Jacqueline of the Carrier Pigeons

Jacqueline of the Carrier Pigeons
by Augusta Hueill Seaman
Copyright 1910
By The Macmillan Company
Set up and electrotyped. Published March, 1910.
TO
MY SEVEREST CRITIC
MY FATHER,
AND TO
VIRGINIA
WHO WAS ITS INSPIRATION,
I DEDICATE THIS BOOK.
INTRODUCTION
FAIR LEYDEN
I am glad that Mrs. Seaman has written this story. Americans cannot
know Leyden too well, for no city in Europe so worthily deserves the
name of Alma Mater. Here, after giving the world an inspiring example
of heroism, modern liberty had her chosen home. The siege, so finely
pictured in this story, took place about midway in time between two
great events - the march of Alva the Spaniard and his terrible army of
"Black Beards" into the Netherlands, and the Union of Utrecht, by
which the seven states formed the Dutch Republic.

This new nation was based on the federal compact of a written
constitution, under the red and white striped flag, in which each stripe
represented a state. Under that flag, which we borrowed in 1775 and
still keep, though we have added stars, universal common school
education of all the children, in public schools sustained by taxation,
and freedom of religion for all, was the rule. Leyden won her victory
seven years before the Dutch Declaration of Independence in July,
1581. As our own Benjamin Franklin declared, "In love of liberty and
bravery in the defense of it, she (the Dutch Republic) has been our
great example."
With freedom won, as so graphically portrayed in this story, Leyden
enlarged her bounds and welcomed to residence and citizenship three
companies of people who became pioneers of our American life. Like
the carrier-pigeons, they brought something with them. To our nation,
they gave some of the noblest principles of the seven Dutch United
States to help in making those thirteen of July 4, 1776, and the
constitutional commonwealth of 1787, formed by "the people of the
United States of America."
First of all, to victorious Leyden, came the Walloons, or refugees from
Belgium, to gather strength before sailing in the good ship New
Netherland, in 1623, to lay the foundations of the Empire State. Then
followed the Pilgrim Fathers of New England. Many of the young and
strong who sailed in the Speedwell and Mayflower were born in
Leyden and spoke and wrote Dutch. The old folks, who could not cross
the Atlantic, remained in Leyden until they died and some were buried
in St. Pancras and St. Peter's Church. In this city, also, dwelt the
Huguenots, in large numbers, many of whom came to America to add
their gifts and graces to enrich our nation. Last, but not least, besides
educating in her university hundreds of colonial Americans, including
two sons of John Adams, one of whom, John Quincy Adams became
president of the United States, Leyden in 1782, led in the movement to
recognize us as an independent country. Then the Dutch lent us four
millions of dollars, which paid off our starving Continentals. Principal
and interest, repaid in 1808, amounting to fourteen millions, were used
to develop six thousand square miles of Western New York, when New

Amsterdam (later called Buffalo ) was laid out, and whence came two
of our presidents, Fillmore and Cleveland.
A most delightful romance is this of Mrs. Seaman. True to facts and
exact in coloring, it is all the better for being the straightforward
narrative of a real boy and a genuine girl. Gysbert Cornellisen's
cooking pot, once smoking with savory Spanish stew or hodge-podge,
is still to be seen in the Stedelyk (city) Museum, which every American
ought to visit when in Leyden. It is in the old Laken Hal (or cloth Hall).
From the turreted battlements of Hengist Hill (Den Burg) we may still
look out over the country. If in Leyden on October 3, one will see
Thanksgiving Day celebrated, as I know it was, most gaily, in 1909, in
a most delightfully Dutch way, when the brides of the year are in
evidence. In Belfry Lane, where Jacqueline lived, was the later home of
the Pilgrim Fathers. On the wall of great Saint Peter's church is a
bronze tablet in honor of the pastor of the Mayflower company, and
inside is the tomb of Jean Luzac, "friend of Washington, Jefferson and
Adams." His newspaper, printed in Dutch and French, during our
Revolutionary War, won for us the recognition of three governments in
Europe. On the Rapenburg, where he lived, a bronze tablet in his honor
was unveiled, to the singing of "The Star Spangled Banner" on
September 8, 1909.
Having spent weeks in Leyden, during a dozen visits, I can testify to
the general historic accuracy, as well as to the throbbing human interest
of this story of Jacqueline of the Carrier Pigeons. It will