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+The Project Gutenberg EBook Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1570-72
+#18 in our series by John Lothrop Motley
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+Title: The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1570-72
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+Author: John Lothrop Motley
+
+Release Date: January, 2004  [EBook #4818]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on March 19, 2002]
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+Edition: 10
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DUTCH REPUBLIC, 1570-72 ***
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+This eBook was produced by David Widger
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+[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the
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+
+MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, PG EDITION, VOLUME 18.
+
+THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
+
+By John Lothrop Motley
+
+1855
+
+
+
+1570 [CHAPTER VI.]
+
+     Orange and Count Louis in France--Peace with the Huguenots--
+     Coligny's memoir, presented by request to Charles IX., on the
+     subject of invading the Netherlands--Secret correspondence of Orange
+     organized by Paul Buys--Privateering commissions issued by the
+     Prince--Regulations prescribed by him for the fleets thus created--
+     Impoverished condition of the Prince--His fortitude--His personal
+     sacrifices and privations--His generosity--Renewed contest between
+     the Duke and the Estates on the subject of the tenth and twentieth
+     pence--Violent disputes in the council--Firm opposition of Viglius--
+     Edict commanding the immediate collection of the tax--Popular
+     tumults--Viglius denounced by Alva--The Duke's fierce complaints to
+     the King--Secret schemes of Philip against Queen Elizabeth of
+     England--The Ridolphi plot to murder Elizabeth countenanced by
+     Philip and Pius V.--The King's orders to Alva to further the plan--
+     The Duke's remonstrances--Explosion of the plot--Obstinacy of
+     Philip--Renewed complaints of Alva as to the imprudent service
+     required of him--Other attempts of Philip to murder Elizabeth--Don
+     John of Austria in the Levant----Battle of Lepanto--Slothfulness of
+     Selim--Appointment of Medina Celi--Incessant wrangling in Brussels
+     upon the tax--Persevering efforts of Orange--Contempt of Alva for
+     the Prince--Proposed sentence of ignominy against his name--Sonoy's
+     mission to Germany--Remarkable papers issued by the Prince--The
+     "harangue"--Intense hatred for Alva entertained by the highest as
+     well as lower orders--Visit of Francis de Alva to Brussels--His
+     unfavourable report to the King--Querulous language of the Duke--
+     Deputation to Spain--Universal revolt against the tax--Ferocity of
+     Alva--Execution of eighteen tradesmen secretly ordered--Interrupted
+     by the capture of Brill--Beggars of the sea--The younger Wild Boar
+     of Ardennes--Reconciliation between the English government and that
+     of Alva--The Netherland privateersmen ordered out of English ports--
+     De la Marck's fleet before Brill--The town summoned to surrender--
+     Commissioners sent out to the fleet--Flight of the magistrates and
+     townspeople--Capture of the place--Indignation of Alva--Popular
+     exultation in Brussels--Puns and Caricatures--Bossu ordered to
+     recover the town of Brill--His defeat--His perfidious entrance into
+     Rotterdam--Massacre in that city--Flushing revolutionized--
+     Unsuccessful attempt of Governor de Bourgogne to recal the citizens
+     to their obedience--Expedition under Treslong from Brill to assist
+     the town of Flushing--Murder of Paccheco by the Patriots--Zeraerts
+     appointed Governor of Walcheren by Orange.
+
+While such had been the domestic events of the Netherlands during the
+years 1569 and 1570, the Prince of Orange, although again a wanderer, had
+never allowed himself to despair.  During this whole period, the darkest
+hour for himself and for his country, he was ever watchful.  After
+disbanding his troops at Strasburg, and after making the best
+arrangements possible under the circumstances for the eventual payment of
+their wages, he had joined the army which the Duke of Deux Ponts had been
+raising in Germany to assist the cause of the Huguenots in France.  The
+Prince having been forced to acknowledge that, for the moment, all open
+efforts in the Netherlands were likely to be fruitless, instinctively
+turned his eyes towards the more favorable aspect of the Reformation in
+France.  It was inevitable that, while he was thus thrown for the time
+out of his legitimate employment, he should be led to the battles of
+freedom in a neighbouring land.  The Duke of Deux Ponts, who felt his own
+military skill hardly adequate to the task which he had assumed, was
+glad, as it were, to put himself and his army under the orders of Orange.
+
+Meantime the battle of Jamac had been fought; the Prince of Condo,
+covered with wounds, and exclaiming that it was sweet to die for Christ
+and country, had fallen from his saddle; the whole Huguenot army had been
+routed by the royal forces under the nominal command of Anjou, and the
+body of Conde, tied to the back of a she ass, had been paraded through
+the streets of Jarnap in derision.
+
+Affairs had already grown almost as black for the cause of freedom in
+France as in the provinces.  Shortly afterwards William of Orange, with a
+band of twelve hundred horsemen, joined the banners of Coligny.  His two
+brothers accompanied him.  Henry, the stripling, had left the university
+to follow the fortunes of the Prince.  The indomitable Louis, after seven
+thousand of his army had been slain, had swum naked across the Ems,
+exclaiming "that his courage, thank God, was as fresh and lively as
+ever," and had lost not a moment in renewing his hostile schemes against
+the Spanish government.  In the meantime he had joined the Huguenots in
+France.  The battle of Moncontour had succeeded, Count Peter Mansfeld,
+with five thousand troops sent by Alva, fighting on the side of the
+royalists, and Louis Nassau on that of the Huguenots, atoning by the
+steadiness and skill with which he covered the retreat, for his
+intemperate courage, which had precipitated the action, and perhaps been
+the main cause of Coligny's overthrow.  The Prince of Orange, who had
+been peremptorily called to the Netherlands in the beginning of the
+autumn, was not present at the battle.  Disguised as a peasant, with but
+five attendants, and at great peril, he had crossed the enemy's lines,
+traversed France, and arrived in Germany before the winter.  Count Louis
+remained with the Huguenots.  So necessary did he seem to their cause,
+and so dear had he become to their armies, that during the severe illness
+of Coligny in the course of the following summer all eyes were turned
+upon him as the inevitable successor of that great man, the only
+remaining pillar of freedom in France.
+
+Coligny recovered.  The deadly peace between the Huguenots and the Court
+succeeded.  The Admiral, despite his sagacity and his suspicions,
+embarked with his whole party upon that smooth and treacherous current
+which led to the horrible catastrophe of Saint Bartholomew.  To occupy
+his attention, a formal engagement was made by the government to send
+succor to the Netherlands.  The Admiral was to lead the auxiliaries which
+were to be despatched across the frontier to overthrow the tyrannical
+government of Alva.  Long and anxious were the colloquies held between
+Coligny and the Royalists.  The monarch requested a detailed opinion, in
+writing, from the Admiral, on the most advisable plan for invading the
+Netherlands.  The result was the preparation of the celebrated memoir,
+under Coligny's directions, by young De Mornay, Seigneur de Plessis.
+The document was certainly not a paper of the highest order.  It did not
+appeal to the loftier instincts which kings or common mortals might be
+supposed to possess.  It summoned the monarch to the contest in the
+Netherlands that the ancient injuries committed by Spain might be
+avenged.  It invoked the ghost of Isabella of France, foully murdered, as
+it was thought, by Philip.  It held out the prospect of re-annexing the
+fair provinces, wrested from the King's ancestors by former Spanish
+sovereigns.  It painted the hazardous position of Philip; with the
+Moorish revolt gnawing at the entrails of his kingdom, with the Turkish
+war consuming its extremities, with the canker of rebellion corroding
+the very heart of the Netherlands.  It recalled, with exultation, the
+melancholy fact that the only natural and healthy existence of the
+French was in a state of war--that France, if not occupied with foreign
+campaigns, could not be prevented from plunging its sword into its own
+vitals.
+
+It indulged in refreshing reminiscences of those halcyon days, not long
+gone by, when France, enjoying perfect tranquillity within its own
+borders, was calmly and regularly carrying on its long wars beyond the
+frontier.
+
+In spite of this savage spirit, which modern documents, if they did not
+scorn, would, at least have shrouded, the paper was nevertheless a
+sagacious one; but the request for the memoir, and the many interviews on
+the subject of the invasion, were only intended to deceive.  They were
+but the curtain which concealed the preparations for the dark tragedy
+which was about to be enacted.  Equally deceived, and more sanguine than
+ever, Louis Nassau during this period was indefatigable in his attempts
+to gain friends for his cause.  He had repeated audiences of the King,
+to whose court he had come in disguise.  He made a strong and warm
+impression upon Elizabeth's envoy at the French Court, Walsingham.  It is
+probable that in the Count's impetuosity to carry his point, he allowed
+more plausibility to be given to certain projects for subdividing the
+Netherlands than his brother would ever have sanctioned.  The Prince was
+a total stranger to these inchoate schemes.  His work was to set his
+country free, and to destroy the tyranny which had grown colossal.  That
+employment was sufficient for a lifetime, and there is no proof to be
+found that a paltry and personal self-interest had even the lowest place
+among his motives.
+
+Meantime, in the autumn of 1569, Orange had again reached Germany.
+Paul Buys, Pensionary of Leyden, had kept him constantly informed of
+the state of affairs in the provinces.  Through his means an extensive
+correspondence was organized and maintained with leading persons in every
+part of the Netherlands.  The conventional terms by which different
+matters and persons of importance were designated in these letters were
+familiarly known to all friends of the cause, not only in the provinces,
+but in France, England, Germany, and particularly in the great commercial
+cities.  The Prince, for example, was always designated as Martin
+Willemzoon, the Duke of Alva as Master Powels van Alblas, the Queen of
+England as Henry Philipzoon, the King of Denmark as Peter Peterson.  The
+twelve signs of the zodiac were used instead of the twelve months, and a
+great variety of similar substitutions were adopted.  Before his visit to
+France, Orange had, moreover, issued commissions, in his capacity of
+sovereign, to various seafaring persons, who were empowered to cruise
+against Spanish commerce.
+
+The "beggars of the sea," as these privateersmen designated themselves,
+soon acquired as terrible a name as the wild beggars, or the forest
+beggars; but the Prince, having had many conversations with Admiral
+Coligny on the important benefits to be derived from the system, had
+faithfully set himself to effect a reformation of its abuses after his
+return from France.  The Seigneur de Dolhain, who, like many other
+refugee nobles, had acquired much distinction in this roving corsair
+life, had for a season acted as Admiral for the Prince.  He had, however,
+resolutely declined to render any accounts of his various expeditions,
+and was now deprived of his command in consequence.  Gillain de Fiennes,
+Seigneur de Lumbres, was appointed to succeed him.  At the same time
+strict orders were issued by Orange, forbidding all hostile measures
+against the Emperor or any of the princes of the empire, against Sweden,
+Denmark, England, or against any potentates who were protectors of the
+true Christian religion.  The Duke of Alva and his adherents were
+designated as the only lawful antagonists.  The Prince, moreover, gave
+minute instructions as to the discipline to be observed in his fleet.
+The articles of war were to be strictly enforced.  Each commander was to
+maintain a minister on board his ship, who was to preach God's word, and
+to preserve Christian piety among the crew.  No one was to exercise any
+command in the fleet save native Netherlanders, unless thereto expressly
+commissioned by the Prince of Orange.  All prizes were to be divided and
+distributed by a prescribed rule.  No persons were to be received on
+board, either as sailors or soldiers, save "folk of goad name and fame."
+No man who had ever been punished of justice was to be admitted.  Such
+were the principal features in the organization of that infant navy
+which, in course of this and the following centuries, was to achieve so
+many triumphs, and to which a powerful and adventurous mercantile marine
+had already led the way.  "Of their ships," said Cardinal Bentivoglio,
+"the Hollanders make houses, of their houses schools.  Here they are
+born, here educated, here they learn their profession.  Their sailors,
+flying from one pale to the other, practising their art wherever the sun
+displays itself to mortals, become so skilful that they can scarcely be
+equalled, certainly not surpassed; by any nation in the civilized world."
+
+The Prince, however, on his return from France, had never been in so
+forlorn a condition.  "Orange is plainly perishing," said one of the
+friends of the cause.  Not only had he no funds to organize new levies,
+but he was daily exposed to the most clamorously-urged claims, growing
+out of the army which be had been recently obliged to disband.  It had
+been originally reported in the Netherlands that he had fallen in the
+battle of Moncontour.  "If he have really been taken off," wrote Viglius,
+hardly daring to credit the great news, "we shall all of us have less
+cause to tremble."  After his actual return, however, lean and beggared,
+with neither money nor credit, a mere threatening shadow without
+substance or power, he seemed to justify the sarcasm of Granvelle.
+"Vana sine viribus ira," quoted the Cardinal, and of a verity it seemed
+that not a man was likely to stir in Germany in his behalf, now that so
+deep a gloom had descended upon his cause.  The obscure and the oppressed
+throughout the provinces and Germany still freely contributed out of
+their weakness and their poverty, and taxed themselves beyond their means
+to assist enterprizes for the relief of the Netherlands.  The great ones
+of the earth, however, those on whom the Prince had relied; those to whom
+he had given his heart; dukes, princes, and electors, in this fatal
+change of his fortunes fell away like water.
+
+Still his spirit was unbroken.  His letters showed a perfect appreciation
+of his situation, and of that to which his country was reduced; but they
+never exhibited a trace of weakness or despair.  A modest, but lofty
+courage; a pious, but unaffected resignation, breathed through--every
+document, public or private, which fell from his pen during this epoch.
+He wrote to his brother John that he was quite willing to go, to
+Frankfort, in order to give himself up as a hostage to his troops for the
+payment of their arrears.  At the same time he begged his brother to move
+heaven and earth to raise at least one hundred thousand thalers.  If he
+could only furnish them with a month's pay, the soldiers would perhaps be
+for a time contented.  He gave directions also concerning the disposition
+of what remained of his plate and furniture, the greater part of it
+having been already sold and expended in the cause.  He thought it would,
+on the whole, be better to have the remainder sold, piece by piece, at
+the fair.  More money would be raised by that course than by a more
+wholesale arrangement.
+
+He was now obliged to attend personally to the most minute matters of
+domestic economy.  The man who been the mate of emperors, who was himself
+a sovereign, had lived his life long in pomp and luxury, surrounded by
+countless nobles, pages, men-at-arms, and menials, now calmly accepted
+the position of an outlaw and an exile.  He cheerfully fulfilled tasks
+which had formerly devolved upon his grooms and valets.  There was an
+almost pathetic simplicity in the homely details of an existence which,
+for the moment, had become so obscure and so desperate.  "Send by the
+bearer," he wrote, "the little hackney given me by the Admiral; send also
+my two pair of trunk hose; one pair is at the tailor's to be mended, the
+other, pair you will please order to be taken from the things which I
+wore lately at Dillenburg.  They lie on the table with my accoutrements.
+If the little hackney be not in condition, please send the grey horse
+with the cropped ears and tail."
+
+He was always mindful, however, not only of the great cause to which he
+had devoted himself, but of the wants experienced by individuals who had
+done him service.  He never forgot his friends.  In the depth of his own
+misery he remembered favors received from humble persons.  "Send a little
+cup, worth at least a hundred florins, to Hartmann Wolf," he wrote to his
+brother; "you can take as much silver out of the coffer, in which there
+is still some of my chapel service remaining."--"You will observe that
+Affenstein is wanting a horse," he wrote on another occasion; "please
+look him out one, and send it to me with the price.  I will send you the
+money.  Since he has shown himself so willing in the cause, one ought to
+do something for him."
+
+The contest between the Duke and the estates, on the subject of the tenth
+and twentieth penny had been for a season adjusted.  The two years' term,
+however, during which it had been arranged that the tax should be
+commuted, was to expire in the autumn of 1571.  Early therefore in this
+year the disputes were renewed with greater acrimony than ever.  The
+estates felt satisfied that the King was less eager than the Viceroy.
+Viglius was satisfied that the power of Alva was upon the wane.  While
+the King was not likely openly to rebuke his recent measures, it seemed
+not improbable that the Governor's reiterated requests to be recalled
+might be granted.  Fortified by these considerations, the President,
+who had so long been the supple tool of the tyrant, suddenly assumed
+the character of a popular tribune.  The wranglings, the contradictions,
+the vituperations, the threatenings, now became incessant in the council.
+The Duke found that he had exulted prematurely, when he announced to the
+King the triumphant establishment, in perpetuity, of the lucrative tax.
+So far from all the estates having given their consent, as he had
+maintained, and as he had written to Philip, it now appeared that not
+one of those bodies considered itself bound beyond its quota for the two
+years.  This was formally stated in the council by Berlaymont and other
+members.  The wrath of the Duke blazed forth at this announcement.  He
+berated Berlaymont for maintaining, or for allowing it to be maintained,
+that the consent of the orders had ever been doubtful.  He protested that
+they had as unequivocally agreed to the perpetual imposition of the tag
+as he to its commutation during two years.  He declared, however, that he
+was sick of quotas.  The tax should now be collected forthwith, and
+Treasurer Schetz was ordered to take his measures accordingly.
+
+At a conference on the 29th May, the Duke asked Viglius for his opinion.
+The President made a long reply, taking the ground that the consent of
+the orders had been only conditional, and appealing to such members of
+the finance council as were present to confirm his assertion.  It was
+confirmed by all.  The Duke, in a passion, swore that those who dared
+maintain such a statement should be chastised.  Viglius replied that it
+had always been the custom for councillors to declare their opinion,
+and that they had never before been threatened with such consequences.
+If such, however, were his Excellency's sentiments, councillors had
+better stay at home, hold their tongues, and so avoid chastisement.
+The Duke, controlling himself a little, apologized for this allusion to
+chastisement, a menace which he disclaimed having intended with reference
+to councillors whom he had always commended to the King, and of whom his
+Majesty had so high an opinion.  At a subsequent meeting the Duke took
+Viglius aside, and assured him that he was quite of his own way of
+thinking.  For certain reasons, however, he expressed himself as
+unwilling that the rest of the council should be aware of the change
+in his views.  He wished, he said, to dissemble.  The astute President,
+for a moment, could not imagine the Governor's drift.  He afterwards
+perceived that the object of this little piece of deception had been to
+close his mouth.  The Duke obviously conjectured that the President,
+lulled into security, by this secret assurance, would be silent; that the
+other councillors, believing the President to have adopted the Governor's
+views, would alter their opinions; and that the opposition of the
+estates, thus losing its support in the council, would likewise very soon
+be abandoned.  The President, however, was not to be entrapped by this
+falsehood.  He resolutely maintained his hostility to the tax, depending
+for his security on the royal opinion, the popular feeling, and the
+judgment of his colleagues.
+
+The daily meetings of the board were almost entirely occupied by this
+single subject.  Although since the arrival of Alva the Council of Blood
+had usurped nearly all the functions of the state and finance-councils,
+yet there now seemed a disposition on the part of Alva to seek the
+countenance, even while he spurned the authority, of other functionaries.
+He found, however, neither sympathy nor obedience.  The President stoutly
+told him that he was endeavouring to swim against the stream, that the
+tax was offensive to the people, and that the voice of the people was the
+voice of God.  On the last day of July, however, the Duke issued an
+edict, by which summary collection of the tenth and twentieth pence was
+ordered.  The whole country was immediately in uproar.  The estates of
+every province, the assemblies of every city, met and remonstrated.  The
+merchants suspended all business, the petty dealers shut up their shops.
+The people congregated together in masses, vowing resistance to the
+illegal and cruel impost.  Not a farthing was collected.  The "seven
+stiver people", spies of government, who for that paltry daily stipend
+were employed to listen for treason in every tavern, in every huckster's
+booth, in every alley of every city, were now quite unable to report all
+the curses which were hourly heard uttered against the tyranny of the
+Viceroy.  Evidently, his power was declining.  The councillors resisted
+him, the common people almost defied him.  A mercer to whom he was
+indebted for thirty thousand florins' worth of goods, refused to open
+his shop, lest the tax should be collected on his merchandize.  The Duke
+confiscated his debt, as the mercer had foreseen, but this being a
+pecuniary sacrifice, seemed preferable to acquiescence in a measure so
+vague and so boundless that it might easily absorb the whole property of
+the country.
+
+No man saluted the governor as he passed through the streets.  Hardly an
+attempt was made by the people to disguise their abhorrence of his
+person: Alva, on his side, gave daily exhibitions of ungovernable fury.
+At a council held on 25th September, 1571, he stated that the King had
+ordered the immediate enforcement of the edict.  Viglius observed that
+there were many objections to its form.  He also stoutly denied that the
+estates had ever given their consent.  Alva fiercely asked the President
+if he had not himself once maintained that the consent had been granted!
+Viglius replied that he had never made such an assertion.  He had
+mentioned the conditions and the implied promises on the part of
+government, by which a partial consent had been extorted.  He never could
+have said that the consent had been accorded, for he had never believed
+that it could be obtained.  He had not proceeded far in his argument when
+he was interrupted by the Duke--"But you said so, you said so, you said
+so," cried the exasperated Governor, in a towering passion, repeating
+many times this flat contradiction to the President's statements.
+Viglius firmly stood his ground.  Alva loudly denounced him for the
+little respect he had manifested for his authority.  He had hitherto done
+the President good offices, he said, with his Majesty, but certainly
+should not feel justified in concealing his recent and very unhandsome
+conduct.
+
+Viglius replied that he had always reverently cherished the Governor,
+and had endeavoured to merit his favor by diligent obsequiousness.
+He was bound by his oath, however; to utter in council that which
+comported with his own sentiments and his Majesty's interests.  He had
+done this heretofore in presence of Emperors, Kings, Queens, and Regents,
+and they had not taken offence.  He did not, at this hour, tremble for
+his grey head, and hoped his Majesty would grant him a hearing before
+condemnation.  The firm attitude of the President increased the
+irritation of the Viceroy.  Observing that he knew the proper means
+of enforcing his authority he dismissed the meeting.
+
+Immediately afterwards, he received the visits of his son, Don Frederic
+of Vargas, and other familiars.  To these he recounted the scene which
+had taken place, raving the while so ferociously against Viglius as to
+induce the supposition that something serious was intended against him.
+The report flew from mouth to mouth.  The affair became the town talk,
+so that, in the words of the President, it was soon discussed by every
+barber and old woman in Brussels.  His friends became alarmed for his
+safety, while, at the same time, the citizens rejoiced that their cause
+had found so powerful an advocate.  Nothing, however, came of these
+threats and these explosions.  On the contrary, shortly afterwards the
+Duke gave orders that the tenth penny should be remitted upon four great
+articles-corn, meat, wine, and beer.  It was also not to be levied upon
+raw materials used in manufactures.  Certainly, these were very important
+concessions.  Still the constitutional objections remained.  Alva could
+not be made to understand why the alcabala, which was raised without
+difficulty in the little town of Alva, should encounter such fierce
+opposition in the Netherlands.  The estates, he informed the King, made
+a great deal of trouble.  They withheld their consent at command of their
+satrap.  The motive which influenced the leading men was not the interest
+of factories or fisheries, but the fear that for the future they might
+not be able to dictate the law to their sovereign.  The people of that
+country, he observed, had still the same character which had been
+described by Julius Caesar.
+
+The Duke, however, did not find much sympathy at Madrid.  Courtiers and
+councillors had long derided his schemes.  As for the King, his mind was
+occupied with more interesting matters.  Philip lived but to enforce what
+he chose to consider the will of God.  While the duke was fighting this
+battle with the Netherland constitutionalists, his master had engaged at
+home in a secret but most comprehensive scheme.  This was a plot to
+assassinate Queen Elizabeth of England, and to liberate Mary Queen of
+Scots, who was to be placed on the throne in her stead.  This project,
+in which was of course involved the reduction of England under the
+dominion of the ancient Church, could not but prove attractive to Philip.
+It included a conspiracy against a friendly sovereign, immense service to
+the Church, and a murder.  His passion for intrigue, his love of God, and
+his hatred of man, would all be gratified at once.  Thus, although the
+Moorish revolt within the heart of his kingdom had hardly been
+terminated--although his legions and his navies were at that instant
+engaged in a contest of no ordinary importance with the Turkish empire--
+although the Netherlands, still maintaining their hostility and their
+hatred, required the flower of the Spanish army to compel their
+submission, he did not hesitate to accept the dark adventure which was
+offered to him by ignoble hands.
+
+One Ridolfi, a Florentine, long resident in England, had been sent to
+the Netherlands as secret agent of the Duke of Norfolk.  Alva read his
+character immediately, and denounced him to Philip as a loose, prating
+creature, utterly unfit to be entrusted with affairs of importance.
+Philip, however, thinking more of the plot than of his fellow-actors,
+welcomed the agent of the conspiracy to Madrid, listened to his
+disclosures attentively, and, without absolutely committing himself by
+direct promises, dismissed him with many expressions of encouragement.
+
+On the 12th of July, 1571, Philip wrote to the Duke of Alva, giving an
+account of his interview with Roberto Ridolfi.  The envoy, after relating
+the sufferings of the Queen of Scotland, had laid before him a plan for
+her liberation.  If the Spanish monarch were willing to assist the Duke
+of Norfolk and his friends, it would be easy to put upon Mary's head the
+crown of England.  She was then to intermarry with Norfolk.  The kingdom
+of England was again to acknowledge the authority of Rome, and the
+Catholic religion to be everywhere restored.  The most favorable
+moment for the execution of the plan would be in August or September.
+As Queen Elizabeth would at that season quit London for the country,
+an opportunity would be easily found for seizing and murdering her.
+Pius V., to whom Ridolfi had opened the whole matter, highly approved the
+scheme, and warmly urged Philip's cooperation.  Poor and ruined as he was
+himself; the Pope protested that he was ready to sell his chalices, and
+even his own vestments, to provide funds for the cause.  Philip had
+replied that few words were necessary to persuade him.  His desire to
+see the enterprize succeed was extreme, notwithstanding the difficulties
+by which it was surrounded.  He would reflect earnestly upon the subject,
+in the hope that God, whose cause it was, would enlighten and assist him.
+Thus much he had stated to Ridolfi, but he had informed his council
+afterwards that he was determined to carry out the scheme by certain
+means of which the Duke would soon be informed.  The end proposed was to
+kill or to capture Elizabeth, to set at liberty the Queen of Scotland,
+and to put upon her head the crown of England.  In this enterprize he
+instructed the Duke of Alva secretly to assist, without however resorting
+to open hostilities in his own name or in that of his sovereign.  He
+desired to be informed how many Spaniards the Duke could put at the
+disposition of the conspirators.  They had asked for six thousand
+arquebusiers for England, two thousand for Scotland, two thousand for
+Ireland.  Besides these troops, the Viceroy was directed to provide
+immediately four thousand arquebuses and two thousand corslets.  For the
+expenses of the enterprize Philip would immediately remit two hundred
+thousand crowns.  Alva was instructed to keep the affair a profound
+secret from his councillors.  Even Hopper at Madrid knew nothing of the
+matter, while the King had only expressed himself in general terms to the
+nuncio and to Ridolfi, then already on his way to the Netherlands.  The
+King concluded his letter by saying, that from what he had now written
+with his own hand, the Duke could infer how much he had this affair at
+heart.  It was unnecessary for him to say more, persuaded as he was that
+the Duke would take as profound an interest in it as himself.
+
+Alva perceived all the rashness of the scheme, and felt how impossible
+it would be for him to comply with Philip's orders.  To send an army from
+the Netherlands into England for the purpose of dethroning and killing a
+most popular sovereign, and at the same time to preserve the most
+amicable relations with the country, was rather a desperate undertaking.
+A force of ten thousand Spaniards, under Chiappin Vitelli, and other
+favorite officers of the Duke, would hardly prove a trifle to be
+overlooked, nor would their operations be susceptible of very friendly
+explanations.  The Governor therefore, assured Philip that he "highly
+applauded his master for his plot.  He could not help rendering infinite
+thanks to God for having made him vassal to such a Prince."  He praised
+exceedingly the resolution which his Majesty had taken.  After this
+preamble, however, he proceeded to pour cold water upon his sovereign's
+ardor.  He decidedly expressed the opinion that Philip should not proceed
+in such an undertaking until at any rate the party of the Duke of Norfolk
+had obtained possession of Elizabeth's person.  Should the King declare
+himself prematurely, he might be sure that the Venetians, breaking off
+their alliance with him, would make their peace with the Turk; and that
+Elizabeth would, perhaps, conclude that marriage with the Duke of Alencon
+which now seemed but a pleasantry.  Moreover, he expressed his want of
+confidence in the Duke of Norfolk, whom he considered as a poor creature
+with but little courage.  He also expressed his doubts concerning the
+prudence and capacity of Don Gueran de Espes, his Majesty's ambassador at
+London.
+
+It was not long before these machinations became known in England.  The
+Queen of Scots was guarded more closely than ever, the Duke of Norfolk
+was arrested; yet Philip, whose share in the conspiracy had remained a
+secret, was not discouraged by the absolute explosion of the whole
+affair.  He still held to an impossible purpose with a tenacity which
+resembled fatuity.  He avowed that his obligations in the sight of God
+were so strict that he was still determined to proceed in the sacred
+cause.  He remitted, therefore, the promised funds to the Duke of Alva,
+and urged him to act with proper secrecy and promptness.
+
+The Viceroy was not a little perplexed by these remarkable instructions.
+None but lunatics could continue to conspire, after the conspiracy had
+been exposed and the conspirators arrested.  Yet this was what his
+Catholic Majesty expected of his Governor-General.  Alva complained,
+not unreasonably, of the contradictory demands to which he was subjected.
+
+He was to cause no rupture with England, yet he was to send succor to an
+imprisoned traitor; he was to keep all his operations secret from his
+council, yet he was to send all his army out of the country, and to
+organize an expensive campaign.  He sneered: at the flippancy of Ridolfi,
+who imagined that it was the work of a moment to seize the Queen of
+England, to liberate the Queen of Scotland, to take possession of the
+Tower of London, and to burn the fleet in the Thames.  "Were your Majesty
+and the Queen of England acting together," he observed, "it would be
+impossible to execute the plan proposed by Ridolfi."  The chief danger
+to be apprehended was from France and Germany.  Were those countries not
+to interfere, he would undertake to make Philip sovereign of England
+before the winter.  Their opposition, however, was sufficient to make the
+enterprise not only difficult, but impossible.  He begged his, master not
+to be precipitate in the; most important affair which had been negotiated
+by man since Christ came upon earth.  Nothing less, he said, than the
+existence of the Christian faith was at stake, for, should his Majesty
+fail in this undertaking, not one stone of the ancient religion would
+be left upon another.  He again warned the King of the contemptible
+character, of Ridolfi, who had spoken of the affair so freely that it
+was a common subject of discussion on the Bourse, at Antwerp, and he
+reiterated, in all his letters his distrust of the parties prominently
+engaged in the transaction.
+
+Such was the general, tenor of the long despatches exchanged between the
+King and the Duke of Alva upon this iniquitous scheme.  The Duke showed
+himself reluctant throughout the whole affair, although he certainly
+never opposed his master's project by any arguments founded upon good
+faith, Christian charity, or the sense of honor.  To kill the Queen of
+England, subvert the laws of her realm, burn her fleets, and butcher her
+subjects, while the mask of amity and entire consideration was sedulously
+preserved--all these projects were admitted to be strictly meritorious in
+themselves, although objections were taken as to the time and mode of
+execution.
+
+Alva never positively refused to accept his share in the enterprise, but
+he took care not to lift his finger till the catastrophe in England had
+made all attempts futile.  Philip, on the other hand, never positively
+withdrew from the conspiracy, but, after an infinite deal of writing and
+intriguing, concluded by leaving the whole affair in the hands of Alva.
+The only sufferer for Philip's participation in the plot was the Spanish
+envoy at London, Don Gueran de Espes.  This gentleman was formally
+dismissed by Queen Elizabeth, for having given treacherous and hostile
+advice to the Duke of Alva and to Philip; but her Majesty at the same
+time expressed the most profound consideration for her brother of Spain.
+
+Towards the close of the same year, however (December, 1571); Alva sent
+two other Italian assassins to England, bribed by the promise of vast
+rewards, to attempt the life of Elizabeth, quietly, by poison or
+otherwise.  The envoy, Mondoucet, in apprizing the French monarch of this
+scheme, added that the Duke was so ulcerated and annoyed by the discovery
+of the previous enterprise, that nothing could exceed his rage.  These
+ruffians were not destined to success, but the attempts of the Duke upon
+the Queen's life were renewed from time to time.  Eighteen months later
+(August, 1573), two Scotchmen, pensioners of Philip, came from Spain,
+with secret orders to consult with Alva.  They had accordingly much
+negotiation with the Duke and his secretary, Albornoz.  They boasted that
+they could easily capture Elizabeth, but said that the King's purpose was
+to kill her.  The plan, wrote Mondoucet, was the same as it had been
+before, namely, to murder the Queen of England, and to give her crown to
+Mary of Scotland, who would thus be in their power, and whose son was to
+be seized, and bestowed in marriage in such a way as to make them
+perpetual masters of both kingdoms.
+
+It does not belong to this history to discuss the merits, nor to narrate
+the fortunes, of that bickering and fruitless alliance which had been
+entered into at this period by Philip with Venice and the Holy See
+against the Turk.  The revolt of Granada had at last, after a two
+years' struggle, been subdued, and the remnants of the romantic race
+which had once swayed the Peninsula been swept into slavery.  The Moors
+had sustained the unequal conflict with a constancy not to have been
+expected of so gentle a people.  "If a nation meek as lambs could resist
+so bravely," said the Prince of Orange, "what ought not to be expected of
+a hardy people like the Netherlanders?"  Don John of Austria having
+concluded a series of somewhat inglorious forays against women, children,
+and bed-ridden old men in Andalusia and Granada; had arrived, in August
+of this year, at Naples, to take command of the combined fleet in the
+Levant.  The battle of Lepanto had been fought, but the quarrelsome and
+contradictory conduct of the allies had rendered the splendid victory as
+barren as the waves: upon which it had been won.  It was no less true,
+however, that the blunders of the infidels had previously enabled Philip
+to extricate himself with better success from the dangers of the Moorish
+revolt than might have been his fortune.  Had the rebels succeeded in
+holding Granada and the mountains of Andalusia, and had they been
+supported, as they had a right to expect, by the forces of the Sultan,
+a different aspect might have been given to the conflict, and one far
+less triumphant for Spain.  Had a prince of vigorous ambition and
+comprehensive policy governed at that moment the Turkish empire; it would
+have cost Philip a serious struggle to maintain himself in his hereditary
+dominions.  While he was plotting against the life and throne of
+Elizabeth, he might have had cause to tremble for his own.  Fortunately,
+however, for his Catholic Majesty, Selim was satisfied to secure himself
+in the possession of the Isle of Venus, with its fruitful vineyards.
+"To shed the blood" of Cyprian vines, in which he was so enthusiastic
+a connoisseur, was to him a more exhilarating occupation than to pursue,
+amid carnage and hardships, the splendid dream of a re-established
+Eastern caliphate.
+
+On the 25th Sept.  1571, a commission of Governor-General of the
+Netherlands was at last issued to John de la Cerda, Duke of Medina Coeli.
+Philip, in compliance with the Duke's repeated requests, and perhaps not
+entirely satisfied with the recent course of events in the provinces, had
+at last, after great hesitation, consented to Alva's resignation.  His
+successor; however, was not immediately to take his departure, and in the
+meantime the Duke was instructed to persevere in his faithful services.
+These services had, for the present, reduced themselves to a perpetual
+and not very triumphant altercation with his council, with the estates,
+and with the people, on the subject of his abominable tax.  He was
+entirely alone.  They who had stood unflinchingly at his side when the
+only business of the administration was to burn heretics, turned their
+backs upon him now that he had engaged in this desperate conflict with.
+the whole money power of the country.  The King was far from cordial in
+his support, the councillors much too crafty to retain their hold upon
+the wheel, to which they had only attached themselves in its ascent.
+Viglius and Berlaymont; Noircarmes and Aerschot, opposed and almost
+defied the man they now thought sinking, and kept the King constantly
+informed of the vast distress which the financial measures of the Duke
+were causing.
+
+Quite, at the close of the year, an elaborate petition from the estates
+of Brabant was read before the State Council.  It contained a strong
+remonstrance against the tenth penny.  Its repeal was strongly urged,
+upon the ground that its collection would involve the country in
+universal ruin.  Upon this, Alva burst forth in one of the violent
+explosions of rage to which he was subject.  The prosperity of the,
+Netherlands, he protested, was not dearer to the inhabitants than to
+himself.  He swore by the cross, and by the most holy of holies,
+preserved in the church of Saint Gudule, that had he been but a private
+individual, living in Spain, he would, out of the love he bore the
+provinces, have rushed to their defence had their safety been endangered.
+He felt therefore deeply wounded that malevolent persons should thus
+insinuate that he had even wished to injure the country, or to exercise
+tyranny over its citizens.  The tenth penny, he continued, was necessary
+to the defence of the land, and was much preferable to quotas.  It was
+highly improper that every man in the rabble should know how much was
+contributed, because each individual, learning the gross amount, would
+imagine that he, had paid it all himself.  In conclusion, he observed
+that, broken in health and stricken in years as he felt himself, he was
+now most anxious to return, and was daily looking with eagerness for the
+arrival of the Duke of Medina Coeli.
+
+During the course of this same year, the Prince of Orange had been
+continuing his preparations.  He had sent his agents to every place where
+a hope was held out to him of obtaining support.  Money was what he was
+naturally most anxious to obtain from individuals; open and warlike
+assistance what he demanded from governments.  His funds, little by
+little, were increasing, owing to the generosity of many obscure persons,
+and to the daring exploits of the beggars of the sea.  His mission,
+however, to the northern courts had failed.  His envoys had been received
+in Sweden and Denmark with barren courtesy.  The Duke of Alva, on the
+other hand, never alluded to the Prince but with contempt; knowing not
+that the ruined outlaw was slowly undermining the very ground beneath the
+monarch's feet; dreaming not that the feeble strokes which he despised
+were the opening blows of a century's conflict; foreseeing not that long
+before its close the chastised province was to expand into a great
+republic, and that the name of the outlaw was to become almost divine.
+
+Granvelle had already recommended that the young Count de Buren should be
+endowed with certain lands in Spain, in exchange for his hereditary
+estates, in order that the name and fame of the rebel William should be
+forever extinguished in the Netherlands.  With the same view, a new
+sentence against the Prince of Orange was now proposed by the Viceroy.
+This was, to execute him solemnly in effigy, to drag his escutcheon
+through the streets at the tails of horses, and after having broken it in
+pieces, and thus cancelled his armorial bearings, to declare him and his
+descendants, ignoble, infamous, and incapable of holding property or
+estates.  Could a leaf or two of future history have been unrolled to
+King, Cardinal, and Governor, they might have found the destined fortune
+of the illustrious rebel's house not exactly in accordance with the plan
+of summary extinction thus laid down.
+
+Not discouraged, the Prince continued to send his emissaries in every
+direction.  Diedrich Sonoy, his most trustworthy agent, who had been
+chief of the legation to the Northern Courts, was now actively canvassing
+the governments and peoples of, Germany with the same object.  Several
+remarkable papers from the hand of Orange were used upon this service.
+A letter, drawn up and signed by his own hand, recited; in brief and
+striking language, the history of his campaign in 1568, and of his
+subsequent efforts in the sacred cause.  It was now necessary, he said,
+that others besides himself should partake of his sacrifices.  This he
+stated plainly and eloquently.  The document was in truth a letter asking
+arms for liberty.  "For although all things," said the Prince, "are in
+the hand of God, and although he has created all things out of nought,
+yet hath he granted to different men different means, whereby, as with
+various instruments, he accomplishes his, almighty purposes.  Thereto
+hath he endowed some with strength of body, others with worldly wealth,
+others with still different gifts, all of which are to be used by their
+possessors to His honor and glory, if they wish not to incur the curse
+of the unworthy steward, who buried his talent in the earth. . . . .
+Now ye may easily see," he continued, "that the Prince cannot carry out
+this great work alone, having lost land, people, and goods, and having
+already employed in the cause all which had remained to him, besides
+incurring heavy obligations in addition."
+
+Similar instructions were given to other agents, and a paper called the
+Harangue, drawn up according to his suggestions, was also extensively
+circulated.  This document is important to all who are interested in his
+history and character.  He had not before issued a missive so stamped
+with the warm, religious impress of the reforming party.  Sadly, but
+without despondency, the Harangue recalled the misfortunes of the past;
+and depicted the gloom of the present.  Earnestly, but not fanatically,
+it stimulated hope and solicited aid for the future.  "Although the
+appeals made to the Prince," so ran a part of the document, "be of
+diverse natures, and various in their recommendations, yet do they all
+tend to the advancement of God's glory, and to the liberation of the
+fatherland.  This it is which enables him and those who think with him to
+endure hunger; thirst, cold, heat, and all the misfortunes which Heaven
+may send. . . . . .  Our enemies spare neither their money nor their
+labor; will ye be colder and duller than your foes?  Let, then, each
+church congregation set an example to the others.  We read that King
+Saul, when he would liberate the men of Jabez from the hands of Nahad,
+the Ammonite, hewed a yoke of oxen in pieces, and sent them as tokens
+over all Israel, saying, 'Ye who will not follow Saul and Samuel, with
+them shall be dealt even as with these oxen.  And the fear of the Lord
+came upon the people, they came forth, and the men of Jabez were
+delivered.'  Ye have here the same warning, look to it, watch well ye
+that despise it, lest the wrath of God, which the men of Israel by their
+speedy obedience escaped, descend upon your heads.  Ye may say that ye
+are banished men.  'Tis true: but thereby are ye not stripped of all
+faculty of rendering service; moreover, your assistance is asked for one
+who will restore ye to your homes. Ye may say that ye have been robbed of
+all your goods; yet many of you have still something remaining, and of
+that little ye should contribute, each his mite.  Ye say that you have
+given much already.  'Tis true, but the enemy is again in the field;
+fierce for your subjugation, sustained by the largess of his supporters.
+Will ye be less courageous, less generous, than your foes."
+
+These urgent appeals did not remain fruitless.  The strength of the
+Prince was slowly but steadily increasing.  Meantime the abhorrence
+ with which Alva was universally regarded had nearly reached to frenzy.
+In the beginning of the year 1572, Don Francis de Alava, Philip's
+ambassador in France, visited Brussels.  He had already been enlightened
+as to the consequences of the Duke's course by the immense immigration of
+Netherland refugees to France, which he had witnessed with his own eyes.
+On his journey towards Brussels he had been met near Cambray by
+Noircarmes.  Even that "cruel animal," as Hoogstraaten had called him,
+the butcher of Tournay and Valenciennes, had at last been roused to
+alarm, if not to pity, by the sufferings of the country.  "The Duke will
+never disabuse his mind of this filthy tenth penny," said he to Alava.
+He sprang from his chair with great emotion as the ambassador alluded to
+the flight of merchants and artisans from the provinces.  "Senor Don
+Francis," cried he, "there are ten thousand more who are on the point of
+leaving the country, if the Governor does not pause in his career.  God
+grant that no disaster arise beyond human power to remedy."
+
+The ambassador arrived in Brussels, and took up his lodgings in the
+palace.  Here he found the Duke just recovering from a fit of the gout,
+in a state of mind sufficiently savage.   He became much excited as Don
+Francis began to speak of the emigration, and he assured him that there
+was gross deception on the subject.  The envoy replied that he could not
+be mistaken, for it was a matter which, so to speak, he had touched with
+his own fingers, and seen with his own eyes.  The Duke, persisting that
+Don Francis had been abused and misinformed, turned the conversation to
+other topics.  Next day the ambassador received visits from Berlaymont
+and his son, the Seigneur de Hierges.  He was taken aside by each of
+them, separately.  "Thank God, you have come hither," said they, in
+nearly the same words, "that you may fully comprehend the condition of
+the provinces, and without delay admonish his Majesty of the impending
+danger."  All his visitors expressed the same sentiments.  Don Frederic
+of Toledo furnished the only exception, assuring the envoy that his
+father's financial measures were opposed by Noircarmes and others, only
+because it deprived them of their occupation and their influence.  This
+dutiful language, however, was to be expected in one of whom Secretary
+Albornoz had written, that he was the greatest comfort to his father, and
+the most divine genius ever known.  It was unfortunately corroborated by
+no other inhabitant of the country.
+
+On the third day, Don Francis went to take his leave.  The Duke begged
+him to inform his Majesty of the impatience with which he was expecting
+the arrival of his successor.  He then informed his guest that they had
+already begun to collect the tenth penny in Brabant, the most obstinate
+of all the provinces.  "What do you say to that, Don Francis?"  he cried,
+with exultation.  Alava replied that he thought, none the less, that the
+tax would encounter many obstacles, and begged him earnestly to reflect.
+He assured him, moreover, that he should, without reserve, express his
+opinions fully to the King.  The Duke used the same language which Don
+Frederic had held, concerning the motives of those who opposed the tax.
+"It may be so," said Don Francis, "but at any rate, all have agreed to
+sing to the same tune."  A little startled, the Duke rejoined, "Do you
+doubt that the cities will keep their promises?  Depend upon it, I shall
+find the means to compel them."  "God grant it may be so," said Alava,
+"but in my poor judgment you will have need of all your prudence and of
+all your authority."
+
+The ambassador did not wait till he could communicate with his sovereign
+by word of mouth.  He forwarded to Spain an ample account of his
+observations and deductions.  He painted to Philip in lively colors the
+hatred entertained by all men for the Duke.  The whole nation, he assured
+his Majesty, united in one cry, "Let him begone, let him begone, let him
+begone!"  As for the imposition of the tenth penny, that, in the opinion
+of Don Francis, was utterly impossible.  He moreover warned his Majesty
+that Alva was busy in forming secret alliances with the Catholic princes
+of Europe, which would necessarily lead to defensive leagues among the
+Protestants.
+
+While thus, during the earlier part of the year 1572, the Prince of
+Orange, discouraged by no defeats, was indefatigable in his exertions to
+maintain the cause of liberty, and while at the same time the most stanch
+supporters of arbitrary power were unanimous in denouncing to Philip the
+insane conduct of his Viceroy, the letters of Alva himself were naturally
+full of complaints and expostulations.  It was in vain, he said, for him
+to look for a confidential councillor, now that matters which he had
+wished to be kept so profoundly secret that the very earth should not
+hear of them, had been proclaimed aloud above the tiles of every
+housetop.  Nevertheless, he would be cut into little pieces but his
+Majesty should be obeyed, while he remained alive to enforce the royal
+commands.  There were none who had been ever faithful but Berlaymont,
+he said, and even he had been neutral in the affair of the tax.  He had
+rendered therein neither good nor bad offices, but, as his Majesty was
+aware, Berlaymont was entirely ignorant of business, and "knew nothing
+more than to be a good fellow."  That being the case, he recommended
+Hierges, son of the "good fellow," as a proper person to be governor of
+Friesland.
+
+The deputations appointed by the different provinces to confer personally
+with the King received a reprimand upon their arrival, for having dared
+to come to Spain without permission.  Farther punishment, however, than
+this rebuke was not inflicted.  They were assured that the King was
+highly displeased with their venturing to bring remonstrances against the
+tax, but they were comforted with the assurance that his Majesty would
+take the subject of their petition into consideration.  Thus, the
+expectations of Alva were disappointed, for the tenth penny was not
+formally confirmed; and the hopes of the provinces frustrated, because
+it was not distinctly disavowed.
+
+Matters had reached another crisis in the provinces.  "Had we money now,"
+wrote the Prince of Orange, "we should, with the help of God, hope to
+effect something.  This is a time when, with even small sums, more can be
+effected than at other seasons with ampler funds."  The citizens were in
+open revolt against the tax.  In order that the tenth penny should not be
+levied upon every sale of goods, the natural but desperate remedy was
+adopted--no goods were sold at all.
+
+Not only the wholesale commerce oh the provinces was suspended, but the
+minute and indispensable traffic of daily life was entirely at a stand.
+The shops were all shut.  "The brewers," says a contemporary, "refused to
+brew, the bakers to bake, the tapsters to tap."  Multitudes, thrown
+entirely out of employment, and wholly dependent upon charity, swarmed in
+every city.  The soldiery, furious for their pay, which Alva had for many
+months neglected to furnish, grew daily more insolent; the citizens,
+maddened by outrage and hardened by despair, became more and more
+obstinate in their resistance; while the Duke, rendered inflexible by
+opposition and insane by wrath, regarded the ruin which he had caused
+with a malignant spirit which had long ceased to be human.  "The disease
+is gnawing at our vitals," wrote Viglius; "everybody is suffering for the
+want of the necessaries of life.  Multitudes are in extreme and hopeless
+poverty.  My interest in the welfare of the commonwealth," he continued,
+"induces me to send these accounts to Spain.  For myself, I fear nothing.
+Broken by sickness and acute physical suffering, I should leave life
+without regret."
+
+The aspect of the capital was that of a city stricken with the plague.
+Articles of the most absolute necessity could not be obtained.  It was
+impossible to buy bread, or meat, or beer.  The tyrant, beside himself
+with rage at being thus braved in his very lair, privately sent for
+Master Carl, the executioner.  In order to exhibit an unexpected and
+salutary example, he had determined to hang eighteen of the leading
+tradesmen of the city in the doors of their own shops, with the least
+possible delay and without the slightest form of trial.
+
+Master Carl was ordered, on the very night of his interview with the
+Duke, to prepare eighteen strong cords, and eighteen ladders twelve feet
+in length.  By this simple arrangement, Alva was disposed to make
+manifest on the morrow, to the burghers of Brussels, that justice was
+thenceforth to be carried to every man's door.  He supposed that the
+spectacle of a dozen and a half of butchers and bakers suspended in front
+of the shops which they had refused to open, would give a more effective
+stimulus to trade than any to be expected from argument or proclamation.
+The hangman was making ready his cords and ladders; Don Frederic of
+Toledo was closeted with President Viglius, who, somewhat against his
+will, was aroused at midnight to draw the warrants for these impromptu
+executions; Alva was waiting with grim impatience for the dawn upon which
+the show was to be exhibited, when an unforeseen event suddenly arrested
+the homely tragedy.  In the night arrived the intelligence that the town
+of Brill had been captured.  The Duke, feeling the full gravity of the
+situation, postponed the chastisement which he had thus secretly planned
+to a more convenient season, in order without an instant's hesitation to
+avert the consequences of this new movement on the part of the rebels.
+The seizure of Brill was the Deus ex machina which unexpectedly solved
+both the inextricable knot of the situation and the hangman's noose.
+
+Allusion has more than once been made to those formidable partisans of
+the patriot cause, the marine outlaws.  Cheated of half their birthright
+by nature, and now driven forth from their narrow isthmus by tyranny, the
+exiled Hollanders took to the ocean.  Its boundless fields, long arable
+to their industry, became fatally fruitful now that oppression was
+transforming a peaceful seafaring people into a nation of corsairs.
+Driven to outlawry and poverty, no doubt many Netherlanders plunged
+into crime.  The patriot party had long sine laid aside the respectful
+deportment which had provoked the sarcasms of the loyalists.  The
+beggars of the sea asked their alms through the mouths of their cannon.
+Unfortunately, they but too often made their demands upon both friend and
+foe.  Every ruined merchant, every banished lord, every reckless mariner,
+who was willing to lay the commercial world under contribution to repair
+his damaged fortunes, could, without much difficulty, be supplied with a
+vessel and crew at some northern port, under color of cruising against
+the Viceroy's government.  Nor was the ostensible motive simply a
+pretext.  To make war upon Alva was the leading object of all these
+freebooters, and they were usually furnished by the Prince of Orange,
+in his capacity of sovereign, with letters of marque for that purpose.
+The Prince, indeed, did his utmost to control and direct an evil which
+had inevitably grown out of the horrors of the time.  His Admiral,
+William de la Marck, was however, incapable of comprehending the lofty
+purposes of his superior.  A wild, sanguinary, licentious noble, wearing
+his hair and beard unshorn, according to ancient Batavian custom, until
+the death of his relative, Egmont, should have been expiated, a worthy
+descendant of the Wild Boar of Ardennes, this hirsute and savage corsair
+seemed an embodiment of vengeance.  He had sworn to wreak upon Alva and
+upon popery the deep revenge owed to them by the Netherland nobility, and
+in the cruelties afterwards practised by him upon monks and priests, the
+Blood Council learned that their example had made at least one ripe
+scholar among the rebels.  He was lying, at this epoch, with his fleet on
+the southern coast of England, from which advantageous position he was
+now to be ejected in a summary manner.
+
+The negotiations between the Duke of Alva and Queen Elizabeth had already
+assumed an amicable tone, and were fast ripening to an adjustment.  It
+lay by no means in that sovereign's disposition to involve herself at
+this juncture in a war with Philip, and it was urged upon her government
+by Alva's commissioners, that the continued countenance afforded by the
+English people to the Netherland cruisers must inevitably lead to that
+result.  In the latter days of March, therefore, a sentence of virtual
+excommunication was pronounced against De la Marck and his rovers.  A
+peremptory order of Elizabeth forbade any of her subjects to supply them
+with meat, bread, or beer.  The command being strictly complied with,
+their farther stay was rendered impossible.  Twenty-four vessels
+accordingly, of various sizes, commanded by De la Marck, Treslong, Adam
+van Harem, Brand, and Other distinguished seamen, set sail from Dover in
+the very last days of March.  Being almost in a state of starvation,
+these adventurers were naturally anxious to supply themselves with food.
+They determined to make a sudden foray upon the coasts of North Holland,
+and accordingly steered for Enkbuizen, both because it was a rich sea-
+port and because it contained many secret partisans of the Prince.  On
+Palm Sunday they captured two Spanish merchantmen.  Soon afterwards,
+however, the wind becoming contrary, they were unable to double the
+Helder or the Texel, and on Tuesday, the 1st of April, having abandoned
+their original intention, they dropped down towards Zealand, and entered
+the broad mouth of the river Meuse.  Between the town of Brill, upon the
+southern lip of this estuary, and Naaslandsluis, about half a league
+distant, upon the opposite aide, the squadron suddenly appeared at about
+two o'clock of an April afternoon, to the great astonishment of the
+inhabitants of both places.  It seemed too large a fleet to be a mere
+collection of trading vessels, nor did they appear to be Spanish ships.
+Peter Koppelstok, a sagacious ferryman, informed the passengers whom he
+happened to be conveying across the river, that the strangers were
+evidently the water beggars.  The dreaded name filled his hearers with
+consternation, and they became eager to escape from so perilous a
+vicinity.  Having duly landed his customers, however, who hastened to
+spread the news of the impending invasion, and to prepare for defence or
+flight, the stout ferryman, who was secretly favorable to the cause of
+liberty, rowed boldly out to inquire the destination and purposes of the
+fleet.
+
+The vessel which he first hailed was that commanded by William de Blois,
+Seigneur of Treslong.  This adventurous noble, whose brother had been
+executed by the Duke of Alva in 1568, had himself fought by the side of
+Count Louis at Jemmingen, and although covered with wounds, had been one
+of the few who escaped alive from that horrible carnage.  During the
+intervening period he had become one of the most famous rebels on the
+ocean, and he had always been well known in Brill, where his father had
+been governor for the King.  He at once recognized Koppelstok, and
+hastened with him on board the Admiral's ship, assuring De la Marck that
+the ferryman was exactly the man for their purpose.  It was absolutely
+necessary that a landing should be effected, for the people were without
+the necessaries of life.  Captain Martin Brand had visited the ship of
+Adam Van Haren, as soon as they had dropped anchor in the Meuse, begging
+for food.  "I gave him a cheese," said Adam, afterwards relating the
+occurrence," and assured him that it was the last article of food to
+be found in the ship."  The other vessels were equally destitute.  Under
+the circumstances, it was necessary to attempt a landing.  Treslong,
+therefore, who was really the hero of this memorable adventure, persuaded
+De la Marck to send a message to the city of Brill, demanding its
+surrender.  This was a bold summons to be made by a handful of men, three
+or four hundred at most, who were both metaphorically and literally
+beggars.  The city of Brill was not populous, but it was well walled and
+fortified.  It was moreover a most commodious port.  Treslong gave his
+signet ring to the fisherman, Koppelstok, and ordered him, thus
+accredited as an envoy, to carry their summons to the magistracy.
+Koppelstok, nothing loath, instantly rowed ashore, pushed through the
+crowd of inhabitants, who overwhelmed him with questions, and made his
+appearance in the town-house before the assembled magistrates.  He
+informed them that he had been sent by the Admiral of the fleet and by
+Treslong, who was well known to them, to demand that two commissioners
+should be sent out on the part of the city to confer with the patriots.
+He was bidden, he said, to give assurance that the deputies would be
+courteously treated.  The only object of those who had sent him was to
+free the land from the tenth penny, and to overthrow the tyranny of Alva
+and his Spaniards.  Hereupon he was asked by the magistrates, how large a
+force De la Marck had under his command, To this question the ferryman
+carelessly replied, that there might be some five thousand in all.  This
+enormous falsehood produced its effect upon the magistrates.  There was
+now no longer any inclination to resist the invader; the only question
+discussed being whether to treat with them or to fly.  On the whole, it
+was decided to do both.  With some difficulty, two deputies were found
+sufficiently valiant to go forth to negotiate with the beggars, while in
+their absence most of the leading burghers and functionaries made their
+preparations for flight.  The envoys were assured by De la Marck and
+Treslong that no injury was intended to the citizens or to private
+property, but that the overthrow of Alva's government was to be instantly
+accomplished.  Two hours were given to the magistrates in which to decide
+whether or not they would surrender the town and accept the authority of
+De la Marck as Admiral of the Prince of Orange.  They employed the two
+hours thus granted in making an ignominious escape.  Their example was
+followed by most of the townspeople.  When the invaders, at the
+expiration of the specified term, appeared under the walls of the city,
+they found a few inhabitants of the lower class gazing at them from
+above, but received no official communication from any source.
+
+The whole rebel force was now divided into two parties, one of which
+under Treslong made an attack upon the southern gate, while the other
+commanded by the Admiral advanced upon the northern.  Treslong after a
+short struggle succeeded in forcing his entrance, and arrested, in doing
+so, the governor of the city, just taking his departure.  De la Marck and
+his men made a bonfire at the northern gate, and then battered down the
+half-burned portal with the end of an old mast.  Thus rudely and rapidly
+did the Netherland patriots conduct their first successful siege.  The
+two parties, not more perhaps than two hundred and fifty men in all, met
+before sunset in the centre of the city, and the foundation of the Dutch
+Republic was laid.  The weary spirit of freedom, so long a fugitive over
+earth and sea, had at last found a resting-place, which rude and even
+ribald hands had prepared.
+
+The panic created by the first appearance of the fleet had been so
+extensive that hardly fifty citizens had remained in the town.  The rest
+had all escaped, with as much property as they could carry away.  The
+Admiral, in the name, of the Prince of Orange, as lawful stadholder of
+Philip, took formal possession of an almost deserted city.  No indignity
+was offered to the inhabitants of either sex, but as soon, as the
+conquerors were fairly established in the best houses of the place,
+the inclination to plunder the churches could no longer be restrained.
+The altars and images were all destroyed, the rich furniture and gorgeous
+vestments appropriated to private use.  Adam van Hare appeared on his
+vessel's deck attired in a magnificent high mass chasuble.  Treslong
+thenceforth used no drinking cups in his cabin save the golden chalices
+of the sacrament.  Unfortunately, their hatred to popery was not confined
+to such demonstrations.  Thirteen unfortunate monks and priests, who had
+been unable to effect their escape, were arrested and thrown into prison,
+from whence they were taken a few days later, by order of the ferocious
+Admiral, and executed under circumstances of great barbarity.
+
+The news of this important exploit spread with great rapidity.  Alva,
+surprised at the very moment of venting his rage on the butchers and
+grocers of Brussels, deferred this savage design in order to deal with
+the new difficulty.  He had certainly not expected such a result from
+the ready compliance of queen Elizabeth with his request.  His rage was
+excessive; the triumph of the people, by whom he was cordially detested,
+proportionably great.  The punsters of Brussels were sure not to let such
+an opportunity escape them, for the name of the captured town was
+susceptible of a quibble, and the event had taken place upon All Fools'
+Day.
+
+                   "On April's Fool's Day,
+                    Duke Alva's spectacles were stolen away,"
+
+became a popular couplet.  The word spectacles, in Flemish, as well as
+the name of the suddenly surprised city, being Brill, this allusion to
+the Duke's loss and implied purblindness was not destitute of ingenuity.
+A caricature, too, was extensively circulated, representing De la Marck
+stealing the Duke's spectacles from his nose, while the Governor was
+supposed to be uttering his habitual expression whenever any intelligence
+of importance was brought to him: 'No es nada, no es nada--'Tis nothing,
+'tis nothing.
+
+The Duke, however, lost not an instant in attempting to repair the
+disaster.  Count Bossu, who had acted as stadholder of Holland and
+Zealand, under Alva's authority, since the Prince of Orange had resigned
+that office, was ordered at once to recover the conquered sea-port, if
+possible.
+
+Hastily gathering a force of some ten companies from the garrison of
+Utrecht, some of which very troops had recently and unluckily for
+government, been removed from Brill to that city, the Count crossed the
+Sluis to the island of Voorn upon Easter day, and sent a summons to the
+rebel force to surrender Brill.  The patriots being very few in number,
+were at first afraid to venture outside the gates to attack the much
+superior force of their invaders.  A carpenter, however, who belonged to
+the city, but had long been a partisan of Orange, dashed into the water
+with his axe in his hand, and swimming to the Niewland sluice, hacked it
+open with a few vigorous strokes.  The sea poured in at once, making the
+approach to the city upon the north side impossible: Bossu then led his
+Spaniards along the Niewland dyke to the southern gate, where they were
+received with a warm discharge of artillery, which completely staggered
+them.  Meantime Treslong and Robol had, in the most daring manner, rowed
+out to the ships which had brought the enemy to the island, cut some
+adrift, and set others on fire.
+
+The Spaniards at the southern gate caught sight of their blazing vessels,
+saw the sea rapidly rising over the dyke, became panic-struck at being
+thus enclosed between fire and water, and dashed off in precipitate
+retreat along the slippery causeway and through the slimy and turbid
+waters, which were fast threatening to overwhelm them.  Many were drowned
+or smothered in their flight, but the greater portion of the force
+effected their escape in the vessels which still remained within reach.
+This danger averted, Admiral de la Marck summoned all the inhabitants,
+a large number of whom had returned to the town after the capture had
+been fairly established, and required them, as well as all the population
+of the island, to take an oath of allegiance to the Prince of Orange as
+stadholder for his Majesty.
+
+The Prince had not been extremely satisfied with the enterprise of De la
+Marck.  He thought-it premature, and doubted whether it would be
+practicable to hold the place, as he had not yet completed his
+arrangements in Germany, nor assembled the force with which he intended
+again to take the field.  More than all, perhaps, he had little
+confidence in the character of his Admiral.  Orange was right in his
+estimate of De la Marck.  It had not been that rover's design either to
+take or to hold the place; and after the descent had been made, the ships
+victualled, the churches plundered, the booty secured, and a few monks
+murdered, he had given orders for the burning of the town, and for the
+departure of the fleet.  The urgent solicitations of Treslong, however,
+prevailed, with some difficulty, over De la Marck' original intentions.
+It is to that bold and intelligent noble, therefore, more than to any
+other individual, that the merit of laying this corner-stone of the
+Batavian commonwealth belongs.  The enterprise itself was an accident,
+but the quick eye of Treslong saw the possibility of a permanent
+conquest, where his superior dreamed of nothing beyond a piratical foray.
+
+Meantime Bossu, baffled in his attempt upon Brill, took his way towards
+Rotterdam.  It was important that he should at least secure such other
+cities as the recent success of the rebels might cause to waver in their
+allegiance.  He found the gates of Rotterdam closed.  The authorities
+refused to comply with his demand to admit a garrison for the King.
+Professing perfect loyalty, the inhabitants very naturally refused to
+admit a band of sanguinary Spaniards to enforce their obedience.
+Compelled to parley, Bossu resorted to a perfidious stratagem.  He
+requested permission for his troops to pass through the city without
+halting.  This was granted by the magistrates, on condition that only a
+corporal's command should be admitted at a time.  To these terms the
+Count affixed his hand and seal.  With the admission, however, of the
+first detachment, a violent onset was made upon the gate by the whole
+Spanish force.  The townspeople, not suspecting treachery, were not
+prepared to make effective resistance.  A stout smith, confronting the
+invaders at the gate, almost singly, with his sledge-hammer, was stabbed
+to the heart by Bossu with his own hand.  The soldiers having thus gained
+admittance, rushed through the streets, putting every man to death who
+offered the slightest resistance.  Within a few minutes four hundred
+citizens were murdered.  The fate of the women, abandoned now to the
+outrage of a brutal soldiery, was worse than death.  The capture of
+Rotterdam is infamous for the same crimes which blacken the record of
+every Spanish triumph in the Netherlands.
+
+The important town of Flushing, on the Isle of Walcheren, was first to
+vibrate with the patriotic impulse given by the success at Brill.  The
+Seigneur de Herpt, a warm partisan of Orange, excited the burghers
+assembled in the market-place to drive the small remnant of the Spanish
+garrison from the city.  A little later upon the same day a considerable
+reinforcement arrived before the walls.  The Duke had determined,
+although too late, to complete the fortress which had been commenced long
+before to control the possession of this important position at the mouth
+of the western Scheld.  The troops who were to resume this too long
+intermitted work arrived just in time to witness the expulsion of their
+comrades.  De Herpt easily persuaded the burghers that the die was cast,
+and that their only hope lay in a resolute resistance.  The people warmly
+acquiesced, while a half-drunken, half-wined fellow in the crowd
+valiantly proposed, in consideration of a pot of beer, to ascend the
+ramparts and to discharge a couple of pieces of artillery at the Spanish
+ships.  The offer was accepted, and the vagabond merrily mounting the
+height, discharged the guns.  Strange to relate, the shot thus fired by a
+lunatic's hand put the invading ships to flight.  A sudden panic seized
+the Spaniards, the whole fleet stood away at once in the direction of
+Middelburg, and were soon out of sight.
+
+The next day, however, Antony of Bourgoyne, governor under Alva for the
+Island of Walcheren, made his appearance in Flushing.  Having a high
+opinion of his own oratorical powers, he came with the intention of
+winning back with his rhetoric a city which the Spaniards had thus far
+been unable to recover with their cannon.  The great bell was rung, the
+whole population assembled in the marketplace, and Antony, from the steps
+of the town-house, delivered a long oration, assuring the burghers, among
+other asseverations, that the King, who was the best natured prince in
+all Christendom, would forget and forgive their offences if they returned
+honestly to their duties.
+
+The effect of the Governor's eloquence was much diminished, however, by
+the interlocutory remarks, of De Herpt and a group of his adherents.
+They reminded the people of the King's good nature, of his readiness to
+forget and to forgive, as exemplified by the fate of Horn and Egmont, of
+Berghen and Montigny, and by the daily and almost hourly decrees of the
+Blood Council.  Each well-rounded period of the Governor was greeted with
+ironical cheers.  The oration was unsuccessful. "Oh, citizens, citizens!"
+cried at last the discomfited Antony, "ye know not what ye do.  Your
+blood be upon your own heads; the responsibility be upon your own hearts
+for the fires which are to consume your cities and the desolation which
+is to sweep your land!"  The orator at this impressive point was
+interrupted, and most unceremoniously hustled out of the city.  The
+government remained in the hands of the patriots.
+
+The party, however, was not so strong in soldiers as in spirit.  No
+sooner, therefore, had they established their rebellion to Alva as an
+incontrovertible fact, than they sent off emissaries to the Prince of
+Orange, and to Admiral De la Marek at Brill.  Finding that the
+inhabitants of Flushing were willing to provide arms and ammunition, De
+la Marck readily consented to send a small number of men, bold and
+experienced in partisan warfare, of whom he had now collected a larger
+number than he could well arm or maintain in his present position.
+
+The detachment, two hundred in number, in three small vessels,
+set sail accordingly from Brill for Flushing; and a wild crew they were,
+of reckless adventurers under command of the bold Treslong.  The
+expedition seemed a fierce but whimsical masquerade.  Every man in the
+little fleet was attired in the gorgeous vestments of the plundered
+churches, in gold-embroidered cassocks, glittering mass-garments, or the
+more sombre cowls, and robes of Capuchin friars.  So sped the early
+standard bearers of that ferocious liberty which had sprung from the
+fires in which all else for which men cherish their fatherland had been
+consumed.  So swept that resolute but fantastic band along the placid
+estuaries of Zealand, waking the stagnant waters with their wild beggar
+songs and cries of vengeance.
+
+That vengeance found soon a distinguished object.  Pacheco, the chief
+engineer of Alva, who had accompanied the Duke in his march from Italy,
+who had since earned a world-wide reputation as the architect of the
+Antwerp citadel, had been just despatched in haste to Flushing to
+complete the fortress whose construction had been so long delayed.
+Too late for his work, too soon for his safety, the ill-fated engineer
+had arrived almost at the same moment with Treslong and his crew.
+He had stepped on shore, entirely ignorant of all which had transpired,
+expecting to be treated with the respect due to the chief commandant of
+the place, and to an officer high in the confidence of the Governor-
+General.  He found himself surrounded by an indignant and threatening
+mob.  The unfortunate Italian understood not a word of the opprobrious
+language addressed to him, but he easily comprehended that the authority
+of the Duke was overthrown.  Observing De Ryk, a distinguished partisan
+officer and privateersman of Amsterdam, whose reputation for bravery and
+generosity was known, to him, he approached him, and drawing a seal ring
+from his finger, kissed it, and handed it to the rebel chieftain.  By
+this dumbshow he gave him to understand that he relied upon his honor for
+the treatment due to a gentleman.  De Ryk understood the appeal, and
+would willingly have assured him, at least, a soldier's death, but he was
+powerless to do so.  He arrested him, that he might be protected from the
+fury of the rabble, but Treslong, who now commanded in Flushing, was
+especially incensed against the founder of the Antwerp citadel, and felt
+a ferocious desire to avenge his brother's murder upon the body of his
+destroyer's favourite.  Pacheco was condemned to be hanged upon the very
+day of his arrival.  Having been brought forth from his prison, he begged
+hard but not abjectly for his life.  He offered a heavy ransom, but his
+enemies were greedy for blood, not for money.  It was, however, difficult
+to find an executioner.  The city hangman was absent, and the prejudice
+of the country and the age against the vile profession had assuredly not
+been diminished during the five horrible years of Alva's administration.
+Even a condemned murderer, who lay in the town-gaol, refused to accept
+his life in recompence for performing the office.  It should never be
+said, he observed, that his mother had given birth to a hangman.  When
+told, however, that the intended victim was a Spanish officer, the
+malefactor consented to the task with alacrity, on condition that he
+might afterwards kill any man who taunted him with the deed.
+
+Arrived at the foot of the gallows, Pacheco complained bitterly of the
+disgraceful death designed for him.  He protested loudly that he came of
+a house as noble as that of Egmont or Horn, and was entitled to as
+honorable an execution as theirs had been.  "The sword! the sword!"  he
+frantically exclaimed, as he struggled with those who guarded him.  His
+language was not understood, but the names of Egmont and Horn inflamed
+still more highly the rage of the rabble, while his cry for the sword was
+falsely interpreted by a rude fellow who had happened to possess himself
+of Pacheco's rapier, at his capture, and who now paraded himself with it
+at the gallows' foot.  "Never fear for your sword, Seilor," cried this
+ruffian; "your sword is safe enough, and in good hands.  Up the ladder
+with you, Senor; you have no further use for your sword."
+
+Pacheco, thus outraged, submitted to his fate.  He mounted the ladder
+with a steady step, and was hanged between two other Spanish officers.
+So perished miserably a brave soldier, and one of the most distinguished
+engineers of his time; a man whose character and accomplishments had
+certainly merited for him a better fate.  But while we stigmatize as it
+deserves the atrocious conduct of a few Netherland partisans, we should
+remember who first unchained the demon of international hatred in this
+unhappy land, nor should it ever be forgotten that the great leader
+of the revolt, by word, proclamation, example, by entreaties, threats,
+and condign punishment, constantly rebuked, and to a certain extent,
+restrained the sanguinary spirit by which some of his followers disgraced
+the noble cause which they had espoused.
+
+Treslong did not long remain in command at Flushing.  An officer, high
+in the confidence of the Prince, Jerome van 't Zeraerts, now arrived at
+Flushing, with a commission to be Lieutenant-Governor over the whole isle
+of Walcheren.  He was attended by a small band of French infantry, while
+at nearly the same time the garrison was further strengthened by the
+arrival of a large number of volunteers from England.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Beggars of the sea, as these privateersmen designated themselves
+Hair and beard unshorn, according to ancient Batavian custom
+Only healthy existence of the French was in a state of war
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DUTCH REPUBLIC, 1570-72 ***
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