldiers, captured in English and German transports.  The complaints brought against the English cruisers by the Hollanders for capturing and confiscating their vessels, and banging, maiming, and torturing their crews—­not only when England was neutral, but even when she was the ally of the republic—­had been a standing topic for diplomatic discussion, and almost a standing joke.  Why, therefore, these Dunkirk sea-rovers should not on the same principle be allowed to rush forth from their very convenient den to plunder friend and foe, burn ships, and butcher the sailors at pleasure, seems difficult to understand.  To expect from the inhabitants of this robbers’ cave—­ this “church on the downs”—­a code of maritime law so much purer and sterner than the system adopted by the English, the Spaniards, and the Dutch, was hardly reasonable.  Certainly the Dunkirkers, who were mainly Netherlanders—­rebels to the republic and partisans of the Spanish crown —­did their best to destroy the herring fishery and to cut the throats of the fishermen, but perhaps they received the halter more often than other mariners who had quite as thoroughly deserved it.  And this at last appeared the prevailing opinion in Rotterdam.

ETEXT EDITOR’S BOOKMARKS: 

Abstinence from unproductive consumption
Defeated garrison ever deserved more respect from friend or foe
His own past triumphs seemed now his greatest enemies
Hundred thousand men had laid down their lives by her decree
John Castel, who had stabbed Henry IV. 
Looking down upon her struggle with benevolent indifference
No retrenchments in his pleasures of women, dogs, and buildings
Sick soldiers captured on the water should be hanged
The small children diminished rapidly in numbers
When all was gone, they began to eat each other

*** End of the project gutenberg EBOOK history united Netherlands, 1604-05 ***

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