Page:A Tour Through the Batavian Republic.djvu/119

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THE BATAVIAN REPUBLIC
107

republic; and he certainly would have averted, either by threats or force, any violence from being offered to the Princess of Orange his sister, or her family. But undoubtedly, under the alarming circumstances in which they were placed, the wisest measure which the family of Orange could pursue, was that which they adopted; for had they remained at the Hague till the arrival of the enemy, had their personal safeties not been endangered, they must have suffered many indignities, and been harassed with much anxiety and alarm.

In the course of the enquiries from whence the foregoing information and opinions were derived, I learnt that on the arrival of the French at Amsterdam, three emigrants were shot in the square before the stadthouse of that city. Similar executions to a much greater extent had taken place on the frontiers, but the men so put to death were found in arms against the republic, while the unfortunate wretches that suffered at Amsterdam were guilty of no other crime than that of having quitted their country. The