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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/4876.txt b/4876.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4e28358 --- /dev/null +++ b/4876.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2365 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook History of The United Netherlands, 1603-04 +#76 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, 1603-04 + +Author: John Lothrop Motley + +Release Date: January, 2004 [EBook #4876] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on April 15, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY UNITED NETHERLANDS, 1603-04 *** + + + +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. 76 + +History of the United Netherlands, 1603-1604 + + + +CHAPTER XLI. + + Death of Queen Elizabeth--Condition of Spain--Legations to James I. + --Union of England and Scotland--Characteristics of the new monarch + --The English Court and Government--Piratical practices of the + English--Audience of the States' envoy with king James--Queen + Elizabeth's scheme far remodelling Europe--Ambassador extraordinary + from Henry IV. to James--De Rosny's strictures on the English + people--Private interview of De Rosny with the States' envoy--De + Rosny's audience of the king--Objects of his mission--Insinuations + of the Duke of Northumberland--Invitation of the embassy to + Greenwich--Promise of James to protect the Netherlands against + Spain--Misgivings of Barneveld--Conference at Arundel House--Its + unsatisfactory termination--Contempt of De Rosny for the English + counsellors--Political aspect of Europe--De Rosny's disclosure to + the king of the secret object of his mission--Agreement of James to + the proposals of De Rosny--Ratification of the treaty of alliance-- + Return of De Rosny and suite to France--Arrival of the Spanish + ambassador. + +On the 24th of March, 1603, Queen Elizabeth died at Richmond, having +nearly completed her seventieth year. The two halves of the little +island of Britain were at last politically adjoined to each other by the +personal union of the two crowns. + +A foreigner, son of the woman executed by Elizabeth, succeeded to +Elizabeth's throne. It was most natural that the Dutch republic and the +French king, the archdukes and his Catholic Majesty, should be filled +with anxiety as to the probable effect of this change of individuals upon +the fortunes of the war. + +For this Dutch war of independence was the one absorbing and controlling +interest in Christendom. Upon that vast, central, and, as men thought, +baleful constellation the fates of humanity, were dependent. Around it +lesser political events were forced to gravitate, and, in accordance to +their relation to it, were bright or obscure. It was inevitable that +those whose vocation it was to ponder the aspects of the political +firmament, the sages and high-priests who assumed to direct human action +and to foretell human destiny, should now be more than ever perplexed. + +Spain, since the accession of Philip III. to his father's throne, +although rapidly declining in vital energy, had not yet disclosed its +decrepitude to the world. Its boundless ambition survived as a political +tradition rather than a real passion, while contemporaries still trembled +at the vision of universal monarchy in which the successor of Charlemagne +and of Charles V. was supposed to indulge. + +Meantime, no feebler nor more insignificant mortal existed on earth than +this dreaded sovereign. + +Scarcely a hairdresser or lemonade-dealer in all Spain was less cognizant +of the political affairs of the kingdom than was its monarch, for +Philip's first care upon assuming the crown was virtually to abdicate +in favour of the man soon afterwards known as the Duke of Lerma. + +It is therefore only by courtesy and for convenience that history +recognizes his existence at all, as surely no human being in the reign of +Philip III. requires less mention than Philip III. himself. + +I reserve for a subsequent chapter such rapid glances at the interior +condition of that kingdom with which it seemed the destiny of the Dutch +republic to be perpetually at war, as may be necessary to illustrate the +leading characteristics of the third Philip's reign. + +Meantime, as the great queen was no more, who was always too sagacious to +doubt that the Dutch cause was her own--however disposed she might be to +browbeat the Dutchmen--it seemed possible to Spain that the republic +might at last be deprived of its only remaining ally. Tassis was +despatched as chief of a legation, precursory to a more stately embassy +to be confided to the Duke of Frias. The archdukes sent the prince of +Arenberg, while from the United States came young Henry of Nassau, +associated with John of Olden-Barneveld, Falk, Brederode, and other +prominent statesmen of the commonwealth. Ministers from Denmark and +Sweden, from the palatinate and from numerous other powers, small and +great, were also collected to greet the rising sun in united Britain, +while the, awkward Scotchman, who was now called upon to play that +prominent part in the world's tragi-comedy which had been so long and so +majestically sustained by the "Virgin Queen," already began to tremble at +the plaudits and the bustle which announced how much was expected of the +new performer. + +There was indeed a new sovereign upon the throne. That most regal spirit +which had well expressed so many of the highest characteristics of the +nation had fled. Mankind, has long been familiar with the dark, closing +hours of the illustrious reign. The great queen, moody, despairing, +dying, wrapt in profoundest thought, with eyes fixed upon the ground or +already gazing into infinity, was besought by the counsellors around her +to name the man to whom she chose that the crown should devolve. + +"Not to a Rough," said Elizabeth, sententiously and grimly. + +When the King of France was named, she shook her head. When Philip III. +was suggested, she made a still more significant sign of dissent. When +the King of Scots was mentioned, she nodded her approval, and again +relapsed into silent meditation. + +She died, and James was King of Great Britain and Ireland. Cecil had +become his prime minister long before the queen's eyes were closed. The +hard-featured, rickety, fidgety, shambling, learned, most preposterous +Scotchman hastened to take possession of the throne. Never--could there +have been a more unfit place or unfit hour for such a man. + +England, although so small in dimensions, so meager in population, so +deficient, compared to the leading nations of Europe, in material and +financial strength, had already her great future swelling in her heart. +Intellectually and morally she was taking the lead among the nations. +Even at that day she had produced much which neither she herself nor any +other nation seemed destined to surpass. + +Yet this most redoubtable folk only numbered about three millions, one- +tenth of them inhabiting London. With the Scots and Irish added they +amounted to less than five millions of souls, hardly a third as many as +the homogeneous and martial people of that dangerous neighbour France. + +Ireland was always rebellious; a mere conquered province, hating her +tyrant England's laws, religion, and people; loving Spain, and believing +herself closely allied by blood as well as sympathy to that most Catholic +land. + +Scotland, on the accession of James, hastened to take possession of +England. Never in history had two races detested each other more +fervently. The leeches and locusts of the north, as they were +universally designated in England, would soon have been swept forth +from the country, or have left it of their own accord, had not the king +employed all that he had of royal authority or of eloquent persuasion +to retain them on the soil. Of union, save the personal union of the +sceptre, there was no thought. As in Ireland there was hatred to England +and adoration for Spain; so in Scotland, France was beloved quite as much +as England was abhorred. Who could have foretold, or even hoped, that +atoms so mutually repulsive would ever have coalesced into a sympathetic +and indissoluble whole? + +Even the virtues of James were his worst enemies. As generous as the +day, he gave away with reckless profusion anything and everything that he +could lay his hands upon. It was soon to appear that the great queen's +most unlovely characteristic, her avarice; was a more blessed quality to +the nation she ruled than the ridiculous prodigality of James. + +Two thousand gowns, of the most, expensive material, adorned with gold, +pearls, and other bravery--for Elizabeth was very generous to herself-- +were found in the queen's wardrobe, after death. These magnificent and +costly robes, not one of which had she vouchsafed to bestow upon or to +bequeath to any of her ladies of honour, were now presented by her +successor to a needy Scotch lord, who certainly did not intend to adorn +his own person therewith. "The hat was ever held out," said a splenetic +observer, "and it was filled in overflowing measure by the new monarch." + +In a very short period he had given away--mainly to Scotchmen--at least +two millions of crowns, in various articles of personal property. Yet +England was very poor. + +The empire, if so it could be called, hardly boasted a regular revenue of +more than two millions of dollars a year; less than that of a fortunate +individual or two, in our own epoch, both in Europe and America; and not +one-fifth part of the contemporary income of France. The hundred +thousand dollars of Scotland's annual budget did not suffice to pay its +expenses, and Ireland was a constant charge upon the imperial exchequer. + +It is astounding, however, to reflect upon the pomp, extravagance, and +inordinate pride which characterized the government and the court. + +The expenses of James's household were at least five hundred thousand +crowns, or about one quarter of the whole revenue of the empire. Henry +IV., with all his extravagance, did not spend more than one-tenth of the +public income of France upon himself and his court. + +Certainly if England were destined to grow great it would be in despite +of its new monarch. Hating the People, most intolerant in religion, +believing intensely in royal prerogative, thoroughly convinced of his +regal as well as his personal infallibility, loathing that inductive +method of thought which was already leading the English nation so proudly +on the road of intellectual advancement, shrinking from the love of free +inquiry, of free action, of daring adventure, which was to be the real +informing spirit of the great British nation; abhorring the Puritans-- +that is to say, one-third of his subjects--in whose harsh, but lofty. +nature he felt instinctively that popular freedom was enfolded--even as +the overshadowing tree in the rigid husk--and sending them forth into the +far distant wilderness to wrestle with wild beasts and with savages more +ferocious than beasts; fearing and hating the Catholics as the sworn +enemies of his realm; his race, and himself, trampling on them as much as +he dared, forcing them into hypocrisy to save themselves from persecution +or at least pecuniary ruin--if they would worship God according to their +conscience; at deadly feud, therefore, on religious grounds, with much +more than half his subjects--Puritans or Papists--and yet himself a +Puritan in dogma and a Papist in Church government, if only the king +could be pope; not knowing, indeed, whether a Puritan, or a Jesuit whom +he called a Papist-Puritan, should be deemed the more disgusting or +dangerous animal; already preparing for his unfortunate successor a path +to the scaffold by employing all the pedantry, both theological and +philosophical at his command to bring parliaments into contempt, and to +place the royal prerogative on a level with Divinity; at the head of a +most martial, dauntless, and practical nation, trembling, with +unfortunate physical timidity, at the sight of a drawn sword; ever +scribbling or haranguing in Latin, French, or broad Scotch, when the +world was arming, it must always be a special wonder that one who might +have been a respectable; even a useful, pedagogue, should by the caprice +of destiny have been permitted, exactly at that epoch to be one of the +most contemptible and mischievous of kings. + +But he had a most effective and energetic minister. Even as in Spain and +in France at the same period, the administration of government was +essentially in-one pair of hands. + +Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, ever since the termination of the +splendid triumvirate of his father and Walsingham, had been in reality +supreme. The proud and terrible hunchback, who never forgave, nor forgot +to destroy, his enemies, had now triumphed over the last passion of the +doting queen. Essex had gone to perdition. + +Son of the great minister who had brought the mother of James to the +scaffold, Salisbury had already extorted forgiveness for that execution +from the feeble king. Before Elizabeth was in her grave, he was already +as much the favourite of her successor as of herself, governing Scotland +as well as England, and being Prime Minister of Great Britain before +Great Britain existed. + +Lord High Treasurer and First Secretary of State, he was now all in all +in the council. The other great lords, highborn and highly titled as +they were and served at their banquets by hosts of lackeys on their +knees--Nottinghams, Northamptons, Suffolks--were, after all, ciphers or +at best, mere pensioners of Spain. For all the venality of Europe was +not confined to the Continent. Spain spent at least one hundred and +fifty thousand crowns annually among the leading courtiers of James while +his wife, Anne of Denmark, a Papist at heart, whose private boudoir was +filled with pictures and images of the Madonna and the saints, had +already received one hundred thousand dollars in solid cash from the +Spanish court, besides much jewelry, and other valuable things. To +negotiate with Government in England was to bribe, even as at Paris or +Madrid. Gold was the only passkey to justice, to preferment, or to +power. + +Yet the foreign subsidies to the English court were, after all, of but +little avail at that epoch. No man had influence but Cecil, and he was +too proud, too rich, too powerful to be bribed. Alone with clean +fingers among courtiers and ministers, he had, however, accumulated a +larger fortune than any. His annual income was estimated at two hundred +thousand crowns, and he had a vast floating capital, always well +employed. Among other investments, he had placed half a million on +interest in Holland,' and it was to be expected, therefore, that he +should favour the cause of the republic, rebellious and upstart though it +were. + +The pigmy, as the late queen had been fond of nicknaming him, was the +only giant in the Government. Those crooked shoulders held up, without +flinching, the whole burden of the State. Pale, handsome, anxious, +suffering, and intellectual of visage, with his indomitable spirit, ready +eloquence, and nervous energy, he easily asserted supremacy over all the +intriguers, foreign and domestic, the stipendiariea, the generals, the +admirals, the politicians, at court, as well as over the Scotch Solomon +who sat on the throne. + +But most certainly, it was for the public good of Britain, that Europe +should be pacified. It is very true that the piratical interest would +suffer, and this was a very considerable and influential branch of +business. So long as war existed anywhere, the corsairs of England +sailed with the utmost effrontery from English ports, to prey upon the +commerce of friend and foe alike. After a career of successful plunder, +it was not difficult for the rovers to return to their native land, and, +with the proceeds of their industry, to buy themselves positions of +importance, both social and political. It was not the custom to consider +too curiously the source of the wealth. If it was sufficient to dazzle +the eyes of the vulgar, it was pretty certain to prove the respectability +of the owner. + +It was in vain that the envoys of the Dutch and Venetian republics sought +redress for the enormous damage inflicted on their commerce by English +pirates, and invoked the protection of public law. It was always easy +for learned juris-consuls to prove such depredations to be consistent +with international usage and with sound morality. Even at that period, +although England was in population and in wealth so insignificant, it +possessed a lofty, insular contempt for the opinions and the doctrines +of other nations, and expected, with perfect calmness, that her own +principles should be not only admitted, but spontaneously adored. + +Yet the piratical interest was no longer the controlling one. That city +on the Thames, which already numbered more than three hundred thousand +inhabitants, had discovered that more wealth was to be accumulated by her +bustling shopkeepers in the paths of legitimate industry than by a horde +of rovers over the seas, however adventurous and however protected by +Government. + +As for France, she was already defending herself against piracy by what +at the period seemed a masterpiece of internal improvement. The Seine, +the Loire, and the Rhone were soon to be united in one chain of +communication. Thus merchandise might be water-borne from the channel to +the Mediterranean, without risking the five or six months' voyage by sea +then required from Havre to Marseilles, and exposure along the whole +coast to attack from the corsairs of England Spain and Barbary. + +The envoys of the States-General had a brief audience of the new +sovereign, in which little more than phrases of compliment were +pronounced. + +"We are here," said Barneveld, "between grief and joy. We have lost her +whose benefits to us we can never describe in words, but we have found a +successor who is heir not only to her kingdom but to all her virtues." +And with this exordium the great Advocate plunged at once into the depths +of his subject, so far as was possible in an address of ceremony. He +besought the king not to permit Spain, standing on the neck of the +provinces, to grasp from that elevation at other empires. He reminded +James of his duty to save those of his own religion from the clutch of a +sanguinary superstition, to drive away those lurking satellites of the +Roman pontiff who considered Britain their lawful prey. He implored him +to complete the work so worthily begun by Elizabeth. If all those bound +by one interest should now, he urged, unite their efforts, the Spaniard, +deprived not only of the Netherlands, but, if he were not wise in time, +banished from the ocean and stripped of all his transmarine possessions, +would be obliged to consent to a peace founded on the only secure basis, +equality of strength. The envoy concluded by beseeching the king for +assistance to Ostend, now besieged for two years long. + +But James manifested small disposition to melt in the fervour of the +Advocate's eloquence. He answered with a few cold commonplaces. +Benignant but extremely cautious, he professed goodwill enough to the +States but quite as much for Spain, a power with which, he observed, he +had never quarrelled, and from which he had received the most friendly +offices. The archdukes, too, he asserted, had never been hostile to the +realm, but only to the Queen of England. In brief, he was new to English +affairs, required time to look about him, but would not disguise that his +genius was literary, studious, and tranquil, and much more inclined to +peace than to war. + +In truth, James had cause to look very sharply about him. It required an +acute brain and steady nerves to understand and to control the whirl of +parties and the conflict of interests and intrigues, the chameleon +shiftings of character and colour, at this memorable epoch of transition +in the realm which he had just inherited. There was a Scotch party, +favourable on the whole to France; there was a Spanish party, there was +an English party, and, more busy than all, there was a party--not Scotch, +nor French, nor English, nor Spanish--that un-dying party in all +commonwealths or kingdoms which ever fights for itself and for the +spoils. + +France and Spain had made peace with each other at Vervins five years +before, and had been at war ever since. + +Nothing could be plainer nor more cynical than the language exchanged +between the French monarch and the representative of Spain. That Philip +III.--as the Spanish Government by a convenient fiction was always +called--was the head and front of the great Savoy-Biron conspiracy to +take Henry's life and dismember his kingdom, was hardly a stage secret. +Yet diplomatic relations were still preserved between the two countries, +and wonderful diplomatic interviews had certainly been taking place in +Paris. + +Ambassador Tassis had walked with lofty port into Henry's cabinet, +disdaining to salute any of the princes of the blood or high +functionaries of state in the apartments through which he passed, and +with insolent defiance had called Henry to account for his dealing with +the Dutch rebels. + +"Sire, the king my master finds it very strange," he said, "that you +still continue to assist his rebels in Holland, and that you shoot at his +troops on their way to the Netherlands. If you don't abstain from such +infractions of his rights he prefers open war to being cheated by such a +pretended peace. Hereupon I demand your reply." + +"Mr. Ambassador," replied the king, "I find it still more strange that +your master is so impudent as to dare to make such complaints--he who is +daily making attempts upon my life and upon this State. Even if I do +assist the Hollanders, what wrong is that to him? It is an organized +commonwealth, powerful, neighbourly, acknowledging no subjection to him. +But your master is stirring up rebellion in my own kingdom, addressing +himself to the princes of my blood and my most notable officers, so that +I have been obliged to cut off the head of one of the most beloved of +them all. By these unchristian proceedings he has obliged me to take +sides with the Hollanders, whom I know to be devoted to me; nor have I +done anything for them except to pay the debts I owed them. I know +perfectly well that the king your master is the head of this conspiracy, +and that the troops of Naples were meditating an attack upon my kingdom. +I have two letters written by the hand of your master to Marshal Biron, +telling him to trust Fuentes as if it were himself, and it is notorious +that Fuentes has projected and managed all the attempts to assassinate +me. Do you, think you have a child to deal with? The late King of Spain +knew me pretty well. If this one thinks himself wiser I shall let him +see who I am. Do you want peace or war? I am ready for either." + +The ambassador, whose head had thus been so vigorously washed--as Henry +expressed it in recounting the interview afterwards to the Dutch envoy, +Dr. Aerssens--stammered some unintelligible excuses, and humbly begged +his Majesty not to be offended. He then retired quite crest-fallen, and +took leave most politely of everybody as he went, down even to the very +grooms of the chambers. + +"You must show your teeth to the Spaniard," said Henry to Aerssens, "if +you wish for a quiet life." + +Here was unsophisticated diplomacy; for the politic Henry, who could +forgive assassins and conspirators, crowned or otherwise, when it suited +his purpose to be lenient, knew that it was on this occasion very prudent +to use the gift of language, not in order to conceal, but to express his +thoughts. + +"I left the king as red as a turkey-cock," said Tassis, as soon as he got +home that morning, "and I was another turkey-cock. We have been talking +a little bit of truth to each other." + +In truth, it was impossible, as the world was then constituted, that +France and Spain, in spite of many secret sympathies, should not be +enemies; that France, England, and the Dutch commonwealth, although +cordially disliking each other, should not be allies. + +Even before the death of Elizabeth a very remarkable interview had taken +place at Dover, in which the queen had secretly disclosed the great +thoughts with which that most imperial brain was filled just before its +boundless activity was to cease for ever. + +She had wished for a personal interview with the French king, whose wit +and valour she had always heartily admired, Henry, on his part, while +unmercifully ridiculing that preterhuman vanity which he fed with +fantastic adulation, never failed to do justice to her genius, and had +been for a moment disposed to cross the channel, or even to hold council +with her on board ship midway between the two countries. It was however +found impracticable to arrange any such meeting, and the gossips of the +day hinted that the great Henry, whose delight was in battle, and who had +never been known to shrink from danger on dry land, was appalled at the +idea of sea-sickness, and even dreaded the chance of being kidnapped by +the English pirates. + +The corsairs who drove so profitable a business at that period by +plundering the merchantmen of their enemy, of their Dutch and French +allies, and of their own nation, would assuredly have been pleased with +such a prize. + +The queen had confided to De Bethune that she had some thing to say to +the king which she could never reveal to other ears than his, but when +the proposed visit of Henry was abandoned, it was decided that his +confidential minister should slip across the channel before Elizabeth +returned to her palace at Greenwich. + +De Bethune accordingly came incognito from Calais to Dover, in which port +he had a long and most confidential interview with the queen. Then and +there the woman, nearly seventy years of age, who governed despotically +the half of a small island, while the other half was in the possession of +a man whose mother she had slain, and of a people who hated the English +more than they hated the Spaniards or the French--a queen with some three +millions of loyal but most turbulent subjects in one island, and with +about half-a-million ferocious rebels in another requiring usually an +army of twenty thousand disciplined soldiers to keep them in a kind of +subjugation, with a revenue fluctuating between eight hundred thousand +pounds sterling, and the half of that sum, and with a navy of a hundred +privateersmen--disclosed to the French envoy a vast plan for regulating +the polity and the religion of the civilized world, and for remodelling +the map of Europe. + +There should be three religions, said Elizabeth--not counting the +dispensation from Mecca, about which Turk and Hun might be permitted to +continue their struggle on the crepuscular limits of civilization. +Everywhere else there should be toleration only for the churches of +Peter, of Luther, and of Calvin. The house of Austria was to be humbled +--the one branch driven back to Spain and kept there, the other branch to +be deprived of the imperial crown, which was to be disposed of as in +times past by the votes of the princely electors. There should be two +republics--the Swiss and the Dutch--each of those commonwealths to be +protected by France and England, and each to receive considerable parings +out of the possessions of Spain and the empire. + +Finally, all Christendom was to be divided off into a certain number of +powers, almost exactly equal to each other; the weighing, measuring, and +counting, necessary to obtain this international equilibrium, being of +course the duty of the king and queen when they should sit some day +together at table. + +Thus there were five points; sovereigns and politicians having always a +fondness for a neat summary in five or six points. Number one, to +remodel the electoral system of the holy Roman empire. Number two, to +establish the republic of the United Provinces. Number three, to do as +much for Switzerland. Number four, to partition Europe. Number five, to +reduce all religions to three. Nothing could be more majestic, no plan +fuller fraught with tranquillity for the rulers of mankind and their +subjects. Thrice happy the people, having thus a couple of heads with +crowns upon them and brains within them to prescribe what was to be done +in this world and believed as to the next! + +The illustrious successor of that great queen now stretches her benignant +sceptre over two hundred millions of subjects, and the political revenues +of her empire are more than a hundredfold those of Elizabeth; yet it +would hardly now be thought great statesmanship or sound imperial policy +for a British sovereign even to imagine the possibility of the five +points which filled the royal English mind at Dover. + +But Henry was as much convinced as Elizabeth of the necessity and the +possibility of establishing the five points, and De Bethune had been +astonished at the exact similarity of the conclusion which those two +sovereign intellects had reached, even before they had been placed in +communion with each other. The death of the queen had not caused any +change in the far-reaching designs of which the king now remained the +sole executor, and his first thought, on the accession of James, was +accordingly to despatch De Bethune, now created Marquis de Rosny, as +ambassador extraordinary to England, in order that the new sovereign +might be secretly but thoroughly instructed as to the scheme for +remodelling Christendom. + +As Rosny was also charged with the duty of formally congratulating King +James, he proceeded upon his journey with remarkable pomp. He was +accompanied by two hundred gentlemen of quality, specially attached to +his embassy--young city fops, as he himself described them, who were +out of their element whenever they left the pavement of Paris--and +by an equal number of valets, grooms, and cooks. Such a retinue was +indispensable to enable an ambassador to transact the public business and +to maintain the public dignity in those days; unproductive consumption +being accounted most sagacious and noble. + +Before reaching the English shore the marquis was involved in trouble. +Accepting the offer of the English vice-admiral lying off Calais, he +embarked with his suite in two English vessels, much to the +dissatisfaction of De Vic, vice-admiral of France, who was anxious to +convey the French ambassador in the war-ships of his country. There had +been suspicion afloat as to the good understanding between England and +Spain, caused by the great courtesy recently shown to the Count of +Arenberg, and there was intense irritation among all the seafaring people +of France on account of the exploits of the English corsairs upon their +coast. Rosny thought it best to begin his embassy by an act of +conciliation, but soon had cause to repent his decision. + +In mid-channel they were met by De Vic's vessels with the French banner +displayed, at which sight the English commander was so wroth that he +forthwith ordered a broadside to be poured into the audacious foreigner; +--swearing with mighty oaths that none but the English flag should be +shown in those waters. And thus, while conveying a French ambassador and +three hundred Frenchmen on a sacred mission to the British sovereign, +this redoubtable mariner of England prepared to do battle with the ships +of France. It was with much difficulty and some prevarication that Rosny +appeased the strife, representing that the French flag had only been +raised in order that it might be dipped, in honour of the French +ambassador, as the ships passed each other. The full-shotted broadside +was fired from fifty guns, but the English commander consented, at De +Rosny's representations, that it should be discharged wide of the mark. + +A few shots, however, struck the side of one of the French vessels, and +at the same time, as Cardinal Richelieu afterwards remarked, pierced the +heart of every patriotic Frenchman. + +The ambassador made a sign, which De Vic understood; to lower his flag +and to refrain from answering the fire. Thus a battle between allies, +amid the most amazing circumstances, was avoided, but it may well be +imagined how long and how deeply the poison of the insult festered. + +Such an incident could hardly predispose the ambassador in favour of the +nation he was about to visit, or strengthen his hope of laying, not only +the foundation of a perpetual friendship between the two crowns, but of +effecting the palingenesis of Europe. Yet no doubt Sully--as the world +has so long learned to call him--was actuated by lofty sentiments in many +respects in advance of his age. Although a brilliant and successful +campaigner in his youth, he detested war, and looked down with contempt +at political systems which had not yet invented anything better than +gunpowder for the arbitrament of international disputes. Instead of war +being an occasional method of obtaining peace, it pained him to think +that peace seemed only a process for arriving at war. Surely it was no +epigram in those days, but the simplest statement of commonplace fact, +that war was the normal condition of Christians. Alas will it be +maintained that in the two and a half centuries which have since elapsed +the world has made much progress in a higher direction? Is there yet any +appeal among the most civilized nations except to the logic of the +largest battalions and the eloquence of the biggest guns? + +De Rosny came to be the harbinger of a political millennium, and he +heartily despised war. The schemes, nevertheless, which were as much his +own as his master's, and which he was instructed to lay before the +English monarch as exclusively his own, would have required thirty years +of successful and tremendous warfare before they could have a beginning +of development. + +It is not surprising that so philosophical a mind as his, while still +inclining to pacific designs, should have been led by what met his eyes +and ears to some rather severe generalizations. + +"It is certain that the English hate us," he said, "and with a hatred so +strong and so general that one is tempted to place it among the natural +dispositions of this people. Yet it is rather the effect of their pride +and their presumption; since there is no nation in Europe more haughty, +more disdainful, more besotted with the idea of its own excellence. If +you were to take their word for it, mind and reason are only found with +them; they adore all their opinions and despise those of all other +nations; and it never occurs to them to listen to others, or to doubt +themselves . . . . . Examine what are called with them maxims of +state; you will find nothing but the laws of pride itself, adopted +through arrogance or through indolence." + +"Placed by nature amidst the tempestuous and variable ocean," he wrote to +his sovereign, "they are as shifting, as impetuous, as changeable as its +waves. So self-contradictory and so inconsistent are their actions +almost in the same instant as to make it impossible that they should +proceed from the same persons and the same mind. Agitated and urged by +their pride and arrogance alone, they take all their imaginations and +extravagances for truths and realities; the objects of their desires and +affections for inevitable events; not balancing and measuring those +desires with the actual condition of things, nor with the character of +the people with whom they have to deal." + +When the ambassador arrived in London he was lodged at Arundel palace. +He at once became the cynosure of all indigenous parties and of +adventurous politicians from every part of Europe; few knowing how to +shape their course since the great familiar lustre had disappeared from +the English sky. + +Rosny found the Scotch lords sufficiently favourable to France; the +English Catholic grandees, with all the Howards and the lord high admiral +at their head, excessively inclined to Spain, and a great English party +detesting both Spain and France with equal fervour and well enough +disposed to the United Provinces, not as hating that commonwealth less +but the two great powers more. + +The ambassador had arrived with the five points, not in his portfolio but +in his heart, and they might after all be concentrated in one phrase-- +Down with Austria, up with the Dutch republic. On his first interview +with Cecil, who came to arrange for his audience with the king, he found +the secretary much disposed to conciliate both Spain and the empire, and +to leave the provinces to shift for themselves. + +He spoke of Ostend as of a town not worth the pains taken to preserve it, +and of the India trade as an advantage of which a true policy required +that the United Provinces should be deprived. Already the fine +commercial instinct of England had scented a most formidable rival +on the ocean. + +As for the king, he had as yet declared himself for no party, while all +parties were disputing among each other for mastery over him. James +found himself, in truth, as much, astray in English politics as he was a +foreigner upon English earth. Suspecting every one, afraid of every one, +he was in mortal awe, most of all, of his wife, who being the daughter of +one Protestant sovereign and wife of another, and queen of a united realm +dependent for its very existence on antagonism to Spain and Rome, was +naturally inclined to Spanish politics and the Catholic faith. + +The turbulent and intriguing Anne of Denmark was not at the moment in +London, but James was daily expecting and De Bethune dreading her +arrival. + +The ambassador knew very well that, although the king talked big in her +absence about the forms which he intended to prescribe for her conduct, +he would take orders from her as soon as she arrived, refuse her nothing, +conceal nothing from her, and tremble before her as usual. + +The king was not specially prejudiced in favour of the French monarch or +his ambassador, for he had been told that Henry had occasionally spoken +of him as captain of arts and doctor of arms, and that both the Marquis +de Rosny and his brother were known to have used highly disrespectful +language concerning him. + +Before his audience, De Rosny received a private visit from Barneveld and +the deputies of the States-General, and was informed that since his +arrival they had been treated with more civility by the king. Previously +he had refused to see them after the first official reception, had not +been willing to grant Count Henry of Nassau a private audience, and had +spoken publicly of the States as seditious rebels. + +Oh the 21st June Barneveld had a long private interview with the +ambassador at Arundel palace, when he exerted all his eloquence to prove +the absolute necessity of an offensive and defensive alliance between +France and the United Provinces if the independence of the republic were +ever to be achieved. Unless a French army took the field at once, Ostend +would certainly fall, he urged, and resistance to the Spaniards would +soon afterwards cease. + +It is not probable that the Advocate felt in his heart so much despair as +his words indicated, but he was most anxious that Henry should openly +declare himself the protector of the young commonwealth, and not +indisposed perhaps to exaggerate the dangers, grave as they were without +doubt, by which its existence was menaced. + +The ambassador however begged the Hollander to renounce any such hopes, +assuring him that the king had no intention of publicly and singly taking +upon his shoulders the whole burden of war with Spain, the fruits of +which would not be his to gather. Certainly before there had been time +thoroughly to study the character and inclinations of the British monarch +it would be impossible for De Rosny to hold out any encouragement in this +regard. He then asked Barneveld what he had been able to discover during +his residence in London as to the personal sentiments of James. + +The Advocate replied that at first the king, yielding to his own natural +tendencies, and to the advice of his counsellors, had refused the Dutch +deputies every hope, but that subsequently reflecting, as it would seem, +that peace would cost England very dear if English inaction should cause +the Hollanders to fall again under the dominion of the Catholic king, or +to find their only deliverance in the protection of France, and beginning +to feel more acutely how much England had herself to fear from a power +like Spain, he had seemed to awake out of a profound sleep, and promised +to take these important affairs into consideration. + +Subsequently he had fallen into a dreary abyss of indecision, where he +still remained. It was certain however that he would form no resolution +without the concurrence of the King of France, whose ambassador he had +been so impatiently expecting, and whose proposition to him of a double +marriage between their respective children had given him much +satisfaction. + +De Rosny felt sure that the Dutch statesmen were far too adroit to put +entire confidence in anything said by James, whether favourable or +detrimental to their cause. He conjured Barneveld therefore, by the +welfare of his country, to conceal nothing from him in regard to the most +secret resolutions that might have been taken by the States in the event +of their being abandoned by England, or in case of their being +embarrassed by a sudden demand on the part of that power for the +cautionary towns offered to Elizabeth. + +Barneveld, thus pressed, and considering the ambassador as the +confidential counsellor of a sovereign who was the republic's only +friend, no longer hesitated. Making a merit to himself of imparting an +important secret, he said that the state-council of the commonwealth had +resolved to elude at any cost the restoration of the cautionary towns. + +The interview was then abruptly terminated by the arrival of the Venetian +envoy. + +The 22nd of June arrived. The marquis had ordered mourning suits for his +whole embassy and retinue, by particular command of his sovereign, who +wished to pay this public tribute to the memory of the great queen. + +To his surprise and somewhat to his indignation, he was however informed +that no one, stranger or native, Scotchman or Englishman, had been +permitted to present himself to the king in black, that his appearance +there in mourning would be considered almost an affront, and that it was +a strictly enforced rule at court to abstain from any mention of +Elizabeth, and to affect an entire oblivion of her reign. + +At the last moment, and only because convinced that he might otherwise +cause the impending negotiations utterly to fail, the ambassador +consented to attire himself, the hundred and twenty gentlemen selected +from his diplomatic family to accompany him on this occasion, and all his +servants, in gala costume. The royal guards, with the Earl of Derby at +their head, came early in the afternoon to Arundel House to escort him +to the Thames, and were drawn up on the quay as the marquis and his +followers embarked in the splendid royal barges provided to convey +them to Greenwich. + +On arriving at their destination they were met at the landing by the Earl +of Northumberland, and escorted with great pomp and through an infinite +multitude of spectators to the palace. Such was the crowd, without and +within, of courtiers and common people, that it was a long time before +the marquis, preceded by his hundred and twenty gentlemen, reached the +hall of audience. + +At last he arrived at the foot of the throne, when James arose and +descended eagerly two steps of the dais in order to greet the ambassador. +He would have descended them all had not one of the counsellors plucked +him by the sleeve, whispering that he had gone quite far enough. + +"And if I honour this ambassador," cried James, in a loud voice, "more +than is usual, I don't intend that it shall serve as a precedent for +others. I esteem and love him particularly, because of the affection +which I know he cherishes for me, of his firmness in our religion, +and of his fidelity to his master." + +Much more that was personally flattering to the marquis was said thus +emphatically by James. To all this the ambassador replied, not by a set +discourse, but only by a few words of compliment, expressing his +sovereign's regrets at the death of Queen Elizabeth, and his joy at the +accession of the new sovereign. He then delivered his letters of +credence, and the complimentary conversation continued; the king +declaring that he had not left behind him in Scotland his passion for the +monarch of France, and that even had he found England at war with that +country on his accession he would have instantly concluded a peace with a +prince whom he so much venerated. + +Thus talking, the king caused his guest to ascend with him to the +uppermost steps of the dais, babbling on very rapidly and skipping +abruptly from one subject to another. De Rosny took occasion to express +his personal esteem and devotion, and was assured by the king in reply +that the slanders in regard to him which had reached the royal ears had +utterly failed of their effect. It was obvious that they were the +invention of Spanish intriguers who wished to help that nation to +universal monarchy. Then he launched forth into general and cordial +abuse of Spain, much to the satisfaction of Count Henry of Nassau, who +stood near enough to hear a good deal of the conversation, and of the +other Dutch deputies who were moving about, quite unknown, in the crowd. +He denounced very vigorously the malignity of the Spaniards in lighting +fires everywhere in their neighbours' possessions, protested that he +would always oppose their wicked designs, but spoke contemptuously of +their present king as too feeble of mind and body ever to comprehend +or to carry out the projects of his predecessors. + +Among other gossip, James asked the envoy if he went to hear the +Protestant preaching in London. Being answered in the affirmative, +he expressed surprise, having been told, he said, that it was Rosny's +intention to repudiate his religion as De Sancy had done, in order to +secure his fortunes. The marquis protested that such a thought had +never entered his head, but intimated that the reports might come +from his familiar intercourse with the papal nuncius and many French +ecclesiastics. The king asked if, when speaking with the nuncius, he +called the pope his Holiness, as by so doing he would greatly offend God, +in whom alone was holiness. Rosny replied that he commonly used the +style prevalent at court, governing himself according to the rules +adopted in regard to pretenders to crowns and kingdoms which they thought +belonged to them, but the possession of which was in other hands, +conceding to them, in order not to offend them, the titles which they +claimed. + +James shook his head portentously, and changed the subject. + +The general tone of the royal-conversation was agreeable enough to the +ambassador, who eagerly alluded to the perfidious conduct of a Government +which, ever since concluding the peace of Vervins with Henry, had been +doing its best to promote sedition and territorial dismemberment in his +kingdom, and to assist all his open and his secret enemies. + +James assented very emphatically, and the marquis felt convinced that a +resentment against Spain, expressed so publicly and so violently by +James, could hardly fail to, be sincere. He began seriously to, hope +that his negotiations would be successful, and was for soaring at once +into the regions of high politics, when the king suddenly began to talk +of hunting. + +"And so you sent half the stag I sent you; to Count Arenberg," said +James; "but he is very angry about it; thinking that you did so to show +how much more I make of you than I do of him. And so I do; for I know +the difference between your king, my brother; and his masters who have +sent me an ambassador who can neither walk nor talk, and who asked me to +give him audience in a garden because he cannot go upstairs." + +The king then alluded to Tassis, chief courier of his Catholic Majesty +and special envoy from Spain, asking whether the marquis had seen him on +his passage through France. + +"Spain sends me a postillion-ambassador," said he, "that he may travel +the faster and attend to business by post." + +It was obvious that James took a sincere satisfaction in abusing +everything relating to that country from its sovereign and the Duke +of Lerma downwards; but he knew very well that Velasco, constable of +Castile, had been already designated as ambassador, and would soon +be on his way to England. + +De Rosny on the termination of his audience, was escorted in great state +by the Earl of Northumberland to the barges. + +A few days later, the ambassador had another private audience, in which +the king expressed himself with apparent candour concerning the balance +of power. + +Christendom, in his opinion, should belong in three equal shares to the +families of Stuart, Bourbon, and Habsburg; but personal ambition and the +force of events had given to the house of Austria more than its fair +third. Sound policy therefore required a combination between France and +England, in order to reduce their copartner within proper limits. This +was satisfactory as far as it went, and the ambassador complimented the +king on his wide views of policy and his lofty sentiments in regard to +human rights. + +Warming with the subject, James held language very similar to that which +De Rosny and his master had used in their secret conferences, and took +the ground unequivocally that the secret war levied by Spain against +France and England, as exemplified in the Biron conspiracy, the assault +on Geneva, the aid of the Duke of Savoy, and in the perpetual fostering +of Jesuit intrigues, plots of assassination, and other conspiracies in +the British islands, justified a secret war on the part of Henry and +himself against Philip. + +The ambassador would have been more deeply impressed with the royal +language had he felt more confidence in the royal character. + +Highly applauding the sentiments expressed, and desiring to excite still +further the resentment of James against Spain, he painted a vivid picture +of the progress of that aggressive power in the past century. She had +devoured Flanders, Burgundy, Granada, Navarre, Portugal, the German +Empire, Milan, Naples, and all the Indies. If she had not swallowed +likewise both France and England those two crowns were indebted for their +preservation, after the firmness of Elizabeth and Henry, to the fortunate +incident of the revolt of the Netherlands. + +De Rosny then proceeded to expound the necessity under which James +would soon find himself of carrying on open war with Spain, and of the +expediency of making preparations for the great struggle without loss +of time. + +He therefore begged the king to concert with him some satisfactory +measure for the preservation of the United Provinces. + +"But," said James, "what better assistance could we give the +Netherlanders than to divide their territory between the States and +Spain; agreeing at the same time to drive the Spaniard out altogether, +if he violates the conditions which we should guarantee." + +This conclusion was not very satisfactory to De Rosny, who saw in the +bold language of the king--followed thus by the indication of a policy +that might last to the Greek Kalends, and permit Ostend, Dutch Flanders, +and even the republic to fall--nothing but that mixture of timidity, +conceit, and procrastination which marked the royal character. He +pointed out to him accordingly that Spanish statesmanship could beat the +world in the art of delay, and of plucking the fruits of delay, and that +when the United Provinces had been once subjugated, the turn of England +would come. It would be then too late for him to hope to preserve +himself by such measures as, taken now, would be most salutary. + +A few days later the king invited De Rosny and the two hundred members of +his embassy to dine at Greenwich, and the excursion down the Thames took +place with the usual pomp. + +The two hundred dined with the gentlemen of the court; while at the +king's table, on an elevated platform in the same hall, were no guests +but De Rosny, and the special envoy of France, Count Beaumont. + +The furniture and decorations of the table were sumptuous, and the +attendants, to the surprise of the Frenchmen, went on their knees +whenever they offered wine or dishes to the king. The conversation at +first was on general topics, such as the heat of the weather, which +happened to be remarkable, the pleasures of the chase, and the merits of +the sermon which, as it was Sunday, De Rosny had been invited to hear +before dinner in the royal chapel. + +Soon afterwards, however, some allusion being made to the late queen, +James spoke of her with contempt. He went so far as to say that, for a +long time before her death, he had governed the councils, of England; all +her ministers obeying and serving him much better than they did herself. +He then called for wine, and, stretching out his glass towards his two. +guests, drank to the health of the king and queen and royal family of +France. + +De Rosny, replied by proposing the health of his august host, not +forgetting the queen and their children, upon which the king, putting his +lips close to the ambassador's ear, remarked that his next toast should +be in honour of the matrimonial union which was proposed between the +families of Britain and France. + +This was the first allusion made by James to the alliance; and the +occasion did not strike the marquis as particularly appropriate to such a +topic. He however replied in a whisper that he was rejoiced to hear this +language from the king, having always believed that there would be no +hesitation on his part between King Henry and the monarch of Spain, who, +as he was aware, had made a similar proposition. James, expressing +surprise that his guest was so well informed, avowed that he had in fact +received the same offer of the Infanta for his son as had been made to +his Christian Majesty for the Dauphin. What more convenient counters in +the great game of state than an infant prince and princess in each of the +three royal families to which Europe belonged! To how many grave +political combinations were these unfortunate infants to give rise, and +how distant the period when great nations might no longer be tied to the +pinafores of children in the nursery! + +After this little confidential interlude, James expressed in loud voice, +so that all might hear, his determination never to permit the subjugation +of the Netherlands by Spain. Measures should be taken the very next day, +he promised, in concert with the ambassador, as to the aid to be given to +the States. Upon the faith of this declaration De Rosny took from his +pocket the plan of a treaty, and forthwith, in the presence of all the +ministers, placed it in the hands of the king, who meantime had risen +from table. The ambassador also took this occasion to speak publicly of +the English piracies upon French commerce while the two nations were at +peace. The king, in reply, expressed his dissatisfaction at these +depredations and at the English admiral who attempted to defend what had +been done. + +He then took leave of his guests, and went off to bed, where it was his +custom to pass his afternoons. + +It was certain that the Constable of Castile was now to arrive very soon, +and the marquis had, meantime, obtained information on which he relied, +that this ambassador would come charged with very advantageous offers to +the English court. Accounts had been got ready in council, of all the +moneys due to England by France and by the States, and it was thought +that these sums, payment of which was to be at once insisted upon, +together with the Spanish dollars set afloat in London, would prove +sufficient to buy up all resistance to the Spanish alliance. + +Such being the nature of the information furnished to De Rosny, he did +not look forward with very high hopes to the issue of the conference +indicated by King James at the Greenwich dinner. As, after all, he would +have to deal once more with Cecil, the master-spirit of the Spanish +party, it did not seem very probable that the king's whispered +professions of affection for France, his very loud denunciations of +Spanish ambition, and his promises of support to the struggling +provinces, would be brought into any substantial form for human +nourishment. Whispers and big words, touching of glasses at splendid +banquets, and proposing of royal toasts, would not go far to help those +soldiers in Ostend, a few miles away, fighting two years long already for +a square half-mile of barren sand, in which seemed centred the world's +hopes of freedom. + +Barneveld was inclined to take an even more gloomy view than that +entertained by the French ambassador. He had, in truth, no reason to be +sanguine. The honest republican envoys had brought no babies to offer in +marriage. Their little commonwealth had only the merit of exchanging +buffets forty years long with a power which, after subjugating the +Netherlands, would have liked to annihilate France and England too, +and which, during that period, had done its best to destroy and dismember +both. It had only struggled as no nation in the world's history had ever +done, for the great principle upon which the power and happiness of +England were ever to depend. It was therefore not to be expected that +its representatives should be received with the distinction conferred +upon royal envoys. Barneveld and his colleagues accordingly were not +invited, with two hundred noble hangers-on, to come down the Thames in +gorgeous array, and dine at Greenwich palace; but they were permitted to +mix in the gaping crowd of spectators, to see the fine folk, and to hear +a few words at a distance which fell from august lips. This was not very +satisfactory, as Barneveld could rarely gain admittance to James or his +ministers. De Rosny, however, was always glad to confer with him, and +was certainly capable of rendering justice both to his genius and to the +sacredness of his cause. The Advocate, in a long conference with the +ambassador, thought it politic to paint the situation of the republic in +even more sombre colours than seemed to De Rosny justifiable. He was, +indeed, the more struck with Barneveld's present despondency, because, +at a previous conference, a few days before, he had spoken almost with +contempt of the Spaniards, expressing the opinion that the mutinous and +disorganized condition of the archduke's army rendered the conquest of +Ostend improbable, and hinted at a plan, of which the world as yet knew +nothing, which would save that place, or at any rate would secure such +an advantage for the States as to more than counterbalance its possible +loss? This very sanguine demeanour had rather puzzled those who had +conferred with the Advocate, although they were ere long destined to +understand his allusions, and it was certainly a contrast to his present +gloom. He assured De Rosny that the Hollanders were becoming desperate, +and that they were capable of abandoning their country in mass, and +seeking an asylum beyond the seas? The menace was borrowed from the +famous project conceived by William the Silent in darker days, and seemed +to the ambassador a present anachronism. + +Obviously it was thought desirable to force the French policy to extreme +lengths, and Barneveld accordingly proposed that Henry should take the +burthen upon his shoulders of an open war with Spain, in the almost +certain event that England would make peace with that power. De Rosny +calmly intimated to the Advocate that this was asking something entirely +beyond his power to grant, as the special object of his mission was to +form a plan of concerted action with England. + +The cautionary towns being next mentioned, Barneveld stated that a demand +had been made upon Envoy Caron by Cecil for the delivery of those places +to the English Government, as England had resolved to make peace with +Spain. + +The Advocate confided, however, to De Rosny that the States would +interpose difficulties, and that it would be long before the towns were +delivered. This important information was given under the seal of +strictest secrecy, and was coupled with an inference that a war between +the republic and Britain would be the probable result, in which case the +States relied upon the alliance with France. The ambassador replied that +in this untoward event the republic would have the sympathy of his royal +master, but that it would be out of the question for him to go to war +with Spain and England at the same time. + +On the same afternoon there was a conference at Arundel House between the +Dutch deputies, the English counsellors, and De Rosny, when Barneveld +drew a most dismal picture of the situation; taking the ground that now +or never was the time for driving the Spaniards entirely out of the +Netherlands. Cecil said in a general way that his Majesty felt a deep +interest in the cause of the provinces, and the French ambassador +summoned the Advocate, now that he was assured of the sympathy of two +great kings, to furnish some plan by which that sympathy might be turned +to account. Barneveld, thinking figures more eloquent than rhetoric, +replied that the States, besides garrisons, had fifteen thousand +infantry and three thousand cavalry in the field, and fifty warships in +commission, with artillery and munitions in proportion, and that it would +be advisable for France and England to furnish an equal force, military +and naval, to the common cause. + +De Rosny smiled at the extravagance of the proposition. Cecil, again +taking refuge in commonplaces, observed that his master was disposed to +keep the peace with all his neighbours, but that, having due regard to +the circumstances, he was willing to draw a line between the wishes of +the States and his own, and would grant them a certain amount of succour +underhand. + +Thereupon the Dutch deputies withdrew to confer. De Rosny, who had no +faith in Cecil's sincerity--the suggestion being essentially the one +which he had himself desired--went meantime a little deeper into the +subject, and soon found that England, according to the Secretary of +State, had no idea of ruining herself for the sake of the provinces, +or of entering into any positive engagements in their behalf. In case +Spain should make a direct attack upon the two kings who were to +constitute themselves protectors of Dutch liberty, it might be necessary +to take up arms. The admission was on the whole superfluous, it not +being probable that Britain, even under a Stuart, would be converted to +the doctrine of non-resistance. Yet in this case it was suggested by +Cecil that the chief reliance of his Government would be on the debts +owed by the Dutch and French respectively, which would then be forthwith +collected. + +De Rosny was now convinced that Cecil was trifling with him, and +evidently intending to break off all practical negotiations. He +concealed his annoyance, however, as well as he could, and simply +intimated that the first business of importance was to arrange for the +relief of Ostend; that eventualities, such as the possible attack by +Spain upon France and England, might for the moment be deferred, but that +if England thought it a safe policy to ruin Henry by throwing on his +shoulders the whole burthen of a war with the common enemy, she would +discover and deeply regret her fatal mistake. The time was a very ill- +chosen one to summon France to pay old debts, and his Christian Majesty +had given his ambassador no instructions contemplating such +a liquidation. + +It was the intention to discharge the sum annually, little by little, +but if England desired to exhaust the king by these peremptory demands, +it was an odious conduct, and very different from any that France had +ever pursued. + +The English counsellors were not abashed by this rebuke, but became, on +the contrary, very indignant, avowing that if anything more was demanded +of them, England would entirely abandon the United Provinces. "Cecil +made himself known to me in this conference," said De Rosny, "for +exactly what he was. He made use only of double meanings and vague +propositions; feeling that reason was not on his side. He was forced to +blush at his own self-contradictions, when, with a single word, I made +him feel the absurdity of his language. Now, endeavouring to intimidate +me, he exaggerated the strength of England, and again he enlarged upon +the pretended offers made by Spain to that nation." + +The secretary, desirous to sow discord between the Dutch deputies and the +ambassador, then observed that France ought to pay to England L50,000 +upon the nail, which sum would be at once appropriated to the necessities +of the States. "But what most enraged me," said De Rosny, "was to see +these ministers, who had come to me to state the intentions of their +king, thus impudently substitute their own; for I knew that he had +commanded them to do the very contrary to that which they did." + +The conference ended with a suggestion by Cecil, that as France would +only undertake a war in conjunction with England, and as England would +only consent to this if paid by France and the States, the best thing for +the two kings to do would be to do nothing, but to continue to live in +friendship together, without troubling themselves about foreign +complications. + +This was the purpose towards which the English counsellors had been +steadily tending, and these last words of Cecil seemed to the ambassador +the only sincere ones spoken by him in the whole conference. + +"If I kept silence," said the ambassador, "it was not because I +acquiesced in their reasoning. On the contrary, the manner in which they +had just revealed themselves, and avowed themselves in a certain sort +liars and impostors, had given me the most profound contempt for them. +I thought, however, that by heating myself and contending with them so +far from causing them to abandon a resolution which they had taken in +concert--I might even bring about a total rupture. On the other hand, +matters remaining as they were, and a friendship existing between the +two kings, which might perhaps be cemented by a double marriage, a more +favourable occasion might present itself for negotiation. I did not yet +despair of the success of my mission, because I believed that the king +had no part in the designs which his counsellors wished to carry out." + +That the counsellors, then struggling for dominion over the new king and +his kingdom, understood the character of their sovereign better than did +the ambassador, future events were likely enough to prove. That they +preferred peace to war, and the friendship of Spain to an alliance, +offensive and defensive, with France in favour of a republic which they +detested, is certain. It is difficult, however, to understand why +they were "liars and impostors" because, in a conference with the +representative of France, they endeavoured to make their own opinions +of public policy valid rather than content themselves simply with being +the errand-bearers of the new king, whom they believed incapable of +being stirred to an honourable action. + +The whole political atmosphere of Europe was mephitic with falsehood, and +certainly the gales which blew from the English court at the accession of +James were not fragrant, but De Rosny had himself come over from France +under false pretences. He had been charged by his master to represent +Henry's childish scheme, which he thought so gigantic, for the +regeneration of Europe, as a project of his own, which he was determined +to bring to execution, even at the risk of infidelity to his sovereign, +and the first element in that whole policy was to carry on war underhand +against a power with which his master had just sworn to preserve peace. +In that age at least it was not safe for politicians to call each other +hard names. + +The very next day De Rosny had a long private interview with James at +Greenwich. Being urged to speak without reserve, the ambassador depicted +the privy counsellors to the king as false to his instructions, traitors +to the best interests of their country, the humble servants of Spain, and +most desirous to make their royal master the slave of that power, under +the name of its ally. He expressed the opinion, accordingly, that James +would do better in obeying only the promptings of his own superior +wisdom, rather than the suggestions of the intriguers about him. The +adroit De Rosny thus softly insinuated to the flattered monarch that the +designs of France were the fresh emanations of his own royal intellect. +It was the whim of James to imagine himself extremely like Henry of +Bourbon in character, and he affected to take the wittiest, bravest, most +adventurous, and most adroit knight-errant that ever won and wore a crown +as his perpetual model. + +It was delightful, therefore, to find himself in company with his royal +brother; making and unmaking kings; destroying empires, altering the +whole face of Christendom, and, better than all, settling then and for +ever the theology of the whole world, without the trouble of moving from +his easy chair, or of incurring any personal danger. + +He entered at once, with the natural tendency to suspicion of a timid +man, into the views presented by De Rosny as to the perfidy of his +counsellors. He changed colour; and was visibly moved, as the ambassador +gave his version of the recent conference with Cecil and the other +ministers, and, being thus artfully stimulated, he was, prepared to +receive with much eagerness the portentous communications now to be made. + +The ambassador, however, caused him to season his admiration until he had +taken a most solemn oath, by the sacrament of the Eucharist, never to +reveal a syllable of what he was about to hear. This done, and the royal +curiosity excited almost beyond endurance, De Rosny began to, unfold. +the stupendous schemes which had been, concerted between Elizabeth and +Henry at Dover, and which formed the secret object of his present +embassy. Feeling that the king was most malleable in the theological +part of his structure, the wily envoy struck his first blows in that +direction; telling him that his own interest in the religious, condition +of Europe, and especially in the firm establishment of the Protestant +faith, far surpassed in his mind all considerations of fortune, country, +or even of fidelity to his sovereign. Thus far, political considerations +had kept Henry from joining in the great Catholic League, but it was +possible that a change might occur in his system, and the Protestant form +of worship, abandoned by its ancient protector, might disappear entirely +from France and from Europe. De Rosny had, therefore, felt the necessity +of a new patron for the reformed religion in this great emergency, and +had naturally fixed his eyes on the puissant and sagacious prince who now +occupied, the British throne. Now was the time, he urged, for James to +immortalize his name by becoming the arbiter of the destiny of Europe. +It would always seem his own design, although Henry was equally +interested in it with himself. The plan was vast but simple, +and perfectly easy of execution. There would be no difficulty in +constructing an all-powerful league of sovereigns for the destruction of +the house of Austria, the foundation-stones of which would of course be +France, Great Britain, and the United Provinces. The double marriage +between the Bourbon and Stuart families would indissolubly unite the two +kingdoms, while interest and gratitude; a common hatred and a common +love, would bind the republic as firmly to the union. Denmark and Sweden +were certainly to be relied upon, as well as all other Protestant +princes. The ambitious and restless Duke of Savoy would be gained by +the offer of Lombardy and a kingly crown, notwithstanding his matrimonial +connection with Spain. As for the German princes, they would come +greedily into the arrangement, as the league, rich in the spoils of the +Austrian house, would have Hungary, Bohemia, Silesia, Moravia, the +archduchies, and other splendid provinces to divide among them. + +The pope would be bought up by a present, in fee-simple, of Naples, and +other comfortable bits of property, of which he was now only feudal lord. +Sicily would be an excellent sop for the haughty republic of Venice. +The Franche Comte; Alsace, Tirol, were naturally to be annexed to +Switzerland; Liege and the heritage of the Duke of Cleves and Juliers +to the Dutch commonwealth. + +The King of France, who, according to De Rosny's solemn assertions, was +entirely ignorant of the whole scheme, would, however, be sure to embrace +it very heartily when James should propose it to him, and would be far +too disinterested to wish to keep any of the booty for himself. A +similar self-denial was, of course, expected of James, the two great +kings satisfying themselves with the proud consciousness of having saved +society, rescued the world from the sceptre of an Austrian universal +monarchy, and regenerated European civilization for all future time. + +The monarch listened with ravished ears, interposed here and there a +question or a doubt, but devoured every detail of the scheme, as the +ambassador slowly placed it before him. + +De Rosny showed that the Spanish faction was not in reality so powerful +as the league which would be constructed for its overthrow. It was not +so much a religious as a political frontier which separated the nations. +He undertook to prove this, but, after all, was obliged to demonstrate +that the defection of Henry from the Protestant cause had deprived him of +his natural allies, and given him no true friends in exchange for the old +ones. + +Essentially the Catholics were ranged upon one side, and the Protestants +on the other, but both religions were necessary to Henry the Huguenot: +The bold free-thinker adroitly balanced himself upon each creed. In +making use of a stern and conscientious Calvinist, like Maximilian de +Bethune, in his first assault upon the theological professor who now +stood in Elizabeth's place, he showed the exquisite tact which never +failed him. Toleration for the two religions which had political power, +perfect intolerance for all others; despotic forms of polity, except for +two little republics which were to be smothered with protection and never +left out of leading strings, a thorough recasting of governments and +races, a palingenesis of Europe, a nominal partition of its hegemony +between France and England, which was to be in reality absorbed by +France, and the annihilation of Austrian power east and west, these were +the vast ideas with which that teeming Bourbon brain was filled. It is +the instinct both of poetic and of servile minds to associate a sentiment +of grandeur with such fantastic dreams, but usually on condition that the +dreamer wears a crown. When the regenerator of society appears with a +wisp of straw upon his head, unappreciative society is apt to send him +back to his cell. There, at least, his capacity for mischief is limited. + +If to do be as grand as to imagine what it were good to do, then the +Dutchmen in Hell's Mouth and the Porcupine fighting Universal Monarchy +inch by inch and pike to pike, or trying conclusions with the ice-bears +of Nova Zembla, or capturing whole Portuguese fleets in the Moluccas, +were effecting as great changes in the world, and doing perhaps as much +for the advancement of civilization, as James of the two Britains and +Henry of France and Navarre in those his less heroic days, were likely to +accomplish. History has long known the results. + +The ambassador did his work admirably. The king embraced him in a +transport of enthusiasm, vowed by all that was most sacred to accept the +project in all its details, and exacted from the ambassador in his turn +an oath on the Eucharist never to reveal, except to his master, the +mighty secrets of their conference. + +The interview had lasted four hours. When it was concluded, James +summoned Cecil, and in presence of the ambassador and of some of the +counsellors, lectured him soundly on his presumption in disobeying the +royal commands in his recent negotiations with De Rosny. He then +announced his decision to ally himself strictly with France against Spain +in consequence of the revelations just made to him, and of course to +espouse the cause of the United Provinces. Telling the crest-fallen +Secretary of State to make the proper official communications on the +subject to the ambassadors of my lords the States-General,--thus giving +the envoys from the republic for the first time that pompous designation, +the king turned once more to the marquis with the exclamation, "Well, Mr. +Ambassador, this time I hope that you are satisfied with me?" + +In the few days following De Rosny busied himself in drawing up a plan +of a treaty embodying all that had been agreed upon between Henry and +himself, and which he had just so faithfully rehearsed to James. He felt +now some inconvenience from his own artfulness, and was in a measure +caught in his own trap. Had he brought over a treaty in his pocket, +James would have signed it on the spot, so eager was he for the +regeneration of Europe. It was necessary, however, to continue the +comedy a little longer, and the ambassador, having thought it necessary +to express many doubts whether his master could be induced to join in the +plot, and to approve what was really his own most cherished plan, could +now do no more than promise to use all his powers of persuasion unto that +end. + +The project of a convention, which James swore most solemnly to sign, +whether it were sent to him in six weeks or six months, was accordingly +rapidly reduced to writing and approved. It embodied, of course, most of +the provisions discussed in the last secret interview at Greenwich. The +most practical portion of it undoubtedly related to the United Provinces, +and to the nature of assistance to be at once afforded to that +commonwealth, the only ally of the two kingdoms expressly mentioned in +the treaty. England was to furnish troops, the number of which was not +specified, and France was to pay for them, partly out of her own funds, +partly out of the amount due by her to England. It was, however, +understood, that this secret assistance should not be considered to +infringe the treaty of peace which already existed between Henry and the +Catholic king. Due and detailed arrangements were made as to the manner +in which the allies were to assist each other, in case Spain, not +relishing this kind of neutrality, should think proper openly to attack +either great Britain or France, or both. + +Unquestionably the Dutch republic was the only portion of Europe likely +to be substantially affected by these secret arrangements; for, after +all, it had not been found very easy to embody the splendid visions of +Henry, which had so dazzled the imagination of James in the dry clauses +of a protocol. + +It was also characteristic enough of the crowned conspirators, that the +clause relating to the United Provinces provided that the allies would +either assist them in the attainment of their independence, or--if it +should be considered expedient to restore them to the domination of Spain +or the empire--would take such precautions and lay down such conditions +as would procure perfect tranquillity for them, and remove from the two +allied kings the fear of a too absolute government by the house of +Austria in those provinces. + +It would be difficult to imagine a more impotent conclusion. Those Dutch +rebels had not been fighting for tranquillity. The tranquillity of the +rock amid raging waves--according to the device of the father of the +republic--they had indeed maintained; but to exchange their turbulent and +tragic existence, ever illumined by the great hope of freedom, for repose +under one despot guaranteed to them by two others, was certainly not +their aim. They lacked the breadth of vision enjoyed by the regenerators +who sat upon mountain-tops. + +They were fain to toil on in their own way. Perhaps, however, the future +might show as large results from their work as from the schemes of those +who were to begin the humiliation of the Austrian house by converting its +ancient rebels into tranquil subjects. + +The Marquis of Rosny, having distributed 60,000 crowns among the leading +politicians and distinguished personages at the English court, with ample +promises of future largess if they remained true to his master, took an +affectionate farewell of King James, and returned with his noble two +hundred to recount his triumphs to the impatient Henry. The treaty was +soon afterwards duly signed and ratified by the high contracting parties. +It was, however, for future history to register its results on the fate +of pope, emperor, kings, potentates, and commonwealths, and to show the +changes it would work in the geography, religion, and polity of the +world. + +The deputies from the States-General, satisfied with the practical +assistance promised them, soon afterwards took their departure with +comparative cheerfulness, having previously obtained the royal consent +to raise recruits in Scotland. Meantime the great Constable of Castile, +ambassador from his Catholic Majesty, had arrived in London, and was +wroth at all that he saw and all that he suspected. He, too, began to +scatter golden arguments with a lavish hand among the great lords and +statesmen of Britain, but found that the financier of France had, on the +whole; got before him in the business, and was skilfully maintaining his +precedence from the other side of the channel. + +But the end of these great diplomatic manoeuvres had not yet come. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII. + + Siege of Ostend--The Marquis Spinola made commander-in-chief of the + besieging army--Discontent of the troops--General aspect of the + operations--Gradual encroachment of the enemy. + +The scene again shifts to Ostend. The Spanish cabinet, wearied of the +slow progress of the siege, and not entirely satisfied with the generals, +now concluded almost without consent of the archdukes, one of the most +extraordinary jobs ever made, even in those jobbing days. The Marquis +Spinola, elder brother of the ill-fated Frederic, and head of the +illustrious Genoese family of that name, undertook to furnish a large sum +of money which the wealth of his house and its connection with the great +money-lenders of Genoa enabled him to raise, on condition that he should +have supreme command of the operations against Ostend and of the foreign +armies in the Netherlands. He was not a soldier, but he entered into a +contract, by his own personal exertions both on the exchange and in the +field, to reduce the city which had now resisted all the efforts of the +archduke for more than two years. Certainly this was an experiment not +often hazarded in warfare. The defence of Ostend was in the hands of the +best and moat seasoned fighting-men in Europe. The operations were under +the constant supervision of the foremost captain of the age; for Maurice, +in consultation with the States-General, received almost daily reports +from the garrison, and regularly furnished advice and instructions as to +their proceedings. He was moreover ever ready to take the field for a +relieving campaign. Nothing was known of Spinola save that he was a +high-born and very wealthy patrician who had reached his thirty-fourth +year without achieving personal distinction of any kind, and who, during +the previous summer, like so many other nobles from all parts of Europe, +had thought it worth his while to drawl through a campaign or two in the +Low Countries. It was the mode to do this, and it was rather a stigma +upon any young man of family not to have been an occasional looker on at +that perpetual military game. His brother Frederic, as already narrated; +had tried his chance for fame and fortune in the naval service, and had +lost his life in the adventure without achieving the one or the other. +This was not a happy augury for the head of the family. Frederic had +made an indifferent speculation. What could the brother hope by taking +the field against Maurice of Nassau and Lewis William and the Baxes and +Meetkerkes? Nevertheless the archduke eagerly accepted his services, +while the Infanta, fully confident of his success before he had ordered a +gun to be fired, protested that if Spinola did not take Ostend nobody +would ever take it. There was also, strangely enough, a general feeling +through the republican ranks that the long-expected man had come. + +Thus a raw volunteer, a man who had never drilled a hundred men, who had +never held an officer's commission in any army in the world, became, as +by the waving of a wand, a field-marshal and commander-in-chief at a +most critical moment in history, in the most conspicuous position in +Christendom, and in a great war, now narrowed down to a single spot of +earth, on which the eyes of the world were fixed, and the daily accounts +from which were longed for with palpitating anxiety. What but failure +and disaster could be expected from such astounding policy? Every +soldier in the Catholic forces--from grizzled veterans of half a century +who had commanded armies and achieved victories when this dainty young +Italian was in his cradle, down to the simple musketeer or rider who had +been campaigning for his daily bread ever since he could carry a piece or +mount a horse was furious with discontent or outraged pride. + +Very naturally too, it was said that the position of the archdukes had +become preposterous. It was obvious, notwithstanding the pilgrimages of +the Infanta to our Lady of Hall, to implore not only the fall of Ostend, +but the birth of a successor to their sovereignty, that her marriage +would for ever remain barren. Spain was already acting upon this theory, +it was said, for the contract with Spinola was made, not at Brussels, +but at Madrid, and a foreign army of Spaniards and Italians, under the +supreme command of a Genoese adventurer, was now to occupy indefinitely +that Flanders which had been proclaimed an independent nation, and duly +bequeathed by its deceased proprietor to his daughter. + +Ambrose Spinola, son of Philip, Marquis of Venafri, and his wife, +Polyxena Grimaldi, was not appalled by the murmurs of hardly suppressed +anger or public criticism. A handsome, aristocratic personage, with an +intellectual, sad, but sympathetic face, fair hair and beard, and +imposing but attractive presence--the young volunteer, at the beginning +of October, made his first visit of inspection in the lines before +Ostend. After studying the situation of affairs very thoroughly, +he decided that the operations on the Gullet or eastern side, including +Bucquoy's dike, with Pompey Targone's perambulatory castles and floating +batteries, were of secondary importance. He doubted the probability of +closing up a harbour, now open to the whole world and protected by the +fleets of the first naval power of Europe, with wickerwork, sausages, and +bridges upon barrels. His attention was at once concentrated on the +western side, and he was satisfied that only by hard fighting and steady +delving could he hope to master the place. To gain Ostend he would be +obliged to devour it piecemeal as he went on. + +Whatever else might be said of the new commander-in-chief, it was soon +apparent that, although a volunteer and a patrician, he was no milksop. +If he had been accustomed all his life to beds of down, he was as ready +now to lie in the trenches, with a cannon for his pillow, as the most +ironclad veteran in the ranks. He seemed to require neither sleep nor +food, and his reckless habit of exposing himself to unnecessary danger +was the subject of frequent animadversion on the part both of the +archdukes and of the Spanish Government. + +It was however in his case a wise temerity. The veterans whom he +commanded needed no encouragement to daring deeds, but they required +conviction as to the valour and zeal of their new commander, and this +was afforded them in overflowing measure. + +It is difficult to decide, after such a lapse of years, as to how much of +the long series of daily details out of which this famous siege was +compounded deserves to be recorded. It is not probable that for military +history many of the incidents have retained vital importance. The world +rang, at the beginning of the operations, with the skill and inventive +talent of Targone, Giustiniani, and other Italian engineers, artificers, +and pyrotechnists, and there were great expectations conceived of the +effects to be produced by their audacious and original devices. But time +wore on. Pompey's famous floating battery would not float, his moving +monster battery would not move. With the one; the subtle Italian had +intended to close up the Gullet to the States' fleets. It was to rest on +the bottom at low water at the harbour's mouth, to rise majestically with +the flood, and to be ever ready with a formidable broadside of fifty +pounders against all comers. But the wild waves and tempests of the +North Sea soon swept the ponderous toy into space, before it had fired a +gun. The gigantic chariot, on which a moveable fort was constructed, was +still more portentous upon paper than the battery. It was directed +against that republican work, defending the Gullet, which was called in +derision the Spanish Half-moon. It was to be drawn by forty horses, and +armed with no man knew how many great guns, with a mast a hundred and +fifty feet high in the centre of the fort, up and down which played +pulleys raising and lowering a drawbridge long enough to span the Gullet. + +It was further provided with anchors, which were to be tossed over the +parapet of the doomed redoubt, while the assailants, thus grappled to the +enemy's work, were to dash over the bridge after having silenced the +opposing fire by means of their own peripatetic battery. + +Unfortunately for the fame of Pompey, one of his many wheels was crushed +on the first attempt to drag the chariot to the scene of anticipated +triumph, the whole structure remained embedded in the sand, very much +askew; nor did all the mules and horses that could be harnessed to it +ever succeed in removing it an inch out of a position, which was anything +but triumphant. + +It seemed probable enough therefore that, so far as depended on the +operations from the eastern side, the siege of Ostend, which had now +lasted two years and three months, might be protracted for two years and +three months longer. Indeed, Spinola at once perceived that if the +archduke was ever to be put in possession of the place for which he had +professed himself ready to wait eighteen years, it would be well to leave +Bucquoy and Targone to build dykes and chariots and bury them on the east +at their leisure, while more energy was brought to bear upon the line of +fortifications of the west than had hitherto been employed. There had +been shooting enough, bloodshed enough, suffering enough, but it was +amazing to see the slight progress made. The occupation of what were +called the external Squares has been described. This constituted the +whole result of the twenty-seven months' work. + +The town itself--the small and very insignificant kernel which lay +enclosed in such a complicated series of wrappings and layers of +defences--seemed as far off as if it were suspended in the sky. +The old haven or canal, no longer navigable for ships, still served as +an admirable moat which the assailants had not yet succeeded in laying +entirely dry. It protected the counterscarp, and was itself protected by +an exterior aeries of works, while behind the counterscarp was still +another ditch, not so broad nor deep as the canal, but a formidable +obstacle even after the counterscarp should be gained. There were nearly +fifty forts and redoubts in these lines, of sufficient importance to have +names which in those days became household words, not only in the +Netherlands, but in Europe; the siege of Ostend being the one military +event of Christendom, so long as it lasted. These names are of course as +much forgotten now as those of the bastions before Nineveh. A very few +of them will suffice to indicate the general aspect of the operations. +On the extreme southwest of Ostend had been in peaceful times a polder-- +the general term to designate a pasture out of which the sea-water had +been pumped--and the forts in that quarter were accordingly called by +that name, as Polder Half-moon, Polder Ravelin, or great and little +Polder Bulwark, as the case might be. Farther on towards the west, the +north-west, and the north, and therefore towards the beach, were the West +Ravelin, West Bulwark, Moses's Table, the Porcupine, the Hell's Mouth, +the old church, and last and most important of all, the Sand Hill. The +last-named work was protected by the Porcupine and Hell's Mouth, was the +key to the whole series of fortifications, and was connected by a curtain +with the old church, which was in the heart of the old town. + +Spinola had assumed command in October, but the winter was already +closing in with its usual tempests and floods before there had been time +for him to produce much effect. It seemed plain enough to the besieged +that the object of the enemy would be to work his way through the Polder, +and so gradually round to the Porcupine and the Sand Hill. Precisely in +what directions his subterraneous passages might be tending, in what +particular spot of the thin crust upon which they all stood an explosion +might at any moment be expected, it was of course impossible to know. +They were sure that the process of mining was steadily progressing, and +Maurice sent orders to countermine under every bulwark, and to secretly +isolate every bastion, so that it would be necessary for Spinola to make +his way, fort by fort, and inch by inch. + +Thus they struggled drearily about under ground, friend and foe, often as +much bewildered as wanderers in the catacombs. To a dismal winter +succeeded a ferocious spring. Both in February and March were westerly +storms, such as had not been recorded even on that tempest-swept coast +for twenty years, and so much damage was inflicted on the precious Sand +Hill and its curtain, that, had the enemy been aware of its plight, it is +probable that one determined assault might have put him in possession of +the place. But Ostend was in charge of a most watchful governor, Peter +van Gieselles, who had succeeded Charles van der Noot at the close of the +year 1603. A plain, lantern jawed, Dutch colonel; with close-cropped +hair, a long peaked beard, and an eye that looked as if it had never been +shut; always dressed in a shabby old jerkin with tarnished flowers upon +it, he took command with a stout but heavy heart, saying that the place +should never be surrendered by him, but that he should never live to see +the close of the siege. He lost no time in repairing the damages of the +tempest, being ready to fight the west wind, the North Sea, and Spinola +at any moment, singly or conjoined. He rebuilt the curtain of the Sand +Hill, added fresh batteries to the Porcupine and Hell's Mouth, and amused +and distracted the enemy with almost daily sorties and feints. His +soldiers passed their days and nights up to the knees in mud and sludge +and sea-water, but they saw that their commander never spared himself, +and having a superfluity of food and drink, owing to the watchful care of +the States-General, who sent in fleets laden with provisions faster than +they could be consumed, they were cheerful and content. + +On the 12th March there was a determined effort to carry the lesser +Polder Bulwark. After a fierce and bloody action, the place was taken by +storm, and the first success in the game was registered for Spinola. The +little fort was crammed full of dead, but such of the defenders as +survived were at last driven out of it, and forced to take refuge in the +next work. Day after day the same bloody business was renewed, a mere +monotony of assaults, repulses, sallies, in which hardly an inch of +ground was gained on either side, except at the cost of a great pile of +corpses. "Men will never know, nor can mortal pen ever describe," said +one who saw it all, "the ferocity and the pertinacity of both besiegers +and besieged." On the 15th of March, Colonel Catrice, an accomplished +Walloon officer of engineers, commanding the approaches against the +Polder, was killed. On the 21st March, as Peter Orieselles was taking +his scrambling dinner in company with Philip Fleming, there was a report +that the enemy was out again in force. A good deal of progress had been +made during the previous weeks on the south-west and west, and more was +suspected than was actually known. It was felt that the foe was steadily +nibbling his way up to the counterscarp. Moreover, such was the +emulation among the Germans, Walloons, Italians, and Spaniards for +precedence in working across the canal, that a general assault and +universal explosion were considered at any instant possible. The +governor sent Fleming to see if all was right in the Porcupine, while +he himself went to see if a new battery, which he had just established +to check the approaches of the enemy towards the Polder Half-moon and +Ravelin in a point very near the counterscarp, was doing its duty. +Being, as usual, anxious to reconnoitre with his own eyes, he jumped upon +the rampart. But there were sharp-shooters in the enemy's trenches, and +they were familiar with the governor's rusty old doublet and haggard old +face. Hardly had he climbed upon the breastwork when a ball pierced his +heart, and he fell dead without a groan. There was a shout of triumph +from the outside, while the tidings soon spread sadness through the +garrison, for all loved and venerated the man. Philip Fleming, so soon +as he learned the heavy news, lost no time in unavailing regrets, but +instantly sent a courier to Prince Maurice; meantime summoning a council +of superior officers, by whom Colonel John van Loon was provisionally +appointed commandant. + +A stately, handsome man, a good officer, but without extensive +experience, he felt himself hardly equal to the immense responsibility of +the post, but yielding to the persuasions of his comrades, proceeded to +do his best. His first care was to secure the all-important Porcupine, +towards which the enemy had been slowly crawling with his galleries and +trenches. Four days after he had accepted the command he was anxiously +surveying that fortification, and endeavouring to obtain a view of the +enemy's works, when a cannon-ball struck him on the right leg, so that he +died the next day. Plainly the post of commandant of Ostend was no +sinecure. He was temporarily succeeded by Sergeant-Major Jacques de +Bievry, but the tumults and confusion incident upon this perpetual change +of head were becoming alarming. The enemy gave the garrison no rest +night nor day, and it had long become evident that the young volunteer, +whose name was so potent on the Genoa Exchange, was not a man of straw +nor a dawdler, however the superseded veterans might grumble. At any +rate the troops on either side were like to have their fill of work. + +On the 2nd April the Polder Ravelin was carried by storm. It was a most +bloody action. Never were a few square feet of earth more recklessly +assailed, more resolutely maintained. The garrison did not surrender +the place, but they all laid down their lives in its defence. Scarcely +an individual of them all escaped, and the foe, who paid dearly with +heaps of dead and wounded for his prize, confessed that such serious work +as this had scarce been known before in any part of that great slaughter- +house, Flanders. + +A few days later, Colonel Bievry, provisional commandant, was desperately +wounded in a sortie, and was carried off to Zeeland. The States-General +now appointed Jacques van der Meer, Baron of Berendrecht, to the post of +honour and of danger. A noble of Flanders, always devoted to the +republican cause; an experienced middle-aged officer, vigilant, +energetic, nervous; a slight wiry man, with a wizened little face, large +bright eyes, a meagre yellow beard, and thin sandy hair flowing down upon +his well-starched ruff, the new governor soon showed himself inferior to +none of his predecessors in audacity and alertness. It is difficult to +imagine a more irritating position in many respects than that of +commander in such an extraordinary leaguer. It was not a formal siege. +Famine, which ever impends over an invested place, and sickens the soul +with its nameless horrors, was not the great enemy to contend against +here. Nor was there the hideous alternative between starving through +obstinate resistance or massacre on submission, which had been the lot of +so many Dutch garrisons in the earlier stages of the war. Retreat by sea +was ever open to the Ostend garrison, and there was always an ample +supply of the best provisions and of all munitions of war. But they had +been unceasingly exposed to two tremendous enemies. During each winter +and spring the ocean often smote their bastions and bulwarks in an hour +of wrath till they fell together like children's toys, and it was always +at work, night and day, steadily lapping at the fragile foundations on +which all their structures stood. Nor was it easy to give the requisite +attention to the devouring sea, because all the materials that could be +accumulated seemed necessary to repair the hourly damages inflicted by +their other restless foe. + +Thus the day seemed to draw gradually but inexorably nearer when the +place would be, not captured, but consumed. There was nothing for it, +so long as the States were determined to hold the spot, but to meet the +besieger at every point, above or below the earth, and sell every inch of +that little morsel of space at the highest price that brave men could +impose. + +So Berendrecht, as vigilant and devoted as even Peter Gieselles had ever +been, now succeeded to the care of the Polders and the Porcupines, and +the Hell's Mouths; and all the other forts, whose quaint designations had +served, as usually is the case among soldiers, to amuse the honest +patriots in the midst of their toils and danger. On the 18th April, the +enemy assailed the great western Ravelin, and after a sanguinary hand-to- +hand action, in which great numbers of officers and soldiers were lost on +both sides, he carried the fort; the Spaniards, Italians, Germans, and +Walloons vieing with each other in deeds of extraordinary daring, and +overcoming at last the resistance of the garrison. + +This was an important success. The foe had now worked his way with +galleries and ditches along the whole length of the counterscarp till he +was nearly up with the Porcupine, and it was obvious that in a few days +he would be master of the counterscarp itself. + +A less resolute commander, at the head of less devoted troops, might +have felt that when that inevitable event should arrive all that honour +demanded would have been done, and that Spinola was entitled to his city. +Berendrecht simply decided that if the old counterscarp could no longer +be held it was time to build a new counterscarp. This, too, had been +for some time the intention of Prince Maurice. A plan for this work had +already been sent into the place, and a distinguished English engineer, +Ralph Dexter by name, arrived with some able assistants to carry it into +execution. It having been estimated that the labour would take three +weeks of time, without more ado the inner line was carefully drawn, +cutting off with great nicety and precision about one half the whole +place. Within this narrowed circle the same obstinate resistance was +to be offered as before, and the bastions and redoubts of the new +entrenchment were to be baptized with the same uncouth names which two +long years of terrible struggle had made so precious. The work was very +laborious; for the line was drawn straight through the town, and whole +streets had to be demolished and the houses to their very foundations +shovelled away. Moreover the men were forced to toil with spade in one +hand and matchlock in the other, ever ready to ascend from the ancient +dilapidated cellars in order to mount the deadly breach at any point in +the whole circumference of the place. + +It became absolutely necessary therefore to send a sufficient force of +common workmen into the town to lighten the labours of the soldiers. +Moreover the thought, although whistled to the wind, would repeatedly +recur, that, after all, there must be a limit to these operations, and +that at last there would remain no longer any earth in which to find a +refuge. + +The work of the new entrenchment went slowly on, but it was steadily +done. Meantime they were comforted by hearing that the stadholder had +taken the field in Flanders, at the head of a considerable force, and +they lived in daily expectation of relief. It will be necessary, at the +proper moment, to indicate the nature of Prince Maurice's operations. +For the present, it is better that the reader should confine his +attention within the walls of Ostend. + +By the 11th May, the enemy had effected a lodgment in a corner of +the Porcupine, and already from that point might threaten the new +counterscarp before it should be completed. At the same time he had +gnawed through to the West Bulwark, and was busily mining under the +Porcupine itself. In this fort friend and foe now lay together, packed +like herrings, and profited by their proximity to each other to vary the +monotony of pike and anaphance with an occasional encounter of epistolary +wit. + +Thus Spanish letters, tied to sticks, and tossed over into the next +entrenchment, were replied to by others, composed in four languages by +the literary man of Ostend, Auditor Fleming, and shot into the enemy's +trenches on cross-bow bolts. + +On the 29th May, a long prepared mine was sprung beneath the Porcupine. +It did its work effectively, and the 29 May assailants did theirs no less +admirably, crowding into the breach with headlong ferocity, and after a +long and sanguinary struggle with immense lose on both sides, carrying +the precious and long-coveted work by storm. Inch by inch the defenders +were thus slowly forced back toward their new entrenchment. On the same +day, however, they inflicted a most bloody defeat upon the enemy in an +attempt to carry the great Polder. He withdrew, leaving heaps of slain, +so that the account current for the day would have balanced itself, but +that the Porcupine, having changed hands, now bristled most formidably +against its ancient masters. The daily 'slaughter had become sickening +to behold. There were three thousand effective men in the garrison. +More could have been sent in to supply the steady depletion in the ranks, +but there was no room for more. There was scarce space enough for the +living to stand to their work, or for the dead to lie in their graves. +And this was an advantage which could not fail to tell. Of necessity the +besiegers would always very far outnumber the garrison, so that the final +success of their repeated assaults became daily more and more possible. + +Yet on the 2nd June the enemy met not only with another signal defeat, +but also with a most bitter surprise. On that day the mine which he had +been so long and so laboriously constructing beneath the great Polder +Bulwark was sprung with magnificent effect. A breach, forty feet wide, +was made in this last stronghold of the old defences, and the soldiers +leaped into the crater almost before it had ceased to blaze, expecting +by one decisive storm to make themselves masters at last of all the +fortifications, and therefore of the town itself. But as emerging +from the mine, they sprang exulting upon the shattered bulwark, +a transformation more like a sudden change in some holiday pantomime +than a new fact in this three years' most tragic siege presented itself +to their astonished eyes. They had carried the last defence of the old +counterscarp, and behold--a new one, which they had never dreamed of, +bristling before their eyes, with a flanking battery turned directly upon +them. The musketeers and pikemen, protected by their new works, now +thronged towards the assailants; giving them so hearty a welcome that +they reeled back, discomfited, after a brief but severe struggle, from +the spot of their anticipated triumph, leaving their dead and dying in +the breach. + +Four days later, Berendrecht, with a picked party of English troops, +stole out for a reconnaissance, not wishing to trust other eyes than his +own in the imminent peril of the place. + +The expedition was successful. A few prisoners were taken, and valuable +information was obtained, but these advantages were counterbalanced by a +severe disaster. The vigilant and devoted little governor, before +effecting his entrance into the sally port, was picked off by a +sharpshooter, and died the next day. This seemed the necessary fate +of the commandants of Ostend, where the operations seemed more like a +pitched battle lasting three years than an ordinary siege. Gieselles, +Van Loon, Bievry, and now Berendrecht, had successively fallen at the +post of duty since the beginning of the year. Not one of them was more +sincerely deplored than Berendrecht. His place was supplied by Colonel +Uytenhoove, a stalwart, hirsute, hard-fighting Dutchman, the descendant +of an ancient race, and seasoned in many a hard campaign. + +The enemy now being occupied in escarping and furnishing with batteries +the positions he had gained, with the obvious intention of attacking the +new counterscarp, it was resolved to prepare for the possible loss of +this line of fortifications by establishing another and still narrower +one within it. + +Half the little place had been shorn away by the first change. Of the +half which was still in possession of the besieged about one-third was +now set off, and in this little corner of earth, close against the new +harbour, was set up their last refuge. They called the new citadel +Little Troy, and announced, with pardonable bombast, that they would hold +out there as long as the ancient Trojans had defended Ilium. With +perfect serenity the engineers set about their task with line, rule, and +level, measuring out the bulwarks and bastions, the miniature salients, +half-moons, and ditches, as neatly and methodically as if there were no +ceaseless cannonade in their ears, and as if the workmen were not at +every moment summoned to repel assaults upon the outward wall. They. +sent careful drawings of Little Troy to Maurice and the States, and +received every encouragement to persevere, together with promises of +ultimate relief. + +But there was one serious impediment to the contemplated construction of +the new earth-works. They had no earth. Nearly everything solid had +been already scooped away in the perpetual delving. The sea-dykes had +been robbed of their material, so that the coming winter might find +besiegers and besieged all washed together into the German Ocean, and it +was hard digging and grubbing among the scanty cellarages of the +dilapidated houses. But there were plenty of graves, filled with the +results of three years' hard fighting. And now, not only were all the +cemeteries within the precincts shovelled and carted in mass to the inner +fortifications, but rewards being offered of ten stivers for each dead +body, great heaps of disinterred soldiers were piled into the new +ramparts. Thus these warriors, after laying down their lives for the +cause of freedom, were made to do duty after death. Whether it were just +or no thus to disturb the repose--if repose it could be called--of the +dead that they might once more protect the living, it can scarcely be +doubted that they took ample revenge on the already sufficiently polluted +atmosphere. + +On the 17th June the foe sprang a mine under the western bulwark; close +to a countermine exploded by the garrison the day before. The assailants +thronged as merrily as usual to the breach, and were met with customary +resolution by the besieged; Governor Uytenhoove, clad in complete armour, +leading his troops. The enemy, after an hour's combat, was repulsed with +heavy loss, but the governor fell in the midst of the fight. Instantly +he was seized by the legs by a party of his own men, some English +desperadoes among the number, who, shouting that the colonel was dead, +were about to render him the last offices by plundering his body. The +ubiquitous Fleming, observing the scene, flew to the rescue and, with the +assistance of a few officers, drove off these energetic friends, and +taking off the governor's casque, discovered that he still breathed. +That he would soon have ceased to do so, had he been dragged much farther +in his harness over that jagged and precipitous pile of rubbish, was +certain. He was desperately wounded, and of course incapacitated for his +post. Thus, in that year, before the summer solstice, a fifth commandant +had fallen. + +On the same day, simultaneously with this repulse in the West Bulwark, +the enemy made himself at last completely master of the Polder. Here, +too, was a savage hand-to-hand combat with broadswords and pikes, and +when the pikes were broken, with great clubs and stakes pulled from the +fascines; but the besiegers were victorious, and the defenders sullenly +withdrew with their wounded to the inner entrenchments. + +On the 27th June, Daniel de Hartaing, Lord of Marquette, was sent by the +States-General to take command in Ostend. The colonel of the Walloon +regiment which had rendered such good service on the famous field of +Nieuport, the new governor, with his broad, brown, cheerful face, and +his Milan armour, was a familiar figure enough to the campaigners on +both sides in Flanders or Germany. + +The stoutest heart might have sunk at the spectacle which the condition +of the town presented at his first inspection. The States-General were +resolved to hold the place, at all hazards, and Marquette had come to do +their bidding, but it was difficult to find anything that could be called +a town. The great heaps of rubbish, which had once been the outer walls, +were almost entirely in the possession of the foe, who had lodged himself +in all that remained of the defiant Porcupine, the Hell's Mouth, and +other redoubts, and now pointed from them at least fifty great guns +against their inner walls. The old town, with its fortifications, was +completely honeycombed, riddled, knocked to pieces, and, although the +Sand Hill still held out, it was plain enough that its days were numbered +unless help should soon arrive. In truth, it required a clear head and a +practised eye to discover among those confused masses of prostrate +masonry, piles of brick, upturned graves, and mounds of sand and rubbish, +anything like order and regularity. Yet amid the chaos there was really +form and meaning to those who could read aright, and Marquette saw, as +well in the engineers' lines as in the indomitable spirit that looked out +of the grim faces of the garrison, that Ostend, so long as anything of it +existed in nature, could be held for the republic. Their brethren had +not been firmer, when keeping their merry Christmas, seven years before, +under the North Pole, upon a pudding made of the gunner's cartridge +paste, or the Knights of the Invincible Lion in the horrid solitudes of +Tierra del Fuego, than were the defenders of this sandbank. + +Whether the place were worth the cost or not, it was for my lords the +States-General to decide, not for Governor Marquette. And the decision +of those "high and mighty" magistrates, to whom even Maurice of Nassau +bowed without a murmur, although often against his judgment, had been +plainly enough announced. + +And so shiploads of deals and joists, bricks, nails, and fascines, with +requisite building materials, were sent daily in from Zeeland, in order +that Little Troy might be completed; and, with God's help, said the +garrison, the republic shall hold its own. + +And now there were two months more of mining and countermining, of +assaults and repulses, of cannonading and hand-to-hand fights with pikes +and clubs. Nearer and nearer, day by day, and inch by inch, the foe had +crawled up to the verge of their last refuge, and the walls of Little +Troy, founded upon fresh earth and dead men's bones, and shifting sands, +were beginning to quake under the guns of the inexorable volunteer from +Genoa. Yet on the 27th August there was great rejoicing in the +beleaguered town. Cannon thundered salutes, bonfires blazed, trumpets +rang jubilant blasts, and, if the church-bells sounded no merry peals, it +was because the only church in the place had been cut off in the last +slicing away by the engineers. Hymns of thanksgiving ascended to heaven, +and the whole garrison fell on their knees, praying fervently to Almighty +God, with devout and grateful hearts. It was not an ignoble spectacle to +see those veterans kneeling where there was scarce room to kneel, amid +ruin and desolation, to praise the Lord for his mercies. But to explain +this general thanksgiving it is now necessary for a moment to go back. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Began to scatter golden arguments with a lavish hand +Certain number of powers, almost exactly equal to each other +Conceit, and procrastination which marked the royal character +Do you want peace or war? I am ready for either +Eloquence of the biggest guns +Even the virtues of James were his worst enemies +Gold was the only passkey to justice +If to do be as grand as to imagine what it were good to do +It is certain that the English hate us (Sully) +Logic of the largest battalions +Made peace--and had been at war ever since +Nations tied to the pinafores of children in the nursery +Natural tendency to suspicion of a timid man +Not safe for politicians to call each other hard names +One of the most contemptible and mischievous of kings (James I) +Peace founded on the only secure basis, equality of strength +Peace seemed only a process for arriving at war +Repose under one despot guaranteed to them by two others +Requires less mention than Philip III himself +Rules adopted in regard to pretenders to crowns +Served at their banquets by hosts of lackeys on their knees +Take all their imaginations and extravagances for truths +The expenses of James's household +The pigmy, as the late queen had been fond of nicknaming him +To negotiate with Government in England was to bribe +Unproductive consumption being accounted most sagacious +War was the normal condition of Christians +We have been talking a little bit of truth to each other +What was to be done in this world and believed as to the next +You must show your teeth to the Spaniard + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY UNITED NETHERLANDS, 1603-04 *** + +************ This file should be named 4876.txt or 4876.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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