' Pacheco, thus outraged, submitted to his fate. He
mounted the ladder with a steady step, and was hanged between two
other Spanish officers.
"So perished miserably a brave soldier, and one of the most
distinguished engineers of his time; a man whose character and
accomplishments had certainly merited for him a better fate. But
while we stigmatize as it deserves the atrocious conduct of a few
Netherland partisans, we should remember who first unchained the demon
of international hatred in this unhappy land, nor should it ever be
forgotten that the great leader of the revolt, by word, proclamation,
example, by entreaties, threats, and condign punishment, constantly
rebuked and, to a certain extent, restrained the sanguinary spirit
by which some of his followers disgraced the noble cause which they
had espoused."
Flushing's hero is De Ruyter, whose rope-walk wheel we saw at
Middelburg, and whose truculent lineaments have so often frowned at
us from the walls of picture gallery and stadhuis throughout the
country--almost without exception from the hand of Ferdinand Bol,
or a copyist.
Scratch a sea-dog and you find a pirate; De Ruyter, who stands in stone
for all time by Flushing harbour, lacking the warranty of war would
have been a Paul Jones beyond eulogy.
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