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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4866.txt b/4866.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2012c9c --- /dev/null +++ b/4866.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2267 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook History of United Netherlands, 1594 +#66 in our series by John Lothrop Motley + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + +Title: History of the United Netherlands, 1594 + +Author: John Lothrop Motley + +Release Date: January, 2004 [EBook #4866] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on April 9, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY UNITED NETHERLANDS, 1594 *** + + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + + + +[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the +file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an +entire meal of them. D.W.] + + + + + +HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS +From the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce--1609 + +By John Lothrop Motley + + + +MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Vol. 66 + +History of the United Netherlands, 1594 + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + + Prince Maurice lays siege to Gertruydenberg--Advantages of the new + system of warfare--Progress of the besieging operations--Superiority + of Maurice's manoeuvres--Adventure of Count Philip of Nassau-- + Capitulation of Gertruydenberg--Mutiny among the Spanish troops-- + Attempt of Verdugo to retake Coeworden--Suspicions of treason in the + English garrison at Ostend--Letter of Queen Elizabeth to Sir Edward + Norris on the subject--Second attempt on Coeworden--Assault on + Groningen by Maurice--Second adventure of Philip of Nassau--Narrow + escape of Prince Maurice--Surrender of Groningen--Particulars of the + siege--Question of religious toleration--Progress of the United + Netherlands--Condition of the "obedient" Netherlands--Incompetency + of Peter Mansfeld as Governor--Archduke Ernest, the successor of + Farnese--Difficulties of his position--His unpopularity--Great + achievements of the republicans--Triumphal entry of Ernest into + Brussels and Antwerp--Magnificence of the spectacle--Disaffection of + the Spanish troops--Great military rebellion--Philip's proposal to + destroy the English fleet--His assassination plans--Plot to poison + Queen Elizabeth--Conspiracies against Prince Maurice--Futile + attempts at negotiation--Proposal of a marriage between Henry and + the Infanta--Secret mission from Henry to the King of Spain--Special + dispatch to England and the Staten--Henry obtains further aid from + Queen Elizabeth and the States--Council--Anxiety of the Protestant + countries to bring about a war with Spain--Aspect of affairs at the + close of the year 1594. + +While Philip's world-empire seemed in one direction to be so rapidly +fading into cloudland there were substantial possessions of the Spanish +crown which had been neglected in Brabant and Friesland. + +Two very important cities still held for the King of Spain within the +territories of what could now be fairly considered the United Dutch +Republic--St. Gertruydenberg and Groningen. + +Early in the spring of 1593, Maurice had completed his preparations for a +siege, and on the 24th March appeared before Gertruydenberg. + +It was a stately, ancient city, important for its wealth, its strength, +and especially for its position. For without its possession even the +province of Holland could hardly consider itself mistress of its own +little domains. It was seated on the ancient Meuse, swollen as it +approached the sea almost to the dimension of a gulf, while from the +south another stream, called the Donge, very brief in its course, but +with considerable depth of water, came to mingle itself with the Meuse, +exactly under the walls of the city. + +The site of the place was so low that it was almost hidden and protected +by its surrounding dykes. These afforded means of fortification, which +had been well improved. Both by nature and art the city was one of the +strongholds of the Netherlands. + +Maurice had given the world a lesson in the beleaguering science at the +siege of Steenwyk, such as had never before been dreamt of; but he was +resolved that the operations before Gertruydenberg should constitute a +masterpiece. + +Nothing could be more beautiful as a production of military art, nothing, +to the general reader, more insipid than its details. + +On the land side, Hohenlo's headquarters were at Ramsdonck, a village +about a German mile to the east of Gertruydenberg. Maurice himself was +established on the west side of the city. Two bridges constructed across +the Donge facilitated the communications between the two camps, while +great quantities of planks and brush were laid down across the swampy +roads to make them passable for waggon-trains and artillery. The first +care of the young general, whose force was not more than twenty thousand +men, was to protect himself rather than to assail the town. + +His lines extended many miles in a circuit around the place, and his +forts, breastworks, and trenches were very numerous. + +The river was made use of as a natural and almost impassable ditch of +defence, and windmills were freely employed to pump water into the +shallows in one direction, while in others the outer fields, in quarters +whence a relieving force might be expected, were turned into lakes by the +same machinery. Farther outside, a system of palisade work of caltrops +and man-traps--sometimes in the slang of the day called Turkish +ambassadors--made the country for miles around impenetrable or very +disagreeable to cavally. In a shorter interval than would have seemed +possible, the battlements and fortifications of the besieging army had +risen like an exhalation out of the morass. The city of Gertruydenberg +was encompassed by another city as extensive and apparently as +impregnable as itself. Then, for the first time in that age, men +thoroughly learned the meaning of that potent implement the spade. + +Three thousand pioneers worked night and day with pickaxe and shovel. +The soldiers liked the business; for every man so employed received his +ten stivers a day additional wages, punctually paid, and felt moreover +that every stioke was bringing the work nearer to its conclusion. + +The Spaniards no longer railed at Maurice as a hedger and ditcher. When +he had succeeded in bringing a hundred great guns to bear upon the +beleaguered city they likewise ceased to sneer at heavy artillery. + +The Kartowen and half Kartowen were no longer considered "espanta +vellacos." + +Meantime, from all the country round, the peasants flocked within the +lines. Nowhere in Europe were provisions so plentiful and cheap as in +the Dutch camp. Nowhere was a readier market for agricultural products, +prompter payment, or more perfect security for the life and property of +non-combatants. Not so much as a hen's egg was taken unlawfully. The +country people found themselves more at ease within Maurice's lines than +within any other part of the provinces, obedient or revolted. They +ploughed and sowed and reaped at their pleasure, and no more striking +example was ever afforded of the humanizing effect of science upon the +barbarism of war, than in this siege of Gertruydenberg. + +Certainly it was the intention of the prince to take his city, and when +he fought the enemy it was his object to kill; but, as compared with the +bloody work which Alva, and Romero, and Requesens, and so many others had +done in those doomed provinces, such war-making as this seemed almost +like an institution for beneficent and charitable purposes. + +Visitors from the neighbourhood, from other provinces, from foreign +countries, came to witness the extraordinary spectacle, and foreign +generals repaired to the camp of Maurice to take practical lessons in the +new art of war. + +Old Peter Ernest Mansfeld, who was nominal governor of the Spanish +Netherlands since the death of Farnese, rubbed his eyes and stared aghast +when the completeness of the preparations for reducing the city at last +broke in upon his mind. Count Fuentes was the true and confidential +regent however until the destined successor to Parma should arrive; but +Fuentes, although he had considerable genius for assassination, as will +hereafter appear, and was an experienced and able commander of the old- +fashioned school, was no match for Maurice in the scientific combinations +on which the new system was founded. + +In vain did the superannuated Peter call aloud upon his sofa and +governor, Count Charles, to assist him in this dire dilemma. That +artillery general had gone with a handful of Germans, Walloons; and other +obedient Netherlanders--too few to accomplish anything abroad, too many +to be spared from the provinces--to besiege Noyon in France. But what +signified the winning or losing of such a place as Noyon at exactly the +moment when the Prince of Bearne, assisted by the able generalship of the +Archbishop of Bourges, had just executed those famous flanking movements +in the churches of St. Denis and Chartres, by which the world-empire had +been effectually shattered, and Philip and the Pope completely out- +manoeuvred. + +Better that the five thousand fighters under Charles Mansfeld had been +around Gertruydenberg. His aged father did what he could. As many men +as could be spared from the garrison of Antwerp and its neighbourhood +were collected; but the Spaniards were reluctant to march, except under +old Mondragon. That hero, who had done much of the hardest work, and had +fought in most of the battles of the century, was nearly as old as the +century. Being now turned of ninety, he thought best to keep house in +Antwerp Castle: Accordingly twelve thousand foot and three thousand horse +took the field under the more youthful Peter Ernest? But Peter Ernest, +when his son was not there to superintend his operations, was nothing +but a testy octogenarian, while the two together were not equal to the +little finger of Farnese, whom Philip would have displaced, had he not +fortunately died. + +"Nothing is to be expected out of this place but toads and poison," +wrote Ybarra in infinite disgust to the two secretaries of state at +Madrid. "I have done my best to induce Fuentes to accept that which the +patent secured him, and Count Peter is complaining that Fuentes showed +him the patent so late only to play him a trick. There is a rascally +pack of meddlers here, and the worst of them all are the women, whom I +particularly give to the devil. There is no end to the squabbles as to +who shall take the lead in relieving Gertruydenberg." + +Mansfeld at last came ponderously up in the neighbourhood of Turnhout. +There was a brilliant little skirmish, in the, neighbourhood of this +place, in which a hundred and fifty Dutch cavalry under the famous +brothers Bax defeated four hundred picked lancers of Spain and Italy. +But Mansfeld could get nothing but skirmishes. In vain he plunged +about among the caltrops and man-traps. In vain he knocked at the +fortifications of Hohenlo on the east and of Maurice on the west. +He found them impracticable, impregnable, obdurate. It was Maurice's +intention to take his town at as small sacrifice of life as possible. +A trumpet was sent on some trifling business to Mansfeld, in reply to +a communication made by the general to Maurice. + +"Why does your master," said the choleric veteran to the trumpeter, "why +does Prince Maurice, being a lusty young commander as he is, not come out +of his trenches into the open field and fight me like a man, where honour +and fame await him?" + +"Because my master," answered the trumpeter, "means to live to be a lusty +old commander like your excellency, and sees no reason to-day to give you +an advantage." + +At this the bystanders laughed, rather at the expense of the veteran. + +Meantime there were not many incidents within the lines or within the +city to vary the monotony of the scientific siege. + +On the land side, as has been seen, the city was enclosed and built out +of human sight by another Gertruydenberg. On the wide estuary of the +Meuse, a chain of war ships encircled the sea-front, in shape of a half +moon, lying so close to each other that it was scarcely possible even for +a messenger to swim out of a dark night. + +The hardy adventurers who attempted that feat with tidings of despair +were almost invariably captured. + +This blockading fleet took regular part in the daily cannonade; while, on +the other hand, the artillery practice from the landbatteries of Maurice +and Hohenlo was more perfect than anything ever known before in the +Netherlands or France. + +And the result was that in the course of the cannonade which lasted +nearly ninety days, not more than four houses in the city escaped injury. +The approaches were brought, every hour, nearer and nearer to the walls. +With subterranean lines converging in the form of the letter Y, the +prince had gradually burrowed his way beneath the principal bastion. + +Hohenlo, representative of the older school of strategy, had on one +occasion ventured to resist the authority of the commander-in-chief. He +had constructed a fort at Ramsdonck. Maurice then commanded the erection +of another, fifteen hundred yards farther back. It was as much a part of +his purpose to defend himself against the attempts of Mansfeld's +relieving force, as to go forward against the city. Hohenlo objected +that it would be impossible to sustain himself against a sudden attack in +so isolated a position. Maurice insisted. In the midst of the +altercation Hohenlo called to the men engaged in throwing up the new +fortifications: "Here, you captains and soldiers," he cried, "you are +delivered up here to be butchered. You may drop work and follow me to +the old fort." + +"And I swear to you," said Maurice quietly, "that the first man who moves +from this spot shall be hanged." + +No one moved. The fort was completed and held to the and; Hohenlo +sulkily acquiescing in the superiority which this stripling--his former +pupil--had at last vindicated over all old-fashioned men-at-arms. + +From the same cause which was apt to render Hohenlo's services +inefficient, the prince was apt to suffer inconvenience in the persons +placed in still nearer relation to himself. Count Philip of Nassau, +brother of the wise and valiant Lewis William, had already done much +brilliant campaigning against the Spaniards both in France and the +provinces. Unluckily, he was not only a desperate fighter but a mighty +drinker, and one day, after a dinner-party and potent carouse at Colonel +Brederode's quarters, he thought proper, in doublet and hose, without +armour of any kind, to mount his horse, in order to take a solitary +survey of the enemy's works. Not satisfied with this piece of +reconnoitering--which he effected with much tipsy gravity, but probably +without deriving any information likely to be of value to the commanding +general--he then proceeded to charge in person a distant battery. The +deed was not commendable in a military point of view. A fire was opened +upon him at long range so soon as he was discovered, and at the same time +the sergeant-major of his regiment and an equerry of Prince Maurice +started in pursuit, determined to bring him off if possible, before his +life had been thus absurdly sacrificed. Fortunately for him they came to +the rescue in time, pulled him from his horse, and succeeded in bringing +him away unharmed. The sergeant-major, however, Sinisky by name, while +thus occupied in preserving the count's life, was badly wounded in the +leg by a musket-shot from the fort; which casualty was the only result of +this after-dinner assault. + +As the siege proceeded, and as the hopes of relief died away, great +confusion began to reign within the city. The garrison, originally +of a thousand veterans, besides burgher militia, had been much +diminished. Two commandants of the place, one after another, had lost +their lives. On the 1st of June, Governor De Masieres, Captain Mongyn, +the father-confessor of the garrison, and two soldiers, being on the top +of the great church tower taking observations, were all brought down with +one cannon-shot. Thus the uses of artillery were again proved to be +something more than to scare cowards. + +The final result seemed to have been brought about almost by accident, +if accident could be admitted as a factor in such accurate calculations +as those of Maurice. On the 24th June Captains Haen and Bievry were +relieving watch in the trenches near the great north ravelin of the town +--a bulwark which had already been much undermined from below and +weakened above. Being adventurous officers, it occurred to them suddenly +to scale the wall of the fort and reconnoitre what was going on in the +town. It was hardly probable that they would come back alive from the +expedition, but they nevertheless threw some planks across the ditch, and +taking a few soldiers with them, climbed cautiously up. Somewhat to his +own surprise, still more to that of the Spanish sentinels, Bievry in a +few minutes found himself within the ravelin. He was closely followed by +Captain Haen, Captain Kalf, and by half a company of soldiers. The alarm +was given. There was a fierce hand-to-hand struggle. Sixteen of the +bold stormers fell, and nine of the garrison of the fort. The rest fled +into the city. The governor of the place, Captain Gysant, rushing to the +rescue without staying to put on his armour, was killed. Count Solms, on +the other hand, came from the besieging camp into the ravelin to +investigate the sudden uproar. To his profound astonishment he was met +there, after a brief interval, by a deputation from the city, asking for +terms of surrender. The envoys had already been for some little time +looking in vain for a responsible person with whom to treat. When +Maurice was informed of the propositions he thought it at first a trick; +for he had known nothing of the little adventure of the three captains. +Soon afterwards he came into a battery whither the deputies had been +brought, and the terms of capitulation were soon agreed upon. + +Next day the garrison were allowed to go out with sidearms and personal +baggage, and fifty waggons were lent them by the victor to bring their +wounded men to Antwerp. + +Thus was Gertruydenberg surrendered in the very face of Peter Mansfeld, +who only became aware of the fact by the salvos of artillery fired in +honour of the triumph, and by the blaze of illumination which broke forth +over camp and city. + +The sudden result was an illustration of the prince's perfect +arrangements. When Maurice rode into the town, he found it strong +enough and sufficiently well provisioned to have held out many a long +day. But it had been demonstrated to the besieged that relief was +impossible, and that the surrender on one day or another, after the siege +operations should be brought to their close, was certain. The inexorable +genius of the commander--skilled in a science which to the coarser war- +makers of that age seemed almost superhuman--hovered above them like a +fate. It was as well to succumb on the 24th June as to wait till the +24th July. + +Moreover the great sustaining principle--resistance to the foreigner-- +which had inspired the deeds of daring, the wonders of endurance, in the +Dutch cities beleaguered so remorselessly by the Spaniard twenty years +earlier in the century, was wanting. + +In surrendering to the born Netherlander--the heroic chieftain of the +illustrious house of Nassau--these Netherlanders were neither sullying +their flag nor injuring their country. Enough had been done for military +honour in the gallant resistance, in which a large portion of the +garrison had fallen. Nor was that religious superstition so active +within the city, which three years before had made miracles possible in +Paris when a heretic sovereign was to be defied by his own subjects. It +was known that even if the public ceremonies of the Catholic Church were +likely to be suspended for a time after the surrender, at least the +rights of individual conscience and private worship within individual +households would be tolerated, and there was no papal legate with fiery +eloquence persuading a city full of heroic dupes that it was more +virtuous for men or women to eat their own children than to forego one +high mass, or to wink at a single conventicle. + +After all, it was no such bitter hardship for the citizens of +Gertruydenberg to participate in the prosperity of the rising and +thriving young republic, and to enjoy those municipal and national +liberties which her sister cities had found so sweet. + +Nothing could be calmer or more reasonable than such a triumph, nothing +less humiliating or less disastrous than such a surrender. + +The problem was solved, the demonstration was made. To open their gates +to the soldiers of the Union was not to admit the hordes of a Spanish +commander with the avenging furies of murder, pillage, rape, which ever +followed in their train over the breach of a captured city. + +To an enemy bated or dreaded to the uttermost mortal capacity, that well- +fortified and opulent city might have held out for months, and only when +the arms and the fraud of the foe without, and of famine within, had done +their work, could it have bowed its head to the conqueror, and submitted +to the ineffable tortures which would be the necessary punishment of its +courage. + +Four thousand shots had been fired from the siege-guns upon the city, and +three hundred upon the relieving force. + +The besieging army numbered in all nine thousand one hundred and fifty +men of all arms, and they lost during the eighty-five days' siege three +hundred killed and four hundred wounded. + +After the conclusion of these operations, and the thorough remodelling +of the municipal government of the important city thus regained to the +republic, Maurice occupied himself with recruiting and refreshing his +somewhat exhausted little army. On the other hand, old Count Mansfeld, +dissatisfied with the impotent conclusion to his attempts, retired to +Brussels to be much taunted by the insolent Fuentes. He at least escaped +very violent censure on the part of his son Charles, for that general, +after his superfluous conquest of Noyon, while returning towards the +Netherlands, far too tardily to succour Gertruydenberg, had been +paralyzed in all his movements by a very extensive mutiny which broke out +among the Spanish troops in the province of Artois. The disorder went +through all its regular forms. A town was taken, an Eletto was +appointed. The country-side was black-mailed or plundered, and the +rebellion lasted some thirteen months. Before it was concluded there was +another similar outbreak among the Italians, together with the Walloons +and other obedient Netherlanders in Hainault, who obliged the city of +Mons to collect nine hundred florins a day for them. The consequence +of these military rebellions was to render the Spanish crown almost +powerless during the whole year, within the provinces nominally subject +to its sway. The cause--as always--was the non-payment of these +veterans' wages, year after year. It was impossible for Philip, with +all the wealth of the Indies and Mexico pouring through the Danaid sieve +of the Holy League in France, to find the necessary funds to save the +bronzed and war-worn instruments of his crimes in the Netherlands from +starving and from revolt. + +Meantime there was much desultory campaigning in Friesland. Verdugo +and Frederic van den Berg picked up a few cities, and strong places +which had thrown off their allegiance September, to the king--Auerzyl, +Schlochteren, Winschoten, Wedde, Ootmarzum--and invested the much more +important town of Coeworden, which Maurice had so recently reduced to the +authority of the Union. Verdugo's force was insufficient, however, and +he had neither munitions nor provisions for a long siege. Winter was +coming on; and the States, aware that he would soon be obliged to retire +from before the well-garrisoned and fortified place, thought it +unnecessary to interfere with him. After a very brief demonstration +the Portuguese veteran was obliged to raise the siege. + +There were also certain vague attempts made by the enemy to re-possess +himself of those most important seaports which had been pledged to the +English queen. On a previous page the anxiety has been indicated with +which Sir Robert Sydney regarded the withdrawal of the English troops in +the Netherlands for the sake of assisting the French king. This palpable +breach of the treaty had necessarily weakened England's hold on the +affections of the Netherlanders, and awakened dark suspicions that +treason might be impending at Flushing or Ostend. The suspicions were +unjust--so far as the governors of those places were concerned--for +Sydney and Norris were as loyal as they were intelligent and brave; but +the trust in their characters was not more implicit than it had been in +that of Sir William Stanley before the commission of his crime. It was +now believed that the enemy was preparing for a sudden assault upon +Ostend, with the connivance, it was feared, of a certain portion of the +English garrison. The intelligence was at once conveyed to her Majesty's +Government by Sir Edward Norris, and they determined to take a lesson +from past experience. Norris was at once informed that in view of the +attack which he apprehended, his garrison should be strengthened by five +hundred men under Sir Conyers Clifford from certain companies in +Flushing, and that other reinforcements should be sent from the English +troops in Normandy. The governor was ordered to look well after his +captains and soldiers, to remind them, in the queen's name, of their duty +to herself and to the States, to bid all beware of sullying the English +name, to make close investigations into any possible intrigues of the +garrison with the enemy, and, should any culprits be found, to bring them +at once to condign punishment. + +The queen, too, determined that there should be no blighting of English +honour, if she could prevent it by her warnings, indited with her own +hand a characteristic letter to Sir Edward Norris, to accompany the more +formal despatch of Lord Burghley. Thus it ran "Ned!-- + +"Though you have some tainted sheep among your flock, let not that serve +for excuse for the rest. We trust you are so carefully regarded as +nought shall be left for your excuses, but either ye lack heart or want +will; for of fear we will not make mention, as that our soul abhors, and +we assure ourselves you will never discern suspicion of it. Now or never +let for the honour of us and our nation, each man be so much of bolder +heart as their cause is good, and their honour must be according, +remembering the old goodness of our God, who never yet made us fail His +needful help, who ever bless you as I with my prince's hand beseech Him." + +The warnings and preparations proved sufficiently effective, and the +great schemes with which the new royal governor of the Netherlands was +supposed to be full--a mere episode in which was the conquest of Ostend-- +seemed not so formidable as their shadows had indicated. There was, in +the not very distant future, to be a siege of Ostend, which the world +would not soon forget, but perhaps the place would not yield to a sudden +assault. Its resistance, on the contrary, might prove more protracted +than was then thought possible. But the chronicle of events must not be +anticipated. For the present, Ostend was safe. + +Early in the following spring, Verdugo again appeared before Coeworden in +force. It was obvious that the great city of Groningen, the mistress of +all the north-eastern provinces, would soon be attacked, and Coeworden +was the necessary base of any operations against the place. Fortunately +for the States, William Lewis had in the preceding autumn occupied and +fortified the only avenue through the Bourtange morass, so that when +Verdugo sat down before Coeworden, it was possible for Maurice, by moving +rapidly, to take the royal governor at a disadvantage. + +Verdugo had eight thousand picked troops, including two thousand Walloon +cavalry, troopers who must have been very formidable, if they were to be +judged by the prowess of one of their captains, Gaucier by name. This +obedient Netherlander was in the habit of boasting that he had slain four +hundred and ten men with his own hand, including several prisoners and +three preachers; but the rest of those warriors were not so famed for +their martial achievements. + +The peril, however, was great, and Prince Maurice, trifling not a moment, +threw himself with twelve thousand infantry, Germans, Frisians, Scotch, +English, and Hollanders, and nearly two thousand horse, at once upon the +road between the Vecht and the Bourtange morass. On the 6th of May, +Verdugo found the States' commander-in-chief trenched and impregnable, +squarely established upon his line of communications. He reconnoitred, +called a council of war, and decided that to assail him were madness; to +remain, destruction. On the night of the 6th of May, he broke up his +camp and stole away in the darkness, without sound of drum or trumpet, +leaving all his fortifications and burning all his huts. + +Thus had Maurice, after showing the world how strong places were to be +reduced, given a striking exhibition of the manner in which they were to +be saved. + +Coeworden, after thirty-one weeks' investment, was relieved. + +The stadholder now marched upon Groningen. This city was one of the most +splendid and opulent of all the Netherland towns. Certainly it should +have been one of the most ancient in Europe, since it derived its name-- +according to that pains-taking banker, Francis Guicciardini--"from Grun, +a Trojan gentleman," who, nevertheless, according to Munster, was "a +Frenchman by birth."--"Both theories, however, might be true," added the +conscientious Florentine, "as the French have always claimed to be +descended from the relics of Troy." A simpler-minded antiquary might +have babbled of green fields, since 'groenighe,' or greenness, was a +sufficiently natural appellation for a town surrounded as was Groningen +on the east and west by the greenest and fattest of pastures. In +population it was only exceeded by Antwerp and Amsterdam. Situate on +the line where upper and nether Germany blend into one, the capital of +a great province whose very name was synonymous with liberty, and whose +hardy sons had clone fierce battle with despotism in every age, so long +as there had been human record of despotism and of battles, Groningen had +fallen into the hands of the foreign foe, not through the prowess of the +Spaniard but the treason of the Netherlander. The baseness of the +brilliant, trusted, valiant, treacherous young Renneberg has been +recorded on a previous page of these volumes. For thirteen years long +the republic had chafed at this acquisition of the hated enemy within +its very heart. And now the day had come when a blow should be struck +for its deliverance by the ablest soldier that had ever shown himself +in those regions, one whom the commonwealth had watched over from his +cradle. + +For in Groningen there was still a considerable party in favour of the +Union, although the treason of Renneberg had hitherto prevented both city +and province from incorporating themselves in the body politic of the +United Netherlands. Within the precincts were five hundred of Verdugo's +veterans under George Lanckema, stationed at a faubourg called +Schuytendiess. In the city there was, properly speaking, no garrison, +for the citizens in the last few years had come to value themselves on +their fidelity to church and king, and to take a sorry pride in being +false to all that was noble in their past. Their ancestors had wrested +privilege after privilege at the sword's point from the mailed hands of +dukes and emperors, until they were almost a self-governing republic; +their courts of justice recognizing no appeal to higher powers, even +under the despotic sway of Charles V. And now, under the reign of his +son, and in the feebler days of that reign, the capital of the free +Frisians--the men whom their ancient pagan statutes had once declared to +be "free so long as the wind blew out of the clouds"--relied upon the +trained bands of her burghers enured to arms and well-provided with all. +munitions of war to protect her, not against foreign tyranny nor domestic +sedition, but against liberty and against law. + +For the representative of the most ancient of the princely houses of +Europe, a youth whose ancestors had been emperors when the forefathers of +Philip, long-descended as he was, were but country squires, was now +knocking at their gates. Not as a conqueror and a despot, but as the +elected first magistrate and commander-in-chief of the freest +commonwealth in the world, Maurice of Nassau, at the head of fifteen +thousand Netherlanders, countrymen of their own, now summoned the +inhabitants of the town and province to participate with their fellow +citizens in all the privileges and duties of the prosperous republic. + +It seemed impossible that such an appeal could be resisted by force of +arms. Rather it would seem that the very walls should have fallen at his +feet at the first blast of the trumpet; but there was military honour, +there was religious hatred, there was the obstinacy of party. More than +all, there were half a dozen Jesuits within the town, and to those ablest +of generals in times of civil war it was mainly owing that the siege of +Groningen was protracted longer than under other circumstances would have +been possible. + +It is not my purpose to describe in detail the scientific operations +during the sixty-five days between the 20th May and the 24th July. Again +the commander-in-chief enlightened the world by an exhibition of a more +artistic and humane style of warfare than previously to his appearance +on the military stage had been known. But the daily phenomena of the +Leaguer--although they have been minutely preserved by most competent +eyewitnesses--are hardly entitled to a place except in special military +histories where, however, they should claim the foremost rank. + +The fortifications of the city were of the most splendid and substantial +character known to the age. The ditches, the ravelins, the curtains, +the towers were as thoroughly constructed as the defences of any place +in Europe. It was therefore necessary that Maurice and his cousin Lewis +should employ all their learning, all their skill, and their best +artillery to reduce this great capital of the Eastern Netherlands. +Again the scientific coil of approaches wound itself around and around +the doomed stronghold; again were constructed the galleries, the covered +ways, the hidden mines, where soldiers, transformed to gnomes, burrowed +and fought within the bowels of the earth; again that fatal letter Y +advanced slowly under ground, stretching its deadly prongs nearer and +nearer up to the walls; and again the system of defences against a +relieving force was so perfectly established that Verdugo or Mansfield, +with what troops they could muster, seemed as powerless as the pewter +soldiers with which Maurice in his boyhood--not yet so long passed away +--was wont to puzzle over the problems which now practically engaged +his early manhood. Again, too, strangely enough, it is recorded that +Philip Nassau, at almost the same period of the siege as in that of +Gertruydenberg, signalized himself by a deed of drunken and superfluous +daring. This time the dinner party was at the quarters of Count Solms, +in honour of the Prince of Anhalt, where, after potations pottle deep, +Count Philip rushed from the dinner-table to the breach, not yet +thoroughly practicable, of the north ravelin, and, entirely without +armour, mounted pike in hand to the assault, proposing to carry the fort +by his own unaided exertions. Another officer, one Captain Vaillant, +still more beside himself than was the count, inspired him to these deeds +of valour by assuring him that the mine was to be sprung under the +ravelin that afternoon, and that it was a plot on the part of the Holland +boatmen to prevent the soldiers who had been working so hard and so long +in the mines from taking part in the honours of the assault. The count +was with difficulty brought off with a whole skin and put to bed. Yet +despite these disgraceful pranks there is no doubt that a better and +braver officer than he was hardly to be found even among the ten noble +Nassaus who at that moment were fighting for the cause of Dutch liberty-- +fortunately with more sobriety than he at all times displayed. On the +following day, Prince Maurice, making a reconnoissance of the works with +his usual calmness, yet with the habitual contempt of personal danger +which made so singular a contrast with the cautious and painstaking +characteristics of his strategy, very narrowly escaped death. A shot +from the fort struck so hard upon the buckler under cover of which he was +taking his observations as to fell him to the ground. Sir Francis Vere, +who was with the prince under the same buckler, likewise measured his +length in the trench, but both escaped serious injury. + +Pauli, one of the States commissioners present in the camp, wrote to +Barneveld that it was to be hoped that the accident might prove a warning +to his Excellency. He had repeatedly remonstrated with him, he said, +against his reckless exposure of himself to unnecessary danger, but he +was so energetic and so full of courage that it was impossible to +restrain him from being everywhere every day. + +Three days later, the letter Y did its work. At ten o'clock 15 July, of +the night of the 15th July, Prince Maurice ordered the mines to be +sprung, when the north ravelin was blown into the air, and some forty of +the garrison with it. Two of them came flying into the besiegers' camp, +and, strange to say, one was alive and sound. The catastrophe finished +the sixty-five days' siege, the breach was no longer defensible, the +obstinacy of the burghers was exhausted, and capitulation followed. +In truth, there had been a subterranean intrigue going on for many weeks, +which was almost as effective as the mine. A certain Jan to Boer had +been going back and forth between camp and city, under various pretexts +and safe-conducts, and it had at last appeared that the Jesuits and the +five hundred of Verdugo's veterans were all that prevented Groningen from +returning to the Union. There had been severe fighting within the city +itself, for the Jesuits had procured the transfer of the veterans from +the faubourg to the town itself, and the result of all these operations, +political, military, and jesuitical, was that on 22nd July articles of +surrender were finally agreed upon between Maurice and a deputation from +the magistrates, the guilds, and commander Lanckema. + +The city was to take its place thenceforth as a member of the Union. +William Lewis, already stadholder of Friesland for the united States, was +to be recognised as chief magistrate of the whole province, which was +thus to retain all its ancient privileges, laws, and rights of self- +government, while it exchanged its dependence on a distant, foreign, and +decaying despotism for incorporation with a young and vigorous +commonwealth. + +It was arranged that no religion but the reformed religion, as then +practised in the united republic, should be publicly exercised in the +province, but that no man should be questioned as to his faith, or +troubled in his conscience: Cloisters and ecclesiastical property were to +remain 'in statu quo,' until the States-General should come to a definite +conclusion on these subjects. + +Universal amnesty was proclaimed for all offences and quarrels. Every +citizen or resident foreigner was free to remain in or to retire from the +town or province, with full protection to his person and property, and it +was expressly provided in the articles granted to Lanckema that his +soldiers should depart with arms and baggage, leaving to Prince Maurice +their colours only, while the prince furnished sufficient transportation +for their women and their wounded. The property of Verdugo, royal +stadholder of the province, was to be respected, and to remain in the +city, or to be taken thence under safe conduct, as might be preferred. + +Ten thousand cannon-shot had been fired against the city. The cost of +powder and shot consumed was estimated at a hundred thousand florins. +Four hundred of the besiegers had been killed, and a much larger number +wounded. The army had been further weakened by sickness and numerous +desertions. Of the besieged, three hundred soldiers in all were killed, +and a few citizens. + +Thirty-six cannon were taken, besides mortars, and it was said that eight +hundred tons of powder, and plenty of other ammunition and provisions +were found in the place. + +On the 23rd July Maurice and William Lewis entered the city. Some of the +soldiers were disappointed at the inexorable prohibition of pillage; but +it was the purpose of Maurice, as of the States-General, to place the +sister province at once in the unsullied possession of the liberty and +the order for which the struggle with Spain had, been carried on so long. +If the limitation of public religious worship seemed harsh, it should be +remembered that Romanism in a city occupied by Spanish troops had come to +mean unmitigated hostility to the republic. In the midst of civil war, +the hour for that religious liberty which was the necessary issue of the +great conflict had not yet struck. It was surely something gained for +humanity that no man should be questioned at all as to his creed in +countries where it was so recently the time-honoured practice to question +him on the rack, and to burn him if the answer was objectionable to the +inquirer. + +It was something that the holy Inquisition had been for ever suppressed +in the land. It must be admitted, likewise, that the terms of surrender +and the spectacle of re-established law and order which succeeded the +capture of Groningen furnished a wholesome contrast to the scenes of +ineffable horror that had been displayed whenever a Dutch town had fallen +into the hands of Philip. + +And thus the commonwealth of the United Netherlands, through the +practical military genius and perseverance of Maurice and Lewis William, +and the substantial statesmanship of Barneveld and his colleagues, had at +last rounded itself into definite shape; while in all directions toward +which men turned their eyes, world-empire, imposing and gorgeous as it +had seemed for an interval, was vanishing before its votaries like a +mirage. The republic, placed on the solid foundations of civil liberty, +self-government, and reasonable law, was steadily consolidating itself. + +No very prominent movements were undertaken by the forces of the Union +during the remainder of the year. According to the agreements with Henry +IV. it had been necessary to provide that monarch with considerable +assistance to carry on his new campaigns, and it was therefore difficult +for Maurice to begin for the moment upon the larger schemes which he had +contemplated. + +Meantime the condition of the obedient Netherlands demands a hasty +glance. + +On the death of brother Alexander the Capuchin, Fuentes produced a patent +by which Peter Ernest Mansfeld was provisionally appointed governor, in +case the post should become vacant. During the year which followed, that +testy old campaigner had indulged himself in many petty feuds with all +around him, but had effected, as we have seen, very little to maintain +the king's authority either in the obedient or disobedient provinces. + +His utter incompetency soon became most painfully apparent. His more +than puerile dependence upon his son, and the more than paternal severity +exercised over him by Count Charles, were made manifest to all the world. +The son ruled the trembling but peevish old warrior with an iron rod, and +endless was their wrangling with Fuentes and all the other Spaniards. +Between the querulousness of the one and the ferocity of the other, poor +Fuentes became sick of his life. + +"'Tis a diabolical genius, this count Charles," said Ybarra, "and so full +of ambition that he insists on governing everybody just as he rules his +father. As for me, until the archduke comes I am a fish out of water." + +The true successor to Farnese was to be, the Archduke Ernest, one of the +many candidates for the hand of the Infanta, and for the throne of that +department of the Spanish dominions which was commonly called France. +Should Philip not appropriate the throne without further scruple, in +person, it was on the, whole decided that his favorite nephew should be +the satrap of that outlying district of the Spanish empire. In such case +obedient France might be annexed to obedient Netherlands, and united +under the sway of Archduke Ernest. + +But these dreams had proved in the cold air of reality but midsummer +madness. When the name of the archduke was presented to the estates as +King Ernest I. of France, even the most unscrupulous and impassioned +Leaguers of that country fairly hung their heads. That a foreign prince, +whose very name had never been before heard of by the vast bulk of the +French population, should be deliberately placed upon the throne of St. +Louis and Hugh Capet, was a humiliation hard to defend, profusely as +Philip had scattered the Peruvian and Mexican dollars among the great +ones of the nation, in order to accomplish his purpose. + +So Archduke Ernest, early in the year 1594, came to Brussels, but he +came as a gloomy, disappointed man. To be a bachelor-governor of the +impoverished, exhausted, half-rebellious, and utterly forlorn little +remnant of the Spanish Netherlands, was a different position from that +of husband of Clara Isabella and king of France, on which his imagination +had been feeding so long. + +For nearly the whole twelvemonth subsequent to the death of Farnese, +the Spanish envoy to the Imperial court had been endeavouring to arrange +for the departure of the archduke to his seat of government in the +Netherlands. The prince himself was willing enough, but there were many +obstacles on the part of the emperor and his advisers. "Especially there +is one very great impossibility," said San Clemente, "and that is the +poverty of his Highness, which is so great that my own is not greater in +my estate. So I don't see how he can stir a step without money. Here +they'll not furnish him with a penny, and for himself he possesses +nothing but debts." The emperor was so little pleased with the adventure +that in truth, according to the same authority, he looked upon the new +viceroy's embarrassments with considerable satisfaction, so that it was +necessary for Philip to provide for his travelling expenses. + +Ernest was next brother of the Emperor Rudolph, and as intensely devoted +to the interests of the Roman Church as was that potentate himself, or +even his uncle Philip. + +He was gentle, weak, melancholy, addicted to pleasure, a martyr to the +gout. He brought no soldiers to the provinces, for the emperor, +threatened with another world-empire on his pagan flank, had no funds nor +troops to send to the assistance of his Christian brother-in-law and +uncle. Moreover, it may be imagined that Rudolph, despite the bonds of +religion and consanguinity, was disposed to look coldly on the colossal +projects of Philip. + +So Ernest brought no troops, but he brought six hundred and seventy +gentlemen, pages, and cooks, and five hundred and thirty-four horses, not +to charge upon the rebellious Dutchmen withal, but to draw coaches and +six. + +There was trouble enough prepared for the new governor at his arrival. +The great Flemish and Walloon nobles were quarrelling fiercely with the +Spaniards and among themselves for office and for precedence. Arschot +and his brother Havre both desired the government of Flanders; so did +Arenberg. All three, as well as other gentlemen, were scrambling for +the majordomo's office in Ernest's palace. Havre wanted the finance +department as well, but Ybarra, who was a financier, thought the public +funds in his hands would be in a perilous condition, inasmuch as he was +provinces was accounted the most covetous man in all the provinces. + +So soon as the archduke was known to be approaching the capital there was +a most ludicrous race run by all these grandees, in order to be the first +to greet his Highness. While Mansfeld and Fuentes were squabbling, as +usual, Arschot got the start of both, and arrived at Treves. Then the +decrepit Peter Ernest struggled as far as Luxembourg, while Fuentes +posted on to Namur. The archduke was much perplexed as to the arranging +of all these personages on the day of his entrance into Brussels. In the +council of state it was still worse. Arschot claimed the first place as +duke and as senior member, Peter Ernest demanded it as late governor- +general and because of his grey hairs. Never was imperial highness more +disturbed, never was clamour for loaves and fishes more deafening. The +caustic financier--whose mind was just then occupied with the graver +matter of assassination on a considerable scale--looked with profound +contempt at the spectacle thus presented to him. "There has been the +devil's own row," said he, "between these counts about offices, and also +about going out to receive the most serene archduke. I have had such +work with them that by the salvation of my soul I swear if it were to +last a fortnight longer I would go off afoot to Spain, even if I were +sure of dying in jail after I got there. I have reconciled the two +counts (Fuentes and Mansfeld) with each other a hundred times, and +another hundred times they have fallen out again, and behaved themselves +with such vulgarity that I blushed for them. They are both to blame, +but at any rate we have now got the archduke housed, and he will get +us out of this embarrassment." + +The archduke came with rather a prejudice against the Spaniards-- +the result doubtless of his disappointment in regard to France--and he +manifested at first an extreme haughtiness to those of that nation with +whom he came in contact. A Castilian noble of high rank, having audience +with him on one occasion, replaced his hat after salutation, as he had +been accustomed to do--according to the manner of grandees of Spain-- +during the government of Farnese. The hat was rudely struck from his +head by the archduke's chamberlain, and he was himself ignominiously +thrust out of the presence. At another time an interview was granted to +two Spanish gentlemen who had business to transact. They made their +appearance in magnificent national costume, splendidly embroidered in +gold. After a brief hearing they were dismissed, with appointment of +another audience for a few days later. When they again presented +themselves they found the archduke with his court jester standing at his +side, the buffoon being attired in a suit precisely similar to their own, +which in the interval had been prepared by the court tailor. + +Such amenities as these did not increase the popularity of Ernest with +the high-spirited Spaniards, nor was it palatable to them that it should +be proposed to supersede the old fighting Portuguese, Verdugo, as +governor and commander-in-chief for the king in Friesland, by Frederic +van den Berg, a renegade Netherlander, unworthy cousin of the Nassaus, +who had never shown either military or administrative genius. + +Nor did he succeed in conciliating the Flemings or the Germans by these +measures. In truth he was, almost without his own knowledge, under the +controlling influence of Fuentes, the most unscrupulous and dangerous +Spaniard of them all, while his every proceeding was closely watched not +only by Diego and Stephen Ybarra, but even by Christoval de Moura, one +of Philip's two secretaries of state who at this crisis made a visit +to Brussels. + +These men were indignant at the imbecility of the course pursued in the +obedient provinces. They knew that the incapacity of the Government to +relieve the sieges of Gertruydenberg and Groningen had excited the +contempt of Europe, and was producing a most damaging effect an Spanish +authority throughout Christendom. They were especially irritated by the +presence of the arch-intrigues, Mayenne, in Brussels, even after all his +double dealings had been so completely exposed that a blind man could +have read them. Yet there was Mayenne, consorting with the archduke, and +running up a great bill of sixteen thousand florins at the hotel, which +the royal paymaster declined to settle for want of funds, notwithstanding +Ernest's order to that effect, and there was no possibility of inducing +the viceroy to arrest him, much as he had injured and defrauded the king. + +How severely Ybarra and Feria denounced Mayenne has been seen; but +remonstrances about this and other grave mistakes of administration +were lost upon Ernest, or made almost impossible by his peculiar temper. +"If I speak of these things to his Highness," said Ybarra, "he will begin +to cry, as he always does." + +Ybarra, however, thought it his duty secretly to give the king frequent +information as to the blasted and forlorn condition of the provinces. +"This sick man will die in our arms," he said, "without our wishing to +kill him." He also left no doubt in the royal mind as to the utter +incompetency of the archduke for his office. Although he had much +Christianity, amiability, and good intentions, he was so unused to +business, so slow and so lazy, so easily persuaded by those around him, +as to be always falling into errors. He was the servant of his own +servants, particularly of those least disposed to the king's service +and most attentive to their own interests. He had endeavoured to make +himself beloved by the natives of the country, while the very reverse +of this had been the result. + +"As to his agility and the strength of his body," said the Spaniard, as +if he were thinking of certain allegories which were to mark the +archduke's triumphal entry, "they are so deficient as to leave him unfit +for arms. I consider him incapable of accompanying an army to the field, +and we find him so new to all such affairs as constitute government and +the conduct of warlike business, that he could not steer his way without +some one to enlighten and direct him." + +It was sometimes complained of in those days--and the thought has even +prolonged itself until later times--that those republicans of the United +Netherlands had done and could do great things; but that, after all, +there was no grandeur about them. Certainly they had done great things. +It was something to fight the Ocean for ages, and patiently and firmly to +shut him out from his own domain. It was something to extinguish the +Spanish Inquisition--a still more cruel and devouring enemy than the sea. +It was something that the fugitive spirit of civil and religious liberty +had found at last its most substantial and steadfast home upon those +storm-washed shoals and shifting sandbanks. + +It was something to come to the rescue of England in her great agony, and +help to save her from invasion. It was something to do more than any +nation but England, and as much as she, to assist Henry the Huguenot to +the throne of his ancestors and to preserve the national unity of France +which its own great ones had imperilled. It was something to found two +magnificent universities, cherished abodes of science and of antique +lore, in the midst of civil commotions and of resistance to foreign +oppression. It was something, at the same period, to lay the foundation +of a systew of common schools--so cheap as to be nearly free--for rich +and poor alike, which, in the words of one of the greatest benefactors +to the young republic, "would be worth all the soldiers, arsenals, +armouries, munitions, and alliances in the world." It was something to +make a revolution, as humane as it was effective, in military affairs, +and to create an army whose camps were European academies. It was +something to organize, at the same critical period, on the most skilful +and liberal scale, to carry out with unexampled daring, sagacity, and +fortitude, great voyages of discovery to the polar regions, and to open +new highways for commerce, new treasures for science. Many things of +this nature had been done by the new commonwealth; but, alas! she did not +drape herself melodramatically, nor stalk about with heroic wreath and +cothurn. She was altogether without grandeur. + +When Alva had gained his signal victories, and followed them up by +those prodigious massacres which, but for his own and other irrefragable +testimony, would seem too monstrous for belief, he had erected a colossal +statue to himself, attired in the most classical of costumes, and +surrounded with the most mythological of attributes. Here was grandeur. +But William the Silent, after he had saved the republic, for which he had +laboured during his whole lifetime and was destined to pour out his +heart's blood, went about among the brewers and burghers with unbuttoned +doublet and woollen bargeman's waistcoat. It was justly objected to his +clothes, by the euphuistic Fulke Greville, that a meanborn student of the +Inns of Court would have been ashamed to walk about London streets in +them. + +And now the engineering son of that shabbily-dressed personage had been +giving the whole world lessons in the science of war, and was fairly +perfecting the work which William and his great contemporaries had so +well begun. But if all this had been merely doing great things without +greatness, there was one man in the Netherlands who knew what grandeur +was. He was not a citizen of the disobedient republic, however, but a +loyal subject of the obedient provinces, and his name was John Baptist +Houwaerts, an eminent schoolmaster of Brussels. He was still more +eminent as a votary of what was called "Rhetoric" and as an arranger of +triumphal processions and living pictures. + +The arrival of Archduke Ernest at the seat of the provincial Government +offered an opportunity, which had long been wanting, for a display of +John Baptist's genius. The new viceroy was in so shattered a condition +of health, so crippled with the gout, as to be quite unable to stand, and +it required the services of several lackeys to lift him into and out of +his carriage. A few days of repose therefore were indispensable to him +before he could make his "joyous entrance" into the capital. But the day +came at last, and the exhibition was a masterpiece. + +It might have seemed that the abject condition of the Spanish provinces-- +desolate, mendicant, despairing--would render holiday making impossible. +But although almost every vestige of the ancient institutions had +vanished from the obedient Netherlands as a reward for their obedience; +although to civil and religious liberty, law, order, and a thriving +commercial and manufacturing existence, such as had been rarely witnessed +in the world, had succeeded the absolute tyranny of Jesuits, universal +beggary, and a perennial military mutiny--setting Government at defiance +and plundering the people--there was one faithful never deserted Belgica, +and that was Rhetoric. + +Neither the magnificence nor the pedantry of the spectacles by which the +entry of the mild and inefficient Ernest into Brussels and Antwerp was +now solemnized had ever been surpassed. The town councils, stimulated by +hopes absolutely without foundation as to great results to follow the +advent of the emperor's brother, had voted large sums and consumed many +days in anxious deliberation upon the manner in which they should be +expended so as most to redound to the honour of Ernest and the reputation +of the country. + +In place of the "bloody tragedies of burning, murdering, and ravishing," +of which the provinces had so long been the theatre, it was resolved +that, "Rhetoric's sweet comedies, amorous jests, and farces," should +gladden all eyes and hearts. A stately procession of knights and +burghers in historical and mythological costumes, followed by ships, +dromedaries, elephants, whales, giants, dragons, and other wonders of +the sea and shore, escorted the archduke into the city. Every street and +square was filled with triumphal arches, statues and platforms, on which +the most ingenious and thoroughly classical living pictures were +exhibited. There was hardly an eminent deity of Olympus, or hero of +ancient history, that was not revived and made visible to mortal eyes +in the person of Ernestus of Austria. + +On a framework fifty-five feet high and thirty-three feet in breadth he +was represented as Apollo hurling his darts at an enormous Python, under +one of whose fore-paws struggled an unfortunate burgher, while the other +clutched a whole city; Tellus, meantime, with her tower on her head, +kneeling anxious and imploring at the feet of her deliverer. On another +stage Ernest assumed the shape of Perseus; Belgica that of the bound and +despairing Andromeda. On a third, the interior of Etna was revealed, +when Vulcan was seen urging his Cyclops to forge for Ernest their most +tremendous thunderbolts with which to smite the foes of the provinces, +those enemies being of course the English and the Hollanders. Venus, the +while, timidly presented an arrow to her husband, which he was requested +to sharpen, in order that when the wars were over Cupid, therewith might +pierce the heart of some beautiful virgin, whose charms should reward +Ernest--fortunately for the female world, still a bachelor--for his +victories and his toils. + +The walls of every house were hung with classic emblems and inscribed +with Latin verses. All the pedagogues of Brussels and Antwerp had been +at work for months, determined to amaze the world with their dithyrambics +and acrostics, and they had outdone themselves. + +Moreover, in addition to all these theatrical spectacles and pompous +processions--accompanied as they were by blazing tar-barrels, flying +dragons, and leagues of flaring torches--John Baptist, who had been +director-in-chief of all the shows successively arranged to welcome Don +John of Austria, Archduke Matthias, Francis of Alengon, and even William +of Orange, into the capital, had prepared a feast of a specially +intellectual character for the new governor-general. + +The pedant, according to his own account, so soon as the approach of +Ernest had been announced, fell straightway into a trance. While he was +in that condition, a beautiful female apparition floated before his eyes, +and, on being questioned, announced her name to be Moralization. John +Baptist begged her to inform him whether it were true, as had been +stated, that Jupiter had just sent Mercury to the Netherlands. The +phantom, correcting his mistake, observed that the king of gods and men +had not sent Hermes but the Archduke Ernestus, beloved of the three +Graces, favourite of the nine Muses, and, in addition to these +advantages, nephew and brother-in-law of the King of Spain, to the relief +of the suffering provinces. The Netherlands, it was true, for their +religious infidelity, had justly incurred great disasters and misery; but +benignant Jove, who, to the imagination of this excited Fleming, seemed +to have been converted to Catholicism while still governing the universe, +had now sent them in mercy a deliverer. The archduke would speedily +relieve "bleeding Belgica" from her sufferings, bind up her wounds, and +annihilate her enemies. The spirit further informed the poet that the +forests of the Low Countries--so long infested by brigands, wood-beggars, +and malefactors of all kinds--would thenceforth swarm with "nymphs, +rabbits, hares, and animals of that nature." + +A vision of the conquering Ernest, attended by "eight-and-twenty noble +and pleasant females, marching two and two, half naked, each holding a +torch in one hand and a laurel-wreath in the other," now swept before the +dreamer's eyes." He naturally requested the "discreet spirit" to mention +the names of this bevy of imperfectly attired ladies thronging so +lovingly around the fortunate archduke, and was told that "they were +the eight-and-twenty virtues which chiefly characterized his serene +Highness." Prominent in this long list, and they were all faithfully +enumerated, were Philosophy, Audacity, Acrimony, Virility, Equity, Piety, +Velocity, and Alacrity." The two last-mentioned qualities could hardly +be attributed to the archduke in his decrepit condition, except in an +intensely mythological sense. Certainly, they would have been highly +useful virtues to him at that moment. The prince who had just taken +Gertruydenberg, and was then besieging Groningen, was manifesting his +share of audacity, velocity, and other good gifts on even a wider +platform than that erected for Ernest by John Baptist Houwaerts; and +there was an admirable opportunity for both to develope their respective +characteristics for the world's judgment. + +Meantime the impersonation of the gentle and very gouty invalid as +Apollo, as Perseus, as the feather-heeled Mercury, was highly applauded +by the burghers of Brussels. + +And so the dreamer dreamed on, and the discreet nymph continued to +discourse, until John Baptist, starting suddenly from his trance beheld +that it was all a truth and no vision. Ernest was really about to enter +the Netherlands, and with him the millennium. The pedant therefore +proceeded to his desk, and straightway composed the very worst poem that +had ever been written in any language, even Flemish. + +There were thousands of lines in it, and not a line without a god or a +goddess. + +Mars, Nemesis, and Ate, Pluto, Rhadamanthus, and Minos, the Fates and +the Furies, together with Charon, Calumnia, Bellona, and all such +objectionable divinities, were requested to disappear for ever from the +Low Countries; while in their stead were confidently invoked Jupiter, +Apollo, Triptolemus, and last, though not least, Rhetorica. + +Enough has been said of this raree-show to weary the reader's patience, +but not more than enough to show the docile and enervated nature of this +portion of a people who had lost everything for which men cherish their +fatherland, but who could still find relief--after thirty years of +horrible civil war in painted pageantry, Latin versification, and the +classical dictionary. + +Yet there was nothing much more important achieved by the archduke in the +brief period for which his administration was destined to endure. +Three phenomena chiefly marked his reign, but his own part in the three +was rather a passive than an active one--mutiny, assassination, and +negotiation--the two last attempted on a considerable scale but ending +abortively. + +It is impossible to exaggerate the misery of the obedient provinces at +this epoch. The insane attempt of the King of Spain, with such utterly +inadequate machinery, to conquer the world has been sufficiently dilated +upon. The Spanish and Italian and Walloon soldiers were starving in +Brabant and Flanders in order that Spanish gold might be poured into the +bottomless pit of the Holy League in France. + +The mutiny that had broken forth the preceding year in Artois and Hamault +was now continued on a vast scale in Brabant. Never had that national +institution--a Spanish mutiny--been more thoroughly organized, more +completely carried out in all its details. All that was left of the +famous Spanish discipline and military science in this their period of +rapid decay, seemed monopolized by the mutineers. Some two thousand +choice troops (horse and foot), Italians and Spanish, took possession of +two considerable cities, Sichem and Arschot, and ultimately concentrated +themselves at Sichem, which they thoroughly fortified. Having chosen +their Eletto and other officers they proceeded regularly to business. +To the rallying point came disaffected troops of all nations from far +and near. Never since the beginning of the great war had there been so +extensive a military rebellion, nor one in which so many veteran +officers, colonels, captains, and subalterns took part. The army of +Philip had at last grown more dangerous to himself than to the +Hollanders. + +The council at Brussels deliberated anxiously upon the course to be +pursued, and it was decided at last to negotiate with instead of +attacking them. But it was soon found that the mutineers were as hard +to deal with as were the republicans on the other side the border. They +refused to hear of anything short of complete payment of the enormous +arrears due to them, with thorough guarantees and hostages that any +agreement made between themselves and the archduke should be punctually +carried out. Meanwhile they ravaged the country far and near, and levied +their contributions on towns and villages, up to the very walls of +Brussels, and before the very eyes of the viceroy. + +Moreover they entered into negotiation with Prince Maurice of Nassau, not +offering to enlist under his flag, but asking for protection against the +king in exchange for a pledge meanwhile not to serve his cause. At last +the archduke plucked up a heart and sent some troops against the rebels, +who had constructed two forts on the river Demer near the city of Sichem. +In vain Velasco, commander of the expedition, endeavoured to cut off the +supplies for these redoubts. The vigour and audacity of the rebel +cavalry made the process impossible. Velasco then attempted to storm the +lesser stronghold of the two, but was repulsed with the loss of two +hundred killed. Among these were many officers, one of whom, Captain +Porto Carrero, was a near relative of Fuentes. After a siege, Velasco, +who was a marshal of the camp of considerable distinction, succeeded in +driving the mutineers out of the forts; who, finding their position +thus weakened, renewed their negotiations with Maurice. They at last +obtained permission from the prince to remain under the protection of +Gertruydenberg and Breda until they could ascertain what decision the +archduke would take. More they did not ask of Maurice, nor did he +require more of them. + +The mutiny, thus described in a few lines, had occupied nearly a year, +and had done much to paralyze for that period all the royal operations in +the Netherlands. In December the rebellious troops marched out of Sichem +in perfect order, and came to Langstraet within the territory of the +republic. + +The archduke now finding himself fairly obliged to treat with them sent +an offer of the same terms which had been proposed to mutineers on +previous occasions. At first they flatly refused to negotiate at all, +but at last, with the permission of Maurice, who conducted himself +throughout with scrupulous delicacy, and made no attempts to induce them +to violate their allegiance to the king, they received Count Belgioso, +the envoy of the archduke. They held out for payment of all their +arrears up to the last farthing, and insisted on a hostage of rank until +the debt should be discharged. Full forgiveness of their rebellious +proceedings was added as a matter of course. Their terms were accepted, +and Francisco Padiglia was assigned as a hostage. They then established +themselves, according to agreement, at Tirlemont, which they were allowed +to fortify at the expense of the province and to hold until the money for +their back wages could be scraped together. Meantime they received daily +wages and rations from the Government at Brussels, including thirty +stivers a day for each horseman, thirteen crowns a day for the Eletto, +and ten crowns a day for each counsellor, making in all five hundred +crowns a day. And here they remained, living exceedingly at their ease +and enjoying a life of leisure for eighteen months, and until long after +the death of the archduke, for it was not until the administration of +Cardinal Albert that the funds, amounting to three hundred and sixty +thousand crowns, could be collected. + +These were the chief military exploits of the podagric Perseus in behalf +of the Flemish Andromeda. + +A very daring adventure was however proposed to the archduke. Philip +calmly suggested that an expedition should be rapidly fitted out in +Dunkirk, which should cross the channel, ascend the Thames as far as +Rochester, and burn the English fleet. "I am informed by persons well +acquainted with the English coast," said the king, "that it would be an +easy matter for a few quick-sailing vessels to accomplish this. Two or +three thousand soldiers might be landed at Rochester who might burn or +sink all the unarmed vessels they could find there, and the expedition +could return and sail off again before the people of the country could +collect in sufficient numbers to do them any damage." The archduke was +instructed to consult with Fuentes and Ybarra as to whether this little +matter, thus parenthetically indicated, could be accomplished without too +much risk and trouble. + +Certainly it would seem as if the king believed in the audacity, +virility, velocity, alacrity, and the rest of the twenty-eight virtues +of his governor-general, even more seriously than did John Baptist +Houwaerts. The unfortunate archduke would have needed to be, in all +earnestness, a mythological demigod to do the work required of him. With +the best part of his army formally maintained by him in recognised +mutiny, with the great cities of the Netherlands yielding themselves to +the republic with hardly an attempt on the part of the royal forces to +relieve them, and with the country which he was supposed to govern, the +very centre of the obedient provinces, ruined, sacked, eaten up by the +soldiers of Spain; villages, farmhouses, gentlemen's castles, churches +plundered; the male population exposed to daily butchery, and the women +to outrages worse than death; it seemed like the bitterest irony to +propose that he should seize that moment to outwit the English and Dutch +sea-kings who were perpetually cruising in the channel, and to undertake +a "beard-singeing" expedition such as even the dare-devil Drake would +hardly have attempted. + +Such madcap experiments might perhaps one day, in the distant future, be +tried with reasonable success, but hardly at the beck of a Spanish king +sitting in his easy chair a thousand miles off, nor indeed by the +servants of any king whatever. + +The plots of murder arranged in Brussels during this administration were +on a far more extensive scale than were the military plans. + +The Count of Fuentes, general superintendant of foreign affairs, was +especially charged with the department of assassination. This office was +no sinecure; for it involved much correspondence, and required great +personal attention to minute details. Philip, a consummate artist in +this branch of industry, had laid out a good deal of such work which he +thought could best be carried out in and from the Netherlands. +Especially it was desirable to take off, by poison or otherwise, Henry +IV., Queen Elizabeth, Maurice of Nassau, Olden-Barneveld, St. Aldegonde, +and other less conspicuous personages. + +Henry's physician-in-chief, De la Riviere, was at that time mainly +occupied with devising antidotes to poison, which he well knew was +offered to his master on frequent occasions, and in the most insidious +ways. Andrada, the famous Portuguese poisoner, amongst others is said, +under direction of Fuentes and Ybarra, to have attempted his life by a +nosegay of roses impregnated with so subtle a powder that its smell alone +was relied upon to cause death, and De la Riviere was doing his best to +search for a famous Saxon drug, called fable-powder, as a counter-poison. +"The Turk alarms us, and well he may," said a diplomatic agent of Henry, +"but the Spaniard allows us not to think of the Turk. And what a strange +manner is this to exercise one's enmities and vengeance by having +recourse to such damnable artifices, after force and arms have not +succeeded, and to attack the person of princes by poisonings and +assassinations." + +A most elaborate attempt upon the life of Queen Elizabeth early in this +year came near being successful. A certain Portuguese Jew, Dr. Lopez, +had for some time been her physician-in-ordinary. He had first been +received into her service on the recommendation of Don Antonio, the +pretender, and had the reputation of great learning and skill. With this +man Count Fuentes and Stephen Ybarra, chief of the financial department +at Brussels, had a secret understanding. Their chief agent was Emanuel +Andrada, who was also in close communication with Bernardino de Mendoza +and other leading personages of the Spanish court. Two years previously, +Philip, by the hands of Andrada, had sent a very valuable ring of rubies +and diamonds as a present to Lopez, and the doctor had bound himself to +do any service for the king of Spain that might be required of him. +Andrada accordingly wrote to Mendoza that he had gained over this eminent +physician, but that as Lopez was poor and laden with debt, a high price +would be required for his work. Hereupon Fuentes received orders from +the King of Spain to give the Jew all that he could in reason demand, if +he would undertake to poison the queen. + +It now became necessary to handle the matter with great delicacy, and +Fuentes and Ybarra entered accordingly into a correspondence, not with +Lopez, but with a certain Ferrara de Gama. These letters were entrusted +to one Emanuel Lewis de Tinoco, secretly informed of the plot, for +delivery to Ferrara. Fuentes charged Tinoco to cause Ferrara to +encourage Lopez to poison her Majesty of England, that they might all +have "a merry Easter." Lopez was likewise requested to inform the King +of Spain when he thought he could accomplish the task. The doctor +ultimately agreed to do the deed for fifty thousand crowns, but as he had +daughters and was an affectionate parent, he stipulated for a handsome +provision in marriage for those young ladies. The terms were accepted, +but Lopez wished to be assured of the money first. + +"Having once undertaken the work," said Lord Burghley, if he it were, "he +was so greedy to perform it that he would ask Ferrara every day, 'When +will the money come? I am ready to do the service if the answer were +come out of Spain.'" + +But Philip, as has been often seen, was on principle averse to paying +for work before it had been done. Some delay occurring, and the secret, +thus confided to so many, having floated as it were imperceptibly into +the air, Tinoco was arrested on suspicion before he had been able to +deliver the letters of Fuentes and Ybarra to Ferrara, for Ferrara, too, +had been imprisoned before the arrival of Tinoco. The whole +correspondence was discovered, and both Ferrara and Tinoco confessed the +plot. Lopez, when first arrested, denied his guilt very stoutly, but +being confronted with Ferrara, who told the whole story to his face in +presence of the judges, he at last avowed the crime. + +They were all condemned, executed, and quartered at London in the spring +of 1594. The queen wished to send a special envoy to the archduke at +Brussels, to complain that Secretary of State Cristoval de Moura, Count +Fuentes, and Finance Minister Ybarra--all three then immediately about +his person--were thus implicated in the plot against her life, to demand +their punishment, or else, in case of refusals to convict the king and +the archduke as accomplices in the crime. Safe conduct was requested for +such an envoy, which was refused by Ernest as an insulting proposition +both to his uncle and himself. The queen accordingly sent word to +President Richardot by one of her council, that the whole story would be +published, and this was accordingly done. + +Early in the spring of this same year, a certain Renichon, priest and +schoolmaster of Namur, was summoned from his school to a private +interview with Count Berlaymont. That nobleman very secretly informed +the priest that the King of, Spain wished to make use of him in an affair +of great importance, and one which would be very profitable to himself. +The pair then went together to Brussels, and proceeded straightway to the +palace. They were secretly admitted to the apartments of the archduke, +but the priest, meaning to follow his conductor into the private chamber, +where he pretended to recognize the person of Ernest, was refused +admittance. The door was, however, not entirely closed, and he heard, as +he declared, the conversation between his Highness and Berlaymont, which +was carried on partly in Latin and partly in Spanish. He heard them +discussing the question--so he stated--of the recompense to be awarded +for the business about to be undertaken, and after a brief conversation, +distinctly understood the archduke to say, as the count was approaching +the door, "I will satisfy him abundantly and with interest." + +Berlaymont then invited his clerical guest to supper--so ran his +statement--and, after that repast was finished, informed him that he was +requested by the archduke to kill Prince Maurice of Nassau. For this +piece of work he was to receive one hundred Philip-dollars in hand, and +fifteen thousand more, which were lying ready for him, so soon as the +deed should be done. + +The schoolmaster at first objected to the enterprise, but ultimately +yielded to the persuasions of the count. He was informed that Maurice +was a friendly, familiar gentleman, and that there would be opportunities +enough for carrying out the project if he took his time. He was to buy a +good pair of pistols and remove to the Hague, where he was to set up a +school, and wait for the arrival of his accomplices, of whom there were +six. Berlaymont then caused to be summoned and introduced to the +pedagogue a man whom he described as one of the six. The new comer, +hearing that Renichon had agreed to the propositions made to him, hailed +him cordially as comrade and promised to follow him very soon into +Holland. Berlaymont then observed that there were several personages to +be made away with, besides Prince Maurice--especially Barneveld, and St. +Aldegonde and that the six assassins had, since the time of the Duke of +Parma, been kept in the pay of the King of Spain as nobles, to be +employed as occasion should serve. + +His new comrade accompanied Renichon to the canal boat, conversing by the +way, and informed him that they were both to be sent to Leyden in order +to entice away and murder the young brother of Maurice, Frederic Henry, +then at school at that place, even as Philip William, eldest of all the +brothers, had been kidnapped five-and-twenty years before from the same +town. + +Renichon then disguised himself as a soldier, proceeded to Antwerp, where +he called himself Michael de Triviere, and thence made his way to Breda, +provided with letters from Berlaymont. He was, however, arrested on +suspicion not long after his arrival there, and upon trial the whole plot +was discovered. Having unsuccessfully attempted to hang himself, he +subsequently, without torture, made a full and minute confession, and was +executed on the 3rd June, 1594. + +Later in the year, one Pierre du Four, who had been a soldier both in the +States and the French service, was engaged by General La Motte and +Counsellor Assonleville to attempt the assassination of Prince Maurice. +La Motte took the man to the palace, and pretended at least to introduce +him to the chamber of the archduke, who was said to be lying ill in bed. +Du Four was advised to enrol himself in the body-guard at the Hague, and +to seek an opportunity when the prince went hunting, or was mounting his +horse, or was coming from church, or at some such unguarded moment, to +take a shot at him. "Will you do what I ask," demanded from the bed the +voice of him who was said to be Ernest, "will you kill this tyrant?"-- +"I will," replied the soldier. "Then my son," was the parting +benediction of the supposed archduke, "you will go straight to paradise." + +Afterwards he received good advice from Assonleville, and was assured +that if he would come and hear a mass in the royal chapel next morning, +that religious ceremony would make him invisible when he should make his +attempt on the life of Maurice, and while he should be effecting his +escape. The poor wretch accordingly came next morning to chapel, where +this miraculous mass was duly performed, and he then received a certain +portion of his promised reward in ready money. He was also especially +charged, in case he should be arrested, not to make a confession--as had +been done by those previously employed in such work--as all complicity +with him on part of his employers would certainly be denied. + +The miserable dupe was arrested, convicted, executed; and of course +the denial was duly made on the part of the archduke, La Motte, and +Assonleville. It was also announced, on behalf of Ernest, that some +one else, fraudulently impersonating his Highness, had lain in the bed +to which the culprit had been taken, and every one must hope that the +statement was a true one. + +Enough has been given to show the peculiar school of statesmanship +according to the precepts of which the internal concerns and foreign +affairs of the obedient Netherlands were now administered. Poison and +pistols in the hands of obscure priests and deserters were relied on to +bring about great political triumphs, while the mutinous royal armies, +entrenched and defiant, were extorting capitulations from their own +generals and their own sovereign upon his own soil. + +Such a record as this seems rather like the exaggeration of a diseased +fancy, seeking to pander to a corrupt public taste which feeds greedily +upon horrors; but, unfortunately, it is derived from the register of +high courts of justice, from diplomatic correspondence, and from the +confessions, without torture or hope of free pardon, of criminals. For a +crowned king and his high functionaries and generals to devote so much of +their time, their energies, and their money to the murder of brother and +sister sovereigns, and other illustrious personages, was not to make +after ages in love with the monarchic and aristocratic system, at least +as thus administered. Popular governments may be deficient in polish, +but a system resting for its chief support upon bribery and murder cannot +be considered lovely by any healthy mind. And this is one of the lessons +to be derived from the history of Philip II. and of the Holy League. + +But besides mutiny and assassination there were also some feeble attempts +at negotiation to characterize the Ernestian epoch at Brussels. The +subject hardly needs more than a passing allusion. + +Two Flemish juris-consults, Otto Hertius and Jerome Comans, offered their +services to the archduke in the peacemaking department. Ernest accepted +the proposition,--although it was strongly opposed by Fuentes, who relied +upon the more practical agency of Dr. Lopez, Andrada, Renichon, and the +rest--and the peace-makers accordingly made their appearance at the +Hague, under safe conduct, and provided with very conciliatory letters +from his Highness to the States-General. In all ages and under all +circumstances it is safe to enlarge, with whatever eloquence may be at +command, upon the blessings of peace and upon the horrors of war; for +the appeal is not difficult to make, and a response is certain in almost +every human breast. But it is another matter to descend from the general +to the particular, and to demonstrate how the desirable may be attained +and the horrible averted. The letters of Ernest were full of benignity +and affection, breathing a most ardent desire that the miserable war, now +a quarter of a century old, should be then and there terminated. But not +one atom of concession was offered, no whisper breathed that the +republic, if it should choose to lay down its victorious arms, and +renounce its dearly gained independence, should share any different fate +from that under which it saw the obedient provinces gasping before its +eyes. To renounce religious and political liberty and self-government, +and to submit unconditionally to the authority of Philip II. as +administered by Ernest and Fuentes, was hardly to be expected as the +result of the three years' campaigns of Maurice of Nassau. + +The two doctors of law laid the affectionate common-places of the +archduke before the States-General, each of them making, moreover, +a long and flowery oration in which the same protestations of good will +and hopes of future good-fellowship were distended to formidable +dimensions by much windy rhetoric. The accusations which had been made +against the Government of Brussels of complicity in certain projects of +assassination were repelled with virtuous indignation. + +The answer of the States-General was wrathful and decided. They informed +the commissioners that they had taken up arms for a good cause and meant +to retain them in their hands. They expressed their thanks for the +expressions of good will which had been offered, but avowed their right +to complain before God and the world of those who under pretext of peace +were attempting to shed the innocent blood of Christians, and to procure +the ruin and destruction of the Netherlands. To this end the state- +council of Spain was more than ever devoted, being guilty of the most +cruel and infamous proceedings and projects. They threw out a rapid and +stinging summary of their wrongs; and denounced with scorn the various +hollow attempts at negotiation during the preceding twenty-five years. +Coming down to the famous years 1587 and 1588, they alluded in vehement +terms to the fraudulent peace propositions which had been thrown as a +veil over the Spanish invasion of England and the Armada; and they +glanced at the mediation-projects of the emperor in 1591 at the desire of +Spain, while armies were moving in force from Germany, Italy, and the +Netherlands to crush the King of France, in order that Philip might +establish his tyranny over all kings, princes, provinces, and republics. +That the Spanish Government was secretly dealing with the emperor and +other German potentates for the extension of his universal empire +appeared from intercepted letters of the king--copies of which were +communicated--from which it was sufficiently plain that the purpose of +his Majesty was not to bestow peace and tranquillity upon the +Netherlands. The names of Fuentes, Clemente, Ybarra, were sufficient in +themselves to destroy any such illusion. They spoke in blunt terms of +the attempt of Dr. Lopez to poison Queen Elizabeth, at the instigation of +Count Fuentes for fifty thousand crowns to be paid by the King of Spain: +they charged upon the same Fuentes and upon Ybarra that they had employed +the same Andrada to murder the King of France with a nosegay of roses; +and they alluded further to the revelations of Michael Renichon, who was +to murder Maurice of Nassau and kidnap Frederic William, even as their +father and brother had been already murdered and kidnapped. + +For such reasons the archduke might understand by what persons and what +means the good people of the Netherlands were deceived, and how difficult +it was for the States to forget such lessons, or to imagine anything +honest in the present propositions. + +The States declared themselves, on the contrary, more called upon than +ever before to be upon the watch against the stealthy proceedings of the +Spanish council of state--bearing in mind the late execrable attempts at +assassination, and the open war which was still carried on against the +King of France. + +And although it was said that his Highness was displeased with such +murderous and hostile proceedings, still it was necessary for the States +to beware of the nefarious projects of the King of Spain and his council. + +After the conversion of Henry IV. to the Roman Church had been duly +accomplished that monarch had sent a secret envoy to Spain. The mission +of this agent--De Varenne by name--excited intense anxiety and suspicion +in England and Holland and among the Protestants of France and Germany. +It was believed that Henry had not only made a proposition of a separate +peace with Philip, but that he had formally but mysteriously demanded the +hand of the Infanta in marriage. Such a catastrophe as this seemed to +the heated imaginations of the great body of Calvinists throughout +Europe, who had so faithfully supported the King of Navarre up to the +moment of his great apostasy, the most cruel and deadly treachery of all. +That the princess with the many suitors should come to reign over France +after all--not as the bride of her own father, not as the queen-consort +of Ernest the Habsburger or of Guise the Lorrainer, but as the lawful +wife of Henry the Huguenot--seemed almost too astounding for belief, even +amid the chances and changes of that astonishing epoch. Yet Duplessis +Mornay avowed that the project was entertained, and that he had it from +the very lips of the secret envoy who was to negotiate the marriage. +"La Varenne is on his way to Spain," wrote Duplessis to the Duke of +Bouillon, "in company with a gentleman of Don Bernardino de Mendoza, who +brought the first overtures. He is to bring back the portrait of the +Infanta. 'Tis said that the marriage is to be on condition that the +Queen and the Netherlands are comprised in the peace, but you know that +this cannot be satisfactorily arranged for those two parties. All this +was once guess-work, but is now history." + +That eminent diplomatist and soldier Mendoza had already on his return +from France given the King of Spain to understand that there were no +hopes of his obtaining the French crown either for himself or for his +daughter, that all the money lavished on the chiefs of the League was +thrown away, and that all their promises were idle wind. Mendoza in +consequence had fallen into contempt at court, but Philip, observing +apparently that there might have been something correct in his +statements, had recently recalled him, and, notwithstanding his blindness +and other infirmities, was disposed to make use of him in secret +negotiations. Mendoza had accordingly sent a confidential agent to Henry +IV. offering his good offices, now that the king had returned to the +bosom of the Church. + +This individual, whose name was Nunez, was admitted by De Bethune +(afterwards the famous Due de Sully) to the presence of the king, +but De Bethune, believing it probable that the Spaniard had been sent to +assassinate Henry, held both the hands of the emissary during the whole +interview, besides subjecting him to a strict personal visitation +beforehand. Nunez stated that he was authorized to propose to his +Majesty a marriage with the Infanta Clara Isabella, and Henry, much to +the discontent of De Bethune, listened eagerly to the suggestion, and +promised to send a secret agent to Spain to confer on the subject with +Mendoza. + +The choice he made of La Varenne, whose real name was Guillaume Fouquet, +for this mission was still more offensive to De Bethune. Fouquet had +originally been a cook in the service of Madame Catherine, and was famous +for his talent for larding poultry, but he had subsequently entered the +household of Henry, where he had been employed in the most degrading +service which one man can render to another. + + ["La Varenne," said Madame Catherine on one occasion "tu as plus + gagne ti porter les poulets de men frere, qu'a piquer les miens." + Memoires de Sully, Liv. vi. p. 296, note 6. He accumulated a large + fortune in these dignified pursuits--having, according to Winwood, + landed estates to the annual amount of sixty thousand francs a-year + --and gave large dowries to his daughters, whom he married into + noblest families; "which is the more remarkable," adds Winwood, + "considering the services wherein he is employed about the king, + which is to be the Mezzano for his loves; the place from whence he + came, which is out of the kitchen of Madame the king's sister."-- + Memorials, i. 380.] + +On his appointment to this offce of secret diplomacy he assumed all the +airs of an ambassador, while Henry took great pains to contradict the +reports which were spread as to the true nature of this mission to Spain. + +Duplessis was, in truth, not very far wrong in his conjectures, but, +as might be supposed, Henry was most anxious to conceal these secret +negotiations with his Catholic Majesty from the Huguenot chiefs whom he +had so recently deserted. "This is all done without the knowledge of +the Duke of Bouillon," said Calvaert, "or at least under a very close +disguise, as he, himself keenly feels and confesses to me." The envoy +of the republic, as well as the leaders of the Protestant party in +France, were resolved if possible to break off these dark and dangerous +intrigues, the nature of which they so shrewdly suspected, and to +substitute for them an open rupture of Henry with the King of Spain, +and a formal declaration of war against him. None of the diplomatists +or political personages engaged in these great affairs, in which the +whole world was so deeply interested, manifested more sagacity and +insight on this occasion than did the Dutch statesmen. We have seen that +even Sir Edward Stafford was deceived up to a very late moment, as to the +rumoured intentions of Henry to enter the Catholic Church. Envoy Edmonds +was now equally and completely in the dark as to the mission of Varenne, +and informed his Government that the only result of it was that the +secret agent to Spain was favoured, through the kindness of Mendoza, +with a distant view of Philip II. with his son and daughter at their +devotions in the chapel of the Escorial. This was the tale generally +recounted and believed after the agent's return from Spain, so that +Varenne was somewhat laughed at as having gone to Spain on a fool's +errand, and as having got nothing from Mendoza but a disavowal of his +former propositions. But the shrewd Calvaert, who had entertained +familiar relations with La Varenne, received from that personage after +his return a very different account of his excursion to the Escorial from +the one generally circulated. "Coming from Monceaus to Paris in his +company," wrote Calvaert in a secret despatch to the States, "I had the +whole story from him. The chief part of his negotiations with Don +Bernardino de Mendoza was that if his Majesty (the French king) would +abandon the Queen of England and your Highnesses (the States of the +Netherlands), there were no conditions that would be refused the king, +including the hand of the Infanta, together with a good recompense for +the kingdom of Navarre. La Varenne maintained that the King of Spain had +caused these negotiations to be entered upon at this time with him in the +certain hope and intention of a definite conclusion, alleging to me many +pertinent reasons, and among others that he, having been lodged at +Madrid, through the adroitness of Don Bernardino, among all the agents of +the League, and hearing all their secrets and negotiations, had never +been discovered, but had always been supposed to be one of the League +himself. He said also that he was well assured that the Infanta in her +heart had an affection for the French king, and notwithstanding any +resolutions that might be taken (to which I referred, meaning the +projects for bestowing her on the house of Austria) that she with her +father's consent or in case of his death would not fail to carry out +this marriage. You may from all this, even out of the proposal for +compensation for the kingdom of Navarre (of which his Majesty also let +out something to me inadvertently); collect the reasons why such feeble +progress is made in so great an occasion as now presents itself for a +declaration of war and an open alliance with your Highnesses. I shall +not fail to watch these events, even in case of the progress of the said +resolutions, notwithstanding the effects of which it is my opinion that +this secret intrigue is not to be abandoned. To this end, besides the +good intelligence which one gets by means of good friends, a continual +and agreeable presentation of oneself to his Majesty, in order to see and +hear everything, is necessary." + +Certainly, here were reasons more than sufficient why Henry should be +making but feeble preparations for open war in alliance with England and +the republic against Philip, as such a step was hardly compatible with +the abandonment of England and the republic and the espousal of Philip's +daughter--projects which Henry's commissioner had just been discussing +with Philip's agent at Madrid and the Escorial. + +Truly it was well for the republican envoy to watch events as closely as +possible, to make the most of intelligence from his good friends, and to +present himself as frequently and as agreeably as possible to his +Majesty, that he might hear and see everything. There was much to see +and to hear, and it needed adroitness and courage, not to slip or stumble +in such dark ways where the very ground seemed often to be sliding from +beneath the feet. + +To avoid the catastrophe of an alliance between Henry, Philip, and the +Pope against Holland and England, it was a pressing necessity for Holland +and England to force Henry into open war against Philip. To this end the +Dutch statesmen were bending all their energies. Meantime Elizabeth +regarded the campaign in Artois and Hainault with little favour. + +As he took leave on departing for France, La Varenne had requested +Mendoza to write to King Henry, but the Spaniard excused himself-- +although professing the warmest friendship for his Majesty--on the ground +of the impossibility of addressing him correctly. "If I call him here +King of Navarre, I might as well put my head on the block at once," he +observed; "if I call him King of France, my master has not yet recognized +him as such; if I call him anything else, he will himself be offended." + +And the vision of Philip in black on his knees, with his children about +him, and a rapier at his side, passed with the contemporary world as the +only phenomenon of this famous secret mission. + +But Henry, besides this demonstration towards Spain, lost no time in +despatching a special minister to the republic and to England, who was +instructed to make the most profuse, elaborate, and conciliatory +explanations as to his recent conversion and as to his future intentions. +Never would he make peace, he said, with Spain without the full consent +of the States and of England; the dearest object of his heart in making +his peace with Rome having been to restore peace to his own distracted +realm, to bring all Christians into one brotherhood, and to make a united +attack upon the grand Turk--a vision which the cheerful monarch hardly +intended should ever go beyond the ivory gate of dreams, but which +furnished substance enough for several well-rounded periods in the +orations of De Morlans. + +That diplomatist, after making the strongest representations to Queen +Elizabeth as to the faithful friendship of his master, and the necessity +he was under of pecuniary and military assistance, had received generous +promises of aid both in men and money--three thousand men besides the +troops actually serving in Brittany--from that sagacious sovereign, +notwithstanding the vehement language in which she had rebuked her royal +brother's apostasy. He now came for the same purpose to the Hague, +where he made very eloquent harangues to the States-General, +acknowledging that the republic had ever been the most upright, perfect, +and undisguised friend to his master and to France in their darkest days +and deepest affliction; that she had loved the king and kingdom for +themselves, not merely hanging on to their prosperity, but, on the +contrary, doing her best to produce that prosperity by her contributions +in soldiers, ships, and subsidies. "The king," said De Morlans, "is +deeply grieved that he can prove his gratitude only in words for so many +benefits conferred, which are absolutely without example, but he has +commissioned me to declare that if God should ever give him the occasion, +he will prove how highly he places your friendship." + +The envoy assured the States that all fears entertained by those of the +reformed religion on account of the conversion of his Majesty were +groundless. Nothing was farther from the king's thoughts than to injure +those noble spirits with whom his soul had lived so long, and whom he so +much loved and honoured. No man knew better than the king did, the +character of those who professed the Religion, their virtue, valour, +resolution, and patience in adversity. Their numbers had increased in +war, their virtues had been purified by affliction, they had never +changed their position, whether battles had been won or lost. Should +ever an attempt be made to take up arms against them within his realms, +and should there be but five hundred of them against ten thousand, the +king, remembering their faithful and ancient services, would leave the +greater number in order to die at the head of his old friends. He was +determined that they should participate in all the honours of the +kingdom, and with regard to a peace with Spain, he would have as much +care for the interests of the United Provinces as for his own. But a +peace was impossible with that monarch, whose object was to maintain his +own realms in peace while he kept France in perpetual revolt against the +king whom God had given her. The King of Spain had trembled at Henry's +cradle, at his youth, at the bloom of his manhood, and knew that he had +inflicted too much injury upon him ever to be on friendly terms with him. +The envoy was instructed to say that his master never expected to be in +amity with one who had ruined his house confiscated his property, and +caused so much misery to France; and he earnestly hoped--without +presuming to dictate--that the States-General would in this critical +emergency manifest their generosity. If the king were not assisted now, +both king and kingdom would perish. If he were assisted, the succour +would bear double fruit. + +The sentiments expressed on the part of Henry towards his faithful +subjects of the Religion, the heretic Queen of England, and the stout +Dutch Calvinists who had so long stood by him, were most noble. It was +pity that, at the same moment, he was proposing to espouse the Infanta, +and to publish the Council of Trent. + +The reply of the States-General to these propositions of the French envoy +was favourable, and it was agreed that a force of three thousand foot and +five hundred horse should be sent to the assistance of the king. +Moreover, the state-paper drawn up on this occasion was conceived with so +much sagacity and expressed with so much eloquence, as particularly to +charm the English queen when it was communicated to her Majesty. She +protested very loudly and vehemently to Noel de Caron, envoy from the +provinces at London, that this response on the part of his Government to +De Morlans was one of the wisest documents that she had ever seen. "In +all their actions," said she, "the States-General show their sagacity, +and indeed, it is the wisest Government ever known among republics. I +would show you," she added to the gentlemen around her, "the whole of the +paper if it were this moment at hand." + +After some delays, it was agreed between the French Government and that +of the United Provinces, that the king should divide his army into three +parts, and renew the military operations against Spain with the +expiration of the truce at the end of the year (1593). + +One body, composed of the English contingent, together with three +thousand French horse, three thousand Swiss, and four thousand French +harquebus-men, were to be under his own immediate command, and were to +act against the enemy wherever it should appear to his Majesty most +advantageous. A second, army was to expel the rebels and their foreign +allies from Normandy and reduce Rouen to obedience. A third was to make +a campaign in the provinces of Artois and Hainault, under the Duke of +Bouillon (more commonly called the Viscount Turenne), in conjunction with +the forces to be supplied by the republic. "Any treaty of peace on our +part with the King of Spain," said the States-General, "is our certain +ruin. This is an axiom. That monarch's object is to incorporate into +his own realms not only all the states and possessions of neighbouring +kings, principalities, and powers, but also all Christendom, aye, the +whole world, were it possible. We joyfully concur then in your Majesty's +resolution to carry on the war in Artois and Hainault, and agree to your +suggestion of diversions on our part by sieges and succour by +contingents." + +Balagny, meantime, who had so long led an independent existence at +Cambray, now agreed to recognise Henry's authority, in consideration of +sixty-seven thousand crowns yearly pension and the dignity of Marshal of +France. + +Towards the end of the year 1594, Buzanval, the regular French envoy at +the Hague, began to insist more warmly than seemed becoming that the +campaign in Artois and Hainault--so often the base of military operations +on the part of Spain against France--should begin. Further achievements +on the part of Maurice after the fall of Groningen were therefore +renounced for that year, and his troops went into garrison and winter- +quarters. The States-General, who had also been sending supplies, +troops, and ships to Brittany to assist the king, now, after soundly +rebuking Buzanval for his intemperate language, entrusted their +contingent for the proposed frontier campaign to Count Philip Nassau, +who accordingly took the field toward the end of the year at the head of +twenty-eight companies of foot and five squadrons of cavalry. He made +his junction with Turenne-Bouillon, but the duke, although provided with +a tremendous proclamation, was but indifferently supplied with troops. +The German levies, long-expected, were slow in moving, and on the whole +it seemed that the operations might have been continued by Maurice with +more effect, according to his original plan, than in this rather +desultory fashion. The late winter campaign on the border was feeble and +a failure. + +The bonds of alliance, however, were becoming very close between Henry +and the republic. Despite the change in religion on the part of the +king, and the pangs which it had occasioned in the hearts of leading +Netherlanders, there was still the traditional attraction between France +and the States, which had been so remarkably manifested during the +administration of William the Silent. The republic was more restive than +ever under the imperious and exacting friendship of Elizabeth, and, +feeling more and more its own strength, was making itself more and more +liable to the charge of ingratitude; so constantly hurled in its face by +the queen. And Henry, now that he felt himself really king of France, +was not slow to manifest a similar ingratitude or an equal love of +independence. Both monarch and republic, chafing under the protection of +Elizabeth, were drawn into so close a union as to excite her anger and +jealousy--sentiments which in succeeding years were to become yet more +apparent. And now; while Henry still retained the chivalrous and flowery +phraseology, so sweet to her ears, in his personal communications to the +queen, his ministers were in the habit of using much plainer language. +"Mr. de Sancy said to me," wrote the Netherland minister in France, +Calvaert, "that his Majesty and your Highnesses (the States-General) +must without long delay conclude an alliance offensive and defensive. +In regard to England, which perhaps might look askance at this matter, +he told me it would be invited also by his Majesty into the same +alliance; but if, according to custom, it shilly-shallied, and without +coming to deeds or to succour should put him off with words, he should in +that case proceed with our alliance without England, not doubting that +many other potentates in Italy and Germany would join in it likewise. +He said too, that he, the day before the departure of the English +ambassador, had said these words to him in the presence of his Majesty; +namely, that England had entertained his Majesty sixteen months long with +far-fetched and often-repeated questions and discontents, that one had +submitted to this sort of thing so long as his Majesty was only king of +Mantes, Dieppe, and Louviers, but that his Majesty being now king of +Paris would be no longer a servant of those who should advise him to +suffer it any longer or accept it as good payment; that England must +treat his Majesty according to his quality, and with deeds, not words. +He added that the ambassador had very anxiously made answer to these +words, and had promised that when he got back to England he would so +arrange that his Majesty should be fully satisfied, insisting to the last +on the alliance then proposed." + +In Germany, meanwhile, there was much protocolling, and more hard +drinking, at the Diet of Ratisbon. The Protestant princes did little +for their cause against the new designs of Spain and the moribund League, +while the Catholics did less to assist Philip. In truth, the holy Roman +Empire, threatened with a Turkish invasion, had neither power nor +inclination to help the new universal empire of the west into existence. +So the princes and grandees of Germany, while Amurath was knocking at the +imperial gates, busied themselves with banquetting and other diplomatic +work, but sent few reiters either to the east or west. + +Philip's envoys were indignant at the apathy displayed towards the great +Catholic cause, and felt humbled at the imbecility exhibited by Spain in +its efforts against the Netherlands and France. San Clemente, who was +attending the Diet at Ratisbon, was shocked at the scenes he witnessed. +"In less than three months," said that temperate Spaniard, "they have +drunk more than five million florins' worth of wine, at a time when the +Turk has invaded the frontiers of Germany; and among those who have done +the most of this consumption of wine, there is not one who is going to +give any assistance on the frontier. In consequence of these disorders +my purse is drained so low, that unless the king helps me I am ruined. +You must tell our master that the reputation of his grandeur and strength +has never been so low as it is now in Germany. The events in France and +those which followed in the Netherlands have thrown such impediments in +the negotiations here, that not only our enemies make sport of Marquis +Havre and myself, but even our friends--who are very few--dare not go +to public feasts, weddings, and dinners, because they are obliged to +apologize for us." + +Truly the world-empire was beginning to crumble. "The emperor has been +desiring twenty times," continued the envoy, "to get back to Prague from +the Diet, but the people hold him fast like a steer. As I think over all +that passes, I lose all judgment, for I have no money, nor influence, nor +reputation. Meantime, I see this rump of an empire keeping itself with +difficulty upon its legs. 'Tis full of wrangling and discord about +religion, and yet there is the Turk with two hundred thousand men +besieging a place forty miles from Vienna, which is the last outpost. +God grant it may last!" + +Such was the aspect of the Christian world at the close of the year 1594 + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Beneficent and charitable purposes (War) +Chronicle of events must not be anticipated +Eat their own children than to forego one high mass +Humanizing effect of science upon the barbarism of war +Slain four hundred and ten men with his own hand + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY UNITED NETHERLANDS, 1594 *** + +********** This file should be named 4866.txt or 4866.zip *********** + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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