New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1856-12-01


over poIder and fen still he presses onward rayeTs-
ing that low fat strip Of land protected only BY the
| dyke from the waters Of the Znyder Zee.
q Master Kampen! Master Karnpen"
| The old man was in his first sleep. There had
been long and anxious consultation Everything
was prepared for flight. Men, women and children
were to start for Amsterdam At the dawn y OF day
"hfa4ter Kampen Master kampen!" and heaVy
hand shook the cottage door.
The lattice opened above "Who is there? and what
do you want p
The old man is standing on the doorway and has
broken the seal Of the envelope. ""hat! open the
dyke gates ~
Let the sea have the country rather than the French
was in every ones mouth. .
"Then must go and get assistance we shall
want twenty men at least. God help this miserable
country!
$50 He will, master Gerard, if we help ourselves
| Have with you to the village" II
All on n the e5 Of the zt ayk rDpe n
the moonshne Behind you, the rich fertile pastures
of South Holland and the Sticht of Utrecht At
your feet the wonderful erection of timber, beams OF
thirty inch oak braced with rvers and studded
with massy nails; iood-gates hanging on noun
famous mass Of Norwegian grante-bo!ts and bars,
and undergraduates very triumph Of the carpen-
ters art Men, and women and children on the great
dyke: closer to the gates, Gerard van kampen, a
ponderous mallet in his hand--the village blacksmith
and his men with croWbhl5, and the stlrdlest young
Of the village with pickaxes and spades and mat
t tocks.
r "At it again, lads" shouted the Warden of the
# dyke " God have mercy on the who is On Die
e Inermeer poder now ?"
t. Amen said venerable who stood by. "In
f half an hour it will be twelve feet under water
r Twelve, Master Van Helst? Work away lads, a
J. good fifteen. So say again, God have mercy on the
g man who is there My 1.....
IS You ought to say to that prayer, dear Elsie;
YOU have the deepest interest in that poder For even
r. now its thick mist is rising above Egbert vandenvelde
and forming in the moonlight such halo round his
: head as that with which we encircle the gorifed.
The brave dyke rcssts subbornly. There is heav
ing and pushing and hammering mighty strokes are
rained down staple and bar; axes and hatcheta
bite ercey upright and cross BEAM saws cut into
the heart of the English oak but the great mass
quivers not yet.
f. 1T will be daylight before are through: said
Gerard Van kalnpen. I" Try again, lads with will !.
st A wild confusion Of carnor and strokes-yes, 1t
# trembes now. More than one huge timber has given
its terrible death groan More than one staple has
d been snapped in two It shakes in good earnest.
g Here and there little cataract Of water gushe: out
e back, all Back Philip Van Erckel! 1t Is going.
One terrible struggle Of the yet papitatng timbers
t. and then, with roar like ten thousand Wld beasts
he Zuyder Zee leaps through the breach Astream forty
Of feet broad and twenty deep rushes into the country
Is Down go cottages and hay rick carts and cattle and
r. the wrecks of farms are dashed along by the food
ST. the land the Garden of Eden before it, and he
IN hind it foanlng waste of waters The dyke sides
it, crunbe away; it is though the Zuyder Zee were
at pouring itself at once over the land women and
m children shrek with terror even the holdes OF the
or men look CHASTITY white in the moonshlne.
And the roar Of that water proclaims to the Great
~ Monarch Thus far shalt thou come, but no fur
he ther = .-"-. @..
az ~
he Egbert Vandenvede is half way across DemerTneer
h. poder The spirited little pony has borne him stout
dc on Suddenly he grows restive turns from the road
to the right will obey neither rein spur takes the
ng BIT in his teeth, and starts of at full galop.
M "Whv what ais the beast now" said the rider.
a6 And vigorously he piled both whip and spur. and
Ter right heartily he pulled the rein; it was like trying
q to stop the wind. On, on, on still.
,pr They are out OF the polder 10 the right Is the
,pr ruin castle, Gaping rise OF the ao1test tur1
H. Ther the brave little horse gaops and there at the
NO summit, he stops.
in. why the beast is bewitched again exclams the
if rider
What is that dull distant roar-lke the wind on
ee stormy day upon wooded hill The ar Is perfectly
calm and there is neither hill wood to the North
.Ie A singular fearful noise. A rushing now, rather
the than a roar.
VA And what is that glare through the moons haze
inc on the polder?"
1t is water.
Now he sees the truth. The Zuyder Zee is lei
in loose. Marsh and lowlan will be botted out from
not the continents will the rise OF the Castle OF Zelst still
peer above the inland sea?
Yes: doubtless the Angel that stood in the way c
cor BALKAN adversary, stood in the path OF the ride
nst now as friend And often and often, IN the Ions
md summer evenings, would Egbert and ELSIE andeI
yelde be asked by their children for the story of ho7
not they cut the great dyke of Naarden, and how tn
if is good little pony 1roud go to the Castle of Zelst
and this story of that neVer-falling providence
our Father which ordereth all things in Heaven an
nrs in earth, is strictly true