Look, look!” cried the boy, “the great General Valdez has immortalized himself here, and there is his name too.  Listen, listen!  The rector would hang a placard with the word donkey round his neck, for he has written:  “Castelli parvi!  Vale civitas, valete castelli parvi; relicti estis propter aquam et non per vim inimicorum!’ Oh! the donkey ’Castelli parvi!’”

“What does it mean?” asked the Beggar.

“Farewell, Leyden, farewell, ye little ‘Castelli;’ ye are abandoned on account of the waves, and not of the power of the enemy.  ‘Parvi Castelli!’ I must tell mother that!”

On Monday, William of Orange entered Leyden, and went to Herr von Montfort’s house.  The people received their Father William with joy, and the unwearied champion of liberty, in the midst of the exultation and rejoicing that surrounded him, labored for the future prosperity of the city.  At a later period he rewarded the faithful endurance of the people with a peerless memorial:  the University of Leyden.  This awakened and kept alive in the busy city and the country bleeding for years in severe conflicts, that lofty aspiration and effort, which is its own reward, and places eternal welfare far above mere temporal prosperity.  The tree, whose seed was planted amid the deepest misery, conflict and calamity, has borne the noblest fruits for humanity, still bears them, and if it is the will of God will continue to bear them for centuries.

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On the twenty-sixth of July, 1581, seven years after the rescue of Leyden, Holland and Zealand, whose political independence had already been established for six years, proclaimed themselves at the Hague free from Spain.  Hitherto, William of Orange had ruled as King Philip’s “stadtholder,” and even the war against the monarch had been carried on in his name.  Nay, the document establishing the University, a paper, which with all the earnestness that dictated it, deserves to be called an unsurpassed masterpiece of the subtlest political irony, purported to issue from King Philip’s mouth, and it sounds amusing enough to read in this paper, that the gloomy dunce in the Escurial, after mature deliberation with his dear and faithful cousin, William of Orange, has determined to found a freeschool and university, from motives, which could not fail to seem abominable to the King.

On the twenty-fourth of July this game ceased, allegiance to Philip was renounced, and the Prince assumed sovereign authority.

Three days after, these joyful events were celebrated by a splendid banquet at Herr Van der Werff’s house.  The windows of the dining-room were thrown wide open, and the fresh breeze of the summer night fanned the brows of the guests, who had assembled around the burgomaster’s table.  They were the most intimate friends of the family:  Janus Dousa, Van Hout, the learned Doctor Grotius of Delft, who to Maria’s delight had been invited to Leyden as a professor, and this very year filled the office of President of the new University, the learned tavern-keeper Aquarius, Doctor Bontius, now professor of medicine at the University, and many others.