30 DUTCH AND ENGLISH ON THE HUDSON

it was celebrated throughout Holland by the ring-
ing of bells, the discharge of artillery, the illumi-
nation of the houses, and the singing of hymns
of thanksgiving in all the churches. * The devout
people knelt in every cathedral and village Kerk
to thank their God that the period of butchery and
persecution was over. But no sooner had the joy-
bells ceased ringing and the illuminations faded
than the King of Spain began plotting to regain by
diplomacy what he had been unable to hold by
force. The Dutch, however, showed themselves as
keenly alive as the Spanish to the value of treaties
and alliances. They met cunning with caution, as
they had met tyranny with defiance, and at last,
as the end of the truce drew near, they flung into
the impending conflict the weight of the Dutch
West India Company. They were shrewd and
.sincere people, ready to try all things by the test of
practical experience. One of their great statesmen
at this period described his fellow-countrymen as
having neither the wish nor the skill to deceive
others, but on the other hand as not being easy to
be deceived themselves.

Motley says of the Dutch Republic that "it
had courage, enterprise, intelligence, faith in it-
self, the instinct of self-government and self-help,