initial commit of ebook 4824HEADmain

5 files changed, 1887 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/4824.txt b/4824.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..515fd25
--- /dev/null
+++ b/4824.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,1871 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1574-76
+#24 in our series by John Lothrop Motley
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
+this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
+
+This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
+Gutenberg file.  Please do not remove it.  Do not change or edit the
+header without written permission.
+
+Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
+eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file.  Included is
+important information about your specific rights and restrictions in
+how the file may be used.  You can also find out about how to make a
+donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers*****
+
+
+Title: The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1574-76
+
+Author: John Lothrop Motley
+
+Release Date: January, 2004  [EBook #4824]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on March 26, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+
+
+
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DUTCH REPUBLIC, 1574-76 ***
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the
+file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an
+entire meal of them.  D.W.]
+
+
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Volume 24
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC, 1574-1576
+
+By John Lothrop Motley
+
+1855
+
+
+1574-1576   [CHAPTER III.]
+
+     Latter days of the Blood Council--Informal and insincere
+     negotiations for peace--Characteristics of the negotiators and of
+     their diplomatic correspondence--Dr. Junius--Secret conferences
+     between Dr. Leoninus and Orange--Steadfastness of the Prince--
+     Changes in the internal government of the northern provinces--
+     Generosity and increasing power of the municipalities--Incipient
+     jealousy in regard to Orange rebuked--His offer of resignation
+     refused by the Estates--His elevation to almost unlimited power--
+     Renewed mediation of Maximilian--Views and positions of the parties
+     --Advice of Orange--Opening of negotiations at Breda--Propositions
+     and counter-propositions--Adroitness of the plenipotentiaries on
+     both sides--Insincere diplomacy and unsatisfactory results--Union of
+     Holland and Zealand under the Prince of Orange--Act defining his
+     powers--Charlotte de Bourbon--Character, fortunes, and fate of Anna
+     of Saxony--Marriage of Orange with Mademoiselle de Bourbon--
+     Indignation thereby excited--Horrible tortures inflicted upon
+     Papists by Sonoy in North Holland--Oudewater and Schoonoven taken by
+     Hierges--The isles of Zealand--A submarine expedition projected--
+     Details of the adventure--Its entire success--Death of Chiappin
+     Vitelli--Deliberations in Holland and Zealand concerning the
+     renunciation of Philip's authority--Declaration at Delft--Doubts as
+     to which of the Great Powers the sovereignty should be offered--
+     Secret international relations--Mission to England--Unsatisfactory
+     negotiations with Elizabeth--Position of the Grand Commander--Siege
+     of Zieriekzee--Generosity of Count John--Desperate project of the
+     Prince--Death and character of Requesens.
+
+The Council of Troubles, or, as it will be for ever denominated
+in history, the Council of Blood, still existed, although the Grand
+Commander, upon his arrival in the Netherlands, had advised his sovereign
+to consent to the immediate abolition of so odious an institution.
+Philip accepting the advice of his governor and his cabinet, had
+accordingly authorized him by a letter of the 10th of March, 1574,
+to take that step if he continued to believe it advisable.
+
+Requesens had made use of this permission to extort money from the
+obedient portion of the provinces.  An assembly of deputies was held at
+Brussels on the 7th of June, 1574, and there was a tedious interchange of
+protocols, reports, and remonstrances.  The estates, not satisfied with
+the extinction of a tribunal which had at last worn itself out by its own
+violence, and had become inactive through lack of victims, insisted on
+greater concessions.  They demanded the departure of the Spanish troops,
+the establishment of a council of Netherlanders in Spain for Netherland
+affairs, the restoration to offices in the provinces of natives and
+natives only; for these drawers of documents thought it possible, at that
+epoch, to recover by pedantry what their brethren of Holland and Zealand
+were maintaining with the sword.  It was not the moment for historical
+disquisition, citations from Solomon, nor chopping of logic; yet with
+such lucubrations were reams of paper filled, and days and weeks
+occupied.  The result was what might have been expected.  The Grand
+Commander obtained but little money; the estates obtained none of their
+demands; and the Blood Council remained, as it were, suspended in mid-
+air.  It continued to transact business at intervals during the
+administration of Requesens, and at last, after nine years of existence,
+was destroyed by the violent imprisonment of the Council of State at
+Brussels.  This event, however, belongs to a subsequent page of this
+history.
+
+Noircarmes had argued, from the tenor of Saint Aldegonde's letters, that
+the Prince would be ready to accept his pardon upon almost any terms.
+Noircarmes was now dead, but Saint Aldegonde still remained in prison,
+very anxious for his release, and as well disposed as ever to render
+services in any secret negotiation.  It will be recollected that, at the
+capitulation of Middelburg, it had been distinctly stipulated by the
+Prince that Colonel Mondragon should at once effect the liberation of
+Saint Aldegonde, with certain other prisoners, or himself return into
+confinement.  He had done neither the one nor the other.  The patriots
+still languished in prison, some of them being subjected to exceedingly
+harsh treatment, but Mondragon, although repeatedly summoned as an
+officer and a gentleman, by the Prince, to return to captivity,
+had been forbidden by the Grand Commander to redeem his pledge.
+
+Saint Aldegonde was now released from prison upon parole, and despatched
+on a secret mission to the Prince and estates.  As before, he was
+instructed that two points were to be left untouched--the authority
+of the King and the question of religion.  Nothing could be more
+preposterous than to commence a negotiation from which the two important
+points were thus carefully eliminated.  The King's authority and the
+question of religion covered the whole ground upon which the Spaniards
+and the Hollanders had been battling for six years, and were destined to
+battle for three-quarters of a century longer.  Yet, although other
+affairs might be discussed, those two points were to be reserved for the
+more conclusive arbitration of gunpowder.  The result of negotiations
+upon such a basis was easily to be foreseen.  Breath, time, and paper
+were profusely wasted and nothing gained.  The Prince assured his friend,
+as he had done secret agents previously sent to him, that he was himself
+ready to leave the land, if by so doing he could confer upon it the
+blessing of peace;  but that all hopes of reaching a reasonable
+conclusion from the premises established was futile.  The envoy treated
+also with the estates, and received from them in return an elaborate
+report, which was addressed immediately to the King.  The style of this
+paper was bold and blunt, its substance bitter and indigestible.  It
+informed Philip what he had heard often enough before, that the Spaniards
+must go and the exiles come back, the inquisition be abolished and the
+ancient privileges restored, the Roman Catholic religion renounce its
+supremacy, and the Reformed religion receive permission to exist
+unmolested, before he could call himself master of that little hook
+of sand in the North Sea.  With this paper, which was entrusted to Saint
+Aldegonde, by him to be delivered to the Grand Commander, who was, after
+reading it, to forward it to its destination, the negotiator returned to
+his prison.  Thence he did not emerge again till the course of events
+released him, upon the 15th of October, 1574.
+
+This report was far from agreeable to the Governor, and it became the
+object of a fresh correspondence between his confidential agent,
+Champagny, and the learned and astute Junius de Jonge, representative of
+the Prince of Orange and Governor of Yeere.  The communication of De
+Jonge consisted of a brief note and a long discourse.  The note was sharp
+and stinging, the discourse elaborate and somewhat pedantic.
+Unnecessarily historical and unmercifully extended, it was yet bold,
+bitter, and eloquent: The presence of foreigners was proved to have been,
+from the beginning of Philip's reign, the curse of the country.  Doctor
+Sonnius, with his batch of bishops, had sowed the seed of the first
+disorder.  A prince, ruling in the Netherlands, had no right to turn a
+deaf ear to the petitions of his subjects.  If he did so, the Hollanders
+would tell him, as the old woman had told the Emperor Adrian, that the
+potentate who had no time to attend to the interests of his subjects,
+had not leisure enough to be a sovereign.  While Holland refused to bow
+its neck to the Inquisition, the King of Spain dreaded the thunder and
+lightning of the Pope.  The Hollanders would, with pleasure, emancipate
+Philip from his own thraldom, but it was absurd that he, who was himself
+a slave to another potentate, should affect unlimited control over a free
+people.  It was Philip's councillors, not the Hollanders, who were his
+real enemies; for it was they who held him in the subjection by which his
+power was neutralized and his crown degraded.
+
+It may be supposed that many long pages, conceived in this spirit and
+expressed with great vigor, would hardly smooth the way for the more
+official negotiations which were soon to take place, yet Doctor Junius
+fairly and faithfully represented the sentiment of his nation.
+
+Towards the close of the year, Doctor Elbertus Leoninus, professor of
+Louvain, together with Hugo Bonte, ex-pensionary of Middelburg, was
+commissioned by the Grand Commander to treat secretly with the Prince.
+He was, however, not found very tractable when the commissioners opened
+the subject of his own pardon and reconciliation with the King, and he
+absolutely refused to treat at all except with the cooperation of the
+estates.  He, moreover, objected to the use of the word "pardon" on
+the ground that he had never done anything requiring his Majesty's
+forgiveness.  If adversity should visit him, he cared but little for it;
+he had lived long enough, he said, and should die with some glory,
+regretting the disorders and oppressions which had taken place, but
+conscious that it had not been in his power to remedy them.  When
+reminded by the commissioners of the King's power, he replied that he
+knew his Majesty to be very mighty, but that there was a King more
+powerful still--even God the Creator, who, as he humbly hoped, was upon
+his Side.
+
+At a subsequent interview with Hugo Bonte, the Prince declared it almost
+impossible for himself or the estates to hold any formal communication
+with the Spanish government, as such communications were not safe.  No
+trust could be reposed either in safe conducts or hostages.  Faith had
+been too often broken by the administration.  The promise made by the
+Duchess of Parma to the nobles, and afterwards violated, the recent
+treachery of Mondragon, the return of three exchanged prisoners from the
+Hague, who died next day of poison administered before their release, the
+frequent attempts upon his own life--all such constantly recurring crimes
+made it doubtful, in the opinion of the Prince, whether it would be
+possible to find commissioners to treat with his Majesty's government.
+All would fear assassination, afterwards to be disavowed by the King and
+pardoned by the Pope.  After much conversation in this vein, the Prince
+gave the Spanish agents warning that he might eventually be obliged to
+seek the protection of some foreign power for the provinces.  In this
+connection he made use of the memorable metaphor, so often repeated
+afterwards, that "the country was a beautiful damsel, who certainly did
+not lack suitors able and willing to accept her and defend her against
+the world."  As to the matter of religion, he said he was willing to
+leave it to be settled by the estates-general; but doubted whether
+anything short of entire liberty of worship would ever satisfy the
+people.
+
+Subsequently there were held other conferences, between the Prince and
+Doctor Leoninus, with a similar result, all attempts proving fruitless
+to induce him to abandon his position upon the subject of religion,
+or to accept a pardon on any terms save the departure of the foreign
+troops, the assembling of the estates-general, and entire freedom of
+religion.  Even if he were willing to concede the religious question
+himself, he observed that it was idle to hope either from the estates
+or people a hand's-breadth of concession upon that point.  Leoninus was
+subsequently admitted to a secret conferenc with the estates of Holland,
+where his representations were firmly met by the same arguments as those
+already used by the Prince.
+
+These proceedings on the part of Saint Aldegonde, Champagny, Junius, and
+Elbertus Leoninus extended through the whole summer and autumn of 1574,
+and were not terminated until January of the following year.
+
+Changes fast becoming necessary in the internal government of the
+provinces, were also undertaken during this year.  Hitherto the Prince
+had exercised his power under the convenient fiction of the King's
+authority, systematically conducting the rebellion in the name of his
+Majesty, and as his Majesty's stadholder.  By this process an immense
+power was lodged in his hands; nothing less, indeed, than the supreme
+executive and legislative functions of the land; while since the revolt
+had become, as it were, perpetual, ample but anomalous functions had been
+additionally thrust upon him by the estates and by the general voice of
+the people.
+
+The two provinces, even while deprived of Harlem and Amsterdam, now
+raised two hundred and ten thousand florins monthly,  whereas Alva had
+never been able to extract from Holland more than two hundred and
+seventy-one thousand florins yearly.  They paid all rather than pay a
+tenth.  In consequence of this liberality, the cities insensibly acquired
+a greater influence in the government.  The coming contest between the
+centrifugal aristocratic principle, represented by these corporations,
+and the central popular authority of the stadholder, was already
+foreshadowed, but at first the estates were in perfect harmony with the
+Prince.  They even urged upon him more power than he desired, and
+declined functions which he wished them to exercise.  On the 7th of
+September, 1573, it had been formally proposed by the general council to
+confer a regular and unlimited dictatorship upon him,  but in the course
+of a year from that time, the cities had begun to feel their increasing
+importance.  Moreover, while growing more ambitious, they became less
+liberal.
+
+The Prince, dissatisfied with the conduct of the cities, brought the
+whole subject before an assembly of the estates of Holland on the 20th
+October, 1574.  He stated the inconveniences produced by the anomalous
+condition of the government.  He complained that the common people had
+often fallen into the error that the money raised for public purposes had
+been levied for his benefit only, and that they had, therefore, been less
+willing to contribute to the taxes.  As the only remedy for these evils,
+he tendered his resignation of all the powers with which he was clothed,
+so that the estates might then take the government, which they could
+exercise without conflict or control.  For himself, he had never desired
+power, except as a means of being useful to his country, and he did not
+offer his resignation from unwillingness to stand by the cause, but from
+a hearty desire to save it from disputes among its friends.  He was
+ready, now as ever, to shed the last drop of his blood to maintain the
+freedom of the land.
+
+This straightforward language produced an instantaneous effect.  The
+estates knew that they were dealing with a man whose life was governed
+by lofty principles, and they felt that they were in danger of losing him
+through their own selfishness and low ambition.  They were embarrassed,
+for they did not like to, relinquish the authority which they had begun
+to relish, nor to accept the resignation of a man who was indispensable.
+They felt that to give up William of Orange at that time was to accept
+the Spanish yoke for ever.  At an assembly held at Delft on the 12th
+of November, 1574, they accordingly requested him "to continue in his
+blessed government, with the council established near him," and for
+this end, they formally offered to him, "under the name of Governor
+or Regent, "absolute power, authority, and sovereign command.
+In particular, they conferred on him the entire control of all the
+ships of war, hitherto reserved to the different cities, together with
+the right to dispose of all prizes and all monies raised for the support
+of fleets.  They gave him also unlimited power over the domains; they
+agreed that all magistracies, militia bands, guilds, and communities,
+should make solemn oath to contribute taxes and to receive garrisons,
+exactly as the Prince, with his council, should ordain; but they made
+it a condition that the estates should be convened and consulted upon
+requests, impositions, and upon all changes in the governing body.
+It was also stipulated that the judges of the supreme court and of the
+exchequer, with other high officers, should be appointed by and with the
+consent of the estates.
+
+The Prince expressed himself willing to accept the government upon these
+terms.  He, however, demanded an allowance of forty-five thousand florins
+monthly for the army expenses and other current outlays.  Here, however,
+the estates refused their consent.  In a mercantile spirit, unworthy the
+occasion and the man with whom they were dealing, they endeavoured to
+chaffer where they should have been only too willing to comply, and they
+attempted to reduce the reasonable demand of the Prince to thirty
+thousand florins.  The Prince, who had poured out his own wealth so
+lavishly in the cause--who, together with his brothers, particularly the
+generous John of Nassau, had contributed all which they could raise by
+mortgage, sales of jewellery and furniture, and by extensive loans,
+subjecting themselves to constant embarrassment, and almost to penury,
+felt himself outraged by the paltriness of this conduct.  He expressed
+his indignation, and denounced the niggardliness of the estates in the
+strongest language, and declared that he would rather leave the country
+for ever, with the maintenance of his own honor, than accept the
+government upon such disgraceful terms.  The estates, disturbed by his
+vehemence, and struck with its justice, instantly, and without further
+deliberation, consented to his demand.  They granted the forty-five
+thousand florins monthly, and the Prince assumed the government, thus
+remodelled.
+
+During the autumn and early winter of the year 1574, the Emperor
+Maximilian had been actively exerting himself to bring about a
+pacification of the Netherlands.  He was certainly sincere, for an
+excellent reason.  "The Emperor maintains," said Saint Goard, French
+ambassador at Madrid, "that if peace is not made with the Beggars, the
+Empire will depart from the house of Austria, and that such is the
+determination of the electors."  On the other hand, if Philip were not
+weary of the war, at any rate his means for carrying it on were
+diminishing daily.  Requesens could raise no money in the Netherlands;
+his secretary wrote to Spain, that the exchequer was at its last gasp,
+and the cabinet of Madrid was at its wits' end, and almost incapable of
+raising ways and means.  The peace party was obtaining the upper hand;
+the fierce policy of Alva regarded with increasing disfavor.  "The people
+here," wrote Saint Goard from Madrid, "are completely desperate, whatever
+pains they take to put a good face on the matter.  They desire most
+earnestly to treat, without losing their character."  It seemed,
+nevertheless, impossible for Philip to bend his neck.  The hope of
+wearing the Imperial crown had alone made his bigotry feasible.  To less
+potent influences it was adamant; and even now, with an impoverished
+exchequer, and, after seven years of unsuccessful warfare, his purpose
+was not less rigid than at first.  "The Hollanders demand liberty of
+conscience," said Saint Goard, "to which the King will never consent, or
+I am much mistaken."
+
+As for Orange, he was sincerely in favor of peace--but not a dishonorable
+peace, in which should be renounced all the objects of the war.  He was
+far from sanguine on the subject, for he read the signs of the times and
+the character of Philip too accurately to believe much more in the
+success of the present than in that of the past efforts of Maximilian.
+He was pleased that his brother-in-law, Count Schwartzburg, had been
+selected as the Emperor's agent in the affair, but expressed his doubts
+whether much good would come of the proposed negotiations.  Remembering
+the many traps which in times past had been set by Philip and his father,
+he feared that the present transaction might likewise prove a snare.
+"We have not forgotten the words I 'ewig' and 'einig' in the treaty with
+Landgrave Philip," he wrote; "at the same time we beg to assure his
+Imperial Majesty that we desire nothing more than a good peace, tending
+to the glory of God, the service of the King of Spain, and the prosperity
+of his subjects."
+
+This was his language to his brother, in a letter which was meant to be
+shown to the Emperor.  In another, written on the same day, he explained
+himself with more clearness, and stated his distrust with more energy.
+There were no papists left, except a few ecclesiastics, he said; so much
+had the number of the Reformers been augmented, through the singular
+grace of God.  It was out of the question to suppose, therefore, that a
+measure, dooming all who were not Catholics to exile, could be
+entertained.  None would change their religion, and none would consent,
+voluntarily, to abandon for ever their homes, friends, and property.
+"Such a peace," he said, "would be poor and pitiable indeed."
+
+These, then, were the sentiments of the party now about to negotiate.
+The mediator was anxious for a settlement, because the interests of the
+Imperial house required it.  The King of Spain was desirous of peace, but
+was unwilling to concede a hair.  The Prince of Orange was equally
+anxious to terminate the war, but was determined not to abandon the
+objects for which it had been undertaken.  A favorable result, therefore,
+seemed hardly possible.  A whole people claimed the liberty to stay at
+home and practice the Protestant religion, while their King asserted the
+right to banish them for ever, or to burn them if they remained.  The
+parties seemed too far apart to be brought together by the most elastic
+compromise.  The Prince addressed an earnest appeal to the assembly of
+Holland, then in session at Dort, reminding them that, although peace was
+desirable, it might be more dangerous than war, and entreating them,
+therefore, to conclude no treaty which should be inconsistent with the
+privileges of the country and their duty to God.
+
+It was now resolved that all the votes of the assembly should consist of
+five: one for the nobles and large cities of Holland, one for the estates
+of Zealand, one for the small cities of Holland, one for the cities
+Bommel and Buren, and the fifth for William of Orange.  The Prince thus
+effectually held in his hands three votes: his own, that of the small
+cities, which through his means only had been admitted to the assembly,
+and thirdly, that of Buren, the capital of his son's earldom.
+He thus exercised a controlling influence over the coming deliberations.
+The ten commissioners, who were appointed by the estates for the peace
+negotiations, were all his friends.  Among them were Saint Aldegonde,
+Paul Buis, Charles Boisot, and Doctor Junius.  The plenipotentiaries of
+the Spanish government were Leoninus, the Seigneur de Rassinghem,
+Cornelius Suis, and Arnold Sasbout.
+
+The proceedings were opened at Breda upon the 3rd of March, 1575.  The
+royal commissioners took the initiative, requesting to be informed what
+complaints the estates had to make, and offering to remove, if possible,
+all grievances which they might be suffering.  The states' commissioners
+replied that they desired nothing, in the first place, but an answer to
+the petition which they had already presented to the King.  This was
+the paper placed in the hands of Saint Aldegonde during the informal
+negotiations of the preceding year.  An answer was accordingly given,
+but couched in such vague and general language as to be quite without
+meaning.  The estates then demanded a categorical reply to the two
+principal demands in the petition, namely, the departure of the foreign
+troops and the assembling of the states-general.  They, were asked what
+they understood by foreigners and by the assembly of states-general.
+They replied that by foreigners they meant those who were not natives,
+and particularly the Spaniards.  By the estates-general they meant the
+same body before which, in 1555, Charles had resigned his sovereignty to
+Philip.  The royal commissioners made an extremely unsatisfactory answer,
+concluding with a request that all cities, fortresses, and castles, then
+in the power of the estates, together with all their artillery and
+vessels of war, should be delivered to the King.  The Roman Catholic
+worship, it was also distinctly stated, was to be re-established at once
+exclusively throughout the Netherlands; those of the Reformed religion
+receiving permission, for that time only, to convert their property into
+cash within a certain time, and to depart the country.
+
+Orange and the estates made answer on the 21st March.  It could not be
+called hard, they said, to require the withdrawal of the Spanish troops,
+for this had been granted in 1559, for less imperious reasons.
+The estates had, indeed, themselves made use of foreigners, but those
+foreigners had never been allowed to participate in the government.
+With regard to the assembly of the states-general, that body had always
+enjoyed the right of advising with the Sovereign on the condition of the
+country, and on general measures of government.  Now it was only thought
+necessary to summon them, in order that they might give their consent to
+the King's "requests."  Touching the delivery of cities and citadels,
+artillery and ships, the proposition was, pronounced to resemble that
+made by the wolves to the sheep, in the fable--that the dogs should be
+delivered up, as a preliminary to a lasting peace.  It was unreasonable
+to request the Hollanders to abandon their religion or their country.
+The reproach of heresy was unjust, for they still held to the Catholic
+Apostolic Church, wishing only to purify, it of its abuses.  Moreover,
+it was certainly more cruel to expel a whole population than to dismiss
+three or four thousand Spaniards who for seven long years had been eating
+their fill at the expense of the provinces.  It would be impossible for
+the exiles to dispose of their property, for all would, by the proposed
+measure, be sellers, while there would be no purchasers.
+
+The royal plenipotentiaries, making answer to this communication upon the
+1st of April, signified a willingness that the Spanish soldiers should
+depart, if the states would consent to disband their own foreign troops.
+They were likewise in favor of assembling the states-general, but could
+not permit any change in the religion of the country.  His Majesty had
+sworn to maintain the true worship at the moment of assuming the
+sovereignty.  The dissenters might, however, be allowed a period of six
+months in which to leave the land, and eight or ten years for the sale of
+their property.  After the heretics had all departed, his Majesty did not
+doubt that trade and manufactures would flourish again, along with the
+old religion.  As for the Spanish inquisition, there was not, and there
+never had been, any intention of establishing it in the Netherlands.
+
+No doubt there was something specious in this paper.  It appeared to
+contain considerable concessions.  The Prince and estates had claimed
+the departure of the Spaniards.  It was now promised that they should
+depart.  They had demanded the assembling of the states-general.
+It was now promised that they should assemble.  They had denounced
+the inquisition.  It was now averred that the Spanish inquisition
+was not to be established.
+
+Nevertheless, the commissioners of the Prince were not deceived by such
+artifices.  There was no parity between the cases of the Spanish soldiery
+and of the troops in service of the estates.  To assemble the estates-
+general was idle, if they were to be forbidden the settlement of the
+great question at issue.  With regard to the Spanish inquisition, it
+mattered little whether the slaughter-house were called Spanish or
+Flemish, or simply the Blood-Council.  It was, however, necessary for
+the states' commissioners to consider their reply very carefully; for
+the royal plenipotentiaries had placed themselves upon specious grounds.
+It was not enough to feel that the King's government was paltering with
+them; it was likewise necessary for the states' agents to impress this
+fact upon the people.
+
+There was a pause in the deliberations.  Meantime, Count Schwartzburg,
+reluctantly accepting the conviction that the religious question was an
+insurmountable obstacle to a peace, left the provinces for Germany.  The
+last propositions of the government plenipotentiaries had been discussed
+in the councils of the various cities, so that the reply of the Prince,
+and estates was delayed until the 1st of June.  They admitted, in this
+communication, that the offer to restore ancient privileges had an
+agreeable sound; but regretted that if the whole population were to be
+banished, there would be but few to derive advantage from the
+restoration.  If the King would put an end to religious persecution, he
+would find as much loyalty in the provinces as his forefathers had found.
+It was out of the question, they said, for the states to disarm and to
+deliver up their strong places, before the Spanish soldiery had retired,
+and before peace had been established.  It was their wish to leave the
+question of religion, together with all other disputed matters, to the
+decision of the assembly.  Were it possible, in the meantime, to devise
+any effectual method for restraining hostilities, it would gladly be
+embraced.
+
+On the 8th of July, the royal commissioners inquired what guarantee the
+states would be willing to give, that the decision of the general
+assembly, whatever it might be, should be obeyed.  The demand was
+answered by another, in which the King's agents were questioned as to
+their own guarantees.  Hereupon it was stated that his Majesty would give
+his word and sign manual, together with the word and signature of the
+Emperor into the bargain.  In exchange for these promises, the Prince and
+estates were expected to give their own oaths and seals, together with a
+number of hostages.  Over and above this, they were requested to deliver
+up the cities of Brill and Enkhuizen, Flushing and Arnemuyde.  The
+disparity of such guarantees was ridiculous.  The royal word, even when
+strengthened by the imperial promise, and confirmed by the autographs of
+Philip and Maximilian, was not so solid a security, in the opinion of
+Netherlanders, as to outweigh four cities in Holland and Zealand, with
+all their population and wealth.  To give collateral pledges and hostages
+upon one side, while the King offered none, was to assign a superiority
+to the royal word, over that of the Prince and the estates which there
+was no disposition to recognize.  Moreover, it was very cogently urged
+that to give up the cities was to give as security for the contract,
+some of the principal contracting parties.
+
+This closed the negotiations.  The provincial plenipotentiaries took
+their leave by a paper dated 13th July, 1575, which recapitulated the
+main incidents of the conference.  They expressed their deep regret that
+his Majesty should insist so firmly on the banishment of the Reformers,
+for it was unjust to reserve the provinces to the sole use of a small
+number of Catholics.  They lamented that the proposition which had been
+made, to refer the religious question to the estates, had neither been
+loyally accepted, nor candidly refused.  They inferred, therefore,
+that the object of the royal government had, been to amuse the states,
+while tine was thus gained for reducing the country into a slavery more
+abject than any which had yet existed.  On the other hand, the royal
+commissioners as solemnly averred that the whole responsibility for the
+failure of the negotiations belonged to the, estates.
+
+It was the general opinion in the insurgent provinces that the government
+had been insincere from the beginning, and had neither expected nor
+desired to conclude a peace.  It is probable, however, that Philip was
+sincere; so far as it could be called sincerity to be willing to conclude
+a peace, if the provinces would abandon the main objects of the war.
+With his impoverished exchequer, and ruin threatening his whole empire,
+if this mortal combat should be continued many years longer, he could
+have no motive for further bloodshed, provided all heretics should
+consent to abandon the country.  As usual, however, he left his agents in
+the dark as to his real intentions.  Even Requesens was as much in doubt
+as to the King's secret purposes as Margaret of Parma had ever been in
+former times.
+
+     [Compare the remarks of Groen v. Prinst., Archives, etc., v  259-
+     262; Bor, viii. 606, 615; Meteren, v. 100; Hoofd, g. 410.--Count
+     John of Nassau was distrustful and disdainful from the beginning.
+     Against his brother's loyalty and the straightforward intentions of
+     the estates, he felt that the whole force of the Macchiavelli system
+     of policy would be brought to bear with great effect.  He felt that
+     the object of the King's party was to temporize, to confuse, and to
+     deceive.  He did not believe them capable of conceding the real
+     object in dispute, but he feared lest they might obscure the
+     judgment of the plain and well meaning people with whom they had to
+     deal.  Alluding to the constant attempts made to poison himself and
+     his brother, he likens the pretended negotiations to Venetian drugs,
+     by which eyesight, hearing, feeling, and intellect were destroyed.
+     Under this pernicious influence, the luckless people would not
+     perceive the fire burning around them, but would shrink at a
+     rustling leaf.  Not comprehending then the tendency of their own
+     acts, they would "lay bare their own backs to the rod, and bring
+     faggots for their own funeral pile."-Archives, etc., v.  131-137.]
+
+Moreover, the Grand Commander and the government had, after all, made
+a great mistake in their diplomacy.  The estates of Brabant, although
+strongly desirous that the Spanish troops should be withdrawn, were
+equally stanch for the maintenance of the Catholic religion, and many
+of the southern provinces entertained the same sentiments.  Had the
+Governor, therefore, taken the states' commissioners at their word,
+and left the decision of the religious question to the general assembly,
+he might perhaps have found the vote in his favor.  In this case, it is
+certain that the Prince of Orange and his party would have been placed in
+a very awkward position.
+
+The internal government of the insurgent provinces had remained upon the
+footing which we have seen established in the autumn of 1574, but in the
+course of this summer (1575), however, the foundation was laid for the
+union of Holland and Zealand, under the authority of Orange.  The selfish
+principle of municipal aristocracy, which had tended to keep asunder
+these various groups of cities, was now repressed by the energy of the
+Prince and the strong determination of the people.
+
+In April, 1575, certain articles of union between Holland and Zealand
+were proposed, and six commissioners appointed to draw up an ordinance
+for the government of the two provinces.  This ordinance was accepted in
+general assembly of both.  It was in twenty articles.  It declared that,
+during the war the Prince as sovereign, should have absolute power in all
+matters concerning the defence of the country.  He was to appoint
+military officers, high and low, establish and remove garrisons, punish
+offenders against the laws of war.  He was to regulate the expenditure of
+all money voted by the estates.  He was to maintain the law, in the
+King's name, as Count of Holland, and to appoint all judicial officers
+upon nominations by the estates.  He was, at the usual times, to appoint
+and renew the magistracies of the cities, according to their
+constitutions.  He was to protect the exercise of the Evangelical
+Reformed religion, and to suppress the exercise of the Roman religion,
+without permitting, however, that search should be made into the creed of
+any person.  A deliberative and executive council, by which the jealousy
+of the corporations had intended to hamper his government, did not come
+into more than nominal existence.
+
+The articles of union having been agreed upon, the Prince, desiring an
+unfettered expression of the national will, wished the ordinance to be
+laid before the people in their primary assemblies.  The estates,
+however, were opposed to this democratic proceeding.  They represented
+that it had been customary to consult; after the city magistracies,
+only the captains of companies and the deans of guilds on matters of
+government.  The Prince, yielding the point, the captains of companies
+and deans of guilds accordingly alone united with the aristocratic boards
+in ratifying the instrument by which his authority over the two united
+provinces was established.  On the 4th of June this first union was
+solemnized.
+
+Upon the 11th of July, the Prince formally accepted the government.
+He, however, made an essential change in a very important clause of the
+ordinance.  In place of the words, the "Roman religion," he insisted that
+the words, "religion at variance with the Gospel," should be substituted
+in the article by which he was enjoined to prohibit the exercise of such
+religion.  This alteration rebuked the bigotry which had already grown
+out of the successful resistance to bigotry, and left the door open for a
+general religious toleration.
+
+Early in this year the Prince had despatched Saint Aldegonde on a private
+mission to the Elector Palatine.  During some of his visits to that
+potentate he had seen at Heidelberg the Princess Charlotte of Bourbon.
+That lady was daughter of the Due de Montpensier, the most ardent of the
+Catholic Princes of France, and the one who at the conferences of Bayonne
+had been most indignant at the Queen Dowager's hesitation to unite
+heartily with the, schemes of Alva and Philip for the extermination of
+the Huguenots.  His daughter, a woman of beauty, intelligence, and
+virtue, forced before the canonical age to take the religious vows, had
+been placed in the convent of Joliarrs, of which she had become Abbess.
+Always secretly inclined to the Reformed religion, she had fled secretly
+from her cloister, in the year of horrors 1572, and had found refuge at
+the court of the Elector Palatine, after which step her father refused to
+receive her letters, to contribute a farthing to her support, or even to
+acknowledge her claims upon him by a single line or message of affection.
+
+Under these circumstances the outcast princess, who had arrived at the
+years of maturity, might be considered her own mistress, and she was
+neither morally nor legally bound, when her hand was sought in marriage
+by the great champion of the Reformation, to ask the consent of a parent
+who loathed her religion and denied her existence.  The legality of the
+divorce from Anne of Saxony had been settled by a full expression of the
+ecclesiastical authority which she most respected;
+
+     [Acte de, cinq Ministres du St. Evangile par lequel ils declarent le
+     mariage du Prince d'Orange etre legitime.--Archives, etc., v. 216-
+     226.]
+
+the facts upon which the divorce had been founded having been proved
+beyond peradventure.
+
+Nothing, in truth, could well be more unfortunate in its results than the
+famous Saxon marriage, the arrangements for which had occasioned so much
+pondering to Philip, and so much diplomatic correspondence on the part of
+high personages in Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain.  Certainly, it
+was of but little consequence to what church the unhappy Princess
+belonged, and they must be lightly versed in history or in human nature
+who can imagine these nuptials to have exercised any effect upon the
+religious or political sentiments of Orange.  The Princess was of a
+stormy, ill-regulated nature; almost a lunatic from the beginning.  The
+dislike which succeeded to her fantastic fondness for the Prince, as well
+as her general eccentricity, had soon become the talk of all the court at
+Brussels.  She would pass week after week without emerging from her
+chamber, keeping the shutters closed and candles burning, day and night.
+She quarrelled violently, with Countess Egmont for precedence, so that
+the ludicrous contentions of the two ladies in antechambers and doorways
+were the theme and the amusement of society.  Her insolence, not only in
+private but in public, towards her husband became intolerable: "I could
+not do otherwise than bear it with sadness and patience," said the
+Prince, with great magnanimity, "hoping that with age would come
+improvement."  Nevertheless, upon one occasion, at a supper party,
+she had used such language in the presence of Count Horn and many other
+nobles, "that all wondered that he could endure the abusive terms which
+she applied to him."
+
+When the clouds gathered about him, when he had become an exile and a
+wanderer, her reproaches and her violence increased.  The sacrifice of
+their wealth, the mortgages and sales which he effected of his estates,
+plate, jewels, and furniture, to raise money for the struggling country,
+excited her bitter resentment.  She separated herself from him by
+degrees, and at last abandoned him altogether.  Her temper became violent
+to ferocity.  She beat her servants with her hands and with clubs; she
+threatened the lives of herself, of her attendants, of Count John of
+Nassau, with knives and daggers, and indulged in habitual profanity and
+blasphemy, uttering frightful curses upon all around.  Her original
+tendency to intemperance had so much increased, that she was often unable
+to stand on her feet.  A bottle of wine, holding more than a quart, in
+the morning, and another in the evening, together with a pound of sugar,
+was her usual allowance.  She addressed letters to Alva complaining that
+her husband had impoverished himself "in his good-for-nothing Beggar
+war," and begging the Duke to furnish her with a little ready money
+and with the means of arriving at the possession of her dower.
+
+An illicit connexion with a certain John Rubens, an exiled magistrate of
+Antwerp, and father of the celebrated painter, completed the list of her
+delinquencies, and justified the marriage of the Prince with Charlotte de
+Bourbon.  It was therefore determined by the Elector of Saxony and the
+Landgrave William to remove her from the custody of the Nassaus.  This
+took place with infinite difficulty, at the close of the year 1575.
+Already, in 1572; Augustus had proposed to the Landgrave that she should
+be kept in solitary confinement, and that a minister should preach to her
+daily through the grated aperture by which her, food was to be admitted.
+The Landgrave remonstrated at so inhuman a proposition, which was,
+however, carried into effect.  The wretched Princess, now completely a
+lunatic, was imprisoned in the electoral palace, in a chamber where the
+windows were walled up and a small grating let into the upper part of the
+door.  Through this wicket came her food, as well as the words of the
+holy man appointed to preach daily for her edification.
+
+Two years long, she endured this terrible punishment, and died mad, on
+the 18th of December, 1577.  On the following day, she was buried in the
+electoral tomb at Meissen; a pompous procession of "school children,
+clergy, magistrates, nobility, and citizens" conducting her to that rest
+of which she could no longer be deprived by the cruelty of man nor her
+own violent temperament.
+
+     [It can certainly be considered no violation of the sanctity of
+     archives to make these slender allusions to a tale, the main
+     features of which have already been published, not only by MM. Groan
+     v. Prinsterer and Bakhuyzen, in Holland, but by the Saxon Professor
+     Bottiger, in Germany.  It is impossible to understand the character
+     and career of Orange, and his relations with Germany, without a
+     complete view of the Saxon marriage.  The extracts from the
+     "geomantic letters" of Elector Augustus, however, given in Bottiger
+     (Hist. Taschenb.  1836, p. 169-173), with their furious attacks upon
+     the Prince and upon Charlotte of Bourbon, seem to us too obscene to
+     be admitted, even in a note to these pages, and in a foreign
+     language.]
+
+So far, therefore, as the character of Mademoiselle de Bourbon and the
+legitimacy of her future offspring were concerned, she received ample
+guarantees.  For the rest, the Prince, in a simple letter, informed her
+that he was already past his prime, having reached his forty-second year,
+and that his fortune was encumbered not only with settlements for his,
+children by previous marriages, but by debts contracted in the cause of
+his oppressed country.  A convention of doctors and bishops of France;
+summoned by the Duc de Montpensier, afterwards confirmed the opinion that
+the conventual vows of the Princess Charlotte had been conformable
+neither to the laws of France nor to the canons of the Trent Council. She
+was conducted to Brill by Saint Aldegonde, where she was received by her
+bridegroom, to whom she was united on the 12th of June.  The wedding
+festival was held at Dort with much revelry and holiday making, "but
+without dancing."
+
+In this connexion, no doubt the Prince consulted his inclination only.
+Eminently domestic in his habits, he required the relief of companionship
+at home to the exhausting affairs which made up his life abroad.  For
+years he had never enjoyed social converse, except at long intervals,
+with man or woman; it was natural, therefore, that he should contract
+this marriage.  It was equally natural that he should make many enemies
+by so impolitic a match.  The Elector Palatine, who was in place of
+guardian to the bride, decidedly disapproved, although he was suspected
+of favoring the alliance.  The Landgrave of Hesse for a time was furious;
+the Elector of Saxony absolutely delirious with rage.  The Diet of the
+Empire was to be held within a few weeks at Frankfort, where it was very
+certain that the outraged and influential Elector would make his
+appearance, overflowing with anger, and determined to revenge upon the
+cause of the Netherland Reformation the injury which he had personally
+received.  Even the wise, considerate, affectionate brother, John of
+Nassau, considered the marriage an act of madness.  He did what he could,
+by argument and entreaty, to dissuade the Prince from its completion;
+although he afterwards voluntarily confessed that the Princess Charlotte
+had been deeply calumniated, and was an inestimable treasure to his
+brother.  The French government made use of the circumstance to justify
+itself in a still further alienation from the cause of the Prince than it
+had hitherto manifested, but this was rather pretence than reality.
+
+It was not in the nature of things, however, that the Saxon and Hessian
+indignation could be easily allayed.  The Landgrave was extremely
+violent.  "Truly, I cannot imagine," he wrote to the Elector of Saxony,
+"quo consilio that wiseacre of an Aldegonde, and whosoever else has been
+aiding and abetting, have undertaken this affair.  Nam si pietatem
+respicias, it is to be feared that, considering she is a Frenchwoman, a
+nun, and moreover a fugitive nun, about whose chastity there has been
+considerable question, the Prince has got out of the frying-pan into the
+fire.  Si formam it is not to be supposed that it was her beauty which
+charmed him, since, without doubt, he must be rather frightened than
+delighted, when he looks upon her.  Si spem prolis, the Prince has
+certainly only too many heirs already, and ought to wish that he had
+neither wife nor children.  Si amicitiam, it is not to be supposed, while
+her father expresses himself in such threatening language with regard to
+her, that there will be much cordiality of friendship on his part.  Let
+them look to it, then, lest it fare with them no better than with the
+Admiral, at his Paris wedding; for those gentlemen can hardly forgive
+such injuries, sine mercurio et arsenico sublimato."
+
+The Elector of Saxony was frantic with choler, and almost ludicrous in
+the vehemence of its expression.  Count John was unceasing in his
+exhortations to his brother to respect the sensitiveness of these
+important personages, and to remember how much good and how much evil it
+was in their power to compass, with regard to himself and to the great
+cause of the Protestant religion.  He reminded him, too, that the divorce
+had not been, and would not be considered impregnable as to form, and
+that much discomfort and detriment was likely to grow out of the whole
+proceeding, for himself and his family.  The Prince, however, was
+immovable in his resolution, and from the whole tone of his
+correspondence and deportment it was obvious that his marriage was one
+rather of inclination than of policy.  "I can assure you, my brother,"
+he wrote to Count John, "that my character has always tended to this--
+to care neither for words nor menaces in any matter where I can act with
+a clear conscience, and without doing injury to my neighbour.  Truly, if
+I had paid regard to the threats of princes, I should never have embarked
+in so many dangerous affairs, contrary to the will of the King, my
+master, in times past, and even to the advice of many of my relatives and
+friends."
+
+The evil consequences which had been foreseen were not slow to manifest
+themselves.  There was much discussion of the Prince's marriage at the
+Diet of Frankfort, and there was even a proposition, formally to declare
+the Calvinists excluded in Germany from the benefits of the Peace of
+Passau.  The Archduke Rudolph was soon afterwards elected King of the
+Romans and of Bohemia, although hitherto, according to the policy of the
+Prince of Orange, and in the expectation of benefit to the cause of the
+Reformation in Germany and the Netherlands, there has been a strong
+disposition to hold out hopes to Henry the Third, and to excite the fears
+of Maximilian.
+
+While these important affairs, public and private, had been occurring
+in the south of Holland and in Germany, a very nefarious transaction had
+disgraced the cause of the patriot party in the northern quarter.
+Diedrich Sonoy, governor of that portion of Holland, a man of great
+bravery but of extreme ferocity of character, had discovered an extensive
+conspiracy among certain of the inhabitants, in aid of an approaching
+Spanish invasion.  Bands of land-loupers had been employed, according to
+the intimation which he had received or affected to have received, to set
+fire to villages and towns in every direction, to set up beacons, and to
+conduct a series of signals by which the expeditions about to be
+organized were to be furthered in their objects.  The Governor,
+determined to show that the Duke of Alva could not be more prompt nor
+more terrible than himself, improvised, of his own authority, a tribunal
+in imitation of the infamous Blood-Council.  Fortunately for the
+character of the country, Sonoy was not a Hollander, nor was the
+jurisdiction of this newly established court allowed to extend beyond
+very narrow limits.  Eight vagabonds were, however, arrested and doomed
+to tortures the most horrible, in order to extort from them confessions
+implicating persons of higher position in the land than themselves.
+Seven, after a few turns of the pulley and the screw, confessed all which
+they were expected to confess, and accused all whom they were requested
+to accuse.  The eighth was firmer, and refused to testify to the guilt of
+certain respectable householders, whose names he had, perhaps, never
+heard, and against whom there was no shadow of evidence.  He was,
+however, reduced by three hours and a half of sharp torture to confess,
+entirely according to their orders, so that accusations and evidence were
+thus obtained against certain influential gentlemen of the province,
+whose only crime was a secret adherence to the Catholic Faith.
+
+The eight wretches who had been induced by promises of unconditional
+pardon upon one hand, and by savage torture on the other, to bear this
+false witness, were condemned to be burned alive, and on their way to the
+stake, they all retracted the statements which had only been extorted
+from them by the rack.  Nevertheless, the individuals who had been thus
+designated, were arrested.  Charged with plotting a general conflagration
+of the villages and farmhouses, in conjunction with an invasion by
+Hierges and other Papist generals, they indignantly protested their
+innocence; but two of them, a certain Kopp Corneliszoon, and his son,
+Nanning Koppezoon, were selected to undergo the most cruel torture which
+had yet been practised in the Netherlands.  Sonoy, to his eternal shame,
+was disposed to prove that human ingenuity to inflict human misery had
+not been exhausted in the chambers of the Blood Council, for it was to be
+shown that Reformers were capable of giving a lesson even to inquisitors
+in this diabolical science.  Kopp, a man advanced in years, was tortured
+during a whole day.  On the following morning he was again brought to the
+rack, but the old man was too weak to endure all the agony which his
+tormentors had provided for him.  Hardly had he been placed upon the bed
+of torture than he calmly expired, to the great indignation of the
+tribunal.  "The Devil has broken his neck and carried him off to hell,"
+cried they ferociously.  "Nevertheless, that shall not prevent him from
+being hung and quartered."  This decree of impotent vengeance was
+accordingly executed.  The son of Kopp, however, Nanning Koppezoon, was a
+man in the full vigor of his years.  He bore with perfect fortitude a
+series of incredible tortures, after which, with his body singed from
+head to heel, and his feet almost entirely flayed, he was left for six
+weeks to crawl about his dungeon on his knees.  He was then brought back
+to the torture-room, and again stretched upon the rack, while a large
+earthen vessel, made for the purpose, was placed, inverted, upon his
+naked body.  A number of rats were introduced under this cover, and hot
+coals were heaped upon the vessel, till the rats, rendered furious by the
+heat, gnawed into the very bowels of the victim, in their agony to
+escape.
+
+     [Bor (viii. 628) conscientiously furnishes diagrams of the
+     machinery by aid of which this devilish cruelty was inflicted.  The
+     rats were sent by the Governor himself.--Vide Letter of the
+     Commissioners to Sonoy, apud Bor, viii.  640, 641. The whole letter
+     is a wonderful monument of barbarity.  The incredible tortures to
+     which the poor creatures had been subjected are detailed in a
+     business-like manner, as though the transactions were quite regular
+     and laudable, The Commissioners conclude with pious wishes for the
+     Governor's welfare: "Noble, wise, virtuous, and very discreet sir,"
+     they say, "we have wished to apprise you of the foregoing, and we
+     now pray that God Almighty may spare you in a happy, healthy and
+     long-continued government"--It will be seen, however, that the wise,
+     virtuous, and very discreet Governor, who thus caused his fellow-
+     citizens bowels to be gnawed by rats, was not allowed to remain much
+     longer in his "happy and healthy government"]
+
+The holes thus torn in his bleeding flesh were filled with red-hot coals.
+He was afterwards subjected to other tortures too foul to relate; nor was
+it till he had endured all this agony, with a fortitude which seemed
+supernatural, that he was at last discovered to be human.  Scorched;
+bitten, dislocated in every joint, sleepless, starving, perishing with
+thirst, he was at last crushed into a false confession, by a promise of
+absolute forgiveness.  He admitted everything which was brought to his
+charge, confessing a catalogue of contemplated burnings and beacon
+firings of which he had never dreamed, and avowing himself in league with
+other desperate Papists, still more dangerous than himself.
+
+Notwithstanding the promises of pardon, Nanning was then condemned to
+death.  The sentence ordained that his heart should be torn from his
+living bosom, and thrown in his face, after which his head was to be
+taken off and exposed on the church steeple of his native village.  His
+body was then to be cut in four, and a quarter fastened upon different
+towers of the city of Alkmaar, for it was that city, recently so famous
+for its heroic resistance to the Spanish army, which was now sullied by
+all this cold-blooded atrocity.  When led to execution, the victim
+recanted indignantly the confessions forced from him by weakness of body,
+and exonerated the persons whom he had falsely accused.  A certain
+clergyman, named Jurian Epeszoon, endeavored by loud praying to drown his
+voice, that the people might not rise with indignation, and the dying
+prisoner with his last breath solemnly summoned this unworthy pastor of
+Christ Jo meet him within three days before the judgment-seat of God.
+It is a remarkable and authentic fact, that the clergyman thus summoned,
+went home pensively from the place of execution, sickened immediately and
+died upon the appointed day.
+
+Notwithstanding this solemn recantation, the, persons accused were
+arrested, and in their turn subjected to torture, but the affair now
+reached the ears of Orange.  His peremptory orders, with the universal
+excitement produced in the neighbourhood, at last checked the course of
+the outrage, and the accused persons were remanded to prison, where they
+remained till liberated by the Pacification of Ghent.  After their
+release they commenced legal proceedings against Sonoy, with a view of
+establishing their own innocence, and of bringing the inhuman functionary
+to justice.  The process languished, however, and was finally abandoned,
+for the powerful Governor had rendered such eminent service in the cause
+of liberty, that it was thought unwise to push him to extremity.  It is
+no impeachment upon the character of the Prince that these horrible
+crimes were not prevented.  It was impossible for him to be omnipresent.
+Neither is it just to consider the tortures and death thus inflicted upon
+innocent men an indelible stain upon the cause of liberty.  They were the
+crimes of an individual who had been useful, but who, like the Count De
+la Marck, had now contaminated his hand with the blood of the guiltless.
+The new tribunal never took root, and was abolished as soon as its
+initiatory horrors were known.
+
+On the 19th of July, Oudewater, entirely unprepared for such an event,
+was besieged by Hierges, but the garrison and the population, although
+weak, were brave.  The town resisted eighteen days, and on the 7th of
+August was carried by assault, after which the usual horrors were fully
+practised, after which the garrison was put to the sword, and the
+townspeople fared little better.  Men, women, and children were murdered
+in cold blood, or obliged to purchase their lives by heavy ransoms, while
+matrons and maids were sold by auction to the soldiers at two or three
+dollars each.  Almost every house in the city was burned to the ground,
+and these horrible but very customary scenes having been enacted, the
+army of Hierges took its way to Schoonhoven.  That city, not defending
+itself, secured tolerable terms of capitulation, and surrendered on the
+24th of August.
+
+The Grand Commander had not yet given up the hope of naval assistance
+from Spain, notwithstanding the abrupt termination to the last expedition
+which had been organized.  It was, however, necessary that a foothold
+should be recovered upon the seaboard, before a descent from without
+could be met with proper co-operation from the land forces withal; and he
+was most anxious, therefore, to effect the reconquest of some portion of
+Zealand.  The island of Tholen was still Spanish, and had been so since
+the memorable expedition of Mondragon to South Beveland.  From this
+interior portion of the archipelago the Governor now determined to
+attempt an expedition against the outer and more important territory.
+The three principal islands were Tholen; Duiveland, and Sehouwen.  Tholen
+was the first which detached itself from the continent.  Neat, and
+separated from it by a bay two leagues in width, was Duiveland, or the
+Isle of Doves.  Beyond, and parted by a narrower frith, was Schouwen,
+fronting directly upon the ocean, fortified by its strong capital city;
+Zieriekzee, and containing other villages of inferior consequence.
+
+Requesens had been long revolving in his mind the means of possessing
+himself of this important, island.  He had caused to lie constructed, a
+numerous armada of boats and light vessels of various dimensions, and he
+now came to Tholew to organize the expedition.  His prospects were at
+first not flattering, for the gulfs and estuaries swarmed with Zealand
+vessels, manned by crews celebrated for their skill and audacity.
+Traitors, however, from Zealand itself now came forward to teach the
+Spanish Commander how to strike at the heart of their own country.  These
+refugees explained to Requesens that a narrow flat extended under the sea
+from Philipsland, a small and uninhabited islet situate close to Tholen,
+as far as the shore of Duiveland.  Upon this submerged tongue of land the
+water, during ebb-tide, was sufficiently shallow to be waded, and it
+would therefore be possible for a determined band, under cover of the
+night, to make the perilous passage.  Once arrived at Duiveland, they
+could more easily cross the intervening creek to Schouwen, which was not
+so deep and only half as wide, so that a force thus, sent through these
+dangerous shallows, might take possession of Duiveland and lay siege to
+Zierickzee, in the very teeth of the Zealand fleet, which would be unable
+to sail near enough to intercept their passage.
+
+The Commander determined that the enterprise should be attempted.
+It was not a novelty, because Mondragon, as we have seen, had already
+most brilliantly conducted a very similar expedition.  The present was,
+however, a much more daring scheme.  The other exploit, although
+sufficiently hazardous, and entirely, successful, had been a victory
+gained over the sea alone.  It had been a surprise, and had been effected
+without any opposition from human enemies.  Here, however, they were to
+deal, not only with the ocean and darkness, but with a watchful and
+determined foe.  The Zealanders were aware that the enterprise was in
+contemplation, and their vessels lay about the contiguous waters in
+considerable force.  Nevertheless, the determination of the Grand
+Commander was hailed with enthusiasm by his troops.  Having satisfied
+himself by personal experiment that the enterprise was possible, and that
+therefore his brave soldiers could accomplish it, he decided that the
+glory of the achievement should be fairly shared, as before, among the
+different nations which served the King.
+
+After completing his preparations, Requesens came to Tholen, at which
+rendezvous were assembled three thousand infantry, partly Spaniards,
+partly Germans, partly Walloons.  Besides these, a picked corps of two
+hundred sappers and miners was to accompany the expedition, in order that
+no time might be lost in fortifying themselves as soon as they had seized
+possession of Schouwen.  Four hundred mounted troopers were, moreover,
+stationed in the town of Tholen, while the little fleet, which had been
+prepared at Antwerp; lay near that city ready to co-operate with the land
+force as soon as they, should complete their enterprise.  The Grand
+Commander now divided the whole force into two parts: One half was to
+remain in the boats, under the command of Mondragon; the other half,
+accompanied by the two hundred pioneers, were to wade through the sea
+from Philipsland to Duiveland and Schouwen.  Each soldier of this
+detachment was provided with a pair of shoes, two pounds of powder, and
+rations for three days in a canvas bag suspended at his neck.  The leader
+of this expedition was Don Osorio d'Ulloa, an officer distinguished for
+his experience and bravery.
+
+On the night selected for the enterprise, that of the 27th September,
+the moon was a day old in its fourth quarter, and rose a little before
+twelve.  It was low water at between four and five in the morning.
+The Grand Commander, at the appointed hour of midnight, crossed to
+Philipsland, and stood on the shore to watch the setting forth of the
+little army.  He addressed a short harangue to them, in which he
+skillfully struck the chords of Spanish chivalry, and the national love
+of glory, and was answered with loud and enthusiastic cheers.  Don Osorio
+d'Ulloa then stripped and plunged into the sea immediately after the
+guides.  He was followed by the Spaniards, after whom came the Germans
+and then the Walloons.  The two hundred sappers and miners came next,
+and Don Gabriel Peralta, with his Spanish company; brought up the rear.
+It was a wild night.  Incessant lightning, alternately revealed and
+obscured the progress of the midnight march through the black waters,
+as the anxious Commander watched the expedition from the shore, but the
+soldiers were quickly swallowed up in the gloom.  As they advanced
+cautiously, two by two, the daring adventurers found themselves soon
+nearly up to their necks in the waves, while so narrow was the submerged
+bank along which they were marching, that a misstep to the right or left
+was fatal.  Luckless individuals repeatedly sank to rise no more.
+Meantime, as the sickly light, of the waning moon came forth at intervals
+through the stormy clouds the soldiers could plainly perceive the files
+of Zealand vessels through which they were to march, and which were
+anchored as close to the flat as the water would allow.  Some had
+recklessly stranded themselves, in their eagerness to interrupt the
+passage, of the troops, and the artillery played unceasingly from the
+larger vessels.  Discharges of musketry came continually from all,
+but the fitful lightning rendered the aim difficult and the fire
+comparatively harmless while the Spaniards were, moreover, protected,
+as to a large part of their bodies, by the water in which they were
+immersed.
+
+At times; they halted for breath, or to engage in fierce skirmishes
+with their nearest assailants.  Standing breast-high in the waves, and
+surrounded at intervals by total darkness, they were yet able to pour an
+occasional well-directed volley into the hostile ranks.  The Zealanders,
+however, did, not assail them with fire-arms alone.  They transfixed some
+with their fatal harpoons; they dragged others from the path with
+boathooks; they beat out the brains of others with heavy flails.  Many
+were the mortal duels thus fought in the darkness, and, as it were, in
+the bottom of the sea; many were the deeds of audacity which no eye was
+to mark save those by whom they were achieved.  Still, in spite of all
+impediments and losses, the Spaniards steadily advanced.  If other arms
+proved less available, they were attached by the fierce taunts and
+invectives of their often invisible foes who reviled them as water-dogs,
+fetching and carrying for a master who despised them; as mercenaries who
+coined their blood for gold, and were employed by tyrants for the basest
+uses.  If stung by these mocking voices, they turned in the darkness to
+chastise their unseen tormentors, they were certain to be trampled upon
+by their comrades, and to be pushed from their narrow pathway into the
+depths of the sea.  Thus many perished.
+
+The night wore on, and the adventurers still fought it out manfully, but
+very slowly, the main body of Spaniards, Germans, and Walloons, soon
+after daylight, reaching the opposite shore, having sustained
+considerable losses, but in perfect order.  The pioneers were not so
+fortunate.  The tide rose over them before they could effect their
+passage, and swept nearly every one away.  The rearguard, under Peralta,
+not surprised, like the pioneers, in the middle of their passage, by the
+rising tide, but prevented, before it was too late; from advancing far
+beyond the shore from which they had departed were fortunately enabled to
+retrace their steps.
+
+Don Osorio, at the head of the successful adventurers, now effected his
+landing upon Duiveland.  Reposing themselves but for an instant after
+this unparalleled march through the water, of more than six hours, they
+took a slight refreshment, prayed to the Virgin Mary and to Saint James,
+and then prepared to meet their new enemies on land.  Ten companies of
+French, Scotch, and English auxiliaries lay in Duiveland, under the
+command of Charles Van Boisot.  Strange to relate, by an inexplicable
+accident, or by treason, that general was slain by his own soldiers, at
+the moment when the royal troops landed.  The panic created by this event
+became intense, as the enemy rose suddenly, as it were, out of the depths
+of the ocean to attack them.  They magnified the numbers of their
+assailants, and fled terror-stricken in every direction.  Same swam to
+the Zealand vessels which lay in the neighbourhood; others took refuge in
+the forts which had been constructed on the island; but these were soon
+carried by the Spaniards, and the conquest of Duiveland was effected.
+
+The enterprise was not yet completed, but the remainder was less
+difficult and not nearly so hazardous, for the creek which separated
+Duiveland from Schouwen was much narrower than the estuary which they had
+just traversed.  It was less than a league in width, but so encumbered by
+rushes and briers that, although difficult to wade, it was not navigable
+for vessels of any kind.  This part of the expedition was accomplished
+with equal resolution, so that, after a few hours' delay, the soldiers
+stood upon the much-coveted island of Schouwen.  Five companies of
+states' troops, placed to oppose their landing, fled in the most cowardly
+manner at the first discharge of the Spanish muskets, and took refuge
+in the city of Zierickzee, which was soon afterwards beleaguered.
+
+The troops has been disembarked upon Duiveland from the armada, which had
+made its way to the scene of action, after having received, by signal,
+information that the expedition through the water had been successful.
+Brouwershaven, on the northern side of Schouwen, was immediately reduced,
+but Bommenede resisted till the 25th of October, when it was at last
+carried by assault, and delivered over to fire and sword.  Of the whole
+population and garrison not twenty were left alive.  Siege was then laid
+to Zierickzee, and Colonel Mondragon was left in charge of the
+operations.  Requesens himself came to Schouwen to give directions
+concerning this important enterprise.
+
+Chiapin Vitelli also came thither in the middle of the winter, and was so
+much injured by a fall from his litter, while making the tour of the
+island, that he died on shipboard during his return to Antwerp.  This
+officer had gained his laurels upon more than one occasion, his conduct
+in the important action near Mons, in which the Huguenot force under
+Genlis was defeated, having been particularly creditable.  He was of a
+distinguished Umbrian family, and had passed his life in camps, few of
+the generals who had accompanied Alva to the Netherlands being better
+known or more odious to the inhabitants.  He was equally distinguished
+for his courage, his cruelty, and his corpulence.  The last
+characteristic was so remarkable that he was almost monstrous in his
+personal appearance.  His protuberant stomach was always supported in a
+bandage suspended from his neck, yet in spite of this enormous
+impediment, he was personally active on the battle-field, and performed
+more service, not only as a commander but as a subaltern, than many a
+younger and lighter man.
+
+The siege of Zierickzee was protracted till the following June, the city
+holding out with firmness.  Want of funds caused the operations to be,
+conducted with languor, but the same cause prevented the Prince from
+accomplishing its relief.  Thus the expedition from Philipsland, the most
+brilliant military exploit of the whole war, was attended with important
+results.  The communication between Walcheren and the rest of Zealand was
+interrupted; the province cut in two; a foothold on the ocean; for a
+brief interval at least, acquired by Spain.  The Prince was inexpressibly
+chagrined by these circumstances, and felt that the moment had arrived
+when all honorable means were to be employed to obtain foreign
+assistance.  The Hollanders and Zealanders had fought the battles of
+freedom alone hitherto, and had fought them well, but poverty was fast
+rendering them incapable of sustaining much longer the unequal conflict.
+Offers of men, whose wages the states were to furnish, were refused; as
+worse than fruitless.  Henry of Navarre, who perhaps deemed it possible
+to acquire the sovereignty of the provinces by so barren a benefit, was
+willing to send two or three thousand men, but not at his own expense.
+The proposition was respectfully declined.
+
+The Prince and his little country, were all alone.  "Even if we should
+not only see ourselves deserted by all the world, but also all the world
+against us," he said, "we should not cease to defend ourselves even to
+the last man.  Knowing the justice of our cause, we repose, entirely in
+the mercy of God."  He determined, however, once more to have recourse to
+the powerful of the earth, being disposed to test the truth of his
+celebrated observation, that "there would be no lack of suitors for the
+bride that he had to bestow."  It was necessary, in short, to look the
+great question of formally renouncing Philip directly in the face.
+
+Hitherto the fiction of allegiance had been preserved, and, even by the
+enemies of the Prince, it, was admitted: that it had been retained with
+no disloyal intent.  The time however, had come when it was necessary.
+to throw off allegiance, provided another could be found strong enough
+and frank enough to accept the authority which Philip had forfeited.  The
+question was, naturally, between France and England; unless the provinces
+could effect their re-admission into the body of the Germanic Empire.
+Already in June the Prince had laid the proposition formally before the
+states, "whether they should not negotiate with the Empire on the subject
+of their admission, with maintenance of their own constitutions," but it
+was understood that this plan was not to be carried out, if the
+protection of the Empire could be obtained under easier conditions.
+
+Nothing came of the proposition at that time.  The nobles and the
+deputies of South Holland now voted, in the beginning of the ensuing
+month, "that it was their duty to abandon the King, as a tyrant who
+sought to oppress and destroy his subjects; and that it behooved them to
+seek another protector."  This was while the Breda negotiations were
+still pending, but when their inevitable result was very visible.  There
+was still a reluctance at taking the last and decisive step in the
+rebellion, so that the semblance of loyalty was still retained; that
+ancient scabbard, in which the sword might yet one day be sheathed.  The
+proposition was not adopted at the diet.  A committee of nine was merely
+appointed to deliberate with the Prince upon the "means of obtaining
+foreign assistance, without accepting foreign authority, or severing
+their connexion with his Majesty."  The estates were, however, summoned
+a few months later, by the Prince, to deliberate on this important matter
+at Rotterdam.  On the 1st of October he then formally proposed, either to
+make terms with their enemy, and that the sooner the better, or else,
+once for all, to separate entirely from the King of Spain, and to change
+their sovereign, in order, with the assistance and under protection of
+another Christian potentate, to maintain the provinces against their
+enemies.  Orange, moreover, expressed the opinion that upon so important
+a subject it was decidedly incumbent upon them all to take the sense of
+the city governments.  The members for the various municipalities
+acquiesced in the propriety of this suggestion, and resolved to consult
+their constituents, while the deputies of the nobility also desired to
+consult with their whole body.  After an adjournment of a few days, the
+diet again assembled at Delft, and it was then unanimously resolved by
+the nobles and the cities, "that they would forsake the King and seek
+foreign assistance; referring the choice to the Prince, who, in regard to
+the government, was to take the opinion of the estates."
+
+Thus, the great step was taken, by which two little provinces declared
+themselves independent of their ancient master.  That declaration,
+although taken in the midst of doubt and darkness, was not destined to be
+cancelled, and the germ of a new and powerful commonwealth was planted.
+So little, however, did these republican fathers foresee their coming
+republic, that the resolution to renounce one king was combined with a
+proposition to ask for the authority of another.  It was not imagined
+that those two slender columns, which were all that had yet been raised.
+of the future stately peristyle, would be strong enough to stand alone.
+The question now arose, to what foreign power application should be made.
+But little hope was to be entertained from Germany, a state which existed
+only in name, and France was still in a condition of religious and
+intestine discord.  The attitude of revolt maintained by the Duc
+d'Alencon seemed to make it difficult and dangerous to enter into
+negotiations with a country where the civil wars had assumed so
+complicated a character, that loyal and useful alliance could hardly be
+made with any party.  The Queen of England, on the other hand; dreaded
+the wrath of Philip, by which her perpetual dangers from the side of
+Scotland would be aggravated, while she feared equally the extension
+of French authority in the Netherlands, by which increase her neighbour
+would acquire an overshadowing power.  She was also ashamed openly to
+abandon the provinces to their fate, for her realm was supposed to be a
+bulwark of the Protestant religion.  Afraid to affront Philip, afraid to
+refuse the suit of the Netherlands, afraid to concede as aggrandizement
+to France, what course was open to the English Queen.  That which,
+politically and personally, she loved the best--a course of barren
+coquetry.  This the Prince of Orange foresaw; and although not disposed
+to leave a stone unturned in his efforts to find assistance for his
+country, he on the whole rather inclined for France.  He, however, better
+than any man, knew how little cause there was for sanguine expectation
+from either source.
+
+It was determined, in the name of his Highness and the estates, first to
+send a mission to England, but there had already been negotiations this
+year of an unpleasant character with that power.  At the request of the
+Spanish envoy, the foremost Netherland rebels, in number about fifty,
+including by name the Prince of Orange, the Counts of Berg and Culemburg,
+with Saint Aldegonde, Boisot, Junius, and others, had been formally
+forbidden by Queen Elizabeth to enter her realm.  The Prince had, in
+consequence, sent Aldegonde and Junius on a secret mission to France,
+and the Queen; jealous and anxious, had thereupon sent Daniel Rogers
+secretly to the Prince.  At the same tine she had sent an envoy to the
+Grand Commander, counselling, conciliatory measures; and promising to
+send a special mission to Spain with the offer of her mediation, but it
+was suspected by those most in the confidence of the Spanish government
+at Brussels, that there was a great deal of deception in these
+proceedings.  A truce for six months having now been established between
+the Duc d'Alencon and his brother, it was supposed, that an alliance
+between France and England, and perhaps between Alencon and Elizabeth,
+was on the carpet, and that a kingdom of the Netherlands was to be the
+wedding present of the bride to her husband.  These fantasies derived
+additional color from the fact that, while the Queen was expressing the
+most amicable intentions towards Spain, and the greatest jealousy of
+France, the English residents at Antwerp and other cities of the
+Netherlands, had received private instructions to sell out their property
+as fast as possible, and to retire from the country.  On the whole, there
+was little prospect either of a final answer, or of substantial
+assistance from the Queen.
+
+The envoys to England were Advocate Buis and Doctor Francis Maalzon,
+nominated by the estates, and Saint Aldegonde, chief of the mission,
+appointed by the Prince.  They arrived in England at Christmas-tide.
+Having represented to the Queen the result of the Breda negotiations,
+they stated that the Prince and the estates, in despair of a secure
+peace, had addressed themselves to her as an upright protector of the
+Faith, and as a princess descended from the blood of Holland.  This
+allusion to the intermarriage of Edward III. of England with Philippa,
+daughter of Count William III. of Hainault and Holland, would not, it was
+hoped, be in vain.  They furthermore offered to her Majesty, in case she
+were willing powerfully to assist the states, the sovereignty over
+Holland and Zealand, under certain conditions.
+
+The Queen listened graciously to the envoys, and appointed commissioners
+to treat with them on the subject.  Meantime, Requesens sent Champagny to
+England, to counteract the effect of this embassy of the estates, and to
+beg the Queen to give no heed to the prayers of the rebels, to enter into
+no negotiations with them, and to expel them at once from her kingdom.
+
+The Queen gravely assured Champagny "that the envoys were no rebels, but
+faithful subjects of his Majesty."  There was certainly some effrontery
+in such a statement, considering the solemn offer which had just been
+made by the envoys.  If to renounce allegiance to Philip and to propose
+the sovereignty to Elizabeth did not constitute rebellion, it would be
+difficult to define or to discover rebellion anywhere.  The statement was
+as honest, however, as the diplomatic grimace with which Champagny had
+reminded Elizabeth of the ancient and unbroken friendship which had
+always, existed between herself and his Catholic Majesty.  The attempt
+of Philip to procure her dethronement and assassination but a few years
+before was, no doubt, thought too trifling a circumstance to have for a
+moment interrupted those harmonious relations.  Nothing came of the
+negotiations on either side.  The Queen coquetted, as was her custom.
+She could not accept the offer of the estates; she could not say them
+nay.  She would not offend Philip; she would not abandon the provinces;
+she would therefore negotiate--thus there was an infinite deal of
+diplomatic nothing spun and unravelled, but the result was both to
+abandon the provinces and to offend Philip.
+
+In the first answer given by her commissioners to the states' envoys, it
+was declared, "that her Majesty considered it too expensive to assume the
+protection of both provinces."  She was willing to protect them in name,
+but she should confer the advantage exclusively on Walcheren in reality.
+The defence of Holland must be maintained at the expense of the Prince
+and the estates.
+
+This was certainly not munificent, and the envoys insisted upon more
+ample and liberal terms.  The Queen declined, however, committing herself
+beyond this niggardly and inadmissible offer.  The states were not
+willing to exchange the sovereignty over their country for so paltry
+a concession.  The Queen declared herself indisposed to go further,
+at least before consulting parliament.  The commissioners waited for
+the assembling of parliament.  She then refused to lay the matter before
+that body, and forbade the Hollanders taking any steps for that purpose.
+It was evident that she was disposed to trifle with the provinces, and
+had no idea of encountering the open hostility of Philip.  The envoys
+accordingly begged for their passports.  These were granted in April,
+1576, with the assurance on the part of her Majesty that "she would think
+more of the offer made to her after she had done all in her power to
+bring about an arrangement between the provinces and Philip."
+
+After the result of the negotiations of Breda, it is difficult to imagine
+what method she was likely to devise for accomplishing such a purpose.
+The King was not more disposed than during the preceding summer to grant
+liberty of religion, nor were the Hollanders more ready than they had
+been before to renounce either their faith or their fatherland.  The
+envoys, on parting, made a strenuous effort to negotiate a loan, but the
+frugal Queen considered the proposition quite inadmissible.  She granted
+them liberty to purchase arms and ammunition, and to levy a few soldiers
+with their own money, and this was accordingly done to a limited extent.
+As it was not difficult to hire soldiers or to buy gunpowder anywhere,
+in that warlike age, provided the money were ready, the states had hardly
+reason to consider themselves under deep obligation for this concession.
+Yet this was the whole result of the embassy.  Plenty of fine words had,
+been bestowed, which might or might not have meaning, according to the
+turns taken by coming events.  Besides these cheap and empty civilities,
+they received permission to defend Holland at their own expense; with the
+privilege, of surrendering its sovereignty, if they liked, to Queen
+Elizabeth-and this was all.
+
+On the 19th of April, the envoys returned to their country, and laid
+before the estates the meagre result of their negotiations.  Very soon
+afterwards, upon an informal suggestion from Henry III. and the Queen
+Mother, that a more favorable result might be expected, if the same
+applications were made to the Duc d'Alencon which had been received in
+so unsatisfactory a manner by Elizabeth, commissioners were appointed to
+France.  It proved impossible, however, at that juncture, to proceed with
+the negotiations, in consequence of the troubles occasioned by the
+attitude of the Duke.  The provinces were still, even as they had been
+from the beginning, entirely alone.
+
+Requesens was more than ever straitened for funds, wringing, with
+increasing difficulty, a slender subsidy, from time to time, out of the
+reluctant estates of Brabant, Flanders, and the other obedient provinces.
+While he was still at Duiveland, the estates-general sent him a long
+remonstrance against the misconduct of the soldiery, in answer to his
+demand for supplies.  "Oh, these estates! these estates!"  cried the
+Grand Commander, on receiving such vehement reproaches instead of his
+money; "may the Lord deliver me from these estates!"  Meantime, the
+important siege of Zierickzee continued, and it was evident that the city
+must fall.  There was no money at the disposal of the Prince.  Count
+John, who was seriously embarrassed by reason of the great obligations in
+money which he, with the rest of his family, had incurred on behalf of
+the estates, had recently made application to the Prince for his
+influence towards procuring him relief.  He had forwarded an account of
+the great advances made by himself and his brethren in money, plate,
+furniture, and endorsements of various kinds, for which a partial
+reimbursement was almost indispensable to save him from serious
+difficulties.  The Prince, however, unable to procure him any assistance,
+had been obliged him once more to entreat him to display the generosity
+and the self-denial which the country had never found wanting at his
+hands or at those of his kindred.  The appeal had not been, in vain, but
+the Count was obviously not in a condition to effect anything more at
+that moment to relieve the financial distress of the states. The
+exchequer was crippled.
+
+     [The contributions of Holland and Zealand for war expenses amounted
+     to one hundred and fifty thousand florins monthly.  The pay of a
+     captain was eighty florins monthly; that of a lieutenant, forty;
+     that of a corporal, fifteen; that of a drummer, fifer, or Minister,
+     twelve; that of a common soldier, seven and a half.  A captain had
+     also one hundred and fifty florins each month to distribute among
+     the most meritorious of his company.  Each soldier was likewise
+     furnished with food; bedding, fire, light, and washing.--Renom de
+     France MS, vol. ii.  c. 46,]
+
+Holland and Zealand were cut in twain by the occupation of Schouwen and
+the approaching fall of its capital.  Germany, England, France; all
+refused to stretch out their hands to save the heroic but exhaustless
+little provinces.  It was at this moment that a desperate but sublime
+resolution took possession of the Prince's mind.  There seemed but one
+way left to exclude the Spaniards for ever from Holland and Zealand, and
+to rescue the inhabitants from impending ruin.  The Prince had long
+brooded over the scheme, and the hour seemed to have struck for its
+fulfilment.  His project was to collect all the vessels, of every
+description, which could be obtained throughout the Netherlands.  The
+whole population of the two provinces, men, women, and children, together
+with all the moveable property of the country, were then to be embarked
+on board this numerous fleet, and to seek a new home beyond the seas.
+The windmills were then to be burned, the dykes pierced, the sluices
+opened in every direction, and the country restored for ever to the
+ocean, from which it had sprung.
+
+It is difficult to say whether the resolution, if Providence had
+permitted its fulfilment, would have been, on the whole, better or worse
+for humanity and civilization.  The ships which would have borne the
+heroic Prince and his fortunes might have taken the direction of the
+newly-discovered Western hemisphere.  A religious colony, planted by a
+commercial and liberty-loving race, in a virgin soil, and directed by
+patrician but self-denying hands, might have preceded, by half a century,
+the colony which a kindred race, impelled by similar motives, and under
+somewhat similar circumstances and conditions, was destined to plant upon
+the stern shores of New England.  Had they directed their course to the
+warm and fragrant islands of the East, an independent Christian
+commonwealth might have arisen among those prolific regions, superior in
+importance to any subsequent colony of Holland, cramped from its birth by
+absolute subjection to a far distant metropolis.
+
+The unexpected death of Requesens suddenly dispelled these schemes.  The
+siege of Zierickzee had occupied much of the Governor's attention, but he
+had recently written to his sovereign, that its reduction was now
+certain.  He had added an urgent request for money, with a sufficient
+supply of which he assured Philip that he should be able to bring the war
+to an immediate conclusion.  While waiting for these supplies, he had,
+contrary to all law or reason, made an unsuccessful attempt to conquer
+the post of Embden, in Germany.  A mutiny had at about the same time,
+broken out among his troops in Harlem, and he had furnished the citizens
+with arms to defend themselves, giving free permission to use them
+against the insurgent troops.  By this means the mutiny had been quelled,
+but a dangerous precedent established.  Anxiety concerning this rebellion
+is supposed to have hastened the Grand Commander's death.  A violent
+fever seized him on the 1st, and terminated his existence on the 5th of
+March, in the fifty-first year of his life.
+
+It is not necessary to review elaborately his career, the chief incidents
+of which have been sufficiently described.  Requesens was a man of high
+position by birth and office, but a thoroughly commonplace personage.
+His talents either for war or for civil employments were not above
+mediocrity.  His friends disputed whether he were greater in the field or
+in the council, but it is certain that he was great in neither.  His
+bigotry was equal to that of Alva, but it was impossible to rival the
+Duke in cruelty.  Moreover, the condition of the country, after seven
+years of torture under his predecessor, made it difficult for him, at the
+time of his arrival, to imitate the severity which had made the name of
+Alva infamous.  The Blood Council had been retained throughout his
+administration, but its occupation was gone, for want of food for its
+ferocity.  The obedient provinces had been purged of Protestants; while
+crippled, too, by confiscation, they offered no field for further
+extortion.  From Holland and Zealand, whence Catholicism had been nearly
+excluded, the King of Spain was nearly excluded also.  The Blood Council
+which, if set up in that country, would have executed every living
+creature of its population, could only gaze from a distance at those who
+would have been its victims.  Requesens had been previously distinguished
+in two fields of action: the Granada massacres and the carnage of
+Lepanto.  Upon both occasions he had been the military tutor of Don John
+of Austria, by whom he was soon to be succeeded in the government of the
+Netherlands.  To the imperial bastard had been assigned the pre-eminence,
+but it was thought that the Grand Commander had been entitled to a more
+than equal share of the glory.
+
+We have seen how much additional reputation was acquired by Requesens
+in the provinces.  The expedition against Duiveland and Schouwen, was,
+on the whole, the most brilliant feat of arms during the war, and its
+success reflects an undying lustre on the hardihood and discipline of the
+Spanish, German, and Walloon soldiery.  As an act of individual audacity
+in a bad cause, it has rarely been equalled.  It can hardly be said,
+however, that the Grand Commander was entitled to any large measure of
+praise for the success of the expedition.  The plan was laid by Zealand
+traitors.  It was carried into execution by the devotion of the Spanish,
+Walloon, and German troops; while Requesens was only a spectator of the
+transaction.  His sudden death arrested, for a moment, the ebb-tide in
+the affairs of the Netherlands, which was fast leaving the country bare
+and desolate, and was followed by a train of unforeseen transactions,
+which it is now our duty to describe.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+As the old woman had told the Emperor Adrian
+Beautiful damsel, who certainly did not lack suitors
+Breath, time, and paper were profusely wasted and nothing gained
+Care neither for words nor menaces in any matter
+Distinguished for his courage, his cruelty, and his corpulence
+He had never enjoyed social converse, except at long intervals
+Human ingenuity to inflict human misery
+Peace was desirable, it might be more dangerous than war
+Proposition made by the wolves to the sheep, in the fable
+Rebuked the bigotry which had already grown
+Reformers were capable of giving a lesson even to inquisitors
+Result was both to abandon the provinces and to offend Philip
+Suppress the exercise of the Roman religion
+The more conclusive arbitration of gunpowder
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DUTCH REPUBLIC, 1574-76 ***
+
+******** This file should be named 4824.txt or 4824.zip ********
+
+This eBook was produced by David Widger
+
+Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we usually do not
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance
+of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
+Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections,
+even years after the official publication date.
+
+Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.
+
+Most people start at our Web sites at:
+https://gutenberg.org or
+http://promo.net/pg
+
+These Web sites include award-winning information about Project
+Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new
+eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!).
+
+
+Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement
+can get to them as follows, and just download by date.  This is
+also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the
+indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an
+announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.
+
+http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or
+ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03
+
+Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90
+
+Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,
+as it appears in our Newsletters.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
+to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.   Our
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If the value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text
+files per month:  1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+
+We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002
+If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total
+will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks!
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.
+
+Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated):
+
+eBooks Year Month
+
+    1  1971 July
+   10  1991 January
+  100  1994 January
+ 1000  1997 August
+ 1500  1998 October
+ 2000  1999 December
+ 2500  2000 December
+ 3000  2001 November
+ 4000  2001 October/November
+ 6000  2002 December*
+ 9000  2003 November*
+10000  2004 January*
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created
+to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people
+and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut,
+Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois,
+Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts,
+Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New
+Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
+Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South
+Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West
+Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
+
+We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones
+that have responded.
+
+As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list
+will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states.
+Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state.
+
+In answer to various questions we have received on this:
+
+We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally
+request donations in all 50 states.  If your state is not listed and
+you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have,
+just ask.
+
+While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are
+not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting
+donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to
+donate.
+
+International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about
+how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made
+deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are
+ways.
+
+Donations by check or money order may be sent to:
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+PMB 113
+1739 University Ave.
+Oxford, MS 38655-4109
+
+Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment
+method other than by check or money order.
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by
+the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN
+[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154.  Donations are
+tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law.  As fund-raising
+requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be
+made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+You can get up to date donation information online at:
+
+https://www.gutenberg.org/donation.html
+
+
+***
+
+If you can't reach Project Gutenberg,
+you can always email directly to:
+
+Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
+
+Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.
+
+We would prefer to send you information by email.
+
+
+**The Legal Small Print**
+
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how
+you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks,
+is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart
+through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project").
+Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook
+under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market
+any commercial products without permission.
+
+To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may
+receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims
+all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from. If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy. If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation,
+and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated
+with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
+texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including
+legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the
+following that you do or cause:  [1] distribution of this eBook,
+[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook,
+or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     eBook or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word
+     processing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the eBook (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the
+     gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation"
+     the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
+     legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
+     periodic) tax return.  Please contact us beforehand to
+     let us know your plans and to work out the details.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of
+public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
+in machine readable form.
+
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time,
+public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses.
+Money should be paid to the:
+"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or
+software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:
+hart@pobox.com
+
+[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only
+when distributed free of all fees.  Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by
+Michael S. Hart.  Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be
+used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be
+they hardware or software or any other related product without
+express permission.]
+
+*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END*
+
diff --git a/4824.zip b/4824.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..67ffc29
--- /dev/null
+++ b/4824.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..18b34e7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #4824 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4824)