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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Rise of the Dutch Republic, Complete,
+1555-84, by John Lothrop Motley
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Rise of the Dutch Republic, Complete, 1555-84
+
+Author: John Lothrop Motley
+
+Release Date: November 7, 2004 [EBook #4836]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RISE DUTCH REPUBLIC ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, PG EDITION
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC, 1555-1566, Complete
+
+A History
+
+
+
+
+JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, D.C.L., LL.D. Corresponding Member of the Institute
+of France, Etc.
+1855
+
+[Etext Editor's Note: JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, born in Dorchester, Mass.
+1814, died 1877. Other works: Morton's Hopes and Merry Mount, novels.
+Motley was the United States Minister to Austria, 1861-67, and the United
+States Minister to England, 1869-70. Mark Twain mentions his respect for
+John Motley. Oliver Wendell Holmes said in 'An Oration delivered before
+the City Authorities of Boston' on the 4th of July, 1863: "'It cannot be
+denied,'--says another observer, placed on one of our national
+watch-towers in a foreign capital,--'it cannot be denied that the
+tendency of European public opinion, as delivered from high places, is
+more and more unfriendly to our cause; but the people,' he adds,
+'everywhere sympathize with us, for they know that our cause is that of
+free institutions,--that our struggle is that of the people against an
+oligarchy.' These are the words of the Minister to Austria, whose
+generous sympathies with popular liberty no homage paid to his genius by
+the class whose admiring welcome is most seductive to scholars has ever
+spoiled; our fellow-citizen, the historian of a great Republic which
+infused a portion of its life into our own,--John Lothrop Motley." (See
+the biography of Motley, by Holmes) Ed.]
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+The rise of the Dutch Republic must ever be regarded as one of the
+leading events of modern times. Without the birth of this great
+commonwealth, the various historical phenomena of: the sixteenth and
+following centuries must have either not existed; or have presented
+themselves under essential modifications.--Itself an organized protest
+against ecclesiastical tyranny and universal empire, the Republic guarded
+with sagacity, at many critical periods in the world's history; that
+balance of power which, among civilized states; ought always to be
+identical with the scales of divine justice. The splendid empire of
+Charles the Fifth was erected upon the grave of liberty. It is a
+consolation to those who have hope in humanity to watch, under the reign
+of his successor, the gradual but triumphant resurrection of the spirit
+over which the sepulchre had so long been sealed. From the handbreadth of
+territory called the province of Holland rises a power which wages eighty
+years' warfare with the most potent empire upon earth, and which, during
+the progress of the struggle, becoming itself a mighty state, and binding
+about its own slender form a zone of the richest possessions of earth,
+from pole to tropic, finally dictates its decrees to the empire of
+Charles.
+
+So much is each individual state but a member of one great international
+commonwealth, and so close is the relationship between the whole human
+family, that it is impossible for a nation, even while struggling for
+itself, not to acquire something for all mankind. The maintenance of the
+right by the little provinces of Holland and Zealand in the sixteenth, by
+Holland and England united in the seventeenth, and by the United States
+of America in the eighteenth centuries, forms but a single chapter in the
+great volume of human fate; for the so-called revolutions of Holland,
+England, and America, are all links of one chain.
+
+To the Dutch Republic, even more than to Florence at an earlier day, is
+the world indebted for practical instruction in that great science of
+political equilibrium which must always become more and more important as
+the various states of the civilized world are pressed more closely
+together, and as the struggle for pre-eminence becomes more feverish and
+fatal. Courage and skill in political and military combinations enabled
+William the Silent to overcome the most powerful and unscrupulous monarch
+of his age. The same hereditary audacity and fertility of genius placed
+the destiny of Europe in the hands of William's great-grandson, and
+enabled him to mould into an impregnable barrier the various elements of
+opposition to the overshadowing monarchy of Louis XIV. As the schemes of
+the Inquisition and the unparalleled tyranny of Philip, in one century,
+led to the establishment of the Republic of the United Provinces, so, in
+the next, the revocation of the Nantes Edict and the invasion of Holland
+are avenged by the elevation of the Dutch stadholder upon the throne of
+the stipendiary Stuarts.
+
+To all who speak the English language; the history of the great agony
+through which the Republic of Holland was ushered into life must have
+peculiar interest, for it is a portion of the records of the Anglo-Saxon
+race--essentially the same, whether in Friesland, England, or
+Massachusetts.
+
+A great naval and commercial commonwealth, occupying a small portion of
+Europe but conquering a wide empire by the private enterprise of trading
+companies, girdling the world with its innumerable dependencies in Asia,
+America, Africa, Australia--exercising sovereignty in Brazil, Guiana, the
+West Indies, New York, at the Cape of Good Hope, in Hindostan, Ceylon,
+Java, Sumatra, New Holland--having first laid together, as it were, many
+of the Cyclopean blocks, out of which the British realm, at a late:
+period, has been constructed--must always be looked upon with interest by
+Englishmen, as in a great measure the precursor in their own scheme of
+empire.
+
+For America the spectacle is one of still deeper import. The Dutch
+Republic originated in the opposition of the rational elements of human
+nature to sacerdotal dogmatism and persecution--in the courageous
+resistance of historical and chartered liberty to foreign despotism.
+Neither that liberty nor ours was born of the cloud-embraces of a false
+Divinity with, a Humanity of impossible beauty, nor was the infant career
+of either arrested in blood and tears by the madness of its worshippers.
+"To maintain," not to overthrow, was the device of the Washington of the
+sixteenth century, as it was the aim of our own hero and his great
+contemporaries.
+
+The great Western Republic, therefore--in whose Anglo-Saxon veins flows
+much of that ancient and kindred blood received from the nation once
+ruling a noble portion of its territory, and tracking its own political
+existence to the same parent spring of temperate human liberty--must look
+with affectionate interest upon the trials of the elder commonwealth.
+These volumes recite the achievement of Dutch independence, for its
+recognition was delayed till the acknowledgment was superfluous and
+ridiculous. The existence of the Republic is properly to be dated from
+the Union of Utrecht in 1581, while the final separation of territory
+into independent and obedient provinces, into the Commonwealth of the
+United States and the Belgian provinces of Spain, was in reality effected
+by William the Silent, with whose death three years subsequently, the
+heroic period of the history may be said to terminate. At this point
+these volumes close. Another series, with less attention to minute
+details, and carrying the story through a longer range of years, will
+paint the progress of the Republic in its palmy days, and narrate the
+establishment of, its external system of dependencies and its interior
+combinations for self-government and European counterpoise. The lessons
+of history and the fate of free states can never be sufficiently pondered
+by those upon whom so large and heavy a responsibility for the
+maintenance of rational human freedom rests.
+
+I have only to add that this work is the result of conscientious
+research, and of an earnest desire to arrive at the truth. I have
+faithfully studied all the important contemporary chroniclers and later
+historians--Dutch, Flemish, French, Italian, Spanish, or German. Catholic
+and Protestant, Monarchist and Republican, have been consulted with the
+same sincerity. The works of Bor (whose enormous but indispensable folios
+form a complete magazine of contemporary state-papers, letters, and
+pamphlets, blended together in mass, and connected by a chain of artless
+but earnest narrative), of Meteren, De Thou, Burgundius, Heuterus;
+Tassis, Viglius, Hoofd, Haraeus, Van der Haer, Grotius-of Van der Vynckt,
+Wagenaer, Van Wyn, De Jonghe, Kluit, Van Kampen, Dewez, Kappelle,
+Bakhuyzen, Groen van Prinsterer--of Ranke and Raumer, have been as
+familiar to me as those of Mendoza, Carnero, Cabrera, Herrera, Ulloa,
+Bentivoglio, Peres, Strada. The manuscript relations of those Argus-eyed
+Venetian envoys who surprised so many courts and cabinets in their most
+unguarded moments, and daguerreotyped their character and policy for the
+instruction of the crafty Republic, and whose reports remain such an
+inestimable source for the secret history of the sixteenth century, have
+been carefully examined--especially the narratives of the caustic and
+accomplished Badovaro, of Suriano, and Michele. It is unnecessary to add
+that all the publications of M. Gachard--particularly the invaluable
+correspondence of Philip II. and of William the Silent, as well as the
+"Archives et Correspondence" of the Orange Nassau family, edited by the
+learned and distinguished Groen van Prinsterer, have been my constant
+guides through the tortuous labyrinth of Spanish and Netherland politics.
+The large and most interesting series of pamphlets known as "The Duncan
+Collection," in the Royal Library at the Hague, has also afforded a great
+variety of details by which I have endeavoured to give color and interest
+to the narrative. Besides these, and many other printed works, I have
+also had the advantage of perusing many manuscript histories, among which
+may be particularly mentioned the works of Pontua Payen, of Renom de
+France, and of Pasquier de la Barre; while the vast collection of
+unpublished documents in the Royal Archives of the Hague, of Brussels,
+and of Dresden, has furnished me with much new matter of great
+importance. I venture to hope that many years of labour, a portion of
+them in the archives of those countries whose history forms the object of
+my study, will not have been entirely in vain; and that the lovers of
+human progress, the believers in the capacity of nations for
+self-government and self-improvement, and the admirers of disinterested
+human genius and virtue, may find encouragement for their views in the
+detailed history of an heroic people in its most eventful period, and in
+the life and death of the great man whose name and fame are identical
+with those of his country.
+
+No apology is offered for this somewhat personal statement. When an
+unknown writer asks the attention of the public upon an important theme,
+he is not only authorized, but required, to show, that by industry and
+earnestness he has entitled himself to a hearing. The author too keenly
+feels that he has no further claims than these, and he therefore most
+diffidently asks for his work the indulgence of his readers.
+
+I would take this opportunity of expressing my gratitude to Dr. Klemm,
+Hofrath and Chief Librarian at Dresden, and to Mr. Von Weber,
+Ministerial-rath and Head of the Royal Archives of Saxony, for the
+courtesy and kindness extended to me so uniformly during the course of my
+researches in that city. I would also speak a word of sincere thanks to
+Mr. Campbell, Assistant Librarian at the Hague, for his numerous acts of
+friendship during the absence of, his chief, M. Holtrop. To that most
+distinguished critic and historian, M. Bakhuyzen van den Brinck, Chief
+Archivist of the Netherlands, I am under deep obligations for advice,
+instruction, and constant kindness, during my residence at the Hague; and
+I would also signify my sense of the courtesy of Mr. Charter-Master de
+Schwane, and of the accuracy with which copies of MSS. in the archives
+were prepared for me by his care. Finally, I would allude in the
+strongest language of gratitude and respect to M. Gachard,
+Archivist-General of Belgium, for his unwearied courtesy and manifold
+acts of kindness to me during my studies in the Royal Archives of
+Brussels.
+
+
+
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
+
+HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+
+
+Part 1.
+
+I.
+
+The north-western corner of the vast plain which extends from the German
+ocean to the Ural mountains, is occupied by the countries called the
+Netherlands. This small triangle, enclosed between France, Germany, and
+the sea, is divided by the modern kingdoms of Belgium and Holland into
+two nearly equal portions. Our earliest information concerning this
+territory is derived from the Romans. The wars waged by that nation with
+the northern barbarians have rescued the damp island of Batavia, with its
+neighboring morasses, from the obscurity in which they might have
+remained for ages, before any thing concerning land or people would have
+been made known by the native inhabitants. Julius Caesar has saved from,
+oblivion the heroic savages who fought against his legions in defence of
+their dismal homes with ferocious but unfortunate patriotism; and the
+great poet of England, learning from the conqueror's Commentaries the
+name of the boldest tribe, has kept the Nervii, after almost twenty
+centuries, still fresh and familiar in our ears.
+
+Tacitus, too, has described with singular minuteness the struggle between
+the people of these regions and the power of Rome, overwhelming, although
+tottering to its fall; and has moreover, devoted several chapters of his
+work upon Germany to a description of the most remarkable Teutonic tribes
+of the Netherlands.
+
+Geographically and ethnographically, the Low Countries belong both to
+Gaul and to Germany. It is even doubtful to which of the two the Batavian
+island, which is the core of the whole country, was reckoned by the
+Romans. It is, however, most probable that all the land, with the
+exception of Friesland, was considered a part of Gaul.
+
+Three great rivers--the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Scheld--had deposited
+their slime for ages among the dunes and sand banks heaved up by the
+ocean around their mouths. A delta was thus formed, habitable at last for
+man. It was by nature a wide morass, in which oozy islands and savage
+forests were interspersed among lagoons and shallows; a district lying
+partly below the level of the ocean at its higher tides, subject to
+constant overflow from the rivers, and to frequent and terrible
+inundations by the sea.
+
+The Rhine, leaving at last the regions where its storied lapse, through
+so many ages, has been consecrated alike by nature and art-by poetry and
+eventful truth--flows reluctantly through the basalt portal of the
+Seven Mountains into the open fields which extend to the German sea.
+After entering this vast meadow, the stream divides itself into two
+branches, becoming thus the two-horned Rhine of Virgil, and holds in
+these two arms the island of Batavia.
+
+The Meuse, taking its rise in the Vosges, pours itself through the
+Ardennes wood, pierces the rocky ridges upon the southeastern frontier of
+the Low Countries, receives the Sambre in the midst of that picturesque
+anthracite basin where now stands the city of Namur, and then moves
+toward the north, through nearly the whole length of the country, till it
+mingles its waters with the Rhine.
+
+The Scheld, almost exclusively a Belgian river, after leaving its
+fountains in Picardy, flows through the present provinces of Flanders and
+Hainault. In Caesar's time it was suffocated before reaching the sea in
+quicksands and thickets, which long afforded protection to the savage
+inhabitants against the Roman arms; and which the slow process of nature
+and the untiring industry of man have since converted into the
+archipelago of Zealand and South Holland. These islands were unknown to
+the Romans.
+
+Such were the rivers, which, with their numerous tributaries, coursed
+through the spongy land. Their frequent overflow, when forced back upon
+their currents by the stormy sea, rendered the country almost
+uninhabitable. Here, within a half-submerged territory, a race of
+wretched ichthyophagi dwelt upon terpen, or mounds, which they had
+raised, like beavers, above the almost fluid soil. Here, at a later day,
+the same race chained the tyrant Ocean and his mighty streams into
+subserviency, forcing them to fertilize, to render commodious, to cover
+with a beneficent network of veins and arteries, and to bind by watery
+highways with the furthest ends of the world, a country disinherited by
+nature of its rights. A region, outcast of ocean and earth, wrested at
+last from both domains their richest treasures. A race, engaged for
+generations in stubborn conflict with the angry elements, was
+unconsciously educating itself for its great struggle with the still more
+savage despotism of man.
+
+The whole territory of the Netherlands was girt with forests. An
+extensive belt of woodland skirted the sea-coast; reaching beyond the
+mouths of the Rhine. Along the outer edge of this carrier, the dunes cast
+up by the sea were prevented by the close tangle of thickets from
+drifting further inward; and thus formed a breastwork which time and art
+were to strengthen. The groves of Haarlem and the Hague are relics of
+this ancient forest. The Badahuenna wood, horrid with Druidic sacrifices,
+extended along the eastern line of the vanished lake of Flevo. The vast
+Hercynian forest, nine days' journey in breadth, closed in the country on
+the German side, stretching from the banks of the Rhine to the remote
+regions of the Dacians, in such vague immensity (says the conqueror of
+the whole country) that no German, after traveling sixty days, had ever
+reached, or even heard of; its commencement. On the south, the famous
+groves of Ardennes, haunted by faun and satyr, embowered the country, and
+separated it from Celtic Gaul.
+
+Thus inundated by mighty rivers, quaking beneath the level of the ocean,
+belted about by hirsute forests, this low land, nether land, hollow land,
+or Holland, seemed hardly deserving the arms of the all-accomplished
+Roman. Yet foreign tyranny, from the earliest ages, has coveted this
+meagre territory as lustfully as it has sought to wrest from their native
+possessors those lands with the fatal gift of beauty for their dower;
+while the genius of liberty has inspired as noble a resistance to
+oppression here as it ever aroused in Grecian or Italian breasts.
+
+
+
+II.
+
+It can never be satisfactorily ascertained who were the aboriginal
+inhabitants. The record does not reach beyond Caesar's epoch, and he
+found the territory on the left of the Rhine mainly tenanted by tribes of
+the Celtic family. That large division of the Indo-European group which
+had already overspread many portions of Asia Minor, Greece, Germany, the
+British Islands, France, and Spain, had been long settled in Belgic Gaul,
+and constituted the bulk of its population. Checked in its westward
+movement by the Atlantic, its current began to flow backwards towards its
+fountains, so that the Gallic portion of the Netherland population was
+derived from the original race in its earlier wanderings and from the
+later and refluent tide coming out of Celtic Gaul. The modern appellation
+of the Walloons points to the affinity of their ancestors with the
+Gallic, Welsh, and Gaelic family. The Belgae were in many respects a
+superior race to most of their blood-allies. They were, according to
+Caesar's testimony, the bravest of all the Celts. This may be in part
+attributed to the presence of several German tribes, who, at this period
+had already forced their way across the Rhine, mingled their qualities
+with the Belgic material, and lent an additional mettle to the Celtic
+blood. The heart of the country was thus inhabited by a Gallic race, but
+the frontiers had been taken possession of by Teutonic tribes.
+
+When the Cimbri and their associates, about a century before our era,
+made their memorable onslaught upon Rome, the early inhabitants of the
+Rhine island of Batavia, who were probably Celts, joined in the
+expedition. A recent and tremendous inundation had swept away their
+miserable homes, and even the trees of the forests, and had thus rendered
+them still more dissatisfied with their gloomy abodes. The island was
+deserted of its population. At about the same period a civil dissension
+among the Chatti--a powerful German race within the Hercynian
+forest--resulted in the expatriation of a portion of the people. The
+exiles sought a new home in the empty Rhine island, called it "Bet-auw,"
+or "good-meadow," and were themselves called, thenceforward, Batavi, or
+Batavians.
+
+These Batavians, according to Tacitus, were the bravest of all the
+Germans. The Chatti, of whom they formed a portion, were a pre-eminently
+warlike race. "Others go to battle," says the historian, "these go to
+war." Their bodies were more hardy, their minds more vigorous, than those
+of other tribes. Their young men cut neither hair nor beard till they had
+slain an enemy. On the field of battle, in the midst of carnage and
+plunder, they, for the first time, bared their faces. The cowardly and
+sluggish, only, remained unshorn. They wore an iron ring, too, or shackle
+upon their necks until they had performed the same achievement, a symbol
+which they then threw away, as the emblem of sloth. The Batavians were
+ever spoken of by the Romans with entire respect. They conquered the
+Belgians, they forced the free Frisians to pay tribute, but they called
+the Batavians their friends. The tax-gatherer never invaded their island.
+Honorable alliance united them with the Romans. It was, however, the
+alliance of the giant and the dwarf. The Roman gained glory and empire,
+the Batavian gained nothing but the hardest blows. The Batavian cavalry
+became famous throughout the Republic and the Empire. They were the
+favorite troops of Caesar, and with reason, for it was their valor which
+turned the tide of battle at Pharsalia. From the death of Julius down to
+the times of Vespasian, the Batavian legion was the imperial body guard,
+the Batavian island the basis of operations in the Roman wars with Gaul,
+Germany, and Britain.
+
+Beyond the Batavians, upon the north, dwelt the great Frisian family,
+occupying the regions between the Rhine and Ems, The Zuyder Zee and the
+Dollart, both caused by the terrific inundations of the thirteenth
+century and not existing at this period, did not then interpose
+boundaries between kindred tribes. All formed a homogeneous nation of
+pure German origin.
+
+Thus, the population of the country was partly Celtic, partly German. Of
+these two elements, dissimilar in their tendencies and always difficult
+to blend, the Netherland people has ever been compounded. A certain
+fatality of history has perpetually helped to separate still more widely
+these constituents, instead of detecting and stimulating the elective
+affinities which existed. Religion, too, upon all great historical
+occasions, has acted as the most powerful of dissolvents. Otherwise, had
+so many valuable and contrasted characteristics been early fused into a
+whole, it would be difficult to show a race more richly endowed by Nature
+for dominion and progress than the Belgo-Germanic people.
+
+Physically the two races resembled each other. Both were of vast stature.
+The gigantic Gaul derided the Roman soldiers as a band of pigmies. The
+German excited astonishment by his huge body and muscular limbs. Both
+were fair, with fierce blue eyes, but the Celt had yellow hair floating
+over his shoulders, and the German long locks of fiery red, which he even
+dyed with woad to heighten the favorite color, and wore twisted into a
+war-knot upon the top of his head. Here the German's love of finery
+ceased. A simple tunic fastened at his throat with a thorn, while his
+other garments defined and gave full play to his limbs, completed his
+costume. The Gaul, on the contrary, was so fond of dress that the Romans
+divided his race respectively into long-haired, breeched, and gowned
+Gaul; (Gallia comata, braccata, togata). He was fond of brilliant and
+parti-colored clothes, a taste which survives in the Highlander's
+costume. He covered his neck and arms with golden chains. The simple and
+ferocious German wore no decoration save his iron ring, from which his
+first homicide relieved him. The Gaul was irascible, furious in his
+wrath, but less formidable in a sustained conflict with a powerful foe.
+"All the Gauls are of very high stature," says a soldier who fought under
+Julian. (Amm. Marcel. xv. 12. 1). "They are white, golden-haired,
+terrible in the fierceness of their eyes, greedy of quarrels, bragging
+and insolent. A band of strangers could not resist one of them in a
+brawl, assisted by his strong blue-eyed wife, especially when she begins,
+gnashing her teeth, her neck swollen, brandishing her vast and snowy
+arms, and kicking with her heels at the same time, to deliver her
+fisticuffs, like bolts from the twisted strings of a catapult. The voices
+of many are threatening and formidable. They are quick to anger, but
+quickly appeased. All are clean in their persons; nor among them is ever
+seen any man or woman, as elsewhere, squalid in ragged garments. At all
+ages they are apt for military service. The old man goes forth to the
+fight with equal strength of breast, with limbs as hardened by cold and
+assiduous labor, and as contemptuous of all dangers, as the young. Not
+one of them, as in Italy is often the case, was ever known to cut off his
+thumbs to avoid the service of Mars."
+
+The polity of each race differed widely from that of the other. The
+government of both may be said to have been republican, but the Gallic
+tribes were aristocracies, in which the influence of clanship was a
+predominant feature; while the German system, although nominally regal,
+was in reality democratic. In Gaul were two orders, the nobility and the
+priesthood, while the people, says Caesar, were all slaves. The knights
+or nobles were all trained to arms. Each went forth to battle, followed
+by his dependents, while a chief of all the clans was appointed to take
+command during the war. The prince or chief governor was elected
+annually, but only by the nobles. The people had no rights at all, and
+were glad to assign themselves as slaves to any noble who was strong
+enough to protect them. In peace the Druids exercised the main functions
+of government. They decided all controversies, civil and criminal. To
+rebel against their decrees was punished by exclusion from the
+sacrifices--a most terrible excommunication, through which the criminal
+was cut off from all intercourse with his fellow-creatures.
+
+With the Germans, the sovereignty resided in the great assembly of the
+people. There were slaves, indeed, but in small number, consisting either
+of prisoners of war or of those unfortunates who had gambled away their
+liberty in games of chance. Their chieftains, although called by the
+Romans princes and kings, were, in reality, generals, chosen by universal
+suffrage. Elected in the great assembly to preside in war, they were
+raised on the shoulders of martial freemen, amid wild battle cries and
+the clash of spear and shield. The army consisted entirely of volunteers,
+and the soldier was for life infamous who deserted the field while his
+chief remained alive. The same great assembly elected the village
+magistrates and decided upon all important matters both of peace and war.
+At the full of the moon it was usually convoked. The nobles and the
+popular delegates arrived at irregular intervals, for it was an
+inconvenience arising from their liberty, that two or three days were
+often lost in waiting for the delinquents. All state affairs were in the
+hands of this fierce democracy. The elected chieftains had rather
+authority to persuade than power to command.
+
+The Gauls were an agricultural people. They were not without many arts of
+life. They had extensive flocks and herds; and they even exported salted
+provisions as far as Rome. The truculent German, Ger-mane, Heer-mann,
+War-man, considered carnage the only useful occupation, and despised
+agriculture as enervating and ignoble. It was base, in his opinion, to
+gain by sweat what was more easily acquired by blood. The land was
+divided annually by the magistrates, certain farms being assigned to
+certain families, who were forced to leave them at the expiration of the
+year. They cultivated as a common property the lands allotted by the
+magistrates, but it was easier to summon them to the battle-field than to
+the plough. Thus they were more fitted for the roaming and conquering
+life which Providence was to assign to them for ages, than if they had
+become more prone to root themselves in the soil. The Gauls built towns
+and villages. The German built his solitary hut where inclination
+prompted. Close neighborhood was not to his taste.
+
+In their system of religion the two races were most widely contrasted.
+The Gauls were a priest-ridden race. Their Druids were a dominant caste,
+presiding even over civil affairs, while in religious matters their
+authority was despotic. What were the principles of their wild Theology
+will never be thoroughly ascertained, but we know too much of its
+sanguinary rites. The imagination shudders to penetrate those shaggy
+forests, ringing with the death-shrieks of ten thousand human victims,
+and with the hideous hymns chanted by smoke-and-blood-stained priests to
+the savage gods whom they served.
+
+The German, in his simplicity, had raised himself to a purer belief than
+that of the sensuous Roman or the superstitious Gaul. He believed in a
+single, supreme, almighty God, All-Vater or All-father. This Divinity was
+too sublime to be incarnated or imaged, too infinite to be enclosed in
+temples built with hands. Such is the Roman's testimony to the lofty
+conception of the German. Certain forests were consecrated to the unseen
+God whom the eye of reverent faith could alone behold. Thither, at stated
+times, the people repaired to worship. They entered the sacred grove with
+feet bound together, in token of submission. Those who fell were
+forbidden to rise, but dragged themselves backwards on the ground. Their
+rules were few and simple. They had no caste of priests, nor were they,
+when first known to the Romans, accustomed to offer sacrifice. It must be
+confessed that in a later age, a single victim, a criminal or a prisoner,
+was occasionally immolated. The purity of their religion was soon stained
+by their Celtic neighborhood. In the course of the Roman dominion it
+became contaminated, and at last profoundly depraved. The fantastic
+intermixture of Roman mythology with the gloomy but modified superstition
+of Romanized Celts was not favorable to the simple character of German
+theology. The entire extirpation, thus brought about, of any conceivable
+system of religion, prepared the way for a true revelation. Within that
+little river territory, amid those obscure morasses of the Rhine and
+Scheld, three great forms of religion--the sanguinary superstition of the
+Druid, the sensuous polytheism of the Roman, the elevated but dimly
+groping creed of the German, stood for centuries, face to face, until,
+having mutually debased and destroyed each other, they all faded away in
+the pure light of Christianity.
+
+Thus contrasted were Gaul and German in religious and political systems.
+The difference was no less remarkable in their social characteristics.
+The Gaul was singularly unchaste. The marriage state was almost unknown.
+Many tribes lived in most revolting and incestuous concubinage; brethren,
+parents, and children, having wives in common. The German was loyal as
+the Celt was dissolute. Alone among barbarians, he contented himself with
+a single wife, save that a few dignitaries, from motives of policy, were
+permitted a larger number. On the marriage day the German offered
+presents to his bride--not the bracelets and golden necklaces with which
+the Gaul adorned his fair-haired concubine, but oxen and a bridled horse,
+a sword, a shield, and a spear-symbols that thenceforward she was to
+share his labors and to become a portion of himself.
+
+They differed, too, in the honors paid to the dead. The funerals of the
+Gauls were pompous. Both burned the corpse, but the Celt cast into the
+flames the favorite animals, and even the most cherished slaves and
+dependents of the master. Vast monuments of stone or piles of earth were
+raised above the ashes of the dead. Scattered relics of the Celtic age
+are yet visible throughout Europe, in these huge but unsightly memorials.
+
+The German was not ambitious at the grave. He threw neither garments nor
+odors upon the funeral pyre, but the arms and the war-horse of the
+departed were burned and buried with him.
+
+The turf was his only sepulchre, the memory of his valor his only
+monument. Even tears were forbidden to the men. "It was esteemed
+honorable," says the historian, "for women to lament, for men to
+remember."
+
+The parallel need be pursued no further. Thus much it was necessary to
+recall to the historical student concerning the prominent characteristics
+by which the two great races of the land were distinguished:
+characteristics which Time has rather hardened than effaced. In the
+contrast and the separation lies the key to much of their history. Had
+Providence permitted a fusion of the two races, it is, possible, from
+their position, and from the geographical and historical link which they
+would have afforded to the dominant tribes of Europe, that a world-empire
+might have been the result, different in many respects from any which has
+ever arisen. Speculations upon what might have been are idle. It is well,
+however; to ponder the many misfortunes resulting from a mutual
+repulsion, which, under other circumstances and in other spheres, has
+been exchanged for mutual attraction and support.
+
+It is now necessary to sketch rapidly the political transformations
+undergone by the country, from the early period down to the middle of the
+sixteenth century; the epoch when the long agony commenced, out of which
+the Batavian republic was born.
+
+
+
+III.
+
+The earliest chapter in the history of the Netherlands was written by
+their conqueror. Celtic Gaul is already in the power of Rome; the Belgic
+tribes, alarmed at the approaching danger, arm against the universal,
+tyrant. Inflammable, quick to strike, but too fickle to prevail against
+so powerful a foe, they hastily form a league of almost every clan. At
+the first blow of Caesar's sword, the frail confederacy falls asunder
+like a rope of sand. The tribes scatter in all directions.
+
+Nearly all are soon defeated, and sue for mercy. The Nervii, true to the
+German blood in their veins, swear to die rather than surrender. They,
+at least, are worthy of their cause. Caesar advances against them at the
+head of eight legions. Drawn up on the banks of the Sambre, they await
+the Roman's approach. In three days' march Caesar comes up with them,
+pitches his camp upon a steep hill sloping down to the river, and sends
+some cavalry across. Hardly have the Roman horsemen crossed the stream,
+than the Nervii rush from the wooded hill-top, overthrow horse and rider,
+plunge in one great mass into the current, and, directly afterwards, are
+seen charging up the hill into the midst of the enemy's force. "At the
+same moment," says the conqueror, "they seemed in the wood, in the river,
+and within our lines." There is a panic among the Romans, but it is
+brief. Eight veteran Roman legions, with the world's victor at their
+head, are too much for the brave but undisciplined Nervii. Snatching a
+shield from a soldier, and otherwise unarmed, Caesar throws himself into
+the hottest of the fight. The battle rages foot to foot and hand to hand
+but the hero's skill, with the cool valor of his troops, proves
+invincible as ever. The Nervii, true to their vow, die, but not a man
+surrenders. They fought upon that day till the ground was heaped with
+their dead, while, as the foremost fell thick and fast, their comrades,
+says the Roman, sprang upon their piled-up bodies, and hurled their
+javelins at the enemy as from a hill. They fought like men to whom life
+without liberty was a curse. They were not defeated, but exterminated. Of
+many thousand fighting men went home but five hundred. Upon reaching the
+place of refuge where they had bestowed their women and children, Caesar
+found, after the battle, that there were but three of their senators left
+alive. So perished the Nervii. Caesar commanded his legions to treat with
+respect the little remnant of the tribe which had just fallen to swell
+the empty echo of his glory, and then, with hardly a breathing pause, he
+proceeded to annihilate the Aduatici, the Menapii, and the Morini.
+
+Gaul being thus pacified, as, with sublime irony, he expresses himself
+concerning a country some of whose tribes had been annihilated, some sold
+as slaves, and others hunted to their lairs like beasts of prey, the
+conqueror departed for Italy. Legations for peace from many German races
+to Rome were the consequence of these great achievements. Among others
+the Batavians formed an alliance with the masters of the world. Their
+position was always an honorable one. They were justly proud of paying no
+tribute, but it was, perhaps, because they had nothing to pay. They had
+few cattle, they could give no hides and horns like the Frisians, and
+they were therefore allowed to furnish only their blood. From this time
+forth their cavalry, which was the best of Germany, became renowned in
+the Roman army upon every battle-field of Europe.
+
+It is melancholy, at a later moment, to find the brave Batavians
+distinguished in the memorable expedition of Germanicus to crush the
+liberties of their German kindred. They are forever associated with the
+sublime but misty image of the great Hermann, the hero, educated in Rome,
+and aware of the colossal power of the empire, who yet, by his genius,
+valor, and political adroitness, preserved for Germany her nationality,
+her purer religion, and perhaps even that noble language which her
+late-flowering literature has rendered so illustrious--but they are
+associated as enemies, not as friends.
+
+Galba, succeeding to the purple upon the suicide of Nero, dismissed the
+Batavian life-guards to whom he owed his elevation. He is murdered, Otho
+and Vitellius contend for the succession, while all eyes are turned upon
+the eight Batavian regiments. In their hands the scales of empire seem to
+rest. They declare for Vitellius, and the civil war begins. Otho is
+defeated; Vitellius acknowledged by Senate and people. Fearing, like his
+predecessors, the imperious turbulence of the Batavian legions, he, too,
+sends them into Germany. It was the signal for a long and extensive
+revolt, which had well nigh overturned the Roman power in Gaul and Lower
+Germany.
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+Claudius Civilis was a Batavian of noble race, who had served twenty-five
+years in the Roman armies. His Teutonic name has perished, for, like most
+savages who become denizens of a civilized state, he had assumed an
+appellation in the tongue of his superiors. He was a soldier of fortune,
+and had fought wherever the Roman eagles flew. After a quarter of a
+century's service he was sent in chains to Rome, and his brother
+executed, both falsely charged with conspiracy. Such were the triumphs
+adjudged to Batavian auxiliaries. He escaped with life, and was disposed
+to consecrate what remained of it to a nobler cause. Civilis was no
+barbarian. Like the German hero Arminius, he had received a Roman
+education, and had learned the degraded condition of Rome. He knew the
+infamous vices of her rulers; he retained an unconquerable love for
+liberty and for his own race. Desire to avenge his own wrongs was mingled
+with loftier motives in his breast. He knew that the sceptre was in the
+gift of the Batavian soldiery. Galba had been murdered, Otho had
+destroyed himself, and Vitellius, whose weekly gluttony cost the empire
+more gold than would have fed the whole Batavian population and converted
+their whole island-morass into fertile pastures, was contending for the
+purple with Vespasian, once an obscure adventurer like Civilis himself,
+and even his friend and companion in arms. It seemed a time to strike a
+blow for freedom.
+
+By his courage, eloquence, and talent for political combinations, Civilis
+effected a general confederation of all the Netherland tribes, both
+Celtic and German. For a brief moment there was a united people, a
+Batavian commonwealth. He found another source of strength in German
+superstition. On the banks of the Lippe, near its confluence with the
+Rhine, dwelt the Virgin Velleda, a Bructerian weird woman, who exercised
+vast influence over the warriors of her nation. Dwelling alone in a lofty
+tower, shrouded in a wild forest, she was revered as an oracle. Her
+answers to the demands of her worshippers concerning future events were
+delivered only to a chosen few. To Civilis, who had formed a close
+friendship with her, she promised success, and the downfall of the Roman
+world. Inspired by her prophecies, many tribes of Germany sent large
+subsidies to the Batavian chief.
+
+The details of the revolt have been carefully preserved by Tacitus, and
+form one of his grandest and most elaborate pictures. The spectacle of a
+brave nation, inspired by the soul of one great man and rising against an
+overwhelming despotism, will always speak to the heart, from generation
+to generation. The battles, the sieges, the defeats, the indomitable
+spirit of Civilis, still flaming most brightly when the clouds were
+darkest around him, have been described by the great historian in his
+most powerful manner. The high-born Roman has thought the noble
+barbarian's portrait a subject worthy his genius.
+
+The struggle was an unsuccessful one. After many victories and many
+overthrows, Civilis was left alone. The Gallic tribes fell off, and sued
+for peace. Vespasian, victorious over Vitellius, proved too powerful for
+his old comrade. Even the Batavians became weary of the hopeless contest,
+while fortune, after much capricious hovering, settled at last upon the
+Roman side. The imperial commander Cerialis seized the moment when the
+cause of the Batavian hero was most desperate to send emissaries among
+his tribe, and even to tamper with the mysterious woman whose prophecies
+had so inflamed his imagination. These intrigues had their effect. The
+fidelity of the people was sapped; the prophetess fell away from her
+worshipper, and foretold ruin to his cause. The Batavians murmured that
+their destruction was inevitable, that one nation could not arrest the
+slavery which was destined for the whole world. How large a part of the
+human race were the Batavians? What were they in a contest with the whole
+Roman empire? Moreover, they were not oppressed with tribute. They were
+only expected to furnish men and valor to their proud allies. It was the
+next thing to liberty. If they were to have rulers, it was better to
+serve a Roman emperor than a German witch.
+
+Thus murmured the people. Had Civilis been successful, he would have been
+deified; but his misfortunes, at last, made him odious in spite of his
+heroism. But the Batavian was not a man to be crushed, nor had he lived
+so long in the Roman service to be outmatched in politics by the
+barbarous Germans. He was not to be sacrificed as a peace-offering to
+revengeful Rome. Watching from beyond the Rhine the progress of defection
+and the decay of national enthusiasm, he determined to be beforehand with
+those who were now his enemies. He accepted the offer of negotiation from
+Cerialis. The Roman general was eager to grant a full pardon, and to
+re-enlist so brave a soldier in the service of the empire.
+
+A colloquy was agreed upon. The bridge across the Nabalia was broken
+asunder in the middle, and Cerialis and Civilis met upon the severed
+sides. The placid stream by which Roman enterprise had connected the
+waters of the Rhine with the lake of Flevo, flowed between the imperial
+commander and the rebel chieftain.
+
+     ***********************************************
+
+Here the story abruptly terminates. The remainder of the Roman's
+narrative is lost, and upon that broken bridge the form of the Batavian
+hero disappears forever. His name fades from history: not a syllable is
+known of his subsequent career; every thing is buried in the profound
+oblivion which now steals over the scene where he was the most imposing
+actor.
+
+The soul of Civilis had proved insufficient to animate a whole people;
+yet it was rather owing to position than to any personal inferiority,
+that his name did not become as illustrious as that of Hermann. The
+German patriot was neither braver nor wiser than the Batavian, but he had
+the infinite forests of his fatherland to protect him. Every legion which
+plunged into those unfathomable depths was forced to retreat
+disastrously, or to perish miserably. Civilis was hemmed in by the ocean;
+his country, long the basis of Roman military operations, was accessible
+by river and canal, The patriotic spirit which he had for a moment
+raised, had abandoned him; his allies had deserted him; he stood alone
+and at bay, encompassed by the hunters, with death or surrender as his
+only alternative. Under such circumstances, Hermann could not have shown
+more courage or conduct, nor have terminated the impossible struggle with
+greater dignity or adroitness.
+
+The contest of Civilis with Rome contains a remarkable foreshadowing of
+the future conflict with Spain, through which the Batavian republic,
+fifteen centuries later, was to be founded. The characters, the events,
+the amphibious battles, desperate sieges, slippery alliances, the traits
+of generosity, audacity and cruelty, the generous confidence, the broken
+faith seem so closely to repeat themselves, that History appears to
+present the self-same drama played over and over again, with but a change
+of actors and of costume. There is more than a fanciful resemblance
+between Civilis and William the Silent, two heroes of ancient German
+stock, who had learned the arts of war and peace in the service of a
+foreign and haughty world-empire. Determination, concentration of
+purpose, constancy in calamity, elasticity almost preternatural,
+self-denial, consummate craft in political combinations, personal
+fortitude, and passionate patriotism, were the heroic elements in both.
+The ambition of each was subordinate to the cause which he served. Both
+refused the crown, although each, perhaps, contemplated, in the sequel, a
+Batavian realm of which he would have been the inevitable chief. Both
+offered the throne to a Gallic prince, for Classicus was but the
+prototype of Anjou, as Brinno of Brederode, and neither was destined, in
+this world, to see his sacrifices crowned with success.
+
+The characteristics of the two great races of the land portrayed
+themselves in the Roman and the Spanish struggle with much the same
+colors. The Southrons, inflammable, petulant, audacious, were the first
+to assault and to defy the imperial power in both revolts, while the
+inhabitants of the northern provinces, slower to be aroused, but of more
+enduring wrath, were less ardent at the commencement, but; alone,
+steadfast at the close of the contest. In both wars the southern Celts
+fell away from the league, their courageous but corrupt chieftains having
+been purchased with imperial gold to bring about the abject submission of
+their followers; while the German Netherlands, although eventually
+subjugated by Rome, after a desperate struggle, were successful in the
+great conflict with Spain, and trampled out of existence every vestige of
+her authority. The Batavian republic took its rank among the leading
+powers of the earth; the Belgic provinces remained Roman, Spanish,
+Austrian property.
+
+
+
+V.
+
+Obscure but important movements in the regions of eternal twilight,
+revolutions, of which history has been silent, in the mysterious depths
+of Asia, outpourings of human rivets along the sides of the Altai
+mountains, convulsions up-heaving r mote realms and unknown dynasties,
+shock after shock throb bing throughout the barbarian world and dying
+upon the edge of civilization, vast throes which shake the earth as
+precursory pangs to the birth of a new empire--as dying symptoms of the
+proud but effete realm which called itself the world; scattered hordes of
+sanguinary, grotesque savages pushed from their own homes, and hovering
+with vague purposes upon the Roman frontier, constantly repelled and
+perpetually reappearing in ever-increasing swarms, guided thither by a
+fierce instinct, or by mysterious laws--such are the well known phenomena
+which preceded the fall of western Rome. Stately, externally powerful,
+although undermined and putrescent at the core, the death-stricken empire
+still dashed back the assaults of its barbarous enemies.
+
+During the long struggle intervening between the age of Vespasian and
+that of Odoacer, during all the preliminary ethnographical revolutions
+which preceded the great people's wandering, the Netherlands remained
+subject provinces. Their country was upon the high road which led the
+Goths to Rome. Those low and barren tracts were the outlying marches of
+the empire. Upon that desolate beach broke the first surf from the rising
+ocean of German freedom which was soon to overwhelm Rome. Yet, although
+the ancient landmarks were soon well nigh obliterated, the Netherlands
+still remained faithful to the Empire, Batavian blood was still poured
+out for its defence.
+
+By the middle of the fourth century, the Franks and Allemanians,
+alle-mannez, all-men, a mass of united Germans are defeated by the
+Emperor Julian at Strasburg, the Batavian cavalry, as upon many other
+great occasions, saving the day for despotism. This achievement, one of
+the last in which the name appears upon historic record, was therefore as
+triumphant for the valor as it was humiliating to the true fame of the
+nation. Their individuality soon afterwards disappears, the race having
+been partly exhausted in the Roman service, partly merged in the Frank
+and Frisian tribes who occupy the domains of their forefathers.
+
+For a century longer, Rome still retains its outward form, but the
+swarming nations are now in full career. The Netherlands are successively
+or simultaneously trampled by Franks, Vandals, Alani, Suevi, Saxons,
+Frisians, and even Sclavonians, as the great march of Germany to
+universal empire, which her prophets and bards had foretold, went
+majestically forward. The fountains of the frozen North were opened, the
+waters prevailed, but the ark of Christianity floated upon the flood. As
+the deluge assuaged, the earth had returned to chaos, the last pagan
+empire had been washed out of existence, but the dimly, groping,
+faltering, ignorant infancy of Christian Europe had begun.
+
+After the wanderings had subsided, the Netherlands are found with much
+the same ethnological character as before. The Frank dominion has
+succeeded the Roman, the German stock preponderates over the Celtic, but
+the national ingredients, although in somewhat altered proportions,
+remain essentially the same. The old Belgae, having become Romanized in
+tongue and customs, accept the new Empire of the Franks. That people,
+however, pushed from their hold of the Rhine by thickly thronging hordes
+of Gepidi, Quadi, Sarmati, Heruli, Saxons, Burgundians, move towards the
+South and West. As the Empire falls before Odoacer, they occupy Celtic
+Gaul with the Belgian portion of the Netherlands; while the Frisians,
+into which ancient German tribe the old Batavian element has melted, not
+to be extinguished, but to live a renovated existence, the "free
+Frisians;" whose name is synonymous with liberty, nearest blood relations
+of the Anglo-Saxon race, now occupy the northern portion, including the
+whole future European territory of the Dutch republic.
+
+The history of the Franks becomes, therefore, the history of the
+Netherlands. The Frisians struggle, for several centuries, against their
+dominion, until eventually subjugated by Charlemagne. They even encroach
+upon the Franks in Belgic Gaul, who are determined not to yield their
+possessions. Moreover, the pious Merovingian faineans desire to plant
+Christianity among the still pagan Frisians. Dagobert, son of the second
+Clotaire, advances against them as far as the Weser, takes possession of
+Utrecht, founds there the first Christian church in Friesland, and
+establishes a nominal dominion over the whole country.
+
+Yet the feeble Merovingians would have been powerless against rugged
+Friesland, had not their dynasty already merged in that puissant family
+of Brabant, which long wielded their power before it assumed their crown.
+It was Pepin of Heristal, grandson of the Netherlander, Pepin of Landen,
+who conquered the Frisian Radbod (A.D. 692), and forced him to exchange
+his royal for the ducal title.
+
+It was Pepin's bastard, Charles the Hammer, whose tremendous blows
+completed his father's work. The new mayor of the palace soon drove the
+Frisian chief into submission, and even into Christianity. A bishop's
+indiscretion, however, neutralized the apostolic blows of the mayor. The
+pagan Radbod had already immersed one of his royal legs in the baptismal
+font, when a thought struck him. "Where are my dead forefathers at
+present?" he said, turning suddenly upon Bishop Wolfran. "In Hell, with
+all other unbelievers," was the imprudent answer. "Mighty well," replied
+Radbod, removing his leg, "then will I rather feast with my ancestors in
+the halls of Woden, than dwell with your little starveling hand of
+Christians in Heaven." Entreaties and threats were unavailing. The
+Frisian declined positively a rite which was to cause an eternal
+separation from his buried kindred, and he died as he had lived, a
+heathen. His son, Poppa, succeeding to the nominal sovereignty, did not
+actively oppose the introduction of Christianity among his people, but
+himself refused to be converted. Rebelling against the Frank dominion, he
+was totally routed by Charles Martell in a great battle (A.D.750) and
+perished with a vast number of Frisians. The Christian dispensation, thus
+enforced, was now accepted by these northern pagans. The commencement of
+their conversion had been mainly the work of their brethren from Britain.
+The monk Wilfred was followed in a few years by the Anglo-Saxon
+Willibrod. It was he who destroyed the images of Woden in Walcheren,
+abolished his worship, and founded churches in North Holland. Charles
+Martell rewarded him with extensive domains about Utrecht, together with
+many slaves and other chattels. Soon afterwards he was consecrated Bishop
+of all the Frisians. Thus rose the famous episcopate of Utrecht. Another
+Anglo-Saxon, Winfred, or Bonifacius, had been equally active among his
+Frisian cousins. His crozier had gone hand in hand with the battle-axe.
+Bonifacius followed close upon the track of his orthodox coadjutor
+Charles. By the middle of the eighth century, some hundred thousand
+Frisians had been slaughtered, and as many more converted. The hammer
+which smote the Saracens at Tours was at last successful in beating the
+Netherlanders into Christianity. The labors of Bonifacius through Upper
+and Lower Germany were immense; but he, too, received great material
+rewards. He was created Archbishop of Mayence, and, upon the death of
+Willibrod, Bishop of Utrecht. Faithful to his mission, however, he met,
+heroically, a martyr's death at the hands of the refractory pagans at
+Dokkum. Thus was Christianity established in the Netherlands.
+
+Under Charlemagne, the Frisians often rebelled, making common cause with
+the Saxons. In 785, A.D., they were, however, completely subjugated, and
+never rose again until the epoch of their entire separation from the
+Frank empire. Charlemagne left them their name of free Frisians, and the
+property in their own land. The feudal system never took root in their
+soil. "The Frisians," says their statute book; "shall be free, as long as
+the wind blows out of the clouds and the world stands." They agreed,
+however, to obey the chiefs whom the Frank monarch should appoint to
+govern them, according to their own laws. Those laws were collected, and
+are still extant. The vernacular version of their Asega book contains
+their ancient customs, together with the Frank additions. The general
+statutes of Charlemagne were, of course, in vigor also; but that great
+legislator knew too well the importance attached by all mankind to local
+customs, to allow his imperial capitulara to interfere, unnecessarily,
+with the Frisian laws.
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+Thus again the Netherlands, for the first time since the fall of Rome,
+were united under one crown imperial. They had already been once united,
+in their slavery to Rome. Eight centuries pass away, and they are again
+united, in subjection to Charlemagne. Their union was but in forming a
+single link in the chain of a new realm. The reign of Charlemagne had at
+last accomplished the promise of the sorceress Velleda and other
+soothsayers. A German race had re-established the empire of the world.
+The Netherlands, like-the other provinces of the great monarch's
+dominion, were governed by crown-appointed functionaries, military and
+judicial. In the northeastern, or Frisian portion, however; the grants of
+land were never in the form of revocable benefices or feuds. With this
+important exception, the whole country shared the fate, and enjoyed the
+general organization of the Empire.
+
+But Charlemagne came an age too soon. The chaos which had brooded over
+Europe since the dissolution of the Roman world, was still too absolute.
+It was not to be fashioned into permanent forms, even by his bold and
+constructive genius. A soil, exhausted by the long culture of Pagan
+empires, was to lie fallow for a still longer period. The discordant
+elements out of which the Emperor had compounded his realm, did not
+coalesce during his life-time. They were only held together by the
+vigorous grasp of the hand which had combined them. When the great
+statesman died, his Empire necessarily fell to pieces. Society had need
+of farther disintegration before it could begin to reconstruct itself
+locally. A new civilization was not to be improvised by a single mind.
+When did one man ever civilize a people? In the eighth and ninth
+centuries there was not even a people to be civilized. The construction
+of Charles was, of necessity, temporary. His Empire was supported by
+artificial columns, resting upon the earth, which fell prostrate almost
+as soon as the hand of their architect was cold. His institutions had not
+struck down into the soil. There were no extensive and vigorous roots to
+nourish, from below, a flourishing Empire through time and tempest.
+
+Moreover, the Carlovingian race had been exhausted by producing a race of
+heroes like the Pepins and the Charleses. The family became, soon, as
+contemptible as the ox-drawn, long-haired "do-nothings" whom it had
+expelled; but it is not our task to describe the fortunes of the
+Emperor's ignoble descendants. The realm was divided, sub-divided, at
+times partially reunited, like a family farm, among monarchs incompetent
+alike to hold, to delegate, or--to resign the inheritance of the great
+warrior and lawgiver. The meek, bald, fat, stammering, simple Charles, or
+Louis, who successively sat upon his throne--princes, whose only historic
+individuality consists in these insipid appellations--had not the sense
+to comprehend, far less to develop, the plans of their ancestor.
+
+Charles the Simple was the last Carlovingian who governed Lotharingia, in
+which were comprised most of the Netherlands and Friesland. The German
+monarch, Henry the Fowler, at that period called King of the East Franks,
+as Charles of the West Franks, acquired Lotharingia by the treaty of
+Bonn, Charles reserving the sovereignty over the kingdom during his
+lifetime. In 925, A.D., however, the Simpleton having been imprisoned and
+deposed by his own subjects, the Fowler was recognized King, of
+Lotharingia. Thus the Netherlands passed out of France into Germany,
+remaining, still, provinces of a loose, disjointed Empire.
+
+This is the epoch in which the various dukedoms, earldoms, and other
+petty sovereignties of the Netherlands became hereditary. It was in the
+year 922 that Charles the Simple presented to Count Dirk the territory of
+Holland, by letters patent. This narrow hook of land, destined, in future
+ages, to be the cradle of a considerable empire, stretching through both
+hemispheres, was, thenceforth, the inheritance of Dirk's descendants.
+Historically, therefore, he is Dirk I., Count of Holland.
+
+Of this small sovereign and his successors, the most powerful foe for
+centuries was ever the Bishop of Utrecht, the origin of whose greatness
+has been already indicated. Of the other Netherland provinces, now or
+before become hereditary, the first in rank was Lotharingia, once the
+kingdom of Lothaire, now the dukedom of Lorraine. In 965 it was divided
+into Upper and Lower Lorraine, of which the lower duchy alone belonged to
+the Netherlands. Two centuries later, the Counts of Louvain, then
+occupying most of Brabant, obtained a permanent hold of Lower Lorraine,
+and began to call themselves Dukes of Brabant. The same principle of
+local independence and isolation which created these dukes, established
+the hereditary power of the counts and barons who formerly exercised
+jurisdiction under them and others. Thus arose sovereign Counts of Namur,
+Hainault, Limburg, Zutphen, Dukes of Luxemburg and Gueldres, Barons of
+Mechlin, Marquesses of Antwerp, and others; all petty autocrats. The most
+important of all, after the house of Lorraine, were the Earls of
+Flanders; for the bold foresters of Charles the Great had soon wrested
+the sovereignty of their little territory from his feeble descendants as
+easily as Baldwin, with the iron arm, had deprived the bald Charles of
+his daughter. Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Overyssel, Groningen, Drenthe
+and Friesland (all seven being portions of Friesland in a general sense),
+were crowded together upon a little desolate corner of Europe; an obscure
+fragment of Charlemagne's broken empire. They were afterwards to
+constitute the United States of the Netherlands, one of the most powerful
+republics of history. Meantime, for century after century, the Counts of
+Holland and the Bishops of Utrecht were to exercise divided sway over the
+territory.
+
+Thus the whole country was broken into many shreds and patches of
+sovereignty. The separate history of such half-organized morsels is
+tedious and petty. Trifling dynasties, where a family or two were every
+thing, the people nothing, leave little worth recording. Even the most
+devout of genealogists might shudder to chronicle the long succession of
+so many illustrious obscure.
+
+A glance, however, at the general features of the governmental system now
+established in the Netherlands, at this important epoch in the world's
+history, will show the transformations which the country, in common with
+other portions of the western world, had undergone.
+
+In the tenth century the old Batavian and later Roman forms have faded
+away. An entirely new polity has succeeded. No great popular assembly
+asserts its sovereignty, as in the ancient German epoch; no generals and
+temporary kings are chosen by the nation. The elective power had been
+lost under the Romans, who, after conquest, had conferred the
+administrative authority over their subject provinces upon officials
+appointed by the metropolis. The Franks pursued the same course. In
+Charlemagne's time, the revolution is complete. Popular assemblies and
+popular election entirely vanish. Military, civil, and judicial
+officers-dukes, earls, margraves, and others--are all king's creatures,
+'knegton des konings, pueri regis', and so remain, till they abjure the
+creative power, and set up their own. The principle of Charlemagne, that
+his officers should govern according to local custom, helps them to
+achieve their own independence, while it preserves all that is left of
+national liberty and law.
+
+The counts, assisted by inferior judges, hold diets from time to
+time--thrice, perhaps, annually. They also summon assemblies in case of
+war. Thither are called the great vassals, who, in turn, call their
+lesser vassals; each armed with "a shield, a spear, a bow, twelve arrows,
+and a cuirass." Such assemblies, convoked in the name of a distant
+sovereign, whose face his subjects had never seen, whose language they
+could hardly understand, were very different from those tumultuous
+mass-meetings, where boisterous freemen, armed with the weapons they
+loved the best, and arriving sooner or later, according to their
+pleasure, had been accustomed to elect their generals and magistrates and
+to raise them upon their shields. The people are now governed, their
+rulers appointed by an invisible hand. Edicts, issued by a power, as it
+were, supernatural, demand implicit obedience. The people, acquiescing in
+their own annihilation, abdicate not only their political but their
+personal rights. On the other hand, the great source of power diffuses
+less and less of light and warmth. Losing its attractive and controlling
+influence, it becomes gradually eclipsed, while its satellites fly from
+their prescribed bounds and chaos and darkness return. The sceptre,
+stretched over realms so wide, requires stronger hands than those of
+degenerate Carlovingians. It breaks asunder. Functionaries become
+sovereigns, with hereditary, not delegated, right to own the people, to
+tax their roads and rivers, to take tithings of their blood and sweat, to
+harass them in all the relations of life. There is no longer a metropolis
+to protect them from official oppression. Power, the more sub-divided,
+becomes the more tyrannical. The sword is the only symbol of law, the
+cross is a weapon of offence, the bishop is a consecrated pirate, every
+petty baron a burglar, while the people, alternately the prey of duke,
+prelate, and seignor, shorn and butchered like sheep, esteem it happiness
+to sell themselves into slavery, or to huddle beneath the castle walls of
+some little potentate, for the sake of his wolfish protection. Here they
+build hovels, which they surround from time to time with palisades and
+muddy entrenchments; and here, in these squalid abodes of ignorance and
+misery, the genius of Liberty, conducted by the spirit of Commerce,
+descends at last to awaken mankind from its sloth and cowardly stupor. A
+longer night was to intervene; however, before the dawn of day.
+
+The crown-appointed functionaries had been, of course, financial
+officers. They collected the revenue of the sovereign, one third of which
+slipped through their fingers into their own coffers. Becoming sovereigns
+themselves, they retain these funds for their private emolument. Four
+principal sources yielded this revenue: royal domains, tolls and imposts,
+direct levies and a pleasantry called voluntary contributions or
+benevolences. In addition to these supplies were also the proceeds of
+fines. Taxation upon sin was, in those rude ages, a considerable branch
+of the revenue. The old Frisian laws consisted almost entirely of a
+discriminating tariff upon crimes. Nearly all the misdeeds which man is
+prone to commit, were punished by a money-bote only. Murder, larceny,
+arson, rape--all offences against the person were commuted for a definite
+price. There were a few exceptions, such as parricide, which was followed
+by loss of inheritance; sacrilege and the murder of a master by a slave,
+which were punished with death. It is a natural inference that, as the
+royal treasury was enriched by these imposts, the sovereign would hardly
+attempt to check the annual harvest of iniquity by which his revenue was
+increased. Still, although the moral sense is shocked by a system which
+makes the ruler's interest identical with the wickedness of his people,
+and holds out a comparative immunity in evil-doing for the rich, it was
+better that crime should be punished by money rather than not be punished
+at all. A severe tax, which the noble reluctantly paid and which the
+penniless culprit commuted by personal slavery, was sufficiently unjust
+as well as absurd, yet it served to mitigate the horrors with which
+tumult, rapine, and murder enveloped those early days. Gradually, as the
+light of reason broke upon the dark ages, the most noxious features of
+the system were removed, while the general sentiment of reverence for law
+remained.
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     A country disinherited by nature of its rights
+     A pleasantry called voluntary contributions or benevolences
+     Annual harvest of iniquity by which his revenue was increased
+     Batavian legion was the imperial body guard
+     Beating the Netherlanders into Christianity
+     Bishop is a consecrated pirate
+     Brethren, parents, and children, having wives in common
+     For women to lament, for men to remember
+     Gaul derided the Roman soldiers as a band of pigmies
+     Great science of political equilibrium
+     Holland, England, and America, are all links of one chain
+     Long succession of so many illustrious obscure
+     Others go to battle, says the historian, these go to war
+     Revocable benefices or feuds
+     Taxation upon sin
+     The Gaul was singularly unchaste
+
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, PG EDITION, VOLUME 2.
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
+JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, D.C.L., LL.D.
+1855
+
+HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION., Part 2.
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+Five centuries of isolation succeed. In the Netherlands, as throughout
+Europe, a thousand obscure and slender rills are slowly preparing the
+great stream of universal culture. Five dismal centuries of feudalism:
+during which period there is little talk of human right, little obedience
+to divine reason. Rights there are none, only forces; and, in brief,
+three great forces, gradually arising, developing themselves, acting upon
+each other, and upon the general movement of society.
+
+The sword--the first, for a time the only force: the force of iron. The
+"land's master," having acquired the property in the territory and in the
+people who feed thereon, distributes to his subalterns, often but a shade
+beneath him in power, portions of his estate, getting the use of their
+faithful swords in return. Vavasours subdivide again to vassals,
+exchanging land and cattle, human or otherwise, against fealty, and so
+the iron chain of a military hierarchy, forged of mutually interdependent
+links, is stretched over each little province. Impregnable castles, here
+more numerous than in any other part of Christendom, dot the level
+surface of the country. Mail-clad knights, with their followers, encamp
+permanently upon the soil. The fortunate fable of divine right is
+invented to sanction the system; superstition and ignorance give currency
+to the delusion. Thus the grace of God, having conferred the property in
+a vast portion of Europe upon a certain idiot in France, makes him
+competent to sell large fragments of his estate, and to give a divine,
+and, therefore, most satisfactory title along with them. A great
+convenience to a man, who had neither power, wit, nor will to keep the
+property in his own hands. So the Dirks of Holland get a deed from
+Charles the Simple, and, although the grace of God does not prevent the
+royal grantor himself from dying a miserable, discrowned captive, the
+conveyance to Dirk is none the less hallowed by almighty fiat. So the
+Roberts and Guys, the Johns and Baldwins, become sovereigns in Hainault,
+Brabant, Flanders and other little districts, affecting supernatural
+sanction for the authority which their good swords have won and are ever
+ready to maintain. Thus organized, the force of iron asserts and exerts
+itself. Duke, count, seignor and vassal, knight and squire, master and
+man swarm and struggle amain. A wild, chaotic, sanguinary scene. Here,
+bishop and baron contend, centuries long, murdering human creatures by
+ten thousands for an acre or two of swampy pasture; there, doughty
+families, hugging old musty quarrels to their heart, buffet each other
+from generation to generation; thus they go on, raging and wrestling
+among themselves, with all the world, shrieking insane war-cries which no
+human soul ever understood--red caps and black, white hoods and grey,
+Hooks and Kabbeljaws, dealing destruction, building castles and burning
+them, tilting at tourneys, stealing bullocks, roasting Jews, robbing the
+highways, crusading--now upon Syrian sands against Paynim dogs, now in
+Frisian quagmires against Albigenses, Stedingers, and other
+heretics--plunging about in blood and fire, repenting, at idle times, and
+paying their passage through, purgatory with large slices of ill-gotten
+gains placed in the ever-extended dead-hand of the Church; acting, on the
+whole, according to their kind, and so getting themselves civilized or
+exterminated, it matters little which. Thus they play their part, those
+energetic men-at-arms; and thus one great force, the force of iron, spins
+and expands itself, century after century, helping on, as it whirls, the
+great progress of society towards its goal, wherever that may be.
+
+Another force--the force clerical--the power of clerks, arises; the might
+of educated mind measuring itself against brute violence; a force
+embodied, as often before, as priestcraft--the strength of priests: craft
+meaning, simply, strength, in our old mother-tongue. This great force,
+too, develops itself variously, being sometimes beneficent, sometimes
+malignant. Priesthood works out its task, age after age: now smoothing
+penitent death-beds, consecrating graves! feeding the hungry, clothing
+the naked, incarnating the Christian precepts, in an age of rapine and
+homicide, doing a thousand deeds of love and charity among the obscure
+and forsaken--deeds of which there shall never be human chronicle, but a
+leaf or two, perhaps, in the recording angel's book; hiving precious
+honey from the few flowers of gentle, art which bloom upon a howling
+wilderness; holding up the light of science over a stormy sea; treasuring
+in convents and crypts the few fossils of antique learning which become
+visible, as the extinct Megatherium of an elder world reappears after the
+gothic deluge; and now, careering in helm and hauberk with the other
+ruffians, bandying blows in the thickest of the fight, blasting with
+bell, book, and candle its trembling enemies, while sovereigns, at the
+head of armies, grovel in the dust and offer abject submission for the
+kiss of peace; exercising the same conjury over ignorant baron and
+cowardly hind, making the fiction of apostolic authority to bind and
+loose, as prolific in acres as the other divine right to have and hold;
+thus the force of cultivated intellect, wielded by a chosen few and
+sanctioned by supernatural authority, becomes as potent as the sword.
+
+A third force, developing itself more slowly, becomes even more potent
+than the rest: the power of gold. Even iron yields to the more ductile
+metal. The importance of municipalities, enriched by trade, begins to be
+felt. Commerce, the mother of Netherland freedom, and, eventually, its
+destroyer--even as in all human history the vivifying becomes afterwards
+the dissolving principle--commerce changes insensibly and miraculously
+the aspect of society. Clusters of hovels become towered cities; the
+green and gilded Hanse of commercial republicanism coils itself around
+the decaying trunk of feudal despotism. Cities leagued with cities
+throughout and beyond Christendom-empire within empire-bind themselves
+closer and closer in the electric chain of human sympathy and grow
+stronger and stronger by mutual support. Fishermen and river raftsmen
+become ocean adventurers and merchant princes. Commerce plucks up
+half-drowned Holland by the locks and pours gold into her lap. Gold
+wrests power from iron. Needy Flemish weavers become mighty
+manufacturers. Armies of workmen, fifty thousand strong, tramp through
+the swarming streets. Silk-makers, clothiers, brewers become the gossips
+of kings, lend their royal gossips vast sums and burn the royal notes of
+hand in fires of cinnamon wood. Wealth brings strength, strength
+confidence. Learning to handle cross-bow and dagger, the burghers fear
+less the baronial sword, finding that their own will cut as well, seeing
+that great armies--flowers of chivalry--can ride away before them fast
+enough at battles of spurs and other encounters. Sudden riches beget
+insolence, tumults, civic broils. Internecine quarrels, horrible tumults
+stain the streets with blood, but education lifts the citizens more and
+more out of the original slough. They learn to tremble as little at
+priestcraft as at swordcraft, having acquired something of each. Gold in
+the end, unsanctioned by right divine, weighs up the other forces,
+supernatural as they are. And so, struggling along their appointed path,
+making cloth, making money, making treaties with great kingdoms, making
+war by land and sea, ringing great bells, waving great banners, they,
+too--these insolent, boisterous burghers--accomplish their work. Thus,
+the mighty power of the purse develops itself and municipal liberty
+becomes a substantial fact. A fact, not a principle; for the old theorem
+of sovereignty remains undisputed as ever. Neither the nation, in mass,
+nor the citizens, in class, lay claim to human rights. All upper
+attributes--legislative, judicial, administrative--remain in the
+land-master's breast alone. It is an absurdity, therefore, to argue with
+Grotius concerning the unknown antiquity of the Batavian republic. The
+republic never existed at all till the sixteenth century, and was only
+born after long years of agony. The democratic instincts of the ancient
+German savages were to survive in the breasts of their cultivated
+descendants, but an organized, civilized, republican polity had never
+existed. The cities, as they grew in strength, never claimed the right to
+make the laws or to share in the government. As a matter of fact, they
+did make the laws, and shared, beside, in most important functions of
+sovereignty, in the treaty-making power, especially. Sometimes by
+bargains; sometimes by blood, by gold, threats, promises, or good hard
+blows they extorted their charters. Their codes, statutes, joyful
+entrances, and other constitutions were dictated by the burghers and
+sworn to by the monarch. They were concessions from above; privileges
+private laws; fragments indeed of a larger liberty, but vastly, better
+than the slavery for which they had been substituted; solid facts instead
+of empty abstractions, which, in those practical and violent days, would
+have yielded little nutriment; but they still rather sought to reconcile
+themselves, by a rough, clumsy fiction, with the hierarchy which they had
+invaded, than to overturn the system. Thus the cities, not regarding
+themselves as representatives or aggregations of the people, became
+fabulous personages, bodies without souls, corporations which had
+acquired vitality and strength enough to assert their existence. As
+persons, therefore--gigantic individualities--they wheeled into the
+feudal ranks and assumed feudal powers and responsibilities. The city of
+Dort; of Middelburg, of Ghent, of Louvain, was a living being, doing
+fealty, claiming service, bowing to its lord, struggling with its equals,
+trampling upon its slaves.
+
+Thus, in these obscure provinces, as throughout Europe, in a thousand
+remote and isolated corners, civilization builds itself up, synthetically
+and slowly; yet at last, a whole is likely to get itself constructed.
+Thus, impelled by great and conflicting forces, now obliquely, now
+backward, now upward, yet, upon the whole, onward, the new Society moves
+along its predestined orbit, gathering consistency and strength as it
+goes. Society, civilization, perhaps, but hardly humanity. The people has
+hardly begun to extricate itself from the clods in which it lies buried.
+There are only nobles, priests, and, latterly, cities. In the northern
+Netherlands, the degraded condition of the mass continued longest. Even
+in Friesland, liberty, the dearest blessing of the ancient Frisians, had
+been forfeited in a variety of ways. Slavery was both voluntary and
+compulsory. Paupers sold themselves that they might escape starvation.
+The timid sold themselves that they might escape violence. These
+voluntary sales, which were frequent, wore usually made to cloisters and
+ecclesiastical establishments, for the condition of Church-slaves was
+preferable to that of other serfs. Persons worsted in judicial duels,
+shipwrecked sailors, vagrants, strangers, criminals unable to pay the
+money-bote imposed upon them, were all deprived of freedom; but the
+prolific source of slavery was war. Prisoners were almost universally
+reduced to servitude. A free woman who intermarried with a slave
+condemned herself and offspring to perpetual bondage. Among the Ripuarian
+Franks, a free woman thus disgracing herself, was girt with a sword and a
+distaff. Choosing the one, she was to strike her husband dead; choosing
+the other, she adopted the symbol of slavery, and became a chattel for
+life.
+
+The ferocious inroads of the Normans scared many weak and timid persons
+into servitude. They fled, by throngs, to church and monastery, and were
+happy, by enslaving themselves, to escape the more terrible bondage of
+the sea-kings. During the brief dominion of the Norman Godfrey, every
+free Frisian was forced to wear a halter around his neck. The lot of a
+Church-slave was freedom in comparison. To kill him was punishable by a
+heavy fine. He could give testimony in court, could inherit, could make a
+will, could even plead before the law, if law could be found. The number
+of slaves throughout the Netherlands was very large; the number belonging
+to the bishopric of Utrecht, enormous.
+
+The condition of those belonging to laymen was much more painful. The
+Lyf-eigene, or absolute slaves, were the most wretched. They were mere
+brutes. They had none of the natural attributes of humanity, their life
+and death were in the master's hands, they had no claim to a fraction of
+their own labor or its fruits, they had no marriage, except under
+condition of the infamous 'jus primoe noctis'. The villagers, or
+villeins, were the second class and less forlorn. They could commute the
+labor due to their owner by a fixed sum of money, after annual payment of
+which, the villein worked for himself. His master, therefore, was not his
+absolute proprietor. The chattel had a beneficial interest in a portion
+of his own flesh and blood.
+
+The crusades made great improvement in the condition of the serfs. He who
+became a soldier of the cross was free upon his return, and many were
+adventurous enough to purchase liberty at so honorable a price. Many
+others were sold or mortgaged by the crusading knights, desirous of
+converting their property into gold, before embarking upon their
+enterprise. The purchasers or mortgagees were in general churches and
+convents, so that the slaves, thus alienated, obtained at least a
+preferable servitude. The place of the absent serfs was supplied by free
+labor, so that agricultural and mechanical occupations, now devolving
+upon a more elevated class, became less degrading, and, in process of
+time, opened an ever-widening sphere for the industry and progress of
+freemen. Thus a people began to exist. It was, however; a miserable
+people, with personal, but no civil rights whatever. Their condition,
+although better than servitude, was almost desperate. They were taxed
+beyond their ability, while priest and noble were exempt. They had no
+voice in the apportionment of the money thus contributed. There was no
+redress against the lawless violence to which they were perpetually
+exposed. In the manorial courts, the criminal sat in judgment upon his
+victim. The functions of highwayman and magistrate were combined in one
+individual.
+
+By degrees, the class of freemen, artisans, traders, and the like,
+becoming the more numerous, built stronger and better houses outside the
+castle gates of the "land's master" or the burghs of the more powerful
+nobles. The superiors, anxious to increase their own importance, favored
+the progress of the little boroughs. The population, thus collected,
+began to divide themselves into guilds. These were soon afterwards
+erected by the community into bodies corporate; the establishment of the
+community, of course, preceding, the incorporation of the guilds. Those
+communities were created by charters or Keuren, granted by the sovereign.
+Unless the earliest concessions of this nature have perished, the town
+charters of Holland or Zeland are nearly a century later than those of
+Flanders, France, and England.
+
+The oldest Keur, or act of municipal incorporation, in the provinces
+afterwards constituting the republic, was that granted by Count William
+the First of Holland and Countess Joanna of Flanders, as joint
+proprietors of Walcheren, to the town of Middelburg. It will be seen that
+its main purport is to promise, as a special privilege to this community,
+law, in place of the arbitrary violence by which mankind, in general,
+were governed by their betters.
+
+"The inhabitants," ran the Charter, "are taken into protection by both
+counts. Upon fighting, maiming, wounding, striking, scolding; upon
+peace-breaking, upon resistance to peace-makers and to the judgment of
+Schepens; upon contemning the Ban, upon selling spoiled wine, and upon
+other misdeeds fines are imposed for behoof of the Count, the city, and
+sometimes of the Schepens.......To all Middelburgers one kind of law is
+guaranteed. Every man must go to law before the Schepens. If any one
+being summoned and present in Walcheren does not appear, or refuses
+submission to sentence, he shall be banished with confiscation of
+property. Schout or Schepen denying justice to a complainant, shall,
+until reparation, hold no tribunal again.......A burgher having a dispute
+with an outsider (buiten mann) must summon him before the Schepens. An
+appeal lies from the Schepens to the Count. No one can testify but a
+householder. All alienation of real estate must take place before the
+Schepens. If an outsider has a complaint against a burgher, the Schepens
+and Schout must arrange it. If either party refuses submission to them,
+they must ring the town bell and summon an assembly of all the burghers
+to compel him. Any one ringing the town bell, except by general consent,
+and any one not appearing when it tolls, are liable to a fine. No
+Middelburger can be arrested or held in durance within Flanders or
+Holland, except for crime."
+
+This document was signed, sealed, and sworn to by the two sovereigns in
+the year 1217. It was the model upon which many other communities,
+cradles of great cities, in Holland and Zeland, were afterwards created.
+
+These charters are certainly not very extensive, even for the privileged
+municipalities which obtained them, when viewed from an abstract
+stand-point. They constituted, however, a very great advance from the
+stand-point at which humanity actually found itself. They created, not
+for all inhabitants, but for great numbers of them, the right, not to
+govern them selves but to be governed by law: They furnished a local
+administration of justice. They provided against arbitrary imprisonment.
+They set up tribunals, where men of burgher class were to sit in
+judgment. They held up a shield against arbitrary violence from above and
+sedition from within. They encouraged peace-makers, punished
+peace-breakers. They guarded the fundamental principle, 'ut sua
+tanerent', to the verge of absurdity; forbidding a freeman, without a
+freehold, from testifying--a capacity not denied even to a country slave.
+Certainly all this was better than fist-law and courts manorial. For the
+commencement of the thirteenth century, it was progress.
+
+The Schout and Schepens, or chief magistrate and aldermen, were
+originally appointed by the sovereign. In process of time, the election
+of these municipal authorities was conceded to the communities. This
+inestimable privilege, however, after having been exercised during a
+certain period by the whole body of citizens, was eventually monopolized
+by the municipal government itself, acting in common with the deans of
+the various guilds.
+
+Thus organized and inspired with the breath of civic life, the
+communities of Flanders and Holland began to move rapidly forward. More
+and more they assumed the appearance of prosperous little republics. For
+this prosperity they were indebted to commerce, particularly with England
+and the Baltic nations, and to manufactures, especially of wool.
+
+The trade between England and the Netherlands had existed for ages, and
+was still extending itself, to the great advantage of both countries. A
+dispute, however, between the merchants of Holland and England, towards
+the year 1215, caused a privateering warfare, and a ten years' suspension
+of intercourse. A reconciliation afterwards led to the establishment of
+the English wool staple, at Dort. A subsequent quarrel deprived Holland
+of this great advantage. King Edward refused to assist Count Florence in
+a war with the Flemings, and transferred the staple from Dort to Bruges
+and Mechlin.
+
+The trade of the Netherlands with the Mediterranean and the East was
+mainly through this favored city of Bruges, which, already in the
+thirteenth century, had risen to the first rank in the commercial world.
+It was the resting-place for the Lombards and other Italians, the great
+entrepot for their merchandise. It now became, in addition, the great
+marketplace for English wool, and the woollen fabrics of all the
+Netherlands, as well as for the drugs and spices of the East. It had,
+however, by no means reached its apogee, but was to culminate with
+Venice, and to sink with her decline. When the overland Indian trade fell
+off with the discovery of the Cape passage, both cities withered. Grass
+grew in the fair and pleasant streets of Bruges, and sea-weed clustered
+about the marble halls of Venice. At this epoch, however, both were in a
+state of rapid and insolent prosperity.
+
+The cities, thus advancing in wealth and importance, were no longer
+satisfied with being governed according to law, and began to participate,
+not only in their own, but in the general government. Under Guy of
+Flanders, the towns appeared regularly, as well as the nobles, in the
+assembly of the provincial estates. (1386-1389, A.D.) In the course of
+the following century, the six chief cities, or capitals, of Holland
+(Dort, Harlem, Delft, Leyden, Goads, and Amsterdam) acquired the right of
+sending their deputies regularly to the estates of the provinces. These
+towns, therefore, with the nobles, constituted the parliamentary power of
+the nation. They also acquired letters patent from the count, allowing
+them to choose their burgomasters and a limited number of councillors or
+senators (Vroedschappen).
+
+Thus the liberties of Holland and Flanders waxed, daily, stronger. A
+great physical convulsion in the course of the thirteenth century came to
+add its influence to the slower process of political revolution. Hitherto
+there had been but one Friesland, including Holland, and nearly all the
+territory of the future republic. A slender stream alone separated the
+two great districts. The low lands along the Vlie, often threatened, at
+last sank in the waves. The German Ocean rolled in upon the inland Lake
+of Flevo. The stormy Zuyder Zee began its existence by engulfing
+thousands of Frisian villages, with all their population, and by
+spreading a chasm between kindred peoples. The political, as well as the
+geographical, continuity of the land was obliterated by this tremendous
+deluge. The Hollanders were cut off from their relatives in the east by
+as dangerous a sea as that which divided them from their Anglo-Saxon
+brethren in Britain. The deputies to the general assemblies at Aurich
+could no longer undertake a journey grown so perilous. West Friesland
+became absorbed in Holland. East Friesland remained a federation of rude
+but self-governed maritime provinces, until the brief and bloody dominion
+of the Saxon dukes led to the establishment of Charles the Fifth's
+authority. Whatever the nominal sovereignty over them, this most
+republican tribe of Netherlanders, or of Europeans, had never accepted
+feudalism. There was an annual congress of the whole confederacy. Each of
+the seven little states, on the other hand, regulated its own internal
+affairs. Each state was subdivided into districts, each district governed
+by a Griet-mann (greatman, selectman) and assistants. Above all these
+district officers was a Podesta, a magistrate identical, in name and
+functions, with the chief officer of the Italian republics. There was
+sometimes but one Podesta; sometimes one for each province. He was chosen
+by the people, took oath of fidelity to the separate estates, or, if
+Podesta-general, to the federal diet, and was generally elected for a
+limited term, although sometimes for life. He was assisted by a board of
+eighteen or twenty councillors. The deputies to the general congress were
+chosen by popular suffrage in Easter-week. The clergy were not recognized
+as a political estate.
+
+Thus, in those lands which a niggard nature had apparently condemned to
+perpetual poverty and obscurity, the principle of reasonable human
+freedom, without which there is no national prosperity or glory worth
+contending for, was taking deepest and strongest root. Already in the
+thirteenth and fourteenth centuries Friesland was a republic, except in
+name; Holland, Flanders, Brabant, had acquired a large share of
+self-government. The powerful commonwealth, at a later period to be
+evolved out of the great combat between centralized tyranny and the
+spirit of civil and religious liberty, was already foreshadowed. The
+elements, of which that important republic was to be compounded, were
+germinating for centuries. Love of freedom, readiness to strike and bleed
+at any moment in her cause, manly resistance to despotism, however
+overshadowing, were the leading characteristics of the race in all
+regions or periods, whether among Frisian swamps, Dutch dykes, the gentle
+hills and dales of England, or the pathless forests of America.
+Doubtless, the history of human liberty in Holland and Flanders, as every
+where else upon earth where there has been such a history, unrolls many
+scenes of turbulence and bloodshed; although these features have been
+exaggerated by prejudiced historians. Still, if there were luxury and
+insolence, sedition and uproar, at any rate there was life. Those violent
+little commonwealths had blood in their veins. They were compact of
+proud, self-helping, muscular vigor. The most sanguinary tumults which
+they ever enacted in the face of day, were better than the order and
+silence born of the midnight darkness of despotism. That very unruliness
+was educating the people for their future work. Those merchants,
+manufacturers, country squires, and hard-fighting barons, all pent up in
+a narrow corner of the earth, quarrelling with each other and with all
+the world for centuries, were keeping alive a national pugnacity of
+character, for which there was to be a heavy demand in the sixteenth
+century, and without which the fatherland had perhaps succumbed in the
+most unequal conflict ever waged by man against oppression.
+
+To sketch the special history of even the leading Netherland provinces,
+during the five centuries which we have thus rapidly sought to
+characterize, is foreign to our purpose. By holding the clue of Holland's
+history, the general maze of dynastic transformations throughout the
+country may, however, be swiftly threaded. From the time of the first
+Dirk to the close of the thirteenth century there were nearly four
+hundred years of unbroken male descent, a long line of Dirks and
+Florences. This iron-handed, hot-headed, adventurous race, placed as
+sovereign upon its little sandy hook, making ferocious exertions to swell
+into larger consequence, conquering a mile or two of morass or barren
+furze, after harder blows and bloodier encounters than might have
+established an empire under more favorable circumstances, at last dies
+out. The courtship falls to the house of Avennes, Counts of Hainault.
+Holland, together with Zeland, which it had annexed, is thus joined to
+the province of Hainault. At the end of another half century the Hainault
+line expires. William the Fourth died childless in 1355. His death is the
+signal for the outbreak of an almost interminable series of civil
+commotions. Those two great, parties, known by the uncouth names of Hook
+and Kabbeljaw, come into existence, dividing noble against noble, city
+against city, father against son, for some hundred and fifty years,
+without foundation upon any abstract or intelligible principle. It may be
+observed, however, that, in the sequel, and as a general rule, the
+Kabbeljaw, or cod-fish party, represented the city or municipal faction,
+while the Hooks (fish-hooks), that were to catch and control them, were
+the nobles; iron and audacity against brute number and weight.
+
+Duke William of Bavaria, sister's son--of William the Fourth, gets
+himself established in 1354. He is succeeded by his brother Albert;
+Albert by his son William. William, who had married Margaret of Burgundy,
+daughter of Philip the Bold, dies in 1417. The goodly heritage of these
+three Netherland provinces descends to his daughter Jacqueline, a damsel
+of seventeen. Little need to trace the career of the fair and ill-starred
+Jacqueline. Few chapters of historical romance have drawn more frequent
+tears. The favorite heroine of ballad and drama, to Netherlanders she is
+endued with the palpable form and perpetual existence of the Iphigenias,
+Mary Stuarts, Joans of Arc, or other consecrated individualities.
+Exhausted and broken-hearted, after thirteen years of conflict with her
+own kinsmen, consoled for the cowardice and brutality of three husbands
+by the gentle and knightly spirit of the fourth, dispossessed of her
+father's broad domains, degraded from the rank of sovereign to be lady
+forester of her own provinces by her cousin, the bad Duke of Burgundy,
+Philip surnamed "the Good," she dies at last, and the good cousin takes
+undisputed dominion of the land. (1437.)
+
+The five centuries of isolation are at end. The many obscure streams of
+Netherland history are merged in one broad current. Burgundy has absorbed
+all the provinces which, once more, are forced to recognize a single
+master. A century and a few years more succeed, during which this house
+and its heirs are undisputed sovereigns of the soil.
+
+Philip the Good had already acquired the principal Netherlands, before
+dispossessing Jacqueline. He had inherited, beside the two Burgundies,
+the counties of Flanders and Artois. He had purchased the county of
+Namur, and had usurped the duchy of Brabant, to which the duchy of
+Limburg, the marquisate of Antwerp, and the barony of Mechlin, had
+already been annexed. By his assumption of Jacqueline's dominions, he was
+now lord of Holland, Zeland, and Hainault, and titular master of
+Friesland. He acquired Luxemburg a few years later.
+
+Lord of so many opulent cities and fruitful provinces, he felt himself
+equal to the kings of Europe. Upon his marriage with Isabella of
+Portugal, he founded, at Bruges, the celebrated order of the Golden
+Fleece. What could be more practical or more devout than the conception?
+Did not the Lamb of God, suspended at each knightly breast, symbolize at
+once the woollen fabrics to which so much of Flemish wealth and
+Burgundian power was owing, and the gentle humility of Christ, which was
+ever to characterize the order? Twenty-five was the limited number,
+including Philip himself, as grand master. The chevaliers were emperors,
+kings, princes, and the most illustrious nobles of Christendom; while a
+leading provision, at the outset, forbade the brethren, crowned heads
+excepted, to accept or retain the companionship of any other order.
+
+The accession of so potent and ambitious a prince as the good Philip
+boded evil to the cause of freedom in the Netherlands. The spirit of
+liberty seemed to have been typified in the fair form of the benignant
+and unhappy Jacqueline, and to be buried in her grave. The usurper, who
+had crushed her out of existence, now strode forward to trample upon all
+the laws and privileges of the provinces which had formed her heritage.
+
+At his advent, the municipal power had already reached an advanced stage
+of development. The burgher class controlled the government, not only of
+the cities, but often of the provinces, through its influence in the
+estates. Industry and wealth had produced their natural results. The
+supreme authority of the sovereign and the power of the nobles were
+balanced by the municipal principle which had even begun to preponderate
+over both. All three exercised a constant and salutary check upon each
+other. Commerce had converted slaves into freemen, freemen into burghers,
+and the burghers were acquiring daily, a larger practical hold upon the
+government. The town councils were becoming almost omnipotent. Although
+with an oligarchical tendency, which at a later period was to be more
+fully developed, they were now composed of large numbers of individuals,
+who had raised themselves, by industry and intelligence, out of the
+popular masses. There was an unquestionably republican tone to the
+institutions. Power, actually, if not nominally, was in the hands of many
+who had achieved the greatness to which they had not been born.
+
+The assemblies of the estates were rather diplomatic than representative.
+They consisted, generally, of the nobles and of the deputations from the
+cities. In Holland, the clergy had neither influence nor seats in the
+parliamentary body. Measures were proposed by the stadholder, who
+represented the sovereign. A request, for example, of pecuniary,
+accommodation, was made by that functionary or by the count himself in
+person. The nobles then voted upon the demand, generally as one body, but
+sometimes by heads. The measure was then laid before the burghers. If
+they had been specially commissioned to act upon the matter; they voted,
+each city as a city, not each deputy, individually. If they had received
+no instructions, they took back the proposition to lay before the
+councils of their respective cities, in order to return a decision at an
+adjourned session, or at a subsequent diet. It will be seen, therefore,
+that the principle of national, popular representation was but
+imperfectly developed. The municipal deputies acted only under
+instructions. Each city was a little independent state, suspicious not
+only of the sovereign and nobles, but of its sister cities. This mutual
+jealousy hastened the general humiliation now impending. The centre of
+the system waging daily more powerful, it more easily unsphered these
+feebler and mutually repulsive bodies.
+
+Philip's first step, upon assuming the government, was to issue a
+declaration, through the council of Holland, that the privileges and
+constitutions, which he had sworn to as Ruward, or guardian, during the
+period in which Jacqueline had still retained a nominal sovereignty, were
+to be considered null and void, unless afterwards confirmed by him as
+count. At a single blow he thus severed the whole knot of pledges, oaths
+and other political complications, by which he had entangled himself
+during his cautious advance to power. He was now untrammelled again. As
+the conscience of the smooth usurper was, thenceforth, the measure of
+provincial liberty, his subjects soon found it meted to them more
+sparingly than they wished. From this point, then, through the Burgundian
+period, and until the rise of the republic, the liberty of the
+Netherlands, notwithstanding several brilliant but brief laminations,
+occurring at irregular intervals, seemed to remain in almost perpetual
+eclipse.
+
+The material prosperity of the country had, however, vastly increased.
+The fisheries of Holland had become of enormous importance. The invention
+of the humble Beukelzoon of Biervliet, had expanded into a mine of
+wealth. The fisheries, too, were most useful as a nursery of seamen, and
+were already indicating Holland's future naval supremacy. The fishermen
+were the militia of the ocean, their prowess attested in the war with the
+Hanseatic cities, which the provinces of Holland and Zeland, in Philip's
+name, but by their own unassisted exertions, carried on triumphantly at
+this epoch. Then came into existence that race of cool and daring
+mariners, who, in after times, were to make the Dutch name illustrious
+throughout the world, the men, whose fierce descendants, the "beggars of
+the sea," were to make the Spanish empire tremble, the men, whose later
+successors swept the seas with brooms at the mast-head, and whose
+ocean-battles with their equally fearless English brethren often lasted
+four uninterrupted days and nights.
+
+The main strength of Holland was derived from the ocean, from whose
+destructive grasp she had wrested herself, but in whose friendly embrace
+she remained. She was already placing securely the foundations of
+commercial wealth and civil liberty upon those shifting quicksands which
+the Roman doubted whether to call land or water. Her submerged deformity,
+as she floated, mermaid-like, upon the waves was to be forgotten in her
+material splendor. Enriched with the spoils of every clime, crowned with
+the divine jewels of science and art, she was, one day, to sing a siren
+song of freedom, luxury, and power.
+
+As with Holland, so with Flanders, Brabant, and the other leading
+provinces. Industry and wealth, agriculture, commerce, and manufactures,
+were constantly augmenting. The natural sources of power were full to
+overflowing, while the hand of despotism was deliberately sealing the
+fountain.
+
+For the house of Burgundy was rapidly culminating and as rapidly
+curtailing the political privileges of the Netherlands. The contest was,
+at first, favorable to the cause of arbitrary power; but little seeds
+were silently germinating, which, in the progress of their gigantic
+development, were, one day, to undermine the foundations of Tyranny and
+to overshadow the world. The early progress of the religious reformation
+in the Netherlands will be outlined in a separate chapter. Another great
+principle was likewise at work at this period. At the very epoch when the
+greatness of Burgundy was most swiftly ripening, another weapon was
+secretly forging, more potent in the great struggle for freedom than any
+which the wit or hand of man has ever devised or wielded. When Philip the
+Good, in the full blaze of his power, and flushed with the triumphs of
+territorial aggrandizement, was instituting at Bruges the order of the
+Golden Fleece, "to the glory of God, of the blessed Virgin, and of the
+holy Andrew, patron saint of the Burgundian family," and enrolling the
+names of the kings and princes who were to be honored with its symbols,
+at that very moment, an obscure citizen of Harlem, one Lorenz Coster, or
+Lawrence the Sexton, succeeded in printing a little grammar, by means of
+movable types. The invention of printing was accomplished, but it was not
+ushered in with such a blaze of glory as heralded the contemporaneous
+erection of the Golden Fleece. The humble setter of types did not deem
+emperors and princes alone worthy his companionship. His invention sent
+no thrill of admiration throughout Christendom; and yet, what was the
+good Philip of Burgundy, with his Knights of the Golden Fleece, and all
+their effulgent trumpery, in the eye of humanity and civilization,
+compared with the poor sexton and his wooden types?
+
+   [The question of the time and place to which the invention of
+   printing should be referred, has been often discussed. It is not
+   probable that it will ever be settled to the entire satisfaction of
+   Holland and Germany. The Dutch claim that movable types were first
+   used at Harlem, fixing the time variously between the years 1423 and
+   1440. The first and very faulty editions of Lorenz are religiously
+   preserved at Harlem.]
+
+Philip died in February, 1467. The details of his life and career do not
+belong to our purpose. The practical tendency of his government was to
+repress the spirit of liberty, while especial privileges, extensive in
+nature, but limited in time, were frequently granted to corporations.
+Philip, in one day, conferred thirty charters upon as many different
+bodies of citizens. These were, however, grants of monopoly not
+concessions of rights. He also fixed the number of city councils or
+Vroedschappen in many Netherland cities, giving them permission to
+present a double list of candidates for burgomasters and judges, from
+which he himself made the appointments. He was certainly neither a good
+nor great prince, but he possessed much administrative ability. His
+military talents were considerable, and he was successful in his wars. He
+was an adroit dissembler, a practical politician. He had the sense to
+comprehend that the power of a prince, however absolute, must depend upon
+the prosperity of his subjects. He taxed severely the wealth, but he
+protected the commerce and the manufactures of Holland and Flanders. He
+encouraged art, science, and literature. The brothers, John and Hubert
+Van Eyck, were attracted by his generosity to Bruges, where they painted
+many pictures. John was even a member of the duke's council. The art of
+oil-painting was carried to great perfection by Hubert's scholar, John of
+Bruges. An incredible number of painters, of greater or less merit,
+flourished at this epoch in the Netherlands, heralds of that great
+school, which, at a subsequent period, was to astonish the world with
+brilliant colors; profound science, startling effects, and vigorous
+reproductions of Nature. Authors, too, like Olivier de la Marche and
+Philippe de Comines, who, in the words of the latter, "wrote, not for the
+amusement of brutes, and people of low degree, but for princes and other
+persons of quality," these and other writers, with aims as lofty,
+flourished at the court of Burgundy, and were rewarded by the Duke with
+princely generosity. Philip remodelled and befriended the university of
+Louvain. He founded at Brussels the Burgundian library, which became
+celebrated throughout Europe. He levied largely, spent profusely, but was
+yet so thrifty a housekeeper, as to leave four hundred thousand crowns of
+gold, a vast amount in those days, besides three million marks' worth of
+plate and furniture, to be wasted like water in the insane career of his
+son.
+
+The exploits of that son require but few words of illustration. Hardly a
+chapter of European history or romance is more familiar to the world than
+the one which records the meteoric course of Charles the Bold. The
+propriety of his title was never doubtful. No prince was ever bolder, but
+it is certain that no quality could be less desirable, at that particular
+moment in the history of his house. It was not the quality to confirm a
+usurping family in its ill-gotten possessions. Renewed aggressions upon
+the rights of others justified retaliation and invited attack. Justice,
+prudence, firmness, wisdom of internal administration were desirable in
+the son of Philip and the rival of Louis. These attributes the gladiator
+lacked entirely. His career might have been a brilliant one in the old
+days of chivalry. His image might have appeared as imposing as the
+romantic forms of Baldwin Bras de Fer or Godfrey of Bouillon, had he not
+been misplaced in history. Nevertheless, he imagined himself governed by
+a profound policy. He had one dominant idea, to make Burgundy a kingdom.
+From the moment when, with almost the first standing army known to
+history, and with coffers well filled by his cautious father's economy,
+he threw himself into the lists against the crafty Louis, down to the day
+when he was found dead, naked, deserted, and with his face frozen into a
+pool of blood and water, he faithfully pursued this thought. His ducal
+cap was to be exchanged for a kingly crown, while all the provinces which
+lay beneath the Mediterranean and the North Sea, and between France and
+Germany, were to be united under his sceptre. The Netherlands, with their
+wealth, had been already appropriated, and their freedom crushed. Another
+land of liberty remained; physically, the reverse of Holland, but stamped
+with the same courageous nationality, the same ardent love of human
+rights. Switzerland was to be conquered. Her eternal battlements of ice
+and granite were to constitute the great bulwark of his realm. The world
+knows well the result of the struggle between the lord of so many duchies
+and earldoms, and the Alpine mountaineers. With all his boldness, Charles
+was but an indifferent soldier. His only merit was physical courage. He
+imagined himself a consummate commander, and, in conversation with his
+jester, was fond of comparing himself to Hannibal. "We are getting well
+Hannibalized to-day, my lord," said the bitter fool, as they rode off
+together from the disastrous defeat of Gransen. Well "Hannibalized" he
+was, too, at Gransen, at Murten, and at Nancy. He followed in the track
+of his prototype only to the base of the mountains.
+
+As a conqueror, he was signally unsuccessful; as a politician, he could
+out-wit none but himself; it was only as a tyrant within his own ground,
+that he could sustain the character which he chose to enact. He lost the
+crown, which he might have secured, because he thought the emperor's son
+unworthy the heiress of Burgundy; and yet, after his father's death, her
+marriage with that very Maximilian alone secured the possession of her
+paternal inheritance. Unsuccessful in schemes of conquest, and in
+political intrigue, as an oppressor of the Netherlands, he nearly carried
+out his plans. Those provinces he regarded merely as a bank to draw upon.
+His immediate intercourse with the country was confined to the extortion
+of vast requests. These were granted with ever-increasing reluctance, by
+the estates. The new taxes and excises, which the sanguinary extravagance
+of the duke rendered necessary, could seldom be collected in the various
+cities without tumults, sedition, and bloodshed. Few princes were ever a
+greater curse to the people whom they were allowed to hold as property.
+He nearly succeeded in establishing a centralized despotism upon the
+ruins of the provincial institutions. His sudden death alone deferred the
+catastrophe. His removal of the supreme court of Holland from the Hague
+to Mechlin, and his maintenance of a standing army, were the two great
+measures by which he prostrated the Netherlands. The tribunal had been
+remodelled by his father; the expanded authority which Philip had given
+to a bench of judges dependent upon himself, was an infraction of the
+rights of Holland. The court, however, still held its sessions in the
+country; and the sacred privilege--de non evocando--the right of every
+Hollander to be tried in his own land, was, at least, retained. Charles
+threw off the mask; he proclaimed that this council--composed of his
+creatures, holding office at his pleasure--should have supreme
+jurisdiction over all the charters of the provinces; that it was to
+follow his person, and derive all authority from his will. The usual seat
+of the court he transferred to Mechlin. It will be seen, in the sequel,
+that the attempt, under Philip the Second, to enforce its supreme
+authority was a collateral cause of the great revolution of the
+Netherlands.
+
+Charles, like his father, administered the country by stadholders. From
+the condition of flourishing self-ruled little republics, which they had,
+for a moment, almost attained, they became departments of an
+ill-assorted, ill-conditioned, ill-governed realm, which was neither
+commonwealth nor empire, neither kingdom nor duchy; and which had no
+homogeneousness of population, no affection between ruler and people,
+small sympathies of lineage or of language.
+
+His triumphs were but few, his fall ignominious. His father's treasure
+was squandered, the curse of a standing army fixed upon his people, the
+trade and manufactures of the country paralyzed by his extortions, and he
+accomplished nothing. He lost his life in the forty-fourth year of his
+age (1477), leaving all the provinces, duchies, and lordships, which
+formed the miscellaneous realm of Burgundy, to his only child, the Lady
+Mary. Thus already the countries which Philip had wrested from the feeble
+hand of Jacqueline, had fallen to another female. Philip's own
+granddaughter, as young, fair, and unprotected as Jacqueline, was now
+sole mistress of those broad domains.
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+A crisis, both for Burgundy and the Netherlands, succeeds. Within the
+provinces there is an elastic rebound, as soon as the pressure is removed
+from them by the tyrant's death. A sudden spasm of liberty gives the
+whole people gigantic strength. In an instant they recover all, and more
+than all, the rights which they had lost. The cities of Holland,
+Flanders, and other provinces call a convention at Ghent. Laying aside
+their musty feuds, men of all parties-Hooks and Kabbeljaws, patricians
+and people, move forward in phalanx to recover their national
+constitutions. On the other hand, Louis the Eleventh seizes Burgundy,
+claiming the territory for his crown, the heiress for his son. The
+situation is critical for the Lady Mary. As usual in such cases, appeals
+are made to the faithful commons. A prodigality of oaths and pledges is
+showered upon the people, that their loyalty may be refreshed and grow
+green. The congress meets at Ghent. The Lady Mary professes much, but she
+will keep her vow. The deputies are called upon to rally the country
+around the duchess, and to resist the fraud and force of Louis. The
+congress is willing to maintain the cause of its young mistress. The
+members declare, at the same time, very roundly, "that the provinces have
+been much impoverished and oppressed by the enormous taxation imposed
+upon them by the ruinous wars waged by Duke Charles from the beginning to
+the end of his life." They rather require "to be relieved than
+additionally encumbered." They add that, "for many years past, there has
+been a constant violation of the provincial and municipal charters, and
+that they should be happy to see them restored."
+
+The result of the deliberations is the formal grant by Duchess Mary of
+the "Groot Privilegie," or Great Privilege, the Magna Charta of Holland.
+Although this instrument was afterwards violated, and indeed abolished,
+it became the foundation of the republic. It was a recapitulation and
+recognition of ancient rights, not an acquisition of new privileges. It
+was a restoration, not a revolution. Its principal points deserve
+attention from those interested in the political progress of mankind.
+
+"The duchess shall not marry without consent of the estates of her
+provinces. All offices in her gift shall be conferred on natives only. No
+man shall fill two offices. No office shall be farmed. The 'Great Council
+and Supreme Court of Holland' is re-established. Causes shall be brought
+before it on appeal from the ordinary courts. It shall have no original
+jurisdiction of matters within the cognizance of the provincial and
+municipal tribunals. The estates and cities are guaranteed in their right
+not to be summoned to justice beyond the limits of their territory. The
+cities, in common with all the provinces of the Netherlands, may hold
+diets as often ten and at such places as they choose. No new taxes shall
+be imposed but by consent of the provincial estates. Neither the duchess
+nor her descendants shall begin either an offensive or defensive war
+without consent of the estates. In case a war be illegally undertaken,
+the estates are not bound to contribute to its maintenance. In all public
+and legal documents, the Netherland language shall be employed. The
+commands of the duchess shall be invalid, if conflicting with the
+privileges of a city.
+
+"The seat of the Supreme Council is transferred from Mechlin to the
+Hague. No money shall be coined, nor its value raised or lowered, but by
+consent of the estates. Cities are not to be compelled to contribute to
+requests which they have not voted. The sovereign shall come in person
+before the estates, to make his request for supplies."
+
+Here was good work. The land was rescued at a blow from the helpless
+condition to which it had been reduced. This summary annihilation of all
+the despotic arrangements of Charles was enough to raise him from his
+tomb. The law, the sword, the purse, were all taken from the hand of the
+sovereign and placed within the control of parliament. Such sweeping
+reforms, if maintained, would restore health to the body politic. They
+gave, moreover, an earnest of what was one day to arrive. Certainly, for
+the fifteenth century, the "Great Privilege" was a reasonably liberal
+constitution. Where else upon earth, at that day, was there half so much
+liberty as was thus guaranteed? The congress of the Netherlands,
+according to their Magna Charta, had power to levy all taxes, to regulate
+commerce and manufactures, to declare war, to coin money, to raise armies
+and navies. The executive was required to ask for money in person, could
+appoint only natives to office, recognized the right of disobedience in
+his subjects, if his commands should conflict with law, and acknowledged
+himself bound by decisions of courts of justice. The cities appointed
+their own magistrates, held diets at their own pleasure, made their local
+by-laws and saw to their execution. Original cognizance of legal matters
+belonged to the municipal courts, appellate jurisdiction to the supreme
+tribunal, in which the judges were appointed by the sovereign. The
+liberty of the citizen against arbitrary imprisonment was amply provided
+for. The 'jus de non evocando', the habeas corpus of Holland, was
+re-established.
+
+Truly, here was a fundamental law which largely, roundly, and reasonably
+recognized the existence of a people with hearts, heads, and hands of
+their own. It was a vast step in advance of natural servitude, the dogma
+of the dark ages. It was a noble and temperate vindication of natural
+liberty, the doctrine of more enlightened days. To no people in the world
+more than to the stout burghers of Flanders and Holland belongs the honor
+of having battled audaciously and perennially in behalf of human rights.
+
+Similar privileges to the great charter of Holland are granted to many
+other provinces; especially to Flanders, ever ready to stand forward in
+fierce vindication of freedom. For a season all is peace and joy; but the
+duchess is young, weak, and a woman. There is no lack of intriguing
+politicians, reactionary councillors. There is a cunning old king in the
+distance, lying in wait; seeking what he can devour. A mission goes from
+the estates to France. The well-known tragedy of Imbrecourt and Hugonet
+occurs. Envoys from the states, they dare to accept secret instructions
+from the duchess to enter into private negotiations with the French
+monarch, against their colleagues--against the great charter--against
+their country. Sly Louis betrays them, thinking that policy the more
+expedient. They are seized in Ghent, rapidly tried, and as rapidly
+beheaded by the enraged burghers. All the entreaties of the Lady Mary,
+who, dressed in mourning garments, with dishevelled hair, unloosed
+girdle, and streaming eyes; appears at the town-house and afterwards in
+the market place, humbly to intercede for her servants, are fruitless
+There is no help for the juggling diplomatists. The punishment was sharp.
+Was it more severe and sudden than that which betrayed monarchs usually
+inflict? Would the Flemings, at that critical moment, have deserved their
+freedom had they not taken swift and signal vengeance for this first
+infraction of their newly recognized rights? Had it not been weakness to
+spare the traitors who had thus stained the childhood of the national joy
+at liberty regained?
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+Another step, and a wide one, into the great stream of European history.
+The Lady Mary espouses the Archduke Maximilian. The Netherlands are about
+to become Habsburg property. The Ghenters reject the pretensions of the
+dauphin, and select for husband of their duchess the very man whom her
+father had so stupidly rejected. It had been a wiser choice for Charles
+the Bold than for the Netherlanders. The marriage takes place on the 18th
+of August, 1477. Mary of Burgundy passes from the guardianship of Ghent
+burghers into that of the emperor's son. The crafty husband allies
+himself with the city party, feeling where the strength lies. He knows
+that the voracious Kabbeljaws have at last swallowed the Hooks, and run
+away with them. Promising himself future rights of reconsideration, he is
+liberal in promises to the municipal party. In the mean time he is
+governor and guardian of his wife and her provinces. His children are to
+inherit the Netherlands and all that therein is. What can be more
+consistent than laws of descent, regulated by right divine? At the
+beginning of the century, good Philip dispossesses Jacqueline, because
+females can not inherit. At its close, his granddaughter succeeds to the
+property, and transmits it to her children. Pope and emperor maintain
+both positions with equal logic. The policy and promptness of Maximilian
+are as effective as the force and fraud of Philip. The Lady Mary falls
+from her horse and dies. Her son, Philip, four years of age, is
+recognized as successor. Thus the house of Burgundy is followed by that
+of Austria, the fifth and last family which governed Holland, previously
+to the erection of the republic. Maximilian is recognized by the
+provinces as governor and guardian, during the minority of his children.
+Flanders alone refuses. The burghers, ever prompt in action, take
+personal possession of the child Philip, and carry on the government in
+his name. A commission of citizens and nobles thus maintain their
+authority against Maximilian for several years. In 1488, the archduke,
+now King of the Romans, with a small force of cavalry, attempts to take
+the city of Bruges, but the result is a mortifying one to the Roman king.
+The citizens of Bruges take him. Maximilian, with several councillors, is
+kept a prisoner in a house on the market-place. The magistrates are all
+changed, the affairs of government conducted in the name of the young
+Philip alone. Meantime, the estates of the other Netherlands assemble at
+Ghent; anxious, unfortunately, not for the national liberty, but for that
+of the Roman king. Already Holland, torn again by civil feuds, and
+blinded by the artifices of Maximilian, has deserted, for a season, the
+great cause to which Flanders has remained so true. At last, a treaty is
+made between the archduke and the Flemings. Maximilian is to be regent of
+the other provinces; Philip, under guardianship of a council, is to
+govern Flanders. Moreover, a congress of all the provinces is to be
+summoned annually, to provide for the general welfare. Maximilian signs
+and swears to the treaty on the 16th May, 1488. He swears, also, to
+dismiss all foreign troops within four days. Giving hostages for his
+fidelity, he is set at liberty. What are oaths and hostages when
+prerogative, and the people are contending? Emperor Frederic sends to his
+son an army under the Duke of Saxony. The oaths are broken, the hostages
+left to their fate. The struggle lasts a year, but, at the end of it, the
+Flemings are subdued. What could a single province effect, when its
+sister states, even liberty-loving Holland, had basely abandoned the
+common cause? A new treaty is made, (Oct.1489). Maximilian obtains
+uncontrolled guardianship of his son, absolute dominion over Flanders and
+the other provinces. The insolent burghers are severely punished for
+remembering that they had been freemen. The magistrates of Ghent, Bruges,
+and Ypres, in black garments, ungirdled, bare-headed, and kneeling, are
+compelled to implore the despot's forgiveness, and to pay three hundred
+thousand crowns of gold as its price. After this, for a brief season,
+order reigns in Flanders.
+
+The course of Maximilian had been stealthy, but decided. Allying himself
+with the city party, he had crushed the nobles. The power thus obtained,
+he then turned against the burghers. Step by step he had trampled out the
+liberties which his wife and himself had sworn to protect. He had spurned
+the authority of the "Great Privilege," and all other charters.
+Burgomasters and other citizens had been beheaded in great numbers for
+appealing to their statutes against the edicts of the regent, for voting
+in favor of a general congress according to the unquestionable law. He
+had proclaimed that all landed estates should, in lack of heirs male,
+escheat to his own exchequer. He had debased the coin of the country, and
+thereby authorized unlimited swindling on the part of all his agents,
+from stadholders down to the meanest official. If such oppression and
+knavery did not justify the resistance of the Flemings to the
+guardianship of Maximilian, it would be difficult to find any reasonable
+course in political affairs save abject submission to authority.
+
+In 1493, Maximilian succeeds to the imperial throne, at the death of his
+father. In the following year his son, Philip the Fair, now seventeen
+years of age, receives the homage of the different states of the
+Netherlands. He swears to maintain only the privileges granted by Philip
+and Charles of Burgundy, or their ancestors, proclaiming null and void
+all those which might have been acquired since the death of Charles.
+Holland, Zeland, and the other provinces accept him upon these
+conditions, thus ignominiously, and without a struggle, relinquishing the
+Great Privilege, and all similar charters.
+
+Friesland is, for a brief season, politically separated from the rest of
+the country. Harassed and exhausted by centuries of warfare, foreign, and
+domestic, the free Frisians, at the suggestion or command of Emperor
+Maximilian, elect the Duke of Saxony as their Podesta. The sovereign
+prince, naturally proving a chief magistrate far from democratic, gets
+himself acknowledged, or submitted to, soon afterwards, as legitimate
+sovereign of Friesland. Seventeen years afterward Saxony sells the
+sovereignty to the Austrian house for 350,000 crowns. This little
+country, whose statutes proclaimed her to be "free as the wind, as long
+as it blew," whose institutions Charlemagne had honored and left
+unmolested, who had freed herself with ready poniard from Norman tyranny,
+who never bowed her neck to feudal chieftain, nor to the papal yoke, now
+driven to madness and suicide by the dissensions of her wild children,
+forfeits at last her independent existence. All the provinces are thus
+united in a common servitude, and regret, too late, their supineness at a
+moment when their liberties might yet have been vindicated. Their ancient
+and cherished charters, which their bold ancestors had earned with the
+sweat of their brows and the blood of their hearts, are at the mercy of
+an autocrat, and liable to be superseded by his edicts.
+
+In 1496, the momentous marriage of Philip the Fair with Joanna, daughter
+of Ferdinand and Isabella of Castile and Aragon, is solemnized. Of this
+union, in the first year of the century, is born the second Charlemagne,
+who is to unite Spain and the Netherlands, together with so many vast and
+distant realms, under a single sceptre. Six years afterwards (Sept. 25,
+1506), Philip dies at Burgos. A handsome profligate, devoted to his
+pleasures, and leaving the cares of state to his ministers, Philip,
+"croit-conseil," is the bridge over which the house of Habsburg passes to
+almost universal monarchy, but, in himself, is nothing.
+
+
+
+X.
+
+Two prudent marriages, made by Austrian archdukes within twenty years,
+have altered the face of the earth. The stream, which we have been
+tracing from its source, empties itself at last into the ocean of a
+world-empire. Count Dirk the First, lord of a half-submerged corner of
+Europe, is succeeded by Count Charles the Second of Holland, better known
+as Charles the Fifth, King of Spain, Sicily, and Jerusalem, Duke of
+Milan, Emperor of Germany, Dominator in Asia and Africa, autocrat of half
+the world. The leading events of his brilliant reign are familiar to
+every child. The Netherlands now share the fate of so large a group of
+nations, a fate, to these provinces, most miserable. The weddings of
+Austria Felix were not so prolific of happiness to her subjects as to
+herself. It can never seem just or reasonable that the destiny of many
+millions of human beings should depend upon the marriage-settlements of
+one man with one woman, and a permanent, prosperous empire can never be
+reared upon so frail a foundation. The leading thought of the first
+Charlemagne was a noble and a useful one, nor did his imperial scheme
+seem chimerical, even although time, wiser than monarchs or lawgivers,
+was to prove it impracticable. To weld into one great whole the various
+tribes of Franks, Frisians, Saxons, Lombards, Burgundians, and others,
+still in their turbulent youth, and still composing one great Teutonic
+family; to enforce the mutual adhesion of naturally coherent masses, all
+of one lineage, one language, one history, and which were only beginning
+to exhibit their tendencies to insulation, to acquiesce in a variety of
+local laws and customs, while an iron will was to concentrate a vast, but
+homogeneous, people into a single nation; to raise up from the grave of
+corrupt and buried Rome a fresh, vigorous, German, Christian empire; this
+was a reasonable and manly thought. Far different the conception of the
+second Charlemagne. To force into discordant union, tribes which, for
+seven centuries, had developed themselves into hostile nations, separated
+by geography and history, customs and laws, to combine many millions
+under one sceptre, not because of natural identity, but for the sake of
+composing one splendid family property, to establish unity by
+annihilating local institutions, to supersede popular and liberal
+charters by the edicts of a central despotism, to do battle with the
+whole spirit of an age, to regard the souls as well as the bodies of vast
+multitudes as the personal property of one individual, to strive for the
+perpetuation in a single house of many crowns, which accident had
+blended, and to imagine the consecration of the whole system by placing
+the pope's triple diadem forever upon the imperial head of the
+Habsburgs;--all this was not the effort of a great, constructive genius,
+but the selfish scheme of an autocrat.
+
+The union of no two countries could be less likely to prove advantageous
+or agreeable than that of the Netherlands and Spain. They were widely
+separated geographically, while in history, manners, and politics, they
+were utterly opposed to each other. Spain, which had but just assumed the
+form of a single state by the combination of all its kingdoms, with its
+haughty nobles descended from petty kings, and arrogating almost
+sovereign power within their domains, with its fierce enthusiasm for the
+Catholic religion, which, in the course of long warfare with the
+Saracens, had become the absorbing characteristic of a whole nation, with
+its sparse population scattered over a wide and stern country, with a
+military spirit which led nearly all classes to prefer poverty to the
+wealth attendant upon degrading pursuits of trade;--Spain, with her
+gloomy, martial, and exaggerated character, was the absolute contrast of
+the Netherlands.
+
+These provinces had been rarely combined into a whole, but there was
+natural affinity in their character, history, and position. There was
+life, movement, bustling activity every where. An energetic population
+swarmed in all the flourishing cities which dotted the surface of a
+contracted and highly cultivated country. Their ships were the carriers
+for the world;--their merchants, if invaded in their rights, engaged in
+vigorous warfare with their own funds and their own frigates; their
+fabrics were prized over the whole earth; their burghers possessed the
+wealth of princes, lived with royal luxury, and exercised vast political
+influence; their love of liberty was their predominant passion. Their
+religious ardor had not been fully awakened; but the events of the next
+generation were to prove that in no respect more than in the religious
+sentiment, were the two races opposed to each other. It was as certain
+that the Netherlanders would be fierce reformers as that the Spaniards
+would be uncompromising persecutors. Unhallowed was the union between
+nations thus utterly contrasted.
+
+Philip the Fair and Ferdinand had detested and quarrelled with each other
+from the beginning. The Spaniards and Flemings participated in the mutual
+antipathy, and hated each other cordially at first sight. The
+unscrupulous avarice of the Netherland nobles in Spain, their grasping
+and venal ambition, enraged and disgusted the haughty Spaniards. This
+international malignity furnishes one of the keys to a proper
+understanding of the great revolt in the next reign.
+
+The provinces, now all united again under an emperor, were treated,
+opulent and powerful as they were, as obscure dependencies. The regency
+over them was entrusted by Charles to his near relatives, who governed in
+the interest of his house, not of the country. His course towards them
+upon the religious question will be hereafter indicated. The political
+character of his administration was typified, and, as it were,
+dramatized, on the occasion of the memorable insurrection at Ghent. For
+this reason, a few interior details concerning that remarkable event,
+seem requisite.
+
+
+
+XI.
+
+Ghent was, in all respects, one of the most important cities in Europe.
+Erasmus, who, as a Hollander and a courtier, was not likely to be partial
+to the turbulent Flemings, asserted that there was no town in all
+Christendom to be compared to it for size, power, political constitution,
+or the culture of its inhabitants. It was, said one of its inhabitants at
+the epoch of the insurrection, rather a country than a city. The activity
+and wealth of its burghers were proverbial. The bells were rung daily,
+and the drawbridges over the many arms of the river intersecting the
+streets were raised, in order that all business might be suspended, while
+the armies of workmen were going to or returning from their labors. As
+early as the fourteenth century, the age of the Arteveldes, Froissart
+estimated the number of fighting men whom Ghent could bring into the
+field at eighty thousand. The city, by its jurisdiction over many large
+but subordinate towns, disposed of more than its own immediate
+population, which has been reckoned as high as two hundred thousand.
+
+Placed in the midst of well cultivated plains, Ghent was surrounded by
+strong walls, the external circuit of which measured nine miles. Its
+streets and squares were spacious and elegant, its churches and other
+public buildings numerous and splendid. The sumptuous church of Saint
+John or Saint Bavon, where Charles the Fifth had been baptized, the
+ancient castle whither Baldwin Bras de Fer had brought the daughter of
+Charles the Bald, the city hall with its graceful Moorish front, the
+well-known belfry, where for three centuries had perched the dragon sent
+by the Emperor Baldwin of Flanders from Constantinople, and where swung
+the famous Roland, whose iron tongue had called the citizens, generation
+after generation, to arms, whether to win battles over foreign kings at
+the head of their chivalry, or to plunge their swords in each others'
+breasts, were all conspicuous in the city and celebrated in the land.
+Especially the great bell was the object of the burghers' affection, and,
+generally, of the sovereign's hatred; while to all it seemed, as it were,
+a living historical personage, endowed with the human powers and passions
+which it had so long directed and inflamed.
+
+The constitution of the city was very free. It was a little republic in
+all but name. Its population was divided into fifty-two guilds of
+manufacturers and into thirty-two tribes of weavers; each fraternity
+electing annually or biennally its own deans and subordinate officers.
+The senate, which exercised functions legislative, judicial, and
+administrative, subject of course to the grand council of Mechlin and to
+the sovereign authority, consisted of twenty-six members. These were
+appointed partly from the upper class, or the men who lived upon their
+means, partly from the manufacturers in general, and partly from the
+weavers. They were chosen by a college of eight electors, who were
+appointed by the sovereign on nomination by the citizens. The whole city,
+in its collective capacity, constituted one of the four estates (Membra)
+of the province of Flanders. It is obvious that so much liberty of form
+and of fact, added to the stormy character by which its citizens were
+distinguished, would be most offensive in the eyes of Charles, and that
+the delinquencies of the little commonwealth would be represented in the
+most glaring colors by all those quiet souls, who preferred the
+tranquillity of despotism to the turbulence of freedom. The city claimed,
+moreover, the general provisions of the "Great Privilege" of the Lady
+Mary, the Magna Charta, which, according to the monarchical party, had
+been legally abrogated by Maximilian. The liberties of the town had also
+been nominally curtailed by the "calf-skin" (Kalf Vel). By this
+celebrated document, Charles the Fifth, then fifteen years of age, had
+been made to threaten with condign punishment all persons who should
+maintain that he had sworn at his inauguration to observe any privileges
+or charters claimed by the Ghenters before the peace of Cadsand.
+
+The immediate cause of the discontent, the attempt to force from Flanders
+a subsidy of four hundred thousand caroli, as the third part of the
+twelve hundred thousand granted by the states of the Netherlands, and the
+resistance of Ghent in opposition to the other three members of the
+province, will, of course, be judged differently, according as the
+sympathies are stronger with popular rights or with prerogative. The
+citizens claimed that the subsidy could only be granted by the unanimous
+consent of the four estates of the province. Among other proofs of this
+their unquestionable right, they appealed to a muniment, which had never
+existed, save in the imagination of the credulous populace. At a certain
+remote epoch, one of the Counts of Flanders, it was contended, had
+gambled away his countship to the Earl of Holland, but had been
+extricated from his dilemma by the generosity of Ghent. The burghers of
+the town had paid the debts and redeemed the sovereignty of their lord,
+and had thereby gained, in return, a charter, called the Bargain of
+Flanders (Koop van Flandern). Among the privileges granted by this
+document, was an express stipulation that no subsidy should ever be
+granted by the province without the consent of Ghent. This charter would
+have been conclusive in the present emergency, had it not labored under
+the disadvantage of never having existed. It was supposed by many that
+the magistrates, some of whom were favorable to government, had hidden
+the document. Lieven Pyl, an ex-senator, was supposed to be privy to its
+concealment. He was also, with more justice, charged with an act of great
+baseness and effrontery. Reputed by the citizens to carry to the Queen
+Regent their positive refusal to grant the subsidy, he had, on the
+contrary, given an answer, in their name, in the affirmative. For these
+delinquencies, the imaginary and the real, he was inhumanly tortured and
+afterwards beheaded. "I know, my children," said he upon the scaffold,
+"that you will be grieved when you have seen my blood flow, and that you
+will regret me when it is too late." It does not appear, however, that
+there was any especial reason to regret him, however sanguinary the
+punishment which had requited his broken faith.
+
+The mischief being thus afoot, the tongue of Roland, and the
+easily-excited spirits of the citizens, soon did the rest. Ghent broke
+forth into open insurrection. They had been willing to enlist and pay
+troops under their own banners, but they had felt outraged at the
+enormous contribution demanded of them for a foreign war, undertaken in
+the family interests of their distant master. They could not find the
+"Bargain of Flanders," but they got possession of the odious "calf skin,"
+which was solemnly cut in two by the dean of the weavers. It was then
+torn in shreds by the angry citizens, many of whom paraded the streets
+with pieces of the hated document stuck in their caps, like plumes. From
+these demonstrations they proceeded to intrigues with Francis the First.
+He rejected them, and gave notice of their overtures to Charles, who now
+resolved to quell the insurrection, at once. Francis wrote, begging that
+the Emperor would honor him by coming through France; "wishing to assure
+you," said he, "my lord and good brother, by this letter, written and
+signed by my hand, upon my honor, and on the faith of a prince, and of
+the best brother you have, that in passing through my kingdom every
+possible honor and hospitality will be offered you, even as they could be
+to myself." Certainly, the French king, after such profuse and voluntary
+pledges, to confirm which he, moreover, offered his two sons and other
+great individuals as hostages, could not, without utterly disgracing
+himself, have taken any unhandsome advantage of the Emperor's presence in
+his dominions. The reflections often made concerning the high-minded
+chivalry of Francis, and the subtle knowledge of human nature displayed
+by Charles upon the occasion, seem, therefore, entirely superfluous. The
+Emperor came to Paris. "Here," says a citizen of Ghent, at the time, who
+has left a minute account of the transaction upon record, but whose
+sympathies were ludicrously with the despot and against his own
+townspeople, "here the Emperor was received as if the God of Paradise had
+descended." On the 9th of February, 1540, he left Brussels; on the 14th
+he came to Ghent. His entrance into the city lasted more than six hours.
+Four thousand lancers, one thousand archers, five thousand halberdmen and
+musqueteers composed his bodyguard, all armed to the teeth and ready for
+combat. The Emperor rode in their midst, surrounded by "cardinals,
+archbishops, bishops, and other great ecclesiastical lords," so that the
+terrors of the Church were combined with the panoply of war to affright
+the souls of the turbulent burghers. A brilliant train of "dukes,
+princes, earls, barons, grand masters, and seignors, together with most
+of the Knights of the Fleece," were, according to the testimony of the
+same eyewitness, in attendance upon his Majesty. This unworthy son of
+Ghent was in ecstasies with the magnificence displayed upon the occasion.
+There was such a number of "grand lords, members of sovereign houses,
+bishops, and other ecclesiastical dignitaries going about the streets,
+that," as the poor soul protested with delight, "there was nobody else to
+be met with." Especially the fine clothes of these distinguished guests
+excited his warmest admiration. It was wonderful to behold, he said, "the
+nobility and great richness of the princes and seignors, displayed as
+well in their beautiful furs, martins and sables, as in the great chains
+of fine gold which they wore twisted round their necks, and the pearls
+and precious stones in their bonnets and otherwise, which they displayed
+in great abundance. It was a very triumphant thing to see them so richly
+dressed and accoutred."
+
+An idea may be formed of the size and wealth of the city at this period,
+from the fact that it received and accommodated sixty thousand strangers,
+with their fifteen thousand horses, upon the occasion of the Emperor's
+visit. Charles allowed a month of awful suspense to intervene between his
+arrival and his vengeance. Despair and hope alternated during the
+interval. On the 17th of March, the spell was broken by the execution of
+nineteen persons, who were beheaded as ringleaders. On the 29th of April,
+he pronounced sentence upon the city. The hall where it was rendered was
+open to all comers, and graced by the presence of the Emperor, the Queen
+Regent, and the great functionaries of Court, Church, and State. The
+decree, now matured, was read at length. It annulled all the charters,
+privileges, and laws of Ghent. It confiscated all its public property,
+rents, revenues, houses, artillery, munitions of war, and in general
+every thing which the corporation, or the traders, each and all,
+possessed in common. In particular, the great bell--Roland was condemned
+and sentenced to immediate removal. It was decreed that the four hundred
+thousand florins, which had caused the revolt, should forthwith be paid,
+together with an additional fine by Ghent of one hundred and fifty
+thousand, besides six thousand a year, forever after. In place of their
+ancient and beloved constitution, thus annihilated at a blow, was
+promulgated a new form of municipal government of the simplest kind,
+according to which all officers were in future to be appointed by himself
+and the guilds, to be reduced to half their number; shorn of all
+political power, and deprived entirely of self-government. It was,
+moreover, decreed, that the senators, their pensionaries, clerks and
+secretaries, thirty notable burghers, to be named by the Emperor, with
+the great dean and second dean of the weavers, all dressed in black
+robes, without their chains, and bareheaded, should appear upon an
+appointed day, in company with fifty persons from the guilds, and fifty
+others, to be arbitrarily named, in their shirts, with halters upon their
+necks. This large number of deputies, as representatives of the city,
+were then to fall upon their knees before the Emperor, say in a loud and
+intelligible voice, by the mouth of one of their clerks, that they were
+extremely sorry for the disloyalty, disobedience, infraction of laws,
+commotions, rebellion, and high treason, of which they had been guilty,
+promise that they would never do the like again, and humbly implore him,
+for the sake of the Passion of Jesus Christ, to grant them mercy and
+forgiveness.
+
+The third day of May was appointed for the execution of the sentence.
+Charles, who was fond of imposing exhibitions and prided himself upon
+arranging them with skill, was determined that this occasion should be
+long remembered by all burghers throughout his dominions who might be
+disposed to insist strongly upon their municipal rights. The streets were
+alive with troops: cavalry and infantry in great numbers keeping strict
+guard at every point throughout the whole extent of the city; for it was
+known that the hatred produced by the sentence was most deadly, and that
+nothing but an array of invincible force could keep those hostile
+sentiments in check. The senators in their black mourning robes, the
+other deputies in linen shirts, bareheaded, with halters on their necks,
+proceeded, at the appointed hour, from the senate house to the imperial
+residence. High on his throne, with the Queen Regent at his side,
+surrounded by princes, prelates and nobles, guarded by his archers and
+halberdiers, his crown on his head and his sceptre in his hand, the
+Emperor, exalted, sat. The senators and burghers, in their robes cf
+humiliation, knelt in the dust at his feet. The prescribed words of
+contrition and of supplication for mercy were then read by the
+pensionary, all the deputies remaining upon their knees, and many of them
+crying bitterly with rage and shame. "What principally distressed them,"
+said the honest citizen, whose admiration for the brilliant accoutrement
+of the princes and prelates has been recorded, "was to have the halter on
+their necks, which they found hard to bear, and, if they had not been
+compelled, they would rather have died than submit to it."
+
+As soon as the words had been all spoken by the pensionary, the Emperor,
+whose cue was now to appear struggling with mingled emotions of
+reasonable wrath and of natural benignity, performed his part with much
+dramatic effect. "He held himself coyly for a little time," says the
+eye-witness, "without saying a word; deporting himself as though he were
+considering whether or not he would grant the pardon for which the
+culprits had prayed." Then the Queen Regent enacted her share in the
+show. Turning to his Majesty "with all reverence, honor and humility, she
+begged that he would concede forgiveness, in honor of his nativity, which
+had occurred in that city."
+
+Upon this the Emperor "made a fine show of benignity," and replied "very
+sweetly" that in consequence of his "fraternal love for her, by reason of
+his being a gentle and virtuous prince, who preferred mercy to the rigor
+of justice, and in view of their repentance, he would accord his pardon
+to the citizens."
+
+The Netherlands, after this issue to the struggle of Ghent, were reduced,
+practically, to a very degraded condition. The form of local
+self-government remained, but its spirit, when invoked, only arose to be
+derided. The supreme court of Mechlin, as in the days of Charles the
+Bold, was again placed in despotic authority above the ancient charters.
+Was it probable that the lethargy of provinces, which had reached so high
+a point of freedom only to be deprived of it at last, could endure
+forever? Was it to be hoped that the stern spirit of religious
+enthusiasm, allying itself with the--keen instinct of civil liberty,
+would endue the provinces with strength to throw off the Spanish yoke?
+
+
+
+XII.
+
+It is impossible to comprehend the character of the great Netherland
+revolt in the sixteenth century without taking a rapid retrospective
+survey of the religious phenomena exhibited in the provinces. The
+introduction of Christianity has been already indicated. From the
+earliest times, neither prince, people, nor even prelates were very
+dutiful to the pope. As the papal authority made progress, strong
+resistance was often made to its decrees. The bishops of Utrecht were
+dependent for their wealth and territory upon the good will of the
+Emperor. They were the determined opponents of Hildebrand, warm adherents
+of the Hohenstaufers-Ghibelline rather than Guelph. Heresy was a plant of
+early growth in the Netherlands. As early as the beginning of the 12th
+century, the notorious Tanchelyn preached at Antwerp, attacking the
+authority of the pope and of all other ecclesiastics; scoffing at the
+ceremonies and sacraments of the Church. Unless his character and career
+have been grossly misrepresented, he was the most infamous of the many
+impostors who have so often disgraced the cause of religious reformation.
+By more than four centuries, he anticipated the licentiousness and
+greediness manifested by a series of false prophets, and was the first to
+turn both the stupidity of a populace and the viciousness of a priesthood
+to his own advancement; an ambition which afterwards reached its most
+signal expression in the celebrated John of Leyden.
+
+The impudence of Tanchelyn and the superstition of his followers seem
+alike incredible. All Antwerp was his harem. He levied, likewise, vast
+sums upon his converts, and whenever he appeared in public, his apparel
+and pomp were befitting an emperor. Three thousand armed satellites
+escorted his steps and put to death all who resisted his commands. So
+groveling became the superstition of his followers that they drank of the
+water in which, he had washed, and treasured it as a divine elixir.
+Advancing still further in his experiments upon human credulity, he
+announced his approaching marriage with the Virgin Mary, bade all his
+disciples to the wedding, and exhibited himself before an immense crowd
+in company with an image of his holy bride. He then ordered the people to
+provide for the expenses of the nuptials and the dowry of his wife,
+placing a coffer upon each side of the image, to receive the
+contributions of either sex. Which is the most wonderful manifestation in
+the history of this personage--the audacity of the impostor, or the
+bestiality of his victims? His career was so successful in the
+Netherlands that he had the effrontery to proceed to Rome, promulgating
+what he called his doctrines as he went. He seems to have been
+assassinated by a priest in an obscure brawl, about the year 1115.
+
+By the middle of the 12th century, other and purer heresiarchs had
+arisen. Many Netherlanders became converts to the doctrines of Waldo.
+From that period until the appearance of Luther, a succession of
+sects--Waldenses, Albigenses, Perfectists, Lollards, Poplicans,
+Arnaldists, Bohemian Brothers--waged perpetual but unequal warfare with
+the power and depravity of the Church, fertilizing with their blood the
+future field of the Reformation. Nowhere was the persecution of heretics
+more relentless than in the Netherlands. Suspected persons were subjected
+to various torturing but ridiculous ordeals. After such trial, death by
+fire was the usual but, perhaps, not the most severe form of execution.
+In Flanders, monastic ingenuity had invented another most painful
+punishment for Waldenses and similar malefactors. A criminal whose guilt
+had been established by the hot iron, hot ploughshare, boiling kettle, or
+other logical proof, was stripped and bound to the stake:--he was then
+flayed, from the neck to the navel, while swarms of bees were let loose
+to fasten upon his bleeding flesh and torture him to a death of exquisite
+agony.
+
+Nevertheless heresy increased in the face of oppression The Scriptures,
+translated by Waldo into French, were rendered into Netherland rhyme, and
+the converts to the Vaudois doctrine increased in numbers and boldness.
+At the same time the power and luxury of the clergy was waxing daily. The
+bishops of Utrecht, no longer the defenders of the people against
+arbitrary power, conducted themselves like little popes. Yielding in
+dignity neither to king nor kaiser, they exacted homage from the most
+powerful princes of the Netherlands. The clerical order became the most
+privileged of all. The accused priest refused to acknowledge the temporal
+tribunals. The protection of ecclesiastical edifices was extended over
+all criminals and fugitives from justice--a beneficent result in those
+sanguinary ages, even if its roots were sacerdotal pride. To establish an
+accusation against a bishop, seventy-two witnesses were necessary;
+against a deacon, twenty-seven; against an inferior dignitary, seven;
+while two were sufficient to convict a layman. The power to read and
+write helped the clergy to much wealth. Privileges and charters from
+petty princes, gifts and devises from private persons, were documents
+which few, save ecclesiastics, could draw or dispute. Not content,
+moreover, with their territories and their tithings, the churchmen
+perpetually devised new burthens upon the peasantry. Ploughs, sickles,
+horses, oxen, all implements of husbandry, were taxed for the benefit of
+those who toiled not, but who gathered into barns. In the course of the
+twelfth century, many religious houses, richly endowed with lands and
+other property, were founded in the Netherlands. Was hand or voice raised
+against clerical encroachment--the priests held ever in readiness a
+deadly weapon of defence: a blasting anathema was thundered against their
+antagonist, and smote him into submission. The disciples of Him who
+ordered his followers to bless their persecutors, and to love their
+enemies, invented such Christian formulas as these:--"In the name of the
+Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost, the blessed Virgin Mary, John the
+Baptist, Peter and Paul, and all other Saints in Heaven, do we curse and
+cut off from our Communion him who has thus rebelled against us. May the
+curse strike him in his house, barn, bed, field, path, city, castle. May
+he be cursed in battle, accursed in praying, in speaking, in silence, in
+eating, in drinking, in sleeping. May he be accursed in his taste,
+hearing, smell, and all his senses. May the curse blast his eyes, head,
+and his body, from his crown to the soles of his feet. I conjure you,
+Devil, and all your imps, that you take no rest till you have brought him
+to eternal shame; till he is destroyed by drowning or hanging, till he is
+torn to pieces by wild beasts, or consumed by fire. Let his children
+become orphans, his wife a widow. I command you, Devil, and all your
+imps, that even as I now blow out these torches, you do immediately
+extinguish the light from his eyes. So be it--so be it. Amen. Amen." So
+speaking, the curser was wont to blow out two waxen torches which he held
+in his hands, and, with this practical illustration, the anathema was
+complete.
+
+Such insane ravings, even in the mouth of some impotent beldame, were
+enough to excite a shudder, but in that dreary epoch, these curses from
+the lips of clergymen were deemed sufficient to draw down celestial
+lightning upon the head, not of the blasphemer, but of his victim. Men,
+who trembled neither at sword nor fire, cowered like slaves before such
+horrid imprecations, uttered by tongues gifted, as it seemed, with
+superhuman power. Their fellow-men shrank from the wretches thus blasted,
+and refused communication with them as unclean and abhorred.
+
+By the end of the thirteenth century, however, the clerical power was
+already beginning to decline. It was not the corruption of the Church,
+but its enormous wealth which engendered the hatred, with which it was by
+many regarded. Temporal princes and haughty barons began to dispute the
+right of ecclesiastics to enjoy vast estates, while refusing the burthen
+of taxation, and unable to draw a sword for the common defence. At this
+period, the Counts of Flanders, of Holland, and other Netherland
+sovereigns, issued decrees, forbidding clerical institutions from
+acquiring property, by devise, gift, purchase, or any other mode. The
+downfall of the rapacious and licentious knights-templar in the provinces
+and throughout Europe, was another severe blow administered at the same
+time. The attacks upon Church abuses redoubled in boldness, as its
+authority declined. Towards the end of the fourteenth century, the
+doctrines of Wicklif had made great progress in the land. Early in the
+fifteenth, the executions of Huss and Jerome of Prague, produce the
+Bohemian rebellion. The Pope proclaims a crusade against the Hussites.
+Knights and prelates, esquires and citizens, enlist in the sacred cause,
+throughout Holland and its sister provinces; but many Netherlanders, who
+had felt the might of Ziska's arm, come back, feeling more sympathy with
+the heresy which they had attacked, than with the Church for which they
+had battled.
+
+Meantime, the restrictions imposed by Netherland sovereigns upon clerical
+rights to hold or acquire property, become more stern and more general.
+On the other hand, with the invention of printing, the cause of
+Reformation takes a colossal stride in advance. A Bible, which, before,
+had cost five hundred crowns, now costs but five. The people acquire the
+power of reading God's Word, or of hearing it read, for themselves. The
+light of truth dispels the clouds of superstition, as by a new
+revelation. The Pope and his monks are found to bear, very often, but
+faint resemblance to Jesus and his apostles. Moreover, the instinct of
+self-interest sharpens the eye of the public. Many greedy priests, of
+lower rank, had turned shop-keepers in the Netherlands, and were growing
+rich by selling their wares, exempt from taxation, at a lower rate than
+lay hucksters could afford. The benefit of clergy, thus taking the bread
+from the mouths of many, excites jealousy; the more so, as, besides their
+miscellaneous business, the reverend traders have a most lucrative branch
+of commerce from which other merchants are excluded. The sale of
+absolutions was the source of large fortunes to the priests. The enormous
+impudence of this traffic almost exceeds belief. Throughout the
+Netherlands, the price current of the wares thus offered for sale, was
+published in every town and village. God's pardon for crimes already
+committed, or about to be committed, was advertised according to a
+graduated tariff. Thus, poisoning, for example, was absolved for eleven
+ducats, six livres tournois. Absolution for incest was afforded at
+thirty-six livres, three ducats. Perjury came to seven livres and three
+carlines. Pardon for murder, if not by poison, was cheaper. Even a
+parricide could buy forgiveness at God's tribunal at one ducat; four
+livres, eight carlines. Henry de Montfort, in the year 1448, purchased
+absolution for that crime at that price. Was it strange that a century or
+so of this kind of work should produce a Luther? Was it unnatural that
+plain people, who loved the ancient Church, should rather desire to see
+her purged of such blasphemous abuses, than to hear of St. Peter's dome
+rising a little nearer to the clouds on these proceeds of commuted crime?
+
+At the same time, while ecclesiastical abuses are thus augmenting,
+ecclesiastical power is diminishing in the Netherlands. The Church is no
+longer able to protect itself against the secular aim. The halcyon days
+of ban, book and candle, are gone. In 1459, Duke Philip of Burgundy
+prohibits the churches from affording protection to fugitives. Charles
+the Bold, in whose eyes nothing is sacred save war and the means of
+making it, lays a heavy impost upon all clerical property. Upon being
+resisted, he enforces collection with the armed hand. The sword and the
+pen, strength and intellect, no longer the exclusive servants or
+instruments of priestcraft, are both in open revolt. Charles the Bold
+storms one fortress, Doctor Grandfort, of Groningen, batters another.
+This learned Frisian, called "the light of the world," friend and
+compatriot of the great Rudolph Agricola, preaches throughout the
+provinces, uttering bold denunciations of ecclesiastical error. He even
+disputes the infallibility of the Pope, denies the utility of prayers for
+the dead, and inveighs against the whole doctrine of purgatory and
+absolution.
+
+With the beginning of the 16th century, the great Reformation was
+actually alive. The name of Erasmus of Rotterdam was already celebrated;
+the man, who, according to Grotius, "so well showed the road to a
+reasonable reformation." But if Erasmus showed the road, he certainly did
+not travel far upon it himself. Perpetual type of the quietist, the
+moderate man, he censured the errors of the Church with discrimination
+and gentleness, as if Borgianism had not been too long rampant at Rome,
+as if men's minds throughout Christendom were not too deeply stirred to
+be satisfied with mild rebukes against sin, especially when the mild
+rebuker was in receipt of livings and salaries from the sinner. Instead
+of rebukes, the age wanted reforms. The Sage of Rotterdam was a keen
+observer, a shrewd satirist, but a moderate moralist. He loved ease, good
+company, the soft repose of princely palaces, better than a life of
+martyrdom and a death at the stake. He was not of the stuff of which
+martyrs are made, as he handsomely confessed on more than one occasion.
+"Let others affect martyrdom," he said, "for myself I am unworthy of the
+honor;" and, at another time, "I am not of a mind," he observed "to
+venture my life for the truth's sake; all men have not strength to endure
+the martyr's death. For myself, if it came to the point, I should do no
+better than Simon Peter." Moderate in all things, he would have liked, he
+said, to live without eating and drinking, although he never found it
+convenient to do so, and he rejoiced when advancing age diminished his
+tendency to other carnal pleasures in which he had moderately indulged.
+Although awake to the abuses of the Church, he thought Luther going too
+fast and too far. He began by applauding ended by censuring the monk of
+Wittemberg. The Reformation might have been delayed for centuries had
+Erasmus and other moderate men been the only reformers. He will long be
+honored for his elegant, Latinity. In the republic of letters, his
+efforts to infuse a pure taste, a sound criticism, a love for the
+beautiful and the classic, in place of the owlish pedantry which had so
+long flapped and hooted through mediveval cloisters, will always be held
+in grateful reverence. In the history of the religious Reformation, his
+name seems hardly to deserve the commendations of Grotius.
+
+As the schism yawns, more and more ominously, throughout Christendom, the
+Emperor naturally trembles. Anxious to save the state, but being no
+antique Roman, he wishes to close the gulf, but with more convenience to
+himself: He conceives the highly original plan of combining Church and
+Empire under one crown. This is Maximilian's scheme for Church
+reformation. An hereditary papacy, a perpetual pope-emperor, the
+Charlemagne and Hildebrand systems united and simplified--thus the world
+may yet be saved. "Nothing more honorable, nobler, better, could happen
+to us," writes Maximilian to Paul Lichtenstein (16th Sept. 1511), "than
+to re-annex the said popedom--which properly belongs to us--to our
+Empire. Cardinal Adrian approves our reasons and encourages us to
+proceed, being of opinion that we should not have much trouble with the
+cardinals. It is much to be feared that the Pope may die of his present
+sickness. He has lost his appetite, and fills himself with so much drink
+that his health is destroyed. As such matters can not be arranged without
+money, we have promised the cardinals, whom we expect to bring over,
+300,000 ducats, [Recall that the fine for redemption and pardon for the
+sin of murder was at that time one ducat. D.W.] which we shall raise from
+the Fuggers, and make payable in Rome upon the appointed day."
+
+These business-like arrangements he communicates, two days afterwards, in
+a secret letter to his daughter Margaret, and already exults at his
+future eminence, both in this world and the next. "We are sending
+Monsieur de Gurce," he says; "to make an agreement with the Pope, that we
+may be taken as coadjutor, in order that, upon his death, we may be sure
+of the papacy, and, afterwards, of becoming a saint. After my decease,
+therefore, you will be constrained to adore me, of which I shall be very
+proud. I am beginning to work upon the cardinals, in which affair two or
+three hundred thousand ducats will be of great service." The letter was
+signed, "From the hand of your good father, Maximilian, future Pope."
+
+These intrigues are not destined, however, to be successful. Pope Julius
+lives two years longer; Leo the Tenth succeeds; and, as Medici are not
+much prone to Church reformation some other scheme, and perhaps some
+other reformer, may be wanted. Meantime, the traffic in bulls of
+absolution becomes more horrible than ever. Money must be raised to
+supply the magnificent extravagance of Rome. Accordingly, Christians,
+throughout Europe, are offered by papal authority, guarantees of
+forgiveness for every imaginable sin, "even for the rape of God's mother,
+if that were possible," together with a promise of life eternal in
+Paradise, all upon payment of the price affixed to each crime. The
+Netherlands, like other countries, are districted and farmed for the
+collection of this papal revenue. Much of the money thus raised, remains
+in the hands of the vile collectors. Sincere Catholics, who love and
+honor the ancient religion, shrink with horror at the spectacle offered
+on every side. Criminals buying Paradise for money, monks spending the
+money thus paid in gaming houses, taverns, and brothels; this seems, to
+those who have studied their Testaments, a different scheme of salvation
+from the one promulgated by Christ. There has evidently been a departure
+from the system of earlier apostles. Innocent conservative souls are much
+perplexed; but, at last, all these infamies arouse a giant to do battle
+with the giant wrong. Martin Luther enters the lists, all alone, armed
+only with a quiver filled with ninety-five propositions, and a bow which
+can send them all over Christendom with incredible swiftness. Within a
+few weeks the ninety-five propositions have flown through Germany, the
+Netherlands, Spain, and are found in Jerusalem.
+
+At the beginning, Erasmus encourages the bold friar. So long as the axe
+is not laid at the foot of the tree, which bears the poisonous but golden
+fruit, the moderate man applauds the blows. "Luther's cause is considered
+odious," writes Erasmus to the Elector of Saxony, "because he has, at the
+same time, attacked the bellies of the monks and the bulls of the Pope."
+He complains that the zealous man had been attacked with roiling, but not
+with arguments. He foresees that the work will have a bloody and
+turbulent result, but imputes the principal blame to the clergy. "The
+priests talk," said he, "of absolution in such terms, that laymen can not
+stomach it. Luther has been for nothing more censured than for making
+little of Thomas Aquinas; for wishing to diminish the absolution traffic;
+for having a low opinion of mendicant orders, and for respecting
+scholastic opinions less than the gospels. All this is considered
+intolerable heresy."
+
+Erasmus, however, was offending both parties. A swarm of monks were
+already buzzing about him for the bold language of his Commentaries and
+Dialogues. He was called Erasmus for his errors--Arasmus because he would
+plough up sacred things--Erasinus because he had written himself an
+ass--Behemoth, Antichrist, and many other names of similar import. Luther
+was said to have bought the deadly seed in his barn. The egg had been
+laid by Erasmus, hatched by Luther. On the other hand, he was reviled for
+not taking side manfully with the reformer. The moderate man received
+much denunciation from zealots on either side. He soon clears himself,
+however, from all suspicions of Lutheranism. He is appalled at the fierce
+conflict which rages far and wide. He becomes querulous as the mighty
+besom sweeps away sacred dust and consecrated cobwebs. "Men should not
+attempt every thing at once," he writes, "but rather step by step. That
+which men can not improve they must look at through the fingers. If the
+godlessness of mankind requires such fierce physicians as Luther, if man
+can not be healed with soothing ointments and cooling drinks, let us hope
+that God will comfort, as repentant, those whom he has punished as
+rebellious. If the dove of Christ--not the owl of Minerva--would only fly
+to us, some measure might be put to the madness of mankind."
+
+Meantime the man, whose talk is not of doves and owls, the fierce
+physician, who deals not with ointments and cooling draughts, strides
+past the crowd of gentle quacks to smite the foul disease. Devils,
+thicker than tiles on house-tops, scare him not from his work. Bans and
+bulls, excommunications and decrees, are rained upon his head. The
+paternal Emperor sends down dire edicts, thicker than hail upon the
+earth. The Holy Father blasts and raves from Rome. Louvain doctors
+denounce, Louvain hangmen burn, the bitter, blasphemous books. The
+immoderate man stands firm in the storm, demanding argument instead of
+illogical thunder; shows the hangmen and the people too, outside the
+Elster gate at Wittenberg, that papal bulls will blaze as merrily as
+heretic scrolls. What need of allusion to events which changed the
+world--which every child has learned--to the war of Titans, uprooting of
+hoary trees and rock-ribbed hills, to the Worms diet, Peasant wars, the
+Patmos of Eisenach, and huge wrestlings with the Devil?
+
+Imperial edicts are soon employed to suppress the Reformation in the
+Netherlands by force. The provinces, unfortunately; are the private
+property of Charles, his paternal inheritance; and most paternally,
+according to his view of the matter, does he deal with them. Germany can
+not be treated thus summarily, not being his heritage. "As it appears,"
+says the edict of 1521, "that the aforesaid Martin is not a man, but a
+devil under the form of a man, and clothed in the dress of a priest, the
+better to bring the human race to hell and damnation, therefore all his
+disciples and converts are to be punished with death and forfeiture of
+all their goods." This was succinct and intelligible. The bloody edict,
+issued at Worms, without even a pretence of sanction by the estates, was
+carried into immediate effect. The papal inquisition was introduced into
+the provinces to assist its operations. The bloody work, for which the
+reign of Charles is mainly distinguished in the Netherlands, now began.
+In 1523, July 1st, two Augustine monks were burned at Brussels, the first
+victims to Lutheranism in the provinces. Erasmus observed, with a sigh,
+that "two had been burned at Brussels, and that the city now began
+strenuously to favor Lutheranism."
+
+Pope Adrian the Sixth, the Netherland boat-maker's son and the Emperor's
+ancient tutor, was sufficiently alive to the sins of churchmen. The
+humble scholar of Utrecht was, at least, no Borgia. At the diet of
+Nuremberg, summoned to put down Luther, the honest Pope declared roundly,
+through the Bishop of Fabriane, that "these disorders had sprung from the
+Sins of men, more especially from the sins of priests and prelates. Even
+in the holy chair," said he, "many horrible crimes have been committed.
+Many abuses have grown up in the ecclesiastical state. The contagious
+disease, spreading from the head to the members--from the Pope to lesser
+prelates--has spread far and wide, so that scarcely any one is to be
+found who does right, and who is free from infection. Nevertheless, the
+evils have become so ancient and manifold, that it will be necessary to
+go step by step."
+
+In those passionate days, the ardent reformers were as much outraged by
+this pregnant confession as the ecclesiastics. It would indeed be a slow
+process, they thought, to move step by step in the Reformation, if
+between each step, a whole century was to intervene. In vain did the
+gentle pontiff call upon Erasmus to assuage the stormy sea with his
+smooth rhetoric. The Sage of Rotterdam was old and sickly; his day was
+over. Adrian's head; too; languishes beneath the triple crown but twenty
+months. He dies 13th Sept., 1523, having arrived at the conviction,
+according to his epitaph, that the greatest misfortune of his life was to
+have reigned.
+
+Another edict, published in the Netherlands, forbids all private
+assemblies for devotion; all reading of the scriptures; all discussions
+within one's own doors concerning faith, the sacraments, the papal
+authority, or other religious matter, under penalty of death. The edicts
+were no dead letter. The fires were kept constantly supplied with human
+fuel by monks, who knew the art of burning reformers better than that of
+arguing with them. The scaffold was the most conclusive of syllogisms,
+and used upon all occasions. Still the people remained unconvinced.
+Thousands of burned heretics had not made a single convert.
+
+A fresh edict renewed and sharpened the punishment for reading the
+scriptures in private or public. At the same time, the violent personal
+altercation between Luther and Erasmus, upon predestination, together
+with the bitter dispute between Luther and Zwingli concerning the real
+presence, did more to impede the progress of the Reformation than ban or
+edict, sword or fire. The spirit of humanity hung her head, finding that
+the bold reformer had only a new dogma in place of the old ones, seeing
+that dissenters, in their turn, were sometimes as ready as papists, with
+age, fagot, and excommunication. In 1526, Felix Mants, the anabaptist, is
+drowned at Zurich, in obedience to Zwingli's pithy formula--'Qui iterum
+mergit mergatur'. Thus the anabaptists, upon their first appearance, were
+exposed to the fires of the Church and the water of the Zwinglians.
+
+There is no doubt that the anabaptist delusion was so ridiculous and so
+loathsome, as to palliate or at least render intelligible the wrath with
+which they were regarded by all parties. The turbulence of the sect was
+alarming to constituted authorities, its bestiality disgraceful to the
+cause of religious reformation. The leaders were among the most depraved
+of human creatures, as much distinguished for licentiousness, blasphemy
+and cruelty as their followers for grovelling superstition. The evil
+spirit, driven out of Luther, seemed, in orthodox eyes, to have taken
+possession of a herd of swine. The Germans, Muncer and Hoffmann, had been
+succeeded, as chief prophets, by a Dutch baker, named Matthiszoon, of
+Harlem; who announced himself as Enoch. Chief of this man's disciples was
+the notorious John Boccold, of Leyden. Under the government of this
+prophet, the anabaptists mastered the city of Munster. Here they
+confiscated property, plundered churches, violated females, murdered men
+who refused to join the gang, and, in briefs practised all the enormities
+which humanity alone can conceive or perpetrate. The prophet proclaimed
+himself King of Sion, and sent out apostles to preach his doctrines in
+Germany and the Netherlands. Polygamy being a leading article of the
+system, he exemplified the principle by marrying fourteen wives. Of
+these, the beautiful widow of Matthiszoon was chief, was called the Queen
+of Sion, and wore a golden crown. The prophet made many fruitless efforts
+to seize Amsterdam and Leyden. The armed invasion of the anabaptists was
+repelled, but their contagious madness spread. The plague broke forth in
+Amsterdam. On a cold winter's night, (February, 1535), seven men and five
+women, inspired by the Holy Ghost, threw off their clothes and rushed
+naked and raving through the streets, shrieking "Wo, wo, wo! the wrath of
+God, the wrath of God!" When arrested, they obstinately refused to put on
+clothing. "We are," they observed, "the naked truth." In a day or two,
+these furious lunatics, who certainly deserved a madhouse rather than the
+scaffold, were all executed. The numbers of the sect increased with the
+martyrdom to which they were exposed, and the disorder spread to every
+part of the Netherlands. Many were put to death in lingering torments,
+but no perceptible effect was produced by the chastisement. Meantime the
+great chief of the sect, the prophet John, was defeated by the forces of
+the Bishop of Munster, who recovered his city and caused the "King of
+Zion" to be pinched to death with red-hot tongs.
+
+Unfortunately the severity of government was not wreaked alone upon the
+prophet and his mischievous crew. Thousands and ten-thousands of
+virtuous, well-disposed men and women, who had as little sympathy with
+anabaptistical as with Roman depravity; were butchered in cold blood,
+under the sanguinary rule of Charles, in the Netherlands. In 1533, Queen
+Dowager Mary of Hungary, sister of the Emperor, Regent of the provinces,
+the "Christian widow" admired by Erasmus, wrote to her brother that "in
+her opinion all heretics, whether repentant or not, should be prosecuted
+with such severity as that error might be, at once, extinguished, care
+being only taken that the provinces were not entirely depopulated." With
+this humane limitation, the "Christian Widow" cheerfully set herself to
+superintend as foul and wholesale a system of murder as was ever
+organized. In 1535, an imperial edict was issued at Brussels, condemning
+all heretics to death; repentant males to be executed with the sword,
+repentant females to be buried alive, the obstinate, of both sexes, to be
+burned. This and similar edicts were the law of the land for twenty
+years, and rigidly enforced. Imperial and papal persecution continued its
+daily deadly work with such diligence as to make it doubtful whether the
+limits set by the Regent Mary might not be overstepped. In the midst of
+the carnage, the Emperor sent for his son Philip, that he might receive
+the fealty of the Netherlands as their future lord and master.
+Contemporaneously, a new edict was published at Brussels (29th April,
+1549), confirming and reenacting all previous decrees in their most
+severe provisions. Thus stood religious matters in the Netherlands at the
+epoch of the imperial abdication.
+
+
+
+XIII.
+
+The civil institutions of the country had assumed their last provincial
+form, in the Burgundo-Austrian epoch. As already stated, their tendency,
+at a later period a vicious one, was to substitute fictitious personages
+for men. A chain of corporations was wound about the liberty of the
+Netherlands; yet that liberty had been originally sustained by the system
+in which it, one day, might be strangled. The spirit of local
+self-government, always the life-blood of liberty, was often excessive in
+its manifestations. The centrifugal force had been too much developed,
+and, combining with the mutual jealousy of corporations, had often made
+the nation weak against a common foe. Instead of popular rights there
+were state rights, for the large cities, with extensive districts and
+villages under their government, were rather petty states than
+municipalities. Although the supreme legislative and executive functions
+belonged to the sovereign, yet each city made its by-laws, and possessed,
+beside, a body of statutes and regulations, made from time to time by its
+own authority and confirmed by the prince. Thus a large portion, at
+least, of the nation shared practically in the legislative functions,
+which, technically, it did not claim; nor had the requirements of society
+made constant legislation so necessary, as that to exclude the people
+from the work was to enslave the country. There was popular power enough
+to effect much good, but it was widely scattered, and, at the same time,
+confined in artificial forms. The guilds were vassals of the towns, the
+towns, vassals of the feudal lord. The guild voted in the "broad council"
+of the city as one person; the city voted in the estates as one person.
+The people of the United Netherlands was the personage yet to be
+invented, It was a privilege, not a right, to exercise a handiwork, or to
+participate in the action of government. Yet the mass of privileges was
+so large, the shareholders so numerous, that practically the towns were
+republics. The government was in the hands of a large number of the
+people. Industry and intelligence led to wealth and power. This was great
+progress from the general servitude of the 11th and 12th centuries, an
+immense barrier against arbitrary rule. Loftier ideas of human rights,
+larger conceptions of commerce, have taught mankind, in later days, the
+difference between liberties and liberty, between guilds and free
+competition. At the same time it was the principle of mercantile
+association, in the middle ages, which protected the infant steps of
+human freedom and human industry against violence and wrong. Moreover, at
+this period, the tree of municipal life was still green and vigorous. The
+healthful flow of sap from the humblest roots to the most verdurous
+branches indicated the internal soundness of the core, and provided for
+the constant development of exterior strength. The road to political
+influence was open to all, not by right of birth, but through honorable
+exertion of heads and hands.
+
+The chief city of the Netherlands, the commercial capital of the world,
+was Antwerp. In the North and East of Europe, the Hanseatic league had
+withered with the revolution in commerce. At the South, the splendid
+marble channels, through which the overland India trade had been
+conducted from the Mediterranean by a few stately cities, were now dry,
+the great aqueducts ruinous and deserted. Verona, Venice, Nuremberg,
+Augsburg, Bruges, were sinking, but Antwerp, with its deep and convenient
+river, stretched its arm to the ocean and caught the golden prize, as it
+fell from its sister cities' grasp. The city was so ancient that its
+genealogists, with ridiculous gravity, ascended to a period two centuries
+before the Trojan war, and discovered a giant, rejoicing in the classic
+name of Antigonus, established on the Scheld. This patriarch exacted one
+half the merchandise of all navigators who passed his castle, and was
+accustomed to amputate and cast into the river the right hands of those
+who infringed this simple tariff. Thus Hand-werpen, hand-throwing, became
+Antwerp, and hence, two hands, in the escutcheon of the city, were ever
+held up in heraldic attestation of the truth. The giant was, in his turn,
+thrown into the Scheld by a hero, named Brabo, from whose exploits
+Brabant derived its name; "de quo Brabonica tellus." But for these
+antiquarian researches, a simpler derivation of the name would seem
+an t' werf, "on the wharf." It had now become the principal entrepot and
+exchange of Europe. The Huggers, Velsens, Ostetts, of Germany, the
+Gualterotti and Bonvisi of Italy, and many other great mercantile houses
+were there established. No city, except Paris, surpassed it in
+population, none approached it in commercial splendor. Its government was
+very free. The sovereign, as Marquis of Antwerp, was solemnly sworn to
+govern according to the ancient charters and laws. The stadholder, as his
+representative, shared his authority with the four estates of the city.
+The Senate of eighteen members was appointed by the stadholder out of a
+quadruple number nominated by the Senate itself and by the fourth body,
+called the Borgery. Half the board was thus renewed annually. It
+exercised executive and appellate judicial functions, appointed two
+burgomasters, and two pensionaries or legal councillors, and also
+selected the lesser magistrates and officials of the city. The board of
+ancients or ex-senators, held their seats ex officio. The twenty-six
+ward-masters, appointed, two from each ward, by the Senate on nomination
+by the wards, formed the third estate. Their especial business was to
+enrol the militia and to attend to its mustering and training. The deans
+of the guilds, fifty-four in number, two from each guild, selected by the
+Senate, from a triple list of candidates presented by the guilds,
+composed the fourth estate. This influential body was always assembled in
+the broad-council of the city. Their duty was likewise to conduct the
+examination of candidates claiming admittance to any guild and offering
+specimens of art or handiwork, to superintend the general affairs of the
+guilds and to regulate disputes.
+
+There were also two important functionaries, representing the king in
+criminal and civil matters. The Vicarius capitalis, Scultetus, Schout,
+Sheriff, or Margrave, took precedence of all magistrates. His business
+was to superintend criminal arrests, trials, and executions. The Vicarius
+civilis was called the Amman, and his office corresponded with that of
+the Podesta in the Frisian and Italian republics. His duties were nearly
+similar, in civil, to those of his colleague, in criminal matters.
+
+These four branches, with their functionaries and dependents, composed
+the commonwealth of Antwerp. Assembled together in council, they
+constituted the great and general court. No tax could be imposed by the
+sovereign, except with consent of the four branches, all voting
+separately.
+
+The personal and domiciliary rights of the citizen were scrupulously
+guarded. The Schout could only make arrests with the Burgomaster's
+warrant, and was obliged to bring the accused, within three days, before
+the judges, whose courts were open to the public.
+
+The condition of the population was prosperous. There were but few poor,
+and those did not seek but were sought by the almoners: The schools were
+excellent and cheap. It was difficult to find a child of sufficient age
+who could not read, write, and speak, at least, two languages. The sons
+of the wealthier citizens completed their education at Louvain, Douay,
+Paris, or Padua.
+
+The city itself was one of the most beautiful in Europe. Placed upon a
+plain along the banks of the Scheld, shaped like a bent bow with the
+river for its string, it enclosed within it walls some of the most
+splendid edifices in Christendom. The world-renowned church of Notre
+Dame, the stately Exchange where five thousand merchants daily
+congregated, prototype of all similar establishments throughout the
+world, the capacious mole and port where twenty-five hundred vessels were
+often seen at once, and where five hundred made their daily entrance or
+departure, were all establishments which it would have been difficult to
+rival in any other part of the world.
+
+From what has already been said of the municipal institutions of the
+country, it may be inferred that the powers of the Estates-general were
+limited. The members of that congress were not representatives chosen by
+the people, but merely a few ambassadors from individual provinces. This
+individuality was not always composed of the same ingredients. Thus,
+Holland consisted of two members, or branches--the nobles and the six
+chief cities; Flanders of four branches--the cities, namely, of Ghent,
+Bruges, Ypres, and the "freedom of Bruges;" Brabant of Louvain, Brussels,
+Bois le Due, and Antwerp, four great cities, without representation of
+nobility or clergy; Zeland, of one clerical person, the abbot of
+Middelburg, one noble, the Marquis of Veer and Vliessingen, and six chief
+cities; Utrecht, of three branches--the nobility, the clergy, and five
+cities. These, and other provinces, constituted in similar manner, were
+supposed to be actually present at the diet when assembled. The chief
+business of the states-general was financial; the sovereign, or his
+stadholder, only obtaining supplies by making a request in person, while
+any single city, as branch of a province, had a right to refuse the
+grant.
+
+Education had felt the onward movement of the country and the times. The
+whole system was, however, pervaded by the monastic spirit, which had
+originally preserved all learning from annihilation, but which now kept
+it wrapped in the ancient cerecloths, and stiffening in the stony
+sarcophagus of a bygone age. The university of Louvain was the chief
+literary institution in the provinces. It had been established in 1423 by
+Duke John IV. of Brabant. Its government consisted of a President and
+Senate, forming a close corporation, which had received from the founder
+all his own authority, and the right to supply their own vacancies. The
+five faculties of law, canon law, medicine, theology, and the arts, were
+cultivated at the institution. There was, besides, a high school for
+under graduates, divided into four classes. The place reeked with
+pedantry, and the character of the university naturally diffused itself
+through other scholastic establishments. Nevertheless, it had done and
+was doing much to preserve the love for profound learning, while the
+rapidly advancing spirit of commerce was attended by an ever increasing
+train of humanizing arts.
+
+The standard of culture in those flourishing cities was elevated,
+compared with that observed in many parts of Europe. The children of the
+wealthier classes enjoyed great facilities for education in all the great
+capitals. The classics, music, and the modern languages, particularly the
+French, were universally cultivated. Nor was intellectual cultivation
+confined to the higher orders. On the contrary, it was diffused to a
+remarkable degree among the hard-working artisans and handicraftsmen of
+the great cities.
+
+For the principle of association had not confined itself exclusively to
+politics and trade. Besides the numerous guilds by which citizenship was
+acquired in the various cities, were many other societies for mutual
+improvement, support, or recreation. The great secret, architectural or
+masonic brotherhood of Germany, that league to which the artistic and
+patient completion of the magnificent works of Gothic architecture in the
+middle ages is mainly to be attributed, had its branches in nether
+Germany, and explains the presence of so many splendid and elaborately
+finished churches in the provinces. There were also military sodalities
+of musketeers, cross-bowmen, archers, swordsmen in every town. Once a
+year these clubs kept holiday, choosing a king, who was selected for his
+prowess and skill in the use of various weapons. These festivals, always
+held with great solemnity and rejoicing, were accompanied bye many
+exhibitions of archery and swordsmanship. The people were not likely,
+therefore, voluntarily to abandon that privilege and duty of freemen, the
+right to bear arms, and the power to handle them.
+
+Another and most important collection of brotherhoods were the so-called
+guilds of Rhetoric, which existed, in greater or less number, in all the
+principal cities. These were associations of mechanics, for the purpose
+of amusing their leisure with poetical effusions, dramatic and musical
+exhibitions, theatrical processions, and other harmless and not inelegant
+recreations. Such chambers of rhetoric came originally in the fifteenth
+century from France. The fact that in their very title they confounded
+rhetoric with poetry and the drama indicates the meagre attainments of
+these early "Rederykers." In the outset of their career they gave
+theatrical exhibitions. "King Herod and his Deeds" was enacted in the
+cathedral at Utrecht in 1418. The associations spread with great celerity
+throughout the Netherlands, and, as they were all connected with each
+other, and in habits of periodical intercourse, these humble links of
+literature were of great value in drawing the people of the provinces
+into closer union. They became, likewise, important political engines. As
+early as the time of Philip the Good, their songs and lampoons became so
+offensive to the arbitrary notions of the Burgundian government, as to
+cause the societies to be prohibited. It was, however, out of the
+sovereign's power permanently to suppress institutions, which already
+partook of the character of the modern periodical press combined with
+functions resembling the show and licence of the Athenian drama. Viewed
+from the stand-point of literary criticism their productions were not
+very commendable in taste, conception, or execution. To torture the Muses
+to madness, to wire-draw poetry through inextricable coils of difficult
+rhymes and impossible measures; to hammer one golden grain of wit into a
+sheet of infinite platitude, with frightful ingenuity to construct
+ponderous anagrams and preternatural acrostics, to dazzle the vulgar eye
+with tawdry costumes, and to tickle the vulgar ear with virulent
+personalities, were tendencies which perhaps smacked of the hammer, the
+yard-stick and the pincers, and gave sufficient proof, had proof been
+necessary, that literature is not one of the mechanical arts, and that
+poetry can not be manufactured to a profit by joint stock companies. Yet,
+if the style of these lucubrations was often depraved, the artisans
+rarely received a better example from the literary institutions above
+them. It was not for guilds of mechanics to give the tone to literature,
+nor were their efforts in more execrable taste than the emanations from
+the pedants of Louvain. The "Rhetoricians" are not responsible for all
+the bad taste of their generation. The gravest historians of the
+Netherlands often relieved their elephantine labors by the most asinine
+gambols, and it was not to be expected that these bustling weavers and
+cutlers should excel their literary superiors in taste or elegance.
+
+Philip the Fair enrolled himself as a member in one of these societies.
+It may easily be inferred, therefore, that they had already become bodies
+of recognized importance. The rhetorical chambers existed in the most
+obscure villages. The number of yards of Flemish poetry annually
+manufactured and consumed throughout the provinces almost exceed belief.
+The societies had regular constitutions. Their presiding officers were
+called kings, princes, captains, archdeacons, or rejoiced in similar
+high-sounding names. Each chamber had its treasurer, its buffoon, and its
+standard-bearer for public processions. Each had its peculiar title or
+blazon, as the Lily, the Marigold, or the Violet, with an appropriate
+motto. By the year 1493, the associations had become so important, that
+Philip the Fair summoned them all to a general assembly at Mechlin. Here
+they were organized, and formally incorporated under the general
+supervision of an upper or mother-society of Rhetoric, consisting of
+fifteen members, and called by the title of "Jesus with the balsam
+flower."
+
+The sovereigns were always anxious to conciliate these influential guilds
+by becoming members of them in person. Like the players, the Rhetoricians
+were the brief abstract and chronicle of the time, and neither prince nor
+private person desired their ill report. It had, indeed, been Philip's
+intention to convert them into engines for the arbitrary purposes of his
+house, but fortunately the publicly organized societies were not the only
+chambers. On the contrary, the unchartered guilds were the moat numerous
+and influential. They exercised a vast influence upon the progress of the
+religious reformation, and the subsequent revolt of the Netherlands. They
+ridiculed, with their farces and their satires, the vices of the clergy.
+They dramatized tyranny for public execration. It was also not
+surprising, that among the leaders of the wild anabaptists who disgraced
+the great revolution in church and state by their hideous antics, should
+be found many who, like David of Delft, John of Leyden, and others, had
+been members of rhetorical chambers. The genius for mummery and
+theatrical exhibitions, transplanted from its sphere, and exerting itself
+for purposes of fraud and licentiousness, was as baleful in its effects
+as it was healthy in its original manifestations. Such exhibitions were
+but the excrescences of a system which had borne good fruit. These
+literary guilds befitted and denoted a people which was alive, a people
+which had neither sunk to sleep in the lap of material prosperity, nor
+abased itself in the sty of ignorance and political servitude. The spirit
+of liberty pervaded these rude but not illiterate assemblies, and her
+fair proportions were distinctly visible, even through the somewhat
+grotesque garb which she thus assumed.
+
+The great leading recreations which these chambers afforded to themselves
+and the public, were the periodic jubilees which they celebrated in
+various capital cities. All the guilds of rhetoric throughout the
+Netherlands were then invited to partake and to compete in magnificent
+processions, brilliant costumes, living pictures, charades, and other
+animated, glittering groups, and in trials of dramatic and poetic skill,
+all arranged under the superintendence of the particular association
+which, in the preceding year, had borne away the prize. Such jubilees
+were called "Land jewels."
+
+From the amusements of a people may be gathered much that is necessary
+for a proper estimation of its character. No unfavorable opinion can be
+formed as to the culture of a nation, whose weavers, smiths, gardeners,
+and traders, found the favorite amusement of their holidays in composing
+and enacting tragedies or farces, reciting their own verses, or in
+personifying moral and esthetic sentiments by ingeniously-arranged
+groups, or gorgeous habiliments. The cramoisy velvets and yellow satin
+doublets of the court, the gold-brocaded mantles of priests and princes
+are often but vulgar drapery of little historic worth. Such costumes
+thrown around the swart figures of hard-working artisans, for literary
+and artistic purposes, have a real significance, and are worthy of a
+closer examination. Were not these amusements of the Netherlanders as
+elevated and humanizing as the contemporary bull-fights and autos-da-fe
+of Spain? What place in history does the gloomy bigot merit who, for the
+love of Christ, converted all these gay cities into shambles, and changed
+the glittering processions of their Land jewels into fettered marches to
+the scaffold?
+
+Thus fifteen ages have passed away, and in the place of a horde of
+savages, living among swamps and thickets, swarm three millions of
+people, the most industrious, the most prosperous, perhaps the most
+intelligent under the sun. Their cattle, grazing on the bottom of the
+sea, are the finest in Europe, their agricultural products of more
+exchangeable value than if nature had made their land to overflow with
+wine and oil. Their navigators are the boldest, their mercantile marine
+the most powerful, their merchants the most enterprising in the world.
+Holland and Flanders, peopled by one race, vie with each other in the
+pursuits of civilization. The Flemish skill in the mechanical and in the
+fine arts is unrivalled. Belgian musicians delight and instruct other
+nations, Belgian pencils have, for a century, caused the canvas to glow
+with colors and combinations never seen before. Flemish fabrics are
+exported to all parts of Europe, to the East and West Indies, to Africa.
+The splendid tapestries, silks, linens, as well as the more homely and
+useful manufactures of the Netherlands, are prized throughout the world.
+Most ingenious, as they had already been described by the keen-eyed
+Caesar, in imitating the arts of other nations, the skillful artificers
+of the country at Louvain, Ghent, and other places, reproduce the shawls
+and silks of India with admirable accuracy.
+
+Their national industry was untiring; their prosperity unexampled; their
+love of liberty indomitable; their pugnacity proverbial. Peaceful in
+their pursuits, phlegmatic by temperament, the Netherlands were yet the
+most belligerent and excitable population of Europe. Two centuries of
+civil war had but thinned the ranks of each generation without quenching
+the hot spirit of the nation.
+
+The women were distinguished by beauty of form and vigor of constitution.
+Accustomed from childhood to converse freely with all classes and sexes
+in the daily walks of life, and to travel on foot or horseback from one
+town to another, without escort and without fear, they had acquired
+manners more frank and independent than those of women in other lands,
+while their morals were pure and their decorum undoubted. The prominent
+part to be sustained by the women of Holland in many dramas of the
+revolution would thus fitly devolve upon a class, enabled by nature and
+education to conduct themselves with courage.
+
+Within the little circle which encloses the seventeen provinces are 208
+walled cities, many of them among the most stately in Christendom, 150
+chartered towns, 6,300 villages, with their watch-towers and steeples,
+besides numerous other more insignificant hamlets; the whole guarded by a
+belt of sixty fortresses of surpassing strength.
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+Thus in this rapid sketch of the course and development of the Netherland
+nation during sixteen centuries, we have seen it ever marked by one
+prevailing characteristic, one master passion--the love of liberty, the
+instinct of self-government. Largely compounded of the bravest Teutonic
+elements, Batavian and Frisian, the race ever battles to the death with
+tyranny, organizes extensive revolts in the age of Vespasian, maintains a
+partial independence even against the sagacious dominion of Charlemagne,
+refuses in Friesland to accept the papal yoke or feudal chain, and,
+throughout the dark ages, struggles resolutely towards the light,
+wresting from a series of petty sovereigns a gradual and practical
+recognition of the claims of humanity. With the advent of the Burgundian
+family, the power of the commons has reached so high a point, that it is
+able to measure itself, undaunted, with the spirit of arbitrary rule, of
+which that engrossing and tyrannical house is the embodiment. For more
+than a century the struggle for freedom, for civic life, goes on; Philip
+the Good, Charles the Bold, Mary's husband Maximilian, Charles V., in
+turn, assailing or undermining the bulwarks raised, age after age,
+against the despotic principle. The combat is ever renewed. Liberty,
+often crushed, rises again and again from her native earth with redoubled
+energy. At last, in the 16th century, a new and more powerful spirit, the
+genius of religious freedom, comes to participate in the great conflict.
+Arbitrary power, incarnated in the second Charlemagne, assails the new
+combination with unscrupulous, unforgiving fierceness. Venerable civic
+magistrates; haltered, grovel in sackcloth and ashes; innocent, religious
+reformers burn in holocausts. By the middle of the century, the battle
+rages more fiercely than ever. In the little Netherland territory,
+Humanity, bleeding but not killed, still stands at bay and defies the
+hunters. The two great powers have been gathering strength for centuries.
+They are soon to be matched in a longer and more determined combat than
+the world had ever seen. The emperor is about to leave the stage. The
+provinces, so passionate for nationality, for municipal freedom, for
+religious reformation, are to become the property of an utter stranger; a
+prince foreign to their blood, their tongue, their religion, their whole
+habits of life and thought.
+
+Such was the political, religious, and social condition of a nation who
+were now to witness a new and momentous spectacle.
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     Absolution for incest was afforded at thirty-six livres
+     Achieved the greatness to which they had not been born
+     Advancing age diminished his tendency to other carnal pleasures
+     All his disciples and converts are to be punished with death
+     All reading of the scriptures (forbidden)
+     Altercation between Luther and Erasmus, upon predestination
+     An hereditary papacy, a perpetual pope-emperor
+     Announced his approaching marriage with the Virgin Mary
+     As ready as papists, with age, fagot, and excommunication
+     Attacking the authority of the pope
+     Bold reformer had only a new dogma in place of the old ones
+     Charles the Fifth autocrat of half the world
+     Condemning all heretics to death
+     Craft meaning, simply, strength
+     Criminal whose guilt had been established by the hot iron
+     Criminals buying Paradise for money
+     Crusades made great improvement in the condition of the serfs
+     Democratic instincts of the ancient German savages
+     Denies the utility of prayers for the dead
+     Difference between liberties and liberty
+     Dispute between Luther and Zwingli concerning the real presence
+     Divine right
+     Drank of the water in which, he had washed
+     Enormous wealth (of the Church) which engendered the hatred
+     Erasmus encourages the bold friar
+     Erasmus of Rotterdam
+     Even for the rape of God's mother, if that were possible
+     Executions of Huss and Jerome of Prague
+     Fable of divine right is invented to sanction the system
+     Felix Mants, the anabaptist, is drowned at Zurich
+     Few, even prelates were very dutiful to the pope
+     Fiction of apostolic authority to bind and loose
+     Fishermen and river raftsmen become ocean adventurers
+     For myself I am unworthy of the honor (of martyrdom)
+     Forbids all private assemblies for devotion
+     Force clerical--the power of clerks
+     Great Privilege, the Magna Charta of Holland
+     Guarantees of forgiveness for every imaginable sin
+     Halcyon days of ban, book and candle
+     Heresy was a plant of early growth in the Netherlands
+     In Holland, the clergy had neither influence nor seats
+     Invented such Christian formulas as these (a curse)
+     July 1st, two Augustine monks were burned at Brussels
+     King of Zion to be pinched to death with red-hot tongs
+     Labored under the disadvantage of never having existed
+     Learn to tremble as little at priestcraft as at swordcraft
+     Many greedy priests, of lower rank, had turned shop-keepers
+     No one can testify but a householder
+     Not of the stuff of which martyrs are made (Erasmus)
+     Nowhere was the persecution of heretics more relentless
+     Obstinate, of both sexes, to be burned
+     One golden grain of wit into a sheet of infinite platitude
+     Pardon for crimes already committed, or about to be committed
+     Pardon for murder, if not by poison, was cheaper
+     Paying their passage through, purgatory
+     Poisoning, for example, was absolved for eleven ducats
+     Pope and emperor maintain both positions with equal logic
+     Power to read and write helped the clergy to much wealth
+     Readiness to strike and bleed at any moment in her cause
+     Repentant females to be buried alive
+     Repentant males to be executed with the sword
+     Sale of absolutions was the source of large fortunes to the priests
+     Same conjury over ignorant baron and cowardly hind
+     Scoffing at the ceremonies and sacraments of the Church
+     Sharpened the punishment for reading the scriptures in private
+     Slavery was both voluntary and compulsory
+     Soldier of the cross was free upon his return
+     St. Peter's dome rising a little nearer to the clouds
+     Tanchelyn
+     The bad Duke of Burgundy, Philip surnamed "the Good,"
+     The egg had been laid by Erasmus, hatched by Luther
+     The vivifying becomes afterwards the dissolving principle
+     Thousands of burned heretics had not made a single convert
+     Thus Hand-werpen, hand-throwing, became Antwerp
+     To prefer poverty to the wealth attendant upon trade
+     Tranquillity of despotism to the turbulence of freedom
+     Villagers, or villeins
+
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, PG EDITION, VOLUME 3.
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
+JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, D.C.L., LL.D.
+1855
+PHILIP THE SECOND IN THE NETHERLANDS
+1555 [CHAPTER I.]
+
+   Abdication of Charles resolved upon--Brussels in the sixteenth
+   century--Hall of the palace described--Portraits of prominent
+   individuals present at the ceremony--Formalities of the abdication--
+   Universal emotion--Remarks upon the character and career of Charles
+   --His retirement at Juste.
+
+On the twenty-fifth day of October, 1555, the estates of the Netherlands
+were assembled in the great hall of the palace at Brussels. They had been
+summoned to be the witnesses and the guarantees of the abdication which
+Charles V. had long before resolved upon, and which he was that day to
+execute. The emperor, like many potentates before and since, was fond of
+great political spectacles. He knew their influence upon the masses of
+mankind. Although plain, even to shabbiness, in his own costume, and
+usually attired in black, no one ever understood better than he how to
+arrange such exhibitions in a striking and artistic style. We have seen
+the theatrical and imposing manner in which he quelled the insurrection
+at Ghent, and nearly crushed the life forever out of that vigorous and
+turbulent little commonwealth. The closing scene of his long and
+energetic reign he had now arranged with profound study, and with an
+accurate knowledge of the manner in which the requisite effects were to
+be produced. The termination of his own career, the opening of his
+beloved Philip's, were to be dramatized in a manner worthy the august
+character of the actors, and the importance of the great stage where they
+played their parts. The eyes of the whole world were directed upon that
+day towards Brussels; for an imperial abdication was an event which had
+not, in the sixteenth century, been staled by custom.
+
+The gay capital of Brabant--of that province which rejoiced in the
+liberal constitution known by the cheerful title of the "joyful
+entrance," was worthy to be the scene of the imposing show. Brussels had
+been a city for more than five centuries, and, at that day, numbered
+about one hundred thousand inhabitants. Its walls, six miles in
+circumference, were already two hundred years old. Unlike most Netherland
+cities, lying usually upon extensive plains, it was built along the sides
+of an abrupt promontory. A wide expanse of living verdure, cultivated
+gardens, shady groves, fertile cornfields, flowed round it like a sea.
+The foot of the town was washed by the little river Senne, while the
+irregular but picturesque streets rose up the steep sides of the hill
+like the semicircles and stairways of an amphitheatre. Nearly in the
+heart of the place rose the audacious and exquisitely embroidered tower
+of the townhouse, three hundred and sixty-six feet in height, a miracle
+of needlework in stone, rivalling in its intricate carving the cobweb
+tracery of that lace which has for centuries been synonymous with the
+city, and rearing itself above a facade of profusely decorated and
+brocaded architecture. The crest of the elevation was crowned by the
+towers of the old ducal palace of Brabant, with its extensive and
+thickly-wooded park on the left, and by the stately mansions of Orange,
+Egmont, Aremberg, Culemburg, and other Flemish grandees, on the right..
+The great forest of Soignies, dotted with monasteries and convents,
+swarming with every variety of game, whither the citizens made their
+summer pilgrimages, and where the nobles chased the wild boar and the
+stag, extended to within a quarter of a mile of the city walls. The
+population, as thrifty, as intelligent, as prosperous as that of any city
+in Europe, was divided into fifty-two guilds of artisans, among which the
+most important were the armorers, whose suits of mail would turn a
+musket-ball; the gardeners, upon whose gentler creations incredible sums
+were annually lavished; and the tapestry-workers, whose gorgeous fabrics
+were the wonder of the world. Seven principal churches, of which the most
+striking was that of St. Gudule, with its twin towers, its charming
+facade, and its magnificently painted windows, adorned the upper part of
+the city. The number seven was a magic number in Brussels, and was
+supposed at that epoch, during which astronomy was in its infancy and
+astrology in its prime, to denote the seven planets which governed all
+things terrestrial by their aspects and influences. Seven noble families,
+springing from seven ancient castles, supplied the stock from which the
+seven senators were selected who composed the upper council of the city.
+There were seven great squares, seven city gates, and upon the occasion
+of the present ceremony, it was observed by the lovers of wonderful
+coincidences, that seven crowned heads would be congregated under a
+single roof in the liberty-loving city.
+
+The palace where the states-general were upon this occasion convened, had
+been the residence of the Dukes of Brabant since the days of John the
+Second, who had built it about the year 1300. It was a spacious and
+convenient building, but not distinguished for the beauty of its
+architecture. In front was a large open square, enclosed by an iron
+railing; in the rear an extensive and beautiful park, filled with forest
+trees, and containing gardens and labyrinths, fish-ponds and game
+preserves, fountains and promenades, race-courses and archery grounds.
+The main entrance to this edifice opened upon a spacious hall, connected
+with a beautiful and symmetrical chapel. The hall was celebrated for its
+size, harmonious proportions, and the richness of its decorations. It was
+the place where the chapters of the famous order of the Golden Fleece
+were held. Its walls were hung with a magnificent tapestry of Arran,
+representing the life and achievements of Gideon, the Midianite, and
+giving particular prominence to the miracle of the "fleece of wool,"
+vouchsafed to that renowned champion, the great patron of the Knights of
+the Fleece. On the present occasion there were various additional
+embellishments of flowers and votive garlands. At the western end a
+spacious platform or stage, with six or seven steps, had been
+constructed, below which was a range of benches for the deputies of the
+seventeen provinces. Upon the stage itself there were rows of seats,
+covered with tapestry, upon the right hand and upon the left. These were
+respectively to accommodate the knights of the order and the guests of
+high distinction. In the rear of these were other benches, for the
+members of the three great councils. In the centre of the stage was a
+splendid canopy, decorated with the arms of Burgundy, beneath which were
+placed three gilded arm-chairs.
+
+All the seats upon the platform were vacant, but the benches below,
+assigned to the deputies of the provinces, were already filled. Numerous
+representatives from all the states but two--Gelderland and
+Overyssel--had already taken their places. Grave magistrates, in chain
+and gown, and executive officers in the splendid civic uniforms for which
+the Netherlands were celebrated, already filled every seat within the
+apace allotted. The remainder of the hall was crowded with the more
+favored portion of the multitude which had been fortunate enough to
+procure admission to the exhibition. The archers and hallebardiers of the
+body-guard kept watch at all the doors. The theatre was filled--the
+audience was eager with expectation--the actors were yet to arrive. As
+the clock struck three, the hero of the scene appeared. Caesar, as he was
+always designated in the classic language of the day, entered, leaning on
+the shoulder of William of Orange. They came from the chapel, and were
+immediately followed by Philip the Second and Queen Mary of Hungary. The
+Archduke Maximilian the Duke of Savoy, and other great personages came
+afterwards, accompanied by a glittering throng of warriors, councillors,
+governors, and Knights of the Fleece.
+
+Many individuals of existing or future historic celebrity in the
+Netherlands, whose names are so familiar to the student of the epoch,
+seemed to have been grouped, as if by premeditated design, upon this
+imposing platform, where the curtain was to fall forever upon the
+mightiest emperor since Charlemagne, and where the opening scene of the
+long and tremendous tragedy of Philip's reign was to be simultaneously
+enacted. There was the Bishop of Arras, soon to be known throughout
+Christendom by the more celebrated title of Cardinal Granvelle, the
+serene and smiling priest whose subtle influence over the destinies of so
+many individuals then present, and over the fortunes of the whole land,
+was to be so extensive and so deadly. There was that flower of Flemish
+chivalry, the lineal descendant of ancient Frisian kings, already
+distinguished for his bravery in many fields, but not having yet won
+those two remarkable victories which were soon to make the name of Egmont
+like the sound of a trumpet throughout the whole country. Tall,
+magnificent in costume, with dark flowing hair, soft brown eye, smooth
+cheek, a slight moustache, and features of almost feminine delicacy; such
+was the gallant and ill-fated Lamoral Egmont. The Count of Horn; too,
+with bold, sullen face, and fan-shaped beard-a brave, honest,
+discontented, quarrelsome, unpopular man; those other twins in doom--the
+Marquis Berghen and the Lord of Montigny; the Baron Berlaymont, brave,
+intensely loyal, insatiably greedy for office and wages, but who, at
+least, never served but one party; the Duke of Arschot, who was to serve
+all, essay to rule all, and to betray all--a splendid seignor,
+magnificent in cramoisy velvet, but a poor creature, who traced his
+pedigree from Adam, according to the family monumental inscriptions at
+Louvain, but who was better known as grand-nephew of the emperor's famous
+tutor, Chiebres; the bold, debauched Brederode, with handsome, reckless
+face and turbulent demeanor; the infamous Noircarmes, whose name was to
+be covered with eternal execration, for aping towards his own compatriots
+and kindred as much of Alva's atrocities and avarice, as he was permitted
+to exercise; the distinguished soldiers Meghen and Aremberg--these, with
+many others whose deeds of arms were to become celebrated throughout
+Europe, were all conspicuous in the brilliant crowd. There, too, was that
+learned Frisian, President Viglius, crafty, plausible, adroit,
+eloquent--a small, brisk man, with long yellow hair, glittering green
+eyes, round, tumid, rosy cheeks, and flowing beard. Foremost among the
+Spanish grandees, and close to Philip, stood the famous favorite, Ruy
+Gomez, or as he was familiarly called "Re y Gomez" (King and Gomez), a
+man of meridional aspect, with coal-black hair and beard, gleaming eyes,
+a face pallid with intense application, and slender but handsome figure;
+while in immediate attendance upon the emperor, was the immortal Prince
+of Orange.
+
+Such were a few only of the most prominent in that gay throng, whose
+fortunes, in part, it will be our humble duty to narrate; how many of
+them passing through all this glitter to a dark and mysterious
+doom!--some to perish on public scaffolds, some by midnight
+assassination; others, more fortunate, to fall on the battle-field
+--nearly all, sooner or later, to be laid in bloody graves!
+
+All the company present had risen to their feet as the emperor entered.
+By his command, all immediately afterwards resumed their places. The
+benches at either end of the platform were accordingly filled with the
+royal and princely personages invited, with the Fleece Knights, wearing
+the insignia of their order, with the members of the three great
+councils, and with the governors. The Emperor, the King, and the Queen of
+Hungary, were left conspicuous in the centre of the scene. As the whole
+object of the ceremony was to present an impressive exhibition, it is
+worth our while to examine minutely the appearance of the two principal
+characters.
+
+Charles the Fifth was then fifty-five years and eight months old; but he
+was already decrepit with premature old age. He was of about the middle
+height, and had been athletic and well-proportioned. Broad in the
+shoulders, deep in the chest, thin in the flank, very muscular in the
+arms and legs, he had been able to match himself with all competitors in
+the tourney and the ring, and to vanquish the bull with his own hand in
+the favorite national amusement of Spain. He had been able in the field
+to do the duty of captain and soldier, to endure fatigue and exposure,
+and every privation except fasting. These personal advantages were now
+departed. Crippled in hands, knees and legs, he supported himself with
+difficulty upon a crutch, with the aid of, an attendant's shoulder. In
+face he had always been extremely ugly, and time had certainly not
+improved his physiognomy. His hair, once of a light color, was now white
+with age, close-clipped and bristling; his beard was grey, coarse, and
+shaggy. His forehead was spacious and commanding; the eye was dark blue,
+with an expression both majestic and benignant. His nose was aquiline but
+crooked. The lower part of his face was famous for its deformity. The
+under lip, a Burgundian inheritance, as faithfully transmitted as the
+duchy and county, was heavy and hanging; the lower jaw protruding so far
+beyond the upper, that it was impossible for him to bring together the
+few fragments of teeth which still remained, or to speak a whole sentence
+in an intelligible voice. Eating and talking, occupations to which he was
+always much addicted, were becoming daily more arduous, in consequence of
+this original defect, which now seemed hardly human, but rather an
+original deformity.
+
+So much for the father. The son, Philip the Second, was a small, meagre
+man, much below the middle height, with thin legs, a narrow chest, and
+the shrinking, timid air of an habitual invalid. He seemed so little,
+upon his first visit to his aunts, the Queens Eleanor and Mary,
+accustomed to look upon proper men in Flanders and Germany, that he was
+fain to win their favor by making certain attempts in the tournament, in
+which his success was sufficiently problematical. "His body," says his
+professed panegyrist, "was but a human cage, in which, however brief and
+narrow, dwelt a soul to whose flight the immeasurable expanse of heaven
+was too contracted." [Cabrera] The same wholesale admirer adds, that "his
+aspect was so reverend, that rustics who met him alone in a wood, without
+knowing him, bowed down with instinctive veneration." In face, he was the
+living image of his father, having the same broad forehead, and blue eye,
+with the same aquiline, but better proportioned, nose. In the lower part
+of the countenance, the remarkable Burgundian deformity was likewise
+reproduced. He had the same heavy, hanging lip, with a vast mouth, and
+monstrously protruding lower jaw. His complexion was fair, his hair light
+and thin, his beard yellow, short, and pointed. He had the aspect of a
+Fleming, but the loftiness of a Spaniard. His demeanor in public was
+still, silent, almost sepulchral. He looked habitually on the ground when
+he conversed, was chary of speech, embarrassed, and even suffering in
+manner. This was ascribed partly to a natural haughtiness which he had
+occasionally endeavored to overcome, and partly to habitual pains in the
+stomach, occasioned by his inordinate fondness for pastry. [Bodavaro]
+
+Such was the personal appearance of the man who was about to receive into
+his single hand the destinies of half the world; whose single will was,
+for the future, to shape the fortunes of every individual then present,
+of many millions more in Europe, America, and at the ends of the earth,
+and of countless millions yet unborn.
+
+The three royal personages being seated upon chairs placed triangularly
+under the canopy, such of the audience as had seats provided for them,
+now took their places, and the proceedings commenced. Philibert de
+Bruxelles, a member of the privy council of the Netherlands, arose at the
+emperor's command, and made a long oration. He spoke of the emperor's
+warm affection for the provinces, as the land of his birth; of his deep
+regret that his broken health and failing powers, both of body and mind,
+compelled him to resign his sovereignty, and to seek relief for his
+shattered frame in a more genial climate. Caesar's gout was then depicted
+in energetic language, which must have cost him a twinge as he sat there
+and listened to the councillor's eloquence. "'Tis a most truculent
+executioner," said Philibert: "it invades the whole body, from the crown
+of the head to the soles of the feet, leaving nothing untouched. It
+contracts the nerves with intolerable anguish, it enters the bones, it
+freezes the marrow, it converts the lubricating fluids of the joints into
+chalk, it pauses not until, having exhausted and debilitated the whole
+body, it has rendered all its necessary instruments useless, and
+conquered the mind by immense torture." [Godelaevus]
+
+   [The historian was present at the ceremony, and gives a very full
+   report of the speeches, all of which he heard. His imagination may
+   have assisted his memory in the task. The other reporters of the
+   councillor's harangue have reduced this pathological flight of
+   rhetoric to a very small compass.]
+
+Engaged in mortal struggle with such an enemy, Caesar felt himself
+obliged, as the councillor proceeded to inform his audience, to change
+the scene of the contest from the humid air of Flanders to the warmer
+atmosphere of Spain. He rejoiced, however, that his son was both vigorous
+and experienced, and that his recent marriage with the Queen of England
+had furnished the provinces with a most valuable alliance. He then again
+referred to the emperor's boundless love for his subjects, and concluded
+with a tremendous, but superfluous, exhortation to Philip on the
+necessity of maintaining the Catholic religion in its purity. After this
+long harangue, which has been fully reported by several historians who
+were present at the ceremony, the councillor proceeded to read the deed
+of cession, by which Philip, already sovereign of Sicily, Naples, Milan,
+and titular King of England, France, and Jerusalem, now received all the
+duchies, marquisates, earldoms, baronies, cities, towns, and castles of
+the Burgundian property, including, of course, the seventeen Netherlands.
+
+As De Bruxelles finished, there was a buzz of admiration throughout the
+assembly, mingled with murmurs of regret, that in the present great
+danger upon the frontiers from the belligerent King of France and his
+warlike and restless nation, the provinces should be left without their
+ancient and puissant defender. The emperor then rose to his feet. Leaning
+on his crutch, he beckoned from his seat the personage upon whose arm he
+had leaned as he entered the hall. A tall, handsome youth of twenty-two
+came forward--a man whose name from that time forward, and as long as
+history shall endure, has been, and will be, more familiar than any other
+in the mouths of Netherlanders. At that day he had rather a southern than
+a German or Flemish appearance. He had a Spanish cast of features, dark,
+well chiselled, and symmetrical. His head was small and well placed upon
+his shoulders. His hair was dark brown, as were also his moustache and
+peaked beard. His forehead was lofty, spacious, and already prematurely
+engraved with the anxious lines of thought. His eyes were full, brown,
+well opened, and expressive of profound reflection. He was dressed in the
+magnificent apparel for which the Netherlanders were celebrated above all
+other nations, and which the ceremony rendered necessary. His presence
+being considered indispensable at this great ceremony, he had been
+summoned but recently from the camp on the frontier, where,
+notwithstanding his youth, the emperor had appointed him to command his
+army in chief against such antagonists as Admiral Coligny and the Due de
+Nevers.
+
+Thus supported upon his crutch and upon the shoulder of William of
+Orange, the Emperor proceeded to address the states, by the aid of a
+closely-written brief which he held in his hand. He reviewed rapidly the
+progress of events from his seventeenth year up to that day. He spoke of
+his nine expeditions into Germany, six to Spain, seven to Italy, four to
+France, ten to the Netherlands, two to England, as many to Africa, and of
+his eleven voyages by sea. He sketched his various wars, victories, and
+treaties of peace, assuring his hearers that the welfare of his subjects
+and the security of the Roman Catholic religion had ever been the leading
+objects of his life. As long as God had granted him health, he continued,
+only enemies could have regretted that Charles was living and reigning,
+but now that his strength was but vanity, and life fast ebbing away, his
+love for dominion, his affection for his subjects, and his regard for
+their interests, required his departure. Instead of a decrepit man with
+one foot in the grave, he presented them with a sovereign in the prime of
+life and the vigor of health. Turning toward Philip, he observed, that
+for a dying father to bequeath so magnificent an empire to his son was a
+deed worthy of gratitude, but that when the father thus descended to the
+grave before his time, and by an anticipated and living burial sought to
+provide for the welfare of his realms and the grandeur of his son, the
+benefit thus conferred was surely far greater. He added, that the debt
+would be paid to him and with usury, should Philip conduct himself in his
+administration of the province with a wise and affectionate regard to
+their true interests. Posterity would applaud his abdication, should his
+son Prove worthy of his bounty; and that could only be by living in the
+fear of God, and by maintaining law, justice, and the Catholic religion
+in all their purity, as the true foundation of the realm. In conclusion,
+he entreated the estates, and through them the nation, to render
+obedience to their new prince, to maintain concord and to preserve
+inviolate the Catholic faith; begging them, at the same time, to pardon
+him all errors or offences which he might have committed towards them
+during his reign, and assuring them that he should unceasingly remember
+their obedience and affection in his every prayer to that Being to whom
+the remainder of his life was to be dedicated.
+
+Such brave words as these, so many vigorous asseverations of attempted
+performance of duty, such fervent hopes expressed of a benign
+administration in behalf of the son, could not but affect the
+sensibilities of the audience, already excited and softened by the
+impressive character of the whole display. Sobs were heard throughout
+every portion of the hall, and tears poured profusely from every eye. The
+Fleece Knights on the platform and the burghers in the background were
+all melted with the same emotion. As for the Emperor himself, he sank
+almost fainting upon his chair as he concluded his address. An ashy
+paleness overspread his countenance, and he wept like a child. Even the
+icy Philip was almost softened, as he rose to perform his part in the
+ceremony. Dropping upon his knees before his father's feet, he reverently
+kissed his hand. Charles placed his hands solemnly upon his son's head,
+made the sign of the cross, and blessed him in the name of the Holy
+Trinity. Then raising him in his arms he tenderly embraced him saying,
+as he did so, to the great potentates around him, that he felt a sincere
+compassion for the son on whose shoulders so heavy a weight had just
+devolved, and which only a life-long labor would enable him to support.
+Philip now uttered a few words expressive of his duty to his father and
+his affection for his people. Turning to the orders, he signified his
+regret that he was unable to address them either in the French or Flemish
+language, and was therefore obliged to ask their attention to the Bishop
+of Arras, who would act as his interpreter. Antony Perrenot accordingly
+arose, and in smooth, fluent, and well-turned commonplaces, expressed at
+great length the gratitude of Philip towards his father, with his firm
+determination to walk in the path of duty, and to obey his father's
+counsels and example in the future administration of the provinces. This
+long address of the prelate was responded to at equal length by Jacob
+Maas, member of the Council of Brabant, a man of great learning,
+eloquence and prolixity, who had been selected to reply on behalf of the
+states-general, and who now, in the name of these; bodies, accepted the
+abdication in an elegant and complimentary harangue. Queen Mary of
+Hungary, the "Christian widow" of Erasmus, and Regent of the Netherlands
+during the past twenty-five years, then rose to resign her office, making
+a brief address expressive of her affection for the people, her regrets
+at leaving them, and her hopes that all errors which she might have
+committed during her long administration would be forgiven her. Again the
+redundant Maas responded, asserting in terms of fresh compliment and
+elegance the uniform satisfaction of the provinces with her conduct
+during her whole career.
+
+The orations and replies having now been brought to a close, the ceremony
+was terminated. The Emperor, leaning on the shoulders of the Prince of
+Orange and of the Count de Buren, slowly left the hall, followed by
+Philip, the Queen of Hungary, and the whole court; all in the same order
+in which they had entered, and by the same passage into the chapel.
+
+It is obvious that the drama had been completely successful. It had been
+a scene where heroic self-sacrifice, touching confidence, ingenuous love
+of duty, patriotism, and paternal affection upon one side; filial
+reverence, with a solemn regard for public duty and the highest interests
+of the people on the other, were supposed to be the predominant
+sentiments. The happiness of the Netherlands was apparently the only
+object contemplated in the great transaction. All had played well their
+parts in the past, all hoped the best in the times which were to follow.
+The abdicating Emperor was looked upon as a hero and a prophet. The stage
+was drowned in tears. There is not the least doubt as to the genuine and
+universal emotion which was excited throughout the assembly. "Caesar's
+oration," says Secretary Godelaevus, who was present at the ceremony,
+"deeply moved the nobility and gentry, many of whom burst into tears;
+even the illustrious Knights of the Fleece were melted." The historian,
+Pontus Heuterus, who, then twenty years of age, was likewise among the
+audience, attests that "most of the assembly were dissolved in tears;
+uttering the while such sonorous sobs that they compelled his Caesarean
+Majesty and the Queen to cry with them. My own face," he adds, "was
+certainly quite wet." The English envoy, Sir John Mason, describing in a
+despatch to his government the scene which he had just witnessed, paints
+the same picture. "The Emperor," he said, "begged the forgiveness of his
+subjects if he had ever unwittingly omitted the performance of any of his
+duties towards them. And here," continues the envoy, "he broke into a
+weeping, whereunto, besides the dolefulness of the matter, I think, he
+was moche provoked by seeing the whole company to do the lyke before;
+there beyng in myne opinion not one man in the whole assemblie, stranger
+or another, that dewring the time of a good piece of his oration poured
+not out as abundantly teares, some more, some lesse. And yet he prayed
+them to beare with his imperfections, proceeding of his sickly age, and
+of the mentioning of so tender a matter as the departing from such a sort
+of dere and loving subjects."
+
+And yet what was the Emperor Charles to the inhabitants of the
+Netherlands that they should weep for him? His conduct towards them
+during his whole career had been one of unmitigated oppression. What to
+them were all these forty voyages by sea and land, these journeyings back
+and forth from Friesland to Tunis, from Madrid to Vienna. What was it to
+them that the imperial shuttle was thus industriously flying to and fro?
+The fabric wrought was but the daily growing grandeur and splendor of his
+imperial house; the looms were kept moving at the expense of their
+hardly-earned treasure, and the woof was often dyed red in the blood of
+his bravest subjects. The interests of the Netherlands had never been
+even a secondary consideration with their master. He had fulfilled no
+duty towards them, he had committed the gravest crimes against them. He
+had regarded them merely as a treasury upon which to draw; while the sums
+which he extorted were spent upon ceaseless and senseless wars, which
+were of no more interest to them than if they had been waged in another
+planet. Of five millions of gold annually, which he derived from all his
+realms, two millions came from these industrious and opulent provinces,
+while but a half million came from Spain and another half from the
+Indies. The mines of wealth which had been opened by the hand of industry
+in that slender territory of ancient morass and thicket, contributed four
+times as much income to the imperial exchequer as all the boasted wealth
+of Mexico and Peru. Yet the artisans, the farmers and the merchants, by
+whom these riches were produced, were consulted about as much in the
+expenditure of the imposts upon their industry as were the savages of
+America as to the distribution of the mineral treasures of their soil.
+The rivalry of the houses of Habsburg and Valois, this was the absorbing
+theme, during the greater part of the reign which had just been so
+dramatically terminated. To gain the empire over Francis, to leave to Don
+Philip a richer heritage than the Dauphin could expect, were the great
+motives of the unparalleled energy displayed by Charles during the longer
+and the more successful portion of his career. To crush the Reformation
+throughout his dominions, was his occupation afterward, till he abandoned
+the field in despair. It was certainly not desirable for the
+Netherlanders that they should be thus controlled by a man who forced
+them to contribute so largely to the success of schemes, some of which
+were at best indifferent, and others entirely odious to them. They paid
+1,200,000 crowns a year regularly; they paid in five years an
+extraordinary subsidy of eight millions of ducats, and the States were
+roundly rebuked by the courtly representatives of their despot, if they
+presumed to inquire into the objects of the appropriations, or to express
+an interest in their judicious administration. Yet it maybe supposed to
+have been a matter of indifference to them whether Francis or Charles had
+won the day at Pavia, and it certainly was not a cause of triumph to the
+daily increasing thousands of religious reformers in Holland and Flanders
+that their brethren had been crushed by the Emperor at Muhlberg. But it
+was not alone that he drained their treasure, and hampered their
+industry. He was in constant conflict with their ancient and
+dearly-bought political liberties. Like his ancestor Charles the Bold, he
+was desirous of constructing a kingdom out of the provinces. He was
+disposed to place all their separate and individual charters on a
+procrustean bed, and shape them all into uniformity simply by reducing
+the whole to a nullity. The difficulties in the way, the stout opposition
+offered by burghers, whose fathers had gained these charters with their
+blood, and his want of leisure during the vast labors which devolved upon
+him as the autocrat of so large a portion of the world, caused him to
+defer indefinitely the execution of his plan. He found time only to crush
+some of the foremost of the liberal institutions of the provinces, in
+detail. He found the city of Tournay a happy, thriving, self-governed
+little republic in all its local affairs; he destroyed its liberties,
+without a tolerable pretext, and reduced it to the condition of a Spanish
+or Italian provincial town.
+
+His memorable chastisement of Ghent for having dared to assert its
+ancient rights of self-taxation, is sufficiently known to the world, and
+has been already narrated at length. Many other instances might be
+adduced, if it were not a superfluous task, to prove that Charles was not
+only a political despot, but most arbitrary and cruel in the exercise of
+his despotism.
+
+But if his sins against the Netherlands had been only those of financial
+and political oppression, it would be at least conceivable, although
+certainly not commendable, that the inhabitants should have regretted his
+departure. But there are far darker crimes for which he stands arraigned
+at the bar of history, and it is indeed strange that the man who had
+committed them should have been permitted to speak his farewell amid
+blended plaudits and tears. His hand planted the inquisition in the
+Netherlands. Before his day it is idle to say that the diabolical
+institution ever had a place there. The isolated cases in which
+inquisitors had exercised functions proved the absence and not the
+presence of the system, and will be discussed in a later chapter. Charles
+introduced and organized a papal inquisition, side by side with those
+terrible "placards" of his invention, which constituted a masked
+inquisition even more cruel than that of Spain. The execution of the
+system was never permitted to languish. The number of Netherlanders who
+were burned, strangled, beheaded, or buried alive, in obedience to his
+edicts, and for the offences of reading the Scriptures, of looking
+askance at a graven image, or of ridiculing the actual presence of the
+body and blood of Christ in a wafer, have been placed as high as one
+hundred thousand by distinguished authorities, and have never been put at
+a lower mark than fifty thousand. The Venetian envoy Navigero placed the
+number of victims in the provinces of Holland and Friesland alone at
+thirty thousand, and this in 1546, ten years before the abdication, and
+five before the promulgation of the hideous edict of 1550!
+
+The edicts and the inquisition were the gift of Charles to the
+Netherlands, in return for their wasted treasure and their constant
+obedience. For this, his name deserves to be handed down to eternal
+infamy, not only throughout the Netherlands, but in every land where a
+single heart beats for political or religious freedom. To eradicate these
+institutions after they had been watered and watched by the care of his
+successor, was the work of an eighty years' war, in the course of which
+millions of lives were sacrificed. Yet the abdicating Emperor had
+summoned his faithful estates around him, and stood up before them in his
+imperial robes for the last time, to tell them of the affectionate regard
+which he had always borne them, and to mingle his tears with theirs.
+
+Could a single phantom have risen from one of the many thousand graves
+where human beings had been thrust alive by his decree, perhaps there
+might have been an answer to the question propounded by the Emperor amid
+all that piteous weeping. Perhaps it might have told the man who asked
+his hearers to be forgiven if he had ever unwittingly offended them, that
+there was a world where it was deemed an offence to torture, strangle,
+burn, and drown one's innocent fellow-creatures. The usual but trifling
+excuse for such enormities can not be pleaded for the Emperor. Charles
+was no fanatic. The man whose armies sacked Rome, who laid his
+sacrilegious hands on Christ's vicegerent, and kept the infallible head
+of the Church a prisoner to serve his own political ends, was then no
+bigot. He believed in nothing; save that when the course of his imperial
+will was impeded, and the interests of his imperial house in jeopardy,
+pontiffs were to succumb as well as anabaptists. It was the political
+heresy which lurked in the restiveness of the religious reformers under
+dogma, tradition, and supernatural sanction to temporal power, which he
+was disposed to combat to the death. He was too shrewd a politician not
+to recognize the connection between aspirations for religious and for
+political freedom. His hand was ever ready to crush both heresies in one.
+Had he been a true son of the Church, a faithful champion of her
+infallibility, he would not have submitted to the peace of Passau, so
+long as he could bring a soldier to the field. Yet he acquiesced in the
+Reformation for Germany, while the fires for burning the reformers were
+ever blazing in the Netherlands, where it was death even to allude to the
+existence of the peace of Passau. Nor did he acquiesce only from
+compulsion, for long before his memorable defeat by Maurice, he had
+permitted the German troops, with whose services he could not dispense,
+regularly to attend Protestant worship performed by their own Protestant
+chaplains. Lutheran preachers marched from city to city of the
+Netherlands under the imperial banner, while the subjects of those
+patrimonial provinces were daily suffering on the scaffold for their
+nonconformity. The influence of this garrison-preaching upon the progress
+of the Reformation in the Netherlands is well known. Charles hated
+Lutherans, but he required soldiers, and he thus helped by his own policy
+to disseminate what had he been the fanatic which he perhaps became in
+retirement, he would have sacrificed his life to crush. It is quite true
+that the growing Calvinism of the provinces was more dangerous both
+religiously and politically, than the Protestantism of the German
+princes, which had not yet been formally pronounced heresy, but it is
+thus the more evident that it was political rather than religious
+heterodoxy which the despot wished to suppress.
+
+No man, however, could have been more observant of religious rites. He
+heard mass daily. He listened to a sermon every Sunday and holiday. He
+confessed and received the sacrament four times a year. He was sometimes
+to be seen in his tent at midnight, on his knees before a crucifix with
+eyes and hands uplifted. He ate no meat in Lent, and used extraordinary
+diligence to discover and to punish any man, whether courtier or
+plebeian, who failed to fast during the whole forty days. He was too good
+a politician not to know the value of broad phylacteries and long
+prayers. He was too nice an observer of human nature not to know how
+easily mint and cummin could still outweigh the "weightier matters of
+law, judgment, mercy and faith;" as if the founder of the religion which
+he professed, and to maintain which he had established the inquisition
+and the edicts, had never cried woe upon the Pharisees. Yet there is no
+doubt that the Emperor was at times almost popular in the Netherlands,
+and that he was never as odious as his successor. There were some deep
+reasons for this, and some superficial ones; among others, a singularly
+fortunate manner. He spoke German, Spanish, Italian, French, and Flemish,
+and could assume the characteristics of each country as easily as he
+could use its language. He could be stately with Spaniards, familiar with
+Flemings witty with Italians. He could strike down a bull in the ring
+like a matador at Madrid, or win the prize in the tourney like a knight
+of old; he could ride at the ring with the Flemish nobles, hit the
+popinjay with his crossbow among Antwerp artisans, or drink beer and
+exchange rude jests with the boors of Brabant. For virtues such as these,
+his grave crimes against God and man, against religion and chartered and
+solemnly-sworn rights have been palliated, as if oppression became more
+tolerable because the oppressor was an accomplished linguist and a good
+marksman.
+
+But the great reason for his popularity no doubt lay in his military
+genius. Charles was inferior to no general of his age. "When he was born
+into the world," said Alva, "he was born a soldier," and the Emperor
+confirmed the statement and reciprocated the compliment, when he declared
+that "the three first captains of the age were himself first, and then
+the Duke of Alva and Constable Montmorency." It is quite true that all
+his officers were not of the same opinion, and many were too apt to
+complain that his constant presence in the field did more harm than good,
+and "that his Majesty would do much better to stay at home." There is,
+however, no doubt that he was both a good soldier and a good general. He
+was constitutionally fearless, and he possessed great energy and
+endurance. He was ever the first to arm when a battle was to be fought,
+and the last to take off his harness. He commanded in person and in
+chief, even when surrounded by veterans and crippled by the gout. He was
+calm in great reverses. It was said that he was never known to change
+color except upon two occasions: after the fatal destruction of his fleet
+at Algiers, and in the memorable flight from Innspruck. He was of a
+phlegmatic, stoical temperament, until shattered by age and disease; a
+man without a sentiment and without a tear. It was said by Spaniards that
+he was never seen to weep, even at the death of his nearest relatives and
+friends, except on the solitary occasion of the departure of Don Ferrante
+Gonzaga from court. Such a temperament was invaluable in the stormy
+career to which he had devoted his life. He was essentially a man of
+action, a military chieftain. "Pray only for my health and my life," he
+was accustomed to say to the young officers who came to him from every
+part of his dominions to serve under his banners, "for so, long as I have
+these I will never leave you idle; at least in France. I love peace no
+better than the rest of you. I was born and bred to arms, and must of
+necessity keep on my harness till I can bear it no longer." The restless
+energy and the magnificent tranquillity of his character made him a hero
+among princes, an idol with his officers, a popular favorite every where.
+The promptness with which, at much personal hazard, he descended like a
+thunderbolt in the midst of the Ghent insurrection; the juvenile ardor
+with which the almost bedridden man arose from his sick-bed to smite the
+Protestants at Muhlberg; the grim stoicism with which he saw sixty
+thousand of his own soldiers perish in the wintry siege of Metz; all
+ensured him a large measure of that applause which ever follows military
+distinction, especially when the man who achieves it happens to wear a
+crown. He combined the personal prowess of a knight of old with the more
+modern accomplishments of a scientific tactician. He could charge the
+enemy in person like the most brilliant cavalry officer, and he
+thoroughly understood the arrangements of a campaign, the marshalling and
+victualling of troops, and the whole art of setting and maintaining an
+army in the field.
+
+Yet, though brave and warlike as the most chivalrous of his ancestors,
+Gothic, Burgundian, or Suabian, he was entirely without chivalry.
+Fanaticism for the faith, protection for the oppressed, fidelity to
+friend and foe, knightly loyalty to a cause deemed sacred, the sacrifice
+of personal interests to great ideas, generosity of hand and heart; all
+those qualities which unite with courage and constancy to make up the
+ideal chevalier, Charles not only lacked but despised. He trampled on the
+weak antagonist, whether burgher or petty potentate. He was false as
+water. He inveigled his foes who trusted to imperial promises, by arts
+unworthy an emperor or a gentleman. He led about the unfortunate John
+Frederic of Saxony, in his own language, "like a bear in a chain," ready
+to be slipped upon Maurice should "the boy" prove ungrateful. He connived
+at the famous forgery of the prelate of Arras, to which the Landgrave
+Philip owed his long imprisonment; a villany worse than many for which
+humbler rogues have suffered by thousands upon the gallows. The
+contemporary world knew well the history of his frauds, on scale both
+colossal and minute, and called him familiarly "Charles qui triche."
+
+The absolute master of realms on which the sun perpetually shone, he was
+not only greedy for additional dominion, but he was avaricious in small
+matters, and hated to part with a hundred dollars. To the soldier who
+brought him the sword and gauntlets of Francis the First, he gave a
+hundred crowns, when ten thousand would have been less than the customary
+present; so that the man left his presence full of desperation. The three
+soldiers who swam the Elbe, with their swords in their mouths; to bring
+him the boats with which he passed to the victory of Muhlberg, received
+from his imperial bounty a doublet, a pair of stockings, and four crowns
+apiece. His courtiers and ministers complained bitterly of his habitual
+niggardliness, and were fain to eke out their slender salaries by
+accepting bribes from every hand rich enough to bestow them. In truth
+Charles was more than any thing else a politician, notwithstanding his
+signal abilities as a soldier. If to have founded institutions which
+could last, be the test of statesmanship, he was even a statesman; for
+many of his institutions have resisted the pressure of three centuries.
+But those of Charlemagne fell as soon as his hand was cold, while the
+works of many ordinary legislators have attained to a perpetuity denied
+to the statutes of Solon or Lycurgus. Durability is not the test of merit
+in human institutions. Tried by the only touchstone applicable to
+governments, their capacity to insure the highest welfare of the
+governed, we shall not find his polity deserving of much admiration. It
+is not merely that he was a despot by birth and inclination, nor that he
+naturally substituted as far as was practicable, the despotic for the
+republican element, wherever his hand can be traced. There may be
+possible good in despotisms as there is often much tyranny in democracy.
+Tried however according to the standard by which all governments may be
+measured, those laws of truth and divine justice which all Christian
+nations recognize, and which are perpetual, whether recognized or not, we
+shall find little to venerate in the life work of the Emperor. The
+interests of his family, the security of his dynasty, these were his end
+and aim. The happiness or the progress of his people never furnished even
+the indirect motives of his conduct, and the result was a baffled policy
+and a crippled and bankrupt empire at last.
+
+He knew men, especially he knew their weaknesses, and he knew how to turn
+them to account. He knew how much they would bear, and that little
+grievances would sometimes inflame more than vast and deliberate
+injustice. Therefore he employed natives mainly in the subordinate
+offices of his various states, and he repeatedly warned his successor
+that the haughtiness of Spaniards and the incompatibility of their
+character with the Flemish, would be productive of great difficulties and
+dangers. It was his opinion that men might be tyrannized more
+intelligently by their own kindred, and in this perhaps he was right. He
+was indefatigable in the discharge of business, and if it were possible
+that half a world could be administered as if it were the private
+property of an individual, the task would have been perhaps as well
+accomplished by Charles as by any man. He had not the absurdity of
+supposing it possible for him to attend to the details of every
+individual affair in every one of his realms; and he therefore intrusted
+the stewardship of all specialities to his various ministers and agents.
+It was his business to know men and to deal with affairs on a large
+scale, and in this he certainly was superior to his successor. His
+correspondence was mainly in the hands of Granvelle the elder, who
+analyzed letters received, and frequently wrote all but the signatures of
+the answers. The same minister usually possessed the imperial ear, and
+farmed it out for his own benefit. In all this there was of course room
+for vast deception, but the Emperor was quite aware of what was going on,
+and took a philosophic view of the matter as an inevitable part of his
+system. Granvelle grew enormously rich under his eye by trading on the
+imperial favor and sparing his majesty much trouble. Charles saw it all,
+ridiculed his peculations, but called him his "bed of down." His
+knowledge of human nature was however derived from a contemplation mainly
+of its weaknesses, and was therefore one-sided. He was often deceived,
+and made many a fatal blunder, shrewd politician though he was. He
+involved himself often in enterprises which could not be honorable or
+profitable, and which inflicted damage on his greatest interests. He
+often offended men who might have been useful friends, and converted
+allies into enemies. "His Majesty," said a keen observer who knew him
+well, "has not in his career shown the prudence which was necessary to
+him. He has often offended those whose love he might have conciliated,
+converted friends into enemies, and let those perish who were his most
+faithful partisans." Thus it must be acknowledged that even his boasted
+knowledge of human nature and his power of dealing with men was rather
+superficial and empirical than the real gift of genius.
+
+His personal habits during the greater part of his life were those of an
+indefatigable soldier. He could remain in the saddle day and night, and
+endure every hardship but hunger. He was addicted to vulgar and
+miscellaneous incontinence. He was an enormous eater. He breakfasted at
+five, on a fowl seethed in milk and dressed with sugar and spices. After
+this he went to sleep again. He dined at twelve, partaking always of
+twenty dishes. He supped twice; at first, soon after vespers, and the
+second time at midnight or one o'clock, which meal was, perhaps, the most
+solid of the four. After meat he ate a great quantity of pastry and
+sweetmeats, and he irrigated every repast by vast draughts of beer and
+wine. His stomach, originally a wonderful one, succumbed after forty
+years of such labors. His taste, but not his appetite began to fail, and
+he complained to his majordomo, that all his food was insipid. The reply
+is, perhaps, among the most celebrated of facetia. The cook could do
+nothing more unless he served his Majesty a pasty of watches. The
+allusion to the Emperor's passion for horology was received with great
+applause. Charles "laughed longer than he was ever known to laugh before,
+and all the courtiers (of course) laughed as long as his Majesty."
+[Badovaro] The success of so sorry a jest would lead one to suppose that
+the fooling was less admirable at the imperial court than some of the
+recorded quips of Tribaulet would lead us to suppose.
+
+The transfer of the other crowns and dignitaries to Philip, was
+accomplished a month afterwards, in a quiet manner. Spain, Sicily, the
+Balearic Islands, America, and other portions of the globe, were made
+over without more display than an ordinary 'donatio inter vivos'. The
+Empire occasioned some difficulty. It had been already signified to
+Ferdinand, that his brother was to resign the imperial crown in his
+favor, and the symbols of sovereignty were accordingly transmitted to him
+by the hands of William of Orange. A deputation, moreover, of which that
+nobleman, Vice-Chancellor Seld, and Dr. Wolfgang Haller were the chiefs,
+was despatched to signify to the electors of the Empire the step which
+had been thus resolved upon. A delay of more than two years, however,
+intervened, occasioned partly by the deaths of three electors, partly by
+the war which so soon broke out in Europe, before the matter was formally
+acted upon. In February, 1553, however, the electors, having been
+assembled in Frankfort, received the abdication of Charles, and proceeded
+to the election of Ferdinand. That Emperor was crowned in March, and
+immediately despatched a legation to the Pope to apprize him of the fact.
+Nothing was less expected than any opposition on the part of the pontiff.
+The querulous dotard, however, who then sat in St. Peter's chair, hated
+Charles and all his race. He accordingly denied the validity of the whole
+transaction, without sanction previously obtained from the Pope, to whom
+all crowns belonged. Ferdinand, after listening, through his envoys, to
+much ridiculous dogmatism on the part of the Pope, at last withdrew from
+the discussion, with a formal protest, and was first recognized by
+Caraffa's successor, Pius IV.
+
+Charles had not deferred his retirement till the end of these disputes.
+He occupied a private house in Brussels, near the gate of Louvain, until
+August of the year 1556. On the 27th of that month, he addressed a letter
+from Ghent to John of Osnabruck, president of the Chamber of Spiers,
+stating his abdication in favor of Ferdinand, and requesting that in the
+interim the same obedience might be rendered to Ferdinand, as could have
+been yielded to himself. Ten days later; he addressed a letter to the
+estates of the Empire, stating the same fact; and on the 17th September,
+1556, he set sail from Zeland for Spain. These delays and difficulties
+occasioned some misconceptions. Many persons who did not admire an
+abdication, which others, on the contrary, esteemed as an act of
+unexampled magnanimity, stoutly denied that it was the intention of
+Charles to renounce the Empire. The Venetian envoy informed his
+government that Ferdinand was only to be lieutenant for Charles, under
+strict limitations, and that the Emperor was to resume the government so
+soon as his health would allow. The Bishop of Arras and Don Juan de
+Manrique had both assured him, he said, that Charles would not, on any
+account, definitely abdicate. Manrique even asserted that it was a mere
+farce to believe in any such intention. The Emperor ought to remain to
+protect his son, by the resources of the Empire, against France, the
+Turks, and the heretics. His very shadow was terrible to the Lutherans,
+and his form might be expected to rise again in stern reality from its
+temporary grave. Time has shown the falsity of all these imaginings, but
+views thus maintained by those in the best condition to know the truth,
+prove how difficult it was for men to believe in a transaction which was
+then so extraordinary, and how little consonant it was in their eyes with
+true propriety. It was necessary to ascend to the times of Diocletian, to
+find an example of a similar abdication of empire, on so deliberate and
+extensive a scale, and the great English historian of the Roman Empire
+has compared the two acts with each other. But there seems a vast
+difference between the cases. Both emperors were distinguished soldiers;
+both were merciless persecutors of defenceless Christians; both exchanged
+unbounded empire for absolute seclusion. But Diocletian was born in the
+lowest abyss of human degradation--the slave and the son of a slave. For
+such a man, after having reached the highest pinnacle of human greatness,
+voluntarily to descend from power, seems an act of far greater
+magnanimity than the retreat of Charles. Born in the purple, having
+exercised unlimited authority from his boyhood, and having worn from his
+cradle so many crowns and coronets, the German Emperor might well be
+supposed to have learned to estimate them at their proper value.
+Contemporary minds were busy, however, to discover the hidden motives
+which could have influenced him, and the world, even yet, has hardly
+ceased to wonder. Yet it would have been more wonderful, considering the
+Emperor's character, had he remained. The end had not crowned the work;
+it not unreasonably discrowned the workman. The earlier, and indeed the
+greater part of his career had been one unbroken procession of triumphs.
+The cherished dream of his grandfather, and of his own youth, to add the
+Pope's triple crown to the rest of the hereditary possessions of his
+family, he had indeed been obliged to resign. He had too much practical
+Flemish sense to indulge long in chimeras, but he had achieved the Empire
+over formidable rivals, and he had successively not only conquered, but
+captured almost every potentate who had arrayed himself in arms against
+him. Clement and Francis, the Dukes and Landgraves of, Clever, Hesse,
+Saxony, and Brunswick, he had bound to his chariot wheels; forcing many
+to eat the bread of humiliation and captivity, during long and weary
+years. But the concluding portion of his reign had reversed all its
+previous glories. His whole career had been a failure. He had been
+defeated, after all, in most of his projects. He had humbled Francis, but
+Henry had most signally avenged his father. He had trampled upon Philip
+of Hesse and Frederic of Saxony, but it had been reserved for one of that
+German race, which he characterized as "dreamy, drunken, and incapable of
+intrigue," to outwit the man who had outwitted all the world, and to
+drive before him, in ignominious flight, the conqueror of the nations.
+The German lad who had learned both war and dissimulation in the court
+and camp of him who was so profound a master of both arts, was destined
+to eclipse his teacher on the most august theatre of Christendom.
+Absorbed at Innspruck with the deliberations of the Trent Council,
+Charles had not heeded the distant mutterings of the tempest which was
+gathering around him. While he was preparing to crush, forever, the
+Protestant Church, with the arms which a bench of bishops were forging,
+lo! the rapid and desperate Maurice, with long red beard streaming like a
+meteor in the wind, dashing through the mountain passes, at the head of
+his lancers--arguments more convincing than all the dogmas of Granvelle!
+Disguised as an old woman, the Emperor had attempted on the 6th April, to
+escape in a peasant's wagon, from Innspruck into Flanders. Saved for the
+time by the mediation of Ferdinand, he had, a few weeks later, after his
+troops had been defeated by Maurice, at Fussen, again fled at midnight of
+the 22nd May, almost unattended, sick in body and soul, in the midst of
+thunder, lightning, and rain, along the difficult Alpine passes from
+Innspruck into Carinthia. His pupil had permitted his escape, only
+because in his own language, "for such a bird he had no convenient cage."
+The imprisoned princes now owed their liberation, not to the Emperor's
+clemency, but to his panic. The peace of Passau, in the following August,
+crushed the whole fabric of the Emperor's toil, and laid-the foundation
+of the Protestant Church. He had smitten the Protestants at Muhlberg for
+the last time. On the other hand, the man who had dealt with Rome, as if
+the Pope, not he, had been the vassal, was compelled to witness, before
+he departed, the insolence of a pontiff who took a special pride in
+insulting and humbling his house, and trampling upon the pride of
+Charles, Philip and Ferdinand. In France too, the disastrous siege of
+Metz had taught him that in the imperial zodiac the fatal sign of Cancer
+had been reached. The figure of a crab, with the words "plus citra,"
+instead of his proud motto of "plus ultra," scrawled on the walls where
+he had resided during that dismal epoch, avenged more deeply, perhaps,
+than the jester thought, the previous misfortunes of France. The Grand
+Turk, too, Solyman the Magnificent, possessed most of Hungary, and held
+at that moment a fleet ready to sail against Naples, in co-operation with
+the Pope and France. Thus the Infidel, the Protestant, and the Holy
+Church were all combined together to crush him. Towards all the great
+powers of the earth, he stood not in the attitude of a conqueror, but of
+a disappointed, baffled, defeated potentate. Moreover, he had been foiled
+long before in his earnest attempts to secure the imperial throne for
+Philip. Ferdinand and Maximilian had both stoutly resisted his arguments
+and his blandishments. The father had represented the slender patrimony
+of their branch of the family, compared with the enormous heritage of
+Philip; who, being after all, but a man, and endowed with finite powers,
+might sink under so great a pressure of empire as his father wished to
+provide for him. Maximilian, also, assured his uncle that he had as good
+an appetite for the crown as Philip, and could digest the dignity quite
+as easily. The son, too, for whom the Emperor was thus solicitous, had
+already, before the abdication, repaid his affection with ingratitude. He
+had turned out all his father's old officials in Milan, and had refused
+to visit him at Brussels, till assured as to the amount of ceremonial
+respect which the new-made king was to receive at the hands of his
+father.
+
+Had the Emperor continued to live and reign, he would have found himself
+likewise engaged in mortal combat with that great religious movement in
+the Netherlands, which he would not have been able many years longer to
+suppress, and which he left as a legacy of blood and fire to his
+successor. Born in the same year with his century, Charles was a
+decrepit, exhausted man at fifty-five, while that glorious age, in which
+humanity was to burst forever the cerements in which it had so long been
+buried, was but awakening to a consciousness of its strength.
+
+Disappointed in his schemes, broken in his fortunes, with income
+anticipated, estates mortgaged, all his affairs in confusion; failing in
+mental powers, and with a constitution hopelessly shattered; it was time
+for him to retire. He showed his keenness in recognizing the fact that
+neither his power nor his glory would be increased, should he lag
+superfluous on the stage where mortification instead of applause was
+likely to be his portion. His frame was indeed but a wreck. Forty years
+of unexampled gluttony had done their work. He was a victim to gout,
+asthma, dyspepsia, gravel. He was crippled in the neck, arms, knees, and
+hands. He was troubled with chronic cutaneous eruptions. His appetite
+remained, while his stomach, unable longer to perform the task still
+imposed upon it, occasioned him constant suffering. Physiologists, who
+know how important a part this organ plays in the affairs of life, will
+perhaps see in this physical condition of the Emperor A sufficient
+explanation, if explanation were required, of his descent from the
+throne. Moreover, it is well known that the resolution to abdicate before
+his death had been long a settled scheme with him. It had been formally
+agreed between himself and the Empress that they should separate at the
+approach of old age, and pass the remainder of their lives in a convent
+and a monastery. He had, when comparatively a young man, been struck by
+the reply made to him by an aged officer, whose reasons he had asked for,
+earnestly soliciting permission to retire from the imperial service. It
+was, said the veteran, that he might put a little space of religious
+contemplation between the active portion of his life and the grave.
+
+A similar determination, deferred from time to time, Charles had now
+carried into execution. While he still lingered in Brussels, after his
+abdication, a comet appeared, to warn him to the fulfilment of his
+purpose. From first to last, comets and other heavenly bodies were much
+connected with his evolutions and arrangements. There was no mistaking
+the motives with which this luminary had presented itself. The Emperor
+knew very well, says a contemporary German chronicler, that it portended
+pestilence and war, together with the approaching death of mighty
+princes. "My fates call out," he cried, and forthwith applied himself to
+hasten the preparations for his departure.
+
+The romantic picture of his philosophical retirement at Juste, painted
+originally by Sandoval and Siguenza, reproduced by the fascinating pencil
+of Strada, and imitated in frequent succession by authors of every age
+and country, is unfortunately but a sketch of fancy. The investigations
+of modern writers have entirely thrown down the scaffolding on which the
+airy fabric, so delightful to poets and moralists, reposed. The departing
+Emperor stands no longer in a transparency robed in shining garments. His
+transfiguration is at an end. Every action, almost every moment of his
+retirement, accurately chronicled by those who shared his solitude, have
+been placed before our eyes, in the most felicitous manner, by able and
+brilliant writers. The Emperor, shorn of the philosophical robe in which
+he had been conventionally arrayed for three centuries, shivers now in
+the cold air of reality.
+
+So far from his having immersed himself in profound and pious
+contemplation, below the current of the world's events, his thoughts, on
+the contrary, never were for a moment diverted from the political surface
+of the times. He read nothing but despatches; he wrote or dictated
+interminable ones in reply, as dull and prolix as any which ever came
+from his pen. He manifested a succession of emotions at the course of
+contemporary affairs, as intense and as varied, as if the world still
+rested in his palm. He was, in truth, essentially a man of action. He had
+neither the taste nor talents which make a man great in retirement. Not a
+lofty thought, not a generous sentiment, not a profound or acute
+suggestion in his retreat has been recorded from his lips. The epigrams
+which had been invented for him by fabulists have been all taken away,
+and nothing has been substituted, save a few dull jests exchanged with
+stupid friars. So far from having entertained and even expressed that
+sentiment of religious toleration for which he was said to have been
+condemned as a heretic by the inquisition, and for which Philip was
+ridiculously reported to have ordered his father's body to be burned, and
+his ashes scattered to the winds, he became in retreat the bigot
+effectually, which during his reign he had only been conventionally.
+Bitter regrets that he should have kept his word to Luther, as if he had
+not broken faith enough to reflect upon in his retirement; stern
+self-reproach for omitting to put to death, while he had him in his
+power, the man who had caused all the mischief of the age; fierce
+instructions thundered from his retreat to the inquisitors to hasten the
+execution of all heretics, including particularly his ancient friends,
+preachers and almoners, Cazalla and Constantine de Fuente; furious
+exhortations to Philip--as if Philip needed a prompter in such a
+work--that he should set himself to "cutting out the root of heresy with
+rigor and rude chastisement;"--such explosions of savage bigotry as
+these, alternating with exhibitions of revolting gluttony, with surfeits
+of sardine omelettes, Estramadura sausages, eel pies, pickled partridges,
+fat capons, quince syrups, iced beer, and flagons of Rhenish, relieved by
+copious draughts of senna and rhubarb, to which his horror-stricken
+doctor doomed him as he ate--compose a spectacle less attractive to the
+imagination than the ancient portrait of the cloistered Charles.
+Unfortunately it is the one which was painted from life.
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     Burned, strangled, beheaded, or buried alive (100,000)
+     Despot by birth and inclination (Charles V.)
+     Endure every hardship but hunger
+     Gallant and ill-fated Lamoral Egmont
+     He knew men, especially he knew their weaknesses
+     His imagination may have assisted his memory in the task
+     Little grievances would sometimes inflame more than vast
+     Often much tyranny in democracy
+     Planted the inquisition in the Netherlands
+
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, PG EDITION, VOLUME 4.
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
+JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, D.C.L., LL.D.
+1855
+PHILIP THE SECOND IN THE NETHERLANDS
+1555-1558 [CHAPTER II.]
+
+   Sketch of Philip the Second--Characteristics of Mary Tudor--Portrait
+   of Philip--His council--Rivalry of Rup Gomez and Alva--Character of
+   Rup Gomez--Queen Mary of Hungary--Sketch of Philibert of Savoy--
+   Truce of Vaucelles--Secret treaty between the Pope and Henry II.--
+   Rejoicings in the Netherlands on account of the Peace--Purposes of
+   Philip--Re-enactment of the edict of 1560--The King's dissimulation
+   --"Request" to the provinces--Infraction of the truce in Italy--
+   Character of Pope Paul IV.--Intrigues of Cardinal Caraffa--War
+   against Spain resolved upon by France--Campaign in Italy--Amicable
+   siege of Rome--Pence with the pontiff--Hostilities on the Flemish
+   border--Coligny foiled at Douay--Sacks Lens--Philip in England--
+   Queen Mary engages in the war--Philip's army assembled at Givet--
+   Portrait of Count Egmont--The French army under Coligny and
+   Montmorency--Siege of St. Quentin--Attempts of the constable to
+   relieve the city--Battle of St. Quentin--Hesitation and timidity of
+   Philip--City of St. Quentin taken and sacked--Continued indecision
+   of Philip--His army disbanded--Campaign of the Duke of Guise--
+   Capture of Calais--Interview between Cardinal de Lorraine and the
+   Bishop of Arran--Secret combinations for a league between France and
+   Spain against heresy--Languid movements of Guise--Foray of De
+   Thermes on the Flemish frontier--Battle of Gravelines--Popularity of
+   Egmont--Enmity of Alva.
+
+Philip the Second had received the investiture of Milan and the crown of
+Naples, previously to his marriage with Mary Tudor. The imperial crown he
+had been obliged, much against his will, to forego. The archduchy of
+Austria, with the hereditary German dependencies of his father's family,
+had been transferred by the Emperor to his brother Ferdinand, on the
+occasion of the marriage of that prince with Anna, only sister of King
+Louis of Hungary. Ten years afterwards, Ferdinand (King of Hungary and
+Bohemia since the death of Louis, slain in 1526 at the battle of Mohacz)
+was elected King of the Romans, and steadily refused all the entreaties
+afterwards made to him in behalf of Philip, to resign his crown and his
+succession to the Empire, in favor of his nephew. With these diminutions,
+Philip had now received all the dominions of his father. He was King of
+all the Spanish kingdoms and of both the Sicilies. He was titular King of
+England, France, and Jerusalem. He was "Absolute Dominator" in Asia,
+Africa, and America; he was Duke of Milan and of both Burgundies, and
+Hereditary Sovereign of the seventeen Netherlands.
+
+Thus the provinces had received a new master. A man of foreign birth and
+breeding, not speaking a word of their language, nor of any language
+which the mass of the inhabitants understood, was now placed in supreme
+authority over them, because he represented, through the females, the
+"good" Philip of Burgundy, who a century before had possessed himself by
+inheritance, purchase, force, or fraud, of the sovereignty in most of
+those provinces. It is necessary to say an introductory word or two
+concerning the previous history of the man to whose hands the destiny of
+so many millions was now entrusted.
+
+He was born in May, 1527, and was now therefore twenty-eight years of
+age. At the age of sixteen he had been united to his cousin, Maria of
+Portugal, daughter of John III. and of the Emperor's sister, Donna
+Catalina. In the following year (1544) he became father of the celebrated
+and ill-starred Don Carlos, and a widower. The princess owed her death,
+it was said, to her own imprudence and to the negligence or bigotry of
+her attendants. The Duchess of Alva, and other ladies who had charge of
+her during her confinement, deserted her chamber in order to obtain
+absolution by witnessing an auto-da-fe of heretics. During their absence,
+the princess partook voraciously of a melon, and forfeited her life in
+consequence.
+
+In 1548, Don Philip had made his first appearance in the Netherlands. He
+came thither to receive homage in the various provinces as their future
+sovereign, and to exchange oaths of mutual fidelity with them all. Andrew
+Doria, with a fleet of fifty ships, had brought him to Genoa, whence he
+had passed to Milan, where he was received with great rejoicing. At Trent
+he was met by Duke Maurice of Saxony, who warmly begged his intercession
+with the Emperor in behalf of the imprisoned Landgrave of Hesse. This
+boon Philip was graciously pleased to promise,--and to keep the pledge as
+sacredly as most of the vows plighted by him during this memorable year.
+The Duke of Aerschot met him in Germany with a regiment of cavalry and
+escorted him to Brussels. A summer was spent in great festivities, the
+cities of the Nether lands vieing with each other in magnificent
+celebrations of the ceremonies, by which Philip successively swore
+allegiance to the various constitutions and charters of the provinces,
+and received their oaths of future fealty in return. His oath to support
+all the constitutions and privileges was without reservation, while his
+father and grandfather had only sworn to maintain the charters granted or
+confirmed by Philip and Charles of Burgundy. Suspicion was disarmed by
+these indiscriminate concessions, which had been resolved upon by the
+unscrupulous Charles to conciliate the good will of the people. In view
+of the pretensions which might be preferred by the Brederode family in
+Holland, and by other descendants of ancient sovereign races in other
+provinces, the Emperor, wishing to ensure the succession to his sisters
+in case of the deaths of himself, Philip, and Don Carlos without issue,
+was unsparing in those promises which he knew to be binding only upon the
+weak. Although the house of Burgundy had usurped many of the provinces on
+the express pretext that females could not inherit, the rule had been
+already violated, and he determined to spare no pains to conciliate the
+estates, in order that they might be content with a new violation, should
+the contingency occur. Philip's oaths were therefore without reserve, and
+the light-hearted Flemings, Brabantines, and Walloons received him with
+open arms. In Valenciennes the festivities which attended his entrance
+were on a most gorgeous scale, but the "joyous entrance" arranged for him
+at Antwerp was of unparalleled magnificence. A cavalcade of the
+magistrates and notable burghers, "all attired in cramoisy velvet,"
+attended by lackies in splendid liveries and followed by four thousand
+citizen soldiers in full uniform, went forth from the gates to receive
+him. Twenty-eight triumphal arches, which alone, according to the thrifty
+chronicler, had cost 26,800 Carolus guldens, were erected in the
+different streets and squares, and every possible demonstration of
+affectionate welcome was lavished upon the Prince and the Emperor. The
+rich and prosperous city, unconscious of the doom which awaited it in the
+future, seemed to have covered itself with garlands to honor the approach
+of its master. Yet icy was the deportment with which Philip received
+these demonstrations of affection, and haughty the glance with which he
+looked down upon these exhibitions of civic hilarity, as from the height
+of a grim and inaccessible tower. The impression made upon the
+Netherlanders was any thing but favorable, and when he had fully
+experienced the futility of the projects on the Empire which it was so
+difficult both for his father and himself to resign, he returned to the
+more congenial soil of Spain. In 1554 he had again issued from the
+peninsula to marry the Queen of England, a privilege which his father had
+graciously resigned to him. He was united to Mary Tudor at Winchester, on
+the 25th July of that year, and if congeniality of tastes could have made
+a marriage happy, that union should have been thrice blessed. To maintain
+the supremacy of the Church seemed to both the main object of existence,
+to execute unbelievers the most sacred duty imposed by the Deity upon
+anointed princes, to convert their kingdoms into a hell the surest means
+of winning Heaven for themselves. It was not strange that the conjunction
+of two such wonders of superstition in one sphere should have seemed
+portentous in the eyes of the English nation. Philip's mock efforts in
+favor of certain condemned reformers, and his pretended intercessions in
+favor of the Princess Elizabeth, failed entirely of their object. The
+parliament refused to confer upon him more than a nominal authority in
+England. His children, should they be born, might be sovereigns; he was
+but husband of the Queen; of a woman who could not atone by her abject
+but peevish fondness for himself, and by her congenial blood-thirstiness
+towards her subjects, for her eleven years seniority, her deficiency in
+attractions, and her incapacity to make him the father of a line of
+English monarchs. It almost excites compassion even for Mary Tudor, when
+her passionate efforts to inspire him with affection are contrasted with
+his impassiveness. Tyrant, bigot, murderess though she was, she was still
+woman, and she lavished upon her husband all that was not ferocious in
+her nature. Forbidding prayers to be said for the soul of her father,
+hating her sister and her people, burning bishops, bathing herself in the
+blood of heretics, to Philip she was all submissiveness and feminine
+devotion. It was a most singular contrast, Mary, the Queen of England and
+Mary the wife of Philip. Small, lean and sickly, painfully near-sighted,
+yet with an eye of fierceness and fire; her face wrinkled by the hands of
+care and evil passions still more than by Time, with a big man's voice,
+whose harshness made those in the next room tremble; yet feminine in her
+tastes, skilful with her needle, fond of embroidery work, striking the
+lute with a touch remarkable for its science and feeling, speaking many
+languages, including Latin, with fluency and grace; most feminine, too,
+in her constitutional sufferings, hysterical of habit, shedding floods of
+tears daily at Philip's coldness, undisguised infidelity, and frequent
+absences from England--she almost awakens compassion and causes a
+momentary oblivion of her identity.
+
+Her subjects, already half maddened by religious persecution, were
+exasperated still further by the pecuniary burthens which she imposed
+upon them to supply the King's exigencies, and she unhesitatingly
+confronted their frenzy, in the hope of winning a smile from him. When at
+last her chronic maladies had assumed the memorable form which caused
+Philip and Mary to unite in a letter to Cardinal Pole, announcing not the
+expected but the actual birth of a prince, but judiciously leaving the
+date in blank, the momentary satisfaction and delusion of the Queen was
+unbounded. The false intelligence was transmitted every where. Great were
+the joy and the festivities in the Netherlands, where people were so
+easily made to rejoice and keep holiday for any thing. "The Regent, being
+in Antwerp," wrote Sir Thomas Gresham to the lords of council, "did cause
+the great bell to rings to give all men to understand that the news was
+trewe. The Queene's highness here merchants caused all our Inglishe ships
+to shoote off with such joy and triumph, as by men's arts and pollicey
+coulde be devised--and the Regent sent our Inglishe maroners one hundred
+crownes to drynke." If bell-ringing and cannon-firing could have given
+England a Spanish sovereign, the devoutly-wished consummation would have
+been reached. When the futility of the royal hopes could no longer be
+concealed, Philip left the country, never to return till his war with
+France made him require troops, subsidies, and a declaration of
+hostilities from England.
+
+The personal appearance of the new sovereign has already been described.
+His manner was far from conciliatory, and in this respect he was the
+absolute reverse of his father. Upon his first journey out of Spain, in
+1548, into his various dominions, he had made a most painful impression
+every where. "He was disagreeable," says Envoy Suriano, "to the Italians,
+detestable to the Flemings, odious to the Germans."
+
+The remonstrances of the Emperor, and of Queen Mary of Hungary, at the
+impropriety of his manners, had produced, however, some effect, so that
+on his wedding journey to England, he manifested much "gentleness and
+humanity, mingled with royal gravity." Upon this occasion, says another
+Venetian, accredited to him, "he had divested himself of that Spanish
+haughtiness, which, when he first came from Spain, had rendered him so
+odious." The famous ambassador, Badovaro confirms the impression. "Upon
+his first journey," he says, "he was esteemed proud, and too greedy for
+the imperial succession; but now 'tis the common opinion that his
+humanity and modesty are all which could be desired." These humane
+qualities, however, it must be observed, were exhibited only in the
+presence of ambassadors and grandees, the only representatives of
+"humanity" with whom he came publicly and avowedly in contact.
+
+He was thought deficient in manly energy. He was an infirm
+valetudinarian, and was considered as sluggish in character, as deficient
+in martial enterprise, as timid of temperament as he was fragile and
+sickly of frame. It is true, that on account of the disappointment which
+he occasioned by his contrast to his warlike father, he mingled in some
+tournaments in Brussels, where he was matched against Count Mansfeld, one
+of the most distinguished chieftains of the age, and where, says his
+professed panegyrist, "he broke his lances very mach to the satisfaction
+of his father and aunts."
+
+That learned and eloquent author, Estelle Calvete, even filled the
+greater part of a volume, in which he described the journey of the
+Prince, with a minute description of these feasts and jousts, but we may
+reasonably conclude that to the loyal imagination of his eulogist Philip
+is indebted for most of these knightly trophies. It was the universal
+opinion of unprejudiced cotemporaries, that he was without a spark of
+enterprise. He was even censured for a culpable want of ambition, and for
+being inferior to his father in this respect, as if the love of
+encroaching on his neighbor's dominions, and a disposition to foreign.
+commotions and war would have constituted additional virtues, had he
+happened to possess them. Those who were most disposed to think favorably
+of him, remembered that there was a time when even Charles the Fifth was
+thought weak and indolent, and were willing to ascribe Philip's pacific
+disposition to his habitual cholic and side-ache, and to his father's
+inordinate care for him in youth. They even looked forward to the time
+when he should blaze forth to the world as a conqueror and a hero. These,
+however, were views entertained by but few; the general and the correct
+opinion, as it proved, being, that Philip hated war, would never
+certainly acquire any personal distinction in the field, and when engaged
+in hostilities would be apt to gather his laurels at the hands of his
+generals, rather than with his own sword. He was believed to be the
+reverse of the Emperor. Charles sought great enterprises, Philip would
+avoid them. The Emperor never recoiled before threats; the son was
+reserved, cautious, suspicious of all men, and capable of sacrificing a
+realm from hesitation and timidity. The father had a genius for action,
+the son a predilection for repose. Charles took "all men's opinions, but
+reserved his judgment," and acted on it, when matured, with irresistible
+energy; Philip was led by others, was vacillating in forming decisions,
+and irresolute in executing them when formed.
+
+Philip, then, was not considered, in that warlike age, as likely to shine
+as a warrior. His mental capacity, in general, was likewise not very
+highly esteemed. His talents were, in truth, very much below mediocrity.
+His mind was incredibly small. A petty passion for contemptible details
+characterized him from his youth, and, as long as he lived, he could
+neither learn to generalize, nor understand that one man, however
+diligent, could not be minutely acquainted with all the public and
+private affairs of fifty millions of other men. He was a glutton of work.
+He was born to write despatches, and to scrawl comments upon those which
+he received.
+
+   [The character of these apostilles, always confused, wordy and
+   awkward, was sometimes very ludicrous; nor did it improve after his
+   thirty or forty years' daily practice in making them. Thus, when he
+   received a letter from France in 1589, narrating the assassination
+   of Henry III., and stating that "the manner in which he had been
+   killed was that a Jacobin monk had given him a pistol-shot in the
+   head" (la facon qua l'on dit qu'il a ette tue, sa ette par un
+   Jacobin qui luy a donna d'un cou de pistolle dans la tayte), he
+   scrawled the following luminous comment upon the margin.
+   Underlining the word "pistolle," he observed, "this is perhaps some
+   kind of knife; and as for 'tayte,' it can be nothing else but head,
+   which is not tayte, but tete, or teyte, as you very well know"
+   (quiza de alguna manera de cuchillo, etc., etc.)--Gachard. Rapport
+   a M. le Minist. de l'Interieur, prefixed to corresp. Philippe II.
+   Vol. I. xlix. note 1. It is obvious that a person who made such
+   wonderful commentaries as this, and was hard at work eight or nine
+   hours a day for forty years, would leave a prodigious quantity of
+   unpublished matter at his death.]
+
+He often remained at the council-board four or five hours at a time, and
+he lived in his cabinet. He gave audiences to ambassadors and deputies
+very willingly, listening attentively to all that was said to him, and
+answering in monosyllables. He spoke no tongue but Spanish; and was
+sufficiently sparing of that, but he was indefatigable with his pen. He
+hated to converse, but he could write a letter eighteen pages long, when
+his correspondent was in the next room, and when the subject was,
+perhaps, one which a man of talent could have settled with six words of
+his tongue. The world, in his opinion, was to move upon protocols and
+apostilles. Events had no right to be born throughout his dominions,
+without a preparatory course of his obstetrical pedantry. He could never
+learn that the earth would not rest on its axis, while he wrote a
+programme of the way it was to turn. He was slow in deciding, slower in
+communicating his decisions. He was prolix with his pen, not from
+affluence, but from paucity of ideas. He took refuge in a cloud of words,
+sometimes to conceal his meaning, oftener to conceal the absence of any
+meaning, thus mystifying not only others but himself. To one great
+purpose, formed early, he adhered inflexibly. This, however, was rather
+an instinct than an opinion; born with him, not created by him. The idea
+seemed to express itself through him, and to master him, rather than to
+form one of a stock of sentiments which a free agent might be expected to
+possess. Although at certain times, even this master-feeling could yield
+to the pressure of a predominant self-interest-thus showing that even in
+Philip bigotry was not absolute--yet he appeared on the whole the
+embodiment of Spanish chivalry and Spanish religious enthusiasm, in its
+late and corrupted form. He was entirely a Spaniard. The Burgundian and
+Austrian elements of his blood seemed to have evaporated, and his veins
+were filled alone with the ancient ardor, which in heroic centuries had
+animated the Gothic champions of Spain. The fierce enthusiasm for the
+Cross, which in the long internal warfare against the Crescent, had been
+the romantic and distinguishing feature of the national character, had
+degenerated into bigotry. That which had been a nation's glory now made
+the monarch's shame. The Christian heretic was to be regarded with a more
+intense hatred than even Moor or Jew had excited in the most Christian
+ages, and Philip was to be the latest and most perfect incarnation of all
+this traditional enthusiasm, this perpetual hate. Thus he was likely to
+be single-hearted in his life. It was believed that his ambition would be
+less to extend his dominions than to vindicate his title of the most
+Catholic king. There could be little doubt entertained that he would be,
+at least, dutiful to his father in this respect, and that the edicts
+would be enforced to the letter.
+
+He was by birth, education, and character, a Spaniard, and that so
+exclusively, that the circumstance would alone have made him unfit to
+govern a country so totally different in habits and national sentiments
+from his native land. He was more a foreigner in Brussels, even, than in
+England. The gay, babbling, energetic, noisy life of Flanders and Brabant
+was detestable to him. The loquacity of the Netherlanders was a continual
+reproach upon his taciturnity. His education had imbued him, too, with
+the antiquated international hatred of Spaniard and Fleming, which had
+been strengthening in the metropolis, while the more rapid current of
+life had rather tended to obliterate the sentiment in the provinces.
+
+The flippancy and profligacy of Philip the Handsome, the extortion and
+insolence of his Flemish courtiers, had not been forgotten in Spain, nor
+had Philip the Second forgiven his grandfather for having been a
+foreigner. And now his mad old grandmother, Joanna, who had for years
+been chasing cats in the lonely tower where she had been so long
+imprisoned, had just died; and her funeral, celebrated with great pomp by
+both her sons, by Charles at Brussels and Ferdinand at Augsburg, seemed
+to revive a history which had begun to fade, and to recall the image of
+Castilian sovereignty which had been so long obscured in the blaze of
+imperial grandeur.
+
+His education had been but meagre. In an age when all kings and noblemen
+possessed many languages, he spoke not a word of any tongue but
+Spanish,--although he had a slender knowledge of French and Italian,
+which he afterwards learned to read with comparative facility. He had
+studied a little history and geography, and he had a taste for sculpture,
+painting, and architecture. Certainly if he had not possessed a feeling
+for art, he would have been a monster. To have been born in the earlier
+part of the sixteenth century, to have been a king, to have had Spain,
+Italy, and the Netherlands as a birthright, and not to have been inspired
+with a spark of that fire which glowed so intensely in those favored
+lands and in that golden age, had indeed been difficult.
+
+The King's personal habits were regular. His delicate health made it
+necessary for him to attend to his diet, although he was apt to exceed in
+sweetmeats and pastry. He slept much, and took little exercise
+habitually, but he had recently been urged by the physicians to try the
+effect of the chase as a corrective to his sedentary habits. He was most
+strict in religious observances, as regular at mass, sermons, and vespers
+as a monk; much more, it was thought by many good Catholics, than was
+becoming to his rank and age. Besides several friars who preached
+regularly for his instruction, he had daily discussions with others on
+abstruse theological points. He consulted his confessor most minutely as
+to all the actions of life, inquiring anxiously whether this proceeding
+or that were likely to burthen his conscience. He was grossly licentious.
+It was his chief amusement to issue forth at night disguised, that he
+might indulge in vulgar and miscellaneous incontinence in the common
+haunts of vice. This was his solace at Brussels in the midst of the
+gravest affairs of state. He was not illiberal, but, on the contrary, it
+was thought that he would have been even generous, had he not been
+straitened for money at the outset of his career. During a cold winter,
+he distributed alms to the poor of Brussels with an open hand. He was
+fond of jests in private, and would laugh immoderately, when with a few
+intimate associates, at buffooneries, which he checked in public by the
+icy gravity of his deportment. He dressed usually in the Spanish fashion,
+with close doublet, trunk hose, and short cloak, although at times he
+indulged in the more airy fashions of France and Burgundy, wearing
+buttons on his coats and feathers in his hat. He was not thought at that
+time to be cruel by nature, but was usually spoken of, in the
+conventional language appropriated to monarchs, as a prince "clement,
+benign, and debonnaire." Time was to show the justice of his claims to
+such honorable epithets.
+
+The court was organized during his residence at Brussels on the
+Burgundian, not the Spanish model, but of the one hundred and fifty
+persons who composed it, nine tenths of the whole were Spaniards; the
+other fifteen or sixteen being of various nations, Flemings, Burgundians,
+Italians, English, and Germans. Thus it is obvious how soon he
+disregarded his father's precept and practice in this respect, and began
+to lay the foundation of that renewed hatred to Spaniards which was soon
+to become so intense, exuberant, and fatal throughout every class of
+Netherlanders. He esteemed no nation but the Spanish, with Spaniards he
+consorted, with Spaniards he counselled, through Spaniards he governed.
+
+His council consisted of five or six Spanish grandees, the famous Ruy
+Gomez, then Count of Melito, afterwards Prince of Eboli; the Duke of
+Alva, the Count de Feria, the Duke of Franca Villa, Don Antonio Toledo,
+and Don Juan Manrique de Lara. The "two columns," said Suriano, "which
+sustain this great machine, are Ruy Gomez and Alva, and from their
+councils depends the government of half the world." The two were ever
+bitterly opposed to each other. Incessant were their bickerings, intense
+their mutual hate, desperate and difficult the situation of any man,
+whether foreigner or native, who had to transact business with the
+government. If he had secured the favor of Gomez, he had already earned
+the enmity of Alva. Was he protected by the Duke, he was sure to be cast
+into outer darkness by the favorite.--Alva represented the war party, Ruy
+Gomez the pacific polity more congenial to the heart of Philip. The
+Bishop of Arras, who in the opinion of the envoys was worth them all for
+his capacity and his experience, was then entirely in the background,
+rarely entering the council except when summoned to give advice in
+affairs of extraordinary delicacy or gravity. He was, however, to
+reappear most signally in course of the events already preparing. The
+Duke of Alva, also to play so tremendous a part in the yet unborn history
+of the Netherlands, was not beloved by Philip. He was eclipsed at this
+period by the superior influence of the favorite, and his sword,
+moreover, became necessary in the Italian campaign which was impending.
+It is remarkable that it was a common opinion even at that day that the
+duke was naturally hesitating and timid. One would have thought that his
+previous victories might have earned for him the reputation for courage
+and skill which he most unquestionably deserved. The future was to
+develop those other characteristics which were to make his name the
+terror and wonder of the world.
+
+The favorite, Ruy Gomez da Silva, Count de Melito, was the man upon whose
+shoulders the great burthen of the state reposed. He was of a family
+which was originally Portuguese. He had been brought up with the King,
+although some eight years his senior, and their friendship dated from
+earliest youth. It was said that Ruy Gomez, when a boy, had been
+condemned to death for having struck Philip, who had come between him and
+another page with whom he was quarrelling. The Prince threw himself
+passionately at his father's feet, and implored forgiveness in behalf of
+the culprit with such energy that the Emperor was graciously pleased to
+spare the life of the future prime minister. The incident was said to
+have laid the foundation of the remarkable affection which was supposed
+to exist between the two, to an extent never witnessed before between
+king and subject. Ruy Gomez was famous for his tact and complacency, and
+omitted no opportunity of cementing the friendship thus auspiciously
+commenced. He was said to have particularly charmed his master, upon one
+occasion, by hypocritically throwing up his cards at a game of hazard
+played for a large stake, and permitting him to win the game with a far
+inferior hand. The King learning afterwards the true state of the case,
+was charmed by the grace and self-denial manifested by the young
+nobleman. The complacency which the favorite subsequently exhibited in
+regard to the connexion which existed so long and so publicly between his
+wife, the celebrated Princess Eboli, and Philip, placed his power upon an
+impregnable basis, and secured it till his death.
+
+At the present moment he occupied the three posts of valet, state
+councillor, and finance minister. He dressed and undressed his master,
+read or talked him to sleep, called him in the morning, admitted those
+who were to have private audiences, and superintended all the
+arrangements of the household. The rest of the day was devoted to the
+enormous correspondence and affairs of administration which devolved upon
+him as first minister of state and treasury. He was very ignorant. He had
+no experience or acquirement in the arts either of war or peace, and his
+early education had been limited. Like his master, he spoke no tongue but
+Spanish, and he had no literature. He had prepossessing manners, a fluent
+tongue, a winning and benevolent disposition. His natural capacity for
+affairs was considerable, and his tact was so perfect that he could
+converse face to face with statesmen; doctors, and generals upon
+campaigns, theology, or jurisprudence, without betraying any remarkable
+deficiency. He was very industrious, endeavoring to make up by hard study
+for his lack of general knowledge, and to sustain with credit the burthen
+of his daily functions. At the same time, by the King's desire, he
+appeared constantly at the frequent banquets, masquerades, tourneys and
+festivities, for which Brussels at that epoch was remarkable. It was no
+wonder that his cheek was pale, and that he seemed dying of overwork. He
+discharged his duties cheerfully, however, for in the service of Philip
+he knew no rest. "After God," said Badovaro, "he knows no object save the
+felicity of his master." He was already, as a matter of course, very
+rich, having been endowed by Philip with property to the amount of
+twenty-six thousand dollars yearly, [at values of 1855] and the tide of
+his fortunes was still at the flood.
+
+Such were the two men, the master and the favorite, to whose hands the
+destinies of the Netherlands were now entrusted.
+
+The Queen of Hungary had resigned the office of Regent of the
+Netherlands, as has been seen, on the occasion of the Emperor's
+abdication. She was a woman of masculine character, a great huntress
+before the Lord, a celebrated horsewoman, a worthy descendant of the Lady
+Mary of Burgundy. Notwithstanding all the fine phrases exchanged between
+herself and the eloquent Maas, at the great ceremony of the 25th of
+October, she was, in reality, much detested in the provinces, and she
+repaid their aversion with abhorrence. "I could not live among these
+people," she wrote to the Emperor, but a few weeks before the abdication,
+"even as a private person, for it would be impossible for me to do my
+duty towards God and my prince. As to governing them, I take God to
+witness that the task is so abhorrent to me, that I would rather earn my
+daily bread by labor than attempt it." She added, that a woman of fifty
+years of age, who had served during twenty-five of them, had a right to
+repose, and that she was moreover "too old to recommence and learn her A,
+B, C." The Emperor, who had always respected her for the fidelity with
+which she had carried out his designs, knew that it was hopeless to
+oppose her retreat. As for Philip, he hated his aunt, and she hated
+him--although, both at the epoch of the abdication and subsequently, he
+was desirous that she should administer the government.
+
+The new Regent was to be the Duke of Savoy. This wandering and
+adventurous potentate had attached himself to Philip's fortunes, and had
+been received by the King with as much favor as he had ever enjoyed at
+the hands of the Emperor. Emanuel Philibert of Savoy, then about
+twenty-six or seven years of age, was the son of the late unfortunate
+duke, by Donna Beatrice of Portugal, sister of the Empress. He was the
+nephew of Charles, and first cousin to Philip. The partiality of the
+Emperor for his mother was well known, but the fidelity with which the
+family had followed the imperial cause had been productive of nothing but
+disaster to the duke. He had been ruined in fortune, stripped of all his
+dignities and possessions. His son's only inheritance was his sword. The
+young Prince of Piedmont, as he was commonly called in his youth; sought
+the camp of the Emperor, and was received with distinguished favor. He
+rose rapidly in the military service. Acting always upon his favorite
+motto, "Spoliatis arma supersunt," he had determined, if possible, to
+carve his way to glory, to wealth, and even to his hereditary estates, by
+his sword alone. War was not only his passion, but his trade. Every one
+of his campaigns was a speculation, and he had long derived a
+satisfactory income by purchasing distinguished prisoners of war at a low
+price from the soldiers who had captured them, and were ignorant of their
+rank, and by ransoming them afterwards at an immense advance. This sort
+of traffic in men was frequent in that age, and was considered perfectly
+honorable. Marshal Strozzi, Count Mansfeld, and other professional
+soldiers, derived their main income from the system. They were naturally
+inclined, therefore, to look impatiently upon a state of peace as an
+unnatural condition of affairs which cut off all the profits of their
+particular branch of industry, and condemned them both to idleness and
+poverty. The Duke of Savoy had become one of the most experienced and
+successful commanders of the age, and an especial favorite with the
+Emperor. He had served with Alva in the campaigns against the Protestants
+of Germany, and in other important fields. War being his element, he
+considered peace as undesirable, although he could recognize its
+existence. A truce he held, however, to be a senseless parodox, unworthy
+of the slightest regard. An armistice, such as was concluded on the
+February following the abdication, was, in his opinion, only to be turned
+to account by dealing insidious and unsuspected blows at the enemy, some
+portion of whose population might repose confidence in the plighted faith
+of monarchs and plenipotentiaries. He had a show of reason for his
+political and military morality, for he only chose to execute the evil
+which had been practised upon himself. His father had been beggared, his
+mother had died of spite and despair, he had himself been reduced from
+the rank of a sovereign to that of a mercenary soldier, by spoliations
+made in time of truce. He was reputed a man of very decided abilities,
+and was distinguished for headlong bravery. His rashness and personal
+daring were thought the only drawbacks to his high character as a
+commander. He had many accomplishments. He spoke Latin, French, Spanish,
+and Italian with equal fluency, was celebrated for his attachment to the
+fine arts, and wrote much and with great elegance. Such had been
+Philibert of Savoy, the pauper nephew of the powerful Emperor, the
+adventurous and vagrant cousin of the lofty Philip, a prince without a
+people, a duke without a dukedom; with no hope but in warfare, with no
+revenue but rapine; the image, in person, of a bold and manly soldier,
+small, but graceful and athletic, martial in bearing, "wearing his sword
+under his arm like a corporal," because an internal malady made a belt
+inconvenient, and ready to turn to swift account every chance which a new
+series of campaigns might open to him. With his new salary as governor,
+his pensions, and the remains of his possessions in Nice and Piedmont, he
+had now the splendid annual income of one hundred thousand crowns, and
+was sure to spend it all.
+
+It had been the desire of Charles to smooth the commencement of Philip's
+path. He had for this purpose made a vigorous effort to undo, as it were,
+the whole work of his reign, to suspend the operation of his whole
+political system. The Emperor and conqueror, who had been warring all his
+lifetime, had attempted, as the last act of his reign, to improvise a
+peace. But it was not so easy to arrange a pacification of Europe as
+dramatically as he desired, in order that he might gather his robes about
+him, and allow the curtain to fall upon his eventful history in a grand
+hush of decorum and quiet. During the autumn and winter of 1555,
+hostilities had been virtually suspended, and languid negotiations
+ensued. For several months armies confronted each other without engaging,
+and diplomatists fenced among themselves without any palpable result. At
+last the peace commissioners, who had been assembled at Vaucelles since
+the beginning of the year 1556, signed a treaty of truce rather than of
+peace, upon the 5th of February. It was to be an armistice of five years,
+both by land and sea, for France, Spain, Flanders, and Italy, throughout
+all the dominions of the French and Spanish monarchs. The Pope was
+expressly included in the truce, which was signed on the part of France
+by Admiral Coligny and Sebastian l'Aubespine; on that of Spain, by Count
+de Lalain, Philibert de Bruxelles, Simon Renard, and Jean Baptiste
+Sciceio, a jurisconsult of Cremona. During the precious month of
+December, however, the Pope had concluded with the French monarch a
+treaty, by which this solemn armistice was rendered an egregious farce.
+While Henry's plenipotentiaries had been plighting their faith to those
+of Philip, it had been arranged that France should sustain, by subsidies
+and armies, the scheme upon which Paul was bent, to drive the Spaniards
+entirely out of the Italian peninsula. The king was to aid the pontiff,
+and, in return, was to carve thrones for his own younger children out of
+the confiscated realms of Philip. When was France ever slow to sweep upon
+Italy with such a hope? How could the ever-glowing rivalry of Valois and
+Habsburg fail to burst into a general conflagration, while the venerable
+vicegerent of Christ stood thus beside them with his fan in his hand?
+
+For a brief breathing space, however, the news of the pacification
+occasioned much joy in the provinces. They rejoiced even in a temporary
+cessation of that long series of campaigns from which they could
+certainly derive no advantage, and in which their part was to furnish
+money, soldiers, and battlefields, without prospect of benefit from any
+victory, however brilliant, or any treaty, however elaborate.
+Manufacturing, agricultural and commercial provinces, filled to the full
+with industrial life, could not but be injured by being converted into
+perpetual camps. All was joy in the Netherlands, while at Antwerp, the
+great commercial metropolis of the provinces and of Europe, the rapture
+was unbounded. Oxen were roasted whole in the public squares; the
+streets, soon to be empurpled with the best blood of her citizens, ran
+red with wine; a hundred triumphal arches adorned the pathway of Philip
+as he came thither; and a profusion of flowers, although it was February,
+were strewn before his feet. Such was his greeting in the light-hearted
+city, but the countenance was more than usually sullen with which the
+sovereign received these demonstrations of pleasure. It was thought by
+many that Philip had been really disappointed in the conclusion of the
+armistice, that he was inspired with a spark of that martial ambition for
+which his panegyrists gave him credit, and that knowing full well the
+improbability of a long suspension of hostilities, he was even eager for
+the chance of conquest which their resumption would afford him. The
+secret treaty of the Pope was of course not so secret but that the hollow
+intention of the contracting parties to the truce of Vaucelles were
+thoroughly suspected; intentions which certainly went far to justify the
+maxims and the practice of the new governor-general of the Netherlands
+upon the subject of armistices.
+
+Philip, understanding his position, was revolving renewed military
+projects while his subjects were ringing merry bells and lighting
+bonfires in the Netherlands. These schemes, which were to be carried out
+in the immediate future, caused, however, a temporary delay in the great
+purpose to which he was to devote his life.
+
+The Emperor had always desired to regard the Netherlands as a whole, and
+he hated the antiquated charters and obstinate privileges which
+interfered with his ideas of symmetry. Two great machines, the court of
+Mechlin and the inquisition, would effectually simplify and assimilate
+all these irregular and heterogeneous rights. The civil tribunal was to
+annihilate all diversities in their laws by a general cassation of their
+constitutions, and the ecclesiastical court was to burn out all
+differences in their religious faith. Between two such millstones it was
+thought that the Netherlands might be crushed into uniformity. Philip
+succeeded to these traditions. The father had never sufficient leisure to
+carry out all his schemes, but it seemed probable that the son would be a
+worthy successor, at least in all which concerned the religious part of
+his system. One of the earliest measures of his reign was to re-enact the
+dread edict of 1550. This he did by the express advice of the Bishop of
+Arras who represented to him the expediency of making use of the
+popularity of his father's name, to sustain the horrible system resolved
+upon. As Charles was the author of the edict, it could be always argued
+that nothing new was introduced; that burning, hanging, and drowning for
+religious differences constituted a part of the national institutions;
+that they had received the sanction of the wise Emperor, and had been
+sustained by the sagacity of past generations. Nothing could have been
+more subtle, as the event proved, than this advice. Innumerable were the
+appeals made in subsequent years, upon this subject, to the patriotism
+and the conservative sentiments of the Netherlanders. Repeatedly they
+were summoned to maintain the inquisition, on the ground that it had been
+submitted to by their ancestors, and that no change had been made by
+Philip, who desired only to maintain church and crown in the authority
+which they had enjoyed in the days of his father of very laudable memory.
+
+Nevertheless, the King's military plans seemed to interfere for the
+moment with this cherished object. He seemed to swerve, at starting, from
+pursuing the goal which he was only to abandon with life. The edict of
+1550 was re-enacted and confirmed, and all office-holders were commanded
+faithfully to enforce it upon pain of immediate dismissal. Nevertheless,
+it was not vigorously carried into effect any where. It was openly
+resisted in Holland, its proclamation was flatly refused in Antwerp, and
+repudiated throughout Brabant. It was strange that such disobedience
+should be tolerated, but the King wanted money. He was willing to refrain
+for a season from exasperating the provinces by fresh religious
+persecution at the moment when he was endeavoring to extort every penny
+which it was possible to wring from their purses.
+
+The joy, therefore, with which the pacification had been hailed by the
+people was far from an agreeable spectacle to the King. The provinces
+would expect that the forces which had been maintained at their expense
+during the war would be disbanded, whereas he had no intention of
+disbanding them. As the truce was sure to be temporary, he had no
+disposition to diminish his available resources for a war which might be
+renewed at any moment. To maintain the existing military establishment in
+the Netherlands, a large sum of money was required, for the pay was very
+much in arrear. The king had made a statement to the provincial estates
+upon this subject, but the matter was kept secret during the negotiations
+with France. The way had thus been paved for the "Request" or "Bede,"
+which he now made to the estates assembled at Brussels, in the spring of
+1556. It was to consist of a tax of one per cent. (the hundredth penny)
+upon all real estate, and of two per cent. upon all merchandise; to be
+collected in three payments. The request, in so far as the imposition of
+the proposed tax was concerned, was refused by Flanders, Brabant,
+Holland, and all the other important provinces, but as usual, a moderate,
+even a generous, commutation in money was offered by the estates. This
+was finally accepted by Philip, after he had become convinced that at
+this moment, when he was contemplating a war with France, it would be
+extremely impolitic to insist upon the tax. The publication of the truce
+in Italy had been long delayed, and the first infractions which it
+suffered were committed in that country. The arts of politicians; the
+schemes of individual ambition, united with the short-lived military
+ardor of Philip to place the monarch in an eminently false position, that
+of hostility to the Pope. As was unavoidable, the secret treaty of
+December acted as an immediate dissolvent to the truce of February.
+
+Great was the indignation of Paul Caraffa, when that truce was first
+communicated to him by the Cardinal de Tournon, on the part of the French
+Government. Notwithstanding the protestations of France that the secret
+league was still binding, the pontiff complained that he was likely to be
+abandoned to his own resources, and to be left single-handed to contend
+with the vast power of Spain.
+
+Pope Paul IV., of the house of Caraffa, was, in position, the well-known
+counterpart of the Emperor Charles. At the very moment when the conqueror
+and autocrat was exchanging crown for cowl, and the proudest throne of
+the universe for a cell, this aged monk, as weary of scientific and
+religious seclusion as Charles of pomp and power, had abdicated his
+scholastic pre-eminence, and exchanged his rosary for the keys and sword.
+A pontifical Faustus, he had become disgusted with the results of a life
+of study and abnegation, and immediately upon his election appeared to be
+glowing with mundane passions, and inspired by the fiercest ambition of a
+warrior. He had rushed from the cloister as eagerly as Charles had sought
+it. He panted for the tempests of the great external world as earnestly
+as the conqueror who had so long ridden upon the whirlwind of human
+affairs sighed for a haven of repose. None of his predecessors had been
+more despotic, more belligerent, more disposed to elevate and strengthen
+the temporal power of Rome. In the inquisition he saw the grand machine
+by which this purpose could be accomplished, and yet found himself for a
+period the antagonist of Philip. The single circumstance would have been
+sufficient, had other proofs been wanting, to make manifest that the part
+which he had chosen to play was above his genius. Had his capacity been
+at all commensurate with his ambition, he might have deeply influenced
+the fate of the world; but fortunately no wizard's charm came to the aid
+of Paul Caraffa, and the triple-crowned monk sat upon the pontifical
+throne, a fierce, peevish, querulous, and quarrelsome dotard; the prey
+and the tool of his vigorous enemies and his intriguing relations. His
+hatred of Spain and Spaniards was unbounded. He raved at them as
+"heretics, schismatics, accursed of God, the spawn of Jews and Moors, the
+very dregs of the earth." To play upon such insane passions was not
+difficult, and a skilful artist stood ever ready to strike the chords
+thus vibrating with age and fury. The master spirit and principal
+mischief-maker of the papal court was the well-known Cardinal Caraffa,
+once a wild and dissolute soldier, nephew to the Pope. He inflamed the
+anger of the pontiff by his representations, that the rival house of
+Colonna, sustained by the Duke of Alva, now viceroy of Naples, and by the
+whole Spanish power, thus relieved from the fear of French hostilities,
+would be free to wreak its vengeance upon their family. It was determined
+that the court of France should be held by the secret league. Moreover,
+the Pope had been expressly included in the treaty of Vaucelles, although
+the troops of Spain had already assumed a hostile attitude in the south
+of Italy. The Cardinal was for immediately proceeding to Paris, there to
+excite the sympathy of the French monarch for the situation of himself
+and his uncle. An immediate rupture between France and Spain, a
+re-kindling of the war flames from one end of Europe to the other, were
+necessary to save the credit and the interests of the Caraffas. Cardinal
+de Tournon, not desirous of so sudden a termination to the pacific
+relations between his, country and Spain, succeeded in detaining him a
+little longer in Rome.--He remained, but not in idleness. The restless
+intriguer had already formed close relations with the most important
+personage in France, Diana of Poitiers.--This venerable courtesan, to the
+enjoyment of whose charms Henry had succeeded, with the other regal
+possessions, on the death of his father, was won by the flatteries of the
+wily Caraffa, and by the assiduities of the Guise family. The best and
+most sagacious statesmen, the Constable, and the Admiral, were in favor
+of peace, for they knew the condition of the kingdom. The Duke of Guise
+and the Cardinal Lorraine were for a rupture, for they hoped to increase
+their family influence by war. Coligny had signed the treaty of
+Vaucelles, and wished to maintain it, but the influence of the Catholic
+party was in the ascendant. The result was to embroil the Catholic King
+against the Pope and against themselves. The queen was as favorably
+inclined as the mistress to listen to Caraffa, for Catherine de Medici
+was desirous that her cousin, Marshal Strozzi, should have honorable and
+profitable employment in some fresh Italian campaigns.
+
+In the mean time an accident favored the designs of the papal court. An
+open quarrel with Spain resulted from an insignificant circumstance. The
+Spanish ambassador at Rome was in the habit of leaving the city very
+often, at an early hour in the morning, upon shooting excursions, and had
+long enjoyed the privilege of ordering the gates to be opened for him at
+his pleasure. By accident or design, he was refused permission upon one
+occasion to pass through the gate as usual. Unwilling to lose his day's
+sport, and enraged at what he considered an indignity, his excellency, by
+the aid of his attendants, attacked and beat the guard, mastered them,
+made his way out of the city, and pursued his morning's amusement. The
+Pope was furious, Caraffa artfully inflamed his anger. The envoy was
+refused an audience, which he desired, for the sake of offering
+explanations, and the train being thus laid, it was thought that the
+right moment had arrived for applying the firebrand. The Cardinal went to
+Paris post haste. In his audience of the King, he represented that his
+Holiness had placed implicit reliance upon his secret treaty with his
+majesty, that the recently concluded truce with Spain left the pontiff at
+the mercy of the Spaniard, that the Duke of Alva had already drawn the
+sword, that the Pope had long since done himself the pleasure and the
+honor of appointing the French monarch protector of the papal chair in
+general, and of the Caraffa family in particular, and that the moment had
+arrived for claiming the benefit of that protection. He assured him,
+moreover, as by full papal authority, that in respecting the recent truce
+with Spain, his majesty would violate both human and divine law. Reason
+and justice required him to defend the pontiff, now that the Spaniards
+were about to profit by the interval of truce to take measures for his
+detriment. Moreover, as the Pope was included in the truce of Vaucelles,
+he could not be abandoned without a violation of that treaty itself.--The
+arts and arguments of the Cardinal proved successful; the war was
+resolved upon in favor of the Pope. The Cardinal, by virtue of powers
+received and brought with him from his holiness, absolved the King from
+all obligation to keep his faith with Spain. He also gave him a
+dispensation from the duty of prefacing hostilities by a declaration of
+war. Strozzi was sent at once into Italy, with some hastily collected
+troops, while the Duke of Guise waited to organize a regular army.
+
+The mischief being thus fairly afoot, and war let loose again upon
+Europe, the Cardinal made a public entry into Paris, as legate of the
+Pope. The populace crowded about his mule, as he rode at the head of a
+stately procession through the streets. All were anxious to receive a
+benediction from the holy man who had come so far to represent the
+successor of St. Peter, and to enlist the efforts of all true believers
+in his cause. He appeared to answer the entreaties of the superstitious
+rabble with fervent blessings, while the friends who were nearest him
+were aware that nothing but gibes and sarcasms were falling from his
+lips. "Let us fool these poor creatures to their heart's content, since
+they will be fools," he muttered; smiling the while upon them
+benignantly, as became his holy office. Such were the materials of this
+new combination; such was the fuel with which this new blaze was lighted
+and maintained. Thus were the great powers of the earth--Spain, France,
+England, and the Papacy embroiled, and the nations embattled against each
+other for several years. The preceding pages show how much national
+interests, or principles; were concerned in the struggle thus commenced,
+in which thousands were to shed their life-blood, and millions to be
+reduced from peace and comfort to suffer all the misery which famine and
+rapine can inflict. It would no doubt have increased the hilarity of
+Caraffa, as he made his triumphant entry into Paris, could the idea have
+been suggested to his mind that the sentiments, or the welfare of the
+people throughout the great states now involved in his meshes, could have
+any possible bearing upon the question of peace or wax. The world was
+governed by other influences. The wiles of a cardinal--the arts of a
+concubine--the snipe-shooting of an ambassador--the speculations of a
+soldier of fortune--the ill temper of a monk--the mutual venom of Italian
+houses--above all, the perpetual rivalry of the two great historical
+families who owned the greater part of Europe between them as their
+private property--such were the wheels on which rolled the destiny of
+Christendom. Compared to these, what were great moral and political
+ideas, the plans of statesmen, the hopes of nations? Time was soon to
+show. Meanwhile, government continued to be administered exclusively for
+the benefit of the governors. Meanwhile, a petty war for paltry motives
+was to precede the great spectacle which was to prove to Europe that
+principles and peoples still existed, and that a phlegmatic nation of
+merchants and manufacturers could defy the powers of the universe, and
+risk all their blood and treasure, generation after generation, in a
+sacred cause.
+
+It does not belong to our purpose to narrate the details of the campaign
+in Italy; neither is this war of politics and chicane of any great
+interest at the present day. To the military minds of their age, the
+scientific duel which now took place upon a large scale, between two such
+celebrated captains as the Dukes of Guise and Alva, was no doubt esteemed
+the most important of spectacles; but the progress of mankind in the art
+of slaughter has stripped so antiquated an exhibition of most of its
+interest, even in a technical point of view. Not much satisfaction could
+be derived from watching an old-fashioned game of war, in which the
+parties sat down before each other so tranquilly, and picked up piece
+after piece, castle after castle, city after city, with such scientific
+deliberation as to make it evident that, in the opinion of the
+commanders, war was the only serious business to be done in the world;
+that it was not to be done in a hurry, nor contrary to rule, and that
+when a general had a good job upon his hands he ought to know his
+profession much too thoroughly, to hasten through it before he saw his
+way clear to another. From the point of time, at the close of the year
+1556, when that well-trained but not very successful soldier, Strozzi,
+crossed the Alps, down to the autumn of the following year, when the Duke
+of Alva made his peace with the Pope, there was hardly a pitched battle,
+and scarcely an event of striking interest. Alva, as usual, brought his
+dilatory policy to bear upon his adversary with great effect. He had no
+intention, he observed to a friend, to stake the whole kingdom of Naples
+against a brocaded coat of the Duke of Guise. Moreover, he had been sent
+to the war, as Ruy Gomez informed the Venetian ambassador, "with a bridle
+in his mouth." Philip, sorely troubled in his mind at finding himself in
+so strange a position as this hostile attitude to the Church, had
+earnestly interrogated all the doctors and theologians with whom he
+habitually took counsel, whether this war with the Pope would not work a
+forfeiture of his title of the Most Catholic King. The Bishop of Arras
+and the favorite both disapproved of the war, and encouraged, with all
+their influence, the pacific inclinations of the monarch. The doctors
+were, to be sure, of opinion that Philip, having acted in Italy only in
+self-defence, and for the protection of his states, ought not to be
+anxious as to his continued right to the title on which he valued himself
+so highly. Nevertheless, such ponderings and misgivings could not but
+have the effect of hampering the actions of Alva. That general chafed
+inwardly at what he considered his own contemptible position. At the same
+time, he enraged the Duke of Guise still more deeply by the forced
+calmness of his proceedings. Fortresses were reduced, towns taken, one
+after another, with the most provoking deliberation, while his distracted
+adversary in vain strove to defy, or to delude him, into trying the
+chances of a stricken field. The battle of Saint Quentin, the narrative
+of which belongs to our subject, and will soon occupy our attention, at
+last decided the Italian operations. Egmont's brilliant triumph in
+Picardy rendered a victory in Italy superfluous, and placed in Alva's
+hand the power of commanding the issue of his own campaign. The Duke of
+Guise was recalled to defend the French frontier, which the bravery of
+the Flemish hero had imperilled, and the Pope was left to make the best
+peace which he could. All was now prosperous and smiling, and the
+campaign closed with a highly original and entertaining exhibition. The
+pontiff's puerile ambition, sustained by the intrigues of his nephew, had
+involved the French monarch in a war which was contrary to his interests
+and inclination. Paul now found his ally too sorely beset to afford him
+that protection upon which he had relied, when he commenced, in his
+dotage, his career as a warrior. He was, therefore, only desirous of
+deserting his friend, and of relieving himself from his uncomfortable
+predicament, by making a treaty with his catholic majesty upon the best
+terms which he could obtain. The King of France, who had gone to war only
+for the sake of his holiness, was to be left to fight his own battles,
+while the Pope was to make his peace with all the world. The result was a
+desirable one for Philip. Alva was accordingly instructed to afford the
+holy father a decorous and appropriate opportunity for carrying out his
+wishes. The victorious general was apprized that his master desired no
+fruit from his commanding attitude in Italy and the victory of Saint
+Quentin, save a full pardon from the Pope for maintaining even a
+defensive war against him. An amicable siege of Rome was accordingly
+commenced, in the course of which an assault or "camiciata" on the holy
+city, was arranged for the night of the 26th August, 1557. The pontiff
+agreed to be taken by surprise--while Alva, through what was to appear
+only a superabundance of his habitual discretion, was to draw off his
+troops at the very moment when the victorious assault was to be made. The
+imminent danger to the holy city and to his own sacred person thus
+furnishing the pontiff with an excuse for abandoning his own cause, as
+well as that of his ally the Duke of Alva was allowed, in the name of his
+master and himself; to make submission to the Church and his peace with
+Rome. The Spanish general, with secret indignation and disgust, was
+compelled to humor the vanity of a peevish but imperious old man.
+Negotiations were commenced, and so skilfully had the Duke played his
+game during the spring and summer, that when he was admitted to kiss the
+Pope's toe, he was able to bring a hundred Italian towns in his hand, as
+a peace-offering to his holiness. These he now restored, with apparent
+humility and inward curses, upon the condition that the fortifications
+should be razed, and the French alliance absolutely renounced. Thus did
+the fanaticism of Philip reverse the relative position of himself and his
+antagonist. Thus was the vanquished pontiff allowed almost to dictate
+terms to the victorious general. The king who could thus humble himself
+to a dotard, while he made himself the scourge of his subjects, deserved
+that the bull of excommunication which had been prepared should have been
+fulminated. He, at least, was capable of feeling the scathing effects of
+such anathemas.
+
+The Duke of Guise, having been dismissed with the pontiff's assurance
+that he had done little for the interests of his sovereign, less for the
+protection of the Church, and least of all for his own reputation, set
+forth with all speed for Civita Vecchia, to do what he could upon the
+Flemish frontier to atone for his inglorious campaign in Italy. The
+treaty between the Pope and the Duke of Alva was signed on the 14th
+September (1557), and the Spanish general retired for the winter to
+Milan. Cardinal Caraffa was removed from the French court to that of
+Madrid, there to spin new schemes for the embroilment of nations and the
+advancement of his own family. Very little glory was gained by any of the
+combatants in this campaign. Spain, France, nor Paul IV., not one of them
+came out of the Italian contest in better condition than that in which
+they entered upon it. In fact all were losers. France had made an
+inglorious retreat, the Pope a ludicrous capitulation, and the only
+victorious party, the King of Spain, had, during the summer, conceded to
+Cosmo de Medici the sovereignty of Sienna. Had Venice shown more
+cordiality towards Philip, and more disposition to sustain his policy, it
+is probable that the Republic would have secured the prize which thus
+fell to the share of Cosmo. That astute and unprincipled potentate, who
+could throw his net so well in troubled water, had successfully duped all
+parties, Spain, France, and Rome. The man who had not only not
+participated in the contest, but who had kept all parties and all warfare
+away from his borders, was the only individual in Italy who gained
+territorial advantage from the war.
+
+To avoid interrupting the continuity of the narrative, the Spanish
+campaign has been briefly sketched until the autumn of 1557, at which
+period the treaty between the Pope and Philip was concluded. It is now
+necessary to go back to the close of the preceding year.
+
+Simultaneously with the descent of the French troops upon Italy,
+hostilities had broken out upon the Flemish border. The pains of the
+Emperor in covering the smouldering embers of national animosities so
+precipitately, and with a view rather to scenic effect than to a
+deliberate and well-considered result, were thus set at nought, and
+within a year from the day of his abdication, hostilities were reopened
+from the Tiber to the German Ocean. The blame of first violating the
+truce of Vaucelles was laid by each party upon the other with equal
+justice, for there can be but little doubt that the reproach justly
+belonged to both. Both had been equally faithless in their professions of
+amity. Both were equally responsible for the scenes of war, plunder, and
+misery, which again were desolating the fairest regions of Christendom.
+
+At the time when the French court had resolved to concede to the wishes
+of the Caraffa family, Admiral Coligny, who had been appointed governor
+of Picardy, had received orders to make a foray upon the frontier of
+Flanders. Before the formal annunciation of hostilities, it was thought
+desirable to reap all the advantage possible from the perfidy which had
+been resolved upon.
+
+It happened that a certain banker of Lucca, an ancient gambler and
+debauchee, whom evil courses had reduced from affluence to penury, had
+taken up his abode upon a hill overlooking the city of Douay. Here he had
+built himself a hermit's cell. Clad in sackcloth, with a rosary at his
+waist, he was accustomed to beg his bread from door to door. His garb was
+all, however, which he possessed of sanctity, and he had passed his time
+in contemplating the weak points in the defences of the city with much
+more minuteness than those in his own heart. Upon the breaking out of
+hostilities in Italy, the instincts of his old profession had suggested
+to him that a good speculation might be made in Flanders, by turning to
+account as a spy the observations which he had made in his character of a
+hermit. He sought an interview with Coligny, and laid his propositions
+before him. The noble Admiral hesitated, for his sentiments were more
+elevated than those of many of his contemporaries. He had, moreover,
+himself negotiated and signed the truce with Spain, and he shrank from
+violating it with his own hand, before a declaration of war. Still he was
+aware that a French army was on its way to attack the Spaniards in Italy;
+he was under instructions to take the earliest advantage which his
+position upon the frontier might offer him; he knew that both theory and
+practice authorized a general, in that age, to break his fast, even in
+time of truce, if a tempting morsel should present itself; and, above
+all, he thoroughly understood the character of his nearest antagonist,
+the new governor of the Netherlands, Philibert of Savoy, whom he knew to
+be the most unscrupulous chieftain in Europe. These considerations
+decided him to take advantage of the hermit-banker's communication.
+
+A day was accordingly fixed, at which, under the guidance of this
+newly-acquired ally, a surprise should be attempted by the French forces,
+and the unsuspecting city of Douay given over to the pillage of a brutal
+soldiery. The time appointed was the night of Epiphany, upon occasion of
+which festival, it was thought that the inhabitants, overcome with sleep
+and wassail, might be easily overpowered. (6th January, 1557.) The plot
+was a good plot, but the Admiral of France was destined to be foiled by
+an old woman. This person, apparently the only creature awake in the
+town, perceived the danger, ran shrieking through the streets, alarmed
+the citizens while it was yet time, and thus prevented the attack.
+Coligny, disappointed in his plan, recompensed his soldiers by a sudden
+onslaught upon Lens in Arthois, which he sacked and then levelled with
+the ground. Such was the wretched condition of frontier cities, standing,
+even in time of peace, with the ground undermined beneath them, and
+existing every moment, as it were, upon the brink of explosion.
+
+Hostilities having been thus fairly commenced, the French government was
+in some embarrassment. The Duke of Guise, with the most available forces
+of the kingdom, having crossed the Alps, it became necessary forthwith to
+collect another army. The place of rendezvous appointed was Pierrepoint,
+where an army of eighteen thousand infantry and five thousand horse were
+assembled early in the spring. In the mean time, Philip finding the war
+fairly afoot, had crossed to England for the purpose (exactly in
+contravention of all his marriage stipulations) of cajoling his wife and
+browbeating her ministers into a participation in his war with France.
+This was easily accomplished. The English nation found themselves
+accordingly engaged in a contest with which they had no concern, which,
+as the event proved, was very much against their interests, and in which
+the moving cause for their entanglement was the devotion of a weak, bad,
+ferocious woman, for a husband who hated her. A herald sent from England
+arrived in France, disguised, and was presented to King Henry at Rheims.
+Here, dropping on one knee, he recited a list of complaints against his
+majesty, on behalf of the English Queen, all of them fabricated or
+exaggerated for the occasion, and none of them furnishing even a decorous
+pretext for the war which was now formally declared in consequence. The
+French monarch expressed his regret and surprise that the firm and
+amicable relations secured by treaty between the two countries should
+thus, without sufficient cause, be violated. In accepting the wager of
+warfare thus forced upon him, he bade the herald, Norris, inform his
+mistress that her messenger was treated with courtesy only because he
+represented a lady, and that, had he come from a king, the language with
+which he would have been greeted would have befitted the perfidy
+manifested on the occasion. God would punish this shameless violation of
+faith, and this wanton interruption to the friendship of two great
+nations. With this the herald was dismissed from the royal presence, but
+treated with great distinction, conducted to the hotel of the English
+ambassador, and presented, on the part of the French sovereign with a
+chain of gold.
+
+Philip had despatched Ruy Gomez to Spain for the purpose of providing
+ways and means, while he was himself occupied with the same task in
+England. He stayed there three months. During this time, he "did more,"
+says a Spanish contemporary, "than any one could have believed possible
+with that proud and indomitable nation. He caused them to declare war
+against France with fire and sword, by sea and land." Hostilities having
+been thus chivalrously and formally established, the Queen sent an army
+of eight thousand men, cavalry, infantry, and pioneers, who, "all clad in
+blue uniform," commanded by Lords Pembroke and Clinton, with the three
+sons of the Earl of Northumberland, and officered by many other scions of
+England's aristocracy, disembarked at Calais, and shortly afterwards
+joined the camp before Saint Quentin.
+
+Philip meantime had left England, and with more bustle and activity than
+was usual with him, had given directions for organizing at once a
+considerable army. It was composed mainly of troops belonging to the
+Netherlands, with the addition of some German auxiliaries. Thirty-five
+thousand foot and twelve thousand horse had, by the middle of July,
+advanced through the province of Namur, and were assembled at Givet under
+the Duke of Savoy, who, as Governor-General of the Netherlands, held the
+chief command. All the most eminent grandees of the provinces, Orange,
+Aerschot, Berlaymont, Meghen, Brederode, were present with the troops,
+but the life and soul of the army, upon this memorable occasion, was the
+Count of Egmont.
+
+Lamoral, Count of Egmont, Prince of Gavere, was now in the thirty-sixth
+year of his age, in the very noon of that brilliant life which was
+destined to be so soon and so fatally overshadowed. Not one of the dark
+clouds, which were in the future to accumulate around him, had yet rolled
+above his horizon. Young, noble, wealthy, handsome, valiant, he saw no
+threatening phantom in the future, and caught eagerly at the golden
+opportunity, which the present placed within his grasp, of winning fresh
+laurels on a wider and more fruitful field than any in which he had
+hitherto been a reaper. The campaign about to take place was likely to be
+an imposing, if not an important one, and could not fail to be attractive
+to a noble of so ardent and showy a character as Egmont. If there were no
+lofty principles or extensive interests to be contended for, as there
+certainly were not, there was yet much that was stately and exciting to
+the imagination in the warfare which had been so deliberately and
+pompously arranged. The contending armies, although of moderate size,
+were composed of picked troops, and were commanded by the flower of
+Europe's chivalry. Kings, princes, and the most illustrious paladins of
+Christendom, were arming for the great tournament, to which they had been
+summoned by herald and trumpet; and the Batavian hero, without a crown or
+even a country, but with as lofty a lineage as many anointed sovereigns
+could boast, was ambitious to distinguish himself in the proud array.
+
+Upon the north-western edge of the narrow peninsula of North Holland,
+washed by the stormy waters of the German Ocean, were the ancient castle,
+town, and lordship, whence Egmont derived his family name, and the title
+by which he was most familiarly known. He was supposed to trace his
+descent, through a line of chivalrous champions and crusaders, up to the
+pagan kings of the most ancient of existing Teutonic races. The eighth
+century names of the Frisian Radbold and Adgild among his ancestors were
+thought to denote the antiquity of a house whose lustre had been
+increased in later times by the splendor of its alliances. His father,
+united to Francoise de Luxemburg, Princess of Gavere, had acquired by
+this marriage, and transmitted to his posterity, many of the proudest
+titles and richest estates of Flanders. Of the three children who
+survived him, the only daughter was afterwards united to the Count of
+Vaudemont, and became mother of Louise de Vaudemont, queen of the French
+monarch, Henry the Third.
+
+Of his two sons, Charles, the elder, had died young and unmarried,
+leaving all the estates and titles of the family to his brother. Lamoral,
+born in 1522, was in early youth a page of the Emperor. When old enough
+to bear arms he demanded and obtained permission to follow the career of
+his adventurous sovereign. He served his apprenticeship as a soldier in
+the stormy expedition to Barbary, where, in his nineteenth year, he
+commanded a troop of light horse, and distinguished himself under the
+Emperor's eye for his courage and devotion, doing the duty not only of a
+gallant commander but of a hardy soldier. Returning, unscathed by the
+war, flood, or tempest of that memorable enterprise, he reached his
+country by the way of Corsica, Genoa, and Lorraine, and was three years
+afterwards united (in the year 1545) to Sabina of Bavaria, sister of
+Frederick, Elector Palatine. The nuptials had taken place at Spiers, and
+few royal weddings could have been more brilliant. The Emperor, his
+brother Ferdinand King of the Romans, with the Archduke Maximilian, all
+the imperial electors, and a concourse of the principal nobles of the
+empire, were present on the occasion been at the Emperor's side during
+the unlucky siege of Metz; in 1554 he had been sent at the head of a
+splendid embassy to England, to solicit for Philip the hand of Mary
+Tudor, and had witnessed the marriage in Winchester Cathedral, the same
+year. Although one branch of his house had, in past times, arrived at the
+sovereignty of Gueldres, and another had acquired the great estates and
+titles of Buren, which had recently passed, by intermarriage with the
+heiress, into the possession of the Prince of Orange, yet the Prince of
+Gavere, Count of Egmont, was the chief of a race which yielded to none of
+the great Batavian or Flemish families in antiquity, wealth, or power.
+Personally, he was distinguished for his bravery, and although he was not
+yet the idol of the camp, which he was destined to become, nor had yet
+commanded in chief on any important occasion, he was accounted one of the
+five principal generals in the Spanish service. Eager for general
+admiration, he was at the same time haughty and presumptuous, attempting
+to combine the characters of an arrogant magnate and a popular chieftain.
+Terrible and sudden in his wrath, he was yet of inordinate vanity, and
+was easily led by those who understood his weakness. With a limited
+education, and a slender capacity for all affairs except those relating
+to the camp, he was destined to be as vacillating and incompetent as a
+statesman, as he was prompt and fortunately audacious in the field. A
+splendid soldier, his evil stars had destined him to tread, as a
+politician, a dark and dangerous path, in which not even genius, caution,
+and integrity could ensure success, but in which rashness alternating
+with hesitation, and credulity with violence, could not fail to bring
+ruin. Such was Count Egmont, as he took his place at the-head of the
+king's cavalry in the summer of 1557.
+
+The early operations of the Duke of Savoy were at first intended to
+deceive the enemy. The army, after advancing as far into Picardy as the
+town of Vervins, which they burned and pillaged, made a demonstration
+with their whole force upon the city of Guise. This, however, was but a
+feint, by which attention was directed and forces drawn off from Saint
+Quentin, which was to be the real point of attack In the mean time, the
+Constable of France, Montmorency, arrived upon the 28th July (1557), to
+take command of the French troops. He was accompanied by the Marechal de
+Saint Andre and by Admiral Coligny. The most illustrious names of France,
+whether for station or valor, were in the officers' list of this select
+army. Nevers and Montpensier, Enghien and Conde, Vendome and
+Rochefoucauld, were already there, and now the Constable and the Admiral
+came to add the strength of their experience and lofty reputation to
+sustain the courage of the troops. The French were at Pierrepoint, a post
+between Champagne and Picardy, and in its neighborhood. The Spanish army
+was at Vervins, and threatening Guise. It had been the opinion in France
+that the enemy's intention was to invade Champagne, and the Duc de
+Nevers, governor of that province, had made a disposition of his forces
+suitable for such a contingency. It was the conviction of Montmorency,
+however, that Picardy was to be the quarter really attacked, and that
+Saint Quentin, which was the most important point at which the enemy's
+progress, by that route, towards Paris could be arrested, was in imminent
+danger. The Constable's opinion was soon confirmed by advices received by
+Coligny. The enemy's army, he was informed, after remaining three days
+before Guise, had withdrawn from that point, and had invested Saint
+Quentin with their whole force.
+
+This wealthy and prosperous city stood upon an elevation rising from the
+river Somme. It was surrounded by very extensive suburbs, ornamented with
+orchards and gardens, and including within their limits large tracts of a
+highly cultivated soil. Three sides of the place were covered by a lake,
+thirty yards in width, very deep at some points, in others, rather
+resembling a morass, and extending on the Flemish side a half mile beyond
+the city. The inhabitants were thriving and industrious; many of the
+manufacturers and merchants were very rich, for it was a place of much
+traffic and commercial importance.
+
+Teligny, son-in-law of the Admiral, was in the city with a detachment of
+the Dauphin's regiment; Captain Brueuil was commandant of the town. Both
+informed Coligny of the imminent peril in which they stood. They
+represented the urgent necessity of immediate reinforcements both of men
+and supplies. The city, as the Admiral well knew, was in no condition to
+stand a siege by such an army, and dire were the consequences which would
+follow the downfall of so important a place. It was still practicable,
+they wrote, to introduce succor, but every day diminished the possibility
+of affording effectual relief. Coligny was not the man to let the grass
+grow under his feet, after such an appeal in behalf of the principal
+place in his government. The safety of France was dependent upon that of
+St. Quentin. The bulwark overthrown, Paris was within the next stride of
+an adventurous enemy. The Admiral instantly set out, upon the 2d of
+August, with strong reinforcements. It was too late. The English
+auxiliaries, under Lords Pembroke, Clinton, and Grey, had, in the mean
+time, effected their junction with the Duke of Savoy, and appeared in the
+camp before St. Quentin. The route, by which it had been hoped that the
+much needed succor could be introduced, was thus occupied and rendered
+impracticable. The Admiral, however, in consequence of the urgent nature
+of the letters received from Brueuil and Teligny, had outstripped, in his
+anxiety, the movements of his troops. He reached the city, almost alone
+and unattended. Notwithstanding the remonstrances of his officers, he had
+listened to no voice save the desperate entreaties of the besieged
+garrison, and had flown before his army. He now shut himself up in the
+city, determined to effect its deliverance by means of his skill and
+experience, or, at least, to share its fate. As the gates closed upon
+Coligny, the road was blocked up for his advancing troops.
+
+A few days were passed in making ineffectual sorties, ordered by Coligny
+for the sake of reconnoitring the country, and of discovering the most
+practicable means of introducing supplies. The Constable, meantime, who
+had advanced with his army to La Fore, was not idle. He kept up daily
+communications with the beleagured Admiral, and was determined, if
+possible, to relieve the city. There was, however, a constant succession
+of disappointments. Moreover, the brave but indiscreet Teligny, who
+commanded during a temporary illness of the Admiral, saw fit, against
+express orders, to make an imprudent sortie. He paid the penalty of his
+rashness with his life. He was rescued by the Admiral in person, who, at
+imminent hazard, brought back the unfortunate officer covered with
+wounds, into the city, there to die at his father's feet, imploring
+forgiveness for his disobedience. Meantime the garrison was daily growing
+weaker. Coligny sent out of the city all useless consumers, quartered all
+the women in the cathedral and other churches, where they were locked in,
+lest their terror and their tears should weaken the courage of the
+garrison; and did all in his power to strengthen the defences of the
+city, and sustain the resolution of the inhabitants. Affairs were growing
+desperate. It seemed plain that the important city must soon fall, and
+with it most probably Paris. One of the suburbs was already in the hands
+of the enemy. At last Coligny discovered a route by which he believed it
+to be still possible to introduce reinforcements. He communicated the
+results of his observations to the Constable. Upon one side of the city
+the lake, or morass, was traversed by a few difficult and narrow
+pathways, mostly under water, and by a running stream which could only be
+passed in boats. The Constable, in consequence of this information
+received from Coligny, set out from La Fere upon the 8th of August, with
+four thousand infantry and two thousand horse. Halting his troops at the
+village of Essigny, he advanced in person to the edge of the morass, in
+order to reconnoitre the ground and prepare his plans. The result was a
+determination to attempt the introduction of men and supplies into the
+town by the mode suggested. Leaving his troops drawn up in battle array,
+he returned to La Fere for the remainder of his army, and to complete his
+preparations. Coligny in the mean time was to provide boats for crossing
+the stream. Upon the 10th August, which was the festival of St. Laurence,
+the Constable advanced with four pieces of heavy artillery, four
+culverines, and four lighter pieces, and arrived at nine o'clock in the
+morning near the Faubourg d'Isle, which was already in possession of the
+Spanish troops. The whole army of the Constable consisted of twelve
+thousand German, with fifteen companies of French infantry; making in all
+some sixteen thousand foot, with five thousand cavalry in addition. The
+Duke of Savoy's army lay upon the same side of the town, widely extended,
+and stretching beyond the river and the morass. Montmorency's project was
+to be executed in full view of the enemy. Fourteen companies of Spaniards
+were stationed in the faubourg. Two companies had been pushed forward as
+far as a water-mill, which lay in the pathway of the advancing Constable.
+These soldiers stood their ground for a moment, but soon retreated, while
+a cannonade was suddenly opened by the French upon the quarters of the
+Duke of Savoy. The Duke's tent was torn to pieces, and he had barely time
+to hurry on his cuirass, and to take refuge with Count Egmont. The
+Constable, hastening to turn this temporary advantage to account at once,
+commenced the transportation of his troops across the morass. The
+enterprise was, however, not destined to be fortunate. The number of
+boats which had been provided was very inadequate; moreover they were
+very small, and each as it left the shore was consequently so crowded
+with soldiers that it was in danger of being swamped. Several were
+overturned, and the men perished. It was found also that the opposite
+bank was steep and dangerous. Many who had crossed the river were unable
+to effect a landing, while those who escaped drowning in the water lost
+their way in the devious and impracticable paths, or perished miserably
+in the treacherous quagmires. Very few effected their entrance into the
+town, but among them was Andelot, brother of Coligny, with five hundred
+followers. Meantime, a council of officers was held in Egmont's tent.
+Opinions were undecided as to the course to be pursued under the
+circumstances. Should an engagement be risked, or should the Constable,
+who had but indifferently accomplished his project and had introduced but
+an insignificant number of troops into the city, be allowed to withdraw
+with the rest of his army? The fiery vehemence of Egmont carried all
+before it. Here was an opportunity to measure arms at advantage with the
+great captain of the age. To relinquish the prize, which the fortune of
+war had now placed within reach of their valor, was a thought not to be
+entertained. Here was the great Constable Montmorency, attended by
+princes of the royal blood, the proudest of the nobility, the very crown
+and flower of the chivalry of France, and followed by an army of her
+bravest troops. On a desperate venture he had placed himself within their
+grasp. Should he go thence alive and unmolested? The moral effect of
+destroying such an army would be greater than if it were twice its actual
+strength. It would be dealing a blow at the very heart of France, from
+which she could not recover. Was the opportunity to be resigned without a
+struggle of laying at the feet of Philip, in this his first campaign
+since his accession to his father's realms, a prize worthy of the
+proudest hour of the Emperor's reign? The eloquence of the impetuous
+Batavian was irresistible, and it was determined to cut off the
+Constable's retreat.
+
+Three miles from the Faubourg d'Isle, to which that general had now
+advanced, was a narrow pass or defile, between steep and closely hanging
+hills. While advancing through this ravine in the morning, the Constable
+had observed that the enemy might have it in their power to intercept his
+return at that point. He had therefore left the Rhinegrave, with his
+company of mounted carabineers, to guard the passage. Being ready to
+commence his retreat, he now sent forward the Due de Nevers, with four
+companies of cavalry to strengthen that important position, which he
+feared might be inadequately guarded. The act of caution came too late.
+This was the fatal point which the quick glance of Egmont had at once
+detected. As Nevers reached the spot, two thousand of the enemy's cavalry
+rode through and occupied the narrow passage. Inflamed by mortification
+and despair, Nevers would have at once charged those troops, although
+outnumbering his own by nearly, four to one. His officers restrained him
+with difficulty, recalling to his memory the peremptory orders which he
+had received from the Constable to guard the passage, but on no account
+to hazard an engagement, until sustained by the body of the army. It was
+a case in which rashness would have been the best discretion. The
+headlong charge which the Duke had been about to make, might possibly
+have cleared the path and have extricated the army, provided the
+Constable had followed up the movement by a rapid advance upon his part.
+As it was, the passage was soon blocked up by freshly advancing bodies of
+Spanish and Flemish cavalry, while Nevers slowly and reluctantly fell
+back upon the Prince of Conde, who was stationed with the light horse at
+the mill where the first skirmish had taken place. They were soon joined
+by the Constable, with the main body of the army. The whole French force
+now commenced its retrograde movement. It was, however, but too evident
+that they were enveloped. As they approached the fatal pass through which
+lay their only road to La Fire, and which was now in complete possession
+of the enemy, the signal of assault was given by Count Egmont. That
+general himself, at the head of two thousand light horse, led the charge
+upon the left flank. The other side was assaulted by the Dukes Eric and
+Henry of Brunswick, each with a thousand heavy dragoons, sustained by
+Count Horn, at the head of a regiment of mounted gendarmerie. Mansfeld,
+Lalain, Hoogstraaten; and Vilain, at the same time made a furious attack
+upon the front. The French cavalry wavered with the shock so vigorously
+given. The camp followers, sutlers, and pedlers, panic-struck, at once
+fled helter-skelter, and in their precipitate retreat, carried confusion
+and dismay throughout all the ranks of the army. The rout was sudden and
+total. The onset and the victory were simultaneous, Nevers riding through
+a hollow with some companies of cavalry, in the hope of making a detour
+and presenting a new front to the enemy, was overwhelmed at once by the
+retreating French and their furious pursuers. The day was lost, retreat
+hardly possible, yet, by a daring and desperate effort, the Duke,
+accompanied by a handful of followers, cut his way through the enemy and
+effected his escape. The cavalry had been broken at the first onset and
+nearly destroyed. A portion of the infantry still held firm, and
+attempted to continue their retreat. Some pieces of artillery, however,
+now opened upon them, and before they reached Essigny, the whole army was
+completely annihilated. The defeat was absolute. Half the French troops
+actually engaged in the enterprise, lost their lives upon the field. The
+remainder of the army was captured or utterly disorganized. When Nevers
+reviewed, at Laon, the wreck of the Constable's whole force, he found
+some thirteen hundred French and three hundred German cavalry, with four
+companies of French infantry remaining out of fifteen, and four thousand
+German foot remaining of twelve thousand. Of twenty-one or two thousand
+remarkably fine and well-appointed troops, all but six thousand had been
+killed or made prisoners within an hour. The Constable himself, with a
+wound in the groin, was a captive. The Duke of Enghien, after behaving
+with brilliant valor, and many times rallying the troops, was shot
+through the body, and brought into the enemy's camp only to expire. The
+Due de Montpensier, the Marshal de Saint Andre, the Due de Loggieville,
+Prince Ludovic of Mantua, the Baron Corton, la Roche du Mayne, the
+Rhinegrave, the Counts de Rochefoucauld, d'Aubigni, de Rochefort, all
+were taken. The Due de Nevers, the Prince of Conde, with a few others,
+escaped; although so absolute was the conviction that such an escape was
+impossible, that it was not believed by the victorious army. When Nevers
+sent a trumpet, after the battle, to the Duke of Savoy, for the purpose
+of negotiating concerning the prisoners, the trumpeter was pronounced an
+impostor, and the Duke's letter a forgery; nor was it till after the
+whole field had been diligently searched for his dead body without
+success, that Nevers could persuade the conquerors that he was still in
+existence.
+
+Of Philip's army but fifty lost their lives. Lewis of Brederode was
+smothered in his armor; and the two counts Spiegelberg and Count Waldeck
+were also killed; besides these, no officer of distinction fell. All the
+French standards and all their artillery but two pieces were taken, and
+placed before the King, who the next day came into the camp before Saint
+Quentin. The prisoners of distinction were likewise presented to him in
+long procession. Rarely had a monarch of Spain enjoyed a more signal
+triumph than this which Philip now owed to the gallantry and promptness
+of Count Egmont.
+
+While the King stood reviewing the spoils of victory, a light horseman of
+Don Henrico Manrique's regiment approached, and presented him with a
+sword. "I am the man, may it please your Majesty," said the trooper, "who
+took the Constable; here is his sword; may your Majesty be pleased to
+give me something to eat in my house." "I promise it," replied Philip;
+upon which the soldier kissed his Majesty's hand and retired. It was the
+custom universally recognized in that day, that the king was the king's
+captive, and the general the general's, but that the man, whether soldier
+or officer, who took the commander-in-chief, was entitled to ten thousand
+ducats. Upon this occasion the Constable was the prisoner of Philip,
+supposed to command his own army in person. A certain Spanish Captain
+Valenzuela, however, disputed the soldier's claim to the Constable's
+sword. The trooper advanced at once to the Constable, who stood there
+with the rest of the illustrious prisoners. "Your excellency is a
+Christian," said he; "please to declare upon your conscience and the
+faith of a cavalier, whether 't was I that took you prisoner. It need not
+surprise your excellency that I am but a soldier, since with soldiers his
+Majesty must wage his wars." "Certainly," replied the Constable, "you
+took me and took my horse, and I gave you my sword. My word, however, I
+pledged to Captain Valenzuela." It appearing, however, that the custom of
+Spain did not recognize a pledge given to any one but the actual captor,
+it was arranged that the soldier should give two thousand of his ten
+thousand ducats to the captain. Thus the dispute ended.
+
+Such was the brilliant victory of Saint Quentin, worthy to be placed in
+the same list with the world-renowned combats of Creqy and Agincourt.
+Like those battles, also, it derives its main interest from the personal
+character of the leader, while it seems to have been hallowed by the
+tender emotions which sprang from his subsequent fate. The victory was
+but a happy move in a winning game. The players were kings, and the
+people were stakes--not parties. It was a chivalrous display in a war
+which was waged without honorable purpose, and in which no single lofty
+sentiment was involved. The Flemish frontier was, however, saved for the
+time from the misery which was now to be inflicted upon the French
+border. This was sufficient to cause the victory to be hailed as
+rapturously by the people as by the troops. From that day forth the name
+of the brave Hollander was like the sound of a trumpet to the army.
+"Egmont and Saint Quentin" rang through every mouth to the furthest
+extremity of Philip's realms. A deadly blow was struck to the very heart
+of France. The fruits of all the victories of Francis and Henry withered.
+The battle, with others which were to follow it, won by the same hand,
+were soon to compel the signature of the most disastrous treaty which had
+ever disgraced the history of France.
+
+The fame and power of the Constable faded--his misfortunes and captivity
+fell like a blight upon the ancient glory of the house of
+Montmorency--his enemies destroyed his influence and his
+popularity--while the degradation of the kingdom was simultaneous with
+the downfall of his illustrious name. On the other hand, the exultation
+of Philip was as keen as his cold and stony nature would permit. The
+magnificent palace-convent of the Escurial, dedicated to the saint on
+whose festival the battle had been fought, and built in the shape of the
+gridiron, on which that martyr had suffered, was soon afterwards erected
+in pious commemoration of the event. Such was the celebration of the
+victory. The reward reserved for the victor was to be recorded on a later
+page of history.
+
+The coldness and caution, not to say the pusillanimity of Philip,
+prevented him from seizing the golden fruits of his triumph. Ferdinand
+Gonzaga wished the blow to be followed up by an immediate march upon
+Paris.--Such was also the feeling of all the distinguished soldiers of
+the age. It was unquestionably the opinion, and would have been the deed,
+of Charles, had he been on the field of Saint Quentin, crippled as he
+was, in the place of his son. He could not conceal his rage and
+mortification when he found that Paris had not fallen, and is said to
+have refused to read the despatches which recorded that the event had not
+been consummated. There was certainly little of the conqueror in Philip's
+nature; nothing which would have led him to violate the safest principles
+of strategy. He was not the man to follow up enthusiastically the blow
+which had been struck; Saint Quentin, still untaken, although defended by
+but eight hundred soldiers, could not be left behind him; Nevers was
+still in his front, and although it was notorious that he commanded only
+the wreck of an army, yet a new one might be collected, perhaps, in time
+to embarrass the triumphant march to Paris. Out of his superabundant
+discretion, accordingly, Philip refused to advance till Saint Quentin
+should be reduced.
+
+Although nearly driven to despair by the total overthrow of the French in
+the recent action, Coligny still held bravely out, being well aware that
+every day by which the siege could be protracted was of advantage to his
+country. Again he made fresh attempts to introduce men into the city. A
+fisherman showed him a submerged path, covered several feet deep with
+water, through which he succeeded in bringing one hundred and fifty
+unarmed and half-drowned soldiers into the place. His garrison consisted
+barely of eight hundred men, but the siege was still sustained, mainly by
+his courage and sagacity, and by the spirit of his brother Andelot. The
+company of cavalry, belonging to the Dauphin's regiment, had behaved
+badly, and even with cowardice, since the death of their commander
+Teligny. The citizens were naturally weary and impatient of the siege.
+Mining and countermining continued till the 21st August. A steady
+cannonade was then maintained until the 27th. Upon that day, eleven
+breaches having been made in the walls, a simultaneous assault was
+ordered at four of them. The citizens were stationed upon the walls,
+the soldiers in the breaches. There was a short but sanguinary contest,
+the garrison resisting with uncommon bravery. Suddenly an entrance was
+effected through a tower which had been thought sufficiently strong, and
+which had been left unguarded. Coligny, rushing to the spot, engaged the
+enemy almost single-handed. He was soon overpowered, being attended only
+by four men and a page, was made a prisoner by a soldier named Francisco
+Diaz, and conducted through one of the subterranean mines into the
+presence of the Duke of Savoy, from whom the captor received ten thousand
+ducats in exchange for the Admiral's sword. The fighting still continued
+with great determination in the streets, the brave Andelot resisting to
+the last. He was, however, at last overpowered, and taken prisoner.
+Philip, who had, as usual, arrived in the trenches by noon, armed in
+complete harness, with a page carrying his helmet, was met by the
+intelligence that the city of Saint Quentin was his own.
+
+To a horrible carnage succeeded a sack and a conflagration still more
+horrible. In every house entered during the first day, every human being
+was butchered. The sack lasted all that day and the whole of the
+following, till the night of the 28th. There was not a soldier who did
+not obtain an ample share of plunder, and some individuals succeeded in
+getting possession of two, three, and even twelve thousand ducats each.
+The women were not generally outraged, but they were stripped almost
+entirely naked, lest they should conceal treasure which belonged to their
+conquerors, and they were slashed in the face with knives, partly in
+sport, partly as a punishment for not giving up property which was not in
+their possession. The soldiers even cut off the arms of many among these
+wretched women, and then turned them loose, maimed and naked, into the
+blazing streets; for the town, on the 28th, was fired in a hundred
+places, and was now one general conflagration. The streets were already
+strewn with the corpses of the butchered garrison and citizens; while the
+survivors were now burned in their houses. Human heads, limbs, and
+trunks, were mingled among the bricks and rafters of the houses, which
+were falling on every side. The fire lasted day and night, without an
+attempt being made to extinguish it; while the soldiers dashed like
+devils through flame and smoke in search of booty. Bearing lighted
+torches, they descended into every subterrranean vault and receptacle, of
+which there were many in the town, and in every one of which they hoped
+to discover hidden treasure. The work of killing, plundering, and burning
+lasted nearly three days and nights. The streets, meanwhile, were
+encumbered with heaps of corpses, not a single one of which had been
+buried since the capture of the town. The remains of nearly all the able
+bodied male population, dismembered, gnawed by dogs or blackened by fire,
+polluted the midsummer air meantime, the women had been again driven into
+the cathedral, where they had housed during the siege, and where they now
+crouched together in trembling expectation of their fate.' On the 29th
+August, at two o'clock in the afternoon, Philip issued an order that
+every woman, without an exception, should be driven out of the city into
+the French territory. Saint Quentin, which seventy years before had been
+a Flemish town, was to be re-annexed, and not a single man, woman, or
+child who could speak the French language was to remain another hour in
+the place. The tongues of the men had been effectually silenced. The
+women, to the number of three thousand five hundred, were now compelled
+to leave the cathedral and the city. Some were in a starving condition;
+others had been desperately wounded; all, as they passed through the
+ruinous streets of what had been their home, were compelled to tread upon
+the unburied remains of their fathers, husbands, or brethren. To none of
+these miserable creatures remained a living protector--hardly even a dead
+body which could be recognized; and thus the ghastly procession of more
+than three thousand women, many with gaping wounds in the face, many with
+their arms cut off and festering, of all ranks and ages, some numbering
+more than ninety years, bareheaded, with grey hair streaming upon their
+shoulders; others with nursing infants in their arms, all escorted by a
+company of heavy-armed troopers, left forever their native city. All made
+the dismal journey upon foot, save that carts were allowed to transport
+the children between the ages of two and six years. The desolation and
+depopulation were now complete. "I wandered through the place, gazing at
+all this," says a Spanish soldier who was present, and kept a diary of
+all which occurred, "and it seemed to me that it was another destruction
+of Jerusalem. What most struck me was to find not a single denizen of the
+town left, who was or who dared to call himself French. How vain and
+transitory, thought I, are the things of this world! Six days ago what
+riches were in the city, and now remains not one stone upon another."
+
+The expulsion of the women had been accomplished by the express command
+of Philip, who moreover had made no effort to stay the work of carnage,
+pillage, and conflagration. The pious King had not forgotten, however,
+his duty to the saints. As soon as the fire had broken out, he had sent
+to the cathedral, whence he had caused the body of Saint Quentin to be
+removed and placed in the royal tent. Here an altar, was arranged, upon
+one side of which was placed the coffin of that holy personage, and upon
+the other the head of the "glorious Saint Gregory" (whoever that glorious
+individual may have been in life), together with many other relics
+brought from the church. Within the sacred enclosure many masses were
+said daily, while all this devil's work was going on without. The saint
+who had been buried for centuries was comfortably housed and guarded by
+the monarch, while dogs were gnawing the carcases of the freshly-slain
+men of Saint Quentin, and troopers were driving into perpetual exile its
+desolate and mutilated women.
+
+The most distinguished captives upon this occasion were, of course,
+Coligny and his brother. Andelot was, however, fortunate enough to make
+his escape that night under the edge of the tent in which he was
+confined. The Admiral was taken to Antwerp. Here he lay for many weeks
+sick with a fever. Upon his recovery, having no better pastime, he fell
+to reading the Scriptures. The result was his conversion to Calvinism;
+and the world shudders yet at the fate in which that conversion involved
+him.
+
+Saint Quentin being thus reduced, Philip was not more disposed to push
+his fortune. The time was now wasted in the siege of several
+comparatively unimportant places, so that the fruits of Egmont's valor
+were not yet allowed to ripen. Early in September Le Catelet was taken.
+On the 12th of the same month the citadel of Ham yielded, after receiving
+two thousand shots from Philip's artillery, while Nojon, Chanly, and some
+other places of less importance, were burned to the ground. After all
+this smoke and fire upon the frontier, productive of but slender
+consequences, Philip disbanded his army, and retired to Brussels. He
+reached that city on the 12th October. The English returned to their own
+country. The campaign of 1557 was closed without a material result, and
+the victory of Saint Quentin remained for a season barren.
+
+In the mean time the French were not idle. The army of the Constable had
+been destroyed but the Duke de Guise, who had come post-haste from Italy
+after hearing the news of Saint Quentin, was very willing to organize
+another. He was burning with impatience both to retrieve his own
+reputation, which had suffered some little damage by his recent Italian
+campaign, and to profit by the captivity of his fallen rival the
+Constable. During the time occupied by the languid and dilatory
+proceedings of Philip in the autumn, the Duke had accordingly recruited
+in France and Germany a considerable army. In January (1558) he was ready
+to take the field. It had been determined in the French cabinet, however,
+not to attempt to win back the places which they had lost in Picardy, but
+to carry the war into the territory of the ally. It was fated that
+England should bear all the losses, and Philip appropriate all the gain
+and glory, which resulted from their united exertions. It was the war of
+the Queen's husband, with which the Queen's people had no concern, but in
+which the last trophies of the Black Prince were to be forfeited. On the
+first January, 1558, the Duc de Guise appeared before Calais. The Marshal
+Strozzi had previously made an expedition, in disguise, to examine the
+place. The result of his examination was that the garrison was weak, and
+that it relied too much upon the citadel. After a tremendous cannonade,
+which lasted a week, and was heard in Antwerp, the city was taken by
+assault. Thus the key to the great Norman portal of France, the
+time-honored key which England had worn at her girdle since the eventful
+day of Crecy, was at last taken from her. Calais had been originally won
+after a siege which had lasted a twelvemonth, had been held two hundred
+and ten years, and was now lost in seven days. Seven days more, and ten
+thousand discharges from thirty-five great guns sufficed for the
+reduction of Guines. Thus the last vestige of English dominion, the last
+substantial pretext of the English sovereign to wear the title and the
+lilies of France, was lost forever. King Henry visited Calais, which
+after two centuries of estrangement had now become a French town again,
+appointed Paul de Thermes governor of the place, and then returned to
+Paris to celebrate soon afterwards the marriage of the Dauphin with the
+niece of the Guises, Mary, Queen of Scots.
+
+These events, together with the brief winter campaign of the Duke, which
+had raised for an instant the drooping head of France, were destined
+before long to give a new face to affairs, while it secured the
+ascendancy of the Catholic party in the kingdom. Disastrous eclipse had
+come over the house of Montmorency and Coligny, while the star of Guise,
+brilliant with the conquest of Calais, now culminated to the zenith.
+
+It was at this period that the memorable interview between the two
+ecclesiastics, the Bishop of Arras and the Cardinal de Lorraine, took
+place at Peronne. From this central point commenced the weaving of that
+wide-spread scheme, in which the fate of millions was to be involved. The
+Duchess Christina de Lorraine, cousin of Philip, had accompanied him to
+Saint Quentin. Permission had been obtained by the Duc de Guise and his
+brother, the Cardinal, to visit her at Peronne. The Duchess was
+accompanied by the Bishop of Arras, and the consequence was a full and
+secret negotiation between the two priests. It may be supposed that
+Philip's short-lived military ardor had already exhausted itself. He had
+mistaken his vocation, and already recognized the false position in which
+he was placed. He was contending against the monarch in whom he might
+find the surest ally against the arch enemy of both kingdoms, and of the
+world. The French monarch held heresy in horror, while, for himself,
+Philip had already decided upon his life's mission.
+
+The crafty Bishop was more than a match for the vain and ambitious
+Cardinal. That prelate was assured that Philip considered the captivity
+of Coligny and Montmorency a special dispensation of Providence, while
+the tutelar genius of France, notwithstanding the reverses sustained by
+that kingdom, was still preserved. The Cardinal and his brother, it was
+suggested, now held in their hands the destiny of the kingdom, and of
+Europe. The interests of both nations, of religion, and of humanity, made
+it imperative upon them to put an end to this unnatural war, in order
+that the two monarchs might unite hand and heart for the extirpation of
+heresy. That hydra-headed monster had already extended its coils through
+France, while its pestilential breath was now wafted into Flanders from
+the German as well as the French border. Philip placed full reliance upon
+the wisdom and discretion of the Cardinal. It was necessary that these
+negotiations should for the present remain a profound secret; but in the
+mean time a peace ought to be concluded with as little delay as possible;
+a result which, it was affirmed, was as heartily desired by Philip as it
+could be by Henry. The Bishop was soon aware of the impression which his
+artful suggestions had produced. The Cardinal, inspired by the flattery
+thus freely administered, as well as by the promptings of his own
+ambition, lent a willing ear to the Bishop's plans. Thus was laid the
+foundation of a vast scheme, which time was to complete. A crusade with
+the whole strength of the French and Spanish crowns, was resolved upon
+against their own subjects. The Bishop's task was accomplished. The
+Cardinal returned to France, determined to effect a peace with Spain. He
+was convinced that the glory of his house was to be infinitely enhanced,
+and its power impregnably established, by a cordial co-operation with
+Philip in his dark schemes against religion and humanity. The
+negotiations were kept, however, profoundly secret. A new campaign and
+fresh humiliations were to precede the acceptance by France of the peace
+which was thus proffered.
+
+Hostile operations were renewed soon after the interview at Peronne. The
+Duke of Guise, who had procured five thousand cavalry and fourteen
+thousand infantry in Germany, now, at the desire of the King, undertook
+an enterprise against Thionville, a city of importance and great strength
+in Luxemburg, upon the river Moselle. It was defended by Peter de
+Quarebbe, a gentleman of Louvain, with a garrison of eighteen hundred
+men. On the 5th June, thirty-five pieces of artillery commenced the work;
+the mining and countermining-continuing seventeen days; on the 22nd the
+assault was made, and the garrison capitulated immediately afterwards. It
+was a siege conducted in a regular and business-like way, but the details
+possess no interest. It was, however, signalized by the death of one of
+the eminent adventurers of the age, Marshal Strozzi. This brave, but
+always unlucky soldier was slain by a musket ball while assisting the
+Duke of Guise--whose arm was, at that instant, resting upon his
+shoulder--to point a gun at the fortress.
+
+After the fall of Thionville, the Due de Guise, for a short time,
+contemplated the siege of the city of Luxemburg, but contented himself
+with the reduction of the unimportant places of Vireton and Arlon. Here
+he loitered seventeen days, making no exertions to follow up the success
+which had attended him at the opening of the campaign. The good fortune
+of the French was now neutralized by the same languor which had marked
+the movements of Philip after the victory of Saint Quentin. The time,
+which might have been usefully employed in following up his success, was
+now wasted by the Duke in trivial business, or in absolute torpor. This
+may have been the result of a treacherous understanding with Spain, and
+the first fruits of the interview at Peronne. Whatever the cause,
+however, the immediate consequences were disaster to the French nation,
+and humiliation to the crown.
+
+It had been the plan of the French cabinet that Marshal de Thermes, who,
+upon the capture of Calais, had been appointed governor of the city,
+should take advantage of his position as soon as possible. Having
+assembled an army of some eight thousand foot and fifteen hundred horse,
+partly Gascons and partly Germans, he was accordingly directed to ravage
+the neighboring country, particularly the county of Saint Pol. In the
+mean time, the Due de Guise, having reduced the cities on the southern
+frontier, was to move in a northerly direction, make a junction with the
+Marshal, and thus extend a barrier along the whole frontier of the
+Netherlands.
+
+De Therlries set forth from Calais, in the beginning of June, with his
+newly-organized army. Passing by Gravelines and Bourbourg, he arrived
+before Dunkerk on the 2d of July. The city, which was without a garrison,
+opened negotiations, during the pendency of which it was taken by assault
+and pillaged. The town of Saint Winochsberg shared the same fate. De
+Thermes, who was a martyr to the gout, was obliged at this point
+temporarily to resign the command to d'Estonteville, a ferocious soldier,
+who led the predatory army as far as Niewport, burning, killing,
+ravishing, plundering, as they went. Meantime Philip, who was at
+Brussels, had directed the Duke of Savoy to oppose the Due de Guise with
+an army which had been hastily collected and organized at Maubeuge, in
+the province of Namur. He now desired, if possible, to attack and cut off
+the forces of De Thermes before he should extend the hand to Guise, or
+make good his retreat to Calais.
+
+Flushed with victory over defenceless peasants, laden with the spoils of
+sacked and burning towns, the army of De Thermes was already on its
+homeward march. It was the moment for a sudden and daring blow. Whose arm
+should deal it? What general in Philip's army possessed the requisite
+promptness, and felicitous audacity; who, but the most brilliant of
+cavalry officers, the bold and rapid hero of St. Quentin? Egmont, in
+obedience to the King's command, threw himself at once into the field. He
+hastily collected all the available forces in the neighborhood. These,
+with drafts from the Duke of Savoy's army, and with detachments under
+Marshal Bigonicourt from the garrisons of Saint Omer, Bethune, Aire, and
+Bourbourg, soon amounted to ten thousand foot and two thousand horse. His
+numbers were still further swollen by large bands of peasantry, both men
+and women, maddened by their recent injuries, and thirsting for
+vengeance. With these troops the energetic chieftain took up his position
+directly in the path of the French army. Determined to destroy De Thermes
+with all his force, or to sacrifice himself, he posted his army at
+Gravelines, a small town lying near the sea-shore, and about midway
+between Calais and Dunkerk. The French general was putting the finishing
+touch to his expedition by completing the conflagration at Dunkerk, and
+was moving homeward, when he became aware of the lion in his path.
+Although suffering from severe sickness, he mounted his horse and
+personally conducted his army to Gravelines. Here he found his progress
+completely arrested. On that night, which was the 12th July, he held a
+council of officers. It was determined to refuse the combat offered, and,
+if possible, to escape at low tide along the sands toward Calais. The
+next morning he crossed the river Aa, below Gravelines. Egmont, who was
+not the man, on that occasion at least, to build a golden bridge for a
+flying enemy, crossed the same stream just above the town, and drew up
+his whole force in battle array. De Thermes could no longer avoid the
+conflict thus resolutely forced upon him. Courage was now his only.
+counsellor. Being not materially outnumbered by his adversaries, he had,
+at least, an even chance of cutting his way through all obstacles, and of
+saving his army and his treasure. The sea was on his right hand, the Aa
+behind him, the enemy in front. He piled his baggage and wagons so as to
+form a barricade upon his left, and placed his artillery, consisting of
+four culverines and three falconeta, in front. Behind these he drew up
+his cavalry, supported at each side by the Gascons, and placed his French
+and German infantry in the rear.
+
+Egmont, on the other hand, divided his cavalry into five squadrons. Three
+of light horse were placed in advance for the first assault--the centre
+commanded by himself, the two wings by Count Pontenals and Henrico
+Henriquez. The black hussars of Lazarus Schwendi and the Flemish
+gendarmes came next. Behind these was the infantry, divided into three
+nations, Spanish, German, and Flemish, and respectively commanded by
+Carvajal, Monchausen, and Bignicourt. Egmont, having characteristically
+selected the post of danger in the very front of battle for himself,
+could no longer restrain his impatience. "The foe is ours already," he
+shouted; "follow me, all who love their fatherland:" With that he set
+spurs to his horse, and having his own regiment well in hand, dashed upon
+the enemy. The Gascons received the charge with coolness, and under cover
+of a murderous fire from the artillery in front, which mowed down the
+foremost ranks of their assailants-sustained the whole weight of the
+first onset without flinching. Egmont's horse was shot under him at the
+commencement of the action. Mounting another, he again cheered his
+cavalry to the attack. The Gascons still maintained an unwavering front,
+and fought with characteristic ferocity. The courage of despair inflamed
+the French, the hope of a brilliant and conclusive victory excited the
+Spaniards and Flemings. It was a wild, hand to hand conflict--general and
+soldier, cavalier and pikeman, lancer and musketeer, mingled together in
+one dark, confused, and struggling mass, foot to foot, breast to breast,
+horse to horse-a fierce, tumultuous battle on the sands, worthy the
+fitful pencil of the national painter, Wouvermans. For a long time it was
+doubtful on which side victory was to incline, but at last ten English
+vessels unexpectedly appeared in the offing, and ranging up soon
+afterwards as close to the share as was possible, opened their fire upon
+the still unbroken lines of the French. The ships were too distant, the
+danger of injuring friend as well as foe too imminent, to allow of their
+exerting any important influence upon the result. The spirit of the enemy
+was broken, however, by this attack upon their seaward side, which they
+had thought impregnable. At the same time, too, a detachment of German
+cavalry which had been directed by Egmont to make their way under the
+downs to the southward, now succeeded in turning their left flank.
+Egmont, profiting by their confusion, charged them again with redoubled
+vigor. The fate of the day was decided. The French cavalry wavered, broke
+their ranks, and in their flight carried dismay throughout the whole
+army. The rout was total; horse and foot; French, Gascon, and German fled
+from the field together. Fifteen hundred fell in the action, as many more
+were driven into the sea, while great numbers were torn to pieces by the
+exasperated peasants, who now eagerly washed out their recent injuries in
+the blood of the dispersed, wandering, and wounded soldiers. The army of
+De Thermes was totally destroyed, and with it, the last hope of France
+for an honorable and equal negotiation. She was now at Philip's feet, so
+that this brilliant cavalry action, although it has been surpassed in
+importance by many others, in respect to the numbers of the combatants
+and the principles involved in the contest, was still, in regard to the
+extent both of its immediate and its permanent results, one of the most
+decisive and striking which have ever been fought. The French army
+engaged was annihilated. Marshal de Thermes, with a wound in the head,
+Senarpont, Annibault, Villefon, Morvilliers, Chanlis, and many others of
+high rank were prisoners. The French monarch had not much heart to set
+about the organization of another army; a task which he was now compelled
+to undertake. He was soon obliged to make the best terms which he could,
+and to consent to a treaty which was one of the most ruinous in the
+archives of France.
+
+The Marshal de Thermes was severely censured for having remained so long
+at Dunkerk and in its neighborhood. He was condemned still more loudly
+for not having at least effected his escape beyond Gravelines, during the
+night which preceded the contest. With regard to the last charge,
+however, it may well be doubted whether any nocturnal attempt would have
+been likely to escape the vigilance of Egmont. With regard to his delay
+at Dunkerk, it was asserted that he had been instructed to await in that
+place the junction with the Due de Guise, which had been previously
+arranged. But for the criminal and, then, inexplicable languor which
+characterized that commander's movements, after the capture of
+Thionville, the honor of France might still have been saved.
+
+Whatever might have been the faults of De Thermes or of Guise, there
+could be little doubt as to the merit of Egmont. Thus within eleven
+months of the battle of Saint Quentin, had the Dutch hero gained another
+victory so decisive as to settle the fate of the war, and to elevate his
+sovereign to a position from which he might dictate the terms of a
+triumphant peace. The opening scenes of Philip's reign were rendered as
+brilliant as the proudest days of the Emperor's career, while the
+provinces were enraptured with the prospect of early peace. To whom,
+then, was the sacred debt of national and royal gratitude due but to
+Lamoral of Egmont? His countrymen gladly recognized the claim. He became
+the idol of the army; the familiar hero of ballad and story; the mirror
+of chivalry, and the god of popular worship. Throughout the Netherlands
+he was hailed as the right hand of the fatherland, the saviour of
+Flanders from devastation and outrage, the protector of the nation, the
+pillar of the throne.
+
+The victor gained many friends by his victory, and one enemy. The
+bitterness of that foe was likely, in the future, to outweigh all the
+plaudits of his friends. The Duke of Alva had strongly advised against
+giving battle to De Thermes. He depreciated the triumph after it had been
+gained, by reflections upon the consequences which would have flowed, had
+a defeat been suffered instead. He even held this language to Egmont
+himself after his return to Brussels. The conqueror, flushed with his
+glory, was not inclined to digest the criticism, nor what he considered
+the venomous detraction of the Duke. More vain and arrogant than ever, he
+treated his powerful Spanish rival with insolence, and answered his
+observations with angry sarcasms, even in the presence of the King. Alva
+was not likely to forget the altercation, nor to forgive the triumph.
+
+There passed, naturally, much bitter censure and retort on both sides at
+court, between the friends and adherents of Egmont and those who
+sustained the party of his adversary. The battle of Gravelines was fought
+over daily, amid increasing violence and recrimination, between Spaniard
+and Fleming, and the old international hatred flamed more fiercely than
+ever. Alva continued to censure the foolhardiness which had risked so
+valuable an army on a single blow. Egmont's friends replied that it was
+easy for foreigners, who had nothing at risk in the country, to look on
+while the fields of the Netherlands were laid waste, and the homes and
+hearths of an industrious population made desolate, by a brutal and
+rapacious soldiery. They who dwelt in the Provinces would be ever
+grateful to their preserver for the result. They had no eyes for the
+picture which the Spanish party painted of an imaginary triumph of De
+Thermos and its effects. However the envious might cavil, now that the
+blow had been struck, the popular heart remained warm as ever, and
+refused to throw down the idol which had so recently been set up.
+
+
+
+
+1558-1559 [CHAPTER III.]
+
+   Secret negotiations for peace--Two fresh armies assembled, but
+   inactive--Negotiations at Cercamp--Death of Mary Tudor--Treaty of
+   Cateau Cambresis--Death of Henry II.--Policy of Catharine de Medici
+   --Revelations by Henry II. to the Prince of Orange--Funeral of
+   Charles V. in Brussels--Universal joy in the Netherlands at the
+   restoration of peace--Organization of the government by Philip, and
+   preparations for his departure--Appointment of Margaret of Parma as
+   Regent of the Netherlands--Three councils--The consulta--The
+   stadholders of the different provinces--Dissatisfaction caused by
+   the foreign troops--Assembly of the Estates at Ghent to receive the
+   parting instructions and farewell of the King--Speech of the Bishop
+   of Arras--Request for three millions--Fierce denunciation of heresy
+   on the part of Philip--Strenuous enforcement of the edicts
+   commanded--Reply by the States of Arthois--Unexpected conditions--
+   Rage of the King--Similar conduct on the part of the other
+   provinces--Remonstrance in the name of States--General against the
+   foreign soldiery--Formal reply on the part of the crown--Departure
+   of the King from the Netherlands--Autos--da--fe in Spain.
+
+The battle of Gravelines had decided the question. The intrigues of the
+two Cardinals at Peronne having been sustained by Egmont's victory, all
+parties were ready for a peace. King Henry was weary of the losing game
+which he had so long been playing, Philip was anxious to relieve himself
+from his false position, and to concentrate his whole mind and the
+strength of his kingdom upon his great enemy the Netherland heresy, while
+the Duke of Savoy felt that the time had at last arrived when an adroit
+diplomacy might stand him in stead, and place him in the enjoyment of
+those rights which the sword had taken from him, and which his own sword
+had done so much towards winning back. The sovereigns were inclined to
+peace, and as there had never been a national principle or instinct or
+interest involved in the dispute, it was very certain that peace would be
+popular every where, upon whatever terms it might be concluded.
+
+Montmorency and the Prince of Orange were respectively empowered to open
+secret negotiations. The Constable entered upon the task with alacrity,
+because he felt that every day of his captivity was alike prejudicial to
+his own welfare and the interests of his country.--The Guises, who had
+quarrelled with the Duchess de Valentinois (Diane de Poitiers), were not
+yet powerful enough to resist the influence of the mistress; while,
+rather to baffle them than from any loftier reasons, that interest was
+exerted in behalf of immediate peace. The Cardinal de Lorraine had by no
+means forgotten the eloquent arguments used by the Bishop of Arras; but
+his brother, the Due de Guise, may be supposed to have desired some
+little opportunity of redeeming the credit of the kingdom, and to have
+delayed the negotiations until his valor could secure a less inglorious
+termination to the war.
+
+A fresh army had, in fact, been collected under his command, and was
+already organized at Pierrepoint. At the same time, Philip had assembled
+a large force, consisting of thirty thousand foot and fifteen thousand
+cavalry, with which he had himself taken the field, encamping towards the
+middle of August upon the banks of the river Anthies, near the border of
+Picardy. King Henry, on the other hand, had already arrived in the camp
+at Pierrepoint, and had reviewed as imposing an army as had ever been at
+the disposal of a French monarch. When drawn up in battle array it
+covered a league and a half of ground, while three hours were required to
+make its circuit on horseback. All this martial display was only for
+effect. The two kings, at the head of their great armies, stood looking
+at each other while the negotiations for, peace were proceeding. An
+unimportant skirmish or two at the out-posts, unattended with loss of
+life, were the only military results of these great preparations. Early
+in the autumn, all the troops were disbanded, while the commissioners of
+both crowns met in open congress at the abbey of Cercamp, near Cambray,
+by the middle of October. The envoys on the part of Philip were the
+Prince of Orange, the Duke of Alva, the Bishop of Arras, Ruy Gomez de
+Silva, the president Viglius; on that of the French monarch, the
+Constable, the Marshal de Saint Andre, the Cardinal de Lorraine, the
+Bishop of Orleans, and Claude l'Aubespine.
+
+There were also envoys sent by the Queen of England, but as the dispute
+concerning Calais was found to hamper the negotiations at Cercamp, the
+English question was left to be settled by another congress, and was kept
+entirely separate from the arrangements concluded between France and
+Spain.
+
+The death of Queen Mary, on the 17th November, caused a temporary
+suspension of the proceedings. After the widower, however, had made a
+fruitless effort to obtain the hand of her successor, and had been
+unequivocally repulsed, the commissioners again met in February, 1559, at
+Cateau Cambresis. The English difficulty was now arranged by separate
+commissioners, and on the third of April a treaty between France and
+Spain was concluded.
+
+By this important convention, both kings bound themselves to maintain the
+Catholic worship inviolate by all means in their power, and agreed that
+an oecumenical council should at once assemble, to compose the religious
+differences, and to extinguish the increasing heresy in both kingdoms.
+Furthermore, it was arranged that the conquests made by each country
+during the preceding eight years should be restored. Thus all the gains
+of Francis and Henry were annulled by a single word, and the Duke of
+Savoy converted, by a dash of the pen, from a landless soldier of fortune
+into a sovereign again. He was to receive back all his estates, and was
+moreover to marry Henry's sister Margaret, with a dowry of three hundred
+thousand crowns. Philip, on the other hand, now a second time a widower,
+was to espouse Henry's daughter Isabella, already betrothed to the Infant
+Don Carlos, and to receive with her a dowry of four hundred thousand
+crowns. The restitutions were to be commenced by Henry, and to be
+completed within three months. Philip was to restore his conquests in the
+course of a month afterwards.
+
+Most of the powers of Europe were included by both parties in this
+treaty: the Pope, the Emperor, all the Electors, the republics of Venice,
+Genoa and Switzerland, the kingdoms of England, Scotland, Poland,
+Denmark, Sweden; the duchies of Ferrara, Savoy and Parma, besides other
+inferior principalities. Nearly all Christendom, in short, was embraced
+in this most amicable compact, as if Philip were determined that,
+henceforth and forever, Calvinists and Mahometans, Turks and Flemings,
+should be his only enemies.
+
+The King of France was to select four hostages from among Philip's
+subjects, to accompany him to Paris as pledges for the execution of all
+the terms of the treaty. The royal choice fell upon the Prince of Orange,
+the Duke of Alva, the Duke of Aerschot, and the Count of Egmont.
+
+Such was the treaty of Cateau Cambresis. Thus was a termination put to a
+war between France and Spain, which had been so wantonly undertaken.
+
+Marshal Monluc wrote that a treaty so disgraceful and disastrous had
+never before been ratified by a French monarch. It would have been
+difficult to point to any one more unfortunate upon her previous annals;
+if any treaty can be called unfortunate, by which justice is done and
+wrongs repaired, even under coercion. The accumulated plunder of years,
+which was now disgorged by France, was equal in value to one third of
+that kingdom. One hundred and ninety-eight fortified towns were
+surrendered, making, with other places of greater or less importance, a
+total estimated by some writers as high as four hundred. The principal
+gainer was the Duke of Savoy, who, after so many years of
+knight-errantry, had regained his duchy, and found himself the
+brother-in-law of his ancient enemy.
+
+The well-known tragedy by which the solemnities of this pacification were
+abruptly concluded in Paris, bore with it an impressive moral. The
+monarch who, in violation of his plighted word and against the interests
+of his nation and the world, had entered precipitately into a causeless
+war, now lost his life in fictitious combat at the celebration of peace.
+On the tenth of July, Henry the Second died of the wound inflicted by
+Montgomery in the tournament held eleven days before. Of this weak and
+worthless prince, all that even his flatterers could favorably urge was
+his great fondness for war, as if a sanguinary propensity, even when
+unaccompanied by a spark of military talent, were of itself a virtue.
+Yet, with his death the kingdom fell even into more pernicious hands, and
+the fate of Christendom grew darker than ever. The dynasty of Diane de
+Poitiers was succeeded by that of Catharine de Medici; the courtesan gave
+place to the dowager; and France during the long and miserable period in
+which she lay bleeding in the grasp of the Italian she-wolf and her
+litter of cowardly and sanguinary princes--might even lament the days of
+Henry and his Diana. Charles the Ninth, Henry the Third, Francis of
+Alencon, last of the Valois race--how large a portion of the fearful debt
+which has not yet been discharged by half a century of revolution and
+massacre was of their accumulation.
+
+The Duchess of Valentinois had quarrelled latterly with the house of
+Guise, and was disposed to favor Montmorency. The King, who was but a
+tool in her hands, might possibly have been induced, had he lived, to
+regard Coligny and his friends with less aversion. This is, however,
+extremely problematical, for it was Henry the Second who had concluded
+that memorable arrangement with his royal brother of Spain, to arrange
+for the Huguenot chiefs throughout both realms, a "Sicilian Vespers,"
+upon the first favorable occasion. His death and the subsequent policy of
+the Queen-Regent deferred the execution of the great scheme till fourteen
+years later. Henry had lived long enough, however, after the conclusion
+of the secret agreement to reveal it to one whose life was to be employed
+in thwarting this foul conspiracy of monarchs against their subjects.
+William of Orange, then a hostage for the execution of the treaty of
+Cateau Cambresis, was the man with whom the King had the unfortunate
+conception to confer on the subject of the plot. The Prince, who had
+already gained the esteem of Charles the Fifth by his habitual
+discretion, knew how to profit by the intelligence and to bide his time;
+but his hostility to the policy of the French and Spanish courts was
+perhaps dated from that hour.
+
+Pending the peace negotiations, Philip had been called upon to mourn for
+his wife and father. He did not affect grief for the death of Mary Tudor,
+but he honored the Emperor's departure with stately obsequies at
+Brussels. The ceremonies lasted two days (the 29th and 30th December,
+1558). In the grand and elaborate procession which swept through the
+streets upon the first day, the most conspicuous object was a ship
+floating apparently upon the waves, and drawn by a band of Tritons who
+disported at the bows. The masts, shrouds, and sails of the vessel were
+black, it was covered with heraldic achievements, banners and emblematic
+mementos of the Emperor's various expeditions, while the flags of Turks
+and Moors trailed from her sides in the waves below. Three allegorical
+personages composed the crew. Hope, "all clothyd in brown, with anker in
+hand," stood at the prow; Faith, with sacramental chalice and red cross,
+clad in white garment, with her face nailed "with white tiffany," sat on
+a "stool of estate" before the mizen-mast; while Charity "in red, holding
+in her hand a burning heart," was at the helm to navigate the vessel.
+Hope, Faith, and Love were thought the most appropriate symbols for the
+man who had invented the edicts, introduced the inquisition, and whose
+last words, inscribed by a hand already trembling with death, had adjured
+his son, by his love, allegiance, and hope of salvation, to deal to all
+heretics the extreme rigor of the law, "without respect of persons and
+without regard to any plea in their favor."
+
+The rest of the procession, in which marched the Duke of Alva, the Prince
+of Orange, and other great personages, carrying the sword, the globe, the
+sceptre, and the "crown imperial," contained no emblems or imagery worthy
+of being recorded. The next day the King, dressed in mourning and
+attended by a solemn train of high officers and nobles, went again to the
+church. A contemporary letter mentions a somewhat singular incident as
+forming the concluding part of the ceremony. "And the service being
+done," wrote Sir Richard Clough to Sir Thomas Gresham, "there went a
+nobleman into the herse (so far as I codde understande, it was the Prince
+of Orange), who, standing before the herse, struck with his hand upon the
+chest and sayd, 'He is ded.' Then standing styli awhile, he sayd, 'He
+shall remayn ded.' And 'then resting awhile, he struck again and sayd,
+'He is ded, and there is another rysen up in his place greater than ever
+he was.' Whereupon the Kynge's hoode was taken off and the Kynge went
+home without his hoode."
+
+If the mourning for the dead Emperor was but a mummery and a masquerade,
+there was, however, heartiness and sincerity in the rejoicing which now
+burst forth like a sudden illumination throughout the Netherlands, upon
+the advent of peace. All was joy in the provinces, but at Antwerp, the
+metropolis of the land, the enthusiasm was unbounded. Nine days were
+devoted to festivities. Bells rang their merriest peals, artillery
+thundered, beacons blazed, the splendid cathedral spire flamed nightly
+with three hundred burning cresaets, the city was strewn with flowers and
+decorated with triumphal arches, the Guilds of Rhetoric amazed the world
+with their gorgeous processions, glittering dresses and bombastic
+versification, the burghers all, from highest to humblest, were feasted
+and made merry, wine flowed in the streets and oxen were roasted whole,
+prizes on poles were climbed for, pigs were hunted blindfold, men and
+women raced in sacks, and in short, for nine days long there was one
+universal and spontaneous demonstration of hilarity in Antwerp and
+throughout the provinces.
+
+But with this merry humor of his subjects, the sovereign had but little
+sympathy. There was nothing in his character or purposes which owed
+affinity with any mood of this jocund and energetic people. Philip had
+not made peace with all the world that the Netherlanders might climb on
+poles or ring bells, or strew flowers in his path for a little holiday
+time, and then return to their industrious avocations again. He had made
+peace with all the world that he might be free to combat heresy; and this
+arch enemy had taken up its strong hold in the provinces. The treaty of
+Cateau Cambresis left him at liberty to devote himself to that great
+enterprise. He had never loved the Netherlands, a residence in these
+constitutional provinces was extremely irksome to him, and he was
+therefore anxious to return to Spain. From the depths of his cabinet he
+felt that he should be able to direct the enterprise he was resolved
+upon, and that his presence in the Netherlands would be superfluous and
+disagreeable.
+
+The early part of the year 1559 was spent by Philip in organizing the
+government of the provinces and in making the necessary preparations for
+his departure. The Duke of Savoy, being restored to his duchy, had, of
+course, no more leisure to act as Regent of the Netherlands, and it was
+necessary, therefore, to fix upon his successor in this important post,
+at once. There were several candidates. The Duchess Christina of Lorraine
+had received many half promises of the appointment, which she was most
+anxious to secure; the Emperor was even said to desire the nomination of
+the Archduke Maximilian, a step which would have certainly argued more
+magnanimity upon Philip's part than the world could give him credit for;
+and besides these regal personages, the high nobles of the land,
+especially Orange and Egmont, had hopes of obtaining the dignity. The
+Prince of Orange, however, was too sagacious to deceive himself long, and
+became satisfied very soon that no Netherlander was likely to be selected
+for Regent. He therefore threw his influence in favor of the Duchess
+Christina, whose daughter, at the suggestion of the Bishop of Arras, he
+was desirous of obtaining in marriage. The King favored for a time, or
+pretended to favor, both the appointment of Madame de Lorraine and the
+marriage project of the Prince. Afterwards, however, and in a manner
+which was accounted both sudden and mysterious, it appeared that the
+Duchess and Orange had both been deceived, and that the King and Bishop
+had decided in favor of another candidate, whose claims had not been
+considered, before, very prominent. This was the Duchess Margaret of
+Parma, natural daughter of Charles the Fifth. A brief sketch of this
+important personage, so far as regards her previous career, is reserved
+for the following chapter. For the present it is sufficient to state the
+fact of the nomination. In order to afford a full view of Philip's
+political arrangements before his final departure from the Netherlands,
+we defer until the same chapter, an account of the persons who composed
+the boards of council organized to assist the new Regent in the
+government. These bodies themselves were three in number: a state and
+privy council and one of finance. They were not new institutions, having
+been originally established by the Emperor, and were now arranged by his
+successor upon the same nominal basis upon which they had before existed.
+The finance council, which had superintendence of all matters relating to
+the royal domains and to the annual budgets of the government, was
+presided over by Baron Berlaymont. The privy council, of which Viglius
+was president, was composed of ten or twelve learned doctors, and was
+especially entrusted with the control of matters relating to law,
+pardons, and the general administration of justice. The state council,
+which was far the most important of the three boards, was to superintend
+all high affairs of government, war, treaties, foreign intercourse,
+internal and interprovincial affairs. The members of this council were
+the Bishop of Arras, Viglius, Berlaymont, the Prince of Orange, Count
+Egmont, to which number were afterwards added the Seigneur de Glayon, the
+Duke of Aerschot, and Count Horn. The last-named nobleman, who was
+admiral of the provinces, had, for the present, been appointed to
+accompany the King to Spain, there to be specially entrusted with the
+administration of affairs relating to the Netherlands. He was destined,
+however, to return at the expiration of two years.
+
+With the object, as it was thought, of curbing the power of the great
+nobles, it had been arranged that the three councils should be entirely
+distinct from each other, that the members of the state council should
+have no participation in the affairs of the two other bodies; but, on the
+other hand, that the finance and privy councillors, as well as the
+Knights of the Fleece, should have access to the deliberations of the
+state council. In the course of events, however, it soon became evident
+that the real power of the government was exclusively in the hands of the
+consulta, a committee of three members of the state council, by whose
+deliberations the Regent was secretly instructed to be guided on all
+important occasions. The three, Viglius, Berlaymont, and Arras, who
+composed the secret conclave or cabinet, were in reality but one. The
+Bishop of Arras was in all three, and the three together constituted only
+the Bishop of Arras.
+
+There was no especial governor or stadholder appointed for the province
+of Brabant, where the Regent was to reside and to exercise executive
+functions in person. The stadholders for the other provinces were, for
+Flanders and Artois, the Count of Egmont; for Holland, Zeeland, and
+Utrecht, the Prince of Orange; for Gueldres and Zutfen, the Count of
+Meghen; for Friesland, Groningen and Overyssel, Count Aremberg; for
+Hainault, Valenciennes and Cambray, the Marquis of Berghen; for Tournay
+and Tournaisis, Baron Montigny; for Namur, Baron Berlaymont; for
+Luxemburg, Count Mansfeld; for Ryssel, Douay and Orchies, the Baron
+Coureires. All these stadholders were commanders-in-chief of the military
+forces in their respective provinces. With the single exception of Count
+Egmont, in whose province of Flanders the stadholders were excluded from
+the administration of justice,--all were likewise supreme judges in the
+civil and criminal tribunal. The military force of the Netherlands in
+time of peace was small, for the provinces were jealous of the presence
+of soldiery. The only standing army which then legally existed in the
+Netherlands were the Bandes d'Ordonnance, a body of mounted
+gendarmerie--amounting in all to three thousand men--which ranked among
+the most accomplished and best disciplined cavalry of Europe. They were
+divided into fourteen squadrons, each under the command of a stadholder,
+or of a distinguished noble. Besides these troops, however, there still
+remained in the provinces a foreign force amounting in the aggregate to
+four thousand men. These soldiers were the remainder of those large
+bodies which year after year had been quartered upon the Netherlands
+during the constant warfare to which they had been exposed. Living upon
+the substance of the country, paid out of its treasury, and as offensive
+by their licentious and ribald habits of life as were the enemies against
+whom they were enrolled, these troops had become an intolerable burthen
+to the people. They were now disposed in different garrisons, nominally
+to protect the frontier. As a firm peace, however, had now been concluded
+between Spain and France, and as there was no pretext for compelling the
+provinces to accept this protection, the presence of a foreign soldiery
+strengthened a suspicion that they were to be used in the onslaught which
+was preparing against the religious freedom and the political privileges
+of the country. They were to be the nucleus of a larger army, it was
+believed, by which the land was to be reduced to a state of servile
+subjection to Spain. A low, constant, but generally unheeded murmur of
+dissatisfaction and distrust upon this subject was already perceptible
+throughout the Netherlands; a warning presage of the coming storm.
+
+All the provinces were now convoked for the 7th of August (1559), at
+Ghent, there to receive the parting communication and farewell of the
+King. Previously to this day, however, Philip appeared in person upon
+several solemn occasions, to impress upon the country the necessity of
+attending to the great subject with which his mind was exclusively
+occupied. He came before the great council of Mechlin, in order to
+address that body with his own lips upon the necessity of supporting the
+edicts to the letter, and of trampling out every vestige of heresy,
+wherever it should appear, by the immediate immolation of all heretics,
+whoever they might be. He likewise caused the estates of Flanders to be
+privately assembled, that he might harangue them upon the same great
+topic. In the latter part of July he proceeded to Ghent, where a great
+concourse of nobles, citizens, and strangers had already assembled. Here,
+in the last week of the month, the twenty-third chapter of the Golden
+Fleece was held with much pomp, and with festivities which lasted three
+days. The fourteen vacancies which existed were filled with the names of
+various distinguished personages. With this last celebration the public
+history of Philip the Good's ostentatious and ambitious order of
+knighthood was closed. The subsequent nominations were made 'ex indultu
+apostolico', and without the assembling of a chapter.
+
+The estates having duly assembled upon the day prescribed, Philip,
+attended by Margaret of Parma, the Duke of Savoy, and a stately retinue
+of ambassadors and grandees, made his appearance before them. After the
+customary ceremonies had been performed, the Bishop of Arras arose and
+delivered, in the name of his sovereign, an elaborate address of
+instructions and farewells. In this important harangue, the states were
+informed that the King had convened them in order that they might be
+informed of his intention of leaving the Netherlands immediately. He
+would gladly have remained longer in his beloved provinces, had not
+circumstances compelled his departure. His father had come hither for the
+good of the country in the year 1543, and had never returned to Spain,
+except to die.
+
+Upon the King's accession to the sovereignty he had arranged a truce of
+five years, which had been broken through by the faithlessness of France.
+He had, therefore, been obliged, notwithstanding his anxiety to return to
+a country where his presence was so much needed, to remain in the
+provinces till he had conducted the new war to a triumphant close. In
+doing this he had been solely governed by his intense love for the
+Netherlands, and by his regard for their interests. All the money which
+he had raised from their coffers had been spent for their protection.
+Upon this account his Majesty expressed his confidence that the estates
+would pay an earnest attention to the "Request" which had been laid
+before them, the more so, as its amount, three millions of gold florins,
+would all be expended for the good of the provinces. After his return to
+Spain he hoped to be able to make a remittance. The Duke of Savoy, he
+continued, being obliged, in consequence of the fortunate change in his
+affairs, to resign the government of the Netherlands, and his own son,
+Don Carlos, not yet being sufficiently advanced in years to succeed to
+that important post, his Majesty had selected his sister, the Duchess
+Margaret of Parma, daughter of the Emperor, as the most proper person for
+Regent. As she had been born in the Netherlands, and had always
+entertained a profound affection for the provinces, he felt a firm
+confidence that she would prove faithful both to their interests and his
+own. As at this moment many countries, and particularly the lands in the
+immediate neighborhood, were greatly infested by various "new, reprobate,
+and damnable sects;" as these sects, proceeding from the foul fiend,
+father of discord, had not failed to keep those kingdoms in perpetual
+dissension and misery, to the manifest displeasure of God Almighty; as
+his Majesty was desirous to avert such terrible evils from his own
+realms, according to his duty to the Lord God, who would demand reckoning
+from him hereafter for the well-being of the provinces; as all experience
+proved that change of religion ever brought desolation and confusion to
+the commonweal; as low persons, beggars and vagabonds, under color of
+religion, were accustomed to traverse the land for the purpose of plunder
+and disturbance; as his Majesty was most desirous of following in the
+footsteps of his lord and father; as it would be well remembered what the
+Emperor had said to him upon the memorable occasion of his abdication;
+therefore his Majesty had commanded the Regent Margaret of Parma, for the
+sake of religion and the glory of God, accurately and exactly to cause to
+be enforced the edicts and decrees made by his imperial Majesty, and
+renewed by his present Majesty, for the extirpation of all sects and
+heresies. All governors, councillors, and others having authority, were
+also instructed to do their utmost to accomplish this great end.
+
+The great object of the discourse was thus announced in the most
+impressive manner, and with all that conventional rhetoric of which the
+Bishop of Arras was considered a consummate master. Not a word was said
+on the subject which was nearest the hearts of the Netherlanders--the
+withdrawal of the Spanish troops.
+
+   [Bentivoglio. Guerra di Fiandra, i. 9 (Opere, Parigi, 1648), gives
+   a different report, which ends with a distinct promise on the part
+   of the King to dismiss the troops as soon as possible: "--in segno
+   di the spetialmente havrebbe quanto prima, a fatti uscire i presidij
+   stranieri dalle fortezze a levata ogn' insolita contributione al
+   paese." It is almost superfluous to state that the Cardinal is no
+   authority for speeches, except, indeed, for those which were never
+   made. Long orations by generals upon the battle-field, by royal
+   personages in their cabinets, by conspirators in secret conclave,
+   are reported by him with muck minuteness, and none can gainsay the
+   accuracy with which these harangues, which never had any existence,
+   except in the author's imagination, are placed before the reader.
+   Bentivoglio's stately and graceful style, elegant descriptions, and
+   general acquaintance with his subject will always make his works
+   attractive, but the classic and conventional system of inventing
+   long speeches for historical characters has fortunately gone out of
+   fashion. It is very interesting to know what an important personage
+   really did say or write upon remarkable occasions; but it is less
+   instructive to be told what the historian thinks might have been a
+   good speech or epistle for him to utter or indito.]
+
+Not a hint was held out that a reduction of the taxation, under which the
+provinces had so long been groaning, was likely to take place; but, on
+the contrary, the King had demanded a new levy of considerable amount. A
+few well-turned paragraphs were added on the subject of the
+administration of justice--"without which the republic was a dead body
+without a soul"--in the Bishop's most approved style, and the discourse
+concluded with a fervent exhortation to the provinces to trample heresy
+and heretics out of existence, and with the hope that the Lord God, in
+such case, would bestow upon the Netherlands health and happiness.
+
+After the address had been concluded, the deputies, according to ancient
+form, requested permission to adjourn, that the representatives of each
+province might deliberate among themselves on the point of granting or
+withholding the Request for the three millions. On the following day they
+again assembled in the presence of the King, for the purpose of returning
+their separate answers to the propositions.
+
+The address first read was that of the Estates of Artois. The chairman of
+the deputies from that province read a series of resolutions, drawn up,
+says a contemporary, "with that elegance which characterized all the
+public acts of the Artesians; bearing witness to the vivacity of their
+wits." The deputies spoke of the extreme affection which their province
+had always borne to his Majesty and to the Emperor. They had proved it by
+the constancy with which they had endured the calamities of war so long,
+and they now cheerfully consented to the Request, so far as their
+contingent went. They were willing to place at his Majesty's disposal,
+not only the remains of their property, but even the last drop of their
+blood. As the eloquent chairman reached this point in his discourse,
+Philip, who was standing with his arm resting upon Egmont's shoulder,
+listening eagerly to the Artesian address, looked upon the deputies of
+the province with a smiling face, expressing by the unwonted benignity of
+his countenance the satisfaction which he received from these loyal
+expressions of affection, and this dutiful compliance with his Request.
+
+The deputy, however, proceeded to an unexpected conclusion, by earnestly
+entreating his Majesty, as a compensation for the readiness thus evinced
+in the royal service, forthwith to order the departure of all foreign
+troops then in the Netherlands. Their presence, it was added, was now
+rendered completely superfluous by the ratification of the treaty of
+peace so fortunately arranged with all the world.
+
+At this sudden change in the deputy's language, the King, no longer
+smiling, threw himself violently upon his chair of state, where he
+remained, brooding with a gloomy countenance upon the language which had
+been addressed to him. It was evident, said an eye-witness, that he was
+deeply offended. He changed color frequently, so that all present "could
+remark, from the working of his face, how much his mind was agitated."
+
+The rest of the provinces were even more explicit than the deputies of
+Artois. All had voted their contingents to the Request, but all had made
+the withdrawal of the troops an express antecedent condition to the
+payment of their respective quotas.
+
+The King did not affect to conceal his rage at these conditions,
+exclaiming bitterly to Count Egmont and other seignors near the throne
+that it was very easy to estimate, by these proceedings, the value of the
+protestations made by the provinces of their loyalty and affection.
+
+Besides, however, the answers thus addressed by the separate states to
+the royal address, a formal remonstrance had also been drawn up in the
+name of the States General, and signed by the Prince of Orange, Count
+Egmont, and many of the leading patricians of the Netherlands. This
+document, which was formally presented to the King before the adjournment
+of the assembly, represented the infamous "pillaging, insults, and
+disorders" daily exercised by the foreign soldiery; stating that the
+burthen had become intolerable, and that the inhabitants of Marienburg,
+and of many other large towns and villages had absolutely abandoned their
+homes rather than remain any longer exposed to such insolence and
+oppression.
+
+The king, already enraged, was furious at the presentation of this
+petition. He arose from his seat, and rushed impetuously from the
+assembly, demanding of the members as he went, whether he too, as a
+Spaniard, was expected immediately to leave the land, and to resign all
+authority over it. The Duke of Savoy made use of this last occasion in
+which he appeared in public as Regent, violently to rebuke the estates
+for the indignity thus offered to their sovereign.
+
+It could not be forgotten, however, by nobles and burghers, who had not
+yet been crushed by the long course of oppression which was in store for
+them, that there had been a day when Philip's ancestors had been more
+humble in their deportment in the face of the provincial authorities. His
+great-grandfather, Maximilian, kept in durance by the citizens of Bruges;
+his great-grandmother, Mary of Burgundy, with streaming eyes and
+dishevelled hair, supplicating in the market-place for the lives of her
+treacherous ambassadors, were wont to hold a less imperious language to
+the delegates of the states.
+
+This burst of ill temper on the part of the monarch was, however,
+succeeded by a different humor. It was still thought advisable to
+dissemble, and to return rather an expostulatory than a peremptory answer
+to the remonstrance of the States General. Accordingly a paper of a
+singular tone was, after the delay of a few days, sent into the assembly.
+In this message it was stated that the King was not desirous of placing
+strangers in the government--a fact which was proved by the appointment
+of the Duchess Margaret; that the Spanish infantry was necessary to
+protect the land from invasion; that the remnant of foreign troops only
+amounted to three or four thousand men, who claimed considerable arrears
+of pay, but that the amount due would be forwarded to them immediately
+after his Majesty's return to Spain. It was suggested that the troops
+would serve as an escort for Don Carlos when he should arrive in the
+Netherlands, although the King would have been glad to carry them to
+Spain in his fleet, had he known the wishes of the estates in time. He
+would, however, pay for their support himself, although they were to act
+solely for the good of the provinces. He observed, moreover, that he had
+selected two seignors of the provinces, the Prince of Orange and Count
+Egmont, to take command of these foreign troops, and he promised
+faithfully that, in the course of three or four months at furthest, they
+should all be withdrawn.
+
+On the same day in which the estates had assembled at Ghent, Philip had
+addressed an elaborate letter to the grand council of Mechlin, the
+supreme court of the provinces, and to the various provincial councils
+and tribunals of the whole country. The object of the communication was
+to give his final orders on the subject of the edicts, and for the
+execution of all heretics in the most universal and summary manner. He
+gave stringent and unequivocal instructions that these decrees for
+burning, strangling, and burying alive, should be fulfilled to the
+letter. He ordered all judicial officers and magistrates "to be curious
+to enquire on all sides as to the execution of the placards," stating his
+intention that "the utmost rigor should be employed without any respect
+of persons," and that not only the transgressors should be proceeded
+against, but also the judges who should prove remiss in their prosecution
+of heretics. He alluded to a false opinion which had gained currency that
+the edicts were only intended against anabaptists. Correcting this error,
+he stated that they were to be "enforced against all sectaries, without
+any distinction or mercy, who might be spotted merely with the errors
+introduced by Luther."
+
+The King, notwithstanding the violent scenes in the assembly, took leave
+of the estates at another meeting with apparent cordiality. His
+dissatisfaction was sufficiently manifest, but it expressed itself
+principally against individuals. His displeasure at the course pursued by
+the leading nobles, particularly by the Prince of Orange, was already no
+secret.
+
+Philip, soon after the adjournment of the assembly, had completed the
+preparations for his departure. At Middelburg he was met by the agreeable
+intelligence that the Pope had consented to issue a bull for the creation
+of the new bishoprics which he desired for the Netherlands.--This
+important subject will be resumed in another chapter; for the present we
+accompany the King to Flushing, whence the fleet was to set sail for
+Spain. He was escorted thither by the Duchess Regent, the Duke of Savoy,
+and by many of the most eminent personages of the provinces. Among others
+William of Orange was in attendance to witness the final departure of the
+King, and to pay him his farewell respects. As Philip was proceeding on
+board the ship which was to bear him forever from the Netherlands, his
+eyes lighted upon the Prince. His displeasure could no longer be
+restrained. With angry face he turned upon him, and bitterly reproached
+him for having thwarted all his plans by means of his secret intrigues.
+William replied with humility that every thing which had taken place had
+been done through the regular and natural movements of the states. Upon
+this the King, boiling with rage, seized the Prince by the wrist, and
+shaking it violently, exclaimed in Spanish, "No los estados, ma vos, vos,
+vos!--Not the estates, but you, you, you!" repeating thrice the word vos,
+which is as disrespectful and uncourteous in Spanish as "toi" in French.
+
+After this severe and public insult, the Prince of Orange did not go on
+board his Majesty's vessel, but contented himself with wishing Philip,
+from the shore, a fortunate journey. It may be doubted, moreover, whether
+he would not have made a sudden and compulsory voyage to Spain had he
+ventured his person in the ship, and whether, under the circumstances, he
+would have been likely to effect as speedy a return. His caution served
+him then as it was destined to do on many future occasions, and Philip
+left the Netherlands with this parting explosion of hatred against the
+man who, as he perhaps instinctively felt, was destined to circumvent his
+measures and resist his tyranny to the last.
+
+The fleet, which consisted of ninety vessels, so well provisioned that,
+among other matters, fifteen thousand capons were put on board, according
+to the Antwerp chronicler, set sail upon the 26th August (1559), from
+Flushing. The voyage proved tempestuous, so that much of the rich
+tapestry and other merchandise which had been accumulated by Charles and
+Philip was lost. Some of the vessels foundered; to save others it was
+necessary to lighten the cargo, and "to enrobe the roaring waters with
+the silks," for which the Netherlands were so famous; so that it was said
+that Philip and his father had impoverished the earth only to enrich the
+ocean. The fleet had been laden with much valuable property, because the
+King had determined to fix for the future the wandering capital of his
+dominions in Spain. Philip landed in safety, however, at Laredo, on the
+8th September. His escape from imminent peril confirmed him in the great
+purpose to which he had consecrated his existence. He believed himself to
+have been reserved from shipwreck only because a mighty mission had been
+confided to him, and lest his enthusiasm against heresy should languish,
+his eyes were soon feasted, upon his arrival in his native country, with
+the spectacle of an auto-da fe.
+
+Early in January of this year the King being persuaded that it was
+necessary every where to use additional means to check the alarming
+spread of Lutheran opinions, had written to the Pope for authority to
+increase, if that were possible, the stringency of the Spanish
+inquisition. The pontiff, nothing loath, had accordingly issued a bull
+directed to the inquisitor general, Valdez, by which he was instructed to
+consign to the flames all prisoners whatever, even those who were not
+accused of having "relapsed." Great preparations had been made to strike
+terror into the hearts of heretics by a series of horrible exhibitions,
+in the course of which the numerous victims, many of them persons of high
+rank, distinguished learning, and exemplary lives, who had long been
+languishing in the dungeons of the holy office, were to be consigned to
+the flames. The first auto-da fe had been consummated at Valladolid on
+the 21st May (1559), in the absence of the King, of course, but in the
+presence of the royal family and the principal notabilities, civil,
+ecclesiastical, and military. The Princess Regent, seated on her throne,
+close to the scaffold, had held on high the holy sword. The Archbishop of
+Seville, followed by the ministers of the inquisition and by the victims,
+had arrived in solemn procession at the "cadahalso," where, after the
+usual sermon in praise of the holy office and in denunciation of heresy,
+he had administered the oath to the Intante, who had duly sworn upon the
+crucifix to maintain forever the sacred inquisition and the apostolic
+decrees. The Archbishop had then cried aloud, "So may God prosper your
+Highnesses and your estates;" after which the men and women who formed
+the object of the show had been cast into the flames.--[Cabrera]. It
+being afterwards ascertained that the King himself would soon be enabled
+to return to Spain, the next festival was reserved as a fitting
+celebration for his arrival. Upon the 8th October, accordingly, another
+auto-da fe took place at Valladolid. The King, with his sister and his
+son, the high officers of state, the foreign ministers, and all the
+nobility of the kingdom, were present, together with an immense concourse
+of soldiery, clergy, and populace. The sermon was preached by the Bishop
+of Cuenga. When it was finished, Inquisitor General Valdez cried with a
+loud voice, "Oh God, make speed to help us!" The King then drew his
+sword. Valdez, advancing to the platform upon which Philip was seated,
+proceeded to read the protestation: "Your Majesty swears by the cross of
+the sword, whereon your royal hand reposes, that you will give all
+necessary favor to the holy office of the inquisition against heretics,
+apostates, and those who favor them, and will denounce and inform against
+all those who, to your royal knowledge, shall act or speak against the
+faith." The King answered aloud, "I swear it," and signed the paper. The
+oath was read to the whole assembly by an officer of the inquisition.
+Thirteen distinguished victims were then burned before the monarch's
+eyes, besides one body which a friendly death had snatched from the hands
+of the holy office, and the effigy of another person who had been
+condemned, although not yet tried or even apprehended. Among the
+sufferers was Carlos de Sessa, a young noble of distinguished character
+and abilities, who said to the King as he passed by the throne to the
+stake, "How can you thus look on and permit me to be burned?" Philip then
+made the memorable reply, carefully recorded by his historiographer and
+panegyrist; "I would carry the wood to burn my own son withal, were he as
+wicked as you."
+
+In Seville, immediately afterwards, another auto-da fe was held, in which
+fifty living heretics were burned, besides the bones of Doctor
+Constantine Ponce de la Fuente, once the friend, chaplain, and almoner of
+Philip's father. This learned and distinguished ecclesiastic had been
+released from a dreadful dungeon by a fortunate fever. The holy office,
+however, not content with punishing his corpse, wreaked also an impotent
+and ludicrous malice upon his effigy. A stuffed figure, attired in his
+robes and with its arms extended in the attitude which was habitual with
+him in prayer, was placed upon the scaffold among the living victims, and
+then cast into the flames, that bigotry might enjoy a fantastic triumph
+over the grave.
+
+Such were the religious ceremonies with which Philip celebrated his
+escape from shipwreck, and his marriage with Isabella of France,
+immediately afterwards solemnized. These human victims, chained and
+burning at the stake, were the blazing torches which lighted the monarch
+to his nuptial couch.
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     Consign to the flames all prisoners whatever (Papal letter)
+     Courage of despair inflamed the French
+     Decrees for burning, strangling, and burying alive
+     I would carry the wood to burn my own son withal
+     Inventing long speeches for historical characters
+     Let us fool these poor creatures to their heart's content
+     Petty passion for contemptible details
+     Promises which he knew to be binding only upon the weak
+     Rashness alternating with hesitation
+     These human victims, chained and burning at the stake
+
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, PG EDITION, VOLUME 5.
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
+JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, D.C.L., LL.D.
+1855
+ADMINISTRATION OF THE DUCHESS MARGARET.
+1559-1560 [CHAPTER I.]
+
+   Biographical sketch and portrait of Margaret of Parma--The state
+   council--Berlaymont--Viglius--Sketch of William the Silent--Portrait
+   of Antony Perrenot, afterwards Cardinal Granvelle--General view of
+   the political, social and religious condition of the Netherlands--
+   Habits of the aristocracy--Emulation in extravagance--Pecuniary
+   embarrassments--Sympathy for the Reformation, steadily increasing
+   among the people, the true cause of the impending revolt--Measures
+   of the government.--Edict of 1550 described--Papal Bulls granted to
+   Philip for increasing the number of Bishops in the Netherlands--
+   Necessity for retaining the Spanish troops to enforce the policy of
+   persecution.
+
+Margaret of Parma, newly appointed Regent of the Netherlands, was the
+natural daughter of Charles the Fifth, and his eldest born child. Her
+mother, of a respectable family called Van der Genst, in Oudenarde, had
+been adopted and brought up by the distinguished house of Hoogstraaten.
+Peculiar circumstances, not necessary to relate at length, had palliated
+the fault to which Margaret owed her imperial origin, and gave the child
+almost a legitimate claim upon its father's protection. The claim was
+honorably acknowledged. Margaret was in her infancy placed by the Emperor
+in the charge of his paternal aunt, Margaret of Savoy, then Regent of the
+provinces. Upon the death of that princess, the child was entrusted to
+the care of the Emperor's sister, Mary, Queen Dowager of Hungary, who had
+succeeded to the government, and who occupied it until the abdication.
+The huntress-queen communicated her tastes to her youthful niece, and
+Margaret soon outrivalled her instructress. The ardor with which she
+pursued the stag, and the courageous horsemanship which she always
+displayed, proved her, too, no degenerate descendant of Mary of Burgundy.
+Her education for the distinguished position in which she had somewhat
+surreptitiously been placed was at least not neglected in this
+particular. When, soon after the memorable sack of Rome, the Pope and the
+Emperor had been reconciled, and it had been decided that the Medici
+family should be elevated upon the ruins of Florentine liberty,
+Margaret's hand was conferred in marriage upon the pontiff's nephew
+Alexander. The wretched profligate who was thus selected to mate with the
+Emperor's eldest born child and to appropriate the fair demesnes of the
+Tuscan republic was nominally the offspring of Lorenzo de Medici by a
+Moorish slave, although generally reputed a bastard of the Pope himself.
+The nuptials were celebrated with great pomp at Naples, where the Emperor
+rode at the tournament in the guise of a Moorish warrior. At Florence
+splendid festivities had also been held, which were troubled with omens
+believed to be highly unfavorable. It hardly needed, however,
+preternatural appearances in heaven or on earth to proclaim the marriage
+ill-starred which united a child of twelve years with a worn-out
+debauchee of twenty-seven. Fortunately for Margaret, the funereal
+portents proved true. Her husband, within the first year of their wedded
+life, fell a victim to his own profligacy, and was assassinated by his
+kinsman, Lorenzino de Medici. Cosmo, his successor in the tyranny of
+Florence, was desirous of succeeding to the hand of Margaret, but the
+politic Emperor, thinking that he had already done enough to conciliate
+that house, was inclined to bind to his interests the family which now
+occupied the papal throne. Margaret was accordingly a few years
+afterwards united to Ottavio Farnese, nephew of Paul the Third. It was
+still her fate to be unequally matched. Having while still a child been
+wedded to a man of more than twice her years, she was now, at the age of
+twenty, united to an immature youth of thirteen. She conceived so strong
+an aversion to her new husband, that it became impossible for them to
+live together in peace. Ottavio accordingly went to the wars, and in 1541
+accompanied the Emperor in his memorable expedition to Barbary.
+
+Rumors of disaster by battle and tempest reaching Europe before the
+results of the expedition were accurately known, reports that the Emperor
+had been lost in a storm, and that the young Ottavio had perished with
+him, awakened remorse in the bosom of Margaret. It seemed to her that he
+had been driven forth by domestic inclemency to fall a victim to the
+elements. When, however, the truth became known, and it was ascertained
+that her husband, although still living, was lying dangerously ill in the
+charge of the Emperor, the repugnance which had been founded upon his
+extreme youth changed to passionate fondness. His absence, and his
+faithful military attendance upon her father, caused a revulsion in her
+feelings, and awakened her admiration. When Ottavio, now created Duke of
+Parma and Piacenza, returned to Rome, he was received by his wife with
+open arms. Their union was soon blessed with twins, and but for a certain
+imperiousness of disposition which Margaret had inherited from her
+father, and which she was too apt to exercise even upon her husband, the
+marriage would have been sufficiently fortunate.
+
+Various considerations pointed her out to Philip as a suitable person for
+the office of Regent, although there seemed some mystery about the
+appointment which demanded explanation. It was thought that her birth
+would make her acceptable to the people; but perhaps, the secret reason
+with Philip was, that she alone of all other candidates would be amenable
+to the control of the churchman in whose hand he intended placing the
+real administration of the provinces. Moreover, her husband was very
+desirous that the citadel of Piacenza, still garrisoned by Spanish
+troops, should be surrendered to him. Philip was disposed to conciliate
+the Duke, but unwilling to give up the fortress. He felt that Ottavio
+would be flattered by the nomination of his wife to so important an
+office, and be not too much dissatisfied at finding himself relieved for
+a time from her imperious fondness. Her residence in the Netherlands
+would guarantee domestic tranquillity to her husband, and peace in Italy
+to the King. Margaret would be a hostage for the fidelity of the Duke,
+who had, moreover, given his eldest son to Philip to be educated in his
+service.
+
+She was about thirty-seven years of age when she arrived in the
+Netherlands, with the reputation of possessing high talents, and a proud
+and energetic character. She was an enthusiastic Catholic, and had sat at
+the feet of Loyola, who had been her confessor and spiritual guide. She
+felt a greater horror for heretics than for any other species of
+malefactors, and looked up to her father's bloody edicts as if they had
+been special revelations from on high. She was most strenuous in her
+observance of Roman rites, and was accustomed to wash the feet of twelve
+virgins every holy week, and to endow them in marriage afterwards.--Her
+acquirements, save that of the art of horsemanship, were not remarkable.
+
+Carefully educated in the Machiavellian and Medicean school of politics,
+she was versed in that "dissimulation," to which liberal Anglo-Saxons
+give a shorter name, but which formed the main substance of statesmanship
+at the court of Charles and Philip. In other respects her accomplishments
+were but meagre, and she had little acquaintance with any language but
+Italian. Her personal appearance, which was masculine, but not without a
+certain grand and imperial fascination, harmonized with the opinion
+generally entertained of her character. The famous moustache upon her
+upper lips was supposed to indicate authority and virility of purpose, an
+impression which was confirmed by the circumstance that she was liable to
+severe attacks of gout, a disorder usually considered more appropriate to
+the sterner sex.
+
+Such were the previous career and public reputation of the Duchess
+Margaret. It remains to be unfolded whether her character and endowments,
+as exemplified in her new position, were to justify the choice of Philip.
+
+The members of the state council, as already observed, were Berlaymont,
+Viglius, Arras, Orange, and Egmont.
+
+The first was, likewise, chief of the finance department. Most of the
+Catholic writers described him as a noble of loyal and highly honorable
+character. Those of the Protestant party, on the contrary, uniformly
+denounced him as greedy, avaricious, and extremely sanguinary. That he
+was a brave and devoted soldier, a bitter papist, and an inflexible
+adherent to the royal cause, has never been disputed. The Baron himself,
+with his four courageous and accomplished sons, were ever in the front
+ranks to defend the crown against the nation. It must be confessed,
+however, that fanatical loyalty loses most of the romance with which
+genius and poetry have so often hallowed the sentiment, when the
+"legitimate" prince for whom the sword is drawn is not only an alien in
+tongue and blood, but filled with undisguised hatred for the land he
+claims to rule.
+
+Viglius van Aytta van Zuichem was a learned Frisian, born, according to
+some writers, of "boors' degree, but having no inclination for boorish
+work". According to other authorities, which the President himself
+favored, he was of noble origin; but, whatever his race, it is certain
+that whether gentle or simple, it derived its first and only historical
+illustration from his remarkable talents and acquirements. These in early
+youth were so great as to acquire the commendation of Erasmus. He had
+studied in Louvain, Paris, and Padua, had refused the tutorship Philip
+when that prince was still a child, and had afterwards filled a
+professorship at Ingolstadt. After rejecting several offers of promotion
+from the Emperor, he had at last accepted in 1542 a seat in the council
+of Mechlin, of which body he had become president in 1545. He had been
+one of the peace commissioners to France in 1558, and was now president
+of the privy council, a member of the state council, and of the inner and
+secret committee of that board, called the Consults. Much odium was
+attached to his name for his share in the composition of the famous edict
+of 1550. The rough draught was usually attributed to his pen, but he
+complained bitterly, in letters written at this time, of injustice done
+him in this respect, and maintained that he had endeavored, without
+success, to induce the Emperor to mitigate the severity of the edict. One
+does not feel very strongly inclined to accept his excuses, however, when
+his general opinions on the subject of religion are remembered. He was
+most bigoted in precept and practice. Religious liberty he regarded as
+the most detestable and baleful of doctrines; heresy he denounced as the
+most unpardonable of crimes.
+
+From no man's mouth flowed more bitter or more elegant commonplaces than
+from that of the learned president against those blackest of malefactors,
+the men who claimed within their own walls the right to worship God
+according to their own consciences. For a common person, not learned in
+law or divinity, to enter into his closet, to shut the door, and to pray
+to Him who seeth in secret, was, in his opinion, to open wide the gate of
+destruction for all the land, and to bring in the Father of Evil at once
+to fly away with the whole population, body and soul. "If every man,"
+said he to Hopper, "is to believe what he likes in his own house, we
+shall have hearth gods and tutelar divinities, again, the country will
+swarm with a thousand errors and sects, and very few there will be, I
+fear, who will allow themselves to be enclosed in the sheepfold of
+Christ. I have ever considered this opinion," continued the president,
+"the most pernicious of all. They who hold it have a contempt for all
+religion, and are neither more nor less than atheists. This vague,
+fireside liberty should be by every possible means extirpated; therefore
+did Christ institute shepherds to drive his wandering sheep back into the
+fold of the true Church; thus only can we guard the lambs against the
+ravening wolves, and prevent their being carried away from the flock of
+Christ to the flock of Belial. Liberty of religion, or of conscience, as
+they call it, ought never to be tolerated."
+
+This was the cant with which Viglius was ever ready to feed not only his
+faithful Hopper, but all the world beside. The president was naturally
+anxious that the fold of Christ should be entrusted to none but regular
+shepherds, for he looked forward to taking one of the most lucrative
+crooks into his own hand, when he should retire from his secular career.
+
+It is now necessary to say a few introductory words concerning the man
+who, from this time forth, begins to rise upon the history of his country
+with daily increasing grandeur and influence. William of Nassau, Prince
+of Orange, although still young in years, is already the central
+personage about whom the events and the characters of the epoch most
+naturally group themselves; destined as he is to become more and more
+with each succeeding year the vivifying source of light, strength, and
+national life to a whole people.
+
+The Nassau family first emerges into distinct existence in the middle of
+the eleventh century. It divides itself almost as soon as known into two
+great branches. The elder remained in Germany, ascended the imperial
+throne in the thirteenth century in the person of Adolph of Nassau and
+gave to the country many electors, bishops, and generals. The younger and
+more illustrious branch retained the modest property and petty
+sovereignty of Nassau Dillenbourg, but at the same time transplanted
+itself to the Netherlands, where it attained at an early period to great
+power and large possessions. The ancestors of William, as Dukes of
+Gueldres, had begun to exercise sovereignty in the provinces four
+centuries before the advent of the house of Burgundy. That overshadowing
+family afterwards numbered the Netherland Nassaus among its most stanch
+and powerful adherents. Engelbert the Second was distinguished in the
+turbulent councils and in the battle-fields of Charles the Bold, and was
+afterwards the unwavering supporter of Maximilian, in court and camp.
+Dying childless, he was succeeded by his brother John, whose two sons,
+Henry and William, of Nassau, divided the great inheritance after their
+father's death, William succeeded to the German estates, became a convert
+to Protestantism, and introduced the Reformation into his dominions.
+Henry, the eldest son, received the family possessions and titles in
+Luxembourg, Brabant, Flanders and Holland, and distinguished himself as
+much as his uncle Engelbert, in the service of the Burgundo-Austrian
+house. The confidential friend of Charles the Fifth, whose governor he
+had been in that Emperor's boyhood, he was ever his most efficient and
+reliable adherent. It was he whose influence placed the imperial crown
+upon the head of Charles. In 1515 he espoused Claudia de Chalons, sister
+of Prince Philibert of Orange, "in order," as he wrote to his father, "to
+be obedient to his imperial Majesty, to please the King of France, and
+more particularly for the sake of his own honor and profit."
+
+His son Rene de Nassau-Chalons succeeded Philibert. The little
+principality of Orange, so pleasantly situated between Provence and
+Dauphiny, but in such dangerous proximity to the seat of the "Babylonian
+captivity" of the popes at Avignon, thus passed to the family of Nassau.
+The title was of high antiquity. Already in the reign of Charlemagne,
+Guillaume au Court-Nez, or "William with the Short Nose," had defended
+the little--town of Orange against the assaults of the Saracens. The
+interest and authority acquired in the demesnes thus preserved by his
+valor became extensive, and in process of time hereditary in his race.
+The principality became an absolute and free sovereignty, and had already
+descended, in defiance of the Salic law, through the three distinct
+families of Orange, Baux, and Chalons.
+
+In 1544, Prince Rene died at the Emperor's feet in the trenches of Saint
+Dizier. Having no legitimate children, he left all his titles and estates
+to his cousin-german, William of Nassau, son of his father's brother
+William, who thus at the age of eleven years became William the Ninth of
+Orange. For this child, whom the future was to summon to such high
+destinies and such heroic sacrifices, the past and present seemed to have
+gathered riches and power together from many sources. He was the
+descendant of the Othos, the Engelberts, and the Henries, of the
+Netherlands, the representative of the Philiberts and the Renes of
+France; the chief of a house, humbler in resources and position in
+Germany, but still of high rank, and which had already done good service
+to humanity by being among the first to embrace the great principles of
+the Reformation.
+
+His father, younger brother of the Emperor's friend Henry, was called
+William the Rich. He was, however, only rich in children. Of these he had
+five sons and seven daughters by his wife Juliana of Stolberg. She was a
+person of most exemplary character and unaffected piety. She instilled
+into the minds of all her children the elements of that devotional
+sentiment which was her own striking characteristic, and it was destined
+that the seed sown early should increase to an abundant harvest. Nothing
+can be more tender or more touching than the letters which still exist
+from her hand, written to her illustrious sons in hours of anxiety or
+anguish, and to the last, recommending to them with as much earnest
+simplicity as if they were still little children at her knee, to rely
+always in the midst of the trials and dangers which were to beset their
+paths through life, upon the great hand of God. Among the mothers of
+great men, Juliana of Stolberg deserves a foremost place, and it is no
+slight eulogy that she was worthy to have been the mother of William of
+Orange and of Lewis, Adolphus, Henry, and John of Nassau.
+
+At the age of eleven years, William having thus unexpectedly succeeded to
+such great possessions, was sent from his father's roof to be educated in
+Brussels. No destiny seemed to lie before the young prince but an
+education at the Emperor's court, to be followed by military adventures,
+embassies, viceroyalties, and a life of luxury and magnificence. At a
+very early age he came, accordingly, as a page into the Emperor's family.
+Charles recognized, with his customary quickness, the remarkable
+character of the boy. At fifteen, William was the intimate, almost
+confidential friend of the Emperor, who prided himself, above all other
+gifts, on his power of reading and of using men. The youth was so
+constant an attendant upon his imperial chief that even when interviews
+with the highest personages, and upon the gravest affairs, were taking
+place, Charles would never suffer him to be considered superfluous or
+intrusive. There seemed to be no secrets which the Emperor held too high
+for the comprehension or discretion of his page. His perceptive and
+reflective faculties, naturally of remarkable keenness and depth, thus
+acquired a precocious and extraordinary development. He was brought up
+behind the curtain of that great stage where the world's dramas were
+daily enacted. The machinery and the masks which produced the grand
+delusions of history had no deceptions for him. Carefully to observe
+men's actions, and silently to ponder upon their motives, was the
+favorite occupation of the Prince during his apprenticeship at court. As
+he advanced to man's estate, he was selected by the Emperor for the
+highest duties. Charles, whose only merit, so far as the provinces were
+concerned, was in having been born in Ghent, and that by an ignoble
+accident, was glad to employ this representative of so many great
+Netherland houses, in the defence of the land. Before the Prince was
+twenty-one he was appointed general-in-chief of the army on the French
+frontier, in the absence of the Duke of Savoy. The post was coveted by
+many most distinguished soldiers: the Counts of Buren, Bossu, Lalaing,
+Aremberg, Meghem, and particularly by Count Egmont; yet Charles showed
+his extraordinary confidence in the Prince of Orange, by selecting him
+for the station, although he had hardly reached maturity, and was
+moreover absent in France. The young Prince acquitted himself of his high
+command in a manner which justified his appointment.
+
+It was the Prince's shoulder upon which the Emperor leaned at the
+abdication; the Prince's hand which bore the imperial insignia of the
+discrowned monarch to Ferdinand, at Augsburg. With these duties his
+relations with Charles were ended, and those with Philip begun. He was
+with the army during the hostilities which were soon after resumed in
+Picardy; he was the secret negotiator of the preliminary arrangement with
+France, soon afterwards confirmed by the triumphant treaty of April,
+1559. He had conducted these initiatory conferences with the Constable
+Montmorency and Marshal de Saint Andre with great sagacity, although
+hardly a man in years, and by so doing he had laid Philip under deep
+obligations. The King was so inexpressibly anxious for peace that he
+would have been capable of conducting a treaty upon almost any terms. He
+assured the Prince that "the greatest service he could render him in this
+world was to make peace, and that he desired to have it at any price what
+ever, so eager was he to return to Spain." To the envoy Suriano, Philip
+had held the same language. "Oh, Ambassador," said he, "I wish peace on
+any terms, and if the King of France had not sued for it, I would have
+begged for it myself."
+
+With such impatience on the part of the sovereign, it certainly
+manifested diplomatic abilities of a high character in the Prince, that
+the treaty negotiated by him amounted to a capitulation by France. He was
+one of the hostages selected by Henry for the due execution of the
+treaty, and while in France made that remarkable discovery which was to
+color his life. While hunting with the King in the forest of Vincennes,
+the Prince and Henry found themselves alone together, and separated from
+the rest of the company. The French monarch's mind was full of the great
+scheme which had just secretly been formed by Philip and himself, to
+extirpate Protestantism by a general extirpation of Protestants. Philip
+had been most anxious to conclude the public treaty with France, that he
+might be the sooner able to negotiate that secret convention by which he
+and his Most Christian Majesty were solemnly to bind themselves to
+massacre all the converts to the new religion in France and the
+Netherlands. This conspiracy of the two Kings against their subjects was
+the matter nearest the hearts of both. The Duke of Alva, a fellow hostage
+with William of Orange, was the plenipotentiary to conduct this more
+important arrangement. The French monarch, somewhat imprudently imagining
+that the Prince was also a party to the plot, opened the whole subject to
+him without reserve. He complained of the constantly increasing numbers
+of sectaries in his kingdom, and protested that his conscience would
+never be easy, nor his state secure until his realm should be delivered
+of "that accursed vermin." A civil revolution, under pretext of a
+religious reformation, was his constant apprehension, particularly since
+so many notable personages in the realm, and even princes of the blood,
+were already tainted with heresy. Nevertheless, with the favor of heaven,
+and the assistance of his son and brother Philip, he hoped soon to be
+master of the rebels. The King then proceeded, with cynical minuteness,
+to lay before his discreet companion the particulars of the royal plot,
+and the manner in which all heretics, whether high or humble, were to be
+discovered and massacred at the most convenient season. For the
+furtherance of the scheme in the Netherlands, it was understood that the
+Spanish regiments would be exceedingly efficient. The Prince, although
+horror-struck and indignant at the royal revelations, held his peace, and
+kept his countenance. The King was not aware that, in opening this
+delicate negotiation to Alva's colleague and Philip's plenipotentiary, he
+had given a warning of inestimable value to the man who had been born to
+resist the machinations of Philip and of Alva. William of Orange earned
+the surname of "the Silent," from the manner in which he received these
+communications of Henry without revealing to the monarch, by word or
+look, the enormous blunder which he had committed. His purpose was fixed
+from that hour. A few days afterwards he obtained permission to visit the
+Netherlands, where he took measures to excite, with all his influence,
+the strongest and most general opposition to the continued presence of
+the Spanish troops, of which forces, touch against his will, he had been,
+in conjunction with Egmont, appointed chief. He already felt, in his own
+language, that "an inquisition for the Netherlands had been, resolved
+upon more cruel than that of Spain; since it would need but to look
+askance at an image to be cast into the flames." Although having as yet
+no spark of religious sympathy for the reformers, he could not, he said,
+"but feel compassion for so many virtuous men and women thus devoted to
+massacre," and he determined to save them if he could!' At the departure
+of Philip he had received instructions, both patent and secret, for his
+guidance as stadholder of Holland, Friesland, and Utrecht. He was ordered
+"most expressly to correct and extirpate the sects reprobated by our Holy
+Mother Church; to execute the edicts of his Imperial Majesty, renewed by
+the King, with absolute rigor. He was to see that the judges carried out
+the edicts, without infraction, alteration, or moderation, since they
+were there to enforce, not to make or to discuss the law." In his secret
+instructions he was informed that the execution of the edicts was to be
+with all rigor, and without any respect of persons. He was also reminded
+that, whereas some persons had imagined the severity of the law "to be
+only intended against Anabaptists, on the contrary, the edicts were to be
+enforced on Lutherans and all other sectaries without distinction."
+Moreover, in one of his last interviews with Philip, the King had given
+him the names of several "excellent persons suspected of the new
+religion," and had commanded him to have them put to death. This,
+however, he not only omitted to do, but on the contrary gave them
+warning, so that they might effect their escape, "thinking it more
+necessary to obey God than man."
+
+William of Orange, at the departure of the King for Spain, was in his
+twenty-seventh year. He was a widower; his first wife, Anne of Egmont,
+having died in 1558, after seven years of wedlock. This lady, to whom he
+had been united when they were both eighteen years of age, was the
+daughter of the celebrated general, Count de Buren, and the greatest
+heiress in the Netherlands. William had thus been faithful to the family
+traditions, and had increased his possessions by a wealthy alliance. He
+had two children, Philip and Mary. The marriage had been more amicable
+than princely marriages arranged for convenience often prove. The letters
+of the Prince to his wife indicate tenderness and contentment. At the
+same time he was accused, at a later period, of "having murdered her with
+a dagger." The ridiculous tale was not even credited by those who
+reported it, but it is worth mentioning, as a proof that no calumny was
+too senseless to be invented concerning the man whose character was from
+that hour forth to be the mark of slander, and whose whole life was to be
+its signal, although often unavailing, refutation.
+
+Yet we are not to regard William of Orange, thus on the threshold of his
+great career, by the light diffused from a somewhat later period. In no
+historical character more remarkably than in his is the law of constant
+development and progress illustrated. At twenty-six he is not the "pater
+patriae," the great man struggling upward and onward against a host of
+enemies and obstacles almost beyond human strength, and along the dark
+and dangerous path leading through conflict, privation, and ceaseless
+labor to no repose but death. On the contrary, his foot was hardly on the
+first step of that difficult ascent which was to rise before him all his
+lifetime. He was still among the primrose paths. He was rich, powerful,
+of sovereign rank. He had only the germs within him of what was
+thereafter to expand into moral and intellectual greatness. He had small
+sympathy for the religious reformation, of which he was to be one of the
+most distinguished champions. He was a Catholic, nominally, and in
+outward observance. With doctrines he troubled himself but little. He had
+given orders to enforce conformity to the ancient Church, not with
+bloodshed, yet with comparative strictness, in his principality of
+Orange. Beyond the compliance with rites and forms, thought indispensable
+in those days to a personage of such high degree, he did not occupy
+himself with theology. He was a Catholic, as Egmont and Horn, Berlaymont
+and Mansfeld, Montigny and even Brederode, were Catholic. It was only
+tanners, dyers and apostate priests who were Protestants at that day in
+the Netherlands. His determination to protect a multitude of his harmless
+inferiors from horrible deaths did not proceed from sympathy with their
+religious sentiments, but merely from a generous and manly detestation of
+murder. He carefully averted his mind from sacred matters. If indeed the
+seed implanted by his pious parents were really the germ of his future
+conversion to Protestantism, it must be confessed that it lay dormant a
+long time. But his mind was in other pursuits. He was disposed for an
+easy, joyous, luxurious, princely life. Banquets, masquerades,
+tournaments, the chase, interspersed with the routine of official duties,
+civil and military, seemed likely to fill out his life. His hospitality,
+like his fortune, was almost regal. While the King and the foreign envoys
+were still in the Netherlands, his house, the splendid Nassau palace of
+Brussels, was ever open. He entertained for the monarch, who was, or who
+imagined himself to be, too poor to discharge his own duties in this
+respect, but he entertained at his own expense. This splendid household
+was still continued. Twenty-four noblemen and eighteen pages of gentle
+birth officiated regularly in his family. His establishment was on so
+extensive a scale that upon one day twenty-eight master cooks were
+dismissed, for the purpose of diminishing the family expenses, and there
+was hardly a princely house in Germany which did not send cooks to learn
+their business in so magnificent a kitchen. The reputation of his table
+remained undiminished for years. We find at a later period, that Philip,
+in the course of one of the nominal reconciliations which took place
+several times between the monarch and William of Orange, wrote that, his
+head cook being dead, he begged the Prince to "make him a present of his
+chief cook, Master Herman, who was understood to be very skilful."
+
+In this hospitable mansion, the feasting continued night and day. From
+early morning till noon, the breakfast-tables were spread with wines and
+luxurious viands in constant succession, to all comers and at every
+moment.--The dinner and supper were daily banquets for a multitude of
+guests. The highest nobles were not those alone who were entertained. Men
+of lower degree were welcomed with a charming hospitality which made them
+feel themselves at their ease. Contemporaries of all parties unite in
+eulogizing the winning address and gentle manners of the Prince. "Never,"
+says a most bitter Catholic historian, "did an arrogant or indiscreet
+word fall from his lips. He, upon no occasion, manifested anger to his
+servants, however much they might be in fault, but contented himself with
+admonishing them graciously, without menace or insult. He had a gentle
+and agreeable tongue, with which he could turn all the gentlemen at court
+any way he liked. He was beloved and honored by the whole community." His
+manner was graceful, familiar, caressing, and yet dignified. He had the
+good breeding which comes from the heart, refined into an inexpressible
+charm from his constant intercourse, almost from his cradle, with mankind
+of all ranks.
+
+It may be supposed that this train of living was attended with expense.
+Moreover, he had various other establishments in town and country;
+besides his almost royal residence in Brussels. He was ardently fond of
+the chase, particularly of the knightly sport of falconry. In the country
+he "consoled himself by taking every day a heron in the clouds." His
+falconers alone cost him annually fifteen hundred florins, after he had
+reduced their expenses to the lowest possible point. He was much in debt,
+even at this early period and with his princely fortune. "We come of a
+race," he wrote carelessly to his brother Louis, "who are somewhat bad
+managers in our young days, but when we grow older, we do better, like
+our late father: 'sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper et in
+secula seculorum'. My greatest difficulty," he adds, "as usual, is on
+account of the falconers."
+
+His debts already amounted, according to Granvelle's statement, to
+800,000 or 900,000 florins. He had embarrassed himself, not only through
+his splendid extravagance, by which all the world about him were made to
+partake of his wealth, but by accepting the high offices to which he had
+been appointed. When general-in-chief on the frontier, his salary was
+three hundred florins monthly; "not enough," as he said, "to pay the
+servants in his tent," his necessary expenses being twenty-five hundred
+florins, as appears by a letter to his wife. His embassy to carry the
+crown to Ferdinand, and his subsequent residence as a hostage for the
+treaty in Paris, were also very onerous, and he received no salary;
+according to the economical system in this respect pursued by Charles and
+Philip. In these two embassies or missions alone, together with the
+entertainments offered by him to the court and to foreigners, after the
+peace at Brussels, the Prince spent, according to his own estimate,
+1,500,000 florins. He was, however, although deeply, not desperately
+involved, and had already taken active measures to regulate and reduce
+his establishment. His revenues were vast, both in his own right and in
+that of his deceased wife. He had large claims upon the royal treasury
+for service and expenditure. He had besides ample sums to receive from
+the ransoms of the prisoners of St. Quentin and Gravelines, having served
+in both campaigns. The amount to be received by individuals from this
+source may be estimated from the fact that Count Horn, by no means one of
+the most favored in the victorious armies, had received from Leonor
+d'Orleans, Due de Loggieville, a ransom of eighty thousand crowns. The
+sum due, if payment were enforced, from the prisoners assigned to Egmont,
+Orange, and others, must have been very large. Granvelle estimated the
+whole amount at two millions; adding, characteristically, "that this kind
+of speculation was a practice" which our good old fathers, lovers of
+virtue, would not have found laudable. In this the churchman was right,
+but he might have added that the "lovers of virtue" would have found it
+as little "laudable" for ecclesiastics to dispose of the sacred offices
+in their gift, for carpets, tapestry, and annual payments of certain
+percentages upon the cure of souls. If the profits respectively gained by
+military and clerical speculators in that day should be compared, the
+disadvantage would hardly be found to lie with those of the long robe.
+
+Such, then, at the beginning of 1560, was William of Orange; a generous,
+stately, magnificent, powerful grandee. As a military commander, he had
+acquitted himself very creditably of highly important functions at an
+early age. Nevertheless it was the opinion of many persons, that he was
+of a timid temperament. He was even accused of having manifested an
+unseemly panic at Philippeville, and of having only been restrained by
+the expostulations of his officers, from abandoning both that fortress
+and Charlemont to Admiral Coligny, who had made his appearance in the
+neighborhood, merely at the head of a reconnoitring party. If the story
+were true, it would be chiefly important as indicating that the Prince of
+Orange was one of the many historical characters, originally of an
+excitable and even timorous physical organization, whom moral courage and
+a strong will have afterwards converted into dauntless heroes. Certain it
+is that he was destined to confront open danger in every form, that his
+path was to lead through perpetual ambush, yet that his cheerful
+confidence and tranquil courage were to become not only unquestionable
+but proverbial. It may be safely asserted, however, that the story was an
+invention to be classed with those fictions which made him the murderer
+of his first wife, a common conspirator against Philip's crown and
+person, and a crafty malefactor in general, without a single virtue. It
+must be remembered that even the terrible Alva, who lived in harness
+almost from the cradle to the grave, was, so late as at this period,
+censured for timidity, and had been accused in youth of flat cowardice.
+He despised the insinuation, which for him had no meaning. There is no
+doubt too that caution was a predominant characteristic of the Prince. It
+was one of the chief sources of his greatness. At that period, perhaps at
+any period, he would have been incapable of such brilliant and dashing
+exploits as had made the name of Egmont so famous. It had even become a
+proverb, "the counsel of Orange, the execution of Egmont," yet we shall
+have occasion to see how far this physical promptness which had been so
+felicitous upon the battle-field was likely to avail the hero of St.
+Quentin in the great political combat which was approaching.
+
+As to the talents of the Prince, there was no difference of opinion. His
+enemies never contested the subtlety and breadth of his intellect, his
+adroitness and capacity in conducting state affairs, his knowledge of
+human nature, and the profoundness of his views. In many respects it must
+be confessed that his surname of The Silent, like many similar
+appellations, was a misnomer. William of Orange was neither "silent" nor
+"taciturn," yet these are the epithets which will be forever associated
+with the name of a man who, in private, was the most affable, cheerful,
+and delightful of companions, and who on a thousand great public
+occasions was to prove himself, both by pen and by speech, the most
+eloquent man of his age. His mental accomplishments were considerable: He
+had studied history with attention, and he spoke and wrote with facility
+Latin, French, German, Flemish, and Spanish.
+
+The man, however, in whose hands the administration of the Netherlands
+was in reality placed, was Anthony Perrenot, then Bishop of Arras, soon
+to be known by the more celebrated title of Cardinal Granvelle. He was
+the chief of the Consults, or secret council of three, by whose
+deliberations the Duchess Regent was to be governed. His father, Nicholas
+Perrenot, of an obscure family in Burgundy, had been long the favorite
+minister and man of business to the Emperor Charles. Anthony, the eldest
+of thirteen children, was born in 1517. He was early distinguished for
+his talents. He studied at Dole, Padua, Paris, and Louvain. At, the age
+of twenty he spoke seven languages with perfect facility, while his
+acquaintance with civil and ecclesiastical laws was considered
+prodigious. At the age of twenty-three he became a canon of Liege
+Cathedral. The necessary eight quarters of gentility produced upon that
+occasion have accordingly been displayed by his panegyrists in triumphant
+refutation of that theory which gave him a blacksmith for his
+grandfather. At the same period, although he had not reached the
+requisite age, the rich bishopric of Arras had already been prepared for
+him by his father's care. Three years afterwards, in 1543, he
+distinguished himself by a most learned and brilliant harangue before the
+Council of Trent, by which display he so much charmed the Emperor, that
+he created him councillor of state. A few years afterwards he rendered
+the unscrupulous Charles still more valuable proofs of devotion and
+dexterity by the part he played in the memorable imprisonment of the
+Landgrave of Hesse and the Saxon Dukes. He was thereafter constantly
+employed in embassies and other offices of trust and profit.
+
+There was no doubt as to his profound and varied learning, nor as to his
+natural quickness and dexterity. He was ready witted, smooth and fluent
+of tongue, fertile in expedients, courageous, resolute. He thoroughly
+understood the art of managing men, particularly his superiors. He knew
+how to govern under the appearance of obeying. He possessed exquisite
+tact in appreciating the characters of those far above him in rank and
+beneath him in intellect. He could accommodate himself with great
+readiness to the idiosyncrasies of sovereigns. He was a chameleon to the
+hand which fed him. In his intercourse with the King, he colored himself,
+as it were, with the King's character. He was not himself, but Philip;
+not the sullen, hesitating, confused Philip, however, but Philip endowed
+with eloquence, readiness, facility. The King ever found himself
+anticipated with the most delicate obsequiousness, beheld his struggling
+ideas change into winged words without ceasing to be his own. No flattery
+could be more adroit. The bishop accommodated himself to the King's
+epistolary habits. The silver-tongued and ready debater substituted
+protocols for conversation, in deference to a monarch who could not
+speak. He corresponded with Philip, with Margaret of Parma, with every
+one. He wrote folios to the Duchess when they were in the same palace. He
+would write letters forty pages long to the King, and send off another
+courier on the same day with two or three additional despatches of
+identical date. Such prolixity enchanted the King, whose greediness for
+business epistles was insatiable. The painstaking monarch toiled, pen in
+hand, after his wonderful minister in vain. Philip was only fit to be the
+bishop's clerk; yet he imagined himself to be the directing and governing
+power. He scrawled apostilles in the margins to prove that he had read
+with attention, and persuaded himself that he suggested when he scarcely
+even comprehended. The bishop gave advice and issued instructions when he
+seemed to be only receiving them. He was the substance while he affected
+to be the shadow. These tactics were comparatively easy and likely to be
+triumphant, so long as he had only to deal with inferior intellects like
+those of Philip and Margaret. When he should be matched against political
+genius and lofty character combined, it was possible that his resources
+might not prove so all-sufficient.
+
+His political principles were sharply defined in reality, but smoothed
+over by a conventional and decorous benevolence of language, which
+deceived vulgar minds. He was a strict absolutist. His deference to
+arbitrary power was profound and slavish. God and "the master," as he
+always called Philip, he professed to serve with equal humility. "It
+seems to me," said he, in a letter of this epoch, "that I shall never be
+able to fulfil the obligation of slave which I owe to your majesty, to
+whom I am bound by so firm a chain;--at any rate, I shall never fail to
+struggle for that end with sincerity."
+
+As a matter of course, he was a firm opponent of the national rights of
+the Netherlands, however artfully he disguised the sharp sword of violent
+absolutism under a garland of flourishing phraseology. He had strenuously
+warned Philip against assembling the States-general before his departure
+for the sake of asking them for supplies. He earnestly deprecated
+allowing the constitutional authorities any control over the expenditures
+of the government, and averred that this practice under the Regent Mary
+had been the cause of endless trouble. It may easily be supposed that
+other rights were as little to his taste as the claim to vote the
+subsidies, a privilege which was in reality indisputable. Men who stood
+forth in defence of the provincial constitutions were, in his opinion,
+mere demagogues and hypocrites; their only motive being to curry favor
+with the populace. Yet these charters were, after all, sufficiently
+limited. The natural rights of man were topics which had never been
+broached. Man had only natural wrongs. None ventured to doubt that
+sovereignty was heaven-born, anointed of God. The rights of the
+Netherlands were special, not general; plural, not singular; liberties,
+not liberty; "privileges," not maxims. They were practical, not
+theoretical; historical, not philosophical. Still, such as they were,
+they were facts, acquisitions. They had been purchased by the blood and
+toil of brave ancestors; they amounted--however open to criticism upon
+broad humanitarian grounds, of which few at that day had ever dreamed--to
+a solid, substantial dyke against the arbitrary power which was ever
+chafing and fretting to destroy its barriers. No men were more subtle or
+more diligent in corroding the foundation of these bulwarks than the
+disciples of Granvelle. Yet one would have thought it possible to
+tolerate an amount of practical freedom so different from the wild,
+social speculations which in later days, have made both tyrants and
+reasonable lovers of our race tremble with apprehension. The
+Netherlanders claimed, mainly, the right to vote the money which was
+demanded in such enormous profusion from their painfully-acquired wealth;
+they were also unwilling to be burned alive if they objected to
+transubstantiation. Granvelle was most distinctly of an opposite opinion
+upon both topics. He strenuously deprecated the interference of the
+states with the subsidies, and it was by his advice that the remorseless
+edict of 1550, the Emperor's ordinance of blood and fire, was re-enacted,
+as the very first measure of Philip's reign. Such were his sentiments as
+to national and popular rights by representation. For the people
+itself--"that vile and mischievous animal called the people"--as he
+expressed it, he entertained a cheerful contempt.
+
+His aptitude for managing men was very great; his capacity for affairs
+incontestable; but it must be always understood as the capacity for the
+affairs of absolutism. He was a clever, scheming politician, an adroit
+manager; it remained to be seen whether he had a claim to the character
+of a statesman. His industry was enormous. He could write fifty letters a
+day with his own hand. He could dictate to half a dozen amanuenses at
+once, on as many different subjects, in as many different languages, and
+send them all away exhausted.
+
+He was already rich. His income from his see and other livings was
+estimated, in 1557, at ten thousand dollars--[1885 approximation. The
+decimal point more places to the right would in 2000 not be out of line.
+D.W.]--; his property in ready money, "furniture, tapestry, and the
+like," at two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. When it is considered
+that, as compared with our times, these sums represent a revenue of a
+hundred thousand, and a capital of two millions and a half in addition,
+it may be safely asserted that the prelate had at least made a good
+beginning. Besides his regular income, moreover, he had handsome receipts
+from that simony which was reduced to a system, and which gave him a
+liberal profit, generally in the shape of an annuity, upon every benefice
+which he conferred. He was, however, by no means satisfied. His appetite
+was as boundless as the sea; he was still a shameless mendicant of
+pecuniary favors and lucrative offices. Already, in 1552, the Emperor had
+roundly rebuked his greediness. "As to what you say of getting no
+'merced' nor 'ayuda de costa,'" said he, "'tis merced and ayuda de costa
+quite sufficient, when one has fat benefices, pensions, and salaries,
+with which a man might manage to support himself." The bishop, however,
+was not easily abashed, and he was at the epoch which now occupies us,
+earnestly and successfully soliciting from Philip the lucrative abbey of
+Saint Armand. Not that he would have accepted this preferment, "could the
+abbey have been annexed to any of the new bishoprics;" on the contrary,
+he assured the king that "to carry out so holy a work as the erection of
+those new sees, he would willingly have contributed even out of his own
+miserable pittance."
+
+It not being considered expedient to confiscate the abbey to any
+particular bishop, Philip accordingly presented it to the prelate of
+Arras, together with a handsome sum of money in the shape of an "ayuda de
+costa" beside. The thrifty bishop, who foresaw the advent of troublous
+times in the Netherlands, however, took care in the letters by which he
+sent his thanks, to instruct the King to secure the money upon crown
+property in Arragon, Naples, and Sicily, as matters in the provinces were
+beginning to look very precarious.
+
+Such, at the commencement of the Duchess Margaret's administration, were
+the characters and the previous histories of the persons into whose hands
+the Netherlands were entrusted. None of them have been prejudged. We have
+contented ourselves with stating the facts with regard to all, up to the
+period at which we have arrived. Their characters have been sketched, not
+according to subsequent developments, but as they appeared at the opening
+of this important epoch.
+
+The aspect of the country and its inhabitants offered many sharp
+contrasts, and revealed many sources of future trouble.
+
+The aristocracy of the Netherlands was excessively extravagant,
+dissipated, and already considerably embarrassed in circumstances. It had
+been the policy of the Emperor and of Philip to confer high offices,
+civil, military, and diplomatic, upon the leading nobles, by which
+enormous expenses were entailed upon them, without any corresponding
+salaries. The case of Orange has been already alluded to, and there were
+many other nobles less able to afford the expense, who had been indulged
+with these ruinous honors. During the war, there had been, however, many
+chances of bettering broken fortunes. Victory brought immense prizes to
+the leading officers. The ransoms of so many illustrious prisoners as had
+graced the triumphs of Saint Quentin and Gravelines had been extremely
+profitable. These sources of wealth had now been cut off; yet, on the
+departure of the King from the Netherlands, the luxury increased instead
+of diminishing, "Instead of one court," said a contemporary, "you would
+have said that there were fifty." Nothing could be more sumptuous than
+the modes of life in Brussels. The household of Orange has been already
+painted. That of Egmont was almost as magnificent. A rivalry in
+hospitality and in display began among the highest nobles, and extended
+to those less able to maintain themselves in the contest. During the war
+there had been the valiant emulation of the battlefield; gentlemen had
+vied with each other how best to illustrate an ancient name with deeds of
+desperate valor, to repair the fortunes of a ruined house with the spoils
+of war. They now sought to surpass each other in splendid extravagance.
+It was an eager competition who should build the stateliest palaces, have
+the greatest number of noble pages and gentlemen in waiting, the most
+gorgeous liveries, the most hospitable tables, the most scientific cooks.
+There was, also, much depravity as well as extravagance. The morals of
+high society were loose. Gaming was practised to a frightful extent.
+Drunkenness was a prevailing characteristic of the higher classes. Even
+the Prince of Orange himself, at this period, although never addicted to
+habitual excess, was extremely convivial in his tastes, tolerating scenes
+and companions, not likely at a later day to find much favor in his
+sight. "We kept Saint Martin's joyously," he wrote, at about this period,
+to his brother, "and in the most jovial company. Brederode was one day in
+such a state that I thought he would certainly die, but he has now got
+over it." Count Brederode, soon afterwards to become so conspicuous in
+the early scenes of the revolt, was, in truth, most notorious for his
+performances in these banqueting scenes. He appeared to have vowed as
+uncompromising hostility to cold water as to the inquisition, and always
+denounced both with the same fierce and ludicrous vehemence. Their
+constant connection with Germany at that period did not improve the
+sobriety of the Netherlands' nobles. The aristocracy of that country, as
+is well known, were most "potent at potting." "When the German finds
+himself sober," said the bitter Badovaro, "he believes himself to be
+ill." Gladly, since the peace, they had welcomed the opportunities
+afforded for many a deep carouse with their Netherlands cousins. The
+approaching marriage of the Prince of Orange with the Saxon princess--an
+episode which will soon engage our attention--gave rise to tremendous
+orgies. Count Schwartzburg, the Prince's brother-in-law, and one of the
+negotiators of the marriage, found many occasions to strengthen the bonds
+of harmony between the countries by indulgence of these common tastes. "I
+have had many princes and counts at my table," he wrote to Orange, "where
+a good deal more was drunk than eaten. The Rhinegrave's brother fell down
+dead after drinking too much malvoisie; but we have had him balsamed and
+sent home to his family."
+
+These disorders among the higher ranks were in reality so extensive as to
+justify the biting remark of the Venetian: "The gentlemen intoxicate
+themselves every day," said he, "and the ladies also; but much less than
+the men." His remarks as to the morality, in other respects, of both
+sexes were equally sweeping, and not more complimentary.
+
+If these were the characteristics of the most distinguished society, it
+may be supposed that they were reproduced with more or less intensity
+throughout all the more remote but concentric circles of life, as far as
+the seductive splendor of the court could radiate. The lesser nobles
+emulated the grandees, and vied with each other in splendid
+establishments, banquets, masquerades, and equipages. The natural
+consequences of such extravagance followed. Their estates were mortgaged,
+deeply and more deeply; then, after a few years, sold to the merchants,
+or rich advocates and other gentlemen of the robe, to whom they had been
+pledged. The more closely ruin stared the victims in the face, the more
+heedlessly did they plunge into excesses. "Such were the circumstances,"
+moralizes a Catholic writer, "to which, at an earlier period, the affairs
+of Catiline, Cethegus, Lentulus, and others of that faction had been
+reduced, when they undertook to overthrow the Roman republic." Many of
+the nobles being thus embarrassed, and some even desperate, in their
+condition, it was thought that they were desirous of creating
+disturbances in the commonwealth, that the payment of just debts might be
+avoided, that their mortgaged lands might be wrested by main force from
+the low-born individuals who had become possessed of them, that, in
+particular, the rich abbey lands held by idle priests might be
+appropriated to the use of impoverished gentlemen who could turn them to
+so much better account. It is quite probable that interested motives such
+as these were not entirely inactive among a comparatively small class of
+gentlemen. The religious reformation in every land of Europe derived a
+portion of its strength from the opportunity it afforded to potentates
+and great nobles for helping themselves to Church property. No doubt many
+Netherlanders thought that their fortunes might be improved at the
+expense of the monks, and for the benefit of religion. Even without
+apostasy from the mother Church, they looked with longing eyes on the
+wealth of her favored and indolent children. They thought that the King
+would do well to carve a round number of handsome military commanderies
+out of the abbey lands, whose possessors should be bound to military
+service after the ancient manner of fiefs, so that a splendid cavalry,
+headed by the gentlemen of the country, should be ever ready to mount and
+ride at the royal pleasure, in place of a horde of lazy epicureans,
+telling beads and indulging themselves in luxurious vice.
+
+Such views were entertained; such language often held. These
+circumstances and sentiments had their influence among the causes which
+produced the great revolt now impending. Care should be taken, however,
+not to exaggerate that influence. It is a prodigious mistake to refer
+this great historical event to sources so insufficient as the ambition of
+a few great nobles, and the embarrassments of a larger number of needy
+gentlemen. The Netherlands revolt was not an aristocratic, but a popular,
+although certainly not a democratic movement. It was a great episode--the
+longest, the darkest, the bloodiest, the most important episode in the
+history of the religious reformation in Europe. The nobles so conspicuous
+upon the surface at the outbreak, only drifted before a storm which they
+neither caused nor controlled. Even the most powerful and the most
+sagacious were tossed to and fro by the surge of great events, which, as
+they rolled more and more tumultuously around them, seemed to become both
+irresistible and unfathomable.
+
+For the state of the people was very different from the condition of the
+aristocracy. The period of martyrdom had lasted long and was to last
+loner; but there were symptoms that it might one day be succeeded by a
+more active stage of popular disease. The tumults of the Netherlands were
+long in ripening; when the final outbreak came it would have been more
+philosophical to enquire, not why it had occurred, but how it could have
+been so long postponed. During the reign of Charles, the sixteenth
+century had been advancing steadily in strength as the once omnipotent
+Emperor lapsed into decrepitude. That extraordinary century had not
+dawned upon the earth only to increase the strength of absolutism and
+superstition. The new world had not been discovered, the ancient world
+reconquered, the printing-press perfected, only that the inquisition
+might reign undisturbed over the fairest portions of the earth, and
+chartered hypocrisy fatten upon its richest lands. It was impossible that
+the most energetic and quick-witted people of Europe should not feel
+sympathy with the great effort made by Christendom to shake off the
+incubus which had so long paralyzed her hands and brain. In the
+Netherlands, where the attachment to Rome had never been intense, where
+in the old times, the Bishops of Utrecht had been rather Ghibelline than
+Guelph, where all the earlier sects of dissenters--Waldenses, Lollards,
+Hussites--had found numerous converts and thousands of martyrs, it was
+inevitable that there should be a response from the popular heart to the
+deeper agitation which now reached to the very core of Christendom. In
+those provinces, so industrious and energetic, the disgust was likely to
+be most easily awakened for a system under which so many friars battened
+in luxury upon the toils of others, contributing nothing to the taxation,
+nor to the military defence of the country, exercising no productive
+avocation, except their trade in indulgences, and squandering in taverns
+and brothels the annual sums derived from their traffic in licences to
+commit murder, incest, and every other crime known to humanity.
+
+The people were numerous, industrious, accustomed for centuries to a
+state of comparative civil freedom, and to a lively foreign trade, by
+which their minds were saved from the stagnation of bigotry. It was
+natural that they should begin to generalize, and to pass from the
+concrete images presented them in the Flemish monasteries to the abstract
+character of Rome itself. The Flemish, above all their other qualities,
+were a commercial nation. Commerce was the mother of their freedom, so
+far as they had acquired it, in civil matters. It was struggling to give
+birth to a larger liberty, to freedom of conscience. The provinces were
+situated in the very heart of Europe. The blood of a world-wide traffic
+was daily coursing through the thousand arteries of that water-in-woven
+territory. There was a mutual exchange between the Netherlands and all
+the world; and ideas were as liberally interchanged as goods. Truth was
+imported as freely as less precious merchandise. The psalms of Marot were
+as current as the drugs of Molucca or the diamonds of Borneo. The
+prohibitory measures of a despotic government could not annihilate this
+intellectual trade, nor could bigotry devise an effective quarantine to
+exclude the religious pest which lurked in every bale of merchandise, and
+was wafted on every breeze from East and West.
+
+The edicts of the Emperor had been endured, but not accepted. The
+horrible persecution under which so many thousands had sunk had produced
+its inevitable result. Fertilized by all this innocent blood, the soil of
+the Netherlands became as a watered garden, in which liberty, civil and
+religious, was to flourish perennially. The scaffold had its daily
+victims, but did not make a single convert. The statistics of these
+crimes will perhaps never be accurately adjusted, nor will it be
+ascertained whether the famous estimate of Grotius was an exaggerated or
+an inadequate calculation. Those who love horrible details may find ample
+material. The chronicles contain the lists of these obscure martyrs; but
+their names, hardly pronounced in their life-time, sound barbarously in
+our ears, and will never ring through the trumpet of fame. Yet they were
+men who dared and suffered as much as men can dare and suffer in this
+world, and for the noblest cause which can inspire humanity. Fanatics
+they certainly were not, if fanaticism consists in show, without
+corresponding substance. For them all was terrible reality. The Emperor
+and his edicts were realities, the axe, the stake were realities, and the
+heroism with which men took each other by the hand and walked into the
+flames, or with which women sang a song of triumph while the grave-digger
+was shovelling the earth upon their living faces, was a reality also.
+
+Thus, the people of the Netherlands were already pervaded, throughout the
+whole extent of the country, with the expanding spirit of religious
+reformation. It was inevitable that sooner or later an explosion was to
+arrive. They were placed between two great countries, where the new
+principles had already taken root. The Lutheranism of Germany and the
+Calvinism of France had each its share in producing the Netherland
+revolt, but a mistake is perhaps often made in estimating the relative
+proportion of these several influences. The Reformation first entered the
+provinces, not through the Augsburg, but the Huguenot gate. The fiery
+field-preachers from the south of France first inflamed the excitable
+hearts of the kindred population of the south-western Netherlands. The
+Walloons were the first to rebel against and the first to reconcile
+themselves with papal Rome, exactly as their Celtic ancestors, fifteen
+centuries earlier, had been foremost in the revolt against imperial Rome,
+and precipitate in their submission to her overshadowing power. The
+Batavians, slower to be moved but more steadfast, retained the impulse
+which they received from the same source which was already agitating
+their "Welsh" compatriots. There were already French preachers at
+Valenciennes and Tournay, to be followed, as we shall have occasion to
+see, by many others. Without undervaluing the influence of the German
+Churches, and particularly of the garrison-preaching of the German
+military chaplains in the Netherlands, it may be safely asserted that the
+early Reformers of the provinces were mainly Huguenots in their belief:
+The Dutch Church became, accordingly, not Lutheran, but Calvinistic, and
+the founder of the commonwealth hardly ceased to be a nominal Catholic
+before he became an adherent to the same creed.
+
+In the mean time, it is more natural to regard the great movement,
+psychologically speaking, as a whole, whether it revealed itself in
+France, Germany, the Netherlands, England, or Scotland. The policy of
+governments, national character, individual interests, and other
+collateral circumstances, modified the result; but the great cause was
+the same; the source of all the movements was elemental, natural, and
+single. The Reformation in Germany had been adjourned for half a century
+by the Augsburg religious peace, just concluded. It was held in suspense
+in France through the Macchiavellian policy which Catharine de Medici had
+just adopted, and was for several years to prosecute, of balancing one
+party against the other, so as to neutralize all power but her own. The
+great contest was accordingly transferred to the Netherlands, to be
+fought out for the rest of the century, while the whole of Christendom
+were to look anxiously for the result. From the East and from the West
+the clouds rolled away, leaving a comparatively bright and peaceful
+atmosphere, only that they might concentrate themselves with portentous
+blackness over the devoted soil of the Netherlands. In Germany, the
+princes, not the people, had conquered Rome, and to the princes, not the
+people, were secured the benefits of the victory--the spoils of churches,
+and the right to worship according to conscience. The people had the
+right to conform to their ruler's creed, or to depart from his land.
+Still, as a matter of fact, many of the princes being Reformers, a large
+mass of the population had acquired the privilege for their own
+generation and that of their children to practise that religion which
+they actually approved. This was a fact, and a more comfortable one than
+the necessity of choosing between what they considered wicked idolatry
+and the stake--the only election left to their Netherland brethren. In
+France, the accidental splinter from Montgomery's lance had deferred the
+Huguenot massacre for a dozen years. During the period in which the Queen
+Regent was resolved to play her fast and loose policy, all the
+persuasions of Philip and the arts of Alva were powerless to induce her
+to carry out the scheme which Henry had revealed to Orange in the forest
+of Vincennes. When the crime came at last, it was as blundering as it was
+bloody; at once premeditated and accidental; the isolated execution of an
+interregal conspiracy, existing for half a generation, yet exploding
+without concert; a wholesale massacre, but a piecemeal plot.
+
+The aristocracy and the masses being thus, from a variety of causes, in
+this agitated and dangerous condition, what were the measures of the
+government?
+
+The edict of 1550 had been re-enacted immediately after Philip's
+accession to sovereignty. It is necessary that the reader should be made
+acquainted with some of the leading provisions of this famous document,
+thus laid down above all the constitutions as the organic law of the
+land. A few plain facts, entirely without rhetorical varnish, will prove
+more impressive in this case than superfluous declamation. The American
+will judge whether the wrongs inflicted by Laud and Charles upon his
+Puritan ancestors were the severest which a people has had to undergo,
+and whether the Dutch Republic does not track its source to the same
+high, religious origin as that of our own commonwealth.
+
+"No one," said the edict, "shall print, write, copy, keep, conceal, sell,
+buy or give in churches, streets, or other places, any book or writing
+made by Martin Luther, John Ecolampadius, Ulrich Zwinglius, Martin Bucer,
+John Calvin, or other heretics reprobated by the Holy Church; nor break,
+or otherwise injure the images of the holy virgin or canonized saints....
+nor in his house hold conventicles, or illegal gatherings, or be present
+at any such in which the adherents of the above-mentioned heretics teach,
+baptize, and form conspiracies against the Holy Church and the general
+welfare..... Moreover, we forbid," continues the edict, in name of the
+sovereign, "all lay persons to converse or dispute concerning the Holy
+Scriptures, openly or secretly, especially on any doubtful or difficult
+matters, or to read, teach, or expound the Scriptures, unless they have
+duly studied theology and been approved by some renowned university.....
+or to preach secretly, or openly, or to entertain any of the opinions of
+the above-mentioned heretics..... on pain, should anyone be found to have
+contravened any of the points above-mentioned, as perturbators of our
+state and of the general quiet, to be punished in the following manner."
+And how were they to be punished? What was the penalty inflicted upon the
+man or woman who owned a hymn-book, or who hazarded the opinion in
+private, that Luther was not quite wrong in doubting the power of a monk
+to sell for money the license to commit murder or incest; or upon the
+parent, not being a Roman Catholic doctor of divinity, who should read
+Christ's Sermon on the Mount to his children in his own parlor or shop?
+How were crimes like these to be visited upon the transgressor? Was it by
+reprimand, fine, imprisonment, banishment, or by branding on the
+forehead, by the cropping of the ears or the slitting of nostrils, as was
+practised upon the Puritan fathers of New England for their
+nonconformity? It was by a sharper chastisement than any of these
+methods. The Puritan fathers of the Dutch Republic had to struggle
+against a darker doom. The edict went on to provide--
+
+"That such perturbators of the general quiet are to be executed, to wit:
+the men with the sword and the women to be buried alive, if they do not
+persist in their errors; if they do persist in them, then they are to be
+executed with fire; all their property in both cases being confiscated to
+the crown."
+
+Thus, the clemency of the sovereign permitted the repentant heretic to be
+beheaded or buried, alive, instead of being burned.
+
+The edict further provided against all misprision of heresy by making
+those who failed to betray the suspected liable to the same punishment as
+if suspected or convicted themselves: "we forbid," said the decree, "all
+persons to lodge, entertain, furnish with food, fire, or clothing, or
+otherwise to favor any one holden or notoriously suspected of being a
+heretic; . . . and any one failing to denounce any such we ordain shall
+be liable to the above-mentioned punishments."
+
+The edict went on to provide, "that if any person, being not convicted of
+heresy or error, but greatly suspected thereof, and therefore condemned
+by the spiritual judge to abjure such heresy, or by the secular
+magistrate to make public fine and reparation, shall again become
+suspected or tainted with heresy--although it should not appear that
+he has contravened or violated any one of our abovementioned
+commands--nevertheless, we do will and ordain that such person shall be
+considered as relapsed, and, as such, be punished with loss of life and
+property, without any hope of moderation or mitigation of the
+above-mentioned penalties."
+
+Furthermore, it was decreed, that "the spiritual judges, desiring to
+proceed against any one for the crime of heresy, shall request any of our
+sovereign courts or provincial councils to appoint any one of their
+college, or such other adjunct as the council shall select, to preside
+over the proceedings to be instituted against the suspected. All who know
+of any person tainted with heresy are required to denounce and give them
+up to all judges, officers of the bishops, or others having authority on
+the premises, on pain of being punished according to the pleasure of the
+judge. Likewise, all shall be obliged, who know of any place where such
+heretics keep themselves, to declare them to the authorities, on pain of
+being held as accomplices, and punished as such heretics themselves would
+be if apprehended."
+
+In order to secure the greatest number of arrests by a direct appeal to
+the most ignoble, but not the least powerful principle of human nature,
+it was ordained "that the informer, in case of conviction, should be
+entitled to one half the property of the accused, if not more than one
+hundred pounds Flemish; if more, then ten per cent. of all such excess."
+
+Treachery to one's friends was encouraged by the provision, "that if any
+man being present at any secret conventicle, shall afterwards come
+forward and betray his fellow-members of the congregation, he shall
+receive full pardon."
+
+In order that neither the good people of the Netherlands, nor the judges
+and inquisitors should delude themselves with the notion that these
+fanatic decrees were only intended to inspire terror, not for practical
+execution, the sovereign continued to ordain--"to the end that the judges
+and officers may have no reason, under pretext that the penalties are too
+great and heavy and only devised to terrify delinquents, to punish them
+less severely than they deserve--that the culprits be really punished by
+the penalties above declared; forbidding all judges to alter or moderate
+the penalties in any manner forbidding any one, of whatsoever condition,
+to ask of us, or of any one having authority, to grant pardon, or to
+present any petition in favor of such heretics, exiles, or fugitives, on
+penalty of being declared forever incapable of civil and military office,
+and of being, arbitrarily punished besides."
+
+Such were the leading provisions of this famous edict, originally
+promulgated in 1550 as a recapitulation and condensation of all the
+previous ordinances of the Emperor upon religious subjects. By its style
+and title it was a perpetual edict, and, according to one of its clauses,
+was to be published forever, once in every six months, in every city and
+village of the Netherlands. It had been promulgated at Augsburg, where
+the Emperor was holding a diet, upon the 25th of September. Its severity
+had so appalled the Dowager Queen of Hungary, that she had made a journey
+to Augsburg expressly to procure a mitigation of some of its provisions.
+The principal alteration which she was able to obtain of the Emperor was,
+however, in the phraseology only. As a concession to popular, prejudice,
+the words "spiritual judges" were substituted for "inquisitors" wherever
+that expression had occurred in the original draft.
+
+The edict had been re-enacted by the express advice of the Bishop of
+Arras, immediately on the accession of Philip: The prelate knew the value
+of the Emperor's name; he may have thought, also, that it would be
+difficult to increase the sharpness of the ordinances. "I advised the
+King," says Granvelle, in a letter written a few years later, "to make no
+change in the placards, but to proclaim the text drawn up by the Emperor,
+republishing the whole as the King's edict, with express insertion of the
+phrase, 'Carolus,' etc. I recommended this lest men should calumniate his
+Majesty as wishing to introduce novelties in the matter of religion."
+
+This edict, containing the provisions which have been laid before the
+reader, was now to be enforced with the utmost rigor; every official
+personage, from the stadholders down, having received the most stringent
+instructions to that effect, under Philip's own hand. This was the first
+gift of Philip and of Granvelle to the Netherlands; of the monarch who
+said of himself that he had always, "from the beginning of his
+government, followed the path of clemency, according to his natural
+disposition, so well known to all the world;" of the prelate who said of
+himself, "that he had ever combated the opinion that any thing could be
+accomplished by terror, death, and violence."
+
+During the period of the French and Papal war, it has been seen that the
+execution of these edicts had been permitted to slacken. It was now
+resumed with redoubled fury. Moreover, a new measure had increased the
+disaffection and dismay of the people, already sufficiently filled with
+apprehension. As an additional security for the supremacy of the ancient
+religion, it had been thought desirable that the number of bishops should
+be increased. There were but four sees in the Netherlands, those of
+Arras, Cambray, Tournay, and Utrecht. That of Utrecht was within the
+archiepiscopate of Cologne; the other three were within that of Rheims.
+It seemed proper that the prelates of the Netherlands should owe no
+extraprovincial allegiance. It was likewise thought that three millions
+of souls required more than four spiritual superintendents. At any rate,
+whatever might be the interest of the flocks, it was certain that those
+broad and fertile pastures would sustain more than the present number of
+shepherds. The wealth of the religious houses in the provinces was very
+great. The abbey of Afflighem alone had a revenue of fifty thousand
+florins, and there were many others scarcely inferior in wealth. But
+these institutions were comparatively independent both of King and Pope.
+Electing their own superiors from time to time, in nowise desirous of any
+change by which their ease might be disturbed and their riches
+endangered, the honest friars were not likely to engage in any very
+vigorous crusade against heresy, nor for the sake of introducing or
+strengthening Spanish institutions, which they knew to be abominated by
+the people, to take the risk, of driving all their disciples into revolt
+and apostacy. Comforting themselves with an Erasmian philosophy, which
+they thought best suited to the times, they were as little likely as the
+Sage of Rotterdam himself would have been, to make martyrs of themselves
+for the sake of extirpating Calvinism. The abbots and monks were, in
+political matters, very much under the influence of the great nobles, in
+whose company they occupied the benches of the upper house of the
+States-general.
+
+Doctor Francis Sonnius had been sent on a mission to the Pope, for the
+purpose of representing the necessity of an increase in the episcopal
+force of the Netherlands. Just as the King was taking his departure, the
+commissioner arrived, bringing with him the Bull of Paul the Fourth,
+dated May 18, 1559. This was afterwards confirmed by that of Pius the
+Fourth, in January of the following year. The document stated that "Paul
+the Fourth, slave of slaves, wishing to provide for the welfare of the
+provinces and the eternal salvation of their inhabitants, had determined
+to plant in that fruitful field several new bishoprics. The enemy of
+mankind being abroad," said the Bull, "in so many forms at that
+particular time, and the Netherlands, then under the sway of that beloved
+son of his holiness, Philip the Catholic, being compassed about with
+heretic and schismatic nations, it was believed that the eternal welfare
+of the land was in great danger. At the period of the original
+establishment of Cathedral churches, the provinces had been sparsely
+peopled; they had now become filled to overflowing, so that the original
+ecclesiastical arrangement did not suffice. The harvest was plentiful,
+but the laborers were few."
+
+In consideration of these and other reasons, three archbishoprics were
+accordingly appointed. That of Mechlin was to be principal, under which
+were constituted six bishoprics, those, namely, of Antwerp, Bois le Due,
+Rurmond, Ghent, Bruges and Ypres. That of Cambray was second, with the
+four subordinate dioceses of Tournay, Arras, Saint Omer and Namur. The
+third archbishopric was that of Utrecht, with the five sees of Haarlem,
+Middelburg, Leeuwarden, Groningen and Deventer.
+
+The nomination to these important offices was granted to the King,
+subject to confirmation by the Pope. Moreover, it was ordained by the
+Bull that "each bishop should appoint nine additional prebendaries, who
+were to assist him in the matter of the inquisition throughout his
+bishopric, two of whom were themselves to be inquisitors."
+
+To sustain these two great measures, through which Philip hoped once and
+forever to extinguish the Netherland heresy, it was considered desirable
+that the Spanish troops still remaining in the provinces, should be kept
+there indefinitely.
+
+The force was not large, amounting hardly to four thousand men, but they
+were unscrupulous, and admirably disciplined. As the entering wedge, by
+which a military and ecclesiastical despotism was eventually to be forced
+into the very heart of the land, they were invaluable. The moral effect
+to be hoped from the regular presence of a Spanish standing army during a
+time of peace in the Netherlands could hardly be exaggerated. Philip was
+therefore determined to employ every argument and subterfuge to detain
+the troops.
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     Burned alive if they objected to transubstantiation
+     German finds himself sober--he believes himself ill
+     Govern under the appearance of obeying
+     Informer, in case of conviction, should be entitled to one half
+     Man had only natural wrongs (No natural rights)
+     No calumny was too senseless to be invented
+     Ruinous honors
+     Sovereignty was heaven-born, anointed of God
+     That vile and mischievous animal called the people
+     Understood the art of managing men, particularly his superiors
+     Upon one day twenty-eight master cooks were dismissed
+     William of Nassau, Prince of Orange
+
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, PG EDITION, VOLUME 6.
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
+JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, D.C.L., LL.D.
+1855
+1560-1561  [CHAPTER II.]
+
+   Agitation in the Netherlands--The ancient charters resorted to as
+   barriers against the measures of government--"Joyous entrance" of
+   Brabant--Constitution of Holland--Growing unpopularity of Antony
+   Perrenot, Archbishop of Mechlin--Opposition to the new bishoprics,
+   by Orange, Egmont, and other influential nobles--Fury of the people
+   at the continued presence of the foreign soldiery--Orange resigns
+   the command of the legion--The troops recalled--Philip's personal
+   attention to the details of persecution--Perrenot becomes Cardinal
+   de Granvelle--All the power of government in his hands--His
+   increasing unpopularity--Animosity and violence of Egmont towards
+   the Cardinal--Relations between Orange and Granvelle--Ancient
+   friendship gradually changing to enmity--Renewal of the magistracy
+   at Antwerp--Quarrel between the Prince and Cardinal--Joint letter of
+   Orange and Egmont to the King--Answer of the King--Indignation of
+   Philip against Count Horn--Secret correspondence between the King
+   and Cardinal--Remonstrances against the new bishoprics--Philip's
+   private financial statements--Penury of the exchequer in Spain and
+   in the provinces--Plan for debasing the coin--Marriage of William
+   the Silent with the Princess of Lorraine circumvented--Negotiations
+   for his matrimonial alliance with Princess Anna of Saxony--
+   Correspondence between Granvelle and Philip upon the subject--
+   Opposition of Landgrave Philip and of Philip the Second--Character
+   and conduct of Elector Augustus--Mission of Count Schwartzburg--
+   Communications of Orange to the King and to Duchess Margaret--
+   Characteristic letter of Philip--Artful conduct of Granvelle and of
+   the Regent--Visit of Orange to Dresden--Proposed "note" of Elector
+   Augustus--Refusal of the Prince--Protest of the Landgrave against
+   the marriage--Preparations for the wedding at Leipzig--Notarial
+   instrument drawn up on the marriage day--Wedding ceremonies and
+   festivities--Entrance of Granvelle into Mechlin as Archbishop--
+   Compromise in Brabant between the abbeys and bishops.
+
+The years 1560 and 1561 were mainly occupied with the agitation and
+dismay produced by the causes set forth in the preceding chapter.
+
+Against the arbitrary policy embodied in the edicts, the new bishoprics
+and the foreign soldiery, the Netherlanders appealed to their ancient
+constitutions. These charters were called "handvests" in the vernacular
+Dutch and Flemish, because the sovereign made them fast with his hand. As
+already stated, Philip had made them faster than any of the princes of
+his house had ever done, so far as oath and signature could accomplish
+that purpose, both as hereditary prince in 1549, and as monarch in 1555.
+The reasons for the extensive and unconditional manner in which he swore
+to support the provincial charters, have been already indicated.
+
+Of these constitutions, that of Brabant, known by the title of the
+'joyeuse entree, blyde inkomst', or blithe entrance, furnished the most
+decisive barrier against the present wholesale tyranny. First and
+foremost, the "joyous entry" provided "that the prince of the land should
+not elevate the clerical state higher than of old has been customary and
+by former princes settled; unless by consent of the other two estates,
+the nobility and the cities."
+
+Again; "the prince can prosecute no one of his subjects nor any foreign
+resident, civilly or criminally, except in the ordinary and open courts
+of justice in the province, where the accused may answer and defend
+himself with the help of advocates."
+
+Further; "the prince shall appoint no foreigners to office in Brabant."
+
+Lastly; "should the prince, by force or otherwise, violate any of these
+privileges, the inhabitants of Brabant, after regular protest entered,
+are discharged of their oaths of allegiance, and as free, independent and
+unbound people, may conduct themselves exactly as seems to them best."
+
+Such were the leading features, so far as they regarded the points now at
+issue, of that famous constitution which was so highly esteemed in the
+Netherlands, that mothers came to the province in order to give birth to
+their children, who might thus enjoy, as a birthright, the privileges of
+Brabant. Yet the charters of the other provinces ought to have been as
+effective against the arbitrary course of the government. "No foreigner,"
+said the constitution of Holland, "is eligible as, councillor, financier,
+magistrate, or member of a court. Justice can be administered only by the
+ordinary tribunals and magistrates. The ancient laws and customs shall
+remain inviolable. Should the prince infringe any of these provisions, no
+one is bound to obey him."
+
+These provisions, from the Brabant and Holland charters, are only cited
+as illustrative of the general spirit of the provincial constitutions.
+Nearly all the provinces possessed privileges equally ample, duly signed
+and sealed. So far as ink and sealing wax could defend a land against
+sword and fire, the Netherlands were impregnable against the edicts and
+the renewed episcopal inquisition. Unfortunately, all history shows how
+feeble are barriers of paper or lambskin, even when hallowed with a
+monarch's oath, against the torrent of regal and ecclesiastical
+absolutism. It was on the reception in the provinces of the new and
+confirmatory Bull concerning the bishoprics, issued in January, 1560,
+that the measure became known, and the dissatisfaction manifest. The
+discontent was inevitable and universal. The ecclesiastical establishment
+which was not to be enlarged or elevated but by consent of the estates,
+was suddenly expanded into three archiepiscopates and fifteen bishoprics.
+The administration of justice, which was only allowed in free and local
+courts, distinct for each province, was to be placed, so far as regarded
+the most important of human interests, in the hands of bishops and their
+creatures, many of them foreigners and most of them monks. The lives and
+property of the whole population were to be at the mercy of these utterly
+irresponsible conclaves. All classes were outraged. The nobles were
+offended because ecclesiastics, perhaps foreign ecclesiastics, were to be
+empowered to sit in the provincial estates and to control their
+proceedings in place of easy, indolent, ignorant abbots and friars, who
+had generally accepted the influence of the great seignors. The priests
+were enraged because the religious houses were thus taken out of their
+control and confiscated to a bench of bishops, usurping the places of
+those superiors who had formally been elected by and among themselves.
+The people were alarmed because the monasteries, although not respected
+nor popular, were at least charitable and without ambition to exercise
+ecclesiastical cruelty; while, on the other hand, by the new episcopal
+arrangements, a force of thirty new inquisitors was added to the
+apparatus for enforcing orthodoxy already established. The odium of the
+measure was placed upon the head of that churchman, already appointed
+Archbishop of Mechlin, and soon to be known as Cardinal Granvelle. From
+this time forth, this prelate began to be regarded with a daily
+increasing aversion. He was looked upon as the incarnation of all the
+odious measures which had been devised; as the source of that policy of
+absolutism which revealed itself more and more rapidly after the King's
+departure from the country. It was for this reason that so much stress
+was laid by popular clamor upon the clause prohibiting foreigners from
+office. Granvelle was a Burgundian; his father had passed most of his
+active life in Spain, while both he and his more distinguished son were
+identified in the general mind with Spanish politics. To this prelate,
+then, were ascribed the edicts, the new bishoprics, and the continued
+presence of the foreign troops. The people were right as regarded the
+first accusation. They were mistaken as to the other charges.
+
+The King had not consulted Anthony Perrenot with regard to the creation
+of the new bishoprics. The measure, which had been successively
+contemplated by Philip "the Good," by Charles the Bold, and by the
+Emperor Charles, had now been carried out by Philip the Second, without
+the knowledge of the new Archbishop of Mechlin. The King had for once
+been able to deceive the astuteness of the prelate, and had concealed
+from him the intended arrangement, until the arrival of Sonnius with the
+Bulls. Granvelle gave the reasons for this mystery with much simplicity.
+"His Majesty knew," he said, "that I should oppose it, as it was more
+honorable and lucrative to be one of four than one of eighteen." In fact,
+according to his own statement, he lost money by becoming archbishop of
+Mechlin, and ceasing to be Bishop of Arras. For these reasons he
+declined, more than once, the proffered dignity, and at last only
+accepted it from fear of giving offence to the King, and after having
+secured compensation for his alleged losses. In the same letter (of 29th
+May, 1560) in which he thanked Philip for conferring upon him the rich
+abbey of Saint Armand, which he had solicited, in addition to the
+"merced" in ready money, concerning the safe investment of which he had
+already sent directions, he observed that he was now willing to accept
+the archbishopric of Mechlin; notwithstanding the odium attached to the
+measure, notwithstanding his feeble powers, and notwithstanding that,
+during the life of the Bishop of Tournay, who was then in rude health, he
+could only receive three thousand ducats of the revenue, giving up Arras
+and gaining nothing in Mechlin; notwithstanding all this, and a thousand
+other things besides, he assured his Majesty that, "since the royal
+desire was so strong that he should accept, he would consider nothing so
+difficult that he would not at least attempt it." Having made up his mind
+to take the see and support the new arrangements, he was resolved that
+his profits should be as large as possible. We have seen how he had
+already been enabled to indemnify himself. We shall find him soon
+afterwards importuning the King for the Abbey of Afflighem, the enormous
+revenue of which the prelate thought would make another handsome addition
+to the rewards of his sacrifices. At the same time, he was most anxious
+that the people, and particularly the great nobles, should not ascribe
+the new establishment to him, as they persisted in doing. "They say that
+the episcopates were devised to gratify my ambition," he wrote to Philip
+two years later; "whereas your Majesty knows how steadily I refused the
+see of Mechlin, and that I only accepted it in order not to live in
+idleness, doing nothing for God and your Majesty." He therefore
+instructed Philip, on several occasions, to make it known to the
+government of the Regent, to the seignors, and to the country generally,
+that the measure had been arranged without his knowledge; that the
+Marquis Berghen had known of it first, and that the prelate had, in
+truth, been kept in the dark on the subject until the arrival of Sonnius
+with the Bulls. The King, always docile to his minister, accordingly
+wrote to the Duchess the statements required, in almost the exact
+phraseology suggested; taking pains to repeat the declarations on several
+occasions, both by letter and by word of mouth, to many influential
+persons.
+
+The people, however, persisted in identifying the Bishop with the scheme.
+They saw that he was the head of the new institutions; that he was to
+receive the lion's share of the confiscated abbeys, and that he was
+foremost in defending and carrying through the measure, in spite of all
+opposition. That opposition waxed daily more bitter, till the Cardinal,
+notwithstanding that he characterised the arrangement to the King as "a
+holy work," and warmly assured Secretary Perez that he would contribute
+his fortune, his blood, and his life, to its success, was yet obliged to
+exclaim in the bitterness of his spirit, "Would to God that the erection
+of these new sees had never been thought of. Amen! Amen!"
+
+Foremost in resistance was the Prince of Orange. Although a Catholic, he
+had no relish for the horrible persecution which had been determined
+upon. The new bishoprics he characterized afterwards as parts "of one
+grand scheme for establishing the cruel inquisition of Spain; the said
+bishops to serve as inquisitors, burners of bodies; and tyrants of
+conscience: two prebendaries in each see being actually constituted
+inquisitors." For this reason he omitted no remonstrance on the subject
+to the Duchess, to Granvelle, and by direct letters to the King. His
+efforts were seconded by Egmont, Berghen, and other influential nobles.
+Even Berlaymont was at first disposed to side with the opposition, but
+upon the argument used by the Duchess, that the bishoprics and prebends
+would furnish excellent places for his sons and other members of the
+aristocracy, he began warmly to support the measure. Most of the labor,
+however, and all the odium, of the business fell upon the Bishop's
+shoulders. There was still a large fund of loyalty left in the popular
+mind, which not even forty years of the Emperor's dominion had consumed,
+and which Philip was destined to draw upon as prodigally as if the
+treasure had been inexhaustible. For these reasons it still seemed most
+decorous to load all the hatred upon the minister's back, and to retain
+the consolatory formula, that Philip was a prince, "clement, benign, and
+debonair."
+
+The Bishop, true to his habitual conviction, that words, with the people,
+are much more important than things, was disposed to have the word
+"inquisitor" taken out of the text of the new decree. He was anxious at
+this juncture to make things pleasant, and he saw no reason why men
+should be unnecessarily startled. If the inquisition could be practised,
+and the heretics burned, he was in favor of its being done comfortably.
+The word "inquisitor" was unpopular, almost indecent. It was better to
+suppress the term and retain the thing. "People are afraid to speak of
+the new bishoprics," he wrote to Perez, "on account of the clause
+providing that of nine canons one shall be inquisitor. Hence people fear
+the Spanish inquisition."--He, therefore, had written to the King to
+suggest instead, that the canons or graduates should be obliged to assist
+the Bishop, according as he might command. Those terms would suffice,
+because, although not expressly stated, it was clear that the Bishop was
+an ordinary inquisitor; but it was necessary to expunge words that gave
+offence.
+
+It was difficult, however, with all the Bishop's eloquence and dexterity,
+to construct an agreeable inquisition. The people did not like it, in any
+shape, and there were indications, not to be mistaken, that one day there
+would be a storm which it would be beyond human power to assuage. At
+present the people directed their indignation only upon a part of the
+machinery devised for their oppression. The Spanish troops were
+considered as a portion of the apparatus by which the new bishoprics and
+the edicts were to be forced into execution. Moreover, men were, weary of
+the insolence and the pillage which these mercenaries had so long
+exercised in the land. When the King had been first requested to withdraw
+them, we have seen that he had burst into a violent passion. He had
+afterward dissembled. Promising, at last, that they should all be sent
+from the country within three or four months after his departure, he had
+determined to use every artifice to detain them in the provinces. He had
+succeeded, by various subterfuges, in keeping them there fourteen months;
+but it was at last evident that their presence would no longer be
+tolerated. Towards the close of 1560 they were quartered in Walcheren and
+Brill. The Zelanders, however, had become so exasperated by their
+presence that they resolutely refused to lay a single hand upon the
+dykes, which, as usual at that season, required great repairs. Rather
+than see their native soil profaned any longer by these hated foreign
+mercenaries, they would see it sunk forever in the ocean. They swore to
+perish-men, women, and children together-in the waves, rather than endure
+longer the outrages which the soldiery daily inflicted. Such was the
+temper of the Zelanders that it was not thought wise to trifle with their
+irritation. The Bishop felt that it was no longer practicable to detain
+the troops, and that all the pretext devised by Philip and his government
+had become ineffectual. In a session of the State Council, held on the
+25th October, 1560, he represented in the strongest terms to the Regent
+the necessity for the final departure of the troops. Viglius, who knew
+the character of his countrymen, strenuously seconded the proposal.
+Orange briefly but firmly expressed the same opinion, declining any
+longer to serve as commander of the legion, an office which, in
+conjunction with Egmont, he had accepted provisionally, with the best of
+motives, and on the pledge of Philip that the soldiers should be
+withdrawn. The Duchess urged that the order should at least be deferred
+until the arrival of Count Egmont, then in Spain, but the proposition was
+unanimously negatived.
+
+Letters were accordingly written, in the name of the Regent, to the King.
+It was stated that the measure could no longer be delayed, that the
+provinces all agreed in this point, that so long as the foreigners
+remained not a stiver should be paid into the treasury; that if they had
+once set sail, the necessary amount for their arrears would be furnished
+to the government; but that if they should return it was probable that
+they would be resisted by the inhabitants with main force, and that they
+would only be allowed to enter the cities through a breach in their wall.
+It was urged, moreover, that three or four thousand Spaniards would not
+be sufficient to coerce all the provinces, and that there was not money
+enough in the royal exchequer to pay the wages of a single company of the
+troops. "It cuts me to the heart," wrote the Bishop to Philip, "to see
+the Spanish infantry leave us; but go they must. Would to God that we
+could devise any pretext, as your Majesty desires, under which to keep
+them here! We have tried all means humanly possible for retaining them,
+but I see no way to do it without putting the provinces in manifest
+danger of sudden revolt."
+
+Fortunately for the dignity of the government, or for the repose of the
+country, a respectable motive was found for employing the legion
+elsewhere. The important loss which Spain had recently met with in the
+capture of Zerby made a reinforcement necessary in the army engaged in
+the Southern service. Thus, the disaster in Barbary at last relieved the
+Netherlands of the pest which had afflicted them so long. For a brief
+breathing space the country was cleared of foreign mercenaries.
+
+The growing unpopularity of the royal government, still typified,
+however, in the increasing hatred entertained for the Bishop, was not
+materially diminished by the departure of the Spaniards. The edicts and
+the bishoprics were still there, even if the soldiers were gone. The
+churchman worked faithfully to accomplish his master's business. Philip,
+on his side, was industrious to bring about the consummation of his
+measures. Ever occupied with details, the monarch, from his palace in
+Spain, sent frequent informations against the humblest individuals in the
+Netherlands. It is curious to observe the minute reticulations of tyranny
+which he had begun already to spin about a whole, people, while cold,
+venomous, and patient he watched his victims from the centre of his web.
+He forwarded particular details to the Duchess and Cardinal concerning a
+variety of men and women, sending their names, ages, personal appearance,
+occupations, and residence, together with directions for their immediate
+immolation. Even the inquisitors of Seville were set to work to increase,
+by means of their branches or agencies in the provinces, the royal
+information on this all-important subject. "There are but few of us left
+in the world," he moralized in a letter to the Bishop, "who care for
+religion. 'Tis necessary, therefore, for us to take the greater heed for
+Christianity. We must lose our all, if need be, in order to do our duty;
+in fine," added he, with his usual tautology, "it is right that a man
+should do his duty."
+
+Granvelle--as he must now be called, for his elevation to the
+cardinalship will be immediately alluded to--wrote to assure the King
+that every pains would be taken to ferret out and execute the individuals
+complained of. He bewailed, however, the want of heartiness on the part
+of the Netherland inquisitors and judges. "I find," said he, "that all
+judicial officers go into the matter of executing the edicts with
+reluctance, which I believe is caused by their fear of displeasing the
+populace. When they do act they do it but languidly, and when these
+matters are not taken in hand with the necessary liveliness, the fruit
+desired is not gathered. We do not fail to exhort and to command them to
+do their work." He added that Viglius and Berlaymont displayed laudable
+zeal, but that he could not say as much for the Council of Brabant. Those
+councillors "were forever prating," said he, "of the constitutional
+rights of their province, and deserved much less commendation."
+
+The popularity of the churchman, not increased by these desperate
+exertions to force an inhuman policy upon an unfortunate nation, received
+likewise no addition from his new elevation in rank. During the latter
+part of the year 1560, Margaret of Parma, who still entertained a
+profound admiration of the prelate, and had not yet begun to chafe under
+his smooth but imperious dominion, had been busy in preparing for him a
+delightful surprise. Without either his knowledge or that of the King,
+she had corresponded with the Pope, and succeeded in obtaining, as a
+personal favor to herself, the Cardinal's hat for Anthony Perrenot. In
+February, 1561, Cardinal Borromeo wrote to announce that the coveted
+dignity had been bestowed. The Duchess hastened, with joyous alacrity, to
+communicate the intelligence to the Bishop, but was extremely hurt to
+find that he steadily refused to assume his new dignity, until he had
+written to the King to announce the appointment, and to ask his
+permission to accept the honor. The Duchess, justly wounded at his
+refusal to accept from her hands the favor which she, and she only, had
+obtained for him, endeavored in vain to overcome his pertinacity. She
+represented that although Philip was not aware of the application or the
+appointment, he was certain to regard it as an agreeable surprise. She
+urged, moreover, that his temporary refusal would be misconstrued at
+Rome, where it would certainly excite ridicule, and very possibly give
+offence in the highest quarter. The Bishop was inexorable. He feared,
+says his panegyrist, that he might one day be on worse terms than at
+present with the Duchess, and that then she might reproach him with her
+former benefits. He feared also that the King might, in consequence of
+the step, not look with satisfaction upon him at some future period, when
+he might stand in need of his favors. He wrote, accordingly, a most
+characteristic letter to Philip, in which he informed him that he had
+been honored with the Cardinal's hat. He observed that many persons were
+already congratulating him, but that before he made any demonstration of
+accepting or refusing, he waited for his Majesty's orders: upon his will
+he wished ever to depend. He also had the coolness, under the
+circumstances, to express his conviction that "it was his Majesty who had
+secretly procured this favor from his Holiness."
+
+The King received the information very graciously, observing in reply,
+that although he had never made any suggestion of the kind, he had "often
+thought upon the subject." The royal command was of course at once
+transmitted, that the dignity should be accepted. By special favor,
+moreover, the Pope dispensed the new Cardinal from the duty of going to
+Rome in person, and despatched his chamberlain, Theophilus Friso, to
+Brussels, with the red hat and tabbard.
+
+The prelate, having thus reached the dignity to which he had long
+aspired, did not grow more humble in his deportment, or less zealous in
+the work through which he had already gained so much wealth and
+preferment. His conduct with regard to the edicts and bishoprics had
+already brought him into relations which were far from amicable with his
+colleagues in the council. More and more he began to take the control of
+affairs into his own hand. The consulta, or secret committee of the state
+council, constituted the real government of the country. Here the most
+important affairs were decided upon without the concurrence of the other
+seignors, Orange, Egmont, and Glayon, who, at the same time, were held
+responsible for the action of government. The Cardinal was smooth in
+manner, plausible of speech, generally even-tempered, but he was
+overbearing and blandly insolent. Accustomed to control royal personages,
+under the garb of extreme obsequiousness, he began, in his intercourse
+with those of less exalted rank, to omit a portion of the subserviency
+while claiming a still more undisguised authority. To nobles like Egmont
+and Orange, who looked down upon the son of Nicolas Perrenot and Nicola
+Bonvalot as a person immeasurably beneath themselves in the social
+hierarchy, this conduct was sufficiently irritating. The Cardinal, placed
+as far above Philip, and even Margaret, in mental power as he was beneath
+them in worldly station, found it comparatively easy to deal with them
+amicably. With such a man as Egmont, it was impossible for the churchman
+to maintain friendly relations. The Count, who notwithstanding his
+romantic appearance, his brilliant exploits, and his interesting destiny,
+was but a commonplace character, soon conceived a mortal aversion to
+Granvelle. A rude soldier, entertaining no respect for science or
+letters, ignorant and overbearing, he was not the man to submit to the
+airs of superiority which pierced daily more and more decidedly through
+the conventional exterior of the Cardinal. Granvelle, on the other hand,
+entertained a gentle contempt for Egmont, which manifested itself in all
+his private letters to the King, and was sufficiently obvious in his
+deportment. There had also been distinct causes of animosity between
+them. The governorship of Hesdin having become vacant, Egmont, backed by
+Orange and other nobles, had demanded it for the Count de Roeulx, a
+gentleman of the Croy family, who, as well as his father, had rendered
+many important services to the crown. The appointment was, however,
+bestowed, through Granvelle's influence, upon the Seigneur d'Helfault, a
+gentleman of mediocre station and character, who was thought to possess
+no claims whatever to the office. Egmont, moreover, desired the abbey of
+Trulle for a poor relation of his own; but the Cardinal, to whom nothing
+in this way ever came amiss, had already obtained the King's permission
+to, appropriate the abbey to himself Egmont was now furious against the
+prelate, and omitted no opportunity of expressing his aversion, both in
+his presence and behind his back. On one occasion, at least, his wrath
+exploded in something more than words. Exasperated by Granvelle's
+polished insolence in reply to his own violent language, he drew his
+dagger upon him in the presence of the Regent herself, "and," says a
+contemporary, "would certainly have sent the Cardinal into the next world
+had he not been forcibly restrained by the Prince of Orange and other
+persons present, who warmly represented to him that such griefs were to
+be settled by deliberate advice, not by choler." At the same time, while
+scenes like these were occurring in the very bosom of the state council,
+Granvelle, in his confidential letters to secretary Perez, asserted
+warmly that all reports of a want of harmony between himself and the
+other seignors and councillors were false, and that the best relations
+existed among them all. It was not his intention, before it should be
+necessary, to let the King doubt his ability to govern the counsel
+according to the secret commission with which he had been invested.
+
+His relations with Orange were longer in changing from friendship to open
+hostility. In the Prince the Cardinal met his match. He found himself
+confronted by an intellect as subtle, an experience as fertile in
+expedients, a temper as even, and a disposition sometimes as haughty as
+his own. He never affected to undervalue the mind of Orange. "'Tis a man
+of profound genius, vast ambition--dangerous, acute, politic," he wrote
+to the King at a very early period. The original relations between
+himself and the Prince bad been very amicable. It hardly needed the
+prelate's great penetration to be aware that the friendship of so exalted
+a personage as the youthful heir to the principality of Orange, and to
+the vast possessions of the Chalons-Nassau house in Burgundy and the
+Netherlands, would be advantageous to the ambitious son of the Burgundian
+Councillor Granvelle. The young man was the favorite of the Emperor from
+boyhood; his high rank, and his remarkable talents marked him
+indisputably for one of the foremost men of the coming reign. Therefore
+it was politic in Perrenot to seize every opportunity of making himself
+useful to the Prince. He busied himself with securing, so far as it might
+be necessary to secure, the succession of William to his cousin's
+principality. It seems somewhat ludicrous for a merit to be made not only
+for Granvelle but for the Emperor, that the Prince should have been
+allowed to take an inheritance which the will of Rene de Nassau most
+unequivocally conferred, and which no living creature disputed. Yet,
+because some of the crown lawyers had propounded the dogma that "the son
+Of a heretic ought not to succeed," it was gravely stated as an immense
+act of clemency upon the part of Charles the Fifth that he had not
+confiscated the whole of the young Prince's heritage. In return
+Granvelle's brother Jerome had obtained the governorship of the youth,
+upon whose majority he had received an honorable military appointment
+from his attached pupil. The prelate had afterwards recommended the
+marriage with the Count de Buren's heiress, and had used his influence
+with the Emperor to overcome certain objections entertained by Charles,
+that the Prince, by this great accession of wealth, might be growing too
+powerful. On the other hand, there were always many poor relations and
+dependents of Granvelle, eager to be benefitted by Orange's patronage,
+who lived in the Prince's household, or received handsome appointments
+from his generosity. Thus, there had been great intimacy, founded upon
+various benefits mutually conferred; for it could hardly be asserted that
+the debt of friendship was wholly upon one side.
+
+When Orange arrived in Brussels from a journey, he would go to the
+bishop's before alighting at his own house. When the churchman visited
+the Prince, he entered his bed-chamber without ceremony before he had
+risen; for it was William's custom, through life, to receive intimate
+acquaintances, and even to attend to important negotiations of state,
+while still in bed.
+
+The show of this intimacy had lasted longer than its substance. Granvelle
+was the most politic of men, and the Prince had not served his
+apprenticeship at the court of Charles the Fifth to lay himself bare
+prematurely to the criticism or the animosity of the Cardinal with the
+recklessness of Horn and Egmont. An explosion came at last, however, and
+very soon after an exceedingly amicable correspondence between the two
+upon the subject of an edict of religious amnesty which Orange was
+preparing for his principality, and which Granvelle had recommended him
+not to make too lenient. A few weeks after this, the Antwerp magistracy
+was to be renewed. The Prince, as hereditary burgrave of that city, was
+entitled to a large share of the appointing power in these political
+arrangements, which at the moment were of great importance. The citizens
+of Antwerp were in a state of excitement on the subject of the new
+bishops. They openly, and in the event, successfully resisted the
+installation of the new prelate for whom their city had been constituted
+a diocese. The Prince was known to be opposed to the measure, and to the
+whole system of ecclesiastical persecution. When the nominations for the
+new magistracy came before the Regent, she disposed of the whole matter
+in the secret consulta, without the knowledge, and in a manner opposed to
+the views of Orange. He was then furnished with a list of the new
+magistrates, and was informed that he had been selected as commissioner
+along with Count Aremberg, to see that the appointments were carried into
+effect. The indignation of the Prince was extreme. He had already taken
+offence at some insolent expressions upon this topic, which the Cardinal
+had permitted himself. He now sent back the commission to the Duchess,
+adding, it was said, that he was not her lackey, and that she might send
+some one else with her errands. The words were repeated in the state
+council. There was a violent altercation--Orange vehemently resenting his
+appointment merely to carry out decisions in which he claimed an original
+voice. His ancestors, he said, had often changed the whole of the Antwerp
+magistracy by their own authority. It was a little too much that this
+matter, as well as every other state affair, should be controlled by the
+secret committee of which the Cardinal was the chief. Granvelle, on his
+side, was also in a rage. He flung from the council-chamber, summoned the
+Chancellor of Brabant, and demanded, amid bitter execrations against
+Orange, what common and obscure gentleman there might be, whom he could
+appoint to execute the commission thus refused by the Prince and by
+Aremberg. He vowed that in all important matters he would, on future
+occasions, make use of nobles less inflated by pride, and more tractable
+than such grand seignors. The chancellor tried in vain to appease the
+churchman's wrath, representing that the city of Antwerp would be highly
+offended at the turn things were taking, and offering his services to
+induce the withdrawal, on the part of the Prince, of the language which
+had given so much offence. The Cardinal was inexorable and peremptory. "I
+will have nothing to do with the Prince, Master Chancellor," said he,
+"and these are matters which concern you not." Thus the conversation
+ended, and thus began the open state of hostilities between the great
+nobles and the Cardinal, which had been brooding so long.
+
+On the 23rd July, 1561, a few weeks after the scenes lately described,
+the Count of Egmont and the Prince of Orange addressed a joint letter to
+the King. They reminded him in this despatch that, they had originally
+been reluctant to take office in the state council, on account of their
+previous experience of the manner in which business had been conducted
+during the administration of the Duke of Savoy. They had feared that
+important matters of state might be transacted without their concurrence.
+The King had, however, assured them, when in Zeland, that all affairs
+would be uniformly treated in full council. If the contrary should ever
+prove the case, he had desired them to give him information to that
+effect, that he might instantly apply the remedy. They accordingly now
+gave him that information. They were consulted upon small matters:
+momentous affairs were decided upon in their absence. Still they would
+not even now have complained had not Cardinal Granvelle declared that all
+the members of the state council were to be held responsible for its
+measures, whether they were present at its decisions or not. Not liking
+such responsibility, they requested the King either to accept their
+resignation or to give orders that all affairs should be communicated to
+the whole board and deliberated upon by all the councillors.
+
+In a private letter, written some weeks later (August 15), Egmont begged
+secretary Erasso to assure the King that their joint letter had not been
+dictated by passion, but by zeal for his service. It was impossible, he
+said, to imagine the insolence of the Cardinal, nor to form an idea of
+the absolute authority which he arrogated.
+
+In truth, Granvelle, with all his keenness, could not see that Orange,
+Egmont, Berghen, Montigny and the rest, were no longer pages and young
+captains of cavalry, while he was the politician and the statesman. By
+six or seven years the senior of Egmont, and by sixteen years of Orange,
+he did not divest himself of the superciliousness of superior wisdom, not
+unjust nor so irritating when they had all been boys. In his deportment
+towards them, and in the whole tone of his private correspondence with
+Philip, there was revealed, almost in spite of himself, an affectation of
+authority, against which Egmont rebelled and which the Prince was not the
+man to acknowledge. Philip answered the letter of the two nobles in his
+usual procrastinating manner. The Count of Horn, who was about leaving
+Spain (whither he had accompanied the King) for the Netherlands, would be
+entrusted with the resolution which he should think proper to take upon
+the subject suggested. In the mean time, he assured them that he did not
+doubt their zeal in his service.
+
+As to Count Horn, Granvelle had already prejudiced the King against him.
+Horn and the Cardinal had never been friends. A brother of the prelate
+had been an aspirant for the hand of the Admiral's sister, and had been
+somewhat contemptuously rejected. Horn, a bold, vehement, and not very
+good-tempered personage, had long kept no terms with Granvelle, and did
+not pretend a friendship which he had never felt. Granvelle had just
+written to instruct the King that Horn was opposed bitterly to that
+measure which was nearest the King's heart--the new bishoprics. He had
+been using strong language, according to the Cardinal, in opposition to
+the scheme, while still in Spain. He therefore advised that his Majesty,
+concealing, of course, the source of the information, and speaking as it
+were out of the royal mind itself, should expostulate with the Admiral
+upon the subject. Thus prompted, Philip was in no gracious humor when he
+received Count Horn, then about to leave Madrid for the Netherlands, and
+to take with him the King's promised answer to the communication of
+Orange and Egmont. His Majesty had rarely been known to exhibit so much
+anger towards any person as he manifested upon that occasion. After a few
+words from the Admiral, in which he expressed his sympathy with the other
+Netherland nobles, and his aversion to Granvelle, in general terms, and
+in reply to Philip's interrogatories, the King fiercely interrupted him:
+"What! miserable man!" he vociferated, "you all complain of this
+Cardinal, and always in vague language. Not one of you, in spite of all
+my questions, can give me a single reason for your dissatisfaction." With
+this the royal wrath boiled over in such unequivocal terms that the
+Admiral changed color, and was so confused with indignation and
+astonishment, that he was scarcely able to find his way out of the room.
+
+This was the commencement of Granvelle's long mortal combat with Egmont,
+Horn, and Orange. This was the first answer which the seignors were to
+receive to their remonstrances against the churchman's arrogance. Philip
+was enraged that any opposition should be made to his coercive measures,
+particularly to the new bishoprics, the "holy work" which the Cardinal
+was ready, to "consecrate his fortune and his blood" to advance.
+Granvelle fed his master's anger by constant communications as to the
+efforts made by distinguished individuals to delay the execution of the
+scheme. Assonville had informed him, he wrote, that much complaint had
+been made on the subject by several gentlemen, at a supper of Count
+Egmont's. It was said that the King ought to have consulted them all, and
+the state councillors especially. The present nominees to the new
+episcopates were good enough, but it would be found, they said, that very
+improper personages would be afterwards appointed. The estates ought not
+to permit the execution of the scheme. In short, continued Granvelle,
+"there is the same kind of talk which brought about the recall of the
+Spanish troops." A few months later, he wrote to inform Philip that a
+petition against the new bishoprics was about to be drawn up by "the two
+lords.". They had two motives; according to the Cardinal, for this
+step--first, to let the King know that he could do nothing without their
+permission; secondly, because in the states' assembly they were then the
+cocks of the walk. They did not choose, therefore, that in the clerical
+branch of the estates any body should be above the abbots, whom they
+could frighten into doing whatever they chose. At the end, of the year,
+Granvelle again wrote to instruct his sovereign how to reply to the
+letter which was about to be addressed to him by the Prince of Orange and
+the Marquis Berghen on the subject of the bishoprics. They would tell
+him, he said, that the incorporation of the Brabant abbeys into the new
+bishoprics was contrary to the constitution of the "joyful entrance."
+Philip was, however, to make answer that he had consulted the
+universities, and those learned in the laws, and had satisfied himself
+that it was entirely constitutional. He was therefore advised to send his
+command that the Prince and Marquis should use all their influence to
+promote the success of the measure. Thus fortified, the King was enabled
+not only to deal with the petition of the nobles, but also with the
+deputies from the estates of Brabant, who arrived about this time at
+Madrid. To these envoys, who asked for the appointment of royal
+commissioners, with whom they might treat on the subject of the
+bishoprics, the abbeys, and the "joyful entrance," the King answered
+proudly, "that in matters which concerned the service of God, he was his
+own commissioner." He afterwards, accordingly, recited to them, with
+great accuracy, the lesson which he had privately received from the
+ubiquitous Cardinal. Philip was determined that no remonstrance from
+great nobles or from private citizens should interfere with the thorough
+execution of the grand scheme on which he was resolved, and of which the
+new bishoprics formed an important part. Opposition irritated him more
+and more, till his hatred of the opponents became deadly; but it, at the
+same time, confirmed him in his purpose. "'Tis no time to temporize," he
+wrote to Granvelle; "we must inflict chastisement with full rigor and
+severity. These rascals can only be made to do right through fear, and
+not always even by that means."
+
+At the same time, the royal finances did not admit of any very active
+measures, at the moment, to enforce obedience to a policy which was
+already so bitterly opposed. A rough estimate, made in the King's own
+handwriting, of the resources and obligations of his exchequer, a kind of
+balance sheet for the years 1560 and 1561, drawn up much in the same
+manner as that in which a simple individual would make a note of his
+income and expenditure, gave but a dismal picture of his pecuniary,
+condition. It served to show how intelligent a financier is despotism,
+and how little available are the resources of a mighty empire when
+regarded merely as private property, particularly when the owner chances
+to have the vanity of attending to all details himself: "Twenty millions
+of ducats," began the memorandum, "will be required to disengage my
+revenues. But of this," added the King, with whimsical pathos for an
+account-book, "we will not speak at present, as the matter is so entirely
+impossible." He then proceeded to enter the various items of expense
+which were to be met during the two years; such as so many millions due
+to the Fuggers (the Rothschilds of the sixteenth century), so many to
+merchants in Flanders, Seville, and other places, so much for Prince
+Doria's galleys, so much for three years' pay due to his guards, so much
+for his household expenditure, so much for the tuition of Don Carlos,
+and Don Juan d'Austria, so much for salaries of ambassadors and
+councillors--mixing personal and state expenses, petty items and great
+loans, in one singular jumble, but arriving at a total demand upon his
+purse of ten million nine hundred and ninety thousand ducats.
+
+To meet this expenditure he painfully enumerated the funds upon which he
+could reckon for the two years. His ordinary rents and taxes being all
+deeply pledged, he could only calculate from that source upon two hundred
+thousand ducats. The Indian revenue, so called, was nearly spent; still
+it might yield him four hundred and twenty thousand ducats. The
+quicksilver mines would produce something, but so little as hardly to
+require mentioning. As to the other mines, they were equally unworthy of
+notice, being so very uncertain, and not doing as well as they were wont.
+The licences accorded by the crown to carry slaves to America were put
+down at fifty thousand ducats for the two years. The product of the
+"crozada" and "cuarta," or money paid to him in small sums by
+individuals, with the permission of his Holiness, for the liberty of
+abstaining from the Church fasts, was estimated at five hundred thousand
+ducats. These and a few more meagre items only sufficed to stretch his
+income to a total of one million three hundred and thirty thousand far
+the two years, against an expenditure calculated at near eleven millions.
+"Thus, there are nine millions, less three thousand ducats, deficient,"
+he concluded ruefully (and making a mistake in his figures in his own
+favor of six hundred and sixty-three thousand besides), "which I may look
+for in the sky, or try to raise by inventions already exhausted."
+
+Thus, the man who owned all America and half of Europe could only raise a
+million ducats a year from his estates. The possessor of all Peru and
+Mexico could reckon on "nothing worth mentioning" from his mines, and
+derived a precarious income mainly from permissions granted his subjects
+to carry on the slave-trade and to eat meat on Fridays. This was
+certainly a gloomy condition of affairs for a monarch on the threshold of
+a war which was to outlast his own life and that of his children; a war
+in which the mere army expenses were to be half a million florins
+monthly, in which about seventy per cent. of the annual disbursements was
+to be regularly embezzled or appropriated by the hands through which it
+passed, and in which for every four men on paper, enrolled and paid for,
+only one, according to the average, was brought into the field.
+
+Granvelle, on the other hand, gave his master but little consolation from
+the aspect of financial affairs in the provinces. He assured him that
+"the government was often in such embarrassment as not to know where to
+look for ten ducats." He complained bitterly that the states would meddle
+with the administration of money matters, and were slow in the granting
+of subsidies. The Cardinal felt especially outraged by the interference
+of these bodies with the disbursement of the sums which they voted. It
+has been seen that the states had already compelled the government to
+withdraw the troops, much to the regret of Granvelle. They continued,
+however, to be intractable on the subject of supplies. "These are very
+vile things," he wrote to Philip, "this authority which they assume, this
+audacity with which they say whatever they think proper; and these
+impudent conditions which they affix to every proposition for subsidies."
+The Cardinal protested that he had in vain attempted to convince them of
+their error, but that they remained perverse.
+
+It was probably at this time that the plan for debasing the coin,
+suggested to Philip some time before by a skilful chemist named Malen,
+and always much approved of both by himself and Ruy Gomez, recurred to
+his mind. "Another and an extraordinary source of revenue, although
+perhaps not a very honorable one," wrote Suriano, "has hitherto been kept
+secret; and on account of differences of opinion between the King and his
+confessor, has been discontinued." This source of revenue, it seemed, was
+found in "a certain powder, of which one ounce mixed with six ounces of
+quicksilver would make six ounces of silver." The composition was said to
+stand the test of the hammer, but not of the fire. Partly in consequence
+of theological scruples and partly on account of opposition from the
+states, a project formed by the King to pay his army with this kind of
+silver was reluctantly abandoned. The invention, however, was so very
+agreeable to the King, and the inventor had received such liberal
+rewards, that it was supposed, according to the envoy, that in time of
+scarcity his Majesty would make use of such coin without reluctance.
+
+It is necessary, before concluding this chapter, which relates the events
+of the years 1560 and 1561, to allude to an important affair which
+occupied much attention during the whole of this period. This is the
+celebrated marriage of the Prince of Orange with the Princess Anna of
+Saxony. By many superficial writers; a moving cause of the great
+Netherland revolt was found in the connexion of the great chieftain with
+this distinguished Lutheran house. One must have studied the characters
+and the times to very little purpose, however, to believe it possible
+that much influence could be exerted on the mind of William of Orange by
+such natures as those of Anna of Saxony, or of her uncle the Elector
+Augustus, surnamed "the Pious."
+
+The Prince had become a widower in 1558, at the age of twenty-five.
+Granvelle, who was said to have been influential in arranging his first
+marriage, now proposed to him, after the year of mourning had expired, an
+alliance with Mademoiselle Renee, daughter of the Duchess de Lorraine,
+and granddaughter of Christiern the Third of Denmark, and his wife
+Isabella, sister of the Emperor Charles the Fifth. Such a connexion, not
+only with the royal house of Spain but with that of France--for, the
+young Duke of Lorraine, brother of the lady, had espoused the daughter of
+Henry the considered highly desirable by the Prince. Philip and the
+Duchess Margaret of Parma both approved, or pretended to approve, the
+match. At the same time the Dowager Duchess of Lorraine, mother of the
+intended bride, was a candidate, and a very urgent one, for the Regency
+of the Netherlands. Being a woman of restless ambition, and intriguing
+character, she naturally saw in a man of William's station and talents a
+most desirable ally in her present and future schemes. On the other hand,
+Philip--who had made open protestation of his desire to connect the
+Prince thus closely with his own blood, and had warmly recommended the
+match to the young lady's mother--soon afterwards, while walking one day
+with the Prince in the park at Brussels, announced to him that the
+Duchess of Lorraine had declined his proposals. Such a result astonished
+the Prince, who was on the best of terms with the mother, and had been
+urging her appointment to the Regency with all his-influence, having
+entirely withdrawn his own claims to that office. No satisfactory
+explanation was ever given of this singular conclusion to a courtship,
+begun with the apparent consent of all parties. It was hinted that the
+young lady did not fancy the Prince; but, as it was not known that a word
+had ever been exchanged between them, as the Prince, in appearance and
+reputation, was one of the most brilliant cavaliers of the age, and as
+the approval of the bride was not usually a matter of primary consequence
+in such marriages of state, the mystery seemed to require a further
+solution. The Prince suspected Granvelle and the King, who were believed
+to have held mature and secret deliberation together, of insincerity. The
+Bishop was said to have expressed the opinion, that although the
+friendship he bore the Prince would induce him to urge the marriage, yet
+his duty to his master made him think it questionable whether it were
+right to advance a personage already placed so high by birth, wealth, and
+popularity, still higher by so near an alliance with his Majesty's
+family. The King, in consequence, secretly instructed the Duchess of
+Lorraine to decline the proposal, while at the same time he continued
+openly to advocate the connexion. The Prince is said to have discovered
+this double dealing, and to have found in it the only reasonable
+explanation of the whole transaction. Moreover, the Duchess of Lorraine,
+finding herself equally duped, and her own ambitious scheme equally
+foiled by her unscrupulous cousin--who now, to the surprise of every one,
+appointed Margaret of Parma to be Regent, with the Bishop for her prime
+minister--had as little reason to be satisfied with the combinations of
+royal and ecclesiastical intrigue as the Prince of Orange himself. Soon
+after this unsatisfactory mystification, William turned his attentions to
+Germany. Anna of Saxony, daughter of the celebrated Elector Maurice,
+lived at the court of her uncle, the Elector Augustus. A musket-ball,
+perhaps a traitorous one, in an obscure action with Albert of
+Brandenbourg, had closed the adventurous career of her father seven years
+before. The young lady, who was thought to have inherited much of his
+restless, stormy character, was sixteen years of age. She was far from
+handsome, was somewhat deformed, and limped. Her marriage-portion was
+deemed, for the times, an ample one; she had seventy thousand rix dollars
+in hand, and the reversion of thirty thousand on the death of John
+Frederic the Second, who had married her mother after the death of
+Maurice. Her rank was accounted far higher in Germany than that of
+William of Nassau, and in this respect, rather than for pecuniary
+considerations, the marriage seemed a desirable one for him. The man who
+held the great Nassau-Chalons property, together with the heritage of
+Count Maximilian de Buren, could hardly have been tempted by 100,000
+thalers. His own provision for the children who might spring from the
+proposed marriage was to be a settlement of seventy thousand florins
+annually. The fortune which permitted of such liberality was not one to
+be very materially increased by a dowry which might seem enormous to many
+of the pauper princes of Germany. "The bride's portion," says a
+contemporary, "after all, scarcely paid for the banquets and magnificent
+festivals which celebrated the marriage. When the wedding was paid for,
+there was not a thaler remaining of the whole sum." Nothing, then, could
+be more puerile than to accuse the Prince of mercenary motives in seeking
+this alliance; an accusation, however, which did not fail to be brought.
+
+There were difficulties on both sides to be arranged before this marriage
+could take place. The bride was a Lutheran, the Prince was a Catholic.
+With regard to the religion of Orange not the slightest doubt existed,
+nor was any deception attempted. Granvelle himself gave the most entire
+attestation of the Prince's orthodoxy. "This proposed marriage gives me
+great pain," he wrote to Philip, "but I have never had reason to suspect
+his principles." In another letter he observed that he wished the
+marriage could be broken off; but that he hoped so much from the virtue
+of the Prince that nothing could suffice to separate him from the true
+religion. On the other side there was as little doubt as to his creed.
+Old Landgrave Philip of Hesse, grandfather of the young lady, was
+bitterly opposed to the match. "'Tis a papist," said he, "who goes to
+mass, and eats no meat on fast days." He had no great objection to his
+character, but insurmountable ones to his religion. "Old Count William,"
+said he, "was an evangelical lord to his dying day. This man is a
+papist!" The marriage, then, was to be a mixed marriage. It is necessary,
+however, to beware of anachronisms upon the subject. Lutherans were not
+yet formally denounced as heretics. On the contrary, it was exactly at
+this epoch that the Pope was inviting the Protestant princes of Germany
+to the Trent Council, where the schism was to be closed, and all the
+erring lambs to be received again into the bosom of the fold. So far from
+manifesting an outward hostility, the papal demeanor was conciliating.
+The letters of invitation from the Pope to the princes were sent by a
+legate, each commencing with the exordium, "To my beloved son," and were
+all sent back to his Holiness, contemptuously, with the coarse jest for
+answer, "We believe our mothers to have been honest women, and hope that
+we had better fathers." The great council had not yet given its
+decisions. Marriages were of continual occurrence, especially among
+princes and potentates, between the adherents of Rome and of the new
+religion. Even Philip had been most anxious to marry the Protestant
+Elizabeth, whom, had she been a peasant, he would unquestionably have
+burned, if in his power. Throughout Germany, also, especially in high
+places, there was a disposition to cover up the religious controversy; to
+abstain from disturbing the ashes where devastation still glowed, and was
+one day to rekindle itself. It was exceedingly difficult for any man,
+from the Archduke Maximilian down, to define his creed. A marriage,
+therefore; between a man and woman of discordant views upon this topic
+was not startling, although in general not considered desirable.
+
+There were, however, especial reasons why this alliance should be
+distasteful, both to Philip of Spain upon one side, and to the Landgrave
+Philip of Hesse on the other. The bride was the daughter of the elector
+Maurice. In that one name were concentrated nearly all the disasters,
+disgrace, and disappointment of the Emperor's reign. It was Maurice who
+had hunted the Emperor through the Tyrolean mountains; it was Maurice who
+had compelled the peace of Passau; it was Maurice who had overthrown the
+Catholic Church in Germany, it was Maurice who had frustrated Philip's
+election as king of the Romans. If William of Orange must seek a wife
+among the pagans, could no other bride be found for him than the daughter
+of such a man?
+
+Anna's grandfather, on the other hand, Landgrave Philip, was the
+celebrated victim to the force and fraud of Charles the Fifth. He saw in
+the proposed bridegroom, a youth who had been from childhood, the petted
+page and confidant of the hated Emperor, to whom he owed his long
+imprisonment. He saw in him too, the intimate friend and ally--for the
+brooding quarrels of the state council were not yet patent to the
+world--of the still more deeply detested Granvelle; the crafty priest
+whose substitution of "einig" for "ewig" had inveigled him into that
+terrible captivity. These considerations alone would have made him
+unfriendly to the Prince, even had he not been a Catholic.
+
+The Elector Augustus, however, uncle and guardian to the bride, was not
+only well-disposed but eager for the marriage, and determined to overcome
+all obstacles, including the opposition of the Landgrave, without whose
+consent he was long pledged not to bestow the hand of Anna. For this
+there were more than one reason. Augustus, who, in the words of one of
+the most acute historical critics of our day, was "a Byzantine Emperor of
+the lowest class, re-appearing in electoral hat and mantle," was not firm
+in his rights to the dignity he held. He had inherited from his brother,
+but his brother had dispossessed John Frederic. Maurice, when turning
+against the Emperor, who had placed him in his cousin's seat, had not
+thought it expedient to restore to the rightful owner the rank which he
+himself owed to the violence of Charles. Those claims might be
+revindicated, and Augustus be degraded in his turn, by a possible
+marriage of the Princess Anna, with some turbulent or intriguing German
+potentate. Out of the land she was less likely to give trouble. The
+alliance, if not particularly desirable on the score of rank, was, in
+other worldly respects, a most brilliant one for his niece. As for the
+religious point, if he could overcome or circumvent the scruples of the
+Landgrave, he foresaw little difficulty in conquering his own conscience.
+
+The Prince of Orange, it is evident, was placed in such a position, that
+it would be difficult for him to satisfy all parties. He intended that
+the marriage, like all marriages among persons in high places at that
+day, should be upon the "uti possidetis" principle, which was the
+foundation of the religious peace of Germany. His wife, after marriage
+and removal to the Netherlands, would "live Catholically;" she would be
+considered as belonging to the same Church with her husband, was to give
+no offence to the government, and bring no suspicion upon himself, by
+violating any of the religious decencies. Further than this, William, who
+at that day was an easy, indifferent Catholic, averse to papal
+persecutions, but almost equally averse to long, puritanical prayers and
+faces, taking far more pleasure in worldly matters than in ecclesiastical
+controversies, was not disposed to advance in this thorny path. Having a
+stern bigot to deal with, in Madrid, and another in Cassel, he soon
+convinced himself that he was not likely entirely to satisfy either, and
+thought it wiser simply to satisfy himself.
+
+Early in 1560, Count Gunther de Schwartzburg, betrothed to the Prince's
+sister Catharine, together with Colonel George Von Holl, were despatched
+to Germany to open the marriage negotiations. They found the Elector
+Augustus already ripe and anxious for the connexion. It was easy for the
+envoys to satisfy all his requirements on the religious question. If, as
+the Elector afterwards stated to the Landgrave, they really promised that
+the young lady should be allowed to have an evangelical preacher in her
+own apartments, together with the befitting sacraments, it is very
+certain that they travelled a good way out of their instructions, for
+such concessions were steadily refused by William in person. It is,
+however, more probable that Augustus, whose slippery feet were disposed
+to slide smoothly and swiftly over this dangerous ground, had represented
+the Prince's communications under a favorable gloss of his own. At any
+rate, nothing in the subsequent proceedings justified the conclusions
+thus hastily formed.
+
+The Landgrave Philip, from the beginning, manifested his repugnance to
+the match. As soon as the proposition had been received by Augustus, that
+potentate despatched Hans von Carlowitz to the grandfather at Cassel. The
+Prince of Orange, it was represented, was young, handsome, wealthy, a
+favorite of the Spanish monarch; the Princess Anna, on the other hand,
+said her uncle was not likely to grow straighter or better proportioned
+in body, nor was her crooked and perverse character likely to improve
+with years. It was therefore desirable to find a settlement for her as
+soon as possible. The Elector, however, would decide upon nothing without
+the Landgrave's consent.
+
+To this frank, and not very flattering statement, so far as the young
+lady was concerned, the Landgrave answered stoutly and characteristically.
+The Prince was a Spanish subject, he said, and would not be able to
+protect Anna in her belief, who would sooner or later become a fugitive:
+he was but a Count in Germany, and no fitting match for an Elector's
+daughter; moreover, the lady herself ought to be consulted, who had not
+even seen the Prince. If she were crooked in body, as the Elector stated,
+it was a shame to expose her; to conceal it, however, was questionable, as
+the Prince might complain afterwards that a straight princess had been
+promised, and a crooked one fraudulently substituted,--and so on, though a
+good deal more of such quaint casuistry, in which the Landgrave was
+accomplished. The amount of his answer, however, to the marriage proposal
+was an unequivocal negative, from which he never wavered.
+
+In consequence of this opposition, the negotiations were for a time
+suspended. Augustus implored the Prince not to abandon the project,
+promising that every effort should be made to gain over the Landgrave,
+hinting that the old man might "go to his long rest soon," and even
+suggesting that if the worst came to the worst, he had bound himself to
+do nothing without the knowledge of the Landgrave, but was not obliged to
+wait for his consent.
+
+On the other hand, the Prince had communicated to the King of Spain the
+fact of the proposed marriage. He had also held many long conversations
+with the Regent and with Granvelle. In all these interviews he had
+uniformly used one language: his future wife was to "live as a Catholic,"
+and if that point were not conceded, he would break off the negotiations.
+He did not pretend that she was to abjure her Protestant faith. The
+Duchess, in describing to Philip the conditions, as sketched to her by
+the Prince, stated expressly that Augustus of Saxony was to consent that
+his niece "should live Catholically after the marriage," but that it was
+quite improbable that "before the nuptials she would be permitted to
+abjure her errors, and receive necessary absolution, according to the
+rules of the Church." The Duchess, while stating her full confidence in
+the orthodoxy of the Prince, expressed at the same time her fears that
+attempts might be made in the future by his new connexions "to pervert
+him to their depraved opinions."
+
+A silence of many months ensued on the part of the sovereign, during
+which he was going through the laborious process of making up his mind,
+or rather of having it made up for him by people a thousand miles off. In
+the autumn Granvelle wrote to say that the Prince was very much surprised
+to have been kept so long waiting for a definite reply to his
+communications, made at the beginning of the year concerning his intended
+marriage, and to learn at last that his Majesty had sent no answer, upon
+the ground that the match had been broken off; the fact being, that the
+negotiations were proceeding more earnestly than ever.
+
+Nothing could be more helpless and more characteristic than the letter
+which Philip sent, thus pushed for a decision. "You wrote me," said he,
+"that you had hopes that this matter of the Prince's marriage would go no
+further, and seeing that you did not write oftener on the subject, I
+thought certainly that it had been terminated. This pleased me not a
+little, because it was the best thing that could be done. Likewise,"
+continued the most tautological of monarchs, "I was much pleased that it
+should be done. Nevertheless;" he added, "if the marriage is to be
+proceeded with, I really don't know what to say about it, except to refer
+it to my sister, inasmuch as a person being upon the spot can see better
+what can be done with regard to it; whether it be possible to prevent it,
+or whether it be best, if there be no remedy, to give permission. But if
+there be a remedy, it would be better to take it, because," concluded the
+King, pathetically, "I don't see how the Prince could think of marrying
+with the daughter of the man who did to his majesty, now in glory, that
+which Duke Maurice did."
+
+Armed with this luminous epistle, which, if it meant any thing, meant a
+reluctant affirmation to the demand of the Prince for the royal consent,
+the Regent and Granvelle proceeded to summon William of Orange, and to
+catechise him in a manner most galling to the pride, and with a latitude
+not at all justified by any reasonable interpretation of the royal
+instructions. They even informed him that his Majesty had assembled
+"certain persons learned in cases of conscience, and versed in theology,"
+according to whose advice a final decision, not yet possible, would be
+given at some future period. This assembly of learned conscience-keepers
+and theologians had no existence save in the imaginations of Granvelle
+and Margaret. The King's letter, blind and blundering as it was, gave the
+Duchess the right to decide in the affirmative on her own responsibility;
+yet fictions like these formed a part of the "dissimulation," which was
+accounted profound statesmanship by the disciples of Machiavelli. The
+Prince, however irritated, maintained his steadiness; assured the Regent
+that the negotiation had advanced too far to be abandoned, and repeated
+his assurance that the future Princess of Orange was to "live as a
+Catholic."
+
+In December, 1560, William made a visit to Dresden, where he was received
+by the Elector with great cordiality. This visit was conclusive as to the
+marriage. The appearance and accomplishments of the distinguished suitor
+made a profound impression upon the lady. Her heart was carried by storm.
+Finding, or fancying herself very desperately enamored of the proposed
+bridegroom, she soon manifested as much eagerness for the marriage as did
+her uncle, and expressed herself frequently with the violence which
+belonged to her character. "What God had decreed," she said, "the Devil
+should not hinder."
+
+The Prince was said to have exhibited much diligence in his attention to
+the services of the Protestant Church during his visit at Dreaden. As
+that visit lasted, however, but ten or eleven days, there was no great
+opportunity for shewing much zeal.
+
+At the same period one William Knuttel was despatched by Orange on the
+forlorn hope of gaining the old Landgrave's consent, without making any
+vital concessions. "Will the Prince," asked the Landgrave, "permit my
+granddaughter to have an evangelical preacher in the house?"--"No,"
+answered Knuttel. "May she at least receive the sacrament of the Lord's
+Supper in her own chamber, according to the Lutheran form?"--"No,"
+answered Knuttel, "neither in Breda, nor any where else in the
+Netherlands. If she imperatively requires such sacraments, she must go
+over the border for them, to the nearest Protestant sovereign."
+
+Upon the 14th April, 1561, the Elector, returning to the charge, caused a
+little note to be drawn up on the religious point, which he forwarded, in
+the hope that the Prince would copy and sign it. He added a promise that
+the memorandum should never be made public to the signer's disadvantage.
+
+At the same time he observed to Count Louis, verbally, "that he had been
+satisfied with the declarations made by the Prince when in Dresden, upon
+all points, except that concerning religion. He therefore felt obliged to
+beg for a little agreement in writing."--"By no means! by no means!"
+interrupted Louis promptly, at the very first word, "the Prince can give
+your electoral highness no such assurance. 'T would be risking life,
+honor, and fortune to do so, as your grace is well aware." The Elector
+protested that the declaration, if signed, should never come into the
+Spanish monarch's hands, and insisted upon sending it to the Prince.
+Louis, in a letter to his brother, characterized the document as
+"singular, prolix and artful," and strongly advised the Prince to have
+nothing to do with it.
+
+This note, which the Prince was thus requested to sign, and which his
+brother Louis thus strenuously advised him not to sign, the Prince never
+did sign. Its tenor was to the following effect:--The Princess, after
+marriage, was, neither by menace nor persuasion; to be turned from the
+true and pure Word of God, or the use of the sacrament according to the
+doctrines of the Augsburg Confession. The Prince was to allow her to read
+books written in accordance with the Augsburg Confession. The prince was
+to permit her, as often, annually, as she required it, to go out of the
+Netherlands to some place where she could receive the sacrament according
+to the Augsburg Confession. In case she were in sickness or perils of
+childbirth, the Prince, if necessary, would call to her an evangelical
+preacher, who might administer to her the holy sacrament in her chamber.
+The children who might spring from the marriage were to be instructed as
+to the doctrines of the Augsburg Confession.
+
+Even if executed, this celebrated memorandum would hardly have been at
+variance with the declarations made by the Prince to the Spanish
+government. He had never pretended that his bride was to become a
+Catholic, but only to live as a Catholic. All that he had promised, or
+was expected to promise, was that his wife should conform to the law in
+the Netherlands. The paper, in a general way, recognized that law. In
+case of absolute necessity, however, it was stipulated that the Princess
+should have the advantage of private sacraments. This certainly would
+have been a mortal offence in a Calvinist or Anabaptist, but for
+Lutherans the practise had never been so strict. Moreover, the Prince
+already repudiated the doctrines of the edicts, and rebelled against the
+command to administer them within his government. A general promise,
+therefore, made by him privately, in the sense of the memorandum drawn up
+by the Elector, would have been neither hypocritical nor deceitful, but
+worthy the man who looked over such grovelling heads as Granvelle and
+Philip on the one side, or Augustus of Saxony on the other, and estimated
+their religious pretences at exactly what they were worth. A formal
+document, however, technically according all these demands made by the
+Elector, would certainly be regarded by the Spanish government as a very
+culpable instrument. The Prince never signed the note, but, as we shall
+have occasion to state in its proper place, he gave a verbal declaration,
+favorable to its tenor, but in very vague and brief terms, before a
+notary, on the day of the marriage.
+
+If the reader be of opinion that too much time has been expended upon the
+elucidation of this point, he should remember that the character of a
+great and good man is too precious a possession of history to be lightly
+abandoned. It is of no great consequence to ascertain the precise creed
+of Augustus of Saxony, or of his niece; it is of comparatively little
+moment to fix the point at which William of Orange ceased to be an
+honest, but liberal Catholic, and opened his heart to the light of the
+Reformation; but it is of very grave interest that his name should be
+cleared of the charge of deliberate fraud and hypocrisy. It has therefore
+been thought necessary to prove conclusively that the Prince never gave,
+in Dresden or Cassel, any assurance inconsistent with his assertions to
+King and Cardinal. The whole tone of his language and demeanor on the
+religious subject was exhibited in his reply to the Electress, who,
+immediately after the marriage, entreated that he would not pervert her
+niece from the paths of the true religion. "She shall not be troubled,"
+said the Prince, "with such melancholy things. Instead of holy writ she
+shall read 'Amadis de Gaule,' and such books of pastime which discourse
+de amore; and instead of knitting and sewing she shall learn to dance a
+galdiarde, and such courtoisies as are the mode of our country and
+suitable to her rank."
+
+The reply was careless, flippant, almost contemptuous. It is very certain
+that William of Orange was not yet the "father William" he was destined
+to become--grave, self-sacrificing, deeply religious, heroic; but it was
+equally evident from this language that he had small sympathy, either in
+public or private, with Lutheranism or theological controversy. Landgrave
+William was not far from right when he added, in his quaint style, after
+recalling this well-known reply, "Your grace will observe, therefore,
+that when the abbot has dice in his pocket, the convent will play."
+
+So great was the excitement at the little court of Cassel, that many
+Protestant princes and nobles declared that "they would sooner give their
+daughters to a boor or a swineherd than to a Papist." The Landgrave was
+equally vigorous in his protest, drawn up in due form on the 26th April,
+1561. He was not used, he said, "to flatter or to tickle with a foxtail."
+He was sorry if his language gave offense, nevertheless "the marriage was
+odious, and that was enough." He had no especial objection to the Prince,
+"who before the world was a brave and honorable man." He conceded that
+his estates were large, although he hinted that his debts also were
+ample; allowed that he lived in magnificent style, had even heard "of one
+of his banquets, where all the table-cloths, plates, and every thing
+else, were made of sugar," but thought he might be even a little too
+extravagant; concluding, after a good deal of skimble-skamble of this
+nature, with "protesting before God, the world, and all pious Christians,
+that he was not responsible for the marriage, but only the Elector
+Augustus and others, who therefore would one day have to render account
+thereof to the Lord."
+
+Meantime the wedding had been fixed to take place on Sunday, the 24th
+August, 1561. This was St. Bartholomew's, a nuptial day which was not
+destined to be a happy one in the sixteenth century. The Landgrave and
+his family declined to be present at the wedding, but a large and
+brilliant company were invited. The King of Spain sent a bill of exchange
+to the Regent, that she might purchase a ring worth three thousand
+crowns, as a present on his part to the bride. Beside this liberal
+evidence that his opposition to the marriage was withdrawn, he authorized
+his sister to appoint envoys from among the most distinguished nobles to
+represent him on the occasion. The Baron de Montigny, accordingly, with a
+brilliant company of gentlemen, was deputed by the Duchess, although she
+declined sending all the governors of the provinces, according to the
+request of the Prince. The marriage was to take place at Leipsic. A
+slight picture of the wedding festivities, derived entirely from
+unpublished sources, may give some insight into the manners and customs
+of high life in Germany and the Netherlands at this epoch.
+
+The Kings of Spain and Denmark were invited, and were represented by
+special ambassadors. The Dukes of Brunswick, Lauenburg, Mecklenburg, the
+Elector and Margraves of Brandenburg, the Archbishop of Cologne, the Duke
+of Cleves, the Bishops of Naumburg, Meneburg, Meissen, with many other
+potentates, accepted the invitations, and came generally in person, a few
+only being represented by envoys. The town councils of Erfurt, Leipsic,
+Magdeburg, and other cities, were also bidden. The bridegroom was
+personally accompanied by his brothers John, Adolphus, and Louis; by the
+Burens, the Leuchtenbergs, and various other distinguished personages.
+
+As the electoral residence at Leipsic was not completely finished,
+separate dwellings were arranged for each of the sovereign families
+invited, in private houses, mostly on the market-place. Here they were to
+be furnished with provisions by the Elector's officials, but they were to
+cook for themselves. For this purpose all the princes had been requested
+to bring their own cooks and butlers, together with their plate and
+kitchen utensils. The sovereigns themselves were to dine daily with the
+Elector at the town-house, but the attendants and suite were to take
+their meals in their own lodgings. A brilliant collection of gentlemen
+and pages, appointed by the Elector to wait at his table, were ordered to
+assemble at Leipsic on the 22d, the guests having been all invited for
+the 23d. Many regulations were given to these noble youths, that they
+might discharge their duties with befitting decorum. Among other orders,
+they received particular injunctions that they were to abstain from all
+drinking among themselves, and from all riotous conduct whatever, while
+the sovereigns and potentates should be at dinner. "It would be a
+shameful indecency," it was urged, "if the great people sitting at table
+should be unable to hear themselves talk on account of the screaming of
+the attendants." This provision did not seem unreasonable. They were also
+instructed that if invited to drink by any personage at the great tables
+they were respectfully to decline the challenge, and to explain the cause
+after the repast.
+
+Particular arrangements were also made for the safety of the city.
+Besides the regular guard of Leipsic, two hundred and twenty
+arquebuseers, spearsmen, and halberdmen, were ordered from the
+neighboring towns. These were to be all dressed in uniform; one arm, side
+and leg in black, and the other in yellow, according to a painting
+distributed beforehand to the various authorities. As a mounted patrole,
+Leipsic had a regular force of two men. These were now increased to ten,
+and received orders to ride with their lanterns up and down all the
+streets and lanes, to accost all persons whom they might find abroad
+without lights in their hands, to ask them their business in courteous
+language, and at the same time to see generally to the peace and safety
+of the town.
+
+Fifty arquebuseers were appointed to protect the town-house, and a
+burgher watch of six hundred was distributed in different quarters,
+especially to guard against fire.
+
+On Saturday, the day before the wedding, the guests had all arrived at
+Leipsic, and the Prince of Orange, with his friends, at Meneburg. On
+Sunday, the 24th August, the Elector at the head of his guests and
+attendants, in splendid array, rode forth to receive the bridegroom. His
+cavalcade numbered four thousand. William of Orange had arrived,
+accompanied by one thousand mounted men. The whole troop now entered the
+city together, escorting the Prince to the town-house. Here he
+dismounted, and was received on the staircase by the Princess Anna,
+attended by her ladies. She immediately afterwards withdrew to her
+apartments.
+
+It was at this point, between 4 and 5 P.M., that the Elector and
+Electress, with the bride and bridegroom, accompanied also by the Dame
+Sophia von Miltitz and the Councillors Hans von Ponika and Ubrich
+Woltersdorff upon one side, and by Count John of Nassau and Heinrich von
+Wiltberg upon the other, as witnesses, appeared before Wolf Seidel,
+notary, in a corner room of the upper story of the town-house. One of the
+councillors, on the part of the Elector, then addressed the bridegroom.
+He observed that his highness would remember, no doubt, the contents of a
+memorandum or billet, sent by the Elector on the 14th April of that year,
+by the terms of which the Prince was to agree that he would, neither by
+threat nor persuasion, prevent his future wife from continuing in the
+Augsburg Confession; that he would allow her to go to places where she
+might receive the Augsburg sacraments; that in case of extreme need she
+should receive them in her chamber; and that the children who might
+spring from the marriage should be instructed as to the Augsburg
+doctrines. As, however, continued the councillor, his highness the Prince
+of Orange has, for various reasons, declined giving any such agreement in
+writing, as therefore it had been arranged that before the marriage
+ceremony the Prince should, in the presence of the bride and of the other
+witnesses, make a verbal promise on the subject, and as the parties were
+now to be immediately united in marriage, therefore the Elector had no
+doubt that the Prince would make no objection in presence of those
+witnesses to give his consent to maintain the agreements comprised in the
+memorandum or note. The note was then read. Thereupon, the Prince
+answered verbally. "Gracious Elector; I remember the writing which you
+sent me on the 14th April. All the point: just narrated by the Doctor
+were contained in it. I now state to your highness that I will keep it
+all as becomes a prince, and conform to it." Thereupon he gave the
+Elector his hand.--
+
+What now was the amount and meaning of this promise on the part of the
+Prince? Almost nothing. He would conform to the demands of the Elector,
+exactly as he had hitherto said he would conform to them. Taken in
+connexion with his steady objections to sign and seal any instrument on
+the subject--with his distinct refusal to the Landgrave (through Knuttel)
+to allow the Princess an evangelical preacher or to receive the
+sacraments in the Netherlands--with the vehement, formal, and public
+protest, on the part of the Landgrave, against the marriage--with the
+Prince's declarations to the Elector at Dresden, which were satisfactory
+on all points save the religious point,--what meaning could this verbal
+promise have, save that the Prince would do exactly as much with regard
+to the religious question as he had always promised, and no more? This
+was precisely what did happen. There was no pretence on the part of the
+Elector, afterwards, that any other arrangement had been contemplated.
+The Princess lived catholically from the moment of her marriage, exactly
+as Orange had stated to the Duchess Margaret, and as the Elector knew
+would be the case. The first and the following children born of the
+marriage were baptized by Catholic priests, with very elaborate Catholic
+ceremonies, and this with the full consent of the Elector, who sent
+deputies and officiated as sponsor on one remarkable occasion.
+
+Who, of all those guileless lambs then, Philip of Spain, the Elector of
+Saxony, or Cardinal Granvelle, had been deceived by the language or
+actions of the Prince? Not one. It may be boldly asserted that the
+Prince, placed in a transition epoch, both of the age and of his own
+character, surrounded by the most artful and intriguing personages known
+to history, and involved in a network of most intricate and difficult
+circumstances, acquitted himself in a manner as honorable as it was
+prudent. It is difficult to regard the notarial instrument otherwise than
+as a memorandum, filed rather by Augustus than by wise William, in order
+to put upon record for his own justification, his repeated though
+unsuccessful efforts to procure from the Prince a regularly signed,
+sealed, and holographic act, upon the points stated in the famous note.
+
+After the delay occasioned by these private formalities, the bridal
+procession, headed by the court musicians, followed by the court
+marshals, councillors, great officers of state, and the electoral family,
+entered the grand hall of the town-house. The nuptial ceremony was then
+performed by "the Superintendent Doctor Pfeffinger." Immediately
+afterwards, and in the same hall, the bride and bridegroom were placed
+publicly upon a splendid, gilded bed, with gold-embroidered curtains, the
+Princess being conducted thither by the Elector and Electress. Confects
+and spiced drinks were then served to them and to the assembled company.
+After this ceremony they were conducted to their separate chambers, to
+dress for dinner. Before they left the hall, however, Margrave Hans of
+Brandenburg, on part of the Elector of Saxony, solemnly recommended the
+bride to her husband, exhorting him to cherish her with faith and
+affection, and "to leave her undisturbed in the recognized truth of the
+holy gospel and the right use of the sacraments."
+
+Five round tables were laid in the same hall immediately afterwards--each
+accommodating ten guests. As soon as the first course of twenty-five
+dishes had been put upon the chief table, the bride and bridegroom, the
+Elector and Electress, the Spanish and Danish envoys and others, were
+escorted to it, and the banquet began. During the repast, the Elector's
+choir and all the other bands discoursed the "merriest and most ingenious
+music." The noble vassals handed the water, the napkins, and the wine,
+and every thing was conducted decorously and appropriately. As soon as
+the dinner was brought to a close, the tables were cleared away, and the
+ball began in the same apartment. Dances, previously arranged, were
+performed, after which "confects and drinks" were again distributed, and
+the bridal pair were then conducted to the nuptial chamber.
+
+The wedding, according to the Lutheran custom of the epoch, had thus
+taken place not in a church, but in a private dwelling; the hall of the
+town-house, representing, on this occasion, the Elector's own saloons. On
+the following morning, however, a procession was formed at seven o'clock
+to conduct the newly-married couple to the church of St. Nicholas, there
+to receive an additional exhortation and benediction. Two separate
+companies of gentlemen, attended by a great number of "fifers, drummers,
+and trumpeters," escorted the bride and the bridegroom, "twelve counts
+wearing each a scarf of the Princess Anna's colors, with golden garlands
+on their heads and lighted torches in their hands," preceding her to the
+choir, where seats had been provided for the more illustrious portion of
+the company. The church had been magnificently decked in tapestry, and,
+as the company entered, a full orchestra performed several fine motettos.
+After listening to a long address from Dr. Pfeffinger, and receiving a
+blessing before the altar, the Prince and Princess of Orange returned,
+with their attendant processions, to the town-house.
+
+After dinner, upon the same and the three following days, a tournament
+was held. The lists were on the market-place, on the side nearest the
+town-house; the Electress and the other ladies looking down from balcony
+and window to "rain influence and adjudge the prize." The chief hero of
+these jousts, according to the accounts in the Archives, was the Elector
+of Saxony. He "comported himself with such especial chivalry" that his
+far-famed namesake and remote successor, Augustus the Strong, could
+hardly have evinced more knightly prowess. On the first day he
+encountered George Von Wiedebach, and unhorsed him so handsomely that the
+discomfited cavalier's shoulder was dislocated. On the following day he
+tilted with Michael von Denstedt, and was again victorious, hitting his
+adversary full in the target, and "bearing him off over his horse's tail
+so neatly, that the knight came down, heels over head, upon the earth."
+
+On Wednesday, there was what was called the palliatourney. The Prince of
+Orange, at the head of six bands, amounting in all to twenty-nine men;
+the Margrave George of Brandenburg, with seven bands, comprising
+thirty-four men, and the Elector Augustus, with one band of four men,
+besides himself, all entered the lists. Lots were drawn for the "gate of
+honor," and gained by the Margrave, who accordingly defended it with his
+band. Twenty courses were then run between these champions and the Prince
+of Orange, with his men. The Brandenburgs broke seven lances, the
+Prince's party only six, so that Orange was obliged to leave the lists
+discomfited. The ever-victorious Augustus then took the field, and ran
+twenty courses against the defenders, breaking fourteen spears to the
+Brandenburg's ten. The Margrave, thus defeated, surrendered the "gate of
+honor" to the Elector, who maintained, it the rest of the day against all
+comers. It is fair to suppose, although the fact is not recorded, that
+the Elector's original band had received some reinforcement. Otherwise,
+it would be difficult to account for these constant victories, except by
+ascribing more than mortal strength, as well as valor, to Augustus and
+his four champions. His party broke one hundred and fifty-six lances, of
+which number the Elector himself broke thirty-eight and a half. He
+received the first prize, but declined other guerdons adjudged to him.
+The reward for the hardest hitting was conferred on Wolf Von Schonberg,
+"who thrust Kurt Von Arnim clean out of the saddle, so that he fell
+against the barriers."
+
+On Thursday was the riding at the ring. The knights who partook of this
+sport wore various strange garbs over their armor. Some were disguised as
+hussars, some as miners, come as lansquenettes; others as Tartans,
+pilgrims, fools, bird-catchers, hunters, monks; peasants, or Netherland
+cuirassiers. Each party was attended by a party of musicians, attired in
+similar costume. Moreover, Count Gunter Von Schwartzburg made, his
+appearance in the lists, accompanied "by five remarkable giants of
+wonderful proportions and appearance, very ludicrous to behold, who
+performed all kind of odd antics on horseback."
+
+The next day there was a foot tourney, followed in the evening by
+"mummeries," or masquerades. These masques were repeated on the following
+evening, and afforded great entertainment. The costumes were magnificent,
+"with golden and pearl embroidery," the dances were very merry and
+artistic, and the musicians, who formed a part of the company, exhibited
+remarkable talent. These "mummeries" had been brought by William of
+Orange from the Netherlands, at the express request of the Elector, on
+the ground that such matters were much better understood in the provinces
+than in Germany.
+
+Such is a slight sketch of the revels by which this ill-fated Bartholomew
+marriage was celebrated. While William of Orange was thus employed in
+Germany, Granvelle seized the opportunity to make his entry into the city
+of Mechlin, as archbishop; believing that such a step would be better
+accomplished in the absence of the Prince from the country. The Cardinal
+found no one in the city to welcome him. None of the great nobles were
+there. "The people looked upon the procession with silent hatred. No man
+cried, God bless him." He wrote to the King that he should push forward
+the whole matter of the bishoprics as fast as possible, adding the
+ridiculous assertion that the opposition came entirely from the nobility,
+and that "if the seigniors did not talk so much, not a man of the people
+would open his mouth on the subject."
+
+The remonstrance offered by the three estates of Brabant against the
+scheme had not influenced Philip. He had replied in a peremptory tone. He
+had assured them that he had no intention of receding, and that the
+province of Brabant ought to feel itself indebted to him for having given
+them prelates instead of abbots to take care of their eternal interests,
+and for having erected their religious houses into episcopates. The
+abbeys made what resistance they could, but were soon fain to come to a
+compromise with the bishops, who, according to the arrangement thus made,
+were to receive a certain portion of the abbey revenues, while the
+remainder was to belong to the institutions, together with a continuance
+of their right to elect their own chiefs, subordinate, however, to the
+approbation of the respective prelates of the diocese. Thus was the
+episcopal matter settled in Brabant. In many of the other bishoprics the
+new dignitaries were treated with disrespect, as they made their entrance
+into their cities, while they experienced endless opposition and
+annoyance on attempting to take possession of the revenue assigned to
+them.
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     History shows how feeble are barriers of paper
+     Licences accorded by the crown to carry slaves to America
+     We believe our mothers to have been honest women
+     When the abbot has dice in his pocket, the convent will play
+     Wiser simply to satisfy himself
+
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, PG EDITION, VOLUME 7.
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
+JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, D.C.L., LL.D.
+1855
+1561-1562  [CHAPTER III.]
+
+   The inquisition the great cause of the revolt--The three varieties
+   of the institution--The Spanish inquisition described--The Episcopal
+   inquisition in the Netherlands--The Papal inquisition established in
+   the provinces by Charles V.--His instructions to the inquisitors--
+   They are renewed by Philip--Inquisitor Titelmann--Instances of his
+   manner of proceeding--Spanish and Netherland inquisitions compared--
+   Conduct of Granvelle--Faveau and Mallart condemned at Valenciennes--
+   "Journee des maubrulea"--Severe measures at Valenciennes--Attack of
+   the Rhetoric Clubs Upon Granvelle--Granvelle's insinuations against
+   Egmont and Simon Renard--Timidity of Viglius--Universal hatred
+   toward the Cardinal--Buffoonery of Brederode and Lumey--Courage of
+   Granvelle--Philip taxes the Netherlands for the suppression of the
+   Huguenots in France--Meeting of the Knights of the Fleece--Assembly
+   at the house of Orange--Demand upon the estates for supplies--
+   Montigny appointed envoy to Spain--Open and determined opposition to
+   Granvelle--Secret representations by the Cardinal to Philip,
+   concerning Egmont and other Seigniors--Line of conduct traced out
+   for the King--Montigny's representations in Spain--Unsatisfactory
+   result of his mission.
+
+The great cause of the revolt which, within a few years, was to break
+forth throughout the Netherlands; was the inquisition. It is almost
+puerile to look further or deeper, when such a source of convulsion lies
+at the very outset of any investigation. During the war there had been,
+for reasons already indicated, an occasional pause in the religious
+persecution. Philip had now returned to Spain, having arranged, with
+great precision, a comprehensive scheme for exterminating that religious
+belief which was already accepted by a very large portion of his
+Netherland Subjects. From afar there rose upon the provinces the
+prophetic vision of a coming evil still more terrible than any which had
+yet oppressed them. As across the bright plains of Sicily, when the sun
+is rising, the vast pyramidal shadow of Mount Etna is definitely and
+visibly projected--the phantom of that ever-present enemy, which holds
+fire and devastation in its bosom--so, in the morning hour of Philip's
+reign, the shadow of the inquisition was cast from afar across those warm
+and smiling provinces--a spectre menacing fiercer flames and wider
+desolation than those which mere physical agencies could ever compass.
+
+There has been a good deal of somewhat superfluous discussion concerning
+the different kinds of inquisition. The distinction drawn between the
+papal, the episcopal, and the Spanish inquisitions, did not, in the
+sixteenth century, convince many unsophisticated minds of the merits of
+the establishment in any of its shapes. However classified or entitled,
+it was a machine for inquiring into a man's thoughts, and for burning him
+if the result was not satisfactory.
+
+The Spanish inquisition, strictly so called, that is to say, the modern
+or later institution established by Pope Alexander the Sixth and
+Ferdinand the Catholic, was doubtless invested with a more complete
+apparatus for inflicting human misery, and for appalling human
+imagination, than any of the other less artfully arranged inquisitions,
+whether papal or episcopal. It had been originally devised for Jews or
+Moors, whom the Christianity of the age did not regard as human beings,
+but who could not be banished without depopulating certain districts. It
+was soon, however, extended from pagans to heretics. The Dominican
+Torquemada was the first Moloch to be placed upon this pedestal of blood
+and fire, and from that day forward the "holy office" was almost
+exclusively in the hands of that band of brothers. In the eighteen years
+of Torquemada's administration; ten thousand two hundred and twenty
+individuals were burned alive, and ninety-seven thousand three hundred
+and twenty-one punished with infamy, confiscation of property, or
+perpetual imprisonment, so that the total number of families destroyed by
+this one friar alone amounted to one hundred and fourteen thousand four
+hundred and one. In course of time the jurisdiction of the office was
+extended. It taught the savages of India and America to shudder at the
+name of Christianity. The fear of its introduction froze the earlier
+heretics of Italy, France, and Ger many into orthodoxy. It was a court
+owning allegiance to no temporal authority, superior to all other
+tribunals. It was a bench of monks without appeal, having its familiars
+in every house, diving into the secrets of every fireside, judging, and
+executing its horrible decrees without responsibility. It condemned not
+deeds, but thoughts. It affected to descend into individual conscience,
+and to punish the crimes which it pretended to discover. Its process was
+reduced to a horrible simplicity. It arrested on suspicion, tortured till
+confession, and then punished by fire. Two witnesses, and those to
+separate facts, were sufficient to consign the victim to a loathsome
+dungeon. Here he was sparingly supplied with food, forbidden to speak, or
+even to sing to which pastime it could hardly be thought he would feel
+much inclination--and then left to himself, till famine and misery should
+break his spirit. When that time was supposed to have arrived he was
+examined. Did he confess, and forswear his heresy, whether actually
+innocent or not, he might then assume the sacred shirt, and escape with
+confiscation of all his property. Did he persist in the avowal of his
+innocence, two witnesses sent him to the stake, one witness to the rack.
+He was informed of the testimony against him, but never confronted with
+the witness. That accuser might be his son, father, or the wife of his
+bosom, for all were enjoined, under the death penalty, to inform the
+inquisitors of every suspicious word which might fall from their nearest
+relatives. The indictment being thus supported, the prisoner was tried by
+torture. The rack was the court of justice; the criminal's only advocate
+was his fortitude--for the nominal counsellor, who was permitted no
+communication with the prisoner, and was furnished neither with documents
+nor with power to procure evidence, was a puppet, aggravating the
+lawlessness of the proceedings by the mockery of legal forms: The torture
+took place at midnight, in a gloomy dungeon, dimly, lighted by torches.
+The victim--whether man, matron, or tender virgin--was stripped naked,
+and stretched upon the wooden bench. Water, weights, fires, pulleys,
+screws--all the apparatus by which the sinews could be strained without
+cracking, the bones crushed without breaking, and the body racked
+exquisitely without giving up its ghost, was now put into operation. The
+executioner, enveloped in a black robe from head to foot, with his eyes
+glaring at his victim through holes cut in the hood which muffled his
+face, practised successively all the forms of torture which the devilish
+ingenuity of the monks had invented. The imagination sickens when
+striving to keep pace with these dreadful realities. Those who wish to
+indulge their curiosity concerning the details of the system, may easily
+satisfy themselves at the present day. The flood of light which has been
+poured upon the subject more than justifies the horror and the rebellion
+of the Netherlanders.
+
+The period during which torture might be inflicted from day to day was
+unlimited in duration. It could only be terminated by confession; so that
+the scaffold was the sole refuge from the rack. Individuals have borne
+the torture and the dungeon fifteen years, and have been burned at the
+stake at last.
+
+Execution followed confession, but the number of condemned prisoners was
+allowed to accumulate, that a multitude of victims might grace each great
+gala-day. The auto-da fe was a solemn festival. The monarch, the high
+functionaries of the land, the reverend clergy, the populace regarded it
+as an inspiring and delightful recreation. When the appointed morning
+arrived, the victim was taken from his dungeon. He was then attired in a
+yellow robe without sleeves, like a herald's coat, embroidered all over
+with black figures of devils. A large conical paper mitre was placed upon
+his head, upon which was represented a human being in the midst of
+flames, surrounded by imps. His tongue was then painfully gagged, so that
+he could neither open nor shut his mouth. After he was thus accoutred,
+and just as he was leaving his cell, a breakfast, consisting of every
+delicacy, was placed before him, and he was urged, with ironical
+politeness, to satisfy his hunger. He was then led forth into the public
+square. The procession was formed with great pomp. It was headed by the
+little school children, who were immediately followed by the band of
+prisoners, each attired in the horrible yet ludicrous manner described.
+Then came the magistrates and nobility, the prelates and other
+dignitaries of the Church: the holy inquisitors, with their officials and
+familiars, followed, all on horseback, with the blood-red flag of the
+"sacred office" waving above them, blazoned upon either side with the
+portraits of Alexander and of Ferdinand, the pair of brothers who had
+established the institution. After the procession came the rabble. When
+all had reached the neighborhood of the scaffold, and had been arranged
+in order, a sermon was preached to the assembled multitude. It was filled
+with laudations of the inquisition, and with blasphemous revilings
+against the condemned prisoners. Then the sentences were read to the
+individual victims. Then the clergy chanted the fifty-first psalm, the
+whole vast throng uniting in one tremendous miserere. If a priest
+happened to be among the culprits, he was now stripped of the canonicals
+which he had hitherto worn; while his hands, lips, and shaven crown were
+scraped with a bit of glass, by which process the oil of his consecration
+was supposed to be removed. He was then thrown into the common herd.
+Those of the prisoners who were reconciled, and those whose execution was
+not yet appointed, were now separated from the others. The rest were
+compelled to mount a scaffold, where the executioner stood ready to
+conduct them to the fire. The inquisitors then delivered them into his
+hands, with an ironical request that he would deal with them tenderly,
+and without blood-letting or injury. Those who remained steadfast to the
+last were then burned at the stake; they who in the last extremity
+renounced their faith were strangled before being thrown into the flames.
+Such was the Spanish inquisition--technically--so called: It was,
+according' to the biographer of Philip the Second, a "heavenly remedy, a
+guardian angel of Paradise, a lions' den in which Daniel and other just
+men could sustain no injury, but in which perverse sinners were torn to
+pieces." It was a tribunal superior to all human law, without appeal, and
+certainly owing no allegiance to the powers of earth or heaven. No rank,
+high or humble, was safe from its jurisdiction. The royal family were not
+sacred, nor, the pauper's hovel. Even death afforded no protection. The
+holy office invaded the prince in his palace and the beggar in his
+shroud. The corpses of dead heretics were mutilated and burned. The
+inquisitors preyed upon carcases and rifled graves. A gorgeous festival
+of the holy office had, as we have seen, welcomed Philip to his native
+land. The news of these tremendous autos-da fe, in which so many
+illustrious victims had been sacrificed before their sovereign's eyes,
+had reached the Netherlands almost simultaneously with the bulls creating
+the new bishoprics in the provinces. It was not likely that the measure
+would be rendered more palatable by this intelligence of the royal
+amusements.
+
+The Spanish inquisition had never flourished in any soil but that of the
+peninsula. It is possible that the King and Granvelle were sincere in
+their protestations of entertaining no intention of introducing it into
+the Netherlands, although the protestations of such men are entitled to
+but little weight. The truth was, that the inquisition existed already in
+the provinces. It was the main object of the government to confirm and
+extend the institution. The episcopal inquisition, as we have already
+seen, had been enlarged by the enormous increase in the number of
+bishops, each of whom was to be head inquisitor in his diocese, with two
+special inquisitors under him. With this apparatus and with the edicts,
+as already described, it might seem that enough had already been done for
+the suppression of heresy. But more had been done. A regular papal
+inquisition also existed in the Netherlands. This establishment, like the
+edicts, was the gift of Charles the Fifth. A word of introduction is here
+again necessary--nor let the reader deem that too much time is devoted to
+this painful subject. On the contrary, no definite idea can be formed as
+to the character of the Netherland revolt without a thorough
+understanding of this great cause--the religious persecution in which the
+country had lived, breathed, and had its being, for half a century, and
+in which, had the rebellion not broken out at last, the population must
+have been either exterminated or entirely embruted. The few years which
+are immediately to occupy us in the present and succeeding chapter,
+present the country in a daily increasing ferment from the action of
+causes which had existed long before, but which received an additional
+stimulus as the policy of the new reign developed itself.
+
+Previously to the accession of Charles V., it can not be said that an
+inquisition had ever been established in the provinces. Isolated
+instances to the contrary, adduced by the canonists who gave their advice
+to Margaret of Parma, rather proved the absence than the existence of the
+system. In the reign of Philip the Good, the vicar of the
+inquisitor-general gave sentence against some heretics, who were burned
+in Lille (1448). In 1459, Pierre Troussart, a Jacobin monk, condemned
+many Waldenses, together with some leading citizens of Artois, accused of
+sorcery and heresy. He did this, however, as inquisitor for the Bishop of
+Arras, so that it was an act of episcopal, and not papal inquisition. In
+general, when inquisitors were wanted in the provinces, it was necessary
+to borrow them from France or Germany. The exigencies of persecution
+making a domestic staff desirable, Charles the Fifth, in the year 1522,
+applied to his ancient tutor, whom he had placed on the papal throne.
+
+Charles had, however, already, in the previous year appointed Francis Van
+der Hulst to be inquisitor-general for the Netherlands. This man, whom
+Erasmus called a "wonderful enemy to learning," was also provided with a
+coadjutor, Nicholas of Egmond by name, a Carmelite monk, who was
+characterized by the same authority as "a madman armed with a sword." The
+inquisitor-general received full powers to cite, arrest, imprison,
+torture heretics without observing the ordinary forms of law, and to
+cause his sentences to be executed without appeal. He was, however, in
+pronouncing definite judgments, to take the advice of Laurens, president
+of the grand council of Mechlin, a coarse, cruel and ignorant man, who
+"hated learning with a more than deadly hatred," and who might certainly
+be relied upon to sustain the severest judgments which the inquisitor
+might fulminate. Adrian; accordingly, commissioned Van der Hulst to be
+universal and general inquisitor for all the Netherlands. At the same
+time it was expressly stated that his functions were not to supersede
+those exercised by the bishops as inquisitors in their own sees. Thus the
+papal inquisition was established in the provinces. Van der Hulst, a
+person of infamous character, was not the man to render the institution
+less odious than it was by its nature. Before he had fulfilled his duties
+two years, however, he was degraded from his office by the Emperor for
+having forged a document. In 1525, Buedens, Houseau and Coppin were
+confirmed by Clement the Seventh as inquisitors in the room of Van der
+Hulst. In 1531, Ruard Tapper and Michael Drutius were appointed by Paul
+the Third, on the decease of Coppin, the other two remaining in office.
+The powers of the papal inquisitors had been gradually extended, and they
+were, by 1545, not only entirely independent of the episcopal
+inquisition, but had acquired right of jurisdiction over bishops and
+archbishops, whom they were empowered to arrest and imprison. They had
+also received and exercised the privilege of appointing delegates, or
+sub-inquisitors, on their own authority. Much of the work was, indeed,
+performed by these officials, the most notorious of whom were Barbier, De
+Monte, Titelmann, Fabry, Campo de Zon, and Stryen. In 1545, and again in
+1550, a stringent set of instructions were drawn up by the Emperor for
+the guidance of these papal inquisitors. A glance at their context shows
+that the establishment was not intended to be an empty form.
+
+They were empowered to inquire, proceed against, and chastise all
+heretics, all persons suspected of heresy, and their protectors.
+Accompanied by a notary, they were to collect written information
+concerning every person in the provinces, "infected or vehemently
+suspected." They were authorized to summon all subjects of his Majesty,
+whatever their rank, quality, or station, and to compel them to give
+evidence, or to communicate suspicions. They were to punish all who
+pertinaciously refused such depositions with death. The Emperor commanded
+his presidents, judges, sheriffs, and all other judicial and executive
+officers to render all "assistance to the inquisitors and their familiars
+in their holy and pious inquisition, whenever required so to do," on pain
+of being punished as encouragers of heresy, that is to say, with death.
+Whenever the inquisitors should be satisfied as to the heresy of any
+individual, they were to order his arrest and detention by the judge of
+the place, or by others arbitrarily to be selected by them. The judges or
+persons thus chosen, were enjoined to fulfil the order, on pain of being
+punished as protectors of heresy, that is to say, with death, by sword or
+fire. If the prisoner were an ecclesiastic, the inquisitor was to deal
+summarily with the case "without noise or form in the process--selecting
+an imperial councillor to render the sentence of absolution or
+condemnation." If the prisoner were a lay person, the inquisitor was to
+order his punishment, according to the edicts, by the council of the
+province. In case of lay persons suspected but not convicted of heresy,
+the inquisitor was to proceed to their chastisement, "with the advice of
+a counsellor or some other expert." In conclusion, the Emperor ordered
+the "inquisitors to make it known that they were not doing their own
+work, but that of Christ, and to persuade all persons of this fact." This
+clause of their instructions seemed difficult of accomplishment, for no
+reasonable person could doubt that Christ, had he re-appeared in human
+form, would have been instantly crucified again, or burned alive in any
+place within the dominions of Charles or Philip. The blasphemy with which
+the name of Jesus was used by such men to sanctify all these nameless
+horrors, is certainly not the least of their crimes.
+
+In addition to these instructions, a special edict had been issued on the
+26th April, 1550, according to which all judicial officers, at the
+requisition of the inquisitors, were to render them all assistance in the
+execution of their office, by arresting and detaining all persons
+suspected of heresy, according to the instructions issued to said
+inquisitors; and this, notwithstanding any privileges or charters to the
+contrary. In short, the inquisitors were not subject to the civil
+authority, but the civil authority to them. The imperial edict empowered
+them "to chastise, degrade, denounce, and deliver over heretics to the
+secular judges for punishment; to make use of gaols, and to make arrests,
+without ordinary warrant, but merely with notice given to a single
+counselor, who was obliged to give sentence according to their desire,
+without application to the ordinary judge."
+
+These instructions to the inquisitors had been renewed and confirmed by
+Philip, in the very first month of his reign (28th Nov. 1555). As in the
+case of the edicts, it had been thought desirable by Granvelle to make
+use of the supposed magic of the Emperor's name to hallow the whole
+machinery of persecution. The action of the system during the greater
+part of the imperial period had been terrible. Suffered for a time to
+languish during the French war, it had lately been renewed with
+additional vigor. Among all the inquisitors, the name of Peter Titelmann
+was now pre-eminent. He executed his infamous functions throughout
+Flanders, Douay, and Tournay, the most thriving and populous portions of
+the Netherlands, with a swiftness, precision, and even with a jocularity
+which hardly seemed human. There was a kind of grim humor about the man.
+The woman who, according to Lear's fool, was wont to thrust her live eels
+into the hot paste, "rapping them o' the coxcombs with a stick and crying
+reproachfully, Wantons, lie down!" had the spirit of a true inquisitor.
+Even so dealt Titelmann with his heretics writhing on the rack or in the
+flames. Cotemporary chronicles give a picture of him as of some grotesque
+yet terrible goblin, careering through the country by night or day,
+alone, on horseback, smiting the trembling peasants on the head with a
+great club, spreading dismay far and wide, dragging suspected persons
+from their firesides or their beds, and thrusting them into dungeons,
+arresting, torturing, strangling, burning, with hardly the shadow of
+warrant, information, or process.
+
+The secular sheriff, familiarly called Red-Rod, from the color of his
+wand of office, meeting this inquisitor Titelmann one day upon the high
+road, thus wonderingly addressed him--"How can you venture to go about
+alone, or at most with an attendant or two, arresting people on every
+side, while I dare not attempt to execute my office, except at the head
+of a strong force, armed in proof; and then only at the peril of my
+life?"
+
+"Ah! Red-Rod," answered Peter, jocosely, "you deal with bad people. I
+have nothing to fear, for I seize only the innocent and virtuous, who
+make no resistance, and let themselves be taken like lambs."
+
+"Mighty well," said the other; "but if you arrest all the good people and
+I all the bad, 'tis difficult to say who in the world is to escape
+chastisement." The reply of the inquisitor has not been recorded, but
+there is no doubt that he proceeded like a strong man to run his day's
+course.
+
+He was the most active of all the agents in the religious persecution at
+the epoch of which we are now treating, but he had been inquisitor for
+many years. The martyrology of the provinces reeks with his murders. He
+burned men for idle words or suspected thoughts; he rarely waited,
+according to his frank confession, for deeds. Hearing once that a certain
+schoolmaster, named Geleyn de Muler, of Audenarde, "was addicted to
+reading the Bible," he summoned the culprit before him and accused him of
+heresy. The schoolmaster claimed, if he were guilty of any crime, to be
+tried before the judges of his town. "You are my prisoner," said
+Titelmann, "and are to answer me and none other." The inquisitor
+proceeded accordingly to catechize him, and soon satisfied himself of the
+schoolmaster's heresy. He commanded him to make immediate recantation.
+The schoolmaster refused. "Do you not love your wife and children?" asked
+the demoniac Titelmann. "God knows," answered the heretic, "that if the
+whole world were of gold, and my own, I would give it all only to have
+them with me, even had I to live on bread and water and in bondage." "You
+have then," answered the inquisitor, "only to renounce the error of your
+opinions."--"Neither for wife, children, nor all the world, can I
+renounce my God and religious truth," answered the prisoner. Thereupon
+Titelmann sentenced him to the stake. He was strangled and then thrown
+into the flames.
+
+At about the same-time, Thomas Calberg, tapestry weaver, of Tournay,
+within the jurisdiction of this same inquisitor, was convicted of having
+copied some hymns from a book printed in Geneva. He was burned alive.
+Another man, whose name has perished, was hacked to death with seven
+blows of a rusty sword, in presence of his wife, who was so
+horror-stricken that she died on the spot before her husband. His crime,
+to be sure, was anabaptism, the most deadly offence in the calendar. In
+the same year, one Walter Kapell was burned at the stake for heretical
+opinions. He was a man of some property, and beloved by the poor people
+of Dixmuyde, in Flanders, where he resided, for his many charities. A
+poor idiot, who had been often fed by his bounty, called out to the
+inquisitor's subalterns, as they bound his patron to the stake, "ye are
+bloody murderers; that man has done no wrong; but has given me bread to
+eat." With these words, he cast himself headlong into the flames to
+perish with his protector, but was with difficulty rescued by the
+officers. A day or two afterwards, he made his way to the stake, where
+the half-burnt skeleton of Walter Kapell still remained, took the body
+upon his shoulders, and carried it through the streets to the house of
+the chief burgomaster, where several other magistrates happened then to
+be in session. Forcing his way into their presence, he laid his burthen
+at their feet, crying, "There, murderers! ye have eaten his flesh, now
+eat his bones!" It has not been recorded whether Titelmann sent him to
+keep company with his friend in the next world. The fate of so obscure a
+victim could hardly find room on the crowded pages of the Netherland
+martyrdom.
+
+This kind of work, which went on daily, did not increase the love of the
+people for the inquisition or the edicts. It terrified many, but it
+inspired more with that noble resistance to oppression, particularly to
+religious oppression, which is the sublimest instinct of human nature.
+Men confronted the terrible inquisitors with a courage equal to their
+cruelty: At Tournay, one of the chief cities of Titelmann's district, and
+almost before his eyes, one Bertrand le Blas, a velvet manufacturer,
+committed what was held an almost incredible crime. Having begged his
+wife and children to pray for a blessing upon what he was about to
+undertake, he went on Christmas-day to the Cathedral of Tournay and
+stationed himself near the altar. Having awaited the moment in which the
+priest held on high the consecrated host, Le Blas then forced his way
+through the crowd, snatched the wafer from the hands of the astonished
+ecclesiastic, and broke it into bits, crying aloud, as he did so,
+"Misguided men, do ye take this thing to be Jesus Christ, your Lord and
+Saviour?" With these words, he threw the fragments on the ground and
+trampled them with his feet.
+
+   [Histoire des Martyrs, f. 356, exev.; apud Brandt, i. 171,172.
+   It may be well supposed that this would be regarded as a crime of
+   almost inconceivable magnitude. It was death even to refuse to
+   kneel in the streets when the wafer was carried by. Thus, for
+   example, a poor huckster, named Simon, at Bergen-op-Zoom, who
+   neglected to prostrate himself before his booth at the passage of
+   the host, was immediately burned. Instances of the same punishment
+   for that offence might be multiplied. In this particular case, it
+   is recorded that the sheriff who was present at the execution was so
+   much affected by the courage and fervor of the simple-minded victim,
+   that he went home, took to his bed, became delirious, crying
+   constantly, Ah, Simon! Simon! and died miserably, "notwithstanding
+   all that the monks could do to console him."]
+
+The amazement and horror were so universal at such an appalling offence,
+that not a finger was raised to arrest the criminal. Priests and
+congregation were alike paralyzed, so that he would have found no
+difficulty in making his escape. Ho did not stir, however; he had come to
+the church determined to execute what he considered a sacred duty, and to
+abide the consequences. After a time, he was apprehended. The inquisitor
+demanded if he repented of what he had done. He protested, on the
+contrary, that he gloried in the deed, and that he would die a hundred
+deaths to rescue from such daily profanation the name of his Redeemer,
+Christ. He was then put thrice to the torture, that he might be forced to
+reveal his accomplices. It did not seem in human power for one man to
+accomplish such a deed of darkness without confederates. Bertrand had
+none, however, and could denounce none. A frantic sentence was then
+devised as a feeble punishment for so much wickedness. He was dragged on
+a hurdle, with his mouth closed with an iron gag, to the market-place.
+Here his right hand and foot were burned and twisted off between two
+red-hot irons. His tongue was then torn out by the roots, and because he
+still endeavored to call upon the name of God, the iron gag was again
+applied. With his arms and legs fastened together behind his back, he was
+then hooked by the middle of his body to an iron chain, and made to swing
+to and fro over a slow fire till he was entirely roasted. His life lasted
+almost to the end of these ingenious tortures, but his fortitude lasted
+as long as his life.
+
+In the next year, Titelmann caused one Robert Ogier, of Ryssel, in
+Flanders, to be arrested, together with his wife and two sons. Their
+crime consisted in not going to mass, and in practising private worship
+at home. They confessed the offence, for they protested that they could
+not endure to see the profanation of their Saviour's name in the
+idolatrous sacraments. They were asked what rites they practised in their
+own house. One of the sons, a mere boy, answered, "We fall on our knees,
+and pray to God that he may enlighten our hearts, and forgive our sins.
+We pray for our sovereign, that his reign may be prosperous, and his life
+peaceful. We also pray for the magistrates and others in authority, that
+God may protect and preserve them all." The boy's simple eloquence drew
+tears even from the eyes of some of his judges; for the inquisitor had
+placed the case before the civil tribunal. The father and eldest son
+were, however, condemned to the flames. "Oh God!" prayed the youth at the
+stake, "Eternal Father, accept the sacrifice of our lives, in the name of
+thy beloved Son."--"Thou liest, scoundrel!" fiercely interrupted a monk,
+who was lighting the fire; "God is not your father; ye are the devil's
+children." As the flames rose about them, the boy cried out once more,
+"Look, my father, all heaven is opening, and I see ten hundred thousand
+angels rejoicing over us. Let us be glad, for we are dying for the
+truth."--"Thou liest! thou liest!" again screamed the monk; "all hell
+is opening, and you see ten thousand devils thrusting you into eternal
+fire." Eight days afterwards, the wife of Ogier and his other son were
+burned; so that there was an end of that family.
+
+Such are a few isolated specimens of the manner of proceeding in a single
+district of the Netherlands. The inquisitor Titelmann certainly deserved
+his terrible reputation. Men called him Saul the persecutor, and it was
+well known that he had been originally tainted with the heresy which he
+had, for so many years, been furiously chastising. At the epoch which now
+engages our attention, he felt stimulated by the avowed policy of the
+government to fresh exertions, by which all his previous achievements
+should be cast into the shade. In one day he broke into a house in
+Ryssel, seized John de Swarte, his wife and four children, together with
+two newly-married couples, and two other persons, convicted them of
+reading the Bible, and of praying in their own doors, and had them all
+immediately burned.
+
+Are these things related merely to excite superfluous horror? Are the
+sufferings of these obscure Christians beneath the dignity of history? Is
+it not better to deal with murder and oppression in the abstract, without
+entering into trivial details? The answer is, that these things are the
+history of the Netherlands at this epoch; that these hideous details
+furnish the causes of that immense movement, out of which a great
+republic was born and an ancient tyranny destroyed; and that Cardinal
+Granvelle was ridiculous when he asserted that the people would not open
+their mouths if the seigniors did not make such a noise. Because the
+great lords "owed their very souls"--because convulsions might help to
+pay their debts, and furnish forth their masquerades and
+banquets--because the Prince of Orange was ambitious, and Egmont jealous
+of the Cardinal--therefore superficial writers found it quite natural
+that the country should be disturbed, although that "vile and mischievous
+animal, the people," might have no objection to a continuance of the
+system which had been at work so long. On the contrary, it was exactly
+because the movement was a popular and a religious movement that it will
+always retain its place among the most important events of history.
+Dignified documents, state papers, solemn treaties, are often of no more
+value than the lambskin on which they are engrossed. Ten thousand
+nameless victims, in the cause of religious and civil freedom, may build
+up great states and alter the aspect of whole continents.
+
+The nobles, no doubt, were conspicuous, and it was well for the cause of
+the right that, as in the early hours of English liberty, the crown and
+mitre were opposed by the baron's sword and shield. Had all the seigniors
+made common cause with Philip and Granvelle, instead of setting their
+breasts against the inquisition, the cause of truth and liberty would
+have been still more desperate. Nevertheless they were directed and
+controlled, under Providence, by humbler, but more powerful agencies than
+their own. The nobles were but the gilded hands on the outside of the
+dial--the hour to strike was determined by the obscure but weighty
+movements within.
+
+Nor is it, perhaps, always better to rely upon abstract phraseology, to
+produce a necessary impression. Upon some minds, declamation concerning
+liberty of conscience and religious tyranny makes but a vague impression,
+while an effect may be produced upon them, for example by a dry,
+concrete, cynical entry in an account book, such as the following, taken
+at hazard from the register of municipal expenses at Tournay, during the
+years with which we are now occupied:
+
+   "To Mr. Jacques Barra, executioner, for having tortured, twice, Jean
+   de Lannoy, ten sous.
+
+   "To the same, for having executed, by fire, said Lannoy, sixty sous.
+   For having thrown his cinders into the river, eight sous."
+
+This was the treatment to which thousands, and tens of thousands, had
+been subjected in the provinces. Men, women, and children were burned,
+and their "cinders" thrown away, for idle words against Rome, spoken
+years before, for praying alone in their closets, for not kneeling to a
+wafer when they met it in the streets, for thoughts to which they had
+never given utterance, but which, on inquiry, they were too honest to
+deny. Certainly with this work going on year after year in every city in
+the Netherlands, and now set into renewed and vigorous action by a man
+who wore a crown only that he might the better torture his
+fellow-creatures, it was time that the very stones in the streets should
+be moved to mutiny.
+
+Thus it may be seen of how much value were the protestations of Philip
+and of Granvelle, on which much stress has latterly been laid, that it
+was not their intention to introduce the Spanish inquisition. With the
+edicts and the Netherland inquisition, such as we have described them,
+the step was hardly necessary.
+
+In fact, the main difference between the two institutions consisted in
+the greater efficiency of the Spanish in discovering such of its victims
+as were disposed to deny their faith. Devised originally for more
+timorous and less conscientious infidels who were often disposed to skulk
+in obscure places and to renounce without really abandoning their errors,
+it was provided with a set of venomous familiars who glided through every
+chamber and coiled themselves at every fireside. The secret details of
+each household in the realm being therefore known to the holy office and
+to the monarch, no infidel or heretic could escape discovery. This
+invisible machinery was less requisite for the Netherlands. There was
+comparatively little difficulty in ferreting out the "vermin"--to use the
+expression of a Walloon historian of that age--so that it was only
+necessary to maintain in good working order the apparatus for destroying
+the noxious creatures when unearthed. The heretics of the provinces
+assembled at each other's houses to practise those rites described in
+such simple language by Baldwin Ogier, and denounced under such horrible
+penalties by the edicts. The inquisitorial system of Spain was hardly
+necessary for men who had but little prudence in concealing, and no
+inclination to disavow their creed. "It is quite a laughable matter,"
+wrote Granvelle, who occasionally took a comic view of the inquisition,
+"that the King should send us depositions made in Spain by which we are
+to hunt for heretics here, as if we did not know of thousands already.
+Would that I had as many doubloons of annual income," he added, "as there
+are public and professed heretics in the provinces." No doubt the
+inquisition was in such eyes a most desirable establishment. "To speak
+without passion," says the Walloon, "the inquisition well administered is
+a laudable institution, and not less necessary than all the other offices
+of spirituality and temporality belonging both to the bishops and to the
+commissioners of the Roman see." The papal and episcopal establishments,
+in co-operation with the edicts, were enough, if thoroughly exercised and
+completely extended. The edicts alone were sufficient. "The edicts and
+the inquisition are one and the same thing," said the Prince of Orange.
+The circumstance, that the civil authorities were not as entirely
+superseded by the Netherland, as by the Spanish system, was rather a
+difference of form than of fact. We have seen that the secular officers
+of justice were at the command of the inquisitors. Sheriff, gaoler,
+judge, and hangman, were all required, under the most terrible penalties,
+to do their bidding. The reader knows what the edicts were. He knows also
+the instructions to the corps of papal inquisitors, delivered by Charles
+and Philip: He knows that Philip, both in person and by letter, had done
+his utmost to sharpen those instructions, during the latter portion of
+his sojourn in the Netherlands. Fourteen new bishops, each with two
+special inquisitors under him, had also been appointed to carry out the
+great work to which the sovereign had consecrated his existence. The
+manner in which the hunters of heretics performed their office has been
+exemplified by slightly sketching the career of a single one of the
+sub-inquisitors, Peter Titelmann. The monarch and his minister scarcely
+needed, therefore, to transplant the peninsular exotic. Why should they
+do so? Philip, who did not often say a great deal in a few words, once
+expressed the whole truth of the matter in a single sentence: "Wherefore
+introduce the Spanish inquisition?" said he; "the inquisition of the
+Netherlands is much more pitiless than that of Spain."
+
+Such was the system of religious persecution commenced by Charles, and
+perfected by Philip. The King could not claim the merit of the invention,
+which justly belonged to the Emperor. At the same time, his
+responsibility for the unutterable woe caused by the continuance of the
+scheme is not a jot diminished. There was a time when the whole system
+had fallen into comparative desuetude. It was utterly abhorrent to the
+institutions and the manners of the Netherlanders. Even a great number of
+the Catholics in the provinces were averse to it. Many of the leading
+grandees, every one of whom was Catholic were foremost in denouncing its
+continuance. In short, the inquisition had been partially endured, but
+never accepted. Moreover, it had never been introduced into Luxemburg or
+Groningen. In Gelderland it had been prohibited by the treaty through
+which that province had been annexed to the emperor's dominions, and it
+had been uniformly and successfully resisted in Brabant. Therefore,
+although Philip, taking the artful advice of Granvelle, had sheltered
+himself under the Emperor's name by re-enacting, word for word, his
+decrees, and re-issuing his instructions, he can not be allowed any such
+protection at the bar of history. Such a defence for crimes so enormous
+is worse than futile. In truth, both father and son recognized
+instinctively the intimate connexion between ideas of religious and of
+civil freedom. "The authority of God and the supremacy of his Majesty"
+was the formula used with perpetual iteration to sanction the constant
+recourse to scaffold and funeral pile. Philip, bigoted in religion, and
+fanatical in his creed of the absolute power of kings, identified himself
+willingly with the Deity, that he might more easily punish crimes against
+his own sacred person. Granvelle carefully sustained him in these
+convictions, and fed his suspicions as to the motives of those who
+opposed his measures. The minister constantly represented the great
+seigniors as influenced by ambition and pride. They had only disapproved
+of the new bishoprics, he insinuated, because they were angry that his
+Majesty should dare to do anything without their concurrence, and because
+their own influence in the states would be diminished. It was their
+object, he said, to keep the King "in tutelage"--to make him a "shadow
+and a cipher," while they should themselves exercise all authority in the
+provinces. It is impossible to exaggerate the effect of such suggestions
+upon the dull and gloomy mind to which they were addressed. It is easy,
+however, to see that a minister with such views was likely to be as
+congenial to his master as he was odious to the people. For already, in
+the beginning of 1562, Granvelle was extremely unpopular. "The Cardinal
+is hated of all men," wrote Sir Thomas Gresham. The great struggle
+between him and the leading nobles had already commenced. The people
+justly identified him with the whole infamous machinery of persecution,
+which had either originated or warmly made his own. Viglius and
+Berlaymont were his creatures. With the other members of the state
+council, according to their solemn statement, already recorded, he did
+not deign to consult, while he affected to hold them responsible for the
+measures of the administration. Even the Regent herself complained that
+the Cardinal took affairs quite out of her hands, and that he decided
+upon many important matters without her cognizance. She already began to
+feel herself the puppet which it had been intended she should become; she
+already felt a diminution of the respectful attachment for the
+ecclesiastic which had inspired her when she procured his red hat.
+
+Granvelle was, however, most resolute in carrying out the intentions of
+his master. We have seen how vigorously he had already set himself to the
+inauguration of the new bishoprics, despite of opposition and obloquy. He
+was now encouraging or rebuking the inquisitors in their "pious office"
+throughout all the provinces. Notwithstanding his exertions, however,
+heresy continued to spread. In the Walloon provinces the infection was
+most prevalent, while judges and executioners were appalled by the
+mutinous demonstrations which each successive sacrifice provoked. The
+victims were cheered on their way to the scaffold. The hymns of Marot
+were sung in the very faces of the inquisitors. Two ministers, Faveau and
+Mallart, were particularly conspicuous at this moment at Valenciennes.
+The governor of the province, Marquis Berghen, was constantly absent, for
+he hated with his whole soul the system of persecution. For this
+negligence Granvelle denounced him secretly and perpetually to Philip,
+"The Marquis says openly," said the Cardinal, "that 'tis not right to
+shed blood for matters of faith. With such men to aid us, your Majesty
+can judge how much progress we can make." It was, however, important, in
+Granvelle's opinion, that these two ministers at Valenciennes should be
+at once put to death. They were avowed heretics, and they preached to
+their disciples, although they certainly were not doctors of divinity.
+Moreover, they were accused, most absurdly, no doubt, of pretending to
+work miracles. It was said that, in presence of several witnesses, they
+had undertaken to cast out devils; and they had been apprehended on an
+accusation of this nature.
+
+   ["Histoire des choses les plus memorables qui se sent passees en la
+   ville et Compte de Valenciennes depuis le commencement des troubles
+   des Pays-Bas sons le regne de Phil. II., jusqu' a l'annee 1621."--
+   MS. (Collect. Gerard).--This is a contemporary manuscript belonging
+   to the Gerard collection in the Royal Library at the Hague. Its
+   author was a citizen of Valenciennes, and a personal witness of most
+   of the events which he describes. He appears to have attained to a
+   great age, as he minutely narrates, from personal observation, many
+   scenes which occurred before 1566, and his work is continued till
+   the year 1621. It is a mere sketch, without much literary merit,
+   but containing many local anecdotes of interest. Its anonymous
+   author was a very sincere Catholic.]
+
+Their offence really consisted in reading the Bible to a few of their
+friends. Granvelle sent Philibert de Bruxelles to Valenciennes to procure
+their immediate condemnation and execution. He rebuked the judges and
+inquisitors, he sent express orders to Marquis Berghen to repair at once
+to the scene of his duties. The prisoners were condemned in the autumn of
+1561. The magistrates were, however, afraid to carry the sentence into
+effect. Granvelle did not cease to censure them for their pusillanimity,
+and wrote almost daily letters, accusing the magistrates of being
+themselves the cause of the tumults by which they were appalled. The
+popular commotion was, however, not lightly to be braved. Six or seven
+months long the culprits remained in confinement, while daily and nightly
+the people crowded the streets, hurling threats and defiance at the
+authorities, or pressed about the prison windows, encouraging their
+beloved ministers, and promising to rescue them in case the attempt
+should be made to fulfil the sentence. At last Granvelle sent down a
+peremptory order to execute the culprits by fire. On the 27th of April,
+1562, Faveau and Mallart were accordingly taken from their jail and
+carried to the market-place, where arrangements had been made for burning
+them. Simon Faveau, as the executioner was binding him to the stake,
+uttered the invocation, "O! Eternal Father!" A woman in the crowd, at the
+same instant, took off her shoe and threw it at the funeral pile. This
+was a preconcerted signal. A movement was at once visible in the crowd.
+Men in great numbers dashed upon the barriers which had been erected in
+the square around the place of execution. Some seized the fagots, which
+had been already lighted, and scattered them in every direction; some
+tore up the pavements; others broke in pieces the barriers. The
+executioners were prevented from carrying out the sentence, but the guard
+were enabled, with great celerity and determination, to bring off the
+culprits and to place them in their dungeon again. The authorities were
+in doubt and dismay. The inquisitors were for putting the ministers to
+death in prison, and hurling their heads upon the street. Evening
+approached while the officials were still pondering. The people who had
+been chanting the Psalms of David through the town, without having
+decided what should be their course of action, at last determined to
+rescue the victims. A vast throng, after much hesitation, accordingly
+directed their steps to the prison. "You should have seen this vile
+populace," says an eye-witness, "moving, pausing, recoiling, sweeping
+forward, swaying to and fro like the waves of the sea when it is agitated
+by contending winds." The attack was vigorous, the defence was weak--for
+the authorities had expected no such fierce demonstration,
+notwithstanding the menacing language which had been so often uttered.
+The prisoners were rescued, and succeeded in making their escape from the
+city. The day in which the execution had been thus prevented was called,
+thenceforward, the "day of the ill-burned," (Journee des mau-brulez). One
+of the ministers, however, Simon Faveau, not discouraged by this near
+approach to martyrdom, persisted in his heretical labors, and was a few
+years afterwards again apprehended. "He was then," says the chronicler,
+cheerfully, "burned well and finally" in the same place whence he had
+formerly been rescued. [Valenciennes MS.]
+
+This desperate resistance to tyranny was for a moment successful,
+because, notwithstanding the murmurs and menaces by which the storm had
+been preceded, the authorities had not believed the people capable of
+proceeding to such lengths. Had not the heretics--in the words of
+Inquisitor Titelmann--allowed themselves, year after year, to be taken
+and slaughtered like lambs? The consternation of the magistrates was soon
+succeeded by anger. The government at Brussels was in a frenzy of rage
+when informed of the occurrence. A bloody vengeance was instantly
+prepared, to vindicate the insult to the inquisition. On the 29th of
+April, detachments of Bossu's and of Berghen's "band of ordonnance" were
+sent into Valenciennes, together with a company of the Duke of Aerschot's
+regiment. The prisons were instantly filled to overflowing with men and
+women arrested for actual or suspected participation in the tumult.
+Orders had been sent down from the capital to make a short process and a
+sharp execution for all the criminals. On the 16th of May, the slaughter
+commenced. Some were burned at the stake, some were beheaded: the number
+of victims was frightful. "Nothing was left undone by the magistrates,"
+says an eyewitness, with great approbation, "which could serve for the
+correction and amendment of the poor people." It was long before the
+judges and hangmen rested from their labors. When at last the havoc was
+complete, it might be supposed that a sufficient vengeance had been taken
+for the "day of the ill-burned," and an adequate amount of "amendment"
+provided for the "poor people."
+
+Such scenes as these did not tend to increase the loyalty of the nation,
+nor the popularity of the government. On Granvelle's head was poured a
+daily increasing torrent of hatred. He was looked upon in the provinces
+as the impersonation of that religious oppression which became every
+moment more intolerable. The King and the Regent escaped much of the
+odium which belonged to them, because the people chose to bestow all
+their maledictions upon the Cardinal. There was, however, no great
+injustice in this embodiment. Granvelle was the government. As the people
+of that day were extremely reverent to royalty, they vented all their
+rage upon the minister, while maintaining still a conventional respect
+for the sovereign. The prelate had already become the constant butt of
+the "Rhetoric Chambers." These popular clubs for the manufacture of
+homespun poetry and street farces out of the raw material of public
+sentiment, occupied the place which has been more effectively filled in
+succeeding ages, and in free countries by the daily press. Before the
+invention of that most tremendous weapon, which liberty has ever wielded
+against tyranny, these humble but influential associations shared with
+the pulpit the only power which existed of moving the passions or
+directing the opinions of the people. They were eminently liberal in
+their tendencies. The authors and the actors of their comedies, poems,
+and pasquils were mostly artisans or tradesmen, belonging to the class
+out of which proceeded the early victims, and the later soldiers of the
+Reformation. Their bold farces and truculent satire had already effected
+much in spreading among the people a detestation of Church abuses. They
+were particularly severe upon monastic licentiousness. "These corrupt
+comedians, called rhetoricians," says the Walloon contemporary already
+cited, "afforded much amusement to the people." Always some poor little
+nuns or honest monks were made a part of the farce. It seemed as if the
+people could take no pleasure except in ridiculing God and the Church.
+The people, however, persisted in the opinion that the ideas of a monk
+and of God were not inseparable. Certainly the piety of the early
+reformers was sufficiently fervent, and had been proved by the steadiness
+with which they confronted torture and death, but they knew no measure in
+the ridicule which they heaped upon the men by whom they were daily
+murdered in droves. The rhetoric comedies were not admirable in an
+aesthetic point of view, but they were wrathful and sincere. Therefore
+they cost many thousand lives, but they sowed the seed of resistance to
+religious tyranny, to spring up one day in a hundredfold harvest. It was
+natural that the authorities should have long sought to suppress these
+perambulating dramas. "There was at that tyme," wrote honest Richard
+Clough to Sir Thomas Gresham, "syche playes (of Reteryke) played thet
+hath cost many a 1000 man's lyves, for in these plays was the Word of God
+first opened in thys country. Weche playes were and are forbidden moche
+more strictly than any of the bookes of Martin Luther."
+
+These rhetoricians were now particularly inflamed against Granvelle. They
+were personally excited against him, because he had procured the
+suppression of their religious dramas. "These rhetoricians who make
+farces and street plays," wrote the Cardinal to Philip, "are particularly
+angry with me, because two years ago I prevented them from ridiculing the
+holy Scriptures." Nevertheless, these institutions continued to pursue
+their opposition to the course of the government. Their uncouth gambols,
+their awkward but stunning blows rendered daily service to the cause of
+religious freedom. Upon the newly-appointed bishops they poured out an
+endless succession of rhymes and rebuses, epigrams, caricatures and
+extravaganzas. Poems were pasted upon the walls of every house, and
+passed from hand to hand. Farces were enacted in every street; the odious
+ecclesiastics figuring as the principal buffoons. These representations
+gave so much offence, that renewed edicts were issued to suppress them.
+The prohibition was resisted, and even ridiculed in many provinces,
+particularly in Holland. The tyranny which was able to drown a nation in
+blood and tears, was powerless to prevent them from laughing most
+bitterly at their oppressors. The tanner, Cleon, was never belabored more
+soundly by the wits of Athens, than the prelate by these Flemish
+"rhetoricians." With infinitely less Attic salt, but with as much
+heartiness as Aristophanes could have done, the popular rhymers gave the
+minister ample opportunity to understand the position which he occupied
+in the Netherlands. One day a petitioner placed a paper in his hand and
+vanished. It contained some scurrilous verses upon himself, together with
+a caricature of his person. In this he was represented as a hen seated
+upon a pile of eggs, out of which he was hatching a brood of bishops.
+Some of these were clipping the shell, some thrusting forth an arm, some
+a leg, while others were running about with mitres on their heads, all
+bearing whimsical resemblance to various prelates who had been
+newly-appointed. Above the Cardinal's head the Devil was represented
+hovering, with these words issuing from his mouth: "This is my beloved
+Son, listen to him, my people."
+
+There was another lampoon of a similar nature, which was so well
+executed, that it especially excited Granvelle's anger. It was a rhymed
+satire of a general nature, like the rest, but so delicate and so
+stinging, that the Cardinal ascribed it to his old friend and present
+enemy, Simon Renard. This man, a Burgundian by birth, and college
+associate of Granvelle, had been befriended both by himself and his
+father. Aided by their patronage and his own abilities, he had arrived at
+distinguished posts; having been Spanish envoy both in France and
+England, and one of the negotiators of the truce of Vaucelles. He had
+latterly been disappointed in his ambition to become a councillor of
+state, and had vowed vengeance upon the Cardinal, to whom he attributed
+his ill success. He was certainly guilty of much ingratitude, for he had
+been under early obligations to the man in whose side he now became a
+perpetual thorn. It must be confessed, on the other hand, that Granvelle
+repaid the enmity of his old associate with a malevolence equal to his
+own, and if Renard did not lose his head as well as his political
+station, it was not for want of sufficient insinuation on the part of the
+minister. Especially did Granvelle denounce him to "the master" as the
+perverter of Egmont, while he usually described that nobleman himself, as
+weak, vain, "a friend of smoke," easily misguided, but in the main
+well-intentioned and loyal. At the same time, with all these vague
+commendations, he never omitted to supply the suspicious King with an
+account of every fact or every rumor to the Count's discredit. In the
+case of this particular satire, he informed Philip that he could swear it
+came from the pen of Renard, although, for the sake of deception, the
+rhetoric comedians had been employed. He described the production as
+filled with "false, abominable, and infernal things," and as treating not
+only himself, but the Pope and the whole ecclesiastical order with as
+much contumely as could be showed in Germany. He then proceeded to
+insinuate, in the subtle manner which was peculiarly his own, that Egmont
+was a party to the publication of the pasquil. Renard visited at that
+house, he said, and was received there on a much more intimate footing
+than was becoming. Eight days before the satire was circulated, there had
+been a conversation in Egmont's house, of a nature exactly similar to the
+substance of the pamphlet. The man, in whose hands it was first seen,
+continued Granvelle, was a sword cutler, a godson of the Count. This
+person said that he had torn it from the gate of the city hall, but God
+grant, prayed the Cardinal, that it was not he who had first posted it up
+there. 'Tis said that Egmont and Mansfeld, he added, have sent many times
+to the cutler to procure copies of the satire, all which augments the
+suspicion against them.
+
+With the nobles he was on no better terms than with the people. The great
+seigniors, Orange, Egmont, Horn, and others, openly avowed their
+hostility to him, and had already given their reasons to the King.
+Mansfeld and his son at that time were both with the opposition. Aerschot
+and Aremberg kept aloof from the league which was forming against the
+prelate, but had small sympathy for his person. Even Berlaymont began to
+listen to overtures from the leading nobles, who, among other
+inducements, promised to supply his children with bishoprics. There were
+none truly faithful and submissive to the Cardinal but such men as the
+Prevot Morillon, who had received much advancement from him.
+
+This distinguished pluralist was popularly called "double A, B, C," to
+indicate that he had twice as many benefices as there were letters in the
+alphabet. He had, however, no objection to more, and was faithful to the
+dispensing power. The same course was pursued by Secretary Bave, Esquire
+Bordey, and other expectants and dependents. Viglius, always remarkable
+for his pusillanimity, was at this period already anxious to retire. The
+erudite and opulent Frisian preferred a less tempestuous career. He was
+in favor of the edicts, but he trembled at the uproar which their literal
+execution was daily exciting, for he knew the temper of his countrymen.
+On the other hand, he was too sagacious not to know the inevitable
+consequence of opposition to the will of Philip. He was therefore most
+eager to escape the dilemma. He was a scholar, and could find more
+agreeable employment among his books. He had accumulated vast wealth, and
+was desirous to retain it as long as possible. He had a learned head and
+was anxious to keep it upon his shoulders. These simple objects could be
+better attained in a life of privacy. The post of president of the privy
+council and member of the "Consulta" was a dangerous one. He knew that
+the King was sincere in his purposes. He foresaw that the people would
+one day be terribly in earnest. Of ancient Frisian blood himself, he knew
+that the spirit of the ancient Batavians and Frisians had not wholly
+deserted their descendants. He knew that they were not easily roused,
+that they were patient, but that they would strike at last and would
+endure. He urgently solicited the King to release him, and pleaded his
+infirmities of body in excuse. Philip, however, would not listen to his
+retirement, and made use of the most convincing arguments to induce him
+to remain. Four hundred and fifty annual florins, secured by good
+reclaimed swamps in Friesland, two thousand more in hand, with a promise
+of still larger emoluments when the King should come to the Netherlands,
+were reasons which the learned doctor honestly confessed himself unable
+to resist. Fortified by these arguments, he remained at his post,
+continued the avowed friend and adherent of Granvelle, and sustained with
+magnanimity the invectives of nobles and people. To do him justice, he
+did what he could to conciliate antagonists and to compromise principles.
+If it had ever been possible to find the exact path between right and
+wrong, the President would have found it, and walked in it with
+respectability and complacency.
+
+In the council, however, the Cardinal continued to carry it with a high
+hand; turning his back on Orange and Egmont, and retiring with the
+Duchess and President to consult, after every session. Proud and
+important personages, like the Prince and Count, could ill brook such
+insolence; moreover, they suspected the Cardinal of prejudicing the mind
+of their sovereign against them. A report was very current, and obtained
+almost universal belief, that Granvelle had expressly advised his Majesty
+to take off the heads of at least half a dozen of the principal nobles in
+the land. This was an error; "These two seigniors," wrote the Cardinal to
+Philip, "have been informed that I have written to your Majesty, that you
+will never be master of these provinces without taking off at least half
+a dozen heads, and that because it would be difficult, on account of the
+probable tumults which such a course would occasion, to do it here, your
+Majesty means to call them to Spain and do it there. Your Majesty can
+judge whether such a thing has ever entered my thoughts. I have laughed
+at it as a ridiculous invention. This gross forgery is one of Renard's."
+The Cardinal further stated to his Majesty that he had been informed by
+these same nobles that the Duke of Alva, when a hostage for the treaty of
+Cateau Cambresis, had negotiated an alliance between the crowns of France
+and Spain for the extirpation of heresy by the sword. He added, that he
+intended to deal with the nobles with all gentleness, and that he should
+do his best to please them. The only thing which he could not yield was
+the authority of his Majesty; to sustain that, he would sacrifice his
+life, if necessary. At the same time Granvelle carefully impressed upon
+the King the necessity of contradicting the report alluded to, a request
+which he took care should also be made through the Regent in person. He
+had already, both in his own person and in that of the Duchess, begged
+for a formal denial, on the King's part, that there was any intention of
+introducing the Spanish inquisition into the Netherlands, and that the
+Cardinal had counselled, originally, the bishoprics. Thus instructed, the
+King accordingly wrote to Margaret of Parma to furnish the required
+contradictions. In so doing, he made a pithy remark. "The Cardinal had
+not counselled the cutting off the half a dozen heads," said the monarch,
+"but perhaps it would not be so bad to do it!" Time was to show whether
+Philip was likely to profit by the hint conveyed in the Cardinal's
+disclaimer, and whether the factor "half dozen" were to be used or not as
+a simple multiplier in the terrible account preparing.
+
+The contradictions, however sincere, were not believed by the persons
+most interested. Nearly all the nobles continued to regard the Cardinal
+with suspicion and aversion. Many of the ruder and more reckless class
+vied with the rhetoricians and popular caricaturists in the practical
+jests which they played off almost daily against the common foe.
+Especially Count Brederode, "a madman, if there ever were one," as a
+contemporary expressed himself, was most untiring in his efforts to make
+Granvelle ridiculous. He went almost nightly to masquerades, dressed as a
+cardinal or a monk; and as he was rarely known to be sober on these or
+any other occasions, the wildness of his demonstrations may easily be
+imagined. He was seconded on all these occasions by his cousin Robert de
+la Marck, Seigneur de Lumey, a worthy descendant of the famous "Wild Boar
+of Ardennes;" a man brave to temerity, but utterly depraved, licentious,
+and sanguinary. These two men, both to be widely notorious, from their
+prominence in many of the most striking scenes by which the great revolt
+was ushered in, had vowed the most determined animosity to the Cardinal,
+which was manifested in the reckless, buffooning way which belonged to
+their characters. Besides the ecclesiastical costumes in which they
+always attired themselves at their frequent festivities, they also wore
+fog-tails in their hats instead of plumes. They decked their servants
+also with the same ornaments; openly stating, that by these symbols they
+meant to signify that the old fox Granvelle, and his cubs, Viglius,
+Berlaymont, and the rest, should soon be hunted down by them, and the
+brush placed in their hats as a trophy.
+
+Moreover, there is no doubt that frequent threats of personal violence
+were made against the Cardinal. Granvelle informed the King that his life
+was continually menaced by, the nobles, but that he feared them little,
+"for he believed them too prudent to attempt any thing of the kind."
+There is no doubt, when his position with regard to the upper and lower
+classes in the country is considered, that there was enough to alarm a
+timid man; but Granvelle was constitutionally brave. He was accused of
+wearing a secret shirt of mail, of living in perpetual trepidation, of
+having gone on his knees to Egmont and Orange, of having sent Richardot,
+Bishop of Arras, to intercede for him in the same humiliating manner with
+Egmont. All these stories were fables. Bold as he was arrogant, he
+affected at this time to look down with a forgiving contempt on the
+animosity of the nobles. He passed much of his time alone, writing his
+eternal dispatches to the King. He had a country-house, called La
+Fontaine, surrounded by beautiful gardens, a little way outside the gates
+of Brussels, where he generally resided, and whence, notwithstanding the
+remonstrances of his friends, he often returned to town, after sunset,
+alone, or with but a few attendants. He avowed that he feared no attempts
+at assassination, for, if the seigniors took his life, they would destroy
+the best friend they ever had. This villa, where most of his plans were
+matured and his state papers drawn up, was called by the people, in
+derision of his supposed ancestry, "The Smithy." Here, as they believed,
+was the anvil upon which the chains of their slavery were forging; here,
+mostly deserted by those who had been his earlier, associates, he assumed
+a philosophical demeanor which exasperated, without deceiving his
+adversaries. Over the great gate of his house he had placed the marble
+statue of a female. It held an empty wine-cup in one hand, and an urn of
+flowing water in the other. The single word "Durate" was engraved upon
+the pedestal. By the motto, which was his habitual device, he was
+supposed, in this application, to signify that his power would outlast
+that of the nobles, and that perennial and pure as living water, it would
+flow tranquilly on, long after the wine of their life had been drunk to
+the lees. The fiery extravagance of his adversaries, and the calm and
+limpid moderation of his own character, thus symbolized, were supposed to
+convey a moral lesson to the world. The hieroglyphics, thus interpreted,
+were not relished by the nobles--all avoided his society, and declined
+his invitations. He consoled himself with the company of the lesser
+gentry,--a class which he now began to patronize, and which he urgently
+recommended to the favor of the King,--hinting that military and civil
+offices bestowed upon their inferiors would be a means of lowering the
+pride of the grandees. He also affected to surround himself with even
+humbler individuals. "It makes me laugh," he wrote to Philip, "to see the
+great seigniors absenting themselves from my dinners; nevertheless, I can
+always get plenty of guests at my table, gentlemen and councillors. I
+sometimes invite even citizens, in order to gain their good will."
+
+The Regent was well aware of the anger excited in the breasts of the
+leading nobles by the cool manner in which they had been thrust out of
+their share in the administration of affairs. She defended herself with
+acrimony in her letters to the King, although a defence was hardly needed
+in that quarter for implicit obedience to the royal commands. She
+confessed her unwillingness to consult with her enemies.
+
+She avowed her determination to conceal the secrets of the government
+from those who were capable of abusing her confidence. She represented
+that there were members of the council who would willingly take advantage
+of the trepidation which she really felt, and which she should exhibit if
+she expressed herself without reserve before them. For this reason she
+confined herself, as Philip had always intended, exclusively to the
+Consulta. It was not difficult to recognize the hand which wrote the
+letter thus signed by Margaret of Parma.
+
+Both nobles and people were at this moment irritated by another
+circumstance. The civil war having again broken out in France, Philip,
+according to the promise made by him to Catharine de Medici, when he took
+her daughter in marriage, was called upon to assist the Catholic party
+with auxiliaries. He sent three thousand infantry, accordingly, which he
+had levied in Italy, as many more collected in Spain, and gave immediate
+orders that the Duchess of Parma should despatch at least two thousand
+cavalry, from the Netherlands. Great was the indignation in the council
+when the commands were produced. Sore was the dismay of Margaret. It was
+impossible to obey the King. The idea of sending the famous mounted
+gendarmerie of the provinces to fight against the French Huguenots could
+not be tolerated for an instant. The "bands of ordonnance" were very few
+in number, and were to guard the frontier. They were purely for domestic
+purposes. It formed no part of their duty to go upon crusades in foreign
+lands; still less to take a share in a religious quarrel, and least of
+all to assist a monarch against a nation. These views were so cogently
+presented to the Duchess in council, that she saw the impossibility of
+complying with her brother's commands. She wrote to Philip to that
+effect. Meantime, another letter arrived out of Spain, chiding her delay,
+and impatiently calling upon her to furnish the required cavalry at once.
+The Duchess was in a dilemma. She feared to provoke another storm in the
+council, for there was already sufficient wrangling there upon domestic
+subjects. She knew it was impossible to obtain the consent, even of
+Berlaymont and Viglius, to such an odious measure as the one proposed.
+She was, however, in great trepidation at the peremptory tone of the
+King's despatch. Under the advice of Granvelle, she had recourse to a
+trick. A private and confidential letter of Philip was read to the
+council, but with alterations suggested and interpolated by the Cardinal.
+The King was represented as being furious at the delay, but as willing
+that a sum of money should be furnished instead of the cavalry, as
+originally required. This compromise, after considerable opposition, was
+accepted. The Duchess wrote to Philip, explaining and apologizing for the
+transaction. The King received the substitution with as good a grace as
+could have been expected, and sent fifteen hundred troopers from Spain to
+his Medicean mother-in-law, drawing upon the Duchess of Parma for the
+money to pay their expenses. Thus was the industry of the Netherlands
+taxed that the French might be persecuted by their own monarch.
+
+The Regent had been forbidden, by her brother, to convoke the
+states-general; a body which the Prince of Orange, sustained by Berghen,
+Montigny, and other nobles, was desirous of having assembled. It may be
+easily understood that Granvelle would take the best care that the royal
+prohibition should be enforced. The Duchess, however, who, as already
+hinted, was beginning to feel somewhat uncomfortable under the Cardinal's
+dominion, was desirous of consulting some larger council than that with
+which she held her daily deliberations. A meeting of the Knights of the
+Fleece was accordingly summoned. They assembled in Brussels, in the month
+of May, 1562. The learned Viglius addressed them in a long and eloquent
+speech, in which he discussed the troubled and dangerous condition of the
+provinces, alluded to some of its causes, and suggested various remedies.
+It may be easily conceived, however, that the inquisition was not stated
+among the causes, nor its suppression included among the remedies. A
+discourse, in which the fundamental topic was thus conscientiously
+omitted, was not likely, with all its concinnities, to make much
+impression upon the disaffected knights, or to exert a soothing influence
+upon the people. The orator was, however, delighted with his own
+performance. He informs us, moreover, that the Duchess was equally
+charmed, and that she protested she had never in her whole life heard any
+thing more "delicate, more suitable, or more eloquent." The Prince of
+Orange, however, did not sympathize with her admiration. The President's
+elegant periods produced but little effect upon his mind. The meeting
+adjourned, after a few additional words from the Duchess, in which she
+begged the knights to ponder well the causes of the increasing
+discontent, and to meet her again, prepared to announce what, in their
+opinion, would be the course best adapted to maintain the honor of the
+King, the safety of the provinces, and the glory of God.
+
+Soon after the separation of the assembly, the Prince of Orange issued
+invitations to most of the knights, to meet at his house for the purpose
+of private deliberation. The President and Cardinal were not included in
+these invitations. The meeting was, in fact, what we should call a
+caucus, rather than a general gathering. Nevertheless, there were many of
+the government party present--men who differed from the Prince, and were
+inclined to support Granvelle. The meeting was a stormy one. Two subjects
+were discussed. The first was the proposition of the Duchess, to
+investigate the general causes of the popular dissatisfaction; the second
+was an inquiry how it could be rendered practicable to discuss political
+matters in future--a proceeding now impossible, in consequence of the
+perverseness and arrogance of certain functionaries, and one which,
+whenever attempted, always led to the same inevitable result. This direct
+assault upon the Cardinal produced a furious debate. His enemies were
+delighted with the opportunity of venting their long-suppressed spleen.
+They indulged in savage invectives against the man whom they so sincerely
+hated. His adherents, on the other hand--Bossu, Berlaymont,
+Courieres--were as warm in his defence. They replied by indignant denials
+of the charge against him, and by bitter insinuations against the Prince
+of Orange. They charged him with nourishing the desire of being appointed
+governor of Brabant, an office considered inseparable from the general
+stadholderate of all the provinces. They protested for themselves that
+they were actuated by no ambitious designs--that they were satisfied with
+their own position, and not inspired by jealousy of personages more
+powerful than themselves. It is obvious that such charges and
+recriminations could excite no healing result, and that the lines between
+Cardinalists and their opponents would be defined in consequence more
+sharply than ever. The adjourned meeting of the Chevaliers of the Fleece
+took place a few days afterwards. The Duchess exerted herself as much as
+possible to reconcile the contending factions, without being able,
+however, to apply the only remedy which could be effective. The man who
+was already fast becoming the great statesman of the country knew that
+the evil was beyond healing, unless by a change of purpose on the part of
+the government. The Regent, on the other hand, who it must be confessed
+never exhibited any remarkable proof of intellectual ability during the
+period of her residence in the Netherlands, was often inspired by a
+feeble and indefinite hope that the matter might be arranged by a
+compromise between the views of conflicting parties. Unfortunately the
+inquisition was not a fit subject for a compromise.
+
+Nothing of radical importance was accomplished by the Assembly of the
+Fleece. It was decided that an application should be made to the
+different states for a giant of money, and that, furthermore, a special
+envoy should be despatched to Spain. It was supposed by the Duchess and
+her advisers that more satisfactory information concerning the provinces
+could be conveyed to Philip by word of mouth than by the most elaborate
+epistles. The meeting was dissolved after these two measures had been
+agreed upon. Doctor Viglius, upon whom devolved the duty of making the
+report and petition to the states, proceeded to draw up the necessary
+application. This he did with his customary elegance, and, as usual, very
+much to his own satisfaction. On returning to his house, however, after
+having discharged this duty, he was very much troubled at finding that a
+large mulberry-tree; which stood in his garden, had been torn up by the
+roots in a violent hurricane. The disaster was considered ominous by the
+President, and he was accordingly less surprised than mortified when he
+found, subsequently, that his demand upon the orders had remained as
+fruitless as his ruined tree. The tempest which had swept his garden he
+considered typical of the storm which was soon to rage through the land,
+and he felt increased anxiety to reach a haven while it was yet
+comparatively calm.
+
+The estates rejected the request for supplies, on various grounds; among
+others, that the civil war was drawing to a conclusion in France, and
+that less danger was to be apprehended from that source than had lately
+been the case. Thus, the "cup of bitterness," of which Granvelle had
+already complained; was again commended to his lips, and there was more
+reason than ever for the government to regret that the national
+representatives had contracted the habit of meddling with financial
+matters.
+
+Florence de Montmorency, Seigneur de Montigny, was selected by the Regent
+for the mission which had been decided upon for Spain. This gentleman was
+brother to Count Horn, but possessed of higher talents and a more amiable
+character than those of the Admiral. He was a warm friend of Orange, and
+a bitter enemy to Granvelle. He was a sincere Catholic, but a determined
+foe to the inquisition. His brother had declined to act as envoy. This
+refusal can excite but little surprise, when Philip's wrath at their
+parting interview is recalled, and when it is also remembered that the
+new mission would necessarily lay bare fresh complaints against the
+Cardinal, still more extensive than those which had produced the former
+explosion of royal indignation. Montigny, likewise, would have preferred
+to remain at home, but he was overruled. It had been written in his
+destiny that he should go twice into the angry lion's den, and that he
+should come forth once, alive.
+
+Thus it has been shown that there was an open, avowed hostility on the
+part of the grand seignors and most of the lesser nobility to the
+Cardinal and his measures. The people fully and enthusiastically
+sustained the Prince of Orange in his course. There was nothing underhand
+in the opposition made to the government. The Netherlands did not
+constitute an absolute monarchy. They did not even constitute a monarchy.
+There was no king in the provinces. Philip was King of Spain, Naples,
+Jerusalem, but he was only Duke of Brabant, Count of Flanders, Lord of
+Friesland, hereditary chief, in short, under various titles, of seventeen
+states, each one of which, although not republican, possessed
+constitutions as sacred as, and much more ancient than, the Crown. The
+resistance to the absolutism of Granvelle and Philip was, therefore,
+logical, legal, constitutional. It was no cabal, no secret league, as the
+Cardinal had the effrontery to term it, but a legitimate exercise of
+powers which belonged of old to those who wielded them, and which only an
+unrighteous innovation could destroy.
+
+Granvelle's course was secret and subtle. During the whole course of the
+proceedings which have just been described, he was; in daily confidential
+correspondence with the King, besides being the actual author of the
+multitudinous despatches which were sent with the signature of the
+Duchess. He openly asserted his right to monopolize all the powers of the
+Government; he did his utmost to force upon the reluctant and almost
+rebellious people the odious measures which the King had resolved upon,
+while in his secret letters he uniformly represented the nobles who
+opposed him, as being influenced, not by an honest hatred of oppression
+and attachment to ancient rights, but by resentment, and jealousy of
+their own importance. He assumed, in his letters to his master, that the
+absolutism already existed of right and in fact, which it was the
+intention of Philip to establish. While he was depriving the nobles, the
+states and the nation of their privileges, and even of their natural
+rights (a slender heritage in those days), he assured the King that there
+was an evident determination to reduce his authority to a cipher.
+
+The estates, he wrote, had usurped the whole administration of the
+finances, and had farmed it out to Antony Van Stralen and others, who
+were making enormous profits in the business. "The seignors," he said,
+"declare at their dinner parties that I wish to make them subject to the
+absolute despotism of your Majesty. In point of fact, however, they
+really exercise a great deal more power than the governors of particular
+provinces ever did before; and it lacks but little that Madame and your
+Majesty should become mere ciphers, while the grandees monopolize the
+whole power. This," he continued, "is the principal motive of their
+opposition to the new bishoprics. They were angry that your Majesty
+should have dared to solicit such an arrangement at Rome, without, first
+obtaining their consent. They wish to reduce your Majesty's authority to
+so low a point that you can do nothing unless they desire it. Their
+object is the destruction of the royal authority and of the
+administration of justice, in order to avoid the payment of their debts;
+telling their creditors constantly that they, have spent their all in
+your Majesty's service, and that they have never received recompence or
+salary. This they do to make your Majesty odious."
+
+As a matter of course, he attributed the resistance on the part of the
+great nobles, every man of whom was Catholic, to base motives. They were
+mere demagogues, who refused to burn their fellow-creatures, not from any
+natural repugnance to the task, but in order to gain favor with the
+populace. "This talk about the inquisition," said he, "is all a pretext.
+'Tis only to throw dust in the eyes of the vulgar, and to persuade them
+into tumultuous demonstrations, while the real reason is, that they
+choose that your Majesty should do nothing without their permission, and
+through their hands."
+
+He assumed sometimes, however, a tone of indulgence toward the
+seignors--who formed the main topics of his letters--an affectation which
+might, perhaps, have offended them almost as much as more open and
+sincere denunciation. He could forgive offences against himself. It was
+for Philip to decide as to their merits or crimes so far as the Crown was
+concerned. His language often was befitting a wise man who was speaking
+of very little children. "Assonleville has told me, as coming from
+Egmont," he wrote, "that many of the nobles are dissatisfied with me;
+hearing from Spain that I am endeavoring to prejudice your Majesty
+against them." Certainly the tone of the Cardinal's daily letters would
+have justified such suspicion, could the nobles have seen them. Granvelle
+begged the King, however, to disabuse them upon this point. "Would to
+God," said he, piously, "that they all would decide to sustain the
+authority of your Majesty, and to procure such measures as tend to the
+service of God and the security of the states. May I cease to exist if I
+do not desire to render good service to the very least of these
+gentlemen. Your Majesty knows that, when they do any thing for the
+benefit of your service, I am never silent. Nevertheless, thus they are
+constituted. I hope, however, that this flurry will blow over, and that
+when your Majesty comes they will all be found to deserve rewards of
+merit."
+
+Of Egmont, especially, he often spoke in terms of vague, but somewhat
+condescending commendation. He never manifested resentment in his
+letters, although, as already stated, the Count had occasionally
+indulged, not only in words, but in deeds of extreme violence against
+him. But the Cardinal was too forgiving a Christian, or too keen a
+politician not to pass by such offences, so long as there was a chance of
+so great a noble's remaining or becoming his friend. He, accordingly,
+described him, in general, as a man whose principles, in the main, were
+good, but who was easily led by his own vanity and the perverse counsels
+of others. He represented him as having been originally a warm supporter
+of the new bishoprics, and as having expressed satisfaction that two of
+them, those of Bruges and Ypres, should have been within his own
+stadholderate. He regretted, however; to inform the King that the Count
+was latterly growing lukewarm, perhaps from fear of finding himself
+separated from the other nobles. On the whole, he was tractable enough,
+said the Cardinal, if he were not easily persuaded by the vile; but one
+day, perhaps, he might open his eyes again. Notwithstanding these vague
+expressions of approbation, which Granvelle permitted himself in his
+letters to Philip, he never failed to transmit to the monarch every fact,
+every rumor, every inuendo which might prejudice the royal mind against
+that nobleman or against any of the noblemen, whose characters he at the
+same time protested he was most unwilling to injure.
+
+It is true that he dealt mainly by insinuation, while he was apt to
+conclude his statements with disclaimers upon his own part, and with
+hopes of improvement in the conduct of the seignors. At this particular
+point of time he furnished Philip with a long and most circumstantial
+account of a treasonable correspondence which was thought to be going on
+between the leading nobles and the future emperor, Maximilian. The
+narrative was a good specimen of the masterly style of inuendo in which
+the Cardinal excelled, and by which he was often enabled to convince his
+master of the truth of certain statements while affecting to discredit
+them. He had heard a story, he said, which he felt bound to communicate
+to his Majesty, although he did not himself implicitly believe it. He
+felt himself the more bound to speak upon the subject because it tallied
+exactly with intelligence which he had received from another source. The
+story was that one of these seigniors (the Cardinal did not know which,
+for he had not yet thought proper to investigate the matter) had said
+that rather than consent that the King should act in this matter of the
+bishoprics against the privileges of Brabant, the nobles would elect for
+their sovereign some other prince of the blood. This, said the Cardinal,
+was perhaps a fantasy rather than an actual determination. Count Egmont,
+to be sure, he said, was constantly exchanging letters with the King of
+Bohemia (Maximilian), and it was supposed, therefore, that he was the
+prince of the blood who was to be elected to govern the provinces. It was
+determined that he should be chosen King of the Romans, by fair means or
+by force, that he should assemble an army to attack the Netherlands, that
+a corresponding movement should be made within the states, and that the
+people should be made to rise, by giving them the reins in the matter of
+religion. The Cardinal, after recounting all the particulars of this
+fiction with great minuteness, added, with apparent frankness, that the
+correspondence between Egmont and Maximilian did not astonish him,
+because there had been much intimacy between them in the time of the late
+Emperor. He did not feel convinced, therefore, from the frequency of the
+letters exchanged, that there was a scheme to raise an army to attack the
+provinces and to have him elected by force. On the contrary, Maximilian
+could never accomplish such a scheme without the assistance of his
+imperial father the Emperor, whom Granvelle was convinced would rather
+die than be mixed up with such villany against Philip. Moreover, unless
+the people should become still more corrupted by the bad counsels
+constantly given them, the Cardinal did not believe that any of the great
+nobles had the power to dispose in this way of the provinces at their
+pleasure. Therefore, he concluded that the story was to be rejected as
+improbable, although it had come to him directly from the house of the
+said Count Egmont. It is remarkable that, at the commencement of his
+narrative, the Cardinal had expressed his ignorance of the name of the
+seignior who was hatching all this treason, while at the end of it he
+gave a local habitation to the plot in the palace of Egmont. It is also
+quite characteristic that he should add that, after all, he considered
+that nobleman one of the most honest of all, if appearances did not
+deceive.
+
+It may be supposed, however, that all these details of a plot which was
+quite imaginary, were likely to produce more effect upon a mind so narrow
+and so suspicious as that of Philip, than could the vague assertions of
+the Cardinal, that in spite of all, he would dare be sworn that he
+thought the Count honest, and that men should be what they seemed.
+
+Notwithstanding the conspiracy, which, according to Granvelle's letters,
+had been formed against him, notwithstanding that his life was daily
+threatened, he did not advise the King at this period to avenge him by
+any public explosion of wrath. He remembered, he piously observed, that
+vengeance belonged to God, and that He would repay. Therefore he passed
+over insults meekly, because that comported best with his Majesty's
+service. Therefore, too, he instructed Philip to make no demonstration at
+that time, in order not to damage his own affairs. He advised him to
+dissemble, and to pretend not to know what was going on in the provinces.
+Knowing that his master looked to him daily for instructions, always
+obeyed them with entire docility, and, in fact, could not move a step in
+Netherland matters without them, he proceeded to dictate to him the terms
+in which he was to write to the nobles, and especially laid down rules
+for his guidance in his coming interviews with the Seigneur de Montigny.
+Philip, whose only talent consisted in the capacity to learn such lessons
+with laborious effort, was at this juncture particularly in need of
+tuition. The Cardinal instructed him, accordingly, that he was to
+disabuse all men of the impression that the Spanish inquisition was to be
+introduced into the provinces. He was to write to the seigniors,
+promising to pay them their arrears of salary; he was to exhort them to
+do all in their power for the advancement of religion and maintenance of
+the royal authority; and he was to suggest to them that, by his answer to
+the Antwerp deputation, it was proved that there was no intention of
+establishing the inquisition of Spain, under pretext of the new
+bishoprics.
+
+The King was, furthermore, to signify his desire that all the nobles
+should exert themselves to efface this false impression from the popular
+mind. He was also to express himself to the same effect concerning the
+Spanish inquisition, the bishoprics, and the religious question, in the
+public letters to Madame de Parma, which were to be read in full council.
+The Cardinal also renewed his instructions to the King as to the manner
+in which the Antwerp deputies were to be answered, by giving them,
+namely, assurances that to transplant the Spanish inquisition into the
+provinces would be as hopeless as to attempt its establishment in Naples.
+He renewed his desire that Philip should contradict the story about the
+half dozen heads, and he especially directed him to inform Montigny that
+Berghen had known of the new bishoprics before the Cardinal. This, urged
+Granvelle, was particularly necessary, because the seigniors were
+irritated that so important a matter should have been decided upon
+without their advice, and because the Marquis Berghen was now the "cock
+of the opposition."
+
+At about the same time, it was decided by Granvelle and the Regent, in
+conjunction with the King, to sow distrust and jealousy among the nobles,
+by giving greater "mercedes" to some than to others, although large sums
+were really due to all. In particular, the attempt was made in this
+paltry manner, to humiliate William of Orange. A considerable sum was
+paid to Egmont, and a trifling one to the Prince, in consideration of
+their large claims upon the treasury. Moreover the Duke of Aerschot was
+selected as envoy to the Frankfort Diet, where the King of the Romans was
+to be elected, with the express intention, as Margaret wrote to Philip,
+of creating divisions among the nobles, as he had suggested. The Duchess
+at the same time informed her brother that, according to, Berlaymont, the
+Prince of Orange was revolving some great design, prejudicial to his
+Majesty's service.
+
+Philip, who already began to suspect that a man who thought so much must
+be dangerous, was eager to find out the scheme over which William the
+Silent was supposed to be brooding, and wrote for fresh intelligence to
+the Duchess.
+
+Neither Margaret nor the Cardinal, however, could discover any thing
+against the Prince--who, meantime, although disappointed of the mission
+to Frankfort, had gone to that city in his private capacity--saving that
+he had been heard to say, "one day we shall be the stronger." Granvelle
+and Madame de Parma both communicated this report upon the same day, but
+this was all that they were able to discover of the latent plot.
+
+In the autumn of this year (1562) Montigny made his visit to Spain, as
+confidential envoy from the Regent. The King being fully prepared as to
+the manner in which he was to deal with him, received the ambassador with
+great cordiality. He informed him in the course of their interviews, that
+Granvelle had never attempted to create prejudice against the nobles,
+that he was incapable of the malice attributed to him, and that even were
+it otherwise, his evil representations against other public servants
+would produce no effect. The King furthermore protested that he had no
+intention of introducing the Spanish inquisition into the Netherlands,
+and that the new bishops were not intended as agents for such a design,
+but had been appointed solely with a view of smoothing religious
+difficulties in the provinces, and of leading his people back into the
+fold of the faithful. He added, that as long ago as his visit to England
+for the purpose of espousing Queen Mary, he had entertained the project
+of the new episcopates, as the Marquis Berghen, with whom he had
+conversed freely upon the subject, could bear witness. With regard to the
+connexion of Granvelle with the scheme, he assured Montigny that the
+Cardinal had not been previously consulted, but had first learned the
+plan after the mission of Sonnius.
+
+Such was the purport of the King's communications to the envoy, as
+appears from memoranda in the royal handwriting and from the
+correspondence of Margaret of Parma. Philip's exactness in conforming to
+his instructions is sufficiently apparent, on comparing his statements
+with the letters previously received from the omnipresent Cardinal.
+Beyond the limits of those directions the King hardly hazarded a
+syllable. He was merely the plenipotentiary of the Cardinal, as Montigny
+was of the Regent. So long as Granvelle's power lasted, he was absolute
+and infallible. Such, then, was the amount of satisfaction derived from
+the mission of Montigny. There was to be no diminution of the religious
+persecution, but the people were assured upon royal authority, that the
+inquisition, by which they were daily burned and beheaded, could not be
+logically denominated the Spanish inquisition. In addition to the
+comfort, whatever it might be, which the nation could derive from this
+statement, they were also consoled with the information that Granvelle
+was not the inventor of the bishoprics. Although he had violently
+supported the measure as soon as published, secretly denouncing as
+traitors and demagogues, all those who lifted their voices against it,
+although he was the originator of the renewed edicts, although he took,
+daily, personal pains that this Netherland inquisition, "more pitiless
+than the Spanish," should be enforced in its rigor, and although he, at
+the last, opposed the slightest mitigation of its horrors, he was to be
+represented to the nobles and the people as a man of mild and
+unprejudiced character, incapable of injuring even his enemies. "I will
+deal with the seigniors most blandly," the Cardinal had written to
+Philip, "and will do them pleasure, even if they do not wish it, for the
+sake of God and your Majesty." It was in this light, accordingly, that
+Philip drew the picture of his favorite minister to the envoy. Montigny,
+although somewhat influenced by the King's hypocritical assurances of
+the benignity with which he regarded the Netherlands, was, nevertheless,
+not to be deceived by this flattering portraiture of a man whom he knew
+so well and detested so cordially as he did Granvelle. Solicited by the
+King, at their parting interview, to express his candid opinion as to the
+causes of the dissatisfaction in the provinces, Montigny very frankly and
+most imprudently gave vent to his private animosity towards the Cardinal.
+He spoke of his licentiousness, greediness, ostentation, despotism, and
+assured the monarch that nearly all the inhabitants of the Netherlands
+entertained the same opinion concerning him. He then dilated upon the
+general horror inspired by the inquisition and the great repugnance felt
+to the establishment of the new episcopates. These three evils,
+Granvelle, the inquisition, and the bishoprics, he maintained were the
+real and sufficient causes of the increasing popular discontent. Time was
+to reveal whether the open-hearted envoy was to escape punishment for his
+frankness, and whether vengeance for these crimes against Granvelle and
+Philip were to be left wholly, as the Cardinal had lately suggested, in
+the hands of the Lord.
+
+Montigny returned late in December. His report concerning the results of
+his mission was made in the state council, and was received with great
+indignation. The professions of benevolent intentions on the part of the
+sovereign made no impression on the mind of Orange, who was already in
+the habit of receiving secret information from Spain with regard to the
+intentions of the government. He knew very well that the plot revealed to
+him by Henry the Second in the wood of Vincennes was still the royal
+program, so far as the Spanish monarch was concerned. Moreover, his anger
+was heightened by information received from Montigny that the names of
+Orange, Egmont and their adherents, were cited to him as he passed
+through France as the avowed defenders of the Huguenots, in politics and
+religion. The Prince, who was still a sincere Catholic, while he hated
+the persecutions of the inquisition, was furious at the statement. A
+violent scene occurred in the council. Orange openly denounced the report
+as a new slander of Granvelle, while Margaret defended the Cardinal and
+denied the accusation, but at the same time endeavored with the utmost
+earnestness to reconcile the conflicting parties.
+
+It had now become certain, however, that the government could no longer
+be continued on its present footing. Either Granvelle or the seigniors
+must succumb. The Prince of Orange was resolved that the Cardinal should
+fall or that he would himself withdraw from all participation in the
+affairs of government. In this decision he was sustained by Egmont, Horn,
+Montigny, Berghen, and the other leading nobles.
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     Affecting to discredit them
+     An inspiring and delightful recreation (auto-da-fe)
+     Arrested on suspicion, tortured till confession
+     Inquisition of the Netherlands is much more pitiless
+     Inquisition was not a fit subject for a compromise
+     Made to swing to and fro over a slow fire
+     Orator was, however, delighted with his own performance
+     Philip, who did not often say a great deal in a few words
+     Scaffold was the sole refuge from the rack
+     Ten thousand two hundred and twenty individuals were burned
+     Torquemada's administration (of the inquisition)
+     Two witnesses sent him to the stake, one witness to the rack
+
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, PG EDITION, VOLUME 8.
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
+JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, D.C.L., LL.D.
+1855
+1563-1564 [CHAPTER IV.]
+
+   Joint letter to Philip, from Orange, Egmont, and Horn--Egmont's
+   quarrel with Aerschot and with Aremberg--Philip's answer to the
+   three nobles--His instructions to the Duchess--Egmont declines the
+   King's invitation to visit Spain--Second letter of the three
+   seigniors--Mission of Armenteros--Letter of Alva--Secret letters of
+   Granvelle to Philip--The Cardinal's insinuations and instructions--
+   His complaints as to the lukewarmness of Berghen and Montigny in the
+   cause of the inquisition--Anecdotes to their discredit privately
+   chronicled by Granvelle--Supposed necessity for the King's presence
+   in the provinces--Correspondence of Lazarus Schwendi--Approaching
+   crisis--Anxiety of Granvelle to retire--Banquet of Caspar Schetz--
+   Invention of the foolscap livery--Correspondence of the Duchess and
+   of the Cardinal with Philip upon the subject--Entire withdrawal of
+   the three seigniors from the state council--the King advises with
+   Alva concerning the recall of Granvelle--Elaborate duplicity of
+   Philip's arrangements--His secret note to the Cardinal--His
+   dissembling letters to others--Departure of Granvelle from the
+   Netherlands--Various opinions as to its cause--Ludicrous conduct of
+   Brederode and Hoogstraaten--Fabulous statements in Granvelle's
+   correspondence concerning his recall--Universal mystification--The
+   Cardinal deceived by the King--Granvelle in retirement--His
+   epicureanism--Fears in the provinces as to his return--Universal joy
+   at his departure--Representations to his discredit made by the
+   Duchess to Philip--Her hypocritical letters to the Cardinal--
+   Masquerade at Count Mansfeld's--Chantonnay's advice to his brother--
+   Review of Granvelle's administration and estimate of his character.
+
+On the 11th March, 1563, Orange, Horn, and Egmont united in a remarkable
+letter to the King. They said that as their longer "taciturnity" might
+cause the ruin of his Majesty's affairs, they were at last compelled to
+break silence. They hoped that the King would receive with benignity a
+communication which was pure, frank, and free from all passion. The
+leading personages of the province, they continued, having thoroughly
+examined the nature and extent of Cardinal Granvelle's authority, had
+arrived at the conclusion that every thing was in his hands. This
+persuasion, they said, was rooted in the hearts of all his Majesty's
+subjects, and particularly in their own, so deeply, that it could not be
+eradicated as long as the Cardinal remained. The King was therefore
+implored to consider the necessity of remedying the evil. The royal
+affairs, it was affirmed, would never be successfully conducted so long
+as they were entrusted to Granvelle, because he was so odious to so many
+people. If the danger were not imminent, they should not feel obliged to
+write to his Majesty with so much vehemence. It was, however, an affair
+which allowed neither delay nor dissimulation. They therefore prayed the
+King, if they had ever deserved credence in things of weight, to believe
+them now. By so doing, his Majesty would avoid great mischief. Many grand
+seigniors, governors, and others, had thought it necessary to give this
+notice, in order that the King might prevent the ruin of the country. If,
+however, his Majesty were willing, as they hoped, to avoid discontenting
+all for the sake of satisfying one, it was possible that affairs might
+yet prosper. That they might not be thought influenced by ambition or by
+hope of private profit, the writers asked leave to retire from the state
+council. Neither their reputation, they said, nor the interests of the
+royal service would permit them to act with the Cardinal. They professed
+themselves dutiful subjects and Catholic vassals. Had it not been for the
+zeal of the leading seigniors, the nobility, and other well-disposed
+persons, affairs would not at that moment be so tranquil; the common
+people having been so much injured, and the manner of life pursued by the
+Cardinal not being calculated to give more satisfaction than was afforded
+by his unlimited authority. In conclusion, the writers begged his Majesty
+not to throw the blame upon them, if mischance should follow the neglect
+of this warning. This memorable letter was signed by Guillaume, de
+Nassau, Lamoral d'Egmont, and Philippes de Montmorency (Count Horn). It
+was despatched undercover to Charles de Tisnacq, a Belgian, and
+procurator for the affairs of the Netherlands at Madrid, a man whose
+relations with Count Egmont were of a friendly character. It was
+impossible, however, to keep the matter a secret from the person most
+interested. The Cardinal wrote to the King the day before the letter was
+written, and many weeks before it was sent, to apprize him that it was
+coming, and to instruct him as to the answer he was to make. Nearly all
+the leading nobles and governors had adhered to the substance of the
+letter, save the Duke of Aerschot, Count Aremberg, and Baron Berlaymont.
+The Duke and Count had refused to join the league; violent scenes having
+occurred upon the subject between them and the leaders of the opposition
+party. Egmont, being with a large shooting party at Aerschot's country
+place, Beaumont, had taken occasion to urge the Duke to join in the
+general demonstration against the Cardinal, arguing the matter in the
+rough, off-hand, reckless manner which was habitual with him. His
+arguments offended the nobleman thus addressed, who was vain and
+irascible. He replied by affirming that he was a friend to Egmont, but
+would not have him for his master. He would have nothing to do, he said,
+with their league against the Cardinal, who had never given him cause of
+enmity. He had no disposition to dictate to the King as to his choice of
+ministers, and his Majesty was quite right to select his servants at his
+own pleasure. The Duke added that if the seigniors did not wish him for a
+friend, it was a matter of indifference to him. Not one of them was his
+superior; he had as large a band of noble followers and friends as the
+best of them, and he had no disposition to accept the supremacy of any
+nobleman in the land. The conversation carried on in this key soon became
+a quarrel, and from words the two gentlemen would soon have come to
+blows, but for the interposition of Aremberg and Robles, who were present
+at the scene. The Duchess of Parma, narrating the occurrence to the King,
+added that a duel had been the expected result of the affair, but that
+the two nobles had eventually been reconciled. It was characteristic of
+Aerschot that he continued afterward to associate with the nobles upon
+friendly terms, while maintaining an increased intimacy with the
+Cardinal.
+
+The gentlemen who sent the letter were annoyed at the premature publicity
+which it seemed to have attained. Orange had in vain solicited Count
+Aremberg to join the league, and had quarrelled with him in consequence.
+Egmont, in the presence of Madame de Parma, openly charged Aremberg with
+having divulged the secret which had been confided to him. The Count
+fiercely denied that he had uttered a syllable on the subject to a human
+being; but added that any communication on his part would have been quite
+superfluous, while Egmont and his friends were daily boasting of what
+they were to accomplish. Egmont reiterated the charge of a breach of
+faith by Aremberg. That nobleman replied by laying his hand upon his
+sword, denouncing as liars all persons who should dare to charge him
+again with such an offence, and offering to fight out the quarrel upon
+the instant. Here, again, personal combat was, with much difficulty,
+averted.
+
+Egmont, rude, reckless, and indiscreet, was already making manifest that
+he was more at home on a battle-field than in a political controversy
+where prudence and knowledge of human nature were as requisite as
+courage. He was at this period more liberal in his sentiments than at any
+moment of his life. Inflamed by his hatred of Granvelle, and determined
+to compass the overthrow of that minister, he conversed freely with all
+kinds of people, sought popularity among the burghers, and descanted to
+every one with much imprudence upon the necessity of union for the sake
+of liberty and the national good. The Regent, while faithfully recording
+in her despatches every thing of this nature which reached her ears,
+expressed her astonishment at Egmont's course, because, as she had often
+taken occasion to inform the King, she had always considered the Count
+most sincerely attached to his Majesty's service.
+
+Berlaymont, the only other noble of prominence who did not approve the
+11th of March letter, was at this period attempting to "swim in two
+waters," and, as usual in such cases, found it very difficult to keep
+himself afloat. He had refused to join the league, but he stood aloof
+from Granvelle. On a hope held out by the seigniors that his son should
+be made Bishop of Liege, he had ceased during a whole year from visiting
+the Cardinal, and had never spoken to him at the council-board.
+Granvelle, in narrating these circumstances to the King, expressed the
+opinion that Berlaymont, by thus attempting to please both parties, had
+thoroughly discredited himself with both.
+
+The famous epistle, although a most reasonable and manly statement of an
+incontrovertible fact, was nevertheless a document which it required much
+boldness to sign. The minister at that moment seemed omnipotent, and it
+was obvious that the King was determined upon a course of political and
+religious absolutism. It is, therefore, not surprising that, although
+many sustained its principles, few were willing to affix their names to a
+paper which might prove a death-warrant to the signers. Even Montigny and
+Berghen, although they had been active in conducting the whole cabal, if
+cabal it could be called, refused to subscribe the letter. Egmont and
+Horn were men of reckless daring, but they were not keen-sighted enough
+to perceive fully the consequences of their acts.
+
+Orange was often accused by his enemies of timidity, but no man ever
+doubted his profound capacity to look quite through the deeds of men. His
+political foresight enabled him to measure the dangerous precipice which
+they were deliberately approaching, while the abyss might perhaps be
+shrouded to the vision of his companions. He was too tranquil of nature
+to be hurried, by passions into a grave political step, which in cooler
+moments he might regret. He resolutely, therefore, and with his eyes
+open, placed himself in open and recorded enmity with the most powerful
+and dangerous man in the whole Spanish realm, and incurred the resentment
+of a King who never forgave. It may be safely averred that as much
+courage was requisite thus to confront a cold and malignant despotism,
+and to maintain afterwards, without flinching, during a whole lifetime,
+the cause of national rights and liberty of conscience, as to head the
+most brilliant charge of cavalry that ever made hero famous.
+
+Philip answered the letter of the three nobles on the 6th June following.
+In this reply, which was brief, he acknowledged the zeal and affection by
+which the writers had been actuated. He suggested, nevertheless, that, as
+they had mentioned no particular cause for adopting the advice contained
+in their letter, it would be better that one of them should come to
+Madrid to confer with him. Such matters, he said, could be better treated
+by word of mouth. He might thus receive sufficient information to enable
+him to form a decision, for, said he in conclusion, it was not his custom
+to aggrieve any of his ministers without cause.
+
+This was a fine phrase, but under the circumstances of its application,
+quite ridiculous. There was no question of aggrieving the minister. The
+letter of the three nobles was very simple. It consisted of a fact and a
+deduction. The fact stated was, that the Cardinal was odious to all
+classes of the nation. The deduction drawn was, that the government could
+no longer be carried on by him without imminent danger of ruinous
+convulsions. The fact was indisputable. The person most interested
+confirmed it in his private letters. "'Tis said," wrote Granvelle to
+Philip, "that grandees, nobles, and people, all abhor me, nor am I
+surprised to find that grandees, nobles, and people are all openly
+against me, since each and all have been invited to join in the league."
+The Cardinal's reasons for the existence of the unpopularity, which he
+admitted to the full, have no bearing upon the point in the letter. The
+fact was relied upon to sustain a simple, although a momentous inference.
+It was for Philip to decide upon the propriety of the deduction, and to
+abide by the consequences of his resolution when taken. As usual,
+however, the monarch was not capable of making up his mind. He knew very
+well that the Cardinal was odious and infamous, because he was the
+willing impersonation of the royal policy. Philip was, therefore,
+logically called upon to abandon the policy or to sustain the minister.
+He could make up his mind to do neither the one nor the other. In the
+mean time a well-turned period of mock magnanimity had been furnished
+him. This he accordingly transmitted as his first answer to a most
+important communication upon a subject which, in the words of the
+writers, "admitted neither of dissimulation nor delay." To deprive Philip
+of dissimulation and delay, however, was to take away his all. They were
+the two weapons with which he fought his long life's battle. They summed
+up the whole of his intellectual resources. It was inevitable, therefore,
+that he should at once have recourse to both on such an emergency as the
+present one.
+
+At the same time that he sent his answer to the nobles, he wrote an
+explanatory letter to the Regent. He informed her that he had received
+the communication of the three seigniors, but instructed her that she was
+to appear to know nothing of the matter until Egmont should speak to her
+upon the subject. He added that, although he had signified his wish to
+the three nobles, that one of them, without specifying which, should come
+to Madrid, he in reality desired that Egmont, who seemed the most
+tractable of the three, should be the one deputed. The King added, that
+his object was to divide the nobles, and to gain time.
+
+It was certainly superfluous upon Philip's part to inform his sister that
+his object was to gain time. Procrastination was always his first refuge,
+as if the march of the world's events would pause indefinitely while he
+sat in his cabinet and pondered. It was, however, sufficiently puerile to
+recommend to his sister an affectation of ignorance on a subject
+concerning which nobles had wrangled, and almost drawn their swords in
+her presence. This, however, was the King's statesmanship when left to
+his unaided exertions. Granvelle, who was both Philip and Margaret when
+either had to address or to respond to the world at large, did not always
+find it necessary to regulate the correspondence of his puppets between
+themselves. In order more fully to divide the nobles, the King also
+transmitted to Egmont a private note, in his own handwriting, expressing
+his desire that he should visit Spain in person, that they might confer
+together upon the whole subject.
+
+These letters, as might be supposed, produced any thing but a
+satisfactory effect. The discontent and rage of the gentlemen who had
+written or sustained the 11th of March communication, was much increased.
+The answer was, in truth, no answer at all. "'Tis a cold and bad reply,"
+wrote Louis of Nassau, "to send after so long a delay. 'Tis easy to see
+that the letter came from the Cardinal's smithy. In summa it is a vile
+business, if the gentlemen are all to be governed by one person. I hope
+to God his power will come soon to an end. Nevertheless," added Louis,
+"the gentlemen are all wide awake, for they trust the red fellow not a
+bit more than he deserves."
+
+The reader has already seen that the letter was indeed "from the
+Cardinal's smithy," Granvelle having instructed his master how to reply
+to the seigniors before the communication had been despatched.
+
+The Duchess wrote immediately to inform her brother that Egmont had
+expressed himself willing enough to go to Spain, but had added that he
+must first consult Orange and Horn. As soon as that step had been taken,
+she had been informed that it was necessary for them to advise with all
+the gentlemen who had sanctioned their letter. The Duchess had then tried
+in vain to prevent such an assembly, but finding that, even if forbidden,
+it would still take place, she had permitted the meeting in Brussels, as
+she could better penetrate into their proceedings there, than if it
+should be held at a distance. She added, that she should soon send her
+secretary Armenteros to Spain, that the King might be thoroughly
+acquainted with what was occurring.
+
+Egmont soon afterwards wrote to Philip, declining to visit Spain
+expressly on account of the Cardinal. He added, that he was ready to
+undertake the journey, should the King command his presence for any other
+object. The same decision was formally communicated to the Regent by
+those Chevaliers of the Fleece who had approved the 11th of March
+letter--Montigny; Berghen, Meghem, Mansfeld, Ligne, Hoogstraaten, Orange,
+Egmont, and Horn. The Prince of Orange, speaking in the name of all,
+informed her that they did not consider it consistent with their
+reputation, nor with the interest of his Majesty, that any one of them
+should make so long and troublesome a journey, in order to accuse the
+Cardinal. For any other purpose, they all held themselves ready to go to
+Spain at once. The Duchess expressed her regret at this resolution. The
+Prince replied by affirming that, in all their proceedings, they had been
+governed, not by hatred of Granvelle but by a sense of duty to his
+Majesty. It was now, he added, for the King to pursue what course it
+pleased him.
+
+Four days after this interview with the Regent, Orange, Egmont, and Horn
+addressed a second letter to the King. In this communication they stated
+that they had consulted with all the gentlemen with whose approbation
+their first letter had been written. As to the journey of one of them to
+Spain,--as suggested, they pronounced it very dangerous for any seignior
+to absent himself, in the condition of affairs which then existed. It was
+not a sufficient cause to go thither on account of Granvelle. They
+disclaimed any intention of making themselves parties to a process
+against the Cardinal. They had thought that their simple, brief
+announcement would have sufficed to induce his Majesty to employ that
+personage in other places, where his talents would be more fruitful. As
+to "aggrieving the Cardinal without cause," there was no question of
+aggrieving him at all, but of relieving him of an office which could not
+remain in his hands without disaster. As to "no particular cause having
+been mentioned," they said the omission was from no lack of many such.
+They had charged none, however, because, from their past services and
+their fidelity to his Majesty, they expected to be believed on their
+honor, without further witnesses or evidence. They had no intention of
+making themselves accusers. They had purposely abstained from
+specifications. If his Majesty should proceed to ampler information,
+causes enough would be found. It was better, however, that they should be
+furnished by others than by themselves. His Majesty would then find that
+the public and general complaint was not without adequate motives. They
+renewed their prayer to be excused from serving in the council of state,
+in order that they might not be afterwards inculpated for the faults of
+others. Feeling that the controversy between themselves and the Cardinal
+de Granvelle in the state council produced no fruit for his Majesty's
+affairs, they preferred to yield to him. In conclusion, they begged the
+King to excuse the simplicity of their letters, the rather that they were
+not by nature great orators, but more accustomed to do well than to speak
+well, which was also more becoming to persons of their quality.
+
+On the 4th of August, Count Horn also addressed a private letter to the
+King, written in the same spirit as that which characterized the joint
+letter just cited. He assured his Majesty that the Cardinal could render
+no valuable service to the crown on account of the hatred which the whole
+nation bore him, but that, as far as regarded the maintenance of the
+ancient religion, all the nobles were willing to do their duty.
+
+The Regent now despatched, according to promise, her private secretary,
+Thomas de Armenteros, to Spain. His instructions, which were very
+elaborate, showed that Granvelle was not mistaken when he charged her
+with being entirely changed in regard to him, and when he addressed her a
+reproachful letter, protesting his astonishment that his conduct had
+become auspicious, and his inability to divine the cause of the weariness
+and dissatisfaction which she manifested in regard to him.
+
+Armenteros, a man of low, mercenary, and deceitful character, but a
+favorite of the Regent, and already beginning to acquire that influence
+over her mind which was soon to become so predominant, was no friend of
+the Cardinal. It was not probable that he would diminish the effect of
+that vague censure mingled with faint commendation, which characterized
+Margaret's instructions by any laudatory suggestions of his own. He was
+directed to speak in general terms of the advance of heresy, and the
+increasing penury of the exchequer. He was to request two hundred
+thousand crowns toward the lottery, which the Regent proposed to set up
+as a financial scheme. He was to represent that the Duchess had tried,
+unsuccessfully, every conceivable means of accommodating the quarrel
+between the Cardinal and the seigniors. She recognized Granvelle's great
+capacity, experience, zeal, and devotion--for all which qualities she
+made much of him--while on the other hand she felt that it would be a
+great inconvenience, and might cause a revolt of the country, were she to
+retain him in the Netherlands against the will of the seigniors. These
+motives had compelled her, the messenger was to add, to place both views
+of the subject before the eyes of the King. Armenteros was, furthermore,
+to narrate the circumstances of the interviews which had recently taken
+place between herself and the leaders of the opposition party.
+
+From the tenor of these instructions, it was sufficiently obvious that
+Margaret of Parma was not anxious to retain the Cardinal, but that, on
+the contrary, she was beginning already to feel alarm at the dangerous
+position in which she found herself. A few days after the three nobles
+had despatched their last letter to the King, they had handed her a
+formal remonstrance. In this document they stated their conviction that
+the country was on the high road to ruin, both as regarded his Majesty's
+service and the common weal. The bare, the popular discontent daily
+increasing, the fortresses on the frontier in a dilapidated condition. It
+was to be apprehended daily that merchants and other inhabitants of the
+provinces would be arrested in foreign countries, to satisfy the debts
+owed by his Majesty. To provide against all these evils, but one course,
+it was suggested, remained to the government--to summon the
+states-general, and to rely upon their counsel and support. The nobles,
+however, forbore to press this point, by reason of the prohibition which
+the Regent had received from the King. They suggested, however, that such
+an interdiction could have been dictated only by a distrust created
+between his Majesty and the estates by persons having no love for either,
+and who were determined to leave no resource by which the distress of the
+country could be prevented. The nobles, therefore, begged her highness
+not to take it amiss if, so long as the King was indisposed to make other
+arrangements for the administration of the provinces, they should abstain
+from appearing at the state council. They preferred to cause the shadow
+at last to disappear, which they had so long personated. In conclusion,
+however, they expressed their determination to do their duty in their
+several governments, and to serve the Regent to the best of their
+abilities.
+
+After this remonstrance had been delivered, the Prince of Orange, Count
+Horn, and Count Egmont abstained entirely from the sessions of the state
+council. She was left alone with the Cardinal, whom she already hated,
+and with his two shadows, Viglius and Berlaymont.
+
+Armenteros, after a month spent on his journey, arrived in Spain, and was
+soon admitted to an audience by Philip. In his first interview, which
+lasted four hours, he read to the King all the statements and documents
+with which he had come provided, and humbly requested a prompt decision.
+Such a result was of course out of the question. Moreover, the Cortes of
+Tarragon, which happened then to be in session, and which required the
+royal attention, supplied the monarch with a fresh excuse for indulging
+in his habitual vacillation. Meantime, by way of obtaining additional
+counsel in so grave an emergency, he transmitted the letters of the
+nobles, together with the other papers, to the Duke of Alva, and
+requested his opinion on the subject. Alva replied with the roar of a
+wild beast, "Every time," he wrote, "that I see the despatches of those
+three Flemish seigniors my rage is so much excited that if I did not use
+all possible efforts to restrain it, my sentiments would seem those of a
+madman." After this splenitive exordium he proceeded to express the
+opinion that all the hatred and complaints against the Cardinal had
+arisen from his opposition to the convocation of the states-general. With
+regard to persons who had so richly deserved such chastisement, he
+recommended "that their heads should be taken off; but, until this could
+be done, that the King should dissemble with them." He advised Philip not
+to reply to their letters, but merely to intimate, through the Regent,
+that their reasons for the course proposed by them did not seem
+satisfactory. He did not prescribe this treatment of the case as "a true
+remedy, but only as a palliative; because for the moment only weak
+medicines could be employed, from which, however, but small effect could
+be anticipated." As to recalling the Cardinal, "as they had the impudence
+to propose to his Majesty," the Duke most decidedly advised against the
+step. In the mean time, and before it should be practicable to proceed
+"to that vigorous chastisement already indicated," he advised separating
+the nobles as much as possible by administering flattery and deceitful
+caresses to Egmont, who might be entrapped more easily than the others.
+
+Here, at least, was a man who knew his own mind. Here was a servant who
+could be relied upon to do his master's bidding whenever this master
+should require his help. The vigorous explosion of wrath with which the
+Duke thus responded to the first symptoms of what he regarded as
+rebellion, gave a feeble intimation of the tone which he would assume
+when that movement should have reached a more advanced stage. It might be
+guessed what kind of remedies he would one day prescribe in place of the
+"mild medicines" in which he so reluctantly acquiesced for the present.
+
+While this had been the course pursued by the seigniors, the Regent and
+the King, in regard to that all-absorbing subject of Netherland
+politics--the straggle against Granvelle--the Cardinal, in his letters to
+Philip, had been painting the situation by minute daily touches, in a
+manner of which his pencil alone possessed the secret.
+
+Still maintaining the attitude of an injured but forgiving Christian, he
+spoke of the nobles in a tone of gentle sorrow. He deprecated any rising
+of the royal wrath in his behalf; he would continue to serve the
+gentlemen, whether they would or no; he was most anxious lest any
+considerations on his account should interfere with the King's decision
+in regard to the course to be pursued in the Netherlands. At the same
+time, notwithstanding these general professions of benevolence towards
+the nobles, he represented them as broken spendthrifts, wishing to create
+general confusion in order to escape from personal liabilities; as
+conspirators who had placed themselves within the reach of the
+attorney-general; as ambitious malcontents who were disposed to overthrow
+the royal authority, and to substitute an aristocratic republic upon its
+ruins. He would say nothing to prejudice the King's mind against these
+gentlemen, but he took care to omit nothing which could possibly
+accomplish that result. He described them as systematically opposed to
+the policy which he knew lay nearest the King's heart, and as determined
+to assassinate the faithful minister who was so resolutely carrying it
+out, if his removal could be effected in no other way. He spoke of the
+state of religion as becoming more and more unsatisfactory, and bewailed
+the difficulty with which he could procure the burning of heretics;
+difficulties originating in the reluctance of men from whose elevated
+rank better things might have been expected.
+
+As Granvelle is an important personage, as his character has been
+alternately the subject of much censure and of more applause, and as the
+epoch now described was the one in which the causes of the great
+convulsion were rapidly germinating, it is absolutely necessary that the
+reader should be placed in a position to study the main character, as
+painted by his own hand; the hand in which were placed, at that moment,
+the destinies of a mighty empire. It is the historian's duty, therefore,
+to hang the picture of his administration fully in the light. At the
+moment when the 11th of March letter was despatched, the Cardinal
+represented Orange and Egmont as endeavoring by every method of menace or
+blandishment to induce all the grand seigniors and petty nobles to join
+in the league against himself. They had quarrelled with Aerschot and
+Aremberg, they had more than half seduced Berlaymont, and they
+stigmatized all who refused to enter into their league as cardinalists
+and familiars of the inquisition. He protested that he should regard
+their ill-will with indifference, were he not convinced that he was
+himself only a pretext, and that their designs were really much deeper.
+Since the return of Montigny, the seigniors had established a league
+which that gentleman and his brother, Count Horn, had both joined. He
+would say nothing concerning the defamatory letters and pamphlets of
+which he was the constant object, for he wished no heed taken of matters
+which concerned exclusively himself, Notwithstanding this disclaimer,
+however, he rarely omitted to note the appearance of all such productions
+for his Majesty's especial information. "It was better to calm men's
+spirits," he said, "than to excite them." As to fostering quarrels among
+the seigniors, as the King had recommended, that was hardly necessary,
+for discord was fast sowing its own seeds. "It gave him much pain," he
+said, with a Christian sigh, "to observe that such dissensions had
+already arisen, and unfortunately on his account." He then proceeded
+circumstantially to describe the quarrel between Aerschot and Egmont,
+already narrated by the Regent, omitting in his statement no particular
+which could make Egmont reprehensible in the royal eyes. He likewise
+painted the quarrel between the same noble and Aremberg, to which he had
+already alluded in previous letters to the King, adding that many
+gentlemen, and even the more prudent part of the people, were
+dissatisfied with the course of the grandees, and that he was taking
+underhand but dexterous means to confirm them in such sentiments. He
+instructed Philip how to reply to the letter addressed to him, but begged
+his Majesty not to hesitate to sacrifice him if the interests of his
+crown should seem to require it.
+
+With regard to religious matters, he repeatedly deplored that,
+notwithstanding his own exertions and those of Madame de Parma, things
+were not going on as he desired, but, on the contrary, very badly. "For
+the-love of God and the service of the holy religion," he cried out
+fervently, "put your royal hand valiantly to the work, otherwise we have
+only to exclaim, Help, Lord, for we perish!"
+
+Having uttered this pious exhortation in the ear of a man who needed no
+stimulant in the path of persecution, he proceeded to express his regrets
+that the judges and other officers were not taking in hand the
+chastisement of heresy with becoming vigor.
+
+Yet, at that very moment Peter Titelmann was raging through Flanders,
+tearing whole families out of bed and burning them to ashes, with such
+utter disregard to all laws or forms as to provoke in the very next year
+a solemn protest from the four estates of Flanders; and Titelmann was but
+one of a dozen inquisitors.
+
+Granvelle, however, could find little satisfaction in the exertions of
+subordinates so long as men in high station were remiss in their duties.
+The Marquis Berghen, he informed Philip, showed but little disposition to
+put down heresy, in Valenciennes, while Montigny was equally remiss at
+Tournay. They were often heard to say, to any who chose to listen, that
+it was not right to inflict the punishment of death for matters of
+religion. This sentiment, uttered in that age of blood and fire, and
+crowning the memory of those unfortunate nobles with eternal honor, was
+denounced by the churchman as criminal, and deserving of castigation. He
+intimated, moreover, that these pretences of clemency were mere
+hypocrisy, and that self-interest was at the bottom of their compassion.
+"'Tis very black," said he, "when interest governs; but these men are a
+in debt, so deeply that they owe their very souls. They are seeking every
+means of escaping from their obligations, and are most desirous of
+creating general confusion." As to the Prince of Orange, the Cardinal
+asserted that he owed nine hundred thousand florins, and had hardly
+twenty-five thousand a-year clear income, while he spent ninety thousand,
+having counts; barons, and gentlemen in great numbers, in his household.
+At this point, he suggested that it might be well to find employment for
+some of these grandees in Spain and other dominions of his Majesty,
+adding that perhaps Orange might accept the vice-royalty of Sicily.
+
+Resuming the religious matter, a few weeks later, he expressed himself a
+little more cheerfully, "We have made so much outcry," said he, "that at
+last Marquis Berghen has been forced to burn a couple of heretics at
+Valenciennes. Thus, it is obvious," moralized the Cardinal, "that if he
+were really willing to apply the remedy in that place, much progress
+might be made; but that we can do but little so long as he remains in the
+government of the provinces and refuses to assist us." In a subsequent
+letter, he again uttered com plaints against the Marquis and Montigny,
+who were evermore his scapegoats and bugbears. Berghen will give us no
+aid, he wrote, despite of all the letters we send him. He absents himself
+for private and political reasons. Montigny has eaten meat in Lent, as
+the Bishop of Tournay informs me. Both he and the Marquis say openly that
+it is not right to shed blood for matters of faith, so that the King can
+judge how much can be effected with such coadjutors. Berghen avoids the
+persecution of heretics, wrote the Cardinal again, a month later, to
+Secretary Perez. He has gone to Spa for his health, although those who
+saw him last say he is fat and hearty.
+
+Granvelle added, however, that they had at last "burned one more preacher
+alive." The heretic, he stated, had feigned repentance to save his life,
+but finding that, at any rate, his head would be cut off as a dogmatizer,
+he retracted his recantation. "So," concluded the Cardinal, complacently,
+"they burned him."
+
+He chronicled the sayings and doings of the principal personages in the
+Netherlands, for the instruction of the King, with great regularity,
+insinuating suspicions when unable to furnish evidence, and adding
+charitable apologies, which he knew would have but small effect upon the
+mind of his correspondent. Thus he sent an account of a "very secret
+meeting" held by Orange, Egmont, Horn, Montigny and Berghen, at the abbey
+of La Forest, near Brussels, adding, that he did not know what they had
+been doing there, and was at loss what to suspect. He would be most
+happy, he said, to put the best interpretation upon their actions, but he
+could not help remembering with great sorrow the observation so recently
+made by Orange to Montigny, that one day they should be stronger. Later
+in the year, the Cardinal informed the King that the same nobles were
+holding a conference at Weerdt, that he had not learned what had been
+transacted there, but thought the affair very suspicious. Philip
+immediately communicated the intelligence to Alva, together with an
+expression of Granvelle's fears and of his own, that a popular outbreak
+would be the consequence of the continued presence of the minister in the
+Netherlands.
+
+The Cardinal omitted nothing in the way of anecdote or inuendo, which
+could injure the character of the leading nobles, with the exception,
+perhaps, of Count Egmont. With this important personage, whose character
+he well understood, he seemed determined, if possible, to maintain
+friendly relations. There was a deep policy in this desire, to which we
+shall advert hereafter. The other seigniors were described in general
+terms as disposed to overthrow the royal authority. They were bent upon
+Granvelle's downfall as the first step, because, that being accomplished,
+the rest would follow as a matter of course. "They intend," said he, "to
+reduce the state into the form of a republic, in which the King shall
+have no power except to do their bidding." He added, that he saw with
+regret so many German troops gathering on the borders; for he believed
+them to be in the control of the disaffected nobles of the Netherlands.
+Having made this grave insinuation, he proceeded in the same breath to
+express his anger at a statement said to have been made by Orange and
+Egmont, to the effect that he had charged them with intending to excite a
+civil commotion, an idea, he added, which had never entered his head. In
+the same paragraph, he poured into the most suspicious ear that ever
+listened to a tale of treason, his conviction that the nobles were
+planning a republic by the aid of foreign troops, and uttered a complaint
+that these nobles had accused him of suspecting them. As for the Prince
+of Orange, he was described as eternally boasting of his influence in
+Germany, and the great things which he could effect by means of his
+connexions there, "so that," added the Cardinal, "we hear no other song."
+
+He had much to say concerning the projects of these grandees to abolish
+all the councils, but that of state, of which body they intended to
+obtain the entire control. Marquis Berghen was represented as being at
+the bottom of all these intrigues. The general and evident intention was
+to make a thorough change in the form of government. The Marquis meant to
+command in every thing, and the Duchess would soon have nothing to do in
+the provinces as regent for the King. In fact, Philip himself would be
+equally powerless, "for," said the Cardinal, "they will have succeeded in
+putting your Majesty completely under guardianship." He added, moreover,
+that the seigniors, in order to gain favor with the people and with the
+estates, had allowed them to acquire so much power, that they would
+respond to any request for subsidies by a general popular revolt. "This
+is the simple truth," said Granvelle, "and moreover, by the same process,
+in a very few days there will likewise be no religion left in the land."
+When the deputies of some of the states, a few weeks later, had been
+irregularly convened in Brussels, for financial purposes, the Cardinal
+informed the monarch that the nobles were endeavoring to conciliate their
+good-will, by offering them a splendid series of festivities and
+banquets.
+
+He related various anecdotes which came to his ears from time to time,
+all tending to excite suspicions as to the loyalty and orthodoxy of the
+principal nobles. A gentleman coming from Burgundy had lately, as he
+informed the King, been dining with the Prince of Orange, with whom Horn
+and Montigny were then lodging. At table, Montigny called out in a very
+loud voice to the strange cavalier, who was seated at a great distance
+from him, to ask if there were many Huguenots in Burgundy. No, replied
+the gentleman nor would they be permitted to exist there. "Then there can
+be very few people of intelligence in that province," returned Montigny,
+"for those who have any wit are mostly all Huguenots." The Prince of
+Orange here endeavored to put a stop to the conversation, saying that the
+Burgundians were very right to remain as they were; upon which Montigny
+affirmed that he had heard masses enough lately to last him for three
+months. These things may be jests, commented Granvelle, but they are very
+bad ones; and 'tis evident that such a man is an improper instrument to
+remedy the state of religious affairs in Tournay.
+
+At another large party, the King was faithfully informed by the same
+chronicler, that Marquis Berghen had been teasing the Duke of Aerschot
+very maliciously, because he would not join the league. The Duke had
+responded as he had formerly done to Egmont, that his Majesty was not to
+receive laws from his vassals; adding that, for himself, he meant to
+follow in the loyal track of his ancestors, fearing God and honoring the
+king. In short, said Granvelle, he answered them with so much wisdom,
+that although they had never a high opinion of his capacity, they were
+silenced. This conversation had been going on before all the servants,
+the Marquis being especially vociferous, although the room was quite full
+of them. As soon as the cloth was removed, and while some of the lackies
+still remained, Berghen had resumed the conversation. He said he was of
+the same mind as his ancestor, John of Berghen, had been, who had once
+told the King's grandfather, Philip the Fair, that if his Majesty was
+bent on his own perdition, he had no disposition to ruin himself. If the
+present monarch means to lose these provinces by governing them as he did
+govern them, the Marquis affirmed that he had no wish to lose the little
+property that he himself possessed in the country. "But if," argued the
+Duke of Aerschot, "the King absolutely refuse to do what you demand of
+him; what then?"--"Par la cordieu!" responded Berghen, in a rage, "we
+will let him see!" whereupon all became silent.
+
+Granvelle implored the King to keep these things entirely to himself;
+adding that it was quite necessary for his Majesty to learn in this
+manner what were the real dispositions of the gentlemen of the provinces.
+It was also stated in the same letter, that a ruffian Genoese, who had
+been ordered out of the Netherlands by the Regent, because of a homicide
+he had committed, was kept at Weert, by Count Horn, for the purpose of
+murdering the Cardinal.
+
+He affirmed that he was not allowed to request the expulsion of the
+assassin from the Count's house; but that he would take care,
+nevertheless, that neither this ruffian nor any other, should accomplish
+his purpose. A few weeks afterwards, expressing his joy at the
+contradiction of a report that Philip had himself been assassinated,
+Granvelle added; "I too, who am but a worm in comparison, am threatened
+on so many sides, that many must consider me already dead. Nevertheless,
+I will endeavor, with God's help, to live as long as I can, and if they
+kill me, I hope they will not gain every thing." Yet, with characteristic
+Jesuitism, the Cardinal could not refrain, even in the very letter in
+which he detailed the rebellious demonstrations of Berghen, and the
+murderous schemes of Horn, to protest that he did not say these things
+"to prejudice his Majesty against any one, but only that it might be
+known to what a height the impudence was rising." Certainly the King and
+the ecclesiastic, like the Roman soothsayers, would have laughed in each
+other's face, could they have met, over the hollowness of such
+demonstrations. Granvelle's letters were filled, for the greater part,
+with pictures of treason, stratagem, and bloody intentions, fabricated
+mostly out of reports, table-talk, disjointed chat in the careless
+freedom of domestic intercourse, while at the same time a margin was
+always left to express his own wounded sense of the injurious suspicions
+uttered against him by the various subjects of his letters. "God knows,"
+said he to Perez, "that I always speak of them with respect, which is
+more than they do of me. But God forgive them all. In times like these,
+one must hold one's tongue. One must keep still, in order not to stir up
+a hornet's nest."
+
+In short, the Cardinal, little by little, during the last year of his
+residence in the Netherlands, was enabled to spread a canvas before his
+sovereign's eye, in which certain prominent figures, highly colored by
+patiently accumulated touches, were represented as driving a whole
+nation, against its own will, into manifest revolt. The estates and the
+people, he said, were already tired of the proceedings of the nobles, and
+those personages would find themselves very much mistaken in thinking
+that men who had any thing to lose would follow them, when they began a
+rebellion against his Majesty. On the whole, he was not desirous of
+prolonging his own residence, although, to do him justice, he was not
+influenced by fear. He thought or affected to think that the situation
+was one of a factitious popular discontent, procured by the intrigues of
+a few ambitious and impoverished Catilines and Cethegi, not a rising
+rebellion such as the world had never seen, born of the slowly-awakened
+wrath of, a whole people, after the martyrdom of many years. The remedy
+that he recommended was that his Majesty should come in person to the
+provinces. The monarch would cure the whole disorder as soon as he
+appeared, said the Cardinal, by merely making the sign of the cross.
+Whether, indeed, the rapidly-increasing cancer of national discontent
+would prove a mere king's evil, to be healed by the royal touch, as many
+persons besides Granvelle believed, was a point not doomed to be tested.
+From that day forward Philip began to hold out hopes that he would come
+to administer the desired remedy, but even then it was the opinion of
+good judges that he would give millions rather than make his appearance
+in the Netherlands. It was even the hope of William of Orange that the
+King would visit the provinces. He expressed his desire, in a letter to
+Lazarus Schwendi, that his sovereign should come in person, that he might
+see whether it had been right to sow so much distrust between himself and
+his loyal subjects. The Prince asserted that it was impossible for any
+person not on the spot to imagine the falsehoods and calumnies circulated
+by Granvelle and his friends, accusing Orange and his associates of
+rebellion and heresy, in the most infamous manner in the world. He added,
+in conclusion, that he could write no more, for the mere thought of the
+manner in which the government of the Netherlands was carried on filled
+him with disgust and rage. This letter, together with one in a similar
+strain from Egmont, was transmitted by the valiant and highly
+intellectual soldier to whom they were addressed, to the King of Spain,
+with an entreaty that he would take warning from the bitter truths which
+they contained. The Colonel, who was a most trusty friend of Orange,
+wrote afterwards to Margaret of Parma in the same spirit, warmly urging
+her to moderation in religious matters. This application highly enraged
+Morillon, the Cardinal's most confidential dependent, who accordingly
+conveyed the intelligence to his already departed chief, exclaiming in
+his letter, "what does the ungrateful baboon mean by meddling with our
+affairs? A pretty state of things, truly, if kings are to choose or
+retain their ministers at the will of the people; little does he know of
+the disasters which would be caused by a relaxation of the edicts." In
+the same sense, the Cardinal, just before his departure, which was now
+imminent, wrote to warn his sovereign of the seditious character of the
+men who were then placing their breasts between the people and their
+butchers. He assured Philip that upon the movement of those nobles
+depended the whole existence of the country. It was time that they should
+be made to open their eyes. They should be solicited in every way to
+abandon their evil courses, since the liberty which they thought
+themselves defending was but abject slavery; but subjection to a thousand
+base and contemptible personages, and to that "vile animal called the
+people."
+
+It is sufficiently obvious, from the picture which we have now presented
+of the respective attitudes of Granvelle, of the seigniors and of the
+nation, during the whole of the year 1563, and the beginning of the
+following year, that a crisis was fast approaching. Granvelle was, for
+the moment, triumphant, Orange, Egmont, and Horn had abandoned the state
+council, Philip could not yet make up his mind to yield to the storm, and
+Alva howled defiance at the nobles and the whole people of the
+Netherlands. Nevertheless, Margaret of Parma was utterly weary of the
+minister, the Cardinal himself was most anxious to be gone, and the
+nation--for there was a nation, however vile the animal might be--was
+becoming daily more enraged at the presence of a man in whom, whether
+justly or falsely, it beheld the incarnation of the religious oppression
+under which they groaned. Meantime, at the close of the year, a new
+incident came to add to the gravity of the situation. Caspar Schetz,
+Baron of Grobbendonck, gave a Great dinner-party, in the month of
+December, 1563. This personage, whose name was prominent for many years
+in the public affairs of the nation, was one of the four brothers who
+formed a very opulent and influential mercantile establishment.
+
+He was the King's principal factor and financial agent. He was one of the
+great pillars of the Bourse at Antwerp. He was likewise a tolerable
+scholar, a detestable poet, an intriguing politician, and a corrupt
+financier. He was regularly in the pay of Sir Thomas Gresham, to whom he
+furnished secret information, for whom he procured differential favors,
+and by whose government he was rewarded by gold chains and presents of
+hard cash, bestowed as secretly as the equivalent was conveyed adroitly.
+Nevertheless, although his venality was already more than suspected, and
+although his peculation, during his long career became so extensive that
+he was eventually prosecuted by government, and died before the process
+was terminated, the lord of Grobbendonck was often employed in most
+delicate negotiations, and, at the present epoch, was a man of much
+importance in the Netherlands.
+
+The treasurer-general accordingly gave his memorable banquet to a
+distinguished party of noblemen. The conversation, during dinner, turned,
+as was inevitable, upon the Cardinal. His ostentation, greediness,
+insolence, were fully canvassed. The wine flowed freely as it always did
+in those Flemish festivities--the brains of the proud and reckless
+cavaliers became hot with excitement, while still the odious ecclesiastic
+was the topic of their conversation, the object alternately of fierce
+invective or of scornful mirth. The pompous display which he affected in
+his equipages, liveries, and all the appurtenances of his household, had
+frequently excited their derision, and now afforded fresh matter for
+their ridicule. The customs of Germany, the simple habiliments in which
+the retainers of the greatest houses were arrayed in that country, were
+contrasted with the tinsel and glitter in which the prelate pranked
+himself. It was proposed, by way of showing contempt for Granvelle, that
+a livery should be forthwith invented, as different as possible from his
+in general effect, and that all the gentlemen present should
+indiscriminately adopt it for their own menials. Thus would the people
+whom the Cardinal wished to dazzle with his finery learn to estimate such
+gauds at their true value. It was determined that something extremely
+plain, and in the German fashion, should be selected. At the same time,
+the company, now thoroughly inflamed with wine, and possessed by the
+spirit of mockery, determined that a symbol should be added to the
+livery, by which the universal contempt for Granvelle should be
+expressed. The proposition was hailed with acclamation, but who should
+invent the hieroglyphical costume? All were reckless and ready enough,
+but ingenuity of device was required. At last it was determined to decide
+the question by hazard. Amid shouts of hilarity, the dice were thrown.
+Those men were staking their lives, perhaps, upon the issue, but the
+reflection gave only a keener zest to the game. Egmont won. It was the
+most fatal victory which he had ever achieved, a more deadly prize even
+than the trophies of St. Quentin and Gravelingen.
+
+In a few days afterwards, the retainers of the house of Egmont surprised
+Brussels by making their appearance in a new livery. Doublet and hose of
+the coarsest grey, and long hanging sleeves, without gold or silver lace,
+and having but a single ornament, comprised the whole costume. An emblem
+which seemed to resemble a monk's cowl, or a fool's cap and bells, was
+embroidered upon each sleeve. The device pointed at the Cardinal, as did,
+by contrast, the affected coarseness of the dress. There was no doubt as
+to the meaning of the hood, but they who saw in the symbol more
+resemblance to the jester's cap, recalled certain biting expressions
+which Granvelle had been accustomed to use. He had been wont, in the days
+of his greatest insolence, to speak of the most eminent nobles as zanies,
+lunatics, and buffoons. The embroidered fool's cap was supposed to typify
+the gibe, and to remind the arrogant priest that a Brutus, as in the
+olden time, might be found lurking in the costume of the fool. However
+witty or appropriate the invention, the livery had an immense success.
+According to agreement, the nobles who had dined with the treasurer
+ordered it for all their servants. Never did a new dress become so soon
+the fashion. The unpopularity of the minister assisted the quaintness of
+the device. The fool's-cap livery became the rage. Never was such a run
+upon the haberdashers, mercers, and tailors, since Brussels had been a
+city. All the frieze-cloth in Brabant was exhausted. All the serge in
+Flanders was clipped into monastic cowls. The Duchess at first laughed
+with the rest, but the Cardinal took care that the king should be at once
+informed upon the subject. The Regent was, perhaps, not extremely sorry
+to see the man ridiculed whom she so cordially disliked, and, she
+accepted the careless excuses made on the subject by Egmont and by Orange
+without severe criticism. She wrote to her brother that, although the
+gentlemen had been influenced by no evil intention, she had thought it
+best to exhort them not to push the jest too far. Already, however, she
+found that two thousand pairs, of sleeves had been made, and the most she
+could obtain was that the fools' caps, or monks' hoods, should in future
+be omitted from the livery. A change was accordingly made in the costume,
+at about the time of the cardinal's departure.
+
+A bundle of arrows, or in some instances a wheat-sheaf, was substituted
+for the cowls. Various interpretations were placed upon this new emblem.
+According to the nobles themselves, it denoted the union of all their
+hearts in the King's service, while their enemies insinuated that it was
+obviously a symbol of conspiracy. The costume thus amended was worn by
+the gentlemen themselves, as well as by their servants. Egmont dined at
+the Regent's table, after the Cardinal's departure, in a camlet doublet,
+with hanging sleeves, and buttons stamped with the bundle of arrows.
+
+For the present, the Cardinal affected to disapprove of the fashion only
+from its rebellious tendency. The fools' caps and cowls, he meekly
+observed to Philip, were the least part of the offence, for an injury to
+himself could be easily forgiven. The wheat-sheaf and the arrow-bundles,
+however, were very vile things, for they betokened and confirmed the
+existence of a conspiracy, such as never could be tolerated by a prince
+who had any regard for his own authority.
+
+This incident of the livery occupied the public attention, and inflamed
+the universal hatred during the later months of the minister's residence
+in the country. Meantime the three seigniors had become very impatient at
+receiving no answer to their letter. Margaret of Parma was urging her
+brother to give them satisfaction, repeating to him their bitter
+complaints that their characters and conduct were the subject of constant
+misrepresentation to their sovereign, and picturing her own isolated
+condition. She represented herself as entirely deprived of the support of
+those great personages, who, despite her positive assurances to the
+contrary, persisted in believing that they were held up to the King as
+conspirators, and were in danger of being punished as traitors. Philip,
+on his part, was conning Granvelle's despatches, filled with hints of
+conspiracy, and holding counsel with Alva, who had already recommended
+the taking off several heads for treason. The Prince of Orange, who
+already had secret agents in the King's household, and was supplied with
+copies of the most private papers in the palace, knew better than to be
+deceived by the smooth representations of the Regent. Philip had,
+however, at last begun secretly to yield. He asked Alva's advice whether
+on the whole it would not be better to let the Cardinal leave the
+Netherlands, at least for a time, on pretence of visiting his mother in
+Burgundy, and to invite Count Egmont to Madrid, by way of striking one
+link from the chain, as Granvelle had suggested. The Duke had replied
+that he had no doubt of the increasing insolence of the three seigniors,
+as depicted in the letters of the Duchess Margaret, nor of their
+intention to make the Cardinal their first victim; it being the regular
+principle in all revolts against the sovereign, to attack the chief
+minister in the first place. He could not, however, persuade himself that
+the King should yield and Granvelle be recalled. Nevertheless, if it were
+to be done at all, he preferred that the Cardinal should go to Burgundy
+without leave asked either of the Duchess or of Philip; and that he
+should then write; declining to return, on the ground that his life was
+not safe in the Netherlands.
+
+After much hesitation, the monarch at last settled upon a plan, which
+recommended itself through the extreme duplicity by which it was marked,
+and the complicated system of small deceptions, which it consequently
+required. The King, who was never so thoroughly happy or at home as when
+elaborating the ingredients of a composite falsehood, now busily employed
+himself in his cabinet. He measured off in various letters to the Regent,
+to the three nobles, to Egmont alone, and to Granvelle, certain
+proportionate parts of his whole plan, which; taken separately, were
+intended to deceive, and did deceive nearly every person in the world,
+not only in his own generation, but for three centuries afterwards, but
+which arranged synthetically, as can now be done, in consequence of
+modern revelations, formed one complete and considerable lie, the
+observation of which furnishes the student with a lesson in the political
+chemistry of those days, which was called Macchiavellian statesmanship.
+The termination of the Granvelle regency is, moreover, most important,
+not only for the grave and almost interminable results to which it led,
+but for the illustration which it affords of the inmost characters of the
+Cardinal and "his master."
+
+The courier who was to take Philip's letters to the three nobles was
+detained three weeks, in order to allow Armenteros, who was charged with
+the more important and secret despatches for the Duchess and Granvelle to
+reach Brussels first. All the letters, however, were ready at the same
+time. The letter of instructions for Armenteros enjoined upon that envoy
+to tell the Regent that the heretics were to be chastised with renewed
+vigor, that she was to refuse to convoke the states-general under any
+pretext, and that if hard pressed, she was to refer directly to the King.
+With regard to Granvelle, the secretary was to state that his Majesty was
+still deliberating, and that the Duchess would be informed as to the
+decision when it should be made. He was to express the royal astonishment
+that the seigniors should absent themselves from the state council, with
+a peremptory intimation that they should immediately return to their
+posts. As they had specified no particularities against the Cardinal, the
+King would still reflect upon the subject.
+
+He also wrote a private note to the Duchess, stating that he had not yet
+sent the letters for the three nobles, because he wished that Armenteros
+should arrive before their courier. He, however, enclosed two notes for
+Egmont, of which Margaret was to deliver that one, which, in her opinion,
+was, under the circumstances, the best. In one of these missives the King
+cordially accepted, and in the other he politely declined Egmont's recent
+offer to visit Spain. He also forwarded a private letter in his own
+hand-writing to the Cardinal. Armenteros, who travelled but slowly on
+account of the state of his health, arrived in Brussels towards the end
+of February. Five or six days afterwards, on the 1st March, namely, the
+courier arrived bringing the despatches for the seigniors. In his letter
+to Orange, Egmont, and Horn, the King expressed his astonishment at their
+resolution to abstain from the state council. Nevertheless, said he,
+imperatively, fail not to return thither and to show how much more highly
+you regard my service and the good of the country than any other
+particularity whatever. As to Granvelle, continued Philip, since you will
+not make any specifications, my intention is to think over the matter
+longer, in order to arrange it as may seem most fitting.
+
+This letter was dated February 19 (1564), nearly a month later therefore
+than the secret letter to Granvelle, brought by Armenteros, although all
+the despatches had been drawn up at the same time and formed parts of the
+same plan. In this brief note to Granvelle, however, lay the heart of the
+whole mystery.
+
+"I have reflected much," wrote the King, "on all that you have written me
+during these last few months, concerning the ill-will borne you by
+certain personages. I notice also your suspicions that if a revolt breaks
+out, they will commence with your person, thus taking occasion to proceed
+from that point to the accomplishment of their ulterior designs. I have
+particularly taken into consideration the notice received by you from the
+curate of Saint Gudule, as well as that which you have learned concerning
+the Genoese who is kept at Weert; all which has given me much anxiety as
+well from my desire for the preservation of your life in which my service
+is so deeply interested, as for the possible results if any thing should
+happen to you, which God forbid. I have thought, therefore, that it would
+be well, in order to give time and breathing space to the hatred and
+rancor which those persons entertain towards you, and in order to see
+what coarse they will take in preparing the necessary remedy, for the
+provinces, for you to leave the country for some days, in order to visit
+your mother, and this with the knowledge of the Duchess, my sister, and
+with her permission, which you will request, and which I have written to
+her that she must give, without allowing it to appear that you have
+received orders to that effect from me. You will also beg her to write to
+me requesting my approbation of what she is to do. By taking this course
+neither my authority nor yours will suffer prejudice; and according to
+the turn which things may take, measures may be taken for your return
+when expedient, and for whatever else there may be to arrange."
+
+Thus, in two words, Philip removed the unpopular minister forever. The
+limitation of his absence had no meaning, and was intended to have none.
+If there were not strength enough to keep the Cardinal in his place, it
+was not probable that the more difficult task of reinstating him after
+his fall would be very soon attempted. It, seemed, however, to be dealing
+more tenderly with Granvelle's self-respect thus to leave a vague opening
+for a possible return, than to send him an unconditional dismissal.
+
+Thus, while the King refused to give any weight to the representations of
+the nobles, and affected to be still deliberating whether or not he
+should recall the Cardinal, he had in reality already recalled him. All
+the minute directions according to which permission was to be asked of
+the Duchess to take a step which had already been prescribed by the
+monarch, and Philip's indulgence craved for obeying his own explicit
+injunctions, were fulfilled to the letter.
+
+As soon as the Cardinal received the royal order, he privately made
+preparations for his departure. The Regent, on the other hand, delivered
+to Count Egmont the one of Philip's two letters in which that gentleman's
+visit was declined, the Duchess believing that, in the present position
+of affairs, she should derive more assistance from him than from the rest
+of the seigniors. As Granvelle, however, still delayed his departure,
+even after the arrival of the second courier, she was again placed in a
+situation of much perplexity. The three nobles considered Philip's letter
+to them extremely "dry and laconic," and Orange absolutely refused to
+comply with the order to re-enter the state council. At a session of that
+body, on the 3d of March, where only Granvelle, Viglius, and Berlaymont
+were present, Margaret narrated her fruitless attempts to persuade the
+seigniors into obedience to the royal orders lately transmitted, and
+asked their opinions. The extraordinary advice was then given, that "she
+should let them champ the bit a little while longer, and afterwards see
+what was to be done." Even at the last moment, the Cardinal, reluctant to
+acknowledge himself beaten, although secretly desirous to retire, was
+inclined for a parting struggle. The Duchess, however, being now armed
+with the King's express commands, and having had enough of holding the
+reins while such powerful and restive personages were "champing the bit,"
+insisted privately that the Cardinal should make his immediate departure
+known. Pasquinades and pamphlets were already appearing daily, each more
+bitter than the other; the livery was spreading rapidly through all
+classes of people, and the seigniors most distinctly refused to recede
+from their determination of absenting themselves from the council so long
+as Granvelle remained. There was no help for it; and on the 13th of March
+the Cardinal took his departure. Notwithstanding the mystery of the whole
+proceeding, however, William of Orange was not deceived. He felt certain
+that the minister had been recalled, and thought it highly improbable
+that he would ever be permitted to return. "Although the Cardinal talks
+of coming back again soon," wrote the Prince to Schwartzburg, "we
+nevertheless hope that, as he lied about his departure, so he will also
+spare the truth in his present assertions." This was the general
+conviction, so far as the question of the minister's compulsory retreat
+was concerned, of all those who were in the habit of receiving their
+information and their opinions from the Prince of Orange. Many even
+thought that Granvelle had been recalled with indignity and much against
+his will. "When the Cardinal," wrote Secretary Lorich to Count Louis,
+"received the King's order to go, he growled like a bear, and kept
+himself alone in his chamber for a time, making his preparations for
+departure. He says he shall come back in two months, but some of us think
+they will be two long months which will eat themselves up like money
+borrowed of the Jews." A wag, moreover, posted a large placard upon the
+door of Granvelle's palace in Brussels as soon as the minister's
+departure was known, with the inscription, in large letters, "For sale,
+immediately." In spite of the royal ingenuity, therefore, many shrewdly
+suspected the real state of the case, although but very few actually knew
+the truth.
+
+The Cardinal left Brussels with a numerous suite, stately equipages, and
+much parade. The Duchess provided him with her own mules and with a
+sufficient escort, for the King had expressly enjoined that every care
+should be taken against any murderous attack. There was no fear of such
+assault, however, for all were sufficiently satisfied to see the minister
+depart. Brederode and Count Hoogstraaten were standing together, looking
+from the window of a house near the gate of Caudenberg, to feast their
+eyes with the spectacle of their enemy's retreat. As soon as the Cardinal
+had passed through that gate, on his way to Namur, the first stage of his
+journey, they rushed into the street, got both upon one horse,
+Hoogstraaten, who alone had boots on his legs, taking the saddle and
+Brederode the croup, and galloped after the Cardinal, with the exultation
+of school-boys. Thus mounted, they continued to escort the Cardinal on
+his journey. At one time, they were so near his carriage, while it was
+passing through a ravine, that they might have spoken to him from the
+heights above, where they had paused to observe him; but they pulled the
+capes of their cloaks over their faces and suffered him to pass
+unchallenged. "But they are young folk," said the Cardinal, benignantly,
+after relating all these particulars to the Duchess, "and one should pay
+little regard to their actions." He added, that one of Egmont's gentlemen
+dogged their party on the journey, lodging in the same inns with them,
+apparently in the hope of learning something from their conversation or
+proceedings. If that were the man's object, however, Granvelle expressed
+the conviction that he was disappointed, as nothing could have been more
+merry than the whole company, or more discreet than their conversation.
+
+The Cardinal began at once to put into operation the system of deception,
+as to his departure, which had been planned by Philip. The man who had
+been ordered to leave the Netherlands by the King, and pushed into
+immediate compliance with the royal command by the Duchess, proceeded to
+address letters both to Philip and Margaret. He wrote from Namur to beg
+the Regent that she would not fail to implore his Majesty graciously to
+excuse his having absented himself for private reasons at that particular
+moment. He wrote to Philip from Besancon, stating that his desire to
+visit his mother, whom he had not seen for nineteen years, and his natal
+soil, to which he had been a stranger during the same period, had induced
+him to take advantage of his brother's journey to accompany him for a few
+days into Burgundy. He had, therefore, he said, obtained the necessary
+permission from the Duchess, who had kindly promised to write very
+particularly by the first courier, to beg his Majesty's approval of the
+liberty which they had both taken. He wrote from the same place to the
+Regent again, saying that some of the nobles pretended to have learned
+from Armenteros that the King had ordered the Cardinal to leave the
+country and not to return; all which, he added, was a very false
+Renardesque invention, at which he did nothing but laugh.
+
+As a matter of course, his brother, in whose company he was about to
+visit the mother whom he had not seen for the past nineteen years, was as
+much mystified as the rest of the world. Chantonnay was not aware that
+any thing but the alleged motives had occasioned the journey, nor did he
+know that his brother would perhaps have omitted to visit their common
+parent for nineteen years longer had he not received the royal order to
+leave the Netherlands.
+
+Philip, on the other side, had sustained his part, in the farce with much
+ability. Viglius, Berlaymont, Morillon, and all the lesser cardinalists
+were entirely taken in by the letters which were formally despatched to
+the Duchess in reply to her own and the Cardinal's notification. "I can
+not take it amiss," wrote the King, "that you have given leave of absence
+to Cardinal de Granvelle, for two or three months, according to the
+advices just received from you, that he may attend to some private
+affairs of his own." As soon as these letters had been read in the
+council, Viglius faithfully transmitted them to Granvelle for that
+personage's enlightenment; adding his own innocent reflection, that "this
+was very different language from that held by some people, that your most
+illustrious lordship had retired by order of his Majesty." Morillon also
+sent the Cardinal a copy of the same passage in the royal despatch,
+saying, very wisely, "I wonder what they will all say now, since these
+letters have been read in council." The Duchess, as in duty bound, denied
+flatly, on all occasions, that Armenteros had brought any letters
+recommending or ordering the minister's retreat. She conscientiously
+displayed the letters of his Majesty, proving the contrary, and yet, said
+Viglius, it was very hard to prevent people talking as they liked.
+Granvelle omitted no occasion to mystify every one of his correspondents
+on the subject, referring, of course, to the same royal letters which had
+been written for public reading, expressly to corroborate these
+statements. "You see by his Majesty's letters to Madame de Parma," said
+he to Morillon, "how false is the report that the King had ordered me to
+leave Flanders, and in what confusion those persons find themselves who
+fabricated the story." It followed of necessity that he should carry out
+his part in the royal program, but he accomplished his task so adroitly,
+and with such redundancy of zeal, as to show his thorough sympathy with
+the King's policy. He dissembled with better grace, even if the King did
+it more naturally. Nobody was too insignificant to be deceived, nobody
+too august. Emperor Ferdinand fared no better than "Esquire" Bordey.
+"Some of those who hate me," he wrote to the potentate, "have circulated
+the report that I had been turned out of the country, and was never to
+return. This story has ended in smoke, since the letters written by his
+Majesty to the Duchess of Parma on the subject of the leave of absence
+which she had given me." Philip himself addressed a private letter to
+Granvelle, of course that others might see it, in which he affected to
+have just learned that the Cardinal had obtained permission from the
+Regent "to make a visit to his mother, in order to arrange certain family
+matters," and gravely gave his approbation to the step. At the same time
+it was not possible for the King to resist the temptation of adding one
+other stroke of dissimulation to his own share in the comedy. Granvelle
+and Philip had deceived all the world, but Philip also deceived
+Granvelle. The Cardinal made a mystery of his departure to Pollwiller,
+Viglius, Morillon, to the Emperor, to his own brother, and also to the
+King's secretary, Gonzalo Perez; but he was not aware that Perez, whom he
+thought himself deceiving as ingeniously as he had done all the others,
+had himself drawn up the letter of recall, which the King had afterwards
+copied out in his own hand and marked "secret and confidential." Yet
+Granvelle might have guessed that in such an emergency Philip would
+hardly depend upon his own literary abilities.
+
+Granvelle remained month after month in seclusion, doing his best to
+philosophize. Already, during the latter period of his residence in the
+Netherlands, he had lived in a comparative and forced solitude. His house
+had been avoided by those power-worshippers whose faces are rarely turned
+to the setting sun. He had, in consequence, already, before his
+departure, begun to discourse on the beauties of retirement, the fatigues
+of greatness, and the necessity of repose for men broken with the storms
+of state. A great man was like a lake, he said, to which a thirsty
+multitude habitually resorted till the waters were troubled, sullied, and
+finally exhausted. Power looked more attractive in front than in the
+retrospect. That which men possessed was ever of less value than that
+which they hoped. In this fine strain of eloquent commonplace the falling
+minister had already begun to moralize upon the vanity of human wishes.
+When he was established at his charming retreat in Burgundy, he had full
+leisure to pursue the theme. He remained in retirement till his beard
+grew to his waist, having vowed, according to report, that he would not
+shave till recalled to the Netherlands. If the report were true, said
+some of the gentlemen in the provinces, it would be likely to grow to his
+feet. He professed to wish himself blind and deaf that he might have no
+knowledge of the world's events, described himself as buried in
+literature, and fit for no business save to remain in his chamber,
+fastened to his books, or occupied with private affairs and religious
+exercises. He possessed a most charming residence at Orchamps, where he
+spent a great portion of his time. In one of his letters to
+Vice-Chancellor Seld, he described the beauties of this retreat with much
+delicacy and vigor--"I am really not as badly off here," said he, "as I
+should be in the Indies. I am in sweet places where I have wished for you
+a thousand times, for I am certain that you would think them appropriate
+for philosophy and worthy the habitation of the Muses. Here are beautiful
+mountains, high as heaven, fertile on all their sides, wreathed with
+vineyards, and rich with every fruit; here are rivers flowing through
+charming valleys, the waters clear as crystal, filled with trout,
+breaking into numberless cascades. Here are umbrageous groves, fertile
+fields, lovely meadows; on the one aide great warmth, on the other aide
+delectable coolness, despite the summer's heat. Nor is there any lack of
+good company, friends, and relations, with, as you well know, the very
+best wines in the world."
+
+Thus it is obvious that the Cardinal was no ascetic. His hermitage
+contained other appliances save those for study and devotion. His retired
+life was, in fact, that of a voluptuary. His brother, Chantonnay,
+reproached him with the sumptuousness and disorder of his establishment.
+He lived in "good and joyous cheer." He professed to be thoroughly
+satisfied with the course things had taken, knowing that God was above
+all, and would take care of all. He avowed his determination to extract
+pleasure and profit even from the ill will of his adversaries. "Behold my
+philosophy," he cried, "to live joyously as possible, laughing at the
+world, at passionate people, and at all their calumnies." It is evident
+that his philosophy, if it had any real existence, was sufficiently
+Epicurean. It was, however, mainly compounded of pretence, like his whole
+nature and his whole life. Notwithstanding the mountains high as heaven,
+the cool grottos, the trout, and the best Burgundy wines in the world,
+concerning which he descanted so eloquently, he soon became in reality
+most impatient of his compulsory seclusion. His pretence of "composing
+himself as much as possible to tranquillity and repose" could deceive
+none of the intimate associates to whom he addressed himself in that
+edifying vein. While he affected to be blind and deaf to politics, he had
+eyes and ears for nothing else. Worldly affairs were his element, and he
+was shipwrecked upon the charming solitude which he affected to admire.
+He was most anxious to return to the world again, but he had difficult
+cards to play. His master was even more dubious than usual about
+everything. Granvelle was ready to remain in Burgundy as long as Philip
+chose that he should remain there. He was also ready to go to "India,
+Peru, or into the fire," whenever his King should require any such
+excursion, or to return to the Netherlands, confronting any danger which
+might lie in his path. It is probable that he nourished for a long time a
+hope that the storm would blow over in the provinces, and his resumption
+of power become possible. William of Orange, although more than half
+convinced that no attempt would be made to replace the minister, felt it
+necessary to keep strict watch on his movements. "We must be on our
+guard," said he, "and not be deceived. Perhaps they mean to put us
+asleep, in order the better to execute their designs. For the present
+things are peaceable, and all the world is rejoiced at the departure of
+that good Cardinal." The Prince never committed the error of undervaluing
+the talents of his great adversary, and he felt the necessity of being on
+the alert in the present emergency. "'Tis a sly and cunning bird that we
+are dealing with," said he, "one that sleeps neither day nor night if a
+blow is to be dealt to us." Honest Brederode, after solacing himself with
+the spectacle of his enemy's departure, soon began to suspect his return,
+and to express himself on the subject, as usual, with ludicrous
+vehemence. "They say the red fellow is back again," he wrote to Count
+Louis, "and that Berlaymont has gone to meet him at Namur. The Devil
+after the two would be a good chase." Nevertheless, the chances of that
+return became daily fainter. Margaret of Parma hated the Cardinal with
+great cordiality. She fell out of her servitude to him into far more
+contemptible hands, but for a brief interval she seemed to take a delight
+in the recovery of her freedom. According to Viglius, the court, after
+Granvelle's departure, was like a school of boys and girls when the
+pedagogue's back is turned. He was very bitter against the Duchess for
+her manifest joy at emancipation. The poor President was treated with the
+most marked disdain by Margaret, who also took pains to show her dislike
+to all the cardinalists. Secretary Armenteros forbade Bordey, who was
+Granvelle's cousin and dependent, from even speaking to him in public.
+The Regent soon became more intimate with Orange and Egmont than she had
+ever been with the Cardinal. She was made to see--and, seeing, she became
+indignant--the cipher which she had really been during his
+administration. "One can tell what's o'clock," wrote Morillon to the
+fallen minister, "since she never writes to you nor mentions your name."
+As to Armenteros, with whom Granvelle was still on friendly relations, he
+was restless in his endeavors to keep the once-powerful priest from
+rising again. Having already wormed himself into the confidence of the
+Regent, he made a point of showing to the principal seigniors various
+letters, in which she had been warned by the Cardinal to put no trust in
+them. "That devil," said Armenteros, "thought he had got into Paradise
+here; but he is gone, and we shall take care that he never returns." It
+was soon thought highly probable that the King was but temporizing, and
+that the voluntary departure of the minister had been a deception. Of
+course nothing was accurately known upon the subject. Philip had taken
+good care of that, but meantime the bets were very high that there would
+be no restoration, with but few takers. Men thought if there had been any
+royal favor remaining for the great man, that the Duchess would not be so
+decided in her demeanor on the subject. They saw that she was scarlet
+with indignation whenever the Cardinal's name was mentioned. They heard
+her thank Heaven that she had but one son, because if she had had a
+second he must have been an ecclesiastic, and as vile as priests always
+were. They witnessed the daily contumely which she heaped upon poor
+Viglius, both because he was a friend of Granvelle and was preparing in
+his old age to take orders. The days were gone, indeed, when Margaret was
+so filled with respectful affection for the prelate, that she could
+secretly correspond with the Holy Father at Rome, and solicit the red hat
+for the object of her veneration. She now wrote to Philip, stating that
+she was better informed as to affairs in the Netherlands than she had
+ever formerly been. She told her brother that all the views of Granvelle
+and of his followers, Viglius with the rest, had tended to produce a
+revolution which they hoped that Philip would find in full operation when
+he should come to the Netherlands. It was their object, she said, to fish
+in troubled waters, and, to attain that aim, they had ever pursued the
+plan of gaining the exclusive control of all affairs. That was the reason
+why they had ever opposed the convocation of the states-general. They
+feared that their books would be read, and their frauds, injustice,
+simony, and rapine discovered. This would be the result, if tranquillity
+were restored to the country, and therefore they had done their best to
+foment and maintain discord. The Duchess soon afterwards entertained her
+royal brother with very detailed accounts of various acts of simony,
+peculation, and embezzlement committed by Viglius, which the Cardinal had
+aided and abetted, and by which he had profited.--[Correspondence de
+Phil. II, i. 318-320.]--These revelations are inestimable in a historical
+point of view. They do not raise our estimate of Margaret's character,
+but they certainly give us a clear insight into the nature of the
+Granvelle administration. At the same time it was characteristic of the
+Duchess, that while she was thus painting the portrait of the Cardinal
+for the private eye of his sovereign, she should address the banished
+minister himself in a secret strain of condolence, and even of penitence.
+She wrote to assure Granvelle that she repented extremely having adopted
+the views of Orange. She promised that she would state publicly every
+where that the Cardinal was an upright man, intact in his morals and his
+administration, a most zealous and faithful servant of the King. She
+added that she recognized the obligations she was under to him, and that
+she loved him like a brother. She affirmed that if the Flemish seigniors
+had induced her to cause the Cardinal to be deprived of the government,
+she was already penitent, and that her fault deserved that the King, her
+brother, should cut off her head, for having occasioned so great a
+calamity.--["Memoires de Granvelle," tom. 33, p. 67.]
+
+There was certainly discrepancy between the language thus used
+simultaneously by the Duchess to Granvelle and to Philip, but Margaret
+had been trained in the school of Macchiavelli, and had sat at the feet
+of Loyola.
+
+The Cardinal replied with equal suavity, protesting that such a letter
+from the Duchess left him nothing more to desire, as it furnished him
+with an "entire and perfect justification" of his conduct. He was aware
+of her real sentiments, no doubt, but he was too politic to quarrel with
+so important a personage as Philip's sister.
+
+An incident which occurred a few months after the minister's departure
+served, to show the general estimation in which he was held by all ranks
+of Netherlanders. Count Mansfeld celebrated the baptism of his son,
+Philip Octavian, by a splendid series of festivities at Luxemburg, the
+capital of his government. Besides the tournaments and similar sports,
+with which the upper classes of European society were accustomed at that
+day to divert themselves, there was a grand masquerade, to which the
+public were admitted as spectators. In this "mummery" the most successful
+spectacle was that presented by a group arranged in obvious ridicule of
+Granvelle. A figure dressed in Cardinal's costume, with the red hat upon
+his head, came pacing through the arena upon horseback. Before him
+marched a man attired like a hermit, with long white beard, telling his
+beads upon a rosary, which he held ostentatiously in his hands. Behind
+the mounted Cardinal came the Devil, attired in the usual guise
+considered appropriate to the Prince of Darkness, who scourged both horse
+and rider with a whip of fog-tails, causing them to scamper about the
+lists in great trepidation, to the immense delight of the spectators. The
+practical pun upon Simon Renard's name embodied in the fox-tail, with the
+allusion to the effect of the manifold squibs perpetrated by that most
+bitter and lively enemy upon Granvelle, were understood and relished by
+the multitude. Nothing could be more hearty than the blows bestowed upon
+the minister's representative, except the applause with which this
+satire, composed of actual fustigation, was received. The humorous
+spectacle absorbed all the interest of the masquerade, and was frequently
+repeated. It seemed difficult to satisfy the general desire to witness a
+thorough chastisement of the culprit.
+
+The incident made a great noise in the country. The cardinalists felt
+naturally very much enraged, but they were in a minority. No censure came
+from the government at Brussels, and Mansfeld was then and for a long
+time afterwards the main pillar of royal authority in the Netherlands. It
+was sufficiently obvious that Granvelle, for the time at least, was
+supported by no party of any influence.
+
+Meantime he remained in his seclusion. His unpopularity did not, however,
+decrease in his absence. More than a year after his departure, Berlaymont
+said the nobles detested the Cardinal more than ever, and would eat him
+alive if they caught him. The chance of his returning was dying gradually
+out. At about the same period Chantonnay advised his brother to show his
+teeth. He assured Granvelle that he was too quiet in his disgrace,
+reminded him that princes had warm affections when they wished to make
+use of people, but that when they could have them too cheaply, they
+esteemed them but little; making no account of men whom they were
+accustomed to see under their feet. He urged the Cardinal, in repeated
+letters, to take heart again, to make himself formidable, and to rise
+from his crouching attitude. All the world say, he remarked, that the
+game is up between the King and yourself, and before long every one will
+be laughing at you, and holding you for a dupe.
+
+Stung or emboldened by these remonstrances, and weary of his retirement,
+Granvelle at last abandoned all intention of returning to the
+Netherlands, and towards the end of 1565, departed to Rome, where he
+participated in the election of Pope Pius V. Five years afterwards he was
+employed by Philip to negotiate the treaty between Spain, Rome, and
+Venice against the Turk. He was afterwards Viceroy of Naples, and in
+1575, he removed to Madrid, to take an active part in the management of
+the public business, "the disorder of which," says the Abbe Boisot,
+"could be no longer arrested by men of mediocre capacity." He died in
+that city on the 21st September, 1586, at the age of seventy, and was
+buried at Besancon.
+
+We have dwelt at length on the administration of this remarkable
+personage, because the period was one of vital importance in the history
+of the Netherland commonwealth. The minister who deals with the country
+at an epoch when civil war is imminent, has at least as heavy a
+responsibility upon his head as the man who goes forth to confront the
+armed and full-grown rebellion. All the causes out of which the great
+revolt was born, were in violent operation during the epoch of
+Granvelle's power. By the manner in which he comported himself in
+presence of those dangerous and active elements of the coming
+convulsions, must his character as a historical personage be measured.
+His individuality had so much to do with the course of the government,
+the powers placed in his hands were so vast, and his energy so untiring,
+that it is difficult to exaggerate the importance of his influence upon
+the destiny of the country which he was permitted to rule. It is for this
+reason that we have been at great pains to present his picture, sketched
+as it were by his own hand. A few general remarks are, however,
+necessary. It is the historian's duty to fix upon one plain and definite
+canvas the chameleon colors in which the subtle Cardinal produced his own
+image. Almost any theory concerning his character might be laid down and
+sustained by copious citations from his works; nay, the most opposite
+conclusions as to his interior nature, may be often drawn from a single
+one of his private and interminable letters. Embarked under his guidance,
+it is often difficult to comprehend the point to which we are tending.
+The oarsman's face beams upon us with serenity, but he looks in one
+direction, and rows in the opposite course. Even thus it was three
+centuries ago. Was it to be wondered at that many did not see the
+precipice towards which the bark which held their all was gliding under
+the same impulse?
+
+No man has ever disputed Granvelle's talents. From friend and foe his
+intellect has received the full measure of applause which it could ever
+claim. No doubt his genius was of a rare and subtle kind. His great power
+was essentially dramatic in its nature. He mastered the characters of the
+men with whom he had to deal, and then assumed them. He practised this
+art mainly upon personages of exalted station, for his scheme was to
+govern the world by acquiring dominion over its anointed rulers. A smooth
+and supple slave in appearance, but, in reality, while his power lasted,
+the despot of his masters, he exercised boundless control by enacting
+their parts with such fidelity that they were themselves deceived. It is
+impossible not to admire the facility with which this accomplished
+Proteus successively assumed the characters of Philip and of Margaret,
+through all the complicated affairs and voluminous correspondence of his
+government.
+
+When envoys of high rank were to be despatched on confidential missions
+to Spain, the Cardinal drew their instructions as the Duchess--threw
+light upon their supposed motives in secret letters as the King's
+sister--and answered their representations with ponderous wisdom as
+Philip; transmitting despatches, letters and briefs for royal
+conversations, in time to be thoroughly studied before the advent of the
+ambassador. Whoever travelled from Brussels to Madrid in order to escape
+the influence of the ubiquitous Cardinal, was sure to be confronted with
+him in the inmost recesses of the King's cabinet as soon as he was
+admitted to an audience. To converse with Philip or Margaret was but to
+commune with Antony. The skill with which he played his game, seated
+quietly in his luxurious villa, now stretching forth one long arm to move
+the King at Madrid, now placing Margaret upon what square he liked, and
+dealing with Bishops, Knight of the Fleece, and lesser dignitaries, the
+Richardota, the Morillons, the Viglii and the Berlaymonts, with sole
+reference to his own scheme of action, was truly of a nature to excite
+our special wonder. His aptitude for affairs and his power to read
+character were extraordinary; but it was necessary that the affairs
+should be those of a despotism, and the characters of an inferior nature.
+He could read Philip and Margaret, Egmont or Berlaymont, Alva or Viglius,
+but he had no plummet to sound the depths of a mind like that of William
+the Silent. His genius was adroit and subtle, but not profound. He aimed
+at power by making the powerful subservient, but he had not the intellect
+which deals in the daylight face to face with great events and great
+minds. In the violent political struggle of which his administration
+consisted, he was foiled and thrown by the superior strength of a man
+whose warfare was open and manly, and who had no defence against the
+poisoned weapons of his foe.
+
+His literary accomplishments were very great. His fecundity was
+prodigious, and he wrote at will in seven languages. 'This polyglot
+facility was not in itself a very remarkable circumstance, for it grew
+out of his necessary education and geographical position. Few men in that
+age and region were limited to their mother tongue. The Prince of Orange,
+who made no special pretence to learning, possessed at least five
+languages. Egmont, who was accounted an ignorant man, was certainly
+familiar with three. The Cardinal, however, wrote not only with ease, but
+with remarkable elegance, vigor and vivacity, in whatever language he
+chose to adopt. The style of his letters and other documents, regarded
+simply as compositions, was inferior to that of no writer of the age. His
+occasional orations, too, were esteemed models of smooth and flowing
+rhetoric, at an epoch when the art of eloquence was not much cultivated.
+Yet it must be allowed that beneath all the shallow but harmonious flow
+of his periods, it would be idle to search for a grain of golden sand.
+Not a single sterling, manly thought is to be found in all his
+productions. If at times our admiration is excited with the appearance of
+a gem of true philosophy, we are soon obliged to acknowledge, on closer
+inspection, that we have been deceived by a false glitter. In retirement,
+his solitude was not relieved by serious application to any branch of
+knowledge. Devotion to science and to the advancement of learning, a
+virtue which has changed the infamy of even baser natures than his into
+glory, never dignified his seclusion. He had elegant tastes, he built
+fine palaces, he collected paintings, and he discoursed of the fine arts
+with the skill and eloquence of a practised connoisseur; but the nectared
+fruits of divine philosophy were but harsh and crabbed to him.
+
+His moral characteristics are even more difficult to seize than his
+intellectual traits. It is a perplexing task to arrive at the intimate
+interior structure of a nature which hardly had an interior. He did not
+change, but he presented himself daily in different aspects. Certain
+peculiarities he possessed, however, which were unquestionable. He was
+always courageous, generally calm. Placed in the midst of a nation which
+hated him, exposed to the furious opposition of the most powerful
+adversaries, having hardly a friend, except the cowardly Viglius and the
+pluralist Morillon, secretly betrayed by Margaret of Parma, insulted by
+rude grandees, and threatened by midnight assassins, he never lost his
+self-possession, his smooth arrogance, his fortitude. He was
+constitutionally brave. He was not passionate in his resentments. To say
+that he was forgiving by nature would be an immense error; but that he
+could put aside vengeance at the dictate of policy is very certain. He
+could temporize, even after the reception of what he esteemed grave
+injuries, if the offenders were powerful. He never manifested rancor
+against the Duchess. Even after his fall from power in the Netherlands,
+he interceded with the Pope in favor of the principality of Orange, which
+the pontiff was disposed to confiscate. The Prince was at that time as
+good a Catholic as the Cardinal. He was apparently on good terms with his
+sovereign, and seemed to have a prosperous career before him. He was not
+a personage to be quarrelled with. At a later day, when the position of
+that great man was most clearly defined to the world, the Cardinal's
+ancient affection for his former friend and pupil did not prevent him
+from suggesting the famous ban by which a price was set upon his head,
+and his life placed in the hands of every assassin in Europe. It did not
+prevent him from indulging in the jocularity of a fiend, when the news of
+the first-fruits of that bounty upon murder reached his ears. It did not
+prevent him from laughing merrily at the pain which his old friend must
+have suffered, shot through the head and face with a musket-ball, and at
+the mutilated aspect which his "handsome face must have presented to the
+eyes of his apostate wife." It did not prevent him from stoutly
+disbelieving and then refusing to be comforted, when the recovery of the
+illustrious victim was announced. He could always dissemble without
+entirely forgetting his grievances. Certainly, if he were the forgiving
+Christian he pictured himself, it is passing strange to reflect upon the
+ultimate fate of Egmont, Horn, Montigny, Berghen, Orange, and a host of
+others, whose relations with him were inimical.
+
+His extravagance was enormous, and his life luxurious. At the same time
+he could leave his brother Champagny--a man, with all his faults, of a
+noble nature, and with scarcely inferior talents to his own--to languish
+for a long time in abject poverty; supported by the charity of an ancient
+domestic. His greediness for wealth was proverbial. No benefice was too
+large or too paltry to escape absorption, if placed within his possible
+reach. Loaded with places and preferments, rolling in wealth, he
+approached his sovereign with the whine of a mendicant. He talked of his
+property as a "misery," when he asked for boons, and expressed his thanks
+in the language of a slave when he received them. Having obtained the
+abbey of St. Armand, he could hardly wait for the burial of the Bishop of
+Tournay before claiming the vast revenues of Afflighem, assuring the King
+as he did so that his annual income was but eighteen thousand crowns. At
+the same time, while thus receiving or pursuing the vast rents of St.
+Armand and Afflighem, he could seize the abbey of Trulle from the
+expectant hands of poor dependents, and accept tapestries and hogsheads
+of wine from Jacques Lequien and others, as a tax on the benefices which
+he procured for them. Yet the man who, like his father before him, had so
+long fattened on the public money, who at an early day had incurred the
+Emperor's sharp reproof for his covetousness, whose family, beside all
+these salaries and personal property, possessed already fragments of the
+royal domain, in the shape of nineteen baronies and seigniories in
+Burgundy, besides the county of Cantecroix and other estates in the
+Netherlands, had the effrontery to affirm, "We have always rather
+regarded the service of the master than our own particular profit."
+
+In estimating the conduct of the minister, in relation to the provinces,
+we are met upon the threshold by a swarm of vague assertions which are of
+a nature to blind or distract the judgment. His character must be judged
+as a whole, and by its general results, with a careful allowance for
+contradictions and equivocations. Truth is clear and single, but the
+lights are parti-colored and refracted in the prism of hypocrisy. The
+great feature of his administration was a prolonged conflict between
+himself and the leading seigniors of the Netherlands. The ground of the
+combat was the religious question. Let the quarrel be turned or tortured
+in any manner that human ingenuity can devise, it still remains
+unquestionable that Granvelle's main object was to strengthen and to
+extend the inquisition, that of his adversaries to overthrow the
+institution. It followed, necessarily, that the ancient charters were to
+be trampled in the dust before that tribunal could be triumphant. The
+nobles, although all Catholics, defended the cause of the poor religious
+martyrs, the privileges of the nation and the rights of their order. They
+were conservatives, battling for the existence of certain great facts,
+entirely consonant to any theory of justice and divine reason--for
+ancient constitutions which had been purchased with blood and treasure.
+"I will maintain," was the motto of William of Orange. Philip, bigoted
+and absolute almost beyond comprehension, might perhaps have proved
+impervious to any representations, even of Granvelle. Nevertheless, the
+minister might have attempted the task, and the responsibility is heavy
+upon the man who shared the power and directed the career, but who never
+ceased to represent the generous resistance of individuals to frantic
+cruelty, as offences against God and the King.
+
+Yet extracts are drawn from his letters to prove that he considered the
+Spaniards as "proud and usurping," that he indignantly denied ever having
+been in favor of subjecting the Netherlands to the soldiers of that
+nation; that he recommended the withdrawal of the foreign regiments, and
+that he advised the King, when he came to the country, to bring with him
+but few Spanish troops. It should, however, be remembered that he
+employed, according to his own statements, every expedient which human
+ingenuity could suggest to keep the foreign soldiers in the provinces,
+that he "lamented to his inmost soul" their forced departure, and that he
+did not consent to that measure until the people were in a tumult, and
+the Zealanders threatening to lay the country under the ocean. "You may
+judge of the means employed to excite the people," he wrote to Perez in
+1563, "by the fact that a report is circulated that the Duke of Alva is
+coming hither to tyrannize the provinces." Yet it appears by the
+admissions of Del Ryo, one of Alva's blood council, that, "Cardinal
+Granvelle expressly advised that an army of Spaniards should be sent to
+the Netherlands, to maintain the obedience to his Majesty and the
+Catholic religion," and that the Duke of Alva was appointed chief by the
+advice of Cardinal Spinosa, and by that of Cardinal Granvelle, as,
+appeared by many letters written at the time to his friends. By the same
+confessions; it appeared that the course of policy thus distinctly
+recommended by Granvelle, "was to place the country under a system of
+government like that of Spain and Italy, and to reduce it entirely under
+the council of Spain." When the terrible Duke started on his errand of
+blood and fire, the Cardinal addressed him, a letter of fulsome flattery;
+protesting "that all the world know that no person could be found so
+appropriate as he, to be employed in an affair of such importance;"
+urging him to advance with his army as rapidly as possible upon the
+Netherlands, hoping that "the Duchess of Parma would not be allowed to
+consent that any pardon or concession should be made to the cities, by
+which the construction of fortresses would be interfered with, or the
+revocation of the charters which had been forfeited, be prevented," and
+giving him much advice as to the general measures to be adopted, and the
+persons to be employed upon his arrival, in which number the infamous
+Noircarmes was especially recommended. In a document found among his
+papers, these same points, with others, were handled at considerable
+length. The incorporation of the provinces into one kingdom, of which the
+King was to be crowned absolute sovereign; the establishment of, a
+universal law for the Catholic religion, care being taken not to call
+that law inquisition, "because there was nothing so odious to the
+northern nations as the word Spanish Inquisition, although the thing in
+itself be most holy and just;" the abolition and annihilation of the
+broad or general council in the cities, the only popular representation
+in the country; the construction of many citadels and fortresses to be
+garrisoned with Spaniards, Italians, and Germans. Such were the leading
+features in that remarkable paper.
+
+The manly and open opposition of the nobles was stigmatized as a cabal by
+the offended priest. He repeatedly whispered in the royal ear that their
+league was a treasonable conspiracy, which the Attorney-General ought to
+prosecute; that the seigniors meant to subvert entirely the authority of
+the Sovereign; that they meant to put their King under tutelage, to
+compel him to obey all their commands, to choose another prince of the
+blood for their chief, to establish a republic by the aid of foreign
+troops. If such insinuations, distilled thus secretly into the ear of
+Philip, who, like his predecessor, Dionysius, took pleasure in listening
+daily to charges against his subjects and to the groans of his prisoners,
+were not likely to engender a dangerous gangrene in the royal mind, it
+would be difficult to indicate any course which would produce such a
+result. Yet the Cardinal maintained that he had never done the gentlemen
+ill service, but that "they were angry with him for wishing to sustain
+the authority of the master." In almost every letter he expressed vague
+generalities of excuse, or even approbation, while he chronicled each
+daily fact which occurred to their discredit. The facts he particularly
+implored the King to keep to himself, the vague laudation he as urgently
+requested him to repeat to those interested. Perpetually dropping small
+innuendos like pebbles into the depths of his master's suspicious soul,
+he knew that at last the waters of bitterness would overflow, but he
+turned an ever-smiling face upon those who were to be his victims. There
+was ever something in his irony like the bland request of the inquisitor
+to the executioner that he would deal with his prisoners gently. There
+was about the same result in regard to such a prayer to be expected from
+Philip as from the hangman. Even if his criticisms had been uniformly
+indulgent, the position of the nobles and leading citizens thus subjected
+to a constant but secret superintendence, would have been too galling to
+be tolerated. They did not know, so precisely as we have learned after
+three centuries, that all their idle words and careless gestures as well
+as their graver proceedings, were kept in a noting book to be pored over
+and conned by rote in the recesses of the royal cabinet and the royal
+mind; but they suspected the espionage of the Cardinal, and they openly
+charged him with his secret malignity.
+
+The men who refused to burn their fellow-creatures for a difference in
+religious opinion were stigmatized as demagogues; as ruined spendthrifts
+who wished to escape from their liabilities in the midst of revolutionary
+confusion; as disguised heretics who were waiting for a good opportunity
+to reveal their true characters. Montigny, who, as a Montmorency, was
+nearly allied to the Constable and Admiral of France, and was in
+epistolary correspondence with those relatives, was held up as a
+Huguenot; of course, therefore, in Philip's eye, the most monstrous of
+malefactors.
+
+Although no man could strew pious reflections and holy texts more
+liberally, yet there was always an afterthought even in his most edifying
+letters. A corner of the mask is occasionally lifted and the deadly face
+of slow but abiding vengeance is revealed. "I know very well," he wrote,
+soon after his fall, to Viglius, "that vengeance is the Lord's-God is my
+witness that I pardon all the past." In the same letter, nevertheless, he
+added, "My theology, however, does not teach me, that by enduring, one is
+to enable one's enemies to commit even greater wrongs. If the royal
+justice is not soon put into play, I shall be obliged to right myself.
+This thing is going on too long-patience exhausted changes to fury. 'Tis
+necessary that every man should assist himself as he can, and when I
+choose to throw the game into confusion I shall do it perhaps more
+notably than the others." A few weeks afterwards, writing to the same
+correspondent, he observed, "We shall have to turn again, and rejoice
+together. Whatever the King commands I shall do, even were I to march
+into the fire, whatever happens, and without fear or respect for any
+person I mean to remain the same man to the end--Durate;--and I have a
+head that is hard enough when I do undertake any thing--'nec animism
+despondeo'." Here, certainly, was significant foreshadowing of the
+general wrath to come, and it was therefore of less consequence that the
+portraits painted by him of Berghen, Horn, Montigny, and others, were so
+rarely relieved by the more flattering tints which he occasionally
+mingled with the sombre coloring of his other pictures. Especially with
+regard to Count Egmont, his conduct was somewhat perplexing and, at first
+sight, almost inscrutable. That nobleman had been most violent in
+opposition to his course, had drawn a dagger upon him, had frequently
+covered him with personal abuse, and had crowned his offensive conduct by
+the invention of the memorable fool's-cap: livery. Yet the Cardinal
+usually spoke of him with pity and gentle consideration, described him as
+really well disposed in the main, as misled by others, as a "friend of
+smoke," who might easily be gained by flattery and bribery. When there
+was question of the Count's going to Madrid, the Cardinal renewed his
+compliments with additional expression of eagerness that they should be
+communicated to their object. Whence all this Christian meekness in the
+author of the Ban against Orange and the eulogist of Alva? The true
+explanation of this endurance on the part of the Cardinal lies in the
+estimate which he had formed of Egmont's character. Granvelle had taken
+the man's measure, and even he could not foresee the unparalleled cruelty
+and dulness which were eventually to characterize Philip's conduct
+towards him. On the contrary, there was every reason why the Cardinal
+should see in the Count a personage whom brilliant services, illustrious
+rank, and powerful connexions, had marked for a prosperous future. It was
+even currently asserted that Philip was about to create him
+Governor-General of the Netherlands, in order to detach him entirely from
+Orange, and to bind him more closely to the Crown. He was, therefore, a
+man to be forgiven. Nothing apparently but a suspicion of heresy could
+damage the prospects of the great noble, and Egmont was orthodox beyond
+all peradventure. He was even a bigot in the Catholic faith. He had
+privately told the Duchess of Parma that he had always been desirous of
+seeing the edicts thoroughly enforced; and he denounced as enemies all
+those persons who charged him with ever having been in favor of
+mitigating the System. He was reported, to be sure, at about the time of
+Granvelle's departure from the Netherlands, to have said "post pocula,
+that the quarrel was not with the Cardinal, but with the King, who was
+administering the public affairs very badly, even in the matter of
+religion." Such a bravado, however, uttered by a gentleman in his cups,
+when flushed with a recent political triumph, could hardly outweigh in
+the cautious calculations of Granvelle; distinct admissions in favor of
+persecution. Egmont in truth stood in fear of the inquisition. The hero
+of Gravelingen and St. Quentin actually trembled before Peter Titelmann.
+Moreover, notwithstanding all that had past, he had experienced a change
+in his sentiments in regard to the Cardinal. He frequently expressed the
+opinion that, although his presence in the Netherlands was inadmissible,
+he should be glad to see him Pope. He had expressed strong disapprobation
+of the buffooning masquerade by which he had been ridiculed at the
+Mansfeld christening party. When at Madrid he not only spoke well of
+Granvelle himself; but would allow nothing disparaging concerning him to
+be uttered in his presence. When, however, Egmont had fallen from favor,
+and was already a prisoner, the Cardinal diligently exerted himself to
+place under the King's eye what he considered the most damning evidence
+of the Count's imaginary treason; a document with which the public
+prosecutor had not been made acquainted.
+
+Thus, it will be seen by this retrospect how difficult it is to seize all
+the shifting subtleties of this remarkable character. His sophisms even,
+when self-contradictory, are so adroit that they are often hard to parry.
+He made a great merit to himself for not having originated the new
+episcopates; but it should be remembered that he did his utmost to
+enforce the measure, which was "so holy a scheme that he would sacrifice
+for its success his fortune and his life." He refused the archbishopric
+of Mechlin, but his motives for so doing were entirely sordid. His
+revenues were for the moment diminished, while his personal distinction
+was not, in his opinion, increased by the promotion. He refused to accept
+it because "it was no addition to his dignity, as he was already Cardinal
+and Bishop of Arras," but in this statement he committed an important
+anachronism. He was not Cardinal when he refused the see of Mechlin;
+having received the red hat upon February 26, 1561, and having already
+accepted the archbishopric in May of the preceding year. He affirmed that
+"no man would more resolutely defend the liberty and privileges of the
+provinces than he would do," but he preferred being tyrannized by his
+prince, to maintaining the joyful entrance. He complained of the
+insolence of the states in meddling with the supplies; he denounced the
+convocation of the representative bodies, by whose action alone, what
+there was of "liberty and privilege" in the land could be guarded; he
+recommended the entire abolition of the common councils in the cities. He
+described himself as having always combated the opinion that "any thing
+could be accomplished by terror, death and violence," yet he recommended
+the mission of Alva, in whom "terror, death, and violence" were
+incarnate. He was indignant that he should be accused of having advised
+the introduction of the Spanish inquisition; but his reason was that the
+term sounded disagreeably in northern ears, while the thing was most
+commendable. He manifested much anxiety that the public should be
+disabused of their fear of the Spanish inquisition, but he was the
+indefatigable supporter of the Netherland inquisition, which Philip
+declared with reason to be "the more pitiless institution" of the two. He
+was the author, not of the edicts, but of their re-enactment, verbally
+and literally, in all the horrid extent to which they had been carried by
+Charles the Fifth; and had recommended the use of the Emperor's name to
+sanctify the infernal scheme. He busied himself personally in the
+execution of these horrible laws, even when judge and hangman slackened.
+To the last he denounced all those "who should counsel his Majesty to
+permit a moderation of the edicts," and warned the King that if he should
+consent to the least mitigation of their provisions, things would go
+worse in the provinces than in France. He was diligent in establishing
+the reinforced episcopal inquisition side by side with these edicts, and
+with the papal inquisition already in full operation. He omitted no
+occasion of encouraging the industry of all these various branches in the
+business of persecution. When at last the loud cry from the oppressed
+inhabitants of Flanders was uttered in unanimous denunciation by the four
+estates of that province of the infamous Titelmann, the Cardinal's voice,
+from the depths of his luxurious solitude, was heard, not in sympathy
+with the poor innocent wretches, who were daily dragged from their humble
+homes to perish by sword and fire, but in pity for the inquisitor who was
+doing the work of hell. "I deeply regret," he wrote to Viglius, "that the
+states of Flanders should be pouting at inquisitor Titelmann. Truly he
+has good zeal, although sometimes indiscreet and noisy; still he must be
+supported, lest they put a bridle upon him, by which his authority will
+be quite enervated." The reader who is acquainted with the personality of
+Peter Titelmann can decide as to the real benignity of the joyous
+epicurean who could thus commend and encourage such a monster of cruelty.
+
+If popularity be a test of merit in a public man, it certainly could not
+be claimed by the Cardinal. From the moment when Gresham declared him to
+be "hated of all men," down to the period of his departure, the odium
+resting upon him had been rapidly extending: He came to the country with
+two grave accusations resting upon his name. The Emperor Maximilian
+asserted that the Cardinal had attempted to take his life by poison, and
+he persisted in the truth of the charge thus made by him, till the day of
+his death. Another accusation was more generally credited. He was the
+author of the memorable forgery by which the Landgrave Philip of Hesse
+had been entrapped into his long imprisonment. His course in and towards
+the Netherlands has been sufficiently examined. Not a single charge has
+been made lightly, but only after careful sifting of evidence. Moreover
+they are all sustained mainly from the criminal's own lips. Yet when the
+secrecy of the Spanish cabinet and the Macchiavellian scheme of policy by
+which the age was characterized are considered, it is not strange that
+there should have been misunderstandings and contradictions with regard
+to the man's character till a full light had been thrown upon it by the
+disinterment of ancient documents. The word "Durate," which was the
+Cardinals device, may well be inscribed upon his mask, which has at last
+been torn aside, but which was formed of such durable materials, that it
+has deceived the world for three centuries.
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     Attempting to swim in two waters
+     Dissimulation and delay
+     Excited with the appearance of a gem of true philosophy
+     Insinuating suspicions when unable to furnish evidence
+     Maintaining the attitude of an injured but forgiving Christian
+     More accustomed to do well than to speak well
+     Perpetually dropping small innuendos like pebbles
+     Procrastination was always his first refuge
+     They had at last burned one more preacher alive
+
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, PG EDITION, VOLUME 9.
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
+JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, D.C.L., LL.D.
+1855
+1564-1565 [CHAPTER V.]
+
+   Return of the three seigniors to the state council--Policy of
+   Orange--Corrupt character of the government--Efforts of the Prince
+   in favor of reform--Influence of Armenteros--Painful situation of
+   Viglius--His anxiety to retire--Secret charges against him
+   transmitted by the Duchess to Philip--Ominous signs of the times--
+   Attention of Philip to the details of persecution--Execution of
+   Fabricius, and tumult at Antwerp--Horrible cruelty towards the
+   Protestants--Remonstrance of the Magistracy of Bruges and of the
+   four Flemish estates against Titelmann--Obduracy of Philip--Council
+   of Trent--Quarrel for precedence between the French and Spanish
+   envoys--Order for the publication of the Trent decrees in the
+   Netherlands--Opposition to the measure--Reluctance of the Duchess--
+   Egmont accepts a mission to Spain--Violent debate in the council
+   concerning his instructions--Remarkable speech of Orange--Apoplexy
+   of Viglius--Temporary appointment of Hopper--Departure of Egmont--
+   Disgraceful scene at Cambray--Character of the Archbishop--Egmont in
+   Spain--Flattery and bribery--Council of Doctors--Vehement
+   declarations of Philip--His instructions to Egmont at his departure
+   --Proceedings of Orange in regard to his principality--Egmont's
+   report to the state council concerning his mission--His vainglory--
+   Renewed orders from Philip to continue the persecution--Indignation
+   of Egmont--Habitual dissimulation of the King--Reproof of Egmont by
+   Orange--Assembly of doctors in Brussels--Result of their
+   deliberations transmitted to Philip--Universal excitement in the
+   Netherlands--New punishment for heretics--Interview at Bayonne
+   between Catharine de Medici and her daughter, the Queen of Spain--
+   Mistaken views upon this subject--Diplomacy of Alva--Artful conduct
+   of Catharine--Stringent letters from Philip to the Duchess with
+   regard to the inquisition--Consternation of Margaret and of Viglius
+   --New proclamation of the Edicts, the Inquisition, and the Council
+   of Trent--Fury of the people--Resistance of the leading seigniors
+   and of the Brabant Council--Brabant declared free of the
+   inquisition--Prince Alexander of Parma betrothed to Donna Maria of
+   Portugal--Her portrait--Expensive preparations for the nuptials--
+   Assembly of the Golden Fleece--Oration of Viglius--Wedding of Prince
+   Alexander.
+
+The remainder of the year, in the spring of which the Cardinal had left
+the Netherlands, was one of anarchy, confusion, and corruption. At first
+there had been a sensation of relief.
+
+Philip had exchanged letters of exceeding amity with Orange, Egmont, and
+Horn. These three seigniors had written, immediately upon Granvelle's
+retreat, to assure the King of their willingness to obey the royal
+commands, and to resume their duties at the state council. They had,
+however, assured the Duchess that the reappearance of the Cardinal in the
+country would be the signal for their instantaneous withdrawal. They
+appeared at the council daily, working with the utmost assiduity often
+till late into the night. Orange had three great objects in view, by
+attaining which the country, in his opinion, might yet be saved, and the
+threatened convulsions averted. These were to convoke the states-general,
+to moderate or abolish the edicts, and to suppress the council of finance
+and the privy council, leaving only the council of state. The two first
+of these points, if gained, would, of course, subvert the whole absolute
+policy which Philip and Granvelle had enforced; it was, therefore, hardly
+probable that any impression would be made upon the secret determination
+of the government in these respects. As to the council of state, the
+limited powers of that body, under the administration of the Cardinal,
+had formed one of the principal complaints against that minister. The
+justice and finance councils were sinks of iniquity. The most barefaced
+depravity reigned supreme. A gangrene had spread through the whole
+government. The public functionaries were notoriously and outrageously
+venal. The administration of justice had been poisoned at the fountain,
+and the people were unable to slake their daily thirst at the polluted
+stream. There was no law but the law of the longest purse. The highest
+dignitaries of Philip's appointment had become the most mercenary
+hucksters who ever converted the divine temple of justice into a den of
+thieves. Law was an article of merchandise, sold by judges to the highest
+bidder. A poor customer could obtain nothing but stripes and
+imprisonment, or, if tainted with suspicion of heresy, the fagot or the
+sword, but for the rich every thing was attainable. Pardons for the most
+atrocious crimes, passports, safe conducts, offices of trust and honor,
+were disposed of at auction to the highest bidder. Against all this sea
+of corruption did the brave William of Orange set his breast, undaunted
+and unflinching. Of all the conspicuous men in the land, he was the only
+one whose worst enemy had never hinted through the whole course of his
+public career, that his hands had known contamination. His honor was ever
+untarnished by even a breath of suspicion. The Cardinal could accuse him
+of pecuniary embarrassment, by which a large proportion of his revenues
+were necessarily diverted to the liquidation of his debts, but he could
+not suggest that the Prince had ever freed himself from difficulties by
+plunging his hands into the public treasury, when it might easily have
+been opened to him.
+
+It was soon, however, sufficiently obvious that as desperate a struggle
+was to be made with the many-headed monster of general corruption as with
+the Cardinal by whom it had been so long fed and governed. The Prince was
+accused of ambition and intrigue. It was said that he was determined to
+concentrate all the powers of government in the state council, which was
+thus to become an omnipotent and irresponsible senate, while the King
+would be reduced to the condition of a Venetian Doge. It was, of course,
+suggested that it was the aim of Orange to govern the new Tribunal of
+Ten. No doubt the Prince was ambitious. Birth, wealth, genius, and virtue
+could not have been bestowed in such eminent degree on any man without
+carrying with them the determination to assert their value. It was not
+his wish so much as it was the necessary law of his being to impress
+himself upon his age and to rule his fellow-men. But he practised no arts
+to arrive at the supremacy which he felt must always belong to him, what
+ever might be his nominal position in the political hierarchy. He was
+already, although but just turned of thirty years, vastly changed from
+the brilliant and careless grandee, as he stood at the hour of the
+imperial abdication. He was becoming careworn in face, thin of figure,
+sleepless of habit. The wrongs of which he was the daily witness, the
+absolutism, the cruelty, the rottenness of the government, had marked his
+face with premature furrows. "They say that the Prince is very sad,"
+wrote Morillon to Granvelle; "and 'tis easy to read as much in his face.
+They say he can not sleep." Truly might the monarch have taken warning
+that here was a man who was dangerous, and who thought too much.
+"Sleekheaded men, and such as slept o' nights," would have been more
+eligible functionaries, no doubt, in the royal estimation, but, for a
+brief period, the King was content to use, to watch, and to suspect the
+man who was one day to be his great and invincible antagonist. He
+continued assiduous at the council, and he did his best, by entertaining
+nobles and citizens at his hospitable mansion, to cultivate good
+relations with large numbers of his countrymen. He soon, however, had
+become disgusted with the court. Egmont was more lenient to the foul
+practices which prevailed there, and took almost a childish pleasure in
+dining at the table of the Duchess, dressed, as were many of the younger
+nobles, in short camlet doublet with the wheat-sheaf buttons.
+
+The Prince felt more unwilling to compromise his personal dignity by
+countenancing the flagitious proceedings and the contemptible supremacy
+of Armenteros, and it was soon very obvious, therefore, that Egmont was a
+greater favorite at court than Orange. At the same time the Count was
+also diligently cultivating the good graces of the middle and lower
+classes in Brussels, shooting with the burghers at the popinjay, calling
+every man by his name, and assisting at jovial banquets in town-house or
+guild-hall. The Prince, although at times a necessary partaker also in
+these popular amusements, could find small cause for rejoicing in the
+aspect of affairs. When his business led him to the palace, he was
+sometimes forced to wait in the ante-chamber for an hour, while Secretary
+Armenteros was engaged in private consultation with Margaret upon the
+most important matters of administration. It could not be otherwise than
+galling to the pride and offensive to the patriotism of the Prince, to
+find great public transactions entrusted to such hands. Thomas de
+Armenteros was a mere private secretary--a simple clerk. He had no right
+to have cognizance of important affairs, which could only come before his
+Majesty's sworn advisers. He was moreover an infamous peculator. He was
+rolling up a fortune with great rapidity by his shameless traffic in
+benefices, charges, offices, whether of church or state. His name of
+Armenteros was popularly converted into Argenteros, in order to symbolize
+the man who was made of public money. His confidential intimacy with the
+Duchess procured for him also the name of "Madam's barber," in allusion
+to the famous ornaments of Margaret's upper lip, and to the celebrated
+influence enjoyed by the barbers of the Duke of Savoy, and of Louis the
+Eleventh. This man sold dignities and places of high responsibility at
+public auction. The Regent not only connived at these proceedings, which
+would have been base enough, but she was full partner in the disgraceful
+commerce. Through the agency of the Secretary, she, too, was amassing a
+large private fortune. "The Duchess has gone into the business of vending
+places to the highest bidders," said Morillon, "with the bit between her
+teeth." The spectacle presented at the council-board was often
+sufficiently repulsive not only to the cardinalists, who were treated
+with elaborate insolence, but to all men who loved honor and justice, or
+who felt an interest in the prosperity of government. There was nothing
+majestic in the appearance of the Duchess, as she sat conversing apart
+with Armenteros, whispering, pinching, giggling, or disputing, while
+important affairs of state were debated, concerning which the Secretary
+had no right to be informed. It was inevitable that Orange should be
+offended to the utmost by such proceedings, although he was himself
+treated with comparative respect. As for the ancient adherents of
+Granvelle, the Bordeys, Baves, and Morillons, they were forbidden by the
+favorite even to salute him in the streets. Berlaymont was treated by the
+Duchess with studied insult. "What is the man talking about?" she would
+ask with languid superciliousness, if he attempted to express his opinion
+in the state-council. Viglius, whom Berlaymont accused of doing his best,
+without success, to make his peace with the seigniors, was in even still
+greater disgrace than his fellow-cardinalists. He longed, he said, to be
+in Burgundy, drinking Granvelle's good wine. His patience under the daily
+insults which he received from the government made him despicable in the
+eyes of his own party. He was described by his friends as pusillanimous
+to an incredible extent, timid from excess of riches, afraid of his own
+shadow. He was becoming exceedingly pathetic, expressing frequently a
+desire to depart and end his days in peace. His faithful Hopper sustained
+and consoled him, but even Joachim could not soothe his sorrows when he
+reflected that after all the work performed by himself and colleagues,
+"they had only been beating the bush for others," while their own share
+in the spoils had been withheld. Nothing could well be more contumelious
+than Margaret's treatment of the learned Frisian. When other councillors
+were summoned to a session at three o'clock, the President was invited at
+four. It was quite impossible for him to have an audience of the Duchess
+except in the presence of the inevitable Armenteras. He was not allowed
+to open his mouth, even when he occasionally plucked up heart enough to
+attempt the utterance of his opinions. His authority was completely dead.
+Even if he essayed to combat the convocation of the states-general by the
+arguments which the Duchess, at his suggestion, had often used for the
+purpose, he was treated with the same indifference. "The poor President,"
+wrote Granvelle to the King's chief secretary, Gonzalo Perez, "is afraid,
+as I hear, to speak a word, and is made to write exactly what they tell
+him." At the same time the poor President, thus maltreated and mortified,
+had the vanity occasionally to imagine himself a bold and formidable
+personage. The man whom his most intimate friends described as afraid of
+his own shadow, described himself to Granvelle as one who went his own
+gait, speaking his mind frankly upon every opportunity, and compelling
+people to fear him a little, even if they did not love him. But the
+Cardinal knew better than to believe in this magnanimous picture of the
+doctor's fancy.
+
+Viglius was anxious to retire, but unwilling to have the appearance of
+being disgraced. He felt instinctively, although deceived as to the
+actual facts, that his great patron had been defeated and banished. He
+did not wish to be placed in the same position. He was desirous, as he
+piously expressed himself, of withdrawing from the world, "that he might
+balance his accounts with the Lord, before leaving the lodgings of life."
+He was, however, disposed to please "the master" as well as the Lord. He
+wished to have the royal permission to depart in peace. In his own lofty
+language, he wished to be sprinkled on taking his leave "with the holy
+water of the court." Moreover, he was fond of his salary, although he
+disliked the sarcasms of the Duchess. Egmont and others had advised him
+to abandon the office of President to Hopper, in order, as he was getting
+feeble, to reserve his whole strength for the state-council. Viglius did
+not at all relish the proposition. He said that by giving up the seals,
+and with them the rank and salary which they conferred, he should become
+a deposed saint. He had no inclination, as long as he remained on the
+ground at all, to part with those emoluments and honors, and to be
+converted merely into the "ass of the state-council." He had, however,
+with the sagacity of an old navigator, already thrown out his anchor into
+the best holding-ground during the storms which he foresaw were soon to
+sweep the state. Before the close of the year which now occupies, the
+learned doctor of laws had become a doctor of divinity also; and had
+already secured, by so doing, the wealthy prebend of Saint Bavon of
+Ghent. This would be a consolation in the loss of secular dignities, and
+a recompence for the cold looks of the Duchess. He did not scruple to
+ascribe the pointed dislike which Margaret manifested towards him to the
+awe in which she stood of his stern integrity of character. The true
+reason why Armenteros and the Duchess disliked him was because, in his
+own words, "he was not of their mind with regard to lotteries, the sale
+of offices, advancement to abbeys, and many other things of the kind, by
+which they were in such a hurry to make their fortune." Upon another
+occasion he observed, in a letter to Granvelle, that "all offices were
+sold to the highest bidder, and that the cause of Margaret's resentment
+against both the Cardinal and himself was, that they had so long
+prevented her from making the profit which she was now doing from the
+sale of benefices, offices, and other favors."
+
+The Duchess, on her part, characterized the proceedings and policy, both
+past and present, of the cardinalists as factious, corrupt, and selfish
+in the last degree. She assured her brother that the simony, rapine, and
+dishonesty of Granvelle, Viglius, and all their followers, had brought
+affairs into the ruinous condition which was then but too apparent. They
+were doing their best, she said, since the Cardinal's departure, to show,
+by their sloth and opposition, that they were determined to allow nothing
+to prosper in his absence. To quote her own vigorous expression to
+Philip--"Viglius made her suffer the pains of hell." She described him as
+perpetually resisting the course of the administration, and she threw out
+dark suspicions, not only as to his honesty but his orthodoxy. Philip
+lent a greedy ear to these scandalous hints concerning the late
+omnipotent minister and his friends. It is an instructive lesson in human
+history to look through the cloud of dissimulation in which the actors of
+this remarkable epoch were ever enveloped, and to watch them all stabbing
+fiercely at each other in the dark, with no regard to previous
+friendship, or even present professions. It is edifying to see the
+Cardinal, with all his genius and all his grimace, corresponding on
+familiar terms with Armenteros, who was holding him up to obloquy upon
+all occasions; to see Philip inclining his ear in pleased astonishment to
+Margaret's disclosures concerning the Cardinal, whom he was at the very
+instant assuring of his undiminished confidence; and to see Viglius, the
+author of the edict of 1550, and the uniform opponent of any mitigation
+in its horrors, silently becoming involved without the least suspicion of
+the fact in the meshes of inquisitor Titelmann.
+
+Upon Philip's eager solicitations for further disclosures, Margaret
+accordingly informed her brother of additional facts communicated to her,
+after oaths of secrecy had been exchanged, by Titelmann and his colleague
+del Canto. They had assured her, she said, that there were grave doubts
+touching the orthodoxy of Viglius. He had consorted with heretics during
+a large portion of his life, and had put many suspicious persons into
+office. As to his nepotism, simony, and fraud, there was no doubt at all.
+He had richly provided all his friends and relations in Friesland with
+benefices. He had become in his old age a priest and churchman, in order
+to snatch the provostship of Saint Bavon, although his infirmities did
+not allow him to say mass, or even to stand erect at the altar. The
+inquisitors had further accused him of having stolen rings, jewels,
+plate, linen, beds, tapestry, and other furniture, from the
+establishment, all which property he had sent to Friesland, and of having
+seized one hundred thousand florins in ready money which had belonged to
+the last abbe--an act consequently of pure embezzlement. The Duchess
+afterwards transmitted to Philip an inventory of the plundered property,
+including the furniture of nine houses, and begged him to command Viglius
+to make instant restitution. If there be truth in the homely proverb,
+that in case of certain quarrels honest men recover their rights, it is
+perhaps equally certain that when distinguished public personages attack
+each other, historians may arrive at the truth. Here certainly are
+edifying pictures of the corruption of the Spanish regency in the
+Netherlands, painted by the President of the state-council, and of the
+dishonesty of the President painted by the Regent.
+
+A remarkable tumult occurred in October of this year, at Antwerp. A
+Carmelite monk, Christopher Smith, commonly called Fabricius, had left a
+monastery in Bruges, adopted the principles of the Reformation, and taken
+to himself a wife. He had resided for a time in England; but, invited by
+his friends, he had afterwards undertaken the dangerous charge of
+gospel-teacher in the commercial metropolis of the Netherlands. He was,
+however, soon betrayed to the authorities by a certain bonnet dealer,
+popularly called Long Margaret, who had pretended, for the sake of
+securing the informer's fee, to be a convert to his doctrines. He was
+seized, and immediately put to the torture. He manfully refused to betray
+any members of his congregation, as manfully avowed and maintained his
+religious creed. He was condemned to the flames, and during the interval
+which preceded his execution, he comforted his friends by letters of
+advice, religious consolation and encouragement, which he wrote from his
+dungeon. He sent a message to the woman who had betrayed him, assuring
+her of his forgiveness, and exhorting her to repentance. His calmness,
+wisdom, and gentleness excited the admiration of all. When; therefore,
+this humble imitator of Christ was led through the streets of Antwerp to
+the stake, the popular emotion was at once visible. To the multitude who
+thronged about the executioners with threatening aspect, he addressed an
+urgent remonstrance that they would not compromise their own safety by a
+tumult in his cause. He invited all, however, to remain steadfast to the
+great truth for which he was about to lay down his life. The crowd, as
+they followed the procession of hangmen, halberdsmen, and magistrates,
+sang the hundred and thirtieth psalm in full chorus. As the victim
+arrived upon the market-place, he knelt upon the ground to pray, for the
+last time. He was, however, rudely forced to rise by the executioner, who
+immediately chained him to the stake, and fastened a leathern strap
+around his throat. At this moment the popular indignation became
+uncontrollable; stones were showered upon the magistrates and soldiers,
+who, after a slight resistance, fled for their lives. The foremost of the
+insurgents dashed into the enclosed arena, to rescue the prisoner. It was
+too late. The executioner, even as he fled, had crushed the victim's head
+with a sledge hammer, and pierced him through and through with a poniard.
+Some of the bystanders maintained afterwards that his fingers and lips
+were seen to move, as if in feeble prayer, for a little time longer,
+until, as the fire mounted, he fell into the flames. For the remainder of
+the day, after the fire had entirely smouldered to ashes, the charred and
+half-consumed body of the victim remained on the market-place, a ghastly
+spectacle to friend and foe. It was afterwards bound to a stone and cast
+into the Scheld. Such was the doom of Christopher Fabricius, for having
+preached Christianity in Antwerp. During the night an anonymous placard,
+written with blood, was posted upon the wall of the town-house, stating
+that there were men in the city who would signally avenge his murder.
+Nothing was done, however, towards the accomplishment of the threat. The
+King, when he received the intelligence of the transaction, was furious
+with indignation, and wrote savage letters to his sister, commanding
+instant vengeance to be taken upon all concerned in so foul a riot. As
+one of the persons engaged had, however, been arrested and immediately
+hanged, and as the rest had effected their escape, the affair was
+suffered to drop.
+
+The scenes of outrage, the frantic persecutions, were fast becoming too
+horrible to be looked upon by Catholic or Calvinist. The prisons swarmed
+with victims, the streets were thronged with processions to the stake.
+The population of thriving cities, particularly in Flanders, were
+maddened by the spectacle of so much barbarity inflicted, not upon
+criminals, but usually upon men remarkable for propriety of conduct and
+blameless lives. It was precisely at this epoch that the burgomasters,
+senators, and council of the city of Bruges (all Catholics) humbly
+represented to the Duchess Regent, that Peter Titelmann, inquisitor of
+the Faith, against all forms of law, was daily exercising inquisition
+among the inhabitants, not only against those suspected or accused of
+heresy, but against all, however untainted their characters; that he was
+daily citing before him whatever persons he liked, men or women,
+compelling them by force to say whatever it pleased him; that he was
+dragging people from their houses, and even from the sacred precincts of
+the church; often in revenge for verbal injuries to himself, always under
+pretext of heresy, and without form or legal warrant of any kind. They
+therefore begged that he might be compelled to make use of preparatory
+examinations with the co-operation of the senators of the city, to suffer
+that witnesses should make their depositions without being intimidated by
+menace, and to conduct all his subsequent proceedings according to legal
+forms, which he had uniformly violated; publicly declaring that he would
+conduct himself according to his own pleasure.
+
+The four estates of Flanders having, in a solemn address to the King,
+represented the same facts, concluded their brief but vigorous
+description of Titelmann's enormities by calling upon Philip to suppress
+these horrible practices, so manifestly in violation of the ancient
+charters which he had sworn to support. It may be supposed that the
+appeal to Philip would be more likely to call down a royal benediction
+than the reproof solicited upon the inquisitor's head. In the privy
+council, the petitions and remonstrances were read, and, in the words of
+the President, "found to be in extremely bad taste." In the debate which
+followed, Viglius and his friends recalled to the Duchess, in earnest
+language, the decided will of the King, which had been so often
+expressed. A faint representation was made, on the other hand, of the
+dangerous consequences, in case the people were driven to a still deeper
+despair. The result of the movement was but meagre. The Duchess announced
+that she could do nothing in the matter of the request until further
+information, but that meantime she had charged Titelmann to conduct
+himself in his office "with discretion and modesty." The discretion and
+modesty, however, never appeared in any modification of the inquisitor's
+proceedings, and he continued unchecked in his infamous career until
+death, which did not occur till several years afterwards. In truth,
+Margaret was herself in mortal fear of this horrible personage. He
+besieged her chamber door almost daily, before she had risen, insisting
+upon audiences which, notwithstanding her repugnance to the man, she did
+not dare to refuse. "May I perish," said Morillon, "if she does not stand
+in exceeding awe of Titelmann." Under such circumstances, sustained by
+the King in Spain, the Duchess in Brussels, the privy council, and by a
+leading member of what had been thought the liberal party, it was not
+difficult for the inquisition to maintain its ground, notwithstanding the
+solemn protestations of the estates and the suppressed curses of the
+people.
+
+Philip, so far from having the least disposition to yield in the matter
+of the great religious persecution, was more determined as to his course
+than ever. He had already, as easy as August of this year, despatched
+orders to the Duchess that the decrees of the Council of Trent should be
+published and enforced throughout the Netherlands. The memorable quarrel
+as to precedency between the French and Spanish delegates had given some
+hopes of a different determination. Nevertheless, those persons who
+imagined that, in consequence of this quarrel of etiquette, Philip would
+slacken in his allegiance to the Church, were destined to be bitterly
+mistaken. He informed his sister that, in the common cause of
+Christianity, he should not be swayed by personal resentments.
+
+How, indeed, could a different decision be expected? His envoy at Rome,
+as well as his representatives at the council, had universally repudiated
+all doubts as to the sanctity of its decrees. "To doubt the infallibility
+of the council, as some have dared to do," said Francis de Vargas, "and
+to think it capable of error, is the most devilish heresy of all."
+Nothing could so much disturb and scandalize the world as such a
+sentiment. Therefore the Archbishop of Granada told, very properly, the
+Bishop of Tortosa, that if he should express such an opinion in Spain,
+they would burn him. These strenuous notions were shared by the King.
+Therefore, although all Europe was on tip-toe with expectation to see how
+Philip would avenge himself for the slight put upon his ambassador,
+Philip disappointed all Europe.
+
+In August, 1564, he wrote to the Duchess Regent, that the decrees were to
+be proclaimed and enforced without delay. They related to three subjects,
+the doctrines to be inculcated by the Church, the reformation of
+ecclesiastical moral, and the education of the people. General police
+regulations were issued at the same time, by which heretics were to be
+excluded from all share in the usual conveniences of society, and were in
+fact to be strictly excommunicated. Inns were to receive no guests,
+schools no children, alms-houses no paupers, grave-yards no dead bodies,
+unless guests, children, paupers, and dead bodies were furnished with the
+most satisfactory proofs of orthodoxy. Midwives of unsuspected Romanism
+were alone to exercise their functions, and were bound to give notice
+within twenty-four hours of every birth which occurred; the parish clerks
+were as regularly to record every such addition to the population, and
+the authorities to see that Catholic baptism was administered in each
+case with the least possible delay. Births, deaths, and marriages could
+only occur with validity under the shadow of the Church. No human being
+could consider himself born or defunct unless provided with a priest's
+certificate. The heretic was excluded, so far as ecclesiastical dogma
+could exclude him, from the pale of humanity, from consecrated earth, and
+from eternal salvation.
+
+The decrees contained many provisions which not only conflicted with the
+privileges of the provinces, but with the prerogatives of the sovereign.
+For this reason many of the lords in council thought that at least the
+proper exceptions should be made upon their promulgation. This was also
+the opinion of the Duchess, but the King, by his letters of October, and
+November (1564), expressly prohibited any alteration in the ordinances,
+and transmitted a copy of the form according to which the canons had been
+published in Spain, together with the expression of his desire that a
+similar course should be followed in the Netherlands. Margaret of Parma
+was in great embarrassment. It was evident that the publication could no
+longer be deferred. Philip had issued his commands, but grave senators
+and learned doctors of the university had advised strongly in favor of
+the necessary exceptions. The extreme party, headed by Viglius, were in
+favor of carrying out the royal decisions. They were overruled, and the
+Duchess was induced to attempt a modification, if her brother's
+permission could be obtained. The President expressed the opinion that
+the decrees, even with the restrictions proposed, would "give no
+contentment to the people, who, moreover, had no right to meddle with
+theology." The excellent Viglius forgot, however, that theology had been
+meddling altogether too much with the people to make it possible that the
+public attention should be entirely averted from the subject. Men and
+women who might be daily summoned to rack, stake, and scaffold, in the
+course of these ecclesiastical arrangements, and whose births, deaths,
+marriages, and position in the next world, were now to be formally
+decided upon, could hardly be taxed with extreme indiscretion, if they
+did meddle with the subject.
+
+In the dilemma to which the Duchess was reduced, she again bethought
+herself of a special mission to Spain. At the end of the year (1564), it
+was determined that Egmont should be the envoy. Montigny excused himself
+on account of private affairs; Marquis Berghen "because of his
+indisposition and corpulence." There was a stormy debate in council after
+Egmont had accepted the mission and immediately before his departure.
+Viglius had been ordered to prepare the Count's instructions. Having
+finished the rough draught, he laid it before the board. The paper was
+conceived in general terms and might mean any thing or nothing. No
+criticism upon its language was, however, offered until it came to the
+turn of Orange to vote upon the document. Then, however, William the
+Silent opened his lips, and poured forth a long and vehement discourse,
+such as he rarely pronounced, but such as few except himself could utter.
+There was no shuffling, no disguise, no timidity in his language. He took
+the ground boldly that the time had arrived for speaking out. The object
+of sending an envoy of high rank and European reputation like the Count
+of Egmont, was to tell the King the truth. Let Philip know it now. Let
+him be unequivocally informed that this whole machinery of placards and
+scaffolds, of new bishops and old hangmen, of decrees, inquisitors, and
+informers, must once and forever be abolished. Their day was over. The
+Netherlands were free provinces, they were surrounded by free countries,
+they were determined to vindicate their ancient privileges. Moreover, his
+Majesty was to be plainly informed of the frightful corruption which made
+the whole judicial and administrative system loathsome. The venality
+which notoriously existed every where, on the bench, in the council
+chamber, in all public offices, where purity was most essential, was
+denounced by the Prince in scathing terms. He tore the mask from
+individual faces, and openly charged the Chancellor of Brabant, Engelbert
+Maas, with knavery and corruption. He insisted that the King should be
+informed of the necessity of abolishing the two inferior councils, and of
+enlarging the council of state by the admission of ten or twelve new
+members selected for their patriotism, purity, and capacity. Above all,
+it was necessary plainly to inform his Majesty that the canons of Trent,
+spurned by the whole world, even by the Catholic princes of Germany,
+could never be enforced in the Netherlands, and that it would be ruinous
+to make the attempt. He proposed and insisted that the Count of Egmont
+should be instructed accordingly. He avowed in conclusion that he was a
+Catholic himself and intended to remain in the Faith, but that he could
+not look on with pleasure when princes strove to govern the souls of men,
+and to take away their liberty in matters of conscience and religion.
+
+Here certainly was no daintiness of phraseology, and upon these leading
+points, thus slightly indicated, William of Orange poured out his
+eloquence, bearing conviction upon the tide of his rapid invective. His
+speech lasted till seven in the evening, when the Duchess adjourned the
+meeting. The council broke up, the Regent went to supper, but the effect
+of the discourse upon nearly all the members was not to be mistaken.
+Viglius was in a state of consternation, perplexity, and despair. He felt
+satisfied that, with perhaps the exception of Berlaymont, all who had
+listened or should afterwards listen to the powerful arguments of Orange,
+would be inevitably seduced or bewildered. The President lay awake,
+tossing and tumbling in his bed, recalling the Prince's oration, point by
+point, and endeavoring, to answer it in order. It was important, he felt,
+to obliterate the impression produced. Moreover, as we have often seen,
+the learned Doctor valued himself upon his logic.
+
+It was absolutely necessary, therefore, that in his reply, next day, his
+eloquence should outshine that of his antagonist. The President thus
+passed a feverish and uncomfortable night, pronouncing and listening to
+imaginary harangues. With the dawn of day he arose and proceeded to dress
+himself. The excitement of the previous evening and the subsequent
+sleeplessness of his night had, however, been too much for his feeble and
+slightly superannuated frame. Before he had finished his toilet, a stroke
+of apoplexy stretched him senseless upon the floor. His servants, when
+they soon afterwards entered the apartment, found him rigid, and to all
+appearance dead. After a few days, however, he recovered his physical
+senses in part, but his reason remained for a longer time shattered, and
+was never perhaps fully restored to its original vigor.
+
+This event made it necessary that his place in the council should be
+supplied. Viglius had frequently expressed intentions of retiring, a
+measure to which he could yet never fully make up his mind. His place was
+now temporarily supplied by his friend and countryman, Joachim Hopper,
+like himself a Frisian doctor of ancient blood and extensive
+acquirements, well versed in philosophy and jurisprudence; a professor of
+Louvain and a member of the Mechlin council. He was likewise the original
+founder and projector of Douay University, an institution which at
+Philip's desire he had successfully organized in 1556, in order that a
+French university might be furnished for Walloon youths, as a substitute
+for the seductive and poisonous Paris. For the rest, Hopper was a mere
+man of routine. He was often employed in private affairs by Philip,
+without being entrusted with the secret at the bottom of them. His mind
+was a confused one, and his style inexpressibly involved and tedious.
+"Poor master Hopper," said Granvelle, "did not write the best French in
+the world; may the Lord forgive him. He was learned in letters, but knew
+very little of great affairs." His manners were as cringing as his
+intellect was narrow. He never opposed the Duchess, so that his
+colleagues always called him Councillor "Yes, Madam," and he did his best
+to be friends with all the world.
+
+In deference to the arguments of Orange, the instructions for Egmont were
+accordingly considerably modified from the original draughts of Viglius.
+As drawn up by the new President, they contained at least a few hints to
+his Majesty as to the propriety of mitigating the edicts and extending
+some mercy to his suffering people. The document was, however, not very
+satisfactory to the Prince, nor did he perhaps rely very implicitly upon
+the character of the envoy.
+
+Egmont set forth upon his journey early in January (1565). He travelled
+in great state. He was escorted as far as Cambray by several nobles of
+his acquaintance, who improved the occasion by a series of tremendous
+banquets during the Count's sojourn, which was protracted till the end of
+January. The most noted of these gentlemen were Hoogstraaten, Brederode,
+the younger Mansfeld, Culemburg, and Noircarmes. Before they parted with
+the envoy, they drew up a paper which they signed with their blood, and
+afterwards placed in the hands of his Countess. In this document they
+promised, on account of their "inexpressible and very singular affection"
+for Egmont, that if, during his mission to Spain, any evil should befal
+him, they would, on their faith as gentlemen and cavaliers of honor, take
+vengeance, therefore, upon the Cardinal Granvelle, or upon all who should
+be the instigators thereof.
+
+   [Green v. P., Archives, etc., i. 345, from Arnoldi, Hist. Denkwurd,
+   p. 282., It is remarkable that after the return of the Count from.
+   Spain, Hoogstraaten received this singular bond from the Countess,
+   and gave it to Mansfeld, to be burned in his presence. Mansfeld,
+   however, advised keeping it, on account of Noircarmes, whose
+   signature was attached to the document, and whom he knew to be so
+   false and deceitful a man that it might be well to have it within
+   their power at some future day to reproach him therewith.--Ibid.
+   It will be seen in the sequel that Noircarmes more than justified
+   the opinion of Mansfeld, but that the subsequent career of Mansfeld
+   himself did not entitle him to reproach any of Philip's noble
+   hangmen.]
+
+Wherever Brederode was, there, it was probable, would be much severe
+carousing. Before the conclusion, accordingly, of the visit to Cambray,
+that ancient city rang with the scandal created by a most uproarious
+scene. A banquet was given to Egmont and his friends in the citadel.
+Brederode, his cousin Lumey, and the other nobles from Brussels, were all
+present. The Archbishop of Cambray, a man very odious to the liberal
+party in the provinces, was also bidden to the feast. During the dinner,
+this prelate, although treated with marked respect by Egmont, was the
+object of much banter and coarse pleasantry by the ruder portion of the
+guests. Especially these convivial gentlemen took infinite pains to
+overload him with challenges to huge bumpers of wine; it being thought
+very desirable, if possible; to place the Archbishop under the table.
+This pleasantry was alternated with much rude sarcasm concerning the new
+bishoprics. The conversation then fell upon other topics, among others,
+naturally upon the mission of Count Egmont. Brederede observed that it
+was a very hazardous matter to allow so eminent a personage to leave the
+land at such a critical period. Should any thing happen to the Count, the
+Netherlands would sustain an immense loss. The Archbishop, irritated by
+the previous conversation, ironically requested the speaker to be
+comforted, "because," said he, "it will always be easy to find a new
+Egmont." Upon this, Brederode, beside himself with rage, cried out
+vehemently, "Are we to tolerate such language from this priest?"
+Gulemburg, too, turning upon the offender, observed, "Your observation
+would be much more applicable to your own case. If you were to die, 't
+would be easy to find five hundred of your merit, to replace you in the
+see of Cambray." The conversation was, to say the least, becoming
+personal. The Bishop, desirous of terminating this keen encounter of
+wits, lifted a goblet full of wine and challenged Brederode to drink.
+That gentleman declined the invitation. After the cloth had been removed,
+the cup circulated more freely than ever. The revelry became fast and
+furious. One of the younger gentlemen who was seated near the Bishop
+snatched the bonnet of that dignitary from his head and placed it upon
+his own. He then drained a bumper to his health, and passed the goblet
+and the cap to his next neighbor. Both circulated till they reached the
+Viscount of Ghent, who arose from his seat and respectfully restored the
+cap to its owner. Brederode then took a large "cup of silver and gold,"
+filled it to the brim, and drained it to the confusion of Cardinal
+Granvelle; stigmatizing that departed minister, as he finished, by an
+epithet of more vigor than decency. He then called upon all the company
+to pledge him to the same toast, and denounced as cardinalists all those
+who should refuse. The Archbishop, not having digested the affronts which
+had been put upon him already, imprudently ventured himself once more
+into the confusion, and tried to appeal to the reason of the company. He
+might as well have addressed the crew of Comus. He gained nothing but
+additional insult. Brederode advanced upon him with threatening gestures.
+Egmont implored the prelate to retire, or at least not to take notice of
+a nobleman so obviously beyond the control of his reason. The Bishop,
+however, insisted--mingling reproof, menace; and somewhat imperious
+demands--that the indecent Saturnalia should cease. It would have been
+wiser for him to retire. Count Hoogstraaten, a young man and small of
+stature, seized the gilt laver, in which the company had dipped their
+fingers before seating themselves at table: "Be quiet, be quiet, little
+man," said Egmont, soothingly, doing his best to restrain the tumult.
+"Little man, indeed," responded the Count, wrathfully; "I would have you
+to know that never did little man spring from my race." With those words
+he hurled the basin, water, and all, at the head of the Archbishop.
+Hoogstraaten had no doubt manifested his bravery before that day; he was
+to display, on future occasions, a very remarkable degree of heroism; but
+it must be confessed that the chivalry of the noble house of Lalaing was
+not illustrated by this attack upon a priest. The Bishop was sprinkled by
+the water, but not struck by the vessel. Young Mansfeld, ashamed of the
+outrage, stepped forward to apologize for the conduct of his companions
+and to soothe the insulted prelate. That personage, however, exasperated,
+very naturally, to the highest point, pushed him rudely away, crying,
+"Begone, begone! who is this boy that is preaching to me?" Whereupon,
+Mansfeld, much irritated, lifted his hand towards the ecclesiastic, and
+snapped his fingers contemptuously in his face. Some even said that he
+pulled the archiepiscopal nose, others that he threatened his life with a
+drawn dagger. Nothing could well have been more indecent or more cowardly
+than the conduct of these nobles upon this occasion. Their intoxication,
+together with the character of the victim, explained, but certainly could
+not palliate the vulgarity of the exhibition. It was natural enough that
+men like Brederode should find sport in this remarkable badgering of a
+bishop, but we see with regret the part played by Hoogstraaten in the
+disgraceful scene.
+
+The prelate, at last, exclaiming that it appeared that he had been
+invited only to be insulted, left the apartment, accompanied by
+Noircarmes and the Viscount of Ghent, and threatening that all his
+friends and relations should be charged with his vengeance. The next day
+a reconciliation was effected, as well as such an arrangement was
+possible, by the efforts of Egmont, who dined alone with the prelate. In
+the evening, Hoogstraaten, Culemburg, and Brederode called upon the
+Bishop, with whom they were closeted for, an hour, and the party
+separated on nominal terms of friendship.
+
+This scandalous scene; which had been enacted not only before many
+guests, but in presence of a host of servants, made necessarily a great
+sensation throughout the country. There could hardly be much difference
+of opinion among respectable people as to the conduct of the noblemen who
+had thus disgraced themselves. Even Brederode himself, who appeared to
+have retained, as was natural, but a confused impression of the
+transaction, seemed in the days which succeeded the celebrated banquet,
+to be in doubt whether he and his friends had merited any great amount of
+applause. He was, however, somewhat self-contradictory, although always
+vehement in his assertions on the subject. At one time he
+maintained--after dinner, of course--that he would have killed the
+Archbishop if they had not been forcibly separated; at other moments he
+denounced as liars all persons who should insinuate that he had committed
+or contemplated any injury to that prelate; offering freely to fight any
+man who disputed either of his two positions.
+
+The whole scene was dramatized and represented in masquerade at a wedding
+festival given by Councillor d'Assonleville, on the marriage of
+Councillor Hopper's daughter, one of the principal parts being enacted by
+a son of the President-judge of Artois. It may be supposed that if such
+eminent personages, in close connexion with the government, took part in
+such proceedings, the riot must have been considered of a very pardonable
+nature. The truth was, that the Bishop was a cardinalist, and therefore
+entirely out of favor with the administration. He was also a man of
+treacherous, sanguinary character, and consequently detested by the
+people. He had done his best to destroy heresy in Valenciennes by fire
+and sword. "I will say one thing," said he in a letter to Granvelle,
+which had been intercepted, "since the pot is uncovered, and the whole
+cookery known, we had best push forward and make an end of all the
+principal heretics, whether rich or poor, without regarding whether the
+city will be entirely ruined by such a course. Such an opinion I should
+declare openly were it not that we of the ecclesiastical profession are
+accused of always crying out for blood." Such was the prelate's theory.
+His practice may be inferred from a specimen of his proceedings which
+occurred at a little later day. A citizen of Cambray, having been
+converted to the Lutheran Confession, went to the Archbishop, and
+requested permission to move out of the country, taking his property with
+him. The petitioner having made his appearance in the forenoon, was
+requested to call again after dinner, to receive his answer. The burgher
+did so, and was received, not by the prelate, but by the executioner, who
+immediately carried the Lutheran to the market-place, and cut off his
+head. It is sufficiently evident that a minister of Christ, with such
+propensities, could not excite any great sympathy, however deeply
+affronted he might have been at a drinking party, so long as any
+Christians remained in the land.
+
+Egmont departed from Cambray upon the 30th January, his friends taking a
+most affectionate farewell of him; and Brederode assuring him, with a
+thousand oaths, that he would forsake God for his service. His reception
+at Madrid was most brilliant. When he made his first appearance at the
+palace, Philip rushed from his cabinet into the grand hall of reception,
+and fell upon his neck, embracing him heartily before the Count had time
+to drop upon his knee and kiss the royal hand. During the whole period of
+his visit he dined frequently at the King's private table, an honor
+rarely accorded by Philip, and was feasted and flattered by all the great
+dignitaries of the court as never a subject of the Spanish crown had been
+before. All vied with each other in heaping honors upon the man whom the
+King was determined to honor.
+
+Philip took him out to drive daily in his own coach, sent him to see the
+wonders of the new Escorial, which he was building to commemorate the
+battle of St. Quentin, and, although it was still winter, insisted upon
+showing him the beauties of his retreat in the Segovian forest.
+Granvelle's counsels as to the method by which the "friend of smoke" was
+so easily to be gained, had not fallen unheeded in his royal pupil's
+ears. The Count was lodged in the house of Ruy Gomez, who soon felt
+himself able, according to previous assurances to that effect, contained
+in a private letter of Armenteros, to persuade the envoy to any course
+which Philip might command. Flattery without stint was administered. More
+solid arguments to convince the Count that Philip was the most generous
+and clement of princes were also employed with great effect. The royal
+dues upon the estate of Gaasbecque, lately purchased by Egmont, were
+remitted. A mortgage upon his Seigneurie of Ninove was discharged, and a
+considerable sum of money presented to him in addition. Altogether, the
+gifts which the ambassador received from the royal bounty amounted to one
+hundred thousand crowns. Thus feasted, flattered, and laden with
+presents, it must be admitted that the Count more than justified the
+opinions expressed in the letter of Armenteros, that he was a man easily
+governed by those who had credit with him. Egmont hardly broached the
+public matters which had brought him to Madrid. Upon the subject of the
+edicts, Philip certainly did not dissemble, however loudly the envoy may
+have afterwards complained at Brussels. In truth, Egmont, intoxicated by
+the incense offered to him at the Spanish court, was a different man from
+Egmont in the Netherlands, subject to the calm but piercing glance and
+the irresistible control of Orange. Philip gave him no reason to suppose
+that he intended any change in the religious system of the provinces, at
+least in any sense contemplated by the liberal party. On the contrary, a
+council of doctors and ecclesiastics was summoned, at whose deliberations
+the Count was invited to assist; on which occasion the King excited
+general admiration by the fervor of his piety and the vehemence of his
+ejaculations. Falling upon his knees before a crucifix, in the midst of
+the assembly, he prayed that God would keep him perpetually in the same
+mind, and protested that he would never call himself master of those who
+denied the Lord God. Such an exhibition could leave but little doubt in
+the minds of those who witnessed it as to the royal sentiments, nor did
+Egmont make any effort to obtain any relaxation of those religious
+edicts, which he had himself declared worthy of approbation, and fit to
+be maintained. As to the question of enlarging the state-council, Philip
+dismissed the subject with a few vague observations, which Egmont, not
+very zealous on the subject at the moment, perhaps misunderstood. The
+punishment of heretics by some new method, so as to secure the pains but
+to take away the glories of martyrdom, was also slightly discussed, and
+here again Egmont was so unfortunate as to misconceive the royal meaning,
+and to interpret an additional refinement of cruelty into an expression
+of clemency. On the whole, however, there was not much negotiation
+between the monarch and the ambassador. When the Count spoke of business,
+the King would speak to him of his daughters, and of his desire to see
+them provided with brilliant marriages. As Egmont had eight girls,
+besides two sons, it was natural that he should be pleased to find Philip
+taking so much interest in looking out husbands for them. The King spoke
+to him, as hardly could be avoided, of the famous fool's-cap livery. The
+Count laughed the matter off as a jest, protesting that it was a mere
+foolish freak, originating at the wine-table, and asseverating, with
+warmth, that nothing disrespectful or disloyal to his Majesty had been
+contemplated upon that or upon any other occasion. Had a single gentleman
+uttered an undutiful word against the King, Egmont vowed he would have
+stabbed him through and through upon the spot, had he been his own
+brother. These warm protestations were answered by a gentle reprimand as
+to the past by Philip, and with a firm caution as to the future. "Let it
+be discontinued entirely, Count," said the King, as the two were driving
+together in the royal carriage. Egmont expressed himself in handsome
+terms concerning the Cardinal, in return for the wholesale approbation
+quoted to him in regard to his own character, from the private letters of
+that sagacious personage to his Majesty. Certainly, after all this, the
+Count might suppose the affair of the livery forgiven. Thus amicably
+passed the hours of that mission, the preliminaries for which had called
+forth so much eloquence from the Prince of Orange and so nearly carried
+off with apoplexy the President Viglius. On his departure Egmont received
+a letter of instructions from Philip as to the report which he was to
+make upon his arrival in Brussels, to the Duchess. After many things
+personally flattering to himself, the envoy was directed to represent the
+King as overwhelmed with incredible grief at hearing the progress made by
+the heretics, but as immutably determined to permit no change of religion
+within his dominions, even were he to die a thousand deaths in
+consequence. The King, he was to state, requested the Duchess forthwith
+to assemble an extraordinary session of the council, at which certain
+bishops, theological doctors, and very orthodox lawyers, were to assist,
+in which, under pretence of discussing the Council of Trent matter, it
+was to be considered whether there could not be some new way devised for
+executing heretics; not indeed one by which any deduction should be made
+from their sufferings (which certainly was not the royal wish, nor likely
+to be grateful to God or salutary to religion), but by which all hopes of
+glory--that powerful incentive to their impiety--might be precluded. With
+regard to any suggested alterations in the council of state, or in the
+other two councils, the King was to be represented as unwilling to form
+any decision until he should hear, at length, from the Duchess Regent
+upon the subject.
+
+Certainly here was a sufficient amount of plain speaking upon one great
+subject, and very little encouragement with regard to the other. Yet
+Egmont, who immediately after receiving these instructions set forth upon
+his return to the Netherlands, manifested nothing but satisfaction.
+Philip presented to him, as his travelling companion, the young Prince
+Alexander of Parma, then about to make a visit to his mother in Brussels,
+and recommended the youth, afterwards destined to play so prominent a
+part in Flemish history, to his peculiar caret Egmont addressed a letter
+to the King from Valladolid, in which he indulged in ecstasies concerning
+the Escorial and the wood of Segovia, and declared that he was returning
+to the Netherlands "the most contented man in the world."
+
+He reached Brussels at the end of April. Upon the fifth of May he
+appeared before the council, and proceeded to give an account of his
+interview with the King, together with a statement of the royal
+intentions and opinions. These were already sufficiently well known.
+Letters, written after the envoy's departure, had arrived before him, in
+which, while in the main presenting the same views as those contained in
+the instructions to Egmont, Philip had expressed his decided prohibition
+of the project to enlarge the state council and to suppress the authority
+of the other two. Nevertheless, the Count made his report according to
+the brief received at Madrid, and assured his hearers that the King was
+all benignity, having nothing so much at heart as the temporal and
+eternal welfare of the provinces. The siege of Malta, he stated, would
+prevent the royal visit to the Netherlands for the moment, but it was
+deferred only for a brief period. To remedy the deficiency in the
+provincial exchequer, large remittances would be made immediately from
+Spain. To provide for the increasing difficulties of the religious
+question, a convocation of nine learned and saintly personages was
+recommended, who should devise some new scheme by which the objections to
+the present system of chastising heretics might be obviated.
+
+It is hardly necessary to state that so meagre a result to the mission of
+Egmont was not likely to inspire the hearts of Orange and his adherents
+with much confidence. No immediate explosion of resentment, however,
+occurred. The general aspect for a few days was peaceful. Egmont
+manifested much contentment with the reception which he met with in
+Spain, and described the King's friendly dispositions towards the leading
+nobles in lively colors. He went to his government immediately after his
+return, assembled the states of Artois, in the city of Arras, and
+delivered the letters sent to that body by the King. He made a speech on
+this occasion, informing the estates that his Majesty had given orders
+that the edicts of the Emperor were to be enforced to the letter; adding
+that he had told the King, freely, his own opinion upon the subject; in
+order to dissuade him from that which others were warmly urging. He
+described Philip as the most liberal and debonair of princes; his council
+in Spain as cruel and sanguinary. Time was to show whether the epithets
+thus applied to the advisers were not more applicable to the monarch than
+the eulogies thus lavished by the blind and predestined victim. It will
+also be perceived that this language, used before the estates of Artois,
+varied materially from his observation to the Dowager Duchess of
+Aerschot, denouncing as enemies the men who accused him of having
+requested a moderation of the edicts. In truth, this most vacillating,
+confused, and unfortunate of men perhaps scarcely comprehended the
+purport of his recent negotiations in Spain, nor perceived the drift of
+his daily remarks at home. He was, however, somewhat vainglorious
+immediately after his return, and excessively attentive to business. "He
+talks like a King," said Morillon, spitefully, "negotiates night and day,
+and makes all bow before him." His house was more thronged with
+petitioners, courtiers, and men of affairs, than even the palace of the
+Duchess. He avowed frequently that he would devote his life and his
+fortune to the accomplishment of the King's commands, and declared his
+uncompromising hostility to all who should venture to oppose that loyal
+determination.
+
+It was but a very short time, however, before a total change was
+distinctly perceptible in his demeanor. These halcyon days were soon
+fled. The arrival of fresh letters from Spain gave a most unequivocal
+evidence of the royal determination, if, indeed, any doubt could be
+rationally entertained before. The most stringent instructions to keep
+the whole machinery of persecution constantly at work were transmitted to
+the Duchess, and aroused the indignation of Orange and his followers.
+They avowed that they could no longer trust the royal word, since, so
+soon after Egmont's departure, the King had written despatches so much at
+variance with his language, as reported by the envoy. There was nothing,
+they said, clement and debonair in these injunctions upon gentlemen of
+their position and sentiments to devote their time to the encouragement
+of hangmen and inquisitors. The Duchess was unable to pacify the nobles.
+Egmont was beside himself with rage. With his usual recklessness and
+wrath, he expressed himself at more than one session of the state council
+in most unmeasured terms. His anger had been more inflamed by information
+which he had received from the second son of Berlaymont, a young and
+indiscreet lad, who had most unfortunately communicated many secrets
+which he had learned from his father, but which were never intended for
+Egmont's ear.
+
+Philip's habitual dissimulation had thus produced much unnecessary
+perplexity. It was his custom to carry on correspondence through the aid
+of various secretaries, and it was his invariable practice to deceive
+them all. Those who were upon the most confidential terms with the
+monarch, were most sure to be duped upon all important occasions. It has
+been seen that even the astute Granvelle could not escape this common lot
+of all who believed their breasts the depositories of the royal secrets.
+Upon this occasion, Gonzalo Perez and Ruy Gomez complained bitterly that
+they had known nothing of the letters which had recently been despatched
+from Valladolid, while Tisnacq and Courterville had been ignorant of the
+communications forwarded by the hands of Egmont. They avowed that the
+King created infinite trouble by thus treating his affairs in one way
+with one set of councillors and in an opposite sense with the others,
+thus dissembling with all, and added that Philip was now much astonished
+at the dissatisfaction created in the provinces by the discrepancy
+between the French letters brought by Egmont, and the Spanish letters
+since despatched to the Duchess. As this was his regular manner of
+transacting business, not only for the Netherlands, but for all his
+dominions, they were of opinion that such confusion and dissatisfaction
+might well be expected.
+
+After all, however, notwithstanding the indignation of Egmont, it must be
+confessed that he had been an easy dupe. He had been dazzled by royal
+smiles, intoxicated by court incense, contaminated by yet baser bribes.
+He had been turned from the path of honor and the companionship of the
+wise and noble to do the work of those who were to compass his
+destruction. The Prince of Orange reproached him to his face with having
+forgotten, when in Spain, to represent the views of his associates and
+the best interests of the country, while he had well remembered his own
+private objects, and accepted the lavish bounty of the King. Egmont,
+stung to the heart by the reproof, from one whom he honored and who
+wished him well, became sad and sombre for a long time, abstained from
+the court and from society, and expressed frequently the intention of
+retiring to his estates. He was, however, much governed by his secretary,
+the Seigneur de Bakerzeel, a man of restless, intriguing, and deceitful
+character, who at this period exercised as great influence over the Count
+as Armenteros continued to maintain over the Duchess, whose unpopularity
+from that and other circumstances was daily increasing.
+
+In obedience to the commands of the King, the canons of Trent had been
+published. They were nominally enforced at Cambray, but a fierce
+opposition was made by the clergy themselves to the innovation in
+Mechlin, Utrecht, and many other places.
+
+This matter, together with other more vitally important questions, came
+before the assembly of bishops and doctors, which, according to Philip's
+instructions, had been convoked by the Duchess. The opinion of the
+learned theologians was, on the whole, that the views of the Trent
+Council, with regard to reformation of ecclesiastical morals and popular
+education, was sound. There was some discordancy between the clerical and
+lay doctors upon other points. The seigniors, lawyers, and deputies from
+the estates were all in favor of repealing the penalty of death for
+heretical offences of any kind. President Viglius, with all the bishops
+and doctors of divinity, including the prelates of St. Omer, Namur and
+Ypres, and four theological professors from Louvain, stoutly maintained
+the contrary opinion. The President especially, declared himself
+vehemently in favor of the death punishment, and expressed much anger
+against those who were in favor of its abolition. The Duchess, upon the
+second day of the assembly, propounded formally the question, whether any
+change was to be made in the chastisement of heretics. The Prince of
+Orange, with Counts Horn and Egmont, had, however, declined to take part
+in the discussions, on the ground that it was not his Majesty's intention
+that state councillors should deliver their opinions before strangers,
+but that persons from outside had been summoned to communicate their
+advice to the Council. The seigniors having thus washed their hands of
+the matter, the doctors came to a conclusion with great alacrity. It was
+their unanimous opinion that it comported neither with the service of God
+nor the common weal, to make any change in the punishment, except,
+perhaps, in the case of extreme youth; but that, on the contrary,
+heretics were only to be dealt with by retaining the edicts in their
+rigor, and by courageously chastising the criminals. After sitting for
+the greater part of six days, the bishops and doctors of divinity reduced
+their sentiments to writing, and affixed their signatures to the
+document. Upon the great point of the change suggested in the penalties
+of heresy, it was declared that no alteration was advisable in the
+edicts, which had been working so well for thirty-five years. At the same
+time it was suggested that "some persons, in respect to their age and
+quality, might be executed or punished more or less rigorously than
+others; some by death, some by galley slavery, some by perpetual
+banishment and entire confiscation of property." The possibility was also
+admitted, of mitigating the punishment of those who, without being
+heretics or sectaries, might bring themselves within the provisions of
+the edicts, "through curiosity, nonchalance, or otherwise." Such
+offenders, it was hinted, might be "whipped with rods, fined, banished,
+or subjected to similar penalties of a lighter nature." It will be
+perceived by this slight sketch of the advice thus offered to the Duchess
+that these theologians were disposed very carefully to strain the mercy,
+which they imagined possible in some cases, but which was to drop only
+upon the heads of the just. Heretics were still to be dealt with, so far
+as the bishops and presidents could affect their doom, with unmitigated
+rigor.
+
+When the assembly was over, the Duchess, thus put in possession of the
+recorded wisdom of these special councillors, asked her constitutional
+advisers what she was to do with it. Orange, Egmont, Horn, Mansfeld
+replied, however, that it was not their affair, and that their opinion
+had not been demanded by his Majesty in the premises. The Duchess
+accordingly transmitted to Philip the conclusions of the assembly,
+together with the reasons of the seigniors for refusing to take part in
+its deliberations. The sentiments of Orange could hardly be doubtful,
+however, nor his silence fail to give offense to the higher powers. He
+contented himself for the time with keeping his eyes and ears open to the
+course of events, but he watched well. He had "little leisure for amusing
+himself," as Brederode suggested. That free-spoken individual looked upon
+the proceedings of the theological assembly with profound disgust. "Your
+letter," he wrote to Count Louis, "is full of those blackguards of
+bishops and presidents. I would the race were extinct, like that of green
+dogs. They will always combat with the arms which they have ever used,
+remaining to the end avaricious, brutal, obstinate, ambitious, et cetera.
+I leave you to supply the rest."
+
+Thus, then, it was settled beyond peradventure that there was to be no
+compromise with heresy. The King had willed it. The theologians had
+advised it. The Duchess had proclaimed it. It was supposed that without
+the axe, the fire, and the rack, the Catholic religion would be
+extinguished, and that the whole population of the Netherlands would
+embrace the Reformed Faith. This was the distinct declaration of Viglius,
+in a private letter to Granvelle. "Many seek to abolish the chastisement
+of heresy," said he; "if they gain this point, actum est de religione
+Catholica; for as most of the people are ignorant fools, the heretics
+will soon be the great majority, if by fear of punishment they are not
+kept in the true path."
+
+The uneasiness, the terror, the wrath of the people seemed rapidly
+culminating to a crisis. Nothing was talked of but the edicts and the
+inquisition. Nothing else entered into the minds of men. In the streets,
+in the shops, in the taverns, in the fields; at market, at church, at
+funerals, at weddings; in the noble's castle, at the farmer's fireside,
+in the mechanic's garret, upon the merchants' exchange, there was but one
+perpetual subject of shuddering conversation. It was better, men began to
+whisper to each other, to die at once than to live in perpetual slavery.
+It was better to fall with arms in hand than to be tortured and butchered
+by the inquisition. Who could expect to contend with such a foe in the
+dark?
+
+They reproached the municipal authorities with lending themselves as
+instruments to the institution. They asked magistrates and sheriffs how
+far they would go in their defence before God's tribunal for the
+slaughter of his creatures, if they could only answer the divine
+arraignment by appealing to the edict of 1550. On the other hand, the
+inquisitors were clamorous in abuse of the languor and the cowardice of
+the secular authorities. They wearied the ear of the Duchess with
+complaints of the difficulties which they encountered in the execution of
+their functions--of the slight alacrity on the part of the various
+officials to assist them in the discharge of their duties.
+Notwithstanding the express command of his Majesty to that effect, they
+experienced, they said, a constant deficiency of that cheerful
+co-operation which they had the right to claim, and there was perpetual
+discord in consequence. They had been empowered by papal and by royal
+decree to make use of the gaols, the constables, the whole penal
+machinery of each province; yet the officers often refused to act, and
+had even dared to close the prisons. Nevertheless, it had been intended,
+as fully appeared by the imperial and royal instructions to the
+inquisitors, that their action through the medium of the provincial
+authorities should be unrestrained. Not satisfied with these
+representations to the Regent, the inquisitors had also made a direct
+appeal to the King. Judocus Tiletanus and Michael de Bay addressed to
+Philip a letter from Louvain. They represented to him that they were the
+only two left of the five inquisitors-general appointed by the Pope for
+all the Netherlands, the other three having been recently converted into
+bishops. Daily complaints, they said, were reaching them of the
+prodigious advance of heresy, but their own office was becoming so
+odious, so calumniated, and exposed to so much resistance, that they
+could not perform its duties without personal danger. They urgently
+demanded from his Majesty, therefore, additional support and assistance.
+Thus the Duchess, exposed at once to the rising wrath of a whole people
+and to the shrill blasts of inquisitorial anger, was tossed to and fro,
+as upon a stormy sea. The commands of the King, too explicit to be
+tampered with, were obeyed. The theological assembly had met and given
+advice. The Council of Trent was here and there enforced. The edicts were
+republished and the inquisitors encouraged. Moreover, in accordance with
+Philip's suggestion, orders were now given that the heretics should be
+executed at midnight in their dungeons, by binding their heads between
+their knees, and then slowly suffocating them in tubs of water. Secret
+drowning was substituted for public burning, in order that the heretic's
+crown of vainglory, which was thought to console him in his agony, might
+never be placed upon his head.
+
+In the course of the summer, Magaret wrote to her brother that the
+popular frenzy was becoming more and more intense. The people were crying
+aloud, she said, that the Spanish inquisition, or a worse than Spanish
+inquisition, had been established among them by means of bishops and
+ecclesiastics. She urged Philip to cause the instructions for the
+inquisitors to be revised. Egmont, she said, was vehement in expressing
+his dissatisfaction at the discrepancy between Philip's language to him
+by word of mouth and that of the royal despatches on the religious
+question. The other seigniors were even more indignant.
+
+While the popular commotion in the Netherlands was thus fearfully
+increasing, another circumstance came to add to the prevailing
+discontent. The celebrated interview between Catharine de Medici and her
+daughter, the Queen of Spain, occurred in the middle of the month of
+June, at Bayonne. The darkest suspicions as to the results to humanity of
+the plots to be engendered in this famous conference between the
+representatives of France and Spain were universally entertained. These
+suspicions were most reasonable, but they were nevertheless mistaken. The
+plan for a concerted action to exterminate the heretics in both kingdoms
+had, as it was perfectly well known, been formed long before this epoch.
+It was also no secret that the Queen Regent of France had been desirous
+of meeting her son-in-law in order to confer with him upon important
+matters, face to face. Philip, however, had latterly been disinclined for
+the personal interview with Catharine. As his wife was most anxious to
+meet her mother, it was nevertheless finally arranged that Queen Isabella
+should make the journey; but he excused himself, on account of the
+multiplicity of his affairs, from accompanying her in the expedition. The
+Duke of Alva was, accordingly, appointed to attend the Queen to Bayonne.
+Both were secretly instructed by Philip to leave nothing undone in the
+approaching interview toward obtaining the hearty co-operation of
+Catharine de Medici in a general and formally-arranged scheme for the
+simultaneous extermination of all heretics in the French and Spanish
+dominions. Alva's conduct in this diplomatic commission was stealthy in
+the extreme. His letters reveal a subtlety of contrivance and delicacy of
+handling such as the world has not generally reckoned among his
+characteristics. All his adroitness, as well as the tact of Queen
+Isabella, by whose ability Alva declared himself to have been astounded,
+proved quite powerless before the steady fencing of the wily Catharine.
+The Queen Regent, whose skill the Duke, even while defeated, acknowledged
+to his master, continued firm in her design to maintain her own power by
+holding the balance between Guise and Montmorency, between Leaguer and
+Huguenot. So long as her enemies could be employed in exterminating each
+other, she was willing to defer the extermination of the Huguenots. The
+great massacre of St. Bartholomew was to sleep for seven years longer.
+Alva was, to be sure, much encouraged at first by the language of the
+French princes and nobles who were present at Bayonne. Monluc protested
+that "they might saw the Queen Dowager in two before she would become
+Huguenot." Montpensier exclaimed that "he would be cut in pieces for
+Philip's service--that the Spanish monarch was the only hope for France,"
+and, embracing Alva with fervor, he affirmed that "if his body were to be
+opened at that moment, the name of Philip would be found imprinted upon
+his heart." The Duke, having no power to proceed to an autopsy, physical
+or moral, of Montpensier's interior, was left somewhat in the dark,
+notwithstanding these ejaculations. His first conversation with the
+youthful King, however, soon dispelled his hopes. He found immediately,
+in his own words, that Charles the Ninth "had been doctored." To take up
+arms, for religious reasons, against his own subjects, the monarch
+declared to be ruinous and improper. It was obvious to Alva that the
+royal pupil had learned his lesson for that occasion. It was a pity for
+humanity that the wisdom thus hypocritically taught him could not have
+sunk into his heart. The Duke did his best to bring forward the plans and
+wishes of his royal master, but without success. The Queen Regent
+proposed a league of the two Kings and the Emperor against the Turk, and
+wished to arrange various matrimonial alliances between the sons and
+daughters of the three houses. Alva expressed the opinion that the
+alliances were already close enough, while, on the contrary, a secret
+league against the Protestants would make all three families the safer.
+Catherine, however, was not to be turned from her position. She refused
+even to admit that the Chancellor de l'Hospital was a Huguenot, to which
+the Duke replied that she was the only person in her kingdom who held
+that opinion. She expressed an intention of convoking an assembly of
+doctors, and Alva ridiculed in his letters to Philip the affectation of
+such a proceeding. In short, she made it sufficiently evident that the
+hour for the united action of the French and Spanish sovereigns against
+their subjects had not struck, so that the famous Bayonne conference was
+terminated without a result. It seemed not the less certain, however, in
+the general opinion of mankind, that all the particulars of a regular
+plot had been definitely arranged upon this occasion, for the
+extermination of the Protestants, and the error has been propagated by
+historians of great celebrity of all parties, down to our own days. The
+secret letters of Alva, however, leave no doubt as to the facts.
+
+In the course of November, fresh letters from Philip arrived in the
+Netherlands, confirming every thing which he had previously written. He
+wrote personally to the inquisitors-general, Tiletanus and De Bay,
+encouraging them, commending them, promising them his support, and urging
+them not to be deterred by any consideration from thoroughly fulfilling
+their duties. He wrote Peter Titelmann a letter, in which he applauded
+the pains taken by that functionary to remedy the ills which religion was
+suffering, assured him of his gratitude, exhorted him to continue in his
+virtuous course, and avowed his determination to spare neither pains,
+expense, nor even his own life, to sustain the Catholic Faith. To the
+Duchess he wrote at great length, and in most unequivocal language. He
+denied that what he had written from Valladolid was of different meaning
+from the sense of the despatches by Egmont. With regard to certain
+Anabaptist prisoners, concerning whose fate Margaret had requested his
+opinion, he commanded their execution, adding that such was his will in
+the case of all, whatever their quality, who could be caught. That which
+the people said in the Netherlands touching the inquisition, he
+pronounced extremely distasteful to him. That institution, which had
+existed under his predecessors, he declared more necessary than ever; nor
+would he suffer it to be discredited. He desired his sister to put no
+faith in idle talk, as to the inconveniences likely to flow from the
+rigor of the inquisition. Much greater inconveniences would be the result
+if the inquisitors did not proceed with their labors, and the Duchess was
+commanded to write to the secular judges, enjoining upon them to place no
+obstacles in the path, but to afford all the assistance which might be
+required.
+
+To Egmont, the King wrote with his own hand, applauding much that was
+contained in the recent decisions of the assembly of bishops and doctors
+of divinity, and commanding the Count to assist in the execution of the
+royal determination. In affairs of religion, Philip expressed the opinion
+that dissimulation and weakness were entirely out of place.
+
+When these decisive letters came before the state council, the
+consternation was extreme. The Duchess had counted, in spite of her
+inmost convictions, upon less peremptory instructions. The Prince of
+Orange, the Count of Egmont, and the Admiral, were loud in their
+denunciations of the royal policy. There was a violent and protracted
+debate. The excitement spread at once to the people. Inflammatory
+hand-bills were circulated. Placards were posted every night upon the
+doors of Orange, Egmont, and Horn, calling upon them to come forth boldly
+as champions of the people and of liberty in religious matters. Banquets
+were held daily at the houses of the nobility, in which the more ardent
+and youthful of their order, with brains excited by wine and anger,
+indulged in flaming invectives against the government, and interchanged
+vows to protect each other and the cause of the oppressed provinces.
+Meanwhile the privy council, to which body the Duchess had referred the
+recent despatches from Madrid, made a report upon the whole subject to
+the state council, during the month of November, sustaining the royal
+views, and insisting upon the necessity of carrying them into effect. The
+edicts and inquisition having been so vigorously insisted upon by the
+King, nothing was to be done but to issue new proclamations throughout
+the country, together with orders to bishops, councils, governors and
+judges, that every care should be taken to enforce them to the full.
+
+This report came before the state council, and was sustained by some of
+its members. The Prince of Orange expressed the same uncompromising
+hostility to the inquisition which he had always manifested, but observed
+that the commands of the King were so precise and absolute, as to leave
+no possibility of discussing that point. There was nothing to be done, he
+said, but to obey, but he washed his hands of the fatal consequences
+which he foresaw. There was no longer any middle course between obedience
+and rebellion. This opinion, the soundness of which could scarcely be
+disputed, was also sustained by Egmont and Horn.
+
+Viglius, on the contrary, nervous, agitated, appalled, was now disposed
+to temporize. He observed that if the seigniors feared such evil results,
+it would be better to prevent, rather than to accelerate the danger which
+would follow the proposed notification to the governors and municipal
+authorities throughout the country, on the subject of the inquisition. To
+make haste, was neither to fulfil the intentions nor to serve the
+interests of the King, and it was desirable "to avoid emotion and
+scandal." Upon these heads the President made a very long speech,
+avowing, in conclusion, that if his Majesty should not find the course
+proposed agreeable, he was ready to receive all the indignation upon his
+own head.
+
+Certainly, this position of the President was somewhat inconsistent with
+his previous course. He had been most violent in his denunciations of all
+who should interfere with the execution of the great edict of which he
+had been the original draughtsman. He had recently been ferocious in
+combating the opinion of those civilians in the assembly of doctors who
+had advocated the abolition of the death penalty against heresy. He had
+expressed with great energy his private opinion that the ancient religion
+would perish if the machinery of persecution were taken away; yet he now
+for the first time seemed to hear or to heed the outcry of a whole
+nation, and to tremble at the sound. Now that the die had been cast, in
+accordance with the counsels of his whole life, now that the royal
+commands, often enigmatical and hesitating; were at last too distinct to
+be misconstrued, and too peremptory to be tampered with--the president
+imagined the possibility of delay. The health of the ancient Frisian had
+but recently permitted him to resume his seat at the council board. His
+presence there was but temporary, for he had received from Madrid the
+acceptance of his resignation, accompanied with orders to discharge the
+duties of President until the arrival of his successor, Charles de
+Tisnacq. Thus, in his own language, the Duchess was still obliged to rely
+for a season "upon her ancient Palinurus," a necessity far from agreeable
+to her, for she had lost confidence in the pilot. It may be supposed that
+he was anxious to smooth the troubled waters during the brief period in
+which he was still to be exposed to their fury; but he poured out the oil
+of his eloquence in vain. Nobody sustained his propositions. The Duchess,
+although terrified at the probable consequences, felt the impossibility
+of disobeying the deliberate decree of her brother. A proclamation was
+accordingly prepared, by which it was ordered that the Council of Trent,
+the edicts and the inquisition, should be published in every town and
+village in the provinces, immediately, and once in six months forever
+afterwards. The deed was done, and the Prince of Orange, stooping to the
+ear of his next neighbor, as they sat at the council-board, whispered
+that they were now about to witness the commencement of the most
+extraordinary tragedy which had ever been enacted.
+
+The prophecy was indeed a proof that the Prince could read the future,
+but the sarcasm of the President, that the remark had been made in a tone
+of exultation, was belied by every action of the prophet's life.
+
+The fiat went forth. In the market-place of every town and village of the
+Netherlands, the inquisition was again formally proclaimed. Every doubt
+which had hitherto existed as to the intention of the government was
+swept away. No argument was thenceforward to be permissible as to the
+constitutionality of the edicts as to the compatibility of their
+provisions with the privileges of the land. The cry of a people in its
+agony ascended to Heaven. The decree was answered with a howl of
+execration. The flames of popular frenzy arose lurid and threatening
+above the house-tops of every town and village. The impending conflict
+could no longer be mistaken. The awful tragedy which the great watchman
+in the land had so long unceasingly predicted, was seen sweeping solemnly
+and steadily onward. The superstitious eyes of the age saw supernatural
+and ominous indications in the sky. Contending armies trampled the
+clouds; blood dropped from heaven; the exterminating angel rode upon the
+wind.
+
+There was almost a cessation of the ordinary business of mankind.
+Commerce was paralyzed. Antwerp shook as with an earthquake. A chasm
+seemed to open, in which her prosperity and her very existence were to be
+forever engulfed. The foreign merchants, manufacturers, and artisans fled
+from her gates as if the plague were raging within them. Thriving cities
+were likely soon to be depopulated. The metropolitan heart of the whole
+country was almost motionless.
+
+Men high in authority sympathized with the general indignation. The
+Marquis Berghen, the younger Mansfeld, the Baron Montigny, openly refused
+to enforce the edicts within their governments. Men of eminence inveighed
+boldly and bitterly against the tyranny of the government, and counselled
+disobedience. The Netherlanders, it was stoutly maintained, were not such
+senseless brutes as to be ignorant of the mutual relation of prince and
+people. They knew that the obligation of a king to his vassals was as
+sacred as the duties of the subjects to the sovereign.
+
+The four principal cities of Brabant first came forward in formal
+denunciation of the outrage. An elaborate and conclusive document was
+drawn up in their name, and presented to the Regent. It set forth that
+the recent proclamation violated many articles in the "joyous entry."
+That ancient constitution had circumscribed the power of the clergy, and
+the jealousy had been felt in old times as much by the sovereign as the
+people. No ecclesiastical tribunal had therefore been allowed, excepting
+that of the Bishop of Cambray, whose jurisdiction was expressly confined
+to three classes of cases--those growing out of marriages, testaments,
+and mortmains.
+
+It would be superfluous to discuss the point at the present day, whether
+the directions to the inquisitors and the publication of the edicts
+conflicted with the "joyous entrance." To take a man from his house and
+burn him, after a brief preliminary examination, was clearly not to
+follow the letter and spirit of the Brabantine habeas corpus, by which
+inviolability of domicile and regular trials were secured and sworn to by
+the monarch; yet such had been the uniform practice of inquisitors
+throughout the country. The petition of the four cities was referred by
+the Regent to the council of Brabant. The chancellor, or president judge
+of that tribunal was notoriously corrupt--a creature of the Spanish. His
+efforts to sustain the policy of the administration however vain. The
+Duchess ordered the archives of the province to be searched for
+precedents, and the council to report upon the petition. The case was too
+plain for argument or dogmatism, but the attempt was made to take refuge
+in obscurity. The answer of the council was hesitating and equivocal. The
+Duchess insisted upon a distinct and categorical answer to the four
+cities. Thus pressed, the council of Brabant declared roundly that no
+inquisition of any kind had ever existed, in the provinces. It was
+impossible that any other answer could be given, but Viglius, with his
+associates in the privy council, were extremely angry at the conclusion.
+The concession was, however, made, notwithstanding the bad example which,
+according to some persons, the victory thus obtained by so important a
+province would afford to the people in the other parts of the country.
+Brabant was declared free of the inquisition. Meanwhile the pamphlets,
+handbills, pasquils, and other popular productions were multiplied. To
+use a Flemish expression, they "snowed in the streets." They were nailed
+nightly on all the great houses in Brussels. Patriots were called upon to
+strike, speak, redress. Pungent lampoons, impassioned invectives, and
+earnest remonstrances, were thrust into the hands of the Duchess. The
+publications, as they appeared; were greedily devoured by the people. "We
+are willing," it was said, in a remarkable letter to the King, "to die
+for the Gospel, but we read therein 'Render unto Caesar that which is
+Caesar's, and unto God that which is God's.' We thank God that our
+enemies themselves are compelled to bear witness to our piety and
+patience; so that it is a common saying--'He swears not; he is a
+Protestant; he is neither a fornicator nor a drunkard; he is of the new
+sect.' Yet, notwithstanding these testimonials to our character, no
+manner of punishment has been forgotten by which we can possibly be
+Chastised." This statement of the morality of the Puritans of the
+Netherlands was the justification of martyrs--not the self-glorification
+of Pharisees. The fact was incontrovertible. Their tenets were rigid, but
+their lives were pure. They belonged generally to the middling and lower
+classes. They were industrious artisans, who desired to live in the fear
+of God and in honor of their King. They were protected by nobles and
+gentlemen of high position, very many of whom came afterwards warmly to
+espouse the creed which at first they had only generously defended. Their
+whole character and position resembled, in many features, those of the
+English Puritans, who, three quarters of a century afterwards, fled for
+refuge to the Dutch Republic, and thence departed to establish the
+American Republic. The difference was that the Netherlanders were exposed
+to a longer persecution and a far more intense martyrdom.
+
+Towards the end of the year (1565) which was closing in such universal
+gloom; the contemporary chronicles are enlivened with a fitful gleam of
+sunshine. The light enlivens only the more elevated regions of the
+Flemish world, but it is pathetic to catch a glimpse of those nobles,
+many of whose lives were to be so heroic, and whose destinies so tragic,
+as amid the shadows projected by coming evil, they still found time for
+the chivalrous festivals of their land and epoch. A splendid tournament
+was held at the Chateau d'Antoing to celebrate the nuptials of Baron
+Montigny with the daughter of Prince d'Espinoy. Orange, Horn, and
+Hoogstraaten were the challengers, and maintained themselves victoriously
+against all comers, Egmont and other distinguished knights being, among
+the number.
+
+Thus brilliantly and gaily moved the first hours of that marriage which
+before six months had fled was to be so darkly terminated. The doom which
+awaited the chivalrous bridegroom in the dungeon of Simancas was ere long
+to be recorded in one of the foulest chapters of Philip's tyranny.
+
+A still more elaborate marriage-festival, of which the hero was, at a
+later day, to exercise a most decisive influence over the fortunes of the
+land, was celebrated at Brussels before the close of the year. It will be
+remembered that Alexander, Prince of Parma, had accompanied Egmont on his
+return from Spain in the month of April. The Duchess had been delighted
+with the appearance of her son, then twenty years of age, but already an
+accomplished cavalier. She had expressed her especial pleasure in finding
+him so thoroughly a Spaniard "in manner, costume, and conversation," that
+it could not be supposed he had ever visited any other land, or spoken
+any other tongue than that of Spain.
+
+The nobles of the Flemish court did not participate in the mother's
+enthusiasm. It could not be denied that he was a handsome and gallant
+young prince; but his arrogance was so intolerable as to disgust even
+those most disposed to pay homage to Margaret's son. He kept himself
+mainly in haughty retirement, dined habitually alone in his own
+apartments, and scarcely honored any of the gentlemen of the Netherlands
+with his notice. Even Egmont, to whose care he had been especially
+recommended by Philip, was slighted. If, occasionally, he honored one or
+two of the seigniors with an invitation to his table, he sat alone in
+solemn state at the head of the board, while the guests, to whom he
+scarcely vouchsafed a syllable, were placed on stools without backs,
+below the salt. Such insolence, it may be supposed, was sufficiently
+galling to men of the proud character, but somewhat reckless demeanor,
+which distinguished the Netherland aristocracy. After a short time they
+held themselves aloof, thinking it sufficient to endure such airs from
+Philip. The Duchess at first encouraged the young Prince in his
+haughtiness, but soon became sad, as she witnessed its effects. It was
+the universal opinion that the young Prince was a mere compound of pride
+and emptiness. "There is nothing at all in the man," said Chantonnay.
+Certainly the expression was not a fortunate one. Time was to show that
+there was more in the man than in all the governors despatched
+successively by Philip to the Netherlands; but the proof was to be
+deferred to a later epoch. Meantime, his mother was occupied and
+exceedingly perplexed with his approaching nuptials. He had been
+affianced early in the year to the Princess Donna Maria of Portugal. It
+was found necessary, therefore, to send a fleet of several vessels to
+Lisbon, to fetch the bride to the Netherlands, the wedding being
+appointed to take place in Brussels. This expense alone was considerable,
+and the preparations for banquets, jousts, and other festivities, were
+likewise undertaken on so magnificent a scale that the Duke, her husband,
+was offended at Margaret's extravagance. The people, by whom she was not
+beloved, commented bitterly on the prodigalities which they were
+witnessing in a period of dearth and trouble. Many of the nobles mocked
+at her perplexity. To crown the whole, the young Prince was so obliging
+as to express the hope, in his mother's hearing, that the bridal fleet,
+then on its way from Portugal, might sink with all it contained, to the
+bottom of the sea.
+
+The poor Duchess was infinitely chagrined by all these circumstances. The
+"insane and outrageous expenses" in which the nuptials had involved her,
+the rebukes of her husband, the sneers of the seigniors, the undutiful
+epigrams of her son, the ridicule of the people, affected her spirits to
+such a degree, harassed as she was with grave matters of state, that she
+kept her rooms for days together, weeping, hour after hour, in the most
+piteous manner. Her distress was the town talk; nevertheless, the fleet
+arrived in the autumn, and brought the youthful Maria to the provinces.
+This young lady, if the faithful historiographer of the Farnese house is
+to be credited, was the paragon of princesses.
+
+   [This princess, in her teens, might already exclaim, with the
+   venerable Faustus:
+
+          "Habe nun Philosophie
+          Juristerei and Medicin
+          Und leider ach: Theologie
+          Durch studirt mit heissem Bemuhen," etc.
+
+   The panegyrists of royal houses in the sixteenth century were not
+   accustomed to do their work by halves.--Strada.]
+
+She was the daughter of Prince Edward, and granddaughter of John the
+Third. She was young and beautiful; she could talk both Latin and Greek,
+besides being well versed in philosophy, mathematics and theology. She
+had the scriptures at her tongue's end, both the old dispensation and the
+new, and could quote from the fathers with the promptness of a bishop.
+She was so strictly orthodox that, on being compelled by stress of
+weather to land in England, she declined all communication with Queen
+Elizabeth, on account of her heresy. She was so eminently chaste that she
+could neither read the sonnets of Petrarch, nor lean on the arm of a
+gentleman. Her delicacy upon such points was, indeed, carried to such
+excess, that upon one occasion when the ship which was bringing her to
+the Netherlands was discovered to be burning, she rebuked a rude fellow
+who came forward to save her life, assuring him that there was less
+contamination in the touch of fire than in that of man. Fortunately, the
+flames were extinguished, and the Phoenix of Portugal was permitted to
+descend, unburned, upon the bleak shores of Flanders.
+
+The occasion, notwithstanding the recent tears of the Duchess, and the
+arrogance of the Prince, was the signal for much festivity among the
+courtiers of Brussels. It was also the epoch from which movements of a
+secret and important character were to be dated. The chevaliers of the
+Fleece were assembled, and Viglius pronounced before them one of his most
+classical orations. He had a good deal to say concerning the private
+adventures of Saint Andrew, patron of the Order, and went into some
+details of a conversation which that venerated personage had once held
+with the proconsul Aegeas. The moral which he deduced from his narrative
+was the necessity of union among the magnates for the maintenance of the
+Catholic faith; the nobility and the Church being the two columns upon
+which the whole social fabric reposed. It is to be feared that the
+President became rather prosy upon the occasion. Perhaps his homily, like
+those of the fictitious Archbishop of Granada, began to smack of the
+apoplexy from which he had so recently escaped. Perhaps, the meeting
+being one of hilarity, the younger nobles became restive under the
+infliction of a very long and very solemn harangue. At any rate, as the
+meeting broke up, there was a good dial of jesting on the subject. De
+Hammes, commonly called "Toison d'Or," councillor and king-at-arms of the
+Order, said that the President had been seeing visions and talking with
+Saint Andrew in a dream. Marquis Berghen asked for the source whence he
+had derived such intimate acquaintance with the ideas of the Saint. The
+President took these remarks rather testily, and, from trifling, the
+company became soon earnestly engaged in a warm discussion of the
+agitating topics of the day. It soon became evident to Viglius that De
+Hammer and others of his comrades had been dealing with dangerous things.
+He began shrewdly to suspect that the popular heresy was rapidly
+extending into higher regions; but it was not the President alone who
+discovered how widely the contamination was spreading. The meeting, the
+accidental small talk, which had passed so swiftly from gaiety to
+gravity, the rapid exchange of ideas, and the free-masonry by which
+intelligence upon forbidden topics had been mutually conveyed, became
+events of historical importance. Interviews between nobles, who, in the
+course of the festivities produced by the Montigny and Parma marriages,
+had discovered that they entertained a secret similarity of sentiment
+upon vital questions, became of frequent occurrence. The result to which
+such conferences led will be narrated in the following chapter.
+
+Meantime, upon the 11th November, 1565, the marriage of Prince Alexander
+and Donna Maria was celebrated; with great solemnity, by the Archbishop
+of Cambray, in the chapel of the court at Brussels. On the following
+Sunday the wedding banquet was held in the great hall, where, ten years
+previously, the memorable abdication of the bridegroom's imperial
+grandfather had taken place.
+
+The walls were again hung with the magnificent tapestry of Gideon, while
+the Knights of the Fleece, with all the other grandees of the land, were
+assembled to grace the spectacle. The King was represented by his envoy
+in England, Don Guzman de Silva, who came to Brussels for the occasion,
+and who had been selected for this duty because, according to Armenteros,
+"he was endowed, beside his prudence, with so much witty gracefulness
+with ladies in matters of pastime and entertainment." Early in the month
+of December, a famous tournament was held in the great market-place of
+Brussels, the Duke of Parma, the Duke of Aerschot, and Count Egmont being
+judges of the jousts. Count Mansfeld was the challenger, assisted by his
+son Charles, celebrated among the gentry of the land for his dexterity in
+such sports. To Count Charles was awarded upon this occasion the silver
+cup from the lady of the lists. Count Bossu received the prize for
+breaking best his lances; the Seigneur de Beauvoir for the most splendid
+entrance; Count Louis, of Nassau, for having borne himself most gallantly
+in the melee. On the same evening the nobles, together with the bridal
+pair, were entertained at a splendid supper, given by the city of
+Brussels in the magnificent Hotel de Ville. On this occasion the prizes
+gained at the tournament were distributed, amid the applause and hilarity
+of all the revellers.
+
+Thus, with banquet, tourney, and merry marriage bells, with gaiety
+gilding the surface of society, while a deadly hatred to the inquisition
+was eating into the heart of the nation, and while the fires of civil war
+were already kindling, of which no living man was destined to witness the
+extinction, ended the year 1565.
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     All offices were sold to the highest bidder
+     English Puritans
+     Habeas corpus
+     He did his best to be friends with all the world
+     Look through the cloud of dissimulation
+     No law but the law of the longest purse
+     Panegyrists of royal houses in the sixteenth century
+     Secret drowning was substituted for public burning
+     Sonnets of Petrarch
+     St. Bartholomew was to sleep for seven years longer
+     To think it capable of error, is the most devilish heresy of all
+
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, PG EDITION, VOLUME 10.
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
+JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, D.C.L., LL.D.
+1855
+1566 [CHAPTER VI.]
+
+   Francis Junius--His sermon at Culemburg House--The Compromise--
+   Portraits of Sainte Aldegonde, of Louis 'Nassau, of "Toison d'Or,"
+   of Charles Mansfeld--Sketch of the Compromise--Attitude of Orange--
+   His letter to the Duchess--Signers of the Compromise--Indiscretion
+   of the confederates--Espionage over Philip by Orange--
+   Dissatisfaction of the seigniors--Conduct of Egmont--Despair of the
+   people--Emigration to England--Its effects--The request--Meeting at
+   Breda and Hoogstraaten--Exaggerated statements concerning the
+   Request in the state council--Hesitation of the Duchess--Assembly of
+   notables--Debate concerning the Request and the inquisition--
+   Character of Brederode--Arrival of the petitioners in Brussels--
+   Presentation of the Request--Emotion of Margaret--Speech of
+   Brederode--Sketch of the Request--Memorable sarcasm of Berlaymont--
+   Deliberation in the state council--Apostille to the Request--Answer
+   to the Apostille--Reply of the Duchess--Speech of D'Esquerdes--
+   Response of Margaret--Memorable banquet at Culemburg House--Name of
+   "the beggars" adopted--Orange, Egmont, and Horn break up the riotous
+   meeting--Costume of "the beggars"--Brederode at Antwerp--Horrible
+   execution at Oudenardo--Similar cruelties throughout the provinces--
+   Project of "Moderation"--Religious views of Orange--His resignation
+   of all his offices not accepted--The "Moderation" characterized--
+   Egmont at Arras Debate on the "Moderation"--Vacillation of Egmont--
+   Mission of Montigny and Berghen to Spain--Instructions to the
+   envoys--Secret correspondence of Philip with the Pope concerning the
+   Netherland inquisition and the edicts--Field-preaching in the
+   provinces--Modet at Ghent--Other preachers characterized--Excitement
+   at Tournay--Peter Gabriel at Harlem--Field--preaching near Antwerp--
+   Embarrassment of the Regent--Excitement at Antwerp--Pensionary
+   Wesenbeck sent to Brussels--Orange at Antwerp--His patriotic course
+   --Misrepresentation of the Duchess--Intemperate zeal of Dr.
+   Rythovius--Meeting at St. Trond--Conference at Duffel--Louis of
+   Nassau deputed to the Regent--Unsatisfactory negotiations.
+
+The most remarkable occurrence in the earlier part of the year 1556 was
+the famous Compromise. This document, by which the signers pledged
+themselves to oppose the inquisition, and to defend each other against
+all consequences of such a resistance, was probably the work of Philip de
+Marnix, Lord of Sainte Aldegonde. Much obscurity, however, rests upon the
+origin of this league. Its foundations had already been laid in the
+latter part of the preceding year. The nuptials of Parma with the
+Portuguese princess had been the cause of much festivity, not only in
+Brussels, but at Antwerp. The great commercial metropolis had celebrated
+the occasion by a magnificent banquet. There had been triumphal arches,
+wreaths of flowers, loyal speeches, generous sentiments, in the usual
+profusion. The chief ornament of the dinner-table had been a magnificent
+piece of confectionary, netting elaborately forth the mission of Count
+Mansfeld with the fleet to Portugal to fetch the bride from her home,
+with exquisitely finished figures in sugar--portraits, it is to be
+presumed--of the principal personages as they appeared during the most
+striking scenes of the history. At the very moment, however, of these
+delectations, a meeting was held at Brussels of men whose minds were
+occupied with sterner stuff than sugar-work. On the wedding-day of Parma,
+Francis Junius, a dissenting minister then residing at Antwerp, was
+invited to Brussels to preach a sermon in the house of Count Culemburg,
+on the horse-market (now called Little Sablon), before a small assembly
+of some twenty gentlemen.
+
+This Francis Junius, born of a noble family in Bourges, was the pastor of
+the secret French congregation of Huguenots at Antwerp. He was very
+young, having arrived from Geneva, where he had been educated, to take
+charge of the secret church, when but just turned of twenty years. He
+was, however, already celebrated for his learning, his eloquence, and his
+courage. Towards the end of 1565, it had already become known that Junius
+was in secret understanding with Louis of Nassau, to prepare an address
+to government on the subject of the inquisition and edicts. Orders were
+given for his arrest.
+
+A certain painter of Brussels affected conversion to the new religion,
+that he might gain admission to the congregation, and afterwards earn the
+reward of the informer. He played his part so well that he was permitted
+to attend many meetings, in the course of which he sketched the portrait
+of the preacher, and delivered it to the Duchess Regent, together with
+minute statements as to his residence and daily habits. Nevertheless,
+with all this assistance, the government could not succeed in laying
+hands on him. He escaped to Breda, and continued his labors in spite of
+persecution. The man's courage may be estimated from the fact that he
+preached on one occasion a sermon, advocating the doctrines of the
+reformed Church with his usual eloquence, in a room overlooking the
+market-place, where, at the very, instant, the execution by fire of
+several heretics was taking place, while the light from the flames in
+which the brethren of their Faith were burning, was flickering through
+the glass windows of the conventicle. Such was the man who preached a
+sermon in Culemburg Palace on Parma's wedding-day. The nobles who
+listened to him were occupied with grave discourse after conclusion of
+the religious exercises. Junius took no part in their conversation, but
+in his presence it was resolved that a league against the "barbarous and
+violent inquisition" should be formed, and, that the confederates should
+mutually bind themselves both within and without the Netherlands to this
+great purpose. Junius, in giving this explicit statement; has not
+mentioned the names of the nobles before whom he preached. It may be
+inferred that some of them were the more ardent and the more respectable
+among the somewhat miscellaneous band by whom the Compromise was
+afterwards signed.
+
+At about the same epoch, Louis of Nassau, Nicolas de Hammes, and certain
+other gentlemen met at the baths of Spa. At this secret assembly, the
+foundations of the Compromise were definitely laid. A document was
+afterwards drawn up, which was circulated for signatures in the early
+part of 1566. It is, therefore, a mistake to suppose that this memorable
+paper was simultaneously signed and sworn to at any solemn scene like
+that of the declaration of American Independence, or like some of the
+subsequent transactions in the Netherland revolt, arranged purposely for
+dramatic effect. Several copies of the Compromise were passed secretly
+from hand to hand, and in the course of two months some two thousand
+signatures had been obtained. The original copy bore but three names,
+those of Brederode, Charles de Mansfeld, and Louis of Nassau. The
+composition of the paper is usually ascribed to Sainte Aldegonde,
+although the fact is not indisputable. At any rate, it is very certain
+that he was one of the originators and main supporters of the famous
+league. Sainte Aldegonde was one of the most accomplished men of his age.
+He was of ancient nobility, as he proved by an abundance of historical
+and heraldic evidence, in answer to a scurrilous pamphlet in which he had
+been accused, among other delinquencies, of having sprung from plebeian
+blood. Having established his "extraction from true and ancient gentlemen
+of Savoy, paternally and maternally," he rebuked his assailants in manly
+strain. "Even had it been that I was without nobility of birth," said he,
+"I should be none the less or more a virtuous or honest man; nor can any
+one reproach me with having failed in the point of honor or duty. What
+greater folly than to boast of the virtue or gallantry of others, as do
+many nobles who, having neither a grain of virtue in their souls nor a
+drop of wisdom in their brains, are entirely useless to their country!
+Yet there are such men, who, because their ancestors have done some
+valorous deed, think themselves fit to direct the machinery of a whole
+country, having from their youth learned nothing but to dance and to spin
+like weathercocks with their heads as well as their heels." Certainly
+Sainte Aldegonde had learned other lessons than these. He was one of the
+many-sided men who recalled the symmetry of antique patriots. He was a
+poet of much vigor and imagination; a prose writer whose style was
+surpassed by that of none of his contemporaries, a diplomatist in whose
+tact and delicacy William of Orange afterwards reposed in the most
+difficult and important negotiations, an orator whose discourses on many
+great public occasions attracted the attention of Europe, a soldier whose
+bravery was to be attested afterwards on many a well-fought field, a
+theologian so skilful in the polemics of divinity, that, as it will
+hereafter appear, he was more than a match for a bench of bishops upon
+their own ground, and a scholar so accomplished, that, besides speaking
+and writing the classical and several modern languages with facility, he
+had also translated for popular use the Psalms of David into vernacular
+verse, and at a very late period of his life was requested by the
+states-general of the republic to translate all the Scriptures, a work,
+the fulfilment of which was prevented by his death. A passionate foe to
+the inquisition and to all the abuses of the ancient Church, an ardent
+defender of civil liberty, it must be admitted that he partook also of
+the tyrannical spirit of Calvinism. He never rose to the lofty heights to
+which the spirit of the great founder of the commonwealth was destined to
+soar, but denounced the great principle of religious liberty for all
+consciences as godless. He was now twenty-eight years of age, having been
+born in the same year with his friend Louis of Nassau. His device, "Repos
+ailleurs," finely typified the restless, agitated and laborious life to
+which he was destined.
+
+That other distinguished leader of the newly-formed league, Count Louis,
+was a true knight of the olden time, the very mirror of chivalry. Gentle,
+generous, pious; making use, in his tent before the battle, of the
+prayers which his mother sent him from the home of his childhood,--yet
+fiery in the field as an ancient crusader--doing the work of general and
+soldier with desperate valor and against any numbers--cheerful and
+steadfast under all reverses, witty and jocund in social intercourse,
+animating with his unceasing spirits the graver and more foreboding soul
+of his brother; he was the man to whom the eyes of the most ardent among
+the Netherland Reformers were turned at this early epoch, the trusty
+staff upon which the great Prince of Orange was to lean till it was
+broken. As gay as Brederode, he was unstained by his vices, and exercised
+a boundless influence over that reckless personage, who often protested
+that he would "die a poor soldier at his feet." The career of Louis was
+destined to be short, if reckoned by years, but if by events, it was to
+attain almost a patriarchal length. At the age of nineteen he had taken
+part in the battle of St. Quentin, and when once the war of freedom
+opened, his sword was never to be sheathed. His days were filled with
+life, and when he fell into his bloody but unknown grave, he was to leave
+a name as distinguished for heroic valor and untiring energy as for
+spotless integrity. He was small of stature, but well formed; athletic in
+all knightly exercises, with agreeable features, a dark laughing eye,
+close-clipped brown hair, and a peaked beard.
+
+"Golden Fleece," as Nicholas de Hammes was universally denominated, was
+the illegitimate scion of a noble house. He was one of the most active of
+the early adherents to the league, kept the lists of signers in his
+possession, and scoured the country daily to procure new confederates. At
+the public preachings of the reformed religion, which soon after this
+epoch broke forth throughout the Netherlands as by a common impulse, he
+made himself conspicuous. He was accused of wearing, on such occasions,
+the ensigns of the Fleece about his neck, in order to induce ignorant
+people to believe that they might themselves legally follow, when they
+perceived a member of that illustrious fraternity to be leading the way.
+As De Hammer was only an official or servant of that Order, but not a
+companion, the seduction of the lieges by such false pretenses was
+reckoned among the most heinous of his offences. He was fierce in his
+hostility to the government, and one of those fiery spirits whose
+premature zeal was prejudicial to the cause of liberty, and disheartening
+to the cautious patriotism of Orange. He was for smiting at once the
+gigantic atrocity of the Spanish dominion, without waiting for the
+forging of the weapons by which the blows were to be dealt. He forgot
+that men and money were as necessary as wrath, in a contest with the most
+tremendous despotism of the world. "They wish," he wrote to Count Louis,
+"that we should meet these hungry wolves with remonstrances, using gentle
+words, while they are burning and cutting off heads.--Be it so then. Let
+us take the pen let them take the sword. For them deeds, for us words. We
+shall weep, they will laugh. The Lord be praised for all; but I can not
+write this without tears." This nervous language painted the situation
+and the character of the writer.
+
+As for Charles Mansfeld, he soon fell away from the league which he had
+embraced originally with excessive ardor.
+
+By the influence of the leaders many signatures were obtained during the
+first two months of the year. The language of the document was such that
+patriotic Catholics could sign it as honestly as Protestants. It
+inveighed bitterly against the tyranny of "a heap of strangers," who,
+influenced only by private avarice and ambition, were making use of an
+affected zeal for the Catholic religion, to persuade the King into a
+violation of his oaths. It denounced the refusal to mitigate the severity
+of the edicts. It declared the inquisition, which it seemed the intention
+of government to fix permanently upon them, as "iniquitous, contrary to
+all laws, human and divine, surpassing the greatest barbarism which was
+ever practised by tyrants, and as redounding to the dishonor of God and
+to the total desolation of the country." The signers protested,
+therefore, that "having a due regard to their duties as faithful vassals
+of his Majesty, and especially, as noblemen--and in order not to be
+deprived of their estates and their lives by those who, under pretext of
+religion, wished to enrich themselves by plunder and murder," they had
+bound themselves to each other by holy covenant and solemn oath to resist
+the inquisition. They mutually promised to oppose it in every shape, open
+or covert, under whatever mask, it might assume, whether bearing the name
+of inquisition, placard, or edict, "and to extirpate and eradicate the
+thing in any form, as the mother of all iniquity and disorder." They
+protested before God and man, that they would attempt nothing to the
+dishonor of the Lord or to the diminution of the King's grandeur,
+majesty, or dominion. They declared, on the contrary, an honest purpose
+to "maintain the monarch in his estate, and to suppress all seditious,
+tumults, monopolies, and factions." They engaged to preserve their
+confederation, thus formed, forever inviolable, and to permit none of its
+members to be persecuted in any manner, in body or goods, by any
+proceeding founded on the inquisition, the edicts, or the present league.
+
+It will be seen therefore, that the Compromise was in its origin, a
+covenant of nobles. It was directed against the foreign influence by
+which the Netherlands were exclusively governed, and against the
+inquisition, whether papal, episcopal, or by edict. There is no doubt
+that the country was controlled entirely by Spanish masters, and that the
+intention was to reduce the ancient liberty of the Netherlands into
+subjection to a junta of foreigners sitting at Madrid. Nothing more
+legitimate could be imagined than a constitutional resistance to such a
+policy.
+
+The Prince of Orange had not been consulted as to the formation of the
+league. It was sufficiently obvious to its founders that his cautious
+mind would find much to censure in the movement. His sentiments with
+regard to the inquisition and the edicts were certainly known to all men.
+In the beginning of this year, too, he had addressed a remarkable letter
+to the Duchess, in answer to her written commands to cause the Council of
+Trent, the inquisition, and the edicts, in accordance with the recent
+commands of the King, to be published and enforced throughout his
+government. Although his advice on the subject had not been asked, he
+expressed his sense of obligation to speak his mind on the subject,
+preferring the hazard of being censured for his remonstrance, to that of
+incurring the suspicion of connivance at the desolation of the land by
+his silence. He left the question of reformation in ecclesiastical morals
+untouched, as not belonging to his vocation: As to the inquisition, he
+most distinctly informed her highness that the hope which still lingered
+in the popular mind of escaping the permanent establishment of that
+institution, had alone prevented the utter depopulation of the country,
+with entire subversion of its commercial and manufacturing industry. With
+regard to the edicts, he temperately but forcibly expressed the opinion
+that it was very hard to enforce those placards now in their rigor, when
+the people were exasperated, and the misery universal, inasmuch as they
+had frequently been modified on former occasions. The King, he said,
+could gain nothing but difficulty for himself, and would be sure to lose
+the affection of his subjects by renewing the edicts, strengthening the
+inquisition, and proceeding to fresh executions, at a time when the
+people, moved by the example of their neighbors, were naturally inclined
+to novelty. Moreover, when by reason of the daily increasing prices of
+grain a famine was impending over the land, no worse moment could be
+chosen to enforce such a policy. In conclusion, he observed that he was
+at all times desirous to obey the commands of his Majesty and her
+Highness, and to discharge the duties of "a good Christian." The use of
+the latter term is remarkable, as marking an epoch in the history of the
+Prince's mind. A year before he would have said a good Catholic, but it
+was during this year that his mind began to be thoroughly pervaded by
+religious doubt, and that the great question of the Reformation forced
+itself, not only as a political, but as a moral problem upon him, which
+he felt that he could not much longer neglect instead of solving.
+
+Such were the opinions of Orange. He could not, however, safely entrust
+the sacred interests of a commonwealth to such hands as those of
+Brederode--however deeply that enthusiastic personage might drink the
+health of "Younker William," as he affectionately denominated the
+Prince--or to "Golden Fleece," or to Charles Mansfeld, or to that younger
+wild boar of Ardennes, Robert de la Marck. In his brother and in Sainte
+Aldegonde he had confidence, but he did not exercise over them that
+control which he afterwards acquired. His conduct towards the confederacy
+was imitated in the main by the other great nobles. The covenanters never
+expected to obtain the signatures of such men as Orange, Egmont, Horn,
+Meghen, Berghen, or Montigny, nor were those eminent personages ever
+accused of having signed the Compromise, although some of them were
+afterwards charged with having protected those who did affix their names
+to the document. The confederates were originally found among the lesser
+nobles. Of these some were sincere Catholics, who loved the ancient
+Church but hated the inquisition; some were fierce Calvinists or
+determined Lutherans; some were troublous and adventurous spirits, men of
+broken fortunes, extravagant habits, and boundless desires, who no doubt
+thought that the broad lands of the Church, with their stately abbeys;
+would furnish much more fitting homes and revenues for gallant gentlemen
+than for lazy monks. All were young, few had any prudence or conduct, and
+the history of the league more than justified the disapprobation of
+Orange. The nobles thus banded together, achieved little by their
+confederacy. They disgraced a great cause by their orgies, almost ruined
+it by their inefficiency, and when the rope of sand which they had
+twisted fell asunder, the people had gained nothing and the gentry had
+almost lost the confidence of the nation. These remarks apply to the mass
+of the confederates and to some of the leaders. Louis of Nassau and
+Sainte Aldegonde were ever honored and trusted as they deserved.
+
+Although the language of the Compromise spoke of the leaguers as nobles,
+yet the document was circulated among burghers and merchants also, many
+of whom, according to the satirical remark of a Netherland Catholic, may,
+have been influenced by the desire of writing their names in such
+aristocratic company, and some of whom were destined to expiate such
+vainglory upon the scaffold.
+
+With such associates, therefore, the profound and anxious mind of Orange
+could have little in common. Confidence expanding as the numbers
+increased, their audacity and turbulence grew with the growth of the
+league. The language at their wild banquets was as hot as the wine which
+confused their heads; yet the Prince knew that there was rarely a
+festival in which there did not sit some calm, temperate Spaniard,
+watching with quiet eye and cool brain the extravagant demeanor, and
+listening with composure to the dangerous avowals or bravados of these
+revellers, with the purpose of transmitting a record of their language or
+demonstrations, to the inmost sanctuary of Philip's cabinet at Madrid.
+The Prince knew, too, that the King was very sincere in his determination
+to maintain the inquisition, however dilatory his proceedings might
+appear. He was well aware that an armed force might be expected ere long
+to support the royal edicts. Already the Prince had organized that system
+of espionage upon Philip, by which the champion of his country was so
+long able to circumvent its despot. The King left letters carefully
+locked in his desk at night, and unseen hands had forwarded copies of
+them to William of Orange before the morning. He left memoranda in his
+pockets on retiring to bed, and exact transcripts of those papers found
+their way, likewise, ere he rose, to the same watchman in the
+Netherlands. No doubt that an inclination for political intrigue was a
+prominent characteristic of the Prince, and a blemish upon the purity of
+his moral nature. Yet the dissimulating policy of his age he had mastered
+only that he might accomplish the noblest purposes to which a great and
+good man can devote his life-the protection of the liberty and the
+religion of a whole people against foreign tyranny. His intrigue served
+his country, not a narrow personal ambition, and it was only by such arts
+that he became Philip's master, instead of falling at once, like so many
+great personages, a blind and infatuated victim. No doubt his purveyors
+of secret information were often destined fearfully to atone for their
+contraband commerce, but they who trade in treason must expect to pay the
+penalty of their traffic.
+
+Although, therefore, the great nobles held themselves aloof from the
+confederacy, yet many of them gave unequivocal signs of their dissent
+from the policy adopted by government. Marquis Berghen wrote to the
+Duchess; resigning his posts, on the ground of his inability to execute
+the intention of the King in the matter of religion. Meghen replied to
+the same summons by a similar letter. Egmont assured her that he would
+have placed his offices in the King's hands in Spain, could he have
+foreseen that his Majesty would form such resolutions as had now been
+proclaimed. The sentiments of Orange were avowed in the letter to which
+we have already alluded. His opinions were shared by Montigny, Culemburg,
+and many others. The Duchess was almost reduced to desperation. The
+condition of the country was frightful. The most determined loyalists,
+such as Berlaymont, Viglius and Hopper, advised her not to mention the
+name of inquisition in a conference which she was obliged to hold with a
+deputation from Antwerp. She feared, all feared, to pronounce the hated
+word. She wrote despairing letters to Philip, describing the condition of
+the land and her own agony in the gloomiest colors. Since the arrival of
+the royal orders, she said, things had gone from bad to worse. The King
+had been ill advised. It was useless to tell the people that the
+inquisition had always existed in the provinces. They maintained that it
+was a novelty; that the institution was a more rigorous one than the
+Spanish Inquisition, which, said Margaret, "was most odious, as the King
+knew." It was utterly impossible to carry the edicts into execution.
+Nearly all the governors of provinces had told her plainly that they
+would not help to burn fifty or sixty thousand Netherlanders. Thus
+bitterly did Margaret of Parma bewail the royal decree; not that she had
+any sympathy for the victims, but because she felt the increasing danger
+to the executioner. One of two things it was now necessary to decide
+upon, concession or armed compulsion. Meantime, while Philip was slowly
+and secretly making his levies, his sister, as well as his people, was on
+the rack. Of all the seigniors, not one was placed in so painful a
+position as Egmont. His military reputation and his popularity made him
+too important a personage to be slighted, yet he was deeply mortified at
+the lamentable mistake which he had committed. He now averred that he
+would never take arms against the King, but that he would go where man
+should never see him more.
+
+Such was the condition of the nobles, greater and less. That of the
+people could not well be worse. Famine reigned in the land. Emigration,
+caused not by over population, but by persecution, was fast weakening the
+country. It was no wonder that not only, foreign merchants should be
+scared from the great commercial cities by the approaching disorders; but
+that every industrious artisan who could find the means of escape should
+seek refuge among strangers, wherever an asylum could be found. That
+asylum was afforded by Protestant England, who received these intelligent
+and unfortunate wanderers with cordiality, and learned with eagerness the
+lessons in mechanical skill which they had to teach. Already thirty
+thousand emigrant Netherlanders were established in Sandwich, Norwich,
+and other places, assigned to them by Elizabeth. It had always, however,
+been made a condition of the liberty granted to these foreigners for
+practising their handiwork, that each house should employ at least one
+English apprentice. "Thus," said a Walloon historian, splenetically, "by
+this regulation, and by means of heavy duties on foreign manufactures,
+have the English built up their own fabrics and prohibited those of the
+Netherlands. Thus have they drawn over to their own country our skilful
+artisans to practise their industry, not at home but abroad, and our poor
+people are thus losing the means of earning their livelihood. Thus has
+clothmaking, silk-making and the art of dyeing declined in this country,
+and would have been quite extinguished but by our wise countervailing
+edicts." The writer, who derived most of his materials and his wisdom
+from the papers of Councillor d'Assonleville, could hardly doubt that the
+persecution to which these industrious artisans, whose sufferings he
+affected to deplore, had been subjected, must have had something to do
+with their expatriation; but he preferred to ascribe it wholly to the
+protective system adopted by England. In this he followed the opinion of
+his preceptor. "For a long time," said Assonleville, "the Netherlands
+have been the Indies to England; and as long as she has them, she needs
+no other. The French try to surprise our fortresses and cities: the
+English make war upon our wealth and upon the purses of the people."
+Whatever the cause, however, the current of trade was already turned. The
+cloth-making of England was already gaining preponderance over that of
+the provinces. Vessels now went every week from Sandwich to Antwerp,
+laden with silk, satin, and cloth, manufactured in England, while as many
+but a few years before, had borne the Flemish fabrics of the same nature
+from Antwerp to England.
+
+It might be supposed by disinterested judges that persecution was at the
+bottom of this change in commerce. The Prince of Orange estimated that up
+to this period fifty thousand persons in the provinces had been put to
+death in obedience to the edicts. He was a moderate man, and accustomed
+to weigh his words. As a new impulse had been given to the system of
+butchery--as it was now sufficiently plain that "if the father had
+chastised his people with a scourge the son held a whip of scorpions" as
+the edicts were to be enforced with renewed vigor--it was natural that
+commerce and manufactures should make their escape out of a doomed land
+as soon as possible, whatever system of tariffs might be adopted by
+neighboring nations.
+
+A new step had been resolved upon early in the month of March by the
+confederates. A petition, or "Request," was drawn up, which was to be
+presented to the Duchess Regent in a formal manner by a large number of
+gentlemen belonging to the league. This movement was so grave, and likely
+to be followed by such formidable results, that it seemed absolutely
+necessary for Orange and his friends to take some previous cognizance of
+it before it was finally arranged. The Prince had no power, nor was there
+any reason why he should have the inclination, to prevent the measure,
+but he felt it his duty to do what he could to control the vehemence of
+the men who were moving so rashly forward, and to take from their
+manifesto, as much as possible, the character of a menace.
+
+For this end, a meeting ostensibly for social purposes and "good cheer"
+was held, in the middle of March, at Breda, and afterwards adjourned to
+Hoogstraaten. To these conferences Orange invited Egmont, Horn,
+Hoogstraaten, Berghen, Meghen, Montigny, and other great nobles.
+Brederode, Tholouse, Boxtel, and other members of the league, were also
+present. The object of the Prince in thus assembling his own immediate
+associates, governors of provinces and knights of the Fleece, as well as
+some of the leading members of the league, was twofold. It had long been
+his opinion that a temperate and loyal movement was still possible, by
+which the impending convulsions might be averted. The line of policy
+which he had marked out required the assent of the magnates of the land,
+and looked towards the convocation of the states-general. It was natural
+that he should indulge in the hope of being seconded by the men who were
+in the same political and social station with himself. All, although
+Catholics, hated the inquisition. As Viglius pathetically exclaimed,
+"Saint Paul himself would have been unable to persuade these men that
+good fruit was to be gathered from the inquisition in the cause of
+religion." Saint Paul could hardly be expected to reappear on earth for
+such a purpose. Meantime the arguments of the learned President had
+proved powerless, either to convince the nobles that the institution was
+laudable or to obtain from the Duchess a postponement in the publication
+of the late decrees. The Prince of Orange, however, was not able to bring
+his usual associates to his way of thinking. The violent purposes of the
+leaguers excited the wrath of the more loyal nobles. Their intentions
+were so dangerous, even in the estimation of the Prince himself, that he
+felt it his duty to lay the whole subject before the Duchess, although he
+was not opposed to the presentation of a modest and moderate Request.
+Meghen was excessively indignant at the plan of the confederates, which
+he pronounced an insult to the government, a treasonable attempt to
+overawe the Duchess, by a "few wretched vagabonds." He swore that "he
+would break every one of their heads, if the King would furnish him with
+a couple of hundred thousand florins." Orange quietly rebuked this
+truculent language, by assuring him both that such a process would be
+more difficult than he thought, and that he would also find many men of
+great respectability among the vagabonds.
+
+The meeting separated at Hoogstraaten without any useful result, but it
+was now incumbent upon the Prince, in his own judgment, to watch, and in
+a measure to superintend, the proceedings of the confederates. By his
+care the contemplated Request was much altered, and especially made more
+gentle in its tone. Meghen separated himself thenceforth entirely from
+Orange, and ranged himself exclusively upon the side of Government.
+Egmont vacillated, as usual, satisfying neither the Prince nor the
+Duchess.
+
+Margaret of Parma was seated in her council chamber very soon after these
+occurrences, attended both by Orange and Egmont, when the Count of Meghen
+entered the apartment. With much precipitation, he begged that all
+matters then before the board might be postponed, in order that he might
+make an important announcement. He then stated that he had received
+information from a gentleman on whose word he could rely, a very
+affectionate servant of the King, but whose name he had promised not to
+reveal, that a very extensive conspiracy of heretics and sectaries had
+been formed, both within and without the Netherlands, that they had
+already a force of thirty-five thousand men, foot and horse, ready for
+action, that they were about to make a sudden invasion, and to plunder
+the whole country, unless they immediately received a formal concession
+of entire liberty of conscience, and that, within six or seven days,
+fifteen hundred men-at-arms would make their appearance before her
+Highness. These ridiculous exaggerations of the truth were confirmed by
+Egmont, who said that he had received similar information from persons
+whose names he was not at liberty to mention, but from whose statements
+he could announce that some great tumult might be expected every day. He
+added that there were among the confederates many who wished to change
+their sovereign, and that the chieftains and captains of the conspiracy
+were all appointed. The same nobleman also laid before the council a copy
+of the Compromise, the terms of which famous document scarcely justified
+the extravagant language with which it had been heralded. The Duchess was
+astounded at these communications. She had already received, but probably
+not yet read, a letter from the Prince of Orange upon the subject, in
+which a moderate and plain statement of the actual facts was laid down,
+which was now reiterated by the same personage by word of mouth. An
+agitated and inconclusive debate followed, in which, however, it
+sufficiently appeared, as the Duchess informed her brother, that one of
+two things must be done without further delay. The time had arrived for
+the government to take up arms, or to make concessions.
+
+In one of the informal meetings of councillors, now held almost daily, on
+the subject of the impending Request, Aremberg, Meghen, and Berlaymont
+maintained that the door should be shut in the face of the petitioners
+without taking any further notice of the petition. Berlaymont suggested
+also, that if this course were not found advisable, the next best thing
+would be to allow the confederates to enter the palace with their
+Request, and then to cut them to pieces to the very last man, by means of
+troops to be immediately ordered from the frontiers. Such sanguinary
+projects were indignantly rebuked by Orange. He maintained that the
+confederates were entitled to be treated with respect. Many of them, he
+said, were his friends--some of them his relations--and there was no
+reason for refusing to gentlemen of their rank, a right which belonged to
+the poorest plebeian in the land. Egmont sustained these views of the
+Prince as earnestly as he had on a previous occasion appeared to
+countenance the more violent counsels of Meghen.
+
+Meantime, as it was obvious that the demonstration on the part of the
+confederacy was soon about to be made, the Duchess convened a grand
+assembly of notables, in which not only all the state and privy
+councillors, but all the governors and knights of the Fleece were to take
+part. On the 28th of March, this assembly was held, at which the whole
+subject of the Request, together with the proposed modifications of the
+edicts and abolition of the inquisition, was discussed. The Duchess also
+requested the advice of the meeting--whether it would not be best for her
+to retire to some other city, like Mons, which she had selected as her
+stronghold in case of extremity. The decision was that it would be a
+high-handed proceeding to refuse the right of petition to a body of
+gentlemen, many of them related to the greatest nobles in the land; but
+it was resolved that they should be required to make their appearance
+without arms. As to the contemplated flight of the Duchess, it was urged,
+with much reason, that such a step would cast disgrace upon the
+government, and that it would be a sufficiently precautionary measure to
+strengthen the guards at the city gates--not to prevent the entrance of
+the petitioners, but to see that they were unaccompanied by an armed
+force. It had been decided that Count Brederode should present the
+petition to the Duchess at the head of a deputation of about three
+hundred gentlemen. The character of the nobleman thus placed foremost on
+such an important occasion has been sufficiently made manifest. He had no
+qualities whatever but birth and audacity to recommend him as a leader
+for a political party. It was to be seen that other attributes were
+necessary to make a man useful in such a position, and the Count's
+deficiencies soon became lamentably conspicuous. He was the lineal
+descendant and representative of the old Sovereign Counts of Holland.
+Five hundred years before his birth; his ancestor Sikko, younger brother
+of Dirk the Third, had died, leaving two sons, one of whom was the first
+Baron of Brederode. A descent of five centuries in unbroken male
+succession from the original sovereigns of Holland, gave him a better
+genealogical claim to the provinces than any which Philip of Spain could
+assert through the usurping house of Burgundy. In the approaching tumults
+he hoped for an opportunity of again asserting the ancient honors of his
+name. He was a sworn foe to Spaniards and to "water of the fountain." But
+a short time previously to this epoch he had written to Louis of Nassau,
+then lying ill of a fever, in order gravely to remonstrate with him on
+the necessity of substituting wine for water on all occasions, and it
+will be seen in the sequel that the wine-cup was the great instrument on
+which he relied for effecting the deliverance of the country. Although
+"neither bachelor nor chancellor," as he expressed it, he was supposed to
+be endowed with ready eloquence and mother wit. Even these gifts,
+however, if he possessed them, were often found wanting on important
+emergencies. Of his courage there was no question, but he was not
+destined to the death either of a warrior or a martyr. Headlong, noisy,
+debauched, but brave, kind-hearted and generous, he was a fitting
+representative of his ancestors, the hard-fighting, hard-drinking,
+crusading, free-booting sovereigns of Holland and Friesland, and would
+himself have been more at home and more useful in the eleventh century
+than in the sixteenth.
+
+It was about six o'clock in the evening, on the third day of April
+(1566), that the long-expected cavalcade at last entered Brussels. An
+immense concourse of citizens of all ranks thronged around the noble
+confederates as soon as they made their appearance. They were about two
+hundred in number, all on horseback, with pistols in their holsters, and
+Brederode, tall, athletic, and martial in his bearing, with handsome
+features and fair curling locks upon his shoulders, seemed an appropriate
+chieftain for that band of Batavian chivalry.
+
+The procession was greeted with frequent demonstrations of applause as it
+wheeled slowly through the city till it reached the mansion of Orange
+Nassau. Here Brederode and Count Louis alighted, while the rest of the
+company dispersed to different quarters of the town.
+
+"They thought that I should not come to Brussels," said Brederode, as he
+dismounted. "Very well, here I am; and perhaps I shall depart in a
+different manner." In the Course of the next day, Counts Culemburg and
+Van den Berg entered the city with one hundred other cavaliers.
+
+On the morning of the fifth of April, the confederates were assembled at
+the Culemburg mansion, which stood on the square called the Sabon, within
+a few minutes' walk of the palace. A straight handsome street led from
+the house along the summit of the hill, to the splendid residence of the
+ancient Dukes of Brabant, then the abode of Duchess Margaret. At a little
+before noon, the gentlemen came forth, marching on foot, two by two, to
+the number of three hundred. Nearly all were young, many of them bore the
+most ancient historical names of their country, every one was arrayed in
+magnificent costume. It was regarded as ominous, that the man who led the
+procession, Philip de Bailleul, was lame. The line was closed by
+Brederode and Count Louis, who came last, walking arm in arm. An immense
+crowd was collected in the square in front of the palace, to welcome the
+men who were looked upon as the deliverers of the land from Spanish
+tyranny, from the Cardinalists, and from the inquisition. They were
+received with deafening huzzas and clappings of hands by the assembled
+populace. As they entered the council chamber, passing through the great
+hall, where ten years before the Emperor had given away his crowns, they
+found the Emperor's daughter seated in the chair of state, and surrounded
+by the highest personages of the country. The emotion of the Duchess was
+evident, as the procession somewhat abruptly made its appearance; nor was
+her agitation diminished as she observed among the petitioners many
+relatives and, retainers of the Orange and Egmont houses, and saw
+friendly glances of recognition exchanged between them and their chiefs.
+
+As soon as all had entered the senate room, Brederode advanced, made a
+low obeisance, and spoke a brief speech. He said that he had come thither
+with his colleagues to present a humble petition to her Highness. He
+alluded to the reports which had been rife, that they had contemplated
+tumult, sedition, foreign conspiracies, and, what was more abominable
+than all, a change of sovereign. He denounced such statements as
+calumnies, begged the Duchess to name the men who had thus aspersed an
+honorable and loyal company, and called upon her to inflict exemplary
+punishment upon the slanderers. With these prefatory remarks he presented
+the petition. The famous document was then read aloud.--Its tone was
+sufficiently loyal, particularly in the preamble, which was filled with
+protestations of devotion to both King and Duchess. After this
+conventional introduction, however, the petitioners proceeded to state,
+very plainly, that the recent resolutions of his Majesty, with regard to
+the edict and the inquisition, were likely to produce a general
+rebellion. They had hoped, they said, that a movement would be made by
+the seigniors or by the estates, to remedy the evil by striking at its
+cause, but they had waited in vain. The danger, on the other hand, was
+augmenting every day, universal sedition was at the gate, and they had
+therefore felt obliged to delay no longer, but come forward the first and
+do their duty. They professed to do this with more freedom, because the
+danger touched them very nearly. They were the most exposed to the
+calamities which usually spring from civil commotions, for their houses
+and lands situate in the open fields, were exposed to the pillage of all
+the world. Moreover there was not one of them, whatever his condition,
+who was not liable at any moment to be executed under the edicts, at the
+false complaint of the first man who wished to obtain his estate, and who
+chose to denounce him to the inquisitor, at whose mercy were the lives
+and property of all. They therefore begged the Duchess Regent to despatch
+an envoy on their behalf, who should humbly implore his Majesty to
+abolish the edicts. In the mean time they requested her Highness to order
+a general surcease of the inquisition, and of all executions, until the
+King's further pleasure was made known, and until new ordinances, made by
+his Majesty with advice and consent of the states-general duly assembled,
+should be established. The petition terminated as it had commenced, with
+expressions of extreme respect and devoted loyalty.
+
+The agitation of Duchess Margaret increased very perceptibly during the
+reading of the paper. When it was finished, she remained for a few
+minutes quite silent, with tears rolling down her cheeks. As soon as she
+could overcome her excitement, she uttered a few words to the effect that
+she would advise with her councillors and give the petitioners such
+answer as should be found suitable. The confederates then passed out from
+the council chamber into the grand hall; each individual, as he took his
+departure, advancing towards the Duchess and making what was called the
+"caracole," in token of reverence. There was thus ample time to
+contemplate the whole company; and to count the numbers of the
+deputation.
+
+After this ceremony had been concluded, there was much earnest debate in.
+the council. The Prince of Orange addressed a few words to the Duchess,
+with the view of calming her irritation. He observed that the
+confederates were no seditious rebels, but loyal gentlemen, well born,
+well connected, and of honorable character. They had been influenced, he
+said, by an honest desire to save their country from impending
+danger--not by avarice or ambition. Egmont shrugged his shoulders, and
+observed that it was necessary for him to leave the court for a season,
+in order to make a visit to the baths of Aix, for an inflammation which
+he had in the leg. It was then that Berlaymont, according to the account
+which has been sanctioned by nearly every contemporary writer, whether
+Catholic or Protestant, uttered the gibe which was destined to become
+immortal, and to give a popular name to the confederacy. "What, Madam,"
+he is reported to have cried in a passion, "is it possible that your
+Highness can entertain fears of these beggars? (gueux). Is it not obvious
+what manner of men they are? They have not had wisdom enough to manage
+their own estates, and are they now to teach the King and your Highness
+how to govern the country? By the living God, if my advice were taken,
+their petition should have a cudgel for a commentary, and we would make
+them go down the steps of the palace a great deal faster than they
+mounted them."
+
+The Count of Meghen was equally violent in his language. Aremberg was for
+ordering "their reverences; the confederates," to, quit Brussels without
+delay. The conversation, carried on in so violent a key, might not
+unnaturally have been heard by such of the gentlemen as had not yet left
+the grand hall adjoining the council chamber. The meeting of the council
+was then adjourned for an hour or two, to meet again in the afternoon,
+for the purpose of deciding deliberately upon the answer to be given to
+the Request. Meanwhile, many of the confederates were swaggering about
+the streets, talking very bravely of the scene which had just occurred,
+and it is probable, boasting not a little of the effect which their
+demonstration would produce. As they passed by the house of Berlaymont,
+that nobleman, standing at his window in company with Count Aremberg, is
+said to have repeated his jest. "There go our fine beggars again," said
+he. "Look, I pray you, with what bravado they are passing before us!"
+
+On the 6th of April, Brederode, attended by a large number of his
+companions, again made his appearance at the palace. He then received the
+petition, which was returned to him with an apostille or commentary to
+this effect:--Her Highness would despatch an envoy for the purpose of
+inducing his Majesty to grant the Request. Every thing worthy of the
+King's unaffected (naive) and customary benignity might be expected as to
+the result. The Duchess had already, with the assistance of the state and
+privy councillors, Fleece knights and governors, commenced a project for
+moderating the edicts, to be laid before the King. As her authority did
+not allow her to suspend the inquisition and placards, she was confident
+that the petitioners would be satisfied with the special application
+about to be made to the King. Meantime, she would give orders to all
+inquisitors, that they should proceed "modestly and discreetly" in their
+office, so that no one would have cause to complain. Her Highness hoped
+likewise that the gentlemen on their part would conduct themselves in a
+loyal and satisfactory manner; thus proving that they had no intention to
+make innovations in the ancient religion of the country.
+
+Upon the next day but one, Monday, 8th of April, Brederode, attended by a
+number of the confederates, again made his appearance at the palace, for
+the purpose of delivering an answer to the Apostille. In this second
+paper the confederates rendered thanks for the prompt reply which the
+Duchess had given to their Request, expressed regrets that she did not
+feel at liberty to suspend the inquisition, and declared their confidence
+that she would at once give such orders to the inquisitors and
+magistrates that prosecutions for religious matters should cease, until
+the King's further pleasure should be declared. They professed themselves
+desirous of maintaining whatever regulations should be thereafter
+established by his Majesty, with the advice and consent of the
+states-general, for the security of the ancient religion, and promised to
+conduct themselves generally in such wise that her Highness would have
+every reason to be satisfied with them. They, moreover, requested that
+the Duchess would cause the Petition to be printed in authentic form by
+the government printer.
+
+The admission that the confederates would maintain the ancient religion
+had been obtained, as Margaret informed her brother, through the
+dexterous management of Hoogstraaten, without suspicion on the part of
+the petitioners that the proposition for such a declaration came from
+her.
+
+The Duchess replied by word of mouth to the second address thus made to
+her by the confederates, that she could not go beyond the Apostille which
+she had put on record. She had already caused letters for the inquisitors
+and magistrates to be drawn up. The minutes for those instructions should
+be laid before the confederates by Count Hoogstraaten and Secretary
+Berty. As for the printing of their petition, she was willing to grant
+their demand, and would give orders to that effect.
+
+The gentlemen having received this answer, retired into the great hall.
+After a few minutes' consultation, however, they returned to the council
+chamber, where the Seigneur d'Esquerdes, one of their number, addressed a
+few parting words, in the name of his associates, to the Regent;
+concluding with a request that she would declare, the confederates to
+have done no act, and made no demonstration, inconsistent with their duty
+and with a perfect respect for his Majesty.
+
+To this demand the Duchess answered somewhat drily that she could not be
+judge in such a cause. Time and their future deeds, she observed, could
+only bear witness as to their purposes. As for declarations from her,
+they must be satisfied with the Apostille which they had already
+received.
+
+With this response, somewhat more tart than agreeable, the nobles were
+obliged to content themselves, and they accordingly took their leave.
+
+It must be confessed that they had been disposed to slide rather
+cavalierly over a good deal of ground towards the great object which they
+had in view. Certainly the petitio principii was a main feature of their
+logic. They had, in their second address, expressed perfect confidence as
+to two very considerable concessions. The Duchess was practically to
+suspend the inquisition, although she had declared herself without
+authority for that purpose, The King, who claimed, de jure and de facto,
+the whole legislative power, was thenceforth to make laws on religious
+matters by and with the consent of the states-general. Certainly, these
+ends were very laudable, and if a civil and religious revolution could
+have been effected by a few gentlemen going to court in fine clothes to
+present a petition, and by sitting down to a tremendous banquet
+afterwards, Brederode and his associates were the men to accomplish the
+task. Unfortunately, a sea of blood and long years of conflict lay
+between the nation and the promised land, which for a moment seemed so
+nearly within reach.
+
+Meantime the next important step in Brederode's eyes was a dinner. He
+accordingly invited the confederates to a magnificent repast which he had
+ordered to be prepared in the Culemburg mansion. Three hundred guests sat
+down, upon the 8th of April, to this luxurious banquet, which was
+destined to become historical.
+
+The board glittered with silver and gold. The wine circulated with more
+than its usual rapidity among the band of noble Bacchanals, who were
+never weary of drinking the healths of Brederode, of Orange, and of
+Egmont. It was thought that the occasion imperiously demanded an
+extraordinary carouse, and the political events of the past three days
+lent an additional excitement to the wine. There was an earnest
+discussion as to an appropriate name to be given to their confederacy.
+Should they call themselves the "Society of Concord," the restorers of
+lost liberty, or by what other attractive title should the league be
+baptized? Brederode was, however, already prepared to settle the
+question. He knew the value of a popular and original name; he possessed
+the instinct by which adroit partisans in every age have been accustomed
+to convert the reproachful epithets of their opponents into watchwords of
+honor, and he had already made his preparations for a startling
+theatrical effect. Suddenly, amid the din of voices, he arose, with all
+his rhetorical powers at command: He recounted to the company the
+observations which the Seigneur de Berlaymont was reported to have made
+to the Duchess, upon the presentation of the Request, and the name which
+he had thought fit to apply to them collectively. Most of the gentlemen
+then heard the memorable sarcasm for the first time. Great was the
+indignation of all that the state councillor should have dared to
+stigmatize as beggars a band of gentlemen with the best blood of the land
+in their veins. Brederode, on the contrary, smoothing their anger,
+assured them with good humor that nothing could be more fortunate. "They
+call us beggars!" said he; "let us accept the name. We will contend with
+the inquisition, but remain loyal to the King, even till compelled to
+wear the beggar's sack."
+
+He then beckoned to one of his pages, who brought him a leathern wallet,
+such as was worn at that day by professional mendicants, together with a
+large wooden bowl, which also formed part of their regular appurtenances.
+Brederode immediately hung the wallet around his neck, filled the bowl
+with wine, lifted it with both hands, and drained it at a draught. "Long
+live the beggars!" he cried, as he wiped his beard and set the bowl down.
+"Vivent les gueulx." Then for the first time, from the lips of those
+reckless nobles rose the famous, cry, which was so often to ring over
+land and sea, amid blazing cities, on blood-stained decks, through the
+smoke and carnage of many a stricken field. The humor of Brederode was
+hailed with deafening shouts of applause. The Count then threw the wallet
+around the neck of his nearest neighbor, and handed him the wooden bawl.
+Each guest, in turn, donned the mendicant's knapsack. Pushing aside his
+golden goblet, each filled the beggars' bowl to the brim, and drained it
+to the beggars' health. Roars of laughter, and shouts of "Vivent les
+gueulx" shook the walls of the stately mansion, as they were doomed never
+to shake again. The shibboleth was invented. The conjuration which they
+had been anxiously seeking was found. Their enemies had provided them
+with a spell, which was to prove, in after days, potent enough to start a
+spirit from palace or hovel, forest or wave, as the deeds of the "wild
+beggars," the "wood beggars," and the "beggars of the sea" taught Philip
+at last to understand the nation which he had driven to madness.
+
+When the wallet and bowl had made the circuit of the table, they were
+suspended to a pillar in the hall. Each of the company in succession then
+threw some salt into his goblet, and, placing himself under these symbols
+of the brotherhood, repeated a jingling distich, produced impromptu for
+the occasion.
+
+   By this salt, by this bread, by this wallet we swear,
+   These beggars ne'er will change, though all the world should stare.
+
+This ridiculous ceremony completed the rites by which the confederacy
+received its name; but the banquet was by no means terminated. The uproar
+became furious. The younger and more reckless nobles abandoned themselves
+to revelry, which would have shamed heathen Saturnalia. They renewed to
+each other, every moment, their vociferous oaths of fidelity to the
+common cause, drained huge beakers to the beggars' health, turned their
+caps and doublets inside out, danced upon chairs and tables. Several
+addressed each other as Lord Abbot, or Reverend Prior, of this or that
+religious institution, thus indicating the means by which some of them
+hoped to mend their broken fortunes.
+
+While the tumult was at its height, the Prince of Orange with Counts Horn
+and Egmont entered the apartment. They had been dining quietly with
+Mansfeld, who was confined to his house with an inflamed eye, and they
+were on their way to the council chamber, where the sessions were now
+prolonged nightly to a late hour. Knowing that Hoogstraaten, somewhat
+against his will, had been induced to be present at the banquet, they had
+come round by the way of Culemburg House, to induce him to retire. They
+were also disposed, if possible, to abridge the festivities which their
+influence would have been powerless to prevent.
+
+These great nobles, as soon as they made their appearance, were
+surrounded by a crew of "beggars," maddened and dripping with their
+recent baptism of wine, who compelled them to drink a cup amid shouts of
+"Vivent le roi et les gueulx!" The meaning of this cry they of course
+could not understand, for even those who had heard Berlaymont's
+contemptuous remarks, might not remember the exact term which he had
+used, and certainly could not be aware of the importance to which it had
+just been elevated. As for Horn, he disliked and had long before
+quarrelled with Brederode, had prevented many persons from signing the
+Compromise, and, although a guest at that time of Orange, was in the
+habit of retiring to bed before supper, to avoid the company of many who
+frequented the house. Yet his presence for a few moments, with the best
+intentions, at the conclusion of this famous banquet, was made one of the
+most deadly charges which were afterwards drawn up against him by the
+Crown. The three seigniors refused to be seated, and remained but for a
+moment, "the length of a Miserere," taking with them Hoogstraaten as they
+retired. They also prevailed upon the whole party to break up at the same
+time, so that their presence had served at least to put a conclusion to
+the disgraceful riot. When they arrived at the council chamber they
+received the thanks of the Duchess for what they had done.
+
+Such was the first movement made by the members of the Compromise. Was it
+strange that Orange should feel little affinity with such companions? Had
+he not reason to hesitate, if the sacred cause of civil and religious
+liberty could only be maintained by these defenders and with such
+assistance?
+
+The "beggars" did not content themselves with the name alone of the
+time-honored fraternity of Mendicants in which they had enrolled
+themselves. Immediately after the Culemburg banquet, a costume for the
+confederacy was decided upon.
+
+These young gentlemen discarding gold lace and velvet, thought it
+expedient to array themselves in doublets and hose of ashen grey, with
+short cloaks of the same color, all of the coarsest materials. They
+appeared in this guise in the streets, with common felt hats on their
+heads, and beggars' pouches and bowls at their sides. They caused also
+medals of lead and copper to be struck, bearing upon one side the head of
+Philip; upon the reverse, two hands clasped within a wallet, with the
+motto, "Faithful to the King, even to wearing the beggar's sack." These
+badges they wore around their necks, or as buttons to their hats. As a
+further distinction they shaved their beards close, excepting the
+moustachios, which were left long and pendent in the Turkish
+fashion,--that custom, as it seemed, being an additional characteristic
+of Mendicants.
+
+Very soon after these events the nobles of the league dispersed from the
+capital to their various homes. Brederode rode out of Brussels at the
+head of a band of cavaliers, who saluted the concourse of applauding
+spectators with a discharge of their pistols. Forty-three gentlemen
+accompanied him to Antwerp, where he halted for a night. The Duchess had
+already sent notice to the magistrates of that city of his intended
+visit, and warned them to have an eye upon his proceedings. "The great
+beggar," as Hoogstraaten called him, conducted himself, however, with as
+much propriety as could be expected. Four or five thousand of the
+inhabitants thronged about the hotel where he had taken up his quarters.
+He appeared at a window with his wooden bowl, filled with wine, in his
+hands, and his wallet at his side. He assured the multitude that he was
+ready to die to defend the good people of Antwerp and of all the
+Netherlands against the edicts and the inquisition. Meantime he drank
+their healths, and begged all who accepted the pledge to hold up their
+hands. The populace, highly amused, held up and clapped their hands as
+honest Brederode drained his bowl, and were soon afterwards persuaded to
+retire in great good humor.
+
+These proceedings were all chronicled and transmitted to Madrid. It was
+also both publicly reported and secretly registered, that Brederode had
+eaten capons and other meat at Antwerp, upon Good Friday, which happened
+to be the day of his visit to that city. He denied the charge, however;
+with ludicrous vehemence. "They who have told Madame that we ate meat in
+Antwerp," he wrote to Count Louis, "have lied wickedly and miserably,
+twenty-four feet down in their throats." He added that his nephew,
+Charles Mansfeld, who, notwithstanding the indignant prohibition of his
+father, had assisted of the presentation of the Request, and was then in
+his uncle's company at Antwerp, had ordered a capon, which Brederode had
+countermanded. "They told me afterwards," said he, "that my nephew had
+broiled a sausage in his chamber. I suppose that he thought himself in
+Spain, where they allow themselves such dainties."
+
+Let it not be thought that these trifles are beneath the dignity of
+history. Matters like these filled the whole soul of Philip, swelled the
+bills of indictment for thousands of higher and better men than
+Brederode, and furnished occupation as well for secret correspondents and
+spies as for the most dignified functionaries of Government. Capons or
+sausages on Good Friday, the Psalms of Clement Marot, the Sermon on the
+Mount in the vernacular, led to the rack, the gibbet, and the stake, but
+ushered in a war against the inquisition which was to last for eighty
+years. Brederode was not to be the hero of that party which he disgraced
+by his buffoonery. Had he lived, he might, perhaps, like many of his
+confederates, have redeemed, by his bravery in the field, a character
+which his orgies had rendered despicable. He now left Antwerp for the
+north of Holland, where, as he soon afterwards reported to Count Louis,
+"the beggars were as numerous as the sands on the seashore."
+
+His "nephew Charles," two months afterwards, obeyed his father's
+injunction, and withdrew formally from the confederacy.
+
+Meantime the rumor had gone abroad that the Request of the nobles had
+already produced good fruit, that the edicts were to be mitigated, the
+inquisition abolished, liberty of conscience eventually to prevail. "Upon
+these reports," says a contemporary, "all the vermin of exiles and
+fugitives for religion, as well as those who had kept in concealment,
+began to lift up their heads and thrust forth their horns." It was known
+that Margaret of Parma had ordered the inquisitors and magistrates to
+conduct themselves "modestly and discreetly." It was known that the privy
+council was hard at work upon the project for "moderating" the edicts.
+Modestly and discreetly, Margaret of Parma, almost immediately after
+giving these orders, and while the "moderation" was still in the hands of
+the lawyers, informed her brother that she had given personal attention
+to the case of a person who had snatched the holy wafer from the priest's
+hand at Oudenarde. This "quidam," as she called him--for his name was
+beneath the cognizance of an Emperor's bastard daughter--had by her
+orders received rigorous and exemplary justice. And what was the
+"rigorous and exemplary justice" thus inflicted upon the "quidam?" The
+procurator of the neighboring city of Tournay has enabled us to answer.
+The young man, who was a tapestry weaver, Hans Tiskaen by name, had, upon
+the 30th May, thrown the holy wafer upon the ground. For this crime,
+which was the same as that committed on Christmas-day of the previous
+year by Bertrand le Blas, at Tournay, he now met with a similar although
+not quite so severe a punishment. Having gone quietly home after doing
+the deed, he was pursued, arrested, and upon the Saturday ensuing taken
+to the market-place of Oudenarde. Here the right hand with which he had
+committed the offence was cut off, and he was then fastened to the stake
+and burned to death over a slow fire. He was fortunately not more than a
+quarter of an hour in torment, but he persisted in his opinions, and
+called on God for support to his last breath.
+
+This homely tragedy was enacted at Oudenarde, the birth place of Duchess
+Margaret. She was the daughter of the puissant Charles the Fifth, but her
+mother was only the daughter of a citizen of Oudenarde; of a "quidam"
+like the nameless weaver who had thus been burned by her express order.
+It was not to be supposed, however, that the circumstance could operate
+in so great a malefactor's favor. Moreover, at the same moment, she sent
+orders that a like punishment should be inflicted upon another person
+then in a Flemish prison, for the crime of anabaptism.
+
+The privy council, assisted by thirteen knights of the Fleece, had been
+hard at work, and the result of their wisdom was at last revealed in a
+"moderation" consisting of fifty-three articles.
+
+What now was the substance of those fifty-three articles, so painfully
+elaborated by Viglius, so handsomely drawn up into shape by Councillor
+d'Assonleville? Simply to substitute the halter for the fagot. After
+elimination of all verbiage, this fact was the only residuum. It was most
+distinctly laid down that all forms of religion except the Roman Catholic
+were forbidden; that no public or secret conventicles were to be allowed;
+that all heretical writings were to be suppressed; that all curious
+inquiries into the Scriptures were to be prohibited. Persons who
+infringed these regulations were divided into two classes--the misleaders
+and the misled. There was an affectation of granting mercy to persons in
+the second category, while death was denounced upon those composing the
+first. It was merely an affectation; for the rambling statute was so open
+in all its clauses, that the Juggernaut car of persecution could be
+driven through the whole of them, whenever such a course should seem
+expedient. Every man or woman in the Netherlands might be placed in the
+list of the misleaders, at the discretion of the officials. The pretended
+mercy to the misguided was a mere delusion.
+
+The superintendents, preachers, teachers, ministers, sermon-makers,
+deacons, and other officers, were to be executed with the halter, with
+confiscation of their whole property. So much was very plain. Other
+heretics, however, who would abjure their heresy before the bishop, might
+be pardoned for the first offence, but if obstinate, were to be banished.
+This seemed an indication of mercy, at least to the repentant criminals.
+But who were these "other" heretics? All persons who discussed religious
+matters were to be put to death. All persons, not having studied theology
+at a "renowned university," who searched and expounded the Scriptures,
+were to be put to death. All persons in whose houses any act of the
+perverse religion should be committed, were to be put to death. All
+persons who harbored or protected ministers and teachers of any sect,
+were to be put to death. All the criminals thus carefully enumerated were
+to be executed, whether repentant or not. If, however, they abjured their
+errors, they were to be beheaded instead of being strangled. Thus it was
+obvious that almost any heretic might be brought to the halter at a
+moment's notice.
+
+Strictly speaking, the idea of death by the halter or the axe was less
+shocking to the imagination than that of being burned or buried alive. In
+this respect, therefore, the edicts were softened by the proposed
+"Moderation." It would, however, always be difficult to persuade any
+considerable slumber of intelligent persons, that the infliction of a
+violent death, by whatever process, on account of religious opinions, was
+an act of clemency. The Netherlanders were, however, to be persuaded into
+this belief. The draft of the new edict was ostentatiously called the
+"Moderatie," or the "Moderation." It was very natural, therefore, that
+the common people, by a quibble, which is the same in Flemish as in
+English, should call the proposed "Moderation" the "Murderation." The
+rough mother-wit of the people had already characterized and annihilated
+the project, while dull formalists were carrying it through the
+preliminary stages.
+
+A vote in favor of the project having been obtained from the estates of
+Artois, Hainault, and Flanders, the instructions for the envoys; Baron
+Montigny and Marquis Berghen, were made out in conformity to the scheme.
+Egmont had declined the mission, not having reason to congratulate
+himself upon the diplomatic success of his visit to Spain in the
+preceding year. The two nobles who consented to undertake the office were
+persuaded into acceptance sorely against their will. They were aware that
+their political conduct since the King's departure from the country had
+not always been deemed satisfactory at Madrid, but they were, of course,
+far from suspecting the true state of the royal mind. They were both as
+sincere Catholics and as loyal gentlemen as Granvelle, but they were not
+aware how continuously, during a long course of years, that personage had
+represented them to Philip as renegades and rebels. They had maintained
+the constitutional rights of the state, and they had declined to act as
+executioners for the inquisition, but they were yet to learn that such
+demonstrations amounted to high treason.
+
+Montigny departed, on the 29th May, from Brussels. He left the bride to
+whom he had been wedded amid scenes of festivity, the preceding
+autumn--the unborn child who was never to behold its father's face. He
+received warnings in Paris, by which he scorned to profit. The Spanish
+ambassador in that city informed him that Philip's wrath at the recent
+transactions in the Netherlands was high. He was most significantly
+requested, by a leading personage in France, to feign illness, or to take
+refuge in any expedient by which he might avoid the fulfilment of his
+mission. Such hints had no effect in turning him from his course, and he
+proceeded to Madrid, where he arrived on the 17th of June.
+
+His colleague in the mission, Marquis Berghen, had been prevented from
+setting forth at the same time, by an accident which, under the
+circumstances, might almost seem ominous. Walking through the palace
+park, in a place where some gentlemen were playing at pall-mall, he was
+accidentally struck in the leg by a wooden ball. The injury, although
+trifling, produced go much irritation and fever that he was confined to
+his bed for several weeks. It was not until the 1st of July that he was
+able to take his departure from Brussels. Both these unfortunate nobles
+thus went forth to fulfil that dark and mysterious destiny from which the
+veil of three centuries has but recently been removed.
+
+Besides a long historical discourse, in eighteen chapters, delivered by
+way of instruction to the envoys, Margaret sent a courier beforehand with
+a variety of intelligence concerning the late events. Alonzo del Canto,
+one of Philip's spies in the Netherlands, also wrote to inform the King
+that the two ambassadors were the real authors of all the troubles then
+existing in the country. Cardinal Granvelle, too, renewed his previous
+statements in a confidential communication to his Majesty, adding that no
+persons more appropriate could have been selected than Berghen and
+Montigny, for they knew better than any one else the state of affairs in
+which they had borne the principal part. Nevertheless, Montigny, upon his
+arrival in Madrid on the 17th of June, was received by Philip with much
+apparent cordiality, admitted immediately to an audience, and assured in
+the strongest terms that there was no dissatisfaction in the royal mind
+against the seigniors, whatever false reports might be circulated to that
+effect. In other respects, the result of this and of his succeeding
+interviews with the monarch was sufficiently meagre.
+
+It could not well be otherwise. The mission of the envoys was an
+elaborate farce to introduce a terrible tragedy. They were sent to
+procure from Philip the abolition of the inquisition and the moderation
+of the edicts. At the very moment, however, of all these legislative and
+diplomatic arrangements, Margaret of Parma was in possession of secret
+letters from Philip, which she was charged to deliver to the Archbishop
+of Sorrento, papal nuncio at the imperial court, then on a special visit
+to Brussels. This ecclesiastic had come to the Netherlands ostensibly to
+confer with the Prince of Orange upon the affairs of his principality, to
+remonstrate with Count Culemburg, and to take measures for the
+reformation of the clergy. The real object of his mission, however, was
+to devise means for strengthening the inquisition and suppressing heresy
+in the provinces. Philip, at whose request he had come, had charged him
+by no means to divulge the secret, as the King was anxious to have it
+believed that the ostensible was the only business which the prelate had
+to perform in the country. Margaret accordingly delivered to him the
+private letters, in which Philip avowed his determination to maintain the
+inquisition and the edicts in all their rigor, but enjoined profound
+secrecy upon the subject. The Duchess, therefore, who knew the face of
+the cards, must have thought it a superfluous task to continue the game,
+which to Philip's cruel but procrastinating temperament was perhaps a
+pleasurable excitement.
+
+The scheme for mitigating the edicts by the substitution of strangling
+for burning, was not destined therefore far much success either in Spain
+or in the provinces; but the people by whom the next great movement was
+made in the drama of the revolt, conducted themselves in a manner to
+shame the sovereign who oppressed, and the riotous nobles who had
+undertaken to protect their liberties.
+
+At this very moment, in the early summer of 1566, many thousands of
+burghers, merchants, peasants, and gentlemen, were seen mustering and
+marching through the fields of every province, armed with arquebus,
+javelin, pike and broadsword. For what purpose were these gatherings?
+Only to hear sermons and to sing hymns in the open air, as it was
+unlawful to profane the churches with such rites. This was the first
+great popular phase of the Netherland rebellion. Notwithstanding the
+edicts and the inquisition with their daily hecatombs, notwithstanding
+the special publication at this time throughout the country by the
+Duchess Regent that all the sanguinary statutes concerning religion were
+in as great vigor as ever, notwithstanding that Margaret offered a reward
+of seven hundred crowns to the man who would bring her a preacher--dead
+or alive,--the popular thirst for the exercises of the reformed religion
+could no longer be slaked at the obscure and hidden fountains where their
+priests had so long privately ministered.
+
+Partly emboldened by a temporary lull in the persecution, partly
+encouraged by the presentation of the Request and by the events to which
+it had given rise, the Reformers now came boldly forth from their lurking
+places and held their religious meetings in the light of day. The
+consciousness of numbers and of right had brought the conviction of
+strength. The audacity of the Reformers was wonderful to the mind of
+President Viglius, who could find no language strong enough with which to
+characterize and to deplore such blasphemous conduct. The field-preaching
+seemed in the eyes of government to spread with the rapidity of a
+malignant pestilence. The miasma flew upon the wings of the wind. As
+early as 1562, there had been public preaching in the neighborhood of
+Ypres. The executions which followed, however, had for the time
+suppressed the practice both in that place as well as throughout Flanders
+and the rest of the provinces. It now broke forth as by one impulse from
+one end of the country to the other. In the latter part of June, Hermann
+Stryoker or Modet, a monk who had renounced his vows to become one of the
+most popular preachers in the Reformed Church, addressed a congregation
+of seven or eight thousand persons in the neighborhood of Ghent. Peter
+Dathenus, another unfrocked monk, preached at various places in West
+Flanders, with great effect. A man endowed with a violent, stormy
+eloquence, intemperate as most zealots, he was then rendering better
+services to the cause of the Reformation than he was destined to do at
+later periods.
+
+But apostate priests were not the only preachers. To the ineffable
+disgust of the conservatives in Church and State, there were men with
+little education, utterly devoid of Hebrew, of lowly station--hatters,
+curriers, tanners, dyers, and the like, who began to preach also;
+remembering, unseasonably perhaps, that the early disciples, selected by
+the founder of Christianity, had not all been doctors of theology, with
+diplomas from a "renowned university." But if the nature of such men were
+subdued to what it worked in, that charge could not be brought against
+ministers with the learning and accomplishments of Ambrose Wille,
+Marnier, Guy de Bray, or Francis Junius, the man whom Scaliger called the
+"greatest of all theologians since the days of the apostles." An
+aristocratic sarcasm could not be levelled against Peregrine de la
+Grange, of a noble family in Provence, with the fiery blood of southern
+France in his veins, brave as his nation, learned, eloquent,
+enthusiastic, who galloped to his field-preaching on horseback, and fired
+a pistol-shot as a signal for his congregation to give attention.
+
+On the 28th of June, 1566, at eleven o'clock at night, there was an
+assemblage of six thousand people near Tournay, at the bridge of
+Ernonville, to hear a sermon from Ambrose Wille, a man who had studied
+theology in Geneva, at the feet of Calvin, and who now, with a special
+price upon his head,--was preaching the doctrines he had learned. Two
+days afterwards, ten thousand people assembled at the same spot, to hear
+Peregrine de la Grange. Governor Moulbais thundered forth a proclamation
+from the citadel, warning all men that the edicts were as rigorous as
+ever, and that every man, woman, or child who went to these preachings,
+was incurring the penalty of death. The people became only the more
+ardent and excited. Upon Sunday, the seventh of July; twenty thousand
+persons assembled at the same bridge to hear Ambrose Wille. One man in
+three was armed. Some had arquebuses, others pistols, pikes, swords,
+pitchforks, poniards, clubs. The preacher, for whose apprehension a fresh
+reward had been offered, was escorted to his pulpit by a hundred mounted
+troopers. He begged his audience not to be scared from the word of God by
+menace; assured them that although but a poor preacher himself, he held a
+divine commission; that he had no fear of death; that, should he fall,
+there were many better than he to supply his place, and fifty thousand
+men to avenge his murder.
+
+The Duchess sent forth proclamations by hundreds. She ordered the instant
+suppression of these armed assemblies and the arrest of the preachers.
+But of what avail were proclamations against such numbers with weapons in
+their hands. Why irritate to madness these hordes of enthusiasts, who
+were now entirely pacific, and who marched back to the city, after
+conclusion of divine service, with perfect decorum? All classes of the
+population went eagerly to the sermons. The gentry of the place, the rich
+merchants, the notables, as well as the humbler artisans and laborers,
+all had received the infection. The professors of the Reformed religion
+outnumbered the Catholics by five or six to one. On Sundays and other
+holidays, during the hours of service, Tournay was literally emptied of
+its inhabitants. The streets were as silent as if war or pestilence had
+swept the place. The Duchess sent orders, but she sent no troops. The
+trained-bands of the city, the cross-bow-men of St. Maurice, the archers
+of St. Sebastian, the sword-players of St. Christopher, could not be
+ordered from Tournay to suppress the preaching, for they had all gone to
+the preaching themselves. How idle, therefore; to send peremptory orders
+without a matchlock to enforce the command.
+
+Throughout Flanders similar scenes were enacted. The meetings were
+encampments, for the Reformers now came to their religious services armed
+to the teeth, determined, if banished from the churches, to defend their
+right to the fields. Barricades of upturned wagons, branches, and planks,
+were thrown up around the camps. Strong guards of mounted men were
+stationed at every avenue. Outlying scouts gave notice of approaching
+danger, and guided the faithful into the enclosure. Pedlers and hawkers
+plied the trade upon which the penalty of death was fixed, and sold the
+forbidden hymn-books to all who chose to purchase. A strange and
+contradictory spectacle! An army of criminals doing deeds which could
+only be expiated at the stake; an entrenched rebellion, bearding the
+government with pike, matchlock, javelin and barricade, and all for no
+more deadly purpose than to listen to the precepts of the pacific Jesus.
+
+Thus the preaching spread through the Walloon provinces to the northern
+Netherlands. Towards the end of July, an apostate monk, of singular
+eloquence, Peter Gabriel by name, was announced to preach at Overeen near
+Harlem. This was the first field-meeting which had taken place in
+Holland. The people were wild with enthusiasm; the authorities beside
+themselves with apprehension. People from the country flocked into the
+town by thousands. The other cities were deserted, Harlem was filled to
+overflowing. Multitudes encamped upon the ground the night before. The
+magistrates ordered the gates to be kept closed in the morning till long
+after the usual hour. It was of no avail. Bolts and bars were but small
+impediments to enthusiasts who had travelled so many miles on foot or
+horseback to listen to a sermon. They climbed the walls, swam the moat
+and thronged to the place of meeting long before the doors had been
+opened. When these could no longer be kept closed without a conflict, for
+which the magistrates were not prepared, the whole population poured out
+of the city with a single impulse. Tens of thousands were assembled upon
+the field. The bulwarks were erected as usual, the guards were posted,
+the necessary precautions taken. But upon this occasion, and in that
+region there was but little danger to be apprehended. The multitude of
+Reformers made the edicts impossible, so long as no foreign troops were
+there to enforce them. The congregation was encamped and arranged in an
+orderly manner. The women, of whom there were many, were placed next the
+pulpit, which, upon this occasion, was formed of a couple of spears
+thrust into the earth, sustaining a cross-piece, against which the
+preacher might lean his back. The services commenced with the singing of
+a psalm by the whole vast assemblage. Clement Marot's verses, recently
+translated by Dathenus, were then new and popular. The strains of the
+monarch minstrel, chanted thus in their homely but nervous mother tongue
+by a multitude who had but recently learned that all the poetry and
+rapture of devotion were not irrevocably coffined with a buried language,
+or immured in the precincts of a church, had never produced a more
+elevating effect. No anthem from the world-renowned organ in that ancient
+city ever awakened more lofty emotions than did those ten thousand human
+voices ringing from the grassy meadows in that fervid midsummer noon.
+When all was silent again, the preacher rose; a little, meagre man, who
+looked as if he might rather melt away beneath the blazing sunshine of
+July, than hold the multitude enchained four uninterrupted hours long, by
+the magic of his tongue. His text was the 8th, 9th, and 10th verses of
+the second chapter of Ephesians; and as the slender monk spoke to his
+simple audience of God's grace, and of faith in Jesus, who had descended
+from above to save the lowliest and the most abandoned, if they would put
+their trust in Him, his hearers were alternately exalted with fervor or
+melted into tears. He prayed for all conditions of men--for themselves,
+their friends, their enemies, for the government which had persecuted
+them, for the King whose face was turned upon them in anger. At times,
+according to one who was present, not a dry eye was to be seen in the
+crowd. When the minister had finished, he left his congregation abruptly,
+for he had to travel all night in order to reach Alkmaar, where he was to
+preach upon the following day.
+
+By the middle of July the custom was established outside all the
+principal cities. Camp-meetings were held in some places; as, for
+instance, in the neighborhood of Antwerp, where the congregations
+numbered often fifteen thousand and on some occasions were estimated at
+between twenty and thirty thousand persons at a time; "very many of
+them," said an eye-witness, "the best and wealthiest in the town."
+
+The sect to which most of these worshippers belonged was that of Calvin.
+In Antwerp there were Lutherans, Calvinists, and Anabaptists. The
+Lutherans were the richest sect, but the Calvinists the most numerous and
+enthusiastic. The Prince of Orange at this moment was strenuously opposed
+both to Calvinism and Anabaptism, but inclining to Lutheranism. Political
+reasons at this epoch doubtless influenced his mind in religious matters.
+The aid of the Lutheran princes of Germany, who detested the doctrines of
+Geneva, could hardly be relied upon for the Netherlanders, unless they
+would adapt the Confession of Augsburg. The Prince knew that the Emperor,
+although inclined to the Reformation, was bitterly averse to Calvinism,
+and he was, therefore, desirous of healing the schism which existed in
+the general Reformed Church. To accomplish this, however, would be to
+gain a greater victory over the bigotry which was the prevailing
+characteristic of the age than perhaps could be expected. The Prince,
+from the first moment of his abandoning the ancient doctrines, was
+disposed to make the attempt.
+
+The Duchess ordered the magistrates of Antwerp to put down these
+mass-meetings by means of the guild-militia. They replied that at an
+earlier day such a course might have been practicable, but that the sects
+had become quite too numerous for coercion. If the authorities were able
+to prevent the exercises of the Reformed religion within the city, it
+would be as successful a result as could be expected. To prevent the
+preaching outside the walls, by means of the bourgher force, was an utter
+impossibility. The dilatoriness of the Sovereign placed the Regent in a
+frightful dilemma, but it was sufficiently obvious that the struggle
+could not long be deferred. "There will soon be a hard nut to crack,"
+wrote Count Louis. "The King will never grant the preaching; the people
+will never give it up, if it cost them their necks. There's a hard puff
+coming upon the country before long." The Duchess was not yet authorized
+to levy troops, and she feared that if she commenced such operations, she
+should perhaps offend the King, while she at the same time might provoke
+the people into more effective military preparations than her own. She
+felt that for one company levied by her, the sectaries could raise ten.
+Moreover, she was entirely without money, even if she should otherwise
+think it expedient to enrol an army. Meantime she did what she could with
+"public prayers, processions, fasts, sermons, exhortations," and other
+ecclesiastical machinery which she ordered the bishops to put in motion.
+Her situation was indeed sufficiently alarming.
+
+Egmont, whom many of the sectaries hoped to secure as their leader in
+case of a civil war, showed no disposition to encourage such hopes, but
+as little to take up arms against the people. He went to Flanders, where
+the armed assemblages for field-preaching had become so numerous that a
+force of thirty or forty thousand men might be set on foot almost at a
+moment's warning, and where the conservatives, in a state of alarm,
+desired the presence of their renowned governor. The people of Antwerp,
+on their part, demanded William of Orange. The Prince, who was hereditary
+burgrave of the city, had at first declined the invitation of the
+magistracy. The Duchess united her request with the universal prayer of
+the inhabitants. Events meantime had been thickening, and suspicion
+increasing. Meghen had been in the city for several days, much to the
+disgust of the Reformers, by whom he was hated. Aremberg was expected to
+join him, and it was rumored that measures were secretly in progress
+under the auspices of these two leading cardinalists, for introducing a
+garrison, together with great store of ammunition, into the city. On the
+other hand, the "great beggar," Brederode, had taken up his quarters also
+in Antwerp; had been daily entertaining a crowd of roystering nobles at
+his hotel, previously to a second political demonstration, which will
+soon be described, and was constantly parading the street, followed by a
+swarm of adherents in the beggar livery. The sincere Reformers were made
+nearly as uncomfortable by the presence of their avowed friends, as by
+that of Meghen and Aremberg, and earnestly desired to be rid of them all.
+Long and anxious were the ponderings of the magistrates upon all these
+subjects. It was determined, at last, to send a fresh deputation to
+Brussels, requesting the Regent to order the departure of Meghen,
+Aremberg, and Brederode from Antwerp; remonstrating with her against any
+plan she might be supposed to entertain of sending mercenary troops into
+the city; pledging the word of the senate to keep the peace, meanwhile,
+by their regular force; and above all, imploring her once more, in the
+most urgent terms, to send thither the burgrave, as the only man who was
+capable of saving the city from the calamities into which it was so
+likely to fall.
+
+The Prince of Orange being thus urgently besought, both by the government
+of Antwerp, the inhabitants of that city, and by the Regent herself, at
+last consented to make the visit so earnestly demanded. On the 13th July,
+he arrived in Antwerp. The whole city was alive with enthusiasm. Half its
+population seemed to have come forth from the gates to bid him welcome,
+lining the road for miles. The gate through which he was to pass, the
+ramparts, the roofs of the houses were packed close, with expectant and
+eager faces. At least thirty thousand persons had assembled to welcome
+their guest. A long cavalcade of eminent citizens had come as far as
+Berghen to meet him and to escort him into the city. Brederode, attended
+by some of the noble confederates, rode at the head of the procession. As
+they encountered the Prince, a discharge of pistol-shots was fired by way
+of salute, which was the signal for a deafening shout from the assembled
+multitude. The crowd thronged about the Prince as he advanced, calling
+him their preserver, their father, their only hope. Wild shouts of
+welcome rose upon every side, as he rode through the town, mingled with
+occasional vociferations of "long life to the beggars." These party cries
+were instantly and sharply rebuked by Orange, who expressed, in
+Brederode's presence, the determination that he would make men unlearn
+that mischievous watchword. He had, moreover, little relish at that time
+for the tumultuous demonstrations of attachment to his person, which were
+too fervid to be censured, but too unseasonable to be approved. When the
+crowd had at last been made to understand that their huzzas were
+distasteful to the Prince, most of the multitude consented to disperse,
+feeling, however, a relief from impending danger in the presence of the
+man to whom they instinctively looked as their natural protector.
+
+The senators had come forth in a body to receive the burgrave and escort
+him to the hotel prepared for him. Arrived there, he lost no time in
+opening the business which had brought him to Antwerp. He held at once a
+long consultation with the upper branch of the government. Afterwards,
+day after day, he honestly, arduously, sagaciously labored to restore the
+public tranquillity. He held repeated deliberations with every separate
+portion of the little commonwealth, the senate, the council of ancients,
+the corporation of ward-masters, the deans of trades. Nor did he confine
+his communication to these organized political bodies alone. He had
+frequent interviews with the officers of the military associations, with
+the foreign merchant companies, with the guilds of "Rhetoric." The
+chambers of the "Violet" and the "Marigold" were not too frivolous or
+fantastic to be consulted by one who knew human nature and the
+constitution of Netherland society so well as did the Prince. Night and
+day he labored with all classes of citizens to bring about a better
+understanding, and to establish mutual confidence. At last by his efforts
+tranquillity was restored. The broad-council having been assembled, it
+was decided that the exercise of the Reformed religion should be excluded
+from the city, but silently tolerated in the suburbs, while an armed
+force was to be kept constantly in readiness to suppress all attempts at
+insurrection. The Prince had desired, that twelve hundred men should be
+enlisted and paid by the city, so that at least a small number of
+disciplined troops might be ready at a moment's warning; but he found it
+impossible to carry the point with the council. The magistrates were
+willing to hold themselves responsible for the peace of the city, but
+they would have no mercenaries.
+
+Thus, during the remainder of July and the early part of August, was
+William of Orange strenuously occupied in doing what should have been the
+Regent's work. He was still regarded both by the Duchess and by the
+Calvinist party--although having the sympathies of neither,--as the only
+man in the Netherlands who could control the rising tide of a national
+revolt. He took care, said his enemies, that his conduct at Antwerp
+should have every appearance of loyalty; but they insinuated that he was
+a traitor from the beginning, who was insidiously fomenting the troubles
+which he appeared to rebuke. No one doubted his genius, and all felt or
+affected admiration at its display upon this critical occasion. "The
+Prince of Orange is doing very great and notable services at Antwerp to
+the King and to the country," said Assonleville. "That seignior is very
+skilful in managing great affairs." Margaret of Parma wrote letters to
+him fixed with the warmest gratitude, expressions of approbation, and of
+wishes that he could both remain in Antwerp and return to assist her in
+Brussels. Philip, too, with his own pen, addressed him a letter, in which
+implicit confidence in the Prince's character was avowed, all suspicion
+on the part of the Sovereign indignantly repudiated, earnest thanks for
+his acceptance of the Antwerp mission uttered, and a distinct refusal
+given to the earnest request made by Orange to resign his offices. The
+Prince read or listened to all this commendation, and valued it exactly
+at its proper worth. He knew it to be pure grimace. He was no more
+deceived by it than if he had read the letter sent by Margaret to Philip,
+a few weeks later, in which she expressed herself as "thoroughly aware
+that it was the intention of Orange to take advantage of the impending
+tumults, for the purpose of conquering the provinces and of dividing the
+whole territory among himself and friends." Nothing could be more utterly
+false than so vile and ridiculous a statement.
+
+The course of the Prince had hitherto been, and was still, both
+consistent and loyal. He was proceeding step by step to place the monarch
+in the wrong, but the only art which he was using, was to plant himself
+more firmly upon the right. It was in the monarch's power to convoke the
+assembly of the states-general, so loudly demanded by the whole nation,
+to abolish the inquisition, to renounce persecution, to accept the great
+fact of the Reformation. To do so he must have ceased to be Philip. To
+have faltered in attempting to bring him into that path, the Prince must
+have ceased to be William of Orange. Had he succeeded, there would have
+been no treason and no Republic of Holland. His conduct at the outbreak
+of the Antwerp troubles was firm and sagacious. Even had his duty
+required him to put down the public preaching with peremptory violence,
+he had been furnished with no means to accomplish the purpose. The
+rebellion, if it were one, was already full-grown. It could not be taken
+by the throat and strangled with one hand, however firm.
+
+A report that the High Sheriff of Brabant was collecting troops by
+command of government, in order to attack the Reformers at their
+field-preachings, went far to undo the work already accomplished by the
+Prince. The assemblages swelled again from ten or twelve thousand to
+twenty-five thousand, the men all providing themselves more thoroughly
+with weapons than before. Soon afterwards, the intemperate zeal of
+another individual, armed to the teeth--not, however, like the martial
+sheriff and his forces, with arquebus and javelin, but with the still
+more deadly weapons of polemical theology,--was very near causing a
+general outbreak. A peaceful and not very numerous congregation were
+listening to one of their preachers in a field outside the town. Suddenly
+an unknown individual in plain clothes and with a pragmatical demeanor,
+interrupted the discourse by giving a flat contradiction to some of the
+doctrines advanced. The minister replied by a rebuke, and a reiteration
+of the disputed sentiment.--The stranger, evidently versed in
+ecclesiastical matters, volubly and warmly responded. The preacher, a man
+of humble condition and moderate abilities, made as good show of argument
+as he could, but was evidently no match for his antagonist. He was soon
+vanquished in the wordy warfare. Well he might be, for it appeared that
+the stranger was no less a personage than Peter Rythovius, a doctor of
+divinity, a distinguished pedant of Louvain, a relation of a bishop and
+himself a Church dignitary. This learned professor, quite at home in his
+subject, was easily triumphant, while the poor dissenter, more accustomed
+to elevate the hearts of his hearers than to perplex their heads, sank
+prostrate and breathless under the storm of texts, glosses, and hard
+Hebrew roots with which he was soon overwhelmed. The professor's triumph
+was, however, but short-lived, for the simple-minded congregation, who
+loved their teacher, were enraged that he should be thus confounded.
+Without more ado, therefore, they laid violent hands upon the Quixotic
+knight-errant of the Church, and so cudgelled and belabored him bodily
+that he might perhaps have lost his life in the encounter had he not been
+protected by the more respectable portion of the assembly. These persons,
+highly disapproving the whole proceeding, forcibly rescued him from the
+assailants, and carried him off to town, where the news of the incident
+at once created an uproar. Here he was thrown into prison as a disturber
+of the peace, but in reality that he might be personally secure. The next
+day the Prince of Orange, after administering to him a severe rebuke for
+his ill-timed exhibition of pedantry, released him from confinement, and
+had him conveyed out of the city. "This theologian;" wrote the Prince to
+Duchess Margaret, "would have done better, methinks, to stay at home; for
+I suppose he had no especial orders to perform this piece of work."
+
+Thus, so long as this great statesman could remain in the metropolis, his
+temperate firmness prevented the explosion which had so long been
+expected. His own government of Holland and Zeland, too, especially
+demanded his care. The field-preaching had spread in that region with
+prodigious rapidity. Armed assemblages, utterly beyond the power of the
+civil authorities, were taking place daily in the neighborhood of
+Amsterdam. Yet the Duchess could not allow him to visit his government in
+the north. If he could be spared from Antwerp for a day, it was necessary
+that he should aid her in a fresh complication with the confederated
+nobles in the very midst, therefore, of his Antwerp labors, he had been
+obliged, by Margaret's orders, to meet a committee at Duffel. For in this
+same eventful month of July a great meeting was held by the members of
+the Compromise at St. Trond, in the bishopric of Liege. They came
+together on the thirteenth of the month, and remained assembled till the
+beginning of August. It was a wild, tumultuous convention, numbering some
+fifteen hundred cavaliers, each with his esquires and armed attendants; a
+larger and more important gathering than had yet been held. Brederode and
+Count Louis were the chieftains of the assembly, which, as may be
+supposed from its composition and numbers, was likely to be neither very
+orderly in its demonstrations nor wholesome in its results. It was an
+ill-timed movement. The convention was too large for deliberation, too
+riotous to inspire confidence. The nobles quartered themselves every
+where in the taverns and the farm-houses of the neighborhood, while large
+numbers encamped upon the open fields. There was a constant din of
+revelry and uproar, mingled with wordy warfare, and an occasional
+crossing of swords. It seemed rather like a congress of ancient, savage
+Batavians, assembled in Teutonic fashion to choose a king amid hoarse
+shouting, deep drinking, and the clash of spear and shield, than a
+meeting for a lofty and earnest purpose, by their civilized descendants.
+A crowd of spectators, landlopers, mendicants, daily aggregated
+themselves to the aristocratic assembly, joining, with natural unction,
+in the incessant shout of "Vivent les gueux!" It was impossible that so
+soon after their baptism the self-styled beggars should repudiate all
+connection with the time-honored fraternity in which they had enrolled
+themselves.
+
+The confederates discussed--if an exchange of vociferations could be
+called discussion--principally two points: whether, in case they obtained
+the original objects of their petition, they should pause or move still
+further onward; and whether they should insist upon receiving some pledge
+from the government, that no vengeance should be taken upon them for
+their previous proceedings. Upon both questions, there was much vehemence
+of argument and great difference of opinion. They, moreover, took two
+very rash and very grave resolutions--to guarantee the people against all
+violence on account of their creeds, and to engage a force of German
+soldiery, four thousand horse and forty companies of infantry by, "wart
+geld" or retaining wages. It was evident that these gentlemen were
+disposed to go fast and far. If they had been ready in the spring to
+receive their baptism of wine, the "beggars" were now eager for the
+baptism of blood. At the same time it must be observed that the levies
+which they proposed, not to make, but to have at command, were purely for
+defence. In case the King, as it was thought probable, should visit the
+Netherlands with fire and sword, then there would be a nucleus of
+resistance already formed.
+
+Upon the 18th July, the Prince of Orange, at the earnest request of the
+Regent, met a committee of the confederated nobles at Duffel. Count
+Egmont was associated with him in this duty. The conference was not very
+satisfactory. The deputies from St. Trend, consisting of Brederode,
+Culemburg, and others, exchanged with the two seigniors the old
+arguments. It was urged upon the confederates, that they had made
+themselves responsible for the public tranquillity so long as the Regent
+should hold to her promise; that, as the Duchess had sent two
+distinguished envoys to Madrid, in order to accomplish, if possible, the
+wishes of the nobles, it was their duty to redeem their own pledges; that
+armed assemblages ought to be suppressed by their efforts rather than
+encouraged by their example; and that, if they now exerted themselves
+zealously to check, the tumults, the Duchess was ready to declare, in her
+own-name and that of his Majesty, that the presentation of the Request
+had been beneficial.
+
+The nobles replied that the pledges had become a farce, that the Regent
+was playing them false, that persecution was as fierce as ever, that the
+"Moderation" was a mockery, that the letters recommending "modesty and
+discretion" to the inquisitors had been mere waste paper, that a price
+had been set upon the heads of the preachers as if they had been wild
+beasts, that there were constant threats of invasions from Spain, that
+the convocation of the states-general had been illegally deferred, that
+the people had been driven to despair, and that it was the conduct of
+government, not of the confederates, which had caused the Reformers to
+throw off previous restraint and to come boldly forth by tens of
+thousands into the fields, not to defy their King, but to worship their
+God.
+
+Such, in brief, was the conference of Duffel. In conclusion, a paper was
+drawn up which Brederode carried back to the convention, and which it was
+proposed to submit to the Duchess for her approval. At the end of the
+month, Louis of Nassau was accordingly sent to Brussels, accompanied by
+twelve associates, who were familiarly called his twelve apostles. Here
+he laid before her Highness in council a statement, embodying the views
+of the confederates. In this paper they asserted that they were ever
+ready to mount and ride against a foreign foe, but that they would never
+draw a sword against their innocent countrymen. They maintained that
+their past conduct deserved commendation, and that in requiring letters
+of safe conduct in the names both of the Duchess and of the
+Fleece-knights, they were governed not by a disposition to ask for
+pardon, but by a reluctance without such guarantees to enter into
+stipulations touching the public tranquillity. If, however, they should
+be assured that the intentions of the Regent were amicable and that there
+was no design to take vengeance for the past--if, moreover, she were
+willing to confide in the counsels of Horn, Egmont, and Orange, and to
+take no important measure without their concurrence--if, above all, she
+would convoke the states-general, then, and then only, were the
+confederates willing to exert their energies to preserve peace, to
+restrain popular impetuosity and banish universal despair.
+
+So far Louis of Nassau and his twelve apostles. It must be confessed
+that, whatever might be thought of the justice, there could be but one
+opinion as to the boldness of these views. The Duchess was furious. If
+the language held in April had been considered audacious, certainly this
+new request was, in her own words, "still more bitter to the taste and
+more difficult of digestion." She therefore answered in a very
+unsatisfactory, haughty and ambiguous manner, reserving decision upon
+their propositions till they had been discussed by the state council, and
+intimating that they would also be laid before the Knights of the Fleece,
+who were to hold a meeting upon the 26th of August.
+
+There was some further conversation without any result. Esquerdes
+complained that the confederates were the mark of constant calumny, and
+demanded that the slanderers should be confronted with them and punished.
+"I understand perfectly well," interrupted Margaret, "you wish to take
+justice into your own hands and to be King yourself." It was further
+intimated by these reckless gentlemen, that if they should be driven by
+violence into measures of self-protection, they had already secured
+friends in a certain country. The Duchess, probably astonished at the
+frankness of this statement, is said to have demanded further
+explanations. The confederates replied by observing that they had
+resources both in the provinces and in Germany. The state council decided
+that to accept the propositions of the confederates would be to establish
+a triumvirate at once, and the Duchess wrote to her brother distinctly
+advising against the acceptance of the proposal. The assembly at St.
+Trond was then dissolved, having made violent demonstrations which were
+not followed by beneficial results, and having laid itself open to
+various suspicions, most of which were ill-founded, while some of them
+were just.
+
+Before giving the reader a brief account of the open and the secret
+policy pursued by the government at Brussels and Madrid, in consequence
+of these transactions, it is now necessary to allude to a startling
+series of events, which at this point added to the complications of the
+times, and exercised a fatal influence upon the situation of the
+commonwealth.
+
+
+
+
+1566 [CHAPTER VII.]
+
+   Ecclesiastical architecture in the Netherlands--The image-breaking--
+   Description of Antwerp Cathedral--Ceremony of the Ommegang--
+   Precursory disturbances--Iconoclasts at Antwerp--Incidents of the
+   image--breaking in various cities--Events at Tournay--Preaching of
+   Wille--Disturbance by a little boy--Churches sacked at Tournay--
+   Disinterment of Duke Adolphus of Gueldres--Iconoclasts defeated and
+   massacred at Anchin--Bartholomew's Day at Valenciennes--General
+   characteristics of the image-breaking--Testimony of contemporaries
+   as to the honesty of the rioters--Consternation of the Duchess--
+   Projected flight to Mons--Advice of Horn and other seigniors--
+   Accord of 25th August.
+
+The Netherlands possessed an extraordinary number of churches and
+monasteries. Their exquisite architecture and elaborate decoration had
+been the earliest indication of intellectual culture displayed in the
+country. In the vast number of cities, towns, and villages which were
+crowded upon that narrow territory, there had been, from circumstances
+operating throughout Christendom, a great accumulation of ecclesiastical
+wealth. The same causes can never exist again which at an early day
+covered the soil of Europe with those magnificent creations of Christian
+art. It was in these anonymous but entirely original achievements that
+Gothic genius; awaking from its long sleep of the dark ages, first
+expressed itself. The early poetry of the German races was hewn and
+chiselled in atone. Around the steadfast principle of devotion then so
+firmly rooted in the soil, clustered the graceful and vigorous emanations
+of the newly-awakened mind. All that science could invent, all that art
+could embody, all that mechanical ingenuity could dare, all that wealth
+could lavish, whatever there was of human energy which was panting for
+pacific utterance, wherever there stirred the vital principle which
+instinctively strove to create and to adorn at an epoch when vulgar
+violence and destructiveness were the general tendencies of humanity, all
+gathered around these magnificent temples, as their aspiring pinnacles at
+last pierced the mist which had so long brooded over the world.
+
+There were many hundreds of churches, more or less remarkable, in the
+Netherlands. Although a severe criticism might regret to find in these
+particular productions of the great Germanic school a development of that
+practical tendency which distinguished the Batavian and Flemish
+branches,--although it might recognize a departure from that mystic
+principle which, in its efforts to symbolize the strivings of humanity
+towards the infinite object of worship above, had somewhat disregarded
+the wants of the worshippers below,--although the spaces might be too
+wide and the intercolumniations too empty, except for the convenience of
+congregations; yet there were, nevertheless, many ecclesiastical
+masterpieces, which could be regarded as very brilliant manifestations of
+the Batavian and Belgic mind during the thirteenth and fourteenth
+centuries. Many were filled with paintings from a school which had
+precedence in time and merit over its sister nurseries of art in Germany.
+All were peopled with statues. All were filled with profusely-adorned
+chapels, for the churches had been enriched generation after generation
+by wealthy penitence, which had thus purchased absolution for crime and
+smoothed a pathway to heaven.
+
+And now, for the space of only six or seven summer days and nights, there
+raged a storm by which all these treasures were destroyed. Nearly every
+one of these temples was entirely rifled of its contents; not for the
+purpose of plunder, but of destruction. Hardly a province or a town
+escaped. Art must forever weep over this bereavement; Humanity must
+regret that the reforming is thus always ready to degenerate into the
+destructive principle; but it is impossible to censure very severely the
+spirit which prompted the brutal, but not ferocious deed. Those statues,
+associated as they were with the remorseless persecution which had so
+long desolated the provinces, had ceased to be images. They had grown
+human and hateful, so that the people arose and devoted them to
+indiscriminate massacre.
+
+No doubt the iconoclastic fury is to be regretted; for such treasures can
+scarcely be renewed. The age for building and decorating great cathedrals
+is past. Certainly, our own age, practical and benevolent, if less
+poetical, should occupy itself with the present, and project itself into
+the future. It should render glory to God rather by causing wealth to
+fertilize the lowest valleys of humanity, than by rearing gorgeous
+temples where paupers are to kneel. To clothe the naked, redeem the
+criminal, feed the hungry, less by alms and homilies than by preventive
+institutions and beneficent legislation; above all, by the diffusion of
+national education, to lift a race upon a level of culture hardly
+attained by a class in earlier times, is as lofty a task as to accumulate
+piles of ecclesiastical splendor.
+
+It would be tedious to recount in detail the events which characterized
+the remarkable image-breaking in the Netherlands. As Antwerp was the
+central point in these transactions, and as there was more wealth and
+magnificence in the great cathedral of that city than in any church of
+northern Europe, it is necessary to give a rapid outline of the events
+which occurred there. From its exhibition in that place the spirit every
+where will best be shown.
+
+The Church of Our Lady, which Philip had so recently converted into a
+cathedral, dated from the year 1124, although it may be more fairly
+considered a work of the fourteenth century. Its college of canons had
+been founded in another locality by Godfrey of Bouillon. The Brabantine
+hero, who so romantically incarnates the religious poetry of his age, who
+first mounted the walls of redeemed Jerusalem, and was its first
+Christian monarch, but who refused to accept a golden diadem on the spot
+where the Saviour had been crowned with thorns; the Fleming who lived and
+was the epic which the great Italian, centuries afterwards; translated
+into immortal verse, is thus fitly associated with the beautiful
+architectural poem which was to grace his ancestral realms. The body of
+the church, the interior and graceful perspectives of which were not
+liable to the reproach brought against many Netherland churches, of
+assimilating themselves already to the municipal palaces which they were
+to suggest--was completed in the fourteenth century. The beautiful
+facade, with its tower, was not completed till the year 1518. The
+exquisite and daring spire, the gigantic stem upon which the consummate
+flower of this architectural creation was to be at last unfolded, was a
+plant of a whole century's growth. Rising to a height of nearly five
+hundred feet, over a church of as many feet in length, it worthily
+represented the upward tendency of Gothic architecture. Externally and
+internally the cathedral was a true expression of the Christian principle
+of devotion. Amid its vast accumulation of imagery, its endless
+ornaments, its multiplicity of episodes, its infinite variety of details,
+the central, maternal principle was ever visible. Every thing pointed
+upwards, from the spire in the clouds to the arch which enshrined the
+smallest sculptured saint in the chapels below. It was a sanctuary, not
+like pagan temples, to enclose a visible deity, but an edifice where
+mortals might worship an unseen Being in the realms above.
+
+The church, placed in the centre of the city, with the noisy streets of
+the busiest metropolis in Europe eddying around its walls, was a sacred
+island in the tumultuous main. Through the perpetual twilight, tall
+columnar trunks in thick profusion grew from a floor chequered with
+prismatic lights and sepulchral shadows. Each shaft of the petrified
+forest rose to a preternatural height, their many branches intermingling
+in the space above, to form an impenetrable canopy. Foliage, flowers and
+fruit of colossal luxuriance, strange birds, beasts, griffins and
+chimeras in endless multitudes, the rank vegetation and the fantastic
+zoology of a fresher or fabulous world, seemed to decorate and to animate
+the serried trunks and pendant branches, while the shattering symphonies
+or dying murmurs of the organ suggested the rushing of the wind through
+the forest, now the full diapason of the storm and now the gentle cadence
+of the evening breeze.
+
+Internally, the whole church was rich beyond expression. All that opulent
+devotion and inventive ingenuity could devise, in wood, bronze, marble,
+silver, gold, precious jewelry, or blazing sacramental furniture, had
+been profusely lavished. The penitential tears of centuries had incrusted
+the whole interior with their glittering stalactites. Divided into five
+naves, with external rows of chapels, but separated by no screens or
+partitions, the great temple forming an imposing whole, the effect was
+the more impressive, the vistas almost infinite in appearance. The
+wealthy citizens, the twenty-seven guilds, the six military associations,
+the rhythmical colleges, besides many other secular or religious
+sodalities, had each their own chapels and altars. Tombs adorned with the
+effigies of mailed crusaders and pious dames covered the floor, tattered
+banners hung in the air, the escutcheons of the Golden Fleece, an order
+typical of Flemish industry, but of which Emperors and Kings were proud
+to be the chevaliers, decorated the columns. The vast and
+beautifully-painted windows glowed with scriptural scenes, antique
+portraits, homely allegories, painted in those brilliant and forgotten
+colors which Art has not ceased to deplore. The daylight melting into
+gloom or colored with fantastic brilliancy, priests in effulgent robes
+chanting in unknown language, the sublime breathing of choral music, the
+suffocating odors of myrrh and spikenard, suggestive of the oriental
+scenery and imagery of Holy Writ, all combined to bewilder and exalt the
+senses. The highest and humblest seemed to find themselves upon the same
+level within those sacred precincts, where even the bloodstained criminal
+was secure, and the arm of secular justice was paralyzed.
+
+But the work of degeneration had commenced. The atmosphere of the
+cathedral was no longer holy in the eyes of increasing multitudes. Better
+the sanguinary rites of Belgic Druids, better the yell of slaughtered
+victims from the "wild wood without mercy" of the pagan forefathers of
+the nation, than this fantastic intermingling of divine music, glowing
+colors, gorgeous ceremonies, with all the burning, beheading and
+strangling work which had characterized the system of human sacrifice for
+the past half-century.
+
+Such was the church of Notre Dame at Antwerp. Thus indifferent or hostile
+towards the architectural treasure were the inhabitants of a city, where
+in a previous age the whole population would have risked their lives to
+defend what they esteemed the pride and garland of their metropolis.
+
+The Prince of Orange had been anxiously solicited by the Regent to attend
+the conference at Duffel. After returning to Antwerp, he consented, in
+consequence of the urgent entreaties of the senate, to delay his
+departure until the 18th of August should be past. On the 13th of that
+month he had agreed with the magistrates upon an ordinance, which was
+accordingly published, and by which the preachings were restricted to the
+fields. A deputation of merchants and others waited upon him with a
+request to be permitted the exercises of the Reformed religion in the
+city. This petition the Prince peremptorily refused, and the deputies, as
+well as their constituents, acquiesced in the decision, "out of especial
+regard and respect for his person." He, however, distinctly informed the
+Duchess that it would be difficult or impossible to maintain such a
+position long, and that his departure from the city would probably be
+followed by an outbreak. He warned her that it was very imprudent for him
+to leave Antwerp at that particular juncture. Nevertheless, the meeting
+of the Fleece-knights seemed, in Margaret's opinion, imperatively to
+require his presence in Brussels. She insisted by repeated letters that
+he should leave Antwerp immediately.
+
+Upon the 18th August, the great and time-honored ceremony of the Ommegang
+occurred. Accordingly, the great procession, the principal object of
+which was to conduct around the city a colossal image of the Virgin,
+issued as usual from the door of the cathedral. The image, bedizened and
+effulgent, was borne aloft upon the shoulders of her adorers, followed by
+the guilds, the military associations, the rhetoricians, the religious
+sodalities, all in glittering costume, bearing blazoned banners, and
+marching triumphantly through the streets with sound of trumpet and beat
+of drum. The pageant, solemn but noisy, was exactly such a show as was
+most fitted at that moment to irritate Protestant minds and to lead to
+mischief. No violent explosion of ill-feeling, however, took place. The
+procession was followed by a rabble rout of scoffers, but they confined
+themselves to words and insulting gestures. The image was incessantly
+saluted, as she was borne along--the streets, with sneers, imprecations,
+and the rudest, ribaldry. "Mayken! Mayken!" (little Mary) "your hour is
+come. 'Tis your last promenade. The city is tired of you." Such were the
+greetings which the representative of the Holy Virgin received from men
+grown weary of antiquated mummery. A few missiles were thrown
+occasionally at the procession as it passed through the city, but no
+damage was inflicted. When the image was at last restored to its place,
+and the pageant brought to a somewhat hurried conclusion, there seemed
+cause for congratulation that no tumult had occurred.
+
+On the following morning there was a large crowd collected in front of
+the cathedral. The image, instead of standing in the centre of the
+church, where, upon all former occasions, it had been accustomed during
+the week succeeding the ceremony to receive congratulatory, visits, was
+now ignominiously placed behind an iron railing within the choir. It had
+been deemed imprudent to leave it exposed to sacrilegious hands. The
+precaution excited derision. Many vagabonds of dangerous appearance, many
+idle apprentices and ragged urchins were hanging for a long time about
+the imprisoned image, peeping through the railings, and indulging in many
+a brutal jest. "Mayken! Mayken!" they cried; "art thou terrified so soon?
+Hast flown to thy nest so early? Dost think thyself beyond the reach of
+mischief? Beware, Mayken! thine hour is fast approaching!" Others
+thronged around the balustrade, shouting "Vivent les gueux!" and hoarsely
+commanding the image to join in the beggars' cry. Then, leaving the spot,
+the mob roamed idly about the magnificent church, sneering at the idols,
+execrating the gorgeous ornaments, scoffing at crucifix and altar.
+
+Presently one of the rabble, a ragged fellow of mechanical aspect, in a
+tattered black doublet and an old straw hat, ascended the pulpit. Opening
+a sacred volume which he found there, he began to deliver an
+extemporaneous and coarse caricature of a monkish sermon. Some of the
+bystanders applauded, some cried shame, some shouted "long live the
+beggars!" some threw sticks and rubbish at the mountebank, some caught
+him by the legs and strove to pull him from the place. He, on the other
+hand, manfully maintained his ground, hurling back every missile,
+struggling with his assailants, and continuing the while to pour forth a
+malignant and obscene discourse. At last a young sailor, warm in the
+Catholic Faith, and impulsive as mariners are prone to be, ascended the
+pulpit from behind, sprang upon the mechanic, and flung him headlong down
+the steps. The preacher grappled with his enemy as he fell, and both came
+rolling to the ground. Neither was much injured, but a tumult ensued. A
+pistol-shot was fired, and the sailor wounded in the arm. Daggers were
+drawn, cudgels brandished, the bystanders taking part generally against
+the sailor, while those who protected him were somewhat bruised and
+belabored before they could convey him out of the church. Nothing more,
+however, transpired that day, and the keepers of the cathedral were
+enabled to expel the crowd and to close the doors for the night.
+
+Information of this tumult was brought to the senate, then assembled in
+the Hotel de Ville. That body was thrown into a state of great
+perturbation. In losing the Prince of Orange, they seemed to have lost
+their own brains, and the first measure which they took was to despatch a
+messenger to implore his return. In the mean time, it was necessary that
+they should do something for themselves. It was evident that a storm was
+brewing. The pest which was sweeping so rapidly through the provinces
+would soon be among them. Symptoms of the dreaded visitation were already
+but too manifest. What precaution should: they take? Should they issue a
+proclamation? Such documents had been too common of late, and had lost
+their virtue. It was the time not to assert but to exercise authority.
+Should they summon the ward-masters, and order the instant arming and
+mustering of their respective companies? Should they assemble the
+captains of the Military associations? Nothing better could have been
+desired than such measures in cases of invasion or of ordinary tumult,
+but who should say how deeply the poison had sunk into the body politic;
+who should say with how much or how little alacrity the burgher militia
+would obey the mandates of the magistracy? It would be better to issue no
+proclamation unless they could enforce its provisions; it would be better
+not to call out the citizen soldiery unless they were likely to prove
+obedient. Should mercenary troops at this late hour be sent for? Would
+not their appearance at this crisis rather inflame the rage than
+intimidate the insolence of the sectaries? Never were magistrates in
+greater perplexity. They knew not what course was likely to prove the
+safest, and in their anxiety to do nothing wrong, the senators did
+nothing at all. After a long and anxious consultation, the honest
+burgomaster and his associates all went home to their beds, hoping that
+the threatening flame of civil tumult would die out of itself, or perhaps
+that their dreams would supply them with that wisdom which seemed denied
+to their waking hours.
+
+In the morning, as it was known that no precaution had been taken, the
+audacity of the Reformers was naturally increased. Within the cathedral a
+great crowd was at an early hour collected, whose savage looks and ragged
+appearance denoted that the day and night were not likely to pass away so
+peacefully as the last. The same taunts and imprecations were hurled at
+the image of the Virgin; the same howling of the beggars' cry resounded
+through the lofty arches. For a few hours, no act of violence was
+committed, but the crowd increased. A few trifles, drifting, as usual,
+before the event, seemed to indicate the approaching convulsion. A very
+paltry old woman excited the image-breaking of Antwerp. She had for years
+been accustomed to sit before the door of the cathedral with wax-tapers
+and wafers, earning scanty subsistence from the profits of her meagre
+trade, and by the small coins which she sometimes received in charity.
+Some of the rabble began to chaffer with this ancient hucksteress. They
+scoffed at her consecrated wares; they bandied with her ribald jests, of
+which her public position had furnished her with a supply; they assured
+her that the hour had come when her idolatrous traffic was to be forever
+terminated, when she and her patroness, Mary, were to be given over to
+destruction together. The old woman, enraged, answered threat with
+threat, and gibe with gibe. Passing from words to deeds, she began to
+catch from the ground every offensive missile or weapon which she could
+find, and to lay about her in all directions. Her tormentors defended
+themselves as they could. Having destroyed her whole stock-in-trade, they
+provoked others to appear in her defence. The passers-by thronged to the
+scene; the cathedral was soon filled to overflowing; a furious tumult was
+already in progress.
+
+Many persons fled in alarm to the town-house, carrying information of
+this outbreak to the magistrates. John Van Immerzeel, Margrava of
+Antwerp, was then holding communication with the senate, and awaiting the
+arrival of the ward-masters, whom it had at last been thought expedient
+to summon. Upon intelligence of this riot, which the militia, if
+previously mustered, might have prevented, the senate determined to
+proceed to the cathedral in a body, with the hope of quelling the mob by
+the dignity of their presence. The margrave, who was the high executive
+officer of the little commonwealth, marched down to the cathedral
+accordingly, attended by the two burgomasters and all the senators. At
+first their authority, solicitations, and personal influence, produced a
+good effect. Some of those outside consented to retire, and the tumult
+partially subsided within. As night, however, was fast approaching, many
+of the mob insisted upon remaining for evening mass. They were informed
+that there would be none that night, and that for once the people could
+certainly dispense with their vespers.
+
+Several persons now manifesting an intention of leaving the cathedral, it
+was suggested to the senators that if, they should lead the way, the
+populace would follow in their train, and so disperse to their homes. The
+excellent magistrates took the advice, not caring, perhaps, to fulfil any
+longer the dangerous but not dignified functions of police officers.
+Before departing, they adopted the precaution of closing all the doors of
+the church, leaving a single one open, that the rabble still remaining
+might have an opportunity to depart. It seemed not to occur to the
+senators that the same gate would as conveniently afford an entrance for
+those without as an egress for those within. That unlooked-for event
+happened, however. No sooner had the magistrates retired than the rabble
+burst through the single door which had been left open, overpowered the
+margrave, who, with a few attendants, had remained behind, vainly
+endeavoring by threats and exhortations to appease the tumult, drove him
+ignominiously from the church, and threw all the other portals wide open.
+Then the populace flowed in like an angry sea. The whole of the cathedral
+was at the mercy of the rioters, who were evidently bent on mischief. The
+wardens and treasurers of the church, after a vain attempt to secure a
+few of its most precious possessions, retired. They carried the news to
+the senators, who, accompanied by a few halberdmen, again ventured to
+approach the spot. It was but for a moment, however, for, appalled by the
+furious sounds which came from within the church, as if subterranean and
+invisible forces were preparing a catastrophe which no human power could
+withstand, the magistrates fled precipitately from the scene. Fearing
+that the next attack would be upon the town-house, they hastened to
+concentrate at that point their available forces, and left the stately
+cathedral to its fate.
+
+And now, as the shadows of night were deepening the perpetual twilight of
+the church, the work of destruction commenced. Instead of evening mass
+rose the fierce music of a psalm, yelled by a thousand angry voices. It
+seemed the preconcerted signal for a general attack. A band of marauders
+flew upon the image of the Virgin, dragged it forth from its receptacle,
+plunged daggers into its inanimate body, tore off its jewelled and
+embroidered garments, broke the whole figure into a thousand pieces, and
+scattered the fragments along the floor. A wild shout succeeded, and then
+the work which seemed delegated to a comparatively small number of the
+assembled crowd, went on with incredible celerity. Some were armed with
+axes, some with bludgeons, some with sledge-hammers; others brought
+ladders, pulleys, ropes, and levers. Every statue was hurled from its
+niche, every picture torn from the wall, every wonderfully-painted window
+shivered to atoms, every ancient monument shattered, every sculptured
+decoration, however inaccessible in appearance, hurled to the ground.
+Indefatigably, audaciously,--endowed, as it seemed, with preternatural
+strength and nimbleness, these furious iconoclasts clambered up the dizzy
+heights, shrieking and chattering like malignant apes, as they tore off
+in triumph the slowly-matured fruit of centuries. In a space of time
+wonderfully brief, they had accomplished their task.
+
+A colossal and magnificent group of the Saviour crucified between two
+thieves adorned the principal altar. The statue of Christ was wrenched
+from its place with ropes and pulleys, while the malefactors, with bitter
+and blasphemous irony, were left on high, the only representatives of the
+marble crowd which had been destroyed. A very beautiful piece of
+architecture decorated the choir,--the "repository," as it was called, in
+which the body of Christ was figuratively enshrined. This much-admired
+work rested upon a single column, but rose, arch upon arch, pillar upon
+pillar, to the height of three hundred feet, till quite lost in the vault
+above. "It was now shattered into a million pieces." The statues, images,
+pictures, ornaments, as they lay upon the ground, were broken with
+sledge-hammers, hewn with axes, trampled, torn; and beaten into shreds. A
+troop of harlots, snatching waxen tapers from the altars, stood around
+the destroyers and lighted them at their work. Nothing escaped their
+omnivorous rage. They desecrated seventy chapels, forced open all the
+chests of treasure, covered their own squalid attire with the gorgeous
+robes of the ecclesiastics, broke the sacred bread, poured out the
+sacramental wine into golden chalices, quaffing huge draughts to the
+beggars' health; burned all the splendid missals and manuscripts, and
+smeared their shoes with the sacred oil, with which kings and prelates
+had been anointed. It seemed that each of these malicious creatures must
+have been endowed with the strength of a hundred giants. How else, in the
+few brief hours of a midsummer night, could such a monstrous desecration
+have been accomplished by a troop which, according to all accounts, was
+not more than one hundred in number. There was a multitude of spectators,
+as upon all such occasions, but the actual spoilers were very few.
+
+The noblest and richest temple of the Netherlands was a wreck, but the
+fury of the spoilers was excited, not appeased. Each seizing a burning
+torch, the whole herd rushed from the cathedral, and swept howling
+through the streets. "Long live the beggars!" resounded through the
+sultry midnight air, as the ravenous pack flew to and fro, smiting every
+image of the Virgin, every crucifix, every sculptured saint, every
+Catholic symbol which they met with upon their path. All night long, they
+roamed from one sacred edifice to another, thoroughly destroying as they
+went. Before morning they had sacked thirty churches within the city
+walls. They entered the monasteries, burned their invaluable libraries,
+destroyed their altars, statues, pictures, and descending into the
+cellars, broached every cask which they found there, pouring out in one
+great flood all the ancient wine and ale with which those holy men had
+been wont to solace their retirement from generation to generation. They
+invaded the nunneries, whence the occupants, panic-stricken, fled for
+refuge to the houses of their friends and kindred. The streets were
+filled with monks and nuns, running this way and that, shrieking and
+fluttering, to escape the claws of these fiendish Calvinists. The terror
+was imaginary, for not the least remarkable feature in these transactions
+was, that neither insult nor injury was offered to man or woman, and that
+not a farthing's value of the immense amount of property destroyed, was
+appropriated. It was a war not against the living, but against graven
+images, nor was the sentiment which prompted the onslaught in the least
+commingled with a desire of plunder. The principal citizens of Antwerp,
+expecting every instant that the storm would be diverted from the
+ecclesiastical edifices to private dwellings, and that robbery, rape, and
+murder would follow sacrilege, remained all night expecting the attack,
+and prepared to defend their hearths, even if the altars were profaned.
+The precaution was needless. It was asserted by the Catholics that the
+confederates and other opulent Protestants had organized this company of
+profligates for the meagre pittance of ten stivers day. On the other
+hand, it was believed by many that the Catholics had themselves plotted
+the whole outrage in order to bring odium upon the Reformers. Both
+statements were equally unfounded. The task was most thoroughly
+performed, but it was prompted: by a furious fanaticism, not by baser
+motives.
+
+Two days and nights longer the havoc raged unchecked through all the
+churches of Antwerp and the neighboring villages. Hardly a statue or
+picture escaped destruction. Fortunately, the illustrious artist, whose
+labors were destined in the next generation to enrich and ennoble the
+city, Rubens, most profound of colorists, most dramatic--of artists;
+whose profuse tropical genius seemed to flower the more luxuriantly, as
+if the destruction wrought by brutal hands were to be compensated by the
+creative energy of one, divine spirit, had not yet been born. Of the
+treasures which existed the destruction was complete. Yet the rage was
+directed exclusively against stocks and stones. Not a man was wounded nor
+a woman outraged. Prisoners, indeed, who had been languishing hopelessly
+in dungeons were liberated. A monk, who had been in the prison of the
+Barefoot Monastery, for twelve years, recovered his freedom. Art was
+trampled in the dust, but humanity deplored no victims.
+
+These leading features characterized the movement every where. The
+process was simultaneous and almost universal. It was difficult to say
+where it began and where it ended. A few days in the midst of August
+sufficed for the whole work. The number of churches desecrated has never
+been counted. In the single province of Flanders, four hundred were
+sacked. In Limburg, Luxemburg, and Namur, there was no image-breaking. In
+Mechlin, seventy or eighty persons accomplished the work thoroughly, in
+the very teeth of the grand council, and of an astonished magistracy.
+
+In Tournay, a city distinguished for its ecclesiastical splendor, the
+reform had been making great progress during the summer. At the same time
+the hatred between the two religions had been growing more and more
+intense. Trifles and serious matters alike fed the mutual animosity.
+
+A tremendous outbreak had been nearly occasioned by an insignificant
+incident. A Jesuit of some notoriety had been preaching a glowing
+discourse in the pulpit of Notre Dane. He earnestly avowed his wish that
+he were good enough to die for all his hearers. He proved to
+demonstration that no man should shrink from torture or martyrdom in
+order to sustain the ancient faith. As he was thus expatiating, his
+fervid discourse was suddenly interrupted by three sharp, sudden blows,
+of a very peculiar character, struck upon the great portal of the Church.
+The priest, forgetting his love for martyrdom, turned pale and dropped
+under the pulpit. Hurrying down the steps, he took refuge in the vestry,
+locking and barring the door. The congregation shared in his panic: "The
+beggars are coming," was the general cry. There was a horrible tumult,
+which extended through the city as the congregation poured precipitately
+out of the Cathedral, to escape a band of destroying and furious
+Calvinists. Yet when the shock had a little subsided, it was discovered
+that a small urchin was the cause of the whole tumult. Having been
+bathing in the Scheldt, he had returned by way of the church with a
+couple of bladders under his arm. He had struck these against the door of
+the Cathedral, partly to dry them, partly from a love of mischief. Thus a
+great uproar, in the course of which it had been feared that Toumay was
+to be sacked and drenched in blood, had been caused by a little wanton
+boy who had been swimming on bladders.
+
+This comedy preceded by a few days only the actual disaster. On the 22d
+of August the news reached Tournay that the churches in Antwerp, Ghent,
+and many other places, had been sacked. There was an instantaneous
+movement towards imitating the example on the same evening. Pasquier de
+la Barre, procureur-general of the city, succeeded by much entreaty in
+tranquillizing the people for the night. The "guard of terror" was set,
+and hopes were entertained that the storm might blow over. The
+expectation, was vain. At daybreak next day, the mob swept upon the
+churches and stripped them to the very walls. Pictures, statues; organs,
+ornaments, chalices of silver and gold, reliquaries, albs, chasubles,
+copes, ciboriea, crosses, chandeliers, lamps; censers, all of richest
+material, glittering with pearls, rubies, and other precious stones, were
+scattered in heaps of ruin upon the ground.
+
+As the Spoilers burrowed among the ancient tombs, they performed, in one
+or two instances, acts of startling posthumous justice. The embalmed body
+of Duke Adolphus of Gueldres, last of the Egmonts, who had reigned in
+that province, was dragged from its sepulchre and recognized. Although it
+had been there for ninety years, it was as uncorrupted, "Owing to the
+excellent spices which had preserved it from decay," as upon the day of
+burial. Thrown upon the marble floor of the church, it lay several days
+exposed to the execrations of the multitude. The Duke had committed a
+crime against his father, in consequence of which the province which had
+been ruled by native races, had passed under the dominion of Charles the
+Bold. Weary of waiting for the old Duke's inheritance, he had risen
+against him in open rebellion. Dragging him from his bed at midnight in
+the depth of winter, he had compelled the old man, with no covering but
+his night gear, to walk with naked feet twenty-five miles over ice and
+snow from Grave to Buren, while he himself performed the same journey in
+his company on horseback. He had then thrown him into a dungeon beneath
+the tower of Buren castle, and kept him a close prisoner for six months.
+
+   [Memoires de Philippe de Comines (Loud. et Paris, 1747), liv. iv.
+   194-196. In the Royal Gallery at Berlin is a startling picture by
+   Rembrandt, in which the old Duke is represented looking out of the
+   bars of his dungeon at his son, who is threatening him with uplifted
+   hand and savage face. No subject could be imagined better adapted
+   to the gloomy and sarcastic genius of that painter.]
+
+At last, the Duke of Burgundy summoned the two before his council, and
+proposed that Adolphus should allow his father 6000 florins annually,
+with the title of Duke till his death. "He told us," said Comines, "that
+he would sooner throw the old man head-foremost down a well and jump in
+himself afterwards. His father had been Duke forty-four years, and it was
+time for him to retire." Adolphus being thus intractable, had been kept
+in prison till after the death of Charles the Bold. To the memorable
+insurrection of Ghent, in the time of the Lady Mary, he owed his liberty.
+The insurgent citizens took him from prison, and caused him to lead them
+in their foray against Tournay. Beneath the walls of that city he was
+slain, and buried under its cathedral. And now as if his offence had not
+been sufficiently atoned for by the loss of his ancestral honors, his
+captivity, and his death, the earth, after the lapse of nearly a century,
+had cast him forth from her bosom. There, once more beneath the sunlight,
+amid a ribald crew of a later generation which had still preserved the
+memory of his sin, lay the body of the more than parricide, whom
+"excellent spices" had thus preserved from corruption, only to be the
+mark of scorn and demoniac laughter.
+
+A large assemblage of rioters, growing in numbers as they advanced, swept
+over the province of Tournay, after accomplishing the sack of the city
+churches. Armed with halberds, hammers, and pitchforks, they carried on
+the war, day after day, against the images. At the convent of
+Marchiennes, considered by contemporaries the most beautiful abbey in all
+the Netherlands, they halted to sing the ten commandments in Marot's
+verse. Hardly had the vast chorus finished the precept against graven
+images;
+
+          Taiiler ne to feras imaige
+          De quelque chose que ce soit,
+          Sy bonneur luy fail on hommaige,
+          Bon Dieu jalousie en recoit,
+
+when the whole mob seemed seized with sudden madness. Without waiting to
+complete the Psalm, they fastened upon the company of marble martyrs, as
+if they had possessed sensibility to feel the blows inflicted. In an hour
+they had laid the whole in ruins.
+
+Having accomplished this deed, they swept on towards Anchin. Here,
+however, they were confronted by the Seigneur de la Tour, who, at the
+head of a small company of peasants, attacked the marauders and gained a
+complete victory. Five or six hundred of them were slain, others were
+drowned in the river and adjacent swamps, the rest were dispersed. It was
+thus proved that a little more spirit upon the part of the orderly
+portion of the inhabitants, might have brought about a different result
+than the universal image-breaking.
+
+In Valenciennes, "the tragedy," as an eye-witness calls it, was performed
+upon Saint Bartholomew's day. It was, however, only a tragedy of statues.
+Hardly as many senseless stones were victims as there were to be living
+Huguenots sacrificed in a single city upon a Bartholomew which was fast
+approaching. In the Valenciennes massacre, not a human being was injured.
+
+Such in general outline and in certain individual details, was the
+celebrated iconomachy of the Netherlands. The movement was a sudden
+explosion of popular revenge against the symbols of that Church from
+which the Reformers had been enduring such terrible persecution. It was
+also an expression of the general sympathy for the doctrines which had
+taken possession of the national heart. It was the depravation of that
+instinct which had in the beginning of the summer drawn Calvinists and
+Lutherans forth in armed bodies, twenty thousand strong, to worship God
+in the open fields. The difference between the two phenomena was, that
+the field-preaching was a crime committed by the whole mass of the
+Reformers; men, women, and children confronting the penalties of death,
+by a general determination, while the imagebreaking was the act of a
+small portion of the populace. A hundred persons belonging to the lowest
+order of society sufficed for the desecration of the Antwerp churches. It
+was, said Orange, "a mere handful of rabble" who did the deed. Sir
+Richard Clough saw ten or twelve persons entirely sack church after
+church, while ten thousand spectators looked on, indifferent or
+horror-struck. The bands of iconoclasts were of the lowest character, and
+few in number. Perhaps the largest assemblage was that which ravaged the
+province of Tournay, but this was so weak as to be entirely routed by a
+small and determined force. The duty of repression devolved upon both
+Catholics and Protestants. Neither party stirred. All seemed overcome
+with special wonder as the tempest swept over the land.
+
+The ministers of the Reformed religion, and the chiefs of the liberal
+party, all denounced the image-breaking. Francis Junius bitterly
+regretted such excesses. Ambrose Wille, pure of all participation in the
+crime, stood up before ten thousand Reformers at Tournay--even while the
+storm was raging in the neighboring cities, and, when many voices around
+him were hoarsely commanding similar depravities to rebuke the outrages
+by which a sacred cause was disgraced. The Prince of Orange, in his
+private letters, deplored the riots, and stigmatized the perpetrators.
+Even Brederode, while, as Suzerain of his city of Viane, he ordered the
+images there to be quietly taken from the churches, characterized this
+popular insurrection as insensate and flagitious. Many of the leading
+confederates not only were offended with the proceedings, but, in their
+eagerness to chastise the iconoclasts and to escape from a league of
+which they were weary, began to take severe measures against the
+Ministers and Reformers, of whom they had constituted themselves in April
+the especial protectors.
+
+The next remarkable characteristic of these tumults was the almost entire
+abstinence of the rioters from personal outrage and from pillage. The
+testimony of a very bitter, but honest Catholic at Valenciennes, is
+remarkable upon this point. "Certain chroniclers," said he, "have greatly
+mistaken the character of this image-breaking. It has been said that the
+Calvinists killed a hundred priests in this city, cutting some of them
+into pieces, and burning others over a slow fire. I remember very well
+every thing which happened upon that abominable day, and I can affirm
+that not a single priest was injured. The Huguenots took good care not to
+injure in any way the living images." This was the case every where.
+Catholic and Protestant writers agree that no deeds of violence were
+committed against man or woman.
+
+It would be also very easy to accumulate a vast weight of testimony as to
+their forbearance from robbery. They destroyed for destruction's sake,
+not for purposes of plunder.
+
+Although belonging to the lowest classes of society, they left heaps of
+jewellery, of gold and silver plate, of costly embroidery, lying unheeded
+upon the ground. They felt instinctively that a great passion would be
+contaminated by admixture with paltry motives. In Flanders a company of
+rioters hanged one of their own number for stealing articles to the value
+of five Shillings. In Valenciennes the iconoclasts were offered large
+sums if they would refrain from desecrating the churches of that city,
+but they rejected the proposal with disdain. The honest Catholic burgher
+who recorded the fact, observed that he did so because of the many
+misrepresentations on the subject, not because he wished to flatter
+heresy and rebellion.
+
+At Tournay, the greatest scrupulousness was observed upon this point. The
+floor of the cathedral was strewn with "pearls and precious stones, with
+chalices and reliquaries of silver and gold;" but the ministers of the
+reformed religion, in company with the magistrates, came to the spot, and
+found no difficulty, although utterly without power to prevent the storm,
+in taking quiet possession of the wreck. "We had every thing of value,"
+says Procureur-General De la Barre, "carefully inventoried, weighed,
+locked in chests, and placed under a strict guard in the prison of the
+Halle, to which one set of keys were given to the ministers, and another
+to the magistrates." Who will dare to censure in very severe language
+this havoc among stocks and stones in a land where so many living men and
+women, of more value than many statues, had been slaughtered by the
+inquisition, and where Alva's "Blood Tribunal" was so soon to eclipse
+even that terrible institution in the number of its victims and the
+amount of its confiscations?
+
+Yet the effect of the riots was destined to be most disastrous for a time
+to the reforming party. It furnished plausible excuses for many lukewarm
+friends of their cause to withdraw from all connection with it. Egmont
+denounced the proceedings as highly flagitious, and busied himself with
+punishing the criminals in Flanders. The Regent was beside herself with
+indignation and terror. Philip, when he heard the news, fell into a
+paroxysm of frenzy. "It shall cost them dear!" he cried, as he tore his
+beard for rage; "it shall cost them dear! I swear it by the soul of my
+father!" The Reformation in the Netherlands, by the fury of these
+fanatics, was thus made apparently to abandon the high ground upon which
+it had stood in the early summer. The sublime spectacle of the
+multitudinous field-preaching was sullied by the excesses of the
+image-breaking. The religious war, before imminent, became inevitable.
+
+Nevertheless, the first effect of the tumults was a temporary advantage
+to the Reformers. A great concession was extorted from the fears of the
+Duchess Regent, who was certainly placed in a terrible position. Her
+conduct was not heroic, although she might be forgiven for trepidation.
+Her treachery, however, under these trying circumstances was less venial.
+At three o'clock in the morning of the 22nd of August, Orange, Egmont,
+Horn, Hoogatraaten, Mansfeld, and others were summoned to the palace.
+They found her already equipped for flight, surrounded by her
+waiting-women, chamberlains and lackeys, while the mules and hackneys
+stood harnessed in the court-yard, and her body-guard were prepared to
+mount at a moment's notice. She announced her intention of retreating at
+once to Mons, in which city, owing to Aerschot's care, she hoped to find
+refuge against the fury of the rebellion then sweeping the country. Her
+alarm was almost beyond control. She was certain that the storm was ready
+to burst upon Brussels, and that every Catholic was about to be massacred
+before her eyes. Aremberg, Berlaymont, and Noircarmes were with the
+Duchess when the other seigniors arrived.
+
+A part of the Duke of Aerschot's company had been ordered out to escort
+the projected flight to Mons. Orange, Horn, Egmont, and Hoogstraaten
+implored her to desist from her fatal resolution. They represented that
+such a retreat before a mob would be the very means of ruining the
+country. They denounced all persons who had counselled the scheme, as
+enemies of his Majesty and herself. They protested their readiness to die
+at her feet in her defence, but besought her not to abandon the post of
+duty in the hour of peril. While they were thus anxiously debating,
+Viglius entered the chamber. With tears streaming down her cheeks,
+Margaret turned to the aged President, uttering fierce reproaches and
+desponding lamentations. Viglius brought the news that the citizens had
+taken possession of the gates, and were resolved not to permit her
+departure from the city. He reminded her, according to the indispensable
+practice of all wise counsellors, that he had been constantly predicting
+this result. He, however, failed in administering much consolation, or in
+suggesting any remedy. He was, in truth, in as great a panic as herself,
+and it was, according to the statement of the Duchess, mainly in order to
+save the President from threatened danger, that she eventually resolved
+to make concessions. "Viglius," wrote Margaret to Philip, "is so much
+afraid of being cut to pieces, that his timidity has become incredible."
+Upon the warm assurance of Count Horn, that he would enable her to escape
+from the city, should it become necessary, or would perish in the
+attempt, a promise in which he was seconded by the rest of the seigniors,
+she consented to remain for the day in her palace.--Mansfeld was
+appointed captain-general of the city; Egmont, Horn, Orange, and the
+others agreed to serve under his orders, and all went down together to
+the townhouse. The magistrates were summoned, a general meeting of the
+citizens was convened, and the announcement made of Mansfeld's
+appointment, together with an earnest appeal to all honest men to support
+the Government. The appeal was answered by a shout of unanimous
+approbation, an enthusiastic promise to live or die with the Regent, and
+the expression of a resolution to permit neither reformed preaching nor
+image-breaking within the city.
+
+Nevertheless, at seven o'clock in the evening, the Duchess again sent for
+the seigniors. She informed them that she had received fresh and certain
+information, that the churches were to be sacked that very night; that
+Viglius, Berlaymont, and Aremberg were to be killed, and that herself and
+Egmont were to be taken prisoners. She repeated many times that she had
+been ill-advised, expressed bitter regret at having deferred her flight
+from the city, and called upon those who had obstructed her plan, now to
+fulfil their promises. Turning fiercely upon Count Horn, she uttered a
+volley of reproaches upon his share in the transaction. "You are the
+cause," said she, "that I am now in this position. Why do you not redeem
+your pledge and enable me to leave the place at once." Horn replied that
+he was ready to do so if she were resolved to stay no longer. He would at
+the instant cut his way through the guard at the Caudenberg gate, and
+bring her out in safety, or die in the effort. At the same time he
+assured her that he gave no faith to the idle reports flying about the
+city, reminded her that nobles, magistrates, and citizens were united in
+her defence, and in brief used the same arguments which had before been
+used to pacify her alarm. The nobles were again successful in enforcing
+their counsels, the Duchess was spared the ignominy and the disaster of a
+retreat before an insurrection which was only directed against statues,
+and the ecclesiastical treasures of Brussels were saved from sacrilege.
+
+On the 25th August came the crowning act of what the Reformers considered
+their most complete triumph, and the Regent her deepest degradation. It
+was found necessary under the alarming aspect of affairs, that liberty of
+worship, in places where it had been already established, should be
+accorded to the new religion. Articles of agreement to this effect were
+accordingly drawn up and exchanged between the Government and Lewis of
+Nassau, attended by fifteen others of the confederacy. A corresponding
+pledge was signed by them, that so long as the Regent was true to her
+engagement, they would consider their previously existing league
+annulled, and would assist cordially in every endeavor to maintain
+tranquillity and support the authority of his Majesty. The important
+Accord was then duly signed by the Duchess. It declared that the
+inquisition was abolished, that his Majesty would soon issue a new
+general edict, expressly and unequivocally protecting the nobles against
+all evil consequences from past transactions, that they were to be
+employed in the royal service, and that public preaching according to the
+forms of the new religion was to be practised in places where it had
+already taken place. Letters general were immediately despatched to the
+senates of all the cities, proclaiming these articles of agreement and
+ordering their execution. Thus for a fleeting moment there was a thrill
+of joy throughout the Netherlands. The inquisition was thought forever
+abolished, the era of religious reformation arrived.
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     All denounced the image-breaking
+     Anxiety to do nothing wrong, the senators did nothing at all
+     Before morning they had sacked thirty churches
+     Bigotry which was the prevailing characteristic of the age
+     Enriched generation after generation by wealthy penitence
+     Fifty thousand persons in the provinces (put to death)
+     Furious fanaticism
+     Lutheran princes of Germany, detested the doctrines of Geneva
+     Monasteries, burned their invaluable libraries
+     No qualities whatever but birth and audacity to recommend him
+     Notre Dame at Antwerp
+     Persons who discussed religious matters were to be put to death
+     Premature zeal was prejudicial to the cause
+     Purchased absolution for crime and smoothed a pathway to heaven
+     Rearing gorgeous temples where paupers are to kneel
+     Schism which existed in the general Reformed Church
+     Storm by which all these treasures were destroyed (in 7 days)
+     The noblest and richest temple of the Netherlands was a wreck
+     Tyrannical spirit of Calvinism
+     Would not help to burn fifty or sixty thousand Netherlanders
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS THE DUTCH REPUBLIC, 1555-1566, Complete:
+
+     A pleasantry called voluntary contributions or benevolences
+     A country disinherited by nature of its rights
+     Absolution for incest was afforded at thirty-six livres
+     Achieved the greatness to which they had not been born
+     Advancing age diminished his tendency to other carnal pleasures
+     Affecting to discredit them
+     All offices were sold to the highest bidder
+     All denounced the image-breaking
+     All his disciples and converts are to be punished with death
+     All reading of the scriptures (forbidden)
+     Altercation between Luther and Erasmus, upon predestination
+     An hereditary papacy, a perpetual pope-emperor
+     An inspiring and delightful recreation (auto-da-fe)
+     Announced his approaching marriage with the Virgin Mary
+     Annual harvest of iniquity by which his revenue was increased
+     Anxiety to do nothing wrong, the senators did nothing at all
+     Arrested on suspicion, tortured till confession
+     As ready as papists, with age, fagot, and excommunication
+     Attacking the authority of the pope
+     Attempting to swim in two waters
+     Batavian legion was the imperial body guard
+     Beating the Netherlanders into Christianity
+     Before morning they had sacked thirty churches
+     Bigotry which was the prevailing characteristic of the age
+     Bishop is a consecrated pirate
+     Bold reformer had only a new dogma in place of the old ones
+     Brethren, parents, and children, having wives in common
+     Burned alive if they objected to transubstantiation
+     Burned, strangled, beheaded, or buried alive (100,000)
+     Charles the Fifth autocrat of half the world
+     Condemning all heretics to death
+     Consign to the flames all prisoners whatever (Papal letter)
+     Courage of despair inflamed the French
+     Craft meaning, simply, strength
+     Criminal whose guilt had been established by the hot iron
+     Criminals buying Paradise for money
+     Crusades made great improvement in the condition of the serfs
+     Decrees for burning, strangling, and burying alive
+     Democratic instincts of the ancient German savages
+     Denies the utility of prayers for the dead
+     Despot by birth and inclination (Charles V.)
+     Difference between liberties and liberty
+     Dispute between Luther and Zwingli concerning the real presence
+     Dissimulation and delay
+     Divine right
+     Drank of the water in which, he had washed
+     Endure every hardship but hunger
+     English Puritans
+     Enormous wealth (of the Church) which engendered the hatred
+     Enriched generation after generation by wealthy penitence
+     Erasmus encourages the bold friar
+     Erasmus of Rotterdam
+     Even for the rape of God's mother, if that were possible
+     Excited with the appearance of a gem of true philosophy
+     Executions of Huss and Jerome of Prague
+     Fable of divine right is invented to sanction the system
+     Felix Mants, the anabaptist, is drowned at Zurich
+     Few, even prelates were very dutiful to the pope
+     Fiction of apostolic authority to bind and loose
+     Fifty thousand persons in the provinces (put to death)
+     Fishermen and river raftsmen become ocean adventurers
+     For myself I am unworthy of the honor (of martyrdom)
+     For women to lament, for men to remember
+     Forbids all private assemblies for devotion
+     Force clerical--the power of clerks
+     Furious fanaticism
+     Gallant and ill-fated Lamoral Egmont
+     Gaul derided the Roman soldiers as a band of pigmies
+     German finds himself sober--he believes himself ill
+     Govern under the appearance of obeying
+     Great science of political equilibrium
+     Great Privilege, the Magna Charta of Holland
+     Guarantees of forgiveness for every imaginable sin
+     Habeas corpus
+     Halcyon days of ban, book and candle
+     He knew men, especially he knew their weaknesses
+     He did his best to be friends with all the world
+     Heresy was a plant of early growth in the Netherlands
+     His imagination may have assisted his memory in the task
+     History shows how feeble are barriers of paper
+     Holland, England, and America, are all links of one chain
+     I would carry the wood to burn my own son withal
+     In Holland, the clergy had neither influence nor seats
+     Informer, in case of conviction, should be entitled to one half
+     Inquisition of the Netherlands is much more pitiless
+     Inquisition was not a fit subject for a compromise
+     Insinuating suspicions when unable to furnish evidence
+     Invented such Christian formulas as these (a curse)
+     Inventing long speeches for historical characters
+     July 1st, two Augustine monks were burned at Brussels
+     King of Zion to be pinched to death with red-hot tongs
+     Labored under the disadvantage of never having existed
+     Learn to tremble as little at priestcraft as at swordcraft
+     Let us fool these poor creatures to their heart's content
+     Licences accorded by the crown to carry slaves to America
+     Little grievances would sometimes inflame more than vast
+     Long succession of so many illustrious obscure
+     Look through the cloud of dissimulation
+     Lutheran princes of Germany, detested the doctrines of Geneva
+     Made to swing to and fro over a slow fire
+     Maintaining the attitude of an injured but forgiving Christian
+     Man had only natural wrongs (No natural rights)
+     Many greedy priests, of lower rank, had turned shop-keepers
+     Monasteries, burned their invaluable libraries
+     More accustomed to do well than to speak well
+     No one can testify but a householder
+     No calumny was too senseless to be invented
+     No law but the law of the longest purse
+     No qualities whatever but birth and audacity to recommend him
+     Not of the stuff of which martyrs are made (Erasmus)
+     Notre Dame at Antwerp
+     Nowhere was the persecution of heretics more relentless
+     Obstinate, of both sexes, to be burned
+     Often much tyranny in democracy
+     One golden grain of wit into a sheet of infinite platitude
+     Orator was, however, delighted with his own performance
+     Others go to battle, says the historian, these go to war
+     Panegyrists of royal houses in the sixteenth century
+     Pardon for murder, if not by poison, was cheaper
+     Pardon for crimes already committed, or about to be committed
+     Paying their passage through, purgatory
+     Perpetually dropping small innuendos like pebbles
+     Persons who discussed religious matters were to be put to death
+     Petty passion for contemptible details
+     Philip, who did not often say a great deal in a few words
+     Planted the inquisition in the Netherlands
+     Poisoning, for example, was absolved for eleven ducats
+     Pope and emperor maintain both positions with equal logic
+     Power to read and write helped the clergy to much wealth
+     Premature zeal was prejudicial to the cause
+     Procrastination was always his first refuge
+     Promises which he knew to be binding only upon the weak
+     Purchased absolution for crime and smoothed a pathway to heaven
+     Rashness alternating with hesitation
+     Readiness to strike and bleed at any moment in her cause
+     Rearing gorgeous temples where paupers are to kneel
+     Repentant females to be buried alive
+     Repentant males to be executed with the sword
+     Revocable benefices or feuds
+     Ruinous honors
+     Sale of absolutions was the source of large fortunes to the priests
+     Same conjury over ignorant baron and cowardly hind
+     Scaffold was the sole refuge from the rack
+     Schism which existed in the general Reformed Church
+     Scoffing at the ceremonies and sacraments of the Church
+     Secret drowning was substituted for public burning
+     Sharpened the punishment for reading the scriptures in private
+     Slavery was both voluntary and compulsory
+     Soldier of the cross was free upon his return
+     Sonnets of Petrarch
+     Sovereignty was heaven-born, anointed of God
+     St. Peter's dome rising a little nearer to the clouds
+     St. Bartholomew was to sleep for seven years longer
+     Storm by which all these treasures were destroyed (in 7 days)
+     Tanchelyn
+     Taxation upon sin
+     Ten thousand two hundred and twenty individuals were burned
+     That vile and mischievous animal called the people
+     The noblest and richest temple of the Netherlands was a wreck
+     The Gaul was singularly unchaste
+     The vivifying becomes afterwards the dissolving principle
+     The bad Duke of Burgundy, Philip surnamed "the Good,"
+     The egg had been laid by Erasmus, hatched by Luther
+     These human victims, chained and burning at the stake
+     They had at last burned one more preacher alive
+     Thousands of burned heretics had not made a single convert
+     Thus Hand-werpen, hand-throwing, became Antwerp
+     To think it capable of error, is the most devilish heresy of all
+     To prefer poverty to the wealth attendant upon trade
+     Torquemada's administration (of the inquisition)
+     Tranquillity of despotism to the turbulence of freedom
+     Two witnesses sent him to the stake, one witness to the rack
+     Tyrannical spirit of Calvinism
+     Understood the art of managing men, particularly his superiors
+     Upon one day twenty-eight master cooks were dismissed
+     Villagers, or villeins
+     We believe our mothers to have been honest women
+     When the abbot has dice in his pocket, the convent will play
+     William of Nassau, Prince of Orange
+     Wiser simply to satisfy himself
+     Would not help to burn fifty or sixty thousand Netherlanders
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, PG EDITION, 1566-1574, Complete
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
+
+By JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
+1855
+
+VOLUME 2, Book 1., 1566
+1566 [CHAPTER VIII.]
+
+   Secret policy of the government--Berghen and Montigny in Spain--
+   Debates at Segovia--Correspondence of the Duchess with Philip--
+   Procrastination and dissimulation of the King--Secret communication
+   to the Pope--Effect in the provinces of the King's letters to the
+   government--Secret instructions to the Duchess--Desponding
+   statements of Margaret--Her misrepresentations concerning Orange,
+   Egmont, and others--Wrath and duplicity of Philip--Egmont's
+   exertions in Flanders--Orange returns to Antwerp--His tolerant
+   spirit--Agreement of 2d September--Horn at Tournay--Excavations in
+   the Cathedral--Almost universal attendance at the preaching--
+   Building of temples commenced--Difficult position of Horn--Preaching
+   in the Clothiers' Hall--Horn recalled--Noircarmes at Tournay--
+   Friendly correspondence of Margaret with Orange, Egmont, Horn, and
+   Hoogstraaten--Her secret defamation of these persons.
+
+Egmont in Flanders, Orange at Antwerp, Horn at Tournay; Hoogstraaten at
+Mechlin, were exerting themselves to suppress insurrection and to avert
+ruin. What, meanwhile, was the policy of the government? The secret
+course pursued both at Brussels and at Madrid may be condensed into the
+usual formula--dissimulation, procrastination, and again dissimulation.
+
+It is at this point necessary to take a rapid survey of the open and the
+secret proceedings of the King and his representatives from the moment at
+which Berghen and Montigny arrived in Madrid. Those ill-fated gentlemen
+had been received with apparent cordiality, and admitted to frequent, but
+unmeaning, interviews with his Majesty. The current upon which they were
+embarked was deep and treacherous, but it was smooth and very slow. They
+assured the King that his letters, ordering the rigorous execution of the
+inquisition and edicts, had engendered all the evils under which the
+provinces were laboring. They told him that Spaniards and tools of
+Spaniards had attempted to govern the country, to the exclusion of native
+citizens and nobles, but that it would soon be found that Netherlanders
+were not to be trodden upon like the abject inhabitants of Milan, Naples,
+and Sicily. Such words as these struck with an unaccustomed sound upon
+the royal ear, but the envoys, who were both Catholic and loyal, had no
+idea, in thus expressing their opinions, according to their sense of
+duty, and in obedience to the King's desire, upon the causes of the
+discontent, that they were committing an act of high treason.
+
+When the news of the public preaching reached Spain, there were almost
+daily consultations at the grove of Segovia. The eminent personages who
+composed the royal council were the Duke of Alva, the Count de Feria, Don
+Antonio de Toledo, Don Juan Manrique de Lara, Ruy Gomez, Quixada,
+Councillor Tisnacq, recently appointed President of the State Council,
+and Councillor Hopper. Six Spaniards and two Netherlanders, one of whom,
+too, a man of dull intellect and thoroughly subservient character, to
+deal with the local affairs of the Netherlands in a time of intense
+excitement! The instructions of the envoys had been to represent the
+necessity of according three great points--abolition of the inquisition,
+moderation of the edicts, according to the draft prepared in Brussels,
+and an ample pardon for past transactions. There was much debate upon all
+these propositions. Philip said little, but he listened attentively to
+the long discourses in council, and he took an incredible quantity of
+notes. It was the general opinion that this last demand on the part of
+the Netherlanders was the fourth link in the chain of treason. The first
+had been the cabal by which Granvelle had been expelled; the second, the
+mission of Egmont, the main object of which had been to procure a
+modification of the state council, in order to bring that body under the
+control of a few haughty and rebellious nobles; the third had been the
+presentation of the insolent and seditious Request; and now, to crown the
+whole, came a proposition embodying the three points--abolition of the
+inquisition, revocation of the edicts, and a pardon to criminals, for
+whom death was the only sufficient punishment.
+
+With regard to these three points, it was, after much wrangling, decided
+to grant them under certain restrictions. To abolish the inquisition
+would be to remove the only instrument by which the Church had been
+accustomed to regulate the consciences and the doctrines of its subjects.
+It would be equivalent to a concession of religious freedom, at least to
+individuals within their own domiciles, than which no concession could be
+more pernicious. Nevertheless, it might be advisable to permit the
+temporary cessation of the papal inquisition, now that the episcopal
+inquisition had been so much enlarged and strengthened in the
+Netherlands, on the condition that this branch of the institution should
+be maintained in energetic condition. With regard to the Moderation, it
+was thought better to defer that matter till, the proposed visit of his
+Majesty to the provinces. If, however, the Regent should think it
+absolutely necessary to make a change, she must cause a new draft to be
+made, as that which had been sent was not found admissible. Touching the
+pardon general, it would be necessary to make many conditions and
+restrictions before it could be granted. Provided these were sufficiently
+minute to exclude all persons whom it might be found desirable to
+chastise, the amnesty was possible. Otherwise it was quite out of the
+question.
+
+Meantime, Margaret of Parma had been urging her brother to come to a
+decision, painting the distracted condition of the country in the
+liveliest colors, and insisting, although perfectly aware of Philip's
+private sentiments, upon a favorable decision as to the three points
+demanded by the envoys. Especially she urged her incapacity to resist any
+rebellion, and demanded succor of men and money in case the "Moderation"
+were not accepted by his Majesty.
+
+It was the last day of July before the King wrote at all, to communicate
+his decisions upon the crisis which had occurred in the first week of
+April. The disorder for which he had finally prepared a prescription had,
+before his letter arrived, already passed through its subsequent stages
+of the field-preaching and the image-breaking. Of course these fresh
+symptoms would require much consultation, pondering, and note-taking
+before they could be dealt with. In the mean time they would be
+considered as not yet having happened. This was the masterly
+procrastination of the sovereign, when his provinces were in a blaze.
+
+His masterly dissimulation was employed in the direction suggested by his
+councillors. Philip never originated a thought, nor laid down a plan, but
+he was ever true to the falsehood of his nature, and was indefatigable in
+following out the suggestions of others. No greater mistake can be made
+than to ascribe talent to this plodding and pedantic monarch. The man's
+intellect was contemptible, but malignity and duplicity, almost
+superhuman; have effectually lifted his character out of the regions of
+the common-place. He wrote accordingly to say that the pardon, under
+certain conditions, might be granted, and that the papal inquisition
+might cease--the bishops now being present in such numbers, "to take care
+of their flocks," and the episcopal inquisition being, therefore
+established upon so secure a basis. He added, that if a moderation of the
+edicts were still desired, a new project might be sent to Madrid, as the
+one brought by Berghen and Montigny was not satisfactory. In arranging
+this wonderful scheme for composing the tumults of the country, which had
+grown out of a determined rebellion to the inquisition in any form, he
+followed not only the advice, but adopted the exact language of his
+councillors.
+
+Certainly, here was not much encouragement for patriotic hearts in the
+Netherlands. A pardon, so restricted that none were likely to be forgiven
+save those who had done no wrong; an episcopal inquisition stimulated to
+renewed exertions, on the ground that the papal functionaries were to be
+discharged; and a promise that, although the proposed Moderation of the
+edicts seemed too mild for the monarch's acceptance, yet at some future
+period another project would be matured for settling the matter to
+universal satisfaction--such were the propositions of the Crown.
+Nevertheless, Philip thought he had gone too far, even in administering
+this meagre amount of mercy, and that he had been too frank in employing
+so slender a deception, as in the scheme thus sketched. He therefore
+summoned a notary, before whom, in presence of the Duke of Alva, the
+Licentiate Menchaca and Dr. Velasco, he declared that, although he had
+just authorized Margaret of Parma, by force of circumstances, to grant
+pardon to all those who had been compromised in the late disturbances of
+the Netherlands, yet as he had not done this spontaneously nor freely, he
+did not consider himself bound by the authorization, but that, on the
+contrary, he reserved his right to punish all the guilty, and
+particularly those who had been the authors and encouragers of the
+sedition.
+
+So much for the pardon promised in his official correspondence.
+
+With regard to the concessions, which he supposed himself to have made in
+the matter of the inquisition and the edicts, he saved his conscience by
+another process. Revoking with his right hand all which his left had been
+doing, he had no sooner despatched his letters to the Duchess Regent than
+he sent off another to his envoy at Rome. In this despatch he instructed
+Requesens to inform the Pope as to the recent royal decisions upon the
+three points, and to state that there had not been time to consult his
+Holiness beforehand. Nevertheless, continued Philip "the prudent," it was
+perhaps better thus, since the abolition could have no force, unless the
+Pope, by whom the institution had been established, consented to its
+suspension. This matter, however, was to be kept a profound secret. So
+much for the inquisition matter. The papal institution, notwithstanding
+the official letters, was to exist, unless the Pope chose to destroy it;
+and his Holiness, as we have seen, had sent the Archbishop of Sorrento, a
+few weeks before, to Brussels, for the purpose of concerting secret
+measures for strengthening the "Holy Office" in the provinces.
+
+With regard to the proposed moderation of the edicts, Philip informed
+Pius the Fifth, through Requesens, that the project sent by the Duchess
+not having been approved, orders had been transmitted for a new draft, in
+which all the articles providing for the severe punishment of heretics
+were to be retained, while alterations, to be agreed upon by the state
+and privy councils, and the knights of the Fleece, were to be
+adopted--certainly in no sense of clemency. On the contrary, the King
+assured his Holiness, that if the severity of chastisement should be
+mitigated the least in the world by the new articles, they would in no
+case receive the royal approbation. Philip further implored the Pope "not
+to be scandalized" with regard to the proposed pardon, as it would be by
+no means extended to offenders against religion. All this was to be kept
+entirely secret. The King added, that rather than permit the least
+prejudice to the ancient religion, he would sacrifice all his states, and
+lose a hundred lives if he had so many; for he would never consent to be
+the sovereign of heretics. He said he would arrange the troubles of the
+Netherlands, without violence, if possible, because forcible measures
+would cause the entire destruction of the country. Nevertheless they
+should be employed, if his purpose could be accomplished in no other way.
+In that case the King would himself be the executor of his own design,
+without allowing the peril which he should incur, nor the ruin of the
+provinces, nor that of his other realms, to prevent him from doing all
+which a Christian prince was bound to do, to maintain the Catholic
+religion and the authority of the Holy See, as well as to testify his
+personal regard for the reigning pontiff, whom he so much loved and
+esteemed.
+
+Here was plain speaking. Here were all the coming horrors distinctly
+foreshadowed. Here was the truth told to the only being with whom Philip
+ever was sincere. Yet even on this occasion, he permitted himself a
+falsehood by which his Holiness was not deceived. Philip had no intention
+of going to the Netherlands in person, and the Pope knew that he had
+none. "I feel it in my bones," said Granvelle, mournfully, "that nobody
+in Rome believes in his Majesty's journey to the provinces." From that
+time forward, however, the King began to promise this visit, which was
+held out as a panacea for every ill, and made to serve as an excuse for
+constant delay.
+
+It may well be supposed that if Philip's secret policy had been
+thoroughly understood in the Netherlands, the outbreak would have come
+sooner. On the receipt, however, of the public despatches from Madrid,
+the administration in Brussels made great efforts to represent their
+tenor as highly satisfactory. The papal inquisition was to be abolished,
+a pardon was to be granted, a new moderation was to be arranged at some
+indefinite period; what more would men have? Yet without seeing the face
+of the cards, the people suspected the real truth, and Orange was
+convinced of it. Viglius wrote that if the King did not make his intended
+visit soon, he would come too late, and that every week more harm was
+done by procrastination than could be repaired by months of labor and
+perhaps by torrents of blood. What the precise process was, through which
+Philip was to cure all disorders by his simple presence, the President
+did not explain.
+
+As for the measures propounded by the King after so long a delay, they
+were of course worse than useless; for events had been marching while he
+had been musing. The course suggested was, according to Viglius, but "a
+plaster for a wound, but a drag-chain for the wheel." He urged that the
+convocation of the states-general was the only remedy for the perils in
+which the country was involved; unless the King should come in person. He
+however expressed the hope that by general consultation some means would
+be devised by which, if not a good, at least a less desperate aspect
+would be given to public affairs, "so that the commonwealth, if fall it
+must, might at least fall upon its feet like a cat, and break its legs
+rather than its neck."
+
+Notwithstanding this highly figurative view of the subject; and
+notwithstanding the urgent representations of Duchess Margaret to her
+brother, that nobles and people were all clamoring about the necessity of
+convening the states general, Philip was true to his instincts on this as
+on the other questions. He knew very well that the states-general of the
+Netherlands and Spanish despotism were incompatible ideas, and he
+recoiled from the idea of the assembly with infinite aversion. At the
+same time a little wholesome deception could do no harm. He wrote to the
+Duchess, therefore, that he was determined never to allow the
+states-general to be convened. He forbade her to consent to the step
+under any circumstances, but ordered her to keep his prohibition a
+profound secret. He wished, he said, the people to think that it was only
+for the moment that the convocation was forbidden, and that the Duchess
+was expecting to receive the necessary permission at another time. It was
+his desire, he distinctly stated, that the people should not despair of
+obtaining the assembly, but he was resolved never to consent to the step,
+for he knew very well what was meant by a meeting of the States-general.
+Certainly after so ingenuous but secret a declaration from the disciple
+of Macchiavelli, Margaret might well consider the arguments to be used
+afterward by herself and others, in favor of the ardently desired
+measure, as quite superfluous.
+
+Such then was the policy secretly resolved upon by Philip; even before he
+heard of the startling events which were afterwards to break upon him. He
+would maintain the inquisition and the edicts; he would exterminate the
+heretics, even if he lost all his realms and his own life in the cause;
+he would never hear of the national representatives coming together. What
+then were likely to be his emotions when he should be told of twenty
+thousand armed heretics assembling at one spot, and fifteen thousand at
+another, in almost every town in every province, to practice their
+blasphemous rites; when he should be told of the whirlwind which had
+swept all the ecclesiastical accumulations of ages out of existence; when
+he should read Margaret's despairing letters, in which she acknowledged
+that she had at last committed an act unworthy of God, of her King, and
+of herself, in permitting liberty of worship to the renegades from the
+ancient church!
+
+The account given by the Duchess was in truth very dismal. She said that
+grief consumed her soul and crimson suffused her cheeks while she related
+the recent transactions. She took God to witness that she had resisted
+long, that she had past many sleepless nights, that she had been wasted
+with fever and grief. After this penitential preface she confessed that,
+being a prisoner and almost besieged in her palace, sick in body and
+soul, she had promised pardon and security to the confederates, with
+liberty of holding assemblies to heretics in places where the practice
+had already obtained. These concessions had been made valid until the
+King by and with the consent of the states-general, should definitely
+arrange the matter. She stated, however, that she had given her consent
+to these two demands, not in the royal name, but in her own. The King was
+not bound by her promise, and she expreesed the hope that he would have
+no regard to any such obligation. She further implored her brother to
+come forth as soon as possibe to avenge the injuries inflicted upon the
+ancient church, adding, that if deprived of that consolation, she should
+incontinently depart this life. That hope alone would prevent her death.
+
+This was certainly strong language. She was also very explicit in her
+representations of the influence which had been used by certain
+personages to prevent the exercise of any authority upon her own part.
+"Wherefore," said Margaret, "I eat my heart; and shall never have peace
+till the arrival of your Majesty."
+
+There was no doubt who those personages were who, as it was pretended,
+had thus held the Duchess in bondage, and compelled her to grant these
+infamous concessions. In her secret Italian letters, she furnished the
+King with a tissue of most extravagant and improbable falsehoods,
+supplied to her mainly by Noircarmes and Mansfeld, as to the course
+pursued at this momentous crisis by Orange, Egmont, Horn, and
+Hoogstraaten. They had all, she said, declared against God and against
+religion.--Horn, at least, was for killing all the priests and monks in
+the country, if full satisfaction were not given to the demands of the
+heretics. Egmont had declared openly for the beggars, and was levying
+troops in Germany. Orange had the firm intention of making himself master
+of the whole country, and of dividing it among the other seigniors and
+himself. The Prince had said that if she took refuge in Mons, as she had
+proposed, they would instantly convoke the states-general, and take all
+necessary measures. Egmont had held the same language, saying that he
+would march at the head of forty thousand men to besiege her in that
+city. All these seigniors, however, had avowed their determination to
+prevent her flight, to assemble the estates, and to drag her by force
+before the assembly, in order to compel her consent to every measure
+which might be deemed expedient. Under all these circumstances, she had
+been obliged to defer her retreat, and to make the concessions which had
+overwhelmed her with disgrace.
+
+With such infamous calumnies, utterly disproved by every fact in the
+case, and unsupported by a tittle of evidence, save the hearsay reports
+of a man like Noircarmes, did this "woman, nourished at Rome, in whom no
+one could put confidence," dig the graves of men who were doing their
+best to serve her.
+
+Philip's rage at first hearing of the image-breaking has been indicated.
+He was ill of an intermittent fever at the wood of Segovia when the news
+arrived, and it may well be supposed that his wrath at these proceedings
+was not likely to assuage his malady. Nevertheless, after the first burst
+of indignation, he found relief in his usual deception. While slowly
+maturing the most tremendous vengeance which anointed monarch ever
+deliberately wreaked upon his people, he wrote to say, that it was "his
+intention to treat his vassals and subjects in the provinces like a good
+and clement prince, not to ruin them nor to put them into servitude, but
+to exercise all humanity, sweetness, and grace, avoiding all harshness."
+Such were the avowed intentions of the sovereign towards his people at
+the moment when the terrible Alva, who was to be the exponent of all this
+"humanity, sweetness, and grace," was already beginning the preparations
+for his famous invasion of the Netherlands.
+
+The essence of the compact agreed to upon the 23d August between the
+confederates and the Regent, was that the preaching of the reformed
+religion should be tolerated in places where it had previously to that
+date been established. Upon this basis Egmont, Horn, Orange,
+Hoogstraaten, and others, were directed once more to attempt the
+pacification of the different provinces.
+
+Egmont departed for his government of Flanders, and from that moment
+vanished all his pretensions, which at best had been, slender enough, to
+the character of a national chieftain. During the whole of the year his
+course had been changeful. He had felt the influence of Orange; he had
+generous instincts; he had much vanity; he had the pride of high rank;
+which did not easily brook the domination of strangers, in a land which
+he considered himself and his compeers entitled by their birth to rule.
+At this juncture, however, particularly when in the company of
+Noircarmes, Berlaymont, and Viglius, he expressed, notwithstanding their
+calumnious misstatements, the deepest detestation of the heretics. He was
+a fervent Catholic, and he regarded the image-breaking as an unpardon
+able crime. "We must take up arms," said he, "sooner or later, to bring
+these Reformers to reason, or they will end by laying down the law for
+us." On the other hand, his anger would be often appeased by the grave
+but gracious remonstrances of Orange. During a part of the summer, the
+Reformers had been so strong in Flanders that upon a single day sixty
+thousand armed men had been assembled at the different field-preachings
+within that province. "All they needed was a Jacquemart, or a Philip van
+Artevelde," says a Catholic, contemporary, "but they would have scorned
+to march under the banner of a brewer; having dared to raise their eyes
+for a chief, to the most illustrious warrior of his ages." No doubt, had
+Egmont ever listened to these aspirations, he might have taken the field
+against the government with an invincible force, seized the capital,
+imprisoned the Regent, and mastered the whole country, which was entirely
+defenceless, before Philip would have had time to write more than ten
+despatches upon the subject.
+
+These hopes of the Reformers, if hopes they could be called, were now
+destined to be most bitterly disappointed. Egmont entered Flanders, not
+as a chief of rebels--not as a wise pacificator, but as an unscrupulous
+partisan of government, disposed to take summary vengeance on all
+suspected persons who should fall in his way. He ordered numerous
+executions of image-breakers and of other heretics. The whole province
+was in a state of alarm; for, although he had not been furnished by the
+Regent with a strong body of troops, yet the name of the conqueror at
+Saint Quentin and Gravelines was worth many regiments. His severity was
+excessive. His sanguinary exertions were ably seconded also by his
+secretary Bakkerzeel, a man who exercised the greatest influence over his
+chief, and who was now fiercely atoning for having signed the Compromise
+by persecuting those whom that league had been formed to protect. "Amid
+all the perplexities of the Duchess Regent," Says a Walloon historian,
+"this virtuous princess was consoled by the exploits of Bakkerzeel,
+gentleman in Count Egmont's service. On one occasion he hanged twenty
+heretics, including a minister, at a single heat."
+
+Such achievements as these by the hands or the orders of the
+distinguished general who had been most absurdly held up as a possible
+protector of the civil and religious liberties of the country, created
+profound sensation. Flanders and Artois were filled with the wives and
+children of suspected I thousands who had fled the country to escape the
+wrath of Egmont. The cries and piteous lamentations of these unfortunate
+creatures were heard on every side. Count Louis was earnestly implored to
+intercede for the persecuted Reformers. "You who have been so nobly
+gifted by Heaven, you who have good will and singular bounty written upon
+your face," said Utenhove to Louis, "have the power to save these poor
+victims from the throats of the ravenous wolves." The Count responded to
+the appeal, and strove to soften the severity of Egmont, without,
+however, producing any very signal effect. Flanders was soon pacified,
+nor was that important province permitted to enjoy the benefits of the
+agreement which had been extorted, from the Duchess. The preachings were
+forbidden, and the ministers and congregations arrested and chastised,
+even in places where the custom had been established previously to the
+23d August. Certainly such vigorous exertions upon the part both of
+master and man did not savor of treason to Philip, and hardly seemed to
+indicate the final doom of Egmont and Bakkerzeel.
+
+The course of Orange at Antwerp was consistent with his whole career. He
+honestly came to arrange a pacification, but he knew that this end could
+be gained only by loyally maintaining the Accord which had been signed
+between the confederates and the Regent. He came back to the city on the
+26th August, and found order partially re-established. The burghers
+having at last become thoroughly alarmed, and the fury of the
+image-breakers entirely appeased, it had been comparatively easy to
+restore tranquillity. The tranquillity, however, rather restored itself,
+and when the calm had succeeded to the tempest, the placid heads of the
+burgomasters once, more emerged from the waves.
+
+Three image-breakers, who had been taken in the act, were hanged by order
+of the magistrates upon the 28th of August. The presence of Orange gave
+them courage to achieve these executions which he could not prevent, as
+the fifth article of the Accord enjoined the chastisement of the rioters.
+The magistrates chose that the "chastisement" on this occasion should be
+exemplary, and it was not in the power of Orange to interfere with the
+regular government of the city when acting according to its laws. The
+deed was not his, however, and he hastened, in order to obviate the
+necessity of further violence, to prepare articles of agreement, upon the
+basis of Margaret's concessions. Public preaching, according to the
+Reformed religion, had already taken place within the city. Upon the 22d,
+possession had been taken of at least three churches. The senate had
+deputed pensionary Wesenbeck to expostulate with the ministers, for the
+magistrates were at that moment not able to command. Taffin, the Walloon
+preacher, had been tractable, and had agreed to postpone his exercises.
+He furthermore had accompanied the pensionary to the cathedral, in order
+to persuade Herman Modet that it would be better for him likewise to
+defer his intended ministrations. They had found that eloquent enthusiast
+already in the great church, burning with impatience to ascend upon the
+ruins, and quite unable to resist the temptation of setting a Flemish
+psalm and preaching a Flemish sermon within the walls which had for so
+many centuries been vocal only to the Roman tongue and the Roman ritual.
+All that he would concede to the entreaties of his colleague and of the
+magistrate, was that his sermon should be short. In this, however, he had
+overrated his powers of retention, for the sermon not only became a long
+one, but he had preached another upon the afternoon of the same day. The
+city of Antwerp, therefore, was clearly within the seventh clause of the
+treaty of the 24th August, for preaching had taken place in the
+cathedral, previously to the signing of that Accord.
+
+Upon the 2d September, therefore, after many protracted interview with
+the heads of the Reformed religion, the Prince drew up sixteen articles
+of agreement between them, the magistrates and the government, which were
+duly signed and exchanged. They were conceived in the true spirit of
+statesmanship, and could the rulers of the land have elevated themselves
+to the mental height of William de Nassau, had Philip been able of
+comprehending such a mind, the Prince, who alone possessed the power in
+those distracted times of governing the wills of all men, would have
+enabled the monarch to transmit that beautiful cluster of provinces,
+without the lose of a single jewel, to the inheritors of his crown.
+
+If the Prince were playing a game, he played it honorably. To have
+conceived the thought of religious toleration in an age of universal
+dogmatism; to have labored to produce mutual respect among conflicting
+opinions, at a period when many Dissenters were as bigoted as the
+orthodox, and when most Reformers fiercely proclaimed not liberty for
+every Christian doctrine, but only a new creed in place of all the
+rest,--to have admitted the possibility of several roads, to heaven, when
+zealots of all creeds would shut up all pathways but their own; if such
+sentiments and purposes were sins, they would have been ill-exchanged for
+the best virtues of the age. Yet, no doubt, this was his crying offence
+in the opinion of many contemporaries. He was now becoming apostate from
+the ancient Church, but he had long thought that Emperors, Kings, and
+Popes had taken altogether too much care of men's souls in times past,
+and had sent too many of them prematurely to their great account. He was
+equally indisposed to grant full-powers for the same purpose to
+Calvinists, Lutherans, or Anabaptists. "He censured the severity of our
+theologians," said a Catholic contemporary, accumulating all the
+religious offences of the Prince in a single paragraph, "because they
+keep strictly the constitutions of the Church without conceding a single
+point to their adversaries; he blamed the Calvinists as seditious and
+unruly people, yet nevertheless had a horror for the imperial edicts
+which condemned them to death; he said it was a cruel thing to take a
+man's life for sustaining an erroneous opinion; in short, he fantasied in
+his imagination a kind of religion, half Catholic, half Reformed, in
+order to content all persons; a system which would have been adopted
+could he have had his way." This picture, drawn by one of his most
+brilliant and bitter enemies, excites our admiration while intended to
+inspire aversion.
+
+The articles of agreement at Antwerp thus promulgated assigned three
+churches to the different sects of reformers, stipulated that no attempt
+should be made by Catholics or Protestants to disturb the religious
+worship of each other, and provided that neither by mutual taunts in
+their sermons, nor by singing street ballads, together with improper
+allusions and overt acts of hostility, should the good-fellowship which
+ought to reign between brethren and fellow-citizens, even although
+entertaining different opinions as to religious rites and doctrines, be
+for the future interrupted.
+
+This was the basis upon which the very brief religious peace, broken
+almost as soon as established, was concluded by William of Orange, not
+only at Antwerp, but at Utrecht, Amsterdam, and other principal cities
+within his government. The Prince, however, notwithstanding his unwearied
+exertions, had slender hopes of a peaceful result. He felt that the last
+step taken by the Reformation had been off a precipice. He liked not such
+rapid progress. He knew that the King would never forgive the
+image-breaking. He felt that he would never recognize the Accord of the
+24th August. Sir Thomas Gresham, who, as the representative of the
+Protestant Queen of England in the great commercial metropolis of Europe,
+was fully conversant with the turn things were taking, was already
+advising some other place for the sale of English commodities. He gave
+notice to his government that commerce would have no security at Antwerp
+"in those brabbling times." He was on confidential terms with the Prince,
+who invited him to dine upon the 4th September, and caused pensionary
+Wesenbeck, who was also present, to read aloud the agreement which was
+that day to be proclaimed at the town-house. Orange expressed himself,
+however, very doubtfully as to the future prospects of the provinces, and
+as to the probable temper of the King. "In all his talke," says Gresham,
+"the Prince aside unto me, 'I know this will nothing contente the King!'"
+
+While Egmont had been, thus busied in Flanders, and Orange at Antwerp,
+Count Horn had been doing his best in the important city of Tournay. The
+Admiral was not especially gifted with intellect, nor with the power of
+managing men, but he went there with an honest purpose of seeing the
+Accord executed, intending, if it should prove practicable, rather to
+favor the Government than the Reformers. At the same time, for the
+purpose of giving satisfaction to the members of "the religion," and of
+manifesting his sincere desire for a pacification, he accepted lodgings
+which had been prepared for him at the house of a Calvinist merchant in
+the city, rather, than, take up his quarters with fierce old governor
+Moulbais, in the citadel. This gave much offence to the Catholics; and
+inspired the Reformers, with the hope of having their preaching inside
+the town. To this privilege they were entitled, for the practice had
+already been established there, previously to the 24th October.
+Nevertheless, at first he was disposed to limit them, in accordance with
+the wishes of the Duchess, to extra-mural exercises.
+
+Upon his arrival, by a somewhat ominous conjuncture, he had supped with
+some of the leading citizens in the hall of the "gehenna" or torture
+room, certainly not a locality calculated to inspire a healthy appetite.
+On the following Sunday he had been entertained with a great banquet, at
+which all the principal burghers were present, held in a house on the
+market-place. The festivities had been interrupted by a quarrel, which
+had been taking place in the cathedral. Beneath the vaults of that
+edifice, tradition said that a vast treasure was hidden, and the canons
+had been known to boast that this buried wealth would be sufficient to
+rebuild their temple more magnificently than ever, in case of its total
+destruction. The Admiral had accordingly placed a strong guard in the
+church as soon as he arrived, and commenced very extensive excavations in
+search of this imaginary mine. The Regent informed her brother that the
+Count was prosecuting this work with the view of appropriating whatever
+might be found to his own benefit. As she knew that he was a ruined man,
+there seemed no more satisfactory mode of accounting for these
+proceedings. Horn had, however, expressly stated to her that every penny
+which should come into his possession from that or any other source would
+carefully be restored to the rightful owners. Nothing of consequence was
+ever found to justify the golden legends of the monks, but in the mean
+time the money-diggers gave great offence. The canons, naturally alarmed
+for the safety of their fabulous treasure, had forced the guard, by
+surreptitiously obtaining the countersign from a certain official of the
+town. A quarrel ensued which ended in the appearance of this personage,
+together with the commander of the military force on guard in the
+cathedral, before the banqueting company. The Count, in the rough way
+habitual with him, gave the culprit a sound rebuke for his intermeddling,
+and threatened, in case the offence were repeated, to have him instantly
+bound, gagged, and forwarded to Brussels for further punishment. The
+matter thus satisfactorily adjusted, the banquet proceeded, the merchants
+present being all delighted at seeing the said official, who was
+exceedingly, unpopular, "so well huffed by the Count." The excavations
+were continued for along time, until there seemed danger of destroying
+the foundation of the church, but only a few bits of money were
+discovered, with some other articles of small value.
+
+Horn had taken his apartments in the city in order to be at hand to
+suppress any tumults, and to inspire confidence in the people. He had
+come to a city where five sixths of the inhabitants--were of the reformed
+religion, and he did not, therefore, think it judicious to attempt
+violently the suppression of their worship. Upon his arrival he had
+issued a proclamation, ordering that all property which might have been
+pillaged from the religious houses should be instantly restored to the
+magistracy, under penalty that all who disobeyed the command should "be
+forthwith strangled at the gibbet." Nothing was brought back, however,
+for the simple reason that nothing had been stolen. There was, therefore,
+no one to be strangled.
+
+The next step was to publish the Accord of 24th August, and to signify
+the intention of the Admiral to enforce its observance. The preachings
+were as enthusiastically attended as ever, while the storm which had been
+raging among the images had in the mean time been entirely allayed.
+Congregations of fifteen thousand were still going to hear Ambrose Wille
+in the suburbs, but they were very tranquil in their demeanor. It was
+arranged between the Admiral and the leaders of the reformed
+consistories, that three places, to be selected by Horn, should be
+assigned for their places of worship. At these spots, which were outside
+the walls, permission was given the Reformers to build meeting-houses. To
+this arrangement the Duchess formally gave her consent.
+
+Nicholas Taffin; councillor, in the name of the Reformers, made "a brave
+and elegant harangue" before the magistrates, representing that, as on
+the most moderate computation, three quarters of the population were
+dissenters, as the Regent had ordered the construction of the new
+temples, and as the Catholics retained possession of all the churches in
+the city, it was no more than fair that the community should bear the
+expense of the new buildings. It was indignantly replied, however, that
+Catholics could not be expected to pay for the maintenance of heresy,
+particularly when they had just been so much exasperated by the
+image-breaking Councillor Taffin took nothing, therefore by his "brave
+and elegant harangue," saving a small vote of forty livres.
+
+The building was, however, immediately commenced. Many nobles and rich
+citizens contributed to the work; some making donations in money; others
+giving quantities of oaks, poplars, elms, and other timber trees, to be
+used in the construction. The foundation of the first temple outside the
+Ports de Cocquerel was immediately laid. Vast heaps of broken images and
+other ornaments of the desecrated churches were most unwisely used for
+this purpose, and the Catholics were exceedingly enraged at beholding
+those male and female saints, who had for centuries been placed in such
+"reverend and elevated positions," fallen so low as to be the
+foundation-stones of temples whose builders denounced all those holy
+things as idols.
+
+As the autumn began to wane, the people were clamorous for permission to
+have their preaching inside the city. The new buildings could not be
+finished before the winter; but in the mean time the camp-meetings were
+becoming, in the stormy seasons fast approaching, a very inconvenient
+mode of worship. On the other hand, the Duchess was furious at the
+proposition, and commanded Horn on no account to consent that the
+interior of Tournay should be profaned by these heretical rites. It was
+in vain that the Admiral represented the justice of the claim, as these
+exercises had taken place in several of the city churches previously to
+the Accord of the 24th of August.
+
+That agreement had been made by the Duchess only to be broken. She had
+already received money and the permission to make levies, and was fast
+assuming a tone very different from the abject demeanor which had
+characterized her in August. Count Horn had been used even as Egmont,
+Orange and Hoogstraaten had been employed, in order that their personal
+influence with the Reformers might be turned to account. The tools and
+the work accomplished by them were to be thrown away at the most
+convenient opportunity.
+
+The Admiral was placed in a most intolerable position. An honest,
+common-place, sullen kind of man, he had come to a city full of heretics,
+to enforce concessions just made by the government to heresy. He soon
+found himself watched, paltered with, suspected by the administration at
+Brussels. Governor Moulbais in the citadel, who was nominally under his
+authority, refused obedience to his orders, was evidently receiving
+secret instructions from the Regent, and was determined to cannonade the
+city into submission at a very early day. Horn required him to pledge
+himself that no fresh troops should enter the castle. Moulbais swore he
+would make no such promise to a living soul. The Admiral stormed with his
+usual violence, expressed his regret that his brother Montigny had so bad
+a lieutenant in the citadel, but could make no impression upon the
+determined veteran, who knew, better than Horn, the game which was
+preparing. Small reinforcements were daily arriving at the castle; the
+soldiers of the garrison had been heard to boast "that they would soon
+carve and eat the townsmen's flesh on their dressers," and all the good
+effect from the Admiral's proclamation on arriving, had completely
+vanished.
+
+Horn complained bitterly of the situation in which he was placed. He knew
+himself the mark of incessant and calumnious misrepresentation both at
+Brussels and Madrid. He had been doing his best, at a momentous crisis,
+to serve the government without violating its engagements, but he
+declared himself to be neither theologian nor jurist, and incapable,
+while suspected and unassisted, of performing a task which the most
+learned doctors of the council would find impracticable. He would rather,
+he bitterly exclaimed, endure a siege in any fortress by the Turks, than
+be placed in such a position. He was doing all that he was capable of
+doing, yet whatever he did was wrong. There was a great difference, he
+said, between being in a place and talking about it at a distance.
+
+In the middle of October he was recalled by the Duchess, whose letters
+had been uniformly so ambiguous that he confessed he was quite unable to
+divine their meaning. Before he left the city, he committed his most
+unpardonable crime. Urged by the leaders of the reformed congregations to
+permit their exercises in the Clothiers' Hall until their temples should
+be finished, the Count accorded his consent provisionally, and subject to
+revocation by the Regent, to whom the arrangement was immediately to be
+communicated.
+
+Horn departed, and the Reformers took instant possession of the hall. It
+was found in a very dirty and disorderly condition, encumbered with
+benches, scaffoldings, stakes, gibbets, and all the machinery used for
+public executions upon the market-place. A vast body of men went to work
+with a will; scrubbing, cleaning, whitewashing, and removing all the foul
+lumber of the hall; singing in chorus, as they did so, the hymns of
+Clement Marot. By dinner-time the place was ready. The pulpit and benches
+for the congregation had taken the place of the gibbet timber. It is
+difficult to comprehend that such work as this was a deadly crime.
+Nevertheless, Horn, who was himself a sincere Catholic, had committed the
+most mortal of all his offences against Philip and against God, by having
+countenanced so flagitious a transaction.
+
+The Admiral went to Brussels. Secretary de la Torre, a very second-rate
+personage, was despatched to Tournay to convey the orders of the Regent.
+Governor Moulbais, now in charge of affairs both civil and military, was
+to prepare all things for the garrison, which was soon to be despatched
+under Noircarmes. The Duchess had now arms in her hands, and her language
+was bold. La Torre advised the Reformers to be wise "while the rod was
+yet green and growing, lest it should be gathered for their backs; for it
+was unbecoming is subjects to make bargains with their King." There was
+hardly any decent pretext used in violating the Accord of the 24th
+August, so soon as the government was strong enough to break it. It was
+always said that the preachings suppressed, had not been established
+previously to that arrangement; but the preachings had in reality
+obtained almost every where, and were now universally abolished. The
+ridiculous quibble was also used that, in the preachings other religious
+exercises were not included, whereas it was notorious that they had never
+been separated. It is, however, a gratuitous task, to unravel the
+deceptions of tyranny when it hardly deigns to disguise itself. The
+dissimulations which have resisted the influence of centuries are more
+worthy of serious investigation, and of these the epoch offers us a
+sufficient supply.
+
+At the close of the year, the city of Tournay was completely subjugated
+and the reformed religion suppressed. Upon the 2nd day of January, 1567,
+the Seignior de Noircarmes arrived before the gates at the head of eleven
+companies, with orders from Duchess Margaret to strengthen the garrison
+and disarm the citizens. He gave the magistrates exactly one hour and a
+half to decide whether they would submit without a murmur. He expressed
+an intention of maintaining the Accord of 24th August; a ridiculous
+affectation under the circumstances, as the event proved. The notables
+were summoned, submission agreed upon, and within the prescribed time the
+magistrates came before Noircarmes, with an unconditional acceptance of
+his terms. That truculent personage told them, in reply, that they had
+done wisely, for if they had delayed receiving the garrison a minute
+longer, he would have instantly burned the city to ashes and put every
+one of the inhabitants to the sword. He had been fully authorized to do
+so, and subsequent events were to show, upon more than one dreadful
+occasion, how capable Noircarmes would have been of fulfilling this
+menace.
+
+The soldiers, who had made a forced march all night, and who had been
+firmly persuaded that the city would refuse the terms demanded, were
+excessively disappointed at being obliged to forego the sack and pillage
+upon which they had reckoned. Eight or nine hundred rascally peasants,
+too, who had followed in the skirts of the regiments, each provided with
+a great empty bag, which they expected to fill with booty which they
+might purchase of the soldiers, or steal in the midst of the expected
+carnage and rapine, shared the discontent of the soldiery, by whom they
+were now driven ignominiously out of the town.
+
+The citizens were immediately disarmed. All the fine weapons which they
+had been obliged to purchase at their own expense, when they had been
+arranged by the magistrates under eight banners, for defence of the city
+against tumult and invasion, were taken from them; the most beautiful
+cutlasses, carbines, poniards, and pistols, being divided by Noircarmes
+among his officers. Thus Tournay was tranquillized.
+
+During the whole of these proceedings in Flanders, and at Antwerp,
+Tournay, and Mechlin, the conduct of the Duchess had been marked with
+more than her usual treachery. She had been disavowing acts which the men
+upon whom she relied in her utmost need had been doing by her authority;
+she had been affecting to praise their conduct, while she was secretly
+misrepresenting their actions and maligning their motives, and she had
+been straining every nerve to make foreign levies, while attempting to
+amuse the confederates and sectaries with an affectation of clemency.
+
+When Orange complained that she had been censuring his proceedings at
+Antwerp, and holding language unfavorable to his character, she protested
+that she thoroughly approved his arrangements--excepting only the two
+points of the intramural preachings and the permission to heretics of
+other exercises than sermons--and that if she were displeased with him he
+might be sure that she would rather tell him so than speak ill of him
+behind his back. The Prince, who had been compelled by necessity, and
+fully authorized by the terms of the "Accord", to grant those two points
+which were the vital matter in his arrangements, answered very calmly,
+that he was not so frivolous as to believe in her having used language to
+his discredit had he not been quite certain of the fact, as he would soon
+prove by evidence. Orange was not the man to be deceived as to the
+position in which he stood, nor as to the character of those with whom he
+dealt. Margaret wrote, however, in the same vein concerning him to
+Hoogstmaten, affirming that nothing could be further from her intention
+than to characterize the proceedings of "her cousin, the Prince of
+Orange, as contrary to the service of his Majesty; knowing, as she did,
+how constant had been his affection, and how diligent his actions, in the
+cause of God and the King."
+
+She also sent councillor d'Assonleville on a special mission to the
+Prince, instructing that smooth personage to inform her said cousin of
+Orange that he was and always had been "loved and cherished by his
+Majesty, and that for herself she had ever loved him like a brother or a
+child."
+
+She wrote to Horn, approving of his conduct in the main, although in
+obscure terms, and expressing great confidence in his zeal, loyalty, and
+good intentions. She accorded the same praise to Hoogstraaten, while as
+to Egmont she was perpetually reproaching him for the suspicions which he
+seemed obstinately to entertain as to her disposition and that of Philip,
+in regard to his conduct and character.
+
+It has already been partly seen what were her private sentiments and
+secret representations as to the career of the distinguished personages
+thus encouraged and commended. Her pictures were painted in daily
+darkening colors. She told her brother that Orange, Egmont, and Horn were
+about to place themselves at the head of the confederates, who were to
+take up arms and had been levying troops; that the Lutheran religion was
+to be forcibly established, that the whole power of the government was to
+be placed in the triumvirate thus created by those seigniors, and that
+Philip was in reality to be excluded entirely from those provinces which
+were his ancient patrimony. All this information she had obtained from
+Mansfeld, at whom the nobles were constantly sneering as at a faithful
+valet who would never receive his wages.
+
+She also informed the King that the scheme for dividing the country was
+already arranged: that Augustus of Saxony was to have Friesland and
+Overyssel; Count Brederode, Holland; the Dukes of Cleves and Lorraine,
+Gueldres; the King of France, Flanders, Artois, and Hainault, of which
+territories Egmont was to be perpetual stadholder; the Prince of Orange,
+Brabant; and so on indefinitely. A general massacre of all the Catholics
+had been arranged by Orange, Horn, and Egmont, to commence as soon as the
+King should put his foot on shipboard to come to the country. This last
+remarkable fact Margaret reported to Philip, upon the respectable
+authority of Noircarmes.
+
+She apologized for having employed the service of these nobles, on the
+ground of necessity. Their proceedings in Flanders, at Antwerp, Tournay,
+Mechlin, had been highly reprehensible, and she had been obliged to
+disavow them in the most important particulars. As for Egmont, she had
+most unwillingly entrusted forces to his hands for the purpose of putting
+down the Flemish sectaries. She had been afraid to show a want of
+confidence in his character, but at the same time she believed that all
+soldiers under Egmont's orders would be so many enemies to the king.
+Notwithstanding his protestations of fidelity to the ancient religion and
+to his Majesty, she feared that he was busied with some great plot
+against God and the King. When we remember the ruthless manner in which
+the unfortunate Count had actually been raging against the sectaries, and
+the sanguinary proofs which he had been giving of his fidelity to "God
+and the King," it seems almost incredible that Margaret could have
+written down all these monstrous assertions.
+
+The Duchess gave, moreover, repeated warnings to her brother, that the
+nobles were in the habit of obtaining possession of all the
+correspondence between Madrid and Brussels; and that they spent a vast
+deal of money in order to read her own and Philip's most private letters.
+She warned him therefore, to be upon his guard, for she believed that
+almost all their despatches were read. Such being the cases and the tenor
+of those documents being what we have seen it to be, her complaints as to
+the incredulity of those seigniors to her affectionate protestations,
+seem quite wonderful.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX., Part 1., 1566
+
+   Position of Orange--The interview at Dendermonde--The supposititious
+   letters of Alava--Views of Egmont--Isolation of Orange--Conduct of
+   Egmont and of Horn--Confederacy, of the nobles dissolved--Weak
+   behavior of prominent personages----Watchfulness of Orange--
+   Convocation of States General demanded--Pamphlet of Orange--City of
+   Valenciennes refuses a garrison--Influence of La Grange and De Bray
+   --City, declared in a state of siege--Invested by Noircarmes--
+   Movements to relieve the place--Calvinists defeated at Lannoy and at
+   Waterlots--Elation of the government--The siege pressed more
+   closely--Cruelties practised upon the country people--Courage of the
+   inhabitants--Remonstrance to the Knights of the Fleece--Conduct of
+   Brederode--Orange at Amsterdam--New Oath demanded by Government--
+   Orange refuses--He offers his resignation of all offices--Meeting at
+   Breda--New "Request" of Brederode--He creates disturbances and
+   levies troops in Antwerp--Conduct of Hoogstraaten--Plans of
+   Brederode--Supposed connivance of Orange--Alarm at Brussels--
+   Tholouse at Ostrawell--Brederode in Holland--De Beauvoir defeats
+   Tholouse--Excitement at Antwerp--Determined conduct of Orange--Three
+   days' tumult at Antwerp suppressed by the wisdom and courage of
+   Orange.
+
+It is necessary to allude to certain important events contemporaneous
+with those recorded in the last chapter, that the reader may thoroughly
+understand the position of the leading personages in this great drama at
+the close of the year 1566.
+
+The Prince of Orange had, as we have seen, bean exerting all his energies
+faithfully to accomplish the pacification of the commercial metropolis,
+upon the basis assented to beforehand by the Duchess. He had established
+a temporary religious peace, by which alone at that crisis the gathering
+tempest could be averted; but he had permitted the law to take its course
+upon certain rioters, who had been regularly condemned by courts of
+justice. He had worked day and night--notwithstanding immense obstacles,
+calumnious misstatements, and conflicting opinions--to restore order out
+of chaos; he had freely imperilled his own life--dashing into a
+tumultuous mob on one occasion, wounding several with the halberd which
+he snatched from one of his guard, and dispersing almost with his single
+arm a dangerous and threatening insurrection--and he had remained in
+Antwerp, at the pressing solicitations of the magistracy, who represented
+that the lives of not a single ecclesiastic would be safe as soon as his
+back was turned, and that all the merchants would forthwith depart from
+the city. It was nevertheless necessary that he should make a personal
+visit to his government of Holland, where similar disorders had been
+prevailing, and where men of all ranks and parties were clamoring for
+their stadholder.
+
+Notwithstanding all his exertions however, he was thoroughly aware of the
+position in which he stood towards the government. The sugared phrases of
+Margaret, the deliberate commendation of the "benign and debonair"
+Philip, produced no effect upon this statesman, who was accustomed to
+look through and through men's actions to the core of their hearts. In
+the hearts of Philip and Margaret he already saw treachery and revenge
+indelibly imprinted. He had been especially indignant at the insult which
+the Duchess Regent had put upon him, by sending Duke Eric of Brunswick
+with an armed force into Holland in order to protect Gouda, Woerden, and
+other places within the Prince's own government. He was thoroughly
+conversant with the general tone in which the other seigniors and himself
+were described to their sovereign. He, was already convinced that the
+country was to be conquered by foreign mercenaries, and that his own
+life, with these of many other nobles, was to be sacrificed. The moment
+had arrived in which he was justified in looking about him for means of
+defence, both for himself and his country, if the King should be so
+insane as to carry out the purposes which the Prince suspected. The time
+was fast approaching in which a statesman placed upon such an elevation
+before the world as that which he occupied, would be obliged to choose
+his part for life. To be the unscrupulous tool of tyranny, a rebel, or an
+exile, was his necessary fate. To a man so prone to read the future, the
+moment for his choice seemed already arrived. Moreover, he thought it
+doubtful, and events were most signally to justify his doubts, whether he
+could be accepted as the instrument of despotism, even were he inclined
+to prostitute himself to such service. At this point, therefore,
+undoubtedly began the treasonable thoughts of William the Silent, if it
+be treason to attempt the protection of ancient and chartered liberties
+against a foreign oppressor. He despatched a private envoy to Egmont,
+representing the grave suspicions manifested by the Duchess in sending
+Duke Eric into Holland, and proposing that means should be taken into
+consideration for obviating the dangers with which the country was
+menaced. Catholics as well as Protestants, he intimated, were to be
+crushed in one universal conquest as soon as Philip had completed the
+formidable preparations which he was making for invading the provinces.
+For himself, he said, he would not remain in the land to witness the
+utter desolation of the people, nor to fall an unresisting victim to the
+vengeance which he foresaw. If, however, he might rely upon the
+co-operation of Egmont and Horn, he was willing, with the advice of the
+states-general, to risk preparations against the armed invasion of
+Spaniards by which the country was to be reduced to slavery. It was
+incumbent, however, upon men placed as they were, "not to let the grass
+grow under their feet;" and the moment for action was fast approaching.
+
+This was the scheme which Orange was willing to attempt. To make use of
+his own influence and that of his friends, to interpose between a
+sovereign insane with bigotry, and a people in a state of religious
+frenzy, to resist brutal violence if need should be by force, and to
+compel the sovereign to respect the charters which he had sworn to
+maintain, and which were far more ancient than his sovereignty; so much
+of treason did William of Orange already contemplate, for in no other way
+could he be loyal to his country and his own honor.
+
+Nothing came of this secret embassy, for Egmont's heart and fate were
+already fixed. Before Orange departed, however; for the north, where his
+presence in the Dutch provinces was now imperatively required, a
+memorable interview took place at Dendermonde between Orange, Horn,
+Egmont, Hoogstraaten, and Count Louis. The nature of this conference was
+probably similar to that of the secret mission from Orange to Egmont just
+recorded. It was not a long consultation. The gentlemen met at eleven
+o'clock, and conversed until dinner was ready, which was between twelve
+and one in the afternoon. They discussed the contents of a letter
+recently received by Horn from his brother Montigny at Segovia, giving a
+lively picture of Philip's fury at the recent events in the Netherlands,
+and expressing the Baron's own astonishment and indignation that it had
+been impossible for the seigniors to prevent such outrages as the public
+preaching, the image-breaking and the Accord. They had also some
+conversation concerning the dissatisfaction manifested by the Duchess at
+the proceedings of Count Horn at Tournay, and they read a very remarkable
+letter which had been furnished them, as having been written by the
+Spanish envoy in Paris, Don Francis of Alava, to Margaret of Parma. This
+letter was forged. At least the Regent, in her Italian correspondence,
+asserted it to be fictitious, and in those secret letters to Philip she
+usually told the truth. The astuteness of William of Orange had in this
+instance been deceived. The striking fidelity, however, with which the
+present and future policy of the government was sketched, the accuracy
+with which many unborn events were foreshadowed, together with the minute
+touches which gave an air of genuineness to the fictitious despatch,
+might well deceive even so sagacious an observer as the Prince.
+
+The letters alluded to the deep and long-settled hostility of Philip to
+Orange, Horn, and Egmont, as to a fact entirely within the writer's
+knowledge, and that of his correspondent, but urged upon the Duchess the
+assumption of an extraordinary degree of apparent cordiality in her
+intercourse with them. It was the King's intention to use them and to
+destroy them, said the writer, and it was the Regent's duty to second the
+design. "The tumults and troubles have not been without their secret
+concurrence," said the supposititious Alava, "and your Highness may rest
+assured that they will be the first upon whom his Majesty will seize, not
+to confer benefits, but to chastise them as they deserve. Your Highness,
+however, should show no symptom of displeasure, but should constantly
+maintain in their minds the idea that his Majesty considers them as the
+most faithful of his servants. While they are persuaded of this, they can
+be more easily used, but when the time comes, they will be treated in
+another manner. Your Highness may rest assured that his Majesty is not
+less inclined than your Highness that they should receive the punishment
+which they merit." The Duchess was furthermore recommended "to deal with
+the three seigniors according to the example of the Spanish Governments
+in its intercourse with the envoys, Bergen and Montigny, who are met with
+a smiling face, but who are closely watched, and who will never be
+permitted to leave Spain alive." The remainder of the letter alludes to
+supposed engagements between France and Spain for the extirpation of
+heresy, from which allusion to the generally accepted but mistaken notion
+as to the Bayonne conference, a decided proof seems to be furnished that
+the letter was not genuine. Great complaints, however, are made, as to
+the conduct of the Queen Regent, who is described as "a certain lady well
+known to her Highness, and as a person without faith, friendship, or
+truth; the most consummate hypocrite in the world." After giving
+instances of the duplicity manifested by Catherine de Medici, the writer
+continues: "She sends her little black dwarf to me upon frequent errands,
+in order that by means of this spy she may worm out my secrets. I am,
+however, upon my guard, and flatter myself that I learn more from him
+than she from me. She shall never be able to boast of having deceived a
+Spaniard."
+
+An extract or two from this very celebrated document seemed
+indispensable, because of the great importance attached to it, both at
+the Dendermonde Conference, and at the trials of Egmont and Horn. The
+contemporary writers of Holland had no doubt of its genuineness, and what
+is more remarkable, Strada, the historiographer of the Farnese family,
+after quoting Margaret's denial of the authenticity of the letter, coolly
+observes: "Whether this were only an invention of the conspirators, or
+actually a despatch from Alava, I shall not decide. It is certain,
+however, that the Duchess declared it to be false."
+
+Certainly, as we read the epistles, and observe how profoundly the writer
+seems to have sounded the deep guile of the Spanish Cabinet, and how
+distinctly events, then far in the future, are indicated, we are tempted
+to exclaim: "aut Alava, aut Diabolus;" either the envoy wrote the
+despatch, or Orange. Who else could look into the future, and into
+Philip's heart so unerringly?
+
+As the charge has never been made, so far as we are aware, against the
+Prince, it is superfluous to discuss the amount of immorality which
+should belong to such a deception. A tendency to employ stratagem in his
+warfare against Spain was, no doubt, a blemish upon his--high character.
+Before he is condemned, however, in the Court of Conscience, the
+ineffable wiles of the policy with which he had to combat must be
+thoroughly scanned, as well as the pure and lofty purpose for which his
+life's long battle was fought.
+
+There was, doubtless, some conversation at Dendermonde on the propriety
+or possibility of forcible resistance to a Spanish army, with which it
+seemed probable that Philip was about to invade the provinces, and take
+the lives of the leading nobles. Count Louis was in favor of making
+provision in Germany for the accomplishment of this purpose. It is also
+highly probable that the Prince may have encouraged the proposition. In
+the sense of his former communication to Egmont, he may have reasoned on
+the necessity of making levies to sustain the decisions of the
+states-general against violence. There is, however, no proof of any such
+fact. Egmont, at any rate, opposed the scheme, on the ground that "it was
+wrong to entertain any such ill opinion of so good a king as Philip, that
+he had never done any thing unjust towards his subjects, and that if any
+one was in fear, he had better leave the country."
+
+Egmont, moreover; doubted the authenticity of the letters from Alava, but
+agreed to carry them to Brussels, and to lay them before the Regent. That
+lady, when she saw them, warmly assured the Count that they were
+inventions.
+
+The Conference broke up after it had lasted an hour and a half. The
+nobles then went to dinner, at which other persons appear to have been
+present, and the celebrated Dendermonde meeting was brought to a close.
+After the repast was finished, each of the five nobles mounted his horse,
+and departed on his separate way.
+
+From this time forth the position of, these leading seigniors became more
+sharply defined. Orange was left in almost complete isolation. Without
+the assistance of Egmont, any effective resistance to the impending
+invasion from Spain seemed out of the question. The Count, however, had
+taken his irrevocable and fatal resolution. After various oscillations
+during the stormy period which had elapsed, his mind, notwithstanding all
+the disturbing causes by which it had hitherto been partially influenced,
+now pointed steadily to the point of loyalty. The guidance of that pole
+star was to lead him to utter shipwreck. The unfortunate noble,
+entrenched against all fear of Philip by the brazen wall of an easy
+conscience; saw no fault in his past at which he should grow pale with
+apprehension. Moreover, he was sanguine by nature, a Catholic in
+religion, a royalist from habit and conviction. Henceforth he was
+determined that his services to the crown should more than counterbalance
+any idle speeches or insolent demonstrations of which he might have been
+previously guilty.
+
+Horn pursued a different course, but one which separated him also from
+the Prince, while it led to the same fate which Egmont was blindly
+pursuing.--The Admiral had committed no act of treason. On the contrary,
+he had been doing his best, under most difficult circumstances, to avert
+rebellion and save the interests of a most ungrateful sovereign. He was
+now disposed to wrap himself in his virtue, to retreat from a court life,
+for which he had never felt a vocation, and to resign all connection with
+a government by which he felt himself very badly, treated. Moody,
+wrathful, disappointed, ruined, and calumniated, he would no longer keep
+terms with King or Duchess. He had griefs of long standing against the
+whole of the royal family. He had never forgiven the Emperor for refusing
+him, when young, the appointment of chamberlain. He had served Philip
+long and faithfully, but he had never received a stiver of salary or
+"merced," notwithstanding all his work as state councillor, as admiral,
+as superintendent in Spain; while his younger brother had long been in
+receipt of nine or ten thousand florins yearly. He had spent four hundred
+thousand florins in the King's service; his estates were mortgaged to
+their full value; he had been obliged to sell, his family plate. He had
+done his best in Tourney to serve the Duchess, and he had averted the
+"Sicilian vespers," which had been imminent at his arrival. He had saved
+the Catholics from a general massacre, yet he heard nevertheless from
+Montigny, that all his actions were distorted in Spain, and his motives
+blackened. His heart no longer inclined him to continue in Philip's
+service, even were he furnished with the means of doing so. He had
+instructed his secretary, Alonzo de la Loo, whom he had despatched many
+months previously to Madrid, that he was no longer to press his master's
+claims for a "merced," but to signify that he abandoned all demands and
+resigned all posts. He could turn hermit for the rest of his days, as
+well as the Emperor Charles. If he had little, he could live upon little.
+It was in this sense that he spoke to Margaret of Parma, to Assonleville,
+to all around him. It was precisely in this strain and temper that he
+wrote to Philip, indignantly defending his course at Tourney, protesting
+against the tortuous conduct of the Duchess, and bluntly declaring that
+he would treat no longer with ladies upon matters which concerned a man's
+honor.
+
+Thus, smarting under a sense of gross injustice, the Admiral expressed
+himself in terms which Philip was not likely to forgive. He had
+undertaken the pacification of Tournay, because it was Montigny's
+government, and he had promised his services whenever they should be
+requisite. Horn was a loyal and affectionate brother, and it is pathetic
+to find him congratulating Montigny on being, after all, better off in
+Spain than in the Netherlands. Neither loyalty nor the sincere
+Catholicism for which Montigny at this period commended Horn in his
+private letters, could save the two brothers from the doom which was now
+fast approaching.
+
+Thus Horn, blind as Egmont--not being aware that a single step beyond
+implicit obedience had created an impassable gulf between Philip and
+himself--resolved to meet his destiny in sullen retirement. Not an
+entirely disinterested man, perhaps, but an honest one, as the world
+went, mediocre in mind, but brave, generous, and direct of purpose,
+goaded by the shafts of calumny, hunted down by the whole pack which
+fawned upon power as it grew more powerful, he now retreated to his
+"desert," as he called his ruined home at Weert, where he stood at bay,
+growling defiance at the Regent, at Philip, at all the world.
+
+Thus were the two prominent personages upon whose co-operation Orange had
+hitherto endeavored to rely, entirely separated from him. The confederacy
+of nobles, too, was dissolved, having accomplished little,
+notwithstanding all its noisy demonstrations, and having lost all credit
+with the people by the formal cessation of the Compromise in consequence
+of the Accord of August. As a body, they had justified the sarcasm of
+Hubert Languet, that "the confederated nobles had ruined their country by
+their folly and incapacity." They had profaned a holy cause by indecent
+orgies, compromised it by seditious demonstrations, abandoned it when
+most in need of assistance. Bakkerzeel had distinguished himself by
+hanging sectaries in Flanders. "Golden Fleece" de Hammes, after creating
+great scandal in and about Antwerp, since the Accord, had ended by
+accepting an artillery commission in the Emperor's army, together with
+three hundred crowns for convoy from Duchess Margaret. Culemburg was
+serving the cause of religious freedom by defacing the churches within
+his ancestral domains, pulling down statues, dining in chapels and giving
+the holy wafer to his parrot. Nothing could be more stupid than these
+acts of irreverence, by which Catholics were offended and honest patriots
+disgusted. Nothing could be more opposed to the sentiments of Orange,
+whose first principle was abstinence by all denominations of Christians
+from mutual insults. At the same time, it is somewhat revolting to
+observe the indignation with which such offences were regarded by men of
+the most abandoned character. Thus, Armenteros, whose name was synonymous
+with government swindling, who had been rolling up money year after year,
+by peculations, auctioneering of high posts in church and state, bribes,
+and all kinds of picking and stealing, could not contain his horror as he
+referred to wafers eaten by parrots, or "toasted on forks" by renegade
+priests; and poured out his emotions on the subject into the faithful
+bosom of Antonio Perez, the man with whose debaucheries, political
+villanies, and deliberate murders all Europe was to ring.
+
+No doubt there were many individuals in the confederacy for whom it was
+reserved to render honorable service in the national cause. The names of
+Louis Nassau, Mamix of St. Aldegonde, Bernard de Merode, were to be
+written in golden letters in their country's rolls; but at this moment
+they were impatient, inconsiderate, out of the control of Orange. Louis
+was anxious for the King to come from Spain with his army, and for "the
+bear dance to begin." Brederode, noisy, bawling, and absurd as ever, was
+bringing ridicule upon the national cause by his buffoonery, and
+endangering the whole people by his inadequate yet rebellious exertions.
+
+What course was the Prince of Orange to adopt? He could find no one to
+comprehend his views. He felt certain at the close of the year that the
+purpose of the government was fixed. He made no secret of his
+determination never to lend himself as an instrument for the contemplated
+subjugation of the people. He had repeatedly resigned all his offices. He
+was now determined that the resignation once for all should be accepted.
+If he used dissimulation, it was because Philip's deception permitted no
+man to be frank. If the sovereign constantly disavowed all hostile
+purposes against his people, and manifested extreme affection for the men
+whom he had already doomed to the scaffold, how could the Prince openly
+denounce him? It was his duty to save his country and his friends from
+impending ruin. He preserved, therefore, an attitude of watchfulness.
+Philip, in the depth of his cabinet, was under a constant inspection by
+the sleepless Prince. The sovereign assured his sister that her
+apprehensions about their correspondence was groundless. He always locked
+up his papers, and took the key with him. Nevertheless, the key was taken
+out of his pocket and the papers read. Orange was accustomed to observe,
+that men of leisure might occupy themselves with philosophical pursuits
+and with the secrets of nature, but that it was his business to study the
+hearts of kings. He knew the man and the woman with whom he had to deal.
+We have seen enough of the policy secretly pursued by Philip and Margaret
+to appreciate the accuracy with which the Prince, groping as it were in
+the dark, had judged the whole situation. Had his friends taken his
+warnings, they might have lived to render services against tyranny. Had
+he imitated their example of false loyalty, there would have been one
+additional victim, more illustrious than all the rest, and a whole
+country hopelessly enslaved.
+
+It is by keeping these considerations in view, that we can explain his
+connection with such a man as Brederode. The enterprises of that noble,
+of Tholouse, and others, and the resistance of Valenciennes, could hardly
+have been prevented even by the opposition of the Prince. But why should
+he take the field against men who, however rashly or ineffectually, were
+endeavoring to oppose tyranny, when he knew himself already proscribed
+and doomed by the tyrant? Such loyalty he left to Egmont. Till late in
+the autumn, he had still believed in the possibility of convoking the
+states-general, and of making preparations in Germany to enforce their
+decrees.
+
+The confederates and sectaries had boasted that they could easily raise
+an army of sixty thousand men within the provinces,--that twelve hundred
+thousand florins monthly would be furnished by the rich merchants of
+Antwerp, and that it was ridiculous to suppose that the German
+mercenaries enrolled by the Duchess in Saxony, Hesse, and other
+Protestant countries, would ever render serious assistance against the
+adherents of the reformed religion. Without placing much confidence in
+such exaggerated statements, the Prince might well be justified in
+believing himself strong enough, if backed by the confederacy, by Egmont,
+and by his own boundless influence, both at Antwerp and in his own
+government, to sustain the constituted authorities of the nation even
+against a Spanish army, and to interpose with legitimate and irresistible
+strength between the insane tyrant and the country which he was preparing
+to crush. It was the opinion of the best informed Catholics that, if
+Egmont should declare for the confederacy, he could take the field with
+sixty thousand men, and make himself master of the whole country at a
+blow. In conjunction with Orange, the moral and physical force would have
+been invincible.
+
+It was therefore not Orange alone, but the Catholics and Protestants
+alike, the whole population of the country, and the Duchess Regent
+herself, who desired the convocation of the estates. Notwithstanding
+Philip's deliberate but secret determination never to assemble that body,
+although the hope was ever to be held out that they should be convened,
+Margaret had been most importunate that her brother should permit the
+measure. "There was less danger," she felt herself compelled to say, "in
+assembling than in not assembling the States; it was better to preserve
+the Catholic religion for a part of the country, than to lose it
+altogether." "The more it was delayed," she said, "the more ruinous and
+desperate became the public affairs. If the measure were postponed much
+longer, all Flanders, half Brabant, the whole of Holland, Zeland,
+Gueldrea, Tournay, Lille, Mechlin, would be lost forever, without a
+chance of ever restoring the ancient religion." The country, in short,
+was "without faith, King, or law," and nothing worse could be apprehended
+from any deliberation of the states-general. These being the opinions of
+the Duchess, and according to her statement those of nearly all the good
+Catholics in the country, it could hardly seem astonishing or treasonable
+that the Prince should also be in favor of the measure.
+
+As the Duchess grew stronger, however, and as the people, aghast at the
+fate of Tournay and Valenciennes, began to lose courage, she saw less
+reason for assembling the states. Orange, on the other hand, completely
+deserted by Egmont and Horn, and having little confidence in the
+characters of the ex-confederates, remained comparatively quiescent but
+watchful.
+
+At the close of the year, an important pamphlet from his hand was
+circulated, in which his views as to the necessity of allowing some
+degree of religious freedom were urged upon the royal government with his
+usual sagacity of thought, moderation of language, and modesty in tone.
+The man who had held the most important civil and military offices in the
+country almost from boyhood, and who was looked up to by friend and foe
+as the most important personage in the three millions of its inhabitants,
+apologized for his "presumption" in coming forward publicly with his
+advice. "I would not," he said, "in matters of such importance, affect to
+be wiser or to make greater pretensions than my age or experience
+warrants, yet seeing affairs in such perplexity, I will rather incur the
+risk of being charged with forwardness than neglect that which I consider
+my duty."
+
+This, then, was the attitude of the principal personages in the
+Netherlands, and the situation of affairs at the end of the eventful year
+1566, the last year of peace which the men then living or their children
+were to know. The government, weak at the commencement, was strong at the
+close. The confederacy was broken and scattered. The Request, the beggar
+banquets, the public preaching, the image-breaking, the Accord of August,
+had been followed by reaction. Tournay had accepted its garrison. Egmont,
+completely obedient to the crown, was compelling all the cities of
+Flanders and Artois to receive soldiers sufficient to maintain implicit
+obedience, and to extinguish all heretical demonstrations, so that the
+Regent was at comparative leisure to effect the reduction of
+Valenciennes.
+
+This ancient city, in the province of Hainault, and on the frontier of
+France, had been founded by the Emperor Valentinian, from whom it had
+derived its name. Originally established by him as a city of refuge, it
+had received the privilege of affording an asylum to debtors, to outlaws,
+and even to murderers. This ancient right had been continued, under
+certain modifications, even till the period with which we are now
+occupied. Never, however, according to the government, had the right of
+asylum, even in the wildest times, been so abused by the city before.
+What were debtors, robbers, murderers, compared to heretics? yet these
+worst enemies of their race swarmed in the rebellious city, practising
+even now the foulest rites of Calvin, and obeying those most pestilential
+of all preachers, Guido de Bray, and Peregrine de la Grange. The place
+was the hot-bed of heresy and sedition, and it seemed to be agreed, as by
+common accord, that the last struggle for what was called the new
+religion, should take place beneath its walls.
+
+Pleasantly situated in a fertile valley, provided with very strong
+fortifications and very deep moats, Valenciennes, with the Scheld flowing
+through its centre, and furnishing the means of laying the circumjacent
+meadows under water, was considered in those days almost impregnable. The
+city was summoned, almost at the same time as Tournay, to accept a
+garrison. This demand of government was met by a peremptory refusal.
+Noircarmes, towards the middle of December, ordered the magistrates to
+send a deputation to confer with him at Conde. Pensionary Outreman
+accordingly repaired to that neighboring city, accompanied by some of his
+colleagues. This committee was not unfavorable to the demands of
+government. The magistracies of the cities, generally, were far from
+rebellious; but in the case of Valenciennes the real power at that moment
+was with the Calvinist consistory, and the ministers. The deputies, after
+their return from Conde, summoned the leading members of the reformed
+religion, together with the preachers. It was urged that it was their
+duty forthwith to use their influence in favor of the demand made by the
+government upon the city.
+
+"May I grow mute as a fish!" answered de la Grange, stoutly, "may the
+tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, before I persuade my people to
+accept a garrison of cruel mercenaries, by whom their rights of
+conscience are to be trampled upon!"
+
+Councillor Outreman reasoned with the fiery minister, that if he and his
+colleague were afraid of their own lives, ample provision should be made
+with government for their departure under safe conduct. La Grange replied
+that he had no fears for himself, that the Lord would protect those who
+preached and those who believed in his holy word, but that He would not
+forgive them should they now bend their necks to His enemies.
+
+It was soon very obvious that no arrangement could be made. The
+magistrates could exert no authority, the preachers were all-powerful;
+and the citizens, said a Catholic inhabitant of Valenciennes, "allowed
+themselves to be led by their ministers like oxen." Upon the 17th
+December, 1566, a proclamation was accordingly issued by the Duchess
+Regent, declaring the city in a state of siege, and all its inhabitants
+rebels. The crimes for which this penalty was denounced, were elaborately
+set forth in the edict. Preaching according to the reformed religion had
+been permitted in two or three churches, the sacrament according to the
+Calvinistic manner had been publicly administered, together with a
+renunciation by the communicants of their adhesion to the Catholic
+Church, and now a rebellious refusal to receive the garrison sent to them
+by the Duchess had been added to the list of their iniquities. For
+offences like these the Regent deemed it her duty to forbid all
+inhabitants of any city, village, or province of the Netherlands holding
+communication with Valenciennes, buying or selling with its inhabitants,
+or furnishing them with provisions; on pain of being considered
+accomplices in their rebellion, and as such of being executed with the
+halter.
+
+The city was now invested by Noircarmes with all the troops which could
+be spared. The confederates gave promises of assistance to the
+beleaguered citizens, Orange privately encouraged them to holdout in
+their legitimate refusal. Brederode and others busied themselves with
+hostile demonstrations which were destined to remain barren; but in the
+mean time the inhabitants had nothing to rely upon save their own stout
+hearts and arms.
+
+At first, the siege was sustained with a light heart. Frequent sallies
+were made, smart skirmishes were ventured, in which the Huguenots, on the
+testimony of a most bitter Catholic contemporary, conducted themselves
+with the bravery of veteran troops, and as if they had done nothing all
+their lives but fight; forays were made upon the monasteries of the
+neighborhood for the purpose of procuring supplies, and the broken
+statues of the dismantled churches were used to build a bridge across an
+arm of the river, which was called in derision the Bridge of Idols.
+Noircarmes and the six officers under him, who were thought to be
+conducting their operations with languor, were christened the Seven
+Sleepers. Gigantic spectacles, three feet in circumference, were planted
+derisively upon the ramparts, in order that the artillery, which it was
+said that the papists of Arras were sending, might be seen, as soon as it
+should arrive. Councillor Outreman, who had left the city before the
+siege, came into it again, on commission from Noircarmes. He was received
+with contempt, his proposals on behalf of the government were answered
+with outcries of fury; he was pelted with stones, and was very glad to
+make his escape alive. The pulpits thundered with the valiant deeds of
+Joshua, Judas Maccabeus, and other bible heroes. The miracles wrought in
+their behalf served to encourage the enthusiasm of the people, while the
+movements making at various points in the neighborhood encouraged a hope
+of a general rising throughout the country.
+
+Those hopes were destined to disappointment. There were large assemblages
+made, to be sure, at two points. Nearly three thousand sectaries had been
+collected at Lannoy under Pierre Comaille, who, having been a locksmith
+and afterwards a Calvinist preacher, was now disposed to try his fortune
+as a general. His band was, however, disorderly. Rustics armed with
+pitchforks, young students and old soldiers out of employment, furnished
+with rusty matchlocks, pikes and halberds, composed his force. A company
+similar in character, and already amounting to some twelve hundred in
+number, was collecting at Waterlots. It was hoped that an imposing array
+would soon be assembled, and that the two bands, making a junction, would
+then march to the relief of Valenciennes. It was boasted that in a very
+short time, thirty thousand men would be in the field. There was even a
+fear of some such result felt by the Catholics.
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     1566, the last year of peace
+     Dissenters were as bigoted as the orthodox
+     If he had little, he could live upon little
+     Incur the risk of being charged with forwardness than neglect
+     Not to let the grass grow under their feet
+
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, PG EDITION, VOLUME 13.
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
+
+By JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
+1855
+
+1567 [CHAPTER IX., Part 2.]
+
+   Calvinists defeated at Lannoy and at Waterlots--Elation of the
+   government--The siege pressed more closely--Cruelties practised upon
+   the country people--Courage of the inhabitants--Remonstrance to the
+   Knights of the Fleece--Conduct of Brederode--Orange at Amsterdam--
+   New Oath demanded by Government--Orange refuses--He offers his
+   resignation of all offices--Meeting at Breda--New "Request" of
+   Brederode--He creates disturbances and levies troops in Antwerp--
+   Conduct of Hoogstraaten--Plans of Brederode--Supposed connivance of
+   Orange--Alarm at Brussels--Tholouse at Ostrawell--Brederode in
+   Holland--De Beauvoir defeats Tholouse--Excitement at Antwerp--
+   Determined conduct of Orange--Three days' tumult at Antwerp
+   suppressed by the wisdom and courage of Orange.
+
+It was then that Noircarmes and his "seven sleepers" showed that they
+were awake. Early in January, 1567, that fierce soldier, among whose
+vices slothfulness was certainly never reckoned before or afterwards,
+fell upon the locksmith's army at Zannoy, while the Seigneur de
+Rassinghem attacked the force at Waterlots on the same day. Noircarmes
+destroyed half his enemies at the very first charge. The ill-assorted
+rabble fell asunder at once. The preacher fought well, but his
+undisciplined force fled at the first sight of the enemy. Those who
+carried arquebusses threw them down without a single discharge, that they
+might run the faster. At least a thousand were soon stretched dead upon
+the field; others were hunted into the river. Twenty-six hundred,
+according to the Catholic accounts, were exterminated in an hour.
+
+Rassinghem, on his part, with five or six hundred regulars, attacked
+Teriel's force, numbering at least twice as many. Half of these were soon
+cut to pieces and put to flight. Six hundred, however, who had seen some
+service, took refuge in the cemetery of Waterlots. Here, from behind the
+stone wall of the inclosure, they sustained the attack of the Catholics
+with some spirit. The repose of the dead in the quiet country church-yard
+was disturbed by the uproar of a most sanguinary conflict. The temporary
+fort was soon carried, and the Huguenots retreated into the church. A
+rattling arquebusade was poured in upon them as they struggled in the
+narrow doorway. At least four hundred corpses were soon strewn among the
+ancient graves. The rest were hunted, into the church, and from the
+church into the belfry. A fire was then made in the steeple and kept up
+till all were roasted or suffocated. Not a man escaped.
+
+This was the issue in the first stricken field in the Netherlands, for
+the cause of religious liberty. It must be confessed that it was not very
+encouraging to the lovers of freedom. The partisans of government were
+elated, in proportion to the apprehension which had been felt for the
+result of this rising in the Walloon country. "These good hypocrites,"
+wrote a correspondent of Orange, "are lifting up their heads like so many
+dromedaries. They are becoming unmanageable with pride." The Duke of
+Aerschot and Count Meghem gave great banquets in Brussels, where all the
+good chevaliers drank deep in honor of the victory, and to the health of
+his Majesty and Madame. "I saw Berlaymont just go by the window," wrote
+Schwartz to the Prince. "He was coming from Aerschot's dinner with a face
+as red as the Cardinal's new hat."
+
+On the other hand, the citizens of Valenciennes were depressed in equal
+measure with the exultation of their antagonists. There was no more talk
+of seven sleepers now, no more lunettes stuck upon lances, to spy the
+coming forces of the enemy. It was felt that the government was wide
+awake, and that the city would soon see the impending horrors without
+telescopes. The siege was pressed more closely. Noircarmes took up a
+commanding position at Saint Armand, by which he was enabled to cut off
+all communication between the city and the surrounding country. All the
+villages in the neighborhood were pillaged; all the fields laid waste.
+All the infamies which an insolent soldiery can inflict upon helpless
+peasantry were daily enacted. Men and women who attempted any
+communication--with the city, were murdered in cold blood by hundreds.
+The villagers were plundered of their miserable possessions, children
+were stripped naked in the midst of winter for the sake of the rags which
+covered them; matrons and virgins were sold at public auction by the tap
+of drum; sick and wounded wretches were burned over slow fires, to afford
+amusement to the soldiers. In brief, the whole unmitigated curse which
+military power inflamed by religious bigotry can embody, had descended
+upon the heads of these unfortunate provincials who had dared to worship
+God in Christian churches without a Roman ritual.
+
+Meantime the city maintained, a stout heart still. The whole population
+were arranged under different banners. The rich and poor alike took arms
+to defend the walls which sheltered them. The town paupers were enrolled
+in three companies, which bore the significant title of the "Tons-nulls"
+or the "Stark-nakeds," and many was the fierce conflict delivered outside
+the gates by men, who, in the words of a Catholic then in the city, might
+rather be taken for "experienced veterans than for burghers and
+artisans." At the same time, to the honor of Valenciennes, it must be
+stated, upon the same incontestable authority, that not a Catholic in the
+city was injured or insulted. The priests who had remained there were not
+allowed to say mass, but they never met with an opprobrious word or look
+from the people.
+
+The inhabitants of the city called upon the confederates for assistance.
+They also issued an address to the Knights of the Fleece; a paper which
+narrated the story of their wrongs in pathetic and startling language.
+They appealed to those puissant and illustrious chevaliers to prevent the
+perpetration of the great wrong which was now impending over so many
+innocent heads. "Wait not," they said, "till the thunderbolt has fallen,
+till the deluge has overwhelmed us, till the fires already blazing have
+laid the land in coals and ashes, till no other course be possible, but
+to abandon the country in its desolation to foreign barbarity. Let the
+cause of the oppressed come to your ears. So shall your conscience become
+a shield of iron; so shall the happiness of a whole country witness
+before the angels, of your truth to his Majesty, in the cause of his true
+grandeur and glory."
+
+These stirring appeals to an order of which Philip was chief, Viglius
+chancellor, Egmont, Mansfeld, Aerschot, Berlaymont, and others,
+chevaliers, were not likely to produce much effect. The city could rely
+upon no assistance in those high quarters.
+
+Meantime, however, the bold Brederode was attempting a very extensive
+diversion, which, if successful, would have saved Valenciennes and the
+whole country beside. That eccentric personage, during the autumn and
+winter had been creating disturbances in various parts of the country.
+Wherever he happened to be established, there came from the windows of
+his apartments a sound of revelry and uproar. Suspicious characters in
+various costumes thronged his door and dogged his footsteps. At the same
+time the authorities felt themselves obliged to treat him with respect.
+At Horn he had entertained many of the leading citizens at a great
+banquet.--The-health-of-the-beggars had been drunk in mighty potations,
+and their shibboleth had resounded through the house. In the midst of the
+festivities, Brederode had suspended a beggar's-medal around the neck of
+the burgomaster, who had consented to be his guest upon that occasion,
+but who had no intention of enrolling himself in the fraternities of
+actual or political mendicants. The excellent magistrate, however, was
+near becoming a member of both. The emblem by which he had been
+conspicuously adorned proved very embarrassing to him upon his recovery
+from the effects of his orgies with the "great beggar," and he was
+subsequently punished for his imprudence by the confiscation of half his
+property.
+
+Early in January, Brederode had stationed himself in his city of Viane.
+There, in virtue of his seignorial rights, he had removed all statues and
+other popish emblems from the churches, performing the operation,
+however, with much quietness and decorum. He had also collected many
+disorderly men at arms in this city, and had strengthened its
+fortifications, to resist, as he said, the threatened attacks of Duke
+Eric of Brunswick and his German mercenaries. A printing-press was
+established in the place, whence satirical pamphlets, hymn-books, and
+other pestiferous productions, were constantly issuing to the annoyance
+of government. Many lawless and uproarious individuals enjoyed the
+Count's hospitality. All the dregs and filth of the provinces, according
+to Doctor Viglius, were accumulated at Viane as in a cesspool. Along the
+placid banks of the Lech, on which river the city stands, the "hydra of
+rebellion" lay ever coiled and threatening.
+
+Brederode was supposed to be revolving vast schemes, both political and
+military, and Margaret of Parma was kept in continual apprehension by the
+bravado of this very noisy conspirator. She called upon William of
+Orange, as usual, for assistance. The Prince, however, was very
+ill-disposed to come to her relief. An extreme disgust for the policy of
+the government already began to, characterize his public language. In the
+autumn and winter he had done all that man could do for the safety of the
+monarch's crown, and for the people's happiness. His services in Antwerp
+have been recorded. As soon as he could tear himself from that city,
+where the magistrates and all classes of citizens clung to him as to
+their only saviour, he had hastened to tranquillize the provinces of
+Holland, Zeland, and Utrecht. He had made arrangements in the principal
+cities there upon the same basis which he had adopted in Antwerp, and to
+which Margaret had consented in August. It was quite out of the question
+to establish order without permitting the reformers, who constituted much
+the larger portion of the population, to have liberty of religious
+exercises at some places, not consecrated, within the cities.
+
+At Amsterdam, for instance, as he informed the Duchess, there were swarms
+of unlearned, barbarous people, mariners and the like, who could by no
+means perceive the propriety of doing their preaching in the open
+country, seeing that the open country, at that season, was quite under
+water.--Margaret's gracious suggestion that, perhaps, something might be
+done with boats, was also considered inadmissible. "I know not," said
+Orange, "who could have advised your highness to make such a
+proposition." He informed her, likewise; that the barbarous mariners had
+a clear right to their preaching; for the custom had already been
+established previously to the August treaty, at a place called the
+"Lastadge," among the wharves. "In the name of God, then," wrote
+Margaret; "let them continue to preach in the Lastadge." This being all
+the barbarians wanted, an Accord, with the full consent of the Regent,
+was drawn up at Amsterdam and the other northern cities. The Catholics
+kept churches and cathedrals, but in the winter season, the greater part
+of the population obtained permission to worship God upon dry land, in
+warehouses and dock-yards.
+
+Within a very few weeks, however, the whole arrangement was coolly
+cancelled by the Duchess, her permission revoked, and peremptory
+prohibition of all preaching within or without the walls proclaimed. The
+government was growing stronger. Had not Noircarmes and Rassinghem cut to
+pieces three or four thousand of these sectaries marching to battle under
+parsons, locksmiths, and similar chieftains? Were not all lovers of good
+government "erecting their heads like dromedaries?"
+
+It may easily be comprehended that the Prince could not with complacency
+permit himself to be thus perpetually stultified by a weak, false, and
+imperious woman. She had repeatedly called upon him when she was appalled
+at the tempest and sinking in the ocean; and she had as constantly
+disavowed his deeds and reviled his character when she felt herself in
+safety again. He had tranquillized the old Batavian provinces, where the
+old Batavian spirit still lingered, by his personal influence and his
+unwearied exertions. Men of all ranks and religions were grateful for his
+labors. The Reformers had not gained much, but they were satisfied. The
+Catholics retained their churches, their property, their consideration.
+The states of Holland had voted him fifty thousand florins, as an
+acknowledgment of his efforts in restoring peace. He had refused the
+present. He was in debt, pressed for money, but he did not choose, as he
+informed Philip, "that men should think his actions governed by motives
+of avarice or particular interest, instead of the true affection which he
+bore to his Majesty's service and the good of the country." Nevertheless,
+his back was hardly turned before all his work was undone by the Regent.
+
+A new and important step on the part of the government had now placed him
+in an attitude of almost avowed rebellion. All functionaries, from
+governors of provinces down to subalterns in the army, were required to
+take a new oath of allegiance, "novum et hactenua inusitatum religionia
+juramentum," as the Prince characterized it, which was, he said, quite
+equal to the inquisition. Every man who bore his Majesty's commission was
+ordered solemnly to pledge himself to obey the orders of government,
+every where, and against every person, without limitation or
+restriction.--Count Mansfeld, now "factotum at Brussels," had taken the
+oath with great fervor. So had Aerachot, Berlaymont, Meghem, and, after a
+little wavering, Egmont. Orange spurned the proposition. He had taken
+oaths enough which he had never broken, nor intended now to break: He was
+ready still to do every thing conducive to the real interest of the
+monarch. Who dared do more was no true servant to the government, no true
+lover of the country. He would never disgrace himself by a blind pledge,
+through which he might be constrained to do acts detrimental, in his
+opinion, to the safety of the crown, the happiness of the commonwealth,
+and his own honor. The alternative presented he willingly embraced. He
+renounced all his offices, and desired no longer to serve a government
+whose policy he did not approve, a King by whom he was suspected.
+
+His resignation was not accepted by the Duchess, who still made efforts
+to retain the services of a man who was necessary to her administration.
+She begged him, notwithstanding the purely defensive and watchful
+attitude which he had now assumed, to take measures that Brederode should
+abandon his mischievous courses. She also reproached the Prince with
+having furnished that personage with artillery for his fortifications.
+Orange answered, somewhat contemptuously, that he was not Brederode's
+keeper, and had no occasion to meddle with his affairs. He had given him
+three small field-pieces, promised long ago; not that he mentioned that
+circumstance as an excuse for the donation. "Thank God," said he, "we
+have always had the liberty in this country of making to friends or
+relatives what presents we liked, and methinks that things have come to a
+pretty pass when such trifles are scrutinized." Certainly, as Suzerain of
+Viane, and threatened with invasion in his seignorial rights, the Count
+might think himself justified in strengthening the bulwarks of his little
+stronghold, and the Prince could hardly be deemed very seriously to
+endanger the safety of the crown by the insignificant present which had
+annoyed the Regent.
+
+It is not so agreeable to contemplate the apparent intimacy which the
+Prince accorded to so disreputable a character, but Orange was now in
+hostility to the government, was convinced by evidence, whose accuracy
+time was most signally to establish, that his own head, as well as many
+others, were already doomed to the block, while the whole country was
+devoted to abject servitude, and he was therefore disposed to look with
+more indulgence upon the follies of those who were endeavoring, however
+weakly and insanely, to avert the horrors which he foresaw. The time for
+reasoning had passed. All that true wisdom and practical statesmanship
+could suggest, he had already placed at the disposal of a woman who
+stabbed him in the back even while she leaned upon his arm--of a king who
+had already drawn his death warrant, while reproaching his "cousin of
+Orange" for want of confidence in the royal friendship. Was he now to
+attempt the subjugation of his country by interfering with the
+proceedings of men whom he had no power to command, and who, at least,
+were attempting to oppose tyranny? Even if he should do so, he was
+perfectly aware of the reward, reserved for his loyalty. He liked not
+such honors as he foresaw for all those who had ever interposed between
+the monarch and his vengeance. For himself he had the liberation of a
+country, the foundation of a free commonwealth to achieve. There was much
+work for those hands before he should fall a victim to the crowned
+assassin.
+
+Early in February, Brederode, Hoogstraaten, Horn, and some other
+gentlemen, visited the Prince at Breda. Here it is supposed the advice of
+Orange was asked concerning the new movement contemplated by Brederode.
+He was bent upon presenting a new petition to the Duchess with great
+solemnity. There is no evidence to show that the Prince approved the
+step, which must have seemed to him superfluous, if not puerile. He
+probably regarded the matter with indifference. Brederode, however, who
+was fond of making demonstrations, and thought himself endowed with a
+genius for such work, wrote to the Regent for letters of safe conduct
+that he might come to Brussels with his petition. The passports were
+contemptuously refused. He then came to Antwerp, from which city he
+forwarded the document to Brussels in a letter.
+
+By this new Request, the exercise of the reformed religion was claimed as
+a right, while the Duchess was summoned to disband the forces which she
+had been collecting, and to maintain in good faith the "August" treaty.
+These claims were somewhat bolder than those of the previous April,
+although the liberal party was much weaker and the confederacy entirely
+disbanded. Brederode, no doubt, thought it good generalship to throw the
+last loaf of bread into the enemy's camp before the city should
+surrender. His haughty tone was at once taken down by Margaret of Parma.
+"She wondered," she said, "what manner of nobles these were, who, after
+requesting, a year before, to be saved only from the inquisition, now
+presumed to talk about preaching in the cities." The concessions of
+August had always been odious, and were now canceled. "As for you and
+your accomplices," she continued to the Count, "you will do well to go to
+your homes at once without meddling with public affairs, for, in case of
+disobedience, I shall deal with you as I shall deem expedient."
+
+Brederode not easily abashed, disregarded the advice, and continued in
+Antwerp. Here, accepting the answer of the Regent as a formal declaration
+of hostilities, he busied himself in levying troops in and about the
+city.
+
+Orange had returned to Antwerp early in February. During his absence,
+Hoogstraaten had acted as governor at the instance of the Prince and of
+the Regent. During the winter that nobleman, who was very young and very
+fiery, had carried matters with a high hand, whenever there had been the
+least attempt at sedition. Liberal in principles, and the devoted friend
+of Orange, he was disposed however to prove that the champions of
+religious liberty were not the patrons of sedition. A riot occurring in
+the cathedral, where a violent mob were engaged in defacing whatever was
+left to deface in that church, and in heaping insults on the papists at
+their worship, the little Count, who, says a Catholic contemporary, "had
+the courage of a lion," dashed in among them, sword in hand, killed three
+upon the spot, and, aided by his followers, succeeded in slaying,
+wounding, or capturing all the rest. He had also tracked the ringleader
+of the tumult to his lodging, where he had caused him to be arrested at
+midnight, and hanged at once in his shirt without any form of trial. Such
+rapid proceedings little resembled the calm and judicious moderation of
+Orange upon all occasions, but they certainly might have sufficed to
+convince Philip that all antagonists of the inquisition were not heretics
+and outlaws. Upon the arrival of the Prince in Antwerp, it was considered
+advisable that Hoogstraaten should remain associated with him in the
+temporary government of the city.
+
+During the month of February, Brederode remained in Antwerp, secretly
+enrolling troops. It was probably his intention--if so desultory and
+irresponsible an individual could be said to have an intention--to make
+an attempt upon the Island of Walcheren. If such important cities as
+Flushing and Middelburg could be gained, he thought it possible to
+prevent the armed invasion now soon expected from Spain. Orange had sent
+an officer to those cities, who was to reconnoitre their condition, and
+to advise them against receiving a garrison from government without his
+authority. So far he connived at Brederode's proceedings, as he had a
+perfect right to do, for Walcheren was within what had been the Prince's
+government, and he had no disposition that these cities should share the
+fate of Tourney, Valenciennes, Bois le Duc, and other towns which had
+already passed or were passing under the spears of foreign mercenaries.
+
+It is also probable that he did not take any special pains to check the
+enrolments of Brederode. The peace of Antwerp was not endangered, and to
+the preservation of that city the Prince seemed now to limit himself. He
+was hereditary burgrave of Antwerp, but officer of Philip's never more.
+Despite the shrill demands of Duchess Margaret, therefore; the Prince did
+not take very active measures by which the crown of Philip might be
+secured. He, perhaps, looked upon the struggle almost with indifference.
+Nevertheless, he issued a formal proclamation by which the Count's
+enlistments were forbidden. Van der Aa, a gentleman who had been active
+in making these levies, was compelled to leave the city. Brederode was
+already gone to the north to busy himself with further enrolments.
+
+In the mean time there had been much alarm in Brussels. Egmont, who
+omitted no opportunity of manifesting his loyalty, offered to throw
+himself at once into the Isle of Walcheren, for the purpose of dislodging
+any rebels who might have effected an entrance. He collected accordingly
+seven or eight hundred Walloon veterans, at his disposal in Flanders, in
+the little port of Sas de Ghent, prepared at once to execute his
+intention, "worthy," says a Catholic writer, "of his well-known courage
+and magnanimity." The Duchess expressed gratitude for the Count's
+devotion and loyalty, but his services in the sequel proved unnecessary.
+The rebels, several boat-loads of whom had been cruising about in the
+neighborhood of Flushing during the early part of March, had been refused
+admittance into any of the ports on the island. They therefore sailed up
+the Scheld, and landed at a little village called Ostrawell, at the
+distance of somewhat more than a mile from Antwerp.
+
+The commander of the expedition was Marnix of Tholouse, brother to Marnix
+of Saint Aldegonde. This young nobleman, who had left college to fight
+for the cause of religious liberty, was possessed of fine talents and
+accomplishments. Like his illustrious brother, he was already a sincere
+convert to the doctrines of the reformed Church. He had nothing, however,
+but courage to recommend him as a leader in a military expedition. He was
+a mere boy, utterly without experience in the field. His troops were raw
+levies, vagabonds and outlaws.
+
+Such as it was, however, his army was soon posted at Ostrawell in a
+convenient position, and with considerable judgment. He had the Scheld
+and its dykes in his rear, on his right and left the dykes and the
+village. In front he threw up a breastwork and sunk a trench. Here then
+was set up the standard of rebellion, and hither flocked daily many
+malcontents from the country round. Within a few days three thousand men
+were in his camp. On the other handy Brederode was busy in Holland, and
+boasted of taking the field ere long with six thousand soldiers at the
+very least. Together they would march to the relief of Valenciennes, and
+dictate peace in Brussels.
+
+It was obvious that this matter could not be allowed to go on. The
+Duchess, with some trepidation, accepted the offer made by Philip de
+Lannoy, Seigneur de Beauvoir, commander of her body-guard in Brussels, to
+destroy this nest of rebels without delay. Half the whole number of these
+soldiers was placed at his disposition, and Egmont supplied De Beauvoir
+with four hundred of his veteran Walloons.
+
+With a force numbering only eight hundred, but all picked men, the
+intrepid officer undertook his enterprise, with great despatch and
+secrecy. Upon the 12th March, the whole troop was sent off in small
+parties, to avoid suspicion, and armed only with sword and dagger. Their
+helmets, bucklers, arquebusses, corselets, spears, standards and drums,
+were delivered to their officers, by whom they were conveyed noiselessly
+to the place of rendezvous. Before daybreak, upon the following morning,
+De Beauvoir met his soldiers at the abbey of Saint Bernard, within a
+league of Antwerp. Here he gave them their arms, supplied them with
+refreshments, and made them a brief speech. He instructed them that they
+were to advance, with furled banners and without beat of drum, till
+within sight of the enemy, that the foremost section was to deliver its
+fire, retreat to the rear and load, to be followed by the next, which was
+to do the same, and above all, that not an arquebus should be discharged
+till the faces of the enemy could be distinguished.
+
+The troop started. After a few minutes' march they were in full sight of
+Ostrawell. They then displayed their flags and advanced upon the fort
+with loud huzzas. Tholouse was as much taken by surprise as if they had
+suddenly emerged from the bowels of the earth. He had been informed that
+the government at Brussels was in extreme trepidation. When he first
+heard the advancing trumpets and sudden shouts, he thought it a
+detachment of Brederode's promised force. The cross on the banners soon
+undeceived him. Nevertheless "like a brave and generous young gentleman
+as he was," he lost no time in drawing up his men for action, implored
+them to defend their breastworks, which were impregnable against so small
+a force, and instructed them to wait patiently with their fire, till the
+enemy were near enough to be marked.
+
+These orders were disobeyed. The "young scholar," as De Beauvoir had
+designated him, had no power to infuse his own spirit into his rabble
+rout of followers. They were already panic-struck by the unexpected
+appearance of the enemy. The Catholics came on with the coolness of
+veterans, taking as deliberate aim as if it had been they, not their
+enemies, who were behind breastworks. The troops of Tholouse fired
+wildly, precipitately, quite over the heads of the assailants. Many of
+the defenders were slain as fast as they showed themselves above their
+bulwarks. The ditch was crossed, the breastwork carried at, a single
+determined charge. The rebels made little resistance, but fled as soon as
+the enemy entered their fort. It was a hunt, not a battle. Hundreds were
+stretched dead in the camp; hundreds were driven into the Scheld; six or
+eight hundred took refuge in a farm-house; but De Beauvoir's men set fire
+to the building, and every rebel who had entered it was burned alive or
+shot. No quarter was given. Hardly a man of the three thousand who had
+held the fort escaped. The body of Tholouse was cut into a hundred
+pieces. The Seigneur de Beauvoir had reason, in the brief letter which
+gave an account of this exploit, to assure her Highness that there were
+"some very valiant fellows in his little troop." Certainly they had
+accomplished the enterprise entrusted to them with promptness, neatness,
+and entire success. Of the great rebellious gathering, which every day
+had seemed to grow more formidable, not a vestige was left.
+
+This bloody drama had been enacted in full sight of Antwerp. The fight
+had lasted from daybreak till ten o'clock in the forenoon, during the
+whole of which period, the city ramparts looking towards Ostrawell, the
+roofs of houses, the towers of churches had been swarming with eager
+spectators. The sound of drum and trumpet, the rattle of musketry, the
+shouts of victory, the despairing cries of the vanquished were heard by
+thousands who deeply sympathized with the rebels thus enduring so
+sanguinary a chastisement. In Antwerp there were forty thousand people
+opposed to the Church of Rome. Of this number the greater proportion were
+Calvinists, and of these Calvinists there were thousands looking down
+from the battlements upon the disastrous fight.
+
+The excitement soon became uncontrollable. Before ten o'clock vast
+numbers of sectaries came pouring towards the Red Gate, which afforded
+the readiest egress to the scene of action; the drawbridge of the
+Ostrawell Gate having been destroyed the night before by command of
+Orange. They came from every street and alley of the city. Some were
+armed with lance, pike, or arquebus; some bore sledge-hammers; others had
+the partisans, battle-axes, and huge two-handed swords of the previous
+century; all were determined upon issuing forth to the rescue of their
+friends in the fields outside the town. The wife of Tholouse, not yet
+aware of her husband's death, although his defeat was obvious, flew from
+street to street, calling upon the Calvinists to save or to avenge their
+perishing brethren.
+
+A terrible tumult prevailed. Ten thousand men were already up and in
+arms.--It was then that the Prince of Orange, who was sometimes described
+by his enemies as timid and pusillanimous by nature, showed the mettle he
+was made of. His sense of duty no longer bade him defend the crown of
+Philip--which thenceforth was to be entrusted to the hirelings of the
+Inquisition--but the vast population of Antwerp, the women, the children,
+and the enormous wealth of the richest Deity in the world had been
+confided to his care, and he had accepted the responsibility. Mounting
+his horse, he made his appearance instantly at the Red Gate, before as
+formidable a mob as man has ever faced. He came there almost alone,
+without guards. Hoogstraaten arrived soon afterwards with the same
+intention. The Prince was received with howls of execration. A thousand
+hoarse voices called him the Pope's servant, minister of Antichrist, and
+lavished upon him many more epithets of the same nature. His life was in
+imminent danger. A furious clothier levelled an arquebus full at his
+breast. "Die, treacherous villain?" he cried; "thou who art the cause
+that our brethren have perished thus miserably in yonder field." The
+loaded weapon was struck away by another hand in the crowd, while the
+Prince, neither daunted by the ferocious demonstrations against his life,
+nor enraged by the virulent abuse to which he was subjected, continued
+tranquilly, earnestly, imperatively to address the crowd. William of
+Orange had that in his face and tongue "which men willingly call
+master-authority." With what other talisman could he, without violence
+and without soldiers, have quelled even for a moment ten thousand furious
+Calvinists, armed, enraged against his person, and thirsting for
+vengeance on Catholics. The postern of the Red Gate had already been
+broken through before Orange and his colleague, Hoogstraaten, had
+arrived. The most excited of the Calvinists were preparing to rush forth
+upon the enemy at Ostrawell. The Prince, after he had gained the ear of
+the multitude, urged that the battle was now over, that the reformers
+were entirely cut to pieces, the enemy, retiring, and that a disorderly
+and ill-armed mob would be unable to retrieve the fortunes of the day.
+Many were persuaded to abandon the design. Five hundred of the most
+violent, however, insisted upon leaving the gates, and the governors,
+distinctly warning these zealots that their blood must be upon their own
+heads, reluctantly permitted that number to issue from the city. The rest
+of the mob, not appeased, but uncertain, and disposed to take vengeance
+upon the Catholics within the walls, for the disaster which had been
+occurring without, thronged tumultuously to the long, wide street, called
+the Mere, situate in the very heart of the city.
+
+Meantime the ardor of those who had sallied from the gate grew sensibly
+cooler, when they found themselves in the open fields. De Beauvoir, whose
+men, after the victory, had scattered in pursuit of the fugitives, now
+heard the tumult in the city. Suspecting an attack, he rallied his
+compact little army again for a fresh encounter. The last of the
+vanquished Tholousians who had been captured; more fortunate than their
+predecessors, had been spared for ransom. There were three hundred of
+them; rather a dangerous number of prisoners for a force of eight
+hundred, who were just going into another battle. De Beauvoir commanded
+his soldiers, therefore, to shoot them all. This order having been
+accomplished, the Catholics marched towards Antwerp, drums beating,
+colors flying. The five hundred Calvinists, not liking their appearance,
+and being in reality outnumbered, retreated within; the gates as hastily
+as they had just issued from them. De Beauvoir advanced close to the city
+moat, on the margin of which he planted the banners of the unfortunate
+Tholouse, and sounded a trumpet of defiance. Finding that the citizens
+had apparently no stomach for the fight, he removed his trophies, and
+took his departure.
+
+On the other hand, the tumult within the walls had again increased. The
+Calvinists had been collecting in great numbers upon the Mere. This was a
+large and splendid thoroughfare, rather an oblong market-place than a
+street, filled with stately buildings, and communicating by various cross
+streets with the Exchange and with many other public edifices. By an
+early hour in the afternoon twelve or fifteen thousand Calvinists, all
+armed and fighting men, had assembled upon the place. They had barricaded
+the whole precinct with pavements and upturned wagons. They had already
+broken into the arsenal and obtained many field-pieces, which were
+planted at the entrance of every street and by-way. They had stormed the
+city jail and liberated the prisoners, all of whom, grateful and
+ferocious, came to swell the numbers who defended the stronghold on the
+Mere. A tremendous mischief was afoot. Threats of pillaging the churches
+and the houses of the Catholics, of sacking the whole opulent city, were
+distinctly heard among this powerful mob, excited by religious
+enthusiasm, but containing within one great heterogeneous mass the
+elements of every crime which humanity can commit. The alarm throughout
+the city was indescribable. The cries of women and children, as they
+remained in trembling expectation of what the next hour might bring
+forth, were, said one who heard them, "enough to soften the hardest
+hearts."
+
+Nevertheless the diligence and courage of the Prince kept pace with the
+insurrection. He had caused the eight companies of guards enrolled in
+September, to be mustered upon the square in front of the city hall, for
+the protection of that building and of the magistracy. He had summoned
+the senate of the city, the board of ancients, the deans of guilds, the
+ward masters, to consult with him at the council-room. At the peril of
+his life he had again gone before the angry mob in the Mere, advancing
+against their cannon and their outcries, and compelling them to appoint
+eight deputies to treat with him and the magistrates at the town-hall.
+This done, quickly but deliberately he had drawn up six articles, to
+which those deputies gave their assent, and in which the city government
+cordially united. These articles provided that the keys of the city
+should remain in the possession of the Prince and of Hoogstraaten, that
+the watch should be held by burghers and soldiers together, that the
+magistrates should permit the entrance of no garrison, and that the
+citizens should be entrusted with the care of, the charters, especially
+with that of the joyful entrance.
+
+These arrangements, when laid before the assembly at the Mere by their
+deputies, were not received with favor. The Calvinists demanded the keys
+of the city. They did not choose to be locked up at the mercy of any man.
+They had already threatened to blow the city hall into the air if the
+keys were not delivered to them. They claimed that burghers, without
+distinction of religion, instead of mercenary troops, should be allowed
+to guard the market-place in front of the town-hall.
+
+It was now nightfall, and no definite arrangement had been concluded.
+Nevertheless, a temporary truce was made, by means of a concession as to
+the guard. It was agreed that the burghers, Calvinists and Lutherans, as
+well as Catholics, should be employed to protect the city. By subtlety,
+however, the Calvinists detailed for that service, were posted not in the
+town-house square, but on the ramparts and at the gates.
+
+A night of dreadful expectation was passed. The army of fifteen thousand
+mutineers remained encamped and barricaded on the Mere, with guns loaded
+and artillery pointed. Fierce cries of "Long live the beggars,"--"Down
+with the papists," and other significant watchwords, were heard all night
+long, but no more serious outbreak occurred.
+
+During the whole of the following day, the Calvinists remained in their
+encampment, the Catholics and the city guardsmen at their posts near the
+city hall. The Prince was occupied in the council-chamber from morning
+till night with the municipal authorities, the deputies of "the
+religion," and the guild officers, in framing a new treaty of peace.
+Towards evening fifteen articles were agreed upon, which were to be
+proposed forthwith to the insurgents, and in case of nonacceptance to be
+enforced. The arrangement provided that there should be no garrison; that
+the September contracts permitting the reformed worship at certain places
+within the city should be maintained; that men of different parties
+should refrain from mutual insults; that the two governors, the Prince
+and Hoogstraaten, should keep the keys; that the city should be guarded
+by both soldiers and citizens, without distinction of religious creed;
+that a band of four hundred cavalry and a small flotilla of vessels of
+war should be maintained for the defence of the place, and that the
+expenses to be incurred should be levied upon all classes, clerical and
+lay, Catholic and Reformed, without any exception.
+
+It had been intended that the governors, accompanied by the magistrates,
+should forthwith proceed to the Mere, for the purpose of laying these
+terms before the insurgents. Night had, however, already arrived, and it
+was understood that the ill-temper of the Calvinists had rather increased
+than diminished, so that it was doubtful whether the arrangement would be
+accepted. It was, therefore, necessary to await the issue of another day,
+rather than to provoke a night battle in the streets.
+
+During the night the Prince labored incessantly to provide against the
+dangers of the morrow. The Calvinists had fiercely expressed their
+disinclination to any reasonable arrangement. They had threatened,
+without farther pause, to plunder the religious houses and the mansions
+of all the wealthy Catholics, and to drive every papist out of town. They
+had summoned the Lutherans to join with them in their revolt, and menaced
+them, in case of refusal, with the same fate which awaited the Catholics.
+The Prince, who was himself a Lutheran, not entirely free from the
+universal prejudice against the Calvinists, whose sect he afterwards
+embraced, was fully aware of the deplorable fact, that the enmity at that
+day between Calvinists and Lutherans was as fierce as that between
+Reformers and Catholics. He now made use of this feeling, and of his
+influence with those of the Augsburg Confession, to save the city. During
+the night he had interviews with the ministers and notable members of the
+Lutheran churches, and induced them to form an alliance upon this
+occasion with the Catholics and with all friends of order, against an
+army of outlaws who were threatening to burn and sack the city. The
+Lutherans, in the silence of night, took arms and encamped, to the number
+of three or four thousand, upon the river side, in the neighborhood of
+Saint Michael's cloister. The Prince also sent for the deans of all the
+foreign mercantile associations--Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, English,
+Hanseatic, engaged their assistance also for the protection of the city,
+and commanded them to remain in their armor at their respective
+factories, ready to act at a moment's warning. It was agreed that they
+should be informed at frequent intervals as to the progress of events.
+
+On the morning of the 15th, the city of Antwerp presented a fearful
+sight. Three distinct armies were arrayed at different points within its
+walls. The Calvinists, fifteen thousand strong, lay in their encampment
+on the Mere; the Lutherans, armed, and eager for action, were at St.
+Michael's; the Catholics and the regulars of the city guard were posted
+on the square. Between thirty-five and forty thousand men were up,
+according to the most moderate computation. All parties were excited, and
+eager for the fray. The fires of religious hatred burned fiercely in
+every breast. Many malefactors and outlaws, who had found refuge in the
+course of recent events at Antwerp, were in the ranks of the Calvinists,
+profaning a sacred cause, and inspiring a fanatical party with bloody
+resolutions. Papists, once and forever, were to be hunted down, even as
+they had been for years pursuing Reformers. Let the men who had fed fat
+on the spoils of plundered Christians be dealt with in like fashion. Let
+their homes be sacked, their bodies given to the dogs--such were the
+cries uttered by thousands of armed men.
+
+On the other hand, the Lutherans, as angry and as rich as the Catholics,
+saw in every Calvinist a murderer and a robber. They thirsted after their
+blood; for the spirit of religious frenzy; the characteristic of the
+century, can with difficulty be comprehended in our colder and more
+sceptical age. There was every probability that a bloody battle was to be
+fought that day in the streets of Antwerp--a general engagement, in the
+course of which, whoever might be the victors, the city was sure to be
+delivered over to fire, sack, and outrage. Such would have been the
+result, according to the concurrent testimony of eye-witnesses, and
+contemporary historians of every country and creed, but for the courage
+and wisdom of one man. William of Orange knew what would be the
+consequence of a battle, pent up within the walls of Antwerp. He foresaw
+the horrible havoc which was to be expected, the desolation which would
+be brought to every hearth in the city. "Never were men so desperate and
+so willing to fight," said Sir Thomas Gresham, who had been expecting
+every hour his summons to share in the conflict. If the Prince were
+unable that morning to avert the impending calamity, no other power,
+under heaven, could save Antwerp from destruction.
+
+The articles prepared on the 14th had been already approved by those who
+represented the Catholic and Lutheran interests. They were read early in
+the morning to the troops assembled on the square and at St. Michael's,
+and received with hearty cheers. It was now necessary that the Calvinists
+should accept them, or that the quarrel should be fought out at once. At
+ten o'clock, William of Orange, attended by his colleague, Hoogstraaten,
+together with a committee of the municipal authorities, and followed by a
+hundred troopers, rode to the Mere. They wore red scarfs over their
+armor, as symbols by which all those who had united to put down the
+insurrection were distinguished. The fifteen thousand Calvinists, fierce
+and disorderly as ever, maintained a threatening aspect. Nevertheless,
+the Prince was allowed to ride into the midst of the square. The articles
+were then read aloud by his command, after which, with great composure,
+he made a few observations. He pointed out that the arrangement offered
+them was founded upon the September concessions, that the right of
+worship was conceded, that the foreign garrison was forbidden, and that
+nothing further could be justly demanded or honorably admitted. He told
+them that a struggle upon their part would be hopeless, for the Catholics
+and Lutherans, who were all agreed as to the justice of the treaty,
+outnumbered them by nearly two to one. He, therefore, most earnestly and
+affectionately adjured them to testify their acceptance to the peace
+offered by repeating the words with which he should conclude. Then, with
+a firm voice; the Prince exclaimed, "God Save the King!" It was the last
+time that those words were ever heard from the lips of the man already
+proscribed by Philip. The crowd of Calvinists hesitated an instant, and
+then, unable to resist the tranquil influence, convinced by his
+reasonable language, they raised one tremendous shout of "Vive le Roi!"
+
+The deed was done, the peace accepted, the dreadful battle averted,
+Antwerp saved. The deputies of the Calvinists now formally accepted and
+signed the articles. Kind words were exchanged among the various classes
+of fellow-citizens, who but an hour before had been thirsting for each
+other's blood, the artillery and other weapons of war were restored to
+the arsenals, Calvinists, Lutherans, and Catholics, all laid down their
+arms, and the city, by three o'clock, was entirely quiet. Fifty thousand
+armed men had been up, according to some estimates, yet, after three days
+of dreadful expectation, not a single person had been injured, and the
+tumult was now appeased.
+
+The Prince had, in truth, used the mutual animosity of Protestant sects
+to a good purpose; averting bloodshed by the very weapons with which the
+battle was to have been waged. Had it been possible for a man like
+William the Silent to occupy the throne where Philip the Prudent sat, how
+different might have been the history of Spain and the fate of the
+Netherlands. Gresham was right, however, in his conjecture that the
+Regent and court would not "take the business well." Margaret of Parma
+was incapable of comprehending such a mind as that of Orange, or of
+appreciating its efforts. She was surrounded by unscrupulous and
+mercenary soldiers, who hailed the coming civil war as the most
+profitable of speculations. "Factotum" Mansfeld; the Counts Aremberg and
+Meghem, the Duke of Aerschot, the Sanguinary Noircarmes, were already
+counting their share in the coming confiscations. In the internecine
+conflict approaching, there would be gold for the gathering, even if no
+honorable laurels would wreath their swords. "Meghen with his regiment is
+desolating the country," wrote William of Orange to the Landgrave of
+Hesse, "and reducing many people to poverty. Aremberg is doing the same
+in Friesland. They are only thinking how, under the pretext of religion,
+they may grind the poor Christians, and grow rich and powerful upon their
+estates and their blood."
+
+The Seignior de Beauvoir wrote to the Duchess, claiming all the estates
+of Tholouse, and of his brother St. Aldegonde, as his reward for the
+Ostrawell victory, while Noircarmes was at this very moment to commence
+at Valenciennes that career of murder and spoliation which, continued at
+Mons a few years afterwards, was to load his name with infamy.
+
+From such a Regent, surrounded by such councillors, was the work of
+William de Nassau's hands to gain applause? What was it to them that
+carnage and plunder had been spared in one of the richest and most
+populous cities in Christendom? Were not carnage and plunder the very
+elements in which they disported themselves? And what more dreadful
+offence against God and Philip could be committed than to permit, as the
+Prince had just permitted, the right of worship in a Christian land to
+Calvinists and Lutherans? As a matter of course, therefore, Margaret of
+Parma denounced the terms by which Antwerp had been saved as a "novel and
+exorbitant capitulation," and had no intention of signifying her
+approbation either to prince or magistrate.
+
+
+
+
+1567 [CHAPTER X.]
+
+   Egmont and Aerschot before Valenciennes--Severity of Egmont--
+   Capitulation of the city--Escape and capture of the ministers--
+   Execution of La Grange and De Bray--Horrible cruelty at
+   Valenciennes--Effects of the reduction of Valenciennes--The Duchess
+   at Antwerp--Armed invasion of the provinces decided upon in Spain--
+   Appointment of Alva--Indignation of Margaret--Mission of De Billy--
+   Pretended visit of Philip--Attempts of the Duchess to gain over
+   Orange--Mission of Berty--Interview between Orange and Egmont at
+   Willebroek--Orange's letters to Philip, to Egmont, and to Horn--
+   Orange departs from the Netherlands--Philip's letter to Egmont--
+   Secret intelligence received by Orange--La Torre's mission to
+   Brederode--Brederode's departure and death--Death of Bergen--Despair
+   in the provinces--Great emigration--Cruelties practised upon those
+   of the new religion--Edict of 24th May--Wrath of the King.
+
+Valenciennes, whose fate depended so closely upon the issue of these
+various events, was now trembling to her fall. Noircarmes had been
+drawing the lines more and more closely about the city, and by a
+refinement of cruelty had compelled many Calvinists from Tournay to act
+as pioneers in the trenches against their own brethren in Valenciennes.
+After the defeat of Tholouse, and the consequent frustration of all
+Brederode's arrangements to relieve the siege, the Duchess had sent a
+fresh summons to Valenciennes, together with letters acquainting the
+citizens with the results of the Ostrawell battle. The intelligence was
+not believed. Egmont and Aerschot, however, to whom Margaret had
+entrusted this last mission to the beleaguered town, roundly rebuked the
+deputies who came to treat with them, for their insolence in daring to
+doubt the word of the Regent. The two seigniors had established
+themselves in the Chateau of Beusnage, at a league's distance from
+Valenciennes. Here they received commissioners from the city, half of
+whom were Catholics appointed by the magistrates, half Calvinists deputed
+by the consistories. These envoys were informed that the Duchess would
+pardon the city for its past offences, provided the gates should now be
+opened, the garrison received, and a complete suppression of all religion
+except that of Rome acquiesced in without a murmur. As nearly the whole
+population was of the Calvinist faith, these terms could hardly be
+thought favorable. It was, however, added, that fourteen days should be
+allowed to the Reformers for the purpose of converting their property,
+and retiring from the country.
+
+The deputies, after conferring with their constituents in the city,
+returned on the following day with counter-propositions, which were not
+more likely to find favor with the government. They offered to accept the
+garrison, provided the soldiers should live at their own expense, without
+any tax to the citizens for their board, lodging, or pay. They claimed
+that all property which had been seized should be restored, all persons
+accused of treason liberated. They demanded the unconditional revocation
+of the edict by which the city had been declared rebellious, together
+with a guarantee from the Knights of the Fleece and the state council
+that the terms of the propose& treaty should be strictly observed.
+
+As soon as these terms had been read to the two seigniors, the Duke of
+Aerschot burst into an immoderate fit of laughter. He protested that
+nothing could be more ludicrous than such propositions, worthy of a
+conqueror dictating a peace, thus offered by a city closely beleaguered,
+and entirely at the mercy of the enemy. The Duke's hilarity was not
+shared by Egmont, who, on the contrary, fell into a furious passion. He
+swore that the city should be burned about their ears, and that every one
+of the inhabitants should be put to the sword for the insolent language
+which they had thus dared to address to a most clement sovereign. He
+ordered the trembling deputies instantly to return with this peremptory
+rejection of their terms, and with his command that the proposals of
+government should be accepted within three days' delay.
+
+The commissioners fell upon their knees at Egmont's feet, and begged for
+mercy. They implored him at least to send this imperious message by some
+other hand than theirs, and to permit them to absent themselves from the
+city. They should be torn limb from limb, they said, by the enraged
+inhabitants, if they dared to present themselves with such instructions
+before them. Egmont, however, assured them that they should be sent into
+the city, bound hand and foot, if they did not instantly obey his orders.
+The deputies, therefore, with heavy hearts, were fain to return home with
+this bitter result to their negotiations. The terms were rejected, as a
+matter of course, but the gloomy forebodings of the commissioners, as to
+their own fate at the hands of their fellow-citizens, were not fulfilled.
+
+Instant measures were now taken to cannonade the city. Egmont, at the
+hazard of his life, descended into the foss, to reconnoitre the works,
+and to form an opinion as to the most eligible quarter at which to direct
+the batteries. Having communicated the result of his investigations to
+Noircarmes, he returned to report all these proceedings to the Regent at
+Brussels. Certainly the Count had now separated himself far enough from
+William of Orange, and was manifesting an energy in the cause of tyranny
+which was sufficiently unscrupulous. Many people who had been deceived by
+his more generous demonstrations in former times, tried to persuade
+themselves that he was acting a part. Noircarmes, however--and no man was
+more competent to decide the question distinctly--expressed his entire
+confidence in Egmont's loyalty. Margaret had responded warmly to his
+eulogies, had read with approbation secret letters from Egmont to
+Noircarmes, and had expressed the utmost respect and affection for "the
+Count." Egmont had also lost no time in writing to Philip, informing him
+that he had selected the most eligible spot for battering down the
+obstinate city of Valenciennes, regretting that he could not have had the
+eight or ten military companies, now at his disposal, at an earlier day,
+in which case he should have been able to suppress many tumults, but
+congratulating his sovereign that the preachers were all fugitive, the
+reformed religion suppressed, and the people disarmed. He assured the
+King that he would neglect no effort to prevent any renewal of the
+tumults, and expressed the hope that his Majesty would be satisfied with
+his conduct, notwithstanding the calumnies of which the times were full.
+
+Noircarmes meanwhile, had unmasked his batteries, and opened his fire
+exactly according to Egmont's suggestions.
+
+The artillery played first upon what was called the "White Tower," which
+happened to bear this ancient, rhyming inscription:
+
+       "When every man receives his own,
+        And justice reigns for strong and weak,
+        Perfect shall be this tower of stone,
+        And all the dumb will learn to speak."
+
+       "Quand chacun sera satisfaict,
+        Et la justice regnera,
+        Ce boulevard sera parfaict,
+        Et--la muette parlera."--Valenciennes MS.
+
+For some unknown reason, the rather insipid quatrain was tortured into a
+baleful prophecy. It was considered very ominous that the battery should
+be first opened against this Sibylline tower. The chimes, too, which had
+been playing, all through the siege, the music of Marot's sacred songs,
+happened that morning to be sounding forth from every belfry the
+twenty-second psalm: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
+
+It was Palm Sunday, 23d of March. The women and children were going
+mournfully about the streets, bearing green branches in their hands, and
+praying upon their knees, in every part of the city. Despair and
+superstition had taken possession of citizens, who up to that period had
+justified La Noue's assertion, that none could endure a siege like
+Huguenots. As soon as the cannonading began, the spirit of the
+inhabitants seemed to depart. The ministers exhorted their flocks in vain
+as the tiles and chimneys began to topple into the streets, and the
+concussions of the artillery were responded to by the universal wailing
+of affrighted women.
+
+Upon the very first day after the unmasking of the batteries, the city
+sent to Noircarmes, offering almost an unconditional surrender. Not the
+slightest breach had been effected--not the least danger of an assault
+existed--yet the citizens, who had earned the respect of their
+antagonists by the courageous manner in which they had sallied and
+skirmished during the siege, now in despair at any hope of eventual
+succor, and completely demoralized by the course of recent events outside
+their walls, surrendered ignominiously, and at discretion. The only
+stipulation agreed to by Noircarmes was, that the city should not be
+sacked, and that the lives of the inhabitants should be spared.
+
+This pledge was, however, only made to be broken. Noircarmes entered the
+city and closed the gates. All the richest citizens, who of course were
+deemed the most criminal, were instantly arrested. The soldiers, although
+not permitted formally to sack the city, were quartered upon the
+inhabitants, whom they robbed and murdered, according to the testimony of
+a Catholic citizen, almost at their pleasure.
+
+Michael Herlin, a very wealthy and distinguished burgher, was arrested
+upon the first day. The two ministers, Guido de Bray and Peregrine de la
+Grange, together with the son of Herlin, effected their escape by the
+water-gate. Having taken refuge in a tavern at Saint Arnaud, they were
+observed, as they sat at supper, by a peasant, who forthwith ran off to
+the mayor of the borough with the intelligence that some individuals, who
+looked like fugitives, had arrived at Saint Arnaud. One of them, said the
+informer, was richly dressed; and wore a gold-hilted sword with velvet
+scabbard. By the description, the mayor recognized Herlin the
+younger,--and suspected his companions. They were all arrested, and sent
+to Noircarmes. The two Herlins, father and son, were immediately
+beheaded. Guido de Bray and Peregrine de la Grange were loaded with
+chains, and thrown into a filthy dungeon, previously to their being
+hanged. Here they were visited by the Countess de Roeulx, who was curious
+to see how the Calvinists sustained themselves in their martyrdom. She
+asked them how they could sleep, eat, or drink, when covered with such
+heavy fetters. "The cause, and my good conscience," answered De Bray,
+"make me eat, drink, and sleep better than those who are doing me wrong.
+These shackles are more honorable to me than golden rings and chains.
+They are more useful to me, and as I hear their clank, methinks I hear
+the music of sweet voices and the tinkling of lutes."
+
+This exultation never deserted these courageous enthusiasts. They
+received their condemnation to death "as if it had been an invitation to
+a marriage feast." They encouraged the friends who crowded their path to
+the scaffold with exhortations to remain true in the Reformed faith. La
+Grange, standing upon the ladder, proclaimed with a loud voice, that he
+was slain for having preached the pure word of God to a Christian people
+in a Christian land. De Bray, under the same gibbet; testified stoutly
+that he, too, had committed that offence alone. He warned his friends to
+obey the magistrates, and all others in authority, except in matters of
+conscience; to abstain from sedition; but to obey the will of God. The
+executioner threw him from the ladder while he was yet speaking. So ended
+the lives of two eloquent, learned, and highly-gifted divines.
+
+Many hundreds of victims were sacrificed in the unfortunate city. "There
+were a great many other citizens strangled or beheaded," says an
+aristocratic Catholic historian of the time, "but they were mostly
+personages of little quality, whose names are quite unknown to
+me."--[Pontus Payen]--The franchises of the city were all revoked. There
+was a prodigious amount of property confiscated to the benefit of
+Noircarmes and the rest of the "Seven Sleepers." Many Calvinists were
+burned, others were hanged. "For--two whole years," says another
+Catholic, who was a citizen of Valenciennes at the time, "there was,
+scarcely a week in which several citizens were not executed and often a
+great number were despatched at a time. All this gave so much alarm to
+the good and innocent, that many quitted the city as fast as they could."
+If the good and innocent happened to be rich, they might be sure that
+Noircarmes would deem that a crime for which no goodness and innocence
+could atone.
+
+Upon the fate of Valenciennes had depended, as if by common agreement,
+the whole destiny of the anti-Catholic party. "People had learned at
+last," says another Walloon, "that the King had long arms, and that he
+had not been enlisting soldiers to string beads. So they drew in their
+horns and their evil tempers, meaning to put them forth again, should the
+government not succeed at the siege of Valenciennes." The government had
+succeeded, however, and the consternation was extreme, the general
+submission immediate and even abject. "The capture of Valenciennes,"
+wrote Noircarmes to Granvelle, "has worked a miracle. The other cities
+all come forth to meet me, putting the rope around their own necks." No
+opposition was offered any where. Tournay had been crushed; Valenciennes,
+Bois le Duc, and all other important places, accepted their garrisons
+without a murmur. Even Antwerp had made its last struggle, and as soon as
+the back of Orange was turned, knelt down in the dust to receive its
+bridle. The Prince had been able, by his courage and wisdom, to avert a
+sanguinary conflict within its walls, but his personal presence alone
+could guarantee any thing like religious liberty for the inhabitants, now
+that the rest of the country was subdued. On the 26th April, sixteen
+companies of infantry, under Count Mansfeld, entered the gates. On the
+28th the Duchess made a visit to the city, where she was received with
+respect, but where her eyes were shocked by that which she termed the
+"abominable, sad, and hideous spectacle of the desolated churches."
+
+To the eyes of all who loved their fatherland and their race, the sight
+of a desolate country, with its ancient charters superseded by brute
+force, its industrious population swarming from the land in droves, as if
+the pestilence were raging, with gibbets and scaffolds erected in every
+village, and with a Sickening and universal apprehension of still darker
+disasters to follow, was a spectacle still more sad, hideous, and
+abominable.
+
+For it was now decided that the Duke of Alva, at the head of a Spanish
+army, should forthwith take his departure for the Netherlands. A land
+already subjugated was to be crushed, and every vestige of its ancient
+liberties destroyed. The conquered provinces, once the abode of municipal
+liberty, of science, art, and literature, and blessed with an unexampled
+mercantile and manufacturing prosperity, were to be placed in absolute
+subjection to the cabinet council at Madrid. A dull and malignant bigot,
+assisted by a few Spanish grandees, and residing at the other extremity
+of Europe, was thenceforth to exercise despotic authority over countries
+which for centuries had enjoyed a local administration, and a system
+nearly approaching to complete self-government. Such was the policy
+devised by Granvelle and Spinosa, which the Duke of Alva, upon the 15th
+April, had left Madrid to enforce.
+
+It was very natural that Margaret of Parma should be indignant at being
+thus superseded. She considered herself as having acquired much credit by
+the manner in which the latter insurrectionary movements had been
+suppressed, so soon as Philip, after his endless tergiversations, had
+supplied her with arms and money. Therefore she wrote in a tone of great
+asperity to her brother, expressing her discontent. She had always been
+trammelled in her action, she said, by his restrictions upon her
+authority. She complained that he had no regard for her reputation or her
+peace of mind. Notwithstanding, all impediments and dangers, she had at
+last settled the country, and now another person was to reap the honor.
+She also despatched the Seigneur de Billy to Spain, for the purpose of
+making verbal representations to his Majesty upon the inexpediency of
+sending the Duke of Alva to the Netherlands at that juncture with a
+Spanish army.
+
+Margaret gained nothing, however, by her letters and her envoy, save a
+round rebuke from Philip, who was not accustomed to brook the language of
+remonstrance; even from his sister. His purpose was fixed. Absolute
+submission was now to be rendered by all. "He was highly astonished and
+dissatisfied," he said, "that she should dare to write to him with so
+much passion, and in so resolute a manner. If she received no other
+recompense, save the glory of having restored the service of God, she
+ought to express her gratitude to the King for having given her the
+opportunity of so doing."
+
+The affectation of clement intentions was still maintained, together with
+the empty pretence of the royal visit. Alva and his army were coming
+merely to prepare the way for the King, who still represented himself as
+"debonair and gentle, slow to anger, and averse from bloodshed."
+Superficial people believed that the King was really coming, and hoped
+wonders from his advent. The Duchess knew better. The Pope never believed
+in it, Granvelle never believed in it, the Prince of Orange never
+believed in it, Councillor d'Assonleville never believed in it. "His
+Majesty," says the Walloon historian, who wrote from Assonleville's
+papers, "had many imperative reasons for not coming. He was fond of
+quiet, he was a great negotiator, distinguished for phlegm and modesty,
+disinclined to long journeys, particularly to sea voyages, which were
+very painful to him. Moreover, he was then building his Escorial with so
+much taste and affection that it was impossible for him to leave home."
+These excellent reasons sufficed to detain the monarch, in whose place a
+general was appointed, who, it must be confessed, was neither phlegmatic
+nor modest, and whose energies were quite equal to the work required.
+There had in truth never been any thing in the King's project of visiting
+the Netherlands but pretence.
+
+On the other hand, the work of Orange for the time was finished. He had
+saved Antwerp, he had done his best to maintain the liberties of the
+country, the rights of conscience, and the royal authority, so far as
+they were compatible with each other. The alternative had now been
+distinctly forced upon every man, either to promise blind obedience or to
+accept the position of a rebel. William of Orange had thus become a
+rebel. He had been requested to sign the new oath, greedily taken by the
+Mansfelds, the Berlaymont, the Aerachot, and the Egmonts, to obey every
+order which he might receive, against every person and in every place,
+without restriction or limitation,--and he had distinctly and repeatedly
+declined the demand. He had again and again insisted upon resigning all
+his offices. The Duchess, more and more anxious to gain over such an
+influential personage to the cause of tyranny, had been most importunate
+in her requisitions. "A man with so noble a heart," she wrote to the
+Prince, "and with a descent from, such illustrious and loyal ancestors,
+can surely not forget his duties to his Majesty and the country."
+
+William of Orange knew his duty to both better than the Duchess could
+understand. He answered this fresh summons by reminding her that he had
+uniformly refused the new and extraordinary pledge required of him. He
+had been true to his old oaths, and therefore no fresh pledge was
+necessary. Moreover, a pledge without limitation he would never take. The
+case might happen, he said, that he should be ordered to do things
+contrary to his conscience, prejudicial to his Majesty's service, and in
+violation of his oaths to maintain the laws of the country. He therefore
+once more resigned all his offices, and signified his intention of
+leaving the provinces.
+
+Margaret had previously invited him to an interview at Brussels, which he
+had declined, because he had discovered a conspiracy in that place to
+"play him a trick." Assonleville had already been sent to him without
+effect. He had refused to meet a deputation of Fleece Knights at Mechlin,
+from the same suspicion of foul play. After the termination of the
+Antwerp tumult, Orange again wrote to the Duchess, upon the 19th March,
+repeating his refusal to take the oath, and stating that he considered
+himself as at least suspended from all his functions, since she had
+refused, upon the ground of incapacity, to accept his formal resignation.
+Margaret now determined, by the advice of the state council, to send
+Secretary Berty, provided with an ample letter of instructions, upon a
+special mission to the Prince at Antwerp. That respectable functionary
+performed his task with credit, going through the usual formalities, and
+adducing the threadbare arguments in favor of the unlimited oath, with
+much adroitness and decorum. He mildly pointed out the impropriety of
+laying down such responsible posts as those which the Prince now occupied
+at such a juncture. He alluded to the distress which the step must
+occasion to the debonair sovereign.
+
+William of Orange became somewhat impatient under the official lecture of
+this secretary to the privy council, a mere man of sealing-wax and
+protocols. The slender stock of platitudes with which he had come
+provided was soon exhausted. His arguments shrivelled at once in the
+scorn with which the Prince received them. The great statesman, who, it
+was hoped, would be entrapped to ruin, dishonor, and death by such very
+feeble artifices, asked indignantly whether it were really expected that
+he should acknowledge himself perjured to his old obligations by now
+signing new ones; that he should disgrace himself by an unlimited pledge
+which might require him to break his oaths to the provincial statutes and
+to the Emperor; that he should consent to administer the religious edicts
+which he abhorred; that he should act as executioner of Christians on
+account of their religious opinions, an office against which his soul
+revolted; that he should bind himself by an unlimited promise which might
+require, him to put his own wife to death, because she was a Lutheran?
+Moreover, was it to be supposed that he would obey without restriction
+any orders issued to him in his Majesty's name, when the King's
+representative might be a person whose supremacy it ill became one of
+his' race to acknowledge? Was William of Orange to receive absolute
+commands from the Duke of Alva? Having mentioned that name with
+indignation, the Prince became silent.
+
+It was very obvious that no impression was to be made upon the man by
+formalists. Poor Berty having conjugated his paradigm conscientiously
+through all its moods and tenses, returned to his green board in the
+council-room with his proces verbal of the conference. Before he took his
+leave, however, he prevailed upon Orange to hold an interview with the
+Duke of Aerschot, Count Mansfeld, and Count Egmont.
+
+This memorable meeting took place at Willebroek, a village midway between
+Antwerp and Brussels, in the first week of April. The Duke of Aerschot
+was prevented from attending, but Mansfeld and Egmont--accompanied by the
+faithful Berty, to make another proces verbal--duly made their
+appearance. The Prince had never felt much sympathy with Mansfeld, but a
+tender and honest friendship had always existed between himself and
+Egmont, notwithstanding the difference of their characters, the incessant
+artifices employed by the Spanish court to separate them, and the
+impassable chasm which now, existed between their respective positions
+towards the government.
+
+The same common-places of argument and rhetoric were now discussed
+between Orange and the other three personages, the Prince distinctly
+stating, in conclusion, that he considered himself as discharged from all
+his offices, and that he was about to leave the Netherlands for Germany.
+The interview, had it been confined to such formal conversation, would
+have but little historic interest. Egmont's choice had been made. Several
+months before he had signified his determination to hold those for
+enemies who should cease to conduct themselves as faithful vassals,
+declared himself to be without fear that the country was to be placed in
+the hands of Spaniards, and disavowed all intention, in any case
+whatever, of taking arms against the King. His subsequent course, as we
+have seen, had been entirely in conformity with these solemn
+declarations. Nevertheless, the Prince, to whom they had been made,
+thought it still possible to withdraw his friend from the precipice upon
+which he stood, and to save him from his impending fate. His love for
+Egmont had, in his own noble; and pathetic language, "struck its roots
+too deeply into his heart" to permit him, in this their parting
+interview, to neglect a last effort, even if this solemn warning were
+destined to be disregarded.
+
+By any reasonable construction of history, Philip was an unscrupulous
+usurper, who was attempting to convert himself from a Duke of Brabant and
+a Count of Holland into an absolute king. It was William who was
+maintaining, Philip who was destroying; and the monarch who was thus
+blasting the happiness of the provinces, and about to decimate their
+population, was by the same process to undermine his own power forever,
+and to divest himself of his richest inheritance. The man on whom he
+might have leaned for support, had he been capable of comprehending his
+character, and of understanding the age in which he had himself been
+called upon to reign, was, through Philip's own insanity, converted into
+the instrument by which his most valuable provinces were, to be taken
+from him, and eventually re-organized into: an independent commonwealth.
+Could a vision, like that imagined by the immortal dramatist for another
+tyrant and murderer, have revealed the future to Philip, he, too, might
+have beheld his victim, not crowned himself, but pointing to a line of
+kings, even to some who 'two-fold balls and treble sceptres carried', and
+smiling on them for his. But such considerations as these had no effect
+upon the Prince of Orange. He knew himself already proscribed, and he
+knew that the secret condemnation had extended to Egmont also. He was
+anxious that his friend should prefer the privations of exile, with the
+chance of becoming the champion of a struggling country, to the wretched
+fate towards which his blind confidence was leading him. Even then it
+seemed possible that the brave soldier, who had been recently defiling
+his sword in the cause of tyranny, might be come mindful of his brighter
+and earlier fame. Had Egmont been as true to his native land as, until
+"the long divorce of steel fell on him," he was faithful to Philip, he
+might yet have earned brighter laurels than those gained at St. Quentin
+and Gravelines. Was he doomed to fall, he might find a glorious death
+upon freedom's battle-field, in place of that darker departure then so
+near him, which the prophetic language of Orange depicted, but which he
+was too sanguine to fear. He spoke with confidence of the royal clemency.
+"Alas, Egmont," answered the Prince, "the King's clemency, of which you
+boast, will destroy you. Would that I might be deceived, but I foresee
+too clearly that you are to be the bridge which the Spaniards will
+destroy so soon as they have passed over it to invade our country." With
+these last, solemn words he concluded his appeal to awaken the Count from
+his fatal security. Then, as if persuaded that he was looking upon his
+friend for the last time, William of Orange threw his arms around Egmont,
+and held him for a moment in a close embrace. Tears fell from the eyes of
+both at this parting moment--and then the brief scene of simple and lofty
+pathos terminated--Egmont and Orange separated from each other, never to
+meet again on earth.
+
+A few days afterwards, Orange addressed a letter to Philip once more
+resigning all his offices, and announcing his intention of departing from
+the Netherlands for Germany. He added, that he should be always ready to
+place himself and his property at the King's orders in every thing which
+he believed conducive to the true service of his Majesty. The Prince had
+already received a remarkable warning from old Landgrave Philip of Hesse,
+who had not forgotten the insidious manner in which his own memorable
+captivity had been brought about by the arts of Granvelle and of Alva.
+"Let them not smear your mouths with honey," said the Landgrave. "If the
+three seigniors, of whom the Duchess Margaret has had so much to say, are
+invited to court by Alva, under pretext of friendly consultation, let
+them be wary, and think twice ere they accept. I know the Duke of Alva
+and the Spaniards, and how they dealt with me."
+
+The Prince, before he departed, took a final leave of Horn and Egmont, by
+letters, which, as if aware of the monumental character they were to
+assume for posterity, he drew up in Latin. He desired, now that he was
+turning his back upon the country, that those two nobles who had refused
+to imitate, and had advised against his course, should remember that, he
+was acting deliberately, conscientiously, and in pursuance of a
+long-settled plan.
+
+To Count Horn he declared himself unable to connive longer at the sins
+daily committed against the country and his own conscience. He assured
+him that the government had been accustoming the country to panniers, in
+order that it might now accept patiently the saddle and bridle. For
+himself, he said, his back was not strong enough for the weight already
+imposed upon it, and he preferred to endure any calamity which might
+happen to him in exile, rather than be compelled by those whom they had
+all condemned to acquiesce in the object so long and steadily pursued.
+
+He reminded Egmont, who had been urging him by letter to remain, that his
+resolution had been deliberately taken, and long since communicated to
+his friends. He could not, in conscience, take the oath required; nor
+would he, now that all eyes were turned upon him, remain in the land, the
+only recusant. He preferred to encounter all that could happen, rather
+than attempt to please others by the sacrifice of liberty, of his
+fatherland, of his own conscience. "I hope, therefore," said he to Egmont
+in conclusion, "that you, after weighing my reasons, will not disapprove
+my departure. The rest I leave to God, who will dispose of all as may
+most conduce to the glory of his name. For yourself, I pray you to
+believe that you have no more sincere friend than I am. My love for you
+has struck such deep root into my heart, that it can be lessened by no
+distance of time or place, and I pray you in return to maintain the same
+feelings towards me which you have always cherished."
+
+The Prince had left Antwerp upon the 11th April, and had written these
+letters from Breda, upon the 13th of the same month. Upon the 22d, he
+took his departure for Dillenburg, the ancestral seat of his family in
+Germany, by the way of Grave and Cleves.
+
+It was not to be supposed that this parting message would influence
+Egmont's decision with regard to his own movements, when his
+determination had not been shaken at his memorable interview with the
+Prince. The Count's fate was sealed. Had he not been praised by
+Noircarmes; had he not earned the hypocritical commendations of Duchess
+Margaret; nay more, had he not just received a most affectionate letter
+of, thanks and approbation from the King of Spain himself? This letter,
+one of the most striking monuments of Philip's cold-blooded perfidy, was
+dated the 26th of March. "I am pleased, my cousin," wrote the monarch to
+Egmont, "that you have taken the new oath, not that I considered it at
+all necessary so far as regards yourself, but for the example which you
+have thus given to others, and which I hope they will all follow. I have
+received not less pleasure in hearing of the excellent manner in which
+you are doing your duty, the assistance you are rendering, and the offers
+which you are making to my sister, for which I thank you, and request you
+to continue in the same course."
+
+The words were written by the royal hand which had already signed the
+death-warrant of the man to whom they were addressed. Alva, who came
+provided with full powers to carry out the great scheme resolved upon,
+unrestrained by provincial laws or by the statutes of the Golden Fleece,
+had left Madrid to embark for Carthagena, at the very moment when Egmont
+was reading the royal letter. "The Spanish honey," to use once more old
+Landgrave Philip's homely metaphor, had done its work, and the
+unfortunate victim was already entrapped.
+
+Count Horn remained in gloomy silence in his lair at Weert, awaiting the
+hunters of men, already on their way. It seemed inconceivable that he,
+too, who knew himself suspected and disliked, should have thus blinded
+himself to his position. It will be seen, however, that the same perfidy
+was to be employed to ensnare him which proved so successful with Egmont.
+
+As for the Prince himself, he did not move too soon. Not long after his
+arrival in Germany, Vandenesse, the King's private secretary, but
+Orange's secret agent, wrote him word that he had read letters from the
+King to Alva in which the Duke was instructed to "arrest the Prince as
+soon as he could lay hands upon him, and not to let his trial last more
+than twenty-four hours."
+
+Brederode had remained at Viane, and afterwards at Amsterdam, since the
+ill-starred expedition of Tholouse, which he had organized, but at which
+he had not assisted. He had given much annoyance to the magistracy of
+Amsterdam, and to all respectable persons, Calvinist or Catholic. He made
+much mischief, but excited no hopes in the minds of reformers. He was
+ever surrounded by a host of pot companions, swaggering nobles disguised
+as sailors, bankrupt tradesmen, fugitives and outlaws of every
+description, excellent people to drink the beggars' health and to bawl
+the beggars' songs, but quite unfit for any serious enterprise. People of
+substance were wary of him, for they had no confidence in his capacity,
+and were afraid of his frequent demands for contributions to the
+patriotic cause. He spent his time in the pleasure gardens, shooting at
+the mark with arquebuss or crossbow, drinking with his comrades, and
+shrieking "Vivent les gueux."
+
+The Regent, determined to dislodge him, had sent Secretary La Torre to
+him in March, with instructions that if Brederode refused to leave
+Amsterdam, the magistracy were to call for assistance upon Count Meghem,
+who had a regiment at Utrecht. This clause made it impossible for La
+Torre to exhibit his instructions to Brederode. Upon his refusal, that
+personage, although he knew the secretary as well as he knew his own
+father, coolly informed him that he knew nothing about him; that he did
+not consider him as respectable a person as he pretended to be; that he
+did not believe a word of his having any commission from the Duchess, and
+that he should therefore take no notice whatever of his demands. La Torre
+answered meekly, that he was not so presumptuous, nor so destitute of
+sense as to put himself into comparison with a gentleman of Count
+Brederode's quality, but that as he had served as secretary to the privy
+council for twenty-three years, he had thought that he might be believed
+upon his word. Hereupon La Tome drew up a formal protest, and Brederode
+drew up another. La Torre made a proces verbal of their interview, while
+Brederode stormed like a madman, and abused the Duchess for a capricious
+and unreasonable tyrant. He ended by imprisoning La Torre for a day or
+two, and seizing his papers. By a singular coincidence, these events took
+place on the 13th, 24th, and 15th of March, the very days of the great
+Antwerp tumult. The manner in which the Prince of Orange had been dealing
+with forty or fifty thousand armed men, anxious to cut each other's
+throats, while Brederode was thus occupied in browbeating a pragmatical
+but decent old secretary, illustrated the difference in calibre of the
+two men.
+
+This was the Count's last exploit. He remained at Amsterdam some weeks
+longer, but the events which succeeded changed the Hector into a faithful
+vassal. Before the 12th of April, he wrote to Egmont, begging his
+intercession with Margaret of Parma, and offering "carte blanche" as to
+terms, if he might only be allowed to make his peace with government. It
+was, however, somewhat late in the day for the "great beggar" to make his
+submission. No terms were accorded him, but he was allowed by the Duchess
+to enjoy his revenues provisionally, subject to the King's pleasure. Upon
+the 25th April, he entertained a select circle of friends at his hotel in
+Amsterdam, and then embarked at midnight for Embden. A numerous
+procession of his adherents escorted him to the ship, bearing lighted
+torches, and singing bacchanalian songs. He died within a year
+afterwards, of disappointment and hard drinking, at Castle Hardenberg, in
+Germany, after all his fretting and fury, and notwithstanding his
+vehement protestations to die a poor soldier at the feet of Louis Nassau.
+
+That "good chevalier and good Christian," as his brother affectionately
+called him, was in Germany, girding himself for the manly work which
+Providence had destined him to perform. The life of Brederode, who had
+engaged in the early struggle, perhaps from the frivolous expectation of
+hearing himself called Count of Holland, as his ancestors had been, had
+contributed nothing to the cause of freedom, nor did his death occasion
+regret. His disorderly band of followers dispersed in every direction
+upon the departure of their chief. A vessel in which Batenburg, Galaina,
+and other nobles, with their men-at-arms, were escaping towards a German
+port, was carried into Harlingen, while those gentlemen, overpowered by
+sleep and wassail, were unaware of their danger, and delivered over to
+Count Meghem, by the treachery of their pilot. The soldiers, were
+immediately hanged. The noblemen were reserved to grace the first great
+scaffold which Alva was to erect upon the horse-market in Brussels.
+
+The confederacy was entirely broken to pieces. Of the chieftains to whom
+the people had been accustomed to look for support and encouragement,
+some had rallied to the government, some were in exile, some were in
+prison. Montigny, closely watched in Spain, was virtually a captive,
+pining for the young bride to whom he had been wedded amid such brilliant
+festivities but a few months before his departure, and for the child
+which was never to look upon its father's face.
+
+His colleague, Marquis Berghen, more fortunate, was already dead. The
+excellent Viglius seized the opportunity to put in a good word for
+Noircarmes, who had been grinding Tournay in the dust, and butchering the
+inhabitants of Valenciennes. "We have heard of Berghen's death," wrote
+the President to his faithful Joachim. "The Lord of Noircarmes, who has
+been his substitute in the governorship of Hainault, has given a specimen
+of what he can do. Although I have no private intimacy with that
+nobleman, I can not help embracing him with all my benevolence.
+Therefore, oh my Hopper, pray do your best to have him appointed
+governor."
+
+With the departure of Orange, a total eclipse seemed to come over the
+Netherlands. The country was absolutely helpless, the popular heart cold
+with apprehension. All persons at all implicated in the late troubles, or
+suspected of heresy, fled from their homes. Fugitive soldiers were hunted
+into rivers, cut to pieces in the fields, hanged, burned, or drowned,
+like dogs, without quarter, and without remorse. The most industrious and
+valuable part of the population left the land in droves. The tide swept
+outwards with such rapidity that the Netherlands seemed fast becoming the
+desolate waste which they had been before the Christian era. Throughout
+the country, those Reformers who were unable to effect their escape
+betook themselves to their old lurking-places. The new religion was
+banished from all the cities, every conventicle was broken up by armed
+men, the preachers and leading members were hanged, their disciples
+beaten with rods, reduced to beggary, or imprisoned, even if they
+sometimes escaped the scaffold. An incredible number, however, were
+executed for religious causes. Hardly a village so small, says the
+Antwerp chronicler,--[Meteren]--but that it could furnish one, two, or
+three hundred victims to the executioner. The new churches were levelled
+to the ground, and out of their timbers gallows were constructed. It was
+thought an ingenious pleasantry to hang the Reformers upon the beams
+under which they had hoped to worship God. The property of the fugitives
+was confiscated. The beggars in name became beggars in reality. Many who
+felt obliged to remain, and who loved their possessions better than their
+creed, were suddenly converted into the most zealous of Catholics.
+Persons who had for years not gone to mass, never omitted now their daily
+and nightly visits to the churches. Persons who had never spoken to an
+ecclesiastic but with contumely, now could not eat their dinners without
+one at their table. Many who were suspected of having participated in
+Calvinistic rites, were foremost and loudest in putting down and
+denouncing all forms and shows of the reformation. The country was as
+completely "pacified," to use the conqueror's expression, as Gaul had
+been by Caesar.
+
+The Regent issued a fresh edict upon the 24th May, to refresh the
+memories of those who might have forgotten previous statutes, which were,
+however, not calculated to make men oblivious. By this new proclamation,
+all ministers and teachers were sentenced to the gallows. All persons who
+had suffered their houses to be used for religious purposes were
+sentenced to the gallows. All parents or masters whose children or
+servants had attended such meetings were sentenced to the gallows, while
+the children and servants were only to be beaten with rods. All people
+who sang hymns at the burial of their relations were sentenced to the
+gallows. Parents who allowed their newly-born children to be baptized by
+other hands than those of the Catholic priest were sentenced to the
+gallows. The same punishment was denounced against the persons who should
+christen the child or act as its sponsors. Schoolmasters who should teach
+any error or false doctrine were likewise to be punished with death.
+Those who infringed the statutes against the buying and selling of
+religious books and songs were to receive the same doom; after the first
+offence. All sneers or insults against priests and ecclesiastics were
+also made capital crimes. Vagabonds, fugitives; apostates, runaway monks,
+were ordered forthwith to depart from every city on pain of death. In all
+cases confiscation of the whole property of the criminal was added to the
+hanging.
+
+This edict, says a contemporary historian, increased the fear of those
+professing the new religion to such an extent that they left the country
+"in great heaps." It became necessary, therefore, to issue a subsequent
+proclamation forbidding all persons, whether foreigners or natives, to
+leave the land or to send away their property, and prohibiting all
+shipmasters, wagoners, and other agents of travel, from assisting in the
+flight of such fugitives, all upon pain of death.
+
+Yet will it be credited that the edict of 24th May, the provisions of
+which have just been sketched, actually excited the wrath of Philip on
+account of their clemency? He wrote to the Duchess, expressing the pain
+and dissatisfaction which he felt, that an edict so indecent, so illegal,
+so contrary to the Christian religion, should have been published.
+Nothing, he said, could offend or distress him more deeply, than any
+outrage whatever, even the slightest one, offered to God and to His Roman
+Catholic Church. He therefore commanded his sister instantly to revoke
+the edict. One might almost imagine from reading the King's letter that
+Philip was at last appalled at the horrors committed in his name. Alas,
+he was only indignant that heretics had been suffered to hang who ought
+to have been burned, and that a few narrow and almost impossible
+loopholes had been left through which those who had offended alight
+effect their escape.
+
+And thus, while the country is paralyzed with present and expected woe,
+the swiftly advancing trumpets of the Spanish army resound from beyond
+the Alps. The curtain is falling upon the prelude to the great tragedy
+which the prophetic lips of Orange had foretold. When it is again lifted,
+scenes of disaster and of bloodshed, battles, sieges, executions, deeds
+of unfaltering but valiant tyranny, of superhuman and successful
+resistance, of heroic self-sacrifice, fanatical courage and insane
+cruelty, both in the cause of the Wrong and the Right, will be revealed
+in awful succession--a spectacle of human energy, human suffering, and
+human strength to suffer, such as has not often been displayed upon the
+stage of the world's events.
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     God Save the King! It was the last time
+     Having conjugated his paradigm conscientiously
+     Indignant that heretics had been suffered to hang
+     Insane cruelty, both in the cause of the Wrong and the Right
+     Sick and wounded wretches were burned over slow fires
+     Slender stock of platitudes
+     The time for reasoning had passed
+     Who loved their possessions better than their creed
+
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, PG EDITION, VOLUME 14.
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
+
+By JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
+1855
+
+1567 [Part III., ALVA, CHAPTER 1.]
+
+   Continued dissensions in the Spanish cabinet--Ruy Gomez and Alva--
+   Conquest of the Netherlands entrusted to the Duke--Birth, previous
+   career and character of Alva--Organization of the invading army--
+   Its march to the provinces--Complaints of Duchess Margaret--Alva
+   receives deputations on the frontier--Interview between the Duke and
+   Egmont--Reception of Alva by the Duchess of Parma--Circular letters
+   to the cities requiring their acceptance of garrisons--Margaret's
+   secret correspondence--Universal apprehension--Keys of the great
+   cities demanded by Alva--Secret plans of the government, arranged
+   before the Duke's departure--Arrest of Orange, Egmont, Horn, and
+   others, determined upon--Stealthy course of the government towards
+   them--Infatuation of Egmont--Warnings addressed to him by De Billy
+   and others--Measures to entrap Count Horn--Banquet of the Grand
+   Prior--The Grand Prior's warning to Egmont--Evil counsels of
+   Noircarmes--Arrests of Egmont, Horn, Bakkerzeel and Straalen--
+   Popular consternation--Petulant conduct of Duchess Margaret--
+   Characteristic comments of Granvelle--His secret machinations and
+   disclaimers--Berghen and Montigny--Last moments of Marquis Berghen--
+   Perfidy of Ruy Gomez--Establishment of the "Blood-Council"--Its
+   leading features--Insidious behavior of Viglius--Secret
+   correspondence, concerning the President, between Philip and Alva--
+   Members of the "Blood-Council"--Portraits of Vargas and Hessels--
+   Mode of proceeding adopted by the council--Wholesale executions--
+   Despair in the provinces--The resignation of Duchess Margaret
+   accepted--Her departure from the Netherlands--Renewed civil war in
+   France--Death of Montmorency--Auxiliary troops sent by Alva to
+   France--Erection of Antwerp citadel--Description of the citadel.
+
+The armed invasion of the Netherlands was the necessary consequence of
+all which had gone before. That the inevitable result had been so long
+deferred lay rather in the incomprehensible tardiness of Philip's
+character than in the circumstances of the case. Never did a monarch hold
+so steadfastly to a deadly purpose, or proceed so languidly and with so
+much circumvolution to his goal. The mask of benignity, of possible
+clemency, was now thrown off, but the delusion of his intended visit to
+the provinces was still maintained. He assured the Regent that he should
+be governed by her advice, and as she had made all needful preparations
+to receive him in Zeland, that it would be in Zeland he should arrive.
+
+The same two men among Philip's advisers were prominent as at an earlier
+day--the Prince of Eboli and the Duke of Alva. They still represented
+entirely opposite ideas, and in character, temper, and history, each was
+the reverse of the other. The policy of the Prince was pacific and
+temporizing; that of the Duke uncompromising and ferocious. Ruy Gomez was
+disposed to prevent, if possible, the armed mission of Alva, and he now
+openly counselled the King to fulfil his long-deferred promise, and to
+make his appearance in person before his rebellious subjects. The
+jealousy and hatred which existed between the Prince and the
+Duke--between the man of peace and the man of wrath--were constantly
+exploding, even in the presence of the King. The wrangling in the council
+was incessant. Determined, if possible; to prevent the elevation of his
+rival, the favorite was even for a moment disposed to ask for the command
+of the army himself. There was something ludicrous in the notion, that a
+man whose life had been pacific, and who trembled at the noise of arms,
+should seek to supersede the terrible Alva, of whom his eulogists
+asserted, with, Castilian exaggeration, that the very name of fear
+inspired him with horror. But there was a limit beyond which the
+influence of Anna de Mendoza and her husband did not extend. Philip was
+not to be driven to the Netherlands against his will, nor to be prevented
+from assigning the command of the army to the most appropriate man in
+Europe for his purpose.
+
+It was determined at last that the Netherland heresy should be conquered
+by force of arms. The invasion resembled both a crusade against the
+infidel, and a treasure-hunting foray into the auriferous Indies,
+achievements by which Spanish chivalry had so often illustrated itself.
+The banner of the cross was to be replanted upon the conquered
+battlements of three hundred infidel cities, and a torrent of wealth,
+richer than ever flowed from Mexican or Peruvian mines, was to flow into
+the royal treasury from the perennial fountains of confiscation. Who so
+fit to be the Tancred and the Pizarro of this bicolored expedition as the
+Duke of Alva, the man who had been devoted from his earliest childhood,
+and from his father's grave, to hostility against unbelievers, and who
+had prophesied that treasure would flow in a stream, a yard deep, from
+the Netherlands as soon as the heretics began to meet with their deserts.
+An army of chosen troops was forthwith collected, by taking the four
+legions, or terzios, of Naples, Sicily, Sardinia, and Lombardy, and
+filling their places in Italy by fresh levies. About ten thousand picked
+and veteran soldiers were thus obtained, of which the Duke of Alva was
+appointed general-in-chief.
+
+Ferdinando Alvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alva, was now in his sixtieth year.
+He was the most successful and experienced general of Spain, or of
+Europe. No man had studied more deeply, or practised more constantly, the
+military science. In the most important of all arts at that epoch he was
+the most consummate artist. In the only honorable profession of the age,
+he was the most thorough and the most pedantic professor. Since the days
+of Demetrius Poliorcetes, no man had besieged so many cities. Since the
+days of Fabius Cunctator; no general had avoided so many battles, and no
+soldier, courageous as he was, ever attained to a more sublime
+indifference to calumny or depreciation. Having proved in his boyhood, at
+Fontarabia, and in his maturity: at Muhlberg, that he could exhibit
+heroism and headlong courage; when necessary, he could afford to look
+with contempt upon the witless gibes which his enemies had occasionally
+perpetrated at his expense. Conscious of holding his armies in his hand,
+by the power of an unrivalled discipline, and the magic of a name
+illustrated by a hundred triumphs, he, could bear with patience and
+benevolence the murmurs of his soldiers when their battles were denied
+them.
+
+He was born in 1508, of a family which boasted, imperial descent. A
+Palaeologus, brother of a Byzantine emperor, had conquered the city of
+Toledo, and transmitted its appellation as a family name. The father of
+Ferdinando, Don Garcia, had been slain on the isle of Gerbes, in battle
+with the Moors, when his son was but four years of age. The child was
+brought up by his grandfather, Don Frederic, and trained from his
+tenderest infancy to arms. Hatred to the infidel, and a determination to
+avenge his father's blood; crying to him from a foreign grave, were the
+earliest of his instincts. As a youth he was distinguished for his
+prowess. His maiden sword was fleshed at Fontarabia, where, although but
+sixteen years of age, he was considered, by his constancy in hardship, by
+his brilliant and desperate courage, and by the example of military
+discipline which he afforded to the troops, to have contributed in no
+small degree to the success of the Spanish arms.
+
+In 1530, he accompanied the Emperor in his campaign against the Turk.
+Charles, instinctively recognizing the merit of the youth who was
+destined to be the life-long companion of his toils and glories,
+distinguished him with his favor at the opening of his career. Young,
+brave, and enthusiastic, Ferdinand de Toledo at this period was as
+interesting a hero as ever illustrated the pages of Castilian romance.
+His mad ride from Hungary to Spain and back again, accomplished in
+seventeen days, for the sake of a brief visit to his newly-married wife,
+is not the least attractive episode in the history of an existence which
+was destined to be so dark and sanguinary. In 1535, he accompanied the
+Emperor on his memorable expedition to Tunis. In 1546 and 1547 he was
+generalissimo in the war against the Smalcaldian league. His most
+brilliant feat of arms-perhaps the most brilliant exploit of the
+Emperor's reign--was the passage of the Elbe and the battle of Muhlberg,
+accomplished in spite of Maximilian's bitter and violent reproaches, and
+the tremendous possibilities of a defeat. That battle had finished the
+war. The gigantic and magnanimous John Frederic, surprised at his
+devotions in the church, fled in dismay, leaving his boots behind him,
+which for their superhuman size, were ridiculously said afterwards to be
+treasured among the trophies of the Toledo house.
+
+   [Hist. du Due d'Albe, i. 274. Brantome, Hom. Illust., etc.
+   (ch. v.), says that one of the boots was "large enough to hold a
+   camp bedstead," p. 11. I insert the anecdote only as a specimen of
+   the manner in which similar absurdities, both of great and, of
+   little consequence, are perpetuated by writers in every land and
+   age. The armor of the noble-hearted and unfortunate John Frederic
+   may still be seen in Dresden. Its size indicates a man very much
+   above the average height, while the external length of the iron
+   shoe, on-the contrary, is less than eleven inches.]
+
+The rout was total. "I came, I saw, and God conquered," said the Emperor,
+in pious parody of his immortal predecessor's epigram. Maximilian, with a
+thousand apologies for his previous insults, embraced the heroic Don
+Ferdinand over and over again, as, arrayed in a plain suit of blue armor,
+unadorned save with streaks of his enemies' blood, he returned from
+pursuit of the fugitives. So complete and so sudden was the victory, that
+it was found impossible to account for it, save on the ground of
+miraculous interposition. Like Joshua, in the vale of Ajalon, Don
+Ferdinand was supposed to have commanded the sun to stand still for a
+season, and to have been obeyed. Otherwise, how could the passage of the
+river, which was only concluded at six in the evening, and the complete
+overthrow of the Protestant forces, have all been accomplished within the
+narrow space of an April twilight? The reply of the Duke to Henry the
+Second of France, who questioned him subsequently upon the subject, is
+well known. "Your Majesty, I was too much occupied that evening with what
+was taking place on the earth beneath, to pay much heed to the evolutions
+of the heavenly bodies." Spared as he had been by his good fortune from
+taking any part in the Algerine expedition, or in witnessing the
+ignominious retreat from Innspruck, he was obliged to submit to the
+intercalation of the disastrous siege of Metz in the long history of his
+successes. Doing the duty of a field-marshal and a sentinel, supporting
+his army by his firmness and his discipline when nothing else could have
+supported them, he was at last enabled, after half the hundred thousand
+men with whom Charles had begun the siege had been sacrificed, to induce
+his imperial master to raise the siege before the remaining fifty
+thousand had been frozen or starved to death.
+
+The culminating career of Alva seemed to have closed in the mist which
+gathered around the setting star of the empire. Having accompanied Philip
+to England in 1554, on his matrimonial-expedition, he was destined in the
+following years, as viceroy and generalissimo of Italy, to be placed in a
+series of false positions. A great captain engaged in a little war, the
+champion of the cross in arms against the successor of St. Peter, he had
+extricated himself, at last, with his usual adroitness, but with very
+little glory. To him had been allotted the mortification, to another the
+triumph. The lustre of his own name seemed to sink in the ocean while
+that of a hated rival, with new spangled ore, suddenly "flamed in the
+forehead of the morning sky." While he had been paltering with a dotard,
+whom he was forbidden to crush, Egmont had struck down the chosen troops
+of France, and conquered her most illustrious commanders. Here was the
+unpardonable crime which could only be expiated by the blood of the
+victor. Unfortunately for his rival, the time was now approaching when
+the long-deferred revenge was to be satisfied.
+
+On the whole, the Duke of Alva was inferior to no general of his age. As
+a disciplinarian he was foremost in Spain, perhaps in Europe. A
+spendthrift of time, he was an economist of blood, and this was, perhaps,
+in the eye of humanity, his principal virtue. Time and myself are two,
+was a frequent observation of Philip, and his favorite general considered
+the maxim as applicable to war as to politics. Such were his qualities as
+a military commander. As a statesman, he had neither experience nor
+talent. As a man his character was simple. He did not combine a great
+variety of vices, but those which he had were colossal, and he possessed
+no virtues. He was neither lustful nor intemperate, but his professed
+eulogists admitted his enormous avarice, while the world has agreed that
+such an amount of stealth and ferocity, of patient vindictiveness and
+universal bloodthirstiness, were never found in a savage beast of the
+forest, and but rarely in a human bosom. His history was now to show that
+his previous thrift of human life was not derived from any love of his
+kind. Personally he was stern and overbearing. As difficult of access as
+Philip himself, he was even more haughty to those who were admitted to
+his presence. He addressed every one with the depreciating second person
+plural. Possessing the right of being covered in the presence of the
+Spanish monarch, he had been with difficulty brought to renounce it
+before the German Emperor. He was of an illustrious family; but his
+territorial possessions were not extensive. His duchy was a small one,
+furnishing him with not more than fourteen thousand crowns of annual
+income, and with four hundred soldiers. He had, however, been a thrifty
+financier all his life, never having been without a handsome sum of ready
+money at interest. Ten years before his arrival in the Netherlands, he
+was supposed to have already increased his income to forty thousand a
+year by the proceeds of his investments at Antwerp. As already intimated,
+his military character was sometimes profoundly misunderstood. He was
+often considered rather a pedantic than a practical commander, more
+capable to discourse of battles than to gain them. Notwithstanding that
+his long life had been an almost unbroken campaign, the ridiculous
+accusation of timidity was frequently made against him. A gentleman at
+the court of the Emperor Charles once addressed a letter to the Duke with
+the title of "General of his Majesty's armies in the Duchy of Milan in
+time of peace, and major-domo of the household in the time of war." It
+was said that the lesson did the Duke good, but that he rewarded very
+badly the nobleman who gave it, having subsequently caused his head to be
+taken off. In general, however, Alva manifested a philosophical contempt
+for the opinions expressed concerning his military fame, and was
+especially disdainful of criticism expressed by his own soldiers.
+"Recollect," said he, at a little later period, to Don John of Austria,
+"that the first foes with whom one has to contend are one's own troops;
+with their clamors for an engagement at this moment, and--their murmurs,
+about results at another; with their 'I thought that the battle should be
+fought;' or, 'it was my opinion that the occasion ought not to be lost.'
+Your highness will have opportunity enough to display valor, and will
+never be weak enough to be conquered by the babble of soldiers."
+
+In person he was tall, thin, erect, with a small head, a long visage,
+lean yellow cheek, dark twinkling eyes, a dust complexion, black
+bristling hair, and a long sable-silvered beard, descending in two waving
+streams upon his breast.
+
+Such being the design, the machinery was well selected. The best man in
+Europe to lead the invading force was placed at the head of ten thousand
+picked veterans. The privates in this exquisite little army, said the
+enthusiastic connoisseur Brantome, who travelled post into Lorraine
+expressly to see them on their march, all wore engraved or gilded armor,
+and were in every respect equipped like captains. They were the first who
+carried muskets, a weapon which very much astonished the Flemings when it
+first rattled in their ears. The musketeers, he observed, might have been
+mistaken, for princes, with such agreeable and graceful arrogance did
+they present themselves. Each was attended by his servant or esquire, who
+carried his piece for him, except in battle, and all were treated with
+extreme deference by the rest of the army, as if they had been officers.
+The four regiments of Lombardy, Sardinia, Sicily, and Naples, composed a
+total of not quite nine thousand of the best foot soldiers in Europe.
+They were commanded respectively by Don Sancho de Lodiono, Don Gonzalo de
+Bracamonte, Julien Romero, and Alfonso de Ulloa, all distinguished and
+experienced generals. The cavalry, amounting to about twelve hundred; was
+under the command of the natural son of the Duke, Don Ferdinando de
+Toledo, Prior of the Knights of St. John. Chiapin Vitelli, Marquis of
+Cetona, who had served the King in many a campaign, was appointed
+Marechal de camp, and Gabriel Cerbelloni was placed in command of the
+artillery. On the way the Duke received, as a present from the Duke of
+Savoy, the services of the distinguished engineer, Pacheco, or Paciotti,
+whose name was to be associated with the most celebrated citadel of the
+Netherlands; and whose dreadful fate was to be contemporaneous with the
+earliest successes of the liberal party.
+
+With an army thus perfect, on a small scale, in all its departments, and
+furnished, in addition, with a force of two thousand prostitutes, as
+regularly enrolled, disciplined, and distributed as the cavalry or the
+artillery, the Duke embarked upon his momentous enterprise, on the 10th
+of May, at Carthagena. Thirty-seven galleys, under command of Prince
+Andrea Doria, brought the principal part of the force to Genoa, the Duke
+being delayed a few days at Nice by an attack of fever. On the 2d of
+June, the army was mustered at Alexandria de Palla, and ordered to
+rendezvous again at San Ambrosio at the foot of the Alps. It was then
+directed to make its way over Mount Cenis and through Savoy; Burgundy,
+and Lorraine, by a regularly arranged triple movement. The second
+division was each night to encamp on the spot which had been occupied
+upon the previous night by the vanguard, and the rear was to place itself
+on the following night in the camp of the corps de bataille. Thus coiling
+itself along almost in a single line by slow and serpentine windings,
+with a deliberate, deadly, venomous purpose, this army, which was to be
+the instrument of Philip's long deferred vengeance, stole through narrow
+mountain pass and tangled forest. So close and intricate were many of the
+defiles through which the journey led them that, had one tithe of the
+treason which they came to punish, ever existed, save in the diseased
+imagination of their monarch, not one man would have been left to tell
+the tale. Egmont, had he really been the traitor and the conspirator he
+was assumed to be, might have easily organized the means of cutting off
+the troops before they could have effected their entrance into the
+country which they had doomed to destruction. His military experience,
+his qualifications for a daring stroke, his great popularity, and the
+intense hatred entertained for Alva, would have furnished him with a
+sufficient machinery for the purpose.
+
+Twelve days' march carried the army through Burgundy, twelve more through
+Lorraine. During the whole of the journey they were closely accompanied
+by a force of cavalry and infantry, ordered upon this service by the King
+of France, who, for fear of exciting a fresh Huguenot demonstration, had
+refused the Spaniards a passage through his dominions. This reconnoitring
+army kept pace with them like their shadow, and watched all their
+movements. A force of six thousand Swiss, equally alarmed and uneasy at
+the progress of the troops, hovered likewise about their flanks, without,
+however, offering any impediment to their advance. Before the middle of
+August they had reached Thionville, on the Luxemburg frontier, having on
+the last day marched a distance of two leagues through a forest, which
+seemed expressly arranged to allow a small defensive force to embarrass
+and destroy an invading army. No opposition, however, was attempted, and
+the Spanish soldiers encamped at last within the territory of the
+Netherlands, having accomplished their adventurous journey in entire
+safety, and under perfect discipline.
+
+The Duchess had in her secret letters to Philip continued to express her
+disapprobation of the enterprise thus committed to Alva, She had bitterly
+complained that now when the country had been pacified by her efforts,
+another should be sent to reap all the glory, or perhaps to undo all that
+she had so painfully and so successfully done. She stated to her brother,
+in most unequivocal language, that the name of Alva was odious enough to
+make the whole Spanish nation detested in the Netherlands. She could find
+no language sufficiently strong to express her surprise that the King
+should have decided upon a measure likely to be attended with such fatal
+consequences without consulting her on the subject, and in opposition to
+what had been her uniform advice. She also wrote personally to Alva,
+imploring, commanding, and threatening, but with equally ill success. The
+Duke knew too well who was sovereign of the Netherlands now; his master's
+sister or himself. As to the effects of his armed invasion upon the
+temper of the provinces, he was supremely indifferent. He came as a
+conqueror not as a mediator. "I have tamed people of iron in my day,"
+said he, contemptuously, "shall I not easily crush these men of butter?"
+
+At Thionville he was, however, officially waited upon by Berlaymont and
+Noircarmes, on the part of the Regent. He at this point, moreover, began
+to receive deputations from various cities, bidding him a hollow and
+trembling welcome, and deprecating his displeasure for any thing in the
+past which might seem offensive. To all such embassies he replied in
+vague and conventional language; saying, however, to his confidential
+attendants: I am here, so much is certain, whether I am welcome or not is
+to me a matter of little consequence. At Tirlemont, on the 22d August, he
+was met by Count Egmont, who had ridden forth from Brussels to show him a
+becoming respect, as the representative of his sovereign, The Count was
+accompanied by several other noblemen, and brought to the Duke a present
+of several beautiful horses. Alva received him, however, but coldly, for
+he was unable at first to adjust the mask to his countenance as adroitly
+as was necessary. Behold the greatest of all the heretics, he observed to
+his attendants, as soon as the nobleman's presence was announced, and in
+a voice loud enough for him to hear.
+
+Even after they had exchanged salutations, he addressed several remarks
+to him in a half jesting, half biting tone, saying among other things,
+that his countship might have spared him the trouble of making this long
+journey in his old age. There were other observations in a similar strain
+which might have well aroused the suspicion of any man not determined,
+like Egmont, to continue blind and deaf. After a brief interval, however,
+Alva seems to have commanded himself. He passed his arm lovingly over
+that stately neck, which he had already devoted to the block, and the
+Count having resolved beforehand to place himself, if possible, upon
+amicable terms with the new Viceroy--the two rode along side by side in
+friendly conversation, followed by the regiment of infantry and three
+companies of light horse, which belonged to the Duke's immediate command.
+Alva, still attended by Egmont, rode soon afterwards through the Louvain
+gate into Brussels, where they separated for a season. Lodgings had been
+taken for the Duke at the house of a certain Madame de Jasse, in the
+neighborhood of Egmont's palace. Leaving here the principal portion of
+his attendants, the Captain-General, without alighting, forthwith
+proceeded to the palace to pay his respects to the Duchess of Parma.
+
+For three days the Regent had been deliberating with her council as to
+the propriety of declining any visit from the man whose presence she
+justly considered a disgrace and an insult to herself. This being the
+reward of her eight years' devotion to her brother's commands; to be
+superseded by a subject, and one too who came to carry out a policy which
+she had urgently deprecated, it could hardly be expected of the Emperor's
+daughter that she should graciously submit to the indignity, and receive
+her successor with a smiling countenance. In consequence, however, of the
+submissive language with which the Duke had addressed her in his recent
+communications, offering with true Castilian but empty courtesy, to place
+his guards, his army, and himself at her feet, she had consented to
+receive his visit with or without his attendants.
+
+On his appearance in the court-yard, a scene of violent altercation and
+almost of bloodshed took place between his body-guard and the archers of
+the Regent's household, who were at last, with difficulty, persuaded to
+allow the mercenaries of the hated Captain-General to pass. Presenting
+himself at three o'clock in the afternoon, after these not very
+satisfactory preliminaries, in the bedchamber of the Duchess, where it
+was her habit to grant confidential audiences, he met, as might easily be
+supposed, with a chilling reception: The Duchess, standing motionless in
+the centre of the apartment, attended by Berlaymont, the Duke of
+Aerachot, and Count Egmont, acknowledged his salutations with calm
+severity. Neither she nor any one of her attendants advanced a step to
+meet him. The Duke took off his hat, but she, calmly recognizing his
+right as a Spanish grandee, insisted upon his remaining covered. A stiff
+and formal conversation of half an hour's duration then ensued, all
+parties remaining upon their feet. The Duke, although respectful; found
+it difficult to conceal his indignation and his haughty sense of
+approaching triumph. Margaret was cold, stately, and forbidding,
+disguising her rage and her mortification under a veil of imperial pride.
+Alva, in a letter to Philip, describing the interview, assured his
+Majesty that he had treated the Duchess with as much deference as he
+could have shown to the Queen, but it is probable, from other
+contemporaneous accounts, that an ill-disguised and even angry arrogance
+was at times very visible in his demeanor. The state council had advised
+the Duchess against receiving him until he had duly exhibited his powers.
+This ceremony had been waived, but upon being questioned by the Duchess
+at this interview as to their nature and extent, he is reported to have
+coolly answered that he really did not exactly remember, but that he
+would look them over, and send her information at his earliest
+convenience.
+
+The next day, however, his commission was duly exhibited.
+
+In this document, which bore date 31st January, 1567, Philip appointed
+him to be Captain-General "in correspondence with his Majesty's dear
+sister of Parma, who was occupied with other matters belonging to the
+government," begged the Duchess to co-operate with him and to command
+obedience for him, and ordered all the cities of the Netherlands to
+receive such garrisons as he should direct.
+
+At the official interview between Alva and Madame de Parma, at which
+these powers were produced, the necessary preliminary arrangements were
+made regarding the Spanish troops, which were now to be immediately
+quartered in the principal cities. The Duke, however, informed the Regent
+that as these matters were not within her province, he should take the
+liberty of arranging them with the authorities, without troubling her in
+the matter, and would inform her of the result of his measures at their
+next interview, which was to take place on the 26th August.
+
+Circular letters signed by Philip, which Alva had brought with him, were
+now despatched to the different municipal bodies of the country. In these
+the cities were severally commanded to accept the garrisons, and to
+provide for the armies whose active services the King hoped would not be
+required, but which he had sent beforehand to prepare a peaceful entrance
+for himself. He enjoined the most absolute obedience to the Duke of Alva
+until his own arrival, which was to be almost immediate. These letters
+were dated at Madrid on the 28th February, and were now accompanied by a
+brief official circular, signed by Margaret of Parma, in which she
+announced the arrival of her dear cousin of Alva, and demanded
+unconditional submission to his authority.
+
+Having thus complied with these demands of external and conventional
+propriety, the indignant Duchess unbosomed herself, in her private
+Italian letters to her brother, of the rage which had been hitherto
+partially suppressed. She reiterated her profound regret that Philip had
+not yet accepted the resignation which she had so recently and so
+earnestly offered. She disclaimed all jealousy of the supreme powers now
+conferred upon Alva, but thought that his Majesty might have allowed her
+to leave the country before the Duke arrived with an authority which was
+so extraordinary, as well as so humiliating to herself. Her honor might
+thus have been saved. She was pained to perceive that she was like to
+furnish a perpetual example to all others, who considering the manner in
+which she had been treated by the King, would henceforth have but little
+inducement to do their duty. At no time, on no occasion, could any person
+ever render him such services as hers had been. For nine years she had
+enjoyed not a moment of repose. If the King had shown her but little
+gratitude, she was consoled by the thought that she had satisfied her
+God, herself, and the world. She had compromised her health, perhaps her
+life, and now that she had pacified the country, now that the King was
+more absolute, more powerful than ever before, another was sent to enjoy
+the fruit of her labors and her sufferings.
+
+The Duchess made no secret of her indignation at being thus superseded
+and as she considered the matter, outraged. She openly avowed her
+displeasure. She was at times almost beside herself with rage. There was
+universal sympathy with her emotions, for all hated the Duke, and
+shuddered at the arrival of the Spaniards. The day of doom for all the
+crimes which had ever been committed in the course of ages, seemed now to
+have dawned upon the Netherlands. The sword which had so long been
+hanging over them, seemed now about to descend. Throughout the provinces,
+there was but one feeling of cold and hopeless dismay. Those who still
+saw a possibility of effecting their escape from the fated land, swarmed
+across the frontier. All foreign merchants deserted the great marts. The
+cities became as still as if the plague-banner had been unfurled on every
+house-top.
+
+Meantime the Captain-General proceeded methodically with his work. He
+distributed his troops through Brussels, Ghent, Antwerp, and other
+principal cities. As a measure of necessity and mark of the last
+humiliation, he required the municipalities to transfer their keys to his
+keeping. The magistrates of Ghent humbly remonstrated against the
+indignity, and Egmont was imprudent enough to make himself the
+mouth-piece of their remonstrance, which, it is needless to add, was
+unsuccessful. Meantime his own day of reckoning had arrived.
+
+As already observed, the advent of Alva at the head of a foreign army was
+the natural consequence of all which had gone before. The delusion of the
+royal visit was still maintained, and the affectation of a possible
+clemency still displayed, while the monarch sat quietly in his cabinet
+without a remote intention of leaving Spain, and while the messengers of
+his accumulated and long-concealed wrath were already descending upon
+their prey. It was the deliberate intention of Philip, when the Duke was
+despatched to the Netherlands, that all the leaders of the
+anti-inquisition party, and all who had, at any time or in any way,
+implicated themselves in opposition to the government, or in censure of
+its proceedings, should be put to death. It was determined that the
+provinces should be subjugated to the absolute domination of the council
+of Spain, a small body of foreigners sitting at the other end of Europe,
+a junta in which Netherlanders were to have no voice and exercise no
+influence. The despotic government of the Spanish and Italian possessions
+was to be extended to these Flemish territories, which were thus to be
+converted into the helpless dependencies of a foreign and an absolute
+crown. There was to be a re-organization of the inquisition, upon the
+same footing claimed for it before the outbreak of the troubles, together
+with a re-enactment and vigorous enforcement of the famous edicts against
+heresy.
+
+Such was the scheme recommended by Granvelle and Espinosa, and to be
+executed by Alva. As part and parcel of this plan, it was also arranged
+at secret meetings at the house of Espinosa, before the departure of the
+Duke, that all the seigniors against whom the Duchess Margaret had made
+so many complaints, especially the Prince of Orange, with the Counts
+Egmont, Horn, and Hoogstraaten, should be immediately arrested and
+brought to chastisement. The Marquis Berghen and the Baron Montigny,
+being already in Spain, could be dealt with at pleasure. It was also
+decided that the gentlemen implicated in the confederacy or compromise,
+should at once be proceeded against for high treason, without any regard
+to the promise of pardon granted by the Duchess.
+
+The general features of the great project having been thus mapped out, a
+few indispensable preliminaries were at once executed. In order that
+Egmont, Horn, and other distinguished victims might not take alarm, and
+thus escape the doom deliberately arranged for them, royal assurances
+were despatched to the Netherlands, cheering their despondency and
+dispelling their doubts. With his own hand Philip wrote the letter, full
+of affection and confidence, to Egmont, to which allusion has already
+been made. He wrote it after Alva had left Madrid upon his mission of
+vengeance. The same stealthy measures were pursued with regard to others.
+The Prince of Orange was not capable of falling into the royal trap,
+however cautiously baited. Unfortunately he could not communicate his
+wisdom to his friends.
+
+It is difficult to comprehend so very sanguine a temperament as that to
+which Egmont owed his destruction. It was not the Prince of Orange alone
+who had prophesied his doom. Warnings had come to the Count from every
+quarter, and they were now frequently repeated. Certainly he was not
+without anxiety, but he had made his decision; determined to believe in
+the royal word, and in the royal gratitude for his services rendered, not
+only against Montmorency and De Thermes, but against the heretics of
+Flanders. He was, however, much changed. He had grown prematurely old. At
+forty-six years his hair was white, and he never slept without pistols
+under his pillow. Nevertheless he affected, and sometimes felt, a
+light-heartedness which surprised all around him. The Portuguese
+gentleman Robles, Seigneur de Billy, who had returned early in the summer
+from Spain; whither he had been sent upon a confidential mission by
+Madame de Parma, is said to have made repeated communications to Egmont
+as to the dangerous position in which he stood. Immediately after his
+arrival in Brussels he had visited the Count, then confined to his house
+by an injury caused by the fall of his horse. "Take care to get well very
+fast," said De Billy, "for there are very bad stories told about you in
+Spain." Egmont laughed heartily at the observation, as if, nothing could
+well be more absurd than such a warning. His friend--for De Billy is said
+to have felt a real attachment to the Count--persisted in his prophecies,
+telling him that "birds in the field sang much more sweetly than those in
+cages," and that he would do well to abandon the country before the
+arrival of Alva.
+
+These warnings were repeated almost daily by the same gentleman, and by
+others, who were more and more astonished at Egmont's infatuation.
+Nevertheless, he had disregarded their admonitions, and had gone forth to
+meet the Duke at Tirlemont. Even then he might have seen, in the coldness
+of his first reception, and in the disrespectful manner of the Spanish
+soldiers, who not only did not at first salute him, but who murmured
+audibly that he was a Lutheran and traitor, that he was not so great a
+favorite with the government at Madrid as he desired to be.
+
+After the first few moments, however, Alva's manner had changed, while
+Chiappin Vitelli, Gabriel de Serbelloni, and other principal officers,
+received the Count with great courtesy, even upon his first appearance.
+The grand prior, Ferdinando de Toledo, natural son of the Duke, and
+already a distinguished soldier, seems to have felt a warm and unaffected
+friendship for Egmont, whose brilliant exploits in the field had excited
+his youthful admiration, and of whose destruction he was, nevertheless,
+compelled to be the unwilling instrument. For a few days, accordingly,
+after the arrival of the new Governor-General all seemed to be going
+smoothly. The grand prior and Egmont became exceedingly intimate, passing
+their time together in banquets, masquerades, and play, as joyously as if
+the merry days which had succeeded the treaty of Cateau Cambreais were
+returned. The Duke, too, manifested the most friendly dispositions,
+taking care to send him large presents of Spanish and Italian fruits,
+received frequently by the government couriers.
+
+Lapped in this fatal security, Egmont not only forgot his fears, but
+unfortunately succeeded in inspiring Count Horn with a portion of his
+confidence. That gentleman had still remained in his solitary mansion at
+Weert, notwithstanding the artful means which had been used to lure him
+from that "desert." It is singular that the very same person who,
+according to a well-informed Catholic contemporary, had been most eager
+to warn Egmont of his danger, had also been the foremost instrument for
+effecting the capture of the Admiral. The Seigneur de Billy, on the day
+after his arrival from Madrid, had written to Horn, telling him that the
+King was highly pleased with his services and character. De Billy also
+stated that he had been commissioned by Philip to express distinctly the
+royal gratitude for the Count's conduct, adding that his Majesty was
+about to visit the Netherlands in August, and would probably be preceded
+or accompanied by Baron Montigny.
+
+Alva and his son Don Ferdinando had soon afterwards addressed letters
+from Gerverbiller (dated 26th and 27th July) to Count Horn, filled with
+expressions of friendship and confidence. The Admiral, who had sent one
+of his gentlemen to greet the Duke, now responded from Weert that he was
+very sensible of the kindness manifested towards him, but that for
+reasons which his secretary Alonzo de la Loo would more fully
+communicate, he must for the present beg to be excused from a personal
+visit to Brussels. The secretary was received by Alva with extreme
+courtesy. The Duke expressed infinite pain that the King had not yet
+rewarded Count Horn's services according to their merit, said that a year
+before he had told his brother Montigny how very much he was the
+Admiral's friend, and begged La Loo to tell his master that he should not
+doubt the royal generosity and gratitude. The governor added, that if he
+could see the Count in person he could tell him things which would please
+him, and which would prove that he had not been forgotten by his friends.
+La Loo had afterward a long conversation with the Duke's secretary
+Albornoz, who assured him that his master had the greatest affection for
+Count Horn, and that since his affairs were so much embarrassed, he might
+easily be provided with the post of governor at Milan, or viceroy of
+Naples, about to become vacant. The secretary added, that the Duke was
+much hurt at receiving no visits from many distinguished nobles whose
+faithful friend and servant he was, and that Count Horn ought to visit
+Brussels, if not to treat of great affairs, at least to visit the
+Captain-General as a friend. "After all this," said honest Alonzo, "I am
+going immediately to Weert, to urge his lordship to yield to the Duke's
+desires."
+
+This scientific manoeuvring, joined to the urgent representations of
+Egmont, at last produced its effect. The Admiral left his retirement at
+Weert to fall into the pit which his enemies had been so skilfully
+preparing at Brussels. On the night of the 8th September, Egmont received
+another most significative and mysterious warning. A Spaniard, apparently
+an officer of rank, came secretly into his house, and urged him solemnly
+to effect his escape before the morrow. The Countess, who related the
+story afterwards, always believed, without being certain, that the
+mysterious visitor was Julian Romero, marechal de camp. Egmont, however,
+continued as blindly confident as before.
+
+On the following day, September 9th, the grand prior, Don Ferdinando,
+gave a magnificent dinner, to which Egmont and Horn, together with
+Noircarmes, the Viscount of Ghent, and many other noblemen were invited.
+The banquet was enlivened by the music of Alva's own military band, which
+the Duke sent to entertain the company. At three o'clock he sent a
+message begging the gentlemen, after their dinner should be concluded, to
+favor him with their company at his house (the maison de Jassey), as he
+wished to consult them concerning the plan of the citadel, which he
+proposed erecting at Antwerp.
+
+At this moment, the grand prior who was seated next to Egmont, whispered
+in his ear; "Leave this place, Signor Count, instantly; take the fleetest
+horse in your stable and make your escape without a moment's delay."
+Egmont, much troubled, and remembering the manifold prophecies and
+admonitions which he had passed by unheeded, rose from the table and went
+into the next room. He was followed by Noircarmes and two other
+gentlemen, who had observed his agitation, and were curious as to its
+cause. The Count repeated to them the mysterious words just whispered to
+him by the grand prior, adding that he was determined to take the advice
+without a moment's delay. "Ha! Count," exclaimed Noircarmes, "do not put
+lightly such implicit confidence in this stranger who is counselling you
+to your destruction. What will the Duke of Alva and all the Spaniards say
+of such a precipitate flight? Will they not say that your Excellency has
+fled from the consciousness of guilt? Will not your escape be construed
+into a confession of high treason."
+
+If these words were really spoken by Noircarmes; and that they were so,
+we have the testimony of a Walloon gentleman in constant communication
+with Egmont's friends and with the whole Catholic party, they furnish
+another proof of the malignant and cruel character of the man. The advice
+fixed forever the fate of the vacillating Egmont. He had risen from table
+determined to take the advice of a noble-minded Spaniard, who had
+adventured his life to save his friend. He now returned in obedience to
+the counsel of a fellow-countryman, a Flemish noble, to treat the
+well-meant warning with indifference, and to seat himself again at the
+last banquet which he was ever to grace with his presence.
+
+At four o'clock, the dinner being finished, Horn and Egmont, accompanied
+by the other gentlemen, proceeded to the "Jassy" house, then occupied by
+Alva, to take part in the deliberations proposed. They were received by
+the Duke with great courtesy. The engineer, Pietro Urbino, soon appeared
+and laid upon the table a large parchment containing the plan and
+elevation of the citadel to be erected at Antwerp. A warm discussion upon
+the subject soon arose, Egmont, Horn, Noircarmes and others, together
+with the engineers Urbino and Pacheco, all taking part in the debate.
+After a short time, the Duke of Alva left the apartment, on pretext of a
+sudden indisposition, leaving the company still warmly engaged in their
+argument. The council lasted till near seven in the evening. As it broke
+up, Don Sancho d'Avila, captain of the Duke's guard, requested Egmont to
+remain for a moment after the rest, as he had a communication to make to
+him. After an insignificant remark or two, the Spanish officer, as soon
+as the two were alone, requested Egmont to surrender his sword. The
+Count, agitated, and notwithstanding every thing which had gone before,
+still taken by surprise, scarcely knew what reply to make. Don Sancho
+repeated that he had been commissioned to arrest him, and again demanded
+his sword. At the same moment the doors of the adjacent apartment were
+opened, and Egmont saw himself surrounded by a company of Spanish
+musqueteers and halberdmen. Finding himself thus entrapped, he gave up
+his sword, saying bitterly, as he did so, that it had at least rendered
+some service to the King in times which were past. He was then conducted
+to a chamber, in the upper story of the house, where his temporary prison
+had been arranged. The windows were barricaded, the daylight excluded,
+the whole apartment hung with black. Here he remained fourteen days (from
+the 9th to 23d September). During this period, he was allowed no
+communication with his friends. His room was lighted day and night with
+candles, and he was served in strict silence by Spanish attendants, and
+guarded by Spanish soldiers. The captain of the watch drew his curtain
+every midnight, and aroused him from sleep that he might be identified by
+the relieving officer.
+
+Count Horn was arrested upon the same occasion by Captain Salinas, as he
+was proceeding through the court-yard of the house, after the breaking up
+of the council. He was confined in another chamber of the mansion, and
+met with a precisely similar treatment to that experienced by Egmont.
+Upon the 23d September, both were removed under a strong guard to the
+castle of Ghent.
+
+On this same day, two other important arrests, included and arranged in
+the same program, had been successfully accomplished. Bakkerzeel, private
+and confidential secretary of Egmont, and Antony Van Straalen, the rich
+and influential burgomaster of Antwerp, were taken almost simultaneously.
+At the request of Alva, the burgomaster had been invited by the Duchess
+of Parma to repair on business to Brussels. He seemed to have feared an
+ambuscade, for as he got into his coach to set forth upon the journey, he
+was so muffed in a multiplicity of clothing, that he was scarcely to be
+recognized. He was no sooner, however, in the open country and upon a
+spot remote from human habitations, than he was suddenly beset by a band
+of forty soldiers under command of Don Alberic Lodron and Don Sancho de
+Lodrono. These officers had been watching his movements for many days.
+The capture of Bakkerzeel was accomplished with equal adroitness at about
+the same hour.
+
+Alva, while he sat at the council board with Egmont and Horn, was
+secretly informed that those important personages, Bakkerzeel and
+Straalen, with the private secretary of the Admiral, Alonzo de la Loo, in
+addition, had been thus successfully arrested. He could with difficulty
+conceal his satisfaction, and left the apartment immediately that the
+trap might be sprung upon the two principal victims of his treachery. He
+had himself arranged all the details of these two important arrests,
+while his natural son, the Prior Don Ferdinando, had been compelled to
+superintend the proceedings. The plot had been an excellent plot, and was
+accomplished as successfully as it bad been sagaciously conceived. None
+but Spaniards had been employed in any part of the affair. Officers of
+high rank in his Majesty's army had performed the part of spies and
+policemen with much adroitness, nor was it to be expected that the duty
+would seem a disgrace, when the Prior of the Knights of Saint John was
+superintendent of the operations, when the Captain-General of the
+Netherlands had arranged the whole plan, and when all, from subaltern to
+viceroy, had received minute instructions as to the contemplated
+treachery from the great chief of the Spanish police, who sat on the
+throne of Castile and Aragon.
+
+No sooner were these gentlemen in custody than the secretary Albornoz was
+dispatched to the house of Count Horn, and to that of Bakkerzeel, where
+all papers were immediately seized, inventoried, and placed in the hands
+of the Duke. Thus, if amid the most secret communications of Egmont and
+Horn or their correspondents, a single treasonable thought should be
+lurking, it was to go hard but it might be twisted into a cord strong
+enough to strangle them all.
+
+The Duke wrote a triumphant letter to his Majesty that very night. He
+apologized that these important captures had been deferred so long but,
+stated that he had thought it desirable to secure all these leading
+personages at a single stroke. He then narrated the masterly manner in
+which the operations had been conducted. Certainly, when it is remembered
+that the Duke had only reached Brussels upon the 23d August, and that the
+two Counts were securely lodged in prison on the 9th of September, it
+seemed a superfluous modesty upon his part thus to excuse himself for an
+apparent delay. At any rate, in the eyes of the world and of posterity,
+his zeal to carry out the bloody commands of his master was sufficiently
+swift.
+
+The consternation was universal throughout the provinces when the arrests
+became known. Egmont's great popularity and distinguished services placed
+him so high above the mass of citizens, and his attachment to the
+Catholic religion was moreover so well known, as to make it obvious that
+no man could now be safe, when men like him were in the power of Alva and
+his myrmidons. The animosity to the Spaniards increased hourly. The
+Duchess affected indignation at the arrest of the two nobles, although it
+nowhere appears that she attempted a word in their defence, or lifted, at
+any subsequent moment, a finger to save them. She was not anxious to wash
+her hands of the blood of two innocent men; she was only offended that
+they had been arrested without her permission. The Duke had, it is true,
+sent Berlaymont and Mansfeld to give her information of the fact, as soon
+as the capture had been made, with the plausible excuse that he preferred
+to save her from all the responsibility and all the unpopularity of the
+measure, Nothing, however, could appease her wrath at this and every
+other indication of the contempt in which he appeared to hold the sister
+of his sovereign. She complained of his conduct daily to every one who
+was admitted to her presence. Herself oppressed by a sense of personal
+indignity, she seemed for a moment to identify herself with the cause of
+the oppressed provinces. She seemed to imagine herself the champion of
+their liberties, and the Netherlanders, for a moments seemed to
+participate in the delusion. Because she was indignant at the insolence
+of the Duke of Alva to her self, the honest citizens began to give her
+credit for a sympathy with their own wrongs. She expressed herself
+determined to move about from one city to another, until the answer to
+her demand for dismissal should arrive. She allowed her immediate
+attendants to abuse the Spaniards in good set terms upon every occasion.
+Even her private chaplain permitted himself, in preaching before her in
+the palace chapel, to denounce the whole nation as a race of traitors and
+ravishers, and for this offence was only reprimanded, much against her
+will, by the Duchess, and ordered to retire for a season to his convent.
+She did not attempt to disguise her dissatisfaction at every step which
+had been taken by the Duke. In all this there was much petulance, but
+very little dignity, while there was neither a spark of real sympathy for
+the oppressed millions, nor a throb of genuine womanly emotion for the
+impending fate of the two nobles. Her principal grief was that she had
+pacified the provinces, and that another had now arrived to reap the
+glory; but it was difficult, while the unburied bones of many heretics
+were still hanging, by her decree, on the rafters of their own dismantled
+churches, for her successfully to enact the part of a benignant and
+merciful Regent. But it is very true that the horrors of the Duke's
+administration have been propitious to the fame of Margaret, and perhaps
+more so to that of Cardinal Granvelle. The faint and struggling rays of
+humanity which occasionally illumined the course of their government,
+were destined to be extinguished in a chaos so profound and dark, that
+these last beams of light seemed clearer and more bountiful by the
+contrast.
+
+The Count of Hoogstraaten, who was on his way to Brussels, had, by good
+fortune, injured his hand through the accidental discharge of a pistol.
+Detained by this casualty at Cologne, he was informed, before his arrival
+at the capital, of the arrest of his two distinguished friends, and
+accepted the hint to betake himself at once to a place of Safety.
+
+The loyalty of the elder Mansfeld was beyond dispute even by Alva. His
+son Charles had, however, been imprudent, and, as we have seen, had even
+affixed his name to the earliest copies of the Compromise. He had
+retired, it is true, from all connexion with the confederates, but his
+father knew well that the young Count's signature upon that famous
+document would prove his death-warrant, were he found in the country. He
+therefore had sent him into Germany before the arrival of the Duke.
+
+The King's satisfaction was unbounded when he learned this important
+achievement of Alva, and he wrote immediately to express his approbation
+in the most extravagant terms. Cardinal Granvelle, on the contrary,
+affected astonishment at a course which he had secretly counselled. He
+assured his Majesty that he had never believed Egmont to entertain
+sentiments opposed to the Catholic religion, nor to the interests of the
+Crown, up to the period of his own departure from the Netherlands. He was
+persuaded, he said, that the Count had been abused by others, although,
+to be sure, the Cardinal had learned with regret what Egmont had written
+on the occasion of the baptism of Count Hoogstraaten's child. As to the
+other persons arrested, he said that no one regretted their fate. The
+Cardinal added, that he was supposed to be himself the instigator of
+these captures, but that he was not disturbed by that, or by other
+imputations of a similar nature.
+
+In conversation with those about him, he frequently expressed regret that
+the Prince of Orange had been too crafty to be caught in the same net in
+which his more simple companions were so inextricably entangled. Indeed,
+on the first arrival of the news, that men of high rank had been arrested
+in Brussels, the Cardinal eagerly inquired if the Taciturn had been
+taken, for by that term he always characterized the Prince. Receiving a
+negative reply, he expressed extreme disappointment, adding, that if
+Orange had escaped, they had taken nobody; and that his capture would
+have been more valuable than that of every man in the Netherlands.
+
+Peter Titelmann, too, the famous inquisitor, who, retired from active
+life, was then living upon Philip's bounty, and encouraged by friendly
+letters from that monarch, expressed the same opinion. Having been
+informed that Egmont and Horn had been captured, he eagerly inquired if
+"wise William" had also been taken. He was, of course, answered in the
+negative. "Then will our joy be but brief," he observed. "Woe unto us for
+the wrath to come from Germany."
+
+On the 12th of July, of this year, Philip wrote to Granvelle to inquire
+the particulars of a letter which the Prince of Orange, according to a
+previous communication of the Cardinal, had written to Egmont on the
+occasion of the baptism of Count Hoogstraaten's child. On the 17th of
+August, the Cardinal replied, by setting the King right as to the error
+which he had committed. The letter, as he had already stated, was not
+written by Orange, but by Egmont, and he expressed his astonishment that
+Madame de Parma had not yet sent it to his Majesty. The Duchess must have
+seen it, because her confessor had shown it to the person who was
+Granvelle's informant. In this letter, the Cardinal continued, the
+statement had been made by Egmont to the Prince of Orange that their
+plots were discovered, that the King was making armaments, that they were
+unable to resist him, and that therefore it had become necessary to
+dissemble and to accommodate themselves as well as possible to the
+present situation, while waiting for other circumstances under which to
+accomplish their designs. Granvelle advised, moreover, that Straalen, who
+had been privy to the letter, and perhaps the amanuensis, should be
+forthwith arrested.
+
+The Cardinal was determined not to let the matter sleep, notwithstanding
+his protestation of a kindly feeling towards the imprisoned Count.
+Against the statement that he knew of a letter which amounted to a full
+confession of treason, out of Egmont's own mouth--a fact which, if
+proved, and perhaps, if even insinuated, would be sufficient with Philip
+to deprive Egmont of twenty thousand lives--against these constant
+recommendations to his suspicious and sanguinary master, to ferret out
+this document, if it were possible, it must be confessed that the
+churchman's vague and hypocritical expressions on the side of mercy were
+very little worth.
+
+Certainly these seeds of suspicion did not fall upon a barren soil.
+Philip immediately communicated the information thus received to the Duke
+of Alva, charging him on repeated occasions to find out what was written,
+either by Egmont or by Straalen, at Egmont's instigation, stating that
+such a letter was written at the time of the Hoogstraaten baptism, that
+it would probably illustrate the opinions of Egmont at that period, and
+that the letter itself, which the confessor of Madame de Parma had once
+had in his hands, ought, if possible, to be procured. Thus the very
+language used by Granvelle to Philip was immediately repeated by the
+monarch to his representative in the Netherlands, at the moment when all
+Egmont's papers were in his possession, and when Egmont's private
+secretary was undergoing the torture, in order that; secrets might be
+wrenched from him which had never entered his brain. The fact that no
+such letter was found, that the Duchess had never alluded to any such
+document, and that neither a careful scrutiny of papers, nor the
+application of the rack, could elicit any satisfactory information on the
+subject, leads to the conclusion that no such treasonable paper had ever
+existed, save in the imagination of the Cardinal. At any rate, it is no
+more than just to hesitate before affixing a damning character to a
+document, in the absence of any direct proof that there ever was such a
+document at all. The confessor of Madame de Parma told another person,
+who told the Cardinal, that either Count Egmont, or Burgomaster Straalen,
+by command of Count Egmont, wrote to the Prince of Orange thus and so.
+What evidence was this upon which to found a charge of high treason
+against a man whom Granvelle affected to characterize as otherwise
+neither opposed to the Catholic religion, nor to the true service of the
+King? What vulpine kind of mercy was it on the part of the Cardinal,
+while making such deadly insinuations, to recommend the imprisoned victim
+to clemency?
+
+The unfortunate envoys, Marquis Bergen and Baron Montigny, had remained
+in Spain under close observation. Of those doomed victims who, in spite
+of friendly remonstrances and of ominous warnings, had thus ventured into
+the lion's den, no retreating footmarks were ever to be seen. Their fate,
+now that Alva had at last been despatched to the Netherlands, seemed to
+be sealed, and the Marquis Bergen, accepting the augury in its most evil
+sense, immediately afterwards had sickened unto death. Whether it were
+the sickness of hope deferred, suddenly changing to despair, or whether
+it were a still more potent and unequivocal poison which came to the
+relief of the unfortunate nobleman, will perhaps never be ascertained
+with certainty. The secrets of those terrible prison-houses of Spain,
+where even the eldest begotten son, and the wedded wife of the monarch,
+were soon afterwards believed to have been the victims of his dark
+revenge, can never perhaps be accurately known, until the grave gives up
+its dead, and the buried crimes of centuries are revealed.
+
+It was very soon after the departure of Alva's fleet from Carthagena,
+that the Marquis Bergen felt his end approaching. He sent for the Prince
+of Eboli, with whom he had always maintained intimate relations, and whom
+he believed to be his disinterested friend. Relying upon his faithful
+breast, and trusting to receive from his eyes alone the pious drops of
+sympathy which he required, the dying noble poured out his long and last
+complaint. He charged him to tell the man whom he would no longer call
+his king, that he had ever been true and loyal, that the bitterness of
+having been constantly suspected, when he was conscious of entire
+fidelity, was a sharper sorrow than could be lightly believed, and that
+he hoped the time would come when his own truth and the artifices of his
+enemies would be brought to light. He closed his parting message by
+predicting that after he had been long laid in the grave, the
+impeachments against his character would be, at last, although too late,
+retracted.
+
+So spake the unhappy envoy, and his friend replied with words of
+consolation. It is probable that he even ventured, in the King's name, to
+grant him the liberty of returning to his home; the only remedy, as his
+physicians had repeatedly stated, which could possibly be applied to his
+disease. But the devilish hypocrisy of Philip, and the abject perfidy of
+Eboli, at this juncture, almost surpass belief. The Prince came to press
+the hand and to close the eyes of the dying man whom he called his
+friend, having first carefully studied a billet of most minute and secret
+instructions from his master as to the deportment he was to observe upon
+this solemn occasion and afterwards. This paper, written in Philip's own
+hand, had been delivered to Eboli on the very day of his visit to Bergen,
+and bore the superscription that it was not to be read nor opened till
+the messenger who brought it had left his presence. It directed the
+Prince, if it should be evident Marquis was past recovery, to promise
+him, in the King's name, the permission of returning to the Netherlands.
+Should, however, a possibility of his surviving appear, Eboli was only to
+hold out a hope that such permission might eventually be obtained. In
+case of the death of Bergen, the Prince was immediately to confer with
+the Grand Inquisitor and with the Count of Feria, upon the measures to be
+taken for his obsequies. It might seem advisable, in that event to
+exhibit the regret which the King and his ministers felt for his death,
+and the great esteem in which they held the nobles of the Netherlands. At
+the same time, Eboli was further instructed to confer with the same
+personages as to the most efficient means for preventing the escape of
+Baron Montigny; to keep a vigilant eye upon his movements, and to give
+general directions to governors and to postmasters to intercept his
+flight, should it be attempted. Finally, in case of Bergen's death, the
+Prince was directed to despatch a special messenger, apparently on his
+own responsibility, and as if in the absence and without the knowledge of
+the King, to inform the Duchess of Parma of the event, and to urge her
+immediately to take possession of the city of Bergen-op-Zoom, and of all
+other property belonging to the Marquis, until it should be ascertained
+whether it were not possible to convict him, after death, of treason, and
+to confiscate his estates accordingly.
+
+Such were the instructions of Philip to Eboli, and precisely in
+accordance with the program, was the horrible comedy enacted at the
+death-bed of the envoy. Three days after his parting interview with his
+disinterested friend, the Marquis was a corpse.--Before his limbs were
+cold, a messenger was on his way to Brussels, instructing the Regent to
+sequestrate his property, and to arrest, upon suspicion of heresy, the
+youthful kinsman and niece, who, by the will of the Marquis, were to be
+united in marriage and to share his estate. The whole drama, beginning
+with the death scene, was enacted according to order: Before the arrival
+of Alva in the Netherlands, the property of the Marquis was in the hands
+of the Government, awaiting the confiscation,--which was but for a brief
+season delayed, while on the other hand, Baron Montigny, Bergen's
+companion in doom, who was not, however, so easily to be carried off by
+homesickness, was closely confined in the alcazar of Segovia, never to
+leave a Spanish prison alive. There is something pathetic in the delusion
+in which Montigny and his brother, the Count Horn, both indulged, each
+believing that the other was out of harm's way, the one by his absence
+from the Netherlands, the other by his absence from Spain, while both,
+involved in the same meshes, were rapidly and surely approaching their
+fate.
+
+In the same despatch of the 9th September, in which the Duke communicated
+to Philip the capture of Egmont and Horn, he announced to him his
+determination to establish a new court for the trial of crimes committed
+during the recent period of troubles. This wonderful tribunal was
+accordingly created with the least possible delay. It was called the
+Council of Troubles, but it soon acquired the terrible name, by which it
+will be forever known in history, of the 'Blood-Council'. It superseded
+all other institutions. Every court, from those of the municipal
+magistracies up to the supreme councils of the provinces, were forbidden
+to take cognizance in future of any cause growing out of the late
+troubles. The council of state, although it was not formally disbanded,
+fell into complete desuetude, its members being occasionally summoned
+into Alva's private chambers in an irregular manner, while its principal
+functions were usurped by the Blood-Council. Not only citizens of every
+province, but the municipal bodies and even the sovereign provincial
+estates themselves, were compelled to plead, like humble individuals,
+before this new and extraordinary tribunal. It is unnecessary to allude
+to the absolute violation which was thus committed of all charters, laws
+and privileges, because the very creation of the council was a bold and
+brutal proclamation that those laws and privileges were at an end. The
+constitution or maternal principle of this suddenly erected court was of
+a twofold nature. It defined and it punished the crime of treason. The
+definitions, couched in eighteen articles, declared it to be treason to
+have delivered or signed any petition against the new bishops, the
+Inquisition, or the Edicts; to have tolerated public preaching under any
+circumstances; to have omitted resistance to the image-breaking, to the
+field-preaching, or to the presentation of the Request by the nobles, and
+"either through sympathy or surprise" to have asserted that the King did
+not possess the right to deprive all the provinces of their liberties, or
+to have maintained that this present tribunal was bound to respect in any
+manner any laws or any charters. In these brief and simple, but
+comprehensive terms, was the crime of high treason defined. The
+punishment was still more briefly, simply, and comprehensively stated,
+for it was instant death in all cases. So well too did this new and
+terrible engine perform its work, that in less than three months from the
+time of its erection, eighteen hundred human beings had suffered death by
+its summary proceedings; some of the highest, the noblest, and the most
+virtuous in the land among the number; nor had it then manifested the
+slightest indication of faltering in its dread career.
+
+Yet, strange to say, this tremendous court, thus established upon the
+ruins of all the ancient institutions of the country, had not been
+provided with even a nominal authority from any source whatever. The King
+had granted it no letters patent or charter, nor had even the Duke of
+Alva thought it worth while to grant any commissions either in his own
+name or as Captain-General, to any of the members composing the board.
+The Blood-Council was merely an informal club, of which the Duke was
+perpetual president, while the other members were all appointed by
+himself.
+
+Of these subordinate councillors, two had the right of voting, subject,
+however, in all cases to his final decision, while the rest of the number
+did not vote at all. It had not, therefore, in any sense, the character
+of a judicial, legislative, or executive tribunal, but was purely a board
+of advice by which the bloody labors of the duke were occasionally
+lightened as to detail, while not a feather's weight of power or of
+responsibility was removed from his shoulders. He reserved for himself
+the final decision upon all causes which should come before the council,
+and stated his motives for so doing with grim simplicity. "Two reasons,"
+he wrote to the King, "have determined me thus to limit the power of the
+tribunal; the first that, not knowing its members, I might be easily
+deceived by them; the second, that the men of law only condemn for crimes
+which are proved; whereas your Majesty knows that affairs of state are
+governed by very different rules from the laws which they have here."
+
+It being, therefore, the object of the Duke to compose a body of men who
+would be of assistance to him in condemning for crimes which could not be
+proved, and in slipping over statutes which were not to be recognized, it
+must be confessed that he was not unfortunate in the appointments which
+he made to the office of councillors. In this task of appointment he had
+the assistance of the experienced Viglius. That learned jurisconsult,
+with characteristic lubricity, had evaded the dangerous honor for
+himself, but he nominated a number of persons from whom the Duke selected
+his list. The sacerdotal robes which he had so recently and so "craftily"
+assumed, furnished his own excuse, and in his letters to his faithful
+Hopper he repeatedly congratulated himself upon his success in keeping
+himself at a distance from so bloody and perilous a post.
+
+It is impossible to look at the conduct of the distinguished Frisian at
+this important juncture without contempt. Bent only upon saving himself,
+his property, and his reputation, he did not hesitate to bend before the
+"most illustrious Duke," as he always denominated him, with fulsome and
+fawning homage. While he declined to dip his own fingers in the innocent
+blood which was about to flow in torrents, he did not object to officiate
+at the initiatory preliminaries of the great Netherland holocaust. His
+decent and dainty demeanor seems even more offensive than the jocularity
+of the real murderers. Conscious that no man knew the laws and customs of
+the Netherlands better than himself, he had the humble effrontery to
+observe that it was necessary for him at that moment silently to submit
+his own unskilfulness to the superior judgment and knowledge of others.
+Having at last been relieved from the stone of Sisyphus, which, as he
+plaintively expressed himself, he had been rolling for twenty years;
+having, by the arrival of Tisnacq, obtained his discharge as President of
+the state council, he was yet not unwilling to retain the emoluments and
+the rank of President of the privy council, although both offices had
+become sinecures since the erection of the Council of Blood. Although his
+life had been spent in administrative and judicial employments, he did
+not blush upon a matter of constitutional law to defer to the authority
+of such jurisconsults as the Duke of Alva and his two Spanish
+bloodhounds, Vargas and Del Rio. He did not like, he observed, in his
+confidential correspondence, to gainsay the Duke, when maintaining, that
+in cases of treason, the privileges of Brabant were powerless, although
+he mildly doubted whether the Brabantines would agree with the doctrine.
+He often thought, he said, of remedies for restoring the prosperity of
+the provinces, but in action he only assisted the Duke, to the best of
+his abilities, in arranging the Blood-Council. He wished well to his
+country, but he was more anxious for the favor of Alva. "I rejoice," said
+he, in one of his letters, "that the most illustrious Duke has written to
+the King in praise of my obsequiousness; when I am censured here for so
+reverently cherishing him, it is a consolation that my services to the
+King and to the governor are not unappreciated there." Indeed the Duke of
+Alva, who had originally suspected the President's character, seemed at
+last overcome by his indefatigable and cringing homage. He wrote to the
+King, in whose good graces the learned Doctor was most anxious at that
+portentous period to maintain himself, that the President was very
+serviceable and diligent, and that he deserved to receive a crumb of
+comfort from the royal hand. Philip, in consequence, wrote in one of his
+letters a few lines of vague compliment, which could be shown to Viglius,
+according to Alva's suggestion. It is, however, not a little
+characteristic of the Spanish court and of the Spanish monarch, that, on
+the very day before, he had sent to the Captain-General a few documents
+of very different import. In order, as he said, that the Duke might be
+ignorant of nothing which related to the Netherlands, he forwarded to him
+copies of the letters written by Margaret of Parma from Brussels, three
+years before. These letters, as it will be recollected, contained an
+account of the secret investigations which the Duchess had made as to the
+private character and opinions of Viglius--at the very moment when he
+apparently stood highest in her confidence--and charged him with heresy,
+swindling, and theft. Thus the painstaking and time-serving President,
+with all his learning and experience, was successively the dupe of
+Margaret and of Alva, whom he so obsequiously courted, and always of
+Philip, whom he so feared and worshipped.
+
+With his assistance, the list of blood-councillors was quickly completed.
+No one who was offered the office refused it. Noircarmes and Berlaymont
+accepted with very great eagerness. Several presidents and councillors of
+the different provincial tribunals were appointed, but all the
+Netherlanders were men of straw. Two Spaniards, Del Rio and Vargas, were
+the only members who could vote; while their decisions, as already
+stated, were subject to reversal by Alva. Del Rio was a man without
+character or talent, a mere tool in the hands of his superiors, but Juan
+de Vargas was a terrible reality.
+
+No better man could have been found in Europe for the post to which he
+was thus elevated. To shed human blood was, in his opinion, the only
+important business and the only exhilarating pastime of life. His youth
+had been stained with other crimes. He had been obliged to retire from
+Spain, because of his violation of an orphan child to whom he was
+guardian, but, in his manhood, he found no pleasure but in murder. He
+executed Alva's bloody work with an industry which was almost superhuman,
+and with a merriment which would have shamed a demon. His execrable jests
+ring through the blood and smoke and death-cries of those days of
+perpetual sacrifice. He was proud to be the double of the iron-hearted
+Duke, and acted so uniformly in accordance with his views, that the right
+of revision remained but nominal. There could be no possibility of
+collision where the subaltern was only anxious to surpass an incomparable
+superior. The figure of Vargas rises upon us through the mist of three
+centuries with terrible distinctness. Even his barbarous grammar has not
+been forgotten, and his crimes against syntax and against humanity have
+acquired the same immortality. "Heretici fraxerunt templa, boni nihili
+faxerunt contra, ergo debent omnes patibulare," was the comprehensive but
+barbarous formula of a man who murdered the Latin language as ruthlessly
+as he slaughtered his contemporaries.
+
+Among the ciphers who composed the rest of the board, the Flemish
+Councillor Hessels was the one whom the Duke most respected. He was not
+without talent or learning, but the Duke only valued him for his cruelty.
+Being allowed to take but little share in the deliberations, Hessels was
+accustomed to doze away his afternoon hours at the council table, and
+when awakened from his nap in order that he might express an opinion on
+the case then before the court, was wont to rub his eyes and to call out
+"Ad patibulum, ad patibulum," ("to the gallows with him, to the gallows
+with him,") with great fervor, but in entire ignorance of the culprit's
+name or the merits of the case. His wife, naturally disturbed that her
+husband's waking and sleeping hours were alike absorbed with this
+hangman's work, more than once ominously expressed her hope to him, that
+he, whose head and heart were thus engrossed with the gibbet, might not
+one day come to hang upon it himself; a gloomy prophecy which the Future
+most terribly fulfilled.
+
+The Council of Blood, thus constituted, held its first session on the
+20th September, at the lodgings of Alva. Springing completely grown and
+armed to the teeth from the head of its inventor, the new tribunal--at
+the very outset in possession of all its vigor--forthwith began to
+manifest a terrible activity in accomplishing the objects of its
+existence. The councillors having been sworn to "eternal secrecy as to
+any thing which should be transacted at the board, and having likewise
+made oath to denounce any one of their number who should violate the
+pledge," the court was considered as organized. Alva worked therein seven
+hours daily. It may be believed that the subordinates were not spared,
+and that their office proved no sinecure. Their labors, however, were not
+encumbered by antiquated forms. As this supreme and only tribunal for all
+the Netherlands had no commission or authority save the will of the
+Captain-General, so it was also thought a matter of supererogation to
+establish a set of rules and orders such as might be useful in less
+independent courts. The forms of proceeding were brief and artless. There
+was a rude organization by which a crowd of commissioners, acting as
+inferior officers of the council, were spread over the provinces, whose
+business was to collect information concerning all persons who might be
+incriminated for participation in the recent troubles. The greatest
+crime, however, was to be rich, and one which could be expiated by no
+virtues, however signal. Alva was bent upon proving himself as
+accomplished a financier as he was indisputably a consummate commander,
+and he had promised his master an annual income of 500,000 ducats from
+the confiscations which were to accompany the executions.
+
+It was necessary that the blood torrent should flow at once through the
+Netherlands, in order that the promised golden river, a yard deep,
+according to his vaunt, should begin to irrigate the thirsty soil of
+Spain. It is obvious, from the fundamental laws which were made to define
+treason at the same moment in which they established the council, that
+any man might be at any instant summoned to the court. Every man, whether
+innocent or guilty, whether Papist or Protestant, felt his head shaking
+on his shoulders. If he were wealthy, there seemed no remedy but flight,
+which was now almost impossible, from the heavy penalties affixed by the
+new edict upon all carriers, shipmasters, and wagoners, who should aid in
+the escape of heretics.
+
+A certain number of these commissioners were particularly instructed to
+collect information as to the treason of Orange, Louis Nassau, Brederode,
+Egmont, Horn, Culemberg, Vanden Berg, Bergen, and Montigny. Upon such
+information the proceedings against those distinguished seigniors were to
+be summarily instituted. Particular councillors of the Court of Blood
+were charged with the arrangement of these important suits, but the
+commissioners were to report in the first instance to the Duke himself,
+who afterwards returned the paper into the hands of his subordinates.
+
+With regard to the inferior and miscellaneous cases which were daily
+brought in incredible profusion before the tribunal, the same
+preliminaries were observed, by way of aping the proceedings in courts of
+justice. Alva sent the cart-loads of information which were daily brought
+to him, but which neither he nor any other man had time to read, to be
+disposed of by the board of councillors. It was the duty of the different
+subalterns, who, as already stated, had no right of voting, to prepare
+reports upon the cases. Nothing could be more summary. Information was
+lodged against a man, or against a hundred men, in one document. The Duke
+sent the papers to the council, and the inferior councillors reported at
+once to Vargas. If the report concluded with a recommendation of death to
+the man, or the hundred men in question, Vargas instantly approved it,
+and execution was done upon the man, or the hundred men, within
+forty-eight hours. If the report had any other conclusion, it was
+immediately sent back for revision, and the reporters were overwhelmed
+with reproaches by the President.
+
+Such being the method of operation, it may be supposed that the
+councillors were not allowed to slacken in their terrible industry. The
+register of every city, village, and hamlet throughout the Netherlands
+showed the daily lists of men, women, and children thus sacrificed at the
+shrine of the demon who had obtained the mastery over this unhappy land.
+It was not often that an individual was of sufficient importance to be
+tried--if trial it could be called--by himself. It was found more
+expeditious to send them in batches to the furnace. Thus, for example, on
+the 4th of January, eighty-four inhabitants of Valenciennes were
+condemned; on another day, ninety-five miscellaneous individuals, from
+different places in Flanders; on another, forty-six inhabitants of
+Malines; on another, thirty-five persons from different localities, and
+so on.
+
+The evening of Shrovetide, a favorite holiday in the Netherlands,
+afforded an occasion for arresting and carrying off a vast number of
+doomed individuals at a single swoop. It was correctly supposed that the
+burghers, filled with wine and wassail, to which perhaps the persecution
+under which they lived lent an additional and horrible stimulus, might be
+easily taken from their beds in great numbers, and be delivered over at
+once to the council. The plot was ingenious, the net was spread
+accordingly. Many of the doomed were, however, luckily warned of the
+terrible termination which was impending over their festival, and
+bestowed themselves in safety for a season. A prize of about five hundred
+prisoners was all which rewarded the sagacity of the enterprise. It is
+needless to add that they were all immediately executed. It is a
+wearisome and odious task to ransack the mouldy records of three
+centuries ago, in order to reproduce the obscure names of the thousands
+who were thus sacrificed.. The dead have buried their dead, and are
+forgotten. It is likewise hardly necessary to state that the proceedings
+before the council were all 'ex parte', and that an information was
+almost inevitably followed by a death-warrant. It sometimes happened even
+that the zeal of the councillors outstripped the industry of the
+commissioners. The sentences were occasionally in advance of the docket.
+Thus upon one occasion a man's case was called for trial, but before the
+investigation was commenced it was discovered that he had been already
+executed. A cursory examination of the papers proved, moreover, as usual,
+that the culprit had committed no crime. "No matter for that," said
+Vargas, jocosely, "if he has died innocent, it will be all the better for
+him when he takes his trial in the other world."
+
+But, however the councillors might indulge in these gentle jests among
+themselves, it was obvious that innocence was in reality impossible,
+according to the rules which had been laid down regarding treason. The
+practice was in accordance with the precept, and persons were daily
+executed with senseless pretexts, which was worse than executions with no
+pretexts at all. Thus Peter de Witt of Amsterdam was beheaded, because at
+one of the tumults in that city he had persuaded a rioter not to fire
+upon a magistrate. This was taken as sufficient proof that he was a man
+in authority among the rebels, and he was accordingly put to death.
+Madame Juriaen, who, in 1566, had struck with her slipper a little wooden
+image of the Virgin, together with her maid-servant, who had witnessed
+without denouncing the crime, were both drowned by the hangman in a
+hogshead placed on the scaffold.
+
+Death, even, did not in all cases place a criminal beyond the reach of
+the executioner. Egbert Meynartzoon, a man of high official rank, had
+been condemned, together with two colleagues, on an accusation of
+collecting money in a Lutheran church. He died in prison of dropsy. The
+sheriff was indignant with the physician, because, in spite of cordials
+and strengthening prescriptions, the culprit had slipped through his
+fingers before he had felt those of the hangman. He consoled himself by
+placing the body on a chair, and having the dead man beheaded in company
+with his colleagues.
+
+Thus the whole country became a charnel-house; the deathbell tolled
+hourly in every village; not a family but was called to mourn for its
+dearest relatives, while the survivors stalked listlessly about, the
+ghosts of their former selves, among the wrecks of their former homes.
+The spirit of the nation, within a few months after the arrival of Alva,
+seemed hopelessly broken. The blood of its best and bravest had already
+stained the scaffold; the men to whom it bad been accustomed to look for
+guidance and protection, were dead, in prison, or in exile. Submission
+had ceased to be of any avail, flight was impossible, and the spirit of
+vengeance had alighted at every fireside. The mourners went daily about
+the streets, for there was hardly a house which had not been made
+desolate. The scaffolds, the gallows, the funeral piles, which had been
+sufficient in ordinary times, furnished now an entirely inadequate
+machinery for the incessant executions. Columns and stakes in every
+street, the door-posts of private houses, the fences in the fields were
+laden with human carcasses, strangled, burned, beheaded. The orchards in
+the country bore on many a tree the hideous fruit of human bodies.
+
+Thus the Netherlands were crushed, and but for the stringency of the
+tyranny which had now closed their gates, would have been depopulated.
+The grass began to grow in the streets of those cities which had recently
+nourished so many artisans. In all those great manufacturing and
+industrial marts, where the tide of human life had throbbed so
+vigorously, there now reigned the silence and the darkness of midnight.
+It was at this time that the learned Viglius wrote to his friend Hopper,
+that all venerated the prudence and gentleness of the Duke of Alva. Such
+were among the first-fruits of that prudence and that gentleness.
+
+The Duchess of Parma had been kept in a continued state of irritation.
+She had not ceased for many months to demand her release from the odious
+position of a cipher in a land where she had so lately been sovereign,
+and she had at last obtained it. Philip transmitted his acceptance of her
+resignation by the same courier who brought Alva's commission to be
+governor-general in her place. The letters to the Duchess were full of
+conventional compliments for her past services, accompanied, however,
+with a less barren and more acceptable acknowledgment, in the shape of a
+life income of 14,000 ducats instead of the 8000 hitherto enjoyed by her
+Highness.
+
+In addition to this liberal allowance, of which she was never to be
+deprived, except upon receiving full payment of 140,000 ducats, she was
+presented with 25,000 florins by the estates of Brabant, and with 30,000
+by those of Flanders.
+
+With these substantial tokens of the success of her nine years' fatigue
+and intolerable anxiety, she at last took her departure from the
+Netherlands, having communicated the dissolution of her connexion with
+the provinces by a farewell letter to the Estates dated 9th December,
+1567. Within a few weeks afterwards, escorted by the Duke of Alva across
+the frontier of Brabant; attended by a considerable deputation of Flemish
+nobility into Germany, and accompanied to her journey's end at Parma by
+the Count and Countess of Mansfeld, she finally closed her eventful
+career in the Netherlands.
+
+The horrors of the succeeding administration proved beneficial to her
+reputation. Upon the dark ground of succeeding years the lines which
+recorded her history seemed written with letters of light. Yet her
+conduct in the Netherlands offers but few points for approbation, and
+many for indignant censure. That she was not entirely destitute of
+feminine softness and sentiments of bounty, her parting despatch to her
+brother proved. In that letter she recommended to him a course of
+clemency and forgiveness, and reminded him that the nearer kings approach
+to God in station, the more they should endeavor to imitate him in his
+attributes of benignity. But the language of this farewell was more
+tender than had been the spirit of her government. One looks in vain,
+too, through the general atmosphere of kindness which pervades the
+epistle; for a special recommendation of those distinguished and doomed
+seigniors, whose attachment to her person and whose chivalrous and
+conscientious endeavors to fulfil her own orders, had placed them upon
+the edge of that precipice from which they were shortly to be hurled. The
+men who had restrained her from covering herself with disgrace by a
+precipitate retreat from the post of danger, and who had imperilled their
+lives by obedience to her express instructions, had been long languishing
+in solitary confinement, never to be terminated except by a traitor's
+death--yet we search in vain for a kind word in their behalf.
+
+Meantime the second civil war in France had broken out. The hollow truce
+by which the Guise party and the Huguenots had partly pretended to
+deceive each other was hastened to its end; among other causes, by the
+march of Alva, to the Netherlands. The Huguenots had taken alarm, for
+they recognized the fellowship which united their foes in all countries
+against the Reformation, and Conde and Coligny knew too well that the
+same influence which had brought Alva to Brussels would soon create an
+exterminating army against their followers. Hostilities were resumed with
+more bitterness than ever. The battle of St. Denis--fierce, fatal, but
+indecisive--was fought. The octogenarian hero, Montmorency, fighting like
+a foot soldier, refusing to yield his sword, and replying to the
+respectful solicitations of his nearest enemy by dashing his teeth down
+his throat with the butt-end of his pistol, the hero of so many battles,
+whose defeat at St. Quintin had been the fatal point in his career, had
+died at last in his armor, bravely but not gloriously, in conflict with
+his own countrymen, led by his own heroic nephew. The military control of
+the Catholic party was completely in the hand of the Guises; the
+Chancellor de l'Hopital had abandoned the court after a last and futile
+effort to reconcile contending factions, which no human power could
+unite; the Huguenots had possessed themselves of Rochelle and of other
+strong places, and, under the guidance of adroit statesmen and
+accomplished generals, were pressing the Most Christian monarch hard in
+the very heart of his kingdom.
+
+As early as the middle of October, while still in Antwerp, Alva had
+received several secret agents of the French monarch, then closely
+beleaguered in his capital. Cardinal Lorraine offered to place several
+strong places of France in the hands of the Spaniard, and Alva had
+written to Philip that he was disposed to accept the offer, and to render
+the service. The places thus held would be a guarantee for his expenses,
+he said, while in case King Charles and his brother should die, "their
+possession would enable Philip to assert his own claim to the French
+crown in right of his wife, the Salic law being merely a pleasantry."
+
+The Queen Dowager, adopting now a very different tone from that which
+characterized her conversation at the Bayonne interview, wrote to Alva,
+that, if for want of 2000 Spanish musketeers, which she requested him to
+furnish, she should be obliged to succumb, she chose to disculpate
+herself in advance before God and Christian princes for the peace which
+she should be obliged to make. The Duke wrote to her in reply, that it
+was much better to have a kingdom ruined in preserving it for God and the
+king by war, than to have it kept entire without war, to the profit of
+the devil and of his followers. He was also reported on another occasion
+to have reminded her of the Spanish proverb--that the head of one salmon
+is worth those of a hundred frogs. The hint, if it were really given, was
+certainly destined to be acted upon.
+
+The Duke not only furnished Catherine with advice, but with the
+musketeers which she had solicited. Two thousand foot and fifteen hundred
+horse, under the Count of Aremberg, attended by a choice band of the
+Catholic nobility of the Netherlands, had joined the royal camp at Paris
+before the end of the year, to take their part in the brief hostilities
+by which the second treacherous peace was to be preceded.
+
+Meantime, Alva was not unmindful of the business which had served as a
+pretext in the arrest of the two Counts. The fortifications of the
+principal cities were pushed on with great rapidity. The memorable
+citadel of Antwerp in particular had already been commenced in October
+under the superintendence of the celebrated engineers, Pacheco and
+Gabriel de Cerbelloni. In a few months it was completed, at a cost of one
+million four hundred thousand florins, of which sum the citizens, in
+spite of their remonstrances, were compelled to contribute more than one
+quarter. The sum of four hundred thousand florins was forced from the
+burghers by a tax upon all hereditary property within the municipality.
+
+Two thousand workmen were employed daily in the construction of this
+important fortress, which was erected, as its position most plainly
+manifested, not to protect, but to control the commercial capital of the
+provinces. It stood at the edge of the city, only separated from its
+walls by an open esplanade. It was the most perfect pentagon in Europe,
+having one of its sides resting on the Scheld, two turned towards the
+city, and two towards the open country. Five bastions, with walls of
+hammered stone, connected by curtains of turf and masonry, surrounded by
+walls measuring a league in circumference, and by an outer moat fed by
+the Scheld, enclosed a spacious enceinte, where a little church with many
+small lodging-houses, shaded by trees and shrubbery, nestled among the
+bristling artillery, as if to mimic the appearance of a peaceful and
+pastoral village. To four of the five bastions, the Captain-General, with
+characteristic ostentation, gave his own names and titles. One was called
+the Duke, the second Ferdinando, a third Toledo, a fourth Alva, while the
+fifth was baptized with the name of the ill-fated engineer, Pacheco. The
+Watergate was decorated with the escutcheon of Alva, surrounded by his
+Golden Fleece collar, with its pendant lamb of God; a symbol of
+blasphemous irony, which still remains upon the fortress, to recal the
+image of the tyrant and murderer. Each bastion was honeycombed with
+casemates and subterranean storehouses, and capable of containing within
+its bowels a vast supply of provisions, munitions, and soldiers. Such was
+the celebrated citadel built to tame the turbulent spirit of Antwerp, at
+the cost of those whom it was to terrify and to insult.
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     Conde and Coligny
+     Furnished, in addition, with a force of two thousand prostitutes
+     He came as a conqueror not as a mediator
+     Hope deferred, suddenly changing to despair
+     Meantime the second civil war in France had broken out
+     Spendthrift of time, he was an economist of blood
+     The greatest crime, however, was to be rich
+     Time and myself are two
+
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, PG EDITION, VOLUME 15.
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
+
+By JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
+1855
+1568 [CHAPTER II.]
+
+   Orange, Count Louis, Hoogstraaten, and others, cited before the
+   Blood-Council--Charges against them--Letter of Orange in reply--
+   Position and sentiments of the Prince--Seizure of Count de Buren--
+   Details of that transaction--Petitions to the Council from Louvain
+   and other places--Sentence of death against the whole population of
+   the Netherlands pronounced by the Spanish Inquisition and proclaimed
+   by Philip--Cruel inventions against heretics--The Wild Beggars--
+   Preliminary proceedings of the Council against Egmont and Horn--
+   Interrogatories addressed to them in prison--Articles of accusation
+   against them--Foreclosure of the cases--Pleas to the jurisdiction--
+   Efforts by the Countesses Egmont and Horn, by many Knights of the
+   Fleece, and by the Emperor, in favor of the prisoners--Answers of
+   Alva and of Philip--Obsequious behavior of Viglius--Difficulties
+   arising from the Golden Fleece statutes set aside--Particulars of
+   the charges against Count Horn and of his defence--Articles of
+   accusation against Egmont--Sketch of his reply--Reflections upon the
+   two trials--Attitude of Orange--His published 'Justification'--His
+   secret combinations--His commission to Count Louis--Large sums of
+   money subscribed by the Nassau family, by Netherland refugees, and
+   others--Great personal sacrifices made by the Prince--Quadruple
+   scheme for invading the Netherlands--Defeat of the patriots under
+   Cocqueville--Defeat of Millers--Invasion of Friesland by Count
+   Louis--Measures of Alva to oppose him--Command of the royalists
+   entreated to Aremberg and Meghem--The Duke's plan for the campaign--
+   Skirmish at Dam--Detention of Meghem--Count Louis at Heiliger--Lee--
+   Nature of the ground--Advance of Aremberg--Disposition of the
+   patriot forces--Impatience of the Spanish troops to engage--Battle
+   of Heiliger-Lee--Defeat and death of Aremberg--Death of Adolphus
+   Nassau--Effects of the battle--Anger and severe measures of Alva--
+   Eighteen nobles executed at Brussels--Sentence of death pronounced
+   upon Egmont and Horn--The Bishop of Ypres sent to Egmont--Fruitless
+   intercession by the prelate and the Countess--Egmont's last night in
+   prison--The "grande place" at Brussels--Details concerning the
+   execution of Egmont and Horn--Observation upon the characters of the
+   two nobles--Destitute condition of Egmont's family.
+
+Late in October, the Duke of Alva made his triumphant entry into the new
+fortress. During his absence, which was to continue during the remainder
+of the year, he had ordered the Secretary Courteville and the Councillor
+del Rio to superintend the commission, which was then actually engaged in
+collecting materials for the prosecutions to be instituted against the
+Prince of Orange and the other nobles who had abandoned the country.
+Accordingly, soon after his return, on the 19th of January, 1568, the
+Prince, his brother Louis of Nassau, his brother-in-law, Count Van den
+Berg, the Count Hoogstraaten, the Count Culemburg, and the Baron
+Montigny, were summoned in the name of Alva to appear before the
+Blood-Council, within thrice fourteen days from the date of the
+proclamation, under pain of perpetual banishment with confiscation of
+their estates. It is needless to say that these seigniors did not obey
+the summons. They knew full well that their obedience would be rewarded
+only by death.
+
+The charges against the Prince of Orange, which were drawn up in ten
+articles, stated, chiefly and briefly, that he had been, and was, the
+head and front of the rebellion; that as soon as his Majesty had left the
+Netherlands, he had begun his machinations to make himself master of the
+country and to expel his sovereign by force, if he should attempt to
+return to the provinces; that he had seduced his Majesty's subjects by
+false pretences that the Spanish inquisition was about to be introduced;
+that he had been the secret encourager and director of Brederode and the
+confederated nobles; and that when sent to Antwerp, in the name of the
+Regent, to put down the rebellion, he had encouraged heresy and accorded
+freedom of religion to the Reformers.
+
+The articles against Hoogstraaten and the other gentlemen mere of similar
+tenor. It certainly was not a slender proof of the calm effrontery of the
+government thus to see Alva's proclamation charging it as a crime upon
+Orange that he had inveigled the lieges into revolt by a false assertion
+that the inquisition was about to be established, when letters from the
+Duke to Philip, and from Granvelle to Philip, dated upon nearly the same
+day, advised the immediate restoration of the inquisition as soon as an
+adequate number of executions had paved the way for the measure. It was
+also a sufficient indication of a reckless despotism, that while the
+Duchess, who had made the memorable Accord with the Religionists,
+received a flattering letter of thanks and a farewell pension of fourteen
+thousand ducats yearly, those who, by her orders, had acted upon that
+treaty as the basis of their negotiations, were summoned to lay down
+their heads upon the block.
+
+The Prince replied to this summons by a brief and somewhat contemptuous
+plea to the jurisdiction. As a Knight of the Fleece, as a member of the
+Germanic Empire, as a sovereign prince in France, as a citizen of the
+Netherlands, he rejected the authority of Alva and of his
+self-constituted tribunal. His innocence he was willing to establish
+before competent courts and righteous judges. As a Knight of the Fleece,
+he said he could be tried only by his peers, the brethren of the Order,
+and, for that purpose, he could be summoned only by the King as Head of
+the Chapter, with the sanction of at least six of his fellow-knights. In
+conclusion, he offered to appear before his Imperial Majesty, the
+Electors, and other members of the Empire, or before the Knights of the
+Golden Fleece. In the latter case, he claimed the right, under the
+statutes of that order, to be placed while the trial was pending, not in
+a solitary prison, as had been the fate of Egmont and of Horn, but under
+the friendly charge and protection of the brethren themselves. The letter
+was addressed to the procurator-general, and a duplicate was forwarded to
+the Duke.
+
+From the general tenor of the document, it is obvious both that the
+Prince was not yet ready to throw down the gauntlet to his sovereign, nor
+to proclaim his adhesion to the new religion: Of departing from the
+Netherlands in the spring, he had said openly that he was still in
+possession of sixty thousand florins yearly, and that he should commence
+no hostilities against Philip, so long as he did not disturb him in his
+honor or his estates. Far-seeing politician, if man ever were, he knew
+the course whither matters were inevitably tending, but he knew how much
+strength was derived from putting an adversary irretrievably in the
+wrong. He still maintained an attitude of dignified respect towards the
+monarch, while he hurled back with defiance the insolent summons of the
+viceroy. Moreover, the period had not yet arrived for him to break
+publicly with the ancient faith. Statesman, rather than religionist, at
+this epoch, he was not disposed to affect a more complete conversion than
+the one which he had experienced. He was, in truth, not for a new
+doctrine, but for liberty of conscience. His mind was already expanding
+beyond any dogmas of the age. The man whom his enemies stigmatized as
+atheist and renegade, was really in favor of toleration, and therefore,
+the more deeply criminal in the eyes of all religious parties.
+
+Events, personal to himself, were rapidly to place him in a position from
+which he might enter the combat with honor.
+
+His character had already been attacked, his property threatened with
+confiscation. His closest ties of family were now to be severed by the
+hand of the tyrant. His eldest child, the Count de Buren, torn from his
+protection, was to be carried into indefinite captivity in a foreign
+land. It was a remarkable oversight, for a person of his sagacity, that,
+upon his own departure from the provinces, he should leave his son, then
+a boy of thirteen years, to pursue his studies at the college of Louvain.
+Thus exposed to the power of the government, he was soon seized as a
+hostage for the good behavior of the father. Granvelle appears to have
+been the first to recommend the step in a secret letter to Philip, but
+Alva scarcely needed prompting. Accordingly, upon the 13th of February,
+1568, the Duke sent the Seignior de Chassy to Louvain, attended by four
+officers and by twelve archers. He was furnished with a letter to the
+Count de Buren, in which that young nobleman was requested to place
+implicit confidence in the bearer of the despatch, and was informed that
+the desire which his Majesty had to see him educated for his service, was
+the cause of the communication which the Seignior de Chassy was about to
+make.
+
+That gentleman was, moreover, minutely instructed as to his method of
+proceeding in this memorable case of kidnapping. He was to present the
+letter to the young Count in presence of his tutor. He was to invite him
+to Spain in the name of his Majesty. He was to assure him that his
+Majesty's commands were solely with a view, to his own good, and that he
+was not commissioned to arrest, but only to escort him. He was to allow
+the Count to be accompanied only by two valets, two pages, a cook, and a
+keeper of accounts. He was, however, to induce his tutor to accompany
+him, at least to the Spanish frontier. He was to arrange that the second
+day after his arrival at Louvain, the Count should set out for Antwerp,
+where he was to lodge with Count Lodron, after which they were to proceed
+to Flushing, whence they were to embark for Spain. At that city he was to
+deliver the young Prince to the person whom he would find there,
+commissioned for that purpose by the Duke. As soon as he had made the
+first proposition at Louvain to the Count, he was, with the assistance of
+his retinue, to keep the most strict watch over him day and night, but
+without allowing the supervision to be perceived.
+
+The plan was carried out admirably, and in strict accordance with the
+program. It was fortunate, however, for the kidnappers, that the young
+Prince proved favorably disposed to the plan. He accepted the invitation
+of his captors with alacrity. He even wrote to thank the governor for his
+friendly offices in his behalf. He received with boyish gratification the
+festivities with which Lodron enlivened his brief sojourn at Antwerp, and
+he set forth without reluctance for that gloomy and terrible land of
+Spain, whence so rarely a Flemish traveller had returned. A changeling,
+as it were, from his cradle, he seemed completely transformed by his
+Spanish tuition, for he was educated and not sacrificed by Philip. When
+he returned to the Netherlands, after a twenty years' residence in Spain,
+it was difficult to detect in his gloomy brow, saturnine character, and
+Jesuistical habits, a trace of the generous spirit which characterized
+that race of heroes, the house of Orange-Nassau.
+
+Philip had expressed some anxiety as to the consequences of this capture
+upon the governments of Germany. Alva, however, re-assured his sovereign
+upon that point, by reason of the extreme docility of the captive, and
+the quiet manner in which the arrest had been conducted. At that
+particular juncture, moreover, it would, have been difficult for the
+government of the Netherlands to excite surprise any where, except by an
+act of clemency. The president and the deputation of professors from the
+university of Louvain waited upon Vargas, by whom, as acting president of
+the Blood-Council, the arrest had nominally been made, with a
+remonstrance that the measure was in gross violation of their statutes
+and privileges. That personage, however, with his usual contempt both for
+law and Latin, answered brutally, "Non curamus vestros privilegios," and
+with this memorable answer, abruptly closed his interview with the
+trembling pedants.
+
+Petitions now poured into the council from all quarters, abject
+recantations from terror-stricken municipalities, humble intercessions in
+behalf of doomed and imprisoned victims. To a deputation of the
+magistracy of Antwerp, who came with a prayer for mercy in behalf of some
+of their most distinguished fellow-citizens, then in prison, the Duke
+gave a most passionate and ferocious reply. He expressed his wonder that
+the citizens of Antwerp, that hotbed of treason, should dare to approach
+him in behalf of traitors and heretics. Let them look to it in future, he
+continued, or he would hang every man in the whole city, to set an
+example to the rest of the country; for his Majesty would rather the
+whole land should become an uninhabited wilderness, than that a single
+Dissenter should exist within its territory.
+
+Events now marched with rapidity. The monarch seemed disposed literally
+to execute the threat of his viceroy. Early in the year, the most sublime
+sentence of death was promulgated which has ever been pronounced since
+the creation of the world. The Roman tyrant wished that his enemies'
+heads were all upon a single neck, that he might strike them off at a
+blow; the inquisition assisted Philip to place the heads of all his
+Netherland subjects upon a single neck for the same fell purpose. Upon
+the 16th February, 1568, a sentence of the Holy Office condemned all the
+inhabitants of the Netherlands to death as heretics. From this universal
+doom only a few persons, especially named; were excepted. A proclamation
+of the King, dated ten days later, confirmed this decree of the
+inquisition, and ordered it to be carried into instant execution, without
+regard to age, sex, or condition. This is probably the most concise
+death-warrant that was ever framed. Three millions of people, men, women,
+and children, were sentenced to the scaffold in: three lines; and, as it
+was well known that these were not harmless thunders, like some bulls of
+the Vatican, but serious and practical measures, which it was intended
+should be enforced, the horror which they produced may be easily
+imagined. It was hardly the purpose of Government to compel the absolute
+completion of the wholesale plan in all its length and breadth, yet in
+the horrible times upon which they had fallen, the Netherlanders might be
+excused for believing that no measure was too monstrous to be fulfilled.
+At any rate, it was certain that when all were condemned, any might at a
+moment's warning be carried to the scaffold, and this was precisely the
+course adopted by the authorities.
+
+Under this universal decree the industry of the Blood-Council might, now
+seem superfluous. Why should not these mock prosecutions be dispensed
+with against individuals, now that a common sentence had swallowed the
+whole population in one vast grave? Yet it may be supposed that if the
+exertions of the commissioners and councillors served no other purpose,
+they at least furnished the Government with valuable evidence as to the
+relative wealth and other circumstances of the individual victims. The
+leading thought of the Government being that persecution, judiciously
+managed, might fructify into a golden harvest,--it was still desirable to
+persevere in the cause in which already such bloody progress had been
+made.
+
+And under this new decree, the executions certainly did not slacken. Men
+in the highest and the humblest positions were daily and hourly dragged
+to the stake. Alva, in a single letter to Philip, coolly estimated the
+number of executions which were to take place immediately after the
+expiration of holy week, "at eight hundred heads." Many a citizen,
+convicted of a hundred thousand florins and of no other crime, saw
+himself suddenly tied to a horse's tail, with his hands fastened behind
+him, and so dragged to the gallows. But although wealth was an
+unpardonable sin, poverty proved rarely a protection. Reasons sufficient
+could always be found for dooming the starveling laborer as well as the
+opulent burgher. To avoid the disturbances created in the streets by the
+frequent harangues or exhortations addressed to the bystanders by the
+victims on their way to the scaffold, a new gag was invented. The tongue
+of each prisoner was screwed into an iron ring, and then seared with a
+hot iron. The swelling and inflammation which were the immediate result,
+prevented the tongue from slipping through the ring, and of course
+effectually precluded all possibility of speech.
+
+Although the minds of men were not yet prepared for concentrated revolt
+against the tyranny under which they were languishing, it was not
+possible to suppress all sentiments of humanity, and to tread out every
+spark of natural indignation.
+
+Unfortunately, in the bewilderment and misery of this people, the first
+development of a forcible and organized resistance was of a depraved and
+malignant character. Extensive bands of marauders and highway robbers
+sprang into existence, who called themselves the Wild Beggars, and who,
+wearing the mask and the symbols of a revolutionary faction, committed
+great excesses in many parts of the country, robbing, plundering, and
+murdering. Their principal wrath was exercised against religious houses
+and persons. Many monasteries were robbed, many clerical persons maimed
+and maltreated. It became a habit to deprive priests of their noses or
+ears, and to tie them to the tails of horses. This was the work of
+ruffian gangs, whose very existence was engendered out of the social and
+moral putrescence to which the country was reduced, and who were willing
+to profit by the deep and universal hatred which was felt against
+Catholics and monks. An edict thundered forth by Alva, authorizing and
+commanding all persons to slay the wild beggars at sight, without trial
+or hangman, was of comparatively slight avail. An armed force of veterans
+actively scouring the country was more successful, and the freebooters
+were, for a time, suppressed.
+
+Meantime the Counts Egmont and Horn had been kept in rigorous confinement
+at Ghent. Not a warrant had been read or drawn up for their arrest. Not a
+single preliminary investigation, not the shadow of an information had
+preceded the long imprisonment of two men so elevated in rank, so
+distinguished in the public service. After the expiration of two months,
+however, the Duke condescended to commence a mock process against them.
+The councillors appointed to this work were Vargas and Del Rio, assisted
+by Secretary Praets. These persons visited the Admiral on the 10th, 11th,
+12th and 17th of November, and Count Egmont on the 12th, 13th, 14th, and
+16th, of the same month; requiring them to respond to a long, confused,
+and rambling collection of interrogatories. They were obliged to render
+these replies in prison, unassisted by any advocates, on penalty of being
+condemned 'in contumaciam'. The questions, awkwardly drawn up as they
+seemed, were yet tortuously and cunningly arranged with a view of
+entrapping the prisoners into self-contradiction. After this work had
+been completed, all the papers by which they intended to justify their
+answers were taken away from them. Previously, too, their houses and
+those of their secretaries, Bakkerzeel and Alonzo de la Loo, had been
+thoroughly ransacked, and every letter and document which could be found
+placed in the hands of government. Bakkerzeel, moreover, as already
+stated, had been repeatedly placed upon the rack, for the purpose of
+extorting confessions which might implicate his master. These
+preliminaries and precautionary steps having been taken, the Counts had
+again been left to their solitude for two months longer. On the 10th
+January, each was furnished with a copy of the declarations or
+accusations filed against him by the procurator-general. To these
+documents, drawn up respectively in sixty-three, and in ninety articles,
+they were required, within five days' time, without the assistance of an
+advocate, and without consultation with any human being, to deliver a
+written answer, on pain, as before, of being proceeded against and
+condemned by default.
+
+This order was obeyed within nearly the prescribed period and here, it
+may be said, their own participation in their trial ceased; while the
+rest of the proceedings were buried in the deep bosom of the
+Blood-Council. After their answers had been delivered, and not till then,
+the prisoners were, by an additional mockery, permitted to employ
+advocates. These advocates, however, were allowed only occasional
+interviews with their clients, and always in the presence of certain
+persons, especially deputed for that purpose by the Duke. They were also
+allowed commissioners to collect evidence and take depositions, but
+before the witnesses were ready, a purposely premature day, 8th of May,
+was fixed upon for declaring the case closed, and not a single tittle of
+their evidence, personal or documentary, was admitted.--Their advocates
+petitioned for an exhibition of the evidence prepared by government, and
+were refused. Thus, they were forbidden to use the testimony in their
+favor, while that which was to be employed against them was kept secret.
+Finally, the proceedings were formally concluded on the 1st of June, and
+the papers laid before the Duke. The mass of matter relating to these two
+monster processes was declared, three days afterwards to have been
+examined--a physical impossibility in itself--and judgment was pronounced
+upon the 4th of June. This issue was precipitated by the campaign of
+Louis Nassau in Friesland, forming a aeries of important events which it
+will be soon our duty to describe. It is previously necessary, however,
+to add a few words in elucidation of the two mock trials which have been
+thus briefly sketched.
+
+The proceeding had been carried on, from first to last, under protest by
+the prisoners, under a threat of contumacy on the part of the government.
+Apart from the totally irresponsible and illegal character of the
+tribunal before which they were summoned--the Blood-Council being a
+private institution of Alva's without pretext or commission--these nobles
+acknowledged the jurisdiction of but three courts. As Knights of the
+Golden Fleece, both claimed the privilege of that Order to be tried by
+its statutes. As a citizen and noble of Brabant, Egmont claimed the
+protection of the "Joyeuse Entree," a constitution which had been sworn
+to by Philip and his ancestors, and by Philip more amply, than by all his
+ancestors. As a member and Count of the Holy Roman Empire, the Admiral
+claimed to be tried by his peers, the electors and princes of the realm.
+
+The Countess Egmont, since her husband's arrest, and the confiscation of
+his estates before judgment, had been reduced to a life of poverty as
+well as agony. With her eleven children, all of tender age, she had taken
+refuge in a convent. Frantic with despair, more utterly desolate, and
+more deeply wronged than high-born lady had often been before, she left
+no stone unturned to save her husband from his fate, or at least to
+obtain for him an impartial and competent tribunal. She addressed the
+Duke of Alva, the King, the Emperor, her brother the Elector Palatine,
+and many leading Knights of the Fleece. The Countess Dowager of Horn,
+both whose sons now lay in the jaws of death, occupied herself also with
+the most moving appeals to the same high personages. No pains were spared
+to make the triple plea to the jurisdiction valid. The leading Knights of
+the Fleece, Mansfeld, whose loyalty was unquestioned, and Hoogstraaten,
+although himself an outlaw; called upon the King of Spain to protect the
+statutes of the illustrious order of which he was the chief. The estates
+of Brabant, upon the petition of Sabina, Countess Egmont, that they would
+take to heart the privileges of the province, so that her husband might
+enjoy that protection of which the meanest citizen in the land could not
+be justly deprived, addressed a feeble and trembling protest to Alva, and
+enclosed to him the lady's petition. The Emperor, on behalf of Count
+Horn, wrote personally to Philip, to claim for him a trial before the
+members of the realm.
+
+It was all in vain. The conduct of Philip and his Viceroy coincided in
+spirit with the honest brutality of Vargas. "Non curamus vestros
+privilegios," summed up the whole of the proceedings. Non curamus vestros
+privilegios had been the unanswerable reply to every constitutional
+argument which had been made against tyranny since Philip mounted his
+father's throne. It was now the only response deemed necessary to the
+crowd of petitions in favor of the Counts, whether they proceeded from
+sources humble or august. Personally, the King remained silent as the
+grave. In writing to the Duke of Alva, he observed that "the Emperor, the
+Dukes of Bavaria and Lorraine, the Duchess and the Duchess-dowager, had
+written to him many times, and in the most pressing manner, in favor of
+the Counts Horn and Egmont." He added, that he had made no reply to them,
+nor to other Knights of the Fleece who had implored him to respect the
+statutes of the order, and he begged Alva "to hasten the process as fast
+as possible." To an earnest autograph letter, in which the Emperor, on
+the 2nd of March, 1568, made a last effort to save the illustrious
+prisoners, he replied, that "the whole world would at last approve his
+conduct, but that, at any rate, he would not act differently, even if he
+should risk the loss of the provinces, and if the sky should fall on his
+head."
+
+But little heed was paid to the remonstrances in behalf of the imperial
+Courts, or the privileges of Brabant. These were but cobweb impediments
+which, indeed, had long been brushed away. President Viglius was even
+pathetic on the subject of Madame Egmont's petition to the council of
+Brabant. It was so bitter, he said, that the Duke was slightly annoyed,
+and took it ill that the royal servants in that council should have his
+Majesty's interests so little at heart. It seemed indecent in the eyes of
+the excellent Frisian, that a wife pleading for her husband, a mother for
+her, eleven children, so soon to be fatherless, should indulge in strong
+language!
+
+The statutes of the Fleece were obstacles somewhat more serious. As,
+however, Alva had come to the Netherlands pledged to accomplish the
+destruction of these two nobles, as soon as he should lay his hands upon
+them, it was only a question of form, and even that question was, after a
+little reflection, unceremoniously put aside.
+
+To the petitions in behalf of the two Counts, therefore, that they should
+be placed in the friendly keeping of the Order, and be tried by its
+statutes, the Duke replied, peremptorily, that he had undertaken the
+cognizance of this affair by commission of his Majesty, as sovereign of
+the land, not as head of the Golden Fleece, that he should carry it
+through as it had been commenced, and that the Counts should discontinue
+presentations of petitions upon this point.
+
+In the embarrassment created by the stringent language of these statutes,
+Doctor Viglius found an opportunity to make himself very useful. Alva had
+been turning over the laws and regulations of the Order, but could find
+no loophole. The President, however, came to his rescue, and announced it
+as his legal opinion that the Governor need concern himself no further on
+the subject, and that the code of the Fleece offered no legal impediment
+to the process. Alva immediately wrote to communicate this opinion to
+Philip, adding, with great satisfaction, that he should immediately make
+it known to the brethren of the Order, a step which was the more
+necessary because Egmont's advocate had been making great trouble with
+these privileges, and had been protesting at every step of the
+proceedings. In what manner the learned President argued these
+troublesome statutes out of the way, has nowhere appeared; but he
+completely reinstated himself in favor, and the King wrote to thank him
+for his legal exertions.
+
+It was now boldly declared that the statutes of the Fleece did not extend
+to such crimes as those with which the prisoner were charged. Alva,
+moreover, received an especial patent, ante-dated eight or nine months,
+by which Philip empowered him to proceed against all persons implicated
+in the troubles, and particularly against Knights of the Golden Fleece.
+
+It is superfluous to observe that these were merely the arbitrary acts of
+a despot. It is hardly necessary to criticise such proceedings. The
+execution of the nobles had been settled before Alva left Spain. As they
+were inhabitants of a constitutional country, it was necessary to stride
+over the constitution. As they were Knights of the Fleece, it was
+necessary to set aside the statutes of the Order. The Netherland
+constitutions seemed so entirely annihilated already, that they could
+hardly be considered obstacles; but the Order of the Fleece was an august
+little republic of which Philip was the hereditary chief, of which
+emperors, kings, and great seigniors were the citizens. Tyranny might be
+embarrassed by such subtle and golden filaments as these, even while it
+crashed through municipal charters as if they had been reeds and
+bulrushes. Nevertheless, the King's course was taken. Although the
+thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth chapters of the Order expressly
+provided for the trial and punishment of brethren who had been guilty of
+rebellion, heresy, or treason; and although the eleventh chapter;
+perpetual and immutable, of additions to that constitution by the Emperor
+Charles, conferred on the Order exclusive jurisdiction over all crimes
+whatever committed by the knights, yet it was coolly proclaimed by Alva,
+that the crimes for which the Admiral and Egmont had been arrested, were
+beyond the powers of the tribunal.
+
+So much for the plea to the jurisdiction. It is hardly worth while to
+look any further into proceedings which were initiated and brought to a
+conclusion in the manner already narrated. Nevertheless, as they were
+called a process, a single glance at the interior of that mass of
+documents can hardly be superfluous.
+
+The declaration against Count Horn; upon which, supported by invisible
+witnesses, he was condemned, was in the nature of a narrative. It
+consisted in a rehearsal of circumstances, some true and some fictitious,
+with five inferences. These five inferences amounted to five crimes--high
+treason, rebellion, conspiracy, misprision of treason, and breach of
+trust. The proof of these crimes was evolved, in a dim and misty manner,
+out of a purposely confused recital. No events, however, were
+recapitulated which have not been described in the course of this
+history. Setting out with a general statement, that the Admiral, the
+Prince of Orange, Count Egmont, and other lords had organized a plot to
+expel his Majesty from the Netherlands, and to divide the provinces among
+themselves; the declaration afterwards proceeded to particulars. Ten of
+its sixty-three articles were occupied with the Cardinal Granvelle, who,
+by an absurd affectation, was never directly named, but called "a certain
+personage--a principal personage--a grand personage, of his Majesty's
+state council." None of the offences committed against him were
+forgotten: the 11th of March letter, the fool's-cap, the livery, were
+reproduced in the most violent colors, and the cabal against the minister
+was quietly assumed to constitute treason against the monarch.
+
+The Admiral, it was further charged, had advised and consented to the
+fusion of the finance and privy councils with that of state, a measure
+which was clearly treasonable. He had, moreover, held interviews with the
+Prince of Orange, with Egmont, and other nobles, at Breda and at
+Hoogstraaten, at which meetings the confederacy and the petition had been
+engendered. That petition had been the cause of all the evils which had
+swept the land. "It had scandalously injured the King, by affirming that
+the inquisition was a tyranny to humanity, which was an infamous and
+unworthy proposition." The confederacy, with his knowledge and
+countenance, had enrolled 30,000 men. He had done nothing, any more than
+Orange or Egmont, to prevent the presentation of the petition. In the
+consultation at the state-council which ensued, both he and the Prince
+were for leaving Brussels at once, while Count Egmont expressed an
+intention of going to Aix to drink the waters. Yet Count Egmont's
+appearance (proceeded this indictment against another individual)
+exhibited not a single sign of sickness. The Admiral had, moreover, drank
+the toast of "Vivent leg gueux" on various occasions, at the Culemberg
+House banquet, at the private table of the Prince of Orange, at a supper
+at the monastery of Saint Bernard's, at a dinner given by Burgomaster
+Straalen. He had sanctioned the treaties with the rebels at Duffel, by
+which he had clearly rendered himself guilty of high treason. He had held
+an interview with Orange, Egmont, and Hoogstraaten, at Denremonde, for
+the treasonable purpose of arranging a levy of troops to prevent his
+Majesty's entrance into the Netherlands. He had refused to come to
+Brussels at the request of the Duchess of Parma, when the rebels were
+about to present the petition. He had written to his secretary that he
+was thenceforth resolved to serve neither King nor Kaiser. He had
+received from one Taffin, with marks of approbation, a paper, stating
+that the assembling of the states-general was the only remedy for the
+troubles in the land. He had, repeatedly affirmed that the inquisition
+and edicts ought to be repealed.
+
+On his arrival at Tournay in August, 1566, the people had cried "Vivent
+les gueux;" a proof that he liked the cry. All his transactions at
+Tournay, from first to last, had been criminal. He had tolerated Reformed
+preaching, he had forbidden Catholics and Protestants to molest each
+other, he had omitted to execute heretics, he had allowed the
+religionists to erect an edifice for public worship outside the walls. He
+had said, at the house of Prince Espinoy, that if the King should come
+into the provinces with force, he would oppose him with 15,000 troops. He
+had said, if his brother Montigny should be detained in Spain, he would
+march to his rescue at the head of 50,000 men whom he had at his command.
+He had on various occasions declared that "men should live according to
+their consciences"--as if divine and human laws were dead, and men, like
+wild beasts, were to follow all their lusts and desires. Lastly, he had
+encouraged the rebellion in Valenciennes.
+
+Of all these crimes and misdeeds the procurator declared himself
+sufficiently informed, and the aforesaid defendant entirely, commonly,
+and publicly defamed.
+
+Wherefore, that officer terminated his declaration by claiming "that the
+cause should be concluded summarily, and without figure or form of
+process; and that therefore, by his Excellency or his sub-delegated
+judges, the aforesaid defendant should be declared to have in diverse
+ways committed high treason, should be degraded from his dignities, and
+should be condemned to death, with confiscation of all his estates."
+
+The Admiral, thus peremptorily summoned, within five days, without
+assistance, without documents, and from the walls of a prison, to answer
+to these charges, 'solos ex vinculis causam dicere', undertook his task
+with the boldness of innocence. He protested, of course, to the
+jurisdiction, and complained of the want of an advocate, not in order to
+excuse any weakness in his defence, but only any inelegance in his
+statement. He then proceeded flatly to deny some of the facts, to admit
+others, and to repel the whole treasonable inference. His answer in all
+essential respects was triumphant. Supported by the evidence which, alas
+was not collected and published till after his death, it was impregnable.
+
+He denied that he had ever plotted against his King, to whom he had ever
+been attached, but admitted that he had desired the removal of Granvelle,
+to whom he had always been hostile. He had, however, been an open and
+avowed enemy to the Cardinal, and had been engaged in no secret
+conspiracy against his character or against his life. He denied that the
+livery (for which, however, he was not responsible) had been intended to
+ridicule the Cardinal, but asserted that it was intended to afford an
+example of economy to an extravagant nobility. He had met Orange and
+Egmont at Breda and Hoogstraaten, and had been glad to do so, for he had
+been long separated from them. These interviews, however, had been
+social, not political, for good cheer and merry-making, not for
+conspiracy and treason. He had never had any connection with the
+confederacy; he had neither advised nor protected the petition, but, on
+the contrary, after hearing of the contemplated movement, had written to
+give notice thereof to the Duchess. He was in no manner allied, with
+Brederode, but, on the contrary, for various reasons, was not upon
+friendly terms with him. He had not entered his house since his return
+from Spain. He had not been a party to the dinner at Culemburg House.
+Upon that day he had dined with the Prince of Orange, with whom he was
+lodging and, after dinner, they had both gone together to visit Mansfeld,
+who was confined with an inflamed eye. There they had met Egmont, and the
+three had proceeded together to Culemburg House in order to bring away
+Hoogstraaten, whom the confederates had compelled to dine with them; and
+also to warn the nobles not to commit themselves by extravagant and
+suspicious excesses. They had remained in the house but a few minutes,
+during which time the company had insisted upon their drinking a single
+cup to the toast of "Vivent le roy et les gueux." They had then retired,
+taking with them Hoogstraaten, and all thinking that they had rendered a
+service to the government by their visit, instead of having made
+themselves liable to a charge of treason. As to the cries of "Vivent les
+gueux" at the tables of Orange, of the Abbot of Saint Bernard, and at
+other places, those words had been uttered by simple, harmless fellows;
+and as he considered, the table a place of freedom, he had not felt
+himself justified in rebuking the manners of his associates,
+particularly, in houses where he was himself but a guest. As for
+committing treason at the Duffel meeting, he had not been there at all.
+
+He thanked God that, at that epoch, he had been absent from Brussels, for
+had he, as well as Orange and Egmont, been commissioned by the Duchess to
+arrange those difficult matters, he should have considered it his duty to
+do as they did. He had never thought of levying troops against his
+Majesty. The Denremonde meeting had been held, to consult upon four
+subjects: the affairs of Tournay; the intercepted letters of the French
+ambassador, Alava; the letter of Montigny, in which he warned his brother
+of the evil impression which the Netherland matters were making in Spain;
+and the affairs of Antwerp, from which city the Prince of Orange found it
+necessary at that moment to withdraw.--With regard to his absence from
+Brussels, he stated that he had kept away from the Court because he was
+ruined. He was deeply in debt, and so complete was his embarrassment,
+that he had been unable in Antwerp to raise 1000 crowns upon his
+property, even at an interest of one hundred per cent. So far from being
+able to levy troops, he was hardly able to pay for his daily bread. With
+regard to his transactions at Tournay, he had, throughout them all,
+conformed himself to the instructions of Madame de Parma. As to the cry
+of "Vivent les gueux," he should not have cared at that moment if the
+populace had cried 'Vive Comte Horn', for his thoughts were then occupied
+with more substantial matters. He had gone thither under a special
+commission from the Duchess, and had acted under instructions daily
+received by her own hand. He had, by her orders, effected a temporary
+compromise between the two religious parties, on the basis of the Duffel
+treaty. He had permitted the public preaching to continue, but had not
+introduced it for the first time. He had allowed temples to be built
+outside the gates, but it was by express command of Madame, as he could
+prove by her letters. She had even reproved him before the council,
+because the work had not been accomplished with sufficient despatch. With
+regard to his alleged threat, that he would oppose the King's entrance
+with 15,000 men, he answered, with astonishing simplicity, that he did
+not remember making any such observation, but it was impossible for a man
+to retain in his mind all the nonsense which he might occasionally utter.
+The honest Admiral thought that his poverty, already pleaded, was so
+notorious that the charge was not worthy of a serious answer. He also
+treated the observation which he was charged with having made, relative
+to his marching to Spain with 50,000 men to rescue Montigny as "frivolous
+and ridiculous." He had no power to raise a hundred men. Moreover he had
+rejoiced at Montigny's detention, for he had thought that to be out of
+the Netherlands was to be out of harm's way. On the whole, he claimed
+that in all those transactions of his which might be considered
+anti-Catholic, he had been governed entirely by the instructions of the
+Regent, and by her Accord with the nobles. That Accord, as she had
+repeatedly stated to him, was to be kept sacred until his Majesty, by
+advice of the states-general, should otherwise ordain.
+
+Finally, he observed, that law was not his vocation. He was no
+pettifogger, but he had endeavored loyally to conform himself to the
+broad and general principles of honor, justice, and truth. In a very few
+and simple words, he begged his judges to have regard to his deeds, and
+to a life of loyal service. If he had erred occasionally in those times
+of tumult, his intentions had ever been faithful and honorable.
+
+The charges against Count Egmont were very similar to those against Count
+Horn. The answers of both defendants were nearly identical.
+Interrogations thus addressed to two different persons, as to
+circumstances which had occurred long before, could not have been thus
+separately, secretly, but simultaneously answered in language
+substantially the same, had not that language been the words of truth.
+Egmont was accused generally of plotting with others to expel the King
+from the provinces, and to divide the territory among themselves. Through
+a long series of ninety articles, he was accused of conspiring against
+the character and life of Cardinal Granvelle. He was the inventor, it was
+charged, of the fool's-cap livery. He had joined in the letters to the
+King, demanding the prelate's removal. He had favored the fusion of the
+three councils. He had maintained that the estates-general ought to be
+forthwith assembled, that otherwise the debts of his Majesty and of the
+country could never be paid, and that the provinces would go to the
+French, to the Germans, or to the devil. He had asserted that he would
+not be instrumental in burning forty or fifty thousand men, in order that
+the inquisition and the edicts might be sustained. He had declared that
+the edicts were rigorous. He had advised the Duchess, to moderate them,
+and remove the inquisition, saying that these measures, with a pardon
+general in addition, were the only means of quieting the country. He had
+advised the formation of the confederacy, and promised to it his
+protection and favor. He had counselled the presentation of the petition.
+He had arranged all these matters, in consultation with the other nobles,
+at the interviews at Breda and Hoogstraaten. He had refused the demand of
+Madame de Parma, to take arms in her defence. He had expressed his
+intention, at a most critical moment, of going to the baths of Aix for
+his health, although his personal appearance gave no indication of any
+malady whatever. He had countenanced and counselled the proceedings of
+the rebel nobles at Saint Trond. He had made an accord with those of "the
+religion" at Ghent, Bruges, and other places. He had advised the Duchess
+to grant a pardon to those who had taken up arms. He had maintained, in
+common with the Prince of Orange, at a session of the state council, that
+if Madame should leave Brussels, they would assemble the states-general
+of their own authority, and raise a force of forty thousand men. He had
+plotted treason, and made arrangements for the levy of troops at the
+interview at Denremonde, with Horn, Hoogstraaten, and the Prince of
+Orange. He had taken under his protection on the 20th April, 1566, the
+confederacy of the rebels; had promised that they should never be
+molested, for the future, on account of the inquisition or the edicts,
+and that so long as they kept within the terms of the Petition and the
+Compromise, he would defend them with his own person. He had granted
+liberty of preaching outside the walls in many cities within his
+government. He had said repeatedly, that if the King desired to introduce
+the inquisition into the Netherlands, he would sell all his property and
+remove to another land; thus declaring with how much contempt and
+detestation he regarded the said inquisition. He had winked at all the
+proceedings of the sectaries. He had permitted the cry of "Vivent les
+gueux" at his table. He had assisted at the banquet at Culemburg House.
+
+These were the principal points in the interminable act of accusation.
+Like the Admiral, Egmont admitted many of the facts, and flatly denied
+the rest. He indignantly repelled the possibility of a treasonable
+inference from any of, or all, his deeds. He had certainly desired the
+removal of Granvelle, for he believed that the King's service would
+profit by his recal. He replied, almost in the same terms as the Admiral
+had done, to the charge concerning the livery, and asserted that its
+principal object had been to set an example of economy. The fool's-cap
+and bells had been changed to a bundle of arrows, in consequence of a
+certain rumor which became rife in Brussels, and in obedience to an
+ordinance of Madame de Parma. As to the assembling of the states-general,
+the fusion of the councils, the moderation of the edicts, he had
+certainly been in favor of these measures, which he considered to be
+wholesome and lawful, not mischievous or treasonable. He had certainly
+maintained that the edicts were rigorous, and had advised the Duchess,
+under the perilous circumstances of the country, to grant a temporary
+modification until the pleasure of his Majesty could be known. With
+regard to the Compromise, he had advised all his friends to keep out of
+it, and many in consequence had kept out of it. As to the presentation of
+the petition, he had given Madame de Parma notice thereof, so soon as he
+had heard that such a step was contemplated. He used the same language as
+had been employed by Horn, with regard to the interview at Breda and
+Hoogstraaten--that they had been meetings of "good cheer" and good
+fellowship. He had always been at every moment at the command of the
+Duchess, save when he had gone to Flanders and Artois to suppress the
+tumults, according to her express orders. He had no connexion with the
+meeting of the nobles at Saint Trond. He had gone to Duffel as special
+envoy from the Duchess, to treat with certain plenipotentiaries appointed
+at the Saint Trond meeting. He had strictly conformed to the letter of
+instructions, drawn up by the Duchess, which would be found among his
+papers, but he had never promised the nobles his personal aid or
+protection. With regard to the Denremonde meeting, he gave almost exactly
+the same account as Horn had given. The Prince, the Admiral, and himself,
+had conversed between a quarter past eleven and dinner time, which was
+twelve o'clock, on various matters, particularly upon the King's
+dissatisfaction with recent events in the Netherlands, and upon a certain
+letter from the ambassador Alava in Paris to the Duchess of Parma. He
+had, however, expressed his opinion to Madame that the letter was a
+forgery. He had permitted public preaching in certain cities, outside the
+walls, where it had already been established, because this was in
+accordance with the treaty which Madame had made at Duffel, which she had
+ordered him honorably to maintain. He had certainly winked at the
+religious exercises of the Reformers, because he had been expressly
+commanded to do so, and because the government at that time was not
+provided with troops to suppress the new religion by force. He related
+the visit of Horn, Orange, and himself to Culemburg House, at the
+memorable banquet, in almost the same words which the Admiral had used.
+He had done all in his power to prevent Madame from leaving Brussels, in
+which effort he had been successful, and from which much good had
+resulted to the country. He had never recommended that a pardon should be
+granted to those who had taken up arms, but on the contrary, had advised
+their chastisement, as had appeared in his demeanor towards the rebels at
+Osterwel, Tournay, and Valenciennes. He had never permitted the cry of
+"Vivent les gueux" at his own table, nor encouraged it in his presence
+any where else.
+
+Such were the leading features in these memorable cases of what was
+called high treason. Trial there was none. The tribunal was incompetent;
+the prisoners were without advocates; the government evidence was
+concealed; the testimony for the defence was excluded; and the cause was
+finally decided before a thousandth part of its merits could have been
+placed under the eyes of the judge who gave the sentence.
+
+But it is almost puerile to speak of the matter in the terms usually
+applicable to state trials. The case had been settled in Madrid long
+before the arrest of the prisoners in Brussels. The sentence, signed by
+Philip in blank, had been brought in Alva's portfolio from Spain. The
+proceedings were a mockery, and, so far as any effect upon public opinion
+was concerned, might as well have been omitted. If the gentlemen had been
+shot in the court-yard of Jasse-house, by decree of a drum-head
+court-martial, an hour after their arrest, the rights of the provinces
+and the sentiments of humanity would not have been outraged more utterly.
+Every constitutional and natural right was violated from first to last.
+This certainly was not a novelty. Thousands of obscure individuals, whose
+relations and friends were not upon thrones and in high places, but in
+booths and cellars, and whose fate therefore did not send a shudder of
+sympathy throughout Europe, had already been sacrificed by the Blood
+tribunal. Still this great case presented a colossal emblem of the
+condition in which the Netherlands were now gasping. It was a monumental
+exhibition of the truth which thousands had already learned to their
+cost, that law and justice were abrogated throughout the land. The
+country was simply under martial law--the entire population under
+sentence of death. The whole civil power was in Alva's hand; the whole
+responsibility in Alva's breast. Neither the most ignoble nor the most
+powerful could lift their heads in the sublime desolation which was
+sweeping the country. This was now proved beyond peradventure. A
+miserable cobbler or weaver might be hurried from his shop to the
+scaffold, invoking the 'jus de non evocando' till he was gagged, but the
+Emperor would not stoop from his throne, nor electors palatine and
+powerful nobles rush to his rescue; but in behalf of these prisoners the
+most august hands and voices of Christendom had been lifted up at the
+foot of Philip's throne; and their supplications had proved as idle as
+the millions of tears and death-cries which had beep shed or uttered in
+the lowly places of the land. It was obvious; then, that all intercession
+must thereafter be useless. Philip was fanatically impressed with his
+mission. His viceroy was possessed by his loyalty as by a demon. In this
+way alone, that conduct which can never be palliated may at least be
+comprehended. It was Philip's enthusiasm to embody the wrath of God
+against heretics. It was Alva's enthusiasm to embody the wrath of Philip.
+Narrow-minded, isolated, seeing only that section of the world which was
+visible through the loop-hole of the fortress in which Nature had
+imprisoned him for life, placing his glory in unconditional obedience to
+his superior, questioning nothing, doubting nothing, fearing nothing, the
+viceroy accomplished his work of hell with all the tranquillity of an
+angel. An iron will, which clove through every obstacle; adamantine
+fortitude, which sustained without flinching a mountain of responsibility
+sufficient to crush a common nature, were qualities which, united to, his
+fanatical obedience, made him a man for Philip's work such as could not
+have been found again in the world.
+
+The case, then, was tried before a tribunal which was not only
+incompetent, under the laws of the land, but not even a court of justice
+in any philosophical or legal sense. Constitutional and municipal law
+were not more outraged in its creation, than all national and natural
+maxims.
+
+The reader who has followed step by step the career of the two
+distinguished victims through the perilous days of Margaret's
+administration, is sufficiently aware of the amount of treason with which
+they are chargeable. It would be an insult to common sense for us to set
+forth, in full, the injustice of their sentence. Both were guiltless
+towards the crown; while the hands of one, on the contrary, were deeply
+dyed in the blood of the people. This truth was so self-evident, that
+even a member of the Blood-Council, Pierre Arsens, president of Artois,
+addressed an elaborate memoir to the Duke of Alva, criticising the case
+according to the rules of law, and maintaining that Egmont, instead of
+deserving punishment, was entitled to a signal reward.
+
+So much for the famous treason of Counts Egmont and Horn, so far as
+regards the history of the proceedings and the merits of the case. The
+last act of the tragedy was precipitated by occurrences which must be now
+narrated.
+
+The Prince of Orange had at last thrown down the gauntlet. Proscribed,
+outlawed, with his Netherland property confiscated, and his eldest child
+kidnapped, he saw sufficient personal justification for at last stepping
+into the lists, the avowed champion of a nation's wrongs. Whether the
+revolution was to be successful, or to be disastrously crushed; whether
+its result would be to place him upon a throne or a scaffold, not even
+he, the deep-revolving and taciturn politician, could possibly foresee.
+The Reformation, in which he took both a political and a religious
+interest, might prove a sufficient lever in his hands for the overthrow
+of Spanish power in the Netherlands. The inquisition might roll back upon
+his country and himself, crushing them forever. The chances seemed with
+the inquisition. The Spaniards, under the first chieftain in Europe, were
+encamped and entrenched in the provinces. The Huguenots had just made
+their fatal peace in France, to the prophetic dissatisfaction of Coligny.
+The leading men of liberal sentiments in the Netherlands were captive or
+in exile. All were embarrassed by the confiscations which, in
+anticipation of sentence, had severed the nerves of war. The country was
+terror-stricken; paralyzed, motionless, abject, forswearing its
+convictions, and imploring only life. At this moment William of Orange
+reappeared upon the scene.
+
+He replied to the act of condemnation, which had been pronounced against
+him in default, by a published paper, of moderate length and great
+eloquence. He had repeatedly offered to place himself, he said, upon
+trial before a competent court. As a Knight of the Fleece, as a member of
+the Holy Roman Empire, as a sovereign prince, he could acknowledge no
+tribunal save the chapters of the knights or of the realm. The Emperor's
+personal intercession with Philip had been employed in vain, to obtain
+the adjudication of his case by either. It would be both death and
+degradation on his part to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the infamous
+Council of Blood. He scorned, he said, to plead his cause "before he knew
+not what base knaves, not fit to be the valets of his companions and
+himself."
+
+He appealed therefore to the judgment of the world. He published not an
+elaborate argument, but a condensed and scathing statement of the
+outrages which had been practised upon him. He denied that he had been a
+party to the Compromise. He denied that he had been concerned in the
+Request, although he denounced with scorn the tyranny which could treat a
+petition to government as an act of open war against the sovereign. He
+spoke of Granvelle with unmeasured wrath. He maintained that his own
+continuance in office had been desired by the cardinal, in order that his
+personal popularity might protect the odious designs of the government.
+The edicts, the inquisition, the persecution, the new bishoprics, had
+been the causes of the tumults. He concluded with a burst of indignation
+against Philip's conduct toward himself. The monarch had forgotten his
+services and those of his valiant ancestors. He had robbed him of honor,
+he had robbed him of his son--both dearer to him than life. By thus doing
+he had degraded himself more than he had injured him, for he had broken
+all his royal oaths and obligations.
+
+The paper was published early in the summer of 1568. At about the same
+time, the Count of Hoogstraaten published a similar reply to the act of
+condemnation with which he had been visited. He defended himself mainly
+upon the ground, that all the crimes of which he stood arraigned had been
+committed in obedience to the literal instructions of the Duchess of
+Parma, after her accord with the confederates.
+
+The Prince now made the greatest possible exertions to raise funds and
+troops. He had many meetings with influential individuals in Germany. The
+Protestant princes, particularly the Landgrave of Hesse and the Elector
+of Saxony, promised him assistance. He brought all his powers of
+eloquence and of diplomacy to make friends for the cause which he had now
+boldly espoused. The high-born Demosthenes electrified large assemblies
+by his indignant invectives against the Spanish Philip. He excelled even
+his royal antagonist in the industrious subtlety with which he began to
+form a thousand combinations. Swift, secret, incapable of fatigue, this
+powerful and patient intellect sped to and fro, disentangling the
+perplexed skein where all had seemed so hopelessly confused, and
+gradually unfolding broad schemes of a symmetrical and regenerated
+polity. He had high correspondents and higher hopes in England. He was
+already secretly or openly in league with half the sovereigns of Germany.
+The Huguenots of France looked upon him as their friend, and on Louis of
+Nassau as their inevitable chieftain, were Coligny destined to fall. He
+was in league with all the exiled and outlawed nobles of the Netherlands.
+By his orders recruits were daily enlisted, without sound of drum. He
+granted a commission to his brother Louis, one of the most skilful and
+audacious soldiers of the age, than whom the revolt could not have found
+a more determined partisan, nor the Prince a more faithful lieutenant.
+
+This commission, which was dated Dillenburg, 6th April, 1568, was a
+somewhat startling document. It authorized the Count to levy troops and
+wage war against Philip, strictly for Philip's good. The fiction of
+loyalty certainly never went further. The Prince of Orange made known to
+all "to whom those presents should come," that through the affection
+which he bore the gracious King, he purposed to expel his Majesty's
+forces from the Netherlands. "To show our love for the monarch and his
+hereditary provinces," so ran the commission, "to prevent the desolation
+hanging over the country by the ferocity of the Spaniards, to maintain
+the privileges sworn to by his Majesty and his predecessors, to prevent
+the extirpation of all religion by the edicts, and to save the sons and
+daughters of the land from abject slavery, we have requested our dearly
+beloved brother Louis Nassau to enrol as many troops as he shall think
+necessary."
+
+Van der Bergh, Hoogstraaten, and others, provided with similar powers,
+were also actively engaged in levying troops; but the right hand of the
+revolt was Count Louis, as his illustrious brother was its head and
+heart. Two hundred thousand crowns was the sum which the Prince
+considered absolutely necessary for organizing the army with which he
+contemplated making an entrance into the Netherlands. Half this amount
+had been produced by the cities of Antwerp, Amsterdam, Leyden, Harlem,
+Middelburg, Flushing, and other towns, as well as by refugee merchants in
+England. The other half was subscribed by individuals. The Prince himself
+contributed 50,000 florins, Hoogstraaten 30,000, Louis of Nassau 10,000,
+Culemberg 30,000, Van der Bergh 30,000, the Dowager-countess Horn 10,000,
+and other persons in less proportion. Count John of Nassau also pledged
+his estates to raise a large sum for the cause. The Prince himself sold
+all his jewels, plate, tapestry, and other furniture, which were of
+almost regal magnificence. Not an enthusiast, but a deliberate, cautious
+man, he now staked his all upon the hazard, seemingly so desperate. The
+splendor of his station has been sufficiently depicted. His luxury, his
+fortune, his family, his life, his children, his honor, all were now
+ventured, not with the recklessness of a gambler, but with the calm
+conviction of a statesman.
+
+A private and most audacious attempt to secure the person: of Alva and
+the possession of Brussels had failed. He was soon, however, called upon
+to employ all his energies against the open warfare which was now
+commenced.
+
+According to the plan of the Prince, the provinces were to be attacked
+simultaneously, in three places, by his lieutenants, while he himself was
+waiting in the neighborhood of Cleves, ready for a fourth assault. An
+army of Huguenots and refugees was to enter Artois upon the frontier of
+France; a second, under Hoogstraaten, was to operate between the Rhine
+and the Meuse; while Louis of Nassau was to raise the standard of revolt
+in Friesland.
+
+The two first adventures were destined to be signally unsuccessful. A
+force under Seigneur de Cocqueville, latest of all, took the field
+towards the end of June. It entered the bailiwick of Hesdin in Artois,
+was immediately driven across the frontier by the Count de Roeulx, and
+cut to pieces at St. Valery by Marechal de Cossis, governor of Picardy.
+This action was upon the 18th July. Of the 2500 men who composed the
+expedition, scarce 300 escaped. The few Netherlanders who were taken
+prisoners were given to the Spanish government, and, of course, hanged.
+
+The force under the Seigneur de Villars was earlier under arms, and the
+sooner defeated. This luckless gentleman, who had replaced the Count of
+Hoogstraaten, crossed the frontier of Juliers; in the neighborhood of
+Maestricht, by the 20th April. His force, infantry and cavalry, amounted
+to nearly three thousand men. The object of the enterprise was to, raise
+the country; and, if possible, to obtain a foothold by securing an
+important city. Roermonde was the first point of attack, but the
+attempts, both by stratagem and by force, to secure the town, were
+fruitless. The citizens were not ripe for revolt, and refused the army
+admittance. While the invaders were, therefore, endeavoring to fire the
+gates, they were driven off by the approach of a Spanish force.
+
+The Duke, so soon as the invasion was known to him, had acted with great
+promptness. Don Sancho de Lodrono and Don Sancho de Avila, with five
+vanderas of Spanish infantry, three companies of cavalry, and about three
+hundred pikemen under Count Eberstein, a force amounting in all to about
+1600 picked troops, had been at once despatched against Villars. The
+rebel chieftain, abandoning his attempt upon Roermonde, advanced towards
+Erkelens. Upon the 25th April, between Erkelens and Dalem, the Spaniards
+came up with him, and gave him battle. Villars lost all his cavalry and
+two vanderas of his infantry in the encounter. With the remainder of his
+force, amounting to 1300 men, he effected his retreat in good order to
+Dalem. Here he rapidly entrenched himself. At four in the afternoon,
+Sancho de Lodrono, at the head of 600 infantry, reached the spot. He was
+unable to restrain the impetuosity of his men, although the cavalry under
+Avila, prevented by the difficult nature of the narrow path through which
+the rebels had retreated, had not yet arrived. The enemy were two to one,
+and were fortified; nevertheless, in half an hour the entrenchments were
+carried, and almost every man in the patriot army put to the sword.
+Villars himself, with a handful of soldiers, escaped into the town, but
+was soon afterwards taken prisoner, with all his followers. He sullied
+the cause in which he was engaged by a base confession of the designs
+formed by the Prince of Orange--a treachery, however, which did not save
+him from the scaffold. In the course of this day's work, the Spanish lost
+twenty men, and the rebels nearly 200. This portion of the liberating
+forces had been thus disastrously defeated on the eve of the entrance of
+Count Louis into Friesland.
+
+As early as the 22d April, Alva had been informed, by the
+lieutenant-governor of that province, that the beggars were mustering in
+great force in the neighborhood of Embden. It was evident that an
+important enterprise was about to be attempted. Two days afterwards,
+Louis of Nassau entered the provinces, attended by a small body of
+troops. His banners blazed with patriotic inscriptions. 'Nunc aut
+nunquam, Recuperare aut mori', were the watchwords of his desperate
+adventure: "Freedom for fatherland and conscience" was the device which
+was to draw thousands to his standard. On the western wolds of Frisia, he
+surprised the castle of Wedde, a residence of the absent Aremberg,
+stadholder of the province. Thence he advanced to Appingadam, or Dam, on
+the tide waters of the Dollart. Here he was met by, his younger brother,
+the gallant Adolphus, whose days were so nearly numbered, who brought
+with him a small troop of horse. At Wedde, at Dam, and at Slochteren, the
+standard was set up. At these three points there daily gathered armed
+bodies of troops, voluntary adventurers, peasants with any rustic weapon
+which they could find to their hand. Lieutenant-governor Groesbeck wrote
+urgently to the Duke, that the beggars were hourly increasing in force;
+that the leaders perfectly understood their game; that they kept their
+plans a secret, but were fast seducing the heart of the country.
+
+On the 4th May, Louis issued a summons to the magistracy of Groningen,
+ordering them to send a deputation to confer with him at Dam. He was
+prepared, he said, to show the commission with which he was provided. He
+had not entered the country on a mere personal adventure, but had
+received orders to raise a sufficient army. By the help of the eternal
+God, he was determined, he said, to extirpate the detestable tyranny of
+those savage persecutors who had shed so much Christian blood. He was
+resolved to lift up the down-trod privileges, and, to protect the
+fugitive, terror-stricken Christians and patriarchs of the country. If
+the magistrates were disposed to receive him with friendship, it was
+well. Otherwise, he should, with regret, feel himself obliged to proceed
+against them, as enemies of his Majesty and of the common weal.
+
+As the result of this summons, Louis received a moderate sum of money, on
+condition of renouncing for the moment an attack upon the city. With this
+temporary supply he was able to retain a larger number of the
+adventurers; who were daily swarming around him.
+
+In the mean time Alva was not idle. On the 30th April, he wrote to
+Groesbeck, that he must take care not to be taken napping; that he must
+keep his eyes well open until the arrival of succor, which was already on
+the way. He then immediately ordered Count Aremberg, who had just
+returned from France on conclusion of hostilities, to hasten to the seat
+of war. Five vanderas of his own regiment; a small body of cavalry, and
+Braccamonte's Sardinian legion, making in all a force of nearly 2500 men,
+were ordered to follow him with the utmost expedition. Count Meghem,
+stadholder of Gueldres, with five vanderas of infantry, three of light
+horse, and some artillery, composing a total of about 1500 men, was
+directed to co-operate with Aremberg. Upon this point the orders of the
+Governor-general were explicit. It seemed impossible that the rabble rout
+under Louis Nassau could stand a moment before nearly 4000 picked and
+veteran troops, but the Duke was earnest in warning his generals not to
+undervalue the enemy.
+
+On the 7th May, Counts Meghem and Aremberg met and conferred at Arnheim,
+on their way to Friesland. It was fully agreed between them, after having
+heard full reports of the rising in that province, and of the temper
+throughout the eastern Netherlands, that it would be rash to attempt any
+separate enterprise. On the 11th, Aremberg reached Vollenhoven, where he
+was laid up in his bed with the gout. Bodies of men, while he lay sick,
+paraded hourly with fife and drum before his windows, and discharged
+pistols and arquebuses across the ditch of the blockhouse where he was
+quartered. On the 18th, Braccamonte, with his legion, arrived by water at
+Harlingen. Not a moment more was lost. Aremberg, notwithstanding his
+gout, which still confined him to a litter, started at once in pursuit of
+the enemy. Passing through Groningen, he collected all the troops which
+could be spared.. He also received six pieces of artillery. Six cannon,
+which the lovers of harmony had baptized with the notes of the gamut,
+'ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la', were placed at his disposal by the
+authorities, and have acquired historical celebrity. It was, however,
+ordained that when those musical pieces piped, the Spaniards were not to
+dance. On the 22d, followed by his whole force, consisting of
+Braccamonte's legion, his own four vanderas, and a troop of Germans, he
+came in sight of the enemy at Dam. Louis of Nassau sent out a body of
+arquebusiers, about one thousand strong, from the city. A sharp skirmish
+ensued, but the beggars were driven into their entrenchments, with a loss
+of twenty or thirty men, and nightfall terminated the contest.
+
+It was beautiful to see, wrote Aremberg to Alva, how brisk and eager were
+the Spaniards, notwithstanding the long march which they had that day
+accomplished. Time was soon to show how easily immoderate, valor might
+swell into a fault. Meantime, Aremberg quartered his troops in and about
+Wittewerum Abbey, close to the little unwalled city of Dam.
+
+On the other hand, Meghem, whose co-operation had been commanded by Alva,
+and arranged personally with Aremberg a fortnight before, at Arnheim, had
+been delayed in his movements. His troops, who had received no wages for
+a long time had mutinied. A small sum of money, however, sent from
+Brussels, quelled this untimely insubordination. Meghem then set forth to
+effect his junction with his colleague, having assured the
+Governor-general that the war would be ended in six days. The beggars had
+not a stiver, he said, and must disband or be beaten to pieces as soon as
+Aremberg and he had joined forces. Nevertheless he admitted that these
+same "master-beggars," as he called them, might prove too many for either
+general alone.
+
+Alva, in reply, expressed his confidence that four or five thousand
+choice troops of Spain would be enough to make a short war of it, but
+nevertheless warned his officers of the dangers of overweening
+confidence. He had been informed that the rebels had assumed the red
+scarf of the Spanish uniform. He hoped the stratagem would not save them
+from broken heads, but was unwilling that his Majesty's badge should be
+altered.
+
+He reiterated his commands that no enterprise should be undertaken,
+except by the whole army in concert; and enjoined the generals
+incontinently to hang and strangle all prisoners the moment they should
+be taken.
+
+Marching directly northward, Meghem reached Coeverden, some fifty miles
+from Dam, on the night of the 22d. He had informed Aremberg that he might
+expect him with his infantry and his light horse in the course of the
+next day. On the following morning, the 23d, Aremberg wrote his last
+letter to the Duke, promising to send a good account of the beggars
+within a very few hours.
+
+Louis of Nassau had broken up his camp at Dam about midnight. Falling
+back, in a southerly direction, along the Wold-weg, or forest road, a
+narrow causeway through a swampy district, he had taken up a position
+some three leagues from his previous encampment. Near the monastery of
+Heiliger Lee, or the "Holy Lion," he had chosen his ground. A little
+money in hand, ample promises, and the hopes of booty, had effectually
+terminated the mutiny, which had also broken out in his camp. Assured
+that Meghem had not yet effected his junction with Aremberg, prepared to
+strike, at last, a telling blow for freedom and fatherland, Louis awaited
+the arrival of his eager foe.
+
+His position was one of commanding strength and fortunate augury.
+Heiliger Lee was a wooded eminence, artificially reared by Premonstrant
+monks. It was the only rising ground in that vast extent of watery
+pastures, enclosed by the Ems and Lippe--the "fallacious fields"
+described by Tacitus. Here Hermann, first of Teutonic heroes, had dashed
+out of existence three veteran legions of tyrant Rome. Here the spectre
+of Varus, begrimed and gory, had risen from the morass to warn
+Germanicus, who came to avenge him, that Gothic freedom was a dangerous
+antagonist. And now, in the perpetual reproductions of history, another
+German warrior occupied a spot of vantage in that same perilous region.
+The tyranny with which he contended strove to be as universal as that of
+Rome, and had stretched its wings of conquest into worlds of which the
+Caesars had never dreamed. It was in arms, too, to crush not only the
+rights of man, but the rights of God. The battle of freedom was to be
+fought not only for fatherland, but for conscience. The cause was even
+holier than that which had inspired the arm of Hermann.
+
+Although the swamps of that distant age had been transformed into
+fruitful pastures, yet the whole district was moist, deceitful, and
+dangerous. The country was divided into squares, not by hedges but by
+impassable ditches. Agricultural entrenchments had long made the country
+almost impregnable, while its defences against the ocean rendered almost
+as good service against a more implacable human foe.
+
+Aremberg, leading his soldiers along the narrow causeway, in hot pursuit
+of what they considered a rabble rout of fugitive beggars, soon reached
+Winschoten. Here he became aware of the presence of his despicable foe.
+Louis and Adolphus of Nassau, while sitting at dinner in the convent of
+the "Holy Lion," had been warned by a friendly peasant of the approach of
+the Spaniards. The opportune intelligence had given the patriot general
+time to make his preparations. His earnest entreaties had made his troops
+ashamed of their mutinous conduct on the preceding day, and they were now
+both ready and willing to engage. The village was not far distant from
+the abbey, and in the neighborhood of the abbey Louis of Nassau was now
+posted. Behind him was a wood, on his left a hill of moderate elevation,
+before him an extensive and swampy field. In the front of the field was a
+causeway leading to the abbey. This was the road which Aremberg was to
+traverse. On the plain which lay between the wood and the hill, the main
+body of the beggars were drawn up. They were disposed in two squares or
+squadrons, rather deep than wide, giving the idea of a less number than
+they actually contained. The lesser square, in which were two thousand
+eight hundred men, was partially sheltered by the hill. Both were flanked
+by musketeers. On the brow of the hill was a large body of light armed
+troops, the 'enfans perdus' of the army. The cavalry, amounting to not
+more than three hundred men, was placed in front, facing the road along
+which Aremberg was to arrive.
+
+That road was bordered by a wood extending nearly to the front of the
+hill. As Aremberg reached its verge, he brought out his artillery, and
+opened a fire upon the body of light troops. The hill protected a large
+part of the enemy's body from this attack. Finding the rebels so strong
+in numbers and position, Aremberg was disposed only to skirmish. He knew
+better than did his soldiers the treacherous nature of the ground in
+front of the enemy. He saw that it was one of those districts where peat
+had been taken out in large squares for fuel, and where a fallacious and
+verdant scum upon the surface of deep pools simulated the turf that had
+been removed. He saw that the battle-ground presented to him by his
+sagacious enemy was one great sweep of traps and pitfalls. Before he
+could carry the position, many men must necessarily be engulfed.
+
+He paused for an instant. He was deficient in cavalry, having only
+Martinengo's troop, hardly amounting to four hundred men. He was sure of
+Meghem's arrival within twenty-four hours. If, then, he could keep the
+rebels in check, without allowing them any opportunity to disperse, he
+should be able, on the morrow, to cut them to pieces, according to the
+plan agreed upon a fortnight before. But the Count had to contend with a
+double obstacle. His soldiers were very hot, his enemy very cool. The
+Spaniards, who had so easily driven a thousand musketeers from behind
+their windmill, the evening before, who had seen the whole rebel force
+decamp in hot haste on the very night of their arrival before Dam,
+supposed themselves in full career of victory. Believing that the name
+alone of the old legions had stricken terror to the hearts of the
+beggars, and that no resistance was possible to Spanish arms, they
+reviled their general for his caution. His reason for delay was theirs
+for hurry. Why should Meghem's loitering and mutinous troops, arriving at
+the eleventh hour, share in the triumph and the spoil? No man knew the
+country better than Aremberg, a native of the Netherlands, the stadholder
+of the province. Cowardly or heretical motives alone could sway him, if
+he now held them back in the very hour of victory. Inflamed beyond
+endurance by these taunts, feeling his pride of country touched to the
+quick, and willing to show that a Netherlander would lead wherever
+Spaniards dared to follow, Aremberg allowed himself to commit the grave
+error for which he was so deeply to atone. Disregarding the dictates of
+his own experience and the arrangements of his superior, he yielded to
+the braggart humor of his soldiers, which he had not, like Alva, learned
+to moderate or to despise.
+
+In the mean, time, the body of light troops which had received the fire
+from the musical pieces of Groningen was seen to waver. The artillery was
+then brought beyond the cover of the wood, and pointed more fully upon
+the two main squares of the enemy. A few shots told. Soon afterward the
+'enfans perdus' retreated helter-skelter, entirely deserting their
+position.
+
+This apparent advantage, which was only a preconcerted stratagem, was too
+much for the fiery Spaniards. They rushed merrily forward to attack the
+stationary squares, their general being no longer able, to restrain their
+impetuosity. In a moment the whole van-guard had plunged into the morass.
+In a few minutes more they were all helplessly and hopelessly struggling
+in the pools, while the musketeers of the enemy poured in a deadly fire
+upon them, without wetting the soles of their own feet. The pikemen, too,
+who composed the main body of the larger square, now charged upon all who
+were extricating themselves from their entanglement, and drove them back
+again to a muddy death. Simultaneously, the lesser patriot squadron,
+which had so long been sheltered, emerged from the cover of the hill,
+made a detour around its base, enveloped the rear-guard of the Spaniards
+before they could advance to the succor of their perishing comrades, and
+broke them to pieces almost instantly. Gonzalo de Braccamonte, the very
+Spanish colonel who had been foremost in denunciation of Aremberg, for
+his disposition to delay the contest, was now the first to fly. To his
+bad conduct was ascribed the loss of the day. The anger of Alva was so
+high, when he was informed of the incident, that he would have condemned
+the officer to death but for the intercession of his friends and
+countrymen. The rout was sudden and absolute. The foolhardiness of the
+Spaniards had precipitated them into the pit which their enemies had dug.
+The day, was lost. Nothing was left for Aremberg but to perish with
+honor. Placing himself at the head of his handful of cavalry, he dashed
+into the melee. The shock was sustained by young Adolphus of Nassau, at
+the head of an equal number of riders. Each leader singled out the other.
+They met as "captains of might" should do, in the very midst of the
+affray. Aremberg, receiving and disregarding a pistol shot from his
+adversary, laid Adolphus dead at his feet, with a bullet through his body
+and a sabre cut on his head. Two troopers in immediate attendance upon
+the young Count shared the same fate from the same hand. Shortly
+afterward, the horse of Aremberg, wounded by a musket ball, fell to the
+ground. A few devoted followers lifted the charger to his legs and the
+bleeding rider to his saddle. They endeavored to bear their wounded
+general from the scene of action. The horse staggered a few paces and
+fell dead. Aremberg disengaged himself from his body, and walked a few
+paces to the edge of a meadow near the road. Here, wounded in the action,
+crippled by the disease which had so long tormented him, and scarcely
+able to sustain longer the burthen of his armor, he calmly awaited his
+fate. A troop of the enemy advanced soon afterwards, and Aremberg fell,
+covered with wounds, fighting like a hero of Homer, single-handed,
+against a battalion, with a courage worthy a better cause and a better
+fate. The sword by which he received his final death-blow was that of the
+Seigneur do Haultain. That officer having just seen his brother slain
+before his eyes, forgot the respect due to unsuccessful chivalry.
+
+The battle was scarcely finished when an advancing trumpet was heard. The
+sound caused the victors to pause in their pursuit, and enabled a remnant
+of the conquered Spaniards to escape. Meghem's force was thought to be
+advancing. That general had indeed arrived, but he was alone. He had
+reached Zuidlaren, a village some four leagues from the scene of action,
+on the noon of that day. Here he had found a letter from Aremberg,
+requesting him to hasten. He had done so. His troops, however, having
+come from Coevorden that morning, were unable to accomplish so long a
+march in addition. The Count, accompanied by a few attendants, reached
+the neighborhood of Heiliger Lee only in time to meet with some of the
+camp sutlers and other fugitives, from whom he learned the disastrous
+news of the defeat. Finding that all was lost, he very properly returned
+to Zuidlaren, from which place he made the best of his way to Groningen.
+That important city, the key of Friesland, he was thus enabled to secure.
+The troops which he brought, in addition to the four German vanderas of
+Schaumburg, already quartered there, were sufficient to protect it
+against the ill-equipped army of Louis Nassau.
+
+The patriot leader had accomplished, after all, but a barren victory. He
+had, to be sure, destroyed a number of Spaniards, amounting, according to
+the different estimates, from five hundred to sixteen hundred men. He had
+also broken up a small but veteran army. More than all, he had taught the
+Netherlanders, by this triumphant termination to a stricken field, that
+the choice troops of Spain were not invincible. But the moral effect of
+the victory was the only permanent one. The Count's badly paid troops
+could with difficulty be kept together. He had no sufficient artillery to
+reduce the city whose possession would have proved so important to the
+cause. Moreover, in common with the Prince of Orange and all his
+brethren, he had been called to mourn for the young and chivalrous
+Adolphus, whose life-blood had stained the laurels of this first patriot
+victory. Having remained, and thus wasted the normal three days upon the
+battle-field, Louis now sat down before Groningen, fortifying and
+entrenching himself in a camp within cannonshot of the city.
+
+On the 23rd we have seen that Aremberg had written, full of confidence,
+to the Governor-general, promising soon to send him good news of the
+beggars. On the 26th, Count Meghem wrote that, having spoken with a man
+who had helped to place Aremberg in his coffin, he could hardly entertain
+any farther doubt as to his fate.
+
+The wrath of the Duke was even greater than his surprise. Like Augustus,
+he called in vain on the dead commander for his legions, but prepared
+himself to inflict a more rapid and more terrible vengeance than the
+Roman's. Recognizing the gravity of his situation, he determined to take
+the field in person, and to annihilate this insolent chieftain who had
+dared not only to cope with, but to conquer his veteran regiments. But
+before he could turn his back upon Brussels, many deeds were to be done.
+His measures now followed each other in breathless succession,
+fulminating and blasting at every stroke. On the 28th May, he issued an
+edict, banishing, on pain of death, the Prince of Orange, Louis Nassau,
+Hoogstraaten, Van den Berg, and others, with confiscation of all their
+property. At the same time he razed the Culemburg Palace to the ground,
+and erected a pillar upon its ruins, commemorating the accursed
+conspiracy which had been engendered within its walls. On the 1st June,
+eighteen prisoners of distinction, including the two barons Batenburg,
+Maximilian Kock, Blois de Treslong and others, were executed upon the
+Horse Market, in Brussels. In the vigorous language of Hoogstraaten, this
+horrible tragedy was enacted directly before the windows of that "cruel
+animal, Noircarmes," who, in company of his friend, Berlaymont, and the
+rest of the Blood-Council, looked out upon the shocking spectacle. The
+heads of the victims were exposed upon stakes, to which also their bodies
+were fastened. Eleven of these victims were afterward deposited,
+uncoffined, in unconsecrated ground; the other seven were left unburied
+to moulder on the gibbet. On the 2d June, Villars, the leader in the
+Daalem rising, suffered on the scaffold, with three others. On the 3d,
+Counts Egmont and Horn were brought in a carriage from Ghent to Brussels,
+guarded by ten companies of infantry and one of cavalry. They were then
+lodged in the "Brood-huis" opposite the Town Hall, on the great square of
+Brussels. On the 4th, Alva having, as he solemnly declared before God and
+the world, examined thoroughly the mass of documents appertaining to
+those two great prosecutions which had only been closed three days
+before, pronounced sentence against the illustrious prisoners. These
+documents of iniquity signed and sealed by the Duke, were sent to the
+Blood-Council, where they were read by Secretary Praets. The signature of
+Philip was not wanting, for the sentences had been drawn upon blanks
+signed by the monarch, of which the Viceroy had brought a whole trunk
+full from Spain. The sentence against Egmont declared very briefly that
+the Duke of Alva, having read all the papers and evidence in the case,
+had found the Count guilty of high treason. It was proved that Egmont had
+united with the confederates; that he had been a party to the accursed
+conspiracy of the Prince of Orange; that he had taken the rebel nobles
+under his protection, and that he had betrayed the Government and the
+Holy Catholic Church by his conduct in Flanders. Therefore the Duke
+condemned him to be executed by the sword on the following day, and
+decreed that his head should be placed on high in a public place, there
+to remain until the Duke should otherwise direct. The sentence against
+Count Horn was similar in language and purport.
+
+That afternoon the Duke sent for the Bishop of Ypres, The prelate arrived
+at dusk. As soon as he presented himself, Alva informed him of the
+sentence which had just been pronounced, and ordered him to convey the
+intelligence to the prisoners. He further charged him with the duty of
+shriving the victims, and preparing their souls for death. The bishop
+fell on his knees, aghast at the terrible decree. He implored the
+Governor-General to have mercy upon the two unfortunate nobles. If their
+lives could not be spared, he prayed him at any rate to grant delay. With
+tears and earnest supplications the prelate endeavored to avert or to
+postpone the doom which had been pronounced. It was in vain. The
+sentence, inflexible as destiny, had been long before ordained. Its
+execution had been but hastened by the temporary triumph of rebellion in
+Friesland. Alva told the Bishop roughly that he had not been summoned to
+give advice. Delay or pardon was alike impossible. He was to act as
+confessor to the criminals, not as councillor to the Viceroy. The Bishop,
+thus rebuked, withdrew to accomplish his melancholy mission. Meanwhile,
+on the same evening, the miserable Countess of Egmont had been appalled
+by rumors, too vague for belief, too terrible to be slighted. She was in
+the chamber of Countess Aremberg, with whom she had come to condole for
+the death of the Count, when the order for the immediate execution of her
+own husband was announced to her. She hastened to the presence of the
+Governor-General. The Princess Palatine, whose ancestors had been
+emperors, remembered only that she was a wife and a mother. She fell at
+the feet of the man who controlled the fate of her husband, and implored
+his mercy in humble and submissive terms. The Duke, with calm and almost
+incredible irony, reassured the Countess by the information that, on the
+morrow, her husband was certainly to be released. With this ambiguous
+phrase, worthy the paltering oracles of antiquity, the wretched woman was
+obliged to withdraw. Too soon afterward the horrible truth of the words
+was revealed to her--words of doom, which she had mistaken for
+consolation.
+
+An hour before midnight the Bishop of Ypres reached Egmont's prison. The
+Count was confined in a chamber on the second story of the Brood-huis,
+the mansion of the crossbowmen's guild, in that corner of the building
+which rests on a narrow street running back from the great square. He was
+aroused from his sleep by the approach of his visitor. Unable to speak,
+but indicating by the expression of his features the occurrence of a
+great misfortune, the Bishop, soon after his entrance, placed the paper
+given to him by Alva in Egmont's hands. The unfortunate noble thus
+suddenly received the information that his death-sentence had been
+pronounced, and that its execution was fixed for the next morning. He
+read the paper through without flinching, and expressed astonishment
+rather than dismay at its tidings. Exceedingly sanguine by nature, he had
+never believed, even after his nine months' imprisonment, in a fatal
+termination to the difficulties in which he was involved. He was now
+startled both at the sudden condemnation which had followed his lingering
+trial, and at the speed with which his death was to fulfil the sentence.
+He asked the Bishop, with many expressions of amazement, whether pardon
+was impossible; whether delay at least might not be obtained? The prelate
+answered by a faithful narrative of the conversation which had just
+occurred between Alva and himself. Egmont, thus convinced of his
+inevitable doom, then observed to his companion, with exquisite courtesy,
+that, since he was to die, he rendered thanks both to God and to the Duke
+that his last moments were to be consoled by so excellent a father
+confessor.
+
+Afterwards, with a natural burst of indignation, he exclaimed that it was
+indeed a cruel and unjust sentence. He protested that he had never in his
+whole life wronged his Majesty; certainly never so deeply as to deserve
+such a punishment. All that he had done had been with loyal intentions.
+The King's true interest had been his constant aim. Nevertheless, if he
+had fallen into error, he prayed to God that his death might wipe away
+his misdeeds, and that his name might not be dishonored, nor his children
+brought to shame. His beloved wife and innocent children were to endure
+misery enough by his death and the confiscation of his estates. It was at
+least due to his long services that they should be spared further
+suffering. He then asked his father confessor what advice he had to give
+touching his present conduct. The Bishop replied by an exhortation, that
+he should turn himself to God; that he should withdraw his thoughts
+entirely from all earthly interests, and prepare himself for the world
+beyond the grave. He accepted the advice, and kneeling before the Bishop,
+confessed himself. He then asked to receive the sacrament, which the
+Bishop administered, after the customary mass. Egmont asked what prayer
+would be most appropriate at the hour of execution. His confessor replied
+that there was none more befitting than the one which Jesus had taught
+his disciples--Our Father, which art in heaven.
+
+Some conversation ensued, in which the Count again expressed his
+gratitude that his parting soul had been soothed by these pious and
+friendly offices. By a revulsion of feeling, he then bewailed again the
+sad fate of his wife and of his young children. The Bishop entreated him
+anew to withdraw his mind from such harrowing reflections, and to give
+himself entirely to God. Overwhelmed with grief, Egmont exclaimed with
+natural and simple pathos--"Alas! how miserable and frail is our nature,
+that, when we should think of God only, we are unable to shut out the
+images of wife and children."
+
+Recovering from his emotion, and having yet much time, he sat down and
+wrote with perfect self-possession two letters, one to Philip and one to
+Alva. The celebrated letter to the King was as follows:
+
+   "SIRE,--I have learned, this evening, the sentence which your
+   Majesty has been pleased to pronounce upon me. Although I have
+   never had a thought, and believe myself never to have done a deed,
+   which could tend to the prejudice of your Majesty's person or
+   service, or to the detriment of our true ancient and Catholic
+   religion, nevertheless I take patience to bear that which it has
+   pleased the good God to send. If, during these troubles in the
+   Netherlands, I have done or permitted aught which had a different
+   appearance, it has been with the true and good intent to serve God
+   and your Majesty, and the necessity of the times. Therefore, I pray
+   your Majesty to forgive me, and to have compassion on my poor wife,
+   my children, and my servants; having regard to my past services.
+   In which hope I now commend myself to the mercy of God.
+
+        "From Brussels,
+          "Ready to die, this 5th June, 1568,
+   "Your Majesty's very humble and loyal vassal and servant,
+                       "LAMORAL D'EGMONT."
+
+Having thus kissed the murderous hand which smote him, he handed the
+letter, stamped rather with superfluous loyalty than with Christian
+forgiveness, to the Bishop, with a request that he would forward it to
+its destination, accompanied by a letter from his own hand. This duty the
+Bishop solemnly promised to fulfil.
+
+Facing all the details of his execution with the fortitude which belonged
+to his character, he now took counsel with his confessor as to the
+language proper for him to hold from the scaffold to the assembled
+people. The Bishop, however, strongly dissuaded him from addressing the
+multitude at all.
+
+The persons farthest removed, urged the priest, would not hear the words,
+while the Spanish troops in the immediate vicinity would not understand
+them. It seemed, therefore, the part of wisdom and of dignity for him to
+be silent, communing only with his God. The Count assented to this
+reasoning, and abandoned his intention of saying a few farewell words to
+the people, by many of whom he believed himself tenderly beloved. He now
+made many preparations for the morrow, in order that his thoughts, in the
+last moments, might not be distracted by mechanical details, cutting the
+collar from his doublet and from his shirt with his own hands, in order
+that those of the hangman might have no excuse for contaminating his
+person. The rest of the night was passed in prayer and meditation.
+
+Fewer circumstances concerning the last night of Count Horn's life have
+been preserved. It is, however, well ascertained that the Admiral
+received the sudden news of his condemnation with absolute composure. He
+was assisted at his devotional exercises in prison by the curate of La
+Chapelle.
+
+During the night, the necessary preparations for the morning tragedy had
+been made in the great square of Brussels. It was the intention of
+government to strike terror to the heart of the people by the exhibition
+of an impressive and appalling spectacle. The absolute and irresponsible
+destiny which ruled them was to be made manifest by the immolation of
+these two men, so elevated by rank, powerful connexion, and distinguished
+service.
+
+The effect would be heightened by the character of the locality where
+the gloomy show was to be presented. The great square of Brussels had
+always a striking and theatrical aspect. Its architectural effects,
+suggesting in some degree the meretricious union between Oriental and a
+corrupt Grecian art, accomplished in the medieval midnight, have amazed
+the eyes of many generations. The splendid Hotel de Ville, with its
+daring spire and elaborate front, ornamented one side of the place;
+directly opposite was the graceful but incoherent facade of the
+Brood-huis, now the last earthly resting-place of the two distinguished
+victims, while grouped around these principal buildings rose the
+fantastic palaces of the Archers, Mariners, and of other guilds, with
+their festooned walls and toppling gables bedizened profusely with
+emblems, statues, and quaint decorations. The place had been alike the
+scene of many a brilliant tournament and of many a bloody execution.
+Gallant knights had contended within its precincts, while bright eyes
+rained influence from all those picturesque balconies and decorated
+windows. Martyrs to religious and to political liberty had, upon the same
+spot, endured agonies which might have roused every stone of its pavement
+to mutiny or softened them to pity. Here Egmont himself, in happier days,
+had often borne away the prize of skill or of valor, the cynosure of
+every eye; and hence, almost in the noon of a life illustrated by many
+brilliant actions, he was to be sent, by the hand of tyranny, to his
+great account.
+
+On the morning of the 5th of June, three thousand Spanish troops were
+drawn up in battle array around a scaffold which had been erected in the
+centre of the square. Upon this scaffold, which was covered with black
+cloth, were placed two velvet cushions, two iron spikes, and a small
+table. Upon the table was a silver crucifix. The provost-marshal, Spelle,
+sat on horseback below, with his red wand in his hand, little dreaming
+that for him a darker doom was reserved than that of which he was now the
+minister. The executioner was concealed beneath the draperies of the
+scaffold.
+
+At eleven o'clock, a company of Spanish soldiers, led by Julian Romero
+and Captain Salinas, arrived at Egmont's chamber. The Count was ready for
+them. They were about to bind his hands, but he warmly protested against
+the indignity, and, opening the folds of his robe, showed them that he
+had himself shorn off his collars, and made preparations for his death.
+His request was granted. Egmont, with the Bishop at his side, then walked
+with a steady step the short distance which separated him from the place
+of execution. Julian Romero and the guard followed him. On his way, he
+read aloud the fifty-first Psalm: "Hear my cry, O God, and give ear unto
+my prayer!" He seemed to have selected these scriptural passages as a
+proof that, notwithstanding the machinations of his enemies, and the
+cruel punishment to which they had led him, loyalty to his sovereign was
+as deeply rooted and as religious a sentiment in his bosom as devotion to
+his God. "Thou wilt prolong the King's life; and his years as many
+generations. He shall abide before God for ever! O prepare mercy and
+truth which may preserve him." Such was the remarkable prayer of the
+condemned traitor on his way to the block.
+
+Having ascended the scaffold, he walked across it twice or thrice. He was
+dressed in a tabard or robe of red damask, over which was thrown a short
+black mantle, embroidered in gold. He had a black silk hat, with black
+and white plumes, on his head, and held a handkerchief in his hand. As he
+strode to and fro, he expressed a bitter regret that he had not been
+permitted to die, sword in hand, fighting for his country and his king.
+Sanguine to the last, he passionately asked Romero, whether the sentence
+was really irrevocable, whether a pardon was not even then to be granted.
+The marshal shrugged his shoulders, murmuring a negative reply. Upon
+this, Egmont gnashed his teeth together, rather in rage than despair.
+Shortly afterward commanding himself again, he threw aside his robe and
+mantle, and took the badge of the Golden Fleece from his neck. Kneeling,
+then, upon one of the cushions, he said the Lord's Prayer aloud, and
+requested the Bishop, who knelt at his side, to repeat it thrice. After
+this, the prelate gave him the silver crucifix to kiss, and then
+pronounced his blessing upon him. This done, the Count rose again to his
+feet, laid aside his hat and handkerchief, knelt again upon the cushion,
+drew a little cap over his eyes, and, folding his hands together, cried
+with a loud voice, "Lord, into Thy hands I commit my spirit." The
+executioner then suddenly appeared, and severed his head from his
+shoulders at a single blow.
+
+A moment of shuddering silence succeeded the stroke. The whole vast
+assembly seemed to have felt it in their own hearts. Tears fell from the
+eyes even of the Spanish soldiery, for they knew and honored Egmont as a
+valiant general. The French embassador, Mondoucet, looking upon the scene
+from a secret place, whispered that he had now seen the head fall before
+which France had twice trembled. Tears were even seen upon the iron cheek
+of Alva, as, from a window in a house directly opposite the scaffold, he
+looked out upon the scene.
+
+A dark cloth was now quickly thrown over the body and the blood, and,
+within a few minutes, the Admiral was seen advancing through the crowd.
+His bald head was uncovered, his hands were unbound. He calmly saluted
+such of his acquaintances as he chanced to recognize upon his path. Under
+a black cloak, which he threw off when he had ascended the scaffold, he
+wore a plain, dark doublet, and he did not, like Egmont, wear the
+insignia of the Fleece. Casting his eyes upon the corpse, which lay
+covered with the dark cloth, he asked if it were the body of Egmont.
+Being answered in the affirmative, he muttered a few words in Spanish,
+which were not distinctly audible. His attention was next caught by the
+sight of his own coat of arms reversed, and he expressed anger at this
+indignity to his escutcheon, protesting that he had not deserved the
+insult. He then spoke a few words to the crowd below, wishing them
+happiness, and begging them to pray for his soul. He did not kiss the
+crucifix, but he knelt upon the scaffold to pray, and was assisted in his
+devotions by the Bishop of Ypres. When they were concluded, he rose again
+to his feet. Then drawing a Milan cap completely over his face, and
+uttering, in Latin, the same invocation which Egmont had used, he
+submitted his neck to the stroke.
+
+Egmont had obtained, as a last favor, that his execution should precede
+that of his friend. Deeming himself in part to blame for Horn's
+reappearance in Brussels after the arrival of Alva, and for his, death,
+which was the result, he wished to be spared the pang of seeing him dead.
+Gemma Frisius, the astrologer who had cast the horoscope of Count Horn at
+his birth, had come to him in the most solemn manner to warn him against
+visiting Brussels. The Count had answered stoutly that he placed his
+trust in God, and that, moreover, his friend Egmont was going thither
+also, who had engaged that no worse fate should befal the one of them
+than the other.
+
+The heads of both sufferers were now exposed for two hours upon the iron
+stakes. Their bodies, placed in coffins, remained during the same
+interval upon the scaffold. Meantime, notwithstanding the presence of the
+troops, the populace could not be restrained from tears and from
+execrations. Many crowded about the scaffold, and dipped their
+handkerchiefs in the blood, to be preserved afterwards as memorials of
+the crime and as ensigns of revenge.
+
+The bodies were afterwards delivered to their friends. A stately
+procession of the guilds, accompanied by many of the clergy, conveyed
+their coffins to the church of Saint Gudule. Thence the body of Egmont
+was carried to the convent of Saint Clara, near the old Brussels gate,
+where it was embalmed. His escutcheon and banners were hung upon the
+outward wall of his residence, by order of the Countess. By command of
+Alva they were immediately torn down. His remains were afterwards
+conveyed to his city of Sottegem, in Flanders, where they were interred.
+Count Horn was entombed at Kempen. The bodies had been removed from the
+scaffold at two o'clock. The heads remained exposed between burning
+torches for two hours longer. They were then taken down, enclosed in
+boxes, and, as it was generally supposed, despatched to Madrid. The King
+was thus enabled to look upon the dead faces of his victims without the
+trouble of a journey to the provinces.
+
+Thus died Philip Montmorency, Count of Horn, and Lamoral of Egmont,
+Prince of Gaveren. The more intense sympathy which seemed to attach
+itself to the fate of Egmont, rendered the misfortune of his companion in
+arms and in death comparatively less interesting.
+
+Egmont is a great historical figure, but he was certainly not a great
+man. His execution remains an enduring monument not only of Philip's
+cruelty and perfidy but of his dullness. The King had everything to hope
+from Egmont and nothing to fear. Granvelle knew the man well, and, almost
+to the last, could not believe in the possibility of so unparalleled a
+blunder as that which was to make a victim, a martyr, and a popular idol
+of a personage brave indeed, but incredibly vacillating and inordinately
+vain, who, by a little management, might have been converted into a most
+useful instrument for the royal purposes.
+
+It is not necessary to recapitulate the events of Egmont's career. Step
+by step we have studied his course, and at no single period have we
+discovered even a germ of those elements which make the national
+champion. His pride of order rendered him furious at the insolence of
+Granvelle, and caused him to chafe under his dominion. His vanity of high
+rank and of distinguished military service made him covet the highest
+place under the Crown, while his hatred of those by whom he considered
+himself defrauded of his claims, converted him into a malcontent. He had
+no sympathy with the people, but he loved, as a grand Seignior, to be
+looked up to and admired by a gaping crowd. He was an unwavering
+Catholic, held sectaries in utter loathing, and, after the
+image-breaking, took a positive pleasure in hanging ministers, together
+with their congregations, and in pressing the besieged Christians of
+Valenciennes to extremities. Upon more than one occasion he pronounced
+his unequivocal approval of the infamous edicts, and he exerted himself
+at times to enforce them within his province. The transitory impression
+made upon his mind by the lofty nature of Orange was easily effaced in
+Spain by court flattery and by royal bribes. Notwithstanding the
+coldness, the rebuffs, and the repeated warnings which might have saved
+him from destruction, nothing could turn him at last from the fanatic
+loyalty towards which, after much wavering, his mind irrevocably pointed.
+His voluntary humiliation as a general, a grandee, a Fleming, and a
+Christian before the insolent Alva upon his first arrival, would move our
+contempt were it not for the gentler emotions suggested by the infatuated
+nobleman's doom. Upon the departure of Orange, Egmont was only too eager
+to be employed by Philip in any work which the monarch could find for him
+to do. Yet this was the man whom Philip chose, through the executioner's
+sword, to convert into a popular idol, and whom Poetry has loved to
+contemplate as a romantic champion of freedom.
+
+As for Horn, details enough have likewise been given of his career to
+enable the reader thoroughly to understand the man. He was a person of
+mediocre abilities and thoroughly commonplace character. His high rank
+and his tragic fate are all which make him interesting. He had little
+love for court or people. Broken in fortunes, he passed his time mainly
+in brooding over the ingratitude of Charles and Philip, and in
+complaining bitterly of the disappointments to which their policy had
+doomed him. He cared nothing for Cardinalists or confederates. He
+disliked Brederode, he detested Granvelle. Gloomy and morose, he went to
+bed, while the men who were called his fellow-conspirators were dining
+and making merry in the same house with himself: He had as little
+sympathy with the cry of "Vivent les gueux" as for that of "Vive le Roy."
+The most interesting features in his character are his generosity toward
+his absent brother and the manliness with which, as Montigny's
+representative at Tournay, he chose rather to confront the anger of the
+government, and to incur the deadly revenge of Philip, than make himself
+the executioner of the harmless Christians in Tournay. In this regard,
+his conduct is vastly more entitled to our respect than that of Egmont,
+and he was certainly more deserving of reverence from the people, even
+though deserted by all men while living, and left headless and solitary
+in his coffin at Saint Gudule.
+
+The hatred for Alva, which sprang from the graves of these illustrious
+victims, waxed daily more intense. "Like things of another world," wrote
+Hoogstraaten, "seem the cries, lamentations, and just compassion which
+all the inhabitants of Brussels, noble or ignoble, feel for such
+barbarous tyranny, while this Nero of an Alva is boasting that he will do
+the same to all whom he lays his hands upon." No man believed that the
+two nobles had committed a crime, and many were even disposed to acquit
+Philip of his share in the judicial murder. The people ascribed the
+execution solely to the personal jealousy of the Duke. They discoursed to
+each other not only of the envy with which the Governor-general had
+always regarded the military triumphs of his rival, but related that
+Egmont had at different times won large sums of Alva at games of hazard,
+and that he had moreover, on several occasions, carried off the prize
+from the Duke in shooting at the popinjay. Nevertheless, in spite of all
+these absurd rumors, there is no doubt that Philip and Alva must share
+equally in the guilt of the transaction, and that the "chastisement" had
+been arranged before Alva had departed from Spain.
+
+The Countess Egmont remained at the convent of Cambre with her eleven
+children, plunged in misery and in poverty. The Duke wrote to Philip,
+that he doubted if there were so wretched a family in the world. He, at
+the same time, congratulated his sovereign on the certainty that the more
+intense the effects, the more fruitful would be the example of this great
+execution. He stated that the Countess was considered a most saintly
+woman, and that there had been scarcely a night in which, attended by her
+daughters, she had not gone forth bare-footed to offer up prayers for her
+husband in every church within the city. He added, that it was doubtful
+whether they had money enough to buy themselves a supper that very night,
+and he begged the King to allow them the means of supporting life. He
+advised that the Countess should be placed, without delay in a Spanish
+convent, where her daughters might at once take the veil, assuring his
+Majesty that her dower was entirely inadequate to her support. Thus
+humanely recommending his sovereign to bestow an alms on the family which
+his own hand had reduced from a princely station to beggary, the Viceroy
+proceeded to detail the recent events in Friesland, together with the
+measures which he was about taking to avenge the defeat and death of
+Count Aremberg.
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     Deeply criminal in the eyes of all religious parties
+     He had omitted to execute heretics
+     Holy Office condemned all the inhabitants of the Netherlands
+     Not for a new doctrine, but for liberty of conscience
+     Questioning nothing, doubting nothing, fearing nothing
+     The perpetual reproductions of history
+     Wealth was an unpardonable sin
+
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, PG EDITION, VOLUME 16.
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
+
+By JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
+1855
+
+
+
+
+1568 [CHAPTER III.]
+
+   Preparations of the Duke against Count Louis--Precarious situation
+   of Louis in Friesland--Timidity of the inhabitants--Alva in
+   Friesland--Skirmishing near Groningen--Retreat of the patriots--
+   Error committed by Louis--His position at Jemmingen--Mutinous
+   demonstrations of his troops--Louis partially restores order--
+   Attempt to destroy the dykes interrupted by the arrival of Alva's
+   forces--Artful strategy of the Duke--Defeat of Count Louis and utter
+   destruction of his army--Outrages committed by the Spaniards--Alva
+   at Utrecht--Execution of Vrow van Diemen--Episode of Don Carlos--
+   Fables concerning him and Queen Isabella--Mystery, concerning his
+   death--Secret letters of Philip to the Pope--The one containing the
+   truth of the transaction still concealed in the Vatican--Case
+   against Philip as related by Mathieu, De Thou, and others--Testimony
+   in the King's favor by the nuncio, the Venetian envoy, and others--
+   Doubtful state of the question--Anecdotes concerning Don Carlos--His
+   character.
+
+Those measures were taken with the precision and promptness which marked
+the Duke's character, when precision and promptness were desirable. There
+had been a terrible energy in his every step, since the successful foray
+of Louis Nassau. Having determined to take the field in person with
+nearly all the Spanish veterans, he had at once acted upon the necessity
+of making the capital secure, after his back should be turned. It was
+impossible to leave three thousand choice troops to guard Count Egmont. A
+less number seemed insufficient to prevent a rescue. He had, therefore,
+no longer delayed the chastisement which had already been determined, but
+which the events in the north had precipitated. Thus the only positive
+result of Louis Nassau's victory was the execution of his imprisoned
+friends.
+
+The expedition under Aremberg had failed from two causes. The Spanish
+force had been inadequate, and they had attacked the enemy at a
+disadvantage. The imprudent attack was the result of the contempt with
+which they had regarded their antagonist. These errors were not to be
+repeated. Alva ordered Count Meghem, now commanding in the province of
+Groningen, on no account to hazard hostilities until the game was sure.
+He also immediately ordered large reinforcements to move forward to the
+seat of war. The commanders intrusted with this duty were Duke Eric of
+Brunswick, Chiappin Vitelli, Noircarmes, and Count de Roeulx. The
+rendezvous for the whole force was Deventer, and here they all arrived on
+the 10th July. On the same day the Duke of Alva himself entered Deventer,
+to take command in person. On the evening of the 14th July he reached
+Rolden, a village three leagues distant from Groningen, at the head of
+three terzios of Spanish infantry, three companies of light horse, and a
+troop of dragoons. His whole force in and about Groningen amounted to
+fifteen thousand choice troops besides a large but uncertain number of
+less disciplined soldiery.
+
+Meantime, Louis of Nassau, since his victory, had accomplished nothing.
+For this inactivity there was one sufficient excuse, the total want of
+funds. His only revenue was the amount of black mail which he was able to
+levy upon the inhabitants of the province. He repeated his determination
+to treat them all as enemies, unless they furnished him with the means of
+expelling their tyrants from the country. He obtained small sums in this
+manner from time to time. The inhabitants were favorably disposed, but
+they were timid and despairing. They saw no clear way towards the
+accomplishment of the result concerning which Louis was so confident.
+They knew that the terrible Alva was already on his way. They felt sure
+of being pillaged by both parties, and of being hanged as rebels,
+besides, as soon as the Governor-general should make his appearance.
+
+Louis had, however, issued two formal proclamations for two especial
+contributions. In these documents he had succinctly explained that the
+houses of all recusants should be forthwith burned about their ears, and
+in consequence of these peremptory measures, he had obtained some ten
+thousand florins. Alva ordered counter-proclamations to be affixed to
+church doors and other places, forbidding all persons to contribute to
+these forced loans of the rebels, on penalty of paying twice as much to
+the Spaniards, with arbitrary punishment in addition, after his arrival.
+The miserable inhabitants, thus placed between two fires, had nothing for
+it but to pay one-half of their property to support the rebellion in the
+first place, with the prospect of giving the other half as a subsidy to
+tyranny afterwards; while the gibbet stood at the end of the vista to
+reward their liberality. Such was the horrible position of the peasantry
+in this civil conflict. The weight of guilt thus accumulated upon the
+crowned head which conceived, and upon the red right hand which wrought
+all this misery, what human scales can measure?
+
+With these precarious means of support, the army of Louis of Nassau, as
+may easily be supposed, was anything but docile. After the victory of
+Heiliger Lee there had seemed to his German mercenaries a probability of
+extensive booty, which grew fainter as the slender fruit of that battle
+became daily more apparent. The two abbots of Wittewerum and of Heiliger
+Lee, who had followed Aremberg's train in order to be witnesses of his
+victory, had been obliged to pay to the actual conqueror a heavy price
+for the entertainment to which they had invited themselves, and these
+sums, together with the amounts pressed from the reluctant estates, and
+the forced contributions paid by luckless peasants, enabled him to keep
+his straggling troops together a few weeks longer. Mutiny, however, was
+constantly breaking out, and by the eloquent expostulations and vague
+promises of the Count, was with difficulty suppressed.
+
+He had, for a few weeks immediately succeeding the battle, distributed
+his troops in three different stations. On the approach of the Duke,
+however, he hastily concentrated his whole force at his own strongly
+fortified camp, within half cannon shot of Groningen. His army, such as
+it was, numbered from 10,000 to 12,000 men. Alva reached Groningen early
+in the morning, and without pausing a moment, marched his troops directly
+through the city. He then immediately occupied an entrenched and
+fortified house, from which it was easy to inflict damage upon the camp.
+This done, the Duke, with a few attendants, rode forward to reconnoitre
+the enemy in person. He found him in a well fortified position, having
+the river on his front, which served as a moat to his camp, and with a
+deep trench three hundred yards beyond, in addition. Two wooden bridges
+led across the river; each was commanded by a fortified house, in which
+was a provision of pine torches, ready at a moment's warning, to set fire
+to the bridges. Having thus satisfied himself, the Duke rode back to his
+army, which had received strict orders not to lift a finger till his
+return. He then despatched a small force of five hundred musketeers,
+under Robles, to skirmish with the enemy, and, if possible, to draw them
+from their trenches.
+
+The troops of Louis, however, showed no greediness to engage. On the
+contrary, it soon became evident that their dispositions were of an
+opposite tendency. The Count himself, not at that moment trusting his
+soldiery, who were in an extremely mutinous condition, was desirous of
+falling back before his formidable antagonist. The Duke, faithful,
+however, to his life-long principles, had no intentions of precipitating
+the action in those difficult and swampy regions. The skirmishing,
+therefore, continued for many hours, an additional force of 1000 men
+being detailed from the Spanish army. The day was very sultry, however,
+the enemy reluctant, and the whole action languid. At last, towards
+evening, a large body, tempted beyond their trenches, engaged warmly with
+the Spaniards. The combat lasted but a few minutes, the patriots were
+soon routed, and fled precipitately back to their camp. The panic spread
+with them, and the whole army was soon in retreat. On retiring, they had,
+however, set fire to the bridges, and thus secured an advantage at the
+outset of the chase. The Spaniards were no longer to be held. Vitelli
+obtained permission to follow with 2000 additional troops. The fifteen
+hundred who had already been engaged, charged furiously upon their
+retreating foes. Some dashed across the blazing bridges, with their
+garments and their very beards on fire. Others sprang into the river.
+Neither fire nor water could check the fierce pursuit. The cavalry
+dismounting, drove their horses into the stream, and clinging to their
+tails, pricked the horses forward with their lances. Having thus been
+dragged across, they joined their comrades in the mad chase along the
+narrow dykes, and through the swampy and almost impassable country where
+the rebels were seeking shelter. The approach of night, too soon
+advancing, at last put an end to the hunt. The Duke with difficulty
+recalled his men, and compelled them to restrain their eagerness until
+the morrow. Three hundred of the patriots were left dead upon the field,
+besides at least an equal number who perished in the river and canals.
+The army of Louis was entirely routed, and the Duke considered it
+virtually destroyed. He wrote to the state council that he should pursue
+them the next day, but doubted whether he should find anybody to talk
+with him. In this the Governor-general soon found himself delightfully
+disappointed.
+
+Five days later, the Duke arrived at Reyden, on the Ems. Owing to the
+unfavorable disposition of the country people, who were willing to
+protect the fugitives by false information to their pursuers, he was
+still in doubt as to the position then occupied by the enemy. He had been
+fearful that they would be found at this very village of Reyden. It was a
+fatal error on the part of Count Louis that they were not. Had he made a
+stand at this point, he might have held out a long time. The bridge which
+here crossed the river would have afforded him a retreat into Germany at
+any moment, and the place was easily to be defended in front. Thus he
+might have maintained himself against his fierce but wary foe, while his
+brother Orange, who was at Strasburg watching the progress of events, was
+executing his own long-planned expedition into the heart of the
+Netherlands. With Alva thus occupied in Friesland, the results of such an
+invasion might have been prodigious. It was, however, not on the cards
+for that campaign. The mutinous disposition of the mercenaries under his
+command had filled Louis with doubt and disgust. Bold and sanguine, but
+always too fiery and impatient, he saw not much possibility of paying his
+troops any longer with promises. Perhaps he was not unwilling to place
+them in a position where they would be obliged to fight or to perish. At
+any rate, such was their present situation. Instead of halting at Reyden,
+he had made his stand at Jemmingen, about four leagues distant from that
+place, and a little further down the river. Alva discovered this
+important fact soon after his arrival at Reyden, and could not conceal
+his delight. Already exulting at the error made by his adversary, in
+neglecting the important position which he now occupied himself, he was
+doubly delighted at learning the nature of the place which he had in
+preference selected. He saw that Louis had completely entrapped himself.
+
+Jemmingen was a small town on the left bank of the Ems. The stream here
+very broad and deep, is rather a tide inlet than a river, being but a
+very few miles from the Dollart. This circular bay, or ocean chasm, the
+result of the violent inundation of the 13th century, surrounds, with the
+river, a narrow peninsula. In the corner of this peninsula, as in the
+bottom of a sack, Louis had posted his army. His infantry, as usual, was
+drawn up in two large squares, and still contained ten thousand men. The
+rear rested upon the village, the river was upon his left; his meagre
+force of cavalry upon the right. In front were two very deep trenches.
+The narrow road, which formed the only entrance to his camp, was guarded
+by a ravelin on each side, and by five pieces of artillery.
+
+The Duke having reconnoitred the enemy in person, rode back, satisfied
+that no escape was possible. The river was too deep and too wide for
+swimming or wading, and there were but very few boats. Louis was shut up
+between twelve thousand Spanish veterans and the river Ems. The rebel
+army, although not insufficient in point of numbers, was in a state of
+disorganization. They were furious for money and reluctant to fight. They
+broke out into open mutiny upon the very verge of battle, and swore that
+they would instantly disband, if the gold, which, as they believed, had
+been recently brought into the camp, were not immediately distributed
+among them. Such was the state of things on the eventful morning of the
+21st July. All the expostulations of Count Louis seemed powerless. His
+eloquence and his patience, both inferior to his valor, were soon
+exhausted. He peremptorily, refused the money for which they clamored,
+giving the most cogent of all reasons, an empty coffer. He demonstrated
+plainly that they were in that moment to make their election, whether to
+win a victory or to submit to a massacre. Neither flight nor surrender
+was possible. They knew how much quarter they could expect from the
+lances of the Spaniards or the waters of the Dollart. Their only chance
+of salvation lay in their own swords. The instinct of self-preservation,
+thus invoked, exerted a little of its natural effect.
+
+Meantime, a work which had been too long neglected, was then, if
+possible, to be performed. In that watery territory, the sea was only
+held in check by artificial means. In a very short time, by the
+demolition of a few dykes and the opening of a few sluices, the whole
+country through which the Spaniards had to pass could be laid under
+water. Believing it yet possible to enlist the ocean in his defence,
+Louis, having partially reduced his soldiers to obedience, ordered a
+strong detachment upon this important service. Seizing a spade, he
+commenced the work himself, and then returned to set his army in battle
+array. Two or three tide gates had been opened, two or three bridges had
+been demolished, when Alva, riding in advance of his army, appeared
+within a mile or two of Jemmingen. It was then eight o'clock in the
+morning. The patriots redoubled their efforts. By ten o'clock the waters
+were already knee high, and in some places as deep as to the waist. At
+that hour, the advanced guard of the Spaniards arrived. Fifteen hundred
+musketeers were immediately ordered forward by the Duke. They were
+preceded by a company of mounted carabineers, attended by a small band of
+volunteers of distinction. This little band threw themselves at once upon
+the troops engaged in destroying the dykes. The rebels fled at the first
+onset, and the Spaniards closed the gates. Feeling the full importance of
+the moment, Count Louis ordered a large force of musketeers to recover
+the position, and to complete the work of inundation. It was too late.
+The little band of Spaniards held the post with consummate tenacity.
+Charge after charge, volley after volley, from the overwhelming force
+brought against them, failed to loosen the fierce grip with which they
+held this key to the whole situation. Before they could be driven from
+the dykes, their comrades arrived, when all their antagonists at once
+made a hurried retreat to their camp.
+
+Very much the same tactics were now employed by the Duke, as in the
+engagement near Selwaert Abbey. He was resolved that this affair, also,
+should be a hunt, not a battle; but foresaw that it was to be a more
+successful one. There was no loophole of escape, so that after a little
+successful baiting, the imprisoned victims would be forced to spring from
+their lurking-place, to perish upon his spears. On his march from Reyden
+that morning, he had taken care to occupy every farm-house, every
+building of whatever description along the road, with his troops. He had
+left a strong guard on the bridge at Reyden, and had thus closed
+carefully every avenue. The same fifteen hundred musketeers were now
+advanced further towards the camp. This small force, powerfully but
+secretly sustained, was to feel the enemy; to skirmish with him, and to
+draw him as soon as possible out of his trenches. The plan succeeded.
+Gradually the engagements between them and the troops sent out by Count
+Louis grew more earnest. Finding so insignificant a force opposed to
+them, the mutinous rebels took courage. The work waged hot. Lodrono and
+Romero, commanders of the musketeers, becoming alarmed, sent to the Duke
+for reinforcements. He sent back word in reply, that if they were not
+enough to damage the enemy, they could, at least, hold their own for the
+present. So much he had a right to expect of Spanish soldiers. At any
+rate, he should send no reinforcements.
+
+Again they were more warmly pressed; again their messenger returned with
+the same reply. A third time they send the most urgent entreaties for
+succour. The Duke was still inexorable.
+
+Meantime the result of this scientific angling approached. By noon the
+rebels, not being able to see how large a portion of the Spanish army had
+arrived, began to think the affair not so serious. Count Louis sent out a
+reconnoitring party upon the river in a few boats. They returned without
+having been able to discover any large force. It seemed probable,
+therefore, that the inundation had been more successful in stopping their
+advance than had been supposed. Louis, always too rash, inflamed his men
+with temporary enthusiasm. Determined to cut their way out by one
+vigorous movement, the whole army at last marched forth from their
+entrenchments, with drums beating, colors flying; but already the
+concealed reinforcements of their enemies were on the spot. The patriots
+met with a warmer reception than they had expected. Their courage
+evaporated. Hardly had they advanced three hundred yards, when the whole
+body wavered and then retreated precipitately towards the encampment,
+having scarcely exchanged a shot with the enemy. Count Louis, in a frenzy
+of rage and despair, flew from rank to rank, in vain endeavouring to
+rally his terror-stricken troops. It was hopeless. The battery which
+guarded the road was entirely deserted. He rushed to the cannon himself,
+and fired them all with his own hand. It was their first and last
+discharge. His single arm, however bold, could not turn the tide of
+battle, and he was swept backwards with his coward troops. In a moment
+afterwards, Don Lope de Figueroa, who led the van of the Spaniards,
+dashed upon the battery, and secured it, together with the ravelins.
+Their own artillery was turned against the rebels, and the road was soon
+swept. The Spaniards in large numbers now rushed through the trenches in
+pursuit of the retreating foe. No resistance was offered, nor quarter
+given. An impossible escape was all which was attempted. It was not a
+battle, but a massacre. Many of the beggars in their flight threw down
+their arms; all had forgotten their use. Their antagonists butchered them
+in droves, while those who escaped the sword were hurled into the river.
+Seven Spaniards were killed, and seven thousand rebels.
+
+   [Letter of Alva to the Council of State. Correspondanee du Duc
+   d'Albe, 158. The same letter is published in Igor, iv. 245, 246.
+   All writers allow seven thousand to have been killed on the patriot
+   side, and--the number of Spaniards slain is not estimated at more
+   than eighty, even by the patriotic Meteren, 55. Compare Bor, iv.
+   245-246; Herrera, av. 696; Hoofd, v, 176, and Mendoza, 72.]
+
+The swift ebb-tide swept the hats of the perishing wretches in such
+numbers down the stream, that the people at Embden knew the result of the
+battle in an incredibly short period of time. The skirmishing had lasted
+from ten o'clock till one, but the butchery continued much longer. It
+took time to slaughter even unresisting victims. Large numbers obtained
+refuge for the night upon an island in the river. At low water next day
+the Spaniards waded to them, and slew every man. Many found concealment
+in hovels, swamps, and thickets, so that the whole of the following day
+was occupied in ferreting out and despatching them. There was so much to
+be done, that there was work enough for all. "Not a soldier," says, with
+great simplicity, a Spanish historian who fought in the battle, "not a
+soldier, nor even a lad, who wished to share in the victory, but could
+find somebody to wound, to kill, to burn, or to drown." The wounding,
+killing, burning, drowning lasted two days, and very few escaped. The
+landward pursuit extended for three or four leagues around, so that the
+roads and pastures were covered with bodies, with corslets, and other
+weapons. Count Louis himself stripped off his clothes, and made his
+escape, when all was over, by swimming across the Ems. With the paltry
+remnant of his troops he again took refuge in Germany.
+
+The Spanish army, two days afterwards, marched back to Groningen. The
+page which records their victorious campaign is foul with outrage and red
+with blood. None of the horrors which accompany the passage of hostile
+troops through a defenceless country were omitted. Maids and matrons were
+ravished in multitudes; old men butchered in cold blood. As Alva
+returned, with the rear-guard of his army, the whole sky was red with a
+constant conflagration; the very earth seemed changed to ashes. Every
+peasant's hovel, every farm-house, every village upon the road had been
+burned to the ground. So gross and so extensive had been the outrage,
+that the commander-in-chief felt it due to his dignity to hang some of
+his own soldiers who had most distinguished themselves in this work. Thus
+ended the campaign of Count Louis in Friesland. Thus signally and
+terribly had the Duke of Alva vindicated the supremacy of Spanish
+discipline and of his own military skill.
+
+On his return to Groningen, the estates were summoned, and received a
+severe lecture for their suspicious demeanour in regard to the rebellion.
+In order more effectually to control both province and city, the
+Governor-general ordered the construction of a strong fortress, which was
+soon begun but never completed. Having thus furnished himself with a key
+to this important and doubtful region, he returned by way of Amsterdam to
+Utrecht. There he was met by his son Frederic with strong reinforcements.
+The Duke reviewed his whole army, and found himself at the head of 30,000
+infantry and 7,000 cavalry. Having fully subdued the province, he had no
+occupation for such a force, but he improved the opportunity by cutting
+off the head of an old woman in Utrecht. The Vrow van Diemen, eighteen
+months previously, had given the preacher Arendsoon a night's lodging in
+her house. The crime had, in fact, been committed by her son-in-law, who
+dwelt under her roof, and who had himself, without her participation,
+extended this dangerous hospitality to a heretic; but the old lady,
+although a devout Catholic, was rich. Her execution would strike a
+wholesome terror into the hearts of her neighbours. The confiscation of
+her estates would bring a handsome sum into the government coffers. It
+would be made manifest that the same hand which could destroy an army of
+twelve thousand rebels at a blow could inflict as signal punishment on
+the small delinquencies of obscure individuals. The old lady, who was
+past eighty-four years of age, was placed in a chair upon the scaffold.
+She met her death with heroism, and treated her murderers with contempt.
+"I understand very well," she observed, "why my death is considered
+necessary. The calf is fat and must be killed." To the executioner she
+expressed a hope that his sword was sufficiently sharp, "as he was likely
+to find her old neck very tough." With this grisly parody upon the
+pathetic dying words of Anne Boleyn, the courageous old gentlewoman
+submitted to her fate.
+
+The tragedy of Don Carlos does not strictly belong to our subject, which
+is the rise of the Netherland commonwealth--not the decline of the
+Spanish monarchy, nor the life of Philip the Second. The thread is but
+slender which connects the unhappy young prince with the fortunes of the
+northern republic. He was said, no doubt with truth, to desire the
+government of Flanders. He was also supposed to be in secret
+correspondence with the leaders of the revolt in the provinces. He
+appeared, however, to possess very little of their confidence. His name
+is only once mentioned by William of Orange, who said in a letter that
+"the Prince of Spain had lately eaten sixteen pounds of fruit, including
+four pounds of grapes at a single sitting, and had become ill in
+consequence." The result was sufficiently natural, but it nowhere appears
+that the royal youth, born to consume the fruits of the earth so largely,
+had ever given the Netherlanders any other proof of his capacity to
+govern them. There is no doubt that he was a most uncomfortable personage
+at home, both to himself and to others, and that he hated his father'
+very cordially. He was extremely incensed at the nomination of Alva to
+the Netherlands, because he had hoped that either the King would go
+thither or entrust the mission to him, in either of which events he
+should be rid for a time of the paternal authority, or at least of the
+paternal presence. It seems to be well ascertained that Carlos nourished
+towards his father a hatred which might lead to criminal attempts, but
+there is no proof that such attempts were ever made. As to the fabulous
+amours of the Prince and the Queen, they had never any existence save in
+the imagination of poets, who have chosen to find a source of sentimental
+sorrow for the Infante in the arbitrary substitution of his father for
+himself in the marriage contract with the daughter of Henry the Second.
+As Carlos was but twelve or thirteen years of age when thus deprived of a
+bride whom he had never seen, the foundation for a passionate regret was
+but slight. It would hardly be a more absurd fantasy, had the poets
+chosen to represent Philip's father, the Emperor Charles, repining in his
+dotage for the loss of "bloody Mary," whom he had so handsomely ceded to
+his son. Philip took a bad old woman to relieve his father; he took a
+fair young princess at his son's expense; but similar changes in state
+marriages were such matters of course, that no emotions were likely to be
+created in consequence. There is no proof whatever, nor any reason to
+surmise; that any love passages ever existed between Don Carlos and his
+step-mother.
+
+As to the process and the death of the Prince, the mystery has not yet
+been removed, and the field is still open to conjecture. It seems a
+thankless task to grope in the dark after the truth at a variety of
+sources; when the truth really exists in tangible shape if profane hands
+could be laid upon it. The secret is buried in the bosom of the Vatican.
+Philip wrote two letters on the subject to Pius V. The contents of the
+first (21st January, 1568) are known. He informed the pontiff that he had
+been obliged to imprison his son, and promised that he would, in the
+conduct of the affair, omit nothing which could be expected of a father
+and of a just and prudent king. The second letter, in which he narrated,
+or is supposed to have narrated, the whole course of the tragic
+proceedings, down to the death and burial of the Prince, has never yet
+been made public. There are hopes that this secret missive, after three
+centuries of darkness, may soon see the light.--[I am assured by Mr.
+Gachard that a copy of this important letter is confidently expected by
+the Commission Royale d'Histoire.]
+
+As Philip generally told the truth to the Pope, it is probable that the
+secret, when once revealed, will contain the veritable solution of the
+mystery. Till that moment arrives, it seems idle to attempt fathoming the
+matter. Nevertheless, it may be well briefly to state the case as it
+stands. As against the King, it rests upon no impregnable, but certainly
+upon respectable authority. The Prince of Orange, in his famous Apology,
+calls Philip the murderer of his wife and of his son, and says that there
+was proof of the facts in France. He alludes to the violent death of
+Carlos almost as if it were an indisputable truth. "As for Don Charles,"
+he says, "was he not our future sovereign? And if the father could allege
+against his son fit cause for death, was it not rather for us to judge
+him than for three or four monks or inquisitors of Spain?"
+
+The historian, P. Matthieu, relates that Philip assembled his council of
+conscience; that they recommended mercy; that hereupon Philip gave the
+matter to the inquisition, by which tribunal Carlos was declared a
+heretic on account of his connexion with Protestants, and for his attempt
+against his father's life was condemned to death, and that the sentence
+was executed by four slaves, two holding the arms, one the feet, while
+the fourth strangled him.
+
+De Thou gives the following account of the transaction, having derived
+many of his details from the oral communications of Louis de Foix:
+
+Philip imagined that his son was about to escape from Spain, and to make
+his way to the Netherlands. The King also believed himself in danger of
+assassination from Carlos, his chief evidence being that the Prince
+always carried pistols in the pockets of his loose breeches. As Carlos
+wished always to be alone at night without any domestic in his chamber,
+de Foix had arranged for him a set of pulleys, by means of which he could
+open or shut his door without rising from his bed. He always slept with
+two pistols and two drawn swords under his pillow, and had two loaded
+arquebusses in a wardrobe close at hand. These remarkable precautions
+would seem rather to indicate a profound fear of being himself
+assassinated; but they were nevertheless supposed to justify Philip's
+suspicions, that the Infante was meditating parricide. On Christmas eve,
+however (1567), Don Carlos told his confessor that he had determined to
+kill a man. The priest, in consequence, refused to admit him to the
+communion. The Prince demanded, at least, a wafer which was not
+consecrated, in order that he might seem to the people to be
+participating in the sacrament. The confessor declined the proposal, and
+immediately repairing to the King, narrated the whole story. Philip
+exclaimed that he was himself the man whom the Prince intended to kill,
+but that measures should be forthwith taken to prevent such a design. The
+monarch then consulted the Holy Office of the inquisition, and the
+resolution was taken to arrest his son. De Foix was compelled to alter
+the pulleys of the door to the Prince's chamber in such a manner that it
+could be opened without the usual noise, which was almost sure to awaken
+him. At midnight, accordingly, Count Lerma entered the room so stealthily
+that the arms were all, removed from the Prince's pillow and the
+wardrobe, without awakening the sleeper. Philip, Ruy Gomez, the Duke de
+Feria, and two other nobles, then noiselessly, crept into the apartment.
+Carlos still slept so profoundly that it was necessary for Derma to shake
+him violently by the arm before he could be aroused. Starting from his
+sleep in the dead of night, and seeing his father thus accompanied,
+before his bed, the Prince cried out that he was a dead man, and
+earnestly besought the bystanders to make an end of him at once. Philip
+assured him, however, that he was not come to kill him, but to chastise
+him paternally, and to recal him to his duty. He then read him a serious
+lecture, caused him to rise from his bed, took away his servants, and
+placed him under guard. He was made to array himself in mourning
+habiliments, and to sleep on a truckle bed. The Prince was in despair. He
+soon made various attempts upon his own life. He threw himself into the
+fire, but was rescued by his guards, with his clothes all in flames. He
+passed several days without taking any food, and then ate so many patties
+of minced meat that he nearly died of indigestion. He was also said to
+have attempted to choke himself with a diamond, and to have been
+prevented by his guard; to have filled his bed with ice; to have sat in
+cold draughts; to have gone eleven days without food, the last method
+being, as one would think, sufficiently thorough. Philip, therefore,
+seeing his son thus desperate, consulted once more with the Holy Office,
+and came to the decision that it was better to condemn him legitimately
+to death than to permit him to die by his own hand. In order, however, to
+save appearances, the order was secretly carried into execution. Don
+Carlos was made to swallow poison in a bowl of broth, of which he died in
+a few hours. This was at the commencement of his twenty-third year. The
+death was concealed for several months, and was not made public till
+after Alva's victory at Jemmingen.
+
+Such was the account drawn up by de Thou from the oral communications of
+de Foix, and from other sources not indicated. Certainly, such a
+narrative is far from being entitled to implicit credence. The historian
+was a contemporary, but he was not in Spain, and the engineer's testimony
+is, of course, not entitled to much consideration on the subject of the
+process and the execution (if there were an execution); although
+conclusive as to matters which had been within his personal knowledge.
+For the rest, all that it can be said to establish is the existence of
+the general rumor, that Carlos came to his death by foul means and in
+consequence of advice given by the inquisition.
+
+On the other hand, in all the letters written at the period by persons in
+Madrid most likely, from their position, to know the truth, not a
+syllable has been found in confirmation of the violent death said to have
+been suffered by Carlos. Secretary Erasso, the papal nuncio Castagna, the
+Venetian envoy Cavalli, all express a conviction that the death of the
+prince had been brought about by his own extravagant conduct and mental
+excitement; by alternations of starving and voracious eating, by throwing
+himself into the fire; by icing his bed, and by similar acts of
+desperation. Nearly every writer alludes to the incident of the refusal
+of the priest to admit Carlos to communion, upon the ground of his
+confessed deadly hatred to an individual whom all supposed to be the
+King. It was also universally believed that Carlos meant to kill his
+father. The nuncio asked Spinosa (then president of Castile) if this
+report were true. "If nothing more were to be feared," answered the
+priest, "the King would protect himself by other measures," but the
+matter was worse, if worse could be. The King, however, summoned all the
+foreign diplomatic body and assured them that the story was false. After
+his arrest, the Prince, according to Castagna, attempted various means of
+suicide, abstaining, at last, many days from food, and dying in
+consequence, "discoursing, upon his deathbed, gravely and like a man of
+sense."
+
+The historian Cabrera, official panegyrist of Philip the Second, speaks
+of the death of Carlos as a natural one, but leaves a dark kind of
+mystery about the symptoms of his disease. He states, that the Prince was
+tried and condemned by a commission or junta, consisting of Spinosa, Ruy
+Gomez, and the Licentiate Virviesca, but that he was carried off by an
+illness, the nature of which he does not describe.
+
+Llorente found nothing in the records of the Inquisition to prove that
+the Holy Office had ever condemned the Prince or instituted any process
+against him. He states that he was condemned by a commission, but that he
+died of a sickness which supervened. It must be confessed that the
+illness was a convenient one, and that such diseases are very apt to
+attack individuals whom tyrants are disposed to remove from their path,
+while desirous, at the same time, to save appearances. It would certainly
+be presumptuous to accept implicitly the narrative of de Thou, which is
+literally followed by Hoofd and by many modern writers. On the other
+hand, it would be an exaggeration of historical scepticism to absolve
+Philip from the murder of his son, solely upon negative testimony. The
+people about court did not believe in the crime. They saw no proofs of
+it. Of course they saw none. Philip would take good care that there
+should be none if he had made up his mind that the death of the Prince
+should be considered a natural one. And priori argument, which omits the
+character of the suspected culprit, and the extraordinary circumstances
+of time and place, is not satisfactory. Philip thoroughly understood the
+business of secret midnight murder. We shall soon have occasion to relate
+the elaborate and ingenious method by which the assassination of Montigny
+was accomplished and kept a profound secret from the whole world, until
+the letters of the royal assassin, after three centuries' repose, were
+exhumed, and the foul mystery revealed. Philip was capable of any crime.
+Moreover, in his letter to his aunt, Queen Catharine of Portugal, he
+distinctly declares himself, like Abraham, prepared to go all lengths in
+obedience to the Lord. "I have chosen in this matter," he said, "to make
+the sacrifice to God of my own flesh and blood, and to prefer His service
+and the universal welfare to all other human considerations." Whenever
+the letter to Pius V. sees the light, it will appear whether the
+sacrifice which the monarch thus made to his God proceeded beyond the
+imprisonment and condemnation of his son, or was completed by the actual
+immolation of the victim.
+
+With regard to the Prince himself, it is very certain that, if he had
+lived, the realms of the Spanish Crown would have numbered one tyrant
+more. Carlos from his earliest youth, was remarkable for the ferocity of
+his character. The Emperor Charles was highly pleased with him, then
+about fourteen years of age, upon their first interview after the
+abdication. He flattered himself that the lad had inherited his own
+martial genius together with his name. Carlos took much interest in his
+grandfather's account of his various battles, but when the flight from
+Innspruck was narrated, he repeated many times, with much vehemence, that
+he never would have fled; to which position he adhered, notwithstanding
+all the arguments of the Emperor, and very much to his amusement. The
+young Prince was always fond of soldiers, and listened eagerly to
+discourses of war. He was in the habit also of recording the names of any
+military persons who, according to custom, frequently made offers of
+their services to the heir apparent, and of causing them to take a solemn
+oath to keep their engagements. No other indications of warlike talent,
+however, have been preserved concerning him. "He was crafty, ambitious,
+cruel, violent," says the envoy Suriano, "a hater of buffoons, a lover of
+soldiers." His natural cruelty seems to have been remarkable from his
+boyhood. After his return from the chase, he was in the habit of cutting
+the throats of hares and other animals, and of amusing himself with their
+dying convulsions. He also frequently took pleasure in roasting them
+alive. He once received a present of a very large snake from some person
+who seemed to understand how to please this remarkable young prince.
+After a time, however, the favorite reptile allowed itself to bite its
+master's finger, whereupon Don Carlos immediately retaliated by biting
+off its head.
+
+He was excessively angry at the suggestion that the prince who was
+expected to spring from his father's marriage with the English queen,
+would one day reign over the Netherlands, and swore he would challenge
+him to mortal combat in order to prevent such an infringement of his
+rights. His father and grandfather were both highly diverted with this
+manifestation of spirit, but it was not decreed that the world should
+witness the execution of these fraternal intentions against the babe
+which was never to be born.
+
+Ferocity, in short, seems to have been the leading characteristic of the
+unhappy Carlos. His preceptor, a man of learning and merit, who was
+called "the honorable John", tried to mitigate this excessive ardor of
+temperament by a course of Cicero de Officiis, which he read to him
+daily. Neither the eloquence of Tully, however, nor the precepts of the
+honorable John made the least impression upon this very savage nature. As
+he grew older he did not grow wiser nor more gentle. He was prematurely
+and grossly licentious. All the money which as a boy, he was allowed, he
+spent upon women of low character, and when he was penniless, he gave
+them his chains, his medals, even the clothes from his back. He took
+pleasure in affronting respectable females when he met them in the
+streets, insulting them by the coarsest language and gestures. Being
+cruel, cunning, fierce and licentious, he seemed to combine many of the
+worst qualities of a lunatic. That he probably was one is the best
+defence which can be offered for his conduct. In attempting to offer
+violence to a female, while he was at the university of Alcala, he fell
+down a stone staircase, from which cause he was laid up for a long time
+with a severely wounded head, and was supposed to have injured his brain.
+
+The traits of ferocity recorded of him during his short life are so
+numerous that humanity can hardly desire that it should have been
+prolonged. A few drops of water having once fallen upon his head from a
+window, as he passed through the street, he gave peremptory orders to his
+guard to burn the house to the ground, and to put every one of its
+inhabitants to the sword. The soldiers went forthwith to execute the
+order, but more humane than their master, returned with the excuse that
+the Holy Sacrament of the Viaticum had that moment been carried into the
+house. This appeal to the superstition of the Prince successfully
+suspended the execution of the crimes which his inconceivable malignity
+had contemplated. On another occasion, a nobleman, who slept near his
+chamber, failed to answer his bell on the instant. Springing upon his
+dilatory attendant, as soon as he made his appearance, the Prince seized
+him in his arms and was about to throw him from the window, when the
+cries of the unfortunate chamberlain attracted attention, and procured a
+rescue.
+
+The Cardinal Espinoza had once accidentally detained at his palace an
+actor who was to perform a favorite part by express command of Don
+Carlos. Furious at this detention, the Prince took the priest by the
+throat as soon as he presented himself at the palace, and plucking his
+dagger from its sheath, swore, by the soul of his father, that he would
+take his life on the spot. The grand inquisitor fell on his knees and
+begged for mercy, but it is probable that the entrance of the King alone
+saved his life.
+
+There was often something ludicrous mingled with the atrocious in these
+ungovernable explosions of wrath. Don Pedro Manuel, his chamberlain, had
+once, by his command, ordered a pair of boots to be made for the Prince.
+When brought home, they were, unfortunately, too tight. The Prince after
+vainly endeavouring to pull them on, fell into a blazing passion. He
+swore that it was the fault of Don Pedro, who always wore tight boots
+himself, but he at the same time protested that his father was really at
+the bottom of the affair. He gave the young nobleman a box on the ear for
+thus conspiring with the King against his comfort, and then ordered the
+boots to be chopped into little pieces, stewed and seasoned. Then sending
+for the culprit shoemaker, he ordered him to eat his own boots, thus
+converted into a pottage; and with this punishment the unfortunate
+mechanic, who had thought his life forfeited, was sufficiently glad to
+comply.
+
+Even the puissant Alva could not escape his violence. Like all the men in
+whom his father reposed confidence, the Duke was odious to the heir
+apparent. Don Carlos detested him with the whole force of his little
+soul. He hated him as only a virtuous person deserved to be hated by such
+a ruffian. The heir apparent had taken the Netherlands under his
+patronage. He had even formed the design of repairing secretly to the
+provinces, and could not, therefore, disguise his wrath at the
+appointment of the Duke. It is doubtful whether the country would have
+benefited by the gratification of his wishes. It is possible that the
+pranks of so malignant an ape might have been even more mischievous than
+the concentrated and vigorous tyranny of an Alva. When the new
+Captain-general called, before his departure, to pay his respects to the
+Infante, the Duke seemed, to his surprise, to have suddenly entered the
+den of a wild beast. Don Carlos sprang upon him with a howl of fury,
+brandishing a dagger in his hand. He uttered reproaches at having been
+defrauded of the Netherland government. He swore that Alva should never
+accomplish his mission, nor leave his presence alive. He was proceeding
+to make good the threat with his poniard, when the Duke closed with him.
+A violent struggle succeeded. Both rolled together on the ground, the
+Prince biting and striking like a demoniac, the Duke defending himself as
+well as he was able, without attempting his adversary's life. Before the
+combat was decided, the approach of many persons put an end to the
+disgraceful scene. As decent a veil as possible was thrown over the
+transaction, and the Duke departed on his mission. Before the end of the
+year, the Prince was in the prison whence he never came forth alive.
+
+The figure of Don Carlos was as misshapen as his mind. His head was
+disproportionately large, his limbs were rickety, one shoulder was
+higher, one leg longer than the other. With features resembling those of
+his father, but with a swarthy instead of a fair complexion, with an
+expression of countenance both fierce and foolish, and with a character
+such as we have sketched it, upon the evidence of those who knew him
+well, it is indeed strange that he should ever have been transformed by
+the magic of poetry into a romantic hero. As cruel and cunning as his
+father, as mad as his great-grandmother, he has left a name, which not
+even his dark and mysterious fate can render interesting.
+
+
+
+
+1568 [CHAPTER IV.]
+
+   Continued and excessive barbarity of the government--Execution of
+   Antony van Straalen, of "Red--Rod" Spelle--The Prince of Orange
+   advised by his German friends to remain quiet--Heroic sentiments of
+   Orange--His religious opinions--His efforts in favor of toleration--
+   His fervent piety--His public correspondence with the Emperor--His
+   "Justification," his "Warning," and other papers characterized--The
+   Prince, with a considerable army, crosses the Rhine--Passage of the
+   Meuse at Stochem--He offers battle to Alva--Determination of the
+   Duke to avoid an engagement--Comparison of his present situation
+   with his previous position in Friesland--Masterly tactics of the
+   Duke--Skirmish on the Geta--Defeat of the Orangists--Death of
+   Hoogstraaten--Junction with Genlis--Adherence of Alva to his
+   original plan--The Prince crosses the frontier of France--
+   Correspondence between Charles IX. and Orange--The patriot army
+   disbanded at Strasburg--Comments by Granvelle upon the position of
+   the Prince--Triumphant attitude of Alva--Festivities at Brussels--
+   Colossal statue of Alva erected by himself in Antwerp citadel--
+   Intercession of the Emperor with Philip--Memorial of six Electors to
+   the Emperor--Mission of the Archduke Charles to Spain--His
+   negotiations with Philip--Public and private correspondence between
+   the King and Emperor--Duplicity of Maximilian--Abrupt conclusion to
+   the intervention--Granvelle's suggestions to Philip concerning the
+   treaty of Passau.
+
+The Duke having thus crushed the project of Count Bouts, and quelled the
+insurrection in Friesland, returned in triumph to Brussels. Far from
+softened by the success of his arms, he renewed with fresh energy the
+butchery which, for a brief season, had been suspended during his
+brilliant campaign in the north. The altars again smoked with victims;
+the hanging, burning, drowning, beheading, seemed destined to be the
+perpetual course of his administration, so long as human bodies remained
+on which his fanatical vengeance could be wreaked. Four men of eminence
+were executed soon after his return to the capital. They had previously
+suffered such intense punishment on the rack, that it was necessary to
+carry them to the scaffold and bind them upon chairs, that they might be
+beheaded. These four sufferers were a Frisian nobleman, named Galena, the
+secretaries of Egmont and Horn, Bakkerzeel and La Loo, and the
+distinguished burgomaster of Antwerp, Antony Van Straalen. The arrest of
+the three last-mentioned individuals, simultaneously with that of the two
+Counts, has been related in a previous chapter. In the case of Van
+Straalen, the services rendered by him to the provinces during his long
+and honorable career, had been so remarkable, that even the
+Blood-Council, in sending his case to Alva for his sentence, were
+inspired by a humane feeling. They felt so much compunction at the
+impending fate of a man who, among other meritorious acts, had furnished
+nearly all the funds for the brilliant campaign in Picardy, by which the
+opening years of Philip's reign had been illustrated, as to hint at the
+propriety of a pardon. But the recommendation to mercy, though it came
+from the lips of tigers, dripping with human blood, fell unheeded on the
+tyrant's ear. It seemed meet that the man who had supplied the nerves of
+war in that unforgiven series of triumphs, should share the fate of the
+hero who had won the laurels.
+
+   [Bor, Cappella, Hoofd, ubi sup. The last words of the Burgomaster
+   as he bowed his neck to the executioner's stroke were, "Voor wel
+   gedaan, kwaclyk beloud,"--"For faithful service, evil recompense."
+   --Cappella, 232.]
+
+Hundreds of obscure martyrs now followed in the same path to another
+world, where surely they deserved to find their recompense, if steadfast
+adherence to their faith, and a tranquil trust in God amid tortures and
+death too horrible to be related, had ever found favor above. The
+"Red-Rod," as the provost of Brabant was popularly designated, was never
+idle. He flew from village to village throughout the province, executing
+the bloody behests of his masters with congenial alacrity. Nevertheless
+his career was soon destined to close upon the same scaffold where he had
+so long officiated. Partly from caprice, partly from an uncompromising
+and fantastic sense of justice, his master now hanged the executioner
+whose industry had been so untiring. The sentence which was affixed to
+his breast, as he suffered, stated that he had been guilty of much
+malpractice; that he had executed many persons without a warrant, and had
+suffered many guilty persons for a bribe, to escape their doom. The
+reader can judge which of the two clauses constituted the most sufficient
+reason.
+
+During all these triumphs of Alva, the Prince of Orange had not lost his
+self-possession. One after another, each of his bold, skilfully-conceived
+and carefully-prepared plans had failed. Villers had been entirely
+discomfited at Dalhena, Cocqueville had been cut to pieces in Picardy,
+and now the valiant and experienced Louis had met with an entire
+overthrow in Friesland. The brief success of the patriots at Heiliger Zee
+had been washed out in the blood-torrents of Jemmingen. Tyranny was more
+triumphant, the provinces more timidly crouching, than ever. The friends
+on whom William of Orange relied in Germany, never enthusiastic in his
+cause, although many of them true-hearted and liberal, now grew cold and
+anxious. For months long, his most faithful and affectionate allies, such
+men as the Elector of Hesse and the Duke of Wirtemberg, as well as the
+less trustworthy Augustus of Saxony, had earnestly expressed their
+opinion that, under the circumstances, his best course was to sit still
+and watch the course of events.
+
+It was known that the Emperor had written an urgent letter to Philip on
+the subject of his policy in the Netherlands in general, and concerning
+the position of Orange in particular. All persons, from the Emperor down
+to the pettiest potentate, seemed now of opinion that the Prince had
+better pause; that he was, indeed, bound to wait the issue of that
+remonstrance. "Your highness must sit still," said Landgrave William.
+"Your highness must sit still," said Augustus of Saxony. "You must move
+neither hand nor foot in the cause of the perishing provinces," said the
+Emperor. "Not a soldier-horse, foot, or dragoon-shall be levied within
+the Empire. If you violate the peace of the realm, and embroil us with
+our excellent brother and cousin Philip, it is at your own peril. You
+have nothing to do but to keep quiet and await his answer to our letter."
+But the Prince knew how much effect his sitting still would produce upon
+the cause of liberty and religion. He knew how much effect the Emperor's
+letter was like to have upon the heart of Philip. He knew that the more
+impenetrable the darkness now gathering over that land of doom which he
+had devoted his life to defend, the more urgently was he forbidden to
+turn his face away from it in its affliction. He knew that thousands of
+human souls, nigh to perishing, were daily turning towards him as their
+only hope on earth, and he was resolved, so long as he could dispense a
+single ray of light, that his countenance should never be averted. It is
+difficult to contemplate his character, at this period, without being
+infected with a perhaps dangerous enthusiasm. It is not an easy task
+coldly to analyse a nature which contained so much of the
+self-sacrificing and the heroic, as well as of the adroit and the subtle;
+and it is almost impossible to give utterance to the emotions which
+naturally swell the heart at the contemplation of so much active virtue,
+without rendering oneself liable to the charge of excessive admiration.
+Through the mists of adversity, a human form may dilate into proportions
+which are colossal and deceptive. Our judgment may thus, perhaps, be led
+captive, but at any rate the sentiment excited is more healthful than
+that inspired by the mere shedder of blood, by the merely selfish
+conqueror. When the cause of the champion is that of human right against
+tyranny, of political ind religious freedom against an all-engrossing and
+absolute bigotry, it is still more difficult to restrain veneration
+within legitimate bounds. To liberate the souls and bodies of millions,
+to maintain for a generous people, who had well-nigh lost their all,
+those free institutions which their ancestors had bequeathed, was a noble
+task for any man. But here stood a Prince of ancient race, vast
+possessions, imperial blood, one of the great ones of the earth, whose
+pathway along the beaten track would have been smooth and successful, but
+who was ready to pour out his wealth like water, and to coin his heart's
+blood, drop by drop, in this virtuous but almost desperate cause. He felt
+that of a man to whom so much had been entrusted, much was to be asked.
+God had endowed him with an incisive and comprehensive genius,
+unfaltering fortitude, and with the rank and fortune which enable a man
+to employ his faculties, to the injury or the happiness of his fellows,
+on the widest scale. The Prince felt the responsibility, and the world
+was to learn the result.
+
+It was about this time that a deep change came over his mind. Hitherto,
+although nominally attached to the communion of the ancient Church, his
+course of life and habits of mind had not led him to deal very earnestly
+with things beyond the world. The severe duties, the grave character of
+the cause to which his days were henceforth to be devoted, had already
+led him to a closer inspection of the essential attributes of
+Christianity. He was now enrolled for life as a soldier of the
+Reformation. The Reformation was henceforth his fatherland, the sphere,
+of his duty and his affection. The religious Reformers became his
+brethren, whether in France, Germany, the Netherlands, or England. Yet
+his mind had taken a higher flight than that of the most eminent
+Reformers. His goal was not a new doctrine, but religious liberty. In an
+age when to think was a crime, and when bigotry and a persecuting spirit
+characterized Romanists and Lutherans, Calvinists and Zwinglians, he had
+dared to announce freedom of conscience as the great object for which
+noble natures should strive. In an age when toleration was a vice, he had
+the manhood to cultivate it as a virtue. His parting advice to the
+Reformers of the Netherlands, when he left them for a season in the
+spring of 1567, was to sink all lesser differences in religious union.
+Those of the Augsburg Confession and those of the Calvinistic Church, in
+their own opinion as incapable of commingling as oil and water, were, in
+his judgment, capable of friendly amalgamation. He appealed eloquently to
+the good and influential of all parties to unite in one common cause
+against oppression. Even while favoring daily more and more the cause of
+the purified Church, and becoming daily more alive to the corruption of
+Rome, he was yet willing to tolerate all forms of worship, and to leave
+reason to combat error.
+
+Without a particle of cant or fanaticism, he had become a deeply
+religious man. Hitherto he had been only a man of the world and a
+statesman, but from this time forth he began calmly to rely upon God's
+providence in all the emergencies of his eventful life. His letters
+written to his most confidential friends, to be read only by themselves,
+and which have been gazed upon by no other eyes until after the lapse of
+nearly three centuries, abundantly prove his sincere and simple trust.
+This sentiment was not assumed for effect to delude others, but cherished
+as a secret support for himself. His religion was not a cloak to his
+designs, but a consolation in his disasters. In his letter of instruction
+to his most confidential agent, John Bazius, while he declared himself
+frankly in favor of the Protestant principles, he expressed his extreme
+repugnance to the persecution of Catholics. "Should we obtain power over
+any city or cities," he wrote, "let the communities of papists be as much
+respected and protected as possible. Let them be overcome, not by
+violence, but with gentle-mindedness and virtuous treatment." After the
+terrible disaster at Jemmingen, he had written to Louis, consoling him,
+in the most affectionate language, for the unfortunate result of his
+campaign. Not a word of reproach escaped from him, although his brother
+had conducted the operations in Friesland, after the battle of Heiliger
+Lee, in a manner quite contrary to his own advice. He had counselled
+against a battle, and had foretold a defeat; but after the battle had
+been fought and a crushing defeat sustained, his language breathed only
+unwavering submission to the will of God, and continued confidence in his
+own courage. "You may be well assured, my brother," he wrote, "that I
+have never felt anything more keenly than the pitiable misfortune which
+has happened to you, for many reasons which you can easily imagine.
+Moreover, it hinders us much in the levy which we are making, and has
+greatly chilled the hearts of those who otherwise would have been ready
+to give us assistance. Nevertheless, since it has thus pleased God, it is
+necessary to have patience and to lose not courage; conforming ourselves
+to His divine will, as for my part I have determined to do in everything
+which may happen, still proceeding onward in our work with his Almighty
+aid. 'Soevis tranquillus in undis', he was never more placid than when
+the storm was wildest and the night darkest. He drew his consolations and
+refreshed his courage at the never-failing fountains of Divine mercy.
+
+"I go to-morrow," he wrote to the unworthy Anne of Saxony; "but when I
+shall return, or when I shall see you, I cannot, on my honor, tell you
+with certainty. I have resolved to place myself in the hands of the
+Almighty, that he may guide me whither it is His good pleasure that I
+should go. I see well enough that I am destined to pass this life in
+misery and labor, with which I am well content, since it thus pleases the
+Omnipotent, for I know that I have merited still greater chastisement. I
+only implore Him graciously to send me strength to endure with patience."
+
+Such language, in letters the most private, never meant to be seen by
+other eyes than those to which they were addressed, gives touching
+testimony to the sincere piety of his character. No man was ever more
+devoted to a high purpose, no man had ever more right to imagine himself,
+or less inclination to pronounce himself, entrusted with a divine
+mission. There was nothing of the charlatan in his character. His nature
+was true and steadfast. No narrow-minded usurper was ever more loyal to
+his own aggrandisement than this large-hearted man to the cause of
+oppressed humanity. Yet it was inevitable that baser minds should fail to
+recognise his purity. While he exhausted his life for the emancipation of
+a people, it was easy to ascribe all his struggles to the hope of
+founding a dynasty. It was natural for grovelling natures to search in
+the gross soil of self-interest for the sustaining roots of the tree
+beneath whose branches a nation found its shelter. What could they
+comprehend of living fountains and of heavenly dews?
+
+In May, 1568, the Emperor Maximilian had formally issued a requisition to
+the Prince of Orange to lay down his arms, and to desist from all levies
+and machinations against the King of Spain and the peace of the realm.
+This summons he was commanded to obey on pain of forfeiting all rights,
+fiefs, privileges and endowments bestowed by imperial hands on himself or
+his predecessors, and of incurring the heaviest disgrace, punishment, and
+penalties of the Empire.
+
+To this document the Prince replied in August, having paid in the
+meantime but little heed to its precepts. Now that the Emperor, who at
+first was benignant, had begun to frown on his undertaking, he did not
+slacken in his own endeavours to set his army on foot. One by one, those
+among the princes of the empire who had been most stanch in his cause,
+and were still most friendly to his person, grew colder as tyranny became
+stronger; but the ardor of the Prince was not more chilled by their
+despair than by the overthrow at Jemmingen, which had been its cause. In
+August, he answered the letter of the Emperor, respectfully but warmly.
+He still denounced the tyranny of Alva and the arts of Granvelle with
+that vigorous eloquence which was always at his command, while, as usual,
+he maintained a show of almost exaggerated respect for their monarch. It
+was not to be presumed, he said, that his Majesty, "a king debonair and
+bountiful," had ever intended such cruelties as those which had been
+rapidly retraced in the letter, but it was certain that the Duke of Alva
+had committed them all of his own authority. He trusted, moreover, that
+the Emperor, after he had read the "Justification" which the Prince had
+recently published, would appreciate the reason for his taking up arms.
+He hoped that his Majesty would now consider the resistance just,
+Christian, and conformable to the public peace. He expressed the belief
+that rather than interpose any hindrance, his Majesty would thenceforth
+rather render assistance "to the poor and desolate Christians," even as
+it was his Majesty's office and authority to be the last refuge of the
+injured.
+
+The "Justification against the false blame of his calumniators by the
+Prince of Orange," to which the Prince thus referred, has been mentioned
+in a previous chapter. This remarkable paper had been drawn up at the
+advice of his friends, Landgrave William and Elector Augustus, but it was
+not the only document which the Prince caused to be published at this
+important epoch. He issued a formal declaration of war against the Duke
+of Alva; he addressed a solemn and eloquent warning or proclamation to
+all the inhabitants of the Netherlands. These documents are all extremely
+important and interesting. Their phraseology shows the intentions and the
+spirit by which the Prince was actuated on first engaging in the
+struggle. Without the Prince and his efforts--at this juncture, there
+would probably have never been a free Netherland commonwealth. It is
+certain, likewise, that without an enthusiastic passion for civil and
+religious liberty throughout the masses of the Netherland people, there
+would have been no successful effort on the part of the Prince. He knew
+his countrymen; while they, from highest to humblest, recognised in him
+their saviour. There was, however, no pretence of a revolutionary
+movement. The Prince came to maintain, not to overthrow. The freedom
+which had been enjoyed in the provinces until the accession of the
+Burgundian dynasty, it was his purpose to restore. The attitude which he
+now assumed was a peculiar one in history. This defender of a people's
+cause set up no revolutionary standard. In all his documents he paid
+apparent reverence to the authority of the King. By a fiction, which was
+not unphilosophical, he assumed that the monarch was incapable of the
+crimes which he charged upon the Viceroy. Thus he did not assume the
+character of a rebel in arms against his prince, but in his own capacity
+of sovereign he levied troops and waged war against a satrap whom he
+chose to consider false to his master's orders. In the interest of
+Philip, assumed to be identical with the welfare of his people, he took
+up arms against the tyrant who was sacrificing both. This mask of loyalty
+would never save his head from the block, as he well knew, but some
+spirits lofty as his own, might perhaps be influenced by a noble
+sophistry, which sought to strengthen the cause of the people by
+attributing virtue to the King.
+
+And thus did the sovereign of an insignificant little principality stand
+boldly forth to do battle with the most powerful monarch in the world. At
+his own expense, and by almost superhuman exertions, he had assembled
+nearly thirty thousand men. He now boldly proclaimed to the world, and
+especially to the inhabitants of the provinces, his motives, his
+purposes, and his hopes.
+
+   "We, by God's grace Prince of Orange," said his declaration of 31st
+   August, 1568, "salute all faithful subjects of his Majesty. To few
+   people is it unknown that the Spaniards have for a long time sought
+   to govern the land according to their pleasure. Abusing his
+   Majesty's goodness, they have persuaded him to decree the
+   introduction of the inquisition into the Netherlands. They well
+   understood, that in case the Netherlanders could be made to tolerate
+   its exercise, they would lose all protection to their liberty; that
+   if they opposed its introduction, they would open those rich
+   provinces as a vast field of plunder. We had hoped that his
+   Majesty, taking the matter to heart, would have spared his
+   hereditary provinces from such utter ruin. We have found our hopes
+   futile. We are unable, by reason of our loyal service due to his
+   Majesty, and of our true compassion for the faithful lieges, to look
+   with tranquillity any longer at such murders, robberies, outrages,
+   and agony. We are, moreover, certain that his Majesty has been
+   badly informed upon Netherland matters. We take up arms, therefore,
+   to oppose the violent tyranny of the Spaniards, by the help of the
+   merciful God, who is the enemy of all bloodthirstiness. Cheerfully
+   inclined to wager our life and all our worldly wealth on the cause,
+   we have now, God be thanked, an excellent army of cavalry, infantry,
+   and artillery, raised all at our own expense. We summon all loyal
+   subjects of the Netherlands to come and help us. Let them take to
+   heart the uttermost need of the country, the danger of perpetual
+   slavery for themselves and their children, and of the entire
+   overthrow of the Evangelical religion. Only when Alva's blood-
+   thirstiness shall have been at last overpowered, can the provinces
+   hope to recover their pure administration of justice, and a
+   prosperous condition for their commonwealth."
+
+In the "warning" or proclamation to all the inhabitants of the
+Netherlands, the Prince expressed similar sentiments. He announced his
+intention of expelling the Spaniards forever from the country. To
+accomplish the mighty undertaking, money was necessary. He accordingly
+called on his countrymen to contribute, the rich out of their abundance,
+the poor even out of their poverty, to the furtherance of the cause. To
+do this, while it was yet time, he solemnly warned them "before God, the
+fatherland, and the world." After the title of this paper were cited the
+28th, 29th, and 30th verses of the tenth chapter of Proverbs. The
+favorite motto of the Prince, "pro lege, rege, grege," was also affixed
+to the document.
+
+These appeals had, however, but little effect. Of three hundred thousand
+crowns, promised on behalf of leading nobles and merchants of the
+Netherlands by Marcus Perez, but ten or twelve thousand came to hand. The
+appeals to the gentlemen who had signed the Compromise, and to many
+others who had, in times past, been favorable to the liberal party were
+powerless. A poor Anabaptist preacher collected a small sum from a
+refugee congregation on the outskirts of Holland, and brought it, at the
+peril of his life, into the Prince's camp. It came from people, he said,
+whose will was better than the gift. They never wished to be repaid, he
+said, except by kindness, when the cause of reform should be triumphant
+in the Netherlands. The Prince signed a receipt for the money, expressing
+himself touched by this sympathy from these poor outcasts. In the course
+of time, other contributions from similar sources, principally collected
+by dissenting preachers, starving and persecuted church communities, were
+received. The poverty-stricken exiles contributed far more, in
+proportion, for the establishment of civil and religious liberty, than
+the wealthy merchants or the haughty nobles.
+
+Late in September, the Prince mustered his army in the province of
+Treves, near the monastery of Romersdorf. His force amounted to nearly
+thirty thousand men, of whom nine thousand were cavalry. Lumey, Count de
+la Marek, now joined him at the head of a picked band of troopers; a
+bold, ferocious partisan, descended from the celebrated Wild Boar of
+Ardennes. Like Civilis, the ancient Batavian hero, he had sworn to leave
+hair and beard unshorn till the liberation of the country was achieved,
+or at least till the death of Egmont, whose blood relation he was, had
+been avenged. It is probable that the fierce conduct of this chieftain,
+and particularly the cruelties exercised upon monks and papists by his
+troops, dishonored the cause more than their valor could advance it. But
+in those stormy times such rude but incisive instruments were scarcely to
+be neglected, and the name of Lumey was to be forever associated with
+important triumphs of the liberal cause.
+
+It was fated, however, that but few laurels should be won by the patriots
+in this campaign. The Prince crossed the Rhine at Saint Feit, a village
+belonging to himself. He descended along the banks as far as the
+neighbourhood of Cologne. Then, after hovering in apparent uncertainty
+about the territories of Juliers and Limburg, he suddenly, on a bright
+moonlight night, crossed the Meuse with his whole army, in the
+neighbourhood of Stochem. The operation was brilliantly effected. A
+compact body of cavalry, according to the plan which had been more than
+once adopted by Julius Caesar, was placed in the midst of the current,
+under which shelter the whole army successfully forded the river. The
+Meuse was more shallow than usual, but the water was as high as the
+soldiers' necks. This feat was accomplished on the night and morning of
+the 4th and 5th of October. It was considered so bold an achievement that
+its fame spread far and wide. The Spaniards began to tremble at the
+prowess of a Prince whom they had affected to despise. The very fact of
+the passage was flatly contradicted. An unfortunate burgher at Amsterdam
+was scourged at the whipping-post, because he mentioned it as matter of
+common report. The Duke of Alva refused to credit the tale when it was
+announced to him. "Is the army of the Prince of Orange a flock of wild
+geese," he asked, "that it can fly over rivers like the Meuse?"
+Nevertheless it was true. The outlawed, exiled Prince stood once more on
+the borders of Brabant, with an army of disciplined troops at his back.
+His banners bore patriotic inscriptions. "Pro Lege, Rege, Grege," was
+emblazoned upon some. A pelican tearing her breast to nourish her young
+with her life-blood was the pathetic emblem of others. It was his
+determination to force or entice the Duke of Alva into a general
+engagement. He was desirous to wipe out the disgrace of Jemmingen. Could
+he plant his victorious standard thus in the very heart of the country,
+he felt that thousands would rally around it. The country would rise
+almost to a man, could he achieve a victory over the tyrant, flushed as
+he was with victory, and sated with blood.
+
+With banners flying, drums beating, trumpets sounding, with all the pomp
+and defiance which an already victorious general could assume, Orange
+marched into Brabant, and took up a position within six thousand paces of
+Alva's encampment. His plan was at every hazard to dare or to decoy his
+adversary into the chances of a stricken field. The Governor was
+entrenched at a place called Keiserslager, which Julius Caesar had once
+occupied. The city of Maestricht was in his immediate neighbourhood,
+which was thus completely under his protection, while it furnished him
+with supplies. The Prince sent to the Duke a herald, who was to propose
+that all prisoners who might be taken in the coming campaign should be
+exchanged instead of being executed. The herald, booted and spurred, even
+as he had dismounted from his horse, was instantly hanged. This was the
+significant answer to the mission of mercy. Alva held no parley with
+rebels before a battle, nor gave quarter afterwards.
+
+In the meantime, the Duke had carefully studied the whole position of
+affairs, and had arrived at his conclusion. He was determined not to
+fight. It was obvious that the Prince would offer battle eagerly,
+ostentatiously, frequently, but the Governor was resolved never to accept
+the combat. Once taken, his resolution was unalterable. He recognized the
+important difference between his own attitude at present, and that in
+which he had found himself during the past summer in Friesland. There a
+battle had been necessary, now it was more expedient to overcome his
+enemy by delay. In Friesland, the rebels had just achieved a victory over
+the choice troops of Spain. Here they were suffering from the stigma of a
+crushing defeat. Then, the army of Louis Nassau was swelling daily by
+recruits, who poured in from all the country round. Now, neither peasant
+nor noble dared lift a finger for the Prince. The army of Louis had been
+sustained by the one which his brother was known to be preparing. If
+their movements had not been checked, a junction would have been
+effected. The armed revolt would then have assumed so formidable an
+aspect, that rebellion would seem, even for the timid, a safer choice
+than loyalty. The army of the Prince, on the contrary, was now the last
+hope of the patriots: The three by which it had been preceded had been
+successively and signally vanquished.
+
+Friesland, again, was on the outskirts of the country. A defeat sustained
+by the government there did not necessarily imperil the possession of the
+provinces. Brabant, on the contrary, was the heart of the Netherlands.
+Should the Prince achieve a decisive triumph then and there, he would be
+master of the nation's fate. The Viceroy knew himself to be odious, and
+he reigned by terror. The Prince was the object of the people's idolatry,
+and they would rally round him if they dared. A victory gained by the
+liberator over the tyrant, would destroy the terrible talisman of
+invincibility by which Alva governed. The Duke had sufficiently
+demonstrated his audacity in the tremendous chastisement which he had
+inflicted upon the rebels under Louis. He could now afford to play that
+scientific game of which he was so profound a master, without risking any
+loss of respect or authority. He was no enthusiast. Although he doubtless
+felt sufficiently confident of overcoming the Prince in a pitched battle,
+he had not sufficient relish for the joys of contest to be willing to
+risk even a remote possibility of defeat. His force, although composed of
+veterans and of the best musketeers and pikemen in Europe, was still
+somewhat inferior in numbers to that of his adversary. Against the twenty
+thousand foot and eight thousand, horse of Orange, he could oppose only
+fifteen or sixteen thousand foot and fifty-five hundred riders. Moreover,
+the advantage which he had possessed in Friesland, a country only
+favorable to infantry, in which he had been stronger than his opponent,
+was now transferred to his new enemy. On the plains of Brabant, the
+Prince's superiority in cavalry was sure to tell. The season of the year,
+too, was an important element in the calculation. The winter alone would
+soon disperse the bands of German mercenaries, whose expenses Orange was
+not able to support, even while in active service. With unpaid wages and
+disappointed hopes of plunder, the rebel army would disappear in a few
+weeks as totally as if defeated in the open field. In brief, Orange by a
+victory would gain new life and strength, while his defeat could no more
+than anticipate, by a few weeks, the destruction of his army, already
+inevitable. Alva, on the contrary, might lose the mastery of the
+Netherlands if unfortunate, and would gain no solid advantage if
+triumphant. The Prince had everything to hope, the Duke everything to
+fear, from the result of a general action.
+
+The plan, thus deliberately resolved upon, was accomplished with
+faultless accuracy. As a work of art, the present campaign of Alva
+against Orange was a more consummate masterpiece than the more brilliant
+and dashing expedition into Friesland. The Duke had resolved to hang upon
+his adversary's skirts, to follow him move by move, to check him at every
+turn, to harass him in a hundred ways, to foil all his enterprises, to
+parry all his strokes, and finally to drive him out of the country, after
+a totally barren campaign, when, as he felt certain, his ill-paid
+hirelings would vanish in all directions, and leave their patriot Prince
+a helpless and penniless adventurer. The scheme thus sagaciously
+conceived, his adversary, with all his efforts, was unable to circumvent.
+
+The campaign lasted little more than a month. Twenty-nine times the
+Prince changed his encampment, and at every remove the Duke was still
+behind him, as close and seemingly as impalpable as his shadow. Thrice
+they were within cannon-shot of each other; twice without a single trench
+or rampart between them. The country people refused the Prince supplies,
+for they trembled at the vengeance of the Governor. Alva had caused the
+irons to be removed from all the mills, so that not a bushel of corn
+could be ground in the whole province. The country thus afforded but
+little forage for the thirty thousand soldiers of the Prince. The troops,
+already discontented, were clamorous for pay and plunder. During one
+mutinous demonstration, the Prince's sword was shot from his side, and it
+was with difficulty that a general outbreak was suppressed. The soldiery
+were maddened and tantalized by the tactics of Alva. They found
+themselves constantly in the presence of an enemy, who seemed to court a
+battle at one moment and to vanish like a phantom at the next They felt
+the winter approaching, and became daily more dissatisfied with the
+irritating hardships to which they were exposed. Upon the night of the
+5th and 6th of October the Prince had crossed the Meuse at Stochem.
+Thence he had proceeded to Tongres, followed closely by the enemy's
+force, who encamped in the immediate neighbourhood. From Tongres he had
+moved to Saint Trond, still pursued and still baffled in the same
+cautious manner. The skirmishing at the outposts was incessant, but the
+main body was withdrawn as soon as there seemed a chance of its becoming
+involved.
+
+From Saint Trond, in the neighbourhood of which he had remained several
+days, he advanced in a southerly direction towards Jodoigne. Count de
+Genlis, with a reinforcement of French Huguenots, for which the Prince
+had been waiting, had penetrated through the Ardennes, crossed the Meuse
+at Charlemont, and was now intending a junction with him at Waveron. The
+river Geta flowed between them. The Prince stationed a considerable force
+upon a hill near the stream to protect the passage, and then proceeded
+leisurely to send his army across the river. Count Hoogstraaten, with the
+rear-guard, consisting of about three thousand men, were alone left upon
+the hither bank, in order to provoke or to tempt the enemy, who, as
+usual, was encamped very near. Alva refused to attack the main army, but
+Frederic with a force of four thousand men, were alone left on the hither
+bank, in order to provoke or to tempt the enemy, who as usual, was
+encamped very near. Alva refused to attack the main army but rapidly
+detached his son, Don Fredrick, with a force of four thousand foot and
+three thousand horse, to cut off the rear-guard. The movement was
+effected in a masterly manner, the hill was taken, the three thousand
+troops which had not passed the river were cut to pieces, and Vitelli
+hastily despatched a gentleman named Barberini to implore the Duke to
+advance with the main body, cross the river, and, once for all,
+exterminate the rebels in a general combat. Alva, inflamed, not with
+ardor for an impending triumph, but with rage, that his sagely-conceived
+plans could not be comprehended even by his son and by his favorite
+officers, answered the eager messenger with peremptory violence. "Go back
+to Vitelli," he cried. "Is he, or am I, to command in this campaign? Tell
+him not to suffer a single man to cross the river. Warn him against
+sending any more envoys to advise a battle; for should you or any other
+man dare to bring me another such message, I swear to you, by the head of
+the King, that you go not hence alive."
+
+With this decisive answer the messenger had nothing for it but to gallop
+back with all haste, in order to participate in what might be left of the
+butchery of Count Hoogstraaten's force, and to prevent Vitelli and Don
+Frederic in their ill-timed ardor, from crossing the river. This was
+properly effected, while in the meantime the whole rear-guard of the
+patriots had been slaughtered. A hundred or two, the last who remained,
+had made their escape from the field, and had taken refuge in a house in
+the neighbourhood. The Spaniards set the buildings on fire, and standing
+around with lifted lances, offered the fugitives the choice of being
+consumed in the flames or of springing out upon their spears. Thus
+entrapped some chose the one course, some the other. A few, to escape the
+fury of the fire and the brutality of the Spaniards, stabbed themselves
+with their own swords. Others embraced, and then killed each other, the
+enemies from below looking on, as at a theatrical exhibition; now hissing
+and now applauding, as the death struggles were more or less to their
+taste. In a few minutes all the fugitives were dead. Nearly three
+thousand of the patriots were slain in this combat, including those
+burned or butchered after the battle was over. The Sieur de Louverwal was
+taken prisoner, and soon afterwards beheaded in Brussels; but the
+greatest misfortune sustained by the liberal party upon this occasion was
+the death of Antony de Lalaing, Count of Hoogstraaten. This brave and
+generous nobleman, the tried friend of the Prince of Orange, and his
+colleague during the memorable scenes at Antwerp, was wounded in the foot
+during the action, by an accidental discharge of his own pistol. The
+injury, although apparently slight, caused his death in a few days. There
+seemed a strange coincidence in his good and evil fortunes. A casual
+wound in the hand from his own pistol while he was on his way to
+Brussels, to greet Alva upon his first arrival, had saved him from the
+scaffold. And now in his first pitched battle with the Duke, this
+seemingly trifling injury in the foot was destined to terminate his
+existence. Another peculiar circumstance had marked the event. At a gay
+supper in the course of this campaign, Hoogstraaten had teased Count
+Louis, in a rough, soldierly way, with his disaster at Jemmingen. He had
+affected to believe that the retreat upon that occasion had been
+unnecessary. "We have been now many days in the Netherlands;" said he,
+"and we have seen nothing of the Spaniards but their backs."--"And when
+the Duke does break loose," replied Louis, somewhat nettled, "I warrant
+you will see their faces soon enough, and remember them for the rest of
+your life." The half-jesting remark was thus destined to become a gloomy
+prophecy.
+
+This was the only important action daring the campaign. Its perfect
+success did not warp Alva's purpose, and, notwithstanding the murmurs of
+many of his officers, he remained firm in his resolution. After the
+termination of the battle on the Geta, and the Duke's obstinate refusal
+to pursue his advantage, the Baron de Chevreau dashed his pistol to the
+ground, in his presence, exclaiming that the Duke would never fight. The
+Governor smiled at the young man's chagrin, seemed even to approve his
+enthusiasm, but reminded him that it was the business of an officer to
+fight, of a general to conquer. If the victory were bloodless, so much
+the better for all.
+
+This action was fought on the 20th of October. A few days afterwards, the
+Prince made his junction with Genlis at Waveren, a place about three
+leagues from Louvain and from Brussels. This auxiliary force was,
+however, insignificant. There were only five hundred cavalry and three
+thousand foot, but so many women and children, that it seemed rather an
+emigrating colony than an invading army. They arrived late. If they had
+come earlier, it would have been of little consequence, for it had been
+written that no laurels were to be gathered in that campaign. The
+fraternal spirit which existed between the Reformers in all countries was
+all which could be manifested upon the occasion. The Prince was
+frustrated in his hopes of a general battle, still more bitterly
+disappointed by the supineness of the country. Not a voice was raised to
+welcome the deliverer. Not a single city opened its gates. All was
+crouching, silent, abject. The rising, which perhaps would have been
+universal had a brilliant victory been obtained, was, by the masterly
+tactics of Alva, rendered an almost inconceivable idea. The mutinous
+demonstrations in the Prince's camp became incessant; the soldiers were
+discontented and weary. What the Duke had foretold was coming to pass,
+for the Prince's army was already dissolving.
+
+Genlis and the other French officers were desirous that the Prince should
+abandon the Netherlands for the present, and come to the rescue of the
+Huguenots, who had again renewed the religious war under Conde and
+Coligny. The German soldiers, however would listen to no such proposal.
+They had enlisted to fight the Duke of Alva in the Netherlands, and would
+not hear of making war against Charles IX. in France. The Prince was
+obliged to countermarch toward the Rhine. He recrossed the Geta, somewhat
+to Alva's astonishment, and proceeded in the direction of the Meuse. The
+autumn rains, however, had much swollen that river since his passage at
+the beginning of the month, so that it could no longer be forded. He
+approached the city of Liege, and summoned their Bishop, as he had done
+on his entrance into the country, to grant a free passage to his troops.
+The Bishop who stood in awe of Alva, and who had accepted his protection
+again refused. The Prince had no time to parley. He was again obliged to
+countermarch, and took his way along the high-road to France, still
+watched and closely pursued by Alva, between whose troops and his own
+daily skirmishes took place. At Le Quesnoy, the Prince gained a trifling
+advantage over the Spaniards; at Cateau Cambresis he also obtained a
+slight and easy-victory; but by the 17th of November the Duke of Alva had
+entered Cateau Cambresis, and the Prince had crossed the frontier of
+France.
+
+The Marechal de Cosse, who was stationed on the boundary of France and
+Flanders, now harassed the Prince by very similar tactics to those of
+Alva. He was, however, too weak to inflict any serious damage, although
+strong enough to create perpetual annoyance. He also sent a secretary to
+the Prince, with a formal prohibition, in the name of Charles IX.,
+against his entering the French territory with his troops.
+
+Besides these negotiations, conducted by Secretary Favelles on the part
+of Marechal de Cosse, the King, who was excessively alarmed, also
+despatched the Marechal Gaspar de Schomberg on the same service. That
+envoy accordingly addressed to the Prince a formal remonstrance in the
+name of his sovereign. Charles IX., it was represented, found it very
+strange that the Prince should thus enter the French territory. The King
+was not aware that he had ever given him the least cause for hostile
+proceedings, could not therefore take it in good part that the Prince
+should thus enter France with a "large and puissant army;" because no
+potentate, however humble, could tolerate such a proceeding, much less a
+great and powerful monarch. Orange was therefore summoned to declare his
+intentions, but was at the same, time informed, that if he merely desired
+"to pass amiably through the country," and would give assurance, and
+request permission to that, effect, under his hand and seal, his Majesty
+would take all necessary measures to secure that amiable passage.
+
+The Prince replied by a reference to the statements which he had already
+made to Marechal de Cosse. He averred that he had not entered France with
+evil intent, but rather with a desire to render very humble service to
+his Majesty, so far as he could do so with a clear conscience.
+
+Touching the King's inability to remember having given any occasion to
+hostile proceedings on the part of the Prince, he replied that he would
+pass that matter by. Although he could adduce many, various, and strong
+reasons for violent measures, he was not so devoid of understanding as
+not to recognize the futility of attempting anything, by his own personal
+means, against so great and powerful a King, in comparison with whom he
+was "but a petty companion."
+
+"Since the true religion," continued Orange, "is a public and general
+affair, which ought to be preferred to all private matters; since the
+Prince, as a true Christian, is held by his honor and conscience to
+procure, with all his strength, its advancement and establishment in
+every place whatever; since, on the other hand, according to the edict
+published in September last by his Majesty, attempts have been made to
+force in their consciences all those who are of the Christian religion;
+and since it has been determined to exterminate the pure word of God, and
+the entire exercise thereof, and to permit no other religion than the
+Roman Catholic, a thing very, prejudicial to the neighbouring nations
+where there is a free exercise of the Christian religion, therefore the
+Prince would put no faith in the assertions of his Majesty, that it was
+not his Majesty's intentions to force the consciences of any one."
+
+Having given this very deliberate and succinct contradiction to the
+statements of the French King, the Prince proceeded to express his
+sympathy for the oppressed Christians everywhere. He protested that he
+would give them all the aid, comfort, counsel, and assistance that he was
+able to give them. He asserted his conviction that the men who professed
+the religion demanded nothing else than the glory of God and the
+advancement of His word, while in all matters of civil polity they were
+ready to render obedience to his Majesty. He added that all his doings
+were governed by a Christian and affectionate regard for the King and his
+subjects, whom his Majesty must be desirous of preserving from extreme
+ruin. He averred, moreover, that if he should perceive any indication
+that those of the religion were pursuing any other object than liberty of
+conscience and security for life and property, he would not only withdraw
+his assistance from them, but would use the whole strength of his army to
+exterminate them. In conclusion, he begged the King to believe that the
+work which the Prince had undertaken was a Christian work, and that his
+intentions were good and friendly towards his Majesty.
+
+   [This very eloquently written letter was dated Ciasonne, December
+   3rd, 1568. It has never been published. It is in the Collection of
+   MSS, Pivoen concernant, etc., Hague archives.]
+
+It was, however, in vain that the Prince endeavoured to induce his army
+to try the fortunes of the civil war in France. They had enlisted for the
+Netherlands, the campaign was over, and they insisted upon being led back
+to Germany. Schomberg, secretly instructed by the King of France, was
+active in fomenting the discontent, and the Prince was forced to yield.
+He led his army through Champagne and Lorraine to Strasburg, where they
+were disbanded. All the money which the Prince had been able to collect
+was paid them. He pawned all his camp equipage, his plate, his furniture.
+
+What he could not pay in money he made up in promises, sacredly to be
+fulfilled, when he should be restored to his possessions. He even
+solemnly engaged, should he return from France alive, and be still unable
+to pay their arrears of wages, to surrender his person to them as a
+hostage for his debt.
+
+Thus triumphantly for Alva, thus miserably for Orange, ended the
+campaign. Thus hopelessly vanished the army to which so many proud hopes
+had attached themselves. Eight thousand teen had been slain in paltry
+encounters, thirty thousand were dispersed, not easily to be again
+collected. All the funds which the Prince could command had been wasted
+without producing a result. For the present, nothing seemed to afford a
+ground of hope for the Netherlands, but the war of freedom had been
+renewed in France. A band of twelve hundred mounted men-at-arms were
+willing to follow the fortunes of the Prince. The three brothers
+accordingly; William, Louis, and Henry--a lad of eighteen, who had
+abandoned his studies at the university to obey the chivalrous instincts
+of his race--set forth early in the following spring to join the banner
+of Conde.
+
+Cardinal Granvelle, who had never taken his eyes or thoughts from the
+provinces during his residence at Rome, now expressed himself with
+exultation. He had predicted, with cold malice, the immediate results of
+the campaign, and was sanguine enough to believe the contest over, and
+the Prince for ever crushed. In his letters to Philip he had taken due
+notice of the compliments paid to him by Orange in his Justification, in
+his Declaration, and in his letter to the Emperor. He had declined to
+make any answer to the charges, in order to enrage the Prince the more.
+He had expressed the opinion, however, that this publication of writings
+was not the business of brave soldiers, but of cowards. He made the same
+reflection upon the alleged intrigues by Orange to procure an embassy on
+his own behalf from the Emperor to Philip--a mission which was sure to
+end in smoke, while it would cost the Prince all credit, not only in
+Germany but the Netherlands. He felt sure, he said, of the results of the
+impending campaign. The Duke of Alva was a man upon whose administrative
+prudence and military skill his sovereign could implicitly rely, nor was
+there a person in the ranks of the rebels capable of, conducting an
+enterprise of such moment. Least of all had the Prince of Orange
+sufficient brains for carrying on such weighty affairs, according to the
+opinion which he had formed of him during their long intercourse in
+former days.
+
+When the campaign had been decided, and the Prince had again become an
+exile, Granvelle observed that it was now proved how incompetent he and
+all his companions were to contend in military skill with the Duke of
+Alva. With a cold sneer at motives which he assumed, as a matter of
+course, to be purely selfish, he said that the Prince had not taken the
+proper road to recover his property, and that he would now be much
+embarrassed to satisfy his creditors. Thus must those ever fall, he
+moralized, who would fly higher than they ought; adding, that henceforth
+the Prince would have enough to do in taking care of madam his wife, if
+she did not change soon in humor and character.
+
+Meantime the Duke of Alva, having despatched from Cateau Cambresis a
+brief account of the victorious termination of the campaign, returned in
+triumph to Brussels. He had certainly amply vindicated his claim to be
+considered the first warrior of the age. By his lieutenants he had
+summarily and rapidly destroyed two of the armies sent against him; he
+had annihilated in person the third, by a brilliantly successful battle,
+in which he had lost seven men, and his enemies seven thousand; and he
+had now, by consummate strategy, foiled the fourth and last under the
+idolized champion of the Netherlands, and this so decisively that,
+without losing a man, he had destroyed eight thousand rebels, and
+scattered to the four winds the remaining twenty thousand. Such signal
+results might well make even a meeker nature proud. Such vast and
+fortunate efforts to fix for ever an impregnable military tyranny upon a
+constitutional country, might cause a more modest despot to exult. It was
+not wonderful that the haughty, and now apparently omnipotent Alva,
+should almost assume the god. On his return to Brussels he instituted a
+succession of triumphant festivals. The people were called upon to
+rejoice and to be exceeding glad, to strew flowers in his path, to sing
+Hosannas in his praise who came to them covered with the blood of those
+who had striven in their defence. The holiday was duly called forth;
+houses, where funeral hatchments for murdered inmates had been
+perpetually suspended, were decked with garlands; the bells, which had
+hardly once omitted their daily knell for the victims of an incredible
+cruelty, now rang their merriest peals; and in the very square where so
+lately Egmont and Horn, besides many other less distinguished martyrs,
+had suffered an ignominious death, a gay tournament was held, day after
+day, with all the insolent pomp which could make the exhibition most
+galling.
+
+But even these demonstrations of hilarity were not sufficient. The
+conqueror and tamer of the Netherlands felt that a more personal and
+palpable deification was necessary for his pride. When Germanicus had
+achieved his last triumph over the ancient freedom of those generous
+races whose descendants, but lately in possession of a better organized
+liberty, Alva had been sent by the second and the worse Tiberius to
+insult and to crush, the valiant but modest Roman erected his trophy upon
+the plains of Idistavisus. "The army of Tiberius Caesar having subdued
+the nations between the Rhine and the Elbe, dedicate this monument to
+Mars, to Jupiter, and to Augustus." So ran the inscription of Germanicus,
+without a word of allusion to his own name. The Duke of Alva, on his
+return from the battle-fields of Brabant and Friesland, reared a colossal
+statue of himself, and upon its pedestal caused these lines to be
+engraved: "To Ferdinand Alvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alva, Governor of the
+Netherlands under Philip the Second, for having extinguished sedition,
+chastised rebellion, restored religion, secured justice, established
+peace; to the King's most faithful minister this monument is erected."
+
+   [Bor, iv. 257, 258. Meteren, 61. De Thou, v. 471-473, who saw it
+   after it was overthrown, and who was "as much struck by the beauty
+   of the work as by the insane pride of him who ordered it to be
+   made."]
+
+So pompous a eulogy, even if truthful and merited, would be sufficiently
+inflated upon a tombstone raised to a dead chieftain by his bereaved
+admirers. What shall we say of such false and fulsome tribute, not to a
+god, not to the memory of departed greatness, but to a living, mortal
+man, and offered not by his adorers but by himself? Certainly,
+self-worship never went farther than in this remarkable monument, erected
+in Alva's honor, by Alva's hands. The statue was colossal, and was placed
+in the citadel of Antwerp. Its bronze was furnished by the cannon
+captured at Jemmingen. It represented the Duke trampling upon a prostrate
+figure with two heads, four arms, and one body. The two heads were
+interpreted by some to represent Egmont and Horn, by others, the two
+Nassaus, William and Louis. Others saw in them an allegorical presentment
+of the nobles and commons of the Netherlands, or perhaps an impersonation
+of the Compromise and the Request. Besides the chief inscription on the
+pedestal, were sculptured various bas-reliefs; and the spectator, whose
+admiration for the Governor-general was not satiated with the colossal
+statue itself, was at liberty to find a fresh, personification of the
+hero, either in a torch-bearing angel or a gentle shepherd. The work,
+which had considerable esthetic merit, was executed by an artist named
+Jacob Jongeling. It remained to astonish and disgust the Netherlanders
+until it was thrown down and demolished by Alva's successor, Requesens.
+
+It has already been observed that many princes of the Empire had, at
+first warmly and afterwards, as the storm darkened around him, with less
+earnestness, encouraged the efforts of Orange. They had, both privately
+and officially, urged the subject upon the attention of the Emperor, and
+had solicited his intercession with Philip. It was not an interposition
+to save the Prince from chastisement, however the artful pen of Granvelle
+might distort the facts. It was an address in behalf of religious liberty
+for the Netherlands, made by those who had achieved it in their own
+persons, and who were at last enjoying immunity from persecution. It was
+an appeal which they who made it were bound to make, for the Netherland
+commissioners had assisted at the consultations by which the Peace of
+Passau had been wrung from the reluctant hand of Charles.
+
+These applications, however, to the Emperor, and through him to the King
+of Spain, had been, as we have seen, accompanied by perpetual advice to
+the Prince of Orange, that he should "sit still." The Emperor had
+espoused his cause with apparent frankness, so far as friendly mediation
+went, but in the meantime had peremptorily commanded him to refrain from
+levying war upon Alva, an injunction which the Prince had as peremptorily
+declined to obey. The Emperor had even sent especial envoys to the Duke
+and to the Prince, to induce them to lay down their arms, but without
+effect. Orange knew which course was the more generous to his oppressed
+country; to take up arms, now that hope had been converted into despair
+by the furious tyranny of Alva, or to "sit still" and await the result of
+the protocols about to be exchanged between king and kaiser. His arms had
+been unsuccessful indeed, but had he attended the issue of this sluggish
+diplomacy, it would have been even worse for the cause of freedom. The
+sympathy of his best friends, at first fervent then lukewarm, had, as
+disasters thickened around him, grown at last stone-cold. From the grave,
+too, of Queen Isabella arose the most importunate phantom in his path.
+The King of Spain was a widower again, and the Emperor among his sixteen
+children had more than one marriageable daughter. To the titles of
+"beloved cousin and brother-in-law," with which Philip had always been
+greeted in the Imperial proclamations, the nearer and dearer one of
+son-in-law was prospectively added.
+
+The ties of wedlock were sacred in the traditions of the Habsburg house,
+but still the intervention was nominally made. As early as August, 1568,
+the Emperor's minister at Madrid had addressed a memorial to the King. He
+had spoken in warm and strong language of the fate of Egmont and Horn,
+and had reminded Philip that the executions which were constantly taking
+place in the provinces were steadily advancing the Prince of Orange's
+cause. On the 22nd September, 1568, the six electors had addressed a
+formal memorial to the Emperor. They thanked him for his previous
+interposition in favor of the Netherlands, painted in lively colors the
+cruelty of Alva, and denounced the unheard-of rigor with which he had
+massacred, not only many illustrious seigniors, but people of every
+degree. Notwithstanding the repeated assurances given by the King to the
+contrary, they reminded the Emperor, that the inquisition, as well as the
+Council of Trent, had now been established in the Netherlands in full
+vigor. They maintained that the provinces had been excluded from the
+Augsburg religious peace, to which their claim was perfect. Nether
+Germany was entitled to the same privileges as Upper Germany. They begged
+the Emperor to make manifest his sentiments and their own. It was fitting
+that his Catholic Majesty should be aware that the princes of the Empire
+were united for the conservation of fatherland and of tranquillity. To
+this end they placed in the Emperor's hands their estates, their
+fortunes, and their lives.
+
+Such was the language of that important appeal to the Emperor in behalf
+of oppressed millions in the Netherlands, an appeal which Granvelle had
+coldly characterized as an intrigue contrived by Orange to bring about
+his own restoration to favor!
+
+The Emperor, in answer, assured the electoral envoys that he had taken
+the affair to heart, and had resolved to despatch his own brother, the
+Archduke Charles, on a special mission to Spain.
+
+Accordingly, on the 21st October, 1568, the Emperor presented his brother
+with an ample letter of instructions. He was to recal to Philip's memory
+the frequent exhortations made by the Emperor concerning the policy
+pursued in the Netherlands. He was to mention the urgent interpellations
+made to him by the electors and princes of the Empire in their recent
+embassy. He was to state that the Emperor had recently deputed
+commissioners to the Prince of Orange and the Duke of Alva, in order to
+bring about, if possible, a suspension of arms. He was to represent that
+the great number of men raised by the Prince of Orange in Germany, showed
+the powerful support which he had found in the country. Under such
+circumstances he was to show that it had been impossible for the Emperor
+to decree the ban against him, as the Duke of Alva had demanded. The
+Archduke was to request the King's consent to the reconciliation of
+Orange, on honorable conditions. He was to demand the substitution of
+clemency in for severity, and to insist on the recall of the foreign
+soldiery from the Netherlands.
+
+Furnished with this very warm and stringent letter, the Archduke arrived
+in Madrid on the 10th December, 1568. A few days later he presented the
+King with a copy of the instructions; those brave words upon which the
+Prince of Orange was expected to rely instead of his own brave heart and
+the stout arms of his followers. Philip having examined the letter,
+expressed his astonishment that such propositions should be made to him,
+and by the agency, too, of such a personage as the Archduke. He had
+already addressed a letter to the Emperor, expressing his dissatisfaction
+at the step now taken. He had been disturbed at the honor thus done to
+the Prince of Orange, and at this interference with his own rights. It
+was, in his opinion, an unheard-of proceeding thus to address a monarch
+of his quality upon matters in which he could accept the law from no man.
+He promised, however, that a written answer should be given to the letter
+of instructions.
+
+On the 20th of January, 1569, that answer was placed in the hands of the
+Archduke. It was intimated that the paper was a public one, fit to be
+laid by the Emperor, before the electors; but that the King had also
+caused a confidential one to be prepared, in which his motives and
+private griefs were indicated to Maximilian.
+
+In the more public document, Philip observed that he had never considered
+himself obliged to justify his conduct, in his own affairs, to others. He
+thought, however, that his example of severity would have been received
+with approbation by princes whose subjects he had thus taught obedience.
+He could not admit that, on account of the treaties which constituted the
+Netherlands a circle of the Empire, he was obliged to observe within
+their limits the ordinances of the imperial diet. As to the matter of
+religion, his principal solicitude, since his accession to the crown, had
+been to maintain the Catholic faith throughout all his states. In things
+sacred he could admit no compromise. The Church alone had the right to
+prescribe rules to the faithful. As to the chastisement inflicted by him
+upon the Netherland rebels, it would be found that he had not used rigor,
+as had been charged against him, but, on the contrary, great clemency
+and gentleness. He had made no change in the government of the provinces,
+certainly none in the edicts, the only statutes binding upon princes. He
+had appointed the Duke of Alva to the regency, because it was his royal
+will and pleasure so to appoint him. The Spanish soldiery were necessary
+for the thorough chastisement of the rebels, and could not be at present
+removed. As to the Prince of Orange, whose case seemed the principal
+motive for this embassy, and in whose interest so much had been urged,
+his crimes were so notorious that it was impossible even to attempt to
+justify them. He had been, in effect, the author of all the conspiracies,
+tumults, and seditious which had taken place in the Netherlands. All the
+thefts, sacrileges, violations of temples, and other misdeeds of which
+these provinces had been the theatre, were, with justice, to be imputed
+to him. He had moreover, levied an army and invaded his Majesty's
+territories. Crimes so enormous had closed the gate to all clemency.
+Notwithstanding his respect for the intercession made by the Emperor and
+the princes of the Empire, the King could not condescend to grant what
+was now asked of him in regard to the Prince of Orange. As to a truce
+between him and the Duke of Alva, his Imperial Majesty ought to reflect
+upon the difference between a sovereign and his rebellious vassal, and
+consider how indecent and how prejudicial to the King's honor such a
+treaty must be esteemed.
+
+So far the public letter, of which the Archduke was furnished with a
+copy, both in Spanish and in Latin. The private memorandum was intended
+for the Emperor's eyes alone and those of his envoy. In this paper the
+King expressed himself with more warmth and in more decided language. He
+was astonished, he said, that the Prince of Orange, in levying an army
+for the purpose of invading the states of his natural sovereign, should
+have received so much aid and comfort in Germany. It seemed incredible
+that this could not have been prevented by imperial authority. He had
+been pained that commissioners had been sent to the Prince. He regretted
+such a demonstration in his favor as had now been made by the mission of
+the Archduke to Madrid. That which, however, had caused the King the
+deepest sorrow was, that his Imperial Majesty should wish to persuade him
+in religious matters to proceed with mildness. The Emperor ought to be
+aware that no human consideration, no regard for his realms, nothing in
+the world which could be represented or risked, would cause him to swerve
+by a single hair's breadth from his path in the matter of religion. This
+path was the same throughout all his kingdoms. He had ever trod in it
+faithfully, and he meant to keep in it perpetually. He would admit
+neither counsel nor persuasion to the contrary, and should take it ill if
+counsel or persuasion should be offered. He could not but consider the
+terms of the instructions given to the Archduke as exceeding the limits
+of amicable suggestion. They in effect amounted to a menace, and he was
+astonished that a menace should be employed, because, with princes
+constituted like himself, such means could have but little success.
+
+On the 23rd of January, 1569, the Archduke presented the King with a
+spirited reply to the public letter. It was couched in the spirit of the
+instructions, and therefore need not be analysed at length. He did not
+believe that his Imperial Majesty would admit any justification of the
+course pursued in the Netherlands. The estates of the Empire would never
+allow Philip's reasoning concerning the connexion of those countries with
+the Empire, nor that they were independent, except in the particular
+articles expressed in the treaty of Augsburg. In 1555, when Charles the
+Fifth and King Ferdinand had settled the religious peace, they had been
+assisted by envoys from the Netherlands. The princes of the Empire held
+the ground, therefore, that the religious peace, which alone had saved a
+vestige of Romanism in Germany, should of right extend to the provinces.
+As to the Prince of Orange, the Archduke would have preferred to say
+nothing more, but the orders of the Emperor did not allow him to be
+silent. It was now necessary to put an end to this state of things in
+Lower Germany. The princes of the Empire were becoming exasperated. He
+recalled the dangers of the Smalcaldian war--the imminent peril in which
+the Emperor had been placed by the act of a single elector. They who
+believed that Flanders could be governed in the same manner as Italy and
+Spain were greatly mistaken, and Charles the Fifth had always recognised
+that error.
+
+This was the sum and substance of the Archduke's mission to Madrid, so
+far as its immediate objects were concerned. In the course, however, of
+the interview between this personage and Philip, the King took occasion
+to administer a rebuke to his Imperial Majesty for his general negligence
+in religious matters. It was a matter which lay at his heart, he said,
+that the Emperor, although, as he doubted not, a Christian and Catholic
+prince, was from policy unaccustomed to make those exterior
+demonstrations which matters of faith required. He therefore begged the
+Archduke to urge this matter upon the attention of his Imperial Majesty.
+
+The Emperor, despite this solemn mission, had become more than
+indifferent before his envoy had reached Madrid. For this indifference
+there were more reasons than one. When the instructions had been drawn
+up, the death of the Queen of Spain had not been known in Vienna. The
+Archduke had even been charged to inform Philip of the approaching
+marriages of the two Archduchesses, that of Anne with the King of France,
+and that of Isabella with the King of Portugal. A few days later,
+however, the envoy received letters from the Emperor, authorizing him to
+offer to the bereaved Philip the hand of the Archduchess Anne.
+
+   [Herrera (lib. xv. 707) erroneously states that the Archduke was,
+   at the outset, charged with these two commissions by the Emperor;
+   namely, to negotiate the marriage of the Archduchess Anne with
+   Philip, and to arrange the affairs of the Netherlands. On the
+   contrary, he was empowered to offer Anne to the King of France,
+   and had already imparted his instructions to that effect to Philip,
+   before he received letters from Vienna, written after the death of
+   Isabella had become known. At another interview, he presented this
+   new matrimonial proposition to Philip. These facts are important,
+   for they indicate how completely the objects of the embassy, the
+   commencement of which was so pretentious, were cast aside, that a
+   more advantageous marriage for one of the seven Austrian
+   Archduchesses might be secured.--Compare Correspondance de Philippe]
+
+The King replied to the Archduke, when this proposition was made, that if
+he had regard only to his personal satisfaction, he should remain as he
+was. As however he had now no son, he was glad that the proposition had
+been made, and would see how the affair could be arranged with France.
+
+Thus the ill success of Orange in Brabant, so disheartening to the German
+princes most inclined to his cause, and still more the widowhood of
+Philip, had brought a change over the views of Maximilian. On the 17th of
+January, 1569, three days before his ambassador had entered upon his
+negotiations, he had accordingly addressed an autograph letter to his
+Catholic Majesty. In this epistle, by a few, cold lines, he entirely
+annihilated any possible effect which might have been produced by the
+apparent earnestness of his interposition in favor of the Netherlands. He
+informed the King that the Archduke had been sent, not to vex him, but to
+convince him of his friendship. He assured Philip that he should be
+satisfied with his response, whatever it might be. He entreated only that
+it might be drawn up in such terms that the princes and electors to whom
+it must be shown, might not be inspired with suspicion.
+
+The Archduke left Madrid on the 4th of March, 1569. He retired, well
+pleased with the results of his mission, not because its ostensible
+objects had been accomplished, for those had signally failed, but because
+the King had made him a present of one hundred thousand ducats, and had
+promised to espouse the Archduchess Anne. On the 26th of May, 1569, the
+Emperor addressed a final reply to Philip, in which he expressly approved
+the King's justification of his conduct. It was founded, he thought, in
+reason and equity. Nevertheless, it could hardly be shown, as it was, to
+the princes and electors, and he had therefore modified many points which
+he thought might prove offensive.
+
+Thus ended "in smoke," as Granvelle had foretold, the famous mission of
+Archduke Charles. The Holy Roman Emperor withdrew from his pompous
+intervention, abashed by a rebuke, but consoled by a promise. If it were
+good to be guardian of religious freedom in Upper and Nether Germany, it
+was better to be father-in-law to the King of Spain and both the Indies.
+Hence the lame and abrupt conclusion.
+
+Cardinal Granvelle had been very serviceable in this juncture. He had
+written to Philip to assure him that, in his, opinion, the Netherlands
+had no claim, under the transaction of Augsburg, to require the
+observance within their territory of the decrees of the Empire. He added,
+that Charles the Fifth had only agreed to the treaty of Passau to save
+his brother Ferdinand from ruin; that he had only consented to it as
+Emperor, and had neither directly nor indirectly included the Netherlands
+within its provisions. He stated, moreover, that the Emperor had revoked
+the treaty by an act which was never published, in consequence of the
+earnest solicitations of Ferdinand.
+
+It has been seen that the King had used this opinion of Granvelle in the
+response presented to the Archduke. Although he did not condescend to an
+argument, he had laid down the fact as if it were indisputable. He was
+still more delighted to find that Charles had revoked the treaty of
+Passau, and eagerly wrote to Granvelle to inquire where the secret
+instrument was to be found. The Cardinal replied that it was probably
+among his papers at Brussels, but that he doubted whether it would be
+possible to find it in his absence. Whether such a document ever existed,
+it is difficult to say. To perpetrate such a fraud would have been worthy
+of Charles; to fable its perpetration not unworthy of the Cardinal. In
+either case, the transaction was sufficiently high-handed and exceedingly
+disgraceful.
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     Age when toleration was a vice
+     An age when to think was a crime
+     Business of an officer to fight, of a general to conquer
+     Cruelties exercised upon monks and papists
+     For faithful service, evil recompense
+     Pathetic dying words of Anne Boleyn
+     Seven Spaniards were killed, and seven thousand rebels
+     The calf is fat and must be killed
+     The illness was a convenient one
+     The tragedy of Don Carlos
+
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, PG EDITION, VOLUME 17.
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
+
+By JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
+1855
+1569-70 [CHAPTER V.]
+
+   Quarrel between Alva and Queen Elizabeth of England--Spanish funds
+   seized by the English government--Non-intercourse between England
+   and the Netherlands--Stringent measures against heresy--Continued
+   persecution--Individual cases--Present of hat and sword to Alva from
+   the Pope--Determination of the Governor--general to establish a
+   system of arbitrary taxation in the provinces--Assembly of estates
+   at Brussels--Alva's decrees laid before them--The hundredth, tenth,
+   and fifth pence--Opposition of Viglius to the project--Estates of
+   various provinces give a reluctant consent--Determined resistance of
+   Utrecht--The city and province cited before the Blood Council--
+   Sentence of confiscation and disfranchisement against both--Appeal
+   to the King--Difficulty of collecting the new tax--Commutation for
+   two years--Projects for a pardon-general--Growing disfavour of the
+   Duke--His desire to resign his post--Secret hostility between the
+   Governor and Viglius--Altered sentiments of the President--Opinions
+   expressed by Granvelle--The pardon pompously proclaimed by the Duke
+   at Antwerp--Character of the amnesty--Dissatisfaction of the people
+   with the act--Complaints of Alva to the King--Fortunes and fate of
+   Baron Montigny in Spain--His confinement at Segovia--His attempt to
+   escape--Its failure--His mock trial--His wife's appeal to Philip--
+   His condemnation--His secret assassination determined upon--Its
+   details, as carefully prescribed and superintended by the King--
+   Terrible inundation throughout the Netherlands--Immense destruction
+   of life and property in Friesland--Lowestein Castle taken by De
+   Ruyter, by stratagem--Recapture of the place by the Spaniards--
+   Desperate resistance and death of De Ruyter.
+
+It was very soon after the Duke's return to Brussels that a quarrel
+between himself and the Queen of England took place. It happened thus.
+Certain vessels, bearing roving commissions from the Prince of Conde, had
+chased into the ports of England some merchantmen coming from Spain with
+supplies in specie for the Spanish army in the Netherlands. The trading
+ships remained in harbor, not daring to leave for their destination,
+while the privateers remained in a neighbouring port ready to pounce upon
+them should they put to sea. The commanders of the merchant fleet
+complained to the Spanish ambassador in London. The envoy laid the case
+before the Queen. The Queen promised redress, and, almost as soon as the
+promise had been made, seized upon all the specie in the vessels,
+amounting to about eight hundred thousand dollars--[1885 exchange
+rate]--and appropriated the whole to her own benefit. The pretext for
+this proceeding was twofold. In the first place, she assured the
+ambassador that she had taken the money into her possession in order that
+it might be kept safe for her royal brother of Spain. In the second
+place, she affirmed that the money did not belong to the Spanish
+government at all, but that it was the property of certain Genoese
+merchants, from whom, as she had a right to do, she had borrowed it for a
+short period. Both these positions could hardly be correct, but either
+furnished an excellent reason for appropriating the funds to her own use.
+
+The Duke of Alva being very much in want of money, was furious when
+informed of the circumstance. He immediately despatched Councillor
+d'Assonleville with other commissioners on a special embassy to the Queen
+of England. His envoys were refused an audience, and the Duke was taxed
+with presumption in venturing, as if he had been a sovereign, to send a
+legation to a crowned head. No satisfaction was given to Alva, but a
+secret commissioner was despatched to Spain to discuss the subject there.
+The wrath of Alva was not appeased by this contemptuous treatment.
+Chagrined at the loss of his funds, and stung to the quick by a rebuke
+which his arrogance had merited, he resorted to a high-handed measure. He
+issued a proclamation commanding the personal arrest of every Englishman
+within the territory of the Netherlands, and the seizure of every article
+of property which could be found belonging to individuals of that nation.
+The Queen retaliated by measures of the same severity against
+Netherlanders in England. The Duke followed up his blow by a proclamation
+(of March 31st, 1569), in which the grievance was detailed, and strict
+non-intercourse with England enjoined. While the Queen and the Viceroy
+were thus exchanging blows, the real sufferers were, of course, the
+unfortunate Netherlanders. Between the upper and nether millstones of
+Elizabeth's rapacity and Alva's arrogance, the poor remains of Flemish
+prosperity were well nigh crushed out of existence. Proclamations and
+commissions followed hard upon each other, but it was not till April
+1573, that the matter was definitely arranged. Before that day arrived,
+the commerce of the Netherlands had suffered, at the lowest computation,
+a dead loss of two million florins, not a stiver of which was ever
+reimbursed to the sufferers by the Spanish government.
+
+Meantime, neither in the complacency of his triumph over William of
+Orange, nor in the torrent of his wrath against the English Queen, did
+the Duke for a moment lose sight of the chief end of his existence in the
+Netherlands. The gibbet and the stake were loaded with their daily
+victims. The records of the period are foul with the perpetually renewed
+barbarities exercised against the new religion. To the magistrates of the
+different cities were issued fresh instructions, by which all municipal
+officers were to be guided in the discharge of their great duty. They
+were especially enjoined by the Duke to take heed that Catholic midwives,
+and none other, should be provided for every parish, duly sworn to give
+notice within twenty-four hours of every birth which occurred, in order
+that the curate might instantly proceed to baptism. They were also
+ordered to appoint certain spies who should keep watch at every
+administration of the sacraments, whether public or private, whether at
+the altar or at death-beds, and who should report for exemplary
+punishment (that is to say, death by fire) all persons who made derisive
+or irreverential gestures, or who did not pay suitable honor to the said
+Sacraments. Furthermore, in order that not even death itself should cheat
+the tyrant of his prey, the same spies were to keep watch at the couch of
+the dying, and to give immediate notice to government of all persons who
+should dare to depart this life without previously receiving extreme
+unction and the holy wafer. The estates of such culprits, it was
+ordained, should be confiscated, and their bodies dragged to the public
+place of execution.
+
+An affecting case occurred in the north of Holland, early in this year,
+which, for its peculiarity, deserves brief mention. A poor Anabaptist,
+guilty of no crime but his fellowship with a persecuted sect, had been
+condemned to death. He had made his escape, closely pursued by an officer
+of justice, across a frozen lake. It was late in the winter, and the ice
+had become unsound. It trembled and cracked beneath his footsteps, but he
+reached the shore in safety. The officer was not so fortunate. The ice
+gave way beneath him, and he sank into the lake, uttering a cry for
+succor. There were none to hear him, except the fugitive whom he had been
+hunting. Dirk Willemzoon, for so was the Anabaptist called, instinctively
+obeying the dictates of a generous nature, returned, crossed the quaking
+and dangerous ice, at the peril of his life, extended his hand to his
+enemy, and saved him from certain death. Unfortunately for human nature,
+it cannot be added that the generosity, of, the action was met by a
+corresponding heroism. The officer was desirous, it is true, of avoiding
+the responsibility of sacrificing the preserver of his life, but the
+burgomaster of Asperen sternly reminded him to remember his oath. He
+accordingly arrested the fugitive, who, on the 16th of May following, was
+burned to death under the most lingering tortures.
+
+Almost at the same time four clergymen, the eldest seventy years of age,
+were executed at the Hague, after an imprisonment of three years. All
+were of blameless lives, having committed no crime save that of having
+favored the Reformation. As they were men of some local eminence, it was
+determined that they should be executed with solemnity. They were
+condemned to the flames, and as they were of the ecclesiastical
+profession, it was necessary before execution that their personal
+sanctity should be removed. Accordingly, on the 27th May, attired in the
+gorgeous robes of high mass, they were brought before the Bishop of Bois
+le Duc. The prelate; with a pair of scissors, cut a lock of hair from
+each of their heads. He then scraped their crowns and the tips of their
+fingers with a little silver knife very gently, and without inflicting
+the least injury. The mystic oil of consecration was thus supposed to be
+sufficiently removed. The prelate then proceeded to disrobe the victims,
+saying to each one as he did so, "Eximo tibi vestem justitiae, quem
+volens abjecisti;" to which the oldest pastor, Arent Dirkzoon, stoutly
+replied, "imo vestem injustitiae." The bishop having thus completed the
+solemn farce of desecration, delivered the prisoners to the Blood
+Council, begging that they might be handled very gently. Three days
+afterwards they were all executed at the stake, having, however, received
+the indulgence of being strangled before being thrown into the flames.
+
+It was precisely at this moment, while the agents of the Duke's
+government were thus zealously enforcing his decrees, that a special
+messenger arrived from the Pope, bringing as a present to Alva a jewelled
+hat and sword. It was a gift rarely conferred by the Church, and never
+save upon the highest dignitaries, or upon those who had merited her most
+signal rewards by the most shining exploits in her defence. The Duke was
+requested, in the autograph letter from his Holiness which accompanied
+the presents, "to remember, when he put the hat upon his head, that he
+was guarded with it as with a helmet of righteousness, and with the
+shield of God's help, indicating the heavenly crown which was ready for
+all princes who support the Holy Church and the Roman Catholic faith."
+The motto on the sword ran as follows, "Accipe sanctum gladium, menus a
+Deo in quo dejicies adversarios populi mei Israel."
+
+The Viceroy of Philip, thus stimulated to persevere in his master's
+precepts by the Vicegerent of Christ, was not likely to swerve from his
+path, nor to flinch from his work. It was beyond the power of man's
+ingenuity to add any fresh features of horror to the religious
+persecution under which the provinces were groaning, but a new attack
+could be made upon the poor remains of their wealth.
+
+The Duke had been dissatisfied with the results of his financial
+arrangements. The confiscation of banished and murdered heretics had not
+proved the inexhaustible mine he had boasted. The stream of gold which
+was to flow perennially into the Spanish coffers, soon ceased to flow at
+all. This was inevitable. Confiscations must, of necessity, offer but a
+precarious supply to any treasury. It was only the frenzy of an Alva
+which could imagine it possible to derive a permanent revenue from such a
+source. It was, however, not to be expected that this man, whose tyranny
+amounted to insanity, could comprehend the intimate connection between
+the interests of a people and those of its rulers, and he was determined
+to exhibit; by still more fierce and ludicrous experiments, how easily a
+great soldier may become a very paltry financier.
+
+He had already informed his royal master that, after a very short time,
+remittances would no longer be necessary from Spain to support the
+expenses of the array and government in the Netherlands. He promised, on
+the contrary, that at least two millions yearly should be furnished by
+the provinces, over and above the cost of their administration, to enrich
+the treasury at home. Another Peru had already been discovered by his
+ingenuity, and one which was not dependent for its golden fertility on
+the continuance of that heresy which it was his mission to extirpate. His
+boast had been much ridiculed in Madrid, where he had more enemies than
+friends, and he was consequently the more eager to convert it into
+reality. Nettled by the laughter with which all his schemes of political
+economy had been received at home, he was determined to show that his
+creative statesmanship was no less worthy of homage than his indisputable
+genius for destruction.
+
+His scheme was nothing more than the substitution of an arbitrary system
+of taxation by the Crown, for the legal and constitutional right of the
+provinces to tax themselves. It was not a very original thought, but it
+was certainly a bold one. For although a country so prostrate might
+suffer the imposition of any fresh amount of tyranny, yet it was doubtful
+whether she had sufficient strength remaining to bear the weight after it
+had been imposed. It was certain, moreover, that the new system would
+create a more general outcry than any which had been elicited even by the
+religious persecution. There were many inhabitants who were earnest and
+sincere Catholics, and who therefore considered themselves safe from the
+hangman's hands, while there were none who could hope to escape the gripe
+of the new tax-gatherers. Yet the Governor was not the man to be daunted
+by the probable unpopularity of the measure. Courage he possessed in more
+than mortal proportion. He seemed to have set himself to the task of
+ascertaining the exact capacity of the country for wretchedness. He was
+resolved accurately to gauge its width and its depth; to know how much of
+physical and moral misery might be accumulated within its limits, before
+it should be full to overflowing. Every man, woman, and child in the
+country had been solemnly condemned to death; and arbitrary executions,
+in pursuance of that sentence, had been daily taking place. Millions of
+property had been confiscated; while the most fortunate and industrious,
+as well as the bravest of the Netherlanders, were wandering penniless in
+distant lands. Still the blows, however recklessly distributed, had not
+struck every head. The inhabitants had been decimated, not annihilated,
+and the productive energy of the country, which for centuries had
+possessed so much vitality, was even yet not totally extinct. In the
+wreck of their social happiness, in the utter overthrow of their
+political freedom, they had still preserved the shadow, at least, of one
+great bulwark against despotism. The king could impose no tax.
+
+The "Joyeuse Entree" of Brabant, as well as the constitutions of
+Flanders, Holland, Utrecht, and all the other provinces, expressly
+prescribed the manner in which the requisite funds for government should
+be raised. The sovereign or his stadholder was to appear before the
+estates in person, and make his request for money. It was for the
+estates, after consultation with their constituents, to decide whether or
+not this petition (Bede) should be granted, and should a single branch
+decline compliance, the monarch was to wait with patience for a more
+favorable moment. Such had been the regular practice in the Netherlands,
+nor had the reigning houses often had occasion to accuse the estates of
+parsimony. It was, however, not wonderful that the Duke of Alva should be
+impatient at the continued existence of this provincial privilege. A
+country of condemned criminals, a nation whose universal neck might at
+any moment be laid upon the block without ceremony, seemed hardly fit to
+hold the purse-strings, and to dispense alms to its monarch. The Viceroy
+was impatient at this arrogant vestige of constitutional liberty.
+Moreover, although he had taken from the Netherlanders nearly all the
+attributes of freemen, he was unwilling that they should enjoy the
+principal privilege of slaves, that of being fed and guarded at their
+master's expense. He had therefore summoned a general assembly of the
+provincial estates in Brussels, and on the 20th of March, 1569, had
+caused the following decrees to be laid before them.
+
+A tax of the hundredth penny, or one per cent., was laid upon all
+property, real and personal, to be collected instantly. This impost,
+however, was not perpetual, but only to be paid once, unless, of course,
+it should suit the same arbitrary power by which it was assessed to
+require it a second time.
+
+A tax of the twentieth penny; or five per cent., was laid upon every
+transfer of real estate. This imposition was perpetual.
+
+Thirdly, a tag of the tenth penny, or ten per cent., was assessed upon
+every article of merchandise or personal-property, to be paid as often as
+it should be sold. This tax was likewise to be perpetual.
+
+The consternation in the assembly when these enormous propositions were
+heard, can be easily imagined. People may differ about religious dogmas.
+In the most bigoted persecutions there will always be many who, from
+conscientious although misguided motives, heartily espouse the cause of
+the bigot. Moreover, although resistance to tyranny in matters of faith,
+is always the most ardent of struggles, and is supported by the most
+sublime principle in our nature, yet all men are not of the sterner stuff
+of which martyrs are fashioned. In questions relating to the world above;
+many may be seduced from their convictions by interest, or forced into
+apostasy by violence. Human nature is often malleable or fusible, where
+religious interests are concerned, but in affairs material and financial
+opposition to tyranny is apt to be unanimous.
+
+The interests of commerce and manufacture, when brought into conflict
+with those of religion, had often proved victorious in the Netherlands.
+This new measure, however--this arbitrary and most prodigious system of
+taxation, struck home to every fireside. No individual, however adroit or
+time-serving, could parry the blow by which all were crushed.
+
+It was most unanswerably maintained in the assembly, that this tenth and
+twentieth penny would utterly destroy the trade and the manufactures of
+the country. The hundredth penny, or the one per cent. assessment on all
+property throughout the land, although a severe subsidy, might be borne
+with for once. To pay, however, a twentieth part of the full value of a
+house to the government as often as the house was sold, was a most
+intolerable imposition. A house might be sold twenty times in a year, and
+in the course, therefore, of the year be confiscated in its whole value.
+It amounted either to a prohibition of all transfers of real estate, or
+to an eventual surrender of its price.
+
+As to the tenth penny upon articles of merchandise, to be paid by the
+vendor at every sale, the scheme was monstrous. All trade and
+manufactures must, of necessity, expire, at the very first attempt to put
+it in execution. The same article might be sold ten times in a week, and
+might therefore pay one hundred per cent. weekly. An article, moreover,
+was frequently compounded of ten, different articles, each of which might
+pay one hundred per cent., and therefore the manufactured article, if ten
+times transferred, one thousand per cent. weekly. Quick transfers and
+unfettered movements being the nerves and muscles of commerce, it was
+impossible for it long to survive the paralysis of such a tax. The impost
+could never be collected, and would only produce an entire prostration of
+industry. It could by no possibility enrich the government.
+
+The King could not derive wealth from the ruin of his subjects; yet to
+establish such a system was the stern and absurd determination of the
+Governor-general. The infantine simplicity of the effort seemed
+incredible. The ignorance was as sublime as the tyranny. The most lucid
+arguments and the most earnest remonstrances were all in vain. Too opaque
+to be illumined by a flood of light, too hard to be melted by a nation's
+tears, the Viceroy held calmly to his purpose. To the keen and vivid
+representations of Viglius, who repeatedly exhibited all that was
+oppressive and all that was impossible in the tax, he answered simply
+that it was nothing more nor less than the Spanish "alcabala," and that
+he derived 50,000 ducats yearly from its imposition in his own city of
+Alva.
+
+Viglius was upon this occasion in opposition to the Duke. It is but
+justice to state that the learned jurisconsult manfully and repeatedly
+confronted the wrath of his superior in many a furious discussion in
+council upon the subject. He had never essayed to snatch one brand from
+the burning out of the vast holocaust of religious persecution, but he
+was roused at last by the threatened destruction of all the material
+interests of the land. He confronted the tyrant with courage, sustained
+perhaps by the knowledge that the proposed plan was not the King's, but
+the Governor's. He knew that it was openly ridiculed in Madrid, and that
+Philip, although he would probably never denounce it in terms, was
+certainly not eager for its execution. The President enlarged upon the
+difference which existed between the condition of a sparsely-peopled
+country of herdsmen and laborers in Spain, and the densely-thronged and
+bustling cities of the Netherlands. If the Duke collected 50,000 ducats
+yearly from the alcabala in Alva, he could only offer him his
+congratulations, but could not help assuring him that the tax would prove
+an impossibility in the provinces. To his argument, that the impost would
+fall with severity not upon the highest nor the lowest classes of
+society, neither upon the great nobility and clergy nor on the rustic
+population, but on the merchants and manufacturers, it was answered by
+the President that it was not desirable to rob Saint Peter's altar in
+order to build one to Saint Paul. It might have been simpler to suggest
+that the consumer would pay the tax, supposing it were ever paid at all,
+but the axiom was not so familiar three centuries ago as now.
+
+Meantime, the report of the deputies to the assembly on their return to
+their constituents had created the most intense excitement and alarm.
+Petition after petition, report after report, poured in upon the
+government. There was a cry of despair, and almost of defiance, which had
+not been elicited by former agonies. To induce, however, a more favorable
+disposition on the part of the Duke, the hundredth penny, once for all,
+was conceded by the estates. The tenth and twentieth occasioned--severe
+and protracted struggles, until the various assemblies of the patrimonial
+provinces, one after another, exhausted, frightened, and hoping that no
+serious effort would be made to collect the tax, consented, under certain
+restrictions, to its imposition.--The principal conditions were a protest
+against the legality of the proceeding, and the provision that the
+consent of no province should be valid until that of all had been
+obtained. Holland, too, was induced to give in its adhesion, although the
+city of Amsterdam long withheld its consent; but the city and province of
+Utrecht were inexorable. They offered a handsome sum in commutation,
+increasing the sum first proposed from 70,000 to 200,000 florins, but
+they resolutely refused to be saddled with this permanent tax. Their
+stout resistance was destined to cost them dear. In the course of a few
+months Alva, finding them still resolute in their refusal, quartered the
+regiment of Lombardy upon them, and employed other coercive measures to
+bring them to reason. The rude, insolent, unpaid and therefore
+insubordinate soldiery were billeted in every house in the city, so that
+the insults which the population were made to suffer by the intrusion of
+these ruffians at their firesides would soon, it was thought, compel the
+assent of the province to the tax. It was not so, however. The city and
+the province remained stanch in their opposition. Accordingly, at the
+close of the year (15th. December, 1569) the estates were summoned to
+appear within fourteen days before the Blood Council. At the appointed
+time the procureur-general was ready with an act of accusation,
+accompanied, as was usually the case, with a simultaneous sentence of
+condemnation. The indictment revived and recapitulated all previous
+offences committed in the city and the province, particularly during the
+troubles of 1566, and at the epoch of the treaty with Duchess Margaret.
+The inhabitants and the magistrates, both in their individual and public
+capacities, were condemned for heresy, rebellion, and misprision. The
+city and province were accordingly pronounced guilty of high treason,
+were deprived of all their charters, laws, privileges, freedoms, and
+customs, and were declared to have forfeited all their property, real and
+personal, together with all tolls, rents, excises, and imposts, the whole
+being confiscated to the benefit of his Majesty.
+
+The immediate execution of the sentence was, however, suspended, to allow
+the estates opportunity to reply. An enormous mass of pleadings, replies,
+replications, rejoinders, and apostilles was the result, which few eyes
+were destined to read, and least of all those to whom they were nominally
+addressed. They were of benefit to none save in the shape of fees which
+they engendered to the gentlemen of the robe. It was six months, however,
+before the case was closed. As there was no blood to be shed, a summary
+process was not considered necessary. At last, on the 14th July, the
+voluminous pile of documents was placed before Vargas. It was the first
+time he had laid eyes upon them, and they were, moreover, written in a
+language of which he did not understand a word. Such, however, was his
+capacity for affairs, that a glance only at the outside of the case
+enabled him to form his decision. Within half an hour afterwards, booted
+and spurred, he was saying mass in the church of Saint Gudule, on his way
+to pronounce sentence at Antwerp. That judgment was rendered the same
+day, and confirmed the preceding act of condemnation. Vargas went to his
+task as cheerfully as if it had been murder. The act of outlawry and
+beggary was fulminated against the city and province, and a handsome
+amount of misery for others, and of plunder for himself, was the result
+of his promptness. Many thousand citizens were ruined, many millions of
+property confiscated.
+
+Thus was Utrecht deprived of all its ancient liberties, as a punishment
+for having dared to maintain them. The clergy, too, of the province,
+having invoked the bull "in Coena Domini," by which clerical property was
+declared exempt from taxation, had excited the wrath of the Duke. To
+wield so slight a bulrush against the man who had just been girded with
+the consecrated and jewelled sword of the Pope, was indeed but a feeble
+attempt at defence. Alva treated the Coena Domini with contempt, but he
+imprisoned the printer who had dared to-republish it at this juncture.
+Finding, moreover, that it had been put in press by the orders of no less
+a person than Secretary La Torre, he threw that officer also into prison,
+besides suspending him from his functions for a year.
+
+The estates of the province and the magistracy of the city appealed to
+his Majesty from the decision of the Duke. The case did not directly
+concern the interests of religion, for although the heretical troubles of
+1566 furnished the nominal motives of the condemnation, the resistance to
+the tenth and twentieth penny was the real crime for which they were
+suffering. The King, therefore, although far from clement, was not
+extremely rigorous. He refused the object of the appeal, but he did not
+put the envoys to death by whom it was brought to Madrid. This would have
+certainly been the case in matters strictly religious, or even had the
+commissioners arrived two years before, but even Philip believed,
+perhaps, that for the moment almost enough innocent blood had been shed.
+At any rate he suffered the legates from Utrecht to return, not with
+their petition, granted, but at least with their heads upon their
+shoulders. Early in the following year, the provinces still remaining
+under martial law, all the Utrecht charters were taken into the
+possession of government, and deposited in the castle of Vredenberg. It
+was not till after the departure of Alva, that they were restored;
+according to royal command, by the new governor, Requesens.
+
+By the middle of the year 1569, Alva wrote to the King, with great
+cheerfulness of tone, announcing that the estates of the provinces had
+all consented to the tax. He congratulated his Majesty upon the fact that
+this income might thenceforth be enjoyed in perpetuity, and that it would
+bring at least two millions yearly into his coffers, over and above the
+expenses of government. The hundredth penny, as he calculated, would
+amount to at least five millions.
+
+He was, however, very premature in his triumph, for the estates were not
+long in withdrawing a concession which had either been wrung from them by
+violence or filched from them by misrepresentation. Taking the ground
+that the assent of all had been stipulated before that of any one should
+be esteemed valid, every province now refused to enforce or to permit the
+collection of the tenth or the twentieth penny within their limits. Dire
+were the threatenings and the wrath of the Viceroy, painfully protracted
+the renewed negotiations with the estates. At last, a compromise was
+effected, and the final struggle postponed. Late in the summer it was
+agreed that the provinces should pay two millions yearly for the two
+following years, the term to expire in the month of August, 1571. Till
+that period, therefore, there was comparative repose upon the subject.
+
+The question of a general pardon had been agitated for more than a year,
+both in Brussels and Madrid. Viglius, who knew his countrymen better than
+the Viceroy knew them, had written frequently to his friend Hopper, on
+the propriety of at once proclaiming an amnesty. There had also been many
+conferences between himself and the Duke of Alva, and he had furnished
+more than one draught for the proposed measure. The President knew full
+well that the point had been reached beyond which the force of tyranny
+could go no further. All additional pressure, he felt sure, could only
+produce reaction, the effect of which might be to drive the Spaniards
+from the Netherlands. There might then be another game to play. The heads
+of those who had so assiduously served the government throughout its
+terrible career might, in their turn, be brought to the block, and their
+estates be made to enrich the Treasury. Moreover, there were symptoms
+that Alva's favor was on the wane. The King had not been remarkably
+struck with the merits of the new financial measures, and had expressed
+much, anxiety lest the trade of the country should suffer. The Duke was
+known to be desirous of his recal. His health was broken, he felt that he
+was bitterly detested throughout the country, and he was certain that his
+enemies at Madrid were fast undermining his credit. He seemed also to
+have a dim suspicion that his mission was accomplished in the
+Netherlands; that as much blood had been shed at present as the land
+could easily absorb. He wrote urgently and even piteously to Philip, on
+the subject of his return. "Were your Majesty only pleased to take me
+from this country," he said, "I should esteem it as great a favor as if
+your Majesty had given me life." He swore "by the soul of the Duchess,"
+that he "would rather be cut into little pieces" than retire from his
+post were his presence necessary, but he expressed the opinion that
+through his exertions affairs had been placed in such train that they
+were sure to roll on smoothly to the end of time. "At present, and for
+the future," he wrote, "your Majesty is and will be more strictly obeyed
+than any of your predecessors;" adding, with insane self-complacency,
+"and all this has been accomplished without violence." He also assured
+his Majesty as to the prosperous condition of financial affairs. His tax
+was to work wonders. He had conversed with capitalists who had offered
+him four millions yearly for the tenth penny, but he had refused, because
+he estimated the product at a much higher figure. The hundredth penny
+could not be rated lower than five millions. It was obvious, therefore,
+that instead of remitting funds to the provinces, his Majesty would, for
+the future, derive from them a steady and enormous income. Moreover, he
+assured the King that there was at present no one to inspire anxiety from
+within or without. The only great noble of note in the country was the
+Duke of Aerschot, who was devoted to his Majesty, and who, moreover,
+"amounted to very little," as the King well knew. As for the Prince of
+Orange, he would have business enough in keeping out of the clutches of
+his creditors. They had nothing to fear from Germany. England would do
+nothing as long as Germany was quiet; and France was sunk too low to be
+feared at all.
+
+Such being the sentiments of the Duke, the King was already considering
+the propriety of appointing his successor. All this was known to the
+President. He felt instinctively that more clemency was to be expected
+from that successor, whoever he might be; and he was satisfied,
+therefore, that he would at least not be injuring his own position by
+inclining at this late hour to the side of mercy. His opposition to the
+tenth and twentieth penny had already established a breach between
+himself and the Viceroy, but he felt secretly comforted by the reflection
+that the King was probably on the same side with himself. Alva still
+spoke of him, to be sure, both in public and private, with approbation;
+taking occasion to commend him frequently, in his private letters, as a
+servant upright and zealous, as a living register, without whose
+universal knowledge of things and persons he should hardly know which way
+to turn. The President, however, was growing weary of his own sycophancy.
+He begged his friend Joachim to take his part, if his Excellency should
+write unfavorably about his conduct to the King. He seemed to have
+changed his views of the man concerning whose "prudence and gentleness"
+he could once turn so many fine periods. He even expressed some anxiety
+lest doubts should begin to be entertained as to the perfect clemency of
+the King's character. "Here is so much confiscation and bloodshed going
+on," said he, "that some taint of cruelty or avarice may chance to
+bespatter the robe of his Majesty." He also confessed that he had
+occasionally read in history of greater benignity than was now exercised
+against the poor Netherlanders. Had the learned Frisian arrived at these
+humane conclusions at a somewhat earlier day, it might perhaps have been
+better for himself and for his fatherland. Had he served his country as
+faithfully as he had served Time, and Philip, and Alva, his lands would
+not have been so broad, nor his dignities so numerous, but he would not
+have been obliged, in his old age; to exclaim, with whimsical petulance,
+that "the faithful servant is always a perpetual ass."
+
+It was now certain that an act of amnesty was in contemplation by the
+King. Viglius had furnished several plans, which, however, had been so
+much disfigured by the numerous exceptions suggested by Alva, that the
+President could scarce recognize his work. Granvelle, too, had frequently
+urged the pardon on the attention of Philip. The Cardinal was too astute
+not to perceive that the time had arrived when a continued severity could
+only defeat its own work. He felt that the country could not be rendered
+more abject, the spirit of patriotism more apparently extinct. A show of
+clemency, which would now cost nothing, and would mean nothing, might be
+more effective than this profuse and wanton bloodshed.
+
+He saw plainly that the brutality of Alva had already overshot the mark.
+Too politic, however, openly to reprove so powerful a functionary, he
+continued to speak of him and of his administration to Philip in terms of
+exalted eulogy. He was a "sage seignior," a prudent governor, one on whom
+his Majesty could entirely repose. He was a man of long experience,
+trained all his life to affairs, and perfectly capable of giving a good
+account of everything to which he turned his hands. He admitted, however,
+to other correspondents, that the administration of the sage seignior, on
+whom his Majesty could so implicitly rely, had at last "brought that
+provinces into a deplorable condition."
+
+Four different forms of pardon had been sent from Madrid, toward the
+close of 1569. From these four the Duke was to select one, and carefully
+to destroy the other three. It was not, however, till July of the
+following year that the choice was made, and the Viceroy in readiness to
+announce the pardon. On the 14th of that month a great festival was held
+at Antwerp, for the purpose of solemnly proclaiming the long expected
+amnesty. In the morning, the Duke, accompanied by a brilliant staff, and
+by a long procession of clergy in their gorgeous robes, paraded through
+the streets of the commercial capital, to offer up prayers and hear mass
+in the cathedral. The Bishop of Arras then began a sermon upon the
+blessings of mercy, with a running commentary upon the royal clemency
+about to be exhibited. In the very outset, however, of his discourse, he
+was seized with convulsions, which required his removal from the pulpit;
+an incident which was not considered of felicitous augury. In the
+afternoon, the Duke with his suite appeared upon the square in front of
+the Town House. Here a large scaffolding or theatre had been erected. The
+platform and the steps which led to it were covered with scarlet cloth. A
+throne, covered with cloth of gold, was arranged in the most elevated
+position for the Duke. On the steps immediately below him were placed two
+of the most beautiful women in Antwerp, clad in allegorical garments to
+represent righteousness and peace. The staircase and platform were lined
+with officers, the square was beset with troops, and filled to its utmost
+verge with an expectant crowd of citizens. Toward the close of a summer's
+afternoon, the Duke wearing the famous hat and sword of the Pope, took
+his seat on the throne with all the airs of royalty. After a few
+preliminary ceremonies, a civil functionary, standing between two
+heralds; then recited the long-expected act of grace. His reading,
+however, was so indistinct, that few save the soldiers in the immediate
+vicinity of the platform could hear a word of the document.
+
+This effect was, perhaps, intentional. Certainly but little enthusiasm
+could be expected from the crowd, had the text of the amnesty been heard.
+It consisted of three parts--a recitation of the wrongs committed, a
+statement of the terms of pardon, and a long list of exceptions. All the
+sins of omission and commission, the heresy, the public preaching, the
+image-breaking, the Compromise, the confederacy, the rebellion, were
+painted in lively colors. Pardon, however, was offered to all those who
+had not rendered themselves liable to positive impeachment, in case they
+should make their peace with the Church before the expiration of two
+months, and by confession and repentance obtain their absolution. The
+exceptions, however, occupied the greater part of the document. When the
+general act of condemnation had been fulminated by which all
+Netherlanders were sentenced to death, the exceptions had been very few,
+and all the individuals mentioned by name. In the act of pardon, the
+exceptions comprehended so many classes of inhabitants, that it was
+impossible for any individual to escape a place in, some one of the
+categories, whenever it should please the government to take his life.
+Expressly excluded from the benefit of the act were all ministers,
+teachers, dogmatizers, and all who had favored and harbored such
+dogmatizers and preachers; all those in the least degree implicated in
+the image-breaking; all who had ever been individually suspected of
+heresy or schism; all who had ever signed or favored the Compromise or
+the Petition to the Regent; all those who had taken up arms, contributed
+money, distributed tracts; all those in any manner chargeable with
+misprision, or who had failed to denounce those guilty of heresy. All
+persons, however, who were included in any of these classes of exceptions
+might report themselves within six months, when, upon confession of their
+crime, they might hope for a favorable consideration of their case.
+
+Such, in brief, and stripped of its verbiage, was this amnesty for which
+the Netherlands had so long been hoping. By its provisions, not a man or
+woman was pardoned who had ever committed a fault. The innocent alone
+were forgiven. Even they were not sure of mercy, unless they should
+obtain full absolution from the Pope. More certainly than ever would the
+accustomed rigor be dealt to all who had committed any of those positive
+acts for which so many had already lost their heads. The clause by which
+a possibility of pardon was hinted to such criminals, provided they would
+confess and surrender, was justly regarded as a trap. No one was deceived
+by it. No man, after the experience of the last three years; would
+voluntarily thrust his head into the lion's mouth, in order to fix it
+more firmly upon his shoulders. No man who had effected his escape was
+likely to play informer against himself, in hope of obtaining a pardon
+from which all but the most sincere and zealous Catholics were in reality
+excepted.
+
+The murmur and discontent were universal, therefore, as soon as the terms
+of the act became known. Alva wrote to the King, to be sure, "that the
+people were entirely satisfied, save only the demagogues, who could
+tolerate no single exception from the amnesty; but he could neither
+deceive his sovereign nor himself by such statements." Certainly, Philip
+was totally disappointed in the effect which he had anticipated from the
+measure. He had thought "it would stop the mouths of many people." On the
+contrary, every mouth in the Netherlands became vociferous to denounce
+the hypocrisy by which a new act of condemnation had been promulgated
+under the name of a pardon. Viglius, who had drawn up an instrument of
+much ampler clemency, was far from satisfied with the measure which had
+been adopted. "Certainly," he wrote to his confidant, "a more benignant
+measure was to be expected from so merciful a Prince. After four years
+have past, to reserve for punishment and for execution all those who
+during the tumult did not, through weakness of mind, render as much
+service to government as brave men might have offered, is altogether
+unexampled."
+
+Alva could not long affect to believe in the people's satisfaction. He
+soon wrote to the King, acknowledging that the impression produced by the
+pardon was far from favorable. He attributed much evil effect to the
+severe censure which was openly pronounced upon the act by members of the
+government, both in Spain and the Netherlands. He complained that Hopper
+had written to Viglius, that "the most severe of the four forms of pardon
+transmitted had been selected;" the fact being, that the most lenient one
+had been adopted. If this were so, whose imagination is powerful enough
+to portray the three which had been burned, and which, although more
+severe than the fierce document promulgated, were still entitled acts of
+pardon? The Duke spoke bitterly of the manner in which influential
+persons in Madrid had openly abominated the cruel form of amnesty which
+had been decreed. His authority in the Netherlands was already
+sufficiently weakened, he said, and such censure upon his actions from
+head-quarters did not tend to improve it. "In truth," he added, almost
+pathetically, "it is not wonderful that the whole nation should be
+ill-disposed towards me, for I certainly have done nothing to make them
+love me. At the same time, such language transmitted from Madrid does not
+increase their tenderness."
+
+In short, viewed as a measure by which government, without disarming
+itself of its terrible powers, was to pacify the popular mind, the
+amnesty was a failure. Viewed as a net, by which fresh victims should be
+enticed to entangle themselves, who had already made their way into the
+distant atmosphere of liberty, it was equally unsuccessful. A few very
+obscure individuals made their appearance to claim the benefit of the
+act, before the six months had expired. With these it was thought
+expedient to deal gently; but no one was deceived by such clemency. As
+the common people expressed themselves, the net was not spread on that
+occasion for finches.
+
+The wits of the Netherlands, seeking relief from their wretched condition
+in a still more wretched quibble, transposed two letters of the word
+Pardona, and re-baptized the new measure Pandora. The conceit was not
+without meaning. The amnesty, descending from supernal regions, had been
+ushered into the presence of mortals as a messenger laden with heavenly
+gifts. The casket, when opened, had diffused curses instead of blessings.
+There, however, the classical analogy ended, for it would have puzzled
+all the pedants of Louvain to discover Hope lurking, under any disguise,
+within the clauses of the pardon.
+
+Very soon after the promulgation of this celebrated act, the new bride of
+Philip, Anne of Austria, passed through the Netherlands, on her way to
+Madrid. During her brief stay in Brussels, she granted an interview to
+the Dowager Countess of Horn. That unhappy lady, having seen her eldest
+son, the head of her illustrious house, so recently perish on the
+scaffold, wished to make a last effort in behalf of the remaining one,
+then closely confined in the prison of Segovia. The Archduchess solemnly
+promised that his release should be the first boon which she would
+request of her royal bridegroom, and the bereaved countess retired almost
+with a hope.
+
+A short digression must here be allowed, to narrate the remaining
+fortunes of that son, the ill-starred Seigneur de Montigny. His mission
+to Madrid in company of the Marquis Berghen has been related in a
+previous volume. The last and most melancholy scene in the life of his
+fellow envoy has been described in a recent chapter. After that ominous
+event, Montigny became most anxious to effect his retreat from Spain. He
+had been separated more than a year from his few months' bride. He was
+not imprisoned, but he felt himself under the most rigid although secret
+inspection. It was utterly impossible for him to obtain leave to return,
+or to take his departure without permission. On one occasion, having left
+the city accidentally for a ride on horseback to an adjoining village, he
+found himself surrounded by an unexpected escort of forty troopers.
+Still, however, the King retained a smiling mien. To Montigny's repeated
+and urgent requests for dismissal, Philip graciously urged his desire for
+a continuance of his visit. He was requested to remain in order to
+accompany his sovereign upon that journey to the Netherlands which would
+not be much longer delayed. In his impatience anything seemed preferable
+to the state of suspense in which he was made to linger. He eagerly
+offered, if he were accused or suspected of crime, to surrender himself
+to imprisonment if he only could be brought to trial. Soon after Alva's
+arrival in the Netherlands, the first part of this offer was accepted. No
+sooner were the arrests of Egmont and Horn known in Madrid, than Montigny
+was deprived of his liberty, and closely confined in the alcazar of
+Segovia. Here he remained imprisoned for eight or nine months in a high
+tower, with no attendant save a young page, Arthur de Munter, who had
+accompanied him from the Netherlands. Eight men-at-arms were expressly
+employed to watch over him and to prevent his escape.
+
+One day towards the middle of July, 1568, a band of pilgrims, some of
+them in Flemish attire, went through the streets of Segovia. They were
+chanting, as was customary on such occasions, a low, monotonous song, in
+which Montigny, who happened to be listening, suddenly recognized the
+language of his fatherland. His surprise was still greater when, upon
+paying closer attention, he distinguished the terrible meaning of the
+song. The pretended pilgrims, having no other means of communication with
+the prisoner, were singing for his information the tragic fates of his
+brother, Count Horn, and of his friend, Count Egmont. Mingled with the
+strain were warnings of his own approaching doom; if he were not able to
+effect his escape before it should be too late. Thus by this friendly
+masquerade did Montigny learn the fate of his brother, which otherwise,
+in that land of terrible secrecy, might have been concealed from him for
+ever.
+
+The hint as to his own preservation was not lost upon him; and he at once
+set about a plan of escape. He succeeded in gaining over to his interests
+one of the eight soldiers by whom he was guarded, and he was thus enabled
+to communicate with many of his own adherents without the prison walls.
+His major-domo had previously been permitted to furnish his master's
+table with provisions dressed by his own cook. A correspondence was now
+carried on by means of letters concealed within the loaves of bread sent
+daily to the prisoner. In the same way files were provided for sawing
+through his window-bars. A very delicate ladder of ropes, by which he was
+to effect his escape into the court below, was also transmitted. The plan
+had been completely arranged. A certain Pole employed in the enterprise
+was to be at Hernani, with horses in readiness to convey them to San
+Sebastian. There a sloop had been engaged, and was waiting their arrival.
+Montigny, accordingly, in a letter enclosed within a loaf of bread--the
+last, as he hoped, which he should break in prison--was instructed, after
+cutting off his beard and otherwise disguising his person, to execute his
+plan and join his confederates at Hernani. Unfortunately, the major-domo
+of Montigny was in love. Upon the eve of departure from Spain, his
+farewell interview with his mistress was so much protracted that the care
+of sending the bread was left to another. The substitute managed so
+unskilfully that the loaf was brought to the commandant of the castle,
+and not to the prisoner. The commandant broke the bread, discovered the
+letter, and became master of the whole plot. All persons engaged in the
+enterprise were immediately condemned to death, and the Spanish soldier
+executed without delay. The others being considered, on account of their
+loyalty to their master as deserving a commutation of punishment, were
+sent to the galleys. The major-domo, whose ill-timed gallantry had thus
+cost Montigny his liberty, received two hundred lashes in addition. All,
+however, were eventually released from imprisonment.
+
+The unfortunate gentleman was now kept in still closer confinement in his
+lonely tower. As all his adherents had been disposed of, he could no
+longer entertain a hope of escape. In the autumn of this year (1568) it
+was thought expedient by Alva to bring his case formally before the Blood
+Council. Montigny had committed no crime, but he was one of that band of
+popular, nobles whose deaths had been long decreed. Letters were
+accordingly sent to Spain, empowering certain functionaries there to
+institute that preliminary examination, which, as usual, was to be the
+only trial vouchsafed. A long list of interrogatories was addressed to
+him on February 7th, 1569, in his prison at Segovia. A week afterwards,
+he was again visited by the alcalde, who read over to him the answers
+which he had made on the first occasion, and required him to confirm
+them. He was then directed to send his procuration to certain persons in
+the Netherlands, whom he might wish to appear in his behalf. Montigny
+complied by sending several names, with a clause of substitution. All the
+persons thus appointed, however, declined to act, unless they could be
+furnished with a copy of the procuration, and with a statement of the
+articles of accusation. This was positively refused by the Blood Council.
+Seeing no possibility of rendering service to their friend by performing
+any part in this mockery of justice, they refused to accept the
+procuration. They could not defend a case when not only the testimony,
+but even the charges against the accused were kept secret. An individual
+was accordingly appointed by government to appear in the prisoner's
+behalf.
+
+Thus the forms of justice were observed, and Montigny, a close prisoner
+in the tower of Segovia, was put upon trial for his life in Brussels.
+Certainly nothing could exceed the irony of such a process. The advocate
+had never seen his client, thousands of miles away, and was allowed to
+hold no communication with him by letter. The proceedings were instituted
+by a summons, addressed by the Duke of Alva to Madame de Montigny in
+Brussels. That unhappy lady could only appeal to the King. "Convinced,"
+she said, "that her husband was innocent of the charges brought against
+him, she threw herself, overwhelmed and consumed by tears and misery, at
+his Majesty's feet. She begged the King to remember the past services of
+Montigny, her own youth, and that she had enjoyed his company but four
+months. By all these considerations, and by the passion of Jesus Christ,
+she adjured the monarch to pardon any faults which her husband might have
+committed." The reader can easily judge how much effect such a tender
+appeal was like to have upon the heart of Philip. From that rock; thus
+feebly smitten, there flowed no fountain of mercy. It was not more
+certain that Montigny's answers to the interrogatories addressed to him
+had created a triumphant vindication of his course, than that such
+vindication would be utterly powerless to save his life. The charges
+preferred against him were similar to those which had brought Egmont and
+Horn to the block, and it certainly created no ground of hope for him,
+that he could prove himself even more innocent of suspicious conduct than
+they had done. On the 4th March, 1570, accordingly, the Duke of Alva
+pronounced sentence against him. The sentence declared that his head
+should be cut off, and afterwards exposed to public view upon the head of
+a pike. Upon the 18th March, 1570, the Duke addressed a requisitory
+letter to the alcaldes, corregidors, and other judges of Castile,
+empowering them to carry the sentence into execution.
+
+On the arrival of this requisition there was a serious debate before the
+King in council. It seemed to be the general opinion that there had been
+almost severity enough in the Netherlands for the present. The spectacle
+of the public execution of another distinguished personage, it was
+thought, might now prove more irritating than salutary. The King was of
+this opinion himself. It certainly did not occur to him or to his
+advisers that this consideration should lead them to spare the life of an
+innocent man. The doubts entertained as to the expediency of a fresh
+murder were not allowed to benefit the prisoner, who, besides being a
+loyal subject and a communicant of the ancient Church, was also clothed
+in the white robes of an envoy, claiming not only justice but
+hospitality, as the deputy of Philip's sister, Margaret of Parma. These
+considerations probably never occurred to the mind of His Majesty. In
+view, however, of the peculiar circumstances of the case, it was
+unanimously agreed that there should be no more blood publicly shed. Most
+of the councillors were in favor of slow poison. Montigny's meat and
+drink, they said, should be daily drugged, so that he might die by little
+and little. Philip, however, terminated these disquisitions by deciding
+that the ends of justice would not thus be sufficiently answered. The
+prisoner, he had resolved, should be regularly executed, but the deed
+should be secret, and it should be publicly announced that he had died of
+a fever.
+
+This point having been settled; the King now set about the arrangement of
+his plan with all that close attention to detail which marked his
+character. The patient industry which, had God given him a human heart
+and a love of right, might have made him a useful monarch, he now devoted
+to a scheme of midnight murder with a tranquil sense of enjoyment which
+seems almost incredible. There is no exaggeration in calling the deed a
+murder, for it certainly was not sanctioned by any law, divine or human,
+nor justified or excused by any of the circumstances which are supposed
+to palliate homicide. Nor, when the elaborate and superfluous luxury of
+arrangements made by Philip for the accomplishment of his design is
+considered, can it be doubted that he found a positive pleasure in his
+task. It would almost seem that he had become jealous of Alva's
+achievements in the work of slaughter. He appeared willing to prove to
+those immediately about him, that however capable might be the Viceroy of
+conducting public executions on a grand and terrifying scale, there was
+yet a certain delicacy of finish never attained by Alva in such business,
+and which was all his Majesty's own. The King was resolved to make the
+assassination of Montigny a masterpiece.
+
+On the 17th August, 1570, he accordingly directed Don Eugenio de Peralta,
+concierge of the fortress of Simancas, to repair to Segovia, and thence
+to remove the Seigneur Montigny to Simancas. Here he was to be strictly
+immured; yet was to be allowed at times to walk in the corridor adjoining
+his chamber. On the 7th October following, the licentiate Don Alonzo de
+Avellano, alcalde of Valladolid, was furnished with an order addressed by
+the King to Don Eugenio de Peralta, requiring him to place the prisoner
+in the hands of the said licentiate, who was charged with the execution
+of Alva's sentence. This functionary had, moreover, been provided with a
+minute letter of instructions, which had been drawn up according to the
+King's directions, on the 1st October. In these royal instructions, it
+was stated that, although the sentence was for a public execution, yet
+the King had decided in favor of a private one within the walls of the
+fortress. It was to be managed so that no one should suspect that
+Montigny had been executed, but so that, on the contrary, it should be
+universally said and believed that he had died a natural death. Very few
+persons, all sworn and threatened into secrecy, were therefore to be
+employed. Don Alonzo was to start immediately for Valladolid; which was
+within two short leagues of Simancas. At that place he would communicate
+with Don Eugenio, and arrange the mode, day, and hour of execution. He
+would leave Valladolid on the evening before a holiday, late in the
+afternoon, so as to arrive a little after dark at Simancas. He would take
+with him a confidential notary, an executioner, and as few servants as
+possible. Immediately upon his entrance to the fortress, he was to
+communicate the sentence of death to Montigny, in presence of Don Eugenio
+and of one or two other persons. He would then console him, in which task
+he would be assisted by Don Eugenio. He would afterwards leave him with
+the religious person who would be appointed for that purpose. That night
+and the whole of the following day, which would be a festival, till after
+midnight, would be allotted to Montigny, that he might have time to
+confess, to receive the sacraments, to convert himself to God, and to
+repent. Between one and two o'clock in the morning the execution was to
+take place, in presence of the ecclesiastic, of Don Eugenio de Peralta,
+of the notary, and of one or two other persons, who would be needed by
+the executioner. The ecclesiastic was to be a wise and prudent person,
+and to be informed how little confidence Montigny inspired in the article
+of faith. If the prisoner should wish to make a will, it could not be
+permitted. As all his property had been confiscated, he could dispose of
+nothing. Should he, however, desire to make a memorial of the debts which
+he would wish paid; he was to be allowed that liberty. It was, however,
+to be stipulated that he was to make no allusion, in any memorial or
+letter which he might write, to the execution which was about to take
+place. He was to use the language of a man seriously ill, and who feels
+himself at the point of death. By this infernal ingenuity it was proposed
+to make the victim an accomplice in the plot, and to place a false
+exculpation of his assassins in his dying lips. The execution having been
+fulfilled, and the death having been announced with the dissimulation
+prescribed, the burial was to take place in the church of Saint Saviour,
+in Simancas. A moderate degree of pomp, such as befitted a person of
+Montigny's quality, was to be allowed, and a decent tomb erected. A grand
+mass was also to be celebrated, with a respectable number, "say seven
+hundred," of lesser masses. As the servants of the defunct were few in
+number, continued the frugal King, they might be provided each with a
+suit of mourning. Having thus personally arranged all the details of this
+secret work, from the reading of the sentence to the burial of the
+prisoner; having settled not only the mode of his departure from life,
+but of his passage through purgatory, the King despatched the agent on
+his mission.
+
+The royal program was faithfully enacted. Don Alonzo arrived at
+Valladolid; and made his arrangements with Don Eugenio. It was agreed
+that a paper, prepared by royal authority, and brought by Don Alonzo from
+Madrid, should be thrown into the corridor of Montigny's prison. This
+paper, written in Latin, ran as follows:
+
+   "In the night, as I understand, there will be no chance for your
+   escape. In the daytime there will be many; for you are then in
+   charge of a single gouty guardian, no match in strength or speed for
+   so vigorous a man as you. Make your escape from the 8th to the 12th
+   of October, at any hour you can, and take the road contiguous to the
+   castle gate through which you entered. You will find Robert and
+   John, who will be ready with horses, and with everything necessary.
+   May God favor your undertaking.--R. D. M."
+
+The letter, thus designedly thrown into the corridor by one confederate,
+was soon afterwards picked up by the other, who immediately taxed
+Montigny with an attempt to escape. Notwithstanding the vehement
+protestations of innocence naturally made by the prisoner, his pretended
+project was made the pretext for a still closer imprisonment in the
+"Bishop's Tower." A letter, written at Madrid, by Philip's orders, had
+been brought by Don Alonzo to Simancas, narrating by anticipation these
+circumstances, precisely as they had now occurred. It moreover stated
+that Montigny, in consequence of his close confinement, had fallen
+grievously ill, and that he would receive all the attention compatible
+with his safe keeping. This letter, according to previous orders, was now
+signed by Don Eugenio de Peralta, dated 10th October, 1570; and publicly
+despatched to Philip. It was thus formally established that Montigny was
+seriously ill. A physician, thoroughly instructed and sworn to secrecy,
+was now ostentatiously admitted to the tower, bringing with him a vast
+quantity of drugs. He duly circulated among the townspeople, on his
+return, his opinion that the illustrious prisoner was afflicted with a
+disorder from which it was almost impossible that he should recover.
+Thus, thanks to Philip's masterly precautions, not a person in Madrid or
+Simancas was ignorant that Montigny was dying of a fever, with the single
+exception of the patient himself.
+
+On Saturday, the 14th of October, at nightfall, Don Alonzo de Avellano,
+accompanied by the prescribed individuals, including Fray Hernando del,
+Castillo, an ecclesiastic of high reputation, made their appearance at
+the prison of Simancas. At ten in the evening the announcement of the
+sentence was made to Montigny. He was visibly agitated at the sudden
+intelligence, for it was entirely unexpected by him. He had, on the
+contrary, hoped much from the intercession of, the Queen, whose arrival
+he had already learned. He soon recovered himself, however, and requested
+to be left alone with the ecclesiastic. All the night and the following
+day were passed in holy offices. He conducted himself with great
+moderation, courage, and tranquillity. He protested his entire innocence
+of any complicity with the Prince of Orange, or of any disloyal designs
+or sentiments at any period of his life. He drew up a memorial,
+expressing his strong attachment to every point of the Catholic faith,
+from which he had never for an instant swerved. His whole demeanor was
+noble, submissive, and Christian. "In every essential," said Fray
+Hernando, "he conducted himself so well that we who remain may bear him
+envy." He wrote a paper of instructions concerning his faithful and
+bereaved dependents. He placed his signet ring, attached to a small gold
+chain, in the hands of the ecclesiastic, to be by him transmitted to his
+wife. Another ring, set with turquois, he sent to his mother-in-law, the
+Princess Espinoy, from whom he had received it. About an hour after
+midnight, on the morning, therefore, of the 16th of October, Fray
+Hernando gave notice that the prisoner was ready to die. The alcalde Don
+Alonzo then entered, accompanied by the executioner and the notary. The
+sentence of Alva was now again recited, the alcalde adding that the King,
+"out of his clemency and benignity," had substituted a secret for a
+public execution. Montigny admitted that the judgment would be just and
+the punishment lenient, if it were conceded that the charges against him
+were true. His enemies, however, while he had been thus immured, had
+possessed the power to accuse him as they listed. He ceased to speak, and
+the executioner then came forward and strangled him. The alcalde, the
+notary, and the executioner then immediately started for Valladolid, so
+that no person next morning knew that they had been that night at
+Simancas, nor could guess the dark deed which they had then and there
+accomplished. The terrible, secret they were forbidden, on pain of death,
+to reveal.
+
+Montigny, immediately after his death, was clothed in the habit of Saint
+Francis, in order to conceal the marks of strangulation. In the course of
+the day the body was deposited, according to the King's previous orders,
+in the church of Saint Saviour. Don Eugenio de Peralta, who superintended
+the interment, uncovered the face of the defunct to prove his identity,
+which was instantly recognised by many sorrowing servants. The next
+morning the second letter, prepared by Philip long before, and brought by
+Don Alonzo de Avellano to Simancas, received the date of 17th October,
+1570, together with the signature of Don Eugenio de Peralta, keeper of
+Simancas fortress, and was then publicly despatched to the King. It
+stated that, notwithstanding the care given to the Seigneur de Montigny
+in his severe illness by the physicians who had attended him, he had
+continued to grow worse and worse until the previous morning between
+three and four o'clock, when he had expired. The Fray Hernando del
+Castillo, who had accidentally happened to be at Simancas, had performed
+the holy offices, at the request of the deceased, who had died in so
+catholic a frame of mind, that great hopes might be entertained of his
+salvation. Although he possessed no property, yet his burial had been
+conducted very respectably.
+
+On the 3rd of November, 1570, these two letters, ostensibly written by
+Don Eugenio de Peralta, were transmitted by Philip to the Duke of Alva.
+They were to serve as evidence of the statement which the
+Governor-General was now instructed to make, that the Seigneur de
+Montigny had died a natural death in the fortress of Simancas. By the
+same courier, the King likewise forwarded a secret memoir, containing the
+exact history of the dark transaction, from which memoir the foregoing
+account has been prepared. At the same time the Duke was instructed
+publicly to exhibit the lying letters of Don Eugenio de Peralta, as
+containing an authentic statement of the affair. The King observed,
+moreover, in his letter, that there was not a person in Spain who doubted
+that Montigny had died of a fever. He added that if the sentiments of the
+deceased nobleman had been at all in conformity with his external
+manifestations, according to the accounts received of his last moments,
+it was to be hoped that God would have mercy upon his soul. The secretary
+who copied the letter, took the liberty of adding, however, to this
+paragraph the suggestion, that "if Montigny were really a heretic, the
+devil, who always assists his children in such moments, would hardly have
+failed him in his dying hour." Philip, displeased with this flippancy,
+caused the passage to be erased. He even gave vent to his royal
+indignation in a marginal note, to the effect that we should always
+express favorable judgments concerning the dead--a pious sentiment always
+dearer to writing masters than to historians. It seemed never to have
+occurred however to this remarkable moralist, that it was quite as
+reprehensible to strangle an innocent man as to speak ill of him after
+his decease.
+
+Thus perished Baron Montigny, four years after his arrival in Madrid as
+Duchess Margaret's ambassador, and three years after the death of his
+fellow-envoy Marquis Berghen. No apology is necessary for so detailed an
+account of this dark and secret tragedy. The great transactions of a
+reign are sometimes paltry things; great battles and great treaties,
+after vast consumption of life and of breath, often leave the world where
+they found it. The events which occupy many of the statelier pages of
+history, and which have most lived in the mouths of men, frequently
+contain but commonplace lessons of philosophy. It is perhaps otherwise
+when, by the resuscitation of secret documents, over which the dust of
+three centuries has gathered, we are enabled to study the internal
+working of a system of perfect tyranny. Liberal institutions, republican
+or constitutional governments, move in the daylight; we see their mode of
+operation, feel the jar of their wheels, and are often needlessly alarmed
+at their apparent tendencies. The reverse of the picture is not always so
+easily attainable. When, therefore, we find a careful portrait of a
+consummate tyrant, painted by his own hand, it is worth our while to
+pause for a moment, that we may carefully peruse the lineaments.
+Certainly, we shall afterwards not love liberty the less.
+
+Towards the end of the year 1570, still another and a terrible misfortune
+descended upon the Netherlands. It was now the hand of God which smote
+the unhappy country, already so tortured by the cruelty of war. An
+inundation, more tremendous than any which had yet been recorded in those
+annals so prolific in such catastrophes, now swept the whole coast from
+Flanders to Friesland. Not the memorable deluge of the thirteenth
+century, out of which the Zuyder Zee was born; not that in which the
+waters of the Dollart had closed for ever over the villages and churches
+of Groningen; not one of those perpetually recurring floods by which the
+inhabitants of the Netherlands, year after year, were recalled to an
+anxious remembrance of the watery chaos out of which their fatherland had
+been created, and into which it was in daily danger of resolving itself
+again, had excited so much terror and caused so much destruction. A
+continued and violent gale from the north-west had long been sweeping the
+Atlantic waters into the North Sea, and had now piled them upon the
+fragile coasts of the provinces. The dykes, tasked beyond their strength,
+burst in every direction. The cities of Flanders, to a considerable
+distance inland, were suddenly invaded by the waters of the ocean. The
+whole narrow peninsula of North Holland was in imminent danger of being
+swept away for ever. Between Amsterdam and Meyden, the great Diemer dyke
+was broken through in twelve places. The Hand-bos, a bulwark formed of
+oaken piles, fastened with metal clamps, moored with iron anchors, and
+secured by gravel and granite, was snapped to pieces like packthread. The
+"Sleeper," a dyke thus called, because it was usually left in repose by
+the elements, except in great emergencies, alone held firm, and prevented
+the consummation of the catastrophe. Still the ocean poured in upon the
+land with terrible fury. Dort, Rotterdam, and many other cities were, for
+a time, almost submerged. Along the coast, fishing vessels, and even
+ships of larger size, were floated up into the country, where they
+entangled themselves in groves and orchards, or beat to pieces the roofs
+and walls of houses. The destruction of life and of property was enormous
+throughout the maritime provinces, but in Friesland the desolation was
+complete. There nearly all the dykes and sluices were dashed to
+fragments; the country, far and-wide, converted into an angry sea. The
+steeples and towers of inland cities became islands of the ocean.
+Thousands of human beings were swept out of existence in a few hours.
+Whole districts of territory, with all their villages, farms, and
+churches, were rent from their places, borne along by the force of the
+waves, sometimes to be lodged in another part of the country, sometimes
+to be entirely engulfed. Multitudes of men, women, children, of horses,
+oxen, sheep, and every domestic animal, were struggling in the waves in
+every direction. Every boat, and every article which could serve as a
+boat, were eagerly seized upon. Every house was inundated; even the
+grave-yards gave up their dead. The living infant in his cradle, and the
+long-buried corpse in his coffin, floated side by side. The ancient flood
+seemed about to be renewed. Everywhere, upon the top of trees, upon the
+steeples of churches, human beings were clustered, praying to God for
+mercy, and to their fellow-men for assistance. As the storm at last was
+subsiding, boats began to ply in every direction, saving those who were
+still struggling in the water, picking fugitives from roofs and
+tree-tops, and collecting the bodies of those already drowned. Colonel
+Robles, Seigneur de Billy, formerly much hated for his Spanish or
+Portuguese blood, made himself very active in this humane work. By his
+exertions, and those of the troops belonging to Groningen, many lives
+were rescued, and gratitude replaced the ancient animosity. It was
+estimated that at least twenty thousand persons were destroyed in the
+province of Friesland alone. Throughout the Netherlands, one hundred
+thousand persons perished. The damage alone to property, the number of
+animals engulfed in the sea, were almost incalculable.
+
+These events took place on the 1st and 2nd November, 1570. The former
+happened to be the day of All Saints, and the Spaniards maintained loudly
+that the vengeance of Heaven had descended upon the abode of heretics.
+The Netherlanders looked upon the catastrophe as ominous of still more
+terrible misfortunes in store for them. They seemed doomed to destruction
+by God and man. An overwhelming tyranny had long been chafing against
+their constitutional bulwarks, only to sweep over them at last; and now
+the resistless ocean, impatient of man's feeble barriers, had at last
+risen to reclaim his prey. Nature, as if disposed to put to the blush the
+feeble cruelty of man, had thus wrought more havoc in a few hours, than
+bigotry, however active, could effect in many years.
+
+Nearly at the close of this year (1570) an incident occurred,
+illustrating the ferocious courage so often engendered in civil contests.
+On the western verge of the Isle of Bommel, stood the castle of
+Lowestein. The island is not in the sea. It is the narrow but important
+territory which is enclosed between the Meuse and the Waal. The castle,
+placed in a slender hook, at the junction of the two rivers, commanded
+the two cities of Gorcum and Dorcum, and the whole navigation of the
+waters. One evening, towards the end of December, four monks, wearing the
+cowls and robes of Mendicant Grey Friars, demanded hospitality at the
+castle gate. They were at once ushered into the presence of the
+commandant, a brother of President Tisnacq. He was standing by the fire,
+conversing with his wife. The foremost monk approaching him, asked
+whether the castle held for the Duke of Alva or the Prince of Orange. The
+castellian replied that he recognized no prince save Philip, King of
+Spain. Thereupon the monk, who was no other than Herman de Ruyter, a
+drover by trade, and a warm partisan of Orange, plucked a pistol from
+beneath his robe, and shot the commandant through the head. The others,
+taking advantage of the sudden panic, overcame all the resistance offered
+by the feeble garrison, and made themselves masters of the place. In the
+course of the next day they introduced into the castle four or five and
+twenty men, with which force they diligently set themselves to fortify
+the place, and secure themselves in its possession. A larger
+reinforcement which they had reckoned upon, was detained by the floods
+and frosts, which, for the moment, had made the roads and fivers alike
+impracticable.
+
+Don Roderigo de Toledo, governor of Bois le Duc, immediately despatched a
+certain Captain Perea, at the head of two hundred soldiers, who were
+joined on the way by a miscellaneous force of volunteers, to recover the
+fortress as soon as possible. The castle, bathed on its outward walls by
+the Waal and Meuse, and having two redoubts, defended by a double
+interior foss, would have been difficult to take by assaults had the
+number of the besieged been at all adequate to its defence. As matters
+stood, however, the Spaniards, by battering a breach in the wall with
+their cannon on the first day, and then escalading the inner works with
+remarkable gallantry upon the second, found themselves masters of the
+place within eight and forty hours of their first appearance before its
+gates. Most of the defenders were either slain or captured alive. De
+Ruyter alone had betaken himself to an inner hall of the castle, where he
+stood at bay upon the threshold. Many Spaniards, one after another, as
+they attempted to kill or to secure him, fell before his sword, which he
+wielded with the strength of a giant. At last, overpowered by numbers,
+and weakened by the loss of blood, he retreated slowly into the hall,
+followed by many of his antagonists. Here, by an unexpected movement, he
+applied a match to a train of powder, which he had previously laid along
+the floor of the apartment. The explosion was instantaneous. The tower,
+where the contest was taking place, sprang into the air, and De Ruyter
+with his enemies shared a common doom. A part of the mangled remains of
+this heroic but ferocious patriot were afterwards dug from the ruins of
+the tower, and with impotent malice nailed upon the gallows at Bois le
+Duc. Of his surviving companions, some were beheaded, some were broken on
+the wheel, some were hung and quartered--all were executed.
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     Constitutional governments, move in the daylight
+     Consumer would pay the tax, supposing it were ever paid at all
+     Financial opposition to tyranny is apt to be unanimous
+     Great battles often leave the world where they found it
+     Great transactions of a reign are sometimes paltry things
+     The faithful servant is always a perpetual ass
+
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, PG EDITION, VOLUME 18.
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
+
+By JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
+1855
+1570 [CHAPTER VI.]
+
+   Orange and Count Louis in France--Peace with the Huguenots--
+   Coligny's memoir, presented by request to Charles IX., on the
+   subject of invading the Netherlands--Secret correspondence of Orange
+   organized by Paul Buys--Privateering commissions issued by the
+   Prince--Regulations prescribed by him for the fleets thus created--
+   Impoverished condition of the Prince--His fortitude--His personal
+   sacrifices and privations--His generosity--Renewed contest between
+   the Duke and the Estates on the subject of the tenth and twentieth
+   pence--Violent disputes in the council--Firm opposition of Viglius--
+   Edict commanding the immediate collection of the tax--Popular
+   tumults--Viglius denounced by Alva--The Duke's fierce complaints to
+   the King--Secret schemes of Philip against Queen Elizabeth of
+   England--The Ridolphi plot to murder Elizabeth countenanced by
+   Philip and Pius V.--The King's orders to Alva to further the plan--
+   The Duke's remonstrances--Explosion of the plot--Obstinacy of
+   Philip--Renewed complaints of Alva as to the imprudent service
+   required of him--Other attempts of Philip to murder Elizabeth--Don
+   John of Austria in the Levant----Battle of Lepanto--Slothfulness of
+   Selim--Appointment of Medina Celi--Incessant wrangling in Brussels
+   upon the tax--Persevering efforts of Orange--Contempt of Alva for
+   the Prince--Proposed sentence of ignominy against his name--Sonoy's
+   mission to Germany--Remarkable papers issued by the Prince--The
+   "harangue"--Intense hatred for Alva entertained by the highest as
+   well as lower orders--Visit of Francis de Alva to Brussels--His
+   unfavourable report to the King--Querulous language of the Duke--
+   Deputation to Spain--Universal revolt against the tax--Ferocity of
+   Alva--Execution of eighteen tradesmen secretly ordered--Interrupted
+   by the capture of Brill--Beggars of the sea--The younger Wild Boar
+   of Ardennes--Reconciliation between the English government and that
+   of Alva--The Netherland privateersmen ordered out of English ports--
+   De la Marck's fleet before Brill--The town summoned to surrender--
+   Commissioners sent out to the fleet--Flight of the magistrates and
+   townspeople--Capture of the place--Indignation of Alva--Popular
+   exultation in Brussels--Puns and Caricatures--Bossu ordered to
+   recover the town of Brill--His defeat--His perfidious entrance into
+   Rotterdam--Massacre in that city--Flushing revolutionized--
+   Unsuccessful attempt of Governor de Bourgogne to recal the citizens
+   to their obedience--Expedition under Treslong from Brill to assist
+   the town of Flushing--Murder of Paccheco by the Patriots--Zeraerts
+   appointed Governor of Walcheren by Orange.
+
+While such had been the domestic events of the Netherlands during the
+years 1569 and 1570, the Prince of Orange, although again a wanderer, had
+never allowed himself to despair. During this whole period, the darkest
+hour for himself and for his country, he was ever watchful. After
+disbanding his troops at Strasburg, and after making the best
+arrangements possible under the circumstances for the eventual payment of
+their wages, he had joined the army which the Duke of Deux Ponts had been
+raising in Germany to assist the cause of the Huguenots in France. The
+Prince having been forced to acknowledge that, for the moment, all open
+efforts in the Netherlands were likely to be fruitless, instinctively
+turned his eyes towards the more favorable aspect of the Reformation in
+France. It was inevitable that, while he was thus thrown for the time out
+of his legitimate employment, he should be led to the battles of freedom
+in a neighbouring land. The Duke of Deux Ponts, who felt his own military
+skill hardly adequate to the task which he had assumed, was glad, as it
+were, to put himself and his army under the orders of Orange.
+
+Meantime the battle of Jamac had been fought; the Prince of Condo,
+covered with wounds, and exclaiming that it was sweet to die for Christ
+and country, had fallen from his saddle; the whole Huguenot army had been
+routed by the royal forces under the nominal command of Anjou, and the
+body of Conde, tied to the back of a she ass, had been paraded through
+the streets of Jarnap in derision.
+
+Affairs had already grown almost as black for the cause of freedom in
+France as in the provinces. Shortly afterwards William of Orange, with a
+band of twelve hundred horsemen, joined the banners of Coligny. His two
+brothers accompanied him. Henry, the stripling, had left the university
+to follow the fortunes of the Prince. The indomitable Louis, after seven
+thousand of his army had been slain, had swum naked across the Ems,
+exclaiming "that his courage, thank God, was as fresh and lively as
+ever," and had lost not a moment in renewing his hostile schemes against
+the Spanish government. In the meantime he had joined the Huguenots in
+France. The battle of Moncontour had succeeded, Count Peter Mansfeld,
+with five thousand troops sent by Alva, fighting on the side of the
+royalists, and Louis Nassau on that of the Huguenots, atoning by the
+steadiness and skill with which he covered the retreat, for his
+intemperate courage, which had precipitated the action, and perhaps been
+the main cause of Coligny's overthrow. The Prince of Orange, who had been
+peremptorily called to the Netherlands in the beginning of the autumn,
+was not present at the battle. Disguised as a peasant, with but five
+attendants, and at great peril, he had crossed the enemy's lines,
+traversed France, and arrived in Germany before the winter. Count Louis
+remained with the Huguenots. So necessary did he seem to their cause, and
+so dear had he become to their armies, that during the severe illness of
+Coligny in the course of the following summer all eyes were turned upon
+him as the inevitable successor of that great man, the only remaining
+pillar of freedom in France.
+
+Coligny recovered. The deadly peace between the Huguenots and the Court
+succeeded. The Admiral, despite his sagacity and his suspicions, embarked
+with his whole party upon that smooth and treacherous current which led
+to the horrible catastrophe of Saint Bartholomew. To occupy his
+attention, a formal engagement was made by the government to send succor
+to the Netherlands. The Admiral was to lead the auxiliaries which were to
+be despatched across the frontier to overthrow the tyrannical government
+of Alva. Long and anxious were the colloquies held between Coligny and
+the Royalists. The monarch requested a detailed opinion, in writing, from
+the Admiral, on the most advisable plan for invading the Netherlands. The
+result was the preparation of the celebrated memoir, under Coligny's
+directions, by young De Mornay, Seigneur de Plessis. The document was
+certainly not a paper of the highest order. It did not appeal to the
+loftier instincts which kings or common mortals might be supposed to
+possess. It summoned the monarch to the contest in the Netherlands that
+the ancient injuries committed by Spain might be avenged. It invoked the
+ghost of Isabella of France, foully murdered, as it was thought, by
+Philip. It held out the prospect of re-annexing the fair provinces,
+wrested from the King's ancestors by former Spanish sovereigns. It
+painted the hazardous position of Philip; with the Moorish revolt gnawing
+at the entrails of his kingdom, with the Turkish war consuming its
+extremities, with the canker of rebellion corroding the very heart of the
+Netherlands. It recalled, with exultation, the melancholy fact that the
+only natural and healthy existence of the French was in a state of
+war--that France, if not occupied with foreign campaigns, could not be
+prevented from plunging its sword into its own vitals.
+
+It indulged in refreshing reminiscences of those halcyon days, not long
+gone by, when France, enjoying perfect tranquillity within its own
+borders, was calmly and regularly carrying on its long wars beyond the
+frontier.
+
+In spite of this savage spirit, which modern documents, if they did not
+scorn, would, at least have shrouded, the paper was nevertheless a
+sagacious one; but the request for the memoir, and the many interviews on
+the subject of the invasion, were only intended to deceive. They were but
+the curtain which concealed the preparations for the dark tragedy which
+was about to be enacted. Equally deceived, and more sanguine than ever,
+Louis Nassau during this period was indefatigable in his attempts to gain
+friends for his cause. He had repeated audiences of the King, to whose
+court he had come in disguise. He made a strong and warm impression upon
+Elizabeth's envoy at the French Court, Walsingham. It is probable that in
+the Count's impetuosity to carry his point, he allowed more plausibility
+to be given to certain projects for subdividing the Netherlands than his
+brother would ever have sanctioned. The Prince was a total stranger to
+these inchoate schemes. His work was to set his country free, and to
+destroy the tyranny which had grown colossal. That employment was
+sufficient for a lifetime, and there is no proof to be found that a
+paltry and personal self-interest had even the lowest place among his
+motives.
+
+Meantime, in the autumn of 1569, Orange had again reached Germany. Paul
+Buys, Pensionary of Leyden, had kept him constantly informed of the state
+of affairs in the provinces. Through his means an extensive
+correspondence was organized and maintained with leading persons in every
+part of the Netherlands. The conventional terms by which different
+matters and persons of importance were designated in these letters were
+familiarly known to all friends of the cause, not only in the provinces,
+but in France, England, Germany, and particularly in the great commercial
+cities. The Prince, for example, was always designated as Martin
+Willemzoon, the Duke of Alva as Master Powels van Alblas, the Queen of
+England as Henry Philipzoon, the King of Denmark as Peter Peterson. The
+twelve signs of the zodiac were used instead of the twelve months, and a
+great variety of similar substitutions were adopted. Before his visit to
+France, Orange had, moreover, issued commissions, in his capacity of
+sovereign, to various seafaring persons, who were empowered to cruise
+against Spanish commerce.
+
+The "beggars of the sea," as these privateersmen designated themselves,
+soon acquired as terrible a name as the wild beggars, or the forest
+beggars; but the Prince, having had many conversations with Admiral
+Coligny on the important benefits to be derived from the system, had
+faithfully set himself to effect a reformation of its abuses after his
+return from France. The Seigneur de Dolhain, who, like many other refugee
+nobles, had acquired much distinction in this roving corsair life, had
+for a season acted as Admiral for the Prince. He had, however, resolutely
+declined to render any accounts of his various expeditions, and was now
+deprived of his command in consequence. Gillain de Fiennes, Seigneur de
+Lumbres, was appointed to succeed him. At the same time strict orders
+were issued by Orange, forbidding all hostile measures against the
+Emperor or any of the princes of the empire, against Sweden, Denmark,
+England, or against any potentates who were protectors of the true
+Christian religion. The Duke of Alva and his adherents were designated as
+the only lawful antagonists. The Prince, moreover, gave minute
+instructions as to the discipline to be observed in his fleet. The
+articles of war were to be strictly enforced. Each commander was to
+maintain a minister on board his ship, who was to preach God's word, and
+to preserve Christian piety among the crew. No one was to exercise any
+command in the fleet save native Netherlanders, unless thereto expressly
+commissioned by the Prince of Orange. All prizes were to be divided and
+distributed by a prescribed rule. No persons were to be received on
+board, either as sailors or soldiers, save "folk of goad name and fame."
+No man who had ever been punished of justice was to be admitted. Such
+were the principal features in the organization of that infant navy
+which, in course of this and the following centuries, was to achieve so
+many triumphs, and to which a powerful and adventurous mercantile marine
+had already led the way. "Of their ships," said Cardinal Bentivoglio,
+"the Hollanders make houses, of their houses schools. Here they are born,
+here educated, here they learn their profession. Their sailors, flying
+from one pale to the other, practising their art wherever the sun
+displays itself to mortals, become so skilful that they can scarcely be
+equalled, certainly not surpassed; by any nation in the civilized world."
+
+The Prince, however, on his return from France, had never been in so
+forlorn a condition. "Orange is plainly perishing," said one of the
+friends of the cause. Not only had he no funds to organize new levies,
+but he was daily exposed to the most clamorously-urged claims, growing
+out of the army which he had been recently obliged to disband. It had
+been originally reported in the Netherlands that he had fallen in the
+battle of Moncontour. "If he have really been taken off," wrote Viglius,
+hardly daring to credit the great news, "we shall all of us have less
+cause to tremble." After his actual return, however, lean and beggared,
+with neither money nor credit, a mere threatening shadow without
+substance or power, he seemed to justify the sarcasm of Granvelle. "Vana
+sine viribus ira," quoted the Cardinal, and of a verity it seemed that
+not a man was likely to stir in Germany in his behalf, now that so deep a
+gloom had descended upon his cause. The obscure and the oppressed
+throughout the provinces and Germany still freely contributed out of
+their weakness and their poverty, and taxed themselves beyond their means
+to assist enterprizes for the relief of the Netherlands. The great ones
+of the earth, however, those on whom the Prince had relied; those to whom
+he had given his heart; dukes, princes, and electors, in this fatal
+change of his fortunes fell away like water.
+
+Still his spirit was unbroken. His letters showed a perfect appreciation
+of his situation, and of that to which his country was reduced; but they
+never exhibited a trace of weakness or despair. A modest, but lofty
+courage; a pious, but unaffected resignation, breathed through--every
+document, public or private, which fell from his pen during this epoch.
+He wrote to his brother John that he was quite willing to go, to
+Frankfort, in order to give himself up as a hostage to his troops for the
+payment of their arrears. At the same time he begged his brother to move
+heaven and earth to raise at least one hundred thousand thalers. If he
+could only furnish them with a month's pay, the soldiers would perhaps be
+for a time contented. He gave directions also concerning the disposition
+of what remained of his plate and furniture, the greater part of it
+having been already sold and expended in the cause. He thought it would,
+on the whole, be better to have the remainder sold, piece by piece, at
+the fair. More money would be raised by that course than by a more
+wholesale arrangement.
+
+He was now obliged to attend personally to the most minute matters of
+domestic economy. The man who been the mate of emperors, who was himself
+a sovereign, had lived his life long in pomp and luxury, surrounded by
+countless nobles, pages, men-at-arms, and menials, now calmly accepted
+the position of an outlaw and an exile. He cheerfully fulfilled tasks
+which had formerly devolved upon his grooms and valets. There was an
+almost pathetic simplicity in the homely details of an existence which,
+for the moment, had become so obscure and so desperate. "Send by the
+bearer," he wrote, "the little hackney given me by the Admiral; send also
+my two pair of trunk hose; one pair is at the tailor's to be mended, the
+other, pair you will please order to be taken from the things which I
+wore lately at Dillenburg. They lie on the table with my accoutrements.
+If the little hackney be not in condition, please send the grey horse
+with the cropped ears and tail."
+
+He was always mindful, however, not only of the great cause to which he
+had devoted himself, but of the wants experienced by individuals who had
+done him service. He never forgot his friends. In the depth of his own
+misery he remembered favors received from humble persons. "Send a little
+cup, worth at least a hundred florins, to Hartmann Wolf," he wrote to his
+brother; "you can take as much silver out of the coffer, in which there
+is still some of my chapel service remaining."--"You will observe that
+Affenstein is wanting a horse," he wrote on another occasion; "please
+look him out one, and send it to me with the price. I will send you the
+money. Since he has shown himself so willing in the cause, one ought to
+do something for him."
+
+The contest between the Duke and the estates, on the subject of the tenth
+and twentieth penny had been for a season adjusted. The two years' term,
+however, during which it had been arranged that the tax should be
+commuted, was to expire in the autumn of 1571. Early therefore in this
+year the disputes were renewed with greater acrimony than ever. The
+estates felt satisfied that the King was less eager than the Viceroy.
+Viglius was satisfied that the power of Alva was upon the wane. While the
+King was not likely openly to rebuke his recent measures, it seemed not
+improbable that the Governor's reiterated requests to be recalled might
+be granted. Fortified by these considerations, the President, who had so
+long been the supple tool of the tyrant, suddenly assumed the character
+of a popular tribune. The wranglings, the contradictions, the
+vituperations, the threatenings, now became incessant in the council. The
+Duke found that he had exulted prematurely, when he announced to the King
+the triumphant establishment, in perpetuity, of the lucrative tax. So far
+from all the estates having given their consent, as he had maintained,
+and as he had written to Philip, it now appeared that not one of those
+bodies considered itself bound beyond its quota for the two years. This
+was formally stated in the council by Berlaymont and other members. The
+wrath of the Duke blazed forth at this announcement. He berated
+Berlaymont for maintaining, or for allowing it to be maintained, that the
+consent of the orders had ever been doubtful. He protested that they had
+as unequivocally agreed to the perpetual imposition of the tag as he to
+its commutation during two years. He declared, however, that he was sick
+of quotas. The tax should now be collected forthwith, and Treasurer
+Schetz was ordered to take his measures accordingly.
+
+At a conference on the 29th May, the Duke asked Viglius for his opinion.
+The President made a long reply, taking the ground that the consent of
+the orders had been only conditional, and appealing to such members of
+the finance council as were present to confirm his assertion. It was
+confirmed by all. The Duke, in a passion, swore that those who dared
+maintain such a statement should be chastised. Viglius replied that it
+had always been the custom for councillors to declare their opinion, and
+that they had never before been threatened with such consequences. If
+such, however, were his Excellency's sentiments, councillors had better
+stay at home, hold their tongues, and so avoid chastisement. The Duke,
+controlling himself a little, apologized for this allusion to
+chastisement, a menace which he disclaimed having intended with reference
+to councillors whom he had always commended to the King, and of whom his
+Majesty had so high an opinion. At a subsequent meeting the Duke took
+Viglius aside, and assured him that he was quite of his own way of
+thinking. For certain reasons, however, he expressed himself as unwilling
+that the rest of the council should be aware of the change in his views.
+He wished, he said, to dissemble. The astute President, for a moment,
+could not imagine the Governor's drift. He afterwards perceived that the
+object of this little piece of deception had been to close his mouth. The
+Duke obviously conjectured that the President, lulled into security, by
+this secret assurance, would be silent; that the other councillors,
+believing the President to have adopted the Governor's views, would alter
+their opinions; and that the opposition of the estates, thus losing its
+support in the council, would likewise very soon be abandoned. The
+President, however, was not to be entrapped by this falsehood. He
+resolutely maintained his hostility to the tax, depending for his
+security on the royal opinion, the popular feeling, and the judgment of
+his colleagues.
+
+The daily meetings of the board were almost entirely occupied by this
+single subject. Although since the arrival of Alva the Council of Blood
+had usurped nearly all the functions of the state and finance-councils,
+yet there now seemed a disposition on the part of Alva to seek the
+countenance, even while he spurned the authority, of other functionaries.
+He found, however, neither sympathy nor obedience. The President stoutly
+told him that he was endeavouring to swim against the stream, that the
+tax was offensive to the people, and that the voice of the people was the
+voice of God. On the last day of July, however, the Duke issued an edict,
+by which summary collection of the tenth and twentieth pence was ordered.
+The whole country was immediately in uproar. The estates of every
+province, the assemblies of every city, met and remonstrated. The
+merchants suspended all business, the petty dealers shut up their shops.
+The people congregated together in masses, vowing resistance to the
+illegal and cruel impost. Not a farthing was collected. The "seven stiver
+people", spies of government, who for that paltry daily stipend were
+employed to listen for treason in every tavern, in every huckster's
+booth, in every alley of every city, were now quite unable to report all
+the curses which were hourly heard uttered against the tyranny of the
+Viceroy. Evidently, his power was declining. The councillors resisted
+him, the common people almost defied him. A mercer to whom he was
+indebted for thirty thousand florins' worth of goods, refused to open his
+shop, lest the tax should be collected on his merchandize. The Duke
+confiscated his debt, as the mercer had foreseen, but this being a
+pecuniary sacrifice, seemed preferable to acquiescence in a measure so
+vague and so boundless that it might easily absorb the whole property of
+the country.
+
+No man saluted the governor as he passed through the streets. Hardly an
+attempt was made by the people to disguise their abhorrence of his
+person: Alva, on his side, gave daily exhibitions of ungovernable fury.
+At a council held on 25th September, 1571, he stated that the King had
+ordered the immediate enforcement of the edict. Viglius observed that
+there were many objections to its form. He also stoutly denied that the
+estates had ever given their consent. Alva fiercely asked the President
+if he had not himself once maintained that the consent had been granted!
+Viglius replied that he had never made such an assertion. He had
+mentioned the conditions and the implied promises on the part of
+government, by which a partial consent had been extorted. He never could
+have said that the consent had been accorded, for he had never believed
+that it could be obtained. He had not proceeded far in his argument when
+he was interrupted by the Duke--"But you said so, you said so, you said
+so," cried the exasperated Governor, in a towering passion, repeating
+many times this flat contradiction to the President's statements. Viglius
+firmly stood his ground. Alva loudly denounced him for the little respect
+he had manifested for his authority. He had hitherto done the President
+good offices, he said, with his Majesty, but certainly should not feel
+justified in concealing his recent and very unhandsome conduct.
+
+Viglius replied that he had always reverently cherished the Governor, and
+had endeavoured to merit his favor by diligent obsequiousness. He was
+bound by his oath, however; to utter in council that which comported with
+his own sentiments and his Majesty's interests. He had done this
+heretofore in presence of Emperors, Kings, Queens, and Regents, and they
+had not taken offence. He did not, at this hour, tremble for his grey
+head, and hoped his Majesty would grant him a hearing before
+condemnation. The firm attitude of the President increased the irritation
+of the Viceroy. Observing that he knew the proper means of enforcing his
+authority he dismissed the meeting.
+
+Immediately afterwards, he received the visits of his son, Don Frederic
+of Vargas, and other familiars. To these he recounted the scene which had
+taken place, raving the while so ferociously against Viglius as to induce
+the supposition that something serious was intended against him. The
+report flew from mouth to mouth. The affair became the town talk, so
+that, in the words of the President, it was soon discussed by every
+barber and old woman in Brussels. His friends became alarmed for his
+safety, while, at the same time, the citizens rejoiced that their cause
+had found so powerful an advocate. Nothing, however, came of these
+threats and these explosions. On the contrary, shortly afterwards the
+Duke gave orders that the tenth penny should be remitted upon four great
+articles-corn, meat, wine, and beer. It was also not to be levied upon
+raw materials used in manufactures. Certainly, these were very important
+concessions. Still the constitutional objections remained. Alva could not
+be made to understand why the alcabala, which was raised without
+difficulty in the little town of Alva, should encounter such fierce
+opposition in the Netherlands. The estates, he informed the King, made a
+great deal of trouble. They withheld their consent at command of their
+satrap. The motive which influenced the leading men was not the interest
+of factories or fisheries, but the fear that for the future they might
+not be able to dictate the law to their sovereign. The people of that
+country, he observed, had still the same character which had been
+described by Julius Caesar.
+
+The Duke, however, did not find much sympathy at Madrid. Courtiers and
+councillors had long derided his schemes. As for the King, his mind was
+occupied with more interesting matters. Philip lived but to enforce what
+he chose to consider the will of God. While the duke was fighting this
+battle with the Netherland constitutionalists, his master had engaged at
+home in a secret but most comprehensive scheme. This was a plot to
+assassinate Queen Elizabeth of England, and to liberate Mary Queen of
+Scots, who was to be placed on the throne in her stead. This project, in
+which was of course involved the reduction of England under the dominion
+of the ancient Church, could not but prove attractive to Philip. It
+included a conspiracy against a friendly sovereign, immense service to
+the Church, and a murder. His passion for intrigue, his love of God, and
+his hatred of man, would all be gratified at once. Thus, although the
+Moorish revolt within the heart of his kingdom had hardly been
+terminated--although his legions and his navies were at that instant
+engaged in a contest of no ordinary importance with the Turkish
+empire--although the Netherlands, still maintaining their hostility and
+their hatred, required the flower of the Spanish army to compel their
+submission, he did not hesitate to accept the dark adventure which was
+offered to him by ignoble hands.
+
+One Ridolfi, a Florentine, long resident in England, had been sent to the
+Netherlands as secret agent of the Duke of Norfolk. Alva read his
+character immediately, and denounced him to Philip as a loose, prating
+creature, utterly unfit to be entrusted with affairs of importance.
+Philip, however, thinking more of the plot than of his fellow-actors,
+welcomed the agent of the conspiracy to Madrid, listened to his
+disclosures attentively, and, without absolutely committing himself by
+direct promises, dismissed him with many expressions of encouragement.
+
+On the 12th of July, 1571, Philip wrote to the Duke of Alva, giving an
+account of his interview with Roberto Ridolfi. The envoy, after relating
+the sufferings of the Queen of Scotland, had laid before him a plan for
+her liberation. If the Spanish monarch were willing to assist the Duke of
+Norfolk and his friends, it would be easy to put upon Mary's head the
+crown of England. She was then to intermarry with Norfolk. The kingdom of
+England was again to acknowledge the authority of Rome, and the Catholic
+religion to be everywhere restored. The most favorable moment for the
+execution of the plan would be in August or September. As Queen Elizabeth
+would at that season quit London for the country, an opportunity would be
+easily found for seizing and murdering her. Pius V., to whom Ridolfi had
+opened the whole matter, highly approved the scheme, and warmly urged
+Philip's cooperation. Poor and ruined as he was himself; the Pope
+protested that he was ready to sell his chalices, and even his own
+vestments, to provide funds for the cause. Philip had replied that few
+words were necessary to persuade him. His desire to see the enterprize
+succeed was extreme, notwithstanding the difficulties by which it was
+surrounded. He would reflect earnestly upon the subject, in the hope that
+God, whose cause it was, would enlighten and assist him. Thus much he had
+stated to Ridolfi, but he had informed his council afterwards that he was
+determined to carry out the scheme by certain means of which the Duke
+would soon be informed. The end proposed was to kill or to capture
+Elizabeth, to set at liberty the Queen of Scotland, and to put upon her
+head the crown of England. In this enterprize he instructed the Duke of
+Alva secretly to assist, without however resorting to open hostilities in
+his own name or in that of his sovereign. He desired to be informed how
+many Spaniards the Duke could put at the disposition of the conspirators.
+They had asked for six thousand arquebusiers for England, two thousand
+for Scotland, two thousand for Ireland. Besides these troops, the Viceroy
+was directed to provide immediately four thousand arquebuses and two
+thousand corslets. For the expenses of the enterprize Philip would
+immediately remit two hundred thousand crowns. Alva was instructed to
+keep the affair a profound secret from his councillors. Even Hopper at
+Madrid knew nothing of the matter, while the King had only expressed
+himself in general terms to the nuncio and to Ridolfi, then already on
+his way to the Netherlands. The King concluded his letter by saying, that
+from what he had now written with his own hand, the Duke could infer how
+much he had this affair at heart. It was unnecessary for him to say more,
+persuaded as he was that the Duke would take as profound an interest in
+it as himself.
+
+Alva perceived all the rashness of the scheme, and felt how impossible it
+would be for him to comply with Philip's orders. To send an army from the
+Netherlands into England for the purpose of dethroning and killing a most
+popular sovereign, and at the same time to preserve the most amicable
+relations with the country, was rather a desperate undertaking. A force
+of ten thousand Spaniards, under Chiappin Vitelli, and other favorite
+officers of the Duke, would hardly prove a trifle to be overlooked, nor
+would their operations be susceptible of very friendly explanations. The
+Governor therefore, assured Philip that he "highly applauded his master
+for his plot. He could not help rendering infinite thanks to God for
+having made him vassal to such a Prince." He praised exceedingly the
+resolution which his Majesty had taken. After this preamble, however, he
+proceeded to pour cold water upon his sovereign's ardor. He decidedly
+expressed the opinion that Philip should not proceed in such an
+undertaking until at any rate the party of the Duke of Norfolk had
+obtained possession of Elizabeth's person. Should the King declare
+himself prematurely, he might be sure that the Venetians, breaking off
+their alliance with him, would make their peace with the Turk; and that
+Elizabeth would, perhaps, conclude that marriage with the Duke of Alencon
+which now seemed but a pleasantry. Moreover, he expressed his want of
+confidence in the Duke of Norfolk, whom he considered as a poor creature
+with but little courage. He also expressed his doubts concerning the
+prudence and capacity of Don Gueran de Espes, his Majesty's ambassador at
+London.
+
+It was not long before these machinations became known in England. The
+Queen of Scots was guarded more closely than ever, the Duke of Norfolk
+was arrested; yet Philip, whose share in the conspiracy had remained a
+secret, was not discouraged by the absolute explosion of the whole
+affair. He still held to an impossible purpose with a tenacity which
+resembled fatuity. He avowed that his obligations in the sight of God
+were so strict that he was still determined to proceed in the sacred
+cause. He remitted, therefore, the promised funds to the Duke of Alva,
+and urged him to act with proper secrecy and promptness.
+
+The Viceroy was not a little perplexed by these remarkable instructions.
+None but lunatics could continue to conspire, after the conspiracy had
+been exposed and the conspirators arrested. Yet this was what his
+Catholic Majesty expected of his Governor-General. Alva complained, not
+unreasonably, of the contradictory demands to which he was subjected.
+
+He was to cause no rupture with England, yet he was to send succor to an
+imprisoned traitor; he was to keep all his operations secret from his
+council, yet he was to send all his army out of the country, and to
+organize an expensive campaign. He sneered: at the flippancy of Ridolfi,
+who imagined that it was the work of a moment to seize the Queen of
+England, to liberate the Queen of Scotland, to take possession of the
+Tower of London, and to burn the fleet in the Thames. "Were your Majesty
+and the Queen of England acting together," he observed, "it would be
+impossible to execute the plan proposed by Ridolfi." The chief danger to
+be apprehended was from France and Germany. Were those countries not to
+interfere, he would undertake to make Philip sovereign of England before
+the winter. Their opposition, however, was sufficient to make the
+enterprise not only difficult, but impossible. He begged his, master not
+to be precipitate in the most important affair which had been negotiated
+by man since Christ came upon earth. Nothing less, he said, than the
+existence of the Christian faith was at stake, for, should his Majesty
+fail in this undertaking, not one stone of the ancient religion would be
+left upon another. He again warned the King of the contemptible
+character, of Ridolfi, who had spoken of the affair so freely that it was
+a common subject of discussion on the Bourse, at Antwerp, and he
+reiterated, in all his letters his distrust of the parties prominently
+engaged in the transaction.
+
+Such was the general, tenor of the long despatches exchanged between the
+King and the Duke of Alva upon this iniquitous scheme. The Duke showed
+himself reluctant throughout the whole affair, although he certainly
+never opposed his master's project by any arguments founded upon good
+faith, Christian charity, or the sense of honor. To kill the Queen of
+England, subvert the laws of her realm, burn her fleets, and butcher her
+subjects, while the mask of amity and entire consideration was sedulously
+preserved--all these projects were admitted to be strictly meritorious in
+themselves, although objections were taken as to the time and mode of
+execution.
+
+Alva never positively refused to accept his share in the enterprise, but
+he took care not to lift his finger till the catastrophe in England had
+made all attempts futile. Philip, on the other hand, never positively
+withdrew from the conspiracy, but, after an infinite deal of writing and
+intriguing, concluded by leaving the whole affair in the hands of Alva.
+The only sufferer for Philip's participation in the plot was the Spanish
+envoy at London, Don Gueran de Espes. This gentleman was formally
+dismissed by Queen Elizabeth, for having given treacherous and hostile
+advice to the Duke of Alva and to Philip; but her Majesty at the same
+time expressed the most profound consideration for her brother of Spain.
+
+Towards the close of the same year, however (December, 1571); Alva sent
+two other Italian assassins to England, bribed by the promise of vast
+rewards, to attempt the life of Elizabeth, quietly, by poison or
+otherwise. The envoy, Mondoucet, in apprizing the French monarch of this
+scheme, added that the Duke was so ulcerated and annoyed by the discovery
+of the previous enterprise, that nothing could exceed his rage. These
+ruffians were not destined to success, but the attempts of the Duke upon
+the Queen's life were renewed from time to time. Eighteen months later
+(August, 1573), two Scotchmen, pensioners of Philip, came from Spain,
+with secret orders to consult with Alva. They had accordingly much
+negotiation with the Duke and his secretary, Albornoz. They boasted that
+they could easily capture Elizabeth, but said that the King's purpose was
+to kill her. The plan, wrote Mondoucet, was the same as it had been
+before, namely, to murder the Queen of England, and to give her crown to
+Mary of Scotland, who would thus be in their power, and whose son was to
+be seized, and bestowed in marriage in such a way as to make them
+perpetual masters of both kingdoms.
+
+It does not belong to this history to discuss the merits, nor to narrate
+the fortunes, of that bickering and fruitless alliance which had been
+entered into at this period by Philip with Venice and the Holy See
+against the Turk. The revolt of Granada had at last, after a two years'
+struggle, been subdued, and the remnants of the romantic race which had
+once swayed the Peninsula been swept into slavery. The Moors had
+sustained the unequal conflict with a constancy not to have been expected
+of so gentle a people. "If a nation meek as lambs could resist so
+bravely," said the Prince of Orange, "what ought not to be expected of a
+hardy people like the Netherlanders?" Don John of Austria having
+concluded a series of somewhat inglorious forays against women, children,
+and bed-ridden old men in Andalusia and Granada; had arrived, in August
+of this year, at Naples, to take command of the combined fleet in the
+Levant. The battle of Lepanto had been fought, but the quarrelsome and
+contradictory conduct of the allies had rendered the splendid victory as
+barren as the waves: upon which it had been won. It was no less true,
+however, that the blunders of the infidels had previously enabled Philip
+to extricate himself with better success from the dangers of the Moorish
+revolt than might have been his fortune. Had the rebels succeeded in
+holding Granada and the mountains of Andalusia, and had they been
+supported, as they had a right to expect, by the forces of the Sultan, a
+different aspect might have been given to the conflict, and one far less
+triumphant for Spain. Had a prince of vigorous ambition and comprehensive
+policy governed at that moment the Turkish empire; it would have cost
+Philip a serious struggle to maintain himself in his hereditary
+dominions. While he was plotting against the life and throne of
+Elizabeth, he might have had cause to tremble for his own. Fortunately,
+however, for his Catholic Majesty, Selim was satisfied to secure himself
+in the possession of the Isle of Venus, with its fruitful vineyards. "To
+shed the blood" of Cyprian vines, in which he was so enthusiastic a
+connoisseur, was to him a more exhilarating occupation than to pursue,
+amid carnage and hardships, the splendid dream of a re-established
+Eastern caliphate.
+
+On the 25th Sept. 1571, a commission of Governor-General of the
+Netherlands was at last issued to John de la Cerda, Duke of Medina Coeli.
+Philip, in compliance with the Duke's repeated requests, and perhaps not
+entirely satisfied with the recent course of events in the provinces, had
+at last, after great hesitation, consented to Alva's resignation. His
+successor; however, was not immediately to take his departure, and in the
+meantime the Duke was instructed to persevere in his faithful services.
+These services had, for the present, reduced themselves to a perpetual
+and not very triumphant altercation with his council, with the estates,
+and with the people, on the subject of his abominable tax. He was
+entirely alone. They who had stood unflinchingly at his side when the
+only business of the administration was to burn heretics, turned their
+backs upon him now that he had engaged in this desperate conflict with.
+the whole money power of the country. The King was far from cordial in
+his support, the councillors much too crafty to retain their hold upon
+the wheel, to which they had only attached themselves in its ascent.
+Viglius and Berlaymont; Noircarmes and Aerschot, opposed and almost
+defied the man they now thought sinking, and kept the King constantly
+informed of the vast distress which the financial measures of the Duke
+were causing.
+
+Quite, at the close of the year, an elaborate petition from the estates
+of Brabant was read before the State Council. It contained a strong
+remonstrance against the tenth penny. Its repeal was strongly urged, upon
+the ground that its collection would involve the country in universal
+ruin. Upon this, Alva burst forth in one of the violent explosions of
+rage to which he was subject. The prosperity of the Netherlands, he
+protested, was not dearer to the inhabitants than to himself. He swore by
+the cross, and by the most holy of holies, preserved in the church of
+Saint Gudule, that had he been but a private individual, living in Spain,
+he would, out of the love he bore the provinces, have rushed to their
+defence had their safety been endangered. He felt therefore deeply
+wounded that malevolent persons should thus insinuate that he had even
+wished to injure the country, or to exercise tyranny over its citizens.
+The tenth penny, he continued, was necessary to the defence of the land,
+and was much preferable to quotas. It was highly improper that every man
+in the rabble should know how much was contributed, because each
+individual, learning the gross amount, would imagine that he, had paid it
+all himself. In conclusion, he observed that, broken in health and
+stricken in years as he felt himself, he was now most anxious to return,
+and was daily looking with eagerness for the arrival of the Duke of
+Medina Coeli.
+
+During the course of this same year, the Prince of Orange had been
+continuing his preparations. He had sent his agents to every place where
+a hope was held out to him of obtaining support. Money was what he was
+naturally most anxious to obtain from individuals; open and warlike
+assistance what he demanded from governments. His funds, little by
+little, were increasing, owing to the generosity of many obscure persons,
+and to the daring exploits of the beggars of the sea. His mission,
+however, to the northern courts had failed. His envoys had been received
+in Sweden and Denmark with barren courtesy. The Duke of Alva, on the
+other hand, never alluded to the Prince but with contempt; knowing not
+that the ruined outlaw was slowly undermining the very ground beneath the
+monarch's feet; dreaming not that the feeble strokes which he despised
+were the opening blows of a century's conflict; foreseeing not that long
+before its close the chastised province was to expand into a great
+republic, and that the name of the outlaw was to become almost divine.
+
+Granvelle had already recommended that the young Count de Buren should be
+endowed with certain lands in Spain, in exchange for his hereditary
+estates, in order that the name and fame of the rebel William should be
+forever extinguished in the Netherlands. With the same view, a new
+sentence against the Prince of Orange was now proposed by the Viceroy.
+This was, to execute him solemnly in effigy, to drag his escutcheon
+through the streets at the tails of horses, and after having broken it in
+pieces, and thus cancelled his armorial bearings, to declare him and his
+descendants, ignoble, infamous, and incapable of holding property or
+estates. Could a leaf or two of future history have been unrolled to
+King, Cardinal, and Governor, they might have found the destined fortune
+of the illustrious rebel's house not exactly in accordance with the plan
+of summary extinction thus laid down.
+
+Not discouraged, the Prince continued to send his emissaries in every
+direction. Diedrich Sonoy, his most trustworthy agent, who had been chief
+of the legation to the Northern Courts, was now actively canvassing the
+governments and peoples of, Germany with the same object. Several
+remarkable papers from the hand of Orange were used upon this service. A
+letter, drawn up and signed by his own hand, recited; in brief and
+striking language, the history of his campaign in 1568, and of his
+subsequent efforts in the sacred cause. It was now necessary, he said,
+that others besides himself should partake of his sacrifices. This he
+stated plainly and eloquently. The document was in truth a letter asking
+arms for liberty. "For although all things," said the Prince, "are in the
+hand of God, and although he has created all things out of nought, yet
+hath he granted to different men different means, whereby, as with
+various instruments, he accomplishes his, almighty purposes. Thereto hath
+he endowed some with strength of body, others with worldly wealth, others
+with still different gifts, all of which are to be used by their
+possessors to His honor and glory, if they wish not to incur the curse of
+the unworthy steward, who buried his talent in the earth. . . . . Now ye
+may easily see," he continued, "that the Prince cannot carry out this
+great work alone, having lost land, people, and goods, and having already
+employed in the cause all which had remained to him, besides incurring
+heavy obligations in addition."
+
+Similar instructions were given to other agents, and a paper called the
+Harangue, drawn up according to his suggestions, was also extensively
+circulated. This document is important to all who are interested in his
+history and character. He had not before issued a missive so stamped with
+the warm, religious impress of the reforming party. Sadly, but without
+despondency, the Harangue recalled the misfortunes of the past; and
+depicted the gloom of the present. Earnestly, but not fanatically, it
+stimulated hope and solicited aid for the future. "Although the appeals
+made to the Prince," so ran a part of the document, "be of diverse
+natures, and various in their recommendations, yet do they all tend to
+the advancement of God's glory, and to the liberation of the fatherland.
+This it is which enables him and those who think with him to endure
+hunger; thirst, cold, heat, and all the misfortunes which Heaven may
+send. . . . . . Our enemies spare neither their money nor their labor;
+will ye be colder and duller than your foes? Let, then, each church
+congregation set an example to the others. We read that King Saul, when
+he would liberate the men of Jabez from the hands of Nahad, the Ammonite,
+hewed a yoke of oxen in pieces, and sent them as tokens over all Israel,
+saying, 'Ye who will not follow Saul and Samuel, with them shall be dealt
+even as with these oxen. And the fear of the Lord came upon the people,
+they came forth, and the men of Jabez were delivered.' Ye have here the
+same warning, look to it, watch well ye that despise it, lest the wrath
+of God, which the men of Israel by their speedy obedience escaped,
+descend upon your heads. Ye may say that ye are banished men. 'Tis true:
+but thereby are ye not stripped of all faculty of rendering service;
+moreover, your assistance is asked for one who will restore ye to your
+homes. Ye may say that ye have been robbed of all your goods; yet many of
+you have still something remaining, and of that little ye should
+contribute, each his mite. Ye say that you have given much already. 'Tis
+true, but the enemy is again in the field; fierce for your subjugation,
+sustained by the largess of his supporters. Will ye be less courageous,
+less generous, than your foes."
+
+These urgent appeals did not remain fruitless. The strength of the
+Prince was slowly but steadily increasing. Meantime the abhorrence
+ with which Alva was universally regarded had nearly reached to frenzy.
+In the beginning of the year 1572, Don Francis de Alava, Philip's
+ambassador in France, visited Brussels. He had already been enlightened
+as to the consequences of the Duke's course by the immense immigration of
+Netherland refugees to France, which he had witnessed with his own eyes.
+On his journey towards Brussels he had been met near Cambray by
+Noircarmes. Even that "cruel animal," as Hoogstraaten had called him,
+the butcher of Tournay and Valenciennes, had at last been roused to
+alarm, if not to pity, by the sufferings of the country. "The Duke will
+never disabuse his mind of this filthy tenth penny," said he to Alava.
+He sprang from his chair with great emotion as the ambassador alluded to
+the flight of merchants and artisans from the provinces. "Senor Don
+Francis," cried he, "there are ten thousand more who are on the point of
+leaving the country, if the Governor does not pause in his career. God
+grant that no disaster arise beyond human power to remedy."
+
+The ambassador arrived in Brussels, and took up his lodgings in the
+palace. Here he found the Duke just recovering from a fit of the gout, in
+a state of mind sufficiently savage.  He became much excited as Don
+Francis began to speak of the emigration, and he assured him that there
+was gross deception on the subject. The envoy replied that he could not
+be mistaken, for it was a matter which, so to speak, he had touched with
+his own fingers, and seen with his own eyes. The Duke, persisting that
+Don Francis had been abused and misinformed, turned the conversation to
+other topics. Next day the ambassador received visits from Berlaymont and
+his son, the Seigneur de Hierges. He was taken aside by each of them,
+separately. "Thank God, you have come hither," said they, in nearly the
+same words, "that you may fully comprehend the condition of the
+provinces, and without delay admonish his Majesty of the impending
+danger." All his visitors expressed the same sentiments. Don Frederic of
+Toledo furnished the only exception, assuring the envoy that his father's
+financial measures were opposed by Noircarmes and others, only because it
+deprived them of their occupation and their influence. This dutiful
+language, however, was to be expected in one of whom Secretary Albornoz
+had written, that he was the greatest comfort to his father, and the most
+divine genius ever known. It was unfortunately corroborated by no other
+inhabitant of the country.
+
+On the third day, Don Francis went to take his leave. The Duke begged him
+to inform his Majesty of the impatience with which he was expecting the
+arrival of his successor. He then informed his guest that they had
+already begun to collect the tenth penny in Brabant, the most obstinate
+of all the provinces. "What do you say to that, Don Francis?" he cried,
+with exultation. Alava replied that he thought, none the less, that the
+tax would encounter many obstacles, and begged him earnestly to reflect.
+He assured him, moreover, that he should, without reserve, express his
+opinions fully to the King. The Duke used the same language which Don
+Frederic had held, concerning the motives of those who opposed the tax.
+"It may be so," said Don Francis, "but at any rate, all have agreed to
+sing to the same tune." A little startled, the Duke rejoined, "Do you
+doubt that the cities will keep their promises? Depend upon it, I shall
+find the means to compel them." "God grant it may be so," said Alava,
+"but in my poor judgment you will have need of all your prudence and of
+all your authority."
+
+The ambassador did not wait till he could communicate with his sovereign
+by word of mouth. He forwarded to Spain an ample account of his
+observations and deductions. He painted to Philip in lively colors the
+hatred entertained by all men for the Duke. The whole nation, he assured
+his Majesty, united in one cry, "Let him begone, let him begone, let him
+begone!" As for the imposition of the tenth penny, that, in the opinion
+of Don Francis, was utterly impossible. He moreover warned his Majesty
+that Alva was busy in forming secret alliances with the Catholic princes
+of Europe, which would necessarily lead to defensive leagues among the
+Protestants.
+
+While thus, during the earlier part of the year 1572, the Prince of
+Orange, discouraged by no defeats, was indefatigable in his exertions to
+maintain the cause of liberty, and while at the same time the most stanch
+supporters of arbitrary power were unanimous in denouncing to Philip the
+insane conduct of his Viceroy, the letters of Alva himself were naturally
+full of complaints and expostulations. It was in vain, he said, for him
+to look for a confidential councillor, now that matters which he had
+wished to be kept so profoundly secret that the very earth should not
+hear of them, had been proclaimed aloud above the tiles of every
+housetop. Nevertheless, he would be cut into little pieces but his
+Majesty should be obeyed, while he remained alive to enforce the royal
+commands. There were none who had been ever faithful but Berlaymont, he
+said, and even he had been neutral in the affair of the tax. He had
+rendered therein neither good nor bad offices, but, as his Majesty was
+aware, Berlaymont was entirely ignorant of business, and "knew nothing
+more than to be a good fellow." That being the case, he recommended
+Hierges, son of the "good fellow," as a proper person to be governor of
+Friesland.
+
+The deputations appointed by the different provinces to confer personally
+with the King received a reprimand upon their arrival, for having dared
+to come to Spain without permission. Farther punishment, however, than
+this rebuke was not inflicted. They were assured that the King was highly
+displeased with their venturing to bring remonstrances against the tax,
+but they were comforted with the assurance that his Majesty would take
+the subject of their petition into consideration. Thus, the expectations
+of Alva were disappointed, for the tenth penny was not formally
+confirmed; and the hopes of the provinces frustrated, because it was not
+distinctly disavowed.
+
+Matters had reached another crisis in the provinces. "Had we money now,"
+wrote the Prince of Orange, "we should, with the help of God, hope to
+effect something. This is a time when, with even small sums, more can be
+effected than at other seasons with ampler funds." The citizens were in
+open revolt against the tax. In order that the tenth penny should not be
+levied upon every sale of goods, the natural but desperate remedy was
+adopted--no goods were sold at all.
+
+Not only the wholesale commerce oh the provinces was suspended, but the
+minute and indispensable traffic of daily life was entirely at a stand.
+The shops were all shut. "The brewers," says a contemporary, "refused to
+brew, the bakers to bake, the tapsters to tap." Multitudes, thrown
+entirely out of employment, and wholly dependent upon charity, swarmed in
+every city. The soldiery, furious for their pay, which Alva had for many
+months neglected to furnish, grew daily more insolent; the citizens,
+maddened by outrage and hardened by despair, became more and more
+obstinate in their resistance; while the Duke, rendered inflexible by
+opposition and insane by wrath, regarded the ruin which he had caused
+with a malignant spirit which had long ceased to be human. "The disease
+is gnawing at our vitals," wrote Viglius; "everybody is suffering for the
+want of the necessaries of life. Multitudes are in extreme and hopeless
+poverty. My interest in the welfare of the commonwealth," he continued,
+"induces me to send these accounts to Spain. For myself, I fear nothing.
+Broken by sickness and acute physical suffering, I should leave life
+without regret."
+
+The aspect of the capital was that of a city stricken with the plague.
+Articles of the most absolute necessity could not be obtained. It was
+impossible to buy bread, or meat, or beer. The tyrant, beside himself
+with rage at being thus braved in his very lair, privately sent for
+Master Carl, the executioner. In order to exhibit an unexpected and
+salutary example, he had determined to hang eighteen of the leading
+tradesmen of the city in the doors of their own shops, with the least
+possible delay and without the slightest form of trial.
+
+Master Carl was ordered, on the very night of his interview with the
+Duke, to prepare eighteen strong cords, and eighteen ladders twelve feet
+in length. By this simple arrangement, Alva was disposed to make manifest
+on the morrow, to the burghers of Brussels, that justice was thenceforth
+to be carried to every man's door. He supposed that the spectacle of a
+dozen and a half of butchers and bakers suspended in front of the shops
+which they had refused to open, would give a more effective stimulus to
+trade than any to be expected from argument or proclamation. The hangman
+was making ready his cords and ladders; Don Frederic of Toledo was
+closeted with President Viglius, who, somewhat against his will, was
+aroused at midnight to draw the warrants for these impromptu executions;
+Alva was waiting with grim impatience for the dawn upon which the show
+was to be exhibited, when an unforeseen event suddenly arrested the
+homely tragedy. In the night arrived the intelligence that the town of
+Brill had been captured. The Duke, feeling the full gravity of the
+situation, postponed the chastisement which he had thus secretly planned
+to a more convenient season, in order without an instant's hesitation to
+avert the consequences of this new movement on the part of the rebels.
+The seizure of Brill was the Deus ex machina which unexpectedly solved
+both the inextricable knot of the situation and the hangman's noose.
+
+Allusion has more than once been made to those formidable partisans of
+the patriot cause, the marine outlaws. Cheated of half their birthright
+by nature, and now driven forth from their narrow isthmus by tyranny, the
+exiled Hollanders took to the ocean. Its boundless fields, long arable to
+their industry, became fatally fruitful now that oppression was
+transforming a peaceful seafaring people into a nation of corsairs.
+Driven to outlawry and poverty, no doubt many Netherlanders plunged into
+crime. The patriot party had long sine laid aside the respectful
+deportment which had provoked the sarcasms of the loyalists. The beggars
+of the sea asked their alms through the mouths of their cannon.
+Unfortunately, they but too often made their demands upon both friend and
+foe. Every ruined merchant, every banished lord, every reckless mariner,
+who was willing to lay the commercial world under contribution to repair
+his damaged fortunes, could, without much difficulty, be supplied with a
+vessel and crew at some northern port, under color of cruising against
+the Viceroy's government. Nor was the ostensible motive simply a pretext.
+To make war upon Alva was the leading object of all these freebooters,
+and they were usually furnished by the Prince of Orange, in his capacity
+of sovereign, with letters of marque for that purpose. The Prince,
+indeed, did his utmost to control and direct an evil which had inevitably
+grown out of the horrors of the time. His Admiral, William de la Marck,
+was however, incapable of comprehending the lofty purposes of his
+superior. A wild, sanguinary, licentious noble, wearing his hair and
+beard unshorn, according to ancient Batavian custom, until the death of
+his relative, Egmont, should have been expiated, a worthy descendant of
+the Wild Boar of Ardennes, this hirsute and savage corsair seemed an
+embodiment of vengeance. He had sworn to wreak upon Alva and upon popery
+the deep revenge owed to them by the Netherland nobility, and in the
+cruelties afterwards practised by him upon monks and priests, the Blood
+Council learned that their example had made at least one ripe scholar
+among the rebels. He was lying, at this epoch, with his fleet on the
+southern coast of England, from which advantageous position he was now to
+be ejected in a summary manner.
+
+The negotiations between the Duke of Alva and Queen Elizabeth had already
+assumed an amicable tone, and were fast ripening to an adjustment. It lay
+by no means in that sovereign's disposition to involve herself at this
+juncture in a war with Philip, and it was urged upon her government by
+Alva's commissioners, that the continued countenance afforded by the
+English people to the Netherland cruisers must inevitably lead to that
+result. In the latter days of March, therefore, a sentence of virtual
+excommunication was pronounced against De la Marck and his rovers. A
+peremptory order of Elizabeth forbade any of her subjects to supply them
+with meat, bread, or beer. The command being strictly complied with,
+their farther stay was rendered impossible. Twenty-four vessels
+accordingly, of various sizes, commanded by De la Marck, Treslong, Adam
+van Harem, Brand, and Other distinguished seamen, set sail from Dover in
+the very last days of March. Being almost in a state of starvation, these
+adventurers were naturally anxious to supply themselves with food. They
+determined to make a sudden foray upon the coasts of North Holland, and
+accordingly steered for Enkbuizen, both because it was a rich sea-port
+and because it contained many secret partisans of the Prince. On Palm
+Sunday they captured two Spanish merchantmen. Soon afterwards, however,
+the wind becoming contrary, they were unable to double the Helder or the
+Texel, and on Tuesday, the 1st of April, having abandoned their original
+intention, they dropped down towards Zealand, and entered the broad mouth
+of the river Meuse. Between the town of Brill, upon the southern lip of
+this estuary, and Naaslandsluis, about half a league distant, upon the
+opposite aide, the squadron suddenly appeared at about two o'clock of an
+April afternoon, to the great astonishment of the inhabitants of both
+places. It seemed too large a fleet to be a mere collection of trading
+vessels, nor did they appear to be Spanish ships. Peter Koppelstok, a
+sagacious ferryman, informed the passengers whom he happened to be
+conveying across the river, that the strangers were evidently the water
+beggars. The dreaded name filled his hearers with consternation, and they
+became eager to escape from so perilous a vicinity. Having duly landed
+his customers, however, who hastened to spread the news of the impending
+invasion, and to prepare for defence or flight, the stout ferryman, who
+was secretly favorable to the cause of liberty, rowed boldly out to
+inquire the destination and purposes of the fleet.
+
+The vessel which he first hailed was that commanded by William de Blois,
+Seigneur of Treslong. This adventurous noble, whose brother had been
+executed by the Duke of Alva in 1568, had himself fought by the side of
+Count Louis at Jemmingen, and although covered with wounds, had been one
+of the few who escaped alive from that horrible carnage. During the
+intervening period he had become one of the most famous rebels on the
+ocean, and he had always been well known in Brill, where his father had
+been governor for the King. He at once recognized Koppelstok, and
+hastened with him on board the Admiral's ship, assuring De la Marck that
+the ferryman was exactly the man for their purpose. It was absolutely
+necessary that a landing should be effected, for the people were without
+the necessaries of life. Captain Martin Brand had visited the ship of
+Adam Van Haren, as soon as they had dropped anchor in the Meuse, begging
+for food. "I gave him a cheese," said Adam, afterwards relating the
+occurrence, "and assured him that it was the last article of food to be
+found in the ship." The other vessels were equally destitute. Under the
+circumstances, it was necessary to attempt a landing. Treslong,
+therefore, who was really the hero of this memorable adventure, persuaded
+De la Marck to send a message to the city of Brill, demanding its
+surrender. This was a bold summons to be made by a handful of men, three
+or four hundred at most, who were both metaphorically and literally
+beggars. The city of Brill was not populous, but it was well walled and
+fortified. It was moreover a most commodious port. Treslong gave his
+signet ring to the fisherman, Koppelstok, and ordered him, thus
+accredited as an envoy, to carry their summons to the magistracy.
+Koppelstok, nothing loath, instantly rowed ashore, pushed through the
+crowd of inhabitants, who overwhelmed him with questions, and made his
+appearance in the town-house before the assembled magistrates. He
+informed them that he had been sent by the Admiral of the fleet and by
+Treslong, who was well known to them, to demand that two commissioners
+should be sent out on the part of the city to confer with the patriots.
+He was bidden, he said, to give assurance that the deputies would be
+courteously treated. The only object of those who had sent him was to
+free the land from the tenth penny, and to overthrow the tyranny of Alva
+and his Spaniards. Hereupon he was asked by the magistrates, how large a
+force De la Marck had under his command, To this question the ferryman
+carelessly replied, that there might be some five thousand in all. This
+enormous falsehood produced its effect upon the magistrates. There was
+now no longer any inclination to resist the invader; the only question
+discussed being whether to treat with them or to fly. On the whole, it
+was decided to do both. With some difficulty, two deputies were found
+sufficiently valiant to go forth to negotiate with the beggars, while in
+their absence most of the leading burghers and functionaries made their
+preparations for flight. The envoys were assured by De la Marck and
+Treslong that no injury was intended to the citizens or to private
+property, but that the overthrow of Alva's government was to be instantly
+accomplished. Two hours were given to the magistrates in which to decide
+whether or not they would surrender the town and accept the authority of
+De la Marck as Admiral of the Prince of Orange. They employed the two
+hours thus granted in making an ignominious escape. Their example was
+followed by most of the townspeople. When the invaders, at the expiration
+of the specified term, appeared under the walls of the city, they found a
+few inhabitants of the lower class gazing at them from above, but
+received no official communication from any source.
+
+The whole rebel force was now divided into two parties, one of which
+under Treslong made an attack upon the southern gate, while the other
+commanded by the Admiral advanced upon the northern. Treslong after a
+short struggle succeeded in forcing his entrance, and arrested, in doing
+so, the governor of the city, just taking his departure. De la Marck and
+his men made a bonfire at the northern gate, and then battered down the
+half-burned portal with the end of an old mast. Thus rudely and rapidly
+did the Netherland patriots conduct their first successful siege. The two
+parties, not more perhaps than two hundred and fifty men in all, met
+before sunset in the centre of the city, and the foundation of the Dutch
+Republic was laid. The weary spirit of freedom, so long a fugitive over
+earth and sea, had at last found a resting-place, which rude and even
+ribald hands had prepared.
+
+The panic created by the first appearance of the fleet had been so
+extensive that hardly fifty citizens had remained in the town. The rest
+had all escaped, with as much property as they could carry away. The
+Admiral, in the name, of the Prince of Orange, as lawful stadholder of
+Philip, took formal possession of an almost deserted city. No indignity
+was offered to the inhabitants of either sex, but as soon, as the
+conquerors were fairly established in the best houses of the place, the
+inclination to plunder the churches could no longer be restrained. The
+altars and images were all destroyed, the rich furniture and gorgeous
+vestments appropriated to private use. Adam van Hare appeared on his
+vessel's deck attired in a magnificent high mass chasuble. Treslong
+thenceforth used no drinking cups in his cabin save the golden chalices
+of the sacrament. Unfortunately, their hatred to popery was not confined
+to such demonstrations. Thirteen unfortunate monks and priests, who had
+been unable to effect their escape, were arrested and thrown into prison,
+from whence they were taken a few days later, by order of the ferocious
+Admiral, and executed under circumstances of great barbarity.
+
+The news of this important exploit spread with great rapidity. Alva,
+surprised at the very moment of venting his rage on the butchers and
+grocers of Brussels, deferred this savage design in order to deal with
+the new difficulty. He had certainly not expected such a result from the
+ready compliance of queen Elizabeth with his request. His rage was
+excessive; the triumph of the people, by whom he was cordially detested,
+proportionably great. The punsters of Brussels were sure not to let such
+an opportunity escape them, for the name of the captured town was
+susceptible of a quibble, and the event had taken place upon All Fools'
+Day.
+
+          "On April's Fool's Day,
+          Duke Alva's spectacles were stolen away,"
+
+became a popular couplet. The word spectacles, in Flemish, as well as the
+name of the suddenly surprised city, being Brill, this allusion to the
+Duke's loss and implied purblindness was not destitute of ingenuity. A
+caricature, too, was extensively circulated, representing De la Marck
+stealing the Duke's spectacles from his nose, while the Governor was
+supposed to be uttering his habitual expression whenever any intelligence
+of importance was brought to him: 'No es nada, no es nada--'Tis nothing,
+'tis nothing.
+
+The Duke, however, lost not an instant in attempting to repair the
+disaster. Count Bossu, who had acted as stadholder of Holland and
+Zealand, under Alva's authority, since the Prince of Orange had resigned
+that office, was ordered at once to recover the conquered sea-port, if
+possible.
+
+Hastily gathering a force of some ten companies from the garrison of
+Utrecht, some of which very troops had recently and unluckily for
+government, been removed from Brill to that city, the Count crossed the
+Sluis to the island of Voorn upon Easter day, and sent a summons to the
+rebel force to surrender Brill. The patriots being very few in number,
+were at first afraid to venture outside the gates to attack the much
+superior force of their invaders. A carpenter, however, who belonged to
+the city, but had long been a partisan of Orange, dashed into the water
+with his axe in his hand, and swimming to the Niewland sluice, hacked it
+open with a few vigorous strokes. The sea poured in at once, making the
+approach to the city upon the north side impossible: Bossu then led his
+Spaniards along the Niewland dyke to the southern gate, where they were
+received with a warm discharge of artillery, which completely staggered
+them. Meantime Treslong and Robol had, in the most daring manner, rowed
+out to the ships which had brought the enemy to the island, cut some
+adrift, and set others on fire.
+
+The Spaniards at the southern gate caught sight of their blazing vessels,
+saw the sea rapidly rising over the dyke, became panic-struck at being
+thus enclosed between fire and water, and dashed off in precipitate
+retreat along the slippery causeway and through the slimy and turbid
+waters, which were fast threatening to overwhelm them. Many were drowned
+or smothered in their flight, but the greater portion of the force
+effected their escape in the vessels which still remained within reach.
+This danger averted, Admiral de la Marck summoned all the inhabitants, a
+large number of whom had returned to the town after the capture had been
+fairly established, and required them, as well as all the population of
+the island, to take an oath of allegiance to the Prince of Orange as
+stadholder for his Majesty.
+
+The Prince had not been extremely satisfied with the enterprise of De la
+Marck. He thought-it premature, and doubted whether it would be
+practicable to hold the place, as he had not yet completed his
+arrangements in Germany, nor assembled the force with which he intended
+again to take the field. More than all, perhaps, he had little confidence
+in the character of his Admiral. Orange was right in his estimate of De
+la Marck. It had not been that rover's design either to take or to hold
+the place; and after the descent had been made, the ships victualled, the
+churches plundered, the booty secured, and a few monks murdered, he had
+given orders for the burning of the town, and for the departure of the
+fleet. The urgent solicitations of Treslong, however, prevailed, with
+some difficulty, over De la Marck' original intentions. It is to that
+bold and intelligent noble, therefore, more than to any other individual,
+that the merit of laying this corner-stone of the Batavian commonwealth
+belongs. The enterprise itself was an accident, but the quick eye of
+Treslong saw the possibility of a permanent conquest, where his superior
+dreamed of nothing beyond a piratical foray.
+
+Meantime Bossu, baffled in his attempt upon Brill, took his way towards
+Rotterdam. It was important that he should at least secure such other
+cities as the recent success of the rebels might cause to waver in their
+allegiance. He found the gates of Rotterdam closed. The authorities
+refused to comply with his demand to admit a garrison for the King.
+Professing perfect loyalty, the inhabitants very naturally refused to
+admit a band of sanguinary Spaniards to enforce their obedience.
+Compelled to parley, Bossu resorted to a perfidious stratagem. He
+requested permission for his troops to pass through the city without
+halting. This was granted by the magistrates, on condition that only a
+corporal's command should be admitted at a time. To these terms the Count
+affixed his hand and seal. With the admission, however, of the first
+detachment, a violent onset was made upon the gate by the whole Spanish
+force. The townspeople, not suspecting treachery, were not prepared to
+make effective resistance. A stout smith, confronting the invaders at the
+gate, almost singly, with his sledge-hammer, was stabbed to the heart by
+Bossu with his own hand. The soldiers having thus gained admittance,
+rushed through the streets, putting every man to death who offered the
+slightest resistance. Within a few minutes four hundred citizens were
+murdered. The fate of the women, abandoned now to the outrage of a brutal
+soldiery, was worse than death. The capture of Rotterdam is infamous for
+the same crimes which blacken the record of every Spanish triumph in the
+Netherlands.
+
+The important town of Flushing, on the Isle of Walcheren, was first to
+vibrate with the patriotic impulse given by the success at Brill. The
+Seigneur de Herpt, a warm partisan of Orange, excited the burghers
+assembled in the market-place to drive the small remnant of the Spanish
+garrison from the city. A little later upon the same day a considerable
+reinforcement arrived before the walls. The Duke had determined, although
+too late, to complete the fortress which had been commenced long before
+to control the possession of this important position at the mouth of the
+western Scheld. The troops who were to resume this too long intermitted
+work arrived just in time to witness the expulsion of their comrades. De
+Herpt easily persuaded the burghers that the die was cast, and that their
+only hope lay in a resolute resistance. The people warmly acquiesced,
+while a half-drunken, half-wined fellow in the crowd valiantly proposed,
+in consideration of a pot of beer, to ascend the ramparts and to
+discharge a couple of pieces of artillery at the Spanish ships. The offer
+was accepted, and the vagabond merrily mounting the height, discharged
+the guns. Strange to relate, the shot thus fired by a lunatic's hand put
+the invading ships to flight. A sudden panic seized the Spaniards, the
+whole fleet stood away at once in the direction of Middelburg, and were
+soon out of sight.
+
+The next day, however, Antony of Bourgoyne, governor under Alva for the
+Island of Walcheren, made his appearance in Flushing. Having a high
+opinion of his own oratorical powers, he came with the intention of
+winning back with his rhetoric a city which the Spaniards had thus far
+been unable to recover with their cannon. The great bell was rung, the
+whole population assembled in the marketplace, and Antony, from the steps
+of the town-house, delivered a long oration, assuring the burghers, among
+other asseverations, that the King, who was the best natured prince in
+all Christendom, would forget and forgive their offences if they returned
+honestly to their duties.
+
+The effect of the Governor's eloquence was much diminished, however, by
+the interlocutory remarks, of De Herpt and a group of his adherents. They
+reminded the people of the King's good nature, of his readiness to forget
+and to forgive, as exemplified by the fate of Horn and Egmont, of Berghen
+and Montigny, and by the daily and almost hourly decrees of the Blood
+Council. Each well-rounded period of the Governor was greeted with
+ironical cheers. The oration was unsuccessful. "Oh, citizens, citizens!"
+cried at last the discomfited Antony, "ye know not what ye do. Your blood
+be upon your own heads; the responsibility be upon your own hearts for
+the fires which are to consume your cities and the desolation which is to
+sweep your land!" The orator at this impressive point was interrupted,
+and most unceremoniously hustled out of the city. The government remained
+in the hands of the patriots.
+
+The party, however, was not so strong in soldiers as in spirit. No
+sooner, therefore, had they established their rebellion to Alva as an
+incontrovertible fact, than they sent off emissaries to the Prince of
+Orange, and to Admiral De la Marek at Brill. Finding that the inhabitants
+of Flushing were willing to provide arms and ammunition, De la Marck
+readily consented to send a small number of men, bold and experienced in
+partisan warfare, of whom he had now collected a larger number than he
+could well arm or maintain in his present position.
+
+The detachment, two hundred in number, in three small vessels, set sail
+accordingly from Brill for Flushing; and a wild crew they were, of
+reckless adventurers under command of the bold Treslong. The expedition
+seemed a fierce but whimsical masquerade. Every man in the little fleet
+was attired in the gorgeous vestments of the plundered churches, in
+gold-embroidered cassocks, glittering mass-garments, or the more sombre
+cowls, and robes of Capuchin friars. So sped the early standard bearers
+of that ferocious liberty which had sprung from the fires in which all
+else for which men cherish their fatherland had been consumed. So swept
+that resolute but fantastic band along the placid estuaries of Zealand,
+waking the stagnant waters with their wild beggar songs and cries of
+vengeance.
+
+That vengeance found soon a distinguished object. Pacheco, the chief
+engineer of Alva, who had accompanied the Duke in his march from Italy,
+who had since earned a world-wide reputation as the architect of the
+Antwerp citadel, had been just despatched in haste to Flushing to
+complete the fortress whose construction had been so long delayed. Too
+late for his work, too soon for his safety, the ill-fated engineer had
+arrived almost at the same moment with Treslong and his crew. He had
+stepped on shore, entirely ignorant of all which had transpired,
+expecting to be treated with the respect due to the chief commandant of
+the place, and to an officer high in the confidence of the
+Governor-General. He found himself surrounded by an indignant and
+threatening mob. The unfortunate Italian understood not a word of the
+opprobrious language addressed to him, but he easily comprehended that
+the authority of the Duke was overthrown. Observing De Ryk, a
+distinguished partisan officer and privateersman of Amsterdam, whose
+reputation for bravery and generosity was known, to him, he approached
+him, and drawing a seal ring from his finger, kissed it, and handed it to
+the rebel chieftain. By this dumbshow he gave him to understand that he
+relied upon his honor for the treatment due to a gentleman. De Ryk
+understood the appeal, and would willingly have assured him, at least, a
+soldier's death, but he was powerless to do so. He arrested him, that he
+might be protected from the fury of the rabble, but Treslong, who now
+commanded in Flushing, was especially incensed against the founder of the
+Antwerp citadel, and felt a ferocious desire to avenge his brother's
+murder upon the body of his destroyer's favourite. Pacheco was condemned
+to be hanged upon the very day of his arrival. Having been brought forth
+from his prison, he begged hard but not abjectly for his life. He offered
+a heavy ransom, but his enemies were greedy for blood, not for money. It
+was, however, difficult to find an executioner. The city hangman was
+absent, and the prejudice of the country and the age against the vile
+profession had assuredly not been diminished during the five horrible
+years of Alva's administration. Even a condemned murderer, who lay in the
+town-gaol, refused to accept his life in recompence for performing the
+office. It should never be said, he observed, that his mother had given
+birth to a hangman. When told, however, that the intended victim was a
+Spanish officer, the malefactor consented to the task with alacrity, on
+condition that he might afterwards kill any man who taunted him with the
+deed.
+
+Arrived at the foot of the gallows, Pacheco complained bitterly of the
+disgraceful death designed for him. He protested loudly that he came of a
+house as noble as that of Egmont or Horn, and was entitled to as
+honorable an execution as theirs had been. "The sword! the sword!" he
+frantically exclaimed, as he struggled with those who guarded him. His
+language was not understood, but the names of Egmont and Horn inflamed
+still more highly the rage of the rabble, while his cry for the sword was
+falsely interpreted by a rude fellow who had happened to possess himself
+of Pacheco's rapier, at his capture, and who now paraded himself with it
+at the gallows' foot. "Never fear for your sword, Seilor," cried this
+ruffian; "your sword is safe enough, and in good hands. Up the ladder
+with you, Senor; you have no further use for your sword."
+
+Pacheco, thus outraged, submitted to his fate. He mounted the ladder with
+a steady step, and was hanged between two other Spanish officers. So
+perished miserably a brave soldier, and one of the most distinguished
+engineers of his time; a man whose character and accomplishments had
+certainly merited for him a better fate. But while we stigmatize as it
+deserves the atrocious conduct of a few Netherland partisans, we should
+remember who first unchained the demon of international hatred in this
+unhappy land, nor should it ever be forgotten that the great leader of
+the revolt, by word, proclamation, example, by entreaties, threats, and
+condign punishment, constantly rebuked, and to a certain extent,
+restrained the sanguinary spirit by which some of his followers disgraced
+the noble cause which they had espoused.
+
+Treslong did not long remain in command at Flushing. An officer, high in
+the confidence of the Prince, Jerome van 't Zeraerts, now arrived at
+Flushing, with a commission to be Lieutenant-Governor over the whole isle
+of Walcheren. He was attended by a small band of French infantry, while
+at nearly the same time the garrison was further strengthened by the
+arrival of a large number of volunteers from England.
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     Beggars of the sea, as these privateersmen designated themselves
+     Hair and beard unshorn, according to ancient Batavian custom
+     Only healthy existence of the French was in a state of war
+
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, PG EDITION, VOLUME 19.
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
+
+By JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
+1855
+1572 [CHAPTER VII.]
+
+   Municipal revolution throughout Holland and Zealand--Characteristics
+   of the movement in various places--Sonoy commissioned by Orange as
+   governor of North Holland--Theory of the provisional government--
+   Instructions of the Prince to his officers--Oath prescribed--Clause
+   of toleration--Surprise of Mons by Count Louis--Exertions of Antony
+   Oliver--Details of the capture--Assembly of the citizens--Speeches
+   of Genlis and of Count Louis--Effect of the various movements upon
+   Alva--Don Frederic ordered to invest Mons--The Duke's impatience to
+   retire--Arrival of Medina Coeli--His narrow escape--Capture of the
+   Lisbon fleet--Affectation of cordiality between Alva and Medina--
+   Concessions by King and Viceroy on the subject of the tenth penny--
+   Estates of Holland assembled, by summons of Orange, at Dort--Appeals
+   from the Prince to this congress for funds to pay his newly levied
+   army--Theory of the provisional States' assembly--Source and nature
+   of its authority--Speech of St. Aldegonde--Liberality of the estates
+   and the provinces--Pledges exchanged between the Prince's
+   representative and the Congress--Commission to De la Marck ratified
+   --Virtual dictatorship of Orange--Limitation of his power by his own
+   act--Count Louis at Mons--Reinforcements led from France by Genlis--
+   Rashness of that officer--His total defeat--Orange again in the
+   field--Rocrmond taken--Excesses of the patriot army--Proclamation of
+   Orange, commanding respect to all personal and religious rights--His
+   reply to the Emperor's summons--His progress in the Netherlands--
+   Hopes entertained from France--Reinforcements under Coligny promised
+   to Orange by Charles IX.--The Massacre of St. Bartholomew--The
+   event characterized--Effect in England, in Rome, and in other parts
+   of Europe--Excessive hilarity of Philip--Extravagant encomium
+   bestowed by him upon Charles IX.--Order sent by Philip to put all
+   French prisoners in the Netherlands to Death--Secret correspondence
+   of Charles IX. with his envoy in the Netherlands--Exultation of the
+   Spaniards before Mons--Alva urged by the French envoy, according to
+   his master's commands, to put all the Frenchmen in Mons, and those
+   already captured, to death--Effect of the massacre upon the Prince
+   of Orange--Alva and Medina in the camp before Mons--Hopelessness of
+   the Prince's scheme to obtain battle from Alva--Romero's encamisada
+   --Narrow escape of the prince--Mutiny and dissolution of his army--
+   His return to Holland--His steadfastness--Desperate position of
+   Count Louis in Mons--Sentiments of Alva--Capitulation of Mons--
+   Courteous reception of Count Louis by the Spanish generals--
+   Hypocrisy of these demonstrations--Nature of the Mons capitulation--
+   Horrible violation of its terms--Noircarmes at Mons--Establishment
+   of a Blood Council in the city--Wholesale executions--Cruelty and
+   cupidity of Noircarmes--Late discovery of the archives of these
+   crimes--Return of the revolted cities of Brabant and Flanders to
+   obedience--Sack of Mechlin by the Spaniards--Details of that event.
+
+The example thus set by Brill and Flushing was rapidly followed. The
+first half of the year 1572 was distinguished by a series of triumphs
+rendered still more remarkable by the reverses which followed at its
+close. Of a sudden, almost as it were by accident, a small but important
+sea-port, the object for which the Prince had so long been hoping, was
+secured. Instantly afterward, half the island of Walcheren renounced the
+yoke of Alva, Next, Enkbuizen, the key to the Zuyder Zee, the principal
+arsenal, and one of the first commercial cities in the Netherlands, rose
+against the Spanish Admiral, and hung out the banner of Orange on its
+ramparts. The revolution effected here was purely the work of the
+people--of the mariners and burghers of the city. Moreover, the
+magistracy was set aside and the government of Alva repudiated without
+shedding one drop of blood, without a single wrong to person or property.
+By the same spontaneous movement, nearly all the important cities of
+Holland and Zealand raised the standard of him in whom they recognized
+their deliverer. The revolution was accomplished under nearly similar
+circumstances everywhere. With one fierce bound of enthusiasm the nation
+shook off its chain. Oudewater, Dort, Harlem, Leyden, Gorcum,
+Loewenstein, Gouda, Medenblik, Horn, Alkmaar, Edam, Monnikendam,
+Purmerende, as well as Flushing, Veer, and Enkbuizen, all ranged
+themselves under the government of Orange, as lawful stadholder for the
+King.
+
+Nor was it in Holland and Zealand alone that the beacon fires of freedom
+were lighted. City after city in Gelderland, Overyssel, and the See of
+Utrecht; all the important towns of Friesland, some sooner, some later,
+some without a struggle, some after a short siege, some with resistance
+by the functionaries of government, some by amicable compromise, accepted
+the garrisons of the Prince, and formally recognized his authority. Out
+of the chaos which a long and preternatural tyranny had produced, the
+first struggling elements of a new and a better world began to appear. It
+were superfluous to narrate the details which marked the sudden
+restoration of liberty in these various groups of cities. Traits of
+generosity marked the change of government in some, circumstances of
+ferocity, disfigured the revolution in others. The island of Walcheren,
+equally divided as it was between the two parties, was the scene of much
+truculent and diabolical warfare. It is difficult to say whether the
+mutual hatred of race or the animosity of religious difference proved the
+deadlier venom. The combats were perpetual and sanguinary, the prisoners
+on both sides instantly executed. On more than one occasion; men were
+seen assisting to hang with their own hands and in cold blood their own
+brothers, who had been taken prisoners in the enemy's ranks. When the
+captives were too many to be hanged, they were tied back to back, two and
+two, and thus hurled into the sea. The islanders found a fierce pleasure
+in these acts of cruelty. A Spaniard had ceased to be human in their
+eyes. On one occasion, a surgeon at Veer cut the heart from a Spanish
+prisoner, nailed it on a vessel's prow; and invited the townsmen to come
+and fasten their teeth in it, which many did with savage satisfaction.
+
+In other parts of the country the revolution was, on the whole,
+accomplished with comparative calmness. Even traits of generosity were
+not uncommon. The burgomaster of Gonda, long the supple slave of Alva and
+the Blood Council, fled for his life as the revolt broke forth in that
+city. He took refuge in the house of a certain widow, and begged for a
+place of concealment. The widow led him to a secret closet which served
+as a pantry. "Shall I be secure there?" asked the fugitive functionary.
+"O yes, sir Burgomaster," replied the widow, "'t was in that very place
+that my husband lay concealed when you, accompanied by the officers of
+justice, were searching the house, that you might bring him to the
+scaffold for his religion. Enter the pantry, your worship; I will be
+responsible for your safety." Thus faithfully did the humble widow of a
+hunted and murdered Calvinist protect the life of the magistrate who had
+brought desolation to her hearth.
+
+Not all the conquests thus rapidly achieved in the cause of liberty were
+destined to endure, nor were any to be, retained without a struggle. The
+little northern cluster of republics which had now restored its honor to
+the ancient Batavian name was destined, however, for a long and vigorous
+life. From that bleak isthmus the light of freedom was to stream through
+many years upon struggling humanity in Europe; a guiding pharos across a
+stormy sea; and Harlem, Leyden, Alkmaar--names hallowed by deeds of
+heroism such as have not often illustrated human annals, still breathe as
+trumpet-tongued and perpetual a defiance to despotism as Marathon,
+Thermopylae, or Salamis.
+
+A new board of magistrates had been chosen in all the redeemed cities, by
+popular election. They were required to take an oath of fidelity to the
+King of Spain, and to the Prince of Orange as his stadholder; to promise
+resistance to the Duke of Alva, the tenth penny, and the inquisition; to
+support every man's freedom and the welfare of the country; to protect
+widows, orphans, and miserable persons, and to maintain justice and
+truth.
+
+Diedrich Sonoy arrived on the 2nd June at Enkbuizen. He was provided by
+the Prince with a commission, appointing him Lieutenant-Governor of North
+Holland or Waterland. Thus, to combat the authority of Alva was set up
+the authority of the King. The stadholderate over Holland and Zealand, to
+which the Prince had been appointed in 1559, he now reassumed. Upon this
+fiction reposed the whole provisional polity of the revolted Netherlands.
+The government, as it gradually unfolded itself, from this epoch forward
+until the declaration of independence and the absolute renunciation of
+the Spanish sovereign power, will be sketched in a future chapter. The
+people at first claimed not an iota more of freedom than was secured by
+Philip's coronation oath. There was no pretence that Philip was not
+sovereign, but there was a pretence and a determination to worship God
+according to conscience, and to reclaim the ancient political "liberties"
+of the land. So long as Alva reigned, the Blood Council, the inquisition,
+and martial law, were the only codes or courts, and every charter slept.
+To recover this practical liberty and these historical rights, and to
+shake from their shoulders a most sanguinary government, was the purpose
+of William and of the people. No revolutionary standard was displayed.
+
+The written instructions given by the Prince to his Lieutenant Sonoy were
+to "see that the Word of God was preached, without, however, suffering
+any hindrance to the Roman Church in the exercise of its religion; to
+restore fugitives and the banished for conscience sake, and to require of
+all magistrates and officers of guilds and brotherhoods an oath of
+fidelity." The Prince likewise prescribed the form of that oath,
+repeating therein, to his eternal honor, the same strict prohibition of
+intolerance. "Likewise," said the formula, "shall those of 'the religion'
+offer no let or hindrance to the Roman churches."
+
+The Prince was still in Germany, engaged in raising troops and providing
+funds. He directed; however, the affairs of the insurgent provinces in
+their minutest details, by virtue of the dictatorship inevitably forced
+upon him both by circumstances and by the people. In the meantime; Louis
+of Nassau, the Bayard of the Netherlands, performed a most unexpected and
+brilliant exploit. He had been long in France, negotiating with the
+leaders of the Huguenots, and, more secretly, with the court. He was
+supposed by all the world to be still in that kingdom, when the startling
+intelligence arrived that he had surprised and captured the important
+city of Mons. This town, the capital of Hainault, situate in a fertile,
+undulating, and beautiful country, protected by lofty walls, a triple
+moat, and a strong citadel, was one of the most flourishing and elegant
+places in the Netherlands. It was, moreover, from its vicinity to the
+frontiers of France; a most important acquisition to the insurgent party.
+The capture was thus accomplished. A native of Mons, one Antony Oliver, a
+geographical painter, had insinuated himself into the confidence of Alva,
+for whom he had prepared at different times some remarkably well-executed
+maps of the country. Having occasion to visit France, he was employed by
+the Duke to keep a watch upon the movements of Louis of Nassau, and to
+make a report as to the progress of his intrigues with the court of
+France. The painter, however, was only a spy in disguise, being in
+reality devoted to the cause of freedom, and a correspondent of Orange
+and his family. His communications with Louis, in Paris, had therefore a
+far different result from the one anticipated by Alva. A large number of
+adherents within the city of Mons had already been secured, and a plan
+was now arranged between Count Louis, Genlis, De la Noue, and other
+distinguished Huguenot chiefs, to be carried out with the assistance of
+the brave and energetic artist.
+
+On the 23rd of May, Oliver appeared at the gates of Mons, accompanied by
+three wagons, ostensibly containing merchandise, but in reality laden
+with arquebusses. These were secretly distributed among his confederates
+in the city. In the course of the day Count Louis arrived in the
+neighbourhood, accompanied by five hundred horsemen and a thousand foot
+soldiers. This force he stationed in close concealment within the thick
+forests between Maubeuge and Mons. Towards evening he sent twelve of the
+most trusty and daring of his followers, disguised as wine merchants,
+into the city. These individuals proceeded boldly to a public house,
+ordered their supper, and while conversing with the landlord, carelessly
+inquired at what hour next morning the city gates would be opened. They
+were informed that the usual hour was four in the morning, but that a
+trifling present to the porter would ensure admission, if they desired
+it, at an earlier hour. They explained their inquiries by a statement
+that they had some casks of wine which they wished to introduce into the
+city before sunrise. Having obtained all the information which they
+needed, they soon afterwards left the tavern. The next day they presented
+themselves very early at the gate, which the porter, on promise of a
+handsome "drink-penny," agreed to unlock. No sooner were the bolts
+withdrawn, however, than he was struck dead, while about fifty dragoons
+rode through the gate. The Count and his followers now galloped over the
+city in the morning twilight, shouting "France! liberty! the town is
+ours!" "The Prince is coming!" "Down with the tenth penny; down with the
+murderous Alva!" So soon as a burgher showed his wondering face at the
+window, they shot at him with their carbines. They made as much noise,
+and conducted themselves as boldly as if they had been at least a
+thousand strong.
+
+Meantime, however, the streets remained empty; not one of their secret
+confederates showing himself. Fifty men could surprise, but were too few
+to keep possession of the city. The Count began to suspect a trap. As
+daylight approached the alarm spread; the position of the little band was
+critical. In his impetuosity, Louis had far outstripped his army, but
+they had been directed to follow hard upon his footsteps, and he was
+astonished that their arrival was so long delayed. The suspense becoming
+intolerable, he rode out of the city in quest of his adherents, and found
+them wandering in the woods, where they had completely lost their way.
+Ordering each horseman to take a foot soldier on the crupper behind him,
+he led them rapidly back to Mons. On the way they were encountered by La
+Noue, "with the iron arm," and Genlis, who, meantime, had made an
+unsuccessful attack to recover Valenciennes, which within a few hours had
+been won and lost again. As they reached the gates of Mons, they found
+themselves within a hair's breadth of being too late; their adherents had
+not come forth; the citizens had been aroused; the gates were all fast
+but one--and there the porter was quarrelling with a French soldier about
+an arquebuss. The drawbridge across the moat was at the moment rising;
+the last entrance was closing, when Guitoy de Chaumont, a French officer,
+mounted on a light Spanish barb, sprang upon the bridge as it rose. His
+weight caused it to sink again, the gate was forced, and Louis with all
+his men rode triumphantly into the town.
+
+The citizens were forthwith assembled by sound of bell in the
+market-place. The clergy, the magistracy, and the general council were
+all present. Genlis made the first speech, in which he disclaimed all
+intention of making conquests in the interest of France. This pledge
+having been given, Louis of Nassau next addressed the assembly: "The
+magistrates," said he, "have not understoood my intentions. I protest
+that I am no rebel to the King; I prove it by asking no new oaths from
+any man. Remain bound by your old oaths of allegiance; let the
+magistrates continue to exercise their functions--to administer justice.
+I imagine that no person will suspect a brother of the Prince of Orange
+capable of any design against the liberties of the country. As to the
+Catholic religion, I take it under my very particular protection. You
+will ask why I am in Mons at the head of an armed force: are any of you
+ignorant of Alva's cruelties? The overthrow of this tyrant is as much the
+interest of the King as of the people, therefore there is nothing in my
+present conduct inconsistent with fidelity to his Majesty. Against Alva
+alone I have taken up arms; 'tis to protect you against his fury that I
+am here. It is to prevent the continuance of a general rebellion that I
+make war upon him. The only proposition which I have to make to you is
+this--I demand that you declare Alva de Toledo a traitor to the King, the
+executioner of the people, an enemy to the country, unworthy of the
+government, and hereby deprived of his authority."
+
+The magistracy did not dare to accept so bold a proposition; the general
+council, composing the more popular branch of the municipal government,
+were comparatively inclined to favor Nassau, and many of its members
+voted for the downfall of the tyrant. Nevertheless the demands of Count
+Louis were rejected. His position thus became critical. The civic
+authorities refused to, pay for his troops, who were, moreover, too few,
+in number to resist the inevitable siege. The patriotism of the citizens
+was not to be repressed, however, by the authority, of the magistrates;
+many rich proprietors of the great cloth and silk manufactories, for
+which Mons was famous, raised, and armed companies at their own expense;
+many volunteer troops were also speedily organized and drilled, and the
+fortifications were put in order. No attempt was made to force the
+reformed religion upon the inhabitants, and even Catholics who were
+discovered in secret correspondence with the enemy were treated with such
+extreme gentleness by Nassau as to bring upon him severe reproaches from
+many of his own party.
+
+A large collection of ecclesiastical plate, jewellery, money, and other
+valuables, which had been sent to the city for safe keeping from the
+churches and convents of the provinces, was seized, and thus, with little
+bloodshed and no violence; was the important city secured for the
+insurgents. Three days afterwards, two thousand infantry, chiefly French,
+arrived in the place. In the early part of the following month Louis was
+still further strengthened by the arrival of thirteen hundred foot and
+twelve hundred horsemen, under command of Count Montgomery, the
+celebrated officer, whose spear at the tournament had proved fatal to
+Henry the Second. Thus the Duke of Alva suddenly found himself exposed to
+a tempest of revolution. One thunderbolt after another seemed descending
+around him in breathless succession. Brill and Flushing had been already
+lost; Middelburg was so closely invested that its fall seemed imminent,
+and with it would go the whole island of Walcheren, the key to all the
+Netherlands. In one morning he had heard of the revolt of Enkbuizen and
+of the whole Waterland; two hours later came the news of the Valenciennes
+rebellion, and next day the astonishing capture of Mons. One disaster
+followed hard upon another. He could have sworn that the detested Louis
+of Nassau, who had dealt this last and most fatal stroke, was at that
+moment in Paris, safely watched by government emissaries; and now he had,
+as it were, suddenly started out of the earth, to deprive him of this
+important city, and to lay bare the whole frontier to the treacherous
+attacks of faithless France. He refused to believe the intelligence when
+it was first announced to him, and swore that he had certain information
+that Count Louis had been seen playing in the tennis-court at Paris,
+within so short a period as to make his presence in Hainault at that
+moment impossible. Forced, at last, to admit the truth of the disastrous
+news, he dashed his hat upon the ground in a fury, uttering imprecations
+upon the Queen Dowager of France, to whose perfidious intrigues he
+ascribed the success of the enterprise, and pledging himself to send her
+Spanish thistles, enough in return for the Florentine lilies which she
+had thus bestowed upon him.
+
+In the midst of the perplexities thus thickening around him, the Duke
+preserved his courage, if not his temper. Blinded, for a brief season, by
+the rapid attacks made upon him, he had been uncertain whither to direct
+his vengeance. This last blow in so vital a quarter determined him at
+once. He forthwith despatched Don Frederic to undertake the siege of
+Mons, and earnestly set about raising large reinforcements to his army.
+Don Frederic took possession, without much opposition, of the Bethlehem
+cloister in the immediate vicinity of the city, and with four thousand
+troops began the investment in due form.
+
+Alva had, for a long time, been most impatient to retire from the
+provinces. Even he was capable of human emotions. Through the sevenfold
+panoply of his pride he had been pierced by the sharpness of a nation's
+curse. He was wearied with the unceasing execrations which assailed his
+ears. "The hatred which the people bear me," said he, in a letter to
+Philip, "because of the chastisement which it has been necessary for me
+to inflict, although with all the moderation in the world, make all my
+efforts vain. A successor will meet more sympathy and prove more useful."
+On the 10th June, the Duke of Medina Coeli; with a fleet of more than
+forty sail, arrived off Blankenburg, intending to enter the Scheld.
+Julian Romero, with two thousand Spaniards, was also on board the fleet.
+Nothing, of course, was known to the new comers of the altered condition
+of affairs in the Netherlands, nor of the unwelcome reception which they
+were like to meet in Flushing. A few of the lighter craft having been
+taken by the patriot cruisers, the alarm was spread through all the
+fleet. Medina Coeli, with a few transports, was enabled to effect his
+escape to Sluys, whence he hastened to Brussels in a much less
+ceremonious manner than he had originally contemplated. Twelve Biscayan
+ships stood out to sea, descried a large Lisbon fleet, by a singular
+coincidence, suddenly heaving in sight, changed their course again, and
+with a favoring breeze bore boldly up the Hond; passed Flushing in spite
+of a severe cannonade from the forts, and eventually made good their
+entrance into Rammekens, whence the soldiery, about one-half of whom had
+thus been saved, were transferred at a very critical moment to
+Middelburg.
+
+The great Lisbon fleet followed in the wake of the Biscayans, with much
+inferior success. Totally ignorant of the revolution which had occurred
+in the Ise of Walclieren, it obeyed the summons of the rebel fort to come
+to anchor, and, with the exception of three or four, the vessels were all
+taken. It was the richest booty which the insurgents had yet acquired by
+sea or land. The fleet was laden with spices, money, jewellery, and the
+richest merchandize. Five hundred thousand crowns of gold were taken, and
+it was calculated that the plunder altogether would suffice to maintain
+the war for two years at least. One thousand Spanish soldiers, and a good
+amount of ammunition, were also captured. The unexpected condition of
+affairs made a pause natural and almost necessary, before the government
+could be decorously transferred. Medina Coeli with Spanish
+grandiloquence, avowed his willingness to serve as a soldier, under a
+general whom he so much venerated, while Alva ordered that, in all
+respects, the same outward marks of respect should be paid to his
+appointed successor as to himself. Beneath all this external ceremony,
+however, much mutual malice was concealed.
+
+Meantime, the Duke, who was literally "without a single real," was forced
+at last to smother his pride in the matter of the tenth penny. On the
+24th June, he summoned the estates of Holland to assemble on the 15th of
+the ensuing month. In the missive issued for this purpose, he formally
+agreed to abolish the whole tax, on condition that the estates-general of
+the Netherlands would furnish him with a yearly supply of two millions of
+florins. Almost at the same moment the King had dismissed the deputies of
+the estates from Madrid, with the public assurance that the tax was to be
+suspended, and a private intimation that it was not abolished in terms,
+only in order to save the dignity of the Duke.
+
+These healing measures came entirely too late. The estates of Holland
+met, indeed, on the appointed day of July; but they assembled not in
+obedience to Alva, but in consequence of a summons from William of
+Orange. They met, too, not at the Hague, but at Dort, to take formal
+measures for renouncing the authority of the Duke. The first congress of
+the Netherland commonwealth still professed loyalty to the Crown, but was
+determined to accept the policy of Orange without a question.
+
+The Prince had again assembled an army in Germany, consisting of fifteen
+thousand foot and seven thousand horse, besides a number of
+Netherlanders, mostly Walloons, amounting to nearly three thousand more.
+Before taking the field, however, it was necessary that he should
+guarantee at least three months' pay to his troops. This he could no
+longer do, except by giving bonds endorsed by certain cities of Holland
+as his securities. He had accordingly addressed letters in his own name
+to all the principal cities, fervently adjuring them to remember, at
+last, what was due to him, to the fatherland, and to their own character.
+"Let not a sum of gold," said he in one of these letters, "be so dear to
+you, that for its sake you will sacrifice your lives, your wives, your
+children, and all your descendants, to the latest generations; that you
+will bring sin and shame upon yourselves, and destruction upon us who
+have so heartily striven to assist you. Think what scorn you will incur
+from foreign nations, what a crime you will commit against the Lord God,
+what a bloody yoke ye will impose forever upon yourselves and your
+children, if you now seek for subterfuges; if you now prevent us from
+taking the field with the troops which we have enlisted. On the other
+hand, what inexpressible benefits you will confer on your country, if you
+now help us to rescue that fatherland from the power of Spanish vultures
+and wolves."
+
+This and similar missives, circulated throughout the province of Holland,
+produced a deep impression. In accordance with his suggestions, the
+deputies from the nobility and from twelve cities of that province
+assembled on the 15th July, at Dort. Strictly speaking, the estates or
+government of Holland, the body which represented the whole people,
+consisted of the nobler and six great cities. On this occasion, however,
+Amsterdam being still in the power of the King, could send no deputies,
+while, on the other hand, all the small towns were invited to send up
+their representatives to the Congress. Eight accepted the proposal; the
+rest declined to appoint delegates, partly from motives of economy,
+partly from timidity.'
+
+These estates were the legitimate representatives of the people, but they
+had no legislative powers. The people had never pretended to sovereignty,
+nor did they claim it now. The source from which the government of the
+Netherlands was supposed to proceed was still the divine mandate. Even
+now the estates silently conceded, as they had ever done, the supreme
+legislative and executive functions to the land's master. Upon Philip of
+Spain, as representative of Count Dirk the First of Holland, had
+descended, through many tortuous channels, the divine effluence
+originally supplied by Charles the Simple of France. That supernatural
+power was not contested, but it was now ingeniously turned against the
+sovereign. The King's authority was invoked against himself in the person
+of the Prince of Orange, to whom, thirteen years before, a portion of
+that divine right had been delegated. The estates of Holland met at Dort
+on the 15th July, as representatives of the people; but they were
+summoned by Orange, royally commissioned in 1559 as stadholder, and
+therefore the supreme legislative and executive officer of certain
+provinces. This was the theory of the provisional government. The Prince
+represented the royal authority, the nobles represented both themselves
+and the people of the open country, while the twelve cities represented
+the whole body of burghers. Together, they were supposed to embody all
+authority, both divine and human, which a congress could exercise. Thus
+the whole movement was directed against Alva and against Count Bossu,
+appointed stadholder by Alva in the place of Orange. Philip's name was
+destined to figure for a long time, at the head of documents by which
+monies were raised, troops levied, and taxes collected, all to be used in
+deadly war against himself.
+
+The estates were convened on the 15th July, when Paul Buys, pensionary of
+Leyden, the tried and confidential friend of Orange, was elected Advocate
+of Holland. The convention was then adjourned till the 18th, when Saint
+Aldegonde made his appearance, with full powers to act provisionally in
+behalf of his Highness.
+
+The distinguished plenipotentiary delivered before the congress a long
+and very effective harangue. He recalled the sacrifices and efforts of
+the Prince during previous years. He adverted to the disastrous campaign
+of 1568, in which the Prince had appeared full of high hope, at the head
+of a gallant army, but had been obliged, after a short period, to retire,
+because not a city had opened its gates nor a Netherlander lifted his
+finger in the cause. Nevertheless, he had not lost courage nor closed his
+heart; and now that, through the blessing of God, the eyes of men had
+been opened, and so many cities had declared against the tyrant, the
+Prince had found himself exposed to a bitter struggle. Although his own
+fortunes had been ruined in the cause, he had been unable to resist the
+daily flood of petitions which called upon him to come forward once more.
+He had again importuned his relations and powerful friends; he had at
+last set on foot a new and well-appointed army. The day of payment had
+arrived. Over his own head impended perpetual shame, over the fatherland
+perpetual woe, if the congress should now refuse the necessary supplies.
+"Arouse ye, then," cried the orator, with fervor, "awaken your own zeal
+and that of your sister cities. Seize Opportunity by the locks, who never
+appeared fairer than she does to-day."
+
+The impassioned eloquence of St. Aldegonde produced a profound
+impression. The men who had obstinately refused the demands of Alva, now
+unanimously resolved to pour forth their gold and their blood at the call
+of Orange. "Truly," wrote the Duke, a little later, "it almost drives me
+mad to see the difficulty with which your Majesty's supplies are
+furnished, and the liberality with which the people place their lives and
+fortunes at the disposal of this rebel." It seemed strange to the loyal
+governor that men should support their liberator with greater alacrity
+than that with which they served their destroyer! It was resolved that
+the requisite amount should be at once raised, partly from the regular
+imposts and current "requests," partly by loans from the rich, from the
+clergy, from the guilds and brotherhoods, partly from superfluous church
+ornaments and other costly luxuries. It was directed that subscriptions
+should be immediately opened throughout the land, that gold and silver
+plate, furniture, jewellery, and other expensive articles should be
+received by voluntary contributions, for which inventories and receipts
+should be given by the magistrates of each city, and that upon these
+money should be raised, either by loan or sale. An enthusiastic and
+liberal spirit prevailed. All seemed determined rather than pay the tenth
+to Alva to pay the whole to the Prince.
+
+The estates, furthermore, by unanimous resolution, declared that they
+recognized the Prince as the King's lawful stadholder over Holland,
+Zealand, Friesland, and Utrecht, and that they would use their influence
+with the other provinces to procure his appointment as Protector of all
+the Netherlands during the King's absence. His Highness was requested to
+appoint an Admiral, on whom, with certain deputies from the Water-cities,
+the conduct of the maritime war should devolve.
+
+The conduct of the military operations by land was to be directed by
+Dort, Leyden, and Enkbuizen, in conjunction with the Count de la Marck. A
+pledge was likewise exchanged between the estates and the
+pleni-potentiary, that neither party should enter into any treaty with
+the King, except by full consent and co-operation of the other. With
+regard to religion, it was firmly established, that the public exercises
+of divine worship should be permitted not only to the Reformed Church,
+but to the Roman Catholic--the clergy of both being protected from all
+molestation.
+
+After these proceedings, Count de la Marck made his appearance before the
+assembly. His commission from Orange was read to the deputies, and by
+them ratified. The Prince, in that document, authorized "his dear cousin"
+to enlist troops, to accept the fealty of cities, to furnish them with
+garrisons, to re-establish all the local laws, municipal rights, and
+ancient privileges which had been suppressed. He was to maintain freedom
+of religion, under penalty of death to those who infringed it; he was to
+restore all confiscated property; he was, with advice of his council, to
+continue in office such city magistrates as were favorable, and to remove
+those adverse to the cause.
+
+The Prince was, in reality, clothed with dictatorial and even regal
+powers. This authority had been forced upon him by the prayers of the
+people, but he manifested no eagerness as he partly accepted the onerous
+station. He was provisionally the depositary of the whole sovereignty of
+the northern provinces, but he cared much less for theories of government
+than for ways and means. It was his object to release the country from
+the tyrant who, five years long, had been burning and butchering the
+people. It was his determination to drive out the foreign soldiery. To do
+this, he must meet his enemy in the field. So little was he disposed to
+strengthen his own individual power, that he voluntarily imposed limits
+on himself, by an act, supplemental to the proceedings of the Congress of
+Dort. In this important ordinance made by the Prince of Orange, as a
+provisional form of government, he publicly announced "that he would do
+and ordain nothing except by the advice of the estates, by reason that
+they were best acquainted with the circumstances and the humours of the
+inhabitants." He directed the estates to appoint receivers for all public
+taxes, and ordained that all military officers should make oath of
+fidelity to him, as stadholder, and to the estates of Holland, to be true
+and obedient, in order to liberate the land from the Albanian and Spanish
+tyranny, for the service of his royal Majesty as Count of Holland. The
+provisional constitution, thus made by a sovereign prince and actual
+dictator, was certainly as disinterested as it was sagacious.
+
+Meanwhile the war had opened vigorously in Hainault. Louis of Nassau had
+no sooner found himself in possession of Mons than he had despatched
+Genlis to France, for those reinforcements which had been promised by
+royal lips. On the other hand, Don Frederic held the city closely
+beleaguered; sharp combats before the walls were of almost daily
+occurrence, but it was obvious that Louis would be unable to maintain the
+position into which he had so chivalrously thrown himself unless he
+should soon receive important succor. The necessary reinforcements were
+soon upon the way. Genlis had made good speed with his levy, and it was
+soon announced that he was advancing into Hainault, with a force of
+Huguenots, whose numbers report magnified to ten thousand veterans. Louis
+despatched an earnest message to his confederate, to use extreme caution
+in his approach. Above all things, he urged him, before attempting to
+throw reinforcements into the city, to effect a junction with the Prince
+of Orange, who had already crossed the Rhine with his new army.
+
+Genlis, full of overweening confidence, and desirous of acquiring singly
+the whole glory of relieving the city, disregarded this advice. His
+rashness proved his ruin, and the temporary prostration of the cause of
+freedom. Pushing rapidly forward across the French frontier, he arrived,
+towards the middle of July, within two leagues of Mons. The Spaniards
+were aware of his approach, and well prepared to frustrate his project.
+On the 19th, he found himself upon a circular plain of about a league's
+extent, surrounded with coppices and forests, and dotted with farm-houses
+and kitchen gardens. Here he paused to send out a reconnoitring party.
+The little detachment was, however, soon driven in, with the information
+that Don Frederic of Toledo, with ten thousand men, was coming instantly
+upon them. The Spanish force, in reality, numbered four thousand
+infantry, and fifteen hundred cavalry; but three thousand half-armed
+boors had been engaged by Don Frederic, to swell his apparent force. The
+demonstration produced its effect, and no sooner had the first panic of
+the intelligence been spread, than Noircarmes came charging upon them at
+the head of his cavalry. The infantry arrived directly afterwards, and
+the Huguenots were routed almost as soon as seen. It was a meeting rather
+than a battle. The slaughter of the French was very great, while but an
+insignificant number of the Spaniards fell. Chiappin Vitelli was the hero
+of the day. It was to his masterly arrangements before the combat, and to
+his animated exertions upon the field, that the victory was owing. Having
+been severely wounded in the thigh but a few days previously, he caused
+himself to be carried upon a litter in a recumbent position in front of
+his troops, and was everywhere seen, encouraging their exertions, and
+exposing himself, crippled as he was, to the whole brunt of the battle.
+To him the victory nearly proved fatal; to Don Frederic it brought
+increased renown. Vitelli's exertions, in his precarious condition,
+brought on severe inflammation, under which he nearly succumbed, while
+the son of Alva reaped extensive fame from the total overthrow of the
+veteran Huguenots, due rather to his lieutenant and to Julian Romero.
+
+The number of dead left by the French upon the plain amounted to at least
+twelve hundred, but a much larger number was butchered in detail by the
+peasantry, among whom they attempted to take refuge, and who had not yet
+forgotten the barbarities inflicted by their countrymen in the previous
+war. Many officers were taken prisoners, among whom was the
+Commander-in-chief, Genlis.
+
+That unfortunate gentleman was destined to atone for his rashness and
+obstinacy with his life. He was carried to the castle of Antwerp, where,
+sixteen months afterwards, he was secretly strangled by command of Alva,
+who caused the report to be circulated that he had died a natural death.
+About one hundred foot soldiers succeeded in making their entrance into
+Mona, and this was all the succor which Count Louis was destined to
+receive from France, upon which country he had built such lofty and such
+reasonable hopes.
+
+While this unfortunate event was occurring, the Prince had already put
+his army in motion. On the 7th of July he had crossed the Rhine at
+Duisburg, with fourteen thousand foot, seven thousand horse, enlisted in
+Germany, besides a force of three thousand Walloons. On the 23rd of July,
+he took the city of Roermond, after a sharp cannonade, at which place his
+troops already began to disgrace the honorable cause in which they were
+engaged, by imitating the cruelties and barbarities of their antagonists.
+The persons and property of the burghers were, with a very few
+exceptions, respected; but many priests and monks were put to death by
+the soldiery under circumstances of great barbarity. The Prince, incensed
+at such conduct, but being unable to exercise very stringent authority
+over troops whose wages he was not yet able to pay in full, issued a
+proclamation, denouncing such excesses, and commanding his followers,
+upon pain of death, to respect the rights of all individuals, whether
+Papist or Protestant, and to protect religious exercises both in Catholic
+and Reformed churches.
+
+It was hardly to be expected that the troops enlisted by the Prince in
+the same great magazine of hireling soldiers, Germany, from whence the
+Duke also derived his annual supplies, would be likely to differ very
+much in their propensities from those enrolled under Spanish banners; yet
+there was a vast contrast between the characters of the two commanders.
+One leader inculcated the practice of robbery, rape, and murder, as a
+duty, and issued distinct orders to butcher every mother's son in the
+cities which he captured; the other restrained every excess to, the
+utmost of his ability, protecting not only life and property, but even
+the ancient religion.
+
+The Emperor Maximilian had again issued his injunctions against the
+military operations of Orange. Bound to the monarch of Spain by so many
+family ties, being at once cousin, brother-in-law, and father-in-law of
+Philip, it was difficult for him to maintain the attitude which became
+him, as chief of that Empire to which the peace of Passau had assured
+religious freedom. It had, however, been sufficiently proved that
+remonstrances and intercessions addressed to Philip were but idle breath.
+It had therefore become an insult to require pacific conduct from the
+Prince on the ground of any past or future mediation. It was a still
+grosser mockery to call upon him to discontinue hostilities because the
+Netherlands were included in the Empire, and therefore protected by the
+treaties of Passau and Augsburg. Well did the Prince reply to his
+Imperial Majesty's summons in a temperate but cogent letter, in which he
+addressed to him from his camp, that all intercessions had proved
+fruitless, and that the only help for the Netherlands was the sword.
+
+The Prince had been delayed for a month at Roermonde, because, as he
+expressed it; "he had not a single sou," and because, in consequence, the
+troops refused to advance into the Netherlands. Having at last been
+furnished with the requisite guarantees from the Holland cities for three
+months' pay, on the 27th of August, the day of the publication of his
+letter to the Emperor, he crossed the Meuse and took his circuitous way
+through Diest, Tirlemont, Sichem, Louvain, Mechlin, Termonde, Oudenarde,
+Nivelles. Many cities and villages accepted his authority and admitted
+his garrisons. Of these Mechlin was the most considerable, in which he
+stationed a detachment of his troops. Its doom was sealed in that moment.
+Alva could not forgive this act of patriotism on the part of a town which
+had so recently excluded his own troops. "This is a direct permission of
+God," he wrote, in the spirit of dire and revengeful prophecy, "for us to
+punish her as she deserves, for the image-breaking and other misdeeds
+done there in the time of Madame de Parma, which our Lord was not willing
+to pass over without chastisement."
+
+Meantime the Prince continued his advance. Louvain purchased its
+neutrality for the time with sixteen thousand ducats; Brussels
+obstinately refused to listen to him, and was too powerful to be forcibly
+attacked at that juncture; other important cities, convinced by the
+arguments and won by the eloquence of the various proclamations which he
+scattered as he advanced, ranged themselves spontaneously and even
+enthusiastically upon his side. How different world have been the result
+of his campaign but for the unexpected earthquake which at that instant
+was to appal Christendom, and to scatter all his well-matured plans and
+legitimate hopes. His chief reliance, under Providence and his own strong
+heart, had been upon French assistance. Although Genlis, by his
+misconduct, had sacrificed his army and himself, yet the Prince as still
+justly sanguine as to the policy of the French court. The papers which
+had been found in the possession of Genlis by his conquerors all spoke
+one language. "You would be struck with stupor," wrote Alva's secretary,
+"could you see a letter which is now in my power, addressed by the King
+of France to Louis of Nassau." In that letter the King had declared his
+determination to employ all the forces which God had placed in his hands
+to rescue the Netherlands from the oppression under which they were
+groaning. In accordance with the whole spirit and language of the French
+government, was the tone of Coligny in his correspondence with Orange.
+The Admiral assured the Prince that there was no doubt as to the
+earnestness of the royal intentions in behalf of the Netherlands, and
+recommending extreme caution, announced his hope within a few days to
+effect a junction with him at the head of twelve thousand French
+arquebusiers, and at least three thousand cavalry. Well might the Prince
+of Orange, strong, and soon to be strengthened, boast that the
+Netherlands were free, and that Alva was in his power. He had a right to
+be sanguine, for nothing less than a miracle could now destroy his
+generous hopes--and, alas! the miracle took place; a miracle of perfidy
+and bloodshed such as the world, familiar as it had ever been and was
+still to be with massacre, had not yet witnessed. On the 11th of August,
+Coligny had written thus hopefully of his movements towards the
+Netherlands, sanctioned and aided by his King. A fortnight from that day
+occurred the "Paris-wedding;" and the Admiral, with thousands of his
+religious confederates, invited to confidence by superhuman treachery,
+and lulled into security by the music of august marriage bells, was
+suddenly butchered in the streets of Paris by royal and noble hands.
+
+The Prince proceeded on his march, during which the heavy news had been
+brought to him, but he felt convinced that, with the very arrival of the
+awful tidings, the fate of that campaign was sealed, and the fall of Mons
+inevitable. In his own language, he had been struck to the earth "with
+the blow of a sledge-hammer,"--nor did the enemy draw a different augury
+from the great event.
+
+The crime was not committed with the connivance of the Spanish
+government. On the contrary, the two courts were at the moment bitterly
+hostile to each other. In the beginning of the summer, Charles IX. and
+his advisers were as false to Philip, as at the end of it they were
+treacherous to Coligny and Orange. The massacre of the Huguenots had not
+even the merit of being a well-contrived and intelligently executed
+scheme. We have seen how steadily, seven years before, Catharine de
+Medici had rejected the advances of Alva towards the arrangement of a
+general plan for the extermination of all heretics within France and the
+Netherlands at the same moment. We have seen the disgust with which Alva
+turned from the wretched young King at Bayonne, when he expressed the
+opinion that to take arms against his own subjects was wholly out of the
+question, and could only be followed by general ruin. "'Tis easy to see
+that he has been tutored," wrote Alva to his master. Unfortunately, the
+same mother; who had then instilled those lessons of hypocritical
+benevolence, had now wrought upon her son's cowardly but ferocious nature
+with a far different intent. The incomplete assassination of Coligny, the
+dread of signal vengeance at the hands of the Huguenots, the necessity of
+taking the lead in the internecine snuggle; were employed with Medicean
+art, and with entire success. The King was lashed into a frenzy. Starting
+to his feet, with a howl of rage and terror, "I agree to the scheme," he
+cried, "provided not one Huguenot be left alive in France to reproach me
+with the deed."
+
+That night the slaughter commenced. The long premeditated crime was
+executed in a panic, but the work was thoroughly done. The King, who a
+few days before had written with his own hand to Louis of Nassau,
+expressing his firm determination to sustain the Protestant cause both in
+France and the Netherlands, who had employed the counsels of Coligny in
+the arrangement, of his plans, and who had sent French troops, under
+Genlis and La None, to assist their Calvinist brethren in Flanders, now
+gave the signal for the general massacre of the Protestants, and with his
+own hands, from his own palace windows, shot his subjects with his
+arquebuss as if they had been wild beasts.
+
+Between Sunday and Tuesday, according to one of the most moderate
+calculations, five thousand Parisians of all ranks were murdered. Within
+the whole kingdom, the number of victims was variously estimated at from
+twenty-five thousand to one hundred thousand. The heart of Protestant
+Europe, for an instant, stood still with horror. The Queen of England put
+on mourning weeds, and spurned the apologies of the French envoy with
+contempt. At Rome, on the contrary, the news of the massacre created a
+joy beyond description. The Pope, accompanied by his cardinals, went
+solemnly to the church of Saint Mark to render thanks to God for the
+grace thus singularly vouchsafed to the Holy See and to all Christendom;
+and a Te Deum was performed in presence of the same august assemblage.
+
+But nothing could exceed the satisfaction which the event occasioned in
+the mind of Philip the Second. There was an end now of all assistance
+from the French government to the Netherland Protestants. "The news of
+the events upon Saint Bartholomew's day," wrote the French envoy at
+Madrid, Saint Goard, to Charles IX., "arrived on the 7th September. The
+King, on receiving the intelligence, showed, contrary to his natural
+custom, so much gaiety, that he seemed more delighted than with all the
+good fortune or happy incidents which had ever before occurred to him. He
+called all his familiars about him in order to assure them that your
+Majesty was his good brother, and that no one else deserved the title of
+Most Christian. He sent his secretary Cayas to me with his felicitations
+upon the event, and with the information that he was just going to Saint
+Jerome to render thanks to God, and to offer his prayers that your
+Majesty might receive Divine support in this great affair. I went to see
+him next morning, and as soon as I came into his presence he began to
+laugh, and with demonstrations of extreme contentment, to praise your
+Majesty as deserving your title of Most Christian, telling me there was
+no King worthy to be your Majesty's companion, either for valor or
+prudence. He praised the steadfast resolution and the long dissimulation
+of so great an enterprise, which all the world would not be able to
+comprehend."
+
+"I thanked him," continued the embassador, "and I said that I thanked God
+for enabling your Majesty to prove to his Master that his apprentice had
+learned his trade, and deserved his title of most Christian King. I
+added, that he ought to confess that he owed the preservation of the
+Netherlands to your Majesty."
+
+Nothing certainly could, in Philip's apprehension, be more delightful
+than this most unexpected and most opportune intelligence. Charles IX.,
+whose intrigues in the Netherlands he had long known, had now been
+suddenly converted by this stupendous crime into his most powerful ally,
+while at the same time the Protestants of Europe would learn that there
+was still another crowned head in Christendom more deserving of
+abhorrence than himself. He wrote immediately to Alva, expressing his
+satisfaction that the King of France had disembarrassed himself of such
+pernicious men, because he would now be obliged to cultivate the
+friendship of Spain, neither the English Queen nor the German Protestants
+being thenceforth capable of trusting him. He informed the Duke,
+moreover, that the French envoy, Saint Goard, had been urging him to
+command the immediate execution of Genlis and his companions, who had
+been made prisoners, as well as all the Frenchmen who would be captured
+in Mons; and that he fully concurred in the propriety of the measure.
+"The sooner," said Philip, "these noxious plants are extirpated from the
+earth, the less fear there is that a fresh crop will spring up." The
+monarch therefore added, with his own hand, to the letter, "I desire that
+if you have not already disembarrassed the world of them, you will do it
+immediately, and inform me thereof, for I see no reason why it should be
+deferred."
+
+This is the demoniacal picture painted by the French ambassador, and by
+Philip's own hand, of the Spanish monarch's joy that his "Most Christian"
+brother had just murdered twenty-five thousand of his own subjects. In
+this cold-blooded way, too, did his Catholic Majesty order the execution
+of some thousand Huguenots additionally, in order more fully to carry out
+his royal brother's plans; yet Philip could write of himself, "that all
+the world recognized the gentleness of his nature and the mildness of his
+intentions."
+
+In truth, the advice thus given by Saint Goard on the subject of the
+French prisoners in Alva's possessions, was a natural result of the Saint
+Bartholomew. Here were officers and soldiers whom Charles IX. had himself
+sent into the Netherlands to fight for the Protestant cause against
+Philip and Alva. Already, the papers found upon them had placed him in
+some embarrassment, and exposed his duplicity to the Spanish government,
+before the great massacre had made such signal reparation for his
+delinquency. He had ordered Mondoucet, his envoy in the Netherlands, to
+use dissimulation to an unstinted amount, to continue his intrigues with
+the Protestants, and to deny stoutly all proofs of such connivance. "I
+see that the papers found upon Genlis;" he wrote twelve days before the
+massacre, "have been put into the hands of Assonleville, and that they
+know everything done by Genlis to have been committed with my consent."
+
+   [These remarkable letters exchanged between Charles IX. and
+   Mondoucet have recently been published by M. Emile Gachet (chef du
+   bureau paleographique aux Archives de Belgique) from a manuscript
+   discovered by him in the library at Rheims.--Compte Rendu de la Com.
+   Roy. d'Hist., iv. 340, sqq.]
+
+"Nevertheless, you will tell the Duke of Alva that these are lies
+invented to excite suspicion against me. You will also give him
+occasional information of the enemy's affairs, in order to make him
+believe in your integrity. Even if he does not believe you, my purpose
+will be answered, provided you do it dexterously. At the same time you
+must keep up a constant communication with the Prince of Orange, taking
+great care to prevent discovery of your intelligence with King."
+
+Were not these masterstrokes of diplomacy worthy of a King whom his
+mother, from boyhood upwards, had caused to study Macchiavelli's
+"Prince," and who had thoroughly taken to heart the maxim, often repeated
+in those days, that the "Science of reigning was the science of lying"?
+
+The joy in the Spanish camp before Mons was unbounded. It was as if the
+only bulwark between the Netherland rebels and total destruction had been
+suddenly withdrawn. With anthems in Saint Gudule, with bonfires, festive
+illuminations, roaring artillery, with trumpets also, and with shawms,
+was the glorious holiday celebrated in court and camp, in honor of the
+vast murder committed by the Most Christian King upon his Christian
+subjects; nor was a moment lost in apprising the Huguenot soldiers shut
+up with Louis of Nassau in the beleaguered city of the great catastrophe
+which was to render all their valor fruitless. "'T was a punishment,"
+said a Spanish soldier, who fought most courageously before Mons, and who
+elaborately described the siege afterwards, "well worthy of a king whose
+title is 'The Most Christian,' and it was still more honorable to inflict
+it with his own hands as he did." Nor was the observation a pithy
+sarcasm, but a frank expression of opinion, from a man celebrated alike
+for the skill with which he handled both his sword and his pen.
+
+The French envoy in the Netherlands was, of course, immediately informed
+by his sovereign of the great event: Charles IX. gave a very pithy
+account of the transaction. "To prevent the success of the enterprise
+planned by the Admiral," wrote the King on the 26th of August, with hands
+yet reeking, and while the havoc throughout France was at its height, "I
+have been obliged to permit the said Guises to rush upon the said
+Admiral,--which they have done, the said Admiral having been killed and
+all his adherents. A very great number of those belonging to the new
+religion have also been massacred and cut to pieces. It is probable that
+the fire thus kindled will spread through all the cities of my kingdom,
+and that all those of the said religion will be made sure of." Not often,
+certainly, in history, has a Christian king spoken thus calmly of
+butchering his subjects while the work was proceeding all around him. It
+is to be observed, moreover, that the usual excuse for such enormities,
+religious fanaticism, can not be even suggested on this occasion.
+Catharine, in times past had favored Huguenots as much as Catholics,
+while Charles had been, up to the very moment of the crime, in strict
+alliance with the heretics of both France and Flanders, and furthering
+the schemes of Orange and Nassau. Nay, even at this very moment, and in
+this very letter in which he gave the news of the massacre, he charged
+his envoy still to maintain the closest but most secret intelligence with
+the Prince of Orange; taking great care that the Duke of Alva should not
+discover these relations. His motives were, of course, to prevent the
+Prince from abandoning his designs, and from coming to make a disturbance
+in France. The King, now that the deed was done, was most anxious to reap
+all the fruits of his crime. "Now, M. de Mondoucet, it is necessary in
+such affairs," he continued, "to have an eye to every possible
+contingency. I know that this news will be most agreeable to the Duke of
+Alva, for it is most favorable to his designs. At the same time, I don't
+desire that he alone should gather the fruit. I don't choose that he
+should, according to his excellent custom, conduct his affairs in such
+wise as to throw the Prince of Orange upon my hands, besides sending back
+to France Genlis and the other prisoners, as well as the French now shut
+up in Mons."
+
+This was a sufficiently plain hint, which Mondoucet could not well
+misunderstand. "Observe the Duke's countenance carefully when you give
+him this message," added the King, "and let me know his reply." In order,
+however, that there might be no mistake about the matter, Charles wrote
+again to his ambassador, five days afterwards, distinctly stating the
+regret which he should feel if Alva should not take the city of Mons, or
+if he should take it by composition. "Tell the Duke," said he, "that it
+is most important for the service of his master and of God that those
+Frenchmen and others in Mons should be cut in pieces." He wrote another
+letter upon the name day, such was his anxiety upon the subject,
+instructing the envoy to urge upon Alva the necessity of chastising those
+rebels to the French crown. "If he tells you," continued Charles, "that
+this is tacitly requiring him to put to death all the French prisoners
+now in hand as well to cut in pieces every man in Mons, you will say to
+him that this is exactly what he ought to do, and that he will be guilty
+of a great wrong to Christianity if he does otherwise." Certainly, the
+Duke, having been thus distinctly ordered, both by his own master and by
+his Christian Majesty, to put every one of these Frenchmen to death, had
+a sufficiency of royal warrant. Nevertheless, he was not able to execute
+entirely these ferocious instructions. The prisoners already in his power
+were not destined to escape, but the city of Mons, in his own language,
+"proved to have sharper teeth than he supposed."
+
+Mondoucet lost no time in placing before Alva the urgent necessity of
+accomplishing the extensive and cold-blooded massacre thus proposed. "The
+Duke has replied," wrote the envoy to his sovereign, "that he is
+executing his prisoners every day, and that he has but a few left.
+Nevertheless, for some reason which he does not mention, he is reserving
+the principal noblemen and chiefs." He afterwards informed his master
+that Genlis, Jumelles, and the other leaders, had engaged, if Alva would
+grant them a reasonable ransom, to induce the French in Mons to leave the
+city, but that the Duke, although his language was growing less
+confident, still hoped to take the town by assault. "I have urged him,"
+he added, "to put them all to death, assuring him that he would be
+responsible for the consequences of a contrary course."--"Why does not
+your Most Christian master," asked Alva, "order these Frenchmen in Mons
+to come to him under oath to make no disturbance? Then my prisoners will
+be at my discretion and I shall get my city."--"Because," answered the
+envoy, "they will not trust his Most Christian Majesty, and will prefer
+to die in Mons."--[Mondoucet to Charles IX., 15th September, 1572.]
+
+This certainly was a most sensible reply, but it is instructive to
+witness the cynicism with which the envoy accepts this position for his
+master, while coldly recording the results of all these sanguinary
+conversations.
+
+Such was the condition of affairs when the Prince of Orange arrived at
+Peronne, between Binche and the Duke of Alva's entrenchments. The
+besieging army was rich in notabilities of elevated rank. Don Frederic of
+Toledo had hitherto commanded, but on the 27th of August, the Dukes of
+Medina Coeli and of Alva had arrived in the camp. Directly afterwards
+came the warlike Archbishop of Cologne, at the head of two thousand
+cavalry. There was but one chance for the Prince of Orange, and
+experience had taught him, four years before, its slenderness. He might
+still provoke his adversary into a pitched battle, and he relied upon God
+for the result. In his own words, "he trusted ever that the great God of
+armies was with him, and would fight in the midst of his forces." If so
+long as Alva remained in his impregnable camp, it was impossible to
+attack him, or to throw reinforcements into Mons. The Prince soon found,
+too, that Alva was far too wise to hazard his position by a superfluous
+combat. The Duke knew that the cavalry of the Prince was superior to his
+own. He expressed himself entirely unwilling to play into the Prince's
+hands, instead of winning the game which was no longer doubtful. The
+Huguenot soldiers within Mons were in despair and mutiny; Louis of Nassau
+lay in his bed consuming with a dangerous fever; Genlis was a prisoner,
+and his army cut to pieces; Coligny was murdered, and Protestant France
+paralyzed; the troops of Orange, enlisted but for three months, were
+already rebellious, and sure to break into open insubordination when the
+consequences of the Paris massacre should become entirely clear to them;
+and there were, therefore, even more cogent reasons than in 1568, why
+Alva should remain perfectly still, and see his enemy's cause founder
+before his eyes. The valiant Archbishop of Cologne was most eager for the
+fray. He rode daily at the Duke's side, with harness on his back and
+pistols in his holsters, armed and attired like one of his own troopers,
+and urging the Duke, with vehemence, to a pitched battle with the Prince.
+The Duke commended, but did not yield to, the prelate's enthusiasm. "'Tis
+a fine figure of a man, with his corslet and pistols," he wrote to
+Philip, "and he shows great affection for your Majesty's service."
+
+The issue of the campaign was inevitable. On the 11th September, Don
+Frederic, with a force of four thousand picked men, established himself
+at Saint Florian, a village near the Havre gate of the city, while the
+Prince had encamped at Hermigny, within half a league of the same place,
+whence he attempted to introduce reinforcements into the town. On the
+night of the 11th and 12th, Don Frederic hazarded an encamisada upon the
+enemy's camp, which proved eminently successful, and had nearly resulted
+in the capture of the Prince himself. A chosen band of six hundred
+arquebussers, attired, as was customary in these nocturnal expeditions,
+with their shirts outside their armor, that they might recognize each
+other in the darkness, were led by Julian Romero, within the lines of the
+enemy. The sentinels were cut down, the whole army surprised, and for a
+moment powerless, while, for two hours long, from one o'clock in the
+morning until three, the Spaniards butchered their foes, hardly aroused
+from their sleep, ignorant by how small a force they had been thus
+suddenly surprised, and unable in the confusion to distinguish between
+friend and foe. The boldest, led by Julian in person, made at once for
+the Prince's tent. His guards and himself were in profound sleep, but a
+small spaniel, who always passed the night upon his bed, was a more
+faithful sentinel. The creature sprang forward, barking furiously at the
+sound of hostile footsteps, and scratching his master's face with his
+paws.--There was but just time for the Prince to mount a horse which was
+ready saddled, and to effect his escape through the darkness, before his
+enemies sprang into the tent. His servants were cut down, his master of
+the horse and two of his secretaries, who gained their saddles a moment
+later, all lost their lives, and but for the little dog's watchfulness,
+William of Orange, upon whose shoulders the whole weight of his country's
+fortunes depended, would have been led within a week to an ignominious
+death. To his dying day, the Prince ever afterwards kept a spaniel of the
+same race in his bed-chamber. The midnight slaughter still continued, but
+the Spaniards in their fury, set fire to the tents. The glare of the
+conflagration showed the Orangists by how paltry a force they had been
+surprised. Before they could rally, however, Romero led off his
+arquebusiers, every one of whom had at least killed his man. Six hundred
+of the Prince's troops had been put to the sword, while many others were
+burned in their beds, or drowned in the little rivulet which flowed
+outside their camp. Only sixty Spaniards lost their lives.
+
+This disaster did not alter the plans of the Prince, for those plans had
+already been frustrated. The whole marrow of his enterprise had been
+destroyed in an instant by the massacre of Saint Bartholomew. He
+retreated to Wronne and Nivelles, an assassin, named Heist, a German, by
+birth, but a French chevalier, following him secretly in his camp,
+pledged to take his life for a large reward promised by Alva--an
+enterprise not destined, however, to be successful. The soldiers flatly
+refused to remain an hour longer in the field, or even to furnish an
+escort for Count Louis, if, by chance, he could be brought out of the
+town. The Prince was obliged to inform his brother of the desperate state
+of his affairs, and to advise him to capitulate on the best terms which
+he could make. With a heavy heart, he left the chivalrous Louis besieged
+in the city which he had so gallantly captured, and took his way across
+the Meuse towards the Rhine. A furious mutiny broke out among his troops.
+His life was, with difficulty, saved from the brutal soldiery--infuriated
+at his inability to pay them, except in the over-due securities of the
+Holland cities--by the exertions of the officers who still regarded him
+with veneration and affection. Crossing the Rhine at Orsoy, he disbanded
+his army and betook himself, almost alone, to Holland.
+
+Yet even in this hour of distress and defeat, the Prince seemed more
+heroic than many a conqueror in his day of triumph. With all his hopes
+blasted, with the whole fabric of his country's fortunes shattered by the
+colossal crime of his royal ally, he never lost his confidence in himself
+nor his unfaltering trust in God. All the cities which, but a few weeks
+before, had so eagerly raised his standard, now fell off at once. He went
+to Holland, the only province which remained true, and which still looked
+up to him as its saviour, but he went thither expecting and prepared to
+perish. "There I will make my sepulchre," was his simple and sublime
+expression in a private letter to his brother.
+
+He had advanced to the rescue of Louis, with city after city opening its
+arms to receive him. He had expected to be joined on the march by
+Coligny, at the head of a chosen army, and he was now obliged to leave
+his brother to his fate, having the massacre of the Admiral and his
+confederates substituted for their expected army of assistance, and with
+every city and every province forsaking his cause as eagerly as they had
+so lately embraced it. "It has pleased God," he said, "to take away every
+hope which we could have founded upon man; the King has published that
+the massacre was by his orders, and has forbidden all his subjects, upon
+pain of death, to assist me; he has, moreover, sent succor to Alva. Had
+it not been for this, we had been masters of the Duke, and should have
+made him capitulate at our pleasure." Yet even then he was not cast down.
+
+Nor was his political sagacity liable to impeachment by the extent to
+which he had been thus deceived by the French court. "So far from being
+reprehensible that I did not suspect such a crime," he said, "I should
+rather be chargeable with malignity had I been capable of so sinister a
+suspicion. 'Tis not an ordinary thing to conceal such enormous
+deliberations under the plausible cover of a marriage festival."
+
+Meanwhile, Count Louis lay confined to his couch with a burning fever.
+His soldiers refused any longer to hold the city, now that the altered
+intentions of Charles IX. were known and the forces of Orange withdrawn.
+Alva offered the most honorable conditions, and it was therefore
+impossible for the Count to make longer resistance. The city was so
+important, and time was at that moment so valuable that the Duke was
+willing to forego his vengeance upon the rebel whom he so cordially
+detested, and to be satisfied with depriving, him of the prize which he
+had seized with such audacity. "It would have afforded me sincere
+pleasure," wrote the Duke, "over and above the benefit to God and your
+Majesty, to have had the Count of Nassau in my power. I would overleap
+every obstacle to seize him, such is the particular hatred which I bear
+the man." Under, the circumstances, however, he acknowledged that the
+result of the council of war could only be to grant liberal terms.
+
+On the 19th September, accordingly, articles of capitulation were signed
+between the distinguished De la None with three others on the one part,
+and the Seigneur de Noircarmes and three others on the side of Spain. The
+town was given over to Alva, but all the soldiers were to go out with
+their weapons and property. Those of the townspeople who had borne arms
+against his Majesty, and all who still held to the Reformed religion,
+were to retire with the soldiery. The troops were to pledge themselves
+not to serve in future against the Kings of France or Spain, but from
+this provision Louis, with his English and German soldiers, was expressly
+excepted, the Count indignantly repudiating the idea of such a pledge, or
+of discontinuing his hostilities for an instant. It was also agreed that
+convoys should be furnished, and hostages exchanged, for the due
+observance of the terms of the treaty. The preliminaries having been thus
+settled, the patriot forces abandoned the town.
+
+Count Louis, rising from his sick bed, paid his respects in person to the
+victorious generals, at their request. He was received in Alva's camp
+with an extraordinary show of admiration and esteem. The Duke of Medina
+Coeli overwhelmed him with courtesies and "basolomanos," while Don
+Frederic assured him, in the high-flown language of Spanish compliment,
+that there was nothing which he would not do to serve him, and that he
+would take a greater pleasure in executing his slightest wish than if he
+had been his next of kin.
+
+As the Count next day, still suffering with fever, and attired in his
+long dressing-gown, was taking his departure from the city, he ordered
+his carriage to stop at the entrance to Don Frederic's quarters. That
+general, who had been standing incognito near the door, gazing with
+honest admiration at the hero of so many a hard-fought field, withdrew as
+he approached, that he might not give the invalid the trouble of
+alighting. Louis, however, recognising him, addressed him with the
+Spanish salutation, "Perdone vuestra Senoria la pesedumbre," and paused
+at the gate. Don Frederic, from politeness to his condition, did not
+present himself, but sent an aid-de-camp to express his compliments and
+good wishes. Having exchanged these courtesies, Louis left the city,
+conveyed, as had been agreed upon, by a guard of Spanish troops. There
+was a deep meaning in the respect with which the Spanish generals had
+treated the rebel chieftain. Although the massacre of Saint Bartholomew
+met with Alva's entire approbation, yet it was his cue to affect a holy
+horror at the event, and he avowed that he would "rather cut off both his
+hands than be guilty of such a deed"--as if those hangman's hands had the
+right to protest against any murder, however wholesale. Count Louis
+suspected at once, and soon afterwards thoroughly understood; the real
+motives of the chivalrous treatment which he had received. He well knew
+that these very men would have sent him to the scaffold; had he fallen
+into their power, and he therefore estimated their courtesy at its proper
+value.
+
+It was distinctly stated, in the capitulation of the city, that all the
+soldiers, as well as such of the inhabitants as had borne arms, should be
+allowed to leave the city, with all their property. The rest of the
+people, it was agreed, might remain without molestation to their persons
+or estates. It has been the general opinion of historians that the
+articles of this convention were maintained by the conquerors in good
+faith. Never was a more signal error. The capitulation was made late at
+night, on the 20th September, without the provision which Charles IX. had
+hoped for: the massacre, namely, of De la None and his companions. As for
+Genlis and those who had been taken prisoners at his defeat, their doom
+had already been sealed. The city was evacuated on the 21st September:
+Alva entered it upon the 24th. Most of the volunteers departed with the
+garrison, but many who had, most unfortunately, prolonged their farewells
+to their families, trusting to the word of the Spanish Captain Molinos,
+were thrown into prison. Noircarmes the butcher of Valenciennes, now made
+his appearance in Mons. As grand bailiff of Hainault, he came to the
+place as one in authority, and his deeds were now to complete the infamy
+which must for ever surround his name. In brutal violation of the terms
+upon which the town had surrendered, he now set about the work of
+massacre and pillage. A Commission of Troubles, in close imitation of the
+famous Blood Council at Brussels, was established, the members of the
+tribunal being appointed by Noircarmes, and all being inhabitants of the
+town. The council commenced proceedings by condemning all the volunteers,
+although expressly included in the capitulation. Their wives and
+children were all banished; their property all confiscated. On the 15th
+December, the executions commenced. The intrepid De Leste, silk
+manufacturer, who had commanded a band of volunteers, and sustained
+during the siege the assaults of Alva's troops with remarkable courage at
+a very critical moment, was one of the earliest victims. In consideration
+"that he was a gentleman, and not among the most malicious," he was
+executed by sword. "In respect that he heard the mass, and made a sweet
+and Catholic end," it was allowed that he should be "buried in
+consecrated earth." Many others followed in quick succession. Some were
+beheaded, some were hanged, some were burned alive. All who had borne
+arms or worked at the fortifications were, of course, put to death. Such
+as refused to confess and receive the Catholic sacraments perished by
+fire. A poor wretch, accused of having ridiculed these mysteries, had his
+tongue torn out before being beheaded. A cobbler, named Blaise Bouzet,
+was hanged for having eaten meat-soup upon Friday. He was also accused of
+going to the Protestant preachings for the sake of participating in the
+alms distributed an these occasions, a crime for which many other paupers
+were executed. An old man of sixty-two was sent to the scaffold for
+having permitted his son to bear arms among the volunteers. At last, when
+all pretexts were wanting to justify executions; the council assigned as
+motives for its decrees an adhesion of heart on the part of the victims
+to the cause of the insurgents, or to the doctrines of the Reformed
+Church. Ten, twelve, twenty persons, were often hanged, burned, or
+beheaded in a single day. Gibbets laden with mutilated bodies lined the
+public highways,--while Noircarmes, by frightful expressions of
+approbation, excited without ceasing the fury of his satellites. This
+monster would perhaps, be less worthy of execration had he been governed
+in these foul proceedings by fanatical bigotry or by political hatred;
+but his motives were of the most sordid description. It was mainly to
+acquire gold for himself that he ordained all this carnage. With the same
+pen which signed the death-sentences of the richest victims, he drew
+orders to his own benefit on their confiscated property. The lion's share
+of the plunder was appropriated by himself. He desired the estate; of
+Francois de Glarges, Seigneur d'Eslesmes. The gentleman had committed no
+offence of any kind, and, moreover, lived beyond the French frontier.
+Nevertheless, in contempt of international law, the neighbouring
+territory was invaded, and d'Eslesmes dragged before the blood tribunal
+of Mons. Noircarmes had drawn up beforehand, in his own handwriting, both
+the terms of the accusation and of the sentence. The victim was innocent
+and a Catholic, but he was rich. He confessed to have been twice at the
+preaching, from curiosity, and to have omitted taking the sacrament at
+the previous Easter. For these offences he was beheaded, and his
+confiscated estate adjudged at an almost nominal price to the secretary
+of Noircarmes, bidding for his master. "You can do me no greater
+pleasure," wrote Noircarmes to the council, "than to make quick work with
+all these rebels, and to proceed with the confiscation of their estates,
+real and personal. Don't fail to put all those to the torture out of whom
+anything can be got."
+
+Notwithstanding the unexampled docility of the commissioners, they found
+it difficult to extract from their redoubted chief a reasonable share in
+the wages of blood. They did not scruple, therefore, to display their
+own infamy, and to enumerate their own crimes, in order to justify their
+demand for higher salaries. "Consider," they said, in a petition to this
+end, "consider closely, all that is odious in our office, and the great
+number of banishments and of executions which we have pronounced among
+all our own relations and friends."
+
+It may be added, moreover, as a slight palliation for the enormous crimes
+committed by these men, that, becoming at last weary of their business,
+they urged Noircarmes to desist from the work of proscription. Longehaye,
+one of the commissioners, even waited upon him personally, with a plea
+for mercy in favor of "the poor people, even beggars, who, although
+having borne arms during the siege, might then be pardoned." Noircarmes,
+in a rage at the proposition, said that "if he did not know the
+commissioners to be honest men, he should believe that their palms had
+been oiled," and forbade any farther words on the subject. When Longehaye
+still ventured to speak in favor of certain persons "who were very poor
+and simple, not charged with duplicity, and good Catholics besides," he
+fared no better. "Away with you!" cried Noircarmes in a great fury,
+adding that he had already written to have execution done upon the whole
+of them. "Whereupon," said poor blood-councillor Longehaye, in his letter
+to his colleagues, "I retired, I leave you to guess how."
+
+Thus the work went on day after day, month after month. Till the 27th
+August of the following year (1573) the executioner never rested, and
+when Requesens, successor to Alva, caused the prisons of Mons to be
+opened, there were found still seventy-five individuals condemned to the
+block, and awaiting their fate.
+
+It is the most dreadful commentary upon the times in which these
+transactions occurred, that they could sink so soon into oblivion. The
+culprits took care to hide the records of their guilt, while succeeding
+horrors, on a more extensive scale, at other places, effaced the memory
+of all these comparatively obscure murders and spoliations. The
+prosperity of Mons, one of the most flourishing and wealthy manufacturing
+towns in the Netherlands, was annihilated, but there were so many cities
+in the same condition that its misery was hardly remarkable.
+Nevertheless, in our own days, the fall of a mouldering tower in the
+ruined Chateau de Naast at last revealed the archives of all these
+crimes. How the documents came to be placed there remains a mystery, but
+they have at last been brought to light.
+
+The Spaniards had thus recovered Mons, by which event the temporary
+revolution throughout the whole Southern Netherlands was at an end. The
+keys of that city unlocked the gates of every other in Brabant and
+Flanders. The towns which had so lately embraced the authority of Orange
+now hastened to disavow the Prince, and to return to their ancient,
+hypocritical, and cowardly allegiance. The new oaths of fidelity were in
+general accepted by Alva, but the beautiful archiepiscopal city of
+Mechlin was selected for an example and a sacrifice.
+
+There were heavy arrears due to the Spanish troops. To indemnify them,
+and to make good his blasphemous prophecy of Divine chastisement for its
+past misdeeds, Alva now abandoned this town to the licence of his
+soldiery. By his command Don Frederic advanced to the gates and demanded
+its surrender. He was answered by a few shots from the garrison. Those
+cowardly troops, however, having thus plunged the city still more deeply
+into the disgrace which, in Alva's eyes, they had incurred by receiving
+rebels within their walls after having but just before refused admittance
+to the Spanish forces, decamped during the night, and left the place
+defenceless.
+
+Early next morning there issued from the gates a solemn procession of
+priests, with banner and crozier, followed by a long and suppliant throng
+of citizens, who attempted by this demonstration to avert the wrath of
+the victor. While the penitent psalms were resounding, the soldiers were
+busily engaged in heaping dried branches and rubbish into the moat.
+Before the religious exercises were concluded, thousands had forced the
+gates or climbed the walls; and entered the city with a celerity which
+only the hope of rapine could inspire. The sack instantly commenced. The
+property of friend and foe, of Papist and Calvinist, was indiscriminately
+rifled. Everything was dismantled and destroyed. "Hardly a nail," said a
+Spaniard, writing soon afterwards from Brussels, "was left standing in
+the walls." The troops seemed to imagine themselves in a Turkish town,
+and wreaked the Divine vengeance which Alva had denounced upon the city
+with an energy which met with his fervent applause.
+
+Three days long the horrible scene continued, one day for the benefit of
+the Spaniards, two more for that of the Walloons and Germans. All the
+churches, monasteries, religious houses of every kind, were completely
+sacked. Every valuable article which they contained, the ornaments of
+altars, the reliquaries, chalices, embroidered curtains, and carpets of
+velvet or damask, the golden robes of the priests, the repositories of
+the host, the precious vessels of chrism and extreme unction, the rich
+clothing and jewellery adorning the effigies of the Holy Virgin, all were
+indiscriminately rifled by the Spanish soldiers. The holy wafers were
+trampled underfoot, the sacramental wine was poured upon the ground, and,
+in brief, all the horrors which had been committed by the iconoclasts in
+their wildest moments, and for a thousandth part of which enormities
+heretics had been burned in droves, were now repeated in Mechlin by the
+especial soldiers of Christ, by Roman Catholics who had been sent to the
+Netherlands to avenge the insults offered to the Roman Catholic faith.
+The motive, too, which inspired the sacrilegious crew was not fanaticism,
+but the desire of plunder. The property of Romanists was taken as freely
+as that of Calvinists, of which sect there were; indeed, but few in the
+archiepiscopal city. Cardinal Granvelle's house was rifled. The pauper
+funds deposited in the convents were not respected. The beds were taken
+from beneath sick and dying women, whether lady abbess or hospital
+patient, that the sacking might be torn to pieces in search of hidden
+treasure.
+
+The iconoclasts of 1566 had destroyed millions of property for the sake
+of an idea, but they had appropriated nothing. Moreover, they had
+scarcely injured a human being; confining their wrath to graven images.
+The Spaniards at Mechlin spared neither man nor woman. The murders and
+outrages would be incredible, were they not attested by most respectable
+Catholic witnesses. Men were butchered in their houses, in the streets,
+at the altars. Women were violated by hundreds in churches and in
+grave-yards. Moreover, the deed had been as deliberately arranged as it
+was thoroughly performed. It was sanctioned by the highest authority. Don
+Frederic, Son of Alva, and General Noircarmes were both present at the
+scene, and applications were in vain made to them that the havoc might be
+stayed. "They were seen whispering to each other in the ear on their
+arrival," says an eye-witness and a Catholic, "and it is well known that
+the affair had been resolved upon the preceding day. The two continued
+together as long as they remained in the city." The work was, in truth,
+fully accomplished. The ultra-Catholic, Jean Richardot, member of the
+Grand Council, and nephew of the Bishop of Arras, informed the State
+Council that the sack of Mechlin had been so horrible that the poor and
+unfortunate mothers had not a single morsel of bread to put in the mouths
+of their children, who were dying before their eyes--so insane and cruel
+had been the avarice of the plunderers. "He could say more," he added,
+"if his hair did not stand on end, not only at recounting, but even at
+remembering the scene."
+
+Three days long the city was abandoned to that trinity of furies which
+ever wait upon War's footsteps--Murder, Lust, and Rapine--under whose
+promptings human beings become so much more terrible than the most
+ferocious beasts. In his letter to his master, the Duke congratulated him
+upon these foul proceedings as upon a pious deed well accomplished. He
+thought it necessary, however; to excuse himself before the public in a
+document, which justified the sack of Mechlin by its refusal to accept
+his garrison a few months before, and by the shots which had been
+discharged at his troops as they approached the city. For these offences,
+and by his express order, the deed was done. Upon his head must the guilt
+for ever rest.
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     Hanged for having eaten meat-soup upon Friday
+     Provided not one Huguenot be left alive in France
+     Put all those to the torture out of whom anything can be got
+     Saint Bartholomew's day
+     Science of reigning was the science of lying
+
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, PG EDITION, VOLUME 20.
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
+
+By JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
+1855
+
+
+
+
+1572-73 [CHAPTER VIII.]
+
+   Affairs in Holland and Zealand--Siege of Tergoes by the patriots--
+   Importance of the place--Difficulty of relieving it--Its position--
+   Audacious plan for sending succor across the "Drowned Land"--
+   Brilliant and successful expedition of Mondragon--The siege raised--
+   Horrible sack of Zutphen--Base conduct of Count Van den Berg--
+   Refusal of Naarden to surrender--Subsequent unsuccessful deputation
+   to make terms with Don Frederic--Don Frederic before Naarden--
+   Treachery of Romero--The Spaniards admitted--General massacre of the
+   garrison and burghers--The city burned to the ground--Warm reception
+   of Orange in Holland--Secret negotiations with the Estates--
+   Desperate character of the struggle between Spain and the provinces
+   --Don Frederic in Amsterdam--Plans for reducing Holland--Skirmish on
+   the ice at Amsterdam--Preparation in Harlem for the expected siege--
+   Description of the city--Early operations--Complete investment--
+   Numbers of besiegers and besieged--Mutual barbarities--Determined
+   repulse of the first assault--Failure of Batenburg's expedition--
+   Cruelties in city and camp--Mining and countermining--Second assault
+   victoriously repelled--Suffering and disease in Harlem--Disposition
+   of Don Frederic to retire--Memorable rebuke by Alva--Efforts of
+   Orange to relieve the place--Sonoy's expedition--Exploit of John
+   Haring--Cruel execution of prisoners on both sides--Quiryn Dirkzoon
+   and his family put to death in the city--Fleets upon the lake--
+   Defeat of the patriot armada--Dreadful suffering and starvation in
+   the city--Parley with the besiegers--Despair of the city--Appeal to
+   Orange--Expedition under Batenburg to relieve the city--His defeat
+   and death--Desperate condition of Harlem--Its surrender at
+   discretion--Sanguinary executions--General massacre--Expense of the
+   victory in blood and money--Joy of Philip at the news.
+
+While thus Brabant and Flanders were scourged back to the chains which
+they had so recently broken, the affairs of the Prince of Orange were not
+improving in Zealand. Never was a twelvemonth so marked by contradictory
+fortune, never were the promises of a spring followed by such blight and
+disappointment in autumn than in the memorable year 1572. On the island
+of Walcheren, Middelburg and Arnemuyde still held for the King--Campveer
+and Flushing for the Prince of Orange. On the island of South Bevelaad,
+the city of Goes or Tergoes was still stoutly defended by a small
+garrison of Spanish troops. As long as the place held out, the city of
+Middelburg could be maintained. Should that important city fall, the
+Spaniards would lose all hold upon Walcheren and the province of Zealand.
+
+Jerome de 't Zeraerts, a brave, faithful, but singularly unlucky officer,
+commanded for the Prince in Walcheren. He had attempted by various
+hastily planned expeditions to give employment to his turbulent soldiery,
+but fortune had refused to smile upon his efforts. He had laid siege to
+Middelburg and failed. He had attempted Tergoes and had been compelled
+ingloriously to retreat. The citizens of Flushing, on his return, had
+shut the gates of the town in his face, and far several days refused to
+admit him or his troops. To retrieve this disgrace, which had sprung
+rather from the insubordination of his followers and the dislike which
+they bore his person than from any want of courage or conduct on his
+part, he now assembled a force of seven thousand men, marched again to
+Tergoes, and upon the 26th of August laid siege to the place in forma.
+The garrison was very insufficient, and although they conducted
+themselves with great bravery, it was soon evident that unless reinforced
+they must yield. With their overthrow it was obvious that the Spaniards
+would lose the important maritime province of Zealand, and the Duke
+accordingly ordered D'Avila, who commanded in Antwerp, to throw succor
+into Tergoes without delay. Attempts were made, by sea and by land, to
+this effect, but were all unsuccessful. The Zealanders commanded the
+waters with their fleet,--and were too much at home among those gulfs and
+shallows not to be more than a match for their enemies. Baffled in their
+attempt to relieve the town by water or by land, the Spaniards conceived
+an amphibious scheme. Their plan led to one of the most brilliant feats
+of arms which distinguishes the history of this war.
+
+The Scheld, flowing past the city of Antwerp and separating the provinces
+of Flanders and Brabant, opens wide its two arms in nearly opposite
+directions, before it joins the sea. Between these two arms lie the isles
+of Zealand, half floating upon, half submerged by the waves. The town of
+Tergoes was the chief city of South Beveland, the most important part of
+this archipelago, but South Beveland had not always been an island. Fifty
+years before, a tempest, one of the most violent recorded in the stormy
+annals of that exposed country, had overthrown all barriers, the waters
+of the German Ocean, lashed by a succession of north winds, having been
+driven upon the low coast of Zealand more rapidly than they could be
+carried off through the narrow straits of Dover. The dykes of the island
+had burst, the ocean had swept over the land, hundreds of villages had
+been overwhelmed, and a tract of country torn from the province and
+buried for ever beneath the sea. This "Drowned Land," as it is called,
+now separated the island from the main. At low tide it was, however,
+possible for experienced pilots to ford the estuary, which had usurped
+the place of the land. The average depth was between four and five feet
+at low water, while the tide rose and fell at least ten feet; the bottom
+was muddy and treacherous, and it was moreover traversed by three living
+streams or channels; always much too deep to be fordable.
+
+Captain Plomaert, a Fleming of great experience and bravery, warmly
+attached to the King's cause, conceived the plan of sending
+reinforcements across this drowned district to the city of Tergoes.
+Accompanied by two peasants of the country, well acquainted with the
+track, he twice accomplished the dangerous and difficult passage; which,
+from dry land to dry land, was nearly ten English miles in length. Having
+thus satisfied himself as to the possibility of the enterprise, he laid
+his plan before the Spanish colonel, Mondragon. That courageous veteran
+eagerly embraced the proposal, examined the ground, and after
+consultation with Sancho Avila, resolved in person to lead an expedition
+along the path suggested by Plomaert. Three thousand picked men, a
+thousand from each nation,--Spaniards, Walloons, and Germans, were
+speedily and secretly assembled at Bergen op Zoom, from the neighbourhood
+of which city, at a place called Aggier, it was necessary that the
+expedition should set forth. A quantity of sacks were provided, in which
+a supply of, biscuit and of powder was placed, one to be carried by each
+soldier upon his head. Although it was already late in the autumn, the
+weather was propitious; the troops, not yet informed: as to the secret
+enterprise for which they had been selected, were all ready assembled at
+the edge of the water, and Mondragon, who, notwithstanding his age, had
+resolved upon heading the hazardous expedition, now briefly, on the
+evening of the 20th October, explained to them the nature of the service.
+His statement of the dangers which they were about to encounter, rather
+inflamed than diminished their ardor. Their enthusiasm became unbounded,
+as he described the importance of the city which they were about to save,
+and alluded to the glory which would be won by those who thus
+courageously came forward to its rescue. The time of about half ebb-tide
+having arrived, the veteran,--preceded only by the guides and Plomaert,
+plunged gaily into the waves, followed by his army, almost in single
+file. The water was never lowed khan the breast, often higher than the
+shoulder. The distance to the island, three and a half leagues at least,
+was to be accomplished within at most, six hours, or the rising tide
+would overwhelm them for ever. And thus, across the quaking and uncertain
+slime, which often refused them a footing, that adventurous band, five
+hours long, pursued their midnight march, sometimes swimming for their
+lives, and always struggling with the waves which every instant
+threatened to engulph them.
+
+Before the tide had risen to more than half-flood, before the day had
+dawned, the army set foot on dry land again, at the village of Irseken.
+Of the whole three thousand, only nine unlucky individuals had been
+drowned; so much had courage and discipline availed in that dark and
+perilous passage through the very bottom of the sea. The Duke of Alva
+might well pronounce it one of the most brilliant and original
+achievements in the annals of war. The beacon fires were immediately
+lighted upon the shore; as agreed upon, to inform Sancho d'Avila, who was
+anxiously awaiting the result at Bergen op Zoom, of the safe arrival of
+the troops. A brief repose was then allowed. At the approach of daylight,
+they set forth from Irseken, which lay about four leagues from Tergoes.
+The news that a Spanish army had thus arisen from the depths of the sea,
+flew before them as they marched. The besieging force commanded the water
+with their fleet, the land with their army; yet had these indomitable
+Spaniards found a path which was neither land nor water, and had thus
+stolen upon them in the silence of night. A panic preceded them as they
+fell upon a foe much superior in number to their own force. It was
+impossible for 't Zeraerts to induce his soldiers to offer resistance.
+The patriot army fled precipitately and ignominiously to their ships,
+hotly pursued by the Spaniards, who overtook and destroyed the whole of
+their rearguard before they could embark. This done, the gallant little
+garrison which had so successfully held the city, was reinforced with the
+courageous veterans who had come to their relief his audacious project
+thus brilliantly accomplished, the "good old Mondragon," as his soldiers
+called him, returned to the province of Brabant.
+
+After the capture of Mons and the sack of Mechlin, the Duke of Alva had
+taken his way to Nimwegen, having despatched his son, Don Frederic, to
+reduce the northern and eastern country, which was only too ready to
+submit to the conqueror. Very little resistance was made by any of the
+cities which had so recently, and--with such enthusiasm, embraced the
+cause of Orange. Zutphen attempted a feeble opposition to the entrance of
+the King's troops, and received a dreadful chastisement in consequence.
+Alva sent orders to his son to leave not a single man alive in the city,
+and to burn every house to the ground. The Duke's command was almost
+literally obeyed. Don Frederic entered Zutphen, and without a moment's
+warning put the whole garrison to the sword. The citizens next fell a
+defenceless, prey; some being, stabbed in the streets, some hanged on the
+trees which decorated the city, some stripped stark naked; and turned out
+into the fields to freeze to death in the wintry night. As the work of
+death became too fatiguing for the butchers, five hundred innocent
+burghers were tied two and two, back to back, and drowned like dogs in
+the river Yssel. A few stragglers who had contrived to elude pursuit at
+first, were afterwards taken from their hiding places and hung upon the
+gallows by the feet, some of which victims suffered four days and nights
+of agony before death came to their relief. It is superfluous to add that
+the outrages upon women were no less universal in Zutphen than they had
+been in every city captured or occupied by the Spanish troops. These
+horrors continued till scarcely chastity or life remained, throughout the
+miserable city.
+
+This attack and massacre had been so suddenly executed, that assistance
+would hardly have been possible, even had there been disposition to
+render it. There was; however, no such disposition. The whole country was
+already cowering again, except the provinces of Holland and Zealand. No
+one dared approach, even to learn what had occurred within the walls of
+the town, for days after its doom had been accomplished. "A wail of agony
+was heard above Zutphen last Sunday," wrote Count Nieuwenar, "a sound as
+of a mighty massacre, but we know not what has taken place."
+
+Count Van, den Bergh, another brother-in-law of Orange, proved himself
+signally unworthy of the illustrious race to which he was allied. He had,
+in the earlier part of the year, received the homage of the cities of
+Gelderland and Overyssel, on behalf of the patriot Prince. He now basely
+abandoned the field where he had endeavoured to gather laurels while the
+sun of success had been shining. Having written from Kampen, whither he
+had retired, that he meant to hold the city to the last gasp, he
+immediately afterwards fled secretly and precipitately from the country.
+In his flight he was plundered by his own people, while his wife, Mary of
+Nassau, then far advanced in pregnancy, was left behind, disguised as a
+peasant girl, in an obscure village.
+
+With the flight of Van den Bergh, all the cities which, under his
+guidance, had raised the standard of Orange, deserted the cause at once.
+Friesland too, where Robles obtained a victory over six thousand
+patriots, again submitted to the yoke. But if the ancient heart of the
+free Frisians was beating thus feebly, there was still spirit left among
+their brethren on the other side of the Zuyder Zee. It was not while
+William of Orange was within her borders, nor while her sister provinces
+had proved recreant to him, that Holland would follow their base example.
+No rebellion being left, except in the north-western extremities of the
+Netherlands, Don Frederic was ordered to proceed from Zutphen to
+Amsterdam, thence to undertake the conquest of Holland. The little city
+of Naarden, on the coast of the Zuyder Zee, lay in his path, and had not
+yet formally submitted. On the 22nd of November a company of one hundred
+troopers was sent to the city gates to demand its surrender. The small
+garrison which had been left by the Prince was not disposed to resist,
+but the spirit of the burghers was stouter than, their walls. They
+answered the summons by a declaration that they had thus far held the
+city for the King and the Prince of Orange, and, with God's help, would
+continue so to do. As the horsemen departed with this reply, a lunatic,
+called Adrian Krankhoeft, mounted the ramparts and, discharged a
+culverine among them. No man was injured, but the words of defiance, and
+the shot fired by a madman's hand, were destined to be fearfully
+answered.
+
+Meanwhile, the inhabitants of the place, which was at best far from
+strong, and ill provided with arms, ammunition, or soldiers, despatched
+importunate messages to Sonoy, and to ether patriot generals nearest to
+them, soliciting reinforcements. Their messengers came back almost empty
+handed. They brought a little powder and a great many promises, but not a
+single man-at-arms, not a ducat, not a piece of artillery. The most
+influential commanders, moreover, advised an honorable capitulation, if
+it were still possible.
+
+Thus baffled, the burghers of the little city found their proud position
+quite untenable. They accordingly, on the 1st of December, despatched the
+burgomaster and a senator to Amersfoort, to make terms, if possible, with
+Don Frederic. When these envoys reached the place, they were refused
+admission to the general's presence. The army had already been ordered to
+move forward to Naarden, and they were directed to accompany the advance
+guard, and to expect their reply at the gates of their own city. This
+command was sufficiently ominous. The impression which it made upon them
+was confirmed by the warning voices of their friends in Amersfoort, who
+entreated them not to return to Naarden. The advice was not lost upon one
+of the two envoys. After they had advanced a little distance on their
+journey, the burgomaster Laurentszoon slid privately out of the sledge in
+which they were travelling, leaving his cloak behind him. "Adieu; I think
+I will not venture back to Naarden at present," said he, calmly, as he
+abandoned his companion to his fate. The other, who could not so easily
+desert his children, his wife, and his fellow-citizens, in the hour of
+danger, went forward as calmly to share in their impending doom.
+
+The army reached Bussem, half a league distant from Naarden, in the
+evening. Here Don Frederic established his head quarters, and proceeded
+to invest the city. Senator Gerrit was then directed to return to Naarden
+and to bring out a more numerous deputation on the following morning,
+duly empowered to surrender the place. The envoy accordingly returned
+next day, accompanied by Lambert Hortensius, rector of a Latin academy,
+together with four other citizens. Before this deputation had reached
+Bussem, they were met by Julian Romero, who informed them that he was
+commissioned to treat with them on the part of Don Frederic. He demanded
+the keys of the city, and gave the deputation a solemn pledge that the
+lives and property of all the inhabitants should be sacredly respected.
+To attest this assurance Don Julian gave his hand three several times to
+Lambert Hortensius. A soldier's word thus plighted, the commissioners,
+without exchanging any written documents, surrendered the keys, and
+immediately afterwards accompanied Romero into the city, who was soon
+followed by five or six hundred musketeers.
+
+To give these guests a hospitable reception, all the housewives of the
+city at once set about preparations for a sumptuous feast, to which the
+Spaniards did ample justice, while the colonel and his officers were
+entertained by Senator Gerrit at his own house. As soon as this
+conviviality had come to an end, Romero, accompanied by his host, walked
+into the square. The great bell had been meantime ringing, and the
+citizens had been summoned to assemble in the Gast Huis Church, then used
+as a town hall. In the course of a few minutes five hundred had entered
+the building, and stood quietly awaiting whatever measures might be
+offered for their deliberation. Suddenly a priest, who had been pacing to
+and fro before the church door, entered the building, and bade them all
+prepare for death; but the announcement, the preparation, and the death,
+were simultaneous. The door was flung open, and a band of armed Spaniards
+rushed across the sacred threshold. They fired a single volley upon the
+defenceless herd, and then sprang in upon them with sword and dagger. A
+yell of despair arose as the miserable victims saw how hopelessly they
+were engaged, and beheld the ferocious faces of their butchers. The
+carnage within that narrow apace was compact and rapid. Within a few
+minutes all were despatched, and among them Senator Gerrit, from whose
+table the Spanish commander had but just risen. The church was then set
+on fire, and the dead and dying were consumed to ashes together.
+
+Inflamed but not satiated, the Spaniards then rushed into the streets,
+thirsty for fresh horrors. The houses were all rifled of their contents,
+and men were forced to carry the booty to the camp, who were then struck
+dead as their reward. The town was then fired in every direction, that
+the skulking citizens might be forced from their hiding-places. As fast
+as they came forth they were put to death by their impatient foes. Some
+were pierced with rapiers, some were chopped to pieces with axes, some
+were surrounded in the blazing streets by troops of laughing soldiers,
+intoxicated, not with wine but with blood, who tossed them to and fro
+with their lances, and derived a wild amusement from their dying agonies.
+Those who attempted resistance were crimped alive like fishes, and left
+to gasp themselves to death in lingering torture. The soldiers becoming
+more and more insane, as the foul work went on, opened the veins of some
+of their victims, and drank their blood as if it were wine. Some of the
+burghers were for a time spared, that they might witness the violation of
+their wives and daughters, and were then butchered in company with these
+still more unfortunate victims. Miracles of brutality were accomplished.
+Neither church nor hearth was sacred: Men were slain, women outraged at
+the altars, in the streets, in their blazing homes. The life of Lambert
+Hortensius was spared, out of regard to his learning and genius, but he
+hardly could thank his foes for the boon, for they struck his only son
+dead, and tore his heart out before his father's eyes. Hardly any man or
+woman survived, except by accident. A body of some hundred burghers made
+their escape across the snow into the open country. They were, however,
+overtaken, stripped stark naked, and hung upon the trees by the feet, to
+freeze, or to perish by a more lingering death. Most of them soon died,
+but twenty, who happened to be wealthy, succeeded, after enduring much
+torture, in purchasing their lives of their inhuman persecutors. The
+principal burgomaster, Heinrich Lambertszoon, was less fortunate. Known
+to be affluent, he was tortured by exposing the soles of his feet to a
+fire until they were almost consumed. On promise that his life should be
+spared, he then agreed to pay a heavy ransom; but hardly had he furnished
+the stipulated sum when, by express order of Don Frederic himself, he was
+hanged in his own doorway, and his dissevered limbs afterwards nailed to
+the gates of the city.
+
+Nearly all the inhabitants of Naarden, soldiers and citizens, were thus
+destroyed; and now Don Frederic issued peremptory orders that no one, on
+pain of death, should give lodging or food to any fugitive. He likewise
+forbade to the dead all that could now be forbidden them--a grave. Three
+weeks long did these unburied bodies pollute the streets, nor could the
+few wretched women who still cowered within such houses as had escaped
+the flames ever wave from their lurking-places without treading upon the
+festering remains of what had been their husbands, their fathers, or
+their brethren. Such was the express command of him whom the flatterers
+called the "most divine genius ever known." Shortly afterwards came an
+order to dismantle the fortifications, which had certainly proved
+sufficiently feeble in the hour of need, and to raze what was left of the
+city from the surface of the earth. The work was faithfully accomplished,
+and for a longtime Naarden ceased to exist.
+
+Alva wrote, with his usual complacency in such cases, to his sovereign,
+that "they had cut the throats of the burghers and all the garrison, and
+that they had not left a mother's son alive." The statement was almost
+literally correct, nor was the cant with which these bloodhounds
+commented upon their crimes less odious than their guilt. "It was a
+permission of God," said the Duke, "that these people should have
+undertaken to defend a city, which was so weak that no other persons
+would have attempted such a thing." Nor was the reflection of Mendoza
+less pious. "The sack of Naarden," said that really brave and
+accomplished cavalier, "was a chastisement which must be believed to have
+taken place by express permission of a Divine Providence; a punishment
+for having been the first of the Holland towns in which heresy built its
+nest, whence it has taken flight to all the neighboring cities."
+
+It is not without reluctance, but still with a stern determination, that
+the historian--should faithfully record these transactions. To extenuate
+would be base; to exaggerate impossible. It is good that the world should
+not forget how much wrong has been endured by a single harmless nation at
+the hands of despotism, and in the sacred name of God. There have been
+tongues and pens enough to narrate the excesses of the people, bursting
+from time to time out of slavery into madness. It is good, too, that
+those crimes should be remembered, and freshly pondered; but it is
+equally wholesome to study the opposite picture. Tyranny, ever young and
+ever old, constantly reproducing herself with the same stony features,
+with the same imposing mask which she has worn through all the ages, can
+never be too minutely examined, especially when she paints her own
+portrait, and when the secret history of her guilt is furnished by the
+confessions of her lovers. The perusal of her traits will not make us
+love popular liberty the less.
+
+The history of Alva's administration in the Netherlands is one of those
+pictures which strike us almost dumb with wonder. Why has the Almighty
+suffered such crimes to be perpetrated in His sacred name? Was it
+necessary that many generations should wade through this blood in order
+to acquire for their descendants the blessings of civil and religious
+freedom? Was it necessary that an Alva should ravage a peaceful nation
+with sword and flame--that desolation should be spread over a happy land,
+in order that the pure and heroic character of a William of Orange should
+stand forth more conspicuously, like an antique statue of spotless marble
+against a stormy sky?
+
+After the army which the Prince had so unsuccessfully led to the relief
+of Mons had been disbanded, he had himself repaired to Holland. He had
+come to Kampen shortly before its defection from his cause. Thence he had
+been escorted across the Zuyder Zee to Eukhuyzen. He came to that
+province, the only one which through good and ill report remained
+entirely faithful to him, not as a conqueror but as an unsuccessful,
+proscribed man. But there were warm hearts beating within those cold
+lagunes, and no conqueror returning from a brilliant series of victories
+could have been received with more affectionate respect than William in
+that darkest hour of the country's history. He had but seventy horsemen
+at his back, all which remained of the twenty thousand troops which he
+had a second time levied in Germany, and he felt that it would be at that
+period hopeless for him to attempt the formation of a third army. He had
+now come thither to share the fate of Holland, at least, if he could not
+accomplish her liberation. He went from city to city, advising with the
+magistracies and with the inhabitants, and arranging many matters
+pertaining both to peace and war. At Harlem the States of the Provinces,
+according to his request, had been assembled. The assembly begged him to
+lay before them, if it were possible, any schemes and means which he
+might have devised for further resistance to the Duke of Alva. Thus
+solicited, the Prince, in a very secret session, unfolded his plans, and
+satisfied them as to the future prospects of the cause. His speech has
+nowhere been preserved. His strict injunctions as to secrecy, doubtless,
+prevented or effaced any record of the session. It is probable, however,
+that he entered more fully into the state of his negotiations with
+England, and into the possibility of a resumption by Count Louis of his
+private intercourse with the French court, than it was safe, publicly, to
+divulge.
+
+While the Prince had been thus occupied in preparing the stout-hearted
+province for the last death-struggle with its foe, that mortal combat was
+already fast approaching; for the aspect of the contest in the
+Netherlands was not that of ordinary warfare. It was an encounter between
+two principles, in their nature so hostile to each other that the
+absolute destruction of one was the only, possible issue. As the fight
+went on, each individual combatant seemed inspired by direct personal
+malignity, and men found a pleasure in deeds of cruelty, from which
+generations not educated to slaughter recoil with horror. To murder
+defenceless prisoners; to drink, not metaphorically but literally, the
+heart's blood of an enemy; to exercise a devilish ingenuity in inventions
+of mutual torture, became not only a duty but a rapture. The Liberty of
+the Netherlands had now been hunted to its lair. It had taken its last
+refuge among the sands and thickets where its savage infancy had been
+nurtured, and had now prepared itself to crush its tormentor in a last
+embrace, or to die in the struggle.
+
+After the conclusion of the sack and massacre of Naarden, Don Frederic
+had hastened to Amsterdam, where the Duke was then quartered, that he
+might receive the paternal benediction for his well-accomplished work.
+The royal approbation was soon afterwards added to the applause of his
+parent, and the Duke was warmly congratulated in a letter written by
+Philip as soon as the murderous deed was known, that Don Frederic had so
+plainly shown himself to be his father's son. There was now more work for
+father and son. Amsterdam was the only point in Holland which held for
+Alva, and from that point it was determined to recover the whole
+province. The Prince of Orange was established in the southern district;
+Diedrich Sonoy, his lieutenant, was stationed in North Holland. The
+important city of Harlem lay between the two, at a spot where the whole
+breadth of the territory, from sea to sea, was less than an hour's walk.
+With the fall of that city the province would be cut in twain, the
+rebellious forces utterly dissevered, and all further resistance, it was
+thought, rendered impossible.
+
+The inhabitants of Harlem felt their danger. Bossu, Alva's stadholder for
+Holland, had formally announced the system hitherto pursued at Mechlin,
+Zutphen, and Naarden, as the deliberate policy of the government. The
+King's representative had formally proclaimed the extermination of man,
+woman; and child in every city which opposed his authority, but the
+promulgation and practice of such a system had an opposite effect to the
+one intended. "The hearts of the Hollanders were rather steeled to
+resistance than awed into submission by the fate of Naarden." A fortunate
+event, too, was accepted as a lucky omen for the coming contest. A little
+fleet of armed vessels, belonging to Holland, had been frozen up in the
+neighbourhood of Amsterdam. Don Frederic on his arrival from Naarden,
+despatched a body of picked men over the ice to attack the imprisoned
+vessels. The crews had, however, fortified themselves by digging a wide
+trench around the whole fleet, which thus became from the moment an
+almost impregnable fortress. Out of this frozen citadel a strong band of
+well-armed and skilful musketeers sallied forth upon skates as the
+besieging force advanced. A rapid, brilliant, and slippery skirmish
+succeeded, in which the Hollanders, so accustomed to such sports, easily
+vanquished their antagonists, and drove them off the field, with the loss
+of several hundred left dead upon the ice.
+
+"'T was a thing never heard of before to-day," said Alva, "to see a body
+of arquebusiers thus skirmishing upon a frozen sea." In the course of the
+next four-and-twenty hours a flood and a rapid thaw released the vessels,
+which all escaped to Enkhuyzen, while a frost, immediately and strangely
+succeeding, made pursuit impossible.
+
+The Spaniards were astonished at these novel manoeuvres upon the ice. It
+is amusing to read their elaborate descriptions of the wonderful
+appendages which had enabled the Hollanders to glide so glibly into
+battle with a superior force, and so rapidly to glance away, after
+achieving a signal triumph. Nevertheless, the Spaniards could never be
+dismayed, and were always apt scholars, even if an enemy were the
+teacher. Alva immediately ordered seven thousand pairs of skates, and his
+soldiers soon learned to perform military evolutions with these new
+accoutrements as audaciously, if not as adroitly, as the Hollanders.
+
+A portion of the Harlem magistracy, notwithstanding the spirit which
+pervaded the province, began to tremble as danger approached. They were
+base enough to enter into secret negotiations with Alva, and to send
+three of their own number to treat with the Duke at Amsterdam. One was
+wise enough to remain with the enemy. The other two were arrested on
+their return, and condemned, after an impartial trial, to death. For,
+while these emissaries of a cowardly magistracy were absent, the stout
+commandant of the little garrison, Ripperda, had assembled the citizens
+and soldiers in the market-place. He warned them of the absolute
+necessity to make a last effort for freedom. In startling colors he held
+up to them the fate of Mechlin, of Zutphen, of Naarden, as a prophetic
+mirror, in which they might read their own fate should they be base
+enough to surrender the city. There was no composition possible, he
+urged, with foes who were as false as they were sanguinary, and whose
+foul passions were stimulated, not slaked, by the horrors with which they
+had already feasted themselves.
+
+Ripperda addressed men who could sympathize with his bold and lofty
+sentiments. Soldiers and citizens cried out for defence instead of
+surrender, as with one voice, for there were no abject spirits at Harlem,
+save among the magistracy; and Saint Aldegonde, the faithful minister of
+Orange, was soon sent to Harlem by the Prince to make a thorough change
+in that body.
+
+Harlem, over whose ruins the Spanish tyranny intended to make its
+entrance into Holland, lay in the narrowest part of that narrow isthmus
+which separates the Zuyder Zee from the German Ocean. The distance from
+sea to sea is hardly five English miles across. Westerly from the city
+extended a slender strip of land, once a morass, then a fruitful meadow;
+maintained by unflagging fortitude in the very jaws of a stormy ocean.
+Between the North Sea and the outer edge of this pasture surged those
+wild and fantastic downs, heaped up by wind and wave in mimicry of
+mountains; the long coils of that rope of sand, by which, plaited into
+additional strength by the slenderest of bulrushes, the waves of the
+North Sea were made to obey the command of man. On the opposite, or
+eastern aide, Harlem looked towards Amsterdam. That already flourishing
+city was distant but ten miles. The two cities were separated by an
+expanse of inland water, and united by a slender causeway. The Harlem
+Lake, formed less than a century before by the bursting of four lesser,
+meres during a storm which had threatened to swallow the whole Peninsula,
+extended itself on the south and east; a sea of limited dimensions, being
+only fifteen feet in depth with seventy square miles of surface, but,
+exposed as it lay to all the winds of heaven, often lashed into storms as
+dangerous as those of the Atlantic. Beyond the lake, towards the north,
+the waters of the Y nearly swept across the Peninsula. This inlet of the
+Zuyder Zee was only separated from the Harlem mere by a slender thread of
+land. Over this ran the causeway between the two sister cities, now so
+unfortunately in arms against each other. Midway between the two, the
+dyke was pierced and closed again with a system of sluice-works, which
+when opened admitted the waters of the lake into those of the estuary,
+and caused an inundation of the surrounding country.
+
+The city was one of the largest and most beautiful in the Netherlands. It
+was also one of the weakest.--The walls were of antique construction,
+turreted, but not strong. The extent and feebleness of the defences made
+a large garrison necessary, but unfortunately, the garrison was even
+weaker than the walls. The city's main reliance was on the stout hearts
+of the inhabitants. The streets were, for that day, spacious and regular;
+the canals planted with limes and poplars. The ancient church of Saint
+Bavon, a large imposing structure of brick, stood almost in the centre of
+the place, the most prominent object, not only of the town but of the
+province, visible over leagues of sea and of land more level than the
+sea, and seeming to gather the whole quiet little city under its sacred
+and protective wings. Its tall open-work leaden spire was surmounted by a
+colossal crown, which an exalted imagination might have regarded as the
+emblematic guerdon of martyrdom held aloft over the city, to reward its
+heroism and its agony.
+
+It was at once obvious that the watery expanse between Harlem and
+Amsterdam would be the principal theatre of the operations about to
+commence. The siege was soon begun. The fugitive burgomaster, De Fries,
+had the effrontery, with the advice of Alva, to address a letter to the
+citizens, urging them to surrender at discretion. The messenger was
+hanged--a cruel but practical answer, which put an end to all further
+traitorous communications. This was in the first week of December. On the
+10th, Don Frederic, sent a strong detachment to capture the fort and
+village of Sparendam, as an indispensable preliminary to the commencement
+of the siege. A peasant having shown Zapata, the commander of the
+expedition, a secret passage across the flooded and frozen meadows, the
+Spaniards stormed the place gallantly, routed the whole garrison, killed
+three hundred, and took possession of the works and village. Next day,
+Don Frederic appeared before the walls of Harlem, and proceeded regularly
+to invest the place. The misty weather favored his operations, nor did he
+cease reinforcing himself; until at least thirty thousand men, including
+fifteen hundred cavalry, had been encamped around the city. The Germans,
+under Count Overstein, were stationed in a beautiful and extensive grove
+of limes and beeches, which spread between the southern walls and the
+shore of Harlem Lake. Don Frederic, with his Spaniards, took up a
+position on the opposite side, at a place called the House of Kleef, the
+ruins of which still remain. The Walloons, and other regiments were
+distributed in different places, so as completely to encircle the town.
+
+   [Pierre Sterlinckx: Eene come Waerachtige Beschryvinghe van alle
+   Geschiedinissen, Anschlagen, Stormen, Schermutsingen oude Schieten
+   voor de vroome Stadt Haerlem in Holland gheschicht, etc., etc.--
+   Delft, 1574.--This is by far the best contemporary account of the
+   famous siege. The author was a citizen of Antwerp, who kept a daily
+   journal of the events as they occurred at Harlem. It is a dry, curt
+   register of horrors, jotted down without passion or comment.--
+   Compare Bor, vi. 422, 423; Meteren, iv. 79; Mendoza, viii. 174,
+   175; Wagenaer, vad. Hist., vi. 413, 414.]
+
+On the edge of the mere the Prince of Orange had already ordered a
+cluster of forts to be erected, by which the command of its frozen
+surface was at first secured for Harlem. In the course of the siege,
+however, other forts were erected by Don Frederic, so that the aspect of
+things suffered a change.
+
+Against this immense force, nearly equal in number to that of the whole
+population of the city, the garrison within the walls never amounted to
+more than four thousand men. In the beginning it was much less numerous.
+The same circumstances, however, which assisted the initiatory operations
+of Don Frederic, were of advantage to the Harlemers. A dense frozen fog
+hung continually over the surface of the lake. Covered by this curtain,
+large supplies of men, provisions, and ammunition were daily introduced
+into the city, notwithstanding all the efforts of the besieging force.
+Sledges skimming over the ice, men, women, and even children, moving on
+their skates as swiftly as the wind, all brought their contributions in
+the course of the short dark days and long nights of December, in which
+the wintry siege was opened.
+
+The garrison at last numbered about one thousand pioneers or delvers,
+three thousand fighting men, and about three hundred fighting women. The
+last was a most efficient corps, all females of respectable character,
+armed with sword, musket, and dagger. Their chief, Kenau Hasselaer, was a
+widow of distinguished family and unblemished reputation, about
+forty-seven years of age, who, at the head of her amazons, participated
+in many of the most fiercely contested actions of the siege, both within
+and without the walls. When such a spirit animated the maids and matrons
+of the city, it might be expected that the men would hardly surrender the
+place without a struggle. The Prince had assembled a force of three or
+four thousand men at Leyden, which he sent before the middle of December
+towards the city under the command of De la Marck. These troops were,
+however, attacked on the way by a strong detachment under Bossu,
+Noircarmes, and Romero. After a sharp, action in a heavy snow-storm, De
+la Marek was completely routed. One thousand of his soldiers were cut to
+pieces, and a large number carried off as prisoners to the gibbets, which
+were already conspicuously erected in the Spanish camp, and which from
+the commencement to the close of the siege were never bare of victims.
+Among the captives was a gallant officer, Baptist van Trier, for whom De
+la Marck in vain offered two thousand crowns and nineteen Spanish
+prisoners. The proposition was refused with contempt. Van Trier was
+hanged upon the gallows by one leg until he was dead, in return for which
+barbarity the nineteen Spaniards were immediately gibbeted by De la
+Marck. With this interchange of cruelties the siege may be said to have
+opened.
+
+Don Frederic had stationed himself in a position opposite to the gate of
+the Cross, which was not very strong, but fortified by a ravelin.
+Intending to make a very short siege of it, he established his batteries
+immediately, and on the 18th, 19th, and 20th December directed a furious
+cannonade against the Cross-gate, the St. John's-gate, and the curtain
+between the two. Six hundred and eighty shots were discharged on the
+first, and nearly as many on each of the two succeeding days. The walls
+were much shattered, but men, women, and children worked night and day
+within the city, repairing the breaches as fast as made. They brought
+bags of sand; blocks of stone, cart-loads of earth from every quarter,
+and they stripped the churches of all their statues, which they threw by
+heaps into the gaps. If They sought thus a more practical advantage from
+those sculptured saints than they could have gained by only imploring
+their interposition. The fact, however, excited horror among the
+besiegers. Men who were daily butchering their fellow-beings, and hanging
+their prisoners in cold blood, affected to shudder at the enormity of the
+offence thus exercised against graven images.
+
+After three days' cannonade, the assault was ordered, Don Frederic only
+intending a rapid massacre, to crown his achievements at--Zutphen and
+Naarden. The place, he thought, would fall in a week, and after another
+week of sacking, killing, and ravishing, he might sweep on to "pastures
+new" until Holland was overwhelmed. Romero advanced to the breach,
+followed by a numerous storming party, but met with a resistance which
+astonished the Spaniards. The church bells rang the alarm throughout the
+city, and the whole population swarmed to the walls. The besiegers were
+encountered not only with sword and musket, but with every implement
+which the burghers' hands could find. Heavy stones, boiling oil, live
+coals, were hurled upon the heads of the soldiers; hoops, smeared with
+pitch and set on fire, were dexterously thrown upon their necks. Even
+Spanish courage and Spanish ferocity were obliged to shrink before the
+steady determination of a whole population animated by a single spirit.
+Romero lost an eye in the conflict, many officers were killed and
+wounded, and three or four hundred soldiers left dead in the breach,
+while only three or four of the townsmen lost their lives. The signal of
+recal was reluctantly given, and the Spaniards abandoned the assault. Don
+Frederic was now aware that Harlem would not fall at his feet at the
+first sound of his trumpet. It was obvious that a siege must precede the
+massacre. He gave orders therefore that the ravelin should be undermined,
+and doubted not that, with a few days' delay, the place would be in his
+hands.
+
+Meantime, the Prince of Orange, from his head-quarters at Sassenheim, on
+the southern extremity of the mere, made a fresh effort to throw succor
+into the place. Two thousand men, with seven field-pieces, and many
+wagon-loads of munitions, were sent forward under Batenburg. This officer
+had replaced De la Marck, whom the Prince had at last deprived of his
+commission. The reckless and unprincipled freebooter was no longer to
+serve a cause which was more sullied by his barbarity than it could be
+advanced by his desperate valor. Batenburg's expedition was, however, not
+more successful than the one made by his predecessor. The troops, after
+reaching the vicinity of the city, lost their way in the thick mists,
+which almost perpetually enveloped the scene. Cannons were fired,
+fog-bells were rung, and beacon fires were lighted on the ramparts, but
+the party was irretrievably lost. The Spaniards fell upon them before
+they could find their way to the city. Many were put to the sword, others
+made their escape in different directions; a very few succeeded in
+entering Harlem. Batenburg brought off a remnant of the forces, but all
+the provisions so much needed were lost, and the little army entirely
+destroyed.
+
+De Koning, the second in command, was among the prisoners. The Spaniards
+cut off his head and threw it over the walls into the city, with this
+inscription: "This is the head of Captain de Koning, who is on his way
+with reinforcements for the good city of Harlem." The citizens retorted
+with a practical jest, which was still more barbarous. They cut off the
+heads of eleven prisoners and put them into a barrel, which they threw
+into the Spanish camp. A Label upon the barrel contained these words:
+"Deliver these ten heads to Duke Alva in payment of his tenpenny tax,
+with one additional head for interest." With such ghastly merriment did
+besieged and besiegers vary the monotonous horror of that winter's siege.
+As the sallies and skirmishes were of daily occurrence, there was a
+constant supply of prisoners, upon whom both parties might exercise their
+ingenuity, so that the gallows in camp or city was perpetually garnished.
+
+Since the assault of the 21st December, Don Frederic had been making his
+subterranean attack by regular approaches. As fast, however, as the
+Spaniards mined, the citizens countermined. Spaniard and Netherlander met
+daily in deadly combat within the bowels of the earth. Desperate and
+frequent were the struggles within gangways so narrow that nothing but
+daggers could be used, so obscure that the dim lanterns hardly lighted
+the death-stroke. They seemed the conflicts, not of men but of evil
+spirits. Nor were these hand-to-hand battles all. A shower of heads,
+limbs, mutilated trunks, the mangled remains of hundreds of human beings,
+often spouted from the earth as if from an invisible volcano. The mines
+were sprung with unexampled frequency and determination. Still the
+Spaniards toiled on with undiminished zeal, and still the besieged,
+undismayed, delved below their works, and checked their advance by sword,
+and spear, and horrible explosions.
+
+The Prince of Orange, meanwhile, encouraged the citizens to persevere, by
+frequent promises of assistance. His letters, written on extremely small
+bits of paper; were sent into the town by carrier pigeons. On the 28th of
+January he despatched a considerable supply of the two necessaries,
+powder and bread, on one hundred and seventy sledges across the Harlem
+Lake, together with four hundred veteran soldiers. The citizens continued
+to contest the approaches to the ravelin before the Cross-gate, but it
+had become obvious that they could not hold it long. Secretly,
+steadfastly, and swiftly they had, therefore, during the long wintry
+nights, been constructing a half moon of solid masonry on the inside of
+the same portal. Old men, feeble women, tender children, united with the
+able-bodied to accomplish this work, by which they hoped still to
+maintain themselves after the ravelin had fallen:
+
+On the 31st of January, after two or three days' cannonade against the
+gates of the Cross and of Saint John, and the intervening curtains, Don
+Frederic ordered a midnight assault. The walls had been much shattered,
+part of the John's-gate was in ruins; the Spaniards mounted the breach in
+great numbers; the city was almost taken by surprise; while the
+Commander-in-chief, sure of victory, ordered the whole of his forces
+under arms to cut off the population who were to stream panic-struck from
+every issue. The attack was unexpected, but the forty or fifty sentinels
+defended the walls while they sounded the alarm. The tocsin bells tolled,
+and the citizens, whose sleep was not-apt to be heavy during that
+perilous winter, soon manned the ramparts again. The daylight came upon
+them while the fierce struggle was still at its height. The besieged, as
+before, defended themselves with musket and rapier, with melted pitch,
+with firebrands, with clubs and stones. Meantime, after morning prayers
+in the Spanish camp, the trumpet for a general assault was sounded. A
+tremendous onset was made upon the gate of the Cross, and the ravelin was
+carried at last. The Spaniards poured into this fort, so long the object
+of their attack, expecting instantly to sweep into the city with sword
+and fire. As they mounted its wall they became for the first time aware
+of the new and stronger fortification which had been secretly constructed
+on the inner side. The reason why the ravelin had been at last conceded
+was revealed. The half moon, whose existence they had not suspected, rose
+before them bristling with cannon. A sharp fire was instantly opened upon
+the besiegers, while at the same instant the ravelin, which the citizens
+had undermined, blew up with a severe explosion, carrying into the air
+all the soldiers who had just entered it so triumphantly. This was the
+turning point. The retreat was sounded, and the Spaniards fled to their
+camp, leaving at least three hundred dead beneath the walls. Thus was a
+second assault, made by an overwhelming force and led by the most
+accomplished generals of Spain, signally and gloriously repelled by the
+plain burghers of Harlem.
+
+It became now almost evident that the city could be taken neither by
+regular approaches nor by sudden attack. It was therefore resolved that
+it should be reduced by famine. Still, as the winter wore on, the immense
+army without the walls were as great sufferers by that scourge as the
+population within. The soldiers fell in heaps before the diseases
+engendered by intense cold and insufficient food, for, as usual in such
+sieges, these deaths far outnumbered those inflicted by the enemy's hand.
+The sufferings inside the city necessarily increased day by day, the
+whole population being put on a strict allowance of food. Their supplies
+were daily diminishing, and with the approach of the spring and the
+thawing of the ice on the lake, there was danger that they would be
+entirely cut off. If the possession of the water were lost, they must
+yield or starve; and they doubted whether the Prince would be able to
+organize a fleet. The gaunt spectre of Famine already rose before them
+with a menace which could not be misunderstood. In their misery they
+longed for the assaults of the Spaniards, that they might look in the
+face of a less formidable foe. They paraded the ramparts daily, with
+drums beating, colors flying, taunting the besiegers to renewed attempts.
+To inflame the religious animosity of their antagonists, they attired
+themselves in the splendid, gold-embroidered vestments of the priests,
+which they took from the churches, and moved about in mock procession,
+bearing aloft images bedizened in ecclesiastical finery, relics, and
+other symbols, sacred in Catholic eyes, which they afterwards hurled from
+the ramparts, or broke, with derisive shouts, into a thousand fragments.
+
+It was, however, at that season earnestly debated by the enemy whether or
+not to raise the siege. Don Frederic was clearly of opinion that enough
+had been done for the honor of the Spanish arms. He was wearied with
+seeing his men perish helplessly around him, and considered the prize too
+paltry for the lives it must cost. His father thought differently.
+Perhaps he recalled the siege of Metz, and the unceasing regret with
+which, as he believed, his imperial master had remembered the advice
+received from him. At any rate the Duke now sent back Don Bernardino de
+Mendoza, whom Don Frederic had despatched to Nimwegen, soliciting his
+father's permission to raise the siege, with this reply: "Tell Don
+Frederic," said Alva, "that if he be not decided to continue the siege
+till the town be taken, I shall no longer consider him my son, whatever
+my opinion may formerly have been. Should he fall in the siege, I will
+myself take the field to maintain it, and when we have both perished, the
+Duchess, my wife, shall come from Spain to do the same."
+
+Such language was unequivocal, and hostilities were resumed as fiercely
+as before. The besieged welcomed them with rapture, and, as usual, made
+daily the most desperate sallies. In one outbreak the Harlemers, under
+cover of a thick fog, marched up to the enemy's chief battery, and
+attempted to spike the guns before his face. They were all slain at the
+cannon's mouth, whither patriotism, not vainglory, had led them, and lay
+dead around the battery, with their hammers and spikes in their hands.
+The same spirit was daily manifested. As the spring advanced; the kine
+went daily out of the gates to their peaceful pasture, notwithstanding,
+all the turmoil within and around; nor was it possible for the Spaniards
+to capture a single one of these creatures, without paying at least a
+dozen soldiers as its price. "These citizens," wrote Don Frederic, "do as
+much as the best soldiers in the world could do."
+
+The frost broke up by the end of February. Count Bossu, who had been
+building a fleet of small vessels in Amsterdam, soon afterwards succeeded
+in entering the lake with a few gun-boats, through a breach which he had
+made in the Overtoom, about half a league from that city. The possession
+of the lake was already imperilled. The Prince, however, had not been
+idle, and he, too, was soon ready to send his flotilla to the mere. At
+the same time, the city of Amsterdam was in almost as hazardous a
+position as Harlem. As the one on the lake, so did the other depend upon
+its dyke for its supplies. Should that great artificial road which led to
+Muyden and Utrecht be cut asunder, Amsterdam might be starved as soon as
+Harlem. "Since I came into the world," wrote Alva, "I have never, been in
+such anxiety. If they should succeed in cutting off the communication
+along the dykes, we should have to raise the siege of Harlem, to
+surrender, hands crossed, or to starve." Orange was fully aware of the
+position of both places, but he was, as usual, sadly deficient in men and
+means. He wrote imploringly to his friends in England, in France, in
+Germany. He urged his brother Louis to bring a few soldiers, if it were
+humanly possible. "The whole country longs for you," he wrote to Louis,
+"as if you were the archangel Gabriel."
+
+The Prince, however, did all that it was possible for man, so hampered,
+to do. He was himself, while anxiously writing, hoping, and waiting for
+supplies of troops from Germany or France, doing his best with such
+volunteers as he could raise. He was still established at Sassenheim, on
+the south of the city, while Sonoy with his slender forces was encamped
+on the north. He now sent that general with as large a party as he could
+muster to attack the Diemerdyk. His men entrenched themselves as strongly
+as they could between the Diemer and the Y, at the same time opening the
+sluices and breaking through the dyke. During the absence of their
+commander, who had gone to Edam for reinforcements, they were attacked by
+a large force from Amsterdam. A fierce amphibious contest took place,
+partly in boats, partly on the slippery causeway, partly in the water,
+resembling in character the frequent combats between the ancient
+Batavians and Romans during the wars of Civilis. The patriots were
+eventually overpowered.
+
+Sonoy, who was on his way to their rescue, was frustrated in his design
+by the unexpected faint-heartedness of the volunteers whom he had
+enlisted at Edam. Braving a thousand perils, he advanced, almost
+unattended, in his little vessel, but only to witness the overthrow and
+expulsion of his band. It was too late for him singly to attempt to rally
+the retreating troops. They had fought well, but had been forced to yield
+before superior numbers, one individual of the little army having
+performed prodigies of valor. John Haring, of Horn, had planted himself
+entirely alone upon the dyke, where it was so narrow between the Y on the
+one side and the Diemer Lake on the other, that two men could hardly
+stand abreast. Here, armed with sword and shield, he had actually opposed
+and held in check one thousand of the enemy, during a period long enough
+to enable his own men, if they, had been willing, to rally, and
+effectively to repel the attack. It was too late, the battle was too far
+lost to be restored; but still the brave soldier held the post, till, by
+his devotion, he had enabled all those of his compatriots who still
+remained in the entrenchments to make good their retreat. He then plunged
+into the sea, and, untouched by spear or bullet, effected his escape. Had
+he been a Greek or a Roman, an Horatius or a Chabrias, his name would
+have been famous in history--his statue erected in the market-place; for
+the bold Dutchman on his dyke had manifested as much valor in a sacred
+cause as the most classic heroes of antiquity.
+
+This unsuccessful attempt to cut off the communication between Amsterdam
+and the country strengthened the hopes of Alva. Several hundreds of the
+patriots were killed or captured, and among the slain was Antony Oliver,
+the painter, through whose agency Louis of Nassau had been introduced
+into Mons. His head was cut off by two ensigns in Alva's service, who
+received the price which had been set upon it of two thousand caroli. It
+was then labelled with its owner's name, and thrown into the city of
+Harlem. At the same time a new gibbet was erected in the Spanish camp
+before the city, in a conspicuous situation, upon which all the prisoners
+were hanged, some by the neck, some by the heels, in full view of their
+countrymen. As usual, this especial act of cruelty excited the emulation
+of the citizens. Two of the old board of magistrates, belonging to the
+Spanish party, were still imprisoned at Harlem; together with seven other
+persons, among whom was a priest and a boy of twelve years. They were now
+condemned to the gallows. The wife of one of the ex-burgomasters and his
+daughter, who was a beguin, went by his side as he was led to execution,
+piously exhorting him to sustain with courage the execrations of the
+populace and his ignominious doom. The rabble, irritated by such
+boldness, were not satisfied with wreaking their vengeance on the
+principal victims, but after the execution had taken place they hunted
+the wife and daughter into the water, where they both perished. It is
+right to record these instances of cruelty, sometimes perpetrated by the
+patriots as well as by their oppressors--a cruelty rendered almost
+inevitable by the incredible barbarity of the foreign invader. It was a
+war of wolfish malignity. In the words of Mendoza, every man within and
+without Harlem "seemed inspired by a spirit of special and personal
+vengeance." The innocent blood poured out in Mechlin, Zutphen, Naarden,
+and upon a thousand scaffolds, had been crying too long from the ground.
+The Hollanders must have been more or less than men not to be sometimes
+betrayed into acts which justice and reason must denounce. [No! It was as
+evil for one side as the other. D.W.]
+
+The singular mood which has been recorded of a high-spirited officer of
+the garrison, Captain Corey, illustrated the horror with which such
+scenes of carnage were regarded by noble natures. Of a gentle disposition
+originally, but inflamed almost to insanity by a contemplation of Spanish
+cruelty, he had taken up the profession of arms, to which he had a
+natural repugnance. Brave to recklessness, he led his men on every daring
+outbreak, on every perilous midnight adventure. Armed only with his
+rapier, without defensive armor, he was ever found where the battle raged
+most fiercely, and numerous were the victims who fell before his sword.
+On returning, however, from such excursions, he invariably shut himself
+in his quarters, took to his bed, and lay for days, sick with remorse,
+and bitterly lamenting all that bloodshed in which he had so deeply
+participated, and which a cruel fate seemed to render necessary. As the
+gentle mood subsided, his frenzy would return, and again he would rush to
+the field, to seek new havoc and fresh victims for his rage.
+
+The combats before the walls were of almost daily occurrence. On the 25th
+March, one thousand of the besieged made a brilliant sally, drove in all
+the outposts of the enemy, burned three hundred tents, and captured seven
+cannon, nine standards, and many wagon-loads of provisions, all which
+they succeeded in bringing with them into the city.--Having thus
+reinforced themselves, in a manner not often practised by the citizens of
+a beleaguered town, in the very face of thirty thousand veterans--having
+killed eight hundred of the enemy, which was nearly one for every man
+engaged, while they lost but four of their own party--the Harlemers, on
+their return, erected a trophy of funereal but exulting aspect. A mound
+of earth was constructed upon the ramparts, in the form of a colossal
+grave, in full view of the enemy's camp, and upon it were planted the
+cannon and standards so gallantly won in the skirmish, with the taunting
+inscription floating from the centre of the mound "Harlem is the
+graveyard of the Spaniards."
+
+Such were the characteristics of this famous siege during the winter and
+early spring. Alva might well write to his sovereign, that "it was a war
+such as never before was seen or heard of in any land on earth." Yet the
+Duke had known near sixty years of warfare. He informed Philip that
+"never was a place defended with such skill and bravery as Harlem, either
+by rebels or by men fighting for their lawful Prince." Certainly his son
+had discovered his mistake in asserting that the city would yield in a
+week; while the father, after nearly six years' experience, had found
+this "people of butter" less malleable than even those "iron people" whom
+he boasted of having tamed. It was seen that neither the skies of Greece
+or Italy, nor the sublime scenery of Switzerland, were necessary to
+arouse the spirit of defiance to foreign oppression--a spirit which beat
+as proudly among the wintry mists and the level meadows of Holland as it
+had ever done under sunnier atmospheres and in more romantic lands.
+
+Mendoza had accomplished his mission to Spain, and had returned with
+supplies of money within six weeks from the date of his departure. Owing
+to his representations and Alva's entreaties, Philip had, moreover,
+ordered Requesens, governor of Milan, to send forward to the Netherlands
+three veteran Spanish regiments, which were now more required at Harlem
+than in Italy. While the land force had thus been strengthened, the fleet
+upon the lake had also been largely increased. The Prince of Orange had,
+on the other hand, provided more than a hundred sail of various
+descriptions, so that the whole surface of the mere was now alive with
+ships. Seafights and skirmishes took place almost daily, and it was
+obvious that the life and death struggle was now to be fought upon the
+water. So long as the Hollanders could hold or dispute the possession of
+the lake, it was still possible to succor Harlem from time to time.
+Should the Spaniards overcome the Prince's fleet, the city must
+inevitably starve.
+
+At last, on the 28th of May, a decisive engagement of the fleets took
+place. The vessels grappled with each other, and there was a long,
+fierce, hand-to-hand combat. Under Bossu were one hundred vessels; under
+Martin Brand, admiral of the patriot fleet, nearly one hundred and fifty,
+but of lesser dimensions. Batenhurg commanded the troops on board the
+Dutch vessels. After a protracted conflict, in which several thousands
+were killed, the victory was decided in favor of the Spaniards.
+Twenty-two of the Prince's vessels being captured, and the rest totally
+routed, Bossu swept across the lake in triumph. The forts belonging to
+the patriots were immediately taken, and the Harlemers, with their
+friends, entirely excluded from the lake.
+
+This was the beginning of the end. Despair took possession of the city.
+The whole population had been long subsisting upon an allowance of a
+pound of bread to each man, and half-a-pound for each woman; but the
+bread was now exhausted, the famine had already begun, and with the loss
+of the lake starvation was close at their doors. They sent urgent
+entreaties to, the Prince to attempt something in their behalf. Three
+weeks more they assigned as the longest term during which they could
+possibly hold out. He sent them word by carrier pigeons to endure yet a
+little time, for he was assembling a force, and would still succeed in
+furnishing them with supplies. Meantime, through the month of June the
+sufferings of the inhabitants increased hourly. Ordinary food had long
+since vanished. The population now subsisted on linseed and rape-seed; as
+these supplies were exhausted they devoured cats, dogs, rats, and mice,
+and when at last these unclean animals had been all consumed, they boiled
+the hides of horses and oxen; they ate shoe-leather; they plucked the
+nettles and grass from the graveyards, and the weeds which grew between
+the stones of the pavement, that with such food they might still support
+life a little longer, till the promised succor should arrive. Men, women,
+and children fell dead by scores in the streets, perishing of pure
+starvation, and the survivors had hardly the heart or the strength to
+bury them out of their sight. They who yet lived seemed to flit like
+shadows to and fro, envying those whose sufferings had already been
+terminated by death.
+
+Thus wore away the month of June. On the 1st of July the burghers
+consented to a parley. Deputies were sent to confer with the besiegers,
+but the negotiations were abruptly terminated, for no terms of compromise
+were admitted by Don Frederic. On the 3rd a tremendous cannonade was
+re-opened upon the city. One thousand and eight balls were
+discharged--the most which had ever been thrown in one day, since the
+commencement of the siege. The walls were severely shattered, but the
+assault was not ordered, because the besiegers were assured that it was
+physically impossible for the inhabitants to hold out many days longer. A
+last letter, written in blood, was now despatched to the Prince of
+Orange, stating the forlorn condition to which they were reduced. At the
+same time, with the derision of despair, they flung into the hostile camp
+the few loaves of bread which yet remained within the city walls. A day
+or two later, a second and third parley were held, with no more
+satisfactory result than had attended the first. A black flag was now
+hoisted on the cathedral tower, the signal of despair to friend and foe,
+but a pigeon soon afterwards flew into the town with a letter from the
+Prince, begging them to maintain themselves two days longer, because
+succor was approaching.
+
+The Prince had indeed been doing all which, under the circumstances, was
+possible. He assembled the citizens of Delft in the market-place, and
+announced his intention of marching in person to the relief of the city,
+in the face of the besieging army, if any troops could be obtained.
+Soldiers there were none; but there was the deepest sympathy for Harlem
+throughout its sister cities, Delft, Rotterdam, Gouda. A numerous mass of
+burghers, many of them persons of station, all people of respectability,
+volunteered to march to the rescue. The Prince highly disapproved of this
+miscellaneous army, whose steadfastness he could not trust. As a soldier,
+he knew that for such a momentous enterprise, enthusiasm could not supply
+the place of experience. Nevertheless, as no regular troops could be had,
+and as the emergency allowed no delay, he drew up a commission,
+appointing Paulus Buys to be governor during his absence, and provisional
+stadholder, should he fall in the expedition. Four thousand armed
+volunteers, with six hundred mounted troopers, under Carlo de Noot, had
+been assembled, and the Prince now placed himself at their head. There
+was, however, a universal cry of remonstrance from the magistracies and
+burghers of all the towns, and from the troops themselves, at this
+project. They would not consent that a life so precious, so indispensable
+to the existence of Holland, should be needlessly hazarded. It was
+important to succor Harlem, but the Prince was of more value than many
+cities. He at last reluctantly consented, therefore, to abandon the
+command of the expedition to Baron Batenburg, the less willingly from the
+want of confidence which he could not help feeling in the character of
+the forces. On the 8th of July, at dusk, the expedition set forth from
+Sassenheim. It numbered nearly five thousand men, who had with them four
+hundred wagon-loads of provisions and seven field-pieces. Among the
+volunteers, Oldenbarneveld; afterwards so illustrious in the history of
+the Republic; marched in the ranks, with his musket on his shoulder. Such
+was a sample of the spirit which pervaded the population of the province.
+
+Batenburg came to a halt in the woods of Nordwyk, on the south aide of
+the city, where he remained till midnight. All seemed still in the
+enemy's camp. After prayers, he gave orders to push forward, hoping to
+steal through the lines of his sleeping adversaries and accomplish the
+relief by surprise. He was destined to be bitterly disappointed. His
+plans and his numbers were thoroughly known to the Spaniards, two doves,
+bearing letters which contained the details of the intended expedition,
+having been shot and brought into Don Frederic's camp.
+
+The citizens, it appeared, had broken through the curtain work on the
+side where Batenburg was expected, in order that a sally might be made in
+co-operation with the relieving force, as soon as it should appear.
+Signal fires had been agreed upon, by which the besieged were to be made
+aware of the approach of their friends. The Spanish Commander accordingly
+ordered a mass of green branches, pitch, and straw, to be lighted
+opposite to the gap in the city wall. Behind it he stationed five
+thousand picked troops. Five thousand more, with a force of cavalry, were
+placed in the neighbourhood of the downs, with orders to attack the
+patriot army on the left. Six regiments, under Romero, were ordered to
+move eastward, and assail their right. The dense mass of smoke concealed
+the beacon lights displayed by Batenburg from the observation of the
+townspeople, and hid the five thousand Spaniards from the advancing
+Hollanders. As Batenburg emerged from the wood, he found himself attacked
+by a force superior to his own, while a few minutes later he was entirely
+enveloped by overwhelming numbers. The whole Spanish army was, indeed;
+under arms, and had been expecting him for two days. The unfortunate
+citizens alone were ignorant of his arrival. The noise of the conflict
+they supposed to be a false alarm created by the Spaniards, to draw them
+into their camp; and they declined a challenge which they were in no
+condition to accept.
+
+Batenburg was soon slain, and his troops utterly routed. The number
+killed was variously estimated at from six hundred to two and even three
+thousand. It is, at any rate, certain that the whole force was entirely
+destroyed or dispersed, and the attempt to relieve the city completely
+frustrated. The death of Batenburg was the less regretted, because he was
+accused, probably with great injustice, of having been intoxicated at the
+time of action, and therefore incapable of properly, conducting the
+enterprise entrusted to him.
+
+The Spaniards now cut off the nose and ears of a prisoner and sent him
+into the city, to announce the news, while a few heads were also thrown
+over the walls to confirm the intelligence. When this decisive overthrow
+became known in Delft, there was even an outbreak of indignation against
+Orange. According to a statement of Alva, which, however, is to be
+received with great distrust, some of the populace wished to sack the
+Prince's house, and offered him personal indignities. Certainly, if these
+demonstrations were made, popular anger was never more senseless; but the
+tale rests entirely, upon a vague assertion of the Duke, and is entirely,
+at variance with every other contemporaneous account of these
+transactions. It had now become absolutely, necessary, however, for the
+heroic but wretched town to abandon itself to its fate. It was impossible
+to attempt anything more in its behalf. The lake and its forts were in
+the hands of the enemy, the best force which could be mustered to make
+head against the besieging army had been cut to pieces, and the Prince of
+Orange, with a heavy heart, now sent word that the burghers were to make
+the best terms they could with the enemy.
+
+The tidings of despair created a terrible commotion in the starving city.
+There was no hope either in submission or resistance. Massacre or
+starvation was the only alternative. But if there was no hope within the
+walls, without there was still a soldier's death. For a moment the
+garrison and the able-bodied citizens resolved to advance from the gates
+in a solid column, to cut their way through the enemy's camp, or to
+perish on the field. It was thought that the helpless and the infirm, who
+would alone be left in the city, might be treated with indulgence after
+the fighting men had all been slain. At any rate, by remaining the strong
+could neither protect nor comfort them. As soon, however, as this resolve
+was known, there was such wailing and outcry of women and children as
+pierced the hearts of the soldiers and burghers, and caused them to
+forego the project. They felt that it was cowardly not to die in their
+presence. It was then determined to form all the females, the sick, the
+aged, and the children, into a square, to surround them with all the
+able-bodied men who still remained, and thus arrayed to fight their way
+forth from the gates, and to conquer by the strength of despair, or at
+least to perish all together.
+
+These desperate projects, which the besieged were thought quite capable
+of executing, were soon known in the Spanish camp. Don Frederic felt,
+after what he had witnessed in the past seven months, that there was
+nothing which the Harlemers could not do or dare. He feared lest they
+should set fire to their city, and consume their houses, themselves, and
+their children, to ashes together; and he was unwilling that the fruits
+of his victory, purchased at such a vast expense, should be snatched from
+his hand as he was about to gather them. A letter was accordingly, by his
+order, sent to the magistracy and leading citizens, in the name of Count
+Overstein, commander of the German forces in the besieging army. This
+despatch invited a surrender at discretion, but contained the solemn
+assurance that no punishment should be inflicted except upon those who,
+in the judgment of the citizens themselves, had deserved it, and promised
+ample forgiveness if the town should submit without further delay. At the
+moment of sending this letter, Don Frederic was in possession of strict
+orders from his father not to leave a man alive of the garrison,
+excepting only the Germans, and to execute besides a large number of the
+burghers. These commands he dared not disobey,--even if he had felt any
+inclination to do so. In consequence of the semi-official letter of
+Overstein, however, the city formally surrendered at discretion on the
+12th July.
+
+The great bell was tolled, and orders were issued that all arms in the
+possession of the garrison or the inhabitants should be brought to the
+town-house. The men were then ordered to assemble in the cloister of Zyl,
+the women in the cathedral. On the same day, Don Frederic, accompanied by
+Count Bossu and a numerous staff, rode into the city. The scene which met
+his view might have moved a heart of stone. Everywhere was evidence of
+the misery which had been so bravely endured during that seven months'
+siege. The smouldering ruins of houses, which had been set on fire by
+balls, the shattered fortifications, the felled trunks of trees, upturned
+pavements, broken images and other materials for repairing gaps made by
+the daily cannonade, strewn around in all directions, the skeletons of
+unclean animals from which the flesh had been gnawed, the unburied bodies
+of men and women who had fallen dead in the public thoroughfares--more
+than all, the gaunt and emaciated forms of those who still survived, the
+ghosts of their former, selves, all might have induced at least a doubt
+whether the suffering inflicted already were not a sufficient punishment,
+even for crimes so deep as heresy and schism. But this was far from being
+the sentiment of Don Frederic. He seemed to read defiance as well as
+despair in the sunken eyes which glared upon him as he entered the place,
+and he took no thought of the pledge which he had informally but sacredly
+given.
+
+All the officers of the garrison were at once arrested. Some of them had
+anticipated the sentence of their conqueror by a voluntary death. Captain
+Bordet, a French officer of distinction, like Brutus, compelled his
+servant to hold the sword upon which he fell, rather than yield himself
+alive to the vengeance of the Spaniards. Traits of generosity were not
+wanting. Instead of Peter Hasselaer, a young officer who had displayed
+remarkable bravery throughout the siege, the Spaniards by. mistake
+arrested his cousin Nicholas. The prisoner was suffering himself to be
+led away to the inevitable scaffold without remonstrance, when Peter
+Hasselaer pushed his way violently through the ranks of the captors. "If
+you want Ensign Hasselaer, I am the man. Let this innocent person
+depart," he cried. Before the sun set his head had fallen. All the
+officers were taken to the House of Kleef, where they were immediately
+executed.--Captain Ripperda, who had so heroically rebuked the craven
+conduct of the magistracy, whose eloquence had inflamed the soldiers and
+citizens to resistance, and whose skill and courage had sustained the
+siege so long, was among the first to suffer. A natural son of Cardinal
+Granvelle, who could have easily saved his life by proclaiming a
+parentage which he loathed, and Lancelot Brederode, an illegitimate scion
+of that ancient house, were also among these earliest victims.
+
+The next day Alva came over to the camp. He rode about the place,
+examining the condition of the fortifications from the outside, but
+returned to Amsterdam without having entered the city. On the following
+morning the massacre commenced. The plunder had been commuted for two
+hundred and forty thousand guilders, which the citizens bound themselves
+to pay in four instalments; but murder was an indispensable accompaniment
+of victory, and admitted of no compromise. Moreover, Alva had already
+expressed the determination to effect a general massacre upon this
+occasion. The garrison, during the siege, had been reduced from four
+thousand to eighteen hundred. Of these the Germans, six hundred in
+number, were, by Alva's order, dismissed, on a pledge to serve no more
+against the King. All the rest of the garrison were immediately
+butchered, with at least as many citizens. Drummers went about the city
+daily, proclaiming that all who harbored persons having, at any former
+period, been fugitives, were immediately to give them up, on pain of
+being instantly hanged themselves in their own doors. Upon these refugees
+and upon the soldiery fell the brunt of the slaughter; although, from day
+to day, reasons were perpetually discovered for putting to death every
+individual at all distinguished by service, station, wealth, or liberal
+principles; for the carnage could not be accomplished at once, but, with
+all the industry and heartiness employed, was necessarily protracted
+through several days. Five executioners, with their attendants, were kept
+constantly at work; and when at last they were exhausted with fatigue, or
+perhaps sickened with horror, three hundred wretches were tied two and
+two, back to back, and drowned in the Harlem Lake.
+
+At last, after twenty-three hundred human creatures had been murdered in
+cold blood, within a city where so many thousands had previously perished
+by violent or by lingering deaths; the blasphemous farce of a pardon was
+enacted. Fifty-seven of the most prominent burghers of the place were,
+however, excepted from the act of amnesty, and taken into custody as
+security for the future good conduct of the other citizens. Of these
+hostages some were soon executed, some died in prison, and all would have
+been eventually sacrificed, had not the naval defeat of Bossu soon
+afterwards enabled the Prince of Orange to rescue the remaining
+prisoners. Ten thousand two hundred and fifty-six shots had been
+discharged against the walls during the siege. Twelve thousand of the
+besieging army had died of wounds or disease, during the seven months and
+two days, between the investment and the surrender. In the earlier part
+of August, after the executions had been satisfactorily accomplished, Don
+Frederic made his triumphal entry, and the first chapter in the invasion
+of Holland was closed. Such was the memorable siege of Harlem, an event
+in which we are called upon to wonder equally at human capacity to
+inflict and to endure misery.
+
+The Spaniards celebrated a victory, while in Utrecht they made an effigy
+of the Prince of Orange, which they carried about in procession, broke
+upon the wheel, and burned. It was, however, obvious, that if the
+reduction of Harlem were a triumph, it was one which the conquerors might
+well exchange for a defeat. At any rate, it was certain that the Spanish
+empire was not strong enough to sustain many more such victories. If it
+had required thirty thousand choice troops, among which were three
+regiments called by Alva respectively, the "Invincibles," the
+"Immortals," and the "None-such," to conquer the weakest city of Holland
+in seven months, and with the loss of twelve thousand men; how many men,
+how long a time, and how many deaths would it require to reduce the rest
+of that little province? For, as the sack of Naarden had produced the
+contrary effect from the one intended, inflaming rather than subduing the
+spirit of Dutch resistance, so the long and glorious defence of Harlem,
+notwithstanding its tragical termination, had only served to strain to
+the highest pitch the hatred and patriotism of the other cities in the
+province. Even the treasures of the New World were inadequate to pay for
+the conquest of that little sand-bank. Within five years, twenty-five
+millions of florins had been sent from Spain for war expenses in the
+Netherlands.--Yet, this amount, with the addition of large sums annually
+derived from confiscations, of five millions, at which the proceeds of
+the hundredth penny was estimated, and the two millions yearly, for which
+the tenth and twentieth pence had been compounded, was insufficient to
+save the treasury from beggary and the unpaid troops from mutiny.
+
+Nevertheless, for the moment the joy created was intense. Philip was
+lying dangerously ill at the wood of Segovia, when the happy tidings of
+the reduction of Harlem, with its accompanying butchery, arrived. The
+account of all this misery, minutely detailed to him by Alva, acted like
+magic. The blood of twenty-three hundred of his fellow-creatures--coldly
+murdered, by his orders, in a single city--proved for the sanguinary
+monarch the elixir of life: he drank and was refreshed. "The principal
+medicine which has cured his Majesty," wrote Secretary Cayas from Madrid
+to Alva, "is the joy caused to him by the good news which you have
+communicated of the surrender of Harlem." In the height of his
+exultation, the King forgot how much dissatisfaction he had recently felt
+with the progress of events in the Netherlands; how much treasure had
+been annually expended with an insufficient result. "Knowing your
+necessity," continued Cayas, "his Majesty instantly sent for Doctor
+Velasco, and ordered him to provide you with funds, if he had to descend
+into the earth to dig for it." While such was the exultation of the
+Spaniards, the Prince of Orange was neither dismayed nor despondent. As
+usual, he trusted to a higher power than man. "I had hoped to send you
+better news," he wrote, to Count Louis, "nevertheless, since it has
+otherwise pleased the good God, we must conform ourselves to His divine
+will. I take the same God to witness that I have done everything
+according to my means, which was possible, to succor the city." A few
+days later, writing in the same spirit, he informed his brother that the
+Zealanders had succeeded in capturing the castle of Rammekens, on the
+isle of Walcheren. "I hope," he said, "that this will reduce the pride of
+our enemies, who, after the surrender of Harlem, have thought that they
+were about to swallow us alive. I assure myself, however, that they will
+find a very different piece of work from the one which they expect."
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     Enthusiasm could not supply the place of experience
+     Envying those whose sufferings had already been terminated
+     Leave not a single man alive in the city, and to burn every house
+     Not strong enough to sustain many more such victories
+     Oldenbarneveld; afterwards so illustrious
+     Sent them word by carrier pigeons
+     Three hundred fighting women
+     Tyranny, ever young and ever old, constantly reproducing herself
+     Wonder equally at human capacity to inflict and to endure misery
+
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, PG EDITION, VOLUME 21.
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
+
+By JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
+1855
+1573 [CHAPTER IX.]
+
+   Position of Alva--Hatred entertained for him by elevated personages
+   --Quarrels between him and Medina Coeli--Departure of the latter--
+   Complaints to the King by each of the other--Attempts at
+   conciliation addressed by government to the people of the
+   Netherlands--Grotesque character of the address--Mutinous
+   demonstration of the Spanish troops--Secret overtures to Orange--
+   Obedience, with difficulty, restored by Alva--Commencement of the
+   siege of Alkmaar--Sanguinary menaces of the Duke--Encouraging and
+   enthusiastic language of the Prince--Preparations in Alkmaar for
+   defence--The first assault steadily repulsed--Refusal of the
+   soldiers to storm a second time--Expedition of the Carpenter-envoy--
+   Orders of the Prince to flood the country--The Carpenter's
+   despatches in the enemy's hands--Effect produced upon the Spaniards
+   --The siege raised--Negotiations of Count Louis with France--
+   Uneasiness and secret correspondence of the Duke--Convention with
+   the English government--Objects pursued by Orange--Cruelty of De la
+   Marck--His dismissal from office and subsequent death--Negotiations
+   with France--Altered tone of the French court with regard to the St.
+   Bartholomew--Ill effects of the crime upon the royal projects--
+   Hypocrisy of the Spanish government--Letter of Louis to Charles IX.
+   --Complaints of Charles IX.--Secret aspirations of that monarch and
+   of Philip--Intrigues concerning the Polish election--Renewed
+   negotiations between Schomberg and Count Louis, with consent of
+   Orange--Conditions prescribed by the Prince--Articles of secret
+   alliance--Remarkable letter of Count Louis to Charles IX.--
+   Responsible and isolated situation of Orange--The "Address" and the
+   "Epistle"--Religious sentiments of the Prince--Naval action on the
+   Zuyder Zee--Captivity of Bossu and of Saint Aldegonde--Odious
+   position of Alva--His unceasing cruelty--Execution of Uitenhoove--
+   Fraud practised by Alva upon his creditors--Arrival of Requesens,
+   the new Governor-General--Departure of Alva--Concluding remarks upon
+   his administration.
+
+For the sake of continuity in the narrative, the siege of Harlem has been
+related until its conclusion. This great event constituted, moreover, the
+principal stuff in Netherland, history, up to the middle of the year
+1573. A few loose threads must be now taken up before we can proceed
+farther.
+
+Alva had for some time felt himself in a false and uncomfortable
+position. While he continued to be the object of a popular hatred as
+intense as ever glowed, he had gradually lost his hold upon those who, at
+the outset of his career, had been loudest and lowest in their
+demonstrations of respect. "Believe me," wrote Secretary Albornoz to
+Secretary Cayas, "this people abhor our nation worse than they abhor the
+Devil. As for the Duke of Alva, they foam at the mouth when they hear his
+name." Viglius, although still maintaining smooth relations with the
+Governor, had been, in reality, long since estranged from him. Even
+Aerschot, far whom the Duke had long maintained an intimacy half
+affectionate, half contemptuous, now began to treat him with a contumely
+which it was difficult for so proud a stomach to digest.
+
+But the main source of discomfort was doubtless the presence of Medina
+Coeli. This was the perpetual thorn in his side, which no cunning could
+extract. A successor who would not and could not succeed him, yet who
+attended him as his shadow and his evil genius--a confidential colleague
+who betrayed his confidence, mocked his projects, derided his authority,
+and yet complained of ill treatment--a rival who was neither compeer nor
+subaltern, and who affected to be his censor--a functionary of a purely
+anomalous character, sheltering himself under his abnegation of an
+authority which he had not dared to assume, and criticising measures
+which he was not competent to grasp;--such was the Duke of Medina Coeli
+in Alva's estimation.
+
+The bickering between the two Dukes became unceasing and disgraceful. Of
+course, each complained to the King, and each, according to his own
+account, was a martyr to the other's tyranny, but the meekness manifested
+by Alva; in all his relations with the new comer, was wonderful, if we
+are to believe the accounts furnished by himself and by his confidential
+secretary. On the other hand, Medina Coeli wrote to the King, complaining
+of Alva in most unmitigated strains, and asserting that he was himself
+never allowed to see any despatches, nor to have the slightest
+information as to the policy of the government. He reproached, the Duke
+with shrinking from personal participation in military operations, and
+begged the royal forgiveness if he withdrew from a scene where he felt
+himself to be superfluous.
+
+Accordingly, towards the end of November, he took his departure, without
+paying his respects. The Governor complained to the King of this
+unceremonious proceeding, and assured His Majesty that never were
+courtesy and gentleness so ill requited as his had been by this ingrate
+and cankered Duke. "He told me," said Alva, "that if I did not stay in
+the field, he would not remain with me in peaceful cities, and he asked
+me if I intended to march into Holland with the troops which were to
+winter there. I answered, that I should go wherever it was necessary,
+even should I be obliged to swim through all the canals of Holland."
+After giving these details, the Duke added, with great appearance of
+candor and meekness, that he was certain Medina Coeli had only been
+influenced by extreme zeal for His Majesty's service, and that, finding,
+so little for him to do in the Netherlands, he had become dissatisfied
+with his position.
+
+Immediately after the fall of Harlem, another attempt was made by Alva to
+win back the allegiance of the other cities by proclamations. It had
+become obvious to the Governor that so determined a resistance on the
+part of the first place besieged augured many long campaigns before the
+whole province could be subdued. A circular was accordingly issued upon
+the 26th July from Utrecht, and published immediately afterwards in all
+the cities of the Netherlands. It was a paper of singular character,
+commingling an affectation of almost ludicrous clemency, with honest and
+hearty brutality. There was consequently something very grotesque about
+the document. Philip, in the outset, was made to sustain towards his
+undutiful subjects the characters of the brooding hen and the prodigal's
+father; a range of impersonation hardly to be allowed him, even by the
+most abject flattery. "Ye are well aware," thus ran the address, "that
+the King has, over and over again, manifested his willingness to receive
+his children, in however forlorn a condition the prodigals might return.
+His Majesty assures you once more that your sins, however black they may
+have been, shall be forgiven and forgotten in the plenitude of royal
+kindness, if you repent and return in season to his Majesty's embrace.
+Notwithstanding your manifold crimes, his Majesty still seeks, like a hen
+calling her chickens, to gather you all under the parental wing. The King
+hereby warns you once more, therefore, to place yourselves in his royal
+hands, and not to wait for his rage, cruelty, and fury, and the approach
+of his army."
+
+The affectionate character of the address, already fading towards the end
+of the preamble, soon changes to bitterness. The domestic maternal fowl
+dilates into the sanguinary dragon as the address proceeds. "But if,"
+continues the monarch, "ye disregard these offers of mercy, receiving
+them with closed ears, as heretofore, then we warn you that there is no
+rigor, nor cruelty, however great, which you are not to expect by laying
+waste, starvation, and the sword, in such manner that nowhere shall
+remain a relic of that which at present exists, but his Majesty will
+strip bare and utterly depopulate the land, and cause it to be inhabited
+again by strangers; since otherwise his Majesty could not believe that
+the will of God and of his Majesty had been accomplished."
+
+It is almost superfluous to add that this circular remained fruitless.
+The royal wrath, thus blasphemously identifying itself with divine
+vengeance, inspired no terror, the royal blandishments no affection.
+
+The next point of attack was the city of Alkmaar, situate quite at the
+termination of the Peninsula, among the lagunes and redeemed prairies of
+North Holland. The Prince of Orange had already provided it with a small
+garrison. The city had been summoned to surrender by the middle of July,
+and had returned a bold refusal.--Meantime, the Spaniards had retired
+from before the walls, while the surrender and chastisement of Harlem
+occupied them during the next succeeding weeks. The month of August,
+moreover, was mainly consumed by Alva in quelling a dangerous and
+protracted mutiny, which broke out among the Spanish soldiers at
+Harlem--between three and four thousand of them having been quartered
+upon the ill-fated population of that city.
+
+Unceasing misery was endured by the inhabitants at the hands of the
+ferocious Spaniards, flushed with victory, mutinous for long arrears of
+pay, and greedy for the booty which had been denied. At times, however,
+the fury of the soldiery was more violently directed against their own
+commanders than against the enemy. A project was even formed by the
+malcontent troops to deliver Harlem into the hands of Orange. A party of
+them, disguised as Baltic merchants, waited upon the Prince at Delft, and
+were secretly admitted to his bedside before he had risen. They declared
+to him that they were Spanish soldiers, who had compassion on his cause,
+were dissatisfied with their own government, and were ready, upon receipt
+of forty thousand guilders, to deliver the city into his hands. The
+Prince took the matter into consideration, and promised to accept the
+offer if he could raise the required sum. This, however, he found himself
+unable to do within the stipulated time, and thus, for want of so paltry
+a sum, the offer was of necessity declined.
+
+Various were the excesses committed by the insubordinate troops in every
+province in the Netherlands upon the long-suffering inhabitants.
+"Nothing," wrote Alva, "had given him so much pain during his forty years
+of service." He avowed his determination to go to Amsterdam in order to
+offer himself as a hostage to the soldiery, if by so doing he could quell
+the mutiny. He went to Amsterdam accordingly, where by his exertions,
+ably seconded by those of the Marquis Vitelli, and by the payment of
+thirty crowns to each soldier--fourteen on account of arrearages and
+sixteen as his share in the Harlem compensation money--the rebellion was
+appeased, and obedience restored.
+
+There was now leisure for the General to devote his whole energies
+against the little city of Alkmaar. On that bank and shoal, the extreme
+verge of habitable earth, the spirit of Holland's Freedom stood at bay.
+The grey towers of Egmont Castle and of Egmont Abbey rose between the
+city and the sea, and there the troops sent by the Prince of Orange were
+quartered during the very brief period in which the citizens wavered as
+to receiving them. The die was soon cast, however, and the Prince's
+garrison admitted. The Spaniards advanced, burned the village of Egmont
+to the ground as soon as the patriots had left it, and on the 21st of
+August Don Frederic, appearing before the walls, proceeded formally to
+invest Allanaar. In a few days this had been so thoroughly accomplished
+that, in Alva's language, "it was impossible for a sparrow to enter or go
+out of the city." The odds were somewhat unequal. Sixteen thousand
+veteran troops constituted the besieging force. Within the city were a
+garrison of eight hundred soldiers, together with thirteen hundred
+burghers, capable of bearing arms. The rest of the population consisted
+of a very few refugees, besides the women and children. Two thousand one
+hundred able-bodied men, of whom only about one-third were soldiers, to
+resist sixteen thousand regulars.
+
+Nor was there any doubt as to the fate which was reserved for them,
+should they succumb. The Duke was vociferous at the ingratitude with
+which his clemency had hitherto been requited. He complained bitterly of
+the ill success which had attended his monitory circulars; reproached
+himself with incredible vehemence, for his previous mildness, and
+protested that, after having executed only twenty-three hundred persons
+at the surrender of Harlem, besides a few additional burghers since, he
+had met with no correspondent demonstrations of affection. He promised
+himself, however, an ample compensation for all this ingratitude, in the
+wholesale vengeance which he purposed to wreak upon Alkmaar. Already he
+gloated in anticipation over the havoc which would soon be let loose
+within those walls. Such ravings, if invented by the pen of fiction,
+would seem a puerile caricature; proceeding, authentically, from his
+own,--they still appear almost too exaggerated for belief. "If I take
+Alkmaar," he wrote to Philip, "I am resolved not to leave a single
+creature alive; the knife shall be put to every throat. Since the example
+of Harlem has proved of no use, perhaps an example of cruelty will bring
+the other cities to their senses."
+
+He took occasion also to read a lecture to the party of conciliation in
+Madrid, whose counsels, as he believed, his sovereign was beginning to
+heed. Nothing, he maintained, could be more senseless than the idea of
+pardon and clemency. This had been sufficiently proved by recent events.
+It was easy for people at a distance to talk about gentleness, but those
+upon the spot knew better. Gentleness had produced nothing, so far;
+violence alone could succeed in future. "Let your Majesty," he said, "be
+disabused of the impression, that with kindness anything can be done with
+these people. Already have matters reached such a point that many of
+those born in the country, who have hitherto advocated clemency, are now
+undeceived, and acknowledge--their mistake. They are of opinion that not
+a living soul should be left in Alkmaar, but that every individual should
+be put to the sword." At the same time he took occasion, even in these
+ferocious letters, which seem dripping with blood, to commend his own
+natural benignity of disposition. "Your Majesty may be certain," he said,
+"that no man on earth desires the path of clemency more than I do,
+notwithstanding my particular hatred for heretics and traitors." It was
+therefore with regret that he saw himself obliged to take the opposite
+course, and to stifle all his gentler sentiments.
+
+Upon Diedrich Sonoy, Lieutenant-Governor for Orange in the province of
+North Holland, devolved the immediate responsibility of defending this
+part of the country. As the storm rolled slowly up from the south, even
+that experienced officer became uneasy at the unequal conflict impending.
+He despatched a letter to his chief, giving a gloomy picture of his
+position. All looked instinctively towards the Prince, as to a God in
+their time of danger; all felt as if upon his genius and fortitude
+depended the whole welfare of the fatherland. It was hoped, too, that
+some resource had been provided in a secret foreign alliance. "If your
+princely grace," wrote Sonoy, "have made a contract for assistance with
+any powerful potentate, it is of the highest importance that it should be
+known to all the cities, in order to put an end to the emigration, and to
+console the people in their affliction."
+
+The answer, of the Prince was full of lofty enthusiasm. He reprimanded
+with gentle but earnest eloquence the despondency and little faith of his
+lieutenant and other adherents. He had not expected, he said, that they
+would have so soon forgotten their manly courage. They seemed to consider
+the whole fate of the country attached to the city of Harlem. He took God
+to witness that--he had spared no pains, and would willingly have spared
+no drop of his blood to save that devoted city. "But as, notwithstanding
+our efforts," he continued, "it has pleased God Almighty to dispose of
+Harlem according to His divine will, shall we, therefore, deny and deride
+His holy word? Has the strong arm of the Lord thereby grown weaker? Has
+his Church therefore come to caught? You ask if I have entered into a
+firm treaty with any great king or potentate, to which I answer, that
+before I ever took up the cause of the oppressed Christians in these
+provinces, I had entered into a close alliance with the King of kings;
+and I am firmly convinced that all who put their trust in Him shall be
+saved by His almighty hand. The God of armies will raise up armies for us
+to do battle with our enemies sad His own." In conclusion, he stated his
+preparations for attacking the enemy by sea as well as by land, and
+encouraged his lieutenant and the citizens of the northern quarter to
+maintain a bold front before the advancing foe.
+
+And now, with the dismantled and desolate Harlem before their eyes, a
+prophetic phantom, perhaps, of their own imminent fate, did the handful
+of people shut up within Alkmaar prepare for the worst. Their main hope
+lay in the friendly sea. The vast sluices called the Zyp, through which
+an inundation of the whole northern province could be very soon effected,
+were but a few miles distant. By opening these gates, and by piercing a
+few dykes, the ocean might be made to fight for them. To obtain this
+result, however, the consent of the inhabitants was requisite, as the
+destruction of all the standing crops would be inevitable. The city was
+so closely invested, that it was a matter of life and death to venture
+forth, and it was difficult, therefore, to find an envoy for this
+hazardous mission. At last, a carpenter in the city, Peter Van der Mey by
+name, undertook the adventure, and was entrusted with letters to Sonoy,
+to the Prince of Orange, and to the leading personages, in several cities
+of the province: These papers were enclosed in a hollow walking-staff,
+carefully made fast at the top.
+
+Affairs soon approached a crisis within the beleaguered city. Daily
+skirmishes, without decisive result; had taken place outside the walls.
+At last, on the 18th of September, after a steady cannonade of nearly
+twelve hours, Don Frederic, at three in the afternoon, ordered an
+assault. Notwithstanding his seven months' experience at Harlem, he still
+believed it certain that he should carry Alkmaar by storm. The attack
+took place at once upon the Frisian gate and upon the red tower on the
+opposite side. Two choice regiments, recently arrived from Lombardy; led
+the onset, rending the air with their shouts, and confident of an easy
+victory. They were sustained by what seemed an overwhelming force of
+disciplined troops. Yet never, even in the recent history of Harlem, had
+an attack been received by more dauntless breasts. Every living man was
+on the walls. The storming parties were assailed with cannon, with
+musketry, with pistols. Boiling water, pitch and oil, molten lead, and
+unslaked lime, were poured upon them every moment. Hundreds of tarred and
+burning hoops were skilfully quoited around the necks of the soldiers,
+who struggled in vain to extricate themselves from these fiery ruffs,
+while as fast as any of the invaders planted foot upon the breach, they
+were confronted face to face with sword and dagger by the burghers, who
+hurled them headlong into the moat below.
+
+Thrice was the attack renewed with ever-increasing rage--thrice repulsed
+with unflinching fortitude. The storm continued four hours long. During
+all that period, not one of the defenders left his post, till he dropped
+from it dead or wounded. The women and children, unscared by the balls
+flying in every direction, or by the hand-to-hand conflicts on the
+ramparts; passed steadily to and fro from the arsenals to the
+fortifications, constantly supplying their fathers, husbands, and
+brothers with powder and ball. Thus, every human being in the city that
+could walk had become a soldier. At last darkness fell upon the scene.
+The trumpet of recal was sounded, and the Spaniards, utterly discomfited,
+retired from the walls, leaving at least one thousand dead in the
+trenches, while only thirteen burghers and twenty-four of the garrison
+lost their lives. Thus was Alkmaar preserved for a little longer--thus a
+large and well-appointed army signally defeated by a handful of men
+fighting for their firesides and altars. Ensign Solis, who had mounted
+the breach for an instant, and miraculously escaped with life, after
+having been hurled from the battlements, reported that he had seen
+"neither helmet nor harness," as he looked down into the city: only some
+plain-looking people, generally dressed like fishermen. Yet these
+plain-looking fishermen had defeated the veterans of Alva.
+
+The citizens felt encouraged by the results of that day's work. Moreover,
+they already possessed such information concerning the condition of
+affairs in the camp of the enemy as gave them additional confidence. A
+Spaniard, named Jeronimo, had been taken prisoner and brought into the
+city. On receiving a promise of pardon, he had revealed many secrets
+concerning the position and intentions of the besieging army. It is
+painful to add that the prisoner, notwithstanding his disclosures and the
+promise under which they had been made, was treacherously executed. He
+begged hard for his life as he was led to the gallows, offering fresh
+revelations, which, however, after the ample communications already made,
+were esteemed superfluous. Finding this of no avail, he promised his
+captors, with perfect simplicity, to go down on his knees and worship the
+Devil precisely as they did, if by so doing he might obtain mercy. It may
+be supposed that such a proposition was not likely to gain additional
+favor for him in the eyes of these rigid Calvinists, and the poor wretch
+was accordingly hanged.
+
+The day following the assault, a fresh cannonade was opened upon the
+city. Seven hundred shots having been discharged, the attack was ordered.
+It was in vain: neither threats nor entreaties could induce the
+Spaniards, hitherto so indomitable, to mount the breach. The place seemed
+to their imagination protected by more than mortal powers; otherwise how
+was it possible that a few half-starved fishermen could already have so
+triumphantly overthrown the time-honored legions of Spain. It was
+thought, no doubt, that the Devil, whom they worshipped, would continue
+to protect his children. Neither the entreaties nor the menaces of Don
+Frederic were of any avail. Several soldiers allowed themselves to be run
+through the body by their own officers, rather than advance to the walls;
+and the assault was accordingly postponed to an indefinite period.
+
+Meantime, as Governor Sonoy had opened many of the dykes, the land in the
+neighbourhood of the camp was becoming plashy, although as yet the
+threatened inundation had not taken place. The soldiers were already very
+uncomfortable and very refractory. The carpenter-envoy had not been idle,
+having, upon the 26th September, arrived at Sonoy's quarters, bearing
+letters from the Prince of Orange. These despatches gave distinct
+directions to Sonoy to flood the countlv at all risks; rather than allow
+Alkmaar to, fall into the enemy's hands. The dykes and sluices were to be
+protected by a strong guard, lest the peasants, in order to save their
+crops, should repair or close them in the night-time. The letters of
+Orange were copied, and, together with fresh communications from Sonoy,
+delivered to the carpenter. A note on the margin of the Prince's letter,
+directed the citizens to kindle four beacon fires in specified places, as
+soon as it should prove necessary to resort to extreme measures. When
+that moment should arrive, it was solemnly promised that an inundation
+should be created which should sweep the whole Spanish army into the sea.
+The work had, in fact, been commenced. The Zyp and other sluices had
+already been opened, and a vast body of water, driven by a strong
+north-west wind, had rushed in from the ocean. It needed only that two
+great dykes should be pierced to render the deluge and the desolation
+complete. The harvests were doomed to destruction, and a frightful loss
+of property rendered inevitable, but, at any rate, the Spaniards, if this
+last measure were taken, must fly or perish to a man.
+
+This decisive blow having been thus ordered and promised; the carpenter
+set forth towards the city. He was, however, not so successful in
+accomplishing his entrance unmolested, as he had been in effecting his
+departure. He narrowly escaped with his life in passing through the
+enemy's lines, and while occupied in saving himself was so unlucky, or,
+as it proved, so fortunate, as to lose the stick in which his despatches
+were enclosed. He made good his entrance into the city, where, byword of
+mouth, he encouraged his fellow-burghers as to the intentions of the
+Prince and Sonoy. In the meantime his letters were laid before the
+general of the besieging army. The resolution taken by Orange, of which
+Don Frederic was thus unintentionally made aware, to flood the country
+far and near, rather than fail to protect Alkmaar, made a profound
+impression upon his mind. It was obvious that he was dealing with a
+determined leader and with desperate men. His attempt to carry the place
+by storm had signally failed, and he could not deceive himself as to the
+temper and disposition of his troops ever since that repulse. When it
+should become known that they were threatened with submersion in the
+ocean, in addition to all the other horrors of war, he had reason to
+believe that they would retire ignominiously from that remote and
+desolate sand hook, where, by remaining, they could only find a watery
+grave. These views having been discussed in a council of officers, the
+result was reached that sufficient had been already accomplished for the
+glory of Spanish arms. Neither honor nor loyalty, it was thought,
+required that sixteen thousand soldiers should be sacrificed in a
+contest, not with man but with the ocean.
+
+On the 8th of October, accordingly, the siege, which had lasted seven
+weeks, was raised, and Don Frederic rejoined his father in Amsterdam.
+Ready to die in the last ditch, and to overwhelm both themselves and
+their foes in a common catastrophe the Hollanders had at last compelled
+their haughty enemy to fly from a position which he had so insolently
+assumed.
+
+These public transactions and military operations were not the only
+important events which affected the fate of Holland and its sister
+provinces at this juncture. The secret relations which had already been
+renewed between Louis of Nassau, as plenipotentiary of his brother and
+the French court, had for some time excited great uneasiness in the mind
+of Alva. Count Louis was known to be as skilful a negotiator as he was
+valiant and accomplished as a soldier. His frankness and boldness created
+confidence. The "brave spirit in the loyal breast" inspired all his
+dealing; his experience and quick perception of character prevented his
+becoming a dupe of even the most adroit politicians, while his truth of
+purpose made him incapable either of overreaching an ally or of betraying
+a trust. His career indicated that diplomacy might be sometimes
+successful, even although founded upon sincerity.
+
+Alva secretly expressed to his sovereign much suspicion of France. He
+reminded him that Charles IX.; during the early part of the preceding
+year, had given the assurance that he was secretly dealing with Louis of
+Nassau, only that he might induce the Count to pass over to Philip's
+service. At the same time Charles had been doing all he could to succor
+Moos, and had written the memorable letter which had fallen into Alva's
+hands on the capture of Genlis, and which expressed such a fixed
+determination to inflict a deadly blow upon the King, whom the writer was
+thus endeavouring to cajole. All this the Governor recalled to the
+recollection of his sovereign. In view of this increasing repugnance of
+the English court, Alva recommended that fair words should be employed;
+hinting, however, that it would be by no means necessary for his master
+to consider himself very strictly bound by any such pledges to Elizabeth,
+if they should happen to become inconveniently pressing. "A monarch's
+promises," he delicately suggested, "were not to be considered so sacred
+as those of humbler mortals. Not that the King should directly violate
+his word, but at the same time," continued the Duke, "I have thought all
+my life, and I have learned it from the Emperor, your Majesty's father,
+that the negotiations of kings depend upon different principles from
+those of us private gentlemen who walk the world; and in this manner I
+always observed that your Majesty's father, who was, so great a gentleman
+and so powerful a prince, conducted his affairs." The Governor took
+occasion, likewise, to express his regrets at the awkward manner in which
+the Ridolfi scheme had been managed. Had he been consulted at an earlier
+day, the affair could have been treated much more delicately; as it was,
+there could be little doubt but that the discovery of the plot had
+prejudiced the mind of Elizabeth against Spain. "From that dust,"
+concluded the Duke, "has resulted all this dirt." It could hardly be
+matter of surprise, either to Philip or his Viceroy, that the discovery
+by Elizabeth of a plot upon their parts to take her life and place the
+crown upon the head of her hated rival, should have engendered unamiable
+feelings in her bosom towards them. For the moment, however, Alva's
+negotiations were apparently successful.
+
+On the first of May, 1573, the articles of convention between England and
+Spain, with regard to the Netherland difficulty, had been formally
+published in Brussels. The Duke, in communicating the termination of
+these arrangements, quietly recommended his master thenceforth to take
+the English ministry into his pay. In particular he advised his Majesty
+to bestow an annual bribe upon Lord Burleigh, "who held the kingdom in
+his hand; for it has always been my opinion," he continued, "that it was
+an excellent practice for princes to give pensions to the ministers of
+other potentates, and to keep those at home who took bribes from nobody."
+
+On the other hand, the negotiations of Orange with the English court were
+not yet successful, and he still found it almost impossible to raise the
+requisite funds for carrying on the war. Certainly, his private letters
+showed that neither he nor his brothers were self-seekers in their
+negotiations. "You know;" said he in a letter to his brothers, "that my
+intention has never been to seek my private advantage. I have only
+aspired for the liberty of the country, in conscience and in polity,
+which foreigners have sought to oppress. I have no other articles to
+propose, save that religion, reformed according to the Word of God,
+should be permitted, that then the commonwealth should be restored to its
+ancient liberty, and, to that end, that the Spaniards and other soldiery
+should be compelled to retire."
+
+The restoration of civil and religious liberty, the establishment of the
+great principle of toleration in matters of conscience, constituted the
+purpose to which his days and nights were devoted, his princely fortune
+sacrificed, his life-blood risked. At the same time, his enforcement of
+toleration to both religions excited calumny against him among the
+bigoted adherents of both. By the Catholics he was accused of having
+instigated the excesses which he had done everything in his power to
+repress. The enormities of De la Marck, which had inspired the Prince's
+indignation, were even laid at the door of him who had risked his life to
+prevent and to chastise them. De la Marck had, indeed, more than
+counterbalanced his great service in the taking of Brill, by his
+subsequent cruelties. At last, Father Cornelius Musius, pastor of Saint
+Agatha, at the age of seventy-two, a man highly esteemed by the Prince of
+Orange, had been put to torture and death by this barbarian, under
+circumstances of great atrocity. The horrid deed cost the Prince many
+tears, aroused the indignation of the estates of Holland, and produced
+the dismission of the perpetrator from their service. It was considered
+expedient, however, in view of his past services, his powerful
+connexions, and his troublesome character, that he should be induced
+peaceably to leave the country.
+
+It was long before the Prince and the estates could succeed in ridding
+themselves of this encumbrance. He created several riots in different
+parts of the province, and boasted, that he had many fine ships of war
+and three thousand men devoted to him, by whose assistance he could make
+the estates "dance after his pipe." At the beginning of the following
+year (1574), he was at last compelled to leave the provinces, which he
+never again troubled with his presence. Some years afterwards, he died of
+the bite of a mad dog; an end not inappropriate to a man of so rabid a
+disposition.
+
+While the Prince was thus steadily striving for a lofty and generous
+purpose, he was, of course, represented by his implacable enemies as a
+man playing a game which, unfortunately for himself, was a losing one.
+"That poor prince," said Granvelle, "has been ill advised. I doubt now
+whether he will ever be able to make his peace, and I think we shall
+rather try to get rid of him and his brother as if they were Turks. The
+marriage with the daughter of Maurice, 'unde mala et quia ipse talis',
+and his brothers have done him much harm. So have Schwendi and German
+intimacies. I saw it all very plainly, but he did not choose to believe
+me."
+
+Ill-starred, worse counselled William of Orange! Had he but taken the
+friendly Cardinal's advice, kept his hand from German marriages and his
+feet from conventicles--had he assisted his sovereign in burning heretics
+and hunting rebels, it would not then have become necessary "to treat him
+like a Turk." This is unquestionable. It is equally so that there would
+have been one great lamp the less in that strait and difficult pathway
+which leads to the temple of true glory.
+
+The main reliance of Orange was upon the secret negotiations which his
+brother Louis was then renewing with the French government. The Prince
+had felt an almost insurmountable repugnance towards entertaining any
+relation with that blood-stained court, since the massacre of Saint
+Bartholomew. But a new face had recently been put upon that transaction.
+Instead of glorying, in their crime, the King and his mother now assumed
+a tone of compunction, and averred that the deed had been unpremeditated;
+that it had been the result of a panic or an ecstasy of fear inspired by
+the suddenly discovered designs of the Huguenots; and that, in the
+instinct of self-preservation, the King, with his family and immediate
+friends, had plunged into a crime which they now bitterly lamented. The
+French envoys at the different courts of Europe were directed to impress
+this view upon the minds of the monarchs to whom they were accredited. It
+was certainly a very different instruction from that which they had at
+first received. Their cue had originally been to claim a full meed of
+praise and thanksgiving in behalf of their sovereign for his meritorious
+exploit. The salvos of artillery, the illuminations and rejoicings, the
+solemn processions and masses by which the auspicious event had been
+celebrated, mere yet fresh in the memory of men. The ambassadors were
+sufficiently embarrassed by the distinct and determined approbation which
+they had recently expressed. Although the King, by formal proclamation,
+had assumed the whole responsibility, as he had notoriously been one of
+the chief perpetrators of the deed, his agents were now to stultify
+themselves and their monarch by representing, as a deplorable act of
+frenzy, the massacre which they had already extolled to the echo as a
+skilfully executed and entirely commendable achievement.
+
+To humble the power of Spain, to obtain the hand of Queen Elizabeth for
+the Duke d'Alencon, to establish an insidious kind of protectorate over
+the Protestant princes of Germany, to obtain the throne of Poland for the
+Duke of Anjou, and even to obtain the imperial crown for the house of
+Valois--all these cherished projects seemed dashed to the ground by the
+Paris massacre and the abhorrence which it had created. Charles and
+Catharine were not slow to discover the false position in which they had
+placed themselves, while the Spanish jocularity at the immense error
+committed by France was visible enough through the assumed mask of holy
+horror.
+
+Philip and Alva listened with mischievous joy to the howl of execration
+which swept through Christendom upon every wind. They rejoiced as
+heartily in the humiliation of the malefactors as they did in the
+perpetration of the crime. "Your Majesty," wrote Louis of Nassau, very
+bluntly, to King Charles, "sees how the Spaniard, your mortal enemy,
+feasts himself full with the desolation of your affairs; how he laughs,
+to-split his sides, at your misfortunes. This massacre has enabled him to
+weaken your Majesty more than he could have done by a war of thirty
+years."
+
+Before the year had revolved, Charles had become thoroughly convinced of
+the fatal impression produced by the event. Bitter and almost abject were
+his whinings at the Catholic King's desertion of his cause. "He knows
+well," wrote Charles to Saint Goard, "that if he can terminate these
+troubles and leave me alone in the dance, he will have leisure and means
+to establish his authority, not only in the Netherlands but elsewhere;
+and that he will render himself more grand and formidable than he has
+ever been. This is the return they render for the good received from me,
+which is such as every one knows."
+
+Gaspar de Schomberg, the adroit and honorable agent of Charles in
+Germany, had at a very early day warned his royal master of the ill
+effect of the massacre upon all the schemes which he had been pursuing,
+and especially upon those which referred to the crowns of the Empire and
+of Poland. The first project was destined to be soon abandoned. It was
+reserved neither for Charles nor Philip to divert the succession in
+Germany from the numerous offspring of Maximilian; yet it is instructive
+to observe the unprincipled avidity with which the prize was sought by
+both. Each was willing to effect its purchase by abjuring what were
+supposed his most cherished principles. Philip of Spain, whose mission
+was to extirpate heresy throughout his realms, and who, in pursuance of
+that mission, had already perpetrated more crimes, and waded more deeply
+in the blood of his subjects, than monarch had often done before; Philip,
+for whom his apologists have never found any defence, save that he
+believed it his duty to God rather to depopulate his territories than to
+permit a single heretic within their limits--now entered into secret
+negotiations with the princes of the Empire. He pledged himself, if they
+would confer the crown upon him, that he would withdraw the Spaniards
+from the Netherlands; that he would tolerate in those provinces the
+exercise of the Reformed religion; that he would recognize their union
+with the rest of the German Empire, and their consequent claim to the
+benefits of the Passau treaty; that he would restore the Prince of Orange
+"and all his accomplices" to their former possessions, dignities, and
+condition; and that he would cause to be observed, throughout every realm
+incorporated with the Empire, all the edicts and ordinances which had
+been constructed to secure religious freedom in Germany. In brief, Philip
+was willing, in case the crown of Charlemagne should be promised him, to
+undo the work of his life, to reinstate the arch-rebel whom he had hunted
+and proscribed, and to bow before that Reformation whose disciples he had
+so long burned, and butchered. So much extent and no more had that
+religious, conviction by which he had for years had the effrontery to
+excuse the enormities practised in the Netherlands. God would never
+forgive him so long as one heretic remained unburned in the provinces;
+yet give him the Imperial sceptre, and every heretic, without forswearing
+his heresy, should be purged with hyssop and become whiter than snow.
+
+Charles IX., too, although it was not possible for him to recal to life
+the countless victims of the Parisian wedding, was yet ready to explain
+those murders to the satisfaction of every unprejudiced mind. This had
+become strictly necessary. Although the accession of either his Most
+Christian or Most Catholic Majesty to the throne of the Caesars was a
+most improbable event, yet the humbler elective, throne actually vacant
+was indirectly in the gift of the same powers. It was possible that the
+crown of Poland might be secured for the Duke of Anjou. That key unlocks
+the complicated policy of this and the succeeding year. The Polish
+election is the clue to the labyrinthian intrigues and royal
+tergiversations during the period of the interregnum. Sigismund Augustus,
+last of the Jagellons, had died on the 7th July; 1572. The prominent
+candidates to succeed him were the Archduke Ernest, son of the Emperor,
+and Henry of Anjou. The Prince of Orange was not forgotten. A strong
+party were in favor of compassing his election, as the most signal
+triumph which Protestantism could gain, but his ambition had not been
+excited by the prospect of such a prize. His own work required all the
+energies of all his life. His influence, however, was powerful, and
+eagerly sought by the partisans of Anjou. The Lutherans and Moravians in
+Poland were numerous, the Protestant party there and in Germany holding
+the whole balance of the election in their hands.
+
+It was difficult for the Prince to overcome his repugnance to the very
+name of the man whose crime had at once made France desolate, and
+blighted the fair prospects under which he and his brother had, the year
+before, entered the Netherlands. Nevertheless; he was willing to listen
+to the statements by which the King and his ministers endeavoured, not
+entirely without success, to remove from their reputations, if not from
+their souls; the guilt of deep design. It was something, that the
+murderers now affected to expiate their offence in sackcloth and
+ashes--it was something that, by favoring the pretensions of Anjou, and
+by listening with indulgence to the repentance of Charles, the siege of
+Rochelle could be terminated, the Huguenots restored to freedom of
+conscience, and an alliance with a powerful nation established, by aid of
+which the Netherlands might once more lift their heads. The French
+government, deeply hostile to Spain, both from passion and policy, was
+capable of rendering much assistance to the revolted provinces. "I
+entreat you most humbly, my good master," wrote Schomberg to Charles IX.,
+"to beware of allowing the electors to take into their heads that you are
+favoring the affairs of the King of Spain in any manner whatsoever.
+Commit against him no act of open hostility, if you think that imprudent;
+but look sharp! if you do not wish to be thrown clean out of your saddle.
+I should split with rage if I should see you, in consequence of the
+wicked calumnies of your enemies, fail to secure the prize."
+
+Orange was induced, therefore, to accept, however distrustfully, the
+expression of a repentance which was to be accompanied with healing
+measures. He allowed his brother Louis to resume negotiations with
+Schomberg, in Germany. He drew up and transmitted to him the outlines of
+a treaty which he was willing to make with Charles. The main conditions
+of this arrangement illustrated the disinterested character of the man.
+He stipulated that the King of France should immediately make peace with
+his subjects, declaring expressly that he had been abused by those, who,
+under pretext of his service, had sought their own profit at the price of
+ruin to the crown and people. The King should make religion free. The
+edict to that effect should be confirmed by all the parliaments and
+estates of the kingdom, and such confirmations should be distributed
+without reserve or deceit among all the princes of Germany. If his
+Majesty were not inclined to make war for the liberation of the
+Netherlands, he was to furnish the Prince of Orange with one hundred
+thousand crowns at once, and every three months with another hundred
+thousand. The Prince was to have liberty to raise one thousand cavalry
+and seven thousand infantry in France. Every city or town in the
+provinces which should be conquered by his arms, except in Holland or
+Zealand, should be placed under the sceptre, and in the hands of the King
+of France. The provinces of Holland and Zealand should also be placed
+under his protection, but should be governed by their own gentlemen and
+citizens. Perfect religious liberty and maintenance of the ancient
+constitutions, privileges, and charters were to be guaranteed "without
+any cavilling whatsoever." The Prince of Orange, or the estates of
+Holland or Zealand, were to reimburse his Christian Majesty for the sums
+which he was to advance. In this last clause was the only mention which
+the Prince made of himself, excepting in the stipulation that he was to
+be allowed a levy of troops in France. His only personal claims were to
+enlist soldiers to fight the battles of freedom, and to pay their
+expense, if it should not be provided for by the estates. At nearly the
+same period, he furnished his secret envoys, Luinbres and Doctor
+Taijaert, who were to proceed to Paris, with similar instructions.
+
+The indefatigable exertions of Schomberg, and the almost passionate
+explanations on the part of the court of France, at length produced their
+effect. "You will constantly assure the princes," wrote the Duke of Anjou
+to Schomberg, "that the things written, to you concerning that which had
+happened in this kingdom are true; that the events occurred suddenly,
+without having been in any manner premeditated; that neither the King nor
+myself have ever had any intelligence with, the King of Spain, against
+those of the religion, and that all is utter imposture which is daily
+said on this subject to the princes."
+
+Count Louis required peremptorily, however, that the royal repentance
+should bring forth the fruit of salvation for the remaining victims. Out
+of the nettles of these dangerous intrigues his fearless hand plucked the
+"flower of safety" for his down-trodden cause. He demanded not words, but
+deeds, or at least pledges. He maintained with the agents of Charles and
+with the monarch himself the same hardy scepticism which was manifested
+by the Huguenot deputies in their conferences with Catharine de Medicis.
+"Is the word of a king," said the dowager to the commissioners, who were
+insisting upon guarantees, "is the word of a king not sufficient?"--"No,
+madam," replied one of them, "by Saint Bartholomew, no!" Count Louis told
+Schomberg roundly, and repeated it many times, that he must have in a
+very few days a categorical response, "not to consist in words alone, but
+in deeds, and that he could not, and would not, risk for ever the honor
+of his brother, nor the property; blood, and life of those poor people
+who favored the cause."
+
+On the 23rd March, 1573, Schomberg had an interview with Count Louis,
+which lasted seven or eight hours. In that interview the enterprises of
+the Count, "which," said Schomberg, "are assuredly grand and beautiful,"
+were thoroughly discussed, and a series of conditions, drawn up partly in
+the hand of one, partly in that of the other negotiator; definitely
+agreed upon. These conditions were on the basis of a protectorate over
+Holland and Zealand for the King of France, with sovereignty over the
+other places to be acquired in the Netherlands. They were in strict
+accordance with the articles furnished by the Prince of Orange. Liberty
+of worship for those of both religions, sacred preservation of municipal
+charters, and stipulation of certain annual subsidies on the part of
+France, in case his Majesty should not take the field, were the principal
+features.
+
+Ten days later, Schomberg wrote to his master that the Count was willing
+to use all the influence of his family to procure for Anjou the crown of
+Poland, while Louis, having thus completed his negotiations with the
+agent, addressed a long and earnest letter to the royal principal. This
+remarkable despatch was stamped throughout with the impress of the
+writer's frank and fearless character. "Thus diddest thou" has rarely
+been addressed to anointed monarch in such unequivocal tones: The letter
+painted the favorable position in which the king had been placed
+previously to the fatal summer of 1572. The Queen of England was then
+most amicably disposed towards him, and inclined to a yet closer
+connexion with his family. The German princes were desirous to elect him
+King of the Romans, a dignity for which his grandfather had so
+fruitlessly contended. The Netherlanders, driven to despair by the
+tyranny of their own sovereign, were eager to throw themselves into his
+arms. All this had been owing to his edict of religious pacification. How
+changed the picture now! Who now did reverence to a King so criminal and
+so fallen? "Your Majesty to-day," said Louis, earnestly and plainly, "is
+near to ruin. The State, crumbling on every side and almost abandoned, is
+a prey to any one who wishes to seize upon it; the more so, because your
+Majesty, having, by the late excess and by the wars previously made,
+endeavoured to force men's consciences, is now so destitute, not only of
+nobility and soldiery but of that which constitutes the strongest column
+of the throne, the love and good wishes of the lieges, that your Majesty
+resembles an ancient building propped up, day after, day, with piles, but
+which it will be impossible long to prevent from falling to the earth."
+Certainly, here were wholesome truths told in straightforward style.
+
+The Count proceeded to remind the King of the joy which the "Spaniard,
+his mortal enemy," had conceived from the desolation of his affairs,
+being assured that he should, by the troubles in France, be enabled to
+accomplish his own purposes without striking a blow. This, he observed,
+had been the secret of the courtesy with which the writer himself had
+been treated by the Duke of Alva at the surrender of Mons. Louis assured
+the King, in continuation, that if he persevered in these oppressive
+courses towards his subjects of the new religion, there was no hope for
+him, and that his two brothers would, to no purpose, take their departure
+for England, and, for Poland, leaving him with a difficult and dangerous
+war upon his hands. So long as he maintained a hostile attitude towards
+the Protestants in his own kingdom, his fair words would produce no
+effect elsewhere. "We are beginning to be vexed," said the Count, "with
+the manner of negotiation practised by France. Men do not proceed roundly
+to business there, but angle with their dissimulation as with a hook."
+
+He bluntly reminded the King of the deceit which he had practised towards
+the Admiral--a sufficient reason why no reliance could in future be
+placed upon his word. Signal vengeance on those concerned in the
+attempted assassination of that great man had been promised, in the royal
+letters to the Prince of Orange, just before St. Bartholomew. "Two days
+afterwards," said Louis, "your Majesty took that vengeance, but in rather
+ill fashion." It was certain that the King was surrounded by men who
+desired to work his ruin, and who, for their own purposes, would cause
+him to bathe still deeper than he had done before in the blood of his
+subjects. This ruin his Majesty could still avert; by making peace in his
+kingdom, and by ceasing to torment his poor subjects of the religion.
+
+In conclusion, the Count, with a few simple but eloquent phrases, alluded
+to the impossibility of chaining men's thoughts. The soul, being
+immortal, was beyond the reach of kings. Conscience was not to be
+conquered, nor the religious spirit imprisoned. This had been discovered
+by the Emperor Charles, who had taken all the cities and great personages
+of Germany captive, but who had nevertheless been unable to take religion
+captive. "That is a sentiment," said Louis, "deeply rooted in the hearts
+of men, which is not to be plucked out by force of arms. Let your
+majesty, therefore not be deceived by the flattery of those who, like bad
+physicians, keep their patients in ignorance of their disease, whence
+comes their ruin."
+
+It would be impossible, without insight into these private and most
+important transactions, to penetrate the heart of the mystery which
+enwrapped at this period the relations of the great powers with each
+other. Enough has been seen to silence for ever the plea, often entered
+in behalf of religious tyranny, that the tyrant acts in obedience to a
+sincere conviction of duty; that, in performing his deeds of darkness, he
+believes himself to be accomplishing the will of Heaven. Here we have
+seen Philip, offering to restore the Prince of Orange, and to establish
+freedom of religion in the Netherlands, if by such promises he can lay
+hold of the Imperial diadem. Here also we have Charles IX. and his
+mother--their hands reeking with the heretic-blood of St.
+Bartholomew--making formal engagements with heretics to protect heresy
+everywhere, if by such pledges the crown of the Jagellons and the hand of
+Elizabeth can be secured.
+
+While Louis was thus busily engaged in Germany, Orange was usually
+established at Delft. He felt the want of his brother daily, for the
+solitude of the Prince, in the midst of such fiery trials, amounted
+almost to desolation. Not often have circumstances invested an individual
+with so much responsibility and so little power. He was regarded as the
+protector and father of the country, but from his own brains and his own
+resources he was to furnish himself with the means of fulfilling those
+high functions. He was anxious thoroughly to discharge the duties of a
+dictatorship without grasping any more of its power than was
+indispensable to his purpose. But he was alone on that little isthmus, in
+single combat with the great Spanish monarchy. It was to him that all
+eyes turned, during the infinite horrors of the Harlem sieges and in the
+more prosperous leaguer of Alkmaar. What he could do he did. He devised
+every possible means to succor Harlem, and was only restrained from going
+personally to its rescue by the tears of the whole population of Holland.
+By his decision and the spirit which he diffused through the country, the
+people were lifted to a pitch of heroism by which Alkmaar was saved. Yet,
+during all this harassing period, he had no one to lean upon but himself.
+"Our affairs are in pretty good; condition in Holland and Zealand," he
+wrote, "if I only had some aid. 'Tis impossible for me to support alone
+so many labors, and the weight of such great affairs as come upon me
+hourly--financial, military, political. I have no one to help me, not a
+single man, wherefore I leave you to suppose in what trouble I find
+myself."
+
+For it was not alone the battles and sieges which furnished him with
+occupation and filled him with anxiety. Alone, he directed in secret the
+politics of the country, and, powerless and outlawed though he seemed,
+was in daily correspondence not only with the estates of Holland and
+Zealand, whose deliberations he guided, but with the principal
+governments of Europe. The estates of the Netherlands, moreover, had been
+formally assembled by Alva in September, at Brussels, to devise ways and
+means for continuing the struggle. It seemed to the Prince a good
+opportunity to make an appeal to the patriotism of the whole country. He
+furnished the province of Holland, accordingly, with the outlines of an
+address which was forthwith despatched in their own and his name, to the
+general assembly of the Netherlands. The document was a nervous and rapid
+review of the course of late events in the provinces, with a cogent
+statement of the reasons which should influence them all to unite in the
+common cause against the common enemy. It referred to the old affection
+and true-heartedness with which they had formerly regarded each other,
+and to the certainty that the inquisition would be for ever established
+in the land, upon the ruins of all their ancient institutions, unless
+they now united to overthrow it for ever. It demanded of the people, thus
+assembled through their representatives, how they could endure the
+tyranny, murders, and extortions of the Duke of Alva. The princes of
+Flanders, Burgundy, Brabant, or Holland, had never made war or peace,
+coined money, or exacted a stiver from the people without the consent of
+the estates. How could the nation now consent to the daily impositions
+which were practised? Had Amsterdam and Middelburg remained true; had
+those important cities not allowed themselves to be seduced from the
+cause of freedom, the northern provinces would have been impregnable.
+"'Tis only by the Netherlands that the Netherlands are crushed," said the
+appeal. "Whence has the Duke of Alva the power of which he boasts, but
+from yourselves--from Netherland cities? Whence his ships, supplies,
+money, weapons, soldiers? From the Netherland people. Why has poor
+Netherland thus become degenerate and bastard? Whither has fled the noble
+spirit of our brave forefathers, that never brooked the tyranny of
+foreign nations, nor suffered a stranger even to hold office within our
+borders? If the little province of Holland can thus hold at bay the power
+of Spain, what could not all the Netherlands--Brabant, Flanders,
+Friesland, and the rest united accomplish?" In conclusion, the
+estates-general were earnestly adjured to come forward like brothers in
+blood, and join hands with Holland, that together they might rescue the
+fatherland and restore its ancient prosperity and bloom.
+
+At almost the same time the Prince drew up and put in circulation one of
+the most vigorous and impassioned productions which ever came from his
+pen. It was entitled, an "Epistle, in form of supplication, to his royal
+Majesty of Spain, from the Prince of Orange and the estates of Holland
+and Zealand." The document produced a profound impression throughout
+Christendom. It was a loyal appeal to the monarch's loyalty--a demand
+that the land-privileges should be restored, and the Duke of Alva
+removed. It contained a startling picture of his atrocities and the
+nation's misery, and, with a few energetic strokes, demolished the
+pretence that these sorrows had been caused by the people's guilt. In
+this connexion the Prince alluded to those acts of condemnation which the
+Governor-General had promulgated under the name of pardons, and treated
+with scorn the hypothesis that any crimes had been committed for Alva to
+forgive. "We take God and your Majesty to witness," said the epistle,
+"that if we have done such misdeeds as are charged in the pardon, we
+neither desire nor deserve the pardon. Like the most abject creatures
+which crawl the earth, we will be content to atone for our misdeeds with
+our lives. We will not murmur, O merciful King, if we be seized one after
+another, and torn limb from limb, if it can be proved that we have
+committed the crimes of which we have been accused."
+
+After having thus set forth the tyranny of the government and the
+innocence of the people, the Prince, in his own name and that of the
+estates, announced the determination at which they had arrived. "The
+tyrant," he continued, "would rather stain every river and brook with our
+blood, and hang our bodies upon every tree in the country, than not feed
+to the full his vengeance, and steep himself to the lips in our misery.
+Therefore we have taken up arms against the Duke of Alva and his
+adherents, to free ourselves, our wives and children, from his
+blood-thirsty hands. If he prove too strong nor us, we will rather die an
+honorable death and leave a praiseworthy fame, than bend our necks, and
+reduce our dear fatherland to such slavery. Herein are all our cities
+pledged to each other to stand every siege, to dare the utmost, to endure
+every possible misery, yea, rather to set fire to all our homes, and be
+consumed with them into ashes together, than ever submit to the decrees
+of this cruel tyrant."
+
+These were brave words, and destined to be bravely fulfilled, as the life
+and death of the writer and the records of his country proved, from
+generation unto generation. If we seek for the mainspring of the energy
+which thus sustained the Prince in the unequal conflict to which he had
+devoted his life, we shall find it in the one pervading principle of his
+nature--confidence in God. He was the champion of the political rights of
+his country, but before all he was the defender of its religion. Liberty
+of conscience for his people was his first object. To establish Luther's
+axiom, that thoughts are toll-free, was his determination. The Peace of
+Passau, and far more than the Peace of Passau, was the goal for which he
+was striving. Freedom of worship for all denominations, toleration for
+all forms of faith, this was the great good in his philosophy. For
+himself, he had now become a member of the Calvinist, or Reformed Church,
+having delayed for a time his public adhesion to this communion, in order
+not to give offence to the Lutherans and to the Emperor. He was never a
+dogmatist, however, and he sought in Christianity for that which unites
+rather than for that which separates Christians. In the course of October
+he publicly joined the church at Dort.
+
+The happy termination of the siege of Alkmaar was followed, three days
+afterwards, by another signal success on the part of the patriots. Count
+Bossu, who had constructed or collected a considerable fleet at
+Amsterdam, had, early in October, sailed into the Zuyder Zee,
+notwithstanding the sunken wrecks and other obstructions by which the
+patriots had endeavored to render the passage of the Y impracticable. The
+patriots of North Holland had, however, not been idle, and a fleet of
+five-and-twenty vessels, under Admiral Dirkzoon, was soon cruising in the
+same waters. A few skirmishes took place, but Bossu's ships, which were
+larger, and provided with heavier cannon, were apparently not inclined
+for the close quarters which the patriots sought. The Spanish Admiral,
+Hollander as he was, knew the mettle of his countrymen in a close
+encounter at sea, and preferred to trust to the calibre of his cannon. On
+the 11th October, however, the whole patriot fleet, favored by a strong
+easterly, breeze, bore down upon the Spanish armada, which, numbering now
+thirty sail of all denominations, was lying off and on in the
+neighbourhood of Horn and Enkhuyzen. After a short and general
+engagement, nearly all the Spanish fleet retired with precipitation,
+closely pursued by most of the patriot Dutch vessels. Five of the King's
+ships were eventually taken, the rest effected their escape. Only the
+Admiral remained, who scorned to yield, although his forces had thus
+basely deserted him. His ship, the "Inquisition,"--for such was her
+insolent appellation, was far the largest and best manned of both the
+fleets. Most of the enemy had gone in pursuit of the fugitives, but four
+vessels of inferior size had attacked the "Inquisition" at the
+commencement of the action. Of these, one had soon been silenced, while
+the other three had grappled themselves inextricably to her sides and
+prow. The four drifted together, before wind and tide, a severe and
+savage action going on incessantly, during which the navigation of the
+ships was entirely abandoned. No scientific gunnery, no military or naval
+tactics were displayed or required in such a conflict. It was a
+life-and-death combat, such as always occurred when Spaniard and
+Netherlander met, whether on land or water. Bossu and his men, armed in
+bullet-proof coats of mail, stood with shield and sword on the deck of
+the "Inquisition," ready to repel all attempts to board. The Hollander,
+as usual, attacked with pitch hoops, boiling oil, and molten lead.
+Repeatedly they effected their entrance to the Admiral's ship, and as
+often they were repulsed and slain in heaps, or hurled into the sea. The
+battle began at three in the afternoon, and continued without
+intermission through the whole night. The vessels, drifting together,
+struck on the shoal called the Nek, near Wydeness. In the heat of the
+action the occurrence was hardly heeded. In the morning twilight, John
+Haring, of Horn, the hero who had kept one thousand soldiers at bay upon
+the Diemer dyke, clambered on board the "Inquisition" and hauled her
+colors down. The gallant but premature achievement cost him his life. He
+was shot through the body and died on the deck of the ship, which was not
+quite ready to strike her flag. In the course of the forenoon, however,
+it became obvious to Bossu that further resistance was idle. The ships
+were aground near a hostile coast, his own fleet was hopelessly
+dispersed, three quarters of his crew were dead or disabled, while the
+vessels with which he was engaged were constantly recruited by boats from
+the shore, which brought fresh men and ammunition, and removed their
+killed and wounded. At eleven o'clock, Admiral Bossu surrendered, and
+with three hundred prisoners was carried into Holland. Bossu was himself
+imprisoned at Horn, in which city he was received, on his arrival, with
+great demonstrations of popular hatred. The massacre of Rotterdam, due to
+his cruelty and treachery, had not yet been forgotten or forgiven.
+
+This victory, following so hard upon the triumph at Alkmaar, was as
+gratifying to the patriots as it was galling to Alva. As his
+administration drew to a close, it was marked by disaster and disgrace on
+land and sea. The brilliant exploits by which he had struck terror into
+the heart of the Netherlanders, at Jemmingen and in Brabant, had been
+effaced by the valor of a handful of Hollanders, without discipline or
+experience. To the patriots, the opportune capture of so considerable a
+personage as the Admiral and Governor of the northern province was of
+great advantage. Such of the hostages from Harlem as had not yet been
+executed, now escaped with their lives. Moreover, Saint Aldegonde, the
+eloquent patriot and confidential friend of Orange, who was taken
+prisoner a few weeks later, in an action at Maeslands-luis, was preserved
+from inevitable destruction by the same cause. The Prince hastened to
+assure the Duke of Alva that the same measure would be dealt to Bossu as
+should be meted to Saint Aldegonde. It was, therefore, impossible for the
+Governor-General to execute his prisoner, and he was obliged to submit to
+the vexation of seeing a leading rebel and heretic in his power, whom he
+dared not strike. Both the distinguished prisoners eventually regained
+their liberty.
+
+The Duke was, doubtless, lower sunk in the estimation of all classes than
+he had ever been before, during his long and generally successful life.
+The reverses sustained by his army, the belief that his master had grown
+cold towards him, the certainty that his career in the Netherlands was
+closing without a satisfactory result, the natural weariness produced
+upon men's minds by the contemplation of so monotonous and unmitigated a
+tyranny during so many years, all contributed to diminish his reputation.
+He felt himself odious alike to princes and to plebeians. With his
+cabinet councillors he had long been upon unsatisfactory terms. President
+Tisnacq had died early, in the summer, and Viglius, much against his
+will, had been induced, provisionally, to supply his place. But there was
+now hardly a pretence of friendship between the learned Frisian and the
+Governor. Each cordially detested the other. Alva was weary of Flemish
+and Frisian advisers, however subservient, and was anxious to fill the
+whole council with Spaniards of the Vargas stamp. He had forced Viglius
+once more into office, only that, by a little delay, he might expel him
+and every Netherlander at the same moment. "Till this ancient set of
+dogmatizers be removed," he wrote to Philip, "with Viglius, their chief,
+who teaches them all their lessons, nothing will go right. 'Tis of no use
+adding one or two Spaniards to fill vacancies; that is only pouring a
+flask of good wine into a hogshead of vinegar; it changes to vinegar
+likewise. Your Majesty will soon be able to reorganize the council at a
+blow; so that Italians or Spaniards, as you choose, may entirely govern
+the country."
+
+Such being his private sentiments with regard to his confidential
+advisers, it may be supposed that his intercourse with his council during
+the year was not like to be amicable. Moreover, he had kept himself, for
+the most part, at a distance from the seat of government. During the
+military operations in Holland, his head-quarters had been at Amsterdam.
+Here, as the year drew to its close, he had become as unpopular as in
+Brussels. The time-serving and unpatriotic burghers, who, at the
+beginning of the spring, set up his bust in their houses, and would give
+large sums for his picture in little, now broke his images and tore his
+portraits from their walls, for it was evident that the power of his name
+was gone, both with prince and people. Yet, certainly, those fierce
+demonstrations which had formerly surrounded his person with such an
+atmosphere of terror had not slackened or become less frequent than
+heretofore. He continued to prove that he could be barbarous, both on a
+grand and a minute scale. Even as in preceding years, he could ordain
+wholesale massacres with a breath, and superintend in person the
+executions of individuals. This was illustrated, among other instances,
+by the cruel fate of Uitenhoove. That unfortunate nobleman, who had been
+taken prisoner in the course of the summer, was accused of having been
+engaged in the capture of Brill, and was, therefore, condemned by the
+Duke to be roasted to death before a slow fire. He was accordingly
+fastened by a chain, a few feet in length, to a stake, around which the
+fagots were lighted. Here he was kept in slow torture for a long time,
+insulted by the gibes of the laughing Spaniards who surrounded him--until
+the executioner and his assistants, more humane than their superior,
+despatched the victim with their spears--a mitigation of punishment which
+was ill received by Alva. The Governor had, however, no reason to remain
+longer in Amsterdam. Harlem had fallen; Alkmaar was relieved; and
+Leyden--destined in its second siege to furnish so signal a chapter to
+the history of the war--was beleaguered, it was true, but, because known
+to be imperfectly supplied, was to be reduced by blockade rather than by
+active operations. Don Francis Valdez was accordingly left in command of
+the siege, which, however, after no memorable occurrences, was raised, as
+will soon be related.
+
+The Duke had contracted in Amsterdam an enormous amount of debt, both
+public and private. He accordingly, early in November, caused a
+proclamation to be made throughout the city by sound of trumpet, that all
+persons having demands upon him were to present their claims, in person,
+upon a specified day. During the night preceding the day so appointed,
+the Duke and his train very noiselessly took their departure, without
+notice or beat of drum. By this masterly generalship his unhappy
+creditors were foiled upon the very eve of their anticipated triumph; the
+heavy accounts which had been contracted on the faith of the King and the
+Governor, remained for the most part unpaid, and many opulent and
+respectable families were reduced to beggary. Such was the consequence of
+the unlimited confidence which they had reposed in the honor of their
+tyrant.
+
+On the 17th of November, Don Luis de Requesens y Cuniga, Grand Commander
+of Saint Jago, the appointed successor of Alva, arrived in Brussels,
+where he was received with great rejoicings. The Duke, on the same day,
+wrote to the King, "kissing his feet" for thus relieving him of his
+functions. There was, of course, a profuse interchange of courtesy
+between the departing and the newly-arrived Governors. Alva was willing
+to remain a little while, to assist his successor with his advice, but
+preferred that the Grand Commander should immediately assume the reins of
+office. To this Requesens, after much respectful reluctance, at length
+consented. On the 29th of November he accordingly took the oaths, at
+Brussels, as Lieutenant-Governor and Captain-General, in presence of the
+Duke of Aerschot, Baron Berlaymont, the President of the Council, and
+other functionaries.
+
+On the 18th of December the Duke of Alva departed from the provinces for
+ever. With his further career this history has no concern, and it is not
+desirable to enlarge upon the personal biography of one whose name
+certainly never excites pleasing emotions. He had kept his bed for the
+greater part of the time during the last few weeks of his
+government--partly on account of his gout, partly to avoid being seen in
+his humiliation, but mainly, it was said, to escape the pressing demands
+of his creditors. He expressed a fear of travelling homeward through
+France, on the ground that he might very probably receive a shot out of a
+window as he went by. He complained pathetically that, after all his
+labors, he had not "gained the approbation of the King," while he had
+incurred "the malevolence and universal hatred of every individual in the
+country." Mondoucet, to whom he made the observation, was of the same
+opinion; and informed his master that the Duke "had engendered such an
+extraordinary hatred in the hearts of all persons in the land, that they
+would have fireworks in honor of his departure if they dared."
+
+On his journey from the Netherlands, he is said to have boasted that he
+had caused eighteen thousand six hundred inhabitants of the provinces to
+be executed during the period of his government. The number of those who
+had perished by battle, siege, starvation, and massacre, defied
+computation. The Duke was well received by his royal master, and remained
+in favor until a new adventure of Don Frederic brought father and son
+into disgrace. Having deceived and abandoned a maid of honor, he suddenly
+espoused his cousins in order to avoid that reparation by marriage which
+was demanded for his offence. In consequence, both the Duke and Don
+Frederic were imprisoned and banished, nor was Alva released till a
+general of experience was required for the conquest of Portugal. Thither,
+as it were with fetters on his legs, he went. After having accomplished
+the military enterprise entrusted to him, he fell into a lingering fever,
+at the termination of which he was so much reduced that he was only kept
+alive by milk, which he drank from a woman's breast. Such was the gentle
+second childhood of the man who had almost literally been drinking blood
+for seventy years. He died on the 12th December, 1582.
+
+The preceding pages have been written in vain, if an elaborate estimate
+be now required of his character. His picture has been painted, as far as
+possible, by his own hand. His deeds, which are not disputed, and his
+written words, illustrate his nature more fully than could be done by the
+most eloquent pen. No attempt has been made to exaggerate his crimes, or
+to extenuate his superior qualities. Virtues he had none, unless military
+excellence be deemed, as by the Romans, a virtue. In war, both as a
+science and a practical art, he excelled all the generals who were
+opposed to him in the Netherlands, and he was inferior to no commander in
+the world during the long and belligerent period to which his life
+belonged. Louis of Nassau possessed high reputation throughout Europe as
+a skilful and daring General. With raw volunteers he had overthrown an
+army of Spanish regulars, led by a Netherland chieftain of fame and
+experience; but when Alva took the field in person the scene was totally
+changed. The Duke dealt him such a blow at Jemmingen as would have
+disheartened for ever a less indomitable champion. Never had a defeat
+been more absolute. The patriot army was dashed out of existence, almost
+to a man, and its leader, naked and beggared, though not disheartened,
+sent back into Germany to construct his force and his schemes anew.
+
+Having thus flashed before the eyes of the country the full terrors of
+his name, and vindicated the ancient military renown of his nation, the
+Duke was at liberty to employ the consummate tactics, in which he could
+have given instruction to all the world, against his most formidable
+antagonist. The country, paralyzed with fear, looked anxiously but
+supinely upon the scientific combat between the two great champions of
+Despotism and Protestantism which succeeded. It was soon evident that the
+conflict could terminate in but one way. The Prince had considerable
+military abilities, and enthusiastic courage; he lost none of his
+well-deserved reputation by the unfortunate issue of his campaign; he
+measured himself in arms with the great commander of the age, and defied
+him, day after day, in vain, to mortal combat; but it was equally certain
+that the Duke's quiet game was, played in the most masterly manner. His
+positions and his encampments were taken with faultless judgment, his
+skirmishes wisely and coldly kept within the prescribed control, while
+the inevitable dissolution of the opposing force took place exactly as he
+had foreseen, and within the limits which he had predicted. Nor in the
+disastrous commencement of the year 1572 did the Duke less signally
+manifest his military genius. Assailed as he was at every point, with the
+soil suddenly upheaving all around him, as by an earthquake, he did not
+lose his firmness nor his perspicacity. Certainly, if he had not been so
+soon assisted by that other earthquake, which on Saint Bartholomew's Day
+caused all Christendom to tremble, and shattered the recent structure of
+Protestant Freedom in the Netherlands, it might have been worse for his
+reputation. With Mons safe, the Flemish frontier guarded; France
+faithful, and thirty thousand men under the Prince of Orange in Brabant,
+the heroic brothers might well believe that the Duke was "at their
+mercy." The treason of Charles IX. "smote them as with a club," as the
+Prince exclaimed in the bitterness of his spirit. Under the
+circumstances, his second campaign was a predestined failure, and Alva
+easily vanquished him by a renewed application of those dilatory arts
+which he so well understood.
+
+The Duke's military fame was unquestionable when he came to the
+provinces, and both in stricken fields and in long campaigns, he showed
+how thoroughly it had been deserved; yet he left the Netherlands a
+baffled man. The Prince might be many times defeated, but he was not to
+be conquered. As Alva penetrated into the heart of the ancient Batavian
+land he found himself overmatched as he had never been before, even by
+the most potent generals of his day. More audacious, more inventive, more
+desperate than all the commanders of that or any other age, the spirit of
+national freedom, now taught the oppressor that it was invincible; except
+by annihilation. The same lesson had been read in the same thickets by
+the Nervii to Julius Caesar, by the Batavians to the legions of
+Vespasian; and now a loftier and a purer flame than that which inspired
+the national struggles against Rome glowed within the breasts of the
+descendants of the same people, and inspired them with the strength which
+comes, from religious enthusiasm. More experienced, more subtle, more
+politic than Hermann; more devoted, more patient, more magnanimous than
+Civilis, and equal to either in valor and determination, William of
+Orange was a worthy embodiment of the Christian, national resistance of
+the German race to a foreign tyranny. Alva had entered the Netherlands to
+deal with them as with conquered provinces. He found that the conquest
+was still to be made, and he left the land without having accomplished
+it. Through the sea of blood, the Hollanders felt that they were passing
+to the promised land. More royal soldiers fell during the seven months'
+siege of Harlem than the rebels had lost in the defeat of Jemmingen, and
+in the famous campaign of Brabant. At Alkmaar the rolling waves of
+insolent conquest were stayed, and the tide then ebbed for ever.
+
+The accomplished soldier struggled hopelessly, with the wild and
+passionate hatred which his tyranny had provoked. Neither his legions nor
+his consummate strategy availed him against an entirely desperate people.
+As a military commander, therefore, he gained, upon the whole, no
+additional laurels during his long administration of the Netherlands. Of
+all the other attributes to be expected in a man appointed to deal with a
+free country, in a state of incipient rebellion, he manifested a signal
+deficiency. As a financier, he exhibited a wonderful ignorance of the
+first principles of political economy. No man before, ever gravely
+proposed to establish confiscation as a permanent source of revenue to
+the state; yet the annual product from the escheated property of
+slaughtered heretics was regularly relied upon, during his
+administration, to replenish the King's treasury, and to support the war
+of extermination against the King's subjects. Nor did statesman ever
+before expect a vast income from the commerce of a nation devoted to
+almost universal massacre. During the daily decimation of the people's
+lives, he thought a daily decimation of their industry possible. His
+persecutions swept the land of those industrious classes which had made
+it the rich and prosperous commonwealth it had been so lately; while, at
+the same time, he found a "Peruvian mine," as he pretended, in the
+imposition of a tenth penny upon every one of its commercial
+transactions. He thought that a people, crippled as this had been by the
+operations of the Blood Council; could pay ten per cent., not annually
+but daily; not upon its income, but upon its capital; not once only, but
+every time the value constituting the capital changed hands. He had
+boasted that he should require no funds from Spain, but that, on the
+contrary, he should make annual remittances to the royal treasury at
+home, from the proceeds of his imposts and confiscations; yet,
+notwithstanding these resources, and notwithstanding twenty-five millions
+of gold in five years, sent by Philip from Madrid, the exchequer of the
+provinces was barren and bankrupt when his successor arrived. Requesens
+found neither a penny in the public treasury nor the means of raising
+one.
+
+As an administrator of the civil and judicial affairs of the country,
+Alva at once reduced its institutions to a frightful simplicity. In the
+place of the ancient laws of which the Netherlanders were so proud, he
+substituted the Blood Council. This tribunal was even more arbitrary than
+the Inquisition. Never was a simpler apparatus for tyranny devised, than
+this great labor-saving machine. Never was so great a quantity of murder
+and robbery achieved with such despatch and regularity. Sentences,
+executions, and confiscations, to an incredible extent, were turned out
+daily with appalling precision. For this invention, Alva is alone
+responsible. The tribunal and its councillors were the work and the
+creatures of his hand, and faithfully did they accomplish the dark
+purpose of their existence. Nor can it be urged, in extenuation of the
+Governor's crimes, that he was but the blind and fanatically loyal slave
+of his sovereign. A noble nature could not have contaminated itself with
+such slaughter-house work, but might have sought to mitigate the royal
+policy, without forswearing allegiance. A nature less rigid than iron,
+would at least have manifested compunction, as it found itself converted
+into a fleshless instrument of massacre. More decided than his master,
+however, he seemed, by his promptness, to rebuke the dilatory genius of
+Philip. The King seemed, at times, to loiter over his work, teasing and
+tantalising his appetite for vengeance, before it should be gratified:
+Alva, rapid and brutal, scorned such epicureanism. He strode with
+gigantic steps over haughty statutes and popular constitutions; crushing
+alike the magnates who claimed a bench of monarchs for their jury, and
+the ignoble artisans who could appeal only to the laws of their land.
+From the pompous and theatrical scaffolds of Egmont and Horn, to the
+nineteen halters prepared by Master Karl, to hang up the chief bakers and
+brewers of Brussels on their own thresholds--from the beheading of the
+twenty nobles on the Horse-market, in the opening of the Governor's
+career, to the roasting alive of Uitenhoove at its close-from the block
+on which fell the honored head of Antony Straalen, to the obscure chair
+in which the ancient gentlewoman of Amsterdam suffered death for an act
+of vicarious mercy--from one year's end to another's--from the most
+signal to the most squalid scenes of sacrifice, the eye and hand of the
+great master directed, without weariness, the task imposed by the
+sovereign.
+
+No doubt the work of almost indiscriminate massacre had been duly mapped
+out. Not often in history has a governor arrived to administer the
+affairs of a province, where the whole population, three millions strong,
+had been formally sentenced to death. As time wore on, however, he even
+surpassed the bloody instructions which he had received. He waved aside
+the recommendations of the Blood Council to mercy; he dissuaded the
+monarch from attempting the path of clemency, which, for secret reasons,
+Philip was inclined at one period to attempt. The Governor had, as he
+assured the King, been using gentleness in vain, and he was now
+determined to try what a little wholesome severity could effect. These
+words were written immediately after the massacres at Harlem.
+
+With all the bloodshed at Mons, and Naarden, and Mechlin, and by the
+Council of Tumults, daily, for six years long, still crying from the
+ground, he taxed himself with a misplaced and foolish tenderness to the
+people. He assured the King that when Alkmaar should be taken, he would,
+not spare a "living soul among its whole population;" and, as his parting
+advice, he recommended that every city in the Netherlands should be
+burned to the ground, except a few which could be occupied permanently by
+the royal troops. On the whole, so finished a picture of a perfect and
+absolute tyranny has rarely been presented to mankind by history, as in
+Alva's administration of the Netherlands.
+
+The tens of thousands in those miserable provinces who fell victims to
+the gallows, the sword, the stake, the living grave, or to living
+banishment, have never been counted; for those statistics of barbarity
+are often effaced from human record. Enough, however, is known, and
+enough has been recited in the preceding pages. No mode in which human
+beings have ever caused their fellow-creatures to suffer, was omitted
+from daily practice. Men, women, and children, old and young, nobles and
+paupers, opulent burghers, hospital patients, lunatics, dead bodies, all
+were indiscriminately made to furnish food for-the scaffold and the
+stake. Men were tortured, beheaded, hanged by the neck and by the legs,
+burned before slow fires, pinched to death with red hot tongs, broken
+upon the wheel, starved, and flayed alive. Their skins stripped from the
+living body, were stretched upon drums, to be beaten in the march of
+their brethren to the gallows. The bodies of many who had died a natural
+death were exhumed, and their festering remains hanged upon the gibbet,
+on pretext that they had died without receiving the sacrament, but in
+reality that their property might become the legitimate prey of the
+treasury. Marriages of long standing were dissolved by order of
+government, that rich heiresses might be married against their will to
+foreigners whom they abhorred. Women and children were executed for the
+crime of assisting their fugitive husbands and parents with a penny in
+their utmost need, and even for consoling them with a letter, in their
+exile. Such was the regular course of affairs as administered by the
+Blood Council. The additional barbarities committed amid the sack and
+ruin of those blazing and starving cities, are almost beyond belief;
+unborn infants were torn from the living bodies of their mothers; women
+and children were violated by thousands; and whole populations burned and
+hacked to pieces by soldiers in every mode which cruelty, in its wanton
+ingenuity, could devise. Such was the administration, of which Vargas
+affirmed, at its close, that too much mercy, "nimia misericordia," had
+been its ruin.
+
+Even Philip, inspired by secret views, became wearied of the Governor,
+who, at an early period, had already given offence by his arrogance. To
+commemorate his victories, the Viceroy had erected a colossal statue, not
+to his monarch, but to himself. To proclaim the royal pardon, he had
+seated himself upon a golden throne. Such insolent airs could be ill
+forgiven by the absolute King. Too cautious to provoke an open rupture,
+he allowed the Governor, after he had done all his work, and more than
+all his work, to retire without disgrace, but without a triumph. For the
+sins of that administration, master and servant are in equal measure
+responsible.
+
+The character of the Duke of Alva, so far as the Netherlands are
+concerned, seems almost like a caricature. As a creation of fiction, it
+would seem grotesque: yet even that hardy, historical scepticism, which
+delights in reversing the judgment of centuries, and in re-establishing
+reputations long since degraded to the dust, must find it difficult to
+alter this man's position. No historical decision is final; an appeal to
+a more remote posterity, founded upon more accurate evidence, is always
+valid; but when the verdict has been pronounced upon facts which are
+undisputed, and upon testimony from the criminal's lips, there is little
+chance of a reversal of the sentence. It is an affectation of
+philosophical candor to extenuate vices which are not only avowed, but
+claimed as virtues.
+
+   [The time is past when it could be said that the cruelty of Alva, or
+   the enormities of his administration, have been exaggerated by party
+   violence. Human invention is incapable of outstripping the truth
+   upon this subject. To attempt the defence of either the man or his
+   measures at the present day is to convict oneself of an amount of
+   ignorance or of bigotry against which history and argument are alike
+   powerless. The publication of the Duke's letters in the
+   correspondence of Simancas and in the Besancon papers, together with
+   that compact mass of horror, long before the world under the title
+   of "Sententien van Alva," in which a portion only of the sentences
+   of death and banishment pronounced by him during his reign, have
+   been copied from the official records--these in themselves would be
+   a sufficient justification of all the charges ever brought by the
+   most bitter contemporary of Holland or Flanders. If the
+   investigator should remain sceptical, however, let him examine the
+   "Registre des Condamnes et Bannia a Cause des Troubles des Pays
+   Bas," in three, together with the Records of the "Conseil des
+   Troubles," in forty-three folio volumes, in the Royal Archives at
+   Brussels. After going through all these chronicles of iniquity, the
+   most determined historic, doubter will probably throw up the case.]
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     Advised his Majesty to bestow an annual bribe upon Lord Burleigh
+     Angle with their dissimulation as with a hook
+     Luther's axiom, that thoughts are toll-free
+     Only kept alive by milk, which he drank from a woman's breast
+     Scepticism, which delights in reversing the judgment of centuries
+     So much responsibility and so little power
+     Sometimes successful, even although founded upon sincerity
+     We are beginning to be vexed
+
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, PG EDITION, VOLUME 22.
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
+
+By JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
+1855
+ADMINISTRATION OF THE GRAND COMMANDER
+
+
+
+
+PART IV.
+1573-74 [CHAPTER I.]
+
+   Previous career of Requesens--Philip's passion for detail--Apparent
+   and real purposes of government--Universal desire for peace--
+   Correspondence of leading royalists with Orange--Bankruptcy of the
+   exchequer at Alva's departures--Expensive nature of the war--
+   Pretence of mildness on the part of the Commander--His private
+   views--Distress of Mondragon at Middelburg--Crippled condition of
+   Holland--Orange's secret negotiations with France--St. Aldegonde's
+   views in captivity--Expedition to relieve Middelburg--Counter
+   preparations of Orange--Defeat of the expedition--Capitulation of
+   Mondragon--Plans of Orange and his brothers--An army under Count
+   Louis crosses the Rhine--Measures taken by Requesens--Manoeuvres of
+   Avila and of Louis--The two armies in face at Mook--Battle of Mook-
+   heath--Overthrow and death of Count Louis--The phantom battle--
+   Character of Louis of Nassau--Painful uncertainty as to his fate--
+   Periodical mutinies of the Spanish troops characterized--Mutiny
+   after the battle of Mook--Antwerp attacked and occupied,--Insolent
+   and oppressive conduct of the mutineers--Offers of Requesens
+   refused--Mutiny in the citadel--Exploits of Salvatierra--Terms of
+   composition--Soldiers' feast on the mere--Successful expedition of
+   Admiral Boisot
+
+The horrors of Alva's administration had caused men to look back with
+fondness upon the milder and more vacillating tyranny of the Duchess
+Margaret. From the same cause the advent of the Grand Commander was
+hailed with pleasure and with a momentary gleam of hope. At any rate, it
+was a relief that the man in whom an almost impossible perfection of
+cruelty seemed embodied was at last to be withdrawn it was certain that
+his successor, however ambitious of following in Alva's footsteps, would
+never be able to rival the intensity and the unswerving directness of
+purpose which it had been permitted to the Duke's nature to attain. The
+new Governor-General was, doubtless, human, and it had been long since
+the Netherlanders imagined anything in common between themselves and the
+late Viceroy.
+
+Apart from this hope, however, there was little encouragement to be
+derived from anything positively known of the new functionary, or the
+policy which he was to represent. Don Luis de Requesens and Cuniga, Grand
+Commander of Castile and late Governor of Milan, was a man of mediocre
+abilities, who possessed a reputation for moderation and sagacity which
+he hardly deserved. His military prowess had been chiefly displayed in
+the bloody and barren battle of Lepanto, where his conduct and counsel
+were supposed to have contributed, in some measure, to the victorious
+result. His administration at Milan had been characterized as firm and
+moderate. Nevertheless, his character was regarded with anything but
+favorable eyes in the Netherlands. Men told each other of his broken
+faith to the Moors in Granada, and of his unpopularity in Milan, where,
+notwithstanding his boasted moderation, he had, in reality, so oppressed
+the people as to gain their deadly hatred. They complained, too, that it
+was an insult to send, as Governor-General of the provinces, not a prince
+of the blood, as used to be the case, but a simple "gentleman of cloak
+and sword."
+
+Any person, however, who represented the royal authority in the provinces
+was under historical disadvantage. He was literally no more than an
+actor, hardly even that. It was Philip's policy and pride to direct all
+the machinery of his extensive empire, and to pull every string himself.
+His puppets, however magnificently attired, moved only in obedience to
+his impulse, and spoke no syllable but with his voice. Upon the table in
+his cabinet was arranged all the business of his various realms, even to
+the most minute particulars.
+
+Plans, petty or vast, affecting the interests of empires and ages, or
+bounded within the narrow limits of trivial and evanescent detail,
+encumbered his memory and consumed his time. His ambition to do all the
+work of his kingdoms was aided by an inconceivable greediness for labor.
+He loved the routine of business, as some monarchs have loved war, as
+others have loved pleasure. The object, alike paltry and impossible, of
+this ambition, bespoke the narrow mind. His estates were regarded by him
+as private property; measures affecting the temporal and eternal
+interests of millions were regarded as domestic affairs, and the eye of
+the master was considered the only one which could duly superintend these
+estates and those interests. Much incapacity to govern was revealed in
+this inordinate passion to administer. His mind, constantly fatigued by
+petty labors, was never enabled to survey his wide domains from the
+height of majesty.
+
+In Alva, certainly, he had employed an unquestionable reality; but Alva,
+by a fortunate coincidence of character, had seemed his second self. He
+was now gone, however, and although the royal purpose had not altered,
+the royal circumstances were changed. The moment had arrived when it was
+thought that the mask and cothurn might again be assumed with effect;
+when a grave and conventional personage might decorously make his
+appearance to perform an interlude of clemency and moderation with
+satisfactory results. Accordingly, the Great Commander, heralded by
+rumors of amnesty, was commissioned to assume the government which Alva
+had been permitted to resign.
+
+It had been industriously circulated that a change of policy was
+intended. It was even supposed by the more sanguine that the Duke had
+retired in disgrace. A show of coldness was manifested towards him on his
+return by the King, while Vargas, who had accompanied the Governor, was
+peremptorily forbidden to appear within five leagues of the court. The
+more discerning, however, perceived much affectation in this apparent
+displeasure. Saint Goard, the keen observer of Philip's moods and
+measures, wrote to his sovereign that he had narrowly observed the
+countenances of both Philip and Alva; that he had informed himself as
+thoroughly as possible with regard to the course of policy intended; that
+he had arrived at the conclusion that the royal chagrin was but
+dissimulation, intended to dispose the Netherlanders to thoughts of an
+impossible peace, and that he considered the present merely a breathing
+time, in which still more active preparations might be made for crushing
+the rebellion. It was now evident to the world that the revolt had
+reached a stage in which it could be terminated only by absolute conquest
+or concession.
+
+To conquer the people of the provinces, except by extermination, seemed
+difficult--to judge by the seven years of execution, sieges and
+campaigns, which had now passed without a definite result. It was,
+therefore, thought expedient to employ concession. The new Governor
+accordingly, in case the Netherlanders would abandon every object for
+which they had been so heroically contending, was empowered to concede a
+pardon. It was expressly enjoined upon him, however, that no conciliatory
+measures should be adopted in which the King's absolute supremacy, and
+the total prohibition of every form of worship but the Roman Catholic,
+were not assumed as a basis. Now, as the people had been contending at
+least ten years long for constitutional rights against prerogative, and
+at least seven for liberty of conscience against papistry, it was easy to
+foretell how much effect any negotiations thus commenced were likely to
+produce.
+
+Yet, no doubt, in the Netherlands there was a most earnest longing for
+peace. The Catholic portion of the population were desirous of a
+reconciliation with their brethren of the new religion. The universal
+vengeance which had descended upon heresy had not struck the heretics
+only. It was difficult to find a fireside, Protestant or Catholic, which
+had not been made desolate by execution, banishment, or confiscation. The
+common people and the grand seigniors were alike weary of the war. Not
+only Aerschot and Viglius, but Noircarmes and Berlaymont, were desirous
+that peace should be at last compassed upon liberal terms, and the Prince
+of Orange fully and unconditionally pardoned. Even the Spanish commanders
+had become disgusted with the monotonous butchery which had stained their
+swords. Julian Romero; the fierce and unscrupulous soldier upon whose
+head rested the guilt of the Naarden massacre, addressed several letters
+to William of Orange, full of courtesy, and good wishes for a speedy
+termination of the war, and for an entire reconciliation of the Prince
+with his sovereign. Noircarmes also opened a correspondence with the
+great leader of the revolt; and offered to do all in his power to restore
+peace and prosperity to the country. The Prince answered the courtesy of
+the Spaniard with equal, but barren, courtesy; for it was obvious that no
+definite result could be derived from such informal negotiations. To
+Noircarmes he responded in terms of gentle but grave rebuke, expressing
+deep regret that a Netherland noble of such eminence, with so many others
+of rank and authority, should so long have supported the King in his
+tyranny. He, however, expressed his satisfaction that their eyes, however
+late, had opened to the enormous iniquity which had been practised in the
+country, and he accepted the offers of friendship as frankly as they had
+been made. Not long afterwards, the Prince furnished his correspondent
+with a proof of his sincerity, by forwarding to him two letters which had
+been intercepted; from certain agents of government to Alva, in which
+Noircarmes and others who had so long supported the King against their
+own country, were spoken of in terms of menace and distrust. The Prince
+accordingly warned his new correspondent that, in spite of all the proofs
+of uncompromising loyalty which he had exhibited, he was yet moving upon
+a dark and slippery-pathway, and might, even like Egmont and Horn, find a
+scaffold-as the end and the reward of his career. So profound was that
+abyss of dissimulation which constituted the royal policy, towards the
+Netherlands, that the most unscrupulous partisans of government could
+only see doubt and danger with regard to their future destiny, and were
+sometimes only saved by an opportune death from disgrace and the
+hangman's hands.
+
+Such, then, were the sentiments of many eminent personages, even among
+the most devoted loyalists. All longed for peace; many even definitely
+expected it, upon the arrival of the Great Commander. Moreover, that
+functionary discovered, at his first glance into the disorderly state of
+the exchequer, that at least a short respite was desirable before
+proceeding with the interminable measures of hostility against the
+rebellion. If any man had been ever disposed to give Alva credit for
+administrative ability, such delusion must have vanished at the spectacle
+of confusion and bankruptcy which presented, itself at the termination of
+his government. He resolutely declined to give his successor any
+information whatever as to his financial position. So far from furnishing
+a detailed statement, such as might naturally be expected upon so
+momentous an occasion, he informed the Grand Commander that even a sketch
+was entirely out of the question, and would require more time and labor
+than he could then afford. He took his departure, accordingly, leaving
+Requesens in profound ignorance as to his past accounts; an ignorance in
+which it is probable that the Duke himself shared to the fullest extent.
+His enemies stoutly maintained that, however loosely his accounts had
+been kept, he had been very careful to make no mistakes against himself,
+and that he had retired full of wealth, if not of honor, from his long
+and terrible administration. His own letters, on the contrary, accused
+the King of ingratitude, in permitting an old soldier to ruin himself,
+not only in health but in fortune, for want of proper recompense during
+an arduous administration. At any rate it is very certain that the
+rebellion had already been an expensive matter to the Crown. The army in
+the Netherlands numbered more than sixty-two thousand men, eight thousand
+being Spaniards, the rest Walloons and Germans. Forty millions of dollars
+had already been sunk, and it seemed probable that it would require
+nearly the whole annual produce of the American mines to sustain the war.
+The transatlantic gold and silver, disinterred from the depths where they
+had been buried for ages, were employed, not to expand the current of a
+healthy, life-giving commerce, but to be melted into blood. The sweat and
+the tortures of the King's pagan subjects in the primeval forests of the
+New World, were made subsidiary to the extermination of his Netherland
+people, and the destruction of an ancient civilization. To this end had
+Columbus discovered a hemisphere for Castile and Aragon, and the new
+Indies revealed their hidden treasures?
+
+Forty millions of ducats had been spent. Six and a half millions of
+arrearages were due to the army, while its current expenses were six
+hundred thousand a month. The military expenses alone of the Netherlands
+were accordingly more than seven millions of dollars yearly, and the
+mines of the New World produced, during the half century of Philip's
+reign, an average of only eleven. Against this constantly increasing
+deficit, there was not a stiver in the exchequer, nor the means of
+raising one. The tenth penny had been long virtually extinct, and was
+soon to be formally abolished. Confiscation had ceased to afford a
+permanent revenue, and the estates obstinately refused to grant a dollar.
+Such was the condition to which the unrelenting tyranny and the financial
+experiments of Alva had reduced the country.
+
+It was, therefore, obvious to Requesens that it would be useful at the
+moment to hold out hopes of pardon and reconciliation. He saw, what he
+had not at first comprehended, and what few bigoted supporters of
+absolutism in any age have ever comprehended, that national enthusiasm,
+when profound and general, makes a rebellion more expensive to the despot
+than to the insurgents. "Before my arrival," wrote the Grand Commander to
+his sovereign, "I did not understand how the rebels could maintain such
+considerable fleets, while your Majesty could not support a single one.
+It appears, however, that men who are fighting for their lives, their
+firesides, their property, and their false religion, for their own cause,
+in short, are contented to receive rations only, without receiving pay."
+The moral which the new Governor drew from his correct diagnosis of the
+prevailing disorder was, not that this national enthusiasm should be
+respected, but that it should be deceived. He deceived no one but
+himself, however. He censured Noircarmes and Romero for their
+intermeddling, but held out hopes of a general pacification. He
+repudiated the idea of any reconciliation between the King and the Prince
+of Orange, but proposed at the same time a settlement of the revolt. He
+had not yet learned that the revolt and William of Orange were one.
+Although the Prince himself had repeatedly offered to withdraw for ever
+from the country, if his absence would expedite a settlement satisfactory
+to the provinces, there was not a patriot in the Netherlands who could
+contemplate his departure without despair. Moreover, they all knew better
+than did Requesens, the inevitable result of the pacific measures which
+had been daily foreshadowed.
+
+The appointment of the Grand Commander was in truth a desperate attempt
+to deceive the Netherlanders. He approved distinctly and heartily of
+Alva's policy, but wrote to the King that it was desirable to amuse the
+people with the idea of another and a milder scheme. He affected to
+believe, and perhaps really did believe, that the nation would accept the
+destruction of all their institutions, provided that penitent heretics
+were allowed to be reconciled to the Mother Church, and obstinate ones
+permitted to go into perpetual exile, taking with them a small portion of
+their worldly goods. For being willing to make this last and almost
+incredible concession, he begged pardon sincerely of the King. If
+censurable, he ought not, he thought, to be too severely blamed, for his
+loyalty was known. The world was aware how often he had risked his life
+for his Majesty, and how gladly and how many more times he was ready to
+risk it in future. In his opinion, religion had, after all, but very
+little to do with the troubles, and so he confidentially informed his
+sovereign. Egmont and Horn had died Catholics, the people did not rise to
+assist the Prince's invasion in 1568, and the new religion was only a
+lever by which a few artful demagogues had attempted to overthrow the
+King's authority.
+
+Such views as these revealed the measures of the new Governor's capacity.
+The people had really refused to rise in 1568, not because they were
+without sympathy for Orange, but because they were paralyzed by their
+fear of Alva. Since those days, however, the new religion had increased
+and multiplied everywhere, in the blood which had rained upon it. It was
+now difficult to find a Catholic in Holland and Zealand, who was not a
+government agent. The Prince had been a moderate Catholic, in the opening
+scenes of the rebellion, while he came forward as the champion of liberty
+for all forms of Christianity. He had now become a convert to the new
+religion without receding an inch from his position in favor of universal
+toleration. The new religion was, therefore, not an instrument devised by
+a faction, but had expanded into the atmosphere of the people's daily
+life. Individuals might be executed for claiming to breathe it, but it
+was itself impalpable to the attacks of despotism. Yet the Grand
+Commander persuaded himself that religion had little or nothing to do
+with the state of the Netherlands. Nothing more was necessary, he
+thought; or affected to think, in order to restore tranquillity, than
+once more to spread the net of a general amnesty.
+
+The Duke of Alva knew better. That functionary, with whom, before his
+departure from the provinces, Requesens had been commanded to confer,
+distinctly stated his opinion that there was no use of talking about
+pardon. Brutally, but candidly, he maintained that there was nothing to
+be done but to continue the process of extermination. It was necessary,
+he said, to reduce the country to a dead level of unresisting misery;
+before an act of oblivion could be securely laid down as the foundation
+of a new and permanent order of society. He had already given his advice
+to his Majesty, that every town in the country should be burned to the
+ground, except those which could be permanently occupied by the royal
+troops. The King, however, in his access of clemency at the appointment
+of a new administration, instructed the Grand Commander not to resort to
+this measure unless it should become strictly necessary.--Such were the
+opposite opinions of the old and new governors with regard to the pardon.
+The learned Viglius sided with Alva, although manifestly against his
+will. "It is both the Duke's opinion and my own," wrote the Commander,
+"that Viglius does not dare to express his real opinion, and that he is
+secretly desirous of an arrangement with the rebels." With a good deal of
+inconsistency, the Governor was offended, not only with those who opposed
+his plans, but with those who favored them. He was angry with Viglius,
+who, at least nominally, disapproved of the pardon, and with Noircarmes,
+Aerschot, and others, who manifested a wish for a pacification. Of the
+chief characteristic ascribed to the people by Julius Caesar, namely,
+that they forgot neither favors nor injuries, the second half only, in
+the Grand Commander's opinion, had been retained. Not only did they never
+forget injuries, but their memory, said he, was so good, that they
+recollected many which they had never received.
+
+On the whole, however, in the embarrassed condition of affairs, and while
+waiting for further supplies, the Commander was secretly disposed to try
+the effect of a pardon. The object was to deceive the people and to gain
+time; for there was no intention of conceding liberty of conscience, of
+withdrawing foreign troops, or of assembling the states-general. It was,
+however, not possible to apply these hypocritical measures of
+conciliation immediately. The war was in full career and could not be
+arrested even in that wintry season. The patriots held Mondragon closely
+besieged in Middelburg, the last point in the Isle of Walcheren which
+held for the King. There was a considerable treasure in money and
+merchandise shut up in that city; and, moreover, so deserving and
+distinguished an officer as Mondragon could not be abandoned to his fate.
+At the same time, famine was pressing him sorely, and, by the end of the
+year, garrison and townspeople had nothing but rats, mice, dogs, cats,
+and such repulsive substitutes for food, to support life withal. It was
+necessary to take immediate measures to relieve the place.
+
+On the other hand, the situation of the patriots was not very
+encouraging. Their superiority on the sea was unquestionable, for the
+Hollanders and Zealanders were the best sailors in the world, and they
+asked of their country no payment for their blood, but thanks. The land
+forces, however, were usually mercenaries, who were apt to mutiny at the
+commencement of an action if, as was too often the case, their wages
+could not be paid. Holland was entirely cut in twain by the loss of
+Harlem and the leaguer of Leyden, no communication between the dissevered
+portions being possible, except with difficulty and danger. The estates,
+although they had done much for the cause, and were prepared to do much
+more, were too apt to wrangle about economical details. They irritated
+the Prince of Orange by huckstering about subsidies to a degree which his
+proud and generous nature could hardly brook. He had strong hopes from
+France. Louis of Nassau had held secret interviews with the Duke of
+Alencon and the Duke of Anjou, now King of Poland, at Blamont. Alencon
+had assured him secretly, affectionately, and warmly, that he would be as
+sincere a friend to the cause as were his two royal brothers. The Count
+had even received one hundred thousand livres in hand, as an earnest of
+the favorable intentions of France, and was now busily engaged, at the
+instance of the Prince, in levying an army in Germany for the relief of
+Leyden and the rest of Holland, while William, on his part, was omitting
+nothing, whether by representations to the estates or by secret foreign
+missions and correspondence, to further the cause of the suffering
+country.
+
+At the same time, the Prince dreaded the effect--of the promised pardon.
+He had reason to be distrustful of the general temper of the nation when
+a man like Saint Aldegonde, the enlightened patriot and his own tried
+friend, was influenced, by the discouraging and dangerous position in
+which he found himself, to abandon the high ground upon which they had
+both so long and so firmly stood: Saint Aldegonde had been held a strict
+prisoner since his capture at Maeslandsluis, at the close of Alva's
+administration.--It was, no doubt, a predicament attended with much keen
+suffering and positive danger. It had hitherto been the uniform policy of
+the government to kill all prisoners, of whatever rank. Accordingly, some
+had been drowned, some had been hanged--some beheaded some poisoned in
+their dungeons--all had been murdered. This had been Alva's course. The
+Grand Commander also highly approved of the system, but the capture of
+Count Bossu by the patriots had necessitated a suspension of such rigor.
+It was certain that Bossu's head would fall as soon as Saint Aldegonde's,
+the Prince having expressly warned the government of this inevitable
+result. Notwithstanding that security, however, for his eventual
+restoration to liberty, a Netherland rebel in a Spanish prison could
+hardly feel himself at ease. There were so many foot-marks into the cave
+and not a single one coming forth. Yet it was not singular, however, that
+the Prince should read with regret the somewhat insincere casuistry with
+which Saint Aldegonde sought to persuade himself and his
+fellow-countrymen that a reconciliation with the monarch was desirable,
+even upon unworthy terms. He was somewhat shocked that so valiant and
+eloquent a supporter of the Reformation should coolly express his opinion
+that the King would probably refuse liberty of conscience to the
+Netherlanders, but would, no doubt, permit heretics to go into
+banishment. "Perhaps, after we have gone into exile," added Saint
+Aldegonde, almost with baseness, "God may give us an opportunity of doing
+such good service to the King, that he will lend us a more favorable ear,
+and, peradventure, permit our return to the country."
+
+Certainly, such language was not becoming the pen which wrote the famous
+Compromise. The Prince himself was, however, not to be induced, even by
+the captivity and the remonstrances of so valued a friend, to swerve from
+the path of duty. He still maintained, in public and private, that the
+withdrawal of foreign troops from the provinces, the restoration of the
+old constitutional privileges, and the entire freedom of conscience in
+religious matters, were the indispensable conditions of any pacification.
+It was plain to him that the Spaniards were not ready to grant these
+conditions; but he felt confident that he should accomplish the release
+of Saint Aldegonde without condescending to an ignominious peace.
+
+The most pressing matter, upon the Great Commander's arrival, was
+obviously to relieve the city of Middelburg. Mondragon, after so stanch a
+defence, would soon be obliged to capitulate, unless he should promptly
+receive supplies. Requesens, accordingly, collected seventy-five ships at
+Bergen op Zoom; which were placed nominally under the command of Admiral
+de Glimes, but in reality under that of Julian Romero. Another fleet of
+thirty vessels had been assembled at Antwerp under Sancho d'Avila. Both,
+amply freighted with provisions, were destined to make their way to
+Middelburg by the two different passages of the Hondo and the Eastern
+Scheld. On the other hand, the Prince of Orange had repaired to Flushing
+to superintend the operations of Admiral Boisot, who already; in
+obedience to his orders, had got a powerful squadron in readiness at that
+place. Late in January, 1574, d'Avila arrived in the neighbourhood of
+Flushing, where he awaited the arrival of Romero's fleet. United, the two
+Commanders were to make a determined attempt to reinforce the starving
+city of Middelburg. At the same time, Governor Requesens made his
+appearance in person at Bergen op Zoom to expedite the departure of the
+stronger fleet, but it was not the intention of the Prince of Orange to
+allow this expedition to save the city. The Spanish generals, however
+valiant, were to learn that their genius was not amphibious, and that the
+Beggars of the Sea were still invincible on their own element, even if
+their brethren of the land had occasionally quailed.
+
+Admiral Boisot's fleet had already moved up the Scheld and taken a
+position nearly opposite to Bergen op Zoom. On the 20th of January the
+Prince of Orange, embarking from Zierick Zee, came to make them a visit
+before the impending action. His galley, conspicuous for its elegant
+decorations, was exposed for some time to the artillery of the fort, but
+providentially escaped unharmed. He assembled all the officers of his
+armada, and, in brief but eloquent language, reminded them how necessary
+it was to the salvation of the whole country that they should prevent the
+city of Middelburg--the key to the whole of Zealand, already upon the
+point of falling into the hands of the patriots--from being now wrested
+from their grasp. On the sea, at least, the Hollanders and Zealanders
+were at home. The officers and men, with one accord, rent the air with
+their cheers. They swore that they would shed every drop of blood in
+their veins but they would sustain the Prince and the country; and they
+solemnly vowed not only to serve, if necessary, without wages, but to
+sacrifice all that they possessed in the world rather than abandon the
+cause of their fatherland. Having by his presence and his language
+aroused their valor to so high a pitch of enthusiasm, the Prince departed
+for Delft, to make arrangements to drive the Spaniards from the siege of
+Leyden.
+
+On the 29th of January, the fleet of Romero sailed from Bergen, disposed
+in three divisions, each numbering twenty-five vessels of different
+sizes. As the Grand Commander stood on the dyke of Schakerloo to witness
+the departure, a general salute was fired by the fleet in his honor, but
+with most unfortunate augury. The discharge, by some accident, set fire
+to the magazines of one of the ships, which blew up with a terrible
+explosion, every soul on board perishing. The expedition, nevertheless,
+continued its way. Opposite Romerswael, the fleet of Boisot awaited them,
+drawn up in battle array. As an indication of the spirit which animated
+this hardy race, it may be mentioned that Schot, captain of the
+flag-ship, had been left on shore, dying of a pestilential fever. Admiral
+Boisot had appointed a Flushinger, Klaaf Klaafzoon, in his place. Just
+before the action, however, Schot, "scarcely able to blow a feather from
+his mouth," staggered on board his ship, and claimed the command.
+
+There was no disputing a precedency which he had risen from his death-bed
+to vindicate. There was, however, a short discussion, as the enemy's
+fleet approached, between these rival captains regarding the manner in
+which the Spaniards should be received. Klaafzoon was of opinion that
+most of the men should go below till after the enemy's first discharge.
+Schot insisted that all should remain on deck, ready to grapple with the
+Spanish fleet, and to board them without the least delay.
+
+The sentiment of Schot prevailed, and all hands stood on deck, ready with
+boarding-pikes and grappling-irons.
+
+The first division of Romero came nearer, and delivered its first
+broadside, when Schot and Klaafzoon both fell mortally wounded. Admiral
+Boisot lost an eye, and many officers and sailors in the other vessels
+were killed or wounded. This was, however, the first and last of the
+cannonading. As many of Romero's vessels as could be grappled within the
+narrow estuary found themselves locked in close embrace with their
+enemies. A murderous hand-to-hand conflict succeeded. Battle-axe,
+boarding-pike, pistol, and dagger were the weapons. Every man who yielded
+himself a prisoner was instantly stabbed and tossed into the sea by the
+remorseless Zealanders. Fighting only to kill, and not to plunder, they
+did not even stop to take the gold chains which many Spaniards wore on
+their necks. It had, however, been obvious from the beginning that the
+Spanish fleet were not likely to achieve that triumph over the patriots
+which was necessary before they could relieve Middelburg. The battle
+continued a little longer; but after fifteen ships had been taken and
+twelve hundred royalists slain, the remainder of the enemy's fleet
+retreated into Bergen. Romero himself, whose ship had grounded, sprang
+out of a port-hole and swam ashore, followed by such of his men as were
+able to imitate him. He landed at the very feet of the Grand Commander,
+who, wet and cold, had been standing all day upon the dyke of Schakerloo,
+in the midst of a pouring rain, only to witness the total defeat of his
+armada at last.
+
+"I told your Excellency," said Romero, coolly, as he climbed, all
+dripping, on the bank, "that I was a land-fighter and not a sailor. If
+you were to give me the command of a hundred fleets, I believe that none
+of them would fare better than this has done." The Governor and his
+discomfited, but philosophical lieutenant, then returned to Bergen, and
+thence to Brussels, acknowledging that the city of Middelburg must fall,
+while Sancho d'Avila, hearing of the disaster which had befallen his
+countrymen, brought his fleet, with the greatest expedition, back to
+Antwerp. Thus the gallant Mondragon was abandoned to his fate.
+
+That fate could no longer be protracted. The city of Middelburg had
+reached and passed the starvation point. Still Mondragon was determined
+not to yield at discretion, although very willing to capitulate. The
+Prince of Orange, after the victory of Bergen, was desirous of an
+unconditional surrender, believing it to be his right, and knowing that
+he could not be supposed capable of practising upon Middelburg the
+vengeance which had been wreaked on Naarden, Zutfen, and Harlem.
+Mondragon, however, swore that he would set fire to the city in twenty
+places, and perish with every soldier and burgher in the flames together,
+rather than abandon himself to the enemy's mercy. The prince knew that
+the brave Spaniard was entirely capable of executing his threat. He
+granted honorable conditions, which, on the 18th February, were drawn up
+in five articles, and signed. It was agreed that Mondragon and his troops
+should leave the place, with their arms, ammunition, and all their
+personal property. The citizens who remained were to take oath of
+fidelity to the Prince, as stadholder for his Majesty, and were to pay
+besides a subsidy of three hundred thousand florins. Mondragon was,
+furthermore, to procure the discharge of Saint Aldegonde, and of four
+other prisoners of rank, or, failing in the attempt, was to return within
+two months, and constitute himself prisoner of war. The Catholic priests
+were to take away from the city none of their property but their clothes.
+In accordance with this capitulation, Mondragon, and those who wished to
+accompany him, left the city on the 21st of February, and were conveyed
+to the Flemish shore at Neuz. It will be seen in the sequel that the
+Governor neither granted him the release of the five prisoners, nor
+permitted him to return, according to his parole. A few days afterwards,
+the Prince entered the city, re-organized the magistracy, received the
+allegiance of the inhabitants, restored the ancient constitution, and
+liberally remitted two-thirds of the sum in which they had been, mulcted.
+
+The Spaniards had thus been successfully driven from the Isle of
+Walcheren, leaving the Hollanders and Zealanders masters of the
+sea-coast. Since the siege of Alkmaar had been raised, however, the enemy
+had remained within the territory of Holland. Leyden was closely
+invested, the country in a desperate condition, and all communication
+between its different cities nearly suspended. It was comparatively easy
+for the Prince of Orange to equip and man his fleets. The genius and
+habits of the people made them at home upon the water, and inspired them
+with a feeling of superiority to their adversaries. It was not so upon
+land. Strong to resist, patient to suffer, the Hollanders, although
+terrible in defence; had not the necessary discipline or experience to
+meet the veteran legions of Spain, with confidence in the open field. To
+raise the siege of Leyden, the main reliance of the Prince was upon Count
+Louis, who was again in Germany. In the latter days of Alva's
+administration, William had written to his brothers, urging them speedily
+to arrange the details of a campaign, of which he forwarded them a
+sketch. As soon as a sufficient force had been levied in Germany, an
+attempt was to be made upon Maestricht. If that failed, Louis was to
+cross the Meuse, in the neighbourhood of Stochem, make his way towards
+the Prince's own city of Gertruidenberg, and thence make a junction with
+his brother in the neighbourhood of Delft. They were then to take up a
+position together between Harlem and Leyden. In that case it seemed
+probable that the Spaniards would find themselves obliged to fight at a
+great disadvantage, or to abandon the country. "In short," said the
+Prince, "if this enterprise be arranged with due diligence and
+discretion, I hold it as the only certain means for putting a speedy end
+to the war, and for driving these devils of Spaniards out of the country,
+before the Duke of Alva has time to raise another army to support them."
+
+In pursuance of this plan, Louis had been actively engaged all the
+earlier part of the winter in levying troops and raising supplies. He had
+been assisted by the French princes with considerable sums of money, as
+an earnest of what he was in future to expect from that source. He had
+made an unsuccessful attempt to effect the capture of Requesens, on his
+way to take the government of the Netherlands. He had then passed to the
+frontier of France, where he had held his important interview with
+Catharine de Medici and the Duke of Anjou, then on the point of departure
+to ascend the throne of Poland. He had received liberal presents, and
+still more liberal promises. Anjou had assured him that he would go as
+far as any of the German princes in rendering active and sincere
+assistance to the Protestant cause in the Netherlands. The Duc
+d'Alencon--soon, in his brother's absence, to succeed to the
+chieftainship of the new alliance between the "politiques" and the
+Huguenots--had also pressed his hand, whispering in his ear, as he did
+so, that the government of France now belonged to him, as it had recently
+done to Anjou, and that the Prince might reckon upon his friendship with
+entire security.
+
+These fine words, which cost nothing when whispered in secret, were not
+destined to fructify into a very rich harvest, for the mutual jealousy of
+France and England, lest either should acquire ascendency in the
+Netherlands, made both governments prodigal of promises, while the common
+fear entertained by them of the power of Spain rendered both languid;
+insincere, and mischievous allies. Count John, however; was indefatigable
+in arranging the finances of the proposed expedition, and in levying
+contributions among his numerous relatives and allies in Germany, while
+Louis had profited by the occasion of Anjou's passage into Poland, to
+acquire for himself two thousand German and French cavalry, who had
+served to escort that Prince, and who, being now thrown out of
+employment, were glad to have a job offered them by a general who was
+thought to be in funds. Another thousand of cavalry and six thousand foot
+were soon assembled from those ever-swarming nurseries of mercenary
+warriors, the smaller German states. With these, towards the end of
+February; Louis crossed the Rhine in a heavy snow-storm, and bent his
+course towards Maestricht. All the three brothers of the Prince
+accompanied this little army, besides Duke Christopher, son of the
+elector Palatine.
+
+Before the end of the month the army reached the Meuse, and encamped
+within four miles of Maestricht; on the opposite side of the river. The
+garrison, commanded by Montesdoca, was weak, but the news of the warlike
+preparations in Germany had preceded the arrival of Count Louis.
+Requesens, feeling the gravity of the occasion, had issued orders for an
+immediate levy of eight thousand cavalry in Germany, with a proportionate
+number of infantry. At the same time he had directed Don Bernardino de
+Mendoza, with some companies of cavalry, then stationed in Breda, to
+throw himself without delay into Maestricht. Don Sancho d'Avila was
+entrusted with the general care of resisting the hostile expedition. That
+general had forthwith collected all the troops which could be spared from
+every town where they were stationed, had strengthened the cities of
+Antwerp, Ghent, Nimweben, and Valenciennes, where there were known to be
+many secret adherents of Orange; and with the remainder of his forces had
+put himself in motion, to oppose the entrance of Louis into Brabant, and
+his junction with his brother in Holland. Braccamonte had been despatched
+to Leyden, in order instantly to draw off the forces which were besieging
+the city. Thus Louis had already effected something of importance by the
+very hews of his approach.
+
+Meantime the Prince of Orange had raised six thousand infantry, whose
+rendezvous was the Isle of Bommel. He was disappointed at the paucity of
+the troops which Louis had been able to collect, but he sent messengers
+immediately to him; with a statement of his own condition, and with
+directions to join him in the Isle of Bommel, as soon as Maestricht
+should be reduced. It was, however, not in the destiny of Louis to reduce
+Maestricht. His expedition had been marked with disaster from the
+beginning. A dark and threatening prophecy had, even before its
+commencement, enwrapped Louis, his brethren, and his little army, in a
+funeral pall. More than a thousand of his men had deserted before he
+reached the Meuse. When he encamped, apposite Maestricht, he found the
+river neither frozen nor open, the ice obstructing the navigation, but
+being too weak for the weight of an army. While he was thus delayed and
+embarrassed, Mendoza arrived in the city with reinforcements. It seemed
+already necessary for Louis to abandon his hopes of Maestricht, but he
+was at least desirous of crossing the river in that neighbourhood, in
+order to effect his junction with the Prince at the earliest possible
+moment. While the stream was still encumbered with ice, however, the
+enemy removed all the boats. On, the 3rd of March, Avila arrived with a
+large body of troops at Maestricht, and on the 18th Mendoza crossed the
+river in the night, giving the patriots so severe an 'encamisada', that
+seven hundred were killed, at the expense of only seven of his own party.
+Harassed, but not dispirited by these disasters, Louis broke up his camp
+on the 21st, and took a position farther down the river, at Fauquemont
+and Gulpen, castles in the Duchy of Limburg. On the 3rd of April,
+Braccamonite arrived at Maestricht, with twenty-five companies of
+Spaniards and three of cavalry, while, on the same day Mondragon reached
+the scene of action with his sixteen companies of veterans.
+
+It was now obvious to Louis, not only that he should not take Maestricht,
+but that his eventual junction with his brother was at least doubtful,
+every soldier who could possibly be spared seeming in motion to oppose
+his progress. He was, to be sure, not yet outnumbered, but the enemy was
+increasing, and his own force diminishing daily. Moreover, the Spaniards
+were highly disciplined and experienced troops; while his own soldiers
+were mercenaries, already clamorous and insubordinate. On the 8th of
+April he again shifted his encaampment, and took his course along the
+right bank of the Meuse, between that river and the Rhine, in the
+direction of Nimwegen. Avila promptly decided to follow him upon the
+opposite bank of the Meuse, intending to throw himself between Louis and
+the Prince of Orange, and by a rapid march to give the Count battle,
+before he could join his brother. On the 8th of April, at early dawn,
+Louis had left the neighbourhood of Maestricht, and on the 13th he
+encamped at the village of Mook near the confines of Cleves. Sending out
+his scouts, he learned to his vexation, that the enemy had outmarched
+him, and were now within cannonshot. On the 13th, Avila had constructed a
+bridge of boats, over which he had effected the passage of the Meuse with
+his whole army, so that on the Count's arrival at Mook, he found the
+enemy facing him, on the same side of the river, and directly in his
+path. It was, therefore, obvious that, in this narrow space between the
+Waal and the Meuse, where they were now all assembled, Louis must achieve
+a victory, unaided, or abandon his expedition, and leave the Hollanders
+to despair. He was distressed at the position in which he found himself,
+for he had hoped to reduce Maestricht, and to join, his brother in
+Holland. Together, they could, at least, have expelled the Spaniards from
+that territory, in which case it was probable that a large part of the
+population in the different provinces would have risen. According to
+present aspects, the destiny of the country, for some time to come, was
+likely to hang upon the issue of a battle which he had not planned, and
+for which he was not fully prepared. Still he was not the man to be
+disheartened; nor had he ever possessed the courage to refuse a battle
+when: offered. Upon this occasion it would be difficult to retreat
+without disaster and disgrace, but it was equally difficult to achieve a
+victory. Thrust, as he was, like a wedge into the very heart of a hostile
+country, he was obliged to force his way through, or to remain in his
+enemy's power. Moreover, and worst of all, his troops were in a state of
+mutiny for their wages. While he talked to them of honor, they howled to
+him for money. It was the custom of these mercenaries to mutiny on the
+eve of battle--of the Spaniards, after it had been fought. By the one
+course, a victory was often lost which might have been achieved; by the
+other, when won it was rendered fruitless.
+
+Avila had chosen his place of battle with great skill. On the right bank
+of the Meuse, upon a narrow plain which spread from the river to a chain
+of hills within cannon-shot on the north, lay the little village of Mook.
+The Spanish general knew that his adversary had the superiority in
+cavalry, and that within this compressed apace it would not be possible
+to derive much advantage from the circumstance.
+
+On the 14th, both armies were drawn up in battle array at earliest dawn,
+Louis having strengthened his position by a deep trench, which extended
+from Mook, where he had stationed ten companies of infantry, which thus
+rested on the village and the river. Next came the bulk of his infantry,
+disposed in a single square. On their right was his cavalry, arranged in
+four squadrons, as well as the narrow limits of the field would allow. A
+small portion of them, for want of apace, were stationed on the hill
+side.
+
+Opposite, the forces of Don Sancho were drawn up in somewhat similar
+fashion. Twenty-five companies of Spaniards were disposed in four bodies
+of pikemen and musketeers; their right resting on the river. On their
+left was the cavalry, disposed by Mendoza in the form of a half moon-the
+horns garnished by two small bodies of sharpshooters. In the front ranks
+of the cavalry were the mounted carabineers of Schenk; behind were the
+Spanish dancers. The village of Mook lay between the two armies.
+
+The skirmishing began at early dawn, with an attack upon the trench, and
+continued some hours, without bringing on a general engagement. Towards
+ten o'clock, Count Louis became impatient. All the trumpets of the
+patriots now rang out a challenge to their adversaries, and the Spaniards
+were just returning the defiance, and preparing a general onset, when the
+Seigneur de Hierges and Baron Chevreaux arrived on the field. They
+brought with them a reinforcement of more than a thousand men, and the
+intelligence that Valdez was on his way with nearly five thousand more.
+As he might be expected on the following morning, a short deliberation
+was held as to the expediency of deferring the action. Count Louis was at
+the head of six thousand foot and two thousand cavalry. Avila mustered
+only four thousand infantry and not quite a thousand horse. This
+inferiority would be changed on the morrow into an overwhelming
+superiority. Meantime, it was well to remember the punishment endured by
+Aremberg at Heiliger Lee, for not waiting till Meghen's arrival. This
+prudent counsel was, however, very generally scouted, and by none more
+loudly than by Hierges and Chevreaux, who had brought the intelligence.
+It was thought that at this juncture nothing could be more indiscreet
+than discretion. They had a wary and audacious general to deal with.
+While they were waiting for their reinforcements, he was quite capable of
+giving them the slip. He might thus effect the passage of the stream and
+that union with his brother which--had been thus far so successfully
+prevented. This reasoning prevailed, and the skirmishing at the trench
+was renewed with redoubled vigour, an additional: force being sent
+against it. After a short and fierce struggle it was carried, and the
+Spaniards rushed into the village, but were soon dislodged by a larger
+detachment of infantry, which Count Louis sent to the rescue. The battle
+now became general at this point.
+
+Nearly all the patriot infantry were employed to defend the post; nearly
+all the Spanish infantry were ordered to assail it. The Spaniards,
+dropping on their knees, according to custom, said a Paternoster and an
+Ave Mary, and then rushed, in mass, to the attack. After a short but
+sharp conflict, the trench was again carried, and the patriots completely
+routed. Upon this, Count Louis charged with all his cavalry upon the
+enemy's horse, which had hitherto remained motionless. With the first
+shock the mounted arquebusiers of Schenk, constituting the vanguard, were
+broken, and fled in all directions. So great was their panic, as Louis
+drove them before him, that they never stopped till they had swum or been
+drowned in the river; the survivors carrying the news to Grave and to
+other cities that the royalists had been completely routed. This was,
+however, very far from the truth. The patriot cavalry, mostly
+carabineers, wheeled after the first discharge, and retired to reload
+their pieces, but before they were ready for another attack, the Spanish
+lancers and the German black troopers, who had all remained firm, set
+upon them with great spirit: A fierce, bloody, and confused action
+succeeded, in which the patriots were completely overthrown.
+
+Count Louis, finding that the day was lost, and his army cut to pieces,
+rallied around him a little band of troopers, among whom were his
+brother, Count Henry, and Duke Christopher, and together they made a
+final and desperate charge. It was the last that was ever seen of them on
+earth. They all went down together, in the midst of the fight, and were
+never heard of more. The battle terminated, as usual in those conflicts
+of mutual hatred, in a horrible butchery, hardly any of the patriot army
+being left to tell the tale of their disaster. At least four thousand
+were killed, including those who were slain on the field, those who were
+suffocated in the marshes or the river, and those who were burned in the
+farm-houses where they had taken refuge. It was uncertain which of those
+various modes of death had been the lot of Count Louis, his brother, and
+his friend. The mystery was never solved. They had, probably, all died on
+the field; but, stripped of their clothing, with their faces trampled
+upon by the hoofs of horses, it was not possible to distinguish them from
+the less illustrious dead. It was the opinion of, many that they had been
+drowned in the river; of others, that they had been burned.
+
+   [Meteren, v. 91. Bor, vii. 491, 492. Hoofd, Bentivoglio, ubi
+   sup. The Walloon historian, occasionally cited in these pages, has
+   a more summary manner of accounting for the fate of these
+   distinguished personages. According to his statement, the leaders
+   of the Protestant forces dined and made merry at a convent in the
+   neighbourhood upon Good Friday, five days before the battle, using
+   the sacramental chalices at the banquet, and mixing consecrated
+   wafers with their wine. As a punishment for this sacrilege, the
+   army was utterly overthrown, and the Devil himself flew away with
+   the chieftains, body and soul.]
+
+There was a vague tale that Louis, bleeding but not killed, had struggled
+forth from the heap of corpses where he had been thrown, had crept to
+the river-side, and, while washing his wounds, had been surprised and
+butchered by a party of rustics. The story was not generally credited,
+but no man knew, or was destined to learn, the truth.
+
+A dark and fatal termination to this last enterprise of Count Louis had
+been anticipated by many. In that superstitious age, when emperors and
+princes daily investigated the future, by alchemy, by astrology, and by
+books of fate, filled with formula; as gravely and precisely set forth as
+algebraical equations; when men of every class, from monarch to peasant,
+implicitly believed in supernatural portents and prophecies, it was not
+singular that a somewhat striking appearance, observed in the sky some
+weeks previously to the battle of Mookerheyde, should have inspired many
+persons with a shuddering sense of impending evil.
+
+Early in February five soldiers of the burgher guard at Utrecht, being on
+their midnight watch, beheld in the sky above them the representation of
+a furious battle. The sky was extremely dark, except directly over: their
+heads; where, for a space equal in extent to the length of the city, and
+in breadth to that of an ordinary chamber, two armies, in battle array,
+were seen advancing upon each other. The one moved rapidly up from the
+north-west, with banners waving; spears flashing, trumpets sounding;
+accompanied by heavy artillery and by squadrons of cavalry. The other
+came slowly forward from the southeast; as if from an entrenched camp, to
+encounter their assailants. There was a fierce action for a few moments,
+the shouts of the combatants, the heavy discharge of cannon, the rattle
+of musketry; the tramp of heavy-aimed foot soldiers, the rush of cavalry,
+being distinctly heard. The firmament trembled with the shock of the
+contending hosts, and was lurid with the rapid discharges of their
+artillery. After a short, fierce engagement, the north-western army was
+beaten back in disorder, but rallied again, after a breathing-time,
+formed again into solid column, and again advanced. Their foes, arrayed,
+as the witnesses affirmed, in a square and closely serried grove of
+spears' and muskets, again awaited the attack. Once more the aerial
+cohorts closed upon each other, all the signs and sounds of a desperate
+encounter being distinctly recognised by the eager witnesses. The
+struggle seemed but short. The lances of the south-eastern army seemed to
+snap "like hemp-stalks," while their firm columns all went down together
+in mass, beneath the onset of their enemies. The overthrow was complete,
+victors and vanquished had faded, the clear blue space, surrounded by
+black clouds, was empty, when suddenly its whole extent, where the
+conflict had so lately raged, was streaked with blood, flowing athwart
+the sky in broad crimson streams; nor was it till the five witnesses had
+fully watched and pondered over these portents that the vision entirely
+vanished.
+
+So impressed were the grave magistrates of Utrecht with the account given
+next day by the sentinels, that a formal examination of the circumstances
+was made, the deposition of each witness, under oath, duly recorded, and
+a vast deal of consultation of soothsayers' books and other auguries
+employed to elucidate the mystery. It was universally considered typical
+of the anticipated battle between Count Louis and the Spaniards. When,
+therefore, it was known that the patriots, moving from the south-east,
+had arrived at Mookerheyde, and that their adversaries, crossing the
+Meuse at Grave, had advanced upon them from the north-west, the result of
+the battle was considered inevitable; the phantom battle of Utrecht its
+infallible precursor.
+
+Thus perished Louis of Nassau in the flower of his manhood, in the midst
+of a career already crowded with events such as might suffice for a
+century of ordinary existence. It is difficult to find in history a more
+frank and loyal character. His life was noble; the elements of the heroic
+and the genial so mixed in him that the imagination contemplates him,
+after three centuries, with an almost affectionate interest. He was not a
+great man. He was far from possessing the subtle genius or the expansive
+views of his brother; but, called as he was to play a prominent part in
+one of the most complicated and imposing dramas ever enacted by man, he,
+nevertheless, always acquitted himself with honor. His direct, fearless
+and energetic nature commanded alike the respect of friend and foe. As a
+politician, a soldier, and a diplomatist, he was busy, bold, and true.
+He, accomplished by sincerity what many thought could only be compassed
+by trickery. Dealing often with the most adroit and most treacherous of
+princes and statesmen, he frequently carried his point, and he never
+stooped to flattery. From the time when, attended by his "twelve
+disciples," he assumed the most prominent part in the negotiations with
+Margaret of Parma, through all the various scenes of the revolution,
+through, all the conferences with Spaniards, Italians, Huguenots.
+Malcontents, Flemish councillors, or German princes, he was the
+consistent and unflinching supporter of religious liberty and
+constitutional law. The battle of Heiliger Lee and the capture of Mons
+were his most signal triumphs, but the fruits of both were annihilated by
+subsequent disaster. His headlong courage was his chief foible. The
+French accused him of losing the battle of Moncontour by his impatience
+to engage; yet they acknowledged that to his masterly conduct it was
+owing that their retreat was effected in so successful, and even so
+brilliant a manner. He was censured for rashness and precipitancy in this
+last and fatal enterprise, but the reproach seems entirely without
+foundation. The expedition as already stated, had been deliberately
+arranged, with the full co-operation of his brother, and had been
+preparing several months. That he was able to set no larger force on foot
+than that which he led into Gueldres was not his fault. But for the
+floating ice which barred his passage of the Meuse, he would have
+surprised Maestricht; but for the mutiny, which rendered his mercenary
+soldiers cowards, he might have defeated Avila at Mookerheyde. Had he
+done so he would have joined his brother in the Isle of Bommel in
+triumph; the Spaniards would, probably, have been expelled from Holland,
+and Leyden saved the horrors of that memorable siege which she was soon
+called, upon to endure. These results were not in his destiny. Providence
+had decreed that he should perish in the midst of his usefulness; that
+the Prince, in his death,'should lose the right hand which had been so
+swift to execute his various plans, and the faithful fraternal heart
+which had always responded so readily to every throb of his own.
+
+In figure, he was below the middle height, but martial and noble in his
+bearing. The expression of his countenance was lively; his manner frank
+and engaging. All who knew him personally loved him, and he was the idol
+of his gallant brethren: His mother always addressed him as her dearly
+beloved, her heart's-cherished Louis. "You must come soon to me," she
+wrote in the last year of his life, "for I have many matters to ask your
+advice upon; and I thank you beforehand, for you have loved me as your
+mother all the days of your life; for which may God Almighty have you in
+his holy keeping."
+
+It was the doom of this high-born, true-hearted dame to be called upon to
+weep oftener for her children than is the usual lot of mothers. Count
+Adolphus had already perished in his youth on the field of Heiliger Lee,
+and now Louis and his young brother Henry, who had scarcely attained his
+twenty-sixth year, and whose short life had been passed in that faithful
+service to the cause of freedom which was the instinct of his race, had
+both found a bloody and an unknown grave. Count John, who had already
+done so much for the cause, was fortunately spared to do much more.
+Although of the expedition, and expecting to participate in the battle,
+he had, at the urgent solicitation of all the leaders, left the army for
+a brief, season, in order to obtain at Cologne a supply of money, for the
+mutinous troops: He had started upon this mission two days before the
+action in which he, too, would otherwise have been sacrificed. The young
+Duke Christopher, "optimm indolis et magnee spei adolescens," who had
+perished on the same field, was sincerely mourned by the lovers of
+freedom. His father, the Elector, found his consolation in the
+Scriptures, and in the reflection that his son had died in the bed of
+honor, fighting for the cause of God. "'T was better thus," said that
+stern Calvinist, whose dearest wish was to "Calvinize the world," than to
+have passed his time in idleness, "which is the Devil's pillow."
+
+Vague rumors of the catastrophe had spread far and wide. It was soon
+certain that Louis had been defeated, but, for a long time, conflicting
+reports were in circulation as to the fate of the leaders. The Prince of
+Orange, meanwhile, passed days of intense anxiety, expecting hourly to
+hear from his brothers, listening to dark rumors, which he refused to
+credit and could not contradict, and writing letters, day after day, long
+after the eyes which should have read the friendly missives were closed.
+
+The victory of the King's army at Mookerheyde had been rendered
+comparatively barren by the mutiny which broke forth the day after the
+battle. Three years' pay were due to the Spanish troops, and it was not
+surprising that upon this occasion one of those periodic rebellions
+should break forth, by which the royal cause was frequently so much
+weakened, and the royal governors so intolerably perplexed. These
+mutinies were of almost regular occurrence, and attended by as regular a
+series of phenomena. The Spanish troops, living so far from their own
+country, but surrounded by their women, and constantly increasing swarms
+of children, constituted a locomotive city of considerable population,
+permanently established on a foreign soil. It was a city walled in by
+bayonets, and still further isolated from the people around by the
+impassable moat of mutual hatred. It was a city obeying the articles of
+war, governed by despotic authority, and yet occasionally revealing, in
+full force, the irrepressible democratic element. At periods which could
+almost be calculated, the military populace were wont to rise upon the
+privileged classes, to deprive them of office and liberty, and to set up
+in their place commanders of their own election. A governor-in-chief, a
+sergeant-major, a board of councillors and various other functionaries,
+were chosen by acclamation and universal suffrage. The Eletto, or chief
+officer thus appointed, was clothed with supreme power, but forbidden to
+exercise it. He was surrounded by councillors, who watched his every
+motion, read all his correspondence, and assisted at all his conferences,
+while the councillors were themselves narrowly watched by the commonalty.
+These movements were, however, in general, marked by the most exemplary
+order. Anarchy became a system of government; rebellion enacted and
+enforced the strictest rules of discipline; theft, drunkenness, violence
+to women, were severely punished. As soon as the mutiny broke forth, the
+first object was to take possession of the nearest city, where the Eletto
+was usually established in the town-house, and the soldiery quartered
+upon the citizens. Nothing in the shape of food or lodging was too good
+for these marauders. Men who had lived for years on camp rations--coarse
+knaves who had held the plough till compelled to handle the musket, now
+slept in fine linen, and demanded from the trembling burghers the
+daintiest viands. They ate the land bare, like a swarm of locusts.
+"Chickens and partridges," says the thrifty chronicler of Antwerp,
+"capons and pheasants, hares and rabbits, two kinds of wines;--for
+sauces, capers and olives, citrons and oranges, spices and sweetmeats;
+wheaten bread for their dogs, and even wine, to wash the feet of their
+horses;"--such was the entertainment demanded and obtained by the
+mutinous troops. They were very willing both to enjoy the luxury of this
+forage, and to induce the citizens, from weariness of affording compelled
+hospitality, to submit to a taxation by which the military claims might
+be liquidated.
+
+A city thus occupied was at the mercy of a foreign soldiery, which had
+renounced all authority but that of self-imposed laws. The King's
+officers were degraded, perhaps murdered; while those chosen to supply
+their places had only a nominal control. The Eletto, day by day,
+proclaimed from the balcony of the town-house the latest rules and
+regulations. If satisfactory, there was a clamor of applause; if
+objectionable, they were rejected with a tempest of hisses, with
+discharges of musketry; The Eletto did not govern: he was a dictator who
+could not dictate, but could only register decrees. If too honest, too
+firm, or too dull for his place, he was deprived of his office and
+sometimes of his life. Another was chosen in his room, often to be
+succeeded by a series of others, destined to the same fate. Such were the
+main characteristics of those formidable mutinies, the result of the
+unthriftiness and dishonesty by which the soldiery engaged in these
+interminable hostilities were deprived of their dearly earned wages. The
+expense of the war was bad enough at best, but when it is remembered that
+of three or four dollars sent from Spain, or contributed by the provinces
+for the support of the army, hardly one reached the pockets of the
+soldier, the frightful expenditure which took place may be imagined. It
+was not surprising that so much peculation should engender revolt.
+
+The mutiny which broke out after the defeat of Count Louis was marked
+with the most pronounced and inflammatory of these symptoms. Three years'
+pay was due, to the Spaniards, who, having just achieved a signal
+victory, were-disposed to reap its fruits, by fair means or by force. On
+receiving nothing but promises, in answer to their clamorous demands,
+they mutinied to a man, and crossed the Meuse to Grave, whence, after
+accomplishing the usual elections, they took their course to Antwerp.
+Being in such strong force, they determined to strike at the capital.
+Rumour flew before them. Champagny, brother of Granvelle, and royal
+governor of the city, wrote in haste to apprise Requesens of the
+approaching danger. The Grand Commander, attended only by Vitelli,
+repaired instantly to Antwerp. Champagny advised throwing up a
+breastwork with bales of merchandize, upon the esplanade, between the
+citadel and the town, for it was at this point, where the connection
+between the fortifications of the castle and those of the city had never
+been thoroughly completed, that the invasion might be expected. Requesens
+hesitated. He trembled at a conflict with his own soldiery. If
+successful, he could only be so by trampling upon the flower of his army.
+If defeated, what would become of the King's authority, with rebellious
+troops triumphant in rebellious provinces? Sorely perplexed, the
+Commander, could think of no expedient. Not knowing what to do, he did
+nothing. In the meantime, Champagny, who felt himself odious to the
+soldiery, retreated to the Newtown, and barricaded himself, with a few
+followers, in the house of the Baltic merchants.
+
+On the 26th of April, the mutinous troops in perfect order, marched into
+the city, effecting their entrance precisely at the weak point where they
+had been expected. Numbering at least three thousand, they encamped on
+the esplanade, where Requesens appeared before them alone on horseback,
+and made them an oration. They listened with composure, but answered
+briefly and with one accord, "Dineros y non palabras," dollars not
+speeches. Requesens promised profusely, but the time was past for
+promises. Hard Silver dollars would alone content an army which, after
+three years of bloodshed and starvation, had at last taken the law into
+their own hands. Requesens withdrew to consult the Broad Council of the
+city. He was without money himself, but he demanded four hundred thousand
+crowns of the city. This was at first refused, but the troops knew the
+strength of their position, for these mutinies were never repressed, and
+rarely punished. On this occasion the Commander was afraid to employ
+force, and the burghers, after the army had been quartered upon them for
+a time, would gladly pay a heavy ransom to be rid of their odious and
+expensive guests. The mutineers foreseeing that the work might last a few
+weeks, and determined to proceed leisurely; took possession of the great
+square. The Eletto, with his staff of councillors, was quartered in the
+town-house, while the soldiers distributed themselves among the houses of
+the most opulent citizens, no one escaping a billet who was rich enough
+to receive such company: bishop or burgomaster, margrave or merchant. The
+most famous kitchens were naturally the most eagerly sought, and
+sumptuous apartments, luxurious dishes, delicate wines, were daily
+demanded. The burghers dared not refuse.
+
+The six hundred Walloons, who had been previously quartered in the city,
+were expelled, and for many days, the mutiny reigned paramount. Day after
+day the magistracy, the heads of guilds, all the representatives of the
+citizens were assembled in the Broad Council. The Governor-General
+insisted on his demand of four hundred thousand crowns, representing,
+with great justice, that the mutineers would remain in the city until
+they had eaten and drunk to that amount, and that there would still be
+the arrearages; for which the city would be obliged to raise the funds.
+On the 9th of May, the authorities made an offer, which was duly
+communicated to the Eletto. That functionary stood forth on a window-sill
+of the town-house, and addressed the soldiery. He informed them that the
+Grand Commander proposed to pay ten months' arrears in cash, five months
+in silks and woollen cloths, and the balance in promises, to be fulfilled
+within a few days. The terms were not considered satisfactory, and were
+received with groans of derision. The Eletto, on the contrary, declared
+them very liberal, and reminded the soldiers of the perilous condition in
+which they stood, guilty to a man of high treason, with a rope around
+every neck. It was well worth their while to accept the offer made them,
+together with the absolute pardon for the past, by which it was
+accompanied. For himself, he washed his hands of the consequences if the
+offer were rejected. The soldiers answered by deposing the Eletto and
+choosing another in his room.
+
+Three days after, a mutiny broke out in the citadel--an unexampled
+occurrence. The rebels ordered Sancho d'Avila, the commandant, to deliver
+the keys of the fortress. He refused to surrender them but with his life.
+They then contented themselves with compelling his lieutenant to leave
+the citadel, and with sending their Eletto to confer with the Grand
+Commander, as well as with the Eletto of the army. After accomplishing
+his mission, he returned, accompanied by Chiappin Vitelli, as envoy of
+the Governor-General. No sooner, however, had the Eletto set foot on the
+drawbridge than he was attacked by Ensign Salvatierra of the Spanish
+garrison, who stabbed him to the heart and threw him into the moat. The
+ensign, who was renowned in the army for his ferocious courage, and who
+wore embroidered upon his trunk hose the inscription, "El castigador de
+los Flamencos," then rushed upon the Sergeant-major of the mutineers,
+despatched him in the same way, and tossed him likewise into the moat.
+These preliminaries being settled, a satisfactory arrangement was
+negotiated between Vitelli and the rebellious garrison. Pardon for the
+past, and payment upon the same terms as those offered in the city, were
+accepted, and the mutiny of the citadel was quelled. It was, however,
+necessary that Salvatierra should conceal himself for a long time, to
+escape being torn to pieces by the incensed soldiery.
+
+Meantime, affairs in the city were more difficult to adjust. The
+mutineers raised an altar of chests and bales upon the public square, and
+celebrated mass under the open sky, solemnly swearing to be true to each
+other to the last. The scenes of carousing and merry-making were renewed
+at the expense of the citizens, who were again exposed to nightly alarms
+from the boisterous mirth and ceaseless mischief-making of the soldiers.
+Before the end of the month; the Broad Council, exhausted by the incubus
+which had afflicted them so many weeks, acceded to the demand of
+Requesens. The four hundred thousand crowns were furnished, the Grand
+Commander accepting them as a loan, and giving in return bonds duly
+signed and countersigned, together with a mortgage upon all the royal
+domains. The citizens received the documents, as a matter of form, but
+they had handled such securities before, and valued them but slightly.
+The mutineers now agreed to settle with the Governor-General, on
+condition of receiving all their wages, either in cash or cloth, together
+with a solemn promise of pardon for all their acts of insubordination.
+This pledge was formally rendered with appropriate religious ceremonies,
+by Requesens, in the cathedral. The payments were made directly
+afterwards, and a great banquet was held on the same day, by the whole
+mass of the soldiery, to celebrate the event. The feast took place on the
+place of the Meer, and was a scene of furious revelry. The soldiers, more
+thoughtless than children, had arrayed themselves in extemporaneous
+costumes, cut from the cloth which they had at last received in payment
+of their sufferings and their blood. Broadcloths, silks, satins, and
+gold-embroidered brocades, worthy of a queen's wardrobe, were hung in
+fantastic drapery around the sinewy forms and bronzed faces of the
+soldiery, who, the day before, had been clothed in rags. The mirth was
+fast and furious; and scarce was the banquet finished before every
+drum-head became a gaming-table, around which gathered groups eager to
+sacrifice in a moment their dearly-bought gold.
+
+The fortunate or the prudent had not yet succeeded in entirely plundering
+their companions, when the distant booming of cannon was heard from the
+river. Instantly, accoutred as they were in their holiday and fantastic
+costumes, the soldiers, no longer mutinous, were summoned from banquet
+and gaming-table, and were ordered forth upon the dykes. The patriot
+Admiral Boisot, who had so recently defeated the fleet of Bergen, under
+the eyes of the Grand Commander, had unexpectedly sailed up the Scheld,
+determined to destroy the fleet of Antwerp, which upon that occasion had
+escaped. Between, the forts of Lillo and Callao, he met with twenty-two
+vessels under the command of Vice-Admiral Haemstede. After a short and
+sharp action, he was completely victorious. Fourteen of the enemy's ships
+were burned or sunk, with all their crews, and Admiral Haemstede was
+taken prisoner. The soldiers opened a warm fire of musketry upon Boisot
+from the dyke, to which he responded with his cannon. The distance of the
+combatants, however, made the action unimportant; and the patriots
+retired down the river, after achieving a complete victory. The Grand
+Commander was farther than ever from obtaining that foothold on the sea,
+which as he had informed his sovereign, was the only means by which the
+Netherlands could be reduced.
+
+
+
+
+1574 [CHAPTER II.]
+
+   First siege of Leyden--Commencement of the second--Description of
+   the city--Preparations for defence--Letters of Orange--Act of
+   amnesty issued by Requesens--Its conditions--Its reception by the
+   Hollanders--Correspondence of the Glippers--Sorties and fierce
+   combats beneath the walls of Leyden--Position of the Prince--His
+   project of relief Magnanimity of the people--Breaking of the dykes--
+   Emotions in the city and the besieging camp--Letter of the Estates
+   of Holland--Dangerous illness of the Prince--The "wild Zealanders"--
+   Admiral Boisot commences his voyage--Sanguinary combat on the Land--
+   Scheiding--Occupation of that dyke and of the Green Way--Pauses and
+   Progress of the flotilla--The Prince visits the fleet--Horrible
+   sufferings in the city--Speech of Van der Werf--Heroism of the
+   inhabitants--The Admiral's letters--The storm--Advance of Boisot--
+   Lammen fortress----An anxious night--Midnight retreat of the
+   Spaniards--The Admiral enters the city--Thanksgiving in the great
+   church The Prince in Leyden--Parting words of Valdez--Mutiny--Leyden
+   University founded--The charter--Inauguration ceremonies.
+
+The invasion of Louis of Nassau had, as already stated, effected the
+raising of the first siege of Leyden. That leaguer had lasted from the
+31st of October, 1573, to the 21st of March, 1574, when the soldiers were
+summoned away to defend the frontier. By an extraordinary and culpable
+carelessness, the citizens, neglecting the advice of the Prince, had not
+taken advantage of the breathing time thus afforded them to victual the
+city and strengthen the garrison. They seemed to reckon more confidently
+upon the success of Count Louis than he had even done himself; for it was
+very probable that, in case of his defeat, the siege would be instantly
+resumed. This natural result was not long in following the battle of
+Mookerheyde.
+
+On the 26th of May, Valdez reappeared before the place, at the head of
+eight thousand Walloons and Germans, and Leyden was now destined to pass
+through a fiery ordeal. This city was one of the most beautiful in the
+Netherlands. Placed in the midst of broad and fruitful pastures, which
+had been reclaimed by the hand of industry from the bottom of the sea; it
+was fringed with smiling villages, blooming gardens, fruitful Orchards.
+The ancient and, at last, decrepit Rhine, flowing languidly towards its
+sandy death-bed, had been multiplied into innumerable artificial
+currents, by which the city was completely interlaced. These watery
+streets were shaded by lime trees, poplars, and willows, and crossed by
+one hundred and forty-five bridges, mostly of hammered stone. The houses
+were elegant, the squares and streets spacious, airy and clean, the
+churches and public edifices imposing, while the whole aspect, of the
+place suggested thrift, industry, and comfort. Upon an artificial
+elevation, in the centre of the city, rose a ruined tower of unknown
+antiquity. By some it was considered to be of Roman origin, while others
+preferred to regard it as a work of the Anglo-Saxon Hengist, raised to
+commemorate his conquest of England.
+
+   [Guicciardini, Descript. Holl, et Zelandire. Bor, vii. 502.
+   Bentivoglio, viii. 151
+
+            "Putatur Engistus Britanno
+             Orbe redus posuisse victor," etc., etc.
+
+   according to the celebrated poem of John Von der Does, the
+   accomplished and valiant Commandant of the city. The tower, which
+   is doubtless a Roman one, presents, at the present day, almost
+   precisely the same appearance as that described by the
+   contemporaneous historians of the siege. The verses of the
+   Commandant show the opinion, that the Anglo-Saxon conquerors of
+   Britain went from Holland, to have been a common one in the
+   sixteenth century.]
+
+Surrounded by fruit trees, and overgrown in the centre with oaks, it
+afforded, from its mouldering battlements, a charming prospect over a
+wide expanse of level country, with the spires of neighbouring cities
+rising in every direction. It was from this commanding height, during the
+long and terrible summer days which were approaching, that many an eye
+was to be strained anxiously seaward, watching if yet the ocean had begun
+to roll over the land.
+
+Valdez lost no time in securing himself in the possession of
+Maeslandsluis, Vlaardingen, and the Hague. Five hundred English, under
+command of Colonel Edward Chester, abandoned the fortress of Valkenburg,
+and fled towards Leyden. Refused admittance by the citizens, who now,
+with reason, distrusted them, they surrendered to Valdez, and were
+afterwards sent back to England. In the course of a few days, Leyden was
+thoroughly invested, no less than sixty-two redoubts, some of them having
+remained undestroyed from the previous siege, now girdling the city,
+while the besiegers already numbered nearly eight thousand, a force to be
+daily increased. On the other hand, there were no troops in the town,
+save a small corps of "freebooters," and five companies of the burgher
+guard. John Van der Does, Seigneur of Nordwyck, a gentleman of
+distinguished family, but still more distinguished for his learning, his
+poetical genius, and his valor, had accepted the office of military
+commandant.
+
+The main reliance of the city, under God, was on the stout hearts of its
+inhabitants within the walls, and on, the sleepless energy of William the
+Silent without. The Prince, hastening to comfort and encourage the
+citizens, although he had been justly irritated by their negligence in
+having omitted to provide more sufficiently against the emergency while
+there had yet been time, now reminded them that they were not about to
+contend for themselves alone, but that the fate of their country and of
+unborn generations would, in all human probability, depend on the issue
+about to be tried. Eternal glory would be their portion if they
+manifested a courage worthy of their race and of the sacred cause of
+religion and liberty. He implored them to hold out at least three months,
+assuring them that he would, within that time, devise the means of their
+deliverance. The citizens responded, courageously and confidently, to
+these missives, and assured the Prince of their firm confidence in their
+own fortitude and his exertions.
+
+And truly they had a right to rely on that calm and unflinching soul, as
+on a rock of adamant. All alone, without a being near him to consult, his
+right arm struck from him by the death of Louis, with no brother left to
+him but the untiring and faithful John, he prepared without delay for the
+new task imposed upon him. France, since the defeat and death of Louis,
+and the busy intrigues which had followed the accession of Henry III.,
+had but small sympathy for the Netherlands. The English government,
+relieved from the fear of France; was more cold and haughty than ever. An
+Englishman employed by Requesens to assassinate the Prince of Orange, had
+been arrested in Zealand, who impudently pretended that he had undertaken
+to perform the same office for Count John, with the full consent and
+privity of Queen Elizabeth. The provinces of Holland and Zealand were
+stanch and true, but the inequality of the contest between a few brave
+men, upon that handsbreadth of territory, and the powerful Spanish
+Empire, seemed to render the issue hopeless.
+
+Moreover, it was now thought expedient to publish the amnesty which had
+been so long in preparation, and this time the trap was more liberally
+baited. The pardon, which had: passed the seals upon the 8th of March,
+was formally issue: by the Grand Commander on the 6th of June. By the
+terms of this document the King invited all his erring and repentant
+subjects, to return to his arms; and to accept a full forgiveness for
+their past offences, upon the sole condition that they should once more
+throw themselves upon the bosom of the Mother Church. There were but few
+exceptions to the amnesty, a small number of individuals, all mentioned
+by name, being alone excluded; but although these terms were ample, the
+act was liable to a few stern objections. It was easier now for the
+Hollanders to go to their graves than to mass, for the contest, in its
+progress, had now entirely assumed the aspect of a religious war. Instead
+of a limited number of heretics in a state which, although constitutional
+was Catholic, there was now hardly a Papist to be found among the
+natives. To accept the pardon then was to concede the victory, and the
+Hollanders had not yet discovered that they were conquered. They were
+resolved, too, not only to be conquered, but annihilated, before the
+Roman Church should be re-established on their soil, to the entire
+exclusion of the Reformed worship. They responded with steadfast
+enthusiasm to the sentiment expressed by the Prince of Orange, after the
+second siege of Leyden had been commenced; "As long as there is a living
+man left in the country, we will contend for our liberty and our
+religion." The single condition of the amnesty assumed, in a phrase; what
+Spain had fruitlessly striven to establish by a hundred battles, and the
+Hollanders had not faced their enemy on land and sea for seven years to
+succumb to a phrase at last.
+
+Moreover, the pardon came from the wrong direction. The malefactor
+gravely extended forgiveness to his victims. Although the Hollanders had
+not yet disembarrassed their minds of the supernatural theory of
+government, and felt still the reverence of habit for regal divinity,
+they naturally considered themselves outraged by the trick now played
+before them. The man who had violated all his oaths, trampled upon all
+their constitutional liberties, burned and sacked their cities,
+confiscated their wealth, hanged, beheaded, burned, and buried alive
+their innocent brethren, now came forward, not to implore, but to offer
+forgiveness. Not in sackcloth, but in royal robes; not with ashes, but
+with a diadem upon his head, did the murderer present himself vicariously
+upon the scene of his crimes. It may be supposed that, even in the
+sixteenth century, there were many minds which would revolt at such
+blasphemy. Furthermore, even had the people of Holland been weak enough
+to accept the pardon, it was impossible to believe that the promise would
+be fulfilled. It was sufficiently known how much faith was likely to be
+kept with heretics, notwithstanding that the act was fortified by a papal
+Bull, dated on the 30th of April, by which Gregory XIII. promised
+forgiveness to those Netherland sinners who duly repented and sought
+absolution for their crimes, even although they had sinned more than
+seven times seven.
+
+For a moment the Prince had feared lest the pardon might produce some
+effect upon men wearied by interminable suffering, but the event proved
+him wrong. It was received with universal and absolute contempt. No man
+came forward to take advantage of its conditions, save one brewer in
+Utrecht, and the son of a refugee peddler from Leyden. With these
+exceptions, the only ones recorded, Holland remained deaf to the royal
+voice. The city of Leyden was equally cold to the messages of mercy,
+which were especially addressed to its population by Valdez and his
+agents. Certain Netherlanders, belonging to the King's party, and
+familiarly called "Glippers," despatched from the camp many letters to
+their rebellious acquaintances in the city. In these epistles the
+citizens of Leyden were urgently and even pathetically exhorted to
+submission by their loyal brethren, and were implored "to take pity upon
+their poor old fathers, their daughters, and their wives." But the
+burghers of Leyden thought that the best pity which they could show to
+those poor old fathers, daughters, and wives, was to keep them from the
+clutches of the Spanish soldiery; so they made no answer to the Glippers,
+save by this single line, which they wrote on a sheet of paper, and
+forwarded, like a letter, to Valdez:
+
+     "Fistula dulce canit, volucrem cum decipit auceps."
+
+According to the advice early given by the Prince of Orange, the citizens
+had taken an account of their provisions of all kinds, including the live
+stock. By the end of June, the city was placed on a strict allowance of
+food, all the provisions being purchased by the authorities at an
+equitable price. Half a pound of meat and half a pound of bread was
+allotted to a full grown man, and to the rest, a due proportion. The city
+being strictly invested, no communication, save by carrier pigeons, and
+by a few swift and skilful messengers called jumpers, was possible.
+Sorties and fierce combats were, however, of daily occurrence, and a
+handsome bounty was offered to any man who brought into the city gates
+the head of a Spaniard. The reward was paid many times, but the
+population was becoming so excited and so apt, that the authorities felt
+it dangerous to permit the continuance of these conflicts. Lest the city,
+little by little, should lose its few disciplined defenders, it was now
+proclaimed, by sound of church bell, that in future no man should leave
+the gates.
+
+The Prince had his head-quarters at Delft and at Rotterdam. Between those
+two cities, an important fortress, called Polderwaert, secured him in the
+control of the alluvial quadrangle, watered on two sides by the Yssel and
+the Meuse. On the 29th June, the Spaniards, feeling its value, had made
+an unsuccessful effort to carry this fort by storm. They had been beaten
+off, with the loss of several hundred men, the Prince remaining in
+possession of the position, from which alone he could hope to relieve
+Leyden. He still held in his hand the keys with which he could unlock the
+ocean gates and let the waters in upon the land, and he had long been
+convinced that nothing could save the city but to break the dykes. Leyden
+was not upon the sea, but he could send the sea to. Leyden, although an
+army fit to encounter the besieging force under Valdez could not be
+levied. The battle of Mookerheyde had, for the present, quite settled
+the question, of land relief, but it was possible to besiege the
+besiegers, with the waves of the ocean. The Spaniards occupied the coast
+from the Hague to Vlaardingen, but the dykes along the Meuse and Yssel
+were in possession of the Prince. He determined, that these should be
+pierced, while, at the same time, the great sluices at Rotterdam,
+Schiedam, and Delftshaven should be opened. The damage to the fields,
+villages, and growing crops would be enormous, but he felt that no other
+course could rescue Leyden, and with it the whole of Holland from
+destruction. His clear expositions and impassioned eloquence at last
+overcame all resistance. By the middle of July the estates consented to
+his plan, and its execution was immediately undertaken. "Better a drowned
+land than a lost land," cried the patriots, with enthusiasm, as they
+devoted their fertile fields to desolation. The enterprise for restoring
+their territory, for a season, to the waves, from which it had been so
+patiently rescued, was conducted with as much regularity as if it had
+been a profitable undertaking. A capital was formally subscribed, for
+which a certain number of bonds were issued, payable at a long date. In
+addition to this preliminary fund, a monthly allowance of forty-five
+guldens was voted by the estates, until the work should be completed, and
+a large sum was contributed by the ladies of the land, who freely
+furnished their plate, jewellery, and costly furniture to the furtherance
+of the scheme.
+
+Meantime, Valdez, on the 30th July; issued most urgent and ample offers
+of pardon to the citizens, if they would consent to open their gates and
+accept the King's authority, but his Overtures were received with silent
+contempt, notwithstanding that the population was already approaching the
+starvation point. Although not yet fully informed of the active measures
+taken by the Prince, yet they still chose to rely upon his energy and
+their own fortitude, rather than upon the honied words which had formerly
+been heard at the gates of Harlem and of Naarden. On the 3rd of August,
+the Prince; accompanied by Paul Buys, chief of the commission appointed
+to execute the enterprise, went in person along the Yssel; as far as
+Kappelle, and superintended the rupture of the dykes in sixteen places.
+The gates at Schiedam and Rotterdam were, opened, and the ocean began to
+pour over the land. While waiting for the waters to rise, provisions were
+rapidly, collected, according to an edict of the Prince, in all the
+principal towns of the neighbourhood, and some two hundred vessels, of
+various sizes, had also been got ready at Rotterdam, Delftshaven, and
+other ports.
+
+The citizens of Leyden were, however, already becoming impatient, for
+their bread was gone, and of its substitute malt cake, they had but
+slender provision. On the 12th of August they received a letter from the
+Prince, encouraging them to resistance, and assuring them of a speedy
+relief, and on the 21st they addressed a despatch to him in reply,
+stating that they had now fulfilled their original promise, for they had
+held out two months with food, and another month without food. If not
+soon assisted, human strength could do no more; their malt cake would
+last but four days, and after that was gone, there was nothing left but
+starvation. Upon the same day, however, they received a letter, dictated
+by the Prince, who now lay in bed at Rotterdam with a violent fever,
+assuring them that the dykes were all pierced, and that the water was
+rising upon the "Land-Scheiding," the great outer barrier which separated
+the city from the sea. He said nothing however of his own illness, which
+would have cast a deep shadow over the joy which now broke forth among
+the burghers.
+
+The letter was read publicly in the market-place, and to increase the
+cheerfulness, burgomaster Van der Werf, knowing the sensibility of his
+countrymen to music, ordered the city musicians to perambulate the
+streets, playing lively melodies and martial airs. Salvos of cannon were
+likewise fired, and the starving city for a brief space put on the aspect
+of a holiday, much to the astonishment of the besieging forces, who were
+not yet aware of the Prince's efforts. They perceived very soon, however,
+as the water everywhere about Leyden had risen to the depth of ten
+inches, that they stood in a perilous position. It was no trifling danger
+to be thus attacked by the waves of the ocean, which seemed about to obey
+with docility the command of William the Silent. Valdez became anxious
+and uncomfortable at the strange aspect of affairs, for the besieging
+army was now in its turn beleaguered, and by a stronger power than man's.
+He consulted with the most experienced of his officers, with the country
+people, with the most distinguished among the Glippers, and derived
+encouragement from their views concerning the Prince's plan. They
+pronounced it utterly futile and hopeless: The Glippers knew the country
+well, and ridiculed the desperate project in unmeasured terms.
+
+Even in the city itself, a dull distrust had succeeded to the first vivid
+gleam of hope, while the few royalists among the population boldly
+taunted their fellow-citizens to their faces with the absurd vision of
+relief which they had so fondly welcomed. "Go up to the tower, ye
+Beggars," was the frequent and taunting cry, "go up to the tower, and
+tell us if ye can see the ocean coming over the dry land to your
+relief"--and day after day they did go, up to the ancient tower of
+Hengist, with heavy heart and anxious eye, watching, hoping, praying,
+fearing, and at last almost despairing of relief by God or man. On the
+27th they addressed a desponding letter to the estates, complaining that
+the city had been forgotten in, its utmost need, and on the same day a
+prompt and warm-hearted reply was received, in which the citizens were
+assured that every human effort was to be made for their relief.
+"Rather," said the estates, "will we see our whole land and all our
+possessions perish in the waves, than forsake thee, Leyden. We know full
+well, moreover, that with Leyden, all Holland must perish also." They
+excused themselves for not having more frequently written, upon the
+ground that the whole management of the measures for their relief had
+been entrusted to the Prince, by whom alone all the details had been
+administered, and all the correspondence conducted.
+
+The fever of the Prince had, meanwhile, reached its height. He lay at
+Rotterdam, utterly prostrate in body, and with mind agitated nearly to
+delirium, by the perpetual and almost unassisted schemes which he was
+constructing. Relief, not only for Leyden, but for the whole country, now
+apparently sinking into the abyss, was the vision which he pursued as he
+tossed upon his restless couch. Never was illness more unseasonable. His
+attendants were in despair, for it was necessary that his mind should for
+a time be spared the agitation of business. The physicians who attended
+him agreed, as to his disorder, only in this, that it was the result of
+mental fatigue and melancholy, and could be cured only by removing all
+distressing and perplexing subjects from his thoughts, but all the
+physicians in the world could not have succeeded in turning his attention
+for an instant from the great cause of his country. Leyden lay, as it
+were, anxious and despairing at his feet, and it was impossible for him
+to close his ears to her cry. Therefore, from his sick bed he continued
+to dictate; words of counsel and encouragement to the city; to Admiral
+Boisot, commanding, the fleet, minute directions and precautions. Towards
+the end of August a vague report had found its way into his sick chamber
+that Leyden had fallen, and although he refused to credit the tale, yet
+it served to harass his mind, and to heighten fever. Cornelius Van
+Mierop, Receiver General of Holland, had occasion to visit him at
+Rotterdam, and strange to relate, found the house almost deserted.
+Penetrating, unattended, to the Prince's bed-chamber, he found him lying
+quite alone. Inquiring what had become, of all his attendants, he was
+answered by the Prince, in a very feeble voice, that he had sent them all
+away. The Receiver-General seems, from this, to have rather hastily
+arrived at the conclusion that the Prince's disorder was the pest, and
+that his servants and friends had all deserted him from cowardice.
+
+This was very far from being the case. His private secretary and his
+maitre d'hotel watched, day and night, by his couch, and the best
+physicians of the city were in constant attendance. By a singular
+accident; all had been despatched on different errands, at the express
+desire of their master, but there had never been a suspicion that his
+disorder was the pest, or pestilential. Nerves of steel, and a frame of
+adamant could alone have resisted the constant anxiety and the consuming
+fatigue to which he had so long been exposed. His illness had been
+aggravated by the rumor of Leyden's fall, a fiction which Cornelius
+Mierop was now enabled flatly to contradict. The Prince began to mend
+from that hour. By the end of the first week of September, he wrote along
+letter to his brother, assuring him of his convalescence, and expressing,
+as usual; a calm confidence in the divine decrees--"God will ordain for
+me," said he, "all which is necessary for my good and my salvation. He
+will load me with no more afflictions than the fragility of this nature
+can sustain."
+
+The preparations for the relief of Leyden, which, notwithstanding his
+exertions, had grown slack during his sickness, were now vigorously
+resumed. On the 1st of September, Admiral Boisot arrived out of Zealand
+with a small number of vessels, and with eight hundred veteran sailors. A
+wild and ferocious crew were those eight hundred Zealanders. Scarred,
+hacked, and even maimed, in the unceasing conflicts in which their lives
+had passed; wearing crescents in their caps, with the inscription,
+"Rather Turkish than Popish;" renowned far and wide, as much for their
+ferocity as for their nautical skill; the appearance of these wildest of
+the "Sea-beggars" was both eccentric and terrific. They were known never
+to give nor to take quarter, for they went to mortal combat only, and had
+sworn to spare neither noble nor simple, neither king, kaiser, nor pope,
+should they fall into their power.
+
+More than two hundred-vessels had been assembled, carrying generally ten
+pieces of cannon, with from ten to eighteen oars, and manned with
+twenty-five hundred veterans, experienced both on land and water. The
+work was now undertaken in earnest. The distance from Leyden to the outer
+dyke, over whose ruins the ocean had already been admitted, was nearly
+fifteen miles. This reclaimed territory, however, was not maintained
+against the sea by these external barriers alone. The flotilla made its
+way with ease to the Land-Scheiding, a strong dyke within five miles of
+Leyden, but here its progress was arrested. The approach to the city was
+surrounded by many strong ramparts, one within the other, by which it was
+defended against its ancient enemy, the ocean, precisely like the
+circumvallations by means of which it was now assailed by its more recent
+enemy, the Spaniard. To enable the fleet, however, to sail over the land;
+it was necessary to break through this two fold series of defences.
+Between the Land-Scheiding and Leyden were several dykes, which kept out
+the water; upon the level, were many villages, together with a chain of
+sixty-two forts, which completely occupied the land. All these Villages
+and fortresses were held by the veteran, troops of the King; the
+besieging force, being about four times as strong as that which was
+coming to the rescue.
+
+The Prince had given orders that the Land-Scheiding, which was still
+one-and-a-half foot above water, should be taken possession of; at every
+hazard. On the night of the 10th and 11th of September this was
+accomplished; by surprise; and in a masterly manner. The few Spaniards
+who had been stationed upon the dyke were all, despatched or driven off,
+and the patriots fortified themselves upon it, without the loss of a man.
+As the day dawned the Spaniards saw the fatal error which they had
+committed in leaving thus bulwark so feebly defended, and from two
+villages which stood close to the dyke, the troops now rushed
+inconsiderable force to recover what they had lost. A hot action
+succeeded, but the patriots had too securely established themselves. They
+completely defeated the enemy, who retired, leaving hundreds of dead on
+the field, and the patriots in complete possession of the Land-scheiding.
+This first action was sanguinary and desperate. It gave a earnest of what
+these people, who came to relieve; their brethren, by sacrificing their
+property and their lives; were determined to effect. It gave a revolting
+proof, too, of the intense hatred which nerved their arms. A Zealander;
+having struck down a Spaniard on the dyke, knelt on his bleeding enemy,
+tore his heart from his bosom; fastened his teeth in it for an instant,
+and then threw it to a dog, with the exclamation, "'Tis too bitter." The
+Spanish heart was, however, rescued, and kept for years, with the marks
+of the soldier's teeth upon it, a sad testimonial of the ferocity
+engendered by this war for national existence.
+
+The great dyke having been thus occupied, no time was lost in breaking it
+through in several places, a work which was accomplished under the very
+eyes of the enemy. The fleet sailed through the gaps, but, after their
+passage had been effected in good order, the Admiral found, to his
+surprise, that it was not the only rampart to be carried. The Prince had
+been informed, by those who claimed to know, the country, that, when once
+the Land-scheiding had been passed, the water would flood the country as
+far as Leyden, but the "Green-way," another long dyke three-quarters of a
+mile farther inward, now rose at least a foot above the water, to oppose
+their further progress. Fortunately, by, a second and still more culpable
+carelessness, this dyke had been left by the Spaniards in as unprotected
+a state as the first had been, Promptly and audaciously Admiral Boisot
+took possession of this barrier also, levelled it in many places, and
+brought his flotilla, in triumph, over its ruins. Again, however, he was
+doomed to disappointment. A large mere, called the Freshwater Lake, was
+known to extend itself directly in his path about midway between the
+Land-scheiding and the city. To this piece of water, into which he
+expected to have instantly floated, his only passage lay through one deep
+canal. The sea which had thus far borne him on, now diffusing itself over
+a very wide surface, and under the influence of an adverse wind, had
+become too shallow for his ships. The canal alone was deep enough, but it
+led directly towards a bridge, strongly occupied by the enemy. Hostile
+troops, moreover, to the amount of three thousand occupied both sides of
+the canal. The bold Boisot, nevertheless, determined to force his
+passage, if possible. Selecting a few of his strongest vessels, his
+heaviest artillery, and his bravest sailors, he led the van himself, in a
+desperate attempt to make his way to the mere. He opened a hot fire upon
+the bridge, then converted into a fortress, while his men engaged in
+hand-to-hand combat with a succession of skirmishers from the troops
+along the canal. After losing a few men, and ascertaining the impregnable
+position of the enemy, he was obliged to withdraw, defeated, and almost
+despairing.
+
+A week had elapsed since the great dyke had been pierced, and the
+flotilla now lay motionless--in shallow water, having accomplished less
+than two miles. The wind, too, was easterly, causing the sea rather to
+sink than to rise. Everything wore a gloomy aspect, when, fortunately, on
+the 18th, the wind shifted to the north-west, and for three days blew a
+gale. The waters rose rapidly, and before the second day was closed the
+armada was afloat again. Some fugitives from Zoetermeer village now
+arrived, and informed the Admiral that, by making a detour to the right,
+he could completely circumvent the bridge and the mere. They guided him,
+accordingly, to a comparatively low dyke, which led between the villages
+of Zoetermeer and Benthuyzen: A strong force of Spaniards was stationed
+in each place, but, seized with a panic, instead of sallying to defend
+the barrier, they fled inwardly towards Leyden, and halted at the village
+of North Aa. It was natural that they should be amazed. Nothing is more
+appalling to the imagination than the rising ocean tide, when man feels
+himself within its power; and here were the waters, hourly deepening and
+closing around them, devouring the earth beneath their feet, while on the
+waves rode a flotilla, manned by a determined race; whose courage and
+ferocity were known throughout the world. The Spanish soldiers, brave as
+they were on land, were not sailors, and in the naval contests which had
+taken place between them and the Hollanders had been almost invariably
+defeated. It was not surprising, in these amphibious skirmishes, where
+discipline was of little avail, and habitual audacity faltered at the
+vague dangers which encompassed them, that the foreign troops should lose
+their presence of mind.
+
+Three barriers, one within the other, had now been passed, and the
+flotilla, advancing with the advancing waves, and driving the enemy
+steadily before it, was drawing nearer to the beleaguered city. As one
+circle after another was passed, the besieging army found itself
+compressed within a constantly contracting field. The "Ark of Delft," an
+enormous vessel, with shot-proof bulwarks, and moved by paddle-wheels
+turned by a crank, now arrived at Zoetermeer, and was soon followed by
+the whole fleet. After a brief delay, sufficient to allow the few
+remaining villagers to escape, both Zoetermeer and Benthuyzen, with the
+fortifications, were set on fire, and abandoned to their fate. The blaze
+lighted up the desolate and watery waste around, and was seen at Leyden,
+where it was hailed as the beacon of hope. Without further impediment,
+the armada proceeded to North Aa; the enemy retreating from this position
+also, and flying to Zoeterwoude, a strongly fortified village but a mile
+and three quarters from the city walls. It was now swarming with troops,
+for the bulk of the besieging army had gradually been driven into a
+narrow circle of forts, within the immediate neighbourhood of Leyden.
+Besides Zoeterwoude, the two posts where they were principally
+established were Lammen and Leyderdorp, each within three hundred rods of
+the town. At Leyderdorp were the head-quarters of Valdez; Colonel Borgia
+commanded in the very strong fortress of Lammen.
+
+The fleet was, however, delayed at North Aa by another barrier, called
+the "Kirk-way." The waters, too, spreading once more over a wider space,
+and diminishing under an east wind, which had again arisen, no longer
+permitted their progress, so that very soon the whole armada was stranded
+anew. The waters fell to the depth of nine inches; while the vessels
+required eighteen and twenty. Day after day the fleet lay motionless
+upon the shallow sea. Orange, rising from his sick bed as soon as he
+could stand, now came on board the fleet. His presence diffused universal
+joy; his words inspired his desponding army with fresh hope. He rebuked
+the impatient spirits who, weary of their compulsory idleness, had shown
+symptoms of ill-timed ferocity, and those eight hundred mad Zealanders,
+so frantic in their hatred to the foreigners, who had so long profaned
+their land, were as docile as children to the Prince. He reconnoitred the
+whole ground, and issued orders for the immediate destruction of the
+Kirkway, the last important barrier which separated the fleet from
+Leyden. Then, after a long conference with Admiral Boisot, he returned to
+Delft.
+
+Meantime, the besieged city was at its last gasp. The burghers had been
+in a state of uncertainty for many days; being aware that the fleet had
+set forth for their relief, but knowing full well the thousand obstacles
+which it, had to surmount. They had guessed its progress by the
+illumination from, the blazing villages; they had heard its salvos of
+artillery, on its arrival at North Aa; but since then, all had been dark
+and mournful again, hope and fear, in sickening alternation, distracting
+every breast. They knew that the wind was unfavorable, and at the dawn of
+each day every eye was turned wistfully to the vanes of the steeples. So
+long as the easterly breeze prevailed, they felt, as they anxiously stood
+on towers and housetops; that they must look in vain for the welcome
+ocean. Yet, while thus patiently waiting, they were literally starving;
+for even the misery endured at Harlem had not reached that depth and
+intensity of agony to which Leyden was now reduced. Bread, malt-cake,
+horseflesh, had entirely disappeared; dogs, cats, rats, and other vermin,
+were esteemed luxuries: A small number of cows, kept as long as possible,
+for their milk, still remained; but a few were killed from day to day;
+and distributed in minute proportions, hardly sufficient to support life
+among the famishing population. Starving wretches swarmed daily around
+the shambles where these cattle were slaughtered, contending for any
+morsel which might fall, and lapping eagerly the blood as it ran along
+the pavement; while the hides; chopped and boiled, were greedily
+devoured. Women and children, all day long, were seen searching gutters
+and dunghills for morsels of food, which they disputed fiercely with the
+famishing dogs. The green leaves were stripped from the trees, every
+living herb was converted into human food, but these expedients could not
+avert starvation. The daily mortality was frightful infants starved to
+death on the maternal breasts, which famine had parched and withered;
+mothers dropped dead in the streets, with their dead children in their
+arms. In many a house the watchmen, in their rounds, found a whole family
+of corpses, father, mother, and children, side by side, for a disorder
+called the plague, naturally engendered of hardship and famine, now came,
+as if in kindness, to abridge the agony of the people. The pestilence
+stalked at noonday through the city, and the doomed inhabitants fell like
+grass beneath its scythe. From six thousand to eight thousand human
+beings sank before this scourge alone, yet the people resolutely held
+out--women and men mutually encouraging each other to resist the entrance
+of their foreign foe--an evil more horrible than pest or famine.
+
+The missives from Valdez, who saw more vividly than the besieged could
+do, the uncertainty of his own position, now poured daily into the city,
+the enemy becoming more prodigal of his vows, as he felt that the ocean
+might yet save the victims from his grasp. The inhabitants, in their
+ignorance, had gradually abandoned their hopes of relief, but they
+spurned the summons to surrender. Leyden was sublime in its despair. A
+few murmurs were, however, occasionally heard at the steadfastness of the
+magistrates, and a dead body was placed at the door of the burgomaster,
+as a silent witness against his inflexibility. A party of the more
+faint-hearted even assailed the heroic Adrian Van der Werf with threats
+and reproaches as he passed through the streets. A crowd had gathered
+around him, as he reached a triangular place in the centre of the town,
+into which many of the principal streets emptied themselves, and upon one
+side of which stood the church of Saint Pancras, with its high brick
+tower surmounted by two pointed turrets, and with two ancient lime trees
+at its entrance. There stood the burgomaster, a tall, haggard, imposing
+figure, with dark visage, and a tranquil but commanding eye. He waved his
+broadleaved felt hat for silence, and then exclaimed, in language which
+has been almost literally preserved, What would ye, my friends? Why do ye
+murmur that we do not break our vows and surrender the city to the
+Spaniards? a fate more horrible than the agony which she now endures. I
+tell you I have made an oath to hold the city, and may God give me
+strength to keep my oath! I can die but once; whether by your hands, the
+enemy's, or by the hand of God. My own fate is indifferent to me, not so
+that of the city intrusted to my care. I know that we shall starve if not
+soon relieved; but starvation is preferable to the dishonored death which
+is the only alternative. Your menaces move me not; my life is at your
+disposal; here is my sword, plunge it into my breast, and divide my flesh
+among you. Take my body to appease your hunger, but expect no surrender,
+so long as I remain alive.
+
+The words of the stout burgomaster inspired a new courage in the hearts
+of those who heard him, and a shout of applause and defiance arose from
+the famishing but enthusiastic crowd. They left the place, after
+exchanging new vows of fidelity with their magistrate, and again ascended
+tower and battlement to watch for the coming fleet. From the ramparts
+they hurled renewed defiance at the enemy. "Ye call us rat-eaters and
+dog-eaters," they cried, "and it is true. So long, then, as ye hear dog
+bark or cat mew within the walls, ye may know that the city holds out.
+And when all has perished but ourselves, be sure that we will each devour
+our left arms, retaining our right to defend our women, our liberty, and
+our religion, against the foreign tyrant. Should God, in his wrath, doom
+us to destruction, and deny us all relief, even then will we maintain
+ourselves for ever against your entrance. When the last hour has come,
+with our own hands we will set fire to the city and perish, men, women,
+and children together in the flames, rather than suffer our homes to be
+polluted and our liberties to be crushed." Such words of defiance,
+thundered daily from the battlements, sufficiently informed Valdez as to
+his chance of conquering the city, either by force or fraud, but at the
+same time, he felt comparatively relieved by the inactivity of Boisot's
+fleet, which still lay stranded at North Aa. "As well," shouted the
+Spaniards, derisively, to the citizens, "as well can the Prince of Orange
+pluck the stars from the sky as bring the ocean to the walls of Leyden
+for your relief."
+
+On the 28th of September, a dove flew into the city, bringing a letter
+from Admiral Boisot. In this despatch, the position of the fleet at North
+Aa was described in encouraging terms, and the inhabitants were assured
+that, in a very few days at furthest, the long-expected relief would
+enter their gates. The letter was read publicly upon the market-place,
+and the bells were rung for joy. Nevertheless, on the morrow, the vanes
+pointed to the east, the waters, so far from rising, continued to sink,
+and Admiral Boisot was almost in despair. He wrote to the Prince, that if
+the spring-tide, now to be expected, should not, together with a strong
+and favorable wind, come immediately to their relief, it would be in pain
+to attempt anything further, and that the expedition would, of necessity,
+be abandoned. The tempest came to their relief. A violent equinoctial
+gale, on the night of the 1st and 2nd of October, came storming from the
+north-west, shifting after a few hours full eight points, and then
+blowing still more violently from the south-west. The waters of the North
+Sea were piled in vast masses upon the southern coast of Holland, and
+then dashed furiously landward, the ocean rising over the earth, and
+sweeping with unrestrained power across the ruined dykes.
+
+In the course of twenty-four hours, the fleet at North Aa, instead of
+nine inches, had more than two feet of water. No time was lost. The
+Kirk-way, which had been broken through according to the Prince's
+instructions, was now completely overflowed, and the fleet sailed at
+midnight, in the midst of the storm and darkness. A few sentinel vessels
+of the enemy challenged them as they steadily rowed towards Zoeterwoude.
+The answer was a flash from Boisot's cannon; lighting up the black waste
+of waters. There was a fierce naval midnight battle; a strange spectacle
+among the branches of those quiet orchards, and with the chimney stacks
+of half-submerged farmhouses rising around the contending vessels. The
+neighboring village of Zoeterwoude shook with the discharges of the
+Zealanders' cannon, and the Spaniards assembled in that fortress knew
+that the rebel Admiral was at last, afloat and on his course. The enemy's
+vessels were soon sunk, their crews hurled into the waves. On went the
+fleet, sweeping over the broad waters which lay between Zoeterwoude and
+Zwieten. As they approached some shallows, which led into the great mere,
+the Zealanders dashed into the sea, and with sheer strength shouldered
+every vessel through. Two obstacles lay still in their path--the forts of
+Zoeterwoude and Lammen, distant from the city five hundred and two
+hundred and fifty yards respectively. Strong redoubts, both well supplied
+with troops and artillery, they were likely to give a rough reception to
+the light flotilla, but the panic; which had hitherto driven their foes
+before the advancing patriots; had reached Zoeterwoude. Hardly was the
+fleet in sight when the Spaniards in the early morning, poured out from
+the fortress, and fled precipitately to the left, along a road which led
+in a westerly direction towards the Hague. Their narrow path was rapidly
+vanishing in the waves, and hundreds sank beneath the constantly
+deepening and treacherous flood. The wild Zealanders, too, sprang from
+their vessels upon the crumbling dyke and drove their retreating foes
+into the sea. They hurled their harpoons at them, with an accuracy
+acquired in many a polar chase; they plunged into the waves in the keen
+pursuit, attacking them with boat-hook and dagger. The numbers who thus
+fell beneath these corsairs, who neither gave nor took quarter, were
+never counted, but probably not less than a thousand perished. The rest
+effected their escape to the Hague.
+
+The first fortress was thus seized, dismantled, set on fire, and passed,
+and a few strokes of the oars brought the whole fleet close to Lammen.
+This last obstacle rose formidable and frowning directly across their
+path. Swarming as it was with soldiers, and bristling with artillery, it
+seemed to defy the armada either to carry it by storm or to pass under
+its guns into the city. It appeared that the enterprise was, after all,
+to founder within sight of the long expecting and expected haven. Boisot
+anchored his fleet within a respectful distance, and spent what remained
+of the day in carefully reconnoitring the fort, which seemed only too
+strong. In conjunction with Leyderdorp, the head-quarters of Valdez, a
+mile and a half distant on the right, and within a mile of the city, it
+seemed so insuperable an impediment that Boisot wrote in despondent tone
+to the Prince of Orange. He announced his intention of carrying the fort,
+if it were possible, on the following morning, but if obliged to retreat,
+he observed, with something like despair, that there would be nothing for
+it but to wait for another gale of wind. If the waters should rise
+sufficiently to enable them to make a wide detour, it might be possible,
+if, in the meantime, Leyden did not starve or surrender, to enter its
+gates from the opposite side.
+
+Meantime, the citizens had grown wild with expectation. A dove had been
+despatched by Boisot, informing them of his precise position, and a
+number of citizens accompanied the burgomaster, at nightfall, toward the
+tower of Hengist. Yonder, cried the magistrate, stretching out his hand
+towards Lammen, "yonder, behind that fort, are bread and meat, and
+brethren in thousands. Shall all this be destroyed by the Spanish guns,
+or shall we rush to the rescue of our friends?"--"We will tear the
+fortress to fragments with our teeth and nails," was the reply, "before
+the relief, so long expected, shall be wrested from us." It was resolved
+that a sortie, in conjunction with the operations of Boisot, should be
+made against Lammen with the earliest dawn. Night descended upon the
+scene, a pitch dark night, full of anxiety to the Spaniards, to the
+armada, to Leyden. Strange sights and sounds occurred at different
+moments to bewilder the anxious sentinels. A long procession of lights
+issuing from the fort was seen to flit across the black face of the
+waters, in the dead of night, and the whole of the city wall, between the
+Cow-gate and the Tower of Burgundy, fell with a loud crash. The
+horror-struck citizens thought that the Spaniards were upon them at last;
+the Spaniards imagined the noise to indicate, a desperate sortie of the
+citizens. Everything was vague and mysterious.
+
+Day dawned, at length, after the feverish, night, and, the Admiral
+prepared for the assault. Within the fortress reigned a death-like
+stillness, which inspired a sickening suspicion. Had the city, indeed,
+been carried in the night; had the massacre already commenced; had all
+this labor and audacity been expended in vain? Suddenly a man was
+descried, wading breast-high through the water from Lammen towards the
+fleet, while at the same time, one solitary boy was seen to wave his cap
+from the summit of the fort. After a moment of doubt, the happy mystery
+was solved. The Spaniards had fled, panic struck, during the darkness.
+Their position would still have enabled them, with firmness, to frustrate
+the enterprise of the patriots, but the hand of God, which had sent the
+ocean and the tempest to the deliverance of Leyden, had struck her
+enemies with terror likewise. The lights which had been seen moving
+during the night were the lanterns of the retreating Spaniards, and the
+boy who was now waving his triumphant signal from the battlements had
+alone witnessed the spectacle. So confident was he in the conclusion to
+which it led him, that he had volunteered at daybreak to go thither all
+alone. The magistrates, fearing a trap, hesitated for a moment to believe
+the truth, which soon, however, became quite evident. Valdez, flying
+himself from Leyderdorp, had ordered Colonel Borgia to retire with all
+his troops from Lammen. Thus, the Spaniards had retreated at the very
+moment that an extraordinary accident had laid bare a whole side of the
+city for their entrance. The noise of the wall, as it fell, only inspired
+them with fresh alarm for they believed that the citizens had sallied
+forth in the darkness, to aid the advancing flood in the work of
+destruction. All obstacles being now removed, the fleet of Boisot swept
+by Lammen, and entered the city on the morning of the 3rd of October.
+Leyden was relieved.
+
+The quays were lined with the famishing population, as the fleet rowed
+through the canals, every human being who could stand, coming forth to
+greet the preservers of the city. Bread was thrown from every vessel
+among the crowd. The poor creatures who, for two months had tasted no
+wholesome human food, and who had literally been living within the jaws
+of death, snatched eagerly the blessed gift, at last too liberally
+bestowed. Many choked themselves to death, in the greediness with which
+they devoured their bread; others became ill with the effects of plenty
+thus suddenly succeeding starvation; but these were isolated cases, a
+repetition of which was prevented. The Admiral, stepping ashore, was
+welcomed by the magistracy, and a solemn procession was immediately
+formed. Magistrates and citizens, wild Zealanders, emaciated burgher
+guards, sailors, soldiers, women, children, nearly every living person
+within the walls, all repaired without delay to the great church, stout
+Admiral Boisot leading the way. The starving and heroic city, which had
+been so firm in its resistance to an earthly king, now bent itself in
+humble gratitude before the King of kings. After prayers, the whole vast
+congregation joined in the thanksgiving hymn. Thousands of voices raised
+the-song, but few were able to carry it to its conclusion, for the
+universal emotion, deepened by the music, became too full for utterance.
+The hymn was abruptly suspended, while the multitude wept like children.
+This scene of honest pathos terminated; the necessary measures for
+distributing the food and for relieving the sick were taken by the
+magistracy. A note dispatched to the Prince of Orange, was received by
+him at two o'clock, as he sat in church at Delft. It was of a somewhat
+different purport from that of the letter which he had received early in
+the same day from Boisot; the letter in which the admiral had, informed
+him that the success of the enterprise depended; after-all, upon the
+desperate assault upon a nearly impregnable fort. The joy of the Prince
+may be easily imagined, and so soon as the sermon was concluded; he
+handed the letter just received to the minister, to be read to the
+congregation. Thus, all participated in his joy, and united with him in
+thanksgiving.
+
+The next day, notwithstanding the urgent entreaties of his friends, who
+were anxious lest his life should be endangered by breathing, in his
+scarcely convalescent state; the air of the city where so many thousands
+had been dying of the pestilence, the Prince repaired to Leyden. He, at
+least, had never doubted his own or his country's fortitude. They could,
+therefore, most sincerely congratulate each other, now that the victory
+had been achieved. "If we are doomed to perish," he had said a little
+before the commencement of the siege, "in the name of God, be it so! At
+any rate, we shall have the honor to have done what no nation ever, did
+before us, that of having defended and maintained ourselves, unaided, in
+so small a country, against the tremendous efforts of such powerful
+enemies. So long as the poor inhabitants here, though deserted by all the
+world, hold firm, it will still cost the Spaniards the half of Spain, in
+money and in men, before they can make an end of us."
+
+The termination of the terrible siege of Leyden was a convincing proof to
+the Spaniards that they had not yet made an end of the Hollanders. It
+furnished, also, a sufficient presumption that until they had made an end
+of them, even unto the last Hollander, there would never be an end of the
+struggle in which they were engaged. It was a slender consolation to the
+Governor-General, that his troops had been vanquished, not by the enemy,
+but by the ocean. An enemy whom the ocean obeyed with such docility might
+well be deemed invincible by man. In the head-quarters of Valdez, at
+Leyderdorp, many plans of Leyden and the neighbourhood were found lying
+in confusion about the room. Upon the table was a hurried farewell of
+that General to the scenes of his, discomfiture, written in a Latin
+worthy of Juan Vargas: "Vale civitas, valete castelli parvi, qui relicti
+estis propter aquam et non per vim inimicorum!" In his precipitate
+retreat before the advancing rebels, the Commander had but just found
+time for this elegant effusion, and, for his parting instructions to
+Colonel Borgia that the fortress of Lammen was to be forthwith abandoned.
+These having been reduced to writing, Valdez had fled so speedily as to
+give rise to much censure and more scandal. He was even accused of having
+been bribed by the Hollanders to desert his post, a tale which many
+repeated, and a few believed. On the 4th of October, the day following
+that on which the relief of the city was effected, the wind shifted to
+the north-east, and again blew a tempest. It was as if the waters, having
+now done their work, had been rolled back to the ocean by an Omnipotent
+hand, for in the course of a few days, the land was bare again, and the
+work of reconstructing the dykes commenced.
+
+After a brief interval of repose, Leyden had regained its former
+position. The Prince, with advice of the estates, had granted the city,
+as a reward for its sufferings, a ten days' annual fair, without tolls or
+taxes, and as a further manifestation of the gratitude entertained by the
+people of Holland and Zealand for the heroism of the citizens, it was
+resolved that an academy or university should be forthwith established
+within their walls. The University of Leyden, afterwards so illustrious,
+was thus founded in the very darkest period of the country's struggle.
+
+The university was endowed with a handsome revenue, principally derived
+from the ancient abbey of Egmont, and was provided with a number of
+professors, selected for their genius, learning, and piety among all the
+most distinguished scholars of the Netherlands. The document by which the
+institution was founded was certainly a masterpiece of ponderous irony,
+for as the fiction of the King's sovereignty was still maintained, Philip
+was gravely made to establish the university, as a reward to Leyden for
+rebellion to himself. "Considering," said this wonderful charter, "that
+during these present wearisome wars within our provinces of Holland and
+Zealand, all good instruction of youth in the sciences and liberal arts
+is likely to come into entire oblivion. . . . . Considering the
+differences of religion--considering that we are inclined to gratify our
+city of Leyden, with its burghers, on account of the heavy burthens
+sustained by them during this war with such faithfulness--we have
+resolved, after ripely deliberating with our dear cousin, William, Prince
+of Orange, stadholder, to erect a free public school and university,"
+etc., etc., etc. So ran the document establishing this famous academy,
+all needful regulations for the government and police of the institution
+being entrusted by Philip to his "above-mentioned dear cousin of Orange."
+
+The university having been founded, endowed, and supplied with its
+teachers, it was solemnly consecrated in the following winter, and it is
+agreeable to contemplate this scene of harmless pedantry, interposed, as
+it was, between the acts of the longest and dreariest tragedy of modern
+time. On the 5th of February, 1575, the city of Leyden, so lately the
+victim of famine and pestilence, had crowned itself with flowers. At
+seven in the morning, after a solemn religious celebration in the Church
+of St. Peter, a grand procession was formed. It was preceded by a
+military escort, consisting of the burgher militia and the five companies
+of infantry stationed in the city. Then came, drawn by four horses, a
+splendid triumphal chariot, on which sat a female figure, arrayed in
+snow-white garments. This was the Holy Gospel. She was attended by the
+Four Evangelists, who walked on foot at each side of her chariot. Next
+followed Justice, with sword and scales, mounted; blindfold, upon a
+unicorn, while those learned doctors, Julian, Papinian, Ulpian, and
+Tribonian, rode on either side, attended by two lackeys and four men at
+arms. After these came Medicine, on horseback, holding in one hand a
+treatise of the healing art, in the other a garland of drugs. The
+curative goddess rode between the four eminent physicians, Hippocrates,
+Galen, Dioscorides, and Theophrastus, and was attended by two footmen and
+four pike-bearers. Last of the allegorical personages came Minerva,
+prancing in complete steel, with lance in rest, and bearing her Medusa
+shield. Aristotle and Plato, Cicero and Virgil, all on horseback, with
+attendants in antique armor at their back, surrounded the daughter of
+Jupiter, while the city band, discoursing eloquent music from hautboy and
+viol, came upon the heels of the allegory. Then followed the mace-bearers
+and other officials, escorting the orator of the day, the newly-appointed
+professors and doctors, the magistrates and dignitaries, and the body of
+the citizens generally completing the procession.
+
+Marshalled in this order, through triumphal arches, and over a pavement
+strewed with flowers, the procession moved slowly up and down the
+different streets, and along the quiet canals of the city. As it reached
+the Nuns' Bridge, a barge of triumph, gorgeously decorated, came floating
+slowly down the sluggish Rhine. Upon its deck, under a canopy enwreathed
+with laurels and oranges, and adorned with tapestry, sat Apollo, attended
+by the Nine Muses, all in classical costume; at the helm stood Neptune
+with his trident. The Muses executed some beautiful concerted pieces;
+Apollo twanged his lute. Having reached the landing-place, this
+deputation from Parnassus stepped on shore, and stood awaiting the
+arrival of the procession. Each professor, as he advanced, was gravely
+embraced and kissed by Apollo and all the Nine Muses in turn, who greeted
+their arrival besides with the recitation of an elegant Latin poem. This
+classical ceremony terminated, the whole procession marched together to
+the cloister of Saint Barbara, the place prepared for the new university,
+where they listened to an eloquent oration by the Rev. Caspar Kolhas,
+after which they partook of a magnificent banquet. With this memorable
+feast, in the place where famine had so lately reigned, the ceremonies
+were concluded.
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     Crescents in their caps: Rather Turkish than Popish
+     Ever-swarming nurseries of mercenary warriors
+     Weep oftener for her children than is the usual lot of mothers
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS, THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 1566-74, Complete
+
+     1566, the last year of peace
+     Advised his Majesty to bestow an annual bribe upon Lord Burleigh
+     Age when toleration was a vice
+     An age when to think was a crime
+     Angle with their dissimulation as with a hook
+     Beggars of the sea, as these privateersmen designated themselves
+     Business of an officer to fight, of a general to conquer
+     Conde and Coligny
+     Constitutional governments, move in the daylight
+     Consumer would pay the tax, supposing it were ever paid at all
+     Crescents in their caps: Rather Turkish than Popish
+     Cruelties exercised upon monks and papists
+     Deeply criminal in the eyes of all religious parties
+     Dissenters were as bigoted as the orthodox
+     Enthusiasm could not supply the place of experience
+     Envying those whose sufferings had already been terminated
+     Ever-swarming nurseries of mercenary warriors
+     Financial opposition to tyranny is apt to be unanimous
+     For faithful service, evil recompense
+     Furnished, in addition, with a force of two thousand prostitutes
+     God Save the King! It was the last time
+     Great transactions of a reign are sometimes paltry things
+     Great battles often leave the world where they found it
+     Hair and beard unshorn, according to ancient Batavian custom
+     Hanged for having eaten meat-soup upon Friday
+     Having conjugated his paradigm conscientiously
+     He had omitted to execute heretics
+     He came as a conqueror not as a mediator
+     Holy Office condemned all the inhabitants of the Netherlands
+     Hope deferred, suddenly changing to despair
+     If he had little, he could live upon little
+     Incur the risk of being charged with forwardness than neglect
+     Indignant that heretics had been suffered to hang
+     Insane cruelty, both in the cause of the Wrong and the Right
+     Leave not a single man alive in the city, and to burn every house
+     Luther's axiom, that thoughts are toll-free
+     Meantime the second civil war in France had broken out
+     Not for a new doctrine, but for liberty of conscience
+     Not to let the grass grow under their feet
+     Not strong enough to sustain many more such victories
+     Oldenbarneveld; afterwards so illustrious
+     Only kept alive by milk, which he drank from a woman's breast
+     Only healthy existence of the French was in a state of war
+     Pathetic dying words of Anne Boleyn
+     Provided not one Huguenot be left alive in France
+     Put all those to the torture out of whom anything can be got
+     Questioning nothing, doubting nothing, fearing nothing
+     Saint Bartholomew's day
+     Scepticism, which delights in reversing the judgment of centuries
+     Science of reigning was the science of lying
+     Sent them word by carrier pigeons
+     Seven Spaniards were killed, and seven thousand rebels
+     Sick and wounded wretches were burned over slow fires
+     Slender stock of platitudes
+     So much responsibility and so little power
+     Sometimes successful, even although founded upon sincerity
+     Spendthrift of time, he was an economist of blood
+     The time for reasoning had passed
+     The calf is fat and must be killed
+     The perpetual reproductions of history
+     The greatest crime, however, was to be rich
+     The faithful servant is always a perpetual ass
+     The tragedy of Don Carlos
+     The illness was a convenient one
+     Three hundred fighting women
+     Time and myself are two
+     Tyranny, ever young and ever old, constantly reproducing herself
+     We are beginning to be vexed
+     Wealth was an unpardonable sin
+     Weep oftener for her children than is the usual lot of mothers
+     Who loved their possessions better than their creed
+     Wonder equally at human capacity to inflict and to endure misery
+
+
+
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC, VOLUME III.
+
+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 be 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
+
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Volume
+25.
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
+
+By John Lothop Motley
+1855
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+   Assumption of affairs by the state council at Brussels--Hesitation
+   at Madrid--Joachim Hopper--Mal-administration--Vigilance of Orange--
+   The provinces drawn more closely together--Inequality of the
+   conflict--Physical condition of Holland--New act of Union between
+   Holland and Zealand--Authority of the Prince defined and enlarged--
+   Provincial polity characterized--Generous sentiments of the Prince--
+   His tolerant spirit--Letters from the King--Attitude of the great
+   powers towards the Netherlands--Correspondence and policy of
+   Elizabeth--Secret negotiations with France and Alencon--Confused and
+   menacing aspect of Germany--Responsible, and laborious position of
+   Orange--Attempt to relieve Zierickzee--Death of Admiral Boisot--
+   Capitulation of the city upon honourable terms--Mutiny of the
+   Spanish troops in Schouwen--General causes of discontent--Alarming
+   increase of the mutiny--The rebel regiments enter Brabant--Fruitless
+   attempts to pacify them--They take possession of Alost--Edicts,
+   denouncing them, from the state council--Intense excitement in
+   Brussels and Antwerp--Letters from Philip brought by Marquis Havre--
+   The King's continued procrastination--Ruinous royal confirmation of
+   the authority assumed by the state council--United and general
+   resistance to foreign military oppression--The German troops and the
+   Antwerp garrison, under Avila, join the revolt--Letter of Verdugo--
+   A crisis approaching--Jerome de Roda in the citadel--The mutiny
+   universal.
+
+The death of Requesens, notwithstanding his four days' illness, occurred
+so suddenly, that he had not had time to appoint his successor. Had he
+exercised this privilege, which his patent conferred upon him, it was
+supposed that he would have nominated Count Mansfeld to exercise the
+functions of Governor-General, until the King should otherwise ordain.
+
+In the absence of any definite arrangement, the Council of State,
+according to a right which that body claimed from custom, assumed the
+reins of government. Of the old board, there were none left but the Duke
+of Aerschot, Count Berlaymont, and Viglins. To these were soon added,
+however, by royal diploma, the Spaniard, Jerome de Roda, and the
+Netherlanders, Assonleville, Baron Rassenghiem and Arnold Sasbout. Thus,
+all the members, save one, of what had now become the executive body,
+were natives of the country. Roda was accordingly looked askance upon by
+his colleagues. He was regarded by Viglius as a man who desired to repeat
+the part which had been played by Juan Vargas in the Blood Council, while
+the other members, although stanch Catholics, were all of them
+well-disposed to vindicate the claim of Netherland nobles to a share in
+the government of the Netherlands.
+
+For a time, therefore, the transfer of authority seemed to have been
+smoothly accomplished. The Council of State conducted the administration
+of the country. Peter Ernest Mansfeld was entrusted with the supreme
+military command, including the government of Brussels; and the Spanish
+commanders; although dissatisfied that any but a Spaniard should be thus
+honored, were for a time quiescent. When the news reached Madrid, Philip
+was extremely disconcerted. The death of Requesens excited his
+indignation. He was angry with him, not for dying, but for dying at so
+very inconvenient a moment. He had not yet fully decided either upon his
+successor, or upon the policy to be enforced by his successor. There were
+several candidates for the vacant post; there was a variety of opinions
+in the cabinet as to the course of conduct to be adopted. In the
+impossibility of instantly making up his mind upon this unexpected
+emergency, Philip fell, as it were, into a long reverie, than which
+nothing could be more inopportune. With a country in a state of
+revolution and exasperation, the trance, which now seemed to come over
+the government, was like to be followed by deadly effects. The stationary
+policy, which the death of Requesens had occasioned, was allowed to
+prolong itself indefinitely, and almost for the first time in his life,
+Joachim Hopper was really consulted about the affairs of that department
+over which he imagined himself, and was generally supposed by others, to
+preside at Madrid. The creature of Viglius, having all the subserviency,
+with none of the acuteness of his patron, he had been long employed as
+chief of the Netherland bureau, while kept in profound ignorance of the
+affairs which were transacted in his office. He was a privy councillor,
+whose counsels were never heeded, a confidential servant in whom the King
+reposed confidence, only on the ground that no man could reveal secrets
+which he did not know. This deportment of the King's showed that he had
+accurately measured the man, for Hopper was hardly competent for the
+place of a chief clerk. He was unable to write clearly in any language,
+because incapable of a fully developed thought upon any subject. It may
+be supposed that nothing but an abortive policy, therefore, would be
+produced upon the occasion thus suddenly offered. "'Tis a devout man,
+that poor Master Hopper," said Granvelle, "but rather fitted for platonic
+researches than for affairs of state."
+
+It was a proof of this incompetency, that now, when really called upon
+for advice in an emergency, he should recommend a continuance of the
+interim. Certainly nothing worse could be devised. Granvelle recommended
+a reappointment of the Duchess Margaret. Others suggested Duke Eric of
+Brunswick, or an Archduke of the Austrian house; although the opinion
+held by most of the influential councillors was in favor of Don John of
+Austria. In the interests of Philip and his despotism, nothing, at any
+rate, could be more fatal than delay. In the condition of affairs which
+then existed, the worst or feeblest governor would have been better than
+none at all. To leave a vacancy was to play directly into the hands of
+Orange, for it was impossible that so skilful an adversary should not at
+once perceive the fault, and profit by it to the utmost. It was strange
+that Philip did not see the danger of inactivity at such a crisis.
+Assuredly, indolence was never his vice, but on this occasion indecision
+did the work of indolence. Unwittingly, the despot was assisting the
+efforts of the liberator. Viglius saw the position of matters with his
+customary keenness, and wondered at the blindness of Hopper and Philip.
+At the last gasp of a life, which neither learning nor the accumulation
+of worldly prizes and worldly pelf could redeem from intrinsic baseness,
+the sagacious but not venerable old man saw that a chasm was daily
+widening; in which the religion and the despotism which he loved might
+soon be hopelessly swallowed. "The Prince of Orange and his Beggars do
+not sleep," he cried, almost in anguish; "nor will they be quiet till
+they have made use of this interregnum to do us some immense grievance."
+Certainly the Prince of Orange did not sleep upon this nor any other
+great occasion of his life. In his own vigorous language, used to
+stimulate his friends in various parts of the country, he seized the
+swift occasion by the forelock. He opened a fresh correspondence with
+many leading gentlemen in Brussels and other places in the Netherlands;
+persons of influence, who now, for the first time, showed a disposition
+to side with their country against its tyrants. Hitherto the land had
+been divided into two very unequal portions. Holland and Zealand were
+devoted to the Prince; their whole population, with hardly an individual
+exception, converted to the Reformed religion. The other fifteen
+provinces were, on the whole, loyal to the King; while the old religion
+had, of late years, taken root so rapidly again, that perhaps a moiety of
+their population might be considered as Catholic. At the same time, the
+reign of terror under Alva, the paler, but not less distinct tyranny of
+Requesens, and the intolerable excesses of the foreign soldiery, by which
+the government of foreigners was supported, had at last maddened all the
+inhabitants of the seventeen provinces. Notwithstanding, therefore, the
+fatal difference of religious opinion, they were all drawn into closer
+relations with each other; to regain their ancient privileges, and to
+expel the detested foreigners from the soil, being objects common to all.
+The provinces were united in one great hatred and one great hope.
+
+The Hollanders and Zealanders, under their heroic leader, had well nigh
+accomplished both tasks, so far as those little provinces were concerned.
+Never had a contest, however, seemed more hopeless at its commencement.
+Cast a glance at the map. Look at Holland--not the Republic, with its
+sister provinces beyond the Zuyder Zee--but Holland only, with the
+Zealand archipelago. Look at that narrow tongue of half-submerged earth.
+Who could suppose that upon that slender sand-bank, one hundred and
+twenty miles in length, and varying in breadth from four miles to forty,
+one man, backed by the population of a handful of cities, could do battle
+nine years long with the master of two worlds, the "Dominator Of Asia,
+Africa, and America"--the despot of the fairest realms of Europe--and
+conquer him at last. Nor was William even entirely master of that narrow
+shoal where clung the survivors of a great national shipwreck. North and
+South Holland were cut in two by the loss of Harlem, while the enemy was
+in possession of the natural capital of the little country, Amsterdam.
+The Prince affirmed that the cause had suffered more from the disloyalty
+of Amsterdam than from all the efforts of the enemy.
+
+Moreover, the country was in a most desolate condition. It was almost
+literally a sinking ship. The destruction of the bulwarks against the
+ocean had been so extensive, in consequence of the voluntary inundations
+which have been described in previous pages, and by reason of the general
+neglect which more vital occupations had necessitated, that an enormous
+outlay, both of labor and money, was now indispensable to save the
+physical existence of the country. The labor and the money,
+notwithstanding the crippled and impoverished condition of the nation,
+were, however, freely contributed; a wonderful example of energy and
+patient heroism was again exhibited. The dykes which had been swept away
+in every direction were renewed at a vast expense. Moreover, the country,
+in the course of recent events, had become almost swept bare of its
+cattle, and it was necessary to pass a law forbidding, for a considerable
+period, the slaughter of any animals, "oxen, cows, calves, sheep, or
+poultry." It was, unfortunately, not possible to provide by law against
+that extermination of the human population which had been decreed by
+Philip and the Pope.
+
+Such was the physical and moral condition of the provinces of Holland and
+Zealand. The political constitution of both assumed, at this epoch, a
+somewhat altered aspect. The union between the two states; effected in
+June, 1575, required improvement. The administration of justice, the
+conflicts of laws, and more particularly the levying of monies and troops
+in equitable proportions, had not been adjusted with perfect smoothness.
+The estates of the two provinces, assembled in congress at Delft,
+concluded, therefore, a new act of union, which was duly signed upon the
+25th of April, 1576. Those estates, consisting of the knights and nobles
+of Holland, with the deputies from the cities and countships of Holland
+and Zealand, had been duly summoned by the Prince of Orange. They as
+fairly included all the political capacities, and furnished as copious a
+representation of the national will, as could be expected, for it is
+apparent upon every page of his history, that the Prince, upon all
+occasions, chose to refer his policy to the approval and confirmation of
+as large a portion of the people as any man in those days considered
+capable or desirous of exercising political functions.
+
+The new, union consisted of eighteen articles. It was established that
+deputies from all the estates should meet, when summoned by the Prince of
+Orange or otherwise, on penalty of fine, and at the risk of measures
+binding upon them being passed by the rest of the Congress. Freshly
+arising causes of litigation were to be referred to the Prince. Free
+intercourse and traffic through the united provinces was guaranteed. The
+confederates were mutually to assist each other in preventing all
+injustice, wrong, or violence, even towards an enemy. The authority of
+law and the pure administration of justice were mutually promised by the
+contracting states. The common expenses were to be apportioned among the
+different provinces, "as if they were all included in the republic of a
+single city." Nine commissioners, appointed by the Prince on nomination
+by the estates, were to sit permanently, as his advisers, and as
+assessors and collectors of the taxes. The tenure of the union was from
+six months to six months, with six weeks notice.
+
+The framers of this compact having thus defined the general outlines of
+the confederacy, declared that the government, thus constituted, should
+be placed under a single head. They accordingly conferred supreme
+authority on the Prince, defining his powers in eighteen articles. He was
+declared chief commander by land and sea. He was to appoint all officers,
+from generals to subalterns, and to pay them at his discretion. The whole
+protection of the land was devolved upon him. He was to send garrisons or
+troops into every city and village at his pleasure, without advice or
+consent of the estates, magistrates of the cities, or any other persons
+whatsoever. He was, in behalf of the King as Count of Holland and
+Zealand, to cause justice to be administered by the supreme court. In the
+same capacity he was to provide for vacancies in all political and
+judicial offices of importance, choosing, with the advice of the estates,
+one officer for each vacant post out of three candidates nominated to him
+by that body. He was to appoint and renew, at the usual times, the
+magistracies in the cities, according to the ancient constitutions. He
+was to make changes in those boards, if necessary, at unusual times, with
+consent of the majority of those representing the great council and
+corpus of the said cities. He was to uphold the authority and
+pre-eminence of all civil functionaries, and to prevent governors and
+military officers from taking any cognizance of political or judicial
+affairs. With regard to religion, he was to maintain the practice of the
+Reformed Evangelical religion, and to cause to surcease the exercise of
+all other religions contrary to the Gospel. He was, however, not to
+permit that inquisition should be made into any man's belief or
+conscience, or that any man by cause thereof should suffer trouble,
+injury, or hindrance.
+
+The league thus concluded was a confederation between a group of
+virtually independent little republics. Each municipality, was, as it
+were, a little sovereign, sending envoys to a congress to vote and to
+sign as plenipotentiaries. The vote of each city was, therefore,
+indivisible, and it mattered little, practically, whether there were one
+deputy or several. The nobles represented not only their own order, but
+were supposed to act also in behalf of the rural population. On the
+whole, there was a tolerably fair representation of the whole nation. The
+people were well and worthily represented in the government of each city,
+and therefore equally so in the assembly of the estates. It was not till
+later that the corporations, by the extinction of the popular element,
+and by the usurpation of the right of self-election, were thoroughly
+stiffened into fictitious personages which never died, and which were
+never thoroughly alive.
+
+At this epoch the provincial liberties, so far as they could maintain
+themselves against Spanish despotism, were practical and substantial. The
+government was a representative one, in which all those who had the
+inclination possessed, in one mode or another, a voice. Although the
+various members of the confederacy were locally and practically republics
+or self-governed little commonwealths, the general government which they,
+established was, in form, monarchical. The powers conferred upon Orange
+constituted him a sovereign ad interim, for while the authority of the
+Spanish monarch remained suspended, the Prince was invested, not only
+with the whole executive and appointing power, but even with a very large
+share in the legislative functions of the state.
+
+The whole system was rather practical than theoretical, without any
+accurate distribution of political powers. In living, energetic
+communities, where the blood of the body politic circulates swiftly,
+there is an inevitable tendency of the different organs to sympathize and
+commingle more closely than a priori philosophy would allow. It is
+usually more desirable than practicable to keep the executive,
+legislative, and judicial departments entirely independent of each other.
+
+Certainly, the Prince of Orange did not at that moment indulge in
+speculations concerning the nature and origin of government. The Congress
+of Delft had just clothed him with almost regal authority. In his hands
+were the powers of war and peace, joint control of the magistracies and
+courts of justice, absolute supremacy over the army and the fleets. It is
+true that these attributes had been conferred upon him ad interim, but it
+depended only upon himself to make the sovereignty personal and
+permanent. He was so thoroughly absorbed in his work, however, that he
+did not even see the diadem which he put aside. It was small matter to
+him whether they called him stadholder or guardian, prince or king. He
+was the father of his country and its defender. The people, from highest
+to lowest, called him "Father William," and the title was enough for him.
+The question with him was not what men should call him, but how he should
+best accomplish his task.
+
+So little was he inspired by the sentiment of self-elevation, that he was
+anxiously seeking for a fitting person--strong, wise, and willing
+enough--to exercise the sovereignty which was thrust upon himself, but
+which he desired to exchange against an increased power to be actively
+useful to his country. To expel the foreign oppressor; to strangle the
+Inquisition; to maintain the ancient liberties of the nation; here was
+labor enough for his own hands. The vulgar thought of carving a throne
+out of the misfortunes of his country seems not to have entered his mind.
+Upon one point, however, the Prince had been peremptory. He would have no
+persecution of the opposite creed. He was requested to suppress the
+Catholic religion, in terms. As we have seen, he caused the expression to
+be exchanged for the words, "religion at variance with the Gospel." He
+resolutely stood out against all meddling with men's consciences, or
+inquiring into their thoughts. While smiting the Spanish Inquisition into
+the dust, he would have no Calvinist inquisition set up in its place.
+Earnestly a convert to the Reformed religion, but hating and denouncing
+only what was corrupt in the ancient Church, he would not force men, with
+fire and sword, to travel to heaven upon his own road. Thought should be
+toll-free. Neither monk nor minister should burn, drown, or hang his
+fellow-creatures, when argument or expostulation failed to redeem them
+from error. It was no small virtue, in that age, to rise to such a
+height. We know what Calvinists, Zwinglians, Lutherans, have done in the
+Netherlands, in Germany, in Switzerland, and almost a century later in
+New England. It is, therefore, with increased veneration that we regard
+this large and truly catholic mind. His tolerance proceeded from no
+indifference. No man can read his private writings, or form a thorough
+acquaintance with his interior life, without recognizing him as a deeply
+religious man. He had faith unfaltering in God. He had also faith in man
+and love for his brethren. It was no wonder that in that age of religious
+bigotry he should have been assaulted on both sides. While the Pope
+excommunicated him as a heretic, and the King set a price upon his head
+as a rebel, the fanatics of the new religion denounced him as a godless
+man. Peter Dathenus, the unfrocked monk of Poperingen, shrieked out in
+his pulpit that the "Prince of Orange cared nothing either for God or for
+religion."
+
+The death of Requesens had offered the first opening through which the
+watchful Prince could hope to inflict a wound in the vital part of
+Spanish authority in the Netherlands. The languor of Philip and the
+procrastinating counsel of the dull Hopper unexpectedly widened the
+opening. On the 24th of March letters were written by his Majesty to the
+states-general, to the provincial estates, and to the courts of justice,
+instructing them that, until further orders, they were all to obey the
+Council of State. The King was confident that all would do their utmost
+to assist that body in securing the holy Catholic Faith and the implicit
+obedience of the country to its sovereign. He would, in the meantime,
+occupy himself with the selection of a new Governor-General, who should
+be of his family and blood. This uncertain and perilous condition of
+things was watched with painful interest in neighbouring countries.
+
+The fate of all nations was more or less involved in the development of
+the great religious contest now waging in the Netherlands. England and
+France watched each other's movements in the direction of the provinces
+with intense jealousy. The Protestant Queen was the natural ally of the
+struggling Reformers, but her despotic sentiments were averse to the
+fostering of rebellion against the Lord's anointed. The thrifty Queen
+looked with alarm at the prospect of large subsidies which would
+undoubtedly be demanded of her. The jealous Queen could as ill brook the
+presence of the French in the Netherlands as that of the Spaniards whom
+they were to expel. She therefore embarrassed, as usual, the operations
+of the Prince by a course of stale political coquetry. She wrote to him,
+on the 18th of March, soon after the news of the Grand Commander's death,
+saying that she could not yet accept the offer which had been made to
+her, to take the provinces of Holland and Zealand under her safe keeping,
+to assume, as Countess, the sovereignty over them, and to protect the
+inhabitants against the alleged tyranny of the King of Spain. She was
+unwilling to do so until she had made every effort to reconcile them with
+that sovereign. Before the death of Requesens she had been intending to
+send him an envoy, proposing a truce, for the purpose of negotiation.
+This purpose she still retained. She should send commissioners to the
+Council of State and to the new Governor, when he should arrive. She
+should also send a special envoy to the King of Spain. She doubted not
+that the King would take her advice, when he heard her speak in such
+straightforward language. In the meantime, she hoped that they would
+negotiate with no other powers.
+
+This was not very satisfactory. The Queen rejected the offers to herself,
+but begged that they might, by no means, be made to her rivals. The
+expressed intention of softening the heart of Philip by the use of
+straightforward language seemed but a sorry sarcasm. It was hardly worth
+while to wait long for so improbable a result. Thus much for England at
+that juncture. Not inimical, certainly; but over-cautious, ungenerous,
+teasing, and perplexing, was the policy of the maiden Queen. With regard
+to France, events there seemed to favor the hopes of Orange. On the 14th
+of May, the "Peace of Monsieur," the treaty by which so ample but so
+short-lived a triumph was achieved by the Huguenots, was signed at Paris.
+Everything was conceded, but nothing was secured. Rights of worship,
+rights of office, political and civil, religious enfranchisement, were
+recovered, but not guaranteed. It seemed scarcely possible that the King
+could be in earnest then, even if a Medicean Valois could ever be
+otherwise than treacherous. It was almost, certain, therefore, that a
+reaction would take place; but it is easier for us, three centuries after
+the event, to mark the precise moment of reaction, than it was for the
+most far-seeing contemporary to foretell how soon it would occur. In the
+meantime, it was the Prince's cue to make use of this sunshine while it
+lasted. Already, so soon as the union of 25th of April had been concluded
+between Holland and Zealand, he had forced the estates to open
+negotiations with France. The provinces, although desirous to confer
+sovereignty upon him, were indisposed to renounce their old allegiance to
+their King in order to place it at the disposal of a foreigner.
+Nevertheless, a resolution, at the reiterated demands of Orange, was
+passed by the estates, to proceed to the change of master, and, for that,
+purpose, to treat with the King of France, his brother, or any other
+foreign potentate, who would receive these provinces of Holland and
+Zealand under his government and protection. Negotiations were
+accordingly opened with the Duke-of-Anjou, the dilettante leader of the
+Huguenots at that remarkable juncture. It was a pity that no better
+champion could be looked for among the anointed of the earth than the
+false, fickle, foolish Alencon, whose career, everywhere contemptible,
+was nowhere so flagitious as in the Netherlands. By the fourteenth
+article of the Peace of Paris, the Prince was reinstated and secured in
+his principality of Orange; and his other possessions in France. The best
+feeling; for the time being, was manifested between the French court and
+the Reformation.
+
+Thus much for England and France. As for Germany, the prospects of the
+Netherlands were not flattering. The Reforming spirit had grown languid,
+from various causes. The self-seeking motives of many Protestant princes
+had disgusted the nobles. Was that the object of the bloody wars of
+religion, that a few potentates should be enabled to enrich themselves by
+confiscating the broad lands and accumulated treasures of the Church? Had
+the creed of Luther been embraced only for such unworthy ends? These
+suspicions chilled the ardor of thousands, particularly among the greater
+ones of the land. Moreover, the discord among the Reformers themselves
+waxed daily, and became more and more mischievous. Neither the people nor
+their leaders could learn that, not a new doctrine, but a wise toleration
+for all Christian doctrines was wanted. Of new doctrines there was no
+lack. Lutherans, Calvinists, Flaccianists, Majorists, Adiaphorists,
+Brantianists, Ubiquitists, swarmed and contended pell-mell. In this there
+would have been small harm, if the Reformers had known what reformation
+meant. But they could not invent or imagine toleration. All claimed the
+privilege of persecuting. There were sagacious and honest men among the
+great ones of the country, but they were but few. Wise William of Hesse
+strove hard to effect a concordia among the jarring sects; Count John of
+Nassau, though a passionate Calvinist, did no less; while the Elector of
+Saxony, on the other hand, raging and roaring like a bull of Bashan, was
+for sacrificing the interest of millions on the altar of his personal
+spite. Cursed was his tribe if he forgave the Prince. He had done what he
+could at the Diet of Ratisbon to exclude all Calvinists from a
+participation in the religious peace of Germany, and he redoubled his
+efforts to prevent the extension of any benefits to the Calvinists of the
+Netherlands. These determinations had remained constant and intense.
+
+On the whole, the political appearance of Germany was as menacing as that
+of France seemed for a time favorable to the schemes of Orange. The
+quarrels of the princes, and the daily widening schism between Lutherans
+and Calvinists, seemed to bode little good to the cause of religious
+freedom. The potentates were perplexed and at variance, the nobles
+lukewarm and discontented. Among the people, although subdivided into
+hostile factions, there was more life. Here, at least, were heartiness of
+love and hate, enthusiastic conviction, earnestness and agitation. "The
+true religion," wrote Count John, "is spreading daily among the common
+men. Among the powerful, who think themselves highly learned, and who sit
+in roses, it grows, alas, little. Here and there a Nicodemus or two may
+be found, but things will hardly go better here than in France or the
+Netherlands."
+
+Thus, then, stood affairs in the neighbouring countries. The prospect was
+black in Germany, more encouraging in France, dubious, or worse, in
+England. More work, more anxiety, more desperate struggles than ever,
+devolved upon the Prince. Secretary Brunynck wrote that his illustrious
+chief was tolerably well in health, but so loaded with affairs, sorrows,
+and travails, that, from morning till night, he had scarcely leisure to
+breathe. Besides his multitudinous correspondence with the public bodies,
+whose labors he habitually directed; with the various estates of the
+provinces, which he was gradually moulding into an organised and general
+resistance to the Spanish power; with public envoys and with secret
+agents to foreign cabinets, all of whom received their instructions from
+him alone; with individuals of eminence and influence, whom he was
+eloquently urging to abandon their hostile position to their fatherland;
+and to assist him in the great work which he was doing; besides these
+numerous avocations, he was actively and anxiously engaged during the
+spring of 1576, with the attempt to relieve the city of Zierickzee.
+
+That important place, the capital of Schouwen, and the key to half
+Zealand, had remained closely invested since the memorable expedition to
+Duiveland. The Prince had passed much of his time in the neighbourhood,
+during the month of May, in order to attend personally to the
+contemplated relief, and to correspond daily with the beleaguered
+garrison. At last, on the 25th of May, a vigorous effort was made to
+throw in succor by sea. The brave Admiral Boisot, hero of the memorable
+relief of Leyden, had charge of the expedition. Mondragon had surrounded
+the shallow harbor with hulks and chains, and with a loose submerged dyke
+of piles and rubbish. Against this obstacle Boisot drove his ship, the
+'Red Lion,' with his customary audacity, but did not succeed in cutting
+it through. His vessel, the largest of the feet, became entangled: he
+was, at the same time, attacked from a distance by the besiegers. The
+tide ebbed and left his ship aground, while the other vessels had been
+beaten back by the enemy. Night approached; and there was no possibility
+of accomplishing the enterprise. His ship was hopelessly stranded. With
+the morning's sun his captivity was certain. Rather than fall into the
+hands of his enemy, he sprang into the sea; followed by three hundred of
+his companions, some of whom were fortunate enough to effect their
+escape. The gallant Admiral swam a long time, sustained by a broken spar.
+Night and darkness came on before assistance could be rendered, and he
+perished. Thus died Louis Boisot, one of the most enterprising of the
+early champions of Netherland freedom--one of the bravest precursors of
+that race of heroes, the commanders of the Holland navy. The Prince
+deplored his loss deeply, as that of a "valiant gentleman, and one well
+affectioned to the common cause." His brother, Charles Boisot, as will be
+remembered, had perished by treachery at the first landing of the Spanish
+troops; after their perilous passage from Duiveland.--Thus both the
+brethren had laid down their lives for their country, in this its outer
+barrier, and in the hour of its utmost need. The fall of the beleaguered
+town could no longer be deferred. The Spaniards were, at last, to receive
+the prize of that romantic valor which had led them across the bottom of
+the sea to attack the city. Nearly nine months had, however, elapsed
+since that achievement; and the Grand Commander, by whose orders it had
+been undertaken, had been four months in his grave. He was permitted to
+see neither the long-delayed success which crowded the enterprise, nor
+the procession of disasters and crimes which were to mark it as a most
+fatal success.
+
+On the 21st of June, 1576, Zierickzee, instructed by the Prince of Orange
+to accept honorable terms, if offered, agreed to surrender. Mondragon,
+whose soldiers were in a state of suffering, and ready to break out in
+mutiny, was but too happy to grant an honorable capitulation. The
+garrison were allowed to go out with their arms and personal baggage. The
+citizens were permitted to retain or resume their privileges and
+charters, on payment of two hundred thousand guldens. Of, sacking and
+burning there was, on this occasion, fortunately, no question; but the
+first half of the commutation money was to be paid in cash. There was but
+little money in the impoverished little town, but mint-masters were
+appointed by the magistrates to take their seats at once an in the Hotel
+de Ville. The citizens brought their spoons and silver dishes; one after
+another, which were melted and coined into dollars and half-dollars,
+until the payment was satisfactorily adjusted. Thus fell Zierickzee, to
+the deep regret of the Prince. "Had we received the least succor in the
+world from any side," he wrote; "the poor city should never have fallen.
+I could get nothing from France or England, with all my efforts.
+Nevertheless, we do not lose courage, but hope that, although abandoned
+by all the world, the Lord God will extend His right hand over us."
+
+The enemies were not destined to go farther. From their own hand now came
+the blow which was to expel them from the soil which they had so long
+polluted. No sooner was Zierickzee captured than a mutiny broke forth
+among several companies of Spaniards and Walloons, belonging, to the army
+in Schouwen. A large number of the most influential officers had gone to
+Brussels, to make arrangements, if possible; for the payment of the
+troops. In their absence there was more scope for the arguments of the
+leading mutineers; arguments assuredly, not entirely destitute of justice
+or logical precision. If ever laborers were worthy of their hire,
+certainly it was the Spanish soldiery. Had they not done the work of
+demons for nine years long? Could Philip or Alva have found in the wide
+world men to execute their decrees with more unhesitating docility, with
+more sympathizing eagerness? What obstacle had ever given them pause in
+their career of duty? What element had they not braved? Had not they
+fought within the bowels of the earth, beneath the depths of the sea,
+within blazing cities, and upon fields of ice? Where was the work which
+had been too dark and bloody for their performance? Had they not
+slaughtered unarmed human beings by townfuls, at the word of command? Had
+they not eaten the flesh, and drank the hearts' blood of their enemies?
+Had they not stained the house of God with wholesale massacre? What altar
+and what hearthstone had they not profaned? What fatigue, what danger,
+what crime, had ever checked them for a moment? And for all this
+obedience, labor, and bloodshed, were they not even to be paid such wages
+as the commonest clown, who only tore the earth at home, received? Did
+Philip believe that a few thousand Spaniards were to execute his sentence
+of death against three millions of Netherlanders, and be cheated of their
+pay at last?
+
+It was in vain that arguments and expostulations were addressed to
+soldiers who were suffering from want, and maddened by injustice. They
+determined to take their cause into their own hand, as they had often
+done before. By the 15th of July, the mutiny was general on the isle of
+Schouwen. Promises were freely offered, both of pay and pardon; appeals
+were made to their old sense of honor and loyalty; but they had had
+enough of promises, of honor, and of work. What they wanted now were
+shoes and jerkins, bread and meat, and money. Money they would have, and
+that at once. The King of Spain was their debtor. The Netherlands
+belonged to the King of Spain. They would therefore levy on the
+Netherlands for payment of their debt. Certainly this was a logical
+deduction. They knew by experience that this process had heretofore
+excited more indignation in the minds of the Netherland people than in
+that of their master. Moreover, at this juncture, they cared little for
+their sovereign's displeasure, and not at all for that of the
+Netherlanders. By the middle of July, then, the mutineers, now entirely
+beyond control, held their officers imprisoned within their quarters at
+Zierickzee. They even surrounded the house of Mondtagon, who had so often
+led them to victory, calling upon him with threats and taunts to furnish
+them with money. The veteran, roused to fury by their insubordination and
+their taunts, sprang from his house into the midst of the throng. Baring
+his breast before them, he fiercely invited and dared their utmost
+violence. Of his life-blood, he told them bitterly, he was no niggard,
+and it was at their disposal. His wealth, had he possessed any, would
+have been equally theirs. Shamed into temporary respect, but not turned
+from their purpose by the choler of their chief, they left him to
+himself. Soon afterwards, having swept Schouwen island bare of every
+thing which could be consumed, the mutineers swarmed out of Zealand into
+Brabant, devouring as they went.
+
+It was their purpose to hover for a time in the neighbourhood of the
+capital, and either to force the Council of State to pay them their long
+arrears, or else to seize and sack the richest city upon which they could
+lay their hands. The compact, disciplined mass, rolled hither and
+thither, with uncertainty of purpose, but with the same military
+precision of movement which had always characterized these remarkable
+mutinies. It gathered strength daily. The citizens of Brussels
+contemplated with dismay the eccentric and threatening apparition. They
+knew that rapine, murder, and all the worst evils which man can inflict
+on his brethren were pent within it, and would soon descend. Yet, even
+with all their past experience, did they not foresee the depth of woe
+which was really impending. The mutineers had discarded such of their
+officers as they could not compel to obedience, and had, as usual, chosen
+their Eletto. Many straggling companies joined them as they swept to and
+fro. They came to Herenthals, where they were met by Count Mansfeld, who
+was deputed by the Council of State to treat with them, to appeal to
+them; to pardon them, to offer, them everything but money. It may be
+supposed that the success of the commander-in-chief was no better than
+that of Mondragon and his subalterns. They laughed him to scorn when he
+reminded them how their conduct was tarnishing the glory which they had
+acquired by nine years of heroism. They answered with their former
+cynicism, that glory could be put neither into pocket nor stomach. They
+had no use for it; they had more than enough of it. Give them money, or
+give them a City, these were their last terms.
+
+Sorrowfully and bodingly Mansfeld withdrew to consult again with the
+State Council. The mutineers then made a demonstration upon Mechlin, but
+that city having fortunately strengthened its garrison, was allowed to
+escape. They then hovered for a time outside the walls of Brussels. At
+Grimsberg, where they paused for a short period, they held a parley with
+Captain Montesdocca, whom they received with fair words and specious
+pretences. He returned to Brussels with the favourable tidings, and the
+mutineers swarmed off to Assche. Thither Montesdoeca was again
+despatched, with the expectation that he would be able to bring them to
+terms, but they drove him off with jeers and threats, finding that he
+brought neither money nor the mortgage of a populous city. The next day,
+after a feint or two in a different direction, they made a sudden swoop
+upon Alost, in Flanders. Here they had at last made their choice, and the
+town was carried by storm. All the inhabitants who opposed them were
+butchered, and the mutiny, at last established in a capital, was able to
+treat with the State Council upon equal terms. They were now between two
+and three thousand strong, disciplined, veteran troops, posted in a
+strong and wealthy city. One hundred parishes belonged to the
+jurisdiction of Alost, all of which were immediately laid under
+contribution.
+
+The excitement was now intense in Brussels. Anxiety and alarm had given
+place to rage, and the whole population rose in arms to defend the
+capital, which was felt to be in imminent danger. This spontaneous
+courage of the burghers prevented the catastrophe, which was reserved for
+a sister city. Meantime, the indignation and horror excited by the mutiny
+were so universal that the Council of State could not withstand the
+pressure. Even the women and children demanded daily in the streets that
+the rebel soldiers should be declared outlaws. On the 26th of July,
+accordingly, the King of Spain was made to pronounce, his Spaniards
+traitors and murderers. All men were enjoined to slay one or all of them,
+wherever they should be found; to refuse them bread, water, and fire, and
+to assemble at sound of bell; in every city; whenever the magistrates
+should order an assault upon them. A still more stringent edict was
+issued on the 2nd of August; and so eagerly had these degrees been
+expected, that they were published throughout Flanders and Brabant almost
+as soon as issued. Hitherto the leading officers of the Spanish army had
+kept aloof from the insurgents, and frowned upon their proceedings. The
+Spanish member of the State Council, Jerome de Roda, had joined without
+opposition in the edict. As, however, the mutiny gathered strength on the
+outside, the indignation waxed daily within the capital. The citizens of
+Brussels, one and all, stood to their arms. Not a man could enter or
+leave without their permission. The Spaniards who were in the town,
+whether soldiers or merchants, were regarded with suspicion and
+abhorrence. The leading Spanish officers, Romero, Montesdocca, Verdugo,
+and others, who had attempted to quell the mutiny, had been driven off
+with threats and curses, their soldiers defying them and brandishing
+their swords in their very faces. On the other hand, they were looked
+upon with ill-will by the Netherlanders. The most prominent Spanish
+personages in Brussels were kept in a state of half-imprisonment. Romero,
+Roda, Verdugo, were believed to favor at heart the cause of their
+rebellious troops, and the burghers of Brabant had come to consider all
+the King's army in a state of rebellion. Believing the State Council
+powerless to protect them from the impending storm, they regarded that
+body with little respect, keeping it, as it were, in durance, while the
+Spaniards were afraid to walk the streets of Brussels for fear of being
+murdered. A retainer of Rods, who had ventured to defend the character
+and conduct of his master before a number of excited citizens, was slain
+on the spot.
+
+In Antwerp, Champagny, brother of Granvelle, and governor of the city,
+was disposed to cultivate friendly relations with the Prince of Orange.
+Champagny hated the Spaniards, and the hatred seemed to establish enough
+of sympathy between himself and the liberal party to authorize confidence
+in him. The Prince dealt with him, but regarded him warily. Fifteen
+companies of German troops, under Colonel Altaemst, were suspected of a
+strong inclination to join the mutiny. They were withdrawn from Antwerp,
+and in their room came Count Uberstein, with his regiment, who swore to
+admit no suspicious person inside the gates, and in all things to obey
+the orders of Champagny. In the citadel, however, matters were very
+threatening. Sancho d'Avila, the governor, although he had not openly
+joined the revolt, treated the edict of outlawry against the rebellious
+soldiery with derision. He refused to publish a decree which he
+proclaimed infamous, and which had been extorted, in his opinion, from an
+impotent and trembling council. Even Champagny had not desired or dared
+to publish the edict within the city. The reasons alleged were his fears
+of irritating and alarming the foreign merchants, whose position was so
+critical and friendship so important at that moment. On the other hand,
+it was loudly and joyfully published in most other towns of Flanders and
+Brabant. In Brussels there were two parties, one holding the decree too
+audacious for his Majesty to pardon; the other clamoring for its
+instantaneous fulfilment. By far the larger and more influential portion
+of the population favored the measure, and wished the sentence of
+outlawry and extermination to be extended at once against all Spaniards
+and other foreigners in the service of the King. It seemed imprudent to
+wait until all the regiments had formally accepted the mutiny, and
+concentrated themselves into a single body.
+
+At this juncture, on the last day of July, the Marquis off Havre, brother
+to the Duke of Aerschot, arrived out of Spain. He was charged by the King
+with conciliatory but unmeaning phrases to the estates. The occasion was
+not a happy one. There never was a time when direct and vigorous action
+had been more necessary. It was probably the King's desire then, as much
+as it ever had been his desire at all, to make up the quarrel with his
+provinces. He had been wearied with the policy which Alva had enforced,
+and for which he endeavoured at that period to make the Duke appear
+responsible. The barren clemency which the Grand Commander had been
+instructed to affect, had deceived but few persons, and had produced but
+small results. The King was, perhaps, really inclined at this juncture to
+exercise clemency--that is to say he was willing to pardon his people for
+having contended for their rights, provided they were now willing to
+resign them for ever. So the Catholic religion and his own authority,
+were exclusively and inviolably secured, he was willing to receive his
+disobedient provinces into favor. To accomplish this end, however, he had
+still no more fortunate conception than to take the advice of Hopper. A
+soothing procrastination was the anodyne selected for the bitter pangs of
+the body politic--a vague expression of royal benignity the styptic to be
+applied to its mortal wounds. An interval of hesitation was to bridge
+over the chasm between the provinces and their distant metropolis. "The
+Marquis of Havre has been sent," said the King, "that he may expressly
+witness to you of our good intentions, and of our desire, with the grace
+of God, to bring about a pacification." Alas, it was well known whence
+those pavements of good intentions had been taken, and whither they would
+lead. They were not the material for a substantial road to
+reconciliation. "His Majesty," said the Marquis; on delivering his report
+to the State Council, "has long been pondering over all things necessary
+to the peace of the land. His Majesty, like a very gracious and bountiful
+Prince, has ever been disposed, in times past, to treat these, his
+subjects, by the best and sweetest means." There being, however, room for
+an opinion that so bountiful a prince might have discovered sweeter
+means, by all this pondering, than to burn and gibbet his subjects by
+thousands, it was thought proper to insinuate that his orders had been
+hitherto misunderstood. Alva and Requesens had been unfaithful agents,
+who did not know their business, but it was to be set right in future.
+"As the good-will and meaning of his Majesty has, by no means been
+followed," continued the envoy, "his Majesty has determined to send
+Councillor Hopper, keeper of the privy seal, and myself, hitherwards, to
+execute the resolutions of his Majesty." Two such personages as poor,
+plodding, confused; time-serving Hopper, and flighty, talkative Havre,
+whom even Requesens despised, and whom Don John, while shortly afterwards
+recommending him for a state councillor, characterized, to Philip as "a
+very great scoundrel;" would hardly be able, even if royally empowered,
+to undo the work of two preceding administrations. Moreover, Councillor
+Hopper, on further thoughts, was not despatched at all to the
+Netherlands.
+
+The provinces were, however, assured by the King's letters to the Brabant
+estates, to the State Council, and other, public bodies, as well as by
+the report of the Marquis, that efficacious remedies were preparing in
+Madrid. The people were only too wait patiently till they should arrive.
+The public had heard before of these nostrums, made up by the royal
+prescriptions in Spain; and were not likely to accept them as a panacea
+for their present complicated disorders. Never, in truth, had
+conventional commonplace been applied more unseasonably. Here was a
+general military mutiny flaming in the very centre of the land. Here had
+the intense hatred of race, which for years had been gnawing at the heart
+of the country, at last broken out into most malignant manifestation.
+Here was nearly the whole native population of every province, from grand
+seigneur to plebeian, from Catholic prelate to Anabaptist artisan,
+exasperated alike by the excesses of six thousand foreign brigands, and
+united by a common hatred, into a band of brethren. Here was a State
+Council too feeble to exercise the authority which it had arrogated,
+trembling between the wrath of its sovereign, the menacing cries of the
+Brussels burghers, and the wild threats of the rebellious army; and held
+virtually, captive in the capital which it was supposed to govern.
+
+Certainly, the confirmation of the Council in its authority, for an
+indefinite, even if for a brief period, was a most unlucky step at this
+juncture. There were two parties in the provinces, but one was far the
+most powerful upon the great point of the Spanish soldiery. A vast
+majority were in favor of a declaration of outlawry against the whole
+army, and it was thought desirable to improve the opportunity by getting
+rid of them altogether. If the people could rise en masse, now that the
+royal government was in abeyance, and, as it were, in the nation's hands,
+the incubus might be cast off for ever. If any of the Spanish officers
+had been sincere in their efforts to arrest the mutiny, the sincerity was
+not believed. If any of the foreign regiments of the King appeared to
+hesitate at joining the Alost crew, the hesitation was felt to be
+temporary. Meantime, the important German regiments of Fugger,
+Fronsberger, and Polwiller, with their colonels and other officers, had
+openly joined the rebellion, while there was no doubt of the sentiments
+of Sancho d'Avila and the troops under his command. Thus there were two
+great rallying-places for the sedition, and the most important fortress
+of the country, the key which unlocked the richest city in the world, was
+in the hands of the mutineers. The commercial capital of Europe, filled
+to the brim with accumulated treasures, and with the merchandize of every
+clime; lay at the feet of this desperate band of brigands. The horrible
+result was but too soon to be made manifest.
+
+Meantime, in Brussels, the few Spaniards trembled for their lives. The
+few officers shut up there were in imminent danger. "As the Devil does
+not cease to do his work," wrote Colonel Verdugo, "he has put it into the
+heads of the Brabanters to rebel, taking for a pretext the mutiny of the
+Spaniards. The Brussels men have handled their weapons so well against
+those who were placed there to protect them, that they have begun to kill
+the Spaniards, threatening likewise the Council of State. Such is their
+insolence, that they care no more for these great lords than for so many
+varlets." The writer, who had taken refuge, together with Jerome de Roda
+and other Spaniards, or "Hispaniolized" persons, in Antwerp citadel,
+proceeded to sketch the preparations which were going on in Brussels, and
+the counter measures which were making progress in Antwerp. "The states,"
+he wrote, "are enrolling troops, saying 'tis to put down the mutiny; but
+I assure you 'tis to attack the army indiscriminately. To prevent such a
+villainous undertaking, troops of all nations are assembling here, in
+order to march straight upon Brussels, there to enforce everything which
+my lords of the State Council shall ordain." Events were obviously
+hastening to a crisis--an explosion, before long, was inevitable. "I wish
+I had my horses here," continued the Colonel, "and must beg you to send
+them. I see a black cloud hanging over our heads. I fear that the
+Brabantines will play the beasts so much, that they will have all the
+soldiery at their throats."
+
+Jerome de Roda had been fortunate enough to make his escape out of
+Brussels, and now claimed to be sole Governor of the Netherlands, as the
+only remaining representative of the State Council. His colleagues were
+in durance at the capital. Their authority was derided. Although not yet
+actually imprisoned, they were in reality bound hand and foot, and
+compelled to take their orders either from the Brabant estates or from
+the burghers of Brussels. It was not an illogical proceeding, therefore,
+that Roda, under the shadow of the Antwerp citadel, should set up his own
+person as all that remained of the outraged majesty of Spain. Till the
+new Governor, Don Juan, should arrive, whose appointment the King had
+already communicated to the government, and who might be expected in the
+Netherlands before the close of the autumn, the solitary councillor
+claimed to embody the whole Council. He caused a new seal to be struck--a
+proceeding very unreasonably charged as forgery by the provincials--and
+forthwith began to thunder forth proclamations and counter-proclamations
+in the King's name and under the royal seal. It is difficult to see any
+technical crime or mistake in such a course. As a Spaniard, and a
+representative of his Majesty, he could hardly be expected to take any
+other view of his duty. At any rate, being called upon to choose between
+rebellious Netherlanders and mutinous Spaniards, he was not long in
+making up his mind.
+
+By the beginning of September the mutiny was general. All the Spanish
+army, from general to pioneer, were united. The most important German
+troops had taken side with them. Sancho d'Avila held the citadel of
+Antwerp, vowing vengeance, and holding open communication with the
+soldiers at Alost. The Council of State remonstrated with him for his
+disloyalty. He replied by referring to his long years of service, and by
+reproving them for affecting an authority which their imprisonment
+rendered ridiculous. The Spaniards were securely established. The various
+citadels which had been built by Charles and Philip to curb the country
+now effectually did their work. With the castles of Antwerp,
+Valenciennes, Ghent, Utrecht, Culemburg, Viane, Alost, in the hands of
+six thousand veteran Spaniards, the country seemed chained in every limb.
+The foreigner's foot was on its neck. Brussels was almost the only
+considerable town out of Holland and Zealand which was even temporarily
+safe. The important city of Maestricht was held by a Spanish garrison,
+while other capital towns and stations were in the power of the Walloon
+and German mutineers. The depredations committed in the villages, the
+open country, and the cities were incessant--the Spaniards treating every
+Netherlander as their foe. Gentleman and peasant, Protestant and
+Catholic, priest and layman, all were plundered, maltreated, outraged.
+The indignation became daily more general and more intense. There were
+frequent skirmishes between the soldiery and promiscuous bands of
+peasants, citizens, and students; conflicts in which the Spaniards were
+invariably victorious. What could such half-armed and wholly untrained
+partisans effect against the bravest and most experienced troops in the
+whole world? Such results only increased the general exasperation, while
+they impressed upon the whole people the necessity of some great and
+general effort to throw off the incubus.
+
+
+
+
+1576-1577  [CHAPTER V.]
+
+   Religious and political sympathies and antipathies in the seventeen
+   provinces--Unanimous hatred for the foreign soldiery--Use made by
+   the Prince of the mutiny--His correspondence--Necessity of Union
+   enforced--A congress from nearly all the provinces meets at Ghent--
+   Skirmishes between the foreign troops and partisan bands--Slaughter
+   at Tisnacq--Suspicions entertained of the State-Council--Arrest of
+   the State-Council--Siege of Ghent citadel--Assistance sent by
+   Orange--Maestricht lost and regained--Wealthy and perilous condition
+   of Antwerp--Preparations of the mutineers under the secret
+   superintendence of Avila--Stupidity of Oberstein--Duplicity of Don
+   Sancho--Reinforcements of Walloons under Havre, Egmont, and others,
+   sent to for the expected assault of Antwerp--Governor Champagny's
+   preparations the mutineers--Insubordination, incapacity, and
+   negligence of all but him--Concentration of all the mutineers from
+   different points, in the citadel--The attack--the panic--the flight
+   --the massacre--the fire--the sack--and other details of the
+   "Spanish Fury"--Statistics of murder and robbery--Letter of Orange
+   to the states-general--Surrender of Ghent citadel--Conclusion of the
+   "Ghent Pacification"--The treaty characterized--Forms of
+   ratification--Fall of Zierickzee and recovery of Zealand.
+
+Meantime, the Prince of Orange sat at Middelburg, watching the storm. The
+position of Holland and Zealand with regard to the other fifteen
+provinces was distinctly characterized. Upon certain points there was an
+absolute sympathy, while upon others there was a grave and almost fatal
+difference. It was the task of the Prince to deepen the sympathy, to
+extinguish the difference.
+
+In Holland and Zealand, there was a warm and nearly universal adhesion to
+the Reformed religion, a passionate attachment to the ancient political
+liberties. The Prince, although an earnest Calvinist himself, did all in
+his power to check the growing spirit of intolerance toward the old
+religion, omitted no opportunity of strengthening the attachment which
+the people justly felt for their liberal institutions.
+
+On the other hand, in most of the other provinces, the Catholic religion
+had been regaining its ascendency. Even in 1574, the estates assembled at
+Brussels declared to Requesens "that they would rather die the death than
+see any change in their religion." That feeling had rather increased than
+diminished. Although there was a strong party attached to the new faith,
+there was perhaps a larger, certainly a more influential body, which
+regarded the ancient Church with absolute fidelity. Owing partly to the
+persecution which had, in the course of years, banished so many thousands
+of families from the soil, partly to the coercion, which was more
+stringent in the immediate presence of the Crown's representative, partly
+to the stronger infusion of the Celtic element, which from the earliest
+ages had always been so keenly alive to the more sensuous and splendid
+manifestations of the devotional principle--owing to those and many other
+causes, the old religion, despite of all the outrages which had been
+committed in its name, still numbered a host of zealous adherents in the
+fifteen provinces. Attempts against its sanctity were regarded with
+jealous eyes. It was believed, and with reason, that there was a
+disposition on the part of the Reformers to destroy it root and branch.
+It was suspected that the same enginery of persecution would be employed
+in its extirpation, should the opposite party gain the supremacy, which
+the Papists had so long employed against the converts to the new
+religion.
+
+As to political convictions, the fifteen provinces differed much less
+from their two sisters. There was a strong attachment to their old
+constitutions; a general inclination to make use of the present crisis to
+effect their restoration. At the same time, it had not come to be the
+general conviction, as in Holland and Zealand, that the maintenance of
+those liberties was incompatible with the continuance of Philip's
+authority. There was, moreover, a strong aristocratic faction which was
+by no means disposed to take a liberal view of government in general, and
+regarded with apprehension the simultaneous advance of heretical notions
+both in church and, state. Still there were, on the whole, the elements
+of a controlling constitutional party throughout the fifteen provinces
+The great bond of sympathy, however, between all the seventeen was their
+common hatred to the foreign soldiery. Upon this deeply imbedded,
+immovable fulcrum of an ancient national hatred, the sudden mutiny of the
+whole Spanish army served as a lever of incalculable power. The Prince
+seized it as from the hand of God. Thus armed, he proposed to himself the
+task of upturning the mass of oppression under which the old liberties of
+the country had so long been crushed. To effect this object, adroitness
+was as requisite as courage. Expulsion of the foreign soldiery, union of
+the seventeen provinces, a representative constitution, according to the
+old charters, by the states-general, under an hereditary chief, a large
+religious toleration, suppression of all inquisition into men's
+consciences--these were the great objects to which the Prince now devoted
+himself with renewed energy.
+
+To bring about a general organization and a general union, much delicacy
+of handling was necessary. The sentiment of extreme Catholicism and
+Monarchism was not to be suddenly scared into opposition. The Prince,
+therefore, in all his addresses and documents was careful to disclaim any
+intention of disturbing the established religion, or of making any rash
+political changes. "Let no man think," said he, to the authorities of
+Brabant, "that, against the will of the estates, we desire to bring about
+any change in religion. Let no one suspect us capable of prejudicing the
+rights of any man. We have long since taken up arms to maintain a legal
+and constitutional freedom, founded upon law. God forbid that we should
+now attempt to introduce novelties, by which the face of liberty should
+be defiled."
+
+In a brief and very spirited letter to Count Lalain, a Catholic and a
+loyalist, but a friend of his country and fervent hater of foreign
+oppression, he thus appealed to his sense of chivalry and justice:
+"Although the honorable house from which you spring," he said, "and the
+virtue and courage of your ancestors have always impressed me with the
+conviction that you would follow in their footsteps, yet am I glad to
+have received proofs that my anticipations were correct. I cannot help,
+therefore, entreating you to maintain the same high heart, and to
+accomplish that which you have so worthily begun. Be not deluded by false
+masks, mumming faces, and borrowed titles, which people assume for their
+own profit, persuading others that the King's service consists in the
+destruction of his subjects."
+
+While thus careful to offend no man's religious convictions, to startle
+no man's loyalty, he made skillful use of the general indignation felt
+at, the atrocities of the mutinous army. This chord he struck boldly,
+powerfully, passionately, for he felt sure of the depth and strength of
+its vibrations. In his address to the estates of Gelderland, he used
+vigorous language, inflaming and directing to a practical purpose the
+just wrath which was felt in that, as in every other province. "I write
+to warn you," he said, "to seize this present opportunity. Shake from
+your necks the yoke of the godless Spanish tyranny, join yourselves at
+once to the lovers of the fatherland, to the defenders of freedom.
+According to the example of your own ancestors and ours, redeem for the
+country its ancient laws, traditions, and privileges. Permit no longer,
+to your shame and ours, a band of Spanish landloupers and other
+foreigners, together with three or four self-seeking enemies of their own
+land, to keep their feet upon our necks. Let them no longer, in the very
+wantonness of tyranny, drive us about like a herd of cattle--like a gang
+of well-tamed slaves."
+
+Thus, day after day, in almost countless addresses to public bodies and
+private individuals, he made use of the crisis to pile fresh fuel upon
+the flames. At the same time, while thus fanning the general indignation,
+he had the adroitness to point out that the people had already committed
+themselves. He represented to them that the edict, by which they had
+denounced his Majesty's veterans as outlaws, and had devoted them to the
+indiscriminate destruction which such brigands deserved, was likely to
+prove an unpardonable crime in the eyes of majesty. In short, they had
+entered the torrent. If they would avoid being dashed over the precipice,
+they must struggle manfully with the mad waves of civil war into which
+they had plunged. "I beg you, with all affection," he said to the states
+of Brabant, "to consider the danger in which you have placed yourselves.
+You have to deal with the proudest and most overbearing race in the
+world. For these qualities they are hated by all other nations. They are
+even hateful to themselves. 'Tis a race which seeks to domineer
+wheresoever it comes. It particularly declares its intention to crush and
+to tyrannize you, my masters, and all the land. They have conquered you
+already, as they boast, for the crime of lese-majesty has placed you at
+their mercy. I tell you that your last act, by which you have declared
+this army to be rebels, is decisive. You have armed and excited the whole
+people against them, even to the peasants and the peasants' children, and
+the insults and injuries thus received, however richly deserved and
+dearly avenged, are all set down to your account. Therefore, 'tis
+necessary for you to decide now, whether to be utterly ruined, yourselves
+and your children, or to continue firmly the work which you have begun
+boldly, and rather to die a hundred thousand deaths than to make a treaty
+with them, which can only end in your ruin. Be assured that the measure
+dealt to you will be ignominy as well as destruction. Let not your
+leaders expect the honorable scaffolds of Counts Egmont and Horn. The
+whipping-post and then the gibbet will be their certain fate."
+
+Having by this and similar language, upon various occasions, sought to
+impress upon his countrymen the gravity of the position, he led them to
+seek the remedy in audacity and in union. He familiarized them with his
+theory, that the legal, historical government of the provinces belonged
+to the states-general, to a congress of nobles, clergy, and commons,
+appointed from each of the seventeen provinces. He maintained, with
+reason, that the government of the Netherlands was a representative
+constitutional government, under the hereditary authority of the King. To
+recover this constitution, to lift up these down-trodden rights, he set
+before them most vividly the necessity of union, "'Tis impossible," he
+said, "that a chariot should move evenly having its wheels unequally
+proportioned; and so must a confederation be broken to pieces, if there
+be not an equal obligation on all to tend to a common purpose." Union,
+close, fraternal, such as became provinces of a common origin and with
+similar laws, could alone save them from their fate. Union against a
+common tyrant to save a common fatherland. Union; by which differences of
+opinion should be tolerated, in order that a million of hearts should
+beat for a common purpose, a million hands work out, invincibly, a common
+salvation. "'Tis hardly necessary," he said "to use many words in
+recommendation of union. Disunion has been the cause of all our woes.
+There is no remedy, no hope, save in the bonds of friendship. Let all
+particular disagreements be left to the decision of the states-general,
+in order that with one heart and one will we may seek the disenthralment
+of the fatherland from the tyranny of strangers."
+
+The first step to a thorough union among all the provinces was the
+arrangement of a closer connection between the now isolated states of
+Holland and Zealand on the one side, and their fifteen sisters on the
+other. The Prince professed the readiness of those states which he might
+be said to represent in his single person, to draw as closely as possible
+the bonds of fellowship. It was almost superfluous for him to promise his
+own ready co-operation. "Nothing remains to us," said he, "but to discard
+all jealousy and distrust. Let us, with a firm resolution and a common
+accord, liberate these lands from the stranger. Hand to hand let us
+accomplish a just and general peace. As for myself, I present to you,
+with very, good affection, my person and all which I possess, assuring
+you that I shall regard all my labors and pains in times which are past,
+well bestowed, if God now grant me grace to see the desired end. That
+this end will be reached, if you hold fast your resolution and take to
+heart the means which God presents to you, I feel to be absolutely
+certain."
+
+Such were the tenor and the motives of the documents which he
+scattered--broadcast at this crisis. They were addressed to the estates
+of nearly every province. Those bodies were urgently implored to appoint
+deputies to a general congress, at which a close and formal union between
+Holland and Zealand with the other provinces might be effected. That
+important measure secured, a general effort might, at the same time, be
+made to expel the Spaniard from the soil. This done, the remaining
+matters could be disposed of by the assembly of the estates-general. His
+eloquence and energy were not without effect. In the course of the
+autumn, deputies were appointed from the greater number of the provinces,
+to confer with the representatives of Holland and Zealand, in a general
+congress. The place appointed for the deliberations was the city of
+Ghent. Here, by the middle of October, a large number of delegates were
+already assembled.
+
+Events were rapidly rolling together from every quarter, and accumulating
+to a crisis. A congress--a rebellious congress, as the King might deem
+it--was assembling at Ghent; the Spanish army, proscribed, lawless, and
+terrible, was strengthening itself daily for some dark and mysterious
+achievement; Don John of Austria, the King's natural brother, was
+expected from Spain to assume the government, which the State Council was
+too timid to wield and too loyal to resign, while, meantime, the whole
+population of the Netherlands, with hardly an exception, was disposed to
+see the great question of the foreign soldiery settled, before the chaos
+then existing should be superseded by a more definite authority.
+Everywhere, men of all ranks and occupations--the artisan in the city,
+the peasant in the fields--were deserting their daily occupations to
+furbish helmets, handle muskets, and learn the trade of war. Skirmishes,
+sometimes severe and bloody, were of almost daily occurrence. In these
+the Spaniards were invariably successful, for whatever may be said of
+their cruelty and licentiousness, it cannot be disputed that their
+prowess was worthy of their renown. Romantic valor, unflinching
+fortitude, consummate skill, characterized them always. What could
+half-armed artisans achieve in the open plain against such accomplished
+foes? At Tisnacq, between Louvain and Tirlemont, a battle was attempted
+by a large miscellaneous mass of students, peasantry, and burghers, led
+by country squires. It soon changed to a carnage, in which the victims
+were all on one side. A small number of veterans, headed by Vargas,
+Mendoza, Tassis, and other chivalrous commanders, routed the
+undisciplined thousands at a single charge. The rude militia threw away
+their arms, and fled panic-struck in all directions, at the first sight
+of their terrible foe. Two Spaniards lost their lives and two thousand
+Netherlanders. It was natural that these consummate warriors should
+despise such easily slaughtered victims. A single stroke of the iron
+flail, and the chaff was scattered to the four winds; a single sweep of
+the disciplined scythe, and countless acres were in an instant mown.
+Nevertheless, although beaten constantly, the Netherlanders were not
+conquered. Holland and Zealand had read the foe a lesson which he had not
+forgotten, and although on the open fields, and against the less vigorous
+population of the more central provinces, his triumphs had been easier,
+yet it was obvious that the spirit of resistance to foreign oppression
+was growing daily stronger, notwithstanding daily defeats.
+
+Meantime, while these desultory but deadly combats were in daily
+progress, the Council of State was looked upon with suspicion by the mass
+of the population. That body, in which resided provisionally the powers
+of government, was believed to be desirous of establishing relations with
+the mutinous army. It was suspected of insidiously provoking the excesses
+which it seemed to denounce. It was supposed to be secretly intriguing
+with those whom its own edicts had outlawed. Its sympathies were
+considered, Spanish. It was openly boasted by the Spanish army that,
+before long, they would descend from their fastnesses upon Brussels, and
+give the city to the sword. A shuddering sense of coming evil pervaded
+the population, but no man could say where the blow would first be
+struck. It was natural that the capital should be thought exposed to
+imminent danger. At the same time, while every man who had hands was
+disposed to bear arms to defend the city, the Council seemed paralyzed.
+The capital was insufficiently garrisoned, yet troops were not enrolling
+for its protection. The state councillors obviously omitted to provide
+for defence, and it was supposed that they were secretly assisting the
+attack. It was thought important, therefore, to disarm, or, at least, to
+control this body which was impotent for protection, and seemed powerful
+only for mischief. It was possible to make it as contemptible as it was
+believed to be malicious.
+
+An unexpected stroke was therefore suddenly levelled against the Council
+in full session. On the 5th of September, the Seigneur de Heze, a young
+gentleman of a bold, but unstable character, then entertaining close but
+secret relations with the Prince of Orange, appeared before the doors of
+the palace. He was attended by about five hundred troops, under the
+immediate command of the Seigneur de Glimes, bailiff of Walloon Brabant.
+He demanded admittance, in the name of the Brabant estates, to the
+presence of the State Council, and was refused. The doors were closed and
+bolted. Without further ceremony the soldiers produced iron bars brought
+with them for the purpose, forced all the gates from the hinges, entered
+the hall of session, and at a word from their commander, laid hands upon
+the councillors, and made every one prisoner. The Duke of Aerschot,
+President of the Council, who was then in close alliance with the Prince,
+was not present at the meeting, but lay forewarned, at home, confined to
+his couch by a sickness assumed for the occasion. Viglius, who rarely
+participated in the deliberations of the board, being already afflicted
+with the chronic malady under which he was ere long to succumb, also
+escaped the fate of his fellow-senators. The others were carried into
+confinement. Berlaymont and Mansfeld were imprisoned in the Brood-Huys,
+where the last mortal hours of Egmont and Horn had been passed. Others
+were kept strictly guarded in their own houses. After a few weeks, most
+of them were liberated. Councillor Del Rio was, however, retained in
+confinement, and sent to Holland, where he was subjected to a severe
+examination by the Prince of Orange, touching his past career,
+particularly concerning the doings of the famous Blood Council. The
+others were set free, and even permitted to resume their functions, but
+their dignity was gone, their authority annihilated. Thenceforth the
+states of Brabant and the community of Brussels were to govern for an
+interval, for it was in their name that the daring blow against the
+Council had been struck. All individuals and bodies, however, although
+not displeased with the result, clamorously disclaimed responsibility for
+the deed. Men were appalled at the audacity of the transaction, and
+dreaded the vengeance of the King: The Abbot Van Perch, one of the secret
+instigators of the act, actually died of anxiety for its possible
+consequences. There was a mystery concerning the affair. They in whose
+name it had been accomplished, denied having given any authority to the
+perpetrators. Men asked each other what unseen agency had been at work,
+what secret spring had been adroitly touched. There is but little doubt,
+however, that the veiled but skilful hand which directed the blow, was
+the same which had so long been guiding the destiny of the Netherlands.
+
+It had been settled that the congress was to hold its sessions in Ghent,
+although the citadel commanding that city was held by the Spaniards. The
+garrison was not very strong, and Mondragon, its commander, was absent in
+Zealand, but the wife of the veteran ably supplied his place, and
+stimulated the slender body of troops to hold out with heroism, under the
+orders of his lieutenant, Avilos Maldonado. The mutineers, after having
+accomplished their victory at Tisnacq, had been earnestly solicited to
+come to the relief of this citadel. They had refused and returned to
+Alost. Meantime, the siege was warmly pressed by the states. There being,
+however, a deficiency of troops, application for assistance was formally
+made to the Prince of Orange. Count Reulx, governor of Flanders;
+commissioned the Seigneur d'Haussy, brother of Count Bossu, who, to
+obtain the liberation of that long-imprisoned and distinguished nobleman,
+was about visiting the Prince in Zealand, to make a request for an
+auxiliary force. It was, however, stipulated that care should be taken
+lest any prejudice should be done to the Roman Catholic religion or the
+authority of the King. The Prince readily acceded to the request, and
+agreed to comply with the conditions under which only it could be
+accepted. He promised to send twenty-eight companies. In his letter
+announcing this arrangement, he gave notice that his troops would receive
+strict orders to do no injury to person or property, Catholic or
+Protestant, ecclesiastic or lay, and to offer no obstruction to the Roman
+religion or the royal dignity. He added, however, that it was not to be
+taken amiss, if his soldiers were permitted to exercise their own
+religious rites, and to sing their Protestant hymns within their own
+quarters. He moreover, as security for the expense and trouble, demanded
+the city of Sluys. The first detachment of troops, under command of
+Colonel Vander Tympel, was, however, hardly on its way, before an alarm
+was felt among the Catholic party at this practical alliance with the
+rebel Prince. An envoy, named Ottingen, was despatched to Zealand,
+bearing a letter from the estates of Hainault, Brabant, and Flanders,
+countermanding the request for troops, and remonstrating categorically
+upon the subject of religion and loyalty. Orange deemed such
+tergiversation paltry, but controlled his anger. He answered the letter
+in liberal terms, for he was determined that by no fault of his should
+the great cause be endangered. He reassured the estates as to the
+probable behaviour of his troops. Moreover, they had been already
+admitted into the city, while the correspondence was proceeding. The
+matter of the psalm-singing was finally arranged to the satisfaction of
+both parties, and it was agreed that Niewport, instead of Sluys, should
+be given to the Prince as security.
+
+The siege of the citadel was now pressed vigorously, and the
+deliberations of the congress were opened under the incessant roar of
+cannon. While the attack was thus earnestly maintained upon the important
+castle of Ghent, a courageous effort was made by the citizens of
+Maestricht to wrest their city from the hands of the Spaniards. The
+German garrison having been gained by the burghers, the combined force
+rose upon the Spanish troops, and drove them from the city, Montesdocca,
+the commander, was arrested and imprisoned, but the triumph was only
+temporary. Don Francis d'Ayala, Montesdocca's lieutenant, made a stand,
+with a few companies, in Wieck, a village on the opposite side of the
+Meuse, and connected with the city by a massive bridge of stone. From
+this point he sent information to other commanders in the neighbourhood.
+Don Ferdinand de Toledo soon arrived with several hundred troops from
+Dalem. The Spaniards, eager to wipe out the disgrace to their arms,
+loudly demanded to be led back to the city. The head of the bridge,
+however, over which they must pass, was defended by a strong battery, and
+the citizens were seen clustering in great numbers to defend their
+firesides against a foe whom they had once expelled. To advance across
+the bridge seemed certain destruction to the little force. Even Spanish
+bravery recoiled at so desperate an undertaking, but unscrupulous
+ferocity supplied an expedient where courage was at fault. There were few
+fighting men present among the population of Wieck, but there were many
+females. Each soldier was commanded to seize a woman, and, placing her
+before his own body, to advance across the bridge. The column, thus
+bucklered, to the shame of Spanish chivalry, by female bosoms, moved in
+good order toward the battery. The soldiers leveled their muskets with
+steady aim over the shoulders or under the arms of the women whom they
+thus held before them. On the other hand, the citizens dared not
+discharge their cannon at their own townswomen, among whose numbers many
+recognized mothers, sisters, or wives. The battery was soon taken, while
+at the same time Alonzj Vargas, who had effected his entrance from the
+land side by burning down the Brussels gate, now entered the city at the
+head of a band of cavalry. Maestricht was recovered, and an
+indiscriminate slaughter instantly avenged its temporary loss. The
+plundering, stabbing, drowning, burning, ravishing; were so dreadful
+that, in the words of a cotemporary historian, "the burghers who had
+escaped the fight had reason to think themselves less fortunate than
+those who had died with arms in their hands."
+
+This was the lot of Maestricht on the 20th of October. It was
+instinctively felt to be the precursor of fresh disasters. Vague,
+incoherent, but widely disseminated rumors had long pointed to Antwerp
+and its dangerous situation. The Spaniards, foiled in their views upon
+Brussels, had recently avowed an intention of avenging themselves in the
+commercial capital. They had waited long enough, and accumulated strength
+enough. Such a trifling city as Alost could no longer content their
+cupidity, but in Antwerp there was gold enough for the gathering. There
+was reason for the fears of the inhabitants, for the greedy longing of
+their enemy. Probably no city in Christendom could at that day vie with
+Antwerp in wealth and splendor. Its merchants lived in regal pomp and
+luxury. In its numerous, massive warehouses were the treasures of every
+clime. Still serving as the main entrepot of the world's traffic, the
+Brabantine capital was the centre of that commercial system which was
+soon to be superseded by a larger international life. In the midst of the
+miseries which had so long been raining upon the Netherlands, the stately
+and egotistical city seemed to have taken stronger root and to flourish
+more freshly than ever. It was not wonderful that its palaces and its
+magazines, glittering with splendor and bursting with treasure, should
+arouse the avidity of a reckless and famishing soldiery. Had not a
+handful of warriors of their own race rifled the golden Indies? Had not
+their fathers, few in number, strong in courage and discipline, revelled
+in the plunder of a new world? Here were the Indies in a single city.
+Here were gold and silver, pearls and diamonds, ready and portable; the
+precious fruit dropping, ripened, from the bough. Was it to be tolerated
+that base, pacific burghers should monopolize the treasure by which a
+band of heroes might be enriched?
+
+A sense of coming evil diffused itself through the atmosphere. The air
+seemed lurid with the impending storm, for the situation was one of
+peculiar horror. The wealthiest city in Christendom lay at the mercy of
+the strongest fastness in the world; a castle which had been built to
+curb, not to protect, the town. It was now inhabited by a band of
+brigands, outlawed by government, strong in discipline, furious from
+penury, reckless by habit, desperate in circumstance--a crew which feared
+not God, nor man, nor Devil. The palpitating quarry lay expecting hourly
+the swoop of its trained and pitiless enemy, for the rebellious soldiers
+were now in a thorough state of discipline. Sancho d'Avila, castellan of
+the citadel, was recognized as the chief of the whole mutiny, the army
+and the mutiny being now one. The band, entrenched at Alost, were upon
+the best possible understanding with their brethren in the citadel, and
+accepted without hesitation the arrangements of their superior. On the
+aide of the Scheld, opposite Antwerp, a fortification had been thrown up
+by Don Sancho's orders, and held by Julian Romero. Lier, Breda, as well
+as Alost, were likewise ready to throw their reinforcements into the
+citadel at a moment's warning. At the signal of their chief, the united
+bands might sweep from their impregnable castle with a single impulse.
+
+The city cried aloud for help, for it had become obvious that an attack
+might be hourly expected. Meantime an attempt, made by Don Sancho d'Avila
+to tamper with the German troops stationed within the walls, was more
+than partially, successful. The forces were commanded by Colonel Van Ende
+and Count Oberatein. Van Ende, a crafty traitor to his country, desired
+no better than to join the mutiny on so promising an occasion, and his
+soldiers, shared his sentiments. Oberatein, a brave, but blundering
+German, was drawn into the net of treachery by the adroitness of the
+Spaniard and the effrontery of his comrade. On the night of the 29th of
+October, half-bewildered and half-drunk, he signed a treaty with Sancho
+d'Avilat and the three colonels--Fugger, Frondsberger, and Polwiller. By
+this unlucky document, which was of course subscribed also by Van Ende,
+it was agreed that the Antwerp burghers should be forthwith disarmed;
+that their weapons should be sent into the citadel; that Oberstein should
+hold the city at the disposition of Sancho d'Avila; that he should refuse
+admittance to all troops which might be sent into the city, excepting by
+command of Don Sancho, and that he should decline compliance with any
+orders which he might receive from individuals calling themselves the
+council of state, the states-general, or the estates of Brabant. This
+treaty was signed, moreover; by Don Jeronimo de Rods, then established in
+the citadel, and claiming to represent exclusively his Majesty's
+government.
+
+Hardly had this arrangement been concluded than the Count saw the trap
+into which he had fallen. Without intending to do so, he had laid the
+city at the mercy of its foe, but the only remedy which suggested itself
+to his mind was an internal resolution not to keep his promises. The
+burghers were suffered to retain their arms, while, on the other hand,
+Don Sancho lost no time in despatching messages to Alost, to Lier, to
+Breda, and even to Maestricht, that as large a force as possible might be
+assembled for the purpose of breaking immediately the treaty of peace
+which he had just concluded. Never was a solemn document, regarded with
+such perfectly bad faith by all its signers as the accord, of the 29th of
+October.
+
+Three days afterwards, a large force of Walloons and Germans was
+despatched from Brussels to the assistance of Antwerp. The command of
+these troops was entrusted to the Marquis of Havre, whose brother, the
+Duke of Aerschot; had been recently appointed chief superintendent of
+military affairs by the deputies assembled at Ghent. The miscellaneous
+duties comprehended under this rather vague denomination did not permit
+the Duke to take charge of the expedition in person, and his younger
+brother, a still more incompetent and unsubstantial character, was
+accordingly appointed to the post. A number of young men, of high rank
+but of lamentably low capacity, were associated with him. Foremost among
+them was Philip, Count of Egmont, a youth who had inherited few of his
+celebrated father's qualities, save personal courage and a love of
+personal display. In character and general talents he was beneath
+mediocrity. Beside these were the reckless but unstable De Heze, who had
+executed the coup; d'etat against the State Council, De Berselen, De
+Capres, D'Oyngies, and others, all vaguely desirous of achieving
+distinction in those turbulent times, but few of them having any
+political or religious convictions, and none of them possessing
+experience or influence enough, to render them useful--at the impending
+crisis.
+
+On Friday morning, the 2nd of November, the troops appeared under the
+walls of Antwerp. They consisted of twenty-three companies of infantry
+and fourteen of cavalry, amounting to five thousand foot and twelve
+hundred horse. They were nearly all Walloons, soldiers who had already
+seen much active service, but unfortunately of a race warlike and fiery
+indeed, but upon whose steadiness not much more dependence could be
+placed at that day than in the age of Civilis. Champagny, brother of
+Granvelle, was Governor of the city. He was a sincere Catholic, but a
+still more sincere hater of the Spaniards. He saw in the mutiny a means
+of accomplishing their expulsion, and had already offered to the Prince
+of Orange his eager co-operation towards this result. In other matters
+there could be but small sympathy between William the Silent and the
+Cardinal's brother; but a common hatred united them, for a time at least,
+in a common purpose.
+
+When the troops first made their appearance before the walls, Champagny
+was unwilling to grant them admittance. The addle-brained Oberstein had
+confessed to him the enormous blunder which he had committed in his
+midnight treaty, and at the same time ingenuously confessed his intention
+of sending it to the winds. The enemy had extorted from his dulness or
+his drunkenness a promise, which his mature and sober reason could not
+consider binding. It is needless to say that Champagny rebuked him for
+signing, and applauded him for breaking the treaty. At the same time its
+ill effects were already seen in the dissensions which existed among the
+German troops. Where all had been tampered with, and where the commanders
+had set the example of infidelity, it would have been strange if all had
+held firm. On the whole, however, Oberstein thought he could answer for
+his own troops: Upon Van Ende's division, although the crafty colonel
+dissembled his real intentions; very little reliance was placed. Thus
+there was distraction within the walls. Among those whom the burghers had
+been told to consider their defenders, there were probably many who were
+ready to join with their mortal foes at a moment's warning. Under these
+circumstances, Champagny hesitated about admitting these fresh troops
+from Brussels. He feared lest the Germans, who knew themselves doubted,
+might consider themselves doomed. He trembled, lest an irrepressible
+outbreak should occur within the walls, rendering the immediate
+destruction of the city by the Spaniards from without inevitable.
+Moreover, he thought it more desirable that this auxiliary force should
+be disposed at different points outside, in order to intercept the
+passage of the numerous bodies of Spaniards and other mutineers, who from
+various quarters would soon be on their way to the citadel. Havre,
+however, was so peremptory, and the burghers were so importunate, that
+Champagny was obliged to recede from his opposition before twenty-four
+hours had elapsed. Unwilling to take the responsibility of a farther
+refusal, he admitted the troops through the Burgherhout gate, on
+Saturday, the 3rd of November, at ten o'clock in the morning.
+
+The Marquis of Havre, as commander-in-chief, called a council of war. It
+assembled at Count Oberstein's quarters, and consulted at first
+concerning a bundle of intercepted letters which Havre had brought with
+him. These constituted a correspondence between Sancho d'Avila with the
+heads of the mutiny at Alost, and many other places. The letters were all
+dated subsequently to Don Sancho's treaty with Oberstein, and contained
+arrangements for an immediate concentration of the whole available
+Spanish force at the citadel.
+
+The treachery was so manifest, that Oberstein felt all self-reproach for
+his own breach of faith to be superfluous. It was however evident that
+the attack was to be immediately expected. What was to be done? All the
+officers counselled the immediate erection of a bulwark on the side of
+the city exposed to the castle, but there were no miners nor engineers.
+Champagny, however, recommended a skilful and experienced engineer to
+superintend; the work in the city; and pledged himself that burghers
+enough would volunteer as miners. In less than an hour, ten or twelve
+thousand persons, including multitudes of women of all ranks, were at
+work upon the lines marked out by the engineer. A ditch and breast-work
+extending from the gate of the Beguins to the street of the Abbey Saint
+Michael, were soon in rapid progress. Meantime, the newly arrived troops,
+with military insolence, claimed the privilege of quartering themselves
+in the best houses which they could find. They already began to, insult
+and annoy the citizens whom they had been sent to defend; nor were they
+destined to atone, by their subsequent conduct in the face of the enemy,
+for the brutality with which they treated their friends. Champagny,
+however; was ill-disposed to brook their licentiousness. They had been
+sent to protect the city and the homes of Antwerp from invasion. They
+were not to establish themselves, at every fireside on their first
+arrival. There was work enough for them out of doors, and they were to do
+that work at once. He ordered them to prepare for a bivouac in, the
+streets, and flew from house to house, sword in hand; driving forth the
+intruders at imminent peril of his life. Meantime, a number of Italian
+and Spanish merchants fled from the city, and took refuge in the castle.
+The Walloon soldiers were for immediately plundering their houses, as if
+plunder had been the object for which they had been sent to Antwerp. It
+was several hours before Champagny, with all his energy, was able to
+quell these disturbances.
+
+In the course of the day, Oberstein received a letter from Don Sandra
+d'Avila, calling solemnly upon him to fulfil his treaty of the 29th of
+October. The German colonels from the citadel had, on the previous
+afternoon, held a personal interview with Oberstein beneath the walls,
+which had nearly ended in blows, and they had been obliged to save
+themselves by flight from the anger of the Count's soldiers, enraged at
+the deceit by which their leader had been so nearly entrapped. This
+summons of ridiculous solemnity to keep a treaty which had already been
+torn to shreds by both parties, Oberstein answered with defiance and
+contempt. The reply was an immediate cannonade from the batteries of the
+citadel; which made the position of those erecting the ramparts
+excessively dangerous. The wall was strengthened with bales of
+merchandise, casks of earth, upturned wagons, and similar bulky objects,
+hastily piled together. In, some places it was sixteen feet high; in
+others less than six. Night fell before the fortification was nearly
+completed. Unfortunately it was bright moonlight. The cannon from the
+fortress continued to play upon the half-finished works. The Walloons,
+and at last the citizens, feared to lift their heads above their frail
+rampart. The senators, whom Champagny had deputed to superintend the
+progress of the enterprise, finding the men so indisposed, deserted their
+posts. They promised themselves that, in the darkest hour of the
+following night, the work should be thoroughly completed. Alas! all hours
+of the coming night were destined to be dark enough, but in them was to
+be done no manner of work for defence. On Champagny alone seemed devolved
+an the labor and all the responsibility. He did his duty well, but he was
+but one man. Alone, with a heart full of anxiety, he wandered up and down
+all the night. With his own hands, assisted only by a few citizens and
+his own servants, he planted all the cannon with which they were
+provided, in the "Fencing Court," at a point where the battery might tell
+upon the castle. Unfortunately, the troops from Brussels had brought no
+artillery with them, and the means of defence against the strongest
+fortress in Europe were meagre indeed. The rampart had been left very
+weak at many vital points. A single upturned wagon was placed across the
+entrance to the important street of the Beguins. This negligence was to
+cost the city dear. At daybreak, there was a council held in Oberstein's
+quarters. Nearly all Champagny's directions had been neglected. He had
+desired that strong detachments should be posted during the night at
+various places of Security on the outskirts of the town, for the troops
+which were expected to arrive in small bodies at the citadel from various
+parts, might have thus been cut off before reaching their destination.
+Not even scouts had been stationed in sufficient numbers to obtain
+information of what was occurring outside. A thick mist hung over the
+city that eventful morning. Through its almost impenetrable veil, bodies
+of men had been seen moving into the castle, and the tramp of cavalry had
+been distinctly heard, and the troops of Romero, Vargas, Oliveira, and
+Valdez had already arrived from Lier, Breda, Maestricht, and from the
+forts on the Scheld.
+
+The whole available force in the city was mustered without delay. Havre
+had claimed for his post the defence of the lines opposite the citadel,
+the place of responsibility and honor. Here the whole body of Walloons
+were stationed, together with a few companies of Germans. The ramparts,
+as stated, were far from impregnable, but it was hoped that this living
+rampart of six thousand men, standing on their own soil, and in front of
+the firesides and altars of their own countrymen; would prove a
+sufficient bulwark even against Spanish fury. Unhappily, the living
+barrier proved more frail than the feeble breastwork which the hands of
+burghers and women had constructed. Six thousand men were disposed along
+the side of the city opposite the fortress. The bulk of the German troops
+was stationed at different points on the more central streets and
+squares. The cavalry was posted on the opposite side of the city, along
+the Horse-market, and fronting the "New-town." The stars were still in
+the sky when Champagny got on horseback and rode through the streets,
+calling on the burghers to arm and assemble at different points. The
+principal places of rendezvous were the Cattlemarket and the Exchange. He
+rode along the lines of the Walloon regiments, conversing with the
+officers, Egmont, De Heze, and others, and encouraging the men, and went
+again to the Fencing Court, where he pointed the cannon with his own
+hand, and ordered their first discharge at the fortress. Thence he rode
+to the end of the Beguin street, where he dismounted and walked out upon
+the edge of the esplanade which stretched between the city and the
+castle. On this battle-ground a combat was even then occurring between a
+band of burghers and a reconnoitring party from the citadel. Champagny
+saw with satisfaction that the Antwerpers were victorious. They were
+skirmishing well with their disciplined foe, whom they at last beat back
+to the citadel. His experienced eye saw, however, that the retreat was
+only the signal for a general onslaught, which was soon to follow; and he
+returned into the city to give the last directions.
+
+At ten o'clock, a moving wood was descried, approaching the citadel from
+the south-west. The whole body of the mutineers from Alost, wearing green
+branches in their helmets--had arrived under command of their Eletto,
+Navarrete. Nearly three thousand in number, they rushed into the castle,
+having accomplished their march of twenty-four miles since three o'clock
+in the morning. They were received with open arms. Sancho d'Avila ordered
+food and refreshments to be laid before them, but they refused everything
+but a draught of wine. They would dine in Paradise, they said, or sup in
+Antwerp. Finding his allies in such spirit, Don Sancho would not balk
+their humor. Since early morning, his own veterans had been eagerly
+awaiting his signal, "straining upon the start." The troops of Romero,
+Vargas, Valdez, were no less impatient. At about an hour before noon,
+nearly every living man in the citadel was mustered for the attack,
+hardly men enough being left behind to guard the gates. Five thousand
+veteran foot soldiers, besides six hundred cavalry, armed to the teeth,
+sallied from the portals of Alva's citadel. In the counterscarp they fell
+upon their knees, to invoke, according to custom, the blessing of God
+upon the Devil's work, which they were about to commit. The Bletto bore a
+standard, one side of which was emblazoned with the crucified Saviour,
+and the other with the Virgin Mary. The image of Him who said, "Love-your
+enemies," and the gentle face of the Madonna, were to smile from heaven
+upon deeds which might cause a shudder in the depths of hell. Their brief
+orisons concluded, they swept forward to the city. Three thousand
+Spaniards, under their Eletto, were to enter by the street of Saint
+Michael; the Germans, and the remainder of the Spanish foot, commanded by
+Romero, through that of Saint George. Champagny saw them coming, and
+spoke a last word of encouragement to the Walloons. The next moment the
+compact mass struck the barrier, as the thunderbolt descends from the
+cloud. There was scarcely a struggle. The Walloons, not waiting to look
+their enemy in the face, abandoned the posts which whey had themselves
+claimed. The Spaniards crashed through the bulwark, as though it had been
+a wall of glass. The Eletto was first to mount the rampart; the next
+instant he was shot dead, while his followers, undismayed, sprang over
+his body, and poured into the streets. The fatal gap, due to timidity and
+carelessness, let in the destructive tide. Champagny, seeing that the
+enemies had all crossed the barrier; leaped over a garden wall, passed
+through a house into a narrow lane, and thence to the nearest station of
+the German troops. Hastily collecting a small force, he led them in
+person to the rescue. The Germans fought well, died well, but they could
+not reanimate the courage of the Walloons, and all were now in full
+retreat, pursued by the ferocious Spaniards. In vain Champagny stormed
+among them; in vain he strove to rally their broken ranks. With his own
+hand he seized a banner from a retreating ensign, and called upon the
+nearest soldiers to make's stand against the foe. It was to bid the
+flying clouds pause before the tempest. Torn, broken, aimless, the
+scattered troops whirled through the streets before the pursuing wrath.
+Champagny, not yet despairing, galloped hither and thither, calling upon
+the burghers everywhere to rise in defence of their homes, nor did he
+call in vain. They came forth from every place of rendezvous, from every
+alley, from every house. They fought as men fight to defend their hearths
+and altars, but what could individual devotion avail, against the
+compact, disciplined, resistless mass of their foes? The order of defence
+was broken, there was no system, no concert, no rallying point, no
+authority. So soon as it was known that the Spaniards had crossed the
+rampart, that its six thousand defenders were in full retreat, it was
+inevitable that a panic should seize the city.
+
+Their entrance once effected, the Spanish force had separated; according
+to previous arrangement, into two divisions, one half charging up the
+long street of Saint Michael, the other forcing its way through the
+Street of Saint Joris. "Santiago, Santiago! Espana, Espana! a sangre, a
+carne, a fuego, a Sacco!" Saint James, Spain, blood, flesh, fire,
+sack!!--such were the hideous cries which rang through every quarter of
+the city, as the savage horde advanced. Van Ende, with his German troops,
+had been stationed by the Marquis of Havre to defend the Saint Joris
+gate, but no sooner, did the Spaniards under Vargas present themselves,
+than he deserted to them instantly with his whole force. United with the
+Spanish cavalry, these traitorous defenders of Antwerp dashed in pursuit
+of those who had only been fainthearted. Thus the burghers saw themselves
+attacked by many of their friends, deserted by more. Whom were they to
+trust? Nevertheless, Oberstein's Germans were brave and faithful,
+resisting to the last, and dying every man in his harness. The tide of
+battle flowed hither and thither, through every street and narrow lane.
+It poured along the magnificent Place de Meer, where there was an
+obstinate contest. In front of the famous Exchange, where in peaceful
+hours, five thousand merchants met daily, to arrange the commercial
+affairs of Christendom, there was a determined rally, a savage slaughter.
+The citizens and faithful Germans, in this broader space, made a stand
+against their pursuers. The tesselated marble pavement, the graceful,
+cloister-like arcades ran red with blood. The ill-armed burghers faced
+their enemies clad in complete panoply, but they could only die for their
+homes. The massacre at this point was enormous, the resistance at last
+overcome.
+
+Meantime, the Spanish cavalry had cleft its way through the city. On the
+side farthest removed from the castle; along the Horse-market, opposite
+the New-town, the states dragoons and the light horse of Beveren had been
+posted, and the flying masses of pursuers and pursued swept at last
+through this outer circle. Champagny was already there. He essayed, as
+his last hope, to rally the cavalry for a final stand, but the effort was
+fruitless. Already seized by the panic, they had attempted to rush from
+the city through the gate of Eeker. It was locked; they then turned and
+fled towards the Red-gate, where they were met face to face by Don Pedro
+Tassis, who charged upon them with his dragoons. Retreat seemed hopeless.
+A horseman in complete armor, with lance in rest, was seen to leap from
+the parapet of the outer wall into the moat below, whence, still on
+horseback, he escaped with life. Few were so fortunate. The confused mob
+of fugitives and conquerors, Spaniards, Walloons, Germans, burghers,
+struggling, shouting, striking, cursing, dying, swayed hither and thither
+like a stormy sea. Along the spacious Horse-market, the fugitives fled
+toward towards the quays. Many fell beneath the swords of the Spaniards,
+numbers were trodden to death by the hoofs of horses, still greater
+multitudes were hunted into the Scheld. Champagny, who had thought it
+possible, even at the last moment, to make a stand in the Newtown, and to
+fortify the Palace of the Hansa, saw himself deserted. With great daring
+and presence of mind, he effected his escape to the fleet of the Prince
+of Orange in the river. The Marquis of Havre, of whom no deeds of valor
+on that eventful day have been recorded, was equally successful. The
+unlucky Oberstein, attempting to leap into a boat, missed his footing,
+and oppressed by the weight of his armor, was drowned.
+
+Meantime, while the short November day was fast declining, the combat
+still raged in the interior of the city. Various currents of conflict,
+forcing their separate way through many streets, had at last mingled in
+the Grande Place. Around this irregular, not very spacious square, stood
+the gorgeous Hotel de Ville, and the tall, many storied, fantastically
+gabled, richly decorated palaces of the guilds, Here a long struggle took
+place. It was terminated for a time by the cavalry of Vargas, who,
+arriving through the streets of Saint Joris, accompanied by the traitor
+Van Ende, charged decisively into the melee. The masses were broken, but
+multitudes of armed men found refuge in the buildings, and every house
+became a fortress. From, every window and balcony a hot fire was poured
+into the square, as, pent in a corner, the burghers stood at last at bay.
+It was difficult to carry the houses by storm, but they were soon set on
+fire. A large number of sutlers and other varlets had accompanied the
+Spaniards from the citadel, bringing torches and kindling materials for
+the express purpose of firing the town. With great dexterity, these means
+were now applied, and in a brief interval, the City-hall, and other
+edifices on the square were in flames. The conflagration spread with
+rapidity, house after house, street after street, taking fire. Nearly a
+thousand buildings, in the most splendid and wealthy quarter of the city,
+were soon in a blaze, and multitudes of human beings were burned with
+them. In the City-hall many were consumed, while others, leaped from the
+windows to renew the combat below. The many tortuous, streets which led
+down a slight descent from the rear of the Town house to the quays were
+all one vast conflagration. On the other side, the magnificent cathedral,
+separated from the Grande Place by a single row of buildings, was lighted
+up, but not attacked by the flames. The tall spire cast its gigantic
+shadow across the last desperate conflict. In the street called the Canal
+au Sucre, immediately behind the Town-house, there was a fierce struggle,
+a horrible massacre. A crowd of burghers; grave magistrates, and such of
+the German soldiers as remained alive, still confronted the ferocious
+Spaniards. There amid the flaming desolation, Goswyn Verreyck, the heroic
+margrave of the city, fought with the energy of hatred and despair. The
+burgomaster, Van der Meere, lay dead at his feet; senators, soldiers,
+citizens, fell fast around him, and he sank at last upon a heap of slain.
+With him effectual resistance ended. The remaining combatants were
+butchered, or were slowly forced downward to perish in the Scheld. Women,
+children, old men, were killed in countless numbers, and still, through
+all this havoc, directly over the heads of the struggling throng,
+suspended in mid-air above the din and smoke of the conflict, there
+sounded, every half-quarter of every hour, as if in gentle mockery, from
+the belfry of the cathedral, the tender and melodious chimes.
+
+Never was there a more monstrous massacre, even in the blood-stained
+history of the Netherlands. It was estimated that, in the course of this
+and the two following days, not less than eight thousand human beings
+were murdered. The Spaniards seemed to cast off even the vizard of
+humanity. Hell seemed emptied of its fiends. Night fell upon the scene
+before the soldiers were masters of the city; but worse horrors began
+after the contest was ended. This army of brigands had come thither with
+a definite, practical purpose, for it was not blood-thirst, nor lust, nor
+revenge, which had impelled them, but it was avarice, greediness for
+gold. For gold they had waded through all this blood and fire. Never had
+men more simplicity of purpose, more directness in its execution. They
+had conquered their India at last; its golden mines lay all before them,
+and every sword should open a shaft. Riot and rape might be deferred;
+even murder, though congenial to their taste, was only subsidiary to
+their business. They had come to take possession of the city's wealth,
+and they set themselves faithfully to accomplish their task. For gold,
+infants were dashed out of existence in their mothers' arms; for gold,
+parents were tortured in their children's presence; for gold, brides were
+scourged to death before their husbands' eyes. Wherever, treasure was
+suspected, every expedient which ingenuity; sharpened by greediness,
+could suggest, was employed to-extort it from its possessors. The fire,
+spreading more extensively and more rapidly than had been desired through
+the wealthiest quarter of the city, had unfortunately devoured a vast
+amount of property. Six millions, at least, had thus been swallowed; a
+destruction by which no one had profited. There was, however, much left.
+The strong boxes of the merchants, the gold, silver, and precious
+jewelry, the velvets, satins, brocades, laces, and similar well
+concentrated and portable plunder, were rapidly appropriated. So far the
+course was plain and easy, but in private houses it was more difficult.
+The cash, plate, and other valuables of individuals were not so easily
+discovered. Torture was, therefore; at once employed to discover the
+hidden treasures. After all had been, given, if the sum seemed too
+little, the proprietors were brutally punished for their poverty or their
+supposed dissimulation. A gentlewoman, named Fabry, with her aged mother
+and other females of the family, had taken refuge in the cellar of her
+mansion. As the day was drawing to a close, a band of plunderers entered,
+who, after ransacking the house, descended to the cellarage. Finding the
+door barred, they forced it open with gunpowder. The mother, who was
+nearest the entrance, fell dead on the threshold. Stepping across her
+mangled body, the brigands sprang upon her daughter, loudly demanding the
+property which they believed to be concealed. They likewise insisted on
+being informed where the master of the house had taken refuge.
+Protestations of ignorance as to hidden treasure, or the whereabouts of
+her husband, who, for aught she knew, was lying dead in the streets, were
+of no avail. To make her more communicative, they hanged her on a beam in
+the cellar, and after a few moments cut her down before life was extinct.
+Still receiving no satisfactory reply, where a satisfactory reply was
+impossible, they hanged her again. Again, after another brief interval
+they gave her a second release, and a fresh interrogatory. This barbarity
+they repeated several times, till they were satisfied that there was
+nothing to be gained by it, while, on, the other hand, they were losing
+much valuable time. Hoping to be more successful elsewhere, they left her
+hanging for the last time, and trooped off to fresher fields. Strange to
+relate, the person thus horribly tortured, survived. A servant in her
+family, married to a Spanish soldier, providentially entered the house in
+time to rescue her perishing mistress. She was restored to existence, but
+never to reason. Her brain was hopelessly crazed, and she passed the
+remainder of her life wandering about her house, or feebly digging in her
+garden for the buried treasure which she had been thus fiercely solicited
+to reveal.
+
+A wedding-feast was rudely interrupted. Two young persons, neighbours of
+opulent families, had been long betrothed, and the marriage day had been
+fixed for Sunday, the fatal 4th of November. The guests were assembled,
+the ceremony concluded, the nuptial banquet in progress, when the
+horrible outcries in the streets proclaimed that the Spaniards had broken
+loose. Hour after hour of trembling expectation succeeded. At last, a
+thundering at the gate proclaimed the arrival of a band of brigands.
+Preceded by their captain, a large number of soldiers forced their way
+into the house, ransacking every chamber, no opposition being offered by
+the family and friends, too few and powerless to cope with this band of
+well-armed ruffians. Plate chests, wardrobes, desks, caskets of jewelry,
+were freely offered, eagerly accepted, but not found sufficient, and to
+make the luckless wretches furnish more than they possessed, the usual
+brutalities were employed. The soldiers began by striking the bridegroom
+dead. The bride fell shrieking into her mother's arms, whence she was
+torn by the murderers, who immediately put the mother to death, and an
+indiscriminate massacre then followed the fruitless attempt to obtain by
+threats and torture treasure which did not exist. The bride, who was of
+remarkable beauty, was carried off to the citadel. Maddened by this last
+outrage, the father, who was the only man of the party left alive, rushed
+upon the Spaniards. Wresting a sword from one of the crew, the old man
+dealt with it so fiercely, that he stretched more than one enemy dead at
+his feet, but it is needless to add that he was soon despatched.
+Meantime, while the party were concluding the plunder of the mansion, the
+bride was left in a lonely apartment of the fortress. Without wasting
+time in fruitless lamentation, she resolved to quit the life which a few
+hours had made so desolate. She had almost succeeded in hanging herself
+with a massive gold chain which she wore, when her captor entered the
+apartment. Inflamed, not with lust, but with avarice, excited not by her
+charms, but by her jewelry; he rescued her from her perilous position. He
+then took possession of her chain and the other trinkets with which her
+wedding-dress was adorned, and caused her; to be entirely stripped of her
+clothing. She was then scourged with rods till her beautiful body was
+bathed in blood, and at last alone, naked, nearly mad, was sent back into
+the city. Here the forlorn creature wandered up and down through the
+blazing streets, among the heaps of dead and dying, till she was at last
+put out of her misery by a gang of soldiers.
+
+Such are a few isolated instances, accidentally preserved in their
+details, of the general horrors inflicted on this occasion. Others
+innumerable have sunk into oblivion. On the morning of the 5th of
+November, Antwerp presented a ghastly sight. The magnificent marble
+Town-house, celebrated as a "world's wonder," even in that age and
+country, in which so much splendour was lavished on municipal palaces,
+stood a blackened ruin--all but the walls destroyed, while its archives,
+accounts, and other valuable contents, had perished. The more splendid
+portion of the city had been consumed; at least five hundred palaces,
+mostly of marble or hammered stone, being a smouldering mass of
+destruction. The dead bodies of those fallen in the massacre were on
+every side, in greatest profusion around the Place de Meer, among the
+Gothic pillars of the Exchange, and in the streets near the Town-house.
+The German soldiers lay in their armor, some with their heads burned from
+their bodies, some with legs and arms consumed by the flames through
+which they had fought. The Margrave Goswyn Verreyck, the burgomaster Van
+der Meere, the magistrates Lancelot Van Urselen, Nicholas Van Boekholt,
+and other leading citizens, lay among piles of less distinguished slain.
+They remained unburied until the overseers of the poor, on whom the
+living had then more importunate claims than the dead, were compelled by
+Roda to bury them out of the pauper fund. The murderers were too thrifty
+to be at funeral charges for their victims. The ceremony was not hastily
+performed, for the number of corpses had not been completed. Two days
+longer the havoc lasted in the city. Of all the crimes which men can
+commit, whether from deliberate calculation or in the frenzy of passion,
+hardly one was omitted, for riot, gaming, rape, which had been postponed
+to the more stringent claims of robbery and murder, were now rapidly
+added to the sum of atrocities. History has recorded the account
+indelibly on her brazen tablets; it can be adjusted only at the
+judgment-seat above.
+
+Of all the deeds of darkness yet compassed in the Netherlands, this was
+the worst. It was called The Spanish Fury, by which dread name it has
+been known for ages. The city, which had been a world of wealth and
+splendor, was changed to a charnel-house, and from that hour its
+commercial prosperity was blasted. Other causes had silently girdled the
+yet green and flourishing tree, but the Spanish Fury was the fire which
+consumed it to ashes. Three thousand dead bodies were discovered in the
+streets, as many more were estimated to have perished in the Scheld, and
+nearly an equal number were burned or destroyed in other ways. Eight
+thousand persons undoubtedly were put to death. Six millions of property
+were destroyed by the fire, and at least as much more was obtained by the
+Spaniards. In this enormous robbery no class of people was respected.
+Foreign merchants, living under the express sanction and protection of
+the Spanish monarch, were plundered with as little reserve as Flemings.
+Ecclesiastics of the Roman Church were compelled to disgorge their wealth
+as freely as Calvinists. The rich were made to contribute all their
+abundance, and the poor what could be wrung from their poverty. Neither
+paupers nor criminals were safe. Captain Caspar Ortis made a brilliant
+speculation by taking possession of the Stein, or city prison, whence he
+ransomed all the inmates who could find means to pay for their liberty.
+Robbers, murderers, even Anabaptists, were thus again let loose. Rarely
+has so small a band obtained in three days' robbery so large an amount of
+wealth. Four or five millions divided among five thousand soldiers made
+up for long arrearages, and the Spaniards had reason to congratulate
+themselves upon having thus taken the duty of payment into their own
+hands. It is true that the wages of iniquity were somewhat unequally
+distributed, somewhat foolishly squandered. A private trooper was known
+to lose ten thousand crowns in one day in a gambling transaction at the
+Bourse, for the soldiers, being thus handsomely in funds, became desirous
+of aping the despised and plundered merchants, and resorted daily to the
+Exchange, like men accustomed to affairs. The dearly purchased gold was
+thus lightly squandered by many, while others, more prudent, melted their
+portion into sword-hilts, into scabbards, even into whole suits of armor,
+darkened, by precaution, to appear made entirely of iron. The brocades,
+laces, and jewelry of Antwerp merchants were converted into coats of mail
+for their destroyers. The goldsmiths, however, thus obtained an
+opportunity to outwit their plunderers, and mingled in the golden armor
+which they were forced to furnish much more alloy than their employers
+knew. A portion of the captured booty was thus surreptitiously redeemed.
+
+In this Spanish Fury many more were massacred in Antwerp than in the
+Saint Bartholomew at Paris. Almost as many living human beings were
+dashed out of existence now as there had been statues destroyed in the
+memorable image-breaking of Antwerp, ten years before, an event which had
+sent such a thrill of horror through the heart of Catholic Christendom.
+Yet the Netherlanders and the Protestants of Europe may be forgiven, if
+they regarded this massacre of their brethren with as much execration as
+had been bestowed upon that fury against stocks and stones. At least, the
+image-breakers, had been actuated by an idea, and their hands were
+polluted neither with blood nor rapine. Perhaps the Spaniards had been.
+governed equally by religious fanaticism.--Might not they believe they
+were meriting well of their Mother Church while they were thus
+disencumbering infidels of their wealth and earth of its infidels? Had
+not the Pope and his cardinals gone to church in solemn procession, to
+render thanks unto God for the massacre of Paris? Had not cannon
+thundered and beacons blazed to commemorate that auspicious event? Why
+should not the Antwerp executioners claim equal commendation? Even if in
+their delirium they had confounded friend with foe, Catholic with
+Calvinist, and church property with lay, could they not point to an equal
+number of dead bodies, and to an incredibly superior amount of plunder?
+
+Marvellously few Spaniards were slain in these eventful days. Two hundred
+killed is the largest number stated. The discrepancy seems monstrous, but
+it is hardly more than often existed between the losses inflicted and
+sustained by the Spaniards in such combats. Their prowess was equal to
+their ferocity, and this was enough to make them seem endowed with
+preterhuman powers. When it is remembered, also, that the burghers were
+insufficiently armed, that many of their defenders turned against them,
+that many thousands fled in the first moments of the encounter--and when
+the effect of a sudden and awful panic is duly considered, the
+discrepancy between the number of killed on the two sides will not seem
+so astonishing.
+
+A few officers of distinction were taken, alive and carried to the
+castle. Among these were the Seigneur de Capres and young Count Egmont.
+The councillor Jerome de Roda was lounging on a chair in an open gallery
+when these two gentlemen were brought before him, and Capres was base
+enough to make a low obeisance to the man who claimed to represent the
+whole government of his Majesty. The worthy successor of Vargas replied
+to his captive's greeting by a "kick in his stomach," adding, with a
+brutality which his prototype might have envied, "Ah puto
+tradidor,--whoreson traitor, let me have no salutations from such as
+you." Young Egmont, who had been captured, fighting bravely at the head
+of coward troops, by Julian Romero, who nine years before had stood on
+his father's scaffold, regarded this brutal scene with haughty
+indignation. This behaviour had more effect upon Roda than the suppleness
+of Capres. "I am sorry for your misfortune, Count," said the councillor,
+without however rising from his chair; "such is the lot of those who take
+arms against their King." This was the unfortunate commencement of Philip
+Egmont's career, which was destined to be inglorious, vacillating, base,
+and on more than one occasion unlucky.
+
+A shiver ran through the country as the news of the horrible crime was
+spread, but it was a shiver of indignation, not of fear. Already the
+negotiations at Ghent between the representatives of the Prince and of
+Holland and Zealand with the deputies of the other provinces were in a
+favorable train, and the effect of this event upon their counsels was
+rather quickening than appalling. A letter from Jerome de Roda to the
+King was intercepted, giving an account of the transaction. In that
+document the senator gave the warmest praise to Sancho d'Avila, Julian
+Romero, Alonzo de Vargas, Francis Verdugo, as well as to the German
+colonels Fugger, Frondsberger, Polwiller, and others who had most exerted
+themselves in the massacre. "I wish your Majesty much good of this
+victory," concluded the councillor, "'tis a very great one, and the
+damage to the city is enormous." This cynical view was not calculated to
+produce a soothing effect on the exasperated minds of the people. On the
+other hand, the estates of Brabant addressed an eloquent appeal to the
+states-general, reciting their wrongs, and urging immediate action. "'Tis
+notorious," said the remonstrants, "that Antwerp was but yesterday the
+first and principal ornament of all Europe; the refuge of all the nations
+of the world; the source and supply of countless treasure; the nurse of
+all arts and industry; the protectress of the Roman Catholic religion;
+the guardian of science and virtue; and, above all these preeminences;
+more than faithful and obedient to her sovereign prince and lord. The
+city is now changed to a gloomy cavern, filled with robbers and
+murderers, enemies of God, the King, and all good subjects." They then
+proceeded to recite the story of the massacre, whereof the memory shall
+be abominable so long as the world stands, and concluded with an urgent
+appeal for redress. They particularly suggested that an edict should
+forthwith be passed, forbidding the alienation of property and the
+exportation of goods in any form from Antwerp, together with concession
+of the right to the proprietors of reclaiming their stolen property
+summarily, whenever and wheresoever it might be found. In accordance with
+these instructions, an edict was passed, but somewhat tardily, in the
+hope of relieving some few of the evil consequences by which the Antwerp
+Fury had been attended.
+
+At about the same time the Prince of Orange addressed a remarkable letter
+to the states-general then assembled at Ghent, urging them to hasten the
+conclusion of the treaty. The news of the massacre, which furnished an
+additional and most vivid illustration of the truth of his letter, had
+not then reached him at Middelburg, but the earnestness of his views,
+taken in connexion with this last dark deed, exerted a powerful and
+indelible effect. The letter was a masterpiece, because it was necessary,
+in his position, to inflame without alarming; to stimulate the feelings
+which were in unison, without shocking those which, if aroused, might
+prove discordant. Without; therefore, alluding in terms to the religious
+question, he dwelt upon the necessity of union, firmness, and wariness.
+If so much had been done by Holland and Zealand, how much more might be
+hoped when all the provinces were united? "The principal flower of the
+Spanish army has fallen," he said, "without having been able to conquer
+one of those provinces from those whom they call, in mockery, poor
+beggars; yet what is that handful of cities compared to all the provinces
+which might join us in the quarrel?" He warned the states of the
+necessity of showing a strong and united front; the King having been ever
+led to consider the movement in the Netherlands a mere conspiracy of
+individuals. "The King told me himself; in 1559," said Orange, "that if
+the estates had no pillars to lean upon, they would not talk so loud." It
+was, therefore, "necessary to show that prelates, abbots, monks,
+seigniors, gentlemen, burghers, and peasants, the whole people in short,
+now cried with one voice, and desired with one will. To such a
+demonstration the King would not dare oppose himself. By thus preserving
+a firm and united front, sinking all minor differences, they would,
+moreover, inspire their friends and foreign princes with confidence. The
+princes of Germany, the lords and gentlemen of France, the Queen of
+England, although sympathizing with the misfortunes of the Netherlanders,
+had been unable effectually to help them, so long as their disunion
+prevented them from helping themselves; so long as even their appeal to
+arms seemed merely a levy of bucklers, an emotion of the populace, which,
+like a wave of the sea, rises and sinks again as soon as risen."
+
+While thus exciting to union and firmness, he also took great pains to
+instil the necessity of wariness. They were dealing with an artful foe.
+Intercepted letters had already proved that the old dissimulation was
+still to be employed; that while Don John of Austria was on his way, the
+Netherlanders were to be lulled into confidence by glozing speeches. Roda
+was provided by the King with a secret programme of instructions for the
+new Governor's guidance and Don Sancho d'Avila, for his countenance to
+the mutineers of Alost, had been applauded to the echo in Spain. Was not
+this applause a frequent indication of the policy to be adopted by Don
+John, and a thousand times more significative one than the unmeaning
+phrases of barren benignity with which public documents might be crammed?
+"The old tricks are again brought into service," said the Prince;
+"therefore 'tis necessary to ascertain your veritable friends, to tear
+off the painted masks from those who, under pretence-of not daring to
+displease the King, are seeking to swim between two waters. 'Tis
+necessary to have a touchstone; to sign a declaration in such wise that
+you may know whom to trust, and whom to suspect."
+
+The massacre at Antwerp and the eloquence of the Prince produced a most
+quickening effect upon the Congress at Ghent. Their deliberations had
+proceeded with decorum and earnestness, in the midst of the cannonading
+against the citadel, and the fortress fell on the same day which saw the
+conclusion of the treaty.
+
+This important instrument, by which the sacrifices and exertions of the
+Prince were, for a brief season, at least, rewarded, contained
+twenty-five articles. The Prince of Orange, with the estates of Holland
+and Zealand, on the one side, and the provinces signing, or thereafter to
+sign the treaty, on the other, agreed that there should be a mutual
+forgiving and forgetting, as regarded the past. They vowed a close and
+faithful friendship for the future. They plighted a mutual promise to
+expel the Spaniards from the Netherlands without delay. As soon as this
+great deed should be done, there was to be a convocation of the
+states-general, on the basis of that assembly before which the abdication
+of the Emperor had taken place. By this congress, the affairs of religion
+in Holland and Zealand should be regulated, as well as the surrender of
+fortresses and other places belonging to his Majesty. There was to be
+full liberty of communication and traffic between the citizens of the one
+side and the other. It should not be legal, however, for those of Holland
+and Zealand to attempt anything outside their own territory against the
+Roman Catholic religion, nor for cause hereof to injure or irritate any
+one, by deed or word. All the placards and edicts on the subject of
+heresy, together with the criminal ordinances made by the Duke of Alva,
+were suspended, until the states-general should otherwise ordain. The
+Prince was to remain lieutenant, admiral, and general for his Majesty in
+Holland, Zealand, and the associated places, till otherwise provided by
+the states-general; after the departure of the Spaniards. The cities and
+places included in the Prince's commission, but not yet acknowledging his
+authority, should receive satisfaction from him, as to the point of
+religion and other matters, before subscribing to the union. All
+prisoners, and particularly the Comte de Bossu, should be released
+without ransom. All estates and other property not already alienated
+should be restored, all confiscations since 1566 being declared null and
+void. The Countess Palatine, widow of Brederode, and Count de Buren, son
+of the Prince of Orange, were expressly named in this provision. Prelates
+and ecclesiastical persons; having property in Holland and Zealand,
+should be reinstated, if possible; but in case of alienation, which was
+likely to be generally the case; there should be reasonable compensation.
+It was to be decided by the states-general whether the provinces should
+discharge the debts incurred by the Prince of Orange in his two
+campaigns. Provinces and cities should not have the benefit of this union
+until they had signed the treaty, but they should be permitted to sign it
+when they chose.
+
+This memorable document was subscribed at Ghent, on the 8th of November,
+by Saint Aldegonde, with eight other commissioners appointed by the
+Prince of Orange and the estates of Holland on the one side, and by
+Elbertus Leoninus and other deputies appointed by Brabant, Flanders,
+Artois, Hainault, Valenciennes, Lille, Douay, Orchies, Namur, Tournay,
+Utrecht, and Mechlin on the other side.
+
+The arrangement was a masterpiece of diplomacy on the part of the Prince,
+for it was as effectual a provision for the safety of the Reformed
+religion as could be expected under the circumstances. It was much,
+considering the change which had been wrought of late years in the
+fifteen provinces, that they should consent to any treaty with their two
+heretic sisters. It was much more that the Pacification should recognize
+the new religion as the established creed of Holland and Zealand, while
+at the same time the infamous edicts of Charles were formally abolished.
+In the fifteen Catholic provinces, there was to be no prohibition of
+private Reformed worship, and it might be naturally expected that with
+time and the arrival of the banished religionists, a firmer stand would
+be taken in favor of the Reformation. Meantime, the new religion was
+formally established in two provinces, and tolerated, in secret, in the
+other fifteen; the Inquisition was for ever abolished, and the whole
+strength of the nation enlisted to expel the foreign soldiery from the
+soil. This was the work of William the Silent, and the great Prince thus
+saw the labor of years crowned with, at least, a momentary success. His
+satisfaction was very great when it was announced to him, many days
+before the exchange of the signatures, that the treaty had been
+concluded. He was desirous that the Pacification should be referred for
+approval, not to the municipal magistrates only, but to the people
+itself. In all great emergencies, the man who, in his whole character,
+least resembled a demagogue, either of antiquity or of modern times, was
+eager for a fresh expression of the popular will. On this occasion,
+however, the demand for approbation was superfluous. The whole country
+thought with his thoughts, and spoke with his words, and the
+Pacification, as soon as published, was received with a shout of joy.
+Proclaimed in the marketplace of every city and village, it was ratified,
+not by votes, but by hymns of thanksgiving, by triumphal music, by
+thundering of cannon, and by the blaze of beacons, throughout the
+Netherlands. Another event added to the satisfaction of the hour. The
+country so recently, and by deeds of such remarkable audacity, conquered
+by the Spaniards in the north, was recovered almost simultaneously with
+the conclusion of the Ghent treaty. It was a natural consequence of the
+great mutiny. The troops having entirely deserted Mondragon, it became
+necessary for that officer to abandon Zierickzee, the city which had been
+won with so much valor. In the beginning of November, the capital, and
+with it the whole island of Schouwen, together with the rest of Zealand,
+excepting Tholen, was recovered by Count Hohenlo, lieutenant-general of
+the Prince of Orange, and acting according to his instructions.
+
+Thus, on this particular point of time, many great events had been
+crowded. At the very same moment Zealand had been redeemed, Antwerp
+ruined, and the league of all the Netherlands against the Spaniards
+concluded. It now became known that another and most important event had
+occurred at the same instant. On the day before the Antwerp massacre,
+four days before the publication of the Ghent treaty, a foreign cavalier,
+attended by a Moorish slave and by six men-at-arms, rode into the streets
+of Luxemburg. The cavalier was Don Ottavio Gonzaga, brother of the Prince
+of Melfi. The Moorish slave was Don John of Austria, the son of the
+Emperor, the conqueror of Granada, the hero of Lepanto. The new
+Governor-general had traversed Spain and France in disguise with great
+celerity, and in the romantic manner which belonged to his character. He
+stood at last on the threshold of the Netherlands, but with all his speed
+he had arrived a few days too late.
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     A common hatred united them, for a time at least
+     A most fatal success
+     All claimed the privilege of persecuting
+     Blessing of God upon the Devil's work
+     Daily widening schism between Lutherans and Calvinists
+     Dying at so very inconvenient a moment
+     Eight thousand human beings were murdered
+     Everything was conceded, but nothing was secured
+     Fanatics of the new religion denounced him as a godless man
+     Glory could be put neither into pocket nor stomach
+     He would have no Calvinist inquisition set up in its place
+     He would have no persecution of the opposite creed
+     In character and general talents he was beneath mediocrity
+     Indecision did the work of indolence
+     Insinuate that his orders had been hitherto misunderstood
+     King set a price upon his head as a rebel
+     No man could reveal secrets which he did not know
+     Of high rank but of lamentably low capacity
+     Pope excommunicated him as a heretic
+     Preventing wrong, or violence, even towards an enemy
+     They could not invent or imagine toleration
+     Uunmeaning phrases of barren benignity
+
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Vol. 26
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
+
+By John Lothrop Motley
+1855
+
+
+
+
+PART V.
+
+DON JOHN OF AUSTRIA.
+1576-1577  [CHAPTER I.]
+
+   Birth and parentage of Don John--Barbara Blomberg--Early education
+   and recognition by Philip--Brilliant military career--Campaign
+   against the Moors--Battle of Lepanto--Extravagant ambition--Secret
+   and rapid journey of the new Governor to the Netherlands--Contrast
+   between Don John and William of Orange--Secret instructions of
+   Philip and private purposes of the Governor--Cautious policy and
+   correspondence of the Prince--Preliminary, negotiations with Don
+   John at Luxemburg characterized--Union of Brussels--Resumption of
+   negotiations with the Governor at Huy--The discussions analyzed and
+   characterized--Influence of the new Emperor Rudolph II. and of his
+   envoys--Treaty of Marche en Famine, or the Perpetual Edict, signed--
+   Remarks upon that transaction--Views and efforts of Orange in
+   opposition to the treaty--His letter, in name of Holland and
+   Zealand, to the States-General--Anxiety of the royal government to
+   gain over the Prince--Secret mission of Leoninus--His instructions
+   from Don John--Fruitless attempts to corrupt the Prince--Secret
+   correspondence between Don John and Orange--Don John at Louvain--His
+   efforts to ingratiate himself with the Netherlanders--His incipient
+   popularity--Departure of the Spanish troops--Duke of Aerschot
+   appointed Governor of Antwerp citadel--His insincere character.
+
+Don John of Austria was now in his thirty-second year, having been born
+in Ratisbon on the 24th of February, 1545. His father was Charles the
+Fifth, Emperor of Germany, King of Spain, Dominator of Asia, Africa, and
+America; his mother was Barbara Blomberg, washerwoman of Ratisbon.
+Introduced to the Emperor, originally, that she might alleviate his
+melancholy by her singing, she soon exhausted all that was harmonious in
+her nature, for never was a more uncomfortable, unmanageable personage
+than Barbara in her after life. Married to one Pyramus Kegell, who was
+made a military commissary in the Netherlands, she was left a widow in
+the beginning of Alva's administration. Placed under the especial
+superintendence of the Duke, she became the torment of that warrior's
+life. The terrible Governor, who could almost crush the heart out of a
+nation of three millions, was unable to curb this single termagant.
+Philip had expressly forbidden her to marry again, but Alva informed him
+that she was surrounded by suitors. Philip had insisted that she should
+go into a convent, but Alva, who, with great difficulty, had established
+her quietly in Ghent, assured his master that she would break loose again
+at the bare suggestion of a convent. Philip wished her to go to Spain,
+sending her word that Don John was mortified by the life his mother was
+leading, but she informed the Governor that she would be cut to pieces
+before she would go to Spain. She had no objection to see her son, but
+she knew too well how women were treated in that country. The Duke
+complained most pathetically to his Majesty of the life they all led with
+the ex-mistress of the Emperor. Never, he frequently observed, had woman
+so terrible a head. She was obstinate, reckless, abominably extravagant.
+She had been provided in Ghent with a handsome establishment: "with a
+duenna, six other women, a major domo, two pages, one chaplain, an
+almoner, and four men-servants," and this seemed a sufficiently liberal
+scheme of life for the widow of a commissary. Moreover, a very ample
+allowance had been made for the education of her only legitimate son,
+Conrad, the other having perished by an accident on the day of his
+father's death. While Don John of Austria was, gathering laurels in
+Granada, his half-brother, Pyramus junior, had been ingloriously drowned
+in a cistern at Ghent.
+
+Barbara's expenses were exorbitant; her way of life scandalous. To send
+her money, said Alva, was to throw it into the sea. In two days she would
+have spent in dissipation and feasting any sums which the King might
+choose to supply. The Duke, who feared nothing else in the world, stood
+in mortal awe of the widow Kegell. "A terrible animal, indeed, is an
+unbridled woman," wrote secretary Gayas, from Madrid, at the close of
+Alva's administration for, notwithstanding every effort to entice, to
+intimidate, and to kidnap her from the Netherlands, there she remained,
+through all vicissitudes, even till the arrival of Don John. By his
+persuasions or commands she was, at last, induced to accept an exile for
+the remainder of her days, in Spain, but revenged herself by asserting.
+that he was quite mistaken: in supposing himself the Emperor's child; a
+point, certainly, upon which her, authority might be thought conclusive.
+Thus there was a double mystery about Don John. He might be the issue of
+august parentage on one side; he was; possibly, sprung of most ignoble
+blood. Base-born at best, he was not sure whether to look for the author
+of his being in the halls of the Caesara or the booths of Ratisbon
+mechanics.
+
+   [Cabrera, xii. 1009. An absurd rumor had existed that Barbara
+   Blomberg had only been employed to personate Don John's mother. She
+   died at an estate called Arronjo de Molinos, four leagues from
+   Madrid, some years after the death of Don John.]
+
+Whatever might be the heart of the mystery, it is certain that it was
+allowed to enwrap all the early life of Don John. The Emperor, who
+certainly never doubted his responsibility for the infant's existence,
+had him conveyed instantly to Spain, where he was delivered to Louis
+Quixada, of the Imperial household, by whom he was brought up in great
+retirement at Villa-garcia. Magdalen Ulloa, wife of Quixada, watched over
+his infancy with maternal and magnanimous care, for her husband's extreme
+solicitude for the infant's welfare had convinced her that he was its
+father. On one occasion, when their house was in flames, Quixada rescued
+the infant before he saved his wife, "although Magdalen knew herself to
+be dearer to him than the apple of his eye." From that time forth she
+altered her opinion, and believed the mysterious child to be of lofty
+origin. The boy grew up full of beauty, grace, and agility, the leader of
+all his companions in every hardy sport. Through the country round there
+were none who could throw the javelin, break a lance, or ride at the ring
+like little Juan Quixada. In taming unmanageable horses he was celebrated
+for his audacity and skill. These accomplishments, however, were likely
+to prove of but slender advantage in the ecclesiastical profession, to
+which he had been destined by his Imperial father. The death of Charles
+occurred before clerical studies had been commenced, and Philip, to whom
+the secret had been confided at the close of the Emperor's life,
+prolonged the delay thus interposed. Juan had already reached his
+fourteenth year, when one day his supposed father Quixada invited him to
+ride towards Valladolid to see the royal hunt. Two horses stood at the
+door--a splendidly caparisoned charger and a common hackney. The boy
+naturally mounted the humbler steed, and they set forth for the mountains
+of Toro, but on hearing the bugles of the approaching huntsmen, Quixada
+suddenly halted, and bade his youthful companion exchange horses with
+himself. When this had been done, he seized the hand of the wondering boy
+and kissing it respectfully, exclaimed, "Your Highness will be informed
+as to the meaning of my conduct by his Majesty, who is even now
+approaching." They had proceeded but a short distance before they
+encountered the royal hunting party, when both Quixada and young Juan
+dismounted, and bent the knee to their monarch. Philip, commanding the
+boy to rise, asked him if he knew his father's name. Juan replied, with a
+sigh, that he had at that moment lost the only father whom he had known,
+for Quixada had just disowned him. "You have the same father as myself,"
+cried the King; "the Emperor Charles was the august parent of us both."
+Then tenderly embracing him, he commanded him to remount his horse, and
+all returned together to Valladolid, Philip observing with a
+sentimentality that seems highly apocryphal, that he had never brought
+home such precious game from any hunt before.
+
+This theatrical recognition of imperial descent was one among the many
+romantic incidents of Don John's picturesque career, for his life was
+never destined to know the commonplace. He now commenced his education,
+in company with his two nephews, the Duchess Margaret's son, and Don
+Carlos, Prince-royal of Spain. They were all of the same age, but the
+superiority of Don John was soon recognized. It was not difficult to
+surpass the limping, malicious, Carlos, either in physical graces or
+intellectual accomplishments; but the graceful; urbane, and chivalrous
+Alexander, destined afterwards to such wide celebrity, was a more
+formidable rival, yet even the professed panegyrist of the Farnese
+family, exalts the son of Barbara Blomberg over the grandson of Margaret
+Van Geest.
+
+Still destined for the clerical profession, Don John, at the age of
+eighteen, to avoid compliance with Philip's commands, made his escape to
+Barcelona. It was his intention to join the Maltese expedition. Recalled
+peremptorily by Philip, he was for a short time in disgrace; but
+afterwards made his peace with the monarch by denouncing some of the
+mischievous schemes of Don Carlos. Between the Prince-royal and the
+imperial bastard, there had always been a deep animosity, the Infante
+having on one occasion saluted him with the most vigorous and offensive
+appellation which his illegitimate birth could suggest. "Base-born or
+not," returned Don John, "at any rate I had a better father than yours."
+The words were probably reported to Philip and doubtless rankled in his
+breast, but nothing appeared on the surface, and the youth rose rapidly
+in favor. In his twenty-third year, he was appointed to the command of
+the famous campaign against the insurgent Moors of Granada. Here he
+reaped his first laurels, and acquired great military celebrity. It is
+difficult to be dazzled by such glory. He commenced his operations by the
+expulsion of nearly all the Moorish inhabitants of Granada, bed-ridden
+men, women, and children, together, and the cruelty inflicted, the
+sufferings patiently endured in that memorable deportation, were
+enormous. But few of the many thousand exiles survived the horrid march,
+those who were so unfortunate as to do so being sold into slavery by
+their captors. Still a few Moors held out in their mountain fastnesses,
+and two years long the rebellion of this handful made head against the
+power of Spain. Had their envoys to the Porte succeeded in their
+negotiation, the throne of Philip might have trembled; but Selim hated
+the Republic of Venice as much as he loved the wine of Cyprus. While the
+Moors were gasping out their last breath in Granada and Ronda, the Turks
+had wrested the island of Venus from the grasp of the haughty Republic
+Fainagosta had fallen; thousands of Venetians had been butchered with a
+ferocity which even Christians could not have surpassed; the famous
+General Bragadino had been flayed; stuffed, and sent hanging on the
+yard-arm of a frigate; to Constantinople, as a present to the Commander
+of the Faithful; and the mortgage of Catherine Cornaro, to the exclusion
+of her husband's bastards, had been thus definitely cancelled. With such
+practical enjoyments, Selim was indifferent to the splendid but shadowy
+vision of the Occidental caliphate--yet the revolt of the Moors was only
+terminated, after the departure of Don John, by the Duke of Arcos.
+
+The war which the Sultan had avoided in the West, came to seek him in the
+East. To lift the Crucifix against the Crescent, at the head of the
+powerful but quarrelsome alliance between Venice, Spain, and Rome, Don
+John arrived at Naples. He brought with him more than a hundred ships and
+twenty-three thousand men, as the Spanish contingent:--Three months long
+the hostile fleets had been cruising in the same waters without an
+encounter; three more were wasted in barren manoeuvres. Neither Mussulman
+nor Christian had much inclination for the conflict, the Turk fearing the
+consequences of a defeat, by which gains already secured might be
+forfeited; the allies being appalled at the possibility of their own
+triumph. Nevertheless, the Ottomans manoeuvred themselves at last into
+the gulf of Lepanto, the Christians manoeuvred themselves towards its
+mouth as the foe was coming forth again. The conflict thus rendered
+inevitable, both Turk and Christian became equally eager for the fray,
+equally confident of, victory. Six hundred vessels of war met face to
+face. Rarely in history had so gorgeous a scene of martial array been
+witnessed. An October sun gilded the thousand beauties of an Ionian
+landscape. Athens and Corinth were behind the combatants, the mountains
+of Alexander's Macedon rose in the distance; the rock of Sappho and the
+heights of Actium, were before their eyes. Since the day when the world
+had been lost and won beneath that famous promontory, no such combat as
+the one now approaching had been fought upon the waves. The chivalrous
+young commander despatched energetic messages to his fellow chieftains,
+and now that it was no longer possible to elude the encounter, the
+martial ardor of the allies was kindled. The Venetian High-Admiral
+replied with words of enthusiasm. Colonna, lieutenant of the league,
+answered his chief in the language of St. Peter; "Though I die, yet will
+I not deny thee."
+
+The fleet was arranged in three divisions. The Ottomans, not drawn up in
+crescent form, as usual, had the same triple disposition. Barbarigo and
+the other Venetians commanded on the left, John Andrew Doria on the
+right, while Don John himself and Colonna were in the centre, Crucifix in
+hand, the High-Admiral rowed from ship to ship exhorting generals and
+soldiers to show themselves worthy of a cause which he had persuaded
+himself was holy. Fired by his eloquence and by the sight of the enemy,
+his hearers answered with eager shouts, while Don John returned to his
+ship; knelt upon the quarter-deck, and offered a prayer. He then ordered
+the trumpets to sound the assault, commanded his sailing-master to lay
+him alongside the Turkish Admiral, and the battle began. The Venetians,
+who were first attacked, destroyed ship after ship of their assailants
+after a close and obstinate contest, but Barliarigo fell dead ere the
+sunset, with an arrow through his brain. Meantime the action, immediately
+after the first onset, had become general. From noon till evening the
+battle raged, with a carnage rarely recorded in history. Don John's own
+ship lay yard-arm and yard-arm with the Turkish Admiral, and exposed to
+the fire of seven large vessels besides. It was a day when personal,
+audacity, not skilful tactics, was demanded, and the imperial bastard
+showed the metal he was made of. The Turkish Admiral's ship was
+destroyed, his head exposed from Don John's deck upon a pike, and the
+trophy became the signal for a general panic and a complete victory. By
+sunset the battle had been won.
+
+Of nearly three hundred Turkish galleys, but fifty made their escape.
+From twenty-five to thirty thousand Turks were slain, and perhaps ten
+thousand Christians. The galley-slaves on both sides fought well, and the
+only beneficial result of the victory was the liberation of several
+thousand Christian captives. It is true that their liberty was purchased
+with the lives of a nearly equal number of Christian soldiers, and by the
+reduction to slavery of almost as many thousand Mussulmen, duly
+distributed among the Christian victors. Many causes--contributed to this
+splendid triumph. The Turkish ships, inferior in number, were also worse
+manned than those of their adversaries; and their men were worse armed.
+Every bullet of the Christians told on muslin turbans and embroidered
+tunics, while the arrows of the Moslems fell harmless on the casques and
+corslets of their foes. The Turks, too, had committed the fatal error of
+fighting upon a lee shore. Having no sea room, and being repelled in
+their first onset, many galleys were driven upon the rocks, to be
+destroyed with all their crews.
+
+   [Cabrera says that thirty thousand Turks were slain, ten thousand
+   made prisoners, ten thousand Christians killed, and fifteen thousand
+   Christian prisoners liberated, ix. 693. De Thou's estimate is
+   twenty-five thousand Turks killed, three thousand prisoners, and ten
+   thousand Christians killed, vi. 247. Brantome states the number of
+   Turks killed at thirty thousand, without counting those who were
+   drowned or who died afterwards of their wounds; six thousand
+   prisoners, twelve thousand Christian prisoners liberated, and ten
+   thousand Christians killed. Hoofd, vi. 214, gives the figures at
+   twenty-five thousand Turks and ten thousand Christians slain. Bor,
+   v. 354, makes a minute estimate, on the authority of Pietro
+   Contareno, stating the number of Christians killed at seven thousand
+   six hundred and fifty, that of Turks at twenty-five thousand one
+   hundred and fifty, Turkish prisoners at three thousand eight hundred
+   and forty-six, and Christians liberated at twelve thousand; giving
+   the number of Turkish ships destroyed at eighty, captured fifty.
+   According to the "Relation cierta y verdadera," (which was drawn up
+   a few days after the action,) the number of Turks slain was thirty
+   thousand and upwards, besides many prisoners, that of Christians
+   killed was seven thousand, of Christian slaves liberated twelve
+   thousand, of Ottoman ships taken or destroyed two hundred and
+   thirty. Documentos Ineditos, iii. 249. Philip sent an express
+   order, forbidding the ransoming of even the captive officers. The
+   Turkish slaves were divided among the victors in the proportion of
+   one-half to Philip and one-half to the Pope and Venice. The other
+   booty was distributed on the same principle. Out of the Pope's
+   share Don John received, as a present, one hundred and seventy-four
+   slaves (Documentos Ineditos, iii. 229). Alexander of Parma
+   received thirty slaves; Requesens thirty. To each general of
+   infantry was assigned six slaves; to each colonel four; to each
+   ship's captain one. The number of "slaves in chains" (esclavos de
+   cadena) allotted to Philip was thirty-six hundred (Documentoa
+   Ineditos, 257). Seven thousand two hundred Turkish slaves,
+   therefore, at least, were divided among Christians. This number of
+   wretches, who were not fortunate enough to die with their twenty-
+   five thousand comrades, must be set off against the twelve thousand
+   Christian slaves liberated, in the general settlement of the account
+   with Humanity.]
+
+But whatever the cause of the victory, its consequence was to spread the
+name and fame of Don John of Austria throughout the world. Alva wrote,
+with enthusiasm, to congratulate him; pronouncing the victory the most
+brilliant one ever achieved by Christians, and Don John the greatest
+general since the death of Julius Caesar. At the same time, with a
+sarcastic fling at the erection of the Escorial, he advised Philip to
+improve this new success in some more practical way than by building a
+house for the Lord and a sepulchre for the dead. "If," said the Duke,
+"the conquests of Spain be extended in consequence of this triumph, then,
+indeed, will the Cherubim and Seraphim sing glory to God." A courier,
+despatched post haste to Spain, bore the glorious news, together with
+the sacred, standard of the Prophet, the holy of holies, inscribed with
+the name of Allah twenty-eight thousand nine hundred times, always kept
+in Mecca during peace, and never since the conquest of Constantinople
+lost in battle before. The King was at vespers in the Escorial. Entering
+the sacred precincts, breathless, travel-stained, excited, the messenger
+found Philip impassible as marble to the wondrous news. Not a muscle of
+the royal visage was moved, not a syllable escaped the royal lips, save a
+brief order to the clergy to continue the interrupted vespers. When the
+service had been methodically concluded, the King made known the
+intelligence and requested a Te Deum.
+
+The youthful commander-in-chief obtained more than his full mead of
+glory. No doubt he had fought with brilliant courage, yet in so close and
+murderous a conflict, the valor of no single individual could decide the
+day, and the result was due to the combined determination of all. Had Don
+John remained at Naples, the issue might have easily been the same.
+Barbarigo, who sealed the victory with his blood; Colonna, who celebrated
+a solemn triumph on his return to Rome; Parma, Doria, Giustiniani,
+Venieri, might each as well have claimed a monopoly of the glory, had not
+the Pope, at Philip's entreaty, conferred the baton of command upon Don
+John. The meagre result of the contest is as notorious as the victory.
+While Constantinople was quivering with apprehension, the rival generals
+were already wrangling with animosity. Had the Christian fleet advanced,
+every soul would have fled from the capital, but Providence had ordained
+otherwise, and Don John sailed westwardly with his ships. He made a
+descent on the Barbary coast, captured Tunis, destroyed Biserta, and
+brought King Amidas and his two sons prisoners to Italy. Ordered by
+Philip to dismantle the fortifications of Tunis, he replied by repairing
+them thoroughly, and by placing a strong garrison within the citadel.
+Intoxicated with his glory, the young adventurer already demanded a
+crown, and the Pope was disposed to proclaim him King of Tunis, for the
+Queen of the Lybian seas was to be the capital of his Empire, the new
+Carthage which he already dreamed.
+
+Philip thought it time to interfere, for he felt that his own crown might
+be insecure, with such a restless and ambitious spirit indulging in
+possible and impossible chimeras. He removed John de Soto, who had been
+Don John's chief councillor and emissary to the Pope, and substituted in
+his place the celebrated and ill-starred Escovedo. The new secretary,
+however, entered as heartily but secretly into all these romantic
+schemes. Disappointed of the Empire which he had contemplated on the edge
+of the African desert, the champion of the Cross turned to the cold
+islands of the northern seas. There sighed, in captivity, the beauteous
+Mary of Scotland, victim of the heretic Elizabeth. His susceptibility to
+the charms of beauty--a characteristic as celebrated as his courage--was
+excited, his chivalry aroused. What holier triumph for the conqueror of
+the Saracens than the subjugation of these northern infidels? He would
+dethrone the proud Elizabeth; he would liberate and espouse the Queen of
+Scots, and together they would reign over, the two united realms. All
+that the Pope could do with bulls and blessings, letters of
+excommunication, and patents of investiture, he did with his whole heart.
+Don John was at liberty to be King of England and Scotland as soon as he
+liked; all that was left to do was to conquer the kingdoms.
+
+Meantime, while these schemes were flitting through his brain, and were
+yet kept comparatively secret by the Pope, Escovedo, and himself, the
+news reached him in Italy that he had been appointed Governor-General of
+the Netherlands. Nothing could be more opportune. In the provinces were
+ten thousand veteran Spaniards, ripe for adventure, hardened by years of
+warfare, greedy for gold, audacious almost beyond humanity, the very
+instruments for his scheme. The times were critical in the Netherlands,
+it was true; yet he would soon pacify those paltry troubles, and then
+sweep forward to his prize. Yet events were rushing forward with such
+feverish rapidity, that he might be too late for his adventure. Many days
+were lost in the necessary journey from Italy into Spain to receive the
+final instructions of the King. The news from the provinces, grew more
+and more threatening. With the impetuosity and romance of his
+temperament, he selected his confidential friend Ottavio Gonzaga, six
+men-at-arms, and an adroit and well-experienced Swiss courier who knew
+every road of France. It was no light adventure for the Catholic
+Governor-General of the Netherlands to traverse the kingdom at that
+particular juncture. Staining his bright locks and fair face to the
+complexion of a Moor, he started on his journey, attired as the servant
+of Gonzaga. Arriving at Paris, after a rapid journey, he descended at a
+hostelry opposite the residence of the Spanish ambassador, Don Diego de
+Cuniga. After nightfall he had a secret interview with that functionary,
+and learning, among other matters, that there was to be a great ball that
+night at the Louvre, he determined to go thither in disguise. There,
+notwithstanding his hurry, he had time to see and to become desperately
+enamored of "that wonder of beauty," the fair and frail Margaret of
+Valois, Queen of Navarre. Her subsequent visit to her young adorer at
+Namur, to be recorded in a future page of this history, was destined to
+mark the last turning point in his picturesque career. On his way to the
+Netherlands he held a rapid interview with the Duke of Guise, to arrange
+his schemes for the liberation and espousal of that noble's kinswoman,
+the Scottish Queen; and on the 3rd of November he arrived at Luxemburg.
+
+There stood the young conqueror of Lepanto, his brain full of schemes,
+his heart full of hopes, on the threshhold of the Netherlands, at the
+entrance to what he believed the most brilliant chapter of his
+life--schemes, hopes, and visions--doomed speedily to fade before the
+cold reality with which he was to be confronted. Throwing off his
+disguise after reaching Luxemburg, the youthful paladin stood confessed.
+His appearance was as romantic as his origin and his exploits. Every
+contemporary chronicler, French, Spanish, Italian, Flemish, Roman, have
+dwelt upon his personal beauty and the singular fascination of his
+manner. Symmetrical features, blue eyes of great vivacity, and a
+profusion of bright curling hair, were combined with a person not much
+above middle height; but perfectly well proportioned. Owing to a natural
+peculiarity of his head, the hair fell backward from the temples, and he
+had acquired the habit of pushing it from his brows. The custom became a
+fashion among the host of courtiers, who were but too happy to glass
+themselves in so brilliant a mirror. As Charles the Fifth, on his journey
+to Italy to assume the iron crown, had caused his hair to be clipped
+close, as a remedy for the headaches with which, at that momentous epoch,
+he was tormented, bringing thereby close shaven polls into extreme
+fashion; so a mass of hair pushed backward from the temples, in the style
+to which the name of John of Austria was appropriated, became the
+prevailing mode wherever the favorite son of the Emperor appeared.
+
+Such was the last crusader whom the annals of chivalry were to know; the
+man who had humbled the crescent as it had not been humbled since the
+days of the Tancreds, the Baldwins, the Plantagenets--yet, after all,
+what was this brilliant adventurer when weighed against the tranquil
+Christian champion whom he was to meet face to face? The contrast was
+striking between the real and the romantic hero. Don John had pursued and
+achieved glory through victories with which the world was ringing;
+William was slowly compassing a country's emancipation through a series
+of defeats. He moulded a commonwealth and united hearts with as much
+contempt for danger as Don John had exhibited in scenes of slave driving
+and carnage. Amid fields of blood, and through web's of tortuous
+intrigue, the brave and subtle son of the Emperor pursued only his own
+objects. Tawdry schemes of personal ambition, conquests for his own
+benefit, impossible crowns for his own wearing, were the motives which
+impelled, him, and the prizes which he sought. His existence was
+feverish, fitful, and passionate. "Tranquil amid the raging billows,"
+according to his favorite device, the father of his country waved aside
+the diadem which for him had neither charms nor meaning. Their characters
+were as contrasted as their persons. The curled-darling of chivalry
+seemed a youth at thirty-one. Spare of figure, plain in apparel,
+benignant, but haggard of countenance, with temples bared by anxiety as
+much as by his helmet, earnest, almost devout in manner, in his own
+words, "Calvus et Calvinists," William of Orange was an old man at
+forty-three.
+
+Perhaps there was as much good faith on the part of Don John, when he
+arrived in Luxemburg, as could be expected of a man coming directly from
+the cabinet of Philip. The King had secretly instructed him to conciliate
+the provinces, but to concede nothing, for the Governor was only a new
+incarnation of the insane paradox that benignity and the system of
+Charles the Fifth were one. He was directed to restore the government, to
+its state during the imperial epoch. Seventeen provinces, in two of which
+the population were all dissenters, in all of which the principle of
+mutual toleration had just been accepted by Catholics and Protestants,
+were now to be brought back to the condition according to which all
+Protestants were beheaded, burned, or buried alive. So that the
+Inquisition, the absolute authority of the monarch, and the exclusive
+worship of the Roman Church were preserved intact, the King professed
+himself desirous of "extinguishing the fires of rebellion, and of saving
+the people from the last desperation." With these slight exceptions,
+Philip was willing to be very benignant. "More than this," said he,
+"cannot and ought not be conceded." To these brief but pregnant
+instructions was added a morsel of advice, personal in its nature, but
+very characteristic of the writer. Don John was recommended to take great
+care of his soul, and also to be very cautious in the management of his
+amours.
+
+Thus counselled and secretly directed, the new Captain-General had been
+dismissed to the unhappy Netherlands. The position, however, was
+necessarily false. The man who was renowned for martial exploits, and
+notoriously devoured by ambition, could hardly inspire deep confidence in
+the pacific dispositions of the government. The crusader of Granada and
+Lepanto, the champion of the ancient Church, was not likely to please the
+rugged Zealanders who had let themselves be hacked to pieces rather than
+say one Paternoster, and who had worn crescents in their caps at Leyden,
+to prove their deeper hostility to the Pope than to the Turk. The
+imperial bastard would derive but alight consideration from his paternal
+blood, in a country where illegitimate birth was more unfavorably
+regarded than in most other countries, and where a Brabantine edict,
+recently issued in name of the King; deprived all political or civil
+functionaries not born in wedlock; of their offices. Yet he had received
+instructions, at his departure, to bring about a pacification, if
+possible, always maintaining, however, the absolute authority of the
+crown and the exclusive exercise of the Catholic religion. How the two
+great points of his instructions were to be made entirely palatable, was
+left to time and chance. There was a vague notion that with the new
+Governor's fame, fascinating manners, and imperial parentage, he might
+accomplish a result which neither fraud nor force--not the arts of
+Granvelle, nor the atrocity of Alva, nor the licentiousness of a
+buccaneering soldiery had been able to effect. As for Don John himself,
+he came with no definite plans for the Netherlanders, but with very
+daring projects of his own, and to pursue these misty visions was his
+main business on arriving in the provinces. In the meantime he was
+disposed to settle the Netherland difficulty in some showy, off-hand
+fashion, which should cost him but little trouble, and occasion no
+detriment to the cause of Papacy or absolutism. Unfortunately for these
+rapid arrangements, William of Orange was in Zealand, and the
+Pacification had just been signed at Ghent.
+
+It was, naturally, with very little satisfaction that the Prince beheld
+the arrival of Don John. His sagacious combinations would henceforth be
+impeded, if not wholly frustrated. This he foresaw. He knew that there
+could be no intention of making any arrangement in which Holland and
+Zealand could be included. He was confident that any recognition of the
+Reformed religion was as much out of the question now as ever. He doubted
+not that there were many Catholic magnates, wavering politicians,
+aspirants for royal favor, who would soon be ready to desert the cause
+which had so recently been made a general cause, and who would soon be
+undermining the work of their own hands. The Pacification of Ghent would
+never be maintained in letter and spirit by the vicegerent of Philip; for
+however its sense might be commented upon or perverted, the treaty, while
+it recognized Catholicism as the state religion, conceded, to a certain
+extent, liberty of conscience. An immense stride had been taken, by
+abolishing the edicts, and prohibiting persecution. If that step were now
+retraced, the new religion was doomed, and the liberties of Holland and
+Zealand destroyed. "If they make an arrangement with Don John, it will be
+for us of the religion to run," wrote the Prince to his brother, "for
+their intention is to suffer no person of that faith to have a fixed
+domicile in the Netherlands." It was, therefore, with a calm
+determination to counteract and crush the policy of the youthful Governor
+that William the Silent awaited his antagonist. Were Don John admitted to
+confidence, the peace of Holland and Zealand was gone. Therefore it was
+necessary to combat him both openly and secretly--by loud remonstrance
+and by invisible stratagem. What chance had the impetuous and impatient
+young hero in such an encounter with the foremost statesman of the age?
+He had arrived, with all the self-confidence of a conqueror; he did not
+know that he was to be played upon like a pipe--to be caught in meshes
+spread by his own hands--to struggle blindly--to rage impotently--to die
+ingloriously.
+
+The Prince had lost no time in admonishing the states-general as to the
+course which should now be pursued. He was of opinion that, upon their
+conduct at this crisis depended the future destinies of the Netherlands.
+"If we understand how to make proper use of the new Governor's arrival,"
+said he, "it may prove very advantageous to us; if not, it will be the
+commencement of our total ruin." The spirit of all his communications was
+to infuse the distrust which he honestly felt, and which he certainly
+took no pains to disguise; to impress upon his countrymen the importance
+of improving the present emergency by the enlargement, instead of the
+threatened contraction of their liberties, and to enforce with all his
+energy the necessity of a firm union. He assured the estates that Don
+John had been sent, in this simple manner, to the country, because the
+King and cabinet had begun to despair of carrying their point by force.
+At the same time he warned them that force would doubtless be replaced by
+fraud. He expressed his conviction that so soon as Don John should attain
+the ascendency which he had been sent to secure, the gentleness which now
+smiled upon the surface would give place to the deadlier purposes which
+lurked below. He went so far as distinctly to recommend the seizure of
+Don John's person. By so doing, much bloodshed might be saved; for such
+was the King's respect for the Emperor's son that their demands would be
+granted rather than that his liberty should be permanently endangered. In
+a very striking and elaborate letter which he addressed from Middelburg
+to the estates-general, he insisted on the expediency of seizing the
+present opportunity in order to secure and to expand their liberties, and
+urged them to assert broadly the principle that the true historical
+polity of the Netherlands was a representative, constitutional
+government, Don John, on arriving at Luxemburg, had demanded hostages for
+his own security, a measure which could not but strike the calmest
+spectator as an infraction of all provincial rights. "He asks you to
+disarm," continued William of Orange; "he invites you to furnish
+hostages, but the time has been when the lord of the land came unarmed
+and uncovered, before the estates-general, and swore to support the
+constitutions before his own sovereignty could be recognized."
+
+He reiterated his suspicions as to the honest intentions of the
+government, and sought, as forcibly as possible, to infuse an equal
+distrust into the minds of those he addressed. "Antwerp," said he, "once
+the powerful and blooming, now the most forlorn and desolate city of
+Christendom, suffered because she dared to exclude the King's troops. You
+may be sure that you are all to have a place at the same banquet. We may
+forget the past, but princes never forget, when the means of vengeance
+are placed within their hands. Nature teaches them to arrive at their end
+by fraud, when violence will not avail them. Like little children, they
+whistle to the birds they would catch. Promises and pretences they will
+furnish in plenty."
+
+He urged them on no account to begin any negotiation with the Governor,
+except on the basis of the immediate departure of the soldiery. "Make no
+agreement with him; unless the Spanish and other foreign troops have been
+sent away beforehand; beware, meantime, of disbanding your own, for that
+were to put the knife into his hands to cut your own throats withal." He
+then proceeded to sketch the out lines of a negotiation, such as he could
+recommend. The plan was certainly sufficiently bold, and it could hardly
+cause astonishment, if it were not immediately accepted by Don John; as
+the basis of an arrangement. "Remember this is not play", said the
+Prince, "and that you have to choose between the two, either total ruin
+or manly self-defence. Don John must command the immediate departure of
+the Spaniards. All our privileges must be revised, and an oath to
+maintain them required. New councils of state and finance must be
+appointed by the estates. The general assembly ought to have power to
+come together twice or thrice yearly, and, indeed, as often as they
+choose. The states-general must administer and regulate all affairs. The
+citadels must be demolished everywhere. No troops ought to be enlisted,
+nor garrisons established, without the consent of the estates."
+
+In all the documents, whether public memorials or private letters, which
+came at this period from the hand of the Prince, he assumed, as a matter
+of course, that in any arrangement with the new Governor the Pacification
+of Ghent was to be maintained. This, too, was the determination of almost
+every man in the country. Don John, soon after his arrival at Luxemburg,
+had despatched messengers to the states-general, informing them of his
+arrival. It was not before the close of the month of November that the
+negotiations seriously began. Provost Fonck, on the part of the Governor,
+then informed them of Don John's intention to enter Namur, attended by
+fifty mounted troopers. Permission, however, was resolutely refused, and
+the burghers of Namur were forbidden to render oaths of fidelity until
+the Governor should have complied with the preliminary demands of the
+estates. To enunciate these demands categorically, a deputation of the
+estates-general came to Luxemburg. These gentlemen were received with
+courtesy by Don John, but their own demeanour was not conciliatory. A
+dislike to the Spanish government; a disloyalty to the monarch with whose
+brother and representative they were dealing, pierced through all their
+language. On the other hand, the ardent temper of Don John was never slow
+to take offence. One of the deputies proposed to the Governor, with great
+coolness, that he should assume the government in his own name, and
+renounce the authority of Philip. Were he willing to do so, the patriotic
+gentleman pledged himself that the provinces would at once acknowledge
+him as sovereign, and sustain his government. Don John, enraged at the
+insult to his own loyalty which the proposition implied, drew his dagger
+and rushed towards the offender. The deputy would, probably, have paid
+for his audacity with his life had there not been by-standers enough to
+prevent the catastrophe. This scene was an unsatisfactory prelude to the
+opening negotiations.
+
+On the 6th of December the deputies presented to the Governor at
+Luxemburg a paper, containing their demands, drawn up in eight articles,
+and their concessions in ten. The states insisted on the immediate
+removal of the troops, with the understanding that they were never to
+return, but without prohibition of their departure by sea; they demanded
+the immediate release of all prisoners; they insisted on the maintenance
+of the Ghent treaty, there being nothing therein which did not tend to
+the furtherance of the Catholic religion; they claimed an act of amnesty;
+they required the convocation of the states-general, on the basis of that
+assembly before which took place the abdication of Charles the Fifth;
+they demanded an oath, on the part of Don John, to maintain all the
+charters and customs of the country.
+
+Should these conditions be complied: with, the deputies consented on the
+part of the estates, that he should be acknowledged as Governor, and that
+the Catholic religion and the authority of his Majesty should be
+maintained. They agreed that all foreign leagues should be renounced,
+their own foreign soldiery disbanded, and a guard of honor, native
+Netherlanders, such as his Majesty was contented with at his "Blythe
+Entrance," provided. A truce of fifteen days, for negotiations, was
+furthermore proposed.
+
+Don John made answers to these propositions by adding a brief comment, as
+apostille, upon each of the eighteen articles, in succession. He would
+send away the troops, but, at the same time, the states must disband
+their own. He declined engaging himself not to recal his foreign
+soldiery, should necessity require their service. With regard to the
+Ghent Pacification, he professed himself ready for a general peace
+negotiation, on condition that the supremacy of the Catholic Church and
+the authority of his Majesty were properly secured. He would settle upon
+some act of amnesty after due consultation with the State Council. He was
+willing that the states should be convoked in general assembly, provided
+sufficient security were given him that nothing should be there
+transacted prejudicial to the Catholic religion and the King's
+sovereignty. As for their privileges, he would govern as had been done in
+the time of his imperial father. He expressed his satisfaction with most
+of the promises offered by the estates, particularly with their
+expression in favor of the Church and of his Majesty's authority; the two
+all-important points to secure which he had come thither unattended, at
+the peril of his life, but he received their offer of a body-guard, by
+which his hirelings were to be superseded, with very little gratitude. He
+was on the point, he said, of advancing as far as Marche en Famine, and
+should take with him as strong a guard as he considered necessary, and
+composed of such troops as he had at hand. Nothing decisive came of this
+first interview. The parties had taken the measures of their mutual
+claims, and after a few days, fencing with apostilles, replies, and
+rejoinders, they separated, their acrimony rather inflamed than appeased.
+
+The departure of the troops and the Ghent treaty were the vital points in
+the negotiation. The estates had originally been content that the troops
+should go by sea. Their suspicions were, however, excited by the
+pertinacity with which Don John held to this mode of removal. Although
+they did not suspect the mysterious invasion of England, a project which
+was the real reason why the Governor objected to their departure by land,
+yet they soon became aware--that he had been secretly tampering with the
+troops at every point. The effect of these secret negotiations with the
+leading officers of the army was a general expression of their
+unwillingness, on account of the lateness of the season, the difficult
+and dangerous condition of the roads and mountain-passes, the plague in
+Italy, and other pretexts, to undertake so long a journey by land. On the
+other hand, the states, seeing the anxiety and the duplicity of Don John
+upon this particular point, came to the resolution to thwart him at all
+hazards, and insisted on the land journey. Too long a time, too much
+money, too many ships would be necessary, they said, to forward so large
+a force by sea, and in the meantime it would be necessary to permit them
+to live for another indefinite period at the charge of the estates.
+
+With regard to the Ghent Pacification, the estates, in the course of
+December, procured: an express opinion from the eleven professors of
+theology, and doctors utriusque juris of Louvain, that the treaty
+contained nothing which conflicted with the supremacy of the Catholic
+religion. The various bishops, deacons, abbots, and pastors of the
+Netherlands made a similar decision. An elaborate paper, drawn, up by the
+State-Council, at the request of the states-general, declared that there
+was nothing in the Pacification derogatory to the supreme authority of
+his Majesty. Thus fortified; with opinions which, it must be confessed,
+were rather dogmatically than argumentatively drawn up, and which it
+would have been difficult very logically to, defend, the states looked
+forward confidently to the eventual acceptance by Don John of the terms
+proposed. In the meantime, while there was still an indefinite pause in
+the negotiations, a remarkable measure came to aid the efficacy of the
+Ghent Pacification.
+
+Early in January, 1577, the celebrated "Union of Brussels" was formed.
+This important agreement was originally signed by eight leading
+personages, the Abbot of Saint Gertrude, the Counts Lalain and Bossu, and
+the Seigneur de Champagny being among the number. Its tenor was to engage
+its signers to compass the immediate expulsion of the Spaniards and the
+execution of the Ghent Pacification, to maintain the Catholic religion
+and the King's authority, and to defend the fatherland and all its
+constitutions. Its motive was to generalize the position assumed by the
+Ghent treaty. The new act was to be signed, not by a few special deputies
+alone, like a diplomatic convention, but by all the leading individuals
+of all the provinces, in order to exhibit to Don John such an array of
+united strength that he would find himself forced to submit to the
+demands of the estates. The tenor, motive, and effect were all as had
+been proposed and foreseen. The agreement to expel the Spaniards, under
+the Catholic and loyal manifestations indicated, passed from hand to hand
+through all the provinces. It soon received the signature and support of
+all the respectability, wealth, and intelligence of the whole country.
+Nobles, ecclesiastics, citizens, hastened to give to it their adhesion.
+The states-general had sent it, by solemn resolution, to every province,
+in order that every man might be forced to range himself either upon the
+side of the fatherland or of despotism. Two copies of the signatures
+procured in each province were ordered, of which one was to be deposited
+in its archives, and the other forwarded to Brussels. In a short time,
+every province, with the single exception of Luxemburg, had loaded the
+document with signatures. This was a great step in advance. The Ghent
+Pacification, which was in the nature of a treaty between the Prince and
+the estates of Holland and Zealand on the one side, and a certain number
+of provinces on the other, had only been signed by the envoys of the
+contracting parties. Though received with deserved and universal
+acclamation, it had not the authority of a popular document. This,
+however, was the character studiously impressed upon the "Brussels
+Union." The people, subdivided according to the various grades of their
+social hierarchy, had been solemnly summoned to council, and had
+deliberately recorded their conviction. No restraint had been put upon
+their freedom of action, and there was hardly a difference of opinion as
+to the necessity of the measure.
+
+A rapid revolution in Friesland, Groningen, and the dependencies, had
+recently restored that important country to the national party. The
+Portuguese De Billy had been deprived of his authority as King's
+stadholder, and Count Hoogstraaten's brother, Baron de Ville, afterwards
+as Count Renneberg infamous for his, treason to the cause of liberty, had
+been appointed by the estates in his room. In all this district the
+"Union of Brussels" was eagerly signed by men of every degree. Holland
+and Zealand, no less than the Catholic provinces of the south willingly
+accepted the compromise which was thus laid down, and which was thought
+to be not only an additional security for the past, not only a pillar
+more for the maintenance of the Ghent Pacification, but also a sure
+precursor of a closer union in the future. The Union of Brussels became,
+in fact, the stepping-stone to the "Union of Utrecht," itself the
+foundation-stone of a republic destined to endure more than two
+centuries. On the other hand, this early union held the seed, of its own
+destruction within itself. It was not surprising, however, that a strong
+declaration in favor of the Catholic religion should be contained in a
+document intended for circulation through all the provinces. The object
+was to unite as large a force, and to make as striking a demonstration
+before the eyes of the Governor General as was practicable under the
+circumstances. The immediate purpose was answered, temporary union was
+formed, but it was impossible that a permanent crystallization should
+take place where so strong a dissolvent as the Catholic clause had been
+admitted. In the sequel, therefore, the union fell asunder precisely at
+this fatal flaw. The next union was that which definitely separated the
+provinces into Protestant, and Catholic, into self-governing republics,
+and the dependencies of a distant despotism. The immediate effect,
+however, of the "Brussels Union" was to rally all lovers of the
+fatherland and haters of a foreign tyranny upon one vital point--the
+expulsion of the stranger from the land. The foot of the Spanish soldier
+should no longer profane their soil. All men were forced to pronounce
+themselves boldly and unequivocally, in order that the patriots might
+stand shoulder to shoulder, and the traitors be held up to infamy. This
+measure was in strict accordance with the advice given more than once by
+the Prince of Orange, and was almost in literal fulfilment of the
+Compromise, which he had sketched before the arrival of Don John.
+
+The deliberations were soon resumed with the new Governor, the scene
+being shifted from Luxemburg to Huy. Hither came a fresh deputation from
+the states-general--many signers of the Brussels Union among them--and
+were received by Don John with stately courtesy: They had, however, come,
+determined to carry matters with a high and firm hand, being no longer
+disposed to brook his imperious demeanour, nor to tolerate his dilatory
+policy. It is not surprising, therefore, that the courtesy soon changed
+to bitterness, and that attack and recrimination usurped the place of the
+dignified but empty formalities which had characterized the interviews at
+Luxemburg.
+
+The envoys, particularly Sweveghem and Champagny, made no concealment of
+their sentiments towards the Spanish soldiery and the Spanish nation, and
+used a freedom of tone and language which the petulant soldier had not
+been accustomed to hear. He complained, at the outset, that the
+Netherlanders seemed new-born--that instead of bending the knee, they
+seemed disposed to grasp the sceptre. Insolence had taken the place of
+pliancy, and the former slave now applied the chain and whip to his
+master. With such exacerbation of temper at the commencement of
+negotiations, their progress was of necessity stormy and slow.
+
+The envoys now addressed three concise questions to the Governor. Was he
+satisfied that the Ghent Pacification contained nothing conflicting with
+the Roman religion and the King's authority? If so, was he willing to
+approve that treaty in all its articles? Was he ready to dismiss his
+troops at once, and by land, the sea voyage being liable to too many
+objections?
+
+Don John answered these three questions--which, in reality, were but
+three forms of a single question--upon the same day, the 24th of January.
+His reply was as complex as the demand had been simple. It consisted of a
+proposal in six articles, and a requisition in twenty-one, making in all
+twenty-seven articles. Substantially he proposed to dismiss the foreign
+troops--to effect a general pacification of the Netherlands--to govern on
+the basis of the administration in his imperial father's reign--to
+arrange affairs in and with regard to the assembly-general as the King
+should judge to be fitting--to forgive and forget past offences--and to
+release all prisoners. On the other hand he required the estates to pay
+the troops before their departure, and to provide ships enough to
+transport them, as the Spaniards did not choose to go by land, and as the
+deputies, at Luxemburg had consented to their removal by sea.
+Furthermore, he demanded that the states should dismiss their own troops.
+He required ecclesiastical authority to prove the Ghent Pacification not
+prejudicial to the Catholic religion; legal authority that it was not
+detrimental to his Majesty's supremacy; and an oath from the
+states-general to uphold both points inviolably, and to provide for their
+maintenance in Holland and Zealand. He claimed the right to employ about
+his person soldiers and civil functionaries of any nation he might
+choose, and he exacted from the states a promise to prevent the Prince of
+Orange from removing his son, Count van Buren, forcibly or fraudulently,
+from his domicile in Spain.
+
+The deputies were naturally indignant at this elaborate trifling. They
+had, in reality, asked him but one question, and that a simple one--Would
+he maintain the treaty of Ghent? Here were twenty-seven articles in
+reply, and yet no answer to that question. They sat up all night,
+preparing a violent protocol, by which the Governor's claims were to be
+utterly demolished. Early in the morning, they waited upon his Highness,
+presented the document, and at the same time asked him plainly, by word
+of mouth, did he or did he not intend to uphold the treaty. Thus pressed
+into a corner in presence of the deputies, the members of the State
+Council who were in attendance from Brussels, and the envoys whom the
+Emperor had recently sent to assist at these deliberations, the Governor
+answered, No. He would not and could not maintain the treaty, because the
+Spanish troops were in that instrument denounced as rebels, because he
+would not consent to the release of Count Van Buren--and on account of
+various other reasons not then specified. Hereupon ensued a fierce
+debate, and all day long the altercation lasted, without a result being
+reached. At ten o'clock in the evening, the deputies having previously
+retired for a brief interval, returned with a protest that they were not
+to be held responsible for the termination of the proceedings, and that
+they washed their hands of the bloodshed which might follow the rupture.
+Upon reading this document; Don John fell into a blazing passion. He
+vehemently denounced the deputies as traitors. He swore that men who came
+to him thus prepared with ready-made protests in their pockets, were
+rebels from the commencement, and had never intended any agreement with
+him. His language and gestures expressed unbounded fury. He was weary of
+their ways, he said. They had better look to themselves, for the King
+would never leave their rebellion unpunished. He was ready to draw the
+sword at once--not his own, but his Majesty's, and they might be sure
+that the war which they were thus provoking, should be the fiercest ever,
+waged. More abusive language in this strain was uttered, but it was not
+heard with lamb-like submission. The day had gone by when the deputies of
+the states-general were wont to quail before the wrath of vicarious
+royalty. The fiery words of Don John were not oil to troubled water, but
+a match to a mine. The passions of the deputies exploded in their turn,
+and from hot words they had nearly come to hard blows. One of the
+deputies replied with so much boldness and vehemence that the Governor,
+seizing a heavy silver bell which stood on the table, was about to hurl
+it at the offender's head, when an energetic and providential
+interference on the part of the imperial envoys, prevented the unseemly
+catastrophe.
+
+The day thus unprofitably spent, had now come to its close, and the
+deputies left the presence of Don John with tempers as inflamed as his
+own. They were, therefore, somewhat surprised at being awakened in their
+beds, after midnight, by a certain Father Trigoso, who came to them with
+a conciliatory message from the Governor. While they were still rubbing
+their eyes with sleep and astonishment, the Duke of Aerschot, the Bishop
+of Liege, and several councillors of state, entered the room. These
+personages brought the news that Don John had at last consented to
+maintain the Pacification of Ghent, as would appear by a note written in
+his own hand, which was then delivered. The billet was eagerly read, but
+unfortunately did not fulfil the anticipations which had been excited. "I
+agree," said Don John, "to approve the peace made between the states and
+the Prince of Orange, on condition that nothing therein may seem
+detrimental to the authority of his Majesty and the supremacy of the
+Catholic religion, and also with reservation of the points mentioned in
+my last communication."
+
+Men who had gone to bed in a high state of indignation were not likely to
+wake in much better humour, when suddenly aroused in their first nap, to
+listen to such a message as this. It seemed only one piece of trifling
+the more. The deputies had offered satisfactory opinions of divines and
+jurisconsults, as to the two points specified which concerned the Ghent
+treaty. It was natural, therefore, that this vague condition concerning
+them, the determination of which was for the Governor's breast alone,
+should be instantly rejected, and that the envoys should return to their
+disturbed slumbers with an increase of ill-humour.
+
+On the morrow, as the envoys, booted and spurred, were upon the point of
+departure for Brussels, another communication was brought to them from
+Don John. This time, the language of the Governor seemed more to the
+purpose. "I agree," said he, "to maintain the peace concluded between the
+states and the Prince of Orange, on condition of receiving from the
+ecclesiastical authorities, and from the University of Louvain,
+satisfactory assurance that the said treaty contains nothing derogatory
+to the Catholic religion--and similar assurance from the State Council,
+the Bishop of Liege, and the imperial envoys, that the treaty is in no
+wise prejudicial to the authority of his Majesty." Here seemed, at last,
+something definite. These conditions could be complied with. They had, in
+fact, been already complied with. The assurances required as to the two
+points had already been procured, as the deputies and as Don John well
+knew. The Pacification of Ghent was, therefore, virtually admitted. The
+deputies waited upon the Governor accordingly, and the conversation was
+amicable. They vainly endeavoured, however, to obtain his consent to the
+departure of the troops by land--the only point then left in dispute. Don
+John, still clinging to his secret scheme, with which the sea voyage of
+the troops was so closely connected, refused to concede. He reproached
+the envoys, on the contrary, with their importunity in making a fresh
+demand, just as he had conceded the Ghent treaty, upon his entire
+responsibility and without instructions. Mentally resolving that this
+point should still be wrung from the Governor, but not suspecting his
+secret motives for resisting it so strenuously, the deputies took an
+amicable farewell of the Governor, promising a favorable report upon the
+proceedings, so soon as they should arrive in Brussels.
+
+Don John, having conceded so much, was soon obliged to concede the whole.
+The Emperor Rudolph had lately succeeded his father, Maximilian. The
+deceased potentate, whose sentiments on the great subject of religious
+toleration were so much in harmony with those entertained by the Prince
+of Orange, had, on the whole, notwithstanding the ties of relationship
+and considerations of policy, uniformly befriended the Netherlands, so
+far as words and protestations could go, at the court of Philip. Active
+co-operation; practical assistance, he had certainly not rendered. He had
+unquestionably been too much inclined to accomplish the impossibility of
+assisting the states without offending the King--an effort which, in the
+homely language of Hans Jenitz; was "like wishing his skin washed without
+being wet." He had even interposed many obstacles to the free action of
+the Prince, as has been seen in the course of this history, but
+nevertheless, the cause of the Netherlands, of religion, and of humanity
+had much to lose by his death. His eldest son and successor, Rudolph the
+second, was an ardent Catholic, whose relations with a proscribed prince
+and a reformed population could hardly remain long in a satisfactory
+state. The New Emperor had, however, received the secret envoys of Orange
+with bounty, and was really desirous of accomplishing the pacification of
+the provinces. His envoys had assisted at all the recent deliberations
+between the estates and Don John, and their vivid remonstrances removed,
+at this juncture, the last objection on the part of the Governor-General.
+With a secret sigh, he deferred the darling and mysterious hope which had
+lighted him to the Netherlands, and consented to the departure of the
+troops by land.
+
+All obstacles having been thus removed, the memorable treaty called the
+Perpetual Edict was signed at Marche en Famine on the 12th, and at
+Brussels on the 17th of February, 1577. This document, issued in the name
+of the King, contained nineteen articles. It approved and ratified the
+Peace of Ghent, in consideration that the prelates and clergy, with the
+doctors 'utriusque juris' of Louvain, had decided that nothing in that
+treaty conflicted either with the supremacy of the Catholic Church or the
+authority of the King, but, on the contrary, that it advanced the
+interests of both. It promised that the soldiery should depart "freely,
+frankly, and without delay; by land, never to return except in case of
+foreign war"--the Spaniards to set forth within forty days, the Germans
+and others so soon as arrangements had been made by the states-general
+for their payment. It settled that all prisoners, on both sides, should
+be released, excepting the Count Van Buren, who was to be set free so
+soon as the states-general having been convoked, the Prince of Orange
+should have fulfilled the resolutions to be passed by that assembly. It
+promised the maintenance of all the privileges, charters, and
+constitutions of the Netherlands. It required of the states all oath to
+maintain the Catholic religion. It recorded their agreement to disband
+their troops. It settled that Don John should be received as
+Governor-General, immediately upon the departure of the Spaniards,
+Italians, and Burgundians from the provinces.
+
+These were the main provisions of this famous treaty, which was confirmed
+a few weeks afterwards by Philip, in a letter addressed to the states of
+Brabant, and by an edict issued at Madrid. It will be seen that
+everything required by the envoys of the states, at the commencement of
+their negotiations, had been conceded by Don John. They had claimed the
+departure of the troops, either by land or sea. He had resisted the
+demand a long time, but had at last consented to despatch them by sea.
+Their departure by land had then been insisted upon. This again he had
+most reluctantly conceded. The ratification of the Ghent treaty, he had
+peremptorily refused. He had come to the provinces, at the instant of its
+conclusion, and had, of course, no instructions on the subject.
+Nevertheless, slowly receding, he had agreed, under certain reservations,
+to accept the treaty. Those reservations relating to the great points of
+Catholic and royal supremacy, he insisted upon subjecting to his own
+judgment alone. Again he was overruled. Most unwillingly he agreed to
+accept, instead of his own conscientious conviction, the dogmas of the
+State Council and of the Louvain doctors. Not seeing very clearly how a
+treaty which abolished the edicts of Charles the Fifth and the ordinances
+of Alva--which removed the religious question in Holland and Zealand from
+the King's jurisdiction to that of the states-general--which had caused
+persecution to surcease--had established toleration--and which moreover,
+had confirmed the arch rebel and heretic of all the Netherlands in the
+government of the two rebellious and heretic provinces, as stadholder for
+the King--not seeing very clearly how such a treaty was "advantageous
+rather than prejudicial to royal absolutism and an exclusive
+Catholicism," he naturally hesitated at first.
+
+The Governor had thus disconcerted the Prince of Orange, not by the
+firmness of his resistance, but by the amplitude of his concessions. The
+combinations of William the Silent were, for an instant, deranged. Had
+the Prince expected such liberality, he would have placed his demands
+upon a higher basis, for it is not probable that he contemplated or
+desired a pacification. The Duke of Aerschot and the Bishop of Liege in
+vain essayed to prevail upon his deputies at Marche en Famine, to sign
+the agreement of the 27th January, upon which was founded the Perpetual
+Edict. They refused to do so without consulting the Prince and the
+estates. Meantime, the other commissioners forced the affair rapidly
+forward. The states sent a deputation to the Prince to ask his opinion,
+and signed the agreement before it was possible to receive his reply.
+This was to treat him with little courtesy, if not absolutely with bad
+faith. The Prince was disappointed and indignant. In truth, as appeared
+from all his language and letters, he had no confidence in Don John. He
+believed him a consummate hypocrite, and as deadly a foe to the
+Netherlands as the Duke of Alva, or Philip himself. He had carefully
+studied twenty-five intercepted letters from the King, the Governor,
+Jerome de Roda, and others, placed recently in his hands by the Duke of
+Aerschot, and had found much to confirm previous and induce fresh
+suspicion. Only a few days previously to the signature of the treaty, he
+had also intercepted other letters from influential personages, Alonzo de
+Vargas and others, disclosing extensive designs to obtain possession of
+the strong places in the country, and then to reduce the land to absolute
+Subjection. He had assured the estates, therefore, that the deliberate
+intention of the Government, throughout the whole negotiation, was to
+deceive, whatever might be the public language of Don John and his
+agents. He implored them, therefore, to, have "pity upon the poor
+country," and to save the people from falling into the trap which was
+laid for them. From first to last, he had expressed a deep and wise
+distrust, and justified it by ample proofs. He was, with reason,
+irritated, therefore, at the haste with which the states had concluded
+the agreement with Don John--at the celerity with which, as he afterwards
+expressed it, "they had rushed upon the boar-spear of that sanguinary
+heart." He believed that everything had been signed and Sworn by the
+Governor, with the mental reservation that such agreements were valid
+only until he should repent having made them. He doubted the good faith
+and the stability of the grand seigniors. He had never felt confidence in
+the professions of the time-serving Aerschot, nor did he trust even the
+brave Champagny, notwithstanding his services at the sack of Antwerp. He
+was especially indignant that provision had been made, not for
+demolishing but for restoring to his Majesty those hateful citadels,
+nests of tyranny, by which the flourishing cities of the land were kept
+in perpetual anxiety. Whether in the hands of King, nobles, or
+magistrates, they were equally odious to him, and he had long since
+determined that they should be razed to the ground. In short, he believed
+that the estates had thrust their heads into the lion's mouth, and he
+foresaw the most gloomy consequences from the treaty which had just been
+concluded. He believed, to use his own language, "that the only
+difference between Don John and Alva or Requesens was, that he was
+younger and more foolish than his predecessors, less capable of
+concealing his venom, more impatient, to dip his hands in blood."
+
+In the Pacification of Ghent, the Prince had achieved the prize of his
+life-long labors. He had banded a mass of provinces by the ties of a
+common history, language, and customs, into a league against a foreign
+tyranny. He had grappled Holland and Zealand to their sister provinces by
+a common love for their ancient liberties, by a common hatred to a
+Spanish soldiery. He had exorcised the evil demon of religious bigotry by
+which the body politic had been possessed so many years; for the Ghent
+treaty, largely interpreted, opened the door to universal toleration. In
+the Perpetual Edict the Prince saw his work undone. Holland and Zealand
+were again cut adrift from the other fifteen provinces, and war would
+soon be let loose upon that devoted little territory. The article
+stipulating the maintenance of the Ghent treaty he regarded as idle wind;
+the solemn saws of the State Council and the quiddities from Louvain
+being likely to prove but slender bulwarks against the returning tide of
+tyranny. Either it was tacitly intended to tolerate the Reformed
+religion, or to hunt it down. To argue that the Ghent treaty, loyally
+interpreted, strengthened ecclesiastical or royal despotism, was to
+contend that a maniac was more dangerous in fetters than when armed with
+a sword; it was to be blind to the difference between a private
+conventicle and a public scaffold. The Perpetual Edict, while affecting
+to sustain the treaty, would necessarily destroy it at a blow, while
+during the brief interval of repose, tyranny would have renewed its youth
+like the eagles. Was it possible, then, for William of Orange to sustain
+the Perpetual Edict, the compromise with Don John? Ten thousand ghosts
+from the Lake of Harlem, from the famine and plague-stricken streets of
+Leyden, from the smoking ruins of Antwerp, rose to warn him against such
+a composition with a despotism as subtle as it was remorseless.
+
+It was, therefore, not the policy of William of Orange, suspecting, as he
+did, Don John, abhorring Philip, doubting the Netherland nobles,
+confiding only in the mass of the citizens, to give his support to the
+Perpetual Edict. He was not the more satisfied because the states had
+concluded the arrangement without his sanction, and against his express,
+advice. He refused to publish or recognize the treaty in Holland and
+Zealand. A few weeks before, he had privately laid before the states of
+Holland and Zealand a series of questions, in order to test their temper,
+asking them, in particular, whether they were prepared to undertake a new
+and sanguinary war for the sake of their religion, even although their
+other privileges should be recognised by the new government, and a long
+and earnest debate had ensued, of a satisfactory nature, although no
+positive resolution was passed upon the subject.
+
+As soon as the Perpetual Edict had been signed, the states-general had
+sent to the Prince, requesting his opinion and demanding his sanction.
+Orange, in the name of Holland and Zealand, instantly returned an
+elaborate answer, taking grave exceptions to the whole tenor of the
+Edict. He complained that the constitution of the land was violated,
+because the ancient privilege of the states-general to assemble at their
+pleasure, had been invaded, and because the laws of every province were
+set at nought by the continued imprisonment of Count Van Buren, who had
+committed no crime, and whose detention proved that no man, whatever
+might be promised, could expect security for life or liberty. The
+ratification of the Ghent treaty, it was insisted, was in no wise
+distinct and categorical, but was made dependent on a crowd of deceitful
+subterfuges. He inveighed bitterly against the stipulation in the Edict,
+that the states should pay the wages of the soldiers, whom they had just
+proclaimed to be knaves and rebels, and at whose hands they had suffered
+such monstrous injuries. He denounced the cowardice which could permit
+this band of hirelings to retire with so much jewelry, merchandize, and
+plate, the result of their robberies. He expressed, however, in the name
+of the two provinces, a willingness to sign the Edict, provided the
+states-general would agree solemnly beforehand, in case the departure of
+the Spaniards did not take place within the stipulated tune, to abstain
+from all recognition of, or communication with, Don John, and themselves
+to accomplish the removal of the troops by force of arms.
+
+Such was the first and solemn manifesto made by the Prince in reply to
+the Perpetual Edict; the states of Holland and Zealand uniting heart and
+hand in all that he thought, wrote, and said. His private sentiments were
+in strict accordance with the opinions thus publicly recorded. "Whatever
+appearance Don John may assume to the contrary," wrote the Prince to his
+brother, "'tis by no means his intention to maintain the Pacification,
+and less still to cause the Spaniards to depart, with whom he keeps up
+the most strict correspondence possible."
+
+On the other hand, the Governor was most anxious to conciliate the
+Prince. He was most earnest to win the friendship of the man without whom
+every attempt to recover Holland and Zealand, and to re-establish royal
+and ecclesiastical tyranny, he knew to be hopeless. "This is the pilot,"
+wrote Don John to Philip, "who guides the bark. He alone can destroy or
+save it. The greatest obstacles would be removed if he could be gained."
+He had proposed, and Philip had approved the proposition, that the Count
+Van Buren should be clothed with his father's dignities, on condition
+that the Prince should himself retire into Germany. It was soon evident,
+however, that such a proposition would meet with little favor, the office
+of father of his country and protector of her liberties not being
+transferable.
+
+While at Louvain, whither he had gone after the publication of the
+Perpetual Edict, Don John had conferred with the Duke of Aerschot, and
+they had decided that it would be well to send Doctor Leoninus on a
+private mission to the Prince. Previously to his departure on this
+errand, the learned envoy had therefore a full conversation with the
+Governor. He was charged to represent to the Prince the dangers to which
+Don John had exposed himself in coming from Spain to effect the
+pacification of the Netherlands. Leoninus was instructed to give
+assurance that the treaty just concluded should be maintained, that the
+Spaniards should depart, that all other promises should be inviolably
+kept, and that the Governor would take up arms against all who should
+oppose the fulfilment of his engagements. He was to represent that Don
+John, in proof of his own fidelity, had placed himself in the power of
+the states. He was to intimate to the Prince that an opportunity was now
+offered him to do the crown a service, in recompence for which he would
+obtain, not only pardon for his faults, but the favor of the monarch, and
+all the honors which could be desired; that by so doing he would assure
+the future prosperity of his family; that Don John would be his good
+friend, and, as such; would do more for him than he could imagine. The
+envoy was also to impress upon the Prince, that if he persisted in his
+opposition every man's hand would be against him, and the ruin of his
+house inevitable. He was to protest that Don John came but to forgive and
+to forget, to restore the ancient government and the ancient prosperity,
+so that, if it was for those objects the Prince had taken up arms, it was
+now his duty to lay them down, and to do his utmost to maintain peace and
+the Catholic religion. Finally, the envoy was to intimate that if he
+chose to write to Don John, he might be sure to receive a satisfactory
+answer. In these pacific instructions and friendly expressions, Don John
+was sincere. "The name of your Majesty," said he, plainly, in giving an
+account of this mission to the King, "is as much abhorred and despised in
+the Netherlands as that of the Prince of Orange is loved and feared. I am
+negotiating with him, and giving him every security, for I see that the
+establishment of peace, as well as the maintenance of the Catholic
+religion, and the obedience to your Majesty, depend now upon him. Things
+have reached that pass that 'tis necessary to make a virtue of necessity.
+If he lend an ear to my proposals, it will be only upon very advantageous
+conditions, but to these it will be necessary to submit, rather than to
+lose everything."
+
+Don John was in earnest; unfortunately he was not aware that the Prince
+was in earnest also. The crusader, who had sunk thirty thousand paynims
+at a blow, and who was dreaming of the Queen of Scotland and the throne
+of England, had not room in his mind to entertain the image of a patriot.
+Royal favors, family prosperity, dignities, offices, orders, advantageous
+conditions, these were the baits with which the Governor angled for
+William of Orange. He did not comprehend that attachment to a
+half-drowned land and to a despised religion, could possibly stand in the
+way of those advantageous conditions and that brilliant future. He did
+not imagine that the rebel, once assured not only of pardon but of
+advancement, could hesitate to refuse the royal hand thus amicably
+offered. Don John had not accurately measured his great antagonist.
+
+The results of the successive missions which he despatched to the Prince
+were destined to enlighten him. In the course of the first conversation
+between Leoninus and the Prince at Middelburg, the envoy urged that Don
+John had entered the Netherlands without troops, that he had placed
+himself in the power of the Duke of Aerschot, that he had since come to
+Louvain without any security but the promise of the citizens and of the
+students; and that all these things proved the sincerity of his
+intentions. He entreated the Prince not to let slip so favorable an
+opportunity for placing his house above the reach of every unfavorable
+chance, spoke to him of Marius, Sylla, Julius Caesar, and other promoters
+of civil wars, and on retiring for the day, begged him to think gravely
+on what he had thus suggested, and to pray that God might inspire him
+with good resolutions.
+
+Next day, William informed the envoy that, having prayed to God for
+assistance, he was more than ever convinced of his obligation to lay the
+whole matter before the states, whose servant he was. He added, that he
+could not forget the deaths of Egmont and Horn, nor the manner in which
+the promise made to the confederate nobles by the Duchess of Parma, had
+been visited, nor the conduct of the French monarch towards Admiral
+Coligny. He spoke of information which he had received from all quarters,
+from Spain, France, and Italy, that there was a determination to make war
+upon him and upon the states of Holland and Zealand. He added that they
+were taking their measures in consequence, and that they were well aware
+that a Papal nuncio had arrived in the Netherlands, to intrigue against
+them. In the evening, the Prince complained that the estates had been so
+precipitate in concluding their arrangement with Don John. He mentioned
+several articles in the treaty which were calculated to excite distrust;
+dwelling particularly on the engagement entered into by the estates to
+maintain the Catholic religion. This article he declared to be in direct
+contravention to the Ghent treaty, by which this point was left to the
+decision of a future assembly of the estates-general. Leoninus essayed,
+as well as he could, to dispute these positions. In their last interview,
+the Prince persisted in his intention of laying the whole matter before
+the states of Holland and Zealand. Not to do so, he said, would be to
+expose himself to ruin on one side, and on the other, to the indignation
+of those who might suspect him of betraying them. The envoy begged to be
+informed if any hope could be entertained of a future arrangement. Orange
+replied that he had no expectation of any, but advised Doctor Leoninus to
+be present at Dort when the estates should assemble.
+
+Notwithstanding the unfavorable result, of this mission, Don John did not
+even yet despair of bending the stubborn character of the Prince. He
+hoped that, if a personal interview between them could be arranged, he
+should be able to remove many causes of suspicion from the mind of his
+adversary. "In such times as these," wrote the Governor to Philip, "we
+can make no election, nor do I see any remedy to preserve the state from
+destruction, save to gain over this man, who has so much influence with
+the nation." The Prince had, in truth, the whole game in his hands. There
+was scarcely a living creature in Holland and Zealand who was not willing
+to be bound by his decision in every emergency. Throughout the rest of
+the provinces, the mass of the people looked up to him with absolute
+confidence, the clergy and the prominent nobles respecting and fearing
+him, even while they secretly attempted to thwart his designs. Possessing
+dictatorial power in two provinces, vast influences in the other fifteen,
+nothing could be easier for him than to betray his country. The time was
+singularly propitious. The revengeful King was almost on his knees to the
+denounced rebel. Everything was proffered: pardon, advancement, power. An
+indefinite vista was opened. "You cannot imagine," said Don John, "how
+much it will be within my ability to do for you." The Governor was
+extremely anxious to purchase the only enemy whom Philip feared. The
+Prince had nothing personally to gain by a continuance of the contest.
+The ban, outlawry, degradation, pecuniary ruin, assassination,
+martyrdom--these were the only guerdons he could anticipate. He had much
+to lose: but yesterday loaded with dignities, surrounded by pomp and
+luxury, with many children to inherit his worldly gear, could he not
+recover all; and more than all, to-day? What service had he to render in
+exchange? A mere nothing. He had but to abandon the convictions of a
+lifetime, and to betray a million or two of hearts which trusted him.
+
+As to the promises made by the Governor to rule the country with
+gentleness, the Prince could not do otherwise than commend the intention,
+even while distrusting the fulfilment. In his reply to the two letters of
+Don John, he thanked his Highness, with what seemed a grave irony, for
+the benign courtesy and signal honor which he had manifested to him, by
+inviting him so humanely and so carefully to a tranquil life, wherein,
+according to his Highness, consisted the perfection of felicity in this
+mortal existence, and by promising him so liberally favor and grace. He
+stated, however, with earnestness, that the promises in regard to the
+pacification of the poor Netherland people were much more important. He
+had ever expected, he said, beyond all comparison, the welfare and
+security of the public before his own; "having always placed his
+particular interests under his foot, even as he was still resolved to do,
+as long as life should endure."
+
+Thus did William of Orange receive the private advances made by the
+government towards himself. Meantime, Don John of Austria came to
+Louvain. Until the preliminary conditions of the Perpetual Edict had been
+fulfilled, and the Spanish troops sent out of the country, he was not to
+be received as Governor-General, but it seemed unbecoming for him to
+remain longer upon the threshold of the provinces. He therefore advanced
+into the heart of the country, trusting himself without troops to the
+loyalty of the people, and manifesting a show of chivalrous confidence
+which he was far from feeling. He was soon surrounded by courtiers,
+time-servers, noble office-seekers. They who had kept themselves
+invisible, so long as the issue of a perplexed negotiation seemed
+doubtful, now became obsequious and inevitable as his shadow. One grand
+seignior wanted a regiment, another a government, a third a chamberlain's
+key; all wanted titles, ribbons, offices, livery, wages. Don John
+distributed favors and promises with vast liberality. The object with
+which Philip had sent him to the Netherlands, that he might conciliate
+the hearts of its inhabitants by the personal graces which he had
+inherited from his imperial father, seemed in a fair way of
+accomplishment, for it was not only the venal applause of titled
+sycophants that he strove to merit, but he mingled gaily and familiarly
+with all classes of citizens. Everywhere his handsome face and charming
+manner produced their natural effect. He dined and supped with the
+magistrates in the Town-house, honored general banquets of the burghers
+with his presence, and was affable and dignified, witty, fascinating, and
+commanding, by turns. At Louvain, the five military guilds held a solemn
+festival. The usual invitations were sent to the other societies, and to
+all the martial brotherhoods, the country round. Gay and gaudy
+processions, sumptuous banquets, military sports, rapidly succeeded each
+other. Upon the day of the great trial of skill; all the high
+functionaries of the land were, according to custom, invited, and the
+Governor was graciously pleased to honor the solemnity with his presence.
+Great was the joy of the multitude when Don John, complying with the
+habit of imperial and princely personages in former days, enrolled
+himself, cross-bow in hand, among the competitors. Greater still was the
+enthusiasm, when the conqueror of Lepanto brought down the bird, and was
+proclaimed king of the year, amid the tumultuous hilarity of the crowd.
+According to custom, the captains of the guild suspended a golden
+popinjay around the neck of his Highness, and placing themselves in
+procession, followed him to the great church. Thence, after the customary
+religious exercises, the multitude proceeded to the banquet, where the
+health of the new king of the cross-bowmen was pledged in deep potations.
+Long and loud was the merriment of this initiatory festival, to which
+many feasts succeeded during those brief but halcyon days, for the
+good-natured Netherlanders already believed in the blessed advent of
+peace. They did not dream that the war, which had been consuming the
+marrow of their commonwealth for ten flaming years, was but in its
+infancy, and that neither they nor their children were destined to see
+its close.
+
+For the moment, however, all was hilarity at Louvain. The Governor, by
+his engaging deportment, awoke many reminiscences of the once popular
+Emperor. He expressed unbounded affection for the commonwealth, and
+perfect confidence in the loyalty of the inhabitants. He promised to
+maintain their liberties, and to restore their prosperity. Moreover, he
+had just hit the popinjay with a skill which his imperial father might
+have envied, and presided at burgher banquets with a grace which Charles
+could have hardly matched. His personal graces, for the moment, took the
+rank of virtues. "Such were the beauty and vivacity of his eyes," says
+his privy councillor, Tassis, "that with a single glance he made all
+hearts his own," yet, nevertheless, the predestined victim secretly felt
+himself the object of a marksman who had no time for painted popinjays,
+but who rarely missed his aim. "The whole country is at the devotion of
+the Prince, and nearly every one of its inhabitants;" such was his secret
+language to his royal brother, at the very moment of the exuberant
+manifestations which preceded his own entrance to Brussels.
+
+While the Governor still tarried at Louvain, his secretary, Escovedo, was
+busily engaged in arranging the departure of the Spaniards, for,
+notwithstanding his original reluctance and the suspicions of Orange, Don
+John loyally intended to keep his promise. He even advanced twenty-seven
+thousand florins towards the expense of their removal, but to raise the
+whole amount required for transportation and arrears, was a difficult
+matter. The estates were slow in providing the one hundred and fifty
+thousand florins which they had stipulated to furnish. The King's credit,
+moreover, was at a very low, ebb. His previous bonds had not been duly
+honored, and there had even been instances of royal repudiation, which by
+no means lightened the task of the financier, in effecting the new loans
+required. Escovedo was very blunt in his language upon this topic, and
+both Don John and himself urged punctuality in all future payments. They
+entreated that the bills drawn in Philip's name upon Lombardy bankers,
+and discounted at a heavy rate of interest, by the Fuggers of Antwerp,
+might be duly provided for at maturity. "I earnestly beg," said Escovedo,
+"that your Majesty will see to the payment of these bills, at all
+events;" adding, with amusing simplicity, "this will be a means of
+recovering your Majesty's credit, and as for my own; I don't care to lose
+it, small though it be." Don John was even more solicitous. "For the love
+of God, Sire," he wrote, "do not be delinquent now. You must reflect upon
+the necessity of recovering your credit. If this receives now the final
+blow, all will desert your Majesty, and the soldiers too will be driven
+to desperation."
+
+By dint of great diligence on the part of Escovedo, and through the
+confidence reposed in his character, the necessary funds were raised in
+the course of a few weeks. There was, however, a difficulty among the
+officers, as to the right of commanding the army on the homeward march.
+Don Alonzo de Vargas, as chief of the cavalry, was appointed to the post
+by the Governor, but Valdez, Romero, and other veterans, indignantly
+refused to serve under one whom they declared their inferior officer.
+There was much altercation and heartburning, and an attempt was made to
+compromise the matter by the appointment of Count Mansfeld to the chief
+command. This was, however, only adding fuel to the flames. All were
+dissatisfied with the superiority accorded to a foreigner, and Alonzo de
+Vargas, especially offended, addressed most insolent language to the
+Governor. Nevertheless, the arrangement was maintained, and the troops
+finally took their departure from the country, in the latter days of
+April. A vast concourse of citizens witnessed their departure, and could
+hardly believe their eyes, as they saw this incubus at last rolling off,
+by which the land had so many years been crushed. Their joy, although
+extravagant, was, however, limited by the reflection that ten thousand
+Germans still remained in the provinces, attached to the royal service,
+and that there was even yet a possibility that the departure of the
+Spaniards was a feint. In truth, Escovedo, although seconding the orders
+of Don John, to procure the removal of these troops, did not scruple to
+express his regret to the King, and his doubts as to the result. He had
+been ever in hopes that an excuse might be found in the condition of
+affairs in France, to justify the retention of the forces near that
+frontier. He assured the King that he felt very doubtful as to what turn
+matters might take, after the soldiers were gone, seeing the great
+unruliness which even their presence had been insufficient completely to
+check. He had hoped that they might be retained in the neighbourhood,
+ready to seize the islands at the first opportunity. "For my part," he
+wrote, "I care nothing for the occupation of places within the interior,
+but the islands must be secured. To do this," he continued, with a
+deceitful allusion to the secret projects of Don John, "is, in my
+opinion, more difficult than to effect the scheme upon England. If the
+one were accomplished, the other would be easily enough managed, and
+would require but moderate means. Let not your Majesty suppose that I say
+this as favoring the plan of Don John, for this I put entirely behind
+me."
+
+Notwithstanding these suspicions on the part of the people, this
+reluctance on the part of then government, the troops readily took up
+their line of march, and never paused till they reached Lombardy. Don
+John wrote repeatedly to the King, warmly urging the claims of these
+veterans, and of their distinguished officers, Romero, Avila, Valdez,
+Montesdocca, Verdugo, Mondragon, and others, to his bountiful
+consideration. They had departed in very ill humour, not having received
+any recompense for their long and arduous services. Certainly, if
+unflinching endurance, desperate valor, and congenial cruelty, could
+atone in the monarch's eyes for the mutiny, which had at last compelled
+their withdrawal, then were these laborers worthy of their hire. Don John
+had pacified them by assurances that they should receive adequate rewards
+on their arrival in Lombardy, and had urged the full satisfaction of
+their claims and his promises in the strongest language. Although Don
+Alonzo de Vargas had abused him "with-flying colors," as he expressed
+himself, yet he hastened to intercede for him with the King in the most
+affectionate terms. "His impatience has not surprised me," said the
+Governor, "although I regret that he has been offended, far I love and
+esteem him much. He has served many years with great distinction, and I
+can certify that his character for purity and religion is something
+extraordinary."
+
+The first scene in the withdrawal of the troops had been the evacuation
+of the citadel of Antwerp, and it had been decided that the command of
+this most important fortress should be conferred upon the Duke of
+Aerschot. His claims as commander-in-chief, under the authority of the
+State Council, and as chief of the Catholic nobility, could hardly be
+passed over, yet he was a man whom neither party trusted. He was too
+visibly governed by interested motives. Arrogant where he felt secure of
+his own, or doubtful as to another's position, he could be supple and
+cringing when the relations changed. He refused an interview with William
+of Orange before consulting with Don John, and solicited one afterwards
+when he found that every effort was to be made to conciliate the Prince.
+He was insolent to the Governor-General himself in February, and
+respectful in March. He usurped the first place in the church, before Don
+John had been acknowledged Governor, and was the first to go forth to
+welcome him after the matter had been arranged. He made a scene of
+virtuous indignation in the State Council, because he was accused of
+place-hunting, but was diligent to secure an office of the highest
+dignity which the Governor could bestow. Whatever may have been his
+merits, it is certain that he inspired confidence neither in the
+adherents of the King nor of the Prince; while he by turns professed the
+warmest regard both to the one party and the other. Spaniards and
+patriots, Protestants and Catholics, suspected the man at the same
+moment, and ever attributed to his conduct a meaning which was the
+reverse of the apparent. Such is often the judgment passed upon those who
+fish in troubled waters only to fill their own nets.
+
+The Duke, however, was appointed Governor of the citadel. Sancho d'Avila,
+the former constable, refused, with Castillian haughtiness, to surrender
+the place to his successor, but appointed his lieutenant, Martin d'Oyo,
+to perform that ceremony. Escovedo, standing upon the drawbridge with
+Aerschot, administered the oath: "I, Philip, Duke of Aerschot," said the
+new constable, "solemnly swear to hold this castle for the King, and for
+no others." To which Escovedo added, "God help you, with all his angels,
+if you keep your oath; if not, may the Devil carry you away, body and
+soul." The few bystanders cried Amen; and with this hasty ceremony, the
+keys were delivered, the prisoners, Egmont, Capres, Goignies, and others,
+liberated, and the Spaniards ordered to march forth.
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     A terrible animal, indeed, is an unbridled woman
+     Agreements were valid only until he should repent
+     All Protestants were beheaded, burned, or buried alive
+     Arrive at their end by fraud, when violence will not avail them
+     Attachment to a half-drowned land and to a despised religion
+     Barbara Blomberg, washerwoman of Ratisbon
+     Believed in the blessed advent of peace
+     Compassing a country's emancipation through a series of defeats
+     Don John of Austria
+     Don John was at liberty to be King of England and Scotland
+     Ferocity which even Christians could not have surpassed
+     Happy to glass themselves in so brilliant a mirror
+     His personal graces, for the moment, took the rank of virtues
+     Necessary to make a virtue of necessity
+     One-half to Philip and one-half to the Pope and Venice (slaves)
+     Quite mistaken: in supposing himself the Emperor's child
+     Sentimentality that seems highly apocryphal
+     She knew too well how women were treated in that country
+     Those who fish in troubled waters only to fill their own nets
+     Worn crescents in their caps at Leyden
+
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Vol. 27
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
+
+By John Lothrop Motley
+1855
+1577  [CHAPTER II.]
+
+   Triumphal entrance of Don John into Brussels--Reverse of the picture
+   --Analysis of the secret correspondence of Don John and Escovedo
+   with Antonio Perez--Plots against the Governor's liberty--His
+   desponding language and gloomy anticipations--Recommendation of
+   severe measures--Position and principles of Orange and his family--
+   His private views on the question of peace and war--His toleration
+   to Catholics and Anabaptists censured by his friends--Death of
+   Viglius--New mission from the Governor to Orange--Details of the
+   Gertruydenberg conferences--Nature and results of these
+   negotiations--Papers exchanged between the envoys and Orange--Peter
+   Panis executed for heresy--Three parties in the Netherlands--
+   Dissimulation of Don John--His dread of capture.
+
+As already narrated, the soldiery had retired definitely from the country
+at the end of April, after which Don John made his triumphal entrance
+into Brussels on the 1st of May. It was long since so festive a May-day
+had gladdened the hearts of Brabant. So much holiday magnificence had not
+been seen in the Netherlands for years. A solemn procession of burghers,
+preceded by six thousand troops, and garnished by the free companies of
+archers and musketeers, in their picturesque costumes, escorted the young
+prince along the streets of the capital. Don John was on horseback,
+wrapped in a long green cloak, riding between the Bishop of Liege and the
+Papal nuncio. He passed beneath countless triumphal arches. Banners waved
+before him, on which the battle of Lepanto, and other striking scenes in
+his life, were emblazoned. Minstrels sang verses, poets recited odes,
+rhetoric clubs enacted fantastic dramas in his honor, as he rode along.
+Young virgins crowned him with laurels. Fair women innumerable were
+clustered at every window, roof, and balcony, their bright robes floating
+like summer clouds above him. "Softly from those lovely clouds," says a
+gallant chronicler, "descended the gentle rain of flowers." Garlands were
+strewed before his feet, laurelled victory sat upon his brow. The same
+conventional enthusiasm and decoration which had characterized the
+holiday marches of a thousand conventional heroes were successfully
+produced. The proceedings began with the church, and ended with the
+banquet, the day was propitious, the populace pleased, and after a
+brilliant festival, Don John of Austria saw himself Governor-General of
+the provinces.
+
+Three days afterwards, the customary oaths, to be kept with the customary
+conscientiousness, were rendered at the Town House, and for a brief
+moment all seemed smiling and serene.
+
+There was a reverse to the picture. In truth, no language can describe
+the hatred which Don John entertained for the Netherlands and all the
+inhabitants. He had come to the country only as a stepping-stone to the
+English throne, and he never spoke, in his private letters, of the
+provinces or the people but in terms of abhorrence. He was in a "Babylon
+of disgust," in a "Hell," surrounded by "drunkards," "wineskins,"
+"scoundrels," and the like. From the moment of his arrival he had
+strained every nerve to retain the Spanish troops, and to send them away
+by sea when it should be no longer feasible to keep them. Escovedo shared
+in the sentiments and entered fully into the schemes of his chief. The
+plot, the secret enterprise, was the great cause of the advent of Don
+John in the uncongenial clime of Flanders. It had been, therefore, highly
+important, in his estimation, to set, as soon as possible, about the
+accomplishment of this important business. He accordingly entered into
+correspondence with Antonio Perez, the King's most confidential Secretary
+of State at that period. That the Governor was plotting no treason is
+sufficiently obvious from the context of his letters: At the same time,
+with the expansiveness of his character, when he was dealing with one
+whom he deemed has close and trusty friend, he occasionally made use of
+expressions which might be made to seem equivocal. This was still more
+the case with poor Escovedo. Devoted to his master, and depending most
+implicitly upon the honor of Perez, he indulged in language which might
+be tortured into a still more suspicious shape when the devilish arts of
+Perez and the universal distrust of Philip were tending steadily to that
+end. For Perez--on the whole, the boldest, deepest, and most unscrupulous
+villain in that pit of duplicity, the Spanish court--was engaged at that
+moment with Philip, in a plot to draw from Don John and Escovedo, by
+means of this correspondence, the proofs of a treason which the King and
+minister both desired to find. The letters from Spain were written with
+this view--those from Flanders were interpreted to that end. Every
+confidential letter received by Perez was immediately laid by him before
+the King, every letter which the artful demon wrote was filled with hints
+as to the danger of the King's learning the existence of the
+correspondence, and with promises of profound secrecy upon his own part,
+and was then immediately placed in Philip's hands, to receive his
+comments and criticisms, before being copied and despatched to the
+Netherlands. The minister was playing a bold, murderous, and treacherous
+game, and played it in a masterly manner. Escovedo was lured to his
+destruction, Don John was made to fret his heart away, and Philip--more
+deceived than all--was betrayed in what he considered his affections, and
+made the mere tool of a man as false as himself and infinitely more
+accomplished.
+
+Almost immediately after the arrival of Don John in the Netherlands; he
+had begun to express the greatest impatience for Escovedo, who had not
+been able to accompany his master upon his journey, but without whose
+assistance the Governor could accomplish none of his undertakings. "Being
+a man, not an angel, I cannot do all which I have to do," said he to
+Perez, "without a single person in whom I can confide." He protested that
+he could do no more than he was then doing. He went to bed at twelve and
+rose at seven, without having an hour in the day in which to take his
+food regularly; in consequence of all which he had already had three
+fevers. He was plunged into a world of distrust. Every man suspected him,
+and he had himself no confidence in a single individual throughout that
+whole Babylon of disgusts. He observed to Perez that he was at liberty to
+show his letters to the King, or to read them in the Council, as he meant
+always to speak the truth in whatever he should write. He was sure that
+Perez would do all for the best; and there is something touching in these
+expressions of an honest purpose towards Philip, and of generous
+confidence in Perez, while the two were thus artfully attempting to
+inveigle him into damaging revelations. The Netherlanders certainly had
+small cause to love or trust their new Governor, who very sincerely
+detested and suspected them, but Philip had little reason to complain of
+his brother. "Tell me if my letters are read in Council, and what his
+Majesty says about them," he wrote; "and, above all, send money. I am
+driven to desperation at finding myself sold to this people, utterly
+unprovided as I am, and knowing the slow manner in which all affairs are
+conducted in Spain."
+
+He informed the King that there was but one man in the Netherlands, and
+that he was called the Prince of Orange. To him everything was
+communicated, with him everything was negotiated, opinions expressed by
+him were implicitly followed. The Governor vividly described the
+misgivings with which he had placed himself in the power of the states by
+going to Louvain, and the reluctance with which he had consented to send
+away the troops. After this concession, he complained that the insolence
+of the states had increased. "They think that they can do and undo what
+they like, now that I am at their mercy," he wrote to Philip.
+"Nevertheless, I do what you command without regarding that I am sold,
+and that I am in great danger of losing, my liberty, a loss which I dread
+more than anything in the world, for I wish to remain justified before
+God and men." He expressed, however, no hopes as to the result.
+Disrespect and rudeness could be pushed no further than it had already
+gone, while the Prince of Orange, the actual governor of the country,
+considered his own preservation dependent upon maintaining things as they
+then were. Don John, therefore, advised the King steadily to make
+preparations for "a rude and terrible war," which was not to be avoided,
+save by a miracle, and which ought not--to find him in this unprepared
+state. He protested that it was impossible to exaggerate the boldness
+which the people felt at seeing him thus defenseless. "They say
+publicly," he continued, "that your Majesty is not to be feared, not
+being capable of carrying on a war, and having consumed and exhausted
+every resource. One of the greatest injuries ever inflicted upon us was
+by Marquis Havre, who, after his return from Spain, went about publishing
+everywhere the poverty of the royal exchequer. This has emboldened them
+to rise, for they believe that, whatever the disposition, there is no
+strength to chastise them. They see a proof of the correctness of their
+reasoning in the absence of new levies, and in the heavy arrearages due
+to the old troops."
+
+He protested that he desired, at least, to be equal to the enemy, without
+asking, as others had usually done, for double the amount of the hostile
+force. He gave a glance at the foreign complications of the Netherlands,
+telling Philip that the estates were intriguing both with France and
+England. The English envoy had expressed much uneasiness at the possible
+departure of the Spanish troops from the Netherlands by sea, coupling it
+with a probable attempt to liberate the Queen of Scots. Don John, who had
+come to the provinces for no other purpose, and whose soul had been full
+of that romantic scheme, of course stoutly denied and ridiculed the idea.
+"Such notions," he had said to the envoy, "were subjects for laughter. If
+the troops were removed from the country, it was to strengthen his
+Majesty's force in the Levant." Mr. Rogers, much comforted, had expressed
+the warm friendship which Elizabeth entertained both for his Majesty and
+his Majesty's representative; protestations which could hardly seem very
+sincere, after the series of attempts at the Queen's life, undertaken so
+recently by his Majesty and his Majesty's former representative.
+Nevertheless, Don John had responded with great cordiality, had begged
+for Elizabeth's portrait, and had expressed the intention, if affairs
+went as he hoped, to go privately to England for the purpose of kissing
+her royal hand. Don John further informed the King, upon the envoy's
+authority, that Elizabeth had refused assistance to the estates, saying,
+if she stirred it would be to render aid to Philip, especially if France
+should meddle in the matter. As to France, the Governor advised Philip to
+hold out hopes to Alencon of espousing the Infanta, but by no means ever
+to fulfil such a promise, as the Duke, "besides being the shield of
+heretics, was unscrupulously addicted to infamous vices."
+
+A month later, Escovedo described the downfall of Don John's hopes and
+his own in dismal language.--"You are aware," he wrote to Perez, "that a
+throne--a chair with a canopy--is our intention and our appetite, and all
+the rest is good for nothing. Having failed in our scheme, we are
+desperate and like madmen. All is now weariness and death." Having
+expressed himself in such desponding accents, he continued, a few days
+afterwards, in the same lugubrious vein, "I am ready to hang myself,"
+said he, "and I would have done it already, if it were not for keeping
+myself as executioner for those who have done us so much harm. Ah, Senor
+Antonio Perez!" he added, "what terrible pertinacity have those devils
+shown in making us give up our plot. It seems as though Hell were opened
+and had sent forth heaps of demons to oppose our schemes." After these
+vigorous ejaculations he proceeded to inform his friend that the English
+envoy and the estates, governed by the Prince of Orange, in whose power
+were the much-coveted ships, had prevented the departure of the troops by
+sea. "These devils complain of the expense," said he; "but we would
+willingly swallow the cost if we could only get the ships." He then
+described Don John as so cast down by his disappointment as to be fit for
+nothing, and most desirous of quitting the Netherlands as soon as
+possible. He had no disposition to govern these wineskins. Any one who
+ruled in the provinces was obliged to do exactly what they ordered him to
+do. Such rule was not to the taste of Don John. Without any comparison, a
+woman would answer the purpose better than any man, and Escovedo
+accordingly suggested the Empress Dowager, or Madame de Parma, or even
+Madame de Lorraine. He further recommended that the Spanish troops, thus
+forced to leave the Netherlands by land, should be employed against the
+heretics in France. This would be a salve for the disgrace of removing
+them. "It would be read in history," continued the Secretary, "that the
+troops went to France in order to render assistance in a great religious
+necessity; while, at the same time, they will be on hand to chastise
+these drunkards, if necessary. To have the troops in France is almost as
+well as to keep them here." He begged to be forgiven if he spoke
+incoherently. 'T was no wonder that he should do so, for his reason had
+been disordered by the blow which had been received. As for Don John, he
+was dying to leave the country, and although the force was small for so
+great a general, yet it would be well for him to lead these troops to
+France in person. "It would sound well in history," said poor Escovedo,
+who always thought of posterity, without ever dreaming that his own
+private letters would be destined, after three centuries, to comment and
+earnest investigation; "it would sound well in history, that Don John
+went to restore, the French kingdom and to extirpate heretics, with six
+thousand foot and two thousand horse. 'Tis a better employment, too, than
+to govern such vile creatures as these."
+
+If, however, all their plans should fail, the Secretary suggested to his
+friend Antonio, that he must see and make courtiers of them. He suggested
+that a strong administration might be formed in Spain, with Don John, the
+Marquis de Los Velez, and the Duke of Sesa. "With such chiefs, and with
+Anthony and John--[Viz., John of Escovedo and Antony Perez.]--for
+acolytes," he was of opinion that much good work might be done, and that
+Don John might become "the staff for his Majesty's old age." He implored
+Perez, in the most urgent language, to procure Philip's consent that his
+brother should leave the provinces. "Otherwise," said he, "we shall see
+the destruction of the friend whom we so much love! He will become
+seriously ill, and if so, good night to him! His body is too delicate."
+Escovedo protested that he would rather die himself. "In the catastrophe
+of Don John's death," he continued, "adieu the court, adieu the world!"
+He would incontinently bury himself among the mountains of San Sebastian,
+"preferring to dwell among wild animals than among courtiers." Escovedo,
+accordingly, not urged by the most disinterested motives certainly, but
+with as warm a friendship for his master as princes usually inspire,
+proceeded to urge upon Perez the necessity of, aiding the man who was
+able to help them. The first step was to get him out of the Netherlands.
+That was his constant thought, by day and night. As it would hardly be
+desirable for him to go alone, it seemed proper that Escovedo should,
+upon some pretext, be first sent to Spain. Such a pretext would be easily
+found, because, as Don John had accepted the government, "it would be
+necessary for him to do all which the rascals bade him." After these
+minute statements, the Secretary warned his correspondent of the
+necessity of secrecy, adding that he especially feared "all the court
+ladies, great and small, but that he in everything confided entirely in
+Perez."
+
+Nearly at the same time, Don John wrote to Perez in a similar tone. "Ah,
+Senor Antonio," he exclaimed, "how certain is my disgrace and my
+misfortune. Ruined is our enterprise, after so much labor and such
+skilful management." He was to have commenced the work with the very
+Spanish soldiers who were now to be sent off by land, and he had nothing
+for it but to let them go, or to come to an open rupture with the states.
+"The last, his conscience, his duty, and the time, alike forbade." He was
+therefore obliged to submit to the ruin of his plans, and "could think of
+nothing save to turn hermit, a condition in which a man's labors, being
+spiritual, might not be entirely in vain." He was so overwhelmed by the
+blow, he said, that he was constantly thinking of an anchorite's life.
+That which he had been leading had become intolerable. He was not fitted
+for the people of the Netherlands, nor they for him. Rather than stay
+longer than was necessary in order to appoint his successor, there was no
+resolution he might not take, even to leaving everything and coming upon
+them when they least expected him, although he were to receive a bloody
+punishment in consequence. He, too, suggested the Empress, who had all
+the qualities which he lacked himself, or Madame de Parma, or Madame de
+Lorraine, as each of them was more fit to govern the provinces than he
+pretended to be. "The people," said he, plainly, "are beginning to abhor
+me, and I abhor them already." He entreated Perez to get him out of the
+country by fair means or foul, "per fas aut per nefas." His friends ought
+to procure his liberation, if they wished to save him from the sin of
+disobedience, and even of infamy. He expressed the most unbounded
+confidence in the honor of his correspondent, adding that if nothing else
+could procure his release, the letter might be shown to the King. In
+general, the Governor was always willing that Perez should make what
+changes he thought advisable in the letters for his Majesty, altering or
+softening whatever seemed crude or harsh, provided always the main
+point--that of procuring his recal--were steadily kept in view, in this,
+said the Governor, vehemently, my life, my honor, and my soul are all at
+stake; for as to the two first, I shall forfeit them both certainly, and,
+in my desperate condition, I shall run great risk of losing the last.
+
+On the other hand, Perez was profuse in his professions of friendship
+both to Don John and to Escovedo; dilating in all his letters upon the
+difficulty of approaching the King upon the subject of his brother's
+recal, but giving occasional information that an incidental hint had been
+ventured which might not remain without effect. All these letters, were,
+however, laid before Philip, for his approval, before being despatched,
+and the whole subject thoroughly and perpetually discussed between them,
+about which Perez pretended that he hardly dared breathe a syllable to
+his Majesty. He had done what he could, he said, while reading, piece by
+piece, to the King, during a fit of the gout, the official despatches
+from the Netherlands, to insinuate such of the arguments used by the
+Governor and Escovedo as might seem admissible, but it was soon obvious
+that no impression could be made upon the royal mind. Perez did not urge
+the matter, therefore, "because," said he, "if the King should suspect
+that we had any other object than his interests, we should all be lost."
+Every effort should be made by Don John and all his friends to secure his
+Majesty's entire confidence, since by that course more progress would be
+made in their secret plans, than by proceedings concerning which the
+Governor wrote "with such fury and anxiety of heart." Perez warned his
+correspondent, therefore, most solemnly, against the danger of "striking
+the blow without hitting the mark," and tried to persuade him that his
+best interests required him to protract his residence in the provinces
+for a longer period. He informed Don John that his disappointment as to
+the English scheme had met with the warmest sympathy of the King, who had
+wished his brother success. "I have sold to him, at as high a price as I
+could," said Perez, "the magnanimity with which your Highness had
+sacrificed, on that occasion, a private object to his service."
+
+The minister held the same language, when writing, in a still more
+intimate and expansive style, to Escovedo. "We must avoid, by a
+thousand--leagues, the possibility of the King's thinking us influenced
+by private motives," he observed; "for we know the King and the delicacy
+of these matters. The only way to gain the good-will of the man is
+carefully to accommodate ourselves to his tastes, and to have the
+appearance of being occupied solely with his interests." The letter, like
+all the rest, being submitted to "the man" in question before being sent,
+was underlined by him at this paragraph and furnished with the following
+annotation: "but you must enlarge upon the passage which I have
+marked--say more, even if you are obliged to copy the letter, in order
+that we may see the nature of the reply."
+
+In another letter to Escovedo, Perez enlarged upon the impropriety, the
+impossibility of Don John's leaving the Netherlands at that time. The
+King was so resolute upon that point, he said, that 'twas out of the
+question to suggest the matter. "We should, by so doing, only lose all
+credit with him in other things. You know what a terrible man he is; if
+he should once suspect us of having a private end in view, we should
+entirely miss our mark." Especially the secretary was made acquainted
+with the enormous error which would be committed by Don John in leaving
+his post.
+
+Perez "had ventured into the water" upon the subject, he said, by
+praising the Governor warmly to his Majesty. The King had responded by a
+hearty eulogium, adding that the greatest comfort in having such a
+brother was, that he might be where his Majesty could not be. Therefore,
+it was out of the question for Don John to leave the provinces. The
+greatest tact was necessary, urged Perez, in dealing with the King. If he
+should once "suspect that we have a private purpose, we are lost, and no
+Demosthenes or Cicero would be able to influence him afterwards." Perez
+begged that his ardent attachment to Don John might be represented in the
+strongest colors to that high personage, who was to be assured that every
+effort would be made to place him at the head of affairs in Spain,
+according to the suggestion of Escovedo. "It would never do, however," he
+continued, "to let our man see that we desire it, for then we should
+never succeed. The only way to conquer him is to make him believe that
+things are going on as he wishes, not as his Highness may desire, and
+that we have none of us any will but the King's." Upon this passage the
+"terrible man" made a brief annotation: "this paragraph does admirably,"
+he said, adding, with characteristic tautology, "and what you say in it
+is also excellent."
+
+"Therefore," continued the minister, "God forbid, Master Escovedo, that
+you should come hither now; for we should all be lost. In the English
+matter, I assure you that his Majesty was extremely anxious that the plan
+should succeed, either through the Pope, or otherwise. That puts me in
+mind," added Perez, "to say, body of God! Senor Escovedo! how the devil
+came you to send that courier to Rome about the English plot without
+giving me warning?" He then proceeded to state that the papal nuncio in
+Spain had been much troubled in mind upon the subject, and had sent for
+him. "I went," said Perez, "and after he, had closed the door, and looked
+through the keyhole to see that there were no listeners, he informed me
+that he had received intelligence from the Pope as to the demands made by
+Don John upon his Holiness for bulls, briefs, and money to assist him in
+his English scheme, and that eighty thousand ducats had already been sent
+to him in consequence." Perez added that the nuncio was very anxious to
+know how the affair should best be communicated to the King, without
+prejudice to his Highness. He had given him the requisite advice, he
+continued, and had himself subsequently told the King that, no doubt,
+letters had been written by Don John to his Majesty, communicating these
+negotiations at Rome, but that probably the despatches had been
+forgotten. Thus, giving himself the appearance of having smoothed the
+matter with the King, Perez concluded with a practical suggestion of much
+importance--the necessity, namely, of procuring the assassination of the
+Prince of Orange as soon as possible. "Let it never be absent from your
+mind," said he, "that a good occasion must be found for finishing Orange,
+since, besides the service which will thus be rendered to our master, and
+to the states, it will be worth something to ourselves."
+
+No apology is necessary for laying a somewhat extensive analysis of this
+secret correspondence before the reader. If there be any value in the
+examples of history, certainly few chronicles can furnish a more
+instructive moral. Here are a despotic king and his confidential minister
+laying their heads together in one cabinet; the viceroy of the most
+important provinces of the realm, with his secretary, deeply conferring
+in another, not as to the manner of advancing the great interests, moral
+or material, of the people over whom God has permitted them to rule, but
+as to the best means of arranging conspiracies against the throne and
+life of a neighboring sovereign, with the connivance and subsidies of the
+Pope. In this scheme, and in this only, the high conspirators are agreed.
+In every other respect, mutual suspicion and profound deceit characterize
+the scene. The Governor is filled with inexpressible loathing for the
+whole nation of "drunkards and wineskins" who are at the very moment
+strewing flowers in his path, and deafening his ears with shouts of
+welcome; the king, while expressing unbounded confidence in the viceroy,
+is doing his utmost, through the agency of the subtlest intriguer in the
+world, to inveigle him into confessions of treasonable schemes, and the
+minister is filling reams of paper with protestations of affection for
+the governor and secretary, with sneers at the character of the King, and
+with instructions as to the best method of deceiving him, and then laying
+the despatches before his Majesty for correction and enlargement. To
+complete the picture, the monarch and his minister are seen urging the
+necessity of murdering the foremost man of the age upon the very dupe
+who, within a twelvemonth, was himself to be assassinated by the
+self-same pair; while the arch-plotter who controls the strings of all
+these complicated projects is equally false to King, Governor, and
+Secretary, and is engaging all the others in these blind and tortuous
+paths, for the accomplishment of his own secret and most ignoble aims.
+
+In reply to the letters of Perez, Don John constantly expressed the
+satisfaction and comfort which he derived from them in the midst of his
+annoyances. "He was very disconsolate," he said, "to be in that hell, and
+to be obliged to remain in it," now that the English plot had fallen to
+the ground, but he would nevertheless take patience, and wait for a more
+favorable conjuncture.
+
+Escovedo expressed the opinion, however, notwithstanding all the
+suggestions of Perez, that the presence of Don John in the provinces had
+become entirely superfluous. "An old woman with her distaff," suggested
+the Secretary, "would be more appropriate; for there would be nothing to
+do, if the states had their way, save to sign everything which they
+should command." If there should be war, his Highness would, of course,
+not abandon his post; even if permitted to do so; but otherwise, nothing
+could be gained by a prolonged residence. As to the scheme of
+assassinating the Prince of Orange, Escovedo prayed Perez to believe him
+incapable of negligence on the subject. "You know that the finishing of
+Orange is very near my heart," wrote the poor dupe to the man by whom he
+was himself so soon to be finished. "You may believe that I have never
+forgotten it, and never will forget it, until it be done. Much, and very
+much artifice is, however, necessary to accomplish this object. A proper
+person to undertake a task fraught with such well-known danger, is hard
+to find. Nevertheless, I will not withdraw my attention from the subject
+till such a person be procured, and the deed be done."
+
+A month later, Escovedo wrote that he was about to visit Spain. He
+complained that he required rest in his old age, but that Perez could
+judge how much rest he could get in such a condition of affairs. He was,
+unfortunately, not aware, when he wrote, how soon his correspondent was
+to give him a long repose. He said, too, that the pleasure of visiting
+his home was counterbalanced by the necessity of travelling back to the
+Netherlands; but he did not know that Perez was to spare him that
+trouble, and to send him forth upon a much longer journey.
+
+The Governor-General, had, in truth, not inspired the popular party or
+its leader with confidence, nor did he place the least reliance upon
+them. While at Louvain, he had complained that a conspiracy had been
+formed against his life and liberty. Two French gentlemen, Bonnivet and
+Bellangreville, had been arrested on suspicion of a conspiracy to secure
+his person, and to carry him off a prisoner to Rochelle. Nothing came of
+the examination which followed; the prisoners were released, and an
+apology was sent by the states-general to the Duke of Alencon, as well
+for the indignity which had been offered to two of his servants, as for
+the suspicion which had been cast upon himself, Don John, however, was
+not satisfied. He persisted in asserting the existence of the conspiracy,
+and made no secret of his belief that the Prince of Orange was acquainted
+with the arrangement. As may be supposed, nothing was discovered in the
+course of the investigation to implicate that astute politician. The
+Prince had indeed secretly recommended that the Governor should be taken
+into custody on his first arrival, not for the purpose of assassination
+or personal injury, but in order to extort better terms from Philip,
+through the affection or respect which he might be supposed to entertain
+for his brother. It will be remembered that unsuccessful attempts had
+also been made to capture the Duke of Alva and the Commander Requesens.
+Such achievements comported with the spirit of the age, and although it
+is doubtful whether any well-concerted plot existed against the liberty
+of the Governor, it is certain that he entertained no doubt on the
+subject himself. In addition to these real or suspected designs, there
+was an ever-present consciousness in the mind of Don John that the
+enthusiasm which greeted his presence was hollow, that no real attachment
+was felt for his person, that his fate was leading him into a false
+position, that the hearts of the people were fixed upon another, and that
+they were never to be won by himself. Instinctively he seemed to feel a
+multitude of invisible threads twining into a snare around him, and the
+courageous heart and the bounding strength became uneasily conscious of
+the act in which they were to be held captive till life should be wasted
+quite away.
+
+The universal affection for the rebel Prince, and the hopeless
+abandonment of the people to that deadliest of sins, the liberty of
+conscience, were alike unquestionable. "They mean to remain free, sire,"
+wrote Escovedo to Philip, "and to live as they please. To that end they
+would be willing that the Turk should come to be master of the country.
+By the road which they are travelling, however, it will be the Prince of
+Orange--which comes to quite the same thing." At the same time, however,
+it was hoped that something might be made of this liberty of conscience.
+All were not equally sunk in the horrible superstition, and those who
+were yet faithful to Church and King might be set against their besotted
+brethren. Liberty of conscience might thus be turned to account. While
+two great parties were "by the ears, and pulling out each other's hair,
+all might perhaps be reduced together." His Majesty was warned,
+nevertheless, to expect the worst, and to believe that the country could
+only be cared with fire and blood. The position of the Governor was
+painful and perplexing. "Don John," said Escovedo, "is thirty years old.
+I promise your Majesty nothing, save that if he finds himself without
+requisite assistance, he will take himself off when your Majesty is least
+thinking of such a thing."
+
+Nothing could be more melancholy than the tone of the Governor's letters.
+He believed himself disliked, even in the midst of affectionate
+demonstrations. He felt compelled to use moderate counsels, although he
+considered moderation of no avail. He was chained to his post, even
+though the post could, in his opinion, be more advantageously filled by
+another. He would still endeavour to gain the affections of the people,
+although he believed them hopelessly alienated. If patience would cure
+the malady of the country, he professed himself capable of applying the
+remedy, although the medicine had so far done but little good, and
+although he had no very strong hopes as to its future effects. "Thus far,
+however," said he, "I am but as one crying in the wilderness." He took
+occasion to impress upon his Majesty, in very strong language, the
+necessity of money. Secret agents, spies, and spies upon spies, were more
+necessary than ever, and were very expensive portions of government
+machinery. Never was money more wanted. Nothing could be more important
+than, to attend faithfully to the financial suggestions of Escovedo, and
+Don John, therefore, urged his Majesty, again and again, not to dishonor
+their drafts. "Money is the gruel," said he, "with which we must cure
+this sick man;" and he therefore prayed all those who wished well to his
+efforts, to see that his Majesty did not fail him in this important
+matter. Notwithstanding, however, the vigor of his efforts, and the
+earnestness of his intentions, he gave but little hope to his Majesty of
+any valuable fruit from the pacification just concluded. He saw the
+Prince of Orange strengthening himself, "with great fury," in Holland and
+Zealand; he knew that the Prince was backed by the Queen of England, who,
+notwithstanding her promises to Philip and himself, had offered her
+support to the rebels in case the proposed terms of peace were rejected
+in Holland, and he felt that "nearly the whole people was at the devotion
+of the Prince."
+
+Don John felt more and more convinced, too, that a conspiracy was on foot
+against his liberty. There were so many of the one party, and so few of
+the other, that if he were once fairly "trussed," he affirmed that not a
+man among the faithful would dare to budge an inch. He therefore informed
+his Majesty that he was secretly meditating a retreat to some place of
+security; judging very properly that, if he were still his own master, he
+should be able to exert more influence over those who were still well
+disposed, than if he should suffer himself to be taken captive. A
+suppressed conviction that he could effect nothing, except with his
+sword, pierced through all his more prudent reflections. He maintained
+that, after all, there was no remedy for the body but to cut off the
+diseased parts at once, and he therefore begged his Majesty for the means
+of performing the operation handsomely. The general expressions which he
+had previously used in favor of broths and mild treatment hardly tallied
+with the severe amputation thus recommended. There was, in truth, a
+constant struggle going on between the fierceness of his inclinations and
+the shackles which had been imposed upon him. He already felt entirely
+out of place, and although he scorned to fly from his post so long as it
+seemed the post of danger, he was most anxious that the King should grant
+him his dismissal, so soon as his presence should no longer be
+imperiously required. He was sure that the people would never believe in
+his Majesty's forgiveness until the man concerning whom they entertained
+so much suspicion should be removed; for they saw in him only the
+"thunderbolt of his Majesty's wrath." Orange and England confirmed their
+suspicions, and sustained their malice. Should he be compelled, against
+his will, to remain, he gave warning that he might do something which
+would be matter of astonishment to everybody.
+
+Meantime, the man in whose hands really lay the question of war and
+peace, sat at Middelburg, watching the deep current of events as it
+slowly flowed towards the precipice. The whole population of Holland and
+Zealand hung on his words. In approaching the realms of William the
+Silent, Don John felt that he had entered a charmed, circle, where the
+talisman of his own illustrious name lost its power, where his valor was
+paralyzed, and his sword rusted irrevocably in its sheath. "The people
+here," he wrote, "are bewitched by the Prince of Orange. They love him,
+they fear him, and wish to have him for their master. They inform him of
+everything, and take no resolution without consulting him."
+
+While William was thus directing and animating the whole nation with his
+spirit, his immediate friends became more and more anxious concerning the
+perils to which he was exposed. His mother, who had already seen her
+youngest-born, Henry, her Adolphus, her chivalrous Louis, laid in their
+bloody graves for the cause of conscience, was most solicitous for the
+welfare of her "heart's-beloved lord and son," the Prince of Orange.
+Nevertheless, the high-spirited old dame was even more alarmed at the
+possibility of a peace in which that religious liberty for which so much
+dear blood had been, poured forth should be inadequately secured. "My
+heart longs for certain tidings from my lord," she wrote to William, "for
+methinks the peace now in prospect will prove but an oppression for soul
+and conscience. I trust my heart's dearly-beloved lord and son will be
+supported by Divine grace to do nothing against God and his own soul's
+salvation. 'Tis better to lose the temporal than the eternal." Thus wrote
+the mother of William, and we can feel the sympathetic thrill which such
+tender and lofty words awoke in his breast. His son, the ill-starred
+Philip, now for ten years long a compulsory sojourner in Spain, was not
+yet weaned from his affection for his noble parent, but sent messages of
+affection to him whenever occasion offered, while a less commendable
+proof of his filial affection he had lately afforded, at the expense of
+the luckless captain of his Spanish guard. That officer having dared in
+his presence to speak disrespectfully of his father, was suddenly seized
+about the waist by the enraged young Count, hurled out of the window, and
+killed stone-dead upon the spot. After this exhibition of his natural
+feelings, the Spanish government thought it necessary to take more subtle
+means to tame so turbulent a spirit. Unfortunately they proved
+successful.
+
+Count John of Nassau, too, was sorely pressed for money. Six hundred
+thousand florins; at least, had been advanced by himself and brothers to
+aid the cause of Netherland freedom. Louis and himself had,
+unhesitatingly and immediately, turned into that sacred fund the hundred
+thousand crowns which the King of France had presented them for their
+personal use, for it was not the Prince of Orange alone who had
+consecrated his wealth and his life to the cause, but the members of his
+family, less immediately interested in the country, had thus furnished
+what may well be called an enormous subsidy, and one most disproportioned
+to their means. Not only had they given all the cash which they could
+command by mortgaging their lands and rents, their plate and furniture,
+but, in the words of Count John himself, "they had taken the chains and
+jewels from the necks of their wives, their children, and their mother,
+and had hawked them about, as if they had themselves been traders and
+hucksters." And yet, even now, while stooping under this prodigious debt,
+Count John asked not for present repayment. He only wrote to the Prince
+to signify his extreme embarrassment, and to request some obligation or
+recognition from the cities of Holland and Zealand, whence hitherto no
+expression of gratitude or acknowledgment had proceeded.
+
+The Prince consoled and assured, as best he could, his mother, son, wife,
+and brother, even at the same moment that he comforted his people. He
+also received at this time a second and more solemn embassy from Don
+John. No sooner had the Governor exchanged oaths at Brussels, and been
+acknowledged as the representative of his Majesty, than he hastened to
+make another effort to conciliate the Prince. Don John saw before him
+only a grand seignior of lofty birth and boundless influence, who had
+placed himself towards the Crown in a false position, from which he might
+even yet be rescued; for to sacrifice the whims of a reforming and
+transitory religious fanaticism, which had spun itself for a moment about
+so clear a brain, would, he thought, prove but a trifling task for so
+experienced a politician as the Prince. William of Orange, on the other
+hand, looked upon his young antagonist as the most brilliant
+impersonation which had yet been seen of the foul spirit of persecution.
+
+It will be necessary to follow, somewhat more in detail than is usually
+desirable, the interchange of conversations, letters, and protocols, out
+of which the brief but important administration of Don John was composed;
+for it was exactly in such manifestations that the great fight was really
+proceeding. Don John meant peace, wise William meant war, for he knew
+that no other issue was possible. Peace, in reality, was war in its worst
+shape. Peace would unchain every priestly tongue, and unsheath every
+knightly sword in the fifteen provinces against little Holland and
+Zealand. He had been able to bind all the provinces together by the
+hastily forged chain of the Ghent treaty, and had done what he could to
+strengthen that union by the principle of mutual religious respect. By
+the arrival of Don John that work had been deranged. It had, however,
+been impossible for the Prince thoroughly to infuse his own ideas on the
+subject of toleration into the hearts of his nearest associates. He could
+not hope to inspire his deadly enemies with a deeper sympathy. Was he not
+himself the mark of obloquy among the Reformers, because of his leniency
+to Catholics? Nay more, was not his intimate councillor, the accomplished
+Saint Aldegonde, in despair because the Prince refused to exclude the
+Anabaptists of Holland from the rights of citizenship? At the very moment
+when William was straining every nerve to unite warring sects, and to
+persuade men's hearts into a system by which their consciences were to be
+laid open to God alone--at the moment when it was most necessary for the
+very existence of the fatherland that Catholic and Protestant should
+mingle their social and political relations, it was indeed a bitter
+disappointment for him to see wise statesmen of his own creed unable to
+rise to the idea of toleration. "The affair of the Anabaptists," wrote
+Saint Aldegonde, "has been renewed. The Prince objects to exclude them
+from citizenship. He answered me sharply, that their yea was equal to our
+oath, and that we should not press this matter, unless we were willing to
+confess that it was just for the Papists to compel us to a divine service
+which was against our conscience." It seems hardly credible that this
+sentence, containing so sublime a tribute to the character of the Prince,
+should have been indited as a bitter censure, and that, too, by an
+enlightened and accomplished Protestant. "In short," continued Saint
+Aldegonde, with increasing vexation, "I don't see how we can accomplish
+our wish in this matter. The Prince has uttered reproaches to me that our
+clergy are striving to obtain a mastery over consciences. He praised
+lately the saying of a monk who was not long ago here, that our pot had
+not gone to the fire as often as that of our antagonists, but that when
+the time came it would be black enough. In short, the Prince fears that
+after a few centuries the clerical tyranny on both sides will stand in
+this respect on the same footing."
+
+Early in the month of May, Doctor Leoninus and Caspar Schetz, Seigneur de
+Grobbendonck, had been sent on a mission from the states-general to the
+Prince of Orange. While their negotiations were still pending, four
+special envoys from Don John arrived at Middelburg. To this commission
+was informally adjoined Leoninus, who had succeeded to the general
+position of Viglius. Viglius was dead. Since the memorable arrest of the
+State Council, he had not appeared on the scene of public affairs. The
+house-arrest, to which he had been compelled by a revolutionary
+committee, had been indefinitely prolonged by a higher power, and after a
+protracted illness he had noiselessly disappeared from the stage of life.
+There had been few more learned doctors of both laws than he. There had
+been few more adroit politicians, considered from his point of view. His
+punning device was "Vita mortalium vigilia," and he acted accordingly,
+but with a narrow interpretation. His life had indeed been a vigil, but
+it must be confessed that the vigils had been for Viglius.
+
+   [Bor, x. 812. Meteren, vi. 120.--Another motto of his was, "En
+   groot Jurist een booser Christ;" that is to say, A good lawyer is a
+   bad Christian.--Unfortunately his own character did not give the lie
+   satisfactorily to the device.]
+
+The weatherbeaten Palinurus, as he loved to call himself, had conducted
+his own argosy so warily that he had saved his whole cargo; and perished
+in port at last, while others, not sailing by his compass, were still
+tossed by the tempest.
+
+The agents of Don John were the Duke of Aerschot, the Seigneur de
+Hierges, Seigneur de Willerval, and Doctor Meetkercke, accompanied by
+Doctor Andrew Gaill, one of the imperial commissioners. The two envoys
+from the states-general, Leoninus and Schetz, being present at
+Gertruydenberg were added to the deputation. An important conference took
+place, the details of which have been somewhat minutely preserved. The
+Prince of Orange, accompanied by Saint Aldegonde and four other
+councillors, encountered the seven champions from Brussels in a long
+debate, which was more like a passage of arms or a trial of skill than a
+friendly colloquy with a pacific result in prospect; for it must be
+remembered that the Prince of Orange did not mean peace. He had devised
+the Pacification of Ghent as a union of the other provinces with Holland
+and Zealand, against Philip. He did not intend that it should be
+converted into a union of the other provinces with Philip, against
+Holland and Zealand.
+
+Meetkercke was the first to speak. He said that the Governor had
+despatched them to the Prince, to express his good intentions, to
+represent the fidelity with which his promises had thus far been
+executed, and to entreat the Prince, together with the provinces of
+Holland and Zealand, to unite with their sister provinces in common
+allegiance to his Majesty. His Highness also proposed to advise with them
+concerning the proper method of convoking the states-general. As soon as
+Meetkercke had finished his observations, the Prince demanded that the
+points and articles should be communicated to him in writing. Now this
+was precisely what the envoys preferred to omit. It was easier, and far
+more agreeable to expatiate in a general field of controversy,--than to
+remain tethered to distinct points. It was particularly in these confused
+conferences, where neither party was entirely sincere, that the volatile
+word was thought preferable to the permanent letter. Already so many
+watery lines had been traced, in the course of these fluctuating
+negotiations, that a few additional records would be if necessary, as
+rapidly effaced as the rest.
+
+The commissioners, after whispering in each other's, ears for a few
+minutes, refused to put down anything in writing. Protocols, they said,
+only engendered confusion.
+
+"No, no," said the .Prince, in reply, "we will have nothing except in
+black and white. Otherwise things will be said on both sides, which will
+afterwards be interpreted in different ways. Nay, it will be denied that
+some important points have been discussed at all. We know that by
+experience. Witness the solemn treaty of Ghent, which ye have tried to
+make fruitless, under pretence that some points, arranged by word of
+mouth, and not stated particularly in writing, had been intended in a
+different sense from the obvious one. Governments given by royal
+commission, for example; what point could be clearer? Nevertheless, ye
+have hunted up glosses and cavils to obscure the intention of the
+contracting parties. Ye have denied my authority over Utrecht, because
+not mentioned expressly in the treaty of Ghent."
+
+"But," said one of the envoys, interrupting at this point, "neither the
+Council of State nor the Court of Mechlin consider Utrecht as belonging
+to your Excellency's government."
+
+"Neither the Council of State," replied the Prince, "nor the Court of
+Mechlin have anything to do with the matter. 'Tis in my commission, and
+all the world knows it." He added that instead of affairs being thrown
+into confusion by being reduced to writing, he was of opinion, on the
+contrary, that it was by that means alone they could be made perfectly
+clear.
+
+Leoninus replied, good naturedly, that there should be no difficulty upon
+that score, and that writings should be exchanged. In the meantime,
+however, he expressed the hope that the Prince would honor them with some
+preliminary information as to the points in which he felt aggrieved, as
+well as to the pledges which he and the states were inclined to demand.
+
+"And what reason have we to hope," cried the Prince, "that your pledges,
+if made; will be redeemed? That which was promised so solemnly at Ghent,
+and ratified by Don John and his Majesty, has not been fulfilled."
+
+"Of what particular point do you complain?" asked Schetz. "Wherein has
+the Pacification been violated?"
+
+Hereupon the Prince launched forth upon a flowing stream of invective. He
+spoke to them of his son detained in distant captivity--of his own
+property at Breda withheld--of a thousand confiscated estates--of
+garrisons of German mercenaries--of ancient constitutions annihilated--of
+the infamous edicts nominally suspended, but actually in full vigor. He
+complained bitterly that the citadels, those nests and dens of tyranny,
+were not yet demolished. "Ye accuse me of distrust," he cried; "but while
+the castles of Antwerp, Ghent, Namur, and so many more are standing, 'tis
+yourselves who show how utterly ye are without confidence in any
+permanent and peaceful arrangement."
+
+"And what," asked a deputy, smoothly, "is the point which touches you
+most nearly? What is it that your Excellency most desires? By what means
+will it be possible for the government fully to give you contentment?"
+
+"I wish," he answered, simply, "the full execution of the Ghent
+Pacification. If you regard the general welfare of the land, it is well,
+and I thank you. If not, 'tis idle to make propositions, for I regard my
+country's profit, not my own."
+
+Afterwards, the Prince simply repeated his demand that the Ghent treaty
+should be executed; adding, that after the states-general should have
+been assembled, it would be time to propose the necessary articles for
+mutual security.
+
+Hereupon Doctor Leoninus observed that the assembly of the states-general
+could hardly be without danger. He alluded to the vast number of persons
+who would thus be convoked, to the great discrepancy of humors which
+would thus be manifested. Many men would be present neither discreet nor
+experienced. He therefore somewhat coolly suggested that it might be
+better to obviate the necessity of holding any general assembly at all.
+An amicable conference, for the sake of settling doubtful questions,
+would render the convocation superfluous, and save the country from the
+dangers by which the step would be attended. The Doctor concluded by
+referring to the recent assemblies of France, the only result of which
+had been fresh dissensions. It thus appeared that the proposition on the
+part of Don John meant something very different from its apparent
+signification. To advise with the Prince as to the proper method of
+assembling the estates really meant, to advise with him as to the best
+means of preventing any such assembly. Here, certainly, was a good reason
+for the preference expressed by the deputies, in favor of amicable
+discussions over formal protocols. It might not be so easy in a written
+document to make the assembly, and the prevention of the assembly, appear
+exactly the same thing.
+
+The Prince replied that there was a wide difference between the condition
+of France and of the Netherlands. Here, was one will and one intention.
+There, were many factions, many partialities, many family intrigues.
+Since it had been agreed by the Ghent treaty that certain points should
+be provisionally maintained and others settled by a speedy convocation of
+the states-general, the plainest course was to maintain the provisional
+points, and to summon the states-general at once. This certainly was
+concise and logical. It is doubtful, however, whether he were really as
+anxious for the assembly-general as he appeared to be. Both parties were
+fencing at each other, without any real intention of carrying their
+points, for neither wished the convocation, while both affected an
+eagerness for that event. The conversation proceeded.
+
+"At least," said an envoy, "you can tell beforehand in what you are
+aggrieved, and what you have to propose."
+
+"We are aggrieved in nothing, and we have nothing to propose," answered
+the Prince, "so long as you maintain the Pacification. We demand no other
+pledge, and are willing to refer everything afterwards to the assembly."
+
+"But," asked Schetz, "what security do you offer us that you will
+yourselves maintain the Pacification?"
+
+"We are not bound to give assurances," answered the Prince. "The
+Pacification is itself an assurance. 'Tis a provisional arrangement, to
+be maintained by both parties, until after the decision of the assembly.
+The Pacification must therefore be maintained or disavowed. Choose
+between the two. Only, if you mean still to acknowledge it, you must keep
+its articles. This we mean to do, and if up to the present time you have
+any complaint to make of our conduct, as we trust you have not, we are
+ready to give you satisfaction."
+
+"In short," said an envoy, "you mean, after we shall have placed in your
+hands the government of Utrecht, Amsterdam: and other places, to deny us
+any pledges on your part to maintain the Pacification."
+
+"But," replied the Prince, "if we are already accomplishing the
+Pacification, what more do you wish?"
+
+"In this fashion," cried the others, "after having got all that you ask,
+and having thus fortified yourselves more than you were ever fortified
+before, you will make war upon us."
+
+"War?" cried the Prince, "what are you afraid of? We are but a handful of
+people; a worm compared to the King of Spain. Moreover, ye are fifteen
+provinces to two. What have you to fear?"
+
+"Ah," said Meetkercke, "we have seen what you could do, when you were
+masters of the sea. Don't make yourselves out quite so little."
+
+"But," said the Prince, "the Pacification of Ghent provides for all this.
+Your deputies were perfectly satisfied with the guarantees it furnished.
+As to making war upon you, 'tis a thing without foundation or appearance
+of probability. Had you believed then that you had anything to fear, you
+world not have forgotten to demand pledges enough. On the contrary, you
+saw how roundly we were dealing with you then, honestly disgarnishing the
+country, even before the peace had been concluded. For ourselves,
+although we felt the right to demand guarantees, we would not do it, for
+we were treating with you on terms of confidence. We declared expressly
+that had we been dealing with the King, we should have exacted stricter
+pledges. As to demanding them of us at the moment, 'tis nonsense. We have
+neither the means of assailing you, nor do we deem it expedient to do
+so."
+
+"To say the truth," replied Schetz, "we are really confident that you
+will not make war upon us. On the other hand, however, we see you
+spreading your religion daily, instead of keeping it confined within your
+provinces. What assurance do you give us that, after all your demand
+shall have been accorded, you will make no innovation in religion."
+
+"The assurance which we give you," answered the Prince, "is that we will
+really accomplish the Pacification."
+
+"But," persisted Schetz, "do you fairly, promise to submit to all which
+the states-general shall ordain, as well on this point of religious
+exercise in Holland and Zealand, as on all the others?"
+
+This was a home thrust. The Prince parried it for a while. In his secret
+thoughts he had no expectation or desire that the states-general,
+summoned in a solemn manner by the Governor-General, on the basis of the
+memorable assembly before which was enacted the grand ceremony of the
+imperial abdication, would ever hold their session, and although he did
+not anticipate the prohibition by such assembly, should it take place, of
+the Reformed worship in Holland and Zealand, he did not intend to submit
+to it, even should it be made.
+
+"I cannot tell," said he, accordingly, in reply to the last question,
+"for ye have yourselves already broken and violated the Pacification;
+having made an accord with Don John without our consent, and having
+already received him as Governor."
+
+"So that you don't mean," replied Schetz, "to accept the decision of the
+states?"
+
+"I don't say that," returned the Prince, continuing to parry; "it is
+possible that we might accept it; it is possible that we might not. We
+are no longer in our entire rights, as we were at the time of our first
+submission at Ghent."
+
+"But we will make you whole," said Schetz.
+
+"That you cannot do," replied the Prince, "for you have broken the
+Pacification all to pieces. We have nothing, therefore, to expect from
+the states, but to be condemned off-hand.
+
+"You don't mean, then," repeated Schetz, "to submit to the estates
+touching the exercise of religion?"
+
+"No, we do not!" replied the Prince, driven into a corner at last, and
+striking out in his turn. "We certainly do not. To tell you the truth, we
+see that you intend our extirpation, and we don't mean to be extirpated."
+
+"Ho!" said the Duke of Aerschot, "there is nobody who wishes that."
+
+"Indeed, but you do," said the Prince. "We have submitted ourselves to
+you in good faith, and you now would compel us and all the world to
+maintain exclusively the Catholic religion. This cannot be done except by
+extirpating us."
+
+A long, learned, vehement discussion upon abstract points, between Saint
+Aldegonde, Leoninus, and Doctor Gaill, then ensued, during which the
+Prince, who had satisfied himself as to the result of the conference,
+retired from the apartment. He afterwards had a private convention with
+Schetz and Leoninus, in which he reproached them with their inclination
+to reduce their fatherland to slavery. He also took occasion to remark to
+Hiergea, that it was a duty to content the people; that whatever might be
+accomplished for them was durable, whereas the will of kings was
+perishing. He told the Duke of Aerschot that if Utrecht were not
+restored, he would take it by force. He warned the Duke that to trust the
+King was to risk his head. He, at least, would never repose confidence in
+him, having been deceived too often. The King cherished the maxim,
+'hereticis non est servanda fides;' as for himself he was 'calbo y
+calbanista,' and meant to die so.
+
+The formal interchange of documents soon afterwards took place. The
+conversation thus held between the different parties shows, however, the
+exact position of, affairs. There was no change in the intentions of
+either; Reformers or Royalists. Philip and his representatives still
+contended for two points, and claimed the praise of moderation that their
+demands were so few in number. They were willing to concede everything,
+save the unlimited authority of the King and the exclusive maintenance of
+the Catholic religion. The Prince of Orange, on his side, claimed two
+points also--the ancient constitutions of the country and religious
+freedom. It was obvious enough that the contest was, the same in reality,
+as it had ever been. No approximation had been made towards reconciling
+absolutism with national liberty, persecution with toleration. The
+Pacification of Ghent had been a step in advance. That Treaty opened the
+door to civil and religious liberty, but it was an agreement among the
+provinces, not a compact between the people and the monarch. By the
+casuists of Brussels and the licentiates of Louvain, it had, to be sure,
+been dogmatically pronounced orthodox, and had been confirmed by royal
+edict. To believe, however, that his Catholic Majesty had faith in the
+dogmas propounded, was as absurd as to believe in the dogmas themselves.
+If the Ghent Pacification really had made no breach in royal and Roman
+infallibility, then the efforts of Orange and the exultation of the
+Reformers had indeed been idle.
+
+The envoys accordingly, in obedience to their instructions, made a formal
+statement to the Prince of Orange and the states of Holland and Zealand,
+on the part of Don John. They alluded to the departure of the Spaniards,
+as if that alone had fulfilled every duty and authorized every claim.
+They therefore demanded the immediate publication in Holland and Zealand
+of the Perpetual Edict. They insisted on the immediate discontinuance of
+all hostile attempts to reduce Amsterdam to the jurisdiction of Orange;
+required the Prince to abandon his pretensions to Utrecht, and denounced
+the efforts making by him and his partisans to diffuse their heretical
+doctrines through the other provinces. They observed, in conclusion, that
+the general question of religion was not to be handled, because reserved
+for the consideration of the states-general, according to the treaty of
+Ghent.
+
+The reply, delivered on the following day by the Prince of Orange and the
+deputies, maintained that the Perpetual Edict was widely different from
+the Pacification of Ghent, which it affected to uphold; that the promises
+to abstain from all violation of the ancient constitutions had not been
+kept; that the German troops had not been dismissed, that the property of
+the Prince in the Netherlands and Burgundy had not been restored, that
+his son was detained in captivity, that the government of Utrecht was
+withheld from him, that the charters and constitution of the country,
+instead of being extended, had been contracted, and that the Governor had
+claimed the right to convoke the states-general at his pleasure, in
+violation of the ancient right to assemble at their own. The document
+further complained that the adherents of the Reformed religion were not
+allowed to frequent the different provinces in freedom, according to the
+stipulations of Ghent; that Don John, notwithstanding all these
+short-comings, had been acknowledged as Governor-General, without the
+consent of the Prince; that he was surrounded with a train of Spaniards
+Italians, and other foreigners--Gonzaga, Escovedo, and the like--as well
+as by renegade Netherlanders like Tassis, by whom he was unduly
+influenced against the country and the people, and by whom a "back door
+was held constantly open" to the admission of evils innumerable. Finally,
+it was asserted that, by means of this last act of union, a new form of
+inquisition had been introduced, and one which was much more cruel than
+the old system; inasmuch as the Spanish Inquisition did not take
+information against men: except upon suspicion, whereas, by the new
+process, all the world would be examined as to their conscience and
+religion, under pretence of maintaining the union.
+
+Such was the result of this second mission to the Prince of Orange on the
+part of the Governor-General. Don John never sent another. The swords
+were now fairly measured between the antagonists, and the scabbard was
+soon to be thrown away. A few weeks afterwards, the Governor wrote to
+Philip that there was nothing in the world which William of Orange so
+much abhorred as his Majesty; adding, with Castillian exaggeration, that
+if the Prince could drink the King's blood he would do so with great
+pleasure.
+
+Don John, being thus seated in the saddle, had a moment's leisure to look
+around him. It was but a moment, for he had small confidence in the
+aspect of affairs, but one of his first acts after assuming the
+government afforded a proof of the interpretation which he had adopted of
+the Ghent Pacification. An edict was issued, addressed to all bishops,
+"heretic-masters," and provincial councils, commanding the strict
+enforcement of the Canons of Trent, and other ecclesiastical decrees.
+These authorities were summoned instantly to take increased heed, of the
+flocks under their charge, "and to protect them from the ravening wolves
+which were seeking to devour them."
+
+The measure bore instant fruit. A wretched tailor of Mechlin, Peter Penis
+by name, an honest man, but a heretic, was arrested upon the charge of
+having preached or exhorted at a meeting in that city. He confessed that
+he had been present at the meeting, but denied that he had preached. He
+was then required to denounce the others who had been present, and the
+men who had actually officiated. He refused, and was condemned to death.
+The Prince of Orange, while the process was pending, wrote an earnest
+letter to the Council of Mechlin, imploring them not now to rekindle the
+fires of religious persecution. His appeal was in vain. The poor tailor
+was beheaded at Mechlin on the 15th of June, the Conqueror of Lepanto
+being present at the execution, and adding dignity to the scene. Thus, at
+the moment when William of Orange was protecting the Anabaptists of
+Middelburg in their rights of citizenship, even while they refused its
+obligations, the son of the Emperor was dipping his hands in the blood of
+a poor wretch who had done no harm but to listen to a prayer without
+denouncing the preacher. The most intimate friends of the Prince were
+offended with his liberality. The imperial shade of Don John's father
+might have risen to approve the son who had so dutifully revived his
+bloody edicts and his ruthless policy.
+
+Three parties were now fairly in existence: the nobles, who hated the
+Spaniards, but who were disposed to hold themselves aloof from the
+people; the adherents of Don John, commonly called "Johanists;" and the
+partisans of the Prince of Orange--for William the Silent had always felt
+the necessity of leaning for support on something more substantial than
+the court party, a reed shaken by the wind, and failing always when most
+relied upon. His efforts were constant to elevate the middle class, to
+build up a strong third party which should unite much of the substantial
+wealth and intelligence of the land, drawing constantly from the people,
+and deriving strength from national enthusiasm--a party which should
+include nearly all the political capacity of the country; and his efforts
+were successful. No doubt the Governor and his Secretary were right when
+they said the people of the Netherlands were inclined to brook the Turk
+as easily as the Spaniard for their master, and that their hearts were in
+reality devoted to the Prince of Orange.
+
+As to the grandees, they were mostly of those who "sought to swim between
+two waters," according to the Prince's expression. There were but few
+unswerving supporters of the Spanish rule, like the Berlaymont and the
+Tassis families. The rest veered daily with the veering wind. Aerschot,
+the great chief of the Catholic party, was but a cringing courtier, false
+and fawning both to Don John and the Prince. He sought to play a leading
+part in a great epoch; he only distinguished himself by courting and
+betraying all parties, and being thrown away by all. His son and brother
+were hardly more respectable. The Prince knew how little dependence could
+be placed on such allies, even although they had signed and sworn the
+Ghent Pacification. He was also aware how little it was the intention of
+the Governor to be bound by that famous Treaty. The Spanish troops had
+been, indeed, disbanded, but there were still, between ten and fifteen
+thousand German mercenaries in the service of the King; these were
+stationed in different important places, and held firm possession of the
+citadels. The great keys of the country were still in the hands of the
+Spaniards. Aerschot, indeed, governed the castle of Antwerp, in room of
+Sancho d'Avila, but how much more friendly would Aerschot be than Avila,
+when interest prompted him to sustain Don John against the Prince?
+
+Meanwhile; the estates, according to their contract, were straining every
+nerve to raise the requisite sum for the payment of the German troops.
+Equitable offers were made, by which the soldiers were to receive a
+certain proportion of the arrears due to them in merchandize, and the
+remainder in cash. The arrangement was rejected, at the secret instance
+of Don John. While the Governor affected an ingenuous desire to aid the
+estates in their efforts to free themselves from the remaining portion of
+this incumbrance, he was secretly tampering with the leading German
+officers, in order to prevent their acceptance of any offered terms. He
+persuaded these military chiefs that a conspiracy existed, by which they
+were not only to be deprived of their wages but of their lives. He warned
+them to heed no promises, to accept no terms. Convincing them that he,
+and he only, was their friend, he arranged secret plans by which they
+should assist him in taking the fortresses of the country into still more
+secure possession, for he was not more inclined to trust to the Aerschots
+and the Havres than was the Prince himself.
+
+The Governor lived in considerable danger, and in still greater dread of
+capture, if not of assassination. His imagination, excited by endless
+tales of ambush and half-discovered conspiracies, saw armed soldiers
+behind every bush; a pitfall in every street. Had not the redoubtable
+Alva been nearly made a captive? Did not Louis of Nassau nearly entrap
+the Grand Commander? No doubt the Prince of Orange was desirous of
+accomplishing a feat by which he would be placed in regard to Philip on
+the vantage ground which the King had obtained by his seizure of Count
+Van Buren, nor did Don John need for warnings coming from sources far
+from obscure. In May, the Viscount De Gand had forced his way to his
+bedside in the dead of night; and wakening him from his sleep, had
+assured him, with great solemnity, that his life was not worth a pin's
+purchase if he remained in Brussels. He was aware, he said, of a
+conspiracy by which both his liberty and his life were endangered, and
+assured him that in immediate flight lay his only safety.
+
+The Governor fled to Mechlin, where the same warnings were soon
+afterwards renewed, for the solemn sacrifice of Peter Panis, the poor
+preaching tailor of that city, had not been enough to strike terror to
+the hearts of all the Netherlanders. One day, toward the end of June, the
+Duke of Aerschot, riding out with Don John, gave him a circumstantial
+account of plots, old and new, whose existence he had discovered or
+invented, and he showed a copy of a secret letter, written by the Prince
+of Orange to the estates, recommending the forcible seizure of his
+Highness. It is true that the Duke was, at that period and for long
+after, upon terms of the most "fraternal friendship" with the Prince, and
+was in the habit of signing himself "his very affectionate brother and
+cordial friend to serve him," yet this did not prevent him from
+accomplishing what he deemed his duty, in secretly denouncing his plans,
+It is also true that he, at the same time, gave the Prince private
+information concerning the government, and sent him intercepted letters
+from his enemies, thus easing his conscience on both sides, and trimming
+his sails to every wind which might blow. The Duke now, however, reminded
+his Highness of the contumely with which he had been treated at Brussels,
+of the insolent threats with which the citizens had pursued his servants
+and secretaries even to the very door of his palace. He assured him that
+the same feeling existed at Mechlin, and that neither himself nor family
+were much safer there than in the capital, a plot being fully organized
+for securing his person. The conspirators, he said, were openly supported
+by a large political party who called themselves anti-Johanists, and who
+clothed themselves in symbolic costume, as had been done by the
+disaffected in the days of Cardinal Granvelle. He assured the Governor
+that nearly all the members of the states-general were implicated in
+these schemes. "And what becomes, then, of their promises?" asked Don
+John. "That for their promises!" cried the Duke, snapping his fingers;
+"no man in the land feels bound by engagements now." The Governor
+demanded the object of the states in thus seeking to deprive him of his
+liberty. The Duke informed him that it was to hold him in captivity until
+they had compelled him to sign every paper which they chose to lay before
+him. Such things had been done in the Netherlands in former days, the
+Duke observed, as he proceeded to narrate how a predecessor of his
+Highness and a prince of the land, after having been compelled to sign
+innumerable documents, had been, in conclusion, tossed out of the windows
+of his own palace, with all his retinue, to perish upon the pikes of an
+insurgent mob below. The Governor protested that it did not become the
+son of Charles the Fifth and the representative of his Catholic Majesty
+to hear such intimations a second time. After his return, he brooded over
+what had been said to him for a few days, and he then broke up his
+establishment at Mechlin, selling off his superfluous furniture and even
+the wine in his cellars. Thus showing that his absence, both from
+Brussels and Mechlin, was to be a prolonged one, he took advantage of an
+unforeseen occurrence again to remove his residence.
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     A good lawyer is a bad Christian
+     Claimed the praise of moderation that their demands were so few
+     Confused conferences, where neither party was entirely sincere
+     Customary oaths, to be kept with the customary conscientiousness
+     Deadliest of sins, the liberty of conscience
+     I regard my country's profit, not my own
+     Made no breach in royal and Roman infallibility
+     Neither wished the convocation, while both affected an eagerness
+     Our pot had not gone to the fire as often
+     Peace, in reality, was war in its worst shape
+     Those who "sought to swim between two waters"
+     Volatile word was thought preferable to the permanent letter
+
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Vol. 28
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
+
+By John Lothrop Motley
+1855
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+   The city of Namur--Margaret of Valois--Her intrigues in Hainault in
+   favour of Alencon--Her reception by Don John at Namur--Festivities
+   in her, honor--Seizure of Namur citadel by Don John--Plan for
+   seizing that of Antwerp--Letter of the estates to Philip, sent by
+   Escovedo--Fortunes and fate of Escovedo in Madrid--Repairing of
+   dykes--The Prince's visit to Holland--His letter to the estates--
+   general on the subject of Namur citadel--His visit to Utrecht--
+   Correspondence and commissioners between Don John and the estates--
+   Acrimonious and passionate character of these colloquies--Attempt of
+   Treslong upon Antwerp citadel frustrated by De Bourse--Fortunate
+   panic of the German mercenaries--Antwerp evacuated by the foreign
+   troops--Renewed correspondence--Audacity of the Governor's demands--
+   Letters of Escovedo and others intercepted--Private schemes of Don
+   John not understood by the estates--His letter to the Empress
+   Dowager--More correspondence with the estates--Painful and false
+   position of the Governor--Demolition, in part, of Antwerp citadel,
+   and of other fortresses by the patriots Statue of Alva--Letter of
+   estates-general to the King.
+
+There were few cities of the Netherlands more picturesque in situation,
+more trimly built, and more opulent of aspect than the little city of
+Namur. Seated at the confluence of the Sombre with the Meuse, and
+throwing over each river a bridge of solid but graceful structure, it lay
+in the lap of a most fruitful valley. Abroad crescent-shaped plain,
+fringed by the rapid Meuse, and enclosed by gently rolling hills
+cultivated to their crests, or by abrupt precipices of limestone crowned
+with verdure, was divided by numerous hedgerows, and dotted all over with
+corn-fields, vineyards, and flower gardens. Many eyes have gazed with
+delight upon that well-known and most lovely valley, and many torrents of
+blood have mingled with those glancing waters since that long buried and
+most sanguinary age which forms our theme; and still placid as ever is
+the valley, brightly as ever flows the stream. Even now, as in that
+vanished, but never-forgotten time, nestles the little city in the angle
+of the two rivers; still directly over its head seems to hang in mid-air
+the massive and frowning fortress, like the gigantic helmet-in the
+fiction, as if ready to crush the pigmy town below.
+
+It was this famous citadel, crowning an abrupt precipice five hundred
+feet above the river's bed, and placed near the frontier of France, which
+made the city so important, and which had now attracted Don John's
+attention in this hour of his perplexity. The unexpected visit of a
+celebrated personage, furnished him with the pretext which he desired.
+The beautiful Margaret of Valois, Queen of Navarre, was proceeding to the
+baths of Spa, to drink the waters. Her health was as perfect as her
+beauty, but she was flying from a husband whom she hated, to advance the
+interest of a brother whom she loved with a more than sisterly
+fondness--for the worthless Duke of Alencon was one of the many
+competitors for the Netherland government; the correspondence between
+himself and his brother with Orange and his agents being still continued.
+The hollow truce with the Huguenots in France had, however, been again
+succeeded by war. Henry of Valois had already commenced operations in
+Gascony against Henry of Navarre, whom he hated, almost as cordially as
+Margaret herself could do, and the Duke of Alencon was besieging Issoire.
+Meantime, the beautiful Queen came to mingle he golden thread of her
+feminine intrigues with the dark woof of the Netherland destinies.
+
+Few spirits have been more subtle, few faces so fatal as hers. True child
+of the Medicean mother, worthy sister of Charles, Henry; and
+Francis--princes for ever infamous in the annals of France--she possessed
+more beauty and wit than Mary of Scotland, more learning and
+accomplishments than Elizabeth of England. In the blaze of her beauty,
+according to the inflated language of her most determined worshiper, the
+wings of all rivals were melted. Heaven required to be raised higher and
+earth made wider, before a full sweep could be given to her own majestic
+flight. We are further informed that she was a Minerva for eloquence,
+that she composed matchless poems which she sang most exquisitely to the
+sound of her lute, and that her familiar letters were so full of genius,
+that "poor Cicero" was but a fool to her in the same branch of
+composition. The world has shuddered for ages at the dark tragedy of her
+nuptials. Was it strange that hatred, incest, murder, should follow in
+the train of a wedding thus hideously solemnized?
+
+Don John, as in his Moorish disguise he had looked upon her perfections,
+had felt in danger of becoming really the slave he personated--"her
+beauty is more divine than human," he had cried, "but fitter to destroy
+men's souls than to bless them;" and now the enchantress was on her way
+to his dominions. Her road led through Namur to Liege, and gallantry
+required that he should meet her as she passed. Attended by a select band
+of gentlemen and a few horsemen of his body-guard, the Governor came to
+Namur.
+
+Meantime the Queen crossed the frontier, and was courteously received at
+Cambray. The bishop-of the loyal house of Berlaymont--was a stanch
+supporter of the King, and although a Fleming, was Spanish to the core.
+On him the cajolery of the beautiful Queen was first essayed, but was
+found powerless. The prelate gave her a magnificent ball, but resisted
+her blandishments. He retired with the appearance of the confections, but
+the governor of the citadel, the Seigneur d'Inchy remained, with whom
+Margaret was more successful. She found him a cordial hater of Spain, a
+favorer of France, and very impatient under the authority of the bishop.
+He obtained permission to accompany the royal visitor a few stages of her
+journey, and returned to Cambray, her willing slave; holding the castle
+in future, neither for king nor bishop, but for Margaret's brother,
+Alencon, alone. At Mons she was received with great state by the Count
+Lalain, who was governor of Hainault, while his Countess governed him. A
+week of festivities graced the advent of the Queen, during which period
+the hearts of both Lalain and his wife were completely subjugated. They
+agreed that Flanders had been too long separated from the parental France
+to which it of right belonged. The Count was a stanch Catholic, but he
+hated Spain. He was a relative of Egmont, and anxious to avenge his
+death, but he was no lover of the people, and was jealous of Orange.
+Moreover, his wife had become entirely fascinated by the designing.
+Queen. So warm a friendship had sprung up between the two fair ladies as
+to make it indispensable that Flanders and Hainault should be annexed to
+France. The Count promised to hold his whole government at the service of
+Alencon, and recommended that an attempt should be made to gain over the
+incorruptible Governor of Cambray. Margaret did not inform him that she
+had already turned that functionary round her finger, but she urged
+Lalain and his wife to seduce him from his allegiance, if possible.
+
+The Count, with a retinue of mounted men, then accompanied her on her way
+towards Namur, but turned as the distant tramp of Don John's cavalcade
+was heard approaching, for it was not desirable for Lalain, at that
+moment, to find himself face to face with the Governor. Don John stood a
+moment awaiting the arrival of the Queen. He did not dream of her
+political intrigues, nor see in the fair form approaching him one mortal
+enemy the more. Margaret travelled in a splendid litter with gilt
+pillars, lined with scarlet velvet, and entirely enclosed in glass, which
+was followed by those of the Princess de la Roche sur Yon, and of Madame
+de Tournon. After these came ten ladies of honor on horseback, and six
+chariots filled with female domestics. These, with the guards and other
+attendants, made up the retinue. On meeting the Queen's litter, Don John
+sprang from his horse and presented his greetings. The Queen returned his
+salutation, in the French fashion, by offering her cheek to his embrace,
+extending the same favor to the Duke of Aerschot and the Marquis of
+Havre. The cavaliers then remounted and escorted the Queen to Namur, Don
+John riding by the side of the litter and conversing with her all the
+way. It was late in the evening when the procession arrived in the city.
+The streets had, however, been brilliantly illuminated; houses and shops,
+though it was near midnight, being in a blaze of light. Don John
+believing that no attentions could be so acceptable at that hour as to
+provide for the repose of his guest, conducted the Queen at once to the
+lodgings prepared for her. Margaret was astonished at the magnificence of
+the apartments into which she was ushered. A spacious and stately hall,
+most gorgeously furnished, opened into a series of chambers and cabinets,
+worthy, in their appointments, of a royal palace. The tent and bed
+coverings prepared for the Queen were exquisitely embroidered in
+needlework with scenes representing the battle of Lepanto. The great hall
+was hung with gorgeous tapestry of satin and velvet, ornamented with
+columns of raised silver work, and with many figures in antique costume,
+of the same massive embroidery. The rest of the furniture was also of
+satin, velvet, cloth of gold, and brocade. The Queen was dazzled with so
+much magnificence, and one of the courtiers could not help expressing
+astonishment at the splendor of the apartments and decorations, which, as
+he observed to the Duke of Aerschot; seemed more appropriate to the
+palace of a powerful monarch than to the apartments of a young bachelor
+prince. The Duke replied by explaining that the expensive embroidery
+which they saw was the result, not of extravagance, but of valor and
+generosity. After the battle of Lepanto, Don John had restored the two
+sons, who had been taken prisoners, of a powerful Turkish bashaw. The
+father; in gratitude had sent this magnificent tapestry as a present to
+the conqueror, and Don John had received it, at Milan; in which city,
+celebrated for the taste of its upholsterers; it had been arranged for
+furniture.
+
+The next morning a grand mass with military music was performed, followed
+by a sumptuous banquet in the grand hall. Don John and the Queen sat at a
+table three feet apart from the rest, and Ottavio Gonzaga served them
+wine upon his knees. After the banquet came, as usual; the ball, the
+festivities continuing till late in the night, and Don John scarcely
+quitting his fair guest for a moment. The next afternoon, a festival had
+been arranged upon an island in the river. The company embarked upon the
+Meuse, in a fleet of gaily-scarfed; and painted vessels, many of which
+were filled with musicians. Margaret reclined in her gilded barge, under
+a richly embroidered canopy. A fairer and falser Queen than "Egypt," had
+bewitched the famous youth who had triumphed not, lost the world, beneath
+the heights of Actium. The revellers landed on the island, where the
+banquet was already spread within a spacious bower of ivy, and beneath
+umbrageous elms. The dance upon the sward was protracted to a late hour,
+and the summer stars had been long in the sky when the company returned
+to their barges.
+
+Don John, more than ever enthralled by the bride of St. Bartholomew, knew
+not that her sole purpose in visiting his dominion had been to corrupt
+his servants and to undermine his authority. His own purpose, however,
+had been less to pay court to the Queen than to make, use of her presence
+to cover his own designs. That purpose he proceeded instantly to execute.
+The Queen next morning pursued her voyage by the river to Liege, and
+scarcely had she floated out of his sight than he sprang upon his horse
+and, accompanied by a few trusty attendants, galloped out of the gate and
+across the bridge which led to the citadel. He had already despatched the
+loyal Berlaymont, with his four equally loyal sons, the Seigneurs de
+Meghen, Floyon, Hierges, and Haultepenne to that fortress. These
+gentlemen had informed the castellan that the Governor was about to ride
+forth hunting, and that it would be proper to offer him the hospitalities
+of the castle as he passed on his way. A considerable number of armed men
+had been concealed in the woods and thickets of the neighbourhood. The
+Seigneur de Froymont, suspecting nothing, acceded to the propriety of the
+suggestion made by the Berlaymonts. Meantime, with a blast of his horn,
+Don John appeared at the castle gate. He entered the fortress with the
+castellan, while one of the gentlemen watched outside, as the ambushed
+soldiers came toiling up the precipice. When all was ready the gentleman
+returned to the hall, and made a signal to Don John, as he sat at
+breakfast with the constable. The Governor sprang from the table and drew
+his sword; Berlaymont and his four sons drew their pistols, while at the
+same instant, the soldiers entered. Don John, exclaiming that this was
+the first day of his government, commanded the castellan to surrender. De
+Froymont, taken by surprise, and hardly understanding this very
+melo-dramatic attack upon a citadel by its own lawful governor, made not
+much difficulty in complying. He was then turned out of doors, along with
+his garrison, mostly feeble old men and invalids. The newly arrived
+soldiers took their places, at command of the Governor, and the
+stronghold of Namur was his own.
+
+There was little doubt that the representative of Philip had a perfect
+right to possess himself of any fortress within his government; there
+could be as little that the sudden stratagem by which he had thus made
+himself master of this citadel would prove offensive to the estates,
+while it could hardly be agreeable to the King; and yet it is not certain
+that he could have accomplished his purpose in any other way. Moreover,
+the achievement was one of a projected series by which he meant to
+re-vindicate his dwindling authority. He was weary of playing the
+hypocrite, and convinced that he and his monarch were both abhorred by
+the Netherlanders. Peace was impossible--war was forbidden him. Reduced
+almost to a nullity by the Prince of Orange, it was time for him to make
+a stand, and in this impregnable fastness his position at least was a
+good one. Many months before, the Prince of Orange had expressed his
+anxious desire that this most important town and citadel should be
+secured-for the estates. "You know," he had written to Bossu in December,
+"the evil and the dismay which the loss of the city and fortress of Namur
+would occasion to us. Let me beseech you that all possible care be taken
+to preserve them." Nevertheless, their preservation had been entrusted to
+a feeble-minded old constable, at the head of a handful of cripples.
+
+We know how intense had been the solicitude of the Prince, not only to
+secure but to destroy these citadels, "nests of tyranny," which had been
+built by despots to crush, not protect, the towns at their feet. These
+precautions had been neglected, and the consequences were displaying
+themselves, for the castle of Namur was not the only one of which Don
+John felt himself secure. Although the Duke of Aerschot seemed so very
+much his humble servant, the Governor did not trust him, and wished to
+see the citadel of Antwerp in more unquestionable keeping. He had
+therefore withdrawn, not only the Duke, but his son, the Prince of
+Chimay, commander of the castle in his father's absence, from that
+important post, and insisted upon their accompanying him to Namur. So
+gallant a courtier as Aerschot could hardly refuse to pay his homage to
+so illustrious a princess as Margaret of Valois, while during the absence
+of the Duke and Prince the keys of Antwerp-citadel had been, at the
+command of Don John, placed in the keeping of the Seigneur de Treslong,
+an unscrupulous and devoted royalist. The celebrated Colonel Van Ende,
+whose participation, at the head of his German cavalry, in the terrible
+sack of that city, which he had been ordered to defend, has been
+narrated, was commanded to return to Antwerp. He was to present himself
+openly to the city authorities, but he was secretly directed by the
+Governor-General to act in co-operation with the Colonels Fugger,
+Frondsberger, and Polwiller, who commanded the forces already stationed
+in the city. These distinguished officers had been all summer in secret
+correspondence with Don John, for they were the instruments with which he
+meant by a bold stroke to recover his almost lost authority. While he had
+seemed to be seconding the efforts of the states-general to pay off and
+disband these mercenaries, nothing had in reality been farther from his
+thoughts; and the time had now come when his secret plans were to be
+executed, according to the agreement between himself and the German
+colonels. He wrote to them, accordingly, to delay no longer the
+accomplishment of the deed--that deed being the seizure of Antwerp
+citadel, as he had already successfully mastered that of Namur. The Duke
+of Aerschot, his brother, and son, were in his power, and could do
+nothing to prevent the co-operation of the colonels in the city with
+Treslong in the castle; so that the Governor would thus be enabled,
+laying his head tranquilly upon "the pillow of the Antwerp citadel,"
+according to the reproachful expression subsequently used by the estates,
+to await the progress of events.
+
+The current of his adventurous career was not, however, destined to run
+thus smoothly. It is true that the estates had not yet entirely lost
+their confidence in his character; but the seizure of Namur, and the
+attempt upon Antwerp, together with the contents of the intercepted
+letters written by himself and Escovedo to Philip, to Perez, to the
+Empress, to the Colonels Frondsberger and Fugger, were soon destined to
+open their eyes. In the meantime, almost exactly at the moment when Don
+John was executing his enterprise against Namur, Escovedo had taken an
+affectionate farewell of the estates at Brussels for it had been thought
+necessary, as already intimated, both for the apparent interests and the
+secret projects of Don John; that the Secretary should make a visit to
+Spain. At the command of the Governor-General he had offered to take
+charge of any communication for his Majesty which the estates might be
+disposed to entrust to him, and they had accordingly addressed a long
+epistle to the King, in which they gave ample expression to their
+indignation and their woe. They remonstrated with the King concerning the
+continued presence of the German mercenaries, whose knives were ever at
+their throats, whose plunder and insolence impoverished and tortured the
+people. They reminded him of the vast sums which the provinces had
+contributed in times past to the support of government, and they begged
+assistance from his bounty now. They recalled to his vision the
+melancholy spectacle of Antwerp, but lately the "nurse of Europe, the
+fairest flower in his royal garland, the foremost and noblest city of the
+earth, now quite desolate and forlorn," and with additional instructions
+to Escovedo, that he should not fail, in his verbal communications, to
+represent the evil consequences of the course hitherto pursued by his
+Majesty's governors in the Netherlands, they dismissed him with good
+wishes, and with "crowns for convoy" in his purse to the amount of a
+revenue of two thousand yearly. His secret correspondence was intercepted
+and made known a few weeks after his departure for that terrible Spain
+whence so few travellers returned.
+
+For a moment we follow him thither. With a single word in anticipation,
+concerning the causes and the consummation of this celebrated murder,
+which was delayed till the following year, the unfortunate Escovedo may
+be dismissed from these pages. It has been seen how artfully Antonio
+Perez, Secretary of State, paramour of Princess Eboli, and ruling
+councillor at that day of Philip, had fostered in the King's mind the
+most extravagant suspicions as to the schemes of Don John, and of his
+confidential secretary. He had represented it as their fixed and secret
+intention, after Don John should be finally established on the throne of
+England, to attack Philip himself in Spain, and to deprive him of his
+crown, Escovedo being represented as the prime instigator and controller
+of this astounding plot, which lunatics only could have engendered, and
+which probably never had existence.
+
+No proof of the wild design was offered. The language which Escovedo was
+accused by Perez of having held previously to his departure for
+Flanders--that it was the intention of Don John and himself to fortify
+the rock of Mogio, with which, and with the command of the city of
+Santander, they could make themselves masters of Spain after having
+obtained possession of England,--is too absurd to have been uttered by a
+man of Escovedo's capacity. Certainly, had Perez been provided with the
+least scrap of writing from the hands of Don John or Escovedo which could
+be tortured into evidence upon this point, it would have been
+forthcoming, and would have rendered such fictitious hearsay superfluous.
+Perez in connivance with Philip, had been systematically conducting his
+correspondence with Don John and Escovedo, in order to elicit some
+evidence of the imputed scheme. "'T was the only way," said Perez to
+Philip, "to make them unbare their bosoms to the sword."--"I am quite of
+the same opinion," replied Philip to Perez, "for, according to my
+theology, you would do your duty neither to God nor the world, unless you
+did as you are doing." Yet the excellent pair of conspirators at Madrid
+could wring no damning proofs from the lips of the supposititious
+conspirators in Flanders, save that Don John, after Escovedo's arrival in
+Madrid, wrote, impatiently and frequently, to demand that he should be
+sent back, together with the money which he had gone to Spain to procure.
+"Money, more money, and Escovedo," wrote the Governor, and Philip was
+quite willing to accept this most natural exclamation as evidence of his
+brother's designs against his crown. Out of these shreds and patches--the
+plot against England, the Pope's bull, the desire expressed by Don John
+to march into France as a simple adventurer, with a few thousand men at
+his back--Perez, according to his own statement, drew up a protocol,
+afterwards formally approved by Philip, which concluded with the
+necessity of taking Escovedo's life, instantly but privately, and by
+poison. The Marquis de Los Velos, to whom the memorial was submitted for
+his advice, averred that if the death-bed wafer were in his own lips, he
+should vote for the death of the culprit. Philip had already jumped to
+the same conclusion; Perez joyfully undertook the business, having
+received carte blanche from the King, and thus the unfortunate secretary
+was doomed. Immediately after the arrival of Escovedo in Madrid, he
+addressed a letter to the King. Philip filed it away among other
+despatches, with this annotation: "the 'avant courier' has arrived--it is
+necessary to make great haste, and to despatch him before he murders us."
+
+The King, having been thus artfully inflamed against his brother and his
+unfortunate secretary, became clamorous for the blood of Escovedo. At the
+same time, that personage, soon after his return to Spain, was shocked by
+the discovery of the amour of Perez with the Princess Eboli. He
+considered it his duty, both towards the deceased Prince and the living
+King, to protest against this perfidy. He threatened to denounce to the
+King, who seemed the only person about the court ignorant of the affair,
+this double treason of his mistress and his minister. Perez and Anna of
+Eboli, furious at Escovedo's insolence, and anxious lest he should
+execute his menace determined to disembarrass themselves of so meddlesome
+a person. Philip's rage against Don John was accordingly turned to
+account, and Perez received the King's secret orders to procure
+Escovedo's assassination. Thus an imaginary conspiracy of Don John
+against, the crown of Philip was the pretext, the fears and rage of Eboli
+and her paramour were the substantial reason, for the crime now
+projected.
+
+The details of the murder were arranged and executed by Perez, but it
+must be confessed in justice to Philip, with much inferior nicety to that
+of his, own performances in the same field. Many persons were privy to
+the plot. There was much blundering, there was great public scandal in
+Madrid, and no one ever had a reasonable doubt as to the instigators and
+the actual perpetrators of the crime. Two attempts to poison Escovedo
+were made by Perez, at his own table, through the agency of Antonio
+Enriquez, a confidential servant or page. Both were unsuccessful. A third
+was equally so, but suspicions were aroused. A female slave in the
+household of Escovedo, was in consequence arrested, and immediately
+hanged in the public square, for a pretended attempt to murder her
+master. A few days afterwards (on the 31st of March, 1578) the deed was
+accomplished at nightfall in the streets of Madrid, by six conspirators.
+They consisted of the majordomo of Perez, a page in his household, the
+page's brother from the country, an ex-scullion from the royal kitchens,
+Juan Rubio by name, who had been the unsuccessful agent in the poisoning
+scheme, together with two professional bravos, hired for the occasion. It
+was Insausti, one of this last-mentioned couple, who despatched Escovedo
+with a single stab, the others aiding and abetting, or keeping watch in
+the neighbourhood.
+
+The murderers effected their escape, and made their report to Perez, who
+for the sake of appearances, was upon a visit in the country. Suspicion
+soon tracked the real culprits, who were above the reach of justice; nor,
+as to the motives which had prompted the murders, were many ignorant,
+save only the murderer himself. Philip had ordered the assassination;
+but he was profoundly deceived as to the causes of its accomplishment. He
+was the dupe of a subtler villain than himself, and thought himself
+sacrificing a conspirator against his crown, while he had really only
+crushed a poor creature who had been but too solicitous for what he
+thought his master's honor.
+
+The assassins were, of course, protected from prosecution, and duly
+recompensed. Miguel Bosque, the country boy, received one hundred crowns
+in gold, paid by a clerk of Perez. Mesa, one of the bravos, was rewarded
+with a gold chain, fifty doubloons of eight, and a silver cup, besides
+receiving from the fair hand of Princess Eboli herself a certificate as
+under-steward upon her estates. The second bravo, Insausti, who had done
+the deed, the page Enriquez, and the scullion, were all appointed ensigns
+in his Majesty's army, with twenty gold crowns of annual pension besides.
+Their commissions were signed by Philip on the 19th of April, 1578. Such
+were the wages of murder at that day in Spain; gold chains, silver cups,
+doubloons, annuities, and commissions in the army! The reward of
+fidelity, as in poor Escovedo's case, was oftener the stiletto. Was it
+astonishing that murder was more common than fidelity?
+
+With the subsequent career of Antonio Perez--his famous process, his
+banishment, his intrigues, his innuendos, his long exile, and his
+miserable death, this history has no concern. We return from our brief
+digression.
+
+Before narrating the issue of the plot against Antwerp citadel, it is
+necessary to recur for a moment to the Prince of Orange. In the deeds and
+the written words of that one man are comprised nearly all the history of
+the Reformation in the Netherlands--nearly the whole progress of the
+infant Republic. The rest, during this period, is made up of the
+plottings and counter-plottings, the mutual wranglings and recriminations
+of Don John and the estates.
+
+In the brief breathing-space now afforded them, the inhabitants of
+Holland and Zealand had been employing themselves in the extensive
+repairs of their vast system of dykes. These barriers, which protected
+their country against the ocean, but which their own hands had destroyed
+to preserve themselves against tyranny, were now thoroughly
+reconstructed, at a great expense, the Prince everywhere encouraging the
+people with his presence, directing them by his experience, inspiring
+them with his energy. The task accomplished was stupendous and worthy,
+says a contemporary, of eternal memory.
+
+At the popular request, the Prince afterwards made a tour through the
+little provinces, honoring every city with a brief visit. The spontaneous
+homage which went up to him from every heart was pathetic and simple.
+There were no triumphal arches, no martial music, no banners, no
+theatrical pageantry nothing but the choral anthem from thousands of
+grateful hearts. "Father William has come! Father William has come!"
+cried men, women, and children to each other, when the news of his
+arrival in town or village was announced. He was a patriarch visiting his
+children, not a conqueror, nor a vulgar potentate displaying himself to
+his admirers. Happy were they who heard his voice, happier they who
+touched his hands, for his words were full of tenderness, his hand was
+offered to all. There were none so humble as to be forbidden to approach
+him, none so ignorant as not to know his deeds. All knew that to combat
+in their cause he had descended from princely station, from luxurious
+ease, to the position of a proscribed and almost beggared outlaw. For
+them he had impoverished himself and his family, mortgaged his estates,
+stripped himself of jewels, furniture, almost of food and raiment.
+Through his exertions the Spaniards had been banished from their little
+territory, the Inquisition crushed within their borders, nearly all the
+sister provinces but yesterday banded into a common cause.
+
+He found time, notwithstanding congratulating crowds who thronged his
+footsteps, to direct the labors of the states-general, who still looked
+more than ever to his guidance, as their relations with Don John became
+more complicated and unsatisfactory. In a letter addressed to them, on
+the 20th of June from Harlem, he warned them most eloquently to hold to
+the Ghent Pacification as to their anchor in the storm. He assured them,
+if it was, torn from them, that their destruction was inevitable. He
+reminded them that hitherto they had got but the shadow, not the
+substance of the Treaty; that they had been robbed of that which was to
+have been its chief fruit--union among themselves. He and his brothers,
+with their labor, their wealth, and their blood, had laid down the bridge
+over which the country had stepped to the Pacification of Ghent. It was
+for the nation to maintain what had been so painfully won; yet he
+proclaimed to them that the government were not acting in good faith,
+that secret, preparations were making to annihilate the authority of the
+states; to restore the edicts, to put strangers into high places, and to
+set up again the scaffold and the whole machinery of persecution.
+
+In consequence of the seizure of Namur Castle, and the accusations made
+by Don John against Orange, in order to justify that act, the Prince had
+already despatched Taffin and Saint Aldegonde to the states-general with
+a commission to declare his sentiments upon the subject. He addressed,
+moreover, to the same body a letter full of sincere and simple eloquence.
+"The Seigneur Don John," said he, "has accused me of violating the peace,
+and of countenancing attempts against his life, and in endeavouring to
+persuade you into joining him in a declaration of war against me and
+against Holland and Zealand; but I pray you, most affectionately, to
+remember our mutual and solemn obligations to maintain the treaty of
+Ghent." He entreated the states, therefore, to beware of the artifices
+employed to seduce them from the only path which led to the tranquillity
+of their common country, and her true splendor and prosperity. "I believe
+there is not one of you," he continued, "who can doubt me, if he will
+weigh carefully all my actions, and consider closely the course which I
+am pursuing and have always pursued. Let all these be confronted with the
+conduct of Don John, and any man will perceive that all my views of
+happiness, both for my country and myself, imply a peaceable enjoyment of
+the union, joined with the legitimate restoration of our liberties, to
+which all good patriots aspire, and towards which all my designs have
+ever tended. As all the grandeur of Don John, on the contrary, consists
+in war, as there is nothing which he so much abhors as repose, as he has
+given ample proof of these inclinations in all his designs and
+enterprises, both before and after the Treaty of Marche en Famine, both
+within the country and beyond its borders, as it is most manifest that
+his purpose is, and ever has been, to embroil us with our neighbours of
+England and Scotland in new dissensions, as it must be evident to every
+one of you that his pretended accusations against me are but colors and
+shadows to embellish and to shroud his own desire for war, his appetite
+for vengeance, and his hatred not only to me but to yourselves, and as
+his determination is, in the words of Escovedo, to chastise some of us by
+means of the rest, and to excite the jealousy of one portion of the
+country against the other--therefore, gentlemen, do I most affectionately
+exhort you to found your decision, as to these matters, not upon words
+but upon actions. Examine carefully my conduct in the points concerning
+which the charges are made; listen attentively to what my envoys will
+communicate to you in my behalf; and then, having compared it with all
+the proceedings of Seigneur Don John, you will be able to form a
+resolution worthy the rank which you occupy, and befitting your
+obligations to the whole people, of whom you have been chosen chiefs and
+protectors, by God and by men. Put away all considerations which might
+obscure your clear eye-sight; maintain with magnanimity, and like men,
+the safety of yourselves, your wives, your children, your estates, your
+liberties; see that this poor people, whose eyes are fixed upon you, does
+not perish; preserve them from the greediness of those who would grow
+great at your expense; guard them from the yoke of miserable servitude;
+let not all our posterity lament that, by our pusillanimity, they have
+lost the liberties which our ancestors had conquered for them, and
+bequeathed to them as well as to us, and that they have been subjugated
+by the proud tyranny of strangers.
+
+"Trusting," said the Prince, in conclusion, "that you will accord faith
+and attention to my envoys, I will only add an expression of my sincere
+determination to employ myself incessantly in your service, and for the
+welfare of the whole people, without sparing any means in my power, nor
+my life itself."
+
+The vigilant Prince was indeed not slow to take advantage of the
+Governor's false move. While in reality intending peace, if it were
+possible, Don John had thrown down the gauntlet; while affecting to deal
+openly and manfully, like a warrior and an emperor's son, he had involved
+himself in petty stratagems and transparent intrigues, by all which he
+had gained nothing but the character of a plotter, whose word could not
+be trusted. Saint Aldegonde expressed the hope that the seizure of Namur
+Castle would open the eyes of the people, and certainly the Prince did
+his best to sharpen their vision.
+
+While in North Holland, William of Orange received an urgent invitation
+from the magistracy and community of Utrecht to visit that city. His
+authority, belonging to him under his ancient commission, had not yet
+been recognized over that province, but there was no doubt that the
+contemplated convention of "satisfaction" was soon to be; arranged, for
+his friends there were numerous and influential. His princess, Charlotte
+de Bourbon, who accompanied him on his tour, trembled at the danger to
+which her husband would expose himself by venturing thus boldly into a
+territory which might be full of his enemies, but the Prince determined
+to trust the loyalty of a province which he hoped would be soon his own.
+With anxious forebodings, the Princess followed her husband to the
+ancient episcopal city. As they entered its gates, where an immense
+concourse was waiting to receive him, a shot passed through the carriage
+window, and struck the Prince upon the breast. The affrighted lady threw
+her arms about his neck; shrieking that they were betrayed, but the
+Prince, perceiving that the supposed shot was but a wad from one of the
+cannon, which were still roaring their welcome to him, soon succeeded in
+calming her fears. The carriage passed lowly through the streets,
+attended by the vociferous greetings of the multitude; for the whole
+population had come forth to do him honor. Women and children clustered
+upon every roof and balcony, but a painful incident again marred the
+tranquillity of the occasion. An apothecary's child, a little girl of ten
+years, leaning eagerly from a lofty balcony, lost her balance and fell to
+the ground, directly before the horses of the Prince's carriage. She was
+killed stone dead by the fall. The procession stopped; the Prince
+alighted, lifted the little corpse in his arms, and delivered it, with
+gentle words and looks of consolation, to the unhappy parents. The day
+seemed marked with evil omens, which were fortunately destined to prove
+fallacious. The citizens of Utrecht became more than ever inclined to
+accept the dominion of the Prince, whom they honored and whom they
+already regarded as their natural chief. They entertained him with
+banquets and festivities during his brief visit, and it was certain
+before he took his departure that the treaty of "Satisfaction" would not
+be long delayed. It was drawn up, accordingly, in the autumn of the same
+year, upon the basis of that accepted by Harlem and Amsterdam--a basis
+wide enough to support both religions, with a nominal supremacy to the
+ancient Church.
+
+Meantime, much fruitless correspondence had taken place between Don John
+and the states Envoys; despatched by the two parties to each other, had
+indulged in bitterness and recrimination. As soon as the Governor, had
+taken: possession of Namur Castle, he had sent the Seigneur, de
+Rassinghem to the states-general. That gentleman carried with him copies
+of two anonymous letters, received by Don John upon the 19th and 21st of
+July, 1577, in which a conspiracy against his life and liberty was
+revealed. It was believed by the Governor that Count Lalain, who had
+secretly invited him to a conference, had laid an ambush for him. It was
+known that the country was full of disbanded soldiers, and the Governor
+asserted confidently that numbers of desperadoes were lying in wait for
+him in every village alehouse of Hainault and Flanders. He called on the
+states to ferret out these conspirators, and to inflict condign
+punishment upon their more guilty chiefs; he required that the soldiers,
+as well as the citizens, should be disarmed at Brussels and throughout
+Brabant, and he justified his seizure of Namur, upon the general ground
+that his life was no longer safe, except in a fortress.
+
+In reply to the letter of the Governor, which was dated the 24th of July,
+the states despatched Marolles, Archdeacon of Ypres, and the Seigneur de
+Bresse, to Namur, with a special mission to enter into the whole subject
+of these grievances. These gentlemen, professing the utmost devotion to
+the cause of his Majesty's authority and the Catholic religion, expressed
+doubts as to the existence of the supposed conspiracy. They demanded that
+Don John should denounce the culprits, if any such were known, in order
+that proper chastisement might be instantly inflicted. The conversation
+which ensued was certainly unsatisfactory. The Governor used lofty and
+somewhat threatening language, assuring Marolles that he was at that
+moment in possession, not only of Namur but of Antwerp citadel; and the
+deputies accordingly departed, having accomplished very little by their
+journey. Their backs were scarcely turned, when Don John, on his part,
+immediately appointed another commission, consisting of Rassinghem and
+Grobbendonck, to travel from Namur to Brussels. These envoys carried a
+long letter of grievances, enclosing a short list of demands. The letter
+reiterated his complaints about conspiracies, and his protestations of
+sincerity. It was full of censure upon the Prince of Orange; stigmatized
+his intrigues to obtain possession of Amsterdam without a proper
+"Satisfaction," and of Utrecht, to which he had no claim at all. It
+maintained that the Hollanders and Zealanders were bent upon utterly
+exterminating the Catholic religion, and that they avowed publicly their
+intention to refuse obedience to the assembly-general, should it decree
+the maintenance of the ancient worship only. His chief demands were that
+the states should send him a list of persons qualified to be members of
+the general assembly, that he might see whether there were not
+individuals among them whom he might choose to reject. He further
+required that, if the Prince of Orange did not instantly fulfil the
+treaty of Ghent, the states should cease to hold any communication with
+him. He also summoned the states to provide him forthwith with a suitable
+body-guard.
+
+To these demands and complaints, the estates replied by a string of
+resolutions. They made their usual protestations of attachment to his
+Majesty and the Catholic faith, and they granted willingly a foot-guard
+of three hundred archers. They, however, stoutly denied the Governor's
+right to make eliminations in their lists of deputies, because, from time
+immemorial, these representatives had been chosen by the clergy, nobles,
+cities, and boroughs. The names might change daily, nor were there any
+suspicious ones among them, but it was a matter with which the Governor
+had no concern. They promised that every effort should be made to bring
+about the execution of the treaty by the Prince of Orange. They begged
+Don John; however, to abandon the citadel of Namur, and gave him to
+understand that his secret practices had been discovered, a large packet
+of letters having recently been intercepted in the neighbourhood of
+Bourdeaux, and sent to the Prince of Orange. Among them were some of the
+despatches of Don John and Escovedo, to his Majesty and to Antonio Perez,
+to which allusion has already been made.
+
+Count Bossu, De Bresse, and Meetkercke were the envoys deputed to convey
+these resolutions to Namur. They had a long and bitter conversation with
+Don John, who complained, more furiously than ever of the conspiracies
+against his person, and of the intrigues of Orange. He insisted that this
+arch-traitor had been sowing the seed of his damnable doctrines broadcast
+through the Netherlands; that the earth was groaning with a daily
+ripening harvest of rebellion and heresy. It was time, he cried, for the
+states to abandon the Prince, and rally round their King. Patience had
+been exhausted. He had himself done all, and more than could have been
+demanded. He had faithfully executed the Ghent Pacification, but his
+conduct had neither elicited gratitude nor inspired confidence.
+
+The deputies replied, that to the due execution of the Ghent treaty it
+was necessary that he should disband the German troops, assemble the
+states-general, and carry out their resolutions. Until these things, now
+undone, had been accomplished, he had no right to plead his faithful
+fulfilment of the Pacification. After much conversation--in which the
+same grievances were repeated, the same statements produced and
+contradicted, the same demands urged and evaded, and the same menaces
+exchanged as upon former occasions--the deputies returned to Brussels.
+
+Immediately after their departure, Don John learned the result of his
+project upon Antwerp Castle. It will be remembered that he had withdrawn
+Aerschot, under pretext of requiring his company on the visit to Queen
+Margaret, and that he had substituted Treslong, an unscrupulous partisan
+of his own, in the government of the citadel. The temporary commander
+soon found, however, that he had undertaken more than he could perform.
+The troops under Van Ende were refused admittance into the town, although
+permission to quarter them there had been requested by the
+Governor-General. The 'authorities had been assured that the troops were
+necessary for the protection of their city, but the magistrates had
+learned, but too recently, the nature of the protection which Van Ende,
+with his mercenaries, would afford. A detachment of states troops under
+De Yers, Champagny's nephew, encountered the regiment of Van Ende, and
+put it to flight with considerable loss. At the same time, an officer in
+the garrison of the citadel itself, Captain De Bours, undertook secretly
+to carry the fortress for the estates. His operations were secret and
+rapid. The Seigneur de Liedekerke had succeeded Champagny in the
+government of the city. This appointment had been brought about by the
+agency of the Greffier Martini, a warm partisan of Orange. The new
+Governor was known to be very much the Prince's friend, and believed to
+be at heart a convert to the Reformed religion. With Martini and
+Liedekerke, De Bours arranged his plot. He was supplied with a large sum
+of money, readily furnished in secret by the leading mercantile houses of
+the city. These funds were successfully invested in gaining over the
+garrison, only one company holding firm for Treslong. The rest, as that
+officer himself informed Don John, were ready at any moment "to take him
+by the throat."
+
+On the 1st of August, the day firmed upon in concert with the Governor
+and Greffier, he was, in fact, taken by the throat. There was but a brief
+combat, the issue of which became accidentally doubtful in the city. The
+white-plumed hat of De Bours had been struck from his head in the
+struggle, and had fallen into the foss. Floating out into the river, it
+had been recognized by the scouts sent out by the personages most
+interested, and the information was quickly brought to Liedekerke, who
+was lying concealed in the house of Martini, awaiting the result. Their
+dismay was great, but Martini, having more confidence than the Governor,
+sallied forth to learn the whole truth. Scarcely had he got into the
+streets than he heard a welcome cry, "The Beggars have the castle! the
+Beggars have the castle!" shouted a hundred voices. He soon met a
+lieutenant coming straight from the fortress, who related to him the
+whole affair. Learning that De Bours was completely victorious, and that
+Treslong was a prisoner, Martini hastened with the important intelligence
+to his own home, where Liedekerke lay concealed. That functionary now
+repaired to the citadel, whither the magistrates, the leading citizens,
+and the chief merchants were instantly summoned. The castle was carried,
+but the city was already trembling with apprehension lest the German
+mercenaries quartered within its walls, should rise with indignation or
+panic, and repeat the horrid tragedy of The Antwerp Fury.
+
+In truth, there seemed danger of such a catastrophe. The secret
+correspondence of Don John with the colonels was already discovered, and
+it was seen how warmly he had impressed upon the men with whom he had
+been tampering, "that the die was cast," and that all their art was
+necessary to make it turn up successfully. The castle was carried, but
+what would become of the city? A brief and eager consultation terminated
+in an immediate offer of three hundred thousand crowns by the leading
+merchants. This money was to be employed in amicably satisfying, if
+possible, the German soldiers, who had meanwhile actually come to arms,
+and were assembled in the Place de Meer. Feeling unsafe; however, in this
+locality, their colonels had led them into the new town. Here, having
+barricaded themselves with gun-carriages, bales, and boxes, they awaited,
+instead of initiating, the events which the day might bring forth. A
+deputation soon arrived with a white flag from the castle, and
+commissioners were appointed by the commanding officers of the soldiery.
+The offer was made to pay over the arrears of their wages, at least to a
+very large amount, on condition that the troops should forthwith and for
+ever evacuate the city. One hundred and fifty thousand crowns were
+offered on the nail. The merchants stood on the bridge leading from the
+old town-to the new, in full sight of the soldiers. They held in their
+hands their purses, filled with the glittering gold. The soldiers were
+frantic with the opportunity, and swore that they would have their
+officers' lives, if the tempting and unexpected offer should be declined.
+Nevertheless, the commissioners went to and fro, ever finding something
+to alter or arrange. In truth, the merchants had agreed to furnish; if
+necessary, three hundred thousand Browns; but the thrifty negotiators
+were disposed, if diplomacy could do it, to save the moiety of that sum.
+Day began to sink, ere the bargain was completed, when suddenly sails
+were descried in the distance, and presently a large fleet of war
+vessels, with, banner and pennon flying before a favoring breeze; came
+sailing up the Scheld. It was a squadron of the Prince's ships, under
+command of Admiral Haultain. He had been sent against Tholen, but, having
+received secret intelligence, had, with happy audacity, seized the
+opportunity of striking a blow in the cause which he had served so
+faithfully. A shot or two fired from the vessels among the barricades had
+a quickening effect. A sudden and astounding panic seized the soldiers.
+"The Beggars are coming! the Beggars are coming!" they yelled in dismay;
+for the deeds of the ocean-beggars had not become less appalling since
+the memorable siege of Leyden. The merchants still stood on the bridge
+with their purses in their hand. The envoys from the castle still waved
+their white flags. It was too late. The horror inspired by the wild
+Zealanders overpowered the hope of wages, extinguished all confidence in
+the friendship of the citizens. The mercenaries, yielding to a violent
+paroxysm of fear, fled hither and thither, panting, doubling, skulking,
+like wolves before the hounds. Their flight was ludicrous. Without
+staying to accept the money which the merchants were actually offering,
+without packing up their own property, in many cases even throwing away
+their arms, they fled, helter skelter, some plunging into the Scheid,
+some skimming along the dykes, some rushing across the open fields. A
+portion of them under Colonel Fugger, afterwards shut themselves up in
+Bergen op Zoom, where they were at once besieged by Champagny, and were
+soon glad to compromise the matter by surrendering their colonel and
+laying down their arms. The remainder retreated to Breda, where they held
+out for two months, and were at length overcome by a neat stratagem of
+Orange. A captain, being known to be in the employment of Don John, was
+arrested on his way to Breda. Carefully sewed up in his waistband was
+found a letter, of a finger's breadth, written in cipher, and sealed with
+the Governor-General's seal. Colonel Frondsberger, commanding in Breda,
+was in this missive earnestly solicited to hold out two months longer,
+within which time a certain relief was promised. In place of this letter,
+deciphered with much difficulty, a new one was substituted, which the
+celebrated printer, William Sylvius, of Antwerp, prepared with great
+adroitness, adding the signature and seal of Don John. In this
+counterfeit epistle; the Colonel was directed to do the best he could for
+himself, by reason that Don John was himself besieged, and unable to
+render him assistance. The same captain who had brought the real letter
+was bribed to deliver the counterfeit. This task he faithfully performed,
+spreading the fictitious intelligence besides, with such ardor through
+the town, that the troops rose upon their leader, and surrendered him
+with the city and their own arms, into the custody of the estates. Such
+was the result of the attempt by Don John to secure the citadel--of
+Antwerp. Not only was the fortress carried for the estates, but the city
+itself, for the first time in twelve years, was relieved from a foreign
+soldiery.
+
+The rage and disappointment of the Governor-General were excessive. He
+had boasted to Marolles a day too soon. The prize which he thought
+already in his grasp had slipped through his fingers, while an
+interminable list of demands which he dreamed not of, and which were
+likely to make him bankrupt, were brought to his door. To the states, not
+himself, the triumph seemed for the moment decreed. The "dice" had taken
+a run against him, notwithstanding his pains in loading and throwing.
+Nevertheless, he did not yet despair of revenge. "These rebels," he wrote
+to the Empress-dowager, his sister, "think that fortune is all smiles for
+them now, and that all is ruin for me. The wretches are growing proud
+enough, and forget that their chastisement, some fine morning, will yet
+arrive."
+
+On the 7th of August he addressed another long letter to the estates.
+This document was accompanied, as usual, by certain demands, drawn up
+categorically in twenty-three articles. The estates considered his terms
+hard and strange, for in their opinion it was themselves, not the
+Governor, who were masters of the situation. Nevertheless, he seemed
+inclined to treat as if he had gained, not missed, the citadel of
+Antwerp; as if the troops with whom he had tampered were mustered in the
+field, not shut up in distant towns, and already at the mercy of the
+states party. The Governor demanded that all the forces of the country
+should be placed under his own immediate control; that Count Bossu, or
+some other person nominated by himself, should be appointed to the
+government of Friesland; that the people of Brabant and Flanders should
+set themselves instantly to hunting, catching, and chastising all vagrant
+heretics and preachers. He required, in particular, that Saint Aldegonde
+and Theron, those most mischievous rebels, should be prohibited from
+setting their foot in any city of the Netherlands. He insisted that the
+community of Brussels should lay down their arms, and resume their
+ordinary handicrafts. He demanded that the Prince of Orange should be
+made to execute the Ghent treaty; to suppress the exercise of the
+Reformed religion in Harlem, Schoonhoven, and other places; to withdraw
+his armed vessels from their threatening stations, and to restore
+Nieuport, unjustly detained by him. Should the Prince persist in his
+obstinacy, Don John summoned them to take arms against him, and to
+support their lawful Governor. He, moreover, required the immediate
+restitution of Antwerp citadel, and the release of Treslong from prison.
+
+Although, regarded from the Spanish point of view, such demands might
+seem reasonable, it was also natural that their audacity should astonish
+the estates. That the man who had violated so openly the Ghent treaty
+should rebuke the Prince for his default--that the man who had tampered
+with the German mercenaries until they were on the point of making
+another Antwerp Fury, should now claim the command over them and all
+other troops--that the man who had attempted to gain Antwerp citadel by a
+base stratagem should now coolly demand its restoration, seemed to them
+the perfection of insolence. The baffled conspirator boldly claimed the
+prize which was to have rewarded a successful perfidy. At the very moment
+when the Escovedo letters and the correspondence with the German colonels
+had been laid before their eyes, it was a little too much that the
+double-dealing bastard of the double-dealing Emperor should read them a
+lecture upon sincerity. It was certain that the perplexed, and outwitted
+warrior had placed himself at last in a very false position. The Prince
+of Orange, with his usual adroitness, made the most of his adversary's
+false moves. Don John had only succeeded in digging a pitfall for
+himself. His stratagems against Namur and Antwerp had produced him no
+fruit, saving the character, which his antagonist now fully succeeded in
+establishing for him, of an unscrupulous and artful schemer. This
+reputation was enhanced by the discovery of the intercepted letters, and
+by the ingenuity and eagerness with which they were turned to account
+against him by the Prince, by Saint Aldegonde, and all the anti-Catholic
+party. The true key to his reluctance against despatching the troops by
+land, the states had not obtained. They did not dream of his romantic
+designs upon England, and were therefore excusable in attributing a still
+deeper perfidy to his arrangements.
+
+Even had he been sent to the Netherlands in the full possession of his
+faculties, he would have been no match in political combinations for his
+powerful antagonists. Hoodwinked and fettered, suspected by his master,
+baffled, bewildered, irritated by his adversary, what could he do but
+plunge from one difficulty to another and oscillate between extravagant
+menace, and desponding concession, until his hopes and life were wasted
+quite away. His instructions came from Philip through Perez, and that
+most profound dissembler, as we have seen, systematically deceived the
+Governor, with the view of eliciting treasonable matters, Philip wishing,
+if possible, to obtain proofs of Don John's secret designs against his
+own crown. Thus every letter from Spain was filled with false information
+and with lying persuasions. No doubt the Governor considered himself
+entitled to wear a crown, and meant to win it, if not in Africa, then in
+England, or wherever fate might look propitiously upon him. He was of the
+stuff of which crusaders and dynasty founders had been made, at a
+somewhat earlier epoch. Who could have conquered the holy sepulchre, or
+wrested a crown from its lawful wearer, whether in Italy, Muscovy, the
+Orient, or in the British Ultima Thule, more bravely than this imperial
+bastard, this valiant and romantic adventurer? Unfortunately, he came a
+few centuries too late. The days when dynasties were founded, and
+European thrones appropriated by a few foreign freebooters, had passed,
+and had not yet returned. He had come to the Netherlands desirous of
+smoothing over difficulties and of making a peaceful termination to that
+rebellion a steppingstone to his English throne. He was doomed to a
+profound disappointment, a broken heart, and a premature grave, instead
+of the glittering baubles which he pursued. Already he found himself
+bitterly deceived in his hopes. The obstinate Netherlanders would not
+love him, notwithstanding the good wishes he had manifested. They would
+not even love the King of Spain, notwithstanding the blessings which his
+Majesty was declared to have heaped upon them. On the contrary, they
+persisted in wasting their perverse affections upon the pestilent Prince
+of Orange. That heretic was leading them to destruction, for he was
+showing them the road to liberty, and nothing, in the eyes of the
+Governor, could be more pitiable than to behold an innocent people
+setting forth upon such a journey. "In truth," said he, bitterly, in his
+memorable letter to his sister the Empress, "they are willing to
+recognize neither God nor king. They pretend to liberty in all things: so
+that 'tis a great pity to see how they are going on; to see the impudence
+and disrespect with which they repay his Majesty for the favors which he
+has shown them, and me for the labors, indignities, and dangers which I
+have undergone for their sakes."
+
+Nothing, indeed, in the Governor's opinion, could surpass the insolence
+of the Netherlanders, save their ingratitude. That was the serpent's
+tooth which was ever wounding the clement King and his indignant brother.
+It seemed so bitter to meet with thanklessness, after seven years of Alva
+and three of Requesens; after the labors of the Blood Council, the
+massacres of Naarden, Zutphen, and Harlem, the siege of Leyden, and the
+Fury of Antwerp. "Little profit there has been," said the Governor to his
+sister, "or is like to be from all the good which we have done to these
+bad people. In short, they love and obey in all things the most perverse
+and heretic tyrant and rebel in the whole world, which is this damned
+Prince of Orange, while, on the contrary, without fear of God or shame
+before men, they abhor and dishonor the name and commandments of their
+natural sovereign." Therefore, with a doubting spirit, and almost with a
+broken heart, had the warrior shut himself up in Namur Castle, to await
+the progress of events, and to escape from the snares of his enemies.
+"God knows how much I desire to avoid extremities," said he, "but I know
+not what to do with men who show themselves so obstinately rebellious."
+
+Thus pathetically Don John bewailed his fate. The nation had turned from
+God, from Philip, from himself; yet he still sat in his castle,
+determined to save them from destruction and his own hands from
+bloodshed, if such an issue were yet possible. Nor was he entirely
+deserted, for among the faithless a few were faithful still. Although the
+people were in open revolt, there was still a handful of nobles resolved
+to do their duty towards their God and King. "This little band," said the
+Governor, "has accompanied me hither, like gentlemen and chevaliers of
+honor." Brave Berlaymont and his four sons were loyal to the last, but
+others of this limited number of gentlemen and chevaliers of honor were
+already deserting him. As soon as the result of the enterprise against
+Antwerp citadel was known, and the storm was gathering most darkly over
+the royal cause, Aerschot and Havre were first to spread their wings and
+flutter away in search of a more congenial atmosphere. In September, the
+Duke was again as he had always professed himself to be, with some
+important interval of exception--"the affectionate brother and cordial
+friend of the Prince of Orange."
+
+The letter addressed by Don John to the states upon the 7th of August,
+had not yet been answered. Feeling, soon afterwards, more sensible of his
+position, and perhaps less inflamed with indignation; he addressed
+another communication to them, upon the 13th of the same month. In this
+epistle he expressed an extreme desire for peace, and a hearty desire to
+be relieved, if possible, from his most painful situation. He protested,
+before God and man, that his intentions were most honest, and that he
+abhorred war more than anything else in the world. He averred that, if
+his person was as odious to them as it seemed, he was only too ready to
+leave the land, as soon as the King should appoint his successor. He
+reminded them that the question of peace or war lay not with himself, but
+with them; and that the world would denounce as guilty those with whom
+rested the responsibility. He concluded with an observation which, in its
+humility, seemed sufficiently ironical, that if they had quite finished
+the perusal of the despatches from Madrid to his address, which they had
+intercepted, he should be thankful for an opportunity of reading them
+himself. He expressed a hope, therefore, that they would be forwarded to
+Namur.
+
+This letter was answered at considerable length, upon the second day. The
+states made their customary protestations of attachment to his Majesty,
+their fidelity to the Catholic church, their determination to maintain
+both the Ghent treaty and the Perpetual Edict. They denied all
+responsibility for the present disastrous condition of the relations
+between themselves and government, having disbanded nearly all their own
+troops, while the Governor had been strengthening his forces up to the
+period of his retreat into Namur. He protested, indeed, friendship and a
+sincere desire for peace, but the intercepted letters of Escovedo and his
+own had revealed to them the evil counsels to which he had been
+listening, and the intrigues which he had been conducting. They left it
+to his conscience whether they could reasonably believe, after the
+perusal of these documents, that it was his intention to maintain the
+Ghent treaty, or any treaty; and whether they were not justified in their
+resort to the natural right of self-defence.
+
+Don John was already fully aware of the desperate error which he had
+committed. In seizing Namur and attempting Antwerp, he had thrown down
+the gauntlet. Wishing peace, he had, in a panic of rage and anxiety;
+declared and enacted war. The bridge was broken behind him, the ships
+burned, a gulf opened, a return to peace rendered almost impossible. Yet
+it is painful to observe the almost passionate longings which at times
+seemed to possess him for accommodating the quarrel, together with his
+absolute incapacity to appreciate his position. The Prince was
+triumphant; the Governor in a trap. Moreover, it was a trap which he had
+not only entered voluntarily, but which he had set himself; he had played
+into the Prince's hands, and was frantic to see his adversary tranquilly
+winning the game. It was almost melancholy to observe the gradation of
+his tone from haughty indignation to dismal concession. In an elaborate
+letter which he addressed "to the particular states, bishops,
+councillors, and cities of the Netherlands," he protested as to the
+innocence of his intentions, and complained bitterly of the calumnies
+circulated to his discredit by the Prince of Orange. He denied any
+intention of recalling the troops which he had dismissed, except in case
+of absolute necessity: He affirmed that his Majesty sincerely desired
+peace. He averred that the country was either against the King, against
+the Catholic religion, against himself, or against all three together. He
+bitterly asked what further concessions were required. Had he not done
+all he had ever promised? Had he not discharged the Spaniards, placed the
+castles in the hands of natives, restored the privileges, submitted to
+insults and indecencies? Yet, in spite of all which had passed, he
+declared his readiness to resign, if another prince or princess of the
+blood more acceptable to them could be appointed. The letter to the
+states was followed by a proposition for a cessation of hostilities, and
+for the appointment of a commission to devise means for faithfully
+executing the Ghent treaty. This proposition was renewed, a few days
+later, together with an offer for an exchange of hostages.
+
+It was not difficult for the estates to answer the letters of the
+Governor. Indeed, there was but little lack of argument on either side
+throughout this unhappy controversy. It is dismal to contemplate the
+interminable exchange of protocols, declarations, demands, apostilles,
+replications and rejoinders, which made up the substance of Don John's
+administration. Never was chivalrous crusader so out of place. It was not
+a soldier that was then required for Philip's exigency, but a scribe.
+Instead of the famous sword of Lepanto, the "barbarous pen" of Hopperus
+had been much more suitable for the work required. Scribbling Joachim in
+a war-galley, yard-arm and yard-arm with the Turkish capitan pacha, could
+have hardly felt less at ease than did the brilliant warrior thus
+condemned to scrawl and dissemble. While marching from concession to
+concession, he found the states conceiving daily more distrust, and
+making daily deeper encroachments. Moreover, his deeds up to the time
+when he seemed desirous to retrace his steps had certainly been, at the
+least, equivocal. Therefore, it was natural for the estates, in reply to
+the questions in his letter, to observe that he had indeed dismissed the
+Spaniards, but that he had tampered with and retained the Germans; that
+he had indeed placed the citadels in the hands of natives, but that he
+had tried his best to wrest them away again; that he had indeed professed
+anxiety for peace, but that his intercepted letters proved his
+preparations for war. Already there were rumors of Spanish troops
+returning in small detachments out of France. Already the Governor was
+known to be enrolling fresh mercenaries to supply the place of those whom
+he had unsuccessfully endeavoured to gain to his standard. As early as
+the 26th of July, in fact, the Marquis d'Ayamonte in Milan, and Don Juan
+de Idiaquez in Genoa, had received letters from Don John of Austria,
+stating that, as the provinces had proved false to their engagements, he
+would no longer be held by his own, and intimating his desire that the
+veteran troops which had but so recently been dismissed from Flanders,
+should forthwith return. Soon afterwards, Alexander Farnese, Prince of
+Parma, received instructions from the King to superintend these
+movements, and to carry the aid of his own already distinguished military
+genius to his uncle in the Netherlands.
+
+On the other hand, the states felt their strength daily more sensibly.
+Guided, as usual, by Orange, they had already assumed a tone in their
+correspondence which must have seemed often disloyal, and sometimes
+positively insulting, to the Governor. They even answered his hints of
+resignation in favor of some other prince of the blood, by expressing
+their hopes that his successor, if a member of the royal house at all,
+would at least be a legitimate one. This was a severe thrust at the
+haughty chieftain, whose imperial airs rarely betrayed any consciousness
+of Barbara Blomberg and the bend sinister on his shield. He was made to
+understand, through the medium of Brabantine bluntness, that more
+importance was attached to the marriage, ceremony in the Netherlands than
+he seemed to imagine. The categorical demands made by the estates seemed
+even more indigestible than such collateral affronts; for they had now
+formally affirmed the views of Orange as to the constitutional government
+of the provinces. In their letter of 26th August, they expressed their
+willingness, notwithstanding the past delinquencies of the Governor, to
+yield him their confidence again; but at the same time; they enumerated
+conditions which, with his education and views, could hardly seem to him
+admissible. They required him to disband all the soldiers in his service,
+to send the Germans instantly out of the country, to dismiss every
+foreigner from office, whether civil or military, and to renounce his
+secret league with the Duke of Guise. They insisted that he should
+thenceforth govern only with the advice and consent of the State Council,
+that he should execute that which should by a majority of votes be
+ordained there, that neither measures nor despatches should be binding or
+authentic unless drawn up at that board. These certainly were views of
+administration which, even if consonant with a sound historical view of
+the Netherland constitutions, hardly tallied with his monarch's
+instructions, his own opinions, or the practice under Alva and Requesens,
+but the country was still in a state of revolution, and the party of the
+Prince was gaining the upper hand.
+
+It was the determination of that great statesman, according to that which
+he considered the legitimate practice of the government, to restore the
+administration to the State Council, which executive body ought of right
+to be appointed by the states-general. In the states-general, as in the
+states-particular, a constant care was to be taken towards strengthening
+the most popular element, the "community" of each city, the aggregate,
+that is to say, of its guild-representatives and its admitted burghers.
+This was, in the opinion of the Prince, the true theory of the
+government--republican in all but form--under the hereditary protection,
+not the despotic authority, of a family, whose rights were now nearly
+forfeited. It was a great step in advance that these views should come to
+be thus formally announced, not in Holland and Zealand only, but by the
+deputies of the states-general, although such a doctrine, to the proud
+stomach of Don John, seemed sufficiently repulsive. Not less so was the
+cool intimation with which the paper concluded, that if he should execute
+his threat of resigning, the country would bear his loss with fortitude,
+coupled as was that statement with a declaration that, until his
+successor should be appointed, the State Council would consider itself
+charged ad interim with the government. In the meantime, the Governor was
+requested not to calumniate the estates to foreign governments, as he had
+so recently done in his intercepted letter to the Empress-dowager.
+
+Upon receiving this letter, "Don John," says a faithful old chronicler,
+"found that the cranes had invited the frog to dinner." In truth, the
+illustrious soldier was never very successful in his efforts, for which
+his enemies gave him credit, to piece out the skin of the lion with that
+of the fox. He now felt himself exposed and outwitted, while he did not
+feel conscious of any very dark design. He answered the letter of the
+states by a long communication, dated from Namur Castle, 28th of August.
+In style, he was comparatively temperate, but the justification which he
+attempted of his past conduct was not very happy. He noticed the three
+different points which formed the leading articles of the accusation
+brought against him, the matter, namely, of the intercepted letters, of
+the intrigues with the German colonels, and the seizure of Namur. He did
+not deny the authorship of the letters, but contented himself with a
+reference to their date, as if its priority to his installation as
+Governor furnished a sufficient palliation of the bad faith which the
+letters revealed. As to the despatches of Escovedo, he denied
+responsibility for any statements or opinions which they might contain.
+As the Secretary, however, was known to be his most confidential friend,
+this attempt to shuffle off his own complicity was held to be both lame
+and unhandsome. As for the correspondence with the colonels, his defence
+was hardly more successful, and rested upon a general recrimination upon
+the Prince of Orange. As that personage was agitating and turbulent, it
+was not possible, the Governor urged, that he should himself remain
+quiet. It was out of his power to execute the treaty and the edict, in
+the face of a notorious omission on the part of his adversary to enforce
+the one or to publish the other. It comported neither with his dignity
+nor his safety to lay down his weapons while the Prince and his adherents
+were arming. He should have placed himself "in a very foolish position,"
+had he allowed himself unarmed to be dictated to by the armed. In defence
+of himself on the third point, the seizure of Namur Castle, he recounted
+the various circumstances with which the reader is already acquainted. He
+laid particular stress upon the dramatic manner in which the Vicomte De
+Gand had drawn his curtains at the dead of night; he narrated at great
+length the ominous warning which he had likewise received from the Duke
+of Aerschot in Brussels, and concluded with a circumstantial account of
+the ambush which he believed to have been laid for him by Count De
+Lalain. The letter concluded with a hope for an arrangement of
+difficulties, not yet admitted by the Governor to be insurmountable, and
+with a request for a formal conference, accompanied by an exchange of
+hostages.
+
+While this correspondence was proceeding between Namur and Brussels, an
+event was occurring in Antwerp which gave much satisfaction to Orange.
+The Spanish Fury, and the recent unsuccessful attempt of Don John to
+master the famous citadel, had determined the authorities to take the
+counsel which the Prince had so often given in vain, and the fortress of
+Antwerp was at length razed to the ground, on the side towards the
+city.--It would be more correct to say that it was not the authorities,
+but the city itself which rose at last and threw off the saddle by which
+it had so long been galled. More than ten thousand persons were
+constantly at work, morning, noon, and night, until the demolition was
+accomplished. Grave magistrates, great nobles, fair ladies, citizens and
+their wives, beggars and their children, all wrought together pell-mell.
+All were anxious to have a hand in destroying the nest where so many
+murders had been hatched, whence so much desolation had flown. The task
+was not a long one for workmen so much in earnest, and the fortress was
+soon laid low in the quarter where it could be injurious to the
+inhabitants. As the work proceeded, the old statue of Alva was discovered
+in a forgotten crypt, where it had lain since it had been thrown down by
+the order of Requesens. Amid the destruction of the fortress, the
+gigantic phantom of its founder seemed to start suddenly from the gloom,
+but the apparition added fresh fuel to the rage of the people. The image
+of the execrated Governor was fastened upon with as much fierceness as if
+the bronze effigy could feel their blows, or comprehend their wrath. It
+was brought forth from its dark hiding-place into the daylight. Thousands
+of hands were ready to drag it through the streets for universal
+inspection and outrage. A thousand sledge-hammers were ready to dash it
+to pieces, with a slight portion, at least, of the satisfaction with
+which those who wielded them would have dealt the same blows upon the
+head of the tyrant himself. It was soon reduced to a shapeless mass.
+Small portions were carried away and preserved for generations in
+families as heirlooms of hatred. The bulk was melted again and
+reconverted, by a most natural metamorphosis, into the cannon from which
+it had originally sprung.
+
+The razing of the Antwerp citadel set an example which was followed in
+other places; the castle of Ghent, in particular, being immediately
+levelled, amid demonstrations of universal enthusiasm. Meantime, the
+correspondence between Don John and the estates at Brussels dragged its
+slow length along, while at the same time, two elaborate letters were
+addressed to the King, on the 24th of August and the 8th of September, by
+the estates-general of the Netherlands. These documents, which were long
+and able, gave a vigorous representation of past evils and of the present
+complication of disorders under which the commonwealth was laboring. They
+asked, as usual, for a royal remedy; and expressed their doubts whether
+there could be any sincere reconciliation so long as the present
+Governor, whose duplicity and insolence they represented in a very strong
+light, should remain in office. Should his Majesty, however, prefer to
+continue Don John in the government, they signified their willingness, in
+consideration of his natural good qualities, to make the best of the
+matter. Should, however, the estrangement between themselves and the
+Governor seem irremediable, they begged that another and a legitimate
+prince of the blood might be appointed in his place.
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     Country would bear his loss with fortitude
+     Its humility, seemed sufficiently ironical
+     Not upon words but upon actions
+     Perfection of insolence
+     Was it astonishing that murder was more common than fidelity?
+
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Vol. 29
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
+
+By John Lothrop Motley
+1855
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+   Orange invited to visit Brussels--His correspondence upon the
+   subject with the estates--general--Triumphant journey of the Prince
+   to the capital----Stop put by him to the negotiations with Don John
+   --New and stringent demands made upon the Governor--His indignation
+   --Open rupture--Intrigue of Netherland grandees with Archduke
+   Matthias--Policy of Orange--Attitude of Queen Elizabeth--Flight of
+   Matthias from Vienna--Anxiety of Elizabeth--Adroitness of the
+   Prince--The office of Reward--Election of Orange to that dignity--
+   His complaints against the great nobles--Aerschot Governor of
+   Flanders--A storm brewing in Ghent--Ryhove and Imbize--Blood-
+   Councillor Hessels--Arrogance of the aristocratic party in Flanders
+   --Ryhove's secret interview with Orange--Outbreak at Ghent--Arrest
+   of Aerschot, Hessels, and others of the reactionary party--The Duke
+   liberated at demand of Orange--The Prince's visit to Ghent--
+   Rhetorical demonstrations--The new Brussels Union characterized--
+   Treaty with England--Articles by which Matthias is nominally
+   constituted Governor-General--His inauguration at Brussels--
+   Brilliant and fantastic ceremonies--Letter of Don John to the
+   Emperor--His anger with England--An army collecting--Arrival of
+   Alexander Farnese--Injudicious distribution of offices in the
+   States' army--The States' army fall back upon Gemblours, followed by
+   Don John--Tremendous overthrow of the patriots--Wonderful disparity
+   in the respective losses of the two armies.
+
+While these matters were in progress, an important movement was made by
+the estates-general. The Prince of Orange was formally and urgently
+invited to come to Brussels to aid them with his counsel and presence.
+The condemned traitor had not set foot in the capital for eleven years.
+We have narrated the circumstance of his departure, while the advancing
+trumpets of Alva's army were almost heard in the distance. His memorable
+and warning interview with Egmont has been described. Since that period,
+although his spirit had always been manifesting itself in the capital
+like an actual presence; although he had been the magnet towards which
+the states throughout all their oscillations had involuntarily vibrated,
+yet he had been ever invisible. He had been summoned by the Blood Council
+to stand his trial, and had been condemned to death by default. He
+answered the summons by a defiance, and the condemnation by two
+campaigns, unsuccessful in appearance, but which had in reality
+prostrated the authority of the sovereign.
+
+Since that period, the representative of royalty had sued the condemned
+traitor for forgiveness. The haughty brother of Philip had almost gone
+upon his knees, that the Prince might name his terms, and accept the
+proffered hand of majesty.
+
+The Prince had refused, not from contumely, but from distrust. He had
+spurned the supplications, as he had defied the proscription of the King.
+There could be no friendship between the destroyer and the protector of a
+people. Had the Prince desired only the reversal of his death-sentence,
+and the infinite aggrandizement of his family, we have seen how
+completely he had held these issues in his power. Never had it been more
+easy, plausible, tempting, for a proscribed patriot to turn his back upon
+an almost sinking cause. We have seen how his brave and subtle Batavian
+prototype, Civilis, dealt with the representative of Roman despotism. The
+possible or impossible Netherland Republic of the first century of our
+era had been reluctantly abandoned, but the modern Civilis had justly
+more confidence in his people.
+
+And now again the scene was changed. The son of the Emperor, the King's
+brother, was virtually beleaguered; the proscribed rebel had arrived at
+victory through a long series of defeats. The nation everywhere
+acknowledged him master, and was in undisguised revolt against the
+anointed sovereign. The great nobles, who hated Philip on the one hand,
+and the Reformed religion on the other, were obliged, in obedience to the
+dictates of a people with whom they had little sympathy, to accept the
+ascendency of the Calvinist Prince, of whom they were profoundly jealous.
+Even the fleeting and incapable Aerschot was obliged to simulate
+adhesion; even the brave Champagny, cordial hater of Spaniards, but most
+devotedly Catholic, "the chiefest man of wysedome and stomach at that
+tyme in Brussels," so envoy Wilson wrote to Burghley, had become
+"Brabantized," as his brother Granvelle expressed himself, and was one of
+the commissioners to invite the great rebel to Brussels. The other envoys
+were the Abbot of Saint Gertrude, Dr. Leoninus, and the Seigneur de
+Liesvelt. These gentlemen, on arriving at Gertruydenberg, presented a
+brief but very important memorial to the Prince. In that document they
+informed him that the states-general, knowing how efficacious would be
+his presence, by reason of his singular prudence, experience, and love
+for the welfare and repose of the country, had unanimously united in a
+supplication that he would incontinently transport himself to the city of
+Brussels, there to advise with them concerning the necessities of the
+land; but, as the principal calumny employed by their adversaries was
+that all the provinces and leading personages intended to change both
+sovereign and religion, at the instigation of his Excellency, it was
+desirable to disprove such fictions. They therefore very earnestly
+requested the Prince to make some contrary demonstration, by which it
+might be manifest to all that his Excellency, together with the estates
+of Holland and Zealand, intended faithfully to keep what they had
+promised. They prayed, therefore, that the Prince, permitting the
+exercise of the Roman Catholic religion in the places which had recently
+accepted his authority, would also allow its exercise in Holland and
+Zealand. They begged, further, that he would promise by a new and
+authentic act, that the provinces of Holland and Zealand, would not
+suffer the said exercise to be impugned, or any new worship to be
+introduced, in the other provinces of the Netherlands.
+
+This letter might almost be regarded as a trap, set by the Catholic
+nobles. Certainly the Ghent Pacification forbade the Reformed religion in
+form, and as certainly, winked at its exercise in fact. The proof was,
+that the new worship was spreading everywhere, that the exiles for
+conscience' sake were returning in swarms, and that the synod of the
+Reformed churches, lately held at Dort, had been, publicly attended by
+the ministers and deacons of numerous dissenting churches established in
+many different, places throughout all the provinces. The pressure of the
+edicts, the horror of the inquisition being removed, the down-trodden
+religion had sprung from the earth more freshly than ever.
+
+The Prince was not likely to fall into the trap, if a trap had really
+been intended. He answered the envoys loyally, but with distinct
+reservations. He did not even accept the invitation, save on condition
+that his visit to Brussels should be expressly authorized by Holland and
+Zealand. Notwithstanding his desire once more to behold his dear country,
+and to enjoy the good company of his best friends and brothers, he felt
+it his duty to communicate beforehand with the states of those two
+provinces, between which, and himself there had been such close and
+reciprocal obligations, such long-tried and faithful affection. He
+therefore begged to refer the question to the assembly of the said
+provinces about to be held at Gouda, where, in point of fact, the
+permission for his journey was, not without considerable difficulty, a
+few days afterwards obtained.
+
+With regard to the more difficult requests addressed to him in the
+memorial, he professed generally his intention to execute the treaty of
+Ghent. He observed, however, that the point of permitting the exercise of
+the Roman Catholic religion in Holland and Zealand regarded principally
+the estates of these provinces, which had contracted for no innovation in
+this matter, at least till the assembling of the states-general. He
+therefore suggested that he neither could, nor ought to, permit any
+innovation, without the knowledge and consent of those estates. As to
+promising by authentic act, that neither he nor the two provinces would
+suffer the exercise of the Catholic religion to be in any wise impugned
+in the rest of the Netherlands, the Prince expressed himself content to
+promise that, according to the said Ghent Pacification, they would suffer
+no attempt to be made against the public repose or against the Catholic
+worship. He added that, as he had no intention of usurping any
+superiority over the states-general assembled at Brussels, he was content
+to leave the settlement of this point to their free-will and wisdom,
+engaging himself neither to offer nor permit any hindrance to their
+operations.
+
+With this answer the deputies are said to have been well pleased. If they
+were so, it must be confessed that they were thankful for small favors.
+They had asked to have the Catholic religion introduced into Holland and
+Zealand. The Prince had simply referred them to the estates of these
+provinces. They had asked him to guarantee that the exercise of the
+Reformed religion should not be "procured" in the rest of the country. He
+had merely promised that the Catholic worship should not be prevented.
+The difference between the terms of the request and the reply was
+sufficiently wide.
+
+The consent to his journey was with difficulty accorded by the estates of
+Holland and Zealand, and his wife, with many tears and anxious
+forebodings, beheld him depart for a capital where the heads of his brave
+and powerful friends had fallen, and where still lurked so many of his
+deadly foes. During his absence, prayers were offered daily for his
+safety in all the churches of Holland and Zealand, by command of the
+estates.
+
+He arrived at Antwerp on the 17th of September, and was received with
+extraordinary enthusiasm. The Prince, who had gone forth alone, without
+even a bodyguard, had the whole population of the great city for his
+buckler. Here he spent five days, observing, with many a sigh, the
+melancholy changes which had taken place in the long interval of his
+absence. The recent traces of the horrible "Fury," the blackened walls of
+the Hotel de Ville, the prostrate ruins of the marble streets, which he
+had known as the most imposing in Europe, could be hardly atoned for in
+his eyes even by the more grateful spectacle of the dismantled fortress.
+
+On the 23rd of September he was attended by a vast concourse of citizens
+to the new canal which led to Brussels, where three barges were in
+waiting for himself and suite. In one a banquet was spread; in the
+second, adorned with emblematic devices and draped with the banners of
+the seventeen provinces, he was to perform the brief journey; while the
+third had been filled by the inevitable rhetoric societies, with all the
+wonders of their dramatic and plastic ingenuity. Rarely had such a
+complication of vices and virtues, of crushed dragons, victorious
+archangels, broken fetters, and resurgent nationalities, been seen
+before, within the limits of a single canal boat. The affection was,
+however, sincere, and the spirit noble, even though the taste which
+presided at these remonstrations may have been somewhat pedantic.
+
+The Prince was met several miles before the gates of Brussels by a
+procession of nearly half the inhabitants of the city, and thus escorted,
+he entered the capital in the afternoon of the 23rd of September. It was
+the proudest day of his life. The representatives of all the provinces,
+supported by the most undeniable fervor of the united Netherland people,
+greeted "Father William." Perplexed, discordant, hating, fearing,
+doubting, they could believe nothing, respect nothing, love nothing, save
+the "tranquil" Prince. His presence at that moment in Brussels was the
+triumph of the people and of religious toleration. He meant to make use
+of the crisis to extend and to secure popular rights, and to establish
+the supremacy of the states-general under the nominal sovereignty of some
+Prince, who was yet to be selected, while the executive body was to be a
+state-council, appointed by the states-general. So far as appears, he had
+not decided as to the future protector, but he had resolved that it
+should be neither himself nor Philip of Spain. The outlaw came to
+Brussels prepared at last to trample out a sovereignty which had worked
+its own forfeiture. So far as he had made any election within his breast,
+his choice inclined to the miserable Duke of Anjou; a prince whom he
+never came to know as posterity has known him, but whom he at least
+learned to despise. Thus far the worthless and paltry intriguer still
+wore the heroic mask, deceiving even such far seeing politicians as Saint
+Aldegonde and the Prince.
+
+William's first act was to put a stop to the negotiations already on foot
+with Don John. He intended that they should lead to war, because peace
+was impossible, except a peace for which civil and religious liberty
+would be bartered, for it was idle, in his opinion, to expect the
+maintenance by the Spanish Governor of the Ghent Pacification, whatever
+promises might be extorted from his fears. A deputation, in the name of
+the states, had already been sent with fresh propositions to Don John, at
+Namur. The envoys were Caspar Schetz and the Bishop of Bruges. They had
+nearly come to an amicable convention with the Governor, the terms of
+which had been sent to the states-general for approval, at the very
+moment of the Prince's arrival in Brussels. Orange, with great
+promptness, prevented the ratification of these terms, which the estates
+had in reality already voted to accept. New articles were added to those
+which had originally been laid before Don John. It was now stipulated
+that the Ghent treaty and the Perpetual Edict should be maintained. The
+Governor was required forthwith to abandon Namur Castle, and to dismiss
+the German troops. He was to give up the other citadels and strong
+places, and to disband all the soldiers in his service. He was to command
+the governors of every province to prohibit the entrance of all foreign
+levies. He was forthwith to release captives, restore confiscated
+property, and reinstate officers who had been removed; leaving the
+details of such restorations to the council of Mechlin and the other
+provincial tribunals. He was to engage that the Count Van Buren should be
+set free within two months. He was himself, while waiting for the
+appointment of his successor, to take up his residence in Luxemburg, and
+while there, he was to be governed entirely by the decision of the State
+Council, expressed by a majority of its members. Furthermore, and as not
+the least stinging of these sharp requisitions, the Queen of England--she
+who had been the secret ally of Orange, and whose crown the Governor had
+secretly meant to appropriate--was to be included in the treaty.
+
+It could hardly excite surprise that Don John, receiving these insolent
+propositions at the very moment in which he heard of the triumphant
+entrance into Brussels of the Prince, should be filled with rage and
+mortification. Never was champion of the Cross thus braved by infidels
+before. The Ghent treaty, according to the Orange interpretation, that is
+to say, heresy made legitimate, was to be the law of the land. His
+Majesty was to surrender--colors and cannon--to his revolted subjects.
+The royal authority was to be superseded by that of a State Council,
+appointed by the states-general, at the dictation of the Prince. The
+Governor-General himself, brother of his Catholic Majesty, was to sit
+quietly with folded arms in Luxemburg, while the arch-heretic and rebel
+reigned supreme in Brussels. It was too much to expect that the choleric
+soldier would be content with what he could not help regarding as a
+dishonorable capitulation. The arrangement seemed to him about as
+reasonable as it would have been to invite Sultan Selim to the Escorial,
+and to send Philip to reside at Bayonne. He could not but regard the
+whole proposition as an insolent declaration of war. He was right. It was
+a declaration of war; as much so as if proclaimed by trump of herald. How
+could Don John refuse the wager of battle thus haughtily proffered?
+
+Smooth Schetz, Lord of Grobbendonck, and his episcopal colleague, in vain
+attempted to calm the Governor's wrath, which now flamed forth, in
+defiance of all considerations.
+
+They endeavored, without success, to palliate the presence of Orange, and
+the circumstances of his reception, for it was not probable that their
+eloquence would bring the Governor to look at the subject with their
+eyes. Three days were agreed upon for the suspension of hostilities, and
+Don John was highly indignant that the estates would grant no longer a
+truce. The refusal was, however, reasonable enough on their part, for
+they were aware that veteran Spaniards and Italians were constantly
+returning to him, and that he was daily strengthening his position. The
+envoys returned to Brussels, to give an account of the Governor's rage,
+which they could not declare to be unnatural, and to assist in
+preparations for the war, which was now deemed inevitable. Don John,
+leaving a strong garrison in the citadel of Namur, from which place he,
+despatched a final communication to the estates-general, dated the 2nd of
+October, retired to Luxemburg. In this letter, without exactly uttering
+defiance, he unequivocally accepted the hostilities which had been
+pressed upon him, and answered their hollow professions of attachment to
+the Catholic religion and his Majesty's authority, by denouncing their
+obvious intentions to trample upon both. He gave them, in short, to
+understand that he perceived their intentions, and meant them to
+comprehend his own.
+
+Thus the quarrel was brought to an issue, and Don John saw with grim
+complacency, that the pen was at last to be superseded by the sword. A
+remarkable pamphlet was now published, in seven different languages,
+Latin, French, Flemish, German, Italian, Spanish; and English, containing
+a succinct account of the proceedings between the Governor and the
+estates, together with copies of the intercepted letters of Don John and
+Escovedo to the King, to Perez, to the German colonels, and to the
+Empress. This work, composed and published by order of the
+estates-general, was transmitted with an accompanying address to every
+potentate in Christendom. It was soon afterwards followed by a
+counter-statement, prepared by order of Don John, and containing his
+account of the same matters, with his recriminations against the conduct
+of the estates.
+
+Another important movement had, meanwhile, been made by the third party
+in this complicated game. The Catholic nobles, jealous of the growing
+influence of Orange, and indignant at the expanding power of the people,
+had opened secret negotiations with the Archduke Matthias, then a mild,
+easy-tempered youth of twenty, brother of the reigning emperor, Rudolph.
+After the matter had been discussed some time in secret, it was resolved,
+towards the end of September, to send a messenger to Vienna, privately
+inviting the young Prince to Brussels, but much to the surprise of these
+nobles, it was discovered that some fifteen or sixteen of the grandees of
+the land, among them Aerschot, Havre, Champagny, De Ville, Lalain, De
+Heze, and others, had already taken the initiative in the matter. On the
+26th of August, the Seigneur de Maalsteede had set forth, by their
+appointment, for Vienna. There is no doubt that this step originated in
+jealousy felt towards Orange, but at the same time it is certain that
+several of the leaders in the enterprise were still his friends. Some,
+like Champagny, and De Heze, were honestly so; others, like Aerschot,
+Havrd, and De Ville, always traitors in heart to the national cause,
+loyal to nothing but their own advancement, were still apparently upon
+the best terms with him. Moreover, it is certain that he had been made
+aware of the scheme, at least, before the arrival of the Archduke in the
+Netherlands, for the Marquis Havre, on his way to England, as special
+envoy from the estates, had a conference with him at Gertruydenberg. This
+was in the middle of September, and before his departure for Brussels.
+Naturally, the proposition seemed, at first, anything but agreeable; but
+the Marquis represented himself afterwards as having at last induced the
+Prince to look upon it with more favorable eyes. Nevertheless, the step
+had been taken before the consultation was held; nor was it the first
+time that the advice, of Orange had been asked concerning the adoption of
+a measure after the measure had been adopted.
+
+Whatever may have been his original sentiments upon the subject; however,
+he was always less apt to complain of irrevocable events than quick to
+reconcile them with his own combinations, and it was soon to be
+discovered that the new stumbling-block which his opponents had placed in
+his path, could be converted into an additional stepping-stone towards
+his goal. Meanwhile, the secret invitation to the Archduke was regarded
+by the people and by foreign spectators as a plot devised by his enemies.
+Davison, envoy from Queen Elizabeth, was then in Brussels, and informed
+his royal mistress, whose sentiments and sympathies were unequivocally in
+favor of Orange, of the intrigues against the Prince. The efforts of
+England were naturally to counteract the schemes of all who interfered
+with his policy, the Queen especially, with her customary sagacity,
+foreseeing the probable inclination of the Catholic nobles towards the
+protectorate of Alencon. She did not feel certain as to the precise plans
+of Orange, and there was no course better adapted to draw her from barren
+coquetry into positive engagements; than to arouse her jealousy of the
+French influence in the provinces. At this moment, she manifested the
+warmest friendship for the Prince.
+
+Costly presents were transmitted by her to his wife; among others, an
+ornament, of which a sculptured lizard formed a part. The Princess, in a
+graceful letter to her husband, desiring that her acknowledgments should
+be presented to her English Majesty, accepted the present as
+significative. "Tis the fabled virtue of the lizard (she said) to awaken
+sleepers whom a serpent is about to sting. You are the lizard, and the
+Netherlands the sleepers,--pray Heaven they may escape the serpent's
+bite." The Prince was well aware, therefore, of the plots which were
+weaving against him. He had small faith in the great nobles, whom he
+trusted "as he would adders fanged," and relied only upon the
+communities, upon the mass of burghers. They deserved his confidence, and
+watched over his safety with jealous care. On one occasion, when he was
+engaged at the State Council till a late hour, the citizens conceived so
+much alarm, that a large number of them spontaneously armed themselves,
+and repaired to the palace. The Prince, informed of the circumstance,
+threw open a window and addressed them, thanking them for their
+friendship and assuring them of his safety. They were not satisfied,
+however, to leave him alone, but remained under arms below till the
+session was terminated, when they escorted him with affectionate respect
+to his own hotel.
+
+The secret envoy arrived in Vienna, and excited the ambition of the
+youthful Matthias. It must be confessed that the offer could hardly be a
+very tempting one, and it excites our surprise that the Archduke should
+have thought the adventure worth the seeking. A most anomalous position
+in the Netherlands was offered to him by a slender and irresponsible
+faction of Netherlanders. There was a triple prospect before him: that of
+a hopeless intrigue against the first politician in Europe, a mortal
+combat with the most renowned conqueror of the age, a deadly feud with
+the most powerful and revengeful monarch in the world. Into this
+threefold enterprise he was about to plunge without any adequate
+resources, for the Archduke possessed no experience, power, or wealth. He
+brought, therefore, no strength to a cause which was itself feeble. He
+could hope for no protection, nor inspire any confidence. Nevertheless,
+he had courage, pliability, and a turn for political adventure. Visions
+of the discomfited Philip conferring the hand of his daughter, with the
+Netherlands as her dowry, upon the enterprising youth who, at this
+juncture, should succeed in overturning the Spanish authority in that
+country, were conjured up by those who originated the plot, and he was
+weak enough to consider such absurdities plausible, and to set forth at
+once to take possession of this castle in the air.
+
+On the evening of October 3rd, 1577, he retired to rest at eight o'clock
+feigning extreme drowsiness. After waiting till his brother, Maximilian,
+who slept in another bed in the same chamber, was asleep, he slipped from
+his couch and from the room in his night apparel, without even putting on
+his slippers. He was soon after provided by the companions of his flight
+with the disguise of a servant, arrayed in which, with his face
+blackened, he made his escape by midnight from Vienna, but it is doubtful
+whether Rudolph were as ignorant as he affected to be of the scheme.
+
+   [It was the opinion of Languet that the Emperor affected ignorance
+   of the plot at its commencement, that he afterwards affected an
+   original connivance, and that he was equally disingenuous in both
+   pretences.]
+
+The Archduke arrived at Cologne, attended only by two gentlemen and a few
+servants. The Governor was beside himself with fury; the Queen of England
+was indignant; the Prince only, against whom the measure was mainly
+directed, preserved his usual tranquillity.
+
+Secretary Walsingham, as soon as the news reached England, sent for
+Meetkercke, colleague of Marquis Havre in the mission from the estates.
+He informed that functionary of the great perplexity and excitement
+which, according to information received from the English resident,
+Davison, were then prevailing in Brussels, on account of the approach of
+the Archduke. Some, he said, were for receiving him at one place, some at
+another; others were in favor of forbidding his entrance altogether.
+Things had been sufficiently complicated before, without this additional
+cause of confusion. Don John was strengthening himself daily, through the
+secret agency of the Duke of Guise and his party. His warlike genius was
+well known, as well as the experience of the soldiers who were fast
+rallying under his banner. On the other hand, the Duke of Alencon had
+come to La Fere, and was also raising troops, while to oppose this crowd
+of rival enemies, to deal with this host of impending disasters, there
+was but one man in the Netherlands. On the Prince of Orange alone could
+the distracted states rely. To his prudence and valor only could the
+Queen look with hopeful eyes. The Secretary proceeded to inform the
+envoy, therefore, that her Majesty would feel herself compelled to
+withdraw all succor from the states if the Prince of Orange were deprived
+of his leadership; for it was upon that leadership only that she had
+relied for obtaining a successful result. She was quite indisposed to
+encounter indefinite risk with an impossibility of profit.
+
+Meetkercke replied to the Secretary by observing, that the great nobles
+of the land had been unanimous in desiring a new Governor-General at this
+juncture. They had thought Matthias, with a strong Council of State,
+composed of native Netherlanders, to control him, likely to prove a
+serviceable candidate for the post. They had reason to believe that,
+after he should be received, the Emperor would be reconciled to the
+measure, and that by his intercession the King of Spain would be likewise
+induced to acquiesce. He alluded, moreover, to the conference between the
+Marquis of Havre and Orange at Gertruydenberg, and quoted the opinion of
+the Prince that it would be unwise, after the invitation had been given,
+to insult the Archduke and his whole imperial house, by beating him with
+indignity upon his arrival. It was inevitable, said the envoy, that
+differences of opinion should exist in large assemblies, but according to
+information which he had recently received from Marquis Havre, then in
+Brussels, affairs had already become smooth again. At the conclusion of
+the conference, Walsingham repeated emphatically that the only condition
+upon which the Queen would continue her succor to the Netherlands was,
+that the Prince should be forthwith appointed Lieutenant-General for the
+Archduke.
+
+The immediate result of this movement was, that Matthias was received at
+Antwerp by Orange at the head of two thousand cavalry, and attended by a
+vast concourse of inhabitants. Had the Prince chosen a contrary course,
+the Archduke might have been compelled to return, somewhat ridiculously,
+to Vienna; but, at the same time, the anger of the Emperor and of all
+Germany would have been aroused against Orange and the cause he served.
+Had the Prince, on the contrary, abandoned the field himself, and
+returned to Holland, he would have left the game in the hands of his
+adversaries. Ever since he had made what his brother John called that
+"dangerous gallows journey" to Brussels, his influence had been
+culminating daily, and the jealousy of the great nobles rising as
+rapidly. Had he now allowed himself to be driven from his post, he would
+have exactly fulfilled their object. By remaining, he counteracted their
+schemes.
+
+By taking Matthias wholly into his own possession, he obtained one piece
+the more in the great game which he was playing against his antagonist in
+the Escorial. By making adroit use of events as they arose, he made the
+very waves which were to sink him, carry his great cause triumphantly
+onward.
+
+The first result of the invitation to Matthias was the election of Orange
+as Ruward of Brabant. This office was one of great historical dignity,
+but somewhat anomalous in its functions. The province of Brabant, having
+no special governor, was usually considered under the immediate
+superintendence of the Governor-General. As the capital of Brabant was
+the residence of that functionary, no inconvenience from this course had
+been felt since the accession of the house of Burgundy. At present,
+however, the condition of affairs was so peculiar--the seat of government
+being empty without having been permanently vacated--that a special
+opportunity was offered for conferring both honor and power on the
+Prince. A Ruward was not exactly dictator, although his authority was
+universal. He was not exactly protector, nor governor, nor stadholder.
+His functions were unlimited as to time--therefore superior to those of
+an ancient dictator; they were commonly conferred on the natural heir to
+the sovereignty--therefore more lofty than those of ordinary stadholders.
+The individuals who had previously held the office in the Netherlands had
+usually reigned afterwards in their own right. Duke Albert, of the
+Bavarian line; for example, had been Ruward of Hainault and Holland, for
+thirty years, during the insanity of his brother, and on the death of
+Duke William had succeeded to his title. Philip of Burgundy had declared
+himself Ruward of Brabant in 1425, and had shortly afterwards deprived
+Jacqueline of all her titles and appropriated them to himself. In the one
+case the regent, in the second case the usurper, had become reigning
+prince. Thus the movement of the jealous nobles against the Prince had
+for its first effect his immediate appointment to an office whose chief
+characteristic was, that it conducted to sovereignty.
+
+The election was accomplished thus. The "members," or estates of
+Brussels, together with the deans, guilds, and other of the principal
+citizens of Antwerp, addressed a request to the states of Brabant, that
+William of Orange should be appointed Ruward, and after long deliberation
+the measure was carried. The unsolicited honor was then solemnly offered
+to him. He refused, and was only, after repeated and urgent entreaties,
+induced to accept the office. The matter was then referred to the
+states-general, who confirmed the dignity, after some demur, and with the
+condition that it might be superseded by the appointment of a
+governor-general. He was finally confirmed as Ruward on the 22d of
+October, to the boundless satisfaction of the people, who celebrated the
+event by a solemn holiday in Antwerp, Brussels, and other cities. His
+friends, inspired by the intrigues of his enemies, had thus elevated the
+Prince to almost unlimited power; while a strong expression in favor of
+his government had been elicited from the most important ally of the
+Netherlands-England. It soon rested with himself only to assume the
+government of Flanders, having been elected stadholder, not once only,
+but many times, by the four estates of that important province, and
+having as constantly refused the dignity. With Holland and Zealand
+devoted to him, Brabant and Flanders formally under his government, the
+Netherland capital lavishing testimonials of affection upon him, and the
+mass of the people almost worshipping him, it would not have been
+difficult for the Prince to play a game as selfish as it had hitherto
+been close and skilful. He might have proved to the grand seigniors that
+their suspicions were just, by assuming a crown which they had been
+intriguing to push from his brows. Certainly the nobles deserved their
+defeat. They had done their best to circumvent Orange, in all ways and at
+all times. They had paid their court to power when it was most powerful,
+and had sought to swim on the popular tide when it was rising. He avenged
+himself upon their perfidy only by serving his country more faithfully
+than ever, but it was natural that he should be indignant at the conduct
+of these gentlemen, "children of good houses," (in his own words,) "issue
+of worthy, sires," whose fathers, at least, he had ever loved and
+honored.
+
+"They serve the Duke of Alva and the Grand Commander like varlets," he
+cried; "they make war upon me to the knife. Afterwards they treat with
+me, they reconcile themselves with me, they are sworn foes of the
+Spaniard. Don John arrives, and they follow him; they intrigue for my
+ruin. Don John fails in his enterprise upon Antwerp citadel; they quit
+him incontinently and call upon me. No sooner do I come than, against
+their oath and without previous communication with the states or myself,
+they call upon the Archduke Matthias. Are the waves of the sea more
+inconstant--is Euripus more uncertain than the counsels of such men?"
+
+While these events were occurring at Brussels and Antwerp, a scene of a
+different nature was enacting at Ghent. The Duke of Aerschot had recently
+been appointed to the government of Flanders by the State Council, but
+the choice was exceedingly distasteful to a large number of the
+inhabitants. Although, since the defeat of Don John's party in Antwerp,
+Aerschot had again become "the affectionate brother" of Orange, yet he
+was known to be the head of the cabal which had brought Matthias from
+Vienna. Flanders, moreover, swarmed with converts to the Reformed
+religion, and the Duke's strict Romanism was well known. The people,
+therefore, who hated the Pope and adored the Prince, were furious at the
+appointment of the new governor, but by dint of profuse promises
+regarding the instant restoration of privileges and charters which had
+long lain dormant, the friends of Aerschot succeeded in preparing the way
+for his installation.
+
+On the 20th of October, attended by twenty-three companies of infantry
+and three hundred horse, he came to Ghent. That famous place was still
+one of the most powerful and turbulent towns in Europe. Although
+diminished in importance since the commercial decline which had been the
+inevitable result of Philip's bloody government, it, was still swarming
+with a vigorous and dangerous population and it had not forgotten the
+days when the iron tongue of Roland could call eighty thousand fighting
+men to the city banner. Even now, twenty thousand were secretly pledged
+to rise at the bidding of certain chieftains resident among them; noble
+by birth, warmly attached to the Reformed religion, and devoted to
+Orange. These gentlemen were perfectly conscious that a reaction was to
+be attempted in favor of Don John and of Catholicism, through the agency
+of the newly-appointed governor of Flanders. Aerschot was trusted or
+respected by neither party. The only difference in the estimates formed
+of him was, that some considered him a deep and dangerous traitor; others
+that he was rather foolish than malicious, and more likely to ruin a good
+cause than to advance the interests of a bad one. The leaders of the
+popular party at Ghent believed him dangerous. They felt certain that it
+was the deeply laid design of the Catholic nobles foiled as they had been
+in the objects with which they had brought Matthias from Vienna, and
+enraged as they were that the only result of that movement had been to
+establish the power of Orange upon a firmer basis--to set up an opposing
+influence in Ghent. Flanders, in the possession of the Catholics, was to
+weigh up Brabant, with its recent tendencies to toleration. Aerschot was
+to counteract the schemes of Orange. Matthias was to be withdrawn from
+the influence of the great heretic, and be yet compelled to play the part
+set down for him by those who had placed him upon the stage. A large
+portion, no doubt, of the schemes here suggested, was in agitation, but
+the actors were hardly equal to the drama which they were attempting. The
+intrigue was, however, to be frustrated at once by the hand of Orange,
+acting as it often did from beneath a cloud.
+
+Of all the chieftains possessing influence with the inhabitants of Ghent,
+two young nobles, named Ryhove and Imbize, were the most conspicuous.
+Both were of ancient descent and broken fortunes, both were passionately
+attached to the Prince, both were inspired with an intense hatred for all
+that was Catholic or Spanish. They had travelled further on the reforming
+path than many had done in that day, and might even be called democratic
+in their notions. Their heads were filled with visions of Greece and
+Rome; the praise of republics was ever on their lips; and they avowed to
+their intimate associates that it was already feasible to compose a
+commonwealth like that of the Swiss Cantons out of the seventeen
+Netherlands. They were regarded as dreamers by some, as desperadoes by
+others. Few had confidence in their capacity or their purity; but Orange,
+who knew mankind, recognized in them useful instruments for any hazardous
+enterprise. They delighted in stratagems and sudden feats of arms.
+Audacious and cruel by temperament, they were ever most happy in becoming
+a portion of the desolation which popular tumults engender.
+
+There were several excited meetings of the four estates of Flanders
+immediately after the arrival of the Duke of Aerschot in Ghent. His
+coming had been preceded by extensive promises, but it soon became
+obvious that their fulfilment was to be indefinitely deferred. There was
+a stormy session on the 27th of October, many of the clergy and nobility
+being present, and comparatively few members of the third estate. Very
+violent speeches were made, and threats openly uttered, that the
+privileges, about which so much noise had been heard, would be rather
+curtailed than enlarged under the new administration. At the same
+session, the commission of Aerschot was formally presented by Champagny
+and Sweveghem, deputed by the State Council for that purpose. Champagny
+was in a somewhat anomalous position. There was much doubt in men's minds
+concerning him. He had seemed lately the friend of Orange, but he was
+certainly the brother of Granvelle. His splendid but fruitless services
+during the Antwerp Fury had not been forgotten, but he was known to be a
+determined Catholic. He was a hater of Spaniards, but no lover of popular
+liberty. The nature of his sentiments towards Orange was perhaps unjustly
+suspected. At any rate, two or three days after the events which now
+occupy our attention, he wrote him a private letter, in which he assured
+him of his attachment. In reference to the complaints, of the Prince,
+that he had not been seconded as he ought to have been, he said,
+moreover, that he could solemnly swear never to have seen a single
+individual who did not hold the Prince in admiration, and who was not
+affectionately devoted to him, not only, by public profession, but by
+private sentiment.
+
+There was little doubt entertained as to the opinions held by the rest of
+the aristocratic party, then commencing their manoeuvres in Ghent. Their
+sentiments were uttered with sufficient distinctness in this remarkable
+session.
+
+Hessels, the old Blood Councillor, was then resident in Ghent; where he
+discharged high governmental functions. It was he, as it will be
+remembered, who habitually fell asleep at that horrible council board,
+and could only start from his naps to-shout "ad patibulum," while the
+other murderers had found their work less narcotic. A letter from Hessels
+to Count de Reux, late royal governor of Flanders, was at the present
+juncture intercepted. Perhaps it was invented, but genuine or fictitious,
+it was circulated extensively among the popular leaders, and had the
+effect of proving Madame de Hessels a true prophet. It precipitated the
+revolution in Flanders, and soon afterwards cost the Councillor his life.
+"We have already brought many notable magistrates of Flanders over to the
+aide of his Highness Don John," wrote Hessels. "We hope, after the Duke
+of Aerschot is governor; that we shall fully carry out the intentions of
+his Majesty and the plans of his Highness. We shall also know how to
+circumvent the scandalous heretic with all his adherents and followers."
+
+Certainly, if this letter were true, it was high time for the friends of
+the "scandalous heretic" to look about them. If it were a forgery, which
+is highly probable, it was ingeniously imagined, and did the work of
+truth. The revolutionary party, being in a small minority in the
+assembly, were advised by their leaders to bow before the storm. They did
+so, and the bluster of the reactionary party grew louder as they marked
+the apparent discomfiture of their foes. They openly asserted that the
+men who were clamoring for privileges should obtain nothing but halters.
+The buried charters should never be resuscitated; but the spirit of the
+dead Emperor, who had once put a rope around the necks of the insolent
+Ghenters, still lived in that of his son. There was no lack of
+denunciation. Don John and the Duke of Aerschot would soon bring the
+turbulent burghers to their senses, and there would then be an end to
+this renewed clamor about musty parchments. Much indignation was secretly
+excited in the assembly by such menaces. Without doors the subterranean
+flames spread rapidly, but no tumult occurred that night. Before the
+session was over, Ryhove left the city, pretending a visit to Tournay. No
+sooner had he left the gates, however, than he turned his horse's head in
+the opposite direction, and rode off post haste to Antwerp. There he had
+a conference with William of Orange, and painted in lively colors the
+alarming position of affairs. "And what do you mean to do in the matter?"
+asked the Prince, rather drily. Ryhove was somewhat disconcerted. He had
+expected a violent explosion; well as he knew the tranquil personage whom
+he was addressing. "I know no better counsel," he replied, at length,
+"than to take the Duke, with his bishops, councillors, lords, and the
+whole nest of them, by the throat, and thrust them all out together."
+
+"Rather a desperate undertaking, however?" said the Prince; carelessly,
+but interrogatively.
+
+"I know no other remedy," answered Ryhove; "I would rather make the
+attempt, relying upon God alone, and die like a man if needful, than live
+in eternal slavery. Like an ancient Roman," continued the young
+republican noble, in somewhat bombastic vein, "I am ready to wager my
+life, where my fatherland's welfare is at stake."
+
+"Bold words!" said the Prince, looking gravely at Ryhove; "but upon what
+force do you rely for your undertaking?"
+
+"If I can obtain no assistance from your Excellency," was the reply, "I
+shall throw myself on the mass of the citizens. I can arouse them in the
+name of their ancient liberties, which must be redeemed now or never."
+
+The Prince, believing probably that the scheme, if scheme there were, was
+but a wild one, felt little inclination to compromise himself with the
+young conspirator. He told him he could do nothing at present, and saying
+that he must at least sleep upon the matter, dismissed him for the night.
+Next morning, at daybreak, Ryhove was again closeted with him. The Prince
+asked his sanguine partisan if he were still determined to carry out his
+project, with no more definite support than he had indicated? Ryhove
+assured him, in reply, that he meant to do so; or to die in the attempt.
+The Prince shrugged his shoulders, and soon afterwards seemed to fall
+into a reverie. Ryhove continued talking, but it was soon obvious that
+his Highness was not listening; and he therefore took his leave somewhat
+abruptly. Hardly had he left the house, however, when the Prince
+despatched Saint Aldegonde in search of him. That gentleman, proceeding
+to his hotel, walked straight into the apartment of Ryhove, and commenced
+a conversation with a person whom he found there, but to his surprise he
+soon discovered, experienced politician though he was, that he had made
+an egregious blunder. He had opened a dangerous secret to an entire
+stranger, and Ryhove coming into the apartment a few minutes afterwards,
+was naturally surprised to find the Prince's chief councillor in close
+conversation about the plot with Van Rooyen, the burgomaster of
+Denremonde. The Flemish noble, however, always prompt in emergencies,
+drew his rapier, and assured the astonished burgomaster that he would
+either have his life on the instant, or his oath never to reveal a
+syllable of what he had heard. That functionary, who had neither desired
+the young noble's confidence, nor contemplated the honor of being run
+through the body as a consequence of receiving it, was somewhat aghast at
+the rapid manner in which these gentlemen transacted business. He
+willingly gave the required pledge, and was permitted to depart.
+
+The effect of the conference between Saint Aldegonde and Ryhove was to
+convince the young partisan that the Prince would neither openly
+countenance his project, nor be extremely vexed should it prove
+successful. In short, while, as in the case of the arrest of the State
+Council, the subordinates were left to appear the principals in the
+transactions, the persons most intimate with William of Orange were
+allowed to form satisfactory opinions as to his wishes, and to serve as
+instruments to his ends. "Vive qui vince!" cried Saint-Aldegonde,
+encouragingly, to Ryhove, shaking hands with him at parting. The
+conspirator immediately mounted, and rode off towards Ghent. During his
+absence there had been much turbulence, but no decided outbreak, in that
+city. Imbize had accosted the Duke of Aerschot in the street, and
+demanded when and how he intended to proclaim the restoration of the
+ancient charters. The haughty Duke had endeavoured to shake off his
+importunate questioner, while Imbize persisted, with increasing audacity,
+till Aerschot lost his temper at last: "Charters, charters!" he cried in
+a rage; "you shall learn soon, ye that are thus howling for charters,
+that we have still the old means of making you dumb, with a rope on your
+throats. I tell you this--were you ever so much hounded on by the Prince
+of Orange."
+
+The violence of the new governor excited the wrath of Imbize. He broke
+from him abruptly, and rushed to a rendezvous of his confederates, every
+man of whom was ready for a desperate venture. Groups of excited people
+were seen vociferating in different places. A drum was heard to rattle
+from time to time. Nevertheless, the rising tumult seemed to subside
+again after a season, owing partly to the exertions of the magistrates,
+partly to the absence of Ryhove. At four in the afternoon that gentleman
+entered the town, and riding directly to the head-quarters of the
+conspiracy, was incensed to hear that the work, which had begun so
+bravely, had been allowed to cool. "Tis a time," he cried, "for
+vigilance. If we sleep now, we shall be dead in our beds before morning.
+Better to fan the fire which has begun to blaze in the people's heart.
+Better to gather the fruit while it is ripe. Let us go forward, each with
+his followers, and I pledge myself to lead the way. Let us scuttle the
+old ship of slavery; let us hunt the Spanish Inquisition, once for all,
+to the hell from whence it came!"
+
+"There spoke the voice of a man!" cried the Flemish captain, Mieghem, one
+of the chief conspirators; "lead on, Ryhove, I swear to follow you as far
+as our legs will carry us." Thus encouraged, Ryhove, rushed about the
+city, calling upon the people everywhere to rise. They rose almost to a
+man. Arming and mustering at different points, according to previous
+arrangements, a vast number assembled by toll of bell, after nightfall,
+on the public square, whence, under command of Ryhove, they swept to the
+residence of Aerschot at Saint Bavon. The guards, seeing the fierce mob
+approaching, brandishing spears and waving, torches, had scarce time to
+close the gates; as the people loudly demanded entrance and the delivery
+to them of the Governor. Both claims were refused. "Let us burn the birds
+in their nests," cried Ryhove, without hesitation. Pitch, light wood, and
+other combustibles, were brought at his command, and in a few moments the
+palace would have been in flames, had not Aerschot, seeing that the
+insurgents were in earnest, capitulated. As soon as the gates were open,
+the foremost of the mob rushed upon him, and would have torn him limb
+from limb, had not Ryhove resolutely interfered, and twice protected the
+life of the governor, at the peril of his own. The Duke was then made a
+prisoner, and, under a strong guard, was conveyed, still in his
+night-gown, and bare-footed, to the mansion of Ryhove. All the other
+leading members of the Catholic party were captured, the arrests
+proceeding till a late hour in the night. Rassinghem, Sweveghem, Fisch,
+De la Porta, and other prominent members of the Flemish estates or
+council, were secured, but Champagny was allowed to make his escape. The
+Bishops of Bruges and Ypres were less fortunate. Blood-councillor
+Hessels, whose letter--genuine or counterfeited--had been so instrumental
+in hastening this outbreak, was most carefully guarded, and to him and to
+Senator Fisch the personal consequences of that night's work were to be
+very tragic.
+
+Thus audaciously, successfully, and hitherto without bloodshed, was the
+anti-Catholic revolution commenced in Flanders. The event was the first
+of a long and most signal series. The deed was done. The provisional
+government was established, at the head of which was placed Ryhove, to
+whom oaths of allegiance were rendered, subject to the future
+arrangements of the states-general and Orange: On the 9th of November,
+the nobles, notables, and community of Ghent published an address, in
+which they elaborately defended the revolution which had been effected
+and the arrests which had taken place; while the Catholic party, with
+Aerschot at its head, was declared to be secretly in league with Don John
+to bring back the Spanish troops, to overthrow the Prince of Orange, to
+deprive him of the protectorate of Brabant, to set at nought the Ghent
+treaty, and to suppress the Reformed religion.
+
+The effect of this sudden rising of the popular party was prodigious
+throughout the Netherlands. At the same time, the audacity of such
+extreme proceedings could hardly be countenanced by any considerable
+party in the states-general. Champagny wrote to the Prince of Orange
+that, even if the letter of Hessels were genuine, it proved nothing
+against Aerschot, and he urged the necessity of suppressing such scene of
+licence immediately, through the influence of those who could command the
+passions of the mob. Otherwise, he affirmed that all legitimate forms of
+justice would disappear, and that it would be easy to set the bloodhounds
+upon any game whatever. Saint Aldegonde wrote to the Prince, that it
+would be a great point, but a very difficult one, to justify the Ghent
+transaction; for there was little doubt that the Hessels letter was a
+forgery. It was therefore as well, no doubt, that the Prince had not
+decidedly committed himself to Ryhove's plot; and thus deprived himself
+of the right to interfere afterwards, according to what seemed the claims
+of justice and sound policy.
+
+He now sent Arend Van Dorp to Ghent, to remonstrate with the leaders of
+the insurrection upon the violence of their measures, and to demand the
+liberation of the prisoners--a request which was only complied with in
+the case of Aerschot. That nobleman was liberated on the 14th of
+November, under the condition that he would solemnly pledge himself to
+forget and forgive the treatment which he had received, but the other
+prisoners were retained in custody for a much longer period. A few weeks
+afterwards, the Prince of Orange visited Ghent, at the earnest request of
+the four estates of Flanders, and it was hoped that his presence would
+contribute to the restoration of tranquillity.
+
+This visit was naturally honored by a brilliant display of "rhetorical"
+spectacles and tableaux vivants; for nothing could exceed the passion of
+the Netherlanders of that century for apologues and charades. In allegory
+they found an ever-present comforter in their deepest afflictions. The
+prince was escorted from the Town-gate to the Jacob's church amid a blaze
+of tar-barrels and torches, although it was mid-day, where a splendid
+exhibition had been arranged by that sovereign guild of rhetoric, "Jesus
+with the Balsam Flower." The drama was called Judas Maccabaeus, in
+compliment to the Prince. In the centre of the stage stood the Hebrew
+patriot, in full armor, symbolizing the illustrious guest doing battle
+for his country. He was attended by the three estates of the country,
+ingeniously personified by a single individual, who wore the velvet
+bonnet of a noble, the cassock of a priest, end the breeches of a
+burgher. Groups of allegorical personages were drawn up on the right and
+left;--Courage, Patriotism, Freedom, Mercy, Diligence, and other
+estimable qualities upon one side, were balanced by Murder, Rapine,
+Treason, and the rest of the sisterhood of Crime on the other. The
+Inquisition was represented as a lean and hungry hag. The "Ghent
+Pacification" was dressed in cramoisy satin, and wore a city on her head
+for a turban; while; tied to her apron-strings were Catholicism and
+Protestantism, bound in a loving embrace by a chain of seventeen links,
+which she was forging upon an anvil. Under the anvil was an individual in
+complete harness, engaged in eating his heart; this was Discord. In front
+of the scene stood History and Rhetoric, attired as "triumphant maidens,
+in white garments," each with a laurel crown and a burning torch. These
+personages, after holding a rhymed dialogue between themselves, filled
+with wonderful conceits and quibbles, addressed the Prince of Orange and
+Maccabaeus, one after the other, in a great quantity of very detestable
+verses.
+
+After much changing of scenes and groups, and an enormous quantity of
+Flemish-woven poetry, the "Ghent Peace" came forward, leading a lion in
+one hand, and holding a heart of pure gold in the other. The heart, upon
+which was inscribed Sinceritas, was then presented to the real Prince, as
+he sat "reposing after the spectacle," and perhaps slightly yawning, the
+gift being accompanied by another tremendous discharge of complimentary
+verses. After this, William of Orange was permitted to proceed towards
+the lodgings provided for him, but the magistrates and notables met him
+upon the threshold, and the pensionary made him a long oration. Even
+after the Prince was fairly housed, he had not escaped the fangs of
+allegory; for, while he sat at supper refreshing his exhausted frame
+after so much personification and metaphor, a symbolical personage,
+attired to represent the town corporation made his appearance, and poured
+upon him a long and particularly dull heroic poem. Fortunately, this
+episode closed the labors of the day.
+
+On the 7th of December, 1577, the states-general formally declared that
+Don John was no longer Stadholder, Governor, nor Captain-General, but an
+infractor of the peace which he had sworn to maintain, and an enemy of
+the fatherland. All natives of the country who should show him favor or
+assistance were declared rebels and traitors; and by a separate edict,
+issued the same day, it was ordained that an inventory of the estates of
+such persons should forthwith be taken.
+
+Thus the war, which had for a brief period been suspended during the
+angry, tortuous, and hopeless negotiations which succeeded the arrival of
+Don John, was once more to be let loose. To this point had tended all the
+policy of Orange-faithful as ever to the proverb with which he had broken
+off the Breda conferences, "that war was preferable to a doubtful peace."
+Even, however, as his policy had pointed to a war as the necessary
+forerunner of a solid peace with Spain, so had his efforts already
+advanced the cause of internal religious concord within the provinces
+themselves. On the 10th of December, a new act of union was signed at
+Brussels, by which those of the Roman Church and those who had retired
+from that communion bound themselves to respect and to protect each other
+with mutual guarantees against all enemies whatsoever. Here was a step
+beyond the Ghent Pacification, and in the same direction. The first
+treaty tacitly introduced toleration by suppressing the right of
+persecution, but the new union placed the Reformed religion on a level
+with the old. This was the result of the Prince's efforts; and, in truth,
+there was no lack of eagerness among these professors of a faith which
+had been so long under ban, to take advantage of his presence. Out of
+dark alleys, remote thickets, subterranean conventicles, where the
+dissenters had so long been trembling for their lives, the oppressed now
+came forth into the light of day. They indulged openly in those forms of
+worship which persecution had affected to regard with as much holy horror
+as the Badahuennan or Hercynian mysteries of Celtic ages could inspire,
+and they worshipped boldly the common God of Catholic and Puritan, in the
+words most consonant to their tastes, without dreading the gibbet as an
+inevitable result of their audacity.
+
+In truth, the time had arrived for bringing the northern and southern,
+the Celtic and German, the Protestant and Catholic, hearts together, or
+else for acquiescing in their perpetual divorce. If the sentiment of
+nationality, the cause of a common fatherland, could now overcome the
+attachment to a particular form of worship--if a common danger and a
+common destiny could now teach the great lesson of mutual toleration, it
+might yet be possible to create a united Netherland, and defy for ever
+the power of Spain. Since the Union of Brussels, of January, 1577, the
+internal cancer of religious discord had again begun to corrode the body
+politic. The Pacification of Ghent had found the door open to religious
+toleration. It had not opened, but had left it open. The union of
+Brussels had closed the door again. Contrary to the hopes of the Prince
+of Orange and of the patriots who followed in his track, the sanction
+given to the Roman religion had animated the Catholics to fresh arrogance
+and fresh persecution. In the course of a few months, the only fruits of
+the new union, from which so much had been hoped, were to be seen in
+imprisonments, confiscations, banishments, executions. The Perpetual
+Edict, by which the fifteen provinces had united in acknowledging Don
+John while the Protestant stronghold of Holland and Zealand had been
+placed in a state of isolation by the wise distrust of Orange, had
+widened the breach between Catholics and Protestants. The subsequent
+conduct of Don John had confirmed the suspicions and demonstrated the
+sagacity of the Prince. The seizure of Namur and the open hostility
+avowed by the Governor once more forced the provinces together. The
+suppressed flames of nationality burst forth again. Catholic and
+Protestant, Fleming and Hollander, instinctively approached each other,
+and felt the necessity of standing once more shoulder to shoulder in
+defence of their common rights. The Prince of Orange was called for by
+the unanimous cry of the whole country. He came to Brussels. His first
+step, as already narrated, was to break off negotiations which had been
+already ratified by the votes of the states-general. The measure was
+reconsidered, under pretence of adding certain amendments. Those
+amendments were the unconditional articles of surrender proposed for Don
+John's signature on the 25th of September--articles which could only
+elicit words of defiance from his lips.
+
+Thus far the Prince's object was accomplished. A treacherous peace, which
+would have ensured destruction, was averted, but a new obstacle to the
+development of his broad and energetic schemes arose in the intrigue
+which brought the Archduke from Vienna. The cabals of Orange's secret
+enemies were again thwarted with the same adroitness to which his avowed
+antagonists were forced to succumb. Matthias was made the exponent of the
+new policy, the standard-bearer of the new union which the Prince now
+succeeded in establishing; for his next step was immediately to impress
+upon the provinces which had thus united in casting down the gauntlet to
+a common enemy the necessity of uniting in a permanent league. One
+province was already lost by the fall of Namur. The bonds of a permanent
+union for the other sixteen could be constructed of but one
+material--religious toleration, and for a moment, the genius of Orange,
+always so far beyond his age, succeeded in raising the mass of his
+countrymen to the elevation upon which he had so long stood alone.
+
+The "new or nearer Union of Brussels" was signed on the 10th of December,
+eleven months after the formation of the first union. This was the third
+and, unfortunately, the last confederation of all the Netherlands. The
+original records have been lost, but it is known that the measure was
+accepted unanimously in the estates-general as soon as presented. The
+leading Catholic nobles were with the army, but a deputation, sent to the
+camp, returned with their signatures and hearty approval; with the
+signatures and approval of such determined Catholics as the Lalains,
+Meluns, Egmont, and La Motte. If such men could unite for the sake of the
+fatherland in an act of religious toleration, what lofty hopes for the
+future was not the Prince justified in forming; for it was the Prince
+alone who accomplished this victory of reason over passion. As a
+monument, not only of his genius, but of the elevated aspirations of a
+whole people in an age of intolerance, the "closer Union of Brussels"
+deserves especial place in the history of human progress. Unfortunately,
+it was destined to a brief existence. The battle of Gemblours was its
+death-blow, and before the end of a month, the union thus hopefully
+constructed was shattered for ever. The Netherland people was never
+united again. By the Union of Utrecht, seven states subsequently rescued
+their existence, and lived to construct a powerful republic. The rest
+were destined to remain for centuries in the condition of provinces to a
+distant metropolis, to be shifted about as make-weights in political
+balances, and only in our own age to come into the honorable rank of
+independent constitutional states.
+
+The Prince had, moreover, strengthened himself for the coming struggle by
+an alliance with England. The thrifty but politic Queen, fearing the
+result of the secret practices of Alencon--whom Orange, as she suspected,
+still kept in reserve to be played off, in case of need, against Matthias
+and Don John--had at last consented to a treaty of alliance and subsidy.
+On the 7th of January, 1578, the Marquis Havre, envoy from the estates,
+concluded an arrangement in London, by which the Queen was to lend them
+her credit--in other words, to endorse their obligations, to the amount
+of one hundred thousand pounds sterling. The money was to be raised
+wherever the states might be able to negotiate the bills, and her
+liability was to cease within a year. She was likewise to be collaterally
+secured by pledges from certain cities in the Netherlands. This amount
+was certainly not colossal, while the conditions were sufficiently
+parsimonious. At the same time a beginning was made, and the principle of
+subsidy was established. The Queen, furthermore, agreed to send five
+thousand infantry and one thousand cavalry to the provinces, under the
+command of an officer of high rank, who was to have a seat and vote in
+the Netherland Council of State. These troops were to be paid by the
+provinces, but furnished by the Queen. The estates were to form no treaty
+without her knowledge, nor undertake any movement of importance without
+her consent. In case she should be herself attacked by any foreign power,
+the provinces were to assist her to the same extent as the amount of aid
+now afforded to themselves; and in case of a naval war, with a fleet of
+at least forty ships. It had already been arranged that the appointment
+of the Prince of Orange as Lieutenant-General for Matthias was a 'sine
+qua non' in any treaty of assistance with England. Soon after the
+conclusion of this convention, Sir Thomas Wilkes was despatched on a
+special mission to Spain, and Mr. Leyton sent to confer privately with
+Don John. It was not probable, however, that the diplomatic skill of
+either would make this new arrangement palatable to Philip or his
+Governor.
+
+Within a few days after their signature of this important treaty, the
+Prince had, at length, wholly succeeded in conquering the conflicting
+passions in the states-general, and in reconciling them, to a certain
+extent, with each other. The closer union had been accepted, and now
+thirty articles, which had been prepared under his superintendence, and
+had already on the 17th of December been accepted by Matthias, were
+established as the fundamental terms, according to which the Archduke was
+to be received as Governor-General. No power whatever was accorded to the
+young man, who had come so far with eager and ambitious views. As the
+Prince had neither solicited nor desired a visit which had, on the
+contrary, been the result of hostile machinations, the Archduke could
+hardly complain that the power accorded him was but shadowy, and that his
+presence was rendered superfluous. It was not surprising that the common
+people gave him the name of Greffier, or registering clerk to the Prince;
+for his functions were almost limited to the signing of acts which were
+countersigned by Orange. According to the stipulations of the Queen of
+England, and the views of the whole popular party, the Prince remained
+Ruward of Brabant, notwithstanding the appointment of a nominal
+Governor-General, by whom his own duties were to be superseded.
+
+The articles which were laid down as the basis upon which the Archduke
+was to be accepted; composed an ample representative constitution, by
+which all the legislative and many of the executive powers of government
+were bestowed upon the states-general or upon the council by them to be
+elected. To avoid remaining in the condition of a people thus left
+without a head, the states declared themselves willing to accept Matthias
+as Governor-General, on condition of the King's subsequent approbation,
+and upon the general basis of the Ghent treaty. The Archduke, moreover,
+was to take an oath of allegiance to the King and to the states-general
+at the same time. He was to govern the land by the advice of a state
+council, the members of which were to be appointed by the states-general,
+and were "to be native Netherlanders, true patriots; and neither
+ambitious nor greedy." In all matters discussed before the state council,
+a majority of votes was to decide. The Governor-General, with his Council
+of State, should conclude nothing concerning the common affairs of the
+nation--such as requests, loans, treaties of peace or declarations of
+war, alliances or confederacies with foreign nations--without the consent
+of the states-general. He was to issue no edict or ordinance, and
+introduce no law, without the consent of the same body duly assembled,
+and representing each individual province. A majority of the members was
+declared necessary to a quorum of the council. All acts and despatches
+were to be drawn up by a member of the board. The states-general were to
+assemble when, where, and as often as, and remain in session as long as,
+they might think it expedient. At the request of any individual province,
+concerning matters about which a convention of the generality was
+customary, the other states should be bound to assemble without waiting
+for directions from the Governor-General. The estates of each particular
+province were to assemble at their pleasure. The governor and council,
+with advice of the states-general, were to appoint all the principal
+military officers. Troops were to be enrolled and garrisons established
+by and with the consent of the states. Governors of provinces were to be
+appointed by the Governor-General, with advice of his council, and with
+the consent of the estates of the province interested. All military
+affairs were to be conducted during war by the governor, with advice of
+his council, while the estates were to have absolute control over the
+levying and expenditure of the common funds of the country.
+
+It is sufficiently plain from this brief summary, that the powers thus
+conferred upon Matthias alone, were absolutely null, while those which he
+might exercise in conjunction with the state council, were not much more
+extensive. The actual force of the government--legislative, executive,
+and, administrative--was lodged in the general assembly, while no
+authority was left to the King, except the nominal right to approve these
+revolutionary proceedings, according to the statement in the preamble.
+Such a reservation in favor of his Majesty seemed a superfluous sarcasm.
+It was furthermore resolved that the Prince of Orange should be appointed
+Lieutenant-General for Matthias, and be continued in his office of
+Ruward. This constitution, drawn up under the superintendence of the
+Prince, had been already accepted by Matthias, while still at Antwerp,
+and upon the 18th of January, 1578, the ceremony of his inauguration took
+place.
+
+It was the third triumphal procession which Brussels had witnessed within
+nine months. It was also the most brilliant of all; for the burghers, as
+if to make amends to the Archduke for the actual nullity to which he had
+been reduced, seemed resolved to raise him to the seventh heaven of
+allegory. By the rhetorical guilds he was regarded as the most brilliant
+constellation of virtues which had yet shone above the Flemish horizon. A
+brilliant cavalcade, headed by Orange, accompanied by Count John of
+Nassau, the Prince de Chimay and other notables, met him at Vilvoorde,
+and escorted him to the city gate. On an open field, outside the town,
+Count Bossu had arranged a review of troops, concluding with a
+sham-fight, which, in the words of a classical contemporary, seemed as
+"bloody a rencontre as that between Duke Miltiades of Athens and King
+Darius upon the plains of Attics." The procession entered the Louvain
+gate, through a splendid triumphal arch, filled with a band of invisible
+musicians. "I believe that Orpheus had never played so melodiously on his
+harp," says the same authority, "nor Apollo on his lyre, nor Pan on his
+lute, as the city waits then performed." On entering the gates, Matthias
+was at once delivered over to the hands of mythology, the burghers and
+rhetoricians taking possession of their illustrious captive, and being
+determined to outdo themselves in demonstrations of welcome. The
+representatives of the "nine nations" of Brussels met him in the
+Ritter-street, followed by a gorgeous retinue. Although it was mid-day,
+all bore flaming torches. Although it was January, the streets were
+strewed with flowers. The houses were festooned with garlands, and hung
+with brilliant silks and velvets. The streets were thronged with
+spectators, and encumbered with triumphal arches. On the Grande Place
+always the central scene in Brussels, whether for comedies, or
+tournaments, or executions, the principal dramatic effects had been
+accumulated. The splendid front of the Hotel de Ville was wreathed with
+scarfs and banners; its windows and balconies, as well as those of the
+picturesque houses which formed the square, were crowded with
+gaily-dressed women. Upon the area of the place, twenty-four theatres had
+been erected, where a aeries of magnificent living pictures were
+represented by the most beautiful young females that could be found in
+the city. All were attired in brocades, embroideries, and cloth of gold.
+The subjects of the tableaux vivants were, of course, most classic, for
+the Netherlanders were nothing, if not allegorical; yet, as spectacles,
+provided by burghers and artisans for the amusement of their
+fellow-citizens, they certainly proved a considerable culture in the
+people who could thus be amused. All the groups were artistically
+arranged. Upon one theatre stood Juno with her peacock, presenting
+Matthias with the city of Brussels, which she held, beautifully modelled,
+in her hand. Upon another, Cybele gave him the keys, Reason handed him a
+bridle, Hebe a basket of flowers, Wisdom a looking-glass and two law
+books, Diligence a pair of spurs; while Constancy, Magnanimity, Prudence,
+and other virtues, furnished him with a helmet; corslet, spear, and
+shield. Upon other theatres, Bellona presented him with several
+men-at-arms, tied in a bundle; Fame gave him her trumpet, and Glory her
+crown. Upon one stage Quintus Curtius, on horseback, was seen plunging
+into the yawning abyss; upon six others Scipio Africanus was exhibited,
+as he appeared in the most picturesque moments of his career. The
+beardless Archduke had never achieved anything, save his nocturnal escape
+from Vienna in his night-gown; but the honest Flemings chose to regard
+him as a re-incarnation of those two eminent Romans. Carried away by
+their own learning, they already looked upon him as a myth; and such
+indeed he was destined to remain throughout his Netherland career. After
+surveying all these wonders, Matthias was led up the hill again to the
+ducal palace, where, after hearing speeches and odes till he was
+exhausted, he was at last allowed to eat his supper and go to bed.
+
+Meantime the citizens feasted in the streets. Bonfires were blazing
+everywhere, at which the people roasted "geese, pigs, capons, partridges,
+and chickens," while upon all sides were the merriest piping and dancing.
+Of a sudden, a fiery dragon was seen flying through the air. It poised
+for a while over the heads of the revelling crowd in the Grande Place,
+and then burst with a prodigious explosion, sending forth rockets and
+other fireworks in every direction. This exhibition, then a new one, so
+frightened the people, that they all took to their heels, "as if a
+thousand soldiers had assaulted them," tumbling over each other in great
+confusion, and so dispersing to their homes.
+
+The next day Matthias took the oaths as Governor-General, to support the
+new constitution, while the Prince of Orange was sworn in as
+Lieutenant-General and Governor of Brabant. Upon the next a splendid
+banquet was given them in the grand ball of the Hotel de Ville, by the
+states-general, and when the cloth was removed, Rhetoric made her last
+and most ingenious demonstration, through the famous guild of "Mary with
+the Flower Garland."
+
+Two individuals--the one attired as a respectable burgher; the other as a
+clerical personage in gown and bands-made their appearance upon a stage,
+opposite the seats of their Highnesses, and pronounced a long dialogue in
+rhyme. One of the speakers rejoiced in the appellation of the "Desiring
+Heart," the other was called "Common Comfort." Common Sense might have
+been more to the purpose, but appeared to have no part in the play.
+Desiring Heart, being of an inquisitive disposition, propounded a series
+of puzzling questions, mythological in their nature, which seemed like
+classical conundrums, having reference, mainly, to the proceedings of
+Venus, Neptune, Juno, and other divinities. They appeared to have little
+to do with Matthias or the matter in hand, but Common Comfort knew
+better. That clerical personage, accordingly, in a handsome allowance of
+rhymes, informed his despairing colleague that everything would end well;
+that Jupiter, Diana, Venus, and the rest of them would all do their duty,
+and that Belgica would be relieved from all her woes, at the advent of a
+certain individual. Whereupon cried Desiring Heart,
+
+          Oh Common Comfort who is he?
+          His name, and of what family?
+
+To which Comfort responded by mentioning the Archduke, in a poetical and
+highly-complimentary strain, with handsome allusions to the inevitable
+Quintus Curtius and Scipio Africanus. The concluding words of the speech
+were not spoken, but were taken as the cue for a splendid charade; the
+long-suffering Scipio again making his appearance, in company with
+Alexander and Hannibal; the group typifying the future government of
+Matthias. After each of these, heroic individuals had spouted a hundred
+lines or so, the play was terminated, and Rhetoric took her departure.
+The company had remained at table during this long representation, and
+now the dessert was served, consisting of a "richly triumphant banquet of
+confectionary, marmalade, and all kinds of genteelnesses in sugar."
+
+Meanwhile, Don John sat chafing and almost frenzied with rage at Namur.
+Certainly he had reasons enough for losing his temper. Never since the
+days of Maximilian had king's brother been so bearded by rebels. The
+Cross was humbled in the dust, the royal authority openly derided, his
+Majesty's representative locked up in a fortress, while "the accursed
+Prince of Orange" reigned supreme in Brussels, with an imperial Archduke
+for his private secretary.
+
+The Governor addressed a long, private, and most bitter letter to the
+Emperor, for the purpose of setting himself right in the opinion of that
+potentate, and of giving him certain hints as to what was expected of the
+imperial court by Philip and himself. He expressed confidence that the
+imperial commissioners would have some effect in bringing about the
+pacification of the Netherlands, and protested his own strong desire for
+such a result, provided always that the two great points of the Catholic
+religion and his Majesty's authority were preserved intact. "In the hope
+that those articles would be maintained," said he, "I have emptied cities
+and important places of their garrisons, when I might easily have kept
+the soldiers, and with the soldiers the places, against all the world,
+instead of consigning them to the care of men who at this hour have arms
+in their hand against their natural prince." He declared vehemently that
+in all his conduct, since his arrival in the provinces, he had been
+governed exclusively by the interests of Philip, an object which he
+should steadily pursue to the end. He urged, too, that the Emperor, being
+of the same house as Philip, and therefore more obliged than all others
+to sustain his quarrel, would do well to espouse his cause with all the
+warmth possible. "The forgetfulness by vassals," said Don John, "of the
+obedience due to their sovereign is so dangerous, that all princes and
+potentates, even those at the moment exempt from trouble; should assist
+in preparing the remedy, in order that their subjects also may not take
+it into their heads to do the like, liberty being a contagious disease,
+which goes on infecting one neighbour after another, if the cure be not
+promptly applied." It was, he averred, a desperate state of things for
+monarchs, when subjects having obtained such concessions as the
+Netherlanders had obtained, nevertheless loved him and obeyed him so
+little. They showed, but too clearly, that the causes alleged by them had
+been but pretexts, in order to effect designs, long ago conceived, to
+overthrow the ancient constitution of the country, and to live
+thenceforward in unbridled liberty. So many indecent acts had been
+committed prejudicial to religion and to his Majesty's grandeur, that the
+Governor avowed his, determination to have no farther communication with
+the provinces without fresh commands to that effect. He begged the
+Emperor to pay no heed to what the states said, but to observe what they
+did. He assured him that nothing could be more senseless than the reports
+that Philip and his Governor-General in the Netherlands were negotiating
+with France, for the purpose of alienating the provinces from the
+Austrian crown. Philip, being chief of the family, and sovereign of the
+Netherlands, could not commit the absurdity of giving away his own
+property to other people, nor would Don John choose to be an instrument
+in so foolish a transaction. The Governor entreated the Emperor,
+therefore, to consider such fables as the invention of malcontents and
+traitors, of whom there were no lack at his court, and to remember that
+nothing was more necessary for the preservation of the greatness of his
+family than to cultivate the best relations with all its members.
+"Therefore," said he, with an absurd affectation of candor, "although I
+make no doubt whatever that the expedition hitherwards of the Archduke
+Matthias has been made with the best intentions; nevertheless, many are
+of opinion that it would have been better altogether omitted. If the
+Archduke," he continued, with hardly dissembled irony, "be desirous of
+taking charge of his Majesty's affairs, it would be preferable to employ
+himself in the customary manner. Your Majesty would do a laudable action
+by recalling him from this place, according to your Majesty's promise to
+me to that effect." In conclusion, Don John complained that difficulties
+had been placed in his way for making levies of troops in the Empire,
+while every facility had been afforded to the rebels. He therefore
+urgently insisted that so unnatural and unjust a condition of affairs
+should be remedied.
+
+Don John was not sorry in his heart that the crisis was at last come. His
+chain was broken. His wrath exploded in his first interview with Leyton,
+the English envoy, whom Queen Elizabeth had despatched to calm, if
+possible, his inevitable anger at her recent treaty with the states. He
+knew nothing of England, he said, nor of France, nor of the Emperor. His
+Catholic Majesty had commissioned him now to make war upon these
+rebellious provinces. He would do it with all his heart. As for the
+Emperor, he would unchain the Turks upon him for his perfidy. As for the
+burghers of Brussels, they would soon feel his vengeance.
+
+It was very obvious that these were not idle threats. War had again
+broken loose throughout these doomed provinces. A small but
+well-appointed army had been rapidly collecting under the banner of Don
+John at Luxemburg, Peter Ernest Mansfeld had brought many well-trained
+troops from France, and Prince Alexander of Parma had arrived with
+several choice and veteran regiments of Italy and Spain. The old
+schoolfellow, playmate and comrade of Don John, was shocked-on his
+arrival, to witness the attenuated frame and care-worn features of his
+uncle. The son of Charles the Fifth, the hero of Lepanto, seemed even to
+have lost the air of majesty which was so natural to him, for petty
+insults, perpetual crosses, seemed to have left their squalid traces upon
+his features. Nevertheless, the crusader was alive again, at the notes of
+warlike preparations which now resounded throughout the land.
+
+On the 25th of January he issued a proclamation, couched in three
+languages--French, German, and Flemish. He declared in this document that
+he had not come to enslave the provinces, but to protect them. At the
+same time he meant to re-establish his Majesty's authority, and the
+down-trod religion of Rome. He summoned all citizens and all soldiers
+throughout the provinces to join his banners, offering them pardon for
+their past offences, and protection against heretics and rebels. This
+declaration was the natural consequence of the exchange of defiances
+which had already taken place, and it was evident also that the angry
+manifesto was soon to be followed up by vigorous blows. The army of Don
+John already numbered more than twenty thousand well-seasoned and
+disciplined veterans. He was himself the most illustrious chieftain in
+Europe. He was surrounded by lieutenants cf the most brilliant
+reputation. Alexander of Parma, who had fought with distinction at
+Lepanto, was already recognised as possessing that signal military genius
+which was soon to stamp him as the first soldier of his age, while
+Mansfeld, Mondragon, Mendoza, and other distinguished officers, who had
+already won so much fame in the Netherlands, had now returned to the
+scene of their former achievements.
+
+On the other hand, the military affairs of the states were in confusion.
+Troops in nearly equal numbers to those of the royal army had been
+assembled, but the chief offices had been bestowed, by a mistaken policy,
+upon the great nobles. Already the jealousy of Orange, entertained by
+their whole order was painfully apparent. Notwithstanding the signal
+popularity which had made his appointment as Lieutenant-general
+inevitable it was not easy for him always to vindicate his authority over
+captious and rival magnates. He had every wish to conciliate the
+affections of men whom he could not in his heart respect, and he went as
+far in gratifying their ambition as comported with his own dignity;
+perhaps farther than was consistent with the national interests. He was
+still willing to trust Lalain, of whose good affection to the country he
+felt sure. Re had even been desirous of declining the office of
+Lieutenant-General, in order to avoid giving that nobleman the least
+occasion to think "that he would do him, or any other gentleman of the
+army, prejudice in any single matter in the world." This magnanimity had,
+not been repaid with corresponding confidence. We have already seen that
+Lalain had been secretly in the interest of Anjou ever since his wife and
+himself had lost their hearts to Margaret of Navarre; yet the Count was
+chief commander of the infantry in the states' army then assembled.
+Robert Melun, Vicomte de Gand, was commander of the cavalry, but he had
+recently been private envoy from Don John to the English Queen. Both
+these gentlemen, together with Pardieu De la Motte, general of the
+artillery, were voluntarily absent from the forces, under pretext of
+celebrating the wedding of the Seigneur De Bersel with the niece and
+heiress of the unfortunate Marquis of Bergen. The ghost of that
+ill-starred noble might almost have seemed to rise at the nuptial banquet
+of his heiress, to warn the traitors of the signal and bloody massacre
+which their treachery was soon to occasion. Philip Egmont, eldest son of
+the famous Lamoral, was with the army, as was the Seigneur de Heze, hero
+of the State Council's arrest, and the unstable Havre. But little was to
+be hoped from such leaders. Indeed, the affairs of the states continued
+to be in as perplexed a condition as that which honest John of Nassau had
+described some weeks before. "There were very few patriots," he had said,
+"but plenty of priests, with no lack of inexperienced lads--some looking
+for distinction, and others for pelf."
+
+The two armies had been mustered in the latter days of January. The Pope
+had issued a bull for the benefit of Don John, precisely similar to those
+formerly employed in the crusades against the Saracens. Authority was
+given him to levy contributions upon ecclesiastical property, while full
+absolution, at the hour of death, for all crimes committed during a whole
+lifetime, was proclaimed to those who should now join the standard of the
+Cross. There was at least no concealment. The Crescent-wearing Zealanders
+had been taken at their word, and the whole nation of Netherlanders were
+formally banned as unbelievers. The forces of Don John were mustered at
+Marche in Luxemburg; those of the states in a plain within a few miles of
+Namur. Both armies were nearly equal in number, amounting to nearly
+twenty thousand each, including a force of two thousand cavalry on each
+side. It had been the original intention of the patriots to attack Don
+John in Namur. Having learned, however, that he purposed marching forth
+himself to offer battle, they decided to fall back upon Gemblours, which
+was nine miles distant from that city. On the last day of January, they
+accordingly broke up their camp at Saint Martius, before dawn, and
+marched towards Gemblours. The chief commander was De Goignies, an old
+soldier of Charles the Fifth, who had also fought at Saint Quintin. The
+states' army was disposed in three divisions. The van consisted of the
+infantry regiments of De Heze and Montigny, flanked by a protective body
+of light horse. The centre, composed of the Walloon and German regiments,
+with a few companies of French, and thirteen companies of Scotch and
+English under Colonel Balfour, was commanded by two most distinguished
+officers, Bossu and Champagny. The rear, which, of course, was the post
+of responsibility and honor, comprised all the heavy cavalry, and was
+commanded by Philip Egmont and Lumey de la Marck. The Marquis Havre and
+the General-in-chief, Goignies, rode to and fro, as the army proceeded,
+each attended by his staff. The troops of Don John broke up from before
+Namur with the earliest dawn, and marched in pursuit of the retiring foe.
+In front was nearly the whole of the cavalry-carabineers, lancers, and
+heavy dragoons. The centre, arranged in two squares, consisted chiefly of
+Spanish infantry, with a lesser number of Germans. In the rear came the
+Walloons, marching also in a square, and protecting the baggage and
+ammunition. Charles Mansfeld had been left behind with a reserved force,
+stationed on the Meuse; Ottavio Gonzaga commanded in front, Ernest
+Mansfeld brought up the rear; while in the centre rode Don John himself,
+attended by the Prince of Parma. Over his head streamed the
+crucifix-emblazoned banner, with its memorable inscription--In hoc signo
+vici Turcos, in hoc Haereticos vincam.
+
+Small detachments of cavalry had been sent forward; under Olivera and
+Acosta, to scour the roads and forests, and to disturb all ambuscades
+which might have been prepared. From some stragglers captured by these
+officers, the plans of the retreating generals were learned. The winter's
+day was not far advanced, when the rearward columns of the states' army
+were descried in the distance. Don John, making a selection of some six
+hundred cavalry, all picked men, with a thousand infantry, divided the
+whole into two bodies, which he placed under command of Gonzaga and the
+famous old Christopher Mondragon. These officers received orders to hang
+on the rear of the enemy, to harass him, and to do him all possible
+damage consistent with the possibility of avoiding a general engagement,
+until the main army under Parma and Don John should arrive. The orders
+were at first strictly obeyed. As the skirmishing grew hotter, however,
+Goazaga observed that a spirited cavalry officer, named Perotti, had
+already advanced, with a handful of men, much further within the reach of
+the hostile forces than was deemed expedient. He sent hastily to recal
+the too eager chieftain. The order, delivered in a tone more peremptory
+than agreeable, was flatly disobeyed. "Tell Ottavio Gonzaga," said
+Perotti, "that I never yet turned my back on the enemy, nor shall I now
+begin. Moreover, were I ever so much inclined to do so, retreat is
+impossible." The retiring army was then proceeding along the borders of a
+deep ravine, filled with mire and water, and as broad and more dangerous
+than a river. In the midst of the skirmishing, Alexander of Parma rode up
+to reconnoitre. He saw at once that the columns of the enemy were
+marching unsteadily to avoid being precipitated into this creek. He
+observed the waving of their spears, the general confusion of their
+ranks, and was quick to take advantage of the fortunate moment. Pointing
+out to the officers about him the opportunity thus offered of attacking
+the retiring army unawares in flank, he assembled, with great rapidity,
+the foremost companies of cavalry already detached from the main body.
+Mounting a fresh and powerful horse, which Camillo Monte held in
+readiness for him, he signified his intention of dashing through the
+dangerous ravine, and dealing a stroke where it was least expected, "Tell
+Don John of Austria," he cried to an officer whom he sent back to the
+Commander-in-chief, "that Alexander of Parma has plunged into the abyss,
+to perish there, or to come-forth again victorious."
+
+The sudden thought was executed with lightning-like celerity. In an
+instant the bold rider was already struggling through the dangerous
+swamp; in another, his powerful charger had carried him across. Halting
+for a few minutes, lance in rest, till his troops had also forced their
+passage, gained the level ground unperceived, and sufficiently breathed
+their horses, he drew up his little force in a compact column. Then, with
+a few words of encouragement, he launched them at the foe. The violent
+and entirely unexpected shock was even more successful than the Prince
+had anticipated. The hostile cavalry reeled and fell into hopeless
+confusion, Egmont in vain striving to rally them to resistance. That name
+had lost its magic. Goignies also attempted, without success, to restore
+order among the panic-struck ranks. The sudden conception of Parma,
+executed as suddenly and in so brilliant a manner, had been decisive.
+Assaulted in flank and rear at the same moment, and already in temporary
+confusion, the cavalry of the enemy turned their backs and fled. The
+centre of the states' army thus left exposed, was now warmly attacked by
+Parma. It had, moreover, been already thrown into disorder by the retreat
+of its own horse, as they charged through them in rapid and disgraceful
+panic. The whole army bloke to pieces at once, and so great was the
+trepidation, that the conquered troops had hardly courage to run away.
+They were utterly incapable of combat. Not a blow was struck by the
+fugitives. Hardly a man in the Spanish ranks was wounded; while, in the
+course of an hour and a half, the whole force of the enemy was
+exterminated. It is impossible to state with accuracy the exact numbers
+slain. Some accounts spoke of ten thousand killed, or captive, with
+absolutely no loss on the royal side. Moreover, this slaughter was
+effected, not by the army under Don John, but by so small a fragment of
+it, that some historians have even set down the whole number of royalists
+engaged at the commencement of the action, at six hundred, increased
+afterwards to twelve hundred. By this calculation, each Spaniard engaged
+must have killed ten enemies with his own hand; and that within an hour
+and a half's space! Other historians more wisely omit the exact
+statistics of the massacre, and allow that a very few--ten or eleven, at
+most--were slain within the Spanish ranks. This, however, is the utmost
+that is claimed by even the Netherland historians, and it is, at any
+rate, certain that the whole states' army was annihilated.
+
+Rarely had a more brilliant exploit been performed by a handful of
+cavalry. To the distinguished Alexander of Parma, who improvised so
+striking and complete a victory out of a fortuitous circumstance,
+belonged the whole credit of the day, for his quick eye detected a
+passing weakness of the enemy, and turned it to terrible account with the
+promptness which comes from genius alone. A whole army was overthrown.
+Everything belonging to the enemy fell into the hands of the Spaniards.
+Thirty-four standards, many field-pieces, much camp equipage, and
+ammunition, besides some seven or eight thousand dead bodies, and six
+hundred living prisoners, were the spoils of that winter's day. Of the
+captives, some were soon afterwards hurled off the bridge at Namur, and
+drowned like dogs in the Meuse, while the rest were all hanged, none
+escaping with life. Don John's clemency was not superior to that of his
+sanguinary predecessors.
+
+And so another proof was added--if proofs were still necessary of Spanish
+prowess. The Netherlanders may be pardoned if their foes seemed to them
+supernatural, and almost invulnerable. How else could these enormous
+successes be accounted for? How else could thousands fall before the
+Spanish swords, while hardly a single Spanish corpse told of effectual
+resistance? At Jemmingen, Alva had lost seven soldiers, and slain seven
+thousand; in the Antwerp Fury, two hundred Spaniards, at most, had
+fallen, while eight thousand burghers and states' troops had been
+butchered; and now at Gemblours, six, seven, eight, ten--Heaven knew how
+many--thousand had been exterminated, and hardly a single Spaniard had
+been slain! Undoubtedly, the first reason for this result was the
+superiority of the Spanish soldiers. They were the boldest, the best
+disciplined, the most experienced in the world. Their audacity,
+promptness, and ferocity made them almost invincible. In this particular
+action, at least half the army of Don John was composed of Spanish or
+Spanish-Italian veterans. Moreover, they were commanded by the most
+renowned captains of the age--by Don John himself, and Alexander of
+Parma, sustained by such veterans as Mondragon, the hero of the memorable
+submarine expeditions; Mendoza, the accomplished cavalry officer,
+diplomatist, and historian; and Mansfeld, of whom Don John had himself
+written to the King that his Majesty had not another officer of such
+account in all the Netherlands. Such officers as these, besides Gonzaga,
+Camillo Monte, Mucio Pagano, at the head of such troops as fought that
+day under the banner of the Cross, might go far in accounting for this
+last and most tremendous victory of the Inquisition. On the other hand,
+although Bossu and Champagny were with the states' army, yet their hearts
+were hardly with the cause. Both had long been loyal, and had earned many
+laurels against the rebels, while Champagny was still devoutly a Papist,
+and wavered painfully between his hatred to heresy and to Spain. Egmont
+and De Heze were raw, unpractised lads, in whom genius did not come to
+supply the place of experience. The Commander, De Goignies, was a
+veteran, but a veteran who had never gained much glory, and the chiefs of
+the cavalry, infantry, and artillery, were absent at the Brussels
+wedding. The news of this additional massacre inflicted upon a nation,
+for which Berghen and Montigny had laid down their lives, was the nuptial
+benediction for Berghen's heiress; for it was to the chief wedding guests
+upon, that occasion that the disaster was justly attributed. The rank and
+file of the states' army were mainly mercenaries, with whom the hope of
+plunder was the prevailing motive; the chief commanders were absent;
+while those officers who were with the troops were neither heartily
+friendly to their own flag nor sufficiently experienced to make it
+respected.
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     Absurd affectation of candor
+     Always less apt to complain of irrevocable events
+     Imagined, and did the work of truth
+     Judas Maccabaeus
+     Neither ambitious nor greedy
+     Superfluous sarcasm
+
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Vol. 30
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
+
+By John Lothrop Motley
+1855
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+   Towns taken by Don John--Wrath excited against the aristocratic
+   party by the recent defeat--Attempts upon Amsterdam--"Satisfaction"
+   of Amsterdam and its effects--De Selles sent with royal letters from
+   Spain--Terms offered by Philip--Proclamation of Don John--
+   Correspondence between de Selles and the States-General--Between the
+   King and the Governor-General--New forces raised by the States--St.
+   Aldegonde at the Diet--Municipal revolution in Amsterdam--The
+   Prince's letter on the subject of the Anabaptists of Middelburg--
+   The two armies inactive--De la None--Action at Rijnemants--John
+   Casimir--Perverse politics of Queen Elizabeth--Alencon in the
+   Netherlands--Portrait of the Duke--Orange's position in regard to
+   him--Avowed and supposed policy of the French court--Anger of
+   Elizabeth--Terms arranged between Alencon and the Estates--Renewed
+   negotiations with Don John--Severe terms offered him--Interview of
+   the English envoys with the Governor--Despondency of Don John--
+   Orange's attempts to enforce a religious peace--His isolation in
+   sentiment--The malcontent party--Count John Governor of Gelderland
+   --Proposed form of religious peace--Proclamation to that effect by
+   Orange, in Antwerp--A petition in favor of the Roman Church
+   presented by Champagny and other Catholic nobles to the States--
+   General--Consequent commotion in Brussels--Champagny and others
+   imprisoned--Indolence and poverty of the two armies--Illness and
+   melancholy of Don John--His letters to Doria, to Mendoza, and to the
+   King--Death of Don John--Suspicions of poison--Pompous burial--
+   Removal of his body to Spain--Concluding remarks upon his character.
+
+Don John having thus vindicated his own military fame and the amazing
+superiority of the Spanish arms, followed up his victory by the rapid
+reduction of many towns of second-rate importance Louvain, Judoigne,
+Tirlemont, Aerschot, Bauvignes, Sichem, Nivelle, Roeux, Soignies, Binch,
+Beaumont, Walcourt, Tviaubeuge, and Chimay, either submitted to their
+conqueror, or were taken after short sieges. The usual atrocities were
+inflicted upon the unfortunate inhabitants of towns where resistance was
+attempted. The commandant of Sichem was hanged out of his own window,
+along with several chief burghers and officers, while the garrison was
+put to the sword, and the bodies cast into the Denver. The only crime
+committed by these unfortunates was to have ventured a blow or two in
+behalf of the firesides which they were employed to protect.
+
+In Brussels, on the other hand, there was less consternation excited by
+these events than boundless rage against the aristocratic party, for the
+defeat of Gemblours was attributed, with justice, to the intrigues and
+the incapacity of the Catholic magnates. It was with difficulty that
+Orange, going about by night from house to house, from street to street,
+succeeded in calming the indignation of the people, and in preventing
+them from sweeping in a mass to the residence of the leading nobles, in
+order to inflict summary vengeance on the traitors. All looked to the
+Prince as their only saviour, not a thought nor a word being wasted upon
+Matthias. Not a voice was raised in the assembly to vindicate the secret
+proceedings of the Catholic party, nor to oppose the measures which the
+Prince might suggest. The terrible disaster had taught the necessity of
+union. All parties heartily joined in the necessary steps to place the
+capital in a state of complete defence, and to assemble forthwith new
+troops to take the place of the army just annihilated. The victor gained
+nothing by his victory, in comparison with the profit acquired by the
+states through their common misfortune. Nor were all the towns which had
+recently fallen into the hands of Don John at all comparable in
+importance to the city of Amsterdam, which now, by a most timely
+arrangement, furnished a rich compensation to the national party for the
+disaster of Gemblours.
+
+Since the conclusion of the Ghent Pacification, it had been the most
+earnest wish of the Prince, and of Holland and Zealand, to recover
+possession of this most important city. The wish was naturally shared by
+every true patriot in the states-general. It had, however, been extremely
+difficult to arrange the terms of the "Satisfaction." Every fresh attempt
+at an amicable compromise was wrecked upon the obstinate bigotry of the
+leading civic authorities. They would make no agreement to accept the
+authority of Orange, except, as Saint Aldegonde expressed himself; upon
+terms which would enable them "to govern their governor." The influence
+of the monks, who were resident in large numbers within the city, and of
+the magistrates, who were all stanch Catholics, had been hitherto
+sufficient to outweigh the efforts made by the large masses of the
+Reformed religionists composing the bulk of the population. It was,
+however, impossible to allow Amsterdam to remain in this isolated and
+hostile attitude to the rest of Holland. The Prince, having promised to
+use no coercion, and loyally adhering to his pledge, had only with
+extreme difficulty restrained the violence of the Hollanders and
+Zealanders, who were determined, by fair means or foul, to restore the
+capital city to its natural place within his stadholderate. He had been
+obliged, on various occasions, particularly on the 21st of October of the
+preceding year, to address a most decided and peremptory letter to the
+estates of Holland and Zealand, forbidding the employment of hostile
+measures against Amsterdam. His commands had been reluctantly, partially,
+and only temporarily obeyed. The states desisted from their scheme of
+reducing the city by famine, but they did not the less encourage the
+secret and unofficial expeditions which were daily set on foot to
+accomplish the annexation by a sudden enterprise.
+
+Late in November, a desperate attempt had been made by Colonel Helling,
+in conjunction with Governor Sonoy, to carry the city by surprise. The
+force which the adventurer collected for the purpose was inadequate, and
+his plans were unskilfully arranged. He was himself slain in the streets,
+at the very commencement of the action; whereupon, in the quaint language
+of the contemporary chronicler, "the hearts of his soldiers sank in their
+shoes," and they evacuated the city with much greater rapidity than they
+had entered it. The Prince was indignant at these violent measures, which
+retarded rather than advanced the desired consummation. At the same time
+it was an evil of immense magnitude--this anomalous condition of his
+capital. Ceaseless schemes were concerted by the municipal and clerical
+conspirators within its walls, and various attempts were known, at
+different times, to have been contemplated by Don John, to inflict a
+home-thrust upon the provinces of Holland and Zealand at the most
+vulnerable and vital point. The "Satisfaction" accepted by Utrecht, in
+the autumn of 1577, had, however, paved the way for the recovery of
+Amsterdam; so that upon February the 8th, 1578, certain deputies from
+Utrecht succeeded at last in arranging terms, which were accepted by the
+sister city. The basis of the treaty was, as usual, the nominal supremacy
+of the Catholic religion, with toleration for the Reformed worship. The
+necessary effect would be, as in Harlem, Utrecht, and other places, to
+establish the new religion upon an entire equality with the old. It was
+arranged that no congregations were to be disturbed in their religious
+exercises in the places respectively assigned to them. Those of the
+Reformed faith were to celebrate their worship without the walls. They
+were, however, to enjoy the right of burying their dead within these
+precincts, and it is singular how much importance was attached at that
+day to a custom, at which the common sentiment and the common sense of
+modern times revolt. "To bury our dead within our own cities is a right
+hardly to be denied to a dog," said the Prince of Orange; and accordingly
+this right was amply secured by the new Satisfaction of Amsterdam. It
+was, however, stipulated that the funerals should be modest, and attended
+by no more than twenty-four persons at once. The treaty was hailed with
+boundless joy in Holland and Zealand, while countless benedictions were
+invoked upon the "blessed peace-makers," as the Utrecht deputies walked
+through the streets of Amsterdam. There is no doubt that the triumph thus
+achieved by the national party far counterbalanced the Governor-General's
+victory at Gemblours.
+
+Meantime, the Seigneur de Selles, brother of the deceased Noircarmes, had
+arrived from Spain. He was the special bearer of a letter from the King
+to the states-general, written in reply to their communications of the
+24th of August and 8th of September of the previous year. The tone of the
+royal despatch was very affectionate, the substance such as entirely to
+justify the whole policy of Orange. It was obvious that the penetrating
+and steadfast statesman had been correct in refusing to be moved to the
+right or the left by the specious language of Philip's former letters, or
+by the apparent frankness of Don John. No doubt the Governor had been
+sincere in his desire for peace, but the Prince knew very well his
+incapacity to confer that blessing. The Prince knew--what no man else
+appeared fully to comprehend at that epoch--that the mortal combat
+between the Inquisition and the Reformation was already fully engaged.
+The great battle between divine reason and right divine, on which the
+interests of unborn generations were hanging, was to be fought out,
+before the eyes of all Christendom, on the plain of the Netherlands.
+
+Orange was willing to lay down his arms if he could receive security for
+the Reformed worship. He had no desire to exterminate the ancient
+religion, but he meant also to protect the new against extermination.
+Such security, he felt, would never be granted, and he had therefore
+resolutely refused to hearken to Don John, for he was sure that peace
+with him was impossible. The letters now produced by De Selles confirmed
+his positions completely. The King said not a word concerning the
+appointment of a new governor-general, but boldly insisted upon the
+necessity of maintaining the two cardinal points--his royal supremacy,
+and the Catholic religion upon the basis adopted by his father, the
+Emperor Charles the Fifth.
+
+This was the whole substance of his communication: the supremacy of
+royalty and of papacy as in the time of Charles the Fifth. These
+cabalistic words were repeated twice in the brief letter to the estates.
+They were repeated five times in the instructions furnished by his
+Majesty to De Selles. The letter and the instructions indeed contained
+nothing else. Two simples were offered for the cure of the body politic,
+racked by the fever and convulsion of ten horrible years--two simples
+which the patient could hardly be so unreasonable as to reject--unlimited
+despotism and religious persecution. The whole matter lay in a nut-shell,
+but it was a nut-shell which enclosed the flaming edicts of Charles the
+Fifth, with their scaffolds, gibbets, racks, and funeral piles. The
+Prince and the states-general spurned such pacific overtures, and
+preferred rather to gird themselves for the combat.
+
+That there might be no mistake about the matter, Don John, immediately
+after receiving the letter, issued a proclamation to enforce the King's
+command. He mentioned it as an acknowledged fact that the states-general
+had long ago sworn the maintenance of the two points of royal and
+Catholic supremacy, according to the practice under the Emperor Charles.
+The states instantly published an indignant rejoinder, affirming the
+indisputable truth, that they had sworn to the maintenance of the Ghent
+Pacification, and proclaiming the assertion of Don John an infamous
+falsehood. It was an outrage upon common sense, they said, that the Ghent
+treaty could be tortured into sanctioning the placards and the
+Inquisition, evils which that sacred instrument had been expressly
+intended to crush.
+
+A letter was then formally addressed to his Majesty, in the name of the
+Archduke Matthias--and of the estates, demanding the recal of Don John
+and the maintenance of the Ghent Pacification. De Seller, in reply, sent
+a brief, deprecatory paper, enclosing a note from Don John, which the
+envoy acknowledged might seem somewhat harsh in its expressions. The
+letter contained, indeed, a sufficiently fierce and peremptory summons to
+the states to obey the King's commands with regard to the system of
+Charles the Fifth, according to their previous agreement, together with a
+violent declaration of the Governor's displeasure that they had dared to
+solicit the aid of foreign princes. On the 18th of February came a
+proposition from De Seller that the Prince, of Orange should place
+himself in the hands of Don John, while the Prince of Parma, alone and
+without arms, would come before the assembly, to negotiate with them upon
+these matters. The reply returned by the states-general to this absurd
+suggestion expressed their regret that the son of the Duchess Margaret
+should have taken part with the enemy of the Netherlanders, complained of
+the bull by which the Pope had invited war against them as if they had
+been Saracens, repeated their most unanswerable argument--that the Ghent
+Pacification had established a system directly the reverse of that which
+existed under Charles the Fifth--and affirmed their resolution never more
+to submit to Spanish armies, executioners, edicts, or inquisitions, and
+never more to return to the principles of the Emperor and of Alva. To
+this diplomatic correspondence succeeded a war of words and of pamphlets,
+some of them very inflammatory and very eloquent. Meantime, the
+preparations for active hostilities were proceeding daily. The Prince of
+Orange, through his envoys in England, had arranged for subsidies in the
+coming campaign, and for troops which were to be led to the Netherlands,
+under Duke Casimir of the palatinate. He sent commissioners through the
+provinces to raise the respective contributions agreed upon, besides an
+extraordinary quota of four hundred thousand guilders monthly. He also
+negotiated a loan of a hundred and twenty thousand guilders from the
+citizens of Antwerp. Many new taxes were imposed by his direction, both
+upon income and upon consumption. By his advice, however, and with the
+consent of the states-general, the provinces of Holland and Zealand held
+no community of burthens with the other provinces, but of their own free
+will contributed more than the sums for which they would have been
+assessed. Mr. Leyton, who was about to return from his unsuccessful
+mission from Elizabeth to Don John, was requested by the states-general
+to convey to her Majesty a faithful report of the recent correspondence,
+and especially of the language held by the Governor-General. He was also
+urged to use his influence with the Queen, to the end that her promises
+of assistance might be speedily fulfilled.
+
+Troops were rapidly enrolled, and again, by the same honest but mistaken
+policy, the chief offices were conferred upon the great nobles--Aerschot,
+Champagny, Bossu, Egmont, Lalain, the Viscount of Ghent, Baron de Ville,
+and many others, most of whom were to desert the cause in the hour of its
+need. On the other hand, Don John was proceeding with his military
+preparations upon an extensive scale. The King had recently furnished him
+with one million nine hundred thousand dollars, and had promised to
+provide him with two hundred thousand more, monthly. With these funds his
+Majesty estimated that an army of thirty thousand foot, sixteen thousand
+cavalry, and thirty pieces of artillery, could be levied and kept on
+foot. If more remittances should prove to be necessary, it was promised
+that they should be forthcoming.
+
+This was the result of many earnest remonstrances made by the Governor
+concerning the dilatory policy of the King. Wearied with being constantly
+ordered "to blow hot and cold with the same, breath," he had insisted
+that his Majesty should select the hot or the cold, and furnish him with
+the means of enforcing the choice. For himself, Don John assured his
+brother that the hottest measures were most to his taste, and most
+suitable to the occasion. Fire and sword could alone save the royal
+authority, for all the provinces had "abandoned themselves, body and
+soul, to the greatest heretic and tyrant that prince ever had for
+vassal." Unceasing had been the complaints and entreaties of the
+Captain-General, called forth by the apathy or irresolution of Philip. It
+was--only by assuring him that the Netherlands actually belonged to
+Orange, that the monarch could be aroused. "His they are; and none
+other's," said the Governor, dolefully. The King had accordingly sent
+back De Billy, Don John's envoy; with decided injunctions to use force
+and energy to put down the revolt at once, and with an intimation that
+funds might be henceforth more regularly depended upon, as the Indian
+fleets were expected in July. Philip also advised his brother to employ a
+portion of his money in purchasing the governors and principal persons
+who controlled the cities and other strong places belonging to the
+states.
+
+Meantime, Don John thundered forth a manifesto which had been recently
+prepared in Madrid, by which the estates, both general and particular,
+were ordered forthwith to separate, and forbidden to assemble again,
+except by especial licence. All commissions, civil or military, granted
+by states' authority, were moreover annulled, together with a general
+prohibition of any act of obedience to such functionaries, and of
+contribution to any imposts which might be levied by their authority.
+Such thunders were now comparatively harmless, for the states had taken
+their course, and were busily engaged, both at home and abroad, in arming
+for the conflict. Saint Aldegonde was deputed to attend the Imperial
+diet, then in session at Worms, where he delivered an oration, which was
+very celebrated in its day as a composition, but, which can hardly be
+said to have produced much practical effect. The current was setting hard
+in Germany against the Reformed religion and against the Netherland
+cause, the Augsburg Confessionists showing hardly more sympathy with
+Dutch Calvinists than with Spanish Papists.
+
+Envoys from Don John also attended the diet, and requested Saint
+Aldegonde to furnish them with a copy of his oration. This he declined to
+do. While in Germany, Saint Aldegonde was informed by John Casimir that
+Duke Charles of Sweden, had been solicited to furnish certain ships of
+war for a contemplated operation against Amsterdam. The Duke had himself
+given information of this plot to the Prince Palatine. It was therefore
+natural that Saint Aldegonde should forthwith despatch the intelligence
+to his friends in the Netherlands, warning them of the dangers still to
+be apprehended from the machinations of the Catholic agents and
+functionaries in Amsterdam; for although the Reformation had made rapid
+progress in that important city since the conclusion of the Satisfaction,
+yet the magistracy remained Catholic.
+
+William Bardez, son of a former high-sheriff, a warm partisan of Orange
+and of the "religion," had already determined to overthrow that
+magistracy and to expel the friars who infested the city. The recent
+information despatched by Saint Aldegonde confirmed him in his purpose.
+There had been much wrangling between the Popish functionaries and those
+of the Reformed religion concerning the constitution of the burgher
+guard. The Calvinists could feel no security for their own lives, or the
+repose of the commonwealth of Holland, unless they were themselves
+allowed a full participation in the government of those important bands.
+They were, moreover, dissatisfied with the assignment which had been made
+of the churchyards to the members of their communion. These causes of
+discord had maintained a general irritation among the body of the
+inhabitants, and were now used as pretexts by Bardez for his design. He
+knew the city to be ripe for the overthrow of the magistracy, and he had
+arranged with Governor Sonoy to be furnished with a sufficient number of
+well-tried soldiers, who were to be concealed in the houses of the
+confederates. A large number of citizens were also ready to appear at his
+bidding with arms in their hands.
+
+On the 24th of May, he wrote to Sonoy, begging him to hold himself in
+readiness, as all was prepared within the city. At the same time, he
+requested the governor to send him forthwith a "morion and a buckler of
+proof;" for, he intended to see the matter fairly through. Sonoy answered
+encouragingly, and sent him the armor, as directed. On the 28th of May,
+Bardez, with four confederates, went to the council-room, to remonstrate
+with the senate concerning the grievances which had been so often
+discussed. At about mid-day, one of the confederates, upon leaving the
+council-room, stepped out for a moment upon the balcony, which looked
+towards the public square. Standing there for a moment, he gravely
+removed his hat, and then as gravely replaced it upon his head. This was
+a preconcerted signal. At the next instant a sailor was seen to rush
+across the square, waving a flag in both hands. "All ye who love the
+Prince of Orange, take heart and follow me!" he shouted. In a moment the
+square was alive. Soldiers and armed citizens suddenly sprang forth, as
+if from the bowels of the earth. Bardez led a strong force directly into
+the council-chamber, and arrested every one of the astonished
+magistrates. At the same time, his confederates had scoured the town and
+taken every friar in the city into custody. Monks and senators were then
+marched solemnly down towards the quay, where a vessel was in readiness
+to receive them. "To the gallows with them--to the gallows with them!"
+shouted the populace, as they passed along. "To the gibbet, whither they
+have brought many a good fellow before his time!" Such were the openly,
+expressed desires of their fellow-citizens, as these dignitaries and holy
+men proceeded to what they believed their doom. Although treated
+respectfully by those who guarded them, they were filled with
+trepidation, for they believed the execrations of the populace the
+harbingers of their fate. As they entered the vessel, they felt convinced
+that a watery death had been substituted for the gibbet. Poor old
+Heinrich Dirckzoon, ex-burgomaster, pathetically rejected a couple of
+clean shirts which his careful wife had sent him by the hands of the
+housemaid. "Take them away; take them home again," said the rueful
+burgomaster; "I shall never need clean shirts again in this world." He
+entertained no doubt that it was the intention of his captors to scuttle
+the vessel as soon as they had put a little out to sea, and so to leave
+them to their fate. No such tragic end was contemplated, however, and, in
+fact, never was a complete municipal revolution accomplished in so
+good-natured and jocose a manner. The Catholic magistrates and friars
+escaped with their fright. They were simply turned out of town, and
+forbidden, for their lives, ever to come back again. After the vessel had
+proceeded a little distance from the city, they were all landed high and
+dry upon a dyke, and so left unharmed within the open country.
+
+A new board of magistrates, of which stout William Bardez was one, was
+soon appointed; the train-bands were reorganized, and the churches thrown
+open to the Reformed worship--to the exclusion, at first, of the
+Catholics. This was certainly contrary to the Ghent treaty, and to the
+recent Satisfaction; it was also highly repugnant to the opinions of
+Orange. After a short time, accordingly, the Catholics were again allowed
+access to the churches, but the tables had now been turned for ever in
+the capital of Holland, and the Reformation was an established fact
+throughout that little province.
+
+Similar events occurring upon the following day at Harlem, accompanied
+with some bloodshed--for which, however, the perpetrator was punished
+with death--opened the great church of that city to the Reformed
+congregations, and closed them for a time to the Catholics.
+
+Thus, the cause of the new religion was triumphant in Holland and
+Zealand, while it was advancing with rapid strides through the other
+provinces. Public preaching was of daily occurrence everywhere. On a
+single Sunday; fifteen different ministers of the Reformed religion
+preached in different places in Antwerp. "Do you think this can be put
+down?" said Orange to the remonstrating burgomaster of that city. "'Tis
+for you to repress it," said the functionary, "I grant your Highness full
+power to do so." "And do you think," replied the Prince, "that I can do
+at this late moment, what the Duke of Alva was unable to accomplish in
+the very plenitude of his power?" At the same time, the Prince of Orange
+was more than ever disposed to rebuke his own Church for practising
+persecution in her turn. Again he lifted his commanding voice in behalf
+of the Anabaptists of Middelburg. He reminded the magistrates of that
+city that these peaceful burghers were always perfectly willing to bear
+their part in all the common burthens, that their word was as good as
+their oath, and that as to the matter of military service, although their
+principles forbade them to bear arms, they had ever been ready to provide
+and pay for substitutes. "We declare to you therefore," said he, "that
+you have no right to trouble yourselves with any man's conscience, so
+long as nothing is done to cause private harm or public scandal. We
+therefore expressly ordain that you desist from molesting these Baptists,
+from offering hindrance to their handicraft and daily trade, by which
+they can earn bread for their wives and children, and that you permit
+them henceforth to open their shops and to do their work, according to
+the custom of former days. Beware, therefore, of disobedience and of
+resistance to the ordinance which we now establish."
+
+Meantime, the armies on both sides had been assembled, and had been
+moving towards each other. Don John was at the head of nearly thirty
+thousand troops, including a large proportion of Spanish and Italian
+veterans. The states' army hardly numbered eighteen thousand foot and two
+thousand cavalry, under the famous Francois de la None, surnamed Bras de
+Fer, who had been recently appointed Marechal de Camp, and, under Count
+Bossu, commander-in-chief. The muster-place of the provincial forces was
+in the plains between Herenthals and Lier. At this point they expected to
+be reinforced by Duke Casimir, who had been, since the early part of the
+summer, in the country of Zutfen, but who was still remaining there
+inglorious and inactive, until he could be furnished with the requisite
+advance-money to his troops. Don John was determined if possible, to
+defeat the states army, before Duke Casimir, with his twelve thousand
+Germans, should effect his juncture with Bossu. The Governor therefore
+crossed the Demer, near Aerschot, towards the end of July, and offered
+battle, day after day, to the enemy. A series of indecisive skirmishes
+was the result, in the last of which, near Rijnemants, on the first day
+of August, the royalists were worsted and obliged to retire, after a
+desultory action of nearly eight hours, leaving a thousand dead upon the
+field.  Their offer of "double or quits," the following morning was
+steadily refused by Bossu, who, secure within his intrenchments, was not
+to be induced at that moment to encounter the chances of a general
+engagement. For this he was severely blamed by the more violent of the
+national party.
+
+His patriotism, which was of such recent origin, was vehemently
+suspected; and his death, which occurred not long afterwards, was
+supposed to have alone prevented his deserting the states to fight again
+under Spanish colours. These suspicions were probably unjust. Bossu's
+truth of character had been as universally recognized as was his signal
+bravery. If he refused upon this occasion a general battle, those who
+reflected upon the usual results to the patriot banner of such
+engagements, might confess, perhaps, that one disaster the more had been
+avoided. Don John, finding it impossible to accomplish his purpose, and
+to achieve another Gemblours victory, fell back again to the
+neighbourhood of Namur.
+
+The states' forces remained waiting for the long-promised succor of John
+Casimir. It was the 26th of August, however, before the Duke led his
+twelve thousand men to the neighbourhood of Mechlin, where Bossu was
+encamped. This young prince possessed neither the ability nor the
+generosity which were requisite for the heroic part which he was
+ambitious to perform in the Netherland drama. He was inspired by a vague
+idea of personal aggrandizement, although he professed at the same time
+the utmost deference to William of Orange. He expressed the hope that he
+and the Prince "should be but two heads under one hat;" but he would have
+done well to ask himself whether his own contribution to this partnership
+of brains would very much enrich the silent statesman. Orange himself
+regarded him with respectful contempt, and considered his interference
+with Netherland matters but as an additional element of mischief. The
+Duke's right hand man, however, Peter Peutterich, the "equestrian
+doctor"--as Sir Philip Sydney called him--equally skilful with the sword
+as with the pen, had succeeded, while on a mission to England, in
+acquiring the Queen's favor for his master. To Casimir, therefore, had
+been entrusted the command of the levies, and the principal expenditure
+of the subsidies which she had placed at the disposition of the states.
+Upon Casimir she relied, as a counterweight to the Duke of Alencon, who,
+as she knew, had already entered the provinces at the secret solicitation
+of a large faction among the nobles. She had as much confidence as ever
+in Orange, but she imagined herself to be strengthening his cause by
+providing him with such a lieutenant. Casimir's immediate friends had but
+little respect for his abilities. His father-in-law, Augustus of Saxony,
+did not approve his expedition. The Landgrave William, to whom he wrote
+for counsel, answered, in his quaint manner, that it was always difficult
+for one friend to advise another in three matters--to wit, in taking a
+wife, going to sea, and going to war; but that, nevertheless, despite the
+ancient proverb, he would assume the responsibility of warning Casimir
+not to plunge into what he was pleased to call the "'confusum chaos' of
+Netherland politics." The Duke felt no inclination, however, to take the
+advice which he had solicited. He had been stung by the sarcasm which
+Alva had once uttered, that the German potentates carried plenty of
+lions, dragons, eagles, and griffins on their shields; but that these
+ferocious animals were not given to biting or scratching. He was
+therefore disposed, once for all, to show that the teeth and claws of
+German princes could still be dangerous. Unfortunately, he was destined
+to add a fresh element of confusion to the chaos, and to furnish rather a
+proof than a refutation of the correctness of Alva's gibe.
+
+This was the hero who was now thrust, head and shoulders as it were, into
+the entangled affairs of the Netherlanders, and it was Elizabeth of
+England, more than ever alarmed at the schemes of Alencon, who had pushed
+forward this Protestant champion, notwithstanding the disinclination of
+Orange.
+
+The Queen was right in her uneasiness respecting the French prince. The
+Catholic nobles, relying upon the strong feeling still rife throughout
+the Walloon country against the Reformed religion, and inflamed more than
+ever by their repugnance to Orange, whose genius threw them so completely
+into the shade, had already drawn closer to the Duke. The same influences
+were at work to introduce Alencon, which had formerly been employed to
+bring Matthias from Vienna. Now that the Archduke, who was to have been
+the rival, had become the dependent of William, they turned their
+attention to the son of Catherine de Medici, Orange himself having always
+kept the Duke in reserve, as an instrument to overcome the political
+coquetry of Elizabeth. That great Princess never manifested less
+greatness than in her earlier and most tormenting connexion with the
+Netherlands. Having allured them for years with bright but changeful
+face, she still looked coldly down upon the desolate sea where they were
+drifting She had promised much; her performance had been nothing. Her
+jealousy of French influence had at length been turned to account; a
+subsidy and a levy extorted from her fears. Her ministers and prominent
+advisers were one and all in favor of an open and generous support to the
+provinces. Walsingham, Burleigh, Knollys, Davidson, Sidney, Leicester,
+Fleetwood, Wilson, all desired that she should frankly espouse their
+cause. A bold policy they believed to be the only prudent one in this
+case; yet the Queen considered it sagacious to despatch envoys both to
+Philip and to Don John, as if after what they knew of her secret
+practices, such missions could effect any useful purpose. Better,
+therefore, in the opinion of the honest and intrepid statesmen of
+England, to throw down the gauntlet at once in the cause of the oppressed
+than to shuffle and palter until the dreaded rival should cross the
+frontier. A French Netherlands they considered even mere dangerous than a
+Spanish, and Elizabeth partook of their sentiments, although incapable of
+their promptness. With the perverseness which was the chief blot upon her
+character, she was pleased that the Duke should be still a dangler for
+her hand, even while she was intriguing against his political hopes. She
+listened with undisguised rapture to his proposal of love, while she was
+secretly thwarting the plans of his ambition.
+
+Meanwhile, Alencon had arrived at Mons, and we have seen already the
+feminine adroitness with which his sister of Navarre had prepared his
+entrance. Not in vain had she cajoled the commandant of Cambray citadel;
+not idly had she led captive the hearts of Lalain and his Countess, thus
+securing the important province of Hainault for the Duke. Don John might,
+indeed, gnash his teeth with rage, as he marked the result of all the
+feasting and flattery, the piping and dancing at Namur.
+
+Francis Duke of Alencon, and since the accession of his brother Henry to
+the French throne--Duke of Anjou was, upon the whole, the most despicable
+personage who had ever entered the Netherlands. His previous career at
+home had, been so flagrantly false that he had forfeited the esteem of
+every honest man in Europe, Catholic or Lutheran, Huguenot or Malcontent.
+The world has long known his character. History will always retain him as
+an example, to show mankind the amount of mischief which may be
+perpetrated by a prince, ferocious without courage, ambitious without
+talent, and bigoted without opinions. Incapable of religious convictions
+himself, he had alternately aspired to be a commander of Catholic and of
+Huguenot zealots, and he had acquired nothing by his vacillating course,
+save the entire contempt of all parties and of both religions. Scared
+from the aide of Navarre and Conde by the menacing attitude of the
+"league," fearing to forfeit the succession to the throne, unless he made
+his peace with the court, he had recently resumed his place among the
+Catholic commanders. Nothing was easier for him than to return
+shamelessly to a party which he had shamelessly deserted, save perhaps to
+betray it again, should his interest prompt him to do so, on the morrow.
+Since the peace of 1576, it had been evident that the Protestants could
+not count upon his friendship, and he had soon afterwards been placed at
+the head of the army which was besieging the Huguenots of Issoire. He
+sought to atone for having commanded the troops of the new religion by
+the barbarity with which he now persecuted its votaries. When Issoire
+fell into his hands, the luckless city was spared none of the misery
+which can be inflicted by a brutal and frenzied soldiery. Its men were
+butchered, its females outraged; its property plundered with a
+thoroughness which rivalled the Netherland practice of Alva, or Frederic
+Toledo, or Julian Romero. The town was sacked and burned to ashes by
+furious Catholics, under the command of Francis Alencon,--almost at the
+very moment when his fair sister, Margaret, was preparing the way in the
+Netherlands for the fresh treason--which he already meditated to the
+Catholic cause. The treaty of Bergerac, signed in the autumn of 1577,
+again restored a semblance of repose to France, and again afforded an
+opportunity for Alencon to change his politics, and what he called his
+religion. Reeking with the blood of the Protestants of Issoire, he was
+now at leisure to renew his dalliance with the Queen of Protestant
+England, and to resume his correspondence with the great-chieftain of the
+Reformation in the Netherlands.
+
+It is perhaps an impeachment upon the perspicacity of Orange, that he
+could tolerate this mischievous and worthless "son of France," even for
+the grave reasons which influenced him. Nevertheless, it must be
+remembered that he only intended to keep him in reserve, for the purpose
+of irritating the jealousy and quickening the friendship of the English
+Queen. Those who see anything tortuous in such politics must beware of
+judging the intriguing age of Philip and Catherine de' Medici by the
+higher standard of later, and possibly more candid times. It would have
+been puerile for a man of William the Silent's resources, to allow
+himself to be outwitted by the intrigues of all the courts and cabinets
+in Europe. Moreover, it must be remembered that, if he alone could guide
+himself and his country through the perplexing labyrinth in which they
+were involved; it was because he held in his hand the clue of an honest
+purpose. His position in regard to the Duke of Alencon, had now become
+sufficiently complicated, for the tiger that he had led in a chain had
+been secretly unloosed by those who meant mischief. In the autumn of the
+previous year, the aristocratic and Catholic party in the states-general
+had opened their communications with a prince, by whom they hoped to be
+indemnified for their previous defeat.
+
+The ill effects of Elizabeth's coquetry too plainly manifested themselves
+at last, and Alencon had now a foothold in the Netherlands. Precipitated
+by the intrigues of the party which had always been either openly or
+secretly hostile to Orange, his advent could no longer be delayed. It
+only remained for the Prince to make himself his master, as he had
+already subdued each previous rival. This he accomplished with his
+customary adroitness. It was soon obvious, even to so dull and so base a
+nature as that of the Duke, that it was his best policy to continue to
+cultivate so powerful a friendship. It cost him little to crouch, but
+events were fatally, to prove at a later day, that there are natures too
+malignant to be trusted or to be tamed. For the present, however, Alencon
+professed the most friendly sentiments towards the Prince. Solicited by
+so ardent and considerable a faction, the Duke was no longer to be
+withheld from trying the venture, and if, he could not effect his
+entrance by fair means, was determined to do so by force.--He would
+obtrude his assistance, if it were declined. He would do his best to
+dismember the provinces, if only a portion of them would accept his
+proffered friendship. Under these circumstances, as the Prince could no
+longer exclude him from the country, it became necessary to accept his
+friendship, and to hold him in control. The Duke had formally offered his
+assistance to the states-general, directly after the defeat of Gemblours,
+and early in July had made his appearance in Mons. Hence he despatched
+his envoys, Des Pruneaux and Rochefort, to deal with the States-general
+and with Orange, while he treated Matthias with contempt, and declared
+that he had no intention to negotiate with him. The Archduke burst into
+tears when informed of this slight; and feebly expressed a wish that
+succor might be found in Germany which would render this French alliance
+unnecessary. It was not the first nor the last mortification which the
+future Emperor was to undergo. The Prince was addressed with
+distinguished consideration; Des Pruneaux protesting that he desired but
+three things--the glory of his master, the glory of God, and the glory of
+William of Orange.
+
+The French King was naturally supposed to be privy to his brother's
+schemes, for it was thought ridiculous to suggest that Henry's own troops
+could be led by his own brother, on this foreign expedition, without his
+connivance. At the same time, private letters, written by him at this
+epoch, expressed disapprobation of the schemes of Alencon, and jealousy
+of his aggrandizement. It was, perhaps, difficult to decide as to the
+precise views of a monarch who was too weak to form opinions for himself,
+and too false to maintain those with which he had been furnished by
+others. With the Medicean mother it was different, and it was she who was
+believed to be at the bottom of the intrigue. There was even a vague idea
+that the Spanish Sovereign himself might be privy to the plot, and that a
+possible marriage between Alencon and the Infanta might be on the cards.
+In truth, however, Philip felt himself outraged by the whole proceedings.
+He resolutely refused to accept the excuses proffered by the French
+court, or to doubt the complicity of the Queen Dowager, who, it was well
+known, governed all her sons. She had, to be sure, thought proper to read
+the envoys of the states-general a lecture upon the impropriety of
+subjects opposing the commands of their lawful Prince, but such artifices
+were thought too transparent to deceive. Granvelle scouted the idea of
+her being ignorant of Anjou's scheme, or opposed to its success. As for
+William of Hesse, while he bewailed more than ever the luckless plunge
+into "confusum chaos" which Casimir had taken, he unhesitatingly
+expressed his conviction that the invasion of Alencon was a master-piece
+of Catherine. The whole responsibility of the transaction he divided, in
+truth, between the Dowager and the comet, which just then hung over the
+world, filling the soul of the excellent Landgrave with dismal
+apprehension.
+
+The Queen of England was highly incensed by the actual occurrence of the
+invasion which she had so long dreaded. She was loud in her denunciations
+of the danger and dishonor which would be the result to the provinces of
+this French alliance. She threatened not only to withdraw herself from
+their cause, but even to take arms against a commonwealth which had dared
+to accept Alencon for its master. She had originally agreed to furnish
+one hundred thousand pounds by way of loan. This assistance had been
+afterwards commuted into a levy of three thousand foot and-two thousand
+horse, to be added to the forces of John Casimir, and to be placed under
+his command. It had been stipulated; also, that the Palatine should have
+the rank and pay of an English general-in-chief, and be considered as the
+Queen's lieutenant. The money had been furnished and the troops enrolled.
+So much had been already bestowed, and could not be recalled, but it was
+not probable that, in her present humor, the Queen would be induced to
+add to her favors.
+
+The Prince, obliged by the necessity of the case, had prescribed the
+terms and the title under which Alencon should be accepted. Upon the 13th
+of August the Duke's envoy concluded a convention in twenty-three
+articles; which were afterwards subscribed by the Duke himself, at Mons,
+upon the twentieth of the same month. The substance of this arrangement
+was that Alencon should lend his assistance to the provinces against the
+intolerable tyranny of the Spaniards and the unjustifiable military
+invasion of Don John. He was, moreover, to bring into the field ten
+thousand foot and two thousand horse for three months. After the
+expiration of this term, his forces might be reduced to three thousand
+foot and five hundred horse. The states were to confer upon him the title
+of "Defender of the Liberty of the Netherlands against the Tyranny of the
+Spaniards and their adherents." He was to undertake no hostilities
+against Queen Elizabeth. The states were to aid him, whenever it should
+become necessary, with the same amount of force with which he now
+assisted them. He was to submit himself contentedly to the civil
+government of the country, in everything regarding its internal polity.
+He was to make no special contracts or treaties with any cities or
+provinces of the Netherlands. Should the states-general accept another
+prince as sovereign, the Duke was to be preferred to all others, upon
+conditions afterwards to be arranged. All cities which might be conquered
+within the territory of the united provinces were to belong to the
+states. Such places not in that territory, as should voluntarily
+surrender, were to be apportioned, by equal division, between the Duke
+and the states. The Duke was to bring no foreign troops but French into
+the provinces. The month of August was reserved, during which the states
+were, if possible, to make a composition with Don John.
+
+These articles were certainly drawn up with skill. A high-sounding but
+barren title, which gratified the Duke's vanity and signified nothing,
+had been conferred upon him, while at the same time he was forbidden to
+make conquests or contracts, and was obliged to submit himself to the
+civil government of the country: in short, he was to obey the Prince of
+Orange in all things--and so here was another plot of the Prince's
+enemies neutralized. Thus, for the present at least, had the position of
+Anjou been defined.
+
+As the month of August, during which it was agreed that negotiations with
+the Governor-General should remain open, had already half expired,
+certain articles, drawn up by the states-general, were at once laid
+before Don John. Lord Cobham and Sir Francis Walsingham were then in the
+Netherlands, having been sent by Elizabeth for the purpose of effecting a
+pacification of the estates with the Governor, if possible. They had also
+explained--so far as an explanation was possible--the assistance which
+the English government had rendered to the rebels, upon the ground that
+the French invasion could be prevented in no other way. This somewhat
+lame apology had been passed over in silence rather than accepted by Don
+John. In the same interview the envoys made an equally unsuccessful
+effort to induce the acceptance by the Governor of the terms offered by
+the states. A further proposition, on their part, for an "Interim," upon
+the plan attempted by Charles the Fifth in Germany, previously to the
+Peace of Passau, met with no more favor than it merited, for certainly
+that name--which became so odious in Germany that cats and dogs were
+called "Interim" by the common people, in derision--was hardly a potent
+word to conjure with, at that moment, in the Netherlands. They then
+expressed their intention of retiring to England, much grieved at the
+result of their mission. The Governor replied that they might do as they
+liked, but that he, at least, had done all in his power to bring about a
+peace, and that the King had been equally pacific in his intentions. He
+then asked the envoys what they themselves thought of the terms proposed.
+"Indeed, they are too hard, your Highness," answered Walsingham, "but
+'tis only by pure menace that we have extorted them from the states,
+unfavorable though they, seem."
+
+"Then you may tell them," replied the Governor, "to keep their offers to
+themselves. Such terms will go but little way in any negotiation with
+me."
+
+The envoys shrugged their shoulders.
+
+"What is your own opinion on the whole affair?" resumed Don John.
+"Perhaps your advice may yet help me to a better conclusion."
+
+The envoys continued silent and pensive.
+
+"We can only answer," said Walsingham, at length, "by imitating the
+physician, who would prescribe no medicine until he was quite sure that
+the patient was ready to swallow it. 'Tis no use wasting counsel or
+drugs."
+
+The reply was not satisfactory, but the envoys had convinced themselves
+that the sword was the only surgical instrument likely to find favor at
+that juncture. Don John referred, in vague terms, to his peaceable
+inclinations, but protested that there was no treating with so unbridled
+a people as the Netherlanders. The ambassadors soon afterwards took their
+leave. After this conference, which was on the 24th of August, 1578,
+Walsingham and Cobham addressed a letter to the states-general, deploring
+the disingenuous and procrastinating conduct of the Governor, and begging
+that the failure to effect a pacification might not be imputed to them.
+They then returned to England.
+
+The Imperial envoy, Count Schwartzburg, at whose urgent solicitation this
+renewed attempt at a composition had been made, was most desirous that
+the Governor should accept the articles. They formed, indeed, the basis
+of a liberal, constitutional, representative government, in which the
+Spanish monarch was to retain only a strictly limited sovereignty. The
+proposed convention required Don John, with all his troops and adherents,
+forthwith to leave the land after giving up all strongholds and cities in
+his possession. It provided that the Archduke Matthias should remain as
+Governor general, under the conditions according to which he had been
+originally accepted. It left the question of religious worship to the
+decision of the states-general. It provided for the release of all
+prisoners, the return of all exiles, the restoration of all confiscated
+property. It stipulated that upon the death or departure of Matthias, his
+Majesty was not to appoint a governor-general without the consent of the
+states-general.
+
+When Count Schwartzburg waited upon the Governor with these astonishing
+propositions--which Walsingham might well call somewhat hard--he found
+him less disposed to explode with wrath than he had been in previous
+conferences. Already the spirit of the impetuous young soldier was
+broken, both by the ill health which was rapidly undermining his
+constitution and by the helpless condition in which he had been left
+while contending with the great rebellion. He had soldiers, but no money
+to pay them withal; he had no means of upholding that supremacy of crown
+and church which he was so vigorously instructed to maintain; and he was
+heartily wearied of fulminating edicts which he had no power to enforce.
+He had repeatedly solicited his recal, and was growing daily more
+impatient that his dismissal did not arrive. Moreover, the horrible news
+of Escovedo's assassination had sickened him to the soul. The deed had
+flashed a sudden light into the abyss of dark duplicity in which his own
+fate was suspended. His most intimate and confidential friend had been
+murdered by royal command, while he was himself abandoned by Philip,
+exposed to insult, left destitute of defence. No money was forthcoming,
+in spite of constant importunities and perpetual promises. Plenty of
+words were sent him; he complained, as if he possessed the art of
+extracting gold from them, or as if war could be carried on with words
+alone.
+
+Being in so desponding a mood, he declined entering into any controversy
+with regard to the new propositions, which, however, he characterized as
+most iniquitous. He stated merely that his Majesty had determined to
+refer the Netherland matters to the arbitration of the Emperor; that the
+Duke de Terra Nova would soon be empowered to treat upon the subject at
+the imperial court; and that, in the meantime, he was himself most
+anxiously awaiting his recal.
+
+A synod of the Reformed churches had been held, during the month of June,
+at Dort. There they had laid down a platform of their principles of
+church government in one hundred and one articles. In the same month, the
+leading members of the Reformed Church had drawn up an ably reasoned
+address to Matthias and the Council of State on the subject of a general
+peace of religion for the provinces.
+
+William of Orange did his utmost to improve the opportunity. He sketched
+a system of provisional toleration, which he caused to be signed by the
+Archduke Matthias, and which, at least for a season, was to establish
+religious freedom. The brave; tranquil, solitary man still held his track
+across the raging waves, shedding as much light as one clear human soul
+could dispense; yet the dim lantern, so far in advance, was swallowed in
+the mist, ere those who sailed in his wake could shape their course by
+his example. No man understood him. Not even his nearest friends
+comprehended his views, nor saw that he strove to establish not freedom
+for Calvinism, but freedom for conscience. Saint Aldegonde complained
+that the Prince would not persecute the Anabaptists, Peter Dathenus
+denounced him as an atheist, while even Count John; the only one left of
+his valiant and generous brothers, opposed the religious peace--except
+where the advantage was on the side of the new religion. Where the
+Catholics had been effectually put down, as in Holland and Zealand,
+honest John saw so reason for allowing them to lift themselves up again.
+In the Popish provinces, on the other hand, he was for a religious peace.
+In this bigoted spirit he was followed by too many of the Reforming mass,
+while, on their part, the Walloons were already banding themselves
+together in the more southern provinces, under the name of Malcontents.
+Stigmatized by the Calvinists as "Paternoster Jacks," they were daily
+drawing closer their alliance with Alencon; and weakening the bands which
+united them with their Protestant brethren. Count John had at length
+become a permanent functionary in the Netherlands. Urgently solicited by
+the leaders and the great multitude of the Reformers, he had long been
+unwilling to abandon his home, and to neglect the private affairs which
+his devotion to the Netherland cause had thrown into great confusion. The
+Landgrave, too, whose advice he had asked, had strongly urged him not to
+"dip his fingers into the olla podrida." The future of the provinces was,
+in his opinion, so big with disaster, that the past, with all its
+horrors; under Alva and Requesens, had only furnished the "preludia" of
+that which was to ensue. For these desperate views his main reason, as
+usual, was the comet; that mischievous luminary still continuing to cast
+a lurid glare across the Landgrave's path. Notwithstanding these direful
+warnings from a prince of the Reformation, notwithstanding the "olla
+podrida" and the "comet," Count John had nevertheless accepted the office
+of Governor of Gelderland, to which he had been elected by the estates of
+that province on the 11th of March. That important bulwark of Holland,
+Zealand, and Utrecht on the one side, and of Groningen and Friesland on
+the other--the main buttress, in short, of the nascent republic, was now
+in hands which would defend it to the last.
+
+As soon as the discussion came up in the states-general on the subject of
+the Dort petitions, Orange requested that every member who had formed his
+opinions should express them fully and frankly. All wished, however, to
+be guided and governed by the sentiments of the Prince. Not a man spoke,
+save to demand their leader's views, and to express adhesion in advance
+to the course which his wisdom might suggest. The result was a projected
+convention, a draft for a religious peace, which, if definitely
+established, would have healed many wounds and averted much calamity. It
+was not, however, destined to be accepted at that time by the states of
+the different provinces where it was brought up for discussion; and
+several changes were made, both of form and substance, before the system
+was adopted at all. Meantime, for the important city of Antwerp, where
+religious broils were again on the point of breaking out, the Prince
+preferred a provisional arrangement, which he forthwith carried into
+execution. A proclamation, in the name of the Archduke Matthias and of
+the State Council, assigned five special places in the city where the
+members of the "pretended Reformed religion" should have liberty to
+exercise their religious worship, with preaching, singing, and the
+sacraments. The churchyards of the parochial churches were to be opened
+for the burial of their dead, but the funerals were to be unaccompanied
+with exhortation, or any public demonstration which might excite
+disturbance. The adherents of one religion were forbidden to disturb, to
+insult, or in any way to interfere with the solemnities of the other.
+All were to abstain from mutual jeerings--by pictures, ballads, books, or
+otherwise--and from all injuries to ecclesiastical property. Every man,
+of whatever religion, was to be permitted entrance to the churches of
+either religion, and when there, all were to conform to the regulations
+of the church with modesty and respect. Those of the new religion were to
+take oaths of obedience to the authorities, and to abstain from meddling
+with the secular administration of affairs. Preachers of both religions
+were forbidden to preach out of doors, or to make use of language tending
+to sedition. All were to bind themselves to assist the magistrates in
+quelling riots, and in sustaining the civil government.
+
+This example of religious peace, together with the active correspondence
+thus occasioned with the different state assemblies, excited the jealousy
+of the Catholic leaders and of the Walloon population. Champagny, who
+despite his admirable qualities and brilliant services, was still unable
+to place himself on the same platform of toleration with Orange, now
+undertook a decided movement against the policy of the Prince. Catholic
+to the core, he drew up a petition, remonstrating most vigorously against
+the draft for a religions peace, then in circulation through the
+provinces. To this petition he procured many signatures among the more
+ardent Catholic nobles. De Heze, De Glimes, and others of the same stamp,
+were willing enough to follow the lead of so distinguished a chieftain.
+The remonstrance was addressed to the Archduke, the Prince of Orange, the
+State Council, and the States-general, and called upon them all to abide
+by their solemn promises to permit no schism in the ancient Church.
+Should the exercise of the new religion be allowed, the petitioners
+insisted that the godless licentiousness of the Netherlands would excite
+the contempt of all peoples and potentates. They suggested, in
+conclusion, that all the principal cities of France--and in particular
+the city of Paris--had kept themselves clear of the exercise of the new
+religion, and that repose and prosperity had been the result.
+
+This petition was carried with considerable solemnity by Champagny,
+attended by many of his confederates, to the Hotel-de Ville, and
+presented to the magistracy of Brussels. These functionaries were
+requested to deliver it forthwith to the Archduke and Council. The
+magistrates demurred. A discussion ensued, which grew warmer and warmer
+as it proceeded. The younger nobles permitted themselves abusive
+language, which the civic dignitaries would not brook. The session was
+dissolved, and the magistrates, still followed by the petitioners, came
+forth into the street. The confederates, more inflamed than ever,
+continued to vociferate and to threaten. A crowd soon collected in the
+square. The citizens were naturally curious to know why their senators
+were thus browbeaten and insulted by a party of insolent young Catholic
+nobles. The old politician at their head, who, in spite of many services,
+was not considered a friend to the nation, inspired them with distrust.
+Being informed of the presentation of the petition, the multitude loudly
+demanded that the document should be read. This was immediately done. The
+general drift of the remonstrance was anything but acceptable, but the
+allusion to Paris, at the close, excited a tempest of indignation.
+"Paris! Paris! Saint Bartholomew! Saint Bartholomew! Are we to have Paris
+weddings in Brussels also?" howled the mob, as is often the case,
+extracting but a single idea, and that a wrong one; from the public
+lecture which had just been made. "Are we to have a Paris massacre, a
+Paris blood-bath here in the Netherland capital? God forbid! God forbid!
+Away with the conspirators! Down with the Papists!"
+
+It was easily represented to the inflamed imaginations of the populace
+that a Brussels Saint Bartholomew had been organized, and that Champagny,
+who stood there before them, was its originator and manager. The
+ungrateful Netherlanders forgot the heroism with which the old soldier
+had arranged the defence of Antwerp against the "Spanish Fury" but two
+years before. They heard only the instigations of his enemies; they
+remembered only that he was the hated Granvelle's brother; they believed
+only that there was a plot by which, in some utterly incomprehensible
+manner, they were all to be immediately engaged in cutting each others
+throats and throwing each other out of the windows, as had been done half
+a dozen years before in Paris. Such was the mischievous intention
+ascribed to a petition, which Champagny and his friends had as much right
+to offer--however narrow and mistaken their opinions might now be
+considered--as had the synod of Dort to present their remonstrances.
+Never was a more malignant or more stupid perversion of a simple and not
+very alarming phrase. No allusion had been made to Saint Bartholomew, but
+all its horrors were supposed to be concealed in the sentence which
+referred to Paris. The nobles were arrested on the spot and hurried to
+prison, with the exception of Champagny, who made his escape at first,
+and lay concealed for several days. He was, however, finally ferreted out
+of his hiding-place and carried off to Ghent. There he was thrown into
+strict confinement, being treated in all respects as the accomplice of
+Aerschot and the other nobles who had been arrested in the time of
+Ryhove's revolution. Certainly, this conduct towards a brave and generous
+gentleman was ill calculated to increase general sympathy for the cause,
+or to merit the approbation of Orange. There was, however, a strong
+prejudice against Champagny. His brother Granvelle had never been
+forgotten by the Netherlanders, and, was still regarded as their most
+untiring foe, while Champagny was supposed to be in close league with the
+Cardinal. In these views the people were entirely wrong.
+
+While these events were taking place in Brussels and Antwerp, the two
+armies of the states and of Don John were indolently watching each other.
+The sinews of war had been cut upon both sides. Both parties were cramped
+by the most abject poverty. The troops under Bossu and Casimir, in the
+camp sear Mechlin, were already discontented, for want of pay. The one
+hundred thousand pounds of Elizabeth had already been spent, and it was
+not probable that the offended Queen would soon furnish another subsidy.
+The states could with difficulty extort anything like the assessed quotas
+from the different provinces. The Duke of Alencon was still at Mons, from
+which place he had issued a violent proclamation of war against Don
+John--a manifesto which had, however, not been followed up by very
+vigorous demonstrations. Don John himself was in his fortified camp at
+Bouge, within a league of Namur, but the here was consuming with mental
+and with bodily fever. He was, as it were, besieged. He was left entirely
+without funds, while his royal brother obstinately refused compliance
+with his earnest demands to be recalled, and coldly neglected his
+importunities for pecuniary assistance.
+
+Compelled to carry on a war against an armed rebellion with such gold
+only as could be extracted from loyal swords; stung to the heart by the
+suspicion of which he felt himself the object at home, and by the hatred
+with which he was regarded in the provinces; outraged in his inmost
+feelings by the murder of Escovedo; foiled, outwitted, reduced to a
+political nullity by the masterly tactics of the "odious heretic of
+heretics" to whom he had originally offered his patronage and the royal
+forgiveness, the high-spirited soldier was an object to excite the
+tenderness even of religious and political opponents. Wearied with the
+turmoil of camps without battle and of cabinets without counsel, he
+sighed for repose, even if it could be found only in a cloister or the
+grave. "I rejoice to see by your letter," he wrote, pathetically, to John
+Andrew Doria, at Genoa, "that your life is flowing on with such calmness,
+while the world around me is so tumultuously agitated. I consider you
+most fortunate that you are passing the remainder of your days for God
+and yourself; that you are not forced to put yourself perpetually in the
+scales of the world's events, nor to venture yourself daily on its
+hazardous games." He proceeded to inform his friend of his own painful
+situation, surrounded by innumerable enemies, without means of holding
+out more than three months, and cut off from all assistance by a
+government which could not see that if the present chance were lost all
+was lost. He declared it impossible for him to fight in the position to
+which he was reduced, pressed as he was within half a mile of the point
+which he had always considered as his last refuge. He stated also that
+the French were strengthening themselves in Hainault, under Alencon, and
+that the King of France was in readiness to break in through Burgundy,
+should his brother obtain a firm foothold in the provinces. "I have
+besought his Majesty over and over again," he continued, "to send to me
+his orders; if they come they shall be executed, unless they arrive too
+late. They have cut of our hands and we have now nothing for it but to
+stretch forth our heads also to the axe. I grieve to trouble you with my
+sorrows, but I trust to your sympathy as a man and a friend. I hope that
+you will remember me in your prayers, for you can put your trust where,
+in former days, I never could place my own."
+
+The dying crusader wrote another letter, in the same mournful strain, to
+another intimate friend, Don Pedro Mendoza, Spanish envoy in Genoa. It
+was dated upon the same day from his camp near Namur, and repeated the
+statement that the King of France was ready to invade the Netherlands, so
+soon as Alencon should prepare an opening. "His Majesty," continued Don
+John, "is resolved upon nothing; at least, I am kept in ignorance of his
+intentions. Our life is doled out to us here by moments. I cry aloud, but
+it profits me little. Matters will soon be disposed, through our
+negligence, exactly as the Devil would best wish them. It is plain that
+we are left here to pine away till our last breath. God direct us all as
+He may see fit; in His hands are all things."
+
+Four days later he wrote to the King, stating that he was confined to his
+chamber with a fever, by which he was already as much reduced as if he
+had been ill for a month. "I assure your Majesty," said he "that the work
+here is enough to destroy any constitution and any life." He reminded
+Philip how often he had been warned by him as to the insidious practices
+of the French. Those prophecies had now become facts. The French had
+entered the country, while some of the inhabitants were frightened,
+others disaffected. Don John declared himself in a dilemma. With his
+small force, hardly enough to make head against the enemy immediately in
+front, and to protect the places which required guarding, 'twas
+impossible for him to leave his position to attack the enemy in Burgundy.
+If he remained stationary, the communications were cut off through which
+his money and supplies reached him. "Thus I remain," said he, "perplexed
+and confused, desiring, more than life, some decision on your Majesty's
+part, for which I have implored so many times." He urged the King most
+vehemently to send him instructions as to the course to be pursued,
+adding that it wounded him to the soul to find them so long delayed. He
+begged to be informed whether he was to attack the enemy in Burgundy,
+whether he should await where he then was the succor of his Majesty, or
+whether he was to fight, and if so with which of his enemies: in fine,
+what he was to do; because, losing or winning, he meant to conform to his
+Majesty's will. He felt deeply pained, he said, at being disgraced and
+abandoned by the King, having served him, both as a brother, and a man,
+with love and faith and heartiness. "Our lives," said he, "are at stake
+upon this game, and all we wish is to lose them honorably." He begged the
+King to send a special envoy to France, with remonstrances on the subject
+of Alencon, and another to the Pope to ask for the Duke's
+excommunication. He protested that he would give his blood rather than
+occasion so much annoyance to the King, but that he felt it his duty to
+tell the naked truth. The pest was ravaging his little army. Twelve
+hundred were now in hospital, besides those nursed in private houses, and
+he had no means or money to remedy the evil. Moreover, the enemy, seeing
+that they were not opposed in the open field, had cut off the passage
+into Liege by the Meuse, and had advanced to Nivelles and Chimay for the
+sake of communications with France, by the same river.
+
+Ten days after these pathetic passages had been written, the writer was
+dead. Since the assassination of Escovedo, a consuming melancholy had
+settled upon his spirits, and a burning fever came, in the month of
+September, to destroy his physical strength. The house where he lay was a
+hovel, the only chamber of which had been long used as a pigeon-house.
+This wretched garret was cleansed, as well as it could be of its filth,
+and hung with tapestry emblazoned with armorial bearings. In that dovecot
+the hero of Lepanto was destined to expire. During the last few, days of
+his illness, he was delirious. Tossing upon his uneasy couch, he again
+arranged in imagination, the combinations of great battles, again shouted
+his orders to rushing squadrons, and listened with brightening eye to the
+trumpet of victory. Reason returned, however, before the hour of death,
+and permitted him, the opportunity to make the dispositions rendered
+necessary by his condition. He appointed his nephew, Alexander of Parma,
+who had been watching assiduously over his deathbed, to succeed him,
+provisionally, in the command of the army and in his other dignities,
+received the last sacraments with composure, and tranquilly breathed his
+last upon the first day of October, the month which, since the battle of
+Lepanto, he had always considered a festive and a fortunate one.
+
+It was inevitable that suspicion of poison should be at once excited by
+his decease. Those suspicions have been never set at rest, and never
+proved. Two Englishmen, Ratcliff and Gray by name, had been arrested and
+executed on a charge of having been employed by Secretary Walsingham to
+assassinate the Governor. The charge was doubtless an infamous falsehood;
+but had Philip, who was suspected of being the real criminal, really
+compassed the death of his brother, it was none the less probable that an
+innocent victim or two would be executed, to save appearances. Now that
+time has unveiled to us many mysteries, now that we have learned from
+Philip's own lips and those of his accomplices the exact manner in which
+Montigny and Escovedo were put to death, the world will hardly be very
+charitable with regard to other imputations. It was vehemently suspected
+that Don John had been murdered by the command of Philip; but no such
+fact was ever proved.
+
+The body, when opened that it might be embalmed, was supposed to offer
+evidence of poison. The heart was dry, the other internal organs were
+likewise so desiccated as to crumble when touched, and the general color
+of the interior was of a blackish brown, as if it had been singed.
+Various persona were mentioned as the probable criminals; various motives
+assigned for the commission of the deed. Nevertheless, it must be
+admitted that there were causes, which were undisputed, for his death,
+sufficient to render a search for the more mysterious ones comparatively
+superfluous. A disorder called the pest was raging in his camp, and had
+carried off a thousand of his soldiers within a few days, while his
+mental sufferings had been acute enough to turn his heart to ashes.
+Disappointed, tormented by friend and foe, suspected, insulted, broken
+spirited, it was not strange that he should prove an easy victim to a
+pestilent disorder before which many stronger men were daily falling.
+
+On the third day after his decease, the funeral rites were celebrated. A
+dispute between the Spaniards, Germans, and Netherlanders in the army
+arose, each claiming precedence in the ceremony, on account of superior
+national propinquity to the illustrious deceased. All were, in truth,
+equally near to him, for different reasons, and it was arranged that all
+should share equally in the obsequies. The corpse disembowelled and
+embalmed, was laid upon a couch of state. The hero was clad in complete
+armor; his swords helmet, and steel gauntlets lying at his feet, a
+coronet, blazing with precious stones, upon his head, the jewelled chain
+and insignia of the Golden Fleece about his neck, and perfumed gloves
+upon his hands. Thus royally and martially arrayed, he was placed upon
+his bier and borne forth from the house where he had died, by the
+gentlemen of his bedchamber. From them he was received by the colonels of
+the regiments stationed next his own quarters. These chiefs, followed by
+their troops with inverted arms and mined drums, escorted the body to the
+next station, where it was received by the commanding officers of other
+national regiments, to be again transmitted to those of the third. Thus
+by soldiers of the three nations, it was successively conducted to the
+gates of Namur, where it was received by the civic authorities. The
+pall-bearers, old Peter Ernest Mansfeld, Ottavio Gonzaga, the Marquis de
+Villa Franca, and the Count de Reux, then bore it to the church, where it
+was deposited until the royal orders should be received from Spain. The
+heart of the hero was permanently buried beneath the pavement of the
+little church, and a monumental inscription, prepared by Alexander
+Farnese, still indicates the spot where that lion heart returned to dust.
+
+It had been Don John's dying request to Philip that his remains might be
+buried in the Escorial by the side of his imperial father, and the prayer
+being granted, the royal order in due time arrived for the transportation
+of the corpse to Spain. Permission had been asked and given for the
+passage of a small number of Spanish troops through France. The thrifty
+king had, however, made no allusion to the fact that those soldiers were
+to bear with them the mortal remains of Lepanto's hero, for he was
+disposed to save the expense which a public transportation of the body
+and the exchange of pompous courtesies with the authorities of every town
+upon the long journey would occasion. The corpse was accordingly divided
+into three parts, and packed in three separate bags; and thus the
+different portions, to save weight, being suspended at the saddle-bows of
+different troopers, the body of the conqueror was conveyed to its distant
+resting-place.
+
+     "Expende Hannibalem: quot libras in duce summo
+     Invenies?". . . . . . . . . .
+
+Thus irreverently, almost blasphemously, the disjointed relics of the
+great warrior were hurried through France; France, which the romantic
+Saracen slave had traversed but two short years before, filled with high
+hopes, and pursuing extravagant visions. It has been recorded by classic
+historians, that the different fragments, after their arrival in Spain,
+were re-united, and fastened together with wire; that the body was then
+stuffed, attired in magnificent habiliments, placed upon its feet, and
+supported by a martial staff, and that thus prepared for a royal
+interview, the mortal remains of Don John were presented to his Most
+Catholic Majesty. Philip is said to have manifested emotion at sight of
+the hideous spectre--for hideous and spectral, despite of jewels,
+balsams, and brocades, must have been that unburied corpse, aping life in
+attitude and vestment, but standing there only to assert its privilege of
+descending into the tomb. The claim was granted, and Don John of Austria
+at last found repose by the side of his imperial father.
+
+A sufficient estimate of his character has been apparent in the course of
+the narrative. Dying before he had quite completed his thirty-third year,
+he excites pity and admiration almost as much as censure. His military
+career was a blaze of glory. Commanding in the Moorish wars at
+twenty-three, and in the Turkish campaigns at twenty-six, he had achieved
+a matchless renown before he had emerged from early youth; but his sun
+was destined to go down at noon. He found neither splendor nor power in
+the Netherlands, where he was deserted by his king and crushed by the
+superior genius of the Prince of Orange. Although he vindicated his
+martial skill at Gemblours, the victory was fruitless. It was but the
+solitary sprig of the tiger from his jungle, and after that striking
+conflict his life was ended in darkness and obscurity. Possessing
+military genius of a high order, with extraordinary personal bravery, he
+was the last of the paladins and the crusaders. His accomplishments were
+also considerable, and he spoke Italian, German, French, and Spanish with
+fluency. His beauty was remarkable; his personal fascinations
+acknowledged by either sex; but as a commander of men, excepting upon the
+battle-field, he possessed little genius. His ambition was the ambition
+of a knight-errant, an adventurer, a Norman pirate; it was a personal and
+tawdry ambition. Vague and contradictory dreams of crowns, of royal
+marriages, of extemporized dynasties, floated ever before him; but he was
+himself always the hero of his own romance. He sought a throne in Africa
+or in Britain; he dreamed of espousing Mary of Scotland at the expense of
+Elizabeth, and was even thought to aspire secretly to the hand of the
+great English Queen herself. Thus, crusader and bigot as he was, he was
+willing to be reconciled with heresy, if heresy could furnish him with a
+throne.
+
+It is superfluous to state that he was no match, by mental endowments,
+for William of Orange; but even had he been so, the moral standard by
+which each measured himself placed the Conqueror far below the Father of
+a people. It must be admitted that Don John is entitled to but small
+credit for his political achievements in the Netherlands. He was
+incapable of perceiving that the great contest between the Reformation
+and the Inquisition could never be amicably arranged in those provinces,
+and that the character of William of Orange was neither to be softened by
+royal smiles, nor perverted by appeals to sordid interests. It would have
+been perhaps impossible for him, with his education and temperament, to
+have embraced what seems to us the right cause, but it ought, at least,
+to have been in his power to read the character of his antagonist, and to
+estimate his own position with something like accuracy. He may be
+forgiven that he did not succeed in reconciling hostile parties, when his
+only plan to accomplish such a purpose was the extermination of the most
+considerable faction; but although it was not to be expected that he
+would look on the provinces with the eyes of William the Silent, he might
+have comprehended that the Netherland chieftain was neither to be
+purchased nor cajoled. The only system by which the two religions could
+live together in peace had been discovered by the Prince; but toleration,
+in the eyes of Catholics, and of many Protestants, was still thought the
+deadliest heresy of all.
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     Difficult for one friend to advise another in three matters
+     Establish not freedom for Calvinism, but freedom for conscience
+     Taxes upon income and upon consumption
+     Toleration thought the deadliest heresy of all
+
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Vol. 31
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
+
+By John Lothrop Motley
+1855
+
+
+
+
+PART VI.
+
+ALEXANDER OF PARMA
+1578-1584.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+   Birth, education, marriage, and youthful character of Alexander
+   Farnese--His private adventures--Exploits at Lepanto and at
+   Gemblours--He succeeds to the government--Personal appearance and
+   characteristics--Aspect of affairs--Internal dissensions--Anjou at
+   Mons--John Casimir's intrigues at Ghent--Anjou disbands his
+   soldiers--The Netherlands ravaged by various foreign troops--Anarchy
+   and confusion in Ghent--Imbize and Ryhove--Fate of Hessels and
+   Visch--New Pacification drawn up by Orange--Representations of Queen
+   Elizabeth--Remonstrance of Brussels Riots and image-breaking in
+   Ghent--Displeasure of Orange--His presence implored at Ghent, where
+   he establishes a Religious Peace--Painful situation of John Casimir
+   --Sharp rebukes of Elizabeth--He takes his departure--His troops
+   apply to Farnese, who allows them to leave the country--Anjou's
+   departure and manifesto--Elizabeth's letters to the states-general
+   with regard to him--Complimentary addresses by the Estates to the
+   Duke--Death of Bossu--Calumnies against Orange--Venality of the
+   malcontent grandees--La Motte's treason--Intrigues of the Prior of
+   Renty--Saint Aldegonde at Arras--The Prior of St. Vaast's exertions
+   --Opposition of the clergy in the Walloon provinces to the taxation
+   of the general government--Triangular contest--Municipal revolution
+   in Arras led by Gosson and others--Counter-revolution--Rapid trials
+   and executions--"Reconciliation" of the malcontent chieftains--
+   Secret treaty of Mount St. Eloi: Mischief made by the Prior of
+   Renty--His accusations against the reconciled lords--Vengeance taken
+   upon him--Counter movement by the liberal party--Union of Utrecht--
+   The Act analyzed and characterized.
+
+A fifth governor now stood in the place which had been successively
+vacated by Margaret of Parma, by Alva, by the Grand Commander, and by Don
+John of Austria. Of all the eminent personages to whom Philip had
+confided the reins of that most difficult and dangerous administration,
+the man who was now to rule was by far the ablest and the best fitted for
+his post. If there were living charioteer skilful enough to guide the
+wheels of state, whirling now more dizzily than ever through "confusum
+chaos," Alexander Farnese was the charioteer to guide--his hand the only
+one which could control.
+
+He was now in his thirty-third year--his uncle Don John, his cousin Don
+Carlos, and himself, having all been born within a few months of each
+other. His father was Ottavio Farnese, the faithful lieutenant of Charles
+the Fifth, and grandson of Pope Paul the Third; his mother was Margaret
+of Parma, first Regent of the Netherlands after the departure of Philip
+from the provinces. He was one of the twins by which the reunion of
+Margaret and her youthful husband had been blessed, and the only one that
+survived. His great-grandfather, Paul, whose secular name of Alexander he
+had received, had placed his hand upon the new-born infant's head, and
+prophesied that he would grow up to become a mighty warrior. The boy,
+from his earliest years, seemed destined to verify the prediction. Though
+apt enough at his studies, he turned with impatience from his literary
+tutors to military exercises and the hardiest sports. The din of arms
+surrounded his cradle. The trophies of Ottavio, returning victorious from
+beyond the Alps, had dazzled the eyes of his infancy, and when but six
+years of age he had witnessed the siege of his native Parma, and its
+vigorous defence by his martial father. When Philip was in the
+Netherlands--in the years immediately succeeding the abdication of the
+Emperor--he had received the boy from his parents as a hostage for their
+friendship. Although but eleven years of age, Alexander had begged
+earnestly to be allowed to serve as a volunteer on the memorable day of
+Saint Quentin, and had wept bitterly when the amazed monarch refused his
+request.--His education had been, completed at Alcala, and at Madrid,
+under the immediate supervision of his royal uncle, and in the
+companionship of the Infante Carlos and the brilliant Don John. The
+imperial bastard was alone able to surpass, or even to equal the Italian
+prince in all martial and manly pursuits. Both were equally devoted to
+the chase and to the tournay; both longed impatiently for the period when
+the irksome routine of monkish pedantry, and the fictitious combats which
+formed their main recreation, should be exchanged for the substantial
+delights of war. At the age of twenty he had been affianced to Maria of
+Portugal; daughter of Prince Edward, granddaughter of King Emanuel, and
+his nuptials with that peerless princess were; as we have seen,
+celebrated soon afterwards with much pomp in Brussels. Sons and daughters
+were born to him in due time, during his subsequent residence in Parma.
+Here, however, the fiery and impatient spirit of the future illustrious
+commander was doomed for a time to fret under restraint, and to corrode
+in distasteful repose. His father, still in the vigor of his years,
+governing the family duchies of Parma and Piacenza, Alexander had no
+occupation in the brief period of peace which then existed. The martial
+spirit, pining for a wide and lofty sphere of action, in which alone its
+energies could be fitly exercised, now sought delight in the pursuits of
+the duellist and gladiator. Nightly did the hereditary prince of the land
+perambulate the streets of his capital, disguised, well armed, alone, or
+with a single confidential attendant. Every chance passenger of martial
+aspect whom he encountered in the midnight streets was forced to stand
+and measure swords with an unknown, almost unseen but most redoubtable
+foe, and many were the single combats which he thus enjoyed, so long as
+his incognito was preserved. Especially, it was his wont to seek and defy
+every gentleman whose skill or bravery had ever been commended in his
+hearing: At last, upon one occasion it was his fortune to encounter a
+certain Count Torelli, whose reputation as a swordsman and duellist was
+well established in Parma. The blades were joined, and the fierce combat
+had already been engaged in the darkness, when the torch of an accidental
+passenger gashed full in the face of Alexander. Torelli, recognising thus
+suddenly his antagonist, dropped his sword and implored forgiveness, for
+the wily Italian was too keen not to perceive that even if the death of
+neither combatant should be the result of the fray, his own position was,
+in every event, a false one. Victory would ensure him the hatred, defeat
+the contempt of his future sovereign. The unsatisfactory issue and
+subsequent notoriety of this encounter put a termination to these
+midnight joys of Alexander, and for a season he felt obliged to assume
+more pacific habits, and to solace himself with the society of that
+"phoenix of Portugal," who had so long sat brooding on his domestic
+hearth.
+
+At last the holy league was formed, the new and last crusade proclaimed,
+his uncle and bosom friend appointed to the command of the united troops
+of Rome, Spain, and Venice. He could no longer be restrained. Disdaining
+the pleadings of his mother and of his spouse, he extorted permission
+from Philip, and flew to the seat of war in the Levant. Don John received
+him with open arms, just before the famous action of Lepanto, and gave
+him an excellent position in the very front of the battle, with the
+command of several Genoese galleys. Alexander's exploits on that eventful
+day seemed those of a fabulous hero of romance. He laid his galley
+alongside of the treasure-ship of the Turkish fleet, a vessel, on account
+of its importance, doubly manned and armed. Impatient that the Crescent
+was not lowered, after a few broadsides, he sprang on board the enemy
+alone, waving an immense two-handed sword--his usual weapon--and mowing a
+passage right and left through the hostile ranks for the warriors who
+tardily followed the footsteps of their vehement chief. Mustapha Bey, the
+treasurer and commander of the ship, fell before his sword, besides many
+others, whom he hardly saw or counted. The galley was soon his own, as
+well as another, which came to the rescue of the treasure-ship only to
+share its defeat. The booty which Alexander's crew secured was
+prodigious, individual soldiers obtaining two and three thousand ducats
+each. Don John received his nephew after the battle with commendations,
+not, however, unmingled with censure. The successful result alone had
+justified such insane and desperate conduct, for had he been slain or
+overcome, said the commander-in-chief, there would have been few to
+applaud his temerity. Alexander gaily replied by assuring his uncle that
+he had felt sustained by a more than mortal confidence, the prayers which
+his saintly wife was incessantly offering in his behalf since he went to
+the wars being a sufficient support and shield in even greater danger
+than he had yet confronted.
+
+This was Alexander's first campaign, nor was he permitted to reap any
+more glory for a few succeeding years. At last, Philip was disposed to
+send both his mother and himself to the Netherlands; removing Don John
+from the rack where he had been enduring such slow torture. Granvelle's
+intercession proved fruitless with the Duchess, but Alexander was all
+eagerness to go where blows were passing current, and he gladly led the
+reinforcements which were sent to Don John at the close of the year 1577.
+He had reached Luxemburg, on the 18th of December of that year, in time,
+as we have seen, to participate, and, in fact, to take the lead in the
+signal victory of Gemblours. He had been struck with the fatal change
+which disappointment and anxiety had wrought upon the beautiful and
+haughty features of his illustrious kinsman. He had since closed his eyes
+in the camp, and erected a marble tablet over his heart in the little
+church. He now governed in his stead.
+
+His personal appearance corresponded with his character. He had the head
+of a gladiator, round; compact, combative, with something alert and
+snake-like in its movements. The black, closely-shorn hair was erect and
+bristling. The forehead was lofty and narrow. The features were,
+handsome, the nose regularly aquiline, the eyes well opened, dark
+piercing, but with something dangerous and sinister in their expression.
+There was an habitual look askance; as of a man seeking to parry or
+inflict a mortal blow--the look of a swordsman and professional fighter.
+The lower part of the face was swallowed in a bushy beard; the mouth and
+chin being quite invisible. He was of middle stature, well formed, and
+graceful in person, princely in demeanor, sumptuous and stately in
+apparel. His high ruff of point lace, his badge of the Golden Fleece, his
+gold-inlaid Milan armor, marked him at once as one of high degree. On the
+field of battle he possessed the rare gift of inspiring his soldiers with
+his own impetuous and chivalrous courage. He ever led the way upon the
+most dangerous and desperate ventures, and, like his uncle and his
+imperial grandfather, well knew how to reward the devotion of his
+readiest followers with a poniard, a feather, a riband, a jewel, taken
+with his own hands from his own attire.
+
+His military, abilities--now for the first time to be largely called into
+employment--were unquestionably superior to those of Don John; whose name
+had been surrounded with such splendor by the World-renowned battle of
+Lepanto. Moreover, he possessed far greater power for governing men,
+whether in camp or cabinet. Less attractive and fascinating, he was more
+commanding than his kinsman. Decorous and self-poised, he was only
+passionate before the enemy, but he rarely permitted a disrespectful look
+or word to escape condign and deliberate chastisement. He was no schemer
+or dreamer. He was no knight errant. He would not have crossed seas and
+mountains to rescue a captive queen, nor have sought to place her crown
+on his own head as a reward for his heroism. He had a single and
+concentrated kind of character. He knew precisely the work which Philip
+required, and felt himself to be precisely the workman that had so long
+been wanted. Cool, incisive, fearless, artful, he united the unscrupulous
+audacity of a condottiere with the wily patience of a Jesuit. He could
+coil unperceived through unsuspected paths, could strike suddenly, sting
+mortally. He came prepared, not only to smite the Netherlanders in the
+open field, but to cope with them in tortuous policy; to outwatch and
+outweary them in the game to which his impatient predecessor had fallen a
+baked victim. He possessed the art and the patience--as time was to
+prove--not only to undermine their most impregnable cities, but to delve
+below the intrigues of their most accomplished politicians. To circumvent
+at once both their negotiators and their men-at-arms was his appointed
+task. Had it not been for the courage, the vigilance, and the superior
+intellect of a single antagonist, the whole of the Netherlands would have
+shared the fate which was reserved for the more southern portion. Had the
+life of William of Orange been prolonged, perhaps the evil genius of the
+Netherlands might have still been exorcised throughout the whole extent
+of the country. As for religion, Alexander Farnese was, of course,
+strictly Catholic, regarding all seceders from Romanism as mere heathen
+dogs. Not that he practically troubled himself much with sacred
+matters--for, during the life-time of his wife, he had cavalierly thrown
+the whole burden of his personal salvation upon her saintly shoulders.
+She had now flown to higher spheres, but Alexander was, perhaps, willing
+to rely upon her continued intercessions in his behalf. The life of a
+bravo in time of peace--the deliberate project in war to exterminate
+whole cities full of innocent people, who had different notions on the
+subject of image-worship and ecclesiastical ceremonies from those
+entertained at Rome, did not seem to him at all incompatible with the
+precepts of Jesus. Hanging, drowning, burning and butchering heretics
+were the legitimate deductions of his theology. He was no casuist nor
+pretender to holiness: but in those days every man was devout, and
+Alexander looked with honest horror upon the impiety of the heretics,
+whom he persecuted and massacred. He attended mass regularly--in the
+winter mornings by torch-light--and would as soon have foregone his daily
+tennis as his religious exercises. Romanism was the creed of his caste.
+It was the religion of princes and gentlemen of high degree. As for
+Lutheranism, Zwinglism, Calvinism, and similar systems, they were but the
+fantastic rites of weavers, brewers, and the like--an ignoble herd whose
+presumption in entitling themselves Christian, while rejecting the Pope;
+called for their instant extermination. His personal habits were
+extremely temperate. He was accustomed to say that he ate only to support
+life; and he rarely finished a dinner without having risen three or four
+times from table to attend to some public business which, in his opinion,
+ought not to be deferred.
+
+His previous connections in the Netherlands were of use to him, and he
+knew how to turn them to immediate account. The great nobles, who had
+been uniformly actuated by jealousy of the Prince of Orange, who had been
+baffled in their intrigue with Matthias, whose half-blown designs upon
+Anjou had already been nipped in the bud, were now peculiarly in a
+position to listen to the wily tongue of Alexander Farnese. The
+Montignys, the La Mottes, the Meluns, the Egmonts, the Aerschots, the
+Havres, foiled and doubly foiled in all their small intrigues and their
+base ambition, were ready to sacrifice their country to the man they
+hated, and to the ancient religion which they thought that they loved.
+The Malcontents ravaging the land of Hainault and threatening Ghent, the
+"Paternoster Jacks" who were only waiting for a favorable opportunity and
+a good bargain to make their peace with Spain, were the very instruments
+which Parma most desired to use at this opening stage of his career. The
+position of affairs was far more favorable for him than it had been for
+Don John when he first succeeded to power. On the whole, there seemed a
+bright prospect of success. It seemed quite possible that it would be in
+Parma's power to reduce, at last, this chronic rebellion, and to
+reestablish the absolute supremacy of Church and King. The pledges of the
+Ghent treaty had been broken, while in the unions of Brussels which had
+succeeded, the fatal religious cause had turned the instrument of peace
+into a sword. The "religion-peace" which had been proclaimed at Antwerp
+had hardly found favor anywhere. As the provinces, for an instant, had
+seemingly got the better of their foe, they turned madly upon each other,
+and the fires of religious discord, which had been extinguished by the
+common exertions of a whole race trembling for the destruction of their
+fatherland, were now re-lighted with a thousand brands plucked from the
+sacred domestic hearth. Fathers and children, brothers and sisters,
+husbands and wives, were beginning to wrangle, and were prepared to
+persecute. Catholic and Protestant, during the momentary relief from
+pressure, forgot their voluntary and most blessed Pacification, to renew
+their internecine feuds. The banished Reformers, who had swarmed back in
+droves at the tidings of peace and good-will to all men, found themselves
+bitterly disappointed. They were exposed in the Walloon provinces to the
+persecutions of the Malcontents, in the Frisian regions to the still
+powerful coercion of the royal stadholders.
+
+Persecution begat counter-persecution. The city of Ghent became the
+centre of a system of insurrection, by which all the laws of God and man
+were outraged under the pretence of establishing a larger liberty in
+civil and religious matters. It was at Ghent that the opening scenes, in
+Parma's administration took place. Of the high-born suitors for the
+Netherland bride, two were still watching each other with jealous eyes.
+Anjou was at Mons, which city he had secretly but unsuccessfully
+attempted to master for, his, own purposes. John Casimir was at Ghent,
+fomenting an insurrection which he had neither skill to guide, nor
+intelligence to comprehend. There was a talk of making him Count of
+Flanders,--and his paltry ambition was dazzled by the glittering prize.
+Anjou, who meant to be Count of Flanders himself, as well as Duke or
+Count of all the other Netherlands, was highly indignant at this report,
+which he chose to consider true. He wrote to the estates to express his
+indignation. He wrote to Ghent to offer his mediation between the
+burghers and the Malcontents. Casimir wanted money for his troops. He
+obtained a liberal supply, but he wanted more. Meantime, the mercenaries
+were expatiating on their own account throughout the southern provinces;
+eating up every green leaf, robbing and pillaging, where robbery and
+pillage had gone so often that hardly anything was left for rapine. Thus
+dealt the soldiers in the open country, while their master at Ghent was
+plunging into the complicated intrigues spread over that unfortunate city
+by the most mischievous demagogues that ever polluted a sacred cause.
+Well had Cardinal Granvelle, his enemy, William of Hesse, his friend and
+kinsman, understood the character of John Casimir. Robbery and pillage
+were his achievements, to make chaos more confounded was his destiny.
+Anjou--disgusted with the temporary favor accorded to a rival whom he
+affected to despise--disbanded his troops in dudgeon, and prepared to
+retire to France. Several thousand of these mercenaries took service
+immediately with the Malcontents under Montigny, thus swelling the ranks
+of the deadliest foes to that land over which Anjou had assumed the title
+of protector. The states' army, meanwhile, had been rapidly dissolving.
+There were hardly men enough left to make a demonstration in the field,
+or properly to garrison the more important towns. The unhappy provinces,
+torn by civil and religious dissensions, were overrun by hordes of unpaid
+soldiers of all nations, creeds, and tongues-Spaniards, Italians,
+Burgundians, Walloons, Germans, Scotch and English; some who came to
+attack and others to protect, but who all achieved nothing and agreed in
+nothing save to maltreat and to outrage the defenceless peasantry and
+denizens of the smaller towns. The contemporary chronicles are full of
+harrowing domestic tragedies, in which the actors are always the insolent
+foreign soldiery and their desperate victims.
+
+Ghent energetic, opulent, powerful, passionate, unruly Ghent--was now the
+focus of discord, the centre from whence radiated not the light and
+warmth of reasonable and intelligent liberty, but the bale-fires of
+murderous licence and savage anarchy. The second city of the Netherlands,
+one of the wealthiest and most powerful cities of Christendom, it had
+been its fate so often to overstep the bounds of reason and moderation in
+its devotion to freedom, so often to incur ignominious chastisement from
+power which its own excesses had made more powerful, that its name was
+already becoming a bye-word. It now, most fatally and for ever, was to
+misunderstand its true position. The Prince of Orange, the great
+architect of his country's fortunes, would have made it the keystone of
+the arch which he was laboring to construct. Had he been allowed to
+perfect his plan, the structure might have endured for ages, a perpetual
+bulwark against, tyranny and wrong. The temporary and slender frame by
+which the great artist had supported his arch while still unfinished, was
+plucked away by rude and ribald hands; the keystone plunged into the
+abyss, to be lost for ever, and the great work of Orange remained a
+fragment from its commencement. The acts of demagogues, the conservative
+disgust at licence, the jealousy of rival nobles, the venality of
+military leaders, threw daily fresh stumbling-blocks in his heroic path.
+It was not six months after the advent of Farnese to power, before that
+bold and subtle chieftain had seized the double-edged sword of religious
+dissension as firmly as he had grasped his celebrated brand when he
+boarded the galley of Muatapha Bey, and the Netherlands were cut in
+twain, to be re-united nevermore. The separate treaty of the Walloon
+provinces was soon destined to separate the Celtic and Romanesque
+elements from the Batavian and Frisian portion of a nationality, which;
+thoroughly fused in all its parts, would have formed as admirable a
+compound of fire and endurance as history has ever seen.
+
+Meantime, the grass was growing and the cattle were grazing in the
+streets of Ghent, where once the tramp of workmen going to and from their
+labor was like the movement of a mighty army. The great majority of the
+burghers were of the Reformed religion, and disposed to make effectual
+resistance to the Malcontents, led by the disaffected nobles. The city,
+considering itself the natural head of all the southern country, was
+indignant that the Walloon provinces should dare to reassert that
+supremacy of Romanism which had been so effectually suppressed, and to
+admit the possibility of friendly relations with a sovereign who had been
+virtually disowned. There were two parties, however, in Ghent. Both were
+led by men of abandoned and dangerous character. Imbize, the worse of the
+two demagogues, was inconstant, cruel, cowardly, and treacherous, but
+possessed of eloquence and a talent for intrigue. Ryhove was a bolder
+ruffian--wrathful, bitter, and unscrupulous. Imbize was at the time
+opposed to Orange, disliking his moderation, and trembling at his
+firmness. Ryhove considered himself the friend of the Prince. We have
+seen that he had consulted him previously to his memorable attack upon
+Aerschot, in the autumn of the preceding year, and we know the result of
+that conference.
+
+The Prince, with the slight dissimulation which belonged less to his
+character than to his theory of politics, and which was perhaps not to be
+avoided, in that age of intrigue, by any man who would govern his
+fellow-men, whether for good or evil, had winked at a project which he
+would not openly approve. He was not thoroughly acquainted, however, with
+the desperate character of the man, for he would have scorned an
+instrument so thoroughly base as Ryhove subsequently proved. The violence
+of that personage on the occasion of the arrest of Aerschot and his
+colleagues was mildness compared with the deed with which he now
+disgraced the cause of freedom. He had been ordered out from Ghent to
+oppose a force of Malcontents which was gathering in the neighbourhood of
+Courtray; but he swore that he would not leave the gates so long as two
+of the gentlemen whom he had arrested on the twenty-eighth of the
+previous October, and who yet remained in captivity, were still alive.
+These two prisoners were ex-procurator Visch and Blood-Councillor
+Hessels. Hessels, it seemed, had avowed undying hostility to Ryhove for
+the injury sustained at his hands, and he had sworn, "by his grey beard,"
+that the ruffian should yet hang for the outrage. Ryhove, not feeling
+very safe in the position of affairs which then existed, and knowing that
+he could neither trust Imbize, who had formerly been his friend, nor the
+imprisoned nobles, who had ever been his implacable enemies, was resolved
+to make himself safe in one quarter at least, before he set forth against
+the Malcontents. Accordingly, Hessels and Visch, as they sat together in
+their prison, at chess, upon the 4th of October, 1578, were suddenly
+summoned to leave the house, and to enter a carriage which stood at the
+door. A force of armed men brought the order, and were sufficiently
+strong to enforce it. The prisoners obeyed, and the coach soon rolled
+slowly through the streets, left the Courtray gate, and proceeded a short
+distance along the road towards that city.
+
+After a few minutes a halt was made. Ryhove then made his appearance at
+the carriage-window, and announced to the astonished prisoners that, they
+were forthwith to be hanged upon a tree which stood by the road-side. He
+proceeded to taunt the aged Hessels with his threat against himself, and
+with his vow "by his grey beard." "Such grey beard shalt thou never live
+thyself to wear, ruffian," cried Hessels, stoutly-furious rather than
+terrified at the suddenness of his doom. "There thou liest, false
+traitor!" roared Ryhove in reply; and to prove the falsehood, he
+straightway tore out a handful of the old man's beard, and fastened it
+upon his own cap like a plume. His action was imitated by several of his
+companions, who cut for themselves locks from the same grey beard, and
+decorated themselves as their leader had done. This preliminary ceremony
+having been concluded, the two aged prisoners were forthwith hanged on a
+tree, without-the least pretence of trial or even sentence.
+
+Such was the end of the famous councillor who had been wont to shout "ad
+patibulum" in his sleep. It was cruel that the fair face of civil liberty
+showing itself after years of total eclipse, should be insulted by such
+bloody deeds on the part of her votaries. It was sad that the crimes of
+men like Imbize and Ryhove should have cost more to the cause of
+religious and political freedom than the lives of twenty thousand such
+ruffians were worth. But for the influence of demagogues like these,
+counteracting the lofty efforts and pure life of Orange, the separation
+might never have occurred between the two portions of the Netherlands.
+The Prince had not power enough, however, nor the nascent commonwealth
+sufficient consistency, to repress the disorganizing tendency of a
+fanatical Romanism on the one side, and a retaliatory and cruel
+ochlocracy on the other.
+
+Such events, with the hatred growing daily more intense between the
+Walloons and the Ghenters, made it highly important that some kind of an
+accord should be concluded, if possible. In the country, the Malcontents,
+under pretence of protecting the Catholic clergy, were daily abusing and
+plundering the people, while in Ghent the clergy were maltreated, the
+cloisters pillaged, under the pretence of maintaining liberty. In this
+emergency the eyes of all honest men turned naturally to Orange.
+
+Deputies went to and fro between Antwerp and Ghent, Three points were
+laid down by the Prince as indispensable to any arrangement--firstly,
+that the Catholic clergy should be allowed the free use of their
+property; secondly, that they should not be disturbed in the exercise of
+their religion; thirdly, that the gentlemen kept in prison since the
+memorable twenty-eighth of October should be released. If these points
+should be granted, the Archduke Matthias, the states-general, and the
+Prince of Orange would agree to drive off the Walloon soldiery, and to
+defend Ghent against all injury. The two first points were granted, upon
+condition that sufficient guarantees should be established for the safety
+of the Reformed religion. The third was rejected, but it was agreed that
+the prisoners, Champagny, Sweveghem, and the rest--who, after the horrid
+fate of Hessels and Visch, might be supposed to be sufficiently anxious
+as to their own doom--should have legal trial, and be defended in the
+meantime from outrage.
+
+On the 3rd of November, 1578, a formal act of acceptance of these terms
+was signed at Antwerp. At the same time, there was murmuring at Ghent,
+the extravagant portion of the liberal party averring that they had no
+intention of establishing the "religious peace" when they agreed not to
+molest the Catholics. On the 11th of November, the Prince of Orange sent
+messengers to Ghent in the name of the Archduke and the states-general,
+summoning the authorities to a faithful execution of the act of
+acceptance. Upon the same day the English envoy, Davidson, made an
+energetic representation to the same magistrates, declaring that the
+conduct of the Ghenters was exciting regret throughout the world, and
+affording a proof that it was their object to protract, not suppress, the
+civil war which had so long been raging. Such proceedings, he observed,
+created doubts whether they were willing to obey any law or any
+magistracy. As, however, it might be supposed that the presence of John
+Casimir in Ghent at that juncture was authorized by Queen
+Elizabeth--inasmuch as it was known that he had received a subsidy from
+her--the envoy took occasion to declare that her Majesty entirely
+disavowed his proceedings. He observed further that, in the opinion of
+her Majesty, it was still possible to maintain peace by conforming to the
+counsels of the Prince of Orange and of the states-general. This,
+however, could be done only by establishing the three points which he had
+laid down. Her Majesty likewise warned the Ghenters that their conduct
+would soon compel her to abandon the country's cause altogether, and, in
+conclusion, she requested, with characteristic thriftiness, to be
+immediately furnished with a city bond for forty-five thousand pounds
+sterling.
+
+Two days afterwards, envoys arrived from Brussels to remonstrate, in
+their turn, with the sister city, and to save her, if possible, from the
+madness which had seized upon her. They recalled to the memory of the
+magistrates the frequent and wise counsels of the Prince of Orange. He
+had declared that he knew of no means to avert the impending desolation
+of the fatherland save union of all the provinces and obedience to the
+general government. His own reputation, and the honor of his house, he
+felt now to be at stake; for, by reason of the offices which he now held,
+he had been ceaselessly calumniated as the author of all the crimes which
+had been committed at Ghent. Against these calumnies he had avowed his
+intention of publishing his defence. After thus citing the opinion of the
+Prince, the envoys implored the magistrates to accept the religious peace
+which he had proposed, and to liberate the prisoners as he had demanded.
+For their own part, they declared that the inhabitants of Brussels would
+never desert him; for, next to God, there was no one who understood their
+cause so entirely, or who could point out the remedy so intelligently.
+
+Thus reasoned the envoys from the states-general and from Brussels, but
+even while they were reasoning, a fresh tumult occurred at Ghent. The
+people had been inflamed by demagogues, and by the insane howlings of
+Peter Dathenus, the unfrocked monk of Poperingen, who had been the
+servant and minister both of the Pope and of Orange, and who now hated
+each with equal fervor. The populace, under these influences, rose in its
+wrath upon the Catholics, smote all their images into fragments,
+destroyed all their altar pictures, robbed them of much valuable
+property, and turned all the Papists themselves out of the city. The riot
+was so furious that it seemed, says a chronicler, as if all the
+inhabitants had gone raving mad. The drums beat the alarm, the
+magistrates went forth to expostulate, but no commands were heeded till
+the work of destruction had been accomplished, when the tumult expired at
+last by its own limitation.
+
+Affairs seemed more threatening than ever. Nothing more excited the
+indignation of the Prince of Orange than such senseless iconomachy. In
+fact, he had at one time procured an enactment by the Ghent authorities,
+making it a crime punishable with death. He was of Luther's opinion, that
+idol-worship was to be eradicated from the heart, and that then the idols
+in the churches would fall of themselves. He felt too with Landgrave
+William, that "the destruction of such worthless idols was ever avenged
+by torrents of good human blood." Therefore it may be well supposed that
+this fresh act of senseless violence, in the very teeth of his
+remonstrances, in the very presence of his envoys, met with his stern
+disapprobation. He was on the point of publishing his defence against the
+calumnies which his toleration had drawn upon him from both Catholic and
+Calvinist. He was deeply revolving the question, whether it were not
+better to turn his back at once upon a country which seemed so incapable
+of comprehending his high purposes, or seconding his virtuous efforts.
+From both projects he was dissuaded; and although bitterly wronged by
+both friend and foe, although, feeling that even in his own Holland,
+there were whispers against his purity, since his favorable inclinations
+towards Anjou had become the general topic, yet he still preserved his
+majestic tranquillity, and smiled at the arrows which fell harmless at
+his feet. "I admire his wisdom, daily more and more," cried Hubert
+Languet; "I see those who profess themselves his friends causing him more
+annoyance than his foes; while, nevertheless, he ever remains true to
+himself, is driven by no tempests from his equanimity, nor provoked by
+repeated injuries to immoderate action."
+
+The Prince had that year been chosen unanimously by the four "members" of
+Flanders to be governor of that province, but had again declined the
+office. The inhabitants, notwithstanding the furious transactions at
+Ghent, professed attachment to his person, and respect for his authority.
+He was implored to go to the city. His presence, and that alone, would
+restore the burghers to their reason, but the task was not a grateful
+one. It was also not unattended with danger; although this was a
+consideration which never influenced him, from the commencement of his
+career to its close. Imbize and his crew were capable of resorting to any
+extremity or any ambush; to destroy the man whom they feared and hated.
+The presence of John Casimir was an additional complication; for Orange,
+while he despised the man, was unwilling to offend his friends. Moreover,
+Casimir had professed a willingness to assist the cause, and to, defer to
+the better judgment of the Prince: He had brought an army into the field,
+with which, however, he had accomplished nothing except a thorough
+pillaging of the peasantry, while, at the same time, he was loud in his
+demands upon the states to pay his soldiers' wages. The soldiers of the
+different armies who now overran the country, indeed, vied with each
+other in extravagant insolence. "Their outrages are most execrable,"
+wrote Marquis Havre; "they demand the most exquisite food, and drink
+Champagne and Burgundy by the bucketfull." Nevertheless, on the 4th of
+December, the Prince came to Ghent. He held constant and anxious
+conferences with the magistrates. He was closeted daily with John
+Casimir, whose vanity and extravagance of temper he managed with his
+usual skill. He even dined with Imbue, and thus, by smoothing
+difficulties and reconciling angry passions, he succeeded at last in
+obtaining the consent of all to a religious peace, which was published on
+the 27th of December, 1578. It contained the same provisions as those of
+the project prepared and proposed during the previous summer throughout
+the Netherlands. Exercise of both religions was established; mutual
+insults and irritations--whether by word, book, picture, song, or
+gesture--were prohibited, under severe penalties, while all persons were
+sworn to protect the common tranquillity by blood, purse, and life. The
+Catholics, by virtue of this accord, re-entered into possession of their
+churches and cloisters, but nothing could be obtained in favor of the
+imprisoned gentlemen.
+
+The Walloons and Malcontents were now summoned to lay down their arms;
+but, as might be supposed, they expressed dissatisfaction with the
+religious peace, proclaiming it hostile to the Ghent treaty and the
+Brussels union. In short, nothing would satisfy them but total
+suppression of the Reformed religion; as nothing would content Imbize and
+his faction but the absolute extermination of Romanism. A strong man
+might well seem powerless in the midst of such obstinate and worthless
+fanatics.
+
+The arrival of the Prince in Ghent was, on the whole, a relief to John
+Casimir. As usual, this addle-brained individual had plunged headlong
+into difficulties, out of which he was unable to extricate himself. He
+knew not what to do, or which way to turn. He had tampered with Imbue and
+his crew, but he had found that they were not the men for a person of his
+quality to deal with. He had brought a large army into the field, and had
+not a stiver in his coffers. He felt bitterly the truth of the
+Landgrave's warning--"that 'twas better to have thirty thousand devils at
+one's back than thirty thousand German troopers, with no money to give
+them;" it being possible to pay the devils with the sign of the cross,
+while the soldiers could be discharged only with money or hard knocks.
+Queen Elizabeth, too, under whose patronage he had made this most
+inglorious campaign, was incessant in her reproofs, and importunate in
+her demands for reimbursement. She wrote to him personally, upbraiding
+him with his high pretensions and his shortcomings. His visit to Ghent,
+so entirely unjustified and mischievous; his failure to effect that
+junction of his army with the states' force under Bossu, by which the
+royal army was to have been surprised and annihilated; his having given
+reason to the common people to suspect her Majesty and the Prince of
+Orange of collusion with his designs, and of a disposition to seek their
+private advantage and not the general good of the whole Netherlands; the
+imminent danger, which he had aggravated, that the Walloon provinces,
+actuated by such suspicions, would fall away from the "generality" and
+seek a private accord with Parma; these and similar sins of omission and
+commission were sharply and shrewishly set forth in the Queen's epistle.
+'Twas not for such marauding and intriguing work that she had appointed
+him her lieutenant, and furnished him with troops and subsidies. She
+begged him forthwith to amend his ways, for the sake of his name and
+fame, which were sufficiently soiled in the places where his soldiers had
+been plundering the country which they came to protect.
+
+The Queen sent Daniel Rogers with instructions of similar import to the
+states-general, repeatedly and expressly disavowing Casimir's proceedings
+and censuring his character. She also warmly insisted on her bonds. In
+short, never was unlucky prince more soundly berated by his superiors,
+more thoroughly disgraced by his followers. In this contemptible
+situation had Casimir placed himself by his rash ambition to prove before
+the world that German princes could bite and scratch like griffins and
+tigers as well as carry them in their shields. From this position Orange
+partly rescued him. He made his peace with the states-general. He
+smoothed matters with the extravagant Reformers, and he even extorted
+from the authorities of Ghent the forty-five thousand pounds bond, on
+which Elizabeth had insisted with such obduracy. Casimir repaid these
+favors of the Prince in the coin with which narrow minds and jealous
+tempers are apt to discharge such obligations--ingratitude. The
+friendship which he openly manifested at first grew almost immediately
+cool. Soon afterwards he left Ghent and departed for Germany, leaving
+behind him a long and tedious remonstrance, addressed to the
+states-general, in which document he narrated the history of his
+exploits, and endeavored to vindicate the purity of his character. He
+concluded this very tedious and superfluous manifesto by observing
+that--for reasons which he thought proper to give at considerable
+length--he felt himself "neither too useful nor too agreeable to the
+provinces." As he had been informed, he said, that the states-general had
+requested the Queen of England to procure his departure, he had resolved,
+in order to spare her and them inconvenience, to return of his own
+accord, "leaving the issue of the war in the high and mighty hand of
+God."
+
+The estates answered this remonstrance with words of unlimited courtesy;
+expressing themselves "obliged to all eternity" for his services, and
+holding out vague hopes that the monies which he demanded on behalf of
+his troops should ere long be forthcoming.
+
+Casimir having already answered Queen Elizabeth's reproachful letter by
+throwing the blame of his apparent misconduct upon the states-general,
+and having promised soon to appear before her Majesty in person, tarried
+accordingly but a brief season in Germany, and then repaired to England.
+Here he was feasted, flattered, caressed, and invested with the order of
+the Garter. Pleased with royal blandishments, and highly enjoying the
+splendid hospitalities of England he quite forgot the "thirty thousand
+devils" whom he had left running loose in the Netherlands, while these
+wild soldiers, on their part, being absolutely in a starving
+condition--for there was little left for booty in a land which had been
+so often plundered--now had the effrontery to apply to the Prince of
+Parma for payment of their wages. Alexander Farnese laughed heartily at
+the proposition, which he considered an excellent jest. It seemed in
+truth, a jest, although but a sorry one. Parma replied to the messenger
+of Maurice of Saxony who had made the proposition, that the Germans must
+be mad to ask him for money, instead of offering to pay him, a heavy sum
+for permission to leave the country. Nevertheless, he was willing to be
+so far indulgent as to furnish them with passports, provided they
+departed from the Netherlands instantly. Should they interpose the least
+delay, he would set upon them without further preface, and he gave them
+notice, with the arrogance becoming a Spanish general; that the courier
+was already waiting to report to Spain the number of them left alive
+after the encounter. Thus deserted by their chief, and hectored by the
+enemy, the mercenaries, who had little stomach for fight without wages,
+accepted the passports proffered by Parma. They revenged themselves for
+the harsh treatment which they had received from Casimir and from the
+states-general, by singing, everywhere as they retreated, a doggerel
+ballad--half Flemish, half German--in which their wrongs were expressed
+with uncouth vigor.
+
+Casimir received the news of the departure of his ragged soldiery on the
+very day which witnessed his investment with the Garter by the fair hands
+of Elizabeth herself.  A few days afterwards he left England, accompanied
+by an escort of lords and gentlemen, especially appointed for that
+purpose by the Queen. He landed in Flushing, where he was received with
+distinguished hospitality, by order of the Prince of Orange, and on the
+14th of February, 1579, he passed through Utrecht. Here he conversed
+freely at his lodgings in the "German House" on the subject of his
+vagabond troops, whose final adventures and departure seemed to afford
+him considerable amusement; and he, moreover, diverted his company by
+singing, after supper, a few verses of the ballad already mentioned.
+
+   O, have you been in Brabant, fighting for the states?
+   O, have you brought back anything except your broken pates?
+   O, I have been in Brabant, myself and all my mates.
+   We'll go no more to Brabant, unless our brains were addle,
+   We're coming home on foot, we went there in the saddle;
+   For there's neither gold nor glory got, in fighting for the states.
+
+The Duke of Anjou, meantime, after disbanding his troops, had lingered
+for a while near the frontier. Upon taking his final departure, he sent
+his resident minister, Des Pruneaux, with a long communication to the
+states-general, complaining that they had not published their contract
+with himself, nor fulfilled its conditions. He excused, as well as he
+could, the awkward fact that his disbanded troops had taken refuge with
+the Walloons, and he affected to place his own departure upon the ground
+of urgent political business in France, to arrange which his royal
+brother had required his immediate attendance. He furthermore most
+hypocritically expressed a desire for a speedy reconciliation of the
+provinces with their sovereign, and a resolution that--although for their
+sake he had made himself a foe to his Catholic Majesty--he would still
+interpose no obstacle to so desirable a result.
+
+To such shallow discourse the states answered with infinite urbanity, for
+it was the determination of Orange not to make enemies, at that juncture,
+of France and England in the same breath. They had foes enough already,
+and it seemed obvious at that moment, to all persons most observant of
+the course of affairs, that a matrimonial alliance was soon to unite the
+two crowns. The probability of Anjou's marriage with Elizabeth was, in
+truth, a leading motive with Orange for his close alliance with the Duke.
+The political structure, according to which he had selected the French
+Prince as protector of the Netherlands, was sagaciously planned; but
+unfortunately its foundation was the shifting sandbank of female and
+royal coquetry. Those who judge only by the result, will be quick to
+censure a policy which might have had very different issue. They who
+place themselves in the period anterior to Anjou's visit to England, will
+admit that it was hardly human not to be deceived by the apolitical
+aspects of that moment. The Queen, moreover, took pains to upbraid the
+states-general, by letter, with their disrespect and ingratitude towards
+the Duke of Anjou--behaviour with which he had been "justly scandalized."
+For her own part, she assured them of her extreme displeasure at learning
+that such a course of conduct had been held with a view to her especial
+contentment--"as if the person of Monsieur, son of France, brother of the
+King, were disagreeable to her, or as if she wished him ill;" whereas, on
+the contrary, they would best satisfy her wishes by showing him all the
+courtesy to which his high degree and his eminent services entitled him.
+
+The estates, even before receiving this letter, had, however, acted in
+its spirit. They had addressed elaborate apologies and unlimited
+professions to the Duke. They thanked him heartily for his achievements,
+expressed unbounded regret at his departure, with sincere hopes for his
+speedy return, and promised "eternal remembrance" of his heroic virtues.
+They assured him, moreover, that should the first of the following March
+arrive without bringing with it an honorable peace with his Catholic
+Majesty, they should then feel themselves compelled to declare that the
+King had forfeited his right to the sovereignty of these provinces. In
+this case they concluded that, as the inhabitants would be then absolved
+from their allegiance to the Spanish monarch, it would then be in their
+power to treat with his Highness of Anjou concerning the sovereignty,
+according to the contract already existing.
+
+These assurances were ample, but the states, knowing the vanity of the
+man, offered other inducements, some of which seemed sufficiently
+puerile. They promised that "his statue, in copper, should be placed in
+the public squares of Antwerp and Brussels, for the eternal admiration of
+posterity," and that a "crown of olive-leaves should be presented to him
+every year." The Duke--not inexorable to such courteous
+solicitations--was willing to achieve both immortality and power by
+continuing his friendly relations with the states, and he answered
+accordingly in the most courteous terms. The result of this interchange
+of civilities it will be soon our duty to narrate.
+
+At the close of the year the Count of Bossu died, much to the regret of
+the Prince of Orange, whose party--since his release from prison by
+virtue of the Ghent treaty--he had warmly espoused. "We are in the
+deepest distress in the world," wrote the Prince to his brother, three
+days before the Count's death, "for the dangerous malady of M. de Bossu.
+Certainly, the country has much to lose in his death, but I hope that God
+will not so much afflict us." Yet the calumniators of the day did not
+scruple to circulate, nor the royalist chroniclers to perpetuate, the
+most senseless and infamous fables on the subject of this nobleman's
+death. He died of poison, they said, administered to him "in oysters," by
+command of the Prince of Orange, who had likewise made a point of
+standing over him on his death-bed, for the express purpose of sneering
+at the Catholic ceremonies by which his dying agonies were solaced. Such
+were the tales which grave historians have recorded concerning the death
+of Maximilian of Bossu, who owed so much to the Prince. The command of
+the states' army, a yearly pension of five thousand florins, granted at
+the especial request of Orange but a few months before, and the profound
+words of regret in the private letter jest cited, are a sufficient answer
+to such slanders.
+
+The personal courage and profound military science of Parma were
+invaluable to the royal cause; but his subtle, unscrupulous, and
+subterranean combinations of policy were even more fruitful at this
+period. No man ever understood the art of bribery more thoroughly or
+practised it more skillfully. He bought a politician, or a general, or a
+grandee, or a regiment of infantry, usually at the cheapest price at
+which those articles could be purchased, and always with the utmost
+delicacy with which such traffic could be conducted. Men conveyed
+themselves to government for a definite price--fixed accurately in
+florins and groats, in places and pensions--while a decent gossamer of
+conventional phraseology was ever allowed to float over the nakedness of
+unblushing treason. Men high in station, illustrious by ancestry,
+brilliant in valor, huckstered themselves, and swindled a confiding
+country for as ignoble motives as ever led counterfeiters or bravoes to
+the gallows, but they were dealt with in public as if actuated only by
+the loftiest principles. Behind their ancient shields, ostentatiously
+emblazoned with fidelity to church and king, they thrust forth their
+itching palms with the mendicity which would be hardly credible, were it
+not attested by the monuments more perennial than brass, of their own
+letters and recorded conversations.
+
+Already, before the accession of Parma to power, the true way to dissever
+the provinces had been indicated by the famous treason of the Seigneur de
+la Motte. This nobleman commanded a regiment in the service of the
+states-general, and was Governor of Gravelines. On promise of forgiveness
+for all past disloyalty, of being continued in the same military posts
+under Philip which he then held for the patriots, and of a "merced" large
+enough to satisfy his most avaricious dreams, he went over to the royal
+government. The negotiation was conducted by Alonzo Curiel, financial
+agent of the King, and was not very nicely handled. The paymaster,
+looking at the affair purely as a money transaction--which in truth it
+was--had been disposed to drive rather too hard a bargain. He offered
+only fifty thousand crowns for La Motte and his friend Baron Montigny,
+and assured his government that those gentlemen, with the soldiers under
+their command, were very dear at the price. La Motte higgled very hard
+for more, and talked pathetically of his services and his wounds--for he
+had been a most distinguished and courageous campaigner--but Alonzo was
+implacable. Moreover, one Robert Bien-Aime, Prior of Renty, was present
+at all the conferences. This ecclesiastic was a busy intriguer, but not
+very adroit. He was disposed to make himself useful to government, for he
+had set his heart upon putting the mitre of Saint Omer upon his head, and
+he had accordingly composed a very ingenious libel upon the Prince of
+Orange, in which production, "although the Prior did not pretend to be
+Apelles or Lysippus," he hoped that the Governor-General would recognize
+a portrait colored to the life. This accomplished artist was, however,
+not so successful as he was picturesque and industrious. He was
+inordinately vain of his services, thinking himself, said Alonzo,
+splenetically, worthy to be carried in a procession like a little saint,
+and as he had a busy brain, but an unruly tongue, it will be seen that he
+possessed a remarkable faculty of making himself unpleasant. This was not
+the way to earn his bishopric. La Motte, through the candid
+communications of the Prior, found himself the subject of mockery in
+Parma's camp and cabinet, where treachery to one's country and party was
+not, it seemed, regarded as one of the loftier virtues, however
+convenient it might be at the moment to the royal cause. The Prior
+intimated especially that Ottavio Gonzaga had indulged in many sarcastic
+remarks at La Motte's expense. The brave but venal warrior, highly
+incensed at thus learning the manner in which his conduct was estimated
+by men of such high rank in the royal service, was near breaking off the
+bargain. He was eventually secured, however, by still larger offers--Don
+John allowing him three hundred florins a month, presenting him with the
+two best horses in his stable, and sending him an open form, which he was
+to fill out in the most stringent language which he could devise, binding
+the government to the payment of an ample and entirely satisfactory
+"merced." Thus La Motte's bargain was completed a crime which, if it had
+only entailed the loss of the troops under his command, and the
+possession of Gravelines, would have been of no great historic
+importance. It was, however, the first blow of a vast and carefully
+sharpened treason, by which the country was soon to be cut in twain for
+ever--the first in a series of bargains by which the noblest names of the
+Netherlands were to be contaminated with bribery and fraud.
+
+While the negotiations with La Notte were in progress, the government of
+the states-general at Brussels had sent Saint Aldegonde to Arras. The
+states of Artois, then assembled in that city, had made much difficulty
+in acceding to an assessment of seven thousand florins laid upon them by
+the central authority. The occasion was skillfully made use of by the
+agents of the royal party to weaken the allegiance of the province, and
+of its sister Walloon provinces, to the patriot cause. Saint Aldegonde
+made his speech before the assembly, taking the ground boldly, that the
+war was made for liberty of conscience and of fatherland, and that all
+were bound, whether Catholic or Protestant, to contribute to the sacred
+fund. The vote passed, but it was provided that a moiety of the
+assessment should be paid by the ecclesiastical branch, and the
+stipulation excited a tremendous uproar. The clerical bench regarded the
+tax as both a robbery and an affront. "We came nearly to knife-playing,"
+said the most distinguished priest in the assembly, "and if we had done
+so, the ecclesiastics would not have been the first to cry enough." They
+all withdrew in a rage, and held a private consultation upon "these
+exorbitant and more than Turkish demands." John Sarrasin, Prior of Saint
+Yaast, the keenest, boldest, and most indefatigable of the royal
+partisans of that epoch, made them an artful harangue. This man--a better
+politician than the other prior--was playing for a mitre too, and could
+use his cards better. He was soon to become the most invaluable agent in
+the great treason preparing. No one could, be more delicate, noiseless,
+or unscrupulous, and he was soon recognized both by Governor-General and
+King as the individual above all others to whom the re-establishment of
+the royal authority over the Walloon provinces was owing. With the shoes
+of swiftness on his feet, the coat of darkness on his back, and the
+wishing purse in his hand, he sped silently and invisibly from one great
+Malcontent chieftain to another, buying up centurions, and captains, and
+common soldiers; circumventing Orangists, Ghent democrats, Anjou
+partisans; weaving a thousand intrigues, ventilating a hundred hostile
+mines, and passing unharmed through the most serious dangers and the most
+formidable obstacles. Eloquent, too, at a pinch, he always understood his
+audience, and upon this occasion unsheathed the most incisive, if not the
+most brilliant weapon which could be used in the debate. It was most
+expensive to be patriotic, he said, while silver was to be saved, and
+gold to be earned by being loyal. They ought to keep their money to
+defend themselves, not give it to the Prince of Orange, who would only
+put it into his private pocket on pretence of public necessities. The
+Ruward would soon be slinking back to his lair, he observed, and leave
+them all in the fangs of their enemies. Meantime, it was better to rush
+into the embrace of a bountiful king, who was still holding forth his
+arms to them. They were approaching a precipice, said the Prior; they
+were entering a labyrinth; and not only was the "sempiternal loss of body
+and soul impending over them, but their property was to be taken also,
+and the cat to be thrown against their legs." By this sudden descent into
+a very common proverbial expression, Sarrasin meant to intimate that they
+were getting themselves into a difficult position, in which they were
+sure to reap both danger and responsibility.
+
+The harangue had much effect upon his hearers, who were now more than
+ever determined to rebel against the government which they had so
+recently accepted, preferring, in the words of the Prior, "to be
+maltreated by their prince, rather than to be barbarously tyrannized over
+by a heretic." So much anger had been excited in celestial minds by a
+demand of thirty-five hundred florins.
+
+Saint Aldegonde was entertained in the evening at a great banquet,
+followed by a theological controversy, in which John Sarrasin complained
+that "he had been attacked upon his own dunghill." Next day the
+distinguished patriot departed on a canvassing tour among the principal
+cities; the indefatigable monk employing the interval of his absence in
+aggravating the hostility of the Artesian orders to the pecuniary demands
+of the general government. He was assisted in his task by a peremptory
+order which came down from Brussels, ordering, in the name of Matthias, a
+levy upon the ecclesiastical property, "rings, jewels, and reliquaries,"
+unless the clerical contribution should be forthcoming. The rage of the
+bench was now intense, and by the time of Saint Aldegonde's return a
+general opposition had been organized. The envoy met with a chilling
+reception; there were no banquets anymore--no discussions of any kind. To
+his demands for money, "he got a fine nihil," said Saint Vaast; and as
+for polemics, the only conclusive argument for the country would be, as
+he was informed on the same authority, the "finishing of Orange and of
+his minister along with him." More than once had the Prior intimated to
+government--as so many had done before him--that to "despatch Orange,
+author of all the troubles," was the best preliminary to any political
+arrangement. From Philip and his Governor-General, down to the humblest
+partisan, this conviction had been daily strengthening. The knife or
+bullet of an assassin was the one thing needful to put an end to this
+incarnated rebellion.
+
+Thus matters grew worse and worse in Artois. The Prior, busier than ever
+in his schemes, was one day arrested along with other royal emissaries,
+kept fifteen days "in a stinking cellar, where the scullion washed the
+dishes," and then sent to Antwerp to be examined by the states-general.
+He behaved with great firmness, although he had good reason to tremble
+for his neck. Interrogated by Leoninus on the part of the central
+government, he boldly avowed that these pecuniary demands upon the
+Walloon estates, and particularly upon their ecclesiastical branches,
+would never be tolerated. "In Alva's time," said Sarrasin, "men were
+flayed, but not shorn." Those who were more attached to their skin than
+their fleece might have thought the practice in the good old times of the
+Duke still more objectionable. Such was not the opinion of the Prior and
+the rest of his order. After an unsatisfactory examination and a brief
+duresse, the busy ecclesiastic was released; and as his secret labors had
+not been detected, he resumed them after his return more ardently than
+ever.
+
+A triangular intrigue was now fairly established in the Walloon country.
+The Duke of Alencon's head-quarters were at Mons; the rallying-point of
+the royalist faction was with La Motte at Gravelines; while the
+ostensible leader of the states' party, Viscount Ghent, was governor of
+Artois, and supposed to be supreme in Arras. La Motte was provided by
+government with a large fund of secret-service money, and was instructed
+to be very liberal in his bribes to men of distinction; having a tender
+regard, however, to the excessive demands of this nature now daily made
+upon the royal purse. The "little Count," as the Prior called Lalain,
+together with his brother, Baron Montigny, were considered highly
+desirable acquisitions for government, if they could be gained. It was
+thought, however, that they had the "fleur-de-lys imprinted too deeply
+upon their hearts," for the effect produced upon Lalain, governor of
+Hainault, by Margaret of Valois, had not yet been effaced. His brother
+also had been disposed to favor the French prince, but his mind was more
+open to conviction. A few private conferences with La Motte, and a course
+of ecclesiastical tuition from the Prior--whose golden opinions had
+irresistible resonance--soon wrought a change in the Malcontent
+chieftain's mind. Other leading seigniors were secretly dealt with in the
+same manner. Lalain, Heze, Havre, Capres, Egmont, and even the Viscount
+of Ghent, all seriously inclined their ears to the charmer, and looked
+longingly and lovingly as the wily Prior rolled in his tangles before
+them--"to mischief swift." Few had yet declared themselves; but of the
+grandees who commanded large bodies of troops, and whose influence with
+their order was paramount, none were safe for the patriot cause
+throughout the Walloon country.
+
+The nobles and ecclesiastics were ready to join hands in support of
+church and king, but in the city of Arras, the capital of the whole
+country, there was a strong Orange and liberal party. Gosson, a man of
+great wealth, one of the most distinguished advocates in the Netherlands,
+and possessing the gift of popular eloquence to a remarkable degree, was
+the leader of this burgess faction. In the earlier days of Parma's
+administration, just as a thorough union of the Walloon provinces in
+favor of the royal government had nearly been formed, these Orangists of
+Arras risked a daring stroke. Inflamed by the harangues of Gosson, and
+supported by five hundred foot soldiers and fifty troopers under one
+Captain Ambrose, they rose against the city magistracy, whose sentiments
+were unequivocally for Parma, and thrust them all into prison. They then
+constituted a new board of fifteen, some Catholics and some Protestants,
+but all patriots, of whom Gosson was chief. The stroke took the town by
+surprise; and was for a moment successful. Meantime, they depended upon
+assistance from Brussels. The royal and ecclesiastical party was,
+however, not so easily defeated, and an old soldier, named Bourgeois,
+loudly denounced Captain Ambrose, the general of the revolutionary
+movement, as a vile coward, and affirmed that with thirty good
+men-at-arms he would undertake to pound the whole rebel army to powder--
+"a pack of scarecrows," he said, "who were not worth as many owls for
+military purposes."
+
+Three days after the imprisonment of the magistracy, a strong Catholic
+rally was made in their behalf in the Fishmarket, the ubiquitous Prior of
+Saint Vaast flitting about among the Malcontents, blithe and busy as
+usual when storms were brewing. Matthew Doucet, of the revolutionary
+faction--a man both martial and pacific in his pursuits, being eminent
+both as a gingerbread baker and a swordplayer--swore he would have the
+little monk's life if he had to take him from the very horns of the
+altar; but the Prior had braved sharper threats than these. Moreover, the
+grand altar would have been the last place to look fox him on that
+occasion. While Gosson was making a tremendous speech in favor of
+conscience and fatherland at the Hotel de Ville, practical John Sarrasin,
+purse in hand, had challenged the rebel general, Ambrose to private
+combat. In half an hour, that warrior was routed, and fled from the field
+at the head of his scarecrows, for there was no resisting the power
+before which the Montignys and the La Mottes had succumbed. Eloquent
+Gosson was left to his fate. Having the Catholic magistracy in durance,
+and with nobody to guard them, he felt, as was well observed by an
+ill-natured contemporary, like a man holding a wolf by the ears, equally
+afraid to let go or to retain his grasp.
+
+His dilemma was soon terminated. While he was deliberating with his
+colleagues--Mordacq, an old campaigner, Crugeot, Bertoul, and
+others--whether to stand or, fly, the drums and trumpets of the advancing
+royalists were heard. In another instant the Hotel de Ville was swarming
+with men-at-arms, headed by Bourgeois, the veteran who had expressed so
+alighting an opinion as to the prowess of Captain Ambrose. The tables
+were turned, the miniature revolution was at an end, the
+counter-revolution effected. Gosson and his confederates escaped out of a
+back door, but were soon afterwards arrested. Next morning, Baron Capres,
+the great Malcontent seignior, who was stationed with his regiment in the
+neighbourhood, and who had long been secretly coquetting with the Prior
+and Parma, marched into the city at the head of a strong detachment, and
+straightway proceeded to erect a very tall gibbet in front of the Hotel
+de Ville. This looked practical in the eyes of the liberated and
+reinstated magistrates, and Gosson, Crugeot, and the rest were summoned
+at once before them. The advocate thought, perhaps, with a sigh, that his
+judges, so recently his prisoners, might have been the fruit for another
+gallowstree, had he planted it when the ground was his own; but taking
+heart of grace, he encouraged his colleagues--now his fellow-culprits.
+Crugeot, undismayed, made his appearance before the tribunal, arrayed in
+a corslet of proof, with a golden hilted sword, a scarf embroidered with
+pearls and gold, and a hat bravely plumaged with white, blue, and, orange
+feathers--the colors of William the Silent--of all which finery he was
+stripped, however, as soon as he entered the court.
+
+The process was rapid. A summons from Brussels was expected every hour
+from the general government, ordering the cases to be brought before the
+federal tribunal; and as the Walloon provinces were not yet ready for
+open revolt, the order would be an inconvenient one. Hence the necessity
+for haste. The superior court of Artois, to which an appeal from the
+magistrates lay, immediately held a session in another chamber of the
+Hotel de Ville while the lower court was trying the prisoners, and
+Bertoul, Crugeot, Mordacq, with several others, were condemned in a few
+hours to the gibbet. They were invited to appeal, if they chose, to the
+council of Artois, but hearing that the court was sitting next door, so
+that there was no chance of a rescue in the streets, they declared
+themselves satisfied with the sentence. Gosson had not been tried, his
+case being reserved for the morrow.
+
+Meantime, the short autumnal day had drawn to a close. A wild, stormy,
+rainy night then set in, but still the royalist party--citizens and
+soldiers intermingled--all armed to the teeth, and uttering fierce cries,
+while the whole scene was fitfully illuminated with the glare of
+flambeaux and blazing tar-barrels, kept watch in the open square around
+the city hall. A series of terrible Rembrandt-like nightpieces
+succeeded--grim, fantastic, and gory. Bertoul, an old man, who for years
+had so surely felt himself predestined to his present doom that he had
+kept a gibbet in his own house to accustom himself to the sight of the
+machine, was led forth the first, and hanged at ten in the evening. He
+was a good man, of perfectly blameless life, a sincere Catholic, but a
+warm partisan of Orange.
+
+Valentine de Mordacq, an old soldier, came from the Hotel de Ville to the
+gallows at midnight. As he stood on the ladder, amid the flaming torches,
+he broke forth into furious execrations, wagging his long white beard to
+and fro, making hideous grimaces, and cursing the hard fate which, after
+many dangers on the battle-field and in beleaguered cities, had left him
+to such a death. The cord strangled his curses. Crugeot was executed at
+three in the morning, having obtained a few hours' respite in order to
+make his preparations, which he accordingly occupied himself in doing as
+tranquilly as if he had been setting forth upon an agreeable journey. He
+looked like a phantom, according to eye-witnesses, as he stood under the
+gibbet, making a most pious and, Catholic address to the crowd.
+
+The whole of the following day was devoted to the trial of Gosson. He was
+condemned at nightfall, and heard by appeal before the superior court
+directly afterwards. At midnight, of the 25th of October, 1578, he was
+condemned to lose his head, the execution to take place without delay.
+The city guards and the infantry under Capres still bivouacked upon the
+square; the howling storm still continued, but the glare of fagots and
+torches made the place as light as day. The ancient advocate, with
+haggard eyes and features distorted by wrath, walking between the sheriff
+and a Franciscan monk, advanced through the long lane of halberdiers, in
+the grand hall of the Town House, and thence emerged upon the scaffold
+erected before the door. He shook his fists with rage at the released
+magistrates, so lately his prisoners, exclaiming that to his misplaced
+mercy it was owing that his head, instead of their own, was to be placed
+upon the block. He bitterly reproached the citizens for their cowardice
+in shrinking from dealing a blow for their fatherland, and in behalf of
+one who had so faithfully served them. The clerk of the court then read
+the sentence amid a silence so profound that every syllable he uttered,
+and, every sigh and ejaculation of the victim were distinctly heard in
+the most remote corner of the square. Gosson then, exclaiming that he was
+murdered without cause, knelt upon the scaffold. His head fell while an
+angry imprecation was still upon his lips.
+
+Several other persons of lesser note were hanged daring the week-among
+others, Matthew Doucet, the truculent man of gingerbread, whose rage had
+been so judiciously but so unsuccessfully directed against the Prior of
+Saint Vaast. Captain Ambrose, too, did not live long to enjoy the price
+of his treachery. He was arrested very soon afterwards by the states'
+government in Antwerp, put to the torture, hanged and quartered. In
+troublous times like those, when honest men found it difficult to keep
+their heads upon their shoulders, rogues were apt to meet their deserts,
+unless they had the advantage of lofty lineage and elevated position.
+
+     "Ille crucem sceleris pretium tulit, hic diadema."
+
+This municipal revolution and counter-revolution, obscure though they
+seem, were in reality of very grave importance. This was the last blow
+struck for freedom in the Walloon country. The failure of the movement
+made that scission of the Netherlands certain, which has endured till our
+days, for the influence of the ecclesiastics in the states of Artois and
+Hainault, together with the military power of the Malcontent grandees,
+whom Parma and John Sarrasin had purchased, could no longer be resisted.
+The liberty of the Celtic provinces was sold, and a few high-born
+traitors received the price. Before the end of the year (1578) Montigny
+had signified to the Duke of Alencon that a prince who avowed himself too
+poor to pay for soldiers was no master for him. The Baron, therefore,
+came, to an understanding with La Motte and Sarrasin, acting for
+Alexander Farnese, and received the command of the infantry in the
+Walloon provinces, a merced of four thousand crowns a year, together with
+as large a slice of La Motte's hundred thousand florins for himself and
+soldiers, as that officer could be induced to part with.
+
+Baron Capres, whom Sarrasin--being especially enjoined to purchase
+him--had, in his own language, "sweated blood and water" to secure, at
+last agreed to reconcile himself with the King's party upon condition of
+receiving the government-general of Artois, together with the particular
+government of Hesdin--very lucrative offices, which the Viscount of Ghent
+then held by commission of the states-general. That politic personage,
+however, whose disinclination to desert the liberty party which had
+clothed him with such high functions, was apparently so marked that the
+Prior had caused an ambush to be laid both for him and the Marquis Havre,
+in-order to obtain bodily possession of two such powerful enemies, now,
+at the last moment, displayed his true colors. He consented to reconcile
+himself also, on condition of receiving the royal appointment to the same
+government which he then held from the patriot authorities, together with
+the title of Marquis de Richebourg, the command of all the cavalry in the
+royalist provinces, and certain rewards in money besides. By holding
+himself at a high mark, and keeping at a distance, he had obtained his
+price. Capres, for whom Philip, at Parma's suggestion, had sent the
+commission as governor of Artois and of Hesdin, was obliged to renounce
+those offices, notwithstanding his earlier "reconciliation," and the
+"blood and water" of John Sarrasin. Ghent was not even contented with
+these guerdons, but insisted upon the command of all the cavalry,
+including the band of ordnance which, with handsome salary, had been
+assigned to Lalain as a part of the wages for his treason, while the
+"little Count"--fiery as his small and belligerent cousin whose exploits
+have been recorded in the earlier pages of this history--boldly taxed
+Parma and the King with cheating him out of his promised reward, in order
+to please a noble whose services had been less valuable than those of the
+Lalain family. Having thus obtained the lion's share, due, as he thought,
+to his well known courage and military talents, as well as to the
+powerful family influence, which he wielded--his brother, the Prince of
+Espinoy, hereditary seneschal of Hainault, having likewise rallied to the
+King's party--Ghent jocosely intimated to Parma his intention of helping
+himself to the two best horses in the Prince's stables in exchange for
+those lost at Gemblours, in which disastrous action he had commanded the
+cavalry for the states. He also sent two terriers to Farnese, hoping that
+they would "prove more useful than beautiful." The Prince might have
+thought, perhaps, as much of the Viscount's treason.
+
+John Sarrasin, the all-accomplished Prior, as the reward of his
+exertions, received from Philip the abbey of Saint Vaast, the richest and
+most powerful ecclesiastical establishment in the Netherlands. At a
+subsequent period his grateful Sovereign created him Archbishop of
+Cambray.
+
+Thus the "troubles of Arras"--as they were called--terminated. Gosson the
+respected, wealthy, eloquent, and virtuous advocate; together with his
+colleagues--all Catholics, but at the same time patriots and
+liberals--died the death of felons for their unfortunate attempt to save
+their fatherland from an ecclesiastical and venal conspiracy; while the
+actors in the plot, having all performed well their parts, received their
+full meed of prizes and applause.
+
+The private treaty by which the Walloon provinces of Artois, Hainault,
+Lille, Douay, and Orchies, united themselves in a separate league was
+signed upon the 6th of January, 1579; but the final arrangements for the
+reconciliation of the Malcontent nobles and their soldiers were not
+completed until April 6th, upon which day a secret paper was signed at
+Mount Saint Eloi.
+
+The secret current of the intrigue had not, however, flowed on with
+perfect smoothness until this placid termination. On the contrary, here
+had been much bickering, heart-burning, and mutual suspicions and
+recriminations. There had been violent wranglings among the claimants of
+the royal rewards. Lalain and Capres were not the only Malcontents who
+had cause to complain of being cheated of the promised largess. Montigny,
+in whose favor Parma had distinctly commanded La Motte to be liberal of
+the King's secret-service money, furiously charged the Governor of
+Gravelines with having received a large supply of gold from Spain, and of
+"locking the rascal counters from his friends," so that Parma was obliged
+to quiet the Baron, and many other barons in the same predicament, out of
+his own purse. All complained bitterly, too, that the King, whose
+promises had been so profuse to the nobles while the reconciliation was
+pending, turned a deaf ear to their petitions and left their letters
+unanswered; after the deed was accomplished.
+
+The unlucky Prior of Renty, whose disclosures to La Motte concerning the
+Spanish sarcasms upon his venality, had so nearly caused the preliminary
+negotiation with that seignior to fail, was the cause of still further
+mischief through the interception of Alonzo Curiel's private letters.
+Such revelations of corruption, and of contempt on the part of the
+corrupters, were eagerly turned to account by the states' government. A
+special messenger was despatched to Montigny with the intercepted
+correspondence, accompanied by an earnest prayer that he would not
+contaminate his sword and his noble name by subserviency to men who
+despised even while they purchased traitors. That noble, both confounded
+and exasperated, was for a moment inclined to listen to the voice of
+honor and patriotism, but reflection and solitude induced him to pocket
+up his wrongs and his "merced" together. The states-general also sent the
+correspondence to the Walloon provincial authorities, with an eloquent
+address, begging them to study well the pitiful part which La Motte had
+enacted in the private comedy then performing, and to behold as in a
+mirror their own position, if they did not recede ere it was too late.
+
+The only important effect produced by the discovery was upon the Prior of
+Renty himself. Ottavio Gonzaga, the intimate friend of Don John, and now
+high in the confidence of Parma, wrote to La Motte, indignantly denying
+the truth of Bien Aime's tattle, and affirming that not a word had ever
+been uttered by himself or by any gentleman in his presence to the
+disparagement of the Governor of Gravelines. He added that if the Prior
+had worn another coat, and were of quality equal to his own, he would
+have made him eat his words or a few inches of steel. In the same
+vehement terms he addressed a letter to Bien Aime himself. Very soon
+afterwards, notwithstanding his coat and his quality, that unfortunate
+ecclesiastic found himself beset one dark night by two soldiers, who left
+him, severely wounded and bleeding nearly to death upon the high road,
+but escaping with life, he wrote to Parma, recounting his wrongs and the
+"sword-thrust in his left thigh," and made a demand for a merced.
+
+The Prior recovered from this difficulty only to fall into another, by
+publishing what he called an apologue, in which he charged that the
+reconciled nobles were equally false to the royal and to the rebel
+government, and that, although "the fatted calf had been killed for them,
+after they had so long been feeding with perverse heretical pigs," they
+were, in truth, as mutinous as ever, being bent upon establishing an
+oligarchy in the Netherlands, and dividing the territory among
+themselves, to the exclusion of the sovereign. This naturally excited the
+wrath of the Viscount and others. The Seigneur d'Auberlieu, in a letter
+written in what the writer himself called the "gross style of a
+gendarme," charged the Prior with maligning honorable lords and--in the
+favorite colloquial phrase of the day--with attempting "to throw the cat
+against their legs." The real crime of the meddling priest, however, was
+to have let that troublesome animal out of the bag. He was accordingly
+waylaid again, and thrown into prison by Count Lalain. While in durance
+he published an abject apology for his apologue, explaining that his
+allusions to "returned prodigals," "heretic swine," and to "Sodom and
+Gomorrah," had been entirely misconstrued. He was, however, retained in
+custody until Parma ordered his release on the ground that the punishment
+had been already sufficient for the offence. He then requested to be
+appointed Bishop of Saint Omer, that see being vacant. Parma advised the
+King by no means to grant the request--the Prior being neither endowed
+with the proper age nor discretion for such a dignity--but to bestow some
+lesser reward, in money or otherwise, upon the discomfited ecclesiastic,
+who had rendered so many services and incurred so many dangers.
+
+The states-general and the whole national party regarded, with prophetic
+dismay, the approaching dismemberment of their common country. They sent
+deputation on deputation to the Walloon states, to warn them of their
+danger, and to avert, if possible, the fatal measure. Meantime, as by the
+already accomplished movement, the "generality" was fast disappearing,
+and was indeed but the shadow of its former self, it seemed necessary to
+make a vigorous effort to restore something like unity to the struggling
+country. The Ghent Pacification had been their outer wall, ample enough
+and strong enough to enclose and to protect all the provinces. Treachery
+and religious fanaticism had undermined the bulwark almost as soon as
+reared. The whole beleaguered country was in danger of becoming utterly
+exposed to a foe who grew daily more threatening. As in besieged cities,
+a sudden breastwork is thrown up internally, when the outward defences
+are crumbling--so the energy of Orange had been silently preparing the
+Union of Utrecht, as a temporary defence until the foe should be beaten
+back, and there should be time to decide on their future course of
+action.
+
+During the whole month of December, an active correspondence had been
+carried on by the Prince and his brother John with various agents in
+Gelderland, Friesland, and Groningen, as well as with influential
+personages in the more central provinces and cities. Gelderland, the
+natural bulwark to Holland and Zealand, commanding the four great rivers
+of the country, had been fortunately placed under the government of the
+trusty John of Nassau, that province being warmly in favor of a closer
+union with its sister provinces, and particularly with those more nearly
+allied to itself in religion and in language.
+
+Already, in December (1578), Count John, in behalf of his brother, had
+laid before the states of Holland and Zealand, assembled at Gorcum, the
+project of a new union with "Gelderland, Ghent, Friesland, Utrecht,
+Overyssel, and Groningen." The proposition had been favorably
+entertained, and commissioners had been appointed to confer with other
+commissioners at Utrecht, whenever they should be summoned by Count John.
+The Prince, with the silence and caution which belonged to his whole
+policy, chose not to be the ostensible mover in the plan himself. He did
+not choose to startle unnecessarily the Archduke Matthias--the cipher who
+had been placed by his side, whose sudden subtraction would occasion more
+loss than his presence had conferred benefit. He did not choose to be
+cried out upon as infringing the Ghent Pacification, although the whole
+world knew that treaty to be hopelessly annulled. For these and many
+other weighty motives, he proposed that the new Union should be the
+apparent work of other hands, and only offered to him and to the country,
+when nearly completed. January, the deputies of Gelderland and Zutfelt,
+with Count John, stadholder of these provinces, at their head, met with
+the deputies of Holland, Zealand, and the provinces between the Ems and
+the Lauwers, early in January, 1579, and on the 23rd of that month,
+without waiting longer for the deputies of the other provinces, they
+agreed provisionally upon a treaty of union which was published
+afterwards on the 29th, from the Town House of Utrecht.
+
+This memorable document--which is ever regarded as the foundation of the
+Netherland Republic--contained twenty-six articles.
+
+The preamble stated the object of the union. It was to strengthen, not to
+forsake the Ghent Pacification, already nearly annihilated by the force
+of foreign soldiery. For this purpose, and in order more conveniently to
+defend themselves against their foes, the deputies of Gelderland, Zutfen,
+Holland, Zealand, Utrecht, and the Frisian provinces, thought it
+desirable to form a still closer union. The contracting provinces agreed
+to remain eternally united, as if they were but one province. At the same
+time, it was understood that each was to retain its particular
+privileges, liberties, laudable and traditionary customs, and other laws.
+The cities, corporations, and inhabitants of every province were to be
+guaranteed as to their ancient constitutions. Disputes concerning these
+various statutes and customs were to be decided by the usual tribunals,
+by "good men," or by amicable compromise. The provinces, by virtue of the
+Union, were to defend each other "with life, goods, and blood," against
+all force brought against them in the King's name or behalf. They were
+also to defend each other against all foreign or domestic potentates,
+provinces, or cities, provided such defence were controlled by the
+"generality" of the union. For the expense occasioned by the protection
+of the provinces, certain imposts and excises were to be equally assessed
+and collected. No truce or peace was to be concluded, no war commenced,
+no impost established affecting the "generality," but by unanimous advice
+and consent of the provinces. Upon other matters the majority was to
+decide; the votes being taken in the manner then customary in the
+assembly of states-general. In case of difficulty in coming to a
+unanimous vote when required, the matter was to be referred to the
+stadholders then in office. In case cf their inability to agree, they
+were to appoint arbitrators, by whose decision the parties were to be
+governed. None of the united provinces, or of their cities or
+corporations, were to make treaties with other potentates or states,
+without consent of their confederates. If neighbouring princes,
+provinces, or cities, wished to enter into this confederacy, they were to
+be received by the unanimous consent of the united provinces. A common
+currency was to be established for the confederacy. In the matter of
+divine worship, Holland and Zealand were to conduct themselves as they
+should think proper. The other provinces of the union, however, were
+either to conform to the religious peace already laid down by Archduke
+Matthias and his council, or to make such other arrangements as each
+province should for itself consider appropriate for the maintenance of
+its internal tranquillity--provided always that every individual should
+remain free in his religion, and that no man should be molested or
+questioned on the subject of divine worship, as had been already
+established by the Ghent Pacification. As a certain dispute arose
+concerning the meaning of this important clause, an additional paragraph
+was inserted a few days afterwards. In this it was stated that there was
+no intention of excluding from the confederacy any province or city which
+was wholly Catholic, or in which the number of the Reformed was not
+sufficiently large to entitle them, by the religious peace, to public
+worship. On the contrary, the intention was to admit them, provided they
+obeyed the articles of union, and conducted themselves as good patriots;
+it being intended that no province or city should interfere with another
+in the matter of divine service. Disputes between two provinces were to
+be decided by the others, or--in case the generality were concerned--by
+the provisions of the ninth article.
+
+The confederates were to assemble at Utrecht whenever summoned by those
+commissioned for that purpose. A majority of votes was to decide on
+matters then brought before them, even in case of the absence of some
+members of the confederacy, who might, however, send written proxies.
+Additions or amendments to these articles could only be made by unanimous
+consent. The articles were to be signed by the stadholders, magistrates,
+and principal officers of each province and city, and by all the
+train-bands, fraternities, and sodalities which might exist in the cities
+or villages of the union.
+
+Such were the simple provisions of that instrument which became the
+foundation of the powerful Commonwealth of the United Netherlands. On the
+day when it was concluded, there were present deputies from five
+provinces only. Count John of Nassau signed first, as stadholder of
+Gelderland and Zutfen. His signature was followed by those of four
+deputies from that double province; and the envoys of Holland, Zealand,
+Utrecht and the Frisian provinces, then signed the document.
+
+The Prince himself, although in reality the principal director of the
+movement, delayed appending his signature until May the 3rd, 1579. Herein
+he was actuated by the reasons already stated, and by the hope which he
+still entertained that a wider union might be established, with Matthias
+for its nominal chief. His enemies, as usual, attributed this patriotic
+delay to baser motives. They accused him of a desire to assume the
+governor-generalship himself, to the exclusion of the Archduke--an
+insinuation which the states of Holland took occasion formally to
+denounce as a calumny. For those who have studied the character and
+history of the man, a defence against such slander is superfluous.
+Matthias was but the shadow, Orange the substance. The Archduke had been
+accepted only to obviate the evil effects of a political intrigue, and
+with the express condition that the Prince should be his
+lieutenant-general in name, his master in fact. Directly after his
+departure in the following year, the Prince's authority, which nominally
+departed also, was re-established in his own person, and by express act
+of the states-general.
+
+The Union of Utrecht was the foundation-stone of the Netherland Republic;
+but the framers of the confederacy did not intend the establishment of a
+Republic, or of an independent commonwealth of any kind. They had not
+forsworn the Spanish monarch. It was not yet their intention to forswear
+him. Certainly the act of union contained no allusion to such an
+important step. On the contrary, in the brief preamble they expressly
+stated their intention to strengthen the Ghent Pacification, and the
+Ghent Pacification acknowledged obedience to the King. They intended no
+political innovation of any kind. They expressly accepted matters as they
+were. All statutes, charters, and privileges of provinces, cities, or
+corporations were to remain untouched. They intended to form neither an
+independent state nor an independent federal system. No doubt the formal
+renunciation of allegiance, which was to follow within two years, was
+contemplated by many as a future probability; but it could not be
+foreseen with certainty.
+
+The simple act of union was not regarded as the constitution of a
+commonwealth. Its object was a single one--defence against a foreign
+oppressor. The contracting parties bound themselves together to spend all
+their treasure and all their blood in expelling the foreign soldiery from
+their soil. To accomplish this purpose, they carefully abstained from
+intermeddling with internal politics and with religion. Every man was to
+worship God according to the dictates of his conscience. Every
+combination of citizens, from the provincial states down to the humblest
+rhetoric club, was to retain its ancient constitution. The establishment
+of a Republic, which lasted two centuries, which threw a girdle of rich
+dependencies entirely round the globe, and which attained so remarkable a
+height of commercial prosperity and political influence, was the result
+of the Utrecht Union; but, it was not a premeditated result. A state,
+single towards the rest of the world, a unit in its external relations,
+while permitting internally a variety of sovereignties and
+institutions--in many respects the prototype of our own much more
+extensive and powerful union--was destined to spring from the act thus
+signed by the envoys of five provinces. Those envoys were acting,
+however, under the pressure of extreme necessity, and for what was
+believed an evanescent purpose. The future confederacy was not to
+resemble the system of the German empire, for it was to acknowledge no
+single head. It was to differ from the Achaian league, in the far
+inferior amount of power which it permitted to its general assembly, and
+in the consequently greater proportion of sovereign attributes which were
+retained by the individual states. It was, on the other hand, to furnish
+a closer and more intimate bond than that of the Swiss confederacy, which
+was only a union for defence and external purposes, of cantons otherwise
+independent. It was, finally, to differ from the American federal
+commonwealth in the great feature that it was to be merely a confederacy
+of sovereignties, not a representative Republic. Its foundation was a
+compact, not a constitution. The contracting parties were states and
+corporations, who considered themselves as representing small
+nationalities 'dejure et de facto', and as succeeding to the supreme
+power at the very instant in which allegiance to the Spanish monarch was
+renounced. The general assembly was a collection of diplomatic envoys,
+bound by instructions from independent states. The voting was not by
+heads, but by states. The deputies were not representatives of the
+people, but of the states; for the people of the United States of the
+Netherlands never assembled--as did the people of the United States of
+America two centuries later--to lay down a constitution, by which they
+granted a generous amount of power to the union, while they reserved
+enough of sovereign attributes to secure that local self-government which
+is the life-blood of liberty.
+
+The Union of Utrecht; narrowed as it was to the nether portion of that
+country which, as a whole, might have formed a commonwealth so much more
+powerful, was in origin a proof of this lamentable want of patriotism.
+Could the jealousy of great nobles, the rancour of religious differences,
+the Catholic bigotry of the Walloon population, on the one side,
+contending with the democratic insanity of the Ghent populace on the
+other, have been restrained within bounds by the moderate counsels of
+William of Orange, it would have been possible to unite seventeen
+provinces instead of seven, and to save many long and blighting years of
+civil war.
+
+The Utrecht Union was, however, of inestimable value. It was time for
+some step to be taken, if anarchy were not to reign until the inquisition
+and absolutism were restored. Already, out of Chaos and Night, the coming
+Republic was assuming substance and form. The union, if it created
+nothing else, at least constructed a league against a foreign foe whose
+armed masses were pouring faster and faster into the territory of the
+provinces. Farther than this it did not propose to go. It maintained what
+it found. It guaranteed religious liberty, and accepted the civil and
+political constitutions already in existence. Meantime, the defects of
+those constitutions, although visible and sensible, had not grown to the
+large proportions which they were destined to attain.
+
+Thus by the Union of Utrecht on the one hand, and the fast approaching
+reconciliation of the Walloon provinces on the other, the work of
+decomposition and of construction went Land in hand.
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     Are apt to discharge such obligations--(by) ingratitude
+     Like a man holding a wolf by the ears
+     Local self-government which is the life-blood of liberty
+     No man ever understood the art of bribery more thoroughly
+     Not so successful as he was picturesque
+     Plundering the country which they came to protect
+     Presumption in entitling themselves Christian
+     Protect the common tranquillity by blood, purse, and life
+     Republic, which lasted two centuries
+     Throw the cat against their legs
+     Worship God according to the dictates of his conscience
+
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Vol. 32
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
+
+By John Lothrop Motley
+1855
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+   Parma's feint upon Antwerp--He invests Maestricht--Deputation and
+   letters from the states-general, from Brussels, and from Parma, to
+   the Walloon provinces--Active negotiations by Orange and by Farnese
+   --Walloon envoys in Parma's camp before Maestricht--Festivities--The
+   Treaty of Reconciliation--Rejoicings of the royalist party--Comedy
+   enacted at the Paris theatres--Religious tumults in Antwerp,
+   Utrecht, and other cities--Religious Peace enforced by Orange--
+   Philip Egmont's unsuccessful attempt upon Brussels--Siege of
+   Maestricht--Failure at the Tongres gate--Mining and countermining--
+   Partial destruction of the Tongres ravelin--Simultaneous attack upon
+   the Tongres and Bolls-le-Duo gates--The Spaniards repulsed with
+   great loss--Gradual encroachments of the besiegers--Bloody contests
+   --The town taken--Horrible massacre--Triumphal entrance and solemn
+   thanksgiving--Calumnious attacks upon Orange--Renewed troubles in
+   Ghent--Imbue and Dathenus--The presence of the Prince solicited--
+   Coup d'etat of Imbue--Order restored, and Imbue expelled by Orange
+
+The political movements in both directions were to be hastened by the
+military operations of the opening season. On the night of the 2nd of
+March, 1579, the Prince of Parma made a demonstration against Antwerp. A
+body of three thousand Scotch and English, lying at Borgerhout, was
+rapidly driven in, and a warm skirmish ensued, directly under the walls
+of the city. The Prince of Orange, with the Archduke Matthias, being in
+Antwerp at the time, remained on the fortifications; superintending the
+action, and Parma was obliged to retire after an hour or two of sharp
+fighting, with a loss of four hundred men. This demonstration was,
+however, only a feint. His real design was upon Maestricht; before which
+important city he appeared in great force, ten days afterwards, when he
+was least expected.
+
+Well fortified, surrounded by a broad and deep moat; built upon both
+sides of the Meuse, upon the right bank of which river, however, the
+portion of the town was so inconsiderable that it was merely called the
+village of Wyk, this key to the German gate of the Netherlands was,
+unfortunately, in brave but feeble hands. The garrison was hardly one
+thousand strong; the trained bands of burghers amounted to twelve hundred
+more; while between three and four thousand peasants; who had taken
+refuge within the city walls, did excellent service as sappers and
+miners. Parma, on the other hand, had appeared before the walls with
+twenty thousand men; to which number he received constant reinforcements.
+The Bishop of Liege, too, had sent him four thousand pioneers--a most
+important service; for mining and countermining was to decide the fate of
+Maestricht.
+
+Early in January the royalists had surprised the strong chateau of
+Carpen, in the neighbourhood of the city, upon which occasion the
+garrison were all hanged by moonlight on the trees in the orchard. The
+commandant shared their fate; and it is a curious fact that he had,
+precisely a year previously, hanged the royalist captain, Blomaert, on
+the same spot, who, with the rope around his neck, had foretold a like
+doom to his destroyer.
+
+The Prince of Orange, feeling the danger of Maestricht, lost no time in
+warning the states to the necessary measures, imploring them "not to fall
+asleep in the shade of a peace negotiation," while meantime Parma threw
+two bridges over the Meuse, above and below the city, and then invested
+the place so closely that all communication was absolutely suspended.
+Letters could pass to and fro only at extreme peril to the messengers,
+and all possibility of reinforcing the city at the moment was cut off.
+
+While this eventful siege was proceeding, the negotiations with the
+Walloons were ripening. The siege and the conferences went hand in hand.
+Besides the secret arrangements already described for the separation of
+the Walloon provinces, there had been much earnest and eloquent
+remonstrance on the part of the states-general and of Orange--many solemn
+embassies and public appeals. As usual, the Pacification of Ghent was the
+two-sided shield which hung between the parties to cover or to justify
+the blows which each dealt at the other. There is no doubt as to the real
+opinion entertained concerning that famous treaty by the royal party.
+"Through the peace of Ghent," said Saint Vaast, "all our woes have been
+brought upon us." La Motte informed Parma that it was necessary to
+pretend a respect for the Pacification, however, on account of its
+popularity, but that it was well understood by the leaders of the Walloon
+movement, that the intention was to restore the system of Charles the
+Fifth. Parma signified his consent to make use of that treaty as a basis,
+"provided always it were interpreted healthily, and not dislocated by
+cavillations and sinister interpolations, as had been done by the Prince
+of Orange." The Malcontent generals of the Walloon troops were
+inexpressibly anxious lest the cause of religion should be endangered;
+but the arguments by which Parma convinced those military casuists as to
+the compatibility of the Ghent peace with sound doctrine have already
+been exhibited. The influence of the reconciled nobles was brought to
+bear with fatal effect upon the states of Artois, Hainault, and of a
+portion of French Flanders. The Gallic element in their blood, and an
+intense attachment to the Roman ceremonial, which distinguished the
+Walloon population from their Batavian brethren, were used successfully
+by the wily Parma to destroy the unity of the revolted Netherlands.
+Moreover, the King offered good terms. The monarch, feeling safe on the
+religious point, was willing to make liberal promises upon the political
+questions. In truth, the great grievance of which the Walloons complained
+was the insolence and intolerable outrages of the foreign soldiers. This,
+they said, had alone made them malcontent. It was; therefore, obviously
+the cue of Parma to promise the immediate departure of the troops. This
+could be done the more easily, as he had no intention of keeping the
+promise.
+
+Meantime the efforts of Orange, and of the states-general, where his
+influence was still paramount, were unceasing to counteract the policy of
+Parma. A deputation was appointed by the generality to visit the estates
+of the Walloon provinces. Another was sent by the authorities of
+Brussels. The Marquis of Havre, with several colleagues on behalf of the
+states-general, waited upon the Viscount of Ghent, by whom they were
+received with extreme insolence. He glared upon them, without moving, as
+they were admitted to his presence; "looking like a dead man, from whom
+the soul had entirely departed." Recovering afterwards from this stony
+trance of indignation, he demanded a sight of their instructions. This
+they courteously refused, as they were accredited not to him, but to the
+states of Artois. At this he fell into a violent passion, and threatened
+them with signal chastisement for daring to come thither with so
+treasonable a purpose. In short, according to their own expression; he
+treated them "as if they had been rogues and vagabonds." The Marquis of
+Havre, high-born though he was, had been sufficiently used to such
+conduct. The man who had successively served and betrayed every party,
+who had been the obsequious friend and the avowed enemy of Don John
+within the same fortnight, and who had been able to swallow and inwardly
+digest many an insult from that fiery warrior, was even fain to brook the
+insolence of Robert Melun.
+
+The papers which the deputation had brought were finally laid before the
+states of Artois, and received replies as prompt and bitter as the
+addresses were earnest and eloquent. The Walloons, when summoned to hold
+to that aegis of national unity, the Ghent peace, replied that it was not
+they, but the heretic portion of the states-general, who were for dashing
+it to the ground. The Ghent treaty was never intended to impair the
+supremacy of the Catholic religion, said those provinces, which were
+already on the point of separating for ever from the rest. The Ghent
+treaty was intended expressly to destroy the inquisition and the
+placards, answered the national-party. Moreover, the "very marrow of that
+treaty" was the-departure of the foreign soldiers, who were even then
+overrunning the land. The Walloons answered that Alexander had expressly
+conceded the withdrawal of the troops. "Believe not the fluting and the
+piping of the crafty foe," urged the patriots. "Promises are made
+profusely enough--but only to lure you to perdition. Your enemies allow
+you to slake your hunger and thirst with this idle hope of the troops'
+departure, but you are still in fetters, although the chain be of Spanish
+pinchbeck, which you mistake for gold." "'Tis not we," cried the
+Walloons, "who wish to separate from the generality; 'tis the generality
+which separates from us. We had rather die the death than not maintain
+the union. In the very same breath, however, they boasted of the
+excellent terms which the monarch was offering, and of their strong
+inclination to accept them." "Kings, struggling to recover a lost
+authority, always promise golden mountains and every sort of miracles,"
+replied the patriots; but the warning was uttered in vain.
+
+Meantime the deputation from the city of Brussels arrived on the 28th of
+March at Mons, in Hainault, where they were received with great courtesy
+by Count de Lalain, governor of the province. The enthusiasm with which
+he had espoused the cause of Queen Margaret and her brother Anjou had
+cooled, but the Count received the Brussels envoys with a kindness in
+marked contrast with the brutality of Melun. He made many fine
+speeches--protesting his attachment to, the union, for which he was ready
+to shed the last drop of his blood--entertained the deputies at dinner,
+proposed toasts to the prosperity of the united provinces, and dismissed
+his guests at last with many flowery professions. After dancing
+attendance for a few days, however, upon the estates of the Walloon
+provinces, both sets of deputies were warned to take their instant
+departure as mischief-makers and rebels. They returned, accordingly, to
+Brussels, bringing the written answers which the estates had vouchsafed
+to send.
+
+The states-general, too, inspired by William of Orange, addressed a
+solemn appeal to their sister provinces, thus about to abjure the bonds
+of relationship for ever. It seemed right, once for all, to grapple with
+the Ghent Pacification for the last time, and to strike a final blow in
+defence of that large statesmanlike interpretation, which alone could
+make the treaty live. This was done eloquently and logically. The
+Walloons were reminded that at the epoch of the Ghent peace the number of
+Reformers outside of Holland and Zealand was supposed small. Now the new
+religion had spread its roots through the whole land, and innumerable
+multitudes desired its exercise. If Holland and Zealand chose to
+reestablish the Catholic worship within their borders, they could
+manifestly do so without violating the treaty of Ghent. Why then was it
+not competent to other provinces, with equal allegiance to the treaty, to
+sanction the Reformed religion within their limits?
+
+Parma, on his part, publicly invited the states-general, by letter, to
+sustain the Ghent treaty by accepting the terms offered to the Walloons,
+and by restoring the system of the Emperor Charles, of very lofty memory.
+To this superfluous invitation the states-general replied, on the 19th of
+March, that it had been the system of the Emperor Charles; of lofty
+memory, to maintain the supremacy of Catholicism and of Majesty in the
+Netherlands by burning Netherlanders--a custom which the states, with
+common accord, had thought it desirable to do away with.
+
+In various fervently-written appeals by Orange, by the states-general,
+and by other bodies, the wavering provinces were warned against
+seduction. They were reminded that the Prince of Parma was using this
+minor negotiation "as a second string to his bow;" that nothing could be
+more puerile than to suppose the Spaniards capable, after securing
+Maestricht, of sending away their troops thus "deserting the bride in the
+midst of the honeymoon." They expressed astonishment at being invited to
+abandon the great and general treaty which had been made upon the theatre
+of the whole world by the intervention of the principal princes of
+Christendom, in order to partake in underhand negotiation with the
+commissioners of Parma-men, "who, it would not be denied, were felons and
+traitors." They warned their brethren not to embark on the enemy's ships
+in the dark, for that, while chaffering as to the price of the voyage,
+they would find that the false pilots had hoisted sail and borne them
+away in the night. In vain would they then seek to reach the shore again.
+The example of La Motte and others, "bird-limed with Spanish gold,"
+should be salutary for all-men who were now driven forward with a whip,
+laughed to scorn by their new masters, and forced to drink the bitter
+draught of humiliation along with the sweet poison of bribery. They were
+warned to study well the intercepted letters of Curiel, in order fully to
+fathom the deep designs and secret contempt of the enemy.
+
+Such having been the result of the negotiations between the
+states-general and the Walloon provinces, a strong deputation now went
+forth from those provinces, towards the end of April, to hold a final
+colloquy with Parma, then already busied with the investment of
+Maestricht. They were met upon the road with great ceremony, and escorted
+into the presence of Farnese with drum, trumpet, and flaunting banners.
+He received them with stately affability, in a magnificently decorated
+pavilion, carelessly inviting them to a repast, which he called an
+afternoon's lunch, but which proved a most sumptuous and splendidly
+appointed entertainment. This "trifling foolish banquet" finished, the
+deputies were escorted, with great military parade, to the lodgings which
+had been provided for them in a neighbouring village. During the period
+of their visit, all the chief officers of the army and the household were
+directed to entertain the Walloons with showy festivals, dinners,
+suppers, dances, and carousals of all kinds. At one of the most brilliant
+of these revels--a magnificent ball, to which all the matrons and maids
+of the whole country round had been bidden--the Prince of Parma himself
+unexpectedly made his appearance. He gently rebuked the entertainers for
+indulging in such splendid hospitality without, at least, permitting him
+to partake of it. Charmingly affable to the ladies assembled in the
+ball-room, courteous, but slightly reserved, towards the Walloon envoys,
+he excited the admiration of all by the splendid decorum of his manners.
+As he moved through the halls, modulating his steps in grave cadence to
+the music, the dignity and grace of his deportment seemed truly majestic;
+but when he actually danced a measure himself the enthusiasm was at its
+height. They should, indeed, be rustics, cried the Walloon envoys in a
+breath, not to give the hand of fellowship at once to a Prince so
+condescending and amiable. The exclamation seemed to embody the general
+wish, and to foreshadow a speedy conclusion.
+
+Very soon afterwards a preliminary accord was signed between the King's
+government and the Walloon provinces. The provisions on his Majesty's
+part were sufficiently liberal. The religious question furnishing no
+obstacle, it was comparatively easy for Philip to appear benignant. It
+was stipulated that the provincial privileges should be respected; that a
+member of the King's own family, legitimately born, should always be
+Governor-General, and that the foreign troops should be immediately
+withdrawn. The official exchange and ratification of this treaty were
+delayed till the 4th of the following September, but the news that, the
+reconciliation had been definitely settled soon spread through the
+country. The Catholics were elated, the patriots dismayed. Orange-the
+"Prince of Darkness," as the Walloons of the day were fond of calling
+him--still unwilling to despair, reluctant to accept this dismemberment,
+which he foresaw was to be a perpetual one, of his beloved country,
+addressed the most passionate and solemn adjurations to the Walloon
+provinces, and to their military chieftains. He offered all his children
+as hostages for his good faith in keeping sacredly any covenant which his
+Catholic countrymen might be willing to close with him. It was in vain.
+The step was irretrievably taken; religious bigotry, patrician jealousy,
+and wholesale bribery, had severed the Netherlands in twain for ever. The
+friends of Romanism, the enemies of civil and religious liberty, exulted
+from one end of Christendom to the other, and it was recognized that
+Parma had, indeed, achieved a victory which although bloodless, was as
+important to the cause of absolutism as any which even his sword was
+likely to achieve.
+
+The joy of the Catholic party in Paris manifested itself in a variety of
+ways. At the principal theatre an uncouth pantomime was exhibited, in
+which his Catholic Majesty was introduced upon the stage, leading by a
+halter a sleek cow, typifying the Netherlands. The animal by a sudden
+effort, broke the cord, and capered wildly about. Alexander of Parma
+hastened to fasten the fragments together, while sundry personages,
+representing the states-general, seized her by the horns, some leaping
+upon her back, others calling upon the bystanders to assist in holding
+the restive beast. The Emperor, the King of France, and the Queen of
+England--which last personage was observed now to smile upon one party,
+now to affect deep sympathy with the other--remained stationary; but the
+Duke of Alencon rushed upon the stage, and caught the cow by the tail.
+The Prince of Orange and Hans Casimir then appeared with a bucket, and
+set themselves busily to milk her, when Alexander again seized the
+halter. The cow gave a plunge, upset the pail, prostrated Casimir with
+one kick and Orange with another, and then followed Parma with docility
+as he led her back to Philip. This seems not very "admirable fooling,"
+but it was highly relished by the polite Parisians of the sixteenth
+century, and has been thought worthy of record by classical historians.
+
+The Walloon accord was an auspicious prelude, in the eyes of the friends
+of absolutism, to the negotiations which were opened in the month of May,
+at Cologne. Before sketching, as rapidly as possible, those celebrated
+but barren conferences, it is necessary, for the sake of unity in the
+narrative, to cast a glance at certain synchronical events in different
+parts of the Netherlands.
+
+The success attained by the Catholic party in the Walloon negotiations
+had caused a corresponding bitterness in the hearts of the Reformers
+throughout the country. As usual, bitterness had begot bitterness;
+intolerance engendered intolerance. On the 28th of May, 1579, as the
+Catholics of Antwerp were celebrating the Ommegang--the same festival
+which had been the exciting cause of the memorable tumults of the year
+sixty-five--the irritation of the populace could not be repressed. The
+mob rose in its wrath to put down these demonstrations--which, taken in
+connection with recent events, seemed ill-timed and insolent--of a
+religion whose votaries then formed but a small minority of the Antwerp
+citizens. There was a great tumult. Two persons were killed. The Archduke
+Matthias, who was himself in the Cathedral of Notre Dame assisting at the
+ceremony, was in danger of his life. The well known cry of "paapen uit"
+(out with the papists) resounded through the streets, and the priests and
+monks were all hustled out of town amid a tempest of execrations. Orange
+did his utmost to quell the mutiny, nor were his efforts fruitless--for
+the uproar, although seditious and disgraceful, was hardly sanguinary.
+Next day the Prince summoned the magistracy, the Monday council, the
+guild officers, with all the chief municipal functionaries, and expressed
+his indignation in decided terms. He protested that if such tumults,
+originating in that very spirit of intolerance which he most deplored,
+could not be repressed for the future, he was determined to resign his
+offices, and no longer to affect authority in a city where his counsels
+were derided. The magistrates, alarmed at his threats, and sympathizing
+with his anger, implored him not to desert them, protesting that if he
+should resign his offices, they would instantly lay down their own. An
+ordinance was then drawn up and immediately, proclaimed at the Town
+House, permitting the Catholics to re-enter the city, and to enjoy the
+privileges of religious worship. At the same time, it was announced that
+a new draft of a religious peace would be forthwith issued for the
+adoption of every city.
+
+A similar tumult, arising from the same cause, at Utrecht, was attended
+with the like result. On the other hand, the city of Brussels was
+astonished by a feeble and unsuccessful attempts at treason, made by a
+youth who bore an illustrious name. Philip, Count of Egmont, eldest son
+of the unfortunate Lamoral, had command of a regiment in the service of
+the states. He had, besides, a small body of cavalry in immediate
+attendance upon his person. He had for some time felt inclined--like the
+Lalains, Meluns, La Mottes, and others to reconcile himself with the
+Crown, and he wisely thought that the terms accorded to him would be more
+liberal if he could bring the capital of Brabant with him as a peace
+offering to his Majesty. His residence was in Brussels. His regiment was
+stationed outside the gates, but in the immediate neighbourhood of the
+city. On the morning of the 4th of June he despatched his troopers--as
+had been frequently his custom--on various errands into the country. On
+their return, after having summoned the regiment, they easily mastered
+and butchered the guard at the gate through which they had re-entered,
+supplying their place with men from their own ranks. The Egmont regiment
+then came marching through the gate in good order--Count Philip at their
+head--and proceeded to station themselves upon the Grande Place in the
+centre of the city. All this was at dawn of day. The burghers, who looked
+forth from their houses, were astounded and perplexed by this movement at
+so unwonted an hour, and hastened to seize their weapons. Egmont sent a
+detachment to take possession of the palace. He was too late. Colonel Van
+der Tympel, commandant of the city, had been beforehand with him, had got
+his troops under arms, and now secured the rebellious detachment.
+Meantime, the alarm had spread. Armed burghers came from every house, and
+barricades were hastily thrown up across every one of the narrow streets
+leading to the square. Every issue was closed. Not a man of Egmont's
+adherents--if he indeed had adherents among the townsmen--dared to show
+his face. The young traitor and his whole regiment, drawn up on the
+Grande Place, were completely entrapped. He had not taken Brussels, but
+assuredly Brussels had taken him. All day long he was kept in his
+self-elected prison and pillory, bursting with rage and shame. His
+soldiers, who were without meat or drink, became insolent and uproarious,
+and he was doomed also to hear the bitter and well-merited taunts of the
+towns-people. A thousand stinging gibes, suggested by his name and the
+locality, were mercilessly launched upon him. He was asked if he came
+thither to seek his father's head. He was reminded that the morrow was
+the anniversary of that father's murder upon that very spot--by those
+with whom the son would now make his treasonable peace. He was bidden to
+tear up but a few stones from the pavement beneath his feet, that the
+hero's blood might cry out against him from the very ground.
+
+Tears of shame and fury sprang from the young man's eyes as he listened
+to these biting sarcasms, but the night closed upon that memorable
+square, and still the Count was a prisoner. Eleven years before, the
+summer stars had looked down upon a more dense array of armed men within
+that place. The preparations for the pompous and dramatic execution,
+which on the morrow was to startle all Europe, had been carried out in
+the midst of a hushed and overawed population; and now, on the very
+anniversary of the midnight in which that scaffold had risen, should not
+the grand spectre of the victim have started from the grave to chide his
+traitorous son?
+
+Thus for a whole day and night was the baffled conspirator compelled to
+remain in the ignominious position which he had selected for himself. On
+the morning of the 5th of June he was permitted to depart, by a somewhat
+inexplicable indulgence, together with all his followers. He rode out of
+the gate at early dawn, contemptible and crest-fallen, at the head of his
+regiment of traitors, and shortly afterwards--pillaging and levying black
+mail as he went--made his way to Montigny's quarters.
+
+It might have seemed natural, after such an exhibition, that Philip
+Egmont should accept his character of renegade, and confess his intention
+of reconciling himself with the murderers of his father. On the contrary,
+he addressed a letter to the magistracy of Brussels, denying with
+vehemence "any intention of joining the party of the pernicious
+Spaniards," warmly protesting his zeal and affection for the states, and
+denouncing the "perverse inventors of these calumnies against him as the
+worst enemies of the poor afflicted country." The magistrates replied by
+expressing their inability to comprehend how the Count, who had suffered
+villainous wrongs from the Spaniards, such as he could never sufficiently
+deplore or avenge, should ever be willing to enslave himself, to those
+tyrants. Nevertheless, exactly at the moment of this correspondence,
+Egmont was in close negotiation with Spain, having fifteen days before
+the date of his letter to the Brussels senate, conveyed to Parma his
+resolution to "embrace the cause of his Majesty and the ancient
+religion"--an intention which he vaunted himself to have proved "by
+cutting the throats of three companies of states' soldiers at Nivelle,
+Grandmont, and Ninove." Parma had already written to communicate the
+intelligence to the King, and to beg encouragement for the Count. In
+September, the monarch wrote a letter to Egmont, full of gratitude and
+promises, to which the Count replied by expressing lively gratification
+that his Majesty was pleased with his little services, by avowing
+profound attachment to Church and King, and by asking eagerly for money,
+together with the government of Alost. He soon became singularly
+importunate for rewards and promotion, demanding, among other posts, the
+command of the "band of ordnance," which had been his father's. Parma, in
+reply, was prodigal of promises, reminding the young noble "that he was
+serving a sovereign who well knew how to reward the distinguished
+exploits of his subjects." Such was the language of Philip the Second and
+his Governor to the son of the headless hero of Saint Quentin; such was
+the fawning obsequiousness with which Egmont could kiss that royal hand
+reeking with his father's blood.
+
+Meanwhile the siege of Maestricht had been advancing with steady
+precision. To military minds of that epoch--perhaps of later ages--this
+achievement of Parma seemed a masterpiece of art. The city commanded the
+Upper Meuse, and was the gate into Germany. It contained thirty-four
+thousand inhabitants. An army, numbering almost as many Souls, was
+brought against it; and the number of deaths by which its capture was at
+last effected, was probably equal to that of a moiety of the population.
+To the technical mind, the siege no doubt seemed a beautiful creation of
+human intelligence. To the honest student of history, to the lover of
+human progress, such a manifestation of intellect seems a sufficiently
+sad exhibition. Given, a city with strong walls and towers, a slender
+garrison and a devoted population on one side; a consummate chieftain on
+the other, with an army of veterans at his back, no interruption to fear,
+and a long season to work in; it would not seem to an unsophisticated
+mind a very lofty exploit for the soldier to carry the city at the end of
+four months' hard labor.
+
+The investment of Maestricht was commenced upon the 12th of March, 1579.
+In the city, besides the population, there were two thousand peasants,
+both men and women, a garrison of one thousand soldiers; and a trained
+burgher guard; numbering about twelve hundred. The name of the military
+commandant was Melchior. Sebastian Tappin, a Lorraine officer of much
+experience and bravery, was next in command, and was, in truth, the
+principal director of the operations. He had been despatched thither by
+the Prince of Orange, to serve under La None, who was to have commanded
+in Maestricht, but had been unable to enter the city. Feeling that the
+siege was to be a close one, and knowing how much depended upon the
+issue, Sebastian lost no time in making every needful preparation for
+coming events. The walls were strengthened everywhere; shafts were sunk,
+preparatory to the countermining operations which were soon to become
+necessary; the moat was deepened and cleared, and the forts near the
+gates were put in thorough repair. On the other hand, Alexander had
+encircled the city, and had thrown two bridges, well fortified, across
+the river. There were six gates to the town, each provided with ravelins,
+and there was a doubt in what direction the first attack should be made.
+Opinions wavered between the gate of Bois-le-Duc, next the river, and
+that of Tongres on the south-western side, but it was finally decided to
+attempt the gate of Tongres.
+
+Over against that point the platforms were accordingly constructed, and
+after a heavy cannonade from forty-six great guns continued for several
+days, it was thought, by the 25th of March, that an impression had been
+made upon the city. A portion of the brick curtain had crumbled, but
+through the breach was seen a massive terreplein, well moated, which,
+after six thousand shots already delivered on the outer wall--still
+remained uninjured. It was recognized that the gate of Tongres was not
+the most assailable, but rather the strongest portion of the defences,
+and Alexander therefore determined to shift his batteries to the gate of
+Bois-le-Duc. At the same time, the attempt upon that of Tongres was to be
+varied, but not abandoned. Four thousand miners, who had passed half
+their lives in burrowing for coal in that anthracite region, had been
+furnished by the Bishop of Liege, and this force was now set to their
+subterranean work. A mine having been opened at a distance, the besiegers
+slowly worked their way towards the Tongres gate, while at the same time
+the more ostensible operations were in the opposite direction. The
+besieged had their miners also, for the peasants in the city had been
+used to work with mattock and pickaxe. The women, too, enrolled
+themselves into companies, chose their officers--or "mine-mistresses," as
+they were called--and did good service daily in the caverns of the earth.
+Thus a whole army of gnomes were noiselessly at work to destroy and
+defend the beleaguered city. The mine advanced towards the gate; the
+besieged delved deeper, and intersected it with a transverse excavation,
+and the contending forces met daily, in deadly encounter, within these
+sepulchral gangways. Many stratagems were, mutually employed. The
+citizens secretly constructed a dam across the Spanish mine, and then
+deluged their foe with hogsheads of boiling water. Hundreds were thus
+scalded to death. They heaped branches and light fagots in the hostile
+mine, set fire to the pile, and blew thick volumes of smoke along the
+passage with organ-bellows brought from the churches for the purpose.
+Many were thus suffocated. The discomfited besiegers abandoned the mine
+where they had met with such able countermining, and sunk another shaft,
+at midnight, in secret, at a long distance from the Tongres gate. Still
+towards that point, however, they burrowed in the darkness; guiding
+themselves to their destination with magnet, plumbline and level, as the
+mariner crosses the trackless ocean with compass and chart. They worked
+their way, unobstructed, till they arrived at their subterranean port,
+directly beneath the doomed ravelin. Here they constructed a spacious
+chamber, supporting it with columns, and making all their architectural
+arrangements with as much precision and elegance as if their object had
+been purely esthetic. Coffers full of powder, to an enormous amount, were
+then placed in every direction across the floor, the train was laid, and
+Parma informed that all was ready. Alexander, having already arrayed the
+troops destined for the assault, then proceeded in person to the mouth of
+the shaft, and gave orders to spring the mine. The explosion was
+prodigious; a part of the tower fell with the concussion, and the moat
+was choked with heaps of rubbish. The assailants sprang across the
+passage thus afforded, and mastered the ruined portion of the fort. They
+were met in the breach, however, by the unflinching defenders of the
+city, and, after a fierce combat of some hours, were obliged to retire;
+remaining masters, however, of the moat, and of the ruined portion of the
+ravelin. This was upon the 3rd of April.
+
+Five days afterwards, a general assault was ordered. A new mine having
+been already constructed towards the Tongres ravelin, and a faithful
+cannonade having been kept up for a fortnight against the Bois-le-Duc
+gate, it was thought advisable to attack at both points at once. On the
+8th of April, accordingly, after uniting in prayer, and listening to a
+speech from Alexander Farnese, the great mass of the Spanish army
+advanced to the breach. The moat had been rendered practicable in many
+places by the heaps of rubbish with which it had been encumbered, and by
+the fagots and earth with which it had been filled by the besiegers. The
+action at the Bois-le-Duc gate was exceedingly warm. The tried veterans
+of Spain, Italy, and Burgundy, were met face to face by the burghers of
+Maestricht, together with their wives and children. All were armed to the
+teeth, and fought with what seemed superhuman valor. The women, fierce as
+tigresses defending their young, swarmed to the walls, and fought in the
+foremost rank. They threw pails of boiling water on the besiegers, they
+hurled firebrands in their faces; they quoited blazing pitch-hoops with,
+unerring dexterity about their necks. The rustics too, armed with their
+ponderous flails, worked as cheerfully at this bloody harvesting as if
+thrashing their corn at home. Heartily did they winnow the ranks of the
+royalists who came to butcher them, and thick and fast fell the invaders,
+fighting bravely, but baffled by these novel weapons used by peasant and
+woman, coming to the aid of the sword; spear, and musket of trained
+soldiery. More than a thousand had fallen at the Bois-le-Duc gate, and
+still fresh besiegers mounted the breach, only to be beaten back, or to
+add to the mangled heap of the slain. At the Tongres gate, meanwhile, the
+assault had fared no better. A herald had been despatched thither in hot
+haste, to shout at the top of his lungs, "Santiago! Santiago! the
+Lombards have the gate of Bois-le-Duc!" while the same stratagem was
+employed to persuade the invaders on the other side of the town that
+their comrades had forced the gate of Tongres. The soldiers, animated by
+this fiction, and advancing with fury against the famous ravelin; which
+had been but partly destroyed, were received with a broadside from the
+great guns of the unshattered portion, and by a rattling discharge of
+musketry from the walls. They wavered a little. At the same instant the
+new mine--which was to have been sprung between the ravelin and the gate,
+but which had been secretly countermined by the townspeople, exploded
+with a horrible concussion, at a moment least expected by the besiegers.
+Five hundred royalists were blown into the air. Ortiz, a Spanish captain
+of engineers, who had been inspecting the excavations, was thrown up
+bodily from the subterranean depth. He fell back again instantly into the
+same cavern, and was buried by the returning shower of earth which had
+spouted from the mine. Forty-five years afterwards, in digging for the
+foundations of a new wall, his skeleton was found. Clad in complete
+armor, the helmet and cuirass still sound, with his gold chain around his
+neck, and his mattock and pickaxe at his feet, the soldier lay
+unmutilated, seeming almost capable of resuming his part in the same war
+which--even after his half century's sleep--was still ravaging the land.
+
+Five hundred of the Spaniards, perished by the explosion, but none of the
+defenders were injured, for they, had been prepared. Recovering from the
+momentary panic, the besiegers again rushed to the attack. The battle
+raged. Six hundred and seventy officers, commissioned or
+non-commissioned, had already fallen, more than half mortally wounded.
+Four thousand royalists, horribly mutilated, lay on the ground. It was
+time that the day's work should be finished, for Maastricht was not to be
+carried upon that occasion. The best and bravest of the surviving
+officers besought Parma to put an end to the carnage by recalling the
+troops; but the gladiator heart of the commander was heated, not
+softened, by the savage spectacle. "Go back to the breach," he cried,
+"and tell the soldiers that Alexander is coming to lead them into the
+city in triumph, or to perish with his comrades." He rushed forward with
+the fury which had marked him when he boarded Mustapha's galley at
+Lepanto; but all the generals who were near him threw themselves upon his
+path, and implored him to desist from such insensate rashness. Their
+expostulations would have probably been in vain, had not his confidential
+friend, Serbelloni, interposed with something like paternal authority,
+reminding him of the strict commands contained in his Majesty's recent
+letters, that the Governor-General, to whom so much was entrusted, should
+refrain, on pain of the royal displeasure, from exposing his life like a
+common fighter.
+
+Alexander reluctantly gave the signal of recal at last, and accepted the
+defeat. For the future he determined to rely more upon the sapper and
+miner, and less upon the superiority of veterans to townsmen and rustics
+in open fight. Sure to carry the city at last, according to line and
+rule, determined to pass the whole summer beneath the walls, rather than
+abandon his purpose, he calmly proceeded to complete his
+circumvallations. A chain of eleven forts upon the left, and five upon
+the right side of the Meuse, the whole connected by a continuous wall,
+afforded him perfect security against interruptions, and allowed him to
+continue the siege at leisure. His numerous army was well housed and
+amply supplied, and he had built a strong and populous city in order to
+destroy another. Relief was impossible. But a few thousand men were now
+required to defend Farnese's improvised town, while the bulk of his army
+could be marched at any moment against an advancing foe. A force of seven
+thousand, painfully collected by the Prince of Orange, moved towards the
+place, under command of Hohenlo and John of Nassau, but struck with
+wonder at what they saw, the leaders recognized the hopelessness of
+attempting relief. Maestricht was surrounded by a second Maestricht.
+
+The efforts of Orange were now necessarily directed towards obtaining, if
+possible, a truce of a few weeks from the negotiators at Cologne. Parma
+was too crafty, however, to allow Terranova to consent, and as the Duke
+disclaimed any power over the direct question of peace and war, the siege
+proceeded. The gates of Bois-le-Duc and Tongres having thus far resisted
+the force brought against them, the scene was changed to the gate of
+Brussels. This adjoined that of Tongres, was farthest from the river, and
+faced westwardly towards the open country. Here the besieged had
+constructed an additional ravelin, which they had christened, in
+derision, "Parma," and against which the batteries of Parma were now
+brought to bear. Alexander erected a platform of great extent and
+strength directly opposite the new work, and after a severe and constant
+cannonade from this elevation, followed by a bloody action, the "Parma"
+fort was carried. One thousand, at least, of the defenders fell, as,
+forced gradually from one defence to another, they saw the triple walls
+of their ravelin crumble successively before their eyes. The tower was
+absolutely annihilated before they abandoned its ruins, and retired
+within their last defences. Alexander being now master of the fosa and
+the defences of the Brussels gate, drew up a large force on both aides of
+that portal, along the margin of the moat, and began mining beneath the
+inner wall of the city.
+
+Meantime, the garrison had been reduced to four hundred soldiers, nearly
+all of whom were wounded: wearied and driven to despair, these soldiers
+were willing to treat. The townspeople, however, answered the proposition
+with a shout of fury, and protested that they would destroy the garrison
+with their own hands if such an insinuation were repeated. Sebastian
+Tappin, too, encouraged them with the hope of speedy relief, and held out
+to them the wretched consequences of trusting to the mercy of their foes.
+The garrison took heart again, while that of the burghers and their wives
+had, never faltered. Their main hope now was in a fortification which
+they had been constructing inside the Brussels gate--a demilune of
+considerable strength. Behind it was a breastwork of turf and masonry, to
+serve as a last bulwark when every other defence should be forced. The
+whole had been surrounded by a foss thirty feet in depth, and the
+besiegers, as they mounted upon the breaches which they had at last
+effected in the outer curtain, near the Brussels gate, saw for the first
+time this new fortification.
+
+The general condition of the defences, and the disposition of the
+inhabitants, had been revealed to Alexander by a deserter from the town.
+Against this last fortress the last efforts of the foe were now directed.
+Alexander ordered a bridge to be thrown across the city moat. As it was
+sixty feet wide and as many deep, and lay directly beneath the guns of
+the new demilune, the enterprise was sufficiently hazardous. Alexander
+led the way in person, with a mallet in one hand and a mattockin the
+other. Two men fell dead instantly, one on his right hand and his left,
+while he calmly commenced, in his own person, the driving of the first
+piles for the bridge. His soldiers fell fast around him. Count Berlaymont
+was shot dead, many officers of distinction were killed or wounded, but
+no soldier dared recoil while their chieftain wrought amid the bullets
+like a common pioneer. Alexander, unharmed, as by a miracle, never left
+the spot till the bridge had been constructed, and till ten great guns
+had been carried across it, and pointed against the demilune. The battery
+was opened, the mines previously excavated were sprung, a part of the
+demilune was blown into the air, and the assailants sprang into the
+breach. Again a furious hand-to-hand conflict succeeded; again, after an
+obstinate resistance, the townspeople were forced to yield. Slowly
+abandoning the shattered fort, they retired behind the breastwork in its
+rear--their innermost and last defence. To this barrier they clung as to
+a spar in shipwreck, and here at last they stood at bay, prepared dearly
+to sell their lives.
+
+The breastwork, being still strong, was not attempted upon that day. The
+assailants were recalled, and in the mean time a herald was sent by
+Parma, highly applauding the courage of the defenders, and begging them
+to surrender at discretion. They answered the messenger with words of
+haughty defiance, and, rushing in a mass to the breastwork, began with
+spade, pickax, and trowel, to add to its strength. Here all the
+able-bodied men of the town took up their permanent position, and here
+they ate, drank, and slept upon their posts, while their food was brought
+to them by the women and children.
+
+A little letter, "written in a fine neat handwriting," now mysteriously
+arrived in the city, encouraging them in the name of the Archduke and the
+Prince of Orange, and assuring them of relief within fourteen days. A
+brief animation was thus produced, attended by a corresponding languor
+upon the part of the besiegers, for Alexander had been lying ill with a
+fever since the day when the demilune had been carried. From his sick bed
+he rebuked his officers severely that a temporary breastwork, huddled
+together by boors and burghers in the midst of a siege, should prove an
+insurmountable obstacle to men who had carried everything before them.
+The morrow was the festival of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, and it was
+meet that so sacred a day should be hallowed by a Christian and Apostolic
+victory. Saint Peter would be there with, his keys to open the gate;
+Saint Paul would lead them to battle with his invincible sword. Orders
+were given accordingly, and the assault was assigned for the following
+morning.
+
+Meantime, the guards were strengthened and commanded to be more than
+usually watchful. The injunction had a remarkable effect. At the dead of
+night, a soldier of the watch was going his rounds on the outside of the
+breastwork, listening, if perchance he might catch, as was not unusual, a
+portion of the conversation among the beleaguered burghers within. Prying
+about on every side, he at last discovered a chink in the wall, the
+result, doubtless, of the last cannonade, and hitherto overlooked. He
+enlarged the gap with his fingers, and finally made an opening wide
+enough to admit his person. He crept boldly through, and looked around in
+the clear starlight. The sentinels were all slumbering at their posts. He
+advanced stealthily in the dusky streets. Not a watchman was going his
+rounds. Soldiers, burghers, children, women, exhausted by incessant
+fatigue, were all asleep. Not a footfall was heard; not a whisper broke
+the silence; it seemed a city of the dead. The soldier crept back through
+the crevice, and hastened to apprise his superiors of his adventure.
+
+Alexander, forthwith instructed as to the condition of the city, at once
+ordered the assault, and the last wall was suddenly stormed before the
+morning broke. The soldiers forced their way through the breach or sprang
+over the breastwork, and surprised at last--in its sleep--the city which
+had so long and vigorously defended itself. The burghers, startled from
+their slumber, bewildered, unprepared, found themselves engaged in
+unequal conflict with alert and savage foes. The battle, as usual when
+Netherland towns were surprised by Philip's soldiers, soon changed to a
+massacre. The townspeople rushed hither and thither, but there was
+neither escape, nor means of resisting an enemy who now poured into the
+town by thousands upon thousands. An indiscriminate slaughter succeeded:
+Women, old men, and children, had all been combatants; and all,
+therefore, had incurred the vengeance of the conquerors. A cry of agony
+arose which was distinctly heard at the distance of a league. Mothers
+took their infants in their arms, and threw themselves by hundreds into
+the Meuse--and against women the blood-thirst of the assailants was
+especially directed. Females who had fought daily in the trenches, who
+had delved in mines and mustered on the battlements, had unsexed
+themselves in the opinion of those whose comrades they had helped to
+destroy. It was nothing that they had laid aside the weakness of women in
+order to defend all that was holy and dear to them on earth. It was
+sufficient that many a Spanish, Burgundian, or Italian mercenary had died
+by their hands. Women were pursued from house to house, and hurled from
+roof and window. They were hunted into the river; they were torn limb
+from limb in the streets. Men and children fared no better; but the heart
+sickens at the oft-repeated tale. Horrors, alas, were commonplaces in the
+Netherlands. Cruelty too monstrous for description, too vast to be
+believed by a mind not familiar with the outrages practised by the
+soldiers of Spain and Italy upon their heretic fellow-creatures, were now
+committed afresh in the streets of Maestricht.
+
+On the first day four thousand men and women were slaughtered. The
+massacre lasted two days longer; nor would it be an exaggerated estimate,
+if we assume that the amount of victims upon the two last days was equal
+to half the number sacrificed on the first. It was said that not four
+hundred citizens were left alive after the termination of the siege.
+These soon wandered away, their places being supplied by a rabble rout of
+Walloon sutlers and vagabonds. Maestricht was depopulated as well as
+captured. The booty obtained after the massacre was very large, for the
+city had been very thriving, its cloth manufacture extensive and
+important. Sebastian Tappin, the heroic defender of the place, had been
+shot through the shoulder at the taking of the Parma ravelin, and had
+been afterwards severely injured at the capture of the demilune. At the
+fall of the city he was mortally wounded, and carried a prisoner to the
+hostile camp, only to expire. The governor, Swartsenberg, also lost his
+life.
+
+Alexander, on the contrary, was raised from his sick bed with the joyful
+tidings of victory, and as soon as he could be moved, made his appearance
+in the city. Seated in a splendid chair of state, borne aloft on the
+shoulders of his veterans, with a golden canopy above his head to protect
+him from the summer's sun, attended by the officers of his staff, who
+were decked by his special command in, their gayest trappings, escorted
+by his body-guard, followed by his "plumed troops," to the number of
+twenty thousand, surrounded by all the vanities of war, the hero made his
+stately entrance into the town. His way led through deserted streets of
+shattered houses. The pavement ran red with blood. Headless corpses,
+mangled limbs--an obscene mass of wretchedness and corruption, were
+spread on every side, and tainted the summer air. Through the thriving
+city which, in the course of four months Alexander had converted into a
+slaughter-house and a solitude, the pompous procession took its course to
+the church of Saint Servais. Here humble thanks were offered to the God
+of Love, and to Jesus of Nazareth, for this new victory. Especially was
+gratitude expressed to the Apostles Paul and Peter; upon whose festival,
+and by whose sword and key the crowning mercy had been accomplished,--and
+by whose special agency eight thousand heretics now lay unburied in the
+streets. These acts of piety performed, the triumphal procession returned
+to the camp, where, soon afterwards, the joyful news of Alexander
+Farnese's entire convalescence was proclaimed.
+
+The Prince of Orange, as usual, was blamed for the tragical termination
+to this long drama. All that one man could do, he had done to awaken his
+countrymen to the importance of the siege. He had repeatedly brought the
+subject solemnly before the assembly, and implored for Maestricht, almost
+upon his knees. Lukewarm and parsimonious, the states had responded to
+his eloquent appeals with wrangling addressee and insufficient votes.
+With a special subsidy obtained in April and May, he had organized the
+slight attempt at relief, which was all which he had been empowered to
+make, but which proved entirely unsuccessful. Now that the massacre to be
+averted was accomplished, men were loud in reproof, who had been silent,
+and passive while there was yet time to speak and to work. It was the
+Prince, they said, who had delivered so many thousands of his
+fellow-countrymen to, butchery. To save himself, they insinuated he was
+now plotting to deliver the land into the power of the treacherous
+Frenchman, and he alone, they asserted, was the insuperable obstacle to
+an honorable peace with Spain.
+
+A letter, brought by an unknown messenger, was laid before the states'
+assembly, in full session, and sent to the clerk's table, to be read
+aloud. After the first few sentences, that functionary faltered in his
+recital. Several members also peremptorily ordered him to stop; for the
+letter proved to be a violent and calumnious libel upon Orange, together
+with a strong appeal in favor of the peace propositions then under debate
+at Cologne. The Prince alone, of all the assembly, preserving his
+tranquillity, ordered the document to be brought to him, and forthwith
+read it aloud himself, from beginning to end. Afterwards, he took
+occasion to express his mind concerning the ceaseless calumnies of which
+he was the mark. He especially alluded to the oft-repeated accusation
+that he was the only obstacle to peace, and repeated that he was ready at
+that moment to leave the land, and to close his lips for ever, if by so
+doing he could benefit his country, and restore her to honorable repose.
+The outcry, with the protestations of attachment and confidence which at
+once broke from the assembly, convinced him, however, that he was deeply
+rooted in the hearts of all patriotic Netherlanders, and that it was
+beyond the power of slanderers to loosen his hold upon their affection.
+
+Meantime, his efforts had again and again been demanded to restore order
+in that abode of anarchy, the city of Ghent. After his visit during the
+previous winter, and the consequent departure of John Casimir to the
+palatinate, the pacific arrangements made by the Prince had for a short
+time held good. Early in March, however, that master of misrule, John van
+Imbize, had once more excited the populace to sedition. Again the
+property of Catholics, clerical and lay, was plundered; again the persons
+of Catholics, of every degree, were maltreated. The magistrates, with
+first senator Imbize at their head, rather encouraged than rebuked the
+disorder; but Orange, as soon as he received official intelligence of the
+event, hastened to address them in the words of earnest warning and
+wisdom. He allowed that the inhabitants of the province had reason to be
+discontented with the presence and the misconduct of the Walloon
+soldiery. He granted that violence and the menaces of a foreign tyranny
+made it difficult for honest burghers to gain a livelihood. At the same
+time he expressed astonishment that reasonable men should seek a remedy
+for such evils in tumults which would necessarily bring utter destruction
+upon the land. "It was," he observed, "as if a patient should from
+impatience, tear the bandages from his wounds, and, like a maniac,
+instead of allowing himself to be cured, plunge a dagger into his own
+heart."
+
+These exhortations exerted a wholesome effect for a moment, but matters
+soon went from bad to worse. Imbize, fearing the influence of the Prince,
+indulged in open-mouthed abuse of a man whose character he was unable
+even to comprehend, He accused him of intriguing with France for his own
+benefit, of being a Papist in disguise, of desiring to establish what he
+called a "religious peace," merely to restore Roman idolatry. In all
+these insane ravings, the demagogue was most ably seconded by the
+ex-monk. Incessant and unlicensed were the invectives hurled by Peter
+Dathenus from his pulpit upon William the Silent's head. He denounced
+him--as he had often done before--as an atheist in heart; as a man who
+changed his religion as easily as his garments; as a man who knew no God
+but state expediency, which was the idol of his worship; a mere
+politician who would tear his shirt from his back and throw it in the
+fire, if he thought it were tainted with religion.
+
+Such witless but vehement denunciation from a preacher who was both
+popular and comparatively sincere, could, not but affect the imagination
+of the weaker portion of his, healers. The faction of Imbize became
+triumphant. Ryhove--the ruffian whose hands were stained with the recent
+blood of Visch and Hessels--rather did damage than service to the cause
+of order. He opposed himself to the demagogue who was prating daily of
+Greece, Rome, and Geneva, while his clerical associate was denouncing
+William of Orange, but he opposed himself in vain. An attempt to secure
+the person of Imbize failed, but by the influence of Ryhove, however, a
+messenger was despatched to Antwerp in the name of a considerable portion
+of the community of Ghent. The counsel and the presence of the man to
+whom all hearts in every part of the Netherlands instinctively turned in
+the hour of need, were once more invoked.
+
+The Prince again addressed them in language which none but he could
+employ with such effect. He told them that his life, passed in service
+and sacrifice, ought to witness sufficiently for his fidelity.
+Nevertheless, he thought it necessary--in view of the calumnies which
+were circulated--to repeat once more his sentiment that no treaty of
+peace, war, or alliance, ought to be negotiated, save with the consent of
+the people. His course in Holland and Zealand had proved, he said, his
+willingness always to consult the wishes of his countrymen. As for the
+matter of religion it was almost incredible that there should be any who
+doubted the zeal which he bore the religion for which he had suffered so
+much. "I desire," he continued, fervently, "that men should compare that
+which has been done by my accusers during ten years past with that which
+I have done. In that which touches the true advancement of religion, I
+will yield to no man. They who so boldly accuse me have no liberty of
+speech, save that which has been acquired for them by the blood of my
+kindred, by my labors, and my excessive expenditures. To me they owe it
+that they dare speak at all." This letter, (which was dated on the 24th
+of July, 1579) contained an assurance that the writer was about to visit
+Ghent.
+
+On the following day, Imbize executed a coup d'etat. Having a body of
+near two thousand soldiers at his disposal, he suddenly secured the
+persons of all the magistrates and other notable individuals not friendly
+to his policy, and then, in violation of all law, set up a new board of
+eighteen irresponsible functionaries, according to a list prepared by
+himself alone. This was his way of enforcing the democratic liberty of
+Greece, Rome, and Geneva, which was so near to his heart. A proclamation,
+in fourteen articles, was forthwith issued, justifying this arbitrary
+proceeding. It was declared that the object of the somewhat irregular
+measure "was to prevent the establishment of the religious peace, which
+was merely a method of replanting uprooted papistry and the extirpated
+tyranny of Spain." Although the arrangement's had not been made in strict
+accordance with formal usage and ceremony, yet they were defended upon
+the ground that it had been impossible, by other means, to maintain their
+ancient liberties and their religious freedom. At the same time a
+pamphlet, already prepared for the occasion by Dathenus, was extensively
+circulated. In this production the arbitrary revolution effected by a
+demagogue was defended with effrontery, while the character, of Orange,
+was loaded with customary abuse. To prevent the traitor from coming to
+Ghent, and establishing what he called his religious peace, these
+irregular measures, it was urged, had been wisely taken.
+
+Such were the efforts of John Imbize--such the calumnies of Peter
+Dathenus--in order to counteract the patriotic endeavors of the Prince;
+but neither the ruffianism of John nor the libels of Peter were destined
+upon this occasion to be successful. William the Silent treated the
+slanders of the scolding monk with dignified contempt. "Having been
+informed," said he to the magistrates of Ghent, "that Master Peter
+Dathenns has been denouncing me as a man without religion or fidelity,
+and full of ambition, with other propositions hardly becoming his cloth;
+I do not think it worth while to answer more at this time than that I
+willingly refer myself to the judgment of all who know me."
+
+The Prince came to Ghent, great as had been the efforts of Imbize and his
+partisans to prevent his coming. His presence was like magic. The
+demagogue and his whole flock vanished like unclean birds at the first
+rays of the sun. Imbize dared not look the Father of his country in the
+face. Orange rebuked the populace in the strong and indignant language
+that public and private virtue, energy, and a high purpose enabled such a
+leader of the people to use. He at once set aside the board of
+eighteen--the Grecian-Roman-Genevese establishment of Imbize--and
+remained in the city until the regular election, in conformity with the
+privileges, had taken place. Imbize, who had shrunk at his approach, was
+meantime discovered by his own companions. He had stolen forth secretly
+on the night before the Prince's arrival, and was found cowering in the
+cabin of a vessel, half dead with fear, by an ale-house keeper who had
+been his warm partisan. "No Skulking," cried the honest friend; seizing
+the tribune of the people by the shoulder; "no sailing away in the
+night-time. You have got us all into this bog, and must come back, and
+abide the issue with your supporters."
+
+In this collapsed state was the windy demagogue, who had filled half
+Flanders with his sound and fury, conveyed before the patriot Prince. He
+met with grave and bitter rebukes, but felt sufficiently relieved when
+allowed to depart unharmed. Judging of his probable doom by the usual
+practice of himself and his fellows in similar cases, he had anticipated
+nothing short of the gibbet. That punishment, however, was to be
+inflicted at a later period, by other hands, and not until he had added
+treason to his country and a shameless recantation of all his violent
+professions in favor of civil and religious liberty to the list of his
+crimes. On the present occasion he was permitted to go free. In company
+with his clerical companion, Peter Dathenus, he fled to the abode of his
+excellent friend, John Casimir, who received both with open arms, and
+allowed them each a pension.
+
+Order being thus again restored in Ghent by the exertions of the Prince,
+when no other human hand could have dispelled the anarchy which seemed to
+reign supreme, William the Silent, having accepted the government of
+Flanders, which had again and again been urged upon him, now returned to
+Antwerp.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+   The Cologne conferences--Intentions of the parties--Preliminary
+   attempt by government to purchase the Prince of Orange--Offer and
+   rejection of various articles among the plenipotentiaries--Departure
+   of the imperial commissionere--Ultimatum of the States compared with
+   that of the royal government--Barren negotiations terminated--
+   Treason of De Bours, Governor of Mechlin--Liberal theories
+   concerning the nature of government--Abjuration of Philip imminent--
+   Self-denial of Orange--Attitude of Germany--of England--Marriage
+   negotiations between Elizabeth and Anjou--Orange favors the election
+   of the Duke as sovereign--Address and speeches of the Prince--
+   Parsimony and interprovincial jealousy rebuked----Secret
+   correspondence of Count Renneberg with the royal government--
+   His treason at Groningen.
+
+Since the beginning of May, the Cologne negotiations had been dragging
+their slow length along. Few persons believed that any good was likely to
+result from these stately and ponderous conferences; yet men were so
+weary of war, so desirous that a termination might be put to the atrophy
+under which the country was languishing, that many an eager glance was
+turned towards the place where the august assembly was holding its
+protracted session. Certainly, if wisdom were to be found in mitred
+heads--if the power to heal angry passions and to settle the conflicting
+claims of prerogative and conscience were to be looked for among men of
+lofty station, then the Cologne conferences ought to have made the rough
+places smooth and the crooked paths straight throughout all Christendom.
+There was the Archbishop of Rossano, afterwards Pope Urban VII, as
+plenipotentiary from Rome; there was Charles of Aragon, Duke of
+Terranova, supported by five councillors, as ambassador from his Catholic
+Majesty; there were the Duke of Aerschot, the Abbot of Saint Gertrude,
+the Abbot of Marolles, Doctor Bucho Aytta, Caspar Schetz, Lord of
+Grobbendonck, that learned Frisian, Aggeus van Albada, with seven other
+wise men, as envoys from the states-general: There were their Serene
+Highnesses the Elector and Archbishops of Cologne and Treves, with the
+Bishop of Wurtzburg. There was also a numerous embassy from his Imperial
+Majesty, with Count Otto de Schwartzenburg at its head.
+
+Here then were holiness, serenity, dignity, law, and learning in
+abundance. Here was a pope 'in posse', with archbishops, princes, dukes,
+jurisconsults, and doctors of divinity 'in esse', sufficient to remodel a
+world, if worlds were to be remodelled by such instruments. If protocols,
+replications, annotations, apostilles, could heal a bleeding country,
+here were the physicians to furnish those drugs in unlimited profusion.
+If reams of paper, scrawled over with barbarous technicalities, could
+smother and bury a quarrel which had its origin in the mutual antagonism
+of human elements, here were the men to scribble unflinchingly, till the
+reams were piled to a pyramid. If the same idea presented in many aspects
+could acquire additional life, here were the word-mongers who, could
+clothe one shivering thought in a hundred thousand garments, till it
+attained all the majesty which decoration could impart. In truth, the
+envoys came from Spain, Rome, and Vienna, provided with but two ideas.
+Was it not a diplomatic masterpiece, that from this frugal store they
+could contrive to eke out seven mortal months of negotiation? Two
+ideas--the supremacy of his Majesty's prerogative, the exclusive exercise
+of the Roman Catholic religion--these were the be-all and the end-all of
+their commission. Upon these two strings they were to harp, at least till
+the walls of Maestricht had fallen. The envoys did their duty well; they
+were sent to enact a solemn comedy, and in the most stately manner did
+they walk through their several parts. Not that the King was belligerent;
+on, the contrary, he was heartily weary of the war. Prerogative was
+weary--Romanism was weary--Conscience was weary--the Spirit of Freedom
+was weary but the Prince of Orange was not weary. Blood and treasure had
+been pouring forth so profusely during twelve flaming years, that all but
+that one tranquil spirit were beginning to flag.
+
+At the same time, neither party had more disposition to concede than
+stomach to fight. Certainly the royal party had no inclination to yield.
+The King had granted easy terms to the Walloons, because upon the one
+great point of religion there was, no dispute, and upon the others there
+was no intention of keeping faith. With regard to the present
+negotiation, it was desirable to gain a little time. It was thought
+probable that the religious difference, judiciously managed at this
+juncture, might be used to effect a permanent severance of the provinces
+so lately banded together in a common union. "To, divide them," wrote
+Tassis, in a very confidential letter, "no better method can be found
+than to amuse them with this peace negotiation. Some are ready for a
+pacification from their desire of repose, some from their fear of war,
+some from the differences which exist among themselves, and which it is
+especially important to keep alive." Above all things, it was desirable
+to maintain the religious distraction till Maestricht had been taken.
+That siege was the key to the whole situation. If the separate Walloon
+accord could be quietly made in a corner, while Parma was battering that
+stronghold on the Meuse, and while decorous negotiation was smoothly
+holding its course on the Rhine, much disorganization, it was hoped,
+would be handsomely accomplished before the end of the year.
+
+"As for a suspension of arms," wrote Alexander to Terranova, on the 21st
+of May, "the longer 'tis deferred the better. With regard to Maestricht,
+everything depends upon it that we possess, or desire to possess. Truly,
+if the Prince of Orange can relieve the city he will do it. If he does
+so, neither will this expedition of ours, nor any other expedition, be
+brought to a good end. As soon as men are aware that our affairs are
+looking badly, they will come again to a true union, and all will join
+together, in hope to accomplish their boasts." Therefore, it was natural
+that the peace-wrights of Cologne should industriously ply their task.
+
+It is not desirable to disturb much of that learned dust, after its three
+centuries' repose. A rapid sketch of the course of the proceedings, with
+an indication of the spirit which animated the contending parties, will
+be all that is necessary. They came and they separated with precisely
+opposite views. "The desires of Terranova and of the estates," says the
+royalist, Tassis, "were diametrically contrary, to each other. The King
+wished that the exercise of the Roman Catholic religion should be
+exclusively established, and the absolute prerogative preserved in its
+integrity." On the other hand, the provinces desired their charters and a
+religious' peace. In these perpetual lines and curves ran the
+asymptotical negotiation from beginning to end--and so it might have run
+for two centuries, without hope of coincidence. Neither party was yet
+vanquished. The freshly united provinces were no readier now than before
+to admit that the Holy Office formed part of their national institutions.
+The despotic faction was not prepared to renounce that establishment.
+Foiled, but not disheartened, sat the Inquisition, like a beldame, upon
+the border, impotently threatening the land whence she had been for ever
+excluded; while industrious as the Parcae, distaff in hand, sat, in
+Cologne, the inexorable three--Spain, the Empire, and Rome--grimly,
+spinning and severing the web of mortal destinies.
+
+The first step in the proceedings had been a secret one. If by any means
+the Prince of Orange could be detached from his party--if by bribery,
+however enormous, he could be induced--to abandon a tottering cause, and
+depart for the land of his birth--he was distinctly but indirectly given
+to understand that he had but to name his terms. We have seen the issue
+of similar propositions made by Don John of Austria. Probably there was
+no man living who would care to make distinct application of this
+dishonorable nature to the Father of his country. The Aerschots, the
+Meluns, the Lalains, and a swarm of other nobles, had their price, and
+were easily transferable from one to another, but it was not easy to make
+a direct offer to William of Orange. They knew--as he said shortly
+afterwards in his famous Apology--that "neither for property nor for
+life, neither for wife nor for children, would he mix in his cup a single
+drop of treason." Nevertheless, he was distinctly given to understand
+that "there was nothing he could demand for himself personally that would
+not be granted." All his confiscated property, restoration of his
+imprisoned son, liberty of worship for himself, payment of all his debts,
+reimbursement of all his past expenses, and anything else which he could
+desire, were all placed within his reach. If he chose to retire into
+another land, his son might be placed in possession of all his cities,
+estates, and dignities, and himself indemnified in Germany; with a
+million of money over and above as a gratuity. The imperial envoy, Count
+Schwartzenburg, pledged his personal honor and reputation that every
+promise which might be made to the Prince should be most sacredly
+fulfilled.
+
+It was all in vain. The indirect applications of the imperial
+commissioners made to his servants and his nearest relations were
+entirely unsuccessful. The Prince was not to be drawn into a negotiation
+in his own name or for his own benefit. If the estates were satisfied, he
+was satisfied. He wanted no conditions but theirs; "nor would he
+directly, or indirectly," he said, "separate himself from the cause on
+which hung all his evil or felicity." He knew that it was the object of
+the enemy to deprive the country of its head, and no inducements were
+sufficient to make him a party to the plot. At the same time, he was
+unwilling to be an obstacle, in his own person, to the conclusion of an
+honorable peace. He would resign his offices which he held at the
+solicitation of the whole country, if thus a negotiation were likely to
+be more successful. "The Prince of Parma and the disunited provinces,"
+said he to the states-general, "affect to consider this war as one waged
+against me and in my name--as if the question alone concerned the name
+and person of the general. If it be so, I beg you to consider whether it
+is not because I have been ever faithful to the land. Nevertheless, if I
+am an obstacle, I am ready to remove it. If you, therefore, in order to
+deprive the enemy of every right to inculpate us, think proper to choose
+another head and conductor of your affairs, I promise you to serve and to
+be obedient to him with all my heart. Thus shall we leave the enemy no
+standing-place to work dissensions among us." Such was his language to
+friend and foe, and here, at least, was one man in history whom kings
+were not rich enough to purchase.
+
+On the 18th of May, the states' envoys at Cologne presented fourteen
+articles, demanding freedom of religion and the ancient political
+charters. Religion, they said, was to be referred; not to man, but to
+God. To him the King was subject as well as the people. Both King and
+people--"and by people was meant every individual in the land"--were
+bound to serve God according to their conscience.
+
+The imperial envoys found such language extremely reprehensible, and
+promptly refused, as umpires, to entertain the fourteen articles. Others
+drawn up by Terranova and colleagues, embodying the claims of the royal
+and Roman party, were then solemnly presented, and as promptly rejected.
+Then the imperial umpires came forward with two bundles of
+proposisitions--approved beforehand by the Spanish plenipotentiaries. In
+the political bundle; obedience due to the King was insisted upon, "as in
+the time of the Emperor Charles." The religious category declared that
+"the Roman religion--all others excluded--should thenceforth be exercised
+in all the provinces." Both these categories were considered more
+objectionable by the states' envoys than the terms of Terranova, and
+astonishment was expressed that "mention should again be made of the
+edicts--as if blood enough had not been shed already in the cause of
+religion."
+
+The Netherland envoys likewise gave the imperial commissioners distinctly
+to understand that--in case peace were not soon made--"the states would
+forthwith declare the King fallen from his sovereignty;" would for ever
+dispense the people from their oaths of allegiance to him, and would
+probably accept the Duke of Anjou in his place. The states-general, to
+which body the imperial propositions had been sent, also rejected the
+articles in a logical and historical argument of unmerciful length.
+
+An appeal secretly made by the imperial and Spanish commissioners, from
+the states' envoys to the states themselves, and even to the people of
+the various provinces, had excited the anger of the plenipotentiaries.
+They complained loudly of this violation of all diplomatic etiquette, and
+the answer of the states-general, fully confirming the views of their
+ambassadors, did not diminish their wrath.
+
+On the 13th of November, 1579, the states' envoys were invited into the
+council chamber of the imperial commissioners, to hear the last solemn
+commonplaces of those departing, functionaries. Seven months long they
+had been waiting in vain, they said, for the states' envoys to accede to
+moderate demands. Patience was now exhausted. Moreover, their mediatory
+views had been the subject of bitter lampooning throughout the country,
+while the authorities of many cities had publicly declared that all the
+inhabitants would rather, die the death than accept such terms. The
+peace-makers, accordingly, with endless protestations as to, their own
+purity, wisdom, and benevolence, left the whole "in the hands of God and
+the parties concerned."
+
+The reply to this elaborate farewell was curt and somewhat crusty. "Had
+they known," said the states' envoys, "that their transparencies and
+worthinesses had no better intention, and the Duke of Terranova no ampler
+commission, the whole matter might have been despatched, not in six
+months, but in six days."
+
+Thus ended the conferences, and the imperial commissioners departed.
+Nevertheless, Schwartzenburg remained yet a little time at Cologne, while
+five of the states' envoys also protracted their stay, in order to make
+their private peace with the King. It is hardly necessary to observe that
+the chief of these penitents was the Duke of Aerschot. The ultimatum of
+the states was deposited by the departing envoys with Schwartzenburg, and
+a comparison of its terms with those offered by the imperial mediators,
+as the best which could be obtained from Spain, shows the hopelessness of
+the pretended negotiation. Departure of the foreign troops, restitution
+of all confiscated property, unequivocal recognition of the Ghent treaty
+and the perpetual edict, appointment to office of none but natives, oaths
+of allegiance to the King and the states-general, exercise of the
+Reformed religion and of the Confession of Augsburg in all places where
+it was then publicly practised: such were the main demands of the patriot
+party.
+
+In the secret instructions furnished by the states to their envoys, they
+were told to urge upon his Majesty the absolute necessity, if he wished
+to retain the provinces, of winking at the exercise of the Reformed and
+the Augsburg creeds. "The new religion had taken too deep root," it was
+urged, "ever to be torn forth, save with the destruction of the whole
+country."
+
+Thus, after seven dreary months of negotiation, after protocols and
+memoranda in ten thousand folia, the august diplomatists had travelled
+round to the points from which they had severally started. On the one
+side, unlimited prerogative and exclusive Catholicism; on the other,
+constitutional liberty, with freedom of conscience for Catholic and
+Protestant alike: these were the claims which each party announced at the
+commencement, and to which they held with equal firmness at the close of
+the conferences.
+
+The congress had been expensive. Though not much had been accomplished
+for the political or religious advancement of mankind, there had been
+much excellent eating and drinking at Cologne during the seven months.
+Those drouthy deliberations had needed moistening. The Bishop of
+Wurtzburg had consumed "eighty hogsheads of Rhenish wine and twenty great
+casks of beer." The expense of the states' envoys were twenty-four
+thousand guldens. The Archbishop of Cologne had expended forty thousand
+thalers. The deliberations were, on the whole, excessively detrimental to
+the cause of the provinces, "and a great personage" wrote to the
+states-general, that the King had been influenced by no motive save to
+cause dissension. This was an exaggeration, for his Majesty would have
+been well pleased to receive the whole of the country on the same terms
+which had been accepted by the Walloons. Meantime, those southern
+provinces had made their separate treaty, and the Netherlands were
+permanently dissevered. Maestricht had fallen. Disunion and dismay had
+taken possession of the country.
+
+During the course of the year other severe misfortunes had happened to
+the states. Treachery, even among the men who had done good service to
+the cause of freedom, was daily showing her hateful visage. Not only the
+great chieftains who had led the Malcontent Walloon party, with the
+fickle Aerschot and the wavering Havre besides, had made their separate
+reconciliation with Parma, but the epidemic treason had mastered such
+bold partisans as the Seigneur de Bours, the man whose services in
+rescuing the citadel of Antwerp had been so courageous and valuable. He
+was governor of Mechlin; Count Renneberg was governor of Friesland. Both
+were trusted implicitly by Orange and by the estates; both were on the
+eve of repaying the confidence reposed in them by the most venal treason.
+
+It was already known that Parma had tampered with De Bours; but Renneberg
+was still unsuspected. "The Prince," wrote Count John, "is deserted by
+all the noblemen; save the stadholder of Friesland and myself, and has no
+man else in whom he can repose confidence." The brothers were doomed to
+be rudely awakened from the repose with regard to Renneberg, but
+previously the treason of a less important functionary was to cause a
+considerable but less lasting injury to the national party.
+
+In Mechlin was a Carmelite friar, of audacious character and great
+eloquence; a man who, "with his sweet, poisonous tongue, could ever
+persuade the people to do his bidding." This dangerous monk, Peter Lupus,
+or Peter Wolf, by name, had formed the design of restoring Mechlin to the
+Prince of Parma, and of obtaining the bishopric of Namur as the reward of
+his services. To this end he had obtained a complete mastery over the
+intellect of the bold but unprincipled De Bours. A correspondence was
+immediately opened between Parma and the governor, and troops were
+secretly admitted into the city. The Prince of Orange, in the name of the
+Archduke and the estates, in vain endeavoured to recal the infatuated
+governor to his duty. In vain he conjured him, by letter after letter, to
+be true to his own bright fame so nobly earned. An old friend of De
+Bours, and like himself a Catholic, was also employed to remonstrate with
+him. This gentleman, De Fromont by name, wrote him many letters; but De
+Bours expressed his surprise that Fromont, whom he had always considered
+a good Catholic and a virtuous gentleman, should wish to force him into a
+connection with the Prince of Orange and his heretic supporters. He
+protested that his mind was quite made up, and that he had been
+guaranteed by Parma not only the post which he now held, but even still
+farther advancement.
+
+De Fromont reminded him, in reply, of the frequent revolutions of
+fortune's wheel, and warned him that the advancement of which he boasted
+would probably be an entire degradation. He bitterly recalled to the
+remembrance of the new zealot for Romanism his former earnest efforts to
+establish Calvinism. He reproached him, too, with having melted up the
+silver images of the Mechlin churches, including even the renowned shrine
+of Saint Rombout, which the Prince of Orange had always respected. "I
+don't say how much you took of that plunder for your own share,"
+continued the indignant De Fromont, "for the very children cry it in your
+ears as you walk the streets. 'Tis known that if God himself had been
+changed into gold you would have put him in your pocket."
+
+This was plain language, but as just as it was plain. The famous shrine
+of Saint Rombout--valued at seventy thousand guldens, of silver gilt, and
+enriched with precious stones--had been held sacred alike by the
+fanatical iconoclasts and the greedy Spaniards who had successively held
+the city. It had now been melted up, and appropriated by Peter Lupin; the
+Carmelite, and De Bours, the Catholic convert, whose mouths were full of
+devotion to the ancient Church and of horror for heresy.
+
+The efforts of Orange and of the states were unavailing. De Bours
+surrendered the city, and fled to Parma, who received him with
+cordiality, gave him five thousand florins--the price promised for his
+treason, besides a regiment of infantry--but expressed surprise that he
+should have reached the camp alive. His subsequent career was short, and
+he met his death two years afterwards, in the trenches before Tournay.
+The archiepiscopal city was thus transferred to the royal party, but the
+gallant Van der Tympel, governor of Brussels, retook it by surprise
+within six months of its acquisition by Parma, and once more restored it
+to the jurisdiction of the states. Peter Lupus, the Carmelite, armed to
+the teeth, and fighting fiercely at the head of the royalists, was slain
+in the street, and thus forfeited his chance for the mitre of Namur.
+
+During the weary progress of the Cologne negotiations, the Prince had not
+been idle, and should this august and slow-moving congress be
+unsuccessful in restoring peace, the provinces were pledged to an act of
+abjuration. They would then be entirely without a head. The idea of a
+nominal Republic was broached by none. The contest had not been one of
+theory, but of facts; for the war had not been for revolution, but for
+conservation, so far as political rights were concerned. In religion, the
+provinces had advanced from one step to another, till they now claimed
+the largest liberty--freedom of conscience--for all. Religion, they held,
+was God's affair, not man's, in which neither people nor king had power
+over each other, but in which both were subject to God alone. In politics
+it was different. Hereditary sovereignty was acknowledged as a fact, but
+at the same time, the spirit of freedom was already learning its
+appropriate language. It already claimed boldly the natural right of
+mankind to be governed according to the laws of reason and of divine
+justice. If a prince were a shepherd, it was at least lawful to deprive
+him of his crook when he butchered the flock which he had been appointed
+to protect.
+
+"What reason is there," said the states-general, "why the provinces
+should suffer themselves to be continually oppressed by their sovereign,
+with robbings, burnings, stranglings, and murderings? Why, being thus
+oppressed, should they still give their sovereign--exactly as if he were
+well conducting himself--the honor and title of lord of the land?" On the
+other hand, if hereditary rule were an established fact, so also were
+ancient charters. To maintain, not to overthrow, the political compact,
+was the purpose of the states. "Je maintiendrai" was the motto of
+Orange's escutcheon. That a compact existed between prince and people,
+and that the sovereign held office only on condition of doing his duty,
+were startling truths which men were beginning, not to whisper to each
+other in secret, but to proclaim in the market-place. "'Tis well known to
+all," said the famous Declaration of Independence, two years afterwards,
+"that if a prince is appointed by God over the land, 'tis to protect them
+from harm, even as a shepherd to the guardianship of his flock. The
+subjects are not appointed by God for the behoof of the prince, but the
+prince for his subjects, without whom he is no prince. Should he violate
+the laws, he is to be forsaken by his meanest subject, and to be
+recognized no longer as prince."
+
+William of Orange always recognized these truths, but his scheme of
+government contemplated a permanent chief, and as it was becoming obvious
+that the Spanish sovereign would soon be abjured, it was necessary to fix
+upon a substitute. "As to governing these provinces in the form of a
+republic," said he, speaking for the states-general, "those who know the
+condition, privileges, and ordinances of the country, can easily
+understand that 'tis hardly possible to dispense with a head or
+superintendent." At the same time, he plainly intimated that this "head
+or superintendent" was to be, not a monarch--a one-ruler--but merely the
+hereditary chief magistrate of a free commonwealth.
+
+Where was this hereditary chief magistrate to be found? His own claims he
+absolutely withdrew. The office was within his grasp, and he might easily
+have constituted himself sovereign of all the Netherlands. Perhaps it
+would have been better at that time had he advanced his claims and
+accepted the sovereignty which Philip had forfeited. As he did not
+believe in the possibility of a republic, he might honestly have taken
+into his own hands the sceptre which he considered indispensable. His
+self-abnegation was, however, absolute. Not only did he decline
+sovereignty, but he repeatedly avowed his readiness to, lay down all the
+offices which he held, if a more useful substitute could be found. "Let
+no man think," said he, in a remarkable speech to the states-general,
+"that my good-will is in any degree changed or diminished. I agree to
+obey--as the least of the lords or gentlemen of the land could
+do--whatever person it may, please you to select. You have but to command
+my services wheresoever they are most wanted; to guard a province or a
+single city, or in any capacity in which I may be found most useful. I
+promise to do my duty, with all my strength and skill, as God and my
+conscience are witnesses that I have done it hitherto."
+
+The negotiations pointed to a speedy abjuration of Philip; the Republic
+was contemplated by none; the Prince of Orange absolutely refused to
+stretch forth his own hand; who then was to receive the sceptre which was
+so soon to be bestowed? A German Prince--had been tried--in a somewhat
+abnormal position--but had certainly manifested small capacity for aiding
+the provinces. Nothing could well be more insignificant than the figure
+of Matthias; and, moreover, his imperial brother was anything but
+favorably disposed. It was necessary to manage Rudolph. To treat the
+Archduke with indignity, now that he had been partly established in the
+Netherlands, would be to incur the Emperor's enmity. His friendship,
+however, could hardly be secured by any advancement bestowed upon his
+brother; for Rudolph's services against prerogative and the Pope were in
+no case to be expected. Nor was there much hope from the Protestant
+princes of Germany. The day had passed for generous sympathy with those
+engaged in the great struggle which Martin Luther had commenced. The
+present generation of German Protestants were more inclined to put down
+the Calvinistic schism at home than to save it from oppression abroad.
+Men were more disposed to wrangle over the thrice-gnawed bones of
+ecclesiastical casuistry, than to assist their brethren in the field. "I
+know not," said Gaultherus, "whether the calamity of the Netherlands, or
+the more than bestial stupidity of the Germans, be most deplorable. To
+the insane contests on theological abstractions we owe it that many are
+ready to breathe blood and slaughter against their own brethren. The
+hatred of the Lutherans has reached that point that they can rather
+tolerate Papists than ourselves."
+
+In England, there was much sympathy for the provinces and there--although
+the form of government was still arbitrary--the instincts for civil and
+religious freedom, which have ever characterized the Anglo-Saxon race,
+were not to be repressed. Upon many a battle-field for liberty in the
+Netherlands, "men whose limbs were made in England" were found contending
+for the right. The blood and treasure of Englishmen flowed freely in the
+cause of their relatives by religion and race, but these were the efforts
+of individuals. Hitherto but little assistance had been rendered by the
+English Queen, who had, on the contrary, almost distracted the provinces
+by her fast-and-loose policy, both towards them and towards Anjou. The
+political rivalry between that Prince and herself in the Netherlands had,
+however, now given place to the memorable love-passage from which
+important results were expected, and it was thought certain that
+Elizabeth would view with satisfaction any dignity conferred upon her
+lover.
+
+Orange had a right to form this opinion. At the same time, it is well
+known that the chief councillors of Elizabeth--while they were all in
+favor of assisting the provinces--looked with anything but satisfaction
+upon the Anjou marriage. "The Duke," wrote Davidson to Walsingham in
+July, 1579, "seeks, forsooth, under a pretext of marriage with her
+Highness, the rather to espouse the Low Countries--the chief ground and
+object of his pretended love, howsoever it be disguised." The envoy
+believed both Elizabeth and the provinces in danger of taking unto
+themselves a very bad master. "Is there any means," he added, "so apt to
+sound the very bottom of our estate, and to hinder and breake the neck of
+all such good purpose as the necessity of the tyme shall set abroch?"
+
+The provinces of Holland and Zealand, notwithstanding the love they bore
+to William of Orange, could never be persuaded by his arguments into
+favoring Anjou. Indeed, it was rather on account of the love they bore
+the Prince--whom they were determined to have for their sovereign--that
+they refused to listen to any persuasion in favor of his rival, although
+coming from his own lips. The states-general, in a report to the states
+of Holland, drawn up under the superintendence of the Prince, brought
+forward all the usual arguments for accepting the French duke, in case
+the abjuration should take place. They urged the contract with Anjou (of
+August 13th, 1578), the great expenses he had already incurred in their
+behalf; the danger of offending him; the possibility that in such case he
+would ally himself with Spain; the prospect that, in consequence of such
+a result, there would be three enemies in the field against them--the
+Walloons, the Spaniards, and the French, all whose forces would
+eventually be turned upon Holland and Zealand alone. It was represented
+that the selection of Anjou would, on the other hand, secure the
+friendship of France--an alliance which would inspire both the Emperor
+and the Spanish monarch with fear; for they could not contemplate without
+jealousy a possible incorporation of the provinces with that kingdom.
+Moreover, the geographical situation of France made its friendship
+inexpressibly desirable. The states of Holland and Zealand were,
+therefore, earnestly invited to send deputies to an assembly of the
+states-general, in order to conclude measures touching the declaration of
+independence to be made against the King, and concerning the election of
+the Duke of Anjou.
+
+The official communications by speech or writing of Orange to the
+different corporations and assemblies, were at this period of enormous
+extent. He was moved to frequent anger by the parsimony, the
+inter-provincial jealousy, the dull perception of the different estates,
+and he often expressed his wrath in unequivocal language. He dealt
+roundly with all public bodies. His eloquence was distinguished by a
+bold, uncompromising, truth-telling spirit, whether the words might prove
+palatable or bitter to his audience. His language rebuked his hearers
+more frequently than it caressed them, for he felt it impossible, at all
+times, to consult both the humors and the high interests of the people,
+and he had no hesitation, as guardian of popular liberty, in denouncing
+the popular vices by which it was endangered.
+
+By both great parties, he complained, his shortcomings were all noted,
+the good which he had accomplished passed over in silence.
+
+   [Letter to the States-general, August, 1579, apud Bor, xiv. 97,
+   sqq. This was the opinion frequently expressed by Languet: "Cherish
+   the friendship of the Prince, I beseech you," he writes to Sir
+   Philip Sydney, "for there is no man like him in all Christendom.
+   Nevertheless, his is the lot of all men of prudence--to be censured
+   by all parties. The people complain that he despises them; the
+   nobility declare that it is their order which he hates; and this is
+   as sensible as if you were to tell me that you were the son of a
+   clown."]
+
+He solemnly protested that he desired, out of his whole heart, the
+advancement of that religion which he publicly professed, and with God's
+blessing, hoped to profess to the end of his life, but nevertheless, he
+reminded the states that he had sworn, upon taking office as
+Lieutenant-General, to keep "all the subjects of the land equally under
+his protection," and that he had kept his oath. He rebuked the parsimony
+which placed the accepted chief of the provinces in a sordid and
+contemptible position. "The Archduke has been compelled," said he, in
+August, to the states-general, "to break up housekeeping, for want of
+means. How shameful and disreputable for the country, if he should be
+compelled, for very poverty, to leave the land!" He offered to lay down
+all the power with which he had himself been clothed, but insisted, if he
+were to continue in office, upon being provided with, larger means of
+being useful. "'Twas impossible," he said, "for him to serve longer on
+the same footing as heretofore; finding himself without power or
+authority, without means, without troops, without money, without
+obedience." He reminded the states-general that the enemy--under pretext
+of peace negotiations--were ever circulating calumnious statements to the
+effect that he was personally the only obstacle to peace. The real object
+of these hopeless conferences was to sow dissension through the land, to
+set burgher against burgher, house against house. As in Italy, Guelphs
+and Ghibellines--as in Florence, the Neri and Bianchi--as in Holland, the
+Hooks and Cabbeljaws had, by their unfortunate quarrels, armed fellow
+countrymen and families against each other--so also, nothing was so
+powerful as religious difference to set friend against friend, father
+against son, husband against wife.
+
+He warned the States against the peace propositions of the enemy. Spain
+had no intention to concede, but was resolved to extirpate. For himself;
+he had certainly everything to lose by continued war. His magnificent
+estates were withheld, and--added he with simplicity--there is no man who
+does not desire to enjoy his own. The liberation of his son, too, from
+his foreign captivity, was, after the glory of God and the welfare of the
+fatherland, the dearest object of his heart. Moreover, he was himself
+approaching the decline of life. Twelve years he had spent in perpetual
+anxiety and labor for the cause. As he approached old age, he had
+sufficient reason to desire repose. Nevertheless, considering the great
+multitude of people who were leaning upon him, he should account himself
+disgraced if, for the sake of his own private advantage, he were to
+recommend a peace which was not perfectly secure. As regarded his own
+personal interests, he could easily place himself beyond danger--yet it
+would be otherwise with the people. The existence of the religion which,
+through the mercy of God he professed, would be sacrificed, and countless
+multitudes of innocent men would, by his act, be thrown bodily into the
+hands of the blood-thirsty inquisitors who, in times past, had murdered
+so many persons, and so utterly desolated the land. In regard to the
+ceaseless insinuations against his character which men uttered "over
+their tables and in the streets," he observed philosophically, that
+"mankind were naturally inclined to calumny, particularly against those
+who exercised government over them. His life was the best answer to those
+slanders. Being overwhelmed with debt, he should doubtless do better in a
+personal point of view to accept the excellent and profitable offers
+which were daily made to him by the enemy." He might be justified in such
+a course, when it was remembered how many had deserted him and forsworn
+their religion. Nevertheless, he had ever refused, and should ever refuse
+to listen to offers by which only his own personal interests were
+secured. As to the defence of the country, he had thus far done all in
+his power, with the small resources placed at his command. He was urged
+by the "nearer-united states" to retain the poet of Lieutenant-General.
+He was ready to consent. He was, however, not willing to hold office a
+moment, unless he had power to compel cities to accept garrisons, to
+enforce the collection of needful supplies throughout the provinces, and
+in general to do everything which he judged necessary for the best
+interests of the country.
+
+Three councils were now established--one to be in attendance upon the
+Archduke and the Prince of Orange, the two others to reside respectively
+in Flanders and in Utrecht. They were to be appointed by Matthias and the
+Prince, upon a double nomination from the estates of the united
+provinces. Their decisions were to be made according to a majority of
+votes,--and there was to be no secret cabinet behind and above their
+deliberations. It was long, however, before these councils were put into
+working order. The fatal jealousy of the provincial authorities, the
+small ambition of local magistrates, interposed daily obstacles to the
+vigorous march of the generality. Never was jealousy more mischievous,
+never circumspection more misapplied. It was not a land nor a crisis in
+which there was peril of centralization: Local municipal government was
+in truth the only force left. There was no possibility of its being
+merged in a central authority which did not exist. The country was
+without a centre. There was small chance of apoplexy where there was no
+head. The danger lay in the mutual repulsiveness of these atoms of
+sovereignty--in the centrifugal tendencies which were fast resolving a
+nebulous commonwealth into chaos. Disunion and dissension would soon
+bring about a more fatal centralization--that of absorption in a distant
+despotism.
+
+At the end of November, 1579, Orange made another remarkable speech in
+the states-general at Antwerp. He handled the usual topics with his
+customary vigor, and with that grace and warmth of delivery which always
+made his eloquence so persuasive and impressive. He spoke of the
+countless calumnies against himself, the chaffering niggardliness of the
+provinces, the slender result produced by his repeated warnings. He told
+them bluntly the great cause of all their troubles. It was the absence of
+a broad patriotism; it was the narrow power grudged rather than given to
+the deputies who sat in the general assembly. They were mere envoys, tied
+by instructions. They were powerless to act, except after tedious
+reference to the will of their masters, the provincial boards. The
+deputies of the Union came thither, he said, as advocates of their
+provinces or their cities, not as councillors of a commonwealth--and
+sought to further those narrow interests, even at the risk of destruction
+to their sister states. The contributions, he complained, were assessed
+unequally, and expended selfishly. Upon this occasion, as upon all
+occasions, he again challenged inquiry into the purity of his government,
+demanded chastisement, if any act of mal-administration on his part could
+be found, and repeated his anxious desire either to be relieved from his
+functions, or to be furnished with the means of discharging them with
+efficiency.
+
+On the 12th of December, 1579, he again made a powerful speech in the
+states-general. Upon the 9th of January 1580, following, he made an
+elaborate address upon the state of the country, urging the necessity of
+raising instantly a considerable army of good and experienced soldiers.
+He fixed the indispensable number of such a force at twelve thousand
+foot, four thousand horse, and at least twelve hundred pioneers. "Weigh
+well the matters," said he, in conclusion; "which I have thus urged, and
+which are of the most extreme necessity. Men in their utmost need are
+daily coming to me for refuge, as if I held power over all things in my
+hand." At the same time he complained that by reason of the dilatoriness
+of the states, he was prevented from alleviating misery when he knew the
+remedy to be within reach. "I beg you, however, my masters," he
+continued, "to believe that this address of mine is no simple discourse.
+'Tis a faithful presentment of matters which, if not reformed, will cause
+the speedy and absolute ruin of the land. Whatever betide, however, I
+pray you to hold yourselves assured, that with God's help, I am
+determined to live with you or to die with you."
+
+Early in the year 1580, the Prince was doomed to a bitter disappointment,
+and the provinces to a severe loss, in the treason of Count Renneberg,
+governor of Friesland. This young noble was of the great Lalain family.
+He was a younger brother of: Anthony, Count of Hoogstraaten--the
+unwavering friend of Orange. He had been brought up in the family of his
+cousin, the Count de Lalain, governor of Hainault, and had inherited the
+title of Renneberg from an uncle, who was a dignitary of the church. For
+more than a year there had been suspicions of his fidelity. He was
+supposed to have been tampered with by the Duke of Terranova, on the
+first arrival of that functionary in the Netherlands. Nevertheless, the
+Prince of Orange was unwilling to listen to the whispers against him.
+Being himself the mark of calumny, and having a tender remembrance of the
+elder brother, he persisted in reposing confidence in a man who was in
+reality unworthy of his friendship. George Lalain, therefore, remained
+stadholder of Friesland and Drenthe, and in possession of the capital
+city, Groningen.
+
+The rumors concerning him proved correct. In November, 1579, he entered
+into a formal treaty with Terranova, by which he was to receive--as the
+price of "the virtuous resolution which he contemplated"--the sum of ten
+thousand crowns in hand, a further sum of ten thousand crowns within
+three months, and a yearly pension of ten thousand florins. Moreover, his
+barony of Ville was to be erected into a marquisate, and he was to
+receive the order of the Golden Fleece at the first vacancy. He was
+likewise to be continued in the same offices under the King which he now
+held from the estates. The bill of sale, by which he agreed with a
+certain Quislain le Bailly to transfer himself to Spain, fixed these
+terms with the technical scrupulousness of any other mercantile
+transaction. Renneberg sold himself as one would sell a yoke of oxen, and
+his motives were no whit nobler than the cynical contract would indicate.
+"See you not," said he in a private letter to a friend, "that this whole
+work is brewed by the Nassaus for the sake of their own greatness, and
+that they are everywhere provided with the very best crumbs. They are to
+be stadholders of the principal provinces; we are to content ourselves
+with Overyssel and Drente. Therefore I have thought it best to make my
+peace with the King, from whom more benefits are to be got."
+
+Jealousy and selfishness; then, were the motives of his "virtuous
+resolution." He had another, perhaps a nobler incentive. He was in love
+with the Countess Meghen, widow of Lancelot Berlaymont, and it was
+privately stipulated that the influence of his Majesty's government
+should be employed to bring about his marriage with the lady. The treaty,
+however, which Renneberg had made with Quislain le Bailly was not
+immediately carried out. Early in February, 1580, his sister and evil
+genius, Cornelia Lalain, wife of Baron Monceau, made him a visit at
+Groningen. She implored him not to give over his soul to perdition by
+oppressing the Holy Church. She also appealed to his family pride, which
+should keep him, she said, from the contamination of companionship with
+"base-born weavers and furriers." She was of opinion that to contaminate
+his high-born fingers with base bribes were a lower degradation. The
+pension, the crowns in hand, the marquisate, the collar of the Golden
+Fleece, were all held before his eyes again. He was persuaded, moreover,
+that the fair hand of the wealthy widow would be the crowning prize of
+his treason, but in this he was destined to disappointment. The Countess
+was reserved for a more brilliant and a more bitter fate. She was to
+espouse a man of higher rank, but more worthless character, also a
+traitor to the cause of freedom, to which she was herself devoted, and
+who was even accused of attempting her life in her old age, in order to
+supply her place with a younger rival.
+
+The artful eloquence of Cornelia de Lalain did its work, and Renneberg
+entered into correspondence with Parma. It is singular with how much
+indulgence his conduct and character were regarded both before and
+subsequently to his treason. There was something attractive about the
+man. In an age when many German and Netherland nobles were given to
+drunkenness and debauchery, and were distinguished rather for coarseness
+of manner and brutality of intellect than for refinement or learning,
+Count Renneberg, on the contrary, was an elegant and accomplished
+gentleman--the Sydney of his country in all but loyalty of character. He
+was a classical scholar, a votary of music and poetry, a graceful
+troubadour, and a valiant knight. He was "sweet and lovely of
+conversation," generous and bountiful by nature. With so many good gifts,
+it was a thousand pities that the gift of truth had been denied him.
+Never did treason look more amiable, but it was treason of the blackest
+die. He was treacherous, in the hour of her utmost need, to the country
+which had trusted him. He was treacherous to the great man who had leaned
+upon his truth, when all others had abandoned him. He was treacherous
+from the most sordid of motives jealousy of his friend and love of place
+and pelf; but his subsequent remorse and his early death have cast a veil
+over the blackness of his crime.
+
+While Cornelia de Lalain was in Groningen, Orange was in Holland.
+Intercepted letters left no doubt of the plot, and it was agreed that the
+Prince, then on his way to Amsterdam, should summon the Count to an
+interview. Renneberg's trouble at the proximity of Orange could not be
+suppressed. He felt that he could never look his friend in the face
+again. His plans were not ripe; it was desirable to dissemble for a
+season longer; but how could he meet that tranquil eye which "looked
+quite through the deeds of men?" It was obvious to Renneberg that his
+deed was to be done forthwith, if he would escape discomfiture. The
+Prince would soon be in Groningen, and his presence would dispel the
+plots which had been secretly constructed.
+
+On the evening of March the 3rd, 1580, the Count entertained a large
+number of the most distinguished families of the place at a ball and
+banquet. At the supper-table, Hildebrand, chief burgomaster of the city,
+bluntly interrogated his host concerning the calumnious reports which
+were in circulation, expressing the hope that there was no truth in these
+inventions of his enemies. Thus summoned, Renneberg, seizing the hands of
+Hildebrand in both his own, exclaimed, "Oh; my father! you whom I esteem
+as my father, can you suspect me of such guilt? I pray you, trust me, and
+fear me not!"
+
+With this he restored the burgomaster and all the other guests to
+confidence. The feast and dance proceeded, while Renneberg was quietly
+arranging his plot. During the night all the leading patriots were taken
+out of their beds, and carried to prison, notice being at the same time
+given to the secret adherents of Renneberg. Before dawn, a numerous mob
+of boatmen and vagrants, well armed, appeared upon the public square.
+They bore torches and standards, and amazed the quiet little city with
+their shouts. The place was formally taken into possession, cannon were
+planted in front of the Town House to command the principal streets, and
+barricades erected at various important points. Just at daylight,
+Renneberg himself, in complete armor, rode into the square, and it was
+observed that he looked ghastly as a corpse. He was followed by thirty
+troopers, armed like himself, from head to foot. "Stand by me now," he
+cried to the assembled throng; "fail me not at this moment, for now I am
+for the first time your stadholder."
+
+While he was speaking, a few citizens of the highest class forced their
+way through the throng and addressed the mob in tones of authority. They
+were evidently magisterial persons endeavoring to quell the riot. As they
+advanced, one of Renneberg's men-at-arms discharged his carabine at the
+foremost gentleman, who was no other than burgomaster Hildebrand. He fell
+dead at the feet of the stadholder--of the man who had clasped his hands
+a few hours before, called him father, and implored him to entertain no
+suspicions of his honor. The death of this distinguished gentleman
+created a panic, during which Renneberg addressed his adherents, and
+stimulated them to atone by their future zeal in the King's service for
+their former delinquency. A few days afterwards the city was formally
+reunited to the royal government; but the Count's measures had been
+precipitated to such an extent, that he was unable to carry the province
+with him, as he had hoped. On the contrary, although he had secured the
+city, he had secured nothing else. He was immediately beleaguered by the
+states' force in the province under the command of Barthold Entes,
+Hohenlo, and Philip Louis Nassau, and it was necessary to send for
+immediate assistance from Parma.
+
+The Prince of Orange, being thus bitterly disappointed by the treachery
+of his friend, and foiled in his attempt to avert the immediate
+consequences, continued his interrupted journey to Amsterdam. Here he was
+received with unbounded enthusiasm.
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     All the majesty which decoration could impart
+     Amuse them with this peace negotiation
+     Conflicting claims of prerogative and conscience
+     It is not desirable to disturb much of that learned dust
+     Logical and historical argument of unmerciful length
+     Mankind were naturally inclined to calumny
+     Men were loud in reproof, who had been silent
+     More easily, as he had no intention of keeping the promise
+     Not to fall asleep in the shade of a peace negotiation
+     Nothing was so powerful as religious difference
+     On the first day four thousand men and women were slaughtered
+     Power grudged rather than given to the deputies
+     The disunited provinces
+     There is no man who does not desire to enjoy his own
+     To hear the last solemn commonplaces
+     Word-mongers who, could clothe one shivering thought
+
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Vol. 33
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
+
+By John Lothrop Motley
+1855
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+   Captivity of La Noue--Cruel propositions of Philip--Siege of
+   Groningen--Death of Barthold Enter--His character--Hohenlo commands
+   in the north--His incompetence--He is defeated on Hardenberg Heath--
+   Petty operations--Isolation of Orange--Dissatisfaction and departure
+   of Count John--Remonstrance of Archduke Matthias--Embassy to Anjou--
+   Holland and Zealand offer the sovereignty to Orange--Conquest of
+   Portugal--Granvelle proposes the Ban against the Prince--It is
+   published--The document analyzed--The Apology of Orange analyzed and
+   characterized--Siege of Steenwyk by Renneberg--Forgeries--Siege
+   relieved--Death of Renneberg--Institution of the "land-Council"--
+   Duchess of Parma sent to the Netherlands--Anger of Alexander--
+   Prohibition of Catholic worship in Antwerp, Utrecht, and elsewhere--
+   Declaration of Independence by the United Provinces--Negotiations
+   with Anjou--The sovereignty of Holland and Zealand provisionally
+   accepted by Orange--Tripartition of the Netherlands--Power of the
+   Prince described--Act of Abjuration analyzed--Philosophy of
+   Netherland politics.--Views of the government compact--Acquiescence
+   by the people in the action of the estates--Departure of Archduke
+   Matthias.
+
+The war continued in a languid and desultory manner in different parts of
+the country. At an action near Ingelmunster, the brave and accomplished
+De la Noue was made prisoner. This was a severe loss to the states, a
+cruel blow to Orange, for he was not only one of the most experienced
+soldiers, but one of the most accomplished writers of his age. His pen
+was as celebrated as his sword. In exchange for the illustrious Frenchman
+the states in vain offered Count Egmont, who had been made prisoner a few
+weeks before, and De Belles, who was captured shortly afterwards. Parma
+answered contemptuously, that he would not give a lion for two sheep.
+Even Champagny was offered in addition, but without success.  Parma had
+written to Philip, immediately upon the capture, that, were it not for
+Egmont, Seller, and others, then in the power of Oranges he should order
+the execution of La Noue. Under the circumstances, however, he had begged
+to be in formed as to his Majesty's pleasure, and in the meantime had
+placed the prisoner in the castle of Limburg, under charge of De Billy.
+
+   [Strada, d. 2, iii. 155, 156. Parma is said to have hinted to
+   Philip that De Billy would willingly undertake, the private
+   assassination of La Noue.--Popeliniere, Hist. des Pays Bas; 1556-
+   1584.]
+
+His Majesty, of course, never signified his pleasure, and the illustrious
+soldier remained for five years in a loathsome dungeon more befitting a
+condemned malefactor than a prisoner of war. It was in the donjon keep of
+the castle, lighted only by an aperture in the roof, and was therefore
+exposed to the rain and all inclemencies of the sky, while rats, toads,
+and other vermin housed in the miry floor. Here this distinguished
+personage, Francis with the Iron Arm, whom all Frenchmen, Catholic or
+Huguenot, admired far his genius, bravery, and purity of character,
+passed five years of close confinement. The government was most anxious
+to take his life, but the captivity of Egmont and others prevented the
+accomplishment of their wishes. During this long period, the wife and
+numerous friends of La Noue were unwearied in, their efforts to effect
+his ransom or exchange, but none of the prisoners in the hands of the
+patriots were considered a fair equivalent. The hideous proposition was
+even made by Philip the Second to La Noue, that he should receive his
+liberty if he would permit his eyes to be put out, as a preliminary
+condition. The fact is attested by several letters written by La Noue to
+his wife. The prisoner, wearied, shattered in health, and sighing for air
+and liberty, was disposed and even anxious to accept the infamous offer,
+and discussed the matter philosophically in his letters. That lady,
+however, horror-struck at the suggestion, implored him to reject the
+condition, which he accordingly consented to do. At last, in June, 1585,
+he was exchanged, on extremely rigorous terms, for Egmont. During his
+captivity in this vile dungeon, he composed not only his famous political
+and military discourses, but several other works, among the rest;
+Annotations upon Plutarch and upon the Histories of Guicciardini.
+
+The siege of Groningen proceeded, and Parma ordered some forces under
+Martin Schenck to advance to its relief. On the other hand, the meagre
+states' forces under Sonoy, Hohenlo, Entes, and Count John of Nassau's
+young son, William Louis, had not yet made much impression upon the city.
+There was little military skill to atone for the feebleness of the
+assailing army, although there was plenty of rude valor. Barthold Entes,
+a man of desperate character, was impatient at the dilatoriness of the
+proceedings. After having been in disgrace with the states, since the
+downfall of his friend and patron, the Count De la Marck, he had recently
+succeeded to a regiment in place of Colonel Ysselstein, "dismissed for a
+homicide or two." On the 17th of May, he had been dining at Rolda, in
+company with Hohenlo and the young Count of Nassau. Returning to the
+trenches in a state of wild intoxication, he accosted a knot of superior
+officers, informing them that they were but boys, and that he would show
+them how to carry the faubourg of Groningen on the instant. He was
+answered that the faubourg, being walled and moated, could be taken only
+by escalade or battery. Laughing loudly, he rushed forward toward the
+counterscarp, waving his sword, and brandishing on his left arm the cover
+of a butter firkin, which he had taken instead of his buckler. He had
+advanced, however, but a step, when a bullet from the faubourg pierced
+his brain, and he fell dead without a word.
+
+So perished one of the wild founders of the Netherland commonwealth--one
+of the little band of reckless adventurers who had captured the town of
+Brill in 1572, and thus laid the foundation stone of a great republic,
+which was to dictate its laws to the empire of Charles the Fifth. He was
+in some sort a type. His character was emblematical of the worst side of
+the liberating movement. Desperate, lawless, ferocious--a robber on land,
+a pirate by sea--he had rendered great service in the cause of his
+fatherland, and had done it much disgrace. By the evil deeds of men like
+himself, the fair face of liberty had been profaned at its first
+appearance. Born of a respectable family, he had been noted, when a
+student in this very Groningen where he had now found his grave, for the
+youthful profligacy of his character. After dissipating his partrimony,
+he had taken to the sea, the legalized piracy of the mortal struggle with
+Spain offering a welcome refuge to spendthrifts like himself. In common
+with many a banished noble of ancient birth and broken fortunes, the
+riotous student became a successful corsair, and it is probable that his
+prizes were made as well among the friends as the enemies of his country.
+He amassed in a short time one hundred thousand crowns--no contemptible
+fortune in those days. He assisted La Marck in the memorable attack upon
+Brill, but behaved badly and took to flight when Mondragon made his
+memorable expedition to relieve Tergoes. He had subsequently been
+imprisoned, with La Marck for insubordination, and during his confinement
+had dissipated a large part of his fortune. In 1574, after the violation
+of the Ghent treaty, he had returned to, his piratical pursuits, and
+having prospered again as rapidly as he had done during his former
+cruises, had been glad to exchange the ocean for more honorable service
+on shore. The result was the tragic yet almost ludicrous termination
+which we have narrated. He left a handsome property, the result of his
+various piracies, or, according to the usual euphemism, prizes. He often
+expressed regret at the number of traders whom he had cast into the sea,
+complaining, in particular, of one victim whom he had thrown overboard,
+who would never sink, but who for years long ever floated in his wake,
+and stared him in the face whenever he looked over his vessel's side. A
+gambler, a profligate, a pirate, he had yet rendered service to the cause
+of freedom, and his name--sullying the purer and nobler ones of other
+founders of the commonwealth--"is enrolled in the capitol."
+
+Count Philip Hohenlo, upon whom now, devolved the entire responsibility
+of the Groningen siege and of the Friesland operations, was only a few
+degrees superior to this northern corsair. A noble of high degree, nearly
+connected with the Nassau family, sprung of the best blood in Germany,
+handsome and dignified in appearance, he was, in reality only a debauchee
+and a drunkard. Personal bravery was his main qualification for a
+general; a virtue which he shared with many of his meanest soldiers. He
+had never learned the art of war, nor had he the least ambition to
+acquire it. Devoted to his pleasures, he depraved those under his
+command, and injured the cause for which he was contending. Nothing but
+defeat and disgrace were expected by the purer patriots from such
+guidance. "The benediction of God," wrote Albada, "cannot be hoped for
+under this chieftain, who by life and manners is fitter to drive swine
+than to govern pious and honorable men."
+
+The event justified the prophecy. After a few trifling operations before
+Groningen, Hohenlo was summoned to the neighbourhood of Coewerden, by the
+reported arrival of Martin Schenck, at the head of a considerable force.
+On the 15th of June, the Count marched all night and a part of the follow
+morning, in search of the enemy. He came up with them upon Hardenberg
+Heath, in a broiling summer forenoon. His men were jaded by the forced
+march, overcame with the heat, tormented with thirst, and unable to
+procure even a drop of water. The royalists were fresh so that the result
+of the contest was easily to be foreseen. Hohenlo's army was annihilated
+in an hour's time, the whole population fled out of Coewerden, the siege
+of Groningen was raised; Renneberg was set free to resume his operations
+on a larger scale, and the fate of all the north-eastern provinces was
+once more swinging in the wind. The boors of Drenthe and Friesland rose
+again. They had already mustered in the field at an earlier season of the
+year, in considerable force. Calling themselves "the desperates," and
+bearing on their standard an eggshell with the yolk running out--to
+indicate that, having lost the meat they were yet ready to fight for the
+shell--they had swept through the open country, pillaging and burning.
+Hohenlo had defeated them in two enchanters, slain a large number of
+their forces, and reduced them for a time to tranquillity. His late
+overthrow once more set them loose. Renneberg, always apt to be
+over-elated in prosperity, as he was unduly dejected in adversity, now
+assumed all the airs of a conqueror. He had hardly eight thousand men
+under his orders, but his strength lay in the weakness of his
+adversaries. A small war now succeeded, with small generals, small
+armies, small campaigns, small sieges. For the time, the Prince of Orange
+was even obliged to content himself with such a general as Hohenlo. As
+usual, he was almost alone. "Donec eris felix," said he, emphatically--
+
+             "multos numerabis amicos,
+        Tempera cum erunt nubila, nullus erit,"
+
+and he was this summer doomed to a still harder deprivation by the final
+departure of his brother John from the Netherlands.
+
+The Count had been wearied out by petty miseries. His stadholderate of
+Gelderland had overwhelmed him with annoyance, for throughout the
+north-eastern provinces there was neither system nor subordination. The
+magistrates could exercise no authority over an army which they did not
+pay, or a people whom they did not protect. There were endless
+quarrels between the various boards of municipal and provincial
+government--particularly concerning contributions and expenditures.
+
+   [When the extraordinary generosity of the Count himself; and the
+   altogether unexampled sacrifices of the Prince are taken into
+   account, it may well be supposed that the patience of the brothers
+   would be sorely tried by the parsimony of the states. It appears by
+   a document laid before the states-general in the winter of 1580-
+   1581, that the Count had himself advanced to Orange 570,000 florins
+   in the cause. The total of money spent by the Prince himself for
+   the sake of Netherland liberty was 2,200,000. These vast sums had
+   been raised in various ways and from various personages. His
+   estates were deeply hypothecated, and his creditors so troublesome,
+   that, in his own language, he was unable to attend properly to
+   public affairs, so frequent and so threatening were the applications
+   made upon him for payment. Day by day he felt the necessity
+   advancing more closely upon him of placing himself personally in the
+   hands of his creditors and making over his estates to their mercy
+   until the uttermost farthing should be paid. In his two campaigns
+   against Alva (1568 and 1572) he had spent 1,050,000 florins. He
+   owed the Elector Palatine 150,000 florins, the Landgrave 60,000,
+   Count John 670,000, and other sums to other individuals.]
+
+During this wrangling, the country was exposed to the forces of Parma, to
+the private efforts of the Malcontents, to the unpaid soldiery of the
+states, to the armed and rebellious peasantry. Little heed was paid to
+the admonitions of Count John, who was of a hotter temper than was the
+tranquil Prince. The stadholder gave way to fits of passion at the
+meanness and the insolence to which he was constantly exposed. He readily
+recognized his infirmity, and confessed himself unable to accommodate his
+irascibility to the "humores" of the inhabitants. There was often
+sufficient cause for his petulance. Never had praetor of a province a
+more penurious civil list. "The baker has given notice," wrote Count
+John, in November, "that he will supply no more bread after to-morrow,
+unless he is paid." The states would furnish no money to pay the bill.
+It was no better with the butcher. "The cook has often no meat to roast,"
+said the Count, in the same letter, "so that we are often obliged to go
+supperless to bed." His lodgings were a half-roofed, half-finished,
+unfurnished barrack, where the stadholder passed his winter days and
+evenings in a small, dark, freezing-cold chamber, often without
+fire-wood. Such circumstances were certainly not calculated to excite
+envy. When in addition to such wretched parsimony, it is remembered that
+the Count was perpetually worried by the quarrels of the provincial
+authorities with each other and with himself, he may be forgiven for
+becoming thoroughly exhausted at last. He was growing "grey and grizzled"
+with perpetual perplexity. He had been fed with annoyance, as if--to use
+his own homely expression--"he had eaten it with a spoon." Having already
+loaded himself with a debt of six hundred thousand florins, which he had
+spent in the states' service, and having struggled manfully against the
+petty tortures of his situation, he cannot be severely censured for
+relinquishing his post. The affairs of his own Countship were in great
+confusion. His children--boys and girls--were many, and needed their
+fathers' guidance, while the eldest, William Louis, was already in arms
+for the-Netherlands, following the instincts of his race. Distinguished
+for a rash valor, which had already gained the rebuke of his father and
+the applause of his comrades, he had commenced his long and glorious
+career by receiving a severe wound at Coewerden, which caused him to halt
+for life. Leaving so worthy a representative, the Count was more
+justified in his departure.
+
+His wife, too, had died in his absence, and household affairs required
+his attention. It must be confessed, however, that if the memory of his
+deceased spouse had its claims, the selection of her successor was still
+more prominent among his anxieties. The worthy gentleman had been
+supernaturally directed as to his second choice, ere that choice seemed
+necessary, for before the news of his wife's death had reached him, the
+Count dreamed that he was already united in second nuptials to the fair
+Cunigunda, daughter of the deceased Elector Palatine--a vision which was
+repeated many times. On the morrow he learned, to his amazement, that he
+was a widower, and entertained no doubt that he had been specially
+directed towards the princess seen in his slumbers, whom he had never
+seen in life. His friends were in favor of his marrying the Electress
+Dowager, rather than her daughter, whose years numbered less than half
+his own. The honest Count, however, "after ripe consideration," decidedly
+preferred the maid to the widow. "I confess," he said, with much gravity,
+"that the marriage with the old Electress, in respect of her God-fearing
+disposition, her piety, her virtue, and the like, would be much more
+advisable. Moreover, as she hath borne her cross, and knows how to deal
+with gentlemen, so much the better would it be for me. Nevertheless,
+inasmuch as she has already had two husbands, is of a tolerable age, and
+is taller of stature than myself, my inclination is less towards her than
+towards her daughter."
+
+For these various considerations, Count John, notwithstanding the
+remonstrances of his brother, definitely laid down his government of
+Gelderland, and quitted the Netherlands about midsummer. Enough had not
+been done, in the opinion of the Prince, so long as aught remained to do,
+and he could not bear that his brother should desert the country in the
+hour of its darkness, or doubt the Almighty when his hand was veiled in
+clouds. "One must do one's best," said he, "and believe that when such
+misfortunes happen, God desires to prove us. If He sees that we do not
+lose our courage, He will assuredly help us. Had we thought otherwise, we
+should never have pierced the dykes on a memorable occasion, for it was
+an uncertain thing and a great sorrow for the poor people; yet did God
+bless the undertaking. He will bless us still, for his arm hath not been
+shortened."
+
+On the 22nd of July, 1580, the Archduke Matthias, being fully aware of
+the general tendency of affairs, summoned a meeting of the generality in
+Antwerp. He did not make his appearance before the assembly, but
+requested that a deputation might wait upon him at his lodgings, and to
+this committee he unfolded his griefs. He expressed his hope that the
+states were not--in violation of the laws of God and man--about to throw
+themselves into the arms of a foreign prince. He reminded them of their
+duty to the holy Catholic religion to the illustrious house of Austria,
+while he also pathetically called their attention to the necessities of
+his own household, and hoped that they would, at least, provide for the
+arrears due to his domestics.
+
+The states-general replied with courtesy as to the personal claims of the
+Archduke. For the rest, they took higher grounds, and the coming
+declaration of independence already pierced through the studied decorum
+of their language. They defended their negotiation with Anjou on the
+ground of necessity, averring that the King of Spain had proved
+inexorable to all intercession, while, through the intrigues of their
+bitterest enemies, they had been entirely forsaken by the Empire.
+
+Soon afterwards, a special legation, with Saint Aldegonde at its head,
+was despatched to France to consult with the Duke of Anjou, and settled
+terms of agreement with him by the treaty of Plessis les Tours (on the
+29th of September, 1580), afterwards definitely ratified by the
+convention of Bordeaux, signed on the 23rd of the following January.
+
+The states of Holland and Zealand, however, kept entirely aloof from this
+transaction, being from the beginning opposed to the choice of Anjou.
+From the first to the last, they would have no master but Orange, and to
+him, therefore, this year they formally offered the sovereignty of their
+provinces; but they offered it in vain.
+
+The conquest of Portugal had effected a diversion in the affairs of the
+Netherlands. It was but a transitory one. The provinces found the hopes
+which they had built upon the necessity of Spain for large supplies in
+the peninsula--to their own consequent relief--soon changed into fears,
+for the rapid success of Alva in Portugal gave his master additional
+power to oppress the heretics of the north. Henry, the Cardinal King, had
+died in 1580, after succeeding to the youthful adventurer, Don Sebastian,
+slain during his chivalrous African campaign (4th of August, 1578). The
+contest for the succession which opened upon the death of the aged
+monarch was brief, and in fifty-eight days, the bastard Antonio, Philip's
+only formidable competitor, had been utterly defeated and driven forth to
+lurk, like 'a hunted wild beast, among rugged mountain caverns, with a
+price of a hundred thousand crowns upon his head. In the course of the
+succeeding year, Philip received homage at Lisbon as King of Portugal.
+From the moment of this conquest, he was more disposed, and more at
+leisure than ever, to vent his wrath against the Netherlands, and against
+the man whom he considered the incarnation of their revolt.
+
+Cardinal Granvelle had ever whispered in the King's ear the expediency of
+taking off the Prince by assassination. It has been seen how subtly
+distilled, and how patiently hoarded, was this priest's venom against
+individuals, until the time arrived when he could administer the poison
+with effect. His hatred of Orange was intense and of ancient date. He was
+of opinion, too, that the Prince might be scared from the post of duty,
+even if the assassin's hand were not able to reach his heart. He was in
+favor of publicly setting a price upon his head-thinking that if the
+attention of all the murderers in the world were thus directed towards
+the illustrious victim, the Prince would tremble at the dangers which
+surrounded him. "A sum of money would be well employed in this way," said
+the Cardinal, "and, as the Prince of Orange is a vile coward, fear alone
+will throw him into confusion." Again, a few months later, renewing the
+subject, he observed, "'twould be well to offer a reward of thirty or
+forty thousand crowns to any one who will deliver the Prince, dead or
+alive; since from very fear of it--as he is pusillanimous--it would not
+be unlikely that he should die of his own accord."
+
+It was insulting even to Philip's intelligence to insinuate that the
+Prince would shrink before danger, or die of fear. Had Orange ever been
+inclined to bombast, he might have answered the churchman's calumny, as
+Caesar the soothsayer's warning:--
+
+       "-----------------Danger knows full well
+        That Caesar is more dangerous than he--"
+
+and in truth, Philip had long trembled on his throne before the genius of
+the man who had foiled Spain's boldest generals and wiliest statesmen.
+The King, accepting the priest's advice, resolved to fulminate a ban
+against the Prince, and to set a price upon his head. "It will be well,"
+wrote Philip to Parma, "to offer thirty thousand crowns or so to any one
+who will deliver him dead or alive. Thus the country may be rid of a man
+so pernicious; or at any rate he will be held in perpetual fear, and
+therefore prevented from executing leisurely his designs."
+
+In accordance with these suggestions and these hopes, the famous ban was
+accordingly drawn up, and dated on the 15th of March, 1580. It was,
+however, not formally published in the Netherlands until the month of
+June of the same year.
+
+This edict will remain the most lasting monument to the memory of
+Cardinal Granvelle. It will be read when all his other state-papers and
+epistles--able as they incontestably are--shall have passed into
+oblivion. No panegyric of friend, no palliating magnanimity of foe, can
+roll away this rock of infamy from his tomb. It was by Cardinal Granvelle
+and by Philip that a price was set upon the head of the foremost man of
+his age, as if he had been a savage beast, and that admission into the
+ranks of Spain's haughty nobility was made the additional bribe to tempt
+the assassin.
+
+The ban consisted of a preliminary narrative to justify the penalty with
+which it was concluded. It referred to the favors conferred by Philip and
+his father upon the Prince; to his-signal ingratitude and dissimulation.
+It accused him of originating the Request, the image-breaking, and the
+public preaching. It censured his marriage with an abbess--even during
+the lifetime of his wife; alluded to his campaigns against Alva, to his
+rebellion in Holland, and to the horrible massacres committed by
+Spaniards in that province--the necessary consequences of his treason. It
+accused him of introducing liberty of conscience, of procuring his own
+appointment as Ruward, of violating the Ghent treaty, of foiling the
+efforts of Don John, and of frustrating the counsels of the Cologne
+commissioners by his perpetual distrust. It charged him with a
+newly-organized conspiracy, in the erection of the Utrecht Union; and for
+these and similar crimes--set forth, with involutions, slow, spiral, and
+cautious as the head and front of the indictment was direct and
+deadly--it denounced the chastisement due to the "wretched hypocrite" who
+had committed such offences.
+
+"For these causes," concluded the ban, "we declare him traitor and
+miscreant, enemy of ourselves and of the country. As such we banish him
+perpetually from all our realms, forbidding all our subjects, of whatever
+quality, to communicate with him openly or privately--to administer to
+him victuals, drink, fire, or other necessaries. We allow all to injure
+him in property or life. We expose the said William Nassau, as an enemy
+of the human-race--giving his property to all who may; seize it. And if
+anyone of our subjects or any stranger should be found sufficiently
+generous of heart to rid us of this pest, delivering him to us, alive or
+dead, or taking his life, we will cause to be furnished to him
+immediately after the deed shall have been done, the sum of twenty-five
+thousand crowns; in gold. If he have committed any crime, however
+heinous, we promise to pardon him; and if he be not already noble, we
+will ennoble him for his valor."
+
+Such was the celebrated ban against the Prince of Orange. It was answered
+before the end of the year by the memorable "Apology of the Prince of
+Orange" one of the moat startling documents in history. No defiance was
+ever thundered forth in the face of a despot in more terrible tones. It
+had become sufficiently manifest to the royal party that the Prince was
+not to be purchased by "millions of money," or by unlimited family
+advancement--not to be cajoled by flattery or offers of illustrious
+friendship. It had been decided, therefore, to terrify him into retreat,
+or to remove him by murder. The Government had been thoroughly convinced
+that the only way to finish the revolt, was to "finish Orange," according
+to the ancient advice of Antonio Perez. The mask was thrown off. It had
+been decided to forbid the Prince bread, water, fire, and shelter; to
+give his wealth to the fisc, his heart to the assassin, his soul, as it
+was hoped, to the Father of Evil. The rupture being thus complete, it was
+right that the "wretched hypocrite" should answer ban with ban, royal
+denunciation with sublime scorn. He had ill-deserved, however, the title
+of hypocrite, he said. When the friend of government, he had warned them
+that by their complicated and perpetual persecutions they were twisting
+the rope of their own ruin. Was that hypocrisy? Since becoming their
+enemy, there had likewise been little hypocrisy found in him--unless it
+were hypocrisy to make open war upon government, to take their cities, to
+expel their armies from the country.
+
+The proscribed rebel, towering to a moral and even social superiority
+over the man who affected to be his master by right divine, swept down
+upon his antagonist with crushing effect. He repudiated the idea of a
+king in the Netherlands. The word might be legitimate in Castillo, or
+Naples, or the Indies, but the provinces knew no such title. Philip had
+inherited in those countries only the power of Duke or Count--a power
+closely limited by constitutions more ancient than his birthright. Orange
+was no rebel then--Philip no legitimate monarch. Even were the Prince
+rebellious, it was no more than Philip's ancestor, Albert of Austria, had
+been towards his anointed sovereign, Emperor Adolphus of Nassau, ancestor
+of William. The ties of allegiance and conventional authority being,
+severed, it had become idle for the King to affect superiority of lineage
+to the man whose family had occupied illustrious stations when the
+Habsburgs were obscure squires in Switzerland, and had ruled as sovereign
+in the Netherlands before that overshadowing house had ever been named.
+
+But whatever the hereditary claims of Philip in the country, he had
+forfeited them by the violation of his oaths, by his tyrannical
+suppression of the charters of the land; while by his personal crimes he
+had lost all pretension to sit in judgment upon his fellow man. Was a
+people not justified in rising against authority when all their laws had
+been trodden under foot, "not once only, but a million of times?"--and
+was William of Orange, lawful husband of the virtuous Charlotte de
+Bourbon, to be denounced for moral delinquency by a lascivious,
+incestuous, adulterous, and murderous king? With horrible distinctness he
+laid before the monarch all the crimes of which he believed him guilty,
+and having thus told Philip to his beard, "thus diddest thou," he had a
+withering word for the priest who stood at his back. "Tell me," he cried,
+"by whose command Cardinal Granvelle administered poison to the Emperor
+Maximilian? I know what the Emperor told me, and how much fear he felt
+afterwards for the King and for all Spaniards."
+
+He ridiculed the effrontery of men like Philip and Granvelle; in charging
+"distrust" upon others, when it was the very atmosphere of their own
+existence. He proclaimed that sentiment to be the only salvation for the
+country. He reminded Philip of the words which his namesake of Macedon--a
+schoolboy in tyranny, compared to himself--had heard from the lips of
+Demosthenes--that the strongest fortress of a free people against a
+tyrant was distrust. That sentiment, worthy of eternal memory, the Prince
+declared that he had taken from the "divine philippic," to engrave upon
+the heart, of the nation, and he prayed God that he might be more readily
+believed than the great orator had been by his people.
+
+He treated with scorn the price set upon his head, ridiculing this
+project to terrify him, for its want of novelty, and asking the monarch
+if he supposed the rebel ignorant of the various bargains which had
+frequently been made before with cutthroats and poisoners to take away
+his life. "I am in the hand of God," said William of Orange; "my worldly
+goods and my life have been long since dedicated to His service. He will
+dispose of them as seems best for His glory and my salvation."
+
+On the contrary, however, if it could be demonstrated, or even hoped,
+that his absence would benefit the cause of the country, he proclaimed
+himself ready to go into exile.
+
+"Would to God," said he, in conclusion, "that my perpetual banishment, or
+even my death, could bring you a true deliverance from so many
+calamities. Oh, how consoling would be such banishment--how sweet such a
+death! For why have I exposed my property? Was it that I might enrich
+myself? Why have I lost my brothers? Was it that I might find new; ones?
+Why have I left my son so long a prisoner? Can you give me another? Why
+have I put my life so often in, danger? What reward, can I hope after my
+long services, and the almost total wreck, of my earthly fortunes, if not
+the prize, of having acquired, perhaps at the expense of my life, your
+liberty?--If then, my masters, if you judge that my absence or my death
+can serve you, behold me ready to obey. Command me--send me to the ends
+of the earth--I will obey. Here is my head, over which no prince, no
+monarch, has power but yourselves. Dispose of it for your good, for the
+preservation of your Republic, but if you judge that the moderate amount
+of experience and industry which is in me, if you judge that the
+remainder of my property and of my life can yet be of service to you, I
+dedicate them afresh to you and to the country."
+
+His motto--most appropriate to his life and character--"Je maintiendrai,"
+was the concluding phrase of the document. His arms and signature were
+also formally appended, and the Apology, translated into most modern
+languages, was sent, to nearly every potentate in Christendom. It had
+been previously, on the 13th of December, 1580, read before the assembly
+of the united states at Delft, and approved as cordially as the ban was
+indignantly denounced.
+
+During the remainder of the year 1580, and the half of the following
+year, the seat of hostilities was mainly in the northeast-Parma, while
+waiting the arrival of fresh troops, being inactive. The operations, like
+the armies and the generals, were petty. Hohenlo was opposed to
+Renneberg. After a few insignificant victories, the latter laid siege to
+Steenwyk, a city in itself of no great importance, but the key to the
+province of Drenthe. The garrison consisted of six hundred soldiers, and
+half as many trained burghers. Renneberg, having six thousand foot and
+twelve hundred horse, summoned the place to surrender, but was answered
+with defiance. Captain Cornput, who had escaped from Groningen, after
+unsuccessfully warning the citizens of Renneberg's meditated treason,
+commanded in Steenwyk, and his courage and cheerfulness sustained the
+population of the city during a close winter siege. Tumultuous mobs in
+the streets demanding that the place should be given over ere it was too
+late, he denounced to their faces as "flocks of gabbling geese," unworthy
+the attention of brave men. To a butcher who, with the instinct of his
+craft, begged to be informed what the population were to eat when the
+meat was all gone, he coolly observed, "We will eat you, villain, first
+of all, when the time comes; so go home and rest assured that you, at
+least, are not to die of starvation."
+
+With such rough but cheerful admonitions did the honest soldier, at the
+head of his little handful, sustain the courage of the beleaguered city.
+Meantime Renneberg pressed it hard. He bombarded it with red-hot balls, a
+new invention introduced five years before by Stephen Bathor, King of
+Poland, at the siege of Dantzig. Many houses were consumed, but still
+Cornput and the citizens held firm. As the winter advanced, and the
+succor which had been promised still remained in the distance, Renneberg
+began to pelt the city with sarcasms, which, it was hoped, might prove
+more effective than the red-hot balls. He sent a herald to know if the
+citizens had eaten all their horses yet; a question which was answered by
+an ostentatious display of sixty starving hacks--all that could be
+mustered-upon the heights. He sent them on another occasion, a short
+letter, which ran as follows:
+
+"MOST HONORABLE, MOST STEADFAST,--As, during the present frost, you have
+but little exercise in the trenches--as you cannot pass your time in
+twirling your finger-rings, seeing that they have all been sold to pay
+your soldiers' wages--as you have nothing to rub your teeth upon, nor to
+scour your stomachs withal, and as, nevertheless, you require something
+if only to occupy your minds, I send you the enclosed letter, in hope it
+may yield amusement.--January 15, 1581."
+
+The enclosure was a letter from the Prince of Orange to the Duke of
+Anjou, which, as it was pretended, had been intercepted. It was a clumsy
+forgery, but it answered the purpose of more skilful counterfeiting, at a
+period when political and religious enmity obscured men's judgment. "As
+to the point of religion," the Prince was made to observe, for example,
+to his illustrious correspondent, "that is all plain and clear. No
+sovereign who hopes to come to any great advancement ought to consider
+religion, or hold it in regard. Your Highness, by means of the garrisons,
+and fortresses, will be easily master of the principal cities in Flanders
+and Brabant, even if the citizens were opposed to you. Afterwards you
+will compel them without difficulty to any religion which may seem most
+conducive to the interests of your Highness."
+
+Odious and cynical as was the whole tone of the letter, it was
+extensively circulated. There were always natures base and brutal enough
+to accept the calumny and to make it current among kindred souls. It may
+be doubted whether Renneberg attached faith to the document; but it was
+natural that he should take a malicious satisfaction in spreading this
+libel against the man whose perpetual scorn he had so recently earned.
+Nothing was more common than such forgeries, and at that very moment a
+letter, executed with equal grossness, was passing from hand to hand,
+which purported to be from the Count himself to Parma. History has less
+interest in contradicting the calumnies against a man like Renneberg. The
+fictitious epistle of Orange, however, was so often republished, and the
+copies so carefully distributed, that the Prince had thought it important
+to add an express repudiation of its authorship, by way of appendix to
+his famous Apology. He took the occasion to say, that if a particle of
+proof could be brought that he had written the letter, or any letter
+resembling it, he would forthwith leave the Netherlands, never to show
+his face there again.
+
+Notwithstanding this well known denial, however, Renneberg thought it
+facetious to send the letter into Steenvayk, where it produced but small
+effect upon the minds' of the burghers. Meantime, they had received
+intimation that succor was on its way. Hollow balls containing letters
+were shot into the town, bringing the welcome intelligence that the
+English colonel, John Norris, with six thousand states' troops, would
+soon make his appearance for their relief, and the brave Cornput added
+his cheerful exhortations to heighten the satisfaction thus produced. A
+day or two afterwards, three quails were caught in the public square, and
+the commandant improved the circumstance by many quaint homilies. The
+number three, he observed, was typical of the Holy Trinity, which had
+thus come symbolically to their relief. The Lord had sustained the
+fainting Israelites with quails. The number three indicated three weeks,
+within which time the promised succor was sure to arrive. Accordingly,
+upon the 22nd of February, 1581, at the expiration of the third week,
+Norris succeeded in victualling the town, the merry and steadfast Cornput
+was established as a true prophet, and Count Renneberg abandoned the
+siege in despair.
+
+The subsequent career of that unhappy nobleman was brief. On the 19th of
+July his troops were signally defeated by Sonny--and Norris, the fugitive
+royalists retreating into Groningen at the very moment when their
+general, who had been prevented by illness from commanding them, was
+receiving the last sacraments. Remorse, shame, and disappointment had
+literally brought Renneberg to his grave.
+
+"His treason," says a contemporary, "was a nail in his coffin, and on his
+deathbed he bitterly bemoaned his crime. 'Groningen! Groningen!' would
+that I had never seen thy walls!" he cried repeatedly in his last hours.
+He refused to see his sister, whose insidious counsels had combined with
+his own evil passions to make him a traitor; and he died on the 23rd of
+July, 1581, repentant and submissive. His heart, after his decease, was
+found "shrivelled to the dimensions of a walnut," a circumstance
+attributed to poison by some, to remorse by others. His regrets; his
+early death, and his many attractive qualities, combined to: save his
+character from universal denunciation, and his name, although indelibly
+stained by treason, was ever mentioned with pity rather than with rancor.
+
+Great changes, destined to be perpetual, were steadily preparing in the
+internal condition of the provinces. A preliminary measure of an
+important character had been taken early this year by the assembly of the
+united provinces held in the month of January at Delft. This was the
+establishment of a general executive council. The constitution of the
+board was arranged on the 13th of the month, and was embraced in eighteen
+articles. The number of councillors was fixed at thirty, all to be native
+Netherlanders; a certain proportion to be appointed from each province by
+its estates. The advice and consent of this body as to treaties with
+foreign powers were to be indispensable, but they were not to interfere
+with the rights and duties of the states-general, nor to interpose any
+obstacle to the arrangements with the Duke of Anjou.
+
+While this additional machine for the self-government of the provinces
+was in the course of creation; the Spanish monarch, on the other hand,
+had made another effort to recover the authority which he felt slipping
+from his grasp. Philip was in Portugal, preparing for his coronation in,
+that, new kingdom--an event to be nearly contemporaneous with his
+deposition from the Netherland sovereignty, so solemnly conferred upon
+him a quarter of a century before in Brussels; but although thus distant,
+he was confident that he could more wisely govern the Netherlands than
+the inhabitants could do, and unwilling as ever to confide in the
+abilities of those to whom he had delegated his authority. Provided; as
+he unquestionably was at that moment, with a more energetic
+representative than any who had before exercised the functions of royal
+governor in the provinces, he was still disposed to harass, to doubt, and
+to interfere. With the additional cares of the Portuguese Conquest upon
+his hands, he felt as irresistibly impelled as ever to superintend the
+minute details of provincial administration. To do this was impossible.
+It was, however, not impossible, by attempting to do it, to produce much
+mischief. "It gives me pain," wrote Granvelle, "to see his Majesty
+working as before--choosing to understand everything and to do
+everything. By this course, as I have often said before, he really
+accomplishes much less." The King had, moreover, recently committed the
+profound error of sending the Duchess Margaret of Parma to the
+Netherlands again. He had the fatuity to believe her memory so tenderly
+cherished in the provinces as to ensure a burst of loyalty at her
+reappearance, while the irritation which he thus created in the breast of
+her son he affected to disregard. The event was what might have been
+foreseen. The Netherlanders were very moderately excited by the arrival
+of their former regent, but the Prince of Parma was furious. His mother
+actually arrived at Namur in the month of August, 1580, to assume the
+civil administration of the provinces,--and he was himself, according to
+the King's request, to continue in the command of the army. Any one who
+had known human nature at all, would have recognized that Alexander
+Farnese was not the man to be put into leading strings. A sovereign who
+was possessed of any administrative sagacity, would have seen the
+absurdity of taking the reins of government at that crisis from the hands
+of a most determined and energetic man, to confide them to the keeping of
+a woman. A king who was willing to reflect upon the consequences of his
+own acts, must have foreseen the scandal likely to result from an open
+quarrel for precedence between such a mother and son. Margaret of Parma
+was instantly informed, however, by Alexander, that a divided authority
+like that proposed was entirely out of the question. Both offered to
+resign; but Alexander was unflinching in his determination to retain all
+the power or none. The Duchess, as docile to her son after her arrival as
+she had been to the King on undertaking the journey, and feeling herself
+unequal to the task imposed upon her, implored Philip's permission to
+withdraw, almost as soon as she had reached her destination. Granvelle's
+opinion was likewise opposed to this interference with the administration
+of Alexander, and the King at last suffered himself to be overruled. By
+the end of the year 1581, letters arrived confirming the Prince of Parma
+in his government, but requesting the Duchess of Parma to remain,
+privately in the Netherlands. She accordingly continued to reside there
+under an assumed name until the autumn of 1583, when she was at last
+permitted to return to Italy.
+
+During the summer of 1581, the same spirit of persecution which had
+inspired the Catholics to inflict such infinite misery upon those of the
+Reformed faith in the Netherlands, began to manifest itself in overt acts
+against the Papists by those who had at last obtained political.
+ascendency over them. Edicts were published in Antwerp, in Utrecht, and
+in different cities of Holland, suspending the exercise of the Roman
+worship. These statutes were certainly a long way removed in horror from
+those memorable placards which sentenced the Reformers by thousands to
+the axe; the cord, and the stake, but it was still melancholy to see the
+persecuted becoming persecutors in their turn. They were excited to these
+stringent measures by the noisy zeal of certain Dominican monks in
+Brussels, whose extravagant discourses were daily inflaming the passions
+of the Catholics to a dangerous degree. The authorities of the city
+accordingly thought it necessary to suspend, by proclamation, the public
+exercise of the ancient religion, assigning, as their principal reason
+for this prohibition, the shocking jugglery by which simple-minded
+persons were constantly deceived. They alluded particularly to the
+practice of working miracles by means of relics, pieces of the holy
+cross, bones of saints, and the perspiration of statues. They charged
+that bits of lath were daily exhibited as fragments of the cross; that
+the bones of dogs and monkeys were held up for adoration as those of
+saints; and that oil was poured habitually into holes drilled in the
+heads of statues, that the populace might believe in their miraculous
+sweating. For these reasons, and to avoid the tumult and possible
+bloodshed to which the disgust excited by such charlatanry might give
+rise, the Roman Catholic worship was suspended until the country should
+be restored to greater tranquillity. Similar causes led to similar
+proclamations in other cities. The Prince of Orange lamented the
+intolerant spirit thus showing itself among those who had been its
+martyrs, but it was not possible at that moment to keep it absolutely
+under control.
+
+A most important change was now to take place in his condition, a most
+vital measure was to be consummated by the provinces. The step, which
+could never be retraced was, after long hesitation, finally taken upon
+the 26th of July, 1581, upon which day the united provinces, assembled at
+the Hague, solemnly declared their independence of Philip, and renounced
+their allegiance for ever.
+
+This act was accomplished with the deliberation due to its gravity. At
+the same time it left the country in a very divided condition. This was
+inevitable. The Prince had done all that one man could do to hold the
+Netherlands together and unite them perpetually into one body politic,
+and perhaps, if he had been inspired by a keener personal ambition, this
+task might have been accomplished.--The seventeen provinces might have
+accepted his dominion, but they would agree to that of no other
+sovereign. Providence had not decreed that the country, after its long
+agony, should give birth to a single and perfect commonwealth. The
+Walloon provinces had already fallen off from the cause, notwithstanding
+the entreaties of the Prince. The other Netherlands, after long and
+tedious negotiation with Anjou, had at last consented to his supremacy,
+but from this arrangement Holland and Zealand held themselves aloof. By a
+somewhat anomalous proceeding, they sent deputies along with those of the
+other provinces, to the conferences with the Duke, but it was expressly
+understood that they would never accept him as sovereign. They were
+willing to contract with him and with their sister provinces--over which
+he was soon to exercise authority--a firm and perpetual league, but as to
+their own chief, their hearts were fixed. The Prince of Orange should be
+their lord and master, and none other. It lay only in his self-denying
+character that he had not been clothed with this dignity long before. He
+had, however, persisted in the hope that all the provinces might be
+brought to acknowledge the Duke of Anjou as their sovereign, under
+conditions which constituted a free commonwealth with an hereditary
+chief, and in this hope he had constantly refused concession to the
+wishes of the northern provinces. He in reality exercised sovereign power
+over nearly the whole population, of the Netherlands. Already in 1580, at
+the assembly held in April, the states of Holland had formally requested
+him to assume the full sovereignty over them, with the title of Count of
+Holland and Zealand forfeited by Philip. He had not consented, and the
+proceedings had been kept comparatively secret. As the negotiations with
+Anjou advanced, and as the corresponding abjuration of Philip was more
+decisively indicated, the consent of the Prince to this request was more
+warmly urged. As it was evident that the provinces thus bent upon placing
+him at their head, could by no possibility be induced to accept the
+sovereignty of Anjou--as, moreover; the act of renunciation of Philip
+could no longer be deferred, the Prince of Orange reluctantly and
+provisionally accepted the supreme power over Holland and Zealand. This
+arrangement was finally accomplished upon the 24th of July, 1581, and the
+act of abjuration took place two days afterwards. The offer of the
+sovereignty over the other united provinces had been accepted by Anjou
+six months before.
+
+Thus, the Netherlands were divided into three portions--the reconciled
+provinces, the united provinces under Anjou, and the northern provinces
+under Orange; the last division forming the germ, already nearly
+developed, of the coming republic. The constitution, or catalogue of
+conditions, by which the sovereignty accorded to Anjou was reduced to
+such narrow limits as to be little more than a nominal authority, while
+the power remained in the hands of the representative body of the
+provinces, will be described, somewhat later, together with the
+inauguration of the Duke. For the present it is necessary that the reader
+should fully understand the relative position of the Prince and of the
+northern provinces. The memorable act of renunciation--the Netherland
+declaration of independence--will then be briefly explained.
+
+On the 29th of March, 1580, a resolution passed the assembly of Holland
+and Zealand never to make peace or enter into any negotiations with the
+King of Spain on the basis of his sovereignty. The same resolution
+provided that his name--hitherto used in all public acts--should be for
+ever discarded, that his seal should be broken, and that the name and
+seal of the Prince of Orange should be substituted in all commissions and
+public documents. At almost the same time the states of Utrecht passed a
+similar resolution. These offers were, however, not accepted, and the
+affair was preserved profoundly secret. On the 5th of July, 1581, "the
+knights, nobles, and cities of Holland and Zealand," again, in an urgent
+and solemn manner, requested the Prince to accept the "entire authority
+as sovereign and chief of the land, as long as the war should continue."
+This limitation as to time was inserted most reluctantly by the states,
+and because it was perfectly well understood that without it the Prince
+would not accept the sovereignty at all. The act by which this dignity
+was offered, conferred full power to command all forces by land and sea,
+to appoint all military officers, and to conduct all warlike operations,
+without the control or advice of any person whatsoever. It authorized
+him, with consent of the states, to appoint all financial and judicial
+officers, created him the supreme executive chief, and fountain of
+justice and pardon, and directed him "to maintain the exercise only of
+the Reformed evangelical religion, without, however, permitting that
+inquiries should be made into any man's belief or conscience, or that any
+injury or hindrance should be offered to any man on account of his
+religion."
+
+The sovereignty thus pressingly offered, and thus limited as to time, was
+finally accepted by William of Orange, according to a formal act dated at
+the Hague, 5th of July, 1581, but it will be perceived that no powers
+were conferred by this new instrument beyond those already exercised by
+the Prince. It was, as it were, a formal continuance of the functions
+which he had exercised since 1576 as the King's stadholder, according to
+his old commission of 1555, although a vast, difference existed in
+reality. The King's name was now discarded and his sovereignty disowned,
+while the proscribed rebel stood in his place, exercising supreme
+functions, not vicariously, but in his own name. The limitation as to
+time was, moreover, soon afterwards secretly, and without the knowledge
+of Orange, cancelled by the states. They were determined that the Prince
+should be their sovereign--if they could make him so--for the term of his
+life.
+
+The offer having thus been made and accepted upon the 5th of July, oaths
+of allegiance and fidelity were exchanged between the Prince and the
+estates upon the 24th of the same month. In these solemnities, the
+states, as representing the provinces, declared that because the King of
+Spain, contrary to his oath as Count of Holland and Zealand, had not only
+not protected these provinces, but had sought with all his might to
+reduce them to eternal slavery, it had been found necessary to forsake
+him. They therefore proclaimed every inhabitant absolved from allegiance,
+while at the same time, in the name of the population, they swore
+fidelity to the Prince of Orange, as representing the supreme authority.
+
+Two days afterwards, upon the 26th of July, 1581, the memorable
+declaration of independence was issued by the deputies of the united
+provinces, then solemnly assembled at the Hague. It was called the Act of
+Abjuration. It deposed Philip from his sovereignty, but was not the
+proclamation of a new form of government, for the united provinces were
+not ready to dispense with an hereditary chief. Unluckily, they had
+already provided themselves with a very bad one to succeed Philip in the
+dominion over most of their territory, while the northern provinces were
+fortunate enough and wise enough to take the Father of the country for
+their supreme magistrate.
+
+The document by which the provinces renounced their allegiance was not
+the most felicitous of their state papers. It was too prolix and
+technical. Its style had more of the formal phraseology of legal
+documents than befitted this great appeal to the whole world and to all
+time. Nevertheless, this is but matter of taste. The Netherlanders were
+so eminently a law-abiding people, that, like the American patriots of
+the eighteenth century, they on most occasions preferred punctilious
+precision to florid declamation. They chose to conduct their revolt
+according to law. At the same time, while thus decently wrapping herself
+in conventional garments, the spirit of Liberty revealed none the less
+her majestic proportions.
+
+At the very outset of the Abjuration, these fathers of the Republic laid
+down wholesome truths, which at that time seemed startling blasphemies in
+the ears of Christendom. "All mankind know," said the preamble, "that a
+prince is appointed by God to cherish his subjects, even as a shepherd to
+guard his sheep. When, therefore, the prince--does not fulfil his duty as
+protector; when he oppresses his subjects, destroys their ancient
+liberties, and treats them as slaves, he is to be considered, not a
+prince, but a tyrant. As such, the estates of the land may lawfully and
+reasonably depose him, and elect another in his room."
+
+Having enunciated these maxims, the estates proceeded to apply them to
+their own case, and certainly never was an ampler justification for
+renouncing a prince since princes were first instituted. The states ran
+through the history of the past quarter of a century, patiently
+accumulating a load of charges against the monarch, a tithe of which
+would have furnished cause for his dethronement. Without passion or
+exaggeration, they told the world their wrongs. The picture was not
+highly colored. On the contrary, it was rather a feeble than a striking
+portrait of the monstrous iniquity which had so long been established
+over them. Nevertheless, they went through the narrative conscientiously
+and earnestly. They spoke of the King's early determination to govern the
+Netherlands, not by natives but by Spaniards; to treat them not as
+constitutional countries, but as conquered provinces; to regard the
+inhabitants not as liege subjects, but as enemies; above all, to
+supersede their ancient liberty by the Spanish Inquisition, and they
+alluded to the first great step in this scheme--the creation of the new
+bishoprics, each with its staff of inquisitors.
+
+They noticed the memorable Petition, the mission of Berghen and Montigny,
+their imprisonment and taking off, in violation of all national law, even
+that which had ever been held sacred by the most cruel and tyrannical
+princes. They sketched the history of Alva's administration; his
+entrapping the most eminent nobles by false promises, and delivering them
+to the executioner; his countless sentences of death, outlawry, and
+confiscation; his erection of citadels to curb, his imposition of the
+tenth and twentieth penny to exhaust the land; his Blood Council and its
+achievements; and the immeasurable, woe produced by hanging, burning,
+banishing, and plundering, during his seven years of residence. They
+adverted to the Grand Commander, as having been sent, not to improve the
+condition of the country, but to pursue the same course of tyranny by
+more concealed ways. They spoke of the horrible mutiny which broke forth
+at his death; of the Antwerp Fury; of the express approbation rendered to
+that great outrage by the King, who had not only praised the crime, but
+promised to recompense the criminals. They alluded to Don John of Austria
+and his duplicity; to his pretended confirmation of the Ghent treaty; to
+his attempts to divide the country against itself; to the Escovedo
+policy; to the intrigues with the German regiments. They touched upon the
+Cologne negotiations, and the fruitless attempt of the patriots upon that
+occasion to procure freedom of religion, while the object of the
+royalists was only to distract and divide the nation. Finally, they
+commented with sorrow and despair upon that last and crowning measure of
+tyranny--the ban against the Prince of Orange.
+
+They calmly observed, after this recital, that they were sufficiently
+justified in forsaking a sovereign who for more than twenty years had
+forsaken them. Obeying the law of nature--desirous of maintaining the
+rights, charters, and liberties of their fatherland--determined to escape
+from slavery to Spaniards--and making known their decision to the world,
+they declared the King of Spain deposed from his sovereignty, and
+proclaimed that they should recognize thenceforth neither his title nor
+jurisdiction. Three days afterwards, on the 29th of July, the assembly
+adopted a formula, by which all persons were to be required to signify
+their abjuration.
+
+Such were the forms by which the united provinces threw off their
+allegiance to Spain, and ipso facto established a republic, which was to
+flourish for two centuries. This result, however, was not exactly
+foreseen by the congress which deposed Philip. The fathers of the
+commonwealth did not baptize it by the name of Republic. They did not
+contemplate a change in their form of government. They had neither an
+aristocracy nor a democracy in their thoughts. Like the actors in our own
+great national drama, these Netherland patriots were struggling to
+sustain, not to overthrow; unlike them, they claimed no theoretical
+freedom for humanity--promulgated no doctrine of popular sovereignty:
+they insisted merely on the fulfilment of actual contracts, signed
+sealed, and sworn to by many successive sovereigns. Acting, upon the
+principle that government should be for the benefit of the governed, and
+in conformity to the dictates of reason and justice, they examined the
+facts by those divine lights, and discovered cause to discard their
+ruler. They did not object to being ruled. They were satisfied with their
+historical institutions, and preferred the mixture of hereditary
+sovereignty with popular representation, to which they were accustomed.
+They did not devise an a priori constitution. Philip having violated the
+law of reason and the statutes of the land, was deposed, and a new chief
+magistrate was to be elected in his stead. This was popular sovereignty
+in fact, but not in words. The deposition and election could be legally
+justified only by the inherent right of the people to depose and to
+elect; yet the provinces, in their Declaration of Independence, spoke of
+the divine right of kings, even while dethroning, by popular right, their
+own King!
+
+So also, in the instructions given by the states to their envoys charged
+to justify the abjuration before the Imperial diet held at Augsburg,
+twelve months later, the highest ground was claimed for the popular right
+to elect or depose the sovereign, while at the same time, kings were
+spoken of as "appointed by God." It is true that they were described, in
+the same clause, as "chosen by the people"--which was, perhaps, as exact
+a concurrence in the maxim of Vox populi, vox Dei, as the boldest
+democrat of the day could demand. In truth, a more democratic course
+would have defeated its own ends. The murderous and mischievous pranks of
+Imbize, Ryhove, and such demagogues, at Ghent and elsewhere, with their
+wild theories of what they called Grecian, Roman, and Helvetian
+republicanism, had inflicted damage enough on the cause of freedom, and
+had paved the road for the return of royal despotism. The senators
+assembled at the Hague gave more moderate instructions to their delegates
+at Augsburg. They were to place the King's tenure upon contract--not an
+implied one, but a contract as literal as the lease of a farm. The house
+of Austria, they were to maintain, had come into the possession of the
+seventeen Netherlands upon certain express conditions, and with the
+understanding that its possession was to cease with the first condition
+broken. It was a question of law and fact, not of royal or popular right.
+They were to take the ground, not only that the contract had been
+violated, but that the foundation of perpetual justice upon which it
+rested; had likewise been undermined. It was time to vindicate both
+written charters and general principles. "God has given absolute power to
+no mortal man," said Saint Aldegonde, "to do his own will against all
+laws and all reason." "The contracts which the King has broken are no
+pedantic fantasies," said the estates, "but laws planted by nature in the
+universal heart of mankind, and expressly acquiesced in by prince and
+people." All men, at least, who speak the English tongue, will accept the
+conclusion of the provinces, that when laws which protected the citizen
+against arbitrary imprisonment and guaranteed him a trial in his own
+province--which forbade the appointment of foreigners to high
+office--which secured the property of the citizen from taxation, except
+by the representative body--which forbade intermeddling on the part of
+the sovereign with the conscience of the subject in religious
+matters--when such laws had been subverted by blood tribunals, where
+drowsy judges sentenced thousands to stake and scaffold without a hearing
+by excommunication, confiscation, banishment-by hanging, beheading,
+burning, to such enormous extent and with such terrible monotony that the
+executioner's sword came to be looked upon as the only symbol of
+justice--then surely it might be said, without exaggeration, that the
+complaints of the Netherlanders were "no pedantic fantasies," and that
+the King had ceased to perform his functions as dispenser of God's
+justice.
+
+The Netherlanders dealt with facts. They possessed a body of laws,
+monuments of their national progress, by which as good a share of
+individual liberty was secured to the citizen as was then enjoyed in any
+country of the world. Their institutions admitted of great improvement,
+no doubt; but it was natural that a people so circumstanced should be
+unwilling to exchange their condition for the vassalage of "Moors or
+Indians."
+
+At the same time it may be doubted whether the instinct for political
+freedom only would have sustained them in the long contest, and whether
+the bonds which united them to the Spanish Crown would have been broken,
+had it not been for the stronger passion for religious liberty, by which
+so large a portion of the people was animated. Boldly as the united
+states of the Netherlands laid down their political maxima, the quarrel
+might perhaps have been healed if the religious question had admitted of
+a peaceable solution. Philip's bigotry amounting to frenzy, and the
+Netherlanders of "the religion" being willing, in their own words, "to
+die the death" rather than abandon the Reformed faith, there was upon
+this point no longer room for hope. In the act of abjuration, however, it
+was thought necessary to give offence to no class of the inhabitants, but
+to lay down such principles only as enlightened Catholics would not
+oppose. All parties abhorred the Inquisition, and hatred to that
+institution is ever prominent among the causes assigned for the
+deposition of the monarch. "Under pretence of maintaining the Roman
+religion," said the estates, "the King has sought by evil means to bring
+into operation the whole strength of the placards and of the
+Inquisition--the first and true cause of all our miseries."
+
+Without making any assault upon the Roman Catholic faith, the authors of
+the great act by which Philip was for ever expelled from the Netherlands
+showed plainly enough that religious persecution had driven them at last
+to extremity. At the same time, they were willing--for the sake of
+conciliating all classes of their countrymen--to bring the political
+causes of discontent into the foreground, and to use discreet language
+upon the religious question.
+
+Such, then, being the spirit which prompted the provinces upon this great
+occasion, it may be asked who were the men who signed a document of such
+importance? In whose-name and by what authority did they act against the
+sovereign? The signers of the declaration of independence acted in the
+name and by the authority of the Netherlands people. The estates were the
+constitutional representatives of that people. The statesmen of that day
+discovering, upon cold analysis of facts, that Philip's sovereignty was,
+legally forfeited; formally proclaimed that forfeiture. Then inquiring
+what had become of the sovereignty, they found it not in the mass of the
+people, but in the representative body, which actually personated the
+people. The estates of the different provinces--consisting of the
+knights, nobles, and burgesses of each--sent, accordingly, their deputies
+to the general assembly at the Hague; and by this congress the decree of
+abjuration was issued. It did, not occur to any one to summon the people
+in their primary assemblies, nor would the people of that day, have
+comprehended the objects of such a summons. They were accustomed to the
+action of the estates, and those bodies represented as large a number of
+political capacities as could be expected of assemblies chosen then upon
+general principles. The hour had not arrived for more profound analysis
+of the social compact. Philip was accordingly deposed justly, legally
+formally justly, because it had become necessary to abjur a monarch who
+was determined not only to oppress; but to exterminate his people;
+legally, because he had habitually violated the constitutions which he
+had sworn to support; formally, because the act was done in the name of
+the people, by the body historically representing the people.
+
+What, then, was the condition of the nation, after this great step had
+been taken? It stood, as it were, with its sovereignty in its hand,
+dividing it into two portions, and offering it, thus separated, to two
+distinct individuals. The sovereignty of Holland and Zealand had been
+reluctantly accepted by Orange. The sovereignty of the united provinces
+had been offered to Anjou, but the terms of agreement with that Duke had
+not yet been ratified. The movement was therefore triple, consisting of
+an abjuration and of two separate elections of hereditary chiefs; these
+two elections being accomplished in the same manner, by the
+representative bodies respectively of the united provinces, and of
+Holland and Zealand. Neither the abjuration nor the elections were acted
+upon beforehand by the communities, the train-bands, or the guilds of the
+cities--all represented, in fact, by the magistrates and councils of
+each; nor by the peasantry of the open country--all supposed to be
+represented by the knights and nobles. All classes of individuals,
+however; arranged in various political or military combinations, gave
+their acquiescence afterwards, together with their oaths of allegiance.
+The people approved the important steps taken by their representatives.
+
+Without a direct intention on the part of the people or its leaders to
+establish a republic, the Republic established itself. Providence did not
+permit the whole country, so full of wealth intelligence, healthy
+political action--so stocked with powerful cities and an energetic
+population, to be combined into one free and prosperous commonwealth. The
+factious ambition of a few grandees, the cynical venality of many nobles,
+the frenzy of the Ghent democracy, the spirit of religious intolerance,
+the consummate military and political genius of Alexander Farnese, the
+exaggerated self-abnegation and the tragic fate of Orange, all united to
+dissever this group of flourishing and kindred provinces.
+
+The want of personal ambition on the part of William the Silent inflicted
+perhaps a serious damage upon his country. He believed a single chief
+requisite for the united states; he might have been, but always refused
+to become that chief; and yet he has been held up for centuries by many
+writers as a conspirator and a self-seeking intriguer. "It seems to me,"
+said he, with equal pathos and truth, upon one occasion, "that I was born
+in this bad planet that all which I do might be misinterpreted." The
+people worshipped him, and there was many an occasion when his election
+would have been carried with enthusiasm. "These provinces," said John of
+Nassau, "are coming very unwillingly into the arrangement with the Duke
+of Alencon, The majority feel much more inclined to elect the Prince, who
+is daily, and without intermission, implored to give his consent. His
+Grace, however, will in no wise agree to this; not because he fears the
+consequences, such as loss of property or increased danger, for therein
+he is plunged as deeply as he ever could be;--on the contrary, if he
+considered only the interests of his race and the grandeur of his house,
+he could expect nothing but increase of honor, gold, and gear, with all
+other prosperity. He refuses only on this account that it may not be
+thought that, instead of religious freedom for the country, he has been
+seeking a kingdom for himself and his own private advancement. Moreover,
+he believes that the connexion with France will be of more benefit to the
+country and to Christianity than if a peace should be made with Spain, or
+than if he should himself accept the sovereignty, as he is desired to
+do."
+
+The unfortunate negotiations with Anjou, to which no man was more opposed
+than Count John, proceeded therefore. In the meantime, the sovereignty
+over the united provinces was provisionally held by the national council,
+and, at the urgent solicitation of the states-general, by the Prince. The
+Archduke Matthias, whose functions were most unceremoniously brought to
+an end by the transactions which we have been recording, took his leave
+of the states, and departed in the month of October. Brought to the
+country a beardless boy, by the intrigues of a faction who wished to use
+him as a tool against William of Orange, he had quietly submitted, on the
+contrary, to serve as the instrument of that great statesman. His
+personality during his residence was null, and he had to expiate, by many
+a petty mortification, by many a bitter tear, the boyish ambition which
+brought him to the Netherlands. He had certainly had ample leisure to
+repent the haste with which he had got out of his warm bed in Vienna to
+take his bootless journey to Brussels. Nevertheless, in a country where
+so much baseness, cruelty, and treachery was habitually practised by men
+of high position, as was the case in the Netherlands; it is something in
+favor of Matthias that he had not been base, or cruel, or treacherous.
+The states voted him, on his departure, a pension of fifty thousand
+guldens annually, which was probably not paid with exemplary regularity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+   Policy of electing Anjou as sovereign--Commode et incommode--Views
+   of Orange--Opinions at the French Court,--Anjou relieves Cambray--
+   Parma besieges Tourney--Brave defence by the Princess of Espinoy--
+   Honorable capitulation--Anjou's courtship in England--The Duke's
+   arrival in the Netherlands--Portrait of Anjou--Festivities in
+   Flushing--Inauguration at Antwerp--The conditions or articles
+   subscribed to by the Duke--Attempt upon the life of Orange--The
+   assassin's papers--Confession of Venero--Gaspar Anastro--His escape
+   --Execution of Venero and Zimmermann--Precarious condition of the
+   Prince--His recovery--Death of the Princess--Premature letters of
+   Parma--Further negotiations with Orange as to the sovereignty of
+   Holland and Zealand--Character of the revised Constitution--
+   Comparison of the positions of the Prince before and after his
+   acceptance of the countship.
+
+Thus it was arranged that, for the--present, at least, the Prince should
+exercise sovereignty over Holland and Zealand; although he had himself
+used his utmost exertions to induce those provinces to join the rest of
+the United Netherlands in the proposed election of Anjou. This, however,
+they sternly refused to do. There was also a great disinclination felt by
+many in the other states to this hazardous offer of their allegiance, and
+it was the personal influence of Orange that eventually carried the
+measure through. Looking at the position of affairs and at the character
+of Anjou, as they appear to us now, it seems difficult to account for the
+Prince's policy. It is so natural to judge only by the result, that we
+are ready to censure statesmen for consequences which beforehand might
+seem utterly incredible, and for reading falsely human characters whose
+entire development only a late posterity has had full opportunity to
+appreciate. Still, one would think that Anjou had been sufficiently known
+to inspire distrust.
+
+There was but little, too, in the aspect of the French court to encourage
+hopes of valuable assistance from that quarter. It was urged, not without
+reason, that the French were as likely to become as dangerous as the
+Spaniards; that they would prove nearer and more troublesome masters;
+that France intended the incorporation of the Netherlands into her own
+kingdom; that the provinces would therefore be dispersed for ever from
+the German Empire; and that it was as well to hold to the tyrant under
+whom they had been born, as to give themselves voluntarily to another of
+their own making. In short, it was maintained, in homely language, that
+"France and Spain were both under one coverlid." It might have been added
+that only extreme misery could make the provinces take either bedfellow.
+Moreover, it was asserted, with reason, that Anjou would be a very
+expensive master, for his luxurious and extravagant habits were
+notorious--that he was a man in whom no confidence could be placed, and
+one who would grasp at arbitrary power by any means which might present
+themselves. Above all, it was urged that he was not of the true religion,
+that he hated the professors of that faith in his heart, and that it was
+extremely unwise for men whose dearest interests were their religious
+ones, to elect a sovereign of opposite creed to their own. To these
+plausible views the Prince of Orange and those who acted with him, had,
+however; sufficient answers. The Netherlands had waited long enough for
+assistance from other quarters. Germany would not lift a finger in the
+cause; on the contrary, the whole of Germany, whether Protestant or
+Catholic, was either openly or covertly hostile. It was madness to wait
+till assistance came to them from unseen sources. It was time for them to
+assist themselves, and to take the best they could get; for when men were
+starving they could not afford to be dainty. They might be bound, hand
+and foot, they might be overwhelmed a thousand times before they would
+receive succor from Germany, or from any land but France. Under the
+circumstances in which they found themselves, hope delayed was but a cold
+and meagre consolation.
+
+"To speak plainly," said Orange, "asking us to wait is very much as if
+you should keep a man three days without any food in the expectation of a
+magnificent banquet, should persuade him to refuse bread, and at the end
+of three days should tell him that the banquet was not ready, but that a
+still better one was in preparation. Would it not be better, then, that
+the poor man, to avoid starvation, should wait no longer, but accept
+bread wherever he might find it? Such is our case at present."
+
+It was in this vein that he ever wrote and spoke: The Netherlands were to
+rely upon their own exertions, and to procure the best alliance, together
+with the most efficient protection possible. They were not strong enough
+to cope singlehanded with their powerful tyrant, but they were strong
+enough if they used the instruments which Heaven offered. It was not
+trusting but tempting Providence to wait supinely, instead of grasping
+boldly at the means of rescue within reach. It became the character of
+brave men to act, not to expect. "Otherwise," said the Prince, "we may
+climb to the top of trees, like the Anabaptists of Munster, and expect
+God's assistance to drop from the clouds." It is only by listening to
+these arguments so often repeated, that we can comprehend the policy of
+Orange at thin period. "God has said that he would furnish the ravens
+with food, and the lions with their prey," said he; "but the birds and
+the lions do not, therefore, sit in their nests and their lairs waiting
+for their food to descend from heaven, but they seek it where it is to be
+found." So also, at a later day, when events seemed to have justified the
+distrust so, generally felt in Anjou, the Prince; nevertheless, held
+similar language. "I do not," said he, calumniate those who tell us to
+put our trust in God. That is my opinion also. But it is trusting God to
+use the means which he places in our hands, and to ask that his blessings
+may come upon them.
+
+There was a feeling entertained by the more sanguine that the French King
+would heartily assist the Netherlands, after his brother should be fairly
+installed. He had expressly written to that effect, assuring Anjou that
+he would help him with all his strength, and would enter into close
+alliance with those Netherlands which should accept him as prince and
+sovereign. In another and more private letter to the Duke, the King
+promised to assist his brother, "even to his last shirt." There is no
+doubt that it was the policy of the statesmen of France to assist the
+Netherlands, while the "mignons" of the worthless King were of a contrary
+opinion. Many of them were secret partizans of Spain; and found it more
+agreeable to receive the secret pay of Philip than to assist his revolted
+provinces. They found it easy to excite the jealousy of the monarch
+against his brother--a passion which proved more effective than the more
+lofty ambition of annexing the Low Countries, according to the secret
+promptings of many French politicians. As for the Queen Mother, she was
+fierce in her determination to see fulfilled in this way the famous
+prediction of Nostradamus. Three of her sons had successively worn the
+crown of France. That she might be "the mother of four kings," without
+laying a third child in the tomb, she was greedy for this proffered
+sovereignty to her youngest and favorite son. This well-known desire of
+Catherine de Medici was duly insisted upon by the advocates of the
+election; for her influence, it was urged, would bring the whole power of
+France to support the Netherlands.
+
+At any rate, France could not be worse--could hardly be so bad--as their
+present tyranny. "Better the government of the Gaul, though suspect and
+dangerous," said Everard Reyd, "than the truculent dominion of the
+Spaniard. Even thus will the partridge fly to the hand of man, to escape
+the talons of the hawk." As for the individual character of Anjou, proper
+means would be taken, urged the advocates of his sovereignty, to keep him
+in check, for it was intended so closely to limit the power conferred
+upon him, that it would be only supreme in name. The Netherlands were to
+be, in reality, a republic, of which Anjou was to be a kind of Italian or
+Frisian podesta. "The Duke is not to act according to his pleasure," said
+one of the negotiators, in a private letter to Count John; "we shall take
+care to provide a good muzzle for him." How conscientiously the "muzzle"
+was prepared, will appear from the articles by which the states soon
+afterwards accepted the new sovereign. How basely he contrived to slip
+the muzzle--in what cruel and cowardly fashion he bathed his fangs in the
+blood of the flock committed to him, will also but too soon appear.
+
+As for the religious objection to Anjou, on which more stress was laid
+than upon any other, the answer was equally ready. Orange professed
+himself "not theologian enough" to go into the subtleties brought
+forward. As it was intended to establish most firmly a religious peace,
+with entire tolerance for all creeds, he did not think it absolutely
+essential to require a prince of the Reformed faith. It was bigotry to
+dictate to the sovereign, when full liberty in religious matters was
+claimed for the subject. Orange was known to be a zealous professor of
+the Reformed worship himself; but he did not therefore reject political
+assistance, even though offered by a not very enthusiastic member of the
+ancient Church.
+
+"If the priest and the Levite pass us by when we are fallen among
+thieves," said he, with much aptness and some bitterness, "shall we
+reject the aid proffered by the Samaritan, because he is of a different
+faith from the worthy fathers who have left us to perish?" In short, it
+was observed with perfect truth that Philip had been removed, not because
+he was a Catholic, but because he was a tyrant; not because his faith was
+different from that of his subjects, but because he was resolved to
+exterminate all men whose religion differed from his own. It was not,
+therefore, inconsistent to choose another Catholic for a sovereign, if
+proper guarantees could be obtained that he would protect and not oppress
+the Reformed churches. "If the Duke have the same designs as the King,"
+said Saint Aldegonde, "it would be a great piece of folly to change one
+tyrant and persecutor for another. If, on the contrary, instead of
+oppressing our liberties, he will maintain them, and in place of
+extirpating the disciples of the true religion, he will protect them,
+then are all the reasons of our opponents without vigor."
+
+By midsummer the Duke of Anjou made his appearance in the western part of
+the Netherlands. The Prince of Parma had recently come before Cambray
+with the intention of reducing that important city. On the arrival of
+Anjou, however, at the head of five thousand cavalry--nearly all of them
+gentlemen of high degree, serving as volunteers--and of twelve thousand
+infantry, Alexander raised the siege precipitately, and retired towards
+Tournay. Anjou victualled the city, strengthened the garrison, and then,
+as his cavalry had only enlisted for a summer's amusement, and could no
+longer be held together, he disbanded his forces. The bulk of the
+infantry took service for the states under the Prince of Espinoy,
+governor of Tournay. The Duke himself, finding that, notwithstanding the
+treaty of Plessis les Tours and the present showy demonstration upon his
+part, the states were not yet prepared to render him formal allegiance,
+and being, moreover, in the heyday of what was universally considered his
+prosperous courtship of Queen Elizabeth, soon afterwards took his
+departure for England.
+
+Parma; being thus relieved of his interference, soon afterwards laid
+siege to the important city of Tournay. The Prince of Espinoy was absent
+with the army in the north, but the Princess commanded in his absence.
+She fulfilled her duty in a manner worthy of the house from which she
+sprang, for the blood of Count Horn was in her veins. The daughter of
+Mary, de Montmorency, the admiral's sister, answered the summons of Parma
+to surrender at discretion with defiance. The garrison was encouraged by
+her steadfastness. The Princess appeared daily among her troops,
+superintending the defences, and personally directing the officers.
+During one of the assaults, she is said, but perhaps erroneously; to have
+been wounded in the arm, notwithstanding which she refused to retire.
+
+The siege lasted two months. Meantime, it became impossible for Orange
+and the estates, notwithstanding their efforts, to raise a sufficient
+force to drive Parma from his entrenchments. The city was becoming
+gradually and surely undermined from without, while at the same time the
+insidious art of a Dominican friar, Father Gery by name, had been as
+surely sapping the fidelity of the garrison from within. An open revolt
+of the Catholic population being on the point of taking place, it became
+impossible any longer to hold the city. Those of the Reformed faith
+insisted that the place should be surrendered; and the Princess, being
+thus deserted by all parties, made an honorable capitulation with Parma.
+She herself, with all her garrison, was allowed to retire with personal
+property, and with all the honors of war, while the sack of the city was
+commuted for one hundred thousand crowns, levied upon the inhabitants:
+The Princess, on leaving the gates, was received with such a shout of
+applause from the royal army that she seemed less like a defeated
+commander than a conqueror. Upon the 30th November, Parma accordingly
+entered the place which he had been besieging since the 1st of October.
+
+By the end of the autumn, the Prince of Orange, more than ever
+dissatisfied with the anarchical condition of affairs, and with the
+obstinate jealousy and parsimony of the different provinces, again
+summoned the country in the most earnest language to provide for the
+general defence, and to take measures for the inauguration of Anjou. He
+painted in sombre colors the prospect which lay before them, if nothing
+was done to arrest the progress of the internal disorders and of the
+external foe, whose forces were steadily augmenting: Had the provinces
+followed his advice, instead of quarreling among themselves, they would
+have had a powerful army on foot to second the efforts of Anjou, and
+subsequently to save Tournay. They had remained supine and stolid, even
+while the cannonading against these beautiful cities was in their very
+ears. No man seemed to think himself interested in public affair, save
+when his own province or village was directly attacked. The general
+interests of the commonwealth were forgotten, in local jealousy. Had it
+been otherwise, the enemy would have long since been driven over the
+Meuse. "When money," continued the Prince, "is asked for to carry on the
+war, men answer as if they were talking with the dead Emperor. To say,
+however, that they will pay no more, is as much as to declare that they
+will give up their land and their religion both. I say this, not because
+I have any desire to put my hands into the common purse. You well know
+that I have never touched the public money, but it is important that you
+should feel that there is no war in the country except the one which
+concerns you all."
+
+The states, thus shamed and stimulated, set themselves in earnest to obey
+the mandates of the Prince, and sent a special mission to England, to
+arrange with the Duke of Anjou for his formal installation as sovereign.
+Saint Aldegonde and other commissioners were already there. It was the
+memorable epoch in the Anjou wooing, when the rings were exchanged
+between Elizabeth and the Duke, and when the world thought that the
+nuptials were on the point of being celebrated. Saint Aldegonde wrote to
+the Prince of Orange on the 22nd of November, that the marriage had been
+finally settled upon that day. Throughout the Netherlands, the auspicious
+tidings were greeted with bonfires, illuminations, and cannonading, and
+the measures for hailing the Prince, thus highly favored by so great a
+Queen, as sovereign master of the provinces, were pushed forward with
+great energy.
+
+Nevertheless, the marriage ended in smoke. There were plenty of tournays,
+pageants, and banquets; a profusion of nuptial festivities, in short,
+where nothing was omitted but the nuptials. By the end of January, 1582,
+the Duke was no nearer the goal than upon his arrival three months
+before. Acceding, therefore, to the wishes of the Netherland envoys, he
+prepared for a visit to their country, where the ceremony of his joyful
+entrance as Duke of Brabant and sovereign of the other provinces was to
+take place. No open rupture with Elizabeth occurred. On the contrary, the
+Queen accompanied the Duke, with a numerous and stately retinue, as far
+as Canterbury, and sent a most brilliant train of her greatest nobles and
+gentlemen to escort him to the Netherlands, communicating at the same
+time, by special letter, her wishes to the estates-general, that he
+should be treated with as much honor "as if he were her second self."
+
+On the 10th of February, fifteen large vessels cast anchor at Flushing.
+The Duke of Anjou, attended by the Earl of Leicester, the Lords Hunsdon,
+Willoughby, Sheffield, Howard, Sir Philip Sidney, and many other
+personages of high rank and reputation, landed from this fleet. He was
+greeted on his arrival by the Prince of Orange, who, with the Prince of
+Espinoy and a large deputation of the states-general, had been for some
+days waiting to welcome him. The man whom the Netherlands had chosen for
+their new master stood on the shores of Zealand. Francis Hercules, Son of
+France, Duke of Alencon and Anjou, was at that time just twenty-eight
+years of age; yet not even his flatterers, or his "minions," of whom he
+had as regular a train as his royal brother, could claim for him the
+external graces of youth or of princely dignity. He was below the middle
+height, puny and ill-shaped. His hair and eyes were brown, his face was
+seamed with the small-pox, his skin covered with blotches, his nose so
+swollen and distorted that it seemed to be double. This prominent feature
+did not escape the sarcasms of his countrymen, who, among other gibes,
+were wont to observe that the man who always wore two faces, might be
+expected to have two noses also. It was thought that his revolting
+appearance was the principal reason for the rupture of the English
+marriage, and it was in vain that his supporters maintained that if he
+could forgive her age, she might, in return, excuse his ugliness. It
+seemed that there was a point of hideousness beyond which even royal
+princes could not descend with impunity, and the only wonder seemed that
+Elizabeth, with the handsome Robert Dudley ever at her feet, could even
+tolerate the addresses of Francis Valois.
+
+His intellect was by no means contemptible. He was not without a certain
+quickness of apprehension and vivacity of expression which passed
+current, among his admirers for wit and wisdom. Even the experienced.
+Saint Aldegonde was deceived in his character, and described him after an
+hour and half's interview, as a Prince overflowing with bounty,
+intelligence, and sincerity. That such men as Saint Aldegonde and the
+Prince of Orange should be at fault in their judgment, is evidence not so
+much of their want of discernment, as of the difference between the
+general reputation of the Duke at that period, and that which has been
+eventually established for him in history. Moreover, subsequent events
+were to exhibit the utter baseness of his character more signally than it
+had been displayed during his previous career, however vacillating. No
+more ignoble yet more dangerous creature had yet been loosed upon the
+devoted soil of the Netherlands. Not one of the personages who had
+hitherto figured in the long drama of the revolt had enacted so sorry a
+part. Ambitious but trivial, enterprising but cowardly, an intriguer and
+a dupe, without religious convictions or political principles, save that
+he was willing to accept any creed or any system which might advance his
+own schemes, he was the most unfit protector for a people who, whether
+wrong or right; were at least in earnest, and who were accustomed to
+regard truth as one of the virtues. He was certainly not deficient in
+self-esteem. With a figure which was insignificant, and a countenance
+which was repulsive, he had hoped to efface the impression made upon
+Elizabeth's imagination by the handsomest man in Europe. With a
+commonplace capacity, and with a narrow political education, he intended
+to circumvent the most profound statesman of his age. And there, upon the
+pier at Flushing, he stood between them both; between the magnificent
+Leicester, whom he had thought to outshine, and the silent Prince of
+Orange, whom he was determined to outwit. Posterity has long been aware
+how far he succeeded in the one and the other attempt.
+
+The Duke's arrival was greeted with the roar of artillery, the ringing of
+bells, and the acclamations of a large concourse of the inhabitants;
+suitable speeches were made by the magistrates of the town, the deputies
+of Zealand, and other functionaries, and a stately banquet was provided,
+so remarkable "for its sugar-work and other delicacies, as to entirely
+astonish the French and English lords who partook thereof." The Duke
+visited Middelburg, where he was received with great state, and to the
+authorities of which he expressed his gratification at finding two such
+stately cities situate so close to each other on one little island.
+
+On the 17th of February, he set sail for Antwerp. A fleet of fifty-four
+vessels, covered with flags and streamers, conveyed him and his retinue,
+together with the large deputation which had welcomed him at Flushing, to
+the great commercial metropolis. He stepped on shore at Kiel within a
+bowshot of the city--for, like other Dukes of Brabant, he was not to
+enter Antwerp until he had taken the oaths to respect the
+constitution--and the ceremony of inauguration was to take place outside
+the walls. A large platform had been erected for this purpose, commanding
+a view of the stately city, with its bristling fortifications and shady
+groves. A throne, covered with velvet and gold, was prepared, and here
+the Duke took his seat, surrounded by a brilliant throng, including many
+of the most distinguished personages in Europe.
+
+It was a bright winter's morning. The gaily bannered fleet lay
+conspicuous in the river, while an enormous concourse of people were
+thronging from all sides to greet the new sovereign. Twenty thousand
+burgher troops, in bright uniforms, surrounded the platform, upon the
+tapestried floor of which stood the magistrates of Antwerp, the leading
+members of the Brabant estates, with the Prince of Orange at their head,
+together with many other great functionaries. The magnificence everywhere
+displayed, and especially the splendid costumes of the military
+companies, excited the profound astonishment of the French, who exclaimed
+that every soldier seemed a captain, and who regarded with vexation their
+own inferior equipments.
+
+Andrew Hesaels, 'doctor utriusque juris', delivered a salutatory oration,
+in which, among other flights of eloquence, he expressed the hope of the
+provinces that the Duke, with the beams of his greatness, wisdom, and
+magnanimity, would disipate all the mists, fogs, and other exhalations
+which were pernicious to their national prosperity, and that he would
+bring back the sunlight of their ancient glory.
+
+Anjou answered these compliments with equal courtesy, and had much to say
+of his willingness to shed every drop of his blood in defence of the
+Brabant liberties; but it might have damped the enthusiasm of the moment
+could the curtain of the not very distant future have been lifted. The
+audience, listening to these promises, might have seen that it was not so
+much his blood as theirs which he was disposed to shed, and less, too, in
+defence than in violation of those same liberties which he was swearing
+to protect.
+
+Orator Hessels then read aloud the articles of the Joyous Entry, in the
+Flemish language, and the Duke was asked if he required any explanations
+of that celebrated constitution. He replied that he had thoroughly
+studied its provisions, with the assistance of the Prince of Orange,
+during his voyage from Flushing, and was quite prepared to swear to
+maintain them. The oaths, according to the antique custom, were then
+administered. Afterwards, the ducal hat and the velvet mantle, lined with
+ermine, were brought, the Prince of Orange assisting his Highness to
+assume this historical costume of the Brabant dukes, and saying to him,
+as he fastened the button at the throat, "I must secure this robe so
+firmly, my lord, that no man may ever tear it from your shoulders."
+
+Thus arrayed in his garment of sovereignty, Anjou was compelled to listen
+to another oration from, the pensionary of Antwerp, John Van der Werken.
+He then exchanged oaths with the magistrates of the city, and received
+the keys, which he returned for safe-keeping to the burgomaster.
+Meanwhile the trumpets sounded, largess of gold and silver coins was
+scattered among the people, and the heralds cried aloud, "Long live the
+Duke of Brabant."
+
+A procession was then formed to escort the new Duke to his commercial
+capital. A stately and striking procession it was. The Hanseatic
+merchants in ancient German attires the English merchants in long velvet
+cassocks, the heralds is their quaint costume, the long train of civic
+militia with full, bands of music, the chief functionaries of city and
+province in their black mantles and gold chains, all marching under
+emblematical standards or time-honored blazons, followed each other in
+dignified order. Then came the Duke himself on a white Barbary horse,
+caparisoned with cloth of gold. He was surrounded with English, French,
+and Netherland grandees, many of them of world-wide reputation. There was
+the stately Leicester; Sir Philip Sidney, the mirror of chivalry; the
+gaunt and imposing form of William the Silent; his son; Count Maurice of
+Nassau, destined to be the first captain of his age, then a handsome,
+dark-eyed lad of fifteen; the Dauphin of Auvergne; the Marechal de Biron
+and his sons; the Prince of Espinoy; the Lords Sheffield; Willoughby,
+Howard; Hunsdon, and many others of high degree and distinguished
+reputation. The ancient guilds of the crossbow-men; and archers of
+Brabant, splendidly accoutred; formed the bodyguard of the Duke, while
+his French cavaliers, the life-guardsmen of the Prince of Orange, and the
+troops of they line; followed in great numbers, their glittering uniforms
+all, gaily intermingled, "like the flowers de luce upon a royal mantle!"
+The procession, thus gorgeous and gay, was terminated by, a dismal group
+of three hundred malefactors, marching in fetters, and imploring pardon
+of the Duke, a boon which was to be granted at evening. Great torches,
+although it was high noon were burning along the road, at intervals of
+four or five feet, in a continuous line reaching from the platform at
+Kiel to the portal of Saint Joris, through which the entrance to the city
+was to be made.
+
+Inside the gate a stupendous allegory was awaiting the approach of the
+new sovereign. A huge gilded car, crowded with those emblematical and
+highly bedizened personages so dear to the Netherlanders, obstructed the
+advance of the procession. All the virtues seemed to have come out for an
+airing in one chariot, and were now waiting to offer their homage to
+Francis Hercules Valois. Religion in "red satin," holding the gospel in
+her hand, was supported by Justice, "in orange velvet," armed with blade
+and beam. Prudence and Fortitude embraced each other near a column
+enwreathed by serpents "with their tails in their ears to typify deafness
+to flattery," while Patriotism as a pelican, and Patience as a brooding
+hen, looked benignantly upon the scene. This greeting duly acknowledged,
+the procession advanced into the city. The streets were lined with troops
+and with citizens; the balconies were filled with fair women; "the very
+gables," says an enthusiastic contemporary, "seemed to laugh with ladies'
+eyes." The market-place was filled with waxen torches and with blazing
+tar barrels, while in its centre stood the giant Antigonus--founder of
+the city thirteen hundred years before the Christian era--the fabulous
+personage who was accustomed to throw the right hands of all smuggling
+merchants into the Scheld. This colossal individual, attired in a
+"surcoat of sky-blue," and holding a banner emblazoned with the arms of
+Spain, turned its head as the Duke entered the square, saluted the new
+sovereign, and then dropping the Spanish scutcheon upon the ground,
+raised aloft another bearing the arms of Anjou.
+
+And thus, amid exuberant outpouring of confidence, another lord and
+master had made his triumphal entrance into the Netherlands. Alas how
+often had this sanguine people greeted with similar acclamations the
+advent of their betrayers and their tyrants! How soon were they to
+discover that the man whom they were thus receiving with the warmest
+enthusiasm was the most treacherous tyrant of all.
+
+It was nightfall before the procession at last reached the palace of
+Saint Michael, which had been fitted up for the temporary reception of
+the Duke. The next day was devoted to speech-making; various deputations
+waiting upon the new Duke of Brabant with congratulatory addresses. The
+Grand Pensionary delivered a pompous oration upon a platform hung with
+sky-blue silk, and carpeted with cloth of gold. A committee of the German
+and French Reformed Churches made a long harangue, in which they
+expressed the hope that the Lord would make the Duke "as valiant as
+David, as wise as Solomon, and as pious as Hezekiah." A Roman Catholic
+deputation informed his Highness that for eight months the members of the
+Ancient Church had been forbidden all religious exercises, saving
+baptism, marriage, visitation of the sick, and burials. A promise was
+therefore made that this prohibition, which had been the result of the
+disturbances recorded in a preceding chapter, should be immediately
+modified, and on the 15th of March, accordingly, it was arranged, by
+command of the magistrates, that all Catholics should have permission to
+attend public worship, according to the ancient ceremonial, in the church
+of Saint Michael, which had been originally designated for the use of the
+new Duke of Brabant. It was, however, stipulated that all who desired to
+partake of this privilege should take the oath of abjuration beforehand,
+and go to the church without arms.
+
+Here then had been oaths enough, orations enough, compliments enough, to
+make any agreement steadfast, so far as windy suspirations could furnish
+a solid foundation for the social compact. Bells, trumpets, and the
+brazen throats of men and of cannons had made a sufficient din, torches
+and tar-barrels had made a sufficient glare, to confirm--so far as noise
+and blazing pitch could confirm--the decorous proceedings of church and
+town-house, but time was soon to show the value of such demonstrations.
+Meantime, the "muzzle" had been fastened with solemnity and accepted with
+docility. The terms of the treaty concluded at Plessis lea Tours and
+Bordeaux were made public. The Duke had subscribed to twenty-seven
+articles; which made as stringent and sensible a constitutional compact
+as could be desired by any Netherland patriot. These articles, taken in
+connection with the ancient charters which they expressly upheld, left to
+the new sovereign no vestige of arbitrary power. He was merely the
+hereditary president of a representative republic. He was to be Duke,
+Count, Margrave, or Seignior of the different provinces on the same terms
+which his predecessors had accepted. He was to transmit the dignities to
+his children. If there were more than one child, the provinces were to
+select one of the number for their sovereign. He was to maintain all the
+ancient privileges, charters, statutes, and customs, and to forfeit his
+sovereignty at the first violation. He was to assemble the states-general
+at least once a year. He was always to reside in the Netherlands. He was
+to permit none but natives to hold office. His right of appointment to
+all important posts was limited to a selection from three candidates, to
+be proposed by the estates of the province concerned, at each vacancy. He
+was to maintain "the Religion" and the religious peace in the same state
+in which they then were, or as should afterwards be ordained by the
+estates of each province, without making any innovation on his own part.
+Holland and Zealand were to remain as they were, both in the matter of
+religion and otherwise. His Highness was not to permit that any one
+should be examined or molested in his house, or otherwise, in the matter
+or under pretext of religion. He was to procure the assistance of the
+King of France for the Netherlands. He was to maintain a perfect and a
+perpetual league, offensive and defensive, between that kingdom and the
+provinces; without; however, permitting any incorporation of territory.
+He was to carry on the war against Spain with his own means and those
+furnished by his royal brother, in addition to a yearly, contribution by
+the estates of two million four hundred thousand guldens. He was to
+dismiss all troops at command of the states-general. He was to make no
+treaty with Spain without their consent.
+
+It would be superfluous to point out the great difference between the
+notions entertained upon international law in the sixteenth century and
+in our own. A state of nominal peace existed between Spain, France and
+England; yet here was the brother of the French monarch, at the head of
+French troops, and attended by the grandees of England solemnly accepting
+the sovereignty over the revolted provinces of Spain. It is also curious
+to observe that the constitutional compact, by which the new sovereign of
+the Netherlands was admitted to the government, would have been
+repudiated as revolutionary and republican by the monarchs of France or
+England, if an attempt had been made to apply it to their own realms, for
+the ancient charters--which in reality constituted a republican form of
+government--had all been re-established by the agreement with Anjou. The
+first-fruits of the ban now began to display themselves. Sunday, 18th of
+March, 1582, was the birthday of the Duke of Anjou, and a great festival
+had been arranged, accordingly, for the evening, at the palace of Saint
+Michael, the Prince of Orange as well as all the great French lords being
+of course invited. The Prince dined, as usual, at his house in the
+neighbourhood of the citadel, in company with the Counts Hohenlo and
+Laval, and the two distinguished French commissioners, Bonnivet and Des
+Pruneaux. Young Maurice of Nassau, and two nephews of the Prince, sons of
+his brother John, were also present at table. During dinner the
+conversation was animated, many stories being related of the cruelties
+which had been practised by the Spaniards in the provinces. On rising
+from the table, Orange led the way from the dining room to his own
+apartments, showing the noblemen in his company as he passed along, a
+piece of tapestry upon which some Spanish soldiers were represented. At
+this moment, as he stood upon the threshold of the ante-chamber, a youth
+of small stature, vulgar mien, and pale dark complexion, appeared from
+among the servants and offered him a petition. He took the paper, and as
+he did so, the stranger suddenly drew a pistol and discharged it at the
+head of the Prince. The ball entered the neck under the right ear, passed
+through the roof of the mouth, and came out under the left jaw-bone,
+carrying with it two teeth. The pistol had been held so near, that the
+hair and beard of the Prince were set on fire by the discharge. He
+remained standing, but blinded, stunned, and for a moment entirely
+ignorant of what had occurred. As he afterwards observed, he thought
+perhaps that a part of the house had suddenly fallen. Finding very soon
+that his hair and beard were burning, he comprehended what had occurred;
+and called out quickly, "Do not kill him--I forgive him my death!" and
+turning to the French noblemen present, he added, "Alas! what a faithful
+servant does his Highness lose in me!"
+
+These were his first words, spoken when, as all believed, he had been
+mortally wounded. The message of mercy came, however, too late; for two
+of the gentlemen present, by an irresistible impulse, had run the
+assassin through with their rapiers. The halberdiers rushed upon him
+immediately after wards, so that he fell pierced in thirty-two vital
+places. The Prince, supported by his friends, walked to his chamber,
+where he was put to bed, while the surgeons examined and bandaged the
+wound. It was most dangerous in appearance, but a very strange
+circumstance gave more hope than could otherwise have been entertained.
+The flame from the pistol had been so close that it had actually
+cauterized the wound inflicted by the ball. But for this, it was supposed
+that the flow of blood from the veins which had been shot through would
+have proved fatal before the wound could be dressed. The Prince, after
+the first shock, had recovered full possession of his senses, and
+believing himself to be dying, he expressed the most unaffected sympathy
+for the condition in which the Duke of Anjou would be placed by his
+death. "Alas, poor Prince!" he cried frequently; "alas, what troubles
+will now beset thee!" The surgeons enjoined and implored his silence, as
+speaking might cause the wound to prove immediately fatal. He complied,
+but wrote incessantly. As long as his heart could beat, it was impossible
+for him not to be occupied with his country.
+
+Lion Petit, a trusty Captain of the city guard, forced his way to the
+chamber, it being, absolutely necessary, said the honest burgher, for him
+to see with his own eyes that the Prince was living, and report the fact
+to the townspeople otherwise, so great was the excitement, it was
+impossible to say what might be the result. It was in fact believed that
+the Prince was already dead, and it was whispered that he had been
+assassinated by the order of Anjou. This horrible suspicion was flying
+through the city, and producing a fierce exasperation, as men talked of
+the murder of Coligny, of Saint Bartholomew, of the murderous
+propensities of the Valois race. Had the attempt taken place in the
+evening, at the birth-night banquet of Anjou, a horrible massacre would
+have been the inevitable issue. As it happened, however, circumstances
+soon, occurred to remove, the suspicion from the French, and to indicate
+the origin of the crime. Meantime, Captain Petit was urged by the Prince,
+in writing, to go forth instantly with the news that he yet survived, but
+to implore the people, in case God should call him to Himself, to hold
+him in kind remembrance, to make no tumult, and to serve the Duke
+obediently and faithfully.
+
+Meantime, the youthful Maurice of Nassau was giving proof of that cool
+determination which already marked his character. It was natural that a
+boy of fifteen should be somewhat agitated at seeing such a father shot
+through the head before his eyes. His situation was rendered doubly grave
+by the suspicions which were instantly engendered as to the probable
+origin of the attempt. It was already whispered in the hall that the
+gentlemen who had been so officious in slaying the assassin, were his
+accomplices, who--upon the principle that dead men would tell no
+tales--were disposed, now that the deed was done, to preclude
+inconvenient revelations as to their own share in the crime. Maurice,
+notwithstanding these causes for perturbation, and despite his grief at
+his father's probable death, remained steadily by the body of the
+murderer. He was determined, if possible, to unravel the plot, and he
+waited to possess himself of all papers and other articles which might be
+found upon the person of the deceased.
+
+A scrupulous search was at once made by the attendants, and everything
+placed in the young Count's own hands. This done, Maurice expressed a
+doubt lest some of the villain's accomplices might attempt to take the
+articles from him, whereupon a faithful old servant of his father came
+forward, who with an emphatic expression of the importance of securing
+such important documents, took his young master under his cloak, and led
+him to a retired apartment of the house. Here, after a rapid examination,
+it was found that the papers were all in Spanish, written by Spaniards to
+Spaniards, so that it was obvious that the conspiracy, if one there were,
+was not a French conspiracy. The servant, therefore, advised Maurice to
+go to his father, while he would himself instantly descend to the hall
+with this important intelligence. Count Hohenlo had, from the instant of
+the murder, ordered the doors to be fastened, and had permitted no one to
+enter or to leave the apartment without his permission. The information
+now brought by the servant as to the character of the papers caused great
+relief to the minds of all; for, till that moment, suspicion had even
+lighted upon men who were the firm friends of the Prince.
+
+Saint Aldegonde, who had meantime arrived, now proceeded, in company of
+the other gentlemen, to examine the papers and other articles taken from
+the assassin. The pistol with which he had done the deed was lying upon
+the floor; a naked poniard, which he would probably have used also, had
+his thumb not been blown off by the discharge of the pistol, was found in
+his trunk hose. In his pockets were an Agnus Dei, a taper of green wax,
+two bits of hareskin, two dried toads--which were supposed to be
+sorcerer's charms--a crucifix, a Jesuit catechism, a prayer-book, a
+pocket-book containing two Spanish bills of exchange--one for two
+thousand, and one for eight hundred and seventy-seven crowns--and a set
+of writing tablets. These last were covered with vows and pious
+invocations, in reference to the murderous affair which the writer had in
+hand. He had addressed fervent prayers to the "Virgin Mary, to the Angel
+Gabriel, to the Saviour, and to the Saviour's Son as if," says the
+Antwerp chronicler, with simplicity, "the Lord Jesus had a son"--that
+they might all use their intercession with the Almighty towards the
+certain and safe accomplishment of the contemplated deed. Should he come
+off successful and unharmed, he solemnly vowed to fast a week on bread
+and water. Furthermore, he promised to Christ a "new coat of costly
+pattern;" to the Mother of God, at Guadalupe, a new gown; to Our Lady of
+Montserrat, a crown, a gown, and a lamp; and so on through along list of
+similar presents thus contemplated for various Shrines. The poor
+fanatical fool had been taught by deeper villains than himself that his
+pistol was to rid the world of a tyrant, and to open his own pathway to
+Heaven, if his career should be cut short on earth. To prevent so
+undesirable a catastrophe to himself, however, his most natural
+conception had been to bribe the whole heavenly host, from the Virgin
+Mary downwards, for he had been taught that absolution for murder was to
+be bought and sold like other merchandise. He had also been persuaded
+that, after accomplishing the deed, he would become invisible.
+
+Saint Aldegonde hastened to lay the result of this examination before the
+Duke of Anjou. Information was likewise instantly conveyed to the
+magistrates at the Town House, and these measures were successful in
+restoring confidence throughout the city as to the intentions of the new
+government. Anjou immediately convened the State Council, issued a
+summons for an early meeting of the states-general, and published a
+proclamation that all persons having information to give concerning the
+crime which had just been committed, should come instantly forward, upon
+pain of death. The body of the assassin was forthwith exposed upon the
+public square, and was soon recognized as that of one Juan Jaureguy, a
+servant in the employ of Gaspar d'Anastro, a Spanish merchant of Antwerp.
+The letters and bills of exchange had also, on nearer examination at the
+Town House, implicated Anastro in the affair. His house was immediately
+searched, but the merchant had taken his departure, upon the previous
+Tuesday, under pretext of pressing affairs at Calais. His cashier,
+Venero, and a Dominican friar, named Antony Zimmermann, both inmates of
+his family, were, however, arrested upon suspicion. On the following day
+the watch stationed at the gate carried the foreign post-bags, as soon as
+they arrived, to the magistracy, when letters were found from Anastro to
+Venero, which made the affair quite plain. After they had been thoroughly
+studied, they were shown to Venero, who, seeing himself thus completely
+ruined, asked for pen and ink, and wrote a full confession.
+
+It appeared that the crime was purely a commercial speculation on the
+part of Anastro. That merchant, being on the verge of bankruptcy, had
+entered with Philip into a mutual contract, which the King had signed
+with his hand and sealed with his seal, and according to which Anastro,
+within a certain period, was to take the life of William of Orange, and
+for so doing was to receive eighty thousand ducats, and the cross of
+Santiago. To be a knight companion of Spain's proudest order of chivalry
+was the guerdon, over and above the eighty thousand pieces of silver,
+which Spain's monarch promised the murderer, if he should succeed. As for
+Anastro himself, he was too frugal and too wary to risk his own life, or
+to lose much of the premium. With, tears streaming down his cheeks, he
+painted to his faithful cashier the picture which his master would
+present, when men should point at him and say, "Behold yon bankrupt!"
+protesting, therefore, that he would murder Orange and secure the reward,
+or perish in the attempt. Saying this, he again shed many tears. Venero,
+seeing his master thus disconsolate, wept bitterly likewise; and begged
+him not to risk his own precious life. After this pathetic commingling of
+their grief, the merchant and his book-keeper became more composed, and
+it was at last concerted between them that John Jaureguy should be
+entrusted with the job. Anastro had intended--as he said in a letter
+afterwards intercepted--"to accomplish the deed with his own hand; but,
+as God had probably reserved him for other things, and particularly to be
+of service to his very affectionate friends, he had thought best to
+entrust the execution of the design to his servant." The price paid by
+the master to the man, for the work, seems to have been but two thousand
+eight hundred and seventy-seven crowns. The cowardly and crafty principal
+escaped. He had gone post haste to Dunkirk, pretending that the sudden
+death of his agent in Calais required his immediate presence in that
+city. Governor Sweveseel, of Dunkirk, sent an orderly to get a passport
+for him from La Motte, commanding at Gravelingen. Anastro being on
+tenter-hooks lest the news should arrive that the projected murder had
+been consummated before he had crossed the border, testified extravagant
+joy on the arrival of the passport, and gave the messenger who brought it
+thirty pistoles. Such conduct naturally excited a vague suspicion in the
+mind of the governor, but the merchant's character was good, and he had
+brought pressing letters from Admiral Treslong. Sweveseel did not dare to
+arrest him without cause, and he neither knew that any crime had been
+committed; nor that the man before him was the criminal. Two hours after
+the traveller's departure, the news arrived of the deed, together with
+orders to arrest Anastro, but it was too late. The merchant had found
+refuge within the lines of Parma.
+
+Meanwhile, the Prince lay in a most critical condition. Believing that
+his end was fast approaching; he dictated letters to the states-general,
+entreating them to continue in their obedience to the Duke, than whom he
+affirmed that he knew no better prince for the government of the
+provinces. These letters were despatched by Saint Aldegonde to the
+assembly, from which body a deputation, in obedience to the wishes of
+Orange, was sent to Anjou, with expressions of condolence and fidelity.
+
+On Wednesday a solemn fast was held, according to proclamation, in
+Antwerp, all work and all amusements being prohibited, and special
+prayers commanded in all the churches for the recovery of the Prince.
+"Never, within men's memory," says an account published at the moment, in
+Antwerp, "had such crowds been seen in the churches, nor so many tears
+been shed."
+
+The process against Venero and Zimmermann was rapidly carried through,
+for both had made a full confession of their share in the crime. The
+Prince had enjoined from his sick bed, however, that the case should be
+conducted with strict regard to justice, and, when the execution could no
+longer be deferred, he had sent a written request, by the hands of Saint
+Aldegonde, that they should be put to death in the least painful manner.
+The request was complied with, but there can be no doubt that the
+criminals, had it not been made, would have expiated their offence by the
+most lingering tortures. Owing to the intercession of the man who was to
+have been their victim, they were strangled, before being quartered, upon
+a scaffold erected in the market-place, opposite the Town House. This
+execution took place on Wednesday, the 28th of March.
+
+The Prince, meanwhile, was thought to be mending, and thanksgivings began
+to be mingled with the prayers offered almost every hour in the churches;
+but for eighteen days he lay in a most precarious state. His wife hardly
+left his bedside, and his sister, Catharine Countess of Schwartzburg, was
+indefatigable in her attentions. The Duke of Anjou visited him daily, and
+expressed the most filial anxiety for his recovery, but the hopes, which
+had been gradually growing stronger, were on the 5th of April exchanged
+for the deepest apprehensions. Upon that day the cicatrix by which the
+flow of blood from the neck had been prevented, almost from the first
+infliction of the wound, fell off.  The veins poured forth a vast
+quantity of blood; it seemed impossible to check the haemorrhage, and all
+hope appeared to vanish. The Prince resigned himself to his fate, and
+bade his children "good night for ever," saying calmly, "it is now all
+over with me."
+
+It was difficult, without suffocating the patient, to fasten a bandage
+tightly enough to staunch the wound, but Leonardo Botalli, of Asti, body
+physician of Anjou, was nevertheless fortunate enough to devise a simple
+mechanical expedient, which proved successful. By his advice; a
+succession of attendants, relieving each other day and night, prevented
+the flow of blood by keeping the orifice of the wound slightly but firmly
+compressed with the thumb. After a period of anxious expectation, the
+wound again closed; and by the end of the month the Prince was
+convalescent. On the 2nd of May he went to offer thanksgiving in the
+Great Cathedral, amid the joyful sobs of a vast and most earnest throng.
+
+The Prince, was saved, but unhappily the murderer had yet found an
+illustrious victim. The Princess of Orange; Charlotte de Bourbon--the
+devoted wife who for seven years, had so faithfully shared his joys and
+sorrows--lay already on her death-bed. Exhausted by anxiety, long
+watching; and the alternations of hope and fear during the first eighteen
+days, she had been prostrated by despair at the renewed haemorrhage. A
+violent fever seized her, under which she sank on the 5th of May, three
+days after the solemn thanksgiving for her husband's recovery. The
+Prince, who loved her tenderly, was in great danger of relapse upon the
+sad event, which, although not sudden, had not been anticipated. She was
+laid in her grave on the 9th of May, amid the lamentations of the whole
+country, for her virtues were universally known and cherished. She was a
+woman of rare intelligence, accomplishment, and gentleness of
+disposition; whose only offence had been to break, by her marriage, the
+Church vows to which she had been forced in her childhood, but which had
+been pronounced illegal by competent authority, both ecclesiastical and
+lay. For this, and for the contrast which her virtues afforded to the
+vices of her predecessor, she was the mark of calumny and insult. These
+attacks, however, had cast no shadow upon the serenity of her married
+life, and so long as she lived she was the trusted companion and consoler
+of her husband. "His Highness," wrote Count John in 1580, "is in
+excellent health, and, in spite of adversity, incredible labor,
+perplexity, and dangers, is in such good spirits that, it makes me happy
+to witness it. No doubt a chief reason is the consolation he derives from
+the pious and highly-intelligent wife whom, the Lord has given him--a
+woman who ever conforms to his wishes, and is inexpressibly dear to him."
+
+The Princess left six daughters--Louisa Juliana, Elizabeth, Catharina
+Belgica, Flandrina, Charlotta Brabantica, and Emilia Secunda.
+
+Parma received the first intelligence of the attempt from the mouth of
+Anastro himself, who assured him that the deed had been entirely
+successful, and claimed the promised reward.
+
+Alexander, in consequence, addressed circular letters to the authorities
+of Antwerp, Brussels, Bruges, and other cities, calling upon them, now
+that they had been relieved of their tyrant and their betrayer, to return
+again to the path of their duty and to the ever open arms of their lawful
+monarch. These letters were premature. On the other hand, the states of
+Holland and Zealand remained in permanent session, awaiting with extreme
+anxiety the result of the Prince's wound. "With the death of his
+Excellency, if God should please to take him to himself," said the
+magistracy of Leyden, "in the death of the Prince we all foresee our own
+death." It was, in truth, an anxious moment, and the revulsion of feeling
+consequent on his recovery was proportionately intense.
+
+In consequence of the excitement produced by this event, it was no longer
+possible for the Prince to decline accepting the countship of Holland and
+Zealand, which he had refused absolutely two years before, and which he
+had again rejected, except for a limited period, in the year 1581. It was
+well understood, as appears by the treaty with Anjou, and afterwards
+formally arranged, "that the Duke was never, to claim sovereignty over
+Holland and Zealand," and the offer of the sovereign countship of Holland
+was again made to the Prince of Orange in most urgent terms. It will be
+recollected that he had accepted the sovereignty on the 5th of July,
+1581, only for the term of the war. In a letter, dated Bruges, 14th of
+August, 1582, he accepted the dignity without limitation. This offer and
+acceptance, however, constituted but the preliminaries, for it was
+further necessary that the letters of "Renversal" should be drawn up,
+that they should be formally delivered, and that a new constitution
+should be laid down, and confirmed by mutual oaths. After these steps had
+been taken, the ceremonious inauguration or rendering of homage was to be
+celebrated.
+
+All these measures were duly arranged, except the last. The installation
+of the new Count of Holland was prevented by his death, and the northern
+provinces remained a Republic, not only in fact but in name.
+
+In political matters; the basis of the new constitution was the "Great
+Privilege" of the Lady Mary, the Magna Charta of the country. That
+memorable monument in the history of the Netherlands and of municipal
+progress had, been overthrown by Mary's son, with the forced acquiescence
+of the states, and it was therefore stipulated by the new article, that
+even such laws and privileges as had fallen into disuse should be
+revived. It was furthermore provided that the little state should be a
+free Countship, and should thus silently sever its connexion with the
+Empire.
+
+With regard to the position of the Prince, as hereditary chief of the
+little commonwealth, his actual power was rather diminished than
+increased by his new dignity. What was his position at the moment? He was
+sovereign during the war, on the general basis of the authority
+originally bestowed upon him by the King's commission of stadholder. In
+1581, his Majesty had been abjured and the stadholder had become
+sovereign. He held in his hands the supreme power, legislative, judicial,
+executive. The Counts of Holland--and Philip as their successor--were the
+great fountains of that triple stream. Concessions and exceptions had
+become so extensive; no doubt, that the provincial charters constituted a
+vast body of "liberties" by which the whole country was reasonably well
+supplied. At the same time, all the power not expressly granted away
+remained in the breast of the Count. If ambition, then, had been
+William's ruling principle, he had exchanged substance for shadow, for
+the new state now constituted was a free commonwealth--a republic in all
+but name.
+
+By the new constitution he ceased to be the source of governmental life,
+or to derive his own authority from above by right divine. The sacred oil
+which had flowed from Charles the Simple's beard was dried up. Orange's
+sovereignty was from the estates; as legal representatives of the people;
+and, instead of exercising all the powers not otherwise granted away, he
+was content with those especially conferred upon him. He could neither
+declare war nor conclude peace without the co-operation of the
+representative body. The appointing power was scrupulously limited.
+Judges, magistrates, governors, sheriffs, provincial and municipal
+officers, were to be nominated by the local authorities or by the
+estates, on the triple principle. From these triple nominations he had
+only the right of selection by advice and consent of his council. He was
+expressly enjoined to see that the law was carried to every man's door,
+without any distinction of persons; to submit himself to its behests, to
+watch against all impedimenta to the even flow of justice, to prevent
+false imprisonments, and to secure trials for every accused person by the
+local tribunals. This was certainly little in accordance with the
+arbitrary practice of the past quarter of a century.
+
+With respect to the great principle of taxation, stricter bonds even were
+provided than those which already existed. Not only the right of taxation
+remained with the states, but the Count was to see that, except for war
+purposes, every impost was levied by a unanimous vote. He was expressly
+forbidden to tamper with the currency. As executive head, save in his
+capacity as Commander-in-chief by land or sea, the new sovereign was, in
+short, strictly limited by self-imposed laws. It had rested with him to
+dictate or to accept a constitution. He had in his memorable letter of
+August, 1582, from Bruges, laid down generally the articles prepared at
+Plessia and Bourdeaux, for Anjou-together with all applicable provisions
+of the Joyous Entry of Brabant--as the outlines of the constitution for
+the little commonwealth then forming in the north. To these provisions he
+was willing to add any others which, after ripe deliberation, might be
+thought beneficial to the country.
+
+Thus limited were his executive functions. As to his judicial authority
+it had ceased to exist. The Count of Holland was now the guardian of the
+laws, but the judges were to administer them. He held the sword of
+justice to protect and to execute, while the scales were left in the
+hands which had learned to weigh and to measure.
+
+As to the Count's legislative authority, it had become coordinate with,
+if not subordinate to, that of the representative body. He was strictly
+prohibited from interfering with the right of the separate or the general
+states to assemble as often as they should think proper; and he was also
+forbidden to summon them outside their own territory. This was one
+immense step in the progress of representative liberty, and the next was
+equally important. It was now formally stipulated that the estates were
+to deliberate upon all measures which "concerned justice and polity," and
+that no change was to be made--that is to say, no new law was to pass
+without their consent as well as that of the council. Thus, the principle
+was established of two legislative chambers, with the right, but not the
+exclusive right, of initiation on the part of government, and in the
+sixteenth century one would hardly look for broader views of civil
+liberty and representative government. The foundation of a free
+commonwealth was thus securely laid, which had William lived, would have
+been a representative monarchy, but which his death converted into a
+federal republic. It was necessary for the sake of unity to give a
+connected outline of these proceedings with regard to the sovereignty of
+Orange. The formal inauguration, only remained, and this, as will be
+seen, was for ever interrupted.
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     Character of brave men to act, not to expect
+     Colonel Ysselstein, "dismissed for a homicide or two"
+     God has given absolute power to no mortal man
+     Hope delayed was but a cold and meagre consolation
+     Natural to judge only by the result
+     No authority over an army which they did not pay
+     Unduly dejected in adversity
+
+
+
+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Vol. 34
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
+
+By John Lothrop Motley
+1855
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+   Parma recals the foreign troops--Siege of Oudenarde--Coolness of
+   Alexander--Capture of the city and of Nineve--Inauguration of Anjou
+   at Ghent--Attempt upon his life and that of Orange--Lamoral Egmont's
+   implication in the plot--Parma's unsuccessful attack upon Ghent--
+   Secret plans of Anjou--Dunkirk, Ostend, and other towns surprised by
+   his adherents--Failure at Bruges--Suspicions at Antwerp--Duplicity
+   of Anjou--The "French Fury"--Details of that transaction--
+   Discomfiture and disgrace of the Duke--His subsequent effrontery--
+   His letters to the magistracy of Antwerp, to, the Estates, and to
+   Orange--Extensive correspondence between Anjou and the French Court
+   with Orange and the Estates--Difficult position of the Prince--His
+   policy--Remarkable letter to the States-general--Provisional
+   arrangement with Anjou--Marriage of the Archbishop of Cologne--
+   Marriage of Orange with Louisa de Coligny--Movements in Holland,
+   Brabant, Flanders, and other provinces, to induce the Prince to
+   accept sovereignty over the whole country--His steady refusal--
+   Treason of Van den Berg in Gueldres--Intrigues of Prince Chimay and
+   Imbize in Flanders--Counter efforts of Orange and the patriot party
+   --Fate of Imbize--Reconciliation of Bruges--Death of Anjou
+
+During the course of the year 1582, the military operations on both sides
+had been languid and desultory, the Prince of Parma, not having a large
+force at his command, being comparatively inactive. In consequence,
+however, of the treaty concluded between the United states and Anjou,
+Parma had persuaded the Walloon provinces that it had now become
+absolutely necessary for them to permit the entrance of fresh Italian and
+Spanish troops. This, then, was the end of the famous provision against
+foreign soldiery in the Walloon treaty of reconciliation. The Abbot of
+Saint Vaast was immediately despatched on a special mission to Spain, and
+the troops, by midsummer, had already begun to pour, into the
+Netherlands.
+
+In the meantime, Farnese, while awaiting these reinforcements, had not
+been idle, but had been quietly picking up several important cities.
+Early in the spring he had laid siege to Oudenarde, a place of
+considerable importance upon the Scheld, and celebrated as the birthplace
+of his grandmother, Margaret van Geest. The burghers were obstinate; the
+defence was protracted; the sorties were bold; the skirmishes frequent
+and sanguinary: Alexander commanded personally in the trenches,
+encouraging his men by his example, and often working with the mattock,
+or handling a spear in the assault, Like a private pioneer or soldier.
+Towards the end of the siege, he scarcely ever left the scene of
+operation, and he took his meals near the outer defences, that he might
+lose no opportunity of superintending the labors of his troops. One day
+his dinner was laid for himself and staff in the open air, close to the
+entrenchment. He was himself engaged in planting a battery against a weak
+point in the city wall, and would on no account withdraw for all instant.
+The tablecloth was stretched over a number of drum-heads, placed close
+together, and several, nobles of distinction--Aremberg, Montigny,
+Richebourg, La Motte, and others, were his guests at dinner. Hardly had
+the repast commenced, when a ball came flying over the table, taking off
+the head of a young Walloon officer who was sitting near Parma, and, who
+was earnestly requesting a foremost place in the morrow's assault. A
+portion of his skull struck out the eye of another gentleman present. A
+second ball from the town fortifications, equally well directed,
+destroyed two more of the guests as they sat at the banquet--one a German
+captain, the other the Judge-Advocate-General. The blood and brains of
+these unfortunate individuals were strewn over the festive board, and the
+others all started to their feet, having little appetite left for their
+dinner. Alexander alone remained in his seat, manifesting no
+discomposure. Quietly ordering the attendants to remove the dead bodies,
+and to bring a clean tablecloth, he insisted that his guests should
+resume their places at the banquet which had been interrupted in such
+ghastly fashion. He stated with very determined aspect that he could not
+allow the heretic burghers of Oudenarde the triumph of frightening him
+from his dinner, or from the post of danger. The other gentlemen could,
+of course, do no less than imitate the impassibility of their chief, and
+the repast was accordingly concluded without further interruption. Not
+long afterwards, the city, close pressed by so determined a commander,
+accepted terms, which were more favorable by reason of the respect which
+Alexander chose to render to his mother's birthplace. The pillage was
+commuted for thirty thousand, crowns, and on the 5th of July the place
+was surrendered to Parma almost under the very eyes of Anjou, who was
+making a demonstration of relieving the siege.
+
+Ninove, a citadel then belonging to the Egmont family, was next reduced.
+Here, too, the defence was more obstinate than could have been expected
+from the importance of the place, and as the autumn advanced, Parma's
+troops were nearly starved in their trenches, from the insufficient
+supplies furnished them. They had eaten no meat but horseflesh for weeks,
+and even that was gone. The cavalry horses were all consumed, and even
+the chargers of the officers were not respected. An aid-de-camp of Parma
+fastened his steed one day at the door of the Prince's tent, while he
+entered to receive his commander's instructions. When he came out again,
+a few minutes afterwards, he found nothing but the saddle and bridle
+hanging where he had fastened the horse. Remonstrance was useless, for
+the animal had already been cut into quarters, and the only satisfaction
+offered to the aid-de-camp was in the shape of a steak. The famine was
+long familiarly known as the "Ninove starvation," but notwithstanding
+this obstacle, the place was eventually surrendered.
+
+An attempt upon Lochum, an important city, in Gelderland, was
+unsuccessful, the place being relieved by the Duke of Anjou's forces, and
+Parma's troops forced to abandon the siege. At Steenwyk, the royal arms
+were more successful, Colonel Tassis, conducted by a treacherous Frisian
+peasant, having surprised the city which had so, long and so manfully
+sustained itself against Renneberg during the preceding winter. With this
+event the active operations under Parma closed for the year. By the end
+of the autumn, however, he had the satisfaction of numbering, under his
+command, full sixty thousand well-appointed and disciplined troops,
+including the large reinforcements recently despatched: from Spain and
+Italy. The monthly expense of this army-half of which was required for
+garrison duty, leaving only the other moiety for field Operations--was
+estimated at six hundred and fifty thousand florins. The forces under
+Anjou and the united provinces were also largely increased, so that the
+marrow of the land was again in fair way of being thoroughly exhausted by
+its defenders and its foes.
+
+The incidents of Anjou's administration, meantime, during the year 1582,
+had been few and of no great importance. After the pompous and elaborate
+"homage-making" at Antwerp, he had, in the month of July, been formally
+accepted, by writing, as Duke of Guelders and Lord of Friesland. In the
+same month he had been ceremoniously, inaugurated at Bruges as Count of
+Flanders--an occasion upon which the Prince of Orange had been present.
+In that ancient and stately city there had been, accordingly, much
+marching about under triumphal arches, much cannonading and haranguing,
+much symbol work of suns dispelling fogs, with other cheerful emblems,
+much decoration of ducal shoulders with velvet robes lined with weasel
+skin, much blazing of tar-barrels and torches. In the midst of this
+event, an attempt was made upon the lives both of Orange and Anjou. An
+Italian, named Basa, and a Spaniard, called Salseda, were detected in a
+scheme to administer poison to both princes, and when arrested, confessed
+that they had been hired by the Prince of Parma to compass this double
+assassination. Basa destroyed himself in prison. His body was, however,
+gibbeted, with an inscription that he had attempted, at the instigation
+of Parma, to take the lives of Orange and Anjou. Salseda, less fortunate,
+was sent to Paris, where he was found guilty, and executed by being torn
+to pieces by four horses. Sad to relate, Lamoral Egmont, younger son and
+namesake of the great general, was intimate with Salseda, and implicated
+in this base design. His mother, on her death-bed, had especially
+recommended the youth to the kindly care of Orange. The Prince had ever
+recognized the claim, manifesting uniform tenderness for the son of his
+ill-started friend; and now the youthful Lamoral--as if the name of
+Egmont had not been sufficiently contaminated by the elder brother's
+treason at Brussels--had become the comrade of hired conspirators against
+his guardian's life. The affair was hushed up, but the story was current
+and generally believed that Egmont had himself undertaken to destroy the
+Prince at his own table by means of poison which he kept concealed in a
+ring. Saint Aldegonde was to have been taken off in the same way, and a
+hollow ring filled with poison was said to have been found in Egmont's
+lodgings.
+
+The young noble was imprisoned; his guilt was far from doubtful; but the
+powerful intercessions of Orange himself, combined with Egmont's near
+relationship to the French Queen saved his life, and he was permitted,
+after a brief captivity, to take his departure for France.
+
+The Duke of Anjou, a month later, was received with equal pomp, in the
+city of Ghent. Here the ceremonies were interrupted in another manner.
+The Prince of Parma, at the head of a few regiments of Walloons, making
+an attack on a body of troops by which Anjou had been escorted into
+Flanders, the troops retreated in good order, and without much loss,
+under the walls of Ghent, where a long and sharp action took place, much
+to the disadvantage of Parma, The Prince, of Orange and the Duke; of
+Anjou were on the city walls during the whole skirmish giving orders and
+superintending the movements of their troops, and at nightfall Parma was
+forced, to retire, leaving a large number of dead behind him.
+
+The 15th day of December, in this year was celebrated according to the
+new ordinance of Gregory the Thirteenth--as Christmas. It was the
+occasion of more than usual merry-making among the Catholics of Antwerp,
+who had procured, during the preceding summer, a renewed right of public
+worship from Anjou and the estates. Many nobles of high rank came from
+France, to pay their homage to the new Duke of Brabant. They secretly
+expressed their disgust, however, at the close constitutional bonds in
+which they found their own future sovereign imprisoned by the provinces.
+They thought it far beneath the dignity of the "Son of France" to play
+the secondary part of titular Duke of Brabant, Count of Flanders, Lord of
+Friesland, and the like, while the whole power of government was lodged
+with the states. They whispered that it was time to take measures for the
+incorporation of the Netherlands into France, and they persuaded the
+false and fickle Anjou that there would never be any hope of his royal
+brother's assistance, except upon the understanding that the blood and
+treasure of Frenchmen were to be spent to increase the power, not of
+upstart and independent provinces, but of the French crown.
+
+They struck the basest chords of the Duke's base nature by awakening his
+jealousy of Orange. His whole soul vibrated to the appeal. He already
+hated the man by whose superior intellect he was overawed, and by whose
+pure character he was shamed. He stoutly but secretly swore that he would
+assert his own rights; and that he would no longer serve as a shadow, a
+statue, a zero, a Matthias. It is needless to add, that neither in his
+own judgment nor in that of his mignons, were the constitutional articles
+which he had recently sworn to support, or the solemn treaty which he had
+signed and sealed at Bordeaux, to furnish any obstacles to his seizure of
+unlimited power, whenever the design could be cleverly accomplished. He
+rested not, day or night, in the elaboration of his plan.
+
+Early in January, 1583, he sent one night for several of his intimate
+associates, to consult with him after he had retired to bed. He
+complained of the insolence of the states, of the importunity of the
+council which they had forced upon him, of the insufficient sums which
+they furnished both for him and his troops, of the daily insults offered
+to the Catholic religion. He protested that he should consider himself
+disgraced in the eyes of all Christendom, should he longer consent to
+occupy his present ignoble position. But two ways were open to him, he
+observed; either to retire altogether from the Nether lands, or to
+maintain his authority with the strong hand, as became a prince. The
+first course would cover him with disgrace. It was therefore necessary
+for him to adopt the other. He then unfolded his plan to his confidential
+friends, La Fougere, De Fazy, Palette, the sons of Marechal Biron, and
+others. Upon the same day, if possible, he was determined to take
+possession, with his own troops, of the principal cities in Flanders.
+Dunkirk, Dixmuyde, Denremonde, Bruges, Ghent, Vilvoorde, Alost, and other
+important places, were to be simultaneously invaded, under pretext of
+quieting tumults artfully created and encouraged between the burghers and
+the garrisons, while Antwerp was reserved for his own especial
+enterprise. That important capital he would carry by surprise at the same
+moment in which the other cities were to be secured by his lieutenants.
+
+The plot was pronounced an excellent one by the friends around his
+bed--all of them eager for Catholic supremacy, for the establishment of
+the right divine on the part of France to the Netherlands, and for their
+share in the sacking of so many wealthy cities at once. These worthless
+mignons applauded their weak master to the echo; whereupon the Duke
+leaped from his bed, and kneeling on the floor in his night-gown, raised
+his eyes and his clasped hands to heaven, and piously invoked the
+blessing of the Almighty upon the project which he had thus announced. He
+added the solemn assurance that; if favored with success in his
+undertaking, he would abstain in future from all unchastity, and forego
+the irregular habits by which his youth had been stained. Having thus
+bribed the Deity, and received the encouragement of his flatterers, the
+Duke got into bed again. His next care was to remove the Seigneur du
+Plessis, whom he had observed to be often in colloquy with the Prince of
+Orange, his suspicious and guilty imagination finding nothing but
+mischief to himself in the conjunction of two such natures. He therefore
+dismissed Du Plessis, under pretext of a special mission to his sister,
+Margaret of Navarre; but in reality, that he might rid himself of the
+presence of an intelligent and honorable countryman.
+
+On the a 15th January, 1583, the day fixed for the execution of the plot,
+the French commandant of Dunkirk, Captain Chamois, skillfully took
+advantage of a slight quarrel between the citizens and the garrison, to
+secure that important frontier town. The same means were employed
+simultaneously, with similar results, at Ostend, Dixmuyde, Denremonde,
+Alost, and Vilvoorde, but there was a fatal delay at one important city.
+La Fougere, who had been with Chamois at Dunkirk, was arrested on his way
+to Bruges by some patriotic citizens who had got wind of what had just
+been occurring in the other cities, so that when Palette, the provost of
+Anjou, and Colonel la Rebours, at the head of fifteen hundred French
+troops, appeared before the gates, entrance was flatly refused. De
+Grijse, burgomaster of Bruges, encouraged his fellow townsmen by words
+and stout action, to resist the nefarious project then on foot against
+religious liberty and free government, in favor of a new foreign tyranny.
+He spoke to men who could sympathize with, and second his courageous
+resolution, and the delay of twenty-four hours, during which the burghers
+had time to take the alarm, saved the city. The whole population was on
+the alert, and the baffled Frenchmen were forced to retire from the
+gates, to avoid being torn to pieces by the citizens whom they had
+intended to surprise.
+
+At Antwerp, meanwhile, the Duke of Anjou had been rapidly maturing his
+plan, under pretext of a contemplated enterprise against the city of
+Endhoven, having concentrated what he esteemed a sufficient number of
+French troops at Borgerhout, a village close to the walls of Antwerp.
+
+On the 16th of January, suspicion was aroused in the city. A man in a
+mask entered the main guard-house in the night, mysteriously gave warning
+that a great crime was in contemplation, and vanished before he could be
+arrested. His accent proved him to be a Frenchman. Strange rumors flew
+about the streets. A vague uneasiness pervaded the whole population as to
+the intention of their new master, but nothing was definitely known, for
+of course there was entire ignorance of the events which were just
+occurring in other cities. The colonels and captains of the burgher guard
+came to consult the Prince of Orange. He avowed the most entire
+confidence in the Duke of Anjou, but, at the same time; recommended that
+the chains should be drawn, the lanterns hung out, and the drawbridge
+raised an hour earlier than usual, and that other precautions; customary
+in the expectation of an attack, should be duly taken. He likewise sent
+the Burgomaster of the interior, Dr. Alostanus, to the Duke of Anjou, in
+order to communicate the suspicions created in the minds of the city
+authorities by the recent movements of troops.
+
+Anjou, thus addressed, protested in the most solemn manner that nothing
+was farther from his thoughts than any secret enterprise against Antwerp.
+He was willing, according to the figure of speech which he had always
+ready upon every emergency, "to shed every drop of his blood in her
+defence." He swore that he would signally punish all those who had dared
+to invent such calumnies against himself and his faithful Frenchmen,
+declaring earnestly, at the same time, that the troops had only been
+assembled in the regular course of their duty. As the Duke was so loud
+and so fervent; as he, moreover, made no objections to the precautionary
+measures which had been taken; as the burgomaster thought, moreover, that
+the public attention thus aroused would render all evil designs futile,
+even if any had been entertained; it was thought that the city might
+sleep in security for that night at least.
+
+On the following, morning, as vague suspicions were still entertained by
+many influential persons, a deputation of magistrates and militia
+officers waited upon the Duke, the Prince of Orange--although
+himself still feeling a confidence which seems now almost
+inexplicable--consenting to accompany them. The Duke was more vehement
+than ever in his protestations of loyalty to his recent oaths, as well as
+of deep affection for the Netherlands--for Brabant in particular, and for
+Antwerp most of all, and he made use of all his vivacity to persuade the
+Prince, the burgomasters, and the colonels, that they had deeply wronged
+him by such unjust suspicions. His assertions were accepted as sincere,
+and the deputation withdrew, Anjou having first solemnly promised--at the
+suggestion of Orange--not to leave the city during the whole day, in
+order that unnecessary suspicion might be prevented.
+
+This pledge the Duke proceeded to violate almost as soon as made. Orange
+returned with confidence to his own house, which was close to the
+citadel, and therefore far removed from the proposed point of attack, but
+he had hardly arrived there when he received a visit from the Duke's
+private secretary, Quinsay, who invited him to accompany his Highness on
+a visit to the camp. Orange declined the request, and sent an earnest
+prayer to the Duke not to leave the city that morning. The Duke dined as
+usual at noon. While at dinner he received a letter; was observed to turn
+pale on reading it, and to conceal it hastily in a muff which he wore on
+his left arm. The repast finished, the Duke ordered his horse. The animal
+was restive, and so, strenuously resisted being mounted that, although it
+was his usual charger; it was exchanged for another. This second horse
+started in such a flurry that the Duke lost his cloak, and almost his
+seat. He maintained his self-possession, however, and placing himself at
+the head of his bodyguard and some troopers, numbering in all three
+hundred mounted men, rode out of the palace-yard towards the Kipdorp
+gate.
+
+This portal opened on the road towards Borgerhout, where his troops were
+stationed, and at the present day bears the name of that village: It is
+on the side of the city farthest removed from and exactly opposite the
+river. The town was very quiet, the streets almost deserted; for it was
+one o'clock, the universal dinner-hour, and all suspicion had been
+disarmed by the energetic protestations of the Duke. The guard at the
+gate looked listlessly upon the cavalcade as it approached, but as soon
+as Anjou had crossed the first drawbridge, he rose in his stirrups and
+waved his hand. "There is your city, my lads," said he to the troopers
+behind him; "go and take possession of it!"
+
+At the same time he set spurs to his horse, and galloped off towards the
+camp at Borgerhout. Instantly afterwards; a gentleman of his suite, Count
+Bochepot, affected to have broken his leg through the plunging of his
+horse, a circumstance by which he had been violently pressed, against the
+wall as he entered the gate. Kaiser, the commanding officer at the
+guard-house, stepped kindly forward to render him assistance, and his
+reward was a desperate thrust from the Frenchman's rapier. As he wore a
+steel cuirass, he fortunately escaped with a slight wound.
+
+The expression, "broken leg," was the watch-word, for at one and the same
+instant, the troopers and guardsmen of Anjou set upon the burgher watch
+at the gate, and butchered every man. A sufficient force was left to
+protect the entrance thus easily mastered, while the rest of the
+Frenchmen entered the town at full gallop, shrieking "Ville gaignee,
+ville gaignee! vive la messe! vive le Due d'Anjou!" They were followed by
+their comrades from the camp outside, who now poured into the town at the
+preconcerted signal, at least six hundred cavalry and three thousand
+musketeers, all perfectly appointed, entering Antwerp at once. From the
+Kipdorp gate two main arteries--the streets called the Kipdorp and the
+Meer--led quite through the heart of the city, towards the townhouse and
+the river beyond. Along these great thoroughfares the French soldiers
+advanced at a rapid pace; the cavalry clattering furiously in the van,
+shouting "Ville gaignee, ville gaignee! vive la messe, vive la messe!
+tue, tue, tue!"
+
+The burghers coming to door and window to look for the cause of all this
+disturbance, were saluted with volleys of musketry. They were for a
+moment astonished, but not appalled, for at first they believed it to be
+merely an accidental tumult. Observing, however, that the soldiers,
+meeting with but little effective resistance, were dispersing into
+dwellings and warehouses, particularly into the shops of the goldsmiths
+and lapidaries, the citizens remembered the dark suspicions which had
+been so rife, and many recalled to mind that distinguished French
+officers had during the last few days been carefully examining the
+treasures of the jewellers, under pretext of purchasing, but, as it now
+appeared, with intent to rob intelligently.
+
+The burghers, taking this rapid view of their position, flew instantly to
+arms. Chains and barricades were stretched across the streets; the
+trumpets sounded through the city; the municipal guards swarmed to the
+rescue. An effective rally was made, as usual, at the Bourse, whither a
+large detachment of the invaders had forced their way. Inhabitants of all
+classes and conditions, noble and simple, Catholic and Protestant, gave
+each other the hand, and swore to die at each other's side in defence of
+the city against the treacherous strangers. The gathering was rapid and
+enthusiastic. Gentlemen came with lance and cuirass, burghers with musket
+and bandoleer, artisans with axe, mallet, and other implements of their
+trade. A bold baker, standing by his oven-stark naked, according to the
+custom of bakers at that day--rushed to the street as the sound of the
+tumult reached his ear. With his heavy bread shovel, which he still held
+in his hand, he dealt a French cavalry, officer, just riding and
+screaming by, such a hearty blow that he fell dead from his horse. The
+baker seized the officer's sword, sprang all unattired as he was, upon
+his steed, and careered furiously through the streets, encouraging his
+countrymen everywhere to the attack, and dealing dismay through the ranks
+of the enemy. His services in that eventful hour were so signal that he
+was publicly thanked afterwards by the magistrates for his services, and
+rewarded with a pension of three hundred florins for life.
+
+The invaders had been forced from the Bourse, while another portion of
+them had penetrated as far as the Market-place. The resistance which they
+encountered became every instant more formidable, and Fervacques, a
+leading French officer, who was captured on the occasion, acknowledged
+that no regular troops could have fought more bravely than did these
+stalwart burghers. Women and children mounted to roof and window, whence
+they hurled, not only tiles and chimney pots, but tables, ponderous
+chairs, and other bulky articles, upon the heads of the assailants, while
+such citizens as had used all their bullets, loaded their pieces with the
+silver buttons from their doublets, or twisted gold and silver coins with
+their teeth into ammunition. With a population so resolute, the four
+thousand invaders, however audacious, soon found themselves swallowed up.
+The city had closed over them like water, and within an hour nearly a
+third of their whole number had been slain. Very few of the burghers had
+perished, and fresh numbers were constantly advancing to the attack. The
+Frenchmen, blinded, staggering, beaten, attempted to retreat. Many threw
+themselves from the fortifications into the moat. The rest of the
+survivors struggled through the streets--falling in large numbers at
+every step-towards the point at which they had so lately entered the
+city. Here at the Kipdorp gate was a ghastly spectacle, the slain being
+piled up in the narrow passage full ten feet high, while some of the
+heap, not quite dead, were striving to extricate a hand or foot, and
+others feebly thrust forth their heads to gain a mouthful of air.
+
+From the outside, some of Anjou's officers were attempting to climb over
+this mass of bodies in order to enter the city; from the interior, the
+baffled and fugitive remnant of their comrades were attempting to force
+their passage through the same horrible barrier; while many dropped at,
+every instant upon the heap of slain, under the blows of the unrelenting
+burghers. On the other hand, Count Rochepot himself, to whom the
+principal command of the enterprise had been entrusted by Anjou, stood
+directly in the path of his fugitive soldiers, not only bitterly
+upbraiding them with their cowardice, but actually slaying ten or twelve
+of them with his own hands, as the most effectual mode of preventing
+their retreat. Hardly an hour had elapsed from the time when the Duke of
+Anjou first rode out of the Kipdorp gate, before nearly the whole of the
+force which he had sent to accomplish his base design was either dead or
+captive. Two hundred and fifty nobles of high rank and illustrious name
+were killed; recognized at once as they lay in the streets by their
+magnificent costume. A larger number of the gallant chivalry of France
+had been sacrificed--as Anjou confessed--in this treacherous and most
+shameful enterprise, than had often fallen upon noble and honorable
+fields. Nearly two thousand of the rank and file had perished, and the
+rest were prisoners. It was at first asserted that exactly fifteen
+hundred and eighty-three Frenchmen had fallen, but this was only because
+this number happened to be the date of the year, to which the lovers of
+marvellous coincidences struggled very hard to make the returns of the
+dead correspond. Less than one hundred burghers lost their lives.
+
+Anjou, as he looked on at a distance, was bitterly reproached for his
+treason by several of the high-minded gentlemen about his person, to whom
+he had not dared to confide his plot. The Duke of Montpensier protested
+vehemently that he washed his hands of the whole transaction, whatever
+might be the issue. He was responsible for the honor of an illustrious
+house, which should never be stained, he said, if he could prevent it,
+with such foul deeds. The same language was held by Laval, by
+Rochefoucauld, and by the Marechal de Biron, the last gentleman, whose
+two sons were engaged in the vile enterprise, bitterly cursing the Duke
+to his face, as he rode through the gate after revealing his secret
+undertaking.
+
+Meanwhile, Anjou, in addition to the punishment of hearing these
+reproaches from men of honor, was the victim of a rapid and violent
+fluctuation of feeling. Hope, fear, triumph, doubt, remorse, alternately
+swayed him. As he saw the fugitives leaping from the walls, he shouted
+exultingly, without accurately discerning what manner of men they were,
+that the city was his, that four thousand of his brave soldiers were
+there, and were hurling the burghers from the battlements. On being made
+afterwards aware of his error, he was proportionably depressed; and when
+it was obvious at last that the result of the enterprise was an absolute
+and disgraceful failure, together with a complete exposure of his
+treachery, he fairly mounted his horse, and fled conscience-stricken from
+the scene.
+
+The attack had been so unexpected, in consequence of the credence that
+had been rendered by Orange and the magistracy to the solemn
+protestations of the Duke, that it had been naturally out of any one's
+power to prevent the catastrophe. The Prince was lodged in apart of the
+town remote from the original scene of action, and it does not appear
+that information had reached him that anything unusual was occurring,
+until the affair was approaching its termination. Then there was little
+for him to do. He hastened, however, to the scene, and mounting the
+ramparts, persuaded the citizens to cease cannonading the discomfited and
+retiring foe. He felt the full gravity of the situation, and the
+necessity of diminishing the rancor of the inhabitants against their
+treacherous allies, if such a result were yet possible. The burghers had
+done their duty, and it certainly would have been neither in his power
+nor his inclination to protect the French marauders from expulsion and
+castigation.
+
+Such was the termination of the French Fury, and it seems sufficiently
+strange that it should have been so much less disastrous to Antwerp than
+was the Spanish Fury of 1576, to which men could still scarcely allude
+without a shudder. One would have thought the French more likely to prove
+successful in their enterprise than the Spaniards in theirs. The
+Spaniards were enemies against whom the city had long been on its guard.
+The French were friends in whose sincerity a somewhat shaken confidence
+had just been restored. When the Spanish attack was made, a large force
+of defenders was drawn up in battle array behind freshly strengthened
+fortifications. When the French entered at leisure through a scarcely
+guarded gate, the whole population and garrison of the town were quietly
+eating their dinners. The numbers of the invading forces on the two
+occasions did not materially differ; but at the time of the French Fury
+there was not a large force of regular troops under veteran generals to
+resist the attack. Perhaps this was the main reason for the result, which
+seems at first almost inexplicable. For protection against the Spanish
+invasion, the burghers relied on mercenaries, some of whom proved
+treacherous, while the rest became panic-struck. On the present occasion
+the burghers relied on themselves. Moreover, the French committed the
+great error of despising their enemy. Recollecting the ease with which
+the Spaniards had ravished the city, they believed that they had nothing
+to do but to enter and take possession. Instead of repressing their
+greediness, as the Spaniards had done, until they had overcome
+resistance, they dispersed almost immediately into by-streets, and
+entered warehouses to search for plunder. They seemed actuated by a fear
+that they should not have time to rifle the city before additional troops
+should be sent by Anjou to share in the spoil. They were less used to the
+sacking of Netherland cities than were the Spaniards, whom long practice
+had made perfect in the art of methodically butchering a population at
+first, before attention should be diverted to plundering, and
+supplementary outrages. At any rate, whatever the causes, it is certain
+that the panic, which upon such occasions generally decides the fate of
+the day, seized upon the invaders and not upon the invaded, almost from
+the very first. As soon as the marauders faltered in their purpose and
+wished to retreat, it was all over with them. Returning was worse than
+advance, and it was the almost inevitable result that hardly a man
+escaped death or capture.
+
+The Duke retreated the same day in the direction of Denremonde, and on
+his way met with another misfortune, by which an additional number of his
+troops lost their lives. A dyke was cut by the Mechlin citizens to impede
+his march, and the swollen waters of the Dill, liberated and flowing
+across the country which he was to traverse, produced such an inundation,
+that at least a thousand of his followers were drowned.
+
+As soon as he had established himself in a camp near Berghem, he opened a
+correspondence with the Prince of Orange, and with the authorities of
+Antwerp. His language was marked by wonderful effrontery. He found
+himself and soldiers suffering for want of food; he remembered that he
+had left much plate and valuable furniture in Antwerp; and he was
+therefore desirous that the citizens, whom he had so basely outraged,
+should at once send him supplies and restore his property. He also
+reclaimed the prisoners who still remained in the city, and to obtain all
+this he applied to the man whom he had bitterly deceived, and whose life
+would have been sacrificed by the Duke, had the enterprise succeeded.
+
+It had been his intention to sack the city, to re-establish exclusively
+the Roman Catholic worship, to trample upon the constitution which he had
+so recently sworn to maintain, to deprive Orange, by force, of the
+Renversal by which the Duke recognized the Prince as sovereign of
+Holland; Zealand; and Utrecht, yet notwithstanding that his treason
+had-been enacted in broad daylight, and in a most deliberate manner, he
+had the audacity to ascribe the recent tragic occurrences to chance. He
+had the farther originality to speak of himself as an aggrieved person,
+who had rendered great services to the Netherlands, and who had only met
+with ingratitude in return. His envoys, Messieurs Landmater and
+Escolieres, despatched on the very day of the French Fury to the
+burgomasters and senate of Antwerp, were instructed to remind those
+magistrates that the Duke had repeatedly exposed his life in the cause of
+the Netherlands. The affronts, they were to add, which he had received,
+and the approaching ruin of the country, which he foresaw, had so altered
+his excellent nature, as to engender the present calamity, which he
+infinitely regretted. Nevertheless, the senate was to be assured that his
+affection for the commonwealth was still so strong, as to induce a desire
+on his part to be informed what course was now to be pursued with, regard
+to him. Information upon that important point was therefore to be
+requested, while at the same time the liberation of the prisoners at
+Antwerp, and the restaration of the Duke's furniture and papers, were to
+be urgently demanded.
+
+Letters of similar, import were also despatched by the Duke to the states
+of the Union, while to the Prince of Orange; his application was brief
+but brazen. "You know well,--my cousin," said he "the just and frequent
+causes of offence which this people has given me. The insults which I,
+this morning experienced cut me so deeply to the heart that they are the
+only reasons of the misfortune which has happened today. Nevertheless, to
+those who desire my friendship I shall show equal friendship and
+affection. Herein I shall follow the counsel you have uniformly given me,
+since I know it comes from one who has always loved me. Therefore I beg
+that you will kindly bring it to pass, that I may obtain some decision,
+and that no injury may be inflicted upon my people. Otherwise the land
+shall pay for it dearly."
+
+To these appeals, neither the Prince nor the authorities of Antwerp
+answered immediately in their own names. A general consultation was,
+however, immediately held with the estates-general, and an answer
+forthwith despatched to the Duke by the hands of his envoys. It was
+agreed to liberate the prisoners, to restore the furniture, and to send a
+special deputation for the purpose of making further arrangements with
+the Duke by word of mouth, and for this deputation his Highness was
+requested to furnish a safe conduct.
+
+Anjou was overjoyed when he received this amicable communication.
+Relieved for a time from his fears as to the result of his crime, he
+already assumed a higher ground. He not only spoke to the states in a
+paternal tone, which was sufficiently ludicrous, but he had actually the
+coolness to assure them of his forgiveness. "He felt hurt," he said,
+"that they should deem a safe conduct necessary for the deputation which
+they proposed to send. If they thought that he had reason on account of
+the past, to feel offended, he begged them to believe that he had
+forgotten it all, and that he had buried the past in its ashes, even as
+if it had never been." He furthermore begged them--and this seemed the
+greatest insult of all--"in future to trust to his word, and to believe
+that if any thing should be attempted to their disadvantage, he would be
+the very first to offer himself for their protection."
+
+It will be observed that in his first letters the Duke had not affected
+to deny his agency in the outrage--an agency so flagrant that all
+subterfuge seemed superfluous. He in fact avowed that the attempt had
+been made by his command, but sought to palliate the crime on the ground
+that it had been the result of the ill-treatment which he had experienced
+from the states. "The affronts which I have received," said he, both to
+the magistrates of Antwerp and to Orange, "have engendered the present
+calamity." So also, in a letter written at the same time to his brother,
+Henry the Third, he observed that "the indignities which were put upon
+him, and the manifest intention of the states to make a Matthias of him,
+had been the cause of the catastrophe."
+
+He now, however, ventured a step farther. Presuming upon the indulgence
+which he had already experienced; and bravely assuming the tone of
+injured innocence, he ascribed the enterprise partly to accident, and
+partly to the insubordination of his troops. This was the ground which he
+adopted in his interviews with the states' commissioners. So also, in a
+letter addressed to Van der Tympel, commandant of Brussels, in which he
+begged for supplies for his troops, he described the recent invasion of
+Antwerp as entirely unexpected by himself, and beyond his control. He had
+been intending, he said, to leave the city and to join his army. A tumult
+had accidentally arisen between his soldiers and the guard at the gate.
+Other troops rushing in from without, had joined in the affray, so that
+to, his great sorrow, an extensive disorder had arisen. He manifested the
+same Christian inclination to forgive, however, which he had before
+exhibited. He observed that "good men would never grow cold in his
+regard, or find his affection diminished." He assured Van der Tympel, in
+particular, of his ancient goodwill, as he knew him to be a lover of the
+common weal.
+
+In his original communications he had been both cringing and threatening
+but, at least, he had not denied truths which were plain as daylight. His
+new position considerably damaged his cause. This forgiving spirit on the
+part of the malefactor was a little more than the states could bear,
+disposed as they felt, from policy, to be indulgent, and to smooth over
+the crime as gently as possible. The negotiations were interrupted, and
+the authorities of Antwerp published a brief and spirited defence of
+their own conduct. They denied that any affront or want of respect on
+their part could have provoked the outrage of which the Duke had been
+guilty. They severely handled his self-contradiction, in ascribing
+originally the recent attempt to his just vengeance for past injuries,
+and in afterwards imputing it to accident or sudden mutiny, while they
+cited the simultaneous attempts at Bruges, Denremonde, Alost, Digmuyde,
+Newport, Ostend, Vilvoorde, and Dunkirk, as a series of damning proofs of
+a deliberate design.
+
+The publication of such plain facts did not advance the negotiations when
+resumed. High and harsh words were interchanged between his Highness and
+the commissioners, Anjou complaining, as usual, of affronts and
+indignities, but when pushed home for particulars, taking refuge in
+equivocation. "He did not wish," he said, "to re-open wounds which had
+been partially healed." He also affected benignity, and wishing to
+forgive and to forget, he offered some articles as the basis of a fresh
+agreement. Of these it is sufficient to state that they were entirely
+different from the terms of the Bordeaux treaty, and that they were
+rejected as quite inadmissible.
+
+He wrote again to the Prince of Orange, invoking his influence to bring
+about an arrangement. The Prince, justly indignant at the recent
+treachery and the present insolence of the man whom he had so profoundly
+trusted, but feeling certain that the welfare of the country depended at
+present upon avoiding, if possible, a political catastrophe, answered the
+Duke in plain, firm, mournful, and appropriate language. He had ever
+manifested to his Highness, he said, the most uniform and sincere
+friendship. He had, therefore, the right to tell him that affairs were
+now so changed that his greatness and glory had departed. Those men in
+the Netherlands, who, but yesterday, had been willing to die at the feet
+of his Highness, were now so exasperated that they avowedly preferred an
+open enemy to a treacherous protector. He had hoped, he said, that after
+what had happened in so many cities at the same moment, his Highness
+would have been pleased to give the deputies a different and a more
+becoming answer. He had hoped for some response which might lead to an
+arrangement. He, however, stated frankly, that the articles transmitted
+by his Highness were so unreasonable that no man in the land would dare
+open his mouth to recommend them. His Highness, by this proceeding, had
+much deepened the distrust. He warned the Duke accordingly, that he was
+not taking the right course to reinstate himself in a position of honor
+and glory, and he begged him, therefore, to adopt more appropriate means.
+Such a step was now demanded of him, not only by the country, but by all
+Christendom.
+
+This moderate but heartfelt appeal to the better nature of the Duke, if
+he had a better nature, met with no immediate response.
+
+While matters were in this condition, a special envoy arrived out of
+France, despatched by the King and Queen-mother, on the first reception
+of the recent intelligence from Antwerp. M. de Mirambeau, the ambassador,
+whose son had been killed in the Fury, brought letters of credence to the
+states of the Union and to the Prince of Orange. He delivered also a
+short confidential note, written in her own hand, from Catherine de
+Medici to the Prince, to the following effect:
+
+"My COUSIN,--The King, my son, and myself, send you Monsieur de
+Mirambeau, to prove to you that we do not believe--for we esteem you an
+honorable man--that you would manifest ingratitude to my son, and to
+those who have followed him for the welfare of your country. We feel that
+you have too much affection for one who has the support of so powerful a
+prince as the King of France, as to play him so base a trick. Until I
+learn the truth, I shall not renounce the good hope which I have always
+indulged--that you would never have invited my son to your country,
+without intending to serve him faithfully. As long as you do this, you
+may ever reckon on the support of all who belong to him.
+
+               "Your good Cousin,
+
+                       "CATHERINE."
+
+It would have been very difficult to extract much information or much
+comfort from this wily epistle. The menace was sufficiently plain, the
+promise disagreeably vague. Moreover, a letter from the same Catherine de
+Medici, had been recently found in a casket at the Duke's lodgings in
+Antwerp. In that communication, she had distinctly advised her son to
+re-establish the Roman Catholic religion, assuring him that by so doing,
+he would be enabled to marry the Infanta of Spain. Nevertheless, the
+Prince, convinced that it was his duty to bridge over the deep and fatal
+chasm which had opened between the French Prince and the provinces, if an
+honorable reconciliation were possible, did not attach an undue
+importance either to the stimulating or to the upbraiding portion of the
+communication from Catherine. He was most anxious to avert the chaos
+which he saw returning. He knew that while the tempers of Rudolph, of the
+English Queen, and of the Protestant princes of Germany, and the internal
+condition of the Netherlands remained the same, it were madness to
+provoke the government of France, and thus gain an additional enemy,
+while losing their only friend. He did not renounce the hope of forming
+all the Netherlands--excepting of course the Walloon provinces already
+reconciled to Philip--into one independent commonwealth, freed for ever
+from Spanish tyranny. A dynasty from a foreign house he was willing to
+accept, but only on condition that the new royal line should become
+naturalized in the Netherlands, should, conform itself to the strict
+constitutional compact established, and should employ only natives in the
+administration of Netherland affairs. Notwithstanding, therefore, the
+recent treachery of Anjou, he was willing to treat with him upon the
+ancient basis. The dilemma was a very desperate one, for whatever might
+be his course, it was impossible that it should escape censure. Even at
+this day, it is difficult to decide what might have been the result of
+openly braving the French government, and expelling Anjou. The Prince of
+Parma--subtle, vigilant, prompt with word and blow--was waiting most
+anxiously to take advantage of every false step of his adversary. The
+provinces had been already summoned in most eloquent language, to take
+warning by the recent fate of Antwerp, and to learn by the manifestation
+just made by Anjou, of his real intentions; that their only salvation lay
+in a return to the King's arms. Anjou himself, as devoid of shame as of
+honor, was secretly holding interviews with Parma's agents, Acosta and
+Flaminio Carnero, at the very moment when he was alternately expressing
+to the states his resentment that they dared to doubt his truth, or
+magnanimously extending to them his pardon for their suspicions. He was
+writing letters full of injured innocence to Orange and to the states,
+while secretly cavilling over the terms of the treaty by which he was to
+sell himself to Spain. Scruples as to enacting so base a part did not
+trouble the "Son of France." He did not hesitate at playing this doubly
+and trebly false game with the provinces, but he was anxious to drive the
+best possible bargain for himself with Parma. He, offered to restore
+Dunkirk, Dixmuyde, and the other cities which he had so recently filched
+from the states, and to enter into a strict alliance with Philip; but he
+claimed that certain Netherland cities on the French frontier, should be
+made over to him in exchange. He required; likewise; ample protection for
+his retreat from a country which was likely to be sufficiently
+exasperated. Parma and his agents smiled, of course, at such exorbitant
+terms.  Nevertheless, it was necessary to deal cautiously with a man who,
+although but a poor baffled rogue to-day, might to-morrow be seated on
+the throne of France. While they were all secretly haggling over the
+terms of the bargain, the Prince of Orange discovered the intrigue. It
+convinced him of the necessity of closing with a man whose baseness was
+so profound, but whose position made his enmity, on the whole, more
+dangerous than his friendship. Anjou, backed by so astute and
+unscrupulous a politician as Parma, was not to be trifled with. The
+feeling of doubt and anxiety was spreading daily through the country:
+many men, hitherto firm, were already wavering, while at the same time
+the Prince had no confidence in the power of any of the states, save
+those of Holland and Utrecht; to maintain a resolute attitude of
+defiance, if not assisted from without.
+
+He therefore endeavored to repair the breach, if possible, and thus save
+the Union. Mirambeau, in his conferences with the estates, suggested, on
+his part, all that words could effect. He expressed the hope that the
+estates would use their discretion "in compounding some sweet and
+friendly medicine" for the present disorder; and that they would not
+judge the Duke too harshly for a fault which he assured them did not come
+from his natural disposition. He warned them that the enemy would be
+quick to take advantage of the present occasion to bring about, if
+possible, their destruction, and he added that he was commissioned to
+wait upon the Duke of Anjou, in order to assure him that, however
+alienated he might then be from the Netherlands, his Majesty was
+determined to effect an entire reconciliation.
+
+The envoy conferred also with the Prince of Orange, and urged him most
+earnestly to use his efforts to heal the rupture. The Prince, inspired by
+the sentiments already indicated, spoke with perfect sincerity. His
+Highness, he said, had never known a more faithful and zealous friend
+than himself, He had begun to lose his own credit with the people by
+reason of the earnestness with which he had ever advocated the Duke's
+cause, and he could not flatter himself that his recommendation would now
+be of any advantage to his Highness. It would be more injurious than his
+silence. Nevertheless, he was willing to make use of all the influence
+which was left to him for the purpose of bringing about a reconciliation,
+provided that the Duke were acting in good faith. If his Highness were
+now sincerely desirous of conforming to the original treaty, and willing
+to atone for the faults committed by him on the same day in so many
+cities--offences which could not be excused upon the ground of any
+affronts which he might have received from the citizens of Antwerp--it
+might even now be possible to find a remedy for the past. He very bluntly
+told the envoy, however, that the frivolous excuses offered by the Duke
+caused more bitterness than if he had openly acknowledged his fault. It
+were better, he said, to express contrition, than to excuse himself by
+laying blame on those to whom no blame belonged, but who, on the
+contrary, had ever shown themselves faithful servants of his Highness.
+
+The estates of the Union, being in great perplexity as to their proper
+course, now applied formally, as they always did in times of danger and
+doubt, to the Prince, for a public expression of his views. Somewhat
+reluctantly, he complied with their wishes in one of the most admirable
+of his state papers.
+
+He told the states-that he felt some hesitation in expressing his views.
+The blame of the general ill success was always laid upon his shoulders;
+as if the chances of war could be controlled even by a great potentate
+with ample means at his disposal. As for himself, with so little actual
+power that he could never have a single city provided with what he
+thought a sufficient garrison, it could not be expected that he could
+command fortune. His advice, he said, was always asked, but ever judged
+good or evil according to the result, as if the issue were in any hands
+but God's. It did not seem advisable for a man of his condition and
+years, who had so often felt the barb of calumny's tongue, to place his
+honor, again in the judgment scale of mankind, particularly as he was
+likely to incur fresh censure for another man's crime. Nevertheless, he
+was willing, for the love he bore the land, once more to encounter this
+danger.
+
+He then rapidly reviewed the circumstances which had led to the election
+of Anjou, and reminded the estates that they had employed sufficient time
+to deliberate concerning that transaction. He recalled to their
+remembrance his frequent assurances of support and sympathy if they would
+provide any other means of self-protection than the treaty with the
+French Prince. He thought it, therefore, unjust, now that calamity had
+sprung from the measure, to ascribe the blame entirely to him, even had
+the injury been greater than the one actually sustained. He was far from
+palliating the crime, or from denying that the Duke's rights under the
+Treaty of Bordeaux had been utterly forfeited. He was now asked what was
+to be done. Of three courses, he said, one must be taken: they must make
+their peace with the King, or consent to a reconciliation with Anjou, or
+use all the strength which God had given them to resist, single-handed,
+the enemy. With regard to the first point, he resumed the argument as to
+the hopelessness of a satisfactory arrangement with the monarch of Spain.
+The recent reconciliation of the Walloon provinces and its shameful
+infraction by Parma in the immediate recal of large masses of Spanish and
+Italian troops, showed too plainly the value of all solemn stipulations
+with his Catholic Majesty. Moreover, the time was unpropitious. It was
+idle to look, after what had recently occurred, for even fair promises.
+It was madness then to incur the enmity of two such powers at once. The
+French could do the Netherlands more harm as enemies than the Spaniards.
+The Spaniards would be more dangerous as friends, for in cases of a
+treaty with Philip the Inquisition would be established in the place of a
+religious peace. For these reasons the Prince declared himself entirely
+opposed to any negotiations with the Crown of Spain.
+
+As to the second point, he admitted that Anjou had gained little honor by
+his recent course; and that it would be a mistake on their part to
+stumble a second time over the same stone. He foresaw, nevertheless, that
+the Duke--irritated as he was by the loss of so many of his nobles, and
+by the downfall of all his hopes in the Netherlands--would be likely to
+inflict great injuries upon their cause. Two powerful nations like France
+and Spain would be too much to have on their hands at once. How much
+danger, too, would be incurred by braving at once the open wrath of the
+French King, and, the secret displeasure of the English Queen. She had
+warmly recommended the Duke of Anjou. She had said--that honors to him
+were rendered to herself; and she was now entirely opposed to their
+keeping the present quarrel alive. If France became their enemy, the road
+was at once opened through that kingdom for Spain. The estates were to
+ponder well whether they possessed the means to carry on such a double
+war without assistance. They were likewise to remember how many cities
+still remained in the hands of Anjou, and their possible fate if the Duke
+were pushed to extremity.
+
+The third point was then handled with vigor. He reminded the states of
+the perpetual difficulty of raising armies, of collecting money to pay
+for troops, of inducing cities to accept proper garrisons, of
+establishing a council which could make itself respected. He alluded
+briefly and bitterly to the perpetual quarrels of the states among
+themselves; to their mutual jealousy; to their obstinate parsimony; to
+their jealousy of the general government; to their apathy and inertness
+before impending ruin. He would not calumniate those, he said, who
+counselled trust in God. That was his sentiment also: To attempt great
+affairs, however, and, through avarice, to-withhold sufficient means, was
+not trusting, but tempting God.--On the contrary, it was trusting God to
+use the means which He offered to their hands.
+
+With regard, then, to the three points, he rejected the first.
+Reconciliation with the King of Spain was impossible. For his own part,
+he would much prefer the third course. He had always been in favor of
+their maintaining independence by their own means and the assistance of
+the Almighty. He was obliged, however, in sadness; to confess that the
+narrow feeling of individual state rights, the general tendency to
+disunion, and the constant wrangling, had made this course a hopeless
+one. There remained, therefore, only the second, and they must effect an
+honorable reconciliation with Anjou. Whatever might be their decision,
+however, it was meet that it should be a speedy one. Not an hour was to
+be lost. Many fair churches of God, in Anjou's power, were trembling on
+the issue, and religious and political liberty was more at stake than
+ever. In conclusion, the Prince again expressed his determination,
+whatever might be their decision, to devote the rest of his days to the
+services of his country.
+
+The result of these representations by the Prince--of frequent letters
+from Queen Elizabeth, urging a reconciliation--and of the professions
+made by the Duke and the French envoys, was a provisional arrangement,
+signed on the 26th and 28th of March. According to the terms of this
+accord, the Duke was to receive thirty thousand florins for his troops,
+and to surrender the cities still in his power. The French prisoners were
+to be liberated, the Duke's property at Antwerp was to be restored, and
+the Duke himself was to await at Dunkirk the arrival of plenipotentiaries
+to treat with him as to a new and perpetual arrangement.
+
+The negotiations, however, were languid. The quarrel was healed on the
+surface, but confidence so recently and violently uprooted was slow to
+revive. On the 28th of June, the Duke of Anjou left Dunkirk for Paris,
+never to return to the Netherlands, but he exchanged on his departure
+affectionate letters with the Prince and the estates. M. des Pruneaux
+remained as his representative, and it was understood that the
+arrangements for re-installing him as soon as possible in the sovereignty
+which he had so basely forfeited, were to be pushed forward with
+earnestness.
+
+In the spring of the same year, Gerard Truchses, Archbishop of Cologne,
+who had lost his see for the love of Agnes Mansfeld, whom he had espoused
+in defiance of the Pope; took refuge with the Prince of Orange at Delft.
+A civil war in Germany broke forth, the Protestant princes undertaking to
+support the Archbishop, in opposition to Ernest of Bavaria, who had been
+appointed in his place. The Palatine, John Casimir, thought it necessary
+to mount and ride as usual. Making his appearance at the head of a
+hastily collected force, and prepared for another plunge into chaos, he
+suddenly heard, however, of his elder brother's death at Heidelberg.
+Leaving his men, as was his habit, to shift for themselves, and Baron
+Truchses, the Archbishop's brother, to fall into the hands of the enemy,
+he disappeared from the scene with great rapidity, in order that his own
+interests in the palatinate and in the guardianship of the young
+palatines might not suffer by his absence.
+
+At this time, too, on the 12th of April, the Prince of Orange was
+married, for the fourth time, to Louisa, widow of the Seigneur de
+Teligny, and daughter of the illustrious Coligny.
+
+In the course of the summer, the states of Holland and Zealand, always
+bitterly opposed to the connection with Anjou, and more than ever
+dissatisfied with the resumption of negotiations since the Antwerp
+catastrophe, sent a committee to the Prince in order to persuade him to
+set his face against the whole proceedings. They delivered at the same
+time a formal remonstrance, in writing (25th of August, 1583), in which
+they explained how odious the arrangement with the Duke had ever been to
+them. They expressed the opinion that even the wisest might be sometimes
+mistaken, and that the Prince had been bitterly deceived by Anjou and by
+the French court. They besought him to rely upon the assistance of the
+Almighty, and upon the exertions of the nation, and they again hinted at
+the propriety of his accepting that supreme sovereignty over all the
+united provinces which would be so gladly conferred, while, for their own
+parts, they voluntarily offered largely to increase the sums annually
+contributed to the common defence.
+
+Very soon afterwards, in August, 1583, the states of the united provinces
+assembled at Middelburg formally offered the general government--which
+under the circumstances was the general sovereignty--to the Prince,
+warmly urging his acceptance of the dignity. He manifested, however, the
+same reluctance which he had always expressed, demanding that the project
+should beforehand be laid before the councils of all the large cities,
+and before the estates of certain provinces which had not been
+represented at the Middelburg diet. He also made use of the occasion to
+urge the necessity of providing more generously for the army expenses and
+other general disbursements. As to ambitious views, he was a stranger to
+them, and his language at this moment was as patriotic and self-denying
+as at any previous period. He expressed his thanks to the estates for
+this renewed proof of their confidence in his character, and this
+additional approbation of his course,--a sentiment which he was always
+ready "as a good patriot to justify by his most faithful service." He
+reminded them, however, that he was no great monarch, having in his own
+hands the means to help and the power to liberate them; and that even
+were he in possession of all which God had once given him, he should be
+far from strong enough to resist, single-handed, their powerful enemy.
+All that was left to him, he said, was an "honest and moderate experience
+in affairs." With this he was ever ready to serve them to the utmost; but
+they knew very well that the means to make that experience available were
+to be drawn from the country itself. With modest simplicity, he observed
+that he had been at work fifteen or sixteen years, doing his best, with
+the grace of God, to secure the freedom of the fatherland and to resist
+tyranny of conscience; that he alone--assisted by his brothers and some
+friends and relatives--had borne the whole burthen in the beginning, and
+that he had afterwards been helped by the states of Holland and Zealand,
+so that he could not but render thanks to God for His great mercy in thus
+granting His blessing to so humble an instrument, and thus restoring so
+many beautiful provinces to their ancient freedom and to the true
+religion. The Prince protested that this result was already a sufficient
+reward for his labors--a great consolation in his sufferings. He had
+hoped, he said, that the estates, "taking into consideration his
+long-continued labors, would have been willing to excuse him from a new
+load of cares, and would have granted him some little rest in his already
+advanced age;" that they would have selected "some other person more
+fitted for the labor, whom he would himself faithfully promise to assist
+to the best of his abilities, rendering him willing obedience
+proportionate to the authority conferred upon him."
+
+Like all other attempts to induce the acceptance, by the Prince, of
+supreme authority, this effort proved ineffectual, from the obstinate
+unwillingness of his hand to receive the proffered sceptre.
+
+In connection with this movement, and at about the same epoch, Jacob
+Swerius, member of the Brabant Council, with other deputies, waited upon
+Orange, and formally tendered him the sovereign dukedom of Brabant,
+forfeited and vacant by the late crime of Anjou. The Prince, however,
+resolutely refused to accept the dignity, assuring the committee that he
+had not the means to afford the country as much protection as they had a
+right to expect from their sovereign. He added that "he would never give
+the King of Spain the right-to say that the Prince of Orange had been
+actuated by no other motives in his career than the hope of
+self-aggrandizement, and the desire to deprive his Majesty of the
+provinces in order to appropriate them to himself."
+
+Accordingly, firmly refusing to heed the overtures of the United States,
+and of Holland in particular, he continued to further the
+re-establishment of Anjou--a measure in which, as he deliberately
+believed, lay the only chance of union and in dependence.
+
+The Prince of Parma, meantime, had not been idle. He had been unable to
+induce the provinces to listen to his wiles, and to rush to the embrace
+of the monarch whose arms he described as ever open to the repentant. He
+had, however, been busily occupied in the course of the summer in taking
+up many of the towns which the treason of Anjou had laid open to his
+attacks.
+
+Eindhoven, Diest, Dunkirk, Newport, and other places, were successively
+surrendered to royalist generals. On the 22nd of September, 1583, the
+city of Zutfen, too, was surprised by Colonel Tassis, on the fall of
+which most important place, the treason of Orange's brother-in-law, Count
+Van den Berg, governor of Gueldres, was revealed. His fidelity had been
+long suspected, particularly by Count John of Nassau, but always
+earnestly vouched for by his wife and by his sons. On the capture of
+Zutfen, however, a document was found and made public, by which Van den
+Berg bound himself to deliver the principal cities of Gueldres and
+Zutfen, beginning with Zutfen itself, into the hands of Parma, on
+condition of receiving the pardon and friendship of the King.
+
+Not much better could have been expected of Van den Berg. His
+pusillanimous retreat from his post in Alva's time will be recollected;
+and it is certain that the Prince had never placed implicit confidence in
+his character. Nevertheless, it was the fate of this great man to be
+often deceived by the friends whom he trusted, although never to be
+outwitted by his enemies. Van den Berg was arrested, on the 15th of
+November, carried to the Hague, examined and imprisoned for a time in
+Delftshaven. After a time he was, however, liberated, when he instantly,
+with all his sons, took service under the King.
+
+While treason was thus favoring the royal arms in the north, the same
+powerful element, to which so much of the Netherland misfortunes had
+always been owing was busy in Flanders.
+
+Towards the end of the year 1583, the Prince of Chimay, eldest son of the
+Duke of Aerschot, had been elected governor of that province. This noble
+was as unstable in character, as vain, as unscrupulous, and as ambitious
+as his father and uncle. He had been originally desirous of espousing the
+eldest daughter of the Prince of Orange, afterwards the Countess of
+Hohenlo, but the Duchess of Aerschot was too strict a Catholic to consent
+to the marriage, and her son was afterwards united to the Countess of
+Meghem, widow of Lan celot Berlaymont.
+
+As affairs seemed going on prosperously for the states in the beginning,
+of this year, the Prince of Chimay had affected a strong inclination for
+the Reformed religion, and as governor of Bruges, he had appointed many
+members of that Church to important offices, to the exclusion of
+Catholics. By so decided a course, he acquired the confidence of the
+patriot party and at the end of the year he became governor of Flanders.
+No sooner was he installed in this post, than he opened a private
+correspondence with Parma, for it was his intention to make his peace
+with the King, and to purchase pardon and advancement by the brilliant
+service which he now undertook, of restoring this important province to
+the royal authority. In the arrangement of his plans he was assisted by
+Champagny, who, as will be recollected, had long been a prisoner in
+Ghent, but whose confinement was not so strict as to prevent frequent
+intercourse with his friends without. Champagny was indeed believed to be
+the life of the whole intrigue. The plot was, however, forwarded by
+Imbize, the roaring demagogue whose republicanism could never reconcile
+itself with what he esteemed the aristocratic policy of Orange, and whose
+stern puritanism could be satisfied with nothing short of a general
+extermination of Catholics. This man, after having been allowed to
+depart, infamous and contemptible, from the city which he had endangered,
+now ventured after five years, to return, and to engage in fresh schemes
+which were even more criminal than his previous enterprises. The
+uncompromising foe to Romanism, the advocate of Grecian and Genevan
+democracy, now allied himself with Champagny and with Chimay, to effect a
+surrender of Flanders to Philip and to the Inquisition. He succeeded in
+getting himself elected chief senator in Ghent, and forthwith began to
+use all his influence to further the secret plot. The joint efforts and
+intrigues of Parma, Champagny, Chimay, and Imbize, were near being
+successful. Early, in the spring of 1584 a formal resolution was passed
+by the government of Ghent, to open negotiations with Parma. Hostages
+were accordingly exchanged, and a truce of three weeks was agreed upon,
+during which an animated correspondence was maintained between the
+authorities of Ghent and the Prince of Chimay on the one side, and the
+United States-general, the magistracy of Antwerp, the states of Brabant,
+and other important bodies on the other.
+
+The friends of the Union and of liberty used all their eloquence to
+arrest the city of Ghent in its course, and to save the province of
+Flanders from accepting the proposed arrangement with Parma. The people
+of Ghent were reminded that the chief promoter of this new negotiation
+was Champagny, a man who owed a deep debt of hatred to their city, for
+the long, and as he believed, the unjust confinement which he had endured
+within its walls. Moreover, he was the brother of Granvelle, source of
+all their woes. To take counsel with Champagny, was to come within reach
+of a deadly foe, for "he who confesses himself to a wolf," said the
+burgomasters of Antwerp, "will get wolf's absolution." The Flemings were
+warned by all their correspondents that it was puerile to hope for faith
+in Philip; a monarch whose first principle was, that promises to heretics
+were void. They were entreated to pay no heed to the "sweet singing of
+the royalists," who just then affected to disapprove of the practice
+adopted by the Spanish Inquisition, that they might more surely separate
+them from their friends. "Imitate not," said the magistrates of Brussels,
+"the foolish sheep who made with the wolves a treaty of perpetual amity,
+from which the faithful dogs were to be excluded." It was affirmed--and
+the truth was certainly beyond peradventure--that religious liberty was
+dead at the moment when the treaty with Parma should be signed. "To look
+for political privilege or evangelical liberty," said the Antwerp
+authorities, "in any arrangement with the Spaniards, is to look for light
+in darkness, for fire in water." "Philip is himself the slave of the
+Inquisition," said the states-general, "and has but one great purpose in
+life--to cherish the institution everywhere, and particularly in the
+Netherlands. Before Margaret of Parma's time, one hundred thousand
+Netherlanders had been burned or strangled, and Alva had spent seven
+years in butchering and torturing many thousands more." The magistrates
+of Brussells used similar expressions. "The King of Spain," said they to
+their brethren of Ghent, "is fastened to the Inquisition. Yea, he is so
+much in its power, that even if he desired, he is unable to maintain his
+promises." The Prince of Orange too, was indefatigable in public and
+private efforts to counteract the machinations of Parma and the Spanish
+party in Ghent. He saw with horror the progress which the political
+decomposition of that most important commonwealth was making, for he
+considered the city the keystone to the union of the provinces, for he
+felt with a prophetic instinct that its loss would entail that of all the
+southern provinces, and make a united and independent Netherland state
+impossible. Already in the summer of 1583, he addressed a letter full of
+wisdom and of warning to the authorities of Ghent, a letter in which he
+set fully before them the iniquity and stupidity of their proceedings,
+while at the same time he expressed himself with so much dexterity and
+caution as to avoid giving offence, by accusations which he made, as it
+were, hypothetically, when, in truth, they were real ones.
+
+These remonstrances were not fruitless, and the authorities and citizens
+of Ghent once more paused ere they stepped from the precipice. While they
+were thus wavering, the whole negotiation with Parma was abruptly brought
+to a close by a new incident, the demagogue Imbize having been discovered
+in a secret attempt to obtain possession of the city of Denremonde, and
+deliver it to Parma. The old acquaintance, ally, and enemy of Imbize, the
+Seigneur de Ryhove, was commandant of the city, and information was
+privately conveyed to him of the design, before there had been time for
+its accomplishment. Ryhove, being thoroughly on his guard, arrested his
+old comrade, who was shortly afterwards brought to trial, and executed at
+Ghent. John van Imbize had returned to the city from which the
+contemptuous mercy of Orange had permitted him formerly to depart, only
+to expiate fresh turbulence and fresh treason by a felon's death.
+Meanwhile the citizens: of Ghent; thus warned by word and deed, passed an
+earnest resolution to have no more intercourse with Parma, but to abide
+faithfully by the union. Their example was followed by the other Flemish
+cities, excepting, unfortunately, Bruges, for that important town, being
+entirely in the power of Chimay, was now surrendered by him to the royal
+government. On the 20th of May, 1584, Baron Montigny, on the part of
+Parma, signed an accord with the Prince of Chimay, by which the city was
+restored to his Majesty, and by which all inhabitants not willing to
+abide by the Roman Catholic religion were permitted to leave the land.
+The Prince was received with favor by Parma, on conclusion of the
+transaction, and subsequently met with advancement from the King, while
+the Princess, who had embraced the Reformed religion, retired to Holland.
+
+The only other city of importance gained on this occasion by the
+government was Ypres, which had been long besieged, and was, soon
+afterwards forced to yield. The new Bishop, on taking possession,
+resorted to instant measures for cleansing a place which had been so long
+in the hands of the infidels, and as the first step in this purification,
+the bodies of many heretics who had been buried for years were taken from
+their graves, and publicly hanged in their coffins. All living adherents
+to the Reformed religion were instantly expelled from the place.
+
+Ghent and the rest of Flanders were, for the time, saved from the power
+of Spain, the inhabitants being confirmed in their resolution of
+sustaining their union with the other provinces by the news from France.
+Early in the spring the negotiations between Anjou and the states-general
+had been earnestly renewed, and Junius, Mouillerie, and Asseliers, had
+been despatched on a special mission to France, for the purpose of
+arranging a treaty with the Duke. On the 19th of April, 1584, they
+arrived in Delft, on their return, bringing warm letters from the French
+court, full of promises to assist the Netherlands; and it was understood
+that a constitution, upon the basis of the original arrangement of
+Bordeaux, would be accepted by the Duke. These arrangements were,
+however, for ever terminated by the death of Anjou, who had been ill
+during the whole course of the negotiations. On the 10th of June, 1584,
+he expired at Chateau Thierry, in great torture, sweating blood from
+every pore, and under circumstances which, as usual, suggested strong
+suspicions of poison.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+   Various attempts upon the life of Orange--Delft--Mansion of the
+   Prince described--Francis Guion or Balthazar Girard--His
+   antecedents--His correspondence and interviews with Parma and with
+   d'Assonleville--His employment in France--His return to Delft and
+   interview with Orange--The crime--The confession--The punishment--
+   The consequences--Concluding remarks.
+
+It has been seen that the Ban against the Prince of Orange had not been
+hitherto without fruits, for although unsuccessful, the efforts to take
+his life and earn the promised guerdon had been incessant. The attempt of
+Jaureguy, at Antwerp, of Salseda and Baza at Bruges, have been related,
+and in March, 1583, moreover, one Pietro Dordogno was executed in Antwerp
+for endeavoring to assassinate the Prince. Before his death, he confessed
+that he had come from Spain solely for the purpose, and that he had
+conferred with La Motte, governor of Gravelines, as to the best means of
+accomplishing his design. In April, 1584, Hans Hanzoon, a merchant of
+Flushing, had been executed for attempting to destroy the Prince by means
+of gunpowder, concealed under his house in that city, and under his seat
+in the church. He confessed that he had deliberately formed the intention
+of performing the deed, and that he had discussed the details of the
+enterprise with the Spanish ambassador in Paris. At about the same time,
+one Le Goth, a captive French officer, had been applied to by the Marquis
+de Richebourg, on the part of Alexander of Parma, to attempt the murder
+of the Prince. Le Goth had consented, saying that nothing could be more
+easily done; and that he would undertake to poison him in a dish of eels,
+of which he knew him to be particularly fond. The Frenchman was liberated
+with this understanding; but being very much the friend of Orange,
+straightway told him the whole story, and remained ever afterwards a
+faithful servant of the states. It is to be presumed that he excused the
+treachery to which he owed his escape from prison on the ground that
+faith was no more to be kept with murderers than with heretics. Thus
+within two years there had been five distinct attempts to assassinate the
+Prince, all of them, with the privity of the Spanish government. A sixth
+was soon to follow.
+
+In the summer of 1584, William of Orange was residing at Delft, where his
+wife, Louisa de Coligny, had given birth, in the preceding winter, to a
+son, afterwards the celebrated stadholder, Frederic Henry. The child had
+received these names from his two godfathers, the Kings of Denmark and of
+Navarre, and his baptism had been celebrated with much rejoicing on the
+12th of June, in the place of his birth.
+
+It was a quiet, cheerful, yet somewhat drowsy little city, that ancient
+burgh of Delft. The placid canals by which it was intersected in every
+direction were all planted with whispering, umbrageous rows of limes and
+poplars, and along these watery highways the traffic of the place glided
+so noiselessly that the town seemed the abode of silence and
+tranquillity. The streets were clean and airy, the houses well built, the
+whole aspect of the place thriving.
+
+One of the principal thoroughfares was called the old Delftstreet. It was
+shaded on both sides by lime trees, which in that midsummer season
+covered the surface of the canal which flowed between them with their
+light and fragrant blossoms. On one side of this street was the "old
+kirk," a plain, antique structure of brick, with lancet windows, and with
+a tall, slender tower, which inclined, at a very considerable angle,
+towards a house upon the other side of the canal. That house was the
+mansion of William the Silent. It stood directly opposite the church,
+being separated by a spacious courtyard from the street, while the
+stables and other offices in the rear extended to the city wall. A narrow
+lane, opening out of Delft-street, ran along the side of the house and
+court, in the direction of the ramparts. The house was a plain,
+two-storied edifice of brick, with red-tiled roof, and had formerly been
+a cloister dedicated to Saint Agatha, the last prior of which had been
+hanged by the furious Lumey de la Merck.
+
+The news of Anjou's death had been brought to Delft by a special
+messenger from the French court. On Sunday morning, the 8th of July,
+1584, the Prince of Orange, having read the despatches before leaving his
+bed, caused the man who had brought them to be summoned, that he might
+give some particular details by word of mouth concerning the last illness
+of the Duke. The courier was accordingly admitted to the Prince's
+bed-chamber, and proved to be one Francis Guion, as he called himself.
+This man had, early in the spring, claimed and received the protection of
+Orange, on the ground of being the son of a Protestant at Besancon, who
+had suffered death for--his religion, and of his own ardent attachment to
+the Reformed faith. A pious, psalm-singing, thoroughly Calvinistic youth
+he seemed to be having a bible or a hymn-book under his arm whenever he
+walked the street, and most exemplary in his attendance at sermon and
+lecture. For, the rest, a singularly unobtrusive personage, twenty-seven
+years of age, low of stature, meagre, mean-visaged, muddy complexioned,
+and altogether a man of no account--quite insignificant in the eyes of
+all who looked upon him. If there were one opinion in which the few who
+had taken the trouble to think of the puny, somewhat shambling stranger
+from Burgundy at all coincided, it was that he was inoffensive but quite
+incapable of any important business. He seemed well educated, claimed to
+be of respectable parentage and had considerable facility of speech, when
+any person could be found who thought it worth while to listen to him;
+but on the whole he attracted little attention.
+
+Nevertheless, this insignificant frame locked up a desperate and daring
+character; this mild and inoffensive nature had gone pregnant seven years
+with a terrible crime, whose birth could not much longer be retarded.
+Francis Guion, the Calvinist, son of a martyred Calvinist, was in reality
+Balthazar Gerard, a fanatical Catholic, whose father and mother were
+still living at Villefans in Burgundy. Before reaching man's estate, he
+had formed the design of murdering the Prince of Orange, "who, so long as
+he lived, seemed like to remain a rebel against the Catholic King, and to
+make every effort to disturb the repose of the Roman Catholic Apostolic
+religion."
+
+When but twenty years of age, he had struck his dagger with all his might
+into a door, exclaiming, as he did so, "Would that the blow had been in
+the heart of Orange!" For this he was rebuked by a bystander, who told
+him it was not for him to kill princes, and that it was not desirable to
+destroy so good a captain as the Prince, who, after all, might one day
+reconcile himself with the King.
+
+As soon as the Ban against Orange was published, Balthazar, more anxious
+than ever to execute his long-cherished design, left Dole and came to
+Luxemburg. Here he learned that the deed had already been done by John
+Jaureguy. He received this intelligence at first with a sensation of
+relief, was glad to be excused from putting himself in danger, and
+believing the Prince dead, took service as clerk with one John Duprel,
+secretary to Count Mansfeld, governor of Luxemburg. Ere long, the ill
+success of Jaureguy's attempt becoming known, the "inveterate
+determination" of Gerard aroused itself more fiercely than ever. He
+accordingly took models of Mansfeld's official seals in wax, in order
+that he might make use of them as an acceptable offering to the Orange
+party, whose confidence he meant to gain.
+
+Various circumstances detained him, however. A sum of money was stolen,
+and he was forced to stay till it was found, for fear of being arrested
+as the thief. Then his cousin and employer fell sick, and Gerard was
+obliged to wait for his recovery. At last, in March, 1584, "the weather,
+as he said, appearing to be fine," Balthazar left Luxemburg and came to
+Treves. While there, he confided his scheme to the regent of the Jesuit
+college--a "red-haired man" whose name has not been preserved. That
+dignitary expressed high approbation of the plan, gave Gerard his
+blessing, and promised him that, if his life should be sacrificed in
+achieving his purpose, he should be enrolled among the martyrs. Another
+Jesuit, however, in the same college, with whom he likewise communicated,
+held very different language, making great efforts to turn the young man
+from his design, on the ground of the inconveniences which might arise
+from the forging of Mansfeld's seals--adding, that neither he nor any of
+the Jesuits liked to meddle with such affairs, but advising that the
+whole matter should be laid before the Prince of Parma. It does not
+appear that this personage, "an excellent man and a learned," attempted
+to dissuade the young man from his project by arguments, drawn from any
+supposed criminality in the assassination itself, or from any danger,
+temporal or eternal, to which the perpetrator might expose himself.
+
+Not influenced, as it appears, except on one point, by the advice of this
+second ghostly confessor, Balthazar came to Tournay, and held council
+with a third--the celebrated Franciscan, Father Gery--by whom he was much
+comforted and strengthened in his determination. His next step was to lay
+the project before Parma, as the "excellent and learned" Jesuit at Treves
+had advised. This he did by a letter, drawn up with much care, and which
+he evidently thought well of as a composition. One copy of this letter he
+deposited with the guardian of the Franciscan convent at Tournay; the
+other he presented with his own hand to the Prince of Parma. "The
+vassal," said he, "ought always to prefer justice and the will of the
+king to his own life." That being the case, he expressed his astonishment
+that no man had yet been found to execute the sentence against William of
+Nassau, "except the gentle Biscayan, since defunct." To accomplish the
+task, Balthazar observed, very judiciously, that it was necessary to have
+access, to the person of the Prince--wherein consisted the difficulty.
+Those who had that advantage, he continued, were therefore bound to
+extirpate the pest at once, without obliging his Majesty to send to Rome
+for a chevalier, because not one of them was willing to precipitate
+himself into the venomous gulf, which by its contagion infected and
+killed the souls and bodies, of all poor abused subjects, exposed to its
+influence. Gerard avowed himself to have been so long goaded and
+stimulated by these considerations--so extremely nettled with displeasure
+and bitterness at seeing the obstinate wretch still escaping his just
+judgment--as to have formed the design of baiting a trap for the fox,
+hoping thus to gain access to him, and to take him unawares. He
+added--without explaining the nature of the trap and the bait--that he
+deemed it his duty to lay the subject before the most serene Prince of
+Parma, protesting at the same time that he did not contemplate the
+exploit for the sake of the reward mentioned in the sentence, and that he
+preferred trusting in that regard to the immense liberality of his
+Majesty.
+
+Parma had long been looking for a good man to murder Orange, feeling--as
+Philip, Granvelle, and all former governors of the Netherlands had
+felt--that this was the only means of saving the royal authority in any
+part of the provinces. Many unsatisfactory assassins had presented
+themselves from time to time, and Alexander had paid money in hand to
+various individuals--Italians, Spaniards, Lorrainers; Scotchmen,
+Englishmen, who had generally spent the sums received without attempting
+the job. Others were supposed to be still engaged in the enterprise; and
+at that moment there were four persons--each unknown to the others, and
+of different nations--in the city of Delft, seeking to compass
+the death of William the Silent. Shag-eared, military, hirsute
+ruffians--ex-captains of free companies and such marauders--were daily
+offering their services; there was no lack of them, and they had done but
+little. How should Parma, seeing this obscures undersized, thin-bearded,
+runaway clerk before him, expect pith and energy from him? He thought him
+quite unfit for an enterprise of moment, and declared as much to his
+secret councillors and to the King.
+
+He soon dismissed him, after receiving his letters; and it may be
+supposed that the bombastic style of that epistle would not efface the
+unfavorable impression produced by Balthazar's exterior. The
+representations of Haultepenne and others induced him so far to modify
+his views as to send his confidential councillor, d'Assonleville, to the
+stranger, in order to learn the details of the scheme. Assonleville had
+accordingly an interview with Gerard, in which he requested the young man
+to draw up a statement of his plan in writing, ani this was done upon the
+11th of April, 1584.
+
+In this letter Gerard explained his plan of introducing himself to the
+notice of Orange, at Delft, as the son of an executed Calvinist; as
+himself warmly, though secretly, devoted to the Reformed faith, and as
+desirous, therefore, of placing himself in the Prince's service, in order
+to avoid the insolence of the Papists. Having gained the confidence of
+those about the Prince, he would suggest to them the great use which
+might be made of Mansfeld's signet in forging passports for spies and
+other persons whom it might be desirous to send into the territory of the
+royalists. "With these or similar feints and frivolities," continued
+Gerard, "he should soon obtain access to the person of the said Nassau,"
+repeating his protestation that nothing had moved him to his enterprise
+"save the good zeal which he bore to the faith and true religion guarded
+by the Holy Mother Church Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman, and to the
+service of his Majesty." He begged pardon for having purloined the
+impressions of the seals--a turpitude which he would never have
+committed, but would sooner have suffered a thousand deaths, except for
+the great end in view. He particularly wished forgiveness for that crime
+before going to his task, "in order that he might confess, and receive
+the holy communion at the coming Easter, without scruples of conscience."
+He likewise begged the Prince of Parma to obtain for him absolution from
+his Holiness for this crime of pilfering--the more so "as he was about to
+keep company for some time with heretics and atheists, and in some sort
+to conform himself to their customs."
+
+From the general tone of the letters of Gerard, he might be set down at
+once as a simple, religious fanatic, who felt sure that, in executing the
+command of Philip publicly issued to all the murderers of Europe, he was
+meriting well of God and his King. There is no doubt that he was an
+exalted enthusiast, but not purely an enthusiast. The man's character
+offers more than one point of interest, as a psychological phenomenon. He
+had convinced himself that the work which he had in hand was eminently
+meritorious, and he was utterly without fear of consequences. He was,
+however, by no means so disinterested as he chose to represent himself in
+letters which, as he instinctively felt, were to be of perennial
+interest. On the contrary, in his interviews with Assonleville, he urged
+that he was a poor fellow, and that he had undertaken this enterprise in
+order to acquire property--to make himself rich--and that he depended
+upon the Prince of Parma's influence in obtaining the reward promised by
+the Ban to the individual who should put Orange to death.
+
+This second letter decided Parma so far that he authorized Assonleville
+to encourage the young man in his attempt, and to promise that the reward
+should be given to him in case of success, and to his heirs in the event
+of his death. Assonleville, in the second interview, accordingly made
+known these assurances in the strongest manner to Gerard, warning him, at
+the same time, on no account; if arrested, to inculpate the Prince of
+Parma. The councillor, while thus exhorting the stranger, according to
+Alexander's commands, confined himself, however, to generalities,
+refusing even to advance fifty crowns, which Balthazar had begged from
+the Governor-General in order to provide for the necessary expenses of
+his project. Parma had made similar advances too often to men who had
+promised to assassinate the Prince and had then done little, and he was
+resolute in his refusal to this new adventurer, of whom he expected
+absolutely nothing. Gerard, notwithstanding this rebuff, was not
+disheartened. "I will provide myself out of my own purse," said he to
+Assonleville, "and within six weeks you will hear of me."--"Go forth, my
+son," said Assonleville, paternally, upon this spirited reply, "and if
+you succeed in your enterprise, the King will fulfil all his promises,
+and you will gain an immortal name beside."
+
+The "inveterate deliberation," thus thoroughly matured, Gerard now
+proceeded to carry into effect. He came to Delft; obtained a hearing of
+Millers, the clergyman and intimate friend of Orange, showed him the
+Mansfeld seals, and was, somewhat against his will, sent to France, to
+exhibit them to Marechal Biron, who, it was thought, was soon to be
+appointed governor of Cambray. Through Orange's recommendation, the
+Burgundian was received into the suite of Noel de Caron, Seigneur de
+Schoneval, then setting forth on a special mission to the Duke of Anjou.
+While in France, Gerard could rest neither by day nor night, so tormented
+was he by the desire of accomplishing his project, and at length he
+obtained permission, upon the death of the Duke, to carry this important
+intelligence to the Prince of Orange. The despatches having been
+entrusted to him, he travelled posthaste to Delft, and, to his
+astonishment, the letters had hardly been delivered before he was
+summoned in person to the chamber of the Prince. Here was an opportunity
+such as he had never dared to hope for. The arch-enemy to the Church and
+to the human race, whose death, would confer upon his destroyer wealth
+and nobility in this world, besides a crown of glory in the next, lay
+unarmed, alone, in bed, before the man who had thirsted seven long years
+for his blood.
+
+Balthazar could scarcely control his emotions sufficiently to answer the
+questions which the Prince addressed to him concerning the death of
+Anjou, but Orange, deeply engaged with the despatches, and with the
+reflections which their deeply-important contents suggested, did not
+observe the countenance of the humble Calvinist exile, who had been
+recently recommended to his patronage by Millers. Gerard, had, moreover,
+made no preparation for an interview so entirely unexpected, had come
+unarmed, and had formed no plan for escape. He was obliged to forego his
+prey when most within his reach, and after communicating all the
+information which the Prince required, he was dismissed from the chamber.
+
+It was Sunday morning, and the bells were tolling for church. Upon
+leaving the house he loitered about the courtyard, furtively examining
+the premises, so that a sergeant of halberdiers asked him why he was
+waiting there. Balthazar meekly replied that he was desirous of attending
+divine worship in the church opposite, but added, pointing to, his shabby
+and travel-stained attire, that, without at least a new pair of shoes and
+stockings, he was unfit to join the congregation. Insignificant as ever,
+the small, pious, dusty stranger excited no suspicion in the mind of the
+good-natured sergeant. He forthwith spoke of the wants of Gerard to an
+officer, by whom they were communicated to Orange himself, and the Prince
+instantly ordered a sum of money to be given him. Thus Balthazar obtained
+from William's charity what Parma's thrift had denied--a fund for
+carrying out his purpose.
+
+Next morning, with the money thus procured he purchased a pair of
+pistols, or small carabines, from a soldier, chaffering long about the
+price because the vender could not supply a particular kind of chopped
+bullets or slugs which he desired. Before the sunset of the following day
+that soldier had stabbed himself to the heart, and died despairing, on
+hearing for what purpose the pistols had been bought.
+
+On Tuesday, the 10th of July, 1584, at about half-past twelve, the
+Prince, with his wife on his arm, and followed by the ladies and
+gentlemen of his family, was going to the dining-room. William the Silent
+was dressed upon that day, according to his usual custom, in very plain
+fashion. He wore a wide-leaved, loosely-shaped hat of dark felt; with a
+silken cord round the crown-such as had been worn by the Beggars in the
+early days of the revolt. A high ruff encircled his neck, from which also
+depended one of the Beggar's medals, with the motto, "Fideles au roy
+jusqu'a la besace," while a loose surcoat of grey frieze cloth, over a
+tawny leather doublet, with wide, slashed underclothes completed his
+costume. Gerard presented himself at the doorway, and demanded a
+passport. The Princess, struck with the pale and agitated countenance of
+the man, anxiously questioned her husband concerning the stranger. The
+Prince carelessly observed that "it was merely a person who came for a
+passport," ordering, at the same time, a secretary forthwith to prepare
+one. The Princess, still not relieved, observed in an under-tone that
+"she had never seen so villainous a countenance." Orange, however, not at
+all impressed with the appearance of Gerard, conducted himself at table
+with his usual cheerfulness, conversing much with the burgomaster of
+Leewarden, the only guest present at the family dinner, concerning the
+political and religious aspects of Friesland. At two o'clock the company
+rose from table. The Prince led the way, intending to pass to his private
+apartments above. The dining-room, which was on the ground floor, opened
+into a little square vestibule, which communicated, through an arched
+passageway, with the main entrance into the court-yard. This vestibule
+was also directly at the foot of the wooden staircase leading to the next
+floor, and was scarcely six feet in width. Upon its left side, as one
+approached the stairway, was an obscure arch, sunk deep in the wall, and
+completely in the shadow of the door. Behind this arch a portal opened to
+the narrow lane at the side of the house. The stairs themselves were
+completely lighted by a large window, half way up the flight. The Prince
+came from the dining-room, and began leisurely to ascend. He had only
+reached the second stair, when a man emerged from the sunken arch, and,
+standing within a foot or two of him, discharged a pistol full at his
+heart. Three balls entered his body, one of which, passing quite through
+him, struck with violence against the wall beyond. The Prince exclaimed
+in French, as he felt the wound, "O my God; have mercy upon my soul! O my
+God, have mercy upon this poor people."
+
+These were the last words he ever spoke, save that when his sister,
+Catherine of Schwartzburg, immediately afterwards asked him if he
+commended his soul to Jesus Christ, he faintly answered, "Yes." His
+master of the horse, Jacob van Maldere, had caught him in his arms as the
+fatal shot was fired. The Prince was then placed on the stairs for an
+instant, when he immediately began to swoon. He was afterwards laid upon
+a couch in the dining-room, where in a few minutes, he breathed his last
+in the arms of his wife and sister.
+
+The murderer succeeded in making his escape through the side door, and
+sped swiftly up the narrow lane. He had almost reached the ramparts, from
+which he intended to spring into the moat, when he stumbled over a heap
+of rubbish. As he rose, he was seized by several pages and halberdiers,
+who had pursued him from the house. He had dropped his pistols upon the
+spot where he had committed the crime, and upon his person were found a
+couple, of bladders, provided with apiece of pipe with which he had
+intended to assist himself across the moat, beyond which a horse was
+waiting for him. He made no effort to deny his identity, but boldly
+avowed himself and his deed. He was brought back to the house, where he
+immediately underwent a preliminary examination before the city
+magistrates. He was afterwards subjected to excruciating tortures; for
+the fury against the wretch who had destroyed the Father of the country
+was uncontrollable, and William the Silent was no longer alive to
+intercede--as he had often done before--in behalf of those who assailed
+his life.
+
+The organization of Balthazar Gerard would furnish a subject of profound
+study, both for the physiologist and the metaphysician. Neither wholly a
+fanatic, nor entirely a ruffian, he combined the most dangerous elements
+of both characters. In his puny body and mean exterior were enclosed
+considerable mental powers and accomplishments, a daring ambition, and a
+courage almost superhuman. Yet those qualities led him only to form upon
+the threshold of life a deliberate determination to achieve greatness by
+the assassin's trade. The rewards held out by the Ban, combining with his
+religious bigotry and his passion for distinction, fixed all his energies
+with patient concentration upon the one great purpose for which he seemed
+to have been born, and after seven years' preparation, he had at last
+fulfilled his design.
+
+Upon being interrogated by the magistrates, he manifested neither despair
+nor contrition, but rather a quiet exultation. "Like David," he said, "he
+had slain Goliath of Gath."
+
+When falsely informed that his victim was not dead, he showed no
+credulity or disappointment. He had discharged three poisoned balls into
+the Prince's stomach, and he knew that death must have already ensued. He
+expressed regret, however, that the resistance of the halberdiers had
+prevented him from using his second pistol, and avowed that if he were a
+thousand leagues away he would return in order to do the deed again, if
+possible. He deliberately wrote a detailed confession of his crime, and
+of the motives and manner of its commission, taking care, however, not to
+implicate Parma in the transaction. After sustaining day after day the
+most horrible tortures, he subsequently related his interviews with
+Assonleville and with the president of the Jesuit college at Treves
+adding that he had been influenced in his work by the assurance of
+obtaining the rewards promised by the Ban. During the intervals of repose
+from the rack he conversed with ease, and even eloquence, answering all
+questions addressed to him with apparent sincerity. His constancy in
+suffering so astounded his judges that they believed him supported by
+witchcraft. "Ecce homo!" he exclaimed, from time to time, with insane
+blasphemy, as he raised his blood-streaming head from the bench. In order
+to destroy the charm which seemed to render him insensible to pain, they
+sent for the shirt of a hospital patient, supposed to be a sorcerer. When
+clothed in this garment, however, Balthazar was none the less superior to
+the arts of the tormentors, enduring all their inflictions, according to
+an eye-witness, "without once exclaiming, Ah me!" and avowing that he
+would repeat his enterprise, if possible, were he to die a thousand
+deaths in consequence. Some of those present refused to believe that he
+was a man at all. Others asked him how long since he had sold himself to
+the Devil? to which he replied, mildly, that he had no acquaintance
+whatever with the Devil. He thanked the judges politely for the food
+which he received in prison, and promised to recompense them for the
+favor. Upon being asked how that was possible, he replied; that he would
+serve as their advocate in Paradise.
+
+The sentence pronounced against the assassin was execrable--a crime
+against the memory of the great man whom it professed to avenge. It was
+decreed that the right hand of Gerard should be burned off with a red-hot
+iron, that his flesh should be torn from his bones with pincers in six
+different places, that he should be quartered and disembowelled alive,
+that his heart should be torn from his bosom and flung in his face, and
+that, finally, his head should be taken off. Not even his horrible crime,
+with its endless consequences, nor the natural frenzy of indignation
+which it had excited, could justify this savage decree, to rebuke which
+the murdered hero might have almost risen from the sleep of death. The
+sentence was literally executed on the 14th of July, the criminal
+supporting its horrors with the same astonishing fortitude. So calm were
+his nerves, crippled and half roasted as he was ere he mounted the
+scaffold, that when one of the executioners was slightly injured in the
+ear by the flying from the handle of the hammer with which he was
+breaking the fatal pistol in pieces, as the first step in the
+execution--a circumstance which produced a general laugh in the crowd--a
+smile was observed upon Balthazar's face in sympathy with the general
+hilarity. His lips were seen to move up to the moment when his heart was
+thrown in his face--"Then," said a looker-on, "he gave up the ghost."
+
+The reward promised by Philip to the man who should murder Orange was
+paid to the heirs of Gerard. Parma informed his sovereign that the "poor
+man" had been executed, but that his father and mother were still living;
+to whom he recommended the payment of that "merced" which "the laudable
+and generous deed had so well deserved." This was accordingly done, and
+the excellent parents, ennobled and enriched by the crime of their son,
+received instead of the twenty-five thousand crowns promised in the Ban,
+the three seignories of Lievremont, Hostal, and Dampmartin in the Franche
+Comte, and took their place at once among the landed aristocracy. Thus
+the bounty of the Prince had furnished the weapon by which his life was
+destroyed, and his estates supplied the fund out of which the assassin's
+family received the price of blood. At a later day, when the unfortunate
+eldest son of Orange returned from Spain after twenty-seven years'
+absence, a changeling and a Spaniard, the restoration of those very
+estates was offered to him by Philip the Second, provided he would
+continue to pay a fixed proportion of their rents to the family of his
+father's murderer. The education which Philip William had received, under
+the King's auspices, had however, not entirely destroyed all his human
+feelings, and he rejected the proposal with scorn. The estates remained
+with the Gerard family, and the patents of nobility which they had
+received were used to justify their exemption from certain taxes, until
+the union of Franche Comte, with France, when a French governor tore the
+documents in pieces and trampled them under foot.
+
+William of Orange, at the period of his death, was aged fifty-one years
+and sixteen days. He left twelve children. By his first wife, Anne of
+Egmont, he had one son, Philip, and one daughter, Mary, afterwards
+married to Count Hohenlo. By his second wife, Anna of Saxony; he had one
+son, the celebrated Maurice of Nassau, and two daughters, Anna, married
+afterwards to her cousin, Count William Louis, and Emilie, who espoused
+the Pretender of Portugal, Prince Emanuel. By Charlotte of Bourbon, his
+third wife, he had six daughters; and by his fourth, Louisa de Coligny,
+one son, Frederic William, afterwards stadholder of the Republic in her
+most palmy days. The Prince was entombed on the 3rd of August, at Delft,
+amid the tears of a whole nation. Never was a more extensive, unaffected,
+and legitimate sorrow felt at the death of any human being.
+
+The life and labors of Orange had established the emancipated
+common-wealth upon a secure foundation, but his death rendered the union
+of all the Netherlands into one republic hopeless. The efforts of the
+Malcontent nobles, the religious discord, the consummate ability, both
+political and military, of Parma, all combined with the lamentable loss
+of William the Silent to separate for ever the southern and Catholic
+provinces from the northern confederacy. So long as the Prince remained
+alive, he was the Father of the whole country; the Netherlands--saving
+only the two Walloon provinces--constituting a whole. Notwithstanding the
+spirit of faction and the blight of the long civil war, there was at
+least one country; or the hope of a country, one strong heart, one
+guiding head, for the patriotic party throughout the land. Philip and
+Granvelle were right in their estimate of the advantage to be derived
+from the Prince's death, in believing that an assassin's hand could
+achieve more than all the wiles which Spanish or Italian statesmanship
+could teach, or all the armies which Spain or Italy could muster. The
+pistol of the insignificant Gerard destroyed the possibility of a united
+Netherland state, while during the life of William there was union in the
+policy, unity in the history of the country.
+
+In the following year, Antwerp, hitherto the centre around which all the
+national interests and historical events group themselves, fell before
+the scientific efforts of Parma. The city which had so long been the
+freest, as well as the most opulent, capital in Europe, sank for ever to
+the position of a provincial town. With its fall, combined with other
+circumstances, which it is not necessary to narrate in anticipation, the
+final separation of the Netherlands was completed. On the other hand, at
+the death of Orange, whose formal inauguration as sovereign Count had not
+yet taken place, the states of Holland and Zealand reassumed the
+Sovereignty. The commonwealth which William had liberated for ever from
+Spanish tyranny continued to exist as a great and flourishing republic
+during more than two centuries, under the successive stadholderates of
+his sons and descendants.
+
+His life gave existence to an independent country--his death defined its
+limits. Had he lived twenty years longer, it is probable that the seven
+provinces would have been seventeen; and that the Spanish title would
+have been for ever extinguished both in Nether Germany and Celtic Gaul.
+Although there was to be the length of two human generations more of
+warfare ere Spain acknowledged the new government, yet before the
+termination of that period the United States had become the first naval
+power and one of the most considerable commonwealths in the world; while
+the civil and religious liberty, the political independence of the land,
+together with the total expulsion of the ancient foreign tyranny from the
+soil, had been achieved ere the eyes of William were closed. The republic
+existed, in fact, from the moment of the abjuration in 1581.
+
+The most important features of the polity which thus assumed a prominent
+organization have been already indicated. There was no revolution, no
+radical change. The ancient rugged tree of Netherland liberty--with its
+moss-grown trunk, gnarled branches, and deep-reaching roots--which had
+been slowly growing for ages, was still full of sap, and was to deposit
+for centuries longer its annual rings of consolidated and concentric
+strength. Though lopped of some luxuriant boughs, it was sound at the
+core, and destined for a still larger life than even in the healthiest
+moments of its mediveval existence.
+
+The history of the rise of the Netherland Republic has been at the same
+time the biography of William the Silent. This, while it gives unity to
+the narrative, renders an elaborate description of his character
+superfluous. That life was a noble Christian epic; inspired with one
+great purpose from its commencement to its close; the stream flowing ever
+from one fountain with expanding fulness, but retaining all its original
+pity. A few general observations are all which are necessary by way of
+conclusion.
+
+In person, Orange was above the middle height, perfectly well made and
+sinewy, but rather spare than stout. His eyes, hair, beard, and
+complexion were brown. His head was small, symmetrically-shaped,
+combining the alertness and compactness characteristic of the soldier;
+with the capacious brow furrowed prematurely with the horizontal lines of
+thought, denoting the statesman and the sage. His physical appearance
+was, therefore, in harmony, with his organization, which was of antique
+model. Of his moral qualities, the most prominent was his piety. He was
+more than anything else a religious man. From his trust in God, he ever
+derived support and consolation in the darkest hours. Implicitly relying
+upon Almighty wisdom and goodness, he looked danger in the face with a
+constant smile, and endured incessant labors and trials with a serenity
+which seemed more than human. While, however, his soul was full of piety,
+it was tolerant of error. Sincerely and deliberately himself a convert to
+the Reformed Church, he was ready to extend freedom of worship to
+Catholics on the one hand, and to Anabaptists on the other, for no man
+ever felt more keenly than he, that the Reformer who becomes in his turn
+a bigot is doubly odious.
+
+His firmness was allied to his piety. His constancy in bearing the whole
+weight of struggle as unequal as men have ever undertaken, was the theme
+of admiration even to his enemies. The rock in the ocean, "tranquil amid
+raging billows," was the favorite emblem by which his friends expressed,
+their sense of his firmness. From the time when, as a hostage in France,
+he first discovered the plan of Philip to plant the Inquisition in the
+Netherlands, up to the last moment of his life, he never faltered in his
+determination to resist that iniquitous scheme. This resistance was the
+labor of his life. To exclude the Inquisition; to maintain the ancient
+liberties of his country, was the task which he appointed to himself
+when a youth of three-and-twenty. Never speaking a word concerning a
+heavenly mission, never deluding himself or others with the usual
+phraseology of enthusiasts, he accomplished the task, through danger,
+amid toils, and with sacrifices such as few men have ever been able to
+make on their country's altar; for the disinterested benevolence of the
+man was as prominent as his fortitude. A prince of high rank, and, with
+royal revenues, he stripped himself of station, wealth, almost at times
+of the common necessaries of life, and became, in his country's cause,
+nearly a beggar as well as an outlaw. Nor was he forced into his career
+by an accidental impulse from which there was no recovery. Retreat was
+ever open to him. Not only pardon but advancement was urged upon him
+again and again. Officially and privately, directly and circuitously, his
+confiscated estates, together with indefinite and boundless favors in
+addition, were offered to him on every great occasion. On the arrival of
+Don John, at the Breda negotiations, at the Cologne conferences, we have
+seen how calmly these offers were waved aside, as if their rejection was
+so simple that it hardly required many words for its signification, yet
+he had mortgaged his estates so deeply that his heirs hesitated at
+accepting their inheritance, for fear it should involve them in debt. Ten
+years after his death, the account between his executors and his brother
+John amounted to one million four hundred thousand florins--due to the
+Count, secured by various pledges of real and personal property; and it
+was finally settled upon this basis. He was besides largely indebted to
+every one of his powerful relatives, so that the payment of the
+incumbrances upon his estate very nearly justified the fears of his
+children. While on the one hand, therefore, he poured out these enormous
+sums like water, and firmly refused a hearing to the tempting offers of
+the royal government, upon the other hand he proved the disinterested
+nature of his services by declining, year after year, the sovereignty
+over the provinces; and by only accepting, in the last days of his life,
+when refusal had become almost impossible, the limited, constitutional
+supremacy over that portion of them which now makes the realm of his
+descendants. He lived and died, not for himself, but for his country:
+"God pity this poor people!" were his dying words.
+
+His intellectual faculties were various and of the highest order. He had
+the exact, practical, and combining qualities which make the great
+commander, and his friends claimed that, in military genius, he was
+second to no captain in Europe. This was, no doubt, an exaggeration of
+partial attachment, but it is certain that the Emperor Charles had an
+exalted opinion of his capacity for the field. His fortification of
+Philippeville and Charlemont, in the face of the enemy his passage of the
+Meuse in Alva's sight--his unfortunate but well-ordered campaign against
+that general--his sublime plan of relief, projected and successfully
+directed at last from his sick bed, for the besieged city of Leyden--will
+always remain monuments of his practical military skill.
+
+Of the soldier's great virtues--constancy in disaster, devotion to duty,
+hopefulness in defeat--no man ever possessed a larger share. He arrived,
+through a series of reverses, at a perfect victory. He planted a free
+commonwealth under the very battery of the Inquisition, in defiance of
+the most powerful empire existing. He was therefore a conqueror in the
+loftiest sense, for he conquered liberty and a national existence for a
+whole people. The contest was long, and he fell in the struggle, but the
+victory was to the dead hero, not to the living monarch. It is to be
+remembered, too, that he always wrought with inferior instruments. His
+troops were usually mercenaries, who were but too apt to mutiny upon the
+eve of battle, while he was opposed by the most formidable veterans of
+Europe, commanded successively by the first captains of the age. That,
+with no lieutenant of eminent valor or experience, save only his brother
+Louis, and with none at all after that chieftain's death, William of
+Orange should succeed in baffling the efforts of Alva, Requesens, Don
+John of Austria, and Alexander Farnese--men whose names are among the
+most brilliant in the military annals of the world--is in itself,
+sufficient evidence of his warlike ability. At the period of his death he
+had reduced the number of obedient provinces to two; only Artois and
+Hainault acknowledging Philip, while the other fifteen were in open
+revolt, the greater part having solemnly forsworn their sovereign.
+
+The supremacy of his political genius was entirely beyond question. He
+was the first statesman of the age. The quickness of his perception was
+only equalled by the caution which enabled him to mature the results of
+his observations. His knowledge of human nature was profound. He governed
+the passions and sentiments of a great nation as if they had been but the
+keys and chords of one vast instrument; and his hand rarely failed to
+evoke harmony even out of the wildest storms. The turbulent city of
+Ghent, which could obey no other master, which even the haughty Emperor
+could only crush without controlling, was ever responsive to the
+master-hand of Orange. His presence scared away Imbize and his bat-like
+crew, confounded the schemes of John Casimir, frustrated the wiles of
+Prince Chimay, and while he lived, Ghent was what it ought always to have
+remained, the bulwark, as it had been the cradle, of popular liberty.
+After his death it became its tomb.
+
+Ghent, saved thrice by the policy, the eloquence, the self-sacrifices of
+Orange, fell within three months of his murder into the hands of Parma.
+The loss of this most important city, followed in the next year by the
+downfall of Antwerp, sealed the fate of the Southern Netherlands. Had the
+Prince lived, how different might have been the country's fate! If seven
+provinces could dilate, in so brief a space, into the powerful
+commonwealth which the Republic soon became, what might not have been
+achieved by the united seventeen; a confederacy which would have united
+the adamantine vigor of the Batavian and Frisian races with the subtler,
+more delicate, and more graceful national elements in which the genius of
+the Frank, the Roman, and the Romanized Celt were so intimately blended.
+As long as the Father of the country lived, such a union was possible.
+His power of managing men was so unquestionable, that there was always a
+hope, even in the darkest hour, for men felt implicit reliance, as well
+on his intellectual resources as on his integrity.
+
+This power of dealing with his fellow-men he manifested in the various
+ways in which it has been usually exhibited by statesmen. He possessed a
+ready eloquence--sometimes impassioned, oftener argumentative, always
+rational. His influence over his audience was unexampled in the annals of
+that country or age; yet he never condescended to flatter the people. He
+never followed the nation, but always led her in the path of duty and of
+honor, and was much more prone to rebuke the vices than to pander to the
+passions of his hearers. He never failed to administer ample chastisement
+to parsimony, to jealousy, to insubordination, to intolerance, to
+infidelity, wherever it was due, nor feared to confront the states or the
+people in their most angry hours, and to tell them the truth to their
+faces. This commanding position he alone could stand upon, for his
+countrymen knew the generosity which had sacrificed his all for them, the
+self-denial which had eluded rather than sought political advancement,
+whether from king or people, and the untiring devotion which had
+consecrated a whole life to toil and danger in the cause of their
+emancipation. While, therefore, he was ever ready to rebuke, and always
+too honest to flatter, he at the same time possessed the eloquence which
+could convince or persuade. He knew how to reach both the mind and the
+heart of his hearers. His orations, whether extemporaneous or
+prepared--his written messages to the states-general, to the provincial
+authorities, to the municipal bodies--his private correspondence with men
+of all ranks, from emperors and kings down to secretaries, and even
+children--all show an easy flow of language, a fulness of thought, a
+power of expression rare in that age, a fund of historical allusion, a
+considerable power of imagination, a warmth of sentiment, a breadth of
+view, a directness of purpose--a range of qualities, in short, which
+would in themselves have stamped him as one of the master-minds of his
+century, had there been no other monument to his memory than the remains
+of his spoken or written eloquence. The bulk of his performances in this
+department was prodigious. Not even Philip was more industrious in the
+cabinet. Not even Granvelle held a more facile pen. He wrote and spoke
+equally well in French German, or Flemish; and he possessed, besides;
+Spanish, Italian, Latin. The weight of his correspondence alone would
+have almost sufficed for the common industry of a lifetime, and although
+many volumes of his speeches and, letters have been published, there
+remain in the various archives of the Netherlands and Germany many
+documents from his hand which will probably never see the light. If the
+capacity for unremitted intellectual labor in an honorable cause be the
+measure of human greatness, few minds could be compared to the "large
+composition" of this man. The efforts made to destroy the Netherlands by
+the most laborious and painstaking of tyrants were counteracted by the
+industry of the most indefatigable of patriots.
+
+Thus his eloquence, oral or written, gave him almost boundless power over
+his countrymen. He possessed, also, a rare perception of human character,
+together with an iron memory which never lost a face, a place, or an
+event, once seen or known. He read the minds even the faces of men, like
+printed books. No man could overreach him, excepting only those to whom
+he gave his heart. He might be mistaken where he had confided, never
+where he had been distrustful or indifferent. He was deceived by
+Renneberg, by his brother-in-law Van den Berg, by the Duke of Anjou. Had
+it been possible for his brother Louis or his brother John to have proved
+false, he might have been deceived by them. He was never outwitted by
+Philip, or Granvelle, or Don John, or Alexander of Parma. Anna of Saxony
+was false to him; and entered into correspondence with the royal
+governors and with the King of Spain; Charlotte of Bourbon or Louisa de
+Coligny might have done the same had it been possible for their natures
+also to descend to such depths of guile.
+
+As for the Aerschots, the Havres, the Chimays, he was never influenced
+either by their blandishments or their plots. He was willing to use them
+when their interest made them friendly, or to crush them when their
+intrigues against his policy rendered them dangerous. The adroitness with
+which he converted their schemes in behalf of Matthias, of Don John, of
+Anjou, into so many additional weapons for his own cause, can never be
+too often studied. It is instructive to observe the wiles of the
+Macchiavelian school employed by a master of the craft, to frustrate, not
+to advance, a knavish purpose. This character, in a great measure, marked
+his whole policy. He was profoundly skilled in the subtleties of Italian
+statesmanship, which he had learned as a youth at the Imperial court, and
+which he employed in his manhood in the service, not of tyranny, but of
+liberty. He fought the Inquisition with its own weapons. He dealt with
+Philip on his own ground. He excavated the earth beneath the King's feet
+by a more subtle process than that practised by the most fraudulent
+monarch that ever governed the Spanish empire, and Philip, chain-mailed
+as he was in complicated wiles, was pierced to the quick by a keener
+policy than his own.
+
+Ten years long the King placed daily his most secret letters in hands
+which regularly transmitted copies of the correspondence to the Prince of
+Orange, together with a key to the ciphers and every other illustration
+which might be required. Thus the secrets of the King were always as well
+known to Orange as to himself; and the Prince being as prompt as Philip
+was hesitating, the schemes could often be frustrated before their
+execution had been commenced. The crime of the unfortunate clerk, John de
+Castillo, was discovered in the autumn of the year 1581, and he was torn
+to pieces by four horses. Perhaps his treason to the monarch whose bread
+he was eating, while he received a regular salary from the King's most
+determined foe, deserved even this horrible punishment, but casuists must
+determine how much guilt attaches to the Prince for his share in the
+transaction. This history is not the eulogy of Orange, although, in
+discussing his character, it is difficult to avoid the monotony of
+panegyric. Judged by a severe moral standard, it cannot be called
+virtuous or honorable to suborn treachery or any other crime, even to
+accomplish a lofty purpose; yet the universal practice of mankind in all
+ages has tolerated the artifices of war, and no people has ever engaged
+in a holier or more mortal contest than did the Netherlands in their
+great struggle with Spain. Orange possessed the rare quality of caution,
+a characteristic by which he was distinguished from his youth. At fifteen
+he was the confidential counsellor, as at twenty-one he became the
+general-in-chief, to the most politic, as well as the most warlike
+potentate of his age, and if he at times indulged in wiles which modern
+statesmanship, even while it practises, condemns, he ever held in his
+hand the clue of an honorable purpose to guide him through the tortuous
+labyrinth.
+
+It is difficult to find any other characteristic deserving of grave
+censure, but his enemies have adopted a simpler process. They have been
+able to find few flaws in his nature, and therefore have denounced it in
+gross. It is not that his character was here and there defective, but
+that the eternal jewel was false. The patriotism was counterfeit; the
+self-abnegation and the generosity were counterfeit. He was governed only
+by ambition--by a desire of personal advancement. They never attempted to
+deny his talents, his industry, his vast sacrifices of wealth and
+station; but they ridiculed the idea that he could have been inspired by
+any but unworthy motives. God alone knows the heart of man. He alone can
+unweave the tangled skein of human motives, and detect the hidden springs
+of human action, but as far as can be judged by a careful observation of
+undisputed facts, and by a diligent collation of public and private
+documents, it would seem that no man--not even Washington--has ever been
+inspired by a purer patriotism. At any rate, the charge of ambition and
+self-seeking can only be answered by a reference to the whole picture
+which these volumes have attempted to portray. The words, the deeds of
+the man are there. As much as possible, his inmost soul is revealed in
+his confidential letters, and he who looks in a right spirit will hardly
+fail to find what he desires.
+
+Whether originally of a timid temperament or not, he was certainly
+possessed of perfect courage at last. In siege and battle--in the deadly
+air of pestilential cities--in the long exhaustion of mind and body which
+comes from unduly protracted labor and anxiety--amid the countless
+conspiracies of assassins--he was daily exposed to death in every shape.
+Within two years, five different attempts against his life had been
+discovered. Rank and fortune were offered to any malefactor who would
+compass the murder. He had already been shot through the head, and almost
+mortally wounded. Under such circumstances even a brave man might have
+seen a pitfall at every step, a dagger in every hand, and poison in every
+cup. On the contrary, he was ever cheerful, and hardly took more
+precaution than usual. "God in his mercy," said he, with unaffected
+simplicity, "will maintain my innocence and my honor during my life and
+in future ages. As to my fortune and my life, I have dedicated both, long
+since, to His service. He will do therewith what pleases Him for His
+glory and my salvation." Thus his suspicions were not even excited by the
+ominous face of Gerard, when he first presented himself at the
+dining-room door. The Prince laughed off his wife's prophetic
+apprehension at the sight of his murderer, and was as cheerful as usual
+to the last.
+
+He possessed, too, that which to the heathen philosopher seemed the
+greatest good--the sound mind in the sound body. His physical frame was
+after death found so perfect that a long life might have been in store
+for him, notwithstanding all which he had endured. The desperate illness
+of 1574, the frightful gunshot wound inflicted by Jaureguy in 1582, had
+left no traces. The physicians pronounced that his body presented an
+aspect of perfect health. His temperament was cheerful. At table, the
+pleasures of which, in moderation, were his only relaxation, he was
+always animated and merry, and this jocoseness was partly natural, partly
+intentional. In the darkest hours of his country's trial, he affected a
+serenity which he was far from feeling, so that his apparent gaiety at
+momentous epochs was even censured by dullards, who could not comprehend
+its philosophy, nor applaud the flippancy of William the Silent.
+
+He went through life bearing the load of a people's sorrows upon his
+shoulders with a smiling face. Their name was the last word upon his
+lips, save the simple affirmative, with which the soldier who had been
+battling for the right all his lifetime, commended his soul in dying "to
+his great captain, Christ." The people were grateful and affectionate,
+for they trusted the character of their "Father William," and not all the
+clouds which calumny could collect ever dimmed to their eyes the radiance
+of that lofty mind to which they were accustomed, in their darkest
+calamities, to look for light. As long as he lived, he was the
+guiding-star of a whole brave nation, and when he died the little
+children cried in the streets.
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     Bribed the Deity
+     Forgiving spirit on the part of the malefactor
+     Great error of despising their enemy
+     Mistake to stumble a second time over the same stone
+     Modern statesmanship, even while it practises, condemns
+     Preferred an open enemy to a treacherous protector
+     Reformer who becomes in his turn a bigot is doubly odious
+     Unremitted intellectual labor in an honorable cause
+     Usual phraseology of enthusiasts
+     Writing letters full of injured innocence
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS, RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC, 1574-84
+
+     A terrible animal, indeed, is an unbridled woman
+     A good lawyer is a bad Christian
+     A most fatal success
+     A common hatred united them, for a time at least
+     Absurd affectation of candor
+     Agreements were valid only until he should repent
+     All the majesty which decoration could impart
+     All Protestants were beheaded, burned, or buried alive
+     All claimed the privilege of persecuting
+     Always less apt to complain of irrevocable events
+     Amuse them with this peace negotiation
+     Are apt to discharge such obligations--(by) ingratitude
+     Arrive at their end by fraud, when violence will not avail them
+     As the old woman had told the Emperor Adrian
+     Attachment to a half-drowned land and to a despised religion
+     Barbara Blomberg, washerwoman of Ratisbon
+     Beautiful damsel, who certainly did not lack suitors
+     Believed in the blessed advent of peace
+     Blessing of God upon the Devil's work
+     Breath, time, and paper were profusely wasted and nothing gained
+     Bribed the Deity
+     Care neither for words nor menaces in any matter
+     Character of brave men to act, not to expect
+     Claimed the praise of moderation that their demands were so few
+     Colonel Ysselstein, "dismissed for a homicide or two"
+     Compassing a country's emancipation through a series of defeats
+     Conflicting claims of prerogative and conscience
+     Confused conferences, where neither party was entirely sincere
+     Country would bear his loss with fortitude
+     Customary oaths, to be kept with the customary conscientiousness
+     Daily widening schism between Lutherans and Calvinists
+     Deadliest of sins, the liberty of conscience
+     Difficult for one friend to advise another in three matters
+     Distinguished for his courage, his cruelty, and his corpulence
+     Don John of Austria
+     Don John was at liberty to be King of England and Scotland
+     Dying at so very inconvenient a moment
+     Eight thousand human beings were murdered
+     Establish not freedom for Calvinism, but freedom for conscience
+     Everything was conceded, but nothing was secured
+     Fanatics of the new religion denounced him as a godless man
+     Ferocity which even Christians could not have surpassed
+     Forgiving spirit on the part of the malefactor
+     Glory could be put neither into pocket nor stomach
+     God has given absolute power to no mortal man
+     Great error of despising their enemy
+     Happy to glass themselves in so brilliant a mirror
+     He had never enjoyed social converse, except at long intervals
+     He would have no Calvinist inquisition set up in its place
+     He would have no persecution of the opposite creed
+     His personal graces, for the moment, took the rank of virtues
+     Hope delayed was but a cold and meagre consolation
+     Human ingenuity to inflict human misery
+     I regard my country's profit, not my own
+     Imagined, and did the work of truth
+     In character and general talents he was beneath mediocrity
+     Indecision did the work of indolence
+     Insinuate that his orders had been hitherto misunderstood
+     It is not desirable to disturb much of that learned dust
+     Its humility, seemed sufficiently ironical
+     Judas Maccabaeus
+     King set a price upon his head as a rebel
+     Like a man holding a wolf by the ears
+     Local self-government which is the life-blood of liberty
+     Logical and historical argument of unmerciful length
+     Made no breach in royal and Roman infallibility
+     Mankind were naturally inclined to calumny
+     Men were loud in reproof, who had been silent
+     Mistake to stumble a second time over the same stone
+     Modern statesmanship, even while it practises, condemns
+     More easily, as he had no intention of keeping the promise
+     Natural to judge only by the result
+     Necessary to make a virtue of necessity
+     Neither wished the convocation, while both affected an eagerness
+     Neither ambitious nor greedy
+     No man ever understood the art of bribery more thoroughly
+     No authority over an army which they did not pay
+     No man could reveal secrets which he did not know
+     Not so successful as he was picturesque
+     Not upon words but upon actions
+     Not to fall asleep in the shade of a peace negotiation
+     Nothing was so powerful as religious difference
+     Of high rank but of lamentably low capacity
+     On the first day four thousand men and women were slaughtered
+     One-half to Philip and one-half to the Pope and Venice (slaves)
+     Our pot had not gone to the fire as often
+     Peace was desirable, it might be more dangerous than war
+     Peace, in reality, was war in its worst shape
+     Perfection of insolence
+     Plundering the country which they came to protect
+     Pope excommunicated him as a heretic
+     Power grudged rather than given to the deputies
+     Preferred an open enemy to a treacherous protector
+     Presumption in entitling themselves Christian
+     Preventing wrong, or violence, even towards an enemy
+     Proposition made by the wolves to the sheep, in the fable
+     Protect the common tranquillity by blood, purse, and life
+     Quite mistaken: in supposing himself the Emperor's child
+     Rebuked the bigotry which had already grown
+     Reformer who becomes in his turn a bigot is doubly odious
+     Reformers were capable of giving a lesson even to inquisitors
+     Republic, which lasted two centuries
+     Result was both to abandon the provinces and to offend Philip
+     Sentimentality that seems highly apocryphal
+     She knew too well how women were treated in that country
+     Superfluous sarcasm
+     Suppress the exercise of the Roman religion
+     Taxes upon income and upon consumption
+     The disunited provinces
+     The more conclusive arbitration of gunpowder
+     There is no man who does not desire to enjoy his own
+     They could not invent or imagine toleration
+     Those who "sought to swim between two waters"
+     Those who fish in troubled waters only to fill their own nets
+     Throw the cat against their legs
+     To hear the last solemn commonplaces
+     Toleration thought the deadliest heresy of all
+     Unduly dejected in adversity
+     Unremitted intellectual labor in an honorable cause
+     Usual phraseology of enthusiasts
+     Uunmeaning phrases of barren benignity
+     Volatile word was thought preferable to the permanent letter
+     Was it astonishing that murder was more common than fidelity?
+     Word-mongers who, could clothe one shivering thought
+     Worn crescents in their caps at Leyden
+     Worship God according to the dictates of his conscience
+     Writing letters full of injured innocence
+
+
+
+
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS THE DUTCH REPUBLIC, 1555-1584, Complete:
+
+     1566, the last year of peace
+     A country disinherited by nature of its rights
+     A pleasantry called voluntary contributions or benevolences
+     A good lawyer is a bad Christian
+     A terrible animal, indeed, is an unbridled woman
+     A common hatred united them, for a time at least
+     A most fatal success
+     Absolution for incest was afforded at thirty-six livres
+     Absurd affectation of candor
+     Achieved the greatness to which they had not been born
+     Advancing age diminished his tendency to other carnal pleasures
+     Advised his Majesty to bestow an annual bribe upon Lord Burleigh
+     Affecting to discredit them
+     Age when toleration was a vice
+     Agreements were valid only until he should repent
+     All offices were sold to the highest bidder
+     All denounced the image-breaking
+     All his disciples and converts are to be punished with death
+     All the majesty which decoration could impart
+     All reading of the scriptures (forbidden)
+     All Protestants were beheaded, burned, or buried alive
+     All claimed the privilege of persecuting
+     Altercation between Luther and Erasmus, upon predestination
+     Always less apt to complain of irrevocable events
+     Amuse them with this peace negotiation
+     An hereditary papacy, a perpetual pope-emperor
+     An inspiring and delightful recreation (auto-da-fe)
+     An age when to think was a crime
+     Angle with their dissimulation as with a hook
+     Announced his approaching marriage with the Virgin Mary
+     Annual harvest of iniquity by which his revenue was increased
+     Anxiety to do nothing wrong, the senators did nothing at all
+     Are apt to discharge such obligations--(by) ingratitude
+     Arrested on suspicion, tortured till confession
+     Arrive at their end by fraud, when violence will not avail them
+     As ready as papists, with age, fagot, and excommunication
+     As the old woman had told the Emperor Adrian
+     Attachment to a half-drowned land and to a despised religion
+     Attacking the authority of the pope
+     Attempting to swim in two waters
+     Barbara Blomberg, washerwoman of Ratisbon
+     Batavian legion was the imperial body guard
+     Beating the Netherlanders into Christianity
+     Beautiful damsel, who certainly did not lack suitors
+     Before morning they had sacked thirty churches
+     Beggars of the sea, as these privateersmen designated themselves
+     Believed in the blessed advent of peace
+     Bigotry which was the prevailing characteristic of the age
+     Bishop is a consecrated pirate
+     Blessing of God upon the Devil's work
+     Bold reformer had only a new dogma in place of the old ones
+     Breath, time, and paper were profusely wasted and nothing gained
+     Brethren, parents, and children, having wives in common
+     Bribed the Deity
+     Burned alive if they objected to transubstantiation
+     Burned, strangled, beheaded, or buried alive (100,000)
+     Business of an officer to fight, of a general to conquer
+     Care neither for words nor menaces in any matter
+     Character of brave men to act, not to expect
+     Charles the Fifth autocrat of half the world
+     Claimed the praise of moderation that their demands were so few
+     Colonel Ysselstein, "dismissed for a homicide or two"
+     Compassing a country's emancipation through a series of defeats
+     Conde and Coligny
+     Condemning all heretics to death
+     Conflicting claims of prerogative and conscience
+     Confused conferences, where neither party was entirely sincere
+     Consign to the flames all prisoners whatever (Papal letter)
+     Constitutional governments, move in the daylight
+     Consumer would pay the tax, supposing it were ever paid at all
+     Country would bear his loss with fortitude
+     Courage of despair inflamed the French
+     Craft meaning, simply, strength
+     Crescents in their caps: Rather Turkish than Popish
+     Criminal whose guilt had been established by the hot iron
+     Criminals buying Paradise for money
+     Cruelties exercised upon monks and papists
+     Crusades made great improvement in the condition of the serfs
+     Customary oaths, to be kept with the customary conscientiousness
+     Daily widening schism between Lutherans and Calvinists
+     Deadliest of sins, the liberty of conscience
+     Decrees for burning, strangling, and burying alive
+     Deeply criminal in the eyes of all religious parties
+     Democratic instincts of the ancient German savages
+     Denies the utility of prayers for the dead
+     Despot by birth and inclination (Charles V.)
+     Difference between liberties and liberty
+     Difficult for one friend to advise another in three matters
+     Dispute between Luther and Zwingli concerning the real presence
+     Dissenters were as bigoted as the orthodox
+     Dissimulation and delay
+     Distinguished for his courage, his cruelty, and his corpulence
+     Divine right
+     Don John of Austria
+     Don John was at liberty to be King of England and Scotland
+     Drank of the water in which, he had washed
+     Dying at so very inconvenient a moment
+     Eight thousand human beings were murdered
+     Endure every hardship but hunger
+     English Puritans
+     Enormous wealth (of the Church) which engendered the hatred
+     Enriched generation after generation by wealthy penitence
+     Enthusiasm could not supply the place of experience
+     Envying those whose sufferings had already been terminated
+     Erasmus encourages the bold friar
+     Erasmus of Rotterdam
+     Establish not freedom for Calvinism, but freedom for conscience
+     Even for the rape of God's mother, if that were possible
+     Ever-swarming nurseries of mercenary warriors
+     Everything was conceded, but nothing was secured
+     Excited with the appearance of a gem of true philosophy
+     Executions of Huss and Jerome of Prague
+     Fable of divine right is invented to sanction the system
+     Fanatics of the new religion denounced him as a godless man
+     Felix Mants, the anabaptist, is drowned at Zurich
+     Ferocity which even Christians could not have surpassed
+     Few, even prelates were very dutiful to the pope
+     Fiction of apostolic authority to bind and loose
+     Fifty thousand persons in the provinces (put to death)
+     Financial opposition to tyranny is apt to be unanimous
+     Fishermen and river raftsmen become ocean adventurers
+     For myself I am unworthy of the honor (of martyrdom)
+     For faithful service, evil recompense
+     For women to lament, for men to remember
+     Forbids all private assemblies for devotion
+     Force clerical--the power of clerks
+     Forgiving spirit on the part of the malefactor
+     Furious fanaticism
+     Furnished, in addition, with a force of two thousand prostitutes
+     Gallant and ill-fated Lamoral Egmont
+     Gaul derided the Roman soldiers as a band of pigmies
+     German finds himself sober--he believes himself ill
+     Glory could be put neither into pocket nor stomach
+     God has given absolute power to no mortal man
+     God Save the King! It was the last time
+     Govern under the appearance of obeying
+     Great Privilege, the Magna Charta of Holland
+     Great transactions of a reign are sometimes paltry things
+     Great science of political equilibrium
+     Great error of despising their enemy
+     Great battles often leave the world where they found it
+     Guarantees of forgiveness for every imaginable sin
+     Habeas corpus
+     Hair and beard unshorn, according to ancient Batavian custom
+     Halcyon days of ban, book and candle
+     Hanged for having eaten meat-soup upon Friday
+     Happy to glass themselves in so brilliant a mirror
+     Having conjugated his paradigm conscientiously
+     He did his best to be friends with all the world
+     He came as a conqueror not as a mediator
+     He would have no persecution of the opposite creed
+     He would have no Calvinist inquisition set up in its place
+     He had never enjoyed social converse, except at long intervals
+     He knew men, especially he knew their weaknesses
+     He had omitted to execute heretics
+     Heresy was a plant of early growth in the Netherlands
+     His imagination may have assisted his memory in the task
+     His personal graces, for the moment, took the rank of virtues
+     History shows how feeble are barriers of paper
+     Holland, England, and America, are all links of one chain
+     Holy Office condemned all the inhabitants of the Netherlands
+     Hope delayed was but a cold and meagre consolation
+     Hope deferred, suddenly changing to despair
+     Human ingenuity to inflict human misery
+     I would carry the wood to burn my own son withal
+     I regard my country's profit, not my own
+     If he had little, he could live upon little
+     Imagined, and did the work of truth
+     In Holland, the clergy had neither influence nor seats
+     In character and general talents he was beneath mediocrity
+     Incur the risk of being charged with forwardness than neglect
+     Indecision did the work of indolence
+     Indignant that heretics had been suffered to hang
+     Informer, in case of conviction, should be entitled to one half
+     Inquisition was not a fit subject for a compromise
+     Inquisition of the Netherlands is much more pitiless
+     Insane cruelty, both in the cause of the Wrong and the Right
+     Insinuate that his orders had been hitherto misunderstood
+     Insinuating suspicions when unable to furnish evidence
+     Invented such Christian formulas as these (a curse)
+     Inventing long speeches for historical characters
+     It is not desirable to disturb much of that learned dust
+     Its humility, seemed sufficiently ironical
+     Judas Maccabaeus
+     July 1st, two Augustine monks were burned at Brussels
+     King set a price upon his head as a rebel
+     King of Zion to be pinched to death with red-hot tongs
+     Labored under the disadvantage of never having existed
+     Learn to tremble as little at priestcraft as at swordcraft
+     Leave not a single man alive in the city, and to burn every house
+     Let us fool these poor creatures to their heart's content
+     Licences accorded by the crown to carry slaves to America
+     Like a man holding a wolf by the ears
+     Little grievances would sometimes inflame more than vast
+     Local self-government which is the life-blood of liberty
+     Logical and historical argument of unmerciful length
+     Long succession of so many illustrious obscure
+     Look through the cloud of dissimulation
+     Luther's axiom, that thoughts are toll-free
+     Lutheran princes of Germany, detested the doctrines of Geneva
+     Made no breach in royal and Roman infallibility
+     Made to swing to and fro over a slow fire
+     Maintaining the attitude of an injured but forgiving Christian
+     Man had only natural wrongs (No natural rights)
+     Mankind were naturally inclined to calumny
+     Many greedy priests, of lower rank, had turned shop-keepers
+     Meantime the second civil war in France had broken out
+     Men were loud in reproof, who had been silent
+     Mistake to stumble a second time over the same stone
+     Modern statesmanship, even while it practises, condemns
+     Monasteries, burned their invaluable libraries
+     More accustomed to do well than to speak well
+     More easily, as he had no intention of keeping the promise
+     Natural to judge only by the result
+     Necessary to make a virtue of necessity
+     Neither wished the convocation, while both affected an eagerness
+     Neither ambitious nor greedy
+     No qualities whatever but birth and audacity to recommend him
+     No man could reveal secrets which he did not know
+     No law but the law of the longest purse
+     No calumny was too senseless to be invented
+     No one can testify but a householder
+     No man ever understood the art of bribery more thoroughly
+     No authority over an army which they did not pay
+     Not strong enough to sustain many more such victories
+     Not to fall asleep in the shade of a peace negotiation
+     Not for a new doctrine, but for liberty of conscience
+     Not to let the grass grow under their feet
+     Not so successful as he was picturesque
+     Not upon words but upon actions
+     Not of the stuff of which martyrs are made (Erasmus)
+     Nothing was so powerful as religious difference
+     Notre Dame at Antwerp
+     Nowhere was the persecution of heretics more relentless
+     Obstinate, of both sexes, to be burned
+     Of high rank but of lamentably low capacity
+     Often much tyranny in democracy
+     Oldenbarneveld; afterwards so illustrious
+     On the first day four thousand men and women were slaughtered
+     One-half to Philip and one-half to the Pope and Venice (slaves)
+     One golden grain of wit into a sheet of infinite platitude
+     Only kept alive by milk, which he drank from a woman's breast
+     Only healthy existence of the French was in a state of war
+     Orator was, however, delighted with his own performance
+     Others go to battle, says the historian, these go to war
+     Our pot had not gone to the fire as often
+     Panegyrists of royal houses in the sixteenth century
+     Pardon for crimes already committed, or about to be committed
+     Pardon for murder, if not by poison, was cheaper
+     Pathetic dying words of Anne Boleyn
+     Paying their passage through, purgatory
+     Peace, in reality, was war in its worst shape
+     Peace was desirable, it might be more dangerous than war
+     Perfection of insolence
+     Perpetually dropping small innuendos like pebbles
+     Persons who discussed religious matters were to be put to death
+     Petty passion for contemptible details
+     Philip, who did not often say a great deal in a few words
+     Planted the inquisition in the Netherlands
+     Plundering the country which they came to protect
+     Poisoning, for example, was absolved for eleven ducats
+     Pope and emperor maintain both positions with equal logic
+     Pope excommunicated him as a heretic
+     Power to read and write helped the clergy to much wealth
+     Power grudged rather than given to the deputies
+     Preferred an open enemy to a treacherous protector
+     Premature zeal was prejudicial to the cause
+     Presumption in entitling themselves Christian
+     Preventing wrong, or violence, even towards an enemy
+     Procrastination was always his first refuge
+     Promises which he knew to be binding only upon the weak
+     Proposition made by the wolves to the sheep, in the fable
+     Protect the common tranquillity by blood, purse, and life
+     Provided not one Huguenot be left alive in France
+     Purchased absolution for crime and smoothed a pathway to heaven
+     Put all those to the torture out of whom anything can be got
+     Questioning nothing, doubting nothing, fearing nothing
+     Quite mistaken: in supposing himself the Emperor's child
+     Rashness alternating with hesitation
+     Readiness to strike and bleed at any moment in her cause
+     Rearing gorgeous temples where paupers are to kneel
+     Rebuked the bigotry which had already grown
+     Reformer who becomes in his turn a bigot is doubly odious
+     Reformers were capable of giving a lesson even to inquisitors
+     Repentant females to be buried alive
+     Repentant males to be executed with the sword
+     Republic, which lasted two centuries
+     Result was both to abandon the provinces and to offend Philip
+     Revocable benefices or feuds
+     Ruinous honors
+     Saint Bartholomew's day
+     Sale of absolutions was the source of large fortunes to the priests
+     Same conjury over ignorant baron and cowardly hind
+     Scaffold was the sole refuge from the rack
+     Scepticism, which delights in reversing the judgment of centuries
+     Schism which existed in the general Reformed Church
+     Science of reigning was the science of lying
+     Scoffing at the ceremonies and sacraments of the Church
+     Secret drowning was substituted for public burning
+     Sent them word by carrier pigeons
+     Sentimentality that seems highly apocryphal
+     Seven Spaniards were killed, and seven thousand rebels
+     Sharpened the punishment for reading the scriptures in private
+     She knew too well how women were treated in that country
+     Sick and wounded wretches were burned over slow fires
+     Slavery was both voluntary and compulsory
+     Slender stock of platitudes
+     So much responsibility and so little power
+     Soldier of the cross was free upon his return
+     Sometimes successful, even although founded upon sincerity
+     Sonnets of Petrarch
+     Sovereignty was heaven-born, anointed of God
+     Spendthrift of time, he was an economist of blood
+     St. Bartholomew was to sleep for seven years longer
+     St. Peter's dome rising a little nearer to the clouds
+     Storm by which all these treasures were destroyed (in 7 days)
+     Superfluous sarcasm
+     Suppress the exercise of the Roman religion
+     Tanchelyn
+     Taxation upon sin
+     Taxes upon income and upon consumption
+     Ten thousand two hundred and twenty individuals were burned
+     That vile and mischievous animal called the people
+     The noblest and richest temple of the Netherlands was a wreck
+     The Gaul was singularly unchaste
+     The vivifying becomes afterwards the dissolving principle
+     The bad Duke of Burgundy, Philip surnamed "the Good,"
+     The greatest crime, however, was to be rich
+     The more conclusive arbitration of gunpowder
+     The disunited provinces
+     The faithful servant is always a perpetual ass
+     The time for reasoning had passed
+     The perpetual reproductions of history
+     The egg had been laid by Erasmus, hatched by Luther
+     The illness was a convenient one
+     The calf is fat and must be killed
+     The tragedy of Don Carlos
+     There is no man who does not desire to enjoy his own
+     These human victims, chained and burning at the stake
+     They could not invent or imagine toleration
+     They had at last burned one more preacher alive
+     Those who "sought to swim between two waters"
+     Those who fish in troubled waters only to fill their own nets
+     Thousands of burned heretics had not made a single convert
+     Three hundred fighting women
+     Throw the cat against their legs
+     Thus Hand-werpen, hand-throwing, became Antwerp
+     Time and myself are two
+     To think it capable of error, is the most devilish heresy of all
+     To hear the last solemn commonplaces
+     To prefer poverty to the wealth attendant upon trade
+     Toleration thought the deadliest heresy of all
+     Torquemada's administration (of the inquisition)
+     Tranquillity of despotism to the turbulence of freedom
+     Two witnesses sent him to the stake, one witness to the rack
+     Tyrannical spirit of Calvinism
+     Tyranny, ever young and ever old, constantly reproducing herself
+     Understood the art of managing men, particularly his superiors
+     Unduly dejected in adversity
+     Unremitted intellectual labor in an honorable cause
+     Upon one day twenty-eight master cooks were dismissed
+     Usual phraseology of enthusiasts
+     Uunmeaning phrases of barren benignity
+     Villagers, or villeins
+     Volatile word was thought preferable to the permanent letter
+     Was it astonishing that murder was more common than fidelity?
+     We believe our mothers to have been honest women
+     We are beginning to be vexed
+     Wealth was an unpardonable sin
+     Weep oftener for her children than is the usual lot of mothers
+     When the abbot has dice in his pocket, the convent will play
+     Who loved their possessions better than their creed
+     William of Nassau, Prince of Orange
+     Wiser simply to satisfy himself
+     Wonder equally at human capacity to inflict and to endure misery
+     Word-mongers who, could clothe one shivering thought
+     Worn crescents in their caps at Leyden
+     Worship God according to the dictates of his conscience
+     Would not help to burn fifty or sixty thousand Netherlanders
+     Writing letters full of injured innocence
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Rise of the Dutch Republic,
+Complete, 1555-84, by John Lothrop Motley
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