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 he 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.