agent of Philip II. of Spain and of the Jesuits—a man who before he came to man's estate had sworn to murder the Prince of Orange. When the infamous ban was published, Gérard determined to carry his vow into execution, and, in addition, to gain the prize set upon the hero's head by the Prince of Parma.

Eight successive attempts against the life of the prince made by emissaries of Spain had failed, and hitherto the ban had been unsuccessful. No one had been found able to earn the guerdon promised to the individual who should put Orange to death.

During William's residence at Delft, Gérard twice obtained access to the presence of the prince-once unexpectedly, when he was unprepared to carry out his design, and again on the morning of the day in which the terrible deed was done. On that last occasion the princess also saw him, and, struck with his pale face and agitated appearance, questioned the prince anxiously concerning him, saying that "she had never before seen so villanous a countenance." That same day, as the prince, after dinner, where he had been cheerfully conversing, was ascending the staircase to his private apartments, Gérard advanced from a sunken arch in which he had concealed himself, and discharged a pistol full at his heart. Three balls entered his body, one of which, passing quite through him, struck with violence against the wall beyond. The last words of the prince, uttered in French, were, "Oh, my God, have mercy on my soul! Oh, my God, have mercy upon this poor people!" So perished the most remarkable man of his time-a man whose life was, as his great biographer remarks, "a noble Christian epic inspired with one great purpose from its commencement to its close; the stream flowing ever from one fountain with expanding fulness, but retaining all its original purity;" a man earnestly religious and God-fearing, firm and constant, with intellectual faculties various and of the highest order. He went through life "bearing the load of a people's sorrows upon his shoulders with a smiling face; as long as he lived he was the guiding-star of a whole brave nation, and when he died the little children cried in the streets."

The sentence passed on Gérard, the assassin, was, as Motley remarks, "a crime against the memory of the great man whom it purposed to avenge." It was unique in its barbarity. It was decreed that his right hand should be burnt off with a red-hot iron, that his flesh should be torn from his bones in six different places, that he should be quartered and disembowelled alive, that his heart should be torn from his bosom and flung in his face, and that finally his head should be taken off. The sentence was literally executed on the 14th of July. When it was read to him, the poor infatuated wretch stood calm and unmoved, and throwing open his doublet said, "Ecce homo." Nor did that calm forsake him for a moment through all the terrible tortures of his doom.

There are many other places of interest in Delft-the most interesting being the handsome Stadhuis, erected in 1618, containing some portraits; the Arsenal, where the whole of the admirable artillery of Holland, with the exception of the guns cast at the Hague, is manufactured; and the Polytechnic School of Engineering, "the true military school of Holland," numbering 300 students, whence issue the officers for the army of defence against the sea, the deadliest enemy of the country.

It was from Delft Haven that the Pilgrim Fathers set sail in the Mayflower to found, on the principles of Puritanism, the mighty Republic of the West.

BOSTON.

The Wilderness-The Puritans-Early Ways-England's no more-The Siege-Many Nations-The City of Notions-The Literati-The Divisions of the City-The North End-Christ Church-The Battle of Lexington-Faneuil Hall-The Markets The Hub of Gold-The State House-Beacon Hill-The Clubs-Men of Letters-Louisburg-Boston Common-The Soldiers' Monument-Bits of History-The Public Garden-Floral Splendour-A Group of Statues-The City Hall The Fire Brigade, Police, Aqueducts-Charities and Corrections-King's Chapel--The Old Cemeteries -Books and Newspapers-The Old South Church-The Old State House-State Street The Post Office-The Insurance Palaces-The Public Library-The Athenæum-The Antiquaries-The Puritan Vatican-Music-The Great Organ-Theatres-Education-Boston University-Institute of Technology-Wellesley College-The Public SchoolsThe West End-Commonwealth Avenue-The Museum of Fine Arts-Trinity Church-The New Old South Church -The South End-The Secret Societies and the Christian Fraternities-The Unitarians-The Cathedral-Suburban Sketches-The Harbour and Forts-Bunker Hill and its Battle-Soldiers' Monuments-Cambridge and Harvard University-Venerable Houses-Mount Auburn.

OLD STATE HOUSE.

GROUP of steep hills, covered with thickets and rank grasses, on an irregular peninsula, containing hardly a square mile of firm ground, near the estuaries of two broad confluent rivers, and looking out on the sea, peopled, withal, only by birds and wild animals, and occasionally visited by petty clans of Indians such was the site of Boston 260 years ago, when Captain Miles Standish, the gallant Pilgrim soldier, scouting out from New Plymouth, first landed upon its beach. Five years later, and William Blackstone, a mysterious Anglican priest, who sought the seclusion of the wilderness, built a house

and planted an orchard here, and dwelt in solitude among the sea-blown hills of Shawmut. Another space of four years, and Governor Winthrop's colony, rambling down the rugged coast to find a propitious site for a settlement, came hither, attracted by the clear springs and maritime advantages, and founded their new city, on the 17th of September, 1630. The name "Tri-mountain," which the locality had borne, was changed to " Boston," in honour of the ancient city of the same name (in earliest times, "Botolph's Town," from the famous Saxon saint who founded it) among the lowlands of Lincolnshire. Rude wooden huts with thatched roofs soon arose between the hills, wherewith to shelter the exiles; and a barn-like edifice was erected for the First Church of Christ.

By the Act of 23rd Elizabeth, 1582, it was decreed to be treason to England to worship God in any other way than that prescribed by the Church of England; and this rigorous edict was made still harder by her successors on the throne. Two parties of dissenters arose the Separatists, who believed that Episcopalianism was utterly corrupt, and came off from it; and the Puritans, who lamented the evils in the Church, and hoped to reform it from within. The Pilgrims who settled in Plymouth, about thirty miles from Boston, in 1620, were Separatists; the colony which founded Boston was composed of Puritans. The prolonged persecutions conducted by Archbishops Bancroft and Laud at last caused even these children of the Church to despair of her regeneration, and to see in self-exile their only hope of freedom. The more adventurous sought the trackless Western solitudes, in Winthrop's fleet, but enough remained at home to leaven England, and, under Cromwell, to overthrow the tyranny of the Stuarts and their mitre-bearers. Even Hume has admitted that "the precious spark of liberty was kindled and preserved by the Puritans alone, and it was to this sect that the English owe the whole freedom of their constitution."

So these tough-fibred, resolute, highly-consecrated Englishmen abandoned their homes, and sailed out into the shadowy West, seeking no Ophir nor Cathay, but a tangled northern wilderness, infested by savage and heathen tribes, and brooded over by a harsh and inclement climate, hoping only to be enabled, by unfaltering perseverance and heroic patience, to worship God in peace, and in their own way. It was not a movement in favour of religious toleration, for no one could become a citizen of the new state unless he was a member of the Puritan Church. Under a stern theocratic discipline, the town and colony grew steadily and surely, driving back the Indians farther and farther into the interior; executing sanguinary edicts against the Baptists, Episcopalians, and Quakers, who came among them; and continually endeavouring to secure a greater measure of independence from England. Not only did they trust in God, they also kept their powder dry. The first year's ships brought 1,500 immigrants, and 20,000 came within ten years. In 1639, the train-bands on Boston Common mustered a thousand well-armed men; and a tall mast had already been erected on Beacon Hill, with an iron frame near the top, in which to kindle alarum-fires to arouse the country. A rude castle arose on an island before the town, and war-vessels were commissioned, because at various times the port was menaced with attacks from Dutch, Spanish, and French fleets. Powerful contingents went out from Boston to aid the British expeditions against Louisburg, Quebec, Acadie, and Havana; and the colonials, marching side by side with the best troops in the world, became veteran and skilful soldiers.