Her submerged deformity, as she floated, mermaid-like, upon the waves was to be forgotten in her material splendor.

Enriched with the spoils of every clime, crowned with the divine jewels of science and art, she was, one day, to sing a siren song of freedom, luxury, and power.
As with Holland, so with Flanders, Brabant, and the other leading provinces.

Industry and wealth, agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, were constantly augmenting.

The natural sources of power were full to overflowing, while the hand of despotism was deliberately sealing the fountain.
For the house of Burgundy was rapidly culminating and as rapidly curtailing the political privileges of the Netherlands.

The contest was, at first, favorable to the cause of arbitrary power; but little seeds were silently germinating, which, in the progress of their gigantic development, were, one day, to undermine the foundations of Tyranny and to overshadow the world.