Page:A Tour Through the Batavian Republic.djvu/103

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THE BATAVIAN REPUBLIC
91

country. Its inhabitants are chiefly fishermen, and these poor men beheld the departure of their prince with the liveliest concern. The beach was crowded with afflicted spectators, whose respectful silence and tears spoke their feelings. The stadtholder, his son the hereditary prince, and two or three Dutch noblemen, attached to the fortunes of the house of Orange, embarked on board a small fishing vessel, navigated by five men, and bid adieu, probably for ever, to their country. The princesses had departed the day before in a vessel equally unsuitable to their rank and sex; and such may be considered as the end of the political existence of a family which for two hundred years watched over the safety of the republic.

While the poor fishermen at Scheveling lamented their fugitive princes, the populace at the Hague, with that inconstancy which characterises the vulgar, assembled in a tumultuous manner to express their contempt of their ancient governors, and to insult the unfortunate partisans of the house of Orange. The most distinguished nobles who remained,