The pensionary, who had not been terrified
from performing the part of a kind brother and faithful friend during
this prosecution, resolved not to desert him on account of the unmerited
infamy which was endeavored to be thrown upon him. He came to his
brothers prison, determined to accompany him to the place of his exile.
The signal was given to the populace. They rose in arms: they broke
open the doors of the prison; they pulled out the two brothers; and a
thousand hands vied who should first be imbrued in their blood. Even
their death did not satiate the brutal rage of the multitude. They
exercised on the dead bodies of those virtuous citizens, indignities
too shocking to be recited; and till tired with their own fury, they
permitted not the friends of the deceased to approach, or to bestow on
them the honors of a funeral, silent and unattended.
The massacre of the De Wits put an end for the time to the remains of
their party; and all men, from fear, inclination, or prudence, concurred
in expressing the most implicit obedience to the prince of Orange. The
republic, though half subdued by foreign force, and as yet dismayed by
its misfortunes, was now firmly united under one leader, and began
to collect the remains of its pristine vigor.
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