As long as he lived, he was the guiding-star of a whole brave nation, and when he died the little children cried in the street.

Of William the Silent. In a footnote Motley cites the original of his last phrase in an official report made by the Greffier Corneille Aertsens: "dont par toute la ville l'on est en si grand duil tellement que les petits enfans en pleurent par les rues."