16 DECEMBER 1932, Page 12

The Dutch won't be shot—oh, the cunning knaves ! "

Dilly. Dilly," cries the old Marshal, " come and be killed : " but not a step will the Dutchman move to death, out of complaisancy at least. He sits under his casemates, "which are immense," and says over his pipe, " The more you French fire, the more I won't come out." Now it is battery No. 2, now No. 13, which in the most solemn manner in the world beseeches the Dutchman to come forth. But no—fire and burn—with such an umbrella over his head as a bomb- proof casemate, Mynheer does not dread the extinction of his pipe : and that is the principal consideration with the garrison of our ancient ally. Caaemates above and casemates below, he neither fears bombs nor sluices. In case of being flooded, his breeches would serve him for a coracle to sail down the Scheldt in ; and pipe alight, it would take a heavy sea to send him down. This is the first time that Dutchmen were ever invisible.

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