which I have done but little. When I fought for them before and risked my life, they never turned round to look at me.' There was a very good reason for this excessive joy on the part of the people, however, for they now felt that poverty was at an end, and that the war could be continued with the enemy's money. Piet Hein found it out too, for he received a goodly share of the booty, and bought himself a nice little house and garden in Delft. He was moreover publicly thanked by the States-General sitting solemnly in council. He and the other heads of the fleet under him were presented with heavy gold chains and medals, which were hung round them by the Secretary, while, by express order, their portraits were beautifully painted on satin and presented to each of the members.

Having now reached the age of fifty, and having saved a very considerable sum of money, Piet Hein was naturally anxious to have done with roving about, and retired to his nice little house at Delft, where he thought to live in comfort with his wife and friends. But it was not to be. The country could not do without him. In April of the following year he was called upon to go out on an expedition against the pirates of Dunkerque. He refused. The States offered him a large salary, but he answered that he had quite enough. Then they pointed to the awful damage which was being done, and the inability of anyone else to subdue the pirates. He hesitated, and said younger men ought to try now.

Then they

offered to make him admiral-in-chief and lieutenantgeneral of Holland. The big titles were too much for him, and he accepted. In May, 1629, he sailed out on a reconnoitring expedition all by himself, and on the 20th of the following month was met by three pirate vessels. With his usual impetuosity he went at them, when a cannon-ball cut him in half, and he fell lifeless on the deck of his vessel. The pirates were taken and all thrown overboard in revenge; but Piet Hein had gone for ever. His body was publicly buried in the old church of Amsterdam, not far from that of Heemskerk; but his name lives in the memory of the people to this day,

MARTEN HARPERTS TROMP.

PART I.

NEVER heard his name before? I can scarcely believe that. If you have read any history at all, if you have been passably interested in the doings of our forefathers, if you possess any admiration for those who have made that history something more than the dull record of machine-like labour, you must have heard of Admiral Tromp, or Van Trump, as the English writers of that period delight to call him. He was a man who threw his whole soul into his business, who was brave enough to be prudent, honest enough to be independent, and who so fulfilled each duty that he could afford to bear with patience unmerited rebuke; who gained the highest position without losing his simplicity or candour, and who stood out like the Eddystone rock at sea, a trusty friend and beacon to those whom he served, but a deadly enemy to those who went against him.

Tromp was born of a sea-going family. His grandfather was a coasting trader, and his father, whose house was at Brill, at the mouth of the Meuse,

took him to sea in his own ship when he was scarcely nine years old. This was in the year 1606. In the following year, it will be remembered, Van Heemskerk sailed with his expedition to Gibraltar, and destroyed the Spanish fleet. Tromp's father took part in that expedition; and although he must have. known that he was running great danger, he resolved to take his boy with him, the more as Marten was very fond of his father, and delighted to go. It is probable that, young though he was, he had already witnessed several small fights at sea, and was therefore somewhat accustomed to the noise. But the terrific uproar of that battle of Gibraltar went beyond him. Before the commencement his father told him to remain in the cabin, and the boy obeyed, although trembling with excitement. But when the cannons began to thunder, when the ship creaked and trembled in every plank, when she rolled and rocked about, and groaned like a living being, when the cabin became full of sulphurous smoke, when the windows broke, the door flew open, the sailors began to shout on deck, and fire as fast as they were able, Marten could stand it no longer in the solitary cabin. He flew on deck towards his father. At that very

moment he saw him sink, covered with blood. A bullet had wounded him to death, and Marten came but in time to throw himself on the lifeless body, and cover the pale face with kisses. But it was too late. When Marten saw this, a fierce spirit took possession of him. His face was still wet with tears, but his

eyes were flaming with anger, and his voice no longer wept. He ran to the first officer, and, pointing to the Spanish vessel with which they were engaged, he exclaimed, 'Will you not revenge my father's death?' The sailors had been somewhat disheartened by their captain's fall, but these words of the resolute boy revived their courage. They went at it again with a hearty will, boarded the Spanish vessel, and destroyed her.

Having made such a beginning, it will perhaps astonish you that young Tromp remained in the navy. Many men would not have cared to continue in a profession or business the earlier recollections of which had been so melancholy; but for Tromp the very danger had an attraction, and I almost believe that his blood was mixed with sea-water. He was an orphan, and poor. He knew something of the sea, he knew nothing of land business, and therefore he became a sailor. At any rate, we read nothing about his earlier years but that he climbed up gradually from the very lowest post, and it is generally supposed that after the death of his father he began his career on one of the ships as cabin-boy. What happened to him in those days we do not know. That he felt very lonely at times, and often wetted his bread with tears, that he had to work very hard, and was treated with roughness and severity, we may take for granted. But the little fellow stuck to his work, and, although he was not aware of it at the time, he gained a know