Dirk Willems

Dirk Willems was imprisoned at Asperen in Holland in 1569. Martyrs’ Mirror recounts that he escaped, crossed the ice, and turned back when the man pursuing him fell through it. His rescue of the pursuer cost him the opportunity to get away.

The officer was ordered to seize him again, and Dirk was subsequently condemned and executed. The account preserves the sentence as well as the rescue, allowing the reader to follow the action from imprisonment to judgment. The book’s illustration depicts him reaching toward the man in the water.