The Holland Society of New York - Yearbook (New York, NY)

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53 stirring and exacting, that its women were th ners and sharers of the men in all that made up the thrifty and great career of that wonderful people, and so had little time or inducement for roma or gay society. H . And yet, I came across a curious exception to this conclusion in Peefgfs Anecdoies. It seems that in 1796 an elderly, substantial citizen of Amsterdam had a young wife who dressed extravagantly, played high, and gave expensive routs. He, fearing a serious impairment of his bank account, remon- strated with her parents, appealed to the minister, and warned the tradesmen. He was confronted with an indebtedness of thirty thousand florins in- curred by hiS sprightly spouse. One evening, as she was about to attend a great ball, her husband reached the point of resistance, she stormily de- clined to forego the engagement, and he responded : If you go, remember, for the- next six months these doors will be barred against you. To which she replied with spirit: I am going, if they were to be forever barred against me. Well, the coach' came, and away she started. Soon' finding ,herself on an unknown road, she called in vain for the driver to stop. r She arrived at a strange place, and was met by a solemn matron with the information that her husband had himself driven her to a retreat, with an order for her de- tention for six months ! Remarkable as it may' seem in a Dutchwoman- she fainted. Cn being revived, she discovered her husband at her side, expressing anxiety for her safety. She wept and promised reform, on condi- tion, however, of her immediate return. He yielded, Of course, and the same coach drove her home that e part- HCC

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. i L S 5 S K

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54 very night. The chronicle ends with this State, t - She became all that her husband desired men . ,3 good wife and an affectionate mother. It must not be concluded that I intend to 151-eat this subject in lighter vein. Read the marvellous pages of Motley, in which he records the story of john of Barneveld, the statesman, Whose forty years of service t0 the Dutch Republic were rewarded by monstrous accusations, a trial which was a mockery, 3 Pre, judged sentence, and death upon the scaffold, And you recall the reference to his noble wife Maria, of whom Motley says : The great painters of the epoch have preserved her face to posterity,- the grief-stricken face of a hard-featured but com- manding and not uncomely Woman, the fountain of whose tears seems exhausted g a face of austere and noble despair. You remember, too, the long imprisonment of Grotius., and how from his cell his heroic Wife deliv- ergd him, how he escaped in a chest, marked ooks for Professor Erpiniusf' attended and guarded by the quick-witted, fa'thf l 'd El ' who from the deck of the boat tliatuboiieaaway ill rifcgled PFISOHCI' gave the signal with her handker- 3Vi:1ed:DS0 thai her mistress, watching at the castle far in Wgfggnig t know that her husband had got that e y. Whrghifergs medal' at T116 lilague a Dutch Damsel Dutch Daii-li S true' will ere long become a bult is said that Duke lilenry has gone to Germany, Hou Vjnfufeo the prediction that he will return to Parliggl 111 flme for the wedding. The Dutch ent will debate and reconsider the Royal wg, H r y rl COTSM Wd ,M iw . and , QC ofhercdlxffd e zrmffhe may r izbleflghtw my ' 'uwhwoman . 1 mllswffn r meuli if ' W ww 1 ,dmmal53Wm c latmdilsmuch his r There arellllfnl' . S' gnDutchll1Hl5m Ms tlle stvfy R llBlH1Pf0Vl56d l R lenrdesolatetl MM 5 . mei unconquemble lm 1 lllentheannalsoltk 2 ererypagewill be lustmu rl 1 women, who, Hg ncan prototypes ig gi lilflfls wirh and is M ,nds,brorhq5,M I9 :enght of glfigmu. it C memory of M i wed 35 H m u rm lr Pfwsed mm hleven f P. 5 ent 3:11, lllenm . jllli W, th M51 yolli gill' liillldi il' , gall' sfllj . llfflfl I will fi i ,l dd ll luv' 1 W . in ' nl llo llll0lE,the' lvni' , llllhallih ' lilly lil, I-es d lfandlg