Page:The silent prince - a story of the Netherlands (IA cu31924008716957).pdf/273

 had reached the depth of ten inches, and were seriously inconveniencing the enemy. As if to mock the misery of the people, the plague broke out in the city and swept away thousands.

Dr. Chenoweth's family had all survived, but the unflagging zeal of Katharine Van Straalen had finally brought on a fever, and it seemed hardly possible that she could survive. No one would have recognized the hollow faces in this home, as changed were they by want and suffering. Every day Dr. Chenoweth went to the round tower in the centre of the city to look out over the country and to note if the sea was coming to bring them deliverance.

The waters rose but slowly. The taunting cries of the Spaniards reached the ears of the citizens, "Where is your Prince? Where are the waters which are going to cover the dry land? If the Prince promised to pluck the stars from heaven or to stay the march of the sun and moon, you poor fools would believe it."

The discouraged watchers in the tower of Hengist began to lose faith in both God and man.

"Oh!" cried Madam Chenoweth, "for one hour of the east wind which flooded Friesland and swept so many homes from the face of the earth!"

Old Lysken, who had been a tower of strength in this little household, at last succumbed to disease.