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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/4898-h.zip b/4898-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..15ad943 --- /dev/null +++ b/4898-h.zip diff --git a/4898-h/4898-h.htm b/4898-h/4898-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cddbd5f --- /dev/null +++ b/4898-h/4898-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,15246 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + The Life and Death of John Of Barneveld, Volume II. by John Lothrop + Motley, + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd7; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of John of Barneveld, +1614-23, Volume II., by John Lothrop Motley + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Life of John of Barneveld, 1614-23, Volume II. + +Author: John Lothrop Motley + +Release Date: October 15, 2006 [EBook #4898] +Last Updated: November 3, 2012 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN OF BARNEVELD, II. *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + +</pre> + <h1> + THE LIFE AND DEATH of JOHN OF BARNEVELD, ADVOCATE OF HOLLAND + </h1> + <h2> + WITH A VIEW OF THE PRIMARY CAUSES AND MOVEMENTS OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h2> + VOLUME II. 1614-23 + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h2> + By John Lothrop Motley, D.C.L., LL.D. + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> <br /> + </p> + <table summary="" border="3" cellpadding="4"> + <tbody> + <tr> + <td> + <a + href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/4892/4892-h/4892-h.htm"><b>Volume + I.</b> </a> + </td> + <td> + </td> + </tr> + </tbody> + </table> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p> + <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big><br /> <br /> <br /> <a href="#link2HCH0001"> + CHAPTER XI. </a> 1614-17 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0002"> + CHAPTER XII. </a> <br /><br /> <a + href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER XIII. </a> 1617 <br /><br /> <a + href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER XIV. </a> <br /><br /> + <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER XV. </a> <br /><br /> + <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER XVI. </a> 1618 <br /><br /> <a + href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER XVII. </a> <br /><br /> + <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER XVIII. </a> + <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER XIX. </a> 1618-19 + <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER XX. </a> + <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XXI. </a> 1619-23 + <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XXII. </a> + <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XXIII. </a> + <br /><br /> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + CHAPTER XI. 1614-17 + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + The Advocate sounds the Alarm in Germany—His Instructions to + Langerac and his Forethought—The Prince—Palatine and his Forces + take Aachen, Mulheim, and other Towns—Supineness of the + Protestants—Increased Activity of Austria and the League—Barneveld + strives to obtain Help from England—Neuburg departs for Germany— + Barneveld the Prime Minister of Protestantism—Ernest Mansfield + takes service under Charles Emmanuel—Count John of Nassau goes to + Savoy—Slippery Conduct of King James in regard to the New Treaty + proposed—Barneveld's Influence greater in France than in England— + Sequestration feared—The Elector of Brandenburg cited to appear + before the Emperor at Prague—Murder of John van Wely—Uytenbogaert + incurs Maurice's Displeasure—Marriage of the King of France with + Anne of Austria—Conference between King James and Caron concerning + Piracy, Cloth Trade and Treaty of Xanten—Barneveld's Survey of the + Condition of Europe—His Efforts to avert the impending general War. +</pre> + <p> + I have thus purposely sketched the leading features of a couple of + momentous, although not eventful, years—so far as the foreign policy + of the Republic is concerned—in order that the reader may better + understand the bearings and the value of the Advocate's actions and + writings at that period. This work aims at being a political study. I + would attempt to exemplify the influence of individual humours and + passions—some of them among the highest and others certainly the + basest that agitate humanity-upon the march of great events, upon general + historical results at certain epochs, and upon the destiny of eminent + personages. It may also be not uninteresting to venture a glance into the + internal structure and workings of a republican and federal system of + government, then for the first time reproduced almost spontaneously upon + an extended scale. + </p> + <p> + Perhaps the revelation of some of its defects, in spite of the faculty and + vitality struggling against them, may not be without value for our own + country and epoch. The system of Switzerland was too limited and homely, + that of Venice too purely oligarchical, to have much moral for us now, or + to render a study of their pathological phenomena especially instructive. + The lessons taught us by the history of the Netherland confederacy may + have more permanent meaning. + </p> + <p> + Moreover, the character of a very considerable statesman at an + all-important epoch, and in a position of vast responsibility, is always + an historical possession of value to mankind. That of him who furnishes + the chief theme for these pages has been either overlooked and neglected + or perhaps misunderstood by posterity. History has not too many really + important and emblematic men on its records to dispense with the memory of + Barneveld, and the writer therefore makes no apology for dilating somewhat + fully upon his lifework by means of much of his entirely unpublished and + long forgotten utterances. + </p> + <p> + The Advocate had ceaselessly been sounding the alarm in Germany. For the + Protestant Union, fascinated, as it were, by the threatening look of the + Catholic League, seemed relapsing into a drowse. + </p> + <p> + "I believe," he said to one of his agents in that country, "that the + Evangelical electors and princes and the other estates are not alive to + the danger. I am sure that it is not apprehended in Great Britain. France + is threatened with troubles. These are the means to subjugate the + religion, the laws and liberties of Germany. Without an army the troops + now on foot in Italy cannot be kept out of Germany. Yet we do not hear + that the Evangelicals are making provision of troops, money, or any other + necessaries. In this country we have about one hundred places occupied + with our troops, among whom are many who could destroy a whole army. But + the maintenance of these places prevents our being very strong in the + field, especially outside our frontiers. But if in all Germany there be + many places held by the Evangelicals which would disperse a great army is + very doubtful. Keep a watchful eye. Economy is a good thing, but the + protection of a country and its inhabitants must be laid to heart. Watch + well if against these Provinces, and against Bohemia, Austria, and other + as it is pretended rebellious states, these plans are not directed. Look + out for the movements of the Italian and Bavarian troops against Germany. + You see how they are nursing the troubles and misunderstandings in France, + and turning them to account." + </p> + <p> + He instructed the new ambassador in Paris to urge upon the French + government the absolute necessity of punctuality in furnishing the payment + of their contingent in the Netherlands according to convention. The States + of Holland themselves had advanced the money during three years' past, but + this anticipation was becoming very onerous. It was necessary to pay the + troops every month regularly, but the funds from Paris were always in + arrear. England contributed about one-half as much in subsidy, but these + moneys went in paying the garrisons of Brielle, Flushing, and Rammekens, + fortresses pledged to that crown. The Ambassador was shrewdly told not to + enlarge on the special employment of the English funds while holding up to + the Queen's government that she was not the only potentate who helped bear + burthens for the Provinces, and insisted on a continuation of this aid. + "Remember and let them remember," said the Advocate, "that the reforms + which they are pretending to make there by relieving the subjects of + contributions tends to enervate the royal authority and dignity both + within and without, to diminish its lustre and reputation, and in sum to + make the King unable to gratify and assist his subjects, friends, and + allies. Make them understand that the taxation in these Provinces is ten + times higher than there, and that My Lords the States hitherto by the + grace of God and good administration have contrived to maintain it in + order to be useful to themselves and their friends. Take great pains to + have it well understood that this is even more honourable and more + necessary for a king of France, especially in his minority, than for a + republic 'hoc turbato seculo.' We all see clearly how some potentates in + Europe are keeping at all time under one pretext or another strong forces + well armed on a war footing. It therefore behoves his Majesty to be + likewise provided with troops, and at least with a good exchequer and all + the requirements of war, as well for the security of his own state as for + the maintenance of the grandeur and laudable reputation left to him by the + deceased king." + </p> + <p> + Truly here was sound and substantial advice, never and nowhere more needed + than in France. It was given too with such good effect as to bear fruit + even upon stoniest ground, and it is a refreshing spectacle to see this + plain Advocate of a republic, so lately sprung into existence out of the + depths of oppression and rebellion, calmly summoning great kings as it + were before him and instructing them in those vital duties of government + in discharge of which the country he administered already furnished a + model. Had England and France each possessed a Barneveld at that epoch, + they might well have given in exchange for him a wilderness of Epernons + and Sillerys, Bouillons and Conde's; of Winwoods, Lakes, Carrs, and + Villierses. But Elizabeth with her counsellors was gone, and Henry was + gone, and Richelieu had not come; while in England James and his minions + were diligently opening an abyss between government and people which in + less than half a lifetime more should engulph the kingdom. + </p> + <p> + Two months later he informed the States' ambassador of the communications + made by the Prince of Conde and the Dukes of Nevers and Bouillon to the + government at the Hague now that they had effected a kind of + reconciliation with the Queen. Langerac was especially instructed to do + his best to assist in bringing about cordial relations, if that were + possible, between the crown and the rebels, and meantime he was especially + directed to defend du Maurier against the calumnious accusations brought + against him, of which Aerssens had been the secret sower. + </p> + <p> + "You will do your best to manage," he said, "that no special ambassador be + sent hither, and that M. du Maurier may remain with us, he being a very + intelligent and moderate person now well instructed as to the state of our + affairs, a professor of the Reformed religion, and having many other good + qualities serviceable to their Majesties and to us. + </p> + <p> + "You will visit the Prince, and other princes and officers of the crown + who are coming to court again, and do all good offices as well for the + court as for M. du Maurier, in order that through evil plots and + slanderous reports no harm may come to him. + </p> + <p> + "Take great pains to find out all you can there as to the designs of the + King of Spain, the Archdukes, and the Emperor, in the affair of Julich. + You are also to let it be known that the change of religion on the part of + the Prince-Palatine of Neuburg will not change our good will and affection + for him, so far as his legal claims are concerned." + </p> + <p> + So long as it was possible for the States to retain their hold on both the + claimants, the Advocate, pursuant to his uniform policy of moderation, was + not disposed to help throw the Palatine into the hands of the Spanish + party. He was well aware, however, that Neuburg by his marriage and his + conversion was inevitably to become the instrument of the League and to be + made use of in the duchies at its pleasure, and that he especially would + be the first to submit with docility to the decree of the Emperor. The + right to issue such decree the States under guidance of Barneveld were + resolved to resist at all hazards. + </p> + <p> + "Work diligently, nevertheless," said he, "that they permit nothing there + directly or indirectly that may tend to the furtherance of the League, as + too prejudicial to us and to all our fellow religionists. Tell them too + that the late king, the King of Great Britain, the united electors and + princes of Germany, and ourselves, have always been resolutely opposed to + making the dispute about the succession in the duchies depend on the will + of the Emperor and his court. All our movements in the year 1610 against + the attempted sequestration under Leopold were to carry out that purpose. + Hold it for certain that our present proceedings for strengthening and + maintaining the city and fortress of Julich are considered serviceable and + indispensable by the British king and the German electors and princes. Use + your best efforts to induce the French government to pursue the same + policy—if it be not possible openly, then at least secretly. My + conviction is that, unless the Prince-Palatine is supported by, and his + whole designs founded upon, the general league against all our brethren of + the religion, affairs may be appeased." + </p> + <p> + The Envoy was likewise instructed to do his best to further the + matrimonial alliance which had begun to be discussed between the Prince of + Wales and the second daughter of France. Had it been possible at that + moment to bring the insane dream of James for a Spanish alliance to + naught, the States would have breathed more freely. He was also to urge + payment of the money for the French regiments, always in arrears since + Henry's death and Sully's dismissal, and always supplied by the exchequer + of Holland. He was informed that the Republic had been sending some war + ships to the Levant, to watch the armada recently sent thither by Spain, + and other armed vessels into the Baltic, to pursue the corsairs with whom + every sea was infested. In one year alone he estimated the loss to Dutch + merchants by these pirates at 800,000 florins. "We have just captured two + of the rovers, but the rascally scum is increasing," he said. + </p> + <p> + Again alluding to the resistance to be made by the States to the Imperial + pretensions, he observed, "The Emperor is about sending us a herald in the + Julich matter, but we know how to stand up to him." + </p> + <p> + And notwithstanding the bare possibility which he had admitted, that the + Prince of Neuburg might not yet have wholly sold himself, body and soul, + to the Papists, he gave warning a day or two afterwards in France that all + should be prepared for the worst. + </p> + <p> + "The Archdukes and the Prince of Neuburg appear to be taking the war + earnestly in hand," he said. "We believe that the Papistical League is + about to make a great effort against all the co-religionists. We are + watching closely their movements. Aachen is first threatened, and the + Elector-Palatine likewise. France surely, for reasons of state, cannot + permit that they should be attacked. She did, and helped us to do, too + much in the Julich campaign to suffer the Spaniards to make themselves + masters there now." + </p> + <p> + It has been seen that the part played by France in the memorable campaign + of 1610 was that of admiring auxiliary to the States' forces; Marshal de + la Chatre having in all things admitted the superiority of their army and + the magnificent generalship of Prince Maurice. But the government of the + Dowager had been committed by that enterprise to carry out the life-long + policy of Henry, and to maintain his firm alliance with the Republic. + Whether any of the great king's acuteness and vigour in countermining and + shattering the plans of the House of Austria was left in the French court, + time was to show. Meantime Barneveld was crying himself hoarse with + warnings into the dull ears of England and France. + </p> + <p> + A few weeks later the Prince of Neuburg had thrown off the mask. Twelve + thousand foot and 1500 horse had been raised in great haste, so the + Advocate informed the French court, by Spain and the Archdukes, for the + use of that pretender. Five or six thousand Spaniards were coming by sea + to Flanders, and as many Italians were crossing the mountains, besides a + great number mustering for the same purpose in Germany and Lorraine. + Barneveld was constantly receiving most important intelligence of military + plans and movements from Prague, which he placed daily before the eyes of + governments wilfully blind. + </p> + <p> + "I ponder well at this crisis," he said to his friend Caron, "the + intelligence I received some months back from Ratisbon, out of the cabinet + of the Jesuits, that the design of the Catholic or Roman League is to + bring this year a great army into the field, in order to make Neuburg, who + was even then said to be of the Roman profession and League, master of + Julich and the duchies; to execute the Imperial decree against Aachen and + Mulheim, preventing any aid from being sent into Germany by these + Provinces, or by Great Britain, and placing the Archduke and Marquis + Spinola in command of the forces; to put another army on the frontiers of + Austria, in order to prevent any succour coming from Hungary, Bohemia, + Austria, Moravia, and Silesia into Germany; to keep all these disputed + territories in subjection and devotion to the Emperor, and to place the + general conduct of all these affairs in the hands of Archduke Leopold and + other princes of the House of Austria. A third army is to be brought into + the Upper Palatinate, under command of the Duke of Bavaria and others of + the League, destined to thoroughly carry out its designs against the + Elector-Palatine, and the other electors, princes, and estates belonging + to the religion." + </p> + <p> + This intelligence, plucked by Barneveld out of the cabinet of the Jesuits, + had been duly communicated by him months before to those whom it most + concerned, and as usual it seemed to deepen the lethargy of the destined + victims and their friends. Not only the whole Spanish campaign of the + present year had thus been duly mapped out by the Advocate, long before it + occurred, but this long buried and forgotten correspondence of the + statesman seems rather like a chronicle of transactions already past, so + closely did the actual record, which posterity came to know too well, + resemble that which he saw, and was destined only to see, in prophetic + vision. + </p> + <p> + Could this political seer have cast his horoscope of the Thirty Years' War + at this hour of its nativity for the instruction of such men as Walsingham + or Burleigh, Henry of Navarre or Sully, Richelieu or Gustavus Adolphus, + would the course of events have been modified? These very idlest of + questions are precisely those which inevitably occur as one ponders the + seeming barrenness of an epoch in reality so pregnant. + </p> + <p> + "One would think," said Barneveld, comparing what was then the future with + the real past, "that these plans in Prague against the Elector-Palatine + are too gross for belief; but when I reflect on the intense bitterness of + these people, when I remember what was done within living men's memory to + the good elector Hans Frederic of Saxony for exactly the same reasons, to + wit, hatred of our religion, and determination to establish Imperial + authority, I have great apprehension. I believe that the Roman League will + use the present occasion to carry out her great design; holding France + incapable of opposition to her, Germany in too great division, and + imagining to themselves that neither the King of Great Britain nor these + States are willing or able to offer effectual and forcible resistance. Yet + his Majesty of Great Britain ought to be able to imagine how greatly the + religious matter in general concerns himself and the electoral house of + the Palatine, as principal heads of the religion, and that these vast + designs should be resisted betimes, and with all possible means and might. + My Lords the States have good will, but not sufficient strength, to oppose + these great forces single-handed. One must not believe that without great + and prompt assistance in force from his Majesty and other fellow + religionists My Lords the States can undertake so vast an affair. Do your + uttermost duty there, in order that, ere it be too late, this matter be + taken to heart by his Majesty, and that his authority and credit be + earnestly used with other kings, electors, princes, and republics, that + they do likewise. The promptest energy, good will, and affection may be + reckoned on from us." + </p> + <p> + Alas! it was easy for his Majesty to take to heart the matter of Conrad + Vorstius, to spend reams of diplomatic correspondence, to dictate whole + volumes for orations brimming over with theological wrath, for the + edification of the States-General, against that doctor of divinity. But + what were the special interests of his son-in-law, what the danger to all + the other Protestant electors and kings, princes and republics, what the + imperilled condition of the United Provinces, and, by necessary + consequence, the storm gathering over his own throne, what the whole fate + of Protestantism, from Friesland to Hungary, threatened by the insatiable, + all-devouring might of the double house of Austria, the ancient church, + and the Papistical League, what were hundred thousands of men marching + towards Bohemia, the Netherlands, and the duchies, with the drum beating + for mercenary recruits in half the villages of Spain, Italy, and Catholic + Germany, compared with the danger to Christendom from an Arminian + clergyman being appointed to the theological professorship at Leyden? + </p> + <p> + The world was in a blaze, kings and princes were arming, and all the time + that the monarch of the powerful, adventurous, and heroic people of Great + Britain could spare from slobbering over his minions, and wasting the + treasures of the realm to supply their insatiate greed, was devoted to + polemical divinity, in which he displayed his learning, indeed, but + changed his positions and contradicted himself day by day. The magnitude + of this wonderful sovereign's littleness oppresses the imagination. + </p> + <p> + Moreover, should he listen to the adjurations of the States and his fellow + religionists, should he allow himself to be impressed by the eloquence of + Barneveld and take a manly and royal decision in the great emergency, it + would be indispensable for him to come before that odious body, the + Parliament of Great Britain, and ask for money. It would be perhaps + necessary for him to take them into his confidence, to degrade himself by + speaking to them of the national affairs. They might not be satisfied with + the honour of voting the supplies at his demand, but were capable of + asking questions as to their appropriation. On the whole it was more + king-like and statesman-like to remain quiet, and give advice. Of that, + although always a spendthrift, he had an inexhaustible supply. + </p> + <p> + Barneveld had just hopes from the Commons of Great Britain, if the King + could be brought to appeal to Parliament. Once more he sounded the bugle + of alarm. "Day by day the Archdukes are making greater and greater + enrolments of riders and infantry in ever increasing mass," he cried, "and + therewith vast provision of artillery and all munitions of war. Within ten + or twelve days they will be before Julich in force. We are sending great + convoys to reinforce our army there. The Prince of Neuburg is enrolling + more and more troops every day. He will soon be master of Mulheim. If the + King of Great Britain will lay this matter earnestly to heart for the + preservation of the princes, electors, and estates of the religion, I + cannot doubt that Parliament would cooperate well with his Majesty, and + this occasion should be made use of to redress the whole state of + affairs." + </p> + <p> + It was not the Parliament nor the people of Great Britain that would be in + fault when the question arose of paying in money and in blood for the + defence of civil and religious liberty. But if James should venture openly + to oppose Spain, what would the Count of Gondemar say, and what would + become of the Infanta and the two millions of dowry? + </p> + <p> + It was not for want of some glimmering consciousness in the mind of James + of the impending dangers to Northern Europe and to Protestantism from the + insatiable ambition of Spain, and the unrelenting grasp of the Papacy upon + those portions of Christendom which were slipping from its control, that + his apathy to those perils was so marked. We have seen his leading motives + for inaction, and the world was long to feel its effects. + </p> + <p> + "His Majesty firmly believes," wrote Secretary Winwood, "that the + Papistical League is brewing great and dangerous plots. To obviate them in + everything that may depend upon him, My Lords the States will find him + prompt. The source of all these entanglements comes from Spain. We do not + think that the Archduke will attack Julich this year, but rather fear for + Mulheim and Aix-la-Chapelle." + </p> + <p> + But the Secretary of State, thus acknowledging the peril, chose to be + blind to its extent, while at the same time undervaluing the powers by + which it might be resisted. "To oppose the violence of the enemy," he + said, "if he does resort to violence, is entirely impossible. It would be + furious madness on our part to induce him to fall upon the + Elector-Palatine, for this would be attacking Great Britain and all her + friends and allies. Germany is a delicate morsel, but too much for the + throat of Spain to swallow all at once. Behold the evil which troubles the + conscience of the Papistical League. The Emperor and his brothers are all + on the brink of their sepulchre, and the Infants of Spain are too young to + succeed to the Empire. The Pope would more willingly permit its + dissolution than its falling into the hands of a prince not of his + profession. All that we have to do in this conjuncture is to attend the + best we can to our own affairs, and afterwards to strengthen the good + alliance existing among us, and not to let ourselves be separated by the + tricks and sleights of hand of our adversaries. The common cause can + reckon firmly upon the King of Great Britain, and will not find itself + deceived." + </p> + <p> + Excellent commonplaces, but not very safe ones. Unluckily for the allies, + to attend each to his own affairs when the enemy was upon them, and to + reckon firmly upon a king who thought it furious madness to resist the + enemy, was hardly the way to avert the danger. A fortnight later, the man + who thought it possible to resist, and time to resist, before the net was + over every head, replied to the Secretary by a picture of the Spaniards' + progress. + </p> + <p> + "Since your letter," he said, "you have seen the course of Spinola with + the army of the King and the Archdukes. You have seen the Prince-Palatine + of Neuburg with his forces maintained by the Pope and other members of the + Papistical League. On the 29th of August they forced Aachen, where the + magistrates and those of the Reformed religion have been extremely + maltreated. Twelve hundred soldiers are lodged in the houses there of + those who profess our religion. Mulheim is taken and dismantled, and the + very houses about to be torn down. Duren, Castre, Grevenborg, Orsoy, + Duisburg, Ruhrort, and many other towns, obliged to receive Spanish + garrisons. On the 4th of September they invested Wesel. On the 6th it was + held certain that the cities of Cleve, Emmerich, Rees, and others in that + quarter, had consented to be occupied. The States have put one hundred and + thirty-five companies of foot (about 14,000 men) and 4000 horse and a good + train of artillery in the field, and sent out some ships of war. Prince + Maurice left the Hague on the 4th of September to assist Wesel, succour + the Prince of Brandenburg, and oppose the hostile proceedings of Spinola + and the Palatine of Neuburg . . . . Consider, I pray you, this state of + things, and think how much heed they have paid to the demands of the Kings + of Great Britain and France to abstain from hostilities. Be sure that + without our strong garrison in Julich they would have snapped up every + city in Julich, Cleve, and Berg. But they will now try to make use of + their slippery tricks, their progress having been arrested by our army. + The Prince of Neuburg is sending his chancellor here 'cum mediis + componendae pacis,' in appearance good and reasonable, in reality + deceptive . . . . If their Majesties, My Lords the States, and the princes + of the Union, do not take an energetic resolution for making head against + their designs, behold their League in full vigour and ours without soul. + Neither the strength nor the wealth of the States are sufficient of + themselves to withstand their ambitious and dangerous designs. We see the + possessory princes treated as enemies upon their own estates, and many + thousand souls of the Reformed religion cruelly oppressed by the + Papistical League. For myself I am confirmed in my apprehensions and + believe that neither our religion nor our Union can endure such + indignities. The enemy is making use of the minority in France and the + divisions among the princes of Germany to their great advantage . . . . I + believe that the singular wisdom of his Majesty will enable him to apply + promptly the suitable remedies, and that your Parliament will make no + difficulty in acquitting itself well in repairing those disorders." + </p> + <p> + The year dragged on to its close. The supineness of the Protestants + deepened in direct proportion to the feverish increase of activity on the + part of Austria and the League. The mockery of negotiation in which + nothing could be negotiated, the parade of conciliation when war of + extermination was intended, continued on the part of Spain and Austria. + Barneveld was doing his best to settle all minor differences between the + States and Great Britain, that these two bulwarks of Protestantism might + stand firmly together against the rising tide. He instructed the + Ambassador to exhaust every pacific means of arrangement in regard to the + Greenland fishery disputes, the dyed cloth question, and like causes of + ill feeling. He held it more than necessary, he said, that the inhabitants + of the two countries should now be on the very best terms with each other. + Above all, he implored the King through the Ambassador to summon + Parliament in order that the kingdom might be placed in position to face + the gathering danger. + </p> + <p> + "I am amazed and distressed," he said, "that the statesmen of England do + not comprehend the perils with which their fellow religionists are + everywhere threatened, especially in Germany and in these States. To + assist us with bare advice and sometimes with traducing our actions, while + leaving us to bear alone the burthens, costs, and dangers, is not + serviceable to us." Referring to the information and advice which he had + sent to England and to France fifteen months before, he now gave assurance + that the Prince of Neuburg and Spinola were now in such force, both foot + and cavalry, with all necessary munitions, as to hold these most important + territories as a perpetual "sedem bedli," out of which to attack Germany + at their pleasure and to cut off all possibility of aid from England and + the States. He informed the court of St. James that besides the forces of + the Emperor and the House of Austria, the Duke of Bavaria and Spanish + Italy, there were now several thousand horse and foot under the Bishop of + Wurzburg, 8000 or 9000 under the Bishop-Elector of Mayence, and strong + bodies of cavalry under Count Vaudemont in Lorraine, all mustering for the + war. The pretext seems merely to reduce Frankfurt to obedience, even as + Donauworth had previously been used as a colour for vast designs. The real + purpose was to bring the Elector-Palatine and the whole Protestant party + in Germany to submission. "His Majesty," said the Advocate, "has now a + very great and good subject upon which to convoke Parliament and ask for a + large grant. This would be doubtless consented to if Parliament receives + the assurance that the money thus accorded shall be applied to so + wholesome a purpose. You will do your best to further this great end. We + are waiting daily to hear if the Xanten negotiation is broken off or not. + I hope and I fear. Meantime we bear as heavy burthens as if we were + actually at war." + </p> + <p> + He added once more the warning, which it would seem superfluous to repeat + even to schoolboys in diplomacy, that this Xanten treaty, as proposed by + the enemy, was a mere trap. + </p> + <p> + Spinola and Neuburg, in case of the mutual disbanding, stood ready at an + instant's warning to re-enlist for the League not only all the troops that + the Catholic army should nominally discharge, but those which would be let + loose from the States' army and that of Brandenburg as well. They would + hold Rheinberg, Groll, Lingen, Oldenzaal, Wachtendonk, Maestricht, Aachen, + and Mulheim with a permanent force of more than 20,000 men. And they could + do all this in four days' time. + </p> + <p> + A week or two later all his prophesies had been fulfilled. "The Prince of + Neuburg," he said, "and Marquis Spinola have made game of us most + impudently in the matter of the treaty. This is an indignity for us, their + Majesties, and the electors and princes. We regard it as intolerable. A + despatch came from Spain forbidding a further step in the negotiation + without express order from the King. The Prince and Spinola are gone to + Brussels, the ambassadors have returned to the Hague, the armies are + established in winter-quarters. The cavalry are ravaging the debateable + land and living upon the inhabitants at their discretion. M. de Refuge is + gone to complain to the Archdukes of the insult thus put upon his + sovereign. Sir Henry Wotton is still here. We have been plunged into an + immensity of extraordinary expense, and are amazed that at this very + moment England should demand money from us when we ought to be assisted by + a large subsidy by her. We hope that now at least his Majesty will take a + vigorous resolution and not suffer his grandeur and dignity to be + vilipended longer. If the Spaniard is successful in this step, he is ready + for greater ones, and will believe that mankind is ready to bear and + submit to everything. His Majesty is the first king of the religion. He + bears the title of Defender of the Faith. His religion, his only daughter, + his son-in-law, his grandson are all especially interested besides his own + dignity, besides the common weal." + </p> + <p> + He then adverted to the large subsidies from Queen Elizabeth many years + before, guaranteed, it was true, by the cautionary towns, and to the + gallant English regiments, sent by that great sovereign, which had been + fighting so long and so splendidly in the Netherlands for the common cause + of Protestantism and liberty. Yet England was far weaker then, for she had + always her northern frontier to defend against Scotland, ever ready to + strike her in the back. "But now his Majesty," said Barneveld, "is King of + England and Scotland both. His frontier is free. Ireland is at peace. He + possesses quietly twice as much as the Queen ever did. He is a king. Her + Majesty was a woman. The King has children and heirs. His nearest blood is + engaged in this issue. His grandeur and dignity have been wronged. Each + one of these considerations demands of itself a manly resolution. You will + do your best to further it." + </p> + <p> + The almost ubiquitous power of Spain, gaining after its exhaustion new + life through the strongly developed organization of the League, and the + energy breathed into that mighty conspiracy against human liberty by the + infinite genius of the "cabinet of Jesuits," was not content with + overshadowing Germany, the Netherlands, and England, but was threatening + Savoy with 40,000 men, determined to bring Charles Emmanuel either to + perdition or submission. + </p> + <p> + Like England, France was spell-bound by the prospect of Spanish marriages, + which for her at least were not a chimera, and looked on composedly while + Savoy was on point of being sacrificed by the common invader of + independent nationality whether Protestant or Catholic. Nothing ever + showed more strikingly the force residing in singleness of purpose with + breadth and unity of design than all these primary movements of the great + war now beginning. The chances superficially considered were vastly in + favour of the Protestant cause. In the chief lands, under the sceptre of + the younger branch of Austria, the Protestants outnumbered the Catholics + by nearly ten to one. Bohemia, the Austrias, Moravia, Silesia, Hungary + were filled full of the spirit of Huss, of Luther, and even of Calvin. If + Spain was a unit, now that the Moors and Jews had been expelled, and the + heretics of Castille and Aragon burnt into submission, she had a most + lukewarm ally in Venice, whose policy was never controlled by the Church, + and a dangerous neighbour in the warlike, restless, and adventurous House + of Savoy, to whom geographical considerations were ever more vital than + religious scruples. A sincere alliance of France, the very flower of whose + nobility and people inclined to the Reformed religion, was impossible, + even if there had been fifty infantes to espouse fifty daughters of + France. Great Britain, the Netherlands, and the united princes of Germany + seemed a solid and serried phalanx of Protestantism, to break through + which should be hopeless. Yet at that moment, so pregnant with a monstrous + future, there was hardly a sound Protestant policy anywhere but in + Holland. How long would that policy remain sound and united? How long + would the Republic speak through the imperial voice of Barneveld? Time was + to show and to teach many lessons. The united princes of Germany were + walking, talking, quarrelling in their sleep; England and France + distracted and bedrugged, while Maximilian of Bavaria and Ferdinand of + Gratz, the cabinets of Madrid and the Vatican, were moving forward to + their aims slowly, steadily, relentlessly as Fate. And Spain was more + powerful than she had been since the Truce began. In five years she had + become much more capable of aggression. She had strengthened her positions + in the Mediterranean by the acquisition and enlargement of considerable + fortresses in Barbary and along a large sweep of the African coast, so as + to be almost supreme in Africa. It was necessary for the States, the only + power save Turkey that could face her in those waters, to maintain a + perpetual squadron of war ships there to defend their commerce against + attack from the Spaniard and from the corsairs, both Mahometan and + Christian, who infested every sea. Spain was redoubtable everywhere, and + the Turk, engaged in Persian campaigns, was offering no diversion against + Hungary and Vienna. + </p> + <p> + "Reasons of state worthy of his Majesty's consideration and wisdom," said + Barneveld, "forbid the King of Great Britain from permitting the Spaniard + to give the law in Italy. He is about to extort obedience and humiliation + from the Duke of Savoy, or else with 40,000 men to mortify and ruin him, + while entirely assuring himself of France by the double marriages. Then + comes the attack on these Provinces, on Protestant Germany, and all other + states and realms of the religion." + </p> + <p> + With the turn of the year, affairs were growing darker and darker. The + League was rolling up its forces in all directions; its chiefs proposed + absurd conditions of pacification, while war was already raging, and yet + scarcely any government but that of the Netherlands paid heed to the + rising storm. James, fatuous as ever, listened to Gondemar, and wrote + admonitory letters to the Archduke. It was still gravely proposed by the + Catholic party that there should be mutual disbanding in the duchies, with + a guarantee from Marquis Spinola that there should be no more invasion of + those territories. But powers and pledges from the King of Spain were what + he needed. + </p> + <p> + To suppose that the Republic and her allies would wait quietly, and not + lift a finger until blows were actually struck against the Protestant + electors or cities of Germany, was expecting too much ingenuousness on the + part of statesmen who had the interests of Protestantism at heart. What + they wanted was the signed, sealed, ratified treaty faithfully carried + out. Then if the King of Spain and the Archdukes were willing to contract + with the States never to make an attempt against the Holy German Empire, + but to leave everything to take its course according to the constitutions, + liberties, and traditions and laws of that empire, under guidance of its + electors, princes, estates, and cities, the United Provinces were ready, + under mediation of the two kings, their allies and friends, to join in + such an arrangement. Thus there might still be peace in Germany, and + religious equality as guaranteed by the "Majesty-Letter," and the + "Compromise" between the two great churches, Roman and Reformed, be + maintained. To bring about this result was the sincere endeavour of + Barneveld, hoping against hope. For he knew that all was hollowness and + sham on the part of the great enemy. Even as Walsingham almost alone had + suspected and denounced the delusive negotiations by which Spain continued + to deceive Elizabeth and her diplomatists until the Armada was upon her + coasts, and denounced them to ears that were deafened and souls that were + stupified by the frauds practised upon them, so did Barneveld, who had + witnessed all that stupendous trickery of a generation before, now utter + his cries of warning that Germany might escape in time from her impending + doom. + </p> + <p> + "Nothing but deceit is lurking in the Spanish proposals," he said. "Every + man here wonders that the English government does not comprehend these + malversations. Truly the affair is not to be made straight by new + propositions, but by a vigorous resolution of his Majesty. It is in the + highest degree necessary to the salvation of Christendom, to the + conservation of his Majesty's dignity and greatness, to the service of the + princes and provinces, and of all Germany, nor can this vigorous + resolution be longer delayed without enormous disaster to the common weal + . . . . . I have the deepest affection for the cause of the Duke of Savoy, + but I cannot further it so long as I cannot tell what his Majesty + specifically is resolved to do, and what hope is held out from Venice, + Germany, and other quarters. Our taxes are prodigious, the ordinary and + extraordinary, and we have a Spanish army at our front door." + </p> + <p> + The armaments, already so great, had been enlarged during the last month + of the year. Vaudemont was at the head of a further force of 2000 cavalry + and 8000 foot, paid for by Spain and the Pope; 24,000 additional soldiers, + riders and infantry together, had been gathered by Maximilian of Bavaria + at the expense of the League. Even if the reports were exaggerated, the + Advocate thought it better to be too credulous than as apathetic as the + rest of the Protestants. + </p> + <p> + "We receive advices every day," he wrote to Caron, "that the Spaniards and + the Roman League are going forward with their design. They are trying to + amuse the British king and to gain time, in order to be able to deal the + heavier blows. Do all possible duty to procure a timely and vigorous + resolution there. To wait again until we are anticipated will be fatal to + the cause of the Evangelical electors and princes of Germany and + especially of his Electoral Highness of Brandenburg. We likewise should + almost certainly suffer irreparable damage, and should again bear our + cross, as men said last year in regard to Aachen, Wesel, and so many other + places. The Spaniard is sly, and has had a long time to contrive how he + can throw the net over the heads of all our religious allies. Remember all + the warnings sent from here last year, and how they were all tossed to the + winds, to the ruin of so many of our co-religionists. If it is now + intended over there to keep the Spaniards in check merely by speeches or + letters, it would be better to say so clearly to our friends. So long as + Parliament is not convoked in order to obtain consents and subsidies for + this most necessary purpose, so long I fail to believe that this great + common cause of Christendom, and especially of Germany, is taken to heart + by England." + </p> + <p> + He adverted with respectfully subdued scorn to King James's proposition + that Spinola should give a guarantee. "I doubt if he accepts the + suggestion," said Barneveld, "unless as a notorious trick, and if he did, + what good would the promise of Spinola do us? We consider Spinola a great + commander having the purses and forces of the Spaniards and the Leaguers + in his control; but should they come into other hands, he would not be a + very considerable personage for us. And that may happen any day. They + don't seem in England to understand the difference between Prince Maurice + in his relations to our state and that of Marquis Spinola to his + superiors. Try to make them comprehend it. A promise from the Emperor, + King of Spain, and the princes of the League, such as his Majesty in his + wisdom has proposed to Spinola, would be most tranquillizing for all the + Protestant princes and estates of the Empire, especially for the Elector + and Electress Palatine, and for ourselves. In such a case no difficulty + would be made on our side." + </p> + <p> + After expressing his mind thus freely in regard to James and his policy, + he then gave the Ambassador a word of caution in characteristic fashion. + "Cogita," he said, "but beware of censuring his Majesty's projects. I do + not myself mean to censure them, nor are they publicly laughed at here, + but look closely at everything that comes from Brussels, and let me know + with diligence." + </p> + <p> + And even as the Advocate was endeavouring with every effort of his skill + and reason to stir the sluggish James into vigorous resolution in behalf + of his own children, as well as of the great cause of Protestantism and + national liberty, so was he striving to bear up on his strenuous shoulders + the youthful king of France, and save him from the swollen tides of court + intrigue and Jesuitical influence fast sweeping him to destruction. + </p> + <p> + He had denounced the recent and paltry proposition made on the part of the + League, and originally suggested by James, as a most open and transparent + trap, into which none but the blind would thrust themselves. The Treaty of + Xanten, carried out as it had been signed and guaranteed by the great + Catholic powers, would have brought peace to Christendom. To accept in + place of such guarantee the pledge of a simple soldier, who to-morrow + might be nothing, was almost too ridiculous a proposal to be answered + gravely. Yet Barneveld through the machinations of the Catholic party was + denounced both at the English and French courts as an obstacle to peace, + when in reality his powerful mind and his immense industry were steadily + directed to the noblest possible end—to bring about a solemn + engagement on the part of Spain, the Emperor, and the princes of the + League, to attack none of the Protestant powers of Germany, especially the + Elector-Palatine, but to leave the laws, liberties, and privileges of the + States within the Empire in their original condition. And among those laws + were the great statutes of 1609 and 1610, the "Majesty-Letter" and the + "Compromise," granting full right of religious worship to the Protestants + of the Kingdom of Bohemia. If ever a policy deserved to be called truly + liberal and truly conservative, it was the policy thus steadily maintained + by Barneveld. + </p> + <p> + Adverting to the subterfuge by which the Catholic party had sought to set + aside the treaty of Xanten, he instructed Langerac, the States' ambassador + in Paris, and his own pupils to make it clear to the French government + that it was impossible that in such arrangements the Spanish armies would + not be back again in the duchies at a moment's notice. It could not be + imagined even that they were acting sincerely. + </p> + <p> + "If their upright intention," he said, "is that no actual, hostile, + violent attack shall be made upon the duchies, or upon any of the princes, + estates, or cities of the Holy Empire, as is required for the peace and + tranquillity of Christendom, and if all the powers interested therein will + come into a good and solid convention to that effect. My Lords the States + will gladly join in such undertaking and bind themselves as firmly as the + other powers. If no infraction of the laws and liberties of the Holy + Empire be attempted, there will be peace for Germany and its neighbours. + But the present extravagant proposition can only lead to chicane and + quarrels. To press such a measure is merely to inflict a disgrace upon us. + It is an attempt to prevent us from helping the Elector-Palatine and the + other Protestant princes of Germany and coreligionists everywhere against + hostile violence. For the Elector-Palatine can receive aid from us and + from Great Britain through the duchies only. It is plainly the object of + the enemy to seclude us from the Palatine and the rest of Protestant + Germany. It is very suspicious that the proposition of Prince Maurice, + supported by the two kings and the united princes of Germany, has been + rejected." + </p> + <p> + The Advocate knew well enough that the religious franchises granted by the + House of Habsburg at the very moment in which Spain signed her peace with + the Netherlands, and exactly as the mad duke of Cleve was expiring—with + a dozen princes, Catholic and Protestant, to dispute his inheritance—would + be valuable just so long as they could be maintained by the united forces + of Protestantism and of national independence and no longer. What had been + extorted from the Catholic powers by force would be retracted by force + whenever that force could be concentrated. It had been necessary for the + Republic to accept a twelve years' truce with Spain in default of a peace, + while the death of John of Cleve, and subsequently of Henry IV., had made + the acquisition of a permanent pacification between Catholicism and + Protestantism, between the League and the Union, more difficult than ever. + The so-called Thirty Years' War—rather to be called the concluding + portion of the Eighty Years' War—had opened in the debateable + duchies exactly at the moment when its forerunner, the forty years' war of + the Netherlands, had been temporarily and nominally suspended. Barneveld + was perpetually baffled in his efforts to obtain a favourable peace for + Protestant Europe, less by the open diplomacy and military force of the + avowed enemies of Protestantism than by the secret intrigues and + faintheartedness of its nominal friends. He was unwearied in his efforts + simultaneously to arouse the courts of England and France to the danger to + Europe from the overshadowing power of the House of Austria and the + League, and he had less difficulty in dealing with the Catholic Lewis and + his mother than with Protestant James. At the present moment his great + designs were not yet openly traversed by a strong Protestant party within + the very republic which he administered. + </p> + <p> + "Look to it with earnestness and grave deliberation," he said to Langerac, + "that they do not pursue us there with vain importunity to accept + something so notoriously inadmissible and detrimental to the common weal. + We know that from the enemy's side every kind of unseemly trick is + employed, with the single object of bringing about misunderstanding + between us and the King of France. A prompt and vigorous resolution on the + part of his Majesty, to see the treaty which we made duly executed, would + be to help the cause. Otherwise, not. We cannot here believe that his + Majesty, in this first year of his majority, will submit to such a + notorious and flagrant affront, or that he will tolerate the oppression of + the Duke of Savoy. Such an affair in the beginning of his Majesty's reign + cannot but have very great and prejudicial consequences, nor can it be + left to linger on in uncertainty and delay. Let him be prompt in this. Let + him also take a most Christian—kingly, vigorous resolution against + the great affront put upon him in the failure to carry out the treaty. + Such a resolve on the part of the two kings would restore all things to + tranquillity and bring the Spaniard and his adherents 'in terminos + modestiae. But so long as France is keeping a suspicious eye upon England, + and England upon France, everything will run to combustion, detrimental to + their Majesties and to us, and ruinous to all the good inhabitants." + </p> + <p> + To the Treaty of Xanten faithfully executed he held as to an anchor in the + tempest until it was torn away, not by violence from without, but by + insidious mutiny within. At last the government of James proposed that the + pledges on leaving the territory should be made to the two allied kings as + mediators and umpires. This was better than the naked promises originally + suggested, but even in this there was neither heartiness nor sincerity. + Meantime the Prince of Neuburg, negotiations being broken off, departed + for Germany, a step which the Advocate considered ominous. Soon afterwards + that prince received a yearly pension of 24,000 crowns from Spain, and for + this stipend his claims on the sovereignty of the duchies were supposed to + be surrendered. + </p> + <p> + "If this be true," said Barneveld, "we have been served with covered + dishes." + </p> + <p> + The King of England wrote spirited and learned letters to the + Elector-Palatine, assuring him of his father-in-law's assistance in case + he should be attacked by the League. Sir Henry Wotton, then on special + mission at the Hague, showed these epistles to Barneveld. + </p> + <p> + "When I hear that Parliament has been assembled and has granted great + subsidies," was the Advocate's comment, "I shall believe that effects may + possibly follow from all these assurances." + </p> + <p> + It was wearisome for the Advocate thus ever to be foiled; by the + pettinesses and jealousies of those occupying the highest earthly places, + in his efforts to stem the rising tide of Spanish and Catholic aggression, + and to avert the outbreak of a devastating war to which he saw Europe + doomed. It may be wearisome to read the record. Yet it is the chronicle of + Christendom during one of the most important and fateful epochs of modern + history. No man can thoroughly understand the complication and precession + of phenomena attending the disastrous dawn of the renewed war, on an even + more awful scale than the original conflict in the Netherlands, without + studying the correspondence of Barneveld. The history of Europe is there. + The fate of Christendom is there. The conflict of elements, the crash of + contending forms of religion and of nationalities, is pictured there in + vivid if homely colours. The Advocate, while acting only in the name of a + slender confederacy, was in truth, so long as he held his place, the prime + minister of European Protestantism. There was none other to rival him, few + to comprehend him, fewer still to sustain him. As Prince Maurice was at + that moment the great soldier of Protestantism without clearly scanning + the grandeur of the field in which he was a chief actor, or foreseeing the + vastness of its future, so the Advocate was its statesman and its prophet. + Could the two have worked together as harmoniously as they had done at an + earlier day, it would have been a blessing for the common weal of Europe. + But, alas! the evil genius of jealousy, which so often forbids cordial + relations between soldier and statesman, already stood shrouded in the + distance, darkly menacing the strenuous patriot, who was wearing his life + out in exertions for what he deemed the true cause of progress and + humanity. + </p> + <p> + Nor can the fate of the man himself, his genuine character, and the + extraordinary personal events towards which he was slowly advancing, be + accurately unfolded without an attempt by means of his letters to lay bare + his inmost thoughts. Especially it will be seen at a later moment how much + value was attached to this secret correspondence with the ambassadors in + London and Paris. + </p> + <p> + The Advocate trusted to the support of France, Papal and Medicean as the + court of the young king was, because the Protestant party throughout the + kingdom was too powerful, warlike, and numerous to be trifled with, and + because geographical considerations alone rendered a cordial alliance + between Spain and France very difficult. Notwithstanding the Spanish + marriages, which he opposed so long as opposition was possible, he knew + that so long as a statesman remained in the kingdom, or a bone for one + existed, the international policy of Henry, of Sully, and of Jeannin could + not be wholly abandoned. + </p> + <p> + He relied much on Villeroy, a political hack certainly, an ancient + Leaguer, and a Papist, but a man too cool, experienced, and wily to be + ignorant of the very hornbook of diplomacy, or open to the shallow + stratagems by which Spain found it so easy to purchase or to deceive. So + long as he had a voice in the council, it was certain that the Netherland + alliance would not be abandoned, nor the Duke of Savoy crushed. The old + secretary of state was not especially in favour at that moment, but + Barneveld could not doubt his permanent place in French affairs until some + man of real power should arise there. It was a dreary period of barrenness + and disintegration in that kingdom while France was mourning Henry and + waiting for Richelieu. + </p> + <p> + The Dutch ambassador at Paris was instructed accordingly to maintain. good + relations with Villeroy, who in Barneveld's opinion had been a constant + and sincere friend to the Netherlands. "Don't forget to caress the old + gentleman you wot of," said the Advocate frequently, but suppressing his + name, "without troubling yourself with the reasons mentioned in your + letter. I am firmly convinced that he will overcome all difficulties. + Don't believe either that France will let the Duke of Savoy be ruined. It + is against every reason of State." Yet there were few to help Charles + Emmanuel in this Montferrat war, which was destined to drag feebly on, + with certain interludes of negotiations, for two years longer. The already + notorious condottiere Ernest Mansfeld, natural son of old prince Peter + Ernest, who played so long and so high a part in command of the Spanish + armies in the Netherlands, had, to be sure, taken service under the Duke. + Thenceforth he was to be a leader and a master in that wild business of + plunder, burning, blackmailing, and murder, which was opening upon Europe, + and was to afford occupation for many thousands of adventurers of high and + low degree. + </p> + <p> + Mansfeld, reckless and profligate, had already changed his banner more + than once. Commanding a company under Leopold in the duchies, he had been + captured by the forces of the Union, and, after waiting in vain to be + ransomed by the Archduke, had gone secretly over to the enemy. Thus + recovering his liberty, he had enlisted a regiment under Leopold's name to + fight the Union, and had then, according to contract, transferred himself + and most of his adventurers to the flag of the Union. The military + operations fading away in the duchies without being succeeded by permanent + peace, the Count, as he was called, with no particular claim to such + title, had accepted a thousand florins a year as retainer from the Union + and had found occupation under Charles Emmanuel. Here the Spanish soldier + of a year or two before found much satisfaction and some profit in + fighting Spanish soldiers. He was destined to reappear in the Netherlands, + in France, in Bohemia, in many places where there were villages to be + burned, churches to be plundered, cities to be sacked, nuns and other + women to be outraged, dangerous political intrigues to be managed. A man + in the prime of his age, fair-haired, prematurely wrinkled, battered, and + hideous of visage, with a hare-lip and a humpback; slovenly of dress, and + always wearing an old grey hat without a band to it; audacious, cruel, + crafty, and licentious—such was Ernest Mansfeld, whom some of his + contemporaries spoke of as Ulysses Germanicus, others as the new Attila, + all as a scourge to the human race. The cockneys of Paris called him + "Machefer," and nurses long kept children quiet by threatening them with + that word. He was now enrolled on the Protestant side, although at the + moment serving Savoy against Spain in a question purely personal. His + armies, whether in Italy or in Germany, were a miscellaneous collection of + adventurers of high and low degree, of all religions, of all countries, + unfrocked priests and students, ruined nobles, bankrupt citizens, street + vagabonds—earliest type perhaps of the horrible military vermin + which were destined to feed so many years long on the unfortunate + dismembered carcass of Germany. + </p> + <p> + Many demands had been made upon the States for assistance to Savoy,—as + if they and they alone were to bear the brunt and pay the expense of all + the initiatory campaigns against Spain. + </p> + <p> + "We are much importuned," said the Advocate, "to do something for the help + of Savoy . . . . We wish and we implore that France, Great Britain, the + German princes, the Venetians, and the Swiss would join us in some scheme + of effective assistance. But we have enough on our shoulders at this + moment." + </p> + <p> + They had hardly money enough in their exchequer, admirably ordered as it + was, for enterprises so far from home when great Spanish armies were + permanently encamped on their border. + </p> + <p> + Partly to humour King James and partly from love of adventure, Count John + of Nassau had gone to Savoy at the head of a small well disciplined body + of troops furnished by the States. + </p> + <p> + "Make use of this piece of news," said Barneveld, communicating the fact + to Langerac, "opportunely and with discretion. Besides the wish to give + some contentment to the King of Great Britain, we consider it inconsistent + with good conscience and reasons of state to refuse help to a great prince + against oppression by those who mean to give the law to everybody; + especially as we have been so earnestly and frequently importuned to do + so." + </p> + <p> + And still the Spaniards and the League kept their hold on the duchies, + while their forces, their munitions, their accumulation of funds waged + hourly. The war of chicane was even more deadly than an actual campaign, + for when there was no positive fighting the whole world seemed against the + Republic. And the chicane was colossal. + </p> + <p> + "We cannot understand," said Barneveld, "why M. de Prevaulx is coming here + on special mission. When a treaty is signed and sealed, it only remains to + execute it. The Archduke says he is himself not known in the treaty, and + that nothing can be demanded of him in relation to it. This he says in his + letters to the King of Great Britain. M. de Refuge knows best whether or + not Marquis Spinola, Ottavio Visconti, Chancellor Pecquius, and others, + were employed in the negotiation by the Archduke. We know very well here + that the whole business was conducted by them. The Archduke is willing to + give a clean and sincere promise not to re-occupy, and asks the same from + the States. If he were empowered by the Emperor, the King of Spain, and + the League, and acted in such quality, something might be done for the + tranquillity of Germany. But he promises for himself only, and Emperor, + King, or League, may send any general to do what they like to-morrow. What + is to prevent it? + </p> + <p> + "And so My Lords the States, the Elector of Brandenburg, and others + interested are cheated and made fools of. And we are as much troubled by + these tricks as by armed force. Yes, more; for we know that great + enterprises are preparing this year against Germany and ourselves, that + all Neuburg's troops have been disbanded and re-enlisted under the Spanish + commanders, and that forces are levying not only in Italy and Spain, but + in Germany, Lorraine, Luxemburg, and Upper Burgundy, and that Wesel has + been stuffed full of gunpowder and other munitions, and very strongly + fortified." + </p> + <p> + For the States to agree to a treaty by which the disputed duchies should + be held jointly by the Princes of Neuburg and of Brandenburg, and the + territory be evacuated by all foreign troops; to look quietly on while + Neuburg converted himself to Catholicism, espoused the sister of + Maximilian of Bavaria, took a pension from Spain, resigned his claims in + favour of Spain, and transferred his army to Spain; and to expect that + Brandenburg and all interested in Brandenburg, that is to say, every + Protestant in Europe, should feel perfectly easy under such arrangement + and perfectly protected by the simple promise of a soldier of fortune + against Catholic aggression, was a fantastic folly hardly worthy of a + child. Yet the States were asked to accept this position, Brandenburg and + all Protestant Germany were asked to accept it, and Barneveld was howled + at by his allies as a marplot and mischief-maker, and denounced and + insulted by diplomatists daily, because he mercilessly tore away the + sophistries of the League and of the League's secret friend, James Stuart. + </p> + <p> + The King of Spain had more than 100,000 men under arms, and was enlisting + more soldiers everywhere and every day, had just deposited 4,000,000 + crowns with his Antwerp bankers for a secret purpose, and all the time was + exuberant in his assurances of peace. One would have thought that there + had never been negotiations in Bourbourg, that the Spanish Armada had + never sailed from Coruna. + </p> + <p> + "You are wise and prudent in France," said the Advocate, "but we are used + to Spanish proceedings, and from much disaster sustained are filled with + distrust. The King of England seems now to wish that the Archduke should + draw up a document according to his good pleasure, and that the States + should make an explanatory deed, which the King should sign also and ask + the King of France to do the same. But this is very hazardous. + </p> + <p> + "We do not mean to receive laws from the King of Spain, nor the Archduke . + . . . The Spanish proceedings do not indicate peace but war. One must not + take it ill of us that we think these matters of grave importance to our + friends and ourselves. Affairs have changed very much in the last four + months. The murder of the first vizier of the Turkish emperor and his + designs against Persia leave the Spanish king and the Emperor free from + attack in that quarter, and their armaments are far greater than last year + . . . . I cannot understand why the treaty of Xanten, formerly so highly + applauded, should now be so much disapproved. . . . The King of Spain and + the Emperor with their party have a vast design to give the law to all + Christendom, to choose a Roman king according to their will, to reduce the + Evangelical electors, princes, and estates of Germany to obedience, to + subject all Italy, and, having accomplished this, to proceed to triumph + over us and our allies, and by necessary consequence over France and + England. They say they have established the Emperor's authority by means + of Aachen and Mulheim, will soon have driven us out of Julich, and have + thus arranged matters entirely to their heart's content. They can then, in + name of the Emperor, the League, the Prince of Neuburg, or any one else, + make themselves in eight days masters of the places which they are now + imaginarily to leave as well as of those which we are actually to + surrender, and by possession of which we could hold out a long time + against all their power." + </p> + <p> + Those very places held by the States—Julich, Emmerich, and others—had + recently been fortified at much expense, under the superintendence of + Prince Maurice, and by advice of the Advocate. It would certainly be an + act of madness to surrender them on the terms proposed. These warnings and + forebodings of Barneveld sound in our ears like recorded history, yet they + were far earlier than the actual facts. And now to please the English + king, the States had listened to his suggestion that his name and that of + the King of France should be signed as mediators to a new arrangement + proposed in lieu of the Xanten treaty. James had suggested this, Lewis had + agreed to it. Yet before the ink had dried in James's pen, he was + proposing that the names of the mediating sovereigns should be omitted + from the document? And why? Because Gondemar was again whispering in his + ear. "They are renewing the negotiations in England," said the Advocate, + "about the alliance between the Prince of Wales and the second daughter of + Spain; and the King of Great Britain is seriously importuning us that the + Archdukes and My Lords the States should make their pledges + 'impersonaliter' and not to the kings." James was also willing that the + name of the Emperor should appear upon it. To prevent this, Barneveld + would have had himself burned at the stake. It would be an ignominious and + unconditional surrender of the whole cause. + </p> + <p> + "The Archduke will never be contented," said the Advocate, "unless his + Majesty of Great Britain takes a royal resolution to bring him to reason. + That he tries to lay the fault on us is pure malice. We have been ready + and are still ready to execute the treaty of Xanten. The Archduke is the + cause of the dispute concerning the act. We approved the formularies of + their Majesties, and have changed them three times to suit the King of + Great Britain. Our Provincial States have been notified in the matter, so + that we can no longer digest the Spanish impudence, and are amazed that + his Majesty can listen any more to the Spanish ministers. We fear that + those ministers are working through many hands, in order by one means or + another to excite quarrels between his Majesty, us, and the respective + inhabitants of the two countries . . . . . Take every precaution that no + attempt be made there to bring the name of the Emperor into the act. This + would be contrary to their Majesties' first resolution, very prejudicial + to the Elector of Brandenburg, to the duchies, and to ourselves. And it is + indispensable that the promise be made to the two kings as mediators, as + much for their reputation and dignity as for the interests of the Elector, + the territories, and ourselves. Otherwise too the Spaniards will triumph + over us as if they had driven us by force of arms into this promise." + </p> + <p> + The seat of war, at the opening of the apparently inevitable conflict + between the Catholic League and the Protestant Union, would be those + debateable duchies, those border provinces, the possession of which was of + such vital importance to each of the great contending parties, and the + populations of which, although much divided, were on the whole more + inclined to the League than to the Union. It was natural enough that the + Dutch statesman should chafe at the possibility of their being lost to the + Union through the adroitness of the Catholic managers and the supineness + of the great allies of the Republic. + </p> + <p> + Three weeks later than these last utterances of the Advocate, he was given + to understand that King James was preparing to slide away from the + position which had been three times changed to make it suitable for him. + His indignation was hot. + </p> + <p> + "Sir Henry Wotton," he said, "has communicated to me his last despatches + from Newmarket. I am in the highest degree amazed that after all our + efforts at accommodation, with so much sacrifice to the electors, the + provinces, and ourselves, they are trying to urge us there to consent that + the promise be not made to the Kings of France and Great Britain as + mediators, although the proposition came from the Spanish side. After we + had renounced, by desire of his Majesty, the right to refer the promise to + the Treaty of Xanten, it was judged by both kings to be needful and + substantial that the promise be made to their Majesties. To change this + now would be prejudicial to the kings, to the electors, the duchies, and + to our commonwealth; to do us a wrong and to leave us naked. France + maintains her position as becoming and necessary. That Great Britain + should swerve from it is not to be digested here. You will do your utmost + according to my previous instructions to prevent any pressure to this end. + You will also see that the name of the Emperor is mentioned neither in the + preamble nor the articles of the treaty. It would be contrary to all our + policy since 1610. You may be firmly convinced that malice is lurking + under the Emperor's name, and that he and the King of Spain and their + adherents, now as before, are attempting a sequestration. This is simply a + pretext to bring those principalities and provinces into the hands of the + Spaniards, for which they have been labouring these thirty years. We are + constantly cheated by these Spanish tricks. Their intention is to hold + Wesel and all the other places until the conclusion of the Italian affair, + and then to strike a great blow." + </p> + <p> + Certainly were never words more full of sound statesmanship, and of + prophecy too soon to be fulfilled, than these simple but pregnant + warnings. They awakened but little response from the English government + save cavils and teasing reminders that Wesel had been the cradle of German + Calvinism, the Rhenish Geneva, and that it was sinful to leave it longer + in the hands of Spain. As if the Advocate had not proved to demonstration + that to stock hands for a new deal at that moment was to give up the game + altogether. + </p> + <p> + His influence in France was always greater than in England, and this had + likewise been the case with William the Silent. And even now that the + Spanish matrimonial alliance was almost a settled matter at the French + court, while with the English king it was but a perpetual will-o'the-wisp + conducting to quagmires ineffable, the government at Paris sustained the + policy of the Advocate with tolerable fidelity, while it was constantly + and most capriciously traversed by James. + </p> + <p> + Barneveld sighed over these approaching nuptials, but did not yet despair. + "We hope that the Spanish-French marriages," he said, "may be broken up of + themselves; but we fear that if we should attempt to delay or prevent them + authoritatively, or in conjunction with others, the effort would have the + contrary effect." + </p> + <p> + In this certainly he was doomed to disappointment. + </p> + <p> + He had already notified the French court of the absolute necessity of the + great points to be insisted upon in the treaty, and there he found more + docility than in London or Newmarket. + </p> + <p> + All summer he was occupied with this most important matter, uttering + Cassandra-like warnings into ears wilfully deaf. The States had gone as + far as possible in concession. To go farther would be to wreck the great + cause upon the very quicksands which he had so ceaselessly pointed out. + "We hope that nothing further will be asked of us, no scruples be felt as + to our good intentions," he said, "and that if Spain and the Archdukes are + not ready now to fulfil the treaty, their Majesties will know how to + resent this trifling with their authority and dignity, and how to set + matters to rights with their own hands in the duchies. A new treaty, still + less a sequestration, is not to be thought of for a moment." + </p> + <p> + Yet the month of August came and still the names of the mediating kings + were not on the treaty, and still the spectre of sequestration had not + been laid. On the contrary, the peace of Asti, huddled up between Spain + and Savoy, to be soon broken again, had caused new and painful + apprehensions of an attempt at sequestration, for it was established by + several articles in that treaty that all questions between Savoy and + Mantua should be referred to the Emperor's decision. This precedent was + sure to be followed in the duchies if not resisted by force, as it had + been so successfully resisted five years before by the armies of the + States associated with those of France. Moreover the first step at + sequestration had been actually taken. The Emperor had peremptorily + summoned the Elector of Brandenburg and all other parties interested to + appear before him on the 1st of August in Prague. There could be but one + object in this citation, to drive Brandenburg and the States out of the + duchies until the Imperial decision as to the legitimate sovereignty + should be given. Neuburg being already disposed of and his claims ceded to + the Emperor, what possibility was there in such circumstances of saving + one scrap of the territory from the clutch of the League? None certainly + if the Republic faltered in its determination, and yielded to the cowardly + advice of James. "To comply with the summons," said Barneveld, "and submit + to its consequences will be an irreparable injury to the electoral house + of Brandenburg, to the duchies, and to our co-religionists everywhere, and + a very great disgrace to both their Majesties and to us." + </p> + <p> + He continued, through the ambassador in London, to hold up to the King, in + respectful but plain language, the shamelessness of his conduct in + dispensing the enemy from his pledge to the mediators, when the Republic + expressly, in deference to James, had given up the ampler guarantees of + the treaty. The arrangement had been solemnly made, and consented to by + all the provinces, acting in their separate and sovereign capacity. Such a + radical change, even if it were otherwise permissible, could not be made + without long debates, consultations, and votes by the several states. What + could be more fatal at such a crisis than this childish and causeless + delay. There could be no doubt in any statesman's eyes that the Spanish + party meant war and a preparatory hoodwinking. And it was even worse for + the government of the Republic to be outwitted in diplomacy than beaten in + the field. + </p> + <p> + "Every man here," said the Advocate, "has more apprehension of fraud than + of force. According to the constitution of our state, to be overcome by + superior power must be endured, but to be overreached by trickery is a + reproach to the government." + </p> + <p> + The summer passed away. The States maintained their positions in the + duchies, notwithstanding the objurgations of James, and Barneveld remained + on his watch-tower observing every movement of the fast-approaching war, + and refusing at the price of the whole territory in dispute to rescue + Wesel and Aix-la-Chapelle from the grasp of the League. + </p> + <p> + Caron came to the Hague to have personal consultations with the + States-General, the Advocate, and Prince Maurice, and returned before the + close of the year. He had an audience of the King at the palace of + Whitehall early in November, and found him as immovable as ever in his + apathetic attitude in regard to the affairs of Germany. The murder of Sir + Thomas Overbury and the obscene scandals concerning the King's beloved + Carr and his notorious bride were then occupying the whole attention of + the monarch, so that he had not even time for theological lucubrations, + still less for affairs of state on which the peace of Christendom and the + fate of his own children were hanging. + </p> + <p> + The Ambassador found him sulky and dictatorial, but insisted on expressing + once more to him the apprehensions felt by the States-General in regard to + the trickery of the Spanish party in the matter of Cleve and Julich. He + assured his Majesty that they had no intention of maintaining the Treaty + of Xanten, and respectfully requested that the King would no longer urge + the States to surrender the places held by them. It was a matter of vital + importance to retain them, he said. + </p> + <p> + "Sir Henry Wotton told me," replied James, "that the States at his arrival + were assembled to deliberate on this matter, and he had no doubt that they + would take a resolution in conformity with my intention. Now I see very + well that you don't mean to give up the places. If I had known that + before, I should not have warned the Archduke so many times, which I did + at the desire of the States themselves. And now that the Archdukes are + ready to restore their cities, you insist on holding yours. That is the + dish you set before me." + </p> + <p> + And upon this James swore a mighty oath, and beat himself upon the breast. + </p> + <p> + "Now and nevermore will I trouble myself about the States' affairs, come + what come will," he continued. "I have always been upright in my words and + my deeds, and I am not going to embark myself in a wicked war because the + States have plunged themselves into one so entirely unjust. Next summer + the Spaniard means to divide himself into two or three armies in order to + begin his enterprises in Germany." + </p> + <p> + Caron respectfully intimated that these enterprises would be most + conveniently carried on from the very advantageous positions which he + occupied in the duchies. "No," said the King, "he must restore them on the + same day on which you make your surrender, and he will hardly come back in + a hurry." + </p> + <p> + "Quite the contrary," said the Ambassador, "they will be back again in a + twinkling, and before we have the slightest warning of their intention." + </p> + <p> + But it signified not the least what Caron said. The King continued to + vociferate that the States had never had any intention of restoring the + cities. + </p> + <p> + "You mean to keep them for yourselves," he cried, "which is the greatest + injustice that could be perpetrated. You have no right to them, and they + belong to other people." + </p> + <p> + The Ambassador reminded him that the Elector of Brandenburg was well + satisfied that they should be occupied by the States for his greater + security and until the dispute should be concluded. + </p> + <p> + "And that will never be," said James; "never, never. The States are + powerful enough to carry on the war all alone and against all the world." + </p> + <p> + And so he went on, furiously reiterating the words with which he had begun + the conversation, "without accepting any reasons whatever in payment," as + poor Caron observed. + </p> + <p> + "It makes me very sad," said the Ambassador, "to find your Majesty so + impatient and so resolved. If the names of the kings are to be omitted + from the document, the Treaty of Xanten should at least be modified + accordingly." + </p> + <p> + "Nothing of the kind," said James; "I don't understand it so at all. I + speak plainly and without equivocation. It must be enough for the States + that I promise them, in case the enemy is cheating or is trying to play + any trick whatever, or is seeking to break the Treaty of Xanten in a + single point, to come to their assistance in person." + </p> + <p> + And again the warlike James swore a big oath and smote his breast, + affirming that he meant everything sincerely; that he cheated no one, but + always spoke his thoughts right on, clearly and uprightly. + </p> + <p> + It was certainly not a cheerful prospect for the States. Their chief ally + was determined that they should disarm, should strip themselves naked, + when the mightiest conspiracy against the religious freedom and + international independence of Europe ever imagined was perfecting itself + before their eyes, and when hostile armies, more numerous than ever before + known, were at their very door. To wait until the enemy was at their + throat, and then to rely upon a king who trembled at the sight of a drawn + sword, was hardly the highest statesmanship. Even if it had been the + chivalrous Henry instead of the pacific James that had held out the + promise of help, they would have been mad to follow such counsel. + </p> + <p> + The conversation lasted more than an hour. It was in vain that Caron + painted in dark colours the cruel deeds done by the Spaniards in Mulheim + and Aachen, and the proceedings of the Archbishop of Cologne in Rees. The + King was besotted, and no impression could be made upon him. + </p> + <p> + "At any rate," said the Envoy, "the arrangement cannot be concluded + without the King of France." + </p> + <p> + "What excuse is that?" said James. "Now that the King is entirely Spanish, + you are trying to excuse your delays by referring to him. You have + deferred rescuing the poor city of Wesel from the hands of the Spaniard + long enough. I am amazed to have heard never a word from you on that + subject since your departure. I had expressed my wish to you clearly + enough that you should inform the States of my intention to give them any + assurance they chose to demand." + </p> + <p> + Caron was much disappointed at the humour of his Majesty. Coming freshly + as he did from the council of the States, and almost from the seat of war, + he had hoped to convince and content him. But the King was very angry with + the States for putting him so completely in the wrong. He had also been + much annoyed at their having failed to notify him of their military + demonstration in the Electorate of Cologne to avenge the cruelties + practised upon the Protestants there. He asked Caron if he was instructed + to give him information regarding it. Being answered in the negative, he + said he had thought himself of sufficient importance to the States and + enough in their confidence to be apprised of their military movements. It + was for this, he said, that his ambassador sat in their council. Caron + expressed the opinion that warlike enterprises of the kind should be kept + as secret as possible in order to be successful. This the King disputed, + and loudly declared his vexation at being left in ignorance of the matter. + The Ambassador excused himself as well as he could, on the ground that he + had been in Zealand when the troops were marching, but told the King his + impression that they had been sent to chastise the people of Cologne for + their cruelty in burning and utterly destroying the city of Mulheim. + </p> + <p> + "That is none of your affair," said the King. + </p> + <p> + "Pardon me, your Majesty," replied Caron, "they are our fellow + religionists, and some one at least ought to resent the cruelty practised + upon them." + </p> + <p> + The King admitted that the destruction of the city had been an unheard—of + cruelty, and then passed on to speak of the quarrel between the Duke and + City of Brunswick, and other matters. The interview ended, and the + Ambassador, very downhearted, went to confer with the Secretary of State + Sir Ralph Winwood, and Sir Henry Wotton. + </p> + <p> + He assured these gentlemen that without fully consulting the French + government these radical changes in the negotiations would never be + consented to by the States. Winwood promised to confer at once with the + French ambassador, admitting it to be impossible for the King to take up + this matter alone. He would also talk with the Archduke's ambassador next + day noon at dinner, who was about leaving for Brussels, and "he would put + something into his hand that he might take home with him." + </p> + <p> + "When he is fairly gone," said Caron, "it is to be hoped that the King's + head will no longer be so muddled about these things. I wish it with all + my heart." + </p> + <p> + It was a dismal prospect for the States. The one ally on whom they had a + right to depend, the ex-Calvinist and royal Defender of the Faith, in this + mortal combat of Protestantism with the League, was slipping out of their + grasp with distracting lubricity. On the other hand, the Most Christian + King, a boy of fourteen years, was still in the control of a mother heart + and soul with the League—so far as she had heart or soul—was + betrothed to the daughter of Spain, and saw his kingdom torn to pieces and + almost literally divided among themselves by rebellious princes, who made + use of the Spanish marriages as a pretext for unceasing civil war. + </p> + <p> + The Queen-Mother was at that moment at Bordeaux, and an emissary from the + princes was in London. James had sent to offer his mediation between them + and the Queen. He was fond of mediation. He considered it his special + mission in the world to mediate. He imagined himself as looked up to by + the nations as the great arbitrator of Christendom, and was wont to issue + his decrees as if binding in force and infallible by nature. He had + protested vigorously against the Spanish-French marriages, and declared + that the princes were justified in formalizing an opposition to them, at + least until affairs in France were restored to something like order. He + warned the Queen against throwing the kingdom "into the combustion of war + without necessity," and declared that, if she would trust to his guidance, + she might make use of him as if her affairs were his own. An indispensable + condition for much assistance, however, would be that the marriages should + be put off. + </p> + <p> + As James was himself pursuing a Spanish marriage for his son as the chief + end and aim of his existence, there was something almost humorous in this + protest to the Queen-Dowager and in his encouragement of mutiny in France + in order to prevent a catastrophe there which he desired at home. + </p> + <p> + The same agent of the princes, de Monbaran by name, was also privately + accredited by them to the States with instructions to borrow 200,000 + crowns of them if he could. But so long as the policy of the Republic was + directed by Barneveld, it was not very probable that, while maintaining + friendly and even intimate relations with the legitimate government, she + would enter into negotiations with rebels against it, whether princes or + plebeians, and oblige them with loans. "He will call on me soon, no + doubt," said Caron, "but being so well instructed as to your Mightinesses + intentions in this matter, I hope I shall keep him away from you." + Monbaran was accordingly kept away, but a few weeks later another emissary + of Conde and Bouillon made his appearance at the Hague, de Valigny by + name. He asked for money and for soldiers to reinforce Bouillon's city of + Sedan, but he was refused an audience of the States-General. Even the + martial ardour of Maurice and his sympathy for his relatives were cooled + by this direct assault on his pocket. "The Prince," wrote the French + ambassador, du Maurier, "will not furnish him or his adherents a thousand + crowns, not if they had death between their teeth. Those who think it do + not know how he loves his money." + </p> + <p> + In the very last days of the year (1615) Caron had another interview with + the King in which James was very benignant. He told the Ambassador that he + should wish the States to send him some special commissioners to make a + new treaty with him, and to treat of all unsettled affairs which were + daily arising between the inhabitants of the respective countries. He + wished to make a firmer union and accord between Great Britain and the + Netherlands. He was very desirous of this, "because," said he, "if we can + unite with and understand each other, we have under God no one what ever + to fear, however mighty they may be." + </p> + <p> + Caron duly notified Barneveld of these enthusiastic expressions of his + Majesty. The Advocate too was most desirous of settling the troublesome + questions about the cloth trade, the piracies, and other matters, and was + in favour of the special commission. In regard to a new treaty of alliance + thus loosely and vaguely suggested, he was not so sanguine however. He had + too much difficulty in enforcing the interests of Protestantism in the + duchies against the infatuation of James in regard to Spain, and he was + too well aware of the Spanish marriage delusion, which was the key to the + King's whole policy, to put much faith in these casual outbursts of + eternal friendship with the States. He contented himself therefore with + cautioning Caron to pause before committing himself to any such projects. + He had frequently instructed him, however, to bring the disputed questions + to his Majesty's notice as often as possible with a view to amicable + arrangement. + </p> + <p> + This preventive policy in regard to France was highly approved by + Barneveld, who was willing to share in the blame profusely heaped upon + such sincere patriots and devoted Protestants as Duplessis-Mornay and + others, who saw small advantage to the great cause from a mutiny against + established government, bad as it was, led by such intriguers as Conde and + Bouillon. Men who had recently been in the pay of Spain, and one of whom + had been cognizant of Biron's plot against the throne and life of Henry + IV., to whom sedition was native atmosphere and daily bread, were not + likely to establish a much more wholesome administration than that of Mary + de' Medici. Prince Maurice sympathized with his relatives by marriage, who + were leading the civil commotions in France and endeavouring to obtain + funds in the Netherlands. It is needless to say that Francis Aerssens was + deep in their intrigues, and feeding full the grudge which the Stadholder + already bore the Advocate for his policy on this occasion. + </p> + <p> + The Advocate thought it best to wait until the young king should himself + rise in mutiny against his mother and her minions. Perhaps the downfall of + the Concini's and their dowager and the escape of Lewis from thraldom + might not be so distant as it seemed. Meantime this was the legal + government, bound to the States by treaties of friendship and alliance, + and it would be a poor return for the many favours and the constant aid + bestowed by Henry IV. on the Republic, and an imbecile mode of avenging + his murder to help throw his kingdom into bloodshed and confusion before + his son was able to act for himself. At the same time he did his best to + cultivate amicable relations with the princes, while scrupulously + abstaining from any sympathy with their movements. "If the Prince and the + other gentlemen come to court," he wrote to Langerac, "you will treat them + with all possible caresses so far as can be done without disrespect to the + government." + </p> + <p> + While the British court was occupied with the foul details of the Overbury + murder and its consequences, a crime of a more commonplace nature, but + perhaps not entirely without influence on great political events, had + startled the citizens of the Hague. It was committed in the apartments of + the Stadholder and almost under his very eyes. A jeweller of Amsterdam, + one John van Wely, had come to the court of Maurice to lay before him a + choice collection of rare jewellery. In his caskets were rubies and + diamonds to the value of more than 100,000 florins, which would be the + equivalent of perhaps ten times as much to-day. In the Prince's absence + the merchant was received by a confidential groom of the chambers, John of + Paris by name, and by him, with the aid of a third John, a soldier of his + Excellency's guard, called Jean de la Vigne, murdered on the spot. The + deed was done in the Prince's private study. The unfortunate jeweller was + shot, and to make sure was strangled with the blue riband of the Order of + the Garter recently conferred upon Maurice, and which happened to be lying + conspicuously in the room. + </p> + <p> + The ruffians had barely time to take possession of the booty, to thrust + the body behind the tapestry of the chamber, and to remove the more + startling evidences of the crime, when the Prince arrived. He supped soon + afterwards in the same room, the murdered jeweller still lying behind the + arras. In the night the valet and soldier carried the corpse away from the + room, down the stairs, and through the great courtyard, where, strange to + say, no sentinels were on duty, and threw it into an ashpit. + </p> + <p> + A deed so bloody, audacious, and stupid was of course soon discovered and + the murderers arrested and executed. Nothing would remove the incident + from the catalogue of vulgar crimes, or even entitle it to a place in + history save a single circumstance. The celebrated divine John + Uytenbogaert, leader among the Arminians, devoted friend of Barneveld, and + up to that moment the favorite preacher of Maurice, stigmatized indeed, as + we have seen, by the orthodox as "Court Trumpeter," was requested by the + Prince to prepare the chief criminal for death. He did so, and from that + day forth the Stadholder ceased to be his friend, although regularly + listening to his preaching in the French chapel of the court for more than + a year longer. Some time afterwards the Advocate informed Uytenbogaert + that the Prince was very much embittered against him. "I knew it well," + says the clergyman in his memoirs, "but not the reasons for it, nor do I + exactly comprehend them to this day. Truly I have some ideas relating to + certain things which I was obliged to do in discharge of my official duty, + but I will not insist upon them, nor will I reveal them to any man." + </p> + <p> + These were mysterious words, and the mystery is said to have been + explained; for it would seem that the eminent preacher was not so entirely + reticent among his confidential friends as before the public. Uytenbogaert—so + ran the tale—in the course of his conversation with the condemned + murderer, John of Paris, expressed a natural surprise that there should + have been no soldiers on guard in the court on the evening when the crime + was committed and the body subsequently removed. The valet informed him + that he had for a long time been empowered by the Prince to withdraw the + sentinels from that station, and that they had been instructed to obey his + orders—Maurice not caring that they should be witnesses to the + equivocal kind of female society that John of Paris was in the habit of + introducing of an evening to his master's apartments. The valet had made + use of this privilege on the night in question to rid himself of the + soldiers who would have been otherwise on guard. + </p> + <p> + The preacher felt it his duty to communicate these statements to the + Prince, and to make perhaps a somewhat severe comment upon them. Maurice + received the information sullenly, and, as soon as Uytenbogaert was gone, + fell into a violent passion, throwing his hat upon the floor, stamping + upon it, refusing to eat his supper, and allowing no one to speak to him. + Next day some courtiers asked the clergyman what in the world he had been + saying to the Stadholder. + </p> + <p> + From that time forth his former partiality for the divine, on whose + preaching he had been a regular attendant, was changed to hatred; a + sentiment which lent a lurid colour to subsequent events. + </p> + <p> + The attempts of the Spanish party by chicane or by force to get possession + of the coveted territories continued year after year, and were steadily + thwarted by the watchfulness of the States under guidance of Barneveld. + The martial stadholder was more than ever for open war, in which he was + opposed by the Advocate, whose object was to postpone and, if possible, to + avert altogether the dread catastrophe which he foresaw impending over + Europe. The Xanten arrangement seemed hopelessly thrown to the winds, nor + was it destined to be carried out; the whole question of sovereignty and + of mastership in those territories being swept subsequently into the + general whirlpool of the Thirty Years' War. So long as there was a + possibility of settlement upon that basis, the Advocate was in favour of + settlement, but to give up the guarantees and play into the hands of the + Catholic League was in his mind to make the Republic one of the + conspirators against the liberties of Christendom. + </p> + <p> + "Spain, the Emperor and the rest of them," said he, "make all three modes + of pacification—the treaty, the guarantee by the mediating kings, + the administration divided between the possessory princes—alike + impossible. They mean, under pretext of sequestration, to make themselves + absolute masters there. I have no doubt that Villeroy means sincerely, and + understands the matter, but meantime we sit by the fire and burn. If the + conflagration is neglected, all the world will throw the blame on us." + </p> + <p> + Thus the Spaniards continued to amuse the British king with assurances of + their frank desire to leave those fortresses and territories which they + really meant to hold till the crack of doom. And while Gondemar was making + these ingenuous assertions in London, his colleagues at Paris and at + Brussels distinctly and openly declared that there was no authority + whatever for them, that the Ambassador had received no such instructions, + and that there was no thought of giving up Wesel or any other of the + Protestant strongholds captured, whether in the duchies or out of them. + And Gondemar, still more to keep that monarch in subjection, had been + unusually flattering in regard to the Spanish marriage. "We are in great + alarm here," said the Advocate, "at the tidings that the projected + alliance of the Prince of Wales with the daughter of Spain is to be + renewed; from which nothing good for his Majesty's person, his kingdom, + nor for our state can be presaged. We live in hope that it will never be." + </p> + <p> + But the other marriage was made. Despite the protest of James, the + forebodings of Barneveld, and the mutiny of the princes, the youthful king + of France had espoused Anne of Austria early in the year 1616. The British + king did his best to keep on terms with France and Spain, and by no means + renounced his own hopes. At the same time, while fixed as ever in his + approbation of the policy pursued by the Emperor and the League, and as + deeply convinced of their artlessness in regard to the duchies, the + Protestant princes of Germany, and the Republic, he manifested more + cordiality than usual in his relations with the States. Minor questions + between the countries he was desirous of arranging—so far as matters + of state could be arranged by orations—and among the most pressing + of these affairs were the systematic piracy existing and encouraged in + English ports, to the great damage of all seafaring nations and to the + Hollanders most of all, and the quarrel about the exportation of undyed + cloths, which had almost caused a total cessation of the woollen trade + between the two countries. The English, to encourage their own artisans, + had forbidden the export of undyed cloths, and the Dutch had retorted by + prohibiting the import of dyed ones. + </p> + <p> + The King had good sense enough to see the absurdity of this condition of + things, and it will be remembered that Barneveld had frequently urged upon + the Dutch ambassador to bring his Majesty's attention to these dangerous + disputes. Now that the recovery of the cautionary towns had been so + dexterously and amicably accomplished, and at so cheap a rate, it seemed a + propitious moment to proceed to a general extinction of what would now be + called "burning questions." + </p> + <p> + James was desirous that new high commissioners might be sent from the + States to confer with himself and his ministers upon the subjects just + indicated, as well as upon the fishery questions as regarded both + Greenland and Scotland, and upon the general affairs of India. + </p> + <p> + He was convinced, he said to Caron, that the sea had become more and more + unsafe and so full of freebooters that the like was never seen or heard of + before. It will be remembered that the Advocate had recently called his + attention to the fact that the Dutch merchants had lost in two months + 800,000 florins' worth of goods by English pirates. + </p> + <p> + The King now assured the Ambassador of his intention of equipping a fleet + out of hand and to send it forth as speedily as possible under command of + a distinguished nobleman, who would put his honour and credit in a + successful expedition, without any connivance or dissimulation whatever. + In order thoroughly to scour these pirates from the seas, he expressed the + hope that their Mightinesses the States would do the same either jointly + or separately as they thought most advisable. Caron bluntly replied that + the States had already ten or twelve war-ships at sea for this purpose, + but that unfortunately, instead of finding any help from the English in + this regard, they had always found the pirates favoured in his Majesty's + ports, especially in Ireland and Wales. + </p> + <p> + "Thus they have so increased in numbers," continued the Ambassador, "that + I quite believe what your Majesty says, that not a ship can pass with + safety over the seas. More over, your Majesty has been graciously pleased + to pardon several of these corsairs, in consequence of which they have + become so impudent as to swarm everywhere, even in the river Thames, where + they are perpetually pillaging honest merchantmen." + </p> + <p> + "I confess," said the King, "to having pardoned a certain Manning, but + this was for the sake of his old father, and I never did anything so + unwillingly in my life. But I swear that if it were the best nobleman in + England, I would never grant one of them a pardon again." + </p> + <p> + Caron expressed his joy at hearing such good intentions on the part of his + Majesty, and assured him that the States-General would be equally + delighted. + </p> + <p> + In the course of the summer the Dutch ambassador had many opportunities of + seeing the King very confidentially, James having given him the use of the + royal park at Bayscot, so that during the royal visits to that place Caron + was lodged under his roof. + </p> + <p> + On the whole, James had much regard and respect for Noel de Caron. He knew + him to be able, although he thought him tiresome. It is amusing to observe + the King and Ambassador in their utterances to confidential friends each + frequently making the charge of tediousness against the other. "Caron's + general education," said James on one occasion to Cecil, "cannot amend his + native German prolixity, for had I not interrupted him, it had been + tomorrow morning before I had begun to speak. God preserve me from hearing + a cause debated between Don Diego and him! . . . But in truth it is good + dealing with so wise and honest a man, although he be somewhat longsome." + </p> + <p> + Subsequently James came to Whitehall for a time, and then stopped at + Theobalds for a few days on his way to Newmarket, where he stayed until + Christmas. At Theobalds he sent again for the Ambassador, saying that at + Whitehall he was so broken down with affairs that it would be impossible + to live if he stayed there. + </p> + <p> + He asked if the States were soon to send the commissioners, according to + his request, to confer in regard to the cloth-trade. Without interference + of the two governments, he said, the matter would never be settled. The + merchants of the two countries would never agree except under higher + authority. + </p> + <p> + "I have heard both parties," he said, "the new and the old companies, two + or three times in full council, and tried to bring them to an agreement, + but it won't do. I have heard that My Lords the States have been hearing + both sides, English and the Hollanders, over and over again, and that the + States have passed a provisional resolution, which however does not suit + us. Now it is not reasonable, as we are allies, that our merchants should + be obliged to send their cloths roundabout, not being allowed either to + sell them in the United Provinces or to pass them through your + territories. I wish I could talk with them myself, for I am certain, if + they would send some one here, we could make an agreement. It is not + necessary that one should take everything from them, or that one should + refuse everything to us. I am sure there are people of sense in your + assembly who will justify me in favouring my own people so far as I + reasonably can, and I know very well that My Lords the States must stand + up for their own citizens. If we have been driving this matter to an + extreme and see that we are ruining each other, we must take it up again + in other fashion, for Yesterday is the preceptor of To-morrow. Let the + commissioners come as soon as possible. I know they have complaints to + make, and I have my complaints also. Therefore we must listen to each + other, for I protest before God that I consider the community of your + state with mine to be so entire that, if one goes to perdition, the other + must quickly follow it." + </p> + <p> + Thus spoke James, like a wise and thoughtful sovereign interested in the + welfare of his subjects and allies, with enlightened ideas for the time + upon public economy. It is difficult, in the man conversing thus amicably + and sensibly with the Dutch ambassador, to realise the shrill pedant + shrieking against Vorstius, the crapulous comrade of Carrs and Steenies, + the fawning solicitor of Spanish marriages, the "pepperer" and hangman of + Puritans, the butt and dupe of Gondemar and Spinola. + </p> + <p> + "I protest," he said further, "that I seek nothing in your state but all + possible friendship and good fellowship. My own subjects complain + sometimes that your people follow too closely on their heels, and confess + that your industry goes far above their own. If this be so, it is a lean + kind of reproach; for the English should rather study to follow you. + Nevertheless, when industry is directed by malice, each may easily be + attempting to snap an advantage from the other. I have sometimes + complained of many other things in which my subjects suffered great + injustice from you, but all that is excusable. I will willingly listen to + your people and grant them to be in the right when they are so. But I will + never allow them to be in the right when they mistrust me. If I had been + like many other princes, I should never have let the advantage of the + cautionary towns slip out of my fingers, but rather by means of them + attempted to get even a stronger hold on your country. I have had plenty + of warnings from great statesmen in France, Germany, and other nations + that I ought to give them up nevermore. Yet you know how frankly and + sincerely I acquitted myself in that matter without ever making + pretensions upon your state than the pretensions I still make to your + friendship and co-operation." + </p> + <p> + James, after this allusion to an important transaction to be explained in + the next chapter, then made an observation or two on a subject which was + rapidly overtopping all others in importance to the States, and his + expressions were singularly at variance with his last utterances in that + regard. "I tell you," he said, "that you have no right to mistrust me in + anything, not even in the matter of religion. I grieve indeed to hear that + your religious troubles continue. You know that in the beginning I + occupied myself with this affair, but fearing that my course might be + misunderstood, and that it might be supposed that I was seeking to + exercise authority in your republic, I gave it up, and I will never + interfere with the matter again, but will ever pray God that he may give + you a happy issue out of these troubles." + </p> + <p> + Alas! if the King had always kept himself on that height of amiable + neutrality, if he had been able to govern himself in the future by these + simplest principles of reason and justice, there might have been perhaps a + happier issue from the troubles than time was like to reveal. + </p> + <p> + Once more James referred to the crisis pending in German affairs, and as + usual spoke of the Clove and Julich question as if it were a simple matter + to be settled by a few strokes of the pen and a pennyworth of sealing-wax, + instead of being the opening act in a vast tragedy, of which neither he, + nor Carom nor Barneveld, nor Prince Maurice, nor the youthful king of + France, nor Philip, nor Matthias, nor any of the men now foremost in the + conduct of affairs, was destined to see the end. + </p> + <p> + The King informed Caron that he had just received most satisfactory + assurances from the Spanish ambassador in his last audience at Whitehall. + </p> + <p> + "He has announced to me on the part of the King his master with great + compliments that his Majesty seeks to please me and satisfy me in + everything that I could possibly desire of him," said James, rolling over + with satisfaction these unctuous phrases as if they really had any meaning + whatever. + </p> + <p> + "His Majesty says further," added the King, "that as he has been at + various times admonished by me, and is daily admonished by other princes, + that he ought to execute the treaty of Xanten by surrendering the city of + Wesel and all other places occupied by Spinola, he now declares himself + ready to carry out that treaty in every point. He will accordingly + instruct the Archduke to do this, provided the Margrave of Brandenburg and + the States will do the same in regard to their captured places. As he + understands however that the States have been fortifying Julich even as he + might fortify Wesel, he would be glad that no innovation be made before + the end of the coming month of March. When this term shall have expired, + he will no longer be bound by these offers, but will proceed to fortify + Wesel and the other places, and to hold them as he best may for himself. + Respect for me has alone induced his Majesty to make this resolution." + </p> + <p> + We have already seen that the Spanish ambassador in Paris was at this very + time loudly declaring that his colleague in London had no commission + whatever to make these propositions. Nor when they were in the slightest + degree analysed, did they appear after all to be much better than threats. + Not a word was said of guarantees. The names of the two kings were not + mentioned. It was nothing but Albert and Spinola then as always, and a + recommendation that Brandenburg and the States and all the Protestant + princes of Germany should trust to the candour of the Catholic League. + Caron pointed out to the King that in these proposals there were no + guarantees nor even promises that the fortresses would not be reoccupied + at convenience of the Spaniards. He engaged however to report the whole + statement to his masters. A few weeks afterwards the Advocate replied in + his usual vein, reminding the King through the Ambassador that the + Republic feared fraud on the part of the League much more than force. He + also laid stress on the affairs of Italy, considering the fate of Savoy + and the conflicts in which Venice was engaged as components of a general + scheme. The States had been much solicited, as we have seen, to render + assistance to the Duke of Savoy, the temporary peace of Asti being already + broken, and Barneveld had been unceasing in his efforts to arouse France + as well as England to the danger to themselves and to all Christendom + should Savoy be crushed. We shall have occasion to see the prominent part + reserved to Savoy in the fast opening debate in Germany. Meantime the + States had sent one Count of Nassau with a couple of companies to Charles + Emmanuel, while another (Ernest) had just gone to Venice at the head of + more than three thousand adventurers. With so many powerful armies at + their throats, as Barneveld had more than once observed, it was not easy + for them to despatch large forces to the other end of Europe, but he + justly reminded his allies that the States were now rendering more + effective help to the common cause by holding great Spanish armies in + check on their own frontier than if they assumed a more aggressive line in + the south. The Advocate, like every statesman worthy of the name, was + accustomed to sweep the whole horizon in his consideration of public + policy, and it will be observed that he always regarded various and + apparently distinct and isolated movements in different parts of Europe as + parts of one great whole. It is easy enough for us, centuries after the + record has been made up, to observe the gradual and, as it were, + harmonious manner in which the great Catholic conspiracy against the + liberties of Europe was unfolded in an ever widening sphere. But to the + eyes of contemporaries all was then misty and chaotic, and it required the + keen vision of a sage and a prophet to discern the awful shape which the + future might assume. Absorbed in the contemplation of these portentous + phenomena, it was not unnatural that the Advocate should attach less + significance to perturbations nearer home. Devoted as was his life to save + the great European cause of Protestantism, in which he considered + political and religious liberty bound up, from the absolute extinction + with which it was menaced, he neglected too much the furious hatreds + growing up among Protestants within the narrow limits of his own province. + He was destined one day to be rudely awakened. Meantime he was occupied + with organizing a general defence of Italy, Germany, France, and England, + as well as the Netherlands, against the designs of Spain and the League. + </p> + <p> + "We wish to know," he said in answer to the affectionate messages and fine + promises of the King of Spain to James as reported by Caron, "what his + Majesty of Great Britain has done, is doing, and is resolved to do for the + Duke of Savoy and the Republic of Venice. If they ask you what we are + doing, answer that we with our forces and vigour are keeping off from the + throats of Savoy and Venice 2000 riders and 10,000 infantry, with which + forces, let alone their experience, more would be accomplished than with + four times the number of new troops brought to the field in Italy. This is + our succour, a great one and a very costly one, for the expense of + maintaining our armies to hold the enemy in check here is very great." + </p> + <p> + He alluded with his usual respectful and quiet scorn to the arrangements + by which James so wilfully allowed himself to be deceived. + </p> + <p> + "If the Spaniard really leaves the duchies," he said, "it is a grave + matter to decide whether on the one side he is not resolved by that means + to win more over us and the Elector of Brandenburg in the debateable land + in a few days than he could gain by force in many years, or on the other + whether by it he does not intend despatching 1200 or 1500 cavalry and 5000 + or 6000 foot, all his most experienced soldiers, from the Netherlands to + Italy, in order to give the law at his pleasure to the Duke of Savoy and + the Republic of Venice, reserving his attack upon Germany and ourselves to + the last. The Spaniards, standing under a monarchical government, can in + one hour resolve to seize to-morrow all that they and we may abandon + to-day. And they can carry such a resolution into effect at once. Our form + of government does not permit this, so that our republic must be conserved + by distrust and good garrisons." + </p> + <p> + Thus during this long period of half hostilities Barneveld, while + sincerely seeking to preserve the peace in Europe, was determined, if + possible, that the Republic should maintain the strongest defensive + position when the war which he foreboded should actually begin. Maurice + and the war party had blamed him for the obstacles which he interposed to + the outbreak of hostilities, while the British court, as we have seen, was + perpetually urging him to abate from his demands and abandon both the well + strengthened fortresses in the duchies and that strong citadel of distrust + which in his often repeated language he was determined never to surrender. + Spinola and the military party of Spain, while preaching peace, had been + in truth most anxious for fighting. "The only honour I desire henceforth," + said that great commander, "is to give battle to Prince Maurice." The + generals were more anxious than the governments to make use of the + splendid armies arrayed against each other in such proximity that, the + signal for conflict not having been given, it was not uncommon for the + soldiers of the respective camps to aid each other in unloading munition + waggons, exchanging provisions and other articles of necessity, and + performing other small acts of mutual service. + </p> + <p> + But heavy thunder clouds hanging over the earth so long and so closely + might burst into explosion at any moment. Had it not been for the + distracted condition of France, the infatuation of the English king, and + the astounding inertness of the princes of the German Union, great + advantages might have been gained by the Protestant party before the storm + should break. But, as the French ambassador at the Hague well observed, + "the great Protestant Union of Germany sat with folded arms while Hannibal + was at their gate, the princes of which it was composed amusing themselves + with staring at each other. It was verifying," he continued, bitterly, + "the saying of the Duke of Alva, 'Germany is an old dog which still can + bark, but has lost its teeth to bite with.'" + </p> + <p> + To such imbecility had that noble and gifted people—which had never + been organized into a nation since it crushed the Roman empire and + established a new civilization on its ruins, and was to wait centuries + longer until it should reconstruct itself into a whole—been reduced + by subdivision, disintegration, the perpetual dissolvent of religious + dispute, and the selfish policy of infinitesimal dynasties. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XII. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + James still presses for the Payment of the Dutch Republic's Debt to + him—A Compromise effected, with Restitution of the Cautionary + Towns—Treaty of Loudun—James's Dream of a Spanish Marriage + revives—James visits Scotland—The States-General agree to furnish + Money and Troops in fulfilment of the Treaty of 1609—Death of + Concini—Villeroy returns to Power. +</pre> + <p> + Besides matters of predestination there were other subjects political and + personal which increased the King's jealousy and hatred. The debt of the + Republic to the British crown, secured by mortgage of the important + sea-ports and fortified towns of Flushing, Brielle, Rammekens, and other + strong places, still existed. The possession of those places by England + was a constant danger and irritation to the States. It was an axe + perpetually held over their heads. It threatened their sovereignty, their + very existence. On more than one occasion, in foreign courts, the + representatives of the Netherlands had been exposed to the taunt that the + Republic was after all not an independent power, but a British province. + The gibe had always been repelled in a manner becoming the envoys of a + proud commonwealth; yet it was sufficiently galling that English garrisons + should continue to hold Dutch towns; one of them among the most valuable + seaports of the Republic,—the other the very cradle of its + independence, the seizure of which in Alva's days had always been reckoned + a splendid achievement. Moreover, by the fifth article of the treaty of + peace between James and Philip III., although the King had declared + himself bound by the treaties made by Elizabeth to deliver up the + cautionary towns to no one but the United States, he promised Spain to + allow those States a reasonable time to make peace with the Archdukes on + satisfactory conditions. Should they refuse to do so, he held himself + bound by no obligations to them, and would deal with the cities as he + thought proper, and as the Archdukes themselves might deem just. + </p> + <p> + The King had always been furious at "the huge sum of money to be advanced, + nay, given, to the States," as he phrased it. "It is so far out of all + square," he had said, "as on my conscience I cannot think that ever they + craved it 'animo obtinendi,' but only by that objection to discourage me + from any thought of getting any repayment of my debts from them when they + shall be in peace. . . . Should I ruin myself for maintaining them? Should + I bestow as much on them as cometh to the value of my whole yearly rent?" + He had proceeded to say very plainly that, if the States did not make + great speed to pay him all his debt so soon as peace was established, he + should treat their pretence at independence with contempt, and propose + dividing their territory between himself and the King of France. + </p> + <p> + "If they be so weak as they cannot subsist either in peace or war," he + said, "without I ruin myself for upholding them, in that case surely + 'minus malunv est eligendum,' the nearest harm is first to be eschewed, a + man will leap out of a burning ship and drown himself in the sea; and it + is doubtless a farther off harm for me to suffer them to fall again in the + hands of Spain, and let God provide for the danger that may with time fall + upon me or my posterity than presently to starve myself and mine with + putting the meat in their mouth. Nay, rather if they be so weak as they + can neither sustain themselves in peace nor war, let them leave this + vainglorious thirsting for the title of a free state (which no people are + worthy or able to enjoy that cannot stand by themselves like + substantives), and 'dividantur inter nos;' I mean, let their countries be + divided between France and me, otherwise the King of Spain shall be sure + to consume us." + </p> + <p> + Such were the eyes with which James had always regarded the great + commonwealth of which he affected to be the ally, while secretly aspiring + to be its sovereign, and such was his capacity to calculate political + forces and comprehend coming events. + </p> + <p> + Certainly the sword was hanging by a thread. The States had made no peace + either with the Archdukes or with Spain. They had made a truce, half the + term of which had already run by. At any moment the keys of their very + house-door might be placed in the hands of their arch enemy. Treacherous + and base as the deed would be, it might be defended by the letter of a + treaty in which the Republic had no part; and was there anything too + treacherous or too base to be dreaded from James Stuart? + </p> + <p> + But the States owed the crown of England eight millions of florins, + equivalent to about L750,000. Where was this vast sum to be found? It was + clearly impossible for the States to beg or to borrow it, although they + were nearly as rich as any of the leading powers at that day. + </p> + <p> + It was the merit of Barneveld, not only that he saw the chance for a good + bargain, but that he fully comprehended a great danger. Years long James + had pursued the phantom of a Spanish marriage for his son. To achieve this + mighty object, he had perverted the whole policy of the realm; he had + grovelled to those who despised him, had repaid attempts at wholesale + assassination with boundless sycophancy. It is difficult to imagine + anything more abject than the attitude of James towards Philip. Prince + Henry was dead, but Charles had now become Prince of Wales in his turn, + and there was a younger infanta whose hand was not yet disposed of. + </p> + <p> + So long as the possible prize of a Most Catholic princess was dangling + before the eyes of the royal champion of Protestantism, so long there was + danger that the Netherlanders might wake up some fine morning and see the + flag of Spain waving over the walls of Flushing, Brielle, and Rammekens. + </p> + <p> + It was in the interest of Spain too that the envoys of James at the Hague + were perpetually goading Barneveld to cause the States' troops to be + withdrawn from the duchies and the illusory treaty of Xanten to be + executed. Instead of an eighth province added to the free Netherlands, the + result of such a procedure would have been to place that territory + enveloping them in the hands of the enemy; to strengthen and sharpen the + claws, as the Advocate had called them, by which Spain was seeking to + clutch and to destroy the Republic. + </p> + <p> + The Advocate steadily refused to countenance such policy in the duchies, + and he resolved on a sudden stroke to relieve the Commonwealth from the + incubus of the English mortgage. + </p> + <p> + James was desperately pushed for money. His minions, as insatiable in + their demands on English wealth as the parasites who fed on the + Queen-Regent were exhaustive of the French exchequer, were greedier than + ever now that James, who feared to face a parliament disgusted with the + meanness of his policy and depravity of his life, could not be relied upon + to minister to their wants. + </p> + <p> + The Advocate judiciously contrived that the proposal of a compromise + should come from the English government. Noel de Caron, the veteran + ambassador of the States in London, after receiving certain proposals, + offered, under instructions' from Barneveld, to pay L250,000 in full of + all demands. It was made to appear that the additional L250,000 was in + reality in advance of his instructions. The mouths of the minions watered + at the mention of so magnificent a sum of money in one lump. + </p> + <p> + The bargain was struck. On the 11th June 1616, Sir Robert Sidney, who had + become Lord Lisle, gave over the city of Flushing to the States, + represented by the Seignior van Maldere, while Sir Horace Vere placed the + important town of Brielle in the hands of the Seignior van Mathenesse. + According to the terms of the bargain, the English garrisons were + converted into two regiments, respectively to be commanded by Lord Lisle's + son, now Sir Robert Sidney, and by Sir Horace Vere, and were to serve the + States. Lisle, who had been in the Netherlands since the days of his uncle + Leicester and his brother Sir Philip Sidney, now took his final departure + for England. + </p> + <p> + Thus this ancient burthen had been taken off the Republic by the masterly + policy of the Advocate. A great source of dread for foreign complication + was closed for ever. + </p> + <p> + The French-Spanish marriages had been made. Henry IV. had not been + murdered in vain. Conde and his confederates had issued their manifesto. A + crisis came to the States, for Maurice, always inclined to take part for + the princes, and urged on by Aerssens, who was inspired by a deadly hatred + for the French government ever since they had insisted on his dismissal + from his post, and who fed the Stadholder's growing jealousy of the + Advocate to the full, was at times almost ready for joining in the + conflict. It was most difficult for the States-General, led by Barneveld, + to maintain relations of amity with a government controlled by Spain, + governed by the Concini's, and wafted to and fro by every wind that blew. + Still it was the government, and the States might soon be called upon, in + virtue of their treaties with Henry, confirmed by Mary de' Medici, not + only to prevent the daily desertion of officers and soldiers of the French + regiments to the rebellious party, but to send the regiments themselves to + the assistance of the King and Queen. + </p> + <p> + There could be no doubt that the alliance of the French Huguenots at + Grenoble with the princes made the position of the States very critical. + Bouillon was loud in his demands upon Maurice and the States for money and + reinforcements, but the Prince fortunately understood the character of the + Duke and of Conde, and comprehended the nature of French politics too + clearly to be led into extremities by passion or by pique. He said loudly + to any one that chose to listen: + </p> + <p> + "It is not necessary to ruin the son in order to avenge the death of the + father. That should be left to the son, who alone has legitimate authority + to do it." Nothing could be more sensible, and the remark almost indicated + a belief on the Prince's part in Mary's complicity in the murder of her + husband. Duplessis-Mornay was in despair, and, like all true patriots and + men of earnest character, felt it almost an impossibility to choose + between the two ignoble parties contending for the possession of France, + and both secretly encouraged by France's deadly enemy. + </p> + <p> + The Treaty of Loudun followed, a treaty which, said du Maurier, had about + as many negotiators as there were individuals interested in the + arrangements. The rebels were forgiven, Conde sold himself out for a + million and a half livres and the presidency of the council, came to + court, and paraded himself in greater pomp and appearance of power than + ever. Four months afterwards he was arrested and imprisoned. He submitted + like a lamb, and offered to betray his confederates. + </p> + <p> + King James, faithful to his self-imposed part of mediator-general, which + he thought so well became him, had been busy in bringing about this + pacification, and had considered it eminently successful. He was now angry + at this unexpected result. He admitted that Conde had indulged in certain + follies and extravagancies, but these in his opinion all came out of the + quiver of the Spaniard, "who was the head of the whole intrigue." He + determined to recall Lord Hayes from Madrid and even Sir Thomas Edmonds + from Paris, so great was his indignation. But his wrath was likely to cool + under the soothing communications of Gondemar, and the rumour of the + marriage of the second infanta with the Prince of Wales soon afterwards + started into new life. "We hope," wrote Barneveld, "that the alliance of + his Highness the Prince of Wales with the daughter of the Spanish king + will make no further progress, as it will place us in the deepest + embarrassment and pain." + </p> + <p> + For the reports had been so rife at the English court in regard to this + dangerous scheme that Caron had stoutly gone to the King and asked him + what he was to think about it. "The King told me," said the Ambassador, + "that there was nothing at all in it, nor any appearance that anything + ever would come of it. It was true, he said, that on the overtures made to + him by the Spanish ambassador he had ordered his minister in Spain to + listen to what they had to say, and not to bear himself as if the + overtures would be rejected." + </p> + <p> + The coyness thus affected by James could hardly impose on so astute a + diplomatist as Noel de Caron, and the effect produced upon the policy of + one of the Republic's chief allies by the Spanish marriages naturally made + her statesmen shudder at the prospect of their other powerful friend + coming thus under the malign influence of Spain. + </p> + <p> + "He assured me, however," said the Envoy, "that the Spaniard is not + sincere in the matter, and that he has himself become so far alienated + from the scheme that we may sleep quietly upon it." And James appeared at + that moment so vexed at the turn affairs were taking in France, so wounded + in his self-love, and so bewildered by the ubiquitous nature of nets and + pitfalls spreading over Europe by Spain, that he really seemed waking from + his delusion. Even Caron was staggered? "In all his talk he appears so far + estranged from the Spaniard," said he, "that it would seem impossible that + he should consider this marriage as good for his state. I have also had + other advices on the subject which in the highest degree comfort me. Now + your Mightinesses may think whatever you like about it." + </p> + <p> + The mood of the King was not likely to last long in so comfortable a + state. Meantime he took the part of Conde and the other princes, justified + their proceedings to the special envoy sent over by Mary de' Medici, and + wished the States to join with him in appealing to that Queen to let the + affair, for his sake, pass over once more. + </p> + <p> + "And now I will tell your Mightinesses," said Caron, reverting once more + to the dreaded marriage which occupies so conspicuous a place in the + strangely mingled and party-coloured tissue of the history of those days, + "what the King has again been telling me about the alliance between his + son and the Infanta. He hears from Carleton that you are in very great + alarm lest this event may take place. He understands that the special + French envoy at the Hague, M. de la None, has been representing to you + that the King of Great Britain is following after and begging for the + daughter of Spain for his son. He says it is untrue. But it is true that + he has been sought and solicited thereto, and that in consequence there + have been talks and propositions and rejoinders, but nothing of any + moment. As he had already told me not to be alarmed until he should + himself give me cause for it, he expressed his amazement that I had not + informed your Mightinesses accordingly. He assured me again that he should + not proceed further in the business without communicating it to his good + friends and neighbours, that he considered My Lords the States as his best + friends and allies, who ought therefore to conceive no jealousy in the + matter." + </p> + <p> + This certainly was cold comfort. Caron knew well enough, not a clerk in + his office but knew well enough, that James had been pursuing this prize + for years. For the King to represent himself as persecuted by Spain to + give his son to the Infanta was about as ridiculous as it would have been + to pretend that Emperor Matthias was persuading him to let his son-in-law + accept the crown of Bohemia. It was admitted that negotiations for the + marriage were going on, and the assertion that the Spanish court was more + eager for it than the English government was not especially calculated to + allay the necessary alarm of the States at such a disaster. Nor was it + much more tranquillizing for them to be assured, not that the marriage was + off, but that, when it was settled, they, as the King's good friends and + neighbours, should have early information of it. + </p> + <p> + "I told him," said the Ambassador, "that undoubtedly this matter was of + the highest 'importance to your Mightinesses, for it was not good for us + to sit between two kingdoms both so nearly allied with the Spanish + monarch, considering the pretensions he still maintained to sovereignty + over us. Although his Majesty might not now be willing to treat to our + prejudice, yet the affair itself in the sequence of time must of necessity + injure our commonwealth. We hoped therefore that it would never come to + pass." + </p> + <p> + Caron added that Ambassador Digby was just going to Spain on extraordinary + mission in regard to this affair, and that eight or ten gentlemen of the + council had been deputed to confer with his Majesty about it. He was still + inclined to believe that the whole negotiation would blow over, the King + continuing to exhort him not to be alarmed, and assuring him that there + were many occasions moving princes to treat of great affairs although + often without any effective issue. + </p> + <p> + At that moment too the King was in a state of vehement wrath with the + Spanish Netherlands on account of a stinging libel against himself, "an + infamous and wonderfully scandalous pamphlet," as he termed it, called + 'Corona Regis', recently published at Louvain. He had sent Sir John Bennet + as special ambassador to the Archdukes to demand from them justice and + condign and public chastisement on the author of the work—a rector + Putianus as he believed, successor of Justus Lipsius in his professorship + at Louvain—and upon the printer, one Flaminius. Delays and excuses + having followed instead of the punishment originally demanded, James had + now instructed his special envoy in case of further delay or evasion to + repudiate all further friendship or intercourse with the Archduke, to + ratify the recall of his minister-resident Trumbull, and in effect to + announce formal hostilities. + </p> + <p> + "The King takes the thing wonderfully to heart," said Caron. + </p> + <p> + James in effect hated to be made ridiculous, and we shall have occasion to + see how important a part other publications which he deemed detrimental to + the divinity of his person were to play in these affairs. + </p> + <p> + Meantime it was characteristic of this sovereign that—while ready to + talk of war with Philip's brother-in-law for a pamphlet, while seeking the + hand of Philip's daughter for his son—he was determined at the very + moment when the world was on fire to take himself, the heaven-born + extinguisher of all political conflagrations, away from affairs and to + seek the solace of along holiday in Scotland. His counsellors persistently + and vehemently implored him to defer that journey until the following year + at least, all the neighbouring nations being now in a state of war and + civil commotion. But it was in vain. He refused to listen to them for a + moment, and started for Scotland before the middle of March. + </p> + <p> + Conde, who had kept France in a turmoil, had sought aid alternately from + the Calvinists at Grenoble and the Jesuits in Rome, from Spain and from + the Netherlands, from the Pope and from Maurice of Nassau, had thus been + caged at last. But there was little gained. There was one troublesome but + incompetent rebel the less, but there was no king in the land. He who + doubts the influence of the individual upon the fate of a country and upon + his times through long passages of history may explain the difference + between France of 1609, with a martial king aided by great statesmen at + its head, with an exchequer overflowing with revenue hoarded for a great + cause—and that cause an attempt at least to pacificate Christendom + and avert a universal and almost infinite conflict now already opening—and + the France of 1617, with its treasures already squandered among ignoble + and ruffianly favourites, with every office in state, church, court, and + magistracy sold to the highest bidder, with a queen governed by an Italian + adventurer who was governed by Spain, and with a little king who had but + lately expressed triumph at his confirmation because now he should no + longer be whipped, and who was just married to a daughter of the + hereditary and inevitable foe of France. + </p> + <p> + To contemplate this dreary interlude in the history of a powerful state is + to shiver at the depths of inanity and crime to which mankind can at once + descend. What need to pursue the barren, vulgar, and often repeated + chronicle? France pulled at by scarcely concealed strings and made to + perform fantastic tricks according as its various puppets were swerved + this way or that by supple bands at Madrid and Rome is not a refreshing + spectacle. The States-General at last, after an agitated discussion, + agreed in fulfilment of the treaty of 1609 to send 4000 men, 2000 being + French, to help the King against the princes still in rebellion. But the + contest was a most bitter one, and the Advocate had a difficult part to + play between a government and a rebellion, each more despicable than the + other. Still Louis XIII. and his mother were the legitimate government + even if ruled by Concini. The words of the treaty made with Henry IV. were + plain, and the ambassadors of his son had summoned the States to fulfil + it. But many impediments were placed in the path of obvious duty by the + party led by Francis Aerssens. + </p> + <p> + "I know very well," said the Advocate to ex-Burgomaster Hooft of + Amsterdam, father of the great historian, sending him confidentially a + copy of the proposals made by the French ambassadors, "that many in this + country are striving hard to make us refuse to the King the aid demanded, + notwithstanding that we are bound to do it by the pledges given not only + by the States-General but by each province in particular. By this no one + will profit but the Spaniard, who unquestionably will offer much, aye, + very much, to bring about dissensions between France and us, from which I + foresee great damage, inconvenience, and difficulties for the whole + commonwealth and for Holland especially. This province has already + advanced 1,000,000 florins to the general government on the money still + due from France, which will all be lost in case the subsidy should be + withheld, besides other evils which cannot be trusted to the pen." + </p> + <p> + On the same day on which it had been decided at the Hague to send the + troops, a captain of guards came to the aid of the poor little king and + shot Concini dead one fine spring morning on the bridge of the Louvre. "By + order of the King," said Vitry. His body was burned before the statue of + Henry IV. by the people delirious with joy. "L'hanno ammazzato" was + shouted to his wife, Eleanora Galigai, the supposed sorceress. They were + the words in which Concini had communicated to the Queen the murder of her + husband seven years before. Eleanora, too, was burned after having been + beheaded. Thus the Marshal d'Ancre and wife ceased to reign in France. + </p> + <p> + The officers of the French regiments at the Hague danced for joy on the + Vyverberg when the news arrived there. The States were relieved from an + immense embarrassment, and the Advocate was rewarded for having pursued + what was after all the only practicable policy. "Do your best," said he to + Langerac, "to accommodate differences so far as consistent with the + conservation of the King's authority. We hope the princes will submit + themselves now that the 'lapis offensionis,' according to their pretence, + is got rid of. We received a letter from them to-day sealed with the + King's arms, with the circumscription 'Periclitante Regno, Regis vita et + Regia familia." + </p> + <p> + The shooting of Concini seemed almost to convert the little king into a + hero. Everyone in the Netherlands, without distinction of party, was + delighted with the achievement. "I cannot represent to the King," wrote du + Maurier to Villeroy, "one thousandth part of the joy of all these people + who are exalting him to heaven for having delivered the earth from this + miserable burthen. I can't tell you in what execration this public pest + was held. His Majesty has not less won the hearts of this state than if he + had gained a great victory over the Spaniards. You would not believe it, + and yet it is true, that never were the name and reputation of the late + king in greater reverence than those of our reigning king at this moment." + </p> + <p> + Truly here was glory cheaply earned. The fame of Henry the Great, after a + long career of brilliant deeds of arms, high statesmanship, and twenty + years of bountiful friendship for the States, was already equalled by that + of Louis XIII., who had tremblingly acquiesced in the summary execution of + an odious adventurer—his own possible father—and who never had + done anything else but feed his canary birds. + </p> + <p> + As for Villeroy himself, the Ambassador wrote that he could not find + portraits enough of him to furnish those who were asking for them since + his return to power. + </p> + <p> + Barneveld had been right in so often instructing Langerac to "caress the + old gentleman." + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + + And give advice. Of that, although always a spendthrift + Casual outbursts of eternal friendship + Changed his positions and contradicted himself day by day + Conciliation when war of extermination was intended + Considered it his special mission in the world to mediate + Denoungced as an obstacle to peace + France was mourning Henry and waiting for Richelieu + Hardly a sound Protestant policy anywhere but in Holland + History has not too many really important and emblematic men + I hope and I fear + King who thought it furious madness to resist the enemy + Mockery of negotiation in which nothing could be negotiated + More apprehension of fraud than of force + Opening an abyss between government and people + Successful in this step, he is ready for greater ones + That he tries to lay the fault on us is pure malice + The magnitude of this wonderful sovereign's littleness + This wonderful sovereign's littleness oppresses the imagination + Wise and honest a man, although he be somewhat longsome + Yesterday is the preceptor of To-morrow +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIII. 1617 + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Ferdinand of Gratz crowned King of Bohemia—His Enmity to + Protestants—Slawata and Martinitz thrown from the Windows of the + Hradschin—Real Beginning of the Thirty Years' War—The Elector- + Palatine's Intrigues in Opposition to the House of Austria—He + supports the Duke of Savoy—The Emperor Matthias visits Dresden— + Jubilee for the Hundredth Anniversary of the Reformation. +</pre> + <p> + When the forlorn emperor Rudolph had signed the permission for his brother + Matthias to take the last crown but one from his head, he bit the pen in a + paroxysm of helpless rage. Then rushing to the window of his apartment, he + looked down on one of the most stately prospects that the palaces of the + earth can offer. From the long monotonous architectural lines of the + Hradschin, imposing from its massiveness and its imperial situation, and + with the dome and minarets of the cathedral clustering behind them, the + eye swept across the fertile valley, through which the rapid, yellow + Moldau courses, to the opposite line of cliffs crested with the half + imaginary fortress-palaces of the Wyscherad. There, in the mythical + legendary past of Bohemia had dwelt the shadowy Libuscha, daughter of + Krok, wife of King Premysl, foundress of Prague, who, when wearied of her + lovers, was accustomed to toss them from those heights into the river. + Between these picturesque precipices lay the two Pragues, twin-born and + quarrelsome, fighting each other for centuries, and growing up side by + side into a double, bellicose, stormy, and most splendid city, bristling + with steeples and spires, and united by the ancient many-statued bridge + with its blackened mediaeval entrance towers. + </p> + <p> + But it was not to enjoy the prospect that the aged, discrowned, solitary + emperor, almost as dim a figure among sovereigns as the mystic Libuscha + herself, was gazing from the window upon the imperial city. + </p> + <p> + "Ungrateful Prague," he cried, "through me thou hast become thus + magnificent, and now thou hast turned upon and driven away thy benefactor. + May the vengeance of God descend upon thee; may my curse come upon thee + and upon all Bohemia." + </p> + <p> + History has failed to record the special benefits of the Emperor through + which the city had derived its magnificence and deserved this malediction. + But surely if ever an old man's curse was destined to be literally + fulfilled, it seemed to be this solemn imprecation of Rudolph. Meantime + the coronation of Matthias had gone on with pomp and popular gratulations, + while Rudolph had withdrawn into his apartments to pass the little that + was left to him of life in solitude and in a state of hopeless pique with + Matthias, with the rest of his brethren, with all the world. + </p> + <p> + And now that five years had passed since his death, Matthias, who had + usurped so much power prematurely, found himself almost in the same + condition as that to which he had reduced Rudolph. + </p> + <p> + Ferdinand of Styria, his cousin, trod closely upon his heels. He was the + presumptive successor to all his crowns, had not approved of the movements + of Matthias in the lifetime of his brother, and hated the Vienna + Protestant baker's son, Cardinal Clesel, by whom all those movements had + been directed. Professor Taubmann, of Wittenberg, ponderously quibbling on + the name of that prelate, had said that he was of "one hundred and fifty + ass power." Whether that was a fair measure of his capacity may be + doubted, but it certainly was not destined to be sufficient to elude the + vengeance of Ferdinand, and Ferdinand would soon have him in his power. + </p> + <p> + Matthias, weary of ambitious intrigue, infirm of purpose, and shattered in + health, had withdrawn from affairs to devote himself to his gout and to + his fair young wife, Archduchess Anna of Tyrol, whom at the age of + fifty-four he had espoused. + </p> + <p> + On the 29th June 1617, Ferdinand of Gratz was crowned King of Bohemia. The + event was a shock and a menace to the Protestant cause all over the world. + The sombre figure of the Archduke had for years appeared in the + background, foreshadowing as it were the wrath to come, while throughout + Bohemia and the neighbouring countries of Moravia, Silesia, and the + Austrias, the cause of Protestantism had been making such rapid progress. + The Emperor Maximilian II. had left five stalwart sons, so that there had + seemed little probability that the younger line, the sons of his brother, + would succeed. But all the five were childless, and now the son of + Archduke Charles, who had died in 1590, had become the natural heir after + the death of Matthias to the immense family honours—his cousins + Maximilian and Albert having resigned their claims in his favour. + </p> + <p> + Ferdinand, twelve years old at his father's death, had been placed under + the care of his maternal uncle, Duke William of Bavaria. By him the boy + was placed at the high school of Ingolstadt, to be brought up by the + Jesuits, in company with Duke William's own son Maximilian, five years his + senior. Between these youths, besides the tie of cousinship, there grew up + the most intimate union founded on perfect sympathy in religion and + politics. + </p> + <p> + When Ferdinand entered upon the government of his paternal estates of + Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola, he found that the new religion, at which + the Jesuits had taught him to shudder as at a curse and a crime, had been + widely spreading. His father had fought against heresy with all his might, + and had died disappointed and broken-hearted at its progress. His uncle of + Bavaria, in letters to his son and nephew, had stamped into their minds + with the enthusiasm of perfect conviction that all happiness and blessing + for governments depended on the restoration and maintenance of the unity + of the Catholic faith. All the evils in times past and present resulting + from religious differences had been held up to the two youths by the + Jesuits in the most glaring colours. The first duty of a prince, they had + inculcated, was to extirpate all false religions, to give the opponents of + the true church no quarter, and to think no sacrifice too great by which + the salvation of human society, brought almost to perdition by the new + doctrines, could be effected. + </p> + <p> + Never had Jesuits an apter scholar than Ferdinand. After leaving school, + he made a pilgrimage to Loretto to make his vows to the Virgin Mary of + extirpation of heresy, and went to Rome to obtain the blessing of Pope + Clement VIII. + </p> + <p> + Then, returning to the government of his inheritance, he seized that + terrible two-edged weapon of which the Protestants of Germany had taught + him the use. + </p> + <p> + "Cujus regio ejus religio;" to the prince the choice of religion, to the + subject conformity with the prince, as if that formula of shallow and + selfish princelings, that insult to the dignity of mankind, were the grand + result of a movement which was to go on centuries after they had all been + forgotten in their tombs. For the time however it was a valid and + mischievous maxim. In Saxony Catholics and Calvinists were proscribed; in + Heidelberg Catholics and Lutherans. Why should either Calvinists or + Lutherans be tolerated in Styria? Why, indeed? No logic could be more + inexorable, and the pupil of the Ingolstadt Jesuits hesitated not an + instant to carry out their teaching with the very instrument forged for + him by the Reformation. Gallows were erected in the streets of all his + cities, but there was no hanging. The sight of them proved enough to + extort obedience to his edict, that every man, woman, and child not + belonging to the ancient church should leave his dominions. They were + driven out in hordes in broad daylight from Gratz and other cities. Rather + reign over a wilderness than over heretics was the device of the Archduke, + in imitation of his great relative, Philip II. of Spain. In short space of + time his duchies were as empty of Protestants as the Palatinate of + Lutherans, or Saxony of Calvinists, or both of Papists. Even the + churchyards were rifled of dead Lutherans and Utraquists, their carcasses + thrown where they could no longer pollute the true believers mouldering by + their side. + </p> + <p> + It was not strange that the coronation as King of Bohemia of a man of such + decided purposes—a country numbering ten Protestants to one Catholic—should + cause a thrill and a flutter. Could it be doubted that the great elemental + conflict so steadily prophesied by Barneveld and instinctively dreaded by + all capable of feeling the signs of the time would now begin? It had + begun. Of what avail would be Majesty-Letters and Compromises extorted by + force from trembling or indolent emperors, now that a man who knew his own + mind, and felt it to be a crime not to extirpate all religions but the one + orthodox religion, had mounted the throne? It is true that he had sworn at + his coronation to maintain the laws of Bohemia, and that the + Majesty-Letter and the Compromise were part of the laws. + </p> + <p> + But when were doctors ever wanting to prove the unlawfulness of law which + interferes with the purposes of a despot and the convictions of the bigot? + </p> + <p> + "Novus rex, nova lex," muttered the Catholics, lifting up their heads and + hearts once more out of the oppression and insults which they had + unquestionably suffered at the hands of the triumphant Reformers. "There + are many empty poppy-heads now flaunting high that shall be snipped off," + said others. "That accursed German Count Thurn and his fellows, whom the + devil has sent from hell to Bohemia for his own purposes, shall be + disposed of now," was the general cry. + </p> + <p> + It was plain that heresy could no longer be maintained except by the + sword. That which had been extorted by force would be plucked back by + force. The succession of Ferdinand was in brief a warshout to be echoed by + all the Catholics of Europe. Before the end of the year the Protestant + churches of Brunnau were sealed up. Those at Klostergrab were demolished + in three days by command of the Archbishop of Prague. These dumb walls + preached in their destruction more stirring sermons than perhaps would + ever have been heard within them had they stood. This tearing in pieces of + the Imperial patent granting liberty of Protestant worship, this summary + execution done upon senseless bricks and mortar, was an act of defiance to + the Reformed religion everywhere. Protestantism was struck in the face, + spat upon, defied. + </p> + <p> + The effect was instantaneous. Thurn and the other defenders of the + Protestant faith were as prompt in action as the Catholics had been in + words. A few months passed away. The Emperor was in Vienna, but his ten + stadholders were in Prague. The fateful 23rd of May 1618 arrived. + </p> + <p> + Slawata, a Bohemian Protestant, who had converted himself to the Roman + Church in order to marry a rich widow, and who converted his peasants by + hunting them to mass with his hounds, and Martinitz, the two stadholders + who at Ferdinand's coronation had endeavoured to prevent him from + including the Majesty-Letter among the privileges he was swearing to + support, and who were considered the real authors of the royal letters + revoking all religious rights of Protestants, were the most obnoxious of + all. They were hurled from the council-chamber window of the Hradschin. + The unfortunate secretary Fabricius was tossed out after them. + Twenty-eight ells deep they fell, and all escaped unhurt by the fall; + Fabricius being subsequently ennobled by a grateful emperor with the + well-won title of Baron Summerset. + </p> + <p> + The Thirty Years' War, which in reality had been going on for several + years already, is dated from that day. A provisional government was + established in Prague by the Estates under Protestant guidance, a college + of thirty directors managing affairs. + </p> + <p> + The Window-Tumble, as the event has always been called in history, excited + a sensation in Europe. Especially the young king of France, whose + political position should bring him rather into alliance with the rebels + than the Emperor, was disgusted and appalled. He was used to rebellion. + Since he was ten years old there had been a rebellion against himself + every year. There was rebellion now. But his ministers had never been + thrown out of window. Perhaps one might take some day to tossing out kings + as well. He disapproved the process entirely. + </p> + <p> + Thus the great conflict of Christendom, so long impending, seemed at last + to have broken forth in full fury on a comparatively insignificant + incident. Thus reasoned the superficial public, as if the throwing out of + window of twenty stadholders could have created a general war in Europe + had not the causes of war lain deep and deadly in the whole framework of + society. + </p> + <p> + The succession of Ferdinand to the throne of the holy Wenzel, in which his + election to the German Imperial crown was meant to be involved, was a + matter which concerned almost every household in Christendom. Liberty of + religion, civil franchise, political charters, contract between government + and subject, right to think, speak, or act, these were the human rights + everywhere in peril. A compromise between the two religious parties had + existed for half a dozen years in Germany, a feeble compromise by which + men had hardly been kept from each others' throats. That compromise had + now been thrown to the winds. The vast conspiracy of Spain, Rome, the + House of Austria, against human liberty had found a chief in the docile, + gloomy pupil of the Jesuits now enthroned in Bohemia, and soon perhaps to + wield the sceptre of the Holy Roman Empire. There was no state in Europe + that had not cause to put hand on sword-hilt. "Distrust and good + garrisons," in the prophetic words of Barneveld, would now be the + necessary resource for all intending to hold what had been gained through + long years of toil, martyrdom, and hard fighting. + </p> + <p> + The succession of Ferdinand excited especial dismay and indignation in the + Palatinate. The young elector had looked upon the prize as his own. The + marked advance of Protestant sentiment throughout the kingdom and its + neighbour provinces had seemed to render the succession of an extreme + Papist impossible. When Frederic had sued for and won the hand of the fair + Elizabeth, daughter of the King of Great Britain, it was understood that + the alliance would be more brilliant for her than it seemed. James with + his usual vanity spoke of his son-in-law as a future king. + </p> + <p> + It was a golden dream for the Elector and for the general cause of the + Reformed religion. Heidelberg enthroned in the ancient capital of the + Wenzels, Maximilians, and Rudolphs, the Catechism and Confession enrolled + among the great statutes of the land, this was progress far beyond flimsy + Majesty-Letters and Compromises, made only to be torn to pieces. + </p> + <p> + Through the dim vista of futurity and in ecstatic vision no doubt even the + Imperial crown might seem suspended over the Palatine's head. But this + would be merely a midsummer's dream. Events did not whirl so rapidly as + they might learn to do centuries later, and—the time for a + Protestant to grasp at the crown of Germany could then hardly be imagined + as ripening. + </p> + <p> + But what the Calvinist branch of the House of Wittelsbach had indeed long + been pursuing was to interrupt the succession of the House of Austria to + the German throne. That a Catholic prince must for the immediate future + continue to occupy it was conceded even by Frederic, but the electoral + votes might surely be now so manipulated as to prevent a slave of Spain + and a tool of the Jesuits from wielding any longer the sceptre of + Charlemagne. + </p> + <p> + On the other hand the purpose of the House of Austria was to do away with + the elective principle and the prescriptive rights of the Estates in + Bohemia first, and afterwards perhaps to send the Golden Bull itself to + the limbo of wornout constitutional devices. At present however their + object was to secure their hereditary sovereignty in Prague first, and + then to make sure of the next Imperial election at Frankfurt. Time + afterwards might fight still more in their favour, and fix them in + hereditary possession of the German throne. + </p> + <p> + The Elector-Palatine had lost no time. His counsellors even before the + coronation of Ferdinand at Prague had done their best to excite alarm + throughout Germany at the document by which Archdukes Maximilian and + Albert had resigned all their hereditary claims in favour of Ferdinand and + his male children. Should there be no such issue, the King of Spain + claimed the succession for his own sons as great-grandchildren of Emperor + Maximilian, considering himself nearer in the line than the Styrian + branch, but being willing to waive his own rights in favour of so ardent a + Catholic as Ferdinand. There was even a secret negotiation going on a long + time between the new king of Bohemia and Philip to arrange for the + precedence of the Spanish males over the Styrian females to the hereditary + Austrian states, and to cede the province of Alsace to Spain. + </p> + <p> + It was not wonderful that Protestant Germany should be alarmed. After a + century of Protestantism, that Spain should by any possibility come to be + enthroned again over Germany was enough to raise both Luther and Calvin + from their graves. It was certainly enough to set the lively young + palatine in motion. So soon as the election of Frederic was proclaimed, he + had taken up the business in person. Fond of amusement, young, married to + a beautiful bride of the royal house of England, he had hitherto left + politics to his counsellors. + </p> + <p> + Finding himself frustrated in his ambition by the election of another to + the seat he had fondly deemed his own, he resolved to unseat him if he + could, and, at any rate, to prevent the ulterior consequences of his + elevation. He made a pilgrimage to Sedan, to confer with that + irrepressible intriguer and Huguenot chieftain, the Duc de Bouillon. He + felt sure of the countenance of the States-General, and, of course, of his + near relative the great stadholder. He was resolved to invite the Duke of + Lorraine to head the anti-Austrian party, and to stand for the kingship of + the Romans and the Empire in opposition to Ferdinand. An emissary sent to + Nancy came back with a discouraging reply. The Duke not only flatly + refused the candidacy, but warned the Palatine that if it really came to a + struggle he could reckon on small support anywhere, not even from those + who now seemed warmest for the scheme. Then Frederic resolved to try his + cousin, the great Maximilian of Bavaria, to whom all Catholics looked with + veneration and whom all German Protestants respected. Had the two branches + of the illustrious house of Wittelsbach been combined in one purpose, the + opposition to the House of Austria might indeed have been formidable. But + what were ties of blood compared to the iron bands of religious love and + hatred? How could Maximilian, sternest of Papists, and Frederick V., + flightiest of Calvinists, act harmoniously in an Imperial election? + Moreover, Maximilian was united by ties of youthful and tender friendship + as well as by kindred and perfect religious sympathy to his other cousin, + King Ferdinand himself. The case seemed hopeless, but the Elector went to + Munich, and held conferences with his cousin. Not willing to take No for + an answer so long as it was veiled under evasive or ornamental + phraseology, he continued to negotiate with Maximilian through his envoys + Camerarius and Secretary Neu, who held long debates with the Duke's chief + councillor, Doctor Jocher. Camerarius assured Jocher that his master was + the Hercules to untie the Gordian knot, and the lion of the tribe of + Judah. How either the lion of Judah or Hercules were to untie the knot + which was popularly supposed to have been cut by the sword of Alexander + did not appear, but Maximilian at any rate was moved neither by entreaties + nor tropes. Being entirely averse from entering himself for the German + crown, he grew weary at last of the importunity with which the scheme was + urged. So he wrote a short billet to his councillor, to be shown to + Secretary Neu. + </p> + <p> + "Dear Jocher," he said, "I am convinced one must let these people + understand the matter in a little plainer German. I am once for all + determined not to let myself into any misunderstanding or even + amplifications with the House of Austria in regard to the succession. I + think also that it would rather be harmful than useful to my house to take + upon myself so heavy a burthen as the German crown." + </p> + <p> + This time the German was plain enough and produced its effect. Maximilian + was too able a statesman and too conscientious a friend to wish to + exchange his own proud position as chief of the League, acknowledged head + of the great Catholic party, for the slippery, comfortless, and unmeaning + throne of the Holy Empire, which he considered Ferdinand's right. + </p> + <p> + The chiefs of the anti-Austrian party, especially the Prince of Anhalt and + the Margrave of Anspach, in unison with the Heidelberg cabinet, were + forced to look for another candidate. Accordingly the Margrave and the + Elector-Palatine solemnly agreed that it was indispensable to choose an + emperor who should not be of the House of Austria nor a slave of Spain. It + was, to be sure, not possible to think of a Protestant prince. Bavaria + would not oppose Austria, would also allow too much influence to the + Jesuits. So there remained no one but the Duke of Savoy. He was a prince + of the Empire. He was of German descent, of Saxon race, a great general, + father of his soldiers, who would protect Europe against a Turkish + invasion better than the bastions of Vienna could do. He would be + agreeable to the Catholics, while the Protestants could live under him + without anxiety because the Jesuits would be powerless with him. It would + be a master-stroke if the princes would unite upon him. The King of France + would necessarily be pleased with it, the King of Great Britain delighted. + </p> + <p> + At last the model candidate had been found. The Duke of Savoy having just + finished for a second time his chronic war with Spain, in which the United + Provinces, notwithstanding the heavy drain on their resources, had allowed + him 50,000 florins a month besides the soldiers under Count Ernest of + Nassau, had sent Mansfeld with 4000 men to aid the revolted estates in + Bohemia. Geographically, hereditarily, necessarily the deadly enemy of the + House of Austria, he listened favourably to the overtures made to him by + the princes of the Union, expressed undying hatred for the Imperial race, + and thought the Bohemian revolt a priceless occasion for expelling them + from power. He was informed by the first envoy sent to him, Christopher + van Dohna, that the object of the great movement now contemplated was to + raise him to the Imperial throne at the next election, to assist the + Bohemian estates, to secure the crown of Bohemia for the Elector-Palatine, + to protect the Protestants of Germany, and to break down the overweening + power of the Austrian house. + </p> + <p> + The Duke displayed no eagerness for the crown of Germany, while approving + the election of Frederic, but expressed entire sympathy with the + enterprise. It was indispensable however to form a general federation in + Europe of England, the Netherlands, Venice, together with Protestant + Germany and himself, before undertaking so mighty a task. While the + negotiations were going on, both Anspach and Anhalt were in great spirits. + The Margrave cried out exultingly, "In a short time the means will be in + our hands for turning the world upside down." He urged the Prince of + Anhalt to be expeditious in his decisions and actions. "He who wishes to + trade," he said, "must come to market early." + </p> + <p> + There was some disappointment at Heidelberg when the first news from Turin + arrived, the materials for this vast scheme for an overwhelming and + universal European war not seeming to be at their disposition. By and by + the Duke's plans seem to deepen and broaden. He told Mansfeld, who, + accompanied by Secretary Neu, was glad at a pause in his fighting and + brandschatzing in Bohemia to be employed on diplomatic business, that on + the whole he should require the crown of Bohemia for himself. He also + proposed to accept the Imperial crown, and as for Frederic, he would leave + him the crown of Hungary, and would recommend him to round himself out by + adding to his hereditary dominions the province of Alsace, besides Upper + Austria and other territories in convenient proximity to the Palatinate. + </p> + <p> + Venice, it had been hoped, would aid in the great scheme and might in her + turn round herself out with Friuli and Istria and other tempting + possessions of Ferdinand, in reward for the men and money she was expected + to furnish. That republic had however just concluded a war with Ferdinand, + caused mainly by the depredations of the piratical Uscoques, in which, as + we have seen, she had received the assistance of 4000 Hollanders under + command of Count John of Nassau. The Venetians had achieved many + successes, had taken the city of Gortz, and almost reduced the city of + Gradiska. A certain colonel Albert Waldstein however, of whom more might + one day be heard in the history of the war now begun, had beaten the + Venetians and opened a pathway through their ranks for succour to the + beleaguered city. Soon afterwards peace was made on an undertaking that + the Uscoques should be driven from their haunts, their castles dismantled, + and their ships destroyed. + </p> + <p> + Venice declined an engagement to begin a fresh war. + </p> + <p> + She hated Ferdinand and Matthias and the whole Imperial brood, but, as old + Barbarigo declared in the Senate, the Republic could not afford to set her + house on fire in order to give Austria the inconvenience of the smoke. + </p> + <p> + Meantime, although the Elector-Palatine had magnanimously agreed to use + his influence in Bohemia in favour of Charles Emmanuel, the Duke seems at + last to have declined proposing himself for that throne. He knew, he said, + that King James wished that station for his son-in-law. The Imperial crown + belonged to no one as yet after the death of Matthias, and was open + therefore to his competition. + </p> + <p> + Anhalt demanded of Savoy 15,000 men for the maintenance of the good cause, + asserting that "it would be better to have the Turk or the devil himself + on the German throne than leave it to Ferdinand." + </p> + <p> + The triumvirate ruling at Prague-Thurn, Ruppa, and Hohenlohe—were + anxious for a decision from Frederic. That simple-hearted and ingenuous + young elector had long been troubled both with fears lest after all he + might lose the crown of Bohemia and with qualms of conscience as to the + propriety of taking it even if he could get it. He wrestled much in prayer + and devout meditation whether as anointed prince himself he were justified + in meddling with the anointment of other princes. Ferdinand had been + accepted, proclaimed, crowned. He artlessly sent to Prague to consult the + Estates whether they possessed the right to rebel, to set aside the + reigning dynasty, and to choose a new king. At the same time, with an eye + to business, he stipulated that on account of the great expense and + trouble devolving upon him the crown must be made hereditary in his + family. The impression made upon the grim Thurn and his colleagues by the + simplicity of these questions may be imagined. The splendour and width of + the Savoyard's conceptions fascinated the leaders of the Union. It seemed + to Anspach and Anhalt that it was as well that Frederic should reign in + Hungary as in Bohemia, and the Elector was docile. All had relied however + on the powerful assistance of the great defender of the Protestant faith, + the father-in-law of the Elector, the King of Great Britain. But James had + nothing but cold water and Virgilian quotations for his son's ardour. He + was more under the influence of Gondemar than ever before, more eagerly + hankering for the Infanta, more completely the slave of Spain. He pledged + himself to that government that if the Protestants in Bohemia continued + rebellious, he would do his best to frustrate their designs, and would + induce his son-in-law to have no further connection with them. And Spain + delighted his heart not by immediately sending over the Infanta, but by + proposing that he should mediate between the contending parties. It would + be difficult to imagine a greater farce. All central Europe was now in + arms. The deepest and gravest questions about which men can fight: the + right to worship God according to their conscience and to maintain civil + franchises which have been earned by the people with the blood and + treasure of centuries, were now to be solved by the sword, and the pupil + of Buchanan and the friend of Buckingham was to step between hundreds of + thousands of men in arms with a classical oration. But James was very + proud of the proposal and accepted it with alacrity. + </p> + <p> + "You know, my dear son," he wrote to Frederic, "that we are the only king + in Europe that is sought for by friend and foe for his mediation. It would + be for this our lofty part very unbecoming if we were capable of favouring + one of the parties. Your suggestion that we might secretly support the + Bohemians we must totally reject, as it is not our way to do anything that + we would not willingly confess to the whole world." + </p> + <p> + And to do James justice, he had never fed Frederic with false hopes, never + given a penny for his great enterprise, nor promised him a penny. He had + contented himself with suggesting from time to time that he might borrow + money of the States-General. His daughter Elizabeth must take care of + herself, else what would become of her brother's marriage to the daughter + of Spain. + </p> + <p> + And now it was war to the knife, in which it was impossible that Holland, + as well as all the other great powers should not soon be involved. It was + disheartening to the cause of freedom and progress, not only that the + great kingdom on which the world, had learned to rely in all movements + upward and onward should be neutralized by the sycophancy of its monarch + to the general oppressor, but that the great republic which so long had + taken the lead in maintaining the liberties of Europe should now be torn + by religious discord within itself, and be turning against the great + statesman who had so wisely guided her councils and so accurately foretold + the catastrophe which was now upon the world. + </p> + <p> + Meantime the Emperor Matthias, not less forlorn than through his intrigues + and rebellions his brother Rudolph had been made, passed his days in + almost as utter retirement as if he had formally abdicated. Ferdinand + treated him as if in his dotage. His fair young wife too had died of hard + eating in the beginning of the winter to his inexpressible grief, so that + there was nothing left to solace him now but the Rudolphian Museum. + </p> + <p> + He had made but one public appearance since the coronation of Ferdinand in + Prague. Attended by his brother Maximilian, by King Ferdinand, and by + Cardinal Khlesl, he had towards the end of the year 1617 paid a visit to + the Elector John George at Dresden. The Imperial party had been received + with much enthusiasm by the great leader of Lutheranism. The Cardinal had + seriously objected to accompanying the Emperor on this occasion. Since the + Reformation no cardinal had been seen at the court of Saxony. He cared not + personally for the pomps and glories of his rank, but still as prince of + the Church he had settled right of precedence over electors. To waive it + would be disrespectful to the Pope, to claim it would lead to squabbles. + But Ferdinand had need of his skill to secure the vote of Saxony at the + next Imperial election. The Cardinal was afraid of Ferdinand with good + reason, and complied. By an agreeable fiction he was received at court not + as cardinal but as minister, and accommodated with an humble place at + table. Many looking on with astonishment thought he would have preferred + to dine by himself in retirement. But this was not the bitterest of the + mortifications that the pastor and guide of Matthias was to suffer at the + hands of Ferdinand before his career should be closed. The visit at + Dresden was successful, however. John George, being a claimant, as we have + seen, for the Duchies of Cleve and Julich, had need of the Emperor. The + King had need of John George's vote. There was a series of splendid balls, + hunting parties, carousings. + </p> + <p> + The Emperor was an invalid, the King was abstemious, but the Elector was a + mighty drinker. It was not his custom nor that of his councillors to go to + bed. They were usually carried there. But it was the wish of Ferdinand to + be conciliatory, and he bore himself as well as he could at the banquet. + The Elector was also a mighty hunter. Neither of his Imperial guests cared + for field sports, but they looked out contentedly from the window of a + hunting-lodge, before which for their entertainment the Elector and his + courtiers slaughtered eight bears, ten stags, ten pigs, and eleven + badgers, besides a goodly number of other game; John George shooting also + three martens from a pole erected for that purpose in the courtyard. It + seemed proper for him thus to exhibit a specimen of the skill for which he + was justly famed. The Elector before his life closed, so says the + chronicle, had killed 28,000 wild boars, 208 bears, 3543 wolves, 200 + badgers, 18,967 foxes, besides stags and roedeer in still greater number, + making a grand total of 113,629 beasts. The leader of the Lutheran party + of Germany had not lived in vain. + </p> + <p> + Thus the great chiefs of Catholicism and of Protestantism amicably + disported themselves in the last days of the year, while their respective + forces were marshalling for mortal combat all over Christendom. The + Elector certainly loved neither Matthias nor Ferdinand, but he hated the + Palatine. The chief of the German Calvinists disputed that Protestant + hegemony which John George claimed by right. Indeed the immense advantage + enjoyed by the Catholics at the outbreak of the religious war from the + mutual animosities between the two great divisions of the Reformed Church + was already terribly manifest. What an additional power would it derive + from the increased weakness of the foe, should there be still other and + deeper and more deadly schisms within one great division itself! + </p> + <p> + "The Calvinists and Lutherans," cried the Jesuit Scioppius, "are so + furiously attacking each other with calumnies and cursings and are + persecuting each other to such extent as to give good hope that the + devilish weight and burthen of them will go to perdition and shame of + itself, and the heretics all do bloody execution upon each other. + Certainly if ever a golden time existed for exterminating the heretics, it + is the present time." + </p> + <p> + The Imperial party took their leave of Dresden, believing themselves to + have secured the electoral vote of Saxony; the Elector hoping for + protection to his interests in the duchies through that sequestration to + which Barneveld had opposed such vigorous resistance. There had been much + slavish cringing before these Catholic potentates by the courtiers of + Dresden, somewhat amazing to the ruder churls of Saxony, the common + people, who really believed in the religion which their prince had + selected for them and himself. + </p> + <p> + And to complete the glaring contrast, Ferdinand and Matthias had scarcely + turned their backs before tremendous fulminations upon the ancient church + came from the Elector and from all the doctors of theology in Saxony. + </p> + <p> + For the jubilee of the hundredth anniversary of the Reformation was + celebrated all over Germany in the autumn of this very year, and nearly at + the exact moment of all this dancing, and fuddling, and pig shooting at + Dresden in honour of emperors and cardinals. And Pope Paul V. had likewise + ordained a jubilee for true believers at almost the same time. + </p> + <p> + The Elector did not mince matters in his proclamation from any regard to + the feelings of his late guests. He called on all Protestants to rejoice, + "because the light of the Holy Gospel had now shone brightly in the + electoral dominions for a hundred years, the Omnipotent keeping it burning + notwithstanding the raging and roaring of the hellish enemy and all his + scaly servants." + </p> + <p> + The doctors of divinity were still more emphatic in their phraseology. + They called on all professors and teachers of the true Evangelical + churches, not only in Germany but throughout Christendom, to keep the + great jubilee. They did this in terms not calculated certainly to smother + the flames of religious and party hatred, even if it had been possible at + that moment to suppress the fire. "The great God of Heaven," they said, + "had caused the undertaking of His holy instrument Mr. Doctor Martin + Luther to prosper. Through His unspeakable mercy he has driven away the + Papal darkness and caused the sun of righteousness once more to beam upon + the world. The old idolatries, blasphemies, errors, and horrors of the + benighted Popedom have been exterminated in many kingdoms and countries. + Innumerable sheep of the Lord Christ have been fed on the wholesome + pasture of the Divine Word in spite of those monstrous, tearing, ravenous + wolves, the Pope and his followers. The enemy of God and man, the ancient + serpent, may hiss and rage. Yes, the Roman antichrist in his frantic + blusterings may bite off his own tongue, may fulminate all kinds of evils, + bans, excommunications, wars, desolations, and burnings, as long and as + much as he likes. But if we take refuge with the Lord God, what can this + inane, worn-out man and water-bubble do to us?" With more in the same + taste. + </p> + <p> + The Pope's bull for the Catholic jubilee was far more decorous and lofty + in tone, for it bewailed the general sin in Christendom, and called on all + believers to flee from the wrath about to descend upon the earth, in terms + that were almost prophetic. He ordered all to pray that the Lord might + lift up His Church, protect it from the wiles of the enemy, extirpate + heresies, grant peace and true unity among Christian princes, and + mercifully avert disasters already coming near. + </p> + <p> + But if the language of Paul V. was measured and decent, the swarm of + Jesuit pamphleteers that forthwith began to buzz and to sting all over + Christendom were sufficiently venomous. Scioppius, in his Alarm Trumpet to + the Holy War, and a hundred others declared that all heresies and heretics + were now to be extirpated, the one true church to be united and + re-established, and that the only road to such a consummation was a path + of blood. + </p> + <p> + The Lutheran preachers, on the other hand, obedient to the summons from + Dresden, vied with each other in every town and village in heaping + denunciations, foul names, and odious imputations on the Catholics; while + the Calvinists, not to be behindhand with their fellow Reformers, + celebrated the jubilee, especially at Heidelberg, by excluding Papists + from hope of salvation, and bewailing the fate of all churches sighing + under the yoke of Rome. + </p> + <p> + And not only were the Papists and the Reformers exchanging these blasts + and counterblasts of hatred, not less deadly in their effects than the + artillery of many armies, but as if to make a thorough exhibition of human + fatuity when drunk with religious passion, the Lutherans were making + fierce paper and pulpit war upon the Calvinists. Especially Hoe, court + preacher of John George, ceaselessly hurled savage libels against them. In + the name of the theological faculty of Wittenberg, he addressed a + "truehearted warning to all Lutheran Christians in Bohemia, Moravia, + Silesia, and other provinces, to beware of the erroneous Calvinistic + religion." He wrote a letter to Count Schlick, foremost leader in the + Bohemian movement, asking whether "the unquiet Calvinist spirit, should it + gain ascendency, would be any more endurable than the Papists. Oh what + woe, what infinite woe," he cried, "for those noble countries if they + should all be thrust into the jaws of Calvinism!" + </p> + <p> + Did not preacher Hoe's master aspire to the crown of Bohemia himself? Was + he not furious at the start which Heidelberg had got of him in the race + for that golden prize? Was he not mad with jealousy of the Palatine, of + the Palatine's religion, and of the Palatine's claim to "hegemony" in + Germany? + </p> + <p> + Thus embittered and bloodthirsty towards each other were the two great + sections of the Reformed religion on the first centennial jubilee of the + Reformation. Such was the divided front which the anti-Catholic party + presented at the outbreak of the war with Catholicism. + </p> + <p> + Ferdinand, on the other hand, was at the head of a comparatively united + party. He could hardly hope for more than benevolent neutrality from the + French government, which, in spite of the Spanish marriages, dared not + wholly desert the Netherlands and throw itself into the hands of Spain; + but Spanish diplomacy had enslaved the British king, and converted what + should have been an active and most powerful enemy into an efficient if + concealed ally. The Spanish and archiducal armies were enveloping the + Dutch republic, from whence the most powerful support could be expected + for the Protestant cause. Had it not been for the steadiness of Barneveld, + Spain would have been at that moment established in full panoply over the + whole surface of those inestimable positions, the disputed duchies. Venice + was lukewarm, if not frigid; and Savoy, although deeply pledged by passion + and interest to the downfall of the House of Austria, was too dangerously + situated herself, too distant, too poor, and too Catholic to be very + formidable. + </p> + <p> + Ferdinand was safe from the Turkish side. A twenty years' peace, renewable + by agreement, between the Holy Empire and the Sultan had been negotiated + by those two sons of bakers, Cardinal Khlesl and the Vizier + Etmekdschifade. It was destined to endure through all the horrors of the + great war, a stronger protection to Vienna than all the fortifications + which the engineering art could invent. He was safe too from Poland, King + Sigmund being not only a devoted Catholic but doubly his brother-in-law. + </p> + <p> + Spain, therefore, the Spanish Netherlands, the Pope, and the German League + headed by Maximilian of Bavaria, the ablest prince on the continent of + Europe, presented a square, magnificent phalanx on which Ferdinand might + rely. The States-General, on the other hand, were a most dangerous foe. + With a centennial hatred of Spain, splendidly disciplined armies and + foremost navy of the world, with an admirable financial system and vast + commercial resources, with a great stadholder, first captain of the age, + thirsting for war, and allied in blood as well as religion to the + standard-bearer of the Bohemian revolt; with councils directed by the + wisest and most experienced of living statesman, and with the very life + blood of her being derived from the fountain of civil and religious + liberty, the great Republic of the United Netherlands—her Truce with + the hereditary foe just expiring was, if indeed united, strong enough at + the head of the Protestant forces of Europe to dictate to a world in arms. + </p> + <p> + Alas! was it united? + </p> + <p> + As regarded internal affairs of most pressing interest, the electoral vote + at the next election at Frankfurt had been calculated as being likely to + yield a majority of one for the opposition candidate, should the Savoyard + or any other opposition candidate be found. But the calculation was a + close one and might easily be fallacious. Supposing the Palatine elected + King of Bohemia by the rebellious estates, as was probable, he could of + course give the vote of that electorate and his own against Ferdinand, and + the vote of Brandenburg at that time seemed safe. But Ferdinand by his + visit to Dresden had secured the vote of Saxony, while of the three + ecclesiastical electors, Cologne and Mayence were sure for him. Thus it + would be three and three, and the seventh and decisive vote would be that + of the Elector-Bishop of Treves. The sanguine Frederic thought that with + French influence and a round sum of money this ecclesiastic might be got + to vote for the opposition candidate. The ingenious combination was not + destined to be successful, and as there has been no intention in the + present volume to do more than slightly indicate the most prominent + movements and mainsprings of the great struggle so far as Germany is + concerned, without entering into detail, it may be as well to remind the + reader that it proved wonderfully wrong. Matthias died on the 20th March, + 1619, the election of a new emperor took place at Frankfurt On the 28th of + the following August, and not only did Saxony and all three ecclesiastical + electors vote for Ferdinand, but Brandenburg likewise, as well as the + Elector-Palatine himself, while Ferdinand, personally present in the + assembly as Elector of Bohemia, might according to the Golden Bull have + given the seventh vote for himself had he chosen to do so. Thus the + election was unanimous. + </p> + <p> + Strange to say, as the electors proceeded through the crowd from the hall + of election to accompany the new emperor to the church where he was to + receive the popular acclaim, the news reached them from Prague that the + Elector-Palatine had been elected King of Bohemia. + </p> + <p> + Thus Frederic, by voting for Ferdinand, had made himself voluntarily a + rebel should he accept the crown now offered him. Had the news arrived + sooner, a different result and even a different history might have been + possible. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIV. + </h2> + <p> + Barneveld connected with the East India Company, but opposed to the West + India Company—Carleton comes from Venice inimical to Barneveld—Maurice + openly the Chieftain of the Contra-Remonstrants—Tumults about the + Churches—"Orange or Spain" the Cry of Prince Maurice and his Party—They + take possession of the Cloister Church—"The Sharp Resolve"—Carleton's + Orations before the States-General. + </p> + <p> + King James never forgave Barneveld for drawing from him those famous + letters to the States in which he was made to approve the Five Points and + to admit the possibility of salvation under them. These epistles had + brought much ridicule upon James, who was not amused by finding his + theological discussions a laughing-stock. He was still more incensed by + the biting criticisms made upon the cheap surrender of the cautionary + towns, and he hated more than ever the statesman who, as he believed, had + twice outwitted him. + </p> + <p> + On the other hand, Maurice, inspired by his brother-in-law the Duke of + Bouillon and by the infuriated Francis Aerssens, abhorred Barneveld's + French policy, which was freely denounced by the French Calvinists and by + the whole orthodox church. In Holland he was still warmly sustained except + in the Contra-Remonstrant Amsterdam and a few other cities of less + importance. But there were perhaps deeper reasons for the Advocate's + unpopularity in the great commercial metropolis than theological pretexts. + Barneveld's name and interests were identified with the great East India + Company, which was now powerful and prosperous beyond anything ever dreamt + of before in the annals of commerce. That trading company had already + founded an empire in the East. Fifty ships of war, fortresses guarded by + 4000 pieces of artillery and 10,000 soldiers and sailors, obeyed the + orders of a dozen private gentlemen at home seated in a back parlour + around a green table. The profits of each trading voyage were enormous, + and the shareholders were growing rich beyond their wildest imaginings. To + no individual so much as to Holland's Advocate was this unexampled success + to be ascribed. The vast prosperity of the East India Company had inspired + others with the ambition to found a similar enterprise in the West. But to + the West India Company then projected and especially favoured in + Amsterdam, Barneveld was firmly opposed. He considered it as bound up with + the spirit of military adventure and conquest, and as likely to bring on + prematurely and unwisely a renewed conflict with Spain. The same reasons + which had caused him to urge the Truce now influenced his position in + regard to the West India Company. + </p> + <p> + Thus the clouds were gathering every day more darkly over the head of the + Advocate. The powerful mercantile interest in the great seat of traffic in + the Republic, the personal animosity of the Stadholder, the execrations of + the orthodox party in France, England, and all the Netherlands, the anger + of the French princes and all those of the old Huguenot party who had been + foolish enough to act with the princes in their purely selfish schemes + against the government, and the overflowing hatred of King James, whose + darling schemes of Spanish marriages and a Spanish alliance had been + foiled by the Advocate's masterly policy in France and in the duchies, and + whose resentment at having been so completely worsted and disarmed in the + predestination matter and in the redemption of the great mortgage had + deepened into as terrible wrath as outraged bigotry and vanity could + engender; all these elements made up a stormy atmosphere in which the + strongest heart might have quailed. But Barneveld did not quail. Doubtless + he loved power, and the more danger he found on every side the less + inclined he was to succumb. But he honestly believed that the safety and + prosperity of the country he had so long and faithfully served were + identified with the policy which he was pursuing. Arrogant, overbearing, + self-concentrated, accustomed to lead senates and to guide the councils + and share the secrets of kings, familiar with and almost an actor in every + event in the political history not only of his own country but of every + important state in Christendom during nearly two generations of mankind, + of unmatched industry, full of years and experience, yet feeling within + him the youthful strength of a thousand intellects compared to most of + those by which he was calumniated, confronted, and harassed; he accepted + the great fight which was forced upon him. Irascible, courageous, austere, + contemptuous, he looked around and saw the Republic whose cradle he had + rocked grown to be one of the most powerful and prosperous among the + states of the world, and could with difficulty imagine that in this + supreme hour of her strength and her felicity she was ready to turn and + rend the man whom she was bound by every tie of duty to cherish and to + revere. + </p> + <p> + Sir Dudley Carleton, the new English ambassador to the States, had arrived + during the past year red-hot from Venice. There he had perhaps not learned + especially to love the new republic which had arisen among the northern + lagunes, and whose admission among the nations had been at last accorded + by the proud Queen of the Adriatic, notwithstanding the objections and the + intrigues both of French and English representatives. He had come charged + to the brim with the political spite of James against the Advocate, and + provided too with more than seven vials of theological wrath. Such was the + King's revenge for Barneveld's recent successes. The supporters in the + Netherlands of the civil authority over the Church were moreover to be + instructed by the political head of the English Church that such + supremacy, although highly proper for a king, was "thoroughly unsuitable + for a many-headed republic." So much for church government. As for + doctrine, Arminianism and Vorstianism were to be blasted with one + thunderstroke from the British throne. + </p> + <p> + "In Holland," said James to his envoy, "there have been violent and sharp + contestations amongst the towns in the cause of religion . . . . . If they + shall be unhappily revived during your time, you shall not forget that you + are the minister of that master whom God hath made the sole protector of + His religion." + </p> + <p> + There was to be no misunderstanding in future as to the dogmas which the + royal pope of Great Britain meant to prescribe to his Netherland subjects. + Three years before, at the dictation of the Advocate, he had informed the + States that he was convinced of their ability to settle the deplorable + dissensions as to religion according to their wisdom and the power which + belonged to them over churches and church servants. He had informed them + of his having learned by experience that such questions could hardly be + decided by the wranglings of theological professors, and that it was + better to settle them by public authority and to forbid their being + brought into the pulpit or among common people. He had recommended mutual + toleration of religious difference until otherwise ordained by the public + civil authority, and had declared that neither of the two opinions in + regard to predestination was in his opinion far from the truth or + inconsistent with Christian faith or the salvation of souls. + </p> + <p> + It was no wonder that these utterances were quite after the Advocate's + heart, as James had faithfully copied them from the Advocate's draft. + </p> + <p> + But now in the exercise of his infallibility the King issued other + decrees. His minister was instructed to support the extreme views of the + orthodox both as to government and dogma, and to urge the National Synod, + as it were, at push of pike. "Besides the assistance," said he to + Carleton, "which we would have you give to the true professors of the + Gospel in your discourse and conferences, you may let fall how hateful the + maintenance of these erroneous opinions is to the majesty of God, how + displeasing unto us their dearest friends, and how disgraceful to the + honour and government of that state." + </p> + <p> + And faithfully did the Ambassador act up to his instructions. Most + sympathetically did he embody the hatred of the King. An able, + experienced, highly accomplished diplomatist and scholar, ready with + tongue and pen, caustic, censorious, prejudiced, and partial, he was soon + foremost among the foes of the Advocate in the little court of the Hague, + and prepared at any moment to flourish the political and theological goad + when his master gave the word. + </p> + <p> + Nothing in diplomatic history is more eccentric than the long sermons upon + abstruse points of divinity and ecclesiastical history which the English + ambassador delivered from time to time before the States-General in + accordance with elaborate instructions drawn up by his sovereign with his + own hand. Rarely has a king been more tedious, and he bestowed all his + tediousness upon My Lords the States-General. Nothing could be more dismal + than these discourses, except perhaps the contemporaneous and interminable + orations of Grotius to the states of Holland, to the magistrates of + Amsterdam, to the states of Utrecht; yet Carleton was a man of the world, + a good debater, a ready writer, while Hugo Grotius was one of the great + lights of that age and which shone for all time. + </p> + <p> + Among the diplomatic controversies of history, rarely refreshing at best, + few have been more drouthy than those once famous disquisitions, and they + shall be left to shrivel into the nothingness of the past, so far as is + consistent with the absolute necessities of this narrative. + </p> + <p> + The contest to which the Advocate was called had become mainly a personal + and a political one, although the weapons with which it was fought were + taken from ecclesiastical arsenals. It was now an unequal contest. + </p> + <p> + For the great captain of the country and of his time, the son of William + the Silent, the martial stadholder, in the fulness of his fame and vigour + of his years, had now openly taken his place as the chieftain of the + Contra-Remonstrants. The conflict between the civil and the military + element for supremacy in a free commonwealth has never been more vividly + typified than in this death-grapple between Maurice and Barneveld. + </p> + <p> + The aged but still vigorous statesman, ripe with half a century of + political lore, and the high-born, brilliant, and scientific soldier, with + the laurels of Turnhout and Nieuwpoort and of a hundred famous sieges upon + his helmet, reformer of military science, and no mean proficient in the + art of politics and government, were the representatives and leaders of + the two great parties into which the Commonwealth had now unhappily + divided itself. But all history shows that the brilliant soldier of a + republic is apt to have the advantage, in a struggle for popular affection + and popular applause, over the statesman, however consummate. The general + imagination is more excited by the triumphs of the field than by those of + the tribune, and the man who has passed many years of life in commanding + multitudes with necessarily despotic sway is often supposed to have gained + in the process the attributes likely to render him most valuable as chief + citizen of a flee commonwealth. Yet national enthusiasm is so universally + excited by splendid military service as to forbid a doubt that the + sentiment is rooted deeply in our nature, while both in antiquity and in + modern times there are noble although rare examples of the successful + soldier converting himself into a valuable and exemplary magistrate. + </p> + <p> + In the rivalry of Maurice and Barneveld however for the national affection + the chances were singularly against the Advocate. The great battles and + sieges of the Prince had been on a world's theatre, had enchained the + attention of Christendom, and on their issue had frequently depended, or + seemed to depend, the very existence of the nation. The labours of the + statesman, on the contrary, had been comparatively secret. His noble + orations and arguments had been spoken with closed doors to assemblies of + colleagues—rather envoys than senators—were never printed or + even reported, and could be judged of only by their effects; while his + vast labours in directing both the internal administration and especially + the foreign affairs of the Commonwealth had been by their very nature as + secret as they were perpetual and enormous. + </p> + <p> + Moreover, there was little of what we now understand as the democratic + sentiment in the Netherlands. There was deep and sturdy attachment to + ancient traditions, privileges, special constitutions extorted from a + power acknowledged to be superior to the people. When partly to save those + chartered rights, and partly to overthrow the horrible ecclesiastical + tyranny of the sixteenth century, the people had accomplished a successful + revolt, they never dreamt of popular sovereignty, but allowed the + municipal corporations, by which their local affairs had been for + centuries transacted, to unite in offering to foreign princes, one after + another, the crown which they had torn from the head of the Spanish king. + When none was found to accept the dangerous honour, they had acquiesced in + the practical sovereignty of the States; but whether the States-General or + the States-Provincial were the supreme authority had certainly not been + definitely and categorically settled. So long as the States of Holland, + led by the Advocate, had controlled in great matters the political action + of the States-General, while the Stadholder stood without a rival at the + head of their military affairs, and so long as there were no fierce + disputes as to government and dogma within the bosom of the Reformed + Church, the questions which were now inflaming the whole population had + been allowed to slumber. + </p> + <p> + The termination of the war and the rise of Arminianism were almost + contemporaneous. The Stadholder, who so unwillingly had seen the + occupation in which he had won so much glory taken from him by the Truce, + might perhaps find less congenial but sufficiently engrossing business as + champion of the Church and of the Union. + </p> + <p> + The new church—not freedom of worship for different denominations of + Christians, but supremacy of the Church of Heidelberg and Geneva—seemed + likely to be the result of the overthrow of the ancient church. It is the + essence of the Catholic Church to claim supremacy over and immunity from + the civil authority, and to this claim for the Reformed Church, by which + that of Rome had been supplanted, Barneveld was strenuously opposed. + </p> + <p> + The Stadholder was backed, therefore, by the Church in its purity, by the + majority of the humbler classes—who found in membership of the + oligarchy of Heaven a substitute for those democratic aspirations on earth + which were effectually suppressed between the two millstones of burgher + aristocracy and military discipline—and by the States-General, a + majority of which were Contra-Remonstrant in their faith. + </p> + <p> + If the sword is usually an overmatch for the long robe in political + struggles, the cassock has often proved superior to both combined. But in + the case now occupying our attention the cassock was in alliance with the + sword. Clearly the contest was becoming a desperate one for the statesman. + </p> + <p> + And while the controversy between the chiefs waged hotter and hotter, the + tumults around the churches on Sundays in every town and village grew more + and more furious, ending generally in open fights with knives, bludgeons, + and brickbats; preachers and magistrates being often too glad to escape + with a whole skin. One can hardly be ingenuous enough to consider all this + dirking, battering, and fisticuffing as the legitimate and healthy outcome + of a difference as to the knotty point whether all men might or might not + be saved by repentance and faith in Christ. + </p> + <p> + The Greens and Blues of the Byzantine circus had not been more typical of + fierce party warfare in the Lower Empire than the greens and blues of + predestination in the rising commonwealth, according to the real or + imagined epigram of Prince Maurice. + </p> + <p> + "Your divisions in religion," wrote Secretary Lake to Carleton, "have, I + doubt not, a deeper root than is discerned by every one, and I doubt not + that the Prince Maurice's carriage doth make a jealousy of affecting a + party under the pretence of supporting one side, and that the States fear + his ends and aims, knowing his power with the men of war; and that + howsoever all be shadowed under the name of religion there is on either + part a civil end, of the one seeking a step of higher authority, of the + other a preservation of liberty." + </p> + <p> + And in addition to other advantages the Contra-Remonstrants had now got a + good cry—an inestimable privilege in party contests. + </p> + <p> + "There are two factions in the land," said Maurice, "that of Orange and + that of Spain, and the two chiefs of the Spanish faction are those + political and priestly Arminians, Uytenbogaert and Oldenbarneveld." + </p> + <p> + Orange and Spain! the one name associated with all that was most venerated + and beloved throughout the country, for William the Silent since his death + was almost a god; the other ineradicably entwined at that moment with, + everything execrated throughout the land. The Prince of Orange's claim to + be head of the Orange faction could hardly be disputed, but it was a + master stroke of political malice to fix the stigma of Spanish + partisanship on the Advocate. If the venerable patriot who had been + fighting Spain, sometimes on the battle-field and always in the council, + ever since he came to man's estate, could be imagined even in a dream + capable of being bought with Spanish gold to betray his country, who in + the ranks of the Remonstrant party could be safe from such accusations? + Each party accused the other of designs for altering or subverting the + government. Maurice was suspected of what were called Leicestrian + projects, "Leycestrana consilia"—for the Earl's plots to gain + possession of Leyden and Utrecht had never been forgotten—while the + Prince and those who acted with him asserted distinctly that it was the + purpose of Barneveld to pave the way for restoring the Spanish sovereignty + and the Popish religion so soon as the Truce had reached its end? + </p> + <p> + Spain and Orange. Nothing for a faction fight could be neater. Moreover + the two words rhyme in Netherlandish, which is the case in no other + language, "Spanje-Oranje." The sword was drawn and the banner unfurled. + </p> + <p> + The "Mud Beggars" of the Hague, tired of tramping to Ryswyk of a Sunday to + listen to Henry Rosaeus, determined on a private conventicle in the + capital. The first barn selected was sealed up by the authorities, but + Epoch Much, book-keeper of Prince Maurice, then lent them his house. The + Prince declared that sooner than they should want a place of assembling he + would give them his own. But he meant that they should have a public + church to themselves, and that very soon. King James thoroughly approved + of all these proceedings. At that very instant such of his own subjects as + had seceded from the Established Church to hold conventicles in barns and + breweries and backshops in London were hunted by him with bishops' + pursuivants and other beagles like vilest criminals, thrown into prison to + rot, or suffered to escape from their Fatherland into the trans-Atlantic + wilderness, there to battle with wild beasts and savages, and to die + without knowing themselves the fathers of a more powerful United States + than the Dutch Republic, where they were fain to seek in passing a + temporary shelter. He none the less instructed his envoy at the Hague to + preach the selfsame doctrines for which the New England Puritans were + persecuted, and importunately and dictatorially to plead the cause of + those Hollanders who, like Bradford and Robinson, Winthrop and Cotton, + maintained the independence of the Church over the State. + </p> + <p> + Logic is rarely the quality on which kings pride themselves, and + Puritanism in the Netherlands, although under temporary disadvantage at + the Hague, was evidently the party destined to triumph throughout the + country. James could safely sympathize therefore in Holland with what he + most loathed in England, and could at the same time feed fat the grudge he + owed the Advocate. The calculations of Barneveld as to the respective + political forces of the Commonwealth seem to have been to a certain extent + defective. + </p> + <p> + He allowed probably too much weight to the Catholic party as a motive + power at that moment, and he was anxious both from that consideration and + from his honest natural instinct for general toleration; his own broad and + unbigoted views in religious matters, not to force that party into a + rebellious attitude dangerous to the state. We have seen how nearly a + mutiny in the important city of Utrecht, set on foot by certain Romanist + conspirators in the years immediately succeeding the Truce, had subverted + the government, had excited much anxiety amongst the firmest allies of the + Republic, and had been suppressed only by the decision of the Advocate and + a show of military force. + </p> + <p> + He had informed Carleton not long after his arrival that in the United + Provinces, and in Holland in particular, were many sects and religions of + which, according to his expression, "the healthiest and the richest part + were the Papists, while the Protestants did not make up one-third part of + the inhabitants." + </p> + <p> + Certainly, if these statistics were correct or nearly correct, there could + be nothing more stupid from a purely political point of view than to + exasperate so influential a portion of the community to madness and + rebellion by refusing them all rights of public worship. Yet because the + Advocate had uniformly recommended indulgence, he had incurred more odium + at home than from any other cause. Of course he was a Papist in disguise, + ready to sell his country to Spain, because he was willing that more than + half the population of the country should be allowed to worship God + according to their conscience. Surely it would be wrong to judge the + condition of things at that epoch by the lights of to-day, and perhaps in + the Netherlands there had before been no conspicuous personage, save + William the Silent alone, who had risen to the height of toleration on + which the Advocate essayed to stand. Other leading politicians considered + that the national liberties could be preserved only by retaining the + Catholics in complete subjection. + </p> + <p> + At any rate the Advocate was profoundly convinced of the necessity of + maintaining harmony and mutual toleration among the Protestants + themselves, who, as he said, made up but one-third of the whole people. In + conversing with the English ambassador he divided them into "Puritans and + double Puritans," as they would be called, he said, in England. If these + should be at variance with each other, he argued, the Papists would be the + strongest of all. "To prevent this inconvenience," he said, "the States + were endeavouring to settle some certain form of government in the Church; + which being composed of divers persecuted churches such as in the + beginning of the wars had their refuge here, that which during the wars + could not be so well done they now thought seasonable for a time of truce; + and therefore would show their authority in preventing the schism of the + Church which would follow the separation of those they call Remonstrants + and Contra-Remonstrants." + </p> + <p> + There being no word so offensive to Carleton's sovereign as the word + Puritan, the Ambassador did his best to persuade the Advocate that a + Puritan in Holland was a very different thing from a Puritan in England. + In England he was a noxious vermin, to be hunted with dogs. In the + Netherlands he was the governing power. But his arguments were vapourous + enough and made little impression on Barneveld. "He would no ways yield," + said Sir Dudley. + </p> + <p> + Meantime the Contra-Remonstrants of the Hague, not finding sufficient + accommodation in Enoch Much's house, clamoured loudly for the use of a + church. It was answered by the city magistrates that two of their + persuasion, La Motte and La Faille, preached regularly in the Great + Church, and that Rosaeus had been silenced only because he refused to hold + communion with Uytenbogaert. Maurice insisted that a separate church + should be assigned them. "But this is open schism," said Uytenbogaert. + </p> + <p> + Early in the year there was a meeting of the Holland delegation to the + States-General, of the state council, and of the magistracy of the Hague, + of deputies from the tribunals, and of all the nobles resident in the + capital. They sent for Maurice and asked his opinion as to the alarming + situation of affairs. He called for the register-books of the States of + Holland, and turning back to the pages on which was recorded his accession + to the stadholderate soon after his father's murder, ordered the oath then + exchanged between himself and the States to be read aloud. + </p> + <p> + That oath bound them mutually to support the Reformed religion till the + last drop of blood in their veins. + </p> + <p> + "That oath I mean to keep," said the Stadholder, "so long as I live." + </p> + <p> + No one disputed the obligation of all parties to maintain the Reformed + religion. But the question was whether the Five Points were inconsistent + with the Reformed religion. The contrary was clamorously maintained by + most of those present: In the year 1586 this difference in dogma had not + arisen, and as the large majority of the people at the Hague, including + nearly all those of rank and substance, were of the Remonstrant + persuasion, they naturally found it not agreeable to be sent out of the + church by a small minority. But Maurice chose to settle the question very + summarily. His father had been raised to power by the strict Calvinists, + and he meant to stand by those who had always sustained William the + Silent. "For this religion my father lost his life, and this religion will + I defend," said he. + </p> + <p> + "You hold then," said Barneveld, "that the Almighty has created one child + for damnation and another for salvation, and you wish this doctrine to be + publicly preached." + </p> + <p> + "Did you ever hear any one preach that?" replied the Prince. + </p> + <p> + "If they don't preach it, it is their inmost conviction," said the other. + And he proceeded to prove his position by copious citations. + </p> + <p> + "And suppose our ministers do preach this doctrine, is there anything + strange in it, any reason why they should not do so?" + </p> + <p> + The Advocate expressed his amazement and horror at the idea. + </p> + <p> + "But does not God know from all eternity who is to be saved and who to be + damned; and does He create men for any other end than that to which He + from eternity knows they will come?" + </p> + <p> + And so they enclosed themselves in the eternal circle out of which it was + not probable that either the soldier or the statesman would soon find an + issue. + </p> + <p> + "I am no theologian," said Barneveld at last, breaking off the discussion. + </p> + <p> + "Neither am I," said the Stadholder. "So let the parsons come together. + Let the Synod assemble and decide the question. Thus we shall get out of + all this." + </p> + <p> + Next day a deputation of the secessionists waited by appointment on Prince + Maurice. They found him in the ancient mediaeval hall of the sovereign + counts of Holland, and seated on their old chair of state. He recommended + them to use caution and moderation for the present, and to go next Sunday + once more to Ryswyk. Afterwards he pledged himself that they should have a + church at the Hague, and, if necessary, the Great Church itself. + </p> + <p> + But the Great Church, although a very considerable Catholic cathedral + before the Reformation, was not big enough now to hold both Henry Rosaeus + and John Uytenbogaert. Those two eloquent, learned, and most pugnacious + divines were the respective champions in the pulpit of the opposing + parties, as were the Advocate and the Stadholder in the council. And there + was as bitter personal rivalry between the two as between the soldier and + statesman. + </p> + <p> + "The factions begin to divide themselves," said Carleton, "betwixt his + Excellency and Monsieur Barneveld as heads who join to this present + difference their ancient quarrels. And the schism rests actually between + Uytenbogaert and Rosaeus, whose private emulation and envy (both being + much applauded and followed) doth no good towards the public + pacification." Uytenbogaert repeatedly offered, however, to resign his + functions and to leave the Hague. "He was always ready to play the Jonah," + he said. + </p> + <p> + A temporary arrangement was made soon afterwards by which Rosaeus and his + congregation should have the use of what was called the Gasthuis Kerk, + then appropriated to the English embassy. + </p> + <p> + Carleton of course gave his consent most willingly. The Prince declared + that the States of Holland and the city magistracy had personally + affronted him by the obstacles they had interposed to the public worship + of the Contra-Remonstrants. With their cause he had now thoroughly + identified himself. + </p> + <p> + The hostility between the representatives of the civil and military + authority waxed fiercer every hour. The tumults were more terrible than + ever. Plainly there was no room in the Commonwealth for the Advocate and + the Stadholder. Some impartial persons believed that there would be no + peace until both were got rid of. "There are many words among this + free-spoken people," said Carleton, "that to end these differences they + must follow the example of France in Marshal d'Ancre's case, and take off + the heads of both chiefs." + </p> + <p> + But these decided persons were in a small minority. Meantime the States of + Holland met in full assembly; sixty delegates being present. + </p> + <p> + It was proposed to invite his Excellency to take part in the + deliberations. A committee which had waited upon him the day before had + reported him as in favour of moderate rather than harsh measures in the + church affair, while maintaining his plighted word to the seceders. + </p> + <p> + Barneveld stoutly opposed the motion. + </p> + <p> + "What need had the sovereign states of Holland of advice from a + stadholder, from their servant, their functionary?" he cried. + </p> + <p> + But the majority for once thought otherwise. The Prince was invited to + come. The deliberations were moderate but inconclusive. He appeared again + at an adjourned meeting when the councils were not so harmonious. + </p> + <p> + Barneveld, Grotius, and other eloquent speakers endeavoured to point out + that the refusal of the seceders to hold communion with the Remonstrant + preachers and to insist on a separation was fast driving the state to + perdition. They warmly recommended mutual toleration and harmony. Grotius + exhausted learning and rhetoric to prove that the Five Points were not + inconsistent with salvation nor with the constitution of the United + Provinces. + </p> + <p> + The Stadholder grew impatient at last and clapped his hand on his rapier. + </p> + <p> + "No need here," he said, "of flowery orations and learned arguments. With + this good sword I will defend the religion which my father planted in + these Provinces, and I should like to see the man who is going to prevent + me!" + </p> + <p> + The words had an heroic ring in the ears of such as are ever ready to + applaud brute force, especially when wielded by a prince. The argumentum + ad ensem, however, was the last plea that William the Silent would have + been likely to employ on such an occasion, nor would it have been easy to + prove that the Reformed religion had been "planted" by one who had drawn + the sword against the foreign tyrant, and had made vast sacrifices for his + country's independence years before abjuring communion with the Roman + Catholic Church. + </p> + <p> + When swords are handled by the executive in presence of civil assemblies + there is usually but one issue to be expected. + </p> + <p> + Moreover, three whales had recently been stranded at Scheveningen, one of + them more than sixty feet long, and men wagged their beards gravely as + they spoke of the event, deeming it a certain presage of civil commotions. + It was remembered that at the outbreak of the great war two whales had + been washed ashore in the Scheldt. Although some free-thinking people were + inclined to ascribe the phenomenon to a prevalence of strong westerly + gales, while others found proof in it of a superabundance of those + creatures in the Polar seas, which should rather give encouragement to the + Dutch and Zealand fisheries, it is probable that quite as dark forebodings + of coming disaster were caused by this accident as by the trumpet-like + defiance which the Stadholder had just delivered to the States of Holland. + </p> + <p> + Meantime the seceding congregation of the Hague had become wearied of the + English or Gasthuis Church, and another and larger one had been promised + them. This was an ancient convent on one of the principal streets of the + town, now used as a cannon-foundry. The Prince personally superintended + the preparations for getting ready this place of worship, which was + thenceforth called the Cloister Church. But delays were, as the + Contra-Remonstrants believed, purposely interposed, so that it was nearly + Midsummer before there were any signs of the church being fit for use. + </p> + <p> + They hastened accordingly to carry it, as it were, by assault. Not wishing + peaceably to accept as a boon from the civil authority what they claimed + as an indefeasible right, they suddenly took possession one Sunday night + of the Cloister Church. + </p> + <p> + It was in a state of utter confusion—part monastery, part foundry, + part conventicle. There were few seats, no altar, no communion-table, + hardly any sacramental furniture, but a pulpit was extemporized. Rosaeus + preached in triumph to an enthusiastic congregation, and three children + were baptized with the significant names of William, Maurice, and Henry. + </p> + <p> + On the following Monday there was a striking scene on the Voorhout. This + most beautiful street of a beautiful city was a broad avenue, shaded by a + quadruple row of limetrees, reaching out into the thick forest of secular + oaks and beeches—swarming with fallow-deer and alive with the notes + of singing birds—by which the Hague, almost from time immemorial, + has been embowered. The ancient cloisterhouse and church now reconverted + to religious uses—was a plain, rather insipid structure of red brick + picked out with white stone, presenting three symmetrical gables to the + street, with a slender belfry and spire rising in the rear. + </p> + <p> + Nearly adjoining it on the north-western side was the elegant and + commodious mansion of Barneveld, purchased by him from the representatives + of the Arenberg family, surrounded by shrubberies and flower-gardens; not + a palace, but a dignified and becoming abode for the first citizen of a + powerful republic. + </p> + <p> + On that midsummer's morning it might well seem that, in rescuing the old + cloister from the military purposes to which it had for years been + devoted, men had given an even more belligerent aspect to the scene than + if it had been left as a foundry. The miscellaneous pieces of artillery + and other fire-arms lying about, with piles of cannon-ball which there had + not been time to remove, were hardly less belligerent and threatening of + aspect than the stern faces of the crowd occupied in thoroughly preparing + the house for its solemn destination. It was determined that there should + be accommodation on the next Sunday for all who came to the service. An + army of carpenters, joiners, glaziers, and other workmen-assisted by a mob + of citizens of all ranks and ages, men and women, gentle and simple were + busily engaged in bringing planks and benches; working with plane, adze, + hammer and saw, trowel and shovel, to complete the work. + </p> + <p> + On the next Sunday the Prince attended public worship for the last time at + the Great Church under the ministration of Uytenbogaert. He was infuriated + with the sermon, in which the bold Remonstrant bitterly inveighed against + the proposition for a National Synod. To oppose that measure publicly in + the very face of the Stadholder, who now considered himself as the Synod + personified, seemed to him flat blasphemy. Coming out of the church with + his step-mother, the widowed Louise de Coligny, Princess of Orange, he + denounced the man in unmeasured terms. "He is the enemy of God," said + Maurice. At least from that time forth, and indeed for a year before, + Maurice was the enemy of the preacher. + </p> + <p> + On the following Sunday, July 23, Maurice went in solemn state to the + divine service at the Cloister Church now thoroughly organized. He was + accompanied by his cousin, the famous Count William Lewis of Nassau, + Stadholder of Friesland, who had never concealed his warm sympathy with + the Contra-Remonstrants, and by all the chief officers of his household + and members of his staff. It was an imposing demonstration and meant for + one. As the martial stadholder at the head of his brilliant cavalcade rode + forth across the drawbridge from the Inner Court of the old moated palace—where + the ancient sovereign Dirks and Florences of Holland had so long ruled + their stout little principality—along the shady and stately + Kneuterdyk and so through the Voorhout, an immense crowd thronged around + his path and accompanied him to the church. It was as if the great soldier + were marching to siege or battle-field where fresher glories than those of + Sluys or Geertruidenberg were awaiting him. + </p> + <p> + The train passed by Barneveld's house and entered the cloister. More than + four thousand persons were present at the service or crowded around the + doors vainly attempting to gain admission into the overflowing aisles; + while the Great Church was left comparatively empty, a few hundred only + worshipping there. The Cloister Church was thenceforth called the Prince's + Church, and a great revolution was beginning even in the Hague. + </p> + <p> + The Advocate was wroth as he saw the procession graced by the two + stadholders and their military attendants. He knew that he was now to bow + his head to the Church thus championed by the chief personage and + captain-general of the state, to renounce his dreams of religious + toleration, to sink from his post of supreme civic ruler, or to accept an + unequal struggle in which he might utterly succumb. But his iron nature + would break sooner than bend. In the first transports of his indignation + he is said to have vowed vengeance against the immediate instruments by + which the Cloister Church had, as he conceived, been surreptitiously and + feloniously seized. He meant to strike a blow which should startle the + whole population of the Hague, send a thrill of horror through the + country, and teach men to beware how they trifled with the sovereign + states of Holland, whose authority had so long been undisputed, and with + him their chief functionary. + </p> + <p> + He resolved—so ran the tale of the preacher Trigland, who told it to + Prince Maurice, and has preserved it in his chronicle—to cause to be + seized at midnight from their beds four men whom he considered the + ringleaders in this mutiny, to have them taken to the place of execution + on the square in the midst of the city, to have their heads cut off at + once by warrant from the chief tribunal without any previous warning, and + then to summon all the citizens at dawn of day, by ringing of bells and + firing of cannon, to gaze on the ghastly spectacle, and teach them to what + fate this pestilential schism and revolt against authority had brought its + humble tools. The victims were to be Enoch Much, the Prince's book-keeper, + and three others, an attorney, an engraver, and an apothecary, all of + course of the Contra-Remonstrant persuasion. It was necessary, said the + Advocate, to make once for all an example, and show that there was a + government in the land. + </p> + <p> + He had reckoned on a ready adhesion to this measure and a sentence from + the tribunal through the influence of his son-in-law, the Seignior van + Veenhuyzen, who was president of the chief court. His attempt was foiled + however by the stern opposition of two Zealand members of the court, who + managed to bring up from a bed of sickness, where he had long been lying, + a Holland councillor whom they knew to be likewise opposed to the fierce + measure, and thus defeated it by a majority of one. + </p> + <p> + Such is the story as told by contemporaries and repeated from that day to + this. It is hardly necessary to say that Barneveld calmly denied having + conceived or even heard of the scheme. That men could go about looking + each other in the face and rehearsing such gibberish would seem + sufficiently dispiriting did we not know to what depths of credulity men + in all ages can sink when possessed by the demon of party malice. + </p> + <p> + If it had been narrated on the Exchange at Amsterdam or Flushing during + that portentous midsummer that Barneveld had not only beheaded but roasted + alive, and fed the dogs and cats upon the attorney, the apothecary, and + the engraver, there would have been citizens in plenty to devour the news + with avidity. + </p> + <p> + But although the Advocate had never imagined such extravagances as these, + it is certain that he had now resolved upon very bold measures, and that + too without an instant's delay. He suspected the Prince of aiming at + sovereignty not only over Holland but over all the provinces and to be + using the Synod as a principal part of his machinery. The gauntlet was + thrown down by the Stadholder, and the Advocate lifted it at once. The + issue of the struggle would depend upon the political colour of the town + magistracies. Barneveld instinctively felt that Maurice, being now + resolved that the Synod should be held, would lose no time in making a + revolution in all the towns through the power he held or could plausibly + usurp. Such a course would, in his opinion, lead directly to an + unconstitutional and violent subversion of the sovereign rights of each + province, to the advantage of the central government. A religious creed + would be forced upon Holland and perhaps upon two other provinces which + was repugnant to a considerable majority of the people. And this would be + done by a majority vote of the States-General, on a matter over which, by + the 13th Article of the fundamental compact—the Union of Utrecht—the + States-General had no control, each province having reserved the + disposition of religious affairs to itself. For let it never be forgotten + that the Union of the Netherlands was a compact, a treaty, an agreement + between sovereign states. There was no pretence that it was an + incorporation, that the people had laid down a constitution, an organic + law. The people were never consulted, did not exist, had not for political + purposes been invented. It was the great primal defect of their + institutions, but the Netherlanders would have been centuries before their + age had they been able to remedy that defect. Yet the Netherlanders would + have been much behind even that age of bigotry had they admitted the + possibility in a free commonwealth, of that most sacred and important of + all subjects that concern humanity, religious creed—the relation of + man to his Maker—to be regulated by the party vote of a political + board. + </p> + <p> + It was with no thought of treason in his heart or his head therefore that + the Advocate now resolved that the States of Holland and the cities of + which that college was composed should protect their liberties and + privileges, the sum of which in his opinion made up the sovereignty of the + province he served, and that they should protect them, if necessary, by + force. Force was apprehended. It should be met by force. To be forewarned + was to be forearmed. Barneveld forewarned the States of Holland. + </p> + <p> + On the 4th August 1617, he proposed to that assembly a resolution which + was destined to become famous. A majority accepted it after brief debate. + It was to this effect. + </p> + <p> + The States having seen what had befallen in many cities, and especially in + the Hague, against the order, liberties, and laws of the land, and having + in vain attempted to bring into harmony with the States certain cities + which refused to co-operate with the majority, had at last resolved to + refuse the National Synod, as conflicting with the sovereignty and laws of + Holland. They had thought good to set forth in public print their views as + to religious worship, and to take measures to prevent all deeds of + violence against persons and property. To this end the regents of cities + were authorized in case of need, until otherwise ordained, to enrol + men-at-arms for their security and prevention of violence. Furthermore, + every one that might complain of what the regents of cities by strength of + this resolution might do was ordered to have recourse to no one else than + the States of Holland, as no account would be made of anything that might + be done or undertaken by the tribunals. + </p> + <p> + Finally, it was resolved to send a deputation to Prince Maurice, the + Princess-Widow, and Prince Henry, requesting them to aid in carrying out + this resolution. + </p> + <p> + Thus the deed was done. The sword was drawn. It was drawn in self-defence + and in deliberate answer to the Stadholder's defiance when he rapped his + sword hilt in face of the assembly, but still it was drawn. The States of + Holland were declared sovereign and supreme. The National Synod was + peremptorily rejected. Any decision of the supreme courts of the Union in + regard to the subject of this resolution was nullified in advance. + Thenceforth this measure of the 4th August was called the "Sharp Resolve." + It might prove perhaps to be double-edged. + </p> + <p> + It was a stroke of grim sarcasm on the part of the Advocate thus solemnly + to invite the Stadholder's aid in carrying out a law which was aimed + directly at his head; to request his help for those who meant to defeat + with the armed hand that National Synod which he had pledged himself to + bring about. + </p> + <p> + The question now arose what sort of men-at-arms it would be well for the + city governments to enlist. The officers of the regular garrisons had + received distinct orders from Prince Maurice as their military superior to + refuse any summons to act in matters proceeding from the religious + question. The Prince, who had chief authority over all the regular troops, + had given notice that he would permit nothing to be done against "those of + the Reformed religion," by which he meant the Contra-Remonstrants and them + only. + </p> + <p> + In some cities there were no garrisons, but only train-bands. But the + train bands (Schutters) could not be relied on to carry out the Sharp + Resolve, for they were almost to a man Contra-Remonstrants. It was + therefore determined to enlist what were called "Waartgelders;" soldiers, + inhabitants of the place, who held themselves ready to serve in time of + need in consideration of a certain wage; mercenaries in short. + </p> + <p> + This resolution was followed as a matter of course by a solemn protest + from Amsterdam and the five cities who acted with her. + </p> + <p> + On the same day Maurice was duly notified of the passage of the law. His + wrath was great. High words passed between him and the deputies. It could + hardly have been otherwise expected. Next-day he came before the Assembly + to express his sentiments, to complain of the rudeness with which the + resolution of 4th August had been communicated to him, and to demand + further explanations. Forthwith the Advocate proceeded to set forth the + intentions of the States, and demanded that the Prince should assist the + magistrates in carrying out the policy decided upon. Reinier Pauw, + burgomaster of Amsterdam, fiercely interrupted the oration of Barneveld, + saying that although these might be his views, they were not to be held by + his Excellency as the opinions of all. The Advocate, angry at the + interruption, answered him sternly, and a violent altercation, not unmixed + with personalities, arose. Maurice, who kept his temper admirably on this + occasion, interfered between the two and had much difficulty in quieting + the dispute. He then observed that when he took the oath as stadholder + these unfortunate differences had not arisen, but all had been good + friends together. This was perfectly true, but he could have added that + they might all continue good friends unless the plan of imposing a + religious creed upon the minority by a clerical decision were persisted + in. He concluded that for love of one of the two great parties he would + not violate the oath he had taken to maintain the Reformed religion to the + last drop of his blood. Still, with the same 'petitio principii' that the + Reformed religion and the dogmas of the Contra-Remonstrants were one and + the same thing, he assured the Assembly that the authority of the + magistrates would be sustained by him so long as it did not lead to the + subversion of religion. + </p> + <p> + Clearly the time for argument had passed. As Dudley Carleton observed, men + had been disputing 'pro aris' long enough. They would soon be fighting + 'pro focis.' + </p> + <p> + In pursuance of the policy laid down by the Sharp Resolution, the States + proceeded to assure themselves of the various cities of the province by + means of Waartgelders. They sent to the important seaport of Brielle and + demanded a new oath from the garrison. It was intimated that the Prince + would be soon coming there in person to make himself master of the place, + and advice was given to the magistrates to be beforehand with him. These + statements angered Maurice, and angered him the more because they happened + to be true. It was also charged that he was pursuing his Leicestrian + designs and meant to make himself, by such steps, sovereign of the + country. The name of Leicester being a byword of reproach ever since that + baffled noble had a generation before left the Provinces in disgrace, it + was a matter of course that such comparisons were excessively + exasperating. It was fresh enough too in men's memory that the Earl in his + Netherland career had affected sympathy with the strictest denomination of + religious reformers, and that the profligate worldling and arrogant + self-seeker had used the mask of religion to cover flagitious ends. As it + had indeed been the object of the party at the head of which the Advocate + had all his life acted to raise the youthful Maurice to the stadholderate + expressly to foil the plots of Leicester, it could hardly fail to be + unpalatable to Maurice to be now accused of acting the part of Leicester. + </p> + <p> + He inveighed bitterly on the subject before the state council: The state + council, in a body, followed him to a meeting of the States-General. Here + the Stadholder made a vehement speech and demanded that the States of + Holland should rescind the "Sharp Resolution," and should desist from the + new oaths required from the soldiery. Barneveld, firm as a rock, met these + bitter denunciations. Speaking in the name of Holland, he repelled the + idea that the sovereign States of that province were responsible to the + state council or to the States-General either. He regretted, as all + regretted, the calumnies uttered against the Prince, but in times of such + intense excitement every conspicuous man was the mark of calumny. + </p> + <p> + The Stadholder warmly repudiated Leicestrian designs, and declared that he + had been always influenced by a desire to serve his country and maintain + the Reformed religion. If he had made mistakes, he desired to be permitted + to improve in the future. + </p> + <p> + Thus having spoken, the soldier retired from the Assembly with the state + council at his heels. + </p> + <p> + The Advocate lost no time in directing the military occupation of the + principal towns of Holland, such as Leyden, Gouda, Rotterdam, Schoonhoven, + Hoorn, and other cities. + </p> + <p> + At Leyden especially, where a strong Orange party was with difficulty kept + in obedience by the Remonstrant magistracy, it was found necessary to + erect a stockade about the town-hall and to plant caltrops and other + obstructions in the squares and streets. + </p> + <p> + The broad space in front; of the beautiful medieval seat of the municipal + government, once so sacred for the sublime and pathetic scenes enacted + there during the famous siege and in the magistracy of Peter van der + Werff, was accordingly enclosed by a solid palisade of oaken planks, + strengthened by rows of iron bars with barbed prongs: The entrenchment was + called by the populace the Arminian Fort, and the iron spear heads were + baptized Barneveld's teeth. Cannon were planted at intervals along the + works, and a company or two of the Waartgelders, armed from head to foot, + with snaphances on their shoulders, stood ever ready to issue forth to + quell any disturbances. Occasionally a life or two was lost of citizen or + soldier, and many doughty blows were interchanged. + </p> + <p> + It was a melancholy spectacle. No commonwealth could be more fortunate + than this republic in possessing two such great leading minds. No two men + could be more patriotic than both Stadholder and Advocate. No two men + could be prouder, more overbearing, less conciliatory. + </p> + <p> + "I know Mons. Barneveld well," said Sir Ralph Winwood, "and know that he + hath great powers and abilities, and malice itself must confess that man + never hath done more faithful and powerful service to his country than he. + But 'finis coronat opus' and 'il di lodi lacera; oportet imperatorem + stantem mori.'" + </p> + <p> + The cities of Holland were now thoroughly "waartgeldered," and Barneveld + having sufficiently shown his "teeth" in that province departed for change + of air to Utrecht. His failing health was assigned as the pretext for the + visit, although the atmosphere of that city has never been considered + especially salubrious in the dog-days. + </p> + <p> + Meantime the Stadholder remained quiet, but biding his time. He did not + choose to provoke a premature conflict in the strongholds of the Arminians + as he called them, but with a true military instinct preferred making sure + of the ports. Amsterdam, Enkhuyzen, Flushing, being without any effort of + his own within his control, he quietly slipped down the river Meuse on the + night of the 29th September, accompanied by his brother Frederic Henrys + and before six o'clock next morning had introduced a couple of companies + of trustworthy troops into Brielle, had summoned the magistrates before + him, and compelled them to desist from all further intention of levying + mercenaries. Thus all the fortresses which Barneveld had so recently and + in such masterly fashion rescued from the grasp of England were now + quietly reposing in the hands of the Stadholder. + </p> + <p> + Maurice thought it not worth his while for the present to quell the mutiny—as + he considered it the legal and constitutional defence of vested right—as + great jurists like Barneveld and Hugo Grotius accounted the movement—at + its "fountain head Leyden or its chief stream Utrecht;" to use the + expression of Carleton. There had already been bloodshed in Leyden, a + burgher or two having been shot and a soldier stoned to death in the + streets, but the Stadholder deemed it unwise to precipitate matters. + Feeling himself, with his surpassing military knowledge and with a large + majority of the nation at his back, so completely master of the situation, + he preferred waiting on events. And there is no doubt that he was proving + himself a consummate politician and a perfect master of fence. "He is much + beloved and followed both of soldiers and people," said the English + ambassador, "he is a man 'innoxiae popularitatis' so as this jealousy + cannot well be fastened upon him; and in this cause of religion he stirred + not until within these few months he saw he must declare himself or suffer + the better party to be overborne." + </p> + <p> + The chief tribunal-high council so called-of the country soon gave + evidence that the "Sharp Resolution" had judged rightly in reckoning on + its hostility and in nullifying its decisions in advance. + </p> + <p> + They decided by a majority vote that the Resolution ought not to be + obeyed, but set aside. Amsterdam, and the three or four cities usually + acting with her, refused to enlist troops. + </p> + <p> + Rombout Hoogerbeets, a member of the tribunal, informed Prince Maurice + that he "would no longer be present on a bench where men disputed the + authority of the States of Holland, which he held to be the supreme + sovereignty over him." + </p> + <p> + This was plain speaking; a distinct enunciation of what the States' right + party deemed to be constitutional law. + </p> + <p> + And what said Maurice in reply? + </p> + <p> + "I, too, recognize the States of Holland as sovereign; but we might at + least listen to each other occasionally." + </p> + <p> + Hoogerbeets, however, deeming that listening had been carried far enough, + decided to leave the tribunal altogether, and to resume the post which he + had formerly occupied as Pensionary or chief magistrate of Leyden. + </p> + <p> + Here he was soon to find himself in the thick of the conflict. Meantime + the States-General, in full assembly, on 11th November 1617, voted that + the National Synod should be held in the course of the following year. The + measure was carried by a strict party vote and by a majority of one. The + representatives of each province voting as one, there were four in favour + of to three against the Synod. The minority, consisting of Holland, + Utrecht, and Overyssel, protested against the vote as an outrageous + invasion of the rights of each province, as an act of flagrant tyranny and + usurpation. + </p> + <p> + The minority in the States of Holland, the five cities often named, + protested against the protest. + </p> + <p> + The defective part of the Netherland constitutions could not be better + illustrated. The minority of the States of Holland refused to be bound by + a majority of the provincial assembly. The minority of the States-General + refused to be bound by the majority of the united assembly. + </p> + <p> + This was reducing politics to an absurdity and making all government + impossible. It is however quite certain that in the municipal governments + a majority had always governed, and that a majority vote in the provincial + assemblies had always prevailed. The present innovation was to govern the + States-General by a majority. + </p> + <p> + Yet viewed by the light of experience and of common sense, it would be + difficult to conceive of a more preposterous proceeding than thus to cram + a religious creed down the throats of half the population of a country by + the vote of a political assembly. But it was the seventeenth and not the + nineteenth century. + </p> + <p> + Moreover, if there were any meaning in words, the 13th Article of Union, + reserving especially the disposition over religious matters to each + province, had been wisely intended to prevent the possibility of such + tyranny. + </p> + <p> + When the letters of invitation to the separate states and to others were + drawing up in the general assembly, the representatives of the three + states left the chamber. A solitary individual from Holland remained + however, a burgomaster of Amsterdam. + </p> + <p> + Uytenbogaert, conversing with Barneveld directly afterwards, advised him + to accept the vote. Yielding to the decision of the majority, it would be + possible, so thought the clergyman, for the great statesman so to handle + matters as to mould the Synod to his will, even as he had so long + controlled the States-Provincial and the States-General. + </p> + <p> + "If you are willing to give away the rights of the land," said the + Advocate very sharply, "I am not." + </p> + <p> + Probably the priest's tactics might have proved more adroit than the stony + opposition on which Barneveld was resolved. + </p> + <p> + But it was with the aged statesman a matter of principle, not of policy. + His character and his personal pride, the dignity of opinion and office, + his respect for constitutional law, were all at stake. + </p> + <p> + Shallow observers considered the struggle now taking place as a personal + one. Lovers of personal government chose to look upon the Advocate's party + as a faction inspired with an envious resolve to clip the wings of the + Stadholder, who was at last flying above their heads. + </p> + <p> + There could be no doubt of the bitter animosity between the two men. There + could be no doubt that jealousy was playing the part which that master + passion will ever play in all the affairs of life. But there could be no + doubt either that a difference of principle as wide as the world separated + the two antagonists. + </p> + <p> + Even so keen an observer as Dudley Carleton, while admitting the man's + intellectual power and unequalled services, could see nothing in the + Advocate's present course but prejudice, obstinacy, and the insanity of + pride. "He doth no whit spare himself in pains nor faint in his + resolution," said the Envoy, "wherein notwithstanding he will in all + appearance succumb ere afore long, having the disadvantages of a weak + body, a weak party, and a weak cause." But Carleton hated Barneveld, and + considered it the chief object of his mission to destroy him, if he could. + In so doing he would best carry out the wishes of his sovereign. + </p> + <p> + The King of Britain had addressed a somewhat equivocal letter to the + States-General on the subject of religion in the spring of 1617. It + certainly was far from being as satisfactory as, the epistles of 1613 + prepared under the Advocate's instructions, had been, while the exuberant + commentary upon the royal text, delivered in full assembly by his + ambassador soon after the reception of the letter, was more than usually + didactic, offensive, and ignorant. Sir Dudley never omitted an opportunity + of imparting instruction to the States-General as to the nature of their + constitution and the essential dogmas on which their Church was founded. + It is true that the great lawyers and the great theologians of the country + were apt to hold very different opinions from his upon those important + subjects, but this was so much the worse for the lawyers and theologians, + as time perhaps might prove. + </p> + <p> + The King in this last missive had proceeded to unsay the advice which he + had formerly bestowed upon the States, by complaining that his earlier + letters had been misinterpreted. They had been made use of, he said, to + authorize the very error against which they had been directed. They had + been held to intend the very contrary of what they did mean. He felt + himself bound in conscience therefore, finding these differences ready to + be "hatched into schisms," to warn the States once more against pests so + pernicious. + </p> + <p> + Although the royal language was somewhat vague so far as enunciation of + doctrine, a point on which he had once confessed himself fallible, was + concerned, there was nothing vague in his recommendation of a National + Synod. To this the opposition of Barneveld was determined not upon + religious but upon constitutional grounds. The confederacy did not + constitute a nation, and therefore there could not be a national synod nor + a national religion. + </p> + <p> + Carleton came before the States-General soon afterwards with a prepared + oration, wearisome as a fast-day sermon after the third turn of the + hour-glass, pragmatical as a schoolmaster's harangue to fractious little + boys. + </p> + <p> + He divided his lecture into two heads—the peace of the Church, and + the peace of the Provinces—starting with the first. "A Jove + principium," he said, "I will begin with that which is both beginning and + end. It is the truth of God's word and its maintenance that is the bond of + our common cause. Reasons of state invite us as friends and neighbours by + the preservation of our lives and property, but the interest of religion + binds us as Christians and brethren to the mutual defence of the liberty + of our consciences." + </p> + <p> + He then proceeded to point out the only means by which liberty of + conscience could be preserved. It was by suppressing all forms of religion + but one, and by silencing all religious discussion. Peter Titelman and + Philip II. could not have devised a more pithy formula. All that was + wanting was the axe and faggot to reduce uniformity to practice. Then + liberty of conscience would be complete. + </p> + <p> + "One must distinguish," said the Ambassador, "between just liberty and + unbridled license, and conclude that there is but one truth single and + unique. Those who go about turning their brains into limbecks for + distilling new notions in religious matters only distract the union of the + Church which makes profession of this unique truth. If it be permitted to + one man to publish the writings and fantasies of a sick spirit and for + another moved by Christian zeal to reduce this wanderer 'ad sanam mentem;' + why then 'patet locus adversus utrumque,' and the common enemy (the Devil) + slips into the fortress." He then proceeded to illustrate this theory on + liberty of conscience by allusions to Conrad Vorstius. + </p> + <p> + This infamous sectary had in fact reached such a pitch of audacity, said + the Ambassador, as not only to inveigh against the eternal power of God + but to indulge in irony against the honour of his Majesty King James. + </p> + <p> + And in what way had he scandalized the government of the Republic? He had + dared to say that within its borders there was religious toleration. He + had distinctly averred that in the United Provinces heretics were not + punished with death or with corporal chastisement. + </p> + <p> + "He declares openly," said Carleton, "that contra haereticos etiam vere + dictos (ne dum falso et calumniose sic traductos) there is neither + sentence of death nor other corporal punishment, so that in order to + attract to himself a great following of birds of the name feather he + publishes to all the world that here in this country one can live and die + a heretic, unpunished, without being arrested and without danger." + </p> + <p> + In order to suppress this reproach upon the Republic at which the + Ambassador stood aghast, and to prevent the Vorstian doctrines of + religious toleration and impunity of heresy from spreading among "the + common people, so subject by their natures to embrace new opinions," he + advised of course that "the serpent be sent back to the nest where he was + born before the venom had spread through the whole body of the Republic." + </p> + <p> + A week afterwards a long reply was delivered on part of the States-General + to the Ambassador's oration. It is needless to say that it was the work of + the Advocate, and that it was in conformity with the opinions so often + exhibited in the letters to Caron and others of which the reader has seen + many samples. + </p> + <p> + That religious matters were under the control of the civil government, and + that supreme civil authority belonged to each one of the seven sovereign + provinces, each recognizing no superior within its own sphere, were maxims + of state always enforced in the Netherlands and on which the whole + religious controversy turned. + </p> + <p> + "The States-General have always cherished the true Christian Apostolic + religion," they said, "and wished it to be taught under the authority and + protection of the legal government of these Provinces in all purity, and + in conformity with the Holy Scriptures, to the good people of these + Provinces. And My Lords the States and magistrates of the respective + provinces, each within their own limits, desire the same." + </p> + <p> + They had therefore given express orders to the preachers "to keep the + peace by mutual and benign toleration of the different opinions on the one + side and the other at least until with full knowledge of the subject the + States might otherwise ordain. They had been the more moved to this + because his Majesty having carefully examined the opinions of the learned + hereon each side had found both consistent with Christian belief and the + salvation of souls." + </p> + <p> + It was certainly not the highest expression of religious toleration for + the civil authority to forbid the clergymen of the country from discussing + in their pulpits the knottiest and most mysterious points of the schoolmen + lest the "common people" should be puzzled. Nevertheless, where the close + union of Church and State and the necessity of one church were deemed + matters of course, it was much to secure subordination of the priesthood + to the magistracy, while to enjoin on preachers abstention from a single + exciting cause of quarrel, on the ground that there was more than one path + to salvation, and that mutual toleration was better than mutual + persecution, was; in that age, a stride towards religious equality. It was + at least an advance on Carleton's dogma, that there was but one unique and + solitary truth, and that to declare heretics not punishable with death was + an insult to the government of the Republic. + </p> + <p> + The States-General answered the Ambassador's plea, made in the name of his + master, for immediate and unguaranteed evacuation of the debatable land by + the arguments already so often stated in the Advocate's instructions to + Caron. They had been put to great trouble and expense already in their + campaigning and subsequent fortification of important places in the + duchies. They had seen the bitter spirit manifested by the Spaniards in + the demolition of the churches and houses of Mulheim and other places. + "While the affair remained in its present terms of utter uncertainty their + Mightinesses," said the States-General, "find it most objectionable to + forsake the places which they have been fortifying and to leave the + duchies and all their fellow-religionists, besides the rights of the + possessory princes a prey to those who have been hankering for the + territories for long years, and who would unquestionably be able to make + themselves absolute masters of all within a very few days." + </p> + <p> + A few months later Carleton came before the States-General again and + delivered another elaborate oration, duly furnished to him by the King, + upon the necessity of the National Synod, the comparative merits of + Arminianism and Contra-Remonstrantism, together with a full exposition of + the constitutions of the Netherlands. + </p> + <p> + It might be supposed that Barneveld and Grotius and Hoogerbeets knew + something of the law and history of their country. + </p> + <p> + But James knew much better, and so his envoy endeavoured to convince his + audience. + </p> + <p> + He received on the spot a temperate but conclusive reply from the + delegates of Holland. They informed him that the war with Spain—the + cause of the Utrecht Union—was not begun about religion but on + account of the violation of liberties, chartered rights and privileges, + not the least of which rights was that of each province to regulate + religious matters within its borders. + </p> + <p> + A little later a more vehement reply was published anonymously in the + shape of a pamphlet called 'The Balance,' which much angered the + Ambassador and goaded his master almost to frenzy. It was deemed so + blasphemous, so insulting to the Majesty of England, so entirely + seditious, that James, not satisfied with inditing a rejoinder, insisted + through Carleton that a reward should be offered by the States for the + detection of the author, in order that he might be condignly punished. + This was done by a majority vote, 1000 florins being offered for the + discovery of the author and 600 for that of the printer. + </p> + <p> + Naturally the step was opposed in the States-General; two deputies in + particular making themselves conspicuous. One of them was an audacious old + gentleman named Brinius of Gelderland, "much corrupted with Arminianism," + so Carleton informed his sovereign. He appears to have inherited his + audacity through his pedigree, descending, as it was ludicrously enough + asserted he did, from a chief of the Caninefates, the ancient inhabitants + of Gelderland, called Brinio. And Brinio the Caninefat had been as famous + for his stolid audacity as for his illustrious birth; "Erat in + Caninefatibus stolidae audaciae Brinio claritate natalium insigni." + </p> + <p> + The patronizing manner in which the Ambassador alluded to the other member + of the States-General who opposed the decree was still more diverting. It + was "Grotius, the Pensioner of Rotterdam, a young petulant brain, not + unknown to your Majesty," said Carleton. + </p> + <p> + Two centuries and a half have rolled away, and there are few majesties, + few nations, and few individuals to whom the name of that petulant youth + is unknown; but how many are familiar with the achievements of the able + representative of King James? + </p> + <p> + Nothing came of the measure, however, and the offer of course helped the + circulation of the pamphlet. + </p> + <p> + It is amusing to see the ferocity thus exhibited by the royal pamphleteer + against a rival; especially when one can find no crime in 'The Balance' + save a stinging and well-merited criticism of a very stupid oration. + </p> + <p> + Gillis van Ledenberg was generally supposed to be the author of it. + Carleton inclined, however, to suspect Grotius, "because," said he, + "having always before been a stranger to my house, he has made me the day + before the publication thereof a complimentary visit, although it was + Sunday and church time; whereby the Italian proverb, 'Chi ti caresse piu + che suole,' &c.,' is added to other likelihoods." + </p> + <p> + It was subsequently understood however that the pamphlet was written by a + Remonstrant preacher of Utrecht, named Jacobus Taurinus; one of those who + had been doomed to death by the mutinous government in that city seven + years before. + </p> + <p> + It was now sufficiently obvious that either the governments in the three + opposition provinces must be changed or that the National Synod must be + imposed by a strict majority vote in the teeth of the constitution and of + vigorous and eloquent protests drawn up by the best lawyers in the + country. The Advocate and Grotius recommended a provincial synod first + and, should that not succeed in adjusting the differences of church + government, then the convocation of a general or oecumenical synod. They + resisted the National Synod because, in their view, the Provinces were not + a nation. A league of seven sovereign and independent Mates was all that + legally existed in the Netherlands. It was accordingly determined that the + governments should be changed, and the Stadholder set himself to prepare + the way for a thorough and, if possible, a bloodless revolution. He + departed on the 27th November for a tour through the chief cities, and + before leaving the Hague addressed an earnest circular letter to the + various municipalities of Holland. + </p> + <p> + A more truly dignified, reasonable, right royal letter, from the + Stadholder's point of view, could not have been indited. The Imperial "we" + breathing like a morning breeze through the whole of it blew away all + legal and historical mistiness. + </p> + <p> + But the clouds returned again nevertheless. Unfortunately for Maurice it + could not be argued by the pen, however it might be proved by the sword, + that the Netherlands constituted a nation, and that a convocation of + doctors of divinity summoned by a body of envoys had the right to dictate + a creed to seven republics. + </p> + <p> + All parties were agreed on one point. There must be unity of divine + worship. The territory of the Netherlands was not big enough to hold two + systems of religion, two forms of Christianity, two sects of + Protestantism. It was big enough to hold seven independent and sovereign + states, but would be split into fragments—resolved into chaos—should + there be more than one Church or if once a schism were permitted in that + Church. Grotius was as much convinced of this as Gomarus. And yet the 13th + Article of the Union stared them all in the face, forbidding the hideous + assumptions now made by the general government. Perhaps no man living + fully felt its import save Barneveld alone. For groping however dimly and + hesitatingly towards the idea of religious liberty, of general toleration, + he was denounced as a Papist, an atheist, a traitor, a miscreant, by the + fanatics for the sacerdotal and personal power. Yet it was a pity that he + could never contemplate the possibility of his country's throwing off the + swaddling clothes of provincialism which had wrapped its infancy. + Doubtless history, law, tradition, and usage pointed to the independent + sovereignty of each province. Yet the period of the Truce was precisely + the time when a more generous constitution, a national incorporation might + have been constructed to take the place of the loose confederacy by which + the gigantic war had been fought out. After all, foreign powers had no + connection with the States, and knew only the Union with which and with + which alone they made treaties, and the reality of sovereignty in each + province was as ridiculous as in theory it was impregnable. But Barneveld, + under the modest title of Advocate of one province, had been in reality + president and prime minister of the whole commonwealth. He had himself + been the union and the sovereignty. It was not wonderful that so imperious + a nature objected to transfer its powers to the Church, to the + States-General, or to Maurice. + </p> + <p> + Moreover, when nationality assumed the unlovely form of rigid religious + uniformity; when Union meant an exclusive self-governed Church enthroned + above the State, responsible to no civic authority and no human law, the + boldest patriot might shiver at emerging from provincialism. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XV. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + The Commonwealth bent on Self-destruction—Evils of a Confederate + System of Government—Rem Bischop's House sacked—Aerssens' + unceasing Efforts against Barneveld—The Advocate's Interview with + Maurice—The States of Utrecht raise the Troops—The Advocate at + Utrecht—Barneveld urges mutual Toleration—Barneveld accused of + being Partisan of Spain—Carleton takes his Departure. +</pre> + <p> + It is not cheerful after widely contemplating the aspect of Christendom in + the year of supreme preparation to examine with the minuteness absolutely + necessary the narrow theatre to which the political affairs of the great + republic had been reduced. + </p> + <p> + That powerful commonwealth, to which the great party of the Reformation + naturally looked for guidance in the coming conflict, seemed bent on + self-destruction. The microcosm of the Netherlands now represented, alas! + the war of elements going on without on a world-wide scale. As the + Calvinists and Lutherans of Germany were hotly attacking each other even + in sight of the embattled front of Spain and the League, so the Gomarites + and the Arminians by their mutual rancour were tearing the political power + of the Dutch Republic to shreds and preventing her from assuming a great + part in the crisis. The consummate soldier, the unrivalled statesman, each + superior in his sphere to any contemporary rival, each supplementing the + other, and making up together, could they have been harmonized, a double + head such as no political organism then existing could boast, were now in + hopeless antagonism to each other. A mass of hatred had been accumulated + against the Advocate with which he found it daily more and more difficult + to struggle. The imperious, rugged, and suspicious nature of the + Stadholder had been steadily wrought upon by the almost devilish acts of + Francis Aerssens until he had come to look upon his father's most faithful + adherent, his own early preceptor in statesmanship and political + supporter, as an antagonist, a conspirator, and a tyrant. + </p> + <p> + The soldier whose unrivalled ability, experience, and courage in the field + should have placed him at the very head of the great European army of + defence against the general crusade upon Protestantism, so constantly + foretold by Barneveld, was now to be engaged in making bloodless but + mischievous warfare against an imaginary conspiracy and a patriot foe. + </p> + <p> + The Advocate, keeping steadily in view the great principles by which his + political life had been guided, the supremacy of the civil authority in + any properly organized commonwealth over the sacerdotal and military, + found himself gradually forced into mortal combat with both. To the + individual sovereignty of each province he held with the tenacity of a + lawyer and historian. In that he found the only clue through the labyrinth + which ecclesiastical and political affairs presented. So close was the + tangle, so confused the medley, that without this slender guide all hope + of legal issue seemed lost. + </p> + <p> + No doubt the difficulty of the doctrine of individual sovereignty was + great, some of the provinces being such slender morsels of territory, with + resources so trivial, as to make the name of sovereignty ludicrous. Yet + there could be as little doubt that no other theory was tenable. If so + powerful a mind as that of the Advocate was inclined to strain the theory + to its extreme limits, it was because in the overshadowing superiority of + the one province Holland had been found the practical remedy for the + imbecility otherwise sure to result from such provincial and meagre + federalism. + </p> + <p> + Moreover, to obtain Union by stretching all the ancient historical + privileges and liberties of the separate provinces upon the Procrustean + bed of a single dogma, to look for nationality only in common subjection + to an infallible priesthood, to accept a Catechism as the palladium upon + which the safety of the State was to depend for all time, and beyond which + there was to be no further message from Heaven—such was not healthy + constitutionalism in the eyes of a great statesman. No doubt that without + the fervent spirit of Calvinism it would have been difficult to wage war + with such immortal hate as the Netherlands had waged it, no doubt the + spirit of republican and even democratic liberty lay hidden within that + rigid husk, but it was dishonour to the martyrs who had died by thousands + at the stake and on the battle field for the rights of conscience if the + only result of their mighty warfare against wrong had been to substitute a + new dogma for an old one, to stifle for ever the right of free enquiry, + theological criticism, and the hope of further light from on high, and to + proclaim it a libel on the Republic that within its borders all heretics, + whether Arminian or Papist, were safe from the death penalty or even from + bodily punishment. A theological union instead of a national one and + obtained too at the sacrifice of written law and immemorial tradition, a + congress in which clerical deputations from all the provinces and from + foreign nations should prescribe to all Netherlanders an immutable creed + and a shadowy constitution, were not the true remedies for the evils of + confederacy, nor, if they had been, was the time an appropriate one for + their application. + </p> + <p> + It was far too early in the world's history to hope for such + redistribution of powers and such a modification of the social compact as + would place in separate spheres the Church and the State, double the + sanctions and the consolations of religion by removing it from the + pollutions of political warfare, and give freedom to individual conscience + by securing it from the interference of government. + </p> + <p> + It is melancholy to see the Republic thus perversely occupying its + energies. It is melancholy to see the great soldier becoming gradually + more ardent for battle with Barneveld and Uytenbogaert than with Spinola + and Bucquoy, against whom he had won so many imperishable laurels. It is + still sadder to see the man who had been selected by Henry IV. as the one + statesman of Europe to whom he could confide his great projects for the + pacification of Christendom, and on whom he could depend for counsel and + support in schemes which, however fantastic in some of their details, had + for their object to prevent the very European war of religion against + which Barneveld had been struggling, now reduced to defend himself against + suspicion hourly darkening and hatred growing daily more insane. + </p> + <p> + The eagle glance and restless wing, which had swept the whole political + atmosphere, now caged within the stifling limits of theological casuistry + and personal rivalry were afflicting to contemplate. + </p> + <p> + The evils resulting from a confederate system of government, from a league + of petty sovereignties which dared not become a nation, were as woefully + exemplified in the United Provinces as they were destined to be more than + a century and a half later, and in another hemisphere, before that most + fortunate and sagacious of written political instruments, the American + Constitution of 1787, came to remedy the weakness of the old articles of + Union. + </p> + <p> + Meantime the Netherlands were a confederacy, not a nation. Their general + government was but a committee. + </p> + <p> + It could ask of, but not command, the separate provinces. It had no + dealings with nor power over the inhabitants of the country; it could say + "Thou shalt" neither to state nor citizen; it could consult only with + corporations—fictitious and many-headed personages—itself + incorporate. There was no first magistrate, no supreme court, no + commander-in-chief, no exclusive mint nor power of credit, no national + taxation, no central house of representation and legislation, no senate. + Unfortunately it had one church, and out of this single matrix of + centralism was born more discord than had been produced by all the + centrifugal forces of provincialism combined. + </p> + <p> + There had been working substitutes found, as we well know, for the + deficiencies of this constitution, but the Advocate felt himself bound to + obey and enforce obedience to the laws and privileges of his country so + long as they remained without authorized change. His country was the + Province of Holland, to which his allegiance was due and whose servant he + was. That there was but one church paid and sanctioned by law, he + admitted, but his efforts were directed to prevent discord within that + church, by counselling moderation, conciliation, mutual forbearance, and + abstention from irritating discussion of dogmas deemed by many thinkers + and better theologians than himself not essential to salvation. In this he + was much behind his age or before it. He certainly was not with the + majority. + </p> + <p> + And thus, while the election of Ferdinand had given the signal of war all + over Christendom, while from the demolished churches in Bohemia the tocsin + was still sounding, whose vibrations were destined to be heard a + generation long through the world, there was less sympathy felt with the + call within the territory of the great republic of Protestantism than + would have seemed imaginable a few short years before. The capture of the + Cloister Church at the Hague in the summer of 1617 seemed to minds excited + by personal rivalries and minute theological controversy a more momentous + event than the destruction of the churches in the Klostergrab in the + following December. The triumph of Gomarism in a single Dutch city + inspired more enthusiasm for the moment than the deadly buffet to European + Protestantism could inspire dismay. + </p> + <p> + The church had been carried and occupied, as it were, by force, as if an + enemy's citadel. It seemed necessary to associate the idea of practical + warfare with a movement which might have been a pacific clerical success. + Barneveld and those who acted with him, while deploring the intolerance + out of which the schism had now grown to maturity, had still hoped for + possible accommodation of the quarrel. They dreaded popular tumults + leading to oppression of the magistracy by the mob or the soldiery and + ending in civil war. But what was wanted by the extreme partisans on + either side was not accommodation but victory. + </p> + <p> + "Religious differences are causing much trouble and discontents in many + cities," he said. "At Amsterdam there were in the past week two + assemblages of boys and rabble which did not disperse without violence, + crime, and robbery. The brother of Professor Episcopius (Rem Bischop) was + damaged to the amount of several thousands. We are still hoping that some + better means of accommodation may be found." + </p> + <p> + The calmness with which the Advocate spoke of these exciting and painful + events is remarkable. It was exactly a week before the date of his letter + that this riot had taken place at Amsterdam; very significant in its + nature and nearly tragical in its results. There were no Remonstrant + preachers left in the city, and the people of that persuasion were + excluded from the Communion service. On Sunday morning, 17th February + (1617), a furious mob set upon the house of Rem Bischop, a highly + respectable and wealthy citizen, brother of the Remonstrant professor + Episcopius, of Leyden. The house, an elegant mansion in one of the + principal streets, was besieged and after an hour's resistance carried by + storm. The pretext of the assault was that Arminian preaching was going on + within its walls, which was not the fact. The mistress of the house, half + clad, attempted to make her escape by the rear of the building, was + pursued by the rabble with sticks and stones, and shrieks of "Kill the + Arminian harlot, strike her dead," until she fortunately found refuge in + the house of a neighbouring carpenter. There the hunted creature fell + insensible on the ground, the master of the house refusing to give her up, + though the maddened mob surged around it, swearing that if the "Arminian + harlot"—as respectable a matron as lived in the city—were not + delivered over to them, they would tear the house to pieces. The hope of + plunder and of killing Rem Bischop himself drew them at last back to his + mansion. It was thoroughly sacked; every portable article of value, linen, + plate, money, furniture, was carried off, the pictures and objects of art + destroyed, the house gutted from top to bottom. A thousand spectators were + looking on placidly at the work of destruction as they returned from + church, many of them with Bible and Psalm-book in their hands. The master + effected his escape over the roof into an adjoining building. One of the + ringleaders, a carpenter by trade, was arrested carrying an armful of + valuable plunder. He was asked by the magistrate why he had entered the + house. "Out of good zeal," he replied; "to help beat and kill the + Arminians who were holding conventicle there." He was further asked why he + hated the Arminians so much. "Are we to suffer such folk here," he + replied, "who preach the vile doctrine that God has created one man for + damnation and another for salvation?"—thus ascribing the doctrine of + the church of which he supposed himself a member to the Arminians whom he + had been plundering and wished to kill. + </p> + <p> + Rem Bischop received no compensation for the damage and danger; the + general cry in the town being that the money he was receiving from + Barneveld and the King of Spain would make him good even if not a stone of + the house had been left standing. On the following Thursday two elders of + the church council waited upon and informed him that he must in future + abstain from the Communion service. + </p> + <p> + It may well be supposed that the virtual head of the government liked not + the triumph of mob law, in the name of religion, over the civil authority. + The Advocate was neither democrat nor demagogue. A lawyer, a magistrate, + and a noble, he had but little sympathy with the humbler classes, which he + was far too much in the habit of designating as rabble and populace. Yet + his anger was less against them than against the priests, the foreigners, + the military and diplomatic mischief-makers, by whom they were set upon to + dangerous demonstrations. The old patrician scorned the arts by which + highborn demagogues in that as in every age affect adulation for inferiors + whom they despise. It was his instinct to protect, and guide the people, + in whom he recognized no chartered nor inherent right to govern. It was + his resolve, so long as breath was in him, to prevent them from destroying + life and property and subverting the government under the leadership of an + inflamed priesthood. + </p> + <p> + It was with this intention, as we have just seen, and in order to avoid + bloodshed, anarchy, and civil war in the streets of every town and + village, that a decisive but in the Advocate's opinion a perfectly legal + step had been taken by the States of Holland. It had become necessary to + empower the magistracies of towns to defend themselves by enrolled troops + against mob violence and against an enforced synod considered by great + lawyers as unconstitutional. + </p> + <p> + Aerssens resided in Zealand, and the efforts of that ex-ambassador were + unceasing to excite popular animosity against the man he hated and to + trouble the political waters in which no man knew better than he how to + cast the net. + </p> + <p> + "The States of Zealand," said the Advocate to the ambassador in London, + "have a deputation here about the religious differences, urging the + holding of a National Synod according to the King's letters, to which some + other provinces and some of the cities of Holland incline. The questions + have not yet been defined by a common synod, so that a national one could + make no definition, while the particular synods and clerical personages + are so filled with prejudices and so bound by mutual engagements of long + date as to make one fear an unfruitful issue. We are occupied upon this + point in our assembly of Holland to devise some compromise and to discover + by what means these difficulties may be brought into a state of + tranquillity." + </p> + <p> + It will be observed that in all these most private and confidential + utterances of the Advocate a tone of extreme moderation, an anxious wish + to save the Provinces from dissensions, dangers, and bloodshed, is + distinctly visible. Never is he betrayed into vindictive, ambitious, or + self-seeking expressions, while sometimes, although rarely, despondent in + mind. Nor was his opposition to a general synod absolute. He was probably + persuaded however, as we have just seen, that it should of necessity be + preceded by provincial ones, both in due regard to the laws of the land + and to the true definition of the points to be submitted to its decision. + He had small hope of a successful result from it. + </p> + <p> + The British king gave him infinite distress. As towards France so towards + England the Advocate kept steadily before him the necessity of deferring + to powerful sovereigns whose friendship was necessary to the republic he + served, however misguided, perverse, or incompetent those monarchs might + be. + </p> + <p> + "I had always hoped," he said, "that his Majesty would have adhered to his + original written advice, that such questions as these ought to be quietly + settled by authority of law and not by ecclesiastical persons, and I still + hope that his Majesty's intention is really to that effect, although he + speaks of synods." + </p> + <p> + A month later he felt even more encouraged. "The last letter of his + Majesty concerning our religious questions," he said, "has given rise to + various constructions, but the best advised, who have peace and unity at + heart, understand the King's intention to be to conserve the state of + these Provinces and the religion in its purity. My hope is that his + Majesty's good opinion will be followed and adopted according to the most + appropriate methods." + </p> + <p> + Can it be believed that the statesman whose upright patriotism, + moderation, and nobleness of purpose thus breathed through every word + spoken by him in public or whispered to friends was already held up by a + herd of ravening slanderers to obloquy as a traitor and a tyrant? + </p> + <p> + He was growing old and had suffered much from illness during this eventful + summer, but his anxiety for the Commonwealth, caused by these distressing + and superfluous squabbles, were wearing into him more deeply than years or + disease could do. + </p> + <p> + "Owing to my weakness and old age I can't go up-stairs as well as I used," + he said,—[Barneveld to Caron 31 July and 21 Aug. 1617. (H. Arch. + MS.)]—"and these religious dissensions cause me sometimes such + disturbance of mind as will ere long become intolerable, because of my + indisposition and because of the cry of my heart at the course people are + pursuing here. I reflect that at the time of Duke Casimir and the Prince + of Chimay exactly such a course was held in Flanders and in Lord + Leicester's time in the city of Utrecht, as is best known to yourself. My + hope is fixed on the Lord God Almighty, and that He will make those well + ashamed who are laying anything to heart save his honour and glory and the + welfare of our country with maintenance of its freedom and laws. I mean + unchangeably to live and die for them . . . . Believe firmly that all + representations to the contrary are vile calumnies." + </p> + <p> + Before leaving for Vianen in the middle of August of this year (1617) the + Advocate had an interview with the Prince. There had been no open rupture + between them, and Barneveld was most anxious to avoid a quarrel with one + to whose interests and honour he had always been devoted. He did not cling + to power nor office. On the contrary, he had repeatedly importuned the + States to accept his resignation, hoping that perhaps these unhappy + dissensions might be quieted by his removal from the scene. He now told + the Prince that the misunderstanding between them arising from these + religious disputes was so painful to his heart that he would make and had + made every possible effort towards conciliation and amicable settlement of + the controversy. He saw no means now, he said, of bringing about unity, + unless his Excellency were willing to make some proposition for + arrangement. This he earnestly implored the Prince to do, assuring him of + his sincere and upright affection for him and his wish to support such + measures to the best of his ability and to do everything for the + furtherance of his reputation and necessary authority. He was so desirous + of this result, he said, that he would propose now as he did at the time + of the Truce negotiations to lay down all his offices, leaving his + Excellency to guide the whole course of affairs according to his best + judgment. He had already taken a resolution, if no means of accommodation + were possible, to retire to his Gunterstein estate and there remain till + the next meeting of the assembly; when he would ask leave to retire for at + least a year; in order to occupy himself with a revision and collation of + the charters, laws, and other state papers of the country which were in + his keeping, and which it was needful to bring into an orderly condition. + Meantime some scheme might be found for arranging the religious + differences, more effective than any he had been able to devise. + </p> + <p> + His appeal seems to have glanced powerlessly upon the iron reticence of + Maurice, and the Advocate took his departure disheartened. Later in the + autumn, so warm a remonstrance was made to him by the leading nobles and + deputies of Holland against his contemplated withdrawal from his post that + it seemed a dereliction of duty on his part to retire. He remained to + battle with the storm and to see "with anguish of heart," as he expressed + it, the course religious affairs were taking. + </p> + <p> + The States of Utrecht on the 26th August resolved that on account of the + gathering of large masses of troops in the countries immediately adjoining + their borders, especially in the Episcopate of Cologne, by aid of Spanish + money, it was expedient for them to enlist a protective force of six + companies of regular soldiers in order to save the city from sudden and + overwhelming attack by foreign troops. + </p> + <p> + Even if the danger from without were magnified in this preamble, which is + by no means certain, there seemed to be no doubt on the subject in the + minds of the magistrates. They believed that they had the right to protect + and that they were bound to protect their ancient city from sudden + assault, whether by Spanish soldiers or by organized mobs attempting, as + had been done in Rotterdam, Oudewater, and other towns, to overawe the + civil authority in the interest of the Contra-Remonstrants. + </p> + <p> + Six nobles of Utrecht were accordingly commissioned to raise the troops. A + week later they had been enlisted, sworn to obey in all things the States + of Utrecht, and to take orders from no one else. Three days later the + States of Utrecht addressed a letter to their Mightinesses the + States-General and to his Excellency the Prince, notifying them that for + the reasons stated in the resolution cited the six companies had been + levied. There seemed in these proceedings to be no thought of mutiny or + rebellion, the province considering itself as acting within its + unquestionable rights as a sovereign state and without any exaggeration of + the imperious circumstances of the case. + </p> + <p> + Nor did the States-General and the Stadholder at that moment affect to + dispute the rights of Utrecht, nor raise a doubt as to the legality of the + proceedings. The committee sent thither by the States-General, the Prince, + and the council of state in their written answer to the letter of the + Utrecht government declared the reasons given for the enrolment of the six + companies to be insufficient and the measure itself highly dangerous. They + complained, but in very courteous language, that the soldiers had been + levied without giving the least notice thereof to the general government, + without asking its advice, or waiting for any communication from it, and + they reminded the States of Utrecht that they might always rely upon the + States-General and his Excellency, who were still ready, as they had been + seven years before (1610), to protect them against every enemy and any + danger. + </p> + <p> + The conflict between a single province of the confederacy and the + authority of the general government had thus been brought to a direct + issue; to the test of arms. For, notwithstanding the preamble to the + resolution of the Utrecht Assembly just cited, there could be little + question that the resolve itself was a natural corollary of the famous + "Sharp Resolution," passed by the States of Holland three weeks before. + Utrecht was in arms to prevent, among other things at least, the forcing + upon them by a majority of the States-General of the National Synod to + which they were opposed, the seizure of churches by the + Contra-Remonstrants, and the destruction of life and property by inflamed + mobs. + </p> + <p> + There is no doubt that Barneveld deeply deplored the issue, but that he + felt himself bound to accept it. The innate absurdity of a constitutional + system under which each of the seven members was sovereign and independent + and the head was at the mercy of the members could not be more flagrantly + illustrated. In the bloody battles which seemed impending in the streets + of Utrecht and in all the principal cities of the Netherlands between the + soldiers of sovereign states and soldiers of a general government which + was not sovereign, the letter of the law and the records of history were + unquestionably on the aide of the provincial and against the general + authority. Yet to nullify the authority of the States-General by force of + arms at this supreme moment was to stultify all government whatever. It + was an awful dilemma, and it is difficult here fully to sympathize with + the Advocate, for he it was who inspired, without dictating, the course of + the Utrecht proceedings. + </p> + <p> + With him patriotism seemed at this moment to dwindle into provincialism, + the statesman to shrink into the lawyer. + </p> + <p> + Certainly there was no guilt in the proceedings. There was no crime in the + heart of the Advocate. He had exhausted himself with appeals in favour of + moderation, conciliation, compromise. He had worked night and day with all + the energy of a pure soul and a great mind to assuage religious hatreds + and avert civil dissensions. He was overpowered. He had frequently desired + to be released from all his functions, but as dangers thickened over the + Provinces, he felt it his duty so long as he remained at his post to abide + by the law as the only anchor in the storm. Not rising in his mind to the + height of a national idea, and especially averse from it when embodied in + the repulsive form of religious uniformity, he did not shrink from a + contest which he had not provoked, but had done his utmost to avert. But + even then he did not anticipate civil war. The enrolling of the + Waartgelders was an armed protest, a symbol of legal conviction rather + than a serious effort to resist the general government. And this is the + chief justification of his course from a political point of view. It was + ridiculous to suppose that with a few hundred soldiers hastily enlisted—and + there were less than 1800 Waartgelders levied throughout the Provinces and + under the orders of civil magistrates—a serious contest was intended + against a splendidly disciplined army of veteran troops, commanded by the + first general of the age. + </p> + <p> + From a legal point of view Barneveld considered his position impregnable. + </p> + <p> + The controversy is curious, especially for Americans, and for all who are + interested in the analysis of federal institutions and of republican + principles, whether aristocratic or democratic. The States of Utrecht + replied in decorous but firm language to the committee of the + States-General that they had raised the six companies in accordance with + their sovereign right so to do, and that they were resolved to maintain + them. They could not wait as they had been obliged to do in the time of + the Earl of Leicester and more recently in 1610 until they had been + surprised and overwhelmed by the enemy before the States-General and his + Excellency the Prince could come to their rescue. They could not suffer + all the evils of tumults, conspiracies, and foreign invasion, without + defending themselves. + </p> + <p> + Making use, they said, of the right of sovereignty which in their province + belonged to them alone, they thought it better to prevent in time and by + convenient means such fire and mischief than to look on while it kindled + and spread into a conflagration, and to go about imploring aid from their + fellow confederates who, God better it, had enough in these times to do at + home. This would only be to bring them as well as this province into + trouble, disquiet, and expense. "My Lords the States of Utrecht have + conserved and continually exercised this right of sovereignty in its + entireness ever since renouncing the King of Spain. Every contract, + ordinance, and instruction of the States-General has been in conformity + with it, and the States of Utrecht are convinced that the States of not + one of their confederate provinces would yield an atom of its + sovereignty." + </p> + <p> + They reminded the general government that by the 1st article of the + "Closer Union" of Utrecht, on which that assembly was founded, it was + bound to support the States of the respective provinces and strengthen + them with counsel, treasure, and blood if their respective rights, more + especially their individual sovereignty, the most precious of all, should + be assailed. To refrain from so doing would be to violate a solemn + contract. They further reminded the council of state that by its + institution the States-Provincial had not abdicated their respective + sovereignties, but had reserved it in all matters not specifically + mentioned in the original instruction by which it was created. + </p> + <p> + Two days afterwards Arnold van Randwyck and three other commissioners were + instructed by the general government to confer with the States of Utrecht, + to tell them that their reply was deemed unsatisfactory, that their + reasons for levying soldiers in times when all good people should be + seeking to restore harmony and mitigate dissension were insufficient, and + to request them to disband those levies without prejudice in so doing to + the laws and liberties of the province and city of Utrecht. + </p> + <p> + Here was perhaps an opening for a compromise, the instruction being not + without ingenuity, and the word sovereignty in regard either to the + general government or the separate provinces being carefully omitted. Soon + afterwards, too, the States-General went many steps farther in the path of + concession, for they made another appeal to the government of Utrecht to + disband the Waartgelders on the ground of expediency, and in so doing + almost expressly admitted the doctrine of provincial sovereignty. It is + important in regard to subsequent events to observe this virtual + admission. + </p> + <p> + "Your Honours lay especial stress upon the right of sovereignty as + belonging to you alone in your province," they said, "and dispute + therefore at great length upon the power and authority of the Generality, + of his Excellency, and of the state council. But you will please to + consider that there is here no question of this, as our commissioners had + no instructions to bring this into dispute in the least, and most + certainly have not done so. We have only in effect questioned whether that + which one has an undoubted right to do can at all times be appropriately + and becomingly done, whether it was fitting that your Honours, contrary to + custom, should undertake these new levies upon a special oath and + commission, and effectively complete the measure without giving the + slightest notice thereof to the Generality." + </p> + <p> + It may fairly be said that the question in debate was entirely conceded in + this remarkable paper, which was addressed by the States-General, the + Prince-Stadholder, and the council of state to the government of Utrecht. + It should be observed, too, that while distinctly repudiating the + intention of disputing the sovereignty of that province, they carefully + abstain from using the word in relation to themselves, speaking only of + the might and authority of the Generality, the Prince, and the council. + </p> + <p> + There was now a pause in the public discussion. The soldiers were not + disbanded, as the States of Utrecht were less occupied with establishing + the soundness of their theory than with securing its practical results. + They knew very well, and the Advocate knew very well, that the intention + to force a national synod by a majority vote of the Assembly of the + States-General existed more strongly than ever, and they meant to resist + it to the last. The attempt was in their opinion an audacious violation of + the fundamental pact on which the Confederacy was founded. Its success + would be to establish the sacerdotal power in triumph over the civil + authority. + </p> + <p> + During this period the Advocate was resident in Utrecht. For change of + air, ostensibly at least, he had absented himself from the seat of + government, and was during several weeks under the hands of his old friend + and physician Dr. Saul. He was strictly advised to abstain altogether from + political business, but he might as well have attempted to abstain from + food and drink. Gillis van Ledenberg, secretary of the States of Utrecht, + visited him frequently. The proposition to enlist the Waartgelders had + been originally made in the Assembly by its president, and warmly seconded + by van Ledenberg, who doubtless conferred afterwards with Barneveld in + person, but informally and at his lodgings. + </p> + <p> + It was almost inevitable that this should be the case, nor did the + Advocate make much mystery as to the course of action which he deemed + indispensable at this period. Believing it possible that some sudden and + desperate attempt might be made by evil disposed people, he agreed with + the States of Utrecht in the propriety of taking measures of precaution. + They were resolved not to look quietly on while soldiers and rabble under + guidance perhaps of violent Contra-Remonstrant preachers took possession + of the churches and even of the city itself, as had already been done in + several towns. + </p> + <p> + The chief practical object of enlisting the six companies was that the + city might be armed against popular tumults, and they feared that the + ordinary military force might be withdrawn. + </p> + <p> + When Captain Hartvelt, in his own name and that of the other officers of + those companies, said that they were all resolved never to use their + weapons against the Stadholder or the States-General, he was answered that + they would never be required to do so. They, however, made oath to serve + against those who should seek to trouble the peace of the Province of + Utrecht in ecclesiastical or political matters, and further against all + enemies of the common country. At the same time it was deemed expedient to + guard against a surprise of any kind and to keep watch and ward. + </p> + <p> + "I cannot quite believe in the French companies," said the Advocate in a + private billet to Ledenberg. "It would be extremely well that not only + good watch should be kept at the city gates, but also that one might from + above and below the river Lek be assuredly advised from the nearest cities + if any soldiers are coming up or down, and that the same might be done in + regard to Amersfoort." At the bottom of this letter, which was destined to + become historical and will be afterwards referred to, the Advocate wrote, + as he not unfrequently did, upon his private notes, "When read, burn, and + send me back the two enclosed letters." + </p> + <p> + The letter lies in the Archives unburned to this day, but, harmless as it + looked, it was to serve as a nail in more than one coffin. + </p> + <p> + In his confidential letters to trusted friends he complained of "great + physical debility growing out of heavy sorrow," and described himself as + entering upon his seventy-first year and no longer fit for hard political + labour. The sincere grief, profound love of country, and desire that some + remedy might be found for impending disaster, is stamped upon all his + utterances whether official or secret. + </p> + <p> + "The troubles growing out of the religious differences," he said, "are + running into all sorts of extremities. It is feared that an attempt will + be made against the laws of the land through extraordinary ways, and by + popular tumults to take from the supreme authority of the respective + provinces the right to govern clerical persons and regulate clerical + disputes, and to place it at the disposition of ecclesiastics and of a + National Synod. + </p> + <p> + "It is thought too that the soldiers will be forbidden to assist the civil + supreme power and the government of cities in defending themselves from + acts of violence which under pretext of religion will be attempted against + the law and the commands of the magistrates. + </p> + <p> + "This seems to conflict with the common law of the respective provinces, + each of which from all times had right of sovereignty and supreme + authority within its territory and specifically reserved it in all + treaties and especially in that of the Nearer Union . . . . The provinces + have always regulated clerical matters each for itself. The Province of + Utrecht, which under the pretext of religion is now most troubled, made + stipulations to this effect, when it took his Excellency for governor, + even more stringent than any others. As for Holland, she never imagined + that one could ever raise a question on the subject . . . . All good men + ought to do their best to prevent the enemies to the welfare of these + Provinces from making profit out of our troubles." + </p> + <p> + The whole matter he regarded as a struggle between the clergy and the + civil power for mastery over the state, as an attempt to subject + provincial autonomy to the central government purely in the interest of + the priesthood of a particular sect. The remedy he fondly hoped for was + moderation and union within the Church itself. He could never imagine the + necessity for this ferocious animosity not only between Christians but + between two branches of the Reformed Church. He could never be made to + believe that the Five Points of the Remonstrance had dug an abyss too deep + and wide ever to be bridged between brethren lately of one faith as of one + fatherland. He was unceasing in his prayers and appeals for "mutual + toleration on the subject of predestination." Perhaps the bitterness, + almost amounting to frenzy, with which abstruse points of casuistry were + then debated, and which converted differences of opinion upon metaphysical + divinity into deadly hatred and thirst for blood, is already obsolete or + on the road to become so. If so, then was Barneveld in advance of his age, + and it would have been better for the peace of the world and the progress + of Christianity if more of his contemporaries had placed themselves on his + level. + </p> + <p> + He was no theologian, but he believed himself to be a Christian, and he + certainly was a thoughtful and a humble one. He had not the arrogance to + pierce behind the veil and assume to read the inscrutable thoughts of the + Omnipotent. It was a cruel fate that his humility upon subjects which he + believed to be beyond the scope of human reason should have been tortured + by his enemies into a crime, and that because he hoped for religious + toleration he should be accused of treason to the Commonwealth. + </p> + <p> + "Believe and cause others to believe," he said, "that I am and with the + grace of God hope to continue an upright patriot as I have proved myself + to be in these last forty-two years spent in the public service. In the + matter of differential religious points I remain of the opinions which I + have held for more than fifty years, and in which I hope to live and die, + to wit, that a good Christian man ought to believe that he is predestined + to eternal salvation through God's grace, giving for reasons that he + through God's grace has a firm belief that his salvation is founded purely + on God's grace and the expiation of our sins through our Saviour Jesus + Christ, and that if he should fall into any sins his firm trust is that + God will not let him perish in them, but mercifully turn him to + repentance, so that he may continue in the same belief to the last." + </p> + <p> + These expressions were contained in a letter to Caron with the intention + doubtless that they should be communicated to the King of Great Britain, + and it is a curious illustration of the spirit of the age, this picture of + the leading statesman of a great republic unfolding his religious + convictions for private inspection by the monarch of an allied nation. + More than anything else it exemplifies the close commixture of theology, + politics, and diplomacy in that age, and especially in those two + countries. + </p> + <p> + Formerly, as we have seen, the King considered a too curious fathoming of + divine mysteries as highly reprehensible, particularly for the common + people. Although he knew more about them than any one else, he avowed that + even his knowledge in this respect was not perfect. It was matter of deep + regret with the Advocate that his Majesty had not held to his former + positions, and that he had disowned his original letters. + </p> + <p> + "I believe my sentiments thus expressed," he said, "to be in accordance + with Scripture, and I have always held to them without teasing my brains + with the precise decrees of reprobation, foreknowledge, or the like, as + matters above my comprehension. I have always counselled Christian + moderation. The States of Holland have followed the spirit of his + Majesty's letters, but our antagonists have rejected them and with + seditious talk, sermons, and the spreading of infamous libels have brought + matters to their present condition. There have been excesses on the other + side as well." + </p> + <p> + He then made a slight, somewhat shadowy allusion to schemes known to be + afloat for conferring the sovereignty upon Maurice. We have seen that at + former periods he had entertained this subject and discussed it privately + with those who were not only friendly but devoted to the Stadholder, and + that he had arrived at the conclusion that it would not be for the + interest of the Prince to encourage the project. Above all he was sternly + opposed to the idea of attempting to compass it by secret intrigue. Should + such an arrangement be publicly discussed and legally completed, it would + not meet with his unconditional opposition. + </p> + <p> + "The Lord God knows," he said, "whether underneath all these movements + does not lie the design of the year 1600, well known to you. As for me, + believe that I am and by God's grace hope to remain, what I always was, an + upright patriot, a defender of the true Christian religion, of the public + authority, and of all the power that has been and in future may be legally + conferred upon his Excellency. Believe that all things said, written, or + spread to the contrary are falsehoods and calumnies." + </p> + <p> + He was still in Utrecht, but about to leave for the Hague, with health + somewhat improved and in better spirits in regard to public matters. + </p> + <p> + "Although I have entered my seventy-first year," he said, "I trust still + to be of some service to the Commonwealth and to my friends . . . . Don't + consider an arrangement of our affairs desperate. I hope for better + things." + </p> + <p> + Soon after his return he was waited upon one Sunday evening, late in + October—being obliged to keep his house on account of continued + indisposition—by a certain solicitor named Nordlingen and informed + that the Prince was about to make a sudden visit to Leyden at four o'clock + next morning. + </p> + <p> + Barneveld knew that the burgomasters and regents were holding a great + banquet that night, and that many of them would probably have been + indulging in potations too deep to leave them fit for serious business. + The agitation of people's minds at that moment made the visit seem rather + a critical one, as there would probably be a mob collected to see the + Stadholder, and he was anxious both in the interest of the Prince and the + regents and of both religious denominations that no painful incidents + should occur if it was in his power to prevent them. + </p> + <p> + He was aware that his son-in-law, Cornelis van der Myle, had been invited + to the banquet, and that he was wont to carry his wine discreetly. He + therefore requested Nordlingen to proceed to Leyden that night and seek an + interview with van der Myle without delay. By thus communicating the + intelligence of the expected visit to one who, he felt sure, would do his + best to provide for a respectful and suitable reception of the Prince, + notwithstanding the exhilarated condition in which the magistrates would + probably find themselves, the Advocate hoped to prevent any riot or + tumultuous demonstration of any kind. At least he would act conformably to + his duty and keep his conscience clear should disasters ensue. + </p> + <p> + Later in the night he learned that Maurice was going not to Leyden but to + Delft, and he accordingly despatched a special messenger to arrive before + dawn at Leyden in order to inform van der Myle of this change in the + Prince's movements. Nothing seemed simpler or more judicious than these + precautions on the part of Barneveld. They could not fail, however, to be + tortured into sedition, conspiracy, and treason. + </p> + <p> + Towards the end of the year a meeting of the nobles and knights of Holland + under the leadership of Barneveld was held to discuss the famous Sharp + Resolution of 4th August and the letters and arguments advanced against it + by the Stadholder and the council of state. It was unanimously resolved by + this body, in which they were subsequently followed by a large majority of + the States of Holland, to maintain that resolution and its consequences + and to oppose the National Synod. They further resolved that a legal + provincial synod should be convoked by the States of Holland and under + their authority and supervision. The object of such synod should be to + devise "some means of accommodation, mutual toleration, and Christian + settlement of differences in regard to the Five Points in question." + </p> + <p> + In case such compromise should unfortunately not be arranged, then it was + resolved to invite to the assembly two or three persons from France, as + many from England, from Germany, and from Switzerland, to aid in the + consultations. Should a method of reconciliation and mutual toleration + still remain undiscovered, then, in consideration that the whole Christian + world was interested in composing these dissensions, it was proposed that + a "synodal assembly of all Christendom," a Protestant oecumenical council, + should in some solemn manner be convoked. + </p> + <p> + These resolutions and propositions were all brought forward by the + Advocate, and the draughts of them in his handwriting remain. They are the + unimpeachable evidences of his earnest desire to put an end to these + unhappy disputes and disorders in the only way which he considered + constitutional. + </p> + <p> + Before the close of the year the States of Holland, in accordance with the + foregoing advice of the nobles, passed a resolution, the minutes of which + were drawn up by the hand of the Advocate, and in which they persisted in + their opposition to the National Synod. They declared by a large majority + of votes that the Assembly of the States-General without the unanimous + consent of the Provincial States were not competent according to the Union + of Utrecht—the fundamental law of the General Assembly—to + regulate religious affairs, but that this right belonged to the separate + provinces, each within its own domain. + </p> + <p> + They further resolved that as they were bound by solemn oath to maintain + the laws and liberties of Holland, they could not surrender this right to + the Generality, nor allow it to be usurped by any one, but in order to + settle the question of the Five Points, the only cause known to them of + the present disturbances, they were content under: their own authority to + convoke a provincial synod within three months, at their own cost, and to + invite the respective provinces, as many of them as thought good, to send + to this meeting a certain number of pious and learned theologians. + </p> + <p> + It is difficult to see why the course thus unanimously proposed by the + nobles of Holland, under guidance of Barneveld, and subsequently by a + majority of the States of that province, would not have been as expedient + as it was legal. But we are less concerned with that point now than with + the illustrations afforded by these long buried documents of the + patriotism and sagacity of a man than whom no human creature was ever more + foully slandered. + </p> + <p> + It will be constantly borne in mind that he regarded this religious + controversy purely from a political, legal, and constitutional—and + not from a theological-point of view. He believed that grave danger to the + Fatherland was lurking under this attempt, by the general government, to + usurp the power of dictating the religious creed of all the provinces. + Especially he deplored the evil influence exerted by the King of England + since his abandonment of the principles announced in his famous letter to + the States in the year 1613. All that the Advocate struggled for was + moderation and mutual toleration within the Reformed Church. He felt that + a wider scheme of forbearance was impracticable. If a dream of general + religious equality had ever floated before him or before any one in that + age, he would have felt it to be a dream which would be a reality nowhere + until centuries should have passed away. Yet that moderation, patience, + tolerance, and respect for written law paved the road to that wider and + loftier region can scarcely be doubted. + </p> + <p> + Carleton, subservient to every changing theological whim of his master, + was as vehement and as insolent now in enforcing the intolerant views of + James as he had previously been in supporting the counsels to tolerance + contained in the original letters of that monarch. + </p> + <p> + The Ambassador was often at the Advocate's bed-side during his illness + that summer, enforcing, instructing, denouncing, contradicting. He was + never weary of fulfilling his duties of tuition, but the patient + Barneveld; haughty and overbearing as he was often described to be, rarely + used a harsh or vindictive word regarding him in his letters. + </p> + <p> + "The ambassador of France," he said, "has been heard before the Assembly + of the States-General, and has made warm appeals in favour of union and + mutual toleration as his Majesty of Great Britain so wisely did in his + letters of 1613 . . . . If his Majesty could only be induced to write + fresh letters in similar tone, I should venture to hope better fruits from + them than from this attempt to thrust a national synod upon our necks, + which many of us hold to be contrary to law, reason, and the Act of + Union." + </p> + <p> + So long as it was possible to hope that the action of the States of + Holland would prevent such a catastrophe, he worked hard to direct them in + what he deemed the right course. + </p> + <p> + "Our political and religious differences," he said, "stand between hope + and fear." + </p> + <p> + The hope was in the acceptance of the Provincial Synod—the fear lest + the National Synod should be carried by a minority of the cities of + Holland combining with a majority of the other Provincial States. + </p> + <p> + "This would be in violation," he said, "of the so-called Religious Peace, + the Act of Union, the treaty with the Duke of Anjou, the negotiations of + the States of Utrecht, and with Prince Maurice in 1590 with cognizance of + the States-General and those of Holland for, the governorship of that + province, the custom of the Generality for the last thirty years according + to which religious matters have always been left to the disposition of the + States of each province . . . . Carleton is strenuously urging this course + in his Majesty's name, and I fear that in the present state of our humours + great troubles will be the result." + </p> + <p> + The expulsion by an armed mob, in the past year, of a Remonstrant preacher + at Oudewater, the overpowering of the magistracy and the forcing on of + illegal elections in that and other cities, had given him and all earnest + patriots grave cause for apprehension. They were dreading, said Barneveld, + a course of crimes similar to those which under the Earl of Leicester's + government had afflicted Leyden and Utrecht. + </p> + <p> + "Efforts are incessant to make the Remonstrants hateful," he said to + Caron, "but go forward resolutely and firmly in the conviction that our + friends here are as animated in their opposition to the Spanish dominion + now and by God's grace will so remain as they have ever proved themselves + to be, not only by words, but works. I fear that Mr. Carleton gives too + much belief to the enviers of our peace and tranquillity under pretext of + religion, but it is more from ignorance than malice." + </p> + <p> + Those who have followed the course of the Advocate's correspondence, + conversation, and actions, as thus far detailed, can judge of the gigantic + nature of the calumny by which he was now assailed. That this man, into + every fibre of whose nature was woven undying hostility to Spain, as the + great foe to national independence and religious liberty throughout the + continent of Europe, whose every effort, as we have seen, during all these + years of nominal peace had been to organize a system of general European + defence against the war now actually begun upon Protestantism, should be + accused of being a partisan of Spain, a creature of Spain, a pensioner of + Spain, was enough to make honest men pray that the earth might be + swallowed up. If such idiotic calumnies could be believed, what patriot in + the world could not be doubted? Yet they were believed. Barneveld was + bought by Spanish gold. He had received whole boxes full of Spanish + pistoles, straight from Brussels! For his part in the truce negotiations + he had received 120,000 ducats in one lump. + </p> + <p> + "It was plain," said the greatest man in the country to another great man, + "that Barneveld and his party are on the road to Spain." + </p> + <p> + "Then it were well to have proof of it," said the great man. + </p> + <p> + "Not yet time," was the reply. "We must flatten out a few of them first." + </p> + <p> + Prince Maurice had told the Princess-Dowager the winter before (8th + December 1616) that those dissensions would never be decided except by use + of weapons; and he now mentioned to her that he had received information + from Brussels, which he in part believed, that the Advocate was a + stipendiary of Spain. Yet he had once said, to the same Princess Louise, + of this stipendiary that "the services which the Advocate had rendered to + the House of Nassau were so great that all the members of that house might + well look upon him not as their friend but their father." Councillor van + Maldere, President of the States of Zealand, and a confidential friend of + Maurice, was going about the Hague saying that "one must string up seven + or eight Remonstrants on the gallows; then there might be some + improvement." + </p> + <p> + As for Arminius and Uytenbogaert, people had long told each other and + firmly believed it, and were amazed when any incredulity was expressed in + regard to it, that they were in regular and intimate correspondence with + the Jesuits, that they had received large sums from Rome, and that both + had been promised cardinals' hats. That Barneveld and his friend + Uytenbogaert were regular pensioners of Spain admitted of no dispute + whatever. "It was as true as the Holy Evangel." The ludicrous chatter had + been passed over with absolute disdain by the persons attacked, but + calumny is often a stronger and more lasting power than disdain. It proved + to be in these cases. + </p> + <p> + "You have the plague mark on your flesh, oh pope, oh pensioner," said one + libeller. "There are letters safely preserved to make your process for + you. Look out for your head. Many have sworn your death, for it is more + than time that you were out of the world. We shall prove, oh great bribed + one, that you had the 120,000 little ducats." The preacher Uytenbogaert + was also said to have had 80,000 ducats for his share. "Go to Brussels," + said the pamphleteer; "it all stands clearly written out on the register + with the names and surnames of all you great bribe-takers." + </p> + <p> + These were choice morsels from the lampoon of the notary Danckaerts. + </p> + <p> + "We are tortured more and more with religious differences," wrote + Barneveld; "with acts of popular violence growing out of them the more + continuously as they remain unpunished, and with ever increasing + jealousies and suspicions. The factious libels become daily more numerous + and more impudent, and no man comes undamaged from the field. I, as a + reward for all my troubles, labours, and sorrows, have three double + portions of them. I hope however to overcome all by God's grace and to + defend my actions with all honourable men so long as right and reason have + place in the world, as to which many begin to doubt. If his Majesty had + been pleased to stick to the letters of 1613, we should never have got + into these difficulties . . . . It were better in my opinion that Carleton + should be instructed to negotiate in the spirit of those epistles rather + than to torment us with the National Synod, which will do more harm than + good." + </p> + <p> + It is impossible not to notice the simplicity and patience with which the + Advocate, in the discharge of his duty as minister of foreign affairs, + kept the leading envoys of the Republic privately informed of events which + were becoming day by day more dangerous to the public interests and his + own safety. If ever a perfectly quiet conscience was revealed in the + correspondence of a statesman, it was to be found in these letters. + </p> + <p> + Calmly writing to thank Caron for some very satisfactory English beer + which the Ambassador had been sending him from London, he proceeded to + speak again of the religious dissensions and their consequences. He sent + him the letter and remonstrance which he had felt himself obliged to make, + and which he had been urged by his ever warm and constant friend the widow + of William the Silent to make on the subject of "the seditious libels, + full of lies and calumnies got up by conspiracy against him." These + letters were never published, however, until years after he had been in + his grave. + </p> + <p> + "I know that you are displeased with the injustice done me," he said, "but + I see no improvement. People are determined to force through the National + Synod. The two last ones did much harm. This will do ten times more, so + intensely embittered are men's tempers against each other." Again he + deplored the King's departure from his letters of 1613, by adherence to + which almost all the troubles would have been spared. + </p> + <p> + It is curious too to observe the contrast between public opinion in Great + Britain, including its government, in regard to the constitution of the + United Provinces at that period of domestic dissensions and incipient + civil war and the general impressions manifested in the same nation two + centuries and a half later, on the outbreak of the slavery rebellion, as + to the constitution of the United States. + </p> + <p> + The States in arms against the general government on the other side of the + Atlantic were strangely but not disingenuously assumed to be sovereign and + independent, and many statesmen and a leading portion of the public + justified them in their attempt to shake off the central government as if + it were but a board of agency established by treaty and terminable at + pleasure of any one of among sovereigns and terminable at pleasure of any + one of them. + </p> + <p> + Yet even a superficial glance at the written constitution of the Republic + showed that its main object was to convert what had been a confederacy + into an Incorporation; and that the very essence of its renewed political + existence was an organic law laid down by a whole people in their + primitive capacity in place of a league banding together a group of + independent little corporations. The chief attributes of sovereignty—the + rights of war and peace, of coinage, of holding armies and navies, of + issuing bills of credit, of foreign relations, of regulating and taxing + foreign commerce—having been taken from the separate States by the + united people thereof and bestowed upon a government provided with a + single executive head, with a supreme tribunal, with a popular house of + representatives and a senate, and with power to deal directly with the + life and property of every individual in the land, it was strange indeed + that the feudal, and in America utterly unmeaning, word Sovereign should + have been thought an appropriate term for the different States which had + fused themselves three-quarters of a century before into a Union. + </p> + <p> + When it is remembered too that the only dissolvent of this Union was the + intention to perpetuate human slavery, the logic seemed somewhat perverse + by which the separate sovereignty of the States was deduced from the + constitution of 1787. + </p> + <p> + On the other hand, the Union of Utrecht of 1579 was a league of petty + sovereignties; a compact less binding and more fragile than the Articles + of Union made almost exactly two hundred years later in America, and the + worthlessness of which, after the strain of war was over, had been + demonstrated in the dreary years immediately following the peace of 1783. + One after another certain Netherland provinces had abjured their + allegiance to Spain, some of them afterwards relapsing under it, some + having been conquered by the others, while one of them, Holland, had for a + long time borne the greater part of the expense and burthen of the war. + </p> + <p> + "Holland," said the Advocate, "has brought almost all the provinces to + their liberty. To receive laws from them or from their clerical people now + is what our State cannot endure. It is against her laws and customs, in + the enjoyment of which the other provinces and his Excellency as Governor + of Holland are bound to protect us." + </p> + <p> + And as the preservation of chattel slavery in the one case seemed a + legitimate ground for destroying a government which had as definite an + existence as any government known to mankind, so the resolve to impose a + single religious creed upon many millions of individuals was held by the + King and government of Great Britain to be a substantial reason for + imagining a central sovereignty which had never existed at all. This was + still more surprising as the right to dispose of ecclesiastical affairs + and persons had been expressly reserved by the separate provinces in + perfectly plain language in the Treaty of Union. + </p> + <p> + "If the King were better informed," said Barneveld, "of our system and + laws, we should have better hope than now. But one supposes through + notorious error in foreign countries that the sovereignty stands with the + States-General which is not the case, except in things which by the + Articles of Closer Union have been made common to all the provinces, while + in other matters, as religion, justice, and polity, the sovereignty + remains with each province, which foreigners seem unable to comprehend." + </p> + <p> + Early in June, Carleton took his departure for England on leave of + absence. He received a present from the States of 3000 florins, and went + over in very ill-humour with Barneveld. "Mr. Ambassador is much offended + and prejudiced," said the Advocate, "but I know that he will religiously + carry out the orders of his Majesty. I trust that his Majesty can admit + different sentiments on predestination and its consequences, and that in a + kingdom where the supreme civil authority defends religion the system of + the Puritans will have no foothold." + </p> + <p> + Certainly James could not be accused of allowing the system of the + Puritans much foothold in England, but he had made the ingenious discovery + that Puritanism in Holland was a very different thing from Puritanism in + the Netherlands. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + + Acts of violence which under pretext of religion + Adulation for inferiors whom they despise + Calumny is often a stronger and more lasting power than disdain + Created one child for damnation and another for salvation + Depths of credulity men in all ages can sink + Devote himself to his gout and to his fair young wife + Furious mob set upon the house of Rem Bischop + Highborn demagogues in that as in every age affect adulation + In this he was much behind his age or before it + Logic is rarely the quality on which kings pride themselves + Necessity of deferring to powerful sovereigns + Not his custom nor that of his councillors to go to bed + Partisans wanted not accommodation but victory + Puritanism in Holland was a very different thing from England + Seemed bent on self-destruction + Stand between hope and fear + The evils resulting from a confederate system of government + To stifle for ever the right of free enquiry +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVI. 1618 + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Maurice revolutionizes the Provinces—Danckaert's libellous Pamphlet + —Barneveld's Appeal to the Prince—Barneveld's Remonstrance to the + States—The Stadholder at Amsterdam—The Treaty of Truce nearly + expired—King of Spain and Archduke Albert—Scheme for recovering + the Provinces—Secret Plot to make Maurice Sovereign. +</pre> + <p> + Early in the year (1618) Maurice set himself about revolutionizing the + provinces on which he could not yet thoroughly rely. The town of Nymegen + since its recovery from the Spaniards near the close of the preceding + century had held its municipal government, as it were, at the option of + the Prince. During the war he had been, by the terms of surrender, + empowered to appoint and to change its magistracy at will. No change had + occurred for many years, but as the government had of late fallen into the + hands of the Barneveldians, and as Maurice considered the Truce to be a + continuance of the war, he appeared suddenly, in the city at the head of a + body of troops and surrounded by his lifeguard. Summoning the whole board + of magistrates into the townhouse, he gave them all notice to quit, + disbanding them like a company of mutinous soldiery, and immediately + afterwards appointed a fresh list of functionaries in their stead. + </p> + <p> + This done, he proceeded to Arnhem, where the States of Gelderland were in + session, appeared before that body, and made a brief announcement of the + revolution which he had so succinctly effected in the most considerable + town of their province. The Assembly, which seems, like many other + assemblies at precisely this epoch, to have had an extraordinary capacity + for yielding to gentle violence, made but little resistance to the extreme + measures now undertaken by the Stadholder, and not only highly applauded + the subjugation of Nymegen, but listened with sympathy to his arguments + against the Waartgelders and in favour of the Synod. + </p> + <p> + Having accomplished so much by a very brief visit to Gelderland, the + Prince proceeded, to Overyssel, and had as little difficulty in bringing + over the wavering minds of that province into orthodoxy and obedience. + Thus there remained but two provinces out of seven that were still + "waartgeldered" and refused to be "synodized." + </p> + <p> + It was rebellion against rebellion. Maurice and his adherents accused the + States' right party of mutiny against himself and the States-General. The + States' right party accused the Contra-Remonstrants in the cities of + mutiny against the lawful sovereignty of each province. + </p> + <p> + The oath of the soldiery, since the foundation of the Republic, had been + to maintain obedience and fidelity to the States-General, the Stadholder, + and the province in which they were garrisoned, and at whose expense they + were paid. It was impossible to harmonize such conflicting duties and + doctrines. Theory had done its best and its worst. The time was fast + approaching, as it always must approach, when fact with its violent besom + would brush away the fine-spun cobwebs which had been so long undisturbed. + </p> + <p> + "I will grind the Advocate and all his party into fine meal," said the + Prince on one occasion. + </p> + <p> + A clever caricature of the time represented a pair of scales hung up in a + great hall. In the one was a heap of parchments, gold chains, and + magisterial robes; the whole bundle being marked the "holy right of each + city." In the other lay a big square, solid, ironclasped volume, marked + "Institutes of Calvin." Each scale was respectively watched by Gomarus and + by Arminius. The judges, gowned, furred, and ruffed, were looking + decorously on, when suddenly the Stadholder, in full military attire, was + seen rushing into the apartment and flinging his sword into the scale with + the Institutes. + </p> + <p> + The civic and legal trumpery was of course made to kick the beam. + </p> + <p> + Maurice had organized his campaign this year against the Advocate and his + party as deliberately as he had ever arranged the details of a series of + battles and sieges against the Spaniard. And he was proving himself as + consummate master in political strife as in the great science of war. + </p> + <p> + He no longer made any secret of his conviction that Barneveld was a + traitor to his country, bought with Spanish gold. There was not the + slightest proof for these suspicions, but he asserted them roundly. "The + Advocate is travelling straight to Spain," he said to Count Cuylenborg. + "But we will see who has got the longest purse." + </p> + <p> + And as if it had been a part of the campaign, a prearranged diversion to + the more direct and general assault on the entrenchments of the States' + right party, a horrible personal onslaught was now made from many quarters + upon the Advocate. It was an age of pamphleteering, of venomous, virulent, + unscrupulous libels. And never even in that age had there been anything to + equal the savage attacks upon this great statesman. It moves the gall of + an honest man, even after the lapse of two centuries and a half, to turn + over those long forgotten pages and mark the depths to which political and + theological party spirit could descend. That human creatures can + assimilate themselves so closely to the reptile, and to the subtle devil + within the reptile, when a party end is to be gained is enough to make the + very name of man a term of reproach. + </p> + <p> + Day by day appeared pamphlets, each one more poisonous than its + predecessor. There was hardly a crime that was not laid at the door of + Barneveld and all his kindred. The man who had borne a matchlock in early + youth against the foreign tyrant in days when unsuccessful rebellion meant + martyrdom and torture; who had successfully guided the councils of the + infant commonwealth at a period when most of his accusers were in their + cradles, and when mistake was ruin to the republic; he on whose strong arm + the father of his country had leaned for support; the man who had + organized a political system out of chaos; who had laid down the internal + laws, negotiated the great indispensable alliances, directed the + complicated foreign policy, established the system of national defence, + presided over the successful financial administration of a state + struggling out of mutiny into national existence; who had rocked the + Republic in its cradle and ever borne her in his heart; who had made her + name beloved at home and honoured and dreaded abroad; who had been the + first, when the great Taciturn had at last fallen a victim to the + murderous tyrant of Spain, to place the youthful Maurice in his father's + place, and to inspire the whole country with sublime courage to persist + rather than falter in purpose after so deadly a blow; who was as truly the + founder of the Republic as William had been the author of its + independence,—was now denounced as a traitor, a pope, a tyrant, a + venal hucksterer of his country's liberties. His family name, which had + long been an ancient and knightly one, was defiled and its nobility + disputed; his father and mother, sons and daughters, sisters and brothers, + accused of every imaginable and unimaginable crime, of murder, incest, + robbery, bastardy, fraud, forgery, blasphemy. He had received waggon-loads + of Spanish pistoles; he had been paid 120,000 ducats by Spain for + negotiating the Truce; he was in secret treaty with Archduke Albert to + bring 18,000 Spanish mercenaries across the border to defeat the + machinations of Prince Maurice, destroy his life, or drive him from the + country; all these foul and bitter charges and a thousand similar ones + were rained almost daily upon that grey head. + </p> + <p> + One day the loose sheets of a more than commonly libellous pamphlet were + picked up in the streets of the Hague and placed in the Advocate's hands. + It was the work of the drunken notary Danckaerts already mentioned, then + resident in Amsterdam, and among the papers thus found was a list of + wealthy merchants of that city who had contributed to the expense of its + publication. The opposition of Barneveld to the West India Corporation + could never be forgiven. The Advocate was notified in this production that + he was soon to be summoned to answer for his crimes. The country was weary + of him, he was told, and his life was forfeited. + </p> + <p> + Stung at last beyond endurance by the persistent malice of his enemies, he + came before the States of Holland for redress. Upon his remonstrance the + author of this vile libel was summoned to answer before the upper tribunal + at the Hague for his crime. The city of Amsterdam covered him with the + shield 'de non evocando,' which had so often in cases of less consequence + proved of no protective value, and the notary was never punished, but on + the contrary after a brief lapse of time rewarded as for a meritorious + action. + </p> + <p> + Meantime, the States of Holland, by formal act, took the name and honour + of Barneveld under their immediate protection as a treasure belonging + specially to themselves. Heavy penalties were denounced upon the authors + and printers of these libellous attacks, and large rewards offered for + their detection. Nothing came, however, of such measures. + </p> + <p> + On the 24th April the Advocate addressed a frank, dignified, and + conciliatory letter to the Prince. The rapid progress of calumny against + him had at last alarmed even his steadfast soul, and he thought it best to + make a last appeal to the justice and to the clear intellect of William + the Silent's son. + </p> + <p> + "Gracious Prince," he said, "I observe to my greatest sorrow an entire + estrangement of your Excellency from me, and I fear lest what was said six + months since by certain clerical persons and afterwards by some + politicians concerning your dissatisfaction with me, which until now I + have not been able to believe, must be true. I declare nevertheless with a + sincere heart to have never willingly given cause for any such feeling; + having always been your very faithful servant and with God's help hoping + as such to die. Ten years ago during the negotiations for the Truce I + clearly observed the beginning of this estrangement, but your Excellency + will be graciously pleased to remember that I declared to you at that time + my upright and sincere intention in these negotiations to promote the + service of the country and the interests of your Excellency, and that I + nevertheless offered at the time not only to resign all my functions but + to leave the country rather than remain in office and in the country to + the dissatisfaction of your Excellency." + </p> + <p> + He then rapidly reviewed the causes which had produced the alienation of + which he complained and the melancholy divisions caused by the want of + mutual religious toleration in the Provinces; spoke of his efforts to + foster a spirit of conciliation on the dread subject of predestination, + and referred to the letter of the King of Great Britain deprecating + discussion and schism on this subject, and urging that those favourable to + the views of the Remonstrants ought not to be persecuted. Referring to the + intimate relations which Uytenbogaert had so long enjoyed with the Prince, + the Advocate alluded to the difficulty he had in believing that his + Excellency intended to act in opposition to the efforts of the States of + Holland in the cause of mutual toleration, to the manifest detriment of + the country and of many of its best and truest patriots and the greater + number of the magistrates in all the cities. + </p> + <p> + He reminded the Prince that all attempts to accommodate these fearful + quarrels had been frustrated, and that on his departure the previous year + to Utrecht on account of his health he had again offered to resign all his + offices and to leave Holland altogether rather than find himself in + perpetual opposition to his Excellency. + </p> + <p> + "I begged you in such case," he said, "to lend your hand to the procuring + for me an honourable discharge from My Lords the States, but your + Excellency declared that you could in no wise approve such a step and gave + me hope that some means of accommodating the dissensions would yet be + proposed." + </p> + <p> + "I went then to Vianen, being much indisposed; thence I repaired to + Utrecht to consult my old friend Doctor Saulo Saul, in whose hands I + remained six weeks, not being able, as I hoped, to pass my seventieth + birthday on the 24th September last in my birthplace, the city of + Amersfoort. All this time I heard not one single word or proposal of + accommodation. On the contrary it was determined that by a majority vote, + a thing never heard of before, it was intended against the solemn resolves + of the States of Holland, of Utrecht, and of Overyssel to bring these + religious differences before the Assembly of My Lords the States-General, + a proceeding directly in the teeth of the Act of Union and other treaties, + and before a Synod which people called National, and that meantime every + effort was making to discredit all those who stood up for the laws of + these Provinces and to make them odious and despicable in the eyes of the + common people. + </p> + <p> + "Especially it was I that was thus made the object of hatred and contempt + in their eyes. Hundreds of lies and calumnies, circulated in the form of + libels, seditious pamphlets, and lampoons, compelled me to return from + Utrecht to the Hague. Since that time I have repeatedly offered my + services to your Excellency for the promotion of mutual accommodation and + reconciliation of differences, but without success." + </p> + <p> + He then alluded to the publication with which the country was ringing, + 'The Necessary and Living Discourse of a Spanish Counsellor', and which + was attributed to his former confidential friend, now become his deadliest + foe, ex-Ambassador Francis Aerssens, and warned the Prince that if he + chose, which God forbid, to follow the advice of that seditious libel, + nothing but ruin to the beloved Fatherland and its lovers, to the princely + house of Orange-Nassau and to the Christian religion could be the issue. + "The Spanish government could desire no better counsel," he said, "than + this which these fellows give you; to encourage distrust and estrangement + between your Excellency and the nobles, the cities, and the magistrates of + the land and to propose high and haughty imaginings which are easy enough + to write, but most difficult to practise, and which can only enure to the + advantage of Spain. Therefore most respectfully I beg your Excellency not + to believe these fellows, but to reject their counsels . . . . Among them + are many malignant hypocrites and ambitious men who are seeking their own + profit in these changes of government—many utterly ragged and + beggarly fellows and many infamous traitors coming from the provinces + which have remained under the dominion of the Spaniard, and who are filled + with revenge, envy, and jealousy at the greater prosperity and bloom of + these independent States than they find at home. + </p> + <p> + "I fear," he said in conclusion, "that I have troubled your Excellency too + long, but to the fulfilment of my duty and discharge of my conscience I + could not be more brief. It saddens me deeply that in recompense for my + long and manifold services I am attacked by so many calumnious, lying, + seditious, and fraudulent libels, and that these indecencies find their + pretext and their food in the evil disposition of your Excellency towards + me. And although for one-and-thirty years long I have been able to live + down such things with silence, well-doing, and truth, still do I now find + myself compelled in this my advanced old age and infirmity to make some + utterances in defence of myself and those belonging to me, however much + against my heart and inclinations." + </p> + <p> + He ended by enclosing a copy of the solemn state paper which he was about + to lay before the States of Holland in defence of his honour, and + subscribed himself the lifelong and faithful servant of the Prince. + </p> + <p> + The Remonstrance to the States contained a summary review of the political + events of his life, which was indeed nothing more nor less than the + history of his country and almost of Europe itself during that period, + broadly and vividly sketched with the hand of a master. It was published + at once and strengthened the affection of his friends and the wrath of his + enemies. It is not necessary to our purpose to reproduce or even analyse + the document, the main facts and opinions contained in it being already + familiar to the reader. The frankness however with which, in reply to the + charges so profusely brought against him of having grown rich by + extortion, treason, and corruption, of having gorged himself with plunder + at home and bribery from the enemy, of being the great pensioner of Europe + and the Marshal d'Ancre of the Netherlands—he alluded to the exact + condition of his private affairs and the growth and sources of his + revenue, giving, as it were, a kind of schedule of his property, has in it + something half humorous, half touching in its simplicity. + </p> + <p> + He set forth the very slender salaries attached to his high offices of + Advocate of Holland, Keeper of the Seals, and other functions. He answered + the charge that he always had at his disposition 120,000 florins to bribe + foreign agents withal by saying that his whole allowance for extraordinary + expenses and trouble in maintaining his diplomatic and internal + correspondence was exactly 500 florins yearly. He alluded to the slanders + circulated as to his wealth and its sources by those who envied him for + his position and hated him for his services. + </p> + <p> + "But I beg you to believe, My Lords," he continued, "that my property is + neither so great nor so small as some people represent it to be. + </p> + <p> + "In the year '75 I married my wife," he said. "I was pleased with her + person. I was likewise pleased with the dowry which was promptly paid over + to me, with firm expectation of increase and betterment . . . . I ac + knowledge that forty-three years ago my wife and myself had got together + so much of real and personal property that we could live honourably upon + it. I had at that time as good pay and practice as any advocate in the + courts which brought me in a good 4000 florins a year; there being but + eight advocates practising at the time, of whom I was certainly not the + one least employed. In the beginning of the year '77 I came into the + service of the city of Rotterdam as 'Pensionary. Upon my salary from that + town I was enabled to support my family, having then but two children. Now + I can clearly prove that between the years 1577 and 1616 inclusive I have + inherited in my own right or that of my wife, from our relatives, for + ourselves and our children by lawful succession, more than 400 Holland + morgens of land (about 800 acres), more than 2000 florins yearly of + redeemable rents, a good house in the city of Delft, some houses in the + open country, and several thousand florins in ready money. I have likewise + reclaimed in the course of the past forty years out of the water and + swamps by dyking more than an equal number of acres to those inherited, + and have bought and sold property during the same period to the value of + 800,000 florins; having sometimes bought 100,000 florins' worth and sold + 60,000 of it for 160,000, and so on." + </p> + <p> + It was evident that the thrifty Advocate during his long life had + understood how to turn over his money, and it was not necessary to imagine + "waggon-loads of Spanish pistoles" and bribes on a gigantic scale from the + hereditary enemy in order to account for a reasonable opulence on his + part. + </p> + <p> + "I have had nothing to do with trade," he continued, "it having been the + custom of my ancestors to risk no money except where the plough goes. In + the great East India Company however, which with four years of hard work, + public and private, I have helped establish, in order to inflict damage on + the Spaniards and Portuguese, I have adventured somewhat more than 5000 + florins . . . . Now even if my condition be reasonably good, I think no + one has reason to envy me. Nevertheless I have said it in your Lordships' + Assembly, and I repeat it solemnly on this occasion, that I have pondered + the state of my affairs during my recent illness and found that in order + to leave my children unencumbered estates I must sell property to the + value of 60,000 or 70,000 florins. This I would rather do than leave the + charge to my children. That I should have got thus behindhand through bad + management, I beg your Highnesses not to believe. But I have inherited, + with the succession of four persons whose only heir I was and with that of + others to whom I was co-heir, many burthens as well. I have bought + property with encumbrances, and I have dyked and bettered several estates + with borrowed money. Now should it please your Lordships to institute a + census and valuation of the property of your subjects, I for one should be + very well pleased. For I know full well that those who in the estimates of + capital in the year 1599 rated themselves at 50,000 or 60,000 florins now + may boast of having twice as much property as I have. Yet in that year out + of patriotism I placed myself on the list of those liable for the very + highest contributions, being assessed on a property of 200,000 florins." + </p> + <p> + The Advocate alluded with haughty contempt to the notorious lies + circulated by his libellers in regard to his lineage, as if the vast + services and unquestioned abilities of such a statesman would not have + illustrated the obscurest origin. But as he happened to be of ancient and + honourable descent, he chose to vindicate his position in that regard. + </p> + <p> + "I was born in the city of Amersfoort," he said, "by the father's side an + Oldenbarneveld; an old and noble race, from generation to generation + steadfast and true; who have been duly summoned for many hundred years to + the assembly of the nobles of their province as they are to this day. By + my mother's side I am sprung from the ancient and knightly family of + Amersfoort, which for three or four hundred years has been known as + foremost among the nobles of Utrecht in all state affairs and as landed + proprietors." + </p> + <p> + It is only for the sake of opening these domestic and private lights upon + an historical character whose life was so pre-eminently and almost + exclusively a public one that we have drawn some attention to this stately + defence made by the Advocate of his birth, life, and services to the + State. The public portions of the state paper belong exclusively to + history, and have already been sufficiently detailed. + </p> + <p> + The letter to Prince Maurice was delivered into his hands by Cornelis van + der Myle, son-in-law of Barneveld. + </p> + <p> + No reply to it was ever sent, but several days afterwards the Stadholder + called from his open window to van der Myle, who happened to be passing + by. He then informed him that he neither admitted the premises nor the + conclusion of the Advocate's letter, saying that many things set down in + it were false. He furthermore told him a story of a certain old man who, + having in his youth invented many things and told them often for truth, + believed them when he came to old age to be actually true and was ever + ready to stake his salvation upon them. Whereupon he shut the window and + left van der Myle to make such application of the parable as he thought + proper, vouchsafing no further answer to Barneveld's communication. + </p> + <p> + Dudley Carleton related the anecdote to his government with much glee, but + it may be doubted whether this bold way of giving the lie to a venerable + statesman through his son-in-law would have been accounted as triumphant + argumentation anywhere out of a barrack. + </p> + <p> + As for the Remonstrance to the States of Holland, although most + respectfully received in that assembly except by the five opposition + cities, its immediate effect on the public was to bring down a fresh "snow + storm"—to use the expression of a contemporary—of pamphlets, + libels, caricatures, and broadsheets upon the head of the Advocate. In + every bookseller's and print shop window in all the cities of the country, + the fallen statesman was represented in all possible ludicrous, + contemptible, and hateful shapes, while hags and blind beggars about the + streets screeched filthy and cursing ballads against him, even at his very + doors. + </p> + <p> + The effect of energetic, uncompromising calumny has rarely been more + strikingly illustrated than in the case of this statesman. Blackened daily + all over by a thousand trowels, the purest and noblest character must have + been defiled, and it is no wonder that the incrustation upon the + Advocate's fame should have lasted for two centuries and a half. It may + perhaps endure for as many more: Not even the vile Marshal d'Ancre, who + had so recently perished, was more the mark of obloquy in a country which + he had dishonoured, flouted, and picked to the bone than was Barneveld in + a commonwealth which he had almost created and had served faithfully from + youth to old age. It was even the fashion to compare him with Concini in + order to heighten the wrath of the public, as if any parallel between the + ignoble, foreign paramour of a stupid and sensual queen, and the great + statesman, patriot, and jurist of whom civilization will be always proud, + could ever enter any but an idiot's brain. + </p> + <p> + Meantime the Stadholder, who had so successfully handled the Assembly of + Gelderland and Overyssel, now sailed across the Zuiderzee from Kampen to + Amsterdam. On his approach to the stately northern Venice, standing full + of life and commercial bustle upon its vast submerged forest of Norwegian + pines, he was met by a fleet of yachts and escorted through the water + gates of the into the city. + </p> + <p> + Here an immense assemblage of vessels of every class, from the humble + gondola to the bulky East Indianian and the first-rate ship of war, gaily + bannered with the Orange colours and thronged from deck to topmast by + enthusiastic multitudes, was waiting to receive their beloved stadholder. + A deafening cannonade saluted him on his approach. The Prince was escorted + to the Square or Dam, where on a high scaffolding covered with blue velvet + in front of the stately mediaeval town-hall the burgomasters and board of + magistrates in their robes of office were waiting to receive him. The + strains of that most inspiriting and suggestive of national melodies, the + 'Wilhelmus van Nassouwen,' rang through the air, and when they were + silent, the chief magistrate poured forth a very eloquent and tedious + oration, and concluded by presenting him with a large orange in solid + gold; Maurice having succeeded to the principality a few months before on + the death of his half-brother Philip William. + </p> + <p> + The "Blooming in Love," as one of the Chambers of "Rhetoric" in which the + hard-handed but half-artistic mechanics and shopkeepers of the Netherlands + loved to disport themselves was called, then exhibited upon an opposite + scaffold a magnificent representation of Jupiter astride upon an eagle and + banding down to the Stadholder as if from the clouds that same + principality. Nothing could be neater or more mythological. + </p> + <p> + The Prince and his escort, sitting in the windows of the town-hall, the + square beneath being covered with 3000 or 4000 burgher militia in full + uniform, with orange plumes in their hats and orange scarves on their + breasts, saw still other sights. A gorgeous procession set forth by the + "Netherlandish Academy," another chamber of rhetoric, and filled with + those emblematic impersonations so dear to the hearts of Netherlanders, + had been sweeping through all the canals and along the splendid quays of + the city. The Maid of Holland, twenty feet high, led the van, followed by + the counterfeit presentment of each of her six sisters. An orange tree + full of flowers and fruit was conspicuous in one barge, while in another, + strangely and lugubriously enough, lay the murdered William the Silent in + the arms of his wife and surrounded by his weeping sons and daughters all + attired in white satin. + </p> + <p> + In the evening the Netherland Academy, to improve the general hilarity, + and as if believing exhibitions of murder the most appropriate means of + welcoming the Prince, invited him to a scenic representation of the + assassination of Count Florence V. of Holland by Gerrit van Velsen and + other nobles. There seemed no especial reason for the selection, unless + perhaps the local one; one of the perpetrators of this crime against an + ancient predecessor of William the Silent in the sovereignty of Holland + having been a former lord proprietor of Amsterdam and the adjacent + territories, Gysbrecht van Amatel. + </p> + <p> + Maurice returned to the Hague. Five of the seven provinces were entirely + his own. Utrecht too was already wavering, while there could be no doubt + of the warm allegiance to himself of the important commercial metropolis + of Holland, the only province in which Barneveld's influence was still + paramount. + </p> + <p> + Owing to the watchfulness and distrust of Barneveld, which had never + faltered, Spain had not secured the entire control of the disputed + duchies, but she had at least secured the head of a venerated saint. "The + bargain is completed for the head of the glorious Saint Lawrence, which + you know I so much desire," wrote Philip triumphantly to the Archduke + Albert. He had, however, not got it for nothing. + </p> + <p> + The Abbot of Glamart in Julich, then in possession of that treasure, had + stipulated before delivering it that if at any time the heretics or other + enemies should destroy the monastery his Majesty would establish them in + Spanish Flanders and give them the same revenues as they now enjoyed in + Julich. Count Herman van den Berg was to give a guarantee to that effect. + </p> + <p> + Meantime the long controversy in the duchies having tacitly come to a + standstill upon the basis of 'uti possidetis,' the Spanish government had + leisure in the midst of their preparation for the general crusade upon + European heresy to observe and enjoy the internal religious dissensions in + their revolted provinces. Although they had concluded the convention with + them as with countries over which they had no pretensions, they had never + at heart allowed more virtue to the conjunction "as," which really + contained the essence of the treaty, than grammatically belonged to it. + Spain still chose to regard the independence of the Seven Provinces as a + pleasant fiction to be dispelled when, the truce having expired by its own + limitation, she should resume, as she fully meant to do, her sovereignty + over all the seventeen Netherlands, the United as well as the obedient. + Thus at any rate the question of state rights or central sovereignty would + be settled by a very summary process. The Spanish ambassador was wroth, as + may well be supposed, when the agent of the rebel provinces received in + London the rank, title, and recognition of ambassador. Gondemar at least + refused to acknowledge Noel de Caron as his diplomatic equal or even as + his colleague, and was vehement in his protestations on the subject. But + James, much as he dreaded the Spanish envoy and fawned upon his master, + was not besotted enough to comply with these demands at the expense of his + most powerful ally, the Republic of the Netherlands. The Spanish king + however declared his ambassador's proceedings to be in exact accordance + with his instructions. He was sorry, he said, if the affair had caused + discontent to the King of Great Britain; he intended in all respects to + maintain the Treaty of Truce of which his Majesty had been one of the + guarantors, but as that treaty had but a few more years to run, after + which he should be reinstated in his former right of sovereignty over all + the Netherlands, he entirely justified the conduct of Count Gondemar. + </p> + <p> + It may well be conceived that, as the years passed by, as the period of + the Truce grew nearer and the religious disputes became every day more + envenomed, the government at Madrid should look on the tumultuous scene + with saturnine satisfaction. There was little doubt now, they thought, + that the Provinces, sick of their rebellion and that fancied independence + which had led them into a whirlpool of political and religious misery, and + convinced of their incompetence to govern themselves, would be only too + happy to seek the forgiving arms of their lawful sovereign. Above all they + must have learned that their great heresy had carried its chastisement + with it, that within something they called a Reformed Church other + heresies had been developed which demanded condign punishment at the hands + of that new Church, and that there could be neither rest for them in this + world nor salvation in the next except by returning to the bosom of their + ancient mother. + </p> + <p> + Now was the time, so it was thought, to throw forward a strong force of + Jesuits as skirmishers into the Provinces by whom the way would be opened + for the reconquest of the whole territory. + </p> + <p> + "By the advices coming to us continually from thence," wrote the King of + Spain to Archduke Albert, "we understand that the disquiets and + differences continue in Holland on matters relating to their sects, and + that from this has resulted the conversion of many to the Catholic + religion. So it has been taken into consideration whether it would not be + expedient that some fathers of the company of Jesuits be sent secretly + from Rome to Holland, who should negotiate concerning the conversion of + that people. Before taking a resolution, I have thought best to give an + account of this matter to your Highness. I should be glad if you would + inform me what priests are going to Holland, what fruits they yield, and + what can be done for the continuance of their labours. Please to advise me + very particularly together with any suggestions that may occur to you in + this matter." + </p> + <p> + The Archduke, who was nearer the scene, was not so sure that the old + religion was making such progress as his royal nephew or those who spoke + in his name believed. At any rate, if it were not rapidly gaining ground, + it would be neither for want of discord among the Protestants nor for lack + of Jesuits to profit by it. + </p> + <p> + "I do not understand," said he in reply, "nor is it generally considered + certain that from the differences and disturbances that the Hollanders are + having among themselves there has resulted the conversion of any of them + to our blessed Catholic faith, because their disputes are of certain + points concerning which there are different opinions within their sect. + There has always been a goodly number of priests here, the greater part of + whom belong to the Company. They are very diligent and fervent, and the + Catholics derive much comfort from them. To send more of them would do + more harm than good. It might be found out, and then they would perhaps be + driven out of Holland or even chastised. So it seems better to leave + things as they are for the present." + </p> + <p> + The Spanish government was not discouraged however, but was pricking up + its ears anew at strange communications it was receiving from the very + bosom of the council of state in the Netherlands. This body, as will be + remembered, had been much opposed to Barneveld and to the policy pursued + under his leadership by the States of Holland. Some of its members were + secretly Catholic and still more secretly disposed to effect a revolution + in the government, the object of which should be to fuse the United + Provinces with the obedient Netherlands in a single independent monarchy + to be placed under the sceptre of the son of Philip III. + </p> + <p> + A paper containing the outlines of this scheme had been sent to Spain, and + the King at once forwarded it in cipher to the Archduke at Brussels for + his opinion and co-operation. + </p> + <p> + "You will see," he said, "the plan which a certain person zealous for the + public good has proposed for reducing the Netherlanders to my obedience. . + . . . You will please advise with Count Frederic van den Berg and let me + know with much particularity and profound secrecy what is thought, what is + occurring, and the form in which this matter ought to be negotiated, and + the proper way to make it march." + </p> + <p> + Unquestionably the paper was of grave importance. It informed the King of + Spain that some principal personages in the United Netherlands, members of + the council of state, were of opinion that if his Majesty or Archduke + Albert should propose peace, it could be accomplished at that moment more + easily than ever before. They had arrived at the conviction that no + assistance was to be obtained from the King of France, who was too much + weakened by tumults and sedition at home, while nothing good could be + expected from the King of England. The greater part of the Province of + Gelderland, they said, with all Friesland, Utrecht, Groningen, and + Overyssel were inclined to a permanent peace. Being all of them frontier + provinces, they were constantly exposed to the brunt of hostilities. + Besides this, the war expenses alone would now be more than 3,000,000 + florins a year. Thus the people were kept perpetually harassed, and + although evil-intentioned persons approved these burthens under the + pretence that such heavy taxation served to free them from the tyranny of + Spain, those of sense and quality reproved them and knew the contrary to + be true. "Many here know," continued these traitors in the heart of the + state council, "how good it would be for the people of the Netherlands to + have a prince, and those having this desire being on the frontier are + determined to accept the son of your Majesty for their ruler." The + conditions of the proposed arrangement were to be that the Prince with his + successors who were thus to possess all the Netherlands were to be + independent sovereigns not subject in any way to the crown of Spain, and + that the great governments and dignities of the country were to remain in + the hands then holding them. + </p> + <p> + This last condition was obviously inserted in the plan for the special + benefit of Prince Maurice and Count Lewis, although there is not an atom + of evidence that they had ever heard of the intrigue or doubt that, if + they had, they would have signally chastised its guilty authors. + </p> + <p> + It was further stated that the Catholics having in each town a church and + free exercise of their religion would soon be in a great majority. Thus + the political and religious counter-revolution would be triumphantly + accomplished. + </p> + <p> + It was proposed that the management of the business should be entrusted to + some gentleman of the country possessing property there who "under pretext + of the public good should make people comprehend what a great thing it + would be if they could obtain this favour from the Spanish King, thus + extricating themselves from so many calamities and miseries, and obtaining + free traffic and a prince of their own." It would be necessary for the + King and Archduke to write many letters and promise great rewards to + persons who might otherwise embarrass the good work. + </p> + <p> + The plot was an ingenious one. There seemed in the opinion of these + conspirators in the state council but one great obstacle to its success. + It should be kept absolutely concealed from the States of Holland. The + great stipendiary of Spain, John of Barneveld, whose coffers were filled + with Spanish pistoles, whose name and surname might be read by all men in + the account-books at Brussels heading the register of mighty bribe-takers, + the man who was howled at in a thousand lampoons as a traitor ever ready + to sell his country, whom even Prince Maurice "partly believed" to be the + pensionary of Philip, must not hear a whisper of this scheme to restore + the Republic to Spanish control and place it under the sceptre of a + Spanish prince. + </p> + <p> + The States of Holland at that moment and so long as he was a member of the + body were Barneveld and Barneveld only; thinking his thoughts, speaking + with his tongue, writing with his pen. Of this neither friend nor foe ever + expressed a doubt. Indeed it was one of the staple accusations against + him. + </p> + <p> + Yet this paper in which the Spanish king in confidential cipher and + profound secrecy communicated to Archduke Albert his hopes and his schemes + for recovering the revolted provinces as a kingdom for his son contained + these words of caution. + </p> + <p> + "The States of Holland and Zealand will be opposed to the plan," it said. + "If the treaty come to the knowledge of the States and Council of Holland + before it has been acted upon by the five frontier provinces the whole + plan will be demolished." + </p> + <p> + Such was the opinion entertained by Philip himself of the man who was + supposed to be his stipendiary. I am not aware that this paper has ever + been alluded to in any document or treatise private or public from the day + of its date to this hour. It certainly has never been published, but it + lies deciphered in the Archives of the Kingdom at Brussels, and is alone + sufficient to put to shame the slanderers of the Advocate's loyalty. + </p> + <p> + Yet let it be remembered that in this very summer exactly at the moment + when these intrigues were going on between the King of Spain and the class + of men most opposed to Barneveld, the accusations against his fidelity + were loudest and rifest. + </p> + <p> + Before the Stadholder had so suddenly slipped down to Brielle in order to + secure that important stronghold for the Contra-Remonstrant party, reports + had been carefully strewn among the people that the Advocate was about to + deliver that place and other fortresses to Spain. + </p> + <p> + Brielle, Flushing, Rammekens, the very cautionary towns and keys to the + country which he had so recently and in such masterly manner delivered + from the grasp of the hereditary ally he was now about to surrender to the + ancient enemy. + </p> + <p> + The Spaniards were already on the sea, it was said. Had it not been for + his Excellency's watchfulness and promptitude, they would already under + guidance of Barneveld and his crew have mastered the city of Brielle. + Flushing too through Barneveld's advice and connivance was open at a + particular point, in order that the Spaniards, who had their eye upon it, + might conveniently enter and take possession of the place. The air was + full of wild rumours to this effect, and already the humbler classes who + sided with the Stadholder saw in him the saviour of the country from the + treason of the Advocate and the renewed tyranny of Spain. + </p> + <p> + The Prince made no such pretence, but simply took possession of the + fortress in order to be beforehand with the Waartgelders. The + Contra-Remonstrants in Brielle had desired that "men should see who had + the hardest fists," and it would certainly have been difficult to find + harder ones than those of the hero of Nieuwpoort. + </p> + <p> + Besides the Jesuits coming in so skilfully to triumph over the warring + sects of Calvinists, there were other engineers on whom the Spanish + government relied to effect the reconquest of the Netherlands. Especially + it was an object to wreak vengeance on Holland, that head and front of the + revolt, both for its persistence in rebellion and for the immense + prosperity and progress by which that rebellion had been rewarded. Holland + had grown fat and strong, while the obedient Netherlands were withered to + the marrow of their bones. But there was a practical person then resident + in Spain to whom the Netherlands were well known, to whom indeed + everything was well known, who had laid before the King a magnificent + scheme for destroying the commerce and with it the very existence of + Holland to the great advantage of the Spanish finances and of the Spanish + Netherlands. Philip of course laid it before the Archduke as usual, that + he might ponder it well and afterwards, if approved, direct its execution. + </p> + <p> + The practical person set forth in an elaborate memoir that the Hollanders + were making rapid progress in commerce, arts, and manufactures, while the + obedient provinces were sinking as swiftly into decay. The Spanish + Netherlands were almost entirely shut off from the sea, the rivers Scheldt + and Meuse being hardly navigable for them on account of the control of + those waters by Holland. The Dutch were attracting to their dominions all + artisans, navigators, and traders. Despising all other nations and giving + them the law, they had ruined the obedient provinces. Ostend, Nieuwpoort, + Dunkerk were wasting away, and ought to be restored. + </p> + <p> + "I have profoundly studied forty years long the subjects of commerce and + navigation," said the practical person, "and I have succeeded in + penetrating the secrets and acquiring, as it were, universal knowledge—let + me not be suspected of boasting—of the whole discovered world and of + the ocean. I have been assisted by study of the best works of geography + and history, by my own labours, and by those of my late father, a man of + illustrious genius and heroical conceptions and very zealous in the + Catholic faith." + </p> + <p> + The modest and practical son of an illustrious but anonymous father, then + coming to the point, said it would be the easiest thing in the world to + direct the course of the Scheldt into an entirely new channel through + Spanish Flanders to the sea. Thus the Dutch ports and forts which had been + constructed with such magnificence and at such vast expense would be left + high and dry; the Spaniards would build new ones in Flanders, and thus + control the whole navigation and deprive the Hollanders of that empire of + the sea which they now so proudly arrogated. This scheme was much simpler + to carry out than the vulgar might suppose, and, when accomplished, it + would destroy the commerce, navigation, and fisheries of the Hollanders, + throwing it all into the hands of the Archdukes. This would cause such + ruin, poverty, and tumults everywhere that all would be changed. The + Republic of the United States would annihilate itself and fall to pieces; + the religious dissensions, the war of one sect with another, and the + jealousy of the House of Nassau, suspected of plans hostile to popular + liberties, finishing the work of destruction. "Then the Republic," said + the man of universal science, warming at sight of the picture he was + painting, "laden with debt and steeped in poverty, will fall to the ground + of its own weight, and thus debilitated will crawl humbly to place itself + in the paternal hands of the illustrious house of Austria." + </p> + <p> + It would be better, he thought, to set about the work, before the + expiration of the Truce. At any rate, the preparation for it, or the mere + threat of it, would ensure a renewal of that treaty on juster terms. It + was most important too to begin at once the construction of a port on the + coast of Flanders, looking to the north. + </p> + <p> + There was a position, he said, without naming it, in which whole navies + could ride in safety, secure from all tempests, beyond the reach of the + Hollanders, open at all times to traffic to and from England, France, + Spain, Norway, Sweden, Russia—a perfectly free commerce, beyond the + reach of any rights or duties claimed or levied by the insolent republic. + In this port would assemble all the navigators of the country, and it + would become in time of war a terror to the Hollanders, English, and all + northern peoples. In order to attract, protect, and preserve these + navigators and this commerce, many great public edifices must be built, + together with splendid streets of houses and impregnable fortifications. + It should be a walled and stately city, and its name should be + Philipopolis. If these simple projects, so easy of execution, pleased his + Majesty, the practical person was ready to explain them in all their + details. + </p> + <p> + His Majesty was enchanted with the glowing picture, but before quite + deciding on carrying the scheme into execution thought it best to consult + the Archduke. + </p> + <p> + The reply of Albert has not been preserved. It was probably not + enthusiastic, and the man who without boasting had declared himself to + know everything was never commissioned to convert his schemes into + realities. That magnificent walled city, Philipopolis, with its gorgeous + streets and bristling fortresses, remained unbuilt, the Scheldt has + placidly flowed through its old channel to the sea from that day to this, + and the Republic remained in possession of the unexampled foreign trade + with which rebellion had enriched it. + </p> + <p> + These various intrigues and projects show plainly enough however the + encouragement given to the enemies of the United Provinces and of + Protestantism everywhere by these disastrous internal dissensions. But + yesterday and the Republic led by Barneveld in council and Maurice of + Nassau in the field stood at the head of the great army of resistance to + the general crusade organized by Spain and Rome against all unbelievers. + And now that the war was absolutely beginning in Bohemia, the Republic was + falling upon its own sword instead of smiting with it the universal foe. + </p> + <p> + It was not the King of Spain alone that cast longing eyes on the fair + territory of that commonwealth which the unparalleled tyranny of his + father had driven to renounce his sceptre. Both in the Netherlands and + France, among the extreme orthodox party, there were secret schemes, to + which Maurice was not privy, to raise Maurice to the sovereignty of the + Provinces. Other conspirators with a wider scope and more treasonable + design were disposed to surrender their country to the dominion of France, + stipulating of course large rewards and offices for themselves and the + vice-royalty of what should then be the French Netherlands to Maurice. + </p> + <p> + The schemes were wild enough perhaps, but their very existence, which is + undoubted, is another proof, if more proof were wanted, of the lamentable + tendency, in times of civil and religious dissension, of political passion + to burn out the very first principles of patriotism. + </p> + <p> + It is also important, on account of the direct influence exerted by these + intrigues upon subsequent events of the gravest character, to throw a beam + of light on matters which were thought to have been shrouded for ever in + impenetrable darkness. + </p> + <p> + Langerac, the States' Ambassador in Paris, was the very reverse of his + predecessor, the wily, unscrupulous, and accomplished Francis Aerssens. + The envoys of the Republic were rarely dull, but Langerac was a simpleton. + They were renowned for political experience, skill, familiarity with + foreign languages, knowledge of literature, history, and public law; but + he was ignorant, spoke French very imperfectly, at a court where not a + human being could address him in his own tongue, had never been employed + in diplomacy or in high office of any kind, and could carry but small + personal weight at a post where of all others the representative of the + great republic should have commanded deference both for his own qualities + and for the majesty of his government. At a period when France was left + without a master or a guide the Dutch ambassador, under a becoming show of + profound respect, might really have governed the country so far as + regarded at least the all important relations which bound the two nations + together. But Langerac was a mere picker-up of trifles, a newsmonger who + wrote a despatch to-day with information which a despatch was written on + the morrow to contradict, while in itself conveying additional + intelligence absolutely certain to be falsified soon afterwards. The + Emperor of Germany had gone mad; Prince Maurice had been assassinated in + the Hague, a fact which his correspondents, the States-General, might be + supposed already to know, if it were one; there had been a revolution in + the royal bed-chamber; the Spanish cook of the young queen had arrived + from Madrid; the Duke of Nevers was behaving very oddly at Vienna; such + communications, and others equally startling, were the staple of his + correspondence. + </p> + <p> + Still he was honest enough, very mild, perfectly docile to Barneveld, + dependent upon his guidance, and fervently attached to that statesman so + long as his wheel was going up the hill. Moreover, his industry in + obtaining information and his passion for imparting it made it probable + that nothing very momentous would be neglected should it be laid before + him, but that his masters, and especially the Advocate, would be enabled + to judge for themselves as to the attention due to it. + </p> + <p> + "With this you will be apprised of some very high and weighty matters," he + wrote privately and in cipher to Barneveld, "which you will make use of + according to your great wisdom and forethought for the country's service." + </p> + <p> + He requested that the matter might also be confided to M. van der Myle, + that he might assist his father-in-law, so overburdened with business, in + the task of deciphering the communication. He then stated that he had been + "very earnestly informed three days before by M. du Agean"—member of + the privy council of France—"that it had recently come to the King's + ears, and his Majesty knew it to be authentic, that there was a secret and + very dangerous conspiracy in Holland of persons belonging to the Reformed + religion in which others were also mixed. This party held very earnest and + very secret correspondence with the factious portion of the + Contra-Remonstrants both in the Netherlands and France, seeking under + pretext of the religious dissensions or by means of them to confer the + sovereignty upon Prince Maurice by general consent of the + Contra-Remonstrants. Their object was also to strengthen and augment the + force of the same religious party in France, to which end the Duc de + Bouillon and M. de Chatillon were very earnestly co-operating. Langerac + had already been informed by Chatillon that the Contra-Remonstrants had + determined to make a public declaration against the Remonstrants, and come + to an open separation from them. + </p> + <p> + "Others propose however," said the Ambassador, "that the King himself + should use the occasion to seize the sovereignty of the United Provinces + for himself and to appoint Prince Maurice viceroy, giving him in marriage + Madame Henriette of France." The object of this movement would be to + frustrate the plots of the Contra-Remonstrants, who were known to be + passionately hostile to the King and to France, and who had been + constantly traversing the negotiations of M. du Maurier. There was a + disposition to send a special and solemn embassy to the States, but it was + feared that the British king would at once do the same, to the immense + disadvantage of the Remonstrants. "M. de Barneveld," said the envoy, "is + deeply sympathized with here and commiserated. The Chancellor has + repeatedly requested me to present to you his very sincere and very hearty + respects, exhorting you to continue in your manly steadfastness and + courage." He also assured the Advocate that the French ambassador, M. du + Maurier, enjoyed the entire confidence of his government, and of the + principal members of the council, and that the King, although + contemplating, as we have seen, the seizure of the sovereignty of the + country, was most amicably disposed towards it, and so soon as the peace + of Savoy was settled "had something very good for it in his mind." Whether + the something very good was this very design to deprive it of + independence, the Ambassador did not state. He however recommended the use + of sundry small presents at the French court—especially to Madame de + Luynes, wife of the new favourite of Lewis since the death of Concini, in + which he had aided, now rising rapidly to consideration, and to Madame du + Agean—and asked to be supplied with funds accordingly. By these + means he thought it probable that at least the payment to the States of + the long arrears of the French subsidy might be secured. + </p> + <p> + Three weeks later, returning to the subject, the Ambassador reported + another conversation with M. du Agean. That politician assured him, "with + high protestations," as a perfectly certain fact that a Frenchman duly + qualified had arrived in Paris from Holland who had been in communication + not only with him but with several of the most confidential members of the + privy council of France. This duly qualified gentleman had been secretly + commissioned to say that in opinion of the conspirators already indicated + the occasion was exactly offered by these religious dissensions in the + Netherlands for bringing the whole country under the obedience of the + King. This would be done with perfect ease if he would only be willing to + favour a little the one party, that of the Contra-Remonstrants, and + promise his Excellency "perfect and perpetual authority in the government + with other compensations." + </p> + <p> + The proposition, said du Agean, had been rejected by the privy councillors + with a declaration that they would not mix themselves up with any + factions, nor assist any party, but that they would gladly work with the + government for the accommodation of these difficulties and differences in + the Provinces. + </p> + <p> + "I send you all this nakedly," concluded Langerac, "exactly as it has been + communicated to me, having always answered according to my duty and with a + view by negotiating with these persons to discover the intentions as well + of one side as the other." + </p> + <p> + The Advocate was not profoundly impressed by these revelations. He was too + experienced a statesman to doubt that in times when civil and religious + passion was running high there was never lack of fishers in troubled + waters, and that if a body of conspirators could secure a handsome + compensation by selling their country to a foreign prince, they would + always be ready to do it. + </p> + <p> + But although believed by Maurice to be himself a stipendiary of Spain, he + was above suspecting the Prince of any share in the low and stupid + intrigue which du Agean had imagined or disclosed. That the Stadholder was + ambitious of greater power, he hardly doubted, but that he was seeking to + acquire it by such corrupt and circuitous means, he did not dream. He + confidentially communicated the plot as in duty bound to some members of + the States, and had the Prince been accused in any conversation or + statement of being privy to the scheme, he would have thought himself + bound to mention it to him. The story came to the ears of Maurice however, + and helped to feed his wrath against the Advocate, as if he were + responsible for a plot, if plot it were, which had been concocted by his + own deadliest enemies. The Prince wrote a letter alluding to this + communication of Langerac and giving much alarm to that functionary. He + thought his despatches must have been intercepted and proposed in future + to write always by special courier. Barneveld thought that unnecessary + except when there were more important matters than those appeared to him + to be and requiring more haste. + </p> + <p> + "The letter of his Excellency," said he to the Ambassador, "is caused in + my opinion by the fact that some of the deputies to this assembly to whom + I secretly imparted your letter or its substance did not rightly + comprehend or report it. You did not say that his Excellency had any such + design or project, but that it had been said that the Contra-Remonstrants + were entertaining such a scheme. I would have shown the letter to him + myself, but I thought it not fair, for good reasons, to make M. du Agean + known as the informant. I do not think it amiss for you to write yourself + to his Excellency and tell him what is said, but whether it would be + proper to give up the name of your author, I think doubtful. At all events + one must consult about it. We live in a strange world, and one knows not + whom to trust." + </p> + <p> + He instructed the Ambassador to enquire into the foundation of these + statements of du Agean and send advices by every occasion of this affair + and others of equal interest. He was however much more occupied with + securing the goodwill of the French government, which he no more suspected + of tampering in these schemes against the independence of the Republic + than he did Maurice himself. He relied and he had reason to rely on their + steady good offices in the cause of moderation and reconciliation. "We are + not yet brought to the necessary and much desired unity," he said, "but we + do not despair, hoping that his Majesty's efforts through M. du Maurier, + both privately and publicly, will do much good. Be assured that they are + very agreeable to all rightly disposed people . . . . My trust is that God + the Lord will give us a happy issue and save this country from perdition." + He approved of the presents to the two ladies as suggested by Langerac if + by so doing the payment of the arrearages could be furthered. He was still + hopeful and confident in the justice of his cause and the purity of his + conscience. "Aerssens is crowing like a cock," he said, "but the truth + will surely prevail." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVII. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + A Deputation from Utrecht to Maurice—The Fair at Utrecht—Maurice + and the States' Deputies at Utrecht—Ogle refuses to act in + Opposition to the States—The Stadholder disbands the Waartgelders— + The Prince appoints forty Magistrates—The States formally disband + the Waartgelders. +</pre> + <p> + The eventful midsummer had arrived. The lime-tree blossoms were fragrant + in the leafy bowers overshadowing the beautiful little rural capital of + the Commonwealth. The anniversary of the Nieuwpoort victory, July 2, had + come and gone, and the Stadholder was known to be resolved that his + political campaign this year should be as victorious as that memorable + military one of eighteen years before. + </p> + <p> + Before the dog-days should begin to rage, the fierce heats of theological + and political passion were to wax daily more and more intense. + </p> + <p> + The party at Utrecht in favour of a compromise and in awe of the + Stadholder sent a deputation to the Hague with the express but secret + purpose of conferring with Maurice. They were eight in number, three of + whom, including Gillis van Ledenberg, lodged at the house of Daniel + Tressel, first clerk of the States-General. + </p> + <p> + The leaders of the Barneveld party, aware of the purport of this mission + and determined to frustrate it, contrived a meeting between the Utrecht + commissioners and Grotius, Hoogerbeets, de Haan, and de Lange at Tressel's + house. + </p> + <p> + Grotius was spokesman. Maurice had accused the States of Holland of mutiny + and rebellion, and the distinguished Pensionary of Rotterdam now retorted + the charges of mutiny, disobedience, and mischief-making upon those who, + under the mask of religion, were attempting to violate the sovereignty of + the States, the privileges and laws of the province, the authority of the + magistrates, and to subject them to the power of others. To prevent such a + catastrophe many cities had enlisted Waartgelders. By this means they had + held such mutineers to their duty, as had been seen at Leyden, Haarlem, + and other places. The States of Utrecht had secured themselves in the same + way. But the mischiefmakers and the ill-disposed had been seeking + everywhere to counteract these wholesome measures and to bring about a + general disbanding of these troops. This it was necessary to resist with + spirit. It was the very foundation of the provinces' sovereignty, to + maintain which the public means must be employed. It was in vain to drive + the foe out of the country if one could not remain in safety within one's + own doors. They had heard with sorrow that Utrecht was thinking of + cashiering its troops, and the speaker proceeded therefore to urge with + all the eloquence he was master of the necessity of pausing before taking + so fatal a step. + </p> + <p> + The deputies of Utrecht answered by pleading the great pecuniary burthen + which the maintenance of the mercenaries imposed upon that province, and + complained that there was no one to come to their assistance, exposed as + they were to a sudden and overwhelming attack from many quarters. The + States-General had not only written but sent commissioners to Utrecht + insisting on the disbandment. They could plainly see the displeasure of + the Prince. It was a very different affair in Holland, but the States of + Utrecht found it necessary of two evils to choose the least. + </p> + <p> + They had therefore instructed their commissioners to request the Prince to + remove the foreign garrison from their capital and to send the old + companies of native militia in their place, to be in the pay of the + episcopate. In this case the States would agree to disband the new levies. + </p> + <p> + Grotius in reply again warned the commissioners against communicating with + Maurice according to their instructions, intimated that the native militia + on which they were proposing to rely might have been debauched, and he + held out hopes that perhaps the States of Utrecht might derive some relief + from certain financial measures now contemplated in Holland. + </p> + <p> + The Utrechters resolved to wait at least several days before opening the + subject of their mission to the Prince. Meantime Ledenberg made a rough + draft of a report of what had occurred between them and Grotius and his + colleagues which it was resolved to lay secretly before the States of + Utrecht. The Hollanders hoped that they had at last persuaded the + commissioners to maintain the Waartgelders. + </p> + <p> + The States of Holland now passed a solemn resolution to the effect that + these new levies had been made to secure municipal order and maintain the + laws from subversion by civil tumults. If this object could be obtained by + other means, if the Stadholder were willing to remove garrisons of foreign + mercenaries on whom there could be no reliance, and supply their place + with native troops both in Holland and Utrecht, an arrangement could be + made for disbanding the Waartgelders. + </p> + <p> + Barneveld, at the head of thirty deputies from the nobles and cities, + waited upon Maurice and verbally communicated to him this resolution. He + made a cold and unsatisfactory reply, although it seems to have been + understood that by according twenty companies of native troops he might + have contented both Holland and Utrecht. + </p> + <p> + Ledenberg and his colleagues took their departure from the Hague without + communicating their message to Maurice. Soon afterwards the States-General + appointed a commission to Utrecht with the Stadholder at the head of it. + </p> + <p> + The States of Holland appointed another with Grotius as its chairman. + </p> + <p> + On the 25th July Grotius and Pensionary Hoogerbeets with two colleagues + arrived in Utrecht. + </p> + <p> + Gillis van Ledenberg was there to receive them. A tall, handsome, + bald-headed, well-featured, mild, gentlemanlike man was this secretary of + the Utrecht assembly, and certainly not aware, while passing to and fro on + such half diplomatic missions between two sovereign assemblies, that he + was committing high-treason. He might well imagine however, should Maurice + discover that it was he who had prevented the commissioners from + conferring with him as instructed, that it would go hard with him. + </p> + <p> + Ledenberg forthwith introduced Grotius and his committee to the Assembly + at Utrecht. + </p> + <p> + While these great personages were thus holding solemn and secret council, + another and still greater personage came upon the scene. + </p> + <p> + The Stadholder with the deputation from the States-General arrived at + Utrecht. + </p> + <p> + Evidently the threads of this political drama were converging to a + catastrophe, and it might prove a tragical one. + </p> + <p> + Meantime all looked merry enough in the old episcopal city. There were few + towns in Lower or in Upper Germany more elegant and imposing than Utrecht. + Situate on the slender and feeble channel of the ancient Rhine as it + falters languidly to the sea, surrounded by trim gardens and orchards, and + embowered in groves of beeches and limetrees, with busy canals fringed + with poplars, lined with solid quays, and crossed by innumerable bridges; + with the stately brick tower of St. Martin's rising to a daring height + above one of the most magnificent Gothic cathedrals in the Netherlands; + this seat of the Anglo-Saxon Willebrord, who eight hundred years before + had preached Christianity to the Frisians, and had founded that long line + of hard-fighting, indomitable bishops, obstinately contesting for + centuries the possession of the swamps and pastures about them with + counts, kings, and emperors, was still worthy of its history and its + position. + </p> + <p> + It was here too that sixty-one years before the famous Articles of Union + were signed. By that fundamental treaty of the Confederacy, the Provinces + agreed to remain eternally united as if they were but one province, to + make no war nor peace save by unanimous consent, while on lesser matters a + majority should rule; to admit both Catholics and Protestants to the Union + provided they obeyed its Articles and conducted themselves as good + patriots, and expressly declared that no province or city should interfere + with another in the matter of divine worship. + </p> + <p> + From this memorable compact, so enduring a landmark in the history of + human freedom, and distinguished by such breadth of view for the times + both in religion and politics, the city had gained the title of cradle of + liberty: 'Cunabula libertatis'. + </p> + <p> + Was it still to deserve the name? At that particular moment the mass of + the population was comparatively indifferent to the terrible questions + pending. It was the kermis or annual fair, and all the world was keeping + holiday in Utrecht. The pedlars and itinerant merchants from all the + cities and provinces had brought their wares jewellery and crockery, + ribbons and laces, ploughs and harrows, carriages and horses, cows and + sheep, cheeses and butter firkins, doublets and petticoats, guns and + pistols, everything that could serve the city and country-side for months + to come—and displayed them in temporary booths or on the ground, in + every street and along every canal. The town was one vast bazaar. The + peasant-women from the country, with their gold and silver tiaras and the + year's rent of a comfortable farm in their earrings and necklaces, and the + sturdy Frisian peasants, many of whom had borne their matchlocks in the + great wars which had lasted through their own and their fathers' lifetime, + trudged through the city, enjoying the blessings of peace. Bands of music + and merry-go-rounds in all the open places and squares; open-air bakeries + of pancakes and waffles; theatrical exhibitions, raree-shows, jugglers, + and mountebanks at every corner—all these phenomena which had been + at every kermis for centuries, and were to repeat themselves for centuries + afterwards, now enlivened the atmosphere of the grey, episcopal city. + Pasted against the walls of public edifices were the most recent placards + and counter-placards of the States-General and the States of Utrecht on + the great subject of religious schisms and popular tumults. In the + shop-windows and on the bookstalls of Contra-Remonstrant tradesmen, now + becoming more and more defiant as the last allies of Holland, the States + of Utrecht, were gradually losing courage, were seen the freshest ballads + and caricatures against the Advocate. Here an engraving represented him + seated at table with Grotius, Hoogerbeets, and others, discussing the + National Synod, while a flap of the picture being lifted put the head of + the Duke of Alva on the legs of Barneveld, his companions being + transformed in similar manner into Spanish priests and cardinals assembled + at the terrible Council of Blood-with rows of Protestant martyrs burning + and hanging in the distance. Another print showed Prince Maurice and the + States-General shaking the leading statesmen of the Commonwealth in a + mighty sieve through which came tumbling head foremost to perdition the + hated Advocate and his abettors. Another showed the Arminians as a row of + crest-fallen cocks rained upon by the wrath of the Stadholder—Arminians + by a detestable pun being converted into "Arme haenen" or "Poor cocks." + One represented the Pope and King of Spain blowing thousands of ducats out + of a golden bellows into the lap of the Advocate, who was holding up his + official robes to receive them, or whole carriage-loads of Arminians + starting off bag and baggage on the road to Rome, with Lucifer in the + perspective waiting to give them a warm welcome in his own dominions; and + so on, and so on. Moving through the throng, with iron calque on their + heads and halberd in hand, were groups of Waartgelders scowling fiercely + at many popular demonstrations such as they had been enlisted to suppress, + but while off duty concealing outward symptoms of wrath which in many + instances perhaps would have been far from genuine. + </p> + <p> + For although these mercenaries knew that the States of Holland, who were + responsible for the pay of the regular troops then in Utrecht, authorized + them to obey no orders save from the local authorities, yet it was + becoming a grave question for the Waartgelders whether their own wages + were perfectly safe, a circumstance which made them susceptible to the + atmosphere of Contra-Remonstrantism which was steadily enwrapping the + whole country. A still graver question was whether such resistance as they + could offer to the renowned Stadholder, whose name was magic to every + soldier's heart not only in his own land but throughout Christendom, would + not be like parrying a lance's thrust with a bulrush. In truth the senior + captain of the Waartgelders, Harteveld by name, had privately informed the + leaders of the Barneveld party in Utrecht that he would not draw his sword + against Prince Maurice and the States-General. "Who asks you to do so?" + said some of the deputies, while Ledenberg on the other hand flatly + accused him of cowardice. For this affront the Captain had vowed revenge. + </p> + <p> + And in the midst of this scene of jollity and confusion, that midsummer + night, entered the stern Stadholder with his fellow commissioners; the + feeble plans for shutting the gates upon him not having been carried into + effect. + </p> + <p> + "You hardly expected such a guest at your fair," said he to the + magistrates, with a grim smile on his face as who should say, "And what do + you think of me now I have came?" + </p> + <p> + Meantime the secret conference of Grotius and colleagues with the States + of Utrecht proceeded. As a provisional measure, Sir John Ogle, commander + of the forces paid by Holland, had been warned as to where his obedience + was due. It had likewise been intimated that the guard should be doubled + at the Amersfoort gate, and a watch set on the river Lek above and below + the city in order to prevent fresh troops of the States-General from being + introduced by surprise. + </p> + <p> + These precautions had been suggested a year before, as we have seen, in a + private autograph letter from Barneveld to Secretary Ledenberg. + </p> + <p> + Sir John Ogle had flatly refused to act in opposition to the Stadholder + and the States-General, whom he recognized as his lawful superiors and + masters, and he warned Ledenberg and his companions as to the perilous + nature of the course which they were pursuing. Great was the indignation + of the Utrechters and the Holland commissioners in consequence. + </p> + <p> + Grotius in his speech enlarged on the possibility of violence being used + by the Stadholder, while some of the members of the Assembly likewise + thought it likely that he would smite the gates open by force. Grotius, + when reproved afterwards for such strong language towards Prince Maurice, + said that true Hollanders were no courtiers, but were wont to call + everything by its right name. + </p> + <p> + He stated in strong language the regret felt by Holland that a majority of + the States of Utrecht had determined to disband the Waartgelders which had + been constitutionally enlisted according to the right of each province + under the 1st Article of the Union of Utrecht to protect itself and its + laws. + </p> + <p> + Next day there were conferences between Maurice and the States of Utrecht + and between him and the Holland deputies. The Stadholder calmly demanded + the disbandment and the Synod. The Hollanders spoke of securing first the + persons and rights of the magistracy. + </p> + <p> + "The magistrates are to be protected," said Maurice, "but we must first + know how they are going to govern. People have tried to introduce five + false points into the Divine worship. People have tried to turn me out of + the stadholdership and to drive me from the country. But I have taken my + measures. I know well what I am about. I have got five provinces on my + side, and six cities of Holland will send deputies to Utrecht to sustain + me here." + </p> + <p> + The Hollanders protested that there was no design whatever, so far as they + knew, against his princely dignity or person. All were ready to recognize + his rank and services by every means in their power. But it was desirable + by conciliation and compromise, not by stern decree, to arrange these + religious and political differences. + </p> + <p> + The Stadholder replied by again insisting on the Synod. "As for the + Waartgelders," he continued, "they are worse than Spanish fortresses. They + must away." + </p> + <p> + After a little further conversation in this vein the Prince grew more + excited. + </p> + <p> + "Everything is the fault of the Advocate," he cried. + </p> + <p> + "If Barneveld were dead," replied Grotius, "all the rest of us would still + deem ourselves bound to maintain the laws. People seem to despise Holland + and to wish to subject it to the other provinces." + </p> + <p> + "On the contrary," cried the Prince, "it is the Advocate who wishes to + make Holland the States-General." + </p> + <p> + Maurice was tired of argument. There had been much ale-house talk some + three months before by a certain blusterous gentleman called van Ostrum + about the necessity of keeping the Stadholder in check. "If the Prince + should undertake," said this pot-valiant hero, "to attack any of the + cities of Utrecht or Holland with the hard hand, it is settled to station + 8000 or 10,000 soldiers in convenient places. Then we shall say to the + Prince, if you don't leave us alone, we shall make an arrangement with the + Archduke of Austria and resume obedience to him. We can make such a treaty + with him as will give us religious freedom and save us from tyranny of any + kind. I don't say this for myself, but have heard it on good authority + from very eminent persons." + </p> + <p> + This talk had floated through the air to the Stadholder. + </p> + <p> + What evidence could be more conclusive of a deep design on the part of + Barneveld to sell the Republic to the Archduke and drive Maurice into + exile? Had not Esquire van Ostrum solemnly declared it at a tavern table? + And although he had mentioned no names, could the "eminent personages" + thus cited at second hand be anybody but the Advocate? + </p> + <p> + Three nights after his last conference with the Hollanders, Maurice + quietly ordered a force of regular troops in Utrecht to be under arms at + half past three o'clock next morning. About 1000 infantry, including + companies of Ernest of Nassau's command at Arnhem and of Brederode's from + Vianen, besides a portion of the regular garrison of the place, had + accordingly been assembled without beat of drum, before half past three in + the morning, and were now drawn up on the market-place or Neu. At break of + day the Prince himself appeared on horseback surrounded by his staff on + the Neu or Neude, a large, long, irregular square into which the seven or + eight principal streets and thoroughfares of the town emptied themselves. + It was adorned by public buildings and other handsome edifices, and the + tall steeple of St. Martin's with its beautiful open-work spire, lighted + with the first rays of the midsummer sun, looked tranquilly down upon the + scene. + </p> + <p> + Each of the entrances to the square had been securely guarded by Maurice's + orders, and cannon planted to command all the streets. A single company of + the famous Waartgelders was stationed in the Neu or near it. The Prince + rode calmly towards them and ordered them to lay down their arms. They + obeyed without a murmur. He then sent through the city to summon all the + other companies of Waartgelders to the Neu. This was done with perfect + promptness, and in a short space of time the whole body of mercenaries, + nearly 1000 in number, had laid down their arms at the feet of the Prince. + </p> + <p> + The snaphances and halberds being then neatly stacked in the square, the + Stadholder went home to his early breakfast. There was an end to those + mercenaries thenceforth and for ever. The faint and sickly resistance to + the authority of Maurice offered at Utrecht was attempted nowhere else. + </p> + <p> + For days there had been vague but fearful expectations of a "blood bath," + of street battles, rioting, and plunder. Yet the Stadholder with the + consummate art which characterized all his military manoeuvres had so + admirably carried out his measure that not a shot was fired, not a blow + given, not a single burgher disturbed in his peaceful slumbers. When the + population had taken off their nightcaps, they woke to find the awful + bugbear removed which had so long been appalling them. The Waartgelders + were numbered with the terrors of the past, and not a cat had mewed at + their disappearance. + </p> + <p> + Charter-books, parchments, 13th Articles, Barneveld's teeth, Arminian + forts, flowery orations of Grotius, tavern talk of van Ostrum, city + immunities, States' rights, provincial laws, Waartgelders and all—the + martial Stadholder, with the orange plume in his hat and the sword of + Nieuwpoort on his thigh, strode through them as easily as through the + whirligigs and mountebanks, the wades and fritters, encumbering the + streets of Utrecht on the night of his arrival. + </p> + <p> + Secretary Ledenberg and other leading members of the States had escaped + the night before. Grotius and his colleagues also took a precipitate + departure. As they drove out of town in the twilight, they met the + deputies of the six opposition cities of Holland just arriving in their + coach from the Hague. Had they tarried an hour longer, they would have + found themselves safely in prison. + </p> + <p> + Four days afterwards the Stadholder at the head of his body-guard appeared + at the town-house. His halberdmen tramped up the broad staircase, + heralding his arrival to the assembled magistracy. He announced his + intention of changing the whole board then and there. The process was + summary. The forty members were required to supply forty other names, and + the Prince added twenty more. From the hundred candidates thus furnished + the Prince appointed forty magistrates such as suited himself. It is + needless to say that but few of the old bench remained, and that those few + were devoted to the Synod, the States-General, and the Stadholder. He + furthermore announced that these new magistrates were to hold office for + life, whereas the board had previously been changed every year. The + cathedral church was at once assigned for the use of the + Contra-Remonstrants. + </p> + <p> + This process was soon to be repeated throughout the two insubordinate + provinces Utrecht and Holland. + </p> + <p> + The Prince was accused of aiming at the sovereignty of the whole country, + and one of his grief's against the Advocate was that he had begged the + Princess-Widow, Louise de Coligny, to warn her son-in-law of the dangers + of such ambition. But so long as an individual, sword in hand, could + exercise such unlimited sway over the whole municipal, and provincial + organization of the Commonwealth, it mattered but little whether he was + called King or Kaiser, Doge or Stadholder. Sovereign he was for the time + being at least, while courteously acknowledging the States-General as his + sovereign. + </p> + <p> + Less than three weeks afterwards the States-General issued a decree + formally disbanding the Waartgelders; an almost superfluous edict, as they + had almost ceased to exist, and there were none to resist the measure. + Grotius recommended complete acquiescence. Barneveld's soul could no + longer animate with courage a whole people. + </p> + <p> + The invitations which had already in the month of June been prepared for + the Synod to meet in the city of Dortor Dordtrecht-were now issued. The + States of Holland sent back the notification unopened, deeming it an + unwarrantable invasion of their rights that an assembly resisted by a + large majority of their body should be convoked in a city on their own + territory. But this was before the disbandment of the Waartgelders and the + general change of magistracies had been effected. + </p> + <p> + Earnest consultations were now held as to the possibility of devising some + means of compromise; of providing that the decisions of the Synod should + not be considered binding until after having been ratified by the separate + states. In the opinion of Barneveld they were within a few hours' work of + a favourable result when their deliberations were interrupted by a + startling event. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVIII. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Fruitless Interview between Barneveld and Maurice—The Advocate, + warned of his Danger, resolves to remain at the Hague—Arrest of + Barneveld, of Qrotius, and of Hoogerbeets—The States-General assume + the Responsibility in a "Billet"—The States of Holland protest— + The Advocate's Letter to his Family—Audience of Boississe— + Mischief-making of Aerssens—The French Ambassadors intercede for + Barneveld—The King of England opposes their Efforts—Langerac's + Treachery to the Advocate—Maurice continues his Changes in the + Magistracy throughout the Country—Vote of Thanks by the States of + Holland. +</pre> + <p> + The Advocate, having done what he believed to be his duty, and exhausted + himself in efforts to defend ancient law and to procure moderation and + mutual toleration in religion, was disposed to acquiesce in the + inevitable. His letters giving official and private information of those + grave events were neither vindictive nor vehement. + </p> + <p> + "I send you the last declaration of My Lords of Holland," he said to + Caron, "in regard to the National Synod, with the counter-declaration of + Dordtrecht and the other five cities. Yesterday was begun the debate about + cashiering the enrolled soldiers called Waartgelders. To-day the late M. + van Kereburg was buried." + </p> + <p> + Nothing could be calmer than his tone. After the Waartgelders had been + disbanded, Utrecht revolutionized by main force, the National Synod + decided upon, and the process of changing the municipal magistracies + everywhere in the interest of Contra-Remonstrants begun, he continued to + urge moderation and respect for law. Even now, although discouraged, he + was not despondent, and was disposed to make the best even of the Synod. + </p> + <p> + He wished at this supreme moment to have a personal interview with the + Prince in order to devise some means for calming the universal agitation + and effecting, if possible, a reconciliation among conflicting passions + and warring sects. He had stood at the side of Maurice and of Maurice's + great father in darker hours even than these. They had turned to him on + all trying and tragical occasions and had never found his courage wavering + or his judgment at fault. "Not a friend to the House of Nassau, but a + father," thus had Maurice with his own lips described the Advocate to the + widow of William the Silent. Incapable of an unpatriotic thought, animated + by sincere desire to avert evil and procure moderate action, Barneveld saw + no reason whatever why, despite all that had been said and done, he should + not once more hold council with the Prince. He had a conversation + accordingly with Count Lewis, who had always honoured the Advocate while + differing with him on the religious question. The Stadholder of Friesland, + one of the foremost men of his day in military and scientific affairs, in + administrative ability and philanthropic instincts, and, in a family + perhaps the most renowned in Europe for heroic qualities and achievements, + hardly second to any who had borne the name, was in favour of the proposed + interview, spoke immediately to Prince Maurice about it, but was not + hopeful as to its results. He knew his cousin well and felt that he was at + that moment resentful, perhaps implacably so, against the whole + Remonstrant party and especially against their great leader. + </p> + <p> + Count Lewis was small of stature, but dignified, not to say pompous, in + demeanour. His style of writing to one of lower social rank than himself + was lofty, almost regal, and full of old world formality. + </p> + <p> + "Noble, severe, right worshipful, highly learned and discreet, special + good friend," he wrote to Barneveld; "we have spoken to his Excellency + concerning the expediency of what you requested of us this forenoon. We + find however that his Excellency is not to be moved to entertain any other + measure than the National Synod which he has himself proposed in person to + all the provinces, to the furtherance of which he has made so many + exertions, and which has already been announced by the States-General. + </p> + <p> + "We will see by what opportunity his Excellency will appoint the + interview, and so far as lies in us you may rely on our good offices. We + could not answer sooner as the French ambassadors had audience of us this + forenoon and we were visiting his Excellency in the afternoon. Wishing + your worship good evening, we are your very good friend." + </p> + <p> + Next day Count William wrote again. "We have taken occasion," he said, "to + inform his Excellency that you were inclined to enter into communication + with him in regard to an accommodation of the religious difficulties and + to the cashiering of the Waartgelders. He answered that he could accept no + change in the matter of the National Synod, but nevertheless would be at + your disposal whenever your worship should be pleased to come to him." + </p> + <p> + Two days afterwards Barneveld made his appearance at the apartments of the + Stadholder. The two great men on whom the fabric of the Republic had so + long rested stood face to face once more. + </p> + <p> + The Advocate, with long grey beard and stern blue eye, haggard with + illness and anxiety, tall but bent with age, leaning on his staff and + wrapped in black velvet cloak—an imposing magisterial figure; the + florid, plethoric Prince in brown doublet, big russet boots, narrow ruff, + and shabby felt hat with its string of diamonds, with hand clutched on + swordhilt, and eyes full of angry menace, the very type of the high-born, + imperious soldier—thus they surveyed each other as men, once + friends, between whom a gulf had opened. + </p> + <p> + Barneveld sought to convince the Prince that in the proceedings at + Utrecht, founded as they were on strict adherence to the laws and + traditions of the Provinces, no disrespect had been intended to him, no + invasion of his constitutional rights, and that on his part his lifelong + devotion to the House of Nassau had suffered no change. He repeated his + usual incontrovertible arguments against the Synod, as illegal and + directly tending to subject the magistracy to the priesthood, a course of + things which eight-and-twenty years before had nearly brought destruction + on the country and led both the Prince and himself to captivity in a + foreign land. + </p> + <p> + The Prince sternly replied in very few words that the National Synod was a + settled matter, that he would never draw back from his position, and could + not do so without singular disservice to the country and to his own + disreputation. He expressed his displeasure at the particular oath exacted + from the Waartgelders. It diminished his lawful authority and the respect + due to him, and might be used per indirectum to the oppression of those of + the religion which he had sworn to maintain. His brow grew black when he + spoke of the proceedings at Utrecht, which he denounced as a conspiracy + against his own person and the constitution of the country. + </p> + <p> + Barneveld used in vain the powers of argument by which he had guided kings + and republics, cabinets and assemblies, during so many years. His + eloquence fell powerless upon the iron taciturnity of the Stadholder. + Maurice had expressed his determination and had no other argument to + sustain it but his usual exasperating silence. + </p> + <p> + The interview ended as hopelessly as Count Lewis William had anticipated, + and the Prince and the Advocate separated to meet no more on earth. + </p> + <p> + "You have doubtless heard already," wrote Barneveld to the ambassador in + London, "of all that has been passing here and in Utrecht. One must pray + to God that everything may prosper to his honour and the welfare of the + country. They are resolved to go through with the National Synod, the + government of Utrecht after the change made in it having consented with + the rest. I hope that his Majesty, according to your statement, will send + some good, learned, and peace-loving personages here, giving them + wholesome instructions to help bring our affairs into Christian unity, + accommodation, and love, by which his Majesty and these Provinces would be + best served." + </p> + <p> + Were these the words of a baffled conspirator and traitor? Were they + uttered to produce an effect upon public opinion and avert a merited + condemnation by all good men? There is not in them a syllable of reproach, + of anger, of despair. And let it be remembered that they were not written + for the public at all. They were never known to the public, hardly heard + of either by the Advocate's enemies or friends, save the one to whom they + were addressed and the monarch to whom that friend was accredited. They + were not contained in official despatches, but in private, confidential + outpourings to a trusted political and personal associate of many years. + From the day they were written until this hour they have never been + printed, and for centuries perhaps not read. + </p> + <p> + He proceeded to explain what he considered to be the law in the + Netherlands with regard to military allegiance. It is not probable that + there was in the country a more competent expounder of it; and defective + and even absurd as such a system was, it had carried the Provinces + successfully through a great war, and a better method for changing it + might have been found among so law-loving and conservative a people as the + Netherlanders than brute force. + </p> + <p> + "Information has apparently been sent to England," he said, "that My Lords + of Holland through their commissioners in Utrecht dictated to the soldiery + standing at their charges something that was unreasonable. The truth is + that the States of Holland, as many of them as were assembled, + understanding that great haste was made to send his Excellency and some + deputies from the other provinces to Utrecht, while the members of the + Utrecht assembly were gone to report these difficulties to their + constituents and get fresh instructions from them, wishing that the return + of those members should be waited for and that the Assembly of Holland + might also be complete—a request which was refused—sent a + committee to Utrecht, as the matter brooked no delay, to give information + to the States of that province of what was passing here and to offer their + good offices. + </p> + <p> + "They sent letters also to his Excellency to move him to reasonable + accommodation without taking extreme measures in opposition to those + resolutions of the States of Utrecht which his Excellency had promised to + conform with and to cause to be maintained by all officers and soldiers. + Should his Excellency make difficulty in this, the commissioners were + instructed to declare to him that they were ordered to warn the colonels + and captains standing in the payment of Holland, by letter and word of + mouth, that they were bound by oath to obey the States of Holland as their + paymasters and likewise to carry out the orders of the provincial and + municipal magistrates in the places where they were employed. The soldiery + was not to act or permit anything to be done against those resolutions, + but help to carry them out, his Excellency himself and the troops paid by + the States of Holland being indisputably bound by oath and duty so to do." + </p> + <p> + Doubtless a more convenient arrangement from a military point of view + might be imagined than a system of quotas by which each province in a + confederacy claimed allegiance and exacted obedience from the troops paid + by itself in what was after all a general army. Still this was the logical + and inevitable result of State rights pushed to the extreme and indeed had + been the indisputable theory and practice in the Netherlands ever since + their revolt from Spain. To pretend that the proceedings and the oath were + new because they were embarrassing was absurd. It was only because the + dominant party saw the extreme inconvenience of the system, now that it + was turned against itself, that individuals contemptuous of law and + ignorant of history denounced it as a novelty. + </p> + <p> + But the strong and beneficent principle that lay at the bottom of the + Advocate's conduct was his unflagging resolve to maintain the civil + authority over the military in time of peace. What liberal or healthy + government would be possible otherwise? Exactly as he opposed the + subjection of the magistracy by the priesthood or the mob, so he now + defended it against the power of the sword. There was no justification + whatever for a claim on the part of Maurice to exact obedience from all + the armies of the Republic, especially in time of peace. He was himself by + oath sworn to obey the States of Holland, of Utrecht, and of the three + other provinces of which he was governor. He was not commander-in-chief. + In two of the seven provinces he had no functions whatever, military or + civil. They had another governor. + </p> + <p> + Yet the exposition of the law, as it stood, by the Advocate and his claim + that both troops and Stadholder should be held to their oaths was + accounted a crime. He had invented a new oath—it was said—and + sought to diminish the power of the Prince. These were charges, unjust as + they were, which might one day be used with deadly effect. + </p> + <p> + "We live in a world where everything is interpreted to the worst," he + said. "My physical weakness continues and is increased by this affliction. + I place my trust in God the Lord and in my upright and conscientious + determination to serve the country, his Excellency, and the religion in + which through God's grace I hope to continue to the end." + </p> + <p> + On the 28th August of a warm afternoon, Barneveld was seated on a + porcelain seat in an arbor in his garden. Councillor Berkhout, accompanied + by a friend, called to see him, and after a brief conversation gave him + solemn warning that danger was impending, that there was even a rumour of + an intention to arrest him. + </p> + <p> + The Advocate answered gravely, "Yes, there are wicked men about." + </p> + <p> + Presently he lifted his hat courteously and said, "I thank you, gentlemen, + for the warning." + </p> + <p> + It seems scarcely to have occurred to him that he had been engaged in + anything beyond a constitutional party struggle in which he had defended + what in his view was the side of law and order. He never dreamt of seeking + safety in flight. Some weeks before, he had been warmly advised to do as + both he and Maurice had done in former times in order to escape the + stratagems of Leicester, to take refuge in some strong city devoted to his + interests rather than remain at the Hague. But he had declined the + counsel. "I will await the issue of this business," he said, "in the + Hague, where my home is, and where I have faithfully served my masters. I + had rather for the sake of the Fatherland suffer what God chooses to send + me for having served well than that through me and on my account any city + should fall into trouble and difficulties." + </p> + <p> + Next morning, Wednesday, at seven o'clock, Uytenbogaert paid him a visit. + He wished to consult him concerning a certain statement in regard to the + Synod which he desired him to lay before the States of Holland. The + preacher did not find his friend busily occupied at his desk, as usual, + with writing and other work. The Advocate had pushed his chair away from + the table encumbered with books and papers, and sat with his back leaning + against it, lost in thought. His stern, stoical face was like that of a + lion at bay. + </p> + <p> + Uytenbogaert tried to arouse him from his gloom, consoling him by + reflections on the innumerable instances, in all countries and ages, of + patriotic statesmen who for faithful service had reaped nothing but + ingratitude. + </p> + <p> + Soon afterwards he took his leave, feeling a presentiment of evil within + him which it was impossible for him to shake off as he pressed Barneveld's + hand at parting. + </p> + <p> + Two hours later, the Advocate went in his coach to the session of the + States of Holland. The place of the Assembly as well as that of the + States-General was within what was called the Binnenhof or Inner Court; + the large quadrangle enclosing the ancient hall once the residence of the + sovereign Counts of Holland. The apartments of the Stadholder composed the + south-western portion of the large series of buildings surrounding this + court. Passing by these lodgings on his way to the Assembly, he was + accosted by a chamberlain of the Prince and informed that his Highness + desired to speak with him. He followed him towards the room where such + interviews were usually held, but in the antechamber was met by Lieutenant + Nythof, of the Prince's bodyguard. This officer told him that he had been + ordered to arrest him in the name of the States-General. The Advocate + demanded an interview with the Prince. It was absolutely refused. Physical + resistance on the part of a man of seventy-two, stooping with age and + leaning on a staff, to military force, of which Nythof was the + representative, was impossible. Barneveld put a cheerful face on the + matter, and was even inclined to converse. He was at once carried off a + prisoner and locked up in a room belonging to Maurice's apartments. + </p> + <p> + Soon afterwards, Grotius on his way to the States-General was invited in + precisely the same manner to go to the Prince, with whom, as he was + informed, the Advocate was at that moment conferring. As soon as he had + ascended the stairs however, he was arrested by Captain van der Meulen in + the name of the States-General, and taken to a chamber in the same + apartments, where he was guarded by two halberdmen. In the evening he was + removed to another chamber where the window shutters were barred, and + where he remained three days and nights. He was much cast down and silent. + Pensionary Hoogerbeets was made prisoner in precisely the same manner. + Thus the three statesmen—culprits as they were considered by their + enemies—were secured without noise or disturbance, each without + knowing the fate that had befallen the other. Nothing could have been more + neatly done. In the same quiet way orders were sent to secure Secretary + Ledenberg, who had returned to Utrecht, and who now after a short + confinement in that city was brought to the Hague and imprisoned in the + Hof. + </p> + <p> + At the very moment of the Advocate's arrest his son-in-law van der Myle + happened to be paying a visit to Sir Dudley Carleton, who had arrived very + late the night before from England. It was some hours before he or any + other member of the family learned what had befallen. + </p> + <p> + The Ambassador reported to his sovereign that the deed was highly + applauded by the well disposed as the only means left for the security of + the state. "The Arminians," he said, "condemn it as violent and + insufferable in a free republic." + </p> + <p> + Impartial persons, he thought, considered it a superfluous proceeding now + that the Synod had been voted and the Waartgelders disbanded. + </p> + <p> + While he was writing his despatch, the Stadholder came to call upon him, + attended by his cousin Count Lewis William. The crowd of citizens + following at a little distance, excited by the news with which the city + was now ringing, mingled with Maurice's gentlemen and bodyguards and + surged up almost into the Ambassador's doors. + </p> + <p> + Carleton informed his guests, in the course of conversation, as to the + general opinion of indifferent judges of these events. Maurice replied + that he had disbanded the Waartgelders, but it had now become necessary to + deal with their colonel and the chief captains, meaning thereby Barneveld + and the two other prisoners. + </p> + <p> + The news of this arrest was soon carried to the house of Barneveld, and + filled his aged wife, his son, and sons-in-law with grief and indignation. + His eldest son William, commonly called the Seignior van Groeneveld, + accompanied by his two brothers-in-law, Veenhuyzen, President of the Upper + Council, and van der Myle, obtained an interview with the Stadholder that + same afternoon. + </p> + <p> + They earnestly requested that the Advocate, in consideration of his + advanced age, might on giving proper bail be kept prisoner in his own + house. + </p> + <p> + The Prince received them at first with courtesy. "It is the work of the + States-General," he said, "no harm shall come to your father any more than + to myself." + </p> + <p> + Veenhuyzen sought to excuse the opposition which the Advocate had made to + the Cloister Church. + </p> + <p> + The word was scarcely out of his mouth when the Prince fiercely + interrupted him—"Any man who says a word against the Cloister + Church," he cried in a rage, "his feet shall not carry him from this + place." + </p> + <p> + The interview gave them on the whole but little satisfaction. Very soon + afterwards two gentlemen, Asperen and Schagen, belonging to the Chamber of + Nobles, and great adherents of Barneveld, who had procured their enrolment + in that branch, forced their way into the Stadholder's apartments and + penetrated to the door of the room where the Advocate was imprisoned. + According to Carleton they were filled with wine as well as rage, and made + a great disturbance, loudly demanding their patron's liberation. Maurice + came out of his own cabinet on hearing the noise in the corridor, and + ordered them to be disarmed and placed under arrest. In the evening + however they were released. + </p> + <p> + Soon afterwards van der Myle fled to Paris, where he endeavoured to make + influence with the government in favour of the Advocate. His departure + without leave, being, as he was, a member of the Chamber of Nobles and of + the council of state, was accounted a great offence. Uytenbogaert also + made his escape, as did Taurinus, author of The Balance, van Moersbergen + of Utrecht, and many others more or less implicated in these commotions. + </p> + <p> + There was profound silence in the States of Holland when the arrest of + Barneveld was announced. The majority sat like men distraught. At last + Matenesse said, "You have taken from us our head, our tongue, and our + hand, henceforth we can only sit still and look on." + </p> + <p> + The States-General now took the responsibility of the arrest, which eight + individuals calling themselves the States-General had authorized by secret + resolution the day before (28th August). On the 29th accordingly, the + following "Billet," as it was entitled, was read to the Assembly and + ordered to be printed and circulated among the community. It was without + date or signature. + </p> + <p> + "Whereas in the course of the changes within the city of Utrecht and in + other places brought about by the high and mighty Lords the States-General + of the United Netherlands, through his Excellency and their Lordships' + committee to him adjoined, sundry things have been discovered of which + previously there had been great suspicion, tending to the great prejudice + of the Provinces in general and of each province in particular, not + without apparent danger to the state of the country, and that thereby not + only the city of Utrecht, but various other cities of the United Provinces + would have fallen into a blood bath; and whereas the chief ringleaders in + these things are considered to be John van Barneveld, Advocate of Holland, + Rombout Hoogerbeets, and Hugo Grotius, whereof hereafter shall declaration + and announcement be made, therefore their High Mightinesses, in order to + prevent these and similar inconveniences, to place the country in + security, and to bring the good burghers of all the cities into friendly + unity again, have resolved to arrest those three persons, in order that + out of their imprisonment they may be held to answer duly for their + actions and offences." + </p> + <p> + The deputies of Holland in the States-General protested on the same day + against the arrest, declaring themselves extraordinarily amazed at such + proceedings, without their knowledge, with usurpation of their + jurisdiction, and that they should refer to their principals for + instructions in the matter. + </p> + <p> + They reported accordingly at once to the States of Holland in session in + the same building. Soon afterwards however a committee of five from the + States-General appeared before the Assembly to justify the proceeding. On + their departure there arose a great debate, the six cities of course + taking part with Maurice and the general government. It was finally + resolved by the majority to send a committee to the Stadholder to + remonstrate with, and by the six opposition cities another committee to + congratulate him, on his recent performances. + </p> + <p> + His answer was to this effect: + </p> + <p> + "What had happened was not by his order, but had been done by the + States-General, who must be supposed not to have acted without good cause. + Touching the laws and jurisdiction of Holland he would not himself + dispute, but the States of Holland would know how to settle that matter + with the States-General." + </p> + <p> + Next day it was resolved in the Holland assembly to let the affair remain + as it was for the time being. Rapid changes were soon to be expected in + that body, hitherto so staunch for the cause of municipal laws and State + rights. + </p> + <p> + Meantime Barneveld sat closely guarded in the apartments of the + Stadholder, while the country and very soon all Europe were ringing with + the news of his downfall, imprisonment, and disgrace. The news was a + thunder-bolt to the lovers of religious liberty, a ray of dazzling + sunlight after a storm to the orthodox. + </p> + <p> + The showers of pamphlets, villanous lampoons, and libels began afresh. The + relatives of the fallen statesman could not appear in the streets without + being exposed to insult, and without hearing scurrilous and obscene verses + against their father and themselves, in which neither sex nor age was + spared, howled in their ears by all the ballad-mongers and broadsheet + vendors of the town. The unsigned publication of the States-General, with + its dark allusions to horrible discoveries and promised revelations which + were never made, but which reduced themselves at last to the gibberish of + a pot-house bully, the ingenious libels, the powerfully concocted and + poisonous calumnies, caricatures, and lampoons, had done their work. + People stared at each other in the streets with open mouths as they heard + how the Advocate had for years and years been the hireling of Spain, whose + government had bribed him largely to bring about the Truce and kill the + West India Company; how his pockets and his coffers were running over with + Spanish ducats; how his plot to sell the whole country to the ancient + tyrant, drive the Prince of Orange into exile, and bring every city of the + Netherlands into a "blood-bath," had, just in time, been discovered. + </p> + <p> + And the people believed it and hated the man they had so lately honoured, + and were ready to tear him to pieces in the streets. Men feared to defend + him lest they too should be accused of being stipendiaries of Spain. It + was a piteous spectacle; not for the venerable statesman sitting alone + there in his prison, but for the Republic in its lunacy, for human nature + in its meanness and shame. He whom Count Lewis, although opposed to his + politics, had so lately called one of the two columns on which the whole + fabric of the States reposed, Prince Maurice being the other, now lay + prostrate in the dust and reviled of all men. + </p> + <p> + "Many who had been promoted by him to high places," said a contemporary, + "and were wont to worship him as a god, in hope that he would lift them up + still higher, now deserted him, and ridiculed him, and joined the rest of + the world in heaping dirt upon him." + </p> + <p> + On the third day of his imprisonment the Advocate wrote this letter to his + family:— + </p> + <p> + "My very dear wife, children, children-in-law, and grandchildren,—I + know that you are sorrowful for the troubles which have come upon me, but + I beg you to seek consolation from God the Almighty and to comfort each + other. I know before the Lord God of having given no single lawful reason + for the misfortunes which have come upon me, and I will with patience + await from His Divine hand and from my lawful superiors a happy issue, + knowing well that you and my other well-wishers will with your prayers and + good offices do all that you can to that end. + </p> + <p> + "And so, very dear wife, children, children-in-law, and grandchildren, I + commend you to God's holy keeping. + </p> + <p> + "I have been thus far well and honourably treated and accommodated, for + which I thank his princely Excellency. + </p> + <p> + "From my chamber of arrest, last of August, anno 1618. + </p> + <p> + "Your dear husband, father, father-in-law, and grand father, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "JOHN OF BARNEVELD." +</pre> + <p> + On the margin was written: + </p> + <p> + "From the first I have requested and have at last obtained materials for + writing." + </p> + <p> + A fortnight before the arrest, but while great troubles were known to be + impending, the French ambassador extraordinary, de Boississe, had audience + before the Assembly of the States-General. He entreated them to maintain + the cause of unity and peace as the foundation of their state; "that + state," he said, "which lifts its head so high that it equals or surpasses + the mightiest republics that ever existed, and which could not have risen + to such a height of honour and grandeur in so short a time, but through + harmony and union of all the provinces, through the valour of his + Excellency, and through your own wise counsels, both sustained by our + great king, whose aid is continued by his son."—"The King my + master," he continued, "knows not the cause of your disturbances. You have + not communicated them to him, but their most apparent cause is a + difference of opinion, born in the schools, thence brought before the + public, upon a point of theology. That point has long been deemed by many + to be so hard and so high that the best advice to give about it is to + follow what God's Word teaches touching God's secrets; to wit, that one + should use moderation and modesty therein and should not rashly press too + far into that which he wishes to be covered with the veil of reverence and + wonder. That is a wise ignorance to keep one's eyes from that which God + chooses to conceal. He calls us not to eternal life through subtle and + perplexing questions." + </p> + <p> + And further exhorting them to conciliation and compromise, he enlarged on + the effect of their internal dissensions on their exterior relations. + "What joy, what rapture you are preparing for your neighbours by your + quarrels! How they will scorn you! How they will laugh! What a hope do you + give them of revenging themselves upon you without danger to themselves! + Let me implore you to baffle their malice, to turn their joy into + mourning, to unite yourselves to confound them." + </p> + <p> + He spoke much more in the same vein, expressing wise and moderate + sentiments. He might as well have gone down to the neighbouring beach when + a south-west gale was blowing and talked of moderation to the waves of the + German Ocean. The tempest of passion and prejudice had risen in its might + and was sweeping all before it. Yet the speech, like other speeches and + intercessions made at this epoch by de Boississe and by the regular French + ambassador, du Maurier, was statesmanlike and reasonable. It is + superfluous to say that it was in unison with the opinions of Barneveld, + for Barneveld had probably furnished the text of the oration. Even as he + had a few years before supplied the letters which King James had signed + and subsequently had struggled so desperately to disavow, so now the + Advocate's imperious intellect had swayed the docile and amiable minds of + the royal envoys into complete sympathy with his policy. He usually + dictated their general instructions. But an end had come to such triumphs. + Dudley Carleton had returned from his leave of absence in England, where + he had found his sovereign hating the Advocate as doctors hate who have + been worsted in theological arguments and despots who have been baffled in + their imperious designs. Who shall measure the influence on the destiny of + this statesman caused by the French-Spanish marriages, the sermons of + James through the mouth of Carleton, and the mutual jealousy of France and + England? + </p> + <p> + But the Advocate was in prison, and the earth seemed to have closed over + him. Hardly a ripple of indignation was perceptible on the calm surface of + affairs, although in the States-General as in the States of Holland his + absence seemed to have reduced both bodies to paralysis. + </p> + <p> + They were the more easily handled by the prudent, skilful, and determined + Maurice. + </p> + <p> + The arrest of the four gentlemen had been communicated to the kings of + France and Great Britain and the Elector-Palatine in an identical letter + from the States-General. It is noticeable that on this occasion the + central government spoke of giving orders to the Prince of Orange, over + whom they would seem to have had no legitimate authority, while on the + other hand he had expressed indignation on more than one occasion that the + respective states of the five provinces where he was governor and to whom + he had sworn obedience should presume to issue commands to him. + </p> + <p> + In France, where the Advocate was honoured and beloved, the intelligence + excited profound sorrow. A few weeks previously the government of that + country had, as we have seen, sent a special ambassador to the States, M. + de Boississe, to aid the resident envoy, du Maurier, in his efforts to + bring about a reconciliation of parties and a termination of the religious + feud. Their exertions were sincere and unceasing. They were as steadily + countermined by Francis Aerssens, for the aim of that diplomatist was to + bring about a state of bad feeling, even at cost of rupture, between the + Republic and France, because France was friendly to the man he most hated + and whose ruin he had sworn. + </p> + <p> + During the summer a bitter personal controversy had been going on, + sufficiently vulgar in tone, between Aerssens and another diplomatist, + Barneveld's son-in-law, Cornelis van der Myle. It related to the recall of + Aerssens from the French embassy of which enough has already been laid + before the reader. Van der Myle by the production of the secret letters of + the Queen-Dowager and her counsellors had proved beyond dispute that it + was at the express wish of the French government that the Ambassador had + retired, and that indeed they had distinctly refused to receive him, + should he return. Foul words resulting in propositions for a hostile + meeting on the frontier, which however came to nothing, were interchanged + and Aerssens in the course of his altercation with the son-inlaw had found + ample opportunity for venting his spleen upon his former patron the now + fallen statesman. + </p> + <p> + Four days after the arrest of Barneveld he brought the whole matter before + the States-General, and the intention with which he thus raked up the old + quarrel with France after the death of Henry, and his charges in regard to + the Spanish marriages, was as obvious as it was deliberate. + </p> + <p> + The French ambassadors were furious. Boississe had arrived not simply as + friend of the Advocate, but to assure the States of the strong desire + entertained by the French government to cultivate warmest relations with + them. It had been desired by the Contra-Remonstrant party that deputies + from the Protestant churches of France should participate in the Synod, + and the French king had been much assailed by the Catholic powers for + listening to those suggestions. The Papal nuncius, the Spanish ambassador, + the envoy of the Archduke, had made a great disturbance at court + concerning the mission of Boississe. They urged with earnestness that his + Majesty was acting against the sentiments of Spain, Rome, and the whole + Catholic Church, and that he ought not to assist with his counsel those + heretics who were quarrelling among themselves over points in their + heretical religion and wishing to destroy each other. + </p> + <p> + Notwithstanding this outcry the weather was smooth enough until the + proceedings of Aerssens came to stir up a tempest at the French court. A + special courier came from Boississe, a meeting of the whole council, + although it was Sunday, was instantly called, and the reply of the + States-General to the remonstrance of the Ambassador in the Aerssens + affair was pronounced to be so great an affront to the King that, but for + overpowering reasons, diplomatic intercourse would have at once been + suspended. "Now instead of friendship there is great anger here," said + Langerac. The king forbade under vigorous penalties the departure of any + French theologians to take part in the Synod, although the royal consent + had nearly been given. The government complained that no justice was done + in the Netherlands to the French nation, that leading personages there + openly expressed contempt for the French alliance, denouncing the country + as "Hispaniolized," and declaring that all the council were regularly + pensioned by Spain for the express purpose of keeping up the civil + dissensions in the United Provinces. + </p> + <p> + Aerssens had publicly and officially declared that a majority of the + French council since the death of Henry had declared the crown in its + temporal as well as spiritual essence to be dependent on the Pope, and + that the Spanish marriages had been made under express condition of the + renunciation of the friendship and alliance of the States. + </p> + <p> + Such were among the first-fruits of the fall of Barneveld and the triumph + of Aerssens, for it was he in reality who had won the victory, and he had + gained it over both Stadholder and Advocate. Who was to profit by the + estrangement between the Republic and its powerful ally at a moment too + when that great kingdom was at last beginning to emerge from the darkness + and nothingness of many years, with the faint glimmering dawn of a new + great policy? + </p> + <p> + Barneveld, whose masterful statesmanship, following out the traditions of + William the Silent, had ever maintained through good and ill report + cordial and beneficent relations between the two countries, had always + comprehended, even as a great cardinal-minister was ere long to teach the + world, that the permanent identification of France with Spain and the + Roman League was unnatural and impossible. + </p> + <p> + Meantime Barneveld sat in his solitary prison, knowing not what was + passing on that great stage where he had so long been the chief actor, + while small intriguers now attempted to control events. + </p> + <p> + It was the intention of Aerssens to return to the embassy in Paris whence + he had been driven, in his own opinion, so unjustly. To render himself + indispensable, he had begun by making himself provisionally formidable to + the King's government. Later, there would be other deeds to do before the + prize was within his grasp. + </p> + <p> + Thus the very moment when France was disposed to cultivate the most + earnest friendship with the Republic had been seized for fastening an + insult upon her. The Twelve Years' Truce with Spain was running to its + close, the relations between France and Spain were unusually cold, and her + friendship therefore more valuable than ever. + </p> + <p> + On the other hand the British king was drawing closer his relations with + Spain, and his alliance was demonstrably of small account. The phantom of + the Spanish bride had become more real to his excited vision than ever, so + that early in the year, in order to please Gondemar, he had been willing + to offer an affront to the French ambassador. + </p> + <p> + The Prince of Wales had given a splendid masquerade at court, to which the + envoy of his Most Catholic Majesty was bidden. Much to his amazement the + representative of the Most Christian King received no invitation, + notwithstanding that he had taken great pains to procure one. M. de la + Boderie was very angry, and went about complaining to the States' + ambassador and his other colleagues of the slight, and darkened the lives + of the court functionaries having charge of such matters with his + vengeance and despair. It was represented to him that he had himself been + asked to a festival the year before when Count Gondemar was left out. It + was hinted to him that the King had good reasons for what he did, as the + marriage with the daughter of Spain was now in train, and it was desirable + that the Spanish ambassador should be able to observe the Prince's + disposition and make a more correct report of it to his government. It was + in vain. M. de la Boderie refused to be comforted, and asserted that one + had no right to leave the French ambassador uninvited to any "festival or + triumph" at court. There was an endless disturbance. De la Boderie sent + his secretary off to Paris to complain to the King that his ambassador was + of no account in London, while much favour was heaped upon the Spaniard. + The Secretary returned with instructions from Lewis that the Ambassador + was to come home immediately, and he went off accordingly in dudgeon. "I + could see that he was in the highest degree indignant," said Caron, who + saw him before he left, "and I doubt not that his departure will increase + and keep up the former jealousy between the governments." + </p> + <p> + The ill-humor created by this event lasted a long time, serving to + neutralize or at least perceptibly diminish the Spanish influence produced + in France by the Spanish marriages. In the autumn, Secretary de Puysieux + by command of the King ordered every Spaniard to leave the French court. + All the "Spanish ladies and gentlemen, great and small," who had + accompanied the Queen from Madrid were included in this expulsion with the + exception of four individuals, her Majesty's father confessor, physician, + apothecary, and cook. + </p> + <p> + The fair young queen was much vexed and shed bitter tears at this + calamity, which, as she spoke nothing but Spanish, left her isolated at + the court, but she was a little consoled by the promise that thenceforth + the King would share her couch. It had not yet occurred to him that he was + married. + </p> + <p> + The French envoys at the Hague exhausted themselves in efforts, both + private and public, in favour of the prisoners, but it was a thankless + task. Now that the great man and his chief pupils and adherents were out + of sight, a war of shameless calumny was began upon him, such as has + scarcely a parallel in political history. + </p> + <p> + It was as if a whole tribe of noxious and obscene reptiles were swarming + out of the earth which had suddenly swallowed him. But it was not alone + the obscure or the anonymous who now triumphantly vilified him. Men in + high places who had partaken of his patronage, who had caressed him and + grovelled before him, who had grown great through his tuition and rich + through his bounty, now rejoiced in his ruin or hastened at least to save + themselves from being involved in it. Not a man of them all but fell away + from him like water. Even the great soldier forgot whose respectful but + powerful hand it was which, at the most tragical moment, had lifted him + from the high school at Leyden into the post of greatest power and + responsibility, and had guided his first faltering footsteps by the light + of his genius and experience. Francis Aerssens, master of the field, had + now become the political tutor of the mature Stadholder. Step by step we + have been studying the inmost thoughts of the Advocate as revealed in his + secret and confidential correspondence, and the reader has been enabled to + judge of the wantonness of the calumny which converted the determined + antagonist into the secret friend of Spain. Yet it had produced its effect + upon Maurice. + </p> + <p> + He told the French ambassadors a month after the arrest that Barneveld had + been endeavouring, during and since the Truce negotiations, to bring back + the Provinces, especially Holland, if not under the dominion of, at least + under some kind of vassalage to Spain. Persons had been feeling the public + pulse as to the possibility of securing permanent peace by paying tribute + to Spain, and this secret plan of Barneveld had so alienated him from the + Prince as to cause him to attempt every possible means of diminishing or + destroying altogether his authority. He had spread through many cities + that Maurice wished to make himself master of the state by using the + religious dissensions to keep the people weakened and divided. + </p> + <p> + There is not a particle of evidence, and no attempt was ever made to + produce any, that the Advocate had such plan, but certainly, if ever, man + had made himself master of a state, that man was Maurice. He continued + however to place himself before the world as the servant of the + States-General, which he never was, either theoretically or in fact. + </p> + <p> + The French ambassadors became every day more indignant and more + discouraged. It was obvious that Aerssens, their avowed enemy, was + controlling the public policy of the government. Not only was there no + satisfaction to be had for the offensive manner in which he had filled the + country with his ancient grievances and his nearly forgotten charges + against the Queen-Dowager and those who had assisted her in the regency, + but they were repulsed at every turn when by order of their sovereign they + attempted to use his good offices in favour of the man who had ever been + the steady friend of France. + </p> + <p> + The Stadholder also professed friendship for that country, and referred to + Colonel-General Chatillon, who had for a long time commanded the French + regiments in the Netherlands, for confirmation of his uniform affection + for those troops and attachment to their sovereign. + </p> + <p> + He would do wonders, he said, if Lewis would declare war upon Spain by + land and sea. + </p> + <p> + "Such fruits are not ripe," said Boississe, "nor has your love for France + been very manifest in recent events." + </p> + <p> + "Barneveld," replied the Prince, "has personally offended me, and has + boasted that he would drive me out of the country like Leicester. He is + accused of having wished to trouble the country in order to bring it back + under the yoke of Spain. Justice will decide. The States only are + sovereign to judge this question. You must address yourself to them." + </p> + <p> + "The States," replied the ambassadors, "will require to be aided by your + counsels." + </p> + <p> + The Prince made no reply and remained chill and "impregnable." The + ambassadors continued their intercessions in behalf of the prisoners both + by public address to the Assembly and by private appeals to the Stadholder + and his influential friends. In virtue of the intimate alliance and mutual + guarantees existing between their government and the Republic they claimed + the acceptance of their good offices. They insisted upon a regular trial + of the prisoners according to the laws of the land, that is to say, by the + high court of Holland, which alone had jurisdiction in the premises. If + they had been guilty of high-treason, they should be duly arraigned. In + the name of the signal services of Barneveld and of the constant + friendship of that great magistrate for France, the King demanded clemency + or proof of his crimes. His Majesty complained through his ambassadors of + the little respect shown for his counsels and for his friendship. "In + times past you found ever prompt and favourable action in your time of + need." + </p> + <p> + "This discourse," said Maurice to Chatillon, "proceeds from evil + intention." + </p> + <p> + Thus the prisoners had disappeared from human sight, and their enemies ran + riot in slandering them. Yet thus far no public charges had been made. + </p> + <p> + "Nothing appears against them," said du Maurier, "and people are beginning + to open their mouths with incredible freedom. While waiting for the + condemnation of the prisoners, one is determined to dishonour them." + </p> + <p> + The French ambassadors were instructed to intercede to the last, but they + were steadily repulsed—while the King of Great Britain, anxious to + gain favour with Spain by aiding in the ruin of one whom he knew and Spain + knew to be her determined foe, did all he could through his ambassador to + frustrate their efforts and bring on a catastrophe. The States-General and + Maurice were now on as confidential terms with Carleton as they were cold + and repellent to Boississe and du Maurier. + </p> + <p> + "To recall to them the benefits of the King," said du Maurier, "is to beat + the air. And then Aerssens bewitches them, and they imagine that after + having played runaway horses his Majesty will be only too happy to receive + them back, caress them, and, in order to have their friendship, approve + everything they have been doing right or wrong." + </p> + <p> + Aerssens had it all his own way, and the States-General had just paid him + 12,000 francs in cash on the ground that Langerac's salary was larger than + his had been when at the head of the same embassy many years before. + </p> + <p> + His elevation into the body of nobles, which Maurice had just stocked with + five other of his partisans, was accounted an additional affront to + France, while on the other hand the Queen-Mother, having through Epernon's + assistance made her escape from Blois, where she had been kept in durance + since the death of Concini, now enumerated among other grievances for + which she was willing to take up arms against her son that the King's + government had favoured Barneveld. + </p> + <p> + It was strange that all the devotees of Spain—Mary de' Medici, and + Epernon, as well as James I. and his courtiers—should be thus + embittered against the man who had sold the Netherlands to Spain. + </p> + <p> + At last the Prince told the French ambassadors that the "people of the + Provinces considered their persistent intercessions an invasion of their + sovereignty." Few would have anything to say to them. "No one listens to + us, no one replies to us," said du Maurier, "everyone visiting us is + observed, and it is conceived a reproach here to speak to the ambassadors + of France." + </p> + <p> + Certainly the days were changed since Henry IV. leaned on the arm of + Barneveld, and consulted with him, and with him only, among all the + statesmen of Europe on his great schemes for regenerating Christendom and + averting that general war which, now that the great king had been murdered + and the Advocate imprisoned, had already begun to ravage Europe. + </p> + <p> + Van der Myle had gone to Paris to make such exertions as he could among + the leading members of the council in favour of his father-in-law. + Langerac, the States' ambassador there, who but yesterday had been turning + at every moment to the Advocate for light and warmth as to the sun, now + hastened to disavow all respect or regard for him. He scoffed at the + slender sympathy van der Myle was finding in the bleak political + atmosphere. He had done his best to find out what he had been negotiating + with the members of the council and was glad to say that it was so + inconsiderable as to be not worth reporting. He had not spoken with or + seen the King. Jeannin, his own and his father-in-law's principal and most + confidential friend, had only spoken with him half an hour and then + departed for Burgundy, although promising to confer with him + sympathetically on his return. "I am very displeased at his coming here," + said Langerac, ". . . . but he has found little friendship or confidence, + and is full of woe and apprehension." + </p> + <p> + The Ambassador's labours were now confined to personally soliciting the + King's permission for deputations from the Reformed churches of France to + go to the Synod, now opened (13th November) at Dordtrecht, and to clearing + his own skirts with the Prince and States-General of any suspicion of + sympathy with Barneveld. + </p> + <p> + In the first object he was unsuccessful, the King telling him at last + "with clear and significant words that this was impossible, on account of + his conscience, his respect for the Catholic religion, and many other + reasons." + </p> + <p> + In regard to the second point he acted with great promptness. + </p> + <p> + He received a summons in January 1619 from the States-General and the + Prince to send them all letters that he had ever received from Barneveld. + He crawled at once to Maurice on his knees, with the letters in his hand. + </p> + <p> + "Most illustrious, high-born Prince, most gracious Lord," he said; + "obeying the commands which it has pleased the States and your princely + Grace to give me, I send back the letters of Advocate Barneveld. If your + princely Grace should find anything in them showing that the said Advocate + had any confidence in me, I most humbly beg your princely Grace to believe + that I never entertained any affection for, him, except only in respect to + and so far as he was in credit and good authority with the government, and + according to the upright zeal which I thought I could see in him for the + service of My high and puissant Lords the States-General and of your + princely Grace." + </p> + <p> + Greater humbleness could be expected of no ambassador. Most nobly did the + devoted friend and pupil of the great statesman remember his duty to the + illustrious Prince and their High Mightinesses. Most promptly did he + abjure his patron now that he had fallen into the abyss. + </p> + <p> + "Nor will it be found," he continued, "that I have had any sympathy or + communication with the said Advocate except alone in things concerning my + service. The great trust I had in him as the foremost and oldest + counsellor of the state, as the one who so confidentially instructed me on + my departure for France, and who had obtained for himself so great + authority that all the most important affairs of the country were + entrusted to him, was the cause that I simply and sincerely wrote to him + all that people were in the habit of saying at this court. + </p> + <p> + "If I had known in the least or suspected that he was not what he ought to + be in the service of My Lords the States and of your princely Grace and + for the welfare and tranquillity of the land, I should have been well on + my guard against letting myself in the least into any kind of + communication with him whatever." + </p> + <p> + The reader has seen how steadily and frankly the Advocate had kept + Langerac as well as Caron informed of passing events, and how little + concealment he made of his views in regard to the Synod, the Waartgelders, + and the respective authority of the States-General and States-Provincial. + Not only had Langerac no reason to suspect that Barneveld was not what he + ought to be, but he absolutely knew the contrary from that most + confidential correspondence with him which he was now so abjectly + repudiating. The Advocate, in a protracted constitutional controversy, had + made no secret of his views either officially or privately. Whether his + positions were tenable or flimsy, they had been openly taken. + </p> + <p> + "What is more," proceeded the Ambassador, "had I thought that any account + ought to be made of what I wrote to him concerning the sovereignty of the + Provinces, I should for a certainty not have failed to advise your Grace + of it above all." + </p> + <p> + He then, after profuse and maudlin protestations of his most dutiful zeal + all the days of his life for "the service, honour, reputation, and + contentment of your princely Grace," observed that he had not thought it + necessary to give him notice of such idle and unfounded matters, as being + likely to give the Prince annoyance and displeasure. He had however always + kept within himself the resolution duly to notify him in case he found + that any belief was attached to the reports in Paris. "But the reports," + he said, "were popular and calumnious inventions of which no man had ever + been willing or able to name to him the authors." + </p> + <p> + The Ambassador's memory was treacherous, and he had doubtless neglected to + read over the minutes, if he had kept them, of his wonderful disclosures + on the subject of the sovereignty before thus exculpating himself. It will + be remembered that he had narrated the story of the plot for conferring + sovereignty upon Maurice not as a popular calumny flying about Paris with + no man to father it, but he had given it to Barneveld on the authority of + a privy councillor of France and of the King himself. "His Majesty knows + it to be authentic," he had said in his letter. That letter was a pompous + one, full of mystery and so secretly ciphered that he had desired that his + friend van der Myle, whom he was now deriding for his efforts in Paris to + save his father-inlaw from his fate, might assist the Advocate in + unravelling its contents. He had now discovered that it had been idle + gossip not worthy of a moment's attention. + </p> + <p> + The reader will remember too that Barneveld, without attaching much + importance to the tale, had distinctly pointed out to Langerac that the + Prince himself was not implicated in the plot and had instructed the + Ambassador to communicate the story to Maurice. This advice had not been + taken, but he had kept the perilous stuff upon his breast. He now sought + to lay the blame, if it were possible to do so, upon the man to whom he + had communicated it and who had not believed it. + </p> + <p> + The business of the States-General, led by the Advocate's enemies this + winter, was to accumulate all kind of tales, reports, and accusations to + his discredit on which to form something like a bill of indictment. They + had demanded all his private and confidential correspondence with Caron + and Langerae. The ambassador in Paris had been served, moreover, with a + string of nine interrogatories which he was ordered to answer on oath and + honour. This he did and appended the reply to his letter. + </p> + <p> + The nine questions had simply for their object to discover what Barneveld + had been secretly writing to the Ambassador concerning the Synod, the + enlisted troops, and the supposed projects of Maurice concerning the + sovereignty. Langerac was obliged to admit in his replies that nothing had + been written except the regular correspondence which he endorsed, and of + which the reader has been able to see the sum and substance in the copious + extracts which have been given. + </p> + <p> + He stated also that he had never received any secret instructions save the + marginal notes to the list of questions addressed by him, when about + leaving for Paris in 1614, to Barneveld. Most of these were of a trivial + and commonplace nature. + </p> + <p> + They had however a direct bearing on the process to be instituted against + the Advocate, and the letter too which we have been examining will prove + to be of much importance. Certainly pains enough were taken to detect the + least trace of treason in a very loyal correspondence. Langerac concluded + by enclosing the Barneveld correspondence since the beginning of the year + 1614, protesting that not a single letter had been kept back or destroyed. + "Once more I recommend myself to mercy, if not to favour," he added, "as + the most faithful, most obedient, most zealous servant of their High + Mightinesses and your princely Grace, to whom I have devoted and + sacrificed my honour and life in most humble service; and am now and + forever the most humble, most obedient, most faithful servant of my most + serene, most illustrious, most highly born Prince, most gracious Lord and + princeliest Grace." + </p> + <p> + The former adherent of plain Advocate Barneveld could hardly find + superlatives enough to bestow upon the man whose displeasure that prisoner + had incurred. + </p> + <p> + Directly after the arrest the Stadholder had resumed his tour through the + Provinces in order to change the governments. Sliding over any opposition + which recent events had rendered idle, his course in every city was nearly + the same. A regiment or two and a train of eighty or a hundred waggons + coming through the city-gate preceded by the Prince and his body-guard of + 300, a tramp of halberdmen up the great staircase of the town-hall, a + jingle of spurs in the assembly-room, and the whole board of magistrates + were summoned into the presence of the Stadholder. They were then informed + that the world had no further need of their services, and were allowed to + bow themselves out of the presence. A new list was then announced, + prepared beforehand by Maurice on the suggestion of those on whom he could + rely. A faint resistance was here and there attempted by magistrates and + burghers who could not forget in a moment the rights of self-government + and the code of laws which had been enjoyed for centuries. At Hoorn, for + instance, there was deep indignation among the citizens. An imprudent word + or two from the authorities might have brought about a "blood-bath." + </p> + <p> + The burgomaster ventured indeed to expostulate. They requested the Prince + not to change the magistracy. "This is against our privileges," they said, + "which it is our duty to uphold. You will see what deep displeasure will + seize the burghers, and how much disturbance and tumult will follow. If + any faults have been committed by any member of the government, let him be + accused and let him answer for them. Let your Excellency not only dismiss + but punish such as cannot properly justify themselves." + </p> + <p> + But his Excellency summoned them all to the town-house and as usual + deposed them all. A regiment was drawn up in half-moon on the square + beneath the windows. To the magistrates asking why they were deposed, he + briefly replied, "The quiet of the land requires it. It is necessary to + have unanimous resolutions in the States-General at the Hague. This cannot + be accomplished without these preliminary changes. I believe that you had + good intentions and have been faithful servants of the Fatherland. But + this time it must be so." + </p> + <p> + And so the faithful servants of the Fatherland were dismissed into space. + Otherwise how could there be unanimous voting in parliament? It must be + regarded perhaps as fortunate that the force of character, undaunted + courage, and quiet decision of Maurice enabled him to effect this violent + series of revolutions with such masterly simplicity. It is questionable + whether the Stadholder's commission technically empowered him thus to + trample on municipal law; it is certain that, if it did, the boasted + liberties of the Netherlands were a dream; but it is equally true that, in + the circumstances then existing, a vulgar, cowardly, or incompetent + personage might have marked his pathway with massacres without restoring + tranquillity. + </p> + <p> + Sometimes there was even a comic aspect to these strokes of state. The + lists of new magistrates being hurriedly furnished by the Prince's + adherents to supply the place of those evicted, it often happened that men + not quahified by property, residence, or other attributes were appointed + to the government, so that many became magistrates before they were + citizens. + </p> + <p> + On being respectfully asked sometimes who such a magistrate might be whose + face and name were equally unknown to his colleagues and to the townsmen + in general; "Do I know the fellows?" he would say with a cheerful laugh. + And indeed they might have all been dead men, those new functionaries, for + aught he did know. And so on through Medemblik and Alkmaar, Brielle, + Delft, Monnikendam, and many other cities progressed the Prince, sowing + new municipalities broadcast as he passed along. At the Hague on his + return a vote of thanks to the Prince was passed by the nobles and most of + the cities for the trouble he had taken in this reforming process. But the + unanimous vote had not yet been secured, the strongholds of Arminianism, + as it was the fashion to call them, not being yet reduced. + </p> + <p> + The Prince, in reply to the vote of thanks, said that "in what he had done + and was going to do his intention sincerely and uprightly had been no + other than to promote the interests and tranquillity of the country, + without admixture of anything personal and without prejudice to the + general commonwealth or the laws and privileges of the cities." He desired + further that "note might be taken of this declaration as record of his + good and upright intentions." + </p> + <p> + But the sincerest and most upright intentions may be refracted by party + atmosphere from their aim, and the purest gold from the mint elude the + direct grasp through the clearest fluid in existence. At any rate it would + have been difficult to convince the host of deposed magistrates hurled + from office, although recognized as faithful servants of the Fatherland, + that such violent removal had taken place without detriment to the laws + and privileges. + </p> + <p> + And the Stadholder went to the few cities where some of the leaven still + lingered. + </p> + <p> + He arrived at Leyden on the 22nd October, "accompanied by a great suite of + colonels, ritmeesters, and captains," having sent on his body-guard to the + town strengthened by other troops. He was received by the magistrates at + the "Prince's Court" with great reverence and entertained by them in the + evening at a magnificent banquet. + </p> + <p> + Next morning he summoned the whole forty of them to the town-house, + disbanded them all, and appointed new ones in their stead; some of the old + members however who could be relied upon being admitted to the + revolutionized board. + </p> + <p> + The populace, mainly of the Stadholder's party, made themselves merry over + the discomfited "Arminians". They hung wisps of straw as derisive wreaths + of triumph over the dismantled palisade lately encircling the town-hall, + disposed of the famous "Oldenbarneveld's teeth" at auction in the public + square, and chased many a poor cock and hen, with their feathers + completely plucked from their bodies, about the street, crying "Arme + haenen, arme haenen"—Arminians or poor fowls—according to the + practical witticism much esteemed at that period. Certainly the + unfortunate Barneveldians or Arminians, or however the Remonstrants might + be designated, had been sufficiently stripped of their plumes. + </p> + <p> + The Prince, after having made proclamation from the town-house enjoining + "modesty upon the mob" and a general abstention from "perverseness and + petulance," went his way to Haarlem, where he dismissed the magistrates + and appointed new ones, and then proceeded to Rotterdam, to Gouda, and to + Amsterdam. + </p> + <p> + It seemed scarcely necessary to carry, out the process in the commercial + capital, the abode of Peter Plancius, the seat of the West India Company, + the head-quarters of all most opposed to the Advocate, most devoted to the + Stadholder. But although the majority of the city government was an + overwhelming one, there was still a respectable minority who, it was + thought possible, might under a change of circumstances effect much + mischief and even grow into a majority. + </p> + <p> + The Prince therefore summoned the board before him according to his usual + style of proceeding and dismissed them all. They submitted without a word + of remonstrance. + </p> + <p> + Ex-Burgomaster Hooft, a man of seventy-two-father of the illustrious + Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, one of the greatest historians of the + Netherlands or of any country, then a man of thirty-seven-shocked at the + humiliating silence, asked his colleagues if they had none of them a word + to say in defence of their laws and privileges. + </p> + <p> + They answered with one accord "No." + </p> + <p> + The old man, a personal friend of Barneveld and born the same year, then + got on his feet and addressed the Stadholder. He spoke manfully and well, + characterizing the summary deposition of the magistracy as illegal and + unnecessary, recalling to the memory of those who heard him that he had + been thirty-six years long a member of the government and always a warm + friend of the House of Nassau, and respectfully submitting that the small + minority in the municipal government, while differing from their + colleagues and from the greater number of the States-General, had limited + their opposition to strictly constitutional means, never resorting to acts + of violence or to secret conspiracy. + </p> + <p> + Nothing could be more truly respectable than the appearance of this + ancient magistrate, in long black robe with fur edgings, high ruff around + his thin, pointed face, and decent skull-cap covering his bald old head, + quavering forth to unsympathetic ears a temperate and unanswerable defence + of things which in all ages the noblest minds have deemed most valuable. + </p> + <p> + His harangue was not very long. Maurice's reply was very short. + </p> + <p> + "Grandpapa," he said, "it must be so this time. Necessity and the service + of the country require it." + </p> + <p> + With that he dismissed the thirty-six magistrates and next day appointed a + new board, who were duly sworn to fidelity to the States-General. Of + course a large proportion of the old members were renominated. + </p> + <p> + Scarcely had the echo of the Prince's footsteps ceased to resound through + the country as he tramped from one city to another, moulding each to his + will, when the States of Holland, now thoroughly reorganized, passed a + solemn vote of thanks to him for all that he had done. The six cities of + the minority had now become the majority, and there was unanimity at the + Hague. The Seven Provinces, States-General and States-Provincial, were as + one, and the Synod was secured. Whether the prize was worth the sacrifices + which it had cost and was still to cost might at least be considered + doubtful. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + + Affection of his friends and the wrath of his enemies + Depths theological party spirit could descend + Extraordinary capacity for yielding to gentle violence + Human nature in its meanness and shame + It had not yet occurred to him that he was married + Make the very name of man a term of reproach + Never lack of fishers in troubled waters + Opposed the subjection of the magistracy by the priesthood + Pot-valiant hero + Resolve to maintain the civil authority over the military + Tempest of passion and prejudice + The effect of energetic, uncompromising calumny + Yes, there are wicked men about +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIX. 1618-19 + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Rancour between the Politico-Religious Parties—Spanish Intrigues + Inconsistency of James—Brewster and Robinson's Congregation at + Leyden—They decide to leave for America—Robinson's Farewell Sermon + and Prayer at Parting. +</pre> + <p> + During this dark and mournful winter the internal dissensions and, as a + matter of course, the foreign intrigues had become more dangerous than + ever. While the man who for a whole generation had guided the policy of + the Republic and had been its virtual chief magistrate lay hidden from all + men's sight, the troubles which he had sought to avert were not diminished + by his removal from the scene. The extreme or Gomarist party which had + taken a pride in secret conventicles where they were in a minority, + determined, as they said, to separate Christ from Belial and, meditating + the triumph which they had at last secured, now drove the Arminians from + the great churches. Very soon it was impossible for these heretics to + enjoy the rights of public worship anywhere. But they were not dismayed. + The canons of Dordtrecht had not yet been fulminated. They avowed + themselves ready to sacrifice worldly goods and life itself in defence of + the Five Points. In Rotterdam, notwithstanding a garrison of fifteen + companies, more than a thousand Remonstrants assembled on Christmas-day in + the Exchange for want of a more appropriate place of meeting and sang the + 112th Psalm in mighty chorus. A clergyman of their persuasion accidentally + passing through the street was forcibly laid hands upon and obliged to + preach to them, which he did with great unction. The magistracy, where now + the Contra-Remonstrants had the control, forbade, under severe penalties, + a repetition of such scenes. It was impossible not to be reminded of the + days half a century before, when the early Reformers had met in the open + fields or among the dunes, armed to the teeth, and with outlying pickets + to warn the congregation of the approach of Red Rod and the functionaries + of the Holy Inquisition. + </p> + <p> + In Schoonhoven the authorities attempted one Sunday by main force to + induct a Contra-Remonstrant into the pulpit from which a Remonstrant had + just been expelled. The women of the place turned out with their distaffs + and beat them from the field. The garrison was called out, and there was a + pitched battle in the streets between soldiers, police officers, and + women, not much to the edification certainly of the Sabbath-loving + community on either side, the victory remaining with the ladies. + </p> + <p> + In short it would be impossible to exaggerate the rancour felt between the + different politico-religious parties. All heed for the great war now + raging in the outside world between the hostile elements of Catholicism + and Protestantism, embattled over an enormous space, was lost in the din + of conflict among the respective supporters of conditional and + unconditional damnation within the pale of the Reformed Church. The + earthquake shaking Europe rolled unheeded, as it was of old said to have + done at Cannae, amid the fierce shock of mortal foes in that narrow field. + </p> + <p> + The respect for authority which had so long been the distinguishing + characteristic of the Netherlanders seemed to have disappeared. It was + difficult—now that the time-honoured laws and privileges in defence + of which, and of liberty of worship included in them, the Provinces had + made war forty years long had been trampled upon by military force—for + those not warmed by the fire of Gomarus to feel their ancient respect for + the magistracy. The magistracy at that moment seemed to mean the sword. + </p> + <p> + The Spanish government was inevitably encouraged by the spectacle thus + presented. We have seen the strong hopes entertained by the council at + Madrid, two years before the crisis now existing had occurred. We have + witnessed the eagerness with which the King indulged the dream of + recovering the sovereignty which his father had lost, and the vast schemes + which he nourished towards that purpose, founded on the internal divisions + which were reducing the Republic to impotence. Subsequent events had + naturally made him more sanguine than ever. There was now a web of + intrigue stretching through the Provinces to bring them all back under the + sceptre of Spain. The imprisonment of the great stipendiary, the great + conspirator, the man who had sold himself and was on the point of selling + his country, had not terminated those plots. Where was the supposed centre + of that intrigue? In the council of state of the Netherlands, ever + fiercely opposed to Barneveld and stuffed full of his mortal enemies. + Whose name was most familiar on the lips of the Spanish partisans engaged + in these secret schemes? That of Adrian Manmaker, President of the + Council, representative of Prince Maurice as first noble of Zealand in the + States-General, chairman of the committee sent by that body to Utrecht to + frustrate the designs of the Advocate, and one of the twenty-four + commissioners soon to be appointed to sit in judgment upon him. + </p> + <p> + The tale seems too monstrous for belief, nor is it to be admitted with + certainty, that Manmaker and the other councillors implicated had actually + given their adhesion to the plot, because the Spanish emissaries in their + correspondence with the King assured him of the fact. But if such a + foundation for suspicion could have been found against Barneveld and his + friends, the world would not have heard the last of it from that hour to + this. + </p> + <p> + It is superfluous to say that the Prince was entirely foreign to these + plans. He had never been mentioned as privy to the little arrangements of + Councillor du Agean and others, although he was to benefit by them. In the + Spanish schemes he seems to have been considered as an impediment, + although indirectly they might tend to advance him. + </p> + <p> + "We have managed now, I hope, that his Majesty will be recognized as + sovereign of the country," wrote the confidential agent of the King of + Spain in the Netherlands, Emmanuel Sueyro, to the government of Madrid. + "The English will oppose it with all their strength. But they can do + nothing except by making Count Maurice sovereign of Holland and duke of + Julich and Cleve. Maurice will also contrive to make himself master of + Wesel, so it is necessary for the Archduke to be beforehand with him and + make sure of the place. It is also needful that his Majesty should induce + the French government to talk with the Netherlanders and convince them + that it is time to prolong the Truce." + </p> + <p> + This was soon afterwards accomplished. The French minister at Brussels + informed Archduke Albert that du Maurier had been instructed to propose + the prolongation, and that he had been conferring with the Prince of + Orange and the States-General on the subject. At first the Prince had + expressed disinclination, but at the last interview both he and the States + had shown a desire for it, and the French King had requested from the + Archduke a declaration whether the Spanish government would be willing to + treat for it. In such case Lewis would offer himself as mediator and do + his best to bring about a successful result. + </p> + <p> + But it was not the intention of the conspirators in the Netherlands that + the Truce should be prolonged. On the contrary the negotiation for it was + merely to furnish the occasion for fully developing their plot. "The + States and especially those of Zealand will reply that they no longer wish + the Truce," continued Sueyro, "and that they would prefer war to such a + truce. They desire to put ships on the coast of Flanders, to which the + Hollanders are opposed because it would be disagreeable to the French. So + the Zealanders will be the first to say that the Netherlanders must come + back to his Majesty. This their President Hanmaker has sworn. The States + of Overyssel will likewise give their hand to this because they say they + will be the first to feel the shock of the war. Thus we shall very easily + carry out our design, and as we shall concede to the Zealanders their + demands in regard to the navigation they at least will place themselves + under the dominion of his Majesty as will be the case with Friesland as + well as Overyssel." + </p> + <p> + It will be observed that in this secret arrangement for selling the + Republic to its ancient master it was precisely the Provinces and the + politicians most steadily opposed to Barneveld that took the lead. + Zealand, Friesland, Overyssel were in the plot, but not a word was said of + Utrecht. As for Holland itself, hopes were founded on the places where + hatred to the Advocate was fiercest. + </p> + <p> + "Between ourselves," continued the agent, "we are ten here in the + government of Holland to support the plan, but we must not discover + ourselves for fear of suffering what has happened to Barneveld." + </p> + <p> + He added that the time for action had not yet come, and that if movements + were made before the Synod had finished its labours, "The Gomarists would + say that they were all sold." He implored the government at Madrid to keep + the whole matter for the present profoundly secret because "Prince Maurice + and the Gomarists had the forces of the country at their disposition." In + case the plot was sprung too suddenly therefore, he feared that with the + assistance of England Maurice might, at the head of the Gomarists and the + army, make himself sovereign of Holland and Duke of Cleve, while he and + the rest of the Spanish partisans might be in prison with Barneveld for + trying to accomplish what Barneveld had been trying to prevent. + </p> + <p> + The opinions and utterances of such a man as James I. would be of little + worth to our history had he not happened to occupy the place he did. But + he was a leading actor in the mournful drama which filled up the whole + period of the Twelve Years' Truce. His words had a direct influence on + great events. He was a man of unquestionable erudition, of powers of mind + above the average, while the absolute deformity of his moral constitution + made him incapable of thinking, feeling, or acting rightly on any vital + subject, by any accident or on any occasion. If there were one thing that + he thoroughly hated in the world, it was the Reformed religion. If in his + thought there were one term of reproach more loathsome than another to be + applied to a human creature, it was the word Puritan. In the word was + subversion of all established authority in Church and State—revolution, + republicanism, anarchy. "There are degrees in Heaven," he was wont to say, + "there are degrees in Hell, there must be degrees on earth." + </p> + <p> + He forbade the Calvinist Churches of Scotland to hold their customary + Synod in 1610, passionately reviling them and their belief, and declaring + "their aim to be nothing else than to deprive kings and princes of their + sovereignty, and to reduce the whole world to a popular form of government + where everybody would be master." + </p> + <p> + When the Prince of Neuburg embraced Catholicism, thus complicating matters + in the duchies and strengthening the hand of Spain and the Emperor in the + debateable land, he seized the occasion to assure the agent of the + Archduke in London, Councillor Boissetot, of his warm Catholic sympathies. + "They say that I am the greatest heretic in the world!" he exclaimed; "but + I will never deny that the true religion is that of Rome even if + corrupted." He expressed his belief in the real presence, and his surprise + that the Roman Catholics did not take the chalice for the blood of Christ. + The English bishops, he averred, drew their consecration through the + bishops in Mary Tudor's time from the Pope. + </p> + <p> + As Philip II., and Ferdinand II. echoing the sentiments of his illustrious + uncle, had both sworn they would rather reign in a wilderness than + tolerate a single heretic in their dominions, so James had said "he would + rather be a hermit in a forest than a king over such people as the pack of + Puritans were who overruled the lower house." + </p> + <p> + For the Netherlanders he had an especial hatred, both as rebels and + Puritans. Soon after coming to the English throne he declared that their + revolt, which had been going on all his lifetime and of which he never + expected to see the end, had begun by petition for matters of religion. + "His mother and he from their cradles," he said, "had been haunted with a + Puritan devil, which he feared would not leave him to his grave. And he + would hazard his crown but he would suppress those malicious spirits." It + seemed a strange caprice of Destiny that assigned to this hater of + Netherlanders, of Puritans, and of the Reformed religion, the decision of + disputed points between Puritans and anti-Puritans in the Reformed Church + of the Netherlands. + </p> + <p> + It seemed stranger that his opinions should be hotly on the side of the + Puritans. + </p> + <p> + Barneveld, who often used the expression in later years, as we have seen + in his correspondence, was opposed to the Dutch Puritans because they had + more than once attempted subversion of the government on pretext of + religion, especially at the memorable epoch of Leicester's government. + </p> + <p> + The business of stirring up these religious conspiracies against the + magistracy he was apt to call "Flanderizing," in allusion to those + disastrous days and to the origin of the ringleaders in those tumults. But + his main object, as we have seen, was to effect compromises and restore + good feeling between members of the one church, reserving the right of + disposing over religious matters to the government of the respective + provinces. + </p> + <p> + But James had remedied his audacious inconsistency by discovering that + Puritanism in England and in the Netherlands resembled each other no more + than certain letters transposed into totally different words meant one and + the same thing. The anagrammatic argument had been neatly put by Sir + Dudley Carleton, convincing no man. Puritanism in England "denied the + right of human invention or imposition in religious matters." Puritanism + in the Netherlands denied the right of the legal government to impose its + authority in religious matters. This was the great matter of debate in the + Provinces. In England the argument had been settled very summarily against + the Puritans by sheriffs' officers, bishops' pursuivants, and county + jails. + </p> + <p> + As the political tendencies, so too the religious creed and observances of + the English Puritans were identical with that of the Contra-Remonstrants, + whom King James had helped to their great triumph. This was not very + difficult to prove. It so happened that there were some English Puritans + living at that moment in Leyden. They formed an independent society by + themselves, which they called a Congregational Church, and in which were + some three hundred communicants. The length of their residence there was + almost exactly coeval with the Twelve Years' Truce. They knew before + leaving England that many relics of the Roman ceremonial, with which they + were dissatisfied, and for the discontinuance of which they had in vain + petitioned the crown—the ring, the sign of the cross, white + surplices, and the like—besides the whole hierarchical system, had + been disused in the Reformed Churches of France, Switzerland, and the + United Provinces, where the forms of worship in their view had been + brought more nearly to the early apostolic model. They admitted for truth + the doctrinal articles of the Dutch Reformed Churches. They had not come + to the Netherlands without cause. At an early period of King James's reign + this congregation of seceders from the establishment had been wont to hold + meetings at Scrooby in Nottinghamshire, once a manor of the Archbishop of + York, but then the residence of one William Brewster. This was a gentleman + of some fortune, educated at Cambridge, a good scholar, who in Queen + Elizabeth's time had been in the service of William Davison when Secretary + of State. He seemed to have been a confidential private secretary of that + excellent and unlucky statesman, who found him so discreet and faithful as + to deserve employment before all others in matters of trust and secrecy. + He was esteemed by Davison "rather as a son than a servant," and he repaid + his confidence by doing him many faithful offices in the time of his + troubles. He had however long since retired from connection with public + affairs, living a retired life, devoted to study, meditation, and + practical exertion to promote the cause of religion, and in acts of + benevolence sometimes beyond his means. + </p> + <p> + The pastor of the Scrooby Church, one John Robinson, a graduate of + Cambridge, who had been a benefited clergyman in Norfolk, was a man of + learning, eloquence, and lofty intellect. But what were such good gifts in + the possession of rebels, seceders, and Puritans? It is needless to say + that Brewster and Robinson were baited, persecuted, watched day and night, + some of the congregation often clapped into prison, others into the + stocks, deprived of the means of livelihood, outlawed, famished, banned. + Plainly their country was no place for them. After a few years of such + work they resolved to establish themselves in Holland, where at least they + hoped to find refuge and toleration. + </p> + <p> + But it proved as difficult for them to quit the country as to remain in + it. Watched and hunted like gangs of coiners, forgers, or other felons + attempting to flee from justice, set upon by troopers armed with "bills + and guns and other weapons," seized when about to embark, pillaged and + stripped by catchpoles, exhibited as a show to grinning country folk, the + women and children dealt with like drunken tramps, led before magistrates, + committed to jail; Mr. Brewster and six other of the principal ones being + kept in prison and bound over to the assizes; they were only able after + attempts lasting through two years' time to effect their escape to + Amsterdam. After remaining there a year they had removed to Leyden, which + they thought "a fair and beautiful city, and of a sweet situation." + </p> + <p> + They settled in Leyden in the very year in which Arminius was buried + beneath the pavement of St. Peter's Church in that town. It was the year + too in which the Truce was signed. They were a singularly tranquil and + brotherly community. Their pastor, who was endowed with remarkable + gentleness and tact in dealing with his congregation, settled amicably all + their occasional disputes. The authorities of the place held them up as a + model. To a Walloon congregation in which there were many troublesome and + litigious members they said: "These English have lived among us ten years, + and yet we never had any suit or accusation against any of them, but your + quarrels are continual." + </p> + <p> + Although many of them were poor, finding it difficult to earn their living + in a foreign land among people speaking a strange tongue, and with manners + and habits differing from their own, and where they were obliged to learn + new trades, having most of them come out of an agricultural population, + yet they enjoyed a singular reputation for probity. Bakers and butchers + and the like willingly gave credit to the poorest of these English, and + sought their custom if known to be of the congregation. Mr. Brewster, who + had been reduced almost to poverty by his charities and munificent aid to + his struggling brethren, earned his living by giving lessons in English, + having first composed a grammar according to the Latin model for the use + of his pupils. He also set up a printing establishment, publishing many + controversial works prohibited in England, a proceeding which roused the + wrath of Carleton, impelling him to do his best to have him thrown into + prison. + </p> + <p> + It was not the first time that this plain, mechanical, devout Englishman, + now past middle age, had visited the Netherlands. More than twenty-five + years before he had accompanied William Davison on his famous embassy to + the States, as private secretary. + </p> + <p> + When the keys of Flushing, one of the cautionary towns, were committed to + the Ambassador, he confided them to the care of Brewster, who slept with + them under his pillow. The gold chain which Davison received as a present + from the provincial government on leaving the country was likewise placed + in his keeping, with orders to wear it around his neck until they should + appear before the Queen. To a youth of ease and affluence, familiar with + ambassadors and statesmen and not unknown at courts, had succeeded a + mature age of obscurity, deep study, and poverty. No human creature would + have heard of him had his career ended with his official life. Two + centuries and a half have passed away and the name of the outlawed Puritan + of Scrooby and Leyden is still familiar to millions of the English race. + </p> + <p> + All these Englishmen were not poor. Many of them occupied houses of fair + value, and were admitted to the freedom of the city. The pastor with three + of his congregation lived in a comfortable mansion, which they had + purchased for the considerable sum of 8000 florins, and on the garden of + which they subsequently erected twenty-one lesser tenements for the use of + the poorer brethren. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Robinson was himself chosen a member of the famous university and + admitted to its privileges. During his long residence in Leyden, besides + the daily care of his congregation, spiritual and temporal, he wrote many + learned works. + </p> + <p> + Thus the little community, which grew gradually larger by emigration from + England, passed many years of tranquillity. Their footsteps were not + dogged by constables and pursuivants, they were not dragged daily before + the magistrates, they were not thrown into the town jails, they were not + hunted from place to place with bows and bills and mounted musketeers. + They gave offence to none, and were respected by all. "Such was their + singleheartedness and sincere affection one towards another," says their + historian and magistrate, "that they came as near the primitive pattern of + the first churches as any other church of these later times has done, + according to their rank and quality." + </p> + <p> + Here certainly were English Puritans more competent than any men else in + the world to judge if it were a slander upon the English government to + identify them with Dutch Puritans. Did they sympathize with the party in + Holland which the King, who had so scourged and trampled upon themselves + in England, was so anxious to crush, the hated Arminians? Did they abhor + the Contra-Remonstrants whom James and his ambassador Carleton doted upon + and whom Barneveld called "Double Puritans" and "Flanderizers?" + </p> + <p> + Their pastor may answer for himself and his brethren. + </p> + <p> + "We profess before God and men," said Robinson in his Apologia, "that we + agree so entirely with the Reformed Dutch Churches in the matter of + religion as to be ready to subscribe to all and each of their articles + exactly as they are set forth in the Netherland Confession. We acknowledge + those Reformed Churches as true and genuine, we profess and cultivate + communion with them as much as in us lies. Those of us who understand the + Dutch language attend public worship under their pastors. We administer + the Holy Supper to such of their members as, known to us, appear at our + meetings." This was the position of the Puritans. Absolute, unqualified + accordance with the Contra-Remonstrants. + </p> + <p> + As the controversy grew hot in the university between the Arminians and + their adversaries, Mr. Robinson, in the language of his friend Bradford, + became "terrible to the Arminians . . . . who so greatly molested the + whole state and that city in particular." + </p> + <p> + When Episcopius, the Arminian professor of theology, set forth sundry + theses, challenging all the world to the onset, it was thought that "none + was fitter to buckle with them" than Robinson. The orthodox professor + Polyander so importuned the English Puritan to enter the lists on behalf + of the Contra-Remonstrants that at last he consented and overthrew the + challenger, horse and man, in three successive encounters. Such at least + was the account given by his friend and admirer the historian. "The Lord + did so help him to defend the truth and foil this adversary as he put him + to an apparent nonplus in this great and public audience. And the like he + did a second or third time upon such like occasions," said Bradford, + adding that, if it had not been for fear of offending the English + government, the university would have bestowed preferments and honours + upon the champion. + </p> + <p> + We are concerned with this ancient and exhausted controversy only for the + intense light it threw, when burning, on the history which occupies us. + </p> + <p> + Of the extinct volcano itself which once caused such devastation, and in + which a great commonwealth was well-nigh swallowed up, little is left but + slag and cinders. The past was made black and barren with them. Let us + disturb them as little as possible. + </p> + <p> + The little English congregation remained at Leyden till toward the end of + the Truce, thriving, orderly, respected, happy. They were witnesses to the + tumultuous, disastrous, and tragical events which darkened the Republic in + those later years, themselves unobserved and unmolested. Not a syllable + seems to remain on record of the views or emotions which may have been + excited by those scenes in their minds, nor is there a trace left on the + national records of the Netherlands of their protracted residence on the + soil. + </p> + <p> + They got their living as best they might by weaving, printing, spinning, + and other humble trades; they borrowed money on mortgages, they built + houses, they made wills, and such births, deaths, and marriages as + occurred among them were registered by the town-clerk. + </p> + <p> + And at last for a variety of reasons they resolved to leave the + Netherlands. Perhaps the solution of the problem between Church and State + in that country by the temporary subjection of State to Church may have + encouraged them to realize a more complete theocracy, if a sphere of + action could be found where the experiment might be tried without a severe + battle against time-hallowed institutions and vested rights. Perhaps they + were appalled by the excesses into which men of their own religious + sentiments had been carried by theological and political passion. At any + rate depart they would; the larger half of the congregation remaining + behind however till the pioneers should have broken the way, and in their + own language "laid the stepping-stones." + </p> + <p> + They had thought of the lands beneath the Equator, Raleigh having recently + excited enthusiasm by his poetical descriptions of Guiana. But the + tropical scheme was soon abandoned. They had opened negotiations with the + Stadholder and the States-General through Amsterdam merchants in regard to + settling in New Amsterdam, and offered to colonize that country if assured + of the protection of the United Provinces. Their petition had been + rejected. They had then turned their faces to their old master and their + own country, applying to the Virginia Company for a land-patent, which + they were only too happy to promise, and to the King for liberty of + religion in the wilderness confirmed under his broad seal, which his + Majesty of course refused. It was hinted however that James would connive + at them and not molest them if they carried themselves peaceably. So they + resolved to go without the seal, for, said their magistrate very wisely, + "if there should be a purpose or desire to wrong them, a seal would not + serve their turn though it were as broad as the house-floor." + </p> + <p> + Before they left Leyden, their pastor preached to them a farewell sermon, + which for loftiness of spirit and breadth of vision has hardly a parallel + in that age of intolerance. He laid down the principle that criticism of + the Scriptures had not been exhausted merely because it had been begun; + that the human conscience was of too subtle a nature to be imprisoned for + ever in formulas however ingeniously devised; that the religious + reformation begun a century ago was not completed; and that the Creator + had not necessarily concluded all His revelations to mankind. + </p> + <p> + The words have long been familiar to students of history, but they can + hardly be too often laid to heart. + </p> + <p> + Noble words, worthy to have been inscribed over the altar of the first + church to be erected by the departing brethren, words to bear fruit after + centuries should go by. Had not the deeply injured and misunderstood + Grotius already said, "If the trees we plant do not shade us, they will + yet serve for our descendants?" + </p> + <p> + Yet it is passing strange that the preacher of that sermon should be the + recent champion of the Contra-Remonstrants in the great controversy; the + man who had made himself so terrible to the pupils of the gentle and + tolerant Arminius. + </p> + <p> + And thus half of that English congregation went down to Delftshaven, + attended by the other half who were to follow at a later period with their + beloved pastor. There was a pathetic leave-taking. Even many of the + Hollanders, mere casual spectators, were in tears. + </p> + <p> + Robinson, kneeling on the deck of the little vessel, offered a prayer and + a farewell. Who could dream that this departure of an almost nameless band + of emigrants to the wilderness was an epoch in the world's history? Yet + these were the Pilgrim Fathers of New England, the founders of what was to + be the mightiest republic of modern history, mighty and stable because it + had been founded upon an idea. + </p> + <p> + They were not in search of material comfort and the chances of elevating + their condition, by removing from an overpeopled country to an organized + Commonwealth, offering a wide field for pauper labourers. Some of them + were of good social rank and highest education, most of them in decent + circumstances, none of them in absolute poverty. And a few years later + they were to be joined by a far larger company with leaders and many + brethren of ancient birth and landed possessions, men of "education, + figure; and estate," all ready to convert property into cash and to place + it in joint-stock, not as the basis of promising speculation, but as the + foundation of a church. + </p> + <p> + It signifies not how much or how little one may sympathize with their + dogma or their discipline now. To the fact that the early settlement of + that wilderness was by self-sacrificing men of earnestness and faith, who + were bent on "advancing the Gospel of Christ in remote parts of the + world," in the midst of savage beasts, more savage men, and unimaginable + difficulties and dangers, there can be little doubt that the highest forms + of Western civilization are due. Through their provisional theocracy, the + result of the independent church system was to establish the true purport + of the Reformation, absolute religious equality. Civil and political + equality followed as a matter of course. + </p> + <p> + Two centuries and a half have passed away. + </p> + <p> + There are now some seventy or eighty millions of the English-speaking race + on both sides the Atlantic, almost equally divided between the United + Kingdom and the United Republic, and the departure of those outcasts of + James has interest and significance for them all. + </p> + <p> + Most fitly then, as a distinguished American statesman has remarked, does + that scene on board the little English vessel, with the English pastor + uttering his farewell blessing to a handful of English exiles for + conscience sake; depicted on canvas by eminent artists, now adorn the + halls of the American Congress and of the British Parliament. Sympathy + with one of the many imperishable bonds of union between the two great and + scarcely divided peoples. + </p> + <p> + We return to Barneveld in his solitary prison. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XX. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Barneveld's Imprisonment—Ledenberg's Examination and Death— + Remonstrance of De Boississe—Aerssens admitted to the order of + Knights—Trial of the Advocate—Barneveld's Defence—The States + proclaim a Public Fast—Du Maurier's Speech before the Assembly— + Barneveld's Sentence—Barneveld prepares for Death—Goes to + Execution. +</pre> + <p> + The Advocate had been removed within a few days after the arrest from the + chamber in Maurice's apartments, where he had originally been confined, + and was now in another building. + </p> + <p> + It was not a dungeon nor a jail. Indeed the commonplace and domestic + character of the scenery in which these great events were transacted has + in it something pathetic. There was and still remains a two-storied + structure, then of modern date, immediately behind the antique hall of the + old Counts within the Binnenhof. On the first floor was a courtroom of + considerable extent, the seat of one of the chief tribunals of justice The + story above was divided into three chambers with a narrow corridor on each + side. The first chamber, on the north-eastern side, was appropriated for + the judges when the state prisoners should be tried. In the next Hugo + Grotius was imprisoned. In the third was Barneveld. There was a tower at + the north-east angle of the building, within which a winding and narrow + staircase of stone led up to the corridor and so to the prisoners' + apartments. Rombout Hoogerbeets was confined in another building. + </p> + <p> + As the Advocate, bent with age and a life of hard work, and leaning on his + staff, entered the room appropriated to him, after toiling up the steep + staircase, he observed— + </p> + <p> + "This is the Admiral of Arragon's apartment." + </p> + <p> + It was true. Eighteen years before, the conqueror of Nieuwpoort had + assigned this lodging to the chief prisoner of war in that memorable + victory over the Spaniards, and now Maurice's faithful and trusted + counsellor at that epoch was placed in durance here, as the result of the + less glorious series of victories which had just been achieved. + </p> + <p> + It was a room of moderate dimensions, some twenty-five feet square, with a + high vaulted roof and decently furnished. Below and around him in the + courtyard were the scenes of the Advocate's life-long and triumphant + public services. There in the opposite building were the windows of the + beautiful "Hall of Truce," with its sumptuous carvings and gildings, its + sculptures and portraits, where he had negotiated with the representatives + of all the great powers of Christendom the famous Treaty which had + suspended the war of forty years, and where he was wont almost daily to + give audience to the envoys of the greatest sovereigns or the least + significant states of Europe and Asia, all of whom had been ever + solicitous of his approbation and support. + </p> + <p> + Farther along in the same building was the assembly room of the + States-General, where some of the most important affairs of the Republic + and of Europe had for years been conducted, and where he had been so + indispensable that, in the words of a contemporary who loved him not, + "absolutely nothing could be transacted in his absence, all great affairs + going through him alone." + </p> + <p> + There were two dull windows, closely barred, looking northward over an + irregular assemblage of tile-roofed houses and chimney-stacks, while + within a stone's throw to the west, but unseen, was his own elegant + mansion on the Voorhout, surrounded by flower gardens and shady pleasure + grounds, where now sat his aged wife and her children all plunged in deep + affliction. + </p> + <p> + He was allowed the attendance of a faithful servant, Jan Franken by name, + and a sentinel stood constantly before his door. His papers had been taken + from him, and at first he was deprived of writing materials. + </p> + <p> + He had small connection with the outward world. The news of the municipal + revolution which had been effected by the Stadholder had not penetrated to + his solitude, but his wife was allowed to send him fruit from their + garden. One day a basket of fine saffron pears was brought to him. On + slicing one with a knife he found a portion of a quill inside it. Within + the quill was a letter on thinnest paper, in minutest handwriting in + Latin. It was to this effect. + </p> + <p> + "Don't rely upon the States of Holland, for the Prince of Orange has + changed the magistracies in many cities. Dudley Carleton is not your + friend." + </p> + <p> + A sergeant of the guard however, before bringing in these pears, had put a + couple of them in his pocket to take home to his wife. The letter, copies + of which perhaps had been inserted for safety in several of them, was thus + discovered and the use of this ingenious device prevented for the future. + </p> + <p> + Secretary Ledenberg, who had been brought to the Hague in the early days + of September, was the first of the prisoners subjected to examination. He + was much depressed at the beginning of it, and is said to have exclaimed + with many sighs, "Oh Barneveld, Barneveld, what have you brought us to!" + </p> + <p> + He confessed that the Waartgelders at Utrecht had been enlisted on + notification by the Utrecht deputies in the Hague with knowledge of + Barneveld, and in consequence of a resolution of the States in order to + prevent internal tumults. He said that the Advocate had advised in the + previous month of March a request to the Prince not to come to Utrecht; + that the communication of the message, in regard to disbanding the + Waartgelders, to his Excellency had been postponed after the deputies of + the States of Holland had proposed a delay in that disbandment; that those + deputies had come to Utrecht of their own accord; . . . . that they had + judged it possible to keep everything in proper order in Utrecht if the + garrison in the city paid by Holland were kept quiet, and if the States of + Utrecht gave similar orders to the Waartgelders; for they did not believe + that his Excellency would bring in troops from the outside. He said that + he knew nothing of a new oath to be demanded of the garrison. He stated + that the Advocate, when at Utrecht, had exhorted the States, according to + his wont, to maintain their liberties and privileges, representing to them + that the right to decide on the Synod and the Waartgelders belonged to + them. Lastly, he denied knowing who was the author of The Balance, except + by common report. + </p> + <p> + Now these statements hardly amounted to a confession of abominable and + unpardonable crimes by Ledenberg, nor did they establish a charge of + high-treason and corrupt correspondence with the enemy against Barneveld. + It is certain that the extent of the revelations seemed far from + satisfactory to the accusers, and that some pressure would be necessary in + order to extract anything more conclusive. Lieutenant Nythof told Grotius + that Ledenberg had accordingly been threatened with torture, and that the + executioner had even handled him for that purpose. This was however denied + by the judges of instruction who had been charged with the preliminary + examination. + </p> + <p> + That examination took place on the 27th September. After it had been + concluded, Ledenberg prayed long and earnestly on returning to prison. He + then entrusted a paper written in French to his son Joost, a boy of + eighteen, who did not understand that language. The youth had been allowed + to keep his father company in his confinement, and slept in the same room. + </p> + <p> + The next night but one, at two o'clock, Joost heard his father utter a + deep groan. He was startled, groped in the darkness towards his bed and + felt his arm, which was stone cold. He spoke to him and received no + answer. He gave the alarm, the watch came in with lights, and it was found + that Ledenberg had given himself two mortal wounds in the abdomen with a + penknife and then cut his throat with a table-knife which he had secreted, + some days before, among some papers. + </p> + <p> + The paper in French given to his son was found to be to this effect. + </p> + <p> + "I know that there is an inclination to set an example in my person, to + confront me with my best friends, to torture me, afterwards to convict me + of contradictions and falsehoods as they say, and then to found an + ignominious sentence upon points and trifles, for this it will be + necessary to do in order to justify the arrest and imprisonment. To escape + all this I am going to God by the shortest road. Against a dead man there + can be pronounced no sentence of confiscation of property. Done 17th + September (o. s.) 1618." + </p> + <p> + The family of the unhappy gentleman begged his body for decent burial. The + request was refused. It was determined to keep the dead secretary above + ground and in custody until he could be tried, and, if possible, convicted + and punished. It was to be seen whether it were so easy to baffle the + power of the States-General, the Synod, and the Stadholder, and whether + "going to God by the shortest road" was to save a culprit's carcass from + ignominy, and his property from confiscation. + </p> + <p> + The French ambassadors, who had been unwearied in their endeavour to + restore harmony to the distracted Commonwealth before the arrest of the + prisoners, now exerted themselves to throw the shield of their sovereign's + friendship around the illustrious statesman and his fellow-sufferers. + </p> + <p> + "It is with deepest sorrow," said de Boississe, "that I have witnessed the + late hateful commotions. Especially from my heart I grieve for the arrest + of the Seignior Barneveld, who with his discretion and wise administration + for the past thirty years has so drawn the hearts of all neighbouring + princes to himself, especially that of the King my master, that on taking + up my pen to apprize him of these events I am gravely embarrassed, fearing + to infringe on the great respect due to your Mightinesses or against the + honour and merits of the Seignior Barneveld. . . . My Lords, take heed to + your situation, for a great discontent is smouldering among your citizens. + Until now, the Union has been the chief source of your strength. And I now + fear that the King my master, the adviser of your renowned Commonwealth, + maybe offended that you have taken this resolution after consulting with + others, and without communicating your intention to his ambassador . . . . + It is but a few days that an open edict was issued testifying to the + fidelity of Barneveld, and can it be possible that within so short a time + you have discovered that you have been deceived? I summon you once more in + the name of the King to lay aside all passion, to judge these affairs + without partiality, and to inform me what I am to say to the King. Such + very conflicting accounts are given of these transactions that I must beg + you to confide to me the secret of the affair. The wisest in the land + speak so strongly of these proceedings that it will be no wonder if the + King my master should give me orders to take the Seignior Barneveld under + his protection. Should this prove to be the case, your Lordships will + excuse my course . . . I beg you earnestly in your wisdom not to give + cause of offence to neighbouring princes, especially to my sovereign, who + wishes from his heart to maintain your dignity and interests and to assure + you of his friendship." + </p> + <p> + The language was vigorous and sincere, but the Ambassador forgot that the + France of to-day was not the France of yesterday; that Louis XIII. was not + Henry IV.; that it was but a cheerful fiction to call the present King the + guide and counsellor of the Republic, and that, distraught as she was by + the present commotions, her condition was strength and tranquillity + compared with the apparently decomposing and helpless state of the once + great kingdom of France. De Boississe took little by his demonstration. + </p> + <p> + On the 12th December both de Boississe and du Maurier came before the + States-General once more, and urged a speedy and impartial trial for the + illustrious prisoners. If they had committed acts of treason and + rebellion, they deserved exemplary punishment, but the ambassadors warned + the States-General with great earnestness against the dangerous doctrine + of constructive treason, and of confounding acts dictated by violence of + party spirit at an excited period with the crime of high-treason against + the sovereignty of the State. + </p> + <p> + "Barneveld so honourable," they said, "for his immense and long continued + services has both this Republic and all princes and commonwealths for his + witnesses. It is most difficult to believe that he has attempted the + destruction of his fatherland, for which you know that he has toiled so + faithfully." + </p> + <p> + They admitted that so grave charges ought now to be investigated. "To this + end," said the ambassadors, "you ought to give him judges who are neither + suspected nor impassioned, and who will decide according to the laws of + the land, and on clear and undeniable evidence . . . . So doing you will + show to the whole world that you are worthy to possess and to administer + this Commonwealth to whose government God has called you." + </p> + <p> + Should they pursue another and a sterner course, the envoys warned the + Assembly that the King would be deeply offended, deeming it thus proved + how little value they set upon his advice and his friendship. + </p> + <p> + The States-General replied on the 19th December, assuring the ambassadors + that the delay in the trial was in order to make the evidence of the great + conspiracy complete, and would not tend to the prejudice of the prisoners + "if they had a good consciousness of their innocence." They promised that + the sentence upon them when pronounced would give entire satisfaction to + all their allies and to the King of France in particular, of whom they + spoke throughout the document in terms of profound respect. But they + expressed their confidence that "his Majesty would not place the + importunate and unfounded solicitations of a few particular criminals or + their supporters before the general interests of the dignity and security + of the Republic." + </p> + <p> + On the same day the States-General addressed a letter filled with very + elaborate and courteous commonplaces to the King, in which they expressed + a certainty that his Majesty would be entirely satisfied with their + actions. + </p> + <p> + The official answer of the States-General to the ambassadors, just cited, + gave but little comfort to the friends of the imprisoned statesman and his + companions. Such expressions as "ambitious and factious spirits,"—"authors + and patrons of the faction,"—"attempts at novelty through changes in + religion, in justice and in the fundamental laws of all orders of polity," + and the frequent mention of the word "conspiracy" boded little good. + </p> + <p> + Information of this condition of affairs was conveyed to Hoogerbeets and + Grotius by means of an ingenious device of the distinguished scholar, who + was then editing the Latin works of the Hague poet, Janus Secundus. + </p> + <p> + While the sheets were going through the press, some of the verses were + left out, and their place supplied by others conveying the intelligence + which it was desired to send to the prisoners. The pages which contained + the secret were stitched together in such wise that in cutting the book + open they were not touched but remained closed. The verses were to this + effect. "The examination of the Advocate proceeds slowly, but there is + good hope from the serious indignation of the French king, whose envoys + are devoted to the cause of the prisoners, and have been informed that + justice will be soon rendered. The States of Holland are to assemble on + the 15th January, at which a decision will certainly be taken for + appointing judges. The preachers here at Leyden are despised, and men are + speaking strongly of war. The tumult which lately occurred at Rotterdam + may bring forth some good." + </p> + <p> + The quick-wited Grotius instantly discovered the device, read the + intelligence thus communicated in the proofsheets of Secundus, and made + use of the system to obtain further intelligence. + </p> + <p> + Hoogerbeets laid the book aside, not taking much interest at that time in + the works of the Hague poet. Constant efforts made to attract his + attention to those poems however excited suspicion among his keepers, and + the scheme was discovered before the Leyden pensionary had found the means + to profit by it.' + </p> + <p> + The allusions to the trial of the Advocate referred to the preliminary + examination which took place, like the first interrogatories of Grotius + and Hoogerbeets, in the months of November and December. + </p> + <p> + The thorough manner in which Maurice had reformed the States of Holland + has been described. There was one department of that body however which + still required attention. The Order of Knights, small in number but + potential in influence, which always voted first on great occasions, was + still through a majority of its members inclined to Barneveld. Both his + sons-in-law had seats in that college. The Stadholder had long believed in + a spirit of hostility on the part of those nobles towards himself. He knew + that a short time before this epoch there had been a scheme for + introducing his young brother, Frederic Henry, into the Chamber of + Knights. The Count had become proprietor of the barony of Naaldwyk, a + property which he had purchased of the Counts of Arenberg, and which + carried with it the hereditary dignity of Great Equerry of the Counts of + Holland. As the Counts of Holland had ceased to exist, although their + sovereignty had nearly been revived and conferred upon William the Silent, + the office of their chief of the stables might be deemed a sinecure. But + the jealousy of Maurice was easily awakened, especially by any movement + made or favoured by the Advocate. He believed that in the election of + Frederic Henry as a member of the College of Knights a plan lay concealed + to thrust him into power and to push this elder brother from his place. + The scheme, if scheme it were, was never accomplished, but the Prince's + rancour remained. + </p> + <p> + He now informed the nobles that they must receive into their body Francis + Aerssens, who had lately purchased the barony of Sommelsdyk, and Daniel de + Hartaing, Seignior of Marquette. With the presence of this deadly enemy of + Barneveld and another gentleman equally devoted to the Stadholder's + interest it seemed probable that the refractory majority of the board of + nobles would be overcome. But there were grave objections to the admission + of these new candidates. They were not eligible. The constitution of the + States and of the college of nobles prescribed that Hollanders only of + ancient and noble race and possessing estates in the province could sit in + that body. Neither Aerssens nor Hartaing was born in Holland or possessed + of the other needful qualifications. Nevertheless, the Prince, who had + just remodelled all the municipalities throughout the Union which offered + resistance to his authority, was not to be checked by so trifling an + impediment as the statutes of the House of Nobles. He employed very much + the same arguments which he had used to "good papa" Hooft. "This time it + must be so." Another time it might not be necessary. So after a + controversy which ended as controversies are apt to do when one party has + a sword in his hand and the other is seated at a green-baize-covered + table, Sommelsdyk and Marquette took their seats among the knights. Of + course there was a spirited protest. Nothing was easier for the Stadholder + than to concede the principle while trampling it with his boot-heels in + practice. + </p> + <p> + "Whereas it is not competent for the said two gentlemen to be admitted to + our board," said the nobles in brief, "as not being constitutionally + eligible, nevertheless, considering the strong desire of his Excellency + the Prince of Orange, we, the nobles and knights of Holland, admit them + with the firm promise to each other by noble and knightly faith ever in + future for ourselves and descendants to maintain the privileges of our + order now violated and never again to let them be directly or indirectly + infringed." + </p> + <p> + And so Aerssens, the unscrupulous plotter, and dire foe of the Advocate + and all his house, burning with bitter revenge for all the favours he had + received from him during many years, and the author of the venomous + pamphlets and diatribes which had done so much of late to blacken the + character of the great statesman before the public, now associated himself + officially with his other enemies, while the preliminary proceedings for + the state trials went forward. + </p> + <p> + Meantime the Synod had met at Dordtrecht. The great John Bogerman, with + fierce, handsome face, beak and eye of a bird of prey, and a deluge of + curly brown beard reaching to his waist, took his seat as president. Short + work was made with the Armenians. They and their five Points were soon + thrust out into outer darkness. + </p> + <p> + It was established beyond all gainsaying that two forms of Divine worship + in one country were forbidden by God's Word, and that thenceforth by + Netherland law there could be but one religion, namely, the Reformed or + Calvinistic creed. + </p> + <p> + It was settled that one portion of the Netherlanders and of the rest of + the human race had been expressly created by the Deity to be for ever + damned, and another portion to be eternally blessed. But this history has + little to do with that infallible council save in the political effect of + its decrees on the fate of Barneveld. It was said that the canons of + Dordtrecht were likely to shoot off the head of the Advocate. Their + sessions and the trial of the Advocate were simultaneous, but not + technically related to each other. + </p> + <p> + The conclusions of both courts were preordained, for the issue of the + great duel between Priesthood and State had been decided when the military + chieftain threw his sword into the scale of the Church. + </p> + <p> + There had been purposely a delay, before coming to a decision as to the + fate of the state prisoners, until the work of the Synod should have + approached completion. + </p> + <p> + It was thought good that the condemnation of the opinions of the Arminians + and the chastisement of their leaders should go hand-in-hand. + </p> + <p> + On the 23rd April 1619, the canons were signed by all the members of the + Synod. Arminians were pronounced heretics, schismatics, teachers of false + doctrines. They were declared incapable of filling any clerical or + academical post. No man thenceforth was to teach children, lecture to + adolescents, or preach to the mature, unless a subscriber to the doctrines + of the unchanged, unchangeable, orthodox church. On the 30th April and 1st + May the Netherland Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism were declared + to be infallible. No change was to be possible in either formulary. + </p> + <p> + Schools and pulpits were inexorably bound to the only true religion. + </p> + <p> + On the 6th May there was a great festival at Dordtrecht in honour of the + conclusion of the Synod. The canons, the sentence, and long prayers and + orations in Latin by President Bogerman gladdened the souls of an immense + multitude, which were further enlivened by the decree that both Creed and + Catechism had stood the test of several criticisms and come out unchanged + by a single hair. Nor did the orator of the occasion forget to render + thanks "to the most magnanimous King James of Great Britain, through whose + godly zeal, fiery sympathy, and truly royal labour God had so often + refreshed the weary Synod in the midst of their toil." + </p> + <p> + The Synod held one hundred and eighty sessions between the 13th November + 1618 and 29th May 1619, all the doings of which have been recorded in + chronicles innumerable. There need be no further mention of them here. + </p> + <p> + Barneveld and the companions of his fate remained in prison. + </p> + <p> + On the 7th March the trial of the great Advocate began. He had sat in + prison since the 18th of the preceding August. For nearly seven months he + had been deprived of all communication with the outward world save such + atoms of intelligence as could be secretly conveyed to him in the inside + of a quill concealed in a pear and by other devices. The man who had + governed one of the most important commonwealths of the world for nearly a + generation long—during the same period almost controlling the + politics of Europe—had now been kept in ignorance of the most + insignificant everyday events. During the long summer-heat of the dog-days + immediately succeeding his arrest, and the long, foggy, snowy, icy winter + of Holland which ensued, he had been confined in that dreary garret-room + to which he had been brought when he left his temporary imprisonment in + the apartments of Prince Maurice. + </p> + <p> + There was nothing squalid in the chamber, nothing specially cruel or + repulsive in the arrangements of his captivity. He was not in fetters, nor + fed upon bread and water. He was not put upon the rack, nor even + threatened with it as Ledenberg had been. He was kept in a mean, + commonplace, meagerly furnished, tolerably spacious room, and he was + allowed the services of his faithful domestic servant John Franken. A + sentinel paced day and night up the narrow corridor before his door. As + spring advanced, the notes of the nightingale came through the + prison-window from the neighbouring thicket. One day John Franken, opening + the window that his master might the better enjoy its song, exchanged + greeting with a fellow-servant in the Barneveld mansion who happened to be + crossing the courtyard. Instantly workmen were sent to close and barricade + the windows, and it was only after earnest remonstrances and pledges that + this resolve to consign the Advocate to darkness was abandoned. + </p> + <p> + He was not permitted the help of lawyer, clerk, or man of business. Alone + and from his chamber of bondage, suffering from bodily infirmities and + from the weakness of advancing age, he was compelled to prepare his + defence against a vague, heterogeneous collection of charges, to meet + which required constant reference, not only to the statutes, privileges, + and customs of the country and to the Roman law, but to a thousand minute + incidents out of which the history of the Provinces during the past dozen + years or more had been compounded. + </p> + <p> + It is true that no man could be more familiar with the science and + practice of the law than he was, while of contemporary history he was + himself the central figure. His biography was the chronicle of his + country. Nevertheless it was a fearful disadvantage for him day by day to + confront two dozen hostile judges comfortably seated at a great table + piled with papers, surrounded by clerks with bags full of documents and + with a library of authorities and precedents duly marked and dog's-eared + and ready to their hands, while his only library and chronicle lay in his + brain. From day to day, with frequent intermissions, he was led down + through the narrow turret-stairs to a wide chamber on the floor + immediately below his prison, where a temporary tribunal had been arranged + for the special commission. + </p> + <p> + There had been an inclination at first on the part of his judges to treat + him as a criminal, and to require him to answer, standing, to the + interrogatories propounded to him. But as the terrible old man advanced + into the room, leaning on his staff, and surveying them with the air of + haughty command habitual to him, they shrank before his glance; several + involuntarily, rising uncovered, to salute him and making way for him to + the fireplace about which many were standing that wintry morning. + </p> + <p> + He was thenceforth always accommodated with a seat while he listened to + and answered 'ex tempore' the elaborate series of interrogatories which + had been prepared to convict him. + </p> + <p> + Nearly seven months he had sat with no charges brought against him. This + was in itself a gross violation of the laws of the land, for according to + all the ancient charters of Holland it was provided that accusation should + follow within six weeks of arrest, or that the prisoner should go free. + But the arrest itself was so gross a violation of law that respect for it + was hardly to be expected in the subsequent proceedings. He was a great + officer of the States of Holland. He had been taken under their especial + protection. He was on his way to the High Council. He was in no sense a + subject of the States-General. He was in the discharge of his official + duty. He was doubly and trebly sacred from arrest. The place where he + stood was on the territory of Holland and in the very sanctuary of her + courts and House of Assembly. The States-General were only as guests on + her soil, and had no domain or jurisdiction there whatever. He was not + apprehended by any warrant or form of law. It was in time of peace, and + there was no pretence of martial law. The highest civil functionary of + Holland was invited in the name of its first military officer to a + conference, and thus entrapped was forcibly imprisoned. + </p> + <p> + At last a board of twenty-four commissioners was created, twelve from + Holland and two from each of the other six provinces. This affectation of + concession to Holland was ridiculous. Either the law 'de non evocando'—according + to which no citizen of Holland could be taken out of the province for + trial—was to be respected or it was to be trampled upon. If it was + to be trampled upon, it signified little whether more commissioners were + to be taken from Holland than from each of the other provinces, or fewer, + or none at all. Moreover it was pretended that a majority of the whole + board was to be assigned to that province. But twelve is not a majority of + twenty-four. There were three fascals or prosecuting officers, Leeuwen of + Utrecht, Sylla of Gelderland, and Antony Duyck of Holland. Duyck was + notoriously the deadly enemy of Barneveld, and was destined to succeed to + his offices. It would have been as well to select Francis Aerssens + himself. + </p> + <p> + It was necessary to appoint a commission because there was no tribunal + appertaining to the States-General. The general government of the + confederacy had no power to deal with an individual. It could only + negotiate with the sovereign province to which the individual was + responsible, and demand his punishment if proved guilty of an offence. + There was no supreme court of appeal. Machinery was provided for settling + or attempting to settle disputes among the members of the confederacy, and + if there was a culprit in this great process it was Holland itself. + Neither the Advocate nor any one of his associates had done any act except + by authority, express or implied, of that sovereign State. Supposing them + unquestionably guilty of blackest crimes against the Generality, the + dilemma was there which must always exist by the very nature of things in + a confederacy. No sovereign can try a fellow sovereign. The subject can be + tried at home by no sovereign but his own. + </p> + <p> + The accused in this case were amenable to the laws of Holland only. + </p> + <p> + It was a packed tribunal. Several of the commissioners, like Pauw and Muis + for example, were personal enemies of Barneveld. Many of them were totally + ignorant of law. Some of them knew not a word of any language but their + mother tongue, although much of the law which they were to administer was + written in Latin. + </p> + <p> + Before such a court the foremost citizen of the Netherlands, the first + living statesman of Europe, was brought day by day during a period of + nearly three months; coming down stairs from the mean and desolate room + where he was confined to the comfortable apartment below, which had been + fitted up for the commission. + </p> + <p> + There was no bill of indictment, no arraignment, no counsel. There were no + witnesses and no arguments. The court-room contained, as it were, only a + prejudiced and partial jury to pronounce both on law and fact without a + judge to direct them, or advocates to sift testimony and contend for or + against the prisoner's guilt. The process, for it could not be called a + trial, consisted of a vast series of rambling and tangled interrogatories + reaching over a space of forty years without apparent connection or + relevancy, skipping fantastically about from one period to another, back + and forthwith apparently no other intent than to puzzle the prisoner, + throw him off his balance, and lead him into self-contradiction. + </p> + <p> + The spectacle was not a refreshing one. It was the attempt of a multitude + of pigmies to overthrow and bind the giant. + </p> + <p> + Barneveld was served with no articles of impeachment. He asked for a list + in writing of the charges against him, that he might ponder his answer. + The demand was refused. He was forbidden the use of pen and ink or any + writing materials. His papers and books were all taken from him. + </p> + <p> + He was allowed to consult neither with an advocate nor even with a single + friend. Alone in his chamber of bondage he was to meditate on his defence. + Out of his memory and brain, and from these alone, he was to supply + himself with the array of historical facts stretching over a longer period + than the lifetime of many of his judges, and with the proper legal and + historical arguments upon those facts for the justification of his course. + That memory and brain were capacious and powerful enough for the task. It + was well for the judges that they had bound themselves, at the outset, by + an oath never to make known what passed in the courtroom, but to bury all + the proceedings in profound secrecy forever. Had it been otherwise, had + that been known to the contemporary public which has only been revealed + more than two centuries later, had a portion only of the calm and austere + eloquence been heard in which the Advocate set forth his defence, had the + frivolous and ignoble nature of the attack been comprehended, it might + have moved the very stones in the streets to mutiny. Hateful as the + statesman had been made by an organized system of calumny, which was + continued with unabated vigour and increased venom sine he had been + imprisoned, there was enough of justice and of gratitude left in the + hearts of Netherlanders to resent the tyranny practised against their + greatest man, and the obloquy thus brought against a nation always devoted + to their liberties and laws. + </p> + <p> + That the political system of the country was miserably defective was no + fault of Barneveld. He was bound by oath and duty to administer, not make + the laws. A handful of petty feudal sovereignties such as had once covered + the soil of Europe, a multitude of thriving cities which had wrested or + purchased a mass of liberties, customs, and laws from their little + tyrants, all subjected afterwards, without being blended together, to a + single foreign family, had at last one by one, or two by two, shaken off + that supremacy, and, resuming their ancient and as it were decapitated + individualities, had bound themselves by treaty in the midst of a war to + stand by each other, as if they were but one province, for purposes of + common defence against the common foe. + </p> + <p> + There had been no pretence of laying down a constitution, of enacting an + organic law. The day had not come for even the conception of a popular + constitution. The people had not been invented. It was not provinces only, + but cities, that had contracted with each other, according to the very + first words of the first Article of Union. Some of these cities, like + Ghent, Bruges, Antwerp, were Catholic by overwhelming majority, and had + subsequently either fallen away from the confederacy or been conquered. + </p> + <p> + And as if to make assurance doubly sure, the Articles of Union not only + reserved to each province all powers not absolutely essential for carrying + on the war in common, but by an express article (the 13th), declared that + Holland and Zealand should regulate the matter of religion according to + their own discretion, while the other provinces might conform to the + provisions of the "Religious Peace" which included mutual protection for + Catholics and Protestants—or take such other order as seemed most + conducive to the religious and secular rights of the inhabitants. It was + stipulated that no province should interfere with another in such matters, + and that every individual in them all should remain free in his religion, + no man being molested or examined on account of his creed. A farther + declaration in regard to this famous article was made to the effect that + no provinces or cities which held to the Roman Catholic religion were to + be excluded from the League of Union if they were ready to conform to its + conditions and comport themselves patriotically. Language could not be + devised to declare more plainly than was done by this treaty that the + central government of the League had neither wish nor right to concern + itself with the religious affairs of the separate cities or provinces. If + it permitted both Papists and Protestants to associate themselves against + the common foe, it could hardly have been imagined, when the Articles were + drawn, that it would have claimed the exclusive right to define the + minutest points in a single Protestant creed. + </p> + <p> + And if the exclusively secular parts of the polity prevailing in the + country were clumsy, irregular, and even monstrous, and if its defects had + been flagrantly demonstrated by recent events, a more reasonable method of + reforming the laws might have been found than the imprisonment of a man + who had faithfully administered them forty years long. + </p> + <p> + A great commonwealth had grown out of a petty feudal organism, like an oak + from an acorn in a crevice, gnarled and distorted, though wide-spreading + and vigorous. It seemed perilous to deal radically with such a polity, and + an almost timid conservatism on the part of its guardians in such an age + of tempests might be pardonable. + </p> + <p> + Moreover, as before remarked, the apparent imbecility resulting from + confederacy and municipalism combined was for a season remedied by the + actual preponderance of Holland. Two-thirds of the total wealth and + strength of the seven republics being concentrated in one province, the + desired union seemed almost gained by the practical solution of all in + that single republic. But this was one great cause of the general + disaster. + </p> + <p> + It would be a thankless and tedious task to wander through the wilderness + of interrogatories and answers extending over three months of time, which + stood in the place of a trial. The defence of Barneveld was his own + history, and that I have attempted to give in the preceding pages. A great + part of the accusation was deduced from his private and official + correspondence, and it is for this reason that I have laid such copious + extracts from it before the reader. No man except the judges and the + States-General had access to those letters, and it was easy therefore, if + needful, to give them a false colouring. It is only very recently that + they have been seen at all, and they have never been published from that + day to this. + </p> + <p> + Out of the confused mass of documents appertaining to the trial, a few + generalizations can be made which show the nature of the attack upon him. + He was accused of having permitted Arminius to infuse new opinions into + the University of Leyden, and of having subsequently defended the + appointment of Vorstius to the same place. He had opposed the National + Synod. He had made drafts of letters for the King of Great Britain to + sign, recommending mutual toleration on the five disputed points regarding + predestination. He was the author of the famous Sharp Resolution. He had + recommended the enlistment by the provinces and towns of Waartgelders or + mercenaries. He had maintained that those mercenaries as well as the + regular troops were bound in time of peace to be obedient and faithful, + not only to the Generality and the stadholders, but to the magistrates of + the cities and provinces where they were employed, and to the states by + whom they were paid. He had sent to Leyden, warning the authorities of the + approach of the Prince. He had encouraged all the proceedings at Utrecht, + writing a letter to the secretary of that province advising a watch to be + kept at the city gates as well as in the river, and ordering his letter + when read to be burned. He had received presents from foreign potentates. + He had attempted to damage the character of his Excellency the Prince by + declaring on various occasions that he aspired to the sovereignty of the + country. He had held a ciphered correspondence on the subject with foreign + ministers of the Republic. He had given great offence to the King of Great + Britain by soliciting from him other letters in the sense of those which + his Majesty had written in 1613, advising moderation and mutual + toleration. He had not brought to condign punishment the author of 'The + Balance', a pamphlet in which an oration of the English ambassador had + been criticised, and aspersions made on the Order of the Garter. He had + opposed the formation of the West India Company. He had said many years + before to Nicolas van Berk that the Provinces had better return to the + dominion of Spain. And in general, all his proceedings had tended to put + the Provinces into a "blood bath." + </p> + <p> + There was however no accusation that he had received bribes from the enemy + or held traitorous communication with him, or that he had committed any + act of high-treason. + </p> + <p> + His private letters to Caron and to the ambassadors in Paris, with which + the reader has been made familiar, had thus been ransacked to find + treasonable matter, but the result was meagre in spite of the minute and + microscopic analysis instituted to detect traces of poison in them. + </p> + <p> + But the most subtle and far-reaching research into past transactions was + due to the Greffier Cornelis Aerssens, father of the Ambassador Francis, + and to a certain Nicolas van Berk, Burgomaster of Utrecht. + </p> + <p> + The process of tale-bearing, hearsay evidence, gossip, and invention went + back a dozen years, even to the preliminary and secret conferences in + regard to the Treaty of Truce. + </p> + <p> + Readers familiar with the history of those memorable negotiations are + aware that Cornelis van Aerssens had compromised himself by accepting a + valuable diamond and a bill of exchange drawn by Marquis Spinola on a + merchant in Amsterdam, Henry Beekman by name, for 80,000 ducats. These + were handed by Father Neyen, the secret agent of the Spanish government, + to the Greffier as a prospective reward for his services in furthering the + Truce. He did not reject them, but he informed Prince Maurice and the + Advocate of the transaction. Both diamond and bill of exchange were + subsequently deposited in the hands of the treasurer of the + States-General, Joris de Bie, the Assembly being made officially + acquainted with the whole course of the affair. + </p> + <p> + It is passing strange that this somewhat tortuous business, which + certainly cast a shade upon the fair fame of the elder Aerssens, and + required him to publish as good a defence as he could against the + consequent scandal, should have furnished a weapon wherewith to strike at + the Advocate of Holland some dozen years later. + </p> + <p> + But so it was. Krauwels, a relative of Aerssens, through whom Father Neyen + had first obtained access to the Greffier, had stated, so it seemed, that + the monk had, in addition to the bill, handed to him another draft of + Spinola's for 100,000 ducats, to be given to a person of more + consideration than Aerssens. Krauwels did not know who the person was, nor + whether he took the money. He expressed his surprise however that leading + persons in the government "even old and authentic beggars"—should + allow themselves to be so seduced as to accept presents from the enemy. He + mentioned two such persons, namely, a burgomaster at Delft and a + burgomaster at Haarlem. Aerssens now deposed that he had informed the + Advocate of this story, who had said, "Be quiet about it, I will have it + investigated," and some days afterwards on being questioned stated that he + had made enquiry and found there was something in it. + </p> + <p> + So the fact that Cornelis Aerssens had taken bribes, and that two + burgomasters were strongly suspected by Aerssens of having taken bribes, + seems to have been considered as evidence that Barneveld had taken a + bribe. It is true that Aerssens by advice of Maurice and Barneveld had + made a clean breast of it to the States-General and had given them over + the presents. But the States-General could neither wear the diamond nor + cash the bill of exchange, and it would have been better for the Greffier + not to contaminate his fingers with them, but to leave the gifts in the + monk's palm. His revenge against the Advocate for helping him out of his + dilemma, and for subsequently advancing his son Francis in a brilliant + diplomatic career, seems to have been—when the clouds were + thickening and every man's hand was against the fallen statesman—to + insinuate that he was the anonymous personage who had accepted the + apocryphal draft for 100,000 ducats. + </p> + <p> + The case is a pregnant example of the proceedings employed to destroy the + Advocate. + </p> + <p> + The testimony of Nicolas van Berk was at any rate more direct. + </p> + <p> + On the 21st December 1618 the burgomaster testified that the Advocate had + once declared to him that the differences in regard to Divine Worship were + not so great but that they might be easily composed; asking him at the + same time "whether it would not be better that we should submit ourselves + again to the King of Spain." Barneveld had also referred, so said van + Berk, to the conduct of the Spanish king towards those who had helped him + to the kingdom of Portugal. The Burgomaster was unable however to specify + the date, year, or month in which the Advocate had held this language. He + remembered only that the conversation occurred when Barneveld was living + on the Spui at the Hague, and that having been let into the house through + the hall on the side of the vestibule, he had been conducted by the + Advocate down a small staircase into the office. + </p> + <p> + The only fact proved by the details seems to be that the story had lodged + in the tenacious memory of the Burgomaster for eight years, as Barneveld + had removed from the Spui to Arenberg House in the Voorhout in the year + 1611. + </p> + <p> + No other offers from the King of Spain or the Archdukes had ever been made + to him, said van Berk, than those indicated in this deposition against the + Advocate as coming from that statesman. Nor had Barneveld ever spoken to + him upon such subjects except on that one occasion. + </p> + <p> + It is not necessary and would be wearisome to follow the unfortunate + statesman through the long line of defence which he was obliged to make, + in fragmentary and irregular form, against these discursive and confused + assaults upon him. A continuous argument might be built up with the + isolated parts which should be altogether impregnable. It is superfluous. + </p> + <p> + Always instructive to his judges as he swept at will through the record of + nearly half a century of momentous European history, in which he was + himself a conspicuous figure, or expounding the ancient laws and customs + of the country with a wealth and accuracy of illustration which testified + to the strength of his memory, he seemed rather like a sage expounding law + and history to a class of pupils than a criminal defending himself before + a bench of commissioners. Moved occasionally from his austere simplicity, + the majestic old man rose to a strain of indignant eloquence which might + have shaken the hall of a vast assembly and found echo in the hearts of a + thousand hearers as he denounced their petty insults or ignoble + insinuations; glaring like a caged lion at his tormentors, who had often + shrunk before him when free, and now attempted to drown his voice by + contradictions, interruptions, threats, and unmeaning howls. + </p> + <p> + He protested, from the outset and throughout the proceedings, against the + jurisdiction of the tribunal. The Treaty of Union on which the Assembly + and States-General were founded gave that assembly no power over him. They + could take no legal cognizance of his person or his acts. He had been + deprived of writing materials, or he would have already drawn up his + solemn protest and argument against the existence of the commission. He + demanded that they should be provided for him, together with a clerk to + engross his defence. It is needless to say that the demand was refused. + </p> + <p> + It was notorious to all men, he said, that on the day when violent hands + were laid upon him he was not bound to the States-General by oath, + allegiance, or commission. He was a well-known inhabitant of the Hague, a + householder there, a vassal of the Commonwealth of Holland, enfeoffed of + many notable estates in that country, serving many honourable offices by + commission from its government. By birth, promotion, and conferred + dignities he was subject to the supreme authority of Holland, which for + forty years had been a free state possessed of all the attributes of + sovereignty, political, religious, judicial, and recognizing no superior + save God Almighty alone. + </p> + <p> + He was amenable to no tribunal save that of their Mightinesses the States + of Holland and their ordinary judges. Not only those States but the Prince + of Orange as their governor and vassal, the nobles of Holland, the + colleges of justice, the regents of cities, and all other vassals, + magistrates, and officers were by their respective oaths bound to maintain + and protect him in these his rights. + </p> + <p> + After fortifying this position by legal argument and by an array of + historical facts within his own experience, and alluding to the repeated + instances in which, sorely against his will, he had been solicited and + almost compelled to remain in offices of which he was weary, he referred + with dignity to the record of his past life. From the youthful days when + he had served as a volunteer at his own expense in the perilous sieges of + Haarlem and Leyden down to the time of his arrest, through an unbroken + course of honourable and most arduous political services, embassies, and + great negotiations, he had ever maintained the laws and liberties of the + Fatherland and his own honour unstained. + </p> + <p> + That he should now in his seventy-second year be dragged, in violation of + every privilege and statute of the country, by extraordinary means, before + unknown judges, was a grave matter not for himself alone but for their + Mightinesses the States of Holland and for the other provinces. The + precious right 'de non evocando' had ever been dear to all the provinces, + cities, and inhabitants of the Netherlands. It was the most vital + privilege in their possession as well in civil as criminal, in secular as + in ecclesiastical affairs. + </p> + <p> + When the King of Spain in 1567, and afterwards, set up an extraordinary + tribunal and a course of extraordinary trials, it was an undeniable fact, + he said, that on the solemn complaint of the States all princes, nobles, + and citizens not only in the Netherlands but in foreign countries, and all + foreign kings and sovereigns, held those outrages to be the foremost and + fundamental reason for taking up arms against that king, and declaring him + to have forfeited his right of sovereignty. + </p> + <p> + Yet that monarch was unquestionably the born and accepted sovereign of + each one of the provinces, while the General Assembly was but a gathering + of confederates and allies, in no sense sovereign. It was an unimaginable + thing, he said, that the States of each province should allow their whole + authority and right of sovereignty to be transferred to a board of + commissioners like this before which he stood. If, for example, a general + union of France, England, and the States of the United Netherlands should + be formed (and the very words of the Act of Union contemplated such + possibility), what greater absurdity could there be than to suppose that a + college of administration created for the specific purposes of such union + would be competent to perform acts of sovereignty within each of those + countries in matters of justice, polity, and religion? + </p> + <p> + It was known to mankind, he said, that when negotiations were entered into + for bestowing the sovereignty of the Provinces on France and on England, + special and full powers were required from, and furnished by, the States + of each individual province. + </p> + <p> + Had the sovereignty been in the assembly of the States-General, they might + have transferred it of their own motion or kept it for themselves. + </p> + <p> + Even in the ordinary course of affairs the commissioners from each + province to the General Assembly always required a special power from + their constituents before deciding any matter of great importance. + </p> + <p> + In regard to the defence of the respective provinces and cities, he had + never heard it doubted, he said, that the states or the magistrates of + cities had full right to provide for it by arming a portion of their own + inhabitants or by enlisting paid troops. The sovereign counts of Holland + and bishops of Utrecht certainly possessed and exercised that right for + many hundred years, and by necessary tradition it passed to the states + succeeding to their ancient sovereignty. He then gave from the stores of + his memory innumerable instances in which soldiers had been enlisted by + provinces and cities all over the Netherlands from the time of the + abjuration of Spain down to that moment. Through the whole period of + independence in the time of Anjou, Matthias, Leicester, as well as under + the actual government, it had been the invariable custom thus to provide + both by land and sea and on the rivers against robbers, rebels, pirates, + mischief-makers, assailing thieves, domestic or foreign. It had been done + by the immortal William the Silent on many memorable occasions, and in + fact the custom was so notorious that soldiers so enlisted were known by + different and peculiar nicknames in the different provinces and towns. + </p> + <p> + That the central government had no right to meddle with religious matters + was almost too self-evident an axiom to prove. Indeed the chief difficulty + under which the Advocate laboured throughout this whole process was the + monstrous assumption by his judges of a political and judicial system + which never had any existence even in imagination. The profound secrecy + which enwrapped the proceedings from that day almost to our own and an + ignorant acquiescence of a considerable portion of the public in + accomplished facts offer the only explanation of a mystery which must ever + excite our wonder. If there were any impeachment at all, it was an + impeachment of the form of government itself. If language could mean + anything whatever, a mere perusal of the Articles of Union proved that the + prisoner had never violated that fundamental pact. How could the general + government prescribe an especial formulary for the Reformed Church, and + declare opposition to its decrees treasonable, when it did not prohibit, + but absolutely admitted and invited, provinces and cities exclusively + Catholic to enter the Union, guaranteeing to them entire liberty of + religion? + </p> + <p> + Barneveld recalled the fact that when the stadholdership of Utrecht thirty + years before had been conferred on Prince Maurice the States of that + province had solemnly reserved for themselves the disposition over + religious matters in conformity with the Union, and that Maurice had sworn + to support that resolution. + </p> + <p> + Five years later the Prince had himself assured a deputation from Brabant + that the States of each province were supreme in religious matters, no + interference the one with the other being justifiable or possible. In 1602 + the States General in letters addressed to the States of the obedient + provinces under dominion of the Archdukes had invited them to take up arms + to help drive the Spaniards from the Provinces and to join the + Confederacy, assuring them that they should regulate the matter of + religion at their good pleasure, and that no one else should be allowed to + interfere therewith. + </p> + <p> + The Advocate then went into an historical and critical disquisition, into + which we certainly have no need to follow him, rapidly examining the whole + subject of predestination and conditional and unconditional damnation from + the days of St. Augustine downward, showing a thorough familiarity with a + subject of theology which then made up so much of the daily business of + life, political and private, and lay at the bottom of the terrible + convulsion then existing in the Netherlands. We turn from it with a + shudder, reminding the reader only how persistently the statesman then on + his trial had advocated conciliation, moderation, and kindness between + brethren of the Reformed Church who were not able to think alike on one of + the subtlest and most mysterious problems that casuistry has ever + propounded. + </p> + <p> + For fifty years, he said, he had been an enemy of all compulsion of the + human conscience. He had always opposed rigorous ecclesiastical decrees. + He had done his best to further, and did not deny having inspired, the + advice given in the famous letters from the King of Great Britain to the + States in 1613, that there should be mutual toleration and abstinence from + discussion of disputed doctrines, neither of them essential to salvation. + He thought that neither Calvin nor Beza would have opposed freedom of + opinion on those points. For himself he believed that the salvation of + mankind would be through God's unmerited grace and the redemption of sins + though the Saviour, and that the man who so held and persevered to the end + was predestined to eternal happiness, and that his children dying before + the age of reason were destined not to Hell but to Heaven. He had thought + fifty years long that the passion and sacrifice of Christ the Saviour were + more potent to salvation than God's wrath and the sin of Adam and Eve to + damnation. He had done his best practically to avert personal bickerings + among the clergy. He had been, so far as lay in his power, as friendly to + Remonstrants as to Contra-Remonstrants, to Polyander and Festus Hommius as + to Uytenbogaert and Episcopius. He had almost finished a negotiation with + Councillor Kromhout for the peaceable delivery of the Cloister Church on + the Thursday preceding the Sunday on which it had been forcibly seized by + the Contra-Remonstrants. + </p> + <p> + When asked by one of his judges how he presumed to hope for toleration + between two parties, each of which abhorred the other's opinions, and + likened each other to Turks and devil-worshippers, he replied that he had + always detested and rebuked those mutual revilings by every means in his + power, and would have wished to put down such calumniators of either + persuasion by the civil authority, but the iniquity of the times and the + exasperation of men's humours had prevented him. + </p> + <p> + Being perpetually goaded by one judge after another as to his + disrespectful conduct towards the King of Great Britain, and asked why his + Majesty had not as good right to give the advice of 1617 as the + recommendation of tolerance in 1613, he scrupulously abstained, as he had + done in all his letters, from saying a disrespectful word as to the + glaring inconsistency between the two communications, or to the hostility + manifested towards himself personally by the British ambassador. He had + always expressed the hope, he said, that the King would adhere to his + original position, but did not dispute his right to change his mind, nor + the good faith which had inspired his later letters. It had been his + object, if possible, to reconcile the two different systems recommended by + his Majesty into one harmonious whole. + </p> + <p> + His whole aim had been to preserve the public peace as it was the duty of + every magistrate, especially in times of such excitement, to do. He could + never comprehend why the toleration of the Five Points should be a danger + to the Reformed religion. Rather, he thought, it would strengthen the + Church and attract many Lutherans, Baptists, Catholics, and other good + patriots into its pale. He had always opposed the compulsory acceptance by + the people of the special opinions of scribes and doctors. He did not + consider, he said, the difference in doctrine on this disputed point + between the Contra-Remonstrants and Remonstrants as one-tenth the value of + the civil authority and its right to make laws and ordinances regulating + ecclesiastical affairs. + </p> + <p> + He believed the great bulwark of the independence of the country to be the + Reformed Church, and his efforts had ever been to strengthen that bulwark + by preventing the unnecessary schism which might prove its ruin. Many + questions of property, too, were involved in the question—the church + buildings, lands and pastures belonging to the Counts of Holland and their + successors—the States having always exercised the right of church + patronage—'jus patronatus'—a privilege which, as well as + inherited or purchased advowsons, had been of late flagrantly interfered + with. + </p> + <p> + He was asked if he had not said that it had never been the intention of + the States-General to carry on the war for this or that religion. + </p> + <p> + He replied that he had told certain clergymen expressing to him their + opinion that the war had been waged solely for the furtherance of their + especial shade of belief, that in his view the war had been undertaken for + the conservation of the liberties and laws of the land, and of its good + people. Of that freedom the first and foremost point was the true + Christian religion and liberty of conscience and opinion. There must be + religion in the Republic, he had said, but that the war was carried on to + sustain the opinion of one doctor of divinity or another on—differential + points was something he had never heard of and could never believe. The + good citizens of the country had as much right to hold by Melancthon as by + Calvin or Beza. He knew that the first proclamations in regard to the war + declared it to be undertaken for freedom of conscience, and so to his, own + knowledge it had been always carried on. + </p> + <p> + He was asked if he had not promised during the Truce negotiations so to + direct matters that the Catholics with time might obtain public exercise + of their religion. + </p> + <p> + He replied that this was a notorious falsehood and calumny, adding that it + ill accorded with the proclamation against the Jesuits drawn up by himself + some years after the Truce. He furthermore stated that it was chiefly by + his direction that the discourse of President Jeannin—urging on part + of the French king that liberty of worship might be granted to the Papists—was + kept secret, copies of it not having been furnished even to the + commissioners of the Provinces. + </p> + <p> + His indignant denial of this charge, especially taken in connection with + his repeated assertions during the trial, that among the most patriotic + Netherlanders during and since the war were many adherents of the ancient + church, seems marvellously in contradiction with his frequent and most + earnest pleas for liberty of conscience. But it did not appear + contradictory even to his judges nor to any contemporary. His position had + always been that the civil authority of each province was supreme in all + matters political or ecclesiastical. The States-General, all the provinces + uniting in the vote, had invited the Catholic provinces on more than one + occasion to join the Union, promising that there should be no interference + on the part of any states or individuals with the internal affairs + religious or otherwise of the provinces accepting the invitation. But it + would have been a gross contradiction of his own principle if he had + promised so to direct matters that the Catholics should have public right + of worship in Holland where he knew that the civil authority was sure to + refuse it, or in any of the other six provinces in whose internal affairs + he had no voice whatever. He was opposed to all tyranny over conscience, + he would have done his utmost to prevent inquisition into opinion, + violation of domicile, interference with private worship, compulsory + attendance in Protestant churches of those professing the Roman creed. + This was not attempted. No Catholic was persecuted on account of his + religion. Compared with the practice in other countries this was a great + step in advance. Religious tolerance lay on the road to religious + equality, a condition which had hardly been imagined then and scarcely + exists in Europe even to this day. But among the men in history whose life + and death contributed to the advancement of that blessing, it would be + vain to deny that Barneveld occupies a foremost place. + </p> + <p> + Moreover, it should be remembered that religious equality then would have + been a most hazardous experiment. So long as Church and State were + blended, it was absolutely essential at that epoch for the preservation of + Protestantism to assign the predominance to the State. Should the + Catholics have obtained religious equality, the probable result would + before long have been religious inequality, supremacy of the Catholics in + the Church, and supremacy of the Church over the State. The fruits of the + forty years' war would have become dust and ashes. It would be mere weak + sentimentalism to doubt—after the bloody history which had just + closed and the awful tragedy, then reopening—that every spark of + religious liberty would have soon been trodden out in the Netherlands. The + general onslaught of the League with Ferdinand, Maximilian of Bavaria, and + Philip of Spain at its head against the distracted, irresolute, and + wavering line of Protestantism across the whole of Europe was just + preparing. Rather a wilderness to reign over than a single heretic, was + the war-cry of the Emperor. The King of Spain, as we have just been + reading in his most secret, ciphered despatches to the Archduke at + Brussels, was nursing sanguine hopes and weaving elaborate schemes for + recovering his dominion over the United Netherlands, and proposing to send + an army of Jesuits thither to break the way to the reconquest. To play + into his hands then, by granting public right of worship to the Papists, + would have been in Barneveld's opinion like giving up Julich and other + citadels in the debatable land to Spain just as the great war between + Catholicism and Protestantism was breaking out. There had been enough of + burning and burying alive in the Netherlands during the century which had + closed. It was not desirable to give a chance for their renewal now. + </p> + <p> + In regard to the Synod, Barneveld justified his course by a simple + reference to the 13th Article of the Union. Words could not more plainly + prohibit the interference by the States-General with the religious affairs + of any one of the Provinces than had been done by that celebrated clause. + In 1583 there had been an attempt made to amend that article by insertion + of a pledge to maintain the Evangelical, Reformed, religion solely, but it + was never carried out. He disdained to argue so self-evident a truth, that + a confederacy which had admitted and constantly invited Catholic states to + membership, under solemn pledge of noninterference with their religious + affairs, had no right to lay down formulas for the Reformed Church + throughout all the Netherlands. The oath of stadholder and magistrates in + Holland to maintain the Reformed religion was framed before this unhappy + controversy on predestination had begun, and it was mere arrogant + assumption on the part of the Contra-Remonstrants to claim a monopoly of + that religion, and to exclude the Remonstrants from its folds. + </p> + <p> + He had steadily done his utmost to assuage those dissensions while + maintaining the laws which he was sworn to support. He had advocated a + provincial synod to be amicably assisted by divines from neighbouring + countries. He had opposed a National Synod unless unanimously voted by the + Seven Provinces, because it would have been an open violation of the + fundamental law of the confederacy, of its whole spirit, and of liberty of + conscience. He admitted that he had himself drawn up a protest on the part + of three provinces (Holland, Utrecht, and Overyssel) against the decree + for the National Synod as a breach of the Union, declaring it to be + therefore null and void and binding upon no man. He had dictated the + protest as oldest member present, while Grotius as the youngest had acted + as scribe. He would have supported the Synod if legally voted, but would + have preferred the convocation, under the authority of all the provinces, + of a general, not a national, synod, in which, besides clergy and laymen + from the Netherlands, deputations from all Protestant states and churches + should take part; a kind of Protestant oecumenical council. + </p> + <p> + As to the enlistment, by the States of a province, of soldiers to keep the + peace and suppress tumults in its cities during times of political and + religious excitement, it was the most ordinary of occurrences. In his + experience of more than forty years he had never heard the right even + questioned. It was pure ignorance of law and history to find it a novelty. + </p> + <p> + To hire temporarily a sufficient number of professional soldiers, he + considered a more wholesome means of keeping the peace than to enlist one + portion of the citizens of a town against another portion, when party and + religious spirit was running high. His experience had taught him that the + mutual hatred of the inhabitants, thus inflamed, became more lasting and + mischievous than the resentment caused through suppression of disorder by + an armed and paid police of strangers. + </p> + <p> + It was not only the right but the most solemn duty of the civil authority + to preserve the tranquillity, property, and lives of citizens committed to + their care. "I have said these fifty years," said Barneveld, "that it is + better to be governed by magistrates than mobs. I have always maintained + and still maintain that the most disastrous, shameful, and ruinous + condition into which this land can fall is that in which the magistrates + are overcome by the rabble of the towns and receive laws from them. + Nothing but perdition can follow from that." + </p> + <p> + There had been good reason to believe that the French garrisons as well as + some of the train bands could not be thoroughly relied upon in emergencies + like those constantly breaking out, and there had been advices of invasion + by sympathizers from neighbouring countries. In many great cities the + civil authority had been trampled upon and mob rule had prevailed. + Certainly the recent example in the great commercial capital of the + country—where the house of a foremost citizen had been besieged, + stormed, and sacked, and a virtuous matron of the higher class hunted like + a wild beast through the streets by a rabble grossly ignorant of the very + nature of the religious quibble which had driven them mad, pelted with + stones, branded with vilest names, and only saved by accident from + assassination, while a church-going multitude looked calmly on—with + constantly recurring instances in other important cities were sufficient + reasons for the authorities to be watchful. + </p> + <p> + He denied that he had initiated the proceedings at Utrecht in conversation + with Ledenberg or any one else, but he had not refused, he said, his + approval of the perfectly legal measures adopted for keeping the peace + there when submitted to him. He was himself a born citizen of that + province, and therefore especially interested in its welfare, and there + was an old and intimate friendship between Utrecht and Holland. It would + have been painful to him to see that splendid city in the control of an + ignorant mob, making use of religious problems, which they did not + comprehend, to plunder the property and take the lives of peaceful + citizens more comfortably housed than themselves. + </p> + <p> + He had neither suggested nor controlled the proceedings at Utrecht. On the + contrary, at an interview with the Prince and Count William on the 13th + July, and in the presence of nearly thirty members of the general + assembly, he had submitted a plan for cashiering the enlisted soldiery and + substituting for them other troops, native-born, who should be sworn in + the usual form to obey the laws of the Union. The deputation from Holland + to Utrecht, according to his personal knowledge, had received no + instructions personal or oral to authorize active steps by the troops of + the Holland quota, but to abstain from them and to request the Prince that + they should not be used against the will and commands of the States of + Utrecht, whom they were bound by oath to obey so long as they were in + garrison there. + </p> + <p> + No man knew better than he whether the military oath which was called + new-fangled were a novelty or not, for he had himself, he said, drawn it + up thirty years before at command of the States-General by whom it was + then ordained. From that day to this he had never heard a pretence that it + justified anything not expressly sanctioned by the Articles of Union, and + neither the States of Holland nor those of Utrecht had made any change in + the oath. The States of Utrecht were sovereign within their own territory, + and in the time of peace neither the Prince of Orange without their order + nor the States-General had the right to command the troops in their + territory. The governor of a province was sworn to obey the laws of the + province and conform to the Articles of the General Union. + </p> + <p> + He was asked why he wrote the warning letter to Ledenberg, and why he was + so anxious that the letter should be burned; as if that were a deadly + offence. + </p> + <p> + He said that he could not comprehend why it should be imputed to him as a + crime that he wished in such turbulent times to warn so important a city + as Utrecht, the capital of his native province, against tumults, + disorders, and sudden assaults such as had often happened to her in times + past. As for the postscript requesting that the letter might be put in the + fire, he said that not being a member of, the government of that province + he was simply unwilling to leave a record that "he had been too curious in + aliens republics, although that could hardly be considered a grave + offence." + </p> + <p> + In regard to the charge that he had accused Prince Maurice of aspiring to + the sovereignty of the country, he had much to say. He had never brought + such accusation in public or private. He had reason to believe however—he + had indeed convincing proofs—that many people, especially those + belonging to the Contra-Remonstrant party, cherished such schemes. He had + never sought to cast suspicion on the Prince himself on account of those + schemes. On the contrary, he had not even formally opposed them. What he + wished had always been that such projects should be discussed formally, + legally, and above board. After the lamentable murder of the late Prince + he had himself recommended to the authorities of some of the cities that + the transaction for bestowing the sovereignty of Holland upon William, + interrupted by his death, "should be completed in favour of Prince Maurice + in despite of the Spaniard." Recently he had requested Grotius to look up + the documents deposited in Rotterdam belonging to this affair, in order + that they might be consulted. + </p> + <p> + He was asked whether according to Buzenval, the former French ambassador, + Prince Maurice had not declared he would rather fling himself from the top + of the Hague tower than accept the sovereignty. Barneveld replied that the + Prince according to the same authority had added "under the conditions + which had been imposed upon his father;" a clause which considerably + modified the self-denying statement. It was desirable therefore to search + the acts for the limitations annexed to the sovereignty. + </p> + <p> + Three years long there had been indications from various sources that a + party wished to change the form of government. He had not heard nor ever + intimated that the Prince suggested such intrigues. In anonymous pamphlets + and common street and tavern conversations the Contra-Remonstrants were + described by those of their own persuasion as "Prince's Beggars" and the + like. He had received from foreign countries information worthy of + attention, that it was the design of the Contra-Remonstrants to raise the + Prince to the sovereignty. He had therefore in 1616 brought the matter + before the nobles and cities in a communication setting forth to the best + of his recollection that under these religious disputes something else was + intended. He had desired ripe conclusions on the matter, such as should + most conduce to the service of the country. This had been in good faith + both to the Prince and the Provinces, in order that, should a change in + the government be thought desirable, proper and peaceful means might be + employed to bring it about. He had never had any other intention than to + sound the inclinations of those with whom he spoke, and he had many times + since that period, by word of mouth and in writing, so lately as the month + of April last assured the Prince that he had ever been his sincere and + faithful servant and meant to remain so to the end of his life, desiring + therefore that he would explain to him his wishes and intentions. + </p> + <p> + Subsequently he had publicly proposed in full Assembly of Holland that the + States should ripely deliberate and roundly declare if they were + discontented with the form of government, and if so, what change they + would desire. He had assured their Mightinesses that they might rely upon + him to assist in carrying out their intentions whatever they might be. He + had inferred however from the Prince's intimations, when he had broached + the subject to him in 1617, that he was not inclined towards these + supposed projects, and had heard that opinion distinctly expressed from + the mouth of Count William. + </p> + <p> + That the Contra-Remonstrants secretly entertained these schemes, he had + been advised from many quarters, at home and abroad. In the year 1618 he + had received information to that effect from France. Certain confidential + counsellors of the Prince had been with him recently to confer on the + subject. He had told them that, if his Excellency chose to speak to him in + regard to it, would listen to his reasoning about it, both as regarded the + interests of the country and the Prince himself, and then should desire + him to propose and advocate it before the Assembly, he would do so with + earnestness, zeal, and affection. He had desired however that, in case the + attempt failed, the Prince would allow him to be relieved from service and + to leave the country. What he wished from the bottom of his heart was that + his Excellency would plainly discover to him the exact nature of his + sentiments in regard to the business. + </p> + <p> + He fully admitted receiving a secret letter from Ambassador Langerac, + apprising him that a man of quality in France had information of the + intention of the Contra-Remonstrants throughout the Provinces, should they + come into power, to raise Prince Maurice to the sovereignty. He had + communicated on the subject with Grotius and other deputies in order that, + if this should prove to be the general inclination, the affair might be + handled according to law, without confusion or disorder. This, he said, + would be serving both the country and the Prince most judiciously. + </p> + <p> + He was asked why he had not communicated directly with Maurice. He replied + that he had already seen how unwillingly the Prince heard him allude to + the subject, and that moreover there was another clause in the letter of + different meaning, and in his view worthy of grave consideration by the + States. + </p> + <p> + No question was asked him as to this clause, but we have seen that it + referred to the communication by du Agean to Langerac of a scheme for + bestowing the sovereignty of the Provinces on the King of France. The + reader will also recollect that Barneveld had advised the Ambassador to + communicate the whole intelligence to the Prince himself. + </p> + <p> + Barneveld proceeded to inform the judges that he had never said a word to + cast suspicion upon the Prince, but had been actuated solely by the desire + to find out the inclination of the States. The communications which he had + made on the subject were neither for discrediting the Prince nor for + counteracting the schemes for his advancement. On the contrary, he had + conferred with deputies from great cities like Dordtrecht, Enkhuyzen, and + Amsterdam, most devoted to the Contra-Remonstrant party, and had told them + that, if they chose to propose the subject themselves, he would conduct + himself to the best of his abilities in accordance with the wishes of the + Prince. + </p> + <p> + It would seem almost impossible for a statesman placed in Barneveld's + position to bear himself with more perfect loyalty both to the country and + to the Stadholder. His duty was to maintain the constitution and laws so + long as they remained unchanged. Should it appear that the States, which + legally represented the country, found the constitution defective, he was + ready to aid in its amendment by fair public and legal methods. + </p> + <p> + If Maurice wished to propose himself openly as a candidate for the + sovereignty, which had a generation before been conferred upon his father, + Barneveld would not only acquiesce in the scheme, but propose it. + </p> + <p> + Should it fail, he claimed the light to lay down all his offices and go + into exile. + </p> + <p> + He had never said that the Prince was intriguing for, or even desired, the + sovereignty. That the project existed among the party most opposed to + himself, he had sufficient proof. To the leaders of that party therefore + he suggested that the subject should be publicly discussed, guaranteeing + freedom of debate and his loyal support so far as lay within his power. + </p> + <p> + This was his answer to the accusation that he had meanly, secretly, and + falsely circulated statements that the Prince was aspiring to the + sovereignty. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + [Great pains were taken, in the course of the interrogatories, to + elicit proof that the Advocate had concealed important diplomatic + information from the Prince. He was asked why, in his secret + instructions to Ambassador Langerac, he ordered him by an express + article to be very cautious about making communications to the + Prince. Searching questions were put in regard to these secret + instructions, which I have read in the Archives, and a copy of which + now lies before me. They are in the form of questions, some of them + almost puerile ones, addressed to Barneveld by the Ambassador then + just departing on his mission to France in 1614, with the answers + written in the margin by the Advocate. The following is all that + has reference to the Prince: + "Of what matters may I ordinarily write to his Excellency?" + Answer—"Of all great and important matters." + It was difficult to find much that was treasonable in that.] +</pre> + <p> + Among the heterogeneous articles of accusation he was asked why he had + given no attention to those who had so, frequently proposed the formation + of the West India Company. + </p> + <p> + He replied that it had from old time been the opinion of the States of + Holland, and always his own, that special and private licenses for + traffic, navigation, and foreign commerce, were prejudicial to the welfare + of the land. He had always been most earnestly opposed to them, detesting + monopolies which interfered with that free trade and navigation which + should be common to all mankind. He had taken great pains however in the + years 1596 and 1597 to study the nature of the navigation and trade to the + East Indies in regard to the nations to be dealt with in those regions, + the nature of the wares bought and sold there, the opposition to be + encountered from the Spaniards and Portuguese against the commerce of the + Netherlanders, and the necessity of equipping vessels both for traffic and + defence, and had come to the conclusion that these matters could best be + directed by a general company. He explained in detail the manner in which + he had procured the blending of all the isolated chambers into one great + East India Corporation, the enormous pains which it had cost him to bring + it about, and the great commercial and national success which had been the + result. The Admiral of Aragon, when a prisoner after the battle of + Nieuwpoort, had told him, he said, that the union of these petty + corporations into one great whole had been as disastrous a blow to the + kingdoms of Spain and Portugal as the Union of the Provinces at Utrecht + had been. In regard to the West India Company, its sole object, so far as + he could comprehend it, had been to equip armed vessels, not for trade but + to capture and plunder Spanish merchantmen and silver fleets in the West + Indies and South America. This was an advantageous war measure which he + had favoured while the war lasted. It was in no sense a commercial scheme + however, and when the Truce had been made—the company not having + come into existence—he failed to comprehend how its formation could + be profitable for the Netherlanders. On the contrary it would expressly + invite or irritate the Spaniards into a resumption of the war, an object + which in his humble opinion was not at all desirable. + </p> + <p> + Certainly these ideas were not especially reprehensible, but had they been + as shallow and despicable as they seem to us enlightened, it is passing + strange that they should have furnished matter for a criminal prosecution. + </p> + <p> + It was doubtless a disappointment for the promoters of the company, the + chief of whom was a bankrupt, to fail in obtaining their charter, but it + was scarcely high-treason to oppose it. There is no doubt however that the + disapprobation with which Barneveld regarded the West India Company, the + seat of which was at Amsterdam, was a leading cause of the deadly + hostility entertained for him by the great commercial metropolis. + </p> + <p> + It was bad enough for the Advocate to oppose unconditional predestination + and the damnation of infants, but to frustrate a magnificent system of + privateering on the Spaniards in time of truce was an unpardonable crime. + </p> + <p> + The patience with which the venerable statesman submitted to the taunts, + ignorant and insolent cross-questionings, and noisy interruptions of his + judges, was not less remarkable than the tenacity of memory which enabled + him thus day after day, alone, unaided by books, manuscripts, or friendly + counsel, to reconstruct the record of forty years, and to expound the laws + of the land by an array of authorities, instances, and illustrations in a + manner that would be deemed masterly by one who had all the resources of + libraries, documents, witnesses, and secretaries at command. + </p> + <p> + Only when insidious questions were put tending to impute to him + corruption, venality, and treacherous correspondence with the enemy—for + they never once dared formally to accuse him of treason—did that + almost superhuman patience desert him. + </p> + <p> + He was questioned as to certain payments made by him to a certain van der + Vecken in Spanish coin. He replied briefly at first that his money + transactions with that man of business extended over a period of twenty or + thirty years, and amounted to many hundred thousands of florins, growing + out of purchases and sales of lands, agricultural enterprises on his + estates, moneys derived from his professional or official business and the + like. It was impossible for him to remember the details of every especial + money payment that might have occurred between them. + </p> + <p> + Then suddenly breaking forth into a storm of indignation; he could mark + from these questions, he said, that his enemies, not satisfied with having + wounded his heart with their falsehoods, vile forgeries, and + honour-robbing libels, were determined to break it. This he prayed that + God Almighty might avert and righteously judge between him and them. + </p> + <p> + It was plain that among other things they were alluding to the stale and + senseless story of the sledge filled with baskets of coin sent by the + Spanish envoys on their departure from the Hague, on conclusion of the + Truce, to defray expenses incurred by them for board and lodging of + servants, forage of horses, and the like-which had accidentally stopped at + Barneveld's door and was forthwith sent on to John Spronssen, + superintendent of such affairs. Passing over this wanton bit of calumny + with disgust, he solemnly asserted that he had never at any period of his + life received one penny nor the value of one penny from the King of Spain, + the Archdukes, Spinola, or any other person connected with the enemy, + saving only the presents publicly and mutually conferred according to + invariable custom by the high contracting parties, upon the respective + negotiators at conclusion of the Treaty of Truce. Even these gifts + Barneveld had moved his colleagues not to accept, but proposed that they + should all be paid into the public treasury. He had been overruled, he + said, but that any dispassionate man of tolerable intelligence could + imagine him, whose whole life had been a perpetual offence to Spain, to be + in suspicious relations with that power seemed to him impossible. The most + intense party spirit, yea, envy itself, must confess that he had been + among the foremost to take up arms for his country's liberties, and had + through life never faltered in their defence. And once more in that mean + chamber, and before a row of personal enemies calling themselves judges, + he burst into an eloquent and most justifiable sketch of the career of one + whom there was none else to justify and so many to assail. + </p> + <p> + From his youth, he said, he had made himself by his honourable and + patriotic deeds hopelessly irreconcilable with the Spaniards. He was one + of the advocates practising in the Supreme Court of Holland, who in the + very teeth of the Duke of Alva had proclaimed him a tyrant and had sworn + obedience to the Prince of Orange as the lawful governor of the land. He + was one of those who in the same year had promoted and attended private + gatherings for the advancement of the Reformed religion. He had helped to + levy, and had contributed to, funds for the national defence in the early + days of the revolt. These were things which led directly to the Council of + Blood and the gibbet. He had borne arms himself on various bloody fields + and had been perpetually a deputy to the rebel camps. He had been the + original mover of the Treaty of Union which was concluded between the + Provinces at Utrecht. He had been the first to propose and to draw up the + declaration of Netherland independence and the abjuration of the King of + Spain. He had been one of those who had drawn and passed the Act + establishing the late Prince of Orange as stadholder. Of the sixty signers + of these memorable declarations none were now living save himself and two + others. When the Prince had been assassinated, he had done his best to + secure for his son Maurice the sovereign position of which murder had so + suddenly deprived the father. He had been member of the memorable + embassies to France and England by which invaluable support for the + struggling Provinces had been obtained. + </p> + <p> + And thus he rapidly sketched the history of the great war of independence + in which he had ever been conspicuously employed on the patriotic side. + When the late King of France at the close of the century had made peace + with Spain, he had been sent as special ambassador to that monarch, and + had prevailed on him, notwithstanding his treaty with the enemy, to + continue his secret alliance with the States and to promise them a large + subsidy, pledges which had been sacredly fulfilled. It was on that + occasion that Henry, who was his debtor for past services, professional, + official, and perfectly legitimate, had agreed, when his finances should + be in better condition, to discharge his obligations; over and above the + customary diplomatic present which he received publicly in common with his + colleague Admiral Nassau. This promise, fulfilled a dozen years later, had + been one of the senseless charges of corruption brought against him. He + had been one of the negotiators of the Truce in which Spain had been + compelled to treat with her revolted provinces as with free states and her + equals. He had promoted the union of the Protestant princes and their + alliance with France and the United States in opposition to the designs of + Spain and the League. He had organized and directed the policy by which + the forces of England, France, and Protestant Germany had possessed + themselves of the debateable land. He had resisted every scheme by which + it was hoped to force the States from their hold of those important + citadels. He had been one of the foremost promoters of the East India + Company, an organization which the Spaniards confessed had been as + damaging to them as the Union of the Provinces itself had been. + </p> + <p> + The idiotic and circumstantial statements, that he had conducted + Burgomaster van Berk through a secret staircase of his house into his + private study for the purpose of informing him that the only way for the + States to get out of the war was to submit themselves once more to their + old masters, so often forced upon him by the judges, he contradicted with + disdain and disgust. He had ever abhorred and dreaded, he said, the House + of Spain, Austria, and Burgundy. His life had passed in open hostility to + that house, as was known to all mankind. His mere personal interests, + apart from higher considerations, would make an approach to the former + sovereign impossible, for besides the deeds he had already alluded to, he + had committed at least twelve distinct and separate acts, each one of + which would be held high-treason by the House of Austria, and he had + learned from childhood that these are things which monarchs never forget. + The tales of van Berk were those of a personal enemy, falsehoods scarcely + worth contradicting. + </p> + <p> + He was grossly and enormously aggrieved by the illegal constitution of the + commission. He had protested and continued to protest against it. If that + protest were unheeded, he claimed at least that those men should be + excluded from the board and the right to sit in judgment upon his person + and his deeds who had proved themselves by words and works to be his + capital enemies, of which fact he could produce irrefragable evidence. He + claimed that the Supreme Court of Holland, or the High Council, or both + together, should decide upon that point. He held as his personal enemies, + he said, all those who had declared that he, before or since the Truce + down to the day of his arrest, had held correspondence with the Spaniards, + the Archdukes, the Marquis Spinola, or any one on that side, had received + money, money value, or promises of money from them, and in consequence had + done or omitted to do anything whatever. He denounced such tales as + notorious, shameful, and villainous falsehoods, the utterers and + circulators of them as wilful liars, and this he was ready to maintain in + every appropriate way for the vindication of the truth and his own honour. + He declared solemnly before God Almighty to the States-General and to the + States of Holland that his course in the religious matter had been solely + directed to the strengthening of the Reformed religion and to the + political security of the provinces and cities. He had simply desired + that, in the awful and mysterious matter of predestination, the + consciences of many preachers and many thousands of good citizens might be + placed in tranquillity, with moderate and Christian limitations against + all excesses. + </p> + <p> + From all these reasons, he said, the commissioners, the States-General, + the Prince, and every man in the land could clearly see, and were bound to + see, that he was the same man now that he was at the beginning of the war, + had ever been, and with God's help should ever remain. + </p> + <p> + The proceedings were kept secret from the public and, as a matter of + course, there had been conflicting rumours from day to day as to the + probable result of these great state trials. In general however it was + thought that the prisoner would be acquitted of the graver charges, or + that at most he would be permanently displaced from all office and + declared incapable thenceforth to serve the State. The triumph of the + Contra-Remonstrants since the Stadholder had placed himself at the head of + them, and the complete metamorphosis of the city governments even in the + strongholds of the Arminian party seemed to render the permanent political + disgrace of the Advocate almost a matter of certainty. + </p> + <p> + The first step that gave rise to a belief that he might be perhaps more + severely dealt with than had been anticipated was the proclamation by the + States-General of a public fast and humiliation for the 17th April. + </p> + <p> + In this document it was announced that "Church and State—during + several years past having been brought into great danger of utter + destruction through certain persons in furtherance of their ambitious + designs—had been saved by the convocation of a National Synod; that + a lawful sentence was soon to be expected upon those who had been + disturbing the Commonwealth; that through this sentence general + tranquillity would probably be restored; and that men were now to thank + God for this result, and pray to Him that He would bring the wicked + counsels and stratagems of the enemy against these Provinces to naught." + </p> + <p> + All the prisoners were asked if they too would like in their chambers of + bondage to participate in the solemnity, although the motive for the + fasting and prayer was not mentioned to them. Each of them in his separate + prison room, of course without communication together, selected the 7th + Psalm and sang it with his servant and door-keeper. + </p> + <p> + From the date of this fast-day Barneveld looked upon the result of his + trial as likely to be serious. + </p> + <p> + Many clergymen refused or objected to comply with the terms of this + declaration. Others conformed with it greedily, and preached lengthy + thanksgiving sermons, giving praise to God that, He had confounded the + devices of the ambitious and saved the country from the "blood bath" which + they had been preparing for it. + </p> + <p> + The friends of Barneveld became alarmed at the sinister language of this + proclamation, in which for the first time allusions had been made to a + forthcoming sentence against the accused. + </p> + <p> + Especially the staunch and indefatigable du Maurier at once addressed + himself again to the States-General. De Boississe had returned to France, + having found that the government of a country torn, weakened, and rendered + almost impotent by its own internecine factions, was not likely to exert + any very potent influence on the fate of the illustrious prisoner. + </p> + <p> + The States had given him to understand that they were wearied with his + perpetual appeals, intercessions, and sermons in behalf of mercy. They + made him feel in short that Lewis XIII. and Henry IV. were two entirely + different personages. + </p> + <p> + Du Maurier however obtained a hearing before the Assembly on the 1st May, + where he made a powerful and manly speech in presence of the Prince, + urging that the prisoners ought to be discharged unless they could be + convicted of treason, and that the States ought to show as much deference + to his sovereign as they had always done to Elizabeth of England. He made + a personal appeal to Prince Maurice, urging upon him how much it would + redound to his glory if he should now in generous and princely fashion + step forward in behalf of those by whom he deemed himself to have been + personally offended. + </p> + <p> + His speech fell upon ears hardened against such eloquence and produced no + effect. + </p> + <p> + Meantime the family of Barneveld, not yet reduced to despair, chose to + take a less gloomy view of the proclamation. Relying on the innocence of + the great statesman, whose aims, in their firm belief, had ever been for + the welfare and glory of his fatherland, and in whose heart there had + never been kindled one spark of treason, they bravely expected his + triumphant release from his long and, as they deemed it, his iniquitous + imprisonment. + </p> + <p> + On this very 1st of May, in accordance with ancient custom, a may-pole was + erected on the Voorhout before the mansion of the captive statesman, and + wreaths of spring flowers and garlands of evergreen decorated the walls + within which were such braised and bleeding hearts. These demonstrations + of a noble hypocrisy, if such it were, excited the wrath, not the + compassion, of the Stadholder, who thought that the aged matron and her + sons and daughters, who dwelt in that house of mourning, should rather + have sat in sackcloth with ashes on their heads than indulge in these + insolent marks of hope and joyful expectation. + </p> + <p> + It is certain however that Count William Lewis, who, although most staunch + on the Contra-Remonstrant side, had a veneration for the Advocate and + desired warmly to save him, made a last and strenuous effort for that + purpose. + </p> + <p> + It was believed then, and it seems almost certain, that, if the friends of + the Advocate had been willing to implore pardon for him, the sentence + would have been remitted or commuted. Their application would have been + successful, for through it his guilt would seem to be acknowledged. + </p> + <p> + Count William sent for the Fiscal Duyck. He asked him if there were no + means of saving the life of a man who was so old and had done the country + so much service. After long deliberation, it was decided that Prince + Maurice should be approached on the subject. Duyck wished that the Count + himself would speak with his cousin, but was convinced by his reasoning + that it would be better that the Fiscal should do it. Duyck had a long + interview accordingly with Maurice, which was followed by a very secret + one between them both and Count William. The three were locked up + together, three hours long, in the Prince's private cabinet. It was then + decided that Count William should go, as if of his own accord, to the + Princess-Dowager Louise, and induce her to send for some one of + Barneveld's children and urge that the family should ask pardon for him. + She asked if this was done with the knowledge of the Prince of Orange, or + whether he would not take it amiss. The Count eluded the question, but + implored her to follow his advice. + </p> + <p> + The result was an interview between the Princess and Madame de Groeneveld, + wife of the eldest son. That lady was besought to apply, with the rest of + the Advocate's children, for pardon to the Lords States, but to act as if + it were done of her own impulse, and to keep their interview profoundly + secret. + </p> + <p> + Madame de Groeneveld took time to consult the other members of the family + and some friends. Soon afterwards she came again to the Princess, and + informed her that she had spoken with the other children, and that they + could not agree to the suggestion. "They would not move one step in it—no, + not if it should cost him his head." + </p> + <p> + The Princess reported the result of this interview to Count William, at + which both were so distressed that they determined to leave the Hague. + </p> + <p> + There is something almost superhuman in the sternness of this stoicism. + Yet it lay in the proud and highly tempered character of the + Netherlanders. There can be no doubt that the Advocate would have + expressly dictated this proceeding if he had been consulted. It was + precisely the course adopted by himself. Death rather than life with a + false acknowledgment of guilt and therefore with disgrace. The loss of his + honour would have been an infinitely greater triumph to his enemies than + the loss of his head. + </p> + <p> + There was no delay in drawing up the sentence. Previously to this + interview with the widow of William the Silent, the family of the Advocate + had presented to the judges three separate documents, rather in the way of + arguments than petitions, undertaking to prove by elaborate reasoning and + citations of precedents and texts of the civil law that the proceedings + against him were wholly illegal, and that he was innocent of every crime. + </p> + <p> + No notice had been taken of those appeals. + </p> + <p> + Upon the questions and answers as already set forth the sentence soon + followed, and it may be as well that the reader should be aware, at this + point in the narrative, of the substance of that sentence so soon to be + pronounced. There had been no indictment, no specification of crime. There + had been no testimony or evidence. There had been no argument for the + prosecution or the defence. There had been no trial whatever. The prisoner + was convicted on a set of questions to which he had put in satisfactory + replies. He was sentenced on a preamble. The sentence was a string of + vague generalities, intolerably long, and as tangled as the + interrogatories. His proceedings during a long career had on the whole + tended to something called a "blood bath"—but the blood bath had + never occurred. + </p> + <p> + With an effrontery which did not lack ingenuity, Barneveld's defence was + called by the commissioners his confession, and was formally registered as + such in the process and the sentence; while the fact that he had not been + stretched upon the rack during his trial, nor kept in chains for the eight + months of his imprisonment, were complacently mentioned as proofs of + exceptionable indulgence. + </p> + <p> + "Whereas the prisoner John of Barneveld," said the sentence, "without + being put to the torture and without fetters of iron, has confessed . . . + to having perturbed religion, greatly afflicted the Church of God, and + carried into practice exorbitant and pernicious maxims of State . . . + inculcating by himself and accomplices that each province had the right to + regulate religious affairs within its own territory, and that other + provinces were not to concern themselves therewith"—therefore and + for many other reasons he merited punishment. + </p> + <p> + He had instigated a protest by vote of three provinces against the + National Synod. He had despised the salutary advice of many princes and + notable personages. He had obtained from the King of Great Britain certain + letters furthering his own opinions, the drafts of which he had himself + suggested, and corrected and sent over to the States' ambassador in + London, and when written out, signed, and addressed by the King to the + States-General, had delivered them without stating how they had been + procured. + </p> + <p> + Afterwards he had attempted to get other letters of a similar nature from + the King, and not succeeding had defamed his Majesty as being a cause of + the troubles in the Provinces. He had permitted unsound theologians to be + appointed to church offices, and had employed such functionaries in + political affairs as were most likely to be the instruments of his own + purposes. He had not prevented vigorous decrees from being enforced in + several places against those of the true religion. He had made them odious + by calling them Puritans, foreigners, and "Flanderizers," although the + United Provinces had solemnly pledged to each other their lives, fortunes, + and blood by various conventions, to some of which the prisoner was + himself a party, to maintain the Reformed, Evangelical, religion only, and + to, suffer no change in it to be made for evermore. + </p> + <p> + In order to carry out his design and perturb the political state of the + Provinces he had drawn up and caused to be enacted the Sharp Resolution of + 4th August 1617. He had thus nullified the ordinary course of justice. He + had stimulated the magistrates to disobedience, and advised them to + strengthen themselves with freshly enlisted military companies. He had + suggested new-fangled oaths for the soldiers, authorizing them to refuse + obedience to the States-General and his Excellency. He had especially + stimulated the proceedings at Utrecht. When it was understood that the + Prince was to pass through Utrecht, the States of that province not + without the prisoner's knowledge had addressed a letter to his Excellency, + requesting him not to pass through their city. He had written a letter to + Ledenberg suggesting that good watch should be held at the town gates and + up and down the river Lek. He had desired that Ledenberg having read that + letter should burn it. He had interfered with the cashiering of the + mercenaries at Utrecht. He had said that such cashiering without the + consent of the States of that province was an act of force which would + justify resistance by force. + </p> + <p> + Although those States had sent commissioners to concert measures with the + Prince for that purpose, he had advised them to conceal their instructions + until his own plan for the disbandment could be carried out. At a secret + meeting in the house of Tresel, clerk of the States-General, between + Grotius, Hoogerbeets, and other accomplices, it was decided that this + advice should be taken. Report accordingly was made to the prisoner. He + had advised them to continue in their opposition to the National Synod. + </p> + <p> + He had sought to calumniate and blacken his Excellency by saying that he + aspired to the sovereignty of the Provinces. He had received intelligence + on that subject from abroad in ciphered letters. + </p> + <p> + He had of his own accord rejected a certain proposed, notable alliance of + the utmost importance to this Republic. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + [This refers, I think without doubt, to the conversation between + King James and Caron at the end of the year 1815.] +</pre> + <p> + He had received from foreign potentates various large sums of money and + other presents. + </p> + <p> + All "these proceedings tended to put the city of Utrecht into a + blood-bath, and likewise to bring the whole country, and the person of his + Excellency into the uttermost danger." + </p> + <p> + This is the substance of the sentence, amplified by repetitions and + exasperating tautology into thirty or forty pages. + </p> + <p> + It will have been perceived by our analysis of Barneveld's answers to the + commissioners that all the graver charges which he was now said to have + confessed had been indignantly denied by him or triumphantly justified. + </p> + <p> + It will also be observed that he was condemned for no categorical crime—lese-majesty, + treason, or rebellion. The commissioners never ventured to assert that the + States-General were sovereign, or that the central government had a right + to prescribe a religious formulary for all the United Provinces. They + never dared to say that the prisoner had been in communication with the + enemy or had received bribes from him. + </p> + <p> + Of insinuation and implication there was much, of assertion very little, + of demonstration nothing whatever. + </p> + <p> + But supposing that all the charges had been admitted or proved, what + course would naturally be taken in consequence? How was a statesman who + adhered to the political, constitutional, and religious opinions on which + he had acted, with the general acquiescence, during a career of more than + forty years, but which were said to be no longer in accordance with public + opinion, to be dealt with? Would the commissioners request him to retire + honourably from the high functions which he had over and over again + offered to resign? Would they consider that, having fairly impeached and + found him guilty of disturbing the public peace by continuing to act on + his well-known legal theories, they might deprive him summarily of power + and declare him incapable of holding office again? + </p> + <p> + The conclusion of the commissioners was somewhat more severe than either + of these measures. Their long rambling preamble ended with these decisive + words: + </p> + <p> + "Therefore the judges, in name of the Lords States-General, condemn the + prisoner to be taken to the Binnenhof, there to be executed with the sword + that death may follow, and they declare all his property confiscated." + </p> + <p> + The execution was to take place so soon as the sentence had been read to + the prisoner. + </p> + <p> + After the 1st of May Barneveld had not appeared before his judges. He had + been examined in all about sixty times. + </p> + <p> + In the beginning of May his servant became impatient. "You must not be + impatient," said his master. "The time seems much longer because we get no + news now from the outside. But the end will soon come. This delay cannot + last for ever." + </p> + <p> + Intimation reached him on Saturday the 11th May that the sentence was + ready and would soon be pronounced. + </p> + <p> + "It is a bitter folk," said Barneveld as he went to bed. "I have nothing + good to expect of them." Next day was occupied in sewing up and concealing + his papers, including a long account of his examination, with the + questions and answers, in his Spanish arm-chair. Next day van der Meulen + said to the servant, "I will bet you a hundred florins that you'll not be + here next Thursday." + </p> + <p> + The faithful John was delighted, not dreaming of the impending result. + </p> + <p> + It was Sunday afternoon, 12th May, and about half past five o'clock. + Barneveld sat in his prison chamber, occupied as usual in writing, + reviewing the history of the past, and doing his best to reduce into + something like order the rambling and miscellaneous interrogatories, out + of which his trial had been concocted, while the points dwelt in his + memory, and to draw up a concluding argument in his own defence. Work + which according to any equitable, reasonable, or even decent procedure + should have been entrusted to the first lawyers of the country—preparing + the case upon the law and the facts with the documents before them, with + the power of cross-questioning witnesses and sifting evidence, and + enlightened by constant conferences with the illustrious prisoner himself—came + entirely upon his own shoulders, enfeebled as he was by age, physical + illness, and by the exhaustion of along imprisonment. Without books, notes + of evidence, or even copies of the charges of which he stood accused, he + was obliged to draw up his counter-arguments against the impeachment and + then by aid of a faithful valet to conceal his manuscript behind the + tapestry of the chamber, or cause them to be sewed up in the lining of his + easy-chair, lest they should be taken from him by order of the judges who + sat in the chamber below. + </p> + <p> + While he was thus occupied in preparations for his next encounter with the + tribunal, the door opened, and three gentlemen entered. Two were the + prosecuting officers of the government, Fiscal Sylla and Fiscal van + Leeuwen. The other was the provost-marshal, Carel de Nijs. The servant was + directed to leave the room. + </p> + <p> + Barneveld had stepped into his dressing-room on hearing footsteps, but + came out again with his long furred gown about him as the three entered. + He greeted them courteously and remained standing, with his hands placed + on the back of his chair and with one knee resting carelessly against the + arm of it. Van Leeuwen asked him if he would not rather be seated, as they + brought a communication from the judges. He answered in the negative. Von + Leeuwen then informed him that he was summoned to appear before the judges + the next morning to hear his sentence of death. + </p> + <p> + "The sentence of death!" he exclaimed, without in the least changing his + position; "the sentence of death! the sentence of death!" saying the words + over thrice, with an air of astonishment rather than of horror. "I never + expected that! I thought they were going to hear my defence again. I had + intended to make some change in my previous statements, having set some + things down when beside myself with choler." + </p> + <p> + He then made reference to his long services. Van Leeuwen expressed himself + as well acquainted with them. "He was sorry," he said, "that his lordship + took this message ill of him." + </p> + <p> + "I do not take it ill of you," said Barneveld, "but let them," meaning the + judges, "see how they will answer it before God. Are they thus to deal + with a true patriot? Let me have pen, ink, and paper, that for the last + time I may write farewell to my wife." + </p> + <p> + "I will go ask permission of the judges," said van Leenwen, "and I cannot + think that my lord's request will be refused." + </p> + <p> + While van Leeuwen was absent, the Advocate exclaimed, looking at the other + legal officer: + </p> + <p> + "Oh, Sylla, Sylla, if your father could only have seen to what uses they + would put you!" + </p> + <p> + Sylla was silent. + </p> + <p> + Permission to write the letter was soon received from de Voogt, president + of the commission. Pen, ink, and paper were brought, and the prisoner + calmly sat down to write, without the slightest trace of discomposure upon + his countenance or in any of his movements. + </p> + <p> + While he was writing, Sylla said with some authority, "Beware, my lord, + what you write, lest you put down something which may furnish cause for + not delivering the letter." + </p> + <p> + Barneveld paused in his writing, took the glasses from his eyes, and + looked Sylla in the face. + </p> + <p> + "Well, Sylla," he said very calmly, "will you in these my last moments lay + down the law to me as to what I shall write to my wife?" + </p> + <p> + He then added with a half-smile, "Well, what is expected of me?" + </p> + <p> + "We have no commission whatever to lay down the law," said van Leeuwen. + "Your worship will write whatever you like." + </p> + <p> + While he was writing, Anthony Walaeus came in, a preacher and professor of + Middelburg, a deputy to the Synod of Dordtrecht, a learned and amiable + man, sent by the States-General to minister to the prisoner on this + supreme occasion; and not unworthy to be thus selected. + </p> + <p> + The Advocate, not knowing him, asked him why he came. + </p> + <p> + "I am not here without commission," said the clergyman. "I come to console + my lord in his tribulation." + </p> + <p> + "I am a man," said Barneveld; "have come to my present age, and I know how + to console myself. I must write, and have now other things to do." + </p> + <p> + The preacher said that he would withdraw and return when his worship was + at leisure. + </p> + <p> + "Do as you like," said the Advocate, calmly going on with his writing. + </p> + <p> + When the letter was finished, it was sent to the judges for their + inspection, by whom it was at once forwarded to the family mansion in the + Voorhout, hardly a stone's throw from the prison chamber. + </p> + <p> + Thus it ran: + </p> + <p> + "Very dearly beloved wife, children, sons-in-law, and grandchildren, I + greet you altogether most affectionately. I receive at this moment the + very heavy and sorrowful tidings that I, an old man, for all my services + done well and faithfully to the Fatherland for so many years (after having + performed all respectful and friendly offices to his Excellency the Prince + with upright affection so far as my official duty and vocation would + permit, shown friendship to many people of all sorts, and wittingly + injured no man), must prepare myself to die to-morrow. + </p> + <p> + "I console myself in God the Lord, who knows all hearts, and who will + judge all men. I beg you all together to do the same. I have steadily and + faithfully served My Lords the States of Holland and their nobles and + cities. To the States of Utrecht as sovereigns of my own Fatherland I have + imparted at their request upright and faithful counsel, in order to save + them from tumults of the populace, and from the bloodshed with which they + had so long been threatened. I had the same views for the cities of + Holland in order that every one might be protected and no one injured. + </p> + <p> + "Live together in love and peace. Pray for me to Almighty God, who will + graciously hold us all in His holy keeping. + </p> + <p> + "From my chamber of sorrow, the 12th May 1619. + </p> + <p> + "Your very dear husband, father, father-in-law, and grandfather, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "JOHN OF BARNEVELD." +</pre> + <p> + It was thought strange that the judges should permit so simple and clear a + statement, an argument in itself, to be forwarded. The theory of his + condemnation was to rest before the public on his confessions of guilt, + and here in the instant of learning the nature of the sentence in a few + hours to be pronounced upon him he had in a few telling periods declared + his entire innocence. Nevertheless the letter had been sent at once to its + address. + </p> + <p> + So soon as this sad business had been disposed of, Anthony Walaeus + returned. The Advocate apologized to the preacher for his somewhat abrupt + greeting on his first appearance. He was much occupied and did not know + him, he said, although he had often heard of him. He begged him, as well + as the provost-marshal, to join him at supper, which was soon brought. + </p> + <p> + Barneveld ate with his usual appetite, conversed cheerfully on various + topics, and pledged the health of each of his guests in a glass of beer. + Contrary to his wont he drank at that repast no wine. After supper he went + out into the little ante-chamber and called his servant, asking him how he + had been faring. Now John Franken had just heard with grief unspeakable + the melancholy news of his master's condemnation from two soldiers of the + guard, who had been sent by the judges to keep additional watch over the + prisoner. He was however as great a stoic as his master, and with no + outward and superfluous manifestations of woe had simply implored the + captain-at-arms, van der Meulen, to intercede with the judges that he + might be allowed to stay with his lord to the last. Meantime he had been + expressly informed that he was to say nothing to the Advocate in secret, + and that his master was not to speak to him in a low tone nor whisper in + his ear. + </p> + <p> + When the Advocate came out into the ante-chamber and looking over his + shoulder saw the two soldiers he at once lowered his voice. + </p> + <p> + "Hush-speak low," he whispered; "this is too cruel." John then informed + him of van der Meulen's orders, and that the soldiers had also been + instructed to look to it sharply that no word was exchanged between master + and man except in a loud voice. + </p> + <p> + "Is it possible," said the Advocate, "that so close an inspection is held + over me in these last hours? Can I not speak a word or two in freedom? + This is a needless mark of disrespect." + </p> + <p> + The soldiers begged him not to take their conduct amiss as they were + obliged strictly to obey orders. + </p> + <p> + He returned to his chamber, sat down in his chair, and begged Walaeus to + go on his behalf to Prince Maurice. + </p> + <p> + "Tell his Excellency," said he, "that I have always served him with + upright affection so far as my office, duties, and principles permitted. + If I, in the discharge of my oath and official functions, have ever done + anything contrary to his views, I hope that he will forgive it, and that + he will hold my children in his gracious favour." + </p> + <p> + It was then ten o'clock. The preacher went downstairs and crossed the + courtyard to the Stadholder's apartments, where he at once gained + admittance. + </p> + <p> + Maurice heard the message with tears in his eyes, assuring Walaeus that he + felt deeply for the Advocate's misfortunes. He had always had much + affection for him, he said, and had often warned him against his mistaken + courses. Two things, however, had always excited his indignation. One was + that Barneveld had accused him of aspiring to sovereignty. The other that + he had placed him in such danger at Utrecht. Yet he forgave him all. As + regarded his sons, so long as they behaved themselves well they might rely + on his favour. + </p> + <p> + As Walaeus was about to leave the apartment, the Prince called him back. + </p> + <p> + "Did he say anything of a pardon?" he asked, with some eagerness. + </p> + <p> + "My Lord," answered the clergyman, "I cannot with truth say that I + understood him to make any allusion to it." + </p> + <p> + Walaeus returned immediately to the prison chamber and made his report of + the interview. He was unwilling however to state the particulars of the + offence which Maurice declared himself to have taken at the acts of the + Advocate. + </p> + <p> + But as the prisoner insisted upon knowing, the clergyman repeated the + whole conversation. + </p> + <p> + "His Excellency has been deceived in regard to the Utrecht business," said + Barneveld, "especially as to one point. But it is true that I had fear and + apprehension that he aspired to the sovereignty or to more authority in + the country. Ever since the year 1600 I have felt this fear and have tried + that these apprehensions might be rightly understood." + </p> + <p> + While Walaeus had been absent, the Reverend Jean la Motte (or Lamotius) + and another clergyman of the Hague had come to the prisoner's apartment. + La Motte could not look upon the Advocate's face without weeping, but the + others were more collected. Conversation now ensued among the four; the + preachers wishing to turn the doomed statesman's thought to the + consolations of religion. + </p> + <p> + But it was characteristic of the old lawyer's frame of mind that even now + he looked at the tragical position in which he found himself from a + constitutional and controversial point of view. He was perfectly calm and + undaunted at the awful fate so suddenly and unexpectedly opened before his + eyes, but he was indignant at what he esteemed the ignorance, injustice, + and stupidity of the sentence to be pronounced against him. + </p> + <p> + "I am ready enough to die," he said to the three clergymen, "but I cannot + comprehend why I am to die. I have done nothing except in obedience to the + laws and privileges of the land and according to my oath, honour, and + conscience." + </p> + <p> + "These judges," he continued, "come in a time when other maxims prevail in + the State than those of my day. They have no right therefore to sit in + judgment upon me." + </p> + <p> + The clergymen replied that the twenty-four judges who had tried the case + were no children and were conscientious men; that it was no small thing to + condemn a man, and that they would have to answer it before the Supreme + Judge of all. + </p> + <p> + "I console myself," he answered, "in the Lord my God, who knows all hearts + and shall judge all men. God is just. + </p> + <p> + "They have not dealt with me," he continued, "as according to law and + justice they were bound to deal. They have taken away from me my own + sovereign lords and masters and deposed them. To them alone I was + responsible. In their place they have put many of my enemies who were + never before in the government, and almost all of whom are young men who + have not seen much or read much. I have seen and read much, and know that + from such examples no good can follow. After my death they will learn for + the first time what governing means." + </p> + <p> + "The twenty-four judges are nearly all of them my enemies. What they have + reproached me with, I have been obliged to hear. I have appealed against + these judges, but it has been of no avail. They have examined me in + piecemeal, not in statesmanlike fashion. The proceedings against me have + been much too hard. I have frequently requested to see the notes of my + examination as it proceeded, and to confer upon it with aid and counsel of + friends, as would be the case in all lands governed by law. The request + was refused. During this long and wearisome affliction and misery I have + not once been allowed to speak to my wife and children. These are indecent + proceedings against a man seventy-two years of age, who has served his + country faithfully for three-and-forty years. I bore arms with the + volunteers at my own charges at the siege of Haarlem and barely escaped + with life." + </p> + <p> + It was not unnatural that the aged statesman's thoughts should revert in + this supreme moment to the heroic scenes in which he had been an actor + almost a half-century before. He could not but think with bitterness of + those long past but never forgotten days when he, with other patriotic + youths, had faced the terrible legions of Alva in defence of the + Fatherland, at a time when the men who were now dooming him to a traitor's + death were unborn, and who, but for his labours, courage, wisdom, and + sacrifices, might have never had a Fatherland to serve, or a judgment-seat + on which to pronounce his condemnation. + </p> + <p> + Not in a spirit of fretfulness, but with disdainful calm, he criticised + and censured the proceedings against himself as a violation of the laws of + the land and of the first principles of justice, discussing them as + lucidly and steadily as if they had been against a third person. + </p> + <p> + The preachers listened, but had nothing to say. They knew not of such + matters, they said, and had no instructions to speak of them. They had + been sent to call him to repentance for his open and hidden sins and to + offer the consolations of religion. + </p> + <p> + "I know that very well," he said, "but I too have something to say + notwithstanding." The conversation then turned upon religious topics, and + the preachers spoke of predestination. + </p> + <p> + "I have never been able to believe in the matter of high predestination," + said the Advocate. "I have left it in the hands of God the Lord. I hold + that a good Christian man must believe that he through God's grace and by + the expiation of his sin through our Redeemer Jesus Christ is predestined + to be saved, and that this belief in his salvation, founded alone on God's + grace and the merits of our Redeemer Jesus Christ, comes to him through + the same grace of God. And if he falls into great sins, his firm hope and + confidence must be that the Lord God will not allow him to continue in + them, but that, through prayer for grace and repentance, he will be + converted from evil and remain in the faith to the end of his life." + </p> + <p> + These feelings, he said, he had expressed fifty-two years before to three + eminent professors of theology in whom he confided, and they had assured + him that he might tranquilly continue in such belief without examining + further. "And this has always been my creed," he said. + </p> + <p> + The preachers replied that faith is a gift of God and not given to all + men, that it must be given out of heaven to a man before he could be + saved. Hereupon they began to dispute, and the Advocate spoke so earnestly + and well that the clergymen were astonished and sat for a time listening + to him in silence. + </p> + <p> + He asked afterwards about the Synod, and was informed that its decrees had + not yet been promulgated, but that the Remonstrants had been condemned. + </p> + <p> + "It is a pity," said he. "One is trying to act on the old Papal system, + but it will never do. Things have gone too far. As to the Synod, if My + Lords the States of Holland had been heeded there would have been first a + provincial synod and then a national one."—"But," he added, looking + the preachers in the face, "had you been more gentle with each other, + matters would not have taken so high a turn. But you have been too fierce + one against the other, too full of bitter party spirit." + </p> + <p> + They replied that it was impossible for them to act against their + conscience and the supreme authority. And then they asked him if there was + nothing that troubled him in, his conscience in the matters for which he + must die; nothing for which he repented and sorrowed, and for which he + would call upon God for mercy. + </p> + <p> + "This I know well," he said, "that I have never willingly done wrong to + any man. People have been ransacking my letters to Caron—confidential + ones written several years ago to an old friend when I was troubled and + seeking for counsel and consolation. It is hard that matter of impeachment + against me to-day should be sought for thus." + </p> + <p> + And then he fell into political discourse again on the subject of the + Waartgelders and the State rights, and the villainous pasquils and libels + that had circulated so long through the country. + </p> + <p> + "I have sometimes spoken hastily, I confess," he said; "but that was when + I was stung by the daily swarm of infamous and loathsome pamphlets, + especially those directed against my sovereign masters the States of + Holland. That I could not bear. Old men cannot well brush such things + aside. All that was directly aimed at me in particular I endeavoured to + overcome with such patience as I could muster. The disunion and mutual + enmity in the country have wounded me to the heart. I have made use of all + means in my power to accommodate matters, to effect with all gentleness a + mutual reconciliation. I have always felt a fear lest the enemy should + make use of our internal dissensions to strike a blow against us. I can + say with perfect truth that ever since the year '77 I have been as + resolutely and unchangeably opposed to the Spaniards and their adherents, + and their pretensions over these Provinces, as any man in the world, no + one excepted, and as ready to sacrifice property and shed my blood in + defence of the Fatherland. I have been so devoted to the service of the + country that I have not been able to take the necessary care of my own + private affairs." + </p> + <p> + So spoke the great statesman in the seclusion of his prison, in the + presence of those clergymen whom he respected, at a supreme moment, when, + if ever, a man might be expected to tell the truth. And his whole life + which belonged to history, and had been passed on the world's stage before + the eyes of two generations of spectators, was a demonstration of the + truth of his words. + </p> + <p> + But Burgomaster van Berk knew better. Had he not informed the twenty-four + commissioners that, twelve years before, the Advocate wished to subject + the country to Spain, and that Spinola had drawn a bill of exchange for + 100,000 ducats as a compensation for his efforts? + </p> + <p> + It was eleven o'clock. Barneveld requested one of the brethren to say an + evening prayer. This was done by La Motte, and they were then requested to + return by three or four o'clock next morning. They had been directed, they + said, to remain with him all night. "That is unnecessary," said the + Advocate, and they retired. + </p> + <p> + His servant then helped his master to undress, and he went to bed as + usual. Taking off his signet-ring, he gave it to John Franken. + </p> + <p> + "For my eldest son," he said. + </p> + <p> + The valet sat down at the head of his bed in order that his master might + speak to him before he slept. But the soldiers ordered him away and + compelled him to sit in a distant part of the room. + </p> + <p> + An hour after midnight, the Advocate having been unable to lose himself, + his servant observed that Isaac, one of the soldiers, was fast asleep. He + begged the other, Tilman Schenk by name, to permit him some private words + with his master. He had probably last messages, he thought, to send to his + wife and children, and the eldest son, M. de Groeneveld, would no doubt + reward him well for it. But the soldier was obstinate in obedience to the + orders of the judges. + </p> + <p> + Barneveld, finding it impossible to sleep, asked his servant to read to + him from the Prayer-book. The soldier called in a clergyman however, + another one named Hugo Bayerus, who had been sent to the prison, and who + now read to him the Consolations of the Sick. As he read, he made + exhortations and expositions, which led to animated discussion, in which + the Advocate expressed himself with so much fervour and eloquence that all + present were astonished, and the preacher sat mute a half-hour long at the + bed-side. + </p> + <p> + "Had there been ten clergymen," said the simple-hearted sentry to the + valet, "your master would have enough to say to all of them." + </p> + <p> + Barneveld asked where the place had been prepared in which he was to die. + </p> + <p> + "In front of the great hall, as I understand," said Bayerus, "but I don't + know the localities well, having lived here but little." + </p> + <p> + "Have you heard whether my Grotius is to die, and Hoogerbeets also?" he + asked? + </p> + <p> + "I have heard nothing to that effect," replied the clergyman. + </p> + <p> + "I should most deeply grieve for those two gentlemen," said Barneveld, + "were that the case. They may yet live to do the land great service. That + great rising light, de Groot, is still young, but a very wise and learned + gentleman, devoted to his Fatherland with all zeal, heart, and soul, and + ready to stand up for her privileges, laws, and rights. As for me, I am an + old and worn-out man. I can do no more. I have already done more than I + was really able to do. I have worked so zealously in public matters that I + have neglected my private business. I had expressly ordered my house at + Loosduinen" [a villa by the seaside] "to be got ready, that I might + establish myself there and put my affairs in order. I have repeatedly + asked the States of Holland for my discharge, but could never obtain it. + It seems that the Almighty had otherwise disposed of me." + </p> + <p> + He then said he would try once more if he could sleep. The clergyman and + the servant withdrew for an hour, but his attempt was unsuccessful. After + an hour he called for his French Psalm Book and read in it for some time. + Sometime after two o'clock the clergymen came in again and conversed with + him. They asked him if he had slept, if he hoped to meet Christ, and if + there was anything that troubled his conscience. + </p> + <p> + "I have not slept, but am perfectly tranquil," he replied. "I am ready to + die, but cannot comprehend why I must die. I wish from my heart that, + through my death and my blood, all disunion and discord in this land may + cease." + </p> + <p> + He bade them carry his last greetings to his fellow prisoners. "Say + farewell for me to my good Grotius," said he, "and tell him that I must + die." + </p> + <p> + The clergymen then left him, intending to return between five and six + o'clock. + </p> + <p> + He remained quiet for a little while and then ordered his valet to cut + open the front of his shirt. When this was done, he said, "John, are you + to stay by me to the last?" + </p> + <p> + "Yes," he replied, "if the judges permit it." + </p> + <p> + "Remind me to send one of the clergymen to the judges with the request," + said his master. + </p> + <p> + The faithful John, than whom no servant or friend could be more devoted, + seized the occasion, with the thrift and stoicism of a true Hollander, to + suggest that his lord might at the same time make some testamentary + disposition in his favour. + </p> + <p> + "Tell my wife and children," said the Advocate, "that they must console + each other in mutual love and union. Say that through God's grace I am + perfectly at ease, and hope that they will be equally tranquil. Tell my + children that I trust they will be loving and friendly to their mother + during the short time she has yet to live. Say that I wish to recommend + you to them that they may help you to a good situation either with + themselves or with others. Tell them that this was my last request." + </p> + <p> + He bade him further to communicate to the family the messages sent that + night through Walaeus by the Stadholder. + </p> + <p> + The valet begged his master to repeat these instructions in presence of + the clergyman, or to request one of them to convey them himself to the + family. He promised to do so. + </p> + <p> + "As long as I live," said the grateful servant, "I shall remember your + lordship in my prayers." + </p> + <p> + "No, John," said the Advocate, "that is Popish. When I am dead, it is all + over with prayers. Pray for me while I still live. Now is the time to + pray. When one is dead, one should no longer be prayed for." + </p> + <p> + La Motte came in. Barneveld repeated his last wishes exactly as he desired + them to be communicated to his wife and children. The preacher made no + response. "Will you take the message?" asked the prisoner. La Motte + nodded, but did not speak, nor did he subsequently fulfil the request. + </p> + <p> + Before five o'clock the servant heard the bell ring in the apartment of + the judges directly below the prison chamber, and told his master he had + understood that they were to assemble at five o'clock. + </p> + <p> + "I may as well get up then," said the Advocate; "they mean to begin early, + I suppose. Give me my doublet and but one pair of stockings." + </p> + <p> + He was accustomed to wear two or three pair at a time. + </p> + <p> + He took off his underwaistcoat, saying that the silver bog which was in + one of the pockets was to be taken to his wife, and that the servant + should keep the loose money there for himself. Then he found an + opportunity to whisper to him, "Take good care of the papers which are in + the apartment." He meant the elaborate writings which he had prepared + during his imprisonment and concealed in the tapestry and within the + linings of the chair. + </p> + <p> + As his valet handed him the combs and brushes, he said with a smile, + "John, this is for the last time." + </p> + <p> + When he was dressed, he tried, in rehearsal of the approaching scene, to + pull over his eyes the silk skull-cap which he usually wore under his hat. + Finding it too tight he told the valet to put the nightcap in his pocket + and give it him when he should call for it. He then swallowed a half-glass + of wine with a strengthening cordial in it, which he was wont to take. + </p> + <p> + The clergymen then re-entered, and asked if he had been able to sleep. He + answered no, but that he had been much consoled by many noble things which + he had been reading in the French Psalm Book. The clergymen said that they + had been thinking much of the beautiful confession of faith which he had + made to them that evening. They rejoiced at it, they said, on his account, + and had never thought it of him. He said that such had always been his + creed. + </p> + <p> + At his request Walaeus now offered a morning prayer Barneveld fell on his + knees and prayed inwardly without uttering a sound. La Motte asked when he + had concluded, "Did my Lord say Amen?"—"Yes, Lamotius," he replied; + "Amen."—"Has either of the brethren," he added, "prepared a prayer + to be offered outside there?" + </p> + <p> + La Motte informed him that this duty had been confided to him. Some + passages from Isaiah were now read aloud, and soon afterwards Walaeus was + sent for to speak with the judges. He came back and said to the prisoner, + "Has my Lord any desire to speak with his wife or children, or any of his + friends?" It was then six o'clock, and Barneveld replied: + </p> + <p> + "No, the time is drawing near. It would excite a new emotion." Walaeus + went back to the judges with this answer, who thereupon made this official + report: + </p> + <p> + "The husband and father of the petitioners, being asked if he desired that + any of the petitioners should come to him, declared that he did not + approve of it, saying that it would cause too great an emotion for himself + as well as for them. This is to serve as an answer to the petitioners." + </p> + <p> + Now the Advocate knew nothing of the petition. Up to the last moment his + family had been sanguine as to his ultimate acquittal and release. They + relied on a promise which they had received or imagined that they had + received from the Stadholder that no harm should come to the prisoner in + consequence of the arrest made of his person in the Prince's apartments on + the 8th of August. They had opened this tragical month of May with + flagstaffs and flower garlands, and were making daily preparations to + receive back the revered statesman in triumph. + </p> + <p> + The letter written by him from his "chamber of sorrow," late in the + evening of 12th May, had at last dispelled every illusion. It would be + idle to attempt to paint the grief and consternation into which the + household in the Voorhout was plunged, from the venerable dame at its + head, surrounded by her sons and daughters and children's children, down + to the humblest servant in their employment. For all revered and loved the + austere statesman, but simple and benignant father and master. + </p> + <p> + No heed had been taken of the three elaborate and argumentative petitions + which, prepared by learned counsel in name of the relatives, had been + addressed to the judges. They had not been answered because they were + difficult to answer, and because it was not intended that the accused + should have the benefit of counsel. + </p> + <p> + An urgent and last appeal was now written late at night, and signed by + each member of the family, to his Excellency the Prince and the judge + commissioners, to this effect: + </p> + <p> + "The afflicted wife and children of M. van Barneveld humbly show that + having heard the sorrowful tidings of his coming execution, they humbly + beg that it may be granted them to see and speak to him for the last + time." + </p> + <p> + The two sons delivered this petition at four o'clock in the morning into + the hands of de Voogd, one of the judges. It was duly laid before the + commission, but the prisoner was never informed, when declining a last + interview with his family, how urgently they had themselves solicited the + boon. + </p> + <p> + Louise de Coligny, on hearing late at night the awful news, had been + struck with grief and horror. She endeavoured, late as it was, to do + something to avert the doom of one she so much revered, the man on whom + her illustrious husband had leaned his life long as on a staff of iron. + She besought an interview of the Stadholder, but it was refused. The wife + of William the Silent had no influence at that dire moment with her + stepson. She was informed at first that Maurice was asleep, and at four in + the morning that all intervention was useless. + </p> + <p> + The faithful and energetic du Maurier, who had already exhausted himself + in efforts to save the life of the great prisoner, now made a last appeal. + He, too, heard at four o'clock in the morning of the 13th that sentence of + death was to be pronounced. Before five o'clock he made urgent application + to be heard before the Assembly of the States-General as ambassador of a + friendly sovereign who took the deepest interest in the welfare of the + Republic and the fate of its illustrious statesman. The appeal was + refused. As a last resource he drew up an earnest and eloquent letter to + the States-General, urging clemency in the name of his king. It was of no + avail. The letter may still be seen in the Royal Archives at the Hague, + drawn up entirely in du Maurier's clear and beautiful handwriting. + Although possibly a first draft, written as it was under such a mortal + pressure for time, its pages have not one erasure or correction. + </p> + <p> + It was seven o'clock. Barneveld having observed by the preacher (La + Motte's) manner that he was not likely to convey the last messages which + he had mentioned to his wife and children, sent a request to the judges to + be allowed to write one more letter. Captain van der Meulen came back with + the permission, saying he would wait and take it to the judges for their + revision. + </p> + <p> + The letter has been often published. + </p> + <p> + "Must they see this too? Why, it is only a line in favour of John," said + the prisoner, sitting quietly down to write this letter: + </p> + <p> + "Very dear wife and children, it is going to an end with me. I am, through + the grace of God, very tranquil. I hope that you are equally so, and that + you may by mutual love, union, and peace help each other to overcome all + things, which I pray to the Omnipotent as my last request. John Franken + has served me faithfully for many years and throughout all these my + afflictions, and is to remain with me to the end. He deserves to be + recommended to you and to be furthered to good employments with you or + with others. I request you herewith to see to this. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> +"I have requested his Princely Excellency to hold my sons and children in +his favour, to which he has answered that so long as you conduct +yourselves well this shall be the case. I recommend this to you in the +best form and give you all into God's holy keeping. Kiss each other and +all my grandchildren, for the last time in my name, and fare you well. +Out of the chamber of sorrow, 13th May 1619. Your dear husband and +father, + JOHN OF BARNEVELD. +</pre> + <p> + "P.S. You will make John Franken a present in memory of me." + </p> + <p> + Certainly it would be difficult to find a more truly calm, courageous, or + religious spirit than that manifested by this aged statesman at an hour + when, if ever, a human soul is tried and is apt to reveal its innermost + depths or shallows. Whatever Gomarus or Bogerman, or the whole Council of + Dordtrecht, may have thought of his theology, it had at least taught him + forgiveness of his enemies, kindness to his friends, and submission to the + will of the Omnipotent. Every moment of his last days on earth had been + watched and jealously scrutinized, and his bitterest enemies had failed to + discover one trace of frailty, one manifestation of any vacillating, + ignoble, or malignant sentiment. + </p> + <p> + The drums had been sounding through the quiet but anxiously expectant town + since four o'clock that morning, and the tramp of soldiers marching to the + Inner Court had long been audible in the prison chamber. + </p> + <p> + Walaeus now came back with a message from the judges. "The high + commissioners," he said, "think it is beginning. Will my Lord please to + prepare himself?" + </p> + <p> + "Very well, very well," said the prisoner. "Shall we go at once?" + </p> + <p> + But Walaeus suggested a prayer. Upon its conclusion, Barneveld gave his + hand to the provost-marshal and to the two soldiers, bidding them adieu, + and walked downstairs, attended by them, to the chamber of the judges. As + soon as he appeared at the door, he was informed that there had been a + misunderstanding, and he was requested to wait a little. He accordingly + went upstairs again with perfect calmness, sat down in his chamber again, + and read in his French Psalm Book. Half an hour later he was once more + summoned, the provost-marshal and Captain van der Meulen reappearing to + escort him. "Mr. Provost," said the prisoner, as they went down the narrow + staircase, "I have always been a good friend to you."—"It is true," + replied that officer, "and most deeply do I grieve to see you in this + affliction." + </p> + <p> + He was about to enter the judges' chamber as usual, but was informed that + the sentence would be read in the great hall of judicature. They descended + accordingly to the basement story, and passed down the narrow flight of + steps which then as now connected the more modern structure, where the + Advocate had been imprisoned and tried, with what remained of the ancient + palace of the Counts of Holland. In the centre of the vast hall—once + the banqueting chamber of those petty sovereigns; with its high vaulted + roof of cedar which had so often in ancient days rung with the sounds of + mirth and revelry—was a great table at which the twenty-four judges + and the three prosecuting officers were seated, in their black caps and + gowns of office. The room was lined with soldiers and crowded with a dark, + surging mass of spectators, who had been waiting there all night. + </p> + <p> + A chair was placed for the prisoner. He sat down, and the clerk of the + commission, Pots by name, proceeded at once to read the sentence. A + summary of this long, rambling, and tiresome paper has been already laid + before the reader. If ever a man could have found it tedious to listen to + his own death sentence, the great statesman might have been in that + condition as he listened to Secretary Pots. + </p> + <p> + During the reading of the sentence the Advocate moved uneasily on his + seat, and seemed about to interrupt the clerk at several passages which + seemed to him especially preposterous. But he controlled himself by a + strong effort, and the clerk went steadily on to the conclusion. + </p> + <p> + Then Barneveld said: + </p> + <p> + "The judges have put down many things which they have no right to draw + from my confession. Let this protest be added." + </p> + <p> + "I thought too," he continued, "that My Lords the States-General would + have had enough in my life and blood, and that my wife and children might + keep what belongs to them. Is this my recompense for forty-three years' + service to these Provinces?" + </p> + <p> + President de Voogd rose: + </p> + <p> + "Your sentence has been pronounced," he said. "Away! away!" So saying he + pointed to the door into which one of the great windows at the + south-eastern front of the hall had been converted. + </p> + <p> + Without another word the old man rose from his chair and strode, leaning + on his staff, across the hall, accompanied by his faithful valet and the + provost and escorted by a file of soldiers. The mob of spectators flowed + out after him at every door into the inner courtyard in front of the + ancient palace. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + + Better to be governed by magistrates than mobs + Burning with bitter revenge for all the favours he had received + Death rather than life with a false acknowledgment of guilt + Enemy of all compulsion of the human conscience + Heidelberg Catechism were declared to be infallible + I know how to console myself + Implication there was much, of assertion very little + John Robinson + Magistracy at that moment seemed to mean the sword + Only true religion + Rather a wilderness to reign over than a single heretic + William Brewster +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXI. 1619-23 + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Barneveld's Execution—The Advocate's Conduct on the Scaffold—The + Sentence printed and sent to the Provinces—The Proceedings + irregular and inequitable. +</pre> + <p> + In the beautiful village capital of the "Count's Park," commonly called + the Hague, the most striking and picturesque spot then as now was that + where the transformed remains of the old moated castle of those feudal + sovereigns were still to be seen. A three-storied range of simple, + substantial buildings in brown brickwork, picked out with white stone in a + style since made familiar both in England and America, and associated with + a somewhat later epoch in the history of the House of Orange, surrounded + three sides of a spacious inner paved quadrangle called the Inner Court, + the fourth or eastern side being overshadowed by a beechen grove. A square + tower flanked each angle, and on both sides of the south-western turret + extended the commodious apartments of the Stadholder. The great gateway on + the south-west opened into a wide open space called the Outer Courtyard. + Along the north-west side a broad and beautiful sheet of water, in which + the walls, turrets, and chapel-spires of the enclosed castle mirrored + themselves, was spread between the mass of buildings and an umbrageous + promenade called the Vyverberg, consisting of a sextuple alley of + lime-trees and embowering here and there a stately villa. A small island, + fringed with weeping willows and tufted all over with lilacs, laburnums, + and other shrubs then in full flower, lay in the centre of the miniature + lake, and the tall solid tower of the Great Church, surmounted by a light + openwork spire, looked down from a little distance over the scene. + </p> + <p> + It was a bright morning in May. The white swans were sailing tranquilly to + and fro over the silver basin, and the mavis, blackbird, and nightingale, + which haunted the groves surrounding the castle and the town, were singing + as if the daybreak were ushering in a summer festival. + </p> + <p> + But it was not to a merry-making that the soldiers were marching and the + citizens thronging so eagerly from every street and alley towards the + castle. By four o'clock the Outer and Inner Courts had been lined with + detachments of the Prince's guard and companies of other regiments to the + number of 1200 men. Occupying the north-eastern side of the court rose the + grim, time-worn front of the ancient hall, consisting of one tall + pyramidal gable of ancient grey brickwork flanked with two tall slender + towers, the whole with the lancet-shaped windows and severe style of the + twelfth century, excepting a rose-window in the centre with the decorated + mullions of a somewhat later period. + </p> + <p> + In front of the lower window, with its Gothic archway hastily converted + into a door, a shapeless platform of rough, unhewn planks had that night + been rudely patched together. This was the scaffold. A slight railing + around it served to protect it from the crowd, and a heap of coarse sand + had been thrown upon it. A squalid, unclean box of unplaned boards, + originally prepared as a coffin for a Frenchman who some time before had + been condemned to death for murdering the son of Goswyn Meurskens, a Hague + tavern-keeper, but pardoned by the Stadholder—lay on the scaffold. + It was recognized from having been left for a long time, half forgotten, + at the public execution-place of the Hague. + </p> + <p> + Upon this coffin now sat two common soldiers of ruffianly aspect playing + at dice, betting whether the Lord or the Devil would get the soul of + Barneveld. Many a foul and ribald jest at the expense of the prisoner was + exchanged between these gamblers, some of their comrades, and a few + townsmen, who were grouped about at that early hour. The horrible libels, + caricatures, and calumnies which had been circulated, exhibited, and sung + in all the streets for so many months had at last thoroughly poisoned the + minds of the vulgar against the fallen statesman. + </p> + <p> + The great mass of the spectators had forced their way by daybreak into the + hall itself to hear the sentence, so that the Inner Courtyard had remained + comparatively empty. + </p> + <p> + At last, at half past nine o'clock, a shout arose, "There he comes! there + he comes!" and the populace flowed out from the hall of judgment into the + courtyard like a tidal wave. + </p> + <p> + In an instant the Binnenhof was filled with more than three thousand + spectators. + </p> + <p> + The old statesman, leaning on his staff, walked out upon the scaffold and + calmly surveyed the scene. Lifting his eyes to Heaven, he was heard to + murmur, "O God! what does man come to!" Then he said bitterly once more: + "This, then, is the reward of forty years' service to the State!" + </p> + <p> + La Motte, who attended him, said fervently: "It is no longer time to think + of this. Let us prepare your coming before God." + </p> + <p> + "Is there no cushion or stool to kneel upon?" said Barneveld, looking + around him. + </p> + <p> + The provost said he would send for one, but the old man knelt at once on + the bare planks. His servant, who waited upon him as calmly and composedly + as if he had been serving him at dinner, held him by the arm. It was + remarked that neither master nor man, true stoics and Hollanders both, + shed a single tear upon the scaffold. + </p> + <p> + La Motte prayed for a quarter of an hour, the Advocate remaining on his + knees. + </p> + <p> + He then rose and said to John Franken, "See that he does not come near + me," pointing to the executioner who stood in the background grasping his + long double-handed sword. Barneveld then rapidly unbuttoned his doublet + with his own hands and the valet helped him off with it. "Make haste! make + haste!" said his master. + </p> + <p> + The statesman then came forward and said in a loud, firm voice to the + people: + </p> + <p> + "Men, do not believe that I am a traitor to the country. I have ever acted + uprightly and loyally as a good patriot, and as such I shall die." + </p> + <p> + The crowd was perfectly silent. + </p> + <p> + He then took his cap from John Franken, drew it over his eyes, and went + forward towards the sand, saying: + </p> + <p> + "Christ shall be my guide. O Lord, my heavenly Father, receive my spirit." + </p> + <p> + As he was about to kneel with his face to the south, the provost said: + </p> + <p> + "My lord will be pleased to move to the other side, not where the sun is + in his face." + </p> + <p> + He knelt accordingly with his face towards his own house. The servant took + farewell of him, and Barneveld said to the executioner: + </p> + <p> + "Be quick about it. Be quick." + </p> + <p> + The executioner then struck his head off at a single blow. + </p> + <p> + Many persons from the crowd now sprang, in spite of all opposition, upon + the scaffold and dipped their handkerchiefs in his blood, cut wet + splinters from the boards, or grubbed up the sand that was steeped in it; + driving many bargains afterwards for these relics to be treasured, with + various feelings of sorrow, joy, glutted or expiated vengeance. + </p> + <p> + It has been recorded, and has been constantly repeated to this day, that + the Stadholder, whose windows exactly faced the scaffold, looked out upon + the execution with a spy-glass; saying as he did so: + </p> + <p> + "See the old scoundrel, how he trembles! He is afraid of the stroke." + </p> + <p> + But this is calumny. Colonel Hauterive declared that he was with Maurice + in his cabinet during the whole period of the execution, that by order of + the Prince all the windows and shutters were kept closed, that no person + wearing his livery was allowed to be abroad, that he anxiously received + messages as to the proceedings, and heard of the final catastrophe with + sorrowful emotion. + </p> + <p> + It must be admitted, however, that the letter which Maurice wrote on the + same morning to his cousin William Lewis does not show much pathos. + </p> + <p> + "After the judges," he said, "have been busy here with the sentence + against the Advocate Barneveld for several days, at last it has been + pronounced, and this morning, between nine o'clock and half past, carried + into execution with the sword, in the Binnenhof before the great hall. + </p> + <p> + "The reasons they had for this you will see from the sentence, which will + doubtless be printed, and which I will send you. + </p> + <p> + "The wife of the aforesaid Barneveld and also some of his sons and + sons-in-law or other friends have never presented any supplication for his + pardon, but till now have vehemently demanded that law and justice should + be done to him, and have daily let the report run through the people that + he would soon come out. They also planted a may-pole before their house + adorned with garlands and ribbands, and practised other jollities and + impertinences, while they ought to have conducted themselves in a humble + and lowly fashion. This is no proper manner of behaving, and moreover not + a practical one to move the judges to any favour even if they had been + thereto inclined." + </p> + <p> + The sentence was printed and sent to the separate provinces. It was + accompanied by a declaration of the States-General that they had received + information from the judges of various points, not mentioned in the + sentence, which had been laid to the charge of the late Advocate, and + which gave much reason to doubt whether he had not perhaps turned his eyes + toward the enemy. They could not however legally give judgment to that + effect without a sharper investigation, which on account of his great age + and for other reasons it was thought best to spare him. + </p> + <p> + A meaner or more malignant postscript to a state paper recounting the + issue of a great trial it would be difficult to imagine. The first + statesman of the country had just been condemned and executed on a + narrative, without indictment of any specified crime. And now, by a kind + of apologetic after-thought, six or eight individuals calling themselves + the States-General insinuated that he had been looking towards the enemy, + and that, had they not mercifully spared him the rack, which is all that + could be meant by their sharper investigation, he would probably have + confessed the charge. + </p> + <p> + And thus the dead man's fame was blackened by those who had not hesitated + to kill him, but had shrunk from enquiring into his alleged crime. + </p> + <p> + Not entirely without semblance of truth did Grotius subsequently say that + the men who had taken his life would hardly have abstained from torturing + him if they had really hoped by so doing to extract from him a confession + of treason. + </p> + <p> + The sentence was sent likewise to France, accompanied with a statement + that Barneveld had been guilty of unpardonable crimes which had not been + set down in the act of condemnation. Complaints were also made of the + conduct of du Maurier in thrusting himself into the internal affairs of + the States and taking sides so ostentatiously against the government. The + King and his ministers were indignant with these rebukes, and sustained + the Ambassador. Jeannin and de Boississe expressed the opinion that he had + died innocent of any crime, and only by reason of his strong political + opposition to the Prince. + </p> + <p> + The judges had been unanimous in finding him guilty of the acts recorded + in their narrative, but three of them had held out for some time in favour + of a sentence of perpetual imprisonment rather than decapitation. + </p> + <p> + They withdrew at last their opposition to the death penalty for the + wonderful reason that reports had been circulated of attempts likely to be + made to assassinate Prince Maurice. The Stadholder himself treated these + rumours and the consequent admonition of the States-General that he would + take more than usual precautions for his safety with perfect indifference, + but they were conclusive with the judges of Barneveld. + </p> + <p> + "Republica poscit exemplum," said Commissioner Junius, one of the three, + as he sided with the death-warrant party. + </p> + <p> + The same Doctor Junius a year afterwards happened to dine, in company of + one of his fellow-commissioners, with Attorney-General Sylla at Utrecht, + and took occasion to ask them why it was supposed that Barneveld had been + hanging his head towards Spain, as not one word of that stood in the + sentence. + </p> + <p> + The question was ingenuous on the part of one learned judge to his + colleagues in one of the most famous state trials of history, propounded + as a bit of after-dinner casuistry, when the victim had been more than a + year in his grave. + </p> + <p> + But perhaps the answer was still more artless. His brother lawyers replied + that the charge was easily to be deduced from the sentence, because a man + who breaks up the foundation of the State makes the country indefensible, + and therefore invites the enemy to invade it. And this Barneveld had done, + who had turned the Union, religion, alliances, and finances upside down by + his proceedings. + </p> + <p> + Certainly if every constitutional minister, accused by the opposition + party of turning things upside down by his proceedings, were assumed to be + guilty of deliberately inviting a hostile invasion of his country, there + would have been few from that day to this to escape hanging. + </p> + <p> + Constructive treason could scarcely go farther than it was made to do in + these attempts to prove, after his death, that the Advocate had, as it was + euphuistically expressed, been looking towards the enemy. + </p> + <p> + And no better demonstrations than these have ever been discovered. + </p> + <p> + He died at the age of seventy-one years seven months and eighteen days. + </p> + <p> + His body and head were huddled into the box upon which the soldiers had + been shaking the dice, and was placed that night in the vault of the + chapel in the Inner Court. + </p> + <p> + It was subsequently granted as a boon to the widow and children that it + might be taken thence and decently buried in the family vault at + Amersfoort. + </p> + <p> + On the day of the execution a formal entry was made in the register of the + States of Holland. + </p> + <p> + "Monday, 13th May 1619. To-day was executed with the sword here in the + Hague, on a scaffold thereto erected in the Binnenhof before the steps of + the great hall, Mr. John of Barneveld, in his life Knight, Lord of Berkel, + Rodenrys, &c., Advocate of Holland and West Friesland, for reasons + expressed in the sentence and otherwise, with confiscation of his + property, after he had served the State thirty-three years two months and + five days since 8th March 1586.; a man of great activity, business, + memory, and wisdom—yes, extraordinary in every respect. He that + stands let him see that he does not fall, and may God be merciful to his + soul. Amen?" + </p> + <p> + A year later-on application made by the widow and children of the deceased + to compound for the confiscation of his property by payment of a certain + sum, eighty florins or a similar trifle, according to an ancient privilege + of the order of nobility—the question was raised whether he had been + guilty of high-treason, as he had not been sentenced for such a crime, and + as it was only in case of sentence for lese-majesty that this composition + was disallowed. It was deemed proper therefore to ask the court for what + crime the prisoner had been condemned. Certainly a more sarcastic question + could not have been asked. But the court had ceased to exist. The + commission had done its work and was dissolved. Some of its members were + dead. Letters however were addressed by the States-General to the + individual commissioners requesting them to assemble at the Hague for the + purpose of stating whether it was because the prisoners had committed + lese-majesty that their property had been confiscated. They never + assembled. Some of them were perhaps ignorant of the exact nature of that + crime. Several of them did not understand the words. Twelve of them, among + whom were a few jurists, sent written answers to the questions proposed. + The question was, "Did you confiscate the property because the crime was + lese-majesty?" The reply was, "The crime was lese-majesty, although not so + stated in the sentence, because we confiscated the property." In one of + these remarkable documents this was stated to be "the unanimous opinion of + almost all the judges." + </p> + <p> + The point was referred to the commissioners, some of whom attended the + court of the Hague in person, while others sent written opinions. All + agreed that the criminal had committed high-treason because otherwise his + property would not have been confiscated. + </p> + <p> + A more wonderful example of the argument in a circle was never heard of. + Moreover it is difficult to understand by what right the high commission, + which had been dissolved a year before, after having completed its work, + could be deemed competent to emit afterwards a judicial decision. But the + fact is curious as giving one more proof of the irregular, + unphilosophical, and inequitable nature of these famous proceedings. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXII. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Grotius urged to ask Forgiveness—Grotius shows great Weakness— + Hoogerbeets and Grotius imprisoned for Life—Grotius confined at + Loevestein—Grotius' early Attainments—Grotius' Deportment in + Prison—Escape of Grotius—Deventer's Rage at Grotius' Escape. +</pre> + <p> + Two days after the execution of the Advocate, judgment was pronounced upon + Gillis van Ledenberg. It would have been difficult to try him, or to + extort a confession of high-treason from him by the rack or otherwise, as + the unfortunate gentleman had been dead for more than seven months. + </p> + <p> + Not often has a court of justice pronounced a man, without trial, to be + guilty of a capital offence. Not often has a dead man been condemned and + executed. But this was the lot of Secretary Ledenberg. He was sentenced to + be hanged, his property declared confiscated. + </p> + <p> + His unburied corpse, reduced to the condition of a mummy, was brought out + of its lurking-place, thrust into a coffin, dragged on a hurdle to the + Golgotha outside the Hague, on the road to Ryswyk, and there hung on a + gibbet in company of the bodies of other malefactors swinging there in + chains. + </p> + <p> + His prudent scheme to save his property for his children by committing + suicide in prison was thus thwarted. + </p> + <p> + The reading of the sentence of Ledenberg, as had been previously the case + with that of Barneveld, had been heard by Grotius through the open window + of his prison, as he lay on his bed. The scaffold on which the Advocate + had suffered was left standing, three executioners were still in the town, + and there was every reason for both Grotius and Hoogerbeets to expect a + similar doom. Great efforts were made to induce the friends of the + distinguished prisoners to sue for their pardon. But even as in the case + of the Barneveld family these attempts were fruitless. The austere + stoicism both on the part of the sufferers and their relatives excites + something like wonder. + </p> + <p> + Three of the judges went in person to the prison chamber of Hoogerbeets, + urging him to ask forgiveness himself or to allow his friends to demand it + for him. + </p> + <p> + "If my wife and children do ask," he said, "I will protest against it. I + need no pardon. Let justice take its course. Think not, gentlemen, that I + mean by asking for pardon to justify your proceedings." + </p> + <p> + He stoutly refused to do either. The judges, astonished, took their + departure, saying: + </p> + <p> + "Then you will fare as Barneveld. The scaffold is still standing." + </p> + <p> + He expected consequently nothing but death, and said many years afterwards + that he knew from personal experience how a man feels who goes out of + prison to be beheaded. + </p> + <p> + The wife of Grotius sternly replied to urgent intimations from a high + source that she should ask pardon for her husband, "I shall not do it. If + he has deserved it, let them strike off his head." + </p> + <p> + Yet no woman could be more devoted to her husband than was Maria van + Reigersbergen to Hugo de Groot, as time was to prove. The Prince + subsequently told her at a personal interview that "one of two roads must + be taken, that of the law or that of pardon." + </p> + <p> + Soon after the arrest it was rumoured that Grotius was ready to make + important revelations if he could first be assured of the Prince's + protection. + </p> + <p> + His friends were indignant at the statement. His wife stoutly denied its + truth, but, to make sure, wrote to her husband on the subject. + </p> + <p> + "One thing amazes me," she said; "some people here pretend to say that you + have stated to one gentleman in private that you have something to + disclose greatly important to the country, but that you desired beforehand + to be taken under the protection of his Excellency. I have not chosen to + believe this, nor do I, for I hold that to be certain which you have + already told me—that you know no secrets. I see no reason therefore + why you should require the protection of any man. And there is no one to + believe this, but I thought best to write to you of it. Let me, in order + that I may contradict the story with more authority, have by the bearer of + this a simple Yes or No. Study quietly, take care of your health, have + some days' patience, for the Advocate has not yet been heard." + </p> + <p> + The answer has not been preserved, but there is an allusion to the subject + in an unpublished memorandum of Grotius written while he was in prison. + </p> + <p> + It must be confessed that the heart of the great theologian and jurist + seems to have somewhat failed him after his arrest, and although he was + incapable of treachery—even if he had been possessed of any secrets, + which certainly was not the case—he did not show the same Spartan + firmness as his wife, and was very far from possessing the heroic calm of + Barneveld. He was much disposed to extricate himself from his unhappy + plight by making humble, if not abject, submission to Maurice. He differed + from his wife in thinking that he had no need of the Prince's protection. + "I begged the Chamberlain, Matthew de Cors," he said, a few days after his + arrest, "that I might be allowed to speak with his Excellency of certain + things which I would not willingly trust to the pen. My meaning was to + leave all public employment and to offer my service to his Excellency in + his domestic affairs. Thus I hoped that the motives for my imprisonment + would cease. This was afterwards misinterpreted as if I had had wonderful + things to reveal." + </p> + <p> + But Grotius towards the end of his trial showed still greater weakness. + After repeated refusals, he had at last obtained permission of the judges + to draw up in writing the heads of his defence. To do this he was allowed + a single sheet of paper, and four hours of time, the trial having lasted + several months. And in the document thus prepared he showed faltering in + his faith as to his great friend's innocence, and admitted, without any + reason whatever, the possibility of there being truth in some of the vile + and anonymous calumnies against him. + </p> + <p> + "The friendship of the Advocate of Holland I had always highly prized," he + said, "hoping from the conversation of so wise and experienced a person to + learn much that was good . . . . I firmly believed that his Excellency, + notwithstanding occasional differences as to the conduct of public + affairs, considered him a true and upright servant of the land . . . . I + have been therefore surprised to understand, during my imprisonment, that + the gentlemen had proofs in hand not alone of his correspondence with the + enemy, but also of his having received money from them. + </p> + <p> + "He being thus accused, I have indicated by word of mouth and afterwards + resumed in writing all matters which I thought—the above-mentioned + proofs being made good—might be thereto indirectly referred, in + order to show that for me no friendships were so dear as the preservation + of the freedom of the land. I wish that he may give explanation of all to + the contentment of the judges, and that therefore his actions—which, + supposing the said correspondence to be true, are subject to a bad + interpretation—may be taken in another sense." + </p> + <p> + Alas! could the Advocate—among whose first words after hearing of + his own condemnation to death were, "And must my Grotius die too?" adding, + with a sigh of relief when assured of the contrary, "I should deeply + grieve for that; he is so young and may live to do the State much + service." could he have read those faltering and ungenerous words from one + he so held in his heart, he would have felt them like the stab of Brutus. + </p> + <p> + Grotius lived to know that there were no such proofs, that the judges did + not dare even allude to the charge in their sentence, and long years + afterwards he drew a picture of the martyred patriot such as one might + have expected from his pen. + </p> + <p> + But these written words of doubt must have haunted him to his grave. + </p> + <p> + On the 18th May 1619—on the fifty-first anniversary, as Grotius + remarked, of the condemnation of Egmont and Hoorn by the Blood Tribunal of + Alva—the two remaining victims were summoned to receive their doom. + The Fiscal Sylla, entering de Groot's chamber early in the morning to + conduct him before the judges, informed him that he was not instructed to + communicate the nature of the sentence. "But," he said, maliciously, "you + are aware of what has befallen the Advocate." + </p> + <p> + "I have heard with my own ears," answered Grotius, "the judgment + pronounced upon Barneveld and upon Ledenberg. Whatever may be my fate, I + have patience to bear it." + </p> + <p> + The sentence, read in the same place and in the same manner as had been + that upon the Advocate, condemned both Hoogerbeets and Grotius to + perpetual imprisonment. + </p> + <p> + The course of the trial and the enumeration of the offences were nearly + identical with the leading process which has been elaborately described. + </p> + <p> + Grotius made no remark whatever in the court-room. On returning to his + chamber he observed that his admissions of facts had been tortured into + confessions of guilt, that he had been tried and sentenced against all + principles and forms of law, and that he had been deprived of what the + humblest criminal could claim, the right of defence and the examination of + testimony. In regard to the penalty against him, he said, there was no + such thing as perpetual imprisonment except in hell. Alluding to the + leading cause of all these troubles, he observed that it was with the + Stadholder and the Advocate as Cato had said of Caesar and Pompey. The + great misery had come not from their being enemies, but from their having + once been friends. + </p> + <p> + On the night of 5th June the prisoners were taken from their prison in the + Hague and conveyed to the castle of Loevestein. + </p> + <p> + This fortress, destined thenceforth to be famous in history and—from + its frequent use in after-times as a state-prison for men of similar + constitutional views to those of Grotius and the Advocate—to give + its name to a political party, was a place of extraordinary strength. + Nature and art had made it, according to military ideas of that age, + almost impregnable. As a prison it seemed the very castle of despair. + "Abandon all hope ye who enter" seemed engraven over its portal. + </p> + <p> + Situate in the very narrow, acute angle where the broad, deep, and turbid + Waal—the chief of the three branches into which the Rhine divides + itself on entering the Netherlands—mingles its current with the + silver Meuse whose name it adopts as the united rivers roll to the sea, it + was guarded on many sides by these deep and dangerous streams. On the + land-side it was surrounded by high walls and a double foss, which + protected it against any hostile invasion from Brabant. As the Twelve + Years' Truce was running to its close, it was certain that pains would be + taken to strengthen the walls and deepen the ditches, that the place might + be proof against all marauders and land-robbers likely to swarm over from + the territory of the Archdukes. The town of Gorcum was exactly opposite on + the northern side of the Waal, while Worcum was about a league's distance + from the castle on the southern side, but separated from it by the Meuse. + </p> + <p> + The prisoners, after crossing the drawbridge, were led through thirteen + separate doors, each one secured by iron bolts and heavy locks, until they + reached their separate apartments. + </p> + <p> + They were never to see or have any communication with each other. It had + been accorded by the States-General however that the wives of the two + gentlemen were to have access to their prison, were to cook for them in + the castle kitchen, and, if they chose to inhabit the fortress, might + cross to the neighbouring town of Gorcum from time to time to make + purchases, and even make visits to the Hague. Twenty-four stuivers, or two + shillings, a day were allowed by the States-General for the support of + each prisoner and his family. As the family property of Grotius was at + once sequestered, with a view to its ultimate confiscation, it was clear + that abject indigence as well as imprisonment was to be the lifelong lot + of this illustrious person, who had hitherto lived in modest affluence, + occupying the most considerable of social positions. + </p> + <p> + The commandant of the fortress was inspired from the outset with a desire + to render the prisoner's situation as hateful as it was in his power to + make it. And much was in his power. He resolved that the family should + really live upon their daily pittance. Yet Madame de Groot, before the + final confiscation of her own and her husband's estates, had been able to + effect considerable loans, both to carry on process against government for + what the prisoners contended was an unjust confiscation, and for providing + for the household on a decent scale and somewhat in accordance with the + requirements of the prisoner's health. Thus there was a wearisome and + ignoble altercation, revived from day to day, between the Commandant and + Madame de Groot. It might have been thought enough of torture for this + virtuous and accomplished lady, but twenty-nine years of age and belonging + to one of the eminent families of the country, to see her husband, for his + genius and accomplishments the wonder of Europe, thus cut off in the + flower of his age and doomed to a living grave. She was nevertheless to be + subjected to the perpetual inquisition of the market-basket, which she was + not ashamed with her maid to take to and from Gorcum, and to petty + wrangles about the kitchen fire where she was proud to superintend the + cooking of the scanty fare for her husband and her five children. + </p> + <p> + There was a reason for the spite of the military jailer. Lieutenant + Prouninx, called Deventer, commandant of Loevestein, was son of the + notorious Gerard Prouninx, formerly burgomaster of Utrecht, one of the + ringleaders of the Leicester faction in the days when the Earl made his + famous attempts upon the four cities. He had sworn revenge upon all those + concerned in his father's downfall, and it was a delight therefore to + wreak a personal vengeance on one who had since become so illustrious a + member of that party by which the former burgomaster had been deposed, + although Grotius at the time of Leicester's government had scarcely left + his cradle. + </p> + <p> + Thus these ladies were to work in the kitchen and go to market from time + to time, performing this menial drudgery under the personal inspection of + the warrior who governed the garrison and fortress, but who in vain + attempted to make Maria van Reigersbergen tremble at his frown. + </p> + <p> + Hugo de Groot, when thus for life immured, after having already undergone + a preliminary imprisonment of nine months, was just thirty-six years of + age. Although comparatively so young, he had been long regarded as one of + the great luminaries of Europe for learning and genius. Of an ancient and + knightly race, his immediate ancestors had been as famous for literature, + science, and municipal abilities as their more distant progenitors for + deeds of arms in the feudal struggles of Holland in the middle ages. + </p> + <p> + His father and grandfather had alike been eminent for Hebrew, Greek, and + Latin scholarship, and both had occupied high positions in the University + of Leyden from its beginning. Hugo, born and nurtured under such + quickening influences, had been a scholar and poet almost from his cradle. + He wrote respectable Latin verses at the age of seven, he was matriculated + at Leyden at the age of eleven. That school, founded amid the storms and + darkness of terrible war, was not lightly to be entered. It was already + illustrated by a galaxy of shining lights in science and letters, which + radiated over Christendom. His professors were Joseph Scaliger, Francis + Junius, Paulus Merula, and a host of others. His fellow-students were men + like Scriverius, Vossius, Baudius, Daniel Heinsius. The famous soldier and + poet Douza, who had commanded the forces of Leyden during the immortal + siege, addressed him on his admission to the university as "Magne peer + magni dignissime cura parentis," in a copy of eloquent verses. + </p> + <p> + When fourteen years old, he took his bachelor's degree, after a rigorous + examination not only in the classics but astronomy, mathematics, + jurisprudence, and theology, at an age when most youths would have been + accounted brilliant if able to enter that high school with credit. + </p> + <p> + On leaving the University he was attached to the embassy of Barneveld and + Justinus van Nassau to the court of Henry IV. Here he attracted the + attention of that monarch, who pointed him out to his courtiers as the + "miracle of Holland," presented him with a gold chain with his miniature + attached to it, and proposed to confer on him the dignity of knighthood, + which the boy from motives of family pride appears to have refused. While + in France he received from the University of Orleans, before the age of + fifteen, the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in a very eulogistic + diploma. On his return to Holland he published an edition of the poet + Johannes Capella with valuable annotations, besides giving to the public + other learned and classical works and several tragedies of more or less + merit. At the age of seventeen he was already an advocate in full practice + before the supreme tribunals of the Hague, and when twenty-three years old + he was selected by Prince Maurice from a list of three candidates for the + important post of Fiscal or Attorney-General of Holland. Other civic + dignities, embassies, and offices of various kinds, had been thrust upon + him one after another, in all of which he had acquitted himself with + dignity and brilliancy. He was but twenty-six when he published his + argument for the liberty of the sea, the famous Mare Liberum, and a little + later appeared his work on the Antiquity of the Batavian Republic, which + procured for him in Spain the title of "Hugo Grotius, auctor damnatus." At + the age of twenty-nine he had completed his Latin history of the + Netherlands from the period immediately preceding the war of independence + down to the conclusion of the Truce, 1550-1609—a work which has been + a classic ever since its appearance, although not published until after + his death. A chief magistrate of Rotterdam, member of the States of + Holland and the States-General, jurist, advocate, attorney-general, poet, + scholar, historian, editor of the Greek and Latin classics, writer of + tragedies, of law treatises, of theological disquisitions, he stood + foremost among a crowd of famous contemporaries. His genius, eloquence, + and learning were esteemed among the treasures not only of his own country + but of Europe. He had been part and parcel of his country's history from + his earliest manhood, and although a child in years compared to Barneveld, + it was upon him that the great statesman had mainly relied ever since the + youth's first appearance in public affairs. Impressible, emotional, and + susceptive, he had been accused from time to time, perhaps not entirely + without reason, of infirmity of purpose, or at least of vacillation in + opinion; but his worst enemies had never assailed the purity of his heart + or integrity of his character. He had not yet written the great work on + the 'Rights of War and Peace', which was to make an epoch in the history + of civilization and to be the foundation of a new science, but the + materials lay already in the ample storehouse of his memory and his brain. + </p> + <p> + Possessed of singular personal beauty—which the masterly portraits + of Miereveld attest to the present day—tall, brown-haired; + straight-featured, with a delicate aquiline nose and piercing dark blue + eyes, he was also athletic of frame and a proficient in manly exercises. + This was the statesman and the scholar, of whom it is difficult to speak + but in terms of affectionate but not exaggerated eulogy, and for whom the + Republic of the Netherlands could now find no better use than to shut him + up in the grim fortress of Loevestein for the remainder of his days. A + commonwealth must have deemed itself rich in men which, after cutting off + the head of Barneveld, could afford to bury alive Hugo Grotius. + </p> + <p> + His deportment in prison was a magnificent moral lesson. Shut up in a kind + of cage consisting of a bedroom and a study, he was debarred from physical + exercise, so necessary for his mental and bodily health. Not choosing for + the gratification of Lieutenant Deventer to indulge in weak complaints, he + procured a huge top, which he employed himself in whipping several hours a + day; while for intellectual employment he plunged once more into those + classical, juridical, and theological studies which had always employed + his leisure hours from childhood upwards. + </p> + <p> + It had been forbidden by the States-General to sell his likeness in the + shops. The copper plates on which they had been engraved had as far as + possible been destroyed. + </p> + <p> + The wish of the government, especially of his judges, was that his name + and memory should die at once and for ever. They were not destined to be + successful, for it would be equally difficult to-day to find an educated + man in Christendom ignorant of the name of Hugo Grotius, or acquainted + with that of a single one of his judges. + </p> + <p> + And his friends had not forgotten him as he lay there living in his tomb. + Especially the learned Scriverius, Vossius, and other professors, were + permitted to correspond with him at intervals on literary subjects, the + letters being subjected to preliminary inspection. Scriverius sent him + many books from his well-stocked library, de Groot's own books and papers + having been confiscated by the government. At a somewhat later period the + celebrated Orientalist Erpenius sent him from time to time a large chest + of books, the precious freight being occasionally renewed and the chest + passing to and from Loevestein by way of Gorcum. At this town lived a + sister of Erpenius, married to one Daatselaer, a considerable dealer in + thread and ribbons, which he exported to England. The house of Daatselaer + became a place of constant resort for Madame de Groot as well as the wife + of Hoogerbeets, both dames going every few days from the castle across the + Waal to Gorcum, to make their various purchases for the use of their + forlorn little households in the prison. Madame Daatselaer therefore + received and forwarded into Loevestein or into Holland many parcels and + boxes, besides attending to the periodical transmission of the mighty + chest of books. + </p> + <p> + Professor Vossius was then publishing a new edition of the tragedies of + Seneca, and at his request Grotius enriched that work, from his prison, + with valuable notes. He employed himself also in translating the moral + sentences extracted by Stobaeus from the Greek tragedies; drawing + consolation from the ethics and philosophy of the ancient dramatists, whom + he had always admired, especially the tragedies of Euripides; he formed a + complete moral anthology from that poet and from the works of Sophocles, + Menander, and others, which he translated into fluent Dutch verse. + Becoming more and more interested in the subject, he executed a masterly + rhymed translation of the 'Theban Brothers' of Euripides, thus seeking + distraction from his own tragic doom in the portraiture of antique, + distant, and heroic sorrow. + </p> + <p> + Turning again to legal science, he completed an Introduction to the + Jurisprudence of Holland, a work which as soon as published became + thenceforward a text-book and an oracle in the law courts and the high + schools of the country. Not forgetting theology, he composed for the use + of the humbler classes, especially for sailors, in whose lot, so exposed + to danger and temptation, he ever took deep interest, a work on the proofs + of Christianity in easy and familiar rhyme—a book of gold, as it was + called at once, which became rapidly popular with those for whom it was + designed. + </p> + <p> + At a somewhat later period Professor Erpenius, publishing a new edition of + the New Testament in Greek, with translations in Arabic, Syriac, and + Ethiopian, solicited his friend's help both in translations and in the + Latin commentaries and expositions with which he proposed to accompany the + work. The prisoner began with a modest disclaimer, saying that after the + labours of Erasmus and Beza, Maldonatus and Jasenius, there was little for + him to glean. Becoming more enthusiastic as he went on, he completed a + masterly commentary on the Four Evangelists, a work for which the learned + and religious world has ever recognized a kind of debt of gratitude to the + castle of Loevestein, and hailed in him the founder of a school of manly + Biblical criticism. + </p> + <p> + And thus nearly two years wore away. Spinning his great top for exercise; + soothing his active and prolific brain with Greek tragedy, with Flemish + verse, with jurisprudence, history, theology; creating, expounding, + adorning, by the warmth of his vivid intellect; moving the world, and + doing good to his race from the depths of his stony sepulchre; Hugo + Grotius rose superior to his doom and took captivity captive. The man is + not to be envied who is not moved by so noble an example of great calamity + manfully endured. + </p> + <p> + The wife of Hoogerbeets, already advanced in years, sickened during the + imprisonment and died at Loevestein after a lingering illness, leaving six + children to the care of her unfortunate husband. Madame de Groot had not + been permitted by the prison authorities to minister to her in sickness, + nor to her children after her death. + </p> + <p> + Early in the year 1621 Francis Aerssens, Lord of Sommelsdyk, the arch + enemy of Barneveld and of Grotius, was appointed special ambassador to + Paris. The intelligence—although hardly unexpected, for the + stratagems of Aerssens had been completely successful—moved the + prisoner deeply. He felt that this mortal enemy, not glutted with + vengeance by the beheading of the Advocate and the perpetual imprisonment + of his friend, would do his best at the French court to defame and to + blacken him. He did what he could to obviate this danger by urgent letters + to friends on whom he could rely. + </p> + <p> + At about the same time Muis van Holy, one of the twenty-four + commissioners, not yet satisfied with the misery he had helped to inflict, + informed the States-General that Madame de Groot had been buying ropes at + Gorcum. On his motion a committee was sent to investigate the matter at + Castle Loevestein, where it was believed that the ropes had been concealed + for the purpose of enabling Grotius to make his escape from prison. + </p> + <p> + Lieutenant Deventer had heard nothing of the story. He was in high spirits + at the rumour however, and conducted the committee very eagerly over the + castle, causing minute search to be made in the apartment of Grotius for + the ropes which, as they were assured by him and his wife, had never + existed save in the imagination of Judge Muis. They succeeded at least in + inflicting much superfluous annoyance on their victims, and in satisfying + themselves that it would be as easy for the prisoner to fly out of the + fortress on wings as to make his escape with ropes, even if he had them. + </p> + <p> + Grotius soon afterwards addressed a letter to the States-General + denouncing the statement of Muis as a fable, and these persistent attempts + to injure him as cowardly and wicked. + </p> + <p> + A few months later Madame de Groot happened to be in the house of + Daatselaer on one of her periodical visits to Gorcum. Conversation turning + on these rumours March of attempts at escape, she asked Madame Daatselaer + if she would not be much embarrassed, should Grotius suddenly make his + appearance there. + </p> + <p> + "Oh no," said the good woman with a laugh; "only let him come. We will + take excellent care of him." + </p> + <p> + At another visit one Saturday, 20th March, (1621) Madame de Groot asked + her friend why all the bells of Gorcum march were ringing. + </p> + <p> + "Because to-morrow begins our yearly fair," replied Dame Daatselaer. + </p> + <p> + "Well, I suppose that all exiles and outlaws may come to Gorcum on this + occasion," said Madame de Groot. + </p> + <p> + "Such is the law, they say," answered her friend. + </p> + <p> + "And my husband might come too?" + </p> + <p> + "No doubt," said Madame Daatselaer with a merry laugh, rejoiced at finding + the wife of Grotius able to speak so cheerfully of her husband in his + perpetual and hopeless captivity. "Send him hither. He shall have, a warm + welcome." + </p> + <p> + "What a good woman you are!" said Madame de Groot with a sigh as she rose + to take leave. "But you know very well that if he were a bird he could + never get out of the castle, so closely, he is caged there." + </p> + <p> + Next morning a wild equinoctial storm was howling around the battlements + of the castle. Of a sudden Cornelia, daughter of the de Groots, nine years + of age, said to her mother without any reason whatever, + </p> + <p> + "To-morrow Papa must be off to Gorcum, whatever the weather may be." + </p> + <p> + De Groot, as well as his wife, was aghast at the child's remark, and took + it as a direct indication from Heaven. + </p> + <p> + For while Madame Daatselaer had considered the recent observations of her + visitor from Loevestein as idle jests, and perhaps wondered that Madame de + Groot could be frivolous and apparently lighthearted on so dismal a topic, + there had been really a hidden meaning in her words. + </p> + <p> + For several weeks past the prisoner had been brooding over a means of + escape. His wife, whose every thought was devoted to him, had often cast + her eyes on the great chest or trunk in which the books of Erpenius had + been conveyed between Loevestein and Gorcum for the use of the prisoner. + At first the trunk had been carefully opened and its contents examined + every time it entered or left the castle. As nothing had ever been found + in it save Hebrew, Greek, and Latin folios, uninviting enough to the + Commandant, that warrior had gradually ceased to inspect the chest very + closely, and had at last discontinued the practice altogether. + </p> + <p> + It had been kept for some weeks past in the prisoner's study. His wife + thought—although it was two finger breadths less than four feet in + length, and not very broad or deep in proportion—that it might be + possible for him to get into it. He was considerably above middle height, + but found that by curling himself up very closely he could just manage to + lie in it with the cover closed. Very secretly they had many times + rehearsed the scheme which had now taken possession of their minds, but + had not breathed a word of it to any one. He had lain in the chest with + the lid fastened, and with his wife sitting upon the top of it, two hours + at a time by the hour-glass. They had decided at last that the plan, + though fraught with danger, was not absolutely impossible, and they were + only waiting now for a favourable opportunity. The chance remark of the + child Cornelia settled the time for hazarding the adventure. By a strange + coincidence, too, the commandant of the fortress, Lieutenant Deventer, had + just been promoted to a captaincy, and was to go to Heusden to receive his + company. He left the castle for a brief absence that very Sunday evening. + As a precautionary measure, the trunk filled with books had been sent to + Gorcum and returned after the usual interval only a few days before. + </p> + <p> + The maid-servant of the de Groots, a young girl of twenty, Elsje van + Houwening by name, quick, intelligent, devoted, and courageous, was now + taken into their confidence. The scheme was explained to her, and she was + asked if she were willing to take the chest under her charge with her + master in it, instead of the usual freight of books, and accompany it to + Gorcum. + </p> + <p> + She naturally asked what punishment could be inflicted upon her in case + the plot were discovered. + </p> + <p> + "None legally," answered her master; "but I too am innocent of any crime, + and you see to what sufferings I have been condemned." + </p> + <p> + "Whatever come of it," said Elsje stoutly; "I will take the risk and + accompany my master." + </p> + <p> + Every detail was then secretly arranged, and it was provided beforehand, + as well as possible, what should be said or done in the many contingencies + that might arise. + </p> + <p> + On Sunday evening Madame de Groot then went to the wife of the Commandant, + with whom she had always been on more friendly terms than with her + malicious husband. She had also recently propitiated her affections by + means of venison and other dainties brought from Gorcum. She expressed the + hope that, notwithstanding the absence of Captain Deventer, she might be + permitted to send the trunk full of books next day from the castle. + </p> + <p> + "My husband is wearing himself out," she said, "with his perpetual + studies. I shall be glad for a little time to be rid of some of these + folios." + </p> + <p> + The Commandant's wife made no objection to this slight request. + </p> + <p> + On Monday morning the gale continued to beat with unabated violence on the + turrets. The turbid Waal, swollen by the tempest, rolled darkly and + dangerously along the castle walls. + </p> + <p> + But the die was cast. Grotius rose betimes, fell on his knees, and prayed + fervently an hour long. Dressed only in linen underclothes with a pair of + silk stockings, he got into the chest with the help of his wife. The big + Testament of Erpenius, with some bunches of thread placed upon it, served + him as a pillow. A few books and papers were placed in the interstices + left by the curves of his body, and as much pains as possible taken to + prevent his being seriously injured or incommoded during the hazardous + journey he was contemplating. His wife then took solemn farewell of him, + fastened the lock, which she kissed, and gave the key to Elsje. + </p> + <p> + The usual garments worn by the prisoner were thrown on a chair by the + bedside and his slippers placed before it. Madame de Groot then returned + to her bed, drew the curtains close, and rang the bell. + </p> + <p> + It was answered by the servant who usually waited on the prisoner, and who + was now informed by the lady that it had been her intention to go herself + to Gorcum, taking charge of the books which were valuable. As the weather + was so tempestuous however, and as she was somewhat indisposed, it had + been decided that Elsje should accompany the trunk. + </p> + <p> + She requested that some soldiers might be sent as usual to take it down to + the vessel. Two or three of the garrison came accordingly, and seeing the + clothes and slippers of Grotius lying about, and the bed-curtains closed, + felt no suspicion. + </p> + <p> + On lifting the chest, however, one of them said, half in jest: + </p> + <p> + "The Arminian must be in it himself, it seems so heavy!" + </p> + <p> + "Not the Arminian," replied Madame de Groot, in a careless voice, from the + bed; "only heavy Arminian books." + </p> + <p> + Partly lifting, partly dragging the ponderous box, the soldiers managed to + get it down the stairs and through the thirteen barred and bolted doors. + Four several times one or other of the soldiers expressed the opinion that + Grotius himself must be locked within it, but they never spoke quite + seriously, and Elsje was ever ready to turn aside the remark with a jest. + A soldier's wife, just as the box was approaching the wharf, told a story + of a malefactor who had once been carried out of the castle in a chest. + </p> + <p> + "And if a malefactor, why not a lawyer?" she added. A soldier said he + would get a gimlet and bore a hole into the Arminian. "Then you must get a + gimlet that will reach to the top of the castle, where the Arminian lies + abed and asleep," said Elsje. + </p> + <p> + Not much heed was given to this careless talk, the soldiers, before + leaving the chamber of Grotius, having satisfied themselves that there + were no apertures in the chest save the keyhole, and that it would be + impossible by that means alone for sufficient air to penetrate to keep a + man enclosed in it from smothering. + </p> + <p> + Madame Deventer was asked if she chose to inspect the contents of the + trunk, and she enquired whether the Commandant had been wont so to do. + When told that such search had been for a long time discontinued, as + nothing had ever been found there but books, she observed that there was + no reason why she should be more strict than her husband, and ordered the + soldiers to take their heavy load to the vessel. + </p> + <p> + Elsje insisted that the boatmen should place a doubly thick plank for + sliding the box on board, as it seemed probable, she said, that the usual + one would break in two, and then the valuable books borrowed of Professor + Erpenius would be damaged or destroyed. The request caused much further + grumbling, but was complied with at last and the chest deposited on the + deck. The wind still continued to blow with great fury, and as soon as the + sails were set the vessel heeled over so much, that Elsje implored the + skipper to cause the box to be securely lashed, as it seemed in imminent + danger, at the first lurch of the vessel, of sliding into the sea. + </p> + <p> + This done, Elsje sat herself down and threw her white handkerchief over + her head, letting it flutter in the wind. One of the crew asked her why + she did so, and she replied that the servant in the castle had been + tormenting her, saying that she would never dare to sail to Gorcum in such + tempestuous weather, and she was now signalling him that she had been as + good as her word. Whereupon she continued to wave the handkerchief. + </p> + <p> + In reality the signal was for her mistress, who was now straining her eyes + from the barred window which looked out upon the Waal, and with whom the + maid had agreed that if all went prosperously she would give this token of + success. Otherwise she would sit with her head in her hands. + </p> + <p> + During the voyage an officer of the garrison, who happened to be on board, + threw himself upon the chest as a convenient seat, and began drumming and + pounding with his heels upon it. The ever watchful Elsje, feeling the + dreadful inconvenience to the prisoner of these proceedings, who perhaps + was already smothering and would struggle for air if not relieved, + politely addressed the gentleman and induced him to remove to another seat + by telling him that, besides the books, there was some valuable porcelain + in the chest which might easily be broken. + </p> + <p> + No further incident occurred. The wind, although violent, was favourable, + and Gorcum in due time was reached. Elsje insisted upon having her own + precious freight carried first into the town, although the skipper for + some time was obstinately bent on leaving it to the very last, while all + the other merchandise in the vessel should be previously unshipped. + </p> + <p> + At last on promise of payment of ten stuivers, which was considered an + exorbitant sum, the skipper and son agreed to transport the chest between + them on a hand-barrow. While they were trudging with it to the town, the + son remarked to his father that there was some living thing in the box. + For the prisoner in the anguish of his confinement had not been able to + restrain a slight movement. + </p> + <p> + "Do you hear what my son says?" cried the skipper to Elsje. "He says you + have got something alive in your trunk." + </p> + <p> + "Yes, yes," replied the cheerful maid-servant; "Arminian books are always + alive, always full of motion and spirit." + </p> + <p> + They arrived at Daatselaer's house, moving with difficulty through the + crowd which, notwithstanding the boisterous weather, had been collected by + the annual fair. Many people were assembled in front of the building, + which was a warehouse of great resort, while next door was a book-seller's + shop thronged with professors, clergymen, and other literary persons. The + carriers accordingly entered by the backway, and Elsje, deliberately + paying them their ten stuivers, and seeing them depart, left the box lying + in a room at the rear and hastened to the shop in front. + </p> + <p> + Here she found the thread and ribbon dealer and his wife, busy with their + customers, unpacking and exhibiting their wares. She instantly whispered + in Madame Daatselaer's ear, "I have got my master here in your back + parlour." + </p> + <p> + The dame turned white as a sheet, and was near fainting on the spot. It + was the first imprudence Elsje had committed. The good woman recovered + somewhat of her composure by a strong effort however, and instantly went + with Elsje to the rear of the house. + </p> + <p> + "Master! master!" cried Elsje, rapping on the chest. + </p> + <p> + There was no answer. + </p> + <p> + "My God! my God!" shrieked the poor maid-servant. "My poor master is + dead." + </p> + <p> + "Ah!" said Madame Daatselaer, "your mistress has made a bad business of + it. Yesterday she had a living husband. Now she has a dead one." + </p> + <p> + But soon there was a vigorous rap on the inside of the lid, and a cry from + the prisoner: + </p> + <p> + "Open the chest! I am not dead, but did not at first recognize your + voice." + </p> + <p> + The lock was instantly unfastened, the lid thrown open, and Grotius arose + in his linen clothing, like a dead man from his coffin. + </p> + <p> + The dame instantly accompanied the two through a trapdoor into an upper + room. + </p> + <p> + Grotius asked her if she was always so deadly pale. + </p> + <p> + "No," she replied, "but I am frightened to see you here. My lord is no + common person. The whole world is talking of you. I fear this will cause + the loss of all my property and perhaps bring my husband into prison in + your place." + </p> + <p> + Grotius rejoined: "I made my prayers to God before as much as this had + been gained, and I have just been uttering fervent thanks to Him for my + deliverance so far as it has been effected. But if the consequences are to + be as you fear, I am ready at once to get into the chest again and be + carried back to prison." + </p> + <p> + But she answered, "No; whatever comes of it, we have you here and will do + all that we can to help you on." + </p> + <p> + Grotius being faint from his sufferings, the lady brought him a glass of + Spanish wine, but was too much flustered to find even a cloak or shawl to + throw over him. Leaving him sitting there in his very thin attire, just as + he had got out of the chest, she went to the front warehouse to call her + husband. But he prudently declined to go to his unexpected guest. It would + be better in the examination sure to follow, he said, for him to say with + truth that he had not seen him and knew nothing of the escape, from first + to last. + </p> + <p> + Grotius entirely approved of the answer when told to him. Meantime Madame + Daatselaer had gone to her brother-in-law van der Veen, a clothier by + trade, whom she found in his shop talking with an officer of the + Loevestein garrison. She whispered in the clothier's ear, and he, making + an excuse to the officer, followed her home at once. They found Grotius + sitting where he had been left. Van der Veen gave him his hand, saying: + </p> + <p> + "Sir, you are the man of whom the whole country is talking?" + </p> + <p> + "Yes, here I am," was the reply, "and I put myself in your hands—" + </p> + <p> + "There isn't a moment to lose," replied the clothier. "We must help you + away at once." + </p> + <p> + He went immediately in search of one John Lambertsen, a man in whom he + knew he could confide, a Lutheran in religion, a master-mason by + occupation. He found him on a scaffold against the gable-end of a house, + working at his trade. + </p> + <p> + He told him that there was a good deed to be done which he could do better + than any man, that his conscience would never reproach him for it, and + that he would at the same time earn no trifling reward. + </p> + <p> + He begged the mason to procure a complete dress as for a journeyman, and + to follow him to the house of his brother-in-law Daatselaer. + </p> + <p> + Lambertsen soon made his appearance with the doublet, trunk-hose, and + shoes of a bricklayer, together with trowel and measuring-rod. He was + informed who his new journeyman was to be, and Grotius at once put on the + disguise. + </p> + <p> + The doublet did not reach to the waistband of the trunkhose, while those + nether garments stopped short of his knees; the whole attire belonging to + a smaller man than the unfortunate statesman. His delicate white hands, + much exposed by the shortness of the sleeves, looked very unlike those of + a day-labourer, and altogether the new mason presented a somewhat + incongruous and wobegone aspect. Grotius was fearful too lest some of the + preachers and professors frequenting the book-shop next door would + recognize him through his disguise. Madame Daatselaer smeared his face and + hands with chalk and plaster however and whispered encouragement, and so + with a felt hat slouched over his forehead and a yardstick in his hand, he + walked calmly forth into the thronged marketplace and through the town to + the ferry, accompanied by the friendly Lambertsen. It had been agreed that + van der Veen should leave the house in another direction and meet them at + the landing-place. + </p> + <p> + When they got to the ferry, they found the weather as boisterous as ever. + The boatmen absolutely refused to make the dangerous crossing of the + Merwede over which their course lay to the land of Altona, and so into the + Spanish Netherlands, for two such insignificant personages as this mason + and his scarecrow journeyman. + </p> + <p> + Lambertsen assured them that it was of the utmost importance that he + should cross the water at once. He had a large contract for purchasing + stone at Altona for a public building on which he was engaged. Van der + Veen coming up added his entreaties, protesting that he too was interested + in this great stone purchase, and so by means of offering a larger price + than they at first dared to propose, they were able to effect their + passage. + </p> + <p> + After landing, Lambertsen and Grotius walked to Waalwyk, van der Veen + returning the same evening to Gorcum. It was four o'clock in the afternoon + when they reached Waalwyk, where a carriage was hired to convey the + fugitive to Antwerp. The friendly mason here took leave of his illustrious + journeyman, having first told the driver that his companion was a + disguised bankrupt fleeing from Holland into foreign territory to avoid + pursuit by his creditors. This would explain his slightly concealing his + face in passing through a crowd in any village. + </p> + <p> + Grotius proved so ignorant of the value of different coins in making small + payments on the road, that the honest waggoner, on being occasionally + asked who the odd-looking stranger was, answered that he was a bankrupt, + and no wonder, for he did not know one piece of money from another. For, + his part he thought him little better than a fool. + </p> + <p> + Such was the depreciatory opinion formed by the Waalwyk coachman as to the + "rising light of the world" and the "miracle of Holland." They travelled + all night and, arriving on the morning of the 21st within a few leagues of + Antwerp, met a patrol of soldiers, who asked Grotius for his passport. He + enquired in whose service they were, and was told in that of "Red Rod," as + the chief bailiff of Antwerp was called. That functionary happened to be + near, and the traveller approaching him said that his passport was on his + feet, and forthwith told him his name and story. + </p> + <p> + Red Rod treated him at once with perfect courtesy, offered him a horse for + himself with a mounted escort, and so furthered his immediate entrance to + Antwerp. Grotius rode straight to the house of a banished friend of his, + the preacher Grevinkhoven. He was told by the daughter of that clergyman + that her father was upstairs ministering at the bedside of his sick wife. + But so soon as the traveller had sent up his name, both the preacher and + the invalid came rushing downstairs to fall upon the neck of one who + seemed as if risen from the dead. + </p> + <p> + The news spread, and Episcopius and other exiled friends soon thronged to + the house of Grevinkhoven, where they all dined together in great glee, + Grotius, still in his journeyman's clothes, narrating the particulars of + his wonderful escape. + </p> + <p> + He had no intention of tarrying in his resting-place at Antwerp longer + than was absolutely necessary. Intimations were covertly made to him that + a brilliant destiny might be in store for him should he consent to enter + the service of the Archdukes, nor were there waning rumours, circulated as + a matter of course by his host of enemies, that he was about to become a + renegade to country and religion. There was as much truth in the slanders + as in the rest of the calumnies of which he had been the victim during his + career. He placed on record a proof of his loyal devotion to his country + in the letters which he wrote from Antwerp within a week of his arrival + there. With his subsequent history, his appearance and long residence at + the French court as ambassador of Sweden, his memorable labours in + history, diplomacy, poetry, theology, the present narrative is not + concerned. Driven from the service of his Fatherland, of which his name to + all time is one of the proudest garlands, he continued to be a benefactor + not only to her but to all mankind. If refutation is sought of the charge + that republics are ungrateful, it will certainly not be found in the + history of Hugo Grotius or John of Barneveld. + </p> + <p> + Nor is there need to portray the wrath of Captain Deventer when he + returned to Castle Loevestein. + </p> + <p> + "Here is the cage, but your bird is flown," said corpulent Maria Grotius + with a placid smile. The Commandant solaced himself by uttering + imprecations on her, on her husband, and on Elsje van Houwening. But these + curses could not bring back the fugitive. He flew to Gorcum to browbeat + the Daatselaers and to search the famous trunk. He found in it the big New + Testament and some skeins of thread, together with an octavo or two of + theology and of Greek tragedies; but the Arminian was not in it, and was + gone from the custody of the valiant Deventer for ever. + </p> + <p> + After a brief period Madame de Groot was released and rejoined her + husband. Elsje van Houwening, true heroine of the adventure, was + subsequently married to the faithful servant of Grotius, who during the + two years' imprisonment had been taught Latin and the rudiments of law by + his master, so that he subsequently rose to be a thriving and respectable + advocate at the tribunals of Holland. + </p> + <p> + The Stadholder, when informed of the escape of the prisoner, observed, "I + always thought the black pig was deceiving me," making not very + complimentary allusion to the complexion and size of the lady who had thus + aided the escape of her husband. + </p> + <p> + He is also reported as saying that it "is no wonder they could not keep + Grotius in prison, as he has more wit than all his judges put together." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXIII. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Barneveld's Sons plot against Maurice—The Conspiracy betrayed to + Maurice—Escape of Stoutenburg—Groeneveld is arrested—Mary of + Barneveld appeals to the Stadholder—Groeneveld condemned to Death— + Execution of Groeneveld. +</pre> + <p> + The widow of Barneveld had remained, since the last scene of the fatal + tragedy on the Binnenhof, in hopeless desolation. The wife of the man who + during a whole generation of mankind had stood foremost among the foremost + of the world, and had been one of those chief actors and directors in + human affairs to whom men's eyes turned instinctively from near and from + afar, had led a life of unbroken prosperity. An heiress in her own right, + Maria van Utrecht had laid the foundation of her husband's wealth by her + union with the rising young lawyer and statesman. Her two sons and two + daughters had grown up around her, all four being married into the leading + families of the land, and with apparently long lives of prosperity and + usefulness before them. And now the headsman's sword had shivered all this + grandeur and happiness at a blow. The name of the dead statesman had + become a word of scoffing and reproach; vagabond mountebanks enacted + ribald scenes to his dishonour in the public squares and streets; + ballad-mongers yelled blasphemous libels upon him in the very ears of his + widow and children. For party hatred was not yet glutted with the blood it + had drunk. + </p> + <p> + It would be idle to paint the misery of this brokenhearted woman. + </p> + <p> + The great painters of the epoch have preserved her face to posterity; the + grief-stricken face of a hard-featured but commanding and not uncomely + woman, the fountains of whose tears seem exhausted; a face of austere and + noble despair. A decorous veil should be thrown over the form of that aged + matron, for whose long life and prosperity Fate took such merciless + vengeance at last. + </p> + <p> + For the woes of Maria of Barneveld had scarcely begun. Desolation had + become her portion, but dishonour had not yet crossed her threshold. There + were sterner strokes in store for her than that which smote her husband on + the scaffold. + </p> + <p> + She had two sons, both in the prime of life. The eldest, Reinier, Lord of + Groeneveld, who had married a widow of rank and wealth, Madame de + Brandwyk, was living since the death of his father in comparative ease, + but entire obscurity. An easy-tempered, genial, kindly gentleman, he had + been always much beloved by his friends and, until the great family + catastrophe, was popular with the public, but of an infirm and vacillating + character, easily impressed by others, and apt to be led by stronger + natures than his own. He had held the lucrative office of head forester of + Delfland of which he had now been deprived. + </p> + <p> + The younger son William, called, from an estate conferred on him by his + father, Lord of Stoutenburg, was of a far different mould. We have seen + him at an earlier period of this narrative attached to the embassy of + Francis Aerssens in Paris, bearing then from another estate the unmusical + title of Craimgepolder, and giving his subtle and dangerous chief great + cause of complaint by his irregular, expensive habits. He had been however + rather a favourite with Henry IV., who had so profound a respect for the + father as to consult him, and him only of all foreign statesmen, in the + gravest affairs of his reign, and he had even held an office of honour and + emolument at his court. Subsequently he had embraced the military career, + and was esteemed a soldier of courage and promise. As captain of cavalry + and governor of the fortress of Bergen op Zoom, he occupied a + distinguished and lucrative position, and was likely, so soon as the Truce + ran to its close, to make a name for himself in that gigantic political + and religious war which had already opened in Bohemia, and in which it was + evident the Republic would soon be desperately involved. His wife, Walburg + de Marnix, was daughter to one of the noblest characters in the history of + the Netherlands, or of any history, the illustrious Sainte-Aldegonde. Two + thousand florins a year from his father's estate had been settled on him + at his marriage, which, in addition to his official and military income, + placed him in a position of affluence. + </p> + <p> + After the death of his father the family estates were confiscated, and he + was likewise deprived of his captaincy and his governorship. He was + reduced at a blow from luxury and high station to beggary and obscurity. + At the renewal of the war he found himself, for no fault of his own, + excluded from the service of his country. Yet the Advocate almost in his + last breath had recommended his sons to the Stadholder, and Maurice had + sent a message in response that so long as the sons conducted themselves + well they might rely upon his support. + </p> + <p> + Hitherto they had not conducted themselves otherwise than well. + Stoutenburg, who now dwelt in his house with his mother, was of a dark, + revengeful, turbulent disposition. In the career of arms he had a right to + look forward to success, but thus condemned to brood in idleness on the + cruel wrongs to himself and his house it was not improbable that he might + become dangerous. + </p> + <p> + Years long he fed on projects of vengeance as his daily bread. He was + convinced that his personal grievances were closely entwined with the + welfare of the Commonwealth, and he had sworn to avenge the death of his + father, the misery of his mother, and the wrongs which he was himself + suffering, upon the Stadholder, whom he considered the author of all their + woe. To effect a revolution in the government, and to bring back to power + all the municipal regents whom Maurice had displaced so summarily, in + order, as the son believed, to effect the downfall of the hated Advocate, + this was the determination of Stoutenburg. + </p> + <p> + He did not pause to reflect whether the arm which had been strong enough + to smite to nothingness the venerable statesman in the plenitude of his + power would be too weak to repel the attack of an obscure and disarmed + partisan. He saw only a hated tyrant, murderer, and oppressor, as he + considered him, and he meant to have his life. + </p> + <p> + He had around him a set of daring and desperate men to whom he had from + time to time half confided his designs. A certain unfrocked preacher of + the Remonstrant persuasion, who, according to the fashion of the learned + of that day, had translated his name out of Hendrik Sleet into Henricus + Slatius, was one of his most unscrupulous instruments. Slatius, a big, + swarthy, shag-eared, beetle-browed Hollander, possessed learning of no + ordinary degree, a tempestuous kind of eloquence, and a habit of dealing + with men; especially those of the humbler classes. He was passionate, + greedy, overbearing, violent, and loose of life. He had sworn vengeance + upon the Remonstrants in consequence of a private quarrel, but this did + not prevent him from breathing fire and fury against the + Contra-Remonstrants also, and especially against the Stadholder, whom he + affected to consider the arch-enemy of the whole Commonwealth. + </p> + <p> + Another twelvemonth went by. The Advocate had been nearly four years in + his grave. The terrible German war was in full blaze. The Twelve Years' + Truce had expired, the Republic was once more at war, and Stoutenburg, + forbidden at the head of his troop to campaign with the Stadholder against + the Archdukes, nourished more fiercely than ever his plan against the + Stadholder's life. + </p> + <p> + Besides the ferocious Slatius he had other associates. There was his + cousin by marriage, van der Dussen, a Catholic gentleman, who had married + a daughter of Elias Barneveld, and who shared all Stoutenburg's feelings + of resentment towards Maurice. There was Korenwinder, another Catholic, + formerly occupying an official position of responsibility as secretary of + the town of Berkel, a man of immense corpulence, but none the less an + active and dangerous conspirator. + </p> + <p> + There was van Dyk, a secretary of Bleiswyk, equally active and dangerous, + and as lean and hungry as Korenwinder was fat. Stoutenburg, besides other + rewards, had promised him a cornetcy of cavalry, should their plans be + successful. And there was the brother-in-law of Slatius, one Cornelis + Gerritaen, a joiner by trade, living at Rotterdam, who made himself very + useful in all the details of the conspiracy. + </p> + <p> + For the plot was now arranged, the men just mentioned being its active + agents and in constant communication with Stoutenburg. + </p> + <p> + Korenwinder and van Dyk in the last days of December 1622 drew up a scheme + on paper, which was submitted to their chief and met with his approval. + The document began with a violent invective against the crimes and tyranny + of the Stadholder, demonstrated the necessity of a general change in the + government, and of getting rid of Maurice as an indispensable preliminary, + and laid down the means and method of doing this deed. + </p> + <p> + The Prince was in the daily habit of driving, unattended by his + body-guard, to Ryswyk, about two miles from the Hague. It would not be + difficult for a determined band of men divided into two parties to set + upon him between the stables and his coach, either when alighting from or + about to enter it—the one party to kill him while the other + protected the retreat of the assassins, and beat down such defence as the + few lackeys of the Stadholder could offer. + </p> + <p> + The scheme, thus mapped out, was submitted to Stoutenburg, who gave it his + approval after suggesting a few amendments. The document was then burnt. + It was estimated that twenty men would be needed for the job, and that to + pay them handsomely would require about 6000 guilders. + </p> + <p> + The expenses and other details of the infamous plot were discussed as + calmly as if it had been an industrial or commercial speculation. But 6000 + guilders was an immense sum to raise, and the Seigneur de Stoutenburg was + a beggar. His associates were as forlorn as himself, but his + brother-in-law, the ex-Ambassador van der Myle, was living at Beverwyk + under the supervision of the police, his property not having been + confiscated. Stoutenburg paid him a visit, accompanied by the Reverend + Slatius, in hopes of getting funds from him, but at the first obscure hint + of the infamous design van der Myle faced them with such looks, gestures, + and words of disgust and indignation that the murderous couple recoiled, + the son of Barneveld saying to the expreacher: "Let us be off, Slaet,'tis + a mere cur. Nothing is to be made of him." + </p> + <p> + The other son of Barneveld, the Seigneur de Groeneveld, had means and + credit. His brother had darkly hinted to him the necessity of getting rid + of Maurice, and tried to draw him into the plot. Groeneveld, more unstable + than water, neither repelled nor encouraged these advances. He joined in + many conversations with Stoutenburg, van Dyk, and Korenwinder, but always + weakly affected not to know what they were driving at. "When we talk of + business," said van Dyk to him one day, "you are always turning off from + us and from the subject. You had better remain." Many anonymous letters + were sent to him, calling on him to strike for vengeance on the murderer + of his father, and for the redemption of his native land and the + Remonstrant religion from foul oppression. + </p> + <p> + At last yielding to the persuasions and threats of his fierce younger + brother, who assured him that the plot would succeed, the government be + revolutionized, and that then all property would be at the mercy of the + victors, he agreed to endorse certain bills which Korenwinder undertook to + negotiate. Nothing could be meaner, more cowardly, and more murderous than + the proceedings of the Seigneur de Groeneveld. He seems to have felt no + intense desire of vengeance upon Maurice, which certainly would not have + been unnatural, but he was willing to supply money for his assassination. + At the same time he was careful to insist that this pecuniary advance was + by no means a free gift, but only a loan to be repaid by his more + bloodthirsty brother upon demand with interest. With a businesslike + caution, in ghastly contrast with the foulness of the contract, he exacted + a note of hand from Stoutenburg covering the whole amount of his + disbursements. There might come a time, he thought, when his brother's + paper would be more negotiable than it was at that moment. + </p> + <p> + Korenwinder found no difficulty in discounting Groeneveld's bills, and the + necessary capital was thus raised for the vile enterprise. Van Dyk, the + lean and hungry conspirator, now occupied himself vigorously in engaging + the assassins, while his corpulent colleague remained as treasurer of the + company. Two brothers Blansaerts, woollen manufacturers at Leyden—one + of whom had been a student of theology in the Remonstrant Church and had + occasionally preached—and a certain William Party, a Walloon by + birth, but likewise a woollen worker at Leyden, agreed to the secretary's + propositions. He had at first told, them that their services would be + merely required for the forcible liberation of two Remonstrant clergymen, + Niellius and Poppius, from the prison at Haarlem. Entertaining his new + companions at dinner, however, towards the end of January, van Dyk, + getting very drunk, informed them that the object of the enterprise was to + kill the Stadholder; that arrangements had been made for effecting an + immediate change in the magistracies in all the chief cities of Holland so + soon as the deed was done; that all the recently deposed regents would + enter the Hague at once, supported by a train of armed peasants from the + country; and that better times for the oppressed religion, for the + Fatherland, and especially for everyone engaged in the great undertaking, + would begin with the death of the tyrant. Each man taking direct part in + the assassination would receive at least 300 guilders, besides being + advanced to offices of honour and profit according to his capacity. + </p> + <p> + The Blansaerts assured their superior that entire reliance might be placed + on their fidelity, and that they knew of three or four other men in Leyden + "as firm as trees and fierce as lions," whom they would engage—a + fustian worker, a tailor, a chimney-sweeper, and one or two other + mechanics. The looseness and utter recklessness with which this hideous + conspiracy was arranged excites amazement. Van Dyk gave the two brothers + 100 pistoles in gold—a coin about equal to a guinea—for their + immediate reward as well as for that of the comrades to be engaged. Yet it + seems almost certain from subsequent revelations that they were intending + all the time to deceive him, to take as much money as they could get from + him, "to milk, the cow as long as she would give milk," as William Party + expressed it, and then to turn round upon and betray him. It was a + dangerous game however, which might not prove entirely successful. + </p> + <p> + Van Dyk duly communicated with Stoutenburg, who grew more and more + feverish with hatred and impatience as the time for gratifying those + passions drew nigh, and frequently said that he would like to tear the + Stadholder to pieces with his own hands. He preferred however to act as + controlling director over the band of murderers now enrolled. + </p> + <p> + For in addition to the Leyden party, the Reverend Slatius, supplied with + funds by van Dyk, had engaged at Rotterdam his brother-in-law Gerritsen, a + joiner, living in that city, together with three sailors named + respectively Dirk, John, and Herman. + </p> + <p> + The ex-clergyman's house was also the arsenal of the conspiracy, and here + were stored away a stock of pistols, snaphances, and sledge-hammers—together + with that other death-dealing machinery, the whole edition of the + 'Clearshining Torch', an inflammatory, pamphlet by Slatius—all to be + used on the fatal day fast approaching. + </p> + <p> + On the 1st February van Dyk visited Slatius at Rotterdam. He found + Gerritsen hard at work. + </p> + <p> + There in a dark back kitchen, by the lurid light of the fire in a dim + wintry afternoon, stood the burly Slatius, with his swarthy face and heavy + eyebrows, accompanied by his brother-in-law the joiner, both in workman's + dress, melting lead, running bullets, drying powder, and burnishing and + arranging the fire-arms and other tools to be used in the great crime now + so rapidly maturing. The lean, busy, restless van Dyk, with his adust and + sinister visage, came peering in upon the couple thus engaged, and + observed their preparations with warm approval. + </p> + <p> + He recommended that in addition to Dirk, John, and Herman, a few more + hardy seafaring men should be engaged, and Slatius accordingly secured + next day the services of one Jerome Ewouts and three other sailors. They + were not informed of the exact nature of the enterprise, but were told + that it was a dangerous although not a desperate one, and sure to be of + great service to the Fatherland. They received, as all the rest had done, + between 200 and 300 guilders in gold, that they would all be promoted to + be captains and first mates. + </p> + <p> + It was agreed that all the conspirators should assemble four days later at + the Hague on Sunday, the 5th February, at the inn of the "Golden Helmet." + The next day, Monday the 6th, had been fixed by Stoutenburg for doing the + deed. Van Dyk, who had great confidence in the eloquence of William Party, + the Walloon wool manufacturer, had arranged that he should make a + discourse to them all in a solitary place in the downs between that city + and the sea-shore, taking for his theme or brief the Clearshining Torch of + Slatius. + </p> + <p> + On Saturday that eminent divine entertained his sister and her husband + Gerritsen, Jerome Ewouts, who was at dinner but half informed as to the + scope of the great enterprise, and several other friends who were entirely + ignorant of it. Slatius was in high spirits, although his sister, who had + at last become acquainted with the vile plot, had done nothing but weep + all day long. They had better be worms, with a promise of further reward + and an intimation she said, and eat dirt for their food, than crawl in so + base a business. Her brother comforted her with assurances that the + project was sure to result in a triumph for religion and Fatherland, and + drank many healths at his table to the success of all engaged in it. That + evening he sent off a great chest filled with arms and ammunition to the + "Golden Helmet" at the Hague under the charge of Jerome Ewouts and his + three mates. Van Dyk had already written a letter to the landlord of that + hostelry engaging a room there, and saying that the chest contained + valuable books and documents to be used in a lawsuit, in which he was soon + to be engaged, before the supreme tribunal. + </p> + <p> + On the Sunday this bustling conspirator had John Blansaert and William + Party to dine with him at the "Golden Helmet" in the Hague, and produced + seven packages neatly folded, each containing gold pieces to the amount of + twenty pounds sterling. These were for themselves and the others whom they + had reported as engaged by them in Leyden. Getting drunk as usual, he + began to bluster of the great political revolution impending, and after + dinner examined the carbines of his guests. He asked if those weapons were + to be relied upon. "We can blow a hair to pieces with them at twenty + paces," they replied. "Ah! would that I too could be of the party," said + van Dyk, seizing one of the carbines. "No, no," said John Blansaert, "we + can do the deed better without you than with you. You must look out for + the defence." + </p> + <p> + Van Dyk then informed them that they, with one of the Rotterdam sailors, + were to attack Maurice as he got out of his coach at Ryswyk, pin him + between the stables and the coach, and then and there do him to death. + "You are not to leave him," he cried, "till his soul has left his body." + </p> + <p> + The two expressed their hearty concurrence with this arrangement, and took + leave of their host for the night, going, they said, to distribute the + seven packages of blood-money. They found Adam Blansaert waiting for them + in the downs, and immediately divided the whole amount between themselves + and him—the chimney-sweeper, tailor, and fustian worker, "firm as + trees and fierce as lions," having never had any existence save in their + fertile imaginations. + </p> + <p> + On Monday, 6th February, van Dyk had a closing interview with Stoutenburg + and his brother at the house of Groeneveld, and informed them that the + execution of the plot had been deferred to the following day. Stoutenburg + expressed disgust and impatience at the delay. "I should like to tear the + Stadholder to pieces with my own hands!" he cried. He was pacified on + hearing that the arrangements had been securely made for the morrow, and + turning to his brother observed, "Remember that you can never retract. You + are in our power and all your estates at our mercy." He then explained the + manner in which the magistracies of Leyden, Gouda, Rotterdam, and other + cities were to be instantly remodelled after the death of Maurice, the + ex-regents of the Hague at the head of a band of armed peasants being + ready at a moment's warning to take possession of the political capital. + </p> + <p> + Prince Frederic Henry moreover, he hinted darkly and falsely, but in a + manner not to be mistaken, was favourable to the movement, and would after + the murder of Maurice take the government into his hands. + </p> + <p> + Stoutenburg then went quietly home to pass the day and sleep at his + mother's house awaiting the eventful morning of Tuesday. + </p> + <p> + Van Dyk went back to his room at the "Golden Helmet" and began inspecting + the contents of the arms and ammunition chest which Jerome Ewouts and his + three mates had brought the night before from Rotterdam. He had been + somewhat unquiet at having seen nothing of those mariners during the day; + when looking out of window, he saw one of them in conference with some + soldiers. A minute afterwards he heard a bustle in the rooms below, and + found that the house was occupied by a guard, and that Gerritsen, with the + three first engaged sailors Dirk, Peter, and Herman, had been arrested at + the Zotje. He tried in vain to throw the arms back into the chest and + conceal it under the bed, but it was too late. Seizing his hat and + wrapping himself in his cloak, with his sword by his side, he walked + calmly down the stairs looking carelessly at the group of soldiers and + prisoners who filled the passages. A waiter informed the provost-marshal + in command that the gentleman was a respectable boarder at the tavern, + well known to him for many years. The conspirator passed unchallenged and + went straight to inform Stoutenburg. + </p> + <p> + The four mariners, last engaged by Slatius at Rotterdam, had signally + exemplified the danger of half confidences. Surprised that they should + have been so mysteriously entrusted with the execution of an enterprise + the particulars of which were concealed from them, and suspecting that + crime alone could command such very high prices as had been paid and + promised by the ex-clergyman, they had gone straight to the residence of + the Stadholder, after depositing the chest at the "Golden Helmet." + </p> + <p> + Finding that he had driven as usual to Ryswyk, they followed him thither, + and by dint of much importunity obtained an audience. If the enterprise + was a patriotic one, they reasoned, he would probably know of it and + approve it. If it were criminal, it would be useful for them to reveal and + dangerous to conceal it. + </p> + <p> + They told the story so far as they knew it to the Prince and showed him + the money, 300 florins apiece, which they had already received from + Slatius. Maurice hesitated not an instant. It was evident that a dark + conspiracy was afoot. He ordered the sailors to return to the Hague by + another and circuitous road through Voorburg, while he lost not a moment + himself in hurrying back as fast as his horses would carry him. Summoning + the president and several councillors of the chief tribunal, he took + instant measures to take possession of the two taverns, and arrest all the + strangers found in them. + </p> + <p> + Meantime van Dyk came into the house of the widow Barneveld and found + Stoutenburg in the stable-yard. He told him the plot was discovered, the + chest of arms at the "Golden Helmet" found. "Are there any private letters + or papers in the bog?" asked Stoutenburg. "None relating to the affair," + was the answer. + </p> + <p> + "Take yourself off as fast as possible," said Stoutenburg. Van Dyk needed + no urging. He escaped through the stables and across the fields in the + direction of Leyden. After skulking about for a week however and making + very little progress, he was arrested at Hazerswoude, having broken + through the ice while attempting to skate across the inundated and frozen + pastures in that region. + </p> + <p> + Proclamations were at once made, denouncing the foul conspiracy in which + the sons of the late Advocate Barneveld, the Remonstrant clergyman + Slatius, and others, were the ringleaders, and offering 4000 florins each + for their apprehension. A public thanksgiving for the deliverance was made + in all the churches on the 8th February. + </p> + <p> + On the 12th February the States-General sent letters to all their + ambassadors and foreign agents, informing them of this execrable plot to + overthrow the Commonwealth and take the life of the Stadholder, set on + foot by certain Arminian preachers and others of that faction, and this + too in winter, when the ice and snow made hostile invasion practicable, + and when the enemy was encamped in so many places in the neighbourhood. + "The Arminians," said the despatch, "are so filled with bitterness that + they would rather the Republic should be lost than that their pretended + grievances should go unredressed." Almost every pulpit shook with + Contra-Remonstrant thunder against the whole society of Remonstrants, who + were held up to the world as rebels and prince-murderers; the criminal + conspiracy being charged upon them as a body. Hardly a man of that + persuasion dared venture into the streets and public places, for fear of + being put to death by the rabble. The Chevalier William of Nassau, natural + son of the Stadholder, was very loud and violent in all the taverns and + tap-rooms, drinking mighty draughts to the damnation of the Arminians. + </p> + <p> + Many of the timid in consequence shrank away from the society and joined + the Contra-Remonstrant Church, while the more courageous members, together + with the leaders of that now abhorred communion, published long and + stirring appeals to the universal sense of justice, which was outraged by + the spectacle of a whole sect being punished for a crime committed by a + few individuals, who had once been unworthy members of it. + </p> + <p> + Meantime hue and cry was made after the fugitive conspirators. The + Blansaerts and William Party having set off from Leyden towards the Hague + on Monday night, in order, as they said, to betray their employers, whose + money they had taken, and whose criminal orders they had agreed to + execute, attempted to escape, but were arrested within ten days. They were + exhibited at their prison at Amsterdam to an immense concourse at a + shilling a peep, the sums thus collected being distributed to the poor. + Slatius made his way disguised as a boor into Friesland, and after various + adventures attempted to cross the Bourtange Moors to Lingen. Stopping to + refresh himself at a tavern near Koevorden, he found himself in the + tap-room in presence of Quartermaster Blau and a company of soldiers from + the garrison. The dark scowling boor, travel-stained and weary, with felt + hat slouched over his forbidding visage, fierce and timorous at once like + a hunted wild beast, excited their suspicion. Seeing himself watched, he + got up, paid his scot, and departed, leaving his can of beer untasted. + This decided the quartermaster, who accordingly followed the peasant out + of the house, and arrested him as a Spanish spy on the watch for the train + of specie which the soldiers were then conveying into Koevorden Castle. + </p> + <p> + Slatius protested his innocence of any such design, and vehemently + besought the officer to release him, telling him as a reason for his + urgency and an explanation of his unprepossessing aspect—that he was + an oculist from Amsterdam, John Hermansen by name, that he had just + committed a homicide in that place, and was fleeing from justice. + </p> + <p> + The honest quartermaster saw no reason why a suspected spy should go free + because he proclaimed himself a murderer, nor why an oculist should escape + the penalties of homicide. "The more reason," he said, "why thou shouldst + be my prisoner." The ex-preacher was arrested and shut up in the state + prison at the Hague. + </p> + <p> + The famous engraver Visser executed a likeness on copper-plate of the grim + malefactor as he appeared in his boor's disguise. The portrait, + accompanied by a fiercely written broadsheet attacking the Remonstrant + Church, had a great circulation, and deepened the animosity against the + sect upon which the unfrocked preacher had sworn vengeance. His evil face + and fame thus became familiar to the public, while the term Hendrik Slaet + became a proverb at pot-houses, being held equivalent among tipplers to + shirking the bottle. + </p> + <p> + Korenwinder, the treasurer of the association, coming to visit Stoutenburg + soon after van Dyk had left him, was informed of the discovery of the plot + and did his best to escape, but was arrested within a fortnight's time. + </p> + <p> + Stoutenburg himself acted with his usual promptness and coolness. Having + gone straightway to his brother to notify him of the discovery and to urge + him to instant flight, he contrived to disappear. A few days later a chest + of merchandise was brought to the house of a certain citizen of Rotterdam, + who had once been a fiddler, but was now a man of considerable property. + The chest, when opened, was found to contain the Seigneur de Stoutenburg, + who in past times had laid the fiddler under obligations, and in whose + house he now lay concealed for many days, and until the strictness with + which all roads and ferries in the neighbourhood were watched at first had + somewhat given way. Meantime his cousin van der Dussen had also effected + his escape, and had joined him in Rotterdam. The faithful fiddler then, + for a thousand florins, chartered a trading vessel commanded by one Jacob + Beltje to take a cargo of Dutch cheese to Wesel on the Rhine. By this + means, after a few adventures, they effected their escape, and, arriving + not long afterwards at Brussels, were formally taken under the protection + of the Archduchess Isabella. + </p> + <p> + Stoutenburg afterwards travelled in France and Italy, and returned to + Brussels. His wife, loathing his crime and spurning all further + communication with him, abandoned him to his fate. The daughter of Marnix + of Sainte-Aldegonde had endured poverty, obscurity, and unmerited obloquy, + which had become the lot of the great statesman's family after his tragic + end, but she came of a race that would not brook dishonour. The + conspirator and suborner of murder and treason, the hirer and companion of + assassins, was no mate for her. + </p> + <p> + Stoutenburg hesitated for years as to his future career, strangely enough + keeping up a hope of being allowed to return to his country. + </p> + <p> + Subsequently he embraced the cause of his country's enemies, converted + himself to the Roman Church, and obtained a captaincy of horse in the + Spanish service. He was seen one day, to the disgust of many spectators, + to enter Antwerp in black foreign uniform, at the head of his troopers, + waving a standard with a death's-head embroidered upon it, and wearing, + like his soldiers, a sable scarf and plume. History disdains to follow + further the career of the renegade, traitor, end assassin. + </p> + <p> + When the Seigneur de Groeneveld learned from his younger brother, on the + eventful 6th of February, that the plot had been discovered, he gave + himself up for lost. Remorse and despair, fastening upon his naturally + feeble character, seemed to render him powerless. His wife, of more + hopeful disposition than himself and of less heroic mould than Walburg de + Marnix, encouraged him to fly. He fled accordingly, through the desolate + sandy downs which roll between the Hague and the sea, to Scheveningen, + then an obscure fishing village on the coast, at a league's distance from + the capital. Here a fisherman, devoted to him and his family, received him + in his hut, disguised him in boatman's attire, and went with him to the + strand, proposing to launch his pinkie, put out at once to sea, and to + land him on the English coast, the French coast, in Hamburg—where he + would. + </p> + <p> + The sight of that long, sandy beach stretching for more than seventy miles + in an unbroken, melancholy line, without cove, curve, or indentation to + break its cruel monotony, and with the wild waves of the German Ocean, + lashed by a wintry storm, breaking into white foam as far as the eye could + reach, appalled the fugitive criminal. With the certainty of an + ignominious death behind him, he shrank abjectly from the terrors of the + sea, and, despite the honest fisherman's entreaties, refused to enter the + boat and face the storm. He wandered feebly along the coast, still + accompanied by his humble friend, to another little village, where the + fisherman procured a waggon, which took them as far as Sandvoort. Thence + he made his way through Egmond and Petten and across the Marsdiep to + Tegel, where not deeming himself safe he had himself ferried over to the + neighbouring island of Vlieland. Here amongst the quicksands, whirlpools, + and shallows which mark the last verge of habitable Holland, the unhappy + fugitive stood at bay. + </p> + <p> + Meantime information had come to the authorities that a suspicious + stranger had been seen at Scheveningen. The fisherman's wife was arrested. + Threatened with torture she at last confessed with whom her husband had + fled and whither. Information was sent to the bailiff of Vlieland, who + with a party of followers made a strict search through his narrow + precincts. A group of seamen seated on the sands was soon discovered, + among whom, dressed in shaggy pea jacket with long fisherman's boots, was + the Seigneur de Groeneveld, who, easily recognized through his disguise, + submitted to his captors without a struggle. The Scheveningen fisherman, + who had been so faithful to him, making a sudden spring, eluded his + pursuers and disappeared; thus escaping the gibbet which would probably + have been his doom instead of the reward of 4000 golden guilders which he + might have had for betraying him. Thus a sum more than double the amount + originally furnished by Groeneveld, as the capital of the assassination + company, had been rejected by the Rotterdam boatman who saved Stoutenburg, + and by the Scheveningen fisherman who was ready to save Groeneveld. On the + 19th February, within less than a fortnight from the explosion of the + conspiracy, the eldest son of Barneveld was lodged in the Gevangen Poort + or state prison of the Hague. + </p> + <p> + The awful news of the 6th February had struck the widow of Barneveld as + with a thunderbolt. Both her sons were proclaimed as murderers and + suborners of assassins, and a price put upon their heads. She remained for + days neither speaking nor weeping; scarcely eating, drinking, or sleeping. + She seemed frozen to stone. Her daughters and friends could not tell + whether she were dying or had lost her reason. At length the escape of + Stoutenburg and the capture of Groeneveld seemed to rouse her from her + trance. She then stooped to do what she had sternly refused to do when her + husband was in the hands of the authorities. Accompanied by the wife and + infant son of Groeneveld she obtained an audience of the stern Stadholder, + fell on her knees before him, and implored mercy and pardon for her son. + </p> + <p> + Maurice received her calmly and not discourteously, but held out no hopes + of pardon. The criminal was in the hands of justice, he said, and he had + no power to interfere. But there can scarcely be a doubt that he had power + after the sentence to forgive or to commute, and it will be remembered + that when Barneveld himself was about to suffer, the Prince had asked the + clergyman Walaeus with much anxiety whether the prisoner in his message + had said nothing of pardon. + </p> + <p> + Referring to the bitter past, Maurice asked Madame de Barneveld why she + not asked mercy for her son, having refused to do so for her husband. + </p> + <p> + Her answer was simple and noble: + </p> + <p> + "My husband was innocent of crime," she said; "my son is guilty." + </p> + <p> + The idea of pardon in this case was of course preposterous. Certainly if + Groeneveld had been forgiven, it would have been impossible to punish the + thirteen less guilty conspirators, already in the hands of justice, whom + he had hired to commit the assassination. The spectacle of the two + cowardly ringleaders going free while the meaner criminals were gibbeted + would have been a shock to the most rudimentary ideas of justice. It would + have been an equal outrage to pardon the younger Barnevelds for intended + murder, in which they had almost succeeded, when their great father had + already suffered for a constructive lese-majesty, the guilt of which had + been stoutly denied. Yet such is the dreary chain of cause and effect that + it is certain, had pardon been nobly offered to the statesman, whose views + of constitutional law varied from those of the dominant party, the later + crime would never have been committed. But Francis Aerssens—considering + his own and other partisans lives at stake if the States' right party did + not fall—had been able to bear down all thoughts of mercy. He was + successful, was called to the house of nobles, and regained the embassy of + Paris, while the house of Barneveld was trodden into the dust of dishonour + and ruin. Rarely has an offended politician's revenge been more thorough + than his. Never did the mocking fiend betray his victims into the hands of + the avenger more sardonically than was done in this sombre tragedy. + </p> + <p> + The trials of the prisoners were rapidly conducted. Van Dyk, cruelly + tortured, confessed on the rack all the details of the conspiracy as they + were afterwards embodied in the sentences and have been stated in the + preceding narrative. Groeneveld was not tortured. His answers to the + interrogatories were so vague as to excite amazement at his general + ignorance of the foul transaction or at the feebleness of his memory, + while there was no attempt on his part to exculpate himself from the + damning charge. That it was he who had furnished funds for the proposed + murder and mutiny, knowing the purpose to which they were to be applied, + was proved beyond all cavil and fully avowed by him. + </p> + <p> + On the 28th May, he, Korenwinder, and van Dyk were notified that they were + to appear next day in the courthouse to hear their sentence, which would + immediately afterwards be executed. + </p> + <p> + That night his mother, wife, and son paid him a long visit of farewell in + his prison. The Gevangen Poort of the Hague, an antique but mean building + of brown brick and commonplace aspect, still stands in one of the most + public parts of the city. A gloomy archway, surmounted by windows grimly + guarded by iron lattice-work, forms the general thoroughfare from the + aristocratic Plaats and Kneuterdyk and Vyverberg to the inner court of the + ancient palace. The cells within are dark, noisome, and dimly lighted, and + even to this day the very instruments of torture, used in the trials of + these and other prisoners, may be seen by the curious. Half a century + later the brothers de Witt were dragged from this prison to be literally + torn to pieces by an infuriated mob. + </p> + <p> + The misery of that midnight interview between the widow of Barneveld, her + daughter-in-law, and the condemned son and husband need not be described. + As the morning approached, the gaoler warned the matrons to take their + departure that the prisoner might sleep. + </p> + <p> + "What a woful widow you will be," said Groeneveld to his wife, as she sank + choking with tears upon the ground. The words suddenly aroused in her the + sense of respect for their name. + </p> + <p> + "At least for all this misery endured," she said firmly, "do me enough + honour to die like a gentleman." He promised it. The mother then took + leave of the son, and History drops a decorous veil henceforth over the + grief-stricken form of Mary of Barneveld. + </p> + <p> + Next morning the life-guards of the Stadholder and other troops were drawn + up in battle-array in the outer and inner courtyard of the supreme + tribunal and palace. At ten o'clock Groeneveld came forth from the prison. + The Stadholder had granted as a boon to the family that he might be + neither fettered nor guarded as he walked to the tribunal. The prisoner + did not forget his parting promise to his wife. He appeared full-dressed + in velvet cloak and plumed hat, with rapier by his side, walking calmly + through the inner courtyard to the great hall. Observing the windows of + the Stadholder's apartments crowded with spectators, among whom he seemed + to recognize the Prince's face, he took off his hat and made a graceful + and dignified salute. He greeted with courtesy many acquaintances among + the crowd through which he passed. He entered the hall and listened in + silence to the sentence condemning him to be immediately executed with the + sword. Van Dyk and Korenwinder shared the same doom, but were + provisionally taken back to prison. + </p> + <p> + Groeneveld then walked calmly and gracefully as before from the hall to + the scaffold, attended by his own valet, and preceded by the + provost-marshal and assistants. He was to suffer, not where his father had + been beheaded, but on the "Green Sod." This public place of execution for + ordinary criminals was singularly enough in the most elegant and + frequented quarter of the Hague. A few rods from the Gevangen Poort, at + the western end of the Vyverberg, on the edge of the cheerful triangle + called the Plaats, and looking directly down the broad and stately + Kneuterdyk, at the end of which stood Aremberg House, lately the residence + of the great Advocate, was the mean and sordid scaffold. + </p> + <p> + Groeneveld ascended it with perfect composure. The man who had been + browbeaten into crime by an overbearing and ferocious brother, who had + quailed before the angry waves of the North Sea, which would have borne + him to a place of entire security, now faced his fate with a smile upon + his lips. He took off his hat, cloak, and sword, and handed them to his + valet. He calmly undid his ruff and wristbands of pointlace, and tossed + them on the ground. With his own hands and the assistance of his servant + he unbuttoned his doublet, laying breast and neck open without suffering + the headsman's hands to approach him. + </p> + <p> + He then walked to the heap of sand and spoke a very few words to the vast + throng of spectators. + </p> + <p> + "Desire of vengeance and evil counsel," he said, "have brought me here. If + I have wronged any man among you, I beg him for Christ's sake to forgive + me." + </p> + <p> + Kneeling on the sand with his face turned towards his father's house at + the end of the Kneuterdyk, he said his prayers. Then putting a red velvet + cap over his eyes, he was heard to mutter: + </p> + <p> + "O God! what a man I was once, and what am I now?" + </p> + <p> + Calmly folding his hands, he said, "Patience." + </p> + <p> + The executioner then struck off his head at a blow. His body, wrapped in a + black cloak, was sent to his house and buried in his father's tomb. + </p> + <p> + Van Dyk and Korenwinder were executed immediately afterwards. They were + quartered and their heads exposed on stakes. The joiner Gerritsen and the + three sailors had already been beheaded. The Blansaerts and William Party, + together with the grim Slatius, who was savage and turbulent to the last, + had suffered on the 5th of May. + </p> + <p> + Fourteen in all were executed for this crime, including an unfortunate + tailor and two other mechanics of Leyden, who had heard something + whispered about the conspiracy, had nothing whatever to do with it, but + from ignorance, apathy, or timidity did not denounce it. The ringleader + and the equally guilty van der Dussen had, as has been seen, effected + their escape. + </p> + <p> + Thus ended the long tragedy of the Barnevelds. The result of this foul + conspiracy and its failure to effect the crime proposed strengthened + immensely the power, popularity, and influence of the Stadholder, made the + orthodox church triumphant, and nearly ruined the sect of the + Remonstrants, the Arminians—most unjustly in reality, although with + a pitiful show of reason—being held guilty of the crime of + Stoutenburg and Slatius. + </p> + <p> + The Republic—that magnificent commonwealth which in its infancy had + confronted, single-handed, the greatest empire of the earth, and had + wrested its independence from the ancient despot after a forty years' + struggle—had now been rent in twain, although in very unequal + portions, by the fiend of political and religious hatred. Thus crippled, + she was to go forth and take her share in that awful conflict now in full + blaze, and of which after-ages were to speak with a shudder as the Thirty + Years' War. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + + Argument in a circle + He that stands let him see that he does not fall + If he has deserved it, let them strike off his head + Misery had come not from their being enemies + O God! what does man come to! + Party hatred was not yet glutted with the blood it had drunk + Rose superior to his doom and took captivity captive + This, then, is the reward of forty years' service to the State + To milk, the cow as long as she would give milk +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS, ENTIRE JOHN OF BARNEVELD 1609-1623: + + Abstinence from inquisition into consciences and private parlour + Acts of violence which under pretext of religion + Adulation for inferiors whom they despise + Advanced orthodox party-Puritans + Affection of his friends and the wrath of his enemies + Allowed the demon of religious hatred to enter into its body + Almost infinite power of the meanest of passions + And give advice. Of that, although always a spendthrift + And now the knife of another priest-led fanatic + Argument in a circle + Aristocracy of God's elect + As with his own people, keeping no back-door open + At a blow decapitated France + Atheist, a tyrant, because he resisted dictation from the clergy + Behead, torture, burn alive, and bury alive all heretics + Better to be governed by magistrates than mobs + Burning with bitter revenge for all the favours he had received + Calumny is often a stronger and more lasting power than disdain + Casual outbursts of eternal friendship + Changed his positions and contradicted himself day by day + Christian sympathy and a small assistance not being sufficient + Conciliation when war of extermination was intended + Conclusive victory for the allies seemed as predestined + Considered it his special mission in the world to mediate + Contained within itself the germs of a larger liberty + Could not be both judge and party in the suit + Covered now with the satirical dust of centuries + Created one child for damnation and another for salvation + Deadly hatred of Puritans in England and Holland + Death rather than life with a false acknowledgment of guilt + Denoungced as an obstacle to peace + Depths of credulity men in all ages can sink + Depths theological party spirit could descend + Determined to bring the very name of liberty into contempt + Devote himself to his gout and to his fair young wife + Disputing the eternal damnation of young children + Doctrine of predestination in its sternest and strictest sense + Emperor of Japan addressed him as his brother monarch + Enemy of all compulsion of the human conscience + Epernon, the true murderer of Henry + Estimating his character and judging his judges + Everybody should mind his own business + Extraordinary capacity for yielding to gentle violence + Fate, free will, or absolute foreknowledge + Father Cotton, who was only too ready to betray the secrets + France was mourning Henry and waiting for Richelieu + Furious mob set upon the house of Rem Bischop + Give him advice if he asked it, and money when he required + Great war of religion and politics was postponed + Hardly a sound Protestant policy anywhere but in Holland + He was not imperial of aspect on canvas or coin + He who would have all may easily lose all + He who spreads the snare always tumbles into the ditch himself + He was a sincere bigot + He that stands let him see that he does not fall + Heidelberg Catechism were declared to be infallible + Highborn demagogues in that as in every age affect adulation + History has not too many really important and emblematic men + Human nature in its meanness and shame + I know how to console myself + I hope and I fear + If he has deserved it, let them strike off his head + Impatience is often on the part of the non-combatants + Implication there was much, of assertion very little + In this he was much behind his age or before it + Intense bigotry of conviction + International friendship, the self-interest of each + It had not yet occurred to him that he was married + It was the true religion, and there was none other + James of England, who admired, envied, and hated Henry + Jealousy, that potent principle + Jesuit Mariana—justifying the killing of excommunicated kings + John Robinson + King who thought it furious madness to resist the enemy + King's definite and final intentions, varied from day to day + Language which is ever living because it is dead + Logic is rarely the quality on which kings pride themselves + Louis XIII. + Ludicrous gravity + Magistracy at that moment seemed to mean the sword + Make the very name of man a term of reproach + Misery had come not from their being enemies + Mockery of negotiation in which nothing could be negotiated + More apprehension of fraud than of force + More fiercely opposed to each other than to Papists + Most detestable verses that even he had ever composed + Necessity of deferring to powerful sovereigns + Neither kings nor governments are apt to value logic + Never lack of fishers in troubled waters + No man pretended to think of the State + No man can be neutral in civil contentions + No synod had a right to claim Netherlanders as slaves + None but God to compel me to say more than I choose to say + Not his custom nor that of his councillors to go to bed + O God! what does man come to! + Only true religion + Opening an abyss between government and people + Opposed the subjection of the magistracy by the priesthood + Outdoing himself in dogmatism and inconsistency + Partisans wanted not accommodation but victory + Party hatred was not yet glutted with the blood it had drunk + Philip IV. + Pot-valiant hero + Power the poison of which it is so difficult to resist + Practised successfully the talent of silence + Presents of considerable sums of money to the negotiators made + Priests shall control the state or the state govern the priests + Princes show what they have in them at twenty-five or never + Puritanism in Holland was a very different thing from England + Putting the cart before the oxen + Queen is entirely in the hands of Spain and the priests + Rather a wilderness to reign over than a single heretic + Religion was made the strumpet of Political Ambition + Religious toleration, which is a phrase of insult + Resolve to maintain the civil authority over the military + Rose superior to his doom and took captivity captive + Safest citadel against an invader and a tyrant is distrust + Schism in the Church had become a public fact + Secure the prizes of war without the troubles and dangers + Seemed bent on self-destruction + Senectus edam maorbus est + She declined to be his procuress + Small matter which human folly had dilated into a great one + Smooth words, in the plentiful lack of any substantial + So much in advance of his time as to favor religious equality + Stand between hope and fear + Stroke of a broken table knife sharpened on a carriage wheel + Successful in this step, he is ready for greater ones + Tempest of passion and prejudice + That he tries to lay the fault on us is pure malice + That cynical commerce in human lives + The effect of energetic, uncompromising calumny + The evils resulting from a confederate system of government + The vehicle is often prized more than the freight + The voice of slanderers + The truth in shortest about matters of importance + The assassin, tortured and torn by four horses + The defence of the civil authority against the priesthood + The magnitude of this wonderful sovereign's littleness + The Catholic League and the Protestant Union + Their own roofs were not quite yet in a blaze + Theological hatred was in full blaze throughout the country + Theology and politics were one + There was no use in holding language of authority to him + There was but one king in Europe, Henry the Bearnese + Therefore now denounced the man whom he had injured + They have killed him, 'e ammazato,' cried Concini + Things he could tell which are too odious and dreadful + Thirty Years' War tread on the heels of the forty years + This wonderful sovereign's littleness oppresses the imagination + This, then, is the reward of forty years' service to the State + To milk, the cow as long as she would give milk + To stifle for ever the right of free enquiry + To look down upon their inferior and lost fellow creatures + Uncouple the dogs and let them run + Unimaginable outrage as the most legitimate industry + Vows of an eternal friendship of several weeks' duration + What could save the House of Austria, the cause of Papacy + Whether repentance could effect salvation + Whether dead infants were hopelessly damned + Whose mutual hatred was now artfully inflamed by partisans + William Brewster + Wise and honest a man, although he be somewhat longsome + Wish to appear learned in matters of which they are ignorant + Work of the aforesaid Puritans and a few Jesuits + Wrath of the Jesuits at this exercise of legal authority + Yes, there are wicked men about + Yesterday is the preceptor of To-morrow +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of John of Barneveld, +1614-23, Volume II., by John Lothrop Motley + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN OF BARNEVELD, II. *** + +***** This file should be named 4898-h.htm or 4898-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/8/9/4898/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Life of John of Barneveld, 1614-23, Volume II. + +Author: John Lothrop Motley + +Last Updated: February 7, 2009 +Release Date: October 15, 2006 [EBook #4898] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN OF BARNEVELD, II. *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +THE LIFE AND DEATH of JOHN OF BARNEVELD, ADVOCATE OF HOLLAND + +WITH A VIEW OF THE PRIMARY CAUSES AND MOVEMENTS OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR + + +VOLUME II. 1614-23 + + +By John Lothrop Motley, D.C.L., LL.D. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. 1614-17 + + The Advocate sounds the Alarm in Germany--His Instructions to + Langerac and his Forethought--The Prince--Palatine and his Forces + take Aachen, Mulheim, and other Towns--Supineness of the + Protestants--Increased Activity of Austria and the League--Barneveld + strives to obtain Help from England--Neuburg departs for Germany-- + Barneveld the Prime Minister of Protestantism--Ernest Mansfield + takes service under Charles Emmanuel--Count John of Nassau goes to + Savoy--Slippery Conduct of King James in regard to the New Treaty + proposed--Barneveld's Influence greater in France than in England-- + Sequestration feared--The Elector of Brandenburg cited to appear + before the Emperor at Prague--Murder of John van Wely--Uytenbogaert + incurs Maurice's Displeasure--Marriage of the King of France with + Anne of Austria--Conference between King James and Caron concerning + Piracy, Cloth Trade and Treaty of Xanten--Barneveld's Survey of the + Condition of Europe--His Efforts to avert the impending general War. + +I have thus purposely sketched the leading features of a couple of +momentous, although not eventful, years--so far as the foreign policy of +the Republic is concerned--in order that the reader may better understand +the bearings and the value of the Advocate's actions and writings at that +period. This work aims at being a political study. I would attempt to +exemplify the influence of individual humours and passions--some of them +among the highest and others certainly the basest that agitate +humanity-upon the march of great events, upon general historical results +at certain epochs, and upon the destiny of eminent personages. It may +also be not uninteresting to venture a glance into the internal structure +and workings of a republican and federal system of government, then for +the first time reproduced almost spontaneously upon an extended scale. + +Perhaps the revelation of some of its defects, in spite of the faculty +and vitality struggling against them, may not be without value for our +own country and epoch. The system of Switzerland was too limited and +homely, that of Venice too purely oligarchical, to have much moral for us +now, or to render a study of their pathological phenomena especially +instructive. The lessons taught us by the history of the Netherland +confederacy may have more permanent meaning. + +Moreover, the character of a very considerable statesman at an +all-important epoch, and in a position of vast responsibility, is always +an historical possession of value to mankind. That of him who furnishes +the chief theme for these pages has been either overlooked and neglected +or perhaps misunderstood by posterity. History has not too many really +important and emblematic men on its records to dispense with the memory +of Barneveld, and the writer therefore makes no apology for dilating +somewhat fully upon his lifework by means of much of his entirely +unpublished and long forgotten utterances. + +The Advocate had ceaselessly been sounding the alarm in Germany. For the +Protestant Union, fascinated, as it were, by the threatening look of the +Catholic League, seemed relapsing into a drowse. + +"I believe," he said to one of his agents in that country, "that the +Evangelical electors and princes and the other estates are not alive to +the danger. I am sure that it is not apprehended in Great Britain. France +is threatened with troubles. These are the means to subjugate the +religion, the laws and liberties of Germany. Without an army the troops +now on foot in Italy cannot be kept out of Germany. Yet we do not hear +that the Evangelicals are making provision of troops, money, or any other +necessaries. In this country we have about one hundred places occupied +with our troops, among whom are many who could destroy a whole army. But +the maintenance of these places prevents our being very strong in the +field, especially outside our frontiers. But if in all Germany there be +many places held by the Evangelicals which would disperse a great army is +very doubtful. Keep a watchful eye. Economy is a good thing, but the +protection of a country and its inhabitants must be laid to heart. Watch +well if against these Provinces, and against Bohemia, Austria, and other +as it is pretended rebellious states, these plans are not directed. Look +out for the movements of the Italian and Bavarian troops against Germany. +You see how they are nursing the troubles and misunderstandings in +France, and turning them to account." + +He instructed the new ambassador in Paris to urge upon the French +government the absolute necessity of punctuality in furnishing the +payment of their contingent in the Netherlands according to convention. +The States of Holland themselves had advanced the money during three +years' past, but this anticipation was becoming very onerous. It was +necessary to pay the troops every month regularly, but the funds from +Paris were always in arrear. England contributed about one-half as much +in subsidy, but these moneys went in paying the garrisons of Brielle, +Flushing, and Rammekens, fortresses pledged to that crown. The Ambassador +was shrewdly told not to enlarge on the special employment of the English +funds while holding up to the Queen's government that she was not the +only potentate who helped bear burthens for the Provinces, and insisted +on a continuation of this aid. "Remember and let them remember," said the +Advocate, "that the reforms which they are pretending to make there by +relieving the subjects of contributions tends to enervate the royal +authority and dignity both within and without, to diminish its lustre and +reputation, and in sum to make the King unable to gratify and assist his +subjects, friends, and allies. Make them understand that the taxation in +these Provinces is ten times higher than there, and that My Lords the +States hitherto by the grace of God and good administration have +contrived to maintain it in order to be useful to themselves and their +friends. Take great pains to have it well understood that this is even +more honourable and more necessary for a king of France, especially in +his minority, than for a republic 'hoc turbato seculo.' We all see +clearly how some potentates in Europe are keeping at all time under one +pretext or another strong forces well armed on a war footing. It +therefore behoves his Majesty to be likewise provided with troops, and at +least with a good exchequer and all the requirements of war, as well for +the security of his own state as for the maintenance of the grandeur and +laudable reputation left to him by the deceased king." + +Truly here was sound and substantial advice, never and nowhere more +needed than in France. It was given too with such good effect as to bear +fruit even upon stoniest ground, and it is a refreshing spectacle to see +this plain Advocate of a republic, so lately sprung into existence out of +the depths of oppression and rebellion, calmly summoning great kings as +it were before him and instructing them in those vital duties of +government in discharge of which the country he administered already +furnished a model. Had England and France each possessed a Barneveld at +that epoch, they might well have given in exchange for him a wilderness +of Epernons and Sillerys, Bouillons and Conde's; of Winwoods, Lakes, +Carrs, and Villierses. But Elizabeth with her counsellors was gone, and +Henry was gone, and Richelieu had not come; while in England James and +his minions were diligently opening an abyss between government and +people which in less than half a lifetime more should engulph the +kingdom. + +Two months later he informed the States' ambassador of the communications +made by the Prince of Conde and the Dukes of Nevers and Bouillon to the +government at the Hague now that they had effected a kind of +reconciliation with the Queen. Langerac was especially instructed to do +his best to assist in bringing about cordial relations, if that were +possible, between the crown and the rebels, and meantime he was +especially directed to defend du Maurier against the calumnious +accusations brought against him, of which Aerssens had been the secret +sower. + +"You will do your best to manage," he said, "that no special ambassador +be sent hither, and that M. du Maurier may remain with us, he being a +very intelligent and moderate person now well instructed as to the state +of our affairs, a professor of the Reformed religion, and having many +other good qualities serviceable to their Majesties and to us. + +"You will visit the Prince, and other princes and officers of the crown +who are coming to court again, and do all good offices as well for the +court as for M. du Maurier, in order that through evil plots and +slanderous reports no harm may come to him. + +"Take great pains to find out all you can there as to the designs of the +King of Spain, the Archdukes, and the Emperor, in the affair of Julich. +You are also to let it be known that the change of religion on the part +of the Prince-Palatine of Neuburg will not change our good will and +affection for him, so far as his legal claims are concerned." + +So long as it was possible for the States to retain their hold on both +the claimants, the Advocate, pursuant to his uniform policy of +moderation, was not disposed to help throw the Palatine into the hands of +the Spanish party. He was well aware, however, that Neuburg by his +marriage and his conversion was inevitably to become the instrument of +the League and to be made use of in the duchies at its pleasure, and that +he especially would be the first to submit with docility to the decree of +the Emperor. The right to issue such decree the States under guidance of +Barneveld were resolved to resist at all hazards. + +"Work diligently, nevertheless," said he, "that they permit nothing there +directly or indirectly that may tend to the furtherance of the League, as +too prejudicial to us and to all our fellow religionists. Tell them too +that the late king, the King of Great Britain, the united electors and +princes of Germany, and ourselves, have always been resolutely opposed to +making the dispute about the succession in the duchies depend on the will +of the Emperor and his court. All our movements in the year 1610 against +the attempted sequestration under Leopold were to carry out that purpose. +Hold it for certain that our present proceedings for strengthening and +maintaining the city and fortress of Julich are considered serviceable +and indispensable by the British king and the German electors and +princes. Use your best efforts to induce the French government to pursue +the same policy--if it be not possible openly, then at least secretly. My +conviction is that, unless the Prince-Palatine is supported by, and his +whole designs founded upon, the general league against all our brethren +of the religion, affairs may be appeased." + +The Envoy was likewise instructed to do his best to further the +matrimonial alliance which had begun to be discussed between the Prince +of Wales and the second daughter of France. Had it been possible at that +moment to bring the insane dream of James for a Spanish alliance to +naught, the States would have breathed more freely. He was also to urge +payment of the money for the French regiments, always in arrears since +Henry's death and Sully's dismissal, and always supplied by the exchequer +of Holland. He was informed that the Republic had been sending some war +ships to the Levant, to watch the armada recently sent thither by Spain, +and other armed vessels into the Baltic, to pursue the corsairs with whom +every sea was infested. In one year alone he estimated the loss to Dutch +merchants by these pirates at 800,000 florins. "We have just captured two +of the rovers, but the rascally scum is increasing," he said. + +Again alluding to the resistance to be made by the States to the Imperial +pretensions, he observed, "The Emperor is about sending us a herald in +the Julich matter, but we know how to stand up to him." + +And notwithstanding the bare possibility which he had admitted, that the +Prince of Neuburg might not yet have wholly sold himself, body and soul, +to the Papists, he gave warning a day or two afterwards in France that +all should be prepared for the worst. + +"The Archdukes and the Prince of Neuburg appear to be taking the war +earnestly in hand," he said. "We believe that the Papistical League is +about to make a great effort against all the co-religionists. We are +watching closely their movements. Aachen is first threatened, and the +Elector-Palatine likewise. France surely, for reasons of state, cannot +permit that they should be attacked. She did, and helped us to do, too +much in the Julich campaign to suffer the Spaniards to make themselves +masters there now." + +It has been seen that the part played by France in the memorable campaign +of 1610 was that of admiring auxiliary to the States' forces; Marshal de +la Chatre having in all things admitted the superiority of their army and +the magnificent generalship of Prince Maurice. But the government of the +Dowager had been committed by that enterprise to carry out the life-long +policy of Henry, and to maintain his firm alliance with the Republic. +Whether any of the great king's acuteness and vigour in countermining and +shattering the plans of the House of Austria was left in the French +court, time was to show. Meantime Barneveld was crying himself hoarse +with warnings into the dull ears of England and France. + +A few weeks later the Prince of Neuburg had thrown off the mask. Twelve +thousand foot and 1500 horse had been raised in great haste, so the +Advocate informed the French court, by Spain and the Archdukes, for the +use of that pretender. Five or six thousand Spaniards were coming by sea +to Flanders, and as many Italians were crossing the mountains, besides a +great number mustering for the same purpose in Germany and Lorraine. +Barneveld was constantly receiving most important intelligence of +military plans and movements from Prague, which he placed daily before +the eyes of governments wilfully blind. + +"I ponder well at this crisis," he said to his friend Caron, "the +intelligence I received some months back from Ratisbon, out of the +cabinet of the Jesuits, that the design of the Catholic or Roman League +is to bring this year a great army into the field, in order to make +Neuburg, who was even then said to be of the Roman profession and League, +master of Julich and the duchies; to execute the Imperial decree against +Aachen and Mulheim, preventing any aid from being sent into Germany by +these Provinces, or by Great Britain, and placing the Archduke and +Marquis Spinola in command of the forces; to put another army on the +frontiers of Austria, in order to prevent any succour coming from +Hungary, Bohemia, Austria, Moravia, and Silesia into Germany; to keep all +these disputed territories in subjection and devotion to the Emperor, and +to place the general conduct of all these affairs in the hands of +Archduke Leopold and other princes of the House of Austria. A third army +is to be brought into the Upper Palatinate, under command of the Duke of +Bavaria and others of the League, destined to thoroughly carry out its +designs against the Elector-Palatine, and the other electors, princes, +and estates belonging to the religion." + +This intelligence, plucked by Barneveld out of the cabinet of the +Jesuits, had been duly communicated by him months before to those whom it +most concerned, and as usual it seemed to deepen the lethargy of the +destined victims and their friends. Not only the whole Spanish campaign +of the present year had thus been duly mapped out by the Advocate, long +before it occurred, but this long buried and forgotten correspondence of +the statesman seems rather like a chronicle of transactions already past, +so closely did the actual record, which posterity came to know too well, +resemble that which he saw, and was destined only to see, in prophetic +vision. + +Could this political seer have cast his horoscope of the Thirty Years' +War at this hour of its nativity for the instruction of such men as +Walsingham or Burleigh, Henry of Navarre or Sully, Richelieu or Gustavus +Adolphus, would the course of events have been modified? These very +idlest of questions are precisely those which inevitably occur as one +ponders the seeming barrenness of an epoch in reality so pregnant. + +"One would think," said Barneveld, comparing what was then the future +with the real past, "that these plans in Prague against the +Elector-Palatine are too gross for belief; but when I reflect on the +intense bitterness of these people, when I remember what was done within +living men's memory to the good elector Hans Frederic of Saxony for +exactly the same reasons, to wit, hatred of our religion, and +determination to establish Imperial authority, I have great apprehension. +I believe that the Roman League will use the present occasion to carry +out her great design; holding France incapable of opposition to her, +Germany in too great division, and imagining to themselves that neither +the King of Great Britain nor these States are willing or able to offer +effectual and forcible resistance. Yet his Majesty of Great Britain ought +to be able to imagine how greatly the religious matter in general +concerns himself and the electoral house of the Palatine, as principal +heads of the religion, and that these vast designs should be resisted +betimes, and with all possible means and might. My Lords the States have +good will, but not sufficient strength, to oppose these great forces +single-handed. One must not believe that without great and prompt +assistance in force from his Majesty and other fellow religionists My +Lords the States can undertake so vast an affair. Do your uttermost duty +there, in order that, ere it be too late, this matter be taken to heart +by his Majesty, and that his authority and credit be earnestly used with +other kings, electors, princes, and republics, that they do likewise. The +promptest energy, good will, and affection may be reckoned on from us." + +Alas! it was easy for his Majesty to take to heart the matter of Conrad +Vorstius, to spend reams of diplomatic correspondence, to dictate whole +volumes for orations brimming over with theological wrath, for the +edification of the States-General, against that doctor of divinity. But +what were the special interests of his son-in-law, what the danger to all +the other Protestant electors and kings, princes and republics, what the +imperilled condition of the United Provinces, and, by necessary +consequence, the storm gathering over his own throne, what the whole fate +of Protestantism, from Friesland to Hungary, threatened by the +insatiable, all-devouring might of the double house of Austria, the +ancient church, and the Papistical League, what were hundred thousands of +men marching towards Bohemia, the Netherlands, and the duchies, with the +drum beating for mercenary recruits in half the villages of Spain, Italy, +and Catholic Germany, compared with the danger to Christendom from an +Arminian clergyman being appointed to the theological professorship at +Leyden? + +The world was in a blaze, kings and princes were arming, and all the time +that the monarch of the powerful, adventurous, and heroic people of Great +Britain could spare from slobbering over his minions, and wasting the +treasures of the realm to supply their insatiate greed, was devoted to +polemical divinity, in which he displayed his learning, indeed, but +changed his positions and contradicted himself day by day. The magnitude +of this wonderful sovereign's littleness oppresses the imagination. + +Moreover, should he listen to the adjurations of the States and his +fellow religionists, should he allow himself to be impressed by the +eloquence of Barneveld and take a manly and royal decision in the great +emergency, it would be indispensable for him to come before that odious +body, the Parliament of Great Britain, and ask for money. It would be +perhaps necessary for him to take them into his confidence, to degrade +himself by speaking to them of the national affairs. They might not be +satisfied with the honour of voting the supplies at his demand, but were +capable of asking questions as to their appropriation. On the whole it +was more king-like and statesman-like to remain quiet, and give advice. +Of that, although always a spendthrift, he had an inexhaustible supply. + +Barneveld had just hopes from the Commons of Great Britain, if the King +could be brought to appeal to Parliament. Once more he sounded the bugle +of alarm. "Day by day the Archdukes are making greater and greater +enrolments of riders and infantry in ever increasing mass," he cried, +"and therewith vast provision of artillery and all munitions of war. +Within ten or twelve days they will be before Julich in force. We are +sending great convoys to reinforce our army there. The Prince of Neuburg +is enrolling more and more troops every day. He will soon be master of +Mulheim. If the King of Great Britain will lay this matter earnestly to +heart for the preservation of the princes, electors, and estates of the +religion, I cannot doubt that Parliament would cooperate well with his +Majesty, and this occasion should be made use of to redress the whole +state of affairs." + +It was not the Parliament nor the people of Great Britain that would be +in fault when the question arose of paying in money and in blood for the +defence of civil and religious liberty. But if James should venture +openly to oppose Spain, what would the Count of Gondemar say, and what +would become of the Infanta and the two millions of dowry? + +It was not for want of some glimmering consciousness in the mind of James +of the impending dangers to Northern Europe and to Protestantism from the +insatiable ambition of Spain, and the unrelenting grasp of the Papacy +upon those portions of Christendom which were slipping from its control, +that his apathy to those perils was so marked. We have seen his leading +motives for inaction, and the world was long to feel its effects. + +"His Majesty firmly believes," wrote Secretary Winwood, "that the +Papistical League is brewing great and dangerous plots. To obviate them +in everything that may depend upon him, My Lords the States will find him +prompt. The source of all these entanglements comes from Spain. We do not +think that the Archduke will attack Julich this year, but rather fear for +Mulheim and Aix-la-Chapelle." + +But the Secretary of State, thus acknowledging the peril, chose to be +blind to its extent, while at the same time undervaluing the powers by +which it might be resisted. "To oppose the violence of the enemy," he +said, "if he does resort to violence, is entirely impossible. It would be +furious madness on our part to induce him to fall upon the +Elector-Palatine, for this would be attacking Great Britain and all her +friends and allies. Germany is a delicate morsel, but too much for the +throat of Spain to swallow all at once. Behold the evil which troubles +the conscience of the Papistical League. The Emperor and his brothers are +all on the brink of their sepulchre, and the Infants of Spain are too +young to succeed to the Empire. The Pope would more willingly permit its +dissolution than its falling into the hands of a prince not of his +profession. All that we have to do in this conjuncture is to attend the +best we can to our own affairs, and afterwards to strengthen the good +alliance existing among us, and not to let ourselves be separated by the +tricks and sleights of hand of our adversaries. The common cause can +reckon firmly upon the King of Great Britain, and will not find itself +deceived." + +Excellent commonplaces, but not very safe ones. Unluckily for the allies, +to attend each to his own affairs when the enemy was upon them, and to +reckon firmly upon a king who thought it furious madness to resist the +enemy, was hardly the way to avert the danger. A fortnight later, the man +who thought it possible to resist, and time to resist, before the net was +over every head, replied to the Secretary by a picture of the Spaniards' +progress. + +"Since your letter," he said, "you have seen the course of Spinola with +the army of the King and the Archdukes. You have seen the Prince-Palatine +of Neuburg with his forces maintained by the Pope and other members of +the Papistical League. On the 29th of August they forced Aachen, where +the magistrates and those of the Reformed religion have been extremely +maltreated. Twelve hundred soldiers are lodged in the houses there of +those who profess our religion. Mulheim is taken and dismantled, and the +very houses about to be torn down. Duren, Castre, Grevenborg, Orsoy, +Duisburg, Ruhrort, and many other towns, obliged to receive Spanish +garrisons. On the 4th of September they invested Wesel. On the 6th it was +held certain that the cities of Cleve, Emmerich, Rees, and others in that +quarter, had consented to be occupied. The States have put one hundred +and thirty-five companies of foot (about 14,000 men) and 4000 horse and a +good train of artillery in the field, and sent out some ships of war. +Prince Maurice left the Hague on the 4th of September to assist Wesel, +succour the Prince of Brandenburg, and oppose the hostile proceedings of +Spinola and the Palatine of Neuburg . . . . Consider, I pray you, this +state of things, and think how much heed they have paid to the demands of +the Kings of Great Britain and France to abstain from hostilities. Be +sure that without our strong garrison in Julich they would have snapped +up every city in Julich, Cleve, and Berg. But they will now try to make +use of their slippery tricks, their progress having been arrested by our +army. The Prince of Neuburg is sending his chancellor here 'cum mediis +componendae pacis,' in appearance good and reasonable, in reality +deceptive . . . . If their Majesties, My Lords the States, and the +princes of the Union, do not take an energetic resolution for making head +against their designs, behold their League in full vigour and ours +without soul. Neither the strength nor the wealth of the States are +sufficient of themselves to withstand their ambitious and dangerous +designs. We see the possessory princes treated as enemies upon their own +estates, and many thousand souls of the Reformed religion cruelly +oppressed by the Papistical League. For myself I am confirmed in my +apprehensions and believe that neither our religion nor our Union can +endure such indignities. The enemy is making use of the minority in +France and the divisions among the princes of Germany to their great +advantage . . . . I believe that the singular wisdom of his Majesty will +enable him to apply promptly the suitable remedies, and that your +Parliament will make no difficulty in acquitting itself well in repairing +those disorders." + +The year dragged on to its close. The supineness of the Protestants +deepened in direct proportion to the feverish increase of activity on the +part of Austria and the League. The mockery of negotiation in which +nothing could be negotiated, the parade of conciliation when war of +extermination was intended, continued on the part of Spain and Austria. +Barneveld was doing his best to settle all minor differences between the +States and Great Britain, that these two bulwarks of Protestantism might +stand firmly together against the rising tide. He instructed the +Ambassador to exhaust every pacific means of arrangement in regard to the +Greenland fishery disputes, the dyed cloth question, and like causes of +ill feeling. He held it more than necessary, he said, that the +inhabitants of the two countries should now be on the very best terms +with each other. Above all, he implored the King through the Ambassador +to summon Parliament in order that the kingdom might be placed in +position to face the gathering danger. + +"I am amazed and distressed," he said, "that the statesmen of England do +not comprehend the perils with which their fellow religionists are +everywhere threatened, especially in Germany and in these States. To +assist us with bare advice and sometimes with traducing our actions, +while leaving us to bear alone the burthens, costs, and dangers, is not +serviceable to us." Referring to the information and advice which he had +sent to England and to France fifteen months before, he now gave +assurance that the Prince of Neuburg and Spinola were now in such force, +both foot and cavalry, with all necessary munitions, as to hold these +most important territories as a perpetual "sedem bedli," out of which to +attack Germany at their pleasure and to cut off all possibility of aid +from England and the States. He informed the court of St. James that +besides the forces of the Emperor and the House of Austria, the Duke of +Bavaria and Spanish Italy, there were now several thousand horse and foot +under the Bishop of Wurzburg, 8000 or 9000 under the Bishop-Elector of +Mayence, and strong bodies of cavalry under Count Vaudemont in Lorraine, +all mustering for the war. The pretext seems merely to reduce Frankfurt +to obedience, even as Donauworth had previously been used as a colour for +vast designs. The real purpose was to bring the Elector-Palatine and the +whole Protestant party in Germany to submission. "His Majesty," said the +Advocate, "has now a very great and good subject upon which to convoke +Parliament and ask for a large grant. This would be doubtless consented +to if Parliament receives the assurance that the money thus accorded +shall be applied to so wholesome a purpose. You will do your best to +further this great end. We are waiting daily to hear if the Xanten +negotiation is broken off or not. I hope and I fear. Meantime we bear as +heavy burthens as if we were actually at war." + +He added once more the warning, which it would seem superfluous to repeat +even to schoolboys in diplomacy, that this Xanten treaty, as proposed by +the enemy, was a mere trap. + +Spinola and Neuburg, in case of the mutual disbanding, stood ready at an +instant's warning to re-enlist for the League not only all the troops +that the Catholic army should nominally discharge, but those which would +be let loose from the States' army and that of Brandenburg as well. They +would hold Rheinberg, Groll, Lingen, Oldenzaal, Wachtendonk, Maestricht, +Aachen, and Mulheim with a permanent force of more than 20,000 men. And +they could do all this in four days' time. + +A week or two later all his prophesies had been fulfilled. "The Prince of +Neuburg," he said, "and Marquis Spinola have made game of us most +impudently in the matter of the treaty. This is an indignity for us, +their Majesties, and the electors and princes. We regard it as +intolerable. A despatch came from Spain forbidding a further step in the +negotiation without express order from the King. The Prince and Spinola +are gone to Brussels, the ambassadors have returned to the Hague, the +armies are established in winter-quarters. The cavalry are ravaging the +debateable land and living upon the inhabitants at their discretion. M. +de Refuge is gone to complain to the Archdukes of the insult thus put +upon his sovereign. Sir Henry Wotton is still here. We have been plunged +into an immensity of extraordinary expense, and are amazed that at this +very moment England should demand money from us when we ought to be +assisted by a large subsidy by her. We hope that now at least his Majesty +will take a vigorous resolution and not suffer his grandeur and dignity +to be vilipended longer. If the Spaniard is successful in this step, he +is ready for greater ones, and will believe that mankind is ready to bear +and submit to everything. His Majesty is the first king of the religion. +He bears the title of Defender of the Faith. His religion, his only +daughter, his son-in-law, his grandson are all especially interested +besides his own dignity, besides the common weal." + +He then adverted to the large subsidies from Queen Elizabeth many years +before, guaranteed, it was true, by the cautionary towns, and to the +gallant English regiments, sent by that great sovereign, which had been +fighting so long and so splendidly in the Netherlands for the common +cause of Protestantism and liberty. Yet England was far weaker then, for +she had always her northern frontier to defend against Scotland, ever +ready to strike her in the back. "But now his Majesty," said Barneveld, +"is King of England and Scotland both. His frontier is free. Ireland is +at peace. He possesses quietly twice as much as the Queen ever did. He is +a king. Her Majesty was a woman. The King has children and heirs. His +nearest blood is engaged in this issue. His grandeur and dignity have +been wronged. Each one of these considerations demands of itself a manly +resolution. You will do your best to further it." + +The almost ubiquitous power of Spain, gaining after its exhaustion new +life through the strongly developed organization of the League, and the +energy breathed into that mighty conspiracy against human liberty by the +infinite genius of the "cabinet of Jesuits," was not content with +overshadowing Germany, the Netherlands, and England, but was threatening +Savoy with 40,000 men, determined to bring Charles Emmanuel either to +perdition or submission. + +Like England, France was spell-bound by the prospect of Spanish +marriages, which for her at least were not a chimera, and looked on +composedly while Savoy was on point of being sacrificed by the common +invader of independent nationality whether Protestant or Catholic. +Nothing ever showed more strikingly the force residing in singleness of +purpose with breadth and unity of design than all these primary movements +of the great war now beginning. The chances superficially considered were +vastly in favour of the Protestant cause. In the chief lands, under the +sceptre of the younger branch of Austria, the Protestants outnumbered the +Catholics by nearly ten to one. Bohemia, the Austrias, Moravia, Silesia, +Hungary were filled full of the spirit of Huss, of Luther, and even of +Calvin. If Spain was a unit, now that the Moors and Jews had been +expelled, and the heretics of Castille and Aragon burnt into submission, +she had a most lukewarm ally in Venice, whose policy was never controlled +by the Church, and a dangerous neighbour in the warlike, restless, and +adventurous House of Savoy, to whom geographical considerations were ever +more vital than religious scruples. A sincere alliance of France, the +very flower of whose nobility and people inclined to the Reformed +religion, was impossible, even if there had been fifty infantes to +espouse fifty daughters of France. Great Britain, the Netherlands, and +the united princes of Germany seemed a solid and serried phalanx of +Protestantism, to break through which should be hopeless. Yet at that +moment, so pregnant with a monstrous future, there was hardly a sound +Protestant policy anywhere but in Holland. How long would that policy +remain sound and united? How long would the Republic speak through the +imperial voice of Barneveld? Time was to show and to teach many lessons. +The united princes of Germany were walking, talking, quarrelling in their +sleep; England and France distracted and bedrugged, while Maximilian of +Bavaria and Ferdinand of Gratz, the cabinets of Madrid and the Vatican, +were moving forward to their aims slowly, steadily, relentlessly as Fate. +And Spain was more powerful than she had been since the Truce began. In +five years she had become much more capable of aggression. She had +strengthened her positions in the Mediterranean by the acquisition and +enlargement of considerable fortresses in Barbary and along a large sweep +of the African coast, so as to be almost supreme in Africa. It was +necessary for the States, the only power save Turkey that could face her +in those waters, to maintain a perpetual squadron of war ships there to +defend their commerce against attack from the Spaniard and from the +corsairs, both Mahometan and Christian, who infested every sea. Spain was +redoubtable everywhere, and the Turk, engaged in Persian campaigns, was +offering no diversion against Hungary and Vienna. + +"Reasons of state worthy of his Majesty's consideration and wisdom," said +Barneveld, "forbid the King of Great Britain from permitting the Spaniard +to give the law in Italy. He is about to extort obedience and humiliation +from the Duke of Savoy, or else with 40,000 men to mortify and ruin him, +while entirely assuring himself of France by the double marriages. Then +comes the attack on these Provinces, on Protestant Germany, and all other +states and realms of the religion." + +With the turn of the year, affairs were growing darker and darker. The +League was rolling up its forces in all directions; its chiefs proposed +absurd conditions of pacification, while war was already raging, and yet +scarcely any government but that of the Netherlands paid heed to the +rising storm. James, fatuous as ever, listened to Gondemar, and wrote +admonitory letters to the Archduke. It was still gravely proposed by the +Catholic party that there should be mutual disbanding in the duchies, +with a guarantee from Marquis Spinola that there should be no more +invasion of those territories. But powers and pledges from the King of +Spain were what he needed. + +To suppose that the Republic and her allies would wait quietly, and not +lift a finger until blows were actually struck against the Protestant +electors or cities of Germany, was expecting too much ingenuousness on +the part of statesmen who had the interests of Protestantism at heart. +What they wanted was the signed, sealed, ratified treaty faithfully +carried out. Then if the King of Spain and the Archdukes were willing to +contract with the States never to make an attempt against the Holy German +Empire, but to leave everything to take its course according to the +constitutions, liberties, and traditions and laws of that empire, under +guidance of its electors, princes, estates, and cities, the United +Provinces were ready, under mediation of the two kings, their allies and +friends, to join in such an arrangement. Thus there might still be peace +in Germany, and religious equality as guaranteed by the "Majesty-Letter," +and the "Compromise" between the two great churches, Roman and Reformed, +be maintained. To bring about this result was the sincere endeavour of +Barneveld, hoping against hope. For he knew that all was hollowness and +sham on the part of the great enemy. Even as Walsingham almost alone had +suspected and denounced the delusive negotiations by which Spain +continued to deceive Elizabeth and her diplomatists until the Armada was +upon her coasts, and denounced them to ears that were deafened and souls +that were stupified by the frauds practised upon them, so did Barneveld, +who had witnessed all that stupendous trickery of a generation before, +now utter his cries of warning that Germany might escape in time from her +impending doom. + +"Nothing but deceit is lurking in the Spanish proposals," he said. "Every +man here wonders that the English government does not comprehend these +malversations. Truly the affair is not to be made straight by new +propositions, but by a vigorous resolution of his Majesty. It is in the +highest degree necessary to the salvation of Christendom, to the +conservation of his Majesty's dignity and greatness, to the service of +the princes and provinces, and of all Germany, nor can this vigorous +resolution be longer delayed without enormous disaster to the common weal +. . . . . I have the deepest affection for the cause of the Duke of +Savoy, but I cannot further it so long as I cannot tell what his Majesty +specifically is resolved to do, and what hope is held out from Venice, +Germany, and other quarters. Our taxes are prodigious, the ordinary and +extraordinary, and we have a Spanish army at our front door." + +The armaments, already so great, had been enlarged during the last month +of the year. Vaudemont was at the head of a further force of 2000 cavalry +and 8000 foot, paid for by Spain and the Pope; 24,000 additional +soldiers, riders and infantry together, had been gathered by Maximilian +of Bavaria at the expense of the League. Even if the reports were +exaggerated, the Advocate thought it better to be too credulous than as +apathetic as the rest of the Protestants. + +"We receive advices every day," he wrote to Caron, "that the Spaniards +and the Roman League are going forward with their design. They are trying +to amuse the British king and to gain time, in order to be able to deal +the heavier blows. Do all possible duty to procure a timely and vigorous +resolution there. To wait again until we are anticipated will be fatal to +the cause of the Evangelical electors and princes of Germany and +especially of his Electoral Highness of Brandenburg. We likewise should +almost certainly suffer irreparable damage, and should again bear our +cross, as men said last year in regard to Aachen, Wesel, and so many +other places. The Spaniard is sly, and has had a long time to contrive +how he can throw the net over the heads of all our religious allies. +Remember all the warnings sent from here last year, and how they were all +tossed to the winds, to the ruin of so many of our co-religionists. If it +is now intended over there to keep the Spaniards in check merely by +speeches or letters, it would be better to say so clearly to our friends. +So long as Parliament is not convoked in order to obtain consents and +subsidies for this most necessary purpose, so long I fail to believe that +this great common cause of Christendom, and especially of Germany, is +taken to heart by England." + +He adverted with respectfully subdued scorn to King James's proposition +that Spinola should give a guarantee. "I doubt if he accepts the +suggestion," said Barneveld, "unless as a notorious trick, and if he did, +what good would the promise of Spinola do us? We consider Spinola a great +commander having the purses and forces of the Spaniards and the Leaguers +in his control; but should they come into other hands, he would not be a +very considerable personage for us. And that may happen any day. They +don't seem in England to understand the difference between Prince Maurice +in his relations to our state and that of Marquis Spinola to his +superiors. Try to make them comprehend it. A promise from the Emperor, +King of Spain, and the princes of the League, such as his Majesty in his +wisdom has proposed to Spinola, would be most tranquillizing for all the +Protestant princes and estates of the Empire, especially for the Elector +and Electress Palatine, and for ourselves. In such a case no difficulty +would be made on our side." + +After expressing his mind thus freely in regard to James and his policy, +he then gave the Ambassador a word of caution in characteristic fashion. +"Cogita," he said, "but beware of censuring his Majesty's projects. I do +not myself mean to censure them, nor are they publicly laughed at here, +but look closely at everything that comes from Brussels, and let me know +with diligence." + +And even as the Advocate was endeavouring with every effort of his skill +and reason to stir the sluggish James into vigorous resolution in behalf +of his own children, as well as of the great cause of Protestantism and +national liberty, so was he striving to bear up on his strenuous +shoulders the youthful king of France, and save him from the swollen +tides of court intrigue and Jesuitical influence fast sweeping him to +destruction. + +He had denounced the recent and paltry proposition made on the part of +the League, and originally suggested by James, as a most open and +transparent trap, into which none but the blind would thrust themselves. +The Treaty of Xanten, carried out as it had been signed and guaranteed by +the great Catholic powers, would have brought peace to Christendom. To +accept in place of such guarantee the pledge of a simple soldier, who +to-morrow might be nothing, was almost too ridiculous a proposal to be +answered gravely. Yet Barneveld through the machinations of the Catholic +party was denounced both at the English and French courts as an obstacle +to peace, when in reality his powerful mind and his immense industry were +steadily directed to the noblest possible end--to bring about a solemn +engagement on the part of Spain, the Emperor, and the princes of the +League, to attack none of the Protestant powers of Germany, especially +the Elector-Palatine, but to leave the laws, liberties, and privileges of +the States within the Empire in their original condition. And among those +laws were the great statutes of 1609 and 1610, the "Majesty-Letter" and +the "Compromise," granting full right of religious worship to the +Protestants of the Kingdom of Bohemia. If ever a policy deserved to be +called truly liberal and truly conservative, it was the policy thus +steadily maintained by Barneveld. + +Adverting to the subterfuge by which the Catholic party had sought to set +aside the treaty of Xanten, he instructed Langerac, the States' +ambassador in Paris, and his own pupils to make it clear to the French +government that it was impossible that in such arrangements the Spanish +armies would not be back again in the duchies at a moment's notice. It +could not be imagined even that they were acting sincerely. + +"If their upright intention," he said, "is that no actual, hostile, +violent attack shall be made upon the duchies, or upon any of the +princes, estates, or cities of the Holy Empire, as is required for the +peace and tranquillity of Christendom, and if all the powers interested +therein will come into a good and solid convention to that effect. My +Lords the States will gladly join in such undertaking and bind themselves +as firmly as the other powers. If no infraction of the laws and liberties +of the Holy Empire be attempted, there will be peace for Germany and its +neighbours. But the present extravagant proposition can only lead to +chicane and quarrels. To press such a measure is merely to inflict a +disgrace upon us. It is an attempt to prevent us from helping the +Elector-Palatine and the other Protestant princes of Germany and +coreligionists everywhere against hostile violence. For the +Elector-Palatine can receive aid from us and from Great Britain through +the duchies only. It is plainly the object of the enemy to seclude us +from the Palatine and the rest of Protestant Germany. It is very +suspicious that the proposition of Prince Maurice, supported by the two +kings and the united princes of Germany, has been rejected." + +The Advocate knew well enough that the religious franchises granted by +the House of Habsburg at the very moment in which Spain signed her peace +with the Netherlands, and exactly as the mad duke of Cleve was +expiring--with a dozen princes, Catholic and Protestant, to dispute his +inheritance--would be valuable just so long as they could be maintained +by the united forces of Protestantism and of national independence and no +longer. What had been extorted from the Catholic powers by force would be +retracted by force whenever that force could be concentrated. It had been +necessary for the Republic to accept a twelve years' truce with Spain in +default of a peace, while the death of John of Cleve, and subsequently of +Henry IV., had made the acquisition of a permanent pacification between +Catholicism and Protestantism, between the League and the Union, more +difficult than ever. The so-called Thirty Years' War--rather to be called +the concluding portion of the Eighty Years' War--had opened in the +debateable duchies exactly at the moment when its forerunner, the forty +years' war of the Netherlands, had been temporarily and nominally +suspended. Barneveld was perpetually baffled in his efforts to obtain a +favourable peace for Protestant Europe, less by the open diplomacy and +military force of the avowed enemies of Protestantism than by the secret +intrigues and faintheartedness of its nominal friends. He was unwearied +in his efforts simultaneously to arouse the courts of England and France +to the danger to Europe from the overshadowing power of the House of +Austria and the League, and he had less difficulty in dealing with the +Catholic Lewis and his mother than with Protestant James. At the present +moment his great designs were not yet openly traversed by a strong +Protestant party within the very republic which he administered. + +"Look to it with earnestness and grave deliberation," he said to +Langerac, "that they do not pursue us there with vain importunity to +accept something so notoriously inadmissible and detrimental to the +common weal. We know that from the enemy's side every kind of unseemly +trick is employed, with the single object of bringing about +misunderstanding between us and the King of France. A prompt and vigorous +resolution on the part of his Majesty, to see the treaty which we made +duly executed, would be to help the cause. Otherwise, not. We cannot here +believe that his Majesty, in this first year of his majority, will submit +to such a notorious and flagrant affront, or that he will tolerate the +oppression of the Duke of Savoy. Such an affair in the beginning of his +Majesty's reign cannot but have very great and prejudicial consequences, +nor can it be left to linger on in uncertainty and delay. Let him be +prompt in this. Let him also take a most Christian--kingly, vigorous +resolution against the great affront put upon him in the failure to carry +out the treaty. Such a resolve on the part of the two kings would restore +all things to tranquillity and bring the Spaniard and his adherents 'in +terminos modestiae. But so long as France is keeping a suspicious eye +upon England, and England upon France, everything will run to combustion, +detrimental to their Majesties and to us, and ruinous to all the good +inhabitants." + +To the Treaty of Xanten faithfully executed he held as to an anchor in +the tempest until it was torn away, not by violence from without, but by +insidious mutiny within. At last the government of James proposed that +the pledges on leaving the territory should be made to the two allied +kings as mediators and umpires. This was better than the naked promises +originally suggested, but even in this there was neither heartiness nor +sincerity. Meantime the Prince of Neuburg, negotiations being broken off, +departed for Germany, a step which the Advocate considered ominous. Soon +afterwards that prince received a yearly pension of 24,000 crowns from +Spain, and for this stipend his claims on the sovereignty of the duchies +were supposed to be surrendered. + +"If this be true," said Barneveld, "we have been served with covered +dishes." + +The King of England wrote spirited and learned letters to the +Elector-Palatine, assuring him of his father-in-law's assistance in case +he should be attacked by the League. Sir Henry Wotton, then on special +mission at the Hague, showed these epistles to Barneveld. + +"When I hear that Parliament has been assembled and has granted great +subsidies," was the Advocate's comment, "I shall believe that effects may +possibly follow from all these assurances." + +It was wearisome for the Advocate thus ever to be foiled; by the +pettinesses and jealousies of those occupying the highest earthly places, +in his efforts to stem the rising tide of Spanish and Catholic +aggression, and to avert the outbreak of a devastating war to which he +saw Europe doomed. It may be wearisome to read the record. Yet it is the +chronicle of Christendom during one of the most important and fateful +epochs of modern history. No man can thoroughly understand the +complication and precession of phenomena attending the disastrous dawn of +the renewed war, on an even more awful scale than the original conflict +in the Netherlands, without studying the correspondence of Barneveld. The +history of Europe is there. The fate of Christendom is there. The +conflict of elements, the crash of contending forms of religion and of +nationalities, is pictured there in vivid if homely colours. The +Advocate, while acting only in the name of a slender confederacy, was in +truth, so long as he held his place, the prime minister of European +Protestantism. There was none other to rival him, few to comprehend him, +fewer still to sustain him. As Prince Maurice was at that moment the +great soldier of Protestantism without clearly scanning the grandeur of +the field in which he was a chief actor, or foreseeing the vastness of +its future, so the Advocate was its statesman and its prophet. Could the +two have worked together as harmoniously as they had done at an earlier +day, it would have been a blessing for the common weal of Europe. But, +alas! the evil genius of jealousy, which so often forbids cordial +relations between soldier and statesman, already stood shrouded in the +distance, darkly menacing the strenuous patriot, who was wearing his life +out in exertions for what he deemed the true cause of progress and +humanity. + +Nor can the fate of the man himself, his genuine character, and the +extraordinary personal events towards which he was slowly advancing, be +accurately unfolded without an attempt by means of his letters to lay +bare his inmost thoughts. Especially it will be seen at a later moment +how much value was attached to this secret correspondence with the +ambassadors in London and Paris. + +The Advocate trusted to the support of France, Papal and Medicean as the +court of the young king was, because the Protestant party throughout the +kingdom was too powerful, warlike, and numerous to be trifled with, and +because geographical considerations alone rendered a cordial alliance +between Spain and France very difficult. Notwithstanding the Spanish +marriages, which he opposed so long as opposition was possible, he knew +that so long as a statesman remained in the kingdom, or a bone for one +existed, the international policy of Henry, of Sully, and of Jeannin +could not be wholly abandoned. + +He relied much on Villeroy, a political hack certainly, an ancient +Leaguer, and a Papist, but a man too cool, experienced, and wily to be +ignorant of the very hornbook of diplomacy, or open to the shallow +stratagems by which Spain found it so easy to purchase or to deceive. So +long as he had a voice in the council, it was certain that the Netherland +alliance would not be abandoned, nor the Duke of Savoy crushed. The old +secretary of state was not especially in favour at that moment, but +Barneveld could not doubt his permanent place in French affairs until +some man of real power should arise there. It was a dreary period of +barrenness and disintegration in that kingdom while France was mourning +Henry and waiting for Richelieu. + +The Dutch ambassador at Paris was instructed accordingly to maintain. +good relations with Villeroy, who in Barneveld's opinion had been a +constant and sincere friend to the Netherlands. "Don't forget to caress +the old gentleman you wot of," said the Advocate frequently, but +suppressing his name, "without troubling yourself with the reasons +mentioned in your letter. I am firmly convinced that he will overcome all +difficulties. Don't believe either that France will let the Duke of Savoy +be ruined. It is against every reason of State." Yet there were few to +help Charles Emmanuel in this Montferrat war, which was destined to drag +feebly on, with certain interludes of negotiations, for two years longer. +The already notorious condottiere Ernest Mansfeld, natural son of old +prince Peter Ernest, who played so long and so high a part in command of +the Spanish armies in the Netherlands, had, to be sure, taken service +under the Duke. Thenceforth he was to be a leader and a master in that +wild business of plunder, burning, blackmailing, and murder, which was +opening upon Europe, and was to afford occupation for many thousands of +adventurers of high and low degree. + +Mansfeld, reckless and profligate, had already changed his banner more +than once. Commanding a company under Leopold in the duchies, he had been +captured by the forces of the Union, and, after waiting in vain to be +ransomed by the Archduke, had gone secretly over to the enemy. Thus +recovering his liberty, he had enlisted a regiment under Leopold's name +to fight the Union, and had then, according to contract, transferred +himself and most of his adventurers to the flag of the Union. The +military operations fading away in the duchies without being succeeded by +permanent peace, the Count, as he was called, with no particular claim to +such title, had accepted a thousand florins a year as retainer from the +Union and had found occupation under Charles Emmanuel. Here the Spanish +soldier of a year or two before found much satisfaction and some profit +in fighting Spanish soldiers. He was destined to reappear in the +Netherlands, in France, in Bohemia, in many places where there were +villages to be burned, churches to be plundered, cities to be sacked, +nuns and other women to be outraged, dangerous political intrigues to be +managed. A man in the prime of his age, fair-haired, prematurely +wrinkled, battered, and hideous of visage, with a hare-lip and a +humpback; slovenly of dress, and always wearing an old grey hat without a +band to it; audacious, cruel, crafty, and licentious--such was Ernest +Mansfeld, whom some of his contemporaries spoke of as Ulysses Germanicus, +others as the new Attila, all as a scourge to the human race. The +cockneys of Paris called him "Machefer," and nurses long kept children +quiet by threatening them with that word. He was now enrolled on the +Protestant side, although at the moment serving Savoy against Spain in a +question purely personal. His armies, whether in Italy or in Germany, +were a miscellaneous collection of adventurers of high and low degree, of +all religions, of all countries, unfrocked priests and students, ruined +nobles, bankrupt citizens, street vagabonds--earliest type perhaps of the +horrible military vermin which were destined to feed so many years long +on the unfortunate dismembered carcass of Germany. + +Many demands had been made upon the States for assistance to Savoy,--as +if they and they alone were to bear the brunt and pay the expense of all +the initiatory campaigns against Spain. + +"We are much importuned," said the Advocate, "to do something for the +help of Savoy . . . . We wish and we implore that France, Great Britain, +the German princes, the Venetians, and the Swiss would join us in some +scheme of effective assistance. But we have enough on our shoulders at +this moment." + +They had hardly money enough in their exchequer, admirably ordered as it +was, for enterprises so far from home when great Spanish armies were +permanently encamped on their border. + +Partly to humour King James and partly from love of adventure, Count John +of Nassau had gone to Savoy at the head of a small well disciplined body +of troops furnished by the States. + +"Make use of this piece of news," said Barneveld, communicating the fact +to Langerac, "opportunely and with discretion. Besides the wish to give +some contentment to the King of Great Britain, we consider it +inconsistent with good conscience and reasons of state to refuse help to +a great prince against oppression by those who mean to give the law to +everybody; especially as we have been so earnestly and frequently +importuned to do so." + +And still the Spaniards and the League kept their hold on the duchies, +while their forces, their munitions, their accumulation of funds waged +hourly. The war of chicane was even more deadly than an actual campaign, +for when there was no positive fighting the whole world seemed against +the Republic. And the chicane was colossal. + +"We cannot understand," said Barneveld, "why M. de Prevaulx is coming +here on special mission. When a treaty is signed and sealed, it only +remains to execute it. The Archduke says he is himself not known in the +treaty, and that nothing can be demanded of him in relation to it. This +he says in his letters to the King of Great Britain. M. de Refuge knows +best whether or not Marquis Spinola, Ottavio Visconti, Chancellor +Pecquius, and others, were employed in the negotiation by the Archduke. +We know very well here that the whole business was conducted by them. The +Archduke is willing to give a clean and sincere promise not to re-occupy, +and asks the same from the States. If he were empowered by the Emperor, +the King of Spain, and the League, and acted in such quality, something +might be done for the tranquillity of Germany. But he promises for +himself only, and Emperor, King, or League, may send any general to do +what they like to-morrow. What is to prevent it? + +"And so My Lords the States, the Elector of Brandenburg, and others +interested are cheated and made fools of. And we are as much troubled by +these tricks as by armed force. Yes, more; for we know that great +enterprises are preparing this year against Germany and ourselves, that +all Neuburg's troops have been disbanded and re-enlisted under the +Spanish commanders, and that forces are levying not only in Italy and +Spain, but in Germany, Lorraine, Luxemburg, and Upper Burgundy, and that +Wesel has been stuffed full of gunpowder and other munitions, and very +strongly fortified." + +For the States to agree to a treaty by which the disputed duchies should +be held jointly by the Princes of Neuburg and of Brandenburg, and the +territory be evacuated by all foreign troops; to look quietly on while +Neuburg converted himself to Catholicism, espoused the sister of +Maximilian of Bavaria, took a pension from Spain, resigned his claims in +favour of Spain, and transferred his army to Spain; and to expect that +Brandenburg and all interested in Brandenburg, that is to say, every +Protestant in Europe, should feel perfectly easy under such arrangement +and perfectly protected by the simple promise of a soldier of fortune +against Catholic aggression, was a fantastic folly hardly worthy of a +child. Yet the States were asked to accept this position, Brandenburg and +all Protestant Germany were asked to accept it, and Barneveld was howled +at by his allies as a marplot and mischief-maker, and denounced and +insulted by diplomatists daily, because he mercilessly tore away the +sophistries of the League and of the League's secret friend, James +Stuart. + +The King of Spain had more than 100,000 men under arms, and was enlisting +more soldiers everywhere and every day, had just deposited 4,000,000 +crowns with his Antwerp bankers for a secret purpose, and all the time +was exuberant in his assurances of peace. One would have thought that +there had never been negotiations in Bourbourg, that the Spanish Armada +had never sailed from Coruna. + +"You are wise and prudent in France," said the Advocate, "but we are used +to Spanish proceedings, and from much disaster sustained are filled with +distrust. The King of England seems now to wish that the Archduke should +draw up a document according to his good pleasure, and that the States +should make an explanatory deed, which the King should sign also and ask +the King of France to do the same. But this is very hazardous. + +"We do not mean to receive laws from the King of Spain, nor the Archduke +. . . . The Spanish proceedings do not indicate peace but war. One must +not take it ill of us that we think these matters of grave importance to +our friends and ourselves. Affairs have changed very much in the last +four months. The murder of the first vizier of the Turkish emperor and +his designs against Persia leave the Spanish king and the Emperor free +from attack in that quarter, and their armaments are far greater than +last year . . . . I cannot understand why the treaty of Xanten, formerly +so highly applauded, should now be so much disapproved. . . . The King of +Spain and the Emperor with their party have a vast design to give the law +to all Christendom, to choose a Roman king according to their will, to +reduce the Evangelical electors, princes, and estates of Germany to +obedience, to subject all Italy, and, having accomplished this, to +proceed to triumph over us and our allies, and by necessary consequence +over France and England. They say they have established the Emperor's +authority by means of Aachen and Mulheim, will soon have driven us out of +Julich, and have thus arranged matters entirely to their heart's content. +They can then, in name of the Emperor, the League, the Prince of Neuburg, +or any one else, make themselves in eight days masters of the places +which they are now imaginarily to leave as well as of those which we are +actually to surrender, and by possession of which we could hold out a +long time against all their power." + +Those very places held by the States--Julich, Emmerich, and others--had +recently been fortified at much expense, under the superintendence of +Prince Maurice, and by advice of the Advocate. It would certainly be an +act of madness to surrender them on the terms proposed. These warnings +and forebodings of Barneveld sound in our ears like recorded history, yet +they were far earlier than the actual facts. And now to please the +English king, the States had listened to his suggestion that his name and +that of the King of France should be signed as mediators to a new +arrangement proposed in lieu of the Xanten treaty. James had suggested +this, Lewis had agreed to it. Yet before the ink had dried in James's +pen, he was proposing that the names of the mediating sovereigns should +be omitted from the document? And why? Because Gondemar was again +whispering in his ear. "They are renewing the negotiations in England," +said the Advocate, "about the alliance between the Prince of Wales and +the second daughter of Spain; and the King of Great Britain is seriously +importuning us that the Archdukes and My Lords the States should make +their pledges 'impersonaliter' and not to the kings." James was also +willing that the name of the Emperor should appear upon it. To prevent +this, Barneveld would have had himself burned at the stake. It would be +an ignominious and unconditional surrender of the whole cause. + +"The Archduke will never be contented," said the Advocate, "unless his +Majesty of Great Britain takes a royal resolution to bring him to reason. +That he tries to lay the fault on us is pure malice. We have been ready +and are still ready to execute the treaty of Xanten. The Archduke is the +cause of the dispute concerning the act. We approved the formularies of +their Majesties, and have changed them three times to suit the King of +Great Britain. Our Provincial States have been notified in the matter, so +that we can no longer digest the Spanish impudence, and are amazed that +his Majesty can listen any more to the Spanish ministers. We fear that +those ministers are working through many hands, in order by one means or +another to excite quarrels between his Majesty, us, and the respective +inhabitants of the two countries . . . . . Take every precaution that no +attempt be made there to bring the name of the Emperor into the act. This +would be contrary to their Majesties' first resolution, very prejudicial +to the Elector of Brandenburg, to the duchies, and to ourselves. And it +is indispensable that the promise be made to the two kings as mediators, +as much for their reputation and dignity as for the interests of the +Elector, the territories, and ourselves. Otherwise too the Spaniards will +triumph over us as if they had driven us by force of arms into this +promise." + +The seat of war, at the opening of the apparently inevitable conflict +between the Catholic League and the Protestant Union, would be those +debateable duchies, those border provinces, the possession of which was +of such vital importance to each of the great contending parties, and the +populations of which, although much divided, were on the whole more +inclined to the League than to the Union. It was natural enough that the +Dutch statesman should chafe at the possibility of their being lost to +the Union through the adroitness of the Catholic managers and the +supineness of the great allies of the Republic. + +Three weeks later than these last utterances of the Advocate, he was +given to understand that King James was preparing to slide away from the +position which had been three times changed to make it suitable for him. +His indignation was hot. + +"Sir Henry Wotton," he said, "has communicated to me his last despatches +from Newmarket. I am in the highest degree amazed that after all our +efforts at accommodation, with so much sacrifice to the electors, the +provinces, and ourselves, they are trying to urge us there to consent +that the promise be not made to the Kings of France and Great Britain as +mediators, although the proposition came from the Spanish side. After we +had renounced, by desire of his Majesty, the right to refer the promise +to the Treaty of Xanten, it was judged by both kings to be needful and +substantial that the promise be made to their Majesties. To change this +now would be prejudicial to the kings, to the electors, the duchies, and +to our commonwealth; to do us a wrong and to leave us naked. France +maintains her position as becoming and necessary. That Great Britain +should swerve from it is not to be digested here. You will do your utmost +according to my previous instructions to prevent any pressure to this +end. You will also see that the name of the Emperor is mentioned neither +in the preamble nor the articles of the treaty. It would be contrary to +all our policy since 1610. You may be firmly convinced that malice is +lurking under the Emperor's name, and that he and the King of Spain and +their adherents, now as before, are attempting a sequestration. This is +simply a pretext to bring those principalities and provinces into the +hands of the Spaniards, for which they have been labouring these thirty +years. We are constantly cheated by these Spanish tricks. Their intention +is to hold Wesel and all the other places until the conclusion of the +Italian affair, and then to strike a great blow." + +Certainly were never words more full of sound statesmanship, and of +prophecy too soon to be fulfilled, than these simple but pregnant +warnings. They awakened but little response from the English government +save cavils and teasing reminders that Wesel had been the cradle of +German Calvinism, the Rhenish Geneva, and that it was sinful to leave it +longer in the hands of Spain. As if the Advocate had not proved to +demonstration that to stock hands for a new deal at that moment was to +give up the game altogether. + +His influence in France was always greater than in England, and this had +likewise been the case with William the Silent. And even now that the +Spanish matrimonial alliance was almost a settled matter at the French +court, while with the English king it was but a perpetual will-o'the-wisp +conducting to quagmires ineffable, the government at Paris sustained the +policy of the Advocate with tolerable fidelity, while it was constantly +and most capriciously traversed by James. + +Barneveld sighed over these approaching nuptials, but did not yet +despair. "We hope that the Spanish-French marriages," he said, "may be +broken up of themselves; but we fear that if we should attempt to delay +or prevent them authoritatively, or in conjunction with others, the +effort would have the contrary effect." + +In this certainly he was doomed to disappointment. + +He had already notified the French court of the absolute necessity of the +great points to be insisted upon in the treaty, and there he found more +docility than in London or Newmarket. + +All summer he was occupied with this most important matter, uttering +Cassandra-like warnings into ears wilfully deaf. The States had gone as +far as possible in concession. To go farther would be to wreck the great +cause upon the very quicksands which he had so ceaselessly pointed out. +"We hope that nothing further will be asked of us, no scruples be felt as +to our good intentions," he said, "and that if Spain and the Archdukes +are not ready now to fulfil the treaty, their Majesties will know how to +resent this trifling with their authority and dignity, and how to set +matters to rights with their own hands in the duchies. A new treaty, +still less a sequestration, is not to be thought of for a moment." + +Yet the month of August came and still the names of the mediating kings +were not on the treaty, and still the spectre of sequestration had not +been laid. On the contrary, the peace of Asti, huddled up between Spain +and Savoy, to be soon broken again, had caused new and painful +apprehensions of an attempt at sequestration, for it was established by +several articles in that treaty that all questions between Savoy and +Mantua should be referred to the Emperor's decision. This precedent was +sure to be followed in the duchies if not resisted by force, as it had +been so successfully resisted five years before by the armies of the +States associated with those of France. Moreover the first step at +sequestration had been actually taken. The Emperor had peremptorily +summoned the Elector of Brandenburg and all other parties interested to +appear before him on the 1st of August in Prague. There could be but one +object in this citation, to drive Brandenburg and the States out of the +duchies until the Imperial decision as to the legitimate sovereignty +should be given. Neuburg being already disposed of and his claims ceded +to the Emperor, what possibility was there in such circumstances of +saving one scrap of the territory from the clutch of the League? None +certainly if the Republic faltered in its determination, and yielded to +the cowardly advice of James. "To comply with the summons," said +Barneveld, "and submit to its consequences will be an irreparable injury +to the electoral house of Brandenburg, to the duchies, and to our +co-religionists everywhere, and a very great disgrace to both their +Majesties and to us." + +He continued, through the ambassador in London, to hold up to the King, +in respectful but plain language, the shamelessness of his conduct in +dispensing the enemy from his pledge to the mediators, when the Republic +expressly, in deference to James, had given up the ampler guarantees of +the treaty. The arrangement had been solemnly made, and consented to by +all the provinces, acting in their separate and sovereign capacity. Such +a radical change, even if it were otherwise permissible, could not be +made without long debates, consultations, and votes by the several +states. What could be more fatal at such a crisis than this childish and +causeless delay. There could be no doubt in any statesman's eyes that the +Spanish party meant war and a preparatory hoodwinking. And it was even +worse for the government of the Republic to be outwitted in diplomacy +than beaten in the field. + +"Every man here," said the Advocate, "has more apprehension of fraud than +of force. According to the constitution of our state, to be overcome by +superior power must be endured, but to be overreached by trickery is a +reproach to the government." + +The summer passed away. The States maintained their positions in the +duchies, notwithstanding the objurgations of James, and Barneveld +remained on his watch-tower observing every movement of the +fast-approaching war, and refusing at the price of the whole territory in +dispute to rescue Wesel and Aix-la-Chapelle from the grasp of the League. + +Caron came to the Hague to have personal consultations with the +States-General, the Advocate, and Prince Maurice, and returned before the +close of the year. He had an audience of the King at the palace of +Whitehall early in November, and found him as immovable as ever in his +apathetic attitude in regard to the affairs of Germany. The murder of Sir +Thomas Overbury and the obscene scandals concerning the King's beloved +Carr and his notorious bride were then occupying the whole attention of +the monarch, so that he had not even time for theological lucubrations, +still less for affairs of state on which the peace of Christendom and the +fate of his own children were hanging. + +The Ambassador found him sulky and dictatorial, but insisted on +expressing once more to him the apprehensions felt by the States-General +in regard to the trickery of the Spanish party in the matter of Cleve and +Julich. He assured his Majesty that they had no intention of maintaining +the Treaty of Xanten, and respectfully requested that the King would no +longer urge the States to surrender the places held by them. It was a +matter of vital importance to retain them, he said. + +"Sir Henry Wotton told me," replied James, "that the States at his +arrival were assembled to deliberate on this matter, and he had no doubt +that they would take a resolution in conformity with my intention. Now I +see very well that you don't mean to give up the places. If I had known +that before, I should not have warned the Archduke so many times, which I +did at the desire of the States themselves. And now that the Archdukes +are ready to restore their cities, you insist on holding yours. That is +the dish you set before me." + +And upon this James swore a mighty oath, and beat himself upon the +breast. + +"Now and nevermore will I trouble myself about the States' affairs, come +what come will," he continued. "I have always been upright in my words +and my deeds, and I am not going to embark myself in a wicked war because +the States have plunged themselves into one so entirely unjust. Next +summer the Spaniard means to divide himself into two or three armies in +order to begin his enterprises in Germany." + +Caron respectfully intimated that these enterprises would be most +conveniently carried on from the very advantageous positions which he +occupied in the duchies. "No," said the King, "he must restore them on +the same day on which you make your surrender, and he will hardly come +back in a hurry." + +"Quite the contrary," said the Ambassador, "they will be back again in a +twinkling, and before we have the slightest warning of their intention." + +But it signified not the least what Caron said. The King continued to +vociferate that the States had never had any intention of restoring the +cities. + +"You mean to keep them for yourselves," he cried, "which is the greatest +injustice that could be perpetrated. You have no right to them, and they +belong to other people." + +The Ambassador reminded him that the Elector of Brandenburg was well +satisfied that they should be occupied by the States for his greater +security and until the dispute should be concluded. + +"And that will never be," said James; "never, never. The States are +powerful enough to carry on the war all alone and against all the world." + +And so he went on, furiously reiterating the words with which he had +begun the conversation, "without accepting any reasons whatever in +payment," as poor Caron observed. + +"It makes me very sad," said the Ambassador, "to find your Majesty so +impatient and so resolved. If the names of the kings are to be omitted +from the document, the Treaty of Xanten should at least be modified +accordingly." + +"Nothing of the kind," said James; "I don't understand it so at all. I +speak plainly and without equivocation. It must be enough for the States +that I promise them, in case the enemy is cheating or is trying to play +any trick whatever, or is seeking to break the Treaty of Xanten in a +single point, to come to their assistance in person." + +And again the warlike James swore a big oath and smote his breast, +affirming that he meant everything sincerely; that he cheated no one, but +always spoke his thoughts right on, clearly and uprightly. + +It was certainly not a cheerful prospect for the States. Their chief ally +was determined that they should disarm, should strip themselves naked, +when the mightiest conspiracy against the religious freedom and +international independence of Europe ever imagined was perfecting itself +before their eyes, and when hostile armies, more numerous than ever +before known, were at their very door. To wait until the enemy was at +their throat, and then to rely upon a king who trembled at the sight of a +drawn sword, was hardly the highest statesmanship. Even if it had been +the chivalrous Henry instead of the pacific James that had held out the +promise of help, they would have been mad to follow such counsel. + +The conversation lasted more than an hour. It was in vain that Caron +painted in dark colours the cruel deeds done by the Spaniards in Mulheim +and Aachen, and the proceedings of the Archbishop of Cologne in Rees. The +King was besotted, and no impression could be made upon him. + +"At any rate," said the Envoy, "the arrangement cannot be concluded +without the King of France." + +"What excuse is that?" said James. "Now that the King is entirely +Spanish, you are trying to excuse your delays by referring to him. You +have deferred rescuing the poor city of Wesel from the hands of the +Spaniard long enough. I am amazed to have heard never a word from you on +that subject since your departure. I had expressed my wish to you clearly +enough that you should inform the States of my intention to give them any +assurance they chose to demand." + +Caron was much disappointed at the humour of his Majesty. Coming freshly +as he did from the council of the States, and almost from the seat of +war, he had hoped to convince and content him. But the King was very +angry with the States for putting him so completely in the wrong. He had +also been much annoyed at their having failed to notify him of their +military demonstration in the Electorate of Cologne to avenge the +cruelties practised upon the Protestants there. He asked Caron if he was +instructed to give him information regarding it. Being answered in the +negative, he said he had thought himself of sufficient importance to the +States and enough in their confidence to be apprised of their military +movements. It was for this, he said, that his ambassador sat in their +council. Caron expressed the opinion that warlike enterprises of the kind +should be kept as secret as possible in order to be successful. This the +King disputed, and loudly declared his vexation at being left in +ignorance of the matter. The Ambassador excused himself as well as he +could, on the ground that he had been in Zealand when the troops were +marching, but told the King his impression that they had been sent to +chastise the people of Cologne for their cruelty in burning and utterly +destroying the city of Mulheim. + +"That is none of your affair," said the King. + +"Pardon me, your Majesty," replied Caron, "they are our fellow +religionists, and some one at least ought to resent the cruelty practised +upon them." + +The King admitted that the destruction of the city had been an +unheard--of cruelty, and then passed on to speak of the quarrel between +the Duke and City of Brunswick, and other matters. The interview ended, +and the Ambassador, very downhearted, went to confer with the Secretary +of State Sir Ralph Winwood, and Sir Henry Wotton. + +He assured these gentlemen that without fully consulting the French +government these radical changes in the negotiations would never be +consented to by the States. Winwood promised to confer at once with the +French ambassador, admitting it to be impossible for the King to take up +this matter alone. He would also talk with the Archduke's ambassador next +day noon at dinner, who was about leaving for Brussels, and "he would put +something into his hand that he might take home with him." + +"When he is fairly gone," said Caron, "it is to be hoped that the King's +head will no longer be so muddled about these things. I wish it with all +my heart." + +It was a dismal prospect for the States. The one ally on whom they had a +right to depend, the ex-Calvinist and royal Defender of the Faith, in +this mortal combat of Protestantism with the League, was slipping out of +their grasp with distracting lubricity. On the other hand, the Most +Christian King, a boy of fourteen years, was still in the control of a +mother heart and soul with the League--so far as she had heart or +soul--was betrothed to the daughter of Spain, and saw his kingdom torn to +pieces and almost literally divided among themselves by rebellious +princes, who made use of the Spanish marriages as a pretext for unceasing +civil war. + +The Queen-Mother was at that moment at Bordeaux, and an emissary from the +princes was in London. James had sent to offer his mediation between them +and the Queen. He was fond of mediation. He considered it his special +mission in the world to mediate. He imagined himself as looked up to by +the nations as the great arbitrator of Christendom, and was wont to issue +his decrees as if binding in force and infallible by nature. He had +protested vigorously against the Spanish-French marriages, and declared +that the princes were justified in formalizing an opposition to them, at +least until affairs in France were restored to something like order. He +warned the Queen against throwing the kingdom "into the combustion of war +without necessity," and declared that, if she would trust to his +guidance, she might make use of him as if her affairs were his own. An +indispensable condition for much assistance, however, would be that the +marriages should be put off. + +As James was himself pursuing a Spanish marriage for his son as the chief +end and aim of his existence, there was something almost humorous in this +protest to the Queen-Dowager and in his encouragement of mutiny in France +in order to prevent a catastrophe there which he desired at home. + +The same agent of the princes, de Monbaran by name, was also privately +accredited by them to the States with instructions to borrow 200,000 +crowns of them if he could. But so long as the policy of the Republic was +directed by Barneveld, it was not very probable that, while maintaining +friendly and even intimate relations with the legitimate government, she +would enter into negotiations with rebels against it, whether princes or +plebeians, and oblige them with loans. "He will call on me soon, no +doubt," said Caron, "but being so well instructed as to your Mightinesses +intentions in this matter, I hope I shall keep him away from you." +Monbaran was accordingly kept away, but a few weeks later another +emissary of Conde and Bouillon made his appearance at the Hague, de +Valigny by name. He asked for money and for soldiers to reinforce +Bouillon's city of Sedan, but he was refused an audience of the +States-General. Even the martial ardour of Maurice and his sympathy for +his relatives were cooled by this direct assault on his pocket. "The +Prince," wrote the French ambassador, du Maurier, "will not furnish him +or his adherents a thousand crowns, not if they had death between their +teeth. Those who think it do not know how he loves his money." + +In the very last days of the year (1615) Caron had another interview with +the King in which James was very benignant. He told the Ambassador that +he should wish the States to send him some special commissioners to make +a new treaty with him, and to treat of all unsettled affairs which were +daily arising between the inhabitants of the respective countries. He +wished to make a firmer union and accord between Great Britain and the +Netherlands. He was very desirous of this, "because," said he, "if we can +unite with and understand each other, we have under God no one what ever +to fear, however mighty they may be." + +Caron duly notified Barneveld of these enthusiastic expressions of his +Majesty. The Advocate too was most desirous of settling the troublesome +questions about the cloth trade, the piracies, and other matters, and was +in favour of the special commission. In regard to a new treaty of +alliance thus loosely and vaguely suggested, he was not so sanguine +however. He had too much difficulty in enforcing the interests of +Protestantism in the duchies against the infatuation of James in regard +to Spain, and he was too well aware of the Spanish marriage delusion, +which was the key to the King's whole policy, to put much faith in these +casual outbursts of eternal friendship with the States. He contented +himself therefore with cautioning Caron to pause before committing +himself to any such projects. He had frequently instructed him, however, +to bring the disputed questions to his Majesty's notice as often as +possible with a view to amicable arrangement. + +This preventive policy in regard to France was highly approved by +Barneveld, who was willing to share in the blame profusely heaped upon +such sincere patriots and devoted Protestants as Duplessis-Mornay and +others, who saw small advantage to the great cause from a mutiny against +established government, bad as it was, led by such intriguers as Conde +and Bouillon. Men who had recently been in the pay of Spain, and one of +whom had been cognizant of Biron's plot against the throne and life of +Henry IV., to whom sedition was native atmosphere and daily bread, were +not likely to establish a much more wholesome administration than that of +Mary de' Medici. Prince Maurice sympathized with his relatives by +marriage, who were leading the civil commotions in France and +endeavouring to obtain funds in the Netherlands. It is needless to say +that Francis Aerssens was deep in their intrigues, and feeding full the +grudge which the Stadholder already bore the Advocate for his policy on +this occasion. + +The Advocate thought it best to wait until the young king should himself +rise in mutiny against his mother and her minions. Perhaps the downfall +of the Concini's and their dowager and the escape of Lewis from thraldom +might not be so distant as it seemed. Meantime this was the legal +government, bound to the States by treaties of friendship and alliance, +and it would be a poor return for the many favours and the constant aid +bestowed by Henry IV. on the Republic, and an imbecile mode of avenging +his murder to help throw his kingdom into bloodshed and confusion before +his son was able to act for himself. At the same time he did his best to +cultivate amicable relations with the princes, while scrupulously +abstaining from any sympathy with their movements. "If the Prince and the +other gentlemen come to court," he wrote to Langerac, "you will treat +them with all possible caresses so far as can be done without disrespect +to the government." + +While the British court was occupied with the foul details of the +Overbury murder and its consequences, a crime of a more commonplace +nature, but perhaps not entirely without influence on great political +events, had startled the citizens of the Hague. It was committed in the +apartments of the Stadholder and almost under his very eyes. A jeweller +of Amsterdam, one John van Wely, had come to the court of Maurice to lay +before him a choice collection of rare jewellery. In his caskets were +rubies and diamonds to the value of more than 100,000 florins, which +would be the equivalent of perhaps ten times as much to-day. In the +Prince's absence the merchant was received by a confidential groom of the +chambers, John of Paris by name, and by him, with the aid of a third +John, a soldier of his Excellency's guard, called Jean de la Vigne, +murdered on the spot. The deed was done in the Prince's private study. +The unfortunate jeweller was shot, and to make sure was strangled with +the blue riband of the Order of the Garter recently conferred upon +Maurice, and which happened to be lying conspicuously in the room. + +The ruffians had barely time to take possession of the booty, to thrust +the body behind the tapestry of the chamber, and to remove the more +startling evidences of the crime, when the Prince arrived. He supped soon +afterwards in the same room, the murdered jeweller still lying behind the +arras. In the night the valet and soldier carried the corpse away from +the room, down the stairs, and through the great courtyard, where, +strange to say, no sentinels were on duty, and threw it into an ashpit. + +A deed so bloody, audacious, and stupid was of course soon discovered and +the murderers arrested and executed. Nothing would remove the incident +from the catalogue of vulgar crimes, or even entitle it to a place in +history save a single circumstance. The celebrated divine John +Uytenbogaert, leader among the Arminians, devoted friend of Barneveld, +and up to that moment the favorite preacher of Maurice, stigmatized +indeed, as we have seen, by the orthodox as "Court Trumpeter," was +requested by the Prince to prepare the chief criminal for death. He did +so, and from that day forth the Stadholder ceased to be his friend, +although regularly listening to his preaching in the French chapel of the +court for more than a year longer. Some time afterwards the Advocate +informed Uytenbogaert that the Prince was very much embittered against +him. "I knew it well," says the clergyman in his memoirs, "but not the +reasons for it, nor do I exactly comprehend them to this day. Truly I +have some ideas relating to certain things which I was obliged to do in +discharge of my official duty, but I will not insist upon them, nor will +I reveal them to any man." + +These were mysterious words, and the mystery is said to have been +explained; for it would seem that the eminent preacher was not so +entirely reticent among his confidential friends as before the public. +Uytenbogaert--so ran the tale--in the course of his conversation with the +condemned murderer, John of Paris, expressed a natural surprise that +there should have been no soldiers on guard in the court on the evening +when the crime was committed and the body subsequently removed. The valet +informed him that he had for a long time been empowered by the Prince to +withdraw the sentinels from that station, and that they had been +instructed to obey his orders--Maurice not caring that they should be +witnesses to the equivocal kind of female society that John of Paris was +in the habit of introducing of an evening to his master's apartments. The +valet had made use of this privilege on the night in question to rid +himself of the soldiers who would have been otherwise on guard. + +The preacher felt it his duty to communicate these statements to the +Prince, and to make perhaps a somewhat severe comment upon them. Maurice +received the information sullenly, and, as soon as Uytenbogaert was gone, +fell into a violent passion, throwing his hat upon the floor, stamping +upon it, refusing to eat his supper, and allowing no one to speak to him. +Next day some courtiers asked the clergyman what in the world he had been +saying to the Stadholder. + +From that time forth his former partiality for the divine, on whose +preaching he had been a regular attendant, was changed to hatred; a +sentiment which lent a lurid colour to subsequent events. + +The attempts of the Spanish party by chicane or by force to get +possession of the coveted territories continued year after year, and were +steadily thwarted by the watchfulness of the States under guidance of +Barneveld. The martial stadholder was more than ever for open war, in +which he was opposed by the Advocate, whose object was to postpone and, +if possible, to avert altogether the dread catastrophe which he foresaw +impending over Europe. The Xanten arrangement seemed hopelessly thrown to +the winds, nor was it destined to be carried out; the whole question of +sovereignty and of mastership in those territories being swept +subsequently into the general whirlpool of the Thirty Years' War. So long +as there was a possibility of settlement upon that basis, the Advocate +was in favour of settlement, but to give up the guarantees and play into +the hands of the Catholic League was in his mind to make the Republic one +of the conspirators against the liberties of Christendom. + +"Spain, the Emperor and the rest of them," said he, "make all three modes +of pacification--the treaty, the guarantee by the mediating kings, the +administration divided between the possessory princes--alike impossible. +They mean, under pretext of sequestration, to make themselves absolute +masters there. I have no doubt that Villeroy means sincerely, and +understands the matter, but meantime we sit by the fire and burn. If the +conflagration is neglected, all the world will throw the blame on us." + +Thus the Spaniards continued to amuse the British king with assurances of +their frank desire to leave those fortresses and territories which they +really meant to hold till the crack of doom. And while Gondemar was +making these ingenuous assertions in London, his colleagues at Paris and +at Brussels distinctly and openly declared that there was no authority +whatever for them, that the Ambassador had received no such instructions, +and that there was no thought of giving up Wesel or any other of the +Protestant strongholds captured, whether in the duchies or out of them. +And Gondemar, still more to keep that monarch in subjection, had been +unusually flattering in regard to the Spanish marriage. "We are in great +alarm here," said the Advocate, "at the tidings that the projected +alliance of the Prince of Wales with the daughter of Spain is to be +renewed; from which nothing good for his Majesty's person, his kingdom, +nor for our state can be presaged. We live in hope that it will never +be." + +But the other marriage was made. Despite the protest of James, the +forebodings of Barneveld, and the mutiny of the princes, the youthful +king of France had espoused Anne of Austria early in the year 1616. The +British king did his best to keep on terms with France and Spain, and by +no means renounced his own hopes. At the same time, while fixed as ever +in his approbation of the policy pursued by the Emperor and the League, +and as deeply convinced of their artlessness in regard to the duchies, +the Protestant princes of Germany, and the Republic, he manifested more +cordiality than usual in his relations with the States. Minor questions +between the countries he was desirous of arranging--so far as matters of +state could be arranged by orations--and among the most pressing of these +affairs were the systematic piracy existing and encouraged in English +ports, to the great damage of all seafaring nations and to the Hollanders +most of all, and the quarrel about the exportation of undyed cloths, +which had almost caused a total cessation of the woollen trade between +the two countries. The English, to encourage their own artisans, had +forbidden the export of undyed cloths, and the Dutch had retorted by +prohibiting the import of dyed ones. + +The King had good sense enough to see the absurdity of this condition of +things, and it will be remembered that Barneveld had frequently urged +upon the Dutch ambassador to bring his Majesty's attention to these +dangerous disputes. Now that the recovery of the cautionary towns had +been so dexterously and amicably accomplished, and at so cheap a rate, it +seemed a propitious moment to proceed to a general extinction of what +would now be called "burning questions." + +James was desirous that new high commissioners might be sent from the +States to confer with himself and his ministers upon the subjects just +indicated, as well as upon the fishery questions as regarded both +Greenland and Scotland, and upon the general affairs of India. + +He was convinced, he said to Caron, that the sea had become more and more +unsafe and so full of freebooters that the like was never seen or heard +of before. It will be remembered that the Advocate had recently called +his attention to the fact that the Dutch merchants had lost in two months +800,000 florins' worth of goods by English pirates. + +The King now assured the Ambassador of his intention of equipping a fleet +out of hand and to send it forth as speedily as possible under command of +a distinguished nobleman, who would put his honour and credit in a +successful expedition, without any connivance or dissimulation whatever. +In order thoroughly to scour these pirates from the seas, he expressed +the hope that their Mightinesses the States would do the same either +jointly or separately as they thought most advisable. Caron bluntly +replied that the States had already ten or twelve war-ships at sea for +this purpose, but that unfortunately, instead of finding any help from +the English in this regard, they had always found the pirates favoured in +his Majesty's ports, especially in Ireland and Wales. + +"Thus they have so increased in numbers," continued the Ambassador, "that +I quite believe what your Majesty says, that not a ship can pass with +safety over the seas. More over, your Majesty has been graciously pleased +to pardon several of these corsairs, in consequence of which they have +become so impudent as to swarm everywhere, even in the river Thames, +where they are perpetually pillaging honest merchantmen." + +"I confess," said the King, "to having pardoned a certain Manning, but +this was for the sake of his old father, and I never did anything so +unwillingly in my life. But I swear that if it were the best nobleman in +England, I would never grant one of them a pardon again." + +Caron expressed his joy at hearing such good intentions on the part of +his Majesty, and assured him that the States-General would be equally +delighted. + +In the course of the summer the Dutch ambassador had many opportunities +of seeing the King very confidentially, James having given him the use of +the royal park at Bayscot, so that during the royal visits to that place +Caron was lodged under his roof. + +On the whole, James had much regard and respect for Noel de Caron. He +knew him to be able, although he thought him tiresome. It is amusing to +observe the King and Ambassador in their utterances to confidential +friends each frequently making the charge of tediousness against the +other. "Caron's general education," said James on one occasion to Cecil, +"cannot amend his native German prolixity, for had I not interrupted him, +it had been tomorrow morning before I had begun to speak. God preserve me +from hearing a cause debated between Don Diego and him! . . . But in +truth it is good dealing with so wise and honest a man, although he be +somewhat longsome." + +Subsequently James came to Whitehall for a time, and then stopped at +Theobalds for a few days on his way to Newmarket, where he stayed until +Christmas. At Theobalds he sent again for the Ambassador, saying that at +Whitehall he was so broken down with affairs that it would be impossible +to live if he stayed there. + +He asked if the States were soon to send the commissioners, according to +his request, to confer in regard to the cloth-trade. Without interference +of the two governments, he said, the matter would never be settled. The +merchants of the two countries would never agree except under higher +authority. + +"I have heard both parties," he said, "the new and the old companies, two +or three times in full council, and tried to bring them to an agreement, +but it won't do. I have heard that My Lords the States have been hearing +both sides, English and the Hollanders, over and over again, and that the +States have passed a provisional resolution, which however does not suit +us. Now it is not reasonable, as we are allies, that our merchants should +be obliged to send their cloths roundabout, not being allowed either to +sell them in the United Provinces or to pass them through your +territories. I wish I could talk with them myself, for I am certain, if +they would send some one here, we could make an agreement. It is not +necessary that one should take everything from them, or that one should +refuse everything to us. I am sure there are people of sense in your +assembly who will justify me in favouring my own people so far as I +reasonably can, and I know very well that My Lords the States must stand +up for their own citizens. If we have been driving this matter to an +extreme and see that we are ruining each other, we must take it up again +in other fashion, for Yesterday is the preceptor of To-morrow. Let the +commissioners come as soon as possible. I know they have complaints to +make, and I have my complaints also. Therefore we must listen to each +other, for I protest before God that I consider the community of your +state with mine to be so entire that, if one goes to perdition, the other +must quickly follow it." + +Thus spoke James, like a wise and thoughtful sovereign interested in the +welfare of his subjects and allies, with enlightened ideas for the time +upon public economy. It is difficult, in the man conversing thus amicably +and sensibly with the Dutch ambassador, to realise the shrill pedant +shrieking against Vorstius, the crapulous comrade of Carrs and Steenies, +the fawning solicitor of Spanish marriages, the "pepperer" and hangman of +Puritans, the butt and dupe of Gondemar and Spinola. + +"I protest," he said further, "that I seek nothing in your state but all +possible friendship and good fellowship. My own subjects complain +sometimes that your people follow too closely on their heels, and confess +that your industry goes far above their own. If this be so, it is a lean +kind of reproach; for the English should rather study to follow you. +Nevertheless, when industry is directed by malice, each may easily be +attempting to snap an advantage from the other. I have sometimes +complained of many other things in which my subjects suffered great +injustice from you, but all that is excusable. I will willingly listen to +your people and grant them to be in the right when they are so. But I +will never allow them to be in the right when they mistrust me. If I had +been like many other princes, I should never have let the advantage of +the cautionary towns slip out of my fingers, but rather by means of them +attempted to get even a stronger hold on your country. I have had plenty +of warnings from great statesmen in France, Germany, and other nations +that I ought to give them up nevermore. Yet you know how frankly and +sincerely I acquitted myself in that matter without ever making +pretensions upon your state than the pretensions I still make to your +friendship and co-operation." + +James, after this allusion to an important transaction to be explained in +the next chapter, then made an observation or two on a subject which was +rapidly overtopping all others in importance to the States, and his +expressions were singularly at variance with his last utterances in that +regard. "I tell you," he said, "that you have no right to mistrust me in +anything, not even in the matter of religion. I grieve indeed to hear +that your religious troubles continue. You know that in the beginning I +occupied myself with this affair, but fearing that my course might be +misunderstood, and that it might be supposed that I was seeking to +exercise authority in your republic, I gave it up, and I will never +interfere with the matter again, but will ever pray God that he may give +you a happy issue out of these troubles." + +Alas! if the King had always kept himself on that height of amiable +neutrality, if he had been able to govern himself in the future by these +simplest principles of reason and justice, there might have been perhaps +a happier issue from the troubles than time was like to reveal. + +Once more James referred to the crisis pending in German affairs, and as +usual spoke of the Clove and Julich question as if it were a simple +matter to be settled by a few strokes of the pen and a pennyworth of +sealing-wax, instead of being the opening act in a vast tragedy, of which +neither he, nor Carom nor Barneveld, nor Prince Maurice, nor the youthful +king of France, nor Philip, nor Matthias, nor any of the men now foremost +in the conduct of affairs, was destined to see the end. + +The King informed Caron that he had just received most satisfactory +assurances from the Spanish ambassador in his last audience at Whitehall. + +"He has announced to me on the part of the King his master with great +compliments that his Majesty seeks to please me and satisfy me in +everything that I could possibly desire of him," said James, rolling over +with satisfaction these unctuous phrases as if they really had any +meaning whatever. + +"His Majesty says further," added the King, "that as he has been at +various times admonished by me, and is daily admonished by other princes, +that he ought to execute the treaty of Xanten by surrendering the city of +Wesel and all other places occupied by Spinola, he now declares himself +ready to carry out that treaty in every point. He will accordingly +instruct the Archduke to do this, provided the Margrave of Brandenburg +and the States will do the same in regard to their captured places. As he +understands however that the States have been fortifying Julich even as +he might fortify Wesel, he would be glad that no innovation be made +before the end of the coming month of March. When this term shall have +expired, he will no longer be bound by these offers, but will proceed to +fortify Wesel and the other places, and to hold them as he best may for +himself. Respect for me has alone induced his Majesty to make this +resolution." + +We have already seen that the Spanish ambassador in Paris was at this +very time loudly declaring that his colleague in London had no commission +whatever to make these propositions. Nor when they were in the slightest +degree analysed, did they appear after all to be much better than +threats. Not a word was said of guarantees. The names of the two kings +were not mentioned. It was nothing but Albert and Spinola then as always, +and a recommendation that Brandenburg and the States and all the +Protestant princes of Germany should trust to the candour of the Catholic +League. Caron pointed out to the King that in these proposals there were +no guarantees nor even promises that the fortresses would not be +reoccupied at convenience of the Spaniards. He engaged however to report +the whole statement to his masters. A few weeks afterwards the Advocate +replied in his usual vein, reminding the King through the Ambassador that +the Republic feared fraud on the part of the League much more than force. +He also laid stress on the affairs of Italy, considering the fate of +Savoy and the conflicts in which Venice was engaged as components of a +general scheme. The States had been much solicited, as we have seen, to +render assistance to the Duke of Savoy, the temporary peace of Asti being +already broken, and Barneveld had been unceasing in his efforts to arouse +France as well as England to the danger to themselves and to all +Christendom should Savoy be crushed. We shall have occasion to see the +prominent part reserved to Savoy in the fast opening debate in Germany. +Meantime the States had sent one Count of Nassau with a couple of +companies to Charles Emmanuel, while another (Ernest) had just gone to +Venice at the head of more than three thousand adventurers. With so many +powerful armies at their throats, as Barneveld had more than once +observed, it was not easy for them to despatch large forces to the other +end of Europe, but he justly reminded his allies that the States were now +rendering more effective help to the common cause by holding great +Spanish armies in check on their own frontier than if they assumed a more +aggressive line in the south. The Advocate, like every statesman worthy +of the name, was accustomed to sweep the whole horizon in his +consideration of public policy, and it will be observed that he always +regarded various and apparently distinct and isolated movements in +different parts of Europe as parts of one great whole. It is easy enough +for us, centuries after the record has been made up, to observe the +gradual and, as it were, harmonious manner in which the great Catholic +conspiracy against the liberties of Europe was unfolded in an ever +widening sphere. But to the eyes of contemporaries all was then misty and +chaotic, and it required the keen vision of a sage and a prophet to +discern the awful shape which the future might assume. Absorbed in the +contemplation of these portentous phenomena, it was not unnatural that +the Advocate should attach less significance to perturbations nearer +home. Devoted as was his life to save the great European cause of +Protestantism, in which he considered political and religious liberty +bound up, from the absolute extinction with which it was menaced, he +neglected too much the furious hatreds growing up among Protestants +within the narrow limits of his own province. He was destined one day to +be rudely awakened. Meantime he was occupied with organizing a general +defence of Italy, Germany, France, and England, as well as the +Netherlands, against the designs of Spain and the League. + +"We wish to know," he said in answer to the affectionate messages and +fine promises of the King of Spain to James as reported by Caron, "what +his Majesty of Great Britain has done, is doing, and is resolved to do +for the Duke of Savoy and the Republic of Venice. If they ask you what we +are doing, answer that we with our forces and vigour are keeping off from +the throats of Savoy and Venice 2000 riders and 10,000 infantry, with +which forces, let alone their experience, more would be accomplished than +with four times the number of new troops brought to the field in Italy. +This is our succour, a great one and a very costly one, for the expense +of maintaining our armies to hold the enemy in check here is very great." + +He alluded with his usual respectful and quiet scorn to the arrangements +by which James so wilfully allowed himself to be deceived. + +"If the Spaniard really leaves the duchies," he said, "it is a grave +matter to decide whether on the one side he is not resolved by that means +to win more over us and the Elector of Brandenburg in the debateable land +in a few days than he could gain by force in many years, or on the other +whether by it he does not intend despatching 1200 or 1500 cavalry and +5000 or 6000 foot, all his most experienced soldiers, from the +Netherlands to Italy, in order to give the law at his pleasure to the +Duke of Savoy and the Republic of Venice, reserving his attack upon +Germany and ourselves to the last. The Spaniards, standing under a +monarchical government, can in one hour resolve to seize to-morrow all +that they and we may abandon to-day. And they can carry such a resolution +into effect at once. Our form of government does not permit this, so that +our republic must be conserved by distrust and good garrisons." + +Thus during this long period of half hostilities Barneveld, while +sincerely seeking to preserve the peace in Europe, was determined, if +possible, that the Republic should maintain the strongest defensive +position when the war which he foreboded should actually begin. Maurice +and the war party had blamed him for the obstacles which he interposed to +the outbreak of hostilities, while the British court, as we have seen, +was perpetually urging him to abate from his demands and abandon both the +well strengthened fortresses in the duchies and that strong citadel of +distrust which in his often repeated language he was determined never to +surrender. Spinola and the military party of Spain, while preaching +peace, had been in truth most anxious for fighting. "The only honour I +desire henceforth," said that great commander, "is to give battle to +Prince Maurice." The generals were more anxious than the governments to +make use of the splendid armies arrayed against each other in such +proximity that, the signal for conflict not having been given, it was not +uncommon for the soldiers of the respective camps to aid each other in +unloading munition waggons, exchanging provisions and other articles of +necessity, and performing other small acts of mutual service. + +But heavy thunder clouds hanging over the earth so long and so closely +might burst into explosion at any moment. Had it not been for the +distracted condition of France, the infatuation of the English king, and +the astounding inertness of the princes of the German Union, great +advantages might have been gained by the Protestant party before the +storm should break. But, as the French ambassador at the Hague well +observed, "the great Protestant Union of Germany sat with folded arms +while Hannibal was at their gate, the princes of which it was composed +amusing themselves with staring at each other. It was verifying," he +continued, bitterly, "the saying of the Duke of Alva, 'Germany is an old +dog which still can bark, but has lost its teeth to bite with.'" + +To such imbecility had that noble and gifted people--which had never been +organized into a nation since it crushed the Roman empire and established +a new civilization on its ruins, and was to wait centuries longer until +it should reconstruct itself into a whole--been reduced by subdivision, +disintegration, the perpetual dissolvent of religious dispute, and the +selfish policy of infinitesimal dynasties. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + James still presses for the Payment of the Dutch Republic's Debt to + him--A Compromise effected, with Restitution of the Cautionary + Towns--Treaty of Loudun--James's Dream of a Spanish Marriage + revives--James visits Scotland--The States-General agree to furnish + Money and Troops in fulfilment of the Treaty of 1609--Death of + Concini--Villeroy returns to Power. + +Besides matters of predestination there were other subjects political and +personal which increased the King's jealousy and hatred. The debt of the +Republic to the British crown, secured by mortgage of the important +sea-ports and fortified towns of Flushing, Brielle, Rammekens, and other +strong places, still existed. The possession of those places by England +was a constant danger and irritation to the States. It was an axe +perpetually held over their heads. It threatened their sovereignty, their +very existence. On more than one occasion, in foreign courts, the +representatives of the Netherlands had been exposed to the taunt that the +Republic was after all not an independent power, but a British province. +The gibe had always been repelled in a manner becoming the envoys of a +proud commonwealth; yet it was sufficiently galling that English +garrisons should continue to hold Dutch towns; one of them among the most +valuable seaports of the Republic,--the other the very cradle of its +independence, the seizure of which in Alva's days had always been +reckoned a splendid achievement. Moreover, by the fifth article of the +treaty of peace between James and Philip III., although the King had +declared himself bound by the treaties made by Elizabeth to deliver up +the cautionary towns to no one but the United States, he promised Spain +to allow those States a reasonable time to make peace with the Archdukes +on satisfactory conditions. Should they refuse to do so, he held himself +bound by no obligations to them, and would deal with the cities as he +thought proper, and as the Archdukes themselves might deem just. + +The King had always been furious at "the huge sum of money to be +advanced, nay, given, to the States," as he phrased it. "It is so far out +of all square," he had said, "as on my conscience I cannot think that +ever they craved it 'animo obtinendi,' but only by that objection to +discourage me from any thought of getting any repayment of my debts from +them when they shall be in peace. . . . Should I ruin myself for +maintaining them? Should I bestow as much on them as cometh to the value +of my whole yearly rent?" He had proceeded to say very plainly that, if +the States did not make great speed to pay him all his debt so soon as +peace was established, he should treat their pretence at independence +with contempt, and propose dividing their territory between himself and +the King of France. + +"If they be so weak as they cannot subsist either in peace or war," he +said, "without I ruin myself for upholding them, in that case surely +'minus malunv est eligendum,' the nearest harm is first to be eschewed, a +man will leap out of a burning ship and drown himself in the sea; and it +is doubtless a farther off harm for me to suffer them to fall again in +the hands of Spain, and let God provide for the danger that may with time +fall upon me or my posterity than presently to starve myself and mine +with putting the meat in their mouth. Nay, rather if they be so weak as +they can neither sustain themselves in peace nor war, let them leave this +vainglorious thirsting for the title of a free state (which no people are +worthy or able to enjoy that cannot stand by themselves like +substantives), and 'dividantur inter nos;' I mean, let their countries be +divided between France and me, otherwise the King of Spain shall be sure +to consume us." + +Such were the eyes with which James had always regarded the great +commonwealth of which he affected to be the ally, while secretly aspiring +to be its sovereign, and such was his capacity to calculate political +forces and comprehend coming events. + +Certainly the sword was hanging by a thread. The States had made no peace +either with the Archdukes or with Spain. They had made a truce, half the +term of which had already run by. At any moment the keys of their very +house-door might be placed in the hands of their arch enemy. Treacherous +and base as the deed would be, it might be defended by the letter of a +treaty in which the Republic had no part; and was there anything too +treacherous or too base to be dreaded from James Stuart? + +But the States owed the crown of England eight millions of florins, +equivalent to about L750,000. Where was this vast sum to be found? It was +clearly impossible for the States to beg or to borrow it, although they +were nearly as rich as any of the leading powers at that day. + +It was the merit of Barneveld, not only that he saw the chance for a good +bargain, but that he fully comprehended a great danger. Years long James +had pursued the phantom of a Spanish marriage for his son. To achieve +this mighty object, he had perverted the whole policy of the realm; he +had grovelled to those who despised him, had repaid attempts at wholesale +assassination with boundless sycophancy. It is difficult to imagine +anything more abject than the attitude of James towards Philip. Prince +Henry was dead, but Charles had now become Prince of Wales in his turn, +and there was a younger infanta whose hand was not yet disposed of. + +So long as the possible prize of a Most Catholic princess was dangling +before the eyes of the royal champion of Protestantism, so long there was +danger that the Netherlanders might wake up some fine morning and see the +flag of Spain waving over the walls of Flushing, Brielle, and Rammekens. + +It was in the interest of Spain too that the envoys of James at the Hague +were perpetually goading Barneveld to cause the States' troops to be +withdrawn from the duchies and the illusory treaty of Xanten to be +executed. Instead of an eighth province added to the free Netherlands, +the result of such a procedure would have been to place that territory +enveloping them in the hands of the enemy; to strengthen and sharpen the +claws, as the Advocate had called them, by which Spain was seeking to +clutch and to destroy the Republic. + +The Advocate steadily refused to countenance such policy in the duchies, +and he resolved on a sudden stroke to relieve the Commonwealth from the +incubus of the English mortgage. + +James was desperately pushed for money. His minions, as insatiable in +their demands on English wealth as the parasites who fed on the +Queen-Regent were exhaustive of the French exchequer, were greedier than +ever now that James, who feared to face a parliament disgusted with the +meanness of his policy and depravity of his life, could not be relied +upon to minister to their wants. + +The Advocate judiciously contrived that the proposal of a compromise +should come from the English government. Noel de Caron, the veteran +ambassador of the States in London, after receiving certain proposals, +offered, under instructions' from Barneveld, to pay L250,000 in full of +all demands. It was made to appear that the additional L250,000 was in +reality in advance of his instructions. The mouths of the minions watered +at the mention of so magnificent a sum of money in one lump. + +The bargain was struck. On the 11th June 1616, Sir Robert Sidney, who had +become Lord Lisle, gave over the city of Flushing to the States, +represented by the Seignior van Maldere, while Sir Horace Vere placed the +important town of Brielle in the hands of the Seignior van Mathenesse. +According to the terms of the bargain, the English garrisons were +converted into two regiments, respectively to be commanded by Lord +Lisle's son, now Sir Robert Sidney, and by Sir Horace Vere, and were to +serve the States. Lisle, who had been in the Netherlands since the days +of his uncle Leicester and his brother Sir Philip Sidney, now took his +final departure for England. + +Thus this ancient burthen had been taken off the Republic by the masterly +policy of the Advocate. A great source of dread for foreign complication +was closed for ever. + +The French-Spanish marriages had been made. Henry IV. had not been +murdered in vain. Conde and his confederates had issued their manifesto. +A crisis came to the States, for Maurice, always inclined to take part +for the princes, and urged on by Aerssens, who was inspired by a deadly +hatred for the French government ever since they had insisted on his +dismissal from his post, and who fed the Stadholder's growing jealousy of +the Advocate to the full, was at times almost ready for joining in the +conflict. It was most difficult for the States-General, led by Barneveld, +to maintain relations of amity with a government controlled by Spain, +governed by the Concini's, and wafted to and fro by every wind that blew. +Still it was the government, and the States might soon be called upon, in +virtue of their treaties with Henry, confirmed by Mary de' Medici, not +only to prevent the daily desertion of officers and soldiers of the +French regiments to the rebellious party, but to send the regiments +themselves to the assistance of the King and Queen. + +There could be no doubt that the alliance of the French Huguenots at +Grenoble with the princes made the position of the States very critical. +Bouillon was loud in his demands upon Maurice and the States for money +and reinforcements, but the Prince fortunately understood the character +of the Duke and of Conde, and comprehended the nature of French politics +too clearly to be led into extremities by passion or by pique. He said +loudly to any one that chose to listen: + +"It is not necessary to ruin the son in order to avenge the death of the +father. That should be left to the son, who alone has legitimate +authority to do it." Nothing could be more sensible, and the remark +almost indicated a belief on the Prince's part in Mary's complicity in +the murder of her husband. Duplessis-Mornay was in despair, and, like all +true patriots and men of earnest character, felt it almost an +impossibility to choose between the two ignoble parties contending for +the possession of France, and both secretly encouraged by France's deadly +enemy. + +The Treaty of Loudun followed, a treaty which, said du Maurier, had about +as many negotiators as there were individuals interested in the +arrangements. The rebels were forgiven, Conde sold himself out for a +million and a half livres and the presidency of the council, came to +court, and paraded himself in greater pomp and appearance of power than +ever. Four months afterwards he was arrested and imprisoned. He submitted +like a lamb, and offered to betray his confederates. + +King James, faithful to his self-imposed part of mediator-general, which +he thought so well became him, had been busy in bringing about this +pacification, and had considered it eminently successful. He was now +angry at this unexpected result. He admitted that Conde had indulged in +certain follies and extravagancies, but these in his opinion all came out +of the quiver of the Spaniard, "who was the head of the whole intrigue." +He determined to recall Lord Hayes from Madrid and even Sir Thomas +Edmonds from Paris, so great was his indignation. But his wrath was +likely to cool under the soothing communications of Gondemar, and the +rumour of the marriage of the second infanta with the Prince of Wales +soon afterwards started into new life. "We hope," wrote Barneveld, "that +the alliance of his Highness the Prince of Wales with the daughter of the +Spanish king will make no further progress, as it will place us in the +deepest embarrassment and pain." + +For the reports had been so rife at the English court in regard to this +dangerous scheme that Caron had stoutly gone to the King and asked him +what he was to think about it. "The King told me," said the Ambassador, +"that there was nothing at all in it, nor any appearance that anything +ever would come of it. It was true, he said, that on the overtures made +to him by the Spanish ambassador he had ordered his minister in Spain to +listen to what they had to say, and not to bear himself as if the +overtures would be rejected." + +The coyness thus affected by James could hardly impose on so astute a +diplomatist as Noel de Caron, and the effect produced upon the policy of +one of the Republic's chief allies by the Spanish marriages naturally +made her statesmen shudder at the prospect of their other powerful friend +coming thus under the malign influence of Spain. + +"He assured me, however," said the Envoy, "that the Spaniard is not +sincere in the matter, and that he has himself become so far alienated +from the scheme that we may sleep quietly upon it." And James appeared at +that moment so vexed at the turn affairs were taking in France, so +wounded in his self-love, and so bewildered by the ubiquitous nature of +nets and pitfalls spreading over Europe by Spain, that he really seemed +waking from his delusion. Even Caron was staggered? "In all his talk he +appears so far estranged from the Spaniard," said he, "that it would seem +impossible that he should consider this marriage as good for his state. I +have also had other advices on the subject which in the highest degree +comfort me. Now your Mightinesses may think whatever you like about it." + +The mood of the King was not likely to last long in so comfortable a +state. Meantime he took the part of Conde and the other princes, +justified their proceedings to the special envoy sent over by Mary de' +Medici, and wished the States to join with him in appealing to that Queen +to let the affair, for his sake, pass over once more. + +"And now I will tell your Mightinesses," said Caron, reverting once more +to the dreaded marriage which occupies so conspicuous a place in the +strangely mingled and party-coloured tissue of the history of those days, +"what the King has again been telling me about the alliance between his +son and the Infanta. He hears from Carleton that you are in very great +alarm lest this event may take place. He understands that the special +French envoy at the Hague, M. de la None, has been representing to you +that the King of Great Britain is following after and begging for the +daughter of Spain for his son. He says it is untrue. But it is true that +he has been sought and solicited thereto, and that in consequence there +have been talks and propositions and rejoinders, but nothing of any +moment. As he had already told me not to be alarmed until he should +himself give me cause for it, he expressed his amazement that I had not +informed your Mightinesses accordingly. He assured me again that he +should not proceed further in the business without communicating it to +his good friends and neighbours, that he considered My Lords the States +as his best friends and allies, who ought therefore to conceive no +jealousy in the matter." + +This certainly was cold comfort. Caron knew well enough, not a clerk in +his office but knew well enough, that James had been pursuing this prize +for years. For the King to represent himself as persecuted by Spain to +give his son to the Infanta was about as ridiculous as it would have been +to pretend that Emperor Matthias was persuading him to let his son-in-law +accept the crown of Bohemia. It was admitted that negotiations for the +marriage were going on, and the assertion that the Spanish court was more +eager for it than the English government was not especially calculated to +allay the necessary alarm of the States at such a disaster. Nor was it +much more tranquillizing for them to be assured, not that the marriage +was off, but that, when it was settled, they, as the King's good friends +and neighbours, should have early information of it. + +"I told him," said the Ambassador, "that undoubtedly this matter was of +the highest 'importance to your Mightinesses, for it was not good for us +to sit between two kingdoms both so nearly allied with the Spanish +monarch, considering the pretensions he still maintained to sovereignty +over us. Although his Majesty might not now be willing to treat to our +prejudice, yet the affair itself in the sequence of time must of +necessity injure our commonwealth. We hoped therefore that it would never +come to pass." + +Caron added that Ambassador Digby was just going to Spain on +extraordinary mission in regard to this affair, and that eight or ten +gentlemen of the council had been deputed to confer with his Majesty +about it. He was still inclined to believe that the whole negotiation +would blow over, the King continuing to exhort him not to be alarmed, and +assuring him that there were many occasions moving princes to treat of +great affairs although often without any effective issue. + +At that moment too the King was in a state of vehement wrath with the +Spanish Netherlands on account of a stinging libel against himself, "an +infamous and wonderfully scandalous pamphlet," as he termed it, called +'Corona Regis', recently published at Louvain. He had sent Sir John +Bennet as special ambassador to the Archdukes to demand from them justice +and condign and public chastisement on the author of the work--a rector +Putianus as he believed, successor of Justus Lipsius in his professorship +at Louvain--and upon the printer, one Flaminius. Delays and excuses +having followed instead of the punishment originally demanded, James had +now instructed his special envoy in case of further delay or evasion to +repudiate all further friendship or intercourse with the Archduke, to +ratify the recall of his minister-resident Trumbull, and in effect to +announce formal hostilities. + +"The King takes the thing wonderfully to heart," said Caron. + +James in effect hated to be made ridiculous, and we shall have occasion +to see how important a part other publications which he deemed +detrimental to the divinity of his person were to play in these affairs. + +Meantime it was characteristic of this sovereign that--while ready to +talk of war with Philip's brother-in-law for a pamphlet, while seeking +the hand of Philip's daughter for his son--he was determined at the very +moment when the world was on fire to take himself, the heaven-born +extinguisher of all political conflagrations, away from affairs and to +seek the solace of along holiday in Scotland. His counsellors +persistently and vehemently implored him to defer that journey until the +following year at least, all the neighbouring nations being now in a +state of war and civil commotion. But it was in vain. He refused to +listen to them for a moment, and started for Scotland before the middle +of March. + +Conde, who had kept France in a turmoil, had sought aid alternately from +the Calvinists at Grenoble and the Jesuits in Rome, from Spain and from +the Netherlands, from the Pope and from Maurice of Nassau, had thus been +caged at last. But there was little gained. There was one troublesome but +incompetent rebel the less, but there was no king in the land. He who +doubts the influence of the individual upon the fate of a country and +upon his times through long passages of history may explain the +difference between France of 1609, with a martial king aided by great +statesmen at its head, with an exchequer overflowing with revenue hoarded +for a great cause--and that cause an attempt at least to pacificate +Christendom and avert a universal and almost infinite conflict now +already opening--and the France of 1617, with its treasures already +squandered among ignoble and ruffianly favourites, with every office in +state, church, court, and magistracy sold to the highest bidder, with a +queen governed by an Italian adventurer who was governed by Spain, and +with a little king who had but lately expressed triumph at his +confirmation because now he should no longer be whipped, and who was just +married to a daughter of the hereditary and inevitable foe of France. + +To contemplate this dreary interlude in the history of a powerful state +is to shiver at the depths of inanity and crime to which mankind can at +once descend. What need to pursue the barren, vulgar, and often repeated +chronicle? France pulled at by scarcely concealed strings and made to +perform fantastic tricks according as its various puppets were swerved +this way or that by supple bands at Madrid and Rome is not a refreshing +spectacle. The States-General at last, after an agitated discussion, +agreed in fulfilment of the treaty of 1609 to send 4000 men, 2000 being +French, to help the King against the princes still in rebellion. But the +contest was a most bitter one, and the Advocate had a difficult part to +play between a government and a rebellion, each more despicable than the +other. Still Louis XIII. and his mother were the legitimate government +even if ruled by Concini. The words of the treaty made with Henry IV. +were plain, and the ambassadors of his son had summoned the States to +fulfil it. But many impediments were placed in the path of obvious duty +by the party led by Francis Aerssens. + +"I know very well," said the Advocate to ex-Burgomaster Hooft of +Amsterdam, father of the great historian, sending him confidentially a +copy of the proposals made by the French ambassadors, "that many in this +country are striving hard to make us refuse to the King the aid demanded, +notwithstanding that we are bound to do it by the pledges given not only +by the States-General but by each province in particular. By this no one +will profit but the Spaniard, who unquestionably will offer much, aye, +very much, to bring about dissensions between France and us, from which I +foresee great damage, inconvenience, and difficulties for the whole +commonwealth and for Holland especially. This province has already +advanced 1,000,000 florins to the general government on the money still +due from France, which will all be lost in case the subsidy should be +withheld, besides other evils which cannot be trusted to the pen." + +On the same day on which it had been decided at the Hague to send the +troops, a captain of guards came to the aid of the poor little king and +shot Concini dead one fine spring morning on the bridge of the Louvre. +"By order of the King," said Vitry. His body was burned before the statue +of Henry IV. by the people delirious with joy. "L'hanno ammazzato" was +shouted to his wife, Eleanora Galigai, the supposed sorceress. They were +the words in which Concini had communicated to the Queen the murder of +her husband seven years before. Eleanora, too, was burned after having +been beheaded. Thus the Marshal d'Ancre and wife ceased to reign in +France. + +The officers of the French regiments at the Hague danced for joy on the +Vyverberg when the news arrived there. The States were relieved from an +immense embarrassment, and the Advocate was rewarded for having pursued +what was after all the only practicable policy. "Do your best," said he +to Langerac, "to accommodate differences so far as consistent with the +conservation of the King's authority. We hope the princes will submit +themselves now that the 'lapis offensionis,' according to their pretence, +is got rid of. We received a letter from them to-day sealed with the +King's arms, with the circumscription 'Periclitante Regno, Regis vita et +Regia familia." + +The shooting of Concini seemed almost to convert the little king into a +hero. Everyone in the Netherlands, without distinction of party, was +delighted with the achievement. "I cannot represent to the King," wrote +du Maurier to Villeroy, "one thousandth part of the joy of all these +people who are exalting him to heaven for having delivered the earth from +this miserable burthen. I can't tell you in what execration this public +pest was held. His Majesty has not less won the hearts of this state than +if he had gained a great victory over the Spaniards. You would not +believe it, and yet it is true, that never were the name and reputation +of the late king in greater reverence than those of our reigning king at +this moment." + +Truly here was glory cheaply earned. The fame of Henry the Great, after a +long career of brilliant deeds of arms, high statesmanship, and twenty +years of bountiful friendship for the States, was already equalled by +that of Louis XIII., who had tremblingly acquiesced in the summary +execution of an odious adventurer--his own possible father--and who never +had done anything else but feed his canary birds. + +As for Villeroy himself, the Ambassador wrote that he could not find +portraits enough of him to furnish those who were asking for them since +his return to power. + +Barneveld had been right in so often instructing Langerac to "caress the +old gentleman." + + ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + + And give advice. Of that, although always a spendthrift + Casual outbursts of eternal friendship + Changed his positions and contradicted himself day by day + Conciliation when war of extermination was intended + Considered it his special mission in the world to mediate + Denoungced as an obstacle to peace + France was mourning Henry and waiting for Richelieu + Hardly a sound Protestant policy anywhere but in Holland + History has not too many really important and emblematic men + I hope and I fear + King who thought it furious madness to resist the enemy + Mockery of negotiation in which nothing could be negotiated + More apprehension of fraud than of force + Opening an abyss between government and people + Successful in this step, he is ready for greater ones + That he tries to lay the fault on us is pure malice + The magnitude of this wonderful sovereign's littleness + This wonderful sovereign's littleness oppresses the imagination + Wise and honest a man, although he be somewhat longsome + Yesterday is the preceptor of To-morrow + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. 1617 + + Ferdinand of Gratz crowned King of Bohemia--His Enmity to + Protestants--Slawata and Martinitz thrown from the Windows of the + Hradschin--Real Beginning of the Thirty Years' War--The Elector- + Palatine's Intrigues in Opposition to the House of Austria--He + supports the Duke of Savoy--The Emperor Matthias visits Dresden-- + Jubilee for the Hundredth Anniversary of the Reformation. + +When the forlorn emperor Rudolph had signed the permission for his +brother Matthias to take the last crown but one from his head, he bit the +pen in a paroxysm of helpless rage. Then rushing to the window of his +apartment, he looked down on one of the most stately prospects that the +palaces of the earth can offer. From the long monotonous architectural +lines of the Hradschin, imposing from its massiveness and its imperial +situation, and with the dome and minarets of the cathedral clustering +behind them, the eye swept across the fertile valley, through which the +rapid, yellow Moldau courses, to the opposite line of cliffs crested with +the half imaginary fortress-palaces of the Wyscherad. There, in the +mythical legendary past of Bohemia had dwelt the shadowy Libuscha, +daughter of Krok, wife of King Premysl, foundress of Prague, who, when +wearied of her lovers, was accustomed to toss them from those heights +into the river. Between these picturesque precipices lay the two Pragues, +twin-born and quarrelsome, fighting each other for centuries, and growing +up side by side into a double, bellicose, stormy, and most splendid city, +bristling with steeples and spires, and united by the ancient +many-statued bridge with its blackened mediaeval entrance towers. + +But it was not to enjoy the prospect that the aged, discrowned, solitary +emperor, almost as dim a figure among sovereigns as the mystic Libuscha +herself, was gazing from the window upon the imperial city. + +"Ungrateful Prague," he cried, "through me thou hast become thus +magnificent, and now thou hast turned upon and driven away thy +benefactor. May the vengeance of God descend upon thee; may my curse come +upon thee and upon all Bohemia." + +History has failed to record the special benefits of the Emperor through +which the city had derived its magnificence and deserved this +malediction. But surely if ever an old man's curse was destined to be +literally fulfilled, it seemed to be this solemn imprecation of Rudolph. +Meantime the coronation of Matthias had gone on with pomp and popular +gratulations, while Rudolph had withdrawn into his apartments to pass the +little that was left to him of life in solitude and in a state of +hopeless pique with Matthias, with the rest of his brethren, with all the +world. + +And now that five years had passed since his death, Matthias, who had +usurped so much power prematurely, found himself almost in the same +condition as that to which he had reduced Rudolph. + +Ferdinand of Styria, his cousin, trod closely upon his heels. He was the +presumptive successor to all his crowns, had not approved of the +movements of Matthias in the lifetime of his brother, and hated the +Vienna Protestant baker's son, Cardinal Clesel, by whom all those +movements had been directed. Professor Taubmann, of Wittenberg, +ponderously quibbling on the name of that prelate, had said that he was +of "one hundred and fifty ass power." Whether that was a fair measure of +his capacity may be doubted, but it certainly was not destined to be +sufficient to elude the vengeance of Ferdinand, and Ferdinand would soon +have him in his power. + +Matthias, weary of ambitious intrigue, infirm of purpose, and shattered +in health, had withdrawn from affairs to devote himself to his gout and +to his fair young wife, Archduchess Anna of Tyrol, whom at the age of +fifty-four he had espoused. + +On the 29th June 1617, Ferdinand of Gratz was crowned King of Bohemia. +The event was a shock and a menace to the Protestant cause all over the +world. The sombre figure of the Archduke had for years appeared in the +background, foreshadowing as it were the wrath to come, while throughout +Bohemia and the neighbouring countries of Moravia, Silesia, and the +Austrias, the cause of Protestantism had been making such rapid progress. +The Emperor Maximilian II. had left five stalwart sons, so that there had +seemed little probability that the younger line, the sons of his brother, +would succeed. But all the five were childless, and now the son of +Archduke Charles, who had died in 1590, had become the natural heir after +the death of Matthias to the immense family honours--his cousins +Maximilian and Albert having resigned their claims in his favour. + +Ferdinand, twelve years old at his father's death, had been placed under +the care of his maternal uncle, Duke William of Bavaria. By him the boy +was placed at the high school of Ingolstadt, to be brought up by the +Jesuits, in company with Duke William's own son Maximilian, five years +his senior. Between these youths, besides the tie of cousinship, there +grew up the most intimate union founded on perfect sympathy in religion +and politics. + +When Ferdinand entered upon the government of his paternal estates of +Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola, he found that the new religion, at which +the Jesuits had taught him to shudder as at a curse and a crime, had been +widely spreading. His father had fought against heresy with all his +might, and had died disappointed and broken-hearted at its progress. His +uncle of Bavaria, in letters to his son and nephew, had stamped into +their minds with the enthusiasm of perfect conviction that all happiness +and blessing for governments depended on the restoration and maintenance +of the unity of the Catholic faith. All the evils in times past and +present resulting from religious differences had been held up to the two +youths by the Jesuits in the most glaring colours. The first duty of a +prince, they had inculcated, was to extirpate all false religions, to +give the opponents of the true church no quarter, and to think no +sacrifice too great by which the salvation of human society, brought +almost to perdition by the new doctrines, could be effected. + +Never had Jesuits an apter scholar than Ferdinand. After leaving school, +he made a pilgrimage to Loretto to make his vows to the Virgin Mary of +extirpation of heresy, and went to Rome to obtain the blessing of Pope +Clement VIII. + +Then, returning to the government of his inheritance, he seized that +terrible two-edged weapon of which the Protestants of Germany had taught +him the use. + +"Cujus regio ejus religio;" to the prince the choice of religion, to the +subject conformity with the prince, as if that formula of shallow and +selfish princelings, that insult to the dignity of mankind, were the +grand result of a movement which was to go on centuries after they had +all been forgotten in their tombs. For the time however it was a valid +and mischievous maxim. In Saxony Catholics and Calvinists were +proscribed; in Heidelberg Catholics and Lutherans. Why should either +Calvinists or Lutherans be tolerated in Styria? Why, indeed? No logic +could be more inexorable, and the pupil of the Ingolstadt Jesuits +hesitated not an instant to carry out their teaching with the very +instrument forged for him by the Reformation. Gallows were erected in the +streets of all his cities, but there was no hanging. The sight of them +proved enough to extort obedience to his edict, that every man, woman, +and child not belonging to the ancient church should leave his dominions. +They were driven out in hordes in broad daylight from Gratz and other +cities. Rather reign over a wilderness than over heretics was the device +of the Archduke, in imitation of his great relative, Philip II. of Spain. +In short space of time his duchies were as empty of Protestants as the +Palatinate of Lutherans, or Saxony of Calvinists, or both of Papists. +Even the churchyards were rifled of dead Lutherans and Utraquists, their +carcasses thrown where they could no longer pollute the true believers +mouldering by their side. + +It was not strange that the coronation as King of Bohemia of a man of +such decided purposes--a country numbering ten Protestants to one +Catholic--should cause a thrill and a flutter. Could it be doubted that +the great elemental conflict so steadily prophesied by Barneveld and +instinctively dreaded by all capable of feeling the signs of the time +would now begin? It had begun. Of what avail would be Majesty-Letters and +Compromises extorted by force from trembling or indolent emperors, now +that a man who knew his own mind, and felt it to be a crime not to +extirpate all religions but the one orthodox religion, had mounted the +throne? It is true that he had sworn at his coronation to maintain the +laws of Bohemia, and that the Majesty-Letter and the Compromise were part +of the laws. + +But when were doctors ever wanting to prove the unlawfulness of law which +interferes with the purposes of a despot and the convictions of the +bigot? + +"Novus rex, nova lex," muttered the Catholics, lifting up their heads and +hearts once more out of the oppression and insults which they had +unquestionably suffered at the hands of the triumphant Reformers. "There +are many empty poppy-heads now flaunting high that shall be snipped off," +said others. "That accursed German Count Thurn and his fellows, whom the +devil has sent from hell to Bohemia for his own purposes, shall be +disposed of now," was the general cry. + +It was plain that heresy could no longer be maintained except by the +sword. That which had been extorted by force would be plucked back by +force. The succession of Ferdinand was in brief a warshout to be echoed +by all the Catholics of Europe. Before the end of the year the Protestant +churches of Brunnau were sealed up. Those at Klostergrab were demolished +in three days by command of the Archbishop of Prague. These dumb walls +preached in their destruction more stirring sermons than perhaps would +ever have been heard within them had they stood. This tearing in pieces +of the Imperial patent granting liberty of Protestant worship, this +summary execution done upon senseless bricks and mortar, was an act of +defiance to the Reformed religion everywhere. Protestantism was struck in +the face, spat upon, defied. + +The effect was instantaneous. Thurn and the other defenders of the +Protestant faith were as prompt in action as the Catholics had been in +words. A few months passed away. The Emperor was in Vienna, but his ten +stadholders were in Prague. The fateful 23rd of May 1618 arrived. + +Slawata, a Bohemian Protestant, who had converted himself to the Roman +Church in order to marry a rich widow, and who converted his peasants by +hunting them to mass with his hounds, and Martinitz, the two stadholders +who at Ferdinand's coronation had endeavoured to prevent him from +including the Majesty-Letter among the privileges he was swearing to +support, and who were considered the real authors of the royal letters +revoking all religious rights of Protestants, were the most obnoxious of +all. They were hurled from the council-chamber window of the Hradschin. +The unfortunate secretary Fabricius was tossed out after them. +Twenty-eight ells deep they fell, and all escaped unhurt by the fall; +Fabricius being subsequently ennobled by a grateful emperor with the +well-won title of Baron Summerset. + +The Thirty Years' War, which in reality had been going on for several +years already, is dated from that day. A provisional government was +established in Prague by the Estates under Protestant guidance, a college +of thirty directors managing affairs. + +The Window-Tumble, as the event has always been called in history, +excited a sensation in Europe. Especially the young king of France, whose +political position should bring him rather into alliance with the rebels +than the Emperor, was disgusted and appalled. He was used to rebellion. +Since he was ten years old there had been a rebellion against himself +every year. There was rebellion now. But his ministers had never been +thrown out of window. Perhaps one might take some day to tossing out +kings as well. He disapproved the process entirely. + +Thus the great conflict of Christendom, so long impending, seemed at last +to have broken forth in full fury on a comparatively insignificant +incident. Thus reasoned the superficial public, as if the throwing out of +window of twenty stadholders could have created a general war in Europe +had not the causes of war lain deep and deadly in the whole framework of +society. + +The succession of Ferdinand to the throne of the holy Wenzel, in which +his election to the German Imperial crown was meant to be involved, was a +matter which concerned almost every household in Christendom. Liberty of +religion, civil franchise, political charters, contract between +government and subject, right to think, speak, or act, these were the +human rights everywhere in peril. A compromise between the two religious +parties had existed for half a dozen years in Germany, a feeble +compromise by which men had hardly been kept from each others' throats. +That compromise had now been thrown to the winds. The vast conspiracy of +Spain, Rome, the House of Austria, against human liberty had found a +chief in the docile, gloomy pupil of the Jesuits now enthroned in +Bohemia, and soon perhaps to wield the sceptre of the Holy Roman Empire. +There was no state in Europe that had not cause to put hand on +sword-hilt. "Distrust and good garrisons," in the prophetic words of +Barneveld, would now be the necessary resource for all intending to hold +what had been gained through long years of toil, martyrdom, and hard +fighting. + +The succession of Ferdinand excited especial dismay and indignation in +the Palatinate. The young elector had looked upon the prize as his own. +The marked advance of Protestant sentiment throughout the kingdom and its +neighbour provinces had seemed to render the succession of an extreme +Papist impossible. When Frederic had sued for and won the hand of the +fair Elizabeth, daughter of the King of Great Britain, it was understood +that the alliance would be more brilliant for her than it seemed. James +with his usual vanity spoke of his son-in-law as a future king. + +It was a golden dream for the Elector and for the general cause of the +Reformed religion. Heidelberg enthroned in the ancient capital of the +Wenzels, Maximilians, and Rudolphs, the Catechism and Confession enrolled +among the great statutes of the land, this was progress far beyond flimsy +Majesty-Letters and Compromises, made only to be torn to pieces. + +Through the dim vista of futurity and in ecstatic vision no doubt even +the Imperial crown might seem suspended over the Palatine's head. But +this would be merely a midsummer's dream. Events did not whirl so rapidly +as they might learn to do centuries later, and--the time for a Protestant +to grasp at the crown of Germany could then hardly be imagined as +ripening. + +But what the Calvinist branch of the House of Wittelsbach had indeed long +been pursuing was to interrupt the succession of the House of Austria to +the German throne. That a Catholic prince must for the immediate future +continue to occupy it was conceded even by Frederic, but the electoral +votes might surely be now so manipulated as to prevent a slave of Spain +and a tool of the Jesuits from wielding any longer the sceptre of +Charlemagne. + +On the other hand the purpose of the House of Austria was to do away with +the elective principle and the prescriptive rights of the Estates in +Bohemia first, and afterwards perhaps to send the Golden Bull itself to +the limbo of wornout constitutional devices. At present however their +object was to secure their hereditary sovereignty in Prague first, and +then to make sure of the next Imperial election at Frankfurt. Time +afterwards might fight still more in their favour, and fix them in +hereditary possession of the German throne. + +The Elector-Palatine had lost no time. His counsellors even before the +coronation of Ferdinand at Prague had done their best to excite alarm +throughout Germany at the document by which Archdukes Maximilian and +Albert had resigned all their hereditary claims in favour of Ferdinand +and his male children. Should there be no such issue, the King of Spain +claimed the succession for his own sons as great-grandchildren of Emperor +Maximilian, considering himself nearer in the line than the Styrian +branch, but being willing to waive his own rights in favour of so ardent +a Catholic as Ferdinand. There was even a secret negotiation going on a +long time between the new king of Bohemia and Philip to arrange for the +precedence of the Spanish males over the Styrian females to the +hereditary Austrian states, and to cede the province of Alsace to Spain. + +It was not wonderful that Protestant Germany should be alarmed. After a +century of Protestantism, that Spain should by any possibility come to be +enthroned again over Germany was enough to raise both Luther and Calvin +from their graves. It was certainly enough to set the lively young +palatine in motion. So soon as the election of Frederic was proclaimed, +he had taken up the business in person. Fond of amusement, young, married +to a beautiful bride of the royal house of England, he had hitherto left +politics to his counsellors. + +Finding himself frustrated in his ambition by the election of another to +the seat he had fondly deemed his own, he resolved to unseat him if he +could, and, at any rate, to prevent the ulterior consequences of his +elevation. He made a pilgrimage to Sedan, to confer with that +irrepressible intriguer and Huguenot chieftain, the Duc de Bouillon. He +felt sure of the countenance of the States-General, and, of course, of +his near relative the great stadholder. He was resolved to invite the +Duke of Lorraine to head the anti-Austrian party, and to stand for the +kingship of the Romans and the Empire in opposition to Ferdinand. An +emissary sent to Nancy came back with a discouraging reply. The Duke not +only flatly refused the candidacy, but warned the Palatine that if it +really came to a struggle he could reckon on small support anywhere, not +even from those who now seemed warmest for the scheme. Then Frederic +resolved to try his cousin, the great Maximilian of Bavaria, to whom all +Catholics looked with veneration and whom all German Protestants +respected. Had the two branches of the illustrious house of Wittelsbach +been combined in one purpose, the opposition to the House of Austria +might indeed have been formidable. But what were ties of blood compared +to the iron bands of religious love and hatred? How could Maximilian, +sternest of Papists, and Frederick V., flightiest of Calvinists, act +harmoniously in an Imperial election? Moreover, Maximilian was united by +ties of youthful and tender friendship as well as by kindred and perfect +religious sympathy to his other cousin, King Ferdinand himself. The case +seemed hopeless, but the Elector went to Munich, and held conferences +with his cousin. Not willing to take No for an answer so long as it was +veiled under evasive or ornamental phraseology, he continued to negotiate +with Maximilian through his envoys Camerarius and Secretary Neu, who held +long debates with the Duke's chief councillor, Doctor Jocher. Camerarius +assured Jocher that his master was the Hercules to untie the Gordian +knot, and the lion of the tribe of Judah. How either the lion of Judah or +Hercules were to untie the knot which was popularly supposed to have been +cut by the sword of Alexander did not appear, but Maximilian at any rate +was moved neither by entreaties nor tropes. Being entirely averse from +entering himself for the German crown, he grew weary at last of the +importunity with which the scheme was urged. So he wrote a short billet +to his councillor, to be shown to Secretary Neu. + +"Dear Jocher," he said, "I am convinced one must let these people +understand the matter in a little plainer German. I am once for all +determined not to let myself into any misunderstanding or even +amplifications with the House of Austria in regard to the succession. I +think also that it would rather be harmful than useful to my house to +take upon myself so heavy a burthen as the German crown." + +This time the German was plain enough and produced its effect. Maximilian +was too able a statesman and too conscientious a friend to wish to +exchange his own proud position as chief of the League, acknowledged head +of the great Catholic party, for the slippery, comfortless, and unmeaning +throne of the Holy Empire, which he considered Ferdinand's right. + +The chiefs of the anti-Austrian party, especially the Prince of Anhalt +and the Margrave of Anspach, in unison with the Heidelberg cabinet, were +forced to look for another candidate. Accordingly the Margrave and the +Elector-Palatine solemnly agreed that it was indispensable to choose an +emperor who should not be of the House of Austria nor a slave of Spain. +It was, to be sure, not possible to think of a Protestant prince. Bavaria +would not oppose Austria, would also allow too much influence to the +Jesuits. So there remained no one but the Duke of Savoy. He was a prince +of the Empire. He was of German descent, of Saxon race, a great general, +father of his soldiers, who would protect Europe against a Turkish +invasion better than the bastions of Vienna could do. He would be +agreeable to the Catholics, while the Protestants could live under him +without anxiety because the Jesuits would be powerless with him. It would +be a master-stroke if the princes would unite upon him. The King of +France would necessarily be pleased with it, the King of Great Britain +delighted. + +At last the model candidate had been found. The Duke of Savoy having just +finished for a second time his chronic war with Spain, in which the +United Provinces, notwithstanding the heavy drain on their resources, had +allowed him 50,000 florins a month besides the soldiers under Count +Ernest of Nassau, had sent Mansfeld with 4000 men to aid the revolted +estates in Bohemia. Geographically, hereditarily, necessarily the deadly +enemy of the House of Austria, he listened favourably to the overtures +made to him by the princes of the Union, expressed undying hatred for the +Imperial race, and thought the Bohemian revolt a priceless occasion for +expelling them from power. He was informed by the first envoy sent to +him, Christopher van Dohna, that the object of the great movement now +contemplated was to raise him to the Imperial throne at the next +election, to assist the Bohemian estates, to secure the crown of Bohemia +for the Elector-Palatine, to protect the Protestants of Germany, and to +break down the overweening power of the Austrian house. + +The Duke displayed no eagerness for the crown of Germany, while approving +the election of Frederic, but expressed entire sympathy with the +enterprise. It was indispensable however to form a general federation in +Europe of England, the Netherlands, Venice, together with Protestant +Germany and himself, before undertaking so mighty a task. While the +negotiations were going on, both Anspach and Anhalt were in great +spirits. The Margrave cried out exultingly, "In a short time the means +will be in our hands for turning the world upside down." He urged the +Prince of Anhalt to be expeditious in his decisions and actions. "He who +wishes to trade," he said, "must come to market early." + +There was some disappointment at Heidelberg when the first news from +Turin arrived, the materials for this vast scheme for an overwhelming and +universal European war not seeming to be at their disposition. By and by +the Duke's plans seem to deepen and broaden. He told Mansfeld, who, +accompanied by Secretary Neu, was glad at a pause in his fighting and +brandschatzing in Bohemia to be employed on diplomatic business, that on +the whole he should require the crown of Bohemia for himself. He also +proposed to accept the Imperial crown, and as for Frederic, he would +leave him the crown of Hungary, and would recommend him to round himself +out by adding to his hereditary dominions the province of Alsace, besides +Upper Austria and other territories in convenient proximity to the +Palatinate. + +Venice, it had been hoped, would aid in the great scheme and might in her +turn round herself out with Friuli and Istria and other tempting +possessions of Ferdinand, in reward for the men and money she was +expected to furnish. That republic had however just concluded a war with +Ferdinand, caused mainly by the depredations of the piratical Uscoques, +in which, as we have seen, she had received the assistance of 4000 +Hollanders under command of Count John of Nassau. The Venetians had +achieved many successes, had taken the city of Gortz, and almost reduced +the city of Gradiska. A certain colonel Albert Waldstein however, of whom +more might one day be heard in the history of the war now begun, had +beaten the Venetians and opened a pathway through their ranks for succour +to the beleaguered city. Soon afterwards peace was made on an undertaking +that the Uscoques should be driven from their haunts, their castles +dismantled, and their ships destroyed. + +Venice declined an engagement to begin a fresh war. + +She hated Ferdinand and Matthias and the whole Imperial brood, but, as +old Barbarigo declared in the Senate, the Republic could not afford to +set her house on fire in order to give Austria the inconvenience of the +smoke. + +Meantime, although the Elector-Palatine had magnanimously agreed to use +his influence in Bohemia in favour of Charles Emmanuel, the Duke seems at +last to have declined proposing himself for that throne. He knew, he +said, that King James wished that station for his son-in-law. The +Imperial crown belonged to no one as yet after the death of Matthias, and +was open therefore to his competition. + +Anhalt demanded of Savoy 15,000 men for the maintenance of the good +cause, asserting that "it would be better to have the Turk or the devil +himself on the German throne than leave it to Ferdinand." + +The triumvirate ruling at Prague-Thurn, Ruppa, and Hohenlohe--were +anxious for a decision from Frederic. That simple-hearted and ingenuous +young elector had long been troubled both with fears lest after all he +might lose the crown of Bohemia and with qualms of conscience as to the +propriety of taking it even if he could get it. He wrestled much in +prayer and devout meditation whether as anointed prince himself he were +justified in meddling with the anointment of other princes. Ferdinand had +been accepted, proclaimed, crowned. He artlessly sent to Prague to +consult the Estates whether they possessed the right to rebel, to set +aside the reigning dynasty, and to choose a new king. At the same time, +with an eye to business, he stipulated that on account of the great +expense and trouble devolving upon him the crown must be made hereditary +in his family. The impression made upon the grim Thurn and his colleagues +by the simplicity of these questions may be imagined. The splendour and +width of the Savoyard's conceptions fascinated the leaders of the Union. +It seemed to Anspach and Anhalt that it was as well that Frederic should +reign in Hungary as in Bohemia, and the Elector was docile. All had +relied however on the powerful assistance of the great defender of the +Protestant faith, the father-in-law of the Elector, the King of Great +Britain. But James had nothing but cold water and Virgilian quotations +for his son's ardour. He was more under the influence of Gondemar than +ever before, more eagerly hankering for the Infanta, more completely the +slave of Spain. He pledged himself to that government that if the +Protestants in Bohemia continued rebellious, he would do his best to +frustrate their designs, and would induce his son-in-law to have no +further connection with them. And Spain delighted his heart not by +immediately sending over the Infanta, but by proposing that he should +mediate between the contending parties. It would be difficult to imagine +a greater farce. All central Europe was now in arms. The deepest and +gravest questions about which men can fight: the right to worship God +according to their conscience and to maintain civil franchises which have +been earned by the people with the blood and treasure of centuries, were +now to be solved by the sword, and the pupil of Buchanan and the friend +of Buckingham was to step between hundreds of thousands of men in arms +with a classical oration. But James was very proud of the proposal and +accepted it with alacrity. + +"You know, my dear son," he wrote to Frederic, "that we are the only king +in Europe that is sought for by friend and foe for his mediation. It +would be for this our lofty part very unbecoming if we were capable of +favouring one of the parties. Your suggestion that we might secretly +support the Bohemians we must totally reject, as it is not our way to do +anything that we would not willingly confess to the whole world." + +And to do James justice, he had never fed Frederic with false hopes, +never given a penny for his great enterprise, nor promised him a penny. +He had contented himself with suggesting from time to time that he might +borrow money of the States-General. His daughter Elizabeth must take care +of herself, else what would become of her brother's marriage to the +daughter of Spain. + +And now it was war to the knife, in which it was impossible that Holland, +as well as all the other great powers should not soon be involved. It was +disheartening to the cause of freedom and progress, not only that the +great kingdom on which the world, had learned to rely in all movements +upward and onward should be neutralized by the sycophancy of its monarch +to the general oppressor, but that the great republic which so long had +taken the lead in maintaining the liberties of Europe should now be torn +by religious discord within itself, and be turning against the great +statesman who had so wisely guided her councils and so accurately +foretold the catastrophe which was now upon the world. + +Meantime the Emperor Matthias, not less forlorn than through his +intrigues and rebellions his brother Rudolph had been made, passed his +days in almost as utter retirement as if he had formally abdicated. +Ferdinand treated him as if in his dotage. His fair young wife too had +died of hard eating in the beginning of the winter to his inexpressible +grief, so that there was nothing left to solace him now but the +Rudolphian Museum. + +He had made but one public appearance since the coronation of Ferdinand +in Prague. Attended by his brother Maximilian, by King Ferdinand, and by +Cardinal Khlesl, he had towards the end of the year 1617 paid a visit to +the Elector John George at Dresden. The Imperial party had been received +with much enthusiasm by the great leader of Lutheranism. The Cardinal had +seriously objected to accompanying the Emperor on this occasion. Since +the Reformation no cardinal had been seen at the court of Saxony. He +cared not personally for the pomps and glories of his rank, but still as +prince of the Church he had settled right of precedence over electors. To +waive it would be disrespectful to the Pope, to claim it would lead to +squabbles. But Ferdinand had need of his skill to secure the vote of +Saxony at the next Imperial election. The Cardinal was afraid of +Ferdinand with good reason, and complied. By an agreeable fiction he was +received at court not as cardinal but as minister, and accommodated with +an humble place at table. Many looking on with astonishment thought he +would have preferred to dine by himself in retirement. But this was not +the bitterest of the mortifications that the pastor and guide of Matthias +was to suffer at the hands of Ferdinand before his career should be +closed. The visit at Dresden was successful, however. John George, being +a claimant, as we have seen, for the Duchies of Cleve and Julich, had +need of the Emperor. The King had need of John George's vote. There was a +series of splendid balls, hunting parties, carousings. + +The Emperor was an invalid, the King was abstemious, but the Elector was +a mighty drinker. It was not his custom nor that of his councillors to go +to bed. They were usually carried there. But it was the wish of Ferdinand +to be conciliatory, and he bore himself as well as he could at the +banquet. The Elector was also a mighty hunter. Neither of his Imperial +guests cared for field sports, but they looked out contentedly from the +window of a hunting-lodge, before which for their entertainment the +Elector and his courtiers slaughtered eight bears, ten stags, ten pigs, +and eleven badgers, besides a goodly number of other game; John George +shooting also three martens from a pole erected for that purpose in the +courtyard. It seemed proper for him thus to exhibit a specimen of the +skill for which he was justly famed. The Elector before his life closed, +so says the chronicle, had killed 28,000 wild boars, 208 bears, 3543 +wolves, 200 badgers, 18,967 foxes, besides stags and roedeer in still +greater number, making a grand total of 113,629 beasts. The leader of the +Lutheran party of Germany had not lived in vain. + +Thus the great chiefs of Catholicism and of Protestantism amicably +disported themselves in the last days of the year, while their respective +forces were marshalling for mortal combat all over Christendom. The +Elector certainly loved neither Matthias nor Ferdinand, but he hated the +Palatine. The chief of the German Calvinists disputed that Protestant +hegemony which John George claimed by right. Indeed the immense advantage +enjoyed by the Catholics at the outbreak of the religious war from the +mutual animosities between the two great divisions of the Reformed Church +was already terribly manifest. What an additional power would it derive +from the increased weakness of the foe, should there be still other and +deeper and more deadly schisms within one great division itself! + +"The Calvinists and Lutherans," cried the Jesuit Scioppius, "are so +furiously attacking each other with calumnies and cursings and are +persecuting each other to such extent as to give good hope that the +devilish weight and burthen of them will go to perdition and shame of +itself, and the heretics all do bloody execution upon each other. +Certainly if ever a golden time existed for exterminating the heretics, +it is the present time." + +The Imperial party took their leave of Dresden, believing themselves to +have secured the electoral vote of Saxony; the Elector hoping for +protection to his interests in the duchies through that sequestration to +which Barneveld had opposed such vigorous resistance. There had been much +slavish cringing before these Catholic potentates by the courtiers of +Dresden, somewhat amazing to the ruder churls of Saxony, the common +people, who really believed in the religion which their prince had +selected for them and himself. + +And to complete the glaring contrast, Ferdinand and Matthias had scarcely +turned their backs before tremendous fulminations upon the ancient church +came from the Elector and from all the doctors of theology in Saxony. + +For the jubilee of the hundredth anniversary of the Reformation was +celebrated all over Germany in the autumn of this very year, and nearly +at the exact moment of all this dancing, and fuddling, and pig shooting +at Dresden in honour of emperors and cardinals. And Pope Paul V. had +likewise ordained a jubilee for true believers at almost the same time. + +The Elector did not mince matters in his proclamation from any regard to +the feelings of his late guests. He called on all Protestants to rejoice, +"because the light of the Holy Gospel had now shone brightly in the +electoral dominions for a hundred years, the Omnipotent keeping it +burning notwithstanding the raging and roaring of the hellish enemy and +all his scaly servants." + +The doctors of divinity were still more emphatic in their phraseology. +They called on all professors and teachers of the true Evangelical +churches, not only in Germany but throughout Christendom, to keep the +great jubilee. They did this in terms not calculated certainly to smother +the flames of religious and party hatred, even if it had been possible at +that moment to suppress the fire. "The great God of Heaven," they said, +"had caused the undertaking of His holy instrument Mr. Doctor Martin +Luther to prosper. Through His unspeakable mercy he has driven away the +Papal darkness and caused the sun of righteousness once more to beam upon +the world. The old idolatries, blasphemies, errors, and horrors of the +benighted Popedom have been exterminated in many kingdoms and countries. +Innumerable sheep of the Lord Christ have been fed on the wholesome +pasture of the Divine Word in spite of those monstrous, tearing, ravenous +wolves, the Pope and his followers. The enemy of God and man, the ancient +serpent, may hiss and rage. Yes, the Roman antichrist in his frantic +blusterings may bite off his own tongue, may fulminate all kinds of +evils, bans, excommunications, wars, desolations, and burnings, as long +and as much as he likes. But if we take refuge with the Lord God, what +can this inane, worn-out man and water-bubble do to us?" With more in the +same taste. + +The Pope's bull for the Catholic jubilee was far more decorous and lofty +in tone, for it bewailed the general sin in Christendom, and called on +all believers to flee from the wrath about to descend upon the earth, in +terms that were almost prophetic. He ordered all to pray that the Lord +might lift up His Church, protect it from the wiles of the enemy, +extirpate heresies, grant peace and true unity among Christian princes, +and mercifully avert disasters already coming near. + +But if the language of Paul V. was measured and decent, the swarm of +Jesuit pamphleteers that forthwith began to buzz and to sting all over +Christendom were sufficiently venomous. Scioppius, in his Alarm Trumpet +to the Holy War, and a hundred others declared that all heresies and +heretics were now to be extirpated, the one true church to be united and +re-established, and that the only road to such a consummation was a path +of blood. + +The Lutheran preachers, on the other hand, obedient to the summons from +Dresden, vied with each other in every town and village in heaping +denunciations, foul names, and odious imputations on the Catholics; while +the Calvinists, not to be behindhand with their fellow Reformers, +celebrated the jubilee, especially at Heidelberg, by excluding Papists +from hope of salvation, and bewailing the fate of all churches sighing +under the yoke of Rome. + +And not only were the Papists and the Reformers exchanging these blasts +and counterblasts of hatred, not less deadly in their effects than the +artillery of many armies, but as if to make a thorough exhibition of +human fatuity when drunk with religious passion, the Lutherans were +making fierce paper and pulpit war upon the Calvinists. Especially Hoe, +court preacher of John George, ceaselessly hurled savage libels against +them. In the name of the theological faculty of Wittenberg, he addressed +a "truehearted warning to all Lutheran Christians in Bohemia, Moravia, +Silesia, and other provinces, to beware of the erroneous Calvinistic +religion." He wrote a letter to Count Schlick, foremost leader in the +Bohemian movement, asking whether "the unquiet Calvinist spirit, should +it gain ascendency, would be any more endurable than the Papists. Oh what +woe, what infinite woe," he cried, "for those noble countries if they +should all be thrust into the jaws of Calvinism!" + +Did not preacher Hoe's master aspire to the crown of Bohemia himself? Was +he not furious at the start which Heidelberg had got of him in the race +for that golden prize? Was he not mad with jealousy of the Palatine, of +the Palatine's religion, and of the Palatine's claim to "hegemony" in +Germany? + +Thus embittered and bloodthirsty towards each other were the two great +sections of the Reformed religion on the first centennial jubilee of the +Reformation. Such was the divided front which the anti-Catholic party +presented at the outbreak of the war with Catholicism. + +Ferdinand, on the other hand, was at the head of a comparatively united +party. He could hardly hope for more than benevolent neutrality from the +French government, which, in spite of the Spanish marriages, dared not +wholly desert the Netherlands and throw itself into the hands of Spain; +but Spanish diplomacy had enslaved the British king, and converted what +should have been an active and most powerful enemy into an efficient if +concealed ally. The Spanish and archiducal armies were enveloping the +Dutch republic, from whence the most powerful support could be expected +for the Protestant cause. Had it not been for the steadiness of +Barneveld, Spain would have been at that moment established in full +panoply over the whole surface of those inestimable positions, the +disputed duchies. Venice was lukewarm, if not frigid; and Savoy, although +deeply pledged by passion and interest to the downfall of the House of +Austria, was too dangerously situated herself, too distant, too poor, and +too Catholic to be very formidable. + +Ferdinand was safe from the Turkish side. A twenty years' peace, +renewable by agreement, between the Holy Empire and the Sultan had been +negotiated by those two sons of bakers, Cardinal Khlesl and the Vizier +Etmekdschifade. It was destined to endure through all the horrors of the +great war, a stronger protection to Vienna than all the fortifications +which the engineering art could invent. He was safe too from Poland, King +Sigmund being not only a devoted Catholic but doubly his brother-in-law. + +Spain, therefore, the Spanish Netherlands, the Pope, and the German +League headed by Maximilian of Bavaria, the ablest prince on the +continent of Europe, presented a square, magnificent phalanx on which +Ferdinand might rely. The States-General, on the other hand, were a most +dangerous foe. With a centennial hatred of Spain, splendidly disciplined +armies and foremost navy of the world, with an admirable financial system +and vast commercial resources, with a great stadholder, first captain of +the age, thirsting for war, and allied in blood as well as religion to +the standard-bearer of the Bohemian revolt; with councils directed by the +wisest and most experienced of living statesman, and with the very life +blood of her being derived from the fountain of civil and religious +liberty, the great Republic of the United Netherlands--her Truce with the +hereditary foe just expiring was, if indeed united, strong enough at the +head of the Protestant forces of Europe to dictate to a world in arms. + +Alas! was it united? + +As regarded internal affairs of most pressing interest, the electoral +vote at the next election at Frankfurt had been calculated as being +likely to yield a majority of one for the opposition candidate, should +the Savoyard or any other opposition candidate be found. But the +calculation was a close one and might easily be fallacious. Supposing the +Palatine elected King of Bohemia by the rebellious estates, as was +probable, he could of course give the vote of that electorate and his own +against Ferdinand, and the vote of Brandenburg at that time seemed safe. +But Ferdinand by his visit to Dresden had secured the vote of Saxony, +while of the three ecclesiastical electors, Cologne and Mayence were sure +for him. Thus it would be three and three, and the seventh and decisive +vote would be that of the Elector-Bishop of Treves. The sanguine Frederic +thought that with French influence and a round sum of money this +ecclesiastic might be got to vote for the opposition candidate. The +ingenious combination was not destined to be successful, and as there has +been no intention in the present volume to do more than slightly indicate +the most prominent movements and mainsprings of the great struggle so far +as Germany is concerned, without entering into detail, it may be as well +to remind the reader that it proved wonderfully wrong. Matthias died on +the 20th March, 1619, the election of a new emperor took place at +Frankfurt On the 28th of the following August, and not only did Saxony +and all three ecclesiastical electors vote for Ferdinand, but Brandenburg +likewise, as well as the Elector-Palatine himself, while Ferdinand, +personally present in the assembly as Elector of Bohemia, might according +to the Golden Bull have given the seventh vote for himself had he chosen +to do so. Thus the election was unanimous. + +Strange to say, as the electors proceeded through the crowd from the hall +of election to accompany the new emperor to the church where he was to +receive the popular acclaim, the news reached them from Prague that the +Elector-Palatine had been elected King of Bohemia. + +Thus Frederic, by voting for Ferdinand, had made himself voluntarily a +rebel should he accept the crown now offered him. Had the news arrived +sooner, a different result and even a different history might have been +possible. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +Barneveld connected with the East India Company, but opposed to the West +India Company--Carleton comes from Venice inimical to Barneveld--Maurice +openly the Chieftain of the Contra-Remonstrants--Tumults about the +Churches--"Orange or Spain" the Cry of Prince Maurice and his Party--They +take possession of the Cloister Church--"The Sharp Resolve"--Carleton's +Orations before the States-General. + +King James never forgave Barneveld for drawing from him those famous +letters to the States in which he was made to approve the Five Points and +to admit the possibility of salvation under them. These epistles had +brought much ridicule upon James, who was not amused by finding his +theological discussions a laughing-stock. He was still more incensed by +the biting criticisms made upon the cheap surrender of the cautionary +towns, and he hated more than ever the statesman who, as he believed, had +twice outwitted him. + +On the other hand, Maurice, inspired by his brother-in-law the Duke of +Bouillon and by the infuriated Francis Aerssens, abhorred Barneveld's +French policy, which was freely denounced by the French Calvinists and by +the whole orthodox church. In Holland he was still warmly sustained +except in the Contra-Remonstrant Amsterdam and a few other cities of less +importance. But there were perhaps deeper reasons for the Advocate's +unpopularity in the great commercial metropolis than theological +pretexts. Barneveld's name and interests were identified with the great +East India Company, which was now powerful and prosperous beyond anything +ever dreamt of before in the annals of commerce. That trading company had +already founded an empire in the East. Fifty ships of war, fortresses +guarded by 4000 pieces of artillery and 10,000 soldiers and sailors, +obeyed the orders of a dozen private gentlemen at home seated in a back +parlour around a green table. The profits of each trading voyage were +enormous, and the shareholders were growing rich beyond their wildest +imaginings. To no individual so much as to Holland's Advocate was this +unexampled success to be ascribed. The vast prosperity of the East India +Company had inspired others with the ambition to found a similar +enterprise in the West. But to the West India Company then projected and +especially favoured in Amsterdam, Barneveld was firmly opposed. He +considered it as bound up with the spirit of military adventure and +conquest, and as likely to bring on prematurely and unwisely a renewed +conflict with Spain. The same reasons which had caused him to urge the +Truce now influenced his position in regard to the West India Company. + +Thus the clouds were gathering every day more darkly over the head of the +Advocate. The powerful mercantile interest in the great seat of traffic +in the Republic, the personal animosity of the Stadholder, the +execrations of the orthodox party in France, England, and all the +Netherlands, the anger of the French princes and all those of the old +Huguenot party who had been foolish enough to act with the princes in +their purely selfish schemes against the government, and the overflowing +hatred of King James, whose darling schemes of Spanish marriages and a +Spanish alliance had been foiled by the Advocate's masterly policy in +France and in the duchies, and whose resentment at having been so +completely worsted and disarmed in the predestination matter and in the +redemption of the great mortgage had deepened into as terrible wrath as +outraged bigotry and vanity could engender; all these elements made up a +stormy atmosphere in which the strongest heart might have quailed. But +Barneveld did not quail. Doubtless he loved power, and the more danger he +found on every side the less inclined he was to succumb. But he honestly +believed that the safety and prosperity of the country he had so long and +faithfully served were identified with the policy which he was pursuing. +Arrogant, overbearing, self-concentrated, accustomed to lead senates and +to guide the councils and share the secrets of kings, familiar with and +almost an actor in every event in the political history not only of his +own country but of every important state in Christendom during nearly two +generations of mankind, of unmatched industry, full of years and +experience, yet feeling within him the youthful strength of a thousand +intellects compared to most of those by which he was calumniated, +confronted, and harassed; he accepted the great fight which was forced +upon him. Irascible, courageous, austere, contemptuous, he looked around +and saw the Republic whose cradle he had rocked grown to be one of the +most powerful and prosperous among the states of the world, and could +with difficulty imagine that in this supreme hour of her strength and her +felicity she was ready to turn and rend the man whom she was bound by +every tie of duty to cherish and to revere. + +Sir Dudley Carleton, the new English ambassador to the States, had +arrived during the past year red-hot from Venice. There he had perhaps +not learned especially to love the new republic which had arisen among +the northern lagunes, and whose admission among the nations had been at +last accorded by the proud Queen of the Adriatic, notwithstanding the +objections and the intrigues both of French and English representatives. +He had come charged to the brim with the political spite of James against +the Advocate, and provided too with more than seven vials of theological +wrath. Such was the King's revenge for Barneveld's recent successes. The +supporters in the Netherlands of the civil authority over the Church were +moreover to be instructed by the political head of the English Church +that such supremacy, although highly proper for a king, was "thoroughly +unsuitable for a many-headed republic." So much for church government. As +for doctrine, Arminianism and Vorstianism were to be blasted with one +thunderstroke from the British throne. + +"In Holland," said James to his envoy, "there have been violent and sharp +contestations amongst the towns in the cause of religion . . . . . If +they shall be unhappily revived during your time, you shall not forget +that you are the minister of that master whom God hath made the sole +protector of His religion." + +There was to be no misunderstanding in future as to the dogmas which the +royal pope of Great Britain meant to prescribe to his Netherland +subjects. Three years before, at the dictation of the Advocate, he had +informed the States that he was convinced of their ability to settle the +deplorable dissensions as to religion according to their wisdom and the +power which belonged to them over churches and church servants. He had +informed them of his having learned by experience that such questions +could hardly be decided by the wranglings of theological professors, and +that it was better to settle them by public authority and to forbid their +being brought into the pulpit or among common people. He had recommended +mutual toleration of religious difference until otherwise ordained by the +public civil authority, and had declared that neither of the two opinions +in regard to predestination was in his opinion far from the truth or +inconsistent with Christian faith or the salvation of souls. + +It was no wonder that these utterances were quite after the Advocate's +heart, as James had faithfully copied them from the Advocate's draft. + +But now in the exercise of his infallibility the King issued other +decrees. His minister was instructed to support the extreme views of the +orthodox both as to government and dogma, and to urge the National Synod, +as it were, at push of pike. "Besides the assistance," said he to +Carleton, "which we would have you give to the true professors of the +Gospel in your discourse and conferences, you may let fall how hateful +the maintenance of these erroneous opinions is to the majesty of God, how +displeasing unto us their dearest friends, and how disgraceful to the +honour and government of that state." + +And faithfully did the Ambassador act up to his instructions. Most +sympathetically did he embody the hatred of the King. An able, +experienced, highly accomplished diplomatist and scholar, ready with +tongue and pen, caustic, censorious, prejudiced, and partial, he was soon +foremost among the foes of the Advocate in the little court of the Hague, +and prepared at any moment to flourish the political and theological goad +when his master gave the word. + +Nothing in diplomatic history is more eccentric than the long sermons +upon abstruse points of divinity and ecclesiastical history which the +English ambassador delivered from time to time before the States-General +in accordance with elaborate instructions drawn up by his sovereign with +his own hand. Rarely has a king been more tedious, and he bestowed all +his tediousness upon My Lords the States-General. Nothing could be more +dismal than these discourses, except perhaps the contemporaneous and +interminable orations of Grotius to the states of Holland, to the +magistrates of Amsterdam, to the states of Utrecht; yet Carleton was a +man of the world, a good debater, a ready writer, while Hugo Grotius was +one of the great lights of that age and which shone for all time. + +Among the diplomatic controversies of history, rarely refreshing at best, +few have been more drouthy than those once famous disquisitions, and they +shall be left to shrivel into the nothingness of the past, so far as is +consistent with the absolute necessities of this narrative. + +The contest to which the Advocate was called had become mainly a personal +and a political one, although the weapons with which it was fought were +taken from ecclesiastical arsenals. It was now an unequal contest. + +For the great captain of the country and of his time, the son of William +the Silent, the martial stadholder, in the fulness of his fame and vigour +of his years, had now openly taken his place as the chieftain of the +Contra-Remonstrants. The conflict between the civil and the military +element for supremacy in a free commonwealth has never been more vividly +typified than in this death-grapple between Maurice and Barneveld. + +The aged but still vigorous statesman, ripe with half a century of +political lore, and the high-born, brilliant, and scientific soldier, +with the laurels of Turnhout and Nieuwpoort and of a hundred famous +sieges upon his helmet, reformer of military science, and no mean +proficient in the art of politics and government, were the +representatives and leaders of the two great parties into which the +Commonwealth had now unhappily divided itself. But all history shows that +the brilliant soldier of a republic is apt to have the advantage, in a +struggle for popular affection and popular applause, over the statesman, +however consummate. The general imagination is more excited by the +triumphs of the field than by those of the tribune, and the man who has +passed many years of life in commanding multitudes with necessarily +despotic sway is often supposed to have gained in the process the +attributes likely to render him most valuable as chief citizen of a flee +commonwealth. Yet national enthusiasm is so universally excited by +splendid military service as to forbid a doubt that the sentiment is +rooted deeply in our nature, while both in antiquity and in modern times +there are noble although rare examples of the successful soldier +converting himself into a valuable and exemplary magistrate. + +In the rivalry of Maurice and Barneveld however for the national +affection the chances were singularly against the Advocate. The great +battles and sieges of the Prince had been on a world's theatre, had +enchained the attention of Christendom, and on their issue had frequently +depended, or seemed to depend, the very existence of the nation. The +labours of the statesman, on the contrary, had been comparatively secret. +His noble orations and arguments had been spoken with closed doors to +assemblies of colleagues--rather envoys than senators--were never printed +or even reported, and could be judged of only by their effects; while his +vast labours in directing both the internal administration and especially +the foreign affairs of the Commonwealth had been by their very nature as +secret as they were perpetual and enormous. + +Moreover, there was little of what we now understand as the democratic +sentiment in the Netherlands. There was deep and sturdy attachment to +ancient traditions, privileges, special constitutions extorted from a +power acknowledged to be superior to the people. When partly to save +those chartered rights, and partly to overthrow the horrible +ecclesiastical tyranny of the sixteenth century, the people had +accomplished a successful revolt, they never dreamt of popular +sovereignty, but allowed the municipal corporations, by which their local +affairs had been for centuries transacted, to unite in offering to +foreign princes, one after another, the crown which they had torn from +the head of the Spanish king. When none was found to accept the dangerous +honour, they had acquiesced in the practical sovereignty of the States; +but whether the States-General or the States-Provincial were the supreme +authority had certainly not been definitely and categorically settled. So +long as the States of Holland, led by the Advocate, had controlled in +great matters the political action of the States-General, while the +Stadholder stood without a rival at the head of their military affairs, +and so long as there were no fierce disputes as to government and dogma +within the bosom of the Reformed Church, the questions which were now +inflaming the whole population had been allowed to slumber. + +The termination of the war and the rise of Arminianism were almost +contemporaneous. The Stadholder, who so unwillingly had seen the +occupation in which he had won so much glory taken from him by the Truce, +might perhaps find less congenial but sufficiently engrossing business as +champion of the Church and of the Union. + +The new church--not freedom of worship for different denominations of +Christians, but supremacy of the Church of Heidelberg and Geneva--seemed +likely to be the result of the overthrow of the ancient church. It is the +essence of the Catholic Church to claim supremacy over and immunity from +the civil authority, and to this claim for the Reformed Church, by which +that of Rome had been supplanted, Barneveld was strenuously opposed. + +The Stadholder was backed, therefore, by the Church in its purity, by the +majority of the humbler classes--who found in membership of the oligarchy +of Heaven a substitute for those democratic aspirations on earth which +were effectually suppressed between the two millstones of burgher +aristocracy and military discipline--and by the States-General, a +majority of which were Contra-Remonstrant in their faith. + +If the sword is usually an overmatch for the long robe in political +struggles, the cassock has often proved superior to both combined. But in +the case now occupying our attention the cassock was in alliance with the +sword. Clearly the contest was becoming a desperate one for the +statesman. + +And while the controversy between the chiefs waged hotter and hotter, the +tumults around the churches on Sundays in every town and village grew +more and more furious, ending generally in open fights with knives, +bludgeons, and brickbats; preachers and magistrates being often too glad +to escape with a whole skin. One can hardly be ingenuous enough to +consider all this dirking, battering, and fisticuffing as the legitimate +and healthy outcome of a difference as to the knotty point whether all +men might or might not be saved by repentance and faith in Christ. + +The Greens and Blues of the Byzantine circus had not been more typical of +fierce party warfare in the Lower Empire than the greens and blues of +predestination in the rising commonwealth, according to the real or +imagined epigram of Prince Maurice. + +"Your divisions in religion," wrote Secretary Lake to Carleton, "have, I +doubt not, a deeper root than is discerned by every one, and I doubt not +that the Prince Maurice's carriage doth make a jealousy of affecting a +party under the pretence of supporting one side, and that the States fear +his ends and aims, knowing his power with the men of war; and that +howsoever all be shadowed under the name of religion there is on either +part a civil end, of the one seeking a step of higher authority, of the +other a preservation of liberty." + +And in addition to other advantages the Contra-Remonstrants had now got a +good cry--an inestimable privilege in party contests. + +"There are two factions in the land," said Maurice, "that of Orange and +that of Spain, and the two chiefs of the Spanish faction are those +political and priestly Arminians, Uytenbogaert and Oldenbarneveld." + +Orange and Spain! the one name associated with all that was most +venerated and beloved throughout the country, for William the Silent +since his death was almost a god; the other ineradicably entwined at that +moment with, everything execrated throughout the land. The Prince of +Orange's claim to be head of the Orange faction could hardly be disputed, +but it was a master stroke of political malice to fix the stigma of +Spanish partisanship on the Advocate. If the venerable patriot who had +been fighting Spain, sometimes on the battle-field and always in the +council, ever since he came to man's estate, could be imagined even in a +dream capable of being bought with Spanish gold to betray his country, +who in the ranks of the Remonstrant party could be safe from such +accusations? Each party accused the other of designs for altering or +subverting the government. Maurice was suspected of what were called +Leicestrian projects, "Leycestrana consilia"--for the Earl's plots to +gain possession of Leyden and Utrecht had never been forgotten--while the +Prince and those who acted with him asserted distinctly that it was the +purpose of Barneveld to pave the way for restoring the Spanish +sovereignty and the Popish religion so soon as the Truce had reached its +end? + +Spain and Orange. Nothing for a faction fight could be neater. Moreover +the two words rhyme in Netherlandish, which is the case in no other +language, "Spanje-Oranje." The sword was drawn and the banner unfurled. + +The "Mud Beggars" of the Hague, tired of tramping to Ryswyk of a Sunday +to listen to Henry Rosaeus, determined on a private conventicle in the +capital. The first barn selected was sealed up by the authorities, but +Epoch Much, book-keeper of Prince Maurice, then lent them his house. The +Prince declared that sooner than they should want a place of assembling +he would give them his own. But he meant that they should have a public +church to themselves, and that very soon. King James thoroughly approved +of all these proceedings. At that very instant such of his own subjects +as had seceded from the Established Church to hold conventicles in barns +and breweries and backshops in London were hunted by him with bishops' +pursuivants and other beagles like vilest criminals, thrown into prison +to rot, or suffered to escape from their Fatherland into the +trans-Atlantic wilderness, there to battle with wild beasts and savages, +and to die without knowing themselves the fathers of a more powerful +United States than the Dutch Republic, where they were fain to seek in +passing a temporary shelter. He none the less instructed his envoy at the +Hague to preach the selfsame doctrines for which the New England Puritans +were persecuted, and importunately and dictatorially to plead the cause +of those Hollanders who, like Bradford and Robinson, Winthrop and Cotton, +maintained the independence of the Church over the State. + +Logic is rarely the quality on which kings pride themselves, and +Puritanism in the Netherlands, although under temporary disadvantage at +the Hague, was evidently the party destined to triumph throughout the +country. James could safely sympathize therefore in Holland with what he +most loathed in England, and could at the same time feed fat the grudge +he owed the Advocate. The calculations of Barneveld as to the respective +political forces of the Commonwealth seem to have been to a certain +extent defective. + +He allowed probably too much weight to the Catholic party as a motive +power at that moment, and he was anxious both from that consideration and +from his honest natural instinct for general toleration; his own broad +and unbigoted views in religious matters, not to force that party into a +rebellious attitude dangerous to the state. We have seen how nearly a +mutiny in the important city of Utrecht, set on foot by certain Romanist +conspirators in the years immediately succeeding the Truce, had subverted +the government, had excited much anxiety amongst the firmest allies of +the Republic, and had been suppressed only by the decision of the +Advocate and a show of military force. + +He had informed Carleton not long after his arrival that in the United +Provinces, and in Holland in particular, were many sects and religions of +which, according to his expression, "the healthiest and the richest part +were the Papists, while the Protestants did not make up one-third part of +the inhabitants." + +Certainly, if these statistics were correct or nearly correct, there +could be nothing more stupid from a purely political point of view than +to exasperate so influential a portion of the community to madness and +rebellion by refusing them all rights of public worship. Yet because the +Advocate had uniformly recommended indulgence, he had incurred more odium +at home than from any other cause. Of course he was a Papist in disguise, +ready to sell his country to Spain, because he was willing that more than +half the population of the country should be allowed to worship God +according to their conscience. Surely it would be wrong to judge the +condition of things at that epoch by the lights of to-day, and perhaps in +the Netherlands there had before been no conspicuous personage, save +William the Silent alone, who had risen to the height of toleration on +which the Advocate essayed to stand. Other leading politicians considered +that the national liberties could be preserved only by retaining the +Catholics in complete subjection. + +At any rate the Advocate was profoundly convinced of the necessity of +maintaining harmony and mutual toleration among the Protestants +themselves, who, as he said, made up but one-third of the whole people. +In conversing with the English ambassador he divided them into "Puritans +and double Puritans," as they would be called, he said, in England. If +these should be at variance with each other, he argued, the Papists would +be the strongest of all. "To prevent this inconvenience," he said, "the +States were endeavouring to settle some certain form of government in the +Church; which being composed of divers persecuted churches such as in the +beginning of the wars had their refuge here, that which during the wars +could not be so well done they now thought seasonable for a time of +truce; and therefore would show their authority in preventing the schism +of the Church which would follow the separation of those they call +Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants." + +There being no word so offensive to Carleton's sovereign as the word +Puritan, the Ambassador did his best to persuade the Advocate that a +Puritan in Holland was a very different thing from a Puritan in England. +In England he was a noxious vermin, to be hunted with dogs. In the +Netherlands he was the governing power. But his arguments were vapourous +enough and made little impression on Barneveld. "He would no ways yield," +said Sir Dudley. + +Meantime the Contra-Remonstrants of the Hague, not finding sufficient +accommodation in Enoch Much's house, clamoured loudly for the use of a +church. It was answered by the city magistrates that two of their +persuasion, La Motte and La Faille, preached regularly in the Great +Church, and that Rosaeus had been silenced only because he refused to +hold communion with Uytenbogaert. Maurice insisted that a separate church +should be assigned them. "But this is open schism," said Uytenbogaert. + +Early in the year there was a meeting of the Holland delegation to the +States-General, of the state council, and of the magistracy of the Hague, +of deputies from the tribunals, and of all the nobles resident in the +capital. They sent for Maurice and asked his opinion as to the alarming +situation of affairs. He called for the register-books of the States of +Holland, and turning back to the pages on which was recorded his +accession to the stadholderate soon after his father's murder, ordered +the oath then exchanged between himself and the States to be read aloud. + +That oath bound them mutually to support the Reformed religion till the +last drop of blood in their veins. + +"That oath I mean to keep," said the Stadholder, "so long as I live." + +No one disputed the obligation of all parties to maintain the Reformed +religion. But the question was whether the Five Points were inconsistent +with the Reformed religion. The contrary was clamorously maintained by +most of those present: In the year 1586 this difference in dogma had not +arisen, and as the large majority of the people at the Hague, including +nearly all those of rank and substance, were of the Remonstrant +persuasion, they naturally found it not agreeable to be sent out of the +church by a small minority. But Maurice chose to settle the question very +summarily. His father had been raised to power by the strict Calvinists, +and he meant to stand by those who had always sustained William the +Silent. "For this religion my father lost his life, and this religion +will I defend," said he. + +"You hold then," said Barneveld, "that the Almighty has created one child +for damnation and another for salvation, and you wish this doctrine to be +publicly preached." + +"Did you ever hear any one preach that?" replied the Prince. + +"If they don't preach it, it is their inmost conviction," said the other. +And he proceeded to prove his position by copious citations. + +"And suppose our ministers do preach this doctrine, is there anything +strange in it, any reason why they should not do so?" + +The Advocate expressed his amazement and horror at the idea. + +"But does not God know from all eternity who is to be saved and who to be +damned; and does He create men for any other end than that to which He +from eternity knows they will come?" + +And so they enclosed themselves in the eternal circle out of which it was +not probable that either the soldier or the statesman would soon find an +issue. + +"I am no theologian," said Barneveld at last, breaking off the +discussion. + +"Neither am I," said the Stadholder. "So let the parsons come together. +Let the Synod assemble and decide the question. Thus we shall get out of +all this." + +Next day a deputation of the secessionists waited by appointment on +Prince Maurice. They found him in the ancient mediaeval hall of the +sovereign counts of Holland, and seated on their old chair of state. He +recommended them to use caution and moderation for the present, and to go +next Sunday once more to Ryswyk. Afterwards he pledged himself that they +should have a church at the Hague, and, if necessary, the Great Church +itself. + +But the Great Church, although a very considerable Catholic cathedral +before the Reformation, was not big enough now to hold both Henry Rosaeus +and John Uytenbogaert. Those two eloquent, learned, and most pugnacious +divines were the respective champions in the pulpit of the opposing +parties, as were the Advocate and the Stadholder in the council. And +there was as bitter personal rivalry between the two as between the +soldier and statesman. + +"The factions begin to divide themselves," said Carleton, "betwixt his +Excellency and Monsieur Barneveld as heads who join to this present +difference their ancient quarrels. And the schism rests actually between +Uytenbogaert and Rosaeus, whose private emulation and envy (both being +much applauded and followed) doth no good towards the public +pacification." Uytenbogaert repeatedly offered, however, to resign his +functions and to leave the Hague. "He was always ready to play the +Jonah," he said. + +A temporary arrangement was made soon afterwards by which Rosaeus and his +congregation should have the use of what was called the Gasthuis Kerk, +then appropriated to the English embassy. + +Carleton of course gave his consent most willingly. The Prince declared +that the States of Holland and the city magistracy had personally +affronted him by the obstacles they had interposed to the public worship +of the Contra-Remonstrants. With their cause he had now thoroughly +identified himself. + +The hostility between the representatives of the civil and military +authority waxed fiercer every hour. The tumults were more terrible than +ever. Plainly there was no room in the Commonwealth for the Advocate and +the Stadholder. Some impartial persons believed that there would be no +peace until both were got rid of. "There are many words among this +free-spoken people," said Carleton, "that to end these differences they +must follow the example of France in Marshal d'Ancre's case, and take off +the heads of both chiefs." + +But these decided persons were in a small minority. Meantime the States +of Holland met in full assembly; sixty delegates being present. + +It was proposed to invite his Excellency to take part in the +deliberations. A committee which had waited upon him the day before had +reported him as in favour of moderate rather than harsh measures in the +church affair, while maintaining his plighted word to the seceders. + +Barneveld stoutly opposed the motion. + +"What need had the sovereign states of Holland of advice from a +stadholder, from their servant, their functionary?" he cried. + +But the majority for once thought otherwise. The Prince was invited to +come. The deliberations were moderate but inconclusive. He appeared again +at an adjourned meeting when the councils were not so harmonious. + +Barneveld, Grotius, and other eloquent speakers endeavoured to point out +that the refusal of the seceders to hold communion with the Remonstrant +preachers and to insist on a separation was fast driving the state to +perdition. They warmly recommended mutual toleration and harmony. Grotius +exhausted learning and rhetoric to prove that the Five Points were not +inconsistent with salvation nor with the constitution of the United +Provinces. + +The Stadholder grew impatient at last and clapped his hand on his rapier. + +"No need here," he said, "of flowery orations and learned arguments. With +this good sword I will defend the religion which my father planted in +these Provinces, and I should like to see the man who is going to prevent +me!" + +The words had an heroic ring in the ears of such as are ever ready to +applaud brute force, especially when wielded by a prince. The argumentum +ad ensem, however, was the last plea that William the Silent would have +been likely to employ on such an occasion, nor would it have been easy to +prove that the Reformed religion had been "planted" by one who had drawn +the sword against the foreign tyrant, and had made vast sacrifices for +his country's independence years before abjuring communion with the Roman +Catholic Church. + +When swords are handled by the executive in presence of civil assemblies +there is usually but one issue to be expected. + +Moreover, three whales had recently been stranded at Scheveningen, one of +them more than sixty feet long, and men wagged their beards gravely as +they spoke of the event, deeming it a certain presage of civil +commotions. It was remembered that at the outbreak of the great war two +whales had been washed ashore in the Scheldt. Although some free-thinking +people were inclined to ascribe the phenomenon to a prevalence of strong +westerly gales, while others found proof in it of a superabundance of +those creatures in the Polar seas, which should rather give encouragement +to the Dutch and Zealand fisheries, it is probable that quite as dark +forebodings of coming disaster were caused by this accident as by the +trumpet-like defiance which the Stadholder had just delivered to the +States of Holland. + +Meantime the seceding congregation of the Hague had become wearied of the +English or Gasthuis Church, and another and larger one had been promised +them. This was an ancient convent on one of the principal streets of the +town, now used as a cannon-foundry. The Prince personally superintended +the preparations for getting ready this place of worship, which was +thenceforth called the Cloister Church. But delays were, as the +Contra-Remonstrants believed, purposely interposed, so that it was nearly +Midsummer before there were any signs of the church being fit for use. + +They hastened accordingly to carry it, as it were, by assault. Not +wishing peaceably to accept as a boon from the civil authority what they +claimed as an indefeasible right, they suddenly took possession one +Sunday night of the Cloister Church. + +It was in a state of utter confusion--part monastery, part foundry, part +conventicle. There were few seats, no altar, no communion-table, hardly +any sacramental furniture, but a pulpit was extemporized. Rosaeus +preached in triumph to an enthusiastic congregation, and three children +were baptized with the significant names of William, Maurice, and Henry. + +On the following Monday there was a striking scene on the Voorhout. This +most beautiful street of a beautiful city was a broad avenue, shaded by a +quadruple row of limetrees, reaching out into the thick forest of secular +oaks and beeches--swarming with fallow-deer and alive with the notes of +singing birds--by which the Hague, almost from time immemorial, has been +embowered. The ancient cloisterhouse and church now reconverted to +religious uses--was a plain, rather insipid structure of red brick picked +out with white stone, presenting three symmetrical gables to the street, +with a slender belfry and spire rising in the rear. + +Nearly adjoining it on the north-western side was the elegant and +commodious mansion of Barneveld, purchased by him from the +representatives of the Arenberg family, surrounded by shrubberies and +flower-gardens; not a palace, but a dignified and becoming abode for the +first citizen of a powerful republic. + +On that midsummer's morning it might well seem that, in rescuing the old +cloister from the military purposes to which it had for years been +devoted, men had given an even more belligerent aspect to the scene than +if it had been left as a foundry. The miscellaneous pieces of artillery +and other fire-arms lying about, with piles of cannon-ball which there +had not been time to remove, were hardly less belligerent and threatening +of aspect than the stern faces of the crowd occupied in thoroughly +preparing the house for its solemn destination. It was determined that +there should be accommodation on the next Sunday for all who came to the +service. An army of carpenters, joiners, glaziers, and other +workmen-assisted by a mob of citizens of all ranks and ages, men and +women, gentle and simple were busily engaged in bringing planks and +benches; working with plane, adze, hammer and saw, trowel and shovel, to +complete the work. + +On the next Sunday the Prince attended public worship for the last time +at the Great Church under the ministration of Uytenbogaert. He was +infuriated with the sermon, in which the bold Remonstrant bitterly +inveighed against the proposition for a National Synod. To oppose that +measure publicly in the very face of the Stadholder, who now considered +himself as the Synod personified, seemed to him flat blasphemy. Coming +out of the church with his step-mother, the widowed Louise de Coligny, +Princess of Orange, he denounced the man in unmeasured terms. "He is the +enemy of God," said Maurice. At least from that time forth, and indeed +for a year before, Maurice was the enemy of the preacher. + +On the following Sunday, July 23, Maurice went in solemn state to the +divine service at the Cloister Church now thoroughly organized. He was +accompanied by his cousin, the famous Count William Lewis of Nassau, +Stadholder of Friesland, who had never concealed his warm sympathy with +the Contra-Remonstrants, and by all the chief officers of his household +and members of his staff. It was an imposing demonstration and meant for +one. As the martial stadholder at the head of his brilliant cavalcade +rode forth across the drawbridge from the Inner Court of the old moated +palace--where the ancient sovereign Dirks and Florences of Holland had so +long ruled their stout little principality--along the shady and stately +Kneuterdyk and so through the Voorhout, an immense crowd thronged around +his path and accompanied him to the church. It was as if the great +soldier were marching to siege or battle-field where fresher glories than +those of Sluys or Geertruidenberg were awaiting him. + +The train passed by Barneveld's house and entered the cloister. More than +four thousand persons were present at the service or crowded around the +doors vainly attempting to gain admission into the overflowing aisles; +while the Great Church was left comparatively empty, a few hundred only +worshipping there. The Cloister Church was thenceforth called the +Prince's Church, and a great revolution was beginning even in the Hague. + +The Advocate was wroth as he saw the procession graced by the two +stadholders and their military attendants. He knew that he was now to bow +his head to the Church thus championed by the chief personage and +captain-general of the state, to renounce his dreams of religious +toleration, to sink from his post of supreme civic ruler, or to accept an +unequal struggle in which he might utterly succumb. But his iron nature +would break sooner than bend. In the first transports of his indignation +he is said to have vowed vengeance against the immediate instruments by +which the Cloister Church had, as he conceived, been surreptitiously and +feloniously seized. He meant to strike a blow which should startle the +whole population of the Hague, send a thrill of horror through the +country, and teach men to beware how they trifled with the sovereign +states of Holland, whose authority had so long been undisputed, and with +him their chief functionary. + +He resolved--so ran the tale of the preacher Trigland, who told it to +Prince Maurice, and has preserved it in his chronicle--to cause to be +seized at midnight from their beds four men whom he considered the +ringleaders in this mutiny, to have them taken to the place of execution +on the square in the midst of the city, to have their heads cut off at +once by warrant from the chief tribunal without any previous warning, and +then to summon all the citizens at dawn of day, by ringing of bells and +firing of cannon, to gaze on the ghastly spectacle, and teach them to +what fate this pestilential schism and revolt against authority had +brought its humble tools. The victims were to be Enoch Much, the Prince's +book-keeper, and three others, an attorney, an engraver, and an +apothecary, all of course of the Contra-Remonstrant persuasion. It was +necessary, said the Advocate, to make once for all an example, and show +that there was a government in the land. + +He had reckoned on a ready adhesion to this measure and a sentence from +the tribunal through the influence of his son-in-law, the Seignior van +Veenhuyzen, who was president of the chief court. His attempt was foiled +however by the stern opposition of two Zealand members of the court, who +managed to bring up from a bed of sickness, where he had long been lying, +a Holland councillor whom they knew to be likewise opposed to the fierce +measure, and thus defeated it by a majority of one. + +Such is the story as told by contemporaries and repeated from that day to +this. It is hardly necessary to say that Barneveld calmly denied having +conceived or even heard of the scheme. That men could go about looking +each other in the face and rehearsing such gibberish would seem +sufficiently dispiriting did we not know to what depths of credulity men +in all ages can sink when possessed by the demon of party malice. + +If it had been narrated on the Exchange at Amsterdam or Flushing during +that portentous midsummer that Barneveld had not only beheaded but +roasted alive, and fed the dogs and cats upon the attorney, the +apothecary, and the engraver, there would have been citizens in plenty to +devour the news with avidity. + +But although the Advocate had never imagined such extravagances as these, +it is certain that he had now resolved upon very bold measures, and that +too without an instant's delay. He suspected the Prince of aiming at +sovereignty not only over Holland but over all the provinces and to be +using the Synod as a principal part of his machinery. The gauntlet was +thrown down by the Stadholder, and the Advocate lifted it at once. The +issue of the struggle would depend upon the political colour of the town +magistracies. Barneveld instinctively felt that Maurice, being now +resolved that the Synod should be held, would lose no time in making a +revolution in all the towns through the power he held or could plausibly +usurp. Such a course would, in his opinion, lead directly to an +unconstitutional and violent subversion of the sovereign rights of each +province, to the advantage of the central government. A religious creed +would be forced upon Holland and perhaps upon two other provinces which +was repugnant to a considerable majority of the people. And this would be +done by a majority vote of the States-General, on a matter over which, by +the 13th Article of the fundamental compact--the Union of Utrecht--the +States-General had no control, each province having reserved the +disposition of religious affairs to itself. For let it never be forgotten +that the Union of the Netherlands was a compact, a treaty, an agreement +between sovereign states. There was no pretence that it was an +incorporation, that the people had laid down a constitution, an organic +law. The people were never consulted, did not exist, had not for +political purposes been invented. It was the great primal defect of their +institutions, but the Netherlanders would have been centuries before +their age had they been able to remedy that defect. Yet the Netherlanders +would have been much behind even that age of bigotry had they admitted +the possibility in a free commonwealth, of that most sacred and important +of all subjects that concern humanity, religious creed--the relation of +man to his Maker--to be regulated by the party vote of a political board. + +It was with no thought of treason in his heart or his head therefore that +the Advocate now resolved that the States of Holland and the cities of +which that college was composed should protect their liberties and +privileges, the sum of which in his opinion made up the sovereignty of +the province he served, and that they should protect them, if necessary, +by force. Force was apprehended. It should be met by force. To be +forewarned was to be forearmed. Barneveld forewarned the States of +Holland. + +On the 4th August 1617, he proposed to that assembly a resolution which +was destined to become famous. A majority accepted it after brief debate. +It was to this effect. + +The States having seen what had befallen in many cities, and especially +in the Hague, against the order, liberties, and laws of the land, and +having in vain attempted to bring into harmony with the States certain +cities which refused to co-operate with the majority, had at last +resolved to refuse the National Synod, as conflicting with the +sovereignty and laws of Holland. They had thought good to set forth in +public print their views as to religious worship, and to take measures to +prevent all deeds of violence against persons and property. To this end +the regents of cities were authorized in case of need, until otherwise +ordained, to enrol men-at-arms for their security and prevention of +violence. Furthermore, every one that might complain of what the regents +of cities by strength of this resolution might do was ordered to have +recourse to no one else than the States of Holland, as no account would +be made of anything that might be done or undertaken by the tribunals. + +Finally, it was resolved to send a deputation to Prince Maurice, the +Princess-Widow, and Prince Henry, requesting them to aid in carrying out +this resolution. + +Thus the deed was done. The sword was drawn. It was drawn in self-defence +and in deliberate answer to the Stadholder's defiance when he rapped his +sword hilt in face of the assembly, but still it was drawn. The States of +Holland were declared sovereign and supreme. The National Synod was +peremptorily rejected. Any decision of the supreme courts of the Union in +regard to the subject of this resolution was nullified in advance. +Thenceforth this measure of the 4th August was called the "Sharp +Resolve." It might prove perhaps to be double-edged. + +It was a stroke of grim sarcasm on the part of the Advocate thus solemnly +to invite the Stadholder's aid in carrying out a law which was aimed +directly at his head; to request his help for those who meant to defeat +with the armed hand that National Synod which he had pledged himself to +bring about. + +The question now arose what sort of men-at-arms it would be well for the +city governments to enlist. The officers of the regular garrisons had +received distinct orders from Prince Maurice as their military superior +to refuse any summons to act in matters proceeding from the religious +question. The Prince, who had chief authority over all the regular +troops, had given notice that he would permit nothing to be done against +"those of the Reformed religion," by which he meant the +Contra-Remonstrants and them only. + +In some cities there were no garrisons, but only train-bands. But the +train bands (Schutters) could not be relied on to carry out the Sharp +Resolve, for they were almost to a man Contra-Remonstrants. It was +therefore determined to enlist what were called "Waartgelders;" soldiers, +inhabitants of the place, who held themselves ready to serve in time of +need in consideration of a certain wage; mercenaries in short. + +This resolution was followed as a matter of course by a solemn protest +from Amsterdam and the five cities who acted with her. + +On the same day Maurice was duly notified of the passage of the law. His +wrath was great. High words passed between him and the deputies. It could +hardly have been otherwise expected. Next-day he came before the Assembly +to express his sentiments, to complain of the rudeness with which the +resolution of 4th August had been communicated to him, and to demand +further explanations. Forthwith the Advocate proceeded to set forth the +intentions of the States, and demanded that the Prince should assist the +magistrates in carrying out the policy decided upon. Reinier Pauw, +burgomaster of Amsterdam, fiercely interrupted the oration of Barneveld, +saying that although these might be his views, they were not to be held +by his Excellency as the opinions of all. The Advocate, angry at the +interruption, answered him sternly, and a violent altercation, not +unmixed with personalities, arose. Maurice, who kept his temper admirably +on this occasion, interfered between the two and had much difficulty in +quieting the dispute. He then observed that when he took the oath as +stadholder these unfortunate differences had not arisen, but all had been +good friends together. This was perfectly true, but he could have added +that they might all continue good friends unless the plan of imposing a +religious creed upon the minority by a clerical decision were persisted +in. He concluded that for love of one of the two great parties he would +not violate the oath he had taken to maintain the Reformed religion to +the last drop of his blood. Still, with the same 'petitio principii' that +the Reformed religion and the dogmas of the Contra-Remonstrants were one +and the same thing, he assured the Assembly that the authority of the +magistrates would be sustained by him so long as it did not lead to the +subversion of religion. + +Clearly the time for argument had passed. As Dudley Carleton observed, +men had been disputing 'pro aris' long enough. They would soon be +fighting 'pro focis.' + +In pursuance of the policy laid down by the Sharp Resolution, the States +proceeded to assure themselves of the various cities of the province by +means of Waartgelders. They sent to the important seaport of Brielle and +demanded a new oath from the garrison. It was intimated that the Prince +would be soon coming there in person to make himself master of the place, +and advice was given to the magistrates to be beforehand with him. These +statements angered Maurice, and angered him the more because they +happened to be true. It was also charged that he was pursuing his +Leicestrian designs and meant to make himself, by such steps, sovereign +of the country. The name of Leicester being a byword of reproach ever +since that baffled noble had a generation before left the Provinces in +disgrace, it was a matter of course that such comparisons were +excessively exasperating. It was fresh enough too in men's memory that +the Earl in his Netherland career had affected sympathy with the +strictest denomination of religious reformers, and that the profligate +worldling and arrogant self-seeker had used the mask of religion to cover +flagitious ends. As it had indeed been the object of the party at the +head of which the Advocate had all his life acted to raise the youthful +Maurice to the stadholderate expressly to foil the plots of Leicester, it +could hardly fail to be unpalatable to Maurice to be now accused of +acting the part of Leicester. + +He inveighed bitterly on the subject before the state council: The state +council, in a body, followed him to a meeting of the States-General. Here +the Stadholder made a vehement speech and demanded that the States of +Holland should rescind the "Sharp Resolution," and should desist from the +new oaths required from the soldiery. Barneveld, firm as a rock, met +these bitter denunciations. Speaking in the name of Holland, he repelled +the idea that the sovereign States of that province were responsible to +the state council or to the States-General either. He regretted, as all +regretted, the calumnies uttered against the Prince, but in times of such +intense excitement every conspicuous man was the mark of calumny. + +The Stadholder warmly repudiated Leicestrian designs, and declared that +he had been always influenced by a desire to serve his country and +maintain the Reformed religion. If he had made mistakes, he desired to be +permitted to improve in the future. + +Thus having spoken, the soldier retired from the Assembly with the state +council at his heels. + +The Advocate lost no time in directing the military occupation of the +principal towns of Holland, such as Leyden, Gouda, Rotterdam, +Schoonhoven, Hoorn, and other cities. + +At Leyden especially, where a strong Orange party was with difficulty +kept in obedience by the Remonstrant magistracy, it was found necessary +to erect a stockade about the town-hall and to plant caltrops and other +obstructions in the squares and streets. + +The broad space in front; of the beautiful medieval seat of the municipal +government, once so sacred for the sublime and pathetic scenes enacted +there during the famous siege and in the magistracy of Peter van der +Werff, was accordingly enclosed by a solid palisade of oaken planks, +strengthened by rows of iron bars with barbed prongs: The entrenchment +was called by the populace the Arminian Fort, and the iron spear heads +were baptized Barneveld's teeth. Cannon were planted at intervals along +the works, and a company or two of the Waartgelders, armed from head to +foot, with snaphances on their shoulders, stood ever ready to issue forth +to quell any disturbances. Occasionally a life or two was lost of citizen +or soldier, and many doughty blows were interchanged. + +It was a melancholy spectacle. No commonwealth could be more fortunate +than this republic in possessing two such great leading minds. No two men +could be more patriotic than both Stadholder and Advocate. No two men +could be prouder, more overbearing, less conciliatory. + +"I know Mons. Barneveld well," said Sir Ralph Winwood, "and know that he +hath great powers and abilities, and malice itself must confess that man +never hath done more faithful and powerful service to his country than +he. But 'finis coronat opus' and 'il di lodi lacera; oportet imperatorem +stantem mori.'" + +The cities of Holland were now thoroughly "waartgeldered," and Barneveld +having sufficiently shown his "teeth" in that province departed for +change of air to Utrecht. His failing health was assigned as the pretext +for the visit, although the atmosphere of that city has never been +considered especially salubrious in the dog-days. + +Meantime the Stadholder remained quiet, but biding his time. He did not +choose to provoke a premature conflict in the strongholds of the +Arminians as he called them, but with a true military instinct preferred +making sure of the ports. Amsterdam, Enkhuyzen, Flushing, being without +any effort of his own within his control, he quietly slipped down the +river Meuse on the night of the 29th September, accompanied by his +brother Frederic Henrys and before six o'clock next morning had +introduced a couple of companies of trustworthy troops into Brielle, had +summoned the magistrates before him, and compelled them to desist from +all further intention of levying mercenaries. Thus all the fortresses +which Barneveld had so recently and in such masterly fashion rescued from +the grasp of England were now quietly reposing in the hands of the +Stadholder. + +Maurice thought it not worth his while for the present to quell the +mutiny--as he considered it the legal and constitutional defence of +vested right--as great jurists like Barneveld and Hugo Grotius accounted +the movement--at its "fountain head Leyden or its chief stream Utrecht;" +to use the expression of Carleton. There had already been bloodshed in +Leyden, a burgher or two having been shot and a soldier stoned to death +in the streets, but the Stadholder deemed it unwise to precipitate +matters. Feeling himself, with his surpassing military knowledge and with +a large majority of the nation at his back, so completely master of the +situation, he preferred waiting on events. And there is no doubt that he +was proving himself a consummate politician and a perfect master of +fence. "He is much beloved and followed both of soldiers and people," +said the English ambassador, "he is a man 'innoxiae popularitatis' so as +this jealousy cannot well be fastened upon him; and in this cause of +religion he stirred not until within these few months he saw he must +declare himself or suffer the better party to be overborne." + +The chief tribunal-high council so called-of the country soon gave +evidence that the "Sharp Resolution" had judged rightly in reckoning on +its hostility and in nullifying its decisions in advance. + +They decided by a majority vote that the Resolution ought not to be +obeyed, but set aside. Amsterdam, and the three or four cities usually +acting with her, refused to enlist troops. + +Rombout Hoogerbeets, a member of the tribunal, informed Prince Maurice +that he "would no longer be present on a bench where men disputed the +authority of the States of Holland, which he held to be the supreme +sovereignty over him." + +This was plain speaking; a distinct enunciation of what the States' right +party deemed to be constitutional law. + +And what said Maurice in reply? + +"I, too, recognize the States of Holland as sovereign; but we might at +least listen to each other occasionally." + +Hoogerbeets, however, deeming that listening had been carried far enough, +decided to leave the tribunal altogether, and to resume the post which he +had formerly occupied as Pensionary or chief magistrate of Leyden. + +Here he was soon to find himself in the thick of the conflict. Meantime +the States-General, in full assembly, on 11th November 1617, voted that +the National Synod should be held in the course of the following year. +The measure was carried by a strict party vote and by a majority of one. +The representatives of each province voting as one, there were four in +favour of to three against the Synod. The minority, consisting of +Holland, Utrecht, and Overyssel, protested against the vote as an +outrageous invasion of the rights of each province, as an act of flagrant +tyranny and usurpation. + +The minority in the States of Holland, the five cities often named, +protested against the protest. + +The defective part of the Netherland constitutions could not be better +illustrated. The minority of the States of Holland refused to be bound by +a majority of the provincial assembly. The minority of the States-General +refused to be bound by the majority of the united assembly. + +This was reducing politics to an absurdity and making all government +impossible. It is however quite certain that in the municipal governments +a majority had always governed, and that a majority vote in the +provincial assemblies had always prevailed. The present innovation was to +govern the States-General by a majority. + +Yet viewed by the light of experience and of common sense, it would be +difficult to conceive of a more preposterous proceeding than thus to cram +a religious creed down the throats of half the population of a country by +the vote of a political assembly. But it was the seventeenth and not the +nineteenth century. + +Moreover, if there were any meaning in words, the 13th Article of Union, +reserving especially the disposition over religious matters to each +province, had been wisely intended to prevent the possibility of such +tyranny. + +When the letters of invitation to the separate states and to others were +drawing up in the general assembly, the representatives of the three +states left the chamber. A solitary individual from Holland remained +however, a burgomaster of Amsterdam. + +Uytenbogaert, conversing with Barneveld directly afterwards, advised him +to accept the vote. Yielding to the decision of the majority, it would be +possible, so thought the clergyman, for the great statesman so to handle +matters as to mould the Synod to his will, even as he had so long +controlled the States-Provincial and the States-General. + +"If you are willing to give away the rights of the land," said the +Advocate very sharply, "I am not." + +Probably the priest's tactics might have proved more adroit than the +stony opposition on which Barneveld was resolved. + +But it was with the aged statesman a matter of principle, not of policy. +His character and his personal pride, the dignity of opinion and office, +his respect for constitutional law, were all at stake. + +Shallow observers considered the struggle now taking place as a personal +one. Lovers of personal government chose to look upon the Advocate's +party as a faction inspired with an envious resolve to clip the wings of +the Stadholder, who was at last flying above their heads. + +There could be no doubt of the bitter animosity between the two men. +There could be no doubt that jealousy was playing the part which that +master passion will ever play in all the affairs of life. But there could +be no doubt either that a difference of principle as wide as the world +separated the two antagonists. + +Even so keen an observer as Dudley Carleton, while admitting the man's +intellectual power and unequalled services, could see nothing in the +Advocate's present course but prejudice, obstinacy, and the insanity of +pride. "He doth no whit spare himself in pains nor faint in his +resolution," said the Envoy, "wherein notwithstanding he will in all +appearance succumb ere afore long, having the disadvantages of a weak +body, a weak party, and a weak cause." But Carleton hated Barneveld, and +considered it the chief object of his mission to destroy him, if he +could. In so doing he would best carry out the wishes of his sovereign. + +The King of Britain had addressed a somewhat equivocal letter to the +States-General on the subject of religion in the spring of 1617. It +certainly was far from being as satisfactory as, the epistles of 1613 +prepared under the Advocate's instructions, had been, while the exuberant +commentary upon the royal text, delivered in full assembly by his +ambassador soon after the reception of the letter, was more than usually +didactic, offensive, and ignorant. Sir Dudley never omitted an +opportunity of imparting instruction to the States-General as to the +nature of their constitution and the essential dogmas on which their +Church was founded. It is true that the great lawyers and the great +theologians of the country were apt to hold very different opinions from +his upon those important subjects, but this was so much the worse for the +lawyers and theologians, as time perhaps might prove. + +The King in this last missive had proceeded to unsay the advice which he +had formerly bestowed upon the States, by complaining that his earlier +letters had been misinterpreted. They had been made use of, he said, to +authorize the very error against which they had been directed. They had +been held to intend the very contrary of what they did mean. He felt +himself bound in conscience therefore, finding these differences ready to +be "hatched into schisms," to warn the States once more against pests so +pernicious. + +Although the royal language was somewhat vague so far as enunciation of +doctrine, a point on which he had once confessed himself fallible, was +concerned, there was nothing vague in his recommendation of a National +Synod. To this the opposition of Barneveld was determined not upon +religious but upon constitutional grounds. The confederacy did not +constitute a nation, and therefore there could not be a national synod +nor a national religion. + +Carleton came before the States-General soon afterwards with a prepared +oration, wearisome as a fast-day sermon after the third turn of the +hour-glass, pragmatical as a schoolmaster's harangue to fractious little +boys. + +He divided his lecture into two heads--the peace of the Church, and the +peace of the Provinces--starting with the first. "A Jove principium," he +said, "I will begin with that which is both beginning and end. It is the +truth of God's word and its maintenance that is the bond of our common +cause. Reasons of state invite us as friends and neighbours by the +preservation of our lives and property, but the interest of religion +binds us as Christians and brethren to the mutual defence of the liberty +of our consciences." + +He then proceeded to point out the only means by which liberty of +conscience could be preserved. It was by suppressing all forms of +religion but one, and by silencing all religious discussion. Peter +Titelman and Philip II. could not have devised a more pithy formula. All +that was wanting was the axe and faggot to reduce uniformity to practice. +Then liberty of conscience would be complete. + +"One must distinguish," said the Ambassador, "between just liberty and +unbridled license, and conclude that there is but one truth single and +unique. Those who go about turning their brains into limbecks for +distilling new notions in religious matters only distract the union of +the Church which makes profession of this unique truth. If it be +permitted to one man to publish the writings and fantasies of a sick +spirit and for another moved by Christian zeal to reduce this wanderer +'ad sanam mentem;' why then 'patet locus adversus utrumque,' and the +common enemy (the Devil) slips into the fortress." He then proceeded to +illustrate this theory on liberty of conscience by allusions to Conrad +Vorstius. + +This infamous sectary had in fact reached such a pitch of audacity, said +the Ambassador, as not only to inveigh against the eternal power of God +but to indulge in irony against the honour of his Majesty King James. + +And in what way had he scandalized the government of the Republic? He had +dared to say that within its borders there was religious toleration. He +had distinctly averred that in the United Provinces heretics were not +punished with death or with corporal chastisement. + +"He declares openly," said Carleton, "that contra haereticos etiam vere +dictos (ne dum falso et calumniose sic traductos) there is neither +sentence of death nor other corporal punishment, so that in order to +attract to himself a great following of birds of the name feather he +publishes to all the world that here in this country one can live and die +a heretic, unpunished, without being arrested and without danger." + +In order to suppress this reproach upon the Republic at which the +Ambassador stood aghast, and to prevent the Vorstian doctrines of +religious toleration and impunity of heresy from spreading among "the +common people, so subject by their natures to embrace new opinions," he +advised of course that "the serpent be sent back to the nest where he was +born before the venom had spread through the whole body of the Republic." + +A week afterwards a long reply was delivered on part of the +States-General to the Ambassador's oration. It is needless to say that it +was the work of the Advocate, and that it was in conformity with the +opinions so often exhibited in the letters to Caron and others of which +the reader has seen many samples. + +That religious matters were under the control of the civil government, +and that supreme civil authority belonged to each one of the seven +sovereign provinces, each recognizing no superior within its own sphere, +were maxims of state always enforced in the Netherlands and on which the +whole religious controversy turned. + +"The States-General have always cherished the true Christian Apostolic +religion," they said, "and wished it to be taught under the authority and +protection of the legal government of these Provinces in all purity, and +in conformity with the Holy Scriptures, to the good people of these +Provinces. And My Lords the States and magistrates of the respective +provinces, each within their own limits, desire the same." + +They had therefore given express orders to the preachers "to keep the +peace by mutual and benign toleration of the different opinions on the +one side and the other at least until with full knowledge of the subject +the States might otherwise ordain. They had been the more moved to this +because his Majesty having carefully examined the opinions of the learned +hereon each side had found both consistent with Christian belief and the +salvation of souls." + +It was certainly not the highest expression of religious toleration for +the civil authority to forbid the clergymen of the country from +discussing in their pulpits the knottiest and most mysterious points of +the schoolmen lest the "common people" should be puzzled. Nevertheless, +where the close union of Church and State and the necessity of one church +were deemed matters of course, it was much to secure subordination of the +priesthood to the magistracy, while to enjoin on preachers abstention +from a single exciting cause of quarrel, on the ground that there was +more than one path to salvation, and that mutual toleration was better +than mutual persecution, was; in that age, a stride towards religious +equality. It was at least an advance on Carleton's dogma, that there was +but one unique and solitary truth, and that to declare heretics not +punishable with death was an insult to the government of the Republic. + +The States-General answered the Ambassador's plea, made in the name of +his master, for immediate and unguaranteed evacuation of the debatable +land by the arguments already so often stated in the Advocate's +instructions to Caron. They had been put to great trouble and expense +already in their campaigning and subsequent fortification of important +places in the duchies. They had seen the bitter spirit manifested by the +Spaniards in the demolition of the churches and houses of Mulheim and +other places. "While the affair remained in its present terms of utter +uncertainty their Mightinesses," said the States-General, "find it most +objectionable to forsake the places which they have been fortifying and +to leave the duchies and all their fellow-religionists, besides the +rights of the possessory princes a prey to those who have been hankering +for the territories for long years, and who would unquestionably be able +to make themselves absolute masters of all within a very few days." + +A few months later Carleton came before the States-General again and +delivered another elaborate oration, duly furnished to him by the King, +upon the necessity of the National Synod, the comparative merits of +Arminianism and Contra-Remonstrantism, together with a full exposition of +the constitutions of the Netherlands. + +It might be supposed that Barneveld and Grotius and Hoogerbeets knew +something of the law and history of their country. + +But James knew much better, and so his envoy endeavoured to convince his +audience. + +He received on the spot a temperate but conclusive reply from the +delegates of Holland. They informed him that the war with Spain--the +cause of the Utrecht Union--was not begun about religion but on account +of the violation of liberties, chartered rights and privileges, not the +least of which rights was that of each province to regulate religious +matters within its borders. + +A little later a more vehement reply was published anonymously in the +shape of a pamphlet called 'The Balance,' which much angered the +Ambassador and goaded his master almost to frenzy. It was deemed so +blasphemous, so insulting to the Majesty of England, so entirely +seditious, that James, not satisfied with inditing a rejoinder, insisted +through Carleton that a reward should be offered by the States for the +detection of the author, in order that he might be condignly punished. +This was done by a majority vote, 1000 florins being offered for the +discovery of the author and 600 for that of the printer. + +Naturally the step was opposed in the States-General; two deputies in +particular making themselves conspicuous. One of them was an audacious +old gentleman named Brinius of Gelderland, "much corrupted with +Arminianism," so Carleton informed his sovereign. He appears to have +inherited his audacity through his pedigree, descending, as it was +ludicrously enough asserted he did, from a chief of the Caninefates, the +ancient inhabitants of Gelderland, called Brinio. And Brinio the +Caninefat had been as famous for his stolid audacity as for his +illustrious birth; "Erat in Caninefatibus stolidae audaciae Brinio +claritate natalium insigni." + +The patronizing manner in which the Ambassador alluded to the other +member of the States-General who opposed the decree was still more +diverting. It was "Grotius, the Pensioner of Rotterdam, a young petulant +brain, not unknown to your Majesty," said Carleton. + +Two centuries and a half have rolled away, and there are few majesties, +few nations, and few individuals to whom the name of that petulant youth +is unknown; but how many are familiar with the achievements of the able +representative of King James? + +Nothing came of the measure, however, and the offer of course helped the +circulation of the pamphlet. + +It is amusing to see the ferocity thus exhibited by the royal pamphleteer +against a rival; especially when one can find no crime in 'The Balance' +save a stinging and well-merited criticism of a very stupid oration. + +Gillis van Ledenberg was generally supposed to be the author of it. +Carleton inclined, however, to suspect Grotius, "because," said he, +"having always before been a stranger to my house, he has made me the day +before the publication thereof a complimentary visit, although it was +Sunday and church time; whereby the Italian proverb, 'Chi ti caresse piu +che suole,' &c.,' is added to other likelihoods." + +It was subsequently understood however that the pamphlet was written by a +Remonstrant preacher of Utrecht, named Jacobus Taurinus; one of those who +had been doomed to death by the mutinous government in that city seven +years before. + +It was now sufficiently obvious that either the governments in the three +opposition provinces must be changed or that the National Synod must be +imposed by a strict majority vote in the teeth of the constitution and of +vigorous and eloquent protests drawn up by the best lawyers in the +country. The Advocate and Grotius recommended a provincial synod first +and, should that not succeed in adjusting the differences of church +government, then the convocation of a general or oecumenical synod. They +resisted the National Synod because, in their view, the Provinces were +not a nation. A league of seven sovereign and independent Mates was all +that legally existed in the Netherlands. It was accordingly determined +that the governments should be changed, and the Stadholder set himself to +prepare the way for a thorough and, if possible, a bloodless revolution. +He departed on the 27th November for a tour through the chief cities, and +before leaving the Hague addressed an earnest circular letter to the +various municipalities of Holland. + +A more truly dignified, reasonable, right royal letter, from the +Stadholder's point of view, could not have been indited. The Imperial +"we" breathing like a morning breeze through the whole of it blew away +all legal and historical mistiness. + +But the clouds returned again nevertheless. Unfortunately for Maurice it +could not be argued by the pen, however it might be proved by the sword, +that the Netherlands constituted a nation, and that a convocation of +doctors of divinity summoned by a body of envoys had the right to dictate +a creed to seven republics. + +All parties were agreed on one point. There must be unity of divine +worship. The territory of the Netherlands was not big enough to hold two +systems of religion, two forms of Christianity, two sects of +Protestantism. It was big enough to hold seven independent and sovereign +states, but would be split into fragments--resolved into chaos--should +there be more than one Church or if once a schism were permitted in that +Church. Grotius was as much convinced of this as Gomarus. And yet the +13th Article of the Union stared them all in the face, forbidding the +hideous assumptions now made by the general government. Perhaps no man +living fully felt its import save Barneveld alone. For groping however +dimly and hesitatingly towards the idea of religious liberty, of general +toleration, he was denounced as a Papist, an atheist, a traitor, a +miscreant, by the fanatics for the sacerdotal and personal power. Yet it +was a pity that he could never contemplate the possibility of his +country's throwing off the swaddling clothes of provincialism which had +wrapped its infancy. Doubtless history, law, tradition, and usage pointed +to the independent sovereignty of each province. Yet the period of the +Truce was precisely the time when a more generous constitution, a +national incorporation might have been constructed to take the place of +the loose confederacy by which the gigantic war had been fought out. +After all, foreign powers had no connection with the States, and knew +only the Union with which and with which alone they made treaties, and +the reality of sovereignty in each province was as ridiculous as in +theory it was impregnable. But Barneveld, under the modest title of +Advocate of one province, had been in reality president and prime +minister of the whole commonwealth. He had himself been the union and the +sovereignty. It was not wonderful that so imperious a nature objected to +transfer its powers to the Church, to the States-General, or to Maurice. + +Moreover, when nationality assumed the unlovely form of rigid religious +uniformity; when Union meant an exclusive self-governed Church enthroned +above the State, responsible to no civic authority and no human law, the +boldest patriot might shiver at emerging from provincialism. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + The Commonwealth bent on Self-destruction--Evils of a Confederate + System of Government--Rem Bischop's House sacked--Aerssens' + unceasing Efforts against Barneveld--The Advocate's Interview with + Maurice--The States of Utrecht raise the Troops--The Advocate at + Utrecht--Barneveld urges mutual Toleration--Barneveld accused of + being Partisan of Spain--Carleton takes his Departure. + +It is not cheerful after widely contemplating the aspect of Christendom +in the year of supreme preparation to examine with the minuteness +absolutely necessary the narrow theatre to which the political affairs of +the great republic had been reduced. + +That powerful commonwealth, to which the great party of the Reformation +naturally looked for guidance in the coming conflict, seemed bent on +self-destruction. The microcosm of the Netherlands now represented, alas! +the war of elements going on without on a world-wide scale. As the +Calvinists and Lutherans of Germany were hotly attacking each other even +in sight of the embattled front of Spain and the League, so the Gomarites +and the Arminians by their mutual rancour were tearing the political +power of the Dutch Republic to shreds and preventing her from assuming a +great part in the crisis. The consummate soldier, the unrivalled +statesman, each superior in his sphere to any contemporary rival, each +supplementing the other, and making up together, could they have been +harmonized, a double head such as no political organism then existing +could boast, were now in hopeless antagonism to each other. A mass of +hatred had been accumulated against the Advocate with which he found it +daily more and more difficult to struggle. The imperious, rugged, and +suspicious nature of the Stadholder had been steadily wrought upon by the +almost devilish acts of Francis Aerssens until he had come to look upon +his father's most faithful adherent, his own early preceptor in +statesmanship and political supporter, as an antagonist, a conspirator, +and a tyrant. + +The soldier whose unrivalled ability, experience, and courage in the +field should have placed him at the very head of the great European army +of defence against the general crusade upon Protestantism, so constantly +foretold by Barneveld, was now to be engaged in making bloodless but +mischievous warfare against an imaginary conspiracy and a patriot foe. + +The Advocate, keeping steadily in view the great principles by which his +political life had been guided, the supremacy of the civil authority in +any properly organized commonwealth over the sacerdotal and military, +found himself gradually forced into mortal combat with both. To the +individual sovereignty of each province he held with the tenacity of a +lawyer and historian. In that he found the only clue through the +labyrinth which ecclesiastical and political affairs presented. So close +was the tangle, so confused the medley, that without this slender guide +all hope of legal issue seemed lost. + +No doubt the difficulty of the doctrine of individual sovereignty was +great, some of the provinces being such slender morsels of territory, +with resources so trivial, as to make the name of sovereignty ludicrous. +Yet there could be as little doubt that no other theory was tenable. If +so powerful a mind as that of the Advocate was inclined to strain the +theory to its extreme limits, it was because in the overshadowing +superiority of the one province Holland had been found the practical +remedy for the imbecility otherwise sure to result from such provincial +and meagre federalism. + +Moreover, to obtain Union by stretching all the ancient historical +privileges and liberties of the separate provinces upon the Procrustean +bed of a single dogma, to look for nationality only in common subjection +to an infallible priesthood, to accept a Catechism as the palladium upon +which the safety of the State was to depend for all time, and beyond +which there was to be no further message from Heaven--such was not +healthy constitutionalism in the eyes of a great statesman. No doubt that +without the fervent spirit of Calvinism it would have been difficult to +wage war with such immortal hate as the Netherlands had waged it, no +doubt the spirit of republican and even democratic liberty lay hidden +within that rigid husk, but it was dishonour to the martyrs who had died +by thousands at the stake and on the battle field for the rights of +conscience if the only result of their mighty warfare against wrong had +been to substitute a new dogma for an old one, to stifle for ever the +right of free enquiry, theological criticism, and the hope of further +light from on high, and to proclaim it a libel on the Republic that +within its borders all heretics, whether Arminian or Papist, were safe +from the death penalty or even from bodily punishment. A theological +union instead of a national one and obtained too at the sacrifice of +written law and immemorial tradition, a congress in which clerical +deputations from all the provinces and from foreign nations should +prescribe to all Netherlanders an immutable creed and a shadowy +constitution, were not the true remedies for the evils of confederacy, +nor, if they had been, was the time an appropriate one for their +application. + +It was far too early in the world's history to hope for such +redistribution of powers and such a modification of the social compact as +would place in separate spheres the Church and the State, double the +sanctions and the consolations of religion by removing it from the +pollutions of political warfare, and give freedom to individual +conscience by securing it from the interference of government. + +It is melancholy to see the Republic thus perversely occupying its +energies. It is melancholy to see the great soldier becoming gradually +more ardent for battle with Barneveld and Uytenbogaert than with Spinola +and Bucquoy, against whom he had won so many imperishable laurels. It is +still sadder to see the man who had been selected by Henry IV. as the one +statesman of Europe to whom he could confide his great projects for the +pacification of Christendom, and on whom he could depend for counsel and +support in schemes which, however fantastic in some of their details, had +for their object to prevent the very European war of religion against +which Barneveld had been struggling, now reduced to defend himself +against suspicion hourly darkening and hatred growing daily more insane. + +The eagle glance and restless wing, which had swept the whole political +atmosphere, now caged within the stifling limits of theological casuistry +and personal rivalry were afflicting to contemplate. + +The evils resulting from a confederate system of government, from a +league of petty sovereignties which dared not become a nation, were as +woefully exemplified in the United Provinces as they were destined to be +more than a century and a half later, and in another hemisphere, before +that most fortunate and sagacious of written political instruments, the +American Constitution of 1787, came to remedy the weakness of the old +articles of Union. + +Meantime the Netherlands were a confederacy, not a nation. Their general +government was but a committee. + +It could ask of, but not command, the separate provinces. It had no +dealings with nor power over the inhabitants of the country; it could say +"Thou shalt" neither to state nor citizen; it could consult only with +corporations--fictitious and many-headed personages--itself incorporate. +There was no first magistrate, no supreme court, no commander-in-chief, +no exclusive mint nor power of credit, no national taxation, no central +house of representation and legislation, no senate. Unfortunately it had +one church, and out of this single matrix of centralism was born more +discord than had been produced by all the centrifugal forces of +provincialism combined. + +There had been working substitutes found, as we well know, for the +deficiencies of this constitution, but the Advocate felt himself bound to +obey and enforce obedience to the laws and privileges of his country so +long as they remained without authorized change. His country was the +Province of Holland, to which his allegiance was due and whose servant he +was. That there was but one church paid and sanctioned by law, he +admitted, but his efforts were directed to prevent discord within that +church, by counselling moderation, conciliation, mutual forbearance, and +abstention from irritating discussion of dogmas deemed by many thinkers +and better theologians than himself not essential to salvation. In this +he was much behind his age or before it. He certainly was not with the +majority. + +And thus, while the election of Ferdinand had given the signal of war all +over Christendom, while from the demolished churches in Bohemia the +tocsin was still sounding, whose vibrations were destined to be heard a +generation long through the world, there was less sympathy felt with the +call within the territory of the great republic of Protestantism than +would have seemed imaginable a few short years before. The capture of the +Cloister Church at the Hague in the summer of 1617 seemed to minds +excited by personal rivalries and minute theological controversy a more +momentous event than the destruction of the churches in the Klostergrab +in the following December. The triumph of Gomarism in a single Dutch city +inspired more enthusiasm for the moment than the deadly buffet to +European Protestantism could inspire dismay. + +The church had been carried and occupied, as it were, by force, as if an +enemy's citadel. It seemed necessary to associate the idea of practical +warfare with a movement which might have been a pacific clerical success. +Barneveld and those who acted with him, while deploring the intolerance +out of which the schism had now grown to maturity, had still hoped for +possible accommodation of the quarrel. They dreaded popular tumults +leading to oppression of the magistracy by the mob or the soldiery and +ending in civil war. But what was wanted by the extreme partisans on +either side was not accommodation but victory. + +"Religious differences are causing much trouble and discontents in many +cities," he said. "At Amsterdam there were in the past week two +assemblages of boys and rabble which did not disperse without violence, +crime, and robbery. The brother of Professor Episcopius (Rem Bischop) was +damaged to the amount of several thousands. We are still hoping that some +better means of accommodation may be found." + +The calmness with which the Advocate spoke of these exciting and painful +events is remarkable. It was exactly a week before the date of his letter +that this riot had taken place at Amsterdam; very significant in its +nature and nearly tragical in its results. There were no Remonstrant +preachers left in the city, and the people of that persuasion were +excluded from the Communion service. On Sunday morning, 17th February +(1617), a furious mob set upon the house of Rem Bischop, a highly +respectable and wealthy citizen, brother of the Remonstrant professor +Episcopius, of Leyden. The house, an elegant mansion in one of the +principal streets, was besieged and after an hour's resistance carried by +storm. The pretext of the assault was that Arminian preaching was going +on within its walls, which was not the fact. The mistress of the house, +half clad, attempted to make her escape by the rear of the building, was +pursued by the rabble with sticks and stones, and shrieks of "Kill the +Arminian harlot, strike her dead," until she fortunately found refuge in +the house of a neighbouring carpenter. There the hunted creature fell +insensible on the ground, the master of the house refusing to give her +up, though the maddened mob surged around it, swearing that if the +"Arminian harlot"--as respectable a matron as lived in the city--were not +delivered over to them, they would tear the house to pieces. The hope of +plunder and of killing Rem Bischop himself drew them at last back to his +mansion. It was thoroughly sacked; every portable article of value, +linen, plate, money, furniture, was carried off, the pictures and objects +of art destroyed, the house gutted from top to bottom. A thousand +spectators were looking on placidly at the work of destruction as they +returned from church, many of them with Bible and Psalm-book in their +hands. The master effected his escape over the roof into an adjoining +building. One of the ringleaders, a carpenter by trade, was arrested +carrying an armful of valuable plunder. He was asked by the magistrate +why he had entered the house. "Out of good zeal," he replied; "to help +beat and kill the Arminians who were holding conventicle there." He was +further asked why he hated the Arminians so much. "Are we to suffer such +folk here," he replied, "who preach the vile doctrine that God has +created one man for damnation and another for salvation?"--thus ascribing +the doctrine of the church of which he supposed himself a member to the +Arminians whom he had been plundering and wished to kill. + +Rem Bischop received no compensation for the damage and danger; the +general cry in the town being that the money he was receiving from +Barneveld and the King of Spain would make him good even if not a stone +of the house had been left standing. On the following Thursday two elders +of the church council waited upon and informed him that he must in future +abstain from the Communion service. + +It may well be supposed that the virtual head of the government liked not +the triumph of mob law, in the name of religion, over the civil +authority. The Advocate was neither democrat nor demagogue. A lawyer, a +magistrate, and a noble, he had but little sympathy with the humbler +classes, which he was far too much in the habit of designating as rabble +and populace. Yet his anger was less against them than against the +priests, the foreigners, the military and diplomatic mischief-makers, by +whom they were set upon to dangerous demonstrations. The old patrician +scorned the arts by which highborn demagogues in that as in every age +affect adulation for inferiors whom they despise. It was his instinct to +protect, and guide the people, in whom he recognized no chartered nor +inherent right to govern. It was his resolve, so long as breath was in +him, to prevent them from destroying life and property and subverting the +government under the leadership of an inflamed priesthood. + +It was with this intention, as we have just seen, and in order to avoid +bloodshed, anarchy, and civil war in the streets of every town and +village, that a decisive but in the Advocate's opinion a perfectly legal +step had been taken by the States of Holland. It had become necessary to +empower the magistracies of towns to defend themselves by enrolled troops +against mob violence and against an enforced synod considered by great +lawyers as unconstitutional. + +Aerssens resided in Zealand, and the efforts of that ex-ambassador were +unceasing to excite popular animosity against the man he hated and to +trouble the political waters in which no man knew better than he how to +cast the net. + +"The States of Zealand," said the Advocate to the ambassador in London, +"have a deputation here about the religious differences, urging the +holding of a National Synod according to the King's letters, to which +some other provinces and some of the cities of Holland incline. The +questions have not yet been defined by a common synod, so that a national +one could make no definition, while the particular synods and clerical +personages are so filled with prejudices and so bound by mutual +engagements of long date as to make one fear an unfruitful issue. We are +occupied upon this point in our assembly of Holland to devise some +compromise and to discover by what means these difficulties may be +brought into a state of tranquillity." + +It will be observed that in all these most private and confidential +utterances of the Advocate a tone of extreme moderation, an anxious wish +to save the Provinces from dissensions, dangers, and bloodshed, is +distinctly visible. Never is he betrayed into vindictive, ambitious, or +self-seeking expressions, while sometimes, although rarely, despondent in +mind. Nor was his opposition to a general synod absolute. He was probably +persuaded however, as we have just seen, that it should of necessity be +preceded by provincial ones, both in due regard to the laws of the land +and to the true definition of the points to be submitted to its decision. +He had small hope of a successful result from it. + +The British king gave him infinite distress. As towards France so towards +England the Advocate kept steadily before him the necessity of deferring +to powerful sovereigns whose friendship was necessary to the republic he +served, however misguided, perverse, or incompetent those monarchs might +be. + +"I had always hoped," he said, "that his Majesty would have adhered to +his original written advice, that such questions as these ought to be +quietly settled by authority of law and not by ecclesiastical persons, +and I still hope that his Majesty's intention is really to that effect, +although he speaks of synods." + +A month later he felt even more encouraged. "The last letter of his +Majesty concerning our religious questions," he said, "has given rise to +various constructions, but the best advised, who have peace and unity at +heart, understand the King's intention to be to conserve the state of +these Provinces and the religion in its purity. My hope is that his +Majesty's good opinion will be followed and adopted according to the most +appropriate methods." + +Can it be believed that the statesman whose upright patriotism, +moderation, and nobleness of purpose thus breathed through every word +spoken by him in public or whispered to friends was already held up by a +herd of ravening slanderers to obloquy as a traitor and a tyrant? + +He was growing old and had suffered much from illness during this +eventful summer, but his anxiety for the Commonwealth, caused by these +distressing and superfluous squabbles, were wearing into him more deeply +than years or disease could do. + +"Owing to my weakness and old age I can't go up-stairs as well as I +used," he said,--[Barneveld to Caron 31 July and 21 Aug. 1617. (H. Arch. +MS.)]--"and these religious dissensions cause me sometimes such +disturbance of mind as will ere long become intolerable, because of my +indisposition and because of the cry of my heart at the course people are +pursuing here. I reflect that at the time of Duke Casimir and the Prince +of Chimay exactly such a course was held in Flanders and in Lord +Leicester's time in the city of Utrecht, as is best known to yourself. My +hope is fixed on the Lord God Almighty, and that He will make those well +ashamed who are laying anything to heart save his honour and glory and +the welfare of our country with maintenance of its freedom and laws. I +mean unchangeably to live and die for them . . . . Believe firmly that +all representations to the contrary are vile calumnies." + +Before leaving for Vianen in the middle of August of this year (1617) the +Advocate had an interview with the Prince. There had been no open rupture +between them, and Barneveld was most anxious to avoid a quarrel with one +to whose interests and honour he had always been devoted. He did not +cling to power nor office. On the contrary, he had repeatedly importuned +the States to accept his resignation, hoping that perhaps these unhappy +dissensions might be quieted by his removal from the scene. He now told +the Prince that the misunderstanding between them arising from these +religious disputes was so painful to his heart that he would make and had +made every possible effort towards conciliation and amicable settlement +of the controversy. He saw no means now, he said, of bringing about +unity, unless his Excellency were willing to make some proposition for +arrangement. This he earnestly implored the Prince to do, assuring him of +his sincere and upright affection for him and his wish to support such +measures to the best of his ability and to do everything for the +furtherance of his reputation and necessary authority. He was so desirous +of this result, he said, that he would propose now as he did at the time +of the Truce negotiations to lay down all his offices, leaving his +Excellency to guide the whole course of affairs according to his best +judgment. He had already taken a resolution, if no means of accommodation +were possible, to retire to his Gunterstein estate and there remain till +the next meeting of the assembly; when he would ask leave to retire for +at least a year; in order to occupy himself with a revision and collation +of the charters, laws, and other state papers of the country which were +in his keeping, and which it was needful to bring into an orderly +condition. Meantime some scheme might be found for arranging the +religious differences, more effective than any he had been able to +devise. + +His appeal seems to have glanced powerlessly upon the iron reticence of +Maurice, and the Advocate took his departure disheartened. Later in the +autumn, so warm a remonstrance was made to him by the leading nobles and +deputies of Holland against his contemplated withdrawal from his post +that it seemed a dereliction of duty on his part to retire. He remained +to battle with the storm and to see "with anguish of heart," as he +expressed it, the course religious affairs were taking. + +The States of Utrecht on the 26th August resolved that on account of the +gathering of large masses of troops in the countries immediately +adjoining their borders, especially in the Episcopate of Cologne, by aid +of Spanish money, it was expedient for them to enlist a protective force +of six companies of regular soldiers in order to save the city from +sudden and overwhelming attack by foreign troops. + +Even if the danger from without were magnified in this preamble, which is +by no means certain, there seemed to be no doubt on the subject in the +minds of the magistrates. They believed that they had the right to +protect and that they were bound to protect their ancient city from +sudden assault, whether by Spanish soldiers or by organized mobs +attempting, as had been done in Rotterdam, Oudewater, and other towns, to +overawe the civil authority in the interest of the Contra-Remonstrants. + +Six nobles of Utrecht were accordingly commissioned to raise the troops. +A week later they had been enlisted, sworn to obey in all things the +States of Utrecht, and to take orders from no one else. Three days later +the States of Utrecht addressed a letter to their Mightinesses the +States-General and to his Excellency the Prince, notifying them that for +the reasons stated in the resolution cited the six companies had been +levied. There seemed in these proceedings to be no thought of mutiny or +rebellion, the province considering itself as acting within its +unquestionable rights as a sovereign state and without any exaggeration +of the imperious circumstances of the case. + +Nor did the States-General and the Stadholder at that moment affect to +dispute the rights of Utrecht, nor raise a doubt as to the legality of +the proceedings. The committee sent thither by the States-General, the +Prince, and the council of state in their written answer to the letter of +the Utrecht government declared the reasons given for the enrolment of +the six companies to be insufficient and the measure itself highly +dangerous. They complained, but in very courteous language, that the +soldiers had been levied without giving the least notice thereof to the +general government, without asking its advice, or waiting for any +communication from it, and they reminded the States of Utrecht that they +might always rely upon the States-General and his Excellency, who were +still ready, as they had been seven years before (1610), to protect them +against every enemy and any danger. + +The conflict between a single province of the confederacy and the +authority of the general government had thus been brought to a direct +issue; to the test of arms. For, notwithstanding the preamble to the +resolution of the Utrecht Assembly just cited, there could be little +question that the resolve itself was a natural corollary of the famous +"Sharp Resolution," passed by the States of Holland three weeks before. +Utrecht was in arms to prevent, among other things at least, the forcing +upon them by a majority of the States-General of the National Synod to +which they were opposed, the seizure of churches by the +Contra-Remonstrants, and the destruction of life and property by inflamed +mobs. + +There is no doubt that Barneveld deeply deplored the issue, but that he +felt himself bound to accept it. The innate absurdity of a constitutional +system under which each of the seven members was sovereign and +independent and the head was at the mercy of the members could not be +more flagrantly illustrated. In the bloody battles which seemed impending +in the streets of Utrecht and in all the principal cities of the +Netherlands between the soldiers of sovereign states and soldiers of a +general government which was not sovereign, the letter of the law and the +records of history were unquestionably on the aide of the provincial and +against the general authority. Yet to nullify the authority of the +States-General by force of arms at this supreme moment was to stultify +all government whatever. It was an awful dilemma, and it is difficult +here fully to sympathize with the Advocate, for he it was who inspired, +without dictating, the course of the Utrecht proceedings. + +With him patriotism seemed at this moment to dwindle into provincialism, +the statesman to shrink into the lawyer. + +Certainly there was no guilt in the proceedings. There was no crime in +the heart of the Advocate. He had exhausted himself with appeals in +favour of moderation, conciliation, compromise. He had worked night and +day with all the energy of a pure soul and a great mind to assuage +religious hatreds and avert civil dissensions. He was overpowered. He had +frequently desired to be released from all his functions, but as dangers +thickened over the Provinces, he felt it his duty so long as he remained +at his post to abide by the law as the only anchor in the storm. Not +rising in his mind to the height of a national idea, and especially +averse from it when embodied in the repulsive form of religious +uniformity, he did not shrink from a contest which he had not provoked, +but had done his utmost to avert. But even then he did not anticipate +civil war. The enrolling of the Waartgelders was an armed protest, a +symbol of legal conviction rather than a serious effort to resist the +general government. And this is the chief justification of his course +from a political point of view. It was ridiculous to suppose that with a +few hundred soldiers hastily enlisted--and there were less than 1800 +Waartgelders levied throughout the Provinces and under the orders of +civil magistrates--a serious contest was intended against a splendidly +disciplined army of veteran troops, commanded by the first general of the +age. + +From a legal point of view Barneveld considered his position impregnable. + +The controversy is curious, especially for Americans, and for all who are +interested in the analysis of federal institutions and of republican +principles, whether aristocratic or democratic. The States of Utrecht +replied in decorous but firm language to the committee of the +States-General that they had raised the six companies in accordance with +their sovereign right so to do, and that they were resolved to maintain +them. They could not wait as they had been obliged to do in the time of +the Earl of Leicester and more recently in 1610 until they had been +surprised and overwhelmed by the enemy before the States-General and his +Excellency the Prince could come to their rescue. They could not suffer +all the evils of tumults, conspiracies, and foreign invasion, without +defending themselves. + +Making use, they said, of the right of sovereignty which in their +province belonged to them alone, they thought it better to prevent in +time and by convenient means such fire and mischief than to look on while +it kindled and spread into a conflagration, and to go about imploring aid +from their fellow confederates who, God better it, had enough in these +times to do at home. This would only be to bring them as well as this +province into trouble, disquiet, and expense. "My Lords the States of +Utrecht have conserved and continually exercised this right of +sovereignty in its entireness ever since renouncing the King of Spain. +Every contract, ordinance, and instruction of the States-General has been +in conformity with it, and the States of Utrecht are convinced that the +States of not one of their confederate provinces would yield an atom of +its sovereignty." + +They reminded the general government that by the 1st article of the +"Closer Union" of Utrecht, on which that assembly was founded, it was +bound to support the States of the respective provinces and strengthen +them with counsel, treasure, and blood if their respective rights, more +especially their individual sovereignty, the most precious of all, should +be assailed. To refrain from so doing would be to violate a solemn +contract. They further reminded the council of state that by its +institution the States-Provincial had not abdicated their respective +sovereignties, but had reserved it in all matters not specifically +mentioned in the original instruction by which it was created. + +Two days afterwards Arnold van Randwyck and three other commissioners +were instructed by the general government to confer with the States of +Utrecht, to tell them that their reply was deemed unsatisfactory, that +their reasons for levying soldiers in times when all good people should +be seeking to restore harmony and mitigate dissension were insufficient, +and to request them to disband those levies without prejudice in so doing +to the laws and liberties of the province and city of Utrecht. + +Here was perhaps an opening for a compromise, the instruction being not +without ingenuity, and the word sovereignty in regard either to the +general government or the separate provinces being carefully omitted. +Soon afterwards, too, the States-General went many steps farther in the +path of concession, for they made another appeal to the government of +Utrecht to disband the Waartgelders on the ground of expediency, and in +so doing almost expressly admitted the doctrine of provincial +sovereignty. It is important in regard to subsequent events to observe +this virtual admission. + +"Your Honours lay especial stress upon the right of sovereignty as +belonging to you alone in your province," they said, "and dispute +therefore at great length upon the power and authority of the Generality, +of his Excellency, and of the state council. But you will please to +consider that there is here no question of this, as our commissioners had +no instructions to bring this into dispute in the least, and most +certainly have not done so. We have only in effect questioned whether +that which one has an undoubted right to do can at all times be +appropriately and becomingly done, whether it was fitting that your +Honours, contrary to custom, should undertake these new levies upon a +special oath and commission, and effectively complete the measure without +giving the slightest notice thereof to the Generality." + +It may fairly be said that the question in debate was entirely conceded +in this remarkable paper, which was addressed by the States-General, the +Prince-Stadholder, and the council of state to the government of Utrecht. +It should be observed, too, that while distinctly repudiating the +intention of disputing the sovereignty of that province, they carefully +abstain from using the word in relation to themselves, speaking only of +the might and authority of the Generality, the Prince, and the council. + +There was now a pause in the public discussion. The soldiers were not +disbanded, as the States of Utrecht were less occupied with establishing +the soundness of their theory than with securing its practical results. +They knew very well, and the Advocate knew very well, that the intention +to force a national synod by a majority vote of the Assembly of the +States-General existed more strongly than ever, and they meant to resist +it to the last. The attempt was in their opinion an audacious violation +of the fundamental pact on which the Confederacy was founded. Its success +would be to establish the sacerdotal power in triumph over the civil +authority. + +During this period the Advocate was resident in Utrecht. For change of +air, ostensibly at least, he had absented himself from the seat of +government, and was during several weeks under the hands of his old +friend and physician Dr. Saul. He was strictly advised to abstain +altogether from political business, but he might as well have attempted +to abstain from food and drink. Gillis van Ledenberg, secretary of the +States of Utrecht, visited him frequently. The proposition to enlist the +Waartgelders had been originally made in the Assembly by its president, +and warmly seconded by van Ledenberg, who doubtless conferred afterwards +with Barneveld in person, but informally and at his lodgings. + +It was almost inevitable that this should be the case, nor did the +Advocate make much mystery as to the course of action which he deemed +indispensable at this period. Believing it possible that some sudden and +desperate attempt might be made by evil disposed people, he agreed with +the States of Utrecht in the propriety of taking measures of precaution. +They were resolved not to look quietly on while soldiers and rabble under +guidance perhaps of violent Contra-Remonstrant preachers took possession +of the churches and even of the city itself, as had already been done in +several towns. + +The chief practical object of enlisting the six companies was that the +city might be armed against popular tumults, and they feared that the +ordinary military force might be withdrawn. + +When Captain Hartvelt, in his own name and that of the other officers of +those companies, said that they were all resolved never to use their +weapons against the Stadholder or the States-General, he was answered +that they would never be required to do so. They, however, made oath to +serve against those who should seek to trouble the peace of the Province +of Utrecht in ecclesiastical or political matters, and further against +all enemies of the common country. At the same time it was deemed +expedient to guard against a surprise of any kind and to keep watch and +ward. + +"I cannot quite believe in the French companies," said the Advocate in a +private billet to Ledenberg. "It would be extremely well that not only +good watch should be kept at the city gates, but also that one might from +above and below the river Lek be assuredly advised from the nearest +cities if any soldiers are coming up or down, and that the same might be +done in regard to Amersfoort." At the bottom of this letter, which was +destined to become historical and will be afterwards referred to, the +Advocate wrote, as he not unfrequently did, upon his private notes, "When +read, burn, and send me back the two enclosed letters." + +The letter lies in the Archives unburned to this day, but, harmless as it +looked, it was to serve as a nail in more than one coffin. + +In his confidential letters to trusted friends he complained of "great +physical debility growing out of heavy sorrow," and described himself as +entering upon his seventy-first year and no longer fit for hard political +labour. The sincere grief, profound love of country, and desire that some +remedy might be found for impending disaster, is stamped upon all his +utterances whether official or secret. + +"The troubles growing out of the religious differences," he said, "are +running into all sorts of extremities. It is feared that an attempt will +be made against the laws of the land through extraordinary ways, and by +popular tumults to take from the supreme authority of the respective +provinces the right to govern clerical persons and regulate clerical +disputes, and to place it at the disposition of ecclesiastics and of a +National Synod. + +"It is thought too that the soldiers will be forbidden to assist the +civil supreme power and the government of cities in defending themselves +from acts of violence which under pretext of religion will be attempted +against the law and the commands of the magistrates. + +"This seems to conflict with the common law of the respective provinces, +each of which from all times had right of sovereignty and supreme +authority within its territory and specifically reserved it in all +treaties and especially in that of the Nearer Union . . . . The provinces +have always regulated clerical matters each for itself. The Province of +Utrecht, which under the pretext of religion is now most troubled, made +stipulations to this effect, when it took his Excellency for governor, +even more stringent than any others. As for Holland, she never imagined +that one could ever raise a question on the subject . . . . All good men +ought to do their best to prevent the enemies to the welfare of these +Provinces from making profit out of our troubles." + +The whole matter he regarded as a struggle between the clergy and the +civil power for mastery over the state, as an attempt to subject +provincial autonomy to the central government purely in the interest of +the priesthood of a particular sect. The remedy he fondly hoped for was +moderation and union within the Church itself. He could never imagine the +necessity for this ferocious animosity not only between Christians but +between two branches of the Reformed Church. He could never be made to +believe that the Five Points of the Remonstrance had dug an abyss too +deep and wide ever to be bridged between brethren lately of one faith as +of one fatherland. He was unceasing in his prayers and appeals for +"mutual toleration on the subject of predestination." Perhaps the +bitterness, almost amounting to frenzy, with which abstruse points of +casuistry were then debated, and which converted differences of opinion +upon metaphysical divinity into deadly hatred and thirst for blood, is +already obsolete or on the road to become so. If so, then was Barneveld +in advance of his age, and it would have been better for the peace of the +world and the progress of Christianity if more of his contemporaries had +placed themselves on his level. + +He was no theologian, but he believed himself to be a Christian, and he +certainly was a thoughtful and a humble one. He had not the arrogance to +pierce behind the veil and assume to read the inscrutable thoughts of the +Omnipotent. It was a cruel fate that his humility upon subjects which he +believed to be beyond the scope of human reason should have been tortured +by his enemies into a crime, and that because he hoped for religious +toleration he should be accused of treason to the Commonwealth. + +"Believe and cause others to believe," he said, "that I am and with the +grace of God hope to continue an upright patriot as I have proved myself +to be in these last forty-two years spent in the public service. In the +matter of differential religious points I remain of the opinions which I +have held for more than fifty years, and in which I hope to live and die, +to wit, that a good Christian man ought to believe that he is predestined +to eternal salvation through God's grace, giving for reasons that he +through God's grace has a firm belief that his salvation is founded +purely on God's grace and the expiation of our sins through our Saviour +Jesus Christ, and that if he should fall into any sins his firm trust is +that God will not let him perish in them, but mercifully turn him to +repentance, so that he may continue in the same belief to the last." + +These expressions were contained in a letter to Caron with the intention +doubtless that they should be communicated to the King of Great Britain, +and it is a curious illustration of the spirit of the age, this picture +of the leading statesman of a great republic unfolding his religious +convictions for private inspection by the monarch of an allied nation. +More than anything else it exemplifies the close commixture of theology, +politics, and diplomacy in that age, and especially in those two +countries. + +Formerly, as we have seen, the King considered a too curious fathoming of +divine mysteries as highly reprehensible, particularly for the common +people. Although he knew more about them than any one else, he avowed +that even his knowledge in this respect was not perfect. It was matter of +deep regret with the Advocate that his Majesty had not held to his former +positions, and that he had disowned his original letters. + +"I believe my sentiments thus expressed," he said, "to be in accordance +with Scripture, and I have always held to them without teasing my brains +with the precise decrees of reprobation, foreknowledge, or the like, as +matters above my comprehension. I have always counselled Christian +moderation. The States of Holland have followed the spirit of his +Majesty's letters, but our antagonists have rejected them and with +seditious talk, sermons, and the spreading of infamous libels have +brought matters to their present condition. There have been excesses on +the other side as well." + +He then made a slight, somewhat shadowy allusion to schemes known to be +afloat for conferring the sovereignty upon Maurice. We have seen that at +former periods he had entertained this subject and discussed it privately +with those who were not only friendly but devoted to the Stadholder, and +that he had arrived at the conclusion that it would not be for the +interest of the Prince to encourage the project. Above all he was sternly +opposed to the idea of attempting to compass it by secret intrigue. +Should such an arrangement be publicly discussed and legally completed, +it would not meet with his unconditional opposition. + +"The Lord God knows," he said, "whether underneath all these movements +does not lie the design of the year 1600, well known to you. As for me, +believe that I am and by God's grace hope to remain, what I always was, +an upright patriot, a defender of the true Christian religion, of the +public authority, and of all the power that has been and in future may be +legally conferred upon his Excellency. Believe that all things said, +written, or spread to the contrary are falsehoods and calumnies." + +He was still in Utrecht, but about to leave for the Hague, with health +somewhat improved and in better spirits in regard to public matters. + +"Although I have entered my seventy-first year," he said, "I trust still +to be of some service to the Commonwealth and to my friends . . . . Don't +consider an arrangement of our affairs desperate. I hope for better +things." + +Soon after his return he was waited upon one Sunday evening, late in +October--being obliged to keep his house on account of continued +indisposition--by a certain solicitor named Nordlingen and informed that +the Prince was about to make a sudden visit to Leyden at four o'clock +next morning. + +Barneveld knew that the burgomasters and regents were holding a great +banquet that night, and that many of them would probably have been +indulging in potations too deep to leave them fit for serious business. +The agitation of people's minds at that moment made the visit seem rather +a critical one, as there would probably be a mob collected to see the +Stadholder, and he was anxious both in the interest of the Prince and the +regents and of both religious denominations that no painful incidents +should occur if it was in his power to prevent them. + +He was aware that his son-in-law, Cornelis van der Myle, had been invited +to the banquet, and that he was wont to carry his wine discreetly. He +therefore requested Nordlingen to proceed to Leyden that night and seek +an interview with van der Myle without delay. By thus communicating the +intelligence of the expected visit to one who, he felt sure, would do his +best to provide for a respectful and suitable reception of the Prince, +notwithstanding the exhilarated condition in which the magistrates would +probably find themselves, the Advocate hoped to prevent any riot or +tumultuous demonstration of any kind. At least he would act conformably +to his duty and keep his conscience clear should disasters ensue. + +Later in the night he learned that Maurice was going not to Leyden but to +Delft, and he accordingly despatched a special messenger to arrive before +dawn at Leyden in order to inform van der Myle of this change in the +Prince's movements. Nothing seemed simpler or more judicious than these +precautions on the part of Barneveld. They could not fail, however, to be +tortured into sedition, conspiracy, and treason. + +Towards the end of the year a meeting of the nobles and knights of +Holland under the leadership of Barneveld was held to discuss the famous +Sharp Resolution of 4th August and the letters and arguments advanced +against it by the Stadholder and the council of state. It was unanimously +resolved by this body, in which they were subsequently followed by a +large majority of the States of Holland, to maintain that resolution and +its consequences and to oppose the National Synod. They further resolved +that a legal provincial synod should be convoked by the States of Holland +and under their authority and supervision. The object of such synod +should be to devise "some means of accommodation, mutual toleration, and +Christian settlement of differences in regard to the Five Points in +question." + +In case such compromise should unfortunately not be arranged, then it was +resolved to invite to the assembly two or three persons from France, as +many from England, from Germany, and from Switzerland, to aid in the +consultations. Should a method of reconciliation and mutual toleration +still remain undiscovered, then, in consideration that the whole +Christian world was interested in composing these dissensions, it was +proposed that a "synodal assembly of all Christendom," a Protestant +oecumenical council, should in some solemn manner be convoked. + +These resolutions and propositions were all brought forward by the +Advocate, and the draughts of them in his handwriting remain. They are +the unimpeachable evidences of his earnest desire to put an end to these +unhappy disputes and disorders in the only way which he considered +constitutional. + +Before the close of the year the States of Holland, in accordance with +the foregoing advice of the nobles, passed a resolution, the minutes of +which were drawn up by the hand of the Advocate, and in which they +persisted in their opposition to the National Synod. They declared by a +large majority of votes that the Assembly of the States-General without +the unanimous consent of the Provincial States were not competent +according to the Union of Utrecht--the fundamental law of the General +Assembly--to regulate religious affairs, but that this right belonged to +the separate provinces, each within its own domain. + +They further resolved that as they were bound by solemn oath to maintain +the laws and liberties of Holland, they could not surrender this right to +the Generality, nor allow it to be usurped by any one, but in order to +settle the question of the Five Points, the only cause known to them of +the present disturbances, they were content under: their own authority to +convoke a provincial synod within three months, at their own cost, and to +invite the respective provinces, as many of them as thought good, to send +to this meeting a certain number of pious and learned theologians. + +It is difficult to see why the course thus unanimously proposed by the +nobles of Holland, under guidance of Barneveld, and subsequently by a +majority of the States of that province, would not have been as expedient +as it was legal. But we are less concerned with that point now than with +the illustrations afforded by these long buried documents of the +patriotism and sagacity of a man than whom no human creature was ever +more foully slandered. + +It will be constantly borne in mind that he regarded this religious +controversy purely from a political, legal, and constitutional--and not +from a theological-point of view. He believed that grave danger to the +Fatherland was lurking under this attempt, by the general government, to +usurp the power of dictating the religious creed of all the provinces. +Especially he deplored the evil influence exerted by the King of England +since his abandonment of the principles announced in his famous letter to +the States in the year 1613. All that the Advocate struggled for was +moderation and mutual toleration within the Reformed Church. He felt that +a wider scheme of forbearance was impracticable. If a dream of general +religious equality had ever floated before him or before any one in that +age, he would have felt it to be a dream which would be a reality nowhere +until centuries should have passed away. Yet that moderation, patience, +tolerance, and respect for written law paved the road to that wider and +loftier region can scarcely be doubted. + +Carleton, subservient to every changing theological whim of his master, +was as vehement and as insolent now in enforcing the intolerant views of +James as he had previously been in supporting the counsels to tolerance +contained in the original letters of that monarch. + +The Ambassador was often at the Advocate's bed-side during his illness +that summer, enforcing, instructing, denouncing, contradicting. He was +never weary of fulfilling his duties of tuition, but the patient +Barneveld; haughty and overbearing as he was often described to be, +rarely used a harsh or vindictive word regarding him in his letters. + +"The ambassador of France," he said, "has been heard before the Assembly +of the States-General, and has made warm appeals in favour of union and +mutual toleration as his Majesty of Great Britain so wisely did in his +letters of 1613 . . . . If his Majesty could only be induced to write +fresh letters in similar tone, I should venture to hope better fruits +from them than from this attempt to thrust a national synod upon our +necks, which many of us hold to be contrary to law, reason, and the Act +of Union." + +So long as it was possible to hope that the action of the States of +Holland would prevent such a catastrophe, he worked hard to direct them +in what he deemed the right course. + +"Our political and religious differences," he said, "stand between hope +and fear." + +The hope was in the acceptance of the Provincial Synod--the fear lest the +National Synod should be carried by a minority of the cities of Holland +combining with a majority of the other Provincial States. + +"This would be in violation," he said, "of the so-called Religious Peace, +the Act of Union, the treaty with the Duke of Anjou, the negotiations of +the States of Utrecht, and with Prince Maurice in 1590 with cognizance of +the States-General and those of Holland for, the governorship of that +province, the custom of the Generality for the last thirty years +according to which religious matters have always been left to the +disposition of the States of each province . . . . Carleton is +strenuously urging this course in his Majesty's name, and I fear that in +the present state of our humours great troubles will be the result." + +The expulsion by an armed mob, in the past year, of a Remonstrant +preacher at Oudewater, the overpowering of the magistracy and the forcing +on of illegal elections in that and other cities, had given him and all +earnest patriots grave cause for apprehension. They were dreading, said +Barneveld, a course of crimes similar to those which under the Earl of +Leicester's government had afflicted Leyden and Utrecht. + +"Efforts are incessant to make the Remonstrants hateful," he said to +Caron, "but go forward resolutely and firmly in the conviction that our +friends here are as animated in their opposition to the Spanish dominion +now and by God's grace will so remain as they have ever proved themselves +to be, not only by words, but works. I fear that Mr. Carleton gives too +much belief to the enviers of our peace and tranquillity under pretext of +religion, but it is more from ignorance than malice." + +Those who have followed the course of the Advocate's correspondence, +conversation, and actions, as thus far detailed, can judge of the +gigantic nature of the calumny by which he was now assailed. That this +man, into every fibre of whose nature was woven undying hostility to +Spain, as the great foe to national independence and religious liberty +throughout the continent of Europe, whose every effort, as we have seen, +during all these years of nominal peace had been to organize a system of +general European defence against the war now actually begun upon +Protestantism, should be accused of being a partisan of Spain, a creature +of Spain, a pensioner of Spain, was enough to make honest men pray that +the earth might be swallowed up. If such idiotic calumnies could be +believed, what patriot in the world could not be doubted? Yet they were +believed. Barneveld was bought by Spanish gold. He had received whole +boxes full of Spanish pistoles, straight from Brussels! For his part in +the truce negotiations he had received 120,000 ducats in one lump. + +"It was plain," said the greatest man in the country to another great +man, "that Barneveld and his party are on the road to Spain." + +"Then it were well to have proof of it," said the great man. + +"Not yet time," was the reply. "We must flatten out a few of them first." + +Prince Maurice had told the Princess-Dowager the winter before (8th +December 1616) that those dissensions would never be decided except by +use of weapons; and he now mentioned to her that he had received +information from Brussels, which he in part believed, that the Advocate +was a stipendiary of Spain. Yet he had once said, to the same Princess +Louise, of this stipendiary that "the services which the Advocate had +rendered to the House of Nassau were so great that all the members of +that house might well look upon him not as their friend but their +father." Councillor van Maldere, President of the States of Zealand, and +a confidential friend of Maurice, was going about the Hague saying that +"one must string up seven or eight Remonstrants on the gallows; then +there might be some improvement." + +As for Arminius and Uytenbogaert, people had long told each other and +firmly believed it, and were amazed when any incredulity was expressed in +regard to it, that they were in regular and intimate correspondence with +the Jesuits, that they had received large sums from Rome, and that both +had been promised cardinals' hats. That Barneveld and his friend +Uytenbogaert were regular pensioners of Spain admitted of no dispute +whatever. "It was as true as the Holy Evangel." The ludicrous chatter had +been passed over with absolute disdain by the persons attacked, but +calumny is often a stronger and more lasting power than disdain. It +proved to be in these cases. + +"You have the plague mark on your flesh, oh pope, oh pensioner," said one +libeller. "There are letters safely preserved to make your process for +you. Look out for your head. Many have sworn your death, for it is more +than time that you were out of the world. We shall prove, oh great bribed +one, that you had the 120,000 little ducats." The preacher Uytenbogaert +was also said to have had 80,000 ducats for his share. "Go to Brussels," +said the pamphleteer; "it all stands clearly written out on the register +with the names and surnames of all you great bribe-takers." + +These were choice morsels from the lampoon of the notary Danckaerts. + +"We are tortured more and more with religious differences," wrote +Barneveld; "with acts of popular violence growing out of them the more +continuously as they remain unpunished, and with ever increasing +jealousies and suspicions. The factious libels become daily more numerous +and more impudent, and no man comes undamaged from the field. I, as a +reward for all my troubles, labours, and sorrows, have three double +portions of them. I hope however to overcome all by God's grace and to +defend my actions with all honourable men so long as right and reason +have place in the world, as to which many begin to doubt. If his Majesty +had been pleased to stick to the letters of 1613, we should never have +got into these difficulties . . . . It were better in my opinion that +Carleton should be instructed to negotiate in the spirit of those +epistles rather than to torment us with the National Synod, which will do +more harm than good." + +It is impossible not to notice the simplicity and patience with which the +Advocate, in the discharge of his duty as minister of foreign affairs, +kept the leading envoys of the Republic privately informed of events +which were becoming day by day more dangerous to the public interests and +his own safety. If ever a perfectly quiet conscience was revealed in the +correspondence of a statesman, it was to be found in these letters. + +Calmly writing to thank Caron for some very satisfactory English beer +which the Ambassador had been sending him from London, he proceeded to +speak again of the religious dissensions and their consequences. He sent +him the letter and remonstrance which he had felt himself obliged to +make, and which he had been urged by his ever warm and constant friend +the widow of William the Silent to make on the subject of "the seditious +libels, full of lies and calumnies got up by conspiracy against him." +These letters were never published, however, until years after he had +been in his grave. + +"I know that you are displeased with the injustice done me," he said, +"but I see no improvement. People are determined to force through the +National Synod. The two last ones did much harm. This will do ten times +more, so intensely embittered are men's tempers against each other." +Again he deplored the King's departure from his letters of 1613, by +adherence to which almost all the troubles would have been spared. + +It is curious too to observe the contrast between public opinion in Great +Britain, including its government, in regard to the constitution of the +United Provinces at that period of domestic dissensions and incipient +civil war and the general impressions manifested in the same nation two +centuries and a half later, on the outbreak of the slavery rebellion, as +to the constitution of the United States. + +The States in arms against the general government on the other side of +the Atlantic were strangely but not disingenuously assumed to be +sovereign and independent, and many statesmen and a leading portion of +the public justified them in their attempt to shake off the central +government as if it were but a board of agency established by treaty and +terminable at pleasure of any one of among sovereigns and terminable at +pleasure of any one of them. + +Yet even a superficial glance at the written constitution of the Republic +showed that its main object was to convert what had been a confederacy +into an Incorporation; and that the very essence of its renewed political +existence was an organic law laid down by a whole people in their +primitive capacity in place of a league banding together a group of +independent little corporations. The chief attributes of sovereignty--the +rights of war and peace, of coinage, of holding armies and navies, of +issuing bills of credit, of foreign relations, of regulating and taxing +foreign commerce--having been taken from the separate States by the +united people thereof and bestowed upon a government provided with a +single executive head, with a supreme tribunal, with a popular house of +representatives and a senate, and with power to deal directly with the +life and property of every individual in the land, it was strange indeed +that the feudal, and in America utterly unmeaning, word Sovereign should +have been thought an appropriate term for the different States which had +fused themselves three-quarters of a century before into a Union. + +When it is remembered too that the only dissolvent of this Union was the +intention to perpetuate human slavery, the logic seemed somewhat perverse +by which the separate sovereignty of the States was deduced from the +constitution of 1787. + +On the other hand, the Union of Utrecht of 1579 was a league of petty +sovereignties; a compact less binding and more fragile than the Articles +of Union made almost exactly two hundred years later in America, and the +worthlessness of which, after the strain of war was over, had been +demonstrated in the dreary years immediately following the peace of 1783. +One after another certain Netherland provinces had abjured their +allegiance to Spain, some of them afterwards relapsing under it, some +having been conquered by the others, while one of them, Holland, had for +a long time borne the greater part of the expense and burthen of the war. + +"Holland," said the Advocate, "has brought almost all the provinces to +their liberty. To receive laws from them or from their clerical people +now is what our State cannot endure. It is against her laws and customs, +in the enjoyment of which the other provinces and his Excellency as +Governor of Holland are bound to protect us." + +And as the preservation of chattel slavery in the one case seemed a +legitimate ground for destroying a government which had as definite an +existence as any government known to mankind, so the resolve to impose a +single religious creed upon many millions of individuals was held by the +King and government of Great Britain to be a substantial reason for +imagining a central sovereignty which had never existed at all. This was +still more surprising as the right to dispose of ecclesiastical affairs +and persons had been expressly reserved by the separate provinces in +perfectly plain language in the Treaty of Union. + +"If the King were better informed," said Barneveld, "of our system and +laws, we should have better hope than now. But one supposes through +notorious error in foreign countries that the sovereignty stands with the +States-General which is not the case, except in things which by the +Articles of Closer Union have been made common to all the provinces, +while in other matters, as religion, justice, and polity, the sovereignty +remains with each province, which foreigners seem unable to comprehend." + +Early in June, Carleton took his departure for England on leave of +absence. He received a present from the States of 3000 florins, and went +over in very ill-humour with Barneveld. "Mr. Ambassador is much offended +and prejudiced," said the Advocate, "but I know that he will religiously +carry out the orders of his Majesty. I trust that his Majesty can admit +different sentiments on predestination and its consequences, and that in +a kingdom where the supreme civil authority defends religion the system +of the Puritans will have no foothold." + +Certainly James could not be accused of allowing the system of the +Puritans much foothold in England, but he had made the ingenious +discovery that Puritanism in Holland was a very different thing from +Puritanism in the Netherlands. + + ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + + Acts of violence which under pretext of religion + Adulation for inferiors whom they despise + Calumny is often a stronger and more lasting power than disdain + Created one child for damnation and another for salvation + Depths of credulity men in all ages can sink + Devote himself to his gout and to his fair young wife + Furious mob set upon the house of Rem Bischop + Highborn demagogues in that as in every age affect adulation + In this he was much behind his age or before it + Logic is rarely the quality on which kings pride themselves + Necessity of deferring to powerful sovereigns + Not his custom nor that of his councillors to go to bed + Partisans wanted not accommodation but victory + Puritanism in Holland was a very different thing from England + Seemed bent on self-destruction + Stand between hope and fear + The evils resulting from a confederate system of government + To stifle for ever the right of free enquiry + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. 1618 + + Maurice revolutionizes the Provinces--Danckaert's libellous Pamphlet + --Barneveld's Appeal to the Prince--Barneveld's Remonstrance to the + States--The Stadholder at Amsterdam--The Treaty of Truce nearly + expired--King of Spain and Archduke Albert--Scheme for recovering + the Provinces--Secret Plot to make Maurice Sovereign. + +Early in the year (1618) Maurice set himself about revolutionizing the +provinces on which he could not yet thoroughly rely. The town of Nymegen +since its recovery from the Spaniards near the close of the preceding +century had held its municipal government, as it were, at the option of +the Prince. During the war he had been, by the terms of surrender, +empowered to appoint and to change its magistracy at will. No change had +occurred for many years, but as the government had of late fallen into +the hands of the Barneveldians, and as Maurice considered the Truce to be +a continuance of the war, he appeared suddenly, in the city at the head +of a body of troops and surrounded by his lifeguard. Summoning the whole +board of magistrates into the townhouse, he gave them all notice to quit, +disbanding them like a company of mutinous soldiery, and immediately +afterwards appointed a fresh list of functionaries in their stead. + +This done, he proceeded to Arnhem, where the States of Gelderland were in +session, appeared before that body, and made a brief announcement of the +revolution which he had so succinctly effected in the most considerable +town of their province. The Assembly, which seems, like many other +assemblies at precisely this epoch, to have had an extraordinary capacity +for yielding to gentle violence, made but little resistance to the +extreme measures now undertaken by the Stadholder, and not only highly +applauded the subjugation of Nymegen, but listened with sympathy to his +arguments against the Waartgelders and in favour of the Synod. + +Having accomplished so much by a very brief visit to Gelderland, the +Prince proceeded, to Overyssel, and had as little difficulty in bringing +over the wavering minds of that province into orthodoxy and obedience. +Thus there remained but two provinces out of seven that were still +"waartgeldered" and refused to be "synodized." + +It was rebellion against rebellion. Maurice and his adherents accused the +States' right party of mutiny against himself and the States-General. The +States' right party accused the Contra-Remonstrants in the cities of +mutiny against the lawful sovereignty of each province. + +The oath of the soldiery, since the foundation of the Republic, had been +to maintain obedience and fidelity to the States-General, the Stadholder, +and the province in which they were garrisoned, and at whose expense they +were paid. It was impossible to harmonize such conflicting duties and +doctrines. Theory had done its best and its worst. The time was fast +approaching, as it always must approach, when fact with its violent besom +would brush away the fine-spun cobwebs which had been so long +undisturbed. + +"I will grind the Advocate and all his party into fine meal," said the +Prince on one occasion. + +A clever caricature of the time represented a pair of scales hung up in a +great hall. In the one was a heap of parchments, gold chains, and +magisterial robes; the whole bundle being marked the "holy right of each +city." In the other lay a big square, solid, ironclasped volume, marked +"Institutes of Calvin." Each scale was respectively watched by Gomarus +and by Arminius. The judges, gowned, furred, and ruffed, were looking +decorously on, when suddenly the Stadholder, in full military attire, was +seen rushing into the apartment and flinging his sword into the scale +with the Institutes. + +The civic and legal trumpery was of course made to kick the beam. + +Maurice had organized his campaign this year against the Advocate and his +party as deliberately as he had ever arranged the details of a series of +battles and sieges against the Spaniard. And he was proving himself as +consummate master in political strife as in the great science of war. + +He no longer made any secret of his conviction that Barneveld was a +traitor to his country, bought with Spanish gold. There was not the +slightest proof for these suspicions, but he asserted them roundly. "The +Advocate is travelling straight to Spain," he said to Count Cuylenborg. +"But we will see who has got the longest purse." + +And as if it had been a part of the campaign, a prearranged diversion to +the more direct and general assault on the entrenchments of the States' +right party, a horrible personal onslaught was now made from many +quarters upon the Advocate. It was an age of pamphleteering, of venomous, +virulent, unscrupulous libels. And never even in that age had there been +anything to equal the savage attacks upon this great statesman. It moves +the gall of an honest man, even after the lapse of two centuries and a +half, to turn over those long forgotten pages and mark the depths to +which political and theological party spirit could descend. That human +creatures can assimilate themselves so closely to the reptile, and to the +subtle devil within the reptile, when a party end is to be gained is +enough to make the very name of man a term of reproach. + +Day by day appeared pamphlets, each one more poisonous than its +predecessor. There was hardly a crime that was not laid at the door of +Barneveld and all his kindred. The man who had borne a matchlock in early +youth against the foreign tyrant in days when unsuccessful rebellion +meant martyrdom and torture; who had successfully guided the councils of +the infant commonwealth at a period when most of his accusers were in +their cradles, and when mistake was ruin to the republic; he on whose +strong arm the father of his country had leaned for support; the man who +had organized a political system out of chaos; who had laid down the +internal laws, negotiated the great indispensable alliances, directed the +complicated foreign policy, established the system of national defence, +presided over the successful financial administration of a state +struggling out of mutiny into national existence; who had rocked the +Republic in its cradle and ever borne her in his heart; who had made her +name beloved at home and honoured and dreaded abroad; who had been the +first, when the great Taciturn had at last fallen a victim to the +murderous tyrant of Spain, to place the youthful Maurice in his father's +place, and to inspire the whole country with sublime courage to persist +rather than falter in purpose after so deadly a blow; who was as truly +the founder of the Republic as William had been the author of its +independence,--was now denounced as a traitor, a pope, a tyrant, a venal +hucksterer of his country's liberties. His family name, which had long +been an ancient and knightly one, was defiled and its nobility disputed; +his father and mother, sons and daughters, sisters and brothers, accused +of every imaginable and unimaginable crime, of murder, incest, robbery, +bastardy, fraud, forgery, blasphemy. He had received waggon-loads of +Spanish pistoles; he had been paid 120,000 ducats by Spain for +negotiating the Truce; he was in secret treaty with Archduke Albert to +bring 18,000 Spanish mercenaries across the border to defeat the +machinations of Prince Maurice, destroy his life, or drive him from the +country; all these foul and bitter charges and a thousand similar ones +were rained almost daily upon that grey head. + +One day the loose sheets of a more than commonly libellous pamphlet were +picked up in the streets of the Hague and placed in the Advocate's hands. +It was the work of the drunken notary Danckaerts already mentioned, then +resident in Amsterdam, and among the papers thus found was a list of +wealthy merchants of that city who had contributed to the expense of its +publication. The opposition of Barneveld to the West India Corporation +could never be forgiven. The Advocate was notified in this production +that he was soon to be summoned to answer for his crimes. The country was +weary of him, he was told, and his life was forfeited. + +Stung at last beyond endurance by the persistent malice of his enemies, +he came before the States of Holland for redress. Upon his remonstrance +the author of this vile libel was summoned to answer before the upper +tribunal at the Hague for his crime. The city of Amsterdam covered him +with the shield 'de non evocando,' which had so often in cases of less +consequence proved of no protective value, and the notary was never +punished, but on the contrary after a brief lapse of time rewarded as for +a meritorious action. + +Meantime, the States of Holland, by formal act, took the name and honour +of Barneveld under their immediate protection as a treasure belonging +specially to themselves. Heavy penalties were denounced upon the authors +and printers of these libellous attacks, and large rewards offered for +their detection. Nothing came, however, of such measures. + +On the 24th April the Advocate addressed a frank, dignified, and +conciliatory letter to the Prince. The rapid progress of calumny against +him had at last alarmed even his steadfast soul, and he thought it best +to make a last appeal to the justice and to the clear intellect of +William the Silent's son. + +"Gracious Prince," he said, "I observe to my greatest sorrow an entire +estrangement of your Excellency from me, and I fear lest what was said +six months since by certain clerical persons and afterwards by some +politicians concerning your dissatisfaction with me, which until now I +have not been able to believe, must be true. I declare nevertheless with +a sincere heart to have never willingly given cause for any such feeling; +having always been your very faithful servant and with God's help hoping +as such to die. Ten years ago during the negotiations for the Truce I +clearly observed the beginning of this estrangement, but your Excellency +will be graciously pleased to remember that I declared to you at that +time my upright and sincere intention in these negotiations to promote +the service of the country and the interests of your Excellency, and that +I nevertheless offered at the time not only to resign all my functions +but to leave the country rather than remain in office and in the country +to the dissatisfaction of your Excellency." + +He then rapidly reviewed the causes which had produced the alienation of +which he complained and the melancholy divisions caused by the want of +mutual religious toleration in the Provinces; spoke of his efforts to +foster a spirit of conciliation on the dread subject of predestination, +and referred to the letter of the King of Great Britain deprecating +discussion and schism on this subject, and urging that those favourable +to the views of the Remonstrants ought not to be persecuted. Referring to +the intimate relations which Uytenbogaert had so long enjoyed with the +Prince, the Advocate alluded to the difficulty he had in believing that +his Excellency intended to act in opposition to the efforts of the States +of Holland in the cause of mutual toleration, to the manifest detriment +of the country and of many of its best and truest patriots and the +greater number of the magistrates in all the cities. + +He reminded the Prince that all attempts to accommodate these fearful +quarrels had been frustrated, and that on his departure the previous year +to Utrecht on account of his health he had again offered to resign all +his offices and to leave Holland altogether rather than find himself in +perpetual opposition to his Excellency. + +"I begged you in such case," he said, "to lend your hand to the procuring +for me an honourable discharge from My Lords the States, but your +Excellency declared that you could in no wise approve such a step and +gave me hope that some means of accommodating the dissensions would yet +be proposed." + +"I went then to Vianen, being much indisposed; thence I repaired to +Utrecht to consult my old friend Doctor Saulo Saul, in whose hands I +remained six weeks, not being able, as I hoped, to pass my seventieth +birthday on the 24th September last in my birthplace, the city of +Amersfoort. All this time I heard not one single word or proposal of +accommodation. On the contrary it was determined that by a majority vote, +a thing never heard of before, it was intended against the solemn +resolves of the States of Holland, of Utrecht, and of Overyssel to bring +these religious differences before the Assembly of My Lords the +States-General, a proceeding directly in the teeth of the Act of Union +and other treaties, and before a Synod which people called National, and +that meantime every effort was making to discredit all those who stood up +for the laws of these Provinces and to make them odious and despicable in +the eyes of the common people. + +"Especially it was I that was thus made the object of hatred and contempt +in their eyes. Hundreds of lies and calumnies, circulated in the form of +libels, seditious pamphlets, and lampoons, compelled me to return from +Utrecht to the Hague. Since that time I have repeatedly offered my +services to your Excellency for the promotion of mutual accommodation and +reconciliation of differences, but without success." + +He then alluded to the publication with which the country was ringing, +'The Necessary and Living Discourse of a Spanish Counsellor', and which +was attributed to his former confidential friend, now become his +deadliest foe, ex-Ambassador Francis Aerssens, and warned the Prince that +if he chose, which God forbid, to follow the advice of that seditious +libel, nothing but ruin to the beloved Fatherland and its lovers, to the +princely house of Orange-Nassau and to the Christian religion could be +the issue. "The Spanish government could desire no better counsel," he +said, "than this which these fellows give you; to encourage distrust and +estrangement between your Excellency and the nobles, the cities, and the +magistrates of the land and to propose high and haughty imaginings which +are easy enough to write, but most difficult to practise, and which can +only enure to the advantage of Spain. Therefore most respectfully I beg +your Excellency not to believe these fellows, but to reject their +counsels . . . . Among them are many malignant hypocrites and ambitious +men who are seeking their own profit in these changes of government--many +utterly ragged and beggarly fellows and many infamous traitors coming +from the provinces which have remained under the dominion of the +Spaniard, and who are filled with revenge, envy, and jealousy at the +greater prosperity and bloom of these independent States than they find +at home. + +"I fear," he said in conclusion, "that I have troubled your Excellency +too long, but to the fulfilment of my duty and discharge of my conscience +I could not be more brief. It saddens me deeply that in recompense for my +long and manifold services I am attacked by so many calumnious, lying, +seditious, and fraudulent libels, and that these indecencies find their +pretext and their food in the evil disposition of your Excellency towards +me. And although for one-and-thirty years long I have been able to live +down such things with silence, well-doing, and truth, still do I now find +myself compelled in this my advanced old age and infirmity to make some +utterances in defence of myself and those belonging to me, however much +against my heart and inclinations." + +He ended by enclosing a copy of the solemn state paper which he was about +to lay before the States of Holland in defence of his honour, and +subscribed himself the lifelong and faithful servant of the Prince. + +The Remonstrance to the States contained a summary review of the +political events of his life, which was indeed nothing more nor less than +the history of his country and almost of Europe itself during that +period, broadly and vividly sketched with the hand of a master. It was +published at once and strengthened the affection of his friends and the +wrath of his enemies. It is not necessary to our purpose to reproduce or +even analyse the document, the main facts and opinions contained in it +being already familiar to the reader. The frankness however with which, +in reply to the charges so profusely brought against him of having grown +rich by extortion, treason, and corruption, of having gorged himself with +plunder at home and bribery from the enemy, of being the great pensioner +of Europe and the Marshal d'Ancre of the Netherlands--he alluded to the +exact condition of his private affairs and the growth and sources of his +revenue, giving, as it were, a kind of schedule of his property, has in +it something half humorous, half touching in its simplicity. + +He set forth the very slender salaries attached to his high offices of +Advocate of Holland, Keeper of the Seals, and other functions. He +answered the charge that he always had at his disposition 120,000 florins +to bribe foreign agents withal by saying that his whole allowance for +extraordinary expenses and trouble in maintaining his diplomatic and +internal correspondence was exactly 500 florins yearly. He alluded to the +slanders circulated as to his wealth and its sources by those who envied +him for his position and hated him for his services. + +"But I beg you to believe, My Lords," he continued, "that my property is +neither so great nor so small as some people represent it to be. + +"In the year '75 I married my wife," he said. "I was pleased with her +person. I was likewise pleased with the dowry which was promptly paid +over to me, with firm expectation of increase and betterment . . . . I ac +knowledge that forty-three years ago my wife and myself had got together +so much of real and personal property that we could live honourably upon +it. I had at that time as good pay and practice as any advocate in the +courts which brought me in a good 4000 florins a year; there being but +eight advocates practising at the time, of whom I was certainly not the +one least employed. In the beginning of the year '77 I came into the +service of the city of Rotterdam as 'Pensionary. Upon my salary from that +town I was enabled to support my family, having then but two children. +Now I can clearly prove that between the years 1577 and 1616 inclusive I +have inherited in my own right or that of my wife, from our relatives, +for ourselves and our children by lawful succession, more than 400 +Holland morgens of land (about 800 acres), more than 2000 florins yearly +of redeemable rents, a good house in the city of Delft, some houses in +the open country, and several thousand florins in ready money. I have +likewise reclaimed in the course of the past forty years out of the water +and swamps by dyking more than an equal number of acres to those +inherited, and have bought and sold property during the same period to +the value of 800,000 florins; having sometimes bought 100,000 florins' +worth and sold 60,000 of it for 160,000, and so on." + +It was evident that the thrifty Advocate during his long life had +understood how to turn over his money, and it was not necessary to +imagine "waggon-loads of Spanish pistoles" and bribes on a gigantic scale +from the hereditary enemy in order to account for a reasonable opulence +on his part. + +"I have had nothing to do with trade," he continued, "it having been the +custom of my ancestors to risk no money except where the plough goes. In +the great East India Company however, which with four years of hard work, +public and private, I have helped establish, in order to inflict damage +on the Spaniards and Portuguese, I have adventured somewhat more than +5000 florins . . . . Now even if my condition be reasonably good, I think +no one has reason to envy me. Nevertheless I have said it in your +Lordships' Assembly, and I repeat it solemnly on this occasion, that I +have pondered the state of my affairs during my recent illness and found +that in order to leave my children unencumbered estates I must sell +property to the value of 60,000 or 70,000 florins. This I would rather do +than leave the charge to my children. That I should have got thus +behindhand through bad management, I beg your Highnesses not to believe. +But I have inherited, with the succession of four persons whose only heir +I was and with that of others to whom I was co-heir, many burthens as +well. I have bought property with encumbrances, and I have dyked and +bettered several estates with borrowed money. Now should it please your +Lordships to institute a census and valuation of the property of your +subjects, I for one should be very well pleased. For I know full well +that those who in the estimates of capital in the year 1599 rated +themselves at 50,000 or 60,000 florins now may boast of having twice as +much property as I have. Yet in that year out of patriotism I placed +myself on the list of those liable for the very highest contributions, +being assessed on a property of 200,000 florins." + +The Advocate alluded with haughty contempt to the notorious lies +circulated by his libellers in regard to his lineage, as if the vast +services and unquestioned abilities of such a statesman would not have +illustrated the obscurest origin. But as he happened to be of ancient and +honourable descent, he chose to vindicate his position in that regard. + +"I was born in the city of Amersfoort," he said, "by the father's side an +Oldenbarneveld; an old and noble race, from generation to generation +steadfast and true; who have been duly summoned for many hundred years to +the assembly of the nobles of their province as they are to this day. By +my mother's side I am sprung from the ancient and knightly family of +Amersfoort, which for three or four hundred years has been known as +foremost among the nobles of Utrecht in all state affairs and as landed +proprietors." + +It is only for the sake of opening these domestic and private lights upon +an historical character whose life was so pre-eminently and almost +exclusively a public one that we have drawn some attention to this +stately defence made by the Advocate of his birth, life, and services to +the State. The public portions of the state paper belong exclusively to +history, and have already been sufficiently detailed. + +The letter to Prince Maurice was delivered into his hands by Cornelis van +der Myle, son-in-law of Barneveld. + +No reply to it was ever sent, but several days afterwards the Stadholder +called from his open window to van der Myle, who happened to be passing +by. He then informed him that he neither admitted the premises nor the +conclusion of the Advocate's letter, saying that many things set down in +it were false. He furthermore told him a story of a certain old man who, +having in his youth invented many things and told them often for truth, +believed them when he came to old age to be actually true and was ever +ready to stake his salvation upon them. Whereupon he shut the window and +left van der Myle to make such application of the parable as he thought +proper, vouchsafing no further answer to Barneveld's communication. + +Dudley Carleton related the anecdote to his government with much glee, +but it may be doubted whether this bold way of giving the lie to a +venerable statesman through his son-in-law would have been accounted as +triumphant argumentation anywhere out of a barrack. + +As for the Remonstrance to the States of Holland, although most +respectfully received in that assembly except by the five opposition +cities, its immediate effect on the public was to bring down a fresh +"snow storm"--to use the expression of a contemporary--of pamphlets, +libels, caricatures, and broadsheets upon the head of the Advocate. In +every bookseller's and print shop window in all the cities of the +country, the fallen statesman was represented in all possible ludicrous, +contemptible, and hateful shapes, while hags and blind beggars about the +streets screeched filthy and cursing ballads against him, even at his +very doors. + +The effect of energetic, uncompromising calumny has rarely been more +strikingly illustrated than in the case of this statesman. Blackened +daily all over by a thousand trowels, the purest and noblest character +must have been defiled, and it is no wonder that the incrustation upon +the Advocate's fame should have lasted for two centuries and a half. It +may perhaps endure for as many more: Not even the vile Marshal d'Ancre, +who had so recently perished, was more the mark of obloquy in a country +which he had dishonoured, flouted, and picked to the bone than was +Barneveld in a commonwealth which he had almost created and had served +faithfully from youth to old age. It was even the fashion to compare him +with Concini in order to heighten the wrath of the public, as if any +parallel between the ignoble, foreign paramour of a stupid and sensual +queen, and the great statesman, patriot, and jurist of whom civilization +will be always proud, could ever enter any but an idiot's brain. + +Meantime the Stadholder, who had so successfully handled the Assembly of +Gelderland and Overyssel, now sailed across the Zuiderzee from Kampen to +Amsterdam. On his approach to the stately northern Venice, standing full +of life and commercial bustle upon its vast submerged forest of Norwegian +pines, he was met by a fleet of yachts and escorted through the water +gates of the into the city. + +Here an immense assemblage of vessels of every class, from the humble +gondola to the bulky East Indianian and the first-rate ship of war, gaily +bannered with the Orange colours and thronged from deck to topmast by +enthusiastic multitudes, was waiting to receive their beloved stadholder. +A deafening cannonade saluted him on his approach. The Prince was +escorted to the Square or Dam, where on a high scaffolding covered with +blue velvet in front of the stately mediaeval town-hall the burgomasters +and board of magistrates in their robes of office were waiting to receive +him. The strains of that most inspiriting and suggestive of national +melodies, the 'Wilhelmus van Nassouwen,' rang through the air, and when +they were silent, the chief magistrate poured forth a very eloquent and +tedious oration, and concluded by presenting him with a large orange in +solid gold; Maurice having succeeded to the principality a few months +before on the death of his half-brother Philip William. + +The "Blooming in Love," as one of the Chambers of "Rhetoric" in which +the hard-handed but half-artistic mechanics and shopkeepers of the +Netherlands loved to disport themselves was called, then exhibited upon +an opposite scaffold a magnificent representation of Jupiter astride upon +an eagle and banding down to the Stadholder as if from the clouds that +same principality. Nothing could be neater or more mythological. + +The Prince and his escort, sitting in the windows of the town-hall, the +square beneath being covered with 3000 or 4000 burgher militia in full +uniform, with orange plumes in their hats and orange scarves on their +breasts, saw still other sights. A gorgeous procession set forth by the +"Netherlandish Academy," another chamber of rhetoric, and filled with +those emblematic impersonations so dear to the hearts of Netherlanders, +had been sweeping through all the canals and along the splendid quays of +the city. The Maid of Holland, twenty feet high, led the van, followed by +the counterfeit presentment of each of her six sisters. An orange tree +full of flowers and fruit was conspicuous in one barge, while in another, +strangely and lugubriously enough, lay the murdered William the Silent in +the arms of his wife and surrounded by his weeping sons and daughters all +attired in white satin. + +In the evening the Netherland Academy, to improve the general hilarity, +and as if believing exhibitions of murder the most appropriate means of +welcoming the Prince, invited him to a scenic representation of the +assassination of Count Florence V. of Holland by Gerrit van Velsen and +other nobles. There seemed no especial reason for the selection, unless +perhaps the local one; one of the perpetrators of this crime against an +ancient predecessor of William the Silent in the sovereignty of Holland +having been a former lord proprietor of Amsterdam and the adjacent +territories, Gysbrecht van Amatel. + +Maurice returned to the Hague. Five of the seven provinces were entirely +his own. Utrecht too was already wavering, while there could be no doubt +of the warm allegiance to himself of the important commercial metropolis +of Holland, the only province in which Barneveld's influence was still +paramount. + +Owing to the watchfulness and distrust of Barneveld, which had never +faltered, Spain had not secured the entire control of the disputed +duchies, but she had at least secured the head of a venerated saint. "The +bargain is completed for the head of the glorious Saint Lawrence, which +you know I so much desire," wrote Philip triumphantly to the Archduke +Albert. He had, however, not got it for nothing. + +The Abbot of Glamart in Julich, then in possession of that treasure, had +stipulated before delivering it that if at any time the heretics or other +enemies should destroy the monastery his Majesty would establish them in +Spanish Flanders and give them the same revenues as they now enjoyed in +Julich. Count Herman van den Berg was to give a guarantee to that effect. + +Meantime the long controversy in the duchies having tacitly come to a +standstill upon the basis of 'uti possidetis,' the Spanish government had +leisure in the midst of their preparation for the general crusade upon +European heresy to observe and enjoy the internal religious dissensions +in their revolted provinces. Although they had concluded the convention +with them as with countries over which they had no pretensions, they had +never at heart allowed more virtue to the conjunction "as," which really +contained the essence of the treaty, than grammatically belonged to it. +Spain still chose to regard the independence of the Seven Provinces as a +pleasant fiction to be dispelled when, the truce having expired by its +own limitation, she should resume, as she fully meant to do, her +sovereignty over all the seventeen Netherlands, the United as well as the +obedient. Thus at any rate the question of state rights or central +sovereignty would be settled by a very summary process. The Spanish +ambassador was wroth, as may well be supposed, when the agent of the +rebel provinces received in London the rank, title, and recognition of +ambassador. Gondemar at least refused to acknowledge Noel de Caron as his +diplomatic equal or even as his colleague, and was vehement in his +protestations on the subject. But James, much as he dreaded the Spanish +envoy and fawned upon his master, was not besotted enough to comply with +these demands at the expense of his most powerful ally, the Republic of +the Netherlands. The Spanish king however declared his ambassador's +proceedings to be in exact accordance with his instructions. He was +sorry, he said, if the affair had caused discontent to the King of Great +Britain; he intended in all respects to maintain the Treaty of Truce of +which his Majesty had been one of the guarantors, but as that treaty had +but a few more years to run, after which he should be reinstated in his +former right of sovereignty over all the Netherlands, he entirely +justified the conduct of Count Gondemar. + +It may well be conceived that, as the years passed by, as the period of +the Truce grew nearer and the religious disputes became every day more +envenomed, the government at Madrid should look on the tumultuous scene +with saturnine satisfaction. There was little doubt now, they thought, +that the Provinces, sick of their rebellion and that fancied independence +which had led them into a whirlpool of political and religious misery, +and convinced of their incompetence to govern themselves, would be only +too happy to seek the forgiving arms of their lawful sovereign. Above all +they must have learned that their great heresy had carried its +chastisement with it, that within something they called a Reformed Church +other heresies had been developed which demanded condign punishment at +the hands of that new Church, and that there could be neither rest for +them in this world nor salvation in the next except by returning to the +bosom of their ancient mother. + +Now was the time, so it was thought, to throw forward a strong force of +Jesuits as skirmishers into the Provinces by whom the way would be opened +for the reconquest of the whole territory. + +"By the advices coming to us continually from thence," wrote the King of +Spain to Archduke Albert, "we understand that the disquiets and +differences continue in Holland on matters relating to their sects, and +that from this has resulted the conversion of many to the Catholic +religion. So it has been taken into consideration whether it would not be +expedient that some fathers of the company of Jesuits be sent secretly +from Rome to Holland, who should negotiate concerning the conversion of +that people. Before taking a resolution, I have thought best to give an +account of this matter to your Highness. I should be glad if you would +inform me what priests are going to Holland, what fruits they yield, and +what can be done for the continuance of their labours. Please to advise +me very particularly together with any suggestions that may occur to you +in this matter." + +The Archduke, who was nearer the scene, was not so sure that the old +religion was making such progress as his royal nephew or those who spoke +in his name believed. At any rate, if it were not rapidly gaining ground, +it would be neither for want of discord among the Protestants nor for +lack of Jesuits to profit by it. + +"I do not understand," said he in reply, "nor is it generally considered +certain that from the differences and disturbances that the Hollanders +are having among themselves there has resulted the conversion of any of +them to our blessed Catholic faith, because their disputes are of certain +points concerning which there are different opinions within their sect. +There has always been a goodly number of priests here, the greater part +of whom belong to the Company. They are very diligent and fervent, and +the Catholics derive much comfort from them. To send more of them would +do more harm than good. It might be found out, and then they would +perhaps be driven out of Holland or even chastised. So it seems better to +leave things as they are for the present." + +The Spanish government was not discouraged however, but was pricking up +its ears anew at strange communications it was receiving from the very +bosom of the council of state in the Netherlands. This body, as will be +remembered, had been much opposed to Barneveld and to the policy pursued +under his leadership by the States of Holland. Some of its members were +secretly Catholic and still more secretly disposed to effect a revolution +in the government, the object of which should be to fuse the United +Provinces with the obedient Netherlands in a single independent monarchy +to be placed under the sceptre of the son of Philip III. + +A paper containing the outlines of this scheme had been sent to Spain, +and the King at once forwarded it in cipher to the Archduke at Brussels +for his opinion and co-operation. + +"You will see," he said, "the plan which a certain person zealous for the +public good has proposed for reducing the Netherlanders to my obedience. +. . . . You will please advise with Count Frederic van den Berg and let +me know with much particularity and profound secrecy what is thought, +what is occurring, and the form in which this matter ought to be +negotiated, and the proper way to make it march." + +Unquestionably the paper was of grave importance. It informed the King of +Spain that some principal personages in the United Netherlands, members +of the council of state, were of opinion that if his Majesty or Archduke +Albert should propose peace, it could be accomplished at that moment more +easily than ever before. They had arrived at the conviction that no +assistance was to be obtained from the King of France, who was too much +weakened by tumults and sedition at home, while nothing good could be +expected from the King of England. The greater part of the Province of +Gelderland, they said, with all Friesland, Utrecht, Groningen, and +Overyssel were inclined to a permanent peace. Being all of them frontier +provinces, they were constantly exposed to the brunt of hostilities. +Besides this, the war expenses alone would now be more than 3,000,000 +florins a year. Thus the people were kept perpetually harassed, and +although evil-intentioned persons approved these burthens under the +pretence that such heavy taxation served to free them from the tyranny of +Spain, those of sense and quality reproved them and knew the contrary to +be true. "Many here know," continued these traitors in the heart of the +state council, "how good it would be for the people of the Netherlands to +have a prince, and those having this desire being on the frontier are +determined to accept the son of your Majesty for their ruler." The +conditions of the proposed arrangement were to be that the Prince with +his successors who were thus to possess all the Netherlands were to be +independent sovereigns not subject in any way to the crown of Spain, and +that the great governments and dignities of the country were to remain in +the hands then holding them. + +This last condition was obviously inserted in the plan for the special +benefit of Prince Maurice and Count Lewis, although there is not an atom +of evidence that they had ever heard of the intrigue or doubt that, if +they had, they would have signally chastised its guilty authors. + +It was further stated that the Catholics having in each town a church and +free exercise of their religion would soon be in a great majority. Thus +the political and religious counter-revolution would be triumphantly +accomplished. + +It was proposed that the management of the business should be entrusted +to some gentleman of the country possessing property there who "under +pretext of the public good should make people comprehend what a great +thing it would be if they could obtain this favour from the Spanish King, +thus extricating themselves from so many calamities and miseries, and +obtaining free traffic and a prince of their own." It would be necessary +for the King and Archduke to write many letters and promise great rewards +to persons who might otherwise embarrass the good work. + +The plot was an ingenious one. There seemed in the opinion of these +conspirators in the state council but one great obstacle to its success. +It should be kept absolutely concealed from the States of Holland. The +great stipendiary of Spain, John of Barneveld, whose coffers were filled +with Spanish pistoles, whose name and surname might be read by all men in +the account-books at Brussels heading the register of mighty +bribe-takers, the man who was howled at in a thousand lampoons as a +traitor ever ready to sell his country, whom even Prince Maurice "partly +believed" to be the pensionary of Philip, must not hear a whisper of this +scheme to restore the Republic to Spanish control and place it under the +sceptre of a Spanish prince. + +The States of Holland at that moment and so long as he was a member of +the body were Barneveld and Barneveld only; thinking his thoughts, +speaking with his tongue, writing with his pen. Of this neither friend +nor foe ever expressed a doubt. Indeed it was one of the staple +accusations against him. + +Yet this paper in which the Spanish king in confidential cipher and +profound secrecy communicated to Archduke Albert his hopes and his +schemes for recovering the revolted provinces as a kingdom for his son +contained these words of caution. + +"The States of Holland and Zealand will be opposed to the plan," it said. +"If the treaty come to the knowledge of the States and Council of Holland +before it has been acted upon by the five frontier provinces the whole +plan will be demolished." + +Such was the opinion entertained by Philip himself of the man who was +supposed to be his stipendiary. I am not aware that this paper has ever +been alluded to in any document or treatise private or public from the +day of its date to this hour. It certainly has never been published, but +it lies deciphered in the Archives of the Kingdom at Brussels, and is +alone sufficient to put to shame the slanderers of the Advocate's +loyalty. + +Yet let it be remembered that in this very summer exactly at the moment +when these intrigues were going on between the King of Spain and the +class of men most opposed to Barneveld, the accusations against his +fidelity were loudest and rifest. + +Before the Stadholder had so suddenly slipped down to Brielle in order to +secure that important stronghold for the Contra-Remonstrant party, +reports had been carefully strewn among the people that the Advocate was +about to deliver that place and other fortresses to Spain. + +Brielle, Flushing, Rammekens, the very cautionary towns and keys to the +country which he had so recently and in such masterly manner delivered +from the grasp of the hereditary ally he was now about to surrender to +the ancient enemy. + +The Spaniards were already on the sea, it was said. Had it not been for +his Excellency's watchfulness and promptitude, they would already under +guidance of Barneveld and his crew have mastered the city of Brielle. +Flushing too through Barneveld's advice and connivance was open at a +particular point, in order that the Spaniards, who had their eye upon it, +might conveniently enter and take possession of the place. The air was +full of wild rumours to this effect, and already the humbler classes who +sided with the Stadholder saw in him the saviour of the country from the +treason of the Advocate and the renewed tyranny of Spain. + +The Prince made no such pretence, but simply took possession of the +fortress in order to be beforehand with the Waartgelders. The +Contra-Remonstrants in Brielle had desired that "men should see who had +the hardest fists," and it would certainly have been difficult to find +harder ones than those of the hero of Nieuwpoort. + +Besides the Jesuits coming in so skilfully to triumph over the warring +sects of Calvinists, there were other engineers on whom the Spanish +government relied to effect the reconquest of the Netherlands. Especially +it was an object to wreak vengeance on Holland, that head and front of +the revolt, both for its persistence in rebellion and for the immense +prosperity and progress by which that rebellion had been rewarded. +Holland had grown fat and strong, while the obedient Netherlands were +withered to the marrow of their bones. But there was a practical person +then resident in Spain to whom the Netherlands were well known, to whom +indeed everything was well known, who had laid before the King a +magnificent scheme for destroying the commerce and with it the very +existence of Holland to the great advantage of the Spanish finances and +of the Spanish Netherlands. Philip of course laid it before the Archduke +as usual, that he might ponder it well and afterwards, if approved, +direct its execution. + +The practical person set forth in an elaborate memoir that the Hollanders +were making rapid progress in commerce, arts, and manufactures, while the +obedient provinces were sinking as swiftly into decay. The Spanish +Netherlands were almost entirely shut off from the sea, the rivers +Scheldt and Meuse being hardly navigable for them on account of the +control of those waters by Holland. The Dutch were attracting to their +dominions all artisans, navigators, and traders. Despising all other +nations and giving them the law, they had ruined the obedient provinces. +Ostend, Nieuwpoort, Dunkerk were wasting away, and ought to be restored. + +"I have profoundly studied forty years long the subjects of commerce and +navigation," said the practical person, "and I have succeeded in +penetrating the secrets and acquiring, as it were, universal +knowledge--let me not be suspected of boasting--of the whole discovered +world and of the ocean. I have been assisted by study of the best works +of geography and history, by my own labours, and by those of my late +father, a man of illustrious genius and heroical conceptions and very +zealous in the Catholic faith." + +The modest and practical son of an illustrious but anonymous father, then +coming to the point, said it would be the easiest thing in the world to +direct the course of the Scheldt into an entirely new channel through +Spanish Flanders to the sea. Thus the Dutch ports and forts which had +been constructed with such magnificence and at such vast expense would be +left high and dry; the Spaniards would build new ones in Flanders, and +thus control the whole navigation and deprive the Hollanders of that +empire of the sea which they now so proudly arrogated. This scheme was +much simpler to carry out than the vulgar might suppose, and, when +accomplished, it would destroy the commerce, navigation, and fisheries of +the Hollanders, throwing it all into the hands of the Archdukes. This +would cause such ruin, poverty, and tumults everywhere that all would be +changed. The Republic of the United States would annihilate itself and +fall to pieces; the religious dissensions, the war of one sect with +another, and the jealousy of the House of Nassau, suspected of plans +hostile to popular liberties, finishing the work of destruction. "Then +the Republic," said the man of universal science, warming at sight of the +picture he was painting, "laden with debt and steeped in poverty, will +fall to the ground of its own weight, and thus debilitated will crawl +humbly to place itself in the paternal hands of the illustrious house of +Austria." + +It would be better, he thought, to set about the work, before the +expiration of the Truce. At any rate, the preparation for it, or the mere +threat of it, would ensure a renewal of that treaty on juster terms. It +was most important too to begin at once the construction of a port on the +coast of Flanders, looking to the north. + +There was a position, he said, without naming it, in which whole navies +could ride in safety, secure from all tempests, beyond the reach of the +Hollanders, open at all times to traffic to and from England, France, +Spain, Norway, Sweden, Russia--a perfectly free commerce, beyond the +reach of any rights or duties claimed or levied by the insolent republic. +In this port would assemble all the navigators of the country, and it +would become in time of war a terror to the Hollanders, English, and all +northern peoples. In order to attract, protect, and preserve these +navigators and this commerce, many great public edifices must be built, +together with splendid streets of houses and impregnable fortifications. +It should be a walled and stately city, and its name should be +Philipopolis. If these simple projects, so easy of execution, pleased his +Majesty, the practical person was ready to explain them in all their +details. + +His Majesty was enchanted with the glowing picture, but before quite +deciding on carrying the scheme into execution thought it best to consult +the Archduke. + +The reply of Albert has not been preserved. It was probably not +enthusiastic, and the man who without boasting had declared himself to +know everything was never commissioned to convert his schemes into +realities. That magnificent walled city, Philipopolis, with its gorgeous +streets and bristling fortresses, remained unbuilt, the Scheldt has +placidly flowed through its old channel to the sea from that day to this, +and the Republic remained in possession of the unexampled foreign trade +with which rebellion had enriched it. + +These various intrigues and projects show plainly enough however the +encouragement given to the enemies of the United Provinces and of +Protestantism everywhere by these disastrous internal dissensions. But +yesterday and the Republic led by Barneveld in council and Maurice of +Nassau in the field stood at the head of the great army of resistance to +the general crusade organized by Spain and Rome against all unbelievers. +And now that the war was absolutely beginning in Bohemia, the Republic +was falling upon its own sword instead of smiting with it the universal +foe. + +It was not the King of Spain alone that cast longing eyes on the fair +territory of that commonwealth which the unparalleled tyranny of his +father had driven to renounce his sceptre. Both in the Netherlands and +France, among the extreme orthodox party, there were secret schemes, to +which Maurice was not privy, to raise Maurice to the sovereignty of the +Provinces. Other conspirators with a wider scope and more treasonable +design were disposed to surrender their country to the dominion of +France, stipulating of course large rewards and offices for themselves +and the vice-royalty of what should then be the French Netherlands to +Maurice. + +The schemes were wild enough perhaps, but their very existence, which is +undoubted, is another proof, if more proof were wanted, of the lamentable +tendency, in times of civil and religious dissension, of political +passion to burn out the very first principles of patriotism. + +It is also important, on account of the direct influence exerted by these +intrigues upon subsequent events of the gravest character, to throw a +beam of light on matters which were thought to have been shrouded for +ever in impenetrable darkness. + +Langerac, the States' Ambassador in Paris, was the very reverse of his +predecessor, the wily, unscrupulous, and accomplished Francis Aerssens. +The envoys of the Republic were rarely dull, but Langerac was a +simpleton. They were renowned for political experience, skill, +familiarity with foreign languages, knowledge of literature, history, and +public law; but he was ignorant, spoke French very imperfectly, at a +court where not a human being could address him in his own tongue, had +never been employed in diplomacy or in high office of any kind, and could +carry but small personal weight at a post where of all others the +representative of the great republic should have commanded deference both +for his own qualities and for the majesty of his government. At a period +when France was left without a master or a guide the Dutch ambassador, +under a becoming show of profound respect, might really have governed the +country so far as regarded at least the all important relations which +bound the two nations together. But Langerac was a mere picker-up of +trifles, a newsmonger who wrote a despatch to-day with information which +a despatch was written on the morrow to contradict, while in itself +conveying additional intelligence absolutely certain to be falsified soon +afterwards. The Emperor of Germany had gone mad; Prince Maurice had been +assassinated in the Hague, a fact which his correspondents, the +States-General, might be supposed already to know, if it were one; there +had been a revolution in the royal bed-chamber; the Spanish cook of the +young queen had arrived from Madrid; the Duke of Nevers was behaving very +oddly at Vienna; such communications, and others equally startling, were +the staple of his correspondence. + +Still he was honest enough, very mild, perfectly docile to Barneveld, +dependent upon his guidance, and fervently attached to that statesman so +long as his wheel was going up the hill. Moreover, his industry in +obtaining information and his passion for imparting it made it probable +that nothing very momentous would be neglected should it be laid before +him, but that his masters, and especially the Advocate, would be enabled +to judge for themselves as to the attention due to it. + +"With this you will be apprised of some very high and weighty matters," +he wrote privately and in cipher to Barneveld, "which you will make use +of according to your great wisdom and forethought for the country's +service." + +He requested that the matter might also be confided to M. van der Myle, +that he might assist his father-in-law, so overburdened with business, in +the task of deciphering the communication. He then stated that he had +been "very earnestly informed three days before by M. du Agean"--member +of the privy council of France--"that it had recently come to the King's +ears, and his Majesty knew it to be authentic, that there was a secret +and very dangerous conspiracy in Holland of persons belonging to the +Reformed religion in which others were also mixed. This party held very +earnest and very secret correspondence with the factious portion of the +Contra-Remonstrants both in the Netherlands and France, seeking under +pretext of the religious dissensions or by means of them to confer the +sovereignty upon Prince Maurice by general consent of the +Contra-Remonstrants. Their object was also to strengthen and augment the +force of the same religious party in France, to which end the Duc de +Bouillon and M. de Chatillon were very earnestly co-operating. Langerac +had already been informed by Chatillon that the Contra-Remonstrants had +determined to make a public declaration against the Remonstrants, and +come to an open separation from them. + +"Others propose however," said the Ambassador, "that the King himself +should use the occasion to seize the sovereignty of the United Provinces +for himself and to appoint Prince Maurice viceroy, giving him in marriage +Madame Henriette of France." The object of this movement would be to +frustrate the plots of the Contra-Remonstrants, who were known to be +passionately hostile to the King and to France, and who had been +constantly traversing the negotiations of M. du Maurier. There was a +disposition to send a special and solemn embassy to the States, but it +was feared that the British king would at once do the same, to the +immense disadvantage of the Remonstrants. "M. de Barneveld," said the +envoy, "is deeply sympathized with here and commiserated. The Chancellor +has repeatedly requested me to present to you his very sincere and very +hearty respects, exhorting you to continue in your manly steadfastness +and courage." He also assured the Advocate that the French ambassador, M. +du Maurier, enjoyed the entire confidence of his government, and of the +principal members of the council, and that the King, although +contemplating, as we have seen, the seizure of the sovereignty of the +country, was most amicably disposed towards it, and so soon as the peace +of Savoy was settled "had something very good for it in his mind." +Whether the something very good was this very design to deprive it of +independence, the Ambassador did not state. He however recommended the +use of sundry small presents at the French court--especially to Madame de +Luynes, wife of the new favourite of Lewis since the death of Concini, in +which he had aided, now rising rapidly to consideration, and to Madame du +Agean--and asked to be supplied with funds accordingly. By these means he +thought it probable that at least the payment to the States of the long +arrears of the French subsidy might be secured. + +Three weeks later, returning to the subject, the Ambassador reported +another conversation with M. du Agean. That politician assured him, "with +high protestations," as a perfectly certain fact that a Frenchman duly +qualified had arrived in Paris from Holland who had been in communication +not only with him but with several of the most confidential members of +the privy council of France. This duly qualified gentleman had been +secretly commissioned to say that in opinion of the conspirators already +indicated the occasion was exactly offered by these religious dissensions +in the Netherlands for bringing the whole country under the obedience of +the King. This would be done with perfect ease if he would +only be willing to favour a little the one party, that of the +Contra-Remonstrants, and promise his Excellency "perfect and perpetual +authority in the government with other compensations." + +The proposition, said du Agean, had been rejected by the privy +councillors with a declaration that they would not mix themselves up with +any factions, nor assist any party, but that they would gladly work with +the government for the accommodation of these difficulties and +differences in the Provinces. + +"I send you all this nakedly," concluded Langerac, "exactly as it has +been communicated to me, having always answered according to my duty and +with a view by negotiating with these persons to discover the intentions +as well of one side as the other." + +The Advocate was not profoundly impressed by these revelations. He was +too experienced a statesman to doubt that in times when civil and +religious passion was running high there was never lack of fishers in +troubled waters, and that if a body of conspirators could secure a +handsome compensation by selling their country to a foreign prince, they +would always be ready to do it. + +But although believed by Maurice to be himself a stipendiary of Spain, he +was above suspecting the Prince of any share in the low and stupid +intrigue which du Agean had imagined or disclosed. That the Stadholder +was ambitious of greater power, he hardly doubted, but that he was +seeking to acquire it by such corrupt and circuitous means, he did not +dream. He confidentially communicated the plot as in duty bound to some +members of the States, and had the Prince been accused in any +conversation or statement of being privy to the scheme, he would have +thought himself bound to mention it to him. The story came to the ears of +Maurice however, and helped to feed his wrath against the Advocate, as if +he were responsible for a plot, if plot it were, which had been concocted +by his own deadliest enemies. The Prince wrote a letter alluding to this +communication of Langerac and giving much alarm to that functionary. He +thought his despatches must have been intercepted and proposed in future +to write always by special courier. Barneveld thought that unnecessary +except when there were more important matters than those appeared to him +to be and requiring more haste. + +"The letter of his Excellency," said he to the Ambassador, "is caused in +my opinion by the fact that some of the deputies to this assembly to whom +I secretly imparted your letter or its substance did not rightly +comprehend or report it. You did not say that his Excellency had any such +design or project, but that it had been said that the Contra-Remonstrants +were entertaining such a scheme. I would have shown the letter to him +myself, but I thought it not fair, for good reasons, to make M. du Agean +known as the informant. I do not think it amiss for you to write yourself +to his Excellency and tell him what is said, but whether it would be +proper to give up the name of your author, I think doubtful. At all +events one must consult about it. We live in a strange world, and one +knows not whom to trust." + +He instructed the Ambassador to enquire into the foundation of these +statements of du Agean and send advices by every occasion of this affair +and others of equal interest. He was however much more occupied with +securing the goodwill of the French government, which he no more +suspected of tampering in these schemes against the independence of the +Republic than he did Maurice himself. He relied and he had reason to rely +on their steady good offices in the cause of moderation and +reconciliation. "We are not yet brought to the necessary and much desired +unity," he said, "but we do not despair, hoping that his Majesty's +efforts through M. du Maurier, both privately and publicly, will do much +good. Be assured that they are very agreeable to all rightly disposed +people . . . . My trust is that God the Lord will give us a happy issue +and save this country from perdition." He approved of the presents to the +two ladies as suggested by Langerac if by so doing the payment of the +arrearages could be furthered. He was still hopeful and confident in the +justice of his cause and the purity of his conscience. "Aerssens is +crowing like a cock," he said, "but the truth will surely prevail." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + A Deputation from Utrecht to Maurice--The Fair at Utrecht--Maurice + and the States' Deputies at Utrecht--Ogle refuses to act in + Opposition to the States--The Stadholder disbands the Waartgelders-- + The Prince appoints forty Magistrates--The States formally disband + the Waartgelders. + +The eventful midsummer had arrived. The lime-tree blossoms were fragrant +in the leafy bowers overshadowing the beautiful little rural capital of +the Commonwealth. The anniversary of the Nieuwpoort victory, July 2, had +come and gone, and the Stadholder was known to be resolved that his +political campaign this year should be as victorious as that memorable +military one of eighteen years before. + +Before the dog-days should begin to rage, the fierce heats of theological +and political passion were to wax daily more and more intense. + +The party at Utrecht in favour of a compromise and in awe of the +Stadholder sent a deputation to the Hague with the express but secret +purpose of conferring with Maurice. They were eight in number, three of +whom, including Gillis van Ledenberg, lodged at the house of Daniel +Tressel, first clerk of the States-General. + +The leaders of the Barneveld party, aware of the purport of this mission +and determined to frustrate it, contrived a meeting between the Utrecht +commissioners and Grotius, Hoogerbeets, de Haan, and de Lange at +Tressel's house. + +Grotius was spokesman. Maurice had accused the States of Holland of +mutiny and rebellion, and the distinguished Pensionary of Rotterdam now +retorted the charges of mutiny, disobedience, and mischief-making upon +those who, under the mask of religion, were attempting to violate the +sovereignty of the States, the privileges and laws of the province, the +authority of the magistrates, and to subject them to the power of +others. To prevent such a catastrophe many cities had enlisted +Waartgelders. By this means they had held such mutineers to their duty, +as had been seen at Leyden, Haarlem, and other places. The States of +Utrecht had secured themselves in the same way. But the mischiefmakers +and the ill-disposed had been seeking everywhere to counteract these +wholesome measures and to bring about a general disbanding of these +troops. This it was necessary to resist with spirit. It was the very +foundation of the provinces' sovereignty, to maintain which the public +means must be employed. It was in vain to drive the foe out of the +country if one could not remain in safety within one's own doors. They +had heard with sorrow that Utrecht was thinking of cashiering its troops, +and the speaker proceeded therefore to urge with all the eloquence he was +master of the necessity of pausing before taking so fatal a step. + +The deputies of Utrecht answered by pleading the great pecuniary burthen +which the maintenance of the mercenaries imposed upon that province, and +complained that there was no one to come to their assistance, exposed as +they were to a sudden and overwhelming attack from many quarters. The +States-General had not only written but sent commissioners to Utrecht +insisting on the disbandment. They could plainly see the displeasure of +the Prince. It was a very different affair in Holland, but the States of +Utrecht found it necessary of two evils to choose the least. + +They had therefore instructed their commissioners to request the Prince +to remove the foreign garrison from their capital and to send the old +companies of native militia in their place, to be in the pay of the +episcopate. In this case the States would agree to disband the new +levies. + +Grotius in reply again warned the commissioners against communicating +with Maurice according to their instructions, intimated that the native +militia on which they were proposing to rely might have been debauched, +and he held out hopes that perhaps the States of Utrecht might derive +some relief from certain financial measures now contemplated in Holland. + +The Utrechters resolved to wait at least several days before opening the +subject of their mission to the Prince. Meantime Ledenberg made a rough +draft of a report of what had occurred between them and Grotius and his +colleagues which it was resolved to lay secretly before the States of +Utrecht. The Hollanders hoped that they had at last persuaded the +commissioners to maintain the Waartgelders. + +The States of Holland now passed a solemn resolution to the effect that +these new levies had been made to secure municipal order and maintain the +laws from subversion by civil tumults. If this object could be obtained +by other means, if the Stadholder were willing to remove garrisons of +foreign mercenaries on whom there could be no reliance, and supply their +place with native troops both in Holland and Utrecht, an arrangement +could be made for disbanding the Waartgelders. + +Barneveld, at the head of thirty deputies from the nobles and cities, +waited upon Maurice and verbally communicated to him this resolution. He +made a cold and unsatisfactory reply, although it seems to have been +understood that by according twenty companies of native troops he might +have contented both Holland and Utrecht. + +Ledenberg and his colleagues took their departure from the Hague without +communicating their message to Maurice. Soon afterwards the +States-General appointed a commission to Utrecht with the Stadholder at +the head of it. + +The States of Holland appointed another with Grotius as its chairman. + +On the 25th July Grotius and Pensionary Hoogerbeets with two colleagues +arrived in Utrecht. + +Gillis van Ledenberg was there to receive them. A tall, handsome, +bald-headed, well-featured, mild, gentlemanlike man was this secretary of +the Utrecht assembly, and certainly not aware, while passing to and fro +on such half diplomatic missions between two sovereign assemblies, that +he was committing high-treason. He might well imagine however, should +Maurice discover that it was he who had prevented the commissioners from +conferring with him as instructed, that it would go hard with him. + +Ledenberg forthwith introduced Grotius and his committee to the Assembly +at Utrecht. + +While these great personages were thus holding solemn and secret council, +another and still greater personage came upon the scene. + +The Stadholder with the deputation from the States-General arrived at +Utrecht. + +Evidently the threads of this political drama were converging to a +catastrophe, and it might prove a tragical one. + +Meantime all looked merry enough in the old episcopal city. There were +few towns in Lower or in Upper Germany more elegant and imposing than +Utrecht. Situate on the slender and feeble channel of the ancient Rhine +as it falters languidly to the sea, surrounded by trim gardens and +orchards, and embowered in groves of beeches and limetrees, with busy +canals fringed with poplars, lined with solid quays, and crossed by +innumerable bridges; with the stately brick tower of St. Martin's rising +to a daring height above one of the most magnificent Gothic cathedrals in +the Netherlands; this seat of the Anglo-Saxon Willebrord, who eight +hundred years before had preached Christianity to the Frisians, and had +founded that long line of hard-fighting, indomitable bishops, obstinately +contesting for centuries the possession of the swamps and pastures about +them with counts, kings, and emperors, was still worthy of its history +and its position. + +It was here too that sixty-one years before the famous Articles of Union +were signed. By that fundamental treaty of the Confederacy, the Provinces +agreed to remain eternally united as if they were but one province, to +make no war nor peace save by unanimous consent, while on lesser matters +a majority should rule; to admit both Catholics and Protestants to the +Union provided they obeyed its Articles and conducted themselves as good +patriots, and expressly declared that no province or city should +interfere with another in the matter of divine worship. + +From this memorable compact, so enduring a landmark in the history of +human freedom, and distinguished by such breadth of view for the times +both in religion and politics, the city had gained the title of cradle of +liberty: 'Cunabula libertatis'. + +Was it still to deserve the name? At that particular moment the mass of +the population was comparatively indifferent to the terrible questions +pending. It was the kermis or annual fair, and all the world was keeping +holiday in Utrecht. The pedlars and itinerant merchants from all the +cities and provinces had brought their wares jewellery and crockery, +ribbons and laces, ploughs and harrows, carriages and horses, cows and +sheep, cheeses and butter firkins, doublets and petticoats, guns and +pistols, everything that could serve the city and country-side for months +to come--and displayed them in temporary booths or on the ground, in +every street and along every canal. The town was one vast bazaar. The +peasant-women from the country, with their gold and silver tiaras and the +year's rent of a comfortable farm in their earrings and necklaces, and +the sturdy Frisian peasants, many of whom had borne their matchlocks in +the great wars which had lasted through their own and their fathers' +lifetime, trudged through the city, enjoying the blessings of peace. +Bands of music and merry-go-rounds in all the open places and squares; +open-air bakeries of pancakes and waffles; theatrical exhibitions, +raree-shows, jugglers, and mountebanks at every corner--all these +phenomena which had been at every kermis for centuries, and were to +repeat themselves for centuries afterwards, now enlivened the atmosphere +of the grey, episcopal city. Pasted against the walls of public edifices +were the most recent placards and counter-placards of the States-General +and the States of Utrecht on the great subject of religious schisms and +popular tumults. In the shop-windows and on the bookstalls of +Contra-Remonstrant tradesmen, now becoming more and more defiant as the +last allies of Holland, the States of Utrecht, were gradually losing +courage, were seen the freshest ballads and caricatures against the +Advocate. Here an engraving represented him seated at table with Grotius, +Hoogerbeets, and others, discussing the National Synod, while a flap of +the picture being lifted put the head of the Duke of Alva on the legs of +Barneveld, his companions being transformed in similar manner into +Spanish priests and cardinals assembled at the terrible Council of +Blood-with rows of Protestant martyrs burning and hanging in the +distance. Another print showed Prince Maurice and the States-General +shaking the leading statesmen of the Commonwealth in a mighty sieve +through which came tumbling head foremost to perdition the hated Advocate +and his abettors. Another showed the Arminians as a row of crest-fallen +cocks rained upon by the wrath of the Stadholder--Arminians by a +detestable pun being converted into "Arme haenen" or "Poor cocks." One +represented the Pope and King of Spain blowing thousands of ducats out of +a golden bellows into the lap of the Advocate, who was holding up his +official robes to receive them, or whole carriage-loads of Arminians +starting off bag and baggage on the road to Rome, with Lucifer in the +perspective waiting to give them a warm welcome in his own dominions; and +so on, and so on. Moving through the throng, with iron calque on their +heads and halberd in hand, were groups of Waartgelders scowling fiercely +at many popular demonstrations such as they had been enlisted to +suppress, but while off duty concealing outward symptoms of wrath which +in many instances perhaps would have been far from genuine. + +For although these mercenaries knew that the States of Holland, who were +responsible for the pay of the regular troops then in Utrecht, authorized +them to obey no orders save from the local authorities, yet it was +becoming a grave question for the Waartgelders whether their own wages +were perfectly safe, a circumstance which made them susceptible to the +atmosphere of Contra-Remonstrantism which was steadily enwrapping the +whole country. A still graver question was whether such resistance as +they could offer to the renowned Stadholder, whose name was magic to +every soldier's heart not only in his own land but throughout +Christendom, would not be like parrying a lance's thrust with a bulrush. +In truth the senior captain of the Waartgelders, Harteveld by name, had +privately informed the leaders of the Barneveld party in Utrecht that he +would not draw his sword against Prince Maurice and the States-General. +"Who asks you to do so?" said some of the deputies, while Ledenberg on +the other hand flatly accused him of cowardice. For this affront the +Captain had vowed revenge. + +And in the midst of this scene of jollity and confusion, that midsummer +night, entered the stern Stadholder with his fellow commissioners; the +feeble plans for shutting the gates upon him not having been carried into +effect. + +"You hardly expected such a guest at your fair," said he to the +magistrates, with a grim smile on his face as who should say, "And what +do you think of me now I have came?" + +Meantime the secret conference of Grotius and colleagues with the States +of Utrecht proceeded. As a provisional measure, Sir John Ogle, commander +of the forces paid by Holland, had been warned as to where his obedience +was due. It had likewise been intimated that the guard should be doubled +at the Amersfoort gate, and a watch set on the river Lek above and below +the city in order to prevent fresh troops of the States-General from +being introduced by surprise. + +These precautions had been suggested a year before, as we have seen, in a +private autograph letter from Barneveld to Secretary Ledenberg. + +Sir John Ogle had flatly refused to act in opposition to the Stadholder +and the States-General, whom he recognized as his lawful superiors and +masters, and he warned Ledenberg and his companions as to the perilous +nature of the course which they were pursuing. Great was the indignation +of the Utrechters and the Holland commissioners in consequence. + +Grotius in his speech enlarged on the possibility of violence being used +by the Stadholder, while some of the members of the Assembly likewise +thought it likely that he would smite the gates open by force. Grotius, +when reproved afterwards for such strong language towards Prince Maurice, +said that true Hollanders were no courtiers, but were wont to call +everything by its right name. + +He stated in strong language the regret felt by Holland that a majority +of the States of Utrecht had determined to disband the Waartgelders which +had been constitutionally enlisted according to the right of each +province under the 1st Article of the Union of Utrecht to protect itself +and its laws. + +Next day there were conferences between Maurice and the States of Utrecht +and between him and the Holland deputies. The Stadholder calmly demanded +the disbandment and the Synod. The Hollanders spoke of securing first the +persons and rights of the magistracy. + +"The magistrates are to be protected," said Maurice, "but we must first +know how they are going to govern. People have tried to introduce five +false points into the Divine worship. People have tried to turn me out of +the stadholdership and to drive me from the country. But I have taken my +measures. I know well what I am about. I have got five provinces on my +side, and six cities of Holland will send deputies to Utrecht to sustain +me here." + +The Hollanders protested that there was no design whatever, so far as +they knew, against his princely dignity or person. All were ready to +recognize his rank and services by every means in their power. But it was +desirable by conciliation and compromise, not by stern decree, to arrange +these religious and political differences. + +The Stadholder replied by again insisting on the Synod. "As for the +Waartgelders," he continued, "they are worse than Spanish fortresses. +They must away." + +After a little further conversation in this vein the Prince grew more +excited. + +"Everything is the fault of the Advocate," he cried. + +"If Barneveld were dead," replied Grotius, "all the rest of us would +still deem ourselves bound to maintain the laws. People seem to despise +Holland and to wish to subject it to the other provinces." + +"On the contrary," cried the Prince, "it is the Advocate who wishes to +make Holland the States-General." + +Maurice was tired of argument. There had been much ale-house talk some +three months before by a certain blusterous gentleman called van Ostrum +about the necessity of keeping the Stadholder in check. "If the Prince +should undertake," said this pot-valiant hero, "to attack any of the +cities of Utrecht or Holland with the hard hand, it is settled to station +8000 or 10,000 soldiers in convenient places. Then we shall say to the +Prince, if you don't leave us alone, we shall make an arrangement with +the Archduke of Austria and resume obedience to him. We can make such a +treaty with him as will give us religious freedom and save us from +tyranny of any kind. I don't say this for myself, but have heard it on +good authority from very eminent persons." + +This talk had floated through the air to the Stadholder. + +What evidence could be more conclusive of a deep design on the part of +Barneveld to sell the Republic to the Archduke and drive Maurice into +exile? Had not Esquire van Ostrum solemnly declared it at a tavern table? +And although he had mentioned no names, could the "eminent personages" +thus cited at second hand be anybody but the Advocate? + +Three nights after his last conference with the Hollanders, Maurice +quietly ordered a force of regular troops in Utrecht to be under arms at +half past three o'clock next morning. About 1000 infantry, including +companies of Ernest of Nassau's command at Arnhem and of Brederode's from +Vianen, besides a portion of the regular garrison of the place, had +accordingly been assembled without beat of drum, before half past three +in the morning, and were now drawn up on the market-place or Neu. At +break of day the Prince himself appeared on horseback surrounded by his +staff on the Neu or Neude, a large, long, irregular square into which the +seven or eight principal streets and thoroughfares of the town emptied +themselves. It was adorned by public buildings and other handsome +edifices, and the tall steeple of St. Martin's with its beautiful +open-work spire, lighted with the first rays of the midsummer sun, looked +tranquilly down upon the scene. + +Each of the entrances to the square had been securely guarded by +Maurice's orders, and cannon planted to command all the streets. A single +company of the famous Waartgelders was stationed in the Neu or near it. +The Prince rode calmly towards them and ordered them to lay down their +arms. They obeyed without a murmur. He then sent through the city to +summon all the other companies of Waartgelders to the Neu. This was done +with perfect promptness, and in a short space of time the whole body of +mercenaries, nearly 1000 in number, had laid down their arms at the feet +of the Prince. + +The snaphances and halberds being then neatly stacked in the square, the +Stadholder went home to his early breakfast. There was an end to those +mercenaries thenceforth and for ever. The faint and sickly resistance to +the authority of Maurice offered at Utrecht was attempted nowhere else. + +For days there had been vague but fearful expectations of a "blood bath," +of street battles, rioting, and plunder. Yet the Stadholder with the +consummate art which characterized all his military manoeuvres had so +admirably carried out his measure that not a shot was fired, not a blow +given, not a single burgher disturbed in his peaceful slumbers. When the +population had taken off their nightcaps, they woke to find the awful +bugbear removed which had so long been appalling them. The Waartgelders +were numbered with the terrors of the past, and not a cat had mewed at +their disappearance. + +Charter-books, parchments, 13th Articles, Barneveld's teeth, Arminian +forts, flowery orations of Grotius, tavern talk of van Ostrum, city +immunities, States' rights, provincial laws, Waartgelders and all--the +martial Stadholder, with the orange plume in his hat and the sword of +Nieuwpoort on his thigh, strode through them as easily as through the +whirligigs and mountebanks, the wades and fritters, encumbering the +streets of Utrecht on the night of his arrival. + +Secretary Ledenberg and other leading members of the States had escaped +the night before. Grotius and his colleagues also took a precipitate +departure. As they drove out of town in the twilight, they met the +deputies of the six opposition cities of Holland just arriving in their +coach from the Hague. Had they tarried an hour longer, they would have +found themselves safely in prison. + +Four days afterwards the Stadholder at the head of his body-guard +appeared at the town-house. His halberdmen tramped up the broad +staircase, heralding his arrival to the assembled magistracy. He +announced his intention of changing the whole board then and there. The +process was summary. The forty members were required to supply forty +other names, and the Prince added twenty more. From the hundred +candidates thus furnished the Prince appointed forty magistrates such as +suited himself. It is needless to say that but few of the old bench +remained, and that those few were devoted to the Synod, the +States-General, and the Stadholder. He furthermore announced that these +new magistrates were to hold office for life, whereas the board had +previously been changed every year. The cathedral church was at once +assigned for the use of the Contra-Remonstrants. + +This process was soon to be repeated throughout the two insubordinate +provinces Utrecht and Holland. + +The Prince was accused of aiming at the sovereignty of the whole country, +and one of his grief's against the Advocate was that he had begged the +Princess-Widow, Louise de Coligny, to warn her son-in-law of the dangers +of such ambition. But so long as an individual, sword in hand, could +exercise such unlimited sway over the whole municipal, and provincial +organization of the Commonwealth, it mattered but little whether he was +called King or Kaiser, Doge or Stadholder. Sovereign he was for the time +being at least, while courteously acknowledging the States-General as his +sovereign. + +Less than three weeks afterwards the States-General issued a decree +formally disbanding the Waartgelders; an almost superfluous edict, as +they had almost ceased to exist, and there were none to resist the +measure. Grotius recommended complete acquiescence. Barneveld's soul +could no longer animate with courage a whole people. + +The invitations which had already in the month of June been prepared for +the Synod to meet in the city of Dortor Dordtrecht-were now issued. The +States of Holland sent back the notification unopened, deeming it an +unwarrantable invasion of their rights that an assembly resisted by a +large majority of their body should be convoked in a city on their own +territory. But this was before the disbandment of the Waartgelders and +the general change of magistracies had been effected. + +Earnest consultations were now held as to the possibility of devising +some means of compromise; of providing that the decisions of the Synod +should not be considered binding until after having been ratified by the +separate states. In the opinion of Barneveld they were within a few +hours' work of a favourable result when their deliberations were +interrupted by a startling event. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + Fruitless Interview between Barneveld and Maurice--The Advocate, + warned of his Danger, resolves to remain at the Hague--Arrest of + Barneveld, of Qrotius, and of Hoogerbeets--The States-General assume + the Responsibility in a "Billet"--The States of Holland protest-- + The Advocate's Letter to his Family--Audience of Boississe-- + Mischief-making of Aerssens--The French Ambassadors intercede for + Barneveld--The King of England opposes their Efforts--Langerac's + Treachery to the Advocate--Maurice continues his Changes in the + Magistracy throughout the Country--Vote of Thanks by the States of + Holland. + +The Advocate, having done what he believed to be his duty, and exhausted +himself in efforts to defend ancient law and to procure moderation and +mutual toleration in religion, was disposed to acquiesce in the +inevitable. His letters giving official and private information of those +grave events were neither vindictive nor vehement. + +"I send you the last declaration of My Lords of Holland," he said to +Caron, "in regard to the National Synod, with the counter-declaration of +Dordtrecht and the other five cities. Yesterday was begun the debate +about cashiering the enrolled soldiers called Waartgelders. To-day the +late M. van Kereburg was buried." + +Nothing could be calmer than his tone. After the Waartgelders had been +disbanded, Utrecht revolutionized by main force, the National Synod +decided upon, and the process of changing the municipal magistracies +everywhere in the interest of Contra-Remonstrants begun, he continued to +urge moderation and respect for law. Even now, although discouraged, he +was not despondent, and was disposed to make the best even of the Synod. + +He wished at this supreme moment to have a personal interview with the +Prince in order to devise some means for calming the universal agitation +and effecting, if possible, a reconciliation among conflicting passions +and warring sects. He had stood at the side of Maurice and of Maurice's +great father in darker hours even than these. They had turned to him on +all trying and tragical occasions and had never found his courage +wavering or his judgment at fault. "Not a friend to the House of Nassau, +but a father," thus had Maurice with his own lips described the Advocate +to the widow of William the Silent. Incapable of an unpatriotic thought, +animated by sincere desire to avert evil and procure moderate action, +Barneveld saw no reason whatever why, despite all that had been said and +done, he should not once more hold council with the Prince. He had a +conversation accordingly with Count Lewis, who had always honoured the +Advocate while differing with him on the religious question. The +Stadholder of Friesland, one of the foremost men of his day in military +and scientific affairs, in administrative ability and philanthropic +instincts, and, in a family perhaps the most renowned in Europe for +heroic qualities and achievements, hardly second to any who had borne the +name, was in favour of the proposed interview, spoke immediately to +Prince Maurice about it, but was not hopeful as to its results. He knew +his cousin well and felt that he was at that moment resentful, perhaps +implacably so, against the whole Remonstrant party and especially against +their great leader. + +Count Lewis was small of stature, but dignified, not to say pompous, in +demeanour. His style of writing to one of lower social rank than himself +was lofty, almost regal, and full of old world formality. + +"Noble, severe, right worshipful, highly learned and discreet, special +good friend," he wrote to Barneveld; "we have spoken to his Excellency +concerning the expediency of what you requested of us this forenoon. We +find however that his Excellency is not to be moved to entertain any +other measure than the National Synod which he has himself proposed in +person to all the provinces, to the furtherance of which he has made so +many exertions, and which has already been announced by the +States-General. + +"We will see by what opportunity his Excellency will appoint the +interview, and so far as lies in us you may rely on our good offices. We +could not answer sooner as the French ambassadors had audience of us this +forenoon and we were visiting his Excellency in the afternoon. Wishing +your worship good evening, we are your very good friend." + +Next day Count William wrote again. "We have taken occasion," he said, +"to inform his Excellency that you were inclined to enter into +communication with him in regard to an accommodation of the religious +difficulties and to the cashiering of the Waartgelders. He answered that +he could accept no change in the matter of the National Synod, but +nevertheless would be at your disposal whenever your worship should be +pleased to come to him." + +Two days afterwards Barneveld made his appearance at the apartments of +the Stadholder. The two great men on whom the fabric of the Republic had +so long rested stood face to face once more. + +The Advocate, with long grey beard and stern blue eye, haggard with +illness and anxiety, tall but bent with age, leaning on his staff and +wrapped in black velvet cloak--an imposing magisterial figure; the +florid, plethoric Prince in brown doublet, big russet boots, narrow ruff, +and shabby felt hat with its string of diamonds, with hand clutched on +swordhilt, and eyes full of angry menace, the very type of the high-born, +imperious soldier--thus they surveyed each other as men, once friends, +between whom a gulf had opened. + +Barneveld sought to convince the Prince that in the proceedings at +Utrecht, founded as they were on strict adherence to the laws and +traditions of the Provinces, no disrespect had been intended to him, no +invasion of his constitutional rights, and that on his part his lifelong +devotion to the House of Nassau had suffered no change. He repeated his +usual incontrovertible arguments against the Synod, as illegal and +directly tending to subject the magistracy to the priesthood, a course of +things which eight-and-twenty years before had nearly brought destruction +on the country and led both the Prince and himself to captivity in a +foreign land. + +The Prince sternly replied in very few words that the National Synod was +a settled matter, that he would never draw back from his position, and +could not do so without singular disservice to the country and to his own +disreputation. He expressed his displeasure at the particular oath +exacted from the Waartgelders. It diminished his lawful authority and the +respect due to him, and might be used per indirectum to the oppression of +those of the religion which he had sworn to maintain. His brow grew black +when he spoke of the proceedings at Utrecht, which he denounced as a +conspiracy against his own person and the constitution of the country. + +Barneveld used in vain the powers of argument by which he had guided +kings and republics, cabinets and assemblies, during so many years. His +eloquence fell powerless upon the iron taciturnity of the Stadholder. +Maurice had expressed his determination and had no other argument to +sustain it but his usual exasperating silence. + +The interview ended as hopelessly as Count Lewis William had anticipated, +and the Prince and the Advocate separated to meet no more on earth. + +"You have doubtless heard already," wrote Barneveld to the ambassador in +London, "of all that has been passing here and in Utrecht. One must pray +to God that everything may prosper to his honour and the welfare of the +country. They are resolved to go through with the National Synod, the +government of Utrecht after the change made in it having consented with +the rest. I hope that his Majesty, according to your statement, will send +some good, learned, and peace-loving personages here, giving them +wholesome instructions to help bring our affairs into Christian unity, +accommodation, and love, by which his Majesty and these Provinces would +be best served." + +Were these the words of a baffled conspirator and traitor? Were they +uttered to produce an effect upon public opinion and avert a merited +condemnation by all good men? There is not in them a syllable of +reproach, of anger, of despair. And let it be remembered that they were +not written for the public at all. They were never known to the public, +hardly heard of either by the Advocate's enemies or friends, save the one +to whom they were addressed and the monarch to whom that friend was +accredited. They were not contained in official despatches, but in +private, confidential outpourings to a trusted political and personal +associate of many years. From the day they were written until this hour +they have never been printed, and for centuries perhaps not read. + +He proceeded to explain what he considered to be the law in the +Netherlands with regard to military allegiance. It is not probable that +there was in the country a more competent expounder of it; and defective +and even absurd as such a system was, it had carried the Provinces +successfully through a great war, and a better method for changing it +might have been found among so law-loving and conservative a people as +the Netherlanders than brute force. + +"Information has apparently been sent to England," he said, "that My +Lords of Holland through their commissioners in Utrecht dictated to the +soldiery standing at their charges something that was unreasonable. The +truth is that the States of Holland, as many of them as were assembled, +understanding that great haste was made to send his Excellency and some +deputies from the other provinces to Utrecht, while the members of the +Utrecht assembly were gone to report these difficulties to their +constituents and get fresh instructions from them, wishing that the +return of those members should be waited for and that the Assembly of +Holland might also be complete--a request which was refused--sent a +committee to Utrecht, as the matter brooked no delay, to give information +to the States of that province of what was passing here and to offer +their good offices. + +"They sent letters also to his Excellency to move him to reasonable +accommodation without taking extreme measures in opposition to those +resolutions of the States of Utrecht which his Excellency had promised to +conform with and to cause to be maintained by all officers and soldiers. +Should his Excellency make difficulty in this, the commissioners were +instructed to declare to him that they were ordered to warn the colonels +and captains standing in the payment of Holland, by letter and word of +mouth, that they were bound by oath to obey the States of Holland as +their paymasters and likewise to carry out the orders of the provincial +and municipal magistrates in the places where they were employed. The +soldiery was not to act or permit anything to be done against those +resolutions, but help to carry them out, his Excellency himself and the +troops paid by the States of Holland being indisputably bound by oath and +duty so to do." + +Doubtless a more convenient arrangement from a military point of view +might be imagined than a system of quotas by which each province in a +confederacy claimed allegiance and exacted obedience from the troops paid +by itself in what was after all a general army. Still this was the +logical and inevitable result of State rights pushed to the extreme and +indeed had been the indisputable theory and practice in the Netherlands +ever since their revolt from Spain. To pretend that the proceedings and +the oath were new because they were embarrassing was absurd. It was only +because the dominant party saw the extreme inconvenience of the system, +now that it was turned against itself, that individuals contemptuous of +law and ignorant of history denounced it as a novelty. + +But the strong and beneficent principle that lay at the bottom of the +Advocate's conduct was his unflagging resolve to maintain the civil +authority over the military in time of peace. What liberal or healthy +government would be possible otherwise? Exactly as he opposed the +subjection of the magistracy by the priesthood or the mob, so he now +defended it against the power of the sword. There was no justification +whatever for a claim on the part of Maurice to exact obedience from all +the armies of the Republic, especially in time of peace. He was himself +by oath sworn to obey the States of Holland, of Utrecht, and of the three +other provinces of which he was governor. He was not commander-in-chief. +In two of the seven provinces he had no functions whatever, military or +civil. They had another governor. + +Yet the exposition of the law, as it stood, by the Advocate and his claim +that both troops and Stadholder should be held to their oaths was +accounted a crime. He had invented a new oath--it was said--and sought to +diminish the power of the Prince. These were charges, unjust as they +were, which might one day be used with deadly effect. + +"We live in a world where everything is interpreted to the worst," he +said. "My physical weakness continues and is increased by this +affliction. I place my trust in God the Lord and in my upright and +conscientious determination to serve the country, his Excellency, and the +religion in which through God's grace I hope to continue to the end." + +On the 28th August of a warm afternoon, Barneveld was seated on a +porcelain seat in an arbor in his garden. Councillor Berkhout, +accompanied by a friend, called to see him, and after a brief +conversation gave him solemn warning that danger was impending, that +there was even a rumour of an intention to arrest him. + +The Advocate answered gravely, "Yes, there are wicked men about." + +Presently he lifted his hat courteously and said, "I thank you, +gentlemen, for the warning." + +It seems scarcely to have occurred to him that he had been engaged in +anything beyond a constitutional party struggle in which he had defended +what in his view was the side of law and order. He never dreamt of +seeking safety in flight. Some weeks before, he had been warmly advised +to do as both he and Maurice had done in former times in order to escape +the stratagems of Leicester, to take refuge in some strong city devoted +to his interests rather than remain at the Hague. But he had declined the +counsel. "I will await the issue of this business," he said, "in the +Hague, where my home is, and where I have faithfully served my masters. I +had rather for the sake of the Fatherland suffer what God chooses to send +me for having served well than that through me and on my account any city +should fall into trouble and difficulties." + +Next morning, Wednesday, at seven o'clock, Uytenbogaert paid him a visit. +He wished to consult him concerning a certain statement in regard to the +Synod which he desired him to lay before the States of Holland. The +preacher did not find his friend busily occupied at his desk, as usual, +with writing and other work. The Advocate had pushed his chair away from +the table encumbered with books and papers, and sat with his back leaning +against it, lost in thought. His stern, stoical face was like that of a +lion at bay. + +Uytenbogaert tried to arouse him from his gloom, consoling him by +reflections on the innumerable instances, in all countries and ages, of +patriotic statesmen who for faithful service had reaped nothing but +ingratitude. + +Soon afterwards he took his leave, feeling a presentiment of evil within +him which it was impossible for him to shake off as he pressed +Barneveld's hand at parting. + +Two hours later, the Advocate went in his coach to the session of the +States of Holland. The place of the Assembly as well as that of the +States-General was within what was called the Binnenhof or Inner Court; +the large quadrangle enclosing the ancient hall once the residence of the +sovereign Counts of Holland. The apartments of the Stadholder composed +the south-western portion of the large series of buildings surrounding +this court. Passing by these lodgings on his way to the Assembly, he was +accosted by a chamberlain of the Prince and informed that his Highness +desired to speak with him. He followed him towards the room where such +interviews were usually held, but in the antechamber was met by +Lieutenant Nythof, of the Prince's bodyguard. This officer told him that +he had been ordered to arrest him in the name of the States-General. The +Advocate demanded an interview with the Prince. It was absolutely +refused. Physical resistance on the part of a man of seventy-two, +stooping with age and leaning on a staff, to military force, of which +Nythof was the representative, was impossible. Barneveld put a cheerful +face on the matter, and was even inclined to converse. He was at once +carried off a prisoner and locked up in a room belonging to Maurice's +apartments. + +Soon afterwards, Grotius on his way to the States-General was invited in +precisely the same manner to go to the Prince, with whom, as he was +informed, the Advocate was at that moment conferring. As soon as he had +ascended the stairs however, he was arrested by Captain van der Meulen in +the name of the States-General, and taken to a chamber in the same +apartments, where he was guarded by two halberdmen. In the evening he was +removed to another chamber where the window shutters were barred, and +where he remained three days and nights. He was much cast down and +silent. Pensionary Hoogerbeets was made prisoner in precisely the same +manner. Thus the three statesmen--culprits as they were considered by +their enemies--were secured without noise or disturbance, each without +knowing the fate that had befallen the other. Nothing could have been +more neatly done. In the same quiet way orders were sent to secure +Secretary Ledenberg, who had returned to Utrecht, and who now after a +short confinement in that city was brought to the Hague and imprisoned in +the Hof. + +At the very moment of the Advocate's arrest his son-in-law van der Myle +happened to be paying a visit to Sir Dudley Carleton, who had arrived +very late the night before from England. It was some hours before he or +any other member of the family learned what had befallen. + +The Ambassador reported to his sovereign that the deed was highly +applauded by the well disposed as the only means left for the security of +the state. "The Arminians," he said, "condemn it as violent and +insufferable in a free republic." + +Impartial persons, he thought, considered it a superfluous proceeding now +that the Synod had been voted and the Waartgelders disbanded. + +While he was writing his despatch, the Stadholder came to call upon him, +attended by his cousin Count Lewis William. The crowd of citizens +following at a little distance, excited by the news with which the city +was now ringing, mingled with Maurice's gentlemen and bodyguards and +surged up almost into the Ambassador's doors. + +Carleton informed his guests, in the course of conversation, as to the +general opinion of indifferent judges of these events. Maurice replied +that he had disbanded the Waartgelders, but it had now become necessary +to deal with their colonel and the chief captains, meaning thereby +Barneveld and the two other prisoners. + +The news of this arrest was soon carried to the house of Barneveld, and +filled his aged wife, his son, and sons-in-law with grief and +indignation. His eldest son William, commonly called the Seignior van +Groeneveld, accompanied by his two brothers-in-law, Veenhuyzen, President +of the Upper Council, and van der Myle, obtained an interview with the +Stadholder that same afternoon. + +They earnestly requested that the Advocate, in consideration of his +advanced age, might on giving proper bail be kept prisoner in his own +house. + +The Prince received them at first with courtesy. "It is the work of the +States-General," he said, "no harm shall come to your father any more +than to myself." + +Veenhuyzen sought to excuse the opposition which the Advocate had made to +the Cloister Church. + +The word was scarcely out of his mouth when the Prince fiercely +interrupted him--"Any man who says a word against the Cloister Church," +he cried in a rage, "his feet shall not carry him from this place." + +The interview gave them on the whole but little satisfaction. Very soon +afterwards two gentlemen, Asperen and Schagen, belonging to the Chamber +of Nobles, and great adherents of Barneveld, who had procured their +enrolment in that branch, forced their way into the Stadholder's +apartments and penetrated to the door of the room where the Advocate was +imprisoned. According to Carleton they were filled with wine as well as +rage, and made a great disturbance, loudly demanding their patron's +liberation. Maurice came out of his own cabinet on hearing the noise in +the corridor, and ordered them to be disarmed and placed under arrest. In +the evening however they were released. + +Soon afterwards van der Myle fled to Paris, where he endeavoured to make +influence with the government in favour of the Advocate. His departure +without leave, being, as he was, a member of the Chamber of Nobles and of +the council of state, was accounted a great offence. Uytenbogaert also +made his escape, as did Taurinus, author of The Balance, van Moersbergen +of Utrecht, and many others more or less implicated in these commotions. + +There was profound silence in the States of Holland when the arrest of +Barneveld was announced. The majority sat like men distraught. At last +Matenesse said, "You have taken from us our head, our tongue, and our +hand, henceforth we can only sit still and look on." + +The States-General now took the responsibility of the arrest, which eight +individuals calling themselves the States-General had authorized by +secret resolution the day before (28th August). On the 29th accordingly, +the following "Billet," as it was entitled, was read to the Assembly and +ordered to be printed and circulated among the community. It was without +date or signature. + +"Whereas in the course of the changes within the city of Utrecht and in +other places brought about by the high and mighty Lords the +States-General of the United Netherlands, through his Excellency and +their Lordships' committee to him adjoined, sundry things have been +discovered of which previously there had been great suspicion, tending to +the great prejudice of the Provinces in general and of each province in +particular, not without apparent danger to the state of the country, and +that thereby not only the city of Utrecht, but various other cities of +the United Provinces would have fallen into a blood bath; and whereas the +chief ringleaders in these things are considered to be John van +Barneveld, Advocate of Holland, Rombout Hoogerbeets, and Hugo Grotius, +whereof hereafter shall declaration and announcement be made, therefore +their High Mightinesses, in order to prevent these and similar +inconveniences, to place the country in security, and to bring the good +burghers of all the cities into friendly unity again, have resolved to +arrest those three persons, in order that out of their imprisonment they +may be held to answer duly for their actions and offences." + +The deputies of Holland in the States-General protested on the same day +against the arrest, declaring themselves extraordinarily amazed at such +proceedings, without their knowledge, with usurpation of their +jurisdiction, and that they should refer to their principals for +instructions in the matter. + +They reported accordingly at once to the States of Holland in session in +the same building. Soon afterwards however a committee of five from the +States-General appeared before the Assembly to justify the proceeding. On +their departure there arose a great debate, the six cities of course +taking part with Maurice and the general government. It was finally +resolved by the majority to send a committee to the Stadholder to +remonstrate with, and by the six opposition cities another committee to +congratulate him, on his recent performances. + +His answer was to this effect: + +"What had happened was not by his order, but had been done by the +States-General, who must be supposed not to have acted without good +cause. Touching the laws and jurisdiction of Holland he would not himself +dispute, but the States of Holland would know how to settle that matter +with the States-General." + +Next day it was resolved in the Holland assembly to let the affair remain +as it was for the time being. Rapid changes were soon to be expected in +that body, hitherto so staunch for the cause of municipal laws and State +rights. + +Meantime Barneveld sat closely guarded in the apartments of the +Stadholder, while the country and very soon all Europe were ringing with +the news of his downfall, imprisonment, and disgrace. The news was a +thunder-bolt to the lovers of religious liberty, a ray of dazzling +sunlight after a storm to the orthodox. + +The showers of pamphlets, villanous lampoons, and libels began afresh. +The relatives of the fallen statesman could not appear in the streets +without being exposed to insult, and without hearing scurrilous and +obscene verses against their father and themselves, in which neither sex +nor age was spared, howled in their ears by all the ballad-mongers and +broadsheet vendors of the town. The unsigned publication of the +States-General, with its dark allusions to horrible discoveries and +promised revelations which were never made, but which reduced themselves +at last to the gibberish of a pot-house bully, the ingenious libels, the +powerfully concocted and poisonous calumnies, caricatures, and lampoons, +had done their work. People stared at each other in the streets with open +mouths as they heard how the Advocate had for years and years been the +hireling of Spain, whose government had bribed him largely to bring about +the Truce and kill the West India Company; how his pockets and his +coffers were running over with Spanish ducats; how his plot to sell the +whole country to the ancient tyrant, drive the Prince of Orange into +exile, and bring every city of the Netherlands into a "blood-bath," had, +just in time, been discovered. + +And the people believed it and hated the man they had so lately honoured, +and were ready to tear him to pieces in the streets. Men feared to defend +him lest they too should be accused of being stipendiaries of Spain. It +was a piteous spectacle; not for the venerable statesman sitting alone +there in his prison, but for the Republic in its lunacy, for human nature +in its meanness and shame. He whom Count Lewis, although opposed to his +politics, had so lately called one of the two columns on which the whole +fabric of the States reposed, Prince Maurice being the other, now lay +prostrate in the dust and reviled of all men. + +"Many who had been promoted by him to high places," said a contemporary, +"and were wont to worship him as a god, in hope that he would lift them +up still higher, now deserted him, and ridiculed him, and joined the rest +of the world in heaping dirt upon him." + +On the third day of his imprisonment the Advocate wrote this letter to +his family:-- + +"My very dear wife, children, children-in-law, and grandchildren,--I know +that you are sorrowful for the troubles which have come upon me, but I +beg you to seek consolation from God the Almighty and to comfort each +other. I know before the Lord God of having given no single lawful reason +for the misfortunes which have come upon me, and I will with patience +await from His Divine hand and from my lawful superiors a happy issue, +knowing well that you and my other well-wishers will with your prayers +and good offices do all that you can to that end. + +"And so, very dear wife, children, children-in-law, and grandchildren, I +commend you to God's holy keeping. + +"I have been thus far well and honourably treated and accommodated, for +which I thank his princely Excellency. + +"From my chamber of arrest, last of August, anno 1618. + +"Your dear husband, father, father-in-law, and grand father, + + "JOHN OF BARNEVELD." + +On the margin was written: + +"From the first I have requested and have at last obtained materials for +writing." + +A fortnight before the arrest, but while great troubles were known to be +impending, the French ambassador extraordinary, de Boississe, had +audience before the Assembly of the States-General. He entreated them to +maintain the cause of unity and peace as the foundation of their state; +"that state," he said, "which lifts its head so high that it equals or +surpasses the mightiest republics that ever existed, and which could not +have risen to such a height of honour and grandeur in so short a time, +but through harmony and union of all the provinces, through the valour of +his Excellency, and through your own wise counsels, both sustained by our +great king, whose aid is continued by his son."--"The King my master," he +continued, "knows not the cause of your disturbances. You have not +communicated them to him, but their most apparent cause is a difference +of opinion, born in the schools, thence brought before the public, upon a +point of theology. That point has long been deemed by many to be so hard +and so high that the best advice to give about it is to follow what God's +Word teaches touching God's secrets; to wit, that one should use +moderation and modesty therein and should not rashly press too far into +that which he wishes to be covered with the veil of reverence and wonder. +That is a wise ignorance to keep one's eyes from that which God chooses +to conceal. He calls us not to eternal life through subtle and perplexing +questions." + +And further exhorting them to conciliation and compromise, he enlarged on +the effect of their internal dissensions on their exterior relations. +"What joy, what rapture you are preparing for your neighbours by your +quarrels! How they will scorn you! How they will laugh! What a hope do +you give them of revenging themselves upon you without danger to +themselves! Let me implore you to baffle their malice, to turn their joy +into mourning, to unite yourselves to confound them." + +He spoke much more in the same vein, expressing wise and moderate +sentiments. He might as well have gone down to the neighbouring beach +when a south-west gale was blowing and talked of moderation to the waves +of the German Ocean. The tempest of passion and prejudice had risen in +its might and was sweeping all before it. Yet the speech, like other +speeches and intercessions made at this epoch by de Boississe and by the +regular French ambassador, du Maurier, was statesmanlike and reasonable. +It is superfluous to say that it was in unison with the opinions of +Barneveld, for Barneveld had probably furnished the text of the oration. +Even as he had a few years before supplied the letters which King James +had signed and subsequently had struggled so desperately to disavow, so +now the Advocate's imperious intellect had swayed the docile and amiable +minds of the royal envoys into complete sympathy with his policy. He +usually dictated their general instructions. But an end had come to such +triumphs. Dudley Carleton had returned from his leave of absence in +England, where he had found his sovereign hating the Advocate as doctors +hate who have been worsted in theological arguments and despots who have +been baffled in their imperious designs. Who shall measure the influence +on the destiny of this statesman caused by the French-Spanish marriages, +the sermons of James through the mouth of Carleton, and the mutual +jealousy of France and England? + +But the Advocate was in prison, and the earth seemed to have closed over +him. Hardly a ripple of indignation was perceptible on the calm surface +of affairs, although in the States-General as in the States of Holland +his absence seemed to have reduced both bodies to paralysis. + +They were the more easily handled by the prudent, skilful, and determined +Maurice. + +The arrest of the four gentlemen had been communicated to the kings of +France and Great Britain and the Elector-Palatine in an identical letter +from the States-General. It is noticeable that on this occasion the +central government spoke of giving orders to the Prince of Orange, over +whom they would seem to have had no legitimate authority, while on the +other hand he had expressed indignation on more than one occasion that +the respective states of the five provinces where he was governor and to +whom he had sworn obedience should presume to issue commands to him. + +In France, where the Advocate was honoured and beloved, the intelligence +excited profound sorrow. A few weeks previously the government of that +country had, as we have seen, sent a special ambassador to the States, M. +de Boississe, to aid the resident envoy, du Maurier, in his efforts to +bring about a reconciliation of parties and a termination of the +religious feud. Their exertions were sincere and unceasing. They were as +steadily countermined by Francis Aerssens, for the aim of that +diplomatist was to bring about a state of bad feeling, even at cost of +rupture, between the Republic and France, because France was friendly to +the man he most hated and whose ruin he had sworn. + +During the summer a bitter personal controversy had been going on, +sufficiently vulgar in tone, between Aerssens and another diplomatist, +Barneveld's son-in-law, Cornelis van der Myle. It related to the recall +of Aerssens from the French embassy of which enough has already been laid +before the reader. Van der Myle by the production of the secret letters +of the Queen-Dowager and her counsellors had proved beyond dispute that +it was at the express wish of the French government that the Ambassador +had retired, and that indeed they had distinctly refused to receive him, +should he return. Foul words resulting in propositions for a hostile +meeting on the frontier, which however came to nothing, were interchanged +and Aerssens in the course of his altercation with the son-inlaw had +found ample opportunity for venting his spleen upon his former patron the +now fallen statesman. + +Four days after the arrest of Barneveld he brought the whole matter +before the States-General, and the intention with which he thus raked up +the old quarrel with France after the death of Henry, and his charges in +regard to the Spanish marriages, was as obvious as it was deliberate. + +The French ambassadors were furious. Boississe had arrived not simply as +friend of the Advocate, but to assure the States of the strong desire +entertained by the French government to cultivate warmest relations with +them. It had been desired by the Contra-Remonstrant party that deputies +from the Protestant churches of France should participate in the Synod, +and the French king had been much assailed by the Catholic powers for +listening to those suggestions. The Papal nuncius, the Spanish +ambassador, the envoy of the Archduke, had made a great disturbance at +court concerning the mission of Boississe. They urged with earnestness +that his Majesty was acting against the sentiments of Spain, Rome, and +the whole Catholic Church, and that he ought not to assist with his +counsel those heretics who were quarrelling among themselves over points +in their heretical religion and wishing to destroy each other. + +Notwithstanding this outcry the weather was smooth enough until the +proceedings of Aerssens came to stir up a tempest at the French court. A +special courier came from Boississe, a meeting of the whole council, +although it was Sunday, was instantly called, and the reply of the +States-General to the remonstrance of the Ambassador in the Aerssens +affair was pronounced to be so great an affront to the King that, but for +overpowering reasons, diplomatic intercourse would have at once been +suspended. "Now instead of friendship there is great anger here," said +Langerac. The king forbade under vigorous penalties the departure of any +French theologians to take part in the Synod, although the royal consent +had nearly been given. The government complained that no justice was done +in the Netherlands to the French nation, that leading personages there +openly expressed contempt for the French alliance, denouncing the country +as "Hispaniolized," and declaring that all the council were regularly +pensioned by Spain for the express purpose of keeping up the civil +dissensions in the United Provinces. + +Aerssens had publicly and officially declared that a majority of the +French council since the death of Henry had declared the crown in its +temporal as well as spiritual essence to be dependent on the Pope, and +that the Spanish marriages had been made under express condition of the +renunciation of the friendship and alliance of the States. + +Such were among the first-fruits of the fall of Barneveld and the triumph +of Aerssens, for it was he in reality who had won the victory, and he had +gained it over both Stadholder and Advocate. Who was to profit by the +estrangement between the Republic and its powerful ally at a moment too +when that great kingdom was at last beginning to emerge from the darkness +and nothingness of many years, with the faint glimmering dawn of a new +great policy? + +Barneveld, whose masterful statesmanship, following out the traditions of +William the Silent, had ever maintained through good and ill report +cordial and beneficent relations between the two countries, had always +comprehended, even as a great cardinal-minister was ere long to teach the +world, that the permanent identification of France with Spain and the +Roman League was unnatural and impossible. + +Meantime Barneveld sat in his solitary prison, knowing not what was +passing on that great stage where he had so long been the chief actor, +while small intriguers now attempted to control events. + +It was the intention of Aerssens to return to the embassy in Paris whence +he had been driven, in his own opinion, so unjustly. To render himself +indispensable, he had begun by making himself provisionally formidable to +the King's government. Later, there would be other deeds to do before the +prize was within his grasp. + +Thus the very moment when France was disposed to cultivate the most +earnest friendship with the Republic had been seized for fastening an +insult upon her. The Twelve Years' Truce with Spain was running to its +close, the relations between France and Spain were unusually cold, and +her friendship therefore more valuable than ever. + +On the other hand the British king was drawing closer his relations with +Spain, and his alliance was demonstrably of small account. The phantom of +the Spanish bride had become more real to his excited vision than ever, +so that early in the year, in order to please Gondemar, he had been +willing to offer an affront to the French ambassador. + +The Prince of Wales had given a splendid masquerade at court, to which +the envoy of his Most Catholic Majesty was bidden. Much to his amazement +the representative of the Most Christian King received no invitation, +notwithstanding that he had taken great pains to procure one. M. de la +Boderie was very angry, and went about complaining to the States' +ambassador and his other colleagues of the slight, and darkened the lives +of the court functionaries having charge of such matters with his +vengeance and despair. It was represented to him that he had himself been +asked to a festival the year before when Count Gondemar was left out. It +was hinted to him that the King had good reasons for what he did, as the +marriage with the daughter of Spain was now in train, and it was +desirable that the Spanish ambassador should be able to observe the +Prince's disposition and make a more correct report of it to his +government. It was in vain. M. de la Boderie refused to be comforted, and +asserted that one had no right to leave the French ambassador uninvited +to any "festival or triumph" at court. There was an endless disturbance. +De la Boderie sent his secretary off to Paris to complain to the King +that his ambassador was of no account in London, while much favour was +heaped upon the Spaniard. The Secretary returned with instructions from +Lewis that the Ambassador was to come home immediately, and he went off +accordingly in dudgeon. "I could see that he was in the highest degree +indignant," said Caron, who saw him before he left, "and I doubt not that +his departure will increase and keep up the former jealousy between the +governments." + +The ill-humor created by this event lasted a long time, serving to +neutralize or at least perceptibly diminish the Spanish influence +produced in France by the Spanish marriages. In the autumn, Secretary de +Puysieux by command of the King ordered every Spaniard to leave the +French court. All the "Spanish ladies and gentlemen, great and small," +who had accompanied the Queen from Madrid were included in this expulsion +with the exception of four individuals, her Majesty's father confessor, +physician, apothecary, and cook. + +The fair young queen was much vexed and shed bitter tears at this +calamity, which, as she spoke nothing but Spanish, left her isolated at +the court, but she was a little consoled by the promise that thenceforth +the King would share her couch. It had not yet occurred to him that he +was married. + +The French envoys at the Hague exhausted themselves in efforts, both +private and public, in favour of the prisoners, but it was a thankless +task. Now that the great man and his chief pupils and adherents were out +of sight, a war of shameless calumny was began upon him, such as has +scarcely a parallel in political history. + +It was as if a whole tribe of noxious and obscene reptiles were swarming +out of the earth which had suddenly swallowed him. But it was not alone +the obscure or the anonymous who now triumphantly vilified him. Men in +high places who had partaken of his patronage, who had caressed him and +grovelled before him, who had grown great through his tuition and rich +through his bounty, now rejoiced in his ruin or hastened at least to save +themselves from being involved in it. Not a man of them all but fell away +from him like water. Even the great soldier forgot whose respectful but +powerful hand it was which, at the most tragical moment, had lifted him +from the high school at Leyden into the post of greatest power and +responsibility, and had guided his first faltering footsteps by the light +of his genius and experience. Francis Aerssens, master of the field, had +now become the political tutor of the mature Stadholder. Step by step we +have been studying the inmost thoughts of the Advocate as revealed in his +secret and confidential correspondence, and the reader has been enabled +to judge of the wantonness of the calumny which converted the determined +antagonist into the secret friend of Spain. Yet it had produced its +effect upon Maurice. + +He told the French ambassadors a month after the arrest that Barneveld +had been endeavouring, during and since the Truce negotiations, to bring +back the Provinces, especially Holland, if not under the dominion of, at +least under some kind of vassalage to Spain. Persons had been feeling the +public pulse as to the possibility of securing permanent peace by paying +tribute to Spain, and this secret plan of Barneveld had so alienated him +from the Prince as to cause him to attempt every possible means of +diminishing or destroying altogether his authority. He had spread through +many cities that Maurice wished to make himself master of the state by +using the religious dissensions to keep the people weakened and divided. + +There is not a particle of evidence, and no attempt was ever made to +produce any, that the Advocate had such plan, but certainly, if ever, man +had made himself master of a state, that man was Maurice. He continued +however to place himself before the world as the servant of the +States-General, which he never was, either theoretically or in fact. + +The French ambassadors became every day more indignant and more +discouraged. It was obvious that Aerssens, their avowed enemy, was +controlling the public policy of the government. Not only was there no +satisfaction to be had for the offensive manner in which he had filled +the country with his ancient grievances and his nearly forgotten charges +against the Queen-Dowager and those who had assisted her in the regency, +but they were repulsed at every turn when by order of their sovereign +they attempted to use his good offices in favour of the man who had ever +been the steady friend of France. + +The Stadholder also professed friendship for that country, and referred +to Colonel-General Chatillon, who had for a long time commanded the +French regiments in the Netherlands, for confirmation of his uniform +affection for those troops and attachment to their sovereign. + +He would do wonders, he said, if Lewis would declare war upon Spain by +land and sea. + +"Such fruits are not ripe," said Boississe, "nor has your love for France +been very manifest in recent events." + +"Barneveld," replied the Prince, "has personally offended me, and has +boasted that he would drive me out of the country like Leicester. He is +accused of having wished to trouble the country in order to bring it back +under the yoke of Spain. Justice will decide. The States only are +sovereign to judge this question. You must address yourself to them." + +"The States," replied the ambassadors, "will require to be aided by your +counsels." + +The Prince made no reply and remained chill and "impregnable." The +ambassadors continued their intercessions in behalf of the prisoners both +by public address to the Assembly and by private appeals to the +Stadholder and his influential friends. In virtue of the intimate +alliance and mutual guarantees existing between their government and the +Republic they claimed the acceptance of their good offices. They insisted +upon a regular trial of the prisoners according to the laws of the land, +that is to say, by the high court of Holland, which alone had +jurisdiction in the premises. If they had been guilty of high-treason, +they should be duly arraigned. In the name of the signal services of +Barneveld and of the constant friendship of that great magistrate for +France, the King demanded clemency or proof of his crimes. His Majesty +complained through his ambassadors of the little respect shown for his +counsels and for his friendship. "In times past you found ever prompt and +favourable action in your time of need." + +"This discourse," said Maurice to Chatillon, "proceeds from evil +intention." + +Thus the prisoners had disappeared from human sight, and their enemies +ran riot in slandering them. Yet thus far no public charges had been +made. + +"Nothing appears against them," said du Maurier, "and people are +beginning to open their mouths with incredible freedom. While waiting for +the condemnation of the prisoners, one is determined to dishonour them." + +The French ambassadors were instructed to intercede to the last, but they +were steadily repulsed--while the King of Great Britain, anxious to gain +favour with Spain by aiding in the ruin of one whom he knew and Spain +knew to be her determined foe, did all he could through his ambassador to +frustrate their efforts and bring on a catastrophe. The States-General +and Maurice were now on as confidential terms with Carleton as they were +cold and repellent to Boississe and du Maurier. + +"To recall to them the benefits of the King," said du Maurier, "is to +beat the air. And then Aerssens bewitches them, and they imagine that +after having played runaway horses his Majesty will be only too happy to +receive them back, caress them, and, in order to have their friendship, +approve everything they have been doing right or wrong." + +Aerssens had it all his own way, and the States-General had just paid him +12,000 francs in cash on the ground that Langerac's salary was larger +than his had been when at the head of the same embassy many years before. + +His elevation into the body of nobles, which Maurice had just stocked +with five other of his partisans, was accounted an additional affront to +France, while on the other hand the Queen-Mother, having through +Epernon's assistance made her escape from Blois, where she had been kept +in durance since the death of Concini, now enumerated among other +grievances for which she was willing to take up arms against her son that +the King's government had favoured Barneveld. + +It was strange that all the devotees of Spain--Mary de' Medici, and +Epernon, as well as James I. and his courtiers--should be thus embittered +against the man who had sold the Netherlands to Spain. + +At last the Prince told the French ambassadors that the "people of the +Provinces considered their persistent intercessions an invasion of their +sovereignty." Few would have anything to say to them. "No one listens to +us, no one replies to us," said du Maurier, "everyone visiting us is +observed, and it is conceived a reproach here to speak to the ambassadors +of France." + +Certainly the days were changed since Henry IV. leaned on the arm of +Barneveld, and consulted with him, and with him only, among all the +statesmen of Europe on his great schemes for regenerating Christendom and +averting that general war which, now that the great king had been +murdered and the Advocate imprisoned, had already begun to ravage Europe. + +Van der Myle had gone to Paris to make such exertions as he could among +the leading members of the council in favour of his father-in-law. +Langerac, the States' ambassador there, who but yesterday had been +turning at every moment to the Advocate for light and warmth as to the +sun, now hastened to disavow all respect or regard for him. He scoffed at +the slender sympathy van der Myle was finding in the bleak political +atmosphere. He had done his best to find out what he had been negotiating +with the members of the council and was glad to say that it was so +inconsiderable as to be not worth reporting. He had not spoken with or +seen the King. Jeannin, his own and his father-in-law's principal and +most confidential friend, had only spoken with him half an hour and then +departed for Burgundy, although promising to confer with him +sympathetically on his return. "I am very displeased at his coming here," +said Langerac, ". . . . but he has found little friendship or +confidence, and is full of woe and apprehension." + +The Ambassador's labours were now confined to personally soliciting the +King's permission for deputations from the Reformed churches of France to +go to the Synod, now opened (13th November) at Dordtrecht, and to +clearing his own skirts with the Prince and States-General of any +suspicion of sympathy with Barneveld. + +In the first object he was unsuccessful, the King telling him at last +"with clear and significant words that this was impossible, on account of +his conscience, his respect for the Catholic religion, and many other +reasons." + +In regard to the second point he acted with great promptness. + +He received a summons in January 1619 from the States-General and the +Prince to send them all letters that he had ever received from Barneveld. +He crawled at once to Maurice on his knees, with the letters in his hand. + +"Most illustrious, high-born Prince, most gracious Lord," he said; +"obeying the commands which it has pleased the States and your princely +Grace to give me, I send back the letters of Advocate Barneveld. If your +princely Grace should find anything in them showing that the said +Advocate had any confidence in me, I most humbly beg your princely Grace +to believe that I never entertained any affection for, him, except only +in respect to and so far as he was in credit and good authority with the +government, and according to the upright zeal which I thought I could see +in him for the service of My high and puissant Lords the States-General +and of your princely Grace." + +Greater humbleness could be expected of no ambassador. Most nobly did the +devoted friend and pupil of the great statesman remember his duty to the +illustrious Prince and their High Mightinesses. Most promptly did he +abjure his patron now that he had fallen into the abyss. + +"Nor will it be found," he continued, "that I have had any sympathy or +communication with the said Advocate except alone in things concerning my +service. The great trust I had in him as the foremost and oldest +counsellor of the state, as the one who so confidentially instructed me +on my departure for France, and who had obtained for himself so great +authority that all the most important affairs of the country were +entrusted to him, was the cause that I simply and sincerely wrote to him +all that people were in the habit of saying at this court. + +"If I had known in the least or suspected that he was not what he ought +to be in the service of My Lords the States and of your princely Grace +and for the welfare and tranquillity of the land, I should have been well +on my guard against letting myself in the least into any kind of +communication with him whatever." + +The reader has seen how steadily and frankly the Advocate had kept +Langerac as well as Caron informed of passing events, and how little +concealment he made of his views in regard to the Synod, the +Waartgelders, and the respective authority of the States-General and +States-Provincial. Not only had Langerac no reason to suspect that +Barneveld was not what he ought to be, but he absolutely knew the +contrary from that most confidential correspondence with him which he was +now so abjectly repudiating. The Advocate, in a protracted constitutional +controversy, had made no secret of his views either officially or +privately. Whether his positions were tenable or flimsy, they had been +openly taken. + +"What is more," proceeded the Ambassador, "had I thought that any account +ought to be made of what I wrote to him concerning the sovereignty of the +Provinces, I should for a certainty not have failed to advise your Grace +of it above all." + +He then, after profuse and maudlin protestations of his most dutiful zeal +all the days of his life for "the service, honour, reputation, and +contentment of your princely Grace," observed that he had not thought it +necessary to give him notice of such idle and unfounded matters, as being +likely to give the Prince annoyance and displeasure. He had however +always kept within himself the resolution duly to notify him in case he +found that any belief was attached to the reports in Paris. "But the +reports," he said, "were popular and calumnious inventions of which no +man had ever been willing or able to name to him the authors." + +The Ambassador's memory was treacherous, and he had doubtless neglected +to read over the minutes, if he had kept them, of his wonderful +disclosures on the subject of the sovereignty before thus exculpating +himself. It will be remembered that he had narrated the story of the plot +for conferring sovereignty upon Maurice not as a popular calumny flying +about Paris with no man to father it, but he had given it to Barneveld on +the authority of a privy councillor of France and of the King himself. +"His Majesty knows it to be authentic," he had said in his letter. That +letter was a pompous one, full of mystery and so secretly ciphered that +he had desired that his friend van der Myle, whom he was now deriding for +his efforts in Paris to save his father-inlaw from his fate, might assist +the Advocate in unravelling its contents. He had now discovered that it +had been idle gossip not worthy of a moment's attention. + +The reader will remember too that Barneveld, without attaching much +importance to the tale, had distinctly pointed out to Langerac that the +Prince himself was not implicated in the plot and had instructed the +Ambassador to communicate the story to Maurice. This advice had not been +taken, but he had kept the perilous stuff upon his breast. He now sought +to lay the blame, if it were possible to do so, upon the man to whom he +had communicated it and who had not believed it. + +The business of the States-General, led by the Advocate's enemies this +winter, was to accumulate all kind of tales, reports, and accusations to +his discredit on which to form something like a bill of indictment. They +had demanded all his private and confidential correspondence with Caron +and Langerae. The ambassador in Paris had been served, moreover, with a +string of nine interrogatories which he was ordered to answer on oath and +honour. This he did and appended the reply to his letter. + +The nine questions had simply for their object to discover what Barneveld +had been secretly writing to the Ambassador concerning the Synod, the +enlisted troops, and the supposed projects of Maurice concerning the +sovereignty. Langerac was obliged to admit in his replies that nothing +had been written except the regular correspondence which he endorsed, and +of which the reader has been able to see the sum and substance in the +copious extracts which have been given. + +He stated also that he had never received any secret instructions save +the marginal notes to the list of questions addressed by him, when about +leaving for Paris in 1614, to Barneveld. Most of these were of a trivial +and commonplace nature. + +They had however a direct bearing on the process to be instituted against +the Advocate, and the letter too which we have been examining will prove +to be of much importance. Certainly pains enough were taken to detect the +least trace of treason in a very loyal correspondence. Langerac concluded +by enclosing the Barneveld correspondence since the beginning of the year +1614, protesting that not a single letter had been kept back or +destroyed. "Once more I recommend myself to mercy, if not to favour," he +added, "as the most faithful, most obedient, most zealous servant of +their High Mightinesses and your princely Grace, to whom I have devoted +and sacrificed my honour and life in most humble service; and am now and +forever the most humble, most obedient, most faithful servant of my most +serene, most illustrious, most highly born Prince, most gracious Lord and +princeliest Grace." + +The former adherent of plain Advocate Barneveld could hardly find +superlatives enough to bestow upon the man whose displeasure that +prisoner had incurred. + +Directly after the arrest the Stadholder had resumed his tour through the +Provinces in order to change the governments. Sliding over any opposition +which recent events had rendered idle, his course in every city was +nearly the same. A regiment or two and a train of eighty or a hundred +waggons coming through the city-gate preceded by the Prince and his +body-guard of 300, a tramp of halberdmen up the great staircase of the +town-hall, a jingle of spurs in the assembly-room, and the whole board of +magistrates were summoned into the presence of the Stadholder. They were +then informed that the world had no further need of their services, and +were allowed to bow themselves out of the presence. A new list was then +announced, prepared beforehand by Maurice on the suggestion of those on +whom he could rely. A faint resistance was here and there attempted by +magistrates and burghers who could not forget in a moment the rights of +self-government and the code of laws which had been enjoyed for +centuries. At Hoorn, for instance, there was deep indignation among the +citizens. An imprudent word or two from the authorities might have +brought about a "blood-bath." + +The burgomaster ventured indeed to expostulate. They requested the Prince +not to change the magistracy. "This is against our privileges," they +said, "which it is our duty to uphold. You will see what deep displeasure +will seize the burghers, and how much disturbance and tumult will follow. +If any faults have been committed by any member of the government, let +him be accused and let him answer for them. Let your Excellency not only +dismiss but punish such as cannot properly justify themselves." + +But his Excellency summoned them all to the town-house and as usual +deposed them all. A regiment was drawn up in half-moon on the square +beneath the windows. To the magistrates asking why they were deposed, he +briefly replied, "The quiet of the land requires it. It is necessary to +have unanimous resolutions in the States-General at the Hague. This +cannot be accomplished without these preliminary changes. I believe that +you had good intentions and have been faithful servants of the +Fatherland. But this time it must be so." + +And so the faithful servants of the Fatherland were dismissed into space. +Otherwise how could there be unanimous voting in parliament? It must be +regarded perhaps as fortunate that the force of character, undaunted +courage, and quiet decision of Maurice enabled him to effect this violent +series of revolutions with such masterly simplicity. It is questionable +whether the Stadholder's commission technically empowered him thus to +trample on municipal law; it is certain that, if it did, the boasted +liberties of the Netherlands were a dream; but it is equally true that, +in the circumstances then existing, a vulgar, cowardly, or incompetent +personage might have marked his pathway with massacres without restoring +tranquillity. + +Sometimes there was even a comic aspect to these strokes of state. The +lists of new magistrates being hurriedly furnished by the Prince's +adherents to supply the place of those evicted, it often happened that +men not quahified by property, residence, or other attributes were +appointed to the government, so that many became magistrates before they +were citizens. + +On being respectfully asked sometimes who such a magistrate might be +whose face and name were equally unknown to his colleagues and to the +townsmen in general; "Do I know the fellows?" he would say with a +cheerful laugh. And indeed they might have all been dead men, those new +functionaries, for aught he did know. And so on through Medemblik and +Alkmaar, Brielle, Delft, Monnikendam, and many other cities progressed +the Prince, sowing new municipalities broadcast as he passed along. At +the Hague on his return a vote of thanks to the Prince was passed by the +nobles and most of the cities for the trouble he had taken in this +reforming process. But the unanimous vote had not yet been secured, the +strongholds of Arminianism, as it was the fashion to call them, not being +yet reduced. + +The Prince, in reply to the vote of thanks, said that "in what he had +done and was going to do his intention sincerely and uprightly had been +no other than to promote the interests and tranquillity of the country, +without admixture of anything personal and without prejudice to the +general commonwealth or the laws and privileges of the cities." He +desired further that "note might be taken of this declaration as record +of his good and upright intentions." + +But the sincerest and most upright intentions may be refracted by party +atmosphere from their aim, and the purest gold from the mint elude the +direct grasp through the clearest fluid in existence. At any rate it +would have been difficult to convince the host of deposed magistrates +hurled from office, although recognized as faithful servants of the +Fatherland, that such violent removal had taken place without detriment +to the laws and privileges. + +And the Stadholder went to the few cities where some of the leaven still +lingered. + +He arrived at Leyden on the 22nd October, "accompanied by a great suite +of colonels, ritmeesters, and captains," having sent on his body-guard to +the town strengthened by other troops. He was received by the magistrates +at the "Prince's Court" with great reverence and entertained by them in +the evening at a magnificent banquet. + +Next morning he summoned the whole forty of them to the town-house, +disbanded them all, and appointed new ones in their stead; some of the +old members however who could be relied upon being admitted to the +revolutionized board. + +The populace, mainly of the Stadholder's party, made themselves merry +over the discomfited "Arminians". They hung wisps of straw as derisive +wreaths of triumph over the dismantled palisade lately encircling the +town-hall, disposed of the famous "Oldenbarneveld's teeth" at auction in +the public square, and chased many a poor cock and hen, with their +feathers completely plucked from their bodies, about the street, crying +"Arme haenen, arme haenen"--Arminians or poor fowls--according to the +practical witticism much esteemed at that period. Certainly the +unfortunate Barneveldians or Arminians, or however the Remonstrants might +be designated, had been sufficiently stripped of their plumes. + +The Prince, after having made proclamation from the town-house enjoining +"modesty upon the mob" and a general abstention from "perverseness and +petulance," went his way to Haarlem, where he dismissed the magistrates +and appointed new ones, and then proceeded to Rotterdam, to Gouda, and to +Amsterdam. + +It seemed scarcely necessary to carry, out the process in the commercial +capital, the abode of Peter Plancius, the seat of the West India Company, +the head-quarters of all most opposed to the Advocate, most devoted to +the Stadholder. But although the majority of the city government was an +overwhelming one, there was still a respectable minority who, it was +thought possible, might under a change of circumstances effect much +mischief and even grow into a majority. + +The Prince therefore summoned the board before him according to his usual +style of proceeding and dismissed them all. They submitted without a word +of remonstrance. + +Ex-Burgomaster Hooft, a man of seventy-two-father of the illustrious +Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, one of the greatest historians of the +Netherlands or of any country, then a man of thirty-seven-shocked at the +humiliating silence, asked his colleagues if they had none of them a word +to say in defence of their laws and privileges. + +They answered with one accord "No." + +The old man, a personal friend of Barneveld and born the same year, then +got on his feet and addressed the Stadholder. He spoke manfully and well, +characterizing the summary deposition of the magistracy as illegal and +unnecessary, recalling to the memory of those who heard him that he had +been thirty-six years long a member of the government and always a warm +friend of the House of Nassau, and respectfully submitting that the small +minority in the municipal government, while differing from their +colleagues and from the greater number of the States-General, had limited +their opposition to strictly constitutional means, never resorting to +acts of violence or to secret conspiracy. + +Nothing could be more truly respectable than the appearance of this +ancient magistrate, in long black robe with fur edgings, high ruff around +his thin, pointed face, and decent skull-cap covering his bald old head, +quavering forth to unsympathetic ears a temperate and unanswerable +defence of things which in all ages the noblest minds have deemed most +valuable. + +His harangue was not very long. Maurice's reply was very short. + +"Grandpapa," he said, "it must be so this time. Necessity and the service +of the country require it." + +With that he dismissed the thirty-six magistrates and next day appointed +a new board, who were duly sworn to fidelity to the States-General. Of +course a large proportion of the old members were renominated. + +Scarcely had the echo of the Prince's footsteps ceased to resound through +the country as he tramped from one city to another, moulding each to his +will, when the States of Holland, now thoroughly reorganized, passed a +solemn vote of thanks to him for all that he had done. The six cities of +the minority had now become the majority, and there was unanimity at the +Hague. The Seven Provinces, States-General and States-Provincial, were as +one, and the Synod was secured. Whether the prize was worth the +sacrifices which it had cost and was still to cost might at least be +considered doubtful. + + ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + + Affection of his friends and the wrath of his enemies + Depths theological party spirit could descend + Extraordinary capacity for yielding to gentle violence + Human nature in its meanness and shame + It had not yet occurred to him that he was married + Make the very name of man a term of reproach + Never lack of fishers in troubled waters + Opposed the subjection of the magistracy by the priesthood + Pot-valiant hero + Resolve to maintain the civil authority over the military + Tempest of passion and prejudice + The effect of energetic, uncompromising calumny + Yes, there are wicked men about + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. 1618-19 + + Rancour between the Politico-Religious Parties--Spanish Intrigues + Inconsistency of James--Brewster and Robinson's Congregation at + Leyden--They decide to leave for America--Robinson's Farewell Sermon + and Prayer at Parting. + +During this dark and mournful winter the internal dissensions and, as a +matter of course, the foreign intrigues had become more dangerous than +ever. While the man who for a whole generation had guided the policy of +the Republic and had been its virtual chief magistrate lay hidden from +all men's sight, the troubles which he had sought to avert were not +diminished by his removal from the scene. The extreme or Gomarist party +which had taken a pride in secret conventicles where they were in a +minority, determined, as they said, to separate Christ from Belial and, +meditating the triumph which they had at last secured, now drove the +Arminians from the great churches. Very soon it was impossible for these +heretics to enjoy the rights of public worship anywhere. But they were +not dismayed. The canons of Dordtrecht had not yet been fulminated. They +avowed themselves ready to sacrifice worldly goods and life itself in +defence of the Five Points. In Rotterdam, notwithstanding a garrison of +fifteen companies, more than a thousand Remonstrants assembled on +Christmas-day in the Exchange for want of a more appropriate place of +meeting and sang the 112th Psalm in mighty chorus. A clergyman of their +persuasion accidentally passing through the street was forcibly laid +hands upon and obliged to preach to them, which he did with great +unction. The magistracy, where now the Contra-Remonstrants had the +control, forbade, under severe penalties, a repetition of such scenes. It +was impossible not to be reminded of the days half a century before, when +the early Reformers had met in the open fields or among the dunes, armed +to the teeth, and with outlying pickets to warn the congregation of the +approach of Red Rod and the functionaries of the Holy Inquisition. + +In Schoonhoven the authorities attempted one Sunday by main force to +induct a Contra-Remonstrant into the pulpit from which a Remonstrant had +just been expelled. The women of the place turned out with their distaffs +and beat them from the field. The garrison was called out, and there was +a pitched battle in the streets between soldiers, police officers, and +women, not much to the edification certainly of the Sabbath-loving +community on either side, the victory remaining with the ladies. + +In short it would be impossible to exaggerate the rancour felt between +the different politico-religious parties. All heed for the great war now +raging in the outside world between the hostile elements of Catholicism +and Protestantism, embattled over an enormous space, was lost in the din +of conflict among the respective supporters of conditional and +unconditional damnation within the pale of the Reformed Church. The +earthquake shaking Europe rolled unheeded, as it was of old said to have +done at Cannae, amid the fierce shock of mortal foes in that narrow +field. + +The respect for authority which had so long been the distinguishing +characteristic of the Netherlanders seemed to have disappeared. It was +difficult--now that the time-honoured laws and privileges in defence of +which, and of liberty of worship included in them, the Provinces had made +war forty years long had been trampled upon by military force--for those +not warmed by the fire of Gomarus to feel their ancient respect for the +magistracy. The magistracy at that moment seemed to mean the sword. + +The Spanish government was inevitably encouraged by the spectacle thus +presented. We have seen the strong hopes entertained by the council at +Madrid, two years before the crisis now existing had occurred. We have +witnessed the eagerness with which the King indulged the dream of +recovering the sovereignty which his father had lost, and the vast +schemes which he nourished towards that purpose, founded on the internal +divisions which were reducing the Republic to impotence. Subsequent +events had naturally made him more sanguine than ever. There was now a +web of intrigue stretching through the Provinces to bring them all back +under the sceptre of Spain. The imprisonment of the great stipendiary, +the great conspirator, the man who had sold himself and was on the point +of selling his country, had not terminated those plots. Where was the +supposed centre of that intrigue? In the council of state of the +Netherlands, ever fiercely opposed to Barneveld and stuffed full of his +mortal enemies. Whose name was most familiar on the lips of the Spanish +partisans engaged in these secret schemes? That of Adrian Manmaker, +President of the Council, representative of Prince Maurice as first noble +of Zealand in the States-General, chairman of the committee sent by that +body to Utrecht to frustrate the designs of the Advocate, and one of the +twenty-four commissioners soon to be appointed to sit in judgment upon +him. + +The tale seems too monstrous for belief, nor is it to be admitted with +certainty, that Manmaker and the other councillors implicated had +actually given their adhesion to the plot, because the Spanish emissaries +in their correspondence with the King assured him of the fact. But if +such a foundation for suspicion could have been found against Barneveld +and his friends, the world would not have heard the last of it from that +hour to this. + +It is superfluous to say that the Prince was entirely foreign to these +plans. He had never been mentioned as privy to the little arrangements of +Councillor du Agean and others, although he was to benefit by them. In +the Spanish schemes he seems to have been considered as an impediment, +although indirectly they might tend to advance him. + +"We have managed now, I hope, that his Majesty will be recognized as +sovereign of the country," wrote the confidential agent of the King of +Spain in the Netherlands, Emmanuel Sueyro, to the government of Madrid. +"The English will oppose it with all their strength. But they can do +nothing except by making Count Maurice sovereign of Holland and duke of +Julich and Cleve. Maurice will also contrive to make himself master of +Wesel, so it is necessary for the Archduke to be beforehand with him and +make sure of the place. It is also needful that his Majesty should induce +the French government to talk with the Netherlanders and convince them +that it is time to prolong the Truce." + +This was soon afterwards accomplished. The French minister at Brussels +informed Archduke Albert that du Maurier had been instructed to propose +the prolongation, and that he had been conferring with the Prince of +Orange and the States-General on the subject. At first the Prince had +expressed disinclination, but at the last interview both he and the +States had shown a desire for it, and the French King had requested from +the Archduke a declaration whether the Spanish government would be +willing to treat for it. In such case Lewis would offer himself as +mediator and do his best to bring about a successful result. + +But it was not the intention of the conspirators in the Netherlands that +the Truce should be prolonged. On the contrary the negotiation for it was +merely to furnish the occasion for fully developing their plot. "The +States and especially those of Zealand will reply that they no longer +wish the Truce," continued Sueyro, "and that they would prefer war to +such a truce. They desire to put ships on the coast of Flanders, to which +the Hollanders are opposed because it would be disagreeable to the +French. So the Zealanders will be the first to say that the Netherlanders +must come back to his Majesty. This their President Hanmaker has sworn. +The States of Overyssel will likewise give their hand to this because +they say they will be the first to feel the shock of the war. Thus we +shall very easily carry out our design, and as we shall concede to the +Zealanders their demands in regard to the navigation they at least will +place themselves under the dominion of his Majesty as will be the case +with Friesland as well as Overyssel." + +It will be observed that in this secret arrangement for selling the +Republic to its ancient master it was precisely the Provinces and the +politicians most steadily opposed to Barneveld that took the lead. +Zealand, Friesland, Overyssel were in the plot, but not a word was said +of Utrecht. As for Holland itself, hopes were founded on the places where +hatred to the Advocate was fiercest. + +"Between ourselves," continued the agent, "we are ten here in the +government of Holland to support the plan, but we must not discover +ourselves for fear of suffering what has happened to Barneveld." + +He added that the time for action had not yet come, and that if movements +were made before the Synod had finished its labours, "The Gomarists would +say that they were all sold." He implored the government at Madrid to +keep the whole matter for the present profoundly secret because "Prince +Maurice and the Gomarists had the forces of the country at their +disposition." In case the plot was sprung too suddenly therefore, he +feared that with the assistance of England Maurice might, at the head of +the Gomarists and the army, make himself sovereign of Holland and Duke of +Cleve, while he and the rest of the Spanish partisans might be in prison +with Barneveld for trying to accomplish what Barneveld had been trying to +prevent. + +The opinions and utterances of such a man as James I. would be of little +worth to our history had he not happened to occupy the place he did. But +he was a leading actor in the mournful drama which filled up the whole +period of the Twelve Years' Truce. His words had a direct influence on +great events. He was a man of unquestionable erudition, of powers of mind +above the average, while the absolute deformity of his moral constitution +made him incapable of thinking, feeling, or acting rightly on any vital +subject, by any accident or on any occasion. If there were one thing that +he thoroughly hated in the world, it was the Reformed religion. If in his +thought there were one term of reproach more loathsome than another to be +applied to a human creature, it was the word Puritan. In the word was +subversion of all established authority in Church and State--revolution, +republicanism, anarchy. "There are degrees in Heaven," he was wont to +say, "there are degrees in Hell, there must be degrees on earth." + +He forbade the Calvinist Churches of Scotland to hold their customary +Synod in 1610, passionately reviling them and their belief, and declaring +"their aim to be nothing else than to deprive kings and princes of their +sovereignty, and to reduce the whole world to a popular form of +government where everybody would be master." + +When the Prince of Neuburg embraced Catholicism, thus complicating +matters in the duchies and strengthening the hand of Spain and the +Emperor in the debateable land, he seized the occasion to assure the +agent of the Archduke in London, Councillor Boissetot, of his warm +Catholic sympathies. "They say that I am the greatest heretic in the +world!" he exclaimed; "but I will never deny that the true religion is +that of Rome even if corrupted." He expressed his belief in the real +presence, and his surprise that the Roman Catholics did not take the +chalice for the blood of Christ. The English bishops, he averred, drew +their consecration through the bishops in Mary Tudor's time from the +Pope. + +As Philip II., and Ferdinand II. echoing the sentiments of his +illustrious uncle, had both sworn they would rather reign in a wilderness +than tolerate a single heretic in their dominions, so James had said "he +would rather be a hermit in a forest than a king over such people as the +pack of Puritans were who overruled the lower house." + +For the Netherlanders he had an especial hatred, both as rebels and +Puritans. Soon after coming to the English throne he declared that their +revolt, which had been going on all his lifetime and of which he never +expected to see the end, had begun by petition for matters of religion. +"His mother and he from their cradles," he said, "had been haunted with a +Puritan devil, which he feared would not leave him to his grave. And he +would hazard his crown but he would suppress those malicious spirits." It +seemed a strange caprice of Destiny that assigned to this hater of +Netherlanders, of Puritans, and of the Reformed religion, the decision of +disputed points between Puritans and anti-Puritans in the Reformed Church +of the Netherlands. + +It seemed stranger that his opinions should be hotly on the side of the +Puritans. + +Barneveld, who often used the expression in later years, as we have seen +in his correspondence, was opposed to the Dutch Puritans because they had +more than once attempted subversion of the government on pretext of +religion, especially at the memorable epoch of Leicester's government. + +The business of stirring up these religious conspiracies against the +magistracy he was apt to call "Flanderizing," in allusion to those +disastrous days and to the origin of the ringleaders in those tumults. +But his main object, as we have seen, was to effect compromises and +restore good feeling between members of the one church, reserving the +right of disposing over religious matters to the government of the +respective provinces. + +But James had remedied his audacious inconsistency by discovering that +Puritanism in England and in the Netherlands resembled each other no more +than certain letters transposed into totally different words meant one +and the same thing. The anagrammatic argument had been neatly put by Sir +Dudley Carleton, convincing no man. Puritanism in England "denied the +right of human invention or imposition in religious matters." Puritanism +in the Netherlands denied the right of the legal government to impose its +authority in religious matters. This was the great matter of debate in +the Provinces. In England the argument had been settled very summarily +against the Puritans by sheriffs' officers, bishops' pursuivants, and +county jails. + +As the political tendencies, so too the religious creed and observances +of the English Puritans were identical with that of the +Contra-Remonstrants, whom King James had helped to their great triumph. +This was not very difficult to prove. It so happened that there were some +English Puritans living at that moment in Leyden. They formed an +independent society by themselves, which they called a Congregational +Church, and in which were some three hundred communicants. The length of +their residence there was almost exactly coeval with the Twelve Years' +Truce. They knew before leaving England that many relics of the Roman +ceremonial, with which they were dissatisfied, and for the discontinuance +of which they had in vain petitioned the crown--the ring, the sign of the +cross, white surplices, and the like--besides the whole hierarchical +system, had been disused in the Reformed Churches of France, Switzerland, +and the United Provinces, where the forms of worship in their view had +been brought more nearly to the early apostolic model. They admitted for +truth the doctrinal articles of the Dutch Reformed Churches. They had not +come to the Netherlands without cause. At an early period of King James's +reign this congregation of seceders from the establishment had been wont +to hold meetings at Scrooby in Nottinghamshire, once a manor of the +Archbishop of York, but then the residence of one William Brewster. This +was a gentleman of some fortune, educated at Cambridge, a good scholar, +who in Queen Elizabeth's time had been in the service of William Davison +when Secretary of State. He seemed to have been a confidential private +secretary of that excellent and unlucky statesman, who found him so +discreet and faithful as to deserve employment before all others in +matters of trust and secrecy. He was esteemed by Davison "rather as a son +than a servant," and he repaid his confidence by doing him many faithful +offices in the time of his troubles. He had however long since retired +from connection with public affairs, living a retired life, devoted to +study, meditation, and practical exertion to promote the cause of +religion, and in acts of benevolence sometimes beyond his means. + +The pastor of the Scrooby Church, one John Robinson, a graduate of +Cambridge, who had been a benefited clergyman in Norfolk, was a man of +learning, eloquence, and lofty intellect. But what were such good gifts +in the possession of rebels, seceders, and Puritans? It is needless to +say that Brewster and Robinson were baited, persecuted, watched day and +night, some of the congregation often clapped into prison, others into +the stocks, deprived of the means of livelihood, outlawed, famished, +banned. Plainly their country was no place for them. After a few years of +such work they resolved to establish themselves in Holland, where at +least they hoped to find refuge and toleration. + +But it proved as difficult for them to quit the country as to remain in +it. Watched and hunted like gangs of coiners, forgers, or other felons +attempting to flee from justice, set upon by troopers armed with "bills +and guns and other weapons," seized when about to embark, pillaged and +stripped by catchpoles, exhibited as a show to grinning country folk, the +women and children dealt with like drunken tramps, led before +magistrates, committed to jail; Mr. Brewster and six other of the +principal ones being kept in prison and bound over to the assizes; they +were only able after attempts lasting through two years' time to effect +their escape to Amsterdam. After remaining there a year they had removed +to Leyden, which they thought "a fair and beautiful city, and of a sweet +situation." + +They settled in Leyden in the very year in which Arminius was buried +beneath the pavement of St. Peter's Church in that town. It was the year +too in which the Truce was signed. They were a singularly tranquil and +brotherly community. Their pastor, who was endowed with remarkable +gentleness and tact in dealing with his congregation, settled amicably +all their occasional disputes. The authorities of the place held them up +as a model. To a Walloon congregation in which there were many +troublesome and litigious members they said: "These English have lived +among us ten years, and yet we never had any suit or accusation against +any of them, but your quarrels are continual." + +Although many of them were poor, finding it difficult to earn their +living in a foreign land among people speaking a strange tongue, and with +manners and habits differing from their own, and where they were obliged +to learn new trades, having most of them come out of an agricultural +population, yet they enjoyed a singular reputation for probity. Bakers +and butchers and the like willingly gave credit to the poorest of these +English, and sought their custom if known to be of the congregation. Mr. +Brewster, who had been reduced almost to poverty by his charities and +munificent aid to his struggling brethren, earned his living by giving +lessons in English, having first composed a grammar according to the +Latin model for the use of his pupils. He also set up a printing +establishment, publishing many controversial works prohibited in England, +a proceeding which roused the wrath of Carleton, impelling him to do his +best to have him thrown into prison. + +It was not the first time that this plain, mechanical, devout Englishman, +now past middle age, had visited the Netherlands. More than twenty-five +years before he had accompanied William Davison on his famous embassy to +the States, as private secretary. + +When the keys of Flushing, one of the cautionary towns, were committed to +the Ambassador, he confided them to the care of Brewster, who slept with +them under his pillow. The gold chain which Davison received as a present +from the provincial government on leaving the country was likewise placed +in his keeping, with orders to wear it around his neck until they should +appear before the Queen. To a youth of ease and affluence, familiar with +ambassadors and statesmen and not unknown at courts, had succeeded a +mature age of obscurity, deep study, and poverty. No human creature would +have heard of him had his career ended with his official life. Two +centuries and a half have passed away and the name of the outlawed +Puritan of Scrooby and Leyden is still familiar to millions of the +English race. + +All these Englishmen were not poor. Many of them occupied houses of fair +value, and were admitted to the freedom of the city. The pastor with +three of his congregation lived in a comfortable mansion, which they had +purchased for the considerable sum of 8000 florins, and on the garden of +which they subsequently erected twenty-one lesser tenements for the use +of the poorer brethren. + +Mr. Robinson was himself chosen a member of the famous university and +admitted to its privileges. During his long residence in Leyden, besides +the daily care of his congregation, spiritual and temporal, he wrote many +learned works. + +Thus the little community, which grew gradually larger by emigration from +England, passed many years of tranquillity. Their footsteps were not +dogged by constables and pursuivants, they were not dragged daily before +the magistrates, they were not thrown into the town jails, they were not +hunted from place to place with bows and bills and mounted musketeers. +They gave offence to none, and were respected by all. "Such was their +singleheartedness and sincere affection one towards another," says their +historian and magistrate, "that they came as near the primitive pattern +of the first churches as any other church of these later times has done, +according to their rank and quality." + +Here certainly were English Puritans more competent than any men else in +the world to judge if it were a slander upon the English government to +identify them with Dutch Puritans. Did they sympathize with the party in +Holland which the King, who had so scourged and trampled upon themselves +in England, was so anxious to crush, the hated Arminians? Did they abhor +the Contra-Remonstrants whom James and his ambassador Carleton doted upon +and whom Barneveld called "Double Puritans" and "Flanderizers?" + +Their pastor may answer for himself and his brethren. + +"We profess before God and men," said Robinson in his Apologia, "that we +agree so entirely with the Reformed Dutch Churches in the matter of +religion as to be ready to subscribe to all and each of their articles +exactly as they are set forth in the Netherland Confession. We +acknowledge those Reformed Churches as true and genuine, we profess and +cultivate communion with them as much as in us lies. Those of us who +understand the Dutch language attend public worship under their pastors. +We administer the Holy Supper to such of their members as, known to us, +appear at our meetings." This was the position of the Puritans. Absolute, +unqualified accordance with the Contra-Remonstrants. + +As the controversy grew hot in the university between the Arminians and +their adversaries, Mr. Robinson, in the language of his friend Bradford, +became "terrible to the Arminians . . . . who so greatly molested the +whole state and that city in particular." + +When Episcopius, the Arminian professor of theology, set forth sundry +theses, challenging all the world to the onset, it was thought that "none +was fitter to buckle with them" than Robinson. The orthodox professor +Polyander so importuned the English Puritan to enter the lists on behalf +of the Contra-Remonstrants that at last he consented and overthrew the +challenger, horse and man, in three successive encounters. Such at least +was the account given by his friend and admirer the historian. "The Lord +did so help him to defend the truth and foil this adversary as he put him +to an apparent nonplus in this great and public audience. And the like he +did a second or third time upon such like occasions," said Bradford, +adding that, if it had not been for fear of offending the English +government, the university would have bestowed preferments and honours +upon the champion. + +We are concerned with this ancient and exhausted controversy only for the +intense light it threw, when burning, on the history which occupies us. + +Of the extinct volcano itself which once caused such devastation, and in +which a great commonwealth was well-nigh swallowed up, little is left but +slag and cinders. The past was made black and barren with them. Let us +disturb them as little as possible. + +The little English congregation remained at Leyden till toward the end of +the Truce, thriving, orderly, respected, happy. They were witnesses to +the tumultuous, disastrous, and tragical events which darkened the +Republic in those later years, themselves unobserved and unmolested. Not +a syllable seems to remain on record of the views or emotions which may +have been excited by those scenes in their minds, nor is there a trace +left on the national records of the Netherlands of their protracted +residence on the soil. + +They got their living as best they might by weaving, printing, spinning, +and other humble trades; they borrowed money on mortgages, they built +houses, they made wills, and such births, deaths, and marriages as +occurred among them were registered by the town-clerk. + +And at last for a variety of reasons they resolved to leave the +Netherlands. Perhaps the solution of the problem between Church and State +in that country by the temporary subjection of State to Church may have +encouraged them to realize a more complete theocracy, if a sphere of +action could be found where the experiment might be tried without a +severe battle against time-hallowed institutions and vested rights. +Perhaps they were appalled by the excesses into which men of their own +religious sentiments had been carried by theological and political +passion. At any rate depart they would; the larger half of the +congregation remaining behind however till the pioneers should have +broken the way, and in their own language "laid the stepping-stones." + +They had thought of the lands beneath the Equator, Raleigh having +recently excited enthusiasm by his poetical descriptions of Guiana. But +the tropical scheme was soon abandoned. They had opened negotiations with +the Stadholder and the States-General through Amsterdam merchants in +regard to settling in New Amsterdam, and offered to colonize that country +if assured of the protection of the United Provinces. Their petition had +been rejected. They had then turned their faces to their old master and +their own country, applying to the Virginia Company for a land-patent, +which they were only too happy to promise, and to the King for liberty of +religion in the wilderness confirmed under his broad seal, which his +Majesty of course refused. It was hinted however that James would connive +at them and not molest them if they carried themselves peaceably. So they +resolved to go without the seal, for, said their magistrate very wisely, +"if there should be a purpose or desire to wrong them, a seal would not +serve their turn though it were as broad as the house-floor." + +Before they left Leyden, their pastor preached to them a farewell sermon, +which for loftiness of spirit and breadth of vision has hardly a parallel +in that age of intolerance. He laid down the principle that criticism of +the Scriptures had not been exhausted merely because it had been begun; +that the human conscience was of too subtle a nature to be imprisoned for +ever in formulas however ingeniously devised; that the religious +reformation begun a century ago was not completed; and that the Creator +had not necessarily concluded all His revelations to mankind. + +The words have long been familiar to students of history, but they can +hardly be too often laid to heart. + +Noble words, worthy to have been inscribed over the altar of the first +church to be erected by the departing brethren, words to bear fruit after +centuries should go by. Had not the deeply injured and misunderstood +Grotius already said, "If the trees we plant do not shade us, they will +yet serve for our descendants?" + +Yet it is passing strange that the preacher of that sermon should be the +recent champion of the Contra-Remonstrants in the great controversy; the +man who had made himself so terrible to the pupils of the gentle and +tolerant Arminius. + +And thus half of that English congregation went down to Delftshaven, +attended by the other half who were to follow at a later period with +their beloved pastor. There was a pathetic leave-taking. Even many of the +Hollanders, mere casual spectators, were in tears. + +Robinson, kneeling on the deck of the little vessel, offered a prayer and +a farewell. Who could dream that this departure of an almost nameless +band of emigrants to the wilderness was an epoch in the world's history? +Yet these were the Pilgrim Fathers of New England, the founders of what +was to be the mightiest republic of modern history, mighty and stable +because it had been founded upon an idea. + +They were not in search of material comfort and the chances of elevating +their condition, by removing from an overpeopled country to an organized +Commonwealth, offering a wide field for pauper labourers. Some of them +were of good social rank and highest education, most of them in decent +circumstances, none of them in absolute poverty. And a few years later +they were to be joined by a far larger company with leaders and many +brethren of ancient birth and landed possessions, men of "education, +figure; and estate," all ready to convert property into cash and to place +it in joint-stock, not as the basis of promising speculation, but as the +foundation of a church. + +It signifies not how much or how little one may sympathize with their +dogma or their discipline now. To the fact that the early settlement of +that wilderness was by self-sacrificing men of earnestness and faith, who +were bent on "advancing the Gospel of Christ in remote parts of the +world," in the midst of savage beasts, more savage men, and unimaginable +difficulties and dangers, there can be little doubt that the highest +forms of Western civilization are due. Through their provisional +theocracy, the result of the independent church system was to establish +the true purport of the Reformation, absolute religious equality. Civil +and political equality followed as a matter of course. + +Two centuries and a half have passed away. + +There are now some seventy or eighty millions of the English-speaking +race on both sides the Atlantic, almost equally divided between the +United Kingdom and the United Republic, and the departure of those +outcasts of James has interest and significance for them all. + +Most fitly then, as a distinguished American statesman has remarked, does +that scene on board the little English vessel, with the English pastor +uttering his farewell blessing to a handful of English exiles for +conscience sake; depicted on canvas by eminent artists, now adorn the +halls of the American Congress and of the British Parliament. Sympathy +with one of the many imperishable bonds of union between the two great +and scarcely divided peoples. + +We return to Barneveld in his solitary prison. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + Barneveld's Imprisonment--Ledenberg's Examination and Death-- + Remonstrance of De Boississe--Aerssens admitted to the order of + Knights--Trial of the Advocate--Barneveld's Defence--The States + proclaim a Public Fast--Du Maurier's Speech before the Assembly-- + Barneveld's Sentence--Barneveld prepares for Death--Goes to + Execution. + +The Advocate had been removed within a few days after the arrest from the +chamber in Maurice's apartments, where he had originally been confined, +and was now in another building. + +It was not a dungeon nor a jail. Indeed the commonplace and domestic +character of the scenery in which these great events were transacted has +in it something pathetic. There was and still remains a two-storied +structure, then of modern date, immediately behind the antique hall of +the old Counts within the Binnenhof. On the first floor was a courtroom +of considerable extent, the seat of one of the chief tribunals of justice +The story above was divided into three chambers with a narrow corridor on +each side. The first chamber, on the north-eastern side, was appropriated +for the judges when the state prisoners should be tried. In the next Hugo +Grotius was imprisoned. In the third was Barneveld. There was a tower at +the north-east angle of the building, within which a winding and narrow +staircase of stone led up to the corridor and so to the prisoners' +apartments. Rombout Hoogerbeets was confined in another building. + +As the Advocate, bent with age and a life of hard work, and leaning on +his staff, entered the room appropriated to him, after toiling up the +steep staircase, he observed-- + +"This is the Admiral of Arragon's apartment." + +It was true. Eighteen years before, the conqueror of Nieuwpoort had +assigned this lodging to the chief prisoner of war in that memorable +victory over the Spaniards, and now Maurice's faithful and trusted +counsellor at that epoch was placed in durance here, as the result of the +less glorious series of victories which had just been achieved. + +It was a room of moderate dimensions, some twenty-five feet square, with +a high vaulted roof and decently furnished. Below and around him in the +courtyard were the scenes of the Advocate's life-long and triumphant +public services. There in the opposite building were the windows of the +beautiful "Hall of Truce," with its sumptuous carvings and gildings, its +sculptures and portraits, where he had negotiated with the +representatives of all the great powers of Christendom the famous Treaty +which had suspended the war of forty years, and where he was wont almost +daily to give audience to the envoys of the greatest sovereigns or the +least significant states of Europe and Asia, all of whom had been ever +solicitous of his approbation and support. + +Farther along in the same building was the assembly room of the +States-General, where some of the most important affairs of the Republic +and of Europe had for years been conducted, and where he had been so +indispensable that, in the words of a contemporary who loved him not, +"absolutely nothing could be transacted in his absence, all great affairs +going through him alone." + +There were two dull windows, closely barred, looking northward over an +irregular assemblage of tile-roofed houses and chimney-stacks, while +within a stone's throw to the west, but unseen, was his own elegant +mansion on the Voorhout, surrounded by flower gardens and shady pleasure +grounds, where now sat his aged wife and her children all plunged in deep +affliction. + +He was allowed the attendance of a faithful servant, Jan Franken by name, +and a sentinel stood constantly before his door. His papers had been +taken from him, and at first he was deprived of writing materials. + +He had small connection with the outward world. The news of the municipal +revolution which had been effected by the Stadholder had not penetrated +to his solitude, but his wife was allowed to send him fruit from their +garden. One day a basket of fine saffron pears was brought to him. On +slicing one with a knife he found a portion of a quill inside it. Within +the quill was a letter on thinnest paper, in minutest handwriting in +Latin. It was to this effect. + +"Don't rely upon the States of Holland, for the Prince of Orange has +changed the magistracies in many cities. Dudley Carleton is not your +friend." + +A sergeant of the guard however, before bringing in these pears, had put +a couple of them in his pocket to take home to his wife. The letter, +copies of which perhaps had been inserted for safety in several of them, +was thus discovered and the use of this ingenious device prevented for +the future. + +Secretary Ledenberg, who had been brought to the Hague in the early days +of September, was the first of the prisoners subjected to examination. He +was much depressed at the beginning of it, and is said to have exclaimed +with many sighs, "Oh Barneveld, Barneveld, what have you brought us to!" + +He confessed that the Waartgelders at Utrecht had been enlisted on +notification by the Utrecht deputies in the Hague with knowledge of +Barneveld, and in consequence of a resolution of the States in order to +prevent internal tumults. He said that the Advocate had advised in the +previous month of March a request to the Prince not to come to Utrecht; +that the communication of the message, in regard to disbanding the +Waartgelders, to his Excellency had been postponed after the deputies of +the States of Holland had proposed a delay in that disbandment; that +those deputies had come to Utrecht of their own accord; . . . . that they +had judged it possible to keep everything in proper order in Utrecht if +the garrison in the city paid by Holland were kept quiet, and if the +States of Utrecht gave similar orders to the Waartgelders; for they did +not believe that his Excellency would bring in troops from the outside. +He said that he knew nothing of a new oath to be demanded of the +garrison. He stated that the Advocate, when at Utrecht, had exhorted the +States, according to his wont, to maintain their liberties and +privileges, representing to them that the right to decide on the Synod +and the Waartgelders belonged to them. Lastly, he denied knowing who was +the author of The Balance, except by common report. + +Now these statements hardly amounted to a confession of abominable and +unpardonable crimes by Ledenberg, nor did they establish a charge of +high-treason and corrupt correspondence with the enemy against Barneveld. +It is certain that the extent of the revelations seemed far from +satisfactory to the accusers, and that some pressure would be necessary +in order to extract anything more conclusive. Lieutenant Nythof told +Grotius that Ledenberg had accordingly been threatened with torture, and +that the executioner had even handled him for that purpose. This was +however denied by the judges of instruction who had been charged with the +preliminary examination. + +That examination took place on the 27th September. After it had been +concluded, Ledenberg prayed long and earnestly on returning to prison. He +then entrusted a paper written in French to his son Joost, a boy of +eighteen, who did not understand that language. The youth had been +allowed to keep his father company in his confinement, and slept in the +same room. + +The next night but one, at two o'clock, Joost heard his father utter a +deep groan. He was startled, groped in the darkness towards his bed and +felt his arm, which was stone cold. He spoke to him and received no +answer. He gave the alarm, the watch came in with lights, and it was +found that Ledenberg had given himself two mortal wounds in the abdomen +with a penknife and then cut his throat with a table-knife which he had +secreted, some days before, among some papers. + +The paper in French given to his son was found to be to this effect. + +"I know that there is an inclination to set an example in my person, to +confront me with my best friends, to torture me, afterwards to convict me +of contradictions and falsehoods as they say, and then to found an +ignominious sentence upon points and trifles, for this it will be +necessary to do in order to justify the arrest and imprisonment. To +escape all this I am going to God by the shortest road. Against a dead +man there can be pronounced no sentence of confiscation of property. Done +17th September (o. s.) 1618." + +The family of the unhappy gentleman begged his body for decent burial. +The request was refused. It was determined to keep the dead secretary +above ground and in custody until he could be tried, and, if possible, +convicted and punished. It was to be seen whether it were so easy to +baffle the power of the States-General, the Synod, and the Stadholder, +and whether "going to God by the shortest road" was to save a culprit's +carcass from ignominy, and his property from confiscation. + +The French ambassadors, who had been unwearied in their endeavour to +restore harmony to the distracted Commonwealth before the arrest of the +prisoners, now exerted themselves to throw the shield of their +sovereign's friendship around the illustrious statesman and his +fellow-sufferers. + +"It is with deepest sorrow," said de Boississe, "that I have witnessed +the late hateful commotions. Especially from my heart I grieve for the +arrest of the Seignior Barneveld, who with his discretion and wise +administration for the past thirty years has so drawn the hearts of all +neighbouring princes to himself, especially that of the King my master, +that on taking up my pen to apprize him of these events I am gravely +embarrassed, fearing to infringe on the great respect due to your +Mightinesses or against the honour and merits of the Seignior Barneveld. +. . . My Lords, take heed to your situation, for a great discontent is +smouldering among your citizens. Until now, the Union has been the chief +source of your strength. And I now fear that the King my master, the +adviser of your renowned Commonwealth, maybe offended that you have taken +this resolution after consulting with others, and without communicating +your intention to his ambassador . . . . It is but a few days that an +open edict was issued testifying to the fidelity of Barneveld, and can it +be possible that within so short a time you have discovered that you have +been deceived? I summon you once more in the name of the King to lay +aside all passion, to judge these affairs without partiality, and to +inform me what I am to say to the King. Such very conflicting accounts +are given of these transactions that I must beg you to confide to me the +secret of the affair. The wisest in the land speak so strongly of these +proceedings that it will be no wonder if the King my master should give +me orders to take the Seignior Barneveld under his protection. Should +this prove to be the case, your Lordships will excuse my course . . . I +beg you earnestly in your wisdom not to give cause of offence to +neighbouring princes, especially to my sovereign, who wishes from his +heart to maintain your dignity and interests and to assure you of his +friendship." + +The language was vigorous and sincere, but the Ambassador forgot that the +France of to-day was not the France of yesterday; that Louis XIII. was +not Henry IV.; that it was but a cheerful fiction to call the present +King the guide and counsellor of the Republic, and that, distraught as +she was by the present commotions, her condition was strength and +tranquillity compared with the apparently decomposing and helpless state +of the once great kingdom of France. De Boississe took little by his +demonstration. + +On the 12th December both de Boississe and du Maurier came before the +States-General once more, and urged a speedy and impartial trial for the +illustrious prisoners. If they had committed acts of treason and +rebellion, they deserved exemplary punishment, but the ambassadors warned +the States-General with great earnestness against the dangerous doctrine +of constructive treason, and of confounding acts dictated by violence of +party spirit at an excited period with the crime of high-treason against +the sovereignty of the State. + +"Barneveld so honourable," they said, "for his immense and long continued +services has both this Republic and all princes and commonwealths for his +witnesses. It is most difficult to believe that he has attempted the +destruction of his fatherland, for which you know that he has toiled so +faithfully." + +They admitted that so grave charges ought now to be investigated. "To +this end," said the ambassadors, "you ought to give him judges who are +neither suspected nor impassioned, and who will decide according to the +laws of the land, and on clear and undeniable evidence . . . . So doing +you will show to the whole world that you are worthy to possess and to +administer this Commonwealth to whose government God has called you." + +Should they pursue another and a sterner course, the envoys warned the +Assembly that the King would be deeply offended, deeming it thus proved +how little value they set upon his advice and his friendship. + +The States-General replied on the 19th December, assuring the ambassadors +that the delay in the trial was in order to make the evidence of the +great conspiracy complete, and would not tend to the prejudice of the +prisoners "if they had a good consciousness of their innocence." They +promised that the sentence upon them when pronounced would give entire +satisfaction to all their allies and to the King of France in particular, +of whom they spoke throughout the document in terms of profound respect. +But they expressed their confidence that "his Majesty would not place the +importunate and unfounded solicitations of a few particular criminals or +their supporters before the general interests of the dignity and security +of the Republic." + +On the same day the States-General addressed a letter filled with very +elaborate and courteous commonplaces to the King, in which they expressed +a certainty that his Majesty would be entirely satisfied with their +actions. + +The official answer of the States-General to the ambassadors, just cited, +gave but little comfort to the friends of the imprisoned statesman and +his companions. Such expressions as "ambitious and factious +spirits,"--"authors and patrons of the faction,"--"attempts at novelty +through changes in religion, in justice and in the fundamental laws of +all orders of polity," and the frequent mention of the word "conspiracy" +boded little good. + +Information of this condition of affairs was conveyed to Hoogerbeets and +Grotius by means of an ingenious device of the distinguished scholar, who +was then editing the Latin works of the Hague poet, Janus Secundus. + +While the sheets were going through the press, some of the verses were +left out, and their place supplied by others conveying the intelligence +which it was desired to send to the prisoners. The pages which contained +the secret were stitched together in such wise that in cutting the book +open they were not touched but remained closed. The verses were to this +effect. "The examination of the Advocate proceeds slowly, but there is +good hope from the serious indignation of the French king, whose envoys +are devoted to the cause of the prisoners, and have been informed that +justice will be soon rendered. The States of Holland are to assemble on +the 15th January, at which a decision will certainly be taken for +appointing judges. The preachers here at Leyden are despised, and men are +speaking strongly of war. The tumult which lately occurred at Rotterdam +may bring forth some good." + +The quick-wited Grotius instantly discovered the device, read the +intelligence thus communicated in the proofsheets of Secundus, and made +use of the system to obtain further intelligence. + +Hoogerbeets laid the book aside, not taking much interest at that time in +the works of the Hague poet. Constant efforts made to attract his +attention to those poems however excited suspicion among his keepers, and +the scheme was discovered before the Leyden pensionary had found the +means to profit by it.' + +The allusions to the trial of the Advocate referred to the preliminary +examination which took place, like the first interrogatories of Grotius +and Hoogerbeets, in the months of November and December. + +The thorough manner in which Maurice had reformed the States of Holland +has been described. There was one department of that body however which +still required attention. The Order of Knights, small in number but +potential in influence, which always voted first on great occasions, was +still through a majority of its members inclined to Barneveld. Both his +sons-in-law had seats in that college. The Stadholder had long believed +in a spirit of hostility on the part of those nobles towards himself. He +knew that a short time before this epoch there had been a scheme for +introducing his young brother, Frederic Henry, into the Chamber of +Knights. The Count had become proprietor of the barony of Naaldwyk, a +property which he had purchased of the Counts of Arenberg, and which +carried with it the hereditary dignity of Great Equerry of the Counts of +Holland. As the Counts of Holland had ceased to exist, although their +sovereignty had nearly been revived and conferred upon William the +Silent, the office of their chief of the stables might be deemed a +sinecure. But the jealousy of Maurice was easily awakened, especially by +any movement made or favoured by the Advocate. He believed that in the +election of Frederic Henry as a member of the College of Knights a plan +lay concealed to thrust him into power and to push this elder brother +from his place. The scheme, if scheme it were, was never accomplished, +but the Prince's rancour remained. + +He now informed the nobles that they must receive into their body Francis +Aerssens, who had lately purchased the barony of Sommelsdyk, and Daniel +de Hartaing, Seignior of Marquette. With the presence of this deadly +enemy of Barneveld and another gentleman equally devoted to the +Stadholder's interest it seemed probable that the refractory majority of +the board of nobles would be overcome. But there were grave objections to +the admission of these new candidates. They were not eligible. The +constitution of the States and of the college of nobles prescribed that +Hollanders only of ancient and noble race and possessing estates in the +province could sit in that body. Neither Aerssens nor Hartaing was born +in Holland or possessed of the other needful qualifications. +Nevertheless, the Prince, who had just remodelled all the municipalities +throughout the Union which offered resistance to his authority, was not +to be checked by so trifling an impediment as the statutes of the House +of Nobles. He employed very much the same arguments which he had used to +"good papa" Hooft. "This time it must be so." Another time it might not +be necessary. So after a controversy which ended as controversies are apt +to do when one party has a sword in his hand and the other is seated at a +green-baize-covered table, Sommelsdyk and Marquette took their seats +among the knights. Of course there was a spirited protest. Nothing was +easier for the Stadholder than to concede the principle while trampling +it with his boot-heels in practice. + +"Whereas it is not competent for the said two gentlemen to be admitted to +our board," said the nobles in brief, "as not being constitutionally +eligible, nevertheless, considering the strong desire of his Excellency +the Prince of Orange, we, the nobles and knights of Holland, admit them +with the firm promise to each other by noble and knightly faith ever in +future for ourselves and descendants to maintain the privileges of our +order now violated and never again to let them be directly or indirectly +infringed." + +And so Aerssens, the unscrupulous plotter, and dire foe of the Advocate +and all his house, burning with bitter revenge for all the favours he had +received from him during many years, and the author of the venomous +pamphlets and diatribes which had done so much of late to blacken the +character of the great statesman before the public, now associated +himself officially with his other enemies, while the preliminary +proceedings for the state trials went forward. + +Meantime the Synod had met at Dordtrecht. The great John Bogerman, with +fierce, handsome face, beak and eye of a bird of prey, and a deluge of +curly brown beard reaching to his waist, took his seat as president. +Short work was made with the Armenians. They and their five Points were +soon thrust out into outer darkness. + +It was established beyond all gainsaying that two forms of Divine worship +in one country were forbidden by God's Word, and that thenceforth by +Netherland law there could be but one religion, namely, the Reformed or +Calvinistic creed. + +It was settled that one portion of the Netherlanders and of the rest of +the human race had been expressly created by the Deity to be for ever +damned, and another portion to be eternally blessed. But this history has +little to do with that infallible council save in the political effect of +its decrees on the fate of Barneveld. It was said that the canons of +Dordtrecht were likely to shoot off the head of the Advocate. Their +sessions and the trial of the Advocate were simultaneous, but not +technically related to each other. + +The conclusions of both courts were preordained, for the issue of the +great duel between Priesthood and State had been decided when the +military chieftain threw his sword into the scale of the Church. + +There had been purposely a delay, before coming to a decision as to the +fate of the state prisoners, until the work of the Synod should have +approached completion. + +It was thought good that the condemnation of the opinions of the +Arminians and the chastisement of their leaders should go hand-in-hand. + +On the 23rd April 1619, the canons were signed by all the members of the +Synod. Arminians were pronounced heretics, schismatics, teachers of false +doctrines. They were declared incapable of filling any clerical or +academical post. No man thenceforth was to teach children, lecture to +adolescents, or preach to the mature, unless a subscriber to the +doctrines of the unchanged, unchangeable, orthodox church. On the 30th +April and 1st May the Netherland Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism +were declared to be infallible. No change was to be possible in either +formulary. + +Schools and pulpits were inexorably bound to the only true religion. + +On the 6th May there was a great festival at Dordtrecht in honour of the +conclusion of the Synod. The canons, the sentence, and long prayers and +orations in Latin by President Bogerman gladdened the souls of an immense +multitude, which were further enlivened by the decree that both Creed and +Catechism had stood the test of several criticisms and come out unchanged +by a single hair. Nor did the orator of the occasion forget to render +thanks "to the most magnanimous King James of Great Britain, through +whose godly zeal, fiery sympathy, and truly royal labour God had so often +refreshed the weary Synod in the midst of their toil." + +The Synod held one hundred and eighty sessions between the 13th November +1618 and 29th May 1619, all the doings of which have been recorded in +chronicles innumerable. There need be no further mention of them here. + +Barneveld and the companions of his fate remained in prison. + +On the 7th March the trial of the great Advocate began. He had sat in +prison since the 18th of the preceding August. For nearly seven months he +had been deprived of all communication with the outward world save such +atoms of intelligence as could be secretly conveyed to him in the inside +of a quill concealed in a pear and by other devices. The man who had +governed one of the most important commonwealths of the world for nearly +a generation long--during the same period almost controlling the politics +of Europe--had now been kept in ignorance of the most insignificant +everyday events. During the long summer-heat of the dog-days immediately +succeeding his arrest, and the long, foggy, snowy, icy winter of Holland +which ensued, he had been confined in that dreary garret-room to which he +had been brought when he left his temporary imprisonment in the +apartments of Prince Maurice. + +There was nothing squalid in the chamber, nothing specially cruel or +repulsive in the arrangements of his captivity. He was not in fetters, +nor fed upon bread and water. He was not put upon the rack, nor even +threatened with it as Ledenberg had been. He was kept in a mean, +commonplace, meagerly furnished, tolerably spacious room, and he was +allowed the services of his faithful domestic servant John Franken. A +sentinel paced day and night up the narrow corridor before his door. As +spring advanced, the notes of the nightingale came through the +prison-window from the neighbouring thicket. One day John Franken, +opening the window that his master might the better enjoy its song, +exchanged greeting with a fellow-servant in the Barneveld mansion who +happened to be crossing the courtyard. Instantly workmen were sent to +close and barricade the windows, and it was only after earnest +remonstrances and pledges that this resolve to consign the Advocate to +darkness was abandoned. + +He was not permitted the help of lawyer, clerk, or man of business. Alone +and from his chamber of bondage, suffering from bodily infirmities and +from the weakness of advancing age, he was compelled to prepare his +defence against a vague, heterogeneous collection of charges, to meet +which required constant reference, not only to the statutes, privileges, +and customs of the country and to the Roman law, but to a thousand minute +incidents out of which the history of the Provinces during the past dozen +years or more had been compounded. + +It is true that no man could be more familiar with the science and +practice of the law than he was, while of contemporary history he was +himself the central figure. His biography was the chronicle of his +country. Nevertheless it was a fearful disadvantage for him day by day to +confront two dozen hostile judges comfortably seated at a great table +piled with papers, surrounded by clerks with bags full of documents and +with a library of authorities and precedents duly marked and dog's-eared +and ready to their hands, while his only library and chronicle lay in his +brain. From day to day, with frequent intermissions, he was led down +through the narrow turret-stairs to a wide chamber on the floor +immediately below his prison, where a temporary tribunal had been +arranged for the special commission. + +There had been an inclination at first on the part of his judges to treat +him as a criminal, and to require him to answer, standing, to the +interrogatories propounded to him. But as the terrible old man advanced +into the room, leaning on his staff, and surveying them with the air of +haughty command habitual to him, they shrank before his glance; several +involuntarily, rising uncovered, to salute him and making way for him to +the fireplace about which many were standing that wintry morning. + +He was thenceforth always accommodated with a seat while he listened to +and answered 'ex tempore' the elaborate series of interrogatories which +had been prepared to convict him. + +Nearly seven months he had sat with no charges brought against him. This +was in itself a gross violation of the laws of the land, for according to +all the ancient charters of Holland it was provided that accusation +should follow within six weeks of arrest, or that the prisoner should go +free. But the arrest itself was so gross a violation of law that respect +for it was hardly to be expected in the subsequent proceedings. He was a +great officer of the States of Holland. He had been taken under their +especial protection. He was on his way to the High Council. He was in no +sense a subject of the States-General. He was in the discharge of his +official duty. He was doubly and trebly sacred from arrest. The place +where he stood was on the territory of Holland and in the very sanctuary +of her courts and House of Assembly. The States-General were only as +guests on her soil, and had no domain or jurisdiction there whatever. He +was not apprehended by any warrant or form of law. It was in time of +peace, and there was no pretence of martial law. The highest civil +functionary of Holland was invited in the name of its first military +officer to a conference, and thus entrapped was forcibly imprisoned. + +At last a board of twenty-four commissioners was created, twelve from +Holland and two from each of the other six provinces. This affectation of +concession to Holland was ridiculous. Either the law 'de non +evocando'--according to which no citizen of Holland could be taken out of +the province for trial--was to be respected or it was to be trampled +upon. If it was to be trampled upon, it signified little whether more +commissioners were to be taken from Holland than from each of the other +provinces, or fewer, or none at all. Moreover it was pretended that a +majority of the whole board was to be assigned to that province. But +twelve is not a majority of twenty-four. There were three fascals or +prosecuting officers, Leeuwen of Utrecht, Sylla of Gelderland, and Antony +Duyck of Holland. Duyck was notoriously the deadly enemy of Barneveld, +and was destined to succeed to his offices. It would have been as well to +select Francis Aerssens himself. + +It was necessary to appoint a commission because there was no tribunal +appertaining to the States-General. The general government of the +confederacy had no power to deal with an individual. It could only +negotiate with the sovereign province to which the individual was +responsible, and demand his punishment if proved guilty of an offence. +There was no supreme court of appeal. Machinery was provided for settling +or attempting to settle disputes among the members of the confederacy, +and if there was a culprit in this great process it was Holland itself. +Neither the Advocate nor any one of his associates had done any act +except by authority, express or implied, of that sovereign State. +Supposing them unquestionably guilty of blackest crimes against the +Generality, the dilemma was there which must always exist by the very +nature of things in a confederacy. No sovereign can try a fellow +sovereign. The subject can be tried at home by no sovereign but his own. + +The accused in this case were amenable to the laws of Holland only. + +It was a packed tribunal. Several of the commissioners, like Pauw and +Muis for example, were personal enemies of Barneveld. Many of them were +totally ignorant of law. Some of them knew not a word of any language but +their mother tongue, although much of the law which they were to +administer was written in Latin. + +Before such a court the foremost citizen of the Netherlands, the first +living statesman of Europe, was brought day by day during a period of +nearly three months; coming down stairs from the mean and desolate room +where he was confined to the comfortable apartment below, which had been +fitted up for the commission. + +There was no bill of indictment, no arraignment, no counsel. There were +no witnesses and no arguments. The court-room contained, as it were, only +a prejudiced and partial jury to pronounce both on law and fact without a +judge to direct them, or advocates to sift testimony and contend for or +against the prisoner's guilt. The process, for it could not be called a +trial, consisted of a vast series of rambling and tangled interrogatories +reaching over a space of forty years without apparent connection or +relevancy, skipping fantastically about from one period to another, back +and forthwith apparently no other intent than to puzzle the prisoner, +throw him off his balance, and lead him into self-contradiction. + +The spectacle was not a refreshing one. It was the attempt of a multitude +of pigmies to overthrow and bind the giant. + +Barneveld was served with no articles of impeachment. He asked for a list +in writing of the charges against him, that he might ponder his answer. +The demand was refused. He was forbidden the use of pen and ink or any +writing materials. His papers and books were all taken from him. + +He was allowed to consult neither with an advocate nor even with a single +friend. Alone in his chamber of bondage he was to meditate on his +defence. Out of his memory and brain, and from these alone, he was to +supply himself with the array of historical facts stretching over a +longer period than the lifetime of many of his judges, and with the +proper legal and historical arguments upon those facts for the +justification of his course. That memory and brain were capacious and +powerful enough for the task. It was well for the judges that they had +bound themselves, at the outset, by an oath never to make known what +passed in the courtroom, but to bury all the proceedings in profound +secrecy forever. Had it been otherwise, had that been known to the +contemporary public which has only been revealed more than two centuries +later, had a portion only of the calm and austere eloquence been heard in +which the Advocate set forth his defence, had the frivolous and ignoble +nature of the attack been comprehended, it might have moved the very +stones in the streets to mutiny. Hateful as the statesman had been made +by an organized system of calumny, which was continued with unabated +vigour and increased venom sine he had been imprisoned, there was enough +of justice and of gratitude left in the hearts of Netherlanders to resent +the tyranny practised against their greatest man, and the obloquy thus +brought against a nation always devoted to their liberties and laws. + +That the political system of the country was miserably defective was no +fault of Barneveld. He was bound by oath and duty to administer, not make +the laws. A handful of petty feudal sovereignties such as had once +covered the soil of Europe, a multitude of thriving cities which had +wrested or purchased a mass of liberties, customs, and laws from their +little tyrants, all subjected afterwards, without being blended together, +to a single foreign family, had at last one by one, or two by two, shaken +off that supremacy, and, resuming their ancient and as it were +decapitated individualities, had bound themselves by treaty in the midst +of a war to stand by each other, as if they were but one province, for +purposes of common defence against the common foe. + +There had been no pretence of laying down a constitution, of enacting an +organic law. The day had not come for even the conception of a popular +constitution. The people had not been invented. It was not provinces +only, but cities, that had contracted with each other, according to the +very first words of the first Article of Union. Some of these cities, +like Ghent, Bruges, Antwerp, were Catholic by overwhelming majority, and +had subsequently either fallen away from the confederacy or been +conquered. + +And as if to make assurance doubly sure, the Articles of Union not only +reserved to each province all powers not absolutely essential for +carrying on the war in common, but by an express article (the 13th), +declared that Holland and Zealand should regulate the matter of religion +according to their own discretion, while the other provinces might +conform to the provisions of the "Religious Peace" which included mutual +protection for Catholics and Protestants--or take such other order as +seemed most conducive to the religious and secular rights of the +inhabitants. It was stipulated that no province should interfere with +another in such matters, and that every individual in them all should +remain free in his religion, no man being molested or examined on account +of his creed. A farther declaration in regard to this famous article was +made to the effect that no provinces or cities which held to the Roman +Catholic religion were to be excluded from the League of Union if they +were ready to conform to its conditions and comport themselves +patriotically. Language could not be devised to declare more plainly than +was done by this treaty that the central government of the League had +neither wish nor right to concern itself with the religious affairs of +the separate cities or provinces. If it permitted both Papists and +Protestants to associate themselves against the common foe, it could +hardly have been imagined, when the Articles were drawn, that it would +have claimed the exclusive right to define the minutest points in a +single Protestant creed. + +And if the exclusively secular parts of the polity prevailing in the +country were clumsy, irregular, and even monstrous, and if its defects +had been flagrantly demonstrated by recent events, a more reasonable +method of reforming the laws might have been found than the imprisonment +of a man who had faithfully administered them forty years long. + +A great commonwealth had grown out of a petty feudal organism, like an +oak from an acorn in a crevice, gnarled and distorted, though +wide-spreading and vigorous. It seemed perilous to deal radically with +such a polity, and an almost timid conservatism on the part of its +guardians in such an age of tempests might be pardonable. + +Moreover, as before remarked, the apparent imbecility resulting from +confederacy and municipalism combined was for a season remedied by the +actual preponderance of Holland. Two-thirds of the total wealth and +strength of the seven republics being concentrated in one province, the +desired union seemed almost gained by the practical solution of all in +that single republic. But this was one great cause of the general +disaster. + +It would be a thankless and tedious task to wander through the wilderness +of interrogatories and answers extending over three months of time, which +stood in the place of a trial. The defence of Barneveld was his own +history, and that I have attempted to give in the preceding pages. A +great part of the accusation was deduced from his private and official +correspondence, and it is for this reason that I have laid such copious +extracts from it before the reader. No man except the judges and the +States-General had access to those letters, and it was easy therefore, if +needful, to give them a false colouring. It is only very recently that +they have been seen at all, and they have never been published from that +day to this. + +Out of the confused mass of documents appertaining to the trial, a few +generalizations can be made which show the nature of the attack upon him. +He was accused of having permitted Arminius to infuse new opinions into +the University of Leyden, and of having subsequently defended the +appointment of Vorstius to the same place. He had opposed the National +Synod. He had made drafts of letters for the King of Great Britain to +sign, recommending mutual toleration on the five disputed points +regarding predestination. He was the author of the famous Sharp +Resolution. He had recommended the enlistment by the provinces and towns +of Waartgelders or mercenaries. He had maintained that those mercenaries +as well as the regular troops were bound in time of peace to be obedient +and faithful, not only to the Generality and the stadholders, but to the +magistrates of the cities and provinces where they were employed, and to +the states by whom they were paid. He had sent to Leyden, warning the +authorities of the approach of the Prince. He had encouraged all the +proceedings at Utrecht, writing a letter to the secretary of that +province advising a watch to be kept at the city gates as well as in the +river, and ordering his letter when read to be burned. He had received +presents from foreign potentates. He had attempted to damage the +character of his Excellency the Prince by declaring on various occasions +that he aspired to the sovereignty of the country. He had held a ciphered +correspondence on the subject with foreign ministers of the Republic. He +had given great offence to the King of Great Britain by soliciting from +him other letters in the sense of those which his Majesty had written in +1613, advising moderation and mutual toleration. He had not brought to +condign punishment the author of 'The Balance', a pamphlet in which an +oration of the English ambassador had been criticised, and aspersions +made on the Order of the Garter. He had opposed the formation of the West +India Company. He had said many years before to Nicolas van Berk that the +Provinces had better return to the dominion of Spain. And in general, all +his proceedings had tended to put the Provinces into a "blood bath." + +There was however no accusation that he had received bribes from the +enemy or held traitorous communication with him, or that he had committed +any act of high-treason. + +His private letters to Caron and to the ambassadors in Paris, with which +the reader has been made familiar, had thus been ransacked to find +treasonable matter, but the result was meagre in spite of the minute and +microscopic analysis instituted to detect traces of poison in them. + +But the most subtle and far-reaching research into past transactions was +due to the Greffier Cornelis Aerssens, father of the Ambassador Francis, +and to a certain Nicolas van Berk, Burgomaster of Utrecht. + +The process of tale-bearing, hearsay evidence, gossip, and invention went +back a dozen years, even to the preliminary and secret conferences in +regard to the Treaty of Truce. + +Readers familiar with the history of those memorable negotiations are +aware that Cornelis van Aerssens had compromised himself by accepting a +valuable diamond and a bill of exchange drawn by Marquis Spinola on a +merchant in Amsterdam, Henry Beekman by name, for 80,000 ducats. These +were handed by Father Neyen, the secret agent of the Spanish government, +to the Greffier as a prospective reward for his services in furthering +the Truce. He did not reject them, but he informed Prince Maurice and the +Advocate of the transaction. Both diamond and bill of exchange were +subsequently deposited in the hands of the treasurer of the +States-General, Joris de Bie, the Assembly being made officially +acquainted with the whole course of the affair. + +It is passing strange that this somewhat tortuous business, which +certainly cast a shade upon the fair fame of the elder Aerssens, and +required him to publish as good a defence as he could against the +consequent scandal, should have furnished a weapon wherewith to strike at +the Advocate of Holland some dozen years later. + +But so it was. Krauwels, a relative of Aerssens, through whom Father +Neyen had first obtained access to the Greffier, had stated, so it +seemed, that the monk had, in addition to the bill, handed to him another +draft of Spinola's for 100,000 ducats, to be given to a person of more +consideration than Aerssens. Krauwels did not know who the person was, +nor whether he took the money. He expressed his surprise however that +leading persons in the government "even old and authentic +beggars"--should allow themselves to be so seduced as to accept presents +from the enemy. He mentioned two such persons, namely, a burgomaster at +Delft and a burgomaster at Haarlem. Aerssens now deposed that he had +informed the Advocate of this story, who had said, "Be quiet about it, I +will have it investigated," and some days afterwards on being questioned +stated that he had made enquiry and found there was something in it. + +So the fact that Cornelis Aerssens had taken bribes, and that two +burgomasters were strongly suspected by Aerssens of having taken bribes, +seems to have been considered as evidence that Barneveld had taken a +bribe. It is true that Aerssens by advice of Maurice and Barneveld had +made a clean breast of it to the States-General and had given them over +the presents. But the States-General could neither wear the diamond nor +cash the bill of exchange, and it would have been better for the Greffier +not to contaminate his fingers with them, but to leave the gifts in the +monk's palm. His revenge against the Advocate for helping him out of his +dilemma, and for subsequently advancing his son Francis in a brilliant +diplomatic career, seems to have been--when the clouds were thickening +and every man's hand was against the fallen statesman--to insinuate that +he was the anonymous personage who had accepted the apocryphal draft for +100,000 ducats. + +The case is a pregnant example of the proceedings employed to destroy the +Advocate. + +The testimony of Nicolas van Berk was at any rate more direct. + +On the 21st December 1618 the burgomaster testified that the Advocate had +once declared to him that the differences in regard to Divine Worship +were not so great but that they might be easily composed; asking him at +the same time "whether it would not be better that we should submit +ourselves again to the King of Spain." Barneveld had also referred, so +said van Berk, to the conduct of the Spanish king towards those who had +helped him to the kingdom of Portugal. The Burgomaster was unable however +to specify the date, year, or month in which the Advocate had held this +language. He remembered only that the conversation occurred when +Barneveld was living on the Spui at the Hague, and that having been let +into the house through the hall on the side of the vestibule, he had been +conducted by the Advocate down a small staircase into the office. + +The only fact proved by the details seems to be that the story had lodged +in the tenacious memory of the Burgomaster for eight years, as Barneveld +had removed from the Spui to Arenberg House in the Voorhout in the year +1611. + +No other offers from the King of Spain or the Archdukes had ever been +made to him, said van Berk, than those indicated in this deposition +against the Advocate as coming from that statesman. Nor had Barneveld +ever spoken to him upon such subjects except on that one occasion. + +It is not necessary and would be wearisome to follow the unfortunate +statesman through the long line of defence which he was obliged to make, +in fragmentary and irregular form, against these discursive and confused +assaults upon him. A continuous argument might be built up with the +isolated parts which should be altogether impregnable. It is superfluous. + +Always instructive to his judges as he swept at will through the record +of nearly half a century of momentous European history, in which he was +himself a conspicuous figure, or expounding the ancient laws and customs +of the country with a wealth and accuracy of illustration which testified +to the strength of his memory, he seemed rather like a sage expounding +law and history to a class of pupils than a criminal defending himself +before a bench of commissioners. Moved occasionally from his austere +simplicity, the majestic old man rose to a strain of indignant eloquence +which might have shaken the hall of a vast assembly and found echo in the +hearts of a thousand hearers as he denounced their petty insults or +ignoble insinuations; glaring like a caged lion at his tormentors, who +had often shrunk before him when free, and now attempted to drown his +voice by contradictions, interruptions, threats, and unmeaning howls. + +He protested, from the outset and throughout the proceedings, against the +jurisdiction of the tribunal. The Treaty of Union on which the Assembly +and States-General were founded gave that assembly no power over him. +They could take no legal cognizance of his person or his acts. He had +been deprived of writing materials, or he would have already drawn up his +solemn protest and argument against the existence of the commission. He +demanded that they should be provided for him, together with a clerk to +engross his defence. It is needless to say that the demand was refused. + +It was notorious to all men, he said, that on the day when violent hands +were laid upon him he was not bound to the States-General by oath, +allegiance, or commission. He was a well-known inhabitant of the Hague, a +householder there, a vassal of the Commonwealth of Holland, enfeoffed of +many notable estates in that country, serving many honourable offices by +commission from its government. By birth, promotion, and conferred +dignities he was subject to the supreme authority of Holland, which for +forty years had been a free state possessed of all the attributes of +sovereignty, political, religious, judicial, and recognizing no superior +save God Almighty alone. + +He was amenable to no tribunal save that of their Mightinesses the States +of Holland and their ordinary judges. Not only those States but the +Prince of Orange as their governor and vassal, the nobles of Holland, the +colleges of justice, the regents of cities, and all other vassals, +magistrates, and officers were by their respective oaths bound to +maintain and protect him in these his rights. + +After fortifying this position by legal argument and by an array of +historical facts within his own experience, and alluding to the repeated +instances in which, sorely against his will, he had been solicited and +almost compelled to remain in offices of which he was weary, he referred +with dignity to the record of his past life. From the youthful days when +he had served as a volunteer at his own expense in the perilous sieges of +Haarlem and Leyden down to the time of his arrest, through an unbroken +course of honourable and most arduous political services, embassies, and +great negotiations, he had ever maintained the laws and liberties of the +Fatherland and his own honour unstained. + +That he should now in his seventy-second year be dragged, in violation of +every privilege and statute of the country, by extraordinary means, +before unknown judges, was a grave matter not for himself alone but for +their Mightinesses the States of Holland and for the other provinces. The +precious right 'de non evocando' had ever been dear to all the provinces, +cities, and inhabitants of the Netherlands. It was the most vital +privilege in their possession as well in civil as criminal, in secular as +in ecclesiastical affairs. + +When the King of Spain in 1567, and afterwards, set up an extraordinary +tribunal and a course of extraordinary trials, it was an undeniable fact, +he said, that on the solemn complaint of the States all princes, nobles, +and citizens not only in the Netherlands but in foreign countries, and +all foreign kings and sovereigns, held those outrages to be the foremost +and fundamental reason for taking up arms against that king, and +declaring him to have forfeited his right of sovereignty. + +Yet that monarch was unquestionably the born and accepted sovereign of +each one of the provinces, while the General Assembly was but a gathering +of confederates and allies, in no sense sovereign. It was an unimaginable +thing, he said, that the States of each province should allow their whole +authority and right of sovereignty to be transferred to a board of +commissioners like this before which he stood. If, for example, a general +union of France, England, and the States of the United Netherlands should +be formed (and the very words of the Act of Union contemplated such +possibility), what greater absurdity could there be than to suppose that +a college of administration created for the specific purposes of such +union would be competent to perform acts of sovereignty within each of +those countries in matters of justice, polity, and religion? + +It was known to mankind, he said, that when negotiations were entered +into for bestowing the sovereignty of the Provinces on France and on +England, special and full powers were required from, and furnished by, +the States of each individual province. + +Had the sovereignty been in the assembly of the States-General, they +might have transferred it of their own motion or kept it for themselves. + +Even in the ordinary course of affairs the commissioners from each +province to the General Assembly always required a special power from +their constituents before deciding any matter of great importance. + +In regard to the defence of the respective provinces and cities, he had +never heard it doubted, he said, that the states or the magistrates of +cities had full right to provide for it by arming a portion of their own +inhabitants or by enlisting paid troops. The sovereign counts of Holland +and bishops of Utrecht certainly possessed and exercised that right for +many hundred years, and by necessary tradition it passed to the states +succeeding to their ancient sovereignty. He then gave from the stores of +his memory innumerable instances in which soldiers had been enlisted by +provinces and cities all over the Netherlands from the time of the +abjuration of Spain down to that moment. Through the whole period of +independence in the time of Anjou, Matthias, Leicester, as well as under +the actual government, it had been the invariable custom thus to provide +both by land and sea and on the rivers against robbers, rebels, pirates, +mischief-makers, assailing thieves, domestic or foreign. It had been done +by the immortal William the Silent on many memorable occasions, and in +fact the custom was so notorious that soldiers so enlisted were known by +different and peculiar nicknames in the different provinces and towns. + +That the central government had no right to meddle with religious matters +was almost too self-evident an axiom to prove. Indeed the chief +difficulty under which the Advocate laboured throughout this whole +process was the monstrous assumption by his judges of a political and +judicial system which never had any existence even in imagination. The +profound secrecy which enwrapped the proceedings from that day almost to +our own and an ignorant acquiescence of a considerable portion of the +public in accomplished facts offer the only explanation of a mystery +which must ever excite our wonder. If there were any impeachment at all, +it was an impeachment of the form of government itself. If language could +mean anything whatever, a mere perusal of the Articles of Union proved +that the prisoner had never violated that fundamental pact. How could the +general government prescribe an especial formulary for the Reformed +Church, and declare opposition to its decrees treasonable, when it did +not prohibit, but absolutely admitted and invited, provinces and cities +exclusively Catholic to enter the Union, guaranteeing to them entire +liberty of religion? + +Barneveld recalled the fact that when the stadholdership of Utrecht +thirty years before had been conferred on Prince Maurice the States of +that province had solemnly reserved for themselves the disposition over +religious matters in conformity with the Union, and that Maurice had +sworn to support that resolution. + +Five years later the Prince had himself assured a deputation from Brabant +that the States of each province were supreme in religious matters, no +interference the one with the other being justifiable or possible. In +1602 the States General in letters addressed to the States of the +obedient provinces under dominion of the Archdukes had invited them to +take up arms to help drive the Spaniards from the Provinces and to join +the Confederacy, assuring them that they should regulate the matter of +religion at their good pleasure, and that no one else should be allowed +to interfere therewith. + +The Advocate then went into an historical and critical disquisition, into +which we certainly have no need to follow him, rapidly examining the +whole subject of predestination and conditional and unconditional +damnation from the days of St. Augustine downward, showing a thorough +familiarity with a subject of theology which then made up so much of the +daily business of life, political and private, and lay at the bottom of +the terrible convulsion then existing in the Netherlands. We turn from it +with a shudder, reminding the reader only how persistently the statesman +then on his trial had advocated conciliation, moderation, and kindness +between brethren of the Reformed Church who were not able to think alike +on one of the subtlest and most mysterious problems that casuistry has +ever propounded. + +For fifty years, he said, he had been an enemy of all compulsion of the +human conscience. He had always opposed rigorous ecclesiastical decrees. +He had done his best to further, and did not deny having inspired, the +advice given in the famous letters from the King of Great Britain to the +States in 1613, that there should be mutual toleration and abstinence +from discussion of disputed doctrines, neither of them essential to +salvation. He thought that neither Calvin nor Beza would have opposed +freedom of opinion on those points. For himself he believed that the +salvation of mankind would be through God's unmerited grace and the +redemption of sins though the Saviour, and that the man who so held and +persevered to the end was predestined to eternal happiness, and that his +children dying before the age of reason were destined not to Hell but to +Heaven. He had thought fifty years long that the passion and sacrifice of +Christ the Saviour were more potent to salvation than God's wrath and the +sin of Adam and Eve to damnation. He had done his best practically to +avert personal bickerings among the clergy. He had been, so far as lay in +his power, as friendly to Remonstrants as to Contra-Remonstrants, to +Polyander and Festus Hommius as to Uytenbogaert and Episcopius. He had +almost finished a negotiation with Councillor Kromhout for the peaceable +delivery of the Cloister Church on the Thursday preceding the Sunday on +which it had been forcibly seized by the Contra-Remonstrants. + +When asked by one of his judges how he presumed to hope for toleration +between two parties, each of which abhorred the other's opinions, and +likened each other to Turks and devil-worshippers, he replied that he had +always detested and rebuked those mutual revilings by every means in his +power, and would have wished to put down such calumniators of either +persuasion by the civil authority, but the iniquity of the times and the +exasperation of men's humours had prevented him. + +Being perpetually goaded by one judge after another as to his +disrespectful conduct towards the King of Great Britain, and asked why +his Majesty had not as good right to give the advice of 1617 as the +recommendation of tolerance in 1613, he scrupulously abstained, as he had +done in all his letters, from saying a disrespectful word as to the +glaring inconsistency between the two communications, or to the hostility +manifested towards himself personally by the British ambassador. He had +always expressed the hope, he said, that the King would adhere to his +original position, but did not dispute his right to change his mind, nor +the good faith which had inspired his later letters. It had been his +object, if possible, to reconcile the two different systems recommended +by his Majesty into one harmonious whole. + +His whole aim had been to preserve the public peace as it was the duty of +every magistrate, especially in times of such excitement, to do. He could +never comprehend why the toleration of the Five Points should be a danger +to the Reformed religion. Rather, he thought, it would strengthen the +Church and attract many Lutherans, Baptists, Catholics, and other good +patriots into its pale. He had always opposed the compulsory acceptance +by the people of the special opinions of scribes and doctors. He did not +consider, he said, the difference in doctrine on this disputed point +between the Contra-Remonstrants and Remonstrants as one-tenth the value +of the civil authority and its right to make laws and ordinances +regulating ecclesiastical affairs. + +He believed the great bulwark of the independence of the country to be +the Reformed Church, and his efforts had ever been to strengthen that +bulwark by preventing the unnecessary schism which might prove its ruin. +Many questions of property, too, were involved in the question--the +church buildings, lands and pastures belonging to the Counts of Holland +and their successors--the States having always exercised the right of +church patronage--'jus patronatus'--a privilege which, as well as +inherited or purchased advowsons, had been of late flagrantly interfered +with. + +He was asked if he had not said that it had never been the intention of +the States-General to carry on the war for this or that religion. + +He replied that he had told certain clergymen expressing to him their +opinion that the war had been waged solely for the furtherance of their +especial shade of belief, that in his view the war had been undertaken +for the conservation of the liberties and laws of the land, and of its +good people. Of that freedom the first and foremost point was the true +Christian religion and liberty of conscience and opinion. There must be +religion in the Republic, he had said, but that the war was carried on to +sustain the opinion of one doctor of divinity or another on--differential +points was something he had never heard of and could never believe. The +good citizens of the country had as much right to hold by Melancthon as +by Calvin or Beza. He knew that the first proclamations in regard to the +war declared it to be undertaken for freedom of conscience, and so to +his, own knowledge it had been always carried on. + +He was asked if he had not promised during the Truce negotiations so to +direct matters that the Catholics with time might obtain public exercise +of their religion. + +He replied that this was a notorious falsehood and calumny, adding that +it ill accorded with the proclamation against the Jesuits drawn up by +himself some years after the Truce. He furthermore stated that it was +chiefly by his direction that the discourse of President Jeannin--urging +on part of the French king that liberty of worship might be granted to +the Papists--was kept secret, copies of it not having been furnished even +to the commissioners of the Provinces. + +His indignant denial of this charge, especially taken in connection with +his repeated assertions during the trial, that among the most patriotic +Netherlanders during and since the war were many adherents of the ancient +church, seems marvellously in contradiction with his frequent and most +earnest pleas for liberty of conscience. But it did not appear +contradictory even to his judges nor to any contemporary. His position +had always been that the civil authority of each province was supreme in +all matters political or ecclesiastical. The States-General, all the +provinces uniting in the vote, had invited the Catholic provinces on more +than one occasion to join the Union, promising that there should be no +interference on the part of any states or individuals with the internal +affairs religious or otherwise of the provinces accepting the invitation. +But it would have been a gross contradiction of his own principle if he +had promised so to direct matters that the Catholics should have public +right of worship in Holland where he knew that the civil authority was +sure to refuse it, or in any of the other six provinces in whose internal +affairs he had no voice whatever. He was opposed to all tyranny over +conscience, he would have done his utmost to prevent inquisition into +opinion, violation of domicile, interference with private worship, +compulsory attendance in Protestant churches of those professing the +Roman creed. This was not attempted. No Catholic was persecuted on +account of his religion. Compared with the practice in other countries +this was a great step in advance. Religious tolerance lay on the road to +religious equality, a condition which had hardly been imagined then and +scarcely exists in Europe even to this day. But among the men in history +whose life and death contributed to the advancement of that blessing, it +would be vain to deny that Barneveld occupies a foremost place. + +Moreover, it should be remembered that religious equality then would have +been a most hazardous experiment. So long as Church and State were +blended, it was absolutely essential at that epoch for the preservation +of Protestantism to assign the predominance to the State. Should the +Catholics have obtained religious equality, the probable result would +before long have been religious inequality, supremacy of the Catholics in +the Church, and supremacy of the Church over the State. The fruits of the +forty years' war would have become dust and ashes. It would be mere weak +sentimentalism to doubt--after the bloody history which had just closed +and the awful tragedy, then reopening--that every spark of religious +liberty would have soon been trodden out in the Netherlands. The general +onslaught of the League with Ferdinand, Maximilian of Bavaria, and Philip +of Spain at its head against the distracted, irresolute, and wavering +line of Protestantism across the whole of Europe was just preparing. +Rather a wilderness to reign over than a single heretic, was the war-cry +of the Emperor. The King of Spain, as we have just been reading in his +most secret, ciphered despatches to the Archduke at Brussels, was nursing +sanguine hopes and weaving elaborate schemes for recovering his dominion +over the United Netherlands, and proposing to send an army of Jesuits +thither to break the way to the reconquest. To play into his hands then, +by granting public right of worship to the Papists, would have been in +Barneveld's opinion like giving up Julich and other citadels in the +debatable land to Spain just as the great war between Catholicism and +Protestantism was breaking out. There had been enough of burning and +burying alive in the Netherlands during the century which had closed. It +was not desirable to give a chance for their renewal now. + +In regard to the Synod, Barneveld justified his course by a simple +reference to the 13th Article of the Union. Words could not more plainly +prohibit the interference by the States-General with the religious +affairs of any one of the Provinces than had been done by that celebrated +clause. In 1583 there had been an attempt made to amend that article by +insertion of a pledge to maintain the Evangelical, Reformed, religion +solely, but it was never carried out. He disdained to argue so +self-evident a truth, that a confederacy which had admitted and +constantly invited Catholic states to membership, under solemn pledge of +noninterference with their religious affairs, had no right to lay down +formulas for the Reformed Church throughout all the Netherlands. The oath +of stadholder and magistrates in Holland to maintain the Reformed +religion was framed before this unhappy controversy on predestination had +begun, and it was mere arrogant assumption on the part of the +Contra-Remonstrants to claim a monopoly of that religion, and to exclude +the Remonstrants from its folds. + +He had steadily done his utmost to assuage those dissensions while +maintaining the laws which he was sworn to support. He had advocated a +provincial synod to be amicably assisted by divines from neighbouring +countries. He had opposed a National Synod unless unanimously voted by +the Seven Provinces, because it would have been an open violation of the +fundamental law of the confederacy, of its whole spirit, and of liberty +of conscience. He admitted that he had himself drawn up a protest on the +part of three provinces (Holland, Utrecht, and Overyssel) against the +decree for the National Synod as a breach of the Union, declaring it to +be therefore null and void and binding upon no man. He had dictated the +protest as oldest member present, while Grotius as the youngest had acted +as scribe. He would have supported the Synod if legally voted, but would +have preferred the convocation, under the authority of all the provinces, +of a general, not a national, synod, in which, besides clergy and laymen +from the Netherlands, deputations from all Protestant states and churches +should take part; a kind of Protestant oecumenical council. + +As to the enlistment, by the States of a province, of soldiers to keep +the peace and suppress tumults in its cities during times of political +and religious excitement, it was the most ordinary of occurrences. In his +experience of more than forty years he had never heard the right even +questioned. It was pure ignorance of law and history to find it a +novelty. + +To hire temporarily a sufficient number of professional soldiers, he +considered a more wholesome means of keeping the peace than to enlist one +portion of the citizens of a town against another portion, when party and +religious spirit was running high. His experience had taught him that the +mutual hatred of the inhabitants, thus inflamed, became more lasting and +mischievous than the resentment caused through suppression of disorder by +an armed and paid police of strangers. + +It was not only the right but the most solemn duty of the civil authority +to preserve the tranquillity, property, and lives of citizens committed +to their care. "I have said these fifty years," said Barneveld, "that it +is better to be governed by magistrates than mobs. I have always +maintained and still maintain that the most disastrous, shameful, and +ruinous condition into which this land can fall is that in which the +magistrates are overcome by the rabble of the towns and receive laws from +them. Nothing but perdition can follow from that." + +There had been good reason to believe that the French garrisons as well +as some of the train bands could not be thoroughly relied upon in +emergencies like those constantly breaking out, and there had been +advices of invasion by sympathizers from neighbouring countries. In many +great cities the civil authority had been trampled upon and mob rule had +prevailed. Certainly the recent example in the great commercial capital +of the country--where the house of a foremost citizen had been besieged, +stormed, and sacked, and a virtuous matron of the higher class hunted +like a wild beast through the streets by a rabble grossly ignorant of the +very nature of the religious quibble which had driven them mad, pelted +with stones, branded with vilest names, and only saved by accident from +assassination, while a church-going multitude looked calmly on--with +constantly recurring instances in other important cities were sufficient +reasons for the authorities to be watchful. + +He denied that he had initiated the proceedings at Utrecht in +conversation with Ledenberg or any one else, but he had not refused, he +said, his approval of the perfectly legal measures adopted for keeping +the peace there when submitted to him. He was himself a born citizen of +that province, and therefore especially interested in its welfare, and +there was an old and intimate friendship between Utrecht and Holland. It +would have been painful to him to see that splendid city in the control +of an ignorant mob, making use of religious problems, which they did not +comprehend, to plunder the property and take the lives of peaceful +citizens more comfortably housed than themselves. + +He had neither suggested nor controlled the proceedings at Utrecht. On +the contrary, at an interview with the Prince and Count William on the +13th July, and in the presence of nearly thirty members of the general +assembly, he had submitted a plan for cashiering the enlisted soldiery +and substituting for them other troops, native-born, who should be sworn +in the usual form to obey the laws of the Union. The deputation from +Holland to Utrecht, according to his personal knowledge, had received no +instructions personal or oral to authorize active steps by the troops of +the Holland quota, but to abstain from them and to request the Prince +that they should not be used against the will and commands of the States +of Utrecht, whom they were bound by oath to obey so long as they were in +garrison there. + +No man knew better than he whether the military oath which was called +new-fangled were a novelty or not, for he had himself, he said, drawn it +up thirty years before at command of the States-General by whom it was +then ordained. From that day to this he had never heard a pretence that +it justified anything not expressly sanctioned by the Articles of Union, +and neither the States of Holland nor those of Utrecht had made any +change in the oath. The States of Utrecht were sovereign within their own +territory, and in the time of peace neither the Prince of Orange without +their order nor the States-General had the right to command the troops in +their territory. The governor of a province was sworn to obey the laws of +the province and conform to the Articles of the General Union. + +He was asked why he wrote the warning letter to Ledenberg, and why he was +so anxious that the letter should be burned; as if that were a deadly +offence. + +He said that he could not comprehend why it should be imputed to him as a +crime that he wished in such turbulent times to warn so important a city +as Utrecht, the capital of his native province, against tumults, +disorders, and sudden assaults such as had often happened to her in times +past. As for the postscript requesting that the letter might be put in +the fire, he said that not being a member of, the government of that +province he was simply unwilling to leave a record that "he had been too +curious in aliens republics, although that could hardly be considered a +grave offence." + +In regard to the charge that he had accused Prince Maurice of aspiring to +the sovereignty of the country, he had much to say. He had never brought +such accusation in public or private. He had reason to believe +however--he had indeed convincing proofs--that many people, especially +those belonging to the Contra-Remonstrant party, cherished such schemes. +He had never sought to cast suspicion on the Prince himself on account of +those schemes. On the contrary, he had not even formally opposed them. +What he wished had always been that such projects should be discussed +formally, legally, and above board. After the lamentable murder of the +late Prince he had himself recommended to the authorities of some of the +cities that the transaction for bestowing the sovereignty of Holland upon +William, interrupted by his death, "should be completed in favour of +Prince Maurice in despite of the Spaniard." Recently he had requested +Grotius to look up the documents deposited in Rotterdam belonging to this +affair, in order that they might be consulted. + +He was asked whether according to Buzenval, the former French ambassador, +Prince Maurice had not declared he would rather fling himself from the +top of the Hague tower than accept the sovereignty. Barneveld replied +that the Prince according to the same authority had added "under the +conditions which had been imposed upon his father;" a clause which +considerably modified the self-denying statement. It was desirable +therefore to search the acts for the limitations annexed to the +sovereignty. + +Three years long there had been indications from various sources that a +party wished to change the form of government. He had not heard nor ever +intimated that the Prince suggested such intrigues. In anonymous +pamphlets and common street and tavern conversations the +Contra-Remonstrants were described by those of their own persuasion as +"Prince's Beggars" and the like. He had received from foreign countries +information worthy of attention, that it was the design of the +Contra-Remonstrants to raise the Prince to the sovereignty. He had +therefore in 1616 brought the matter before the nobles and cities in a +communication setting forth to the best of his recollection that under +these religious disputes something else was intended. He had desired ripe +conclusions on the matter, such as should most conduce to the service of +the country. This had been in good faith both to the Prince and the +Provinces, in order that, should a change in the government be thought +desirable, proper and peaceful means might be employed to bring it about. +He had never had any other intention than to sound the inclinations of +those with whom he spoke, and he had many times since that period, by +word of mouth and in writing, so lately as the month of April last +assured the Prince that he had ever been his sincere and faithful servant +and meant to remain so to the end of his life, desiring therefore that he +would explain to him his wishes and intentions. + +Subsequently he had publicly proposed in full Assembly of Holland that +the States should ripely deliberate and roundly declare if they were +discontented with the form of government, and if so, what change they +would desire. He had assured their Mightinesses that they might rely upon +him to assist in carrying out their intentions whatever they might be. He +had inferred however from the Prince's intimations, when he had broached +the subject to him in 1617, that he was not inclined towards these +supposed projects, and had heard that opinion distinctly expressed from +the mouth of Count William. + +That the Contra-Remonstrants secretly entertained these schemes, he had +been advised from many quarters, at home and abroad. In the year 1618 he +had received information to that effect from France. Certain confidential +counsellors of the Prince had been with him recently to confer on the +subject. He had told them that, if his Excellency chose to speak to him +in regard to it, would listen to his reasoning about it, both as regarded +the interests of the country and the Prince himself, and then should +desire him to propose and advocate it before the Assembly, he would do so +with earnestness, zeal, and affection. He had desired however that, in +case the attempt failed, the Prince would allow him to be relieved from +service and to leave the country. What he wished from the bottom of his +heart was that his Excellency would plainly discover to him the exact +nature of his sentiments in regard to the business. + +He fully admitted receiving a secret letter from Ambassador Langerac, +apprising him that a man of quality in France had information of the +intention of the Contra-Remonstrants throughout the Provinces, should +they come into power, to raise Prince Maurice to the sovereignty. He had +communicated on the subject with Grotius and other deputies in order +that, if this should prove to be the general inclination, the affair +might be handled according to law, without confusion or disorder. This, +he said, would be serving both the country and the Prince most +judiciously. + +He was asked why he had not communicated directly with Maurice. He +replied that he had already seen how unwillingly the Prince heard him +allude to the subject, and that moreover there was another clause in the +letter of different meaning, and in his view worthy of grave +consideration by the States. + +No question was asked him as to this clause, but we have seen that it +referred to the communication by du Agean to Langerac of a scheme for +bestowing the sovereignty of the Provinces on the King of France. The +reader will also recollect that Barneveld had advised the Ambassador to +communicate the whole intelligence to the Prince himself. + +Barneveld proceeded to inform the judges that he had never said a word to +cast suspicion upon the Prince, but had been actuated solely by the +desire to find out the inclination of the States. The communications +which he had made on the subject were neither for discrediting the Prince +nor for counteracting the schemes for his advancement. On the contrary, +he had conferred with deputies from great cities like Dordtrecht, +Enkhuyzen, and Amsterdam, most devoted to the Contra-Remonstrant party, +and had told them that, if they chose to propose the subject themselves, +he would conduct himself to the best of his abilities in accordance with +the wishes of the Prince. + +It would seem almost impossible for a statesman placed in Barneveld's +position to bear himself with more perfect loyalty both to the country +and to the Stadholder. His duty was to maintain the constitution and laws +so long as they remained unchanged. Should it appear that the States, +which legally represented the country, found the constitution defective, +he was ready to aid in its amendment by fair public and legal methods. + +If Maurice wished to propose himself openly as a candidate for the +sovereignty, which had a generation before been conferred upon his +father, Barneveld would not only acquiesce in the scheme, but propose it. + +Should it fail, he claimed the light to lay down all his offices and go +into exile. + +He had never said that the Prince was intriguing for, or even desired, +the sovereignty. That the project existed among the party most opposed to +himself, he had sufficient proof. To the leaders of that party therefore +he suggested that the subject should be publicly discussed, guaranteeing +freedom of debate and his loyal support so far as lay within his power. + +This was his answer to the accusation that he had meanly, secretly, and +falsely circulated statements that the Prince was aspiring to the +sovereignty. + + [Great pains were taken, in the course of the interrogatories, to + elicit proof that the Advocate had concealed important diplomatic + information from the Prince. He was asked why, in his secret + instructions to Ambassador Langerac, he ordered him by an express + article to be very cautious about making communications to the + Prince. Searching questions were put in regard to these secret + instructions, which I have read in the Archives, and a copy of which + now lies before me. They are in the form of questions, some of them + almost puerile ones, addressed to Barneveld by the Ambassador then + just departing on his mission to France in 1614, with the answers + written in the margin by the Advocate. The following is all that + has reference to the Prince: + "Of what matters may I ordinarily write to his Excellency?" + Answer--"Of all great and important matters." + It was difficult to find much that was treasonable in that.] + +Among the heterogeneous articles of accusation he was asked why he had +given no attention to those who had so, frequently proposed the formation +of the West India Company. + +He replied that it had from old time been the opinion of the States of +Holland, and always his own, that special and private licenses for +traffic, navigation, and foreign commerce, were prejudicial to the +welfare of the land. He had always been most earnestly opposed to them, +detesting monopolies which interfered with that free trade and navigation +which should be common to all mankind. He had taken great pains however +in the years 1596 and 1597 to study the nature of the navigation and +trade to the East Indies in regard to the nations to be dealt with in +those regions, the nature of the wares bought and sold there, the +opposition to be encountered from the Spaniards and Portuguese against +the commerce of the Netherlanders, and the necessity of equipping vessels +both for traffic and defence, and had come to the conclusion that these +matters could best be directed by a general company. He explained in +detail the manner in which he had procured the blending of all the +isolated chambers into one great East India Corporation, the enormous +pains which it had cost him to bring it about, and the great commercial +and national success which had been the result. The Admiral of Aragon, +when a prisoner after the battle of Nieuwpoort, had told him, he said, +that the union of these petty corporations into one great whole had been +as disastrous a blow to the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal as the Union +of the Provinces at Utrecht had been. In regard to the West India +Company, its sole object, so far as he could comprehend it, had been to +equip armed vessels, not for trade but to capture and plunder Spanish +merchantmen and silver fleets in the West Indies and South America. This +was an advantageous war measure which he had favoured while the war +lasted. It was in no sense a commercial scheme however, and when the +Truce had been made--the company not having come into existence--he +failed to comprehend how its formation could be profitable for the +Netherlanders. On the contrary it would expressly invite or irritate the +Spaniards into a resumption of the war, an object which in his humble +opinion was not at all desirable. + +Certainly these ideas were not especially reprehensible, but had they +been as shallow and despicable as they seem to us enlightened, it is +passing strange that they should have furnished matter for a criminal +prosecution. + +It was doubtless a disappointment for the promoters of the company, the +chief of whom was a bankrupt, to fail in obtaining their charter, but it +was scarcely high-treason to oppose it. There is no doubt however that +the disapprobation with which Barneveld regarded the West India Company, +the seat of which was at Amsterdam, was a leading cause of the deadly +hostility entertained for him by the great commercial metropolis. + +It was bad enough for the Advocate to oppose unconditional predestination +and the damnation of infants, but to frustrate a magnificent system of +privateering on the Spaniards in time of truce was an unpardonable crime. + +The patience with which the venerable statesman submitted to the taunts, +ignorant and insolent cross-questionings, and noisy interruptions of his +judges, was not less remarkable than the tenacity of memory which enabled +him thus day after day, alone, unaided by books, manuscripts, or friendly +counsel, to reconstruct the record of forty years, and to expound the +laws of the land by an array of authorities, instances, and illustrations +in a manner that would be deemed masterly by one who had all the +resources of libraries, documents, witnesses, and secretaries at command. + +Only when insidious questions were put tending to impute to him +corruption, venality, and treacherous correspondence with the enemy--for +they never once dared formally to accuse him of treason--did that almost +superhuman patience desert him. + +He was questioned as to certain payments made by him to a certain van der +Vecken in Spanish coin. He replied briefly at first that his money +transactions with that man of business extended over a period of twenty +or thirty years, and amounted to many hundred thousands of florins, +growing out of purchases and sales of lands, agricultural enterprises on +his estates, moneys derived from his professional or official business +and the like. It was impossible for him to remember the details of every +especial money payment that might have occurred between them. + +Then suddenly breaking forth into a storm of indignation; he could mark +from these questions, he said, that his enemies, not satisfied with +having wounded his heart with their falsehoods, vile forgeries, and +honour-robbing libels, were determined to break it. This he prayed that +God Almighty might avert and righteously judge between him and them. + +It was plain that among other things they were alluding to the stale and +senseless story of the sledge filled with baskets of coin sent by the +Spanish envoys on their departure from the Hague, on conclusion of the +Truce, to defray expenses incurred by them for board and lodging of +servants, forage of horses, and the like-which had accidentally stopped +at Barneveld's door and was forthwith sent on to John Spronssen, +superintendent of such affairs. Passing over this wanton bit of calumny +with disgust, he solemnly asserted that he had never at any period of his +life received one penny nor the value of one penny from the King of +Spain, the Archdukes, Spinola, or any other person connected with the +enemy, saving only the presents publicly and mutually conferred according +to invariable custom by the high contracting parties, upon the respective +negotiators at conclusion of the Treaty of Truce. Even these gifts +Barneveld had moved his colleagues not to accept, but proposed that they +should all be paid into the public treasury. He had been overruled, he +said, but that any dispassionate man of tolerable intelligence could +imagine him, whose whole life had been a perpetual offence to Spain, to +be in suspicious relations with that power seemed to him impossible. The +most intense party spirit, yea, envy itself, must confess that he had +been among the foremost to take up arms for his country's liberties, and +had through life never faltered in their defence. And once more in that +mean chamber, and before a row of personal enemies calling themselves +judges, he burst into an eloquent and most justifiable sketch of the +career of one whom there was none else to justify and so many to assail. + +From his youth, he said, he had made himself by his honourable and +patriotic deeds hopelessly irreconcilable with the Spaniards. He was one +of the advocates practising in the Supreme Court of Holland, who in the +very teeth of the Duke of Alva had proclaimed him a tyrant and had sworn +obedience to the Prince of Orange as the lawful governor of the land. He +was one of those who in the same year had promoted and attended private +gatherings for the advancement of the Reformed religion. He had helped to +levy, and had contributed to, funds for the national defence in the early +days of the revolt. These were things which led directly to the Council +of Blood and the gibbet. He had borne arms himself on various bloody +fields and had been perpetually a deputy to the rebel camps. He had been +the original mover of the Treaty of Union which was concluded between the +Provinces at Utrecht. He had been the first to propose and to draw up the +declaration of Netherland independence and the abjuration of the King of +Spain. He had been one of those who had drawn and passed the Act +establishing the late Prince of Orange as stadholder. Of the sixty +signers of these memorable declarations none were now living save himself +and two others. When the Prince had been assassinated, he had done his +best to secure for his son Maurice the sovereign position of which murder +had so suddenly deprived the father. He had been member of the memorable +embassies to France and England by which invaluable support for the +struggling Provinces had been obtained. + +And thus he rapidly sketched the history of the great war of independence +in which he had ever been conspicuously employed on the patriotic side. +When the late King of France at the close of the century had made peace +with Spain, he had been sent as special ambassador to that monarch, and +had prevailed on him, notwithstanding his treaty with the enemy, to +continue his secret alliance with the States and to promise them a large +subsidy, pledges which had been sacredly fulfilled. It was on that +occasion that Henry, who was his debtor for past services, professional, +official, and perfectly legitimate, had agreed, when his finances should +be in better condition, to discharge his obligations; over and above the +customary diplomatic present which he received publicly in common with +his colleague Admiral Nassau. This promise, fulfilled a dozen years +later, had been one of the senseless charges of corruption brought +against him. He had been one of the negotiators of the Truce in which +Spain had been compelled to treat with her revolted provinces as with +free states and her equals. He had promoted the union of the Protestant +princes and their alliance with France and the United States in +opposition to the designs of Spain and the League. He had organized and +directed the policy by which the forces of England, France, and +Protestant Germany had possessed themselves of the debateable land. He +had resisted every scheme by which it was hoped to force the States from +their hold of those important citadels. He had been one of the foremost +promoters of the East India Company, an organization which the Spaniards +confessed had been as damaging to them as the Union of the Provinces +itself had been. + +The idiotic and circumstantial statements, that he had conducted +Burgomaster van Berk through a secret staircase of his house into his +private study for the purpose of informing him that the only way for the +States to get out of the war was to submit themselves once more to their +old masters, so often forced upon him by the judges, he contradicted with +disdain and disgust. He had ever abhorred and dreaded, he said, the House +of Spain, Austria, and Burgundy. His life had passed in open hostility to +that house, as was known to all mankind. His mere personal interests, +apart from higher considerations, would make an approach to the former +sovereign impossible, for besides the deeds he had already alluded to, he +had committed at least twelve distinct and separate acts, each one of +which would be held high-treason by the House of Austria, and he had +learned from childhood that these are things which monarchs never forget. +The tales of van Berk were those of a personal enemy, falsehoods scarcely +worth contradicting. + +He was grossly and enormously aggrieved by the illegal constitution of +the commission. He had protested and continued to protest against it. If +that protest were unheeded, he claimed at least that those men should be +excluded from the board and the right to sit in judgment upon his person +and his deeds who had proved themselves by words and works to be his +capital enemies, of which fact he could produce irrefragable evidence. He +claimed that the Supreme Court of Holland, or the High Council, or both +together, should decide upon that point. He held as his personal enemies, +he said, all those who had declared that he, before or since the Truce +down to the day of his arrest, had held correspondence with the +Spaniards, the Archdukes, the Marquis Spinola, or any one on that side, +had received money, money value, or promises of money from them, and in +consequence had done or omitted to do anything whatever. He denounced +such tales as notorious, shameful, and villainous falsehoods, the +utterers and circulators of them as wilful liars, and this he was ready +to maintain in every appropriate way for the vindication of the truth and +his own honour. He declared solemnly before God Almighty to the +States-General and to the States of Holland that his course in the +religious matter had been solely directed to the strengthening of the +Reformed religion and to the political security of the provinces and +cities. He had simply desired that, in the awful and mysterious matter of +predestination, the consciences of many preachers and many thousands of +good citizens might be placed in tranquillity, with moderate and +Christian limitations against all excesses. + +From all these reasons, he said, the commissioners, the States-General, +the Prince, and every man in the land could clearly see, and were bound +to see, that he was the same man now that he was at the beginning of the +war, had ever been, and with God's help should ever remain. + +The proceedings were kept secret from the public and, as a matter of +course, there had been conflicting rumours from day to day as to the +probable result of these great state trials. In general however it was +thought that the prisoner would be acquitted of the graver charges, or +that at most he would be permanently displaced from all office and +declared incapable thenceforth to serve the State. The triumph of the +Contra-Remonstrants since the Stadholder had placed himself at the head +of them, and the complete metamorphosis of the city governments even in +the strongholds of the Arminian party seemed to render the permanent +political disgrace of the Advocate almost a matter of certainty. + +The first step that gave rise to a belief that he might be perhaps more +severely dealt with than had been anticipated was the proclamation by the +States-General of a public fast and humiliation for the 17th April. + +In this document it was announced that "Church and State--during several +years past having been brought into great danger of utter destruction +through certain persons in furtherance of their ambitious designs--had +been saved by the convocation of a National Synod; that a lawful sentence +was soon to be expected upon those who had been disturbing the +Commonwealth; that through this sentence general tranquillity would +probably be restored; and that men were now to thank God for this result, +and pray to Him that He would bring the wicked counsels and stratagems of +the enemy against these Provinces to naught." + +All the prisoners were asked if they too would like in their chambers of +bondage to participate in the solemnity, although the motive for the +fasting and prayer was not mentioned to them. Each of them in his +separate prison room, of course without communication together, selected +the 7th Psalm and sang it with his servant and door-keeper. + +From the date of this fast-day Barneveld looked upon the result of his +trial as likely to be serious. + +Many clergymen refused or objected to comply with the terms of this +declaration. Others conformed with it greedily, and preached lengthy +thanksgiving sermons, giving praise to God that, He had confounded the +devices of the ambitious and saved the country from the "blood bath" +which they had been preparing for it. + +The friends of Barneveld became alarmed at the sinister language of this +proclamation, in which for the first time allusions had been made to a +forthcoming sentence against the accused. + +Especially the staunch and indefatigable du Maurier at once addressed +himself again to the States-General. De Boississe had returned to France, +having found that the government of a country torn, weakened, and +rendered almost impotent by its own internecine factions, was not likely +to exert any very potent influence on the fate of the illustrious +prisoner. + +The States had given him to understand that they were wearied with his +perpetual appeals, intercessions, and sermons in behalf of mercy. They +made him feel in short that Lewis XIII. and Henry IV. were two entirely +different personages. + +Du Maurier however obtained a hearing before the Assembly on the 1st May, +where he made a powerful and manly speech in presence of the Prince, +urging that the prisoners ought to be discharged unless they could be +convicted of treason, and that the States ought to show as much deference +to his sovereign as they had always done to Elizabeth of England. He made +a personal appeal to Prince Maurice, urging upon him how much it would +redound to his glory if he should now in generous and princely fashion +step forward in behalf of those by whom he deemed himself to have been +personally offended. + +His speech fell upon ears hardened against such eloquence and produced no +effect. + +Meantime the family of Barneveld, not yet reduced to despair, chose to +take a less gloomy view of the proclamation. Relying on the innocence of +the great statesman, whose aims, in their firm belief, had ever been for +the welfare and glory of his fatherland, and in whose heart there had +never been kindled one spark of treason, they bravely expected his +triumphant release from his long and, as they deemed it, his iniquitous +imprisonment. + +On this very 1st of May, in accordance with ancient custom, a may-pole +was erected on the Voorhout before the mansion of the captive statesman, +and wreaths of spring flowers and garlands of evergreen decorated the +walls within which were such braised and bleeding hearts. These +demonstrations of a noble hypocrisy, if such it were, excited the wrath, +not the compassion, of the Stadholder, who thought that the aged matron +and her sons and daughters, who dwelt in that house of mourning, should +rather have sat in sackcloth with ashes on their heads than indulge in +these insolent marks of hope and joyful expectation. + +It is certain however that Count William Lewis, who, although most +staunch on the Contra-Remonstrant side, had a veneration for the Advocate +and desired warmly to save him, made a last and strenuous effort for that +purpose. + +It was believed then, and it seems almost certain, that, if the friends +of the Advocate had been willing to implore pardon for him, the sentence +would have been remitted or commuted. Their application would have been +successful, for through it his guilt would seem to be acknowledged. + +Count William sent for the Fiscal Duyck. He asked him if there were no +means of saving the life of a man who was so old and had done the country +so much service. After long deliberation, it was decided that Prince +Maurice should be approached on the subject. Duyck wished that the Count +himself would speak with his cousin, but was convinced by his reasoning +that it would be better that the Fiscal should do it. Duyck had a long +interview accordingly with Maurice, which was followed by a very secret +one between them both and Count William. The three were locked up +together, three hours long, in the Prince's private cabinet. It was then +decided that Count William should go, as if of his own accord, to the +Princess-Dowager Louise, and induce her to send for some one of +Barneveld's children and urge that the family should ask pardon for him. +She asked if this was done with the knowledge of the Prince of Orange, or +whether he would not take it amiss. The Count eluded the question, but +implored her to follow his advice. + +The result was an interview between the Princess and Madame de +Groeneveld, wife of the eldest son. That lady was besought to apply, with +the rest of the Advocate's children, for pardon to the Lords States, but +to act as if it were done of her own impulse, and to keep their interview +profoundly secret. + +Madame de Groeneveld took time to consult the other members of the family +and some friends. Soon afterwards she came again to the Princess, and +informed her that she had spoken with the other children, and that they +could not agree to the suggestion. "They would not move one step in +it--no, not if it should cost him his head." + +The Princess reported the result of this interview to Count William, at +which both were so distressed that they determined to leave the Hague. + +There is something almost superhuman in the sternness of this stoicism. +Yet it lay in the proud and highly tempered character of the +Netherlanders. There can be no doubt that the Advocate would have +expressly dictated this proceeding if he had been consulted. It was +precisely the course adopted by himself. Death rather than life with a +false acknowledgment of guilt and therefore with disgrace. The loss of +his honour would have been an infinitely greater triumph to his enemies +than the loss of his head. + +There was no delay in drawing up the sentence. Previously to this +interview with the widow of William the Silent, the family of the +Advocate had presented to the judges three separate documents, rather in +the way of arguments than petitions, undertaking to prove by elaborate +reasoning and citations of precedents and texts of the civil law that the +proceedings against him were wholly illegal, and that he was innocent of +every crime. + +No notice had been taken of those appeals. + +Upon the questions and answers as already set forth the sentence soon +followed, and it may be as well that the reader should be aware, at this +point in the narrative, of the substance of that sentence so soon to be +pronounced. There had been no indictment, no specification of crime. +There had been no testimony or evidence. There had been no argument for +the prosecution or the defence. There had been no trial whatever. The +prisoner was convicted on a set of questions to which he had put in +satisfactory replies. He was sentenced on a preamble. The sentence was a +string of vague generalities, intolerably long, and as tangled as the +interrogatories. His proceedings during a long career had on the whole +tended to something called a "blood bath"--but the blood bath had never +occurred. + +With an effrontery which did not lack ingenuity, Barneveld's defence was +called by the commissioners his confession, and was formally registered +as such in the process and the sentence; while the fact that he had not +been stretched upon the rack during his trial, nor kept in chains for the +eight months of his imprisonment, were complacently mentioned as proofs +of exceptionable indulgence. + +"Whereas the prisoner John of Barneveld," said the sentence, "without +being put to the torture and without fetters of iron, has confessed . . . +to having perturbed religion, greatly afflicted the Church of God, and +carried into practice exorbitant and pernicious maxims of State . . . +inculcating by himself and accomplices that each province had the right +to regulate religious affairs within its own territory, and that other +provinces were not to concern themselves therewith"--therefore and for +many other reasons he merited punishment. + +He had instigated a protest by vote of three provinces against the +National Synod. He had despised the salutary advice of many princes and +notable personages. He had obtained from the King of Great Britain +certain letters furthering his own opinions, the drafts of which he had +himself suggested, and corrected and sent over to the States' ambassador +in London, and when written out, signed, and addressed by the King to the +States-General, had delivered them without stating how they had been +procured. + +Afterwards he had attempted to get other letters of a similar nature from +the King, and not succeeding had defamed his Majesty as being a cause of +the troubles in the Provinces. He had permitted unsound theologians to be +appointed to church offices, and had employed such functionaries in +political affairs as were most likely to be the instruments of his own +purposes. He had not prevented vigorous decrees from being enforced in +several places against those of the true religion. He had made them +odious by calling them Puritans, foreigners, and "Flanderizers," although +the United Provinces had solemnly pledged to each other their lives, +fortunes, and blood by various conventions, to some of which the prisoner +was himself a party, to maintain the Reformed, Evangelical, religion +only, and to, suffer no change in it to be made for evermore. + +In order to carry out his design and perturb the political state of the +Provinces he had drawn up and caused to be enacted the Sharp Resolution +of 4th August 1617. He had thus nullified the ordinary course of justice. +He had stimulated the magistrates to disobedience, and advised them to +strengthen themselves with freshly enlisted military companies. He had +suggested new-fangled oaths for the soldiers, authorizing them to refuse +obedience to the States-General and his Excellency. He had especially +stimulated the proceedings at Utrecht. When it was understood that the +Prince was to pass through Utrecht, the States of that province not +without the prisoner's knowledge had addressed a letter to his +Excellency, requesting him not to pass through their city. He had written +a letter to Ledenberg suggesting that good watch should be held at the +town gates and up and down the river Lek. He had desired that Ledenberg +having read that letter should burn it. He had interfered with the +cashiering of the mercenaries at Utrecht. He had said that such +cashiering without the consent of the States of that province was an act +of force which would justify resistance by force. + +Although those States had sent commissioners to concert measures with the +Prince for that purpose, he had advised them to conceal their +instructions until his own plan for the disbandment could be carried out. +At a secret meeting in the house of Tresel, clerk of the States-General, +between Grotius, Hoogerbeets, and other accomplices, it was decided that +this advice should be taken. Report accordingly was made to the prisoner. +He had advised them to continue in their opposition to the National +Synod. + +He had sought to calumniate and blacken his Excellency by saying that he +aspired to the sovereignty of the Provinces. He had received intelligence +on that subject from abroad in ciphered letters. + +He had of his own accord rejected a certain proposed, notable alliance of +the utmost importance to this Republic. + + [This refers, I think without doubt, to the conversation between + King James and Caron at the end of the year 1815.] + +He had received from foreign potentates various large sums of money and +other presents. + +All "these proceedings tended to put the city of Utrecht into a +blood-bath, and likewise to bring the whole country, and the person of +his Excellency into the uttermost danger." + +This is the substance of the sentence, amplified by repetitions and +exasperating tautology into thirty or forty pages. + +It will have been perceived by our analysis of Barneveld's answers to the +commissioners that all the graver charges which he was now said to have +confessed had been indignantly denied by him or triumphantly justified. + +It will also be observed that he was condemned for no categorical +crime--lese-majesty, treason, or rebellion. The commissioners never +ventured to assert that the States-General were sovereign, or that the +central government had a right to prescribe a religious formulary for all +the United Provinces. They never dared to say that the prisoner had been +in communication with the enemy or had received bribes from him. + +Of insinuation and implication there was much, of assertion very little, +of demonstration nothing whatever. + +But supposing that all the charges had been admitted or proved, what +course would naturally be taken in consequence? How was a statesman who +adhered to the political, constitutional, and religious opinions on which +he had acted, with the general acquiescence, during a career of more than +forty years, but which were said to be no longer in accordance with +public opinion, to be dealt with? Would the commissioners request him to +retire honourably from the high functions which he had over and over +again offered to resign? Would they consider that, having fairly +impeached and found him guilty of disturbing the public peace by +continuing to act on his well-known legal theories, they might deprive +him summarily of power and declare him incapable of holding office again? + +The conclusion of the commissioners was somewhat more severe than either +of these measures. Their long rambling preamble ended with these decisive +words: + +"Therefore the judges, in name of the Lords States-General, condemn the +prisoner to be taken to the Binnenhof, there to be executed with the +sword that death may follow, and they declare all his property +confiscated." + +The execution was to take place so soon as the sentence had been read to +the prisoner. + +After the 1st of May Barneveld had not appeared before his judges. He had +been examined in all about sixty times. + +In the beginning of May his servant became impatient. "You must not be +impatient," said his master. "The time seems much longer because we get +no news now from the outside. But the end will soon come. This delay +cannot last for ever." + +Intimation reached him on Saturday the 11th May that the sentence was +ready and would soon be pronounced. + +"It is a bitter folk," said Barneveld as he went to bed. "I have nothing +good to expect of them." Next day was occupied in sewing up and +concealing his papers, including a long account of his examination, with +the questions and answers, in his Spanish arm-chair. Next day van der +Meulen said to the servant, "I will bet you a hundred florins that you'll +not be here next Thursday." + +The faithful John was delighted, not dreaming of the impending result. + +It was Sunday afternoon, 12th May, and about half past five o'clock. +Barneveld sat in his prison chamber, occupied as usual in writing, +reviewing the history of the past, and doing his best to reduce into +something like order the rambling and miscellaneous interrogatories, out +of which his trial had been concocted, while the points dwelt in his +memory, and to draw up a concluding argument in his own defence. Work +which according to any equitable, reasonable, or even decent procedure +should have been entrusted to the first lawyers of the country--preparing +the case upon the law and the facts with the documents before them, with +the power of cross-questioning witnesses and sifting evidence, and +enlightened by constant conferences with the illustrious prisoner +himself--came entirely upon his own shoulders, enfeebled as he was by +age, physical illness, and by the exhaustion of along imprisonment. +Without books, notes of evidence, or even copies of the charges of which +he stood accused, he was obliged to draw up his counter-arguments against +the impeachment and then by aid of a faithful valet to conceal his +manuscript behind the tapestry of the chamber, or cause them to be sewed +up in the lining of his easy-chair, lest they should be taken from him by +order of the judges who sat in the chamber below. + +While he was thus occupied in preparations for his next encounter with +the tribunal, the door opened, and three gentlemen entered. Two were the +prosecuting officers of the government, Fiscal Sylla and Fiscal van +Leeuwen. The other was the provost-marshal, Carel de Nijs. The servant +was directed to leave the room. + +Barneveld had stepped into his dressing-room on hearing footsteps, but +came out again with his long furred gown about him as the three entered. +He greeted them courteously and remained standing, with his hands placed +on the back of his chair and with one knee resting carelessly against the +arm of it. Van Leeuwen asked him if he would not rather be seated, as +they brought a communication from the judges. He answered in the +negative. Von Leeuwen then informed him that he was summoned to appear +before the judges the next morning to hear his sentence of death. + +"The sentence of death!" he exclaimed, without in the least changing his +position; "the sentence of death! the sentence of death!" saying the +words over thrice, with an air of astonishment rather than of horror. "I +never expected that! I thought they were going to hear my defence again. +I had intended to make some change in my previous statements, having set +some things down when beside myself with choler." + +He then made reference to his long services. Van Leeuwen expressed +himself as well acquainted with them. "He was sorry," he said, "that his +lordship took this message ill of him." + +"I do not take it ill of you," said Barneveld, "but let them," meaning +the judges, "see how they will answer it before God. Are they thus to +deal with a true patriot? Let me have pen, ink, and paper, that for the +last time I may write farewell to my wife." + +"I will go ask permission of the judges," said van Leenwen, "and I cannot +think that my lord's request will be refused." + +While van Leeuwen was absent, the Advocate exclaimed, looking at the +other legal officer: + +"Oh, Sylla, Sylla, if your father could only have seen to what uses they +would put you!" + +Sylla was silent. + +Permission to write the letter was soon received from de Voogt, president +of the commission. Pen, ink, and paper were brought, and the prisoner +calmly sat down to write, without the slightest trace of discomposure +upon his countenance or in any of his movements. + +While he was writing, Sylla said with some authority, "Beware, my lord, +what you write, lest you put down something which may furnish cause for +not delivering the letter." + +Barneveld paused in his writing, took the glasses from his eyes, and +looked Sylla in the face. + +"Well, Sylla," he said very calmly, "will you in these my last moments +lay down the law to me as to what I shall write to my wife?" + +He then added with a half-smile, "Well, what is expected of me?" + +"We have no commission whatever to lay down the law," said van Leeuwen. +"Your worship will write whatever you like." + +While he was writing, Anthony Walaeus came in, a preacher and professor +of Middelburg, a deputy to the Synod of Dordtrecht, a learned and amiable +man, sent by the States-General to minister to the prisoner on this +supreme occasion; and not unworthy to be thus selected. + +The Advocate, not knowing him, asked him why he came. + +"I am not here without commission," said the clergyman. "I come to +console my lord in his tribulation." + +"I am a man," said Barneveld; "have come to my present age, and I know +how to console myself. I must write, and have now other things to do." + +The preacher said that he would withdraw and return when his worship was +at leisure. + +"Do as you like," said the Advocate, calmly going on with his writing. + +When the letter was finished, it was sent to the judges for their +inspection, by whom it was at once forwarded to the family mansion in the +Voorhout, hardly a stone's throw from the prison chamber. + +Thus it ran: + +"Very dearly beloved wife, children, sons-in-law, and grandchildren, I +greet you altogether most affectionately. I receive at this moment the +very heavy and sorrowful tidings that I, an old man, for all my services +done well and faithfully to the Fatherland for so many years (after +having performed all respectful and friendly offices to his Excellency +the Prince with upright affection so far as my official duty and vocation +would permit, shown friendship to many people of all sorts, and wittingly +injured no man), must prepare myself to die to-morrow. + +"I console myself in God the Lord, who knows all hearts, and who will +judge all men. I beg you all together to do the same. I have steadily and +faithfully served My Lords the States of Holland and their nobles and +cities. To the States of Utrecht as sovereigns of my own Fatherland I +have imparted at their request upright and faithful counsel, in order to +save them from tumults of the populace, and from the bloodshed with which +they had so long been threatened. I had the same views for the cities of +Holland in order that every one might be protected and no one injured. + +"Live together in love and peace. Pray for me to Almighty God, who will +graciously hold us all in His holy keeping. + +"From my chamber of sorrow, the 12th May 1619. + +"Your very dear husband, father, father-in-law, and grandfather, + + "JOHN OF BARNEVELD." + +It was thought strange that the judges should permit so simple and clear +a statement, an argument in itself, to be forwarded. The theory of his +condemnation was to rest before the public on his confessions of guilt, +and here in the instant of learning the nature of the sentence in a few +hours to be pronounced upon him he had in a few telling periods declared +his entire innocence. Nevertheless the letter had been sent at once to +its address. + +So soon as this sad business had been disposed of, Anthony Walaeus +returned. The Advocate apologized to the preacher for his somewhat abrupt +greeting on his first appearance. He was much occupied and did not know +him, he said, although he had often heard of him. He begged him, as well +as the provost-marshal, to join him at supper, which was soon brought. + +Barneveld ate with his usual appetite, conversed cheerfully on various +topics, and pledged the health of each of his guests in a glass of beer. +Contrary to his wont he drank at that repast no wine. After supper he +went out into the little ante-chamber and called his servant, asking him +how he had been faring. Now John Franken had just heard with grief +unspeakable the melancholy news of his master's condemnation from two +soldiers of the guard, who had been sent by the judges to keep additional +watch over the prisoner. He was however as great a stoic as his master, +and with no outward and superfluous manifestations of woe had simply +implored the captain-at-arms, van der Meulen, to intercede with the +judges that he might be allowed to stay with his lord to the last. +Meantime he had been expressly informed that he was to say nothing to the +Advocate in secret, and that his master was not to speak to him in a low +tone nor whisper in his ear. + +When the Advocate came out into the ante-chamber and looking over his +shoulder saw the two soldiers he at once lowered his voice. + +"Hush-speak low," he whispered; "this is too cruel." John then informed +him of van der Meulen's orders, and that the soldiers had also been +instructed to look to it sharply that no word was exchanged between +master and man except in a loud voice. + +"Is it possible," said the Advocate, "that so close an inspection is held +over me in these last hours? Can I not speak a word or two in freedom? +This is a needless mark of disrespect." + +The soldiers begged him not to take their conduct amiss as they were +obliged strictly to obey orders. + +He returned to his chamber, sat down in his chair, and begged Walaeus to +go on his behalf to Prince Maurice. + +"Tell his Excellency," said he, "that I have always served him with +upright affection so far as my office, duties, and principles permitted. +If I, in the discharge of my oath and official functions, have ever done +anything contrary to his views, I hope that he will forgive it, and that +he will hold my children in his gracious favour." + +It was then ten o'clock. The preacher went downstairs and crossed the +courtyard to the Stadholder's apartments, where he at once gained +admittance. + +Maurice heard the message with tears in his eyes, assuring Walaeus that +he felt deeply for the Advocate's misfortunes. He had always had much +affection for him, he said, and had often warned him against his mistaken +courses. Two things, however, had always excited his indignation. One was +that Barneveld had accused him of aspiring to sovereignty. The other that +he had placed him in such danger at Utrecht. Yet he forgave him all. As +regarded his sons, so long as they behaved themselves well they might +rely on his favour. + +As Walaeus was about to leave the apartment, the Prince called him back. + +"Did he say anything of a pardon?" he asked, with some eagerness. + +"My Lord," answered the clergyman, "I cannot with truth say that I +understood him to make any allusion to it." + +Walaeus returned immediately to the prison chamber and made his report of +the interview. He was unwilling however to state the particulars of the +offence which Maurice declared himself to have taken at the acts of the +Advocate. + +But as the prisoner insisted upon knowing, the clergyman repeated the +whole conversation. + +"His Excellency has been deceived in regard to the Utrecht business," +said Barneveld, "especially as to one point. But it is true that I had +fear and apprehension that he aspired to the sovereignty or to more +authority in the country. Ever since the year 1600 I have felt this fear +and have tried that these apprehensions might be rightly understood." + +While Walaeus had been absent, the Reverend Jean la Motte (or Lamotius) +and another clergyman of the Hague had come to the prisoner's apartment. +La Motte could not look upon the Advocate's face without weeping, but the +others were more collected. Conversation now ensued among the four; the +preachers wishing to turn the doomed statesman's thought to the +consolations of religion. + +But it was characteristic of the old lawyer's frame of mind that even now +he looked at the tragical position in which he found himself from a +constitutional and controversial point of view. He was perfectly calm and +undaunted at the awful fate so suddenly and unexpectedly opened before +his eyes, but he was indignant at what he esteemed the ignorance, +injustice, and stupidity of the sentence to be pronounced against him. + +"I am ready enough to die," he said to the three clergymen, "but I cannot +comprehend why I am to die. I have done nothing except in obedience to +the laws and privileges of the land and according to my oath, honour, and +conscience." + +"These judges," he continued, "come in a time when other maxims prevail +in the State than those of my day. They have no right therefore to sit in +judgment upon me." + +The clergymen replied that the twenty-four judges who had tried the case +were no children and were conscientious men; that it was no small thing +to condemn a man, and that they would have to answer it before the +Supreme Judge of all. + +"I console myself," he answered, "in the Lord my God, who knows all +hearts and shall judge all men. God is just. + +"They have not dealt with me," he continued, "as according to law and +justice they were bound to deal. They have taken away from me my own +sovereign lords and masters and deposed them. To them alone I was +responsible. In their place they have put many of my enemies who were +never before in the government, and almost all of whom are young men who +have not seen much or read much. I have seen and read much, and know that +from such examples no good can follow. After my death they will learn for +the first time what governing means." + +"The twenty-four judges are nearly all of them my enemies. What they have +reproached me with, I have been obliged to hear. I have appealed against +these judges, but it has been of no avail. They have examined me in +piecemeal, not in statesmanlike fashion. The proceedings against me have +been much too hard. I have frequently requested to see the notes of my +examination as it proceeded, and to confer upon it with aid and counsel +of friends, as would be the case in all lands governed by law. The +request was refused. During this long and wearisome affliction and misery +I have not once been allowed to speak to my wife and children. These are +indecent proceedings against a man seventy-two years of age, who has +served his country faithfully for three-and-forty years. I bore arms with +the volunteers at my own charges at the siege of Haarlem and barely +escaped with life." + +It was not unnatural that the aged statesman's thoughts should revert in +this supreme moment to the heroic scenes in which he had been an actor +almost a half-century before. He could not but think with bitterness of +those long past but never forgotten days when he, with other patriotic +youths, had faced the terrible legions of Alva in defence of the +Fatherland, at a time when the men who were now dooming him to a +traitor's death were unborn, and who, but for his labours, courage, +wisdom, and sacrifices, might have never had a Fatherland to serve, or a +judgment-seat on which to pronounce his condemnation. + +Not in a spirit of fretfulness, but with disdainful calm, he criticised +and censured the proceedings against himself as a violation of the laws +of the land and of the first principles of justice, discussing them as +lucidly and steadily as if they had been against a third person. + +The preachers listened, but had nothing to say. They knew not of such +matters, they said, and had no instructions to speak of them. They had +been sent to call him to repentance for his open and hidden sins and to +offer the consolations of religion. + +"I know that very well," he said, "but I too have something to say +notwithstanding." The conversation then turned upon religious topics, and +the preachers spoke of predestination. + +"I have never been able to believe in the matter of high predestination," +said the Advocate. "I have left it in the hands of God the Lord. I hold +that a good Christian man must believe that he through God's grace and by +the expiation of his sin through our Redeemer Jesus Christ is predestined +to be saved, and that this belief in his salvation, founded alone on +God's grace and the merits of our Redeemer Jesus Christ, comes to him +through the same grace of God. And if he falls into great sins, his firm +hope and confidence must be that the Lord God will not allow him to +continue in them, but that, through prayer for grace and repentance, he +will be converted from evil and remain in the faith to the end of his +life." + +These feelings, he said, he had expressed fifty-two years before to three +eminent professors of theology in whom he confided, and they had assured +him that he might tranquilly continue in such belief without examining +further. "And this has always been my creed," he said. + +The preachers replied that faith is a gift of God and not given to all +men, that it must be given out of heaven to a man before he could be +saved. Hereupon they began to dispute, and the Advocate spoke so +earnestly and well that the clergymen were astonished and sat for a time +listening to him in silence. + +He asked afterwards about the Synod, and was informed that its decrees +had not yet been promulgated, but that the Remonstrants had been +condemned. + +"It is a pity," said he. "One is trying to act on the old Papal system, +but it will never do. Things have gone too far. As to the Synod, if My +Lords the States of Holland had been heeded there would have been first a +provincial synod and then a national one."--"But," he added, looking the +preachers in the face, "had you been more gentle with each other, matters +would not have taken so high a turn. But you have been too fierce one +against the other, too full of bitter party spirit." + +They replied that it was impossible for them to act against their +conscience and the supreme authority. And then they asked him if there +was nothing that troubled him in, his conscience in the matters for which +he must die; nothing for which he repented and sorrowed, and for which he +would call upon God for mercy. + +"This I know well," he said, "that I have never willingly done wrong to +any man. People have been ransacking my letters to Caron--confidential +ones written several years ago to an old friend when I was troubled and +seeking for counsel and consolation. It is hard that matter of +impeachment against me to-day should be sought for thus." + +And then he fell into political discourse again on the subject of the +Waartgelders and the State rights, and the villainous pasquils and libels +that had circulated so long through the country. + +"I have sometimes spoken hastily, I confess," he said; "but that was when +I was stung by the daily swarm of infamous and loathsome pamphlets, +especially those directed against my sovereign masters the States of +Holland. That I could not bear. Old men cannot well brush such things +aside. All that was directly aimed at me in particular I endeavoured to +overcome with such patience as I could muster. The disunion and mutual +enmity in the country have wounded me to the heart. I have made use of +all means in my power to accommodate matters, to effect with all +gentleness a mutual reconciliation. I have always felt a fear lest the +enemy should make use of our internal dissensions to strike a blow +against us. I can say with perfect truth that ever since the year '77 I +have been as resolutely and unchangeably opposed to the Spaniards and +their adherents, and their pretensions over these Provinces, as any man +in the world, no one excepted, and as ready to sacrifice property and +shed my blood in defence of the Fatherland. I have been so devoted to the +service of the country that I have not been able to take the necessary +care of my own private affairs." + +So spoke the great statesman in the seclusion of his prison, in the +presence of those clergymen whom he respected, at a supreme moment, when, +if ever, a man might be expected to tell the truth. And his whole life +which belonged to history, and had been passed on the world's stage +before the eyes of two generations of spectators, was a demonstration of +the truth of his words. + +But Burgomaster van Berk knew better. Had he not informed the twenty-four +commissioners that, twelve years before, the Advocate wished to subject +the country to Spain, and that Spinola had drawn a bill of exchange for +100,000 ducats as a compensation for his efforts? + +It was eleven o'clock. Barneveld requested one of the brethren to say an +evening prayer. This was done by La Motte, and they were then requested +to return by three or four o'clock next morning. They had been directed, +they said, to remain with him all night. "That is unnecessary," said the +Advocate, and they retired. + +His servant then helped his master to undress, and he went to bed as +usual. Taking off his signet-ring, he gave it to John Franken. + +"For my eldest son," he said. + +The valet sat down at the head of his bed in order that his master might +speak to him before he slept. But the soldiers ordered him away and +compelled him to sit in a distant part of the room. + +An hour after midnight, the Advocate having been unable to lose himself, +his servant observed that Isaac, one of the soldiers, was fast asleep. He +begged the other, Tilman Schenk by name, to permit him some private words +with his master. He had probably last messages, he thought, to send to +his wife and children, and the eldest son, M. de Groeneveld, would no +doubt reward him well for it. But the soldier was obstinate in obedience +to the orders of the judges. + +Barneveld, finding it impossible to sleep, asked his servant to read to +him from the Prayer-book. The soldier called in a clergyman however, +another one named Hugo Bayerus, who had been sent to the prison, and who +now read to him the Consolations of the Sick. As he read, he made +exhortations and expositions, which led to animated discussion, in which +the Advocate expressed himself with so much fervour and eloquence that +all present were astonished, and the preacher sat mute a half-hour long +at the bed-side. + +"Had there been ten clergymen," said the simple-hearted sentry to the +valet, "your master would have enough to say to all of them." + +Barneveld asked where the place had been prepared in which he was to die. + +"In front of the great hall, as I understand," said Bayerus, "but I don't +know the localities well, having lived here but little." + +"Have you heard whether my Grotius is to die, and Hoogerbeets also?" he +asked? + +"I have heard nothing to that effect," replied the clergyman. + +"I should most deeply grieve for those two gentlemen," said Barneveld, +"were that the case. They may yet live to do the land great service. That +great rising light, de Groot, is still young, but a very wise and learned +gentleman, devoted to his Fatherland with all zeal, heart, and soul, and +ready to stand up for her privileges, laws, and rights. As for me, I am +an old and worn-out man. I can do no more. I have already done more than +I was really able to do. I have worked so zealously in public matters +that I have neglected my private business. I had expressly ordered my +house at Loosduinen" [a villa by the seaside] "to be got ready, that I +might establish myself there and put my affairs in order. I have +repeatedly asked the States of Holland for my discharge, but could never +obtain it. It seems that the Almighty had otherwise disposed of me." + +He then said he would try once more if he could sleep. The clergyman and +the servant withdrew for an hour, but his attempt was unsuccessful. After +an hour he called for his French Psalm Book and read in it for some time. +Sometime after two o'clock the clergymen came in again and conversed with +him. They asked him if he had slept, if he hoped to meet Christ, and if +there was anything that troubled his conscience. + +"I have not slept, but am perfectly tranquil," he replied. "I am ready to +die, but cannot comprehend why I must die. I wish from my heart that, +through my death and my blood, all disunion and discord in this land may +cease." + +He bade them carry his last greetings to his fellow prisoners. "Say +farewell for me to my good Grotius," said he, "and tell him that I must +die." + +The clergymen then left him, intending to return between five and six +o'clock. + +He remained quiet for a little while and then ordered his valet to cut +open the front of his shirt. When this was done, he said, "John, are you +to stay by me to the last?" + +"Yes," he replied, "if the judges permit it." + +"Remind me to send one of the clergymen to the judges with the request," +said his master. + +The faithful John, than whom no servant or friend could be more devoted, +seized the occasion, with the thrift and stoicism of a true Hollander, to +suggest that his lord might at the same time make some testamentary +disposition in his favour. + +"Tell my wife and children," said the Advocate, "that they must console +each other in mutual love and union. Say that through God's grace I am +perfectly at ease, and hope that they will be equally tranquil. Tell my +children that I trust they will be loving and friendly to their mother +during the short time she has yet to live. Say that I wish to recommend +you to them that they may help you to a good situation either with +themselves or with others. Tell them that this was my last request." + +He bade him further to communicate to the family the messages sent that +night through Walaeus by the Stadholder. + +The valet begged his master to repeat these instructions in presence of +the clergyman, or to request one of them to convey them himself to the +family. He promised to do so. + +"As long as I live," said the grateful servant, "I shall remember your +lordship in my prayers." + +"No, John," said the Advocate, "that is Popish. When I am dead, it is all +over with prayers. Pray for me while I still live. Now is the time to +pray. When one is dead, one should no longer be prayed for." + +La Motte came in. Barneveld repeated his last wishes exactly as he +desired them to be communicated to his wife and children. The preacher +made no response. "Will you take the message?" asked the prisoner. La +Motte nodded, but did not speak, nor did he subsequently fulfil the +request. + +Before five o'clock the servant heard the bell ring in the apartment of +the judges directly below the prison chamber, and told his master he had +understood that they were to assemble at five o'clock. + +"I may as well get up then," said the Advocate; "they mean to begin +early, I suppose. Give me my doublet and but one pair of stockings." + +He was accustomed to wear two or three pair at a time. + +He took off his underwaistcoat, saying that the silver bog which was in +one of the pockets was to be taken to his wife, and that the servant +should keep the loose money there for himself. Then he found an +opportunity to whisper to him, "Take good care of the papers which are in +the apartment." He meant the elaborate writings which he had prepared +during his imprisonment and concealed in the tapestry and within the +linings of the chair. + +As his valet handed him the combs and brushes, he said with a smile, +"John, this is for the last time." + +When he was dressed, he tried, in rehearsal of the approaching scene, to +pull over his eyes the silk skull-cap which he usually wore under his +hat. Finding it too tight he told the valet to put the nightcap in his +pocket and give it him when he should call for it. He then swallowed a +half-glass of wine with a strengthening cordial in it, which he was wont +to take. + +The clergymen then re-entered, and asked if he had been able to sleep. He +answered no, but that he had been much consoled by many noble things +which he had been reading in the French Psalm Book. The clergymen said +that they had been thinking much of the beautiful confession of faith +which he had made to them that evening. They rejoiced at it, they said, +on his account, and had never thought it of him. He said that such had +always been his creed. + +At his request Walaeus now offered a morning prayer Barneveld fell on his +knees and prayed inwardly without uttering a sound. La Motte asked when +he had concluded, "Did my Lord say Amen?"--"Yes, Lamotius," he replied; +"Amen."--"Has either of the brethren," he added, "prepared a prayer to be +offered outside there?" + +La Motte informed him that this duty had been confided to him. Some +passages from Isaiah were now read aloud, and soon afterwards Walaeus was +sent for to speak with the judges. He came back and said to the prisoner, +"Has my Lord any desire to speak with his wife or children, or any of his +friends?" It was then six o'clock, and Barneveld replied: + +"No, the time is drawing near. It would excite a new emotion." Walaeus +went back to the judges with this answer, who thereupon made this +official report: + +"The husband and father of the petitioners, being asked if he desired +that any of the petitioners should come to him, declared that he did not +approve of it, saying that it would cause too great an emotion for +himself as well as for them. This is to serve as an answer to the +petitioners." + +Now the Advocate knew nothing of the petition. Up to the last moment his +family had been sanguine as to his ultimate acquittal and release. They +relied on a promise which they had received or imagined that they had +received from the Stadholder that no harm should come to the prisoner in +consequence of the arrest made of his person in the Prince's apartments +on the 8th of August. They had opened this tragical month of May with +flagstaffs and flower garlands, and were making daily preparations to +receive back the revered statesman in triumph. + +The letter written by him from his "chamber of sorrow," late in the +evening of 12th May, had at last dispelled every illusion. It would be +idle to attempt to paint the grief and consternation into which the +household in the Voorhout was plunged, from the venerable dame at its +head, surrounded by her sons and daughters and children's children, down +to the humblest servant in their employment. For all revered and loved +the austere statesman, but simple and benignant father and master. + +No heed had been taken of the three elaborate and argumentative petitions +which, prepared by learned counsel in name of the relatives, had been +addressed to the judges. They had not been answered because they were +difficult to answer, and because it was not intended that the accused +should have the benefit of counsel. + +An urgent and last appeal was now written late at night, and signed by +each member of the family, to his Excellency the Prince and the judge +commissioners, to this effect: + +"The afflicted wife and children of M. van Barneveld humbly show that +having heard the sorrowful tidings of his coming execution, they humbly +beg that it may be granted them to see and speak to him for the last +time." + +The two sons delivered this petition at four o'clock in the morning into +the hands of de Voogd, one of the judges. It was duly laid before the +commission, but the prisoner was never informed, when declining a last +interview with his family, how urgently they had themselves solicited the +boon. + +Louise de Coligny, on hearing late at night the awful news, had been +struck with grief and horror. She endeavoured, late as it was, to do +something to avert the doom of one she so much revered, the man on whom +her illustrious husband had leaned his life long as on a staff of iron. +She besought an interview of the Stadholder, but it was refused. The wife +of William the Silent had no influence at that dire moment with her +stepson. She was informed at first that Maurice was asleep, and at four +in the morning that all intervention was useless. + +The faithful and energetic du Maurier, who had already exhausted himself +in efforts to save the life of the great prisoner, now made a last +appeal. He, too, heard at four o'clock in the morning of the 13th that +sentence of death was to be pronounced. Before five o'clock he made +urgent application to be heard before the Assembly of the States-General +as ambassador of a friendly sovereign who took the deepest interest in +the welfare of the Republic and the fate of its illustrious statesman. +The appeal was refused. As a last resource he drew up an earnest and +eloquent letter to the States-General, urging clemency in the name of his +king. It was of no avail. The letter may still be seen in the Royal +Archives at the Hague, drawn up entirely in du Maurier's clear and +beautiful handwriting. Although possibly a first draft, written as it +was under such a mortal pressure for time, its pages have not one erasure +or correction. + +It was seven o'clock. Barneveld having observed by the preacher (La +Motte's) manner that he was not likely to convey the last messages which +he had mentioned to his wife and children, sent a request to the judges +to be allowed to write one more letter. Captain van der Meulen came back +with the permission, saying he would wait and take it to the judges for +their revision. + +The letter has been often published. + +"Must they see this too? Why, it is only a line in favour of John," said +the prisoner, sitting quietly down to write this letter: + +"Very dear wife and children, it is going to an end with me. I am, +through the grace of God, very tranquil. I hope that you are equally so, +and that you may by mutual love, union, and peace help each other to +overcome all things, which I pray to the Omnipotent as my last request. +John Franken has served me faithfully for many years and throughout all +these my afflictions, and is to remain with me to the end. He deserves to +be recommended to you and to be furthered to good employments with you or +with others. I request you herewith to see to this. + +"I have requested his Princely Excellency to hold my sons and children in +his favour, to which he has answered that so long as you conduct +yourselves well this shall be the case. I recommend this to you in the +best form and give you all into God's holy keeping. Kiss each other and +all my grandchildren, for the last time in my name, and fare you well. +Out of the chamber of sorrow, 13th May 1619. Your dear husband and +father, + JOHN OF BARNEVELD. + +"P.S. You will make John Franken a present in memory of me." + +Certainly it would be difficult to find a more truly calm, courageous, or +religious spirit than that manifested by this aged statesman at an hour +when, if ever, a human soul is tried and is apt to reveal its innermost +depths or shallows. Whatever Gomarus or Bogerman, or the whole Council of +Dordtrecht, may have thought of his theology, it had at least taught him +forgiveness of his enemies, kindness to his friends, and submission to +the will of the Omnipotent. Every moment of his last days on earth had +been watched and jealously scrutinized, and his bitterest enemies had +failed to discover one trace of frailty, one manifestation of any +vacillating, ignoble, or malignant sentiment. + +The drums had been sounding through the quiet but anxiously expectant +town since four o'clock that morning, and the tramp of soldiers marching +to the Inner Court had long been audible in the prison chamber. + +Walaeus now came back with a message from the judges. "The high +commissioners," he said, "think it is beginning. Will my Lord please to +prepare himself?" + +"Very well, very well," said the prisoner. "Shall we go at once?" + +But Walaeus suggested a prayer. Upon its conclusion, Barneveld gave his +hand to the provost-marshal and to the two soldiers, bidding them adieu, +and walked downstairs, attended by them, to the chamber of the judges. As +soon as he appeared at the door, he was informed that there had been a +misunderstanding, and he was requested to wait a little. He accordingly +went upstairs again with perfect calmness, sat down in his chamber again, +and read in his French Psalm Book. Half an hour later he was once more +summoned, the provost-marshal and Captain van der Meulen reappearing to +escort him. "Mr. Provost," said the prisoner, as they went down the +narrow staircase, "I have always been a good friend to you."--"It is +true," replied that officer, "and most deeply do I grieve to see you in +this affliction." + +He was about to enter the judges' chamber as usual, but was informed that +the sentence would be read in the great hall of judicature. They +descended accordingly to the basement story, and passed down the narrow +flight of steps which then as now connected the more modern structure, +where the Advocate had been imprisoned and tried, with what remained of +the ancient palace of the Counts of Holland. In the centre of the vast +hall--once the banqueting chamber of those petty sovereigns; with its +high vaulted roof of cedar which had so often in ancient days rung with +the sounds of mirth and revelry--was a great table at which the +twenty-four judges and the three prosecuting officers were seated, in +their black caps and gowns of office. The room was lined with soldiers +and crowded with a dark, surging mass of spectators, who had been waiting +there all night. + +A chair was placed for the prisoner. He sat down, and the clerk of the +commission, Pots by name, proceeded at once to read the sentence. A +summary of this long, rambling, and tiresome paper has been already laid +before the reader. If ever a man could have found it tedious to listen to +his own death sentence, the great statesman might have been in that +condition as he listened to Secretary Pots. + +During the reading of the sentence the Advocate moved uneasily on his +seat, and seemed about to interrupt the clerk at several passages which +seemed to him especially preposterous. But he controlled himself by a +strong effort, and the clerk went steadily on to the conclusion. + +Then Barneveld said: + +"The judges have put down many things which they have no right to draw +from my confession. Let this protest be added." + +"I thought too," he continued, "that My Lords the States-General would +have had enough in my life and blood, and that my wife and children might +keep what belongs to them. Is this my recompense for forty-three years' +service to these Provinces?" + +President de Voogd rose: + +"Your sentence has been pronounced," he said. "Away! away!" So saying he +pointed to the door into which one of the great windows at the +south-eastern front of the hall had been converted. + +Without another word the old man rose from his chair and strode, leaning +on his staff, across the hall, accompanied by his faithful valet and the +provost and escorted by a file of soldiers. The mob of spectators flowed +out after him at every door into the inner courtyard in front of the +ancient palace. + + ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + + Better to be governed by magistrates than mobs + Burning with bitter revenge for all the favours he had received + Death rather than life with a false acknowledgment of guilt + Enemy of all compulsion of the human conscience + Heidelberg Catechism were declared to be infallible + I know how to console myself + Implication there was much, of assertion very little + John Robinson + Magistracy at that moment seemed to mean the sword + Only true religion + Rather a wilderness to reign over than a single heretic + William Brewster + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. 1619-23 + + Barneveld's Execution--The Advocate's Conduct on the Scaffold--The + Sentence printed and sent to the Provinces--The Proceedings + irregular and inequitable. + +In the beautiful village capital of the "Count's Park," commonly called +the Hague, the most striking and picturesque spot then as now was that +where the transformed remains of the old moated castle of those feudal +sovereigns were still to be seen. A three-storied range of simple, +substantial buildings in brown brickwork, picked out with white stone in +a style since made familiar both in England and America, and associated +with a somewhat later epoch in the history of the House of Orange, +surrounded three sides of a spacious inner paved quadrangle called the +Inner Court, the fourth or eastern side being overshadowed by a beechen +grove. A square tower flanked each angle, and on both sides of the +south-western turret extended the commodious apartments of the +Stadholder. The great gateway on the south-west opened into a wide open +space called the Outer Courtyard. Along the north-west side a broad and +beautiful sheet of water, in which the walls, turrets, and chapel-spires +of the enclosed castle mirrored themselves, was spread between the mass +of buildings and an umbrageous promenade called the Vyverberg, consisting +of a sextuple alley of lime-trees and embowering here and there a stately +villa. A small island, fringed with weeping willows and tufted all over +with lilacs, laburnums, and other shrubs then in full flower, lay in the +centre of the miniature lake, and the tall solid tower of the Great +Church, surmounted by a light openwork spire, looked down from a little +distance over the scene. + +It was a bright morning in May. The white swans were sailing tranquilly +to and fro over the silver basin, and the mavis, blackbird, and +nightingale, which haunted the groves surrounding the castle and the +town, were singing as if the daybreak were ushering in a summer festival. + +But it was not to a merry-making that the soldiers were marching and the +citizens thronging so eagerly from every street and alley towards the +castle. By four o'clock the Outer and Inner Courts had been lined with +detachments of the Prince's guard and companies of other regiments to the +number of 1200 men. Occupying the north-eastern side of the court rose +the grim, time-worn front of the ancient hall, consisting of one tall +pyramidal gable of ancient grey brickwork flanked with two tall slender +towers, the whole with the lancet-shaped windows and severe style of the +twelfth century, excepting a rose-window in the centre with the decorated +mullions of a somewhat later period. + +In front of the lower window, with its Gothic archway hastily converted +into a door, a shapeless platform of rough, unhewn planks had that night +been rudely patched together. This was the scaffold. A slight railing +around it served to protect it from the crowd, and a heap of coarse sand +had been thrown upon it. A squalid, unclean box of unplaned boards, +originally prepared as a coffin for a Frenchman who some time before had +been condemned to death for murdering the son of Goswyn Meurskens, a +Hague tavern-keeper, but pardoned by the Stadholder--lay on the scaffold. +It was recognized from having been left for a long time, half forgotten, +at the public execution-place of the Hague. + +Upon this coffin now sat two common soldiers of ruffianly aspect playing +at dice, betting whether the Lord or the Devil would get the soul of +Barneveld. Many a foul and ribald jest at the expense of the prisoner was +exchanged between these gamblers, some of their comrades, and a few +townsmen, who were grouped about at that early hour. The horrible libels, +caricatures, and calumnies which had been circulated, exhibited, and sung +in all the streets for so many months had at last thoroughly poisoned the +minds of the vulgar against the fallen statesman. + +The great mass of the spectators had forced their way by daybreak into +the hall itself to hear the sentence, so that the Inner Courtyard had +remained comparatively empty. + +At last, at half past nine o'clock, a shout arose, "There he comes! there +he comes!" and the populace flowed out from the hall of judgment into the +courtyard like a tidal wave. + +In an instant the Binnenhof was filled with more than three thousand +spectators. + +The old statesman, leaning on his staff, walked out upon the scaffold and +calmly surveyed the scene. Lifting his eyes to Heaven, he was heard to +murmur, "O God! what does man come to!" Then he said bitterly once more: +"This, then, is the reward of forty years' service to the State!" + +La Motte, who attended him, said fervently: "It is no longer time to +think of this. Let us prepare your coming before God." + +"Is there no cushion or stool to kneel upon?" said Barneveld, looking +around him. + +The provost said he would send for one, but the old man knelt at once on +the bare planks. His servant, who waited upon him as calmly and +composedly as if he had been serving him at dinner, held him by the arm. +It was remarked that neither master nor man, true stoics and Hollanders +both, shed a single tear upon the scaffold. + +La Motte prayed for a quarter of an hour, the Advocate remaining on his +knees. + +He then rose and said to John Franken, "See that he does not come near +me," pointing to the executioner who stood in the background grasping his +long double-handed sword. Barneveld then rapidly unbuttoned his doublet +with his own hands and the valet helped him off with it. "Make haste! +make haste!" said his master. + +The statesman then came forward and said in a loud, firm voice to the +people: + +"Men, do not believe that I am a traitor to the country. I have ever +acted uprightly and loyally as a good patriot, and as such I shall die." + +The crowd was perfectly silent. + +He then took his cap from John Franken, drew it over his eyes, and went +forward towards the sand, saying: + +"Christ shall be my guide. O Lord, my heavenly Father, receive my +spirit." + +As he was about to kneel with his face to the south, the provost said: + +"My lord will be pleased to move to the other side, not where the sun is +in his face." + +He knelt accordingly with his face towards his own house. The servant +took farewell of him, and Barneveld said to the executioner: + +"Be quick about it. Be quick." + +The executioner then struck his head off at a single blow. + +Many persons from the crowd now sprang, in spite of all opposition, upon +the scaffold and dipped their handkerchiefs in his blood, cut wet +splinters from the boards, or grubbed up the sand that was steeped in it; +driving many bargains afterwards for these relics to be treasured, with +various feelings of sorrow, joy, glutted or expiated vengeance. + +It has been recorded, and has been constantly repeated to this day, that +the Stadholder, whose windows exactly faced the scaffold, looked out upon +the execution with a spy-glass; saying as he did so: + +"See the old scoundrel, how he trembles! He is afraid of the stroke." + +But this is calumny. Colonel Hauterive declared that he was with Maurice +in his cabinet during the whole period of the execution, that by order of +the Prince all the windows and shutters were kept closed, that no person +wearing his livery was allowed to be abroad, that he anxiously received +messages as to the proceedings, and heard of the final catastrophe with +sorrowful emotion. + +It must be admitted, however, that the letter which Maurice wrote on the +same morning to his cousin William Lewis does not show much pathos. + +"After the judges," he said, "have been busy here with the sentence +against the Advocate Barneveld for several days, at last it has been +pronounced, and this morning, between nine o'clock and half past, carried +into execution with the sword, in the Binnenhof before the great hall. + +"The reasons they had for this you will see from the sentence, which will +doubtless be printed, and which I will send you. + +"The wife of the aforesaid Barneveld and also some of his sons and +sons-in-law or other friends have never presented any supplication for +his pardon, but till now have vehemently demanded that law and justice +should be done to him, and have daily let the report run through the +people that he would soon come out. They also planted a may-pole before +their house adorned with garlands and ribbands, and practised other +jollities and impertinences, while they ought to have conducted +themselves in a humble and lowly fashion. This is no proper manner of +behaving, and moreover not a practical one to move the judges to any +favour even if they had been thereto inclined." + +The sentence was printed and sent to the separate provinces. It was +accompanied by a declaration of the States-General that they had received +information from the judges of various points, not mentioned in the +sentence, which had been laid to the charge of the late Advocate, and +which gave much reason to doubt whether he had not perhaps turned his +eyes toward the enemy. They could not however legally give judgment to +that effect without a sharper investigation, which on account of his +great age and for other reasons it was thought best to spare him. + +A meaner or more malignant postscript to a state paper recounting the +issue of a great trial it would be difficult to imagine. The first +statesman of the country had just been condemned and executed on a +narrative, without indictment of any specified crime. And now, by a kind +of apologetic after-thought, six or eight individuals calling themselves +the States-General insinuated that he had been looking towards the enemy, +and that, had they not mercifully spared him the rack, which is all that +could be meant by their sharper investigation, he would probably have +confessed the charge. + +And thus the dead man's fame was blackened by those who had not hesitated +to kill him, but had shrunk from enquiring into his alleged crime. + +Not entirely without semblance of truth did Grotius subsequently say that +the men who had taken his life would hardly have abstained from torturing +him if they had really hoped by so doing to extract from him a confession +of treason. + +The sentence was sent likewise to France, accompanied with a statement +that Barneveld had been guilty of unpardonable crimes which had not been +set down in the act of condemnation. Complaints were also made of the +conduct of du Maurier in thrusting himself into the internal affairs of +the States and taking sides so ostentatiously against the government. The +King and his ministers were indignant with these rebukes, and sustained +the Ambassador. Jeannin and de Boississe expressed the opinion that he +had died innocent of any crime, and only by reason of his strong +political opposition to the Prince. + +The judges had been unanimous in finding him guilty of the acts recorded +in their narrative, but three of them had held out for some time in +favour of a sentence of perpetual imprisonment rather than decapitation. + +They withdrew at last their opposition to the death penalty for the +wonderful reason that reports had been circulated of attempts likely to +be made to assassinate Prince Maurice. The Stadholder himself treated +these rumours and the consequent admonition of the States-General that he +would take more than usual precautions for his safety with perfect +indifference, but they were conclusive with the judges of Barneveld. + +"Republica poscit exemplum," said Commissioner Junius, one of the three, +as he sided with the death-warrant party. + +The same Doctor Junius a year afterwards happened to dine, in company of +one of his fellow-commissioners, with Attorney-General Sylla at Utrecht, +and took occasion to ask them why it was supposed that Barneveld had been +hanging his head towards Spain, as not one word of that stood in the +sentence. + +The question was ingenuous on the part of one learned judge to his +colleagues in one of the most famous state trials of history, propounded +as a bit of after-dinner casuistry, when the victim had been more than a +year in his grave. + +But perhaps the answer was still more artless. His brother lawyers +replied that the charge was easily to be deduced from the sentence, +because a man who breaks up the foundation of the State makes the country +indefensible, and therefore invites the enemy to invade it. And this +Barneveld had done, who had turned the Union, religion, alliances, and +finances upside down by his proceedings. + +Certainly if every constitutional minister, accused by the opposition +party of turning things upside down by his proceedings, were assumed to +be guilty of deliberately inviting a hostile invasion of his country, +there would have been few from that day to this to escape hanging. + +Constructive treason could scarcely go farther than it was made to do in +these attempts to prove, after his death, that the Advocate had, as it +was euphuistically expressed, been looking towards the enemy. + +And no better demonstrations than these have ever been discovered. + +He died at the age of seventy-one years seven months and eighteen days. + +His body and head were huddled into the box upon which the soldiers had +been shaking the dice, and was placed that night in the vault of the +chapel in the Inner Court. + +It was subsequently granted as a boon to the widow and children that it +might be taken thence and decently buried in the family vault at +Amersfoort. + +On the day of the execution a formal entry was made in the register of +the States of Holland. + +"Monday, 13th May 1619. To-day was executed with the sword here in the +Hague, on a scaffold thereto erected in the Binnenhof before the steps of +the great hall, Mr. John of Barneveld, in his life Knight, Lord of +Berkel, Rodenrys, &c., Advocate of Holland and West Friesland, for +reasons expressed in the sentence and otherwise, with confiscation of his +property, after he had served the State thirty-three years two months and +five days since 8th March 1586.; a man of great activity, business, +memory, and wisdom--yes, extraordinary in every respect. He that stands +let him see that he does not fall, and may God be merciful to his soul. +Amen?" + +A year later-on application made by the widow and children of the +deceased to compound for the confiscation of his property by payment of a +certain sum, eighty florins or a similar trifle, according to an ancient +privilege of the order of nobility--the question was raised whether he +had been guilty of high-treason, as he had not been sentenced for such a +crime, and as it was only in case of sentence for lese-majesty that this +composition was disallowed. It was deemed proper therefore to ask the +court for what crime the prisoner had been condemned. Certainly a more +sarcastic question could not have been asked. But the court had ceased to +exist. The commission had done its work and was dissolved. Some of its +members were dead. Letters however were addressed by the States-General +to the individual commissioners requesting them to assemble at the Hague +for the purpose of stating whether it was because the prisoners had +committed lese-majesty that their property had been confiscated. They +never assembled. Some of them were perhaps ignorant of the exact nature +of that crime. Several of them did not understand the words. Twelve of +them, among whom were a few jurists, sent written answers to the +questions proposed. The question was, "Did you confiscate the property +because the crime was lese-majesty?" The reply was, "The crime was +lese-majesty, although not so stated in the sentence, because we +confiscated the property." In one of these remarkable documents this was +stated to be "the unanimous opinion of almost all the judges." + +The point was referred to the commissioners, some of whom attended the +court of the Hague in person, while others sent written opinions. All +agreed that the criminal had committed high-treason because otherwise his +property would not have been confiscated. + +A more wonderful example of the argument in a circle was never heard of. +Moreover it is difficult to understand by what right the high commission, +which had been dissolved a year before, after having completed its work, +could be deemed competent to emit afterwards a judicial decision. But the +fact is curious as giving one more proof of the irregular, +unphilosophical, and inequitable nature of these famous proceedings. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + Grotius urged to ask Forgiveness--Grotius shows great Weakness-- + Hoogerbeets and Grotius imprisoned for Life--Grotius confined at + Loevestein--Grotius' early Attainments--Grotius' Deportment in + Prison--Escape of Grotius--Deventer's Rage at Grotius' Escape. + +Two days after the execution of the Advocate, judgment was pronounced +upon Gillis van Ledenberg. It would have been difficult to try him, or to +extort a confession of high-treason from him by the rack or otherwise, as +the unfortunate gentleman had been dead for more than seven months. + +Not often has a court of justice pronounced a man, without trial, to be +guilty of a capital offence. Not often has a dead man been condemned and +executed. But this was the lot of Secretary Ledenberg. He was sentenced +to be hanged, his property declared confiscated. + +His unburied corpse, reduced to the condition of a mummy, was brought out +of its lurking-place, thrust into a coffin, dragged on a hurdle to the +Golgotha outside the Hague, on the road to Ryswyk, and there hung on a +gibbet in company of the bodies of other malefactors swinging there in +chains. + +His prudent scheme to save his property for his children by committing +suicide in prison was thus thwarted. + +The reading of the sentence of Ledenberg, as had been previously the case +with that of Barneveld, had been heard by Grotius through the open window +of his prison, as he lay on his bed. The scaffold on which the Advocate +had suffered was left standing, three executioners were still in the +town, and there was every reason for both Grotius and Hoogerbeets to +expect a similar doom. Great efforts were made to induce the friends of +the distinguished prisoners to sue for their pardon. But even as in the +case of the Barneveld family these attempts were fruitless. The austere +stoicism both on the part of the sufferers and their relatives excites +something like wonder. + +Three of the judges went in person to the prison chamber of Hoogerbeets, +urging him to ask forgiveness himself or to allow his friends to demand +it for him. + +"If my wife and children do ask," he said, "I will protest against it. I +need no pardon. Let justice take its course. Think not, gentlemen, that I +mean by asking for pardon to justify your proceedings." + +He stoutly refused to do either. The judges, astonished, took their +departure, saying: + +"Then you will fare as Barneveld. The scaffold is still standing." + +He expected consequently nothing but death, and said many years +afterwards that he knew from personal experience how a man feels who goes +out of prison to be beheaded. + +The wife of Grotius sternly replied to urgent intimations from a high +source that she should ask pardon for her husband, "I shall not do it. If +he has deserved it, let them strike off his head." + +Yet no woman could be more devoted to her husband than was Maria van +Reigersbergen to Hugo de Groot, as time was to prove. The Prince +subsequently told her at a personal interview that "one of two roads must +be taken, that of the law or that of pardon." + +Soon after the arrest it was rumoured that Grotius was ready to make +important revelations if he could first be assured of the Prince's +protection. + +His friends were indignant at the statement. His wife stoutly denied its +truth, but, to make sure, wrote to her husband on the subject. + +"One thing amazes me," she said; "some people here pretend to say that +you have stated to one gentleman in private that you have something to +disclose greatly important to the country, but that you desired +beforehand to be taken under the protection of his Excellency. I have not +chosen to believe this, nor do I, for I hold that to be certain which you +have already told me--that you know no secrets. I see no reason therefore +why you should require the protection of any man. And there is no one to +believe this, but I thought best to write to you of it. Let me, in order +that I may contradict the story with more authority, have by the bearer +of this a simple Yes or No. Study quietly, take care of your health, have +some days' patience, for the Advocate has not yet been heard." + +The answer has not been preserved, but there is an allusion to the +subject in an unpublished memorandum of Grotius written while he was in +prison. + +It must be confessed that the heart of the great theologian and jurist +seems to have somewhat failed him after his arrest, and although he was +incapable of treachery--even if he had been possessed of any secrets, +which certainly was not the case--he did not show the same Spartan +firmness as his wife, and was very far from possessing the heroic calm of +Barneveld. He was much disposed to extricate himself from his unhappy +plight by making humble, if not abject, submission to Maurice. He +differed from his wife in thinking that he had no need of the Prince's +protection. "I begged the Chamberlain, Matthew de Cors," he said, a few +days after his arrest, "that I might be allowed to speak with his +Excellency of certain things which I would not willingly trust to the +pen. My meaning was to leave all public employment and to offer my +service to his Excellency in his domestic affairs. Thus I hoped that the +motives for my imprisonment would cease. This was afterwards +misinterpreted as if I had had wonderful things to reveal." + +But Grotius towards the end of his trial showed still greater weakness. +After repeated refusals, he had at last obtained permission of the judges +to draw up in writing the heads of his defence. To do this he was allowed +a single sheet of paper, and four hours of time, the trial having lasted +several months. And in the document thus prepared he showed faltering in +his faith as to his great friend's innocence, and admitted, without any +reason whatever, the possibility of there being truth in some of the vile +and anonymous calumnies against him. + +"The friendship of the Advocate of Holland I had always highly prized," +he said, "hoping from the conversation of so wise and experienced a +person to learn much that was good . . . . I firmly believed that his +Excellency, notwithstanding occasional differences as to the conduct of +public affairs, considered him a true and upright servant of the land +. . . . I have been therefore surprised to understand, during my +imprisonment, that the gentlemen had proofs in hand not alone of his +correspondence with the enemy, but also of his having received money +from them. + +"He being thus accused, I have indicated by word of mouth and afterwards +resumed in writing all matters which I thought--the above-mentioned +proofs being made good--might be thereto indirectly referred, in order to +show that for me no friendships were so dear as the preservation of the +freedom of the land. I wish that he may give explanation of all to the +contentment of the judges, and that therefore his actions--which, +supposing the said correspondence to be true, are subject to a bad +interpretation--may be taken in another sense." + +Alas! could the Advocate--among whose first words after hearing of his +own condemnation to death were, "And must my Grotius die too?" adding, +with a sigh of relief when assured of the contrary, "I should deeply +grieve for that; he is so young and may live to do the State much +service." could he have read those faltering and ungenerous words from one +he so held in his heart, he would have felt them like the stab of Brutus. + +Grotius lived to know that there were no such proofs, that the judges did +not dare even allude to the charge in their sentence, and long years +afterwards he drew a picture of the martyred patriot such as one might +have expected from his pen. + +But these written words of doubt must have haunted him to his grave. + +On the 18th May 1619--on the fifty-first anniversary, as Grotius +remarked, of the condemnation of Egmont and Hoorn by the Blood Tribunal +of Alva--the two remaining victims were summoned to receive their doom. +The Fiscal Sylla, entering de Groot's chamber early in the morning to +conduct him before the judges, informed him that he was not instructed to +communicate the nature of the sentence. "But," he said, maliciously, "you +are aware of what has befallen the Advocate." + +"I have heard with my own ears," answered Grotius, "the judgment +pronounced upon Barneveld and upon Ledenberg. Whatever may be my fate, I +have patience to bear it." + +The sentence, read in the same place and in the same manner as had been +that upon the Advocate, condemned both Hoogerbeets and Grotius to +perpetual imprisonment. + +The course of the trial and the enumeration of the offences were nearly +identical with the leading process which has been elaborately described. + +Grotius made no remark whatever in the court-room. On returning to his +chamber he observed that his admissions of facts had been tortured into +confessions of guilt, that he had been tried and sentenced against all +principles and forms of law, and that he had been deprived of what the +humblest criminal could claim, the right of defence and the examination +of testimony. In regard to the penalty against him, he said, there was no +such thing as perpetual imprisonment except in hell. Alluding to the +leading cause of all these troubles, he observed that it was with the +Stadholder and the Advocate as Cato had said of Caesar and Pompey. The +great misery had come not from their being enemies, but from their having +once been friends. + +On the night of 5th June the prisoners were taken from their prison in +the Hague and conveyed to the castle of Loevestein. + +This fortress, destined thenceforth to be famous in history and--from its +frequent use in after-times as a state-prison for men of similar +constitutional views to those of Grotius and the Advocate--to give its +name to a political party, was a place of extraordinary strength. Nature +and art had made it, according to military ideas of that age, almost +impregnable. As a prison it seemed the very castle of despair. "Abandon +all hope ye who enter" seemed engraven over its portal. + +Situate in the very narrow, acute angle where the broad, deep, and turbid +Waal--the chief of the three branches into which the Rhine divides itself +on entering the Netherlands--mingles its current with the silver Meuse +whose name it adopts as the united rivers roll to the sea, it was guarded +on many sides by these deep and dangerous streams. On the land-side it +was surrounded by high walls and a double foss, which protected it +against any hostile invasion from Brabant. As the Twelve Years' Truce was +running to its close, it was certain that pains would be taken to +strengthen the walls and deepen the ditches, that the place might be +proof against all marauders and land-robbers likely to swarm over from +the territory of the Archdukes. The town of Gorcum was exactly opposite +on the northern side of the Waal, while Worcum was about a league's +distance from the castle on the southern side, but separated from it by +the Meuse. + +The prisoners, after crossing the drawbridge, were led through thirteen +separate doors, each one secured by iron bolts and heavy locks, until +they reached their separate apartments. + +They were never to see or have any communication with each other. It had +been accorded by the States-General however that the wives of the two +gentlemen were to have access to their prison, were to cook for them in +the castle kitchen, and, if they chose to inhabit the fortress, might +cross to the neighbouring town of Gorcum from time to time to make +purchases, and even make visits to the Hague. Twenty-four stuivers, or +two shillings, a day were allowed by the States-General for the support +of each prisoner and his family. As the family property of Grotius was at +once sequestered, with a view to its ultimate confiscation, it was clear +that abject indigence as well as imprisonment was to be the lifelong lot +of this illustrious person, who had hitherto lived in modest affluence, +occupying the most considerable of social positions. + +The commandant of the fortress was inspired from the outset with a desire +to render the prisoner's situation as hateful as it was in his power to +make it. And much was in his power. He resolved that the family should +really live upon their daily pittance. Yet Madame de Groot, before the +final confiscation of her own and her husband's estates, had been able to +effect considerable loans, both to carry on process against government +for what the prisoners contended was an unjust confiscation, and for +providing for the household on a decent scale and somewhat in accordance +with the requirements of the prisoner's health. Thus there was a +wearisome and ignoble altercation, revived from day to day, between the +Commandant and Madame de Groot. It might have been thought enough of +torture for this virtuous and accomplished lady, but twenty-nine years of +age and belonging to one of the eminent families of the country, to see +her husband, for his genius and accomplishments the wonder of Europe, +thus cut off in the flower of his age and doomed to a living grave. She +was nevertheless to be subjected to the perpetual inquisition of the +market-basket, which she was not ashamed with her maid to take to and +from Gorcum, and to petty wrangles about the kitchen fire where she was +proud to superintend the cooking of the scanty fare for her husband and +her five children. + +There was a reason for the spite of the military jailer. Lieutenant +Prouninx, called Deventer, commandant of Loevestein, was son of the +notorious Gerard Prouninx, formerly burgomaster of Utrecht, one of the +ringleaders of the Leicester faction in the days when the Earl made his +famous attempts upon the four cities. He had sworn revenge upon all those +concerned in his father's downfall, and it was a delight therefore to +wreak a personal vengeance on one who had since become so illustrious a +member of that party by which the former burgomaster had been deposed, +although Grotius at the time of Leicester's government had scarcely left +his cradle. + +Thus these ladies were to work in the kitchen and go to market from time +to time, performing this menial drudgery under the personal inspection of +the warrior who governed the garrison and fortress, but who in vain +attempted to make Maria van Reigersbergen tremble at his frown. + +Hugo de Groot, when thus for life immured, after having already undergone +a preliminary imprisonment of nine months, was just thirty-six years of +age. Although comparatively so young, he had been long regarded as one of +the great luminaries of Europe for learning and genius. Of an ancient and +knightly race, his immediate ancestors had been as famous for literature, +science, and municipal abilities as their more distant progenitors for +deeds of arms in the feudal struggles of Holland in the middle ages. + +His father and grandfather had alike been eminent for Hebrew, Greek, and +Latin scholarship, and both had occupied high positions in the University +of Leyden from its beginning. Hugo, born and nurtured under such +quickening influences, had been a scholar and poet almost from his +cradle. He wrote respectable Latin verses at the age of seven, he was +matriculated at Leyden at the age of eleven. That school, founded amid +the storms and darkness of terrible war, was not lightly to be entered. +It was already illustrated by a galaxy of shining lights in science and +letters, which radiated over Christendom. His professors were Joseph +Scaliger, Francis Junius, Paulus Merula, and a host of others. His +fellow-students were men like Scriverius, Vossius, Baudius, Daniel +Heinsius. The famous soldier and poet Douza, who had commanded the forces +of Leyden during the immortal siege, addressed him on his admission to +the university as "Magne peer magni dignissime cura parentis," in a copy +of eloquent verses. + +When fourteen years old, he took his bachelor's degree, after a rigorous +examination not only in the classics but astronomy, mathematics, +jurisprudence, and theology, at an age when most youths would have been +accounted brilliant if able to enter that high school with credit. + +On leaving the University he was attached to the embassy of Barneveld and +Justinus van Nassau to the court of Henry IV. Here he attracted the +attention of that monarch, who pointed him out to his courtiers as the +"miracle of Holland," presented him with a gold chain with his miniature +attached to it, and proposed to confer on him the dignity of knighthood, +which the boy from motives of family pride appears to have refused. While +in France he received from the University of Orleans, before the age of +fifteen, the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in a very eulogistic +diploma. On his return to Holland he published an edition of the poet +Johannes Capella with valuable annotations, besides giving to the public +other learned and classical works and several tragedies of more or less +merit. At the age of seventeen he was already an advocate in full +practice before the supreme tribunals of the Hague, and when twenty-three +years old he was selected by Prince Maurice from a list of three +candidates for the important post of Fiscal or Attorney-General of +Holland. Other civic dignities, embassies, and offices of various kinds, +had been thrust upon him one after another, in all of which he had +acquitted himself with dignity and brilliancy. He was but twenty-six when +he published his argument for the liberty of the sea, the famous Mare +Liberum, and a little later appeared his work on the Antiquity of the +Batavian Republic, which procured for him in Spain the title of "Hugo +Grotius, auctor damnatus." At the age of twenty-nine he had completed his +Latin history of the Netherlands from the period immediately preceding +the war of independence down to the conclusion of the Truce, 1550-1609--a +work which has been a classic ever since its appearance, although not +published until after his death. A chief magistrate of Rotterdam, member +of the States of Holland and the States-General, jurist, advocate, +attorney-general, poet, scholar, historian, editor of the Greek and Latin +classics, writer of tragedies, of law treatises, of theological +disquisitions, he stood foremost among a crowd of famous contemporaries. +His genius, eloquence, and learning were esteemed among the treasures not +only of his own country but of Europe. He had been part and parcel of his +country's history from his earliest manhood, and although a child in +years compared to Barneveld, it was upon him that the great statesman had +mainly relied ever since the youth's first appearance in public affairs. +Impressible, emotional, and susceptive, he had been accused from time to +time, perhaps not entirely without reason, of infirmity of purpose, or at +least of vacillation in opinion; but his worst enemies had never assailed +the purity of his heart or integrity of his character. He had not yet +written the great work on the 'Rights of War and Peace', which was to +make an epoch in the history of civilization and to be the foundation of +a new science, but the materials lay already in the ample storehouse of +his memory and his brain. + +Possessed of singular personal beauty--which the masterly portraits of +Miereveld attest to the present day--tall, brown-haired; +straight-featured, with a delicate aquiline nose and piercing dark blue +eyes, he was also athletic of frame and a proficient in manly exercises. +This was the statesman and the scholar, of whom it is difficult to speak +but in terms of affectionate but not exaggerated eulogy, and for whom the +Republic of the Netherlands could now find no better use than to shut him +up in the grim fortress of Loevestein for the remainder of his days. A +commonwealth must have deemed itself rich in men which, after cutting off +the head of Barneveld, could afford to bury alive Hugo Grotius. + +His deportment in prison was a magnificent moral lesson. Shut up in a +kind of cage consisting of a bedroom and a study, he was debarred from +physical exercise, so necessary for his mental and bodily health. Not +choosing for the gratification of Lieutenant Deventer to indulge in weak +complaints, he procured a huge top, which he employed himself in whipping +several hours a day; while for intellectual employment he plunged once +more into those classical, juridical, and theological studies which had +always employed his leisure hours from childhood upwards. + +It had been forbidden by the States-General to sell his likeness in the +shops. The copper plates on which they had been engraved had as far as +possible been destroyed. + +The wish of the government, especially of his judges, was that his name +and memory should die at once and for ever. They were not destined to be +successful, for it would be equally difficult to-day to find an educated +man in Christendom ignorant of the name of Hugo Grotius, or acquainted +with that of a single one of his judges. + +And his friends had not forgotten him as he lay there living in his tomb. +Especially the learned Scriverius, Vossius, and other professors, were +permitted to correspond with him at intervals on literary subjects, the +letters being subjected to preliminary inspection. Scriverius sent him +many books from his well-stocked library, de Groot's own books and papers +having been confiscated by the government. At a somewhat later period the +celebrated Orientalist Erpenius sent him from time to time a large chest +of books, the precious freight being occasionally renewed and the chest +passing to and from Loevestein by way of Gorcum. At this town lived a +sister of Erpenius, married to one Daatselaer, a considerable dealer in +thread and ribbons, which he exported to England. The house of Daatselaer +became a place of constant resort for Madame de Groot as well as the wife +of Hoogerbeets, both dames going every few days from the castle across +the Waal to Gorcum, to make their various purchases for the use of their +forlorn little households in the prison. Madame Daatselaer therefore +received and forwarded into Loevestein or into Holland many parcels and +boxes, besides attending to the periodical transmission of the mighty +chest of books. + +Professor Vossius was then publishing a new edition of the tragedies of +Seneca, and at his request Grotius enriched that work, from his prison, +with valuable notes. He employed himself also in translating the moral +sentences extracted by Stobaeus from the Greek tragedies; drawing +consolation from the ethics and philosophy of the ancient dramatists, +whom he had always admired, especially the tragedies of Euripides; he +formed a complete moral anthology from that poet and from the works of +Sophocles, Menander, and others, which he translated into fluent Dutch +verse. Becoming more and more interested in the subject, he executed a +masterly rhymed translation of the 'Theban Brothers' of Euripides, thus +seeking distraction from his own tragic doom in the portraiture of +antique, distant, and heroic sorrow. + +Turning again to legal science, he completed an Introduction to the +Jurisprudence of Holland, a work which as soon as published became +thenceforward a text-book and an oracle in the law courts and the high +schools of the country. Not forgetting theology, he composed for the use +of the humbler classes, especially for sailors, in whose lot, so exposed +to danger and temptation, he ever took deep interest, a work on the +proofs of Christianity in easy and familiar rhyme--a book of gold, as it +was called at once, which became rapidly popular with those for whom it +was designed. + +At a somewhat later period Professor Erpenius, publishing a new edition +of the New Testament in Greek, with translations in Arabic, Syriac, and +Ethiopian, solicited his friend's help both in translations and in the +Latin commentaries and expositions with which he proposed to accompany +the work. The prisoner began with a modest disclaimer, saying that after +the labours of Erasmus and Beza, Maldonatus and Jasenius, there was +little for him to glean. Becoming more enthusiastic as he went on, he +completed a masterly commentary on the Four Evangelists, a work for which +the learned and religious world has ever recognized a kind of debt of +gratitude to the castle of Loevestein, and hailed in him the founder of a +school of manly Biblical criticism. + +And thus nearly two years wore away. Spinning his great top for exercise; +soothing his active and prolific brain with Greek tragedy, with Flemish +verse, with jurisprudence, history, theology; creating, expounding, +adorning, by the warmth of his vivid intellect; moving the world, and +doing good to his race from the depths of his stony sepulchre; Hugo +Grotius rose superior to his doom and took captivity captive. The man is +not to be envied who is not moved by so noble an example of great +calamity manfully endured. + +The wife of Hoogerbeets, already advanced in years, sickened during the +imprisonment and died at Loevestein after a lingering illness, leaving +six children to the care of her unfortunate husband. Madame de Groot had +not been permitted by the prison authorities to minister to her in +sickness, nor to her children after her death. + +Early in the year 1621 Francis Aerssens, Lord of Sommelsdyk, the arch +enemy of Barneveld and of Grotius, was appointed special ambassador to +Paris. The intelligence--although hardly unexpected, for the stratagems +of Aerssens had been completely successful--moved the prisoner deeply. He +felt that this mortal enemy, not glutted with vengeance by the beheading +of the Advocate and the perpetual imprisonment of his friend, would do +his best at the French court to defame and to blacken him. He did what he +could to obviate this danger by urgent letters to friends on whom he +could rely. + +At about the same time Muis van Holy, one of the twenty-four +commissioners, not yet satisfied with the misery he had helped to +inflict, informed the States-General that Madame de Groot had been buying +ropes at Gorcum. On his motion a committee was sent to investigate the +matter at Castle Loevestein, where it was believed that the ropes had +been concealed for the purpose of enabling Grotius to make his escape +from prison. + +Lieutenant Deventer had heard nothing of the story. He was in high +spirits at the rumour however, and conducted the committee very eagerly +over the castle, causing minute search to be made in the apartment of +Grotius for the ropes which, as they were assured by him and his wife, +had never existed save in the imagination of Judge Muis. They succeeded +at least in inflicting much superfluous annoyance on their victims, and +in satisfying themselves that it would be as easy for the prisoner to fly +out of the fortress on wings as to make his escape with ropes, even if he +had them. + +Grotius soon afterwards addressed a letter to the States-General +denouncing the statement of Muis as a fable, and these persistent +attempts to injure him as cowardly and wicked. + +A few months later Madame de Groot happened to be in the house of +Daatselaer on one of her periodical visits to Gorcum. Conversation +turning on these rumours March of attempts at escape, she asked Madame +Daatselaer if she would not be much embarrassed, should Grotius suddenly +make his appearance there. + +"Oh no," said the good woman with a laugh; "only let him come. We will +take excellent care of him." + +At another visit one Saturday, 20th March, (1621) Madame de Groot asked +her friend why all the bells of Gorcum march were ringing. + +"Because to-morrow begins our yearly fair," replied Dame Daatselaer. + +"Well, I suppose that all exiles and outlaws may come to Gorcum on this +occasion," said Madame de Groot. + +"Such is the law, they say," answered her friend. + +"And my husband might come too?" + +"No doubt," said Madame Daatselaer with a merry laugh, rejoiced at +finding the wife of Grotius able to speak so cheerfully of her husband in +his perpetual and hopeless captivity. "Send him hither. He shall have, a +warm welcome." + +"What a good woman you are!" said Madame de Groot with a sigh as she rose +to take leave. "But you know very well that if he were a bird he could +never get out of the castle, so closely, he is caged there." + +Next morning a wild equinoctial storm was howling around the battlements +of the castle. Of a sudden Cornelia, daughter of the de Groots, nine +years of age, said to her mother without any reason whatever, + +"To-morrow Papa must be off to Gorcum, whatever the weather may be." + +De Groot, as well as his wife, was aghast at the child's remark, and took +it as a direct indication from Heaven. + +For while Madame Daatselaer had considered the recent observations of her +visitor from Loevestein as idle jests, and perhaps wondered that Madame +de Groot could be frivolous and apparently lighthearted on so dismal a +topic, there had been really a hidden meaning in her words. + +For several weeks past the prisoner had been brooding over a means of +escape. His wife, whose every thought was devoted to him, had often cast +her eyes on the great chest or trunk in which the books of Erpenius had +been conveyed between Loevestein and Gorcum for the use of the prisoner. +At first the trunk had been carefully opened and its contents examined +every time it entered or left the castle. As nothing had ever been found +in it save Hebrew, Greek, and Latin folios, uninviting enough to the +Commandant, that warrior had gradually ceased to inspect the chest very +closely, and had at last discontinued the practice altogether. + +It had been kept for some weeks past in the prisoner's study. His wife +thought--although it was two finger breadths less than four feet in +length, and not very broad or deep in proportion--that it might be +possible for him to get into it. He was considerably above middle height, +but found that by curling himself up very closely he could just manage to +lie in it with the cover closed. Very secretly they had many times +rehearsed the scheme which had now taken possession of their minds, but +had not breathed a word of it to any one. He had lain in the chest with +the lid fastened, and with his wife sitting upon the top of it, two hours +at a time by the hour-glass. They had decided at last that the plan, +though fraught with danger, was not absolutely impossible, and they were +only waiting now for a favourable opportunity. The chance remark of the +child Cornelia settled the time for hazarding the adventure. By a strange +coincidence, too, the commandant of the fortress, Lieutenant Deventer, +had just been promoted to a captaincy, and was to go to Heusden to +receive his company. He left the castle for a brief absence that very +Sunday evening. As a precautionary measure, the trunk filled with books +had been sent to Gorcum and returned after the usual interval only a few +days before. + +The maid-servant of the de Groots, a young girl of twenty, Elsje van +Houwening by name, quick, intelligent, devoted, and courageous, was now +taken into their confidence. The scheme was explained to her, and she was +asked if she were willing to take the chest under her charge with her +master in it, instead of the usual freight of books, and accompany it to +Gorcum. + +She naturally asked what punishment could be inflicted upon her in case +the plot were discovered. + +"None legally," answered her master; "but I too am innocent of any crime, +and you see to what sufferings I have been condemned." + +"Whatever come of it," said Elsje stoutly; "I will take the risk and +accompany my master." + +Every detail was then secretly arranged, and it was provided beforehand, +as well as possible, what should be said or done in the many +contingencies that might arise. + +On Sunday evening Madame de Groot then went to the wife of the +Commandant, with whom she had always been on more friendly terms than +with her malicious husband. She had also recently propitiated her +affections by means of venison and other dainties brought from Gorcum. +She expressed the hope that, notwithstanding the absence of Captain +Deventer, she might be permitted to send the trunk full of books next day +from the castle. + +"My husband is wearing himself out," she said, "with his perpetual +studies. I shall be glad for a little time to be rid of some of these +folios." + +The Commandant's wife made no objection to this slight request. + +On Monday morning the gale continued to beat with unabated violence on +the turrets. The turbid Waal, swollen by the tempest, rolled darkly and +dangerously along the castle walls. + +But the die was cast. Grotius rose betimes, fell on his knees, and prayed +fervently an hour long. Dressed only in linen underclothes with a pair of +silk stockings, he got into the chest with the help of his wife. The big +Testament of Erpenius, with some bunches of thread placed upon it, served +him as a pillow. A few books and papers were placed in the interstices +left by the curves of his body, and as much pains as possible taken to +prevent his being seriously injured or incommoded during the hazardous +journey he was contemplating. His wife then took solemn farewell of him, +fastened the lock, which she kissed, and gave the key to Elsje. + +The usual garments worn by the prisoner were thrown on a chair by the +bedside and his slippers placed before it. Madame de Groot then returned +to her bed, drew the curtains close, and rang the bell. + +It was answered by the servant who usually waited on the prisoner, and +who was now informed by the lady that it had been her intention to go +herself to Gorcum, taking charge of the books which were valuable. As the +weather was so tempestuous however, and as she was somewhat indisposed, +it had been decided that Elsje should accompany the trunk. + +She requested that some soldiers might be sent as usual to take it down +to the vessel. Two or three of the garrison came accordingly, and seeing +the clothes and slippers of Grotius lying about, and the bed-curtains +closed, felt no suspicion. + +On lifting the chest, however, one of them said, half in jest: + +"The Arminian must be in it himself, it seems so heavy!" + +"Not the Arminian," replied Madame de Groot, in a careless voice, from +the bed; "only heavy Arminian books." + +Partly lifting, partly dragging the ponderous box, the soldiers managed +to get it down the stairs and through the thirteen barred and bolted +doors. Four several times one or other of the soldiers expressed the +opinion that Grotius himself must be locked within it, but they never +spoke quite seriously, and Elsje was ever ready to turn aside the remark +with a jest. A soldier's wife, just as the box was approaching the wharf, +told a story of a malefactor who had once been carried out of the castle +in a chest. + +"And if a malefactor, why not a lawyer?" she added. A soldier said he +would get a gimlet and bore a hole into the Arminian. "Then you must get +a gimlet that will reach to the top of the castle, where the Arminian +lies abed and asleep," said Elsje. + +Not much heed was given to this careless talk, the soldiers, before +leaving the chamber of Grotius, having satisfied themselves that there +were no apertures in the chest save the keyhole, and that it would be +impossible by that means alone for sufficient air to penetrate to keep a +man enclosed in it from smothering. + +Madame Deventer was asked if she chose to inspect the contents of the +trunk, and she enquired whether the Commandant had been wont so to do. +When told that such search had been for a long time discontinued, as +nothing had ever been found there but books, she observed that there was +no reason why she should be more strict than her husband, and ordered the +soldiers to take their heavy load to the vessel. + +Elsje insisted that the boatmen should place a doubly thick plank for +sliding the box on board, as it seemed probable, she said, that the usual +one would break in two, and then the valuable books borrowed of Professor +Erpenius would be damaged or destroyed. The request caused much further +grumbling, but was complied with at last and the chest deposited on the +deck. The wind still continued to blow with great fury, and as soon as +the sails were set the vessel heeled over so much, that Elsje implored +the skipper to cause the box to be securely lashed, as it seemed in +imminent danger, at the first lurch of the vessel, of sliding into the +sea. + +This done, Elsje sat herself down and threw her white handkerchief over +her head, letting it flutter in the wind. One of the crew asked her why +she did so, and she replied that the servant in the castle had been +tormenting her, saying that she would never dare to sail to Gorcum in +such tempestuous weather, and she was now signalling him that she had +been as good as her word. Whereupon she continued to wave the +handkerchief. + +In reality the signal was for her mistress, who was now straining her +eyes from the barred window which looked out upon the Waal, and with whom +the maid had agreed that if all went prosperously she would give this +token of success. Otherwise she would sit with her head in her hands. + +During the voyage an officer of the garrison, who happened to be on +board, threw himself upon the chest as a convenient seat, and began +drumming and pounding with his heels upon it. The ever watchful Elsje, +feeling the dreadful inconvenience to the prisoner of these proceedings, +who perhaps was already smothering and would struggle for air if not +relieved, politely addressed the gentleman and induced him to remove to +another seat by telling him that, besides the books, there was some +valuable porcelain in the chest which might easily be broken. + +No further incident occurred. The wind, although violent, was favourable, +and Gorcum in due time was reached. Elsje insisted upon having her own +precious freight carried first into the town, although the skipper for +some time was obstinately bent on leaving it to the very last, while all +the other merchandise in the vessel should be previously unshipped. + +At last on promise of payment of ten stuivers, which was considered an +exorbitant sum, the skipper and son agreed to transport the chest between +them on a hand-barrow. While they were trudging with it to the town, the +son remarked to his father that there was some living thing in the box. +For the prisoner in the anguish of his confinement had not been able to +restrain a slight movement. + +"Do you hear what my son says?" cried the skipper to Elsje. "He says you +have got something alive in your trunk." + +"Yes, yes," replied the cheerful maid-servant; "Arminian books are always +alive, always full of motion and spirit." + +They arrived at Daatselaer's house, moving with difficulty through the +crowd which, notwithstanding the boisterous weather, had been collected +by the annual fair. Many people were assembled in front of the building, +which was a warehouse of great resort, while next door was a +book-seller's shop thronged with professors, clergymen, and other +literary persons. The carriers accordingly entered by the backway, and +Elsje, deliberately paying them their ten stuivers, and seeing them +depart, left the box lying in a room at the rear and hastened to the shop +in front. + +Here she found the thread and ribbon dealer and his wife, busy with their +customers, unpacking and exhibiting their wares. She instantly whispered +in Madame Daatselaer's ear, "I have got my master here in your back +parlour." + +The dame turned white as a sheet, and was near fainting on the spot. It +was the first imprudence Elsje had committed. The good woman recovered +somewhat of her composure by a strong effort however, and instantly went +with Elsje to the rear of the house. + +"Master! master!" cried Elsje, rapping on the chest. + +There was no answer. + +"My God! my God!" shrieked the poor maid-servant. "My poor master is +dead." + +"Ah!" said Madame Daatselaer, "your mistress has made a bad business of +it. Yesterday she had a living husband. Now she has a dead one." + +But soon there was a vigorous rap on the inside of the lid, and a cry +from the prisoner: + +"Open the chest! I am not dead, but did not at first recognize your +voice." + +The lock was instantly unfastened, the lid thrown open, and Grotius arose +in his linen clothing, like a dead man from his coffin. + +The dame instantly accompanied the two through a trapdoor into an upper +room. + +Grotius asked her if she was always so deadly pale. + +"No," she replied, "but I am frightened to see you here. My lord is no +common person. The whole world is talking of you. I fear this will cause +the loss of all my property and perhaps bring my husband into prison in +your place." + +Grotius rejoined: "I made my prayers to God before as much as this had +been gained, and I have just been uttering fervent thanks to Him for my +deliverance so far as it has been effected. But if the consequences are +to be as you fear, I am ready at once to get into the chest again and be +carried back to prison." + +But she answered, "No; whatever comes of it, we have you here and will do +all that we can to help you on." + +Grotius being faint from his sufferings, the lady brought him a glass of +Spanish wine, but was too much flustered to find even a cloak or shawl to +throw over him. Leaving him sitting there in his very thin attire, just +as he had got out of the chest, she went to the front warehouse to call +her husband. But he prudently declined to go to his unexpected guest. It +would be better in the examination sure to follow, he said, for him to +say with truth that he had not seen him and knew nothing of the escape, +from first to last. + +Grotius entirely approved of the answer when told to him. Meantime Madame +Daatselaer had gone to her brother-in-law van der Veen, a clothier by +trade, whom she found in his shop talking with an officer of the +Loevestein garrison. She whispered in the clothier's ear, and he, making +an excuse to the officer, followed her home at once. They found Grotius +sitting where he had been left. Van der Veen gave him his hand, saying: + +"Sir, you are the man of whom the whole country is talking?" + +"Yes, here I am," was the reply, "and I put myself in your hands--" + +"There isn't a moment to lose," replied the clothier. "We must help you +away at once." + +He went immediately in search of one John Lambertsen, a man in whom he +knew he could confide, a Lutheran in religion, a master-mason by +occupation. He found him on a scaffold against the gable-end of a house, +working at his trade. + +He told him that there was a good deed to be done which he could do +better than any man, that his conscience would never reproach him for it, +and that he would at the same time earn no trifling reward. + +He begged the mason to procure a complete dress as for a journeyman, and +to follow him to the house of his brother-in-law Daatselaer. + +Lambertsen soon made his appearance with the doublet, trunk-hose, and +shoes of a bricklayer, together with trowel and measuring-rod. He was +informed who his new journeyman was to be, and Grotius at once put on the +disguise. + +The doublet did not reach to the waistband of the trunkhose, while those +nether garments stopped short of his knees; the whole attire belonging to +a smaller man than the unfortunate statesman. His delicate white hands, +much exposed by the shortness of the sleeves, looked very unlike those of +a day-labourer, and altogether the new mason presented a somewhat +incongruous and wobegone aspect. Grotius was fearful too lest some of the +preachers and professors frequenting the book-shop next door would +recognize him through his disguise. Madame Daatselaer smeared his face +and hands with chalk and plaster however and whispered encouragement, and +so with a felt hat slouched over his forehead and a yardstick in his +hand, he walked calmly forth into the thronged marketplace and through +the town to the ferry, accompanied by the friendly Lambertsen. It had +been agreed that van der Veen should leave the house in another direction +and meet them at the landing-place. + +When they got to the ferry, they found the weather as boisterous as ever. +The boatmen absolutely refused to make the dangerous crossing of the +Merwede over which their course lay to the land of Altona, and so into +the Spanish Netherlands, for two such insignificant personages as this +mason and his scarecrow journeyman. + +Lambertsen assured them that it was of the utmost importance that he +should cross the water at once. He had a large contract for purchasing +stone at Altona for a public building on which he was engaged. Van der +Veen coming up added his entreaties, protesting that he too was +interested in this great stone purchase, and so by means of offering a +larger price than they at first dared to propose, they were able to +effect their passage. + +After landing, Lambertsen and Grotius walked to Waalwyk, van der Veen +returning the same evening to Gorcum. It was four o'clock in the +afternoon when they reached Waalwyk, where a carriage was hired to convey +the fugitive to Antwerp. The friendly mason here took leave of his +illustrious journeyman, having first told the driver that his companion +was a disguised bankrupt fleeing from Holland into foreign territory to +avoid pursuit by his creditors. This would explain his slightly +concealing his face in passing through a crowd in any village. + +Grotius proved so ignorant of the value of different coins in making +small payments on the road, that the honest waggoner, on being +occasionally asked who the odd-looking stranger was, answered that he was +a bankrupt, and no wonder, for he did not know one piece of money from +another. For, his part he thought him little better than a fool. + +Such was the depreciatory opinion formed by the Waalwyk coachman as to +the "rising light of the world" and the "miracle of Holland." They +travelled all night and, arriving on the morning of the 21st within a few +leagues of Antwerp, met a patrol of soldiers, who asked Grotius for his +passport. He enquired in whose service they were, and was told in that of +"Red Rod," as the chief bailiff of Antwerp was called. That functionary +happened to be near, and the traveller approaching him said that his +passport was on his feet, and forthwith told him his name and story. + +Red Rod treated him at once with perfect courtesy, offered him a horse +for himself with a mounted escort, and so furthered his immediate +entrance to Antwerp. Grotius rode straight to the house of a banished +friend of his, the preacher Grevinkhoven. He was told by the daughter of +that clergyman that her father was upstairs ministering at the bedside of +his sick wife. But so soon as the traveller had sent up his name, both +the preacher and the invalid came rushing downstairs to fall upon the +neck of one who seemed as if risen from the dead. + +The news spread, and Episcopius and other exiled friends soon thronged to +the house of Grevinkhoven, where they all dined together in great glee, +Grotius, still in his journeyman's clothes, narrating the particulars of +his wonderful escape. + +He had no intention of tarrying in his resting-place at Antwerp longer +than was absolutely necessary. Intimations were covertly made to him that +a brilliant destiny might be in store for him should he consent to enter +the service of the Archdukes, nor were there waning rumours, circulated +as a matter of course by his host of enemies, that he was about to become +a renegade to country and religion. There was as much truth in the +slanders as in the rest of the calumnies of which he had been the victim +during his career. He placed on record a proof of his loyal devotion to +his country in the letters which he wrote from Antwerp within a week of +his arrival there. With his subsequent history, his appearance and long +residence at the French court as ambassador of Sweden, his memorable +labours in history, diplomacy, poetry, theology, the present narrative is +not concerned. Driven from the service of his Fatherland, of which his +name to all time is one of the proudest garlands, he continued to be a +benefactor not only to her but to all mankind. If refutation is sought of +the charge that republics are ungrateful, it will certainly not be found +in the history of Hugo Grotius or John of Barneveld. + +Nor is there need to portray the wrath of Captain Deventer when he +returned to Castle Loevestein. + +"Here is the cage, but your bird is flown," said corpulent Maria Grotius +with a placid smile. The Commandant solaced himself by uttering +imprecations on her, on her husband, and on Elsje van Houwening. But +these curses could not bring back the fugitive. He flew to Gorcum to +browbeat the Daatselaers and to search the famous trunk. He found in it +the big New Testament and some skeins of thread, together with an octavo +or two of theology and of Greek tragedies; but the Arminian was not in +it, and was gone from the custody of the valiant Deventer for ever. + +After a brief period Madame de Groot was released and rejoined her +husband. Elsje van Houwening, true heroine of the adventure, was +subsequently married to the faithful servant of Grotius, who during the +two years' imprisonment had been taught Latin and the rudiments of law by +his master, so that he subsequently rose to be a thriving and respectable +advocate at the tribunals of Holland. + +The Stadholder, when informed of the escape of the prisoner, observed, "I +always thought the black pig was deceiving me," making not very +complimentary allusion to the complexion and size of the lady who had +thus aided the escape of her husband. + +He is also reported as saying that it "is no wonder they could not keep +Grotius in prison, as he has more wit than all his judges put together." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + Barneveld's Sons plot against Maurice--The Conspiracy betrayed to + Maurice--Escape of Stoutenburg--Groeneveld is arrested--Mary of + Barneveld appeals to the Stadholder--Groeneveld condemned to Death-- + Execution of Groeneveld. + +The widow of Barneveld had remained, since the last scene of the fatal +tragedy on the Binnenhof, in hopeless desolation. The wife of the man who +during a whole generation of mankind had stood foremost among the +foremost of the world, and had been one of those chief actors and +directors in human affairs to whom men's eyes turned instinctively from +near and from afar, had led a life of unbroken prosperity. An heiress in +her own right, Maria van Utrecht had laid the foundation of her husband's +wealth by her union with the rising young lawyer and statesman. Her two +sons and two daughters had grown up around her, all four being married +into the leading families of the land, and with apparently long lives of +prosperity and usefulness before them. And now the headsman's sword had +shivered all this grandeur and happiness at a blow. The name of the dead +statesman had become a word of scoffing and reproach; vagabond +mountebanks enacted ribald scenes to his dishonour in the public squares +and streets; ballad-mongers yelled blasphemous libels upon him in the +very ears of his widow and children. For party hatred was not yet glutted +with the blood it had drunk. + +It would be idle to paint the misery of this brokenhearted woman. + +The great painters of the epoch have preserved her face to posterity; the +grief-stricken face of a hard-featured but commanding and not uncomely +woman, the fountains of whose tears seem exhausted; a face of austere and +noble despair. A decorous veil should be thrown over the form of that +aged matron, for whose long life and prosperity Fate took such merciless +vengeance at last. + +For the woes of Maria of Barneveld had scarcely begun. Desolation had +become her portion, but dishonour had not yet crossed her threshold. +There were sterner strokes in store for her than that which smote her +husband on the scaffold. + +She had two sons, both in the prime of life. The eldest, Reinier, Lord of +Groeneveld, who had married a widow of rank and wealth, Madame de +Brandwyk, was living since the death of his father in comparative ease, +but entire obscurity. An easy-tempered, genial, kindly gentleman, he had +been always much beloved by his friends and, until the great family +catastrophe, was popular with the public, but of an infirm and +vacillating character, easily impressed by others, and apt to be led by +stronger natures than his own. He had held the lucrative office of head +forester of Delfland of which he had now been deprived. + +The younger son William, called, from an estate conferred on him by his +father, Lord of Stoutenburg, was of a far different mould. We have seen +him at an earlier period of this narrative attached to the embassy of +Francis Aerssens in Paris, bearing then from another estate the unmusical +title of Craimgepolder, and giving his subtle and dangerous chief great +cause of complaint by his irregular, expensive habits. He had been +however rather a favourite with Henry IV., who had so profound a respect +for the father as to consult him, and him only of all foreign statesmen, +in the gravest affairs of his reign, and he had even held an office of +honour and emolument at his court. Subsequently he had embraced the +military career, and was esteemed a soldier of courage and promise. As +captain of cavalry and governor of the fortress of Bergen op Zoom, he +occupied a distinguished and lucrative position, and was likely, so soon +as the Truce ran to its close, to make a name for himself in that +gigantic political and religious war which had already opened in Bohemia, +and in which it was evident the Republic would soon be desperately +involved. His wife, Walburg de Marnix, was daughter to one of the noblest +characters in the history of the Netherlands, or of any history, the +illustrious Sainte-Aldegonde. Two thousand florins a year from his +father's estate had been settled on him at his marriage, which, in +addition to his official and military income, placed him in a position of +affluence. + +After the death of his father the family estates were confiscated, and he +was likewise deprived of his captaincy and his governorship. He was +reduced at a blow from luxury and high station to beggary and obscurity. +At the renewal of the war he found himself, for no fault of his own, +excluded from the service of his country. Yet the Advocate almost in his +last breath had recommended his sons to the Stadholder, and Maurice had +sent a message in response that so long as the sons conducted themselves +well they might rely upon his support. + +Hitherto they had not conducted themselves otherwise than well. +Stoutenburg, who now dwelt in his house with his mother, was of a dark, +revengeful, turbulent disposition. In the career of arms he had a right +to look forward to success, but thus condemned to brood in idleness on +the cruel wrongs to himself and his house it was not improbable that he +might become dangerous. + +Years long he fed on projects of vengeance as his daily bread. He was +convinced that his personal grievances were closely entwined with the +welfare of the Commonwealth, and he had sworn to avenge the death of his +father, the misery of his mother, and the wrongs which he was himself +suffering, upon the Stadholder, whom he considered the author of all +their woe. To effect a revolution in the government, and to bring back to +power all the municipal regents whom Maurice had displaced so summarily, +in order, as the son believed, to effect the downfall of the hated +Advocate, this was the determination of Stoutenburg. + +He did not pause to reflect whether the arm which had been strong enough +to smite to nothingness the venerable statesman in the plenitude of his +power would be too weak to repel the attack of an obscure and disarmed +partisan. He saw only a hated tyrant, murderer, and oppressor, as he +considered him, and he meant to have his life. + +He had around him a set of daring and desperate men to whom he had from +time to time half confided his designs. A certain unfrocked preacher of +the Remonstrant persuasion, who, according to the fashion of the learned +of that day, had translated his name out of Hendrik Sleet into Henricus +Slatius, was one of his most unscrupulous instruments. Slatius, a big, +swarthy, shag-eared, beetle-browed Hollander, possessed learning of no +ordinary degree, a tempestuous kind of eloquence, and a habit of dealing +with men; especially those of the humbler classes. He was passionate, +greedy, overbearing, violent, and loose of life. He had sworn vengeance +upon the Remonstrants in consequence of a private quarrel, but this did +not prevent him from breathing fire and fury against the +Contra-Remonstrants also, and especially against the Stadholder, whom he +affected to consider the arch-enemy of the whole Commonwealth. + +Another twelvemonth went by. The Advocate had been nearly four years in +his grave. The terrible German war was in full blaze. The Twelve Years' +Truce had expired, the Republic was once more at war, and Stoutenburg, +forbidden at the head of his troop to campaign with the Stadholder +against the Archdukes, nourished more fiercely than ever his plan against +the Stadholder's life. + +Besides the ferocious Slatius he had other associates. There was his +cousin by marriage, van der Dussen, a Catholic gentleman, who had married +a daughter of Elias Barneveld, and who shared all Stoutenburg's feelings +of resentment towards Maurice. There was Korenwinder, another Catholic, +formerly occupying an official position of responsibility as secretary of +the town of Berkel, a man of immense corpulence, but none the less an +active and dangerous conspirator. + +There was van Dyk, a secretary of Bleiswyk, equally active and dangerous, +and as lean and hungry as Korenwinder was fat. Stoutenburg, besides other +rewards, had promised him a cornetcy of cavalry, should their plans be +successful. And there was the brother-in-law of Slatius, one Cornelis +Gerritaen, a joiner by trade, living at Rotterdam, who made himself very +useful in all the details of the conspiracy. + +For the plot was now arranged, the men just mentioned being its active +agents and in constant communication with Stoutenburg. + +Korenwinder and van Dyk in the last days of December 1622 drew up a +scheme on paper, which was submitted to their chief and met with his +approval. The document began with a violent invective against the crimes +and tyranny of the Stadholder, demonstrated the necessity of a general +change in the government, and of getting rid of Maurice as an +indispensable preliminary, and laid down the means and method of doing +this deed. + +The Prince was in the daily habit of driving, unattended by his +body-guard, to Ryswyk, about two miles from the Hague. It would not be +difficult for a determined band of men divided into two parties to set +upon him between the stables and his coach, either when alighting from or +about to enter it--the one party to kill him while the other protected +the retreat of the assassins, and beat down such defence as the few +lackeys of the Stadholder could offer. + +The scheme, thus mapped out, was submitted to Stoutenburg, who gave it +his approval after suggesting a few amendments. The document was then +burnt. It was estimated that twenty men would be needed for the job, and +that to pay them handsomely would require about 6000 guilders. + +The expenses and other details of the infamous plot were discussed as +calmly as if it had been an industrial or commercial speculation. But +6000 guilders was an immense sum to raise, and the Seigneur de +Stoutenburg was a beggar. His associates were as forlorn as himself, but +his brother-in-law, the ex-Ambassador van der Myle, was living at +Beverwyk under the supervision of the police, his property not having +been confiscated. Stoutenburg paid him a visit, accompanied by the +Reverend Slatius, in hopes of getting funds from him, but at the first +obscure hint of the infamous design van der Myle faced them with such +looks, gestures, and words of disgust and indignation that the murderous +couple recoiled, the son of Barneveld saying to the expreacher: "Let us +be off, Slaet,'tis a mere cur. Nothing is to be made of him." + +The other son of Barneveld, the Seigneur de Groeneveld, had means and +credit. His brother had darkly hinted to him the necessity of getting rid +of Maurice, and tried to draw him into the plot. Groeneveld, more +unstable than water, neither repelled nor encouraged these advances. He +joined in many conversations with Stoutenburg, van Dyk, and Korenwinder, +but always weakly affected not to know what they were driving at. "When +we talk of business," said van Dyk to him one day, "you are always +turning off from us and from the subject. You had better remain." Many +anonymous letters were sent to him, calling on him to strike for +vengeance on the murderer of his father, and for the redemption of his +native land and the Remonstrant religion from foul oppression. + +At last yielding to the persuasions and threats of his fierce younger +brother, who assured him that the plot would succeed, the government be +revolutionized, and that then all property would be at the mercy of the +victors, he agreed to endorse certain bills which Korenwinder undertook +to negotiate. Nothing could be meaner, more cowardly, and more murderous +than the proceedings of the Seigneur de Groeneveld. He seems to have felt +no intense desire of vengeance upon Maurice, which certainly would not +have been unnatural, but he was willing to supply money for his +assassination. At the same time he was careful to insist that this +pecuniary advance was by no means a free gift, but only a loan to be +repaid by his more bloodthirsty brother upon demand with interest. With a +businesslike caution, in ghastly contrast with the foulness of the +contract, he exacted a note of hand from Stoutenburg covering the whole +amount of his disbursements. There might come a time, he thought, when +his brother's paper would be more negotiable than it was at that moment. + +Korenwinder found no difficulty in discounting Groeneveld's bills, and +the necessary capital was thus raised for the vile enterprise. Van Dyk, +the lean and hungry conspirator, now occupied himself vigorously in +engaging the assassins, while his corpulent colleague remained as +treasurer of the company. Two brothers Blansaerts, woollen manufacturers +at Leyden--one of whom had been a student of theology in the Remonstrant +Church and had occasionally preached--and a certain William Party, a +Walloon by birth, but likewise a woollen worker at Leyden, agreed to the +secretary's propositions. He had at first told, them that their services +would be merely required for the forcible liberation of two Remonstrant +clergymen, Niellius and Poppius, from the prison at Haarlem. Entertaining +his new companions at dinner, however, towards the end of January, van +Dyk, getting very drunk, informed them that the object of the enterprise +was to kill the Stadholder; that arrangements had been made for effecting +an immediate change in the magistracies in all the chief cities of +Holland so soon as the deed was done; that all the recently deposed +regents would enter the Hague at once, supported by a train of armed +peasants from the country; and that better times for the oppressed +religion, for the Fatherland, and especially for everyone engaged in the +great undertaking, would begin with the death of the tyrant. Each man +taking direct part in the assassination would receive at least 300 +guilders, besides being advanced to offices of honour and profit +according to his capacity. + +The Blansaerts assured their superior that entire reliance might be +placed on their fidelity, and that they knew of three or four other men +in Leyden "as firm as trees and fierce as lions," whom they would +engage--a fustian worker, a tailor, a chimney-sweeper, and one or two +other mechanics. The looseness and utter recklessness with which this +hideous conspiracy was arranged excites amazement. Van Dyk gave the two +brothers 100 pistoles in gold--a coin about equal to a guinea--for their +immediate reward as well as for that of the comrades to be engaged. Yet +it seems almost certain from subsequent revelations that they were +intending all the time to deceive him, to take as much money as they +could get from him, "to milk, the cow as long as she would give milk," as +William Party expressed it, and then to turn round upon and betray him. +It was a dangerous game however, which might not prove entirely +successful. + +Van Dyk duly communicated with Stoutenburg, who grew more and more +feverish with hatred and impatience as the time for gratifying those +passions drew nigh, and frequently said that he would like to tear the +Stadholder to pieces with his own hands. He preferred however to act as +controlling director over the band of murderers now enrolled. + +For in addition to the Leyden party, the Reverend Slatius, supplied with +funds by van Dyk, had engaged at Rotterdam his brother-in-law Gerritsen, +a joiner, living in that city, together with three sailors named +respectively Dirk, John, and Herman. + +The ex-clergyman's house was also the arsenal of the conspiracy, +and here were stored away a stock of pistols, snaphances, and +sledge-hammers--together with that other death-dealing machinery, the +whole edition of the 'Clearshining Torch', an inflammatory, pamphlet by +Slatius--all to be used on the fatal day fast approaching. + +On the 1st February van Dyk visited Slatius at Rotterdam. He found +Gerritsen hard at work. + +There in a dark back kitchen, by the lurid light of the fire in a dim +wintry afternoon, stood the burly Slatius, with his swarthy face and +heavy eyebrows, accompanied by his brother-in-law the joiner, both in +workman's dress, melting lead, running bullets, drying powder, and +burnishing and arranging the fire-arms and other tools to be used in the +great crime now so rapidly maturing. The lean, busy, restless van Dyk, +with his adust and sinister visage, came peering in upon the couple thus +engaged, and observed their preparations with warm approval. + +He recommended that in addition to Dirk, John, and Herman, a few more +hardy seafaring men should be engaged, and Slatius accordingly secured +next day the services of one Jerome Ewouts and three other sailors. They +were not informed of the exact nature of the enterprise, but were told +that it was a dangerous although not a desperate one, and sure to be of +great service to the Fatherland. They received, as all the rest had done, +between 200 and 300 guilders in gold, that they would all be promoted to +be captains and first mates. + +It was agreed that all the conspirators should assemble four days later +at the Hague on Sunday, the 5th February, at the inn of the "Golden +Helmet." The next day, Monday the 6th, had been fixed by Stoutenburg for +doing the deed. Van Dyk, who had great confidence in the eloquence of +William Party, the Walloon wool manufacturer, had arranged that he should +make a discourse to them all in a solitary place in the downs between +that city and the sea-shore, taking for his theme or brief the +Clearshining Torch of Slatius. + +On Saturday that eminent divine entertained his sister and her husband +Gerritsen, Jerome Ewouts, who was at dinner but half informed as to the +scope of the great enterprise, and several other friends who were +entirely ignorant of it. Slatius was in high spirits, although his +sister, who had at last become acquainted with the vile plot, had done +nothing but weep all day long. They had better be worms, with a promise +of further reward and an intimation she said, and eat dirt for their +food, than crawl in so base a business. Her brother comforted her with +assurances that the project was sure to result in a triumph for religion +and Fatherland, and drank many healths at his table to the success of all +engaged in it. That evening he sent off a great chest filled with arms +and ammunition to the "Golden Helmet" at the Hague under the charge of +Jerome Ewouts and his three mates. Van Dyk had already written a letter +to the landlord of that hostelry engaging a room there, and saying that +the chest contained valuable books and documents to be used in a lawsuit, +in which he was soon to be engaged, before the supreme tribunal. + +On the Sunday this bustling conspirator had John Blansaert and William +Party to dine with him at the "Golden Helmet" in the Hague, and produced +seven packages neatly folded, each containing gold pieces to the amount +of twenty pounds sterling. These were for themselves and the others whom +they had reported as engaged by them in Leyden. Getting drunk as usual, +he began to bluster of the great political revolution impending, and +after dinner examined the carbines of his guests. He asked if those +weapons were to be relied upon. "We can blow a hair to pieces with them +at twenty paces," they replied. "Ah! would that I too could be of the +party," said van Dyk, seizing one of the carbines. "No, no," said John +Blansaert, "we can do the deed better without you than with you. You must +look out for the defence." + +Van Dyk then informed them that they, with one of the Rotterdam sailors, +were to attack Maurice as he got out of his coach at Ryswyk, pin him +between the stables and the coach, and then and there do him to death. +"You are not to leave him," he cried, "till his soul has left his body." + +The two expressed their hearty concurrence with this arrangement, and +took leave of their host for the night, going, they said, to distribute +the seven packages of blood-money. They found Adam Blansaert waiting for +them in the downs, and immediately divided the whole amount between +themselves and him--the chimney-sweeper, tailor, and fustian worker, +"firm as trees and fierce as lions," having never had any existence save +in their fertile imaginations. + +On Monday, 6th February, van Dyk had a closing interview with Stoutenburg +and his brother at the house of Groeneveld, and informed them that the +execution of the plot had been deferred to the following day. Stoutenburg +expressed disgust and impatience at the delay. "I should like to tear the +Stadholder to pieces with my own hands!" he cried. He was pacified on +hearing that the arrangements had been securely made for the morrow, and +turning to his brother observed, "Remember that you can never retract. +You are in our power and all your estates at our mercy." He then +explained the manner in which the magistracies of Leyden, Gouda, +Rotterdam, and other cities were to be instantly remodelled after the +death of Maurice, the ex-regents of the Hague at the head of a band of +armed peasants being ready at a moment's warning to take possession of +the political capital. + +Prince Frederic Henry moreover, he hinted darkly and falsely, but in a +manner not to be mistaken, was favourable to the movement, and would +after the murder of Maurice take the government into his hands. + +Stoutenburg then went quietly home to pass the day and sleep at his +mother's house awaiting the eventful morning of Tuesday. + +Van Dyk went back to his room at the "Golden Helmet" and began inspecting +the contents of the arms and ammunition chest which Jerome Ewouts and his +three mates had brought the night before from Rotterdam. He had been +somewhat unquiet at having seen nothing of those mariners during the day; +when looking out of window, he saw one of them in conference with some +soldiers. A minute afterwards he heard a bustle in the rooms below, and +found that the house was occupied by a guard, and that Gerritsen, with +the three first engaged sailors Dirk, Peter, and Herman, had been +arrested at the Zotje. He tried in vain to throw the arms back into the +chest and conceal it under the bed, but it was too late. Seizing his hat +and wrapping himself in his cloak, with his sword by his side, he walked +calmly down the stairs looking carelessly at the group of soldiers and +prisoners who filled the passages. A waiter informed the provost-marshal +in command that the gentleman was a respectable boarder at the tavern, +well known to him for many years. The conspirator passed unchallenged and +went straight to inform Stoutenburg. + +The four mariners, last engaged by Slatius at Rotterdam, had signally +exemplified the danger of half confidences. Surprised that they should +have been so mysteriously entrusted with the execution of an enterprise +the particulars of which were concealed from them, and suspecting that +crime alone could command such very high prices as had been paid and +promised by the ex-clergyman, they had gone straight to the residence of +the Stadholder, after depositing the chest at the "Golden Helmet." + +Finding that he had driven as usual to Ryswyk, they followed him thither, +and by dint of much importunity obtained an audience. If the enterprise +was a patriotic one, they reasoned, he would probably know of it and +approve it. If it were criminal, it would be useful for them to reveal +and dangerous to conceal it. + +They told the story so far as they knew it to the Prince and showed him +the money, 300 florins apiece, which they had already received from +Slatius. Maurice hesitated not an instant. It was evident that a dark +conspiracy was afoot. He ordered the sailors to return to the Hague by +another and circuitous road through Voorburg, while he lost not a moment +himself in hurrying back as fast as his horses would carry him. Summoning +the president and several councillors of the chief tribunal, he took +instant measures to take possession of the two taverns, and arrest all +the strangers found in them. + +Meantime van Dyk came into the house of the widow Barneveld and found +Stoutenburg in the stable-yard. He told him the plot was discovered, the +chest of arms at the "Golden Helmet" found. "Are there any private +letters or papers in the bog?" asked Stoutenburg. "None relating to the +affair," was the answer. + +"Take yourself off as fast as possible," said Stoutenburg. Van Dyk needed +no urging. He escaped through the stables and across the fields in the +direction of Leyden. After skulking about for a week however and making +very little progress, he was arrested at Hazerswoude, having broken +through the ice while attempting to skate across the inundated and frozen +pastures in that region. + +Proclamations were at once made, denouncing the foul conspiracy in which +the sons of the late Advocate Barneveld, the Remonstrant clergyman +Slatius, and others, were the ringleaders, and offering 4000 florins each +for their apprehension. A public thanksgiving for the deliverance was +made in all the churches on the 8th February. + +On the 12th February the States-General sent letters to all their +ambassadors and foreign agents, informing them of this execrable plot to +overthrow the Commonwealth and take the life of the Stadholder, set on +foot by certain Arminian preachers and others of that faction, and this +too in winter, when the ice and snow made hostile invasion practicable, +and when the enemy was encamped in so many places in the neighbourhood. +"The Arminians," said the despatch, "are so filled with bitterness that +they would rather the Republic should be lost than that their pretended +grievances should go unredressed." Almost every pulpit shook with +Contra-Remonstrant thunder against the whole society of Remonstrants, who +were held up to the world as rebels and prince-murderers; the criminal +conspiracy being charged upon them as a body. Hardly a man of that +persuasion dared venture into the streets and public places, for fear of +being put to death by the rabble. The Chevalier William of Nassau, +natural son of the Stadholder, was very loud and violent in all the +taverns and tap-rooms, drinking mighty draughts to the damnation of the +Arminians. + +Many of the timid in consequence shrank away from the society and joined +the Contra-Remonstrant Church, while the more courageous members, +together with the leaders of that now abhorred communion, published long +and stirring appeals to the universal sense of justice, which was +outraged by the spectacle of a whole sect being punished for a crime +committed by a few individuals, who had once been unworthy members of it. + +Meantime hue and cry was made after the fugitive conspirators. The +Blansaerts and William Party having set off from Leyden towards the Hague +on Monday night, in order, as they said, to betray their employers, whose +money they had taken, and whose criminal orders they had agreed to +execute, attempted to escape, but were arrested within ten days. They +were exhibited at their prison at Amsterdam to an immense concourse at a +shilling a peep, the sums thus collected being distributed to the poor. +Slatius made his way disguised as a boor into Friesland, and after +various adventures attempted to cross the Bourtange Moors to Lingen. +Stopping to refresh himself at a tavern near Koevorden, he found himself +in the tap-room in presence of Quartermaster Blau and a company of +soldiers from the garrison. The dark scowling boor, travel-stained and +weary, with felt hat slouched over his forbidding visage, fierce and +timorous at once like a hunted wild beast, excited their suspicion. +Seeing himself watched, he got up, paid his scot, and departed, leaving +his can of beer untasted. This decided the quartermaster, who accordingly +followed the peasant out of the house, and arrested him as a Spanish spy +on the watch for the train of specie which the soldiers were then +conveying into Koevorden Castle. + +Slatius protested his innocence of any such design, and vehemently +besought the officer to release him, telling him as a reason for his +urgency and an explanation of his unprepossessing aspect--that he was an +oculist from Amsterdam, John Hermansen by name, that he had just +committed a homicide in that place, and was fleeing from justice. + +The honest quartermaster saw no reason why a suspected spy should go free +because he proclaimed himself a murderer, nor why an oculist should +escape the penalties of homicide. "The more reason," he said, "why thou +shouldst be my prisoner." The ex-preacher was arrested and shut up in the +state prison at the Hague. + +The famous engraver Visser executed a likeness on copper-plate of the +grim malefactor as he appeared in his boor's disguise. The portrait, +accompanied by a fiercely written broadsheet attacking the Remonstrant +Church, had a great circulation, and deepened the animosity against the +sect upon which the unfrocked preacher had sworn vengeance. His evil face +and fame thus became familiar to the public, while the term Hendrik Slaet +became a proverb at pot-houses, being held equivalent among tipplers to +shirking the bottle. + +Korenwinder, the treasurer of the association, coming to visit +Stoutenburg soon after van Dyk had left him, was informed of the +discovery of the plot and did his best to escape, but was arrested within +a fortnight's time. + +Stoutenburg himself acted with his usual promptness and coolness. Having +gone straightway to his brother to notify him of the discovery and to +urge him to instant flight, he contrived to disappear. A few days later a +chest of merchandise was brought to the house of a certain citizen of +Rotterdam, who had once been a fiddler, but was now a man of considerable +property. The chest, when opened, was found to contain the Seigneur de +Stoutenburg, who in past times had laid the fiddler under obligations, +and in whose house he now lay concealed for many days, and until the +strictness with which all roads and ferries in the neighbourhood were +watched at first had somewhat given way. Meantime his cousin van der +Dussen had also effected his escape, and had joined him in Rotterdam. The +faithful fiddler then, for a thousand florins, chartered a trading vessel +commanded by one Jacob Beltje to take a cargo of Dutch cheese to Wesel on +the Rhine. By this means, after a few adventures, they effected their +escape, and, arriving not long afterwards at Brussels, were formally +taken under the protection of the Archduchess Isabella. + +Stoutenburg afterwards travelled in France and Italy, and returned to +Brussels. His wife, loathing his crime and spurning all further +communication with him, abandoned him to his fate. The daughter of Marnix +of Sainte-Aldegonde had endured poverty, obscurity, and unmerited +obloquy, which had become the lot of the great statesman's family after +his tragic end, but she came of a race that would not brook dishonour. +The conspirator and suborner of murder and treason, the hirer and +companion of assassins, was no mate for her. + +Stoutenburg hesitated for years as to his future career, strangely enough +keeping up a hope of being allowed to return to his country. + +Subsequently he embraced the cause of his country's enemies, converted +himself to the Roman Church, and obtained a captaincy of horse in the +Spanish service. He was seen one day, to the disgust of many spectators, +to enter Antwerp in black foreign uniform, at the head of his troopers, +waving a standard with a death's-head embroidered upon it, and wearing, +like his soldiers, a sable scarf and plume. History disdains to follow +further the career of the renegade, traitor, end assassin. + +When the Seigneur de Groeneveld learned from his younger brother, on the +eventful 6th of February, that the plot had been discovered, he gave +himself up for lost. Remorse and despair, fastening upon his naturally +feeble character, seemed to render him powerless. His wife, of more +hopeful disposition than himself and of less heroic mould than Walburg de +Marnix, encouraged him to fly. He fled accordingly, through the desolate +sandy downs which roll between the Hague and the sea, to Scheveningen, +then an obscure fishing village on the coast, at a league's distance from +the capital. Here a fisherman, devoted to him and his family, received +him in his hut, disguised him in boatman's attire, and went with him to +the strand, proposing to launch his pinkie, put out at once to sea, and +to land him on the English coast, the French coast, in Hamburg--where he +would. + +The sight of that long, sandy beach stretching for more than seventy +miles in an unbroken, melancholy line, without cove, curve, or +indentation to break its cruel monotony, and with the wild waves of the +German Ocean, lashed by a wintry storm, breaking into white foam as far +as the eye could reach, appalled the fugitive criminal. With the +certainty of an ignominious death behind him, he shrank abjectly from the +terrors of the sea, and, despite the honest fisherman's entreaties, +refused to enter the boat and face the storm. He wandered feebly along +the coast, still accompanied by his humble friend, to another little +village, where the fisherman procured a waggon, which took them as far as +Sandvoort. Thence he made his way through Egmond and Petten and across +the Marsdiep to Tegel, where not deeming himself safe he had himself +ferried over to the neighbouring island of Vlieland. Here amongst the +quicksands, whirlpools, and shallows which mark the last verge of +habitable Holland, the unhappy fugitive stood at bay. + +Meantime information had come to the authorities that a suspicious +stranger had been seen at Scheveningen. The fisherman's wife was +arrested. Threatened with torture she at last confessed with whom her +husband had fled and whither. Information was sent to the bailiff of +Vlieland, who with a party of followers made a strict search through his +narrow precincts. A group of seamen seated on the sands was soon +discovered, among whom, dressed in shaggy pea jacket with long +fisherman's boots, was the Seigneur de Groeneveld, who, easily recognized +through his disguise, submitted to his captors without a struggle. The +Scheveningen fisherman, who had been so faithful to him, making a sudden +spring, eluded his pursuers and disappeared; thus escaping the gibbet +which would probably have been his doom instead of the reward of 4000 +golden guilders which he might have had for betraying him. Thus a sum +more than double the amount originally furnished by Groeneveld, as the +capital of the assassination company, had been rejected by the Rotterdam +boatman who saved Stoutenburg, and by the Scheveningen fisherman who was +ready to save Groeneveld. On the 19th February, within less than a +fortnight from the explosion of the conspiracy, the eldest son of +Barneveld was lodged in the Gevangen Poort or state prison of the Hague. + +The awful news of the 6th February had struck the widow of Barneveld as +with a thunderbolt. Both her sons were proclaimed as murderers and +suborners of assassins, and a price put upon their heads. She remained +for days neither speaking nor weeping; scarcely eating, drinking, or +sleeping. She seemed frozen to stone. Her daughters and friends could not +tell whether she were dying or had lost her reason. At length the escape +of Stoutenburg and the capture of Groeneveld seemed to rouse her from her +trance. She then stooped to do what she had sternly refused to do when +her husband was in the hands of the authorities. Accompanied by the wife +and infant son of Groeneveld she obtained an audience of the stern +Stadholder, fell on her knees before him, and implored mercy and pardon +for her son. + +Maurice received her calmly and not discourteously, but held out no hopes +of pardon. The criminal was in the hands of justice, he said, and he had +no power to interfere. But there can scarcely be a doubt that he had +power after the sentence to forgive or to commute, and it will be +remembered that when Barneveld himself was about to suffer, the Prince +had asked the clergyman Walaeus with much anxiety whether the prisoner in +his message had said nothing of pardon. + +Referring to the bitter past, Maurice asked Madame de Barneveld why she +not asked mercy for her son, having refused to do so for her husband. + +Her answer was simple and noble: + +"My husband was innocent of crime," she said; "my son is guilty." + +The idea of pardon in this case was of course preposterous. Certainly if +Groeneveld had been forgiven, it would have been impossible to punish the +thirteen less guilty conspirators, already in the hands of justice, whom +he had hired to commit the assassination. The spectacle of the two +cowardly ringleaders going free while the meaner criminals were gibbeted +would have been a shock to the most rudimentary ideas of justice. It +would have been an equal outrage to pardon the younger Barnevelds for +intended murder, in which they had almost succeeded, when their great +father had already suffered for a constructive lese-majesty, the guilt of +which had been stoutly denied. Yet such is the dreary chain of cause and +effect that it is certain, had pardon been nobly offered to the +statesman, whose views of constitutional law varied from those of the +dominant party, the later crime would never have been committed. But +Francis Aerssens--considering his own and other partisans lives at stake +if the States' right party did not fall--had been able to bear down all +thoughts of mercy. He was successful, was called to the house of nobles, +and regained the embassy of Paris, while the house of Barneveld was +trodden into the dust of dishonour and ruin. Rarely has an offended +politician's revenge been more thorough than his. Never did the mocking +fiend betray his victims into the hands of the avenger more sardonically +than was done in this sombre tragedy. + +The trials of the prisoners were rapidly conducted. Van Dyk, cruelly +tortured, confessed on the rack all the details of the conspiracy as they +were afterwards embodied in the sentences and have been stated in the +preceding narrative. Groeneveld was not tortured. His answers to the +interrogatories were so vague as to excite amazement at his general +ignorance of the foul transaction or at the feebleness of his memory, +while there was no attempt on his part to exculpate himself from the +damning charge. That it was he who had furnished funds for the proposed +murder and mutiny, knowing the purpose to which they were to be applied, +was proved beyond all cavil and fully avowed by him. + +On the 28th May, he, Korenwinder, and van Dyk were notified that they +were to appear next day in the courthouse to hear their sentence, which +would immediately afterwards be executed. + +That night his mother, wife, and son paid him a long visit of farewell in +his prison. The Gevangen Poort of the Hague, an antique but mean building +of brown brick and commonplace aspect, still stands in one of the most +public parts of the city. A gloomy archway, surmounted by windows grimly +guarded by iron lattice-work, forms the general thoroughfare from the +aristocratic Plaats and Kneuterdyk and Vyverberg to the inner court of +the ancient palace. The cells within are dark, noisome, and dimly +lighted, and even to this day the very instruments of torture, used in +the trials of these and other prisoners, may be seen by the curious. Half +a century later the brothers de Witt were dragged from this prison to be +literally torn to pieces by an infuriated mob. + +The misery of that midnight interview between the widow of Barneveld, her +daughter-in-law, and the condemned son and husband need not be described. +As the morning approached, the gaoler warned the matrons to take their +departure that the prisoner might sleep. + +"What a woful widow you will be," said Groeneveld to his wife, as she +sank choking with tears upon the ground. The words suddenly aroused in +her the sense of respect for their name. + +"At least for all this misery endured," she said firmly, "do me enough +honour to die like a gentleman." He promised it. The mother then took +leave of the son, and History drops a decorous veil henceforth over the +grief-stricken form of Mary of Barneveld. + +Next morning the life-guards of the Stadholder and other troops were +drawn up in battle-array in the outer and inner courtyard of the supreme +tribunal and palace. At ten o'clock Groeneveld came forth from the +prison. The Stadholder had granted as a boon to the family that he might +be neither fettered nor guarded as he walked to the tribunal. The +prisoner did not forget his parting promise to his wife. He appeared +full-dressed in velvet cloak and plumed hat, with rapier by his side, +walking calmly through the inner courtyard to the great hall. Observing +the windows of the Stadholder's apartments crowded with spectators, among +whom he seemed to recognize the Prince's face, he took off his hat and +made a graceful and dignified salute. He greeted with courtesy many +acquaintances among the crowd through which he passed. He entered the +hall and listened in silence to the sentence condemning him to be +immediately executed with the sword. Van Dyk and Korenwinder shared the +same doom, but were provisionally taken back to prison. + +Groeneveld then walked calmly and gracefully as before from the hall to +the scaffold, attended by his own valet, and preceded by the +provost-marshal and assistants. He was to suffer, not where his father +had been beheaded, but on the "Green Sod." This public place of execution +for ordinary criminals was singularly enough in the most elegant and +frequented quarter of the Hague. A few rods from the Gevangen Poort, at +the western end of the Vyverberg, on the edge of the cheerful triangle +called the Plaats, and looking directly down the broad and stately +Kneuterdyk, at the end of which stood Aremberg House, lately the +residence of the great Advocate, was the mean and sordid scaffold. + +Groeneveld ascended it with perfect composure. The man who had been +browbeaten into crime by an overbearing and ferocious brother, who had +quailed before the angry waves of the North Sea, which would have borne +him to a place of entire security, now faced his fate with a smile upon +his lips. He took off his hat, cloak, and sword, and handed them to his +valet. He calmly undid his ruff and wristbands of pointlace, and tossed +them on the ground. With his own hands and the assistance of his servant +he unbuttoned his doublet, laying breast and neck open without suffering +the headsman's hands to approach him. + +He then walked to the heap of sand and spoke a very few words to the vast +throng of spectators. + +"Desire of vengeance and evil counsel," he said, "have brought me here. +If I have wronged any man among you, I beg him for Christ's sake to +forgive me." + +Kneeling on the sand with his face turned towards his father's house at +the end of the Kneuterdyk, he said his prayers. Then putting a red velvet +cap over his eyes, he was heard to mutter: + +"O God! what a man I was once, and what am I now?" + +Calmly folding his hands, he said, "Patience." + +The executioner then struck off his head at a blow. His body, wrapped in +a black cloak, was sent to his house and buried in his father's tomb. + +Van Dyk and Korenwinder were executed immediately afterwards. They were +quartered and their heads exposed on stakes. The joiner Gerritsen and the +three sailors had already been beheaded. The Blansaerts and William +Party, together with the grim Slatius, who was savage and turbulent to +the last, had suffered on the 5th of May. + +Fourteen in all were executed for this crime, including an unfortunate +tailor and two other mechanics of Leyden, who had heard something +whispered about the conspiracy, had nothing whatever to do with it, but +from ignorance, apathy, or timidity did not denounce it. The ringleader +and the equally guilty van der Dussen had, as has been seen, effected +their escape. + +Thus ended the long tragedy of the Barnevelds. The result of this foul +conspiracy and its failure to effect the crime proposed strengthened +immensely the power, popularity, and influence of the Stadholder, made +the orthodox church triumphant, and nearly ruined the sect of the +Remonstrants, the Arminians--most unjustly in reality, although with a +pitiful show of reason--being held guilty of the crime of Stoutenburg and +Slatius. + +The Republic--that magnificent commonwealth which in its infancy had +confronted, single-handed, the greatest empire of the earth, and had +wrested its independence from the ancient despot after a forty years' +struggle--had now been rent in twain, although in very unequal portions, +by the fiend of political and religious hatred. Thus crippled, she was to +go forth and take her share in that awful conflict now in full blaze, and +of which after-ages were to speak with a shudder as the Thirty Years' +War. + + + + + ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + + Argument in a circle + He that stands let him see that he does not fall + If he has deserved it, let them strike off his head + Misery had come not from their being enemies + O God! what does man come to! + Party hatred was not yet glutted with the blood it had drunk + Rose superior to his doom and took captivity captive + This, then, is the reward of forty years' service to the State + To milk, the cow as long as she would give milk + + + + + ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS, ENTIRE JOHN OF BARNEVELD, 1614-23: + + Acts of violence which under pretext of religion + Adulation for inferiors whom they despise + Affection of his friends and the wrath of his enemies + And give advice. Of that, although always a spendthrift + Argument in a circle + Better to be governed by magistrates than mobs + Burning with bitter revenge for all the favours he had received + Calumny is often a stronger and more lasting power than disdain + Casual outbursts of eternal friendship + Changed his positions and contradicted himself day by day + Conciliation when war of extermination was intended + Considered it his special mission in the world to mediate + Created one child for damnation and another for salvation + Death rather than life with a false acknowledgment of guilt + Denoungced as an obstacle to peace + Depths theological party spirit could descend + Depths of credulity men in all ages can sink + Devote himself to his gout and to his fair young wife + Enemy of all compulsion of the human conscience + Extraordinary capacity for yielding to gentle violence + France was mourning Henry and waiting for Richelieu + Furious mob set upon the house of Rem Bischop + Hardly a sound Protestant policy anywhere but in Holland + He that stands let him see that he does not fall + Heidelberg Catechism were declared to be infallible + Highborn demagogues in that as in every age affect adulation + History has not too many really important and emblematic men + Human nature in its meanness and shame + I hope and I fear + I know how to console myself + If he has deserved it, let them strike off his head + Implication there was much, of assertion very little + In this he was much behind his age or before it + It had not yet occurred to him that he was married + John Robinson + King who thought it furious madness to resist the enemy + Logic is rarely the quality on which kings pride themselves + Magistracy at that moment seemed to mean the sword + Make the very name of man a term of reproach + Misery had come not from their being enemies + Mockery of negotiation in which nothing could be negotiated + More apprehension of fraud than of force + Necessity of deferring to powerful sovereigns + Never lack of fishers in troubled waters + Not his custom nor that of his councillors to go to bed + O God! what does man come to! + Only true religion + Opening an abyss between government and people + Opposed the subjection of the magistracy by the priesthood + Partisans wanted not accommodation but victory + Party hatred was not yet glutted with the blood it had drunk + Pot-valiant hero + Puritanism in Holland was a very different thing from England + Rather a wilderness to reign over than a single heretic + Resolve to maintain the civil authority over the military + Rose superior to his doom and took captivity captive + Seemed bent on self-destruction + Stand between hope and fear + Successful in this step, he is ready for greater ones + Tempest of passion and prejudice + That he tries to lay the fault on us is pure malice + The magnitude of this wonderful sovereign's littleness + The effect of energetic, uncompromising calumny + The evils resulting from a confederate system of government + This, then, is the reward of forty years' service to the State + This wonderful sovereign's littleness oppresses the imagination + To milk, the cow as long as she would give milk + To stifle for ever the right of free enquiry + William Brewster + Wise and honest a man, although he be somewhat longsome + Yes, there are wicked men about + Yesterday is the preceptor of To-morrow + + + + + ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS, ENTIRE JOHN OF BARNEVELD 1609-1623: + + Abstinence from inquisition into consciences and private parlour + Acts of violence which under pretext of religion + Adulation for inferiors whom they despise + Advanced orthodox party-Puritans + Affection of his friends and the wrath of his enemies + Allowed the demon of religious hatred to enter into its body + Almost infinite power of the meanest of passions + And give advice. Of that, although always a spendthrift + And now the knife of another priest-led fanatic + Argument in a circle + Aristocracy of God's elect + As with his own people, keeping no back-door open + At a blow decapitated France + Atheist, a tyrant, because he resisted dictation from the clergy + Behead, torture, burn alive, and bury alive all heretics + Better to be governed by magistrates than mobs + Burning with bitter revenge for all the favours he had received + Calumny is often a stronger and more lasting power than disdain + Casual outbursts of eternal friendship + Changed his positions and contradicted himself day by day + Christian sympathy and a small assistance not being sufficient + Conciliation when war of extermination was intended + Conclusive victory for the allies seemed as predestined + Considered it his special mission in the world to mediate + Contained within itself the germs of a larger liberty + Could not be both judge and party in the suit + Covered now with the satirical dust of centuries + Created one child for damnation and another for salvation + Deadly hatred of Puritans in England and Holland + Death rather than life with a false acknowledgment of guilt + Denoungced as an obstacle to peace + Depths of credulity men in all ages can sink + Depths theological party spirit could descend + Determined to bring the very name of liberty into contempt + Devote himself to his gout and to his fair young wife + Disputing the eternal damnation of young children + Doctrine of predestination in its sternest and strictest sense + Emperor of Japan addressed him as his brother monarch + Enemy of all compulsion of the human conscience + Epernon, the true murderer of Henry + Estimating his character and judging his judges + Everybody should mind his own business + Extraordinary capacity for yielding to gentle violence + Fate, free will, or absolute foreknowledge + Father Cotton, who was only too ready to betray the secrets + France was mourning Henry and waiting for Richelieu + Furious mob set upon the house of Rem Bischop + Give him advice if he asked it, and money when he required + Great war of religion and politics was postponed + Hardly a sound Protestant policy anywhere but in Holland + He was not imperial of aspect on canvas or coin + He who would have all may easily lose all + He who spreads the snare always tumbles into the ditch himself + He was a sincere bigot + He that stands let him see that he does not fall + Heidelberg Catechism were declared to be infallible + Highborn demagogues in that as in every age affect adulation + History has not too many really important and emblematic men + Human nature in its meanness and shame + I know how to console myself + I hope and I fear + If he has deserved it, let them strike off his head + Impatience is often on the part of the non-combatants + Implication there was much, of assertion very little + In this he was much behind his age or before it + Intense bigotry of conviction + International friendship, the self-interest of each + It had not yet occurred to him that he was married + It was the true religion, and there was none other + James of England, who admired, envied, and hated Henry + Jealousy, that potent principle + Jesuit Mariana--justifying the killing of excommunicated kings + John Robinson + King who thought it furious madness to resist the enemy + King's definite and final intentions, varied from day to day + Language which is ever living because it is dead + Logic is rarely the quality on which kings pride themselves + Louis XIII. + Ludicrous gravity + Magistracy at that moment seemed to mean the sword + Make the very name of man a term of reproach + Misery had come not from their being enemies + Mockery of negotiation in which nothing could be negotiated + More apprehension of fraud than of force + More fiercely opposed to each other than to Papists + Most detestable verses that even he had ever composed + Necessity of deferring to powerful sovereigns + Neither kings nor governments are apt to value logic + Never lack of fishers in troubled waters + No man pretended to think of the State + No man can be neutral in civil contentions + No synod had a right to claim Netherlanders as slaves + None but God to compel me to say more than I choose to say + Not his custom nor that of his councillors to go to bed + O God! what does man come to! + Only true religion + Opening an abyss between government and people + Opposed the subjection of the magistracy by the priesthood + Outdoing himself in dogmatism and inconsistency + Partisans wanted not accommodation but victory + Party hatred was not yet glutted with the blood it had drunk + Philip IV. + Pot-valiant hero + Power the poison of which it is so difficult to resist + Practised successfully the talent of silence + Presents of considerable sums of money to the negotiators made + Priests shall control the state or the state govern the priests + Princes show what they have in them at twenty-five or never + Puritanism in Holland was a very different thing from England + Putting the cart before the oxen + Queen is entirely in the hands of Spain and the priests + Rather a wilderness to reign over than a single heretic + Religion was made the strumpet of Political Ambition + Religious toleration, which is a phrase of insult + Resolve to maintain the civil authority over the military + Rose superior to his doom and took captivity captive + Safest citadel against an invader and a tyrant is distrust + Schism in the Church had become a public fact + Secure the prizes of war without the troubles and dangers + Seemed bent on self-destruction + Senectus edam maorbus est + She declined to be his procuress + Small matter which human folly had dilated into a great one + Smooth words, in the plentiful lack of any substantial + So much in advance of his time as to favor religious equality + Stand between hope and fear + Stroke of a broken table knife sharpened on a carriage wheel + Successful in this step, he is ready for greater ones + Tempest of passion and prejudice + That he tries to lay the fault on us is pure malice + That cynical commerce in human lives + The effect of energetic, uncompromising calumny + The evils resulting from a confederate system of government + The vehicle is often prized more than the freight + The voice of slanderers + The truth in shortest about matters of importance + The assassin, tortured and torn by four horses + The defence of the civil authority against the priesthood + The magnitude of this wonderful sovereign's littleness + The Catholic League and the Protestant Union + Their own roofs were not quite yet in a blaze + Theological hatred was in full blaze throughout the country + Theology and politics were one + There was no use in holding language of authority to him + There was but one king in Europe, Henry the Bearnese + Therefore now denounced the man whom he had injured + They have killed him, 'e ammazato,' cried Concini + Things he could tell which are too odious and dreadful + Thirty Years' War tread on the heels of the forty years + This wonderful sovereign's littleness oppresses the imagination + This, then, is the reward of forty years' service to the State + To milk, the cow as long as she would give milk + To stifle for ever the right of free enquiry + To look down upon their inferior and lost fellow creatures + Uncouple the dogs and let them run + Unimaginable outrage as the most legitimate industry + Vows of an eternal friendship of several weeks' duration + What could save the House of Austria, the cause of Papacy + Whether repentance could effect salvation + Whether dead infants were hopelessly damned + Whose mutual hatred was now artfully inflamed by partisans + William Brewster + Wise and honest a man, although he be somewhat longsome + Wish to appear learned in matters of which they are ignorant + Work of the aforesaid Puritans and a few Jesuits + Wrath of the Jesuits at this exercise of legal authority + Yes, there are wicked men about + Yesterday is the preceptor of To-morrow + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of John of Barneveld, +1614-23, Volume II., by John Lothrop Motley + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN OF BARNEVELD, II. *** + +***** This file should be named 4898.txt or 4898.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/8/9/4898/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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D.W.] + + + + + +THE LIFE AND DEATH of JOHN OF BARNEVELD, ADVOCATE OF HOLLAND + +WITH A VIEW OF THE PRIMARY CAUSES AND MOVEMENTS OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR + +By John Lothrop Motley, D.C.L., LL.D. + + + +MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Volume 98 + +Life and Death of John of Barneveld, 1614-23, Entire + + +CHAPTER XI. + + The Advocate sounds the Alarm in Germany--His Instructions to + Langerac and his Forethought--The Prince--Palatine and his Forces + take Aachen, Mulheim, and other Towns--Supineness of the + Protestants--Increased Activity of Austria and the League--Barneveld + strives to obtain Help from England--Neuburg departs for Germany-- + Barneveld the Prime Minister of Protestantism--Ernest Mansfield + takes service under Charles Emmanuel--Count John of Nassau goes to + Savoy--Slippery Conduct of King James in regard to the New Treaty + proposed--Barneveld's Influence greater in France than in England-- + Sequestration feared--The Elector of Brandenburg cited to appear + before the Emperor at Prague--Murder of John van Wely--Uytenbogaert + incurs Maurice's Displeasure--Marriage of the King of France with + Anne of Austria--Conference between King James and Caron concerning + Piracy, Cloth Trade and Treaty of Xanten--Barneveld's Survey of the + Condition of Europe--His Efforts to avert the impending general War. + +I have thus purposely sketched the leading features of a couple of +momentous, although not eventful, years--so far as the foreign policy of +the Republic is concerned--in order that the reader may better understand +the bearings and the value of the Advocate's actions and writings at that +period. This work aims at being a political study. I would attempt to +exemplify the influence of individual humours and passions--some of them +among the highest and others certainly the basest that agitate humanity- +upon the march of great events, upon general historical results at +certain epochs, and upon the destiny of eminent personages. It may also +be not uninteresting to venture a glance into the internal structure and +workings of a republican and federal system of government, then for the +first time reproduced almost spontaneously upon an extended scale. + +Perhaps the revelation of some of its defects, in spite of the faculty +and vitality struggling against them, may not be without value for our +own country and epoch. The system of Switzerland was too limited and +homely, that of Venice too purely oligarchical, to have much moral for +us now, or to render a study of their pathological phenomena especially +instructive. The lessons taught us by the history of the Netherland +confederacy may have more permanent meaning. + +Moreover, the character of a very considerable statesman at an all- +important epoch, and in a position of vast responsibility, is always an +historical possession of value to mankind. That of him who furnishes the +chief theme for these pages has been either overlooked and neglected or +perhaps misunderstood by posterity. History has not too many really +important and emblematic men on its records to dispense with the memory +of Barneveld, and the writer therefore makes no apology for dilating +somewhat fully upon his lifework by means of much of his entirely +unpublished and long forgotten utterances. + +The Advocate had ceaselessly been sounding the alarm in Germany. For the +Protestant Union, fascinated, as it were, by the threatening look of the +Catholic League, seemed relapsing into a drowse. + +"I believe," he said to one of his agents in that country, "that the +Evangelical electors and princes and the other estates are not alive to +the danger. I am sure that it is not apprehended in Great Britain. +France is threatened with troubles. These are the means to subjugate the +religion, the laws and liberties of Germany. Without an army the troops +now on foot in Italy cannot be kept out of Germany. Yet we do not hear +that the Evangelicals are making provision of troops, money, or any other +necessaries. In this country we have about one hundred places occupied +with our troops, among whom are many who could destroy a whole army. But +the maintenance of these places prevents our being very strong in the +field, especially outside our frontiers. But if in all Germany there be +many places held by the Evangelicals which would disperse a great army is +very doubtful. Keep a watchful eye. Economy is a good thing, but the +protection of a country and its inhabitants must be laid to heart. Watch +well if against these Provinces, and against Bohemia, Austria, and other +as it is pretended rebellious states, these plans are not directed. Look +out for the movements of the Italian and Bavarian troops against Germany. +You see how they are nursing the troubles and misunderstandings in +France, and turning them to account." + +He instructed the new ambassador in Paris to urge upon the French +government the absolute necessity of punctuality in furnishing the +payment of their contingent in the Netherlands according to convention. +The States of Holland themselves had advanced the money during three +years' past, but this anticipation was becoming very onerous. It was +necessary to pay the troops every month regularly, but the funds from +Paris were always in arrear. England contributed about one-half as much +in subsidy, but these moneys went in paying the garrisons of Brielle, +Flushing, and Rammekens, fortresses pledged to that crown. The +Ambassador was shrewdly told not to enlarge on the special employment of +the English funds while holding up to the Queen's government that she was +not the only potentate who helped bear burthens for the Provinces, and +insisted on a continuation of this aid. "Remember and let them +remember," said the Advocate, "that the reforms which they are pretending +to make there by relieving the subjects of contributions tends to +enervate the royal authority and dignity both within and without, to +diminish its lustre and reputation, and in sum to make the King unable +to gratify and assist his subjects, friends, and allies. Make them +understand that the taxation in these Provinces is ten times higher than +there, and that My Lords the States hitherto by the grace of God and good +administration have contrived to maintain it in order to be useful to +themselves and their friends. Take great pains to have it well +understood that this is even more honourable and more necessary for a +king of France, especially in his minority, than for a republic 'hoc +turbato seculo.' We all see clearly how some potentates in Europe are +keeping at all time under one pretext or another strong forces well armed +on a war footing. It therefore behoves his Majesty to be likewise +provided with troops, and at least with a good exchequer and all the +requirements of war, as well for the security of his own state as for +the maintenance of the grandeur and laudable reputation left to him by +the deceased king." + +Truly here was sound and substantial advice, never and nowhere more +needed than in France. It was given too with such good effect as to bear +fruit even upon stoniest ground, and it is a refreshing spectacle to see +this plain Advocate of a republic, so lately sprung into existence out of +the depths of oppression and rebellion, calmly summoning great kings as +it were before him and instructing them in those vital duties of +government in discharge of which the country he administered already +furnished a model. Had England and France each possessed a Barneveld at +that epoch, they might well have given in exchange for him a wilderness +of Epernons and Sillerys, Bouillons and Conde's; of Winwoods, Lakes, +Carrs, and Villierses. But Elizabeth with her counsellors was gone, and +Henry was gone, and Richelieu had not come; while in England James and +his minions were diligently opening an abyss between government and +people which in less than half a lifetime more should engulph the +kingdom. + +Two months later he informed the States' ambassador of the communications +made by the Prince of Conde and the Dukes of Nevers and Bouillon to +the government at the Hague now that they had effected a kind of +reconciliation with the Queen. Langerac was especially instructed to +do his best to assist in bringing about cordial relations, if that +were possible, between the crown and the rebels, and meantime he was +especially directed to defend du Maurier against the calumnious +accusations brought against him, of which Aerssens had been the +secret sower. + +"You will do your best to manage," he said, "that no special ambassador +be sent hither, and that M. du Maurier may remain with us, he being a +very intelligent and moderate person now well instructed as to the state +of our affairs, a professor of the Reformed religion, and having many +other good qualities serviceable to their Majesties and to us. + +"You will visit the Prince, and other princes and officers of the crown +who are coming to court again, and do all good offices as well for the +court as for M. du Maurier, in order that through evil plots and +slanderous reports no harm may come to him. + +"Take great pains to find out all you can there as to the designs of the +King of Spain, the Archdukes, and the Emperor, in the affair of Julich. +You are also to let it be known that the change of religion on the part +of the Prince-Palatine of Neuburg will not change our good will and +affection for him, so far as his legal claims are concerned." + +So long as it was possible for the States to retain their hold on +both the claimants, the Advocate, pursuant to his uniform policy of +moderation, was not disposed to help throw the Palatine into the hands +of the Spanish party. He was well aware, however, that Neuburg by his +marriage and his conversion was inevitably to become the instrument of +the League and to be made use of in the duchies at its pleasure, and that +he especially would be the first to submit with docility to the decree of +the Emperor. The right to issue such decree the States under guidance of +Barneveld were resolved to resist at all hazards. + +"Work diligently, nevertheless," said he, "that they permit nothing there +directly or indirectly that may tend to the furtherance of the League, as +too prejudicial to us and to all our fellow religionists. Tell them too +that the late king, the King of Great Britain, the united electors and +princes of Germany, and ourselves, have always been resolutely opposed to +making the dispute about the succession in the duchies depend on the will +of the Emperor and his court. All our movements in the year 1610 against +the attempted sequestration under Leopold were to carry out that purpose. +Hold it for certain that our present proceedings for strengthening and +maintaining the city and fortress of Julich are considered serviceable +and indispensable by the British king and the German electors and +princes. Use your best efforts to induce the French government to pursue +the same policy--if it be not possible openly, then at least secretly. +My conviction is that, unless the Prince-Palatine is supported by, and +his whole designs founded upon, the general league against all our +brethren of the religion, affairs may be appeased." + +The Envoy was likewise instructed to do his best to further the +matrimonial alliance which had begun to be discussed between the Prince +of Wales and the second daughter of France. Had it been possible at that +moment to bring the insane dream of James for a Spanish alliance to +naught, the States would have breathed more freely. He was also to urge +payment of the money for the French regiments, always in arrears since +Henry's death and Sully's dismissal, and always supplied by the exchequer +of Holland. He was informed that the Republic had been sending some war +ships to the Levant, to watch the armada recently sent thither by Spain, +and other armed vessels into the Baltic, to pursue the corsairs with whom +every sea was infested. In one year alone he estimated the loss to Dutch +merchants by these pirates at 800,000 florins. "We have just captured +two of the rovers, but the rascally scum is increasing," he said. + +Again alluding to the resistance to be made by the States to the Imperial +pretensions, he observed, "The Emperor is about sending us a herald in +the Julich matter, but we know how to stand up to him." + +And notwithstanding the bare possibility which he had admitted, that the +Prince of Neuburg might not yet have wholly sold himself, body and soul, +to the Papists, he gave warning a day or two afterwards in France that +all should be prepared for the worst. + +"The Archdukes and the Prince of Neuburg appear to be taking the war +earnestly in hand," he said. "We believe that the Papistical League is +about to make a great effort against all the co-religionists. We are +watching closely their movements. Aachen is first threatened, and the +Elector-Palatine likewise. France surely, for reasons of state, cannot +permit that they should be attacked. She did, and helped us to do, too +much in the Julich campaign to suffer the Spaniards to make themselves +masters there now." + +It has been seen that the part played by France in the memorable campaign +of 1610 was that of admiring auxiliary to the States' forces; Marshal de +la Chatre having in all things admitted the superiority of their army and +the magnificent generalship of Prince Maurice. But the government of the +Dowager had been committed by that enterprise to carry out the life-long +policy of Henry, and to maintain his firm alliance with the Republic. +Whether any of the great king's acuteness and vigour in countermining +and shattering the plans of the House of Austria was left in the French +court, time was to show. Meantime Barneveld was crying himself hoarse +with warnings into the dull ears of England and France. + +A few weeks later the Prince of Neuburg had thrown off the mask. Twelve +thousand foot and 1500 horse had been raised in great haste, so the +Advocate informed the French court, by Spain and the Archdukes, for the +use of that pretender. Five or six thousand Spaniards were coming by sea +to Flanders, and as many Italians were crossing the mountains, besides a +great number mustering for the same purpose in Germany and Lorraine. +Barneveld was constantly receiving most important intelligence of +military plans and movements from Prague, which he placed daily before +the eyes of governments wilfully blind. + +"I ponder well at this crisis," he said to his friend Caron, "the +intelligence I received some months back from Ratisbon, out of the +cabinet of the Jesuits, that the design of the Catholic or Roman League +is to bring this year a great army into the field, in order to make +Neuburg, who was even then said to be of the Roman profession and League, +master of Julich and the duchies; to execute the Imperial decree against +Aachen and Mulheim, preventing any aid from being sent into Germany by +these Provinces, or by Great Britain, and placing the Archduke and +Marquis Spinola in command of the forces; to put another army on the +frontiers of Austria, in order to prevent any succour coming from +Hungary, Bohemia, Austria, Moravia, and Silesia into Germany; to keep +all these disputed territories in subjection and devotion to the Emperor, +and to place the general conduct of all these affairs in the hands of +Archduke Leopold and other princes of the House of Austria. A third army +is to be brought into the Upper Palatinate, under command of the Duke of +Bavaria and others of the League, destined to thoroughly carry out its +designs against the Elector-Palatine, and the other electors, princes, +and estates belonging to the religion." + +This intelligence, plucked by Barneveld out of the cabinet of the +Jesuits, had been duly communicated by him months before to those whom +it most concerned, and as usual it seemed to deepen the lethargy of the +destined victims and their friends. Not only the whole Spanish campaign +of the present year had thus been duly mapped out by the Advocate, long +before it occurred, but this long buried and forgotten correspondence of +the statesman seems rather like a chronicle of transactions already past, +so closely did the actual record, which posterity came to know too well, +resemble that which he saw, and was destined only to see, in prophetic +vision. + +Could this political seer have cast his horoscope of the Thirty Years' +War at this hour of its nativity for the instruction of such men as +Walsingham or Burleigh, Henry of Navarre or Sully, Richelieu or Gustavus +Adolphus, would the course of events have been modified? These very +idlest of questions are precisely those which inevitably occur as one +ponders the seeming barrenness of an epoch in reality so pregnant. + +"One would think," said Barneveld, comparing what was then the future +with the real past, "that these plans in Prague against the Elector- +Palatine are too gross for belief; but when I reflect on the intense +bitterness of these people, when I remember what was done within living +men's memory to the good elector Hans Frederic of Saxony for exactly +the same reasons, to wit, hatred of our religion, and determination to +establish Imperial authority, I have great apprehension. I believe that +the Roman League will use the present occasion to carry out her great +design; holding France incapable of opposition to her, Germany in too +great division, and imagining to themselves that neither the King of +Great Britain nor these States are willing or able to offer effectual and +forcible resistance. Yet his Majesty of Great Britain ought to be able +to imagine how greatly the religious matter in general concerns himself +and the electoral house of the Palatine, as principal heads of the +religion, and that these vast designs should be resisted betimes, and +with all possible means and might. My Lords the States have good will, +but not sufficient strength, to oppose these great forces single-handed. +One must not believe that without great and prompt assistance in force +from his Majesty and other fellow religionists My Lords the States can +undertake so vast an affair. Do your uttermost duty there, in order +that, ere it be too late, this matter be taken to heart by his Majesty, +and that his authority and credit be earnestly used with other kings, +electors, princes, and republics, that they do likewise. The promptest +energy, good will, and affection may be reckoned on from us." + +Alas! it was easy for his Majesty to take to heart the matter of Conrad +Vorstius, to spend reams of diplomatic correspondence, to dictate whole +volumes for orations brimming over with theological wrath, for the +edification of the States-General, against that doctor of divinity. +But what were the special interests of his son-in-law, what the danger +to all the other Protestant electors and kings, princes and republics, +what the imperilled condition of the United Provinces, and, by necessary +consequence, the storm gathering over his own throne, what the whole +fate of Protestantism, from Friesland to Hungary, threatened by the +insatiable, all-devouring might of the double house of Austria, the +ancient church, and the Papistical League, what were hundred thousands of +men marching towards Bohemia, the Netherlands, and the duchies, with the +drum beating for mercenary recruits in half the villages of Spain, Italy, +and Catholic Germany, compared with the danger to Christendom from an +Arminian clergyman being appointed to the theological professorship at +Leyden? + +The world was in a blaze, kings and princes were arming, and all the time +that the monarch of the powerful, adventurous, and heroic people of Great +Britain could spare from slobbering over his minions, and wasting the +treasures of the realm to supply their insatiate greed, was devoted to +polemical divinity, in which he displayed his learning, indeed, but +changed his positions and contradicted himself day by day. The magnitude +of this wonderful sovereign's littleness oppresses the imagination. + +Moreover, should he listen to the adjurations of the States and his +fellow religionists, should he allow himself to be impressed by the +eloquence of Barneveld and take a manly and royal decision in the great +emergency, it would be indispensable for him to come before that odious +body, the Parliament of Great Britain, and ask for money. It would be +perhaps necessary for him to take them into his confidence, to degrade +himself by speaking to them of the national affairs. They might not be +satisfied with the honour of voting the supplies at his demand, but were +capable of asking questions as to their appropriation. On the whole it +was more king-like and statesman-like to remain quiet, and give advice. +Of that, although always a spendthrift, he had an inexhaustible supply. + +Barneveld had just hopes from the Commons of Great Britain, if the King +could be brought to appeal to Parliament. Once more he sounded the bugle +of alarm. "Day by day the Archdukes are making greater and greater +enrolments of riders and infantry in ever increasing mass," he cried, +"and therewith vast provision of artillery and all munitions of war. +Within ten or twelve days they will be before Julich in force. We are +sending great convoys to reinforce our army there. The Prince of Neuburg +is enrolling more and more troops every day. He will soon be master of +Mulheim. If the King of Great Britain will lay this matter earnestly to +heart for the preservation of the princes, electors, and estates of the +religion, I cannot doubt that Parliament would cooperate well with his +Majesty, and this occasion should be made use of to redress the whole +state of affairs." + +It was not the Parliament nor the people of Great Britain that would be +in fault when the question arose of paying in money and in blood for the +defence of civil and religious liberty. But if James should venture +openly to oppose Spain, what would the Count of Gondemar say, and what +would become of the Infanta and the two millions of dowry? + +It was not for want of some glimmering consciousness in the mind of James +of the impending dangers to Northern Europe and to Protestantism from the +insatiable ambition of Spain, and the unrelenting grasp of the Papacy +upon those portions of Christendom which were slipping from its control, +that his apathy to those perils was so marked. We have seen his leading +motives for inaction, and the world was long to feel its effects. + +"His Majesty firmly believes," wrote Secretary Winwood, "that the +Papistical League is brewing great and dangerous plots. To obviate them +in everything that may depend upon him, My Lords the States will find him +prompt. The source of all these entanglements comes from Spain. We do +not think that the Archduke will attack Julich this year, but rather fear +for Mulheim and Aix-la-Chapelle." + +But the Secretary of State, thus acknowledging the peril, chose to be +blind to its extent, while at the same time undervaluing the powers by +which it might be resisted. "To oppose the violence of the enemy," he +said, "if he does resort to violence, is entirely impossible. It would +be furious madness on our part to induce him to fall upon the Elector- +Palatine, for this would be attacking Great Britain and all her friends +and allies. Germany is a delicate morsel, but too much for the throat +of Spain to swallow all at once. Behold the evil which troubles the +conscience of the Papistical League. The Emperor and his brothers are +all on the brink of their sepulchre, and the Infants of Spain are too +young to succeed to the Empire. The Pope would more willingly permit its +dissolution than its falling into the hands of a prince not of his +profession. All that we have to do in this conjuncture is to attend the +best we can to our own affairs, and afterwards to strengthen the good +alliance existing among us, and not to let ourselves be separated by the +tricks and sleights of hand of our adversaries. The common cause can +reckon firmly upon the King of Great Britain, and will not find itself +deceived." + +Excellent commonplaces, but not very safe ones. Unluckily for the +allies, to attend each to his own affairs when the enemy was upon them, +and to reckon firmly upon a king who thought it furious madness to resist +the enemy, was hardly the way to avert the danger. A fortnight later, +the man who thought it possible to resist, and time to resist, before the +net was over every head, replied to the Secretary by a picture of the +Spaniards' progress. + +"Since your letter," he said, "you have seen the course of Spinola with +the army of the King and the Archdukes. You have seen the Prince- +Palatine of Neuburg with his forces maintained by the Pope and other +members of the Papistical League. On the 29th of August they forced +Aachen, where the magistrates and those of the Reformed religion have +been extremely maltreated. Twelve hundred soldiers are lodged in the +houses there of those who profess our religion. Mulheim is taken and +dismantled, and the very houses about to be torn down. Duren, Castre, +Grevenborg, Orsoy, Duisburg, Ruhrort, and many other towns, obliged to +receive Spanish garrisons. On the 4th of September they invested Wesel. +On the 6th it was held certain that the cities of Cleve, Emmerich, Rees, +and others in that quarter, had consented to be occupied. The States +have put one hundred and thirty-five companies of foot (about 14,000 men) +and 4000 horse and a good train of artillery in the field, and sent out +some ships of war. Prince Maurice left the Hague on the 4th of September +to assist Wesel, succour the Prince of Brandenburg, and oppose the +hostile proceedings of Spinola and the Palatine of Neuburg . . . . +Consider, I pray you, this state of things, and think how much heed they +have paid to the demands of the Kings of Great Britain and France to +abstain from hostilities. Be sure that without our strong garrison in +Julich they would have snapped up every city in Julich, Cleve, and Berg. +But they will now try to make use of their slippery tricks, their +progress having been arrested by our army. The Prince of Neuburg is +sending his chancellor here 'cum mediis componendae pacis,' in appearance +good and reasonable, in reality deceptive . . . . If their Majesties, +My Lords the States, and the princes of the Union, do not take an +energetic resolution for making head against their designs, behold their +League in full vigour and ours without soul. Neither the strength nor +the wealth of the States are sufficient of themselves to withstand their +ambitious and dangerous designs. We see the possessory princes treated +as enemies upon their own estates, and many thousand souls of the +Reformed religion cruelly oppressed by the Papistical League. For myself +I am confirmed in my apprehensions and believe that neither our religion +nor our Union can endure such indignities. The enemy is making use of +the minority in France and the divisions among the princes of Germany to +their great advantage . . . . I believe that the singular wisdom of +his Majesty will enable him to apply promptly the suitable remedies, and +that your Parliament will make no difficulty in acquitting itself well in +repairing those disorders." + +The year dragged on to its close. The supineness of the Protestants +deepened in direct proportion to the feverish increase of activity on the +part of Austria and the League. The mockery of negotiation in which +nothing could be negotiated, the parade of conciliation when war of +extermination was intended, continued on the part of Spain and Austria. +Barneveld was doing his best to settle all minor differences between the +States and Great Britain, that these two bulwarks of Protestantism might +stand firmly together against the rising tide. He instructed the +Ambassador to exhaust every pacific means of arrangement in regard to +the Greenland fishery disputes, the dyed cloth question, and like causes +of ill feeling. He held it more than necessary, he said, that the +inhabitants of the two countries should now be on the very best terms +with each other. Above all, he implored the King through the Ambassador +to summon Parliament in order that the kingdom might be placed in +position to face the gathering danger. + +"I am amazed and distressed," he said, "that the statesmen of England do +not comprehend the perils with which their fellow religionists are +everywhere threatened, especially in Germany and in these States. +To assist us with bare advice and sometimes with traducing our actions, +while leaving us to bear alone the burthens, costs, and dangers, is not +serviceable to us." Referring to the information and advice which he had +sent to England and to France fifteen months before, he now gave +assurance that the Prince of Neuburg and Spinola were now in such force, +both foot and cavalry, with all necessary munitions, as to hold these +most important territories as a perpetual "sedem bedli," out of which to +attack Germany at their pleasure and to cut off all possibility of aid +from England and the States. He informed the court of St. James that +besides the forces of the Emperor and the House of Austria, the Duke of +Bavaria and Spanish Italy, there were now several thousand horse and foot +under the Bishop of Wurzburg, 8000 or 9000 under the Bishop-Elector of +Mayence, and strong bodies of cavalry under Count Vaudemont in Lorraine, +all mustering for the war. The pretext seems merely to reduce Frankfurt +to obedience, even as Donauworth had previously been used as a colour for +vast designs. The real purpose was to bring the Elector-Palatine and the +whole Protestant party in Germany to submission. "His Majesty," said the +Advocate, "has now a very great and good subject upon which to convoke +Parliament and ask for a large grant. This would be doubtless consented +to if Parliament receives the assurance that the money thus accorded +shall be applied to so wholesome a purpose. You will do your best to +further this great end. We are waiting daily to hear if the Xanten +negotiation is broken off or not. I hope and I fear. Meantime we bear +as heavy burthens as if we were actually at war." + +He added once more the warning, which it would seem superfluous to repeat +even to schoolboys in diplomacy, that this Xanten treaty, as proposed by +the enemy, was a mere trap. + +Spinola and Neuburg, in case of the mutual disbanding, stood ready at an +instant's warning to re-enlist for the League not only all the troops +that the Catholic army should nominally discharge, but those which would +be let loose from the States' army and that of Brandenburg as well. They +would hold Rheinberg, Groll, Lingen, Oldenzaal, Wachtendonk, Maestricht, +Aachen, and Mulheim with a permanent force of more than 20,000 men. And +they could do all this in four days' time. + +A week or two later all his prophesies had been fulfilled. "The Prince +of Neuburg," he said, "and Marquis Spinola have made game of us most +impudently in the matter of the treaty. This is an indignity for us, +their Majesties, and the electors and princes. We regard it as +intolerable. A despatch came from Spain forbidding a further step in the +negotiation without express order from the King. The Prince and Spinola +are gone to Brussels, the ambassadors have returned to the Hague, the +armies are established in winter-quarters. The cavalry are ravaging +the debateable land and living upon the inhabitants at their discretion. +M. de Refuge is gone to complain to the Archdukes of the insult thus put +upon his sovereign. Sir Henry Wotton is still here. We have been +plunged into an immensity of extraordinary expense, and are amazed that +at this very moment England should demand money from us when we ought to +be assisted by a large subsidy by her. We hope that now at least his +Majesty will take a vigorous resolution and not suffer his grandeur and +dignity to be vilipended longer. If the Spaniard is successful in this +step, he is ready for greater ones, and will believe that mankind is +ready to bear and submit to everything. His Majesty is the first +king of the religion. He bears the title of Defender of the Faith. +His religion, his only daughter, his son-in-law, his grandson are all +especially interested besides his own dignity, besides the common weal." + +He then adverted to the large subsidies from Queen Elizabeth many years +before, guaranteed, it was true, by the cautionary towns, and to the +gallant English regiments, sent by that great sovereign, which had been +fighting so long and so splendidly in the Netherlands for the common +cause of Protestantism and liberty. Yet England was far weaker then, for +she had always her northern frontier to defend against Scotland, ever +ready to strike her in the back. "But now his Majesty," said Barneveld, +"is King of England and Scotland both. His frontier is free. Ireland is +at peace. He possesses quietly twice as much as the Queen ever did. He +is a king. Her Majesty was a woman. The King has children and heirs. +His nearest blood is engaged in this issue. His grandeur and dignity +have been wronged. Each one of these considerations demands of itself a +manly resolution. You will do your best to further it." + +The almost ubiquitous power of Spain, gaining after its exhaustion new +life through the strongly developed organization of the League, and the +energy breathed into that mighty conspiracy against human liberty by the +infinite genius of the "cabinet of Jesuits," was not content with +overshadowing Germany, the Netherlands, and England, but was threatening +Savoy with 40,000 men, determined to bring Charles Emmanuel either to +perdition or submission. + +Like England, France was spell-bound by the prospect of Spanish +marriages, which for her at least were not a chimera, and looked on +composedly while Savoy was on point of being sacrificed by the common +invader of independent nationality whether Protestant or Catholic. +Nothing ever showed more strikingly the force residing in singleness of +purpose with breadth and unity of design than all these primary movements +of the great war now beginning. The chances superficially considered +were vastly in favour of the Protestant cause. In the chief lands, under +the sceptre of the younger branch of Austria, the Protestants outnumbered +the Catholics by nearly ten to one. Bohemia, the Austrias, Moravia, +Silesia, Hungary were filled full of the spirit of Huss, of Luther, and +even of Calvin. If Spain was a unit, now that the Moors and Jews had +been expelled, and the heretics of Castille and Aragon burnt into +submission, she had a most lukewarm ally in Venice, whose policy was +never controlled by the Church, and a dangerous neighbour in the +warlike, restless, and adventurous House of Savoy, to whom geographical +considerations were ever more vital than religious scruples. A sincere +alliance of France, the very flower of whose nobility and people inclined +to the Reformed religion, was impossible, even if there had been fifty +infantes to espouse fifty daughters of France. Great Britain, the +Netherlands, and the united princes of Germany seemed a solid and serried +phalanx of Protestantism, to break through which should be hopeless. Yet +at that moment, so pregnant with a monstrous future, there was hardly a +sound Protestant policy anywhere but in Holland. How long would that +policy remain sound and united? How long would the Republic speak +through the imperial voice of Barneveld? Time was to show and to teach +many lessons. The united princes of Germany were walking, talking, +quarrelling in their sleep; England and France distracted and bedrugged, +while Maximilian of Bavaria and Ferdinand of Gratz, the cabinets of +Madrid and the Vatican, were moving forward to their aims slowly, +steadily, relentlessly as Fate. And Spain was more powerful than she +had been since the Truce began. In five years she had become much more +capable of aggression. She had strengthened her positions in the +Mediterranean by the acquisition and enlargement of considerable +fortresses in Barbary and along a large sweep of the African coast, +so as to be almost supreme in Africa. It was necessary for the States, +the only power save Turkey that could face her in those waters, to +maintain a perpetual squadron of war ships there to defend their commerce +against attack from the Spaniard and from the corsairs, both Mahometan +and Christian, who infested every sea. Spain was redoubtable everywhere, +and the Turk, engaged in Persian campaigns, was offering no diversion +against Hungary and Vienna. + +"Reasons of state worthy of his Majesty's consideration and wisdom," said +Barneveld, "forbid the King of Great Britain from permitting the Spaniard +to give the law in Italy. He is about to extort obedience and +humiliation from the Duke of Savoy, or else with 40,000 men to mortify +and ruin him, while entirely assuring himself of France by the double +marriages. Then comes the attack on these Provinces, on Protestant +Germany, and all other states and realms of the religion." + +With the turn of the year, affairs were growing darker and darker. The +League was rolling up its forces in all directions; its chiefs proposed +absurd conditions of pacification, while war was already raging, and yet +scarcely any government but that of the Netherlands paid heed to the +rising storm. James, fatuous as ever, listened to Gondemar, and wrote +admonitory letters to the Archduke. It was still gravely proposed by the +Catholic party that there should be mutual disbanding in the duchies, +with a guarantee from Marquis Spinola that there should be no more +invasion of those territories. But powers and pledges from the King of +Spain were what he needed. + +To suppose that the Republic and her allies would wait quietly, and not +lift a finger until blows were actually struck against the Protestant +electors or cities of Germany, was expecting too much ingenuousness on +the part of statesmen who had the interests of Protestantism at heart. +What they wanted was the signed, sealed, ratified treaty faithfully +carried out. Then if the King of Spain and the Archdukes were willing to +contract with the States never to make an attempt against the Holy German +Empire, but to leave everything to take its course according to the +constitutions, liberties, and traditions and laws of that empire, under +guidance of its electors, princes, estates, and cities, the United +Provinces were ready, under mediation of the two kings, their allies and +friends, to join in such an arrangement. Thus there might still be peace +in Germany, and religious equality as guaranteed by the "Majesty-Letter," +and the "Compromise" between the two great churches, Roman and Reformed, +be maintained. To bring about this result was the sincere endeavour of +Barneveld, hoping against hope. For he knew that all was hollowness and +sham on the part of the great enemy. Even as Walsingham almost alone +had suspected and denounced the delusive negotiations by which Spain +continued to deceive Elizabeth and her diplomatists until the Armada was +upon her coasts, and denounced them to ears that were deafened and souls +that were stupified by the frauds practised upon them, so did Barneveld, +who had witnessed all that stupendous trickery of a generation before, +now utter his cries of warning that Germany might escape in time from her +impending doom. + +"Nothing but deceit is lurking in the Spanish proposals," he said. +"Every man here wonders that the English government does not comprehend +these malversations. Truly the affair is not to be made straight by new +propositions, but by a vigorous resolution of his Majesty. It is in +the highest degree necessary to the salvation of Christendom, to the +conservation of his Majesty's dignity and greatness, to the service of +the princes and provinces, and of all Germany, nor can this vigorous +resolution be longer delayed without enormous disaster to the common weal +. . . . . I have the deepest affection for the cause of the Duke of +Savoy, but I cannot further it so long as I cannot tell what his Majesty +specifically is resolved to do, and what hope is held out from Venice, +Germany, and other quarters. Our taxes are prodigious, the ordinary and +extraordinary, and we have a Spanish army at our front door." + +The armaments, already so great, had been enlarged during the last month +of the year. Vaudemont was at the head of a further force of 2000 +cavalry and 8000 foot, paid for by Spain and the Pope; 24,000 additional +soldiers, riders and infantry together, had been gathered by Maximilian +of Bavaria at the expense of the League. Even if the reports were +exaggerated, the Advocate thought it better to be too credulous than +as apathetic as the rest of the Protestants. + +"We receive advices every day," he wrote to Caron, "that the Spaniards +and the Roman League are going forward with their design. They are +trying to amuse the British king and to gain time, in order to be able to +deal the heavier blows. Do all possible duty to procure a timely and +vigorous resolution there. To wait again until we are anticipated will +be fatal to the cause of the Evangelical electors and princes of Germany +and especially of his Electoral Highness of Brandenburg. We likewise +should almost certainly suffer irreparable damage, and should again bear +our cross, as men said last year in regard to Aachen, Wesel, and so many +other places. The Spaniard is sly, and has had a long time to contrive +how he can throw the net over the heads of all our religious allies. +Remember all the warnings sent from here last year, and how they were +all tossed to the winds, to the ruin of so many of our co-religionists. +If it is now intended over there to keep the Spaniards in check merely by +speeches or letters, it would be better to say so clearly to our friends. +So long as Parliament is not convoked in order to obtain consents and +subsidies for this most necessary purpose, so long I fail to believe that +this great common cause of Christendom, and especially of Germany, is +taken to heart by England." + +He adverted with respectfully subdued scorn to King James's proposition +that Spinola should give a guarantee. "I doubt if he accepts the +suggestion," said Barneveld, "unless as a notorious trick, and if he did, +what good would the promise of Spinola do us? We consider Spinola a +great commander having the purses and forces of the Spaniards and the +Leaguers in his control; but should they come into other hands, he would +not be a very considerable personage for us. And that may happen any +day. They don't seem in England to understand the difference between +Prince Maurice in his relations to our state and that of Marquis Spinola +to his superiors. Try to make them comprehend it. A promise from +the Emperor, King of Spain, and the princes of the League, such as +his Majesty in his wisdom has proposed to Spinola, would be most +tranquillizing for all the Protestant princes and estates of the Empire, +especially for the Elector and Electress Palatine, and for ourselves. +In such a case no difficulty would be made on our side." + +After expressing his mind thus freely in regard to James and his policy, +he then gave the Ambassador a word of caution in characteristic fashion. +"Cogita," he said, "but beware of censuring his Majesty's projects. I do +not myself mean to censure them, nor are they publicly laughed at here, +but look closely at everything that comes from Brussels, and let me know +with diligence." + +And even as the Advocate was endeavouring with every effort of his skill +and reason to stir the sluggish James into vigorous resolution in behalf +of his own children, as well as of the great cause of Protestantism and +national liberty, so was he striving to bear up on his strenuous +shoulders the youthful king of France, and save him from the swollen +tides of court intrigue and Jesuitical influence fast sweeping him to +destruction. + +He had denounced the recent and paltry proposition made on the part of +the League, and originally suggested by James, as a most open and +transparent trap, into which none but the blind would thrust themselves. +The Treaty of Xanten, carried out as it had been signed and guaranteed by +the great Catholic powers, would have brought peace to Christendom. To +accept in place of such guarantee the pledge of a simple soldier, who +to-morrow might be nothing, was almost too ridiculous a proposal to be +answered gravely. Yet Barneveld through the machinations of the Catholic +party was denounced both at the English and French courts as an obstacle +to peace, when in reality his powerful mind and his immense industry were +steadily directed to the noblest possible end--to bring about a solemn +engagement on the part of Spain, the Emperor, and the princes of the +League, to attack none of the Protestant powers of Germany, especially +the Elector-Palatine, but to leave the laws, liberties, and privileges of +the States within the Empire in their original condition. And among +those laws were the great statutes of 1609 and 1610, the "Majesty-Letter" +and the "Compromise," granting full right of religious worship to the +Protestants of the Kingdom of Bohemia. If ever a policy deserved to be +called truly liberal and truly conservative, it was the policy thus +steadily maintained by Barneveld. + +Adverting to the subterfuge by which the Catholic party had sought +to set aside the treaty of Xanten, he instructed Langerac, the States' +ambassador in Paris, and his own pupils to make it clear to the French +government that it was impossible that in such arrangements the Spanish +armies would not be back again in the duchies at a moment's notice. +It could not be imagined even that they were acting sincerely. + +"If their upright intention," he said, "is that no actual, hostile, +violent attack shall be made upon the duchies, or upon any of the +princes, estates, or cities of the Holy Empire, as is required for the +peace and tranquillity of Christendom, and if all the powers interested +therein will come into a good and solid convention to that effect. My +Lords the States will gladly join in such undertaking and bind themselves +as firmly as the other powers. If no infraction of the laws and +liberties of the Holy Empire be attempted, there will be peace for +Germany and its neighbours. But the present extravagant proposition can +only lead to chicane and quarrels. To press such a measure is merely to +inflict a disgrace upon us. It is an attempt to prevent us from helping +the Elector-Palatine and the other Protestant princes of Germany and +coreligionists everywhere against hostile violence. For the Elector- +Palatine can receive aid from us and from Great Britain through the +duchies only. It is plainly the object of the enemy to seclude us from +the Palatine and the rest of Protestant Germany. It is very suspicious +that the proposition of Prince Maurice, supported by the two kings and +the united princes of Germany, has been rejected." + +The Advocate knew well enough that the religious franchises granted by +the House of Habsburg at the very moment in which Spain signed her peace +with the Netherlands, and exactly as the mad duke of Cleve was expiring +--with a dozen princes, Catholic and Protestant, to dispute his +inheritance--would be valuable just so long as they could be maintained +by the united forces of Protestantism and of national independence and no +longer. What had been extorted from the Catholic powers by force would +be retracted by force whenever that force could be concentrated. It had +been necessary for the Republic to accept a twelve years' truce with +Spain in default of a peace, while the death of John of Cleve, and +subsequently of Henry IV., had made the acquisition of a permanent +pacification between Catholicism and Protestantism, between the League +and the Union, more difficult than ever. The so-called Thirty Years' +War--rather to be called the concluding portion of the Eighty Years' War +--had opened in the debateable duchies exactly at the moment when its +forerunner, the forty years' war of the Netherlands, had been temporarily +and nominally suspended. Barneveld was perpetually baffled in his +efforts to obtain a favourable peace for Protestant Europe, less by the +open diplomacy and military force of the avowed enemies of Protestantism +than by the secret intrigues and faintheartedness of its nominal friends. +He was unwearied in his efforts simultaneously to arouse the courts of +England and France to the danger to Europe from the overshadowing power +of the House of Austria and the League, and he had less difficulty in +dealing with the Catholic Lewis and his mother than with Protestant +James. At the present moment his great designs were not yet openly +traversed by a strong Protestant party within the very republic which he +administered. + +"Look to it with earnestness and grave deliberation," he said to +Langerac, "that they do not pursue us there with vain importunity to +accept something so notoriously inadmissible and detrimental to the +common weal. We know that from the enemy's side every kind of +unseemly trick is employed, with the single object of bringing about +misunderstanding between us and the King of France. A prompt and +vigorous resolution on the part of his Majesty, to see the treaty which +we made duly executed, would be to help the cause. Otherwise, not. We +cannot here believe that his Majesty, in this first year of his majority, +will submit to such a notorious and flagrant affront, or that he will +tolerate the oppression of the Duke of Savoy. Such an affair in the +beginning of his Majesty's reign cannot but have very great and +prejudicial consequences, nor can it be left to linger on in uncertainty +and delay. Let him be prompt in this. Let him also take a most +Christian--kingly, vigorous resolution against the great affront put upon +him in the failure to carry out the treaty. Such a resolve on the part +of the two kings would restore all things to tranquillity and bring the +Spaniard and his adherents 'in terminos modestiae. But so long as France +is keeping a suspicious eye upon England, and England upon France, +everything will run to combustion, detrimental to their Majesties and to +us, and ruinous to all the good inhabitants." + +To the Treaty of Xanten faithfully executed he held as to an anchor in +the tempest until it was torn away, not by violence from without, but by +insidious mutiny within. At last the government of James proposed that +the pledges on leaving the territory should be made to the two allied +kings as mediators and umpires. This was better than the naked promises +originally suggested, but even in this there was neither heartiness nor +sincerity. Meantime the Prince of Neuburg, negotiations being broken +off, departed for Germany, a step which the Advocate considered ominous. +Soon afterwards that prince received a yearly pension of 24,000 crowns +from Spain, and for this stipend his claims on the sovereignty of the +duchies were supposed to be surrendered. + +"If this be true," said Barneveld, "we have been served with covered +dishes." + +The King of England wrote spirited and learned letters to the Elector- +Palatine, assuring him of his father-in-law's assistance in case he +should be attacked by the League. Sir Henry Wotton, then on special +mission at the Hague, showed these epistles to Barneveld. + +"When I hear that Parliament has been assembled and has granted great +subsidies," was the Advocate's comment, "I shall believe that effects may +possibly follow from all these assurances." + +It was wearisome for the Advocate thus ever to be foiled; by the +pettinesses and jealousies of those occupying the highest earthly +places, in his efforts to stem the rising tide of Spanish and Catholic +aggression, and to avert the outbreak of a devastating war to which he +saw Europe doomed. It may be wearisome to read the record. Yet it is +the chronicle of Christendom during one of the most important and fateful +epochs of modern history. No man can thoroughly understand the +complication and precession of phenomena attending the disastrous dawn of +the renewed war, on an even more awful scale than the original conflict +in the Netherlands, without studying the correspondence of Barneveld. +The history of Europe is there. The fate of Christendom is there. +The conflict of elements, the crash of contending forms of religion and +of nationalities, is pictured there in vivid if homely colours. The +Advocate, while acting only in the name of a slender confederacy, was +in truth, so long as he held his place, the prime minister of European +Protestantism. There was none other to rival him, few to comprehend him, +fewer still to sustain him. As Prince Maurice was at that moment the +great soldier of Protestantism without clearly scanning the grandeur of +the field in which he was a chief actor, or foreseeing the vastness of +its future, so the Advocate was its statesman and its prophet. Could the +two have worked together as harmoniously as they had done at an earlier +day, it would have been a blessing for the common weal of Europe. But, +alas! the evil genius of jealousy, which so often forbids cordial +relations between soldier and statesman, already stood shrouded in the +distance, darkly menacing the strenuous patriot, who was wearing his life +out in exertions for what he deemed the true cause of progress and +humanity. + +Nor can the fate of the man himself, his genuine character, and the +extraordinary personal events towards which he was slowly advancing, +be accurately unfolded without an attempt by means of his letters to lay +bare his inmost thoughts. Especially it will be seen at a later moment +how much value was attached to this secret correspondence with the +ambassadors in London and Paris. + +The Advocate trusted to the support of France, Papal and Medicean as the +court of the young king was, because the Protestant party throughout the +kingdom was too powerful, warlike, and numerous to be trifled with, and +because geographical considerations alone rendered a cordial alliance +between Spain and France very difficult. Notwithstanding the Spanish +marriages, which he opposed so long as opposition was possible, he knew +that so long as a statesman remained in the kingdom, or a bone for one +existed, the international policy of Henry, of Sully, and of Jeannin +could not be wholly abandoned. + +He relied much on Villeroy, a political hack certainly, an ancient +Leaguer, and a Papist, but a man too cool, experienced, and wily to be +ignorant of the very hornbook of diplomacy, or open to the shallow +stratagems by which Spain found it so easy to purchase or to deceive. So +long as he had a voice in the council, it was certain that the Netherland +alliance would not be abandoned, nor the Duke of Savoy crushed. The old +secretary of state was not especially in favour at that moment, but +Barneveld could not doubt his permanent place in French affairs until +some man of real power should arise there. It was a dreary period of +barrenness and disintegration in that kingdom while France was mourning +Henry and waiting for Richelieu. + +The Dutch ambassador at Paris was instructed accordingly to maintain. +good relations with Villeroy, who in Barneveld's opinion had been a +constant and sincere friend to the Netherlands. "Don't forget to caress +the old gentleman you wot of," said the Advocate frequently, but +suppressing his name, "without troubling yourself with the reasons +mentioned in your letter. I am firmly convinced that he will overcome +all difficulties. Don't believe either that France will let the Duke of +Savoy be ruined. It is against every reason of State." Yet there were +few to help Charles Emmanuel in this Montferrat war, which was destined +to drag feebly on, with certain interludes of negotiations, for two years +longer. The already notorious condottiere Ernest Mansfeld, natural son +of old prince Peter Ernest, who played so long and so high a part in +command of the Spanish armies in the Netherlands, had, to be sure, taken +service under the Duke. Thenceforth he was to be a leader and a master +in that wild business of plunder, burning, blackmailing, and murder, +which was opening upon Europe, and was to afford occupation for many +thousands of adventurers of high and low degree. + +Mansfeld, reckless and profligate, had already changed his banner more +than once. Commanding a company under Leopold in the duchies, he had +been captured by the forces of the Union, and, after waiting in vain to +be ransomed by the Archduke, had gone secretly over to the enemy. Thus +recovering his liberty, he had enlisted a regiment under Leopold's name +to fight the Union, and had then, according to contract, transferred +himself and most of his adventurers to the flag of the Union. The +military operations fading away in the duchies without being succeeded by +permanent peace, the Count, as he was called, with no particular claim to +such title, had accepted a thousand florins a year as retainer from the +Union and had found occupation under Charles Emmanuel. Here the Spanish +soldier of a year or two before found much satisfaction and some profit +in fighting Spanish soldiers. He was destined to reappear in the +Netherlands, in France, in Bohemia, in many places where there were +villages to be burned, churches to be plundered, cities to be sacked, +nuns and other women to be outraged, dangerous political intrigues to +be managed. A man in the prime of his age, fair-haired, prematurely +wrinkled, battered, and hideous of visage, with a hare-lip and a +humpback; slovenly of dress, and always wearing an old grey hat without a +band to it; audacious, cruel, crafty, and licentious--such was Ernest +Mansfeld, whom some of his contemporaries spoke of as Ulysses Germanicus, +others as the new Attila, all as a scourge to the human race. The +cockneys of Paris called him "Machefer," and nurses long kept children +quiet by threatening them with that word. He was now enrolled on the +Protestant side, although at the moment serving Savoy against Spain in a +question purely personal. His armies, whether in Italy or in Germany, +were a miscellaneous collection of adventurers of high and low degree, of +all religions, of all countries, unfrocked priests and students, ruined +nobles, bankrupt citizens, street vagabonds--earliest type perhaps of the +horrible military vermin which were destined to feed so many years long +on the unfortunate dismembered carcass of Germany. + +Many demands had been made upon the States for assistance to Savoy,--as +if they and they alone were to bear the brunt and pay the expense of all +the initiatory campaigns against Spain. + +"We are much importuned," said the Advocate, "to do something for the +help of Savoy . . . . We wish and we implore that France, Great +Britain, the German princes, the Venetians, and the Swiss would join us +in some scheme of effective assistance. But we have enough on our +shoulders at this moment." + +They had hardly money enough in their exchequer, admirably ordered as it +was, for enterprises so far from home when great Spanish armies were +permanently encamped on their border. + +Partly to humour King James and partly from love of adventure, Count John +of Nassau had gone to Savoy at the head of a small well disciplined body +of troops furnished by the States. + +"Make use of this piece of news," said Barneveld, communicating the fact +to Langerac, "opportunely and with discretion. Besides the wish to +give some contentment to the King of Great Britain, we consider it +inconsistent with good conscience and reasons of state to refuse help to +a great prince against oppression by those who mean to give the law to +everybody; especially as we have been so earnestly and frequently +importuned to do so." + +And still the Spaniards and the League kept their hold on the duchies, +while their forces, their munitions, their accumulation of funds waged +hourly. The war of chicane was even more deadly than an actual campaign, +for when there was no positive fighting the whole world seemed against +the Republic. And the chicane was colossal. + +"We cannot understand," said Barneveld, "why M. de Prevaulx is coming +here on special mission. When a treaty is signed and sealed, it only +remains to execute it. The Archduke says he is himself not known in the +treaty, and that nothing can be demanded of him in relation to it. This +he says in his letters to the King of Great Britain. M. de Refuge knows +best whether or not Marquis Spinola, Ottavio Visconti, Chancellor +Pecquius, and others, were employed in the negotiation by the Archduke. +We know very well here that the whole business was conducted by them. +The Archduke is willing to give a clean and sincere promise not to re- +occupy, and asks the same from the States. If he were empowered by the +Emperor, the King of Spain, and the League, and acted in such quality, +something might be done for the tranquillity of Germany. But he promises +for himself only, and Emperor, King, or League, may send any general to +do what they like to-morrow. What is to prevent it? + +"And so My Lords the States, the Elector of Brandenburg, and others +interested are cheated and made fools of. And we are as much troubled by +these tricks as by armed force. Yes, more; for we know that great +enterprises are preparing this year against Germany and ourselves, that +all Neuburg's troops have been disbanded and re-enlisted under the +Spanish commanders, and that forces are levying not only in Italy and +Spain, but in Germany, Lorraine, Luxemburg, and Upper Burgundy, and that +Wesel has been stuffed full of gunpowder and other munitions, and very +strongly fortified." + +For the States to agree to a treaty by which the disputed duchies should +be held jointly by the Princes of Neuburg and of Brandenburg, and the +territory be evacuated by all foreign troops; to look quietly on while +Neuburg converted himself to Catholicism, espoused the sister of +Maximilian of Bavaria, took a pension from Spain, resigned his claims in +favour of Spain, and transferred his army to Spain; and to expect that +Brandenburg and all interested in Brandenburg, that is to say, every +Protestant in Europe, should feel perfectly easy under such arrangement +and perfectly protected by the simple promise of a soldier of fortune +against Catholic aggression, was a fantastic folly hardly worthy of a +child. Yet the States were asked to accept this position, Brandenburg +and all Protestant Germany were asked to accept it, and Barneveld was +howled at by his allies as a marplot and mischief-maker, and denounced +and insulted by diplomatists daily, because he mercilessly tore away the +sophistries of the League and of the League's secret friend, James +Stuart. + +The King of Spain had more than 100,000 men under arms, and was enlisting +more soldiers everywhere and every day, had just deposited 4,000,000 +crowns with his Antwerp bankers for a secret purpose, and all the time +was exuberant in his assurances of peace. One would have thought that +there had never been negotiations in Bourbourg, that the Spanish Armada +had never sailed from Coruna. + +"You are wise and prudent in France," said the Advocate, "but we are used +to Spanish proceedings, and from much disaster sustained are filled with +distrust. The King of England seems now to wish that the Archduke should +draw up a document according to his good pleasure, and that the States +should make an explanatory deed, which the King should sign also and ask +the King of France to do the same. But this is very hazardous. + +"We do not mean to receive laws from the King of Spain, nor the Archduke +. . . . The Spanish proceedings do not indicate peace but war. +One must not take it ill of us that we think these matters of grave +importance to our friends and ourselves. Affairs have changed very much +in the last four months. The murder of the first vizier of the Turkish +emperor and his designs against Persia leave the Spanish king and the +Emperor free from attack in that quarter, and their armaments are far +greater than last year . . . . I cannot understand why the treaty of +Xanten, formerly so highly applauded, should now be so much disapproved. +. . . The King of Spain and the Emperor with their party have a vast +design to give the law to all Christendom, to choose a Roman king +according to their will, to reduce the Evangelical electors, princes, +and estates of Germany to obedience, to subject all Italy, and, having +accomplished this, to proceed to triumph over us and our allies, and by +necessary consequence over France and England. They say they have +established the Emperor's authority by means of Aachen and Mulheim, +will soon have driven us out of Julich, and have thus arranged matters +entirely to their heart's content. They can then, in name of the +Emperor, the League, the Prince of Neuburg, or any one else, make +themselves in eight days masters of the places which they are now +imaginarily to leave as well as of those which we are actually to +surrender, and by possession of which we could hold out a long time +against all their power." + +Those very places held by the States--Julich, Emmerich, and others--had +recently been fortified at much expense, under the superintendence of +Prince Maurice, and by advice of the Advocate. It would certainly be an +act of madness to surrender them on the terms proposed. These warnings +and forebodings of Barneveld sound in our ears like recorded history, +yet they were far earlier than the actual facts. And now to please the +English king, the States had listened to his suggestion that his name +and that of the King of France should be signed as mediators to a new +arrangement proposed in lieu of the Xanten treaty. James had suggested +this, Lewis had agreed to it. Yet before the ink had dried in James's +pen, he was proposing that the names of the mediating sovereigns should +be omitted from the document? And why? Because Gondemar was again +whispering in his ear. "They are renewing the negotiations in England," +said the Advocate, "about the alliance between the Prince of Wales and +the second daughter of Spain; and the King of Great Britain is seriously +importuning us that the Archdukes and My Lords the States should make +their pledges 'impersonaliter' and not to the kings." James was also +willing that the name of the Emperor should appear upon it. To prevent +this, Barneveld would have had himself burned at the stake. It would be +an ignominious and unconditional surrender of the whole cause. + +"The Archduke will never be contented," said the Advocate, "unless his +Majesty of Great Britain takes a royal resolution to bring him to reason. +That he tries to lay the fault on us is pure malice. We have been ready +and are still ready to execute the treaty of Xanten. The Archduke is the +cause of the dispute concerning the act. We approved the formularies of +their Majesties, and have changed them three times to suit the King of +Great Britain. Our Provincial States have been notified in the matter, +so that we can no longer digest the Spanish impudence, and are amazed +that his Majesty can listen any more to the Spanish ministers. We fear +that those ministers are working through many hands, in order by one +means or another to excite quarrels between his Majesty, us, and the +respective inhabitants of the two countries . . . . . Take every +precaution that no attempt be made there to bring the name of the +Emperor into the act. This would be contrary to their Majesties' first +resolution, very prejudicial to the Elector of Brandenburg, to the +duchies, and to ourselves. And it is indispensable that the promise be +made to the two kings as mediators, as much for their reputation and +dignity as for the interests of the Elector, the territories, and +ourselves. Otherwise too the Spaniards will triumph over us as +if they had driven us by force of arms into this promise." + +The seat of war, at the opening of the apparently inevitable conflict +between the Catholic League and the Protestant Union, would be those +debateable duchies, those border provinces, the possession of which was +of such vital importance to each of the great contending parties, and +the populations of which, although much divided, were on the whole more +inclined to the League than to the Union. It was natural enough that the +Dutch statesman should chafe at the possibility of their being lost to +the Union through the adroitness of the Catholic managers and the +supineness of the great allies of the Republic. + +Three weeks later than these last utterances of the Advocate, he was +given to understand that King James was preparing to slide away from the +position which had been three times changed to make it suitable for him. +His indignation was hot. + +"Sir Henry Wotton," he said, "has communicated to me his last despatches +from Newmarket. I am in the highest degree amazed that after all our +efforts at accommodation, with so much sacrifice to the electors, the +provinces, and ourselves, they are trying to urge us there to consent +that the promise be not made to the Kings of France and Great Britain as +mediators, although the proposition came from the Spanish side. After we +had renounced, by desire of his Majesty, the right to refer the promise +to the Treaty of Xanten, it was judged by both kings to be needful and +substantial that the promise be made to their Majesties. To change this +now would be prejudicial to the kings, to the electors, the duchies, and +to our commonwealth; to do us a wrong and to leave us naked. France +maintains her position as becoming and necessary. That Great Britain +should swerve from it is not to be digested here. You will do your +utmost according to my previous instructions to prevent any pressure to +this end. You will also see that the name of the Emperor is mentioned +neither in the preamble nor the articles of the treaty. It would be +contrary to all our policy since 1610. You may be firmly convinced that +malice is lurking under the Emperor's name, and that he and the King of +Spain and their adherents, now as before, are attempting a sequestration. +This is simply a pretext to bring those principalities and provinces into +the hands of the Spaniards, for which they have been labouring these +thirty years. We are constantly cheated by these Spanish tricks. Their +intention is to hold Wesel and all the other places until the conclusion +of the Italian affair, and then to strike a great blow." + +Certainly were never words more full of sound statesmanship, and of +prophecy too soon to be fulfilled, than these simple but pregnant +warnings. They awakened but little response from the English government +save cavils and teasing reminders that Wesel had been the cradle of +German Calvinism, the Rhenish Geneva, and that it was sinful to leave +it longer in the hands of Spain. As if the Advocate had not proved to +demonstration that to stock hands for a new deal at that moment was to +give up the game altogether. + +His influence in France was always greater than in England, and this had +likewise been the case with William the Silent. And even now that the +Spanish matrimonial alliance was almost a settled matter at the French +court, while with the English king it was but a perpetual will-o'the-wisp +conducting to quagmires ineffable, the government at Paris sustained the +policy of the Advocate with tolerable fidelity, while it was constantly +and most capriciously traversed by James. + +Barneveld sighed over these approaching nuptials, but did not yet +despair. "We hope that the Spanish-French marriages," he said, "may be +broken up of themselves; but we fear that if we should attempt to delay +or prevent them authoritatively, or in conjunction with others, the +effort would have the contrary effect." + +In this certainly he was doomed to disappointment. + +He had already notified the French court of the absolute necessity of the +great points to be insisted upon in the treaty, and there he found more +docility than in London or Newmarket. + +All summer he was occupied with this most important matter, uttering +Cassandra-like warnings into ears wilfully deaf. The States had gone as +far as possible in concession. To go farther would be to wreck the great +cause upon the very quicksands which he had so ceaselessly pointed out. +"We hope that nothing further will be asked of us, no scruples be felt as +to our good intentions," he said, "and that if Spain and the Archdukes +are not ready now to fulfil the treaty, their Majesties will know how to +resent this trifling with their authority and dignity, and how to set +matters to rights with their own hands in the duchies. A new treaty, +still less a sequestration, is not to be thought of for a moment." + +Yet the month of August came and still the names of the mediating kings +were not on the treaty, and still the spectre of sequestration had not +been laid. On the contrary, the peace of Asti, huddled up between +Spain and Savoy, to be soon broken again, had caused new and painful +apprehensions of an attempt at sequestration, for it was established by +several articles in that treaty that all questions between Savoy and +Mantua should be referred to the Emperor's decision. This precedent was +sure to be followed in the duchies if not resisted by force, as it had +been so successfully resisted five years before by the armies of the +States associated with those of France. Moreover the first step at +sequestration had been actually taken. The Emperor had peremptorily +summoned the Elector of Brandenburg and all other parties interested to +appear before him on the 1st of August in Prague. There could be but one +object in this citation, to drive Brandenburg and the States out of the +duchies until the Imperial decision as to the legitimate sovereignty +should be given. Neuburg being already disposed of and his claims ceded +to the Emperor, what possibility was there in such circumstances of +saving one scrap of the territory from the clutch of the League? None +certainly if the Republic faltered in its determination, and yielded to +the cowardly advice of James. "To comply with the summons," said +Barneveld, "and submit to its consequences will be an irreparable injury +to the electoral house of Brandenburg, to the duchies, and to our co- +religionists everywhere, and a very great disgrace to both their +Majesties and to us." + +He continued, through the ambassador in London, to hold up to the King, +in respectful but plain language, the shamelessness of his conduct in +dispensing the enemy from his pledge to the mediators, when the Republic +expressly, in deference to James, had given up the ampler guarantees of +the treaty. The arrangement had been solemnly made, and consented to by +all the provinces, acting in their separate and sovereign capacity. Such +a radical change, even if it were otherwise permissible, could not be +made without long debates, consultations, and votes by the several +states. What could be more fatal at such a crisis than this childish +and causeless delay. There could be no doubt in any statesman's eyes +that the Spanish party meant war and a preparatory hoodwinking. And it +was even worse for the government of the Republic to be outwitted in +diplomacy than beaten in the field. + +"Every man here," said the Advocate, "has more apprehension of fraud than +of force. According to the constitution of our state, to be overcome by +superior power must be endured, but to be overreached by trickery is a +reproach to the government." + +The summer passed away. The States maintained their positions in the +duchies, notwithstanding the objurgations of James, and Barneveld +remained on his watch-tower observing every movement of the fast- +approaching war, and refusing at the price of the whole territory in +dispute to rescue Wesel and Aix-la-Chapelle from the grasp of the League. + +Caron came to the Hague to have personal consultations with the States- +General, the Advocate, and Prince Maurice, and returned before the close +of the year. He had an audience of the King at the palace of Whitehall +early in November, and found him as immovable as ever in his apathetic +attitude in regard to the affairs of Germany. The murder of Sir Thomas +Overbury and the obscene scandals concerning the King's beloved Carr and +his notorious bride were then occupying the whole attention of the +monarch, so that he had not even time for theological lucubrations, still +less for affairs of state on which the peace of Christendom and the fate +of his own children were hanging. + +The Ambassador found him sulky and dictatorial, but insisted on +expressing once more to him the apprehensions felt by the States-General +in regard to the trickery of the Spanish party in the matter of Cleve and +Julich. He assured his Majesty that they had no intention of maintaining +the Treaty of Xanten, and respectfully requested that the King would no +longer urge the States to surrender the places held by them. It was a +matter of vital importance to retain them, he said. + +"Sir Henry Wotton told me," replied James, "that the States at his +arrival were assembled to deliberate on this matter, and he had no doubt +that they would take a resolution in conformity with my intention. Now I +see very well that you don't mean to give up the places. If I had known +that before, I should not have warned the Archduke so many times, which I +did at the desire of the States themselves. And now that the Archdukes +are ready to restore their cities, you insist on holding yours. That is +the dish you set before me." + +And upon this James swore a mighty oath, and beat himself upon the +breast. + +"Now and nevermore will I trouble myself about the States' affairs, come +what come will," he continued. "I have always been upright in my words +and my deeds, and I am not going to embark myself in a wicked war because +the States have plunged themselves into one so entirely unjust. Next +summer the Spaniard means to divide himself into two or three armies in +order to begin his enterprises in Germany." + +Caron respectfully intimated that these enterprises would be most +conveniently carried on from the very advantageous positions which be +occupied in the duchies. "No," said the King, "he must restore them on +the same day on which you make your surrender, and he will hardly come +back in a hurry." + +"Quite the contrary," said the Ambassador, "they will be back again in a +twinkling, and before we have the slightest warning of their intention." + +But it signified not the least what Caron said. The King continued to +vociferate that the States had never had any intention of restoring the +cities. + +"You mean to keep them for yourselves," he cried, "which is the greatest +injustice that could be perpetrated. You have no right to them, and they +belong to other people." + +The Ambassador reminded him that the Elector of Brandenburg was well +satisfied that they should be occupied by the States for his greater +security and until the dispute should be concluded. + +"And that will never be," said James; "never, never. The States are +powerful enough to carry on the war all alone and against all the world." + +And so he went on, furiously reiterating the words with which he had +begun the conversation, "without accepting any reasons whatever in +payment," as poor Caron observed. + +"It makes me very sad," said the Ambassador, "to find your Majesty so +impatient and so resolved. If the names of the kings are to be omitted +from the document, the Treaty of Xanten should at least be modified +accordingly." + +"Nothing of the kind," said James; "I don't understand it so at all. I +speak plainly and without equivocation. It must be enough for the States +that I promise them, in case the enemy is cheating or is trying to play +any trick whatever, or is seeking to break the Treaty of Xanten in a +single point, to come to their assistance in person." + +And again the warlike James swore a big oath and smote his breast, +affirming that he meant everything sincerely; that he cheated no one, +but always spoke his thoughts right on, clearly and uprightly. + +It was certainly not a cheerful prospect for the States. Their chief +ally was determined that they should disarm, should strip themselves +naked, when the mightiest conspiracy against the religious freedom and +international independence of Europe ever imagined was perfecting itself +before their eyes, and when hostile armies, more numerous than ever +before known, were at their very door. To wait until the enemy was at +their throat, and then to rely upon a king who trembled at the sight of a +drawn sword, was hardly the highest statesmanship. Even if it had been +the chivalrous Henry instead of the pacific James that had held out the +promise of help, they would have been mad to follow such counsel. + +The conversation lasted more than an hour. It was in vain that Caron +painted in dark colours the cruel deeds done by the Spaniards in Mulheim +and Aachen, and the proceedings of the Archbishop of Cologne in Rees. +The King was besotted, and no impression could be made upon him. + +"At any rate," said the Envoy, "the arrangement cannot be concluded +without the King of France." + +"What excuse is that?" said James. "Now that the King is entirely +Spanish, you are trying to excuse your delays by referring to him. +You have deferred rescuing the poor city of Wesel from the hands of the +Spaniard long enough. I am amazed to have heard never a word from you +on that subject since your departure. I had expressed my wish to you +clearly enough that you should inform the States of my intention to give +them any assurance they chose to demand." + +Caron was much disappointed at the humour of his Majesty. Coming freshly +as he did from the council of the States, and almost from the seat of +war, he had hoped to convince and content him. But the King was very +angry with the States for putting him so completely in the wrong. He had +also been much annoyed at their having failed to notify him of their +military demonstration in the Electorate of Cologne to avenge the +cruelties practised upon the Protestants there. He asked Caron if he was +instructed to give him information regarding it. Being answered in the +negative, he said he had thought himself of sufficient importance to the +States and enough in their confidence to be apprised of their military +movements. It was for this, he said, that his ambassador sat in their +council. Caron expressed the opinion that warlike enterprises of the +kind should be kept as secret as possible in order to be successful. +This the King disputed, and loudly declared his vexation at being left in +ignorance of the matter. The Ambassador excused himself as well as he +could, on the ground that he had been in Zealand when the troops were +marching, but told the King his impression that they had been sent to +chastise the people of Cologne for their cruelty in burning and utterly +destroying the city of Mulheim. + +"That is none of your affair," said the King. + +"Pardon me, your Majesty," replied Caron, "they are our fellow +religionists, and some one at least ought to resent the cruelty +practised upon them." + +The King admitted that the destruction of the city had been an unheard-- +of cruelty, and then passed on to speak of the quarrel between the Duke +and City of Brunswick, and other matters. The interview ended, and the +Ambassador, very downhearted, went to confer with the Secretary of State +Sir Ralph Winwood, and Sir Henry Wotton. + +He assured these gentlemen that without fully consulting the French +government these radical changes in the negotiations would never be +consented to by the States. Winwood promised to confer at once with the +French ambassador, admitting it to be impossible for the King to take up +this matter alone. He would also talk with the Archduke's ambassador +next day noon at dinner, who was about leaving for Brussels, and "he +would put something into his hand that he might take home with him." + +"When he is fairly gone," said Caron, "it is to be hoped that the King's +head will no longer be so muddled about these things. I wish it with all +my heart." + +It was a dismal prospect for the States. The one ally on whom they had +a right to depend, the ex-Calvinist and royal Defender of the Faith, in +this mortal combat of Protestantism with the League, was slipping out of +their grasp with distracting lubricity. On the other hand, the Most +Christian King, a boy of fourteen years, was still in the control of a +mother heart and soul with the League--so far as she had heart or soul-- +was betrothed to the daughter of Spain, and saw his kingdom torn to +pieces and almost literally divided among themselves by rebellious +princes, who made use of the Spanish marriages as a pretext for unceasing +civil war. + +The Queen-Mother was at that moment at Bordeaux, and an emissary from the +princes was in London. James had sent to offer his mediation between +them and the Queen. He was fond of mediation. He considered it his +special mission in the world to mediate. He imagined himself as looked +up to by the nations as the great arbitrator of Christendom, and was wont +to issue his decrees as if binding in force and infallible by nature. He +had protested vigorously against the Spanish-French marriages, and +declared that the princes were justified in formalizing an opposition to +them, at least until affairs in France were restored to something like +order. He warned the Queen against throwing the kingdom "into the +combustion of war without necessity," and declared that, if she would +trust to his guidance, she might make use of him as if her affairs were +his own. An indispensable condition for much assistance, however, would +be that the marriages should be put off. + +As James was himself pursuing a Spanish marriage for his son as the chief +end and aim of his existence, there was something almost humorous in this +protest to the Queen-Dowager and in his encouragement of mutiny in France +in order to prevent a catastrophe there which he desired at home. + +The same agent of the princes, de Monbaran by name, was also privately +accredited by them to the States with instructions to borrow 200,000 +crowns of them if he could. But so long as the policy of the Republic +was directed by Barneveld, it was not very probable that, while +maintaining friendly and even intimate relations with the legitimate +government, she would enter into negotiations with rebels against it, +whether princes or plebeians, and oblige them with loans. "He will call +on me soon, no doubt," said Caron, "but being so well instructed as to +your Mightinesses intentions in this matter, I hope I shall keep him away +from you." Monbaran was accordingly kept away, but a few weeks later +another emissary of Conde and Bouillon made his appearance at the Hague, +de Valigny by name. He asked for money and for soldiers to reinforce +Bouillon's city of Sedan, but he was refused an audience of the States- +General. Even the martial ardour of Maurice and his sympathy for his +relatives were cooled by this direct assault on his pocket. "The +Prince," wrote the French ambassador, du Maurier, "will not furnish him +or his adherents a thousand crowns, not if they had death between their +teeth. Those who think it do not know how he loves his money." + +In the very last days of the year (1615) Caron had another interview with +the King in which James was very benignant. He told the Ambassador that +he should wish the States to send him some special commissioners to make +a new treaty with him, and to treat of all unsettled affairs which were +daily arising between the inhabitants of the respective countries. He +wished to make a firmer union and accord between Great Britain and the +Netherlands. He was very desirous of this, "because," said he, "if we +can unite with and understand each other, we have under God no one what +ever to fear, however mighty they may be." + +Caron duly notified Barneveld of these enthusiastic expressions of his +Majesty. The Advocate too was most desirous of settling the troublesome +questions about the cloth trade, the piracies, and other matters, and was +in favour of the special commission. In regard to a new treaty of +alliance thus loosely and vaguely suggested, he was not so sanguine +however. He had too much difficulty in enforcing the interests of +Protestantism in the duchies against the infatuation of James in regard +to Spain, and he was too well aware of the Spanish marriage delusion, +which was the key to the King's whole policy, to put much faith in these +casual outbursts of eternal friendship with the States. He contented +himself therefore with cautioning Caron to pause before committing +himself to any such projects. He had frequently instructed him, however, +to bring the disputed questions to his Majesty's notice as often as +possible with a view to amicable arrangement. + +This preventive policy in regard to France was highly approved by +Barneveld, who was willing to share in the blame profusely heaped upon +such sincere patriots and devoted Protestants as Duplessis-Mornay and +others, who saw small advantage to the great cause from a mutiny against +established government, bad as it was, led by such intriguers as Conde +and Bouillon. Men who had recently been in the pay of Spain, and one of +whom had been cognizant of Biron's plot against the throne and life of +Henry IV., to whom sedition was native atmosphere and daily bread, were +not likely to establish a much more wholesome administration than that +of Mary de' Medici. Prince Maurice sympathized with his relatives by +marriage, who were leading the civil commotions in France and +endeavouring to obtain funds in the Netherlands. It is needless to say +that Francis Aerssens was deep in their intrigues, and feeding full the +grudge which the Stadholder already bore the Advocate for his policy on +this occasion. + +The Advocate thought it best to wait until the young king should himself +rise in mutiny against his mother and her minions. Perhaps the downfall +of the Concini's and their dowager and the escape of Lewis from thraldom +might not be so distant as it seemed. Meantime this was the legal +government, bound to the States by treaties of friendship and alliance, +and it would be a poor return for the many favours and the constant aid +bestowed by Henry IV. on the Republic, and an imbecile mode of avenging +his murder to help throw his kingdom into bloodshed and confusion before +his son was able to act for himself. At the same time he did his best to +cultivate amicable relations with the princes, while scrupulously +abstaining from any sympathy with their movements. "If the Prince and +the other gentlemen come to court," he wrote to Langerac, "you will treat +them with all possible caresses so far as can be done without disrespect +to the government." + +While the British court was occupied with the foul details of the +Overbury murder and its consequences, a crime of a more commonplace +nature, but perhaps not entirely without influence on great political +events, had startled the citizens of the Hague. It was committed in the +apartments of the Stadholder and almost under his very eyes. A jeweller +of Amsterdam, one John van Wely, had come to the court of Maurice to lay +before him a choice collection of rare jewellery. In his caskets were +rubies and diamonds to the value of more than 100,000 florins, which +would be the equivalent of perhaps ten times as much to-day. In the +Prince's absence the merchant was received by a confidential groom of the +chambers, John of Paris by name, and by him, with the aid of a third +John, a soldier of his Excellency's guard, called Jean de la Vigne, +murdered on the spot. The deed was done in the Prince's private study. +The unfortunate jeweller was shot, and to make sure was strangled with +the blue riband of the Order of the Garter recently conferred upon +Maurice, and which happened to be lying conspicuously in the room. + +The ruffians had barely time to take possession of the booty, to thrust +the body behind the tapestry of the chamber, and to remove the more +startling evidences of the crime, when the Prince arrived. He supped +soon afterwards in the same room, the murdered jeweller still lying +behind the arras. In the night the valet and soldier carried the corpse +away from the room, down the stairs, and through the great courtyard, +where, strange to say, no sentinels were on duty, and threw it into an +ashpit. + +A deed so bloody, audacious, and stupid was of course soon discovered and +the murderers arrested and executed. Nothing would remove the incident +from the catalogue of vulgar crimes, or even entitle it to a place in +history save a single circumstance. The celebrated divine John +Uytenbogaert, leader among the Arminians, devoted friend of Barneveld, +and up to that moment the favorite preacher of Maurice, stigmatized +indeed, as we have seen, by the orthodox as "Court Trumpeter," was +requested by the Prince to prepare the chief criminal for death. He did +so, and from that day forth the Stadholder ceased to be his friend, +although regularly listening to his preaching in the French chapel of the +court for more than a year longer. Some time afterwards the Advocate +informed Uytenbogaert that the Prince was very much embittered against +him. "I knew it well," says the clergyman in his memoirs, "but not the +reasons for it, nor do I exactly comprehend them to this day. Truly I +have some ideas relating to certain things which I was obliged to do in +discharge of my official duty, but I will not insist upon them, nor will +I reveal them to any man." + +These were mysterious words, and the mystery is said to have been +explained; for it would seem that the eminent preacher was not so +entirely reticent among his confidential friends as before the public. +Uytenbogaert--so ran the tale--in the course of his conversation with the +condemned murderer, John of Paris, expressed a natural surprise that +there should have been no soldiers on guard in the court on the evening +when the crime was committed and the body subsequently removed. The +valet informed him that he had for a long time been empowered by the +Prince to withdraw the sentinels from that station, and that they had +been instructed to obey his orders--Maurice not caring that they should +be witnesses to the equivocal kind of female society that John of Paris +was in the habit of introducing of an evening to his master's apartments. +The valet had made use of this privilege on the night in question to rid +himself of the soldiers who would have been otherwise on guard. + +The preacher felt it his duty to communicate these statements to the +Prince, and to make perhaps a somewhat severe comment upon them. Maurice +received the information sullenly, and, as soon as Uytenbogaert was gone, +fell into a violent passion, throwing his hat upon the floor, stamping +upon it, refusing to eat his supper, and allowing no one to speak to him. +Next day some courtiers asked the clergyman what in the world he had been +saying to the Stadholder. + +From that time forth his former partiality for the divine, on whose +preaching he had been a regular attendant, was changed to hatred; a +sentiment which lent a lurid colour to subsequent events. + +The attempts of the Spanish party by chicane or by force to get +possession of the coveted territories continued year after year, and were +steadily thwarted by the watchfulness of the States under guidance of +Barneveld. The martial stadholder was more than ever for open war, in +which he was opposed by the Advocate, whose object was to postpone and, +if possible, to avert altogether the dread catastrophe which he foresaw +impending over Europe. The Xanten arrangement seemed hopelessly thrown +to the winds, nor was it destined to be carried out; the whole question +of sovereignty and of mastership in those territories being swept +subsequently into the general whirlpool of the Thirty Years' War. So +long as there was a possibility of settlement upon that basis, the +Advocate was in favour of settlement, but to give up the guarantees and +play into the hands of the Catholic League was in his mind to make the +Republic one of the conspirators against the liberties of Christendom. + +"Spain, the Emperor and the rest of them," said he, "make all three modes +of pacification--the treaty, the guarantee by the mediating kings, the +administration divided between the possessory princes--alike impossible. +They mean, under pretext of sequestration, to make themselves absolute +masters there. I have no doubt that Villeroy means sincerely, and +understands the matter, but meantime we sit by the fire and burn. If the +conflagration is neglected, all the world will throw the blame on us." + +Thus the Spaniards continued to amuse the British king with assurances of +their frank desire to leave those fortresses and territories which they +really meant to hold till the crack of doom. And while Gondemar was +making these ingenuous assertions in London, his colleagues at Paris and +at Brussels distinctly and openly declared that there was no authority +whatever for them, that the Ambassador had received no such instructions, +and that there was no thought of giving up Wesel or any other of the +Protestant strongholds captured, whether in the duchies or out of them. +And Gondemar, still more to keep that monarch in subjection, had been +unusually flattering in regard to the Spanish marriage. "We are in great +alarm here," said the Advocate, "at the tidings that the projected +alliance of the Prince of Wales with the daughter of Spain is to be +renewed; from which nothing good for his Majesty's person, his kingdom, +nor for our state can be presaged. We live in hope that it will never +be." + +But the other marriage was made. Despite the protest of James, the +forebodings of Barneveld, and the mutiny of the princes, the youthful +king of France had espoused Anne of Austria early in the year 1616. The +British king did his best to keep on terms with France and Spain, and by +no means renounced his own hopes. At the same time, while fixed as ever +in his approbation of the policy pursued by the Emperor and the League, +and as deeply convinced of their artlessness in regard to the duchies, +the Protestant princes of Germany, and the Republic, he manifested more +cordiality than usual in his relations with the States. Minor questions +between the countries he was desirous of arranging--so far as matters of +state could be arranged by orations--and among the most pressing of these +affairs were the systematic piracy existing and encouraged in English +ports, to the great damage of all seafaring nations and to the Hollanders +most of all, and the quarrel about the exportation of undyed cloths, +which had almost caused a total cessation of the woollen trade between +the two countries. The English, to encourage their own artisans, had +forbidden the export of undyed cloths, and the Dutch had retorted by +prohibiting the import of dyed ones. + +The King had good sense enough to see the absurdity of this condition +of things, and it will be remembered that Barneveld had frequently urged +upon the Dutch ambassador to bring his Majesty's attention to these +dangerous disputes. Now that the recovery of the cautionary towns had +been so dexterously and amicably accomplished, and at so cheap a rate, +it seemed a propitious moment to proceed to a general extinction of what +would now be called "burning questions." + +James was desirous that new high commissioners might be sent from the +States to confer with himself and his ministers upon the subjects just +indicated, as well as upon the fishery questions as regarded both +Greenland and Scotland, and upon the general affairs of India. + +He was convinced, he said to Caron, that the sea had become more and more +unsafe and so full of freebooters that the like was never seen or heard +of before. It will be remembered that the Advocate had recently called +his attention to the fact that the Dutch merchants had lost in two months +800,000 florins' worth of goods by English pirates. + +The King now assured the Ambassador of his intention of equipping a fleet +out of hand and to send it forth as speedily as possible under command +of a distinguished nobleman, who would put his honour and credit in a +successful expedition, without any connivance or dissimulation whatever. +In order thoroughly to scour these pirates from the seas, he expressed +the hope that their Mightinesses the States would do the same either +jointly or separately as they thought most advisable. Caron bluntly +replied that the States had already ten or twelve war-ships at sea for +this purpose, but that unfortunately, instead of finding any help from +the English in this regard, they had always found the pirates favoured +in his Majesty's ports, especially in Ireland and Wales. + +"Thus they have so increased in numbers," continued the Ambassador, "that +I quite believe what your Majesty says, that not a ship can pass with +safety over the seas. More over, your Majesty has been graciously +pleased to pardon several of these corsairs, in consequence of which they +have become so impudent as to swarm everywhere, even in the river Thames, +where they are perpetually pillaging honest merchantmen." + +"I confess," said the King, "to having pardoned a certain Manning, but +this was for the sake of his old father, and I never did anything so +unwillingly in my life. But I swear that if it were the best nobleman +in England, I would never grant one of them a pardon again." + +Caron expressed his joy at hearing such good intentions on the part of +his Majesty, and assured him that the States-General would be equally +delighted. + +In the course of the summer the Dutch ambassador had many opportunities +of seeing the King very confidentially, James having given him the use of +the royal park at Bayscot, so that during the royal visits to that place +Caron was lodged under his roof. + +On the whole, James had much regard and respect for Noel de Caron. +He knew him to be able, although he thought him tiresome. It is amusing +to observe the King and Ambassador in their utterances to confidential +friends each frequently making the charge of tediousness against the +other. "Caron's general education," said James on one occasion to Cecil, +"cannot amend his native German prolixity, for had I not interrupted him, +it had been tomorrow morning before I had begun to speak. God preserve +me from hearing a cause debated between Don Diego and him! . . . But +in truth it is good dealing with so wise and honest a man, although he be +somewhat longsome." + +Subsequently James came to Whitehall for a time, and then stopped at +Theobalds for a few days on his way to Newmarket, where he stayed until +Christmas. At Theobalds he sent again for the Ambassador, saying that at +Whitehall he was so broken down with affairs that it would be impossible +to live if he stayed there. + +He asked if the States were soon to send the commissioners, according +to his request, to confer in regard to the cloth-trade. Without +interference of the two governments, he said, the matter would never be +settled. The merchants of the two countries would never agree except +under higher authority. + +"I have heard both parties," he said, "the new and the old companies, two +or three times in full council, and tried to bring them to an agreement, +but it won't do. I have heard that My Lords the States have been hearing +both sides, English and the Hollanders, over and over again, and that the +States have passed a provisional resolution, which however does not suit +us. Now it is not reasonable, as we are allies, that our merchants +should be obliged to send their cloths roundabout, not being allowed +either to sell them in the United Provinces or to pass them through your +territories. I wish I could talk with them myself, for I am certain, if +they would send some one here, we could make an agreement. It is not +necessary that one should take everything from them, or that one should +refuse everything to us. I am sure there are people of sense in your +assembly who will justify me in favouring my own people so far as I +reasonably can, and I know very well that My Lords the States must stand +up for their own citizens. If we have been driving this matter to an +extreme and see that we are ruining each other, we must take it up again +in other fashion, for Yesterday is the preceptor of To-morrow. Let the +commissioners come as soon as possible. I know they have complaints to +make, and I have my complaints also. Therefore we must listen to each +other, for I protest before God that I consider the community of your +state with mine to be so entire that, if one goes to perdition, the other +must quickly follow it." + +Thus spoke James, like a wise and thoughtful sovereign interested in the +welfare of his subjects and allies, with enlightened ideas for the time +upon public economy. It is difficult, in the man conversing thus +amicably and sensibly with the Dutch ambassador, to realise the shrill +pedant shrieking against Vorstius, the crapulous comrade of Carrs and +Steenies, the fawning solicitor of Spanish marriages, the "pepperer" and +hangman of Puritans, the butt and dupe of Gondemar and Spinola. + +"I protest," he said further, "that I seek nothing in your state but +all possible friendship and good fellowship. My own subjects complain +sometimes that your people follow too closely on their heels, and confess +that your industry goes far above their own. If this be so, it is a lean +kind of reproach; for the English should rather study to follow you. +Nevertheless, when industry is directed by malice, each may easily be +attempting to snap an advantage from the other. I have sometimes +complained of many other things in which my subjects suffered great +injustice from you, but all that is excusable. I will willingly listen +to your people and grant them to be in the right when they are so. But I +will never allow them to be in the right when they mistrust me. If I had +been like many other princes, I should never have let the advantage of +the cautionary towns slip out of my fingers, but rather by means of them +attempted to get even a stronger hold on your country. I have had plenty +of warnings from great statesmen in France, Germany, and other nations +that I ought to give them up nevermore. Yet you know how frankly and +sincerely I acquitted myself in that matter without ever making +pretensions upon your state than the pretensions I still make to your +friendship and co-operation." + +James, after this allusion to an important transaction to be explained in +the next chapter, then made an observation or two on a subject which was +rapidly overtopping all others in importance to the States, and his +expressions were singularly at variance with his last utterances in that +regard. "I tell you," he said, "that you have no right to mistrust me in +anything, not even in the matter of religion. I grieve indeed to hear +that your religious troubles continue. You know that in the beginning +I occupied myself with this affair, but fearing that my course might be +misunderstood, and that it might be supposed that I was seeking to +exercise authority in your republic, I gave it up, and I will never +interfere with the matter again, but will ever pray God that he may give +you a happy issue out of these troubles." + +Alas! if the King had always kept himself on that height of amiable +neutrality, if he had been able to govern himself in the future by these +simplest principles of reason and justice, there might have been perhaps +a happier issue from the troubles than time was like to reveal. + +Once more James referred to the crisis pending in German affairs, and as +usual spoke of the Clove and Julich question as if it were a simple +matter to be settled by a few strokes of the pen and a pennyworth of +sealing-wax, instead of being the opening act in a vast tragedy, of which +neither he, nor Carom nor Barneveld, nor Prince Maurice, nor the youthful +king of France, nor Philip, nor Matthias, nor any of the men now foremost +in the conduct of affairs, was destined to see the end. + +The King informed Caron that he had just received most satisfactory +assurances from the Spanish ambassador in his last audience at Whitehall. + +"He has announced to me on the part of the King his master with great +compliments that his Majesty seeks to please me and satisfy me in +everything that I could possibly desire of him," said James, rolling over +with satisfaction these unctuous phrases as if they really had any +meaning whatever. + +"His Majesty says further," added the King, "that as he has been at +various times admonished by me, and is daily admonished by other princes, +that he ought to execute the treaty of Xanten by surrendering the city of +Wesel and all other places occupied by Spinola, he now declares himself +ready to carry out that treaty in every point. He will accordingly +instruct the Archduke to do this, provided the Margrave of Brandenburg +and the States will do the same in regard to their captured places. As +he understands however that the States have been fortifying Julich even +as he might fortify Wesel, he would be glad that no innovation be made +before the end of the coming month of March. When this term shall have +expired, he will no longer be bound by these offers, but will proceed to +fortify Wesel and the other places, and to hold them as he best may for +himself. Respect for me has alone induced his Majesty to make this +resolution." + +We have already seen that the Spanish ambassador in Paris was at this +very time loudly declaring that his colleague in London had no commission +whatever to make these propositions. Nor when they were in the slightest +degree analysed, did they appear after all to be much better than +threats. Not a word was said of guarantees. The names of the two +kings were not mentioned. It was nothing but Albert and Spinola then as +always, and a recommendation that Brandenburg and the States and all the +Protestant princes of Germany should trust to the candour of the Catholic +League. Caron pointed out to the King that in these proposals there +were no guarantees nor even promises that the fortresses would not be +reoccupied at convenience of the Spaniards. He engaged however to report +the whole statement to his masters. A few weeks afterwards the Advocate +replied in his usual vein, reminding the King through the Ambassador that +the Republic feared fraud on the part of the League much more than force. +He also laid stress on the affairs of Italy, considering the fate of +Savoy and the conflicts in which Venice was engaged as components of a +general scheme. The States had been much solicited, as we have seen, to +render assistance to the Duke of Savoy, the temporary peace of Asti being +already broken, and Barneveld had been unceasing in his efforts to arouse +France as well as England to the danger to themselves and to all +Christendom should Savoy be crushed. We shall have occasion to see the +prominent part reserved to Savoy in the fast opening debate in Germany. +Meantime the States had sent one Count of Nassau with a couple of +companies to Charles Emmanuel, while another (Ernest) had just gone to +Venice at the head of more than three thousand adventurers. With so many +powerful armies at their throats, as Barneveld had more than once +observed, it was not easy for them to despatch large forces to the other +end of Europe, but he justly reminded his allies that the States were +now rendering more effective help to the common cause by holding great +Spanish armies in check on their own frontier than if they assumed a more +aggressive line in the south. The Advocate, like every statesman +worthy of the name, was accustomed to sweep the whole horizon in his +consideration of public policy, and it will be observed that he always +regarded various and apparently distinct and isolated movements in +different parts of Europe as parts of one great whole. It is easy enough +for us, centuries after the record has been made up, to observe the +gradual and, as it were, harmonious manner in which the great Catholic +conspiracy against the liberties of Europe was unfolded in an ever +widening sphere. But to the eyes of contemporaries all was then misty +and chaotic, and it required the keen vision of a sage and a prophet to +discern the awful shape which the future might assume. Absorbed in the +contemplation of these portentous phenomena, it was not unnatural that +the Advocate should attach less significance to perturbations nearer +home. Devoted as was his life to save the great European cause of +Protestantism, in which he considered political and religious liberty +bound up, from the absolute extinction with which it was menaced, he +neglected too much the furious hatreds growing up among Protestants +within the narrow limits of his own province. He was destined one day to +be rudely awakened. Meantime he was occupied with organizing a general +defence of Italy, Germany, France, and England, as well as the +Netherlands, against the designs of Spain and the League. + +"We wish to know," he said in answer to the affectionate messages and +fine promises of the King of Spain to James as reported by Caron, "what +his Majesty of Great Britain has done, is doing, and is resolved to do +for the Duke of Savoy and the Republic of Venice. If they ask you what +we are doing, answer that we with our forces and vigour are keeping off +from the throats of Savoy and Venice 2000 riders and 10,000 infantry, +with which forces, let alone their experience, more would be accomplished +than with four times the number of new troops brought to the field in +Italy. This is our succour, a great one and a very costly one, for the +expense of maintaining our armies to hold the enemy in check here is very +great." + +He alluded with his usual respectful and quiet scorn to the arrangements +by which James so wilfully allowed himself to be deceived. + +"If the Spaniard really leaves the duchies," he said, "it is a grave +matter to decide whether on the one side he is not resolved by that means +to win more over us and the Elector of Brandenburg in the debateable land +in a few days than he could gain by force in many years, or on the other +whether by it he does not intend despatching 1200 or 1500 cavalry and +5000 or 6000 foot, all his most experienced soldiers, from the +Netherlands to Italy, in order to give the law at his pleasure to the +Duke of Savoy and the Republic of Venice, reserving his attack upon +Germany and ourselves to the last. The Spaniards, standing under a +monarchical government, can in one hour resolve to seize to-morrow all +that they and we may abandon to-day. And they can carry such a +resolution into effect at once. Our form of government does not permit +this, so that our republic must be conserved by distrust and good +garrisons." + +Thus during this long period of half hostilities Barneveld, while +sincerely seeking to preserve the peace in Europe, was determined, +if possible, that the Republic should maintain the strongest defensive +position when the war which he foreboded should actually begin. Maurice +and the war party had blamed him for the obstacles which he interposed to +the outbreak of hostilities, while the British court, as we have seen, +was perpetually urging him to abate from his demands and abandon both the +well strengthened fortresses in the duchies and that strong citadel of +distrust which in his often repeated language he was determined never to +surrender. Spinola and the military party of Spain, while preaching +peace, had been in truth most anxious for fighting. "The only honour I +desire henceforth," said that great commander, "is to give battle to +Prince Maurice." The generals were more anxious than the governments to +make use of the splendid armies arrayed against each other in such +proximity that, the signal for conflict not having been given, it was not +uncommon for the soldiers of the respective camps to aid each other in +unloading munition waggons, exchanging provisions and other articles of +necessity, and performing other small acts of mutual service. + +But heavy thunder clouds hanging over the earth so long and so closely +might burst into explosion at any moment. Had it not been for the +distracted condition of France, the infatuation of the English king, and +the astounding inertness of the princes of the German Union, great +advantages might have been gained by the Protestant party before the +storm should break. But, as the French ambassador at the Hague well +observed, "the great Protestant Union of Germany sat with folded arms +while Hannibal was at their gate, the princes of which it was composed +amusing themselves with staring at each other. It was verifying," he +continued, bitterly, "the saying of the Duke of Alva, 'Germany is an old +dog which still can bark, but has lost its teeth to bite with.'" + +To such imbecility had that noble and gifted people--which had never been +organized into a nation since it crushed the Roman empire and established +a new civilization on its ruins, and was to wait centuries longer until +it should reconstruct itself into a whole--been reduced by subdivision, +disintegration, the perpetual dissolvent of religious dispute, and the +selfish policy of infinitesimal dynasties. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + James still presses for the Payment of the Dutch Republic's Debt to + him--A Compromise effected, with Restitution of the Cautionary + Towns--Treaty of Loudun--James's Dream of a Spanish Marriage + revives--James visits Scotland--The States-General agree to furnish + Money and Troops in fulfilment of the Treaty of 1609--Death of + Concini--Villeroy returns to Power. + +Besides matters of predestination there were other subjects political and +personal which increased the King's jealousy and hatred. The debt of the +Republic to the British crown, secured by mortgage of the important sea- +ports and fortified towns of Flushing, Brielle, Rammekens, and other +strong places, still existed. The possession of those places by England +was a constant danger and irritation to the States. It was an axe +perpetually held over their heads. It threatened their sovereignty, +their very existence. On more than one occasion, in foreign courts, the +representatives of the Netherlands had been exposed to the taunt that the +Republic was after all not an independent power, but a British province. +The gibe had always been repelled in a manner becoming the envoys of a +proud commonwealth; yet it was sufficiently galling that English +garrisons should continue to hold Dutch towns; one of them among the most +valuable seaports of the Republic,--the other the very cradle of its +independence, the seizure of which in Alva's days had always been +reckoned a splendid achievement. Moreover, by the fifth article of the +treaty of peace between James and Philip III., although the King had +declared himself bound by the treaties made by Elizabeth to deliver up +the cautionary towns to no one but the United States, he promised Spain +to allow those States a reasonable time to make peace with the Archdukes +on satisfactory conditions. Should they refuse to do so, he held himself +bound by no obligations to them, and would deal with the cities as he +thought proper, and as the Archdukes themselves might deem just. + +The King had always been furious at "the huge sum of money to be +advanced, nay, given, to the States," as he phrased it. "It is so far +out of all square," he had said, "as on my conscience I cannot think that +ever they craved it 'animo obtinendi,' but only by that objection to +discourage me from any thought of getting any repayment of my debts from +them when they shall be in peace . . .. . . . Should I ruin myself +for maintaining them? Should I bestow as much on them as cometh to the +value of my whole yearly rent? "He had proceeded to say very plainly +that, if the States did not make great speed to pay him all his debt +so soon as peace was established, he should treat their pretence at +independence with contempt, and propose dividing their territory +between himself and the King of France. + +"If they be so weak as they cannot subsist either in peace or war," he +said, "without I ruin myself for upholding them, in that case surely +'minus malunv est eligendum,' the nearest harm is first to be eschewed, +a man will leap out of a burning ship and drown himself in the sea; and +it is doubtless a farther off harm for me to suffer them to fall again in +the hands of Spain, and let God provide for the danger that may with time +fall upon me or my posterity than presently to starve myself and mine +with putting the meat in their mouth. Nay, rather if they be so weak as +they can neither sustain themselves in peace nor war, let them leave this +vainglorious thirsting for the title of a free state (which no people +are worthy or able to enjoy that cannot stand by themselves like +substantives), and 'dividantur inter nos;' I mean, let their countries be +divided between France and me, otherwise the King of Spain shall be sure +to consume us." + +Such were the eyes with which James had always regarded the great +commonwealth of which he affected to be the ally, while secretly aspiring +to be its sovereign, and such was his capacity to calculate political +forces and comprehend coming events. + +Certainly the sword was hanging by a thread. The States had made no +peace either with the Archdukes or with Spain. They had made a truce, +half the term of which had already run by. At any moment the keys of +their very house-door might be placed in the hands of their arch enemy. +Treacherous and base as the deed would be, it might be defended by the +letter of a treaty in which the Republic had no part; and was there +anything too treacherous or too base to be dreaded from James Stuart? + +But the States owed the crown of England eight millions of florins, +equivalent to about L750,000. Where was this vast sum to be found? It +was clearly impossible for the States to beg or to borrow it, although +they were nearly as rich as any of the leading powers at that day. + +It was the merit of Barneveld, not only that he saw the chance for a good +bargain, but that he fully comprehended a great danger. Years long James +had pursued the phantom of a Spanish marriage for his son. To achieve +this mighty object, he had perverted the whole policy of the realm; he +had grovelled to those who despised him, had repaid attempts at wholesale +assassination with boundless sycophancy. It is difficult to imagine +anything more abject than the attitude of James towards Philip. Prince +Henry was dead, but Charles had now become Prince of Wales in his turn, +and there was a younger infanta whose hand was not yet disposed of. + +So long as the possible prize of a Most Catholic princess was dangling +before the eyes of the royal champion of Protestantism, so long there was +danger that the Netherlanders might wake up some fine morning and see the +flag of Spain waving over the walls of Flushing, Brielle, and Rammekens. + +It was in the interest of Spain too that the envoys of James at the Hague +were perpetually goading Barneveld to cause the States' troops to be +withdrawn from the duchies and the illusory treaty of Xanten to be +executed. Instead of an eighth province added to the free Netherlands, +the result of such a procedure would have been to place that territory +enveloping them in the hands of the enemy; to strengthen and sharpen the +claws, as the Advocate had called them, by which Spain was seeking to +clutch and to destroy the Republic. + +The Advocate steadily refused to countenance such policy in the duchies, +and he resolved on a sudden stroke to relieve the Commonwealth from the +incubus of the English mortgage. + +James was desperately pushed for money. His minions, as insatiable in +their demands on English wealth as the parasites who fed on the Queen- +Regent were exhaustive of the French exchequer, were greedier than ever +now that James, who feared to face a parliament disgusted with the +meanness of his policy and depravity of his life, could not be relied +upon to minister to their wants. + +The Advocate judiciously contrived that the proposal of a compromise +should come from the English government. Noel de Caron, the veteran +ambassador of the States in London, after receiving certain proposals, +offered, under instructions' from Barneveld, to pay L250,000 in full of +all demands. It was made to appear that the additional L250,000 was in +reality in advance of his instructions. The mouths of the minions +watered at the mention of so magnificent a sum of money in one lump. + +The bargain was struck. On the 11th June 1616, Sir Robert Sidney, who +had become Lord Lisle, gave over the city of Flushing to the States, +represented by the Seignior van Maldere, while Sir Horace Vere placed the +important town of Brielle in the hands of the Seignior van Mathenesse. +According to the terms of the bargain, the English garrisons were +converted into two regiments, respectively to be commanded by Lord +Lisle's son, now Sir Robert Sidney, and by Sir Horace Vere, and were to +serve the States. Lisle, who had been in the Netherlands since the days +of his uncle Leicester and his brother Sir Philip Sidney, now took his +final departure for England. + +Thus this ancient burthen had been taken off the Republic by the masterly +policy of the Advocate. A great source of dread for foreign complication +was closed for ever. + +The French-Spanish marriages had been made. Henry IV. had not been +murdered in vain. Conde and his confederates had issued their manifesto. +A crisis came to the States, for Maurice, always inclined to take part +for the princes, and urged on by Aerssens, who was inspired by a deadly +hatred for the French government ever since they had insisted on his +dismissal from his post, and who fed the Stadholder's growing jealousy of +the Advocate to the full, was at times almost ready for joining in the +conflict. It was most difficult for the States-General, led by +Barneveld, to maintain relations of amity with a government controlled +by Spain, governed by the Concini's, and wafted to and fro by every wind +that blew. Still it was the government, and the States might soon be +called upon, in virtue of their treaties with Henry, confirmed by Mary +de' Medici, not only to prevent the daily desertion of officers and +soldiers of the French regiments to the rebellious party, but to send the +regiments themselves to the assistance of the King and Queen. + +There could be no doubt that the alliance of the French Huguenots at +Grenoble with the princes made the position of the States very critical. +Bouillon was loud in his demands upon Maurice and the States for money +and reinforcements, but the Prince fortunately understood the character +of the Duke and of Conde, and comprehended the nature of French politics +too clearly to be led into extremities by passion or by pique. He said +loudly to any one that chose to listen: + +"It is not necessary to ruin the son in order to avenge the death of the +father. That should be left to the son, who alone has legitimate +authority to do it." Nothing could be more sensible, and the remark +almost indicated a belief on the Prince's part in Mary's complicity in +the murder of her husband. Duplessis-Mornay was in despair, and, like +all true patriots and men of earnest character, felt it almost an +impossibility to choose between the two ignoble parties contending for +the possession of France, and both secretly encouraged by France's deadly +enemy. + +The Treaty of Loudun followed, a treaty which, said du Maurier, had +about as many negotiators as there were individuals interested in the +arrangements. The rebels were forgiven, Conde sold himself out for a +million and a half livres and the presidency of the council, came to +court, and paraded himself in greater pomp and appearance of power than +ever. Four months afterwards he was arrested and imprisoned. He +submitted like a lamb, and offered to betray his confederates. + +King James, faithful to his self-imposed part of mediator-general, which +he thought so well became him, had been busy in bringing about this +pacification, and had considered it eminently successful. He was now +angry at this unexpected result. He admitted that Conde had indulged in +certain follies and extravagancies, but these in his opinion all came out +of the quiver of the Spaniard, "who was the head of the whole intrigue." +He determined to recall Lord Hayes from Madrid and even Sir Thomas +Edmonds from Paris, so great was his indignation. But his wrath was +likely to cool under the soothing communications of Gondemar, and the +rumour of the marriage of the second infanta with the Prince of Wales +soon afterwards started into new life. "We hope," wrote Barneveld, "that +the alliance of his Highness the Prince of Wales with the daughter of the +Spanish king will make no further progress, as it will place us in the +deepest embarrassment and pain." + +For the reports had been so rife at the English court in regard to this +dangerous scheme that Caron had stoutly gone to the King and asked him +what he was to think about it. "The King told me," said the Ambassador, +"that there was nothing at all in it, nor any appearance that anything +ever would come of it. It was true, he said, that on the overtures made +to him by the Spanish ambassador he had ordered his minister in Spain to +listen to what they had to say, and not to bear himself as if the +overtures would be rejected." + +The coyness thus affected by James could hardly impose on so astute a +diplomatist as Noel de Caron, and the effect produced upon the policy of +one of the Republic's chief allies by the Spanish marriages naturally +made her statesmen shudder at the prospect of their other powerful friend +coming thus under the malign influence of Spain. + +"He assured me, however," said the Envoy, "that the Spaniard is not +sincere in the matter, and that he has himself become so far alienated +from the scheme that we may sleep quietly upon it." And James appeared +at that moment so vexed at the turn affairs were taking in France, so +wounded in his self-love, and so bewildered by the ubiquitous nature of +nets and pitfalls spreading over Europe by Spain, that he really seemed +waking from his delusion. Even Caron was staggered? "In all his talk +he appears so far estranged from the Spaniard," said he, "that it would +seem impossible that he should consider this marriage as good for his +state. I have also had other advices on the subject which in the highest +degree comfort me. Now your Mightinesses may think whatever you like +about it." + +The mood of the King was not likely to last long in so comfortable a +state. Meantime he took the part of Conde and the other princes, +justified their proceedings to the special envoy sent over by Mary de' +Medici, and wished the States to join with him in appealing to that Queen +to let the affair, for his sake, pass over once more. + +"And now I will tell your Mightinesses," said Caron, reverting once more +to the dreaded marriage which occupies so conspicuous a place in the +strangely mingled and party-coloured tissue of the history of those days, +"what the King has again been telling me about the alliance between his +son and the Infanta. He hears from Carleton that you are in very great +alarm lest this event may take place. He understands that the special +French envoy at the Hague, M. de la None, has been representing to you +that the King of Great Britain is following after and begging for the +daughter of Spain for his son. He says it is untrue. But it is true +that he has been sought and solicited thereto, and that in consequence +there have been talks and propositions and rejoinders, but nothing of any +moment. As he had already told me not to be alarmed until he should +himself give me cause for it, he expressed his amazement that I had not +informed your Mightinesses accordingly. He assured me again that he +should not proceed further in the business without communicating it to +his good friends and neighbours, that he considered My Lords the States +as his best friends and allies, who ought therefore to conceive no +jealousy in the matter." + +This certainly was cold comfort. Caron knew well enough, not a clerk in +his office but knew well enough, that James had been pursuing this prize +for years. For the King to represent himself as persecuted by Spain to +give his son to the Infanta was about as ridiculous as it would have been +to pretend that Emperor Matthias was persuading him to let his son-in-law +accept the crown of Bohemia. It was admitted that negotiations for the +marriage were going on, and the assertion that the Spanish court was more +eager for it than the English government was not especially calculated to +allay the necessary alarm of the States at such a disaster. Nor was it +much more tranquillizing for them to be assured, not that the marriage +was off, but that, when it was settled, they, as the King's good friends +and neighbours, should have early information of it. + +"I told him," said the Ambassador, "that undoubtedly this matter was of +the highest 'importance to your Mightinesses, for it was not good for us +to sit between two kingdoms both so nearly allied with the Spanish +monarch, considering the pretensions he still maintained to sovereignty +over us. Although his Majesty might not now be willing to treat to our +prejudice, yet the affair itself in the sequence of time must of +necessity injure our commonwealth. We hoped therefore that it would +never come to pass." + +Caron added that Ambassador Digby was just going to Spain on +extraordinary mission in regard to this affair, and that eight or ten +gentlemen of the council had been deputed to confer with his Majesty +about it. He was still inclined to believe that the whole negotiation +would blow over, the King continuing to exhort him not to be alarmed, +and assuring him that there were many occasions moving princes to treat +of great affairs although often without any effective issue. + +At that moment too the King was in a state of vehement wrath with the +Spanish Netherlands on account of a stinging libel against himself, "an +infamous and wonderfully scandalous pamphlet," as he termed it, called +'Corona Regis', recently published at Louvain. He had sent Sir John +Bennet as special ambassador to the Archdukes to demand from them justice +and condign and public chastisement on the author of the work--a rector +Putianus as he believed, successor of Justus Lipsius in his professorship +at Louvain--and upon the printer, one Flaminius. Delays and excuses +having followed instead of the punishment originally demanded, James had +now instructed his special envoy in case of further delay or evasion to +repudiate all further friendship or intercourse with the Archduke, to +ratify the recall of his minister-resident Trumbull, and in effect to +announce formal hostilities. + +"The King takes the thing wonderfully to heart," said Caron. + +James in effect hated to be made ridiculous, and we shall have +occasion to see how important a part other publications which he deemed +detrimental to the divinity of his person were to play in these affairs. + +Meantime it was characteristic of this sovereign that--while ready to +talk of war with Philip's brother-in-law for a pamphlet, while seeking +the hand of Philip's daughter for his son--he was determined at the very +moment when the world was on fire to take himself, the heaven-born +extinguisher of all political conflagrations, away from affairs and +to seek the solace of along holiday in Scotland. His counsellors +persistently and vehemently implored him to defer that journey until +the following year at least, all the neighbouring nations being now in +a state of war and civil commotion. But it was in vain. He refused to +listen to them for a moment, and started for Scotland before the middle +of March. + +Conde, who had kept France in a turmoil, had sought aid alternately from +the Calvinists at Grenoble and the Jesuits in Rome, from Spain and from +the Netherlands, from the Pope and from Maurice of Nassau, had thus been +caged at last. But there was little gained. There was one troublesome +but incompetent rebel the less, but there was no king in the land. He +who doubts the influence of the individual upon the fate of a country +and upon his times through long passages of history may explain the +difference between France of 1609, with a martial king aided by great +statesmen at its head, with an exchequer overflowing with revenue hoarded +for a great cause--and that cause an attempt at least to pacificate +Christendom and avert a universal and almost infinite conflict now +already opening--and the France of 1617, with its treasures already +squandered among ignoble and ruffianly favourites, with every office in +state, church, court, and magistracy sold to the highest bidder, with +a queen governed by an Italian adventurer who was governed by Spain, +and with a little king who had but lately expressed triumph at his +confirmation because now he should no longer be whipped, and who was just +married to a daughter of the hereditary and inevitable foe of France. + +To contemplate this dreary interlude in the history of a powerful state +is to shiver at the depths of inanity and crime to which mankind can at +once descend. What need to pursue the barren, vulgar, and often repeated +chronicle? France pulled at by scarcely concealed strings and made to +perform fantastic tricks according as its various puppets were swerved +this way or that by supple bands at Madrid and Rome is not a refreshing +spectacle. The States-General at last, after an agitated discussion, +agreed in fulfilment of the treaty of 1609 to send 4000 men, 2000 being +French, to help the King against the princes still in rebellion. But the +contest was a most bitter one, and the Advocate had a difficult part to +play between a government and a rebellion, each more despicable than the +other. Still Louis XIII. and his mother were the legitimate government +even if ruled by Concini. The words of the treaty made with Henry IV. +were plain, and the ambassadors of his son had summoned the States to +fulfil it. But many impediments were placed in the path of obvious duty +by the party led by Francis Aerssens. + +"I know very well," said the Advocate to ex-Burgomaster Hooft of +Amsterdam, father of the great historian, sending him confidentially a +copy of the proposals made by the French ambassadors, "that many in this +country are striving hard to make us refuse to the King the aid demanded, +notwithstanding that we are bound to do it by the pledges given not only +by the States-General but by each province in particular. By this no one +will profit but the Spaniard, who unquestionably will offer much, aye, +very much, to bring about dissensions between France and us, from which I +foresee great damage, inconvenience, and difficulties for the whole +commonwealth and for Holland especially. This province has already +advanced 1,000,000 florins to the general government on the money still +due from France, which will all be lost in case the subsidy should be +withheld, besides other evils which cannot be trusted to the pen." + +On the same day on which it had been decided at the Hague to send the +troops, a captain of guards came to the aid of the poor little king and +shot Concini dead one fine spring morning on the bridge of the Louvre. +"By order of the King," said Vitry. His body was burned before the +statue of Henry IV. by the people delirious with joy. "L'hanno +ammazzato" was shouted to his wife, Eleanora Galigai, the supposed +sorceress. They were the words in which Concini had communicated to the +Queen the murder of her husband seven years before. Eleanora, too, was +burned after having been beheaded. Thus the Marshal d'Ancre and wife +ceased to reign in France. + +The officers of the French regiments at the Hague danced for joy on the +Vyverberg when the news arrived there. The States were relieved from an +immense embarrassment, and the Advocate was rewarded for having pursued +what was after all the only practicable policy. "Do your best," said he +to Langerac, "to accommodate differences so far as consistent with the +conservation of the King's authority. We hope the princes will submit +themselves now that the 'lapis offensionis,' according to their pretence, +is got rid of. We received a letter from them to-day sealed with the +King's arms, with the circumscription 'Periclitante Regno, Regis vita et +Regia familia." + +The shooting of Concini seemed almost to convert the little king into +a hero. Everyone in the Netherlands, without distinction of party, was +delighted with the achievement. "I cannot represent to the King," wrote +du Maurier to Villeroy, "one thousandth part of the joy of all these +people who are exalting him to heaven for having delivered the earth from +this miserable burthen. I can't tell you in what execration this public +pest was held. His Majesty has not less won the hearts of this state +than if he had gained a great victory over the Spaniards. You would not +believe it, and yet it is true, that never were the name and reputation +of the late king in greater reverence than those of our reigning king at +this moment." + +Truly here was glory cheaply earned. The fame of Henry the Great, after +a long career of brilliant deeds of arms, high statesmanship, and twenty +years of bountiful friendship for the States, was already equalled by +that of Louis XIII., who had tremblingly acquiesced in the summary +execution of an odious adventurer--his own possible father--and who +never had done anything else but feed his canary birds. + +As for Villeroy himself, the Ambassador wrote that he could not find +portraits enough of him to furnish those who were asking for them since +his return to power. + +Barneveld had been right in so often instructing Langerac to "caress the +old gentleman." + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +And give advice. Of that, although always a spendthrift +Casual outbursts of eternal friendship +Changed his positions and contradicted himself day by day +Conciliation when war of extermination was intended +Considered it his special mission in the world to mediate +Denoungced as an obstacle to peace +France was mourning Henry and waiting for Richelieu +Hardly a sound Protestant policy anywhere but in Holland +History has not too many really important and emblematic men +I hope and I fear +King who thought it furious madness to resist the enemy +Mockery of negotiation in which nothing could be negotiated +More apprehension of fraud than of force +Opening an abyss between government and people +Successful in this step, he is ready for greater ones +That he tries to lay the fault on us is pure malice +The magnitude of this wonderful sovereign's littleness +This wonderful sovereign's littleness oppresses the imagination +Wise and honest a man, although he be somewhat longsome +Yesterday is the preceptor of To-morrow + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext Life of John Barneveld, v7, Motley #93 +by John Lothrop Motley + + + + + + +THE LIFE AND DEATH of JOHN OF BARNEVELD, ADVOCATE OF HOLLAND + +WITH A VIEW OF THE PRIMARY CAUSES AND MOVEMENTS OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR + +By John Lothrop Motley, D.C.L., LL.D. + + + +Life and Death of John of Barneveld, v8, 1617 + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + Ferdinand of Gratz crowned King of Bohemia--His Enmity to + Protestants--Slawata and Martinitz thrown from the Windows of the + Hradschin--Real Beginning of the Thirty Years' War--The Elector- + Palatine's Intrigues in Opposition to the House of Austria--He + supports the Duke of Savoy--The Emperor Matthias visits Dresden-- + Jubilee for the Hundredth Anniversary of the Reformation. + +When the forlorn emperor Rudolph had signed the permission for his +brother Matthias to take the last crown but one from his head, he bit the +pen in a paroxysm of helpless rage. Then rushing to the window of his +apartment, he looked down on one of the most stately prospects that the +palaces of the earth can offer. From the long monotonous architectural +lines of the Hradschin, imposing from its massiveness and its imperial +situation, and with the dome and minarets of the cathedral clustering +behind them, the eye swept across the fertile valley, through which the +rapid, yellow Moldau courses, to the opposite line of cliffs crested with +the half imaginary fortress-palaces of the Wyscherad. There, in the +mythical legendary past of Bohemia had dwelt the shadowy Libuscha, +daughter of Krok, wife of King Premysl, foundress of Prague, who, when +wearied of her lovers, was accustomed to toss them from those heights +into the river. Between these picturesque precipices lay the two +Pragues, twin-born and quarrelsome, fighting each other for centuries, +and growing up side by side into a double, bellicose, stormy, and most +splendid city, bristling with steeples and spires, and united by the +ancient many-statued bridge with its blackened mediaeval entrance towers. + +But it was not to enjoy the prospect that the aged, discrowned, solitary +emperor, almost as dim a figure among sovereigns as the mystic Libuscha +herself, was gazing from the window upon the imperial city. + +"Ungrateful Prague," he cried, "through me thou hast become thus +magnificent, and now thou hast turned upon and driven away thy +benefactor. May the vengeance of God descend upon thee; may my curse +come upon thee and upon all Bohemia." + +History has failed to record the special benefits of the Emperor +through which the city had derived its magnificence and deserved this +malediction. But surely if ever an old man's curse was destined to be +literally fulfilled, it seemed to be this solemn imprecation of Rudolph. +Meantime the coronation of Matthias had gone on with pomp and popular +gratulations, while Rudolph had withdrawn into his apartments to pass +the little that was left to him of life in solitude and in a state of +hopeless pique with Matthias, with the rest of his brethren, with all +the world. + +And now that five years had passed since his death, Matthias, who had +usurped so much power prematurely, found himself almost in the same +condition as that to which he had reduced Rudolph. + +Ferdinand of Styria, his cousin, trod closely upon his heels. He was +the presumptive successor to all his crowns, had not approved of the +movements of Matthias in the lifetime of his brother, and hated the +Vienna Protestant baker's son, Cardinal Clesel, by whom all those +movements had been directed. Professor Taubmann, of Wittenberg, +ponderously quibbling on the name of that prelate, had said that he was +of "one hundred and fifty ass power." Whether that was a fair measure +of his capacity may be doubted, but it certainly was not destined to be +sufficient to elude the vengeance of Ferdinand, and Ferdinand would soon +have him in his power. + +Matthias, weary of ambitious intrigue, infirm of purpose, and shattered +in health, had withdrawn from affairs to devote himself to his gout and +to his fair young wife, Archduchess Anna of Tyrol, whom at the age of +fifty-four he had espoused. + +On the 29th June 1617, Ferdinand of Gratz was crowned King of Bohemia. +The event was a shock and a menace to the Protestant cause all over the +world. The sombre figure of the Archduke had for years appeared in the +background, foreshadowing as it were the wrath to come, while throughout +Bohemia and the neighbouring countries of Moravia, Silesia, and the +Austrias, the cause of Protestantism had been making such rapid progress. +The Emperor Maximilian II. had left five stalwart sons, so that there had +seemed little probability that the younger line, the sons of his brother, +would succeed. But all the five were childless, and now the son of +Archduke Charles, who had died in 1590, had become the natural heir +after the death of Matthias to the immense family honours--his cousins +Maximilian and Albert having resigned their claims in his favour. + +Ferdinand, twelve years old at his father's death, had been placed under +the care of his maternal uncle, Duke William of Bavaria. By him the boy +was placed at the high school of Ingolstadt, to be brought up by the +Jesuits, in company with Duke William's own son Maximilian, five years +his senior. Between these youths, besides the tie of cousinship, there +grew up the most intimate union founded on perfect sympathy in religion +and politics. + +When Ferdinand entered upon the government of his paternal estates of +Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola, he found that the new religion, at which +the Jesuits had taught him to shudder as at a curse and a crime, had been +widely spreading. His father had fought against heresy with all his +might, and had died disappointed and broken-hearted at its progress. +His uncle of Bavaria, in letters to his son and nephew, had stamped into +their minds with the enthusiasm of perfect conviction that all happiness +and blessing for governments depended on the restoration and maintenance +of the unity of the Catholic faith. All the evils in times past and +present resulting from religious differences had been held up to the two +youths by the Jesuits in the most glaring colours. The first duty of a +prince, they had inculcated, was to extirpate all false religions, to +give the opponents of the true church no quarter, and to think no +sacrifice too great by which the salvation of human society, brought +almost to perdition by the new doctrines, could be effected. + +Never had Jesuits an apter scholar than Ferdinand. After leaving school, +he made a pilgrimage to Loretto to make his vows to the Virgin Mary of +extirpation of heresy, and went to Rome to obtain the blessing of Pope +Clement VIII. + +Then, returning to the government of his inheritance, he seized that +terrible two-edged weapon of which the Protestants of Germany had taught +him the use. + +"Cujus regio ejus religio;" to the prince the choice of religion, to the +subject conformity with the prince, as if that formula of shallow and +selfish princelings, that insult to the dignity of mankind, were the +grand result of a movement which was to go on centuries after they had +all been forgotten in their tombs. For the time however it was a valid +and mischievous maxim. In Saxony Catholics and Calvinists were +proscribed; in Heidelberg Catholics and Lutherans. Why should either +Calvinists or Lutherans be tolerated in Styria? Why, indeed? No logic +could be more inexorable, and the pupil of the Ingolstadt Jesuits +hesitated not an instant to carry out their teaching with the very +instrument forged for him by the Reformation. Gallows were erected in +the streets of all his cities, but there was no hanging. The sight of +them proved enough to extort obedience to his edict, that every man, +woman, and child not belonging to the ancient church should leave his +dominions. They were driven out in hordes in broad daylight from Gratz +and other cities. Rather reign over a wilderness than over heretics was +the device of the Archduke, in imitation of his great relative, Philip +II. of Spain. In short space of time his duchies were as empty of +Protestants as the Palatinate of Lutherans, or Saxony of Calvinists, or +both of Papists. Even the churchyards were rifled of dead Lutherans and +Utraquists, their carcasses thrown where they could no longer pollute the +true believers mouldering by their side. + +It was not strange that the coronation as King of Bohemia of a man of +such decided purposes--a country numbering ten Protestants to one +Catholic--should cause a thrill and a flutter. Could it be doubted that +the great elemental conflict so steadily prophesied by Barneveld and +instinctively dreaded by all capable of feeling the signs of the time +would now begin? It had begun. Of what avail would be Majesty-Letters +and Compromises extorted by force from trembling or indolent emperors, +now that a man who knew his own mind, and felt it to be a crime not to +extirpate all religions but the one orthodox religion, had mounted the +throne? It is true that he had sworn at his coronation to maintain the +laws of Bohemia, and that the Majesty-Letter and the Compromise were part +of the laws. + +But when were doctors ever wanting to prove the unlawfulness of law +which interferes with the purposes of a despot and the convictions +of the bigot? + +"Novus rex, nova lex," muttered the Catholics, lifting up their heads +and hearts once more out of the oppression and insults which they had +unquestionably suffered at the hands of the triumphant Reformers. "There +are many empty poppy-heads now flaunting high that shall be snipped off," +said others. "That accursed German Count Thurn and his fellows, whom the +devil has sent from hell to Bohemia for his own purposes, shall be +disposed of now," was the general cry. + +It was plain that heresy could no longer be maintained except by the +sword. That which had been extorted by force would be plucked back by +force. The succession of Ferdinand was in brief a warshout to be echoed +by all the Catholics of Europe. Before the end of the year the +Protestant churches of Brunnau were sealed up. Those at Klostergrab were +demolished in three days by command of the Archbishop of Prague. These +dumb walls preached in their destruction more stirring sermons than +perhaps would ever have been heard within them had they stood. This +tearing in pieces of the Imperial patent granting liberty of Protestant +worship, this summary execution done upon senseless bricks and mortar, +was an act of defiance to the Reformed religion everywhere. +Protestantism was struck in the face, spat upon, defied. + +The effect was instantaneous. Thurn and the other defenders of the +Protestant faith were as prompt in action as the Catholics had been in +words. A few months passed away. The Emperor was in Vienna, but his ten +stadholders were in Prague. The fateful 23rd of May 1618 arrived. + +Slawata, a Bohemian Protestant, who had converted himself to the Roman +Church in order to marry a rich widow, and who converted his peasants by +hunting them to mass with his hounds, and Martinitz, the two stadholders +who at Ferdinand's coronation had endeavoured to prevent him from +including the Majesty-Letter among the privileges he was swearing to +support, and who were considered the real authors of the royal letters +revoking all religious rights of Protestants, were the most obnoxious of +all. They were hurled from the council-chamber window of the Hradschin. +The unfortunate secretary Fabricius was tossed out after them. Twenty- +eight ells deep they fell, and all escaped unhurt by the fall; Fabricius +being subsequently ennobled by a grateful emperor with the well-won title +of Baron Summerset. + +The Thirty Years' War, which in reality had been going on for several +years already, is dated from that day. A provisional government was +established in Prague by the Estates under Protestant guidance, +a college of thirty directors managing affairs. + +The Window-Tumble, as the event has always been called in history, +excited a sensation in Europe. Especially the young king of France, +whose political position should bring him rather into alliance with the +rebels than the Emperor, was disgusted and appalled. He was used to +rebellion. Since he was ten years old there had been a rebellion against +himself every year. There was rebellion now. But his ministers had +never been thrown out of window. Perhaps one might take some day to +tossing out kings as well. He disapproved the process entirely. + +Thus the great conflict of Christendom, so long impending, seemed at +last to have broken forth in full fury on a comparatively insignificant +incident. Thus reasoned the superficial public, as if the throwing out +of window of twenty stadholders could have created a general war in +Europe had not the causes of war lain deep and deadly in the whole +framework of society. + +The succession of Ferdinand to the throne of the holy Wenzel, in which +his election to the German Imperial crown was meant to be involved, was +a matter which concerned almost every household in Christendom. Liberty +of religion, civil franchise, political charters, contract between +government and subject, right to think, speak, or act, these were the +human rights everywhere in peril. A compromise between the two religious +parties had existed for half a dozen years in Germany, a feeble +compromise by which men had hardly been kept from each others' throats. +That compromise had now been thrown to the winds. The vast conspiracy +of Spain, Rome, the House of Austria, against human liberty had found a +chief in the docile, gloomy pupil of the Jesuits now enthroned in +Bohemia, and soon perhaps to wield the sceptre of the Holy Roman Empire. +There was no state in Europe that had not cause to put hand on sword- +hilt. "Distrust and good garrisons," in the prophetic words of +Barneveld, would now be the necessary resource for all intending +to hold what had been gained through long years of toil, martyrdom, +and hard fighting, + +The succession of Ferdinand excited especial dismay and indignation in +the Palatinate. The young elector had looked upon the prize as his own. +The marked advance of Protestant sentiment throughout the kingdom and its +neighbour provinces had seemed to render the succession of an extreme +Papist impossible. When Frederic had sued for and won the hand of the +fair Elizabeth, daughter of the King of Great Britain, it was understood +that the alliance would be more brilliant for her than it seemed. James +with his usual vanity spoke of his son-in-law as a future king. + +It was a golden dream for the Elector and for the general cause of the +Reformed religion. Heidelberg enthroned in the ancient capital of the +Wenzels, Maximilians, and Rudolphs, the Catechism and Confession enrolled +among the great statutes of the land, this was progress far beyond flimsy +Majesty-Letters and Compromises, made only to be torn to pieces. + +Through the dim vista of futurity and in ecstatic vision no doubt even +the Imperial crown might seem suspended over the Palatine's head. But +this would be merely a midsummer's dream. Events did not whirl so +rapidly as they might learn to do centuries later, and--the time for a +Protestant to grasp at the crown of Germany could then hardly be imagined +as ripening. + +But what the Calvinist branch of the House of Wittelsbach had indeed long +been pursuing was to interrupt the succession of the House of Austria to +the German throne. That a Catholic prince must for the immediate future +continue to occupy it was conceded even by Frederic, but the electoral +votes might surely be now so manipulated as to prevent a slave of Spain +and a tool of the Jesuits from wielding any longer the sceptre of +Charlemagne. + +On the other hand the purpose of the House of Austria was to do away with +the elective principle and the prescriptive rights of the Estates in +Bohemia first, and afterwards perhaps to send the Golden Bull itself to +the limbo of wornout constitutional devices. At present however their +object was to secure their hereditary sovereignty in Prague first, and +then to make sure of the next Imperial election at Frankfurt. Time +afterwards might fight still more in their favour, and fix them in +hereditary possession of the German throne. + +The Elector-Palatine had lost no time. His counsellors even before the +coronation of Ferdinand at Prague had done their best to excite alarm +throughout Germany at the document by which Archdukes Maximilian and +Albert had resigned all their hereditary claims in favour of Ferdinand +and his male children. Should there be no such issue, the King of Spain +claimed the succession for his own sons as great-grandchildren of Emperor +Maximilian, considering himself nearer in the line than the Styrian +branch, but being willing to waive his own rights in favour of so ardent +a Catholic as Ferdinand. There was even a secret negotiation going on a +long time between the new king of Bohemia and Philip to arrange for the +precedence of the Spanish males over the Styrian females to the +hereditary Austrian states, and to cede the province of Alsace +to Spain. + +It was not wonderful that Protestant Germany should be alarmed. After a +century of Protestantism, that Spain should by any possibility come to be +enthroned again over Germany was enough to raise both Luther and Calvin +from their graves. It was certainly enough to set the lively young +palatine in motion. So soon as the election of Frederic was proclaimed, +he had taken up the business in person. Fond of amusement, young, +married to a beautiful bride of the royal house of England, he had +hitherto left politics to his counsellors. + +Finding himself frustrated in his ambition by the election of another to +the seat he had fondly deemed his own, he resolved to unseat him if he +could, and, at any rate, to prevent the ulterior consequences of his +elevation. He made a pilgrimage to Sedan, to confer with that +irrepressible intriguer and Huguenot chieftain, the Duc de Bouillon. +He felt sure of the countenance of the States-General, and, of course, +of his near relative the great stadholder. He was resolved to invite +the Duke of Lorraine to head the anti-Austrian party, and to stand for +the kingship of the Romans and the Empire in opposition to Ferdinand. +An emissary sent to Nancy came back with a discouraging reply. The Duke +not only flatly refused the candidacy, but warned the Palatine that if it +really came to a struggle he could reckon on small support anywhere, not +even from those who now seemed warmest for the scheme. Then Frederic +resolved to try his cousin, the great Maximilian of Bavaria, to whom all +Catholics looked with veneration and whom all German Protestants +respected. Had the two branches of the illustrious house of Wittelsbach +been combined in one purpose, the opposition to the House of Austria +might indeed have been formidable. But what were ties of blood compared +to the iron bands of religious love and hatred? How could Maximilian, +sternest of Papists, and Frederick V., flightiest of Calvinists, act +harmoniously in an Imperial election? Moreover, Maximilian was united by +ties of youthful and tender friendship as well as by kindred and perfect +religious sympathy to his other cousin, King Ferdinand himself. The case +seemed hopeless, but the Elector went to Munich, and held conferences +with his cousin. Not willing to take No for an answer so long as it was +veiled under evasive or ornamental phraseology, he continued to negotiate +with Maximilian through his envoys Camerarius and Secretary Neu, who held +long debates with the Duke's chief councillor, Doctor Jocher. Camerarius +assured Jocher that his master was the Hercules to untie the Gordian +knot, and the lion of the tribe of Judah. How either the lion of Judah +or Hercules were to untie the knot which was popularly supposed to have +been cut by the sword of Alexander did not appear, but Maximilian at any +rate was moved neither by entreaties nor tropes. Being entirely averse +from entering himself for the German crown, he grew weary at last of the +importunity with which the scheme was urged. So he wrote a short billet +to his councillor, to be shown to Secretary Neu. + +"Dear Jocher," he said, "I am convinced one must let these people +understand the matter in a little plainer German. I am once for +all determined not to let myself into any misunderstanding or even +amplifications with the House of Austria in regard to the succession. +I think also that it would rather be harmful than useful to my house +to take upon myself so heavy a burthen as the German crown." + +This time the German was plain enough and produced its effect. +Maximilian was too able a statesman and too conscientious a friend +to wish to exchange his own proud position as chief of the League, +acknowledged head of the great Catholic party, for the slippery, +comfortless, and unmeaning throne of the Holy Empire, which he +considered Ferdinand's right. + +The chiefs of the anti-Austrian party, especially the Prince of Anhalt +and the Margrave of Anspach, in unison with the Heidelberg cabinet, were +forced to look for another candidate. Accordingly the Margrave and the +Elector-Palatine solemnly agreed that it was indispensable to choose an +emperor who should not be of the House of Austria nor a slave of Spain. +It was, to be sure, not possible to think of a Protestant prince. +Bavaria would not oppose Austria, would also allow too much influence to +the Jesuits. So there remained no one but the Duke of Savoy. He was a +prince of the Empire. He was of German descent, of Saxon race, a great +general, father of his soldiers, who would protect Europe against a +Turkish invasion better than the bastions of Vienna could do. He would +be agreeable to the Catholics, while the Protestants could live under him +without anxiety because the Jesuits would be powerless with him. It +would be a master-stroke if the princes would unite upon him. The King +of France would necessarily be pleased with it, the King of Great Britain +delighted. + +At last the model candidate had been found. The Duke of Savoy having +just finished for a second time his chronic war with Spain, in which the +United Provinces, notwithstanding the heavy drain on their resources, had +allowed him 50,000 florins a month besides the soldiers under Count +Ernest of Nassau, had sent Mansfeld with 4000 men to aid the revolted +estates in Bohemia. Geographically, hereditarily, necessarily the deadly +enemy of the House of Austria, he listened favourably to the overtures +made to him by the princes of the Union, expressed undying hatred for the +Imperial race, and thought the Bohemian revolt a priceless occasion for +expelling them from power. He was informed by the first envoy sent to +him, Christopher van Dohna, that the object of the great movement now +contemplated was to raise him to the Imperial throne at the next +election, to assist the Bohemian estates, to secure the crown of Bohemia +for the Elector-Palatine, to protect the Protestants of Germany, and to +break down the overweening power of the Austrian house. + +The Duke displayed no eagerness for the crown of Germany, while approving +the election of Frederic, but expressed entire sympathy with the +enterprise. It was indispensable however to form a general federation in +Europe of England, the Netherlands, Venice, together with Protestant +Germany and himself, before undertaking so mighty a task. While the +negotiations were going on, both Anspach and Anhalt were in great +spirits. The Margrave cried out exultingly, "In a short time the means +will be in our hands for turning the world upside down." He urged the +Prince of Anhalt to be expeditious in his decisions and actions. "He who +wishes to trade," he said, "must come to market early." + +There was some disappointment at Heidelberg when the first news from +Turin arrived, the materials for this vast scheme for an overwhelming and +universal European war not seeming to be at their disposition. By and by +the Duke's plans seem to deepen and broaden. He told Mansfeld, who, +accompanied by Secretary Neu, was glad at a pause in his fighting and +brandschatzing in Bohemia to be employed on diplomatic business, that on +the whole he should require the crown of Bohemia for himself. He also +proposed to accept the Imperial crown, and as for Frederic, he would +leave him the crown of Hungary, and would recommend him to round himself +out by adding to his hereditary dominions the province of Alsace, besides +Upper Austria and other territories in convenient proximity to the +Palatinate. + +Venice, it had been hoped, would aid in the great scheme and might +in her turn round herself out with Friuli and Istria and other tempting +possessions of Ferdinand, in reward for the men and money she was +expected to furnish. That republic had however just concluded a war with +Ferdinand, caused mainly by the depredations of the piratical Uscoques, +in which, as we have seen, she had received the assistance of 4000 +Hollanders under command of Count John of Nassau. The Venetians had +achieved many successes, had taken the city of Gortz, and almost reduced +the city of Gradiska. A certain colonel Albert Waldstein however, +of whom more might one day be heard in the history of the war now begun, +had beaten the Venetians and opened a pathway through their ranks for +succour to the beleaguered city. Soon afterwards peace was made on an +undertaking that the Uscoques should be driven from their haunts, their +castles dismantled, and their ships destroyed. + +Venice declined an engagement to begin a fresh war. + +She hated Ferdinand and Matthias and the whole Imperial brood, but, as +old Barbarigo declared in the Senate, the Republic could not afford to +set her house on fire in order to give Austria the inconvenience of the +smoke. + +Meantime, although the Elector-Palatine had magnanimously agreed to use +his influence in Bohemia in favour of Charles Emmanuel, the Duke seems at +last to have declined proposing himself for that throne. He knew, he +said, that King James wished that station for his son-in-law. The +Imperial crown belonged to no one as yet after the death of Matthias, +and was open therefore to his competition. + +Anhalt demanded of Savoy 15,000 men for the maintenance of the good +cause, asserting that "it would be better to have the Turk or the devil +himself on the German throne than leave it to Ferdinand." + +The triumvirate ruling at Prague-Thurn, Ruppa, and Hohenlohe--were +anxious for a decision from Frederic. That simple-hearted and ingenuous +young elector had long been troubled both with fears lest after all he +might lose the crown of Bohemia and with qualms of conscience as to the +propriety of taking it even if he could get it. He wrestled much in +prayer and devout meditation whether as anointed prince himself he were +justified in meddling with the anointment of other princes. Ferdinand +had been accepted, proclaimed, crowned. He artlessly sent to Prague to +consult the Estates whether they possessed the right to rebel, to set +aside the reigning dynasty, and to choose a new king. At the same time, +with an eye to business, he stipulated that on account of the great +expense and trouble devolving upon him the crown must be made hereditary +in his family. The impression made upon the grim Thurn and his +colleagues by the simplicity of these questions may be imagined. The +splendour and width of the Savoyard's conceptions fascinated the leaders +of the Union. It seemed to Anspach and Anhalt that it was as well that +Frederic should reign in Hungary as in Bohemia, and the Elector was +docile. All had relied however on the powerful assistance of the great +defender of the Protestant faith, the father-in-law of the Elector, the +King of Great Britain. But James had nothing but cold water and +Virgilian quotations for his son's ardour. He was more under the +influence of Gondemar than ever before, more eagerly hankering for the +Infanta, more completely the slave of Spain. He pledged himself to that +government that if the Protestants in Bohemia continued rebellious, he +would do his best to frustrate their designs, and would induce his son- +in-law to have no further connection with them. And Spain delighted his +heart not by immediately sending over the Infanta, but by proposing that +he should mediate between the contending parties. It would be difficult +to imagine a greater farce. All central Europe was now in arms. The +deepest and gravest questions about which men can fight: the right to +worship God according to their conscience and to maintain civil +franchises which have been earned by the people with the blood and +treasure of centuries, were now to be solved by the sword, and the pupil +of Buchanan and the friend of Buckingham was to step between hundreds of +thousands of men in arms with a classical oration. But James was very +proud of the proposal and accepted it with alacrity. + +"You know, my dear son," he wrote to Frederic, "that we are the only +king in Europe that is sought for by friend and foe for his mediation. +It would be for this our lofty part very unbecoming if we were capable +of favouring one of the parties. Your suggestion that we might secretly +support the Bohemians we must totally reject, as it is not our way to do +anything that we would not willingly confess to the whole world." + +And to do James justice, he had never fed Frederic with false hopes, +never given a penny for his great enterprise, nor promised him a penny. +He had contented himself with suggesting from time to time that he might +borrow money of the States-General. His daughter Elizabeth must take +care of herself, else what would become of her brother's marriage to the +daughter of Spain. + +And now it was war to the knife, in which it was impossible that Holland, +as well as all the other great powers should not soon be involved. It +was disheartening to the cause of freedom and progress, not only that the +great kingdom on which the world, had learned to rely in all movements +upward and onward should be neutralized by the sycophancy of its monarch +to the general oppressor, but that the great republic which so long had +taken the lead in maintaining the liberties of Europe should now be torn +by religious discord within itself, and be turning against the great +statesman who had so wisely guided her councils and so accurately +foretold the catastrophe which was now upon the world. + +Meantime the Emperor Matthias, not less forlorn than through his +intrigues and rebellions his brother Rudolph had been made, passed his +days in almost as utter retirement as if he had formally abdicated. +Ferdinand treated him as if in his dotage. His fair young wife too had +died of hard eating in the beginning of the winter to his inexpressible +grief, so that there was nothing left to solace him now but the +Rudolphian Museum. + +He had made but one public appearance since the coronation of Ferdinand +in Prague. Attended by his brother Maximilian, by King Ferdinand, and by +Cardinal Khlesl, he had towards the end of the year 1617 paid a visit to +the Elector John George at Dresden. The Imperial party had been received +with much enthusiasm by the great leader of Lutheranism. The Cardinal +had seriously objected to accompanying the Emperor on this occasion. +Since the Reformation no cardinal had been seen at the court of Saxony. +He cared not personally for the pomps and glories of his rank, but still +as prince of the Church he had settled right of precedence over electors. +To waive it would be disrespectful to the Pope, to claim it would lead to +squabbles. But Ferdinand had need of his skill to secure the vote of +Saxony at the next Imperial election. The Cardinal was afraid of +Ferdinand with good reason, and complied. By an agreeable fiction he was +received at court not as cardinal but as minister, and accommodated with +an humble place at table. Many looking on with astonishment thought he +would have preferred to dine by himself in retirement. But this was not +the bitterest of the mortifications that the pastor and guide of Matthias +was to suffer at the hands of Ferdinand before his career should be +closed. The visit at Dresden was successful, however. John George, +being a claimant, as we have seen, for the Duchies of Cleve and Julich, +had need of the Emperor. The King had need of John George's vote. There +was a series of splendid balls, hunting parties, carousings. + +The Emperor was an invalid, the King was abstemious, but the Elector was +a mighty drinker. It was not his custom nor that of his councillors to +go to bed. They were usually carried there. But it was the wish of +Ferdinand to be conciliatory, and he bore himself as well as he could at +the banquet. The Elector was also a mighty hunter. Neither of his +Imperial guests cared for field sports, but they looked out contentedly +from the window of a hunting-lodge, before which for their entertainment +the Elector and his courtiers slaughtered eight bears, ten stags, ten +pigs, and eleven badgers, besides a goodly number of other game; John +George shooting also three martens from a pole erected for that purpose +in the courtyard. It seemed proper for him thus to exhibit a specimen of +the skill for which he was justly famed. The Elector before his life +closed, so says the chronicle, had killed 28,000 wild boars, 208 bears, +3543 wolves, 200 badgers, 18,967 foxes, besides stags and roedeer in +still greater number, making a grand total of 113,629 beasts. The leader +of the Lutheran party of Germany had not lived in vain. + +Thus the great chiefs of Catholicism and of Protestantism amicably +disported themselves in the last days of the year, while their respective +forces were marshalling for mortal combat all over Christendom. The +Elector certainly loved neither Matthias nor Ferdinand, but he hated the +Palatine. The chief of the German Calvinists disputed that Protestant +hegemony which John George claimed by right. Indeed the immense +advantage enjoyed by the Catholics at the outbreak of the religious war +from the mutual animosities between the two great divisions of the +Reformed Church was already terribly manifest. What an additional power +would it derive from the increased weakness of the foe, should there be +still other and deeper and more deadly schisms within one great division +itself! + +"The Calvinists and Lutherans," cried the Jesuit Scioppius, "are so +furiously attacking each other with calumnies and cursings and are +persecuting each other to such extent as to give good hope that the +devilish weight and burthen of them will go to perdition and shame of +itself, and the heretics all do bloody execution upon each other. +Certainly if ever a golden time existed for exterminating the heretics, +it is the present time." + +The Imperial party took their leave of Dresden, believing themselves to +have secured the electoral vote of Saxony; the Elector hoping for +protection to his interests in the duchies through that sequestration to +which Barneveld had opposed such vigorous resistance. There had been +much slavish cringing before these Catholic potentates by the courtiers +of Dresden, somewhat amazing to the ruder churls of Saxony, the common +people, who really believed in the religion which their prince had +selected for them and himself. + +And to complete the glaring contrast, Ferdinand and Matthias had scarcely +turned their backs before tremendous fulminations upon the ancient church +came from the Elector and from all the doctors of theology in Saxony. + +For the jubilee of the hundredth anniversary of the Reformation was +celebrated all over Germany in the autumn of this very year, and nearly +at the exact moment of all this dancing, and fuddling, and pig shooting +at Dresden in honour of emperors and cardinals. And Pope Paul V. had +likewise ordained a jubilee for true believers at almost the same time. + +The Elector did not mince matters in his proclamation from any regard +to the feelings of his late guests. He called on all Protestants to +rejoice, "because the light of the Holy Gospel had now shone brightly in +the electoral dominions for a hundred years, the Omnipotent keeping it +burning notwithstanding the raging and roaring of the hellish enemy and +all his scaly servants." + +The doctors of divinity were still more emphatic in their phraseology. +They called on all professors and teachers of the true Evangelical +churches, not only in Germany but throughout Christendom, to keep the +great jubilee. They did this in terms not calculated certainly to +smother the flames of religious and party hatred, even if it had been +possible at that moment to suppress the fire. "The great God of Heaven," +they said, "had caused the undertaking of His holy instrument Mr. Doctor +Martin Luther to prosper. Through His unspeakable mercy he has driven +away the Papal darkness and caused the sun of righteousness once more to +beam upon the world. The old idolatries, blasphemies, errors, and +horrors of the benighted Popedom have been exterminated in many kingdoms +and countries. Innumerable sheep of the Lord Christ have been fed on +the wholesome pasture of the Divine Word in spite of those monstrous, +tearing, ravenous wolves, the Pope and his followers. The enemy of God +and man, the ancient serpent, may hiss and rage. Yes, the Roman +antichrist in his frantic blusterings may bite off his own tongue, may +fulminate all kinds of evils, bans, excommunications, wars, desolations, +and burnings, as long and as much as he likes. But if we take refuge +with the Lord God, what can this inane, worn-out man and water-bubble do +to us?" With more in the same taste. + +The Pope's bull for the Catholic jubilee was far more decorous and lofty +in tone, for it bewailed the general sin in Christendom, and called on +all believers to flee from the wrath about to descend upon the earth, +in terms that were almost prophetic. He ordered all to pray that the +Lord might lift up His Church, protect it from the wiles of the enemy, +extirpate heresies, grant peace and true unity among Christian princes, +and mercifully avert disasters already coming near. + +But if the language of Paul V. was measured and decent, the swarm of +Jesuit pamphleteers that forthwith began to buzz and to sting all over +Christendom were sufficiently venomous. Scioppius, in his Alarm Trumpet +to the Holy War, and a hundred others declared that all heresies and +heretics were now to be extirpated, the one true church to be united and +re-established, and that the only road to such a consummation was a path +of blood. + +The Lutheran preachers, on the other hand, obedient to the summons from +Dresden, vied with each other in every town and village in heaping +denunciations, foul names, and odious imputations on the Catholics; +while the Calvinists, not to be behindhand with their fellow Reformers, +celebrated the jubilee, especially at Heidelberg, by excluding Papists +from hope of salvation, and bewailing the fate of all churches sighing +under the yoke of Rome. + +And not only were the Papists and the Reformers exchanging these blasts +and counterblasts of hatred, not less deadly in their effects than the +artillery of many armies, but as if to make a thorough exhibition of +human fatuity when drunk with religious passion, the Lutherans were +making fierce paper and pulpit war upon the Calvinists. Especially Hoe, +court preacher of John George, ceaselessly hurled savage libels against +them. In the name of the theological faculty of Wittenberg, he addressed +a "truehearted warning to all Lutheran Christians in Bohemia, Moravia, +Silesia, and other provinces, to beware of the erroneous Calvinistic +religion." He wrote a letter to Count Schlick, foremost leader in the +Bohemian movement, asking whether "the unquiet Calvinist spirit, should +it gain ascendency, would be any more endurable than the Papists. Oh +what woe, what infinite woe," he cried, "for those noble countries if +they should all be thrust into the jaws of Calvinism!" + +Did not preacher Hoe's master aspire to the crown of Bohemia himself? +Was he not furious at the start which Heidelberg had got of him in the +race for that golden prize? Was he not mad with jealousy of the +Palatine, of the Palatine's religion, and of the Palatine's claim to +"hegemony" in Germany? + +Thus embittered and bloodthirsty towards each other were the two great +sections of the Reformed religion on the first centennial jubilee of the +Reformation. Such was the divided front which the anti-Catholic party +presented at the outbreak of the war with Catholicism. + +Ferdinand, on the other hand, was at the head of a comparatively united +party. He could hardly hope for more than benevolent neutrality from the +French government, which, in spite of the Spanish marriages, dared not +wholly desert the Netherlands and throw itself into the hands of Spain; +but Spanish diplomacy had enslaved the British king, and converted what +should have been an active and most powerful enemy into an efficient if +concealed ally. The Spanish and archiducal armies were enveloping the +Dutch republic, from whence the most powerful support could be expected +for the Protestant cause. Had it not been for the steadiness of +Barneveld, Spain would have been at that moment established in full +panoply over the whole surface of those inestimable positions, the +disputed duchies. Venice was lukewarm, if not frigid; and Savoy, +although deeply pledged by passion and interest to the downfall of the +House of Austria, was too dangerously situated herself, too distant, too +poor, and too Catholic to be very formidable. + +Ferdinand was safe from the Turkish side. A twenty years' peace, +renewable by agreement, between the Holy Empire and the Sultan had been +negotiated by those two sons of bakers, Cardinal Khlesl and the Vizier +Etmekdschifade. It was destined to endure through all the horrors of the +great war, a stronger protection to Vienna than all the fortifications +which the engineering art could invent. He was safe too from Poland, +King Sigmund being not only a devoted Catholic but doubly his brother-in- +law. + +Spain, therefore, the Spanish Netherlands, the Pope, and the German +League headed by Maximilian of Bavaria, the ablest prince on the +continent of Europe, presented a square, magnificent phalanx on which +Ferdinand might rely. The States-General, on the other hand, were a most +dangerous foe. With a centennial hatred of Spain, splendidly disciplined +armies and foremost navy of the world, with an admirable financial system +and vast commercial resources, with a great stadholder, first captain of +the age, thirsting for war, and allied in blood as well as religion to +the standard-bearer of the Bohemian revolt; with councils directed by the +wisest and most experienced of living statesman, and with the very life +blood of her being derived from the fountain of civil and religious +liberty, the great Republic of the United Netherlands--her Truce with the +hereditary foe just expiring was, if indeed united, strong enough at the +head of the Protestant forces of Europe to dictate to a world in arms. + +Alas! was it united? + +As regarded internal affairs of most pressing interest, the electoral +vote at the next election at Frankfurt had been calculated as being +likely to yield a majority of one for the opposition candidate, should +the Savoyard or any other opposition candidate be found. But the +calculation was a close one and might easily be fallacious. Supposing +the Palatine elected King of Bohemia by the rebellious estates, as was +probable, he could of course give the vote of that electorate and his own +against Ferdinand, and the vote of Brandenburg at that time seemed safe. +But Ferdinand by his visit to Dresden had secured the vote of Saxony, +while of the three ecclesiastical electors, Cologne and Mayence were sure +for him. Thus it would be three and three, and the seventh and decisive +vote would be that of the Elector-Bishop of Treves. The sanguine +Frederic thought that with French influence and a round sum of money this +ecclesiastic might be got to vote for the opposition candidate. The +ingenious combination was not destined to be successful, and as there has +been no intention in the present volume to do more than slightly indicate +the most prominent movements and mainsprings of the great struggle so far +as Germany is concerned, without entering into detail, it may be as well +to remind the reader that it proved wonderfully wrong. Matthias died on +the 20th March, 1619, the election of a new emperor took place at +Frankfurt On the 28th of the following August, and not only did Saxony +and all three ecclesiastical electors vote for Ferdinand, but Brandenburg +likewise, as well as the Elector-Palatine himself, while Ferdinand, +personally present in the assembly as Elector of Bohemia, might according +to the Golden Bull have given the seventh vote for himself had he chosen +to do so. Thus the election was unanimous. + +Strange to say, as the electors proceeded through the crowd from the hall +of election to accompany the new emperor to the church where he was to +receive the popular acclaim, the news reached them from Prague that the +Elector-Palatine had been elected King of Bohemia. + +Thus Frederic, by voting for Ferdinand, had made himself voluntarily a +rebel should he accept the crown now offered him. Had the news arrived +sooner, a different result and even a different history might have been +possible. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +Barneveld connected with the East India Company, but opposed to the West +India Company--Carleton comes from Venice inimical to Barneveld-- +Maurice openly the Chieftain of the Contra-Remonstrants--Tumults +about the Churches--"Orange or Spain" the Cry of Prince Maurice and +his Party--They take possession of the Cloister Church--"The Sharp +Resolve"--Carleton's Orations before the States-General. + +King James never forgave Barneveld for drawing from him those famous +letters to the States in which he was made to approve the Five Points +and to admit the possibility of salvation under them. These epistles +had brought much ridicule upon James, who was not amused by finding his +theological discussions a laughing-stock. He was still more incensed by +the biting criticisms made upon the cheap surrender of the cautionary +towns, and he hated more than ever the statesman who, as he believed, +had twice outwitted him. + +On the other hand, Maurice, inspired by his brother-in-law the Duke of +Bouillon and by the infuriated Francis Aerssens, abhorred Barneveld's +French policy, which was freely denounced by the French Calvinists and +by the whole orthodox church. In Holland he was still warmly sustained +except in the Contra-Remonstrant Amsterdam and a few other cities of less +importance. But there were perhaps deeper reasons for the Advocate's +unpopularity in the great commercial metropolis than theological +pretexts. Barneveld's name and interests were identified with the great +East India Company, which was now powerful and prosperous beyond anything +ever dreamt of before in the annals of commerce. That trading company +had already founded an empire in the East. Fifty ships of war, +fortresses guarded by 4000 pieces of artillery and 10,000 soldiers and +sailors, obeyed the orders of a dozen private gentlemen at home seated in +a back parlour around a green table. The profits of each trading voyage +were enormous, and the shareholders were growing rich beyond their +wildest imaginings. To no individual so much as to Holland's Advocate +was this unexampled success to be ascribed. The vast prosperity of the +East India Company had inspired others with the ambition to found a +similar enterprise in the West. But to the West India Company then +projected and especially favoured in Amsterdam, Barneveld was firmly +opposed. He considered it as bound up with the spirit of military +adventure and conquest, and as likely to bring on prematurely and +unwisely a renewed conflict with Spain. The same reasons which had +caused him to urge the Truce now influenced his position in regard +to the West India Company. + +Thus the clouds were gathering every day more darkly over the head of +the Advocate. The powerful mercantile interest in the great seat of +traffic in the Republic, the personal animosity of the Stadholder, +the execrations of the orthodox party in France, England, and all the +Netherlands, the anger of the French princes and all those of the old +Huguenot party who had been foolish enough to act with the princes in +their purely selfish schemes against the, government, and the overflowing +hatred of King James, whose darling schemes of Spanish marriages and a +Spanish alliance had been foiled by the Advocate's masterly policy in +France and in the duchies, and whose resentment at having been so +completely worsted and disarmed in the predestination matter and in the +redemption of the great mortgage had deepened into as terrible wrath as +outraged bigotry and vanity could engender; all these elements made up a +stormy atmosphere in which the strongest heart might have quailed. But +Barneveld did not quail. Doubtless he loved power, and the more danger +he found on every side the less inclined he was to succumb. But he +honestly believed that the safety and prosperity of the country he had +so long and faithfully served were identified with the policy which he +was pursuing. Arrogant, overbearing, self-concentrated, accustomed to +lead senates and to guide the councils and share the secrets of kings, +familiar with and almost an actor in every event in the political history +not only of his own country but of every important state in Christendom +during nearly two generations of mankind, of unmatched industry, full +of years and experience, yet feeling within him the youthful strength +of a thousand intellects compared to most of those by which he was +calumniated, confronted, and harassed; he accepted the great fight which +was forced upon him. Irascible, courageous, austere, contemptuous, he +looked around and saw the Republic whose cradle he had rocked grown to be +one of the most powerful and prosperous among the states of the world, +and could with difficulty imagine that in this supreme hour of her +strength and her felicity she was ready to turn and rend the man whom +she was bound by every tie of duty to cherish and to revere. + +Sir Dudley Carleton, the new English ambassador to the States, had +arrived during the past year red-hot from Venice. There he had perhaps +not learned especially to love the new republic which had arisen among +the northern lagunes, and whose admission among the nations had been at +last accorded by the proud Queen of the Adriatic, notwithstanding the +objections and the intrigues both of French and English representatives. +He had come charged to the brim with the political spite of James against +the Advocate, and provided too with more than seven vials of theological +wrath. Such was the King's revenge for Barneveld's recent successes. +The supporters in the Netherlands of the civil authority over the Church +were moreover to be instructed by the political head of the English +Church that such supremacy, although highly proper for a king, was +"thoroughly unsuitable for a many-headed republic." So much for church +government. As for doctrine, Arminianism and Vorstianism were to be +blasted with one thunderstroke from the British throne. + +"In Holland," said James to his envoy, "there have been violent and sharp +contestations amongst the towns in the cause of religion . . . . . +If they shall be unhappily revived during your time, you shall not forget +that you are the minister of that master whom God hath made the sole +protector of His religion." + +There was to be no misunderstanding in future as to the dogmas which +the royal pope of Great Britain meant to prescribe to his Netherland +subjects. Three years before, at the dictation of the Advocate, he had +informed the States that he was convinced of their ability to settle the +deplorable dissensions as to religion according to their wisdom and the +power which belonged to them over churches and church servants. He had +informed them of his having learned by experience that such questions +could hardly be decided by the wranglings of theological professors, and +that it was better to settle them by public authority and to forbid their +being brought into the pulpit or among common people. He had recommended +mutual toleration of religious difference until otherwise ordained by the +public civil authority, and had declared that neither of the two opinions +in regard to predestination was in his opinion far from the truth or +inconsistent with Christian faith or the salvation of souls. + +It was no wonder that these utterances were quite after the Advocate's +heart, as James had faithfully copied them from the Advocate's draft. + +But now in the exercise of his infallibility the King issued other +decrees. His minister was instructed to support the extreme views of the +orthodox both as to government and dogma, and to urge the National Synod, +as it were, at push of pike. "Besides the assistance," said he to +Carleton, "which we would have you give to the true professors of the +Gospel in your discourse and conferences, you may let fall how hateful +the maintenance of these erroneous opinions is to the majesty of God, how +displeasing unto us their dearest friends, and how disgraceful to the +honour and government of that state." + +And faithfully did the Ambassador act up to his instructions. Most +sympathetically did he embody the hatred of the King. An able, +experienced, highly accomplished diplomatist and scholar, ready with +tongue and pen, caustic, censorious, prejudiced, and partial, he was soon +foremost among the foes of the Advocate in the little court of the Hague, +and prepared at any moment to flourish the political and theological goad +when his master gave the word. + +Nothing in diplomatic history is more eccentric than the long sermons +upon abstruse points of divinity and ecclesiastical history which the +English ambassador delivered from time to time before the States-General +in accordance with elaborate instructions drawn up by his sovereign with +his own hand. Rarely has a king been more tedious, and he bestowed all +his tediousness upon My Lords the States-General. Nothing could be more +dismal than these discourses, except perhaps the contemporaneous and +interminable orations of Grotius to the states of Holland, to the +magistrates of Amsterdam, to the states of Utrecht; yet Carleton was a +man of the world, a good debater, a ready writer, while Hugo Grotius was +one of the great lights of that age and which shone for all time. + +Among the diplomatic controversies of history, rarely refreshing at best, +few have been more drouthy than those once famous disquisitions, and they +shall be left to shrivel into the nothingness of the past, so far as is +consistent with the absolute necessities of this narrative. + +The contest to which the Advocate was called had become mainly a personal +and a political one, although the weapons with which it was fought were +taken from ecclesiastical arsenals. It was now an unequal contest. + +For the great captain of the country and of his time, the son of William +the Silent, the martial stadholder, in the fulness of his fame and vigour +of his years, had now openly taken his place as the chieftain of the +Contra-Remonstrants. The conflict between the civil and the military +element for supremacy in a free commonwealth has never been more vividly +typified than in this death-grapple between Maurice and Barneveld. + +The aged but still vigorous statesman, ripe with half a century of +political lore, and the high-born, brilliant, and scientific soldier, +with the laurels of Turnhout and Nieuwpoort and of a hundred famous +sieges upon his helmet, reformer of military science, and no mean +proficient in the art of politics and government, were the +representatives and leaders of the two great parties into which the +Commonwealth had now unhappily divided itself. But all history shows +that the brilliant soldier of a republic is apt to have the advantage, +in a struggle for popular affection and popular applause, over the +statesman, however consummate. The general imagination is more excited +by the triumphs of the field than by those of the tribune, and the man +who has passed many years of life in commanding multitudes with +necessarily despotic sway is often supposed to have gained in the process +the attributes likely to render him most valuable as chief citizen of a +flee commonwealth. Yet national enthusiasm is so universally excited by +splendid military service as to forbid a doubt that the sentiment is +rooted deeply in our nature, while both in antiquity and in modern times +there are noble although rare examples of the successful soldier +converting himself into a valuable and exemplary magistrate. + +In the rivalry of Maurice and Barneveld however for the national +affection the chances were singularly against the Advocate. The great +battles and sieges of the Prince had been on a world's theatre, had +enchained the attention of Christendom, and on their issue had frequently +depended, or seemed to depend, the very existence of the nation. The +labours of the statesman, on the contrary, had been comparatively secret. +His noble orations and arguments had been spoken with closed doors to +assemblies of colleagues--rather envoys than senators--were never printed +or even reported, and could be judged of only by their effects; while his +vast labours in directing both the internal administration and especially +the foreign affairs of the Commonwealth had been by their very nature as +secret as they were perpetual and enormous. + +Moreover, there was little of what we now understand as the democratic +sentiment in the Netherlands. There was deep and sturdy attachment to +ancient traditions, privileges, special constitutions extorted from a +power acknowledged to be superior to the people. When partly to save +those chartered rights, and partly to overthrow the horrible +ecclesiastical tyranny of the sixteenth century, the people had +accomplished a successful revolt, they never dreamt of popular +sovereignty, but allowed the municipal corporations, by which their +local affairs had been for centuries transacted, to unite in offering +to foreign princes, one after another, the crown which they had torn +from the head of the Spanish king. When none was found to accept the +dangerous honour, they had acquiesced in the practical sovereignty of the +States; but whether the States-General or the States-Provincial were the +supreme authority had certainly not been definitely and categorically +settled. So long as the States of Holland, led by the Advocate, had +controlled in great matters the political action of the States-General, +while the Stadholder stood without a rival at the head of their military +affairs, and so long as there were no fierce disputes as to government +and dogma within the bosom of the Reformed Church, the questions which +were now inflaming the whole population had been allowed to slumber. + +The termination of the war and the rise of Arminianism were almost +contemporaneous. The Stadholder, who so unwillingly had seen the +occupation in which he had won so much glory taken from him by the Truce, +might perhaps find less congenial but sufficiently engrossing business as +champion of the Church and of the Union. + +The new church--not freedom of worship for different denominations of +Christians, but supremacy of the Church of Heidelberg and Geneva--seemed +likely to be the result of the overthrow of the ancient church. It is +the essence of the Catholic Church to claim supremacy over and immunity +from the civil authority, and to this claim for the Reformed Church, by +which that of Rome had been supplanted, Barneveld was strenuously +opposed. + +The Stadholder was backed, therefore, by the Church in its purity, by the +majority of the humbler classes--who found in membership of the oligarchy +of Heaven a substitute for those democratic aspirations on earth which +were effectually suppressed between the two millstones of burgher +aristocracy and military discipline--and by the States-General, +a majority of which were Contra-Remonstrant in their faith. + +If the sword is usually an overmatch for the long robe in political +struggles, the cassock has often proved superior to both combined. But +in the case now occupying our attention the cassock was in alliance with +the sword. Clearly the contest was becoming a desperate one for the +statesman. + +And while the controversy between the chiefs waged hotter and hotter, the +tumults around the churches on Sundays in every town and village grew +more and more furious, ending generally in open fights with knives, +bludgeons, and brickbats; preachers and magistrates being often too glad +to escape with a whole skin. One can hardly be ingenuous enough to +consider all this dirking, battering, and fisticuffing as the legitimate +and healthy outcome of a difference as to the knotty point whether all +men might or might not be saved by repentance and faith in Christ. + +The Greens and Blues of the Byzantine circus had not been more typical +of fierce party warfare in the Lower Empire than the greens and blues +of predestination in the rising commonwealth, according to the real or +imagined epigram of Prince Maurice. + +"Your divisions in religion," wrote Secretary Lake to Carleton, "have, I +doubt not, a deeper root than is discerned by every one, and I doubt not +that the Prince Maurice's carriage doth make a jealousy of affecting a +party under the pretence of supporting one side, and that the States +fear his ends and aims, knowing his power with the men of war; and that +howsoever all be shadowed under the name of religion there is on either +part a civil end, of the one seeking a step of higher authority, of the +other a preservation of liberty." + +And in addition to other advantages the Contra-Remonstrants had now got a +good cry--an inestimable privilege in party contests. + +"There are two factions in the land," said Maurice, "that of Orange and +that of Spain, and the two chiefs of the Spanish faction are those +political and priestly Arminians, Uytenbogaert and Oldenbarneveld." + +Orange and Spain! the one name associated with all that was most +venerated and beloved throughout the country, for William the Silent +since his death was almost a god; the other ineradicably entwined at that +moment with, everything execrated throughout the land. The Prince of +Orange's claim to be head of the Orange faction could hardly be disputed, +but it was a master stroke of political malice to fix the stigma of +Spanish partisanship on the Advocate. If the venerable patriot who had +been fighting Spain, sometimes on the battle-field and always in the +council, ever since he came to man's estate, could be imagined even in +a dream capable of being bought with Spanish gold to betray his country, +who in the ranks of the Remonstrant party could be safe from such +accusations? Each party accused the other of designs for altering or +subverting the government. Maurice was suspected of what were called +Leicestrian projects, "Leycestrana consilia"--for the Earl's plots to +gain possession of Leyden and Utrecht had never been forgotten--while +the Prince and those who acted with him asserted distinctly that it was +the purpose of Barneveld to pave the way for restoring the Spanish +sovereignty and the Popish religion so soon as the Truce had reached its +end? + +Spain and Orange. Nothing for a faction fight could be neater. Moreover +the two words rhyme in Netherlandish, which is the case in no other +language, "Spanje-Oranje." The sword was drawn and the banner unfurled. + +The "Mud Beggars" of the Hague, tired of tramping to Ryswyk of a Sunday +to listen to Henry Rosaeus, determined on a private conventicle in the +capital. The first barn selected was sealed up by the authorities, but +Epoch Much, book-keeper of Prince Maurice, then lent them his house. The +Prince declared that sooner than they should want a place of assembling +he would give them his own. But he meant that they should have a public +church to themselves, and that very soon. King James thoroughly approved +of all these proceedings. At that very instant such of his own subjects +as had seceded from the Established Church to hold conventicles in barns +and breweries and backshops in London were hunted by him with bishops' +pursuivants and other beagles like vilest criminals, thrown into prison +to rot, or suffered to escape from their Fatherland into the trans- +Atlantic wilderness, there to battle with wild beasts and savages, and +to die without knowing themselves the fathers of a more powerful United +States than the Dutch Republic, where they were fain to seek in passing a +temporary shelter. He none the less instructed his envoy at the Hague to +preach the selfsame doctrines for which the New England Puritans were +persecuted, and importunately and dictatorially to plead the cause of +those Hollanders who, like Bradford and Robinson, Winthrop and Cotton, +maintained the independence of the Church over the State. + +Logic is rarely the quality on which kings pride themselves, and +Puritanism in the Netherlands, although under temporary disadvantage at +the Hague, was evidently the party destined to triumph throughout the +country. James could safely sympathize therefore in Holland with what he +most loathed in England, and could at the same time feed fat the grudge +he owed the Advocate. The calculations of Barneveld as to the respective +political forces of the Commonwealth seem to have been to a certain +extent defective. + +He allowed probably too much weight to the Catholic party as a motive +power at that moment, and he was anxious both from that consideration and +from his honest natural instinct for general toleration; his own broad +and unbigoted views in religious matters, not to force that party into a +rebellious attitude dangerous to the state. We have seen how nearly a +mutiny in the important city of Utrecht, set on foot by certain Romanist +conspirators in the years immediately succeeding the Truce, had subverted +the government, had excited much anxiety amongst the firmest allies of +the Republic, and had been suppressed only by the decision of the +Advocate and a show of military force. + +He had informed Carleton not long after his arrival that in the United +Provinces, and in Holland in particular, were many sects and religions of +which, according to his expression, "the healthiest and the richest part +were the Papists, while the Protestants did not make up one-third part of +the inhabitants." + +Certainly, if these statistics were correct or nearly correct, there +could be nothing more stupid from a purely political point of view than +to exasperate so influential a portion of the community to madness and +rebellion by refusing them all rights of public worship. Yet because +the Advocate had uniformly recommended indulgence, he had incurred more +odium at home than from any other cause. Of course he was a Papist in +disguise, ready to sell his country to Spain, because he was willing that +more than half the population of the country should be allowed to worship +God according to their conscience. Surely it would be wrong to judge the +condition of things at that epoch by the lights of to-day, and perhaps in +the Netherlands there had before been no conspicuous personage, save +William the Silent alone, who had risen to the height of toleration +on which the Advocate essayed to stand. Other leading politicians +considered that the national liberties could be preserved only by +retaining the Catholics in complete subjection. + +At any rate the Advocate was profoundly convinced of the necessity of +maintaining harmony and mutual toleration among the Protestants +themselves, who, as he said, made up but one-third of the whole people. +In conversing with the English ambassador he divided them into "Puritans +and double Puritans," as they would be called, he said, in England. If +these should be at variance with each other, he argued, the Papists would +be the strongest of all. "To prevent this inconvenience," he said, "the +States were endeavouring to settle some certain form of government in the +Church; which being composed of divers persecuted churches such as in the +beginning of the wars had their refuge here, that which during the wars +could not be so well done they now thought seasonable for a time of +truce; and therefore would show their authority in preventing the schism +of the Church which would follow the separation of those they call +Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants." + +There being no word so offensive to Carleton's sovereign as the word +Puritan, the Ambassador did his best to persuade the Advocate that a +Puritan in Holland was a very different thing from a Puritan in England. +In England he was a noxious vermin, to be hunted with dogs. In the +Netherlands he was the governing power. But his arguments were vapourous +enough and made little impression on Barneveld. "He would no ways +yield," said Sir Dudley. + +Meantime the Contra-Remonstrants of the Hague, not finding sufficient +accommodation in Enoch Much's house, clamoured loudly for the use of a +church. It was answered by the city magistrates that two of their +persuasion, La Motte and La Faille, preached regularly in the Great +Church, and that Rosaeus had been silenced only because he refused +to hold communion with Uytenbogaert. Maurice insisted that a separate +church should be assigned them. "But this is open schism," said +Uytenbogaert. + +Early in the year there was a meeting of the Holland delegation to the +States-General, of the state council, and of the magistracy of the Hague, +of deputies from the tribunals, and of all the nobles resident in the +capital. They sent for Maurice and asked his opinion as to the alarming +situation of affairs. He called for the register-books of the States of +Holland, and turning back to the pages on which was recorded his +accession to the stadholderate soon after his father's murder, ordered +the oath then exchanged between himself and the States to be read aloud. + +That oath bound them mutually to support the Reformed religion till the +last drop of blood in their veins. + +"That oath I mean to keep," said the Stadholder, "so long as I live." + +No one disputed the obligation of all parties to maintain the Reformed +religion. But the question was whether the Five Points were inconsistent +with the Reformed religion. The contrary was clamorously maintained by +most of those present: In the year 1586 this difference in dogma had not +arisen, and as the large majority of the people at the Hague, including +nearly all those of rank and substance, were of the Remonstrant +persuasion, they naturally found it not agreeable to be sent out of the +church by a small minority. But Maurice chose to settle the question +very summarily. His father had been raised to power by the strict +Calvinists, and he meant to stand by those who had always sustained +William the Silent. "For this religion my father lost his life, and this +religion will I defend," said he. + +"You hold then," said Barneveld, "that the Almighty has created one child +for damnation and another for salvation, and you wish this doctrine to be +publicly preached." + +"Did you ever hear any one preach that?" replied the Prince. + +"If they don't preach it, it is their inmost conviction," said the other. +And he proceeded to prove his position by copious citations. + +"And suppose our ministers do preach this doctrine, is there anything +strange in it, any reason why they should not do so?" + +The Advocate expressed his amazement and horror at the idea. + +"But does not God know from all eternity who is to be saved and who to be +damned; and does He create men for any other end than that to which He +from eternity knows they will come?" + +And so they enclosed themselves in the eternal circle out of which it was +not probable that either the soldier or the statesman would soon find an +issue. + +"I am no theologian," said Barneveld at last, breaking off the +discussion. + +"Neither am I," said the Stadholder. "So let the parsons come together. +Let the Synod assemble and decide the question. Thus we shall get out of +all this." + +Next day a deputation of the secessionists waited by appointment on +Prince Maurice. They found him in the ancient mediaeval hall of the +sovereign counts of Holland, and seated on their old chair of state. +He recommended them to use caution and moderation for the present, +and to go next Sunday once more to Ryswyk. Afterwards he pledged himself +that they should have a church at the Hague, and, if necessary, the Great +Church itself. + +But the Great Church, although a very considerable Catholic cathedral +before the Reformation, was not big enough now to hold both Henry Rosaeus +and John Uytenbogaert. Those two eloquent, learned, and most pugnacious +divines were the respective champions in the pulpit of the opposing +parties, as were the Advocate and the Stadholder in the council. And +there was as bitter personal rivalry between the two as between the +soldier and statesman. + +"The factions begin to divide themselves," said Carleton, "betwixt his +Excellency and Monsieur Barneveld as heads who join to this present +difference their ancient quarrels. And the schism rests actually between +Uytenbogaert and Rosaeus, whose private emulation and envy (both being +much applauded and followed) doth no good towards the public +pacification." Uytenbogaert repeatedly offered, however, to resign his +functions and to leave the Hague. "He was always ready to play the +Jonah," he said. + +A temporary arrangement was made soon afterwards by which Rosaeus and his +congregation should have the use of what was called the Gasthuis Kerk, +then appropriated to the English embassy. + +Carleton of course gave his consent most willingly. The Prince declared +that the States of Holland and the city magistracy had personally +affronted him by the obstacles they had interposed to the public worship +of the Contra-Remonstrants. With their cause he had now thoroughly +identified himself. + +The hostility between the representatives of the civil and military +authority waxed fiercer every hour. The tumults were more terrible than +ever. Plainly there was no room in the Commonwealth for the Advocate and +the Stadholder. Some impartial persons believed that there would be no +peace until both were got rid of. "There are many words among this free- +spoken people," said Carleton, "that to end these differences they must +follow the example of France in Marshal d'Ancre's case, and take off the +heads of both chiefs." + +But these decided persons were in a small minority. Meantime the States +of Holland met in full assembly; sixty delegates being present. + +It was proposed to invite his Excellency to take part in the +deliberations. A committee which had waited upon him the day before +had reported him as in favour of moderate rather than harsh measures in +the church affair, while maintaining his plighted word to the seceders. + +Barneveld stoutly opposed the motion. + +"What need had the sovereign states of Holland of advice from a +stadholder, from their servant, their functionary?" he cried. + +But the majority for once thought otherwise. The Prince was invited to +come. The deliberations were moderate but inconclusive. He appeared +again at an adjourned meeting when the councils were not so harmonious. + +Barneveld, Grotius, and other eloquent speakers endeavoured to point out +that the refusal of the seceders to hold communion with the Remonstrant +preachers and to insist on a separation was fast driving the state to +perdition. They warmly recommended mutual toleration and harmony. +Grotius exhausted learning and rhetoric to prove that the Five Points +were not inconsistent with salvation nor with the constitution of the +United Provinces. + +The Stadholder grew impatient at last and clapped his hand on his rapier. + +"No need here," he said, "of flowery orations and learned arguments. +With this good sword I will defend the religion which my father planted +in these Provinces, and I should like to see the man who is going to +prevent me!" + +The words had an heroic ring in the ears of such as are ever ready to +applaud brute force, especially when wielded by a prince. The argumentum +ad ensem, however, was the last plea that William the Silent would have +been likely to employ on such an occasion, nor would it have been easy to +prove that the Reformed religion had been "planted" by one who had drawn +the sword against the foreign tyrant, and had made vast sacrifices for +his country's independence years before abjuring communion with the Roman +Catholic Church. + +When swords are handled by the executive in presence of civil assemblies +there is usually but one issue to be expected. + +Moreover, three whales had recently been stranded at Scheveningen, +one of them more than sixty feet long, and men wagged their beards +gravely as they spoke of the event, deeming it a certain presage of +civil commotions. It was remembered that at the outbreak of the great +war two whales had been washed ashore in the Scheldt. Although some +free-thinking people were inclined to ascribe the phenomenon to a +prevalence of strong westerly gales, while others found proof in it of a +superabundance of those creatures in the Polar seas, which should rather +give encouragement to the Dutch and Zealand fisheries, it is probable +that quite as dark forebodings of coming disaster were caused by this +accident as by the trumpet-like defiance which the Stadholder had just +delivered to the States of Holland. + +Meantime the seceding congregation of the Hague had become wearied of the +English or Gasthuis Church, and another and larger one had been promised +them. This was an ancient convent on one of the principal streets of the +town, now used as a cannon-foundry. The Prince personally superintended +the preparations for getting ready this place of worship, which was +thenceforth called the Cloister Church. But delays were, as the Contra- +Remonstrants believed, purposely interposed, so that it was nearly +Midsummer before there were any signs of the church being fit for use. + +They hastened accordingly to carry it, as it were, by assault. Not +wishing peaceably to accept as a boon from the civil authority what they +claimed as an indefeasible right, they suddenly took possession one +Sunday night of the Cloister Church. + +It was in a state of utter confusion--part monastery, part foundry, part +conventicle. There were few seats, no altar, no communion-table, hardly +any sacramental furniture, but a pulpit was extemporized. Rosaeus +preached in triumph to an enthusiastic congregation, and three children +were baptized with the significant names of William, Maurice, and Henry. + +On the following Monday there was a striking scene on the Voorhout. This +most beautiful street of a beautiful city was a broad avenue, shaded by a +quadruple row of limetrees, reaching out into the thick forest of secular +oaks and beeches--swarming with fallow-deer and alive with the notes of +singing birds--by which the Hague, almost from time immemorial, has been +embowered. The ancient cloisterhouse and church now reconverted to +religious uses--was a plain, rather insipid structure of red brick picked +out with white stone, presenting three symmetrical gables to the street, +with a slender belfry and spire rising in the rear. + +Nearly adjoining it on the north-western side was the elegant +and commodious mansion of Barneveld, purchased by him from the +representatives of the Arenberg family, surrounded by shrubberies +and flower-gardens; not a palace, but a dignified and becoming abode +for the first citizen of a powerful republic. + +On that midsummer's morning it might well seem that, in rescuing the old +cloister from the military purposes to which it had for years been +devoted, men had given an even more belligerent aspect to the scene than +if it had been left as a foundry. The miscellaneous pieces of artillery +and other fire-arms lying about, with piles of cannon-ball which there +had not been time to remove, were hardly less belligerent and threatening +of aspect than the stern faces of the crowd occupied in thoroughly +preparing the house for its solemn destination. It was determined that +there should be accommodation on the next Sunday for all who came to the +service. An army of carpenters, joiners, glaziers, and other workmen- +assisted by a mob of citizens of all ranks and ages, men and women, +gentle and simple were busily engaged in bringing planks and benches; +working with plane, adze, hammer and saw, trowel and shovel, to complete +the work. + +On the next Sunday the Prince attended public worship for the last time +at the Great Church under the ministration of Uytenbogaert. He was +infuriated with the sermon, in which the bold Remonstrant bitterly +inveighed against the proposition for a National Synod. To oppose that +measure publicly in the very face of the Stadholder, who now considered +himself as the Synod personified, seemed to him flat blasphemy. Coming +out of the church with his step-mother, the widowed Louise de Coligny, +Princess of Orange, he denounced the man in unmeasured terms. "He is the +enemy of God," said Maurice. At least from that time forth, and indeed +for a year before, Maurice was the enemy of the preacher. + +On the following Sunday, July 23, Maurice went in solemn state to the +divine service at the Cloister Church now thoroughly organized. He was +accompanied by his cousin, the famous Count William Lewis of Nassau, +Stadholder of Friesland, who had never concealed his warm sympathy with +the Contra-Remonstrants, and by all the chief officers of his household +and members of his staff. It was an imposing demonstration and meant for +one. As the martial stadholder at the head of his brilliant cavalcade +rode forth across the drawbridge from the Inner Court of the old moated +palace--where the ancient sovereign Dirks and Florences of Holland had so +long ruled their stout little principality--along the shady and stately +Kneuterdyk and so through the Voorhout, an immense crowd thronged around +his path and accompanied him to the church. It was as if the great +soldier were marching to siege or battle-field where fresher glories +than those of Sluys or Geertruidenberg were awaiting him. + +The train passed by Barneveld's house and entered the cloister. More +than four thousand persons were present at the service or crowded around +the doors vainly attempting to gain admission into the overflowing +aisles; while the Great Church was left comparatively empty, a few +hundred only worshipping there. The Cloister Church was thenceforth +called the Prince's Church, and a great revolution was beginning even +in the Hague. + +The Advocate was wroth as he saw the procession graced by the two +stadholders and their military attendants. He knew that he was now to +bow his head to the Church thus championed by the chief personage and +captain-general of the state, to renounce his dreams of religious +toleration, to sink from his post of supreme civic ruler, or to accept an +unequal struggle in which he might utterly succumb. But his iron nature +would break sooner than bend. In the first transports of his indignation +he is said to have vowed vengeance against the immediate instruments by +which the Cloister Church had, as he conceived, been surreptitiously and +feloniously seized. He meant to strike a blow which should startle the +whole population of the Hague, send a thrill of horror through the +country, and teach men to beware how they trifled with the sovereign +states of Holland, whose authority had so long been undisputed, and with +him their chief functionary. + +He resolved--so ran the tale of the preacher Trigland, who told it to +Prince Maurice, and has preserved it in his chronicle--to cause to be +seized at midnight from their beds four men whom he considered the +ringleaders in this mutiny, to have them taken to the place of execution +on the square in the midst of the city, to have their heads cut off at +once by warrant from the chief tribunal without any previous warning, and +then to summon all the citizens at dawn of day, by ringing of bells and +firing of cannon, to gaze on the ghastly spectacle, and teach them to +what fate this pestilential schism and revolt against authority had +brought its humble tools. The victims were to be Enoch Much, the +Prince's book-keeper, and three others, an attorney, an engraver, and an +apothecary, all of course of the Contra-Remonstrant persuasion. It was +necessary, said the Advocate, to make once for all an example, and show +that there was a government in the land. + +He had reckoned on a ready adhesion to this measure and a sentence from +the tribunal through the influence of his son-in-law, the Seignior van +Veenhuyzen, who was president of the chief court. His attempt was foiled +however by the stern opposition of two Zealand members of the court, who +managed to bring up from a bed of sickness, where he had long been lying, +a Holland councillor whom they knew to be likewise opposed to the fierce +measure, and thus defeated it by a majority of one. + +Such is the story as told by contemporaries and repeated from that day to +this. It is hardly necessary to say that Barneveld calmly denied having +conceived or even heard of the scheme. That men could go about looking +each other in the face and rehearsing such gibberish would seem +sufficiently dispiriting did we not know to what depths of credulity men +in all ages can sink when possessed by the demon of party malice. + +If it had been narrated on the Exchange at Amsterdam or Flushing during +that portentous midsummer that Barneveld had not only beheaded but +roasted alive, and fed the dogs and cats upon the attorney, the +apothecary, and the engraver, there would have been citizens in +plenty to devour the news with avidity. + +But although the Advocate had never imagined such extravagances as these, +it is certain that he had now resolved upon very bold measures, and that +too without an instant's delay. He suspected the Prince of aiming at +sovereignty not only over Holland but over all the provinces and to be +using the Synod as a principal part of his machinery. The gauntlet was +thrown down by the Stadholder, and the Advocate lifted it at once. The +issue of the struggle would depend upon the political colour of the town +magistracies. Barneveld instinctively felt that Maurice, being now +resolved that the Synod should be held, would lose no time in making a +revolution in all the towns through the power he held or could plausibly +usurp. Such a course would, in his opinion, lead directly to an +unconstitutional and violent subversion of the sovereign rights of each +province, to the advantage of the central government. A religious creed +would be forced upon Holland and perhaps upon two other provinces which +was repugnant to a considerable majority of the people. And this would +be done by a majority vote of the States-General, on a matter over which, +by the 13th Article of the fundamental compact--the Union of Utrecht-- +the States-General had no control, each province having reserved the +disposition of religious affairs to itself. For let it never be +forgotten that the Union of the Netherlands was a compact, a treaty, an +agreement between sovereign states. There was no pretence that it was an +incorporation, that the people had laid down a constitution, an organic +law. The people were never consulted, did not exist, had not for +political purposes been invented. It was the great primal defect of +their institutions, but the Netherlanders would have been centuries +before their age had they been able to remedy that defect. Yet the +Netherlanders would have been much behind even that age of bigotry had +they admitted the possibility in a free commonwealth, of that most sacred +and important of all subjects that concern humanity, religious creed--the +relation of man to his Maker--to be regulated by the party vote of a +political board. + +It was with no thought of treason in his heart or his head therefore that +the Advocate now resolved that the States of Holland and the cities of +which that college was composed should protect their liberties and +privileges, the sum of which in his opinion made up the sovereignty of +the province he served, and that they should protect them, if necessary, +by force. Force was apprehended. It should be met by force. To be +forewarned was to be forearmed. Barneveld forewarned the States of +Holland. + +On the 4th August 1617, he proposed to that assembly a resolution which +was destined to become famous. A majority accepted it after brief +debate. It was to this effect. + +The States having seen what had befallen in many cities, and especially +in the Hague, against the order, liberties, and laws of the land, and +having in vain attempted to bring into harmony with the States certain +cities which refused to co-operate with the majority, had at last +resolved to refuse the National Synod, as conflicting with the +sovereignty and laws of Holland. They had thought good to set forth in +public print their views as to religious worship, and to take measures to +prevent all deeds of violence against persons and property. To this end +the regents of cities were authorized in case of need, until otherwise +ordained, to enrol men-at-arms for their security and prevention of +violence. Furthermore, every one that might complain of what the regents +of cities by strength of this resolution might do was ordered to have +recourse to no one else than the States of Holland, as no account would +be made of anything that might be done or undertaken by the tribunals. + +Finally, it was resolved to send a deputation to Prince Maurice, the +Princess-Widow, and Prince Henry, requesting them to aid in carrying +out this resolution. + +Thus the deed was done. The sword was drawn. It was drawn in self- +defence and in deliberate answer to the Stadholder's defiance when he +rapped his sword hilt in face of the assembly, but still it was drawn. +The States of Holland were declared sovereign and supreme. The National +Synod was peremptorily rejected. Any decision of the supreme courts of +the Union in regard to the subject of this resolution was nullified in +advance. Thenceforth this measure of the 4th August was called the +"Sharp Resolve." It might prove perhaps to be double-edged. + +It was a stroke of grim sarcasm on the part of the Advocate thus solemnly +to invite the Stadholder's aid in carrying out a law which was aimed +directly at his head; to request his help for those who meant to defeat +with the armed hand that National Synod which he had pledged himself to +bring about. + +The question now arose what sort of men-at-arms it would be well for the +city governments to enlist. The officers of the regular garrisons had +received distinct orders from Prince Maurice as their military superior +to refuse any summons to act in matters proceeding from the religious +question. The Prince, who had chief authority over all the regular +troops, had given notice that he would permit nothing to be done against +"those of the Reformed religion," by which he meant the Contra- +Remonstrants and them only. + +In some cities there were no garrisons, but only train-bands. But the +train bands (Schutters) could not be relied on to carry out the Sharp +Resolve, for they were almost to a man Contra-Remonstrants. It was +therefore determined to enlist what were called "Waartgelders;" soldiers, +inhabitants of the place, who held themselves ready to serve in time of +need in consideration of a certain wage; mercenaries in short. + +This resolution was followed as a matter of course by a solemn protest +from Amsterdam and the five cities who acted with her. + +On the same day Maurice was duly notified of the passage of the law. His +wrath was great. High words passed between him and the deputies. It +could hardly have been otherwise expected. Next-day he came before the +Assembly to express his sentiments, to complain of the rudeness with +which the resolution of 4th August had been communicated to him, and to +demand further explanations. Forthwith the Advocate proceeded to set +forth the intentions of the States, and demanded that the Prince should +assist the magistrates in carrying out the policy decided upon. Reinier +Pauw, burgomaster of Amsterdam, fiercely interrupted the oration of +Barneveld, saying that although these might be his views, they were not +to be held by his Excellency as the opinions of all. The Advocate, angry +at the interruption, answered him sternly, and a violent altercation, +not unmixed with personalities, arose. Maurice, who kept his temper +admirably on this occasion, interfered between the two and had much +difficulty in quieting the dispute. He then observed that when he took +the oath as stadholder these unfortunate differences had not arisen, but +all had been good friends together. This was perfectly true, but he +could have added that they might all continue good friends unless the +plan of imposing a religious creed upon the minority by a clerical +decision were persisted in. He concluded that for love of one of the two +great parties he would not violate the oath he had taken to maintain the +Reformed religion to the last drop of his blood. Still, with the same +'petitio principii' that the Reformed religion and the dogmas of the +Contra-Remonstrants were one and the same thing, he assured the Assembly +that the authority of the magistrates would be sustained by him so long +as it did not lead to the subversion of religion. + +Clearly the time for argument had passed. As Dudley Carleton observed, +men had been disputing 'pro aris' long enough. They would soon be +fighting 'pro focis.' + +In pursuance of the policy laid down by the Sharp Resolution, the States +proceeded to assure themselves of the various cities of the province by +means of Waartgelders. They sent to the important seaport of Brielle and +demanded a new oath from the garrison. It was intimated that the Prince +would be soon coming there in person to make himself master of the place, +and advice was given to the magistrates to be beforehand with him. These +statements angered Maurice, and angered him the more because they +happened to be true. It was also charged that he was pursuing his +Leicestrian designs and meant to make himself, by such steps, sovereign +of the country. The name of Leicester being a byword of reproach ever +since that baffled noble had a generation before left the Provinces in +disgrace, it was a matter of course that such comparisons were +excessively exasperating. It was fresh enough too in men's memory that +the Earl in his Netherland career had affected sympathy with the +strictest denomination of religious reformers, and that the profligate +worldling and arrogant self-seeker had used the mask of religion to cover +flagitious ends. As it had indeed been the object of the party at the +head of which the Advocate had all his life acted to raise the youthful +Maurice to the stadholderate expressly to foil the plots of Leicester, +it could hardly fail to be unpalatable to Maurice to be now accused of +acting the part of Leicester. + +He inveighed bitterly on the subject before the state council: The state +council, in a body, followed him to a meeting of the States-General. +Here the Stadholder made a vehement speech and demanded that the States +of Holland should rescind the "Sharp Resolution," and should desist from +the new oaths required from the soldiery. Barneveld, firm as a rock, met +these bitter denunciations. Speaking in the name of Holland, he repelled +the idea that the sovereign States of that province were responsible to +the state council or to the States-General either. He regretted, as all +regretted, the calumnies uttered against the Prince, but in times of such +intense excitement every conspicuous man was the mark of calumny. + +The Stadholder warmly repudiated Leicestrian designs, and declared that +he had been always influenced by a desire to serve his country and +maintain the Reformed religion. If he had made mistakes, he desired to +be permitted to improve in the future. + +Thus having spoken, the soldier retired from the Assembly with the state +council at his heels. + +The Advocate lost no time in directing the military occupation of the +principal towns of Holland, such as Leyden, Gouda, Rotterdam, +Schoonhoven, Hoorn, and other cities. + +At Leyden especially, where a strong Orange party was with difficulty +kept in obedience by the Remonstrant magistracy, it was found necessary +to erect a stockade about the town-hall and to plant caltrops and other +obstructions in the squares and streets. + +The broad space in front; of the beautiful medieval seat of the municipal +government, once so sacred for the sublime and pathetic scenes enacted +there during the famous siege and in the magistracy of Peter van der +Werff, was accordingly enclosed by a solid palisade of oaken planks, +strengthened by rows of iron bars with barbed prongs: The entrenchment +was called by the populace the Arminian Fort, and the iron spear heads +were baptized Barneveld's teeth. Cannon were planted at intervals along +the works, and a company or two of the Waartgelders, armed from head to +foot, with snaphances on their shoulders, stood ever ready to issue forth +to quell any disturbances. Occasionally a life or two was lost of +citizen or soldier, and many doughty blows were interchanged. + +It was a melancholy spectacle. No commonwealth could be more fortunate +than this republic in possessing two such great leading minds. No two +men could be more patriotic than both Stadholder and Advocate. No two +men could be prouder, more overbearing, less conciliatory. + +"I know Mons. Barneveld well," said Sir Ralph Winwood, "and know that he +hath great powers and abilities, and malice itself must confess that man +never hath done more faithful and powerful service to his country than +he. But 'finis coronat opus' and 'il di lodi lacera; oportet imperatorem +stantem mori.'" + +The cities of Holland were now thoroughly "waartgeldered," and Barneveld +having sufficiently shown his "teeth" in that province departed for +change of air to Utrecht. His failing health was assigned as the pretext +for the visit, although the atmosphere of that city has never been +considered especially salubrious in the dog-days. + +Meantime the Stadholder remained quiet, but biding his time. He did not +choose to provoke a premature conflict in the strongholds of the +Arminians as he called them, but with a true military instinct preferred +making sure of the ports. Amsterdam, Enkhuyzen, Flushing, being without +any effort of his own within his control, he quietly slipped down the +river Meuse on the night of the 29th September, accompanied by his +brother Frederic Henrys and before six o'clock next morning had +introduced a couple of companies of trustworthy troops into Brielle, had +summoned the magistrates before him, and compelled them to desist from +all further intention of levying mercenaries. Thus all the fortresses +which Barneveld had so recently and in such masterly fashion rescued from +the grasp of England were now quietly reposing in the hands of the +Stadholder. + +Maurice thought it not worth his while for the present to quell the +mutiny--as he considered it the legal and constitutional defence of +vested right--as great jurists like Barneveld and Hugo Grotius accounted +the movement--at its "fountain head Leyden or its chief stream Utrecht;" +to use the expression of Carleton. There had already been bloodshed in +Leyden, a burgher or two having been shot and a soldier stoned to death +in the streets, but the Stadholder deemed it unwise to precipitate +matters. Feeling himself, with his surpassing military knowledge and +with a large majority of the nation at his back, so completely master of +the situation, he preferred waiting on events. And there is no doubt +that he was proving himself a consummate politician and a perfect master +of fence. "He is much beloved and followed both of soldiers and people," +said the English ambassador, "he is a man 'innoxiae popularitatis' so as +this jealousy cannot well be fastened upon him; and in this cause of +religion he stirred not until within these few months he saw he must +declare himself or suffer the better party to be overborne." + +The chief tribunal-high council so called-of the country soon gave +evidence that the "Sharp Resolution" had judged rightly in reckoning on +its hostility and in nullifying its decisions in advance. + +They decided by a majority vote that the Resolution ought not to be +obeyed, but set aside. Amsterdam, and the three or four cities usually +acting with her, refused to enlist troops. + +Rombout Hoogerbeets, a member of the tribunal, informed Prince Maurice +that he "would no longer be present on a bench where men disputed the +authority of the States of Holland, which he held to be the supreme +sovereignty over him." + +This was plain speaking; a distinct enunciation of what the States' right +party deemed to be constitutional law. + +And what said Maurice in reply? + +"I, too, recognize the States of Holland as sovereign; but we might at +least listen to each other occasionally." + +Hoogerbeets, however, deeming that listening had been carried far enough, +decided to leave the tribunal altogether, and to resume the post which he +had formerly occupied as Pensionary or chief magistrate of Leyden. + +Here he was soon to find himself in the thick of the conflict. Meantime +the States-General, in full assembly, on 11th November 1617, voted that +the National Synod should be held in the course of the following year. +The measure was carried by a strict party vote and by a majority of one. +The representatives of each province voting as one, there were four in +favour of to three against the Synod. The minority, consisting of +Holland, Utrecht, and Overyssel, protested against the vote as an +outrageous invasion of the rights of each province, as an act of +flagrant tyranny and usurpation. + +The minority in the States of Holland, the five cities often named, +protested against the protest. + +The defective part of the Netherland constitutions could not be better +illustrated. The minority of the States of Holland refused to be bound +by a majority of the provincial assembly. The minority of the States- +General refused to be bound by the majority of the united assembly. + +This was reducing politics to an absurdity and making all government +impossible. It is however quite certain that in the municipal +governments a majority had always governed, and that a majority vote in +the provincial assemblies had always prevailed. The present innovation +was to govern the States-General by a majority. + +Yet viewed by the light of experience and of common sense, it would be +difficult to conceive of a more preposterous proceeding than thus to cram +a religious creed down the throats of half the population of a country by +the vote of a political assembly. But it was the seventeenth and not the +nineteenth century. + +Moreover, if there were any meaning in words, the 13th Article of Union, +reserving especially the disposition over religious matters to each +province, had been wisely intended to prevent the possibility of such +tyranny. + +When the letters of invitation to the separate states and to others were +drawing up in the general assembly, the representatives of the three +states left the chamber. A solitary individual from Holland remained +however, a burgomaster of Amsterdam. + +Uytenbogaert, conversing with Barneveld directly afterwards, advised him +to accept the vote. Yielding to the decision of the majority, it would +be possible, so thought the clergyman, for the great statesman so to +handle matters as to mould the Synod to his will, even as he had so long +controlled the States-Provincial and the States-General. + +"If you are willing to give away the rights of the land," said the +Advocate very sharply, "I am not." + +Probably the priest's tactics might have proved more adroit than the +stony opposition on which Barneveld was resolved. + +But it was with the aged statesman a matter of principle, not of policy. +His character and his personal pride, the dignity of opinion and office, +his respect for constitutional law, were all at stake. + +Shallow observers considered the struggle now taking place as a personal +one. Lovers of personal government chose to look upon the Advocate's +party as a faction inspired with an envious resolve to clip the wings +of the Stadholder, who was at last flying above their heads. + +There could be no doubt of the bitter animosity between the two men. +There could be no doubt that jealousy was playing the part which that +master passion will ever play in all the affairs of life. But there +could be no doubt either that a difference of principle as wide as the +world separated the two antagonists. + +Even so keen an observer as Dudley Carleton, while admitting the man's +intellectual power and unequalled services, could see nothing in the +Advocate's present course but prejudice, obstinacy, and the insanity of +pride. "He doth no whit spare himself in pains nor faint in his +resolution," said the Envoy, "wherein notwithstanding he will in all +appearance succumb ere afore long, having the disadvantages of a weak +body, a weak party, and a weak cause." But Carleton hated Barneveld, +and considered it the chief object of his mission to destroy him, if he +could. In so doing he would best carry out the wishes of his sovereign. + +The King of Britain had addressed a somewhat equivocal letter to the +States-General on the subject of religion in the spring of 1617. It +certainly was far from being as satisfactory as, the epistles of 1613 +prepared under the Advocate's instructions, had been, while the exuberant +commentary upon the royal text, delivered in full assembly by his +ambassador soon after the reception of the letter, was more than usually +didactic, offensive, and ignorant. Sir Dudley never omitted an +opportunity of imparting instruction to the States-General as to the +nature of their constitution and the essential dogmas on which their +Church was founded. It is true that the great lawyers and the great +theologians of the country were apt to hold very different opinions from +his upon those important subjects, but this was so much the worse for the +lawyers and theologians, as time perhaps might prove. + +The King in this last missive had proceeded to unsay the advice which he +had formerly bestowed upon the States, by complaining that his earlier +letters had been misinterpreted. They had been made use of, he said, to +authorize the very error against which they had been directed. They had +been held to intend the very contrary of what they did mean. He felt +himself bound in conscience therefore, finding these differences ready to +be "hatched into schisms," to warn the States once more against pests so +pernicious. + +Although the royal language was somewhat vague so far as enunciation of +doctrine, a point on which he had once confessed himself fallible, was +concerned, there was nothing vague in his recommendation of a National +Synod. To this the opposition of Barneveld was determined not upon +religious but upon constitutional grounds. The confederacy did not +constitute a nation, and therefore there could not be a national synod +nor a national religion. + +Carleton came before the States-General soon afterwards with a prepared +oration, wearisome as a fast-day sermon after the third turn of the hour- +glass, pragmatical as a schoolmaster's harangue to fractious little boys. + +He divided his lecture into two heads--the peace of the Church, and the +peace of the Provinces--starting with the first. "A Jove principium," he +said, "I will begin with that which is both beginning and end. It is the +truth of God's word and its maintenance that is the bond of our common +cause. Reasons of state invite us as friends and neighbours by the +preservation of our lives and property, but the interest of religion +binds us as Christians and brethren to the mutual defence of the liberty +of our consciences." + +He then proceeded to point out the only means by which liberty of +conscience could be preserved. It was by suppressing all forms of +religion but one, and by silencing all religious discussion. Peter +Titelman and Philip II. could not have devised a more pithy formula. All +that was wanting was the axe and faggot to reduce uniformity to practice. +Then liberty of conscience would be complete. + +"One must distinguish," said the Ambassador, "between just liberty and +unbridled license, and conclude that there is but one truth single and +unique. Those who go about turning their brains into limbecks for +distilling new notions in religious matters only distract the union of +the Church which makes profession of this unique truth. If it be +permitted to one man to publish the writings and fantasies of a sick +spirit and for another moved by Christian zeal to reduce this wanderer +'ad sanam mentem;' why then 'patet locus adversus utrumque,' and the +common enemy (the Devil) slips into the fortress." He then proceeded to +illustrate this theory on liberty of conscience by allusions to Conrad +Vorstius. + +This infamous sectary had in fact reached such a pitch of audacity, said +the Ambassador, as not only to inveigh against the eternal power of God +but to indulge in irony against the honour of his Majesty King James. + +And in what way had he scandalized the government of the Republic? He +had dared to say that within its borders there was religious toleration. +He had distinctly averred that in the United Provinces heretics were not +punished with death or with corporal chastisement. + +"He declares openly," said Carleton, "that contra haereticos etiam vere +dictos (ne dum falso et calumniose sic traductos) there is neither +sentence of death nor other corporal punishment, so that in order to +attract to himself a great following of birds of the name feather he +publishes to all the world that here in this country one can live and +die a heretic, unpunished, without being arrested and without danger." + +In order to suppress this reproach upon the Republic at which the +Ambassador stood aghast, and to prevent the Vorstian doctrines of +religious toleration and impunity of heresy from spreading among "the +common people, so subject by their natures to embrace new opinions," he +advised of course that "the serpent be sent back to the nest where he was +born before the venom had spread through the whole body of the Republic." + +A week afterwards a long reply was delivered on part of the States- +General to the Ambassador's oration. It is needless to say that it was +the work of the Advocate, and that it was in conformity with the opinions +so often exhibited in the letters to Caron and others of which the reader +has seen many samples. + +That religious matters were under the control of the civil government, +and that supreme civil authority belonged to each one of the seven +sovereign provinces, each recognizing no superior within its own sphere, +were maxims of state always enforced in the Netherlands and on which the +whole religious controversy turned. + +"The States-General have always cherished the true Christian Apostolic +religion," they said, "and wished it to be taught under the authority and +protection of the legal government of these Provinces in all purity, and +in conformity with the Holy Scriptures, to the good people of these +Provinces. And My Lords the States and magistrates of the respective +provinces, each within their own limits, desire the same." + +They had therefore given express orders to the preachers "to keep the +peace by mutual and benign toleration of the different opinions on the +one side and the other at least until with full knowledge of the subject +the States might otherwise ordain. They had been the more moved to this +because his Majesty having carefully examined the opinions of the learned +hereon each side had found both consistent with Christian belief and the +salvation of souls." + +It was certainly not the highest expression of religious toleration for +the civil authority to forbid the clergymen of the country from +discussing in their pulpits the knottiest and most mysterious points of +the schoolmen lest the "common people" should be puzzled. Nevertheless, +where the close union of Church and State and the necessity of one church +were deemed matters of course, it was much to secure subordination of the +priesthood to the magistracy, while to enjoin on preachers abstention +from a single exciting cause of quarrel, on the ground that there was +more than one path to salvation, and that mutual toleration was better +than mutual persecution, was; in that age, a stride towards religious +equality. It was at least an advance on Carleton's dogma, that there was +but one unique and solitary truth, and that to declare heretics not +punishable with death was an insult to the government of the Republic. + +The States-General answered the Ambassador's plea, made in the name of +his master, for immediate and unguaranteed evacuation of the debatable +land by the arguments already so often stated in the Advocate's +instructions to Caron. They had been put to great trouble and expense +already in their campaigning and subsequent fortification of important +places in the duchies. They had seen the bitter spirit manifested by the +Spaniards in the demolition of the churches and houses of Mulheim and +other places. "While the affair remained in its present terms of utter +uncertainty their Mightinesses," said the States-General, "find it most +objectionable to forsake the places which they have been fortifying and +to leave the duchies and all their fellow-religionists, besides the +rights of the possessory princes a prey to those who have been hankering +for the territories for long years, and who would unquestionably be able +to make themselves absolute masters of all within a very few days." + +A few months later Carleton came before the States-General again and +delivered another elaborate oration, duly furnished to him by the King, +upon the necessity of the National Synod, the comparative merits of +Arminianism and Contra-Remonstrantism, together with a full exposition of +the constitutions of the Netherlands. + +It might be supposed that Barneveld and Grotius and Hoogerbeets knew +something of the law and history of their country. + +But James knew much better, and so his envoy endeavoured to convince his +audience. + +He received on the spot a temperate but conclusive reply from the +delegates of Holland. They informed him that the war with Spain--the +cause of the Utrecht Union--was not begun about religion but on account +of the violation of liberties, chartered rights and privileges, not the +least of which rights was that of each province to regulate religious +matters within its borders. + +A little later a more vehement reply was published anonymously in the +shape of a pamphlet called 'The Balance,' which much angered the +Ambassador and goaded his master almost to frenzy. It was deemed so +blasphemous, so insulting to the Majesty of England, so entirely +seditious, that James, not satisfied with inditing a rejoinder, insisted +through Carleton that a reward should be offered by the States for the +detection of the author, in order that he might be condignly punished. +This was done by a majority vote, 1000 florins being offered for the +discovery of the author and 600 for that of the printer. + +Naturally the step was opposed in the States-General; two deputies in +particular making themselves conspicuous. One of them was an audacious +old gentleman named Brinius of Gelderland, "much corrupted with +Arminianism," so Carleton informed his sovereign. He appears to have +inherited his audacity through his pedigree, descending, as it was +ludicrously enough asserted he did, from a chief of the Caninefates, the +ancient inhabitants of Gelderland, called Brinio. And Brinio the +Caninefat had been as famous for his stolid audacity as for his +illustrious birth; "Erat in Caninefatibus stolidae audaciae Brinio +claritate natalium insigni." + +The patronizing manner in which the Ambassador alluded to the other +member of the States-General who opposed the decree was still more +diverting. It was "Grotius, the Pensioner of Rotterdam, a young petulant +brain, not unknown to your Majesty," said Carleton. + +Two centuries and a half have rolled away, and there are few majesties, +few nations, and few individuals to whom the name of that petulant youth +is unknown; but how many are familiar with the achievements of the able +representative of King James? + +Nothing came of the measure, however, and the offer of course helped the +circulation of the pamphlet. + +It is amusing to see the ferocity thus exhibited by the royal pamphleteer +against a rival; especially when one can find no crime in 'The Balance' +save a stinging and well-merited criticism of a very stupid oration. + +Gillis van Ledenberg was generally supposed to be the author of it. +Carleton inclined, however, to suspect Grotius, "because," said he, +"having always before been a stranger to my house, he has made me the day +before the publication thereof a complimentary visit, although it was +Sunday and church time; whereby the Italian proverb, 'Chi ti caresse piu +che suole,' &c.,' is added to other likelihoods." + +It was subsequently understood however that the pamphlet was written by a +Remonstrant preacher of Utrecht, named Jacobus Taurinus; one of those who +had been doomed to death by the mutinous government in that city seven +years before. + +It was now sufficiently obvious that either the governments in the three +opposition provinces must be changed or that the National Synod must be +imposed by a strict majority vote in the teeth of the constitution and of +vigorous and eloquent protests drawn up by the best lawyers in the +country. The Advocate and Grotius recommended a provincial synod first +and, should that not succeed in adjusting the differences of church +government, then the convocation of a general or oecumenical synod. They +resisted the National Synod because, in their view, the Provinces were +not a nation. A league of seven sovereign and independent Mates was all +that legally existed in the Netherlands. It was accordingly determined +that the governments should be changed, and the Stadholder set himself to +prepare the way for a thorough and, if possible, a bloodless revolution. +He departed on the 27th November for a tour through the chief cities, and +before leaving the Hague addressed an earnest circular letter to the +various municipalities of Holland. + +A more truly dignified, reasonable, right royal letter, from the +Stadholder's point of view, could not have been indited. The Imperial +"we" breathing like a morning breeze through the whole of it blew away +all legal and historical mistiness. + +But the clouds returned again nevertheless. Unfortunately for Maurice it +could not be argued by the pen, however it might be proved by the sword, +that the Netherlands constituted a nation, and that a convocation of +doctors of divinity summoned by a body of envoys had the right to dictate +a creed to seven republics. + +All parties were agreed on one point. There must be unity of divine +worship. The territory of the Netherlands was not big enough to hold +two systems of religion, two forms of Christianity, two sects of +Protestantism. It was big enough to hold seven independent and sovereign +states, but would be split into fragments--resolved into chaos--should +there be more than one Church or if once a schism were permitted in that +Church. Grotius was as much convinced of this as Gomarus. And yet the +13th Article of the Union stared them all in the face, forbidding the +hideous assumptions now made by the general government. Perhaps no man +living fully felt its import save Barneveld alone. For groping however +dimly and hesitatingly towards the idea of religious liberty, of general +toleration, he was denounced as a Papist, an atheist, a traitor, +a miscreant, by the fanatics for the sacerdotal and personal power. +Yet it was a pity that he could never contemplate the possibility of his +country's throwing off the swaddling clothes of provincialism which had +wrapped its infancy. Doubtless history, law, tradition, and usage +pointed to the independent sovereignty of each province. Yet the period +of the Truce was precisely the time when a more generous constitution, +a national incorporation might have been constructed to take the place +of the loose confederacy by which the gigantic war had been fought out. +After all, foreign powers had no connection with the States, and knew +only the Union with which and with which alone they made treaties, and +the reality of sovereignty in each province was as ridiculous as in +theory it was impregnable. But Barneveld, under the modest title of +Advocate of one province, had been in reality president and prime +minister of the whole commonwealth. He had himself been the union and +the sovereignty. It was not wonderful that so imperious a nature +objected to transfer its powers to the Church, to the States-General, +or to Maurice. + +Moreover, when nationality assumed the unlovely form of rigid religious +uniformity; when Union meant an exclusive self-governed Church enthroned +above the State, responsible to no civic authority and no human law, the +boldest patriot might shiver at emerging from provincialism. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + The Commonwealth bent on Self-destruction--Evils of a Confederate + System of Government--Rem Bischop's House sacked--Aerssens' + unceasing Efforts against Barneveld--The Advocate's Interview with + Maurice--The States of Utrecht raise the Troops--The Advocate at + Utrecht--Barneveld urges mutual Toleration--Barneveld accused of + being Partisan of Spain--Carleton takes his Departure. + +It is not cheerful after widely contemplating the aspect of Christendom +in the year of supreme preparation to examine with the minuteness +absolutely necessary the narrow theatre to which the political affairs of +the great republic had been reduced. + +That powerful commonwealth, to which the great party of the Reformation +naturally looked for guidance in the coming conflict, seemed bent on +self-destruction. The microcosm of the Netherlands now represented, +alas! the war of elements going on without on a world-wide scale. As the +Calvinists and Lutherans of Germany were hotly attacking each other +even in sight of the embattled front of Spain and the League, so the +Gomarites and the Arminians by their mutual rancour were tearing the +political power of the Dutch Republic to shreds and preventing her from +assuming a great part in the crisis. The consummate soldier, the +unrivalled statesman, each superior in his sphere to any contemporary +rival, each supplementing the other, and making up together, could they +have been harmonized, a double head such as no political organism then +existing could boast, were now in hopeless antagonism to each other. A +mass of hatred had been accumulated against the Advocate with which he +found it daily more and more difficult to struggle. The imperious, +rugged, and suspicious nature of the Stadholder had been steadily wrought +upon by the almost devilish acts of Francis Aerssens until he had come to +look upon his father's most faithful adherent, his own early preceptor in +statesmanship and political supporter, as an antagonist, a conspirator, +and a tyrant. + +The soldier whose unrivalled ability, experience, and courage in the +field should have placed him at the very head of the great European army +of defence against the general crusade upon Protestantism, so constantly +foretold by Barneveld, was now to be engaged in making bloodless but +mischievous warfare against an imaginary conspiracy and a patriot foe. + +The Advocate, keeping steadily in view the great principles by which his +political life had been guided, the supremacy of the civil authority in +any properly organized commonwealth over the sacerdotal and military, +found himself gradually forced into mortal combat with both. To the +individual sovereignty of each province he held with the tenacity of a +lawyer and historian. In that he found the only clue through the +labyrinth which ecclesiastical and political affairs presented. So close +was the tangle, so confused the medley, that without this slender guide +all hope of legal issue seemed lost. + +No doubt the difficulty of the doctrine of individual sovereignty was +great, some of the provinces being such slender morsels of territory, +with resources so trivial, as to make the name of sovereignty ludicrous. +Yet there could be as little doubt that no other theory was tenable. If +so powerful a mind as that of the Advocate was inclined to strain the +theory to its extreme limits, it was because in the overshadowing +superiority of the one province Holland had been found the practical +remedy for the imbecility otherwise sure to result from such provincial +and meagre federalism. + +Moreover, to obtain Union by stretching all the ancient historical +privileges and liberties of the separate provinces upon the Procrustean +bed of a single dogma, to look for nationality only in common subjection +to an infallible priesthood, to accept a Catechism as the palladium upon +which the safety of the State was to depend for all time, and beyond +which there was to be no further message from Heaven--such was not +healthy constitutionalism in the eyes of a great statesman. No doubt +that without the fervent spirit of Calvinism it would have been difficult +to wage war with such immortal hate as the Netherlands had waged it, no +doubt the spirit of republican and even democratic liberty lay hidden +within that rigid husk, but it was dishonour to the martyrs who had died +by thousands at the stake and on the battle field for the rights of +conscience if the only result of their mighty warfare against wrong had +been to substitute a new dogma for an old one, to stifle for ever the +right of free enquiry, theological criticism, and the hope of further +light from on high, and to proclaim it a libel on the Republic that +within its borders all heretics, whether Arminian or Papist, were safe +from the death penalty or even from bodily punishment. A theological +union instead of a national one and obtained too at the sacrifice of +written law and immemorial tradition, a congress in which clerical +deputations from all the provinces and from foreign nations should +prescribe to all Netherlanders an immutable creed and a shadowy +constitution, were not the true remedies for the evils of confederacy, +nor, if they had been, was the time an appropriate one for their +application. + +It was far too early in the world's history to hope for such +redistribution of powers and such a modification of the social compact +as would place in separate spheres the Church and the State, double the +sanctions and the consolations of religion by removing it from the +pollutions of political warfare, and give freedom to individual +conscience by securing it from the interference of government. + +It is melancholy to see the Republic thus perversely occupying its +energies. It is melancholy to see the great soldier becoming gradually +more ardent for battle with Barneveld and Uytenbogaert than with Spinola +and Bucquoy, against whom he had won so many imperishable laurels. It is +still sadder to see the man who had been selected by Henry IV. as the one +statesman of Europe to whom he could confide his great projects for the +pacification of Christendom, and on whom he could depend for counsel and +support in schemes which, however fantastic in some of their details, had +for their object to prevent the very European war of religion against +which Barneveld had been struggling, now reduced to defend himself +against suspicion hourly darkening and hatred growing daily more insane. + +The eagle glance and restless wing, which had swept the whole political +atmosphere, now caged within the stifling limits of theological casuistry +and personal rivalry were afflicting to contemplate. + +The evils resulting from a confederate system of government, from a +league of petty sovereignties which dared not become a nation, were as +woefully exemplified in the United Provinces as they were destined to be +more than a century and a half later, and in another hemisphere, before +that most fortunate and sagacious of written political instruments, the +American Constitution of 1787, came to remedy the weakness of the old +articles of Union. + +Meantime the Netherlands were a confederacy, not a nation. Their general +government was but a committee. + +It could ask of, but not command, the separate provinces. It had no +dealings with nor power over the inhabitants of the country; it could say +"Thou shalt" neither to state nor citizen; it could consult only with +corporations--fictitious and many-headed personages--itself incorporate. +There was no first magistrate, no supreme court, no commander-in-chief, +no exclusive mint nor power of credit, no national taxation, no central +house of representation and legislation, no senate. Unfortunately it had +one church, and out of this single matrix of centralism was born more +discord than had been produced by all the centrifugal forces of +provincialism combined. + +There had been working substitutes found, as we well know, for the +deficiencies of this constitution, but the Advocate felt himself bound to +obey and enforce obedience to the laws and privileges of his country so +long as they remained without authorized change. His country was the +Province of Holland, to which his allegiance was due and whose servant he +was. That there was but one church paid and sanctioned by law, he +admitted, but his efforts were directed to prevent discord within that +church, by counselling moderation, conciliation, mutual forbearance, and +abstention from irritating discussion of dogmas deemed by many thinkers +and better theologians than himself not essential to salvation. In this +he was much behind his age or before it. He certainly was not with the +majority. + +And thus, while the election of Ferdinand had given the signal of war +all over Christendom, while from the demolished churches in Bohemia the +tocsin was still sounding, whose vibrations were destined to be heard a +generation long through the world, there was less sympathy felt with the +call within the territory of the great republic of Protestantism than +would have seemed imaginable a few short years before. The capture of +the Cloister Church at the Hague in the summer of 1617 seemed to minds +excited by personal rivalries and minute theological controversy a more +momentous event than the destruction of the churches in the Klostergrab +in the following December. The triumph of Gomarism in a single Dutch +city inspired more enthusiasm for the moment than the deadly buffet to +European Protestantism could inspire dismay. + +The church had been carried and occupied, as it were, by force, as if an +enemy's citadel. It seemed necessary to associate the idea of practical +warfare with a movement which might have been a pacific clerical success. +Barneveld and those who acted with him, while deploring the intolerance +out of which the schism had now grown to maturity, had still hoped for +possible accommodation of the quarrel. They dreaded popular tumults +leading to oppression of the magistracy by the mob or the soldiery and +ending in civil war. But what was wanted by the extreme partisans on +either side was not accommodation but victory. + +"Religious differences are causing much trouble and discontents in many +cities," he said. "At Amsterdam there were in the past week two +assemblages of boys and rabble which did not disperse without violence, +crime, and robbery. The brother of Professor Episcopius (Rem Bischop) +was damaged to the amount of several thousands. We are still hoping that +some better means of accommodation may be found." + +The calmness with which the Advocate spoke of these exciting and painful +events is remarkable. It was exactly a week before the date of his +letter that this riot had taken place at Amsterdam; very significant in +its nature and nearly tragical in its results. There were no Remonstrant +preachers left in the city, and the people of that persuasion were +excluded from the Communion service. On Sunday morning, 17th February +(1617), a furious mob set upon the house of Rem Bischop, a highly +respectable and wealthy citizen, brother of the Remonstrant professor +Episcopius, of Leyden. The house, an elegant mansion in one of the +principal streets, was besieged and after an hour's resistance carried by +storm. The pretext of the assault was that Arminian preaching was going +on within its walls, which was not the fact. The mistress of the house, +half clad, attempted to make her escape by the rear of the building, was +pursued by the rabble with sticks and stones, and shrieks of "Kill the +Arminian harlot, strike her dead," until she fortunately found refuge in +the house of a neighbouring carpenter. There the hunted creature fell +insensible on the ground, the master of the house refusing to give her +up, though the maddened mob surged around it, swearing that if the +"Arminian harlot"--as respectable a matron as lived in the city--were not +delivered over to them, they would tear the house to pieces. The hope of +plunder and of killing Rem Bischop himself drew them at last back to his +mansion. It was thoroughly sacked; every portable article of value, +linen, plate, money, furniture, was carried off, the pictures and objects +of art destroyed, the house gutted from top to bottom. A thousand +spectators were looking on placidly at the work of destruction as they +returned from church, many of them with Bible and Psalm-book in their +hands. The master effected his escape over the roof into an adjoining +building. One of the ringleaders, a carpenter by trade, was arrested +carrying an armful of valuable plunder. He was asked by the magistrate +why he had entered the house. "Out of good zeal," he replied; "to help +beat and kill the Arminians who were holding conventicle there." He was +further asked why he hated the Arminians so much. "Are we to suffer such +folk here," he replied, "who preach the vile doctrine that God has +created one man for damnation and another for salvation?"--thus ascribing +the doctrine of the church of which he supposed himself a member to the +Arminians whom he had been plundering and wished to kill. + +Rem Bischop received no compensation for the damage and danger; the +general cry in the town being that the money he was receiving from +Barneveld and the King of Spain would make him good even if not a stone +of the house had been left standing. On the following Thursday two +elders of the church council waited upon and informed him that he must +in future abstain from the Communion service. + +It may well be supposed that the virtual head of the government liked +not the triumph of mob law, in the name of religion, over the civil +authority. The Advocate was neither democrat nor demagogue. A lawyer, +a magistrate, and a noble, he had but little sympathy with the humbler +classes, which he was far too much in the habit of designating as rabble +and populace. Yet his anger was less against them than against the +priests, the foreigners, the military and diplomatic mischief-makers, by +whom they were set upon to dangerous demonstrations. The old patrician +scorned the arts by which highborn demagogues in that as in every age +affect adulation for inferiors whom they despise. It was his instinct to +protect, and guide the people, in whom he recognized no chartered nor +inherent right to govern. It was his resolve, so long as breath was in +him, to prevent them from destroying life and property and subverting the +government under the leadership of an inflamed priesthood. + +It was with this intention, as we have just seen, and in order to avoid +bloodshed, anarchy, and civil war in the streets of every town and +village, that a decisive but in the Advocate's opinion a perfectly legal +step had been taken by the States of Holland. It had become necessary to +empower the magistracies of towns to defend themselves by enrolled troops +against mob violence and against an enforced synod considered by great +lawyers as unconstitutional. + +Aerssens resided in Zealand, and the efforts of that ex-ambassador were +unceasing to excite popular animosity against the man he hated and to +trouble the political waters in which no man knew better than he how to +cast the net. + +"The States of Zealand," said the Advocate to the ambassador in London, +"have a deputation here about the religious differences, urging the +holding of a National Synod according to the King's letters, to which +some other provinces and some of the cities of Holland incline. The +questions have not yet been defined by a common synod, so that a national +one could make no definition, while the particular synods and clerical +personages are so filled with prejudices and so bound by mutual +engagements of long date as to make one fear an unfruitful issue. +We are occupied upon this point in our assembly of Holland to devise +some compromise and to discover by what means these difficulties may +be brought into a state of tranquillity." + +It will be observed that in all these most private and confidential +utterances of the Advocate a tone of extreme moderation, an anxious wish +to save the Provinces from dissensions, dangers, and bloodshed, is +distinctly visible. Never is he betrayed into vindictive, ambitious, or +self-seeking expressions, while sometimes, although rarely, despondent in +mind. Nor was his opposition to a general synod absolute. He was +probably persuaded however, as we have just seen, that it should of +necessity be preceded by provincial ones, both in due regard to the laws +of the land and to the true definition of the points to be submitted to +its decision. He had small hope of a successful result from it. + +The British king gave him infinite distress. As towards France so +towards England the Advocate kept steadily before him the necessity of +deferring to powerful sovereigns whose friendship was necessary to the +republic he served, however misguided, perverse, or incompetent those +monarchs might be. + +"I had always hoped," he said, "that his Majesty would have adhered to +his original written advice, that such questions as these ought to be +quietly settled by authority of law and not by ecclesiastical persons, +and I still hope that his Majesty's intention is really to that effect, +although he speaks of synods." + +A month later he felt even more encouraged. "The last letter of his +Majesty concerning our religious questions," he said, "has given rise to +various constructions, but the best advised, who have peace and unity at +heart, understand the King's intention to be to conserve the state of +these Provinces and the religion in its purity. My hope is that his +Majesty's good opinion will be followed and adopted according to the most +appropriate methods." + +Can it be believed that the statesman whose upright patriotism, +moderation, and nobleness of purpose thus breathed through every word +spoken by him in public or whispered to friends was already held up by +a herd of ravening slanderers to obloquy as a traitor and a tyrant? + +He was growing old and had suffered much from illness during this +eventful summer, but his anxiety for the Commonwealth, caused by these +distressing and superfluous squabbles, were wearing into him more deeply +than years or disease could do. + +"Owing to my weakness and old age I can't go up-stairs as well +as I used," he said,--[Barneveld to Caron 31 July and 21 Aug. 1617. +(H. Arch. MS.)]--"and these religious dissensions cause me sometimes +such disturbance of mind as will ere long become intolerable, because of +my indisposition and because of the cry of my heart at the course people +are pursuing here. I reflect that at the time of Duke Casimir and the +Prince of Chimay exactly such a course was held in Flanders and in Lord +Leicester's time in the city of Utrecht, as is best known to yourself. +My hope is fixed on the Lord God Almighty, and that He will make those +well ashamed who are laying anything to heart save his honour and glory +and the welfare of our country with maintenance of its freedom and laws. +I mean unchangeably to live and die for them . . . . Believe firmly +that all representations to the contrary are vile calumnies." + +Before leaving for Vianen in the middle of August of this year (1617) +the Advocate had an interview with the Prince. There had been no open +rupture between them, and Barneveld was most anxious to avoid a quarrel +with one to whose interests and honour he had always been devoted. He +did not cling to power nor office. On the contrary, he had repeatedly +importuned the States to accept his resignation, hoping that perhaps +these unhappy dissensions might be quieted by his removal from the scene. +He now told the Prince that the misunderstanding between them arising +from these religious disputes was so painful to his heart that he would +make and had made every possible effort towards conciliation and amicable +settlement of the controversy. He saw no means now, he said, of bringing +about unity, unless his Excellency were willing to make some proposition +for arrangement. This he earnestly implored the Prince to do, assuring +him of his sincere and upright affection for him and his wish to support +such measures to the best of his ability and to do everything for the +furtherance of his reputation and necessary authority. He was so +desirous of this result, he said, that he would propose now as he did at +the time of the Truce negotiations to lay down all his offices, leaving +his Excellency to guide the whole course of affairs according to his +best judgment. He had already taken a resolution, if no means of +accommodation were possible, to retire to his Gunterstein estate and +there remain till the next meeting of the assembly; when he would ask +leave to retire for at least a year; in order to occupy himself with a +revision and collation of the charters, laws, and other state papers of +the country which were in his keeping, and which it was needful to bring +into an orderly condition. Meantime some scheme might be found for +arranging the religious differences, more effective than any he had been +able to devise. + +His appeal seems to have glanced powerlessly upon the iron reticence of +Maurice, and the Advocate took his departure disheartened. Later in the +autumn, so warm a remonstrance was made to him by the leading nobles and +deputies of Holland against his contemplated withdrawal from his post +that it seemed a dereliction of duty on his part to retire. He remained +to battle with the storm and to see "with anguish of heart," as he +expressed it, the course religious affairs were taking. + +The States of Utrecht on the 26th August resolved that on account of +the gathering of large masses of troops in the countries immediately +adjoining their borders, especially in the Episcopate of Cologne, by aid +of Spanish money, it was expedient for them to enlist a protective force +of six companies of regular soldiers in order to save the city from +sudden and overwhelming attack by foreign troops. + +Even if the danger from without were magnified in this preamble, which is +by no means certain, there seemed to be no doubt on the subject in the +minds of the magistrates. They believed that they had the right to +protect and that they were bound to protect their ancient city from +sudden assault, whether by Spanish soldiers or by organized mobs +attempting, as had been done in Rotterdam, Oudewater, and other towns, to +overawe the civil authority in the interest of the Contra-Remonstrants. + +Six nobles of Utrecht were accordingly commissioned to raise the troops. +A week later they had been enlisted, sworn to obey in all things the +States of Utrecht, and to take orders from no one else. Three days later +the States of Utrecht addressed a letter to their Mightinesses the +States-General and to his Excellency the Prince, notifying them that for +the reasons stated in the resolution cited the six companies had been +levied. There seemed in these proceedings to be no thought of mutiny or +rebellion, the province considering itself as acting within its +unquestionable rights as a sovereign state and without any exaggeration +of the imperious circumstances of the case. + +Nor did the States-General and the Stadholder at that moment affect to +dispute the rights of Utrecht, nor raise a doubt as to the legality of +the proceedings. The committee sent thither by the States-General, the +Prince, and the council of state in their written answer to the letter of +the Utrecht government declared the reasons given for the enrolment of +the six companies to be insufficient and the measure itself highly +dangerous. They complained, but in very courteous language, that the +soldiers had been levied without giving the least notice thereof to the +general government, without asking its advice, or waiting for any +communication from it, and they reminded the States of Utrecht that they +might always rely upon the States-General and his Excellency, who were +still ready, as they had been seven years before (1610), to protect them +against every enemy and any danger. + +The conflict between a single province of the confederacy and the +authority of the general government had thus been brought to a direct +issue; to the test of arms. For, notwithstanding the preamble to the +resolution of the Utrecht Assembly just cited, there could be little +question that the resolve itself was a natural corollary of the famous +"Sharp Resolution," passed by the States of Holland three weeks before. +Utrecht was in arms to prevent, among other things at least, the forcing +upon them by a majority of the States-General of the National Synod to +which they were opposed, the seizure of churches by the Contra- +Remonstrants, and the destruction of life and property by inflamed mobs. + +There is no doubt that Barneveld deeply deplored the issue, +but that he felt himself bound to accept it. The innate absurdity of a +constitutional system under which each of the seven members was sovereign +and independent and the head was at the mercy of the members could not be +more flagrantly illustrated. In the bloody battles which seemed +impending in the streets of Utrecht and in all the principal cities of +the Netherlands between the soldiers of sovereign states and soldiers of +a general government which was not sovereign, the letter of the law and +the records of history were unquestionably on the aide of the provincial +and against the general authority. Yet to nullify the authority of the +States-General by force of arms at this supreme moment was to stultify +all government whatever. It was an awful dilemma, and it is difficult +here fully to sympathize with the Advocate, for he it was who inspired, +without dictating, the course of the Utrecht proceedings. + +With him patriotism seemed at this moment to dwindle into provincialism, +the statesman to shrink into the lawyer. + +Certainly there was no guilt in the proceedings. There was no crime in +the heart of the Advocate. He had exhausted himself with appeals in +favour of moderation, conciliation, compromise. He had worked night +and day with all the energy of a pure soul and a great mind to assuage +religious hatreds and avert civil dissensions. He was overpowered. +He had frequently desired to be released from all his functions, but as +dangers thickened over the Provinces, he felt it his duty so long as he +remained at his post to abide by the law as the only anchor in the storm. +Not rising in his mind to the height of a national idea, and especially +averse from it when embodied in the repulsive form of religious +uniformity, he did not shrink from a contest which he had not provoked, +but had done his utmost to avert. But even then he did not anticipate +civil war. The enrolling of the Waartgelders was an armed protest, +a symbol of legal conviction rather than a serious effort to resist the +general government. And this is the chief justification of his course +from a political point of view. It was ridiculous to suppose that with a +few hundred soldiers hastily enlisted--and there were less than 1800 +Waartgelders levied throughout the Provinces and under the orders of +civil magistrates--a serious contest was intended against a splendidly +disciplined army of veteran troops, commanded by the first general of the +age. + +From a legal point of view Barneveld considered his position impregnable. + +The controversy is curious, especially for Americans, and for all who are +interested in the analysis of federal institutions and of republican +principles, whether aristocratic or democratic. The States of Utrecht +replied in decorous but firm language to the committee of the States- +General that they had raised the six companies in accordance with their +sovereign right so to do, and that they were resolved to maintain them. +They could not wait as they had been obliged to do in the time of the +Earl of Leicester and more recently in 1610 until they had been surprised +and overwhelmed by the enemy before the States-General and his Excellency +the Prince could come to their rescue. They could not suffer all the +evils of tumults, conspiracies, and foreign invasion, without defending +themselves. + +Making use, they said, of the right of sovereignty which in their +province belonged to them alone, they thought it better to prevent in +time and by convenient means such fire and mischief than to look on while +it kindled and spread into a conflagration, and to go about imploring aid +from their fellow confederates who, God better it, had enough in these +times to do at home. This would only be to bring them as well as this +province into trouble, disquiet, and expense. "My Lords the States of +Utrecht have conserved and continually exercised this right of +sovereignty in its entireness ever since renouncing the King of Spain. +Every contract, ordinance, and instruction of the States-General has been +in conformity with it, and the States of Utrecht are convinced that the +States of not one of their confederate provinces would yield an atom of +its sovereignty." + +They reminded the general government that by the 1st article of the +"Closer Union" of Utrecht, on which that assembly was founded, it was +bound to support the States of the respective provinces and strengthen +them with counsel, treasure, and blood if their respective rights, more +especially their individual sovereignty, the most precious of all, should +be assailed. To refrain from so doing would be to violate a solemn +contract. They further reminded the council of state that by its +institution the States-Provincial had not abdicated their respective +sovereignties, but had reserved it in all matters not specifically +mentioned in the original instruction by which it was created. + +Two days afterwards Arnold van Randwyck and three other commissioners +were instructed by the general government to confer with the States of +Utrecht, to tell them that their reply was deemed unsatisfactory, that +their reasons for levying soldiers in times when all good people should +be seeking to restore harmony and mitigate dissension were insufficient, +and to request them to disband those levies without prejudice in so doing +to the laws and liberties of the province and city of Utrecht. + +Here was perhaps an opening for a compromise, the instruction being not +without ingenuity, and the word sovereignty in regard either to the +general government or the separate provinces being carefully omitted. +Soon afterwards, too, the States-General went many steps farther in the +path of concession, for they made another appeal to the government of +Utrecht to disband the Waartgelders on the ground of expediency, +and in so doing almost expressly admitted the doctrine of provincial +sovereignty. It is important in regard to subsequent events to observe +this virtual admission. + +"Your Honours lay especial stress upon the right of sovereignty as +belonging to you alone in your province," they said, "and dispute +therefore at great length upon the power and authority of the Generality, +of his Excellency, and of the state council. But you will please to +consider that there is here no question of this, as our commissioners +had no instructions to bring this into dispute in the least, and most +certainly have not done so. We have only in effect questioned whether +that which one has an undoubted right to do can at all times be +appropriately and becomingly done, whether it was fitting that your +Honours, contrary to custom, should undertake these new levies upon a +special oath and commission, and effectively complete the measure without +giving the slightest notice thereof to the Generality." + +It may fairly be said that the question in debate was entirely conceded +in this remarkable paper, which was addressed by the States-General, the +Prince-Stadholder, and the council of state to the government of Utrecht. +It should be observed, too, that while distinctly repudiating the +intention of disputing the sovereignty of that province, they carefully +abstain from using the word in relation to themselves, speaking only of +the might and authority of the Generality, the Prince, and the council. + +There was now a pause in the public discussion. The soldiers were not +disbanded, as the States of Utrecht were less occupied with establishing +the soundness of their theory than with securing its practical results. +They knew very well, and the Advocate knew very well, that the intention +to force a national synod by a majority vote of the Assembly of the +States-General existed more strongly than ever, and they meant to resist +it to the last. The attempt was in their opinion an audacious violation +of the fundamental pact on which the Confederacy was founded. Its +success would be to establish the sacerdotal power in triumph over the +civil authority. + +During this period the Advocate was resident in Utrecht. For change of +air, ostensibly at least, he had absented himself from the seat of +government, and was during several weeks under the hands of his old +friend and physician Dr. Saul. He was strictly advised to abstain +altogether from political business, but he might as well have attempted +to abstain from food and drink. Gillis van Ledenberg, secretary of the +States of Utrecht, visited him frequently. The proposition to enlist the +Waartgelders had been originally made in the Assembly by its president, +and warmly seconded by van Ledenberg, who doubtless conferred afterwards +with Barneveld in person, but informally and at his lodgings. + +It was almost inevitable that this should be the case, nor did the +Advocate make much mystery as to the course of action which he deemed +indispensable at this period. Believing it possible that some sudden and +desperate attempt might be made by evil disposed people, he agreed with +the States of Utrecht in the propriety of taking measures of precaution. +They were resolved not to look quietly on while soldiers and rabble under +guidance perhaps of violent Contra-Remonstrant preachers took possession +of the churches and even of the city itself, as had already been done in +several towns. + +The chief practical object of enlisting the six companies was that the +city might be armed against popular tumults, and they feared that the +ordinary military force might be withdrawn. + +When Captain Hartvelt, in his own name and that of the other officers +of those companies, said that they were all resolved never to use their +weapons against the Stadholder or the States-General, he was answered +that they would never be required to do so. They, however, made oath to +serve against those who should seek to trouble the peace of the Province +of Utrecht in ecclesiastical or political matters, and further against +all enemies of the common country. At the same time it was deemed +expedient to guard against a surprise of any kind and to keep watch and +ward. + +"I cannot quite believe in the French companies," said the Advocate in a +private billet to Ledenberg. "It would be extremely well that not only +good watch should be kept at the city gates, but also that one might from +above and below the river Lek be assuredly advised from the nearest +cities if any soldiers are coming up or down, and that the same might be +done in regard to Amersfoort." At the bottom of this letter, which was +destined to become historical and will be afterwards referred to, the +Advocate wrote, as he not unfrequently did, upon his private notes, "When +read, burn, and send me back the two enclosed letters." + +The letter lies in the Archives unburned to this day, but, harmless as it +looked, it was to serve as a nail in more than one coffin. + +In his confidential letters to trusted friends he complained of "great +physical debility growing out of heavy sorrow," and described himself as +entering upon his seventy-first year and no longer fit for hard political +labour. The sincere grief, profound love of country, and desire that +some remedy might be found for impending disaster, is stamped upon all +his utterances whether official or secret. + +"The troubles growing out of the religious differences," he said, "are +running into all sorts of extremities. It is feared that an attempt will +be made against the laws of the land through extraordinary ways, and by +popular tumults to take from the supreme authority of the respective +provinces the right to govern clerical persons and regulate clerical +disputes, and to place it at the disposition of ecclesiastics and of a +National Synod. + +"It is thought too that the soldiers will be forbidden to assist the +civil supreme power and the government of cities in defending themselves +from acts of violence which under pretext of religion will be attempted +against the law and the commands of the magistrates. + +"This seems to conflict with the common law of the respective provinces, +each of which from all times had right of sovereignty and supreme +authority within its territory and specifically reserved it in all +treaties and especially in that of the Nearer Union . . . . The +provinces have always regulated clerical matters each for itself. The +Province of Utrecht, which under the pretext of religion is now most +troubled, made stipulations to this effect, when it took his Excellency +for governor, even more stringent than any others. As for Holland, she +never imagined that one could ever raise a question on the subject . . +. . All good men ought to do their best to prevent the enemies to the +welfare of these Provinces from making profit out of our troubles." + +The whole matter he regarded as a struggle between the clergy and the +civil power for mastery over the state, as an attempt to subject +provincial autonomy to the central government purely in the interest of +the priesthood of a particular sect. The remedy he fondly hoped for was +moderation and union within the Church itself. He could never imagine +the necessity for this ferocious animosity not only between Christians +but between two branches of the Reformed Church. He could never be made +to believe that the Five Points of the Remonstrance had dug an abyss too +deep and wide ever to be bridged between brethren lately of one faith as +of one fatherland. He was unceasing in his prayers and appeals for +"mutual toleration on the subject of predestination." Perhaps the +bitterness, almost amounting to frenzy, with which abstruse points of +casuistry were then debated, and which converted differences of opinion +upon metaphysical divinity into deadly hatred and thirst for blood, is +already obsolete or on the road to become so. If so, then was Barneveld +in advance of his age, and it would have been better for the peace of the +world and the progress of Christianity if more of his contemporaries had +placed themselves on his level. + +He was no theologian, but he believed himself to be a Christian, and he +certainly was a thoughtful and a humble one. He had not the arrogance to +pierce behind the veil and assume to read the inscrutable thoughts of the +Omnipotent. It was a cruel fate that his humility upon subjects which he +believed to be beyond the scope of human reason should have been tortured +by his enemies into a crime, and that because he hoped for religious +toleration he should be accused of treason to the Commonwealth. + +"Believe and cause others to believe," he said, "that I am and with the +grace of God hope to continue an upright patriot as I have proved myself +to be in these last forty-two years spent in the public service. In the +matter of differential religious points I remain of the opinions which I +have held for more than fifty years, and in which I hope to live and die, +to wit, that a good Christian man ought to believe that he is predestined +to eternal salvation through God's grace, giving for reasons that he +through God's grace has a firm belief that his salvation is founded +purely on God's grace and the expiation of our sins through our Saviour +Jesus Christ, and that if he should fall into any sins his firm trust is +that God will not let him perish in them, but mercifully turn him to +repentance, so that he may continue in the same belief to the last." + +These expressions were contained in a letter to Caron with the intention +doubtless that they should be communicated to the King of Great Britain, +and it is a curious illustration of the spirit of the age, this picture +of the leading statesman of a great republic unfolding his religious +convictions for private inspection by the monarch of an allied nation. +More than anything else it exemplifies the close commixture of theology, +politics, and diplomacy in that age, and especially in those two +countries. + +Formerly, as we have seen, the King considered a too curious fathoming of +divine mysteries as highly reprehensible, particularly for the common +people. Although he knew more about them than any one else, he avowed +that even his knowledge in this respect was not perfect. It was matter +of deep regret with the Advocate that his Majesty had not held to his +former positions, and that he had disowned his original letters. + +"I believe my sentiments thus expressed," he said, "to be in accordance +with Scripture, and I have always held to them without teasing my brains +with the precise decrees of reprobation, foreknowledge, or the like, as +matters above my comprehension. I have always counselled Christian +moderation. The States of Holland have followed the spirit of his +Majesty's letters, but our antagonists have rejected them and with +seditious talk, sermons, and the spreading of infamous libels have +brought matters to their present condition. There have been excesses on +the other side as well." + +He then made a slight, somewhat shadowy allusion to schemes known to be +afloat for conferring the sovereignty upon Maurice. We have seen that at +former periods he had entertained this subject and discussed it privately +with those who were not only friendly but devoted to the Stadholder, and +that he had arrived at the conclusion that it would not be for the +interest of the Prince to encourage the project. Above all he was +sternly opposed to the idea of attempting to compass it by secret +intrigue. Should such an arrangement be publicly discussed and legally +completed, it would not meet with his unconditional opposition. + +"The Lord God knows," he said, "whether underneath all these movements +does not lie the design of the year 1600, well known to you. As for me, +believe that I am and by God's grace hope to remain, what I always was, +an upright patriot, a defender of the true Christian religion, of the +public authority, and of all the power that has been and in future may be +legally conferred upon his Excellency. Believe that all things said, +written, or spread to the contrary are falsehoods and calumnies." + +He was still in Utrecht, but about to leave for the Hague, with health +somewhat improved and in better spirits in regard to public matters. + +"Although I have entered my seventy-first year," he said, "I trust still +to be of some service to the Commonwealth and to my friends . . . . +Don't consider an arrangement of our affairs desperate. I hope for +better things." + +Soon after his return he was waited upon one Sunday evening, late in +October--being obliged to keep his house on account of continued +indisposition--by a certain solicitor named Nordlingen and informed that +the Prince was about to make a sudden visit to Leyden at four o'clock +next morning. + +Barneveld knew that the burgomasters and regents were holding a great +banquet that night, and that many of them would probably have been +indulging in potations too deep to leave them fit for serious business. +The agitation of people's minds at that moment made the visit seem rather +a critical one, as there would probably be a mob collected to see the +Stadholder, and he was anxious both in the interest of the Prince and the +regents and of both religious denominations that no painful incidents +should occur if it was in his power to prevent them. + +He was aware that his son-in-law, Cornelis van der Myle, had been invited +to the banquet, and that he was wont to carry his wine discreetly. He +therefore requested Nordlingen to proceed to Leyden that night and seek +an interview with van der Myle without delay. By thus communicating the +intelligence of the expected visit to one who, he felt sure, would do his +best to provide for a respectful and suitable reception of the Prince, +notwithstanding the exhilarated condition in which the magistrates would +probably find themselves, the Advocate hoped to prevent any riot or +tumultuous demonstration of any kind. At least he would act conformably +to his duty and keep his conscience clear should disasters ensue. + +Later in the night he learned that Maurice was going not to Leyden but to +Delft, and he accordingly despatched a special messenger to arrive before +dawn at Leyden in order to inform van der Myle of this change in the +Prince's movements. Nothing seemed simpler or more judicious than these +precautions on the part of Barneveld. They could not fail, however, to +be tortured into sedition, conspiracy, and treason. + +Towards the end of the year a meeting of the nobles and knights of +Holland under the leadership of Barneveld was held to discuss the famous +Sharp Resolution of 4th August and the letters and arguments advanced +against it by the Stadholder and the council of state. It was +unanimously resolved by this body, in which they were subsequently +followed by a large majority of the States of Holland, to maintain that +resolution and its consequences and to oppose the National Synod. They +further resolved that a legal provincial synod should be convoked by the +States of Holland and under their authority and supervision. The object +of such synod should be to devise "some means of accommodation, mutual +toleration, and Christian settlement of differences in regard to the Five +Points in question." + +In case such compromise should unfortunately not be arranged, then it was +resolved to invite to the assembly two or three persons from France, as +many from England, from Germany, and from Switzerland, to aid in the +consultations. Should a method of reconciliation and mutual toleration +still remain undiscovered, then, in consideration that the whole +Christian world was interested in composing these dissensions, it was +proposed that a "synodal assembly of all Christendom," a Protestant +oecumenical council, should in some solemn manner be convoked. + +These resolutions and propositions were all brought forward by the +Advocate, and the draughts of them in his handwriting remain. They are +the unimpeachable evidences of his earnest desire to put an end to these +unhappy disputes and disorders in the only way which he considered +constitutional. + +Before the close of the year the States of Holland, in accordance with +the foregoing advice of the nobles, passed a resolution, the minutes of +which were drawn up by the hand of the Advocate, and in which they +persisted in their opposition to the National Synod. They declared by a +large majority of votes that the Assembly of the States-General without +the unanimous consent of the Provincial States were not competent +according to the Union of Utrecht--the fundamental law of the General +Assembly--to regulate religious affairs, but that this right belonged to +the separate provinces, each within its own domain. + +They further resolved that as they were bound by solemn oath to maintain +the laws and liberties of Holland, they could not surrender this right to +the Generality, nor allow it to be usurped by any one, but in order to +settle the question of the Five Points, the only cause known to them of +the present disturbances, they were content under: their own authority to +convoke a provincial synod within three months, at their own cost, and to +invite the respective provinces, as many of them as thought good, to send +to this meeting a certain number of pious and learned theologians. + +It is difficult to see why the course thus unanimously proposed by the +nobles of Holland, under guidance of Barneveld, and subsequently by a +majority of the States of that province, would not have been as expedient +as it was legal. But we are less concerned with that point now than with +the illustrations afforded by these long buried documents of the +patriotism and sagacity of a man than whom no human creature was +ever more foully slandered. + +It will be constantly borne in mind that he regarded this religious +controversy purely from a political, legal, and constitutional--and not +from a theological-point of view. He believed that grave danger to the +Fatherland was lurking under this attempt, by the general government, to +usurp the power of dictating the religious creed of all the provinces. +Especially he deplored the evil influence exerted by the King of England +since his abandonment of the principles announced in his famous letter to +the States in the year 1613. All that the Advocate struggled for was +moderation and mutual toleration within the Reformed Church. He felt +that a wider scheme of forbearance was impracticable. If a dream of +general religious equality had ever floated before him or before any one +in that age, he would have felt it to be a dream which would be a reality +nowhere until centuries should have passed away. Yet that moderation, +patience, tolerance, and respect for written law paved the road to that +wider and loftier region can scarcely be doubted. + +Carleton, subservient to every changing theological whim of his master, +was as vehement and as insolent now in enforcing the intolerant views of +James as he had previously been in supporting the counsels to tolerance +contained in the original letters of that monarch. + +The Ambassador was often at the Advocate's bed-side during his illness +that summer, enforcing, instructing, denouncing, contradicting. He was +never weary of fulfilling his duties of tuition, but the patient +Barneveld; haughty and overbearing as he was often described to be, +rarely used a harsh or vindictive word regarding him in his letters. + +"The ambassador of France," he said, "has been heard before the Assembly +of the States-General, and has made warm appeals in favour of union and +mutual toleration as his Majesty of Great Britain so wisely did in his +letters of 1613 . . . . If his Majesty could only be induced to write +fresh letters in similar tone, I should venture to hope better fruits +from them than from this attempt to thrust a national synod upon our +necks, which many of us hold to be contrary to law, reason, and the Act +of Union." + +So long as it was possible to hope that the action of the States of +Holland would prevent such a catastrophe, he worked hard to direct them +in what he deemed the right course. + +"Our political and religious differences," he said, "stand between hope +and fear." + +The hope was in the acceptance of the Provincial Synod--the fear lest the +National Synod should be carried by a minority of the cities of Holland +combining with a majority of the other Provincial States. + +"This would be in violation," he said, "of the so-called Religious Peace, +the Act of Union, the treaty with the Duke of Anjou, the negotiations of +the States of Utrecht, and with Prince Maurice in 1590 with cognizance of +the States-General and those of Holland for, the governorship of that +province, the custom of the Generality for the last thirty years +according to which religious matters have always been left to the +disposition of the States of each province . . . . Carleton is +strenuously urging this course in his Majesty's name, and I fear that +in the present state of our humours great troubles will be the result." + +The expulsion by an armed mob, in the past year, of a Remonstrant +preacher at Oudewater, the overpowering of the magistracy and the forcing +on of illegal elections in that and other cities, had given him and all +earnest patriots grave cause for apprehension. They were dreading, said +Barneveld, a course of crimes similar to those which under the Earl of +Leicester's government had afflicted Leyden and Utrecht. + +"Efforts are incessant to make the Remonstrants hateful," he said to +Caron, "but go forward resolutely and firmly in the conviction that our +friends here are as animated in their opposition to the Spanish dominion +now and by God's grace will so remain as they have ever proved themselves +to be, not only by words, but works. I fear that Mr. Carleton gives too +much belief to the enviers of our peace and tranquillity under pretext of +religion, but it is more from ignorance than malice." + +Those who have followed the course of the Advocate's correspondence, +conversation, and actions, as thus far detailed, can judge of the +gigantic nature of the calumny by which he was now assailed. That this +man, into every fibre of whose nature was woven undying hostility to +Spain, as the great foe to national independence and religious liberty +throughout the continent of Europe, whose every effort, as we have seen, +during all these years of nominal peace had been to organize a system of +general European defence against the war now actually begun upon +Protestantism, should be accused of being a partisan of Spain, a creature +of Spain, a pensioner of Spain, was enough to make honest men pray that +the earth might be swallowed up. If such idiotic calumnies could be +believed, what patriot in the world could not be doubted? Yet they were +believed. Barneveld was bought by Spanish gold. He had received whole +boxes full of Spanish pistoles, straight from Brussels! For his part in +the truce negotiations he had received 120,000 ducats in one lump. + +"It was plain," said the greatest man in the country to another great +man, "that Barneveld and his party are on the road to Spain." + +"Then it were well to have proof of it," said the great man. + +"Not yet time," was the reply. "We must flatten out a few of them +first." + +Prince Maurice had told the Princess-Dowager the winter before (8th +December 1616) that those dissensions would never be decided except by +use of weapons; and he now mentioned to her that he had received +information from Brussels, which he in part believed, that the Advocate +was a stipendiary of Spain. Yet he had once said, to the same Princess +Louise, of this stipendiary that "the services which the Advocate had +rendered to the House of Nassau were so great that all the members of +that house might well look upon him not as their friend but their +father." Councillor van Maldere, President of the States of Zealand, and +a confidential friend of Maurice, was going about the Hague saying that +"one must string up seven or eight Remonstrants on the gallows; then +there might be some improvement." + +As for Arminius and Uytenbogaert, people had long told each other and +firmly believed it, and were amazed when any incredulity was expressed in +regard to it, that they were in regular and intimate correspondence with +the Jesuits, that they had received large sums from Rome, and that both +had been promised cardinals' hats. That Barneveld and his friend +Uytenbogaert were regular pensioners of Spain admitted of no dispute +whatever. "It was as true as the Holy Evangel." The ludicrous chatter +had been passed over with absolute disdain by the persons attacked, but +calumny is often a stronger and more lasting power than disdain. It +proved to be in these cases. + +"You have the plague mark on your flesh, oh pope, oh pensioner," said one +libeller. "There are letters safely preserved to make your process for +you. Look out for your head. Many have sworn your death, for it is more +than time that you were out of the world. We shall prove, oh great +bribed one, that you had the 120,000 little ducats." The preacher +Uytenbogaert was also said to have had 80,000 ducats for his share. +"Go to Brussels," said the pamphleteer; "it all stands clearly written +out on the register with the names and surnames of all you great bribe- +takers." + +These were choice morsels from the lampoon of the notary Danckaerts. + +"We are tortured more and more with religious differences," wrote +Barneveld; "with acts of popular violence growing out of them the more +continuously as they remain unpunished, and with ever increasing +jealousies and suspicions. The factious libels become daily more +numerous and more impudent, and no man comes undamaged from the field. +I, as a reward for all my troubles, labours, and sorrows, have three +double portions of them. I hope however to overcome all by God's grace +and to defend my actions with all honourable men so long as right and +reason have place in the world, as to which many begin to doubt. If his +Majesty had been pleased to stick to the letters of 1613, we should never +have got into these difficulties . . . . It were better in my opinion +that Carleton should be instructed to negotiate in the spirit of those +epistles rather than to torment us with the National Synod, which will do +more harm than good." + +It is impossible not to notice the simplicity and patience with which the +Advocate, in the discharge of his duty as minister of foreign affairs, +kept the leading envoys of the Republic privately informed of events +which were becoming day by day more dangerous to the public interests and +his own safety. If ever a perfectly quiet conscience was revealed in the +correspondence of a statesman, it was to be found in these letters. + +Calmly writing to thank Caron for some very satisfactory English beer +which the Ambassador had been sending him from London, he proceeded to +speak again of the religious dissensions and their consequences. He sent +him the letter and remonstrance which he had felt himself obliged to +make, and which he had been urged by his ever warm and constant friend +the widow of William the Silent to make on the subject of "the seditious +libels, full of lies and calumnies got up by conspiracy against him." +These letters were never published, however, until years after he had +been in his grave. + +"I know that you are displeased with the injustice done me," he said, +"but I see no improvement. People are determined to force through the +National Synod. The two last ones did much harm. This will do ten times +more, so intensely embittered are men's tempers against each other." +Again he deplored the King's departure from his letters of 1613, by +adherence to which almost all the troubles would have been spared. + +It is curious too to observe the contrast between public opinion in Great +Britain, including its government, in regard to the constitution of the +United Provinces at that period of domestic dissensions and incipient +civil war and the general impressions manifested in the same nation two +centuries and a half later, on the outbreak of the slavery rebellion, as +to the constitution of the United States. + +The States in arms against the general government on the other side of +the Atlantic were strangely but not disingenuously assumed to be +sovereign and independent, and many statesmen and a leading portion of +the public justified them in their attempt to shake off the central +government as if it were but a board of agency established by treaty and +terminable at pleasure of any one of among sovereigns and terminable at +pleasure of any one of them. + +Yet even a superficial glance at the written constitution of the Republic +showed that its main object was to convert what had been a confederacy +into an Incorporation; and that the very essence of its renewed political +existence was an organic law laid down by a whole people in their +primitive capacity in place of a league banding together a group of +independent little corporations. The chief attributes of sovereignty-- +the rights of war and peace, of coinage, of holding armies and navies, of +issuing bills of credit, of foreign relations, of regulating and taxing +foreign commerce--having been taken from the separate States by the +united people thereof and bestowed upon a government provided with a +single executive head, with a supreme tribunal, with a popular house of +representatives and a senate, and with power to deal directly with the +life and property of every individual in the land, it was strange indeed +that the feudal, and in America utterly unmeaning, word Sovereign should +have been thought an appropriate term for the different States which had +fused themselves three-quarters of a century before into a Union. + +When it is remembered too that the only dissolvent of this Union was the +intention to perpetuate human slavery, the logic seemed somewhat perverse +by which the separate sovereignty of the States was deduced from the +constitution of 1787. + +On the other hand, the Union of Utrecht of 1579 was a league of petty +sovereignties; a compact less binding and more fragile than the Articles +of Union made almost exactly two hundred years later in America, and the +worthlessness of which, after the strain of war was over, had been +demonstrated in the dreary years immediately following the peace of 1783. +One after another certain Netherland provinces had abjured their +allegiance to Spain, some of them afterwards relapsing under it, some +having been conquered by the others, while one of them, Holland, had for +a long time borne the greater part of the expense and burthen of the war. + +"Holland," said the Advocate, "has brought almost all the provinces to +their liberty. To receive laws from them or from their clerical people +now is what our State cannot endure. It is against her laws and customs, +in the enjoyment of which the other provinces and his Excellency as +Governor of Holland are bound to protect us." + +And as the preservation of chattel slavery in the one case seemed a +legitimate ground for destroying a government which had as definite an +existence as any government known to mankind, so the resolve to impose a +single religious creed upon many millions of individuals was held by the +King and government of Great Britain to be a substantial reason for +imagining a central sovereignty which had never existed at all. This was +still more surprising as the right to dispose of ecclesiastical affairs +and persons had been expressly reserved by the separate provinces in +perfectly plain language in the Treaty of Union. + +"If the King were better informed," said Barneveld, "of our system and +laws, we should have better hope than now. But one supposes through +notorious error in foreign countries that the sovereignty stands with the +States-General which is not the case, except in things which by the +Articles of Closer Union have been made common to all the provinces, +while in other matters, as religion, justice, and polity, the sovereignty +remains with each province, which foreigners seem unable to comprehend." + +Early in June, Carleton took his departure for England on leave of +absence. He received a present from the States of 3000 florins, and went +over in very ill-humour with Barneveld. "Mr. Ambassador is much offended +and prejudiced," said the Advocate, "but I know that he will religiously +carry out the orders of his Majesty. I trust that his Majesty can admit +different sentiments on predestination and its consequences, and that in +a kingdom where the supreme civil authority defends religion the system +of the Puritans will have no foothold." + +Certainly James could not be accused of allowing the system of the +Puritans much foothold in England, but he had made the ingenious +discovery that Puritanism in Holland was a very different thing from +Puritanism in the Netherlands. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Acts of violence which under pretext of religion +Adulation for inferiors whom they despise +Calumny is often a stronger and more lasting power than disdain +Created one child for damnation and another for salvation +Depths of credulity men in all ages can sink +Devote himself to his gout and to his fair young wife +Furious mob set upon the house of Rem Bischop +Highborn demagogues in that as in every age affect adulation +In this he was much behind his age or before it +Logic is rarely the quality on which kings pride themselves +Necessity of deferring to powerful sovereigns +Not his custom nor that of his councillors to go to bed +Partisans wanted not accommodation but victory +Puritanism in Holland was a very different thing from England +Seemed bent on self-destruction +Stand between hope and fear +The evils resulting from a confederate system of government +To stifle for ever the right of free enquiry + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext Life of John Barneveld, v8, Motley #94 +by John Lothrop Motley + + + + + + +THE LIFE AND DEATH of JOHN OF BARNEVELD, ADVOCATE OF HOLLAND + +WITH A VIEW OF THE PRIMARY CAUSES AND MOVEMENTS OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR + +By John Lothrop Motley, D.C.L., LL.D. + + + +Life and Death of John of Barneveld, v9, 1618 + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + Maurice revolutionizes the Provinces--Danckaert's libellous Pamphlet + --Barneveld's Appeal to the Prince--Barneveld'a Remonstrance to the + States--The Stadholder at Amsterdam--The Treaty of Truce nearly + expired--King of Spain and Archduke Albert--Scheme for recovering + the Provinces--Secret Plot to make Maurice Sovereign. + +Early in the year (1618) Maurice set himself about revolutionizing the +provinces on which he could not yet thoroughly rely. The town of Nymegen +since its recovery from the Spaniards near the close of the preceding +century had held its municipal government, as it were, at the option of +the Prince. During the war he had been, by the terms of surrender, +empowered to appoint and to change its magistracy at will. No change had +occurred for many years, but as the government had of late fallen into +the hands of the Barneveldians, and as Maurice considered the Truce to be +a continuance of the war, he appeared suddenly, in the city at the head +of a body of troops and surrounded by his lifeguard. Summoning the whole +board of magistrates into the townhouse, he gave them all notice to quit, +disbanding them like a company of mutinous soldiery, and immediately +afterwards appointed a fresh list of functionaries in their stead. + +This done, he proceeded to Arnhem, where the States of Gelderland were in +session, appeared before that body, and made a brief announcement of the +revolution which he had so succinctly effected in the most considerable +town of their province. The Assembly, which seems, like many other +assemblies at precisely this epoch, to have had an extraordinary capacity +for yielding to gentle violence, made but little resistance to the +extreme measures now undertaken by the Stadholder, and not only highly +applauded the subjugation of Nymegen, but listened with sympathy to his +arguments against the Waartgelders and in favour of the Synod. + +Having accomplished so much by a very brief visit to Gelderland, the +Prince proceeded, to Overyssel, and had as little difficulty in bringing +over the wavering minds of that province into orthodoxy and obedience. +Thus there remained but two provinces out of seven that were still +"waartgeldered" and refused to be "synodized." + +It was rebellion against rebellion. Maurice and his adherents accused +the States' right party of mutiny against himself and the States-General. +The States' right party accused the Contra-Remonstrants in the cities of +mutiny against the lawful sovereignty of each province. + +The oath of the soldiery, since the foundation of the Republic, had been +to maintain obedience and fidelity to the States-General, the Stadholder, +and the province in which they were garrisoned, and at whose expense they +were paid. It was impossible to harmonize such conflicting duties and +doctrines. Theory had done its best and its worst. The time was fast +approaching, as it always must approach, when fact with its violent besom +would brush away the fine-spun cobwebs which had been so long +undisturbed. + +"I will grind the Advocate and all his party into fine meal," said the +Prince on one occasion. + +A clever caricature of the time represented a pair of scales hung up +in a great hall. In the one was a heap of parchments, gold chains, and +magisterial robes; the whole bundle being marked the "holy right of each +city." In the other lay a big square, solid, ironclasped volume, marked +"Institutes of Calvin." Each scale was respectively watched by Gomarus +and by Arminius. The judges, gowned, furred, and ruffed, were looking +decorously on, when suddenly the Stadholder, in full military attire, was +seen rushing into the apartment and flinging his sword into the scale +with the Institutes. + +The civic and legal trumpery was of course made to kick the beam. + +Maurice had organized his campaign this year against the Advocate and his +party as deliberately as he had ever arranged the details of a series of +battles and sieges against the Spaniard. And he was proving himself as +consummate master in political strife as in the great science of war. + +He no longer made any secret of his conviction that Barneveld was a +traitor to his country, bought with Spanish gold. There was not the +slightest proof for these suspicions, but he asserted them roundly. +"The Advocate is travelling straight to Spain," he said to Count +Cuylenborg. "But we will see who has got the longest purse." + +And as if it had been a part of the campaign, a prearranged diversion to +the more direct and general assault on the entrenchments of the States' +right party, a horrible personal onslaught was now made from many +quarters upon the Advocate. It was an age of pamphleteering, of +venomous, virulent, unscrupulous libels. And never even in that age had +there been anything to equal the savage attacks upon this great +statesman. It moves the gall of an honest man, even after the lapse of +two centuries and a half, to turn over those long forgotten pages and +mark the depths to which political and theological party spirit could +descend. That human creatures can assimilate themselves so closely to +the reptile, and to the subtle devil within the reptile, when a party end +is to be gained is enough to make the very name of man a term of +reproach. + +Day by day appeared pamphlets, each one more poisonous than its +predecessor. There was hardly a crime that was not laid at the door of +Barneveld and all his kindred. The man who had borne a matchlock in +early youth against the foreign tyrant in days when unsuccessful +rebellion meant martyrdom and torture; who had successfully guided the +councils of the infant commonwealth at a period when most of his accusers +were in their cradles, and when mistake was ruin to the republic; he on +whose strong arm the father of his country had leaned for support; the +man who had organized a political system out of chaos; who had laid down +the internal laws, negotiated the great indispensable alliances, directed +the complicated foreign policy, established the system of national +defence, presided over the successful financial administration of a state +struggling out of mutiny into national existence; who had rocked the +Republic in its cradle and ever borne her in his heart; who had made her +name beloved at home and honoured and dreaded abroad; who had been the +first, when the great Taciturn had at last fallen a victim to the +murderous tyrant of Spain, to place the youthful Maurice in his father's +place, and to inspire the whole country with sublime courage to persist +rather than falter in purpose after so deadly a blow; who was as truly +the founder of the Republic as William had been the author of its +independence,--was now denounced as a traitor, a pope, a tyrant, a venal +hucksterer of his country's liberties. His family name, which had long +been an ancient and knightly one, was defiled and its nobility disputed; +his father and mother, sons and daughters, sisters and brothers, accused +of every imaginable and unimaginable crime, of murder, incest, robbery, +bastardy, fraud, forgery, blasphemy. He had received waggon-loads of +Spanish pistoles; he had been paid 120,000 ducats by Spain for +negotiating the Truce; he was in secret treaty with Archduke Albert +to bring 18,000 Spanish mercenaries across the border to defeat the +machinations of Prince Maurice, destroy his life, or drive him from the +country; all these foul and bitter charges and a thousand similar ones +were rained almost daily upon that grey head. + +One day the loose sheets of a more than commonly libellous pamphlet were +picked up in the streets of the Hague and placed in the Advocate's hands. +It was the work of the drunken notary Danckaerts already mentioned, then +resident in Amsterdam, and among the papers thus found was a list of +wealthy merchants of that city who had contributed to the expense of its +publication. The opposition of Barneveld to the West India Corporation +could never be forgiven. The Advocate was notified in this production +that he was soon to be summoned to answer for his crimes. The country +was weary of him, he was told, and his life was forfeited. + +Stung at last beyond endurance by the persistent malice of his enemies, +he came before the States of Holland for redress. Upon his remonstrance +the author of this vile libel was summoned to answer before the upper +tribunal at the Hague for his crime. The city of Amsterdam covered him +with the shield 'de non evocando,' which had so often in cases of less +consequence proved of no protective value, and the notary was never +punished, but on the contrary after a brief lapse of time rewarded as for +a meritorious action. + +Meantime, the States of Holland, by formal act, took the name and honour +of Barneveld under their immediate protection as a treasure belonging +specially to themselves. Heavy penalties were denounced upon the authors +and printers of these libellous attacks, and large rewards offered for +their detection. Nothing came, however, of such measures. + +On the 24th April the Advocate addressed a frank, dignified, and +conciliatory letter to the Prince. The rapid progress of calumny against +him had at last alarmed even his steadfast soul, and he thought it best +to make a last appeal to the justice and to the clear intellect of +William the Silent's son. + +"Gracious Prince," he said, "I observe to my greatest sorrow an entire +estrangement of your Excellency from me, and I fear lest what was said +six months since by certain clerical persons and afterwards by some +politicians concerning your dissatisfaction with me, which until now I +have not been able to believe, must be true. I declare nevertheless with +a sincere heart to have never willingly given cause for any such feeling; +having always been your very faithful servant and with God's help hoping +as such to die. Ten years ago during the negotiations for the Truce I +clearly observed the beginning of this estrangement, but your Excellency +will be graciously pleased to remember that I declared to you at that +time my upright and sincere intention in these negotiations to promote +the service of the country and the interests of your Excellency, and that +I nevertheless offered at the time not only to resign all my functions +but to leave the country rather than remain in office and in the country +to the dissatisfaction of your Excellency." + +He then rapidly reviewed the causes which had produced the alienation of +which he complained and the melancholy divisions caused by the want of +mutual religious toleration in the Provinces; spoke of his efforts to +foster a spirit of conciliation on the dread subject of predestination, +and referred to the letter of the King of Great Britain deprecating +discussion and schism on this subject, and urging that those favourable +to the views of the Remonstrants ought not to be persecuted. Referring +to the intimate relations which Uytenbogaert had so long enjoyed with the +Prince, the Advocate alluded to the difficulty he had in believing that +his Excellency intended to act in opposition to the efforts of the States +of Holland in the cause of mutual toleration, to the manifest detriment +of the country and of many of its best and truest patriots and the +greater number of the magistrates in all the cities. + +He reminded the Prince that all attempts to accommodate these fearful +quarrels had been frustrated, and that on his departure the previous year +to Utrecht on account of his health he had again offered to resign all +his offices and to leave Holland altogether rather than find himself in +perpetual opposition to his Excellency. + +"I begged you in such case," he said, "to lend your hand to the procuring +for me an honourable discharge from My Lords the States, but your +Excellency declared that you could in no wise approve such a step and +gave me hope that some means of accommodating the dissensions would yet +be proposed." + +"I went then to Vianen, being much indisposed; thence I repaired to +Utrecht to consult my old friend Doctor Saulo Saul, in whose hands I +remained six weeks, not being able, as I hoped, to pass my seventieth +birthday on the 24th September last in my birthplace, the city of +Amersfoort. All this time I heard not one single word or proposal of +accommodation. On the contrary it was determined that by a majority +vote, a thing never heard of before, it was intended against the solemn +resolves of the States of Holland, of Utrecht, and of Overyssel to bring +these religious differences before the Assembly of My Lords the States- +General, a proceeding directly in the teeth of the Act of Union and other +treaties, and before a Synod which people called National, and that +meantime every effort was making to discredit all those who stood up for +the laws of these Provinces and to make them odious and despicable in the +eyes of the common people. + +"Especially it was I that was thus made the object of hatred and contempt +in their eyes. Hundreds of lies and calumnies, circulated in the form of +libels, seditious pamphlets, and lampoons, compelled me to return from +Utrecht to the Hague. Since that time I have repeatedly offered my +services to your Excellency for the promotion of mutual accommodation and +reconciliation of differences, but without success." + +He then alluded to the publication with which the country was ringing, +'The Necessary and Living Discourse of a Spanish Counsellor', and which +was attributed to his former confidential friend, now become his +deadliest foe, ex-Ambassador Francis Aerssens, and warned the Prince that +if he chose, which God forbid, to follow the advice of that seditious +libel, nothing but ruin to the beloved Fatherland and its lovers, to the +princely house of Orange-Nassau and to the Christian religion could be +the issue. "The Spanish government could desire no better counsel," +he said, "than this which these fellows give you; to encourage distrust +and estrangement between your Excellency and the nobles, the cities, and +the magistrates of the land and to propose high and haughty imaginings +which are easy enough to write, but most difficult to practise, and which +can only enure to the advantage of Spain. Therefore most respectfully I +beg your Excellency not to believe these fellows, but to reject their +counsels . . . . Among them are many malignant hypocrites and +ambitious men who are seeking their own profit in these changes of +government--many utterly ragged and beggarly fellows and many infamous +traitors coming from the provinces which have remained under the dominion +of the Spaniard, and who are filled with revenge, envy, and jealousy at +the greater prosperity and bloom of these independent States than they +find at home. + +"I fear," he said in conclusion, "that I have troubled your Excellency +too long, but to the fulfilment of my duty and discharge of my conscience +I could not be more brief. It saddens me deeply that in recompense for +my long and manifold services I am attacked by so many calumnious, lying, +seditious, and fraudulent libels, and that these indecencies find their +pretext and their food in the evil disposition of your Excellency towards +me. And although for one-and-thirty years long I have been able to live +down such things with silence, well-doing, and truth, still do I now find +myself compelled in this my advanced old age and infirmity to make some +utterances in defence of myself and those belonging to me, however much +against my heart and inclinations." + +He ended by enclosing a copy of the solemn state paper which he was about +to lay before the States of Holland in defence of his honour, and +subscribed himself the lifelong and faithful servant of the Prince. + +The Remonstrance to the States contained a summary review of the +political events of his life, which was indeed nothing more nor less than +the history of his country and almost of Europe itself during that +period, broadly and vividly sketched with the hand of a master. It was +published at once and strengthened the affection of his friends and the +wrath of his enemies. It is not necessary to our purpose to reproduce or +even analyse the document, the main facts and opinions contained in it +being already familiar to the reader. The frankness however with which, +in reply to the charges so profusely brought against him of having grown +rich by extortion, treason, and corruption, of having gorged himself with +plunder at home and bribery from the enemy, of being the great pensioner +of Europe and the Marshal d'Ancre of the Netherlands--he alluded to the +exact condition of his private affairs and the growth and sources of his +revenue, giving, as it were, a kind of schedule of his property, has in +it something half humorous, half touching in its simplicity. + +He set forth the very slender salaries attached to his high offices of +Advocate of Holland, Keeper of the Seals, and other functions. He +answered the charge that he always had at his disposition 120,000 florins +to bribe foreign agents withal by saying that his whole allowance for +extraordinary expenses and trouble in maintaining his diplomatic and +internal correspondence was exactly 500 florins yearly. He alluded to +the slanders circulated as to his wealth and its sources by those who +envied him for his position and hated him for his services. + +"But I beg you to believe, My Lords," he continued, "that my property is +neither so great nor so small as some people represent it to be. + +"In the year '75 I married my wife," he said. "I was pleased with her +person. I was likewise pleased with the dowry which was promptly paid +over to me, with firm expectation of increase and betterment . . . . +I ac knowledge that forty-three years ago my wife and myself had got +together so much of real and personal property that we could live +honourably upon it. I had at that time as good pay and practice as any +advocate in the courts which brought me in a good 4000 florins a year; +there being but eight advocates practising at the time, of whom I was +certainly not the one least employed. In the beginning of the year '77 +I came into the service of the city of Rotterdam as 'Pensionary. Upon my +salary from that town I was enabled to support my family, having then but +two children. Now I can clearly prove that between the years 1577 and +1616 inclusive I have inherited in my own right or that of my wife, from +our relatives, for ourselves and our children by lawful succession, more +than 400 Holland morgens of land (about 800 acres), more than 2000 +florins yearly of redeemable rents, a good house in the city of Delft, +some houses in the open country, and several thousand florins in ready +money. I have likewise reclaimed in the course of the past forty years +out of the water and swamps by dyking more than an equal number of acres +to those inherited, and have bought and sold property during the same +period to the value of 800,000 florins; having sometimes bought 100,000 +florins' worth and sold 60,000 of it for 160,000, and so on." + +It was evident that the thrifty Advocate during his long life had +understood how to turn over his money, and it was not necessary to +imagine "waggon-loads of Spanish pistoles" and bribes on a gigantic scale +from the hereditary enemy in order to account for a reasonable opulence +on his part. + +"I have had nothing to do with trade," he continued, "it having been the +custom of my ancestors to risk no money except where the plough goes. In +the great East India Company however, which with four years of hard work, +public and private, I have helped establish, in order to inflict damage +on the Spaniards and Portuguese, I have adventured somewhat more than +5000 florins . . . . Now even if my condition be reasonably good, I +think no one has reason to envy me. Nevertheless I have said it in your +Lordships' Assembly, and I repeat it solemnly on this occasion, that I +have pondered the state of my affairs during my recent illness and found +that in order to leave my children unencumbered estates I must sell +property to the value of 60,000 or 70,000 florins. This I would rather +do than leave the charge to my children. That I should have got thus +behindhand through bad management, I beg your Highnesses not to believe. +But I have inherited, with the succession of four persons whose only heir +I was and with that of others to whom I was co-heir, many burthens as +well. I have bought property with encumbrances, and I have dyked and +bettered several estates with borrowed money. Now should it please your +Lordships to institute a census and valuation of the property of your +subjects, I for one should be very well pleased. For I know full well +that those who in the estimates of capital in the year 1599 rated +themselves at 50,000 or 60,000 florins now may boast of having twice as +much property as I have. Yet in that year out of patriotism I placed +myself on the list of those liable for the very highest contributions, +being assessed on a property of 200,000 florins." + +The Advocate alluded with haughty contempt to the notorious lies +circulated by his libellers in regard to his lineage, as if the vast +services and unquestioned abilities of such a statesman would not have +illustrated the obscurest origin. But as he happened to be of ancient +and honourable descent, he chose to vindicate his position in that +regard. + +"I was born in the city of Amersfoort," he said, "by the father's side +an Oldenbarneveld; an old and noble race, from generation to generation +steadfast and true; who have been duly summoned for many hundred years +to the assembly of the nobles of their province as they are to this day. +By my mother's side I am sprung from the ancient and knightly family of +Amersfoort, which for three or four hundred years has been known as +foremost among the nobles of Utrecht in all state affairs and as landed +proprietors." + +It is only for the sake of opening these domestic and private lights upon +an historical character whose life was so pre-eminently and almost +exclusively a public one that we have drawn some attention to this +stately defence made by the Advocate of his birth, life, and services to +the State. The public portions of the state paper belong exclusively to +history, and have already been sufficiently detailed. + +The letter to Prince Maurice was delivered into his hands by Cornelis van +der Myle, son-in-law of Barneveld. + +No reply to it was ever sent, but several days afterwards the Stadholder +called from his open window to van der Myle, who happened to be passing +by. He then informed him that he neither admitted the premises nor the +conclusion of the Advocate's letter, saying that many things set down in +it were false. He furthermore told him a story of a certain old man who, +having in his youth invented many things and told them often for truth, +believed them when he came to old age to be actually true and was ever +ready to stake his salvation upon them. Whereupon he shut the window and +left van der Myle to make such application of the parable as he thought +proper, vouchsafing no further answer to Barneveld's communication. + +Dudley Carleton related the anecdote to his government with much glee, +but it may be doubted whether this bold way of giving the lie to a +venerable statesman through his son-in-law would have been accounted +as triumphant argumentation anywhere out of a barrack. + +As for the Remonstrance to the States of Holland, although most +respectfully received in that assembly except by the five opposition +cities, its immediate effect on the public was to bring down a fresh +"snow storm"--to use the expression of a contemporary--of pamphlets, +libels, caricatures, and broadsheets upon the head of the Advocate. +In every bookseller's and print shop window in all the cities of the +country, the fallen statesman was represented in all possible ludicrous, +contemptible, and hateful shapes, while hags and blind beggars about the +streets screeched filthy and cursing ballads against him, even at his +very doors. + +The effect of energetic, uncompromising calumny has rarely been more +strikingly illustrated than in the case of this statesman. Blackened +daily all over by a thousand trowels, the purest and noblest character +must have been defiled, and it is no wonder that the incrustation upon +the Advocate's fame should have lasted for two centuries and a half. It +may perhaps endure for as many more: Not even the vile Marshal d'Ancre, +who had so recently perished, was more the mark of obloquy in a country +which he had dishonoured, flouted, and picked to the bone than was +Barneveld in a commonwealth which he had almost created and had served +faithfully from youth to old age. It was even the fashion to compare him +with Concini in order to heighten the wrath of the public, as if any +parallel between the ignoble, foreign paramour of a stupid and sensual +queen, and the great statesman, patriot, and jurist of whom civilization +will be always proud, could ever enter any but an idiot's brain. + +Meantime the Stadholder, who had so successfully handled the Assembly of +Gelderland and Overyssel, now sailed across the Zuiderzee from Kampen to +Amsterdam. On his approach to the stately northern Venice, standing full +of life and commercial bustle upon its vast submerged forest of Norwegian +pines, he was met by a fleet of yachts and escorted through the water +gates of the into the city. + +Here an immense assemblage of vessels of every class, from the humble +gondola to the bulky East Indianian and the first-rate ship of war, gaily +bannered with the Orange colours and thronged from deck to topmast by +enthusiastic multitudes, was waiting to receive their beloved stadholder. +A deafening cannonade saluted him on his approach. The Prince was +escorted to the Square or Dam, where on a high scaffolding covered with +blue velvet in front of the stately mediaeval town-hall the burgomasters +and board of magistrates in their robes of office were waiting to receive +him. The strains of that most inspiriting and suggestive of national +melodies, the 'Wilhelmus van Nassouwen,' rang through the air, and when +they were silent, the chief magistrate poured forth a very eloquent and +tedious oration, and concluded by presenting him with a large orange in +solid gold; Maurice having succeeded to the principality a few months +before on the death of his half-brother Philip William. + +The "Blooming in Love," as one of the Chambers of "Rhetoric " in which +the hard-handed but half-artistic mechanics and shopkeepers of the +Netherlands loved to disport themselves was called, then exhibited upon +an opposite scaffold a magnificent representation of Jupiter astride upon +an eagle and banding down to the Stadholder as if from the clouds that +same principality. Nothing could be neater or more mythological. + +The Prince and his escort, sitting in the windows of the town-hall, the +square beneath being covered with 3000 or 4000 burgher militia in full +uniform, with orange plumes in their hats and orange scarves on their +breasts, saw still other sights. A gorgeous procession set forth by the +"Netherlandish Academy," another chamber of rhetoric, and filled with +those emblematic impersonations so dear to the hearts of Netherlanders, +had been sweeping through all the canals and along the splendid quays of +the city. The Maid of Holland, twenty feet high, led the van, followed +by the counterfeit presentment of each of her six sisters. An orange +tree full of flowers and fruit was conspicuous in one barge, while in +another, strangely and lugubriously enough, lay the murdered William the +Silent in the arms of his wife and surrounded by his weeping sons and +daughters all attired in white satin. + +In the evening the Netherland Academy, to improve the general hilarity, +and as if believing exhibitions of murder the most appropriate means of +welcoming the Prince, invited him to a scenic representation of the +assassination of Count Florence V. of Holland by Gerrit van Velsen and +other nobles. There seemed no especial reason for the selection, unless +perhaps the local one; one of the perpetrators of this crime against an +ancient predecessor of William the Silent in the sovereignty of Holland +having been a former lord proprietor of Amsterdam and the adjacent +territories, Gysbrecht van Amatel. + +Maurice returned to the Hague. Five of the seven provinces were entirely +his own. Utrecht too was already wavering, while there could be no doubt +of the warm allegiance to himself of the important commercial metropolis +of Holland, the only province in which Barneveld's influence was still +paramount. + +Owing to the watchfulness and distrust of Barneveld, which had never +faltered, Spain had not secured the entire control of the disputed +duchies, but she had at least secured the head of a venerated saint. +"The bargain is completed for the head of the glorious Saint Lawrence, +which you know I so much desire," wrote Philip triumphantly to the +Archduke Albert. He had, however, not got it for nothing. + +The Abbot of Glamart in Julich, then in possession of that treasure, had +stipulated before delivering it that if at any time the heretics or other +enemies should destroy the monastery his Majesty would establish them in +Spanish Flanders and give them the same revenues as they now enjoyed in +Julich. Count Herman van den Berg was to give a guarantee to that +effect. + +Meantime the long controversy in the duchies having tacitly come to a +standstill upon the basis of 'uti possidetis,' the Spanish government had +leisure in the midst of their preparation for the general crusade upon +European heresy to observe and enjoy the internal religious dissensions +in their revolted provinces. Although they had concluded the convention +with them as with countries over which they had no pretensions, they had +never at heart allowed more virtue to the conjunction "as," which really +contained the essence of the treaty, than grammatically belonged to it. +Spain still chose to regard the independence of the Seven Provinces as a +pleasant fiction to be dispelled when, the truce having expired by its +own limitation, she should resume, as she fully meant to do, her +sovereignty over all the seventeen Netherlands, the United as well as +the obedient. Thus at any rate the question of state rights or central +sovereignty would be settled by a very summary process. The Spanish +ambassador was wroth, as may well be supposed, when the agent of the +rebel provinces received in London the rank, title, and recognition of +ambassador. Gondemar at least refused to acknowledge Noel de Caron as +his diplomatic equal or even as his colleague, and was vehement in his +protestations on the subject. But James, much as he dreaded the Spanish +envoy and fawned upon his master, was not besotted enough to comply with +these demands at the expense of his most powerful ally, the Republic of +the Netherlands. The Spanish king however declared his ambassador's +proceedings to be in exact accordance with his instructions. He was +sorry, he said, if the affair had caused discontent to the King of Great +Britain; he intended in all respects to maintain the Treaty of Truce of +which his Majesty had been one of the guarantors, but as that treaty had +but a few more years to run, after which he should be reinstated in his +former right of sovereignty over all the Netherlands, he entirely +justified the conduct of Count Gondemar. + +It may well be conceived that, as the years passed by, as the period of +the Truce grew nearer and the religious disputes became every day more +envenomed, the government at Madrid should look on the tumultuous scene +with saturnine satisfaction. There was little doubt now, they thought, +that the Provinces, sick of their rebellion and that fancied independence +which had led them into a whirlpool of political and religious misery, +and convinced of their incompetence to govern themselves, would be only +too happy to seek the forgiving arms of their lawful sovereign. Above +all they must have learned that their great heresy had carried its +chastisement with it, that within something they called a Reformed Church +other heresies had been developed which demanded condign punishment at +the hands of that new Church, and that there could be neither rest for +them in this world nor salvation in the next except by returning to the +bosom of their ancient mother. + +Now was the time, so it was thought, to throw forward a strong force of +Jesuits as skirmishers into the Provinces by whom the way would be opened +for the reconquest of the whole territory. + +"By the advices coming to us continually from thence," wrote the King of +Spain to Archduke Albert, "we understand that the disquiets and +differences continue in Holland on matters relating to their sects, and +that from this has resulted the conversion of many to the Catholic +religion. So it has been taken into consideration whether it would not +be expedient that some fathers of the company of Jesuits be sent secretly +from Rome to Holland, who should negotiate concerning the conversion of +that people. Before taking a resolution, I have thought best to give an +account of this matter to your Highness. I should be glad if you would +inform me what priests are going to Holland, what fruits they yield, and +what can be done for the continuance of their labours. Please to advise +me very particularly together with any suggestions that may occur to you +in this matter." + +The Archduke, who was nearer the scene, was not so sure that the old +religion was making such progress as his royal nephew or those who spoke +in his name believed. At any rate, if it were not rapidly gaining +ground, it would be neither for want of discord among the Protestants +nor for lack of Jesuits to profit by it. + +"I do not understand," said he in reply, "nor is it generally considered +certain that from the differences and disturbances that the Hollanders +are having among themselves there has resulted the conversion of any of +them to our blessed Catholic faith, because their disputes are of certain +points concerning which there are different opinions within their sect. +There has always been a goodly number of priests here, the greater part +of whom belong to the Company. They are very diligent and fervent, and +the Catholics derive much comfort from them. To send more of them would +do more harm than good. It might be found out, and then they would +perhaps be driven out of Holland or even chastised. So it seems better +to leave things as they are for the present." + +The Spanish government was not discouraged however, but was pricking up +its ears anew at strange communications it was receiving from the very +bosom of the council of state in the Netherlands. This body, as will be +remembered, had been much opposed to Barneveld and to the policy pursued +under his leadership by the States of Holland. Some of its members were +secretly Catholic and still more secretly disposed to effect a revolution +in the government, the object of which should be to fuse the United +Provinces with the obedient Netherlands in a single independent monarchy +to be placed under the sceptre of the son of Philip III. + +A paper containing the outlines of this scheme had been sent to Spain, +and the King at once forwarded it in cipher to the Archduke at Brussels +for his opinion and co-operation. + +"You will see," he said, "the plan which a certain person zealous for the +public good has proposed for reducing the Netherlanders to my obedience. +. . . . You will please advise with Count Frederic van den Berg and +let me know with much particularity and profound secrecy what is thought, +what is occurring, and the form in which this matter ought to be +negotiated, and the proper way to make it march." + +Unquestionably the paper was of grave importance. It informed the King +of Spain that some principal personages in the United Netherlands, +members of the council of state, were of opinion that if his Majesty or +Archduke Albert should propose peace, it could be accomplished at that +moment more easily than ever before. They had arrived at the conviction +that no assistance was to be obtained from the King of France, who was +too much weakened by tumults and sedition at home, while nothing good +could be expected from the King of England. The greater part of the +Province of Gelderland, they said, with all Friesland, Utrecht, +Groningen, and Overyssel were inclined to a permanent peace. Being all +of them frontier provinces, they were constantly exposed to the brunt of +hostilities. Besides this, the war expenses alone would now be more than +3,000,000 florins a year. Thus the people were kept perpetually +harassed, and although evil-intentioned persons approved these burthens +under the pretence that such heavy taxation served to free them from the +tyranny of Spain, those of sense and quality reproved them and knew the +contrary to be true. "Many here know," continued these traitors in the +heart of the state council, "how good it would be for the people of the +Netherlands to have a prince, and those having this desire being on the +frontier are determined to accept the son of your Majesty for their +ruler." The conditions of the proposed arrangement were to be that the +Prince with his successors who were thus to possess all the Netherlands +were to be independent sovereigns not subject in any way to the crown of +Spain, and that the great governments and dignities of the country were +to remain in the hands then holding them. + +This last condition was obviously inserted in the plan for the special +benefit of Prince Maurice and Count Lewis, although there is not an atom +of evidence that they had ever heard of the intrigue or doubt that, if +they had, they would have signally chastised its guilty authors. + +It was further stated that the Catholics having in each town a church and +free exercise of their religion would soon be in a great majority. Thus +the political and religious counter-revolution would be triumphantly +accomplished. + +It was proposed that the management of the business should be entrusted +to some gentleman of the country possessing property there who "under +pretext of the public good should make people comprehend what a great +thing it would be if they could obtain this favour from the Spanish King, +thus extricating themselves from so many calamities and miseries, and +obtaining free traffic and a prince of their own." It would be necessary +for the King and Archduke to write many letters and promise great rewards +to persons who might otherwise embarrass the good work. + +The plot was an ingenious one. There seemed in the opinion of these +conspirators in the state council but one great obstacle to its success. +It should be kept absolutely concealed from the States of Holland. The +great stipendiary of Spain, John of Barneveld, whose coffers were filled +with Spanish pistoles, whose name and surname might be read by all men in +the account-books at Brussels heading the register of mighty bribe- +takers, the man who was howled at in a thousand lampoons as a traitor +ever ready to sell his country, whom even Prince Maurice "partly +believed" to be the pensionary of Philip, must not hear a whisper of this +scheme to restore the Republic to Spanish control and place it under the +sceptre of a Spanish prince. + +The States of Holland at that moment and so long as he was a member of +the body were Barneveld and Barneveld only; thinking his thoughts, +speaking with his tongue, writing with his pen. Of this neither friend +nor foe ever expressed a doubt. Indeed it was one of the staple +accusations against him. + +Yet this paper in which the Spanish king in confidential cipher and +profound secrecy communicated to Archduke Albert his hopes and his +schemes for recovering the revolted provinces as a kingdom for his son +contained these words of caution. + +"The States of Holland and Zealand will be opposed to the plan," it said. +"If the treaty come to the knowledge of the States and Council of Holland +before it has been acted upon by the five frontier provinces the whole +plan will be demolished." + +Such was the opinion entertained by Philip himself of the man who was +supposed to be his stipendiary. I am not aware that this paper has ever +been alluded to in any document or treatise private or public from the +day of its date to this hour. It certainly has never been published, but +it lies deciphered in the Archives of the Kingdom at Brussels, and is +alone sufficient to put to shame the slanderers of the Advocate's +loyalty. + +Yet let it be remembered that in this very summer exactly at the moment +when these intrigues were going on between the King of Spain and the +class of men most opposed to Barneveld, the accusations against his +fidelity were loudest and rifest. + +Before the Stadholder had so suddenly slipped down to Brielle in order +to secure that important stronghold for the Contra-Remonstrant party, +reports had been carefully strewn among the people that the Advocate +was about to deliver that place and other fortresses to Spain. + +Brielle, Flushing, Rammekens, the very cautionary towns and keys to the +country which he had so recently and in such masterly manner delivered +from the grasp of the hereditary ally he was now about to surrender to +the ancient enemy. + +The Spaniards were already on the sea, it was said. Had it not been for +his Excellency's watchfulness and promptitude, they would already under +guidance of Barneveld and his crew have mastered the city of Brielle. +Flushing too through Barneveld's advice and connivance was open at a +particular point, in order that the Spaniards, who had their eye upon it, +might conveniently enter and take possession of the place. The air was +full of wild rumours to this effect, and already the humbler classes who +sided with the Stadholder saw in him the saviour of the country from the +treason of the Advocate and the renewed tyranny of Spain. + +The Prince made no such pretence, but simply took possession of the +fortress in order to be beforehand with the Waartgelders. The Contra- +Remonstrants in Brielle had desired that "men should see who had the +hardest fists," and it would certainly have been difficult to find harder +ones than those of the hero of Nieuwpoort. + +Besides the Jesuits coming in so skilfully to triumph over the warring +sects of Calvinists, there were other engineers on whom the Spanish +government relied to effect the reconquest of the Netherlands. +Especially it was an object to wreak vengeance on Holland, that head and +front of the revolt, both for its persistence in rebellion and for the +immense prosperity and progress by which that rebellion had been +rewarded. Holland had grown fat and strong, while the obedient +Netherlands were withered to the marrow of their bones. But there was a +practical person then resident in Spain to whom the Netherlands were well +known, to whom indeed everything was well known, who had laid before the +King a magnificent scheme for destroying the commerce and with it the +very existence of Holland to the great advantage of the Spanish finances +and of the Spanish Netherlands. Philip of course laid it before the +Archduke as usual, that he might ponder it well and afterwards, if +approved, direct its execution. + +The practical person set forth in an elaborate memoir that the Hollanders +were making rapid progress in commerce, arts, and manufactures, while the +obedient provinces were sinking as swiftly into decay. The Spanish +Netherlands were almost entirely shut off from the sea, the rivers +Scheldt and Meuse being hardly navigable for them on account of the +control of those waters by Holland. The Dutch were attracting to their +dominions all artisans, navigators, and traders. Despising all other +nations and giving them the law, they had ruined the obedient provinces. +Ostend, Nieuwpoort, Dunkerk were wasting away, and ought to be restored. + +"I have profoundly studied forty years long the subjects of commerce and +navigation," said the practical person, "and I have succeeded in +penetrating the secrets and acquiring, as it were, universal knowledge-- +let me not be suspected of boasting--of the whole discovered world and of +the ocean. I have been assisted by study of the best works of geography +and history, by my own labours, and by those of my late father, a man of +illustrious genius and heroical conceptions and very zealous in the +Catholic faith." + +The modest and practical son of an illustrious but anonymous father, then +coming to the point, said it would be the easiest thing in the world to +direct the course of the Scheldt into an entirely new channel through +Spanish Flanders to the sea. Thus the Dutch ports and forts which had +been constructed with such magnificence and at such vast expense would be +left high and dry; the Spaniards would build new ones in Flanders, and +thus control the whole navigation and deprive the Hollanders of that +empire of the sea which they now so proudly arrogated. This scheme was +much simpler to carry out than the vulgar might suppose, and, when. +accomplished, it would destroy the commerce, navigation, and fisheries of +the Hollanders, throwing it all into the hands of the Archdukes. This +would cause such ruin, poverty, and tumults everywhere that all would be +changed. The Republic of the United States would annihilate itself and +fall to pieces; the religious dissensions, the war of one sect with +another, and the jealousy of the House of Nassau, suspected of plans +hostile to popular liberties, finishing the work of destruction. "Then +the Republic," said the man of universal science, warming at sight of the +picture he was painting, "laden with debt and steeped in poverty, will +fall to the ground of its own weight, and thus debilitated will crawl +humbly to place itself in the paternal hands of the illustrious house +of Austria." + +It would be better, he thought, to set about the work, before the +expiration of the Truce. At any rate, the preparation for it, or the +mere threat of it, would ensure a renewal of that treaty on juster terms. +It was most important too to begin at once the construction of a port on +the coast of Flanders, looking to the north. + +There was a position, he said, without naming it, in which whole navies +could ride in safety, secure from all tempests, beyond the reach of the +Hollanders, open at all times to traffic to and from England, France, +Spain, Norway, Sweden, Russia--a perfectly free commerce, beyond the +reach of any rights or duties claimed or levied by the insolent republic. +In this port would assemble all the navigators of the country, and it +would become in time of war a terror to the Hollanders, English, and all +northern peoples. In order to attract, protect, and preserve these +navigators and this commerce, many great public edifices must be built, +together with splendid streets of houses and impregnable fortifications. +It should be a walled and stately city, and its name should be +Philipopolis. If these simple projects, so easy of execution, pleased +his Majesty, the practical person was ready to explain them in all their +details. + +His Majesty was enchanted with the glowing picture, but before quite +deciding on carrying the scheme into execution thought it best to consult +the Archduke. + +The reply of Albert has not been preserved. It was probably not +enthusiastic, and the man who without boasting had declared himself to +know everything was never commissioned to convert his schemes into +realities. That magnificent walled city, Philipopolis, with its gorgeous +streets and bristling fortresses, remained unbuilt, the Scheldt has +placidly flowed through its old channel to the sea from that day to this, +and the Republic remained in possession of the unexampled foreign trade +with which rebellion had enriched it. + +These various intrigues and projects show plainly enough however the +encouragement given to the enemies of the United Provinces and of +Protestantism everywhere by these disastrous internal dissensions. But +yesterday and the Republic led by Barneveld in council and Maurice of +Nassau in the field stood at the head of the great army of resistance to +the general crusade organized by Spain and Rome against all unbelievers. +And now that the war was absolutely beginning in Bohemia, the Republic +was falling upon its own sword instead of smiting with it the universal +foe. + +It was not the King of Spain alone that cast longing eyes on the fair +territory of that commonwealth which the unparalleled tyranny of his +father had driven to renounce his sceptre. Both in the Netherlands and +France, among the extreme orthodox party, there were secret schemes, to +which Maurice was not privy, to raise Maurice to the sovereignty of the +Provinces. Other conspirators with a wider scope and more treasonable +design were disposed to surrender their country to the dominion of +France, stipulating of course large rewards and offices for themselves +and the vice-royalty of what should then be the French Netherlands to +Maurice. + +The schemes were wild enough perhaps, but their very existence, which is +undoubted, is another proof, if more proof were wanted, of the lamentable +tendency, in times of civil and religious dissension, of political +passion to burn out the very first principles of patriotism. + +It is also important, on account of the direct influence exerted by these +intrigues upon subsequent events of the gravest character, to throw a +beam of light on matters which were thought to have been shrouded for +ever in impenetrable darkness. + +Langerac, the States' Ambassador in Paris, was the very reverse of his +predecessor, the wily, unscrupulous, and accomplished Francis Aerssens. +The envoys of the Republic were rarely dull, but Langerac was a +simpleton. They were renowned for political experience, skill, +familiarity with foreign languages, knowledge of literature, history, +and public law; but he was ignorant, spoke French very imperfectly, +at a court where not a human being could address him in his own tongue, +had never been employed in diplomacy or in high office of any kind, +and could carry but small personal weight at a post where of all others +the representative of the great republic should have commanded deference +both for his own qualities and for the majesty of his government. At a +period when France was left without a master or a guide the Dutch +ambassador, under a becoming show of profound respect, might really have +governed the country so far as regarded at least the all important +relations which bound the two nations together. But Langerac was a mere +picker-up of trifles, a newsmonger who wrote a despatch to-day with +information which a despatch was written on the morrow to contradict, +while in itself conveying additional intelligence absolutely certain to +be falsified soon afterwards. The Emperor of Germany had gone mad; +Prince Maurice had been assassinated in the Hague, a fact which his +correspondents, the States-General, might be supposed already to know, if +it were one; there had been a revolution in the royal bed-chamber; the +Spanish cook of the young queen had arrived from Madrid; the Duke of +Nevers was behaving very oddly at Vienna; such communications, and others +equally startling, were the staple of his correspondence. + +Still he was honest enough, very mild, perfectly docile to Barneveld, +dependent upon his guidance, and fervently attached to that statesman so +long as his wheel was going up the hill. Moreover, his industry in +obtaining information and his passion for imparting it made it probable +that nothing very momentous would be neglected should it be laid before +him, but that his masters, and especially the Advocate, would be enabled +to judge for themselves as to the attention due to it. + +"With this you will be apprised of some very high and weighty matters," +he wrote privately and in cipher to Barneveld, "which you will make use +of according to your great wisdom and forethought for the country's +service." + +He requested that the matter might also be confided to M. van der Myle, +that he might assist his father-in-law, so overburdened with business, in +the task of deciphering the communication. He then stated that he had +been "very earnestly informed three days before by M. du Agean"--member +of the privy council of France--"that it had recently come to the King's +ears, and his Majesty knew it to be authentic, that there was a secret +and very dangerous conspiracy in Holland of persons belonging to the +Reformed religion in which others were also mixed. This party held very +earnest and very secret correspondence with the factious portion of the +Contra-Remonstrants both in the Netherlands and France, seeking under +pretext of the religious dissensions or by means of them to confer the +sovereignty upon Prince Maurice by general consent of the Contra- +Remonstrants. Their object was also to strengthen and augment the force +of the same religious party in France, to which end the Duc de Bouillon +and M. de Chatillon were very earnestly co-operating. Langerac had +already been informed by Chatillon that the Contra-Remonstrants had +determined to make a public declaration against the Remonstrants, and +come to an open separation from them. + +"Others propose however," said the Ambassador, "that the King himself +should use the occasion to seize the sovereignty of the United Provinces +for himself and to appoint Prince Maurice viceroy, giving him in marriage +Madame Henriette of France." The object of this movement would be to +frustrate the plots of the Contra-Remonstrants, who were known to be +passionately hostile to the King and to France, and who had been +constantly traversing the negotiations of M. du Maurier. There was a +disposition to send a special and solemn embassy to the States, but it +was feared that the British king would at once do the same, to the +immense disadvantage of the Remonstrants. "M. de Barneveld," said the +envoy, "is deeply sympathized with here and commiserated. The Chancellor +has repeatedly requested me to present to you his very sincere and very +hearty respects, exhorting you to continue in your manly steadfastness +and courage." He also assured the Advocate that the French ambassador, +M. du Maurier, enjoyed the entire confidence of his government, and of +the principal members of the council, and that the King, although +contemplating, as we have seen, the seizure of the sovereignty of the +country, was most amicably disposed towards it, and so soon as the peace +of Savoy was settled "had something very good for it in his mind." +Whether the something very good was this very design to deprive it of +independence, the Ambassador did not state. He however recommended the +use of sundry small presents at the French court--especially to Madame de +Luynes, wife of the new favourite of Lewis since the death of Concini, in +which he had aided, now rising rapidly to consideration, and to Madame du +Agean--and asked to be supplied with funds accordingly. By these means +he thought it probable that at least the payment to the States of the +long arrears of the French subsidy might be secured. + +Three weeks later, returning to the subject, the Ambassador reported +another conversation with M. du Agean. That politician assured him, +"with high protestations," as a perfectly certain fact that a Frenchman +duly qualified had arrived in Paris from Holland who had been in +communication not only with him but with several of the most confidential +members of the privy council of France. This duly qualified gentleman +had been secretly commissioned to say that in opinion of the conspirators +already indicated the occasion was exactly offered by these religious +dissensions in the Netherlands for bringing the whole country under the +obedience of the King. This would be done with perfect ease if he would +only be willing to favour a little the one party, that of the Contra- +Remonstrants, and promise his Excellency "perfect and perpetual authority +in the government with other compensations." + +The proposition, said du Agean, had been rejected by the privy +councillors with a declaration that they would not mix themselves up with +any factions, nor assist any party, but that they would gladly work with +the government for the accommodation of these difficulties and +differences in the Provinces. + +"I send you all this nakedly," concluded Langerac, "exactly as it has +been communicated to me, having always answered according to my duty and +with a view by negotiating with these persons to discover the intentions +as well of one side as the other." + +The Advocate was not profoundly impressed by these revelations. He was +too experienced a statesman to doubt that in times when civil and +religious passion was running high there was never lack of fishers in +troubled waters, and that if a body of conspirators could secure a +handsome compensation by selling their country to a foreign prince, they +would always be ready to do it. + +But although believed by Maurice to be himself a stipendiary of Spain, +he was above suspecting the Prince of any share in the low and stupid +intrigue which du Agean had imagined or disclosed. That the Stadholder +was ambitious of greater power, he hardly doubted, but that he was +seeking to acquire it by such corrupt and circuitous means, he did not +dream. He confidentially communicated the plot as in duty bound to some +members of the States, and had the Prince been accused in any +conversation or statement of being privy to the scheme, he would have +thought himself bound to mention it to him. The story came to the ears +of Maurice however, and helped to feed his wrath against the Advocate, +as if he were responsible for a plot, if plot it were, which had been +concocted by his own deadliest enemies. The Prince wrote a letter +alluding to this communication of Langerac and giving much alarm to that +functionary. He thought his despatches must have been intercepted and +proposed in future to write always by special courier. Barneveld thought +that unnecessary except when there were more important matters than those +appeared to him to be and requiring more haste. + +"The letter of his Excellency," said he to the Ambassador, "is caused in +my opinion by the fact that some of the deputies to this assembly to whom +I secretly imparted your letter or its substance did not rightly +comprehend or report it. You did not say that his Excellency had any +such design or project, but that it had been said that the Contra- +Remonstrants were entertaining such a scheme. I would have shown the +letter to him myself, but I thought it not fair, for good reasons, to +make M. du Agean known as the informant. I do not think it amiss for you +to write yourself to his Excellency and tell him what is said, but +whether it would be proper to give up the name of your author, I think +doubtful. At all events one must consult about it. We live in a strange +world, and one knows not whom to trust." + +He instructed the Ambassador to enquire into the foundation of these +statements of du Agean and send advices by every occasion of this affair +and others of equal interest. He was however much more occupied with +securing the goodwill of the French government, which he no more +suspected of tampering in these schemes against the independence of the +Republic than he did Maurice himself. He relied and he had reason to +rely on their steady good offices in the cause of moderation and +reconciliation. "We are not yet brought to the necessary and much +desired unity," he said, "but we do not despair, hoping that his +Majesty's efforts through M. du Maurier, both privately and publicly, +will do much good. Be assured that they are very agreeable to all +rightly disposed people . . . . My trust is that God the Lord will +give us a happy issue and save this country from perdition." He approved +of the presents to the two ladies as suggested by Langerac if by so doing +the payment of the arrearages could be furthered. He was still hopeful +and confident in the justice of his cause and the purity of his +conscience. "Aerssens is crowing like a cock," he said, "but the truth +will surely prevail." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + A Deputation from Utrecht to Maurice--The Fair at Utrecht--Maurice + and the States' Deputies at Utrecht--Ogle refuses to act in + Opposition to the States--The Stadholder disbands the Waartgelders-- + The Prince appoints forty Magistrates--The States formally disband + the Waartgelders. + +The eventful midsummer had arrived. The lime-tree blossoms were fragrant +in the leafy bowers overshadowing the beautiful little rural capital of +the Commonwealth. The anniversary of the Nieuwpoort victory, July 2, had +come and gone, and the Stadholder was known to be resolved that his +political campaign this year should be as victorious as that memorable +military one of eighteen years before. + +Before the dog-days should begin to rage, the fierce heats of theological +and political passion were to wax daily more and more intense. + +The party at Utrecht in favour of a compromise and in awe of the +Stadholder sent a deputation to the Hague with the express but secret +purpose of conferring with Maurice. They were eight in number, three of +whom, including Gillis van Ledenberg, lodged at the house of Daniel +Tressel, first clerk of the States-General. + +The leaders of the Barneveld party, aware of the purport of this mission +and determined to frustrate it, contrived a meeting between the Utrecht +commissioners and Grotius, Hoogerbeets, de Haan, and de Lange at +Tressel's house. + +Grotius was spokesman. Maurice had accused the States of Holland of +mutiny and rebellion, and the distinguished Pensionary of Rotterdam now +retorted the charges of mutiny, disobedience, and mischief-making upon +those who, under the mask of religion, were attempting to violate the +sovereignty of the States, the privileges and laws of the province, +the authority of the, magistrates, and to subject them to the power of +others. To prevent such a catastrophe many cities had enlisted +Waartgelders. By this means they had held such mutineers to their duty, +as had been seen at Leyden, Haarlem, and other places. The States of +Utrecht had secured themselves in the same way. But the mischiefmakers +and the ill-disposed had been seeking everywhere to counteract these +wholesome measures and to bring about a general disbanding of these +troops. This it was necessary to resist with spirit. It was the very +foundation of the provinces' sovereignty, to maintain which the public +means must be employed. It was in vain to drive the foe out of the +country if one could not remain in safety within one's own doors. They +had heard with sorrow that Utrecht was thinking of cashiering its troops, +and the speaker proceeded therefore to urge with all the eloquence he was +master of the necessity of pausing before taking so fatal a step. + +The deputies of Utrecht answered by pleading the great pecuniary burthen +which the maintenance of the mercenaries imposed upon that province, and +complained that there was no one to come to their assistance, exposed as +they were to a sudden and overwhelming attack from many quarters. The +States-General had not only written but sent commissioners to Utrecht +insisting on the disbandment. They could plainly see the displeasure of +the Prince. It was a very different affair in Holland, but the States of +Utrecht found it necessary of two evils to choose the least. + +They had therefore instructed their commissioners to request the Prince +to remove the foreign garrison from their capital and to send the old +companies of native militia in their place, to be in the pay of the +episcopate. In this case the States would agree to disband the new +levies. + +Grotius in reply again warned the commissioners against communicating +with Maurice according to their instructions, intimated that the native +militia on which they were proposing to rely might have been debauched, +and he held out hopes that perhaps the States of Utrecht might derive +some relief from certain financial measures now contemplated in Holland. + +The Utrechters resolved to wait at least several days before opening the +subject of their mission to the Prince. Meantime Ledenberg made a rough +draft of a report of what had occurred between them and Grotius and his +colleagues which it was resolved to lay secretly before the States of +Utrecht. The Hollanders hoped that they had at last persuaded the +commissioners to maintain the Waartgelders. + +The States of Holland now passed a solemn resolution to the effect that +these new levies had been made to secure municipal order and maintain the +laws from subversion by civil tumults. If this object could be obtained +by other means, if the Stadholder were willing to remove garrisons of +foreign mercenaries on whom there could be no reliance, and supply their +place with native troops both in Holland and Utrecht, an arrangement +could be made for disbanding the Waartgelders. + +Barneveld, at the head of thirty deputies from the nobles and cities, +waited upon Maurice and verbally communicated to him this resolution. He +made a cold and unsatisfactory reply, although it seems to have been +understood that by according twenty companies of native troops he might +have contented both Holland and Utrecht. + +Ledenberg and his colleagues took their departure from the Hague without +communicating their message to Maurice. Soon afterwards the States- +General appointed a commission to Utrecht with the Stadholder at the head +of it. + +The States of Holland appointed another with Grotius as its chairman. + +On the 25th July Grotius and Pensionary Hoogerbeets with two colleagues +arrived in Utrecht. + +Gillis van Ledenberg was there to receive them. A tall, handsome, bald- +headed, well-featured, mild, gentlemanlike man was this secretary of the +Utrecht assembly, and certainly not aware, while passing to and fro on +such half diplomatic missions between two sovereign assemblies, that he +was committing high-treason. He might well imagine however, should +Maurice discover that it was he who had prevented the commissioners from +conferring with him as instructed, that it would go hard with him. + +Ledenberg forthwith introduced Grotius and his committee to the Assembly +at Utrecht. + +While these great personages were thus holding solemn and secret council, +another and still greater personage came upon the scene. + +The Stadholder with the deputation from the States-General arrived at +Utrecht. + +Evidently the threads of this political drama were converging to a +catastrophe, and it might prove a tragical one. + +Meantime all looked merry enough in the old episcopal city. There were +few towns in Lower or in Upper Germany more elegant and imposing than +Utrecht. Situate on the slender and feeble channel of the ancient Rhine +as it falters languidly to the sea, surrounded by trim gardens and +orchards, and embowered in groves of beeches and limetrees, with busy +canals fringed with poplars, lined with solid quays, and crossed by +innumerable bridges; with the stately brick tower of St. Martin's rising +to a daring height above one of the most magnificent Gothic cathedrals in +the Netherlands; this seat of the Anglo-Saxon Willebrord, who eight +hundred years before had preached Christianity to the Frisians, and had +founded that long line of hard-fighting, indomitable bishops, obstinately +contesting for centuries the possession of the swamps and pastures about +them with counts, kings, and emperors, was still worthy of its history +and its position. + +It was here too that sixty-one years before the famous Articles of +Union were signed. By that fundamental treaty of the Confederacy, +the Provinces agreed to remain eternally united as if they were but one +province, to make no war nor peace save by unanimous consent, while on +lesser matters a majority should rule; to admit both Catholics and +Protestants to the Union provided they obeyed its Articles and conducted +themselves as good patriots, and expressly declared that no province or +city should interfere with another in the matter of divine worship. + +From this memorable compact, so enduring a landmark in the history of +human freedom, and distinguished by such breadth of view for the times +both in religion and politics, the city had gained the title of cradle of +liberty: 'Cunabula libertatis'. + +Was it still to deserve the name? At that particular moment the mass of +the population was comparatively indifferent to the terrible questions +pending. It was the kermis or annual fair, and all the world was keeping +holiday in Utrecht. The pedlars and itinerant merchants from all the +cities and provinces had brought their wares jewellery and crockery, +ribbons and laces, ploughs and harrows, carriages and horses, cows and +sheep, cheeses and butter firkins, doublets and petticoats, guns and +pistols, everything that could serve the city and country-side for months +to come--and displayed them in temporary booths or on the ground, in +every street and along every canal. The town was one vast bazaar. The +peasant-women from the country, with their gold and silver tiaras and the +year's rent of a comfortable farm in their earrings and necklaces, and +the sturdy Frisian peasants, many of whom had borne their matchlocks in +the great wars which had lasted through their own and their fathers' +lifetime, trudged through the city, enjoying the blessings of peace. +Bands of music and merry-go-rounds in all the open places and squares; +open-air bakeries of pancakes and waffles; theatrical exhibitions, raree- +shows, jugglers, and mountebanks at every corner--all these phenomena +which had been at every kermis for centuries, and were to repeat +themselves for centuries afterwards, now enlivened the atmosphere of the +grey, episcopal city. Pasted against the walls of public edifices were +the most recent placards and counter-placards of the States-General and +the States of Utrecht on the great subject of religious schisms and +popular tumults. In the shop-windows and on the bookstalls of Contra- +Remonstrant tradesmen, now becoming more and more defiant as the last +allies of Holland, the States of Utrecht, were gradually losing courage, +were seen the freshest ballads and caricatures against the Advocate. +Here an engraving represented him seated at table with Grotius, +Hoogerbeets, and others, discussing the National Synod, while a flap of +the picture being lifted put the head of the Duke of Alva on the legs of +Barneveld, his companions being transformed in similar manner into +Spanish priests and cardinals assembled at the terrible Council of Blood- +with rows of Protestant martyrs burning and hanging in the distance. +Another print showed Prince Maurice and the States-General shaking the +leading statesmen of the Commonwealth in a mighty sieve through which +came tumbling head foremost to perdition the hated Advocate and his +abettors. Another showed the Arminians as a row of crest-fallen cocks +rained upon by the wrath of the Stadholder--Arminians by a detestable pun +being converted into "Arme haenen" or "Poor cocks." One represented the +Pope and King of Spain blowing thousands of ducats out of a golden +bellows into the lap of the Advocate, who was holding up his official +robes to receive them, or whole carriage-loads of Arminians starting off +bag and baggage on the road to Rome, with Lucifer in the perspective +waiting to give them a warm welcome in his own dominions; and so on, and +so on. Moving through the throng, with iron calque on their heads and +halberd in hand, were groups of Waartgelders scowling fiercely at many +popular demonstrations such as they had been enlisted to suppress, but +while off duty concealing outward symptoms of wrath which in many +instances perhaps would have been far from genuine. + +For although these mercenaries knew that the States of Holland, who were +responsible for the pay of the regular troops then in Utrecht, authorized +them to obey no orders save from the local authorities, yet it was +becoming a grave question for the Waartgelders whether their own wages +were perfectly safe, a circumstance which made them susceptible to the +atmosphere of Contra-Remonstrantism which was steadily enwrapping the +whole country. A still graver question was whether such resistance as +they could offer to the renowned Stadholder, whose name was magic to +every soldier's heart not only in his own land but throughout +Christendom, would not be like parrying a lance's thrust with a bulrush. +In truth the senior captain of the Waartgelders, Harteveld by name, had +privately informed the leaders of the Barneveld party in Utrecht that he +would not draw his sword against Prince Maurice and the States-General. +"Who asks you to do so?" said some of the deputies, while Ledenberg on +the other hand flatly accused him of cowardice. For this affront the +Captain had vowed revenge. + +And in the midst of this scene of jollity and confusion, that midsummer +night, entered the stern Stadholder with his fellow commissioners; the +feeble plans for shutting the gates upon him not having been carried into +effect. + +"You hardly expected such a guest at your fair," said he to the +magistrates, with a grim smile on his face as who should say, "And what +do you think of me now I have came?" + +Meantime the secret conference of Grotius and colleagues with the States +of Utrecht proceeded. As a provisional measure, Sir John Ogle, commander +of the forces paid by Holland, had been warned as to where his obedience +was due. It had likewise been intimated that the guard should be doubled +at the Amersfoort gate, and a watch set on the river Lek above and below +the city in order to prevent fresh troops of the States-General from +being introduced by surprise. + +These precautions had been suggested a year before, as we have seen, in a +private autograph letter from Barneveld to Secretary Ledenberg. + +Sir John Ogle had flatly refused to act in opposition to the Stadholder +and the States-General, whom he recognized as his lawful superiors and +masters, and he warned Ledenberg and his companions as to the perilous +nature of the course which they were pursuing. Great was the indignation +of the Utrechters and the Holland commissioners in consequence. + +Grotius in his speech enlarged on the possibility of violence being used +by the Stadholder, while some of the members of the Assembly likewise +thought it likely that he would smite the gates open by force. Grotius, +when reproved afterwards for such strong language towards Prince Maurice, +said that true Hollanders were no courtiers, but were wont to call +everything by its right name. + +He stated in strong language the regret felt by Holland that a majority +of the States of Utrecht had determined to disband the Waartgelders which +had been constitutionally enlisted according to the right of each +province under the 1st Article of the Union of Utrecht to protect itself +and its laws. + +Next day there were conferences between Maurice and the States of Utrecht +and between him and the Holland deputies. The Stadholder calmly demanded +the disbandment and the Synod. The Hollanders spoke of securing first +the persons and rights of the magistracy. + +"The magistrates are to be protected," said Maurice, "but we must first +know how they are going to govern. People have tried to introduce five +false points into the Divine worship. People have tried to turn me out +of the stadholdership and to drive me from the country. But I have taken +my measures. I know well what I am about. I have got five provinces on +my side, and six cities of Holland will send deputies to Utrecht to +sustain me here." + +The Hollanders protested that there was no design whatever, so far as +they knew, against his princely dignity or person. All were ready to +recognize his rank and services by every means in their power. But it +was desirable by conciliation and compromise, not by stern decree, to +arrange these religious and political differences. + +The Stadholder replied by again insisting on the Synod. "As for the +Waartgelders," he continued, "they are worse than Spanish fortresses. +They must away." + +After a little further conversation in this vein the Prince grew more +excited. + +"Everything is the fault of the Advocate," he cried. + +"If Barneveld were dead," replied Grotius, "all the rest of us would +still deem ourselves bound to maintain the laws. People seem to despise +Holland and to wish to subject it to the other provinces." + +"On the contrary," cried the Prince, "it is the Advocate who wishes to +make Holland the States-General." + +Maurice was tired of argument. There had been much ale-house talk some +three months before by a certain blusterous gentleman called van Ostrum +about the necessity of keeping the Stadholder in check. "If the Prince +should undertake," said this pot-valiant hero, "to attack any of the +cities of Utrecht or Holland with the hard hand, it is settled to station +8000 or 10,000 soldiers in convenient places. Then we shall say to the +Prince, if you don't leave us alone, we shall make an arrangement with +the Archduke of Austria and resume obedience to him. We can make such a +treaty with him as will give us religious freedom and save us from +tyranny of any kind. I don't say this for myself, but have heard it on +good authority from very eminent persons." + +This talk had floated through the air to the Stadholder. + +What evidence could be more conclusive of a deep design on the part of +Barneveld to sell the Republic to the Archduke and drive Maurice into +exile? Had not Esquire van Ostrum solemnly declared it at a tavern +table? And although he had mentioned no names, could the "eminent +personages" thus cited at second hand be anybody but the Advocate? + +Three nights after his last conference with the Hollanders, Maurice +quietly ordered a force of regular troops in Utrecht to be under arms at +half past three o'clock next morning. About 1000 infantry, including +companies of Ernest of Nassau's command at Arnhem and of Brederode's from +Vianen, besides a portion of the regular garrison of the place, had +accordingly been assembled without beat of drum, before half past three +in the morning, and were now drawn up on the market-place or Neu. At +break of day the Prince himself appeared on horseback surrounded by his +staff on the Neu or Neude, a large, long, irregular square into which the +seven or eight principal streets and thoroughfares of the town emptied +themselves. It was adorned by public buildings and other handsome +edifices, and the tall steeple of St. Martin's with its beautiful open- +work spire, lighted with the first rays of the midsummer sun, looked +tranquilly down upon the scene. + +Each of the entrances to the square had been securely guarded by +Maurice's orders, and cannon planted to command all the streets. A +single company of the famous Waartgelders was stationed in the Neu or +near it. The Prince rode calmly towards them and ordered them to lay +down their arms. They obeyed without a murmur. He then sent through the +city to summon all the other companies of Waartgelders to the Neu. This +was done with perfect promptness, and in a short space of time the whole +body of mercenaries, nearly 1000 in number, had laid down their arms at +the feet of the Prince. + +The snaphances and halberds being then neatly stacked in the square, the +Stadholder went home to his early breakfast. There was an end to those +mercenaries thenceforth and for ever. The faint and sickly resistance to +the authority of Maurice offered at Utrecht was attempted nowhere else. + +For days there had been vague but fearful expectations of a "blood bath," +of street battles, rioting, and plunder. Yet the Stadholder with the +consummate art which characterized all his military manoeuvres had so +admirably carried out his measure that not a shot was fired, not a blow +given, not a single burgher disturbed in his peaceful slumbers. When the +population had taken off their nightcaps, they woke to find the awful +bugbear removed which had so long been appalling them. The Waartgelders +were numbered with the terrors of the past, and not a cat had mewed at +their disappearance. + +Charter-books, parchments, 13th Articles, Barneveld's teeth, Arminian +forts, flowery orations of Grotius, tavern talk of van Ostrum, city +immunities, States' rights, provincial laws, Waartgelders and all--the +martial Stadholder, with the orange plume in his hat and the sword of +Nieuwpoort on his thigh, strode through them as easily as through the +whirligigs and mountebanks, the wades and fritters, encumbering the +streets of Utrecht on the night of his arrival. + +Secretary Ledenberg and other leading members of the States had escaped +the night before. Grotius and his colleagues also took a precipitate +departure. As they drove out of town in the twilight, they met the +deputies of the six opposition cities of Holland just arriving in their +coach from the Hague. Had they tarried an hour longer, they would have +found themselves safely in prison. + +Four days afterwards the Stadholder at the head of his body-guard +appeared at the town-house. His halberdmen tramped up the broad +staircase, heralding his arrival to the assembled magistracy. He +announced his intention of changing the whole board then and there. +The process was summary. The forty members were required to supply +forty other names, and the Prince added twenty more. From the hundred +candidates thus furnished the Prince appointed forty magistrates such +as suited himself. It is needless to say that but few of the old bench +remained, and that those few were devoted to the Synod, the States- +General, and the Stadholder. He furthermore announced that these new +magistrates were to hold office for life, whereas the board had +previously been changed every year. The cathedral church was at +once assigned for the use of the Contra-Remonstrants. + +This process was soon to be repeated throughout the two insubordinate +provinces Utrecht and Holland. + +The Prince was accused of aiming at the sovereignty of the whole country, +and one of his grief's against the Advocate was that he had begged the +Princess-Widow, Louise de Coligny, to warn her son-in-law of the dangers +of such ambition. But so long as an individual, sword in hand, could +exercise such unlimited sway over the whole municipal, and provincial +organization of the Commonwealth, it mattered but little whether he was +called King or Kaiser, Doge or Stadholder. Sovereign he was for the time +being at least, while courteously acknowledging the States-General as his +sovereign. + +Less than three weeks afterwards the States-General issued a decree +formally disbanding the Waartgelders; an almost superfluous edict, as +they had almost ceased to exist, and there were none to resist the +measure. Grotius recommended complete acquiescence. Barneveld's soul +could no longer animate with courage a whole people. + +The invitations which had already in the month of June been prepared for +the Synod to meet in the city of Dortor Dordtrecht-were now issued. The +States of Holland sent back the notification unopened, deeming it an +unwarrantable invasion of their rights that an assembly resisted by a +large majority of their body should be convoked in a city on their own +territory. But this was before the disbandment of the Waartgelders and +the general change of magistracies had been effected. + +Earnest consultations were now held as to the possibility of devising +some means of compromise; of providing that the decisions of the Synod +should not be considered binding until after having been ratified by the +separate states. In the opinion of Barneveld they were within a few +hours' work of a favourable result when their deliberations were +interrupted by a startling event. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + Fruitless Interview between Barneveld and Maurice--The Advocate, + warned of his Danger, resolves to remain at the Hague--Arrest of + Barneveld, of Qrotius, and of Hoogerbeets--The States-General assume + the Responsibility in a "Billet"--The States of Holland protest-- + The Advocate's Letter to his Family--Audience of Boississe-- + Mischief-making of Aerssens--The French Ambassadors intercede for + Barneveld--The King of England opposes their Efforts--Langerac's + Treachery to the Advocate--Maurice continues his Changes in the + Magistracy throughout the Country--Vote of Thanks by the States of + Holland. + +The Advocate, having done what he believed to be his duty, and exhausted +himself in efforts to defend ancient law and to procure moderation and +mutual toleration in religion, was disposed to acquiesce in the +inevitable. His letters giving official and private information of +those grave events were neither vindictive nor vehement. + +"I send you the last declaration of My Lords of Holland," he said to +Caron, "in regard to the National Synod, with the counter-declaration of +Dordtrecht and the other five cities. Yesterday was begun the debate +about cashiering the enrolled soldiers called Waartgelders. To-day the +late M. van Kereburg was buried." + +Nothing could be calmer than his tone. After the Waartgelders had been +disbanded, Utrecht revolutionized by main force, the National Synod +decided upon, and the process of changing the municipal magistracies +everywhere in the interest of Contra-Remonstrants begun, he continued to +urge moderation and respect for law. Even now, although discouraged, he +was not despondent, and was disposed to make the best even of the Synod. + +He wished at this supreme moment to have a personal interview with the +Prince in order to devise some means for calming the universal agitation +and effecting, if possible, a reconciliation among conflicting passions +and warring sects. He had stood at the side of Maurice and of Maurice's +great father in darker hours even than these. They had turned to him on +all trying and tragical occasions and had never found his courage +wavering or his judgment at fault. "Not a friend to the House of Nassau, +but a father," thus had Maurice with his own lips described the Advocate +to the widow of William the Silent. Incapable of an unpatriotic thought, +animated by sincere desire to avert evil and procure moderate action, +Barneveld saw no reason whatever why, despite all that had been said and +done, he should not once more hold council with the Prince. He had a +conversation accordingly with Count Lewis, who had always honoured the +Advocate while differing with him on the religious question. The +Stadholder of Friesland, one of the foremost men of his day in military +and scientific affairs, in administrative ability and philanthropic +instincts, and, in a family perhaps the most renowned in Europe for +heroic qualities and achievements, hardly second to any who had borne the +name, was in favour of the proposed interview, spoke immediately to +Prince Maurice about it, but was not hopeful as to its results. He knew +his cousin well and felt that he was at that moment resentful, perhaps +implacably so, against the whole Remonstrant party and especially against +their great leader. + +Count Lewis was small of stature, but dignified, not to say pompous, in +demeanour. His style of writing to one of lower social rank than himself +was lofty, almost regal, and full of old world formality. + +Noble, severe, right worshipful, highly learned and discreet, special +good friend," he wrote to Barneveld; "we have spoken to his Excellency +concerning the expediency of what you requested of us this forenoon. +We find however that his Excellency is not to be moved to entertain any +other measure than the National Synod which he has himself proposed in +person to all the provinces, to the furtherance of which he has made so +many exertions, and which has already been announced by the States- +General. + +"We will see by what opportunity his Excellency will appoint the +interview, and so far as lies in us you may rely on our good offices. +We could not answer sooner as the French ambassadors had audience of us +this forenoon and we were visiting his Excellency in the afternoon. +Wishing your worship good evening, we are your very good friend." + +Next day Count William wrote again. "We have taken occasion," he said, +"to inform his Excellency that you were inclined to enter into +communication with him in regard to an accommodation of the religious +difficulties and to the cashiering of the Waartgelders. He answered that +he could accept no change in the matter of the National Synod, but +nevertheless would be at your disposal whenever your worship should be +pleased to come to him." + +Two days afterwards Barneveld made his appearance at the apartments of +the Stadholder. The two great men on whom the fabric of the Republic had +so long rested stood face to face once more. + +The Advocate, with long grey beard and stern blue eye, haggard with +illness and anxiety, tall but bent with age, leaning on his staff and +wrapped in black velvet cloak--an imposing magisterial figure; the +florid, plethoric Prince in brown doublet, big russet boots, narrow ruff, +and shabby felt hat with its string of diamonds, with hand clutched on +swordhilt, and eyes full of angry menace, the very type of the high-born, +imperious soldier--thus they surveyed each other as men, once friends, +between whom a gulf had opened. + +Barneveld sought to convince the Prince that in the proceedings at +Utrecht, founded as they were on strict adherence to the laws and +traditions of the Provinces, no disrespect had been intended to him, no +invasion of his constitutional rights, and that on his part his lifelong +devotion to the House of Nassau had suffered no change. He repeated his +usual incontrovertible arguments against the Synod, as illegal and +directly tending to subject the magistracy to the priesthood, a course of +things which eight-and-twenty years before had nearly brought destruction +on the country and led both the Prince and himself to captivity in a +foreign land. + +The Prince sternly replied in very few words that the National Synod was +a settled matter, that he would never draw back from his position, and +could not do so without singular disservice to the country and to his own +disreputation. He expressed his displeasure at the particular oath +exacted from the Waartgelders. It diminished his lawful authority and +the respect due to him, and might be used per indirectum to the +oppression of those of the religion which he had sworn to maintain. His +brow grew black when he spoke of the proceedings at Utrecht, which he +denounced as a conspiracy against his own person and the constitution of +the country. + +Barneveld used in vain the powers of argument by which he had guided +kings and republics, cabinets and assemblies, during so many years. His +eloquence fell powerless upon the iron taciturnity of the Stadholder. +Maurice had expressed his determination and had no other argument to +sustain it but his usual exasperating silence. + +The interview ended as hopelessly as Count Lewis William had anticipated, +and the Prince and the Advocate separated to meet no more on earth. + +"You have doubtless heard already," wrote Barneveld to the ambassador in +London, "of all that has been passing here and in Utrecht. One must pray +to God that everything may prosper to his honour and the welfare of the +country. They are resolved to go through with the National Synod, the +government of Utrecht after the change made in it having consented with +the rest. I hope that his Majesty, according to your statement, will +send some good, learned, and peace-loving personages here, giving them +wholesome instructions to help bring our affairs into Christian unity, +accommodation, and love, by which his Majesty and these Provinces would +be best served." + +Were these the words of a baffled conspirator and traitor? Were they +uttered to produce an effect upon public opinion and avert a merited +condemnation by all good men? There is not in them a syllable of +reproach, of anger, of despair. And let it be remembered that they were +not written for the public at all. They were never known to the public, +hardly heard of either by the Advocate's enemies or friends, save the one +to whom they were addressed and the monarch to whom that friend was +accredited. They were not contained in official despatches, but in +private, confidential outpourings to a trusted political and personal +associate of many years. From the day they were written until this hour +they have never been printed, and for centuries perhaps not read. + +He proceeded to explain what he considered to be the law in the +Netherlands with regard to military allegiance. It is not probable that +there was in the country a more competent expounder of it; and defective +and even absurd as such a system was, it had carried the Provinces +successfully through a great war, and a better method for changing it +might have been found among so law-loving and conservative a people as +the Netherlanders than brute force. + +"Information has apparently been sent to England," he said, "that My +Lords of Holland through their commissioners in Utrecht dictated to the +soldiery standing at their charges something that was unreasonable. The +truth is that the States of Holland, as many of them as were assembled, +understanding that great haste was made to send his Excellency and some +deputies from the other provinces to Utrecht, while the members of the +Utrecht assembly were gone to report these difficulties to their +constituents and get fresh instructions from them, wishing that the +return of those members should be waited for and that the Assembly of +Holland might also be complete--a request which was refused--sent a +committee to Utrecht, as the matter brooked no delay, to give information +to the States of that province of what was passing here and to offer +their good offices. + +"They sent letters also to his Excellency to move him to reasonable +accommodation without taking extreme measures in opposition to those +resolutions of the States of Utrecht which his Excellency had promised to +conform with and to cause to be maintained by all officers and soldiers. +Should his Excellency make difficulty in this, the commissioners +were instructed to declare to him that they were ordered to warn the +colonels and captains standing in the payment of Holland, by letter and +word of mouth, that they were bound by oath to obey the States of Holland +as their paymasters and likewise to carry out the orders of the +provincial and municipal magistrates in the places where they were +employed. The soldiery was not to act or permit anything to be done +against those resolutions, but help to carry them out, his Excellency +himself and the troops paid by the States of Holland being indisputably +bound by oath and duty so to do." + +Doubtless a more convenient arrangement from a military point of view +might be imagined than a system of quotas by which each province in a +confederacy claimed allegiance and exacted obedience from the troops paid +by itself in what was after all a general army. Still this was the +logical and inevitable result of State rights pushed to the extreme and +indeed had been the indisputable theory and practice in the Netherlands +ever since their revolt from Spain. To pretend that the proceedings and +the oath were new because they were embarrassing was absurd. It was only +because the dominant party saw the extreme inconvenience of the system, +now that it was turned against itself, that individuals contemptuous of +law and ignorant of history denounced it as a novelty. + +But the strong and beneficent principle that lay at the bottom of the +Advocate's conduct was his unflagging resolve to maintain the civil +authority over the military in time of peace. What liberal or healthy +government would be possible otherwise? Exactly as he opposed the +subjection of the magistracy by the priesthood or the mob, so he now +defended it against the power of the sword. There was no justification +whatever for a claim on the part of Maurice to exact obedience from all +the armies of the Republic, especially in time of peace. He was himself +by oath sworn to obey the States of Holland, of Utrecht, and of the three +other provinces of which he was governor. He was not commander-in-chief. +In two of the seven provinces he had no functions whatever, military or +civil. They had another governor. + +Yet the exposition of the law, as it stood, by the Advocate and his claim +that both troops and Stadholder should be held to their oaths was +accounted a crime. He had invented a new oath--it was said--and sought +to diminish the power of the Prince. These were charges, unjust as they +were, which might one day be used with deadly effect. + +"We live in a world where everything is interpreted to the worst," he +said. "My physical weakness continues and is increased by this +affliction. I place my trust in God the Lord and in my upright and +conscientious determination to serve the country, his Excellency, and the +religion in which through God's grace I hope to continue to the end." + +On the 28th August of a warm afternoon, Barneveld was seated on a +porcelain seat in an arbor in his garden. Councillor Berkhout, +accompanied by a friend, called to see him, and after a brief +conversation gave him solemn warning that danger was impending, +that there was even a rumour of an intention to arrest him. + +The Advocate answered gravely, "Yes, there are wicked men about." + +Presently he lifted his hat courteously and said, "I thank you, +gentlemen, for the warning." + +It seems scarcely to have occurred to him that he had been engaged in +anything beyond a constitutional party struggle in which he had defended +what in his view was the side of law and order. He never dreamt of +seeking safety in flight. Some weeks before, he had been warmly advised +to do as both he and Maurice had done in former times in order to escape +the stratagems of Leicester, to take refuge in some strong city devoted +to his interests rather than remain at the Hague. But he had declined +the counsel. "I will await the issue of this business," he said, "in the +Hague, where my home is, and where I have faithfully served my masters. +I had rather for the sake of the Fatherland suffer what God chooses to +send me for having served well than that through me and on my account any +city should fall into trouble and difficulties." + +Next morning, Wednesday, at seven o'clock, Uytenbogaert paid him a visit. +He wished to consult him concerning a certain statement in regard to the +Synod which he desired him to lay before the States of Holland. The +preacher did not find his friend busily occupied at his desk, as usual, +with writing and other work. The Advocate had pushed his chair away from +the table encumbered with books and papers, and sat with his back leaning +against it, lost in thought. His stern, stoical face was like that of a +lion at bay. + +Uytenbogaert tried to arouse him from his gloom, consoling him by +reflections on the innumerable instances, in all countries and ages, +of patriotic statesmen who for faithful service had reaped nothing but +ingratitude. + +Soon afterwards he took his leave, feeling a presentiment of evil within +him which it was impossible for him to shake off as he pressed +Barneveld's hand at parting. + +Two hours later, the Advocate went in his coach to the session of the +States of Holland. The place of the Assembly as well as that of the +States-General was within what was called the Binnenhof or Inner Court; +the large quadrangle enclosing the ancient hall once the residence of the +sovereign Counts of Holland. The apartments of the Stadholder composed +the south-western portion of the large series of buildings surrounding +this court. Passing by these lodgings on his way to the Assembly, he was +accosted by a chamberlain of the Prince and informed that his Highness +desired to speak with him. He followed him towards the room where such +interviews were usually held, but in the antechamber was met by +Lieutenant Nythof, of the Prince's bodyguard. This officer told him +that he had been ordered to arrest him in the name of the States-General. +The Advocate demanded an interview with the Prince. It was absolutely +refused. Physical resistance on the part of a man of seventy-two, +stooping with age and leaning on a staff, to military force, of which +Nythof was the representative, was impossible. Barneveld put a cheerful +face on the matter, and was even inclined to converse. He was at once +carried off a prisoner and locked up in a room belonging to Maurice's +apartments. + +Soon afterwards, Grotius on his way to the States-General was invited in +precisely the same manner to go to the Prince, with whom, as he was +informed, the Advocate was at that moment conferring. As soon as he had +ascended the stairs however, he was arrested by Captain van der Meulen in +the name of the States-General, and taken to a chamber in the same +apartments, where he was guarded by two halberdmen. In the evening he +was removed to another chamber where the window shutters were barred, and +where he remained three days and nights. He was much cast down and +silent. Pensionary Hoogerbeets was made prisoner in precisely the same +manner. Thus the three statesmen--culprits as they were considered by +their enemies--were secured without noise or disturbance, each without +knowing the fate that had befallen the other. Nothing could have been +more neatly done. In the same quiet way orders were sent to secure +Secretary Ledenberg, who had returned to Utrecht, and who now after a +short confinement in that city was brought to the Hague and imprisoned in +the Hof. + +At the very moment of the Advocate's arrest his son-in-law van der Myle +happened to be paying a visit to Sir Dudley Carleton, who had arrived +very late the night before from England. It was some hours before he or +any other member of the family learned what had befallen. + +The Ambassador reported to his sovereign that the deed was highly +applauded by the well disposed as the only means left for the security +of the state. "The Arminians," he said, "condemn it as violent and +insufferable in a free republic." + +Impartial persons, he thought, considered it a superfluous proceeding now +that the Synod had been voted and the Waartgelders disbanded. + +While he was writing his despatch, the Stadholder came to call upon him, +attended by his cousin Count Lewis William. The crowd of citizens +following at a little distance, excited by the news with which the city +was now ringing, mingled with Maurice's gentlemen and bodyguards and +surged up almost into the Ambassador's doors. + +Carleton informed his guests, in the course of conversation, as to the +general opinion of indifferent judges of these events. Maurice replied +that he had disbanded the Waartgelders, but it had now become necessary +to deal with their colonel and the chief captains, meaning thereby +Barneveld and the two other prisoners. + +The news of this arrest was soon carried to the house of Barneveld, and +filled his aged wife, his son, and sons-in-law with grief and +indignation. His eldest son William, commonly called the Seignior van +Groeneveld, accompanied by his two brothers-in-law, Veenhuyzen, President +of the Upper Council, and van der Myle, obtained an interview with the +Stadholder that same afternoon. + +They earnestly requested that the Advocate, in consideration of his +advanced age, might on giving proper bail be kept prisoner in his own +house. + +The Prince received them at first with courtesy. "It is the work of the +States-General," he said, " no harm shall come to your father any more +than to myself." + +Veenhuyzen sought to excuse the opposition which the Advocate had made to +the Cloister Church. + +The word was scarcely out of his mouth when the Prince fiercely +interrupted him--"Any man who says a word against the Cloister Church," +he cried in a rage, "his feet shall not carry him from this place." + +The interview gave them on the whole but little satisfaction. Very soon +afterwards two gentlemen, Asperen and Schagen, belonging to the Chamber +of Nobles, and great adherents of Barneveld, who had procured their +enrolment in that branch, forced their way into the Stadholder's +apartments and penetrated to the door of the room where the Advocate was +imprisoned. According to Carleton they were filled with wine as well as +rage, and made a great disturbance, loudly demanding their patron's +liberation. Maurice came out of his own cabinet on hearing the noise in +the corridor, and ordered them to be disarmed and placed under arrest. +In the evening however they were released. + +Soon afterwards van der Myle fled to Paris, where he endeavoured to make +influence with the government in favour of the Advocate. His departure +without leave, being, as he was, a member of the Chamber of Nobles and of +the council of state, was accounted a great offence. Uytenbogaert also +made his escape, as did Taurinus, author of The Balance, van Moersbergen +of Utrecht, and many others more or less implicated in these commotions. + +There was profound silence in the States of Holland when the arrest of +Barneveld was announced. The majority sat like men distraught. At last +Matenesse said, "You have taken from us our head, our tongue, and our +hand, henceforth we can only sit still and look on." + +The States-General now took the responsibility of the arrest, which eight +individuals calling themselves the States-General had authorized by +secret resolution the day before (28th August). On the 29th accordingly, +the following "Billet," as it was entitled, was read to the Assembly and +ordered to be printed and circulated among the community. It was without +date or signature. + +"Whereas in the course of the changes within the city of Utrecht and in +other places brought about by the high and mighty Lords the States- +General of the United Netherlands, through his Excellency and their +Lordships' committee to him adjoined, sundry things have been discovered +of which previously there had been great suspicion, tending to the great +prejudice of the Provinces in general and of each province in particular, +not without apparent danger to the state of the country, and that thereby +not only the city of Utrecht, but various other cities of the United +Provinces would have fallen into a blood bath; and whereas the chief +ringleaders in these things are considered to be John van Barneveld, +Advocate of Holland, Rombout Hoogerbeets, and Hugo Grotius, whereof +hereafter shall declaration and announcement be made, therefore their +High Mightinesses, in order to prevent these and similar inconveniences, +to place the country in security, and to bring the good burghers of all +the cities into friendly unity again, have resolved to arrest those three +persons, in order that out of their imprisonment they may be held to +answer duly for their actions and offences." + +The deputies of Holland in the States-General protested on the same day +against the arrest, declaring themselves extraordinarily amazed at such +proceedings, without their knowledge, with usurpation of their +jurisdiction, and that they should refer to their principals for +instructions in the matter. + +They reported accordingly at once to the States of Holland in session in +the same building. Soon afterwards however a committee of five from the +States-General appeared before the Assembly to justify the proceeding. +On their departure there arose a great debate, the six cities of course +taking part with Maurice and the general government. It was finally +resolved by the majority to send a committee to the Stadholder to +remonstrate with, and by the six opposition cities another committee +to congratulate him, on his recent performances. + +His answer was to this effect: + +"What had happened was not by his order, but had been done by the States- +General, who must be supposed not to have acted without good cause. +Touching the laws and jurisdiction of Holland he would not himself +dispute, but the States of Holland would know how to settle that matter +with the States-General." + +Next day it was resolved in the Holland assembly to let the affair remain +as it was for the time being. Rapid changes were soon to be expected in +that body, hitherto so staunch for the cause of municipal laws and State +rights. + +Meantime Barneveld sat closely guarded in the apartments of the +Stadholder, while the country and very soon all Europe were ringing with +the news of his downfall, imprisonment, and disgrace. The news was a +thunder-bolt to the lovers of religious liberty, a ray of dazzling +sunlight after a storm to the orthodox. + +The showers of pamphlets, villanous lampoons, and libels began afresh. +The relatives of the fallen statesman could not appear in the streets +without being exposed to insult, and without hearing scurrilous and +obscene verses against their father and themselves, in which neither sex +nor age was spared, howled in their ears by all the ballad-mongers and +broadsheet vendors of the town. The unsigned publication of the States- +General, with its dark allusions to horrible discoveries and promised +revelations which were never made, but which reduced themselves at last +to the gibberish of a pot-house bully, the ingenious libels, the +powerfully concocted and poisonous calumnies, caricatures, and lampoons, +had done their work. People stared at each other in the streets with +open mouths as they heard how the Advocate had for years and years been +the hireling of Spain, whose government had bribed him largely to bring +about the Truce and kill the West India Company; how his pockets and his +coffers were running over with Spanish ducats; how his plot to sell the +whole country to the ancient tyrant, drive the Prince of Orange into +exile, and bring every city of the Netherlands into a "blood-bath," had, +just in time, been discovered. + +And the people believed it and hated the man they had so lately honoured, +and were ready to tear him to pieces in the streets. Men feared to +defend him lest they too should be accused of being stipendiaries of +Spain. It was a piteous spectacle; not for the venerable statesman +sitting alone there in his prison, but for the Republic in its lunacy, +for human nature in its meanness and shame. He whom Count Lewis, +although opposed to his politics, had so lately called one of the two +columns on which the whole fabric of the States reposed, Prince Maurice +being the other, now lay prostrate in the dust and reviled of all men. + +"Many who had been promoted by him to high places," said a contemporary, +"and were wont to worship him as a god, in hope that he would lift them +up still higher, now deserted him, and ridiculed him, and joined the rest +of the world in heaping dirt upon him." + +On the third day of his imprisonment the Advocate wrote this letter to +his family:-- + +"My very dear wife, children, children-in-law, and grandchildren,--I know +that you are sorrowful for the troubles which have come upon me, but I +beg you to seek consolation from God the Almighty and to comfort each +other. I know before the Lord God of having given no single lawful +reason for the misfortunes which have come upon me, and I will with +patience await from His Divine hand and from my lawful superiors a happy +issue, knowing well that you and my other well-wishers will with your +prayers and good offices do all that you can to that end. + +"And so, very dear wife, children, children-in-law, and grandchildren, I +commend you to God's holy keeping. + +"I have been thus far well and honourably treated and accommodated, for +which I thank his princely Excellency. + +"From my chamber of arrest, last of August, anno 1618. + +"Your dear husband, father, father-in-law, and grand father, + + "JOHN OF BARNEVELD." + + +On the margin was written: + +"From the first I have requested and have at last obtained materials for +writing." + +A fortnight before the arrest, but while great troubles were known to +be impending, the French ambassador extraordinary, de Boississe, had +audience before the Assembly of the States-General. He entreated them to +maintain the cause of unity and peace as the foundation of their state; +"that state," he said, "which lifts its head so high that it equals or +surpasses the mightiest republics that ever existed, and which could not +have risen to such a height of honour and grandeur in so short a time, +but through harmony and union of all the provinces, through the valour of +his Excellency, and through your own wise counsels, both sustained by our +great king, whose aid is continued by his son."--"The King my master," he +continued, "knows not the cause of your disturbances. You have not +communicated them to him, but their most apparent cause is a difference +of opinion, born in the schools, thence brought before the public, upon a +point of theology. That point has long been deemed by many to be so hard +and so high that the best advice to give about it is to follow what God's +Word teaches touching God's secrets; to wit, that one should use +moderation and modesty therein and should not rashly press too far into +that which he wishes to be covered with the veil of reverence and wonder. +That is a wise ignorance to keep one's eyes from that which God chooses +to conceal. He calls us not to eternal life through subtle and +perplexing questions." + +And further exhorting them to conciliation and compromise, he enlarged +on the effect of their internal dissensions on their exterior relations. +"What joy, what rapture you are preparing for your neighbours by your +quarrels! How they will scorn you! How they will laugh! What a hope +do you give them of revenging themselves upon you without danger to +themselves! Let me implore you to baffle their malice, to turn their +joy into mourning, to unite yourselves to confound them." + +He spoke much more in the same vein, expressing wise and moderate +sentiments. He might as well have gone down to the neighbouring beach +when a south-west gale was blowing and talked of moderation to the waves +of the German Ocean. The tempest of passion and prejudice had risen in +its might and was sweeping all before it. Yet the speech, like other +speeches and intercessions made at this epoch by de Boississe and by the +regular French ambassador, du Maurier, was statesmanlike and reasonable. +It is superfluous to say that it was in unison with the opinions of +Barneveld, for Barneveld had probably furnished the text of the oration. +Even as he had a few years before supplied the letters which King James +had signed and subsequently had struggled so desperately to disavow, so +now the Advocate's imperious intellect had swayed the docile and amiable +minds of the royal envoys into complete sympathy with his policy. He +usually dictated their general instructions. But an end had come to such +triumphs. Dudley Carleton had returned from his leave of absence in +England, where he had found his sovereign hating the Advocate as doctors +hate who have been worsted in theological arguments and despots who have +been baffled in their imperious designs. Who shall measure the influence +on the destiny of this statesman caused by the French-Spanish marriages, +the sermons of James through the mouth of Carleton, and the mutual +jealousy of France and England? + +But the Advocate was in prison, and the earth seemed to have closed over +him. Hardly a ripple of indignation was perceptible on the calm surface +of affairs, although in the States-General as in the States of Holland +his absence seemed to have reduced both bodies to paralysis. + +They were the more easily handled by the prudent, skilful, and determined +Maurice. + +The arrest of the four gentlemen had been communicated to the kings of +France and Great Britain and the Elector-Palatine in an identical letter +from the States-General. It is noticeable that on this occasion the +central government spoke of giving orders to the Prince of Orange, over +whom they would seem to have had no legitimate authority, while on the +other hand he had expressed indignation on more than one occasion that +the respective states of the five provinces where he was governor and to +whom he had sworn obedience should presume to issue commands to him. + +In France, where the Advocate was honoured and beloved, the intelligence +excited profound sorrow. A few weeks previously the government of that +country had, as we have seen, sent a special ambassador to the States, +M. de Boississe, to aid the resident envoy, du Maurier, in his efforts to +bring about a reconciliation of parties and a termination of the +religious feud. Their exertions were sincere and unceasing. They +were as steadily countermined by Francis Aerssens, for the aim of that +diplomatist was to bring about a state of bad feeling, even at cost of +rupture, between the Republic and France, because France was friendly +to the man he most hated and whose ruin he had sworn. + +During the summer a bitter personal controversy had been going on, +sufficiently vulgar in tone, between Aerssens and another diplomatist, +Barneveld's son-in-law, Cornelis van der Myle. It related to the recall +of Aerssens from the French embassy of which enough has already been laid +before the reader. Van der Myle by the production of the secret letters +of the Queen-Dowager and her counsellors had proved beyond dispute that +it was at the express wish of the French government that the Ambassador +had retired, and that indeed they had distinctly refused to receive him, +should he return. Foul words resulting in propositions for a hostile +meeting on the frontier, which however came to nothing, were interchanged +and Aerssens in the course of his altercation with the son-inlaw had +found ample opportunity for venting his spleen upon his former patron the +now fallen statesman. + +Four days after the arrest of Barneveld he brought the whole matter +before the States-General, and the intention with which he thus raked up +the old quarrel with France after the death of Henry, and his charges in +regard to the Spanish marriages, was as obvious as it was deliberate. + +The French ambassadors were furious. Boississe had arrived not simply +as friend of the Advocate, but to assure the States of the strong desire +entertained by the French government to cultivate warmest relations with +them. It had been desired by the Contra-Remonstrant party that deputies +from the Protestant churches of France should participate in the Synod, +and the French king had been much assailed by the Catholic powers for +listening to those suggestions. The Papal nuncius, the Spanish +ambassador, the envoy of the Archduke, had made a great disturbance at +court concerning the mission of Boississe. They urged with earnestness +that his Majesty was acting against the sentiments of Spain, Rome, and +the whole Catholic Church, and that he ought not to assist with his +counsel those heretics who were quarrelling among themselves over points +in their heretical religion and wishing to destroy each other. + +Notwithstanding this outcry the weather was smooth enough until the +proceedings of Aerssens came to stir up a tempest at the French court. +A special courier came from Boississe, a meeting of the whole council, +although it was Sunday, was instantly called, and the reply of the +States-General to the remonstrance of the Ambassador in the Aerssens +affair was pronounced to be so great an affront to the King that, but for +overpowering reasons, diplomatic intercourse would have at once been +suspended. "Now instead of friendship there is great anger here," said +Langerac. The king forbade under vigorous penalties the departure of any +French theologians to take part in the Synod, although the royal consent +had nearly been given. The government complained that no justice was +done in the Netherlands to the French nation, that leading personages +there openly expressed contempt for the French alliance, denouncing the +country as "Hispaniolized," and declaring that all the council were +regularly pensioned by Spain for the express purpose of keeping up the +civil dissensions in the United Provinces. + +Aerssens had publicly and officially declared that a majority of the +French council since the death of Henry had declared the crown in its +temporal as well as spiritual essence to be dependent on the Pope, and +that the Spanish marriages had been made under express condition of the +renunciation of the friendship and alliance of the States. + +Such were among the first-fruits of the fall of Barneveld and the triumph +of Aerssens, for it was he in reality who had won the victory, and he had +gained it over both Stadholder and Advocate. Who was to profit by the +estrangement between the Republic and its powerful ally at a moment too +when that great kingdom was at last beginning to emerge from the darkness +and nothingness of many years, with the faint glimmering dawn of a new +great policy? + +Barneveld, whose masterful statesmanship, following out the traditions of +William the Silent, had ever maintained through good and ill report +cordial and beneficent relations between the two countries, had always +comprehended, even as a great cardinal-minister was ere long to teach the +world, that the permanent identification of France with Spain and the +Roman League was unnatural and impossible. + +Meantime Barneveld sat in his solitary prison, knowing not what was +passing on that great stage where he had so long been the chief actor, +while small intriguers now attempted to control events. + +It was the intention of Aerssens to return to the embassy in Paris whence +he had been driven, in his own opinion, so unjustly. To render himself +indispensable, he had begun by making himself provisionally formidable to +the King's government. Later, there would be other deeds to do before +the prize was within his grasp. + +Thus the very moment when France was disposed to cultivate the most +earnest friendship with the Republic had been seized for fastening an +insult upon her. The Twelve Years' Truce with Spain was running to its +close, the relations between France and Spain were unusually cold, and +her friendship therefore more valuable than ever. + +On the other hand the British king was drawing closer his relations with +Spain, and his alliance was demonstrably of small account. The phantom +of the Spanish bride had become more real to his excited vision than +ever, so that early in the year, in order to please Gondemar, he had been +willing to offer an affront to the French ambassador. + +The Prince of Wales had given a splendid masquerade at court, to which +the envoy of his Most Catholic Majesty was bidden. Much to his amazement +the representative of the Most Christian King received no invitation, +notwithstanding that he had taken great pains to procure one. M. de +la Boderie was very angry, and went about complaining to the States' +ambassador and his other colleagues of the slight, and darkened the +lives of the court functionaries having charge of such matters with his +vengeance and despair. It was represented to him that he had himself +been asked to a festival the year before when Count Gondemar was left +out. It was hinted to him that the King had good reasons for what he +did, as the marriage with the daughter of Spain was now in train, and it +was desirable that the Spanish ambassador should be able to observe the +Prince's disposition and make a more correct report of it to his +government. It was in vain. M. de la Boderie refused to be comforted, +and asserted that one had no right to leave the French ambassador +uninvited to any "festival or triumph" at court. There was an endless +disturbance. De la Boderie sent his secretary off to Paris to complain +to the King that his ambassador was of no account in London, while much +favour was heaped upon the Spaniard. The Secretary returned with +instructions from Lewis that the Ambassador was to come home immediately, +and he went off accordingly in dudgeon. "I could see that he was in the +highest degree indignant," said Caron, who saw him before he left, "and I +doubt not that his departure will increase and keep up the former +jealousy between the governments." + +The ill-humor created by this event lasted a long time, serving to +neutralize or at least perceptibly diminish the Spanish influence +produced in France by the Spanish marriages. In the autumn, Secretary de +Puysieux by command of the King ordered every Spaniard to leave the +French court. All the "Spanish ladies and gentlemen, great and small," +who had accompanied the Queen from Madrid were included in this expulsion +with the exception of four individuals, her Majesty's father confessor, +physician, apothecary, and cook. + +The fair young queen was much vexed and shed bitter tears at this +calamity, which, as she spoke nothing but Spanish, left her isolated at +the court, but she was a little consoled by the promise that thenceforth +the King would share her couch. It had not yet occurred to him that he +was married. + +The French envoys at the Hague exhausted themselves in efforts, both +private and public, in favour of the prisoners, but it was a thankless +task. Now that the great man and his chief pupils and adherents were out +of sight, a war of shameless calumny was began upon him, such as has +scarcely a parallel in political history. + +It was as if a whole tribe of noxious and obscene reptiles were swarming +out of the earth which had suddenly swallowed him. But it was not alone +the obscure or the anonymous who now triumphantly vilified him. Men in +high places who had partaken of his patronage, who had caressed him and +grovelled before him, who had grown great through his tuition and rich +through his bounty, now rejoiced in his ruin or hastened at least to save +themselves from being involved in it. Not a man of them all but fell +away from him like water. Even the great soldier forgot whose respectful +but powerful hand it was which, at the most tragical moment, had lifted +him from the high school at Leyden into the post of greatest power and +responsibility, and had guided his first faltering footsteps by the light +of his genius and experience. Francis Aerssens, master of the field, had +now become the political tutor of the mature Stadholder. Step by step we +have been studying the inmost thoughts of the Advocate as revealed in his +secret and confidential correspondence, and the reader has been enabled +to judge of the wantonness of the calumny which converted the determined +antagonist into the secret friend of Spain. Yet it had produced its +effect upon Maurice. + +He told the French ambassadors a month after the arrest that Barneveld +had been endeavouring, during and since the Truce negotiations, to bring +back the Provinces, especially Holland, if not under the dominion of, at +least under some kind of vassalage to Spain. Persons had been feeling +the public pulse as to the possibility of securing permanent peace by +paying tribute to Spain, and this secret plan of Barneveld had so +alienated him from the Prince as to cause him to attempt every possible +means of diminishing or destroying altogether his authority. He had +spread through many cities that Maurice wished to make himself master +of the state by using the religious dissensions to keep the people +weakened and divided. + +There is not a particle of evidence, and no attempt was ever made to +produce any, that the Advocate had such plan, but certainly, if ever, man +had made himself master of a state, that man was Maurice. He continued +however to place himself before the world as the servant of the States- +General, which he never was, either theoretically or in fact. + +The French ambassadors became every day more indignant and more +discouraged. It was obvious that Aerssens, their avowed enemy, was +controlling the public policy of the government. Not only was there no +satisfaction to be had for the offensive manner in which he had filled +the country with his ancient grievances and his nearly forgotten charges +against the Queen-Dowager and those who had assisted her in the regency, +but they were repulsed at every turn when by order of their sovereign +they attempted to use his good offices in favour of the man who had ever +been the steady friend of France. + +The Stadholder also professed friendship for that country, and referred +to Colonel-General Chatillon, who had for a long time commanded the +French regiments in the Netherlands, for confirmation of his uniform +affection for those troops and attachment to their sovereign. + +He would do wonders, he said, if Lewis would declare war upon Spain by +land and sea. + +"Such fruits are not ripe," said Boississe, "nor has your love for France +been very manifest in recent events." + +"Barneveld," replied the Prince, "has personally offended me, and has +boasted that he would drive me out of the country like Leicester. He is +accused of having wished to trouble the country in order to bring it back +under the yoke of Spain. Justice will decide. The States only are +sovereign to judge this question. You must address yourself to them." + +"The States," replied the ambassadors, "will require to be aided by your +counsels." + +The Prince made no reply and remained chill and "impregnable." The +ambassadors continued their intercessions in behalf of the prisoners +both by public address to the Assembly and by private appeals to the +Stadholder and his influential friends. In virtue of the intimate +alliance and mutual guarantees existing between their government and the +Republic they claimed the acceptance of their good offices. They +insisted upon a regular trial of the prisoners according to the laws of +the land, that is to say, by the high court of Holland, which alone had +jurisdiction in the premises. If they had been guilty of high-treason, +they should be duly arraigned. In the name of the signal services of +Barneveld and of the constant friendship of that great magistrate for +France, the King demanded clemency or proof of his crimes. His Majesty +complained through his ambassadors of the little respect shown for his +counsels and for his friendship. "In times past you found ever prompt +and favourable action in your time of need." + +"This discourse," said Maurice to Chatillon, "proceeds from evil +intention." + +Thus the prisoners had disappeared from human sight, and their enemies +ran riot in slandering them. Yet thus far no public charges had been +made. + +"Nothing appears against them," said du Maurier, "and people are +beginning to open their mouths with incredible freedom. While waiting +for the condemnation of the prisoners, one is determined to dishonour +them." + +The French ambassadors were instructed to intercede to the last, but they +were steadily repulsed--while the King of Great Britain, anxious to gain +favour with Spain by aiding in the ruin of one whom he knew and Spain +knew to be her determined foe, did all he could through his ambassador to +frustrate their efforts and bring on a catastrophe. The States-General +and Maurice were now on as confidential terms with Carleton as they were +cold and repellent to Boississe and du Maurier. + +"To recall to them the benefits of the King," said du Maurier, "is to +beat the air. And then Aerssens bewitches them, and they imagine that +after having played runaway horses his Majesty will be only too happy to +receive them back, caress them, and, in order to have their friendship, +approve everything they have been doing right or wrong." + +Aerssens had it all his own way, and the States-General had just paid him +12,000 francs in cash on the ground that Langerac's salary was larger +than his had been when at the head of the same embassy many years before. + +His elevation into the body of nobles, which Maurice had just stocked +with five other of his partisans, was accounted an additional affront +to France, while on the other hand the Queen-Mother, having through +Epernon's assistance made her escape from Blois, where she had been +kept in durance since the death of Concini, now enumerated among other +grievances for which she was willing to take up arms against her son +that the King's government had favoured Barneveld. + +It was strange that all the devotees of Spain--Mary de' Medici, and +Epernon, as well as James I. and his courtiers--should be thus embittered +against the man who had sold the Netherlands to Spain. + +At last the Prince told the French ambassadors that the "people of the +Provinces considered their persistent intercessions an invasion of their +sovereignty." Few would have anything to say to them. "No one listens +to us, no one replies to us," said du Maurier, "everyone visiting us is +observed, and it is conceived a reproach here to speak to the ambassadors +of France." + +Certainly the days were changed since Henry IV. leaned on the arm of +Barneveld, and consulted with him, and with him only, among all the +statesmen of Europe on his great schemes for regenerating Christendom +and averting that general war which, now that the great king had been +murdered and the Advocate imprisoned, had already begun to ravage Europe. + +Van der Myle had gone to Paris to make such exertions as he could among +the leading members of the council in favour of his father-in-law. +Langerac, the States' ambassador there, who but yesterday had been +turning at every moment to the Advocate for light and warmth as to the +sun, now hastened to disavow all respect or regard for him. He scoffed +at the slender sympathy van der Myle was finding in the bleak political +atmosphere. He had done his best to find out what he had been +negotiating with the members of the council and was glad to say that it +was so inconsiderable as to be not worth reporting. He had not spoken +with or seen the King. Jeannin, his own and his father-in-law's +principal and most confidential friend, had only spoken with him half an +hour and then departed for Burgundy, although promising to confer with +him sympathetically on his return. "I am very displeased at his coming +here," said Langerac, " . . . . . but he has found little friendship +or confidence, and is full of woe and apprehension." + +The Ambassador's labours were now confined to personally soliciting the +King's permission for deputations from the Reformed churches of France +to go to the Synod, now opened (13th November) at Dordtrecht, and to +clearing his own skirts with the Prince and States-General of any +suspicion of sympathy with Barneveld. + +In the first object he was unsuccessful, the King telling him at last +"with clear and significant words that this was impossible, on account of +his conscience, his respect for the Catholic religion, and many other +reasons." + +In regard to the second point he acted with great promptness. + +He received a summons in January 1619 from the States-General and the +Prince to send them all letters that he had ever received from Barneveld. +He crawled at once to Maurice on his knees, with the letters in his hand. + +"Most illustrious, high-born Prince, most gracious Lord," he said; +"obeying the commands which it has pleased the States and your princely +Grace to give me, I send back the letters of Advocate Barneveld. If your +princely Grace should find anything in them showing that the said +Advocate had any confidence in me, I most humbly beg your princely Grace +to believe that I never entertained any affection for, him, except only +in respect to and so far as he was in credit and good authority with the +government, and according to the upright zeal which I thought I could see +in him for the service of My high and puissant Lords the States-General +and of your princely Grace." + +Greater humbleness could be expected of no ambassador. Most nobly did +the devoted friend and pupil of the great statesman remember his duty to +the illustrious Prince and their High Mightinesses. Most promptly did he +abjure his patron now that he had fallen into the abyss. + +"Nor will it be found," he continued, "that I have had any sympathy or +communication with the said Advocate except alone in things concerning my +service. The great trust I had in him as the foremost and oldest +counsellor of the state, as the one who so confidentially instructed me +on my departure for France, and who had obtained for himself so great +authority that all the most important affairs of the country were +entrusted to him, was the cause that I simply and sincerely wrote +to him all that people were in the habit of saying at this court. + +"If I had known in the least or suspected that he was not what he ought +to be in the service of My Lords the States and of your princely Grace +and for the welfare and tranquillity of the land, I should have been well +on my guard against letting myself in the least into any kind of +communication with him whatever." + +The reader has seen how steadily and frankly the Advocate had kept +Langerac as well as Caron informed of passing events, and how little +concealment he made of his views in regard to the Synod, the +Waartgelders, and the respective authority of the States-General and +States-Provincial. Not only had Langerac no reason to suspect that +Barneveld was not what he ought to be, but he absolutely knew the +contrary from that most confidential correspondence with him which +he was now so abjectly repudiating. The Advocate, in a protracted +constitutional controversy, had made no secret of his views either +officially or privately. Whether his positions were tenable or flimsy, +they had been openly taken. + +"What is more," proceeded the Ambassador, "had I thought that any account +ought to be made of what I wrote to him concerning the sovereignty of the +Provinces, I should for a certainty not have failed to advise your Grace +of it above all." + +He then, after profuse and maudlin protestations of his most dutiful zeal +all the days of his life for "the service, honour, reputation, and +contentment of your princely Grace," observed that he had not thought it +necessary to give him notice of such idle and unfounded matters, as being +likely to give the Prince annoyance and displeasure. He had however +always kept within himself the resolution duly to notify him in case he +found that any belief was attached to the reports in Paris. "But the +reports," he said, "were popular and calumnious inventions of which no +man had ever been willing or able to name to him the authors." + +The Ambassador's memory was treacherous, and he had doubtless neglected +to read over the minutes, if he had kept them, of his wonderful +disclosures on the subject of the sovereignty before thus exculpating +himself. It will be remembered that he had narrated the story of the +plot for conferring sovereignty upon Maurice not as a popular calumny +flying about Paris with no man to father it, but he had given it to +Barneveld on the authority of a privy councillor of France and of the +King himself. "His Majesty knows it to be authentic," he had said in his +letter. That letter was a pompous one, full of mystery and so secretly +ciphered that he had desired that his friend van der Myle, whom he was +now deriding for his efforts in Paris to save his father-inlaw from his +fate, might assist the Advocate in unravelling its contents. He had now +discovered that it had been idle gossip not worthy of a moment's +attention. + +The reader will remember too that Barneveld, without attaching much +importance to the tale, had distinctly pointed out to Langerac that the +Prince himself was not implicated in the plot and had instructed the +Ambassador to communicate the story to Maurice. This advice had not been +taken, but he had kept the perilous stuff upon his breast. He now sought +to lay the blame, if it were possible to do so, upon the man to whom he +had communicated it and who had not believed it. + +The business of the States-General, led by the Advocate's enemies this +winter, was to accumulate all kind of tales, reports, and accusations to +his discredit on which to form something like a bill of indictment. They +had demanded all his private and confidential correspondence with Caron +and Langerae. The ambassador in Paris had been served, moreover, with a +string of nine interrogatories which he was ordered to answer on oath and +honour. This he did and appended the reply to his letter. + +The nine questions had simply for their object to discover what Barneveld +had been secretly writing to the Ambassador concerning the Synod, the +enlisted troops, and the supposed projects of Maurice concerning the +sovereignty. Langerac was obliged to admit in his replies that nothing +had been written except the regular correspondence which he endorsed, and +of which the reader has been able to see the sum and substance in the +copious extracts which have been given. + +He stated also that he had never received any secret instructions save +the marginal notes to the list of questions addressed by him, when about +leaving for Paris in 1614, to Barneveld. Most of these were of a trivial +and commonplace nature. + +They had however a direct bearing on the process to be instituted against +the Advocate, and the letter too which we have been examining will prove +to be of much importance. Certainly pains enough were taken to detect +the least trace of treason in a very loyal correspondence. Langerac +concluded by enclosing the Barneveld correspondence since the beginning +of the year 1614, protesting that not a single letter had been kept back +or destroyed. "Once more I recommend myself to mercy, if not to favour," +he added, "as the most faithful, most obedient, most zealous servant of +their High Mightinesses and your princely Grace, to whom I have devoted +and sacrificed my honour and life in most humble service; and am now and +forever the most humble, most obedient, most faithful servant of my most +serene, most illustrious, most highly born Prince, most gracious Lord and +princeliest Grace." + +The former adherent of plain Advocate Barneveld could hardly find +superlatives enough to bestow upon the man whose displeasure that +prisoner had incurred. + +Directly after the arrest the Stadholder had resumed his tour through +the Provinces in order to change the governments. Sliding over any +opposition which recent events had rendered idle, his course in every +city was nearly the same. A regiment or two and a train of eighty or a +hundred waggons coming through the city-gate preceded by the Prince and +his body-guard of 300, a tramp of halberdmen up the great staircase of +the town-hall, a jingle of spurs in the assembly-room, and the whole +board of magistrates were summoned into the presence of the Stadholder. +They were then informed that the world had no further need of their +services, and were allowed to bow themselves out of the presence. A new +list was then announced, prepared beforehand by Maurice on the suggestion +of those on whom he could rely. A faint resistance was here and there +attempted by magistrates and burghers who could not forget in a moment +the rights of self-government and the code of laws which had been enjoyed +for centuries. At Hoorn, for instance, there was deep indignation among +the citizens. An imprudent word or two from the authorities might have +brought about a "blood-bath." + +The burgomaster ventured indeed to expostulate. They requested the +Prince not to change the magistracy. "This is against our privileges," +they said, "which it is our duty to uphold. You will see what deep +displeasure will seize the burghers, and how much disturbance and tumult +will follow. If any faults have been committed by any member of the +government, let him be accused and let him answer for them. Let your +Excellency not only dismiss but punish such as cannot properly justify +themselves." + +But his Excellency summoned them all to the town-house and as usual +deposed them all. A regiment was drawn up in half-moon on the square +beneath the windows. To the magistrates asking why they were deposed, +he briefly replied, "The quiet of the land requires it. It is necessary +to have unanimous resolutions in the States-General at the Hague. This +cannot be accomplished without these preliminary changes. I believe that +you had good intentions and have been faithful servants of the +Fatherland. But this time it must be so." + +And so the faithful servants of the Fatherland were dismissed into space. +Otherwise how could there be unanimous voting in parliament? It must be +regarded perhaps as fortunate that the force of character, undaunted +courage, and quiet decision of Maurice enabled him to effect this violent +series of revolutions with such masterly simplicity. It is questionable +whether the Stadholder's commission technically empowered him thus to +trample on municipal law; it is certain that, if it did, the boasted +liberties of the Netherlands were a dream; but it is equally true that, +in the circumstances then existing, a vulgar, cowardly, or incompetent +personage might have marked his pathway with massacres without restoring +tranquillity. + +Sometimes there was even a comic aspect to these strokes of state. +The lists of new magistrates being hurriedly furnished by the Prince's +adherents to supply the place of those evicted, it often happened that +men not quahified by property, residence, or other attributes were +appointed to the government, so that many became magistrates before +they were citizens. + +On being respectfully asked sometimes who such a magistrate might be +whose face and name were equally unknown to his colleagues and to the +townsmen in general; "Do I know the fellows?" he would say with a +cheerful laugh. And indeed they might have all been dead men, those new +functionaries, for aught he did know. And so on through Medemblik and +Alkmaar, Brielle, Delft, Monnikendam, and many other cities progressed +the Prince, sowing new municipalities broadcast as he passed along. At +the Hague on his return a vote of thanks to the Prince was passed by the +nobles and most of the cities for the trouble he had taken in this +reforming process. But the unanimous vote had not yet been secured, the +strongholds of Arminianism, as it was the fashion to call them, not being +yet reduced. + +The Prince, in reply to the vote of thanks, said that "in what he had +done and was going to do his intention sincerely and uprightly had been +no other than to promote the interests and tranquillity of the country, +without admixture of anything personal and without prejudice to the +general commonwealth or the laws and privileges of the cities." He +desired further that "note might be taken of this declaration as record +of his good and upright intentions." + +But the sincerest and most upright intentions may be refracted by party +atmosphere from their aim, and the purest gold from the mint elude the +direct grasp through the clearest fluid in existence. At any rate it +would have been difficult to convince the host of deposed magistrates +hurled from office, although recognized as faithful servants of the +Fatherland, that such violent removal had taken place without detriment +to the laws and privileges. + +And the Stadholder went to the few cities where some of the leaven still +lingered. + +He arrived at Leyden on the 22nd October, "accompanied by a great suite +of colonels, ritmeesters, and captains," having sent on his body-guard +to the town strengthened by other troops. He was received by the +magistrates at the "Prince's Court" with great reverence and entertained +by them in the evening at a magnificent banquet. + +Next morning he summoned the whole forty of them to the town-house, +disbanded them all, and appointed new ones in their stead; some of the +old members however who could be relied upon being admitted to the +revolutionized board. + +The populace, mainly of the Stadholder's party, made themselves merry +over the discomfited "Arminians". They hung wisps of straw as derisive +wreaths of triumph over the dismantled palisade lately encircling the +town-hall, disposed of the famous "Oldenbarneveld's teeth" at auction in +the public square, and chased many a poor cock and hen, with their +feathers completely plucked from their bodies, about the street, crying +"Arme haenen, arme haenen"--Arminians or poor fowls--according to the +practical witticism much esteemed at that period. Certainly the +unfortunate Barneveldians or Arminians, or however the Remonstrants +might be designated, had been sufficiently stripped of their plumes. + +The Prince, after having made proclamation from the town-house enjoining +"modesty upon the mob" and a general abstention from "perverseness and +petulance," went his way to Haarlem, where he dismissed the magistrates +and appointed new ones, and then proceeded to Rotterdam, to Gouda, and to +Amsterdam. + +It seemed scarcely necessary to carry, out the process in the commercial +capital, the abode of Peter Plancius, the seat of the West India Company, +the head-quarters of all most opposed to the Advocate, most devoted to +the Stadholder. But although the majority of the city government was an +overwhelming one, there was still a respectable minority who, it was +thought possible, might under a change of circumstances effect much +mischief and even grow into a majority. + +The Prince therefore summoned the board before him according to his usual +style of proceeding and dismissed them all. They submitted without a +word of remonstrance. + +Ex-Burgomaster Hooft, a man of seventy-two-father of the illustrious +Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, one of the greatest historians of the +Netherlands or of any country, then a man of thirty-seven-shocked at the +humiliating silence, asked his colleagues if they had none of them a word +to say in defence of their laws and privileges. + +They answered with one accord "No." + +The old man, a personal friend of Barneveld and born the same year, then +got on his feet and addressed the Stadholder. He spoke manfully and +well, characterizing the summary deposition of the magistracy as illegal +and unnecessary, recalling to the memory of those who heard him that he +had been thirty-six years long a member of the government and always a +warm friend of the House of Nassau, and respectfully submitting that the +small minority in the municipal government, while differing from their +colleagues and from the greater number of the States-General, had limited +their opposition to strictly constitutional means, never resorting to +acts of violence or to secret conspiracy. + +Nothing could be more truly respectable than the appearance of this +ancient magistrate, in long black robe with fur edgings, high ruff around +his thin, pointed face, and decent skull-cap covering his bald old head, +quavering forth to unsympathetic ears a temperate and unanswerable +defence of things which in all ages the noblest minds have deemed most +valuable. + +His harangue was not very long. Maurice's reply was very short. + +"Grandpapa," he said, "it must be so this time. Necessity and the +service of the country require it." + +With that he dismissed the thirty-six magistrates and next day appointed +a new board, who were duly sworn to fidelity to the States-General. Of +course a large proportion of the old members were renominated. + +Scarcely had the echo of the Prince's footsteps ceased to resound through +the country as he tramped from one city to another, moulding each to his +will, when the States of Holland, now thoroughly reorganized, passed a +solemn vote of thanks to him for all that he had done. The six cities of +the minority had now become the majority, and there was unanimity at the +Hague. The Seven Provinces, States-General and States-Provincial, were +as one, and the Synod was secured. Whether the prize was worth the +sacrifices which it had cost and was still to cost might at least be +considered doubtful. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Affection of his friends and the wrath of his enemies +Depths theological party spirit could descend +Extraordinary capacity for yielding to gentle violence +Human nature in its meanness and shame +It had not yet occurred to him that he was married +Make the very name of man a term of reproach +Never lack of fishers in troubled waters +Opposed the subjection of the magistracy by the priesthood +Pot-valiant hero +Resolve to maintain the civil authority over the military +Tempest of passion and prejudice +The effect of energetic, uncompromising calumny +Yes, there are wicked men about + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext Life of John Barneveld, v9, Motley #95 +by John Lothrop Motley + + + + + + +THE LIFE AND DEATH of JOHN OF BARNEVELD, ADVOCATE OF HOLLAND + +WITH A VIEW OF THE PRIMARY CAUSES AND MOVEMENTS OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR + +By John Lothrop Motley, D.C.L., LL.D. + + + +Life and Death of John of Barneveld, v10, 1618-19 + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + Rancour between the Politico-Religious Parties--Spanish Intrigues + Inconsistency of James--Brewster and Robinson's Congregation at + Leyden--They decide to leave for America--Robinson's Farewell Sermon + and Prayer at Parting. + +During this dark and mournful winter the internal dissensions and, as a +matter of course, the foreign intrigues had become more dangerous than +ever. While the man who for a whole generation had guided the policy of +the Republic and had been its virtual chief magistrate lay hidden from +all men's sight, the troubles which he had sought to avert were not +diminished by his removal from the scene. The extreme or Gomarist party +which had taken a pride in secret conventicles where they were in a +minority, determined, as they said, to separate Christ from Belial and, +meditating the triumph which they had at last secured, now drove the +Arminians from the great churches. Very soon it was impossible for these +heretics to enjoy the rights of public worship anywhere. But they were +not dismayed. The canons of Dordtrecht had not yet been fulminated. +They avowed themselves ready to sacrifice worldly goods and life itself +in defence of the Five Points. In Rotterdam, notwithstanding a garrison +of fifteen companies, more than a thousand Remonstrants assembled on +Christmas-day in the Exchange for want of a more appropriate place of +meeting and sang the 112th Psalm in mighty chorus. A clergyman of their +persuasion accidentally passing through the street was forcibly laid +hands upon and obliged to preach to them, which he did with great +unction. The magistracy, where now the Contra-Remonstrants had the +control, forbade, under severe penalties, a repetition of such scenes. +It was impossible not to be reminded of the days half a century before, +when the early Reformers had met in the open fields or among the dunes, +armed to the teeth, and with outlying pickets to warn the congregation of +the approach of Red Rod and the functionaries of the Holy Inquisition. + +In Schoonhoven the authorities attempted one Sunday by main force to +induct a Contra-Remonstrant into the pulpit from which a Remonstrant had +just been expelled. The women of the place turned out with their +distaffs and beat them from the field. The garrison was called out, and +there was a pitched battle in the streets between soldiers, police +officers, and women, not much to the edification certainly of the +Sabbath-loving community on either side, the victory remaining with the +ladies. + +In short it would be impossible to exaggerate the rancour felt between +the different politico-religious parties. All heed for the great war now +raging in the outside world between the hostile elements of Catholicism +and Protestantism, embattled over an enormous space, was lost in the din +of conflict among the respective supporters of conditional and +unconditional damnation within the pale of the Reformed Church. The +earthquake shaking Europe rolled unheeded, as it was of old said to have +done at Cannae, amid the fierce shock of mortal foes in that narrow +field. + +The respect for authority which had so long been the distinguishing +characteristic of the Netherlanders seemed to have disappeared. It was +difficult--now that the time-honoured laws and privileges in defence of +which, and of liberty of worship included in them, the Provinces had made +war forty years long had been trampled upon by military force--for those +not warmed by the fire of Gomarus to feel their ancient respect for the +magistracy. The magistracy at that moment seemed to mean the sword. + +The Spanish government was inevitably encouraged by the spectacle thus +presented. We have seen the strong hopes entertained by the council at +Madrid, two years before the crisis now existing had occurred. We have +witnessed the eagerness with which the King indulged the dream of +recovering the sovereignty which his father had lost, and the vast +schemes which he nourished towards that purpose, founded on the internal +divisions which were reducing the Republic to impotence. Subsequent +events had naturally made him more sanguine than ever. There was now a +web of intrigue stretching through the Provinces to bring them all back +under the sceptre of Spain. The imprisonment of the great stipendiary, +the great conspirator, the man who had sold himself and was on the point +of selling his country, had not terminated those plots. Where was the +supposed centre of that intrigue? In the council of state of the +Netherlands, ever fiercely opposed to Barneveld and stuffed full of his +mortal enemies. Whose name was most familiar on the lips of the Spanish +partisans engaged in these secret schemes? That of Adrian Manmaker, +President of the Council, representative of Prince Maurice as first noble +of Zealand in the States-General, chairman of the committee sent by that +body to Utrecht to frustrate the designs of the Advocate, and one of the +twenty-four commissioners soon to be appointed to sit in judgment upon +him. + +The tale seems too monstrous for belief, nor is it to be admitted with +certainty, that Manmaker and the other councillors implicated had +actually given their adhesion to the plot, because the Spanish emissaries +in their correspondence with the King assured him of the fact. But if +such a foundation for suspicion could have been found against Barneveld +and his friends, the world would not have heard the last of it from that +hour to this. + +It is superfluous to say that the Prince was entirely foreign to these +plans. He had never been mentioned as privy to the little arrangements +of Councillor du Agean and others, although he was to benefit by them. +In the Spanish schemes he seems to have been considered as an impediment, +although indirectly they might tend to advance him. + +"We have managed now, I hope, that his Majesty will be recognized as +sovereign of the country," wrote the confidential agent of the King of +Spain in the Netherlands, Emmanuel Sueyro, to the government of Madrid. +"The English will oppose it with all their strength. But they can do +nothing except by making Count Maurice sovereign of Holland and duke of +Julich and Cleve. Maurice will also contrive to make himself master of +Wesel, so it is necessary for the Archduke to be beforehand with him and +make sure of the place. It is also needful that his Majesty should +induce the French government to talk with the Netherlanders and convince +them that it is time to prolong the Truce." + +This was soon afterwards accomplished. The French minister at Brussels +informed Archduke Albert that du Maurier had been instructed to propose +the prolongation, and that he had been conferring with the Prince of +Orange and the States-General on the subject. At first the Prince had +expressed disinclination, but at the last interview both he and the +States had shown a desire for it, and the French King had requested from +the Archduke a declaration whether the Spanish government would be +willing to treat for it. In such case Lewis would offer himself as +mediator and do his best to bring about a successful result. + +But it was not the intention of the conspirators in the Netherlands that +the Truce should be prolonged. On the contrary the negotiation for it +was merely to furnish the occasion for fully developing their plot. +"The States and especially those of Zealand will reply that they no +longer wish the Truce," continued Sueyro, "and that they would prefer war +to such a truce. They desire to put ships on the coast of Flanders, to +which the Hollanders are opposed because it would be disagreeable to the +French. So the Zealanders will be the first to say that the +Netherlanders must come back to his Majesty. This their President +Hanmaker has sworn. The States of Overyssel will likewise give their +hand to this because they say they will be the first to feel the shock of +the war. Thus we shall very easily carry out our design, and as we shall +concede to the Zealanders their demands in regard to the navigation they +at least will place themselves under the dominion of his Majesty as will +be the case with Friesland as well as Overyssel." + +It will be observed that in this secret arrangement for selling the +Republic to its ancient master it was precisely the Provinces and the +politicians most steadily opposed to Barneveld that took the lead. +Zealand, Friesland, Overyssel were in the plot, but not a word was said +of Utrecht. As for Holland itself, hopes were founded on the places +where hatred to the Advocate was fiercest. + +"Between ourselves," continued the agent, "we are ten here in the +government of Holland to support the plan, but we must not discover +ourselves for fear of suffering what has happened to Barneveld." + +He added that the time for action had not yet come, and that if movements +were made before the Synod had finished its labours, "The Gomarists would +say that they were all sold." He implored the government at Madrid to +keep the whole matter for the present profoundly secret because "Prince +Maurice and the Gomarists had the forces of the country at their +disposition." In case the plot was sprung too suddenly therefore, he +feared that with the assistance of England Maurice might, at the head of +the Gomarists and the army, make himself sovereign of Holland and Duke of +Cleve, while he and the rest of the Spanish partisans might be in prison +with Barneveld for trying to accomplish what Barneveld had been trying to +prevent. + +The opinions and utterances of such a man as James I. would be of little +worth to our history had he not happened to occupy the place he did. But +he was a leading actor in the mournful drama which filled up the whole +period of the Twelve Years' Truce. His words had a direct influence on +great events. He was a man of unquestionable erudition, of powers of +mind above the average, while the absolute deformity of his moral +constitution made him incapable of thinking, feeling, or acting rightly +on any vital subject, by any accident or on any occasion. If there were +one thing that he thoroughly hated in the world, it was the Reformed +religion. If in his thought there were one term of reproach more +loathsome than another to be applied to a human creature, it was the word +Puritan. In the word was subversion of all established authority in +Church and State--revolution, republicanism, anarchy. "There are degrees +in Heaven," he was wont to say, "there are degrees in Hell, there must be +degrees on earth." + +He forbade the Calvinist Churches of Scotland to hold their customary +Synod in 1610, passionately reviling them and their belief, and declaring +"their aim to be nothing else than to deprive kings and princes of their +sovereignty, and to reduce the whole world to a popular form of +government where everybody would be master." + +When the Prince of Neuburg embraced Catholicism, thus complicating +matters in the duchies and strengthening the hand of Spain and the +Emperor in the debateable land, he seized the occasion to assure the +agent of the Archduke in London, Councillor Boissetot, of his warm +Catholic sympathies. "They say that I am the greatest heretic in the +world!" he exclaimed; "but I will never deny that the true religion is +that of Rome even if corrupted." He expressed his belief in the real +presence, and his surprise that the Roman Catholics did not take the +chalice for the blood of Christ. The English bishops, he averred, +drew their consecration through the bishops in Mary Tudor's time +from the Pope. + +As Philip II., and Ferdinand II. echoing the sentiments of his +illustrious uncle, had both sworn they would rather reign in a wilderness +than tolerate a single heretic in their dominions, so James had said "he +would rather be a hermit in a forest than a king over such people as the +pack of Puritans were who overruled the lower house." + +For the Netherlanders he had an especial hatred, both as rebels and +Puritans. Soon after coming to the English throne he declared that their +revolt, which had been going on all his lifetime and of which he never +expected to see the end, had begun by petition for matters of religion. +"His mother and he from their cradles," he said, "had been haunted with a +Puritan devil, which he feared would not leave him to his grave. And he +would hazard his crown but he would suppress those malicious spirits." +It seemed a strange caprice of Destiny that assigned to this hater of +Netherlanders, of Puritans, and of the Reformed religion, the decision of +disputed points between Puritans and anti-Puritans in the Reformed Church +of the Netherlands. + +It seemed stranger that his opinions should be hotly on the side of the +Puritans. + +Barneveld, who often used the expression in later years, as we have seen +in his correspondence, was opposed to the Dutch Puritans because they had +more than once attempted subversion of the government on pretext of +religion, especially at the memorable epoch of Leicester's government. + +The business of stirring up these religious conspiracies against the +magistracy he was apt to call "Flanderizing," in allusion to those +disastrous days and to the origin of the ringleaders in those tumults. +But his main object, as we have seen, was to effect compromises and +restore good feeling between members of the one church, reserving the +right of disposing over religious matters to the government of the +respective provinces. + +But James had remedied his audacious inconsistency by discovering that +Puritanism in England and in the Netherlands resembled each other no more +than certain letters transposed into totally different words meant one +and the same thing. The anagrammatic argument had been neatly put by Sir +Dudley Carleton, convincing no man. Puritanism in England "denied the +right of human invention or imposition in religious matters." Puritanism +in the Netherlands denied the right of the legal government to impose its +authority in religious matters. This was the great matter of debate in +the Provinces. In England the argument had been settled very summarily +against the Puritans by sheriffs' officers, bishops' pursuivants, and +county jails. + +As the political tendencies, so too the religious creed and observances +of the English Puritans were identical with that of the Contra- +Remonstrants, whom King James had helped to their great triumph. This +was not very difficult to prove. It so happened that there were some +English Puritans living at that moment in Leyden. They formed an +independent society by themselves, which they called a Congregational +Church, and in which were some three hundred communicants. The length of +their residence there was almost exactly coeval with the Twelve Years' +Truce. They knew before leaving England that many relics of the Roman +ceremonial, with which they were dissatisfied, and for the discontinuance +of which they had in vain petitioned the crown--the ring, the sign of the +cross, white surplices, and the like--besides the whole hierarchical +system, had been disused in the Reformed Churches of France, Switzerland, +and the United Provinces, where the forms of worship in their view had +been brought more nearly to the early apostolic model. They admitted for +truth the doctrinal articles of the Dutch Reformed Churches. They had +not come to the Netherlands without cause. At an early period of King +James's reign this congregation of seceders from the establishment had +been wont to hold meetings at Scrooby in Nottinghamshire, once a manor of +the Archbishop of York, but then the residence of one William Brewster. +This was a gentleman of some fortune, educated at Cambridge, a good +scholar, who in Queen Elizabeth's time had been in the service of William +Davison when Secretary of State. He seemed to have been a confidential +private secretary of that excellent and unlucky statesman, who found him +so discreet and faithful as to deserve employment before all others in +matters of trust and secrecy. He was esteemed by Davison "rather as a +son than a servant," and he repaid his confidence by doing him many +faithful offices in the time of his troubles. He had however long since +retired from connection with public affairs, living a retired life, +devoted to study, meditation, and practical exertion to promote the cause +of religion, and in acts of benevolence sometimes beyond his means. + +The pastor of the Scrooby Church, one John Robinson, a graduate of +Cambridge, who had been a benefited clergyman in Norfolk, was a man of +learning, eloquence, and lofty intellect. But what were such good gifts +in the possession of rebels, seceders, and Puritans? It is needless to +say that Brewster and Robinson were baited, persecuted, watched day and +night, some of the congregation often clapped into prison, others into +the stocks, deprived of the means of livelihood, outlawed, famished, +banned. Plainly their country was no place for them. After a few years +of such work they resolved to establish themselves in Holland, where at +least they hoped to find refuge and toleration. + +But it proved as difficult for them to quit the country as to remain in +it. Watched and hunted like gangs of coiners, forgers, or other felons +attempting to flee from justice, set upon by troopers armed with "bills +and guns and other weapons," seized when about to embark, pillaged and +stripped by catchpoles, exhibited as a show to grinning country folk, +the women and children dealt with like drunken tramps, led before +magistrates, committed to jail; Mr. Brewster and six other of the +principal ones being kept in prison and bound over to the assizes; they +were only able after attempts lasting through two years' time to effect +their escape to Amsterdam. After remaining there a year they had removed +to Leyden, which they thought "a fair and beautiful city, and of a sweet +situation." + +They settled in Leyden in the very year in which Arminius was buried +beneath the pavement of St. Peter's Church in that town. It was the year +too in which the Truce was signed. They were a singularly tranquil and +brotherly community. Their pastor, who was endowed with remarkable +gentleness and tact in dealing with his congregation, settled amicably +all their occasional disputes. The authorities of the place held them +up as a model. To a Walloon congregation in which there were many +troublesome and litigious members they said: "These English have lived +among us ten years, and yet we never had any suit or accusation against +any of them, but your quarrels are continual." + +Although many of them were poor, finding it difficult to earn their +living in a foreign land among people speaking a strange tongue, and with +manners and habits differing from their own, and where they were obliged +to learn new trades, having most of them come out of an agricultural +population, yet they enjoyed a singular reputation for probity. Bakers +and butchers and the like willingly gave credit to the poorest of these +English, and sought their custom if known to be of the congregation. +Mr. Brewster, who had been reduced almost to poverty by his charities and +munificent aid to his struggling brethren, earned his living by giving +lessons in English, having first composed a grammar according to the +Latin model for the use of his pupils. He also set up a printing +establishment, publishing many controversial works prohibited in England, +a proceeding which roused the wrath of Carleton, impelling him to do his +best to have him thrown into prison. + +It was not the first time that this plain, mechanical, devout Englishman, +now past middle age, had visited the Netherlands. More than twenty-five +years before he had accompanied William Davison on his famous embassy to +the States, as private secretary. + +When the keys of Flushing, one of the cautionary towns, were committed to +the Ambassador, he confided them to the care of Brewster, who slept with +them under his pillow. The gold chain which Davison received as a +present from the provincial government on leaving the country was +likewise placed in his keeping, with orders to wear it around his neck +until they should appear before the Queen. To a youth of ease and +affluence, familiar with ambassadors and statesmen and not unknown at +courts, had succeeded a mature age of obscurity, deep study, and poverty. +No human creature would have heard of him had his career ended with his +official life. Two centuries and a half have passed away and the name of +the outlawed Puritan of Scrooby and Leyden is still familiar to millions +of the English race. + +All these Englishmen were not poor. Many of them occupied houses of fair +value, and were admitted to the freedom of the city. The pastor with +three of his congregation lived in a comfortable mansion, which they had +purchased for the considerable sum of 8000 florins, and on the garden of +which they subsequently erected twenty-one lesser tenements for the use +of the poorer brethren. + +Mr. Robinson was himself chosen a member of the famous university and +admitted to its privileges. During his long residence in Leyden, besides +the daily care of his congregation, spiritual and temporal, he wrote many +learned works. + +Thus the little community, which grew gradually larger by emigration from +England, passed many years of tranquillity. Their footsteps were not +dogged by constables and pursuivants, they were not dragged daily before +the magistrates, they were not thrown into the town jails, they were not +hunted from place to place with bows and bills and mounted musketeers. +They gave offence to none, and were respected by all. "Such was their +singleheartedness and sincere affection one towards another," says their +historian and magistrate, "that they came as near the primitive pattern +of the first churches as any other church of these later times has done, +according to their rank and quality." + +Here certainly were English Puritans more competent than any men else in +the world to judge if it were a slander upon the English government to +identify them with Dutch Puritans. Did they sympathize with the party in +Holland which the King, who had so scourged and trampled upon themselves +in England, was so anxious to crush, the hated Arminians? Did they abhor +the Contra-Remonstrants whom James and his ambassador Carleton doted upon +and whom Barneveld called "Double Puritans" and "Flanderizers?" + +Their pastor may answer for himself and his brethren. + +"We profess before God and men," said Robinson in his Apologia, "that we +agree so entirely with the Reformed Dutch Churches in the matter of +religion as to be ready to subscribe to all and each of their articles +exactly as they are set forth in the Netherland Confession. We +acknowledge those Reformed Churches as true and genuine, we profess and +cultivate communion with them as much as in us lies. Those of us who +understand the Dutch language attend public worship under their pastors. +We administer the Holy Supper to such of their members as, known to us, +appear at our meetings." This was the position of the Puritans. +Absolute, unqualified accordance with the Contra-Remonstrants. + +As the controversy grew hot in the university between the Arminians and +their adversaries, Mr. Robinson, in the language of his friend Bradford, +became "terrible to the Arminians . . . . who so greatly molested the +whole state and that city in particular." + +When Episcopius, the Arminian professor of theology, set forth sundry +theses, challenging all the world to the onset, it was thought that "none +was fitter to buckle with them" than Robinson. The orthodox professor +Polyander so importuned the English Puritan to enter the lists on behalf +of the Contra-Remonstrants that at last he consented and overthrew the +challenger, horse and man, in three successive encounters. Such at least +was the account given by his friend and admirer the historian. "The Lord +did so help him to defend the truth and foil this adversary as he put him +to an apparent nonplus in this great and public audience. And the like +he did a second or third time upon such like occasions," said Bradford, +adding that, if it had not been for fear of offending the English +government, the university would have bestowed preferments and honours +upon the champion. + +We are concerned with this ancient and exhausted controversy only for the +intense light it threw, when burning, on the history which occupies us. + +Of the extinct volcano itself which once caused such devastation, and in +which a great commonwealth was well-nigh swallowed up, little is left but +slag and cinders. The past was made black and barren with them. Let us +disturb them as little as possible. + +The little English congregation remained at Leyden till toward the end of +the Truce, thriving, orderly, respected, happy. They were witnesses to +the tumultuous, disastrous, and tragical events which darkened the +Republic in those later years, themselves unobserved and unmolested. Not +a syllable seems to remain on record of the views or emotions which may +have been excited by those scenes in their minds, nor is there a trace +left on the national records of the Netherlands of their protracted +residence on the soil. + +They got their living as best they might by weaving, printing, spinning, +and other humble trades; they borrowed money on mortgages, they built +houses, they made wills, and such births, deaths, and marriages as +occurred among them were registered by the town-clerk. + +And at last for a variety of reasons they resolved to leave the +Netherlands. Perhaps the solution of the problem between Church and +State in that country by the temporary subjection of State to Church may +have encouraged them to realize a more complete theocracy, if a sphere of +action could be found where the experiment might be tried without a +severe battle against time-hallowed institutions and vested rights. +Perhaps they were appalled by the excesses into which men of their own +religious sentiments had been carried by theological and political +passion. At any rate depart they would; the larger half of the +congregation remaining behind however till the pioneers should have +broken the way, and in their own language "laid the stepping-stones." + +They had thought of the lands beneath the Equator, Raleigh having +recently excited enthusiasm by his poetical descriptions of Guiana. +But the tropical scheme was soon abandoned. They had opened negotiations +with the Stadholder and the States-General through Amsterdam merchants in +regard to settling in New Amsterdam, and offered to colonize that country +if assured of the protection of the United Provinces. Their petition had +been rejected. They had then turned their faces to their old master and +their own country, applying to the Virginia Company for a land-patent, +which they were only too happy to promise, and to the King for liberty +of religion in the wilderness confirmed under his broad seal, which his +Majesty of course refused. It was hinted however that James would +connive at them and not molest them if they carried themselves peaceably. +So they resolved to go without the seal, for, said their magistrate very +wisely, "if there should be a purpose or desire to wrong them, a seal +would not serve their turn though it were as broad as the house-floor." + +Before they left Leyden, their pastor preached to them a farewell sermon, +which for loftiness of spirit and breadth of vision has hardly a parallel +in that age of intolerance. He laid down the principle that criticism of +the Scriptures had not been exhausted merely because it had been begun; +that the human conscience was of too subtle a nature to be imprisoned +for ever in formulas however ingeniously devised; that the religious +reformation begun a century ago was not completed; and that the Creator +had not necessarily concluded all His revelations to mankind. + +The words have long been familiar to students of history, but they can +hardly be too often laid to heart. + +Noble words, worthy to have been inscribed over the altar of the first +church to be erected by the departing brethren, words to bear fruit after +centuries should go by. Had not the deeply injured and misunderstood +Grotius already said, "If the trees we plant do not shade us, they will +yet serve for our descendants?" + +Yet it is passing strange that the preacher of that sermon should be the +recent champion of the Contra-Remonstrants in the great controversy; the +man who had made himself so terrible to the pupils of the gentle and +tolerant Arminius. + +And thus half of that English congregation went down to Delftshaven, +attended by the other half who were to follow at a later period with +their beloved pastor. There was a pathetic leave-taking. Even many of +the Hollanders, mere casual spectators, were in tears. + +Robinson, kneeling on the deck of the little vessel, offered a prayer and +a farewell. Who could dream that this departure of an almost nameless +band of emigrants to the wilderness was an epoch in the world's history? +Yet these were the Pilgrim Fathers of New England, the founders of what +was to be the mightiest republic of modern history, mighty and stable +because it had been founded upon an idea. + +They were not in search of material comfort and the chances of elevating +their condition, by removing from an overpeopled country to an organized +Commonwealth, offering a wide field for pauper labourers. Some of them +were of good social rank and highest education, most of them in decent +circumstances, none of them in absolute poverty. And a few years later +they were to be joined by a far larger company with leaders and many +brethren of ancient birth and landed possessions, men of "education, +figure; and estate," all ready to convert property into cash and to place +it in joint-stock, not as the basis of promising speculation, but as the +foundation of a church. + +It signifies not how much or how little one may sympathize with their +dogma or their discipline now. To the fact that the early settlement +of that wilderness was by self-sacrificing men of earnestness and faith, +who were bent on "advancing the Gospel of Christ in remote parts of the +world," in the midst of savage beasts, more savage men, and unimaginable +difficulties and dangers, there can be little doubt that the highest +forms of Western civilization are due. Through their provisional +theocracy, the result of the independent church system was to establish +the true purport of the Reformation, absolute religious equality. Civil +and political equality followed as a matter of course. + +Two centuries and a half have passed away. + +There are now some seventy or eighty millions of the English-speaking +race on both sides the Atlantic, almost equally divided between the +United Kingdom and the United Republic, and the departure of those +outcasts of James has interest and significance for them all. + +Most fitly then, as a distinguished American statesman has remarked, does +that scene on board the little English vessel, with the English pastor +uttering his farewell blessing to a handful of English exiles for +conscience sake; depicted on canvas by eminent artists, now adorn the +halls of the American Congress and of the British Parliament. Sympathy +with one of the many imperishable bonds of union between the two great +and scarcely divided peoples. + +We return to Barneveld in his solitary prison. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + Barneveld's Imprisonment--Ledenberg's Examination and Death-- + Remonstrance of De Boississe--Aerssens admitted to the order of + Knights--Trial of the Advocate--Barneveld's Defence--The States + proclaim a Public Fast--Du Maurier's Speech before the Assembly-- + Barneveld's Sentence--Barneveld prepares for Death--Goes to + Execution. + +The Advocate had been removed within a few days after the arrest from the +chamber in Maurice's apartments, where he had originally been confined, +and was now in another building. + +It was not a dungeon nor a jail. Indeed the commonplace and domestic +character of the scenery in which these great events were transacted has +in it something pathetic. There was and still remains a two-storied +structure, then of modern date, immediately behind the antique hall of +the old Counts within the Binnenhof. On the first floor was a courtroom +of considerable extent, the seat of one of the chief tribunals of justice +The story above was divided into three chambers with a narrow corridor +on each side. The first chamber, on the north-eastern side, was +appropriated for the judges when the state prisoners should be tried. +In the next Hugo Grotius was imprisoned. In the third was Barneveld. +There was a tower at the north-east angle of the building, within which +a winding and narrow staircase of stone led up to the corridor and so to +the prisoners' apartments. Rombout Hoogerbeets was confined in another +building. + +As the Advocate, bent with age and a life of hard work, and leaning on +his staff, entered the room appropriated to him, after toiling up the +steep staircase, he observed-- + +"This is the Admiral of Arragon's apartment." + +It was true. Eighteen years before, the conqueror of Nieuwpoort had +assigned this lodging to the chief prisoner of war in that memorable +victory over the Spaniards, and now Maurice's faithful and trusted +counsellor at that epoch was placed in durance here, as the result of the +less glorious series of victories which had just been achieved. + +It was a room of moderate dimensions, some twenty-five feet square, with +a high vaulted roof and decently furnished. Below and around him in the +courtyard were the scenes of the Advocate's life-long and triumphant +public services. There in the opposite building were the windows of the +beautiful "Hall of Truce," with its sumptuous carvings and gildings, its +sculptures and portraits, where he had negotiated with the +representatives of all the great powers of Christendom the famous Treaty +which had suspended the war of forty years, and where he was wont almost +daily to give audience to the envoys of the greatest sovereigns or the +least significant states of Europe and Asia, all of whom had been ever +solicitous of his approbation and support. + +Farther along in the same building was the assembly room of the States- +General, where some of the most important affairs of the Republic and +of Europe had for years been conducted, and where he had been so +indispensable that, in the words of a contemporary who loved him not, +"absolutely nothing could be transacted in his absence, all great affairs +going through him alone." + +There were two dull windows, closely barred, looking northward over an +irregular assemblage of tile-roofed houses and chimney-stacks, while +within a stone's throw to the west, but unseen, was his own elegant +mansion on the Voorhout, surrounded by flower gardens and shady pleasure +grounds, where now sat his aged wife and her children all plunged in deep +affliction. + +He was allowed the attendance of a faithful servant, Jan Franken by name, +and a sentinel stood constantly before his door. His papers had been +taken from him, and at first he was deprived of writing materials. + +He had small connection with the outward world. The news of the +municipal revolution which had been effected by the Stadholder had not +penetrated to his solitude, but his wife was allowed to send him fruit +from their garden. One day a basket of fine saffron pears was brought to +him. On slicing one with a knife he found a portion of a quill inside +it. Within the quill was a letter on thinnest paper, in minutest +handwriting in Latin. It was to this effect. + +"Don't rely upon the States of Holland, for the Prince of Orange has +changed the magistracies in many cities. Dudley Carleton is not your +friend." + +A sergeant of the guard however, before bringing in these pears, had put +a couple of them in his pocket to take home to his wife. The letter, +copies of which perhaps had been inserted for safety in several of them, +was thus discovered and the use of this ingenious device prevented for +the future. + +Secretary Ledenberg, who had been brought to the Hague in the early days +of September, was the first of the prisoners subjected to examination. +He was much depressed at the beginning of it, and is said to have +exclaimed with many sighs, "Oh Barneveld, Barneveld, what have you +brought us to!" + +He confessed that the Waartgelders at Utrecht had been enlisted on +notification by the Utrecht deputies in the Hague with knowledge of +Barneveld, and in consequence of a resolution of the States in order to +prevent internal tumults. He said that the Advocate had advised in the +previous month of March a request to the Prince not to come to Utrecht; +that the communication of the message, in regard to disbanding the +Waartgelders, to his Excellency had been postponed after the deputies of +the States of Holland had proposed a delay in that disbandment; that +those deputies had come to Utrecht of their own accord; . . . . that +they had judged it possible to keep everything in proper order in Utrecht +if the garrison in the city paid by Holland were kept quiet, and if the +States of Utrecht gave similar orders to the Waartgelders; for they did +not believe that his Excellency would bring in troops from the outside. +He said that he knew nothing of a new oath to be demanded of the +garrison. He stated that the Advocate, when at Utrecht, had exhorted +the States, according to his wont, to maintain their liberties and +privileges, representing to them that the right to decide on the Synod +and the Waartgelders belonged to them. Lastly, he denied knowing who +was the author of The Balance, except by common report. + +Now these statements hardly amounted to a confession of abominable and +unpardonable crimes by Ledenberg, nor did they establish a charge of +high-treason and corrupt correspondence with the enemy against Barneveld. +It is certain that the extent of the revelations seemed far from +satisfactory to the accusers, and that some pressure would be necessary +in order to extract anything more conclusive. Lieutenant Nythof told +Grotius that Ledenberg had accordingly been threatened with torture, and +that the executioner had even handled him for that purpose. This was +however denied by the judges of instruction who had been charged with the +preliminary examination. + +That examination took place on the 27th September. After it had been +concluded, Ledenberg prayed long and earnestly on returning to prison. +He then entrusted a paper written in French to his son Joost, a boy of +eighteen, who did not understand that language. The youth had been +allowed to keep his father company in his confinement, and slept in the +same room. + +The next night but one, at two o'clock, Joost heard his father utter a +deep groan. He was startled, groped in the darkness towards his bed and +felt his arm, which was stone cold. He spoke to him and received no +answer. He gave the alarm, the watch came in with lights, and it was +found that Ledenberg had given himself two mortal wounds in the abdomen +with a penknife and then cut his throat with a table-knife which he had +secreted, some days before, among some papers. + +The paper in French given to his son was found to be to this effect. + +"I know that there is an inclination to set an example in my person, +to confront me with my best friends, to torture me, afterwards to convict +me of contradictions and falsehoods as they say, and then to found an +ignominious sentence upon points and trifles, for this it will be +necessary to do in order to justify the arrest and imprisonment. To +escape all this I am going to God by the shortest road. Against a dead +man there can be pronounced no sentence of confiscation of property. +Done 17th September (o. s.) 1618." + +The family of the unhappy gentleman begged his body for decent burial. +The request was refused. It was determined to keep the dead secretary +above ground and in custody until he could be tried, and, if possible, +convicted and punished. It was to be seen whether it were so easy to +baffle the power of the States-General, the Synod, and the Stadholder, +and whether "going to God by the shortest road" was to save a culprit's +carcass from ignominy, and his property from confiscation. + +The French ambassadors, who had been unwearied in their endeavour to +restore harmony to the distracted Commonwealth before the arrest of the +prisoners, now exerted themselves to throw the shield of their +sovereign's friendship around the illustrious statesman and his fellow- +sufferers. + +"It is with deepest sorrow," said de Boississe, "that I have witnessed +the late hateful commotions. Especially from my heart I grieve for the +arrest of the Seignior Barneveld, who with his discretion and wise +administration for the past thirty years has so drawn the hearts of all +neighbouring princes to himself, especially that of the King my master, +that on taking up my pen to apprize him of these events I am gravely +embarrassed, fearing to infringe on the great respect due to your +Mightinesses or against the honour and merits of the Seignior Barneveld. +. . . My Lords, take heed to your situation, for a great discontent is +smouldering among your citizens. Until now, the Union has been the chief +source of your strength. And I now fear that the King my master, the +adviser of your renowned Commonwealth, maybe offended that you have taken +this resolution after consulting with others, and without communicating +your intention to his ambassador . . . . It is but a few days that an +open edict was issued testifying to the fidelity of Barneveld, and can it +be possible that within so short a time you have discovered that you have +been deceived? I summon you once more in the name of the King to lay +aside all passion, to judge these affairs without partiality, and to +inform me what I am to say to the King. Such very conflicting accounts +are given of these transactions that I must beg you to confide to me the +secret of the affair. The wisest in the land speak so strongly of these +proceedings that it will be no wonder if the King my master should give +me orders to take the Seignior Barneveld under his protection. Should +this prove to be the case, your Lordships will excuse my course . . . +I beg you earnestly in your wisdom not to give cause of offence to +neighbouring princes, especially to my sovereign, who wishes from his +heart to maintain your dignity and interests and to assure you of his +friendship." + +The language was vigorous and sincere, but the Ambassador forgot that the +France of to-day was not the France of yesterday; that Louis XIII. was +not Henry IV.; that it was but a cheerful fiction to call the present +King the guide and counsellor of the Republic, and that, distraught as +she was by the present commotions, her condition was strength and +tranquillity compared with the apparently decomposing and helpless state +of the once great kingdom of France. De Boississe took little by his +demonstration. + +On the 12th December both de Boississe and du Maurier came before the +States-General once more, and urged a speedy and impartial trial for the +illustrious prisoners. If they had committed acts of treason and +rebellion, they deserved exemplary punishment, but the ambassadors warned +the States-General with great earnestness against the dangerous doctrine +of constructive treason, and of confounding acts dictated by violence of +party spirit at an excited period with the crime of high-treason against +the sovereignty of the State. + +"Barneveld so honourable," they said, "for his immense and long continued +services has both this Republic and all princes and commonwealths for his +witnesses. It is most difficult to believe that he has attempted the +destruction of his fatherland, for which you know that he has toiled so +faithfully." + +They admitted that so grave charges ought now to be investigated. "To +this end," said the ambassadors, "you ought to give him judges who are +neither suspected nor impassioned, and who will decide according to the +laws of the land, and on clear and undeniable evidence . . . . So +doing you will show to the whole world that you are worthy to possess and +to administer this Commonwealth to whose government God has called you." + +Should they pursue another and a sterner course, the envoys warned the +Assembly that the King would be deeply offended, deeming it thus proved +how little value they set upon his advice and his friendship. + +The States-General replied on the 19th December, assuring the ambassadors +that the delay in the trial was in order to make the evidence of the +great conspiracy complete, and would not tend to the prejudice of the +prisoners "if they had a good consciousness of their innocence." They +promised that the sentence upon them when pronounced would give entire +satisfaction to all their allies and to the King of France in particular, +of whom they spoke throughout the document in terms of profound respect. +But they expressed their confidence that "his Majesty would not place the +importunate and unfounded solicitations of a few particular criminals or +their supporters before the general interests of the dignity and security +of the Republic." + +On the same day the States-General addressed a letter filled with very +elaborate and courteous commonplaces to the King, in which they expressed +a certainty that his Majesty would be entirely satisfied with their +actions. + +The official answer of the States-General to the ambassadors, just cited, +gave but little comfort to the friends of the imprisoned statesman and +his companions. Such expressions as "ambitious and factious spirits," +--"authors and patrons of the faction,"--"attempts at novelty through +changes in religion, in justice and in the fundamental laws of all orders +of polity," and the frequent mention of the word "conspiracy" boded +little good. + +Information of this condition of affairs was conveyed to Hoogerbeets and +Grotius by means of an ingenious device of the distinguished scholar, who +was then editing the Latin works of the Hague poet, Janus Secundus. + +While the sheets were going through the press, some of the verses were +left out, and their place supplied by others conveying the intelligence +which it was desired to send to the prisoners. The pages which contained +the secret were stitched together in such wise that in cutting the book +open they were not touched but remained closed. The verses were to this +effect. "The examination of the Advocate proceeds slowly, but there is +good hope from the serious indignation of the French king, whose envoys +are devoted to the cause of the prisoners, and have been informed that +justice will be soon rendered. The States of Holland are to assemble on +the 15th January, at which a decision will certainly be taken for +appointing judges. The preachers here at Leyden are despised, and men +are speaking strongly of war. The tumult which lately occurred at +Rotterdam may bring forth some good." + +The quick-wited Grotius instantly discovered the device, read the +intelligence thus communicated in the proofsheets of Secundus, and made +use of the system to obtain further intelligence. + +Hoogerbeets laid the book aside, not taking much interest at that time +in the works of the Hague poet. Constant efforts made to attract his +attention to those poems however excited suspicion among his keepers, +and the scheme was discovered before the Leyden pensionary had found +the means to profit by it.' + +The allusions to the trial of the Advocate referred to the preliminary +examination which took place, like the first interrogatories of Grotius +and Hoogerbeets, in the months of November and December. + +The thorough manner in which Maurice had reformed the States of Holland +has been described. There was one department of that body however which +still required attention. The Order of Knights, small in number but +potential in influence, which always voted first on great occasions, was +still through a majority of its members inclined to Barneveld. Both his +sons-in-law had seats in that college. The Stadholder had long believed +in a spirit of hostility on the part of those nobles towards himself. +He knew that a short time before this epoch there had been a scheme for +introducing his young brother, Frederic Henry, into the Chamber of +Knights. The Count had become proprietor of the barony of Naaldwyk, a +property which he had purchased of the Counts of Arenberg, and which +carried with it the hereditary dignity of Great Equerry of the Counts of +Holland. As the Counts of Holland had ceased to exist, although their +sovereignty had nearly been revived and conferred upon William the +Silent, the office of their chief of the stables might be deemed a +sinecure. But the jealousy of Maurice was easily awakened, especially by +any movement made or favoured by the Advocate. He believed that in the +election of Frederic Henry as a member of the College of Knights a plan +lay concealed to thrust him into power and to push this elder brother +from his place. The scheme, if scheme it were, was never accomplished, +but the Prince's rancour remained. + +He now informed the nobles that they must receive into their body Francis +Aerssens, who had lately purchased the barony of Sommelsdyk, and Daniel +de Hartaing, Seignior of Marquette. With the presence of this deadly +enemy of Barneveld and another gentleman equally devoted to the +Stadholder's interest it seemed probable that the refractory majority of +the board of nobles would be overcome. But there were grave objections +to the admission of these new candidates. They were not eligible. The +constitution of the States and of the college of nobles prescribed that +Hollanders only of ancient and noble race and possessing estates in the +province could sit in that body. Neither Aerssens nor Hartaing was born +in Holland or possessed of the other needful qualifications. +Nevertheless, the Prince, who had just remodelled all the municipalities +throughout the Union which offered resistance to his authority, was not +to be checked by so trifling an impediment as the statutes of the House +of Nobles. He employed very much the same arguments which he had used to +"good papa" Hooft. "This time it must be so." Another time it might not +be necessary. So after a controversy which ended as controversies are +apt to do when one party has a sword in his hand and the other is seated +at a green-baize-covered table, Sommelsdyk and Marquette took their seats +among the knights. Of course there was a spirited protest. Nothing was +easier for the Stadholder than to concede the principle while trampling +it with his boot-heels in practice. + +"Whereas it is not competent for the said two gentlemen to be admitted to +our board," said the nobles in brief, "as not being constitutionally +eligible, nevertheless, considering the strong desire of his Excellency +the Prince of Orange, we, the nobles and knights of Holland, admit them +with the firm promise to each other by noble and knightly faith ever in +future for ourselves and descendants to maintain the privileges of our +order now violated and never again to let them be directly or indirectly +infringed." + +And so Aerssens, the unscrupulous plotter, and dire foe of the Advocate +and all his house, burning with bitter revenge for all the favours he had +received from him during many years, and the author of the venomous +pamphlets and diatribes which had done so much of late to blacken the +character of the great statesman before the public, now associated +himself officially with his other enemies, while the preliminary +proceedings for the state trials went forward. + +Meantime the Synod had met at Dordtrecht. The great John Bogerman, with +fierce, handsome face, beak and eye of a bird of prey, and a deluge of +curly brown beard reaching to his waist, took his seat as president. +Short work was made with the Armenians. They and their five Points were +soon thrust out into outer darkness. + +It was established beyond all gainsaying that two forms of Divine worship +in one country were forbidden by God's Word, and that thenceforth by +Netherland law there could be but one religion, namely, the Reformed or +Calvinistic creed. + +It was settled that one portion of the Netherlanders and of the rest of +the human race had been expressly created by the Deity to be for ever +damned, and another portion to be eternally blessed. But this history +has little to do with that infallible council save in the political +effect of its decrees on the fate of Barneveld. It was said that the +canons of Dordtrecht were likely to shoot off the head of the Advocate. +Their sessions and the trial of the Advocate were simultaneous, but not +technically related to each other. + +The conclusions of both courts were preordained, for the issue of the +great duel between Priesthood and State had been decided when the +military chieftain threw his sword into the scale of the Church. + +There had been purposely a delay, before coming to a decision as to the +fate of the state prisoners, until the work of the Synod should have +approached completion. + +It was thought good that the condemnation of the opinions of the +Arminians and the chastisement of their leaders should go hand-in-hand. + +On the 23rd April 1619, the canons were signed by all the members of the +Synod. Arminians were pronounced heretics, schismatics, teachers of +false doctrines. They were declared incapable of filling any clerical or +academical post. No man thenceforth was to teach children, lecture to +adolescents, or preach to the mature, unless a subscriber to the +doctrines of the unchanged, unchangeable, orthodox church. On the 30th +April and 1st May the Netherland Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism +were declared to be infallible. No change was to be possible in either +formulary. + +Schools and pulpits were inexorably bound to the only true religion. + +On the 6th May there was a great festival at Dordtrecht in honour of the +conclusion of the Synod. The canons, the sentence, and long prayers and +orations in Latin by President Bogerman gladdened the souls of an immense +multitude, which were further enlivened by the decree that both Creed and +Catechism had stood the test of several criticisms and come out unchanged +by a single hair. Nor did the orator of the occasion forget to render +thanks "to the most magnanimous King James of Great Britain, through +whose godly zeal, fiery sympathy, and truly royal labour God had so often +refreshed the weary Synod in the midst of their toil." + +The Synod held one hundred and eighty sessions between the 13th November +1618 and 29th May 1619, all the doings of which have been recorded in +chronicles innumerable. There need be no further mention of them here. + +Barneveld and the companions of his fate remained in prison. + +On the 7th March the trial of the great Advocate began. He had sat in +prison since the 18th of the preceding August. For nearly seven months +he had been deprived of all communication with the outward world save +such atoms of intelligence as could be secretly conveyed to him in the +inside of a quill concealed in a pear and by other devices. The man who +had governed one of the most important commonwealths of the world for +nearly a generation long--during the same period almost controlling the +politics of Europe--had now been kept in ignorance of the most +insignificant everyday events. During the long summer-heat of the dog- +days immediately succeeding his arrest, and the long, foggy, snowy, icy +winter of Holland which ensued, he had been confined in that dreary +garret-room to which he had been brought when he left his temporary +imprisonment in the apartments of Prince Maurice. + +There was nothing squalid in the chamber, nothing specially cruel or +repulsive in the arrangements of his captivity. He was not in fetters, +nor fed upon bread and water. He was not put upon the rack, nor even +threatened with it as Ledenberg had been. He was kept in a mean, +commonplace, meagerly furnished, tolerably spacious room, and he was +allowed the services of his faithful domestic servant John Franken. A +sentinel paced day and night up the narrow corridor before his door. As +spring advanced, the notes of the nightingale came through the prison- +window from the neighbouring thicket. One day John Franken, opening the +window that his master might the better enjoy its song, exchanged +greeting with a fellow-servant in the Barneveld mansion who happened to +be crossing the courtyard. Instantly workmen were sent to close and +barricade the windows, and it was only after earnest remonstrances and +pledges that this resolve to consign the Advocate to darkness was +abandoned. + +He was not permitted the help of lawyer, clerk, or man of business. +Alone and from his chamber of bondage, suffering from bodily infirmities +and from the weakness of advancing age, he was compelled to prepare his +defence against a vague, heterogeneous collection of charges, to meet +which required constant reference, not only to the statutes, privileges, +and customs of the country and to the Roman law, but to a thousand minute +incidents out of which the history of the Provinces during the past dozen +years or more had been compounded. + +It is true that no man could be more familiar with the science and +practice of the law than he was, while of contemporary history he was +himself the central figure. His biography was the chronicle of his +country. Nevertheless it was a fearful disadvantage for him day by day +to confront two dozen hostile judges comfortably seated at a great table +piled with papers, surrounded by clerks with bags full of documents and +with a library of authorities and precedents duly marked and dog's-eared +and ready to their hands, while his only library and chronicle lay in his +brain. From day to day, with frequent intermissions, he was led down +through the narrow turret-stairs to a wide chamber on the floor +immediately below his prison, where a temporary tribunal had been +arranged for the special commission. + +There had been an inclination at first on the part of his judges to +treat him as a criminal, and to require him to answer, standing, to the +interrogatories propounded to him. But as the terrible old man advanced +into the room, leaning on his staff, and surveying them with the air of +haughty command habitual to him, they shrank before his glance; several +involuntarily, rising uncovered, to salute him and making way for him to +the fireplace about which many were standing that wintry morning. + +He was thenceforth always accommodated with a seat while he listened to +and answered 'ex tempore' the elaborate series of interrogatories which +had been prepared to convict him. + +Nearly seven months he had sat with no charges brought against him. This +was in itself a gross violation of the laws of the land, for according to +all the ancient charters of Holland it was provided that accusation +should follow within six weeks of arrest, or that the prisoner should go +free. But the arrest itself was so gross a violation of law that respect +for it was hardly to be expected in the subsequent proceedings. He was a +great officer of the States of Holland. He had been taken under their +especial protection. He was on his way to the High Council. He was in +no sense a subject of the States-General. He was in the discharge of his +official duty. He was doubly and trebly sacred from arrest. The place +where he stood was on the territory of Holland and in the very sanctuary +of her courts and House of Assembly. The States-General were only as +guests on her soil, and had no domain or jurisdiction there whatever. +He was not apprehended by any warrant or form of law. It was in time of +peace, and there was no pretence of martial law. The highest civil +functionary of Holland was invited in the name of its first military +officer to a conference, and thus entrapped was forcibly imprisoned. + +At last a board of twenty-four commissioners was created, twelve from +Holland and two from each of the other six provinces. This affectation +of concession to Holland was ridiculous. Either the law 'de non +evocando'--according to which no citizen of Holland could be taken out +of the province for trial--was to be respected or it was to be trampled +upon. If it was to be trampled upon, it signified little whether more +commissioners were to be taken from Holland than from each of the other +provinces, or fewer, or none at all. Moreover it was pretended that a +majority of the whole board was to be assigned to that province. But +twelve is not a majority of twenty-four. There were three fascals or +prosecuting officers, Leeuwen of Utrecht, Sylla of Gelderland, and Antony +Duyck of Holland. Duyck was notoriously the deadly enemy of Barneveld, +and was destined to succeed to his offices. It would have been as well +to select Francis Aerssens himself. + +It was necessary to appoint a commission because there was no tribunal +appertaining to the States-General. The general government of the +confederacy had no power to deal with an individual. It could only +negotiate with the sovereign province to which the individual was +responsible, and demand his punishment if proved guilty of an offence. +There was no supreme court of appeal. Machinery was provided for +settling or attempting to settle disputes among the members of the +confederacy, and if there was a culprit in this great process it was +Holland itself. Neither the Advocate nor any one of his associates had +done any act except by authority, express or implied, of that sovereign +State. Supposing them unquestionably guilty of blackest crimes against +the Generality, the dilemma was there which must always exist by the very +nature of things in a confederacy. No sovereign can try a fellow +sovereign. The subject can be tried at home by no sovereign but his own. + +The accused in this case were amenable to the laws of Holland only. + +It was a packed tribunal. Several of the commissioners, like Pauw and +Muis for example, were personal enemies of Barneveld. Many of them were +totally ignorant of law. Some of them knew not a word of any language +but their mother tongue, although much of the law which they were to +administer was written in Latin. + +Before such a court the foremost citizen of the Netherlands, the first +living statesman of Europe, was brought day by day during a period of +nearly three months; coming down stairs from the mean and desolate room +where he was confined to the comfortable apartment below, which had been +fitted up for the commission. + +There was no bill of indictment, no arraignment, no counsel. There were +no witnesses and no arguments. The court-room contained, as it were, +only a prejudiced and partial jury to pronounce both on law and fact +without a judge to direct them, or advocates to sift testimony and +contend for or against the prisoner's guilt. The process, for it could +not be called a trial, consisted of a vast series of rambling and tangled +interrogatories reaching over a space of forty years without apparent +connection or relevancy, skipping fantastically about from one period to +another, back and forthwith apparently no other intent than to puzzle the +prisoner, throw him off his balance, and lead him into self- +contradiction. + +The spectacle was not a refreshing one. It was the attempt of a +multitude of pigmies to overthrow and bind the giant. + +Barneveld was served with no articles of impeachment. He asked for a +list in writing of the charges against him, that he might ponder his +answer. The demand was refused. He was forbidden the use of pen and ink +or any writing materials. His papers and books were all taken from him. + +He was allowed to consult neither with an advocate nor even with a single +friend. Alone in his chamber of bondage he was to meditate on his +defence. Out of his memory and brain, and from these alone, he was to +supply himself with the array of historical facts stretching over a +longer period than the lifetime of many of his judges, and with the +proper legal and historical arguments upon those facts for the +justification of his course. That memory and brain were capacious and +powerful enough for the task. It was well for the judges that they had +bound themselves, at the outset, by an oath never to make known what +passed in the courtroom, but to bury all the proceedings in profound +secrecy forever. Had it been otherwise, had that been known to the +contemporary public which has only been revealed more than two centuries +later, had a portion only of the calm and austere eloquence been heard in +which the Advocate set forth his defence, had the frivolous and ignoble +nature of the attack been comprehended, it might have moved the very +stones in the streets to mutiny. Hateful as the statesman had been made +by an organized system of calumny, which was continued with unabated +vigour and increased venom sine he had been imprisoned, there was enough +of justice and of gratitude left in the hearts of Netherlanders to resent +the tyranny practised against their greatest man, and the obloquy thus +brought against a nation always devoted to their liberties and laws. + +That the political system of the country was miserably defective was no +fault of Barneveld. He was bound by oath and duty to administer, not +make the laws. A handful of petty feudal sovereignties such as had once +covered the soil of Europe, a multitude of thriving cities which had +wrested or purchased a mass of liberties, customs, and laws from their +little tyrants, all subjected afterwards, without being blended together, +to a single foreign family, had at last one by one, or two by two, +shaken off that supremacy, and, resuming their ancient and as it were +decapitated individualities, had bound themselves by treaty in the midst +of a war to stand by each other, as if they were but one province, for +purposes of common defence against the common foe. + +There had been no pretence of laying down a constitution, of enacting an +organic law. The day had not come for even the conception of a popular +constitution. The people had not been invented. It was not provinces +only, but cities, that had contracted with each other, according to the +very first words of the first Article of Union. Some of these cities, +like Ghent, Bruges, Antwerp, were Catholic by overwhelming majority, and +had subsequently either fallen away from the confederacy or been +conquered. + +And as if to make assurance doubly sure, the Articles of Union not only +reserved to each province all powers not absolutely essential for +carrying on the war in common, but by an express article (the 13th), +declared that Holland and Zealand should regulate the matter of religion +according to their own discretion, while the other provinces might +conform to the provisions of the "Religious Peace" which included mutual +protection for Catholics and Protestants--or take such other order as +seemed most conducive to the religious and secular rights of the +inhabitants. It was stipulated that no province should interfere with +another in such matters, and that every individual in them all should +remain free in his religion, no man being molested or examined on account +of his creed. A farther declaration in regard to this famous article was +made to the effect that no provinces or cities which held to the Roman +Catholic religion were to be excluded from the League of Union if they +were ready to conform to its conditions and comport themselves +patriotically. Language could not be devised to declare more plainly +than was done by this treaty that the central government of the League +had neither wish nor right to concern itself with the religious affairs +of the separate cities or provinces. If it permitted both Papists and +Protestants to associate themselves against the common foe, it could +hardly have been imagined, when the Articles were drawn, that it would +have claimed the exclusive right to define the minutest points in a +single Protestant creed. + +And if the exclusively secular parts of the polity prevailing in the +country were clumsy, irregular, and even monstrous, and if its defects +had been flagrantly demonstrated by recent events, a more reasonable +method of reforming the laws might have been found than the imprisonment +of a man who had faithfully administered them forty years long. + +A great commonwealth had grown out of a petty feudal organism, like an +oak from an acorn in a crevice, gnarled and distorted, though wide- +spreading and vigorous. It seemed perilous to deal radically with such a +polity, and an almost timid conservatism on the part of its guardians in +such an age of tempests might be pardonable. + +Moreover, as before remarked, the apparent imbecility resulting from +confederacy and municipalism combined was for a season remedied by the +actual preponderance of Holland. Two-thirds of the total wealth and +strength of the seven republics being concentrated in one province, the +desired union seemed almost gained by the practical solution of all in +that single republic. But this was one great cause of the general +disaster. + +It would be a thankless and tedious task to wander through the wilderness +of interrogatories and answers extending over three months of time, which +stood in the place of a trial. The defence of Barneveld was his own +history, and that I have attempted to give in the preceding pages. A +great part of the accusation was deduced from his private and official +correspondence, and it is for this reason that I have laid such copious +extracts from it before the reader. No man except the judges and the +States-General had access to those letters, and it was easy therefore, if +needful, to give them a false colouring. It is only very recently that +they have been seen at all, and they have never been published from that +day to this. + +Out of the confused mass of documents appertaining to the trial, a few +generalizations can be made which show the nature of the attack upon him. +He was accused of having permitted Arminius to infuse new opinions into +the University of Leyden, and of having subsequently defended the +appointment of Vorstius to the same place. He had opposed the National +Synod. He had made drafts of letters for the King of Great Britain to +sign, recommending mutual toleration on the five disputed points +regarding predestination. He was the author of the famous Sharp +Resolution. He had recommended the enlistment by the provinces and towns +of Waartgelders or mercenaries. He had maintained that those mercenaries +as well as the regular troops were bound in time of peace to be obedient +and faithful, not only to the Generality and the stadholders, but to the +magistrates of the cities and provinces where they were employed, and to +the states by whom they were paid. He had sent to Leyden, warning the +authorities of the approach of the Prince. He had encouraged all the +proceedings at Utrecht, writing a letter to the secretary of that +province advising a watch to be kept at the city gates as well as in the +river, and ordering his letter when read to be burned. He had received +presents from foreign potentates. He had attempted to damage the +character of his Excellency the Prince by declaring on various occasions +that he aspired to the sovereignty of the country. He had held a +ciphered correspondence on the subject with foreign ministers of the +Republic. He had given great offence to the King of Great Britain by +soliciting from him other letters in the sense of those which his Majesty +had written in 1613, advising moderation and mutual toleration. He had +not brought to condign punishment the author of 'The Balance', a pamphlet +in which an oration of the English ambassador had been criticised, and +aspersions made on the Order of the Garter. He had opposed the formation +of the West India Company. He had said many years before to Nicolas van +Berk that the Provinces had better return to the dominion of Spain. And +in general, all his proceedings had tended to put the Provinces into a +"blood bath." + +There was however no accusation that he had received bribes from the +enemy or held traitorous communication with him, or that he had committed +any act of high-treason. + +His private letters to Caron and to the ambassadors in Paris, with which +the reader has been made familiar, had thus been ransacked to find +treasonable matter, but the result was meagre in spite of the minute and +microscopic analysis instituted to detect traces of poison in them. + +But the most subtle and far-reaching research into past transactions was +due to the Greffier Cornelis Aerssens, father of the Ambassador Francis, +and to a certain Nicolas van Berk, Burgomaster of Utrecht. + +The process of tale-bearing, hearsay evidence, gossip, and invention went +back a dozen years, even to the preliminary and secret conferences in +regard to the Treaty of Truce. + +Readers familiar with the history of those memorable negotiations are +aware that Cornelis van Aerssens had compromised himself by accepting a +valuable diamond and a bill of exchange drawn by Marquis Spinola on a +merchant in Amsterdam, Henry Beekman by name, for 80,000 ducats. These +were handed by Father Neyen, the secret agent of the Spanish government, +to the Greffier as a prospective reward for his services in furthering +the Truce. He did not reject them, but he informed Prince Maurice and +the Advocate of the transaction. Both diamond and bill of exchange were +subsequently deposited in the hands of the treasurer of the States- +General, Joris de Bie, the Assembly being made officially acquainted with +the whole course of the affair. + +It is passing strange that this somewhat tortuous business, which +certainly cast a shade upon the fair fame of the elder Aerssens, and +required him to publish as good a defence as he could against the +consequent scandal, should have furnished a weapon wherewith to strike +at the Advocate of Holland some dozen years later. + +But so it was. Krauwels, a relative of Aerssens, through whom Father +Neyen had first obtained access to the Greffier, had stated, so it +seemed, that the monk had, in addition to the bill, handed to him another +draft of Spinola's for 100,000 ducats, to be given to a person of more +consideration than Aerssens. Krauwels did not know who the person was, +nor whether he took the money. He expressed his surprise however that +leading persons in the government "even old and authentic beggars"-- +should allow themselves to be so seduced as to accept presents from the +enemy. He mentioned two such persons, namely, a burgomaster at Delft and +a burgomaster at Haarlem. Aerssens now deposed that he had informed the +Advocate of this story, who had said, "Be quiet about it, I will have it +investigated," and some days afterwards on being questioned stated that +he had made enquiry and found there was something in it. + +So the fact that Cornelis Aerssens had taken bribes, and that two +burgomasters were strongly suspected by Aerssens of having taken bribes, +seems to have been considered as evidence that Barneveld had taken a +bribe. It is true that Aerssens by advice of Maurice and Barneveld had +made a clean breast of it to the States-General and had given them over +the presents. But the States-General could neither wear the diamond nor +cash the bill of exchange, and it would have been better for the Greffier +not to contaminate his fingers with them, but to leave the gifts in the +monk's palm. His revenge against the Advocate for helping him out of his +dilemma, and for subsequently advancing his son Francis in a brilliant +diplomatic career, seems to have been--when the clouds were thickening +and every man's hand was against the fallen statesman--to insinuate that +he was the anonymous personage who had accepted the apocryphal draft for +100,000 ducats. + +The case is a pregnant example of the proceedings employed to destroy the +Advocate. + +The testimony of Nicolas van Berk was at any rate more direct. + +On the 21st December 1618 the burgomaster testified that the Advocate had +once declared to him that the differences in regard to Divine Worship +were not so great but that they might be easily composed; asking him at +the same time "whether it would not be better that we should submit +ourselves again to the King of Spain." Barneveld had also referred, so +said van Berk, to the conduct of the Spanish king towards those who had +helped him to the kingdom of Portugal. The Burgomaster was unable +however to specify the date, year, or month in which the Advocate had +held this language. He remembered only that the conversation occurred +when Barneveld was living on the Spui at the Hague, and that having been +let into the house through the hall on the side of the vestibule, he had +been conducted by the Advocate down a small staircase into the office. + +The only fact proved by the details seems to be that the story had lodged +in the tenacious memory of the Burgomaster for eight years, as Barneveld +had removed from the Spui to Arenberg House in the Voorhout in the year +1611. + +No other offers from the King of Spain or the Archdukes had ever been +made to him, said van Berk, than those indicated in this deposition +against the Advocate as coming from that statesman. Nor had Barneveld +ever spoken to him upon such subjects except on that one occasion. + +It is not necessary and would be wearisome to follow the unfortunate +statesman through the long line of defence which he was obliged to make, +in fragmentary and irregular form, against these discursive and confused +assaults upon him. A continuous argument might be built up with the +isolated parts which should be altogether impregnable. It is +superfluous. + +Always instructive to his judges as he swept at will through the record +of nearly half a century of momentous European history, in which he was +himself a conspicuous figure, or expounding the ancient laws and customs +of the country with a wealth and accuracy of illustration which testified +to the strength of his memory, he seemed rather like a sage expounding +law and history to a class of pupils than a criminal defending himself +before a bench of commissioners. Moved occasionally from his austere +simplicity, the majestic old man rose to a strain of indignant eloquence +which might have shaken the hall of a vast assembly and found echo in the +hearts of a thousand hearers as he denounced their petty insults or +ignoble insinuations; glaring like a caged lion at his tormentors, who +had often shrunk before him when free, and now attempted to drown his +voice by contradictions, interruptions, threats, and unmeaning howls. + +He protested, from the outset and throughout the proceedings, against the +jurisdiction of the tribunal. The Treaty of Union on which the Assembly +and States-General were founded gave that assembly no power over him. +They could take no legal cognizance of his person or his acts. He had +been deprived of writing materials, or he would have already drawn up his +solemn protest and argument against the existence of the commission. He +demanded that they should be provided for him, together with a clerk to +engross his defence. It is needless to say that the demand was refused. + +It was notorious to all men, he said, that on the day when violent +hands were laid upon him he was not bound to the States-General by oath, +allegiance, or commission. He was a well-known inhabitant of the Hague, +a householder there, a vassal of the Commonwealth of Holland, enfeoffed +of many notable estates in that country, serving many honourable offices +by commission from its government. By birth, promotion, and conferred +dignities he was subject to the supreme authority of Holland, which for +forty years had been a free state possessed of all the attributes of +sovereignty, political, religious, judicial, and recognizing no superior +save God Almighty alone. + +He was amenable to no tribunal save that of their Mightinesses the States +of Holland and their ordinary judges. Not only those States but the +Prince of Orange as their governor and vassal, the nobles of Holland, +the colleges of justice, the regents of cities, and all other vassals, +magistrates, and officers were by their respective oaths bound to +maintain and protect him in these his rights. + +After fortifying this position by legal argument and by an array of +historical facts within his own experience, and alluding to the repeated +instances in which, sorely against his will, he had been solicited and +almost compelled to remain in offices of which he was weary, he referred +with dignity to the record of his past life. From the youthful days when +he had served as a volunteer at his own expense in the perilous sieges of +Haarlem and Leyden down to the time of his arrest, through an unbroken +course of honourable and most arduous political services, embassies, and +great negotiations, he had ever maintained the laws and liberties of the +Fatherland and his own honour unstained. + +That he should now in his seventy-second year be dragged, in violation of +every privilege and statute of the country, by extraordinary means, +before unknown judges, was a grave matter not for himself alone but for +their Mightinesses the States of Holland and for the other provinces. +The precious right 'de non evocando' had ever been dear to all the +provinces, cities, and inhabitants of the Netherlands. It was the most +vital privilege in their possession as well in civil as criminal, in +secular as in ecclesiastical affairs. + +When the King of Spain in 1567, and afterwards, set up an extraordinary +tribunal and a course of extraordinary trials, it was an undeniable fact, +he said, that on the solemn complaint of the States all princes, nobles, +and citizens not only in the Netherlands but in foreign countries, and +all foreign kings and sovereigns, held those outrages to be the foremost +and fundamental reason for taking up arms against that king, and +declaring him to have forfeited his right of sovereignty. + +Yet that monarch was unquestionably the born and accepted sovereign +of each one of the provinces, while the General Assembly was but a +gathering of confederates and allies, in no sense sovereign. It was an +unimaginable thing, he said, that the States of each province should +allow their whole authority and right of sovereignty to be transferred to +a board of commissioners like this before which he stood. If, for +example, a general union of France, England, and the States of the United +Netherlands should be formed (and the very words of the Act of Union +contemplated such possibility), what greater absurdity could there be +than to suppose that a college of administration created for the specific +purposes of such union would be competent to perform acts of sovereignty +within each of those countries in matters of justice, polity, and +religion? + +It was known to mankind, he said, that when negotiations were entered +into for bestowing the sovereignty of the Provinces on France and on +England, special and full powers were required from, and furnished by, +the States of each individual province. + +Had the sovereignty been in the assembly of the States-General, they +might have transferred it of their own motion or kept it for themselves. + +Even in the ordinary course of affairs the commissioners from each +province to the General Assembly always required a special power from +their constituents before deciding any matter of great importance. + +In regard to the defence of the respective provinces and cities, he had +never heard it doubted, he said, that the states or the magistrates of +cities had full right to provide for it by arming a portion of their own +inhabitants or by enlisting paid troops. The sovereign counts of Holland +and bishops of Utrecht certainly possessed and exercised that right for +many hundred years, and by necessary tradition it passed to the states +succeeding to their ancient sovereignty. He then gave from the stores of +his memory innumerable instances in which soldiers had been enlisted by +provinces and cities all over the Netherlands from the time of the +abjuration of Spain down to that moment. Through the whole period of +independence in the time of Anjou, Matthias, Leicester, as well as under +the actual government, it had been the invariable custom thus to provide +both by land and sea and on the rivers against robbers, rebels, pirates, +mischief-makers, assailing thieves, domestic or foreign. It had been +done by the immortal William the Silent on many memorable occasions, and +in fact the custom was so notorious that soldiers so enlisted were known +by different and peculiar nicknames in the different provinces and towns. + +That the central government had no right to meddle with religious +matters was almost too self-evident an axiom to prove. Indeed the +chief difficulty under which the Advocate laboured throughout this whole +process was the monstrous assumption by his judges of a political and +judicial system which never had any existence even in imagination. The +profound secrecy which enwrapped the proceedings from that day almost to +our own and an ignorant acquiescence of a considerable portion of the +public in accomplished facts offer the only explanation of a mystery +which must ever excite our wonder. If there were any impeachment at all, +it was an impeachment of the form of government itself. If language +could mean anything whatever, a mere perusal of the Articles of Union +proved that the prisoner had never violated that fundamental pact. How +could the general government prescribe an especial formulary for the +Reformed Church, and declare opposition to its decrees treasonable, when +it did not prohibit, but absolutely admitted and invited, provinces and +cities exclusively Catholic to enter the Union, guaranteeing to them +entire liberty of religion? + +Barneveld recalled the fact that when the stadholdership of Utrecht +thirty years before had been conferred on Prince Maurice the States of +that province had solemnly reserved for themselves the disposition over +religious matters in conformity with the Union, and that Maurice had +sworn to support that resolution. + +Five years later the Prince had himself assured a deputation from Brabant +that the States of each province were supreme in religious matters, no +interference the one with the other being justifiable or possible. In +1602 the States General in letters addressed to the States of the +obedient provinces under dominion of the Archdukes had invited them to +take up arms to help drive the Spaniards from the Provinces and to join +the Confederacy, assuring them that they should regulate the matter of +religion at their good pleasure, and that no one else should be allowed +to interfere therewith. + +The Advocate then went into an historical and critical disquisition, into +which we certainly have no need to follow him, rapidly examining the +whole subject of predestination and conditional and unconditional +damnation from the days of St. Augustine downward, showing a thorough +familiarity with a subject of theology which then made up so much of the +daily business of life, political and private, and lay at the bottom of +the terrible convulsion then existing in the Netherlands. We turn from +it with a shudder, reminding the reader only how persistently the +statesman then on his trial had advocated conciliation, moderation, and +kindness between brethren of the Reformed Church who were not able to +think alike on one of the subtlest and most mysterious problems that +casuistry has ever propounded. + +For fifty years, he said, he had been an enemy of all compulsion of the +human conscience. He had always opposed rigorous ecclesiastical decrees. +He had done his best to further, and did not deny having inspired, the +advice given in the famous letters from the King of Great Britain to the +States in 1613, that there should be mutual toleration and abstinence +from discussion of disputed doctrines, neither of them essential to +salvation. He thought that neither Calvin nor Beza would have opposed +freedom of opinion on those points. For himself he believed that the +salvation of mankind would be through God's unmerited grace and the +redemption of sins though the Saviour, and that the man who so held and +persevered to the end was predestined to eternal happiness, and that his +children dying before the age of reason were destined not to Hell but to +Heaven. He had thought fifty years long that the passion and sacrifice +of Christ the Saviour were more potent to salvation than God's wrath and +the sin of Adam and Eve to damnation. He had done his best practically +to avert personal bickerings among the clergy. He had been, so far as +lay in his power, as friendly to Remonstrants as to Contra-Remonstrants, +to Polyander and Festus Hommius as to Uytenbogaert and Episcopius. He +had almost finished a negotiation with Councillor Kromhout for the +peaceable delivery of the Cloister Church on the Thursday preceding the +Sunday on which it had been forcibly seized by the Contra-Remonstrants. + +When asked by one of his judges how he presumed to hope for toleration +between two parties, each of which abhorred the other's opinions, and +likened each other to Turks and devil-worshippers, he replied that he had +always detested and rebuked those mutual revilings by every means in his +power, and would have wished to put down such calumniators of either +persuasion by the civil authority, but the iniquity of the times and the +exasperation of men's humours had prevented him. + +Being perpetually goaded by one judge after another as to his +disrespectful conduct towards the King of Great Britain, and asked why +his Majesty had not as good right to give the advice of 1617 as the +recommendation of tolerance in 1613, he scrupulously abstained, as he had +done in all his letters, from saying a disrespectful word as to the +glaring inconsistency between the two communications, or to the hostility +manifested towards himself personally by the British ambassador. He had +always expressed the hope, he said, that the King would adhere to his +original position, but did not dispute his right to change his mind, nor +the good faith which had inspired his later letters. It had been his +object, if possible, to reconcile the two different systems recommended +by his Majesty into one harmonious whole. + +His whole aim had been to preserve the public peace as it was the duty of +every magistrate, especially in times of such excitement, to do. He +could never comprehend why the toleration of the Five Points should be a +danger to the Reformed religion. Rather, he thought, it would strengthen +the Church and attract many Lutherans, Baptists, Catholics, and other +good patriots into its pale. He had always opposed the compulsory +acceptance by the people of the special opinions of scribes and doctors. +He did not consider, he said, the difference in doctrine on this disputed +point between the Contra-Remonstrants and Remonstrants as one-tenth the +value of the civil authority and its right to make laws and ordinances +regulating ecclesiastical affairs. + +He believed the great bulwark of the independence of the country to be +the Reformed Church, and his efforts had ever been to strengthen that +bulwark by preventing the unnecessary schism which might prove its ruin. +Many questions of property, too, were involved in the question--the +church buildings, lands and pastures belonging to the Counts of Holland +and their successors--the States having always exercised the right of +church patronage--'jus patronatus'--a privilege which, as well as +inherited or purchased advowsons, had been of late flagrantly interfered +with. + +He was asked if he had not said that it had never been the intention of +the States-General to carry on the war for this or that religion. + +He replied that he had told certain clergymen expressing to him their +opinion that the war had been waged solely for the furtherance of their +especial shade of belief, that in his view the war had been undertaken +for the conservation of the liberties and laws of the land, and of its +good people. Of that freedom the first and foremost point was the true +Christian religion and liberty of conscience and opinion. There must be +religion in the Republic, he had said, but that the war was carried on to +sustain the opinion of one doctor of divinity or another on--differential +points was something he had never heard of and could never believe. The +good citizens of the country had as much right to hold by Melancthon as +by Calvin or Beza. He knew that the first proclamations in regard to the +war declared it to be undertaken for freedom of conscience, and so to +his, own knowledge it had been always carried on. + +He was asked if he had not promised during the Truce negotiations so to +direct matters that the Catholics with time might obtain public exercise +of their religion. + +He replied that this was a notorious falsehood and calumny, adding that +it ill accorded with the proclamation against the Jesuits drawn up by +himself some years after the Truce. He furthermore stated that it was +chiefly by his direction that the discourse of President Jeannin--urging +on part of the French king that liberty of worship might be granted to +the Papists--was kept secret, copies of it not having been furnished even +to the commissioners of the Provinces. + +His indignant denial of this charge, especially taken in connection with +his repeated assertions during the trial, that among the most patriotic +Netherlanders during and since the war were many adherents of the ancient +church, seems marvellously in contradiction with his frequent and most +earnest pleas for liberty of conscience. But it did not appear +contradictory even to his judges nor to any contemporary. His position +had always been that the civil authority of each province was supreme in +all matters political or ecclesiastical. The States-General, all the +provinces uniting in the vote, had invited the Catholic provinces on more +than one occasion to join the Union, promising that there should be no +interference on the part of any states or individuals with the internal +affairs religious or otherwise of the provinces accepting the invitation. +But it would have been a gross contradiction of his own principle if he +had promised so to direct matters that the Catholics should have public +right of worship in Holland where he knew that the civil authority was +sure to refuse it, or in any of the other six provinces in whose internal +affairs he had no voice whatever. He was opposed to all tyranny over +conscience, he would have done his utmost to prevent inquisition into +opinion, violation of domicile, interference with private worship, +compulsory attendance in Protestant churches of those professing the +Roman creed. This was not attempted. No Catholic was persecuted on +account of his religion. Compared with the practice in other countries +this was a great step in advance. Religious tolerance lay on the road to +religious equality, a condition which had hardly been imagined then and +scarcely exists in Europe even to this day. But among the men in history +whose life and death contributed to the advancement of that blessing, it +would be vain to deny that Barneveld occupies a foremost place. + +Moreover, it should be remembered that religious equality then would have +been a most hazardous experiment. So long as Church and State were +blended, it was absolutely essential at that epoch for the preservation +of Protestantism to assign the predominance to the State. Should the +Catholics have obtained religious equality, the probable result would +before long have been religious inequality, supremacy of the Catholics +in the Church, and supremacy of the Church over the State. The fruits of +the forty years' war would have become dust and ashes. It would be mere +weak sentimentalism to doubt--after the bloody history which had just +closed and the awful tragedy, then reopening--that every spark of +religious liberty would have soon been trodden out in the Netherlands. +The general onslaught of the League with Ferdinand, Maximilian of +Bavaria, and Philip of Spain at its head against the distracted, +irresolute, and wavering line of Protestantism across the whole of Europe +was just preparing. Rather a wilderness to reign over than a single +heretic, was the war-cry of the Emperor. The King of Spain, as we have +just been reading in his most secret, ciphered despatches to the Archduke +at Brussels, was nursing sanguine hopes and weaving elaborate schemes for +recovering his dominion over the United Netherlands, and proposing to +send an army of Jesuits thither to break the way to the reconquest. +To play into his hands then, by granting public right of worship to the +Papists, would have been in Barneveld's opinion like giving up Julich and +other citadels in the debatable land to Spain just as the great war +between Catholicism and Protestantism was breaking out. There had been +enough of burning and burying alive in the Netherlands during the century +which had closed. It was not desirable to give a chance for their +renewal now. + +In regard to the Synod, Barneveld justified his course by a simple +reference to the 13th Article of the Union. Words could not more plainly +prohibit the interference by the States-General with the religious +affairs of any one of the Provinces than had been done by that celebrated +clause. In 1583 there had been an attempt made to amend that article by +insertion of a pledge to maintain the Evangelical, Reformed, religion +solely, but it was never carried out. He disdained to argue so self- +evident a truth, that a confederacy which had admitted and constantly +invited Catholic states to membership, under solemn pledge of +noninterference with their religious affairs, had no right to lay down +formulas for the Reformed Church throughout all the Netherlands. The +oath of stadholder and magistrates in Holland to maintain the Reformed +religion was framed before this unhappy controversy on predestination had +begun, and it was mere arrogant assumption on the part of the Contra- +Remonstrants to claim a monopoly of that religion, and to exclude the +Remonstrants from its folds. + +He had steadily done his utmost to assuage those dissensions while +maintaining the laws which he was sworn to support. He had advocated a +provincial synod to be amicably assisted by divines from neighbouring +countries. He had opposed a National Synod unless unanimously voted by +the Seven Provinces, because it would have been an open violation of the +fundamental law of the confederacy, of its whole spirit, and of liberty +of conscience. He admitted that he had himself drawn up a protest on the +part of three provinces (Holland, Utrecht, and Overyssel) against the +decree for the National Synod as a breach of the Union, declaring it to +be therefore null and void and binding upon no man. He had dictated the +protest as oldest member present, while Grotius as the youngest had acted +as scribe. He would have supported the Synod if legally voted, but would +have preferred the convocation, under the authority of all the provinces, +of a general, not a national, synod, in which, besides clergy and laymen +from the Netherlands, deputations from all Protestant states and churches +should take part; a kind of Protestant oecumenical council. + +As to the enlistment, by the States of a province, of soldiers to keep +the peace and suppress tumults in its cities during times of political +and religious excitement, it was the most ordinary of occurrences. In +his experience of more than forty years he had never heard the right even +questioned. It was pure ignorance of law and history to find it a +novelty. + +To hire temporarily a sufficient number of professional soldiers, he +considered a more wholesome means of keeping the peace than to enlist one +portion of the citizens of a town against another portion, when party and +religious spirit was running high. His experience had taught him that +the mutual hatred of the inhabitants, thus inflamed, became more lasting +and mischievous than the resentment caused through suppression of +disorder by an armed and paid police of strangers. + +It was not only the right but the most solemn duty of the civil authority +to preserve the tranquillity, property, and lives of citizens committed +to their care. "I have said these fifty years," said Barneveld, "that it +is better to be governed by magistrates than mobs. I have always +maintained and still maintain that the most disastrous, shameful, and +ruinous condition into which this land can fall is that in which the +magistrates are overcome by the rabble of the towns and receive laws +from them. Nothing but perdition can follow from that." + +There had been good reason to believe that the French garrisons as +well as some of the train bands could not be thoroughly relied upon +in emergencies like those constantly breaking out, and there had been +advices of invasion by sympathizers from neighbouring countries. In many +great cities the civil authority had been trampled upon and mob rule had +prevailed. Certainly the recent example in the great commercial capital +of the country--where the house of a foremost citizen had been besieged, +stormed, and sacked, and a virtuous matron of the higher class hunted +like a wild beast through the streets by a rabble grossly ignorant of the +very nature of the religious quibble which had driven them mad, pelted +with stones, branded with vilest names, and only saved by accident from +assassination, while a church-going multitude looked calmly on--with +constantly recurring instances in other important cities were sufficient +reasons for the authorities to be watchful. + +He denied that he had initiated the proceedings at Utrecht in +conversation with Ledenberg or any one else, but he had not refused, he +said, his approval of the perfectly legal measures adopted for keeping +the peace there when submitted to him. He was himself a born citizen of +that province, and therefore especially interested in its welfare, and +there was an old and intimate friendship between Utrecht and Holland. It +would have been painful to him to see that splendid city in the control +of an ignorant mob, making use of religious problems, which they did not +comprehend, to plunder the property and take the lives of peaceful +citizens more comfortably housed than themselves. + +He had neither suggested nor controlled the proceedings at Utrecht. On +the contrary, at an interview with the Prince and Count William on the +13th July, and in the presence of nearly thirty members of the general +assembly, he had submitted a plan for cashiering the enlisted soldiery +and substituting for them other troops, native-born, who should be sworn +in the usual form to obey the laws of the Union. The deputation from +Holland to Utrecht, according to his personal knowledge, had received no +instructions personal or oral to authorize active steps by the troops of +the Holland quota, but to abstain from them and to request the Prince +that they should not be used against the will and commands of the States +of Utrecht, whom they were bound by oath to obey so long as they were in +garrison there. + +No man knew better than he whether the military oath which was called +new-fangled were a novelty or not, for he had himself, he said, drawn it +up thirty years before at command of the States-General by whom it was +then ordained. From that day to this he had never heard a pretence that +it justified anything not expressly sanctioned by the Articles of Union, +and neither the States of Holland nor those of Utrecht had made any +change in the oath. The States of Utrecht were sovereign within their +own territory, and in the time of peace neither the Prince of Orange +without their order nor the States-General had the right to command the +troops in their territory. The governor of a province was sworn to obey +the laws of the province and conform to the Articles of the General +Union. + +He was asked why he wrote the warning letter to Ledenberg, and why he was +so anxious that the letter should be burned; as if that were a deadly +offence. + +He said that he could not comprehend why it should be imputed to him +as a crime that he wished in such turbulent times to warn so important +a city as Utrecht, the capital of his native province, against tumults, +disorders, and sudden assaults such as had often happened to her in times +past. As for the postscript requesting that the letter might be put in +the fire, he said that not being a member of, the government of that +province he was simply unwilling to leave a record that "he had been too +curious in aliens republics, although that could hardly be considered a +grave offence." + +In regard to the charge that he had accused Prince Maurice of aspiring to +the sovereignty of the country, he had much to say. He had never brought +such accusation in public or private. He had reason to believe however-- +he had indeed convincing proofs--that many people, especially those +belonging to the Contra-Remonstrant party, cherished such schemes. He +had never sought to cast suspicion on the Prince himself on account of +those schemes. On the contrary, he had not even formally opposed them. +What he wished had always been that such projects should be discussed +formally, legally, and above board. After the lamentable murder of the +late Prince he had himself recommended to the authorities of some of the +cities that the transaction for bestowing the sovereignty of Holland upon +William, interrupted by his death, "should be completed in favour of +Prince Maurice in despite of the Spaniard." Recently he had requested +Grotius to look up the documents deposited in Rotterdam belonging to this +affair, in order that they might be consulted. + +He was asked whether according to Buzenval, the former French ambassador, +Prince Maurice had not declared he would rather fling himself from the +top of the Hague tower than accept the sovereignty. Barneveld replied +that the Prince according to the same authority had added "under the +conditions which had been imposed upon his father;" a clause which +considerably modified the self-denying statement. It was desirable +therefore to search the acts for the limitations annexed to the +sovereignty. + +Three years long there had been indications from various sources that a +party wished to change the form of government. He had not heard nor ever +intimated that the Prince suggested such intrigues. In anonymous +pamphlets and common street and tavern conversations the Contra- +Remonstrants were described by those of their own persuasion as +"Prince's Beggars" and the like. He had received from foreign countries +information worthy of attention, that it was the design of the Contra- +Remonstrants to raise the Prince to the sovereignty. He had therefore in +1616 brought the matter before the nobles and cities in a communication +setting forth to the best of his recollection that under these religious +disputes something else was intended. He had desired ripe conclusions on +the matter, such as should most conduce to the service of the country. +This had been in good faith both to the Prince and the Provinces, in +order that, should a change in the government be thought desirable, +proper and peaceful means might be employed to bring it about. He had +never had any other intention than to sound the inclinations of those +with whom he spoke, and he had many times since that period, by word of +mouth and in writing, so lately as the month of April last assured the +Prince that he had ever been his sincere and faithful servant and meant +to remain so to the end of his life, desiring therefore that he would +explain to him his wishes and intentions. + +Subsequently he had publicly proposed in full Assembly of Holland that +the States should ripely deliberate and roundly declare if they were +discontented with the form of government, and if so, what change they +would desire. He had assured their Mightinesses that they might rely +upon him to assist in carrying out their intentions whatever they might +be. He had inferred however from the Prince's intimations, when he had +broached the subject to him in 1617, that he was not inclined towards +these supposed projects, and had heard that opinion distinctly expressed +from the mouth of Count William. + +That the Contra-Remonstrants secretly entertained these schemes, +he had been advised from many quarters, at home and abroad. In the year +1618 he had received information to that effect from France. Certain +confidential counsellors of the Prince had been with him recently to +confer on the subject. He had told them that, if his Excellency chose +to speak to him in regard to it, would listen to his reasoning about it, +both as regarded the interests of the country and the Prince himself, +and then should desire him to propose and advocate it before the +Assembly, he would do so with earnestness, zeal, and affection. He had +desired however that, in case the attempt failed, the Prince would allow +him to be relieved from service and to leave the country. What he wished +from the bottom of his heart was that his Excellency would plainly +discover to him the exact nature of his sentiments in regard to the +business. + +He fully admitted receiving a secret letter from Ambassador Langerac, +apprising him that a man of quality in France had information of the +intention of the Contra-Remonstrants throughout the Provinces, should +they come into power, to raise Prince Maurice to the sovereignty. He +had communicated on the subject with Grotius and other deputies in order +that, if this should prove to be the general inclination, the affair +might be handled according to law, without confusion or disorder. This, +he said, would be serving both the country and the Prince most +judiciously. + +He was asked why he had not communicated directly with Maurice. He +replied that he had already seen how unwillingly the Prince heard him +allude to the subject, and that moreover there was another clause in +the letter of different meaning, and in his view worthy of grave +consideration by the States. + +No question was asked him as to this clause, but we have seen that it +referred to the communication by du Agean to Langerac of a scheme for +bestowing the sovereignty of the Provinces on the King of France. The +reader will also recollect that Barneveld had advised the Ambassador to +communicate the whole intelligence to the Prince himself. + +Barneveld proceeded to inform the judges that he had never said a word to +cast suspicion upon the Prince, but had been actuated solely by the +desire to find out the inclination of the States. The communications +which he had made on the subject were neither for discrediting the Prince +nor for counteracting the schemes for his advancement. On the contrary, +he had conferred with deputies from great cities like Dordtrecht, +Enkhuyzen, and Amsterdam, most devoted to the Contra-Remonstrant party, +and had told them that, if they chose to propose the subject themselves, +he would conduct himself to the best of his abilities in accordance with +the wishes of the Prince. + +It would seem almost impossible for a statesman placed in Barneveld's +position to bear himself with more perfect loyalty both to the country +and to the Stadholder. His duty was to maintain the constitution and +laws so long as they remained unchanged. Should it appear that the +States, which legally represented the country, found the constitution +defective, he was ready to aid in its amendment by fair public and legal +methods. + +If Maurice wished to propose himself openly as a candidate for the +sovereignty, which had a generation before been conferred upon his +father, Barneveld would not only acquiesce in the scheme, but propose it. + +Should it fail, he claimed the light to lay down all his offices and go +into exile. + +He had never said that the Prince was intriguing for, or even desired, +the sovereignty. That the project existed among the party most opposed +to himself, he had sufficient proof. To the leaders of that party +therefore he suggested that the subject should be publicly discussed, +guaranteeing freedom of debate and his loyal support so far as lay within +his power. + +This was his answer to the accusation that he had meanly, secretly, and +falsely circulated statements that the Prince was aspiring to the +sovereignty. + + [Great pains were taken, in the course of the interrogatories, to + elicit proof that the Advocate had concealed important diplomatic + information from the Prince. He was asked why, in his secret + instructions to Ambassador Langerac, he ordered him by an express + article to be very cautious about making communications to the + Prince. Searching questions were put in regard to these secret + instructions, which I have read in the Archives, and a copy of which + now lies before me. They are in the form of questions, some of them + almost puerile ones, addressed to Barneveld by the Ambassador then + just departing on his mission to France in 1614, with the answers + written in the margin by the Advocate. The following is all that + has reference to the Prince: + "Of what matters may I ordinarily write to his Excellency?" + Answer--"Of all great and important matters." + It was difficult to find much that was treasonable in that.] + +Among the heterogeneous articles of accusation he was asked why he had +given no attention to those who had so, frequently proposed the formation +of the West India Company. + +He replied that it had from old time been the opinion of the States of +Holland, and always his own, that special and private licenses for +traffic, navigation, and foreign commerce, were prejudicial to the +welfare of the land. He had always been most earnestly opposed to them, +detesting monopolies which interfered with that free trade and navigation +which should be common to all mankind. He had taken great pains however +in the years 1596 and 1597 to study the nature of the navigation and +trade to the East Indies in regard to the nations to be dealt with in +those regions, the nature of the wares bought and sold there, the +opposition to be encountered from the Spaniards and Portuguese against +the commerce of the Netherlanders, and the necessity of equipping vessels +both for traffic and defence, and had come to the conclusion that these +matters could best be directed by a general company. He explained in +detail the manner in which he had procured the blending of all the +isolated chambers into one great East India Corporation, the enormous +pains which it had cost him to bring it about, and the great commercial +and national success which had been the result. The Admiral of Aragon, +when a prisoner after the battle of Nieuwpoort, had told him, he said, +that the union of these petty corporations into one great whole had been +as disastrous a blow to the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal as the Union +of the Provinces at Utrecht had been. In regard to the West India +Company, its sole object, so far as he could comprehend it, had been to +equip armed vessels, not for trade but to capture and plunder Spanish +merchantmen and silver fleets in the West Indies and South America. This +was an advantageous war measure which he had favoured while the war +lasted. It was in no sense a commercial scheme however, and when the +Truce had been made--the company not having come into existence--he +failed to comprehend how its formation could be profitable for the +Netherlanders. On the contrary it would expressly invite or irritate the +Spaniards into a resumption of the war, an object which in his humble +opinion was not at all desirable. + +Certainly these ideas were not especially reprehensible, but had they +been as shallow and despicable as they seem to us enlightened, it is +passing strange that they should have furnished matter for a criminal +prosecution. + +It was doubtless a disappointment for the promoters of the company, the +chief of whom was a bankrupt, to fail in obtaining their charter, but it +was scarcely high-treason to oppose it. There is no doubt however that +the disapprobation with which Barneveld regarded the West India Company, +the seat of which was at Amsterdam, was a leading cause of the deadly +hostility entertained for him by the great commercial metropolis. + +It was bad enough for the Advocate to oppose unconditional predestination +and the damnation of infants, but to frustrate a magnificent system of +privateering on the Spaniards in time of truce was an unpardonable crime. + +The patience with which the venerable statesman submitted to the taunts, +ignorant and insolent cross-questionings, and noisy interruptions of his +judges, was not less remarkable than the tenacity of memory which enabled +him thus day after day, alone, unaided by books, manuscripts, or friendly +counsel, to reconstruct the record of forty years, and to expound the +laws of the land by an array of authorities, instances, and illustrations +in a manner that would be deemed masterly by one who had all the +resources of libraries, documents, witnesses, and secretaries at command. + +Only when insidious questions were put tending to impute to him +corruption, venality, and treacherous correspondence with the enemy--for +they never once dared formally to accuse him of treason--did that almost +superhuman patience desert him. + +He was questioned as to certain payments made by him to a certain van der +Vecken in Spanish coin. He replied briefly at first that his money +transactions with that man of business extended over a period of twenty +or thirty years, and amounted to many hundred thousands of florins, +growing out of purchases and sales of lands, agricultural enterprises on +his estates, moneys derived from his professional or official business +and the like. It was impossible for him to remember the details of every +especial money payment that might have occurred between them. + +Then suddenly breaking forth into a storm of indignation; he could mark +from these questions, he said, that his enemies, not satisfied with +having wounded his heart with their falsehoods, vile forgeries, and +honour-robbing libels, were determined to break it. This he prayed that +God Almighty might avert and righteously judge between him and them. + +It was plain that among other things they were alluding to the stale and +senseless story of the sledge filled with baskets of coin sent by the +Spanish envoys on their departure from the Hague, on conclusion of the +Truce, to defray expenses incurred by them for board and lodging of +servants, forage of horses, and the like-which had accidentally stopped +at Barneveld's door and was forthwith sent on to John Spronssen, +superintendent of such affairs. Passing over this wanton bit of calumny +with disgust, he solemnly asserted that he had never at any period of his +life received one penny nor the value of one penny from the King of +Spain, the Archdukes, Spinola, or any other person connected with the +enemy, saving only the presents publicly and mutually conferred according +to invariable custom by the high contracting parties, upon the respective +negotiators at conclusion of the Treaty of Truce. Even these gifts +Barneveld had moved his colleagues not to accept, but proposed that they +should all be paid into the public treasury. He had been overruled, he +said, but that any dispassionate man of tolerable intelligence could +imagine him, whose whole life had been a perpetual offence to Spain, +to be in suspicious relations with that power seemed to him impossible. +The most intense party spirit, yea, envy itself, must confess that he had +been among the foremost to take up arms for his country's liberties, and +had through life never faltered in their defence. And once more in that +mean chamber, and before a row of personal enemies calling themselves +judges, he burst into an eloquent and most justifiable sketch of the +career of one whom there was none else to justify and so many to assail. + +From his youth, he said, he had made himself by his honourable and +patriotic deeds hopelessly irreconcilable with the Spaniards. He was one +of the advocates practising in the Supreme Court of Holland, who in the +very teeth of the Duke of Alva had proclaimed him a tyrant and had sworn +obedience to the Prince of Orange as the lawful governor of the land. He +was one of those who in the same year had promoted and attended private +gatherings for the advancement of the Reformed religion. He had helped +to levy, and had contributed to, funds for the national defence in the +early days of the revolt. These were things which led directly to the +Council of Blood and the gibbet. He had borne arms himself on various +bloody fields and had been perpetually a deputy to the rebel camps. He +had been the original mover of the Treaty of Union which was concluded +between the Provinces at Utrecht. He had been the first to propose and +to draw up the declaration of Netherland independence and the abjuration +of the King of Spain. He had been one of those who had drawn and passed +the Act establishing the late Prince of Orange as stadholder. Of the +sixty signers of these memorable declarations none were now living save +himself and two others. When the Prince had been assassinated, he had +done his best to secure for his son Maurice the sovereign position of +which murder had so suddenly deprived the father. He had been member of +the memorable embassies to France and England by which invaluable support +for the struggling Provinces had been obtained. + +And thus he rapidly sketched the history of the great war of independence +in which he had ever been conspicuously employed on the patriotic side. +When the late King of France at the close of the century had made peace +with Spain, he had been sent as special ambassador to that monarch, and +had prevailed on him, notwithstanding his treaty with the enemy, to +continue his secret alliance with the States and to promise them a large +subsidy, pledges which had been sacredly fulfilled. It was on that +occasion that Henry, who was his debtor for past services, professional, +official, and perfectly legitimate, had agreed, when his finances should +be in better condition, to discharge his obligations; over and above the +customary diplomatic present which he received publicly in common with +his colleague Admiral Nassau. This promise, fulfilled a dozen years +later, had been one of the senseless charges of corruption brought +against him. He had been one of the negotiators of the Truce in which +Spain had been compelled to treat with her revolted provinces as with +free states and her equals. He had promoted the union of the Protestant +princes and their alliance with France and the United States in +opposition to the designs of Spain and the League. He had organized and +directed the policy by which the forces of England, France, and +Protestant Germany had possessed themselves of the debateable land. He +had resisted every scheme by which it was hoped to force the States from +their hold of those important citadels. He had been one of the foremost +promoters of the East India Company, an organization which the Spaniards +confessed had been as damaging to them as the Union of the Provinces +itself had been. + +The idiotic and circumstantial statements, that he had conducted +Burgomaster van Berk through a secret staircase of his house into his +private study for the purpose of informing him that the only way for the +States to get out of the war was to submit themselves once more to their +old masters, so often forced upon him by the judges, he contradicted with +disdain and disgust. He had ever abhorred and dreaded, he said, the +House of Spain, Austria, and Burgundy. His life had passed in open +hostility to that house, as was known to all mankind. His mere personal +interests, apart from higher considerations, would make an approach to +the former sovereign impossible, for besides the deeds he had already +alluded to, he had committed at least twelve distinct and separate acts, +each one of which would be held high-treason by the House of Austria, and +he had learned from childhood that these are things which monarchs never +forget. The tales of van Berk were those of a personal enemy, falsehoods +scarcely worth contradicting. + +He was grossly and enormously aggrieved by the illegal constitution of +the commission. He had protested and continued to protest against it. +If that protest were unheeded, he claimed at least that those men should +be excluded from the board and the right to sit in judgment upon his +person and his deeds who had proved themselves by words and works to be +his capital enemies, of which fact he could produce irrefragable +evidence. He claimed that the Supreme Court of Holland, or the High +Council, or both together, should decide upon that point. He held as his +personal enemies, he said, all those who had declared that he, before or +since the Truce down to the day of his arrest, had held correspondence +with the Spaniards, the Archdukes, the Marquis Spinola, or any one on +that side, had received money, money value, or promises of money from +them, and in consequence had done or omitted to do anything whatever. +He denounced such tales as notorious, shameful, and villainous +falsehoods, the utterers and circulators of them as wilful liars, and +this he was ready to maintain in every appropriate way for the +vindication of the truth and his own honour. He declared solemnly before +God Almighty to the States-General and to the States of Holland that his +course in the religious matter had been solely directed to the +strengthening of the Reformed religion and to the political security of +the provinces and cities. He had simply desired that, in the awful and +mysterious matter of predestination, the consciences of many preachers +and many thousands of good citizens might be placed in tranquillity, with +moderate and Christian limitations against all excesses. + +From all these reasons, he said, the commissioners, the States-General, +the Prince, and every man in the land could clearly see, and were bound +to see, that he was the same man now that he was at the beginning of the +war, had ever been, and with God's help should ever remain. + +The proceedings were kept secret from the public and, as a matter of +course, there had been conflicting rumours from day to day as to the +probable result of these great state trials. In general however it was +thought that the prisoner would be acquitted of the graver charges, or +that at most he would be permanently displaced from all office and +declared incapable thenceforth to serve the State. The triumph of the +Contra-Remonstrants since the Stadholder had placed himself at the head +of them, and the complete metamorphosis of the city governments even in +the strongholds of the Arminian party seemed to render the permanent +political disgrace of the Advocate almost a matter of certainty. + +The first step that gave rise to a belief that he might be perhaps more +severely dealt with than had been anticipated was the proclamation by the +States-General of a public fast and humiliation for the 17th April. + +In this document it was announced that "Church and State--during several +years past having been brought into great danger of utter destruction +through certain persons in furtherance of their ambitious designs--had +been saved by the convocation of a National Synod; that a lawful sentence +was soon to be expected upon those who had been disturbing the +Commonwealth; that through this sentence general tranquillity would +probably be restored; and that men were now to thank God for this result, +and pray to Him that He would bring the wicked counsels and stratagems of +the enemy against these Provinces to naught." + +All the prisoners were asked if they too would like in their chambers +of bondage to participate in the solemnity, although the motive for the +fasting and prayer was not mentioned to them. Each of them in his +separate prison room, of course without communication together, selected +the 7th Psalm and sang it with his servant and door-keeper. + +From the date of this fast-day Barneveld looked upon the result of his +trial as likely to be serious. + +Many clergymen refused or objected to comply with the terms of this +declaration. Others conformed with it greedily, and preached lengthy +thanksgiving sermons, giving praise to God that, He had confounded the +devices of the ambitious and saved the country from the "blood bath" +which they had been preparing for it. + +The friends of Barneveld became alarmed at the sinister language of this +proclamation, in which for the first time allusions had been made to a +forthcoming sentence against the accused. + +Especially the staunch and indefatigable du Maurier at once addressed +himself again to the States-General. De Boississe had returned to +France, having found that the government of a country torn, weakened, and +rendered almost impotent by its own internecine factions, was not likely +to exert any very potent influence on the fate of the illustrious +prisoner. + +The States had given him to understand that they were wearied with his +perpetual appeals, intercessions, and sermons in behalf of mercy. They +made him feel in short that Lewis XIII. and Henry IV. were two entirely +different personages. + +Du Maurier however obtained a hearing before the Assembly on the 1st May, +where he made a powerful and manly speech in presence of the Prince, +urging that the prisoners ought to be discharged unless they could be +convicted of treason, and that the States ought to show as much deference +to his sovereign as they had always done to Elizabeth of England. He +made a personal appeal to Prince Maurice, urging upon him how much it +would redound to his glory if he should now in generous and princely +fashion step forward in behalf of those by whom he deemed himself to have +been personally offended. + +His speech fell upon ears hardened against such eloquence and produced no +effect. + +Meantime the family of Barneveld, not yet reduced to despair, chose to +take a less gloomy view of the proclamation. Relying on the innocence of +the great statesman, whose aims, in their firm belief, had ever been for +the welfare and glory of his fatherland, and in whose heart there had +never been kindled one spark of treason, they bravely expected his +triumphant release from his long and, as they deemed it, his iniquitous +imprisonment. + +On this very 1st of May, in accordance with ancient custom, a may-pole +was erected on the Voorhout before the mansion of the captive statesman, +and wreaths of spring flowers and garlands of evergreen decorated the +walls within which were such braised and bleeding hearts. These +demonstrations of a noble hypocrisy, if such it were, excited the wrath, +not the compassion, of the Stadholder, who thought that the aged matron +and her sons and daughters, who dwelt in that house of mourning, should +rather have sat in sackcloth with ashes on their heads than indulge in +these insolent marks of hope and joyful expectation. + +It is certain however that Count William Lewis, who, although most +staunch on the Contra-Remonstrant side, had a veneration for the Advocate +and desired warmly to save him, made a last and strenuous effort for that +purpose. + +It was believed then, and it seems almost certain, that, if the friends +of the Advocate had been willing to implore pardon for him, the sentence +would have been remitted or commuted. Their application would have been +successful, for through it his guilt would seem to be acknowledged. + +Count William sent for the Fiscal Duyck. He asked him if there were no +means of saving the life of a man who was so old and had done the country +so much service. After long deliberation, it was decided that Prince +Maurice should be approached on the subject. Duyck wished that the Count +himself would speak with his cousin, but was convinced by his reasoning +that it would be better that the Fiscal should do it. Duyck had a long +interview accordingly with Maurice, which was followed by a very secret +one between them both and Count William. The three were locked up +together, three hours long, in the Prince's private cabinet. It was +then decided that Count William should go, as if of his own accord, +to the Princess-Dowager Louise, and induce her to send for some one of +Barneveld's children and urge that the family should ask pardon for him. +She asked if this was done with the knowledge of the Prince of Orange, or +whether he would not take it amiss. The Count eluded the question, but +implored her to follow his advice. + +The result was an interview between the Princess and Madame de +Groeneveld, wife of the eldest son. That lady was besought to apply, +with the rest of the Advocate's children, for pardon to the Lords States, +but to act as if it were done of her own impulse, and to keep their +interview profoundly secret. + +Madame de Groeneveld took time to consult the other members of the family +and some friends. Soon afterwards she came again to the Princess, and +informed her that she had spoken with the other children, and that they +could not agree to the suggestion. "They would not move one step in it-- +no, not if it should cost him his head." + +The Princess reported the result of this interview to Count William, at +which both were so distressed that they determined to leave the Hague. + +There is something almost superhuman in the sternness of this +stoicism. Yet it lay in the proud and highly tempered character of +the Netherlanders. There can be no doubt that the Advocate would have +expressly dictated this proceeding if he had been consulted. It was +precisely the course adopted by himself. Death rather than life with a +false acknowledgment of guilt and therefore with disgrace. The loss of +his honour would have been an infinitely greater triumph to his enemies +than the loss of his head. + +There was no delay in drawing up the sentence. Previously to this +interview with the widow of William the Silent, the family of the +Advocate had presented to the judges three separate documents, rather in +the way of arguments than petitions, undertaking to prove by elaborate +reasoning and citations of precedents and texts of the civil law that the +proceedings against him were wholly illegal, and that he was innocent of +every crime. + +No notice had been taken of those appeals. + +Upon the questions and answers as already set forth the sentence soon +followed, and it may be as well that the reader should be aware, at this +point in the narrative, of the substance of that sentence so soon to be +pronounced. There had been no indictment, no specification of crime. +There had been no testimony or evidence. There had been no argument for +the prosecution or the defence. There had been no trial whatever. The +prisoner was convicted on a set of questions to which he had put in +satisfactory replies. He was sentenced on a preamble. The sentence was +a string of vague generalities, intolerably long, and as tangled as the +interrogatories. His proceedings during a long career had on the whole +tended to something called a "blood bath"--but the blood bath had never +occurred. + +With an effrontery which did not lack ingenuity, Barneveld's defence was +called by the commissioners his confession, and was formally registered +as such in the process and the sentence; while the fact that he had not +been stretched upon the rack during his trial, nor kept in chains for the +eight months of his imprisonment, were complacently mentioned as proofs +of exceptionable indulgence. + +"Whereas the prisoner John of Barneveld," said the sentence, "without +being put to the torture and without fetters of iron, has confessed . . +. . to having perturbed religion, greatly afflicted the Church of God, +and carried into practice exorbitant and pernicious maxims of State . . +. . inculcating by himself and accomplices that each province had the +right to regulate religious affairs within its own territory, and that +other provinces were not to concern themselves therewith"--therefore and +for many other reasons he merited punishment. + +He had instigated a protest by vote of three provinces against the +National Synod. He had despised the salutary advice of many princes and +notable personages. He had obtained from the King of Great Britain +certain letters furthering his own opinions, the drafts of which he had +himself suggested, and corrected and sent over to the States' ambassador +in London, and when written out, signed, and addressed by the King to the +States-General, had delivered them without stating how they had been +procured. + +Afterwards he had attempted to get other letters of a similar nature from +the King, and not succeeding had defamed his Majesty as being a cause of +the troubles in the Provinces. He had permitted unsound theologians to +be appointed to church offices, and had employed such functionaries in +political affairs as were most likely to be the instruments of his own +purposes. He had not prevented vigorous decrees from being enforced in +several places against those of the true religion. He had made them +odious by calling them Puritans, foreigners, and "Flanderizers," although +the United Provinces had solemnly pledged to each other their lives, +fortunes, and blood by various conventions, to some of which the prisoner +was himself a party, to maintain the Reformed, Evangelical, religion +only, and to, suffer no change in it to be made for evermore. + +In order to carry out his design and perturb the political state of the +Provinces he had drawn up and caused to be enacted the Sharp Resolution +of 4th August 1617. He had thus nullified the ordinary course of +justice. He had stimulated the magistrates to disobedience, and advised +them to strengthen themselves with freshly enlisted military companies. +He had suggested new-fangled oaths for the soldiers, authorizing them to +refuse obedience to the States-General and his Excellency. He had +especially stimulated the proceedings at Utrecht. When it was understood +that the Prince was to pass through Utrecht, the States of that province +not without the prisoner's knowledge had addressed a letter to his +Excellency, requesting him not to pass through their city. He had +written a letter to Ledenberg suggesting that good watch should be held +at the town gates and up and down the river Lek. He had desired that +Ledenberg having read that letter should burn it. He had interfered with +the cashiering of the mercenaries at Utrecht. He had said that such +cashiering without the consent of the States of that province was an act +of force which would justify resistance by force. + +Although those States had sent commissioners to concert measures +with the Prince for that purpose, he had advised them to conceal their +instructions until his own plan for the disbandment could be carried out. +At a secret meeting in the house of Tresel, clerk of the States-General, +between Grotius, Hoogerbeets, and other accomplices, it was decided that +this advice should be taken. Report accordingly was made to the +prisoner. He had advised them to continue in their opposition to the +National Synod. + +He had sought to calumniate and blacken his Excellency by saying +that he aspired to the sovereignty of the Provinces. He had received +intelligence on that subject from abroad in ciphered letters. + +He had of his own accord rejected a certain proposed, notable alliance +of the utmost importance to this Republic. + + [This refers, I think without doubt, to the conversation between + King James and Caron at the end of the year 1815.] + + +He had received from foreign potentates various large sums of money and +other presents. + +All "these proceedings tended to put the city of Utrecht into a blood- +bath, and likewise to bring the whole country, and the person of his +Excellency into the uttermost danger." + +This is the substance of the sentence, amplified by repetitions and +exasperating tautology into thirty or forty pages. + +It will have been perceived by our analysis of Barneveld's answers to the +commissioners that all the graver charges which he was now said to have +confessed had been indignantly denied by him or triumphantly justified. + +It will also be observed that he was condemned for no categorical crime-- +lese-majesty, treason, or rebellion. The commissioners never ventured to +assert that the States-General were sovereign, or that the central +government had a right to prescribe a religious formulary for all the +United Provinces. They never dared to say that the prisoner had been +in communication with the enemy or had received bribes from him. + +Of insinuation and implication there was much, of assertion very little, +of demonstration nothing whatever. + +But supposing that all the charges had been admitted or proved, what +course would naturally be taken in consequence? How was a statesman who +adhered to the political, constitutional, and religious opinions on which +he had acted, with the general acquiescence, during a career of more than +forty years, but which were said to be no longer in accordance with +public opinion, to be dealt with? Would the commissioners request him +to retire honourably from the high functions which he had over and over +again offered to resign? Would they consider that, having fairly +impeached and found him guilty of disturbing the public peace by +continuing to act on his well-known legal theories, they might deprive +him summarily of power and declare him incapable of holding office again? + +The conclusion of the commissioners was somewhat more severe than either +of these measures. Their long rambling preamble ended with these +decisive words: + +"Therefore the judges, in name of the Lords States-General, condemn the +prisoner to be taken to the Binnenhof, there to be executed with the +sword that death may follow, and they declare all his property +confiscated." + +The execution was to take place so soon as the sentence had been read to +the prisoner. + +After the 1st of May Barneveld had not appeared before his judges. He +had been examined in all about sixty times. + +In the beginning of May his servant became impatient. "You must not be +impatient," said his master. "The time seems much longer because we get +no news now from the outside. But the end will soon come. This delay +cannot last for ever." + +Intimation reached him on Saturday the 11th May that the sentence was +ready and would soon be pronounced. + +"It is a bitter folk," said Barneveld as he went to bed. "I have +nothing good to expect of them." Next day was occupied in sewing up and +concealing his papers, including a long account of his examination, with +the questions and answers, in his Spanish arm-chair. Next day van der +Meulen said to the servant, "I will bet you a hundred florins that you'll +not be here next Thursday." + +The faithful John was delighted, not dreaming of the impending result. + +It was Sunday afternoon, 12th May, and about half past five o'clock. +Barneveld sat in his prison chamber, occupied as usual in writing, +reviewing the history of the past, and doing his best to reduce into +something like order the rambling and miscellaneous interrogatories, out +of which his trial had been concocted, while the points dwelt in his +memory, and to draw up a concluding argument in his own defence. Work +which according to any equitable, reasonable, or even decent procedure +should have been entrusted to the first lawyers of the country--preparing +the case upon the law and the facts with the documents before them, with +the power of cross-questioning witnesses and sifting evidence, and +enlightened by constant conferences with the illustrious prisoner +himself--came entirely upon his own shoulders, enfeebled as he was +by age, physical illness, and by the exhaustion of along imprisonment. +Without books, notes of evidence, or even copies of the charges of which +he stood accused, he was obliged to draw up his counter-arguments against +the impeachment and then by aid of a faithful valet to conceal his +manuscript behind the tapestry of the chamber, or cause them to be sewed +up in the lining of his easy-chair, lest they should be taken from him by +order of the judges who sat in the chamber below. + +While he was thus occupied in preparations for his next encounter with +the tribunal, the door opened, and three gentlemen entered. Two were the +prosecuting officers of the government, Fiscal Sylla and Fiscal van +Leeuwen. The other was the provost-marshal, Carel de Nijs. The servant +was directed to leave the room. + +Barneveld had stepped into his dressing-room on hearing footsteps, but +came out again with his long furred gown about him as the three entered. +He greeted them courteously and remained standing, with his hands placed +on the back of his chair and with one knee resting carelessly against the +arm of it. Van Leeuwen asked him if he would not rather be seated, as +they brought a communication from the judges. He answered in the +negative. Von Leeuwen then informed him that he was summoned to appear +before the judges the next morning to hear his sentence of death. + +"The sentence of death!" he exclaimed, without in the least changing his +position; "the sentence of death! the sentence of death!" saying the +words over thrice, with an air of astonishment rather than of horror. +"I never expected that! I thought they were going to hear my defence +again. I had intended to make some change in my previous statements, +having set some things down when beside myself with choler." + +He then made reference to his long services. Van Leeuwen expressed +himself as well acquainted with them. "He was sorry," he said, "that his +lordship took this message ill of him." + +"I do not take it ill of you," said Barneveld, "but let them," meaning +the judges, "see how they will answer it before God. Are they thus to +deal with a true patriot? Let me have pen, ink, and paper, that for the +last time I may write farewell to my wife." + +"I will go ask permission of the judges," said van Leenwen, "and I cannot +think that my lord's request will be refused." + +While van Leeuwen was absent, the Advocate exclaimed, looking at the +other legal officer: + +"Oh, Sylla, Sylla, if your father could only have seen to what uses they +would put you!" + +Sylla was silent. + +Permission to write the letter was soon received from de Voogt, president +of the commission. Pen, ink, and paper were brought, and the prisoner +calmly sat down to write, without the slightest trace of discomposure +upon his countenance or in any of his movements. + +While he was writing, Sylla said with some authority, "Beware, my lord, +what you write, lest you put down something which may furnish cause for +not delivering the letter." + +Barneveld paused in his writing, took the glasses from his eyes, and +looked Sylla in the face. + +"Well, Sylla," he said very calmly, "will you in these my last moments +lay down the law to me as to what I shall write to my wife?" + +He then added with a half-smile, "Well, what is expected of me?" + +"We have no commission whatever to lay down the law," said van Leeuwen. +"Your worship will write whatever you like." + +While he was writing, Anthony Walaeus came in, a preacher and professor +of Middelburg, a deputy to the Synod of Dordtrecht, a learned and amiable +man, sent by the States-General to minister to the prisoner on this +supreme occasion; and not unworthy to be thus selected. + +The Advocate, not knowing him, asked him why he came. + +"I am not here without commission," said the clergyman. "I come to +console my lord in his tribulation." + +"I am a man," said Barneveld; "have come to my present age, and I know +how to console myself. I must write, and have now other things to do." + +The preacher said that he would withdraw and return when his worship was +at leisure. + +"Do as you like," said the Advocate, calmly going on with his writing. + +When the letter was finished, it was sent to the judges for their +inspection, by whom it was at once forwarded to the family mansion in the +Voorhout, hardly a stone's throw from the prison chamber. + +Thus it ran: + +"Very dearly beloved wife, children, sons-in-law, and grandchildren, +I greet you altogether most affectionately. I receive at this moment the +very heavy and sorrowful tidings that I, an old man, for all my services +done well and faithfully to the Fatherland for so many years (after +having performed all respectful and friendly offices to his Excellency +the Prince with upright affection so far as my official duty and vocation +would permit, shown friendship to many people of all sorts, and wittingly +injured no man), must prepare myself to die to-morrow. + +"I console myself in God the Lord, who knows all hearts, and who will +judge all men. I beg you all together to do the same. I have steadily +and faithfully served My Lords the States of Holland and their nobles and +cities. To the States of Utrecht as sovereigns of my own Fatherland I +have imparted at their request upright and faithful counsel, in order to +save them from tumults of the populace, and from the bloodshed with which +they had so long been threatened. I had the same views for the cities of +Holland in order that every one might be protected and no one injured. + +"Live together in love and peace. Pray for me to Almighty God, who will +graciously hold us all in His holy keeping. + +"From my chamber of sorrow, the 12th May 1619. + +"Your very dear husband, father, father-in-law, and grandfather, + + "JOHN OF BARNEVELD." + +It was thought strange that the judges should permit so simple and clear +a statement, an argument in itself, to be forwarded. The theory of his +condemnation was to rest before the public on his confessions of guilt, +and here in the instant of learning the nature of the sentence in a few +hours to be pronounced upon him he had in a few telling periods declared +his entire innocence. Nevertheless the letter had been sent at once to +its address. + +So soon as this sad business had been disposed of, Anthony Walaeus +returned. The Advocate apologized to the preacher for his somewhat +abrupt greeting on his first appearance. He was much occupied and did +not know him, he said, although he had often heard of him. He begged +him, as well as the provost-marshal, to join him at supper, which was +soon brought. + +Barneveld ate with his usual appetite, conversed cheerfully on various +topics, and pledged the health of each of his guests in a glass of beer. +Contrary to his wont he drank at that repast no wine. After supper he +went out into the little ante-chamber and called his servant, asking him +how he had been faring. Now John Franken had just heard with grief +unspeakable the melancholy news of his master's condemnation from two +soldiers of the guard, who had been sent by the judges to keep additional +watch over the prisoner. He was however as great a stoic as his master, +and with no outward and superfluous manifestations of woe had simply +implored the captain-at-arms, van der Meulen, to intercede with the +judges that he might be allowed to stay with his lord to the last. +Meantime he had been expressly informed that he was to say nothing to the +Advocate in secret, and that his master was not to speak to him in a low +tone nor whisper in his ear. + +When the Advocate came out into the ante-chamber and looking over his +shoulder saw the two soldiers he at once lowered his voice. + +"Hush-speak low," he whispered; "this is too cruel." John then informed +him of van der Meulen's orders, and that the soldiers had also been +instructed to look to it sharply that no word was exchanged between +master and man except in a loud voice. + +"Is it possible," said the Advocate, "that so close an inspection is held +over me in these last hours? Can I not speak a word or two in freedom? +This is a needless mark of disrespect." + +The soldiers begged him not to take their conduct amiss as they were +obliged strictly to obey orders. + +He returned to his chamber, sat down in his chair, and begged Walaeus to +go on his behalf to Prince Maurice. + +"Tell his Excellency," said he, "that I have always served him with +upright affection so far as my office, duties, and principles permitted. +If I, in the discharge of my oath and official functions, have ever done +anything contrary to his views, I hope that he will forgive it, and that +he will hold my children in his gracious favour." + +It was then ten o'clock. The preacher went downstairs and crossed the +courtyard to the Stadholder's apartments, where he at once gained +admittance. + +Maurice heard the message with tears in his eyes, assuring Walaeus that +he felt deeply for the Advocate's misfortunes. He had always had much +affection for him, he said, and had often warned him against his mistaken +courses. Two things, however, had always excited his indignation. One +was that Barneveld had accused him of aspiring to sovereignty. The other +that he had placed him in such danger at Utrecht. Yet he forgave him +all. As regarded his sons, so long as they behaved themselves well they +might rely on his favour. + +As Walaeus was about to leave the apartment, the Prince called him back. + +"Did he say anything of a pardon?" he asked, with some eagerness. + +"My Lord," answered the clergyman, "I cannot with truth say that I +understood him to make any allusion to it." + +Walaeus returned immediately to the prison chamber and made his report of +the interview. He was unwilling however to state the particulars of the +offence which Maurice declared himself to have taken at the acts of the +Advocate. + +But as the prisoner insisted upon knowing, the clergyman repeated the +whole conversation. + +"His Excellency has been deceived in regard to the Utrecht business," +said Barneveld, "especially as to one point. But it is true that I had +fear and apprehension that he aspired to the sovereignty or to more +authority in the country. Ever since the year 1600 I have felt this fear +and have tried that these apprehensions might be rightly understood." + +While Walaeus had been absent, the Reverend Jean la Motte (or Lamotius) +and another clergyman of the Hague had come to the prisoner's apartment. +La Motte could not look upon the Advocate's face without weeping, but the +others were more collected. Conversation now ensued among the four; the +preachers wishing to turn the doomed statesman's thought to the +consolations of religion. + +But it was characteristic of the old lawyer's frame of mind that even now +he looked at the tragical position in which he found himself from a +constitutional and controversial point of view. He was perfectly calm +and undaunted at the awful fate so suddenly and unexpectedly opened +before his eyes, but he was indignant at what he esteemed the ignorance, +injustice, and stupidity of the sentence to be pronounced against him. + +"I am ready enough to die," he said to the three clergymen, "but I cannot +comprehend why I am to die. I have done nothing except in obedience to +the laws and privileges of the land and according to my oath, honour, and +conscience." + +"These judges," he continued, "come in a time when other maxims prevail +in the State than those of my day. They have no right therefore to sit +in judgment upon me." + +The clergymen replied that the twenty-four judges who had tried the case +were no children and were conscientious men; that it was no small thing +to condemn a man, and that they would have to answer it before the +Supreme Judge of all. + +"I console myself," he answered, "in the Lord my God, who knows all +hearts and shall judge all men. God is just. + +"They have not dealt with me," he continued, "as according to law and +justice they were bound to deal. They have taken away from me my own +sovereign lords and masters and deposed them. To them alone I was +responsible. In their place they have put many of my enemies who were +never before in the government, and almost all of whom are young men who +have not seen much or read much. I have seen and read much, and know +that from such examples no good can follow. After my death they will +learn for the first time what governing means." + +"The twenty-four judges are nearly all of them my enemies. What they +have reproached me with, I have been obliged to hear. I have appealed +against these judges, but it has been of no avail. They have examined me +in piecemeal, not in statesmanlike fashion. The proceedings against +me have been much too hard. I have frequently requested to see the notes +of my examination as it proceeded, and to confer upon it with aid and +counsel of friends, as would be the case in all lands governed by law. +The request was refused. During this long and wearisome affliction and +misery I have not once been allowed to speak to my wife and children. +These are indecent proceedings against a man seventy-two years of age, +who has served his country faithfully for three-and-forty years. I bore +arms with the volunteers at my own charges at the siege of Haarlem and +barely escaped with life." + +It was not unnatural that the aged statesman's thoughts should revert in +this supreme moment to the heroic scenes in which he had been an actor +almost a half-century before. He could not but think with bitterness of +those long past but never forgotten days when he, with other patriotic +youths, had faced the terrible legions of Alva in defence of the +Fatherland, at a time when the men who were now dooming him to a +traitor's death were unborn, and who, but for his labours, courage, +wisdom, and sacrifices, might have never had a Fatherland to serve, +or a judgment-seat on which to pronounce his condemnation. + +Not in a spirit of fretfulness, but with disdainful calm, he criticised +and censured the proceedings against himself as a violation of the laws +of the land and of the first principles of justice, discussing them as +lucidly and steadily as if they had been against a third person. + +The preachers listened, but had nothing to say. They knew not of such +matters, they said, and had no instructions to speak of them. They had +been sent to call him to repentance for his open and hidden sins and to +offer the consolations of religion. + +"I know that very well," he said, "but I too have something to say +notwithstanding." The conversation then turned upon religious topics, +and the preachers spoke of predestination. + +"I have never been able to believe in the matter of high predestination," +said the Advocate. "I have left it in the hands of God the Lord. I hold +that a good Christian man must believe that he through God's grace and by +the expiation of his sin through our Redeemer Jesus Christ is predestined +to be saved, and that this belief in his salvation, founded alone on +God's grace and the merits of our Redeemer Jesus Christ, comes to him +through the same grace of God. And if he falls into great sins, his firm +hope and confidence must be that the Lord God will not allow him to +continue in them, but that, through prayer for grace and repentance, he +will be converted from evil and remain in the faith to the end of his +life." + +These feelings, he said, he had expressed fifty-two years before to three +eminent professors of theology in whom he confided, and they had assured +him that he might tranquilly continue in such belief without examining +further. "And this has always been my creed," he said. + +The preachers replied that faith is a gift of God and not given to all +men, that it must be given out of heaven to a man before he could be +saved. Hereupon they began to dispute, and the Advocate spoke so +earnestly and well that the clergymen were astonished and sat for +a time listening to him in silence. + +He asked afterwards about the Synod, and was informed that its decrees +had not yet been promulgated, but that the Remonstrants had been +condemned. + +"It is a pity," said he. "One is trying to act on the old Papal system, +but it will never do. Things have gone too far. As to the Synod, if My +Lords the States of Holland had been heeded there would have been first a +provincial synod and then a national one."--"But," he added, looking the +preachers in the face, "had you been more gentle with each other, matters +would not have taken so high a turn. But you have been too fierce one +against the other, too full of bitter party spirit." + +They replied that it was impossible for them to act against their +conscience and the supreme authority. And then they asked him if there +was nothing that troubled him in, his conscience in the matters for which +he must die; nothing for which he repented and sorrowed, and for which he +would call upon God for mercy. + +"This I know well," he said, "that I have never willingly done wrong to +any man. People have been ransacking my letters to Caron--confidential +ones written several years ago to an old friend when I was troubled and +seeking for counsel and consolation. It is hard that matter of +impeachment against me to-day should be sought for thus." + +And then he fell into political discourse again on the subject of the +Waartgelders and the State rights, and the villainous pasquils and libels +that had circulated so long through the country. + +"I have sometimes spoken hastily, I confess," he said; "but that was +when I was stung by the daily swarm of infamous and loathsome pamphlets, +especially those directed against my sovereign masters the States of +Holland. That I could not bear. Old men cannot well brush such things +aside. All that was directly aimed at me in particular I endeavoured to +overcome with such patience as I could muster. The disunion and mutual +enmity in the country have wounded me to the heart. I have made use +of all means in my power to accommodate matters, to effect with all +gentleness a mutual reconciliation. I have always felt a fear lest +the enemy should make use of our internal dissensions to strike a blow +against us. I can say with perfect truth that ever since the year '77 +I have been as resolutely and unchangeably opposed to the Spaniards and +their adherents, and their pretensions over these Provinces, as any man +in the world, no one excepted, and as ready to sacrifice property and +shed my blood in defence of the Fatherland. I have been so devoted to +the service of the country that I have not been able to take the +necessary care of my own private affairs." + +So spoke the great statesman in the seclusion of his prison, in the +presence of those clergymen whom he respected, at a supreme moment, when, +if ever, a man might be expected to tell the truth. And his whole life +which belonged to history, and had been passed on the world's stage +before the eyes of two generations of spectators, was a demonstration of +the truth of his words. + +But Burgomaster van Berk knew better. Had he not informed the twenty- +four commissioners that, twelve years before, the Advocate wished to +subject the country to Spain, and that Spinola had drawn a bill of +exchange for 100,000 ducats as a compensation for his efforts? + +It was eleven o'clock. Barneveld requested one of the brethren to say an +evening prayer. This was done by La Motte, and they were then requested +to return by three or four o'clock next morning. They had been directed, +they said, to remain with him all night. "That is unnecessary," said the +Advocate, and they retired. + +His servant then helped his master to undress, and he went to bed as +usual. Taking off his signet-ring, he gave it to John Franken. + +"For my eldest son," he said. + +The valet sat down at the head of his bed in order that his master might +speak to him before he slept. But the soldiers ordered him away and +compelled him to sit in a distant part of the room. + +An hour after midnight, the Advocate having been unable to lose himself, +his servant observed that Isaac, one of the soldiers, was fast asleep. +He begged the other, Tilman Schenk by name, to permit him some private +words with his master. He had probably last messages, he thought, to +send to his wife and children, and the eldest son, M. de Groeneveld, +would no doubt reward him well for it. But the soldier was obstinate in +obedience to the orders of the judges. + +Barneveld, finding it impossible to sleep, asked his servant to read to +him from the Prayer-book. The soldier called in a clergyman however, +another one named Hugo Bayerus, who had been sent to the prison, and who +now read to him the Consolations of the Sick. As he read, he made +exhortations and expositions, which led to animated discussion, in which +the Advocate expressed himself with so much fervour and eloquence that +all present were astonished, and the preacher sat mute a half-hour long +at the bed-side. + +"Had there been ten clergymen," said the simple-hearted sentry to the +valet, "your master would have enough to say to all of them." + +Barneveld asked where the place had been prepared in which he was to die. + +"In front of the great hall, as I understand," said Bayerus, "but I don't +know the localities well, having lived here but little." + +"Have you heard whether my Grotius is to die, and Hoogerbeets also?" he +asked? + +I have heard nothing to that effect," replied the clergyman. + +"I should most deeply grieve for those two gentlemen," said Barneveld, +"were that the case. They may yet live to do the land great service. +That great rising light, de Groot, is still young, but a very wise and +learned gentleman, devoted to his Fatherland with all zeal, heart, and +soul, and ready to stand up for her privileges, laws, and rights. As for +me, I am an old and worn-out man. I can do no more. I have already done +more than I was really able to do. I have worked so zealously in public +matters that I have neglected my private business. I had expressly +ordered my house at Loosduinen" [a villa by the seaside] "to be got +ready, that I might establish myself there and put my affairs in order. +I have repeatedly asked the States of Holland for my discharge, but could +never obtain it. It seems that the Almighty had otherwise disposed of +me." + +He then said he would try once more if he could sleep. The clergyman and +the servant withdrew for an hour, but his attempt was unsuccessful. +After an hour he called for his French Psalm Book and read in it for +some time. Sometime after two o'clock the clergymen came in again and +conversed with him. They asked him if he had slept, if he hoped to meet +Christ, and if there was anything that troubled his conscience. + +"I have not slept, but am perfectly tranquil," he replied. "I am ready +to die, but cannot comprehend why I must die. I wish from my heart that, +through my death and my blood, all disunion and discord in this land may +cease." + +He bade them carry his last greetings to his fellow prisoners. "Say +farewell for me to my good Grotius," said he, "and tell him that I must +die." + +The clergymen then left him, intending to return between five and six +o'clock. + +He remained quiet for a little while and then ordered his valet to cut +open the front of his shirt. When this was done, he said, "John, are you +to stay by me to the last?" + +"Yes," he replied, "if the judges permit it." + +"Remind me to send one of the clergymen to the judges with the request," +said his master. + +The faithful John, than whom no servant or friend could be more devoted, +seized the occasion, with the thrift and stoicism of a true Hollander, to +suggest that his lord might at the same time make some testamentary +disposition in his favour. + +"Tell my wife and children," said the Advocate, "that they must console +each other in mutual love and union. Say that through God's grace I am +perfectly at ease, and hope that they will be equally tranquil. Tell my +children that I trust they will be loving and friendly to their mother +during the short time she has yet to live. Say that I wish to recommend +you to them that they may help you to a good situation either with +themselves or with others. Tell them that this was my last request." + +He bade him further to communicate to the family the messages sent that +night through Walaeus by the Stadholder. + +The valet begged his master to repeat these instructions in presence of +the clergyman, or to request one of them to convey them himself to the +family. He promised to do so. + +"As long as I live," said the grateful servant, "I shall remember your +lordship in my prayers." + +"No, John," said the Advocate, "that is Popish. When I am dead, it is +all over with prayers. Pray for me while I still live. Now is the time +to pray. When one is dead, one should no longer be prayed for." + +La Motte came in. Barneveld repeated his last wishes exactly as he +desired them to be communicated to his wife and children. The preacher +made no response. "Will you take the message?" asked the prisoner. La +Motte nodded, but did not speak, nor did he subsequently fulfil the +request. + +Before five o'clock the servant heard the bell ring in the apartment of +the judges directly below the prison chamber, and told his master he had +understood that they were to assemble at five o'clock. + +"I may as well get up then," said the Advocate; "they mean to begin +early, I suppose. Give me my doublet and but one pair of stockings." + +He was accustomed to wear two or three pair at a time. + +He took off his underwaistcoat, saying that the silver bog which was in +one of the pockets was to be taken to his wife, and that the servant +should keep the loose money there for himself. Then he found an +opportunity to whisper to him, "Take good care of the papers which are in +the apartment." He meant the elaborate writings which he had prepared +during his imprisonment and concealed in the tapestry and within the +linings of the chair. + +As his valet handed him the combs and brushes, he said with a smile, +"John, this is for the last time." + +When he was dressed, he tried, in rehearsal of the approaching scene, to +pull over his eyes the silk skull-cap which he usually wore under his +hat. Finding it too tight he told the valet to put the nightcap in his +pocket and give it him when he should call for it. He then swallowed a +half-glass of wine with a strengthening cordial in it, which he was wont +to take. + +The clergymen then re-entered, and asked if he had been able to sleep. +He answered no, but that he had been much consoled by many noble things +which he had been reading in the French Psalm Book. The clergymen said +that they had been thinking much of the beautiful confession of faith +which he had made to them that evening. They rejoiced at it, they said, +on his account, and had never thought it of him. He said that such had +always been his creed. + +At his request Walaeus now offered a morning prayer Barneveld fell on his +knees and prayed inwardly without uttering a sound. La Motte asked when +he had concluded, "Did my Lord say Amen?"--"Yes, Lamotius," he replied; +"Amen."--"Has either of the brethren," he added, "prepared a prayer to be +offered outside there?" + +La Motte informed him that this duty had been confided to him. Some +passages from Isaiah were now read aloud, and soon afterwards Walaeus +was sent for to speak with the judges. He came back and said to the +prisoner, "Has my Lord any desire to speak with his wife or children, or +any of his friends?" It was then six o'clock, and Barneveld replied: + +"No, the time is drawing near. It would excite a new emotion." Walaeus +went back to the judges with this answer, who thereupon made this +official report: + +"The husband and father of the petitioners, being asked if he desired +that any of the petitioners should come to him, declared that he did not +approve of it, saying that it would cause too great an emotion for +himself as well as for them. This is to serve as an answer to the +petitioners." + +Now the Advocate knew nothing of the petition. Up to the last moment his +family had been sanguine as to his ultimate acquittal and release. They +relied on a promise which they had received or imagined that they had +received from the Stadholder that no harm should come to the prisoner in +consequence of the arrest made of his person in the Prince's apartments +on the 8th of August. They had opened this tragical month of May with +flagstaffs and flower garlands, and were making daily preparations to +receive back the revered statesman in triumph. + +The letter written by him from his "chamber of sorrow," late in the +evening of 12th May, had at last dispelled every illusion. It would be +idle to attempt to paint the grief and consternation into which the +household in the Voorhout was plunged, from the venerable dame at its +head, surrounded by her sons and daughters and children's children, down +to the humblest servant in their employment. For all revered and loved +the austere statesman, but simple and benignant father and master. + +No heed had been taken of the three elaborate and argumentative petitions +which, prepared by learned counsel in name of the relatives, had been +addressed to the judges. They had not been answered because they were +difficult to answer, and because it was not intended that the accused +should have the benefit of counsel. + +An urgent and last appeal was now written late at night, and signed by +each member of the family, to his Excellency the Prince and the judge +commissioners, to this effect: + +"The afflicted wife and children of M. van Barneveld humbly show that +having heard the sorrowful tidings of his coming execution, they humbly +beg that it may be granted them to see and speak to him for the last +time." + +The two sons delivered this petition at four o'clock in the morning into +the hands of de Voogd, one of the judges. It was duly laid before the +commission, but the prisoner was never informed, when declining a last +interview with his family, how urgently they had themselves solicited the +boon. + +Louise de Coligny, on hearing late at night the awful news, had been +struck with grief and horror. She endeavoured, late as it was, to do +something to avert the doom of one she so much revered, the man on whom +her illustrious husband had leaned his life long as on a staff of iron. +She besought an interview of the Stadholder, but it was refused. The +wife of William the Silent had no influence at that dire moment with her +stepson. She was informed at first that Maurice was asleep, and at four +in the morning that all intervention was useless. + +The faithful and energetic du Maurier, who had already exhausted himself +in efforts to save the life of the great prisoner, now made a last +appeal. He, too, heard at four o'clock in the morning of the 13th that +sentence of death was to be pronounced. Before five o'clock he made +urgent application to be heard before the Assembly of the States-General +as ambassador of a friendly sovereign who took the deepest interest in +the welfare of the Republic and the fate of its illustrious statesman. +The appeal was refused. As a last resource he drew up an earnest and +eloquent letter to the States-General, urging clemency in the name of his +king. It was of no avail. The letter may still be seen in the Royal +Archives at the Hague, drawn up entirely in du Maurier's clear and +beautiful handwriting. Although possibly a, first draft, written as it +was under such a mortal pressure for time, its pages have not one erasure +or correction. + +It was seven o'clock. Barneveld having observed by the preacher (La +Motte's) manner that he was not likely to convey the last messages which +he had mentioned to his wife and children, sent a request to the judges +to be allowed to write one more letter. Captain van der Meulen came back +with the permission, saying he would wait and take it to the judges for +their revision. + +The letter has been often published. + +"Must they see this too? Why, it is only a line in favour of John," said +the prisoner, sitting quietly down to write this letter: + +"Very dear wife and children, it is going to an end with me. I am, +through the grace of God, very tranquil. I hope that you are equally so, +and that you may by mutual love, union, and peace help each other to +overcome all things, which I pray to the Omnipotent as my last request. +John Franken has served me faithfully for many years and throughout all +these my afflictions, and is to remain with me to the end. He deserves +to be recommended to you and to be furthered to good employments with you +or with others. I request you herewith to see to this. + +"I have requested his Princely Excellency to hold my sons and children in +his favour, to which he has answered that so long as you conduct +yourselves well this shall be the case. I recommend this to you in the +best form and give you all into God's holy keeping. Kiss each other and +all my grandchildren, for the last time in my name, and fare you well. +Out of the chamber of sorrow, 13th May 1619. Your dear husband and +father, + JOHN OF BARNEVELD. + +"P.S. You will make John Franken a present in memory of me." + +Certainly it would be difficult to find a more truly calm, courageous, +or religious spirit than that manifested by this aged statesman at an +hour when, if ever, a human soul is tried and is apt to reveal its +innermost depths or shallows. Whatever Gomarus or Bogerman, or the whole +Council of Dordtrecht, may have thought of his theology, it had at least +taught him forgiveness of his enemies, kindness to his friends, and +submission to the will of the Omnipotent. Every moment of his last days +on earth had been watched and jealously scrutinized, and his bitterest +enemies had failed to discover one trace of frailty, one manifestation of +any vacillating, ignoble, or malignant sentiment. + +The drums had been sounding through the quiet but anxiously expectant +town since four o'clock that morning, and the tramp of soldiers marching +to the Inner Court had long been audible in the prison chamber. + +Walaeus now came back with a message from the judges. "The high +commissioners," he said, "think it is beginning. Will my Lord please to +prepare himself?" + +"Very well, very well," said the prisoner. "Shall we go at once?" + +But Walaeus suggested a prayer. Upon its conclusion, Barneveld gave his +hand to the provost-marshal and to the two soldiers, bidding them adieu, +and walked downstairs, attended by them, to the chamber of the judges. +As soon as he appeared at the door, he was informed that there had been a +misunderstanding, and he was requested to wait a little. He accordingly +went upstairs again with perfect calmness, sat down in his chamber again, +and read in his French Psalm Book. Half an hour later he was once more +summoned, the provost-marshal and Captain van der Meulen reappearing to +escort him. "Mr. Provost," said the prisoner, as they went down the +narrow staircase, "I have always been a good friend to you."--"It is +true," replied that officer, "and most deeply do I grieve to see you in +this affliction." + +He was about to enter the judges' chamber as usual, but was informed +that the sentence would be read in the great hall of judicature. They +descended accordingly to the basement story, and passed down the narrow +flight of steps which then as now connected the more modern structure, +where the Advocate had been imprisoned and tried, with what remained of +the ancient palace of the Counts of Holland. In the centre of the vast +hall--once the banqueting chamber of those petty sovereigns; with its +high vaulted roof of cedar which had so often in ancient days rung with +the sounds of mirth and revelry--was a great table at which the twenty- +four judges and the three prosecuting officers were seated, in their +black caps and gowns of office. The room was lined with soldiers and +crowded with a dark, surging mass of spectators, who had been waiting +there all night. + +A chair was placed for the prisoner. He sat down, and the clerk of the +commission, Pots by name, proceeded at once to read the sentence. +A summary of this long, rambling, and tiresome paper has been already +laid before the reader. If ever a man could have found it tedious to +listen to his own death sentence, the great statesman might have been in +that condition as he listened to Secretary Pots. + +During the reading of the sentence the Advocate moved uneasily on his +seat, and seemed about to interrupt the clerk at several passages which +seemed to him especially preposterous. But he controlled himself by a +strong effort, and the clerk went steadily on to the conclusion. + +Then Barneveld said: + +"The judges have put down many things which they have no right to draw +from my confession. Let this protest be added." + +"I thought too," he continued, "that My Lords the States-General would +have had enough in my life and blood, and that my wife and children might +keep what belongs to them. Is this my recompense for forty-three years' +service to these Provinces?" + +President de Voogd rose: + +"Your sentence has been pronounced," he said. "Away! away! "So saying +he pointed to the door into which one of the great windows at the south- +eastern front of the hall had been converted. + +Without another word the old man rose from his chair and strode, leaning +on his staff, across the hall, accompanied by his faithful valet and the +provost and escorted by a file of soldiers. The mob of spectators flowed +out after him at every door into the inner courtyard in front of the +ancient palace. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Better to be governed by magistrates than mobs +Burning with bitter revenge for all the favours he had received +Death rather than life with a false acknowledgment of guilt +Enemy of all compulsion of the human conscience +Heidelberg Catechism were declared to be infallible +I know how to console myself +Implication there was much, of assertion very little +John Robinson +Magistracy at that moment seemed to mean the sword +Only true religion +Rather a wilderness to reign over than a single heretic +William Brewster + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext Life of John Barneveld, v10, Motley #96 +by John Lothrop Motley + + + + + +THE LIFE AND DEATH of JOHN OF BARNEVELD, ADVOCATE OF HOLLAND + +WITH A VIEW OF THE PRIMARY CAUSES AND MOVEMENTS OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR + +By John Lothrop Motley, D.C.L., LL.D. + + + +Life and Death of John of Barneveld, v11, 1619-23 + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + Barneveld's Execution--The Advocate's Conduct on the Scaffold--The + Sentence printed and sent to the Provinces--The Proceedings + irregular and inequitable. + +In the beautiful village capital of the "Count's Park," commonly called +the Hague, the most striking and picturesque spot then as now was that +where the transformed remains of the old moated castle of those feudal +sovereigns were still to be seen. A three-storied range of simple, +substantial buildings in brown brickwork, picked out with white stone in +a style since made familiar both in England and America, and associated +with a somewhat later epoch in the history of the House of Orange, +surrounded three sides of a spacious inner paved quadrangle called the +Inner Court, the fourth or eastern side being overshadowed by a beechen +grove. A square tower flanked each angle, and on both sides of the +south-western turret extended the commodious apartments of the +Stadholder. The great gateway on the south-west opened into a wide open +space called the Outer Courtyard. Along the north-west side a broad and +beautiful sheet of water, in which the walls, turrets, and chapel-spires +of the enclosed castle mirrored themselves, was spread between the mass +of buildings and an umbrageous promenade called the Vyverberg, consisting +of a sextuple alley of lime-trees and embowering here and there a stately +villa. A small island, fringed with weeping willows and tufted all over +with lilacs, laburnums, and other shrubs then in full flower, lay in the +centre of the miniature lake, and the tall solid tower of the Great +Church, surmounted by a light openwork spire, looked down from a little +distance over the scene. + +It was a bright morning in May. The white swans were sailing tranquilly +to and fro over the silver basin, and the mavis, blackbird, and +nightingale, which haunted the groves surrounding the castle and the +town, were singing as if the daybreak were ushering in a summer festival. + +But it was not to a merry-making that the soldiers were marching and the +citizens. thronging so eagerly from every street and alley towards the +castle. By four o'clock the Outer and Inner Courts had been lined with +detachments of the Prince's guard and companies of other regiments to the +number of 1200 men. Occupying the north-eastern side of the court rose +the grim, time-worn front of the ancient hall, consisting of one tall +pyramidal gable of ancient grey brickwork flanked with two tall slender +towers, the whole with the lancet-shaped windows and severe style of the +twelfth century, excepting a rose-window in the centre with the decorated +mullions of a somewhat later period. + +In front of the lower window, with its Gothic archway hastily converted +into a door, a shapeless platform of rough, unhewn planks had that night +been rudely patched together. This was the scaffold. A slight railing +around it served to protect it from the crowd, and a heap of coarse sand +had been thrown upon it. A squalid, unclean box of unplaned boards, +originally prepared as a coffin for a Frenchman who some time before had +been condemned to death for murdering the son of Goswyn Meurskens, a +Hague tavern-keeper, but pardoned by the Stadholder--lay on the scaffold. +It was recognized from having been left for a long time, half forgotten, +at the public execution-place of the Hague. + +Upon this coffin now sat two common soldiers of ruffianly aspect playing +at dice, betting whether the Lord or the Devil would get the soul of +Barneveld. Many a foul and ribald jest at the expense of the prisoner +was exchanged between these gamblers, some of their comrades, and a few +townsmen, who were grouped about at that early hour. The horrible +libels, caricatures, and calumnies which had been circulated, exhibited, +and sung in all the streets for so many months had at last thoroughly +poisoned the minds of the vulgar against the fallen statesman. + +The great mass of the spectators had forced their way by daybreak into +the hall itself to hear the sentence, so that the Inner Courtyard had +remained comparatively empty. + +At last, at half past nine o'clock, a shout arose, "There he comes! +there he comes!" and the populace flowed out from the hall of judgment +into the courtyard like a tidal wave. + +In an instant the Binnenhof was filled with more than three thousand +spectators. + +The old statesman, leaning on his staff, walked out upon the scaffold and +calmly surveyed the scene. Lifting his eyes to Heaven, he was heard to +murmur, "O God! what does man come to!" Then he said bitterly once more: +"This, then, is the reward of forty years' service to the State!" + +La Motte, who attended him, said fervently: "It is no longer time to +think of this. Let us prepare your coming before God." + +"Is there no cushion or stool to kneel upon?" said Barneveld, looking +around him. + +The provost said he would send for one, but the old man knelt at once +on the bare planks. His servant, who waited upon him as calmly and +composedly as if he had been serving him at dinner, held him by the arm. +It was remarked that neither master nor man, true stoics and Hollanders +both, shed a single tear upon the scaffold. + +La Motte prayed for a quarter of an hour, the Advocate remaining on his +knees. + +He then rose and said to John Franken, "See that he does not come near +me," pointing to the executioner who stood in the background grasping his +long double-handed sword. Barneveld then rapidly unbuttoned his doublet +with his own hands and the valet helped him off with it. "Make haste! +make haste!" said his master. + +The statesman then came forward and said in a loud, firm voice to the +people: + +"Men, do not believe that I am a traitor to the country. I have ever +acted uprightly and loyally as a good patriot, and as such I shall die." + +The crowd was perfectly silent. + +He then took his cap from John Franken, drew it over his eyes, and went +forward towards the sand, saying: + +"Christ shall be my guide. O Lord, my heavenly Father, receive my +spirit." + +As he was about to kneel with his face to the south, the provost said: + +"My lord will be pleased to move to the other side, not where the sun is +in his face." + +He knelt accordingly with his face towards his own house. The servant +took farewell of him, and Barneveld said to the executioner: + +"Be quick about it. Be quick." + +The executioner then struck his head off at a single blow. + +Many persons from the crowd now sprang, in spite of all opposition, upon +the scaffold and dipped their handkerchiefs in his blood, cut wet +splinters from the boards, or grubbed up the sand that was steeped in it; +driving many bargains afterwards for these relics to be treasured, with +various feelings of sorrow, joy, glutted or expiated vengeance. + +It has been recorded, and has been constantly repeated to this day, that +the Stadholder, whose windows exactly faced the scaffold, looked out upon +the execution with a spy-glass; saying as he did so: + +"See the old scoundrel, how he trembles! He is afraid of the stroke." + +But this is calumny. Colonel Hauterive declared that he was with Maurice +in his cabinet during the whole period of the execution, that by order of +the Prince all the windows and shutters were kept closed, that no person +wearing his livery was allowed to be abroad, that he anxiously received +messages as to the proceedings, and heard of the final catastrophe with +sorrowful emotion. + +It must be admitted, however, that the letter which Maurice wrote on the +same morning to his cousin William Lewis does not show much pathos. + +"After the judges," he said, "have been busy here with the sentence +against the Advocate Barneveld for several days, at last it has been +pronounced, and this morning, between nine o'clock and half past, carried +into execution with the sword, in the Binnenhof before the great hall. + +"The reasons they had for this you will see from the sentence, which will +doubtless be printed, and which I will send you. + +"The wife of the aforesaid Barneveld and also some of his sons and sons- +in-law or other friends have never presented any supplication for his +pardon, but till now have vehemently demanded that law and justice should +be done to him, and have daily let the report run through the people that +he would soon come out. They also planted a may-pole before their house +adorned with garlands and ribbands, and practised other jollities and +impertinences, while they ought to have conducted themselves in a humble +and lowly fashion. This is no proper manner of behaving, and moreover +not a practical one to move the judges to any favour even if they had +been thereto inclined." + +The sentence was printed and sent to the separate provinces. It was +accompanied by a declaration of the States-General that they had received +information from the judges of various points, not mentioned in the +sentence, which had been laid to the charge of the late Advocate, and +which gave much reason to doubt whether he had not perhaps turned his +eyes toward the enemy. They could not however legally give judgment to +that effect without a sharper investigation, which on account of his +great age and for other reasons it was thought best to spare him. + +A meaner or more malignant postscript to a state paper recounting the +issue of a great trial it would be difficult to imagine. The first +statesman of the country had just been condemned and executed on a +narrative, without indictment of any specified crime. And now, by a kind +of apologetic after-thought, six or eight individuals calling themselves +the States-General insinuated that he had been looking towards the enemy, +and that, had they not mercifully spared him the rack, which is all that +could be meant by their sharper investigation, he would probably have +confessed the charge. + +And thus the dead man's fame was blackened by those who had not hesitated +to kill him, but had shrunk from enquiring into his alleged crime. + +Not entirely without semblance of truth did Grotius subsequently say that +the men who had taken his life would hardly have abstained from torturing +him if they had really hoped by so doing to extract from him a confession +of treason. + +The sentence was sent likewise to France, accompanied with a statement +that Barneveld had been guilty of unpardonable crimes which had not been +set down in the act of condemnation. Complaints were also made of the +conduct of du Maurier in thrusting himself into the internal affairs of +the States and taking sides so ostentatiously against the government. +The King and his ministers were indignant with these rebukes, and +sustained the Ambassador. Jeannin and de Boississe expressed the opinion +that he had died innocent of any crime, and only by reason of his strong +political opposition to the Prince. + +The judges had been unanimous in finding him guilty of the acts recorded +in their narrative, but three of them had held out for some time in +favour of a sentence of perpetual imprisonment rather than decapitation. + +They withdrew at last their opposition to the death penalty for the +wonderful reason that reports had been circulated of attempts likely to +be made to assassinate Prince Maurice. The Stadholder himself treated +these rumours and the consequent admonition of the States-General that +he would take more than usual precautions for his safety with perfect +indifference, but they were conclusive with the judges of Barneveld. + +"Republica poscit exemplum," said Commissioner Junius, one of the three, +as he sided with the death-warrant party. + +The same Doctor Junius a year afterwards happened to dine, in company of +one of his fellow-commissioners, with Attorney-General Sylla at Utrecht, +and took occasion to ask them why it was supposed that Barneveld had been +hanging his head towards Spain, as not one word of that stood in the +sentence. + +The question was ingenuous on the part of one learned judge to his +colleagues in one of the most famous state trials of history, propounded +as a bit of after-dinner casuistry, when the victim had been more than a +year in his grave. + +But perhaps the answer was still more artless. His brother lawyers +replied that the charge was easily to be deduced from the sentence, +because a man who breaks up the foundation of the State makes the country +indefensible, and therefore invites the enemy to invade it. And this +Barneveld had done, who had turned the Union, religion, alliances, and +finances upside down by his proceedings. + +Certainly if every constitutional minister, accused by the opposition +party of turning things upside down by his proceedings, were assumed to +be guilty of deliberately inviting a hostile invasion of his country, +there would have been few from that day to this to escape hanging. + +Constructive treason could scarcely go farther than it was made to do in +these attempts to prove, after his death, that the Advocate had, as it +was euphuistically expressed, been looking towards the enemy. + +And no better demonstrations than these have ever been discovered. + +He died at the age of seventy-one years seven months and eighteen days. + +His body and head were huddled into the box upon which the soldiers had +been shaking the dice, and was placed that night in the vault of the +chapel in the Inner Court. + +It was subsequently granted as a boon to the widow and children that it +might be taken thence and decently buried in the family vault at +Amersfoort. + +On the day of the execution a formal entry was made in the register of +the States of Holland. + +"Monday, 13th May 1619. To-day was executed with the sword here in the +Hague, on a scaffold thereto erected in the Binnenhof before the steps of +the great hall, Mr. John of Barneveld, in his life Knight, Lord of +Berkel, Rodenrys, &c., Advocate of Holland and West Friesland, for +reasons expressed in the sentence and otherwise, with confiscation of his +property, after he had served the State thirty-three years two months and +five days since 8th March 1586.; a man of great activity, business, +memory, and wisdom--yes, extraordinary in every respect. He that stands +let him see that he does not fall, and may God be merciful to his soul. +Amen?" + +A year later-on application made by the widow and children of the +deceased to compound for the confiscation of his property by payment of a +certain sum, eighty florins or a similar trifle, according to an ancient +privilege of the order of nobility--the question was raised whether he +had been guilty of high-treason, as he had not been sentenced for such a +crime, and as it was only in case of sentence for lese-majesty that this +composition was disallowed. It was deemed proper therefore to ask the +court for what crime the prisoner had been condemned. Certainly a more +sarcastic question could not have been asked. But the court had ceased +to exist. The commission had done its work and was dissolved. Some of +its members were dead. Letters however were addressed by the States- +General to the individual commissioners requesting them to assemble at +the Hague for the purpose of stating whether it was because the prisoners +had committed lese-majesty that their property had been confiscated. +They never assembled. Some of them were perhaps ignorant of the exact +nature of that crime. Several of them did not understand the words. +Twelve of them, among whom were a few jurists, sent written answers to +the questions proposed. The question was, "Did you confiscate the +property because the crime was lese-majesty?" The reply was, "The crime +was lese-majesty, although not so stated in the sentence, because we +confiscated the property." In one of these remarkable documents this was +stated to be "the unanimous opinion of almost all the judges." + +The point was referred to the commissioners, some of whom attended the +court of the Hague in person, while others sent written opinions. All +agreed that the criminal had committed high-treason because otherwise his +property would not have been confiscated. + +A more wonderful example of the argument in a circle was never heard of. +Moreover it is difficult to understand by what right the high commission, +which had been dissolved a year before, after having completed its work, +could be deemed competent to emit afterwards a judicial decision. But +the fact is curious as giving one more proof of the irregular, +unphilosophical, and inequitable nature of these famous proceedings. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + Grotius urged to ask Forgiveness--Grotius shows great Weakness-- + Hoogerbeets and Grotius imprisoned for Life--Grotius confined at + Loevestein--Grotius' early Attainments--Grotius' Deportment in + Prison--Escape of Grotius--Deventer's Rage at Grotius' Escape. + +Two days after the execution of the Advocate, judgment was pronounced +upon Gillis van Ledenberg. It would have been difficult to try him, or +to extort a confession of high-treason from him by the rack or otherwise, +as the unfortunate gentleman had been dead for more than seven months. + +Not often has a court of justice pronounced a man, without trial, to be +guilty of a capital offence. Not often has a dead man been condemned and +executed. But this was the lot of Secretary Ledenberg. He was sentenced +to be hanged, his property declared confiscated. + +His unburied corpse, reduced to the condition of a mummy, was brought out +of its lurking-place, thrust into a coffin, dragged on a hurdle to the +Golgotha outside the Hague, on the road to Ryswyk, and there hung on a +gibbet in company of the bodies of other malefactors swinging there in +chains. + +His prudent scheme to save his property for his children by committing +suicide in prison was thus thwarted. + +The reading of the sentence of Ledenberg, as had been previously the case +with that of Barneveld, had been heard by Grotius through the open window +of his prison, as he lay on his bed. The scaffold on which the Advocate +had suffered was left standing, three executioners were still in the +town, and there was every reason for both Grotius and Hoogerbeets to +expect a similar doom. Great efforts were made to induce the friends of +the distinguished prisoners to sue for their pardon. But even as in the +case of the Barneveld family these attempts were fruitless. The austere +stoicism both on the part of the sufferers and their relatives excites +something like wonder. + +Three of the judges went in person to the prison chamber of Hoogerbeets, +urging him to ask forgiveness himself or to allow his friends to demand +it for him. + +"If my wife and children do ask," he said, "I will protest against it. +I need no pardon. Let justice take its course. Think not, gentlemen, +that I mean by asking for pardon to justify your proceedings." + +He stoutly refused to do either. The judges, astonished, took their +departure, saying: + +"Then you will fare as Barneveld. The scaffold is still standing." + +He expected consequently nothing but death, and said many years +afterwards that he knew from personal experience how a man feels who +goes out of prison to be beheaded. + +The wife of Grotius sternly replied to urgent intimations from a high +source that she should ask pardon for her husband, "I shall not do it. +If he has deserved it, let them strike off his head." + +Yet no woman could be more devoted to her husband than was Maria van +Reigersbergen to Hugo de Groot, as time was to prove. The Prince +subsequently told her at a personal interview that "one of two roads +must be taken, that of the law or that of pardon." + +Soon after the arrest it was rumoured that Grotius was ready to make +important revelations if he could first be assured of the Prince's +protection. + +His friends were indignant at the statement. His wife stoutly denied its +truth, but, to make sure, wrote to her husband on the subject. + +"One thing amazes me," she said; "some people here pretend to say that +you have stated to one gentleman in private that you have something to +disclose greatly important to the country, but that you desired +beforehand to be taken under the protection of his Excellency. I have +not chosen to believe this, nor do I, for I hold that to be certain which +you have already told me--that you know no secrets. I see no reason +therefore why you should require the protection of any man. And there is +no one to believe this, but I thought best to write to you of it. Let +me, in order that I may contradict the story with more authority, have by +the bearer of this a simple Yes or No. Study quietly, take care of your +health, have some days' patience, for the Advocate has not yet been +heard." + +The answer has not been preserved, but there is an allusion to the +subject in an unpublished memorandum of Grotius written while he was in +prison. + +It must be confessed that the heart of the great theologian and jurist +seems to have somewhat failed him after his arrest, and although he was +incapable of treachery--even if he had been possessed of any secrets, +which certainly was not the case--he did not show the same Spartan +firmness as his wife, and was very far from possessing the heroic calm of +Barneveld. He was much disposed to extricate himself from his unhappy +plight by making humble, if not abject, submission to Maurice. He +differed from his wife in thinking that he had no need of the Prince's +protection. "I begged the Chamberlain, Matthew de Cors," he said, a few +days after his arrest, "that I might be allowed to speak with his +Excellency of certain things which I would not willingly trust to the +pen. My meaning was to leave all public employment and to offer my +service to his Excellency in his domestic affairs. Thus I hoped that the +motives for my imprisonment would cease. This was afterwards +misinterpreted as if I had had wonderful things to reveal." + +But Grotius towards the end of his trial showed still greater weakness. +After repeated refusals, he had at last obtained permission of the judges +to draw up in writing the heads of his defence. To do this he was +allowed a single sheet of paper, and four hours of time, the trial having +lasted several months. And in the document thus prepared he showed +faltering in his faith as to his great friend's innocence, and admitted, +without any reason whatever, the possibility of there being truth in some +of the vile and anonymous calumnies against him. + +"The friendship of the Advocate of Holland I had always highly prized," +he said, "hoping from the conversation of so wise and experienced a +person to learn much that was good . . . . I firmly believed that his +Excellency, notwithstanding occasional differences as to the conduct of +public affairs, considered him a true and upright servant of the land +. . . I have been therefore surprised to understand, during my +imprisonment, that the gentlemen had proofs in hand not alone of his +correspondence with the enemy, but also of his having received money from +them. + +"He being thus accused, I have indicated by word of mouth and afterwards +resumed in writing all matters which I thought--the above-mentioned +proofs being made good--might be thereto indirectly referred, in order to +show that for me no friendships were so dear as the preservation of the +freedom of the land. I wish that he may give explanation of all to the +contentment of the judges, and that therefore his actions--which, +supposing the said correspondence to be true, are subject to a bad +interpretation--may be taken in another sense." + +Alas! could the Advocate--among whose first words after hearing of his +own condemnation to death were, "And must my Grotius die too?" adding, +with a sigh of relief when assured of the contrary, "I should deeply +grieve for that; he is so young and may live to do the State much service +"could he have read those faltering and ungenerous words from one he so +held in his heart, he would have felt them like the stab of Brutus. + +Grotius lived to know that there were no such proofs, that the judges did +not dare even allude to the charge in their sentence, and long years +afterwards he drew a picture of the martyred patriot such as one might +have expected from his pen. + +But these written words of doubt must have haunted him to his grave. + +On the 18th May 1619--on the fifty-first anniversary, as Grotius +remarked, of the condemnation of Egmont and Hoorn by the Blood Tribunal +of Alva--the two remaining victims were summoned to receive their doom. +The Fiscal Sylla, entering de Groot's chamber early in the morning to +conduct him before the judges, informed him that he was not instructed to +communicate the nature of the sentence. "But," he said, maliciously, +"you are aware of what has befallen the Advocate." + +"I have heard with my own ears," answered Grotius, "the judgment +pronounced upon Barneveld and upon Ledenberg. Whatever may be my fate, I +have patience to bear it." + +The sentence, read in the same place and in the same manner as had been +that upon the Advocate, condemned both Hoogerbeets and Grotius to +perpetual imprisonment. + +The course of the trial and the enumeration of the offences were nearly +identical with the leading process which has been elaborately described. + +Grotius made no remark whatever in the court-room. On returning to his +chamber he observed that his admissions of facts had been tortured into +confessions of guilt, that he had been tried and sentenced against all +principles and forms of law, and that he had been deprived of what the +humblest criminal could claim, the right of defence and the examination +of testimony. In regard to the penalty against him, he said, there was +no such thing as perpetual imprisonment except in hell. Alluding to the +leading cause of all these troubles, he observed that it was with the +Stadholder and the Advocate as Cato had said of Caesar and Pompey. The +great misery had come not from their being enemies, but from their having +once been friends. + +On the night of 5th June the prisoners were taken from their prison in +the Hague and conveyed to the castle of Loevestein. + +This fortress, destined thenceforth to be famous in history and--from +its frequent use in after-times as a state-prison for men of similar +constitutional views to those of Grotius and the Advocate--to give its +name to a political party, was a place of extraordinary strength. Nature +and art had made it, according to military ideas of that age, almost +impregnable. As a prison it seemed the very castle of despair. +"Abandon all hope ye who enter" seemed engraven over its portal. + +Situate in the very narrow, acute angle where the broad, deep, and turbid +Waal--the chief of the three branches into which the Rhine divides itself +on entering the Netherlands--mingles its current with the silver Meuse +whose name it adopts as the united rivers roll to the sea, it was guarded +on many sides by these deep and dangerous streams. On the land-side it +was surrounded by high walls and a double foss, which protected it +against any hostile invasion from Brabant. As the Twelve Years' Truce +was running to its close, it was certain that pains would be taken to +strengthen the walls and deepen the ditches, that the place might be +proof against all marauders and land-robbers likely to swarm over from +the territory of the Archdukes. The town of Gorcum was exactly opposite +on the northern side of the Waal, while Worcum was about a league's +distance from the castle on the southern side, but separated from it by +the Meuse. + +The prisoners, after crossing the drawbridge, were led through thirteen +separate doors, each one secured by iron bolts and heavy locks, until +they reached their separate apartments. + +They were never to see or have any communication with each other. It had +been accorded by the States-General however that the wives of the two +gentlemen were to have access to their prison, were to cook for them in +the castle kitchen, and, if they chose to inhabit the fortress, might +cross to the neighbouring town of Gorcum from time to time to make +purchases, and even make visits to the Hague. Twenty-four stuivers, or +two shillings, a day were allowed by the States-General for the support +of each prisoner and his family. As the family property of Grotius was +at once sequestered, with a view to its ultimate confiscation, it was +clear that abject indigence as well as imprisonment was to be the +lifelong lot of this illustrious person, who had hitherto lived in modest +affluence, occupying the most considerable of social positions. + +The commandant of the fortress was inspired from the outset with a desire +to render the prisoner's situation as hateful as it was in his power to +make it. And much was in his power. He resolved that the family should +really live upon their daily pittance. Yet Madame de Groot, before the +final confiscation of her own and her husband's estates, had been able to +effect considerable loans, both to carry on process against government +for what the prisoners contended was an unjust confiscation, and for +providing for the household on a decent scale and somewhat in accordance +with the requirements of the prisoner's health. Thus there was a +wearisome and ignoble altercation, revived from day to day, between the +Commandant and Madame de Groot. It might have been thought enough of +torture for this virtuous and accomplished lady, but twenty-nine years of +age and belonging to one of the eminent families of the country, to see +her husband, for his genius and accomplishments the wonder of Europe, +thus cut off in the flower of his age and doomed to a living grave. +She was nevertheless to be subjected to the perpetual inquisition of the +market-basket, which she was not ashamed with her maid to take to and +from Gorcum, and to petty wrangles about the kitchen fire where she was +proud to superintend the cooking of the scanty fare for her husband and +her five children. + +There was a reason for the spite of the military jailer. Lieutenant +Prouninx, called Deventer, commandant of Loevestein, was son of the +notorious Gerard Prouninx, formerly burgomaster of Utrecht, one of the +ringleaders of the Leicester faction in the days when the Earl made his +famous attempts upon the four cities. He had sworn revenge upon all +those concerned in his father's downfall, and it was a delight therefore +to wreak a personal vengeance on one who had since become so illustrious +a member of that party by which the former burgomaster had been deposed, +although Grotius at the time of Leicester's government had scarcely left +his cradle. + +Thus these ladies were to work in the kitchen and go to market from time +to time, performing this menial drudgery under the personal inspection of +the warrior who governed the garrison and fortress, but who in vain +attempted to make Maria van Reigersbergen tremble at his frown. + +Hugo de Groot, when thus for life immured, after having already undergone +a preliminary imprisonment of nine months, was just thirty-six years of +age. Although comparatively so young, he had been long regarded as one +of the great luminaries of Europe for learning and genius. Of an ancient +and knightly race, his immediate ancestors had been as famous for +literature, science, and municipal abilities as their more distant +progenitors for deeds of arms in the feudal struggles of Holland in the +middle ages. + +His father and grandfather had alike been eminent for Hebrew, Greek, and +Latin scholarship, and both had occupied high positions in the University +of Leyden from its beginning. Hugo, born and nurtured under such +quickening influences, had been a scholar and poet almost from his +cradle. He wrote respectable Latin verses at the age of seven, he was +matriculated at Leyden at the age of eleven. That school, founded amid +the storms and darkness of terrible war, was not lightly to be entered. +It was already illustrated by a galaxy of shining lights in science and +letters, which radiated over Christendom. His professors were Joseph +Scaliger, Francis Junius, Paulus Merula, and a host of others. His +fellow-students were men like Scriverius, Vossius, Baudius, Daniel +Heinsius. The famous soldier and poet Douza, who had commanded the +forces of Leyden during the immortal siege, addressed him on his +admission to the university as "Magne peer magni dignissime cura +parentis," in a copy of eloquent verses. + +When fourteen years old, he took his bachelor's degree, after a +rigorous examination not only in the classics but astronomy, mathematics, +jurisprudence, and theology, at an age when most youths would have been +accounted brilliant if able to enter that high school with credit. + +On leaving the University he was attached to the embassy of Barneveld and +Justinus van Nassau to the court of Henry IV. Here he attracted the +attention of that monarch, who pointed him out to his courtiers as the +"miracle of Holland," presented him with a gold chain with his miniature +attached to it, and proposed to confer on him the dignity of knighthood, +which the boy from motives of family pride appears to have refused. +While in France he received from the University of Orleans, before the +age of fifteen, the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in a very +eulogistic diploma. On his return to Holland he published an edition of +the poet Johannes Capella with valuable annotations, besides giving to +the public other learned and classical works and several tragedies of +more or less merit. At the age of seventeen he was already an advocate +in full practice before the supreme tribunals of the Hague, and when +twenty-three years old he was selected by Prince Maurice from a list of +three candidates for the important post of Fiscal or Attorney-General of +Holland. Other civic dignities, embassies, and offices of various kinds, +had been thrust upon him one after another, in all of which he had +acquitted himself with dignity and brilliancy. He was but twenty-six +when he published his argument for the liberty of the sea, the famous +Mare Liberum, and a little later appeared his work on the Antiquity of +the Batavian Republic, which procured for him in Spain the title of "Hugo +Grotius, auctor damnatus." At the age of twenty-nine he had completed +his Latin history of the Netherlands from the period immediately +preceding the war of independence down to the conclusion of the Truce, +1550-1609--a work which has been a classic ever since its appearance, +although not published until after his death. A chief magistrate of +Rotterdam, member of the States of Holland and the States-General, +jurist, advocate, attorney-general, poet, scholar, historian, editor of +the Greek and Latin classics, writer of tragedies, of law treatises, of +theological disquisitions, he stood foremost among a crowd of famous +contemporaries. His genius, eloquence, and learning were esteemed among +the treasures not only of his own country but of Europe. He had been +part and parcel of his country's history from his earliest manhood, and +although a child in years compared to Barneveld, it was upon him that the +great statesman had mainly relied ever since the youth's first appearance +in public affairs. Impressible, emotional, and susceptive, he had been +accused from time to time, perhaps not entirely without reason, of +infirmity of purpose, or at least of vacillation in opinion; but his +worst enemies had never assailed the purity of his heart or integrity of +his character. He had not yet written the great work on the 'Rights of +War and Peace', which was to make an epoch in the history of civilization +and to be the foundation of a new science, but the materials lay already +in the ample storehouse of his memory and his brain. + +Possessed of singular personal beauty--which the masterly portraits of +Miereveld attest to the present day--tall, brown-haired; straight- +featured, with a delicate aquiline nose and piercing dark blue eyes, he +was also athletic of frame and a proficient in manly exercises. This was +the statesman and the scholar, of whom it is difficult to speak but in +terms of affectionate but not exaggerated eulogy, and for whom the +Republic of the Netherlands could now find no better use than to shut him +up in the grim fortress of Loevestein for the remainder of his days. A +commonwealth must have deemed itself rich in men which, after cutting off +the head of Barneveld, could afford to bury alive Hugo Grotius. + +His deportment in prison was a magnificent moral lesson. Shut up in a +kind of cage consisting of a bedroom and a study, he was debarred from +physical exercise, so necessary for his mental and bodily health. Not +choosing for the gratification of Lieutenant Deventer to indulge in weak +complaints, he procured a huge top, which he employed himself in whipping +several hours a day; while for intellectual employment he plunged once +more into those classical, juridical, and theological studies which had +always employed his leisure hours from childhood upwards. + +It had been forbidden by the States-General to sell his likeness in the +shops. The copper plates on which they had been engraved had as far as +possible been destroyed. + +The wish of the government, especially of his judges, was that his name +and memory should die at once and for ever. They were not destined to be +successful, for it would be equally difficult to-day to find an educated +man in Christendom ignorant of the name of Hugo Grotius, or acquainted +with that of a single one of his judges. + +And his friends had not forgotten him as he lay there living in his tomb. +Especially the learned Scriverius, Vossius, and other professors, were +permitted to correspond with him at intervals on literary subjects, the +letters being subjected to preliminary inspection. Scriverius sent him +many books from his well-stocked library, de Groot's own books and papers +having been confiscated by the government. At a somewhat later period +the celebrated Orientalist Erpenius sent him from time to time a large +chest of books, the precious freight being occasionally renewed and the +chest passing to and from Loevestein by way of Gorcum. At this town +lived a sister of Erpenius, married to one Daatselaer, a considerable +dealer in thread and ribbons, which he exported to England. The house of +Daatselaer became a place of constant resort for Madame de Groot as well +as the wife of Hoogerbeets, both dames going every few days from the +castle across the Waal to Gorcum, to make their various purchases for the +use of their forlorn little households in the prison. Madame Daatselaer +therefore received and forwarded into Loevestein or into Holland many +parcels and boxes, besides attending to the periodical transmission of +the mighty chest of books. + +Professor Vossius was then publishing a new edition of the tragedies of +Seneca, and at his request Grotius enriched that work, from his prison, +with valuable notes. He employed himself also in translating the moral +sentences extracted by Stobaeus from the Greek tragedies; drawing +consolation from the ethics and philosophy of the ancient dramatists, +whom he had always admired, especially the tragedies of Euripides; he +formed a complete moral anthology from that poet and from the works of +Sophocles, Menander, and others, which he translated into fluent Dutch +verse. Becoming more and more interested in the subject, he executed a +masterly rhymed translation of the 'Theban Brothers' of Euripides, thus +seeking distraction from his own tragic doom in the portraiture of +antique, distant, and heroic sorrow. + +Turning again to legal science, he completed an Introduction to the +Jurisprudence of Holland, a work which as soon as published became +thenceforward a text-book and an oracle in the law courts and the high +schools of the country. Not forgetting theology, he composed for the use +of the humbler classes, especially for sailors, in whose lot, so exposed +to danger and temptation, be ever took deep interest, a work on the +proofs of Christianity in easy and familiar rhyme--a book of gold, as it +was called at once, which became rapidly popular with those for whom it +was designed. + +At a somewhat later period Professor Erpenius, publishing a new edition +of the New Testament in Greek, with translations in Arabic, Syriac, and +Ethiopian, solicited his friend's help both in translations and in the +Latin commentaries and expositions with which he proposed to accompany +the work. The prisoner began with a modest disclaimer, saying that after +the labours of Erasmus and Beza, Maldonatus and Jasenius, there was +little for him to glean. Becoming more enthusiastic as he went on, he +completed a masterly commentary on the Four Evangelists, a work for which +the learned and religious world has ever recognized a kind of debt of +gratitude to the castle of Loevestein, and hailed in him the founder of a +school of manly Biblical criticism. + +And thus nearly two years wore away. Spinning his great top for +exercise; soothing his active and prolific brain with Greek tragedy, +with Flemish verse, with jurisprudence, history, theology; creating, +expounding, adorning, by the warmth of his vivid intellect; moving the +world, and doing good to his race from the depths of his stony sepulchre; +Hugo Grotius rose superior to his doom and took captivity captive. The +man is not to be envied who is not moved by so noble an example of great +calamity manfully endured. + +The wife of Hoogerbeets, already advanced in years, sickened during the +imprisonment and died at Loevestein after a lingering illness, leaving +six children to the care of her unfortunate husband. Madame de Groot had +not been permitted by the prison authorities to minister to her in +sickness, nor to her children after her death. + +Early in the year 1621 Francis Aerssens, Lord of Sommelsdyk, the arch +enemy of Barneveld and of Grotius, was appointed special ambassador to +Paris. The intelligence--although hardly unexpected, for the stratagems +of Aerssens had been completely successful--moved the prisoner deeply. +He felt that this mortal enemy, not glutted with vengeance by the +beheading of the Advocate and the perpetual imprisonment of his friend, +would do his best at the French court to defame and to blacken him. He +did what he could to obviate this danger by urgent letters to friends on +whom he could rely. + +At about the same time Muis van Holy, one of the twenty-four +commissioners, not yet satisfied with the misery he had helped to +inflict, informed the States-General that Madame de Groot had been buying +ropes at Gorcum. On his motion a committee was sent to investigate the +matter at Castle Loevestein, where it was believed that the ropes had +been concealed for the purpose of enabling Grotius to make his escape +from prison. + +Lieutenant Deventer had heard nothing of the story. He was in high +spirits at the rumour however, and conducted the committee very eagerly +over the castle, causing minute search to be made in the apartment of +Grotius for the ropes which, as they were assured by him and his wife, +had never existed save in the imagination of Judge Muis. They succeeded +at least in inflicting much superfluous annoyance on their victims, and +in satisfying themselves that it would be as easy for the prisoner to fly +out of the fortress on wings as to make his escape with ropes, even if he +had them. + +Grotius soon afterwards addressed a letter to the States-General +denouncing the statement of Muis as a fable, and these persistent +attempts to injure him as cowardly and wicked. + +A few months later Madame de Groot happened to be in the house of +Daatselaer on one of her periodical visits to Gorcum. Conversation +turning on these rumours March of attempts at escape, she asked Madame +Daatselaer if she would not be much embarrassed, should Grotius suddenly +make his appearance there. + +"Oh no," said the good woman with a laugh; "only let him come. We will +take excellent care of him." + +At another visit one Saturday, 20th March, (1621) Madame de Groot asked +her friend why all the bells of Gorcum march were ringing. + +"Because to-morrow begins our yearly fair," replied Dame Daatselaer. + +"Well, I suppose that all exiles and outlaws may come to Gorcum on this +occasion," said Madame de Groot. + +"Such is the law, they say," answered her friend. + +"And my husband might come too?" + +"No doubt," said Madame Daatselaer with a merry laugh, rejoiced at +finding the wife of Grotius able to speak so cheerfully of her husband in +his perpetual and hopeless captivity. "Send him hither. He shall have, +a warm welcome." + +"What a good woman you are!" said Madame de Groot with a sigh as she rose +to take leave. "But you know very well that if he were a bird he could +never get out of the castle, so closely, he is caged there." + +Next morning a wild equinoctial storm was howling around the battlements +of the castle. Of a sudden Cornelia, daughter of the de Groots, nine +years of age, said to her mother without any reason whatever, + +"To-morrow Papa must be off to Gorcum, whatever the weather may be." + +De Groot, as well as his wife, was aghast at the child's remark, and took +it as a direct indication from Heaven. + +For while Madame Daatselaer had considered the recent observations of her +visitor from Loevestein as idle jests, and perhaps wondered that Madame +de Groot could be frivolous and apparently lighthearted on so dismal a +topic, there had been really a hidden meaning in her words. + +For several weeks past the prisoner had been brooding over a means of +escape. His wife, whose every thought was devoted to him, had often cast +her eyes on the great chest or trunk in which the books of Erpenius had +been conveyed between Loevestein and Gorcum for the use of the prisoner. +At first the trunk had been carefully opened and its contents examined +every time it entered or left the castle. As nothing had ever been found +in it save Hebrew, Greek, and Latin folios, uninviting enough to the +Commandant, that warrior had gradually ceased to inspect the chest very +closely, and had at last discontinued the practice altogether. + +It had been kept for some weeks past in the prisoner's study. His wife +thought--although it was two finger breadths less than four feet in +length, and not very broad or deep in proportion--that it might be +possible for him to get into it. He was considerably above middle +height, but found that by curling himself up very closely he could just +manage to lie in it with the cover closed. Very secretly they had many +times rehearsed the scheme which had now taken possession of their minds, +but had not breathed a word of it to any one. He had lain in the chest +with the lid fastened, and with his wife sitting upon the top of it, two +hours at a time by the hour-glass. They had decided at last that the +plan, though fraught with danger, was not absolutely impossible, and they +were only waiting now for a favourable opportunity. The chance remark of +the child Cornelia settled the time for hazarding the adventure. By a +strange coincidence, too, the commandant of the fortress, Lieutenant +Deventer, had just been promoted to a captaincy, and was to go to Heusden +to receive his company. He left the castle for a brief absence that very +Sunday evening. As a precautionary measure, the trunk filled with books +had been sent to Gorcum and returned after the usual interval only a few +days before. + +The maid-servant of the de Groots, a young girl of twenty, Elsje van +Houwening by name, quick, intelligent, devoted, and courageous, was now +taken into their confidence. The scheme was explained to her, and she +was asked if she were willing to take the chest under her charge with her +master in it, instead of the usual freight of books, and accompany it to +Gorcum. + +She naturally asked what punishment could be inflicted upon her in case +the plot were discovered. + +"None legally," answered her master; "but I too am innocent of any crime, +and you see to what sufferings I have been condemned." + +"Whatever come of it," said Elsje stoutly; "I will take the risk and +accompany my master." + +Every detail was then secretly arranged, and it was provided beforehand, +as well as possible, what should be said or done in the many +contingencies that might arise. + +On Sunday evening Madame de Groot then went to the wife of the +Commandant, with whom she had always been on more friendly terms than +with her malicious husband. She had also recently propitiated her +affections by means of venison and other dainties brought from Gorcum. +She expressed the hope that, notwithstanding the absence of Captain +Deventer, she might be permitted to send the trunk full of books next day +from the castle. + +"My husband is wearing himself out," she said, "with his perpetual +studies. I shall be glad for a little time to be rid of some of these +folios." + +The Commandant's wife made no objection to this slight request. + +On Monday morning the gale continued to beat with unabated violence on +the turrets. The turbid Waal, swollen by the tempest, rolled darkly and +dangerously along the castle walls. + +But the die was cast. Grotius rose betimes, fell on his knees, and +prayed fervently an hour long. Dressed only in linen underclothes with a +pair of silk stockings, he got into the chest with the help of his wife. +The big Testament of Erpenius, with some bunches of thread placed upon +it, served him as a pillow. A few books and papers were placed in the +interstices left by the curves of his body, and as much pains as possible +taken to prevent his being seriously injured or incommoded during the +hazardous journey he was contemplating. His wife then took solemn +farewell of him, fastened the lock, which she kissed, and gave the key to +Elsje. + +The usual garments worn by the prisoner were thrown on a chair by the +bedside and his slippers placed before it. Madame de Groot then returned +to her bed, drew the curtains close, and rang the bell. + +It was answered by the servant who usually waited on the prisoner, and +who was now informed by the lady that it had been her intention to go +herself to Gorcum, taking charge of the books which were valuable. As +the weather was so tempestuous however, and as she was somewhat +indisposed, it had been decided that Elsje should accompany the trunk. + +She requested that some soldiers might be sent as usual to take it down +to the vessel. Two or three of the garrison came accordingly, and seeing +the clothes and slippers of Grotius lying about, and the bed-curtains +closed, felt no suspicion. + +On lifting the chest, however, one of them said, half in jest: + +"The Arminian must be in it himself, it seems so heavy," + +"Not the Arminian," replied Madame de Groot, in a careless voice, from +the bed; "only heavy Arminian books." + +Partly lifting, partly dragging the ponderous box, the soldiers managed +to get it down the stairs and through the thirteen barred and bolted +doors. Four several times one or other of the soldiers expressed the +opinion that Grotius himself must be locked within it, but they never +spoke quite seriously, and Elsje was ever ready to turn aside the remark +with a jest. A soldier's wife, just as the box was approaching the +wharf, told a story of a malefactor who had once been carried out of the +castle in a chest. + +"And if a malefactor, why not a lawyer?" she added. A soldier said he +would get a gimlet and bore a hole into the Arminian. "Then you must get +a gimlet that will reach to the top of the castle, where the Arminian +lies abed and asleep," said Elsje. + +Not much heed was given to this careless talk, the soldiers, before +leaving the chamber of Grotius, having satisfied themselves that there +were no apertures in the chest save the keyhole, and that it would be +impossible by that means alone for sufficient air to penetrate to keep a +man enclosed in it from smothering. + +Madame Deventer was asked if she chose to inspect the contents of the +trunk, and she enquired whether the Commandant had been wont so to do. +When told that such search had been for a long time discontinued, as +nothing had ever been found there but books, she observed that there was +no reason why she should be more strict than her husband, and ordered the +soldiers to take their heavy load to the vessel. + +Elsje insisted that the boatmen should place a doubly thick plank for +sliding the box on board, as it seemed probable, she said, that the usual +one would break in two, and then the valuable books borrowed of Professor +Erpenius would be damaged or destroyed. The request caused much further +grumbling, but was complied with at last and the chest deposited on the +deck. The wind still continued to blow with great fury, and as soon as +the sails were set the vessel heeled over so much, that Elsje implored +the skipper to cause the box to be securely lashed, as it seemed in +imminent danger, at the first lurch of the vessel, of sliding into the +sea. + +This done, Elsje sat herself down and threw her white handkerchief over +her head, letting it flutter in the wind. One of the crew asked her why +she did so, and she replied that the servant in the castle had been +tormenting her, saying that she would never dare to sail to Gorcum in +such tempestuous weather, and she was now signalling him that she had +been as good as her word. Whereupon she continued to wave the +handkerchief. + +In reality the signal was for her mistress, who was now straining her +eyes from the barred window which looked out upon the Waal, and with whom +the maid had agreed that if all went prosperously she would give this +token of success. Otherwise she would sit with her head in her hands. + +During the voyage an officer of the garrison, who happened to be on +board, threw himself upon the chest as a convenient seat, and began +drumming and pounding with his heels upon it. The ever watchful Elsje, +feeling the dreadful inconvenience to the prisoner of these proceedings, +who perhaps was already smothering and would struggle for air if not +relieved, politely addressed the gentleman and induced him to remove to +another seat by telling him that, besides the books, there was some +valuable porcelain in the chest which might easily be broken. + +No further incident occurred. The wind, although violent, was +favourable, and Gorcum in due time was reached. Elsje insisted upon +having her own precious freight carried first into the town, although the +skipper for some time was obstinately bent on leaving it to the very +last, while all the other merchandise in the vessel should be previously +unshipped. + +At last on promise of payment of ten stuivers, which was considered an +exorbitant sum, the skipper and son agreed to transport the chest between +them on a hand-barrow. While they were trudging with it to the town, the +son remarked to his father that there was some living thing in the box. +For the prisoner in the anguish of his confinement had not been able to +restrain a slight movement. + +"Do you hear what my son says?" cried the skipper to Elsje. "He says you +have got something alive in your trunk." + +"Yes, yes," replied the cheerful maid-servant; "Arminian books are always +alive, always full of motion and spirit." + +They arrived at Daatselaer's house, moving with difficulty through the +crowd which, notwithstanding the boisterous weather, had been collected +by the annual fair. Many people were assembled in front of the building, +which was a warehouse of great resort, while next door was a book- +seller's shop thronged with professors, clergymen, and other literary +persons. The carriers accordingly entered by the backway, and Elsje, +deliberately paying them their ten stuivers, and seeing them depart, left +the box lying in a room at the rear and hastened to the shop in front. + +Here she found the thread and ribbon dealer and his wife, busy with their +customers, unpacking and exhibiting their wares. She instantly whispered +in Madame Daatselaer's ear, "I have got my master here in your back +parlour." + +The dame turned white as a sheet, and was near fainting on the spot. It +was the first imprudence Elsje had committed. The good woman recovered +somewhat of her composure by a strong effort however, and instantly went +with Elsje to the rear of the house. + +"Master! master!" cried Elsje, rapping on the chest. + +There was no answer. + +"My God! my God!" shrieked the poor maid-servant. "My poor master is +dead." + +"Ah!" said Madame Daatselaer, "your mistress has made a bad business of +it. Yesterday she had a living husband. Now she has a dead one." + +But soon there was a vigorous rap on the inside of the lid, and a cry +from the prisoner: + +"Open the chest! I am not dead, but did not at first recognize your +voice." + +The lock was instantly unfastened, the lid thrown open, and Grotius arose +in his linen clothing, like a dead man from his coffin. + +The dame instantly accompanied the two through a trapdoor into an upper +room. + +Grotius asked her if she was always so deadly pale. + +"No," she replied, "but I am frightened to see you here. My lord is no +common person. The whole world is talking of you. I fear this will +cause the loss of all my property and perhaps bring my husband into +prison in your place." + +Grotius rejoined: "I made my prayers to God before as much as this had +been gained, and I have just been uttering fervent thanks to Him for my +deliverance so far as it has been effected. But if the consequences are +to be as you fear, I am ready at once to get into the chest again and be +carried back to prison." + +But she answered, "No; whatever comes of it, we have you here and will do +all that we can to help you on." + +Grotius being faint from his sufferings, the lady brought him a glass of +Spanish wine, but was too much flustered to find even a cloak or shawl to +throw over him. Leaving him sitting there in his very thin attire, just +as he had got out of the chest, she went to the front warehouse to call +her husband. But he prudently declined to go to his unexpected guest. +It would be better in the examination sure to follow, he said, for him to +say with truth that he had not seen him and knew nothing of the escape, +from first to last. + +Grotius entirely approved of the answer when told to him. Meantime +Madame Daatselaer had gone to her brother-in-law van der Veen, a clothier +by trade, whom she found in his shop talking with an officer of the +Loevestein garrison. She whispered in the clothier's ear, and he, making +an excuse to the officer, followed her home at once. They found Grotius +sitting where he had been left. Van der Veen gave him his hand, saying: + +"Sir, you are the man of whom the whole country is talking?" + +"Yes, here I am," was the reply, "and I put myself in your hands--" + +"There isn't a moment to lose," replied the clothier. "We must help you +away at once." + +He went immediately in search of one John Lambertsen, a man in whom he +knew he could confide, a Lutheran in religion, a master-mason by +occupation. He found him on a scaffold against the gable-end of a house, +working at his trade. + +He told him that there was a good deed to be done which he could do +better than any man, that his conscience would never reproach him for it, +and that he would at the same time earn no trifling reward. + +He begged the mason to procure a complete dress as for a journeyman, and +to follow him to the house of his brother-in-law Daatselaer. + +Lambertsen soon made his appearance with the doublet, trunk-hose, and +shoes of a bricklayer, together with trowel and measuring-rod. He was +informed who his new journeyman was to be, and Grotius at once put on the +disguise. + +The doublet did not reach to the waistband of the trunkhose, while those +nether garments stopped short of his knees; the whole attire belonging to +a smaller man than the unfortunate statesman. His delicate white hands, +much exposed by the shortness of the sleeves, looked very unlike those of +a day-labourer, and altogether the new mason presented a somewhat +incongruous and wobegone aspect. Grotius was fearful too lest some of +the preachers and professors frequenting the book-shop next door would +recognize him through his disguise. Madame Daatselaer smeared his face +and hands with chalk and plaster however and whispered encouragement, and +so with a felt hat slouched over his forehead and a yardstick in his +hand, he walked calmly forth into the thronged marketplace and through +the town to the ferry, accompanied by the friendly Lambertsen. It had +been agreed that van der Veen should leave the house in another direction +and meet them at the landing-place. + +When they got to the ferry, they found the weather as boisterous as ever. +The boatmen absolutely refused to make the dangerous crossing of the +Merwede over which their course lay to the land of Altona, and so into +the Spanish Netherlands, for two such insignificant personages as this +mason and his scarecrow journeyman. + +Lambertsen assured them that it was of the utmost importance that he +should cross the water at once. He had a large contract for purchasing +stone at Altona for a public building on which he was engaged. Van der +Veen coming up added his entreaties, protesting that he too was +interested in this great stone purchase, and so by means of offering a +larger price than they at first dared to propose, they were able to +effect their passage. + +After landing, Lambertsen and Grotius walked to Waalwyk, van der Veen +returning the same evening to Gorcum. It was four o'clock in the +afternoon when they reached Waalwyk, where a carriage was hired to convey +the fugitive to Antwerp. The friendly mason here took leave of his +illustrious journeyman, having first told the driver that his companion +was a disguised bankrupt fleeing from Holland into foreign territory to +avoid pursuit by his creditors. This would explain his slightly +concealing his face in passing through a crowd in any village. + +Grotius proved so ignorant of the value of different coins in making +small payments on the road, that the honest waggoner, on being +occasionally asked who the odd-looking stranger was, answered that he was +a bankrupt, and no wonder, for he did not know one piece of money from +another. For, his part he thought him little better than a fool. + +Such was the depreciatory opinion formed by the Waalwyk coachman as to +the "rising light of the world" and the "miracle of Holland." They +travelled all night and, arriving on the morning of the 21st within a few +leagues of Antwerp, met a patrol of soldiers, who asked Grotius for his +passport. He enquired in whose service they were, and was told in that +of "Red Rod," as the chief bailiff of Antwerp was called. That +functionary happened to be near, and the traveller approaching him said +that his passport was on his feet, and forthwith told him his name and +story. + +Red Rod treated him at once with perfect courtesy, offered him a horse +for himself with a mounted escort, and so furthered his immediate +entrance to Antwerp. Grotius rode straight to the house of a banished +friend of his, the preacher Grevinkhoven. He was told by the daughter of +that clergyman that her father was upstairs ministering at the bedside of +his sick wife. But so soon as the traveller had sent up his name, both +the preacher and the invalid came rushing downstairs to fall upon the +neck of one who seemed as if risen from the dead. + +The news spread, and Episcopius and other exiled friends soon thronged to +the house of Grevinkhoven, where they all dined together in great glee, +Grotius, still in his journeyman's clothes, narrating the particulars of +his wonderful escape. + +He had no intention of tarrying in his resting-place at Antwerp longer +than was absolutely necessary. Intimations were covertly made to him +that a brilliant destiny might be in store for him should he consent to +enter the service of the Archdukes, nor were there waning rumours, +circulated as a matter of course by his host of enemies, that he was +about to become a renegade to country and religion. There was as much +truth in the slanders as in the rest of the calumnies of which he had +been the victim during his career. He placed on record a proof of his +loyal devotion to his country in the letters which he wrote from Antwerp +within a week of his arrival there. With his subsequent history, his +appearance and long residence at the French court as ambassador of +Sweden, his memorable labours in history, diplomacy, poetry, theology, +the present narrative is not concerned. Driven from the service of his +Fatherland, of which his name to all time is one of the proudest +garlands, he continued to be a benefactor not only to her but to all +mankind. If refutation is sought of the charge that republics are +ungrateful, it will certainly not be found in the history of Hugo Grotius +or John of Barneveld. + +Nor is there need to portray the wrath of Captain Deventer when he +returned to Castle Loevestein. + +"Here is the cage, but your bird is flown," said corpulent Maria Grotius +with a placid smile. The Commandant solaced himself by uttering +imprecations on her, on her husband, and on Elsje van Houwening. But +these curses could not bring back the fugitive. He flew to Gorcum to +browbeat the Daatselaers and to search the famous trunk. He found in it +the big New Testament and some skeins of thread, together with an octavo +or two of theology and of Greek tragedies; but the Arminian was not in +it, and was gone from the custody of the valiant Deventer for ever. + +After a brief period Madame de Groot was released and rejoined her +husband. Elsje van Houwening, true heroine of the adventure, was +subsequently married to the faithful servant of Grotius, who during the +two years' imprisonment had been taught Latin and the rudiments of law by +his master, so that he subsequently rose to be a thriving and respectable +advocate at the tribunals of Holland. + +The Stadholder, when informed of the escape of the prisoner, observed, +"I always thought the black pig was deceiving me," making not very +complimentary allusion to the complexion and size of the lady who had +thus aided the escape of her husband. + +He is also reported as saying that it "is no wonder they could not keep +Grotius in prison, as he has more wit than all his judges put together." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + Barneveld's Sons plot against Maurice--The Conspiracy betrayed to + Maurice--Escape of Stoutenburg--Groeneveld is arrested--Mary of + Barneveld appeals to the Stadholder--Groeneveld condemned to Death-- + Execution of Groeneveld. + +The widow of Barneveld had remained, since the last scene of the fatal +tragedy on the Binnenhof, in hopeless desolation. The wife of the man +who during a whole generation of mankind had stood foremost among the +foremost of the world, and had been one of those chief actors and +directors in human affairs to whom men's eyes turned instinctively from +near and from afar, had led a life of unbroken prosperity. An heiress in +her own right, Maria van Utrecht had laid the foundation of her husband's +wealth by her union with the rising young lawyer and statesman. Her two +sons and two daughters had grown up around her, all four being married +into the leading families of the land, and with apparently long lives of +prosperity and usefulness before them. And now the headsman's sword had +shivered all this grandeur and happiness at a blow. The name of the +dead statesman had become a word of scoffing and reproach; vagabond +mountebanks enacted ribald scenes to his dishonour in the public squares +and streets; ballad-mongers yelled blasphemous libels upon him in the +very ears of his widow and children. For party hatred was not yet +glutted with the blood it had drunk. + +It would be idle to paint the misery of this brokenhearted woman. + +The great painters of the epoch have preserved her face to posterity; the +grief-stricken face of a hard-featured but commanding and not uncomely +woman, the fountains of whose tears seem exhausted; a face of austere and +noble despair. A decorous veil should be thrown over the form of that +aged matron, for whose long life and prosperity Fate took such merciless +vengeance at last. + +For the woes of Maria of Barneveld had scarcely begun. Desolation had +become her portion, but dishonour had not yet crossed her threshold. +There were sterner strokes in store for her than that which smote her +husband on the scaffold. + +She had two sons, both in the prime of life. The eldest, Reinier, Lord +of Groeneveld, who had married a widow of rank and wealth, Madame de +Brandwyk, was living since the death of his father in comparative ease, +but entire obscurity. An easy-tempered, genial, kindly gentleman, he had +been always much beloved by his friends and, until the great family +catastrophe, was popular with the public, but of an infirm and +vacillating character, easily impressed by others, and apt to be led by +stronger natures than his own. He had held the lucrative office of head +forester of Delfland of which he had now been deprived. + +The younger son William, called, from an estate conferred on him by his +father, Lord of Stoutenburg, was of a far different mould. We have seen +him at an earlier period of this narrative attached to the embassy of +Francis Aerssens in Paris, bearing then from another estate the unmusical +title of Craimgepolder, and giving his subtle and dangerous chief great +cause of complaint by his irregular, expensive habits. He had been +however rather a favourite with Henry IV., who had so profound a respect +for the father as to consult him, and him only of all foreign statesmen, +in the gravest affairs of his reign, and he had even held an office of +honour and emolument at his court. Subsequently he had embraced the +military career, and was esteemed a soldier of courage and promise. As +captain of cavalry and governor of the fortress of Bergen op Zoom, he +occupied a distinguished and lucrative position, and was likely, so soon +as the Truce ran to its close, to make a name for himself in that +gigantic political and religious war which had already opened in Bohemia, +and in which it was evident the Republic would soon be desperately +involved. His wife, Walburg de Marnix, was daughter to one of the +noblest characters in the history of the Netherlands, or of any history, +the illustrious Sainte-Aldegonde. Two thousand florins a year from his +father's estate had been settled on him at his marriage, which, in +addition to his official and military income, placed him in a position of +affluence. + +After the death of his father the family estates were confiscated, and he +was likewise deprived of his captaincy and his governorship. He was +reduced at a blow from luxury and high station to beggary and obscurity. +At the renewal of the war he found himself, for no fault of his own, +excluded from the service of his country. Yet the Advocate almost in his +last breath had recommended his sons to the Stadholder, and Maurice had +sent a message in response that so long as the sons conducted themselves +well they might rely upon his support. + +Hitherto they had not conducted themselves otherwise than well. +Stoutenburg, who now dwelt in his house with his mother, was of a dark, +revengeful, turbulent disposition. In the career of arms he had a right +to look forward to success, but thus condemned to brood in idleness on +the cruel wrongs to himself and his house it was not improbable that he +might become dangerous. + +Years long he fed on projects of vengeance as his daily bread. He was +convinced that his personal grievances were closely entwined with the +welfare of the Commonwealth, and he had sworn to avenge the death of his +father, the misery of his mother, and the wrongs which he was himself +suffering, upon the Stadholder, whom he considered the author of all +their woe. To effect a revolution in the government, and to bring back +to power all the municipal regents whom Maurice had displaced so +summarily, in order, as the son believed, to effect the downfall of the +hated Advocate, this was the determination of Stoutenburg. + +He did not pause to reflect whether the arm which had been strong enough +to smite to nothingness the venerable statesman in the plenitude of his +power would be too weak to repel the attack of an obscure and disarmed +partisan. He saw only a hated tyrant, murderer, and oppressor, as he +considered him, and he meant to have his life. + +He had around him a set of daring and desperate men to whom he had from +time to time half confided his designs. A certain unfrocked preacher of +the Remonstrant persuasion, who, according to the fashion of the learned +of that day, had translated his name out of Hendrik Sleet into Henricus +Slatius, was one of his most unscrupulous instruments. Slatius, a big, +swarthy, shag-eared, beetle-browed Hollander, possessed learning of no +ordinary degree, a tempestuous kind of eloquence, and a habit of dealing +with men; especially those of the humbler classes. He was passionate, +greedy, overbearing, violent, and loose of life. He had sworn vengeance +upon the Remonstrants in consequence of a private quarrel, but this did +not prevent him from breathing fire and fury against the Contra- +Remonstrants also, and especially against the Stadholder, whom he +affected to consider the arch-enemy of the whole Commonwealth. + +Another twelvemonth went by. The Advocate had been nearly four years in +his grave. The terrible German war was in full blaze. The Twelve Years' +Truce had expired, the Republic was once more at war, and Stoutenburg, +forbidden at the head of his troop to campaign with the Stadholder +against the Archdukes, nourished more fiercely than ever his plan against +the Stadholder's life. + +Besides the ferocious Slatius he had other associates. There was his +cousin by marriage, van der Dussen, a Catholic gentleman, who had married +a daughter of Elias Barneveld, and who shared all Stoutenburg's feelings +of resentment towards Maurice. There was Korenwinder, another Catholic, +formerly occupying an official position of responsibility as secretary of +the town of Berkel, a man of immense corpulence, but none the less an +active and dangerous conspirator. + +There was van Dyk, a secretary of Bleiswyk, equally active and dangerous, +and as lean and hungry as Korenwinder was fat. Stoutenburg, besides +other rewards, had promised him a cornetcy of cavalry, should their plans +be successful. And there was the brother-in-law of Slatius, one Cornelis +Gerritaen, a joiner by trade, living at Rotterdam, who made himself very +useful in all the details of the conspiracy. + +For the plot was now arranged, the men just mentioned being its active +agents and in constant communication with Stoutenburg. + +Korenwinder and van Dyk in the last days of December 1622 drew up a +scheme on paper, which was submitted to their chief and met with his +approval. The document began with a violent invective against the crimes +and tyranny of the Stadholder, demonstrated the necessity of a general +change in the government, and of getting rid of Maurice as an +indispensable preliminary, and laid down the means and method +of doing this deed. + +The Prince was in the daily habit of driving, unattended by his body- +guard, to Ryswyk, about two miles from the Hague. It would not be +difficult for a determined band of men divided into two parties to set +upon him between the stables and his coach, either when alighting from or +about to enter it--the one party to kill him while the other protected +the retreat of the assassins, and beat down such defence as the few +lackeys of the Stadholder could offer. + +The scheme, thus mapped out, was submitted to Stoutenburg, who gave it +his approval after suggesting a few amendments. The document was then +burnt. It was estimated that twenty men would be needed for the job, and +that to pay them handsomely would require about 6000 guilders. + +The expenses and other details of the infamous plot were discussed as +calmly as if it had been an industrial or commercial speculation. But +6000 guilders was an immense sum to raise, and the Seigneur de +Stoutenburg was a beggar. His associates were as forlorn as himself, but +his brother-in-law, the ex-Ambassador van der Myle, was living at +Beverwyk under the supervision of the police, his property not having +been confiscated. Stoutenburg paid him a visit, accompanied by the +Reverend Slatius, in hopes of getting funds from him, but at the first +obscure hint of the infamous design van der Myle faced them with such +looks, gestures, and words of disgust and indignation that the murderous +couple recoiled, the son of Barneveld saying to the expreacher: "Let us +be off, Slaet,'tis a mere cur. Nothing is to be made of him." + +The other son of Barneveld, the Seigneur de Groeneveld, had means and +credit. His brother had darkly hinted to him the necessity of getting +rid of Maurice, and tried to draw him into the plot. Groeneveld, more +unstable than water, neither repelled nor encouraged these advances. He +joined in many conversations with Stoutenburg, van Dyk, and Korenwinder, +but always weakly affected not to know what they were driving at. "When +we talk of business," said van Dyk to him one day, "you are always +turning off from us and from the subject. You had better remain." +Many anonymous letters were sent to him, calling on him to strike for +vengeance on the murderer of his father, and for the redemption of his +native land and the Remonstrant religion from foul oppression. + +At last yielding to the persuasions and threats of his fierce younger +brother, who assured him that the plot would succeed, the government be +revolutionized, and that then all property would be at the mercy of the +victors, he agreed to endorse certain bills which Korenwinder undertook +to negotiate. Nothing could be meaner, more cowardly, and more murderous +than the proceedings of the Seigneur de Groeneveld. He seems to have +felt no intense desire of vengeance upon Maurice, which certainly would +not have been unnatural, but he was willing to supply money for his +assassination. At the same time he was careful to insist that this +pecuniary advance was by no means a free gift, but only a loan to be +repaid by his more bloodthirsty brother upon demand with interest. +With a businesslike caution, in ghastly contrast with the foulness of the +contract, he exacted a note of hand from Stoutenburg covering the whole +amount of his disbursements. There might come a time, he thought, when +his brother's paper would be more negotiable than it was at that moment. + +Korenwinder found no difficulty in discounting Groeneveld's bills, and +the necessary capital was thus raised for the vile enterprise. Van Dyk, +the lean and hungry conspirator, now occupied himself vigorously in +engaging the assassins, while his corpulent colleague remained as +treasurer of the company. Two brothers Blansaerts, woollen manufacturers +at Leyden--one of whom had been a student of theology in the Remonstrant +Church and had occasionally preached--and a certain William Party, a +Walloon by birth, but likewise a woollen worker at Leyden, agreed to the +secretary's propositions. He had at first told, them that their services +would be merely required for the forcible liberation of two Remonstrant +clergymen, Niellius and Poppius, from the prison at Haarlem. +Entertaining his new companions at dinner, however, towards the end of +January, van Dyk, getting very drunk, informed them that the object of +the enterprise was to kill the Stadholder; that arrangements had been +made for effecting an immediate change in the magistracies in all the +chief cities of Holland so soon as the deed was done; that all the +recently deposed regents would enter the Hague at once, supported by a +train of armed peasants from the country; and that better times for the +oppressed religion, for the Fatherland, and especially for everyone +engaged in the great undertaking, would begin with the death of the +tyrant. Each man taking direct part in the assassination would receive +at least 300 guilders, besides being advanced to offices of honour and +profit according to his capacity. + +The Blansaerts assured their superior that entire reliance might be +placed on their fidelity, and that they knew of three or four other men +in Leyden "as firm as trees and fierce as lions," whom they would engage +--a fustian worker, a tailor, a chimney-sweeper, and one or two other +mechanics. The looseness and utter recklessness with which this hideous +conspiracy was arranged excites amazement. Van Dyk gave the two brothers +100 pistoles in gold--a coin about equal to a guinea--for their immediate +reward as well as for that of the comrades to be engaged. Yet it seems +almost certain from subsequent revelations that they were intending all +the time to deceive him, to take as much money as they could get from +him, "to milk, the cow as long as she would give milk," as William Party +expressed it, and then to turn round upon and betray him. It was a +dangerous game however, which might not prove entirely successful. + +Van Dyk duly communicated with Stoutenburg, who grew more and more +feverish with hatred and impatience as the time for gratifying those +passions drew nigh, and frequently said that he would like to tear the +Stadholder to pieces with his own hands. He preferred however to act +as controlling director over the band of murderers now enrolled. + +For in addition to the Leyden party, the Reverend Slatius, supplied with +funds by van Dyk, had engaged at Rotterdam his brother-in-law Gerritsen, +a joiner, living in that city, together with three sailors named +respectively Dirk, John, and Herman. + +The ex-clergyman's house was also the arsenal of the conspiracy, and here +were stored away a stock of pistols, snaphances, and sledge-hammers-- +together with that other death-dealing machinery, the whole edition of +the 'Clearshining Torch', an inflammatory, pamphlet by Slatius--all to +be used on the fatal day fast approaching. + +On the 1st February van Dyk visited Slatius at Rotterdam. He found +Gerritsen hard at work. + +There in a dark back kitchen, by the lurid light of the fire in a dim +wintry afternoon, stood the burly Slatius, with his swarthy face and +heavy eyebrows, accompanied by his brother-in-law the joiner, both in +workman's dress, melting lead, running bullets, drying powder, and +burnishing and arranging the fire-arms and other tools to be used in the +great crime now so rapidly maturing. The lean, busy, restless van Dyk, +with his adust and sinister visage, came peering in upon the couple thus +engaged, and observed their preparations with warm approval. + +He recommended that in addition to Dirk, John, and Herman, a few more +hardy seafaring men should be engaged, and Slatius accordingly secured +next day the services of one Jerome Ewouts and three other sailors. They +were not informed of the exact nature of the enterprise, but were told +that it was a dangerous although not a desperate one, and sure to be of +great service to the Fatherland. They received, as all the rest had +done, between 200 and 300 guilders in gold, that they would all be +promoted to be captains and first mates. + +It was agreed that all the conspirators should assemble four days later +at the Hague on Sunday, the 5th February, at the inn of the "Golden +Helmet." The next day, Monday the 6th, had been fixed by Stoutenburg for +doing the deed. Van Dyk, who had great confidence in the eloquence of +William Party, the Walloon wool manufacturer, had arranged that he should +make a discourse to them all in a solitary place in the downs between +that city and the sea-shore, taking for his theme or brief the +Clearshining Torch of Slatius. + +On Saturday that eminent divine entertained his sister and her husband +Gerritsen, Jerome Ewouts, who was at dinner but half informed as to the +scope of the great enterprise, and several other friends who were +entirely ignorant of it. Slatius was in high spirits, although his +sister, who had at last become acquainted with the vile plot, had done +nothing but weep all day long. They had better be worms, with a promise +of further reward and an intimation she said, and eat dirt for their +food, than crawl in so base a business. Her brother comforted her with +assurances that the project was sure to result in a triumph for religion +and Fatherland, and drank many healths at his table to the success of all +engaged in it. That evening he sent off a great chest filled with arms +and ammunition to the "Golden Helmet" at the Hague under the charge of +Jerome Ewouts and his three mates. Van Dyk had already written a letter +to the landlord of that hostelry engaging a room there, and saying that +the chest contained valuable books and documents to be used in a lawsuit, +in which he was soon to be engaged, before the supreme tribunal. + +On the Sunday this bustling conspirator had John Blansaert and William +Party to dine with him at the "Golden Helmet" in the Hague, and produced +seven packages neatly folded, each containing gold pieces to the amount +of twenty pounds sterling. These were for themselves and the others whom +they had reported as engaged by them in Leyden. Getting drunk as usual, +he began to bluster of the great political revolution impending, and +after dinner examined the carbines of his guests. He asked if those +weapons were to be relied upon. "We can blow a hair to pieces with them +at twenty paces," they replied. "Ah! would that I too could be of the +party," said van Dyk, seizing one of the carbines. "No, no," said John +Blansaert, "we can do the deed better without you than with you. You +must look out for the defence." + +Van Dyk then informed them that they, with one of the Rotterdam sailors, +were to attack Maurice as he got out of his coach at Ryswyk, pin him +between the stables and the coach, and then and there do him to death. +"You are not to leave him," he cried, "till his soul has left his body." + +The two expressed their hearty concurrence with this arrangement, and +took leave of their host for the night, going, they said, to distribute +the seven packages of blood-money. They found Adam Blansaert waiting for +them in the downs, and immediately divided the whole amount between +themselves and him--the chimney-sweeper, tailor, and fustian worker, +"firm as trees and fierce as lions," having never had any existence +save in their fertile imaginations. + +On Monday, 6th February, van Dyk had a closing interview with Stoutenburg +and his brother at the house of Groeneveld, and informed them that the +execution of the plot had been deferred to the following day. +Stoutenburg expressed disgust and impatience at the delay. "I should +like to tear the Stadholder to pieces with my own hands!" he cried. He +was pacified on hearing that the arrangements had been securely made for +the morrow, and turning to his brother observed, "Remember that you can +never retract. You are in our power and all your estates at our mercy." +He then explained the manner in which the magistracies of Leyden, Gouda, +Rotterdam, and other cities were to be instantly remodelled after the +death of Maurice, the ex-regents of the Hague at the head of a band of +armed peasants being ready at a moment's warning to take possession of +the political capital. + +Prince Frederic Henry moreover, he hinted darkly and falsely, but in a +manner not to be mistaken, was favourable to the movement, and would +after the murder of Maurice take the government into his hands. + +Stoutenburg then went quietly home to pass the day and sleep at his +mother's house awaiting the eventful morning of Tuesday. + +Van Dyk went back to his room at the "Golden Helmet" and began inspecting +the contents of the arms and ammunition chest which Jerome Ewouts and his +three mates had brought the night before from Rotterdam. He had been +somewhat unquiet at having seen nothing of those mariners during the day; +when looking out of window, he saw one of them in conference with some +soldiers. A minute afterwards he heard a bustle in the rooms below, and +found that the house was occupied by a guard, and that Gerritsen, with +the three first engaged sailors Dirk, Peter, and Herman, had been +arrested at the Zotje. He tried in vain to throw the arms back into the +chest and conceal it under the bed, but it was too late. Seizing his hat +and wrapping himself in his cloak, with his sword by his side, he walked +calmly down the stairs looking carelessly at the group of soldiers and +prisoners who filled the passages. A waiter informed the provost-marshal +in command that the gentleman was a respectable boarder at the tavern, +well known to him for many years. The conspirator passed unchallenged +and went straight to inform Stoutenburg. + +The four mariners, last engaged by Slatius at Rotterdam, had signally +exemplified the danger of half confidences. Surprised that they should +have been so mysteriously entrusted with the execution of an enterprise +the particulars of which were concealed from them, and suspecting that +crime alone could command such very high prices as had been paid and +promised by the ex-clergyman, they had gone straight to the residence of +the Stadholder, after depositing the chest at the "Golden Helmet." + +Finding that he had driven as usual to Ryswyk, they followed him thither, +and by dint of much importunity obtained an audience. If the enterprise +was a patriotic one, they reasoned, he would probably know of it and +approve it. If it were criminal, it would be useful for them to reveal +and dangerous to conceal it. + +They told the story so far as they knew it to the Prince and showed him +the money, 300 florins apiece, which they had already received from +Slatius. Maurice hesitated not an instant. It was evident that a dark +conspiracy was afoot. He ordered the sailors to return to the Hague by +another and circuitous road through Voorburg, while he lost not a moment +himself in hurrying back as fast as his horses would carry him. +Summoning the president and several councillors of the chief tribunal, +he took instant measures to take possession of the two taverns, and +arrest all the strangers found in them. + +Meantime van Dyk came into the house of the widow Barneveld and found +Stoutenburg in the stable-yard. He told him the plot was discovered, the +chest of arms at the "Golden Helmet" found. "Are there any private +letters or papers in the bog?" asked Stoutenburg. "None relating to the +affair," was the answer. + +"Take yourself off as fast as possible," said Stoutenburg. Van Dyk +needed no urging. He escaped through the stables and across the fields +in the direction of Leyden. After skulking about for a week however and +making very little progress, he was arrested at Hazerswoude, having +broken through the ice while attempting to skate across the inundated and +frozen pastures in that region. + +Proclamations were at once made, denouncing the foul conspiracy in +which the sons of the late Advocate Barneveld, the Remonstrant clergyman +Slatius, and others, were the ringleaders, and offering 4000 florins each +for their apprehension. A public thanksgiving for the deliverance was +made in all the churches on the 8th February. + +On the 12th February the States-General sent letters to all their +ambassadors and foreign agents, informing them of this execrable plot to +overthrow the Commonwealth and take the life of the Stadholder, set on +foot by certain Arminian preachers and others of that faction, and this +too in winter, when the ice and snow made hostile invasion practicable, +and when the enemy was encamped in so many places in the neighbourhood. +"The Arminians," said the despatch, "are so filled with bitterness that +they would rather the Republic should be lost than that their pretended +grievances should go unredressed." Almost every pulpit shook with +Contra-Remonstrant thunder against the whole society of Remonstrants, who +were held up to the world as rebels and prince-murderers; the criminal +conspiracy being charged upon them as a body. Hardly a man of that +persuasion dared venture into the streets and public places, for fear of +being put to death by the rabble. The Chevalier William of Nassau, +natural son of the Stadholder, was very loud and violent in all the +taverns and tap-rooms, drinking mighty draughts to the damnation of the +Arminians. + +Many of the timid in consequence shrank away from the society and +joined the Contra-Remonstrant Church, while the more courageous members, +together with the leaders of that now abhorred communion, published long +and stirring appeals to the universal sense of justice, which was +outraged by the spectacle of a whole sect being punished for a crime +committed by a few individuals, who had once been unworthy members of it. + +Meantime hue and cry was made after the fugitive conspirators. The +Blansaerts and William Party having set off from Leyden towards the Hague +on Monday night, in order, as they said, to betray their employers, whose +money they had taken, and whose criminal orders they had agreed to +execute, attempted to escape, but were arrested within ten days. They +were exhibited at their prison at Amsterdam to an immense concourse at a +shilling a peep, the sums thus collected being distributed to the poor. +Slatius made his way disguised as a boor into Friesland, and after +various adventures attempted to cross the Bourtange Moors to Lingen. +Stopping to refresh himself at a tavern near Koevorden, he found himself +in the tap-room in presence of Quartermaster Blau and a company of +soldiers from the garrison. The dark scowling boor, travel-stained and +weary, with felt hat slouched over his forbidding visage, fierce and +timorous at once like a hunted wild beast, excited their suspicion. +Seeing himself watched, he got up, paid his scot, and departed, +leaving his can of beer untasted. This decided the quartermaster, who +accordingly followed the peasant out of the house, and arrested him as a +Spanish spy on the watch for the train of specie which the soldiers were +then conveying into Koevorden Castle. + +Slatius protested his innocence of any such design, and vehemently +besought the officer to release him, telling him as a reason for his +urgency and an explanation of his unprepossessing aspect--that he was +an oculist from Amsterdam, John Hermansen by name, that he had just +committed a homicide in that place, and was fleeing from justice. + +The honest quartermaster saw no reason why a suspected spy should go +free because he proclaimed himself a murderer, nor why an oculist should +escape the penalties of homicide. "The more reason," he said, "why thou +shouldst be my prisoner." The ex-preacher was arrested and shut up in +the state prison at the Hague. + +The famous engraver Visser executed a likeness on copper-plate of the +grim malefactor as he appeared in his boor's disguise. The portrait, +accompanied by a fiercely written broadsheet attacking the Remonstrant +Church, had a great circulation, and deepened the animosity against the +sect upon which the unfrocked preacher had sworn vengeance. His evil +face and fame thus became familiar to the public, while the term Hendrik +Slaet became a proverb at pot-houses, being held equivalent among +tipplers to shirking the bottle. + +Korenwinder, the treasurer of the association, coming to visit +Stoutenburg soon after van Dyk had left him, was informed of the +discovery of the plot and did his best to escape, but was arrested +within a fortnight's time. + +Stoutenburg himself acted with his usual promptness and coolness. Having +gone straightway to his brother to notify him of the discovery and to +urge him to instant flight, he contrived to disappear. A few days later +a chest of merchandise was brought to the house of a certain citizen of +Rotterdam, who had once been a fiddler, but was now a man of considerable +property. The chest, when opened, was found to contain the Seigneur de +Stoutenburg, who in past times had laid the fiddler under obligations, +and in whose house he now lay concealed for many days, and until the +strictness with which all roads and ferries in the neighbourhood were +watched at first had somewhat given way. Meantime his cousin van der +Dussen had also effected his escape, and had joined him in Rotterdam. +The faithful fiddler then, for a thousand florins, chartered a trading +vessel commanded by one Jacob Beltje to take a cargo of Dutch cheese to +Wesel on the Rhine. By this means, after a few adventures, they effected +their escape, and, arriving not long afterwards at Brussels, were +formally taken under the protection of the Archduchess Isabella. + +Stoutenburg afterwards travelled in France and Italy, and returned to +Brussels. His wife, loathing his crime and spurning all further +communication with him, abandoned him to his fate. The daughter of +Marnix of Sainte-Aldegonde had endured poverty, obscurity, and unmerited +obloquy, which had become the lot of the great statesman's family after +his tragic end, but she came of a race that would not brook dishonour. +The conspirator and suborner of murder and treason, the hirer and +companion of assassins, was no mate for her. + +Stoutenburg hesitated for years as to his future career, strangely +enough keeping up a hope of being allowed to return to his country. + +Subsequently he embraced the cause of his country's enemies, converted +himself to the Roman Church, and obtained a captaincy of horse in the +Spanish service. He was seen one day, to the disgust of many spectators, +to enter Antwerp in black foreign uniform, at the head of his troopers, +waving a standard with a death's-head embroidered upon it, and wearing, +like his soldiers, a sable scarf and plume. History disdains to follow +further the career of the renegade, traitor, end assassin. + +When the Seigneur de Groeneveld learned from his younger brother, on the +eventful 6th of February, that the plot had been discovered, he gave +himself up for lost. Remorse and despair, fastening upon his naturally +feeble character, seemed to render him powerless. His wife, of more +hopeful disposition than himself and of less heroic mould than Walburg de +Marnix, encouraged him to fly. He fled accordingly, through the desolate +sandy downs which roll between the Hague and the sea, to Scheveningen, +then an obscure fishing village on the coast, at a league's distance from +the capital. Here a fisherman, devoted to him and his family, received +him in his hut, disguised him in boatman's attire, and went with him to +the strand, proposing to launch his pinkie, put out at once to sea, and +to land him on the English coast, the French coast, in Hamburg--where he +would. + +The sight of that long, sandy beach stretching for more than seventy +miles in an unbroken, melancholy line, without cove, curve, or +indentation to break its cruel monotony, and with the wild waves of the +German Ocean, lashed by a wintry storm, breaking into white foam as far +as the eye could reach, appalled the fugitive criminal. With the +certainty of an ignominious death behind him, he shrank abjectly from +the terrors of the sea, and, despite the honest fisherman's entreaties, +refused to enter the boat and face the storm. He wandered feebly along +the coast, still accompanied by his humble friend, to another little +village, where the fisherman procured a waggon, which took them as far as +Sandvoort. Thence he made his way through Egmond and Petten and across +the Marsdiep to Tegel, where not deeming himself safe he had himself +ferried over to the neighbouring island of Vlieland. Here amongst the +quicksands, whirlpools, and shallows which mark the last verge of +habitable Holland, the unhappy fugitive stood at bay. + +Meantime information had come to the authorities that a suspicious +stranger had been seen at Scheveningen. The fisherman's wife was +arrested. Threatened with torture she at last confessed with whom her +husband had fled and whither. Information was sent to the bailiff of +Vlieland, who with a party of followers made a strict search through his +narrow precincts. A group of seamen seated on the sands was soon +discovered, among whom, dressed in shaggy pea jacket with long +fisherman's boots, was the Seigneur de Groeneveld, who, easily recognized +through his disguise, submitted to his captors without a struggle. The +Scheveningen fisherman, who had been so faithful to him, making a sudden +spring, eluded his pursuers and disappeared; thus escaping the gibbet +which would probably have been his doom instead of the reward of 4000 +golden guilders which he might have had for betraying him. Thus a +sum more than double the amount originally furnished by Groeneveld, +as the capital of the assassination company, had been rejected by the +Rotterdam boatman who saved Stoutenburg, and by the Scheveningen +fisherman who was ready to save Groeneveld. On the 19th February, within +less than a fortnight from the explosion of the conspiracy, the eldest +son of Barneveld was lodged in the Gevangen Poort or state prison of the +Hague. + +The awful news of the 6th February had struck the widow of Barneveld as +with a thunderbolt. Both her sons were proclaimed as murderers and +suborners of assassins, and a price put upon their heads. She remained +for days neither speaking nor weeping; scarcely eating, drinking, or +sleeping. She seemed frozen to stone. Her daughters and friends could +not tell whether she were dying or had lost her reason. At length the +escape of Stoutenburg and the capture of Groeneveld seemed to rouse her +from her trance. She then stooped to do what she had sternly refused to +do when her husband was in the hands of the authorities. Accompanied by +the wife and infant son of Groeneveld she obtained an audience of the +stern Stadholder, fell on her knees before him, and implored mercy and +pardon for her son. + +Maurice received her calmly and not discourteously, but held out no hopes +of pardon. The criminal was in the hands of justice, he said, and he had +no power to interfere. But there can scarcely be a doubt that he had +power after the sentence to forgive or to commute, and it will be +remembered that when Barneveld himself was about to suffer, the Prince +had asked the clergyman Walaeus with much anxiety whether the prisoner +in his message had said nothing of pardon. + +Referring to the bitter past, Maurice asked Madame de Barneveld why she +not asked mercy for her son, having refused to do so for her husband. + +Her answer was simple and noble: + +"My husband was innocent of crime," she said; "my son is guilty." + +The idea of pardon in this case was of course preposterous. Certainly if +Groeneveld had been forgiven, it would have been impossible to punish the +thirteen less guilty conspirators, already in the hands of justice, whom +he had hired to commit the assassination. The spectacle of the two +cowardly ringleaders going free while the meaner criminals were gibbeted +would have been a shock to the most rudimentary ideas of justice. It +would have been an equal outrage to pardon the younger Barnevelds for +intended murder, in which they had almost succeeded, when their great +father had already suffered for a constructive lese-majesty, the guilt of +which had been stoutly denied. Yet such is the dreary chain of cause and +effect that it is certain, had pardon been nobly offered to the +statesman, whose views of constitutional law varied from those of the +dominant party, the later crime would never have been committed. But +Francis Aerssens--considering his own and other partisans lives at stake +if the States' right party did not fall--had been able to bear down all +thoughts of mercy. He was successful, was called to the house of nobles, +and regained the embassy of Paris, while the house of Barneveld was +trodden into the dust of dishonour and ruin. Rarely has an offended +politician's revenge been more thorough than his. Never did the mocking +fiend betray his victims into the hands of the avenger more sardonically +than was done in this sombre tragedy. + +The trials of the prisoners were rapidly conducted. Van Dyk, cruelly +tortured, confessed on the rack all the details of the conspiracy as they +were afterwards embodied in the sentences and have been stated in the +preceding narrative. Groeneveld was not tortured. His answers to the +interrogatories were so vague as to excite amazement at his general +ignorance of the foul transaction or at the feebleness of his memory, +while there was no attempt on his part to exculpate himself from the +damning charge. That it was he who had furnished funds for the proposed +murder and mutiny, knowing the purpose to which they were to be applied, +was proved beyond all cavil and fully avowed by him. + +On the 28th May, he, Korenwinder, and van Dyk were notified that they +were to appear next day in the courthouse to hear their sentence, which +would immediately afterwards be executed. + +That night his mother, wife, and son paid him a long visit of farewell +in his prison. The Gevangen Poort of the Hague, an antique but mean +building of brown brick and commonplace aspect, still stands in one of +the most public parts of the city. A gloomy archway, surmounted by +windows grimly guarded by iron lattice-work, forms the general +thoroughfare from the aristocratic Plaats and Kneuterdyk and Vyverberg +to the inner court of the ancient palace. The cells within are dark, +noisome, and dimly lighted, and even to this day the very instruments of +torture, used in the trials of these and other prisoners, may be seen by +the curious. Half a century later the brothers de Witt were dragged from +this prison to be literally torn to pieces by an infuriated mob. + +The misery of that midnight interview between the widow of Barneveld, her +daughter-in-law, and the condemned son and husband need not be described. +As the morning approached, the gaoler warned the matrons to take their +departure that the prisoner might sleep. + +"What a woful widow you will be," said Groeneveld to his wife, as she +sank choking with tears upon the ground. The words suddenly aroused in +her the sense of respect for their name. + +"At least for all this misery endured," she said firmly, "do me enough +honour to die like a gentleman." He promised it. The mother then took +leave of the son, and History drops a decorous veil henceforth over the +grief-stricken form of Mary of Barneveld. + +Next morning the life-guards of the Stadholder and other troops were +drawn up in battle-array in the outer and inner courtyard of the supreme +tribunal and palace. At ten o'clock Groeneveld came forth from the +prison. The Stadholder had granted as a boon to the family that he might +be neither fettered nor guarded as he walked to the tribunal. The +prisoner did not forget his parting promise to his wife. He appeared +full-dressed in velvet cloak and plumed hat, with rapier by his side, +walking calmly through the inner courtyard to the great hall. Observing +the windows of the Stadholder's apartments crowded with spectators, among +whom he seemed to recognize the Prince's face, he took off his hat and +made a graceful and dignified salute. He greeted with courtesy many +acquaintances among the crowd through which he passed. He entered the +hall and listened in silence to the sentence condemning him to be +immediately executed with the sword. Van Dyk and Korenwinder shared the +same doom, but were provisionally taken back to prison. + +Groeneveld then walked calmly and gracefully as before from the hall to +the scaffold, attended by his own valet, and preceded by the provost- +marshal and assistants. He was to suffer, not where his father had been +beheaded, but on the "Green Sod." This public place of execution for +ordinary criminals was singularly enough in the most elegant and +frequented quarter of the Hague. A few rods from the Gevangen Poort, +at the western end of the Vyverberg, on the edge of the cheerful triangle +called the Plaats, and looking directly down the broad and stately +Kneuterdyk, at the end of which stood Aremberg House, lately the +residence of the great Advocate, was the mean and sordid scaffold. + +Groeneveld ascended it with perfect composure. The man who had been +browbeaten into crime by an overbearing and ferocious brother, who had +quailed before the angry waves of the North Sea, which would have borne +him to a place of entire security, now faced his fate with a smile upon +his lips. He took off his hat, cloak, and sword, and handed them to his +valet. He calmly undid his ruff and wristbands of pointlace, and tossed +them on the ground. With his own hands and the assistance of his servant +he unbuttoned his doublet, laying breast and neck open without suffering +the headsman's hands to approach him. + +He then walked to the heap of sand and spoke a very few words to the vast +throng of spectators. + +"Desire of vengeance and evil counsel," he said, "have brought me here. +If I have wronged any man among you, I beg him for Christ's sake to +forgive me." + +Kneeling on the sand with his face turned towards his father's house at +the end of the Kneuterdyk, he said his prayers. Then putting a red +velvet cap over his eyes, he was heard to mutter: + +"O God! what a man I was once, and what am I now?" + +Calmly folding his hands, he said, "Patience." + +The executioner then struck off his head at a blow. His body, wrapped in +a black cloak, was sent to his house and buried in his father's tomb. + +Van Dyk and Korenwinder were executed immediately afterwards. They were +quartered and their heads exposed on stakes. The joiner Gerritsen and +the three sailors had already been beheaded. The Blansaerts and William +Party, together with the grim Slatius, who was savage and turbulent to +the last, had suffered on the 5th of May. + +Fourteen in all were executed for this crime, including an unfortunate +tailor and two other mechanics of Leyden, who had heard something +whispered about the conspiracy, had nothing whatever to do with it, but +from ignorance, apathy, or timidity did not denounce it. The ringleader +and the equally guilty van der Dussen had, as has been seen, effected +their escape. + +Thus ended the long tragedy of the Barnevelds. The result of this foul +conspiracy and its failure to effect the crime proposed strengthened +immensely the power, popularity, and influence of the Stadholder, made +the orthodox church triumphant, and nearly ruined the sect of the +Remonstrants, the Arminians--most unjustly in reality, although with a +pitiful show of reason--being held guilty of the crime of Stoutenburg +and Slatius. + +The Republic--that magnificent commonwealth which in its infancy had +confronted, single-handed, the greatest empire of the earth, and had +wrested its independence from the ancient despot after a forty years' +struggle--had now been rent in twain, although in very unequal portions, +by the fiend of political and religious hatred. Thus crippled, she was +to go forth and take her share in that awful conflict now in full blaze, +and of which after-ages were to speak with a shudder as the Thirty Years' +War. + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Argument in a circle +He that stands let him see that he does not fall +If he has deserved it, let them strike off his head +Misery had come not from their being enemies +O God! what does man come to! +Party hatred was not yet glutted with the blood it had drunk +Rose superior to his doom and took captivity captive +This, then, is the reward of forty years' service to the State +To milk, the cow as long as she would give milk + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext Life of John Barneveld, v11, Motley #97 +by John Lothrop Motley + + + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS, ENTIRE JOHN OF BARNEVELD, 1614-23: + +Acts of violence which under pretext of religion +Adulation for inferiors whom they despise +Affection of his friends and the wrath of his enemies +And give advice. Of that, although always a spendthrift +Argument in a circle +Better to be governed by magistrates than mobs +Burning with bitter revenge for all the favours he had received +Calumny is often a stronger and more lasting power than disdain +Casual outbursts of eternal friendship +Changed his positions and contradicted himself day by day +Conciliation when war of extermination was intended +Considered it his special mission in the world to mediate +Created one child for damnation and another for salvation +Death rather than life with a false acknowledgment of guilt +Denoungced as an obstacle to peace +Depths theological party spirit could descend +Depths of credulity men in all ages can sink +Devote himself to his gout and to his fair young wife +Enemy of all compulsion of the human conscience +Extraordinary capacity for yielding to gentle violence +France was mourning Henry and waiting for Richelieu +Furious mob set upon the house of Rem Bischop +Hardly a sound Protestant policy anywhere but in Holland +He that stands let him see that he does not fall +Heidelberg Catechism were declared to be infallible +Highborn demagogues in that as in every age affect adulation +History has not too many really important and emblematic men +Human nature in its meanness and shame +I hope and I fear +I know how to console myself +If he has deserved it, let them strike off his head +Implication there was much, of assertion very little +In this he was much behind his age or before it +It had not yet occurred to him that he was married +John Robinson +King who thought it furious madness to resist the enemy +Logic is rarely the quality on which kings pride themselves +Magistracy at that moment seemed to mean the sword +Make the very name of man a term of reproach +Misery had come not from their being enemies +Mockery of negotiation in which nothing could be negotiated +More apprehension of fraud than of force +Necessity of deferring to powerful sovereigns +Never lack of fishers in troubled waters +Not his custom nor that of his councillors to go to bed +O God! what does man come to! +Only true religion +Opening an abyss between government and people +Opposed the subjection of the magistracy by the priesthood +Partisans wanted not accommodation but victory +Party hatred was not yet glutted with the blood it had drunk +Pot-valiant hero +Puritanism in Holland was a very different thing from England +Rather a wilderness to reign over than a single heretic +Resolve to maintain the civil authority over the military +Rose superior to his doom and took captivity captive +Seemed bent on self-destruction +Stand between hope and fear +Successful in this step, he is ready for greater ones +Tempest of passion and prejudice +That he tries to lay the fault on us is pure malice +The magnitude of this wonderful sovereign's littleness +The effect of energetic, uncompromising calumny +The evils resulting from a confederate system of government +This, then, is the reward of forty years' service to the State +This wonderful sovereign's littleness oppresses the imagination +To milk, the cow as long as she would give milk +To stifle for ever the right of free enquiry +William Brewster +Wise and honest a man, although he be somewhat longsome +Yes, there are wicked men about +Yesterday is the preceptor of To-morrow + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext Entire John of Barneveld 1614-23 +by John Lothrop Motley + + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF JOHN OF BARNEVELD, 1614-23 *** + +************This file should be named jm98v10.txt or jm98v10.zip ************ + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, jm98v11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, jm98v10a.txt + +This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + +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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