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diff --git a/4836.txt b/4836.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..eb09ed7 --- /dev/null +++ b/4836.txt @@ -0,0 +1,52987 @@ + +gut check; jeebies; + +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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RISE DUTCH REPUBLIC *** + +***** This file should be named 4836.txt or 4836.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/8/3/4836/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States 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