part of Anastro. That merchant, being on the verge of bankruptcy, had
entered with Philip into a mutual contract, which the King had signed
with his hand and sealed with his seal, and according to which Anastro,
within a certain period, was to take the life of William of Orange, and
for so doing was to receive eighty thousand ducats, and the cross of
Santiago. To be a knight companion of Spain's proudest order of chivalry
was the guerdon, over and above the eighty thousand pieces of silver,
which Spain's monarch promised the murderer, if he should succeed. As
for Anastro himself, he was too frugal and too wary to risk his own life,
or to lose much of the premium. With, tears streaming down his cheeks,
he painted to his faithful cashier the picture which his master would
present, when men should point at him and say, "Behold yon bankrupt!"
protesting, therefore, that he would murder Orange and secure the reward,
or perish in the attempt. Saying this, he again shed many tears.
Venero, seeing his master thus disconsolate, wept bitterly likewise; and
begged him not to risk his own precious life. After this pathetic
commingling of their grief, the merchant and his book-keeper became more
composed, and it was at last concerted between them that John Jaureguy
should be entrusted with the job. Anastro had intended--as he said in a
letter afterwards intercepted--"to accomplish the deed with his own hand;
but, as God had probably reserved him for other things, and particularly
to be of service to his very affectionate friends, he had thought best to
entrust the execution of the design to his servant." The price paid by
the master to the man, for the work, seems to have been but two thousand
eight hundred and seventy-seven crowns. The cowardly and crafty
principal escaped. He had gone post haste to Dunkirk, pretending that
the sudden death of his agent in Calais required his immediate presence
in that city. Governor Sweveseel, of Dunkirk, sent an orderly to get a
passport for him from La Motte, commanding at Gravelingen. Anastro being
on tenter-hooks lest the news should arrive that the projected murder had
been consummated before he had crossed the border, testified extravagant
joy on the arrival of the passport, and gave the messenger who brought it
thirty pistoles. Such conduct naturally excited a vague suspicion in the
mind of the governor, but the merchant's character was good, and he had
brought pressing letters from Admiral Treslong. Sweveseel did not dare
to arrest him without cause, and he neither knew that any crime had been
committed; nor that the man before him was the criminal. Two hours after
the traveller's departure, the news arrived of the deed, together with
orders to arrest Anastro, but it was too late. The merchant had found
refuge within the lines of Parma.
Meanwhile, the Prince lay in a most critical condition. Believing that
his end was fast approaching; he dictated letters to the states-general,
entreating them to continue in their obedience to the Duke, than whom he
affirmed that he knew no better prince for the government of the
provinces. These letters were despatched by Saint Aldegonde to the
assembly, from which body a deputation, in obedience to the wishes of
Orange, was sent to Anjou, with expressions of condolence and fidelity.
On Wednesday a solemn fast was held, according to proclamation, in
Antwerp, all work and all amusements being prohibited, and special
prayers commanded in all the churches for the recovery of the Prince.
"Never, within men's memory," says an account published at the moment,
in Antwerp, "had such crowds been seen in the churches, nor so many tears
been shed."
The process against Venero and Zimmermann was rapidly carried through,
for both had made a full confession of their share in the crime. The
Prince had enjoined from his sick bed, however, that the case should be
conducted with strict regard to justice, and, when the execution could no
longer be deferred, he had sent a written request, by the hands of Saint
Aldegonde, that they should be put to death in the least painful manner.
The request was complied with, but there can be no doubt that the
criminals, had it not been made, would have expiated their offence by the
most lingering tortures. Owing to the intercession of the man who was to
have been their victim, they were strangled, before being quartered, upon
a scaffold erected in the market-place, opposite the Town House. This
execution took place on Wednesday, the 28th of March.
The Prince, meanwhile, was thought to be mending, and thanksgivings began
to be mingled with the prayers offered almost every hour in the churches;
but for eighteen days he lay in a most precarious state. His wife hardly
left his bedside, and his sister, Catharine Countess of Schwartzburg, was
indefatigable in her attentions. The Duke of Anjou visited him daily,
and expressed the most filial anxiety for his recovery, but the hopes,
which had been gradually growing stronger, were on the 5th of April
exchanged for the deepest apprehensions. Upon that day the cicatrix by
which the flow of blood from the neck had been prevented, almost from the
first infliction of the wound, fell off. The veins poured forth a vast
quantity of blood; it seemed impossible to check the haemorrhage, and all
hope appeared to vanish. The Prince resigned himself to his fate, and
bade his children "good night for ever," saying calmly, "it is now all
over with me."
It was difficult, without suffocating the patient, to fasten a bandage
tightly enough to staunch the wound, but Leonardo Botalli, of Asti, body
physician of Anjou, was nevertheless fortunate enough to devise a simple
mechanical expedient, which proved successful. By his advice; a
succession of attendants, relieving each other day and night, prevented
the flow of blood by keeping the orifice of the wound slightly but firmly
compressed with the thumb. After a period of anxious expectation,
the wound again closed; and by the end of the month the Prince was
convalescent. On the 2nd of May he went to offer thanksgiving in the
Great Cathedral, amid the joyful sobs of a vast and most earnest throng.
The Prince, was saved, but unhappily the murderer had yet found an
illustrious victim. The Princess of Orange; Charlotte de Bourbon--the
devoted wife who for seven years, had so faithfully shared his joys and
sorrows--lay already on her death-bed. Exhausted by anxiety, long
watching; and the alternations of hope and fear during the first eighteen
days, she had been prostrated by despair at the renewed haemorrhage. A
violent fever seized her, under which she sank on the 5th of May, three
days after the solemn thanksgiving for her husband's recovery. The
Prince, who loved her tenderly, was in great danger of relapse upon the
sad event, which, although not sudden, had not been anticipated. She was
laid in her grave on the 9th of May, amid the lamentations of the whole
country, for her virtues were universally known and cherished. She
was a woman of rare intelligence, accomplishment, and gentleness of
disposition; whose only offence had been to break, by her marriage, the
Church vows to which she had been forced in her childhood, but which had
been pronounced illegal by competent authority, both ecclesiastical and
lay. For this, and for the contrast which her virtues afforded to the
vices of her predecessor, she was the mark of calumny and insult. These
attacks, however, had cast no shadow upon the serenity of her married
life, and so long as she lived she was the trusted companion and consoler
of her husband. "His Highness," wrote Count John in 1580, "is in
excellent health, and, in spite of adversity, incredible labor,
perplexity, and dangers, is in such good spirits that, it makes me happy
to witness it. No doubt a chief reason is the consolation he derives
from the pious and highly-intelligent wife whom, the Lord has given him
--a woman who ever conforms to his wishes, and is inexpressibly dear to
him."
The Princess left six daughters--Louisa Juliana, Elizabeth, Catharina
Belgica, Flandrina, Charlotta Brabantica, and Emilia Secunda.
Parma received the first intelligence of the attempt from the mouth of
Anastro himself, who assured him that the deed had been entirely
successful, and claimed the promised reward.
Alexander, in consequence, addressed circular letters to the authorities
of Antwerp, Brussels, Bruges, and other cities, calling upon them, now
that they had been relieved of their tyrant and their betrayer, to return
again to the path of their duty and to the ever open arms of their lawful
monarch. These letters were premature. On the other hand, the states of
Holland and Zealand remained in permanent session, awaiting with extreme
anxiety the result of the Prince's wound. "With the death of his
Excellency, if God should please to take him to himself," said the
magistracy of Leyden, "in the death of the Prince we all foresee our own
death." It was, in truth, an anxious moment, and the revulsion of
feeling consequent on his recovery was proportionately intense.
In consequence of the excitement produced by this event, it was no longer
possible for the Prince to decline accepting the countship of Holland and
Zealand, which he had refused absolutely two years before, and which he
had again rejected, except for a limited period, in the year 1581. It
was well understood, as appears by the treaty with Anjou, and afterwards
formally arranged, "that the Duke was never, to claim sovereignty over
Holland and Zealand," and the offer of the sovereign countship of Holland
was again made to the Prince of Orange in most urgent terms. It will be
recollected that he had accepted the sovereignty on the 5th of July,
1581, only for the term of the war. In a letter, dated Bruges, 14th of
August, 1582, he accepted the dignity without limitation. This offer and
acceptance, however, constituted but the preliminaries, for it was
further necessary that the letters of "Renversal" should be drawn up,
that they should be formally delivered, and that a new constitution
should be laid down, and confirmed by mutual oaths. After these steps
had been taken, the ceremonious inauguration or rendering of homage was
to be celebrated.
All these measures were duly arranged, except the last. The installation
of the new Count of Holland was prevented by his death, and the northern
provinces remained a Republic, not only in fact but in name.
In political matters; the basis of the new constitution was the "Great
Privilege" of the Lady Mary, the Magna Charta of the country. That
memorable monument in the history of the Netherlands and of municipal
progress had, been overthrown by Mary's son, with the forced acquiescence
of the states, and it was therefore stipulated by the new article, that
even such laws and privileges as had fallen into disuse should be
revived. It was furthermore provided that the little state should be a
free Countship, and should thus silently sever its connexion with the
Empire.
With regard to the position of the Prince, as hereditary chief of the
little commonwealth, his actual power was rather diminished than
increased by his new dignity. What was his position at the moment?
He was sovereign during the war, on the general basis of the authority
originally bestowed upon him by the King's commission of stadholder.
In 1581, his Majesty had been abjured and the stadholder had become
sovereign. He held in his hands the supreme power, legislative,
judicial, executive. The Counts of Holland--and Philip as their
successor--were the great fountains of that triple stream. Concessions
and exceptions had become so extensive; no doubt, that the provincial
charters constituted a vast body of "liberties" by which the whole
country was reasonably well supplied. At the same time, all the power
not expressly granted away remained in the breast of the Count. If
ambition, then, had been William's ruling principle, he had exchanged
substance for shadow, for the new state now constituted was a free
commonwealth--a republic in all but name.
By the new constitution he ceased to be the source of governmental life,
or to derive his own authority from above by right divine. The sacred
oil which had flowed from Charles the Simple's beard was dried up.
Orange's sovereignty was from the estates; as legal representatives of
the people; and, instead of exercising all the powers not otherwise
granted away, he was content with those especially conferred upon him.
He could neither declare war nor conclude peace without the co-operation
of the representative body. The appointing power was scrupulously
limited. Judges, magistrates, governors, sheriffs, provincial and
municipal officers, were to be nominated by the local authorities or by
the estates, on the triple principle. From these triple nominations he
had only the right of selection by advice and consent of his council.
He was expressly enjoined to see that the law was carried to every man's
door, without any distinction of persons; to submit himself to its
behests, to watch against all impedimenta to the even flow of justice, to
prevent false imprisonments, and to secure trials for every accused
person by the local tribunals. This was certainly little in accordance
with the arbitrary practice of the past quarter of a century.
With respect to the great principle of taxation, stricter bonds even were
provided than those which already existed. Not only the right of
taxation remained with the states, but the Count was to see that, except
for war purposes, every impost was levied by a unanimous vote. He was
expressly forbidden to tamper with the currency. As executive head, save
in his capacity as Commander-in-chief by land or sea, the new sovereign
was, in short, strictly limited by self-imposed laws. It had rested with
him to dictate or to accept a constitution. He had in his memorable
letter of August, 1582, from Bruges, laid down generally the articles
prepared at Plessia and Bourdeaux, for Anjou-together with all applicable
provisions of the Joyous Entry of Brabant--as the outlines of the
constitution for the little commonwealth then forming in the north. To
these provisions he was willing to add any others which, after ripe
deliberation, might be thought beneficial to the country.
Thus limited were his executive functions. As to his judicial authority
it had ceased to exist. The Count of Holland was now the guardian of the
laws, but the judges were to administer them. He held the sword of
justice to protect and to execute, while the scales were left in the
hands which had learned to weigh and to measure.
As to the Count's legislative authority, it had become coordinate with,
if not subordinate to, that of the representative body. He was strictly
prohibited from interfering with the right of the separate or the general
states to assemble as often as they should think proper; and he was also
forbidden to summon them outside their own territory. This was one
immense step in the progress of representative liberty, and the next was
equally important. It was now formally stipulated that the estates were
to deliberate upon all measures which "concerned justice and polity," and
that no change was to be made--that is to say, no new law was to pass
without their consent as well as that of the council. Thus, the
principle was established of two legislative chambers, with the right,
but not the exclusive right, of initiation on the part of government, and
in the sixteenth century one would hardly look for broader views of civil
liberty and representative government. The foundation of a free
commonwealth was thus securely laid, which had William lived, would have
been a representative monarchy, but which his death converted into a
federal republic. It was necessary for the sake of unity to give a
connected outline of these proceedings with regard to the sovereignty of
Orange. The formal inauguration, only remained, and this, as will be
seen, was for ever interrupted.
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