Van Hout, who had just been smiling, grew very grave.

Drawing a long breath, he said: "Patibulo is a bad Latin word, and your fathers, who formerly sat here, understood its meaning far less thoroughly than you.

Now, every child in the Netherlands knows it, Alva has impressed it on our minds.

More than eighteen thousand worthy citizens have come to the gallows through his 'ad patibulum.'" With these words he pulled his short black doublet through his girdle, advanced nearer the first desk, and bending his muscular body forward, said with constantly increasing emotion: "'This shall be enough for to-day, boys.

It will do no great harm, if you afterwards forget the names earned here.