It would almost seem as though chivalry were one of the errors of
Popery; so completely did the spirit of the ancient orders of
knighthood evaporate at the Reformation! The blind enthusiasm of
ignorance having engendered superstitions of every kind and colour,
the blow struck at the altar of the master idol proved fatal to all.
In Elizabeth's time, the forms and sentiment of chivalry were kept up
by an effort. The parts enacted by Sidney and Raleigh, appear studied
rather than instinctive. At all events, the gallant Sir Philip was
the last of English knights, as he was the first of his time.
Thenceforward, the valour of the country assumed a character more
professional.
But a fact thus familiar to us of England, is more remarkable of the
rest of Europe. The infallibility of Rome once assailed, every faith
was shaken. Loyalty was lessened, chivalry became extinct; expiring
in France with Henri IV. and the League--in Portugal with Don
Sebastian of Braganza--and in Spain with Charles V., exterminated
root and branch by the pen of Cervantes.
One of the most brilliant effervescences, however, of those crumbling
institutions, is connected with Spanish history, in the person of Don
John of Austria;--a prince who, if consecrated by legitimacy to the
annals of the throne, would have glorified the historical page by a
thousand heroic incidents. But the sacrament of his baptism being
unhappily unpreceded by that of a marriage, he has bequeathed us one
of those anomalous existences--one of those incomplete destinies,
which embitter our admiration with disappointment and regret.
On both sides of royal blood, Don John was born with qualifications
to adorn a throne. It is true that when his infant son was entrusted
by Charles V. to the charge of the master of his household, Don
Quexada, the emperor simply described him as the offspring of a lady
of Ratisbon, named Barbara Blomberg. But the Infanta Clara Eugenia
was confidentially informed by her father Philip II., and
confidentially informed her satellite La Cuea, that her uncle was
"every way of imperial lineage;" and but that he was the offspring of
a crime, Don John had doubtless been seated on one of those thrones
to which his legitimate brother Philip imparted so little
distinction.
Forced by the will of Charles V. to recognize the consanguinity of
Don John, and treat him with brotherly regard, one of the objects of
the hateful life of the father of Don Carlos seems to have been to
thwart the ambitious instincts of his brilliant Faulconbridge. For in
the boiling veins of the young prince abided the whole soul of
Charles V.,--valour, restlessness, ambition; and his romantic life
and mysterious death bear alike the tincture of his parentage.
That was indeed the age of the romance of royalty! Mary at
Holyrood,--Elizabeth at Kenilworth--Carlos at the feet of his
mother-in-law,--the Béarnais at the gates of Paris,--have engraved
their type in the book of universal memory. But Don John escapes
notice--a solitary star outshone by dazzling constellations.
Commemorated by no medals, flattered by no historiographer, sung by
no inspired "godson," anointed by neither pope nor primate, his nook
in the temple of fame is out of sight, and forgotten.
Even his master feat, the gaining of the battle of Lepanto, brings
chiefly to our recollection that the author of Don Quixote lost his
hand in the action; and in the trivial page before us, we dare not
call our hero by the name of "Don Juan," (by which he is known in
Spanish history,) lest he be mistaken for the popular libertine! And
thus, the last of the knights has been stripped of his name by the
hero of the "Festin de Pierre," and of his honours by Cervantes, as
by Philip II. of a throne.--
Hard fate for one described by all the writers of his time as a model
of manly grace and Christian virtue! How charming is the account
given by the old Spanish writers of the noble youth, extricated from
his convent to be introduced on the high-road to a princely cavalier,
surrounded by his retinue, whom he is first desired to salute as a
brother, and then required to worship, as the king of Spain! We are
told of his joy on discovering his filial relationship to the great
emperor, so long the object of his admiration. We are told of his
deeds of prowess against the Turks at Lepanto, at Tunis against the
Moor. We are told of the proposition of Gregory XIII. that he should
be rewarded with the crown of Barbary, and of the desire of the
revolted nobility of Belgium, to raise him to their tottering throne;
nay, we are even assured that "la couronne d'Hibernie" was offered to
his acceptance. And finally, we are told of his untimely death and
glorious funeral--mourned by all the knighthood of the land! But we
hear and forget. Some mysterious counter-charm has stripped his
laurels of their verdure. Even the lesser incidents of the life of
Don John are replete with the interest of romance. When appointed by
Philip II. governor of the Netherlands, in order that he might deal
with the heretics of the Christian faith as with the faithful of
Mahomet, such deadly vengeance was vowed against his person by the
Protestant party headed by Horn and the Prince of Orange, that it was
judged necessary for his highness to perform his journey in disguise.
Attired as a Moorish slave, he reached Luxembourg as the attendant of
Ottavio Gonzaga, brother of Prince Amalfi, at the very moment the
troops of the king of Spain were butchering eight thousand citizens
in his revolted city of Antwerp!--
The arrival of the new governor afforded the signal for more pacific
measures. The dispositions of Don John were humane--his manners
frank. Aware that the Belgian provinces were exhausted by ten years
of civil war, and that the pay of the Spanish troops he had to lead
against them was so miserably in arrear as to compel them to acts of
atrocious spoliation, the hero of Lepanto appears to have done his
best to stop the effusion of blood; and, notwithstanding the
counteraction of the Prince of Orange, the following spring, peace
and an amnesty were proclaimed. The treaty signed at Marche, (known
by the name of the Perpetual Edict,) promised as much tranquillity as
was compatible with the indignation of a country which had seen the
blood of its best and noblest poured forth, and the lives and
property of its citizens sacrificed without mercy or calculation.
But, though welcomed to Brussels by the acclamations of the people
and the submission of the States, Don John appears to have been fully
sensible that his head was within the jaws of the lion. The blood of
Egmont had not yet sunk into the earth; the echoes of the edicts of
Alva yet lingered in the air; and the very stones of Brussels
appeared to rise up and testify against a brother of Philip II.!
Right thankful, therefore, was the young prince when an excuse was
afforded for establishing himself in a more tenable position, by an
incident which must again be accounted among the romantic adventures
of his life. For the sudden journey of the fascinating Margaret of
Valois to the springs of Spa, on pretence of indisposition, was
generally attributed to a design against the heart of the hero of
Lepanto.
A prince so remarkable for his gallantry of knighthood, could do no
less than wait upon the sister of the French king, on her passage
through Namur; and, once established in the citadel of that
stronghold of the royalists, he quitted it no more. In process of
time, a camp was formed in the environs, and fortresses erected on
the banks of the Meuse under the inspection of Don John; nor was it
at first easy to determine whether his measures were actuated by
mistrust of the Protestants, or devotion to the worst and most
Catholic of wives of the best and most Huguenot of kings.
The blame of posterity, enlightened by the journal of Queen
Margaret's proceedings in Belgium, (bequeathed for our edification by
the alienated queen of Henri IV.,) has accused Don John of blindness,
in the right-loyal reception bestowed on her, and the absolute
liberty accorded her during her residence at Spa, where she was
opening a road for the arrival of her brother the Duke of Alençon. It
is admitted, indeed, that her attack upon his heart met with defeat.
But the young governor is said to have made up in chivalrous
courtesies for the disappointment of her tender projects; and
Margaret, if she did not find a lover at Namur, found the most
assiduous of knights.
Many, indeed, believe that his attentions to the French princess were
as much a feint as her own illness; and that he was as completely
absorbed in keeping at bay his heretic subjects, as her highness by
the desire of converting them into the subjects of France. It was
only those admitted into the confidence of Don John who possessed the
clue to the mystery.
Ottavio Gonzaga, on his return from a mission to Madrid with which he
had been charged by Don John, was the first to acquaint him with the
suspicions to which the sojourn of Margaret had given rise.
"I own I expected to find your highness in better cheer," said he,
when the first compliments had been exchanged. "Such marvels have
been recounted in Spain of your fêtes and jousts of honour, that I
had prepared myself to hear of nothing at headquarters but the silken
pastimes of a court."
"Instead of which," cried Don John, "you find me, as usual, in my
steel jerkin, with no milder music at command than the trumpets of my
camp; my sole duty, the strengthening of yonder lines," continued he,
(pointing from a window of the citadel, near which they were
standing, commanding the confluence of the Sambre and Meuse,) "and my
utmost diversion, an occasional charge against the boars in yonder
forest of Marlagne!"
"I cannot but suppose it more than _occasional_," rejoined Gonzaga;
"for I must pay your highness the ill compliment of avowing, that you
appear more worn by fatigue and weather at this moment, and in this
sunless clime, than at the height of your glorious labours in the
Mediterranean! Namur has already ploughed more wrinkles on your brow
than Barbary or Lepanto."
"Say rather in my _heart_!" cried the impetuous prince. "Since you
quitted me, six months ago, my dear Gonzaga, I have known nothing but
cares! To you I have no scruple in avowing, that my position in this
country is hateful. So long accustomed to war against a barbarous
enemy, I could almost fancy myself as much a Moor at heart, as I
appeared in visage, when in your service on my way to Luxembourg,
whenever I find my sword uplifted against a Christian breast!--Civil
war, Ottavio, is a hideous and repugnant thing!"--
"The report is true, then, that your highness has become warmly
attached to the people of these rebel provinces?" demanded Gonzaga,
not choosing to declare the rumour prevalent in Spain, that an
opportunity had been afforded to the prince by the Barlaimont
faction, of converting his viceroyalty into the sway of absolute
sovereignty.
"So much the reverse, that the evil impression they made on me at my
arrival, has increased a hundred-fold! I abhor them yet more and
more. Flemings or Brabançons, Hainaulters or Walloons, Catholic or
Calvinist, the whole tribe is my aversion; and despite our best
endeavours to conceal it, I am convinced the feeling is reciprocal!"
"If your highness was equally candid in your avowals to the Queen of
Navarre," observed Gonzaga gravely,--"I can scarcely wonder at the
hopes she is said to entertain of having won over the governor of
Mons to the French interest, during her transit through Flanders."
"Ay, indeed? Is such her boast?" cried the prince, laughing. "It may
indeed be so!--for never saw I a woman less scrupulous in the choice
or use of arms to fight her battles. But, trust me, whatever her
majesty may have accomplished, is through no aiding or abetting of
mine."
"Yet surely the devoted attentions paid her by your highness"--
"My highness made them _appear_ devoted in proportion to his
consciousness of their hollowness! But I promise you, my dear
Ottavio, there is no tenderer leaning in my heart towards Margaret de
Valois, than towards the most thicklipped of the divinities who
competed for our smiles at Tunis."
Gonzaga shrugged his shoulders. He was convinced that, for once, Don
John was sinking the friend in the prince. His prolonged absence had
perhaps discharged him from his post as confidant.
"Trust me," cried the young soldier, discerning his misgivings--"I am
as sincere in all this as becomes our friendship. But that God has
gifted me with a happy temperament, I should scarcely support the
disgusts of my present calling. It is much, my dear Gonzaga, to
inherit as a birthright the brand of such an ignominy as mine. But as
long as I trusted to conquer a happier destiny--to carve out for
myself fortunes as glorious as those to which my blood all but
entitles me--I bore my cross without repining. It was this ardent
hope of distinction that lent vigour to my arm in battle--that taught
prudence to my mind in council. I was resolved that even the
base-born of Charles V. should die a king!"--
Gonzaga listened in startled silence. To hear the young viceroy thus
bold in the avowal of sentiments, which of late he had been hearing
imputed to him at the Escurial as the direst of crimes, filled him
with amazement.
"But these hopes have expired!" resumed Don John. "The harshness with
which, on my return triumphant from Barbary, my brother refused to
ratify the propositions of the Vatican in my favour, convinced me
that I have nothing to expect from Philip beyond the perpetual
servitude of a satellite of the King of Spain."
Gonzaga glanced mechanically round the chamber at the emission of
these treasonable words. But there was nothing in its rude stone
walls to harbour an eavesdropper.
"Nor is this all!" cried his noble friend. "My discovery of the
unbrotherly sentiments of Philip has tended to enlighten me towards
the hatefulness of his policy. The reserve of his nature--the
harshness of his soul--the austerity of his bigotry--chill me to the
marrow!--The Holy Inquisition deserves, in my estimation, a name the
very antithesis of holy."
"I _beseech_ your highness!" cried Ottavio Gonzaga--clasping his
hands together in an irrepressible panic.
"Never fear, man! There be neither spies nor inquisitors in our camp;
and if there _were_, both they and you must even hear me out!" cried
Don John. "There is some comfort in discharging one's heart of
matters that have long lain so heavy on it; and I swear to you,
Gonzaga, that, instead of feeling surprised to find my cheeks so
lank, and my eyes so hollow, you would rather be amazed to find an
ounce of flesh upon my bones, did you know how careful are my days,
and how sleepless my nights, under the perpetual harassments of civil
war!--The haughty burgesses of Ghent, whom I could hate from my soul
but that they are townsmen of my illustrious father, the low-minded
Walloons, the morose Brugeois, the artful Brabançons--all the varied
tribes, in short, of the old Burgundian duchy, seem to vie with each
other which shall succeed best in thwarting and humiliating me. And
for what do I bear it? What honour or profit shall I reap on my
patience? What thanks derive for having wasted my best days and best
energies, in bruising with my iron heel the head of the serpent of
heresy? Why, even that Philip, for some toy of a mass neglected or an
ave forgotten, will perchance give me over to the tender questioning
of his grand inquisitor, as the shortest possible answer to my
pretensions to a crown,--while the arrogant nobility of Spain, when
roused from their apathy towards me by tidings of another Lepanto, a
fresh Tunis, will exclaim with modified gratification--'_There_ spoke
the blood of Charles the Fifth! Not so ill fought for a bastard!'"
Perceiving that the feelings of his highness were chafed, the
courtier, as in vocation bound, assured him he underrated the loyalty
towards him of his fellow countrymen of the Peninsula; and that his
services as governor of the Low Countries were fully appreciated.
"So fully, that I should be little surprised to learn the axe was
already sharpened that is to take off my head!" cried Don John, with
a scornful laugh. "And such being the exact state of my feelings and
opinions, my trusty Gonzaga, I ask you whether I am likely to have
proved a suitable Petrarch for so accomplished a Laura as the sister
of Henry III?"--
"I confess myself disappointed," replied the crafty Italian.--"I was
in hopes that your highness had found recreation as well as glory in
Belgium. During my sojourn at the court of Philip, I supported with
patience the somewhat ceremonious gravity of the Escurial, in the
belief that your highness was enjoying meanwhile those festal
enlivenments, which none more fully understand how to organize and
adorn."
"If such an expectation really availed to _enliven_ the Escurial,"
cried Don John recklessly, "your friendship must indeed possess
miraculous properties! However, you may judge with your own eyes the
pleasantness of my position; and every day that improves your
acquaintance with the ill blood and ill condition of this accursed
army of the royalists, ill-paid, ill-disciplined, and
ill-intentioned, will inspire you with stronger yearnings after our
days of the Mediterranean, where I was master of myself and of my
men."
"And all this was manifested to Margaret, and all this will serve to
comfort the venomous heart of the queen mother!"--ejaculated Gonzaga,
shrugging his shoulders.
"Not a syllable, not a circumstance! The Queen of Navarre was far too
much engrossed by the manoeuvres of her own bright eyes, to take heed
of those of my camp."
"Your highness is perhaps less well aware than might be desirable, of
how many things a woman's eyes are capable of doing, at one and the
same time!"--retorted the Italian.
"I only wish," cried Don John impatiently, "that instead of having
occasion to read me those Jeremiads, you had been here to witness the
friendship you so strangely exaggerate! A ball, an excursion on the
Meuse, a boar hunt in the forest of Marlagne, constitute the pastimes
you are pleased to magnify into an imperial ovation."
"Much may be confided amid the splendour of a ball-room,--much in one
poor half hour of a greenwood rendezvous!"--persisted the provoking
Ottavio.
"Ay--_much_ indeed!" responded Don John, with a sigh so deep that it
startled by its significance the attention of his brother in arms.
"But not to such a woman as the Queen of Henri the Béarnais!"
returned the Prince. "By our Lady of Liesse! I wish no worse to that
heretic prince, than to have placed his honour in the keeping of the
_gente Margot_."
Fain would Gonzaga have pursued the conversation, which had taken a
turn that promised wonders for the interest of the despatches he had
undertaken to forward to the Escurial, in elucidation of the designs
and sentiments of Don John,--towards whom his allegiance was as the
kisses of Judas! But the imperial scion, (who, when he pleased, could
assume the unapproachability of the blood royal,) made it apparent
that he was no longer in a mood to be questioned. Having proposed to
the new-comer (to whom, as an experienced commander, he destined the
colonelship of his cavalry,) that they should proceed to a survey of
the fortifications at Bouge, they mounted their horses, and, escorted
by Nignio di Zuniga, the Spanish aide-de-camp of the prince,
proceeded to the camp.
The affectionate deference testified towards the young governor by
all classes, the moment he made his appearance in public, appeared to
Gonzaga strangely in contradiction with the declarations of Don John
that he was no favourite in Belgium. The Italian forgot that the Duke
of Arschot, the Counts of Mansfeld and Barlaimont, while doffing
their caps to the representative of the King of Spain, had as much
right to behold in him the devoted friend of Don John of Austria, as
_he_ to regard _them_ as the faithful vassals of his government.
A fair country is the country of Namur!--The confluent streams--the
impending rocks--the spreading forests of its environs, comprehend
the finest features of landscape; nor could Ottavio Gonzaga feel
surprised that his prince should find as much more pleasure in those
breesy plains than in the narrow streets of Brussels, as he found
security and strength.
On the rocks overhanging the Meuse, at some distance from the town,
stands the village of Bouge, fortified by Don John; to attain which
by land, hamlets and thickets were to be traversed; and it was
pleasant to see the Walloon peasant children run forth from the
cottages to salute the royal train, making their heavy Flemish
chargers swerve aside and perform their lumbering cabrioles far more
deftly than the cannonading of the rebels, to which they were almost
accustomed.
As they cut across a meadow formed by the windings of the Meuse, they
saw at a distance a group formed, like most groups congregated just
then in the district, of soldiers and peasants; to which the
attention of the prince being directed, Nignio di Zuniga, his
aide-de-camp, was dispatched to ascertain the cause of the gathering.
"A nothing, if it please your highness!" was the reply of the
Spaniard--galloping back, hat in hand, with its plumes streaming in
the breeze;--that the Prince's train, which had halted, might resume
its pace.
"But a nothing of what sort?" persisted Don John, who appreciated the
trivialties of life very differently from those by whom he was
surrounded.
"A village grievance!--An old woman roaring her lungs out for a cow
which has been carried off by our troopers!"--grumbled the
aide-de-camp, with less respect than was usual to him.
"And call you that a _nothing_?"--exclaimed his master. "By our lady
of Liesse, it is an act of cruelty and oppression--a thing calculated
to make us hateful in the eyes of the village!--And many villages, my
good Nignio, represent districts, and many districts provinces, and
provinces a country; and by an accumulation of such resentments as
the indignation of this old crone, will the King of Spain and the
Catholic faith be driven out of Flanders!--See to it! I want no
further attendance of you this morning! Let the cow be restored
before sunset, and the marauders punished."
"But if, as will likely prove the case, the beast is no longer in its
skin?"--demanded the aide-de-camp. "If the cow should have been
already eaten, in a score of messes of pottage?"
"Let her have compensation."
"The money chest at headquarters, if it please your highness, is all
but empty," replied Nignio, glancing with a smile towards
Gonzaga,--as though they were accustomed to jest together over the
reckless openness of heart and hand of their young chief.
"Then, by the blessed shrine of St Jago, give the fellows at least
the strappado," cried Don John, out of all patience. "Since
restitution may not be, be the retribution all the heavier."
"It is ever thus," cried he, addressing himself to Gonzaga, as the
aide-de-camp resumed his plumed beaver, and galloped off with an
imprecation between his lips, at having so rustic a duty on his
hands, instead of accompanying the parade of his royal master. "It
goes against my conscience to decree the chastisement of these
fellows. For i' faith, they that fight, must feed; and hunger, that
eats through stone walls, is apt to have a nibble at honesty. My
royal brother, or those who have the distribution of his graces, is
so much more liberal of edicts and anathemas than of orders on the
treasury of Spain, that money and rations are evermore wanting. If
these Protestants persist in their stand against us, I shall have to
go forth to all the Catholic cities of the empire, preaching, like
Peter the hermit, to obtain contributions from the pious!"
"His Majesty is perhaps of opinion," observed Gonzaga, "that rebels
and heretics ought to supply the maintenance of the troops sent to
reduce them to submission."
"A curious mode of engaging their affections towards either the creed
or prince from which they have revolted!" cried Don John. "But you
say true, Ottavio. Such are precisely the instructions of my royal
brother; whom the Almighty soften with a more Christian spirit in his
upholding of the doctrines of Christianity!--I am bidden to regard
myself as in a conquered country. I am bidden to feel myself as I may
have felt at Modon or Lepanto. It may not be, it may not be!--These
people were the loyal subjects of my forefathers. These people are
the faithful followers of Christ."
"Let us trust that the old woman may get back her cow, and your
highness's tender conscience stand absolved,"--observed Gonzaga with
a smile of ill-repressed derision. "I fear, indeed, that the Court of
the Escurial is unprepared with sympathy for such grievances."
"Gonzaga!"--exclaimed Don John, suddenly reining up his horse, and
looking his companion full in the face, "these are black and bitter
times; and apt to make kings, princes, nobles, ay, and even prelates,
forget that they are men; or rather that there be men in the world
beside themselves."--Then allowing his charger to resume its
caracolling, to give time to his startled friend to recover from the
glow of consciousness burning on his cheek,--he resumed with a less
stern inflexion. "It is the vexation of this conviction that hath
brought my face to the meagreness and sallow tint that accused the
scorching sun of Barbary. I love the rush of battle. The clash of
swords or roaring of artillery is music to me. There is joy in
contending, life for life, with a traitor, and marshaling the fierce
battalions on the field. But the battle done, let the sword be
sheathed! The struggle over, let the blood sink into the earth, and
the deadly smoke disperse, and give to view once more the peace of
heaven!--The petty aggravations of daily strife,--the cold-blooded
oppressions of conquest,--the contest with the peasant for his morsel
of bread, or with his chaste wife for her fidelity,--are so revolting
to my conscience of good and evil, that as the Lord liveth there are
moments when I am tempted to resign for ever the music I love so well
of drum and trumpet, and betake myself, like my royal father, to some
drowsy monastery, to listen to the end of my days to the snuffling of
Capuchins!"
Scarce could Ottavio Gonzaga, so recently emancipated from the
Escurial, refrain from making the sign of the cross at this heinous
declaration!--But he contained himself.--It was his object to work
his way still further into the confidence of his royal companion.
"The chief pleasure I derived from the visit of the French princess
to Namur," resumed Don John, "was the respite it afforded from the
contemplation of such miseries and such aggressions. I was sick at
heart of groans and murmurs,--weary of the adjustment of grievances.
To behold a woman's face, whereof the eyes were not red with weeping,
was _something_!"--
"And the eyes of the fair Queen of Navarre are said to be of the
brightest!" observed Gonzaga with a sneer.
"As God judgeth my soul, I noted not their hue or brightness!"
exclaimed Don John. "Her voice was a woman's--her bearing a
woman's--her tastes a woman's. And it brought back the memory of
better days to hear the silken robes of her train rustling around me,
instead of the customary clang of mail; and merry laughs instead of
perpetual moans, or the rude oaths of my Walloons!"
An incredulous smile played on the handsome features of the
Italian.--
"Have out your laugh!" cried Don John. "You had not thought to see
the lion of Lepanto converted into so mere a lap-dog!--Is it not so?"
"As little so as I can admit without the disrespect of denial to your
highness,"--replied Gonzaga, with a low obeisance. "My smile was
occasioned by wonder that one so little skilled in feigning as the
royal lion of Lepanto, should even hazard the attempt. There, at
least--and there alone--is Don John of Austria certain of defeat!"
"I might, perhaps, waste more time in persuading you that the air of
Flanders hath not taught me lying as well as compassion," replied the
Infant; "but that yonder green mound is our first redoubt. The lines
of Bouge are before you."
Professional discussion now usurped the place of friendly
intercourse. On the arrival of the prince, the drums of headquarters
beat to arms; and a moment afterwards, Don John was surrounded by his
officers; exhibiting, in the issuing of his orders of the day, the
able promptitude of one of the first commanders of his time, tempered
by the dignified courtesy of a prince of the blood.
Even Ottavio Gonzaga was too much engrossed by the tactical debates
carrying on around him, to have further thought of the mysteries into
which he was resolved to penetrate.
It was not till the decline of day, that the prince and his _état
major_ returned to Namur; invitations having been frankly given by
Don John to a score of his officers, to an entertainment in honour of
the return of his friend.
Amid the jovialty of such an entertainment, Gonzaga entertained
little doubt of learning the truth. The rough railleries of such men
were not likely to respect so slight a circumvallation as the honour
of female reputation; and the glowing vintage of the Moselle and
Rhine would bring forth the secret among the bubbles of their flowing
tides. And, in truth, scarcely were the salvers withdrawn, when the
potations of these mailed carousers produced deep oaths and
uproarious laughter; amid which was toasted the name of Margaret,
with the enthusiasm due to one of the originators of the massacre of
St Bartholomew, from the most Catholic captains of the founder of the
Inquisition of Spain.
The admiration due to her beauty, was, however, couched in terms
scarcely warranted on the lips of men of honour, even by such
frailties as Margaret's; and, to the surprise of Gonzaga, no
restraint was imposed by the presence of her imputed lover. It seemed
an established thing, that the name of Margaret was a matter of
indifference in the ears of Don John!
That very night, therefore, (the banquet being of short continuance
as there was to be a field-day at daybreak, under the reviewal of the
prince,) Ottavio Gonzaga, more than ever to seek in his conjectures,
resolved to address himself for further information to Nignio; to
whom he had brought confidential letters from his family in Spain,
and who was an ancient brother in arms.
Having made out without much difficulty, the chamber occupied by the
Spanish captain, in a tower of the citadel overlooking the valley of
the Sambre, there was some excuse for preventing his early rest with
a view to the morrow's exercises, in the plea of news from Madrid.
But as the Italian anticipated, ere he had half disburdened his
budget of Escurial gossip, Nignio de Zuniga had his own grievances to
confide. Uppermost in his mind, was the irritation of having been
employed that morning in a cow-hunt; and from execrations on the name
of the old woman, enriched with all the blasphemies of a trooper's
vocabulary,--it was no difficult matter to glide to the general
misdemeanours and malefactions of the sex. For Gabriel Nignio was a
man of iron,--bred in camps, with as little of the milk of human
kindness in his nature as his royal master King Philip; and it was
his devout conviction, that no petticoat should be allowed within ten
leagues of any Christian encampment,--and that women were inflicted
upon this nether earth, solely for the abasement and contamination of
the nobler sex.
"As if that accursed Frenchwoman, and the nest of jays, her maids of
honour, were not enough for the penance of an unhappy sinner for the
space of a calendar year!"--cried he, still harping upon the old
woman.
"The visit of Queen Margaret must indeed have put you to some trouble
and confusion," observed Gonzaga carelessly. "From as much as is
_apparent_ of your householding, I can scarce imagine how you managed
to bestow so courtly a dame here in honour; or with what pastimes you
managed to entertain her."
"The sequins of Lepanto and piastres of his holiness were not yet
quite exhausted," replied Nignio. "Even the Namurrois came down
handsomely. The sister of two French kings, and sister-in-law of the
Duke of Lorraine, was a person for even the thick-skulled Walloons to
respect. It was not _money_ that was wanting--it was patience. O,
these Parisians! Make me monkey-keeper, blessed Virgin, to the beast
garden of the Escurial; but spare me for the rest of my days the
honour of being seneschal to the finikin household of a queen on her
travels!"
Impossible to forbear a laugh at the fervent hatred depicted in the
warworn features of the Castilian captain, "I' faith, my clear
Nignio," said Gonzaga, "for the squire of so gallant a knight as Don
John of Austria, your notions are rather those of Mahound or
Termagaunt! What would his highness say, were he to hear you thus
bitter against his Dulcinea?"
"_His_ Dulcinea!"--ejaculated the aide-de-camp with a air of disgust.
"God grant it! For a princess of Valois blood, reared under the
teaching of a Medici, had at least the recommendations of nobility
and orthodoxy in her favour."
"As was the case when Anna di Mendoça effected the conquest over his
boyish affections, so generously pardoned by his royal brother!--But
after such proof of the hereditary aspirings of Don John, it would be
difficult to persuade me of his highness's derogation."
"Would _I_ could say as much!"--exclaimed Nignio, with a groan. "But
such a cow-hunt as mine of this morning, might convince the
scepticism of St Thomas!"
"What, in the name of the whole calendar, have the affections of the
prince in common with your exploit?" said Gonzaga. "Would you have me
infer that the son of Charles V. is enamoured of a dairy wench?"--
"Of _worse_! of a daughter of the Amalekites!"--cried
Nignio--stretching out his widely booted legs, as though it were a
relief to him to have disburthened himself of his mystery.
"I have not the honour of understanding you," replied the
Italian,--no further versed in Scripture history than was the
pleasure of his almoner.
"You are his highness's _friend_, Gonzaga!" resumed the Spanish
captain. "Even among his countrymen, none so near his heart! I have
therefore no scruple in acquainting you with a matter, wherein, from
the first, I determined to seek your counteraction. Though seemingly
but a straw thrown up into the air, I infer from it a most evil
predilection on the part of Don John;--fatal to himself, to us, his
friends, and to the country he represents in Belgium."
"Nay, now you are serious indeed!" cried his companion, delighted to
come to the point. "I was in hopes it was some mere matter of a pair
of rosy lips and a flaunting top-knot!"
"At the time Queen Margaret visited Namur," began the aide-de-camp--
"I knew it!" interrupted Gonzaga, "I was as prepared for it as for
the opening of a fairy legend--'On a time their lived a king and
queen'--"
"Will _you_ tell the story, then, or shall I?"--cried Nignio,
impatient of his interruption.
"_Yourself_, my pearl of squires! granting me in the first place your
pardon for my ill manners."--
"When Margaret de Valois visited Namur," resumed Nignio, "the best
diversions we had to offer to so fair and pious a princess were,
first a _Te Deum_ in the cathedral for her safe journey; next, an
entertainment of dancing and music at the town hall--and a gallant
affair it was, as far as silver draperies, and garlands of roses, and
a blaze of light that seemed to threaten the conflagration of the
city, may be taken in praise. The queen had brought with her, as with
_malice prepense_, six of the loveliest ladies of honour gracing the
court of the Louvre"--
"I _knew_ it!"--again interrupted Gonzaga;--and again did Nignio
gravely enquire of him whether (since so well informed) he would be
pleased to finish the history in his own way?
"Your pardon! your pardon!" cried the Italian, laying his finger on
his lips. "Henceforward I am mute as a carp of the Meuse."
"It afforded, therefore, some mortification to this astutious
princess,--this daughter of Herodias, with more than all her mother's
cunning and cruelty in her soul,--to perceive that the Spanish
warriors, who on that occasion beheld for the first time the
assembled nobility of Brabant and Namur, were more struck by the
Teutonic charms of these fair-haired daughters of the north, (so
antipodal to all we are accustomed to see in our sunburned
provinces,) than by the mannered graces of her pleasure-worn Parisian
belles."--
"Certain it is," observed Gonzaga, (despite his recent pledge,) "that
there is no greater contrast than between our wild-eyed, glowing
Andalusians, and the slow-footed, blue-eyed daughters of these
northern mists, whose smiles are as moonshine to sunshine!"
"After excess of sunshine, people sometimes prefer the calmer and
milder radiance of the lesser light. And I promise you that, at this
moment, if there be pillows sleepless yonder in the camp for the sake
of the costly fragile toys called womankind, those jackasses of
lovelorn lads have cause to regret the sojourn of Queen Margaret in
Belgium, only as having brought forth from their castles in the
Ardennes or the froggeries of the Low Country, the indigenous
divinities that I would were at this moment at the bottom of their
muddy moats, or of the Sambre flowing under yonder window!"--
"It is one of these Brabançon belles, then, who"--
Gabriel Nignio de Zuniga half rose from his chair, as a signal for
breaking off the communication he was not allowed to pursue in his
own way.--Taking counsel of himself, however, he judged that the
shorter way was to tell his tale in a shorter manner, so as to set
further molestation at defiance.
"In one word," resumed he, with a vivacity of utterance foreign to
his Spanish habits of grandiloquence, "at that ball, there appeared
among the dancers of the Coranto, exhibited before the tent of state
of Queen Margaret, a young girl whose tender years seemed to render
the exhibition almost an indiscretion; and whose aerial figure
appeared to make her sojourn there, or any other spot on earth a
matter of wonder. Her dress was simple, her fair hair streamed on her
shoulders. It was one of the angels of your immortal Titian, _minus_
the wings! Such was, at least, the description given me by Don John,
to enable me to ascertain among the Namurrois her name and lineage,
for the satisfaction (he said) of the queen, whose attention had been
fascinated by her beauty."
"And you proceeded, I doubt not, on your errand with all the grace
and good-will I saw you put into your commission of this
morning?"--cried Gonzaga, laughing.
"And nearly the same result!--My answer to the enquiry of his
highness was _verbatim_ the same; that the matter was not worth
asking after. This white rose of the Meuse was not so much as of a
chapteral-house. Some piece of provincial obscurity that had issued
from the shade, to fill a place in the royal Coranto, in consequence
of the indisposition of one of the noble daughters of the house of
Croy. Still, as in the matter of the cow-hunt, his highness had the
malice to persist! And next day, instead of allowing me to attend him
in his barging with the royal Cleopatra of this confounded Cydnus of
Brabant, I was dispatched into all quarters of Namur to seek out a
pretty child with silken hair and laughing eyes, whom some silly
grandam had snatched out of its nursery to parade at a royal
fête.--Holy St Laurence! how my soul grilled within my skin!--I did,
as you may suppose, as much of his highness's pleasure as squared
with my own; and had the satisfaction of informing him, on his
return, that the bird had fled."--
"And there was an end of the matter?"--
"I hoped so! But I am not precisely the confessor his highness is
likely to select when love constitutes the sin. At all events, the
bustle of Margaret's departure for Spa, the care of the royal escort,
and the payment of all that decency required us to take upon
ourselves of the cost of our hospitality, engrossed my time and
thoughts. But the first time the Infant beset me, (as he has
doubtless done yourself,) with his chapter of lamentations over the
sufferings of Belgium,--the lawlessness of the camp--the former
loyalty of the provinces--the tenderness of conscience of the
heretics,--and the eligibility of forbearance and peace,--I saw as
plain as though the word were inscribed by the burning finger of
Satan, that the turkois eyes and flaxen ringlets were the text of all
this snivelling humanity!'
"Blessings on the tender consciences of the heretics, who were
burning Antwerp and Ghent, and plundering the religious houses and
putting their priests to the sword!" ejaculated Gonzaga.
"The exigencies of the hour, however, left little leisure to Don John
for the nursing of his infant passion; and a few weeks past, I
entertained hopes that, Queen Margaret being safe back at her Louvre,
the heart of the Prince was safe back in its place; more especially
when he one day proposed to me an exploit savouring more of his days
of Lepanto than I had expected at his hands again. Distracted by the
false intelligence wherewith we were perpetually misled by the
Brabançon scouts, Don John determined on a sortie in disguise,
towards the intrenchments of the enemy, betwixt the Sambre and Dyle.
Rumour of the reinforcements of English troops dispatched to the
heretics by Queen Elizabeth at the instance of the diet of Worms,
rendered him anxious; and bent upon ascertaining the exact
cantonments of Colonel Norris and his Scottish companies, we set
forward before daybreak towards the forest of Marlagne, as for a
hunting expedition; then exchanging our dresses for the simple suits
of civilians at the house of the verderer, made our way across the
Sambre towards Gembloux."
"A mad project!--But such were ever the delight of our
Quixote!"--cried Gonzaga.
"In this instance, all prospered. We crossed the country without
obstacle, mounted on two powerful Mecklenburgers; and before noon,
were deep in Brabant. The very rashness of the undertaking seemed to
restore to Don John his forgotten hilarity of old! He was like a
truant schoolboy, that has cheated his pedagogue of a day's
bird-nesting; and eyes more discerning than those of the stultified
natives of these sluggish provinces, had been puzzled to detect under
the huge patch that blinded him of an eye, and the slashed sleeve of
his sad-coloured suit that showed him wounded of an arm, the gallant
host of Queen Margaret! 'My soul comes back into me with this gallop
across the breezy plain, unencumbered by the trampling of a guard!'
cried the Prince. 'There is the making in me yet of another Lepanto!
But two provinces remain faithful to our standard: his highness of
Orange and the Archduke having filched, one by one, from their
allegiance the hearts of these pious Netherlanders; who can no better
prove their fear of God than by ceasing to honour the king he hath
been pleased to set over them. Nevertheless, with Luxembourg and
Namur for our vantage-ground, and under the blessing of his holiness,
the banner under which I conquered the infidel, shall, sooner or
later, float victorious under this northern sky!'
"Such was the tenour of his discourse as we entered a wood, halfway
through which, the itinerary I had consulted informed me we had to
cross a branch of the Dyle. But on reaching the ferry-house of this
unfrequented track, we found only two sumpter-mules tied to a tree
near the hovel, and a boat chained to its stump beside the stream. In
answer to our shouts, no vestige of a ferryman appeared; and behold
the boat-chain was locked, and the current too deep and strong for
fording.
"Where there is smoke there is fire! No boat without a boatman!"
cried the Prince; and leaping from his horse, which he gave me to
hold, and renewing his vociferations, he was about to enter the
ferry-house, when, just as he reached the wooden porch, a young girl,
holding her finger to her lips in token of silence, appeared on the
threshold!"
"She of the turkois eyes and flaxen ringlets, for a hundred
pistoles!"--cried Gonzaga. "Such then was the bird's nest that made
him so mad a truant!"
"As she retreated into the house," resumed Nignio, without noticing
the interruption, "his highness followed, hat in hand, with the
deference due to a gouvernante of Flanders. But as the house was
little better than a shed of boards, by drawing a trifle nearer the
porch, not a syllable of their mutual explanation escaped me.
"'Are you a follower of Don John?'--was the first demand of the
damsel. 'Do you belong to the party of the States?'--the next; to
both which questions, a negative was easily returned. After listening
to the plea, fluently set forth by the prince, that he was simply a
Zealand burgess, travelling on his own errand, and sorely in fear of
falling in (God wot) with either Protestants or Papists, the damsel
appeared to hail the arrival of so congenial an ally as a blessing;
acquainted him with a rash frankness of speech worthy of his own,
that she was journeying from the Ardennes towards the frontier of
Brabant, where her father was in high command; that the duenna her
companion, outwearied by the exercise, was taking her siesta within;
for that her pacing nag, having cast a shoe on reaching the wood, the
ferryman had undertaken to conduct to the nearest smithy the
venerable chaplain and serving-man constituting her escort.
"'Half a league from hence,' said she, 'my father's people are in
waiting to escort me during the rest of my journey.'
"'Yet surely, gentle lady,' observed the prince, 'considering the
military occupation of the province, your present protection is
somewhat of the weakest?'--
"'It was expressly so devised by my father,' replied the open-hearted
girl. 'The Spanish cavaliers are men of honour, who war not against
women and almoners. A more powerful attendance were more likely to
provoke animosity. Feebleness is sometimes the best security.'
"'_Home_ is a woman's only security in times like these!'--cried the
prince with animation.
"'And therefore to my home am I recalled,' rejoined the young girl,
with a heavy sigh. 'Since my mother's death, I have been residing
with her sister in the Ardennes. But my good aunt having had the
weakness to give way to my instances, and carry me to Namur last
summer, to take part in the entertainments offered to the Queen of
Navarre, my father has taken offence at both of us; and I am sent for
home to be submitted to sterner keeping.'
"You will believe that, ere all this was mutually explained, more
time had elapsed than I take in the telling it; and I could perceive
by the voices of the speakers that they had taken seats, and were
awaiting, without much impatience, the return of the ferryman. The
compassion of the silly child was excited by the severe accident
which the stranger described as the origin of his fractures and
contusions; nor need I tell you that the persuasive voice and
deportment of Don John are calculated to make even a more experienced
one than this pretty Ulrica forget his unseemly aspect and indigent
apparel."
"And all this time the careful gouvernante snored within, and the
obsequious aide-de-camp held at the door the bridles of the
Mecklenburgers"--
"Precisely. Nor found I the time hang much heavier than the prince;
for at first mistrustful, like yourself, that the reconnaissance into
which he had beguiled me was a mere pretext, I was not sorry to
ascertain, sigh by sigh, and word by word, the grounds on which he
stood with the enemy. And you should have heard how artfully he
contrived to lead her back to the fêtes of Namur; asking, as with the
curiosity of a bumpkin, the whole details of the royal
entertainments! No small mind had I to rush in and chuck the hussy
into the torrent before me, when I heard the little fiend burst forth
into the most genuine and enthusiastic praises of the royal giver of
the feast,--'So young, so handsome, so affable, so courteous, so
passing the kingliness of kings.' She admitted, moreover, that it was
her frantic desire of beholding face to face the hero of Lepanto,
which had produced the concession on the part of her kinswoman so
severely visited by her father.
"'But surely,' pleaded this thoughtless prattler, 'one may admire the
noble deportment of a Papist, and perceive the native goodness
beaming in his eyes, without peril of salvation? This whole morning
hath my father's chaplain (who will be here anon) been giving
scripture warrant that I have no right to importune heaven with my
prayers for the conversion of Don John:--Yet, as my good aunt justly
observes, the great grandson of Mary of Burgundy has his pedestal
firm in our hearts, beyond reach of overthrow from all the
preachments of the Reformers'"--
"And you did not fling the bridles to the devil, and rush in to the
rescue of the unguarded soldier thus mischievously assailed?"--cried
Gonzaga.
"It needed not! The old lady could not sleep for ever; and I had the
comfort to hear her rouse herself, and suitably reprehend the want of
dignity of her charge in such strange familiarity with strangers. To
which the pretty Ulrica replied, 'That it was no fault of hers if
people wanted to convert a child into a woman!' A moment afterwards
and the ferryman and cortège arrived together; and a more glorious
figure of fun than the chaplain of the heretic general hath seldom
bestridden a pacing nag! However, I was too glad of his arrival to be
exceptious; and the whole party were speedily embarked in the ferry,
taking their turn as the first arrived at the spot, which we twain
abided, watching the punt across the stream, which, in consequence of
the strength of the current, it was indispensable to float down some
hundred yards, in order to reach the opposite shore.
"Hat in hand stood the prince, his eyes fixed upon the precious
freight, and those of Ulrica fixed in return upon her new and
pleasant acquaintance; when, Jesu Maria!--as every thing that is evil
ordained it,--behold, the newly-shod palfrey of the pretty
Brabançonne, irritated, perhaps, by the clumsy veterinaryship of a
village smithy, began suddenly to rear and plunge, and set at
defiance the old dunderhead by whom it was held!--The ass of a
ferryman, in his eagerness to lend his aid, let go his oar into the
stream; and between the awkwardness of some and the rashness of
others, in a moment the whole party were carried round by the eddy of
the Dyle!--The next, and Ulrica was struggling in the waters"--
"And the next, in the arms of the prince, who had plunged in to her
rescue!"--
"You know him too well not to foresee all that follows. Take for
granted, therefore, the tedious hours spent at the ferry-house, in
restoring to consciousness the exhausted women, half-dead with cold
and fright. Under the unguarded excitement of mind produced by such
an incident, I expected indeed every moment the self-betrayal of my
companion; but _that_ evil we escaped. And when, late in the evening,
the party was sufficiently recovered to proceed, I was agreeably
surprised to find that Don John was alive to the danger of escorting
the fair Ulrica even so far as the hamlet, where her father's people
were in waiting."
"And where he had been inevitably recognized!"--
"The certainty of falling in with the troopers of Horn, rendered it
expedient for us to return to Namur with only half the object of his
highness accomplished. But the babble of the old chaplain had
acquainted us with nearly all we wanted to know,-- namely, the number
and disposal of the Statists, and the position taken up by the
English auxiliaries."
"And this second parting from Ulrica?"--
"Was a parting as between friends for life! The first had been the
laughing farewell of pleasant acquaintance. But now, ere she bade
adieu to the gallant preserver of her life, she shred a tress of her
silken hair, still wet with the waters of the Dyle, which she
entreated him to keep for her sake. In return, he placed upon her
finger the ruby presented to him by the Doge of Venice, bearing the
arms of the republic engraved on the setting; telling her that chance
had enabled him to confer an obligation on the governor of the
Netherlands; and that, in any strait or peril, that signet,
dispatched in his name to Don John of Austria, would command his
protection."
"As I live, a choice romance!--almost worthy the pages of our
matchless Boccaccio!" cried the Italian. "A thousand pities but that
the whole batch of Orangeists had been carried down the
Dyle!--However, the enemy's lines lie between them. They will meet no
more. The Calvinist colonel has doubtless his daughter under lock and
key; and his highness has too much work cut out for him by his
rebels, to have time for peeping through the keyhole.--So now,
good-night.--For love-tales are apt to beget drowsiness; and i'faith
we must be a-foot by break of day."
And having betaken himself to the chamber provided for him, Ottavio
Gonzaga lost not an hour or a syllable, in transcribing all he had
learned from the Spanish aide-de-camp; that the state of mind and
feeling of the young viceroy might be speedily laid open to the full
and uncongenial investigation of his royal brother of the Escurial.
Part II.
A fortnight afterwards, was fought that famous battle of Gembloux,
which added a new branch to the laurels of Don John of Austria; and
constitutes a link of the radiant chain of military glories which
binds the admiration of Europe to the soil of one of the obscurest of
its countries!--Gembloux, Ramillies, Nivelle, Waterloo, lie within
the circuit of a morning's journey, as well as within the circle of
eternal renown.
By this brilliant triumph of the royalists, six thousand men-at-arms,
their standards, banners, and artillery, were lost to the States. The
cavalry of Spain, under the command of Ottavio Gonzaga, performed
prodigies of valour; and the vanguard, under that of Gaspardo Nignio,
equally distinguished itself. But the heat of the action fell upon
the main body of the army, which had marched from Namur under the
command of Don John; being composed of the Italian reinforcements
dispatched to him from Parma by desire of the Pope, under the command
of his nephew, Prince Alexander Farnese.
It was noticed, however, with surprise, that when the generals of the
States--the Archduke Matthias, and Prince of Orange--retreated in
dismay to Antwerp, Don John, instead of pursuing his advantage with
the energy of his usual habits, seemed to derive little satisfaction
or encouragement from his victory. It might be, that the difficulty
of controlling the predatory habits of the German and Burgundian
troops wearied his patience; for scarce a day passed but there issued
some new proclamation, reproving the atrocious rapacity and lawless
desperation of the army. But neither Gonzaga nor Nignio had much
opportunity of judging of the real cause of his cheerlessness; for,
independent of the engrossing duties of their several commands, the
leisure of Don John was entirely bestowed upon his nephew, Alexander
Farnese, who, only a few years his junior in age, was almost a
brother in affection.
To him alone were confided the growing cares of his charge--the
increasing perplexities of his mind. To both princes, the name of
Ulrica had become, by frequent repetition, a sacred word; and though
Don John had the comfort of knowing that her father, the Count de
Cergny, was unengaged in the action of Gembloux, his highness had
reason to fear that the regiment of Hainaulters under his command,
constituted the garrison of one or other of the frontier fortresses
of Brabant, to which it was now his duty to direct the conquering
arms of his captains.
The army of the States having taken refuge within the walls of
Antwerp, the royalists, instead of marching straight to Brussels,
according to general expectation, effected in the first instance the
reduction of Tirlemont, Louvain, D'Arschot, Sichem, and
Diest,--Nivelle, the capital of Walloon Brabant, next succumbed to
their arms--Maubeuge, Chimay, Barlaimont;--and, after a severe
struggle, the new and beautiful town of Philippeville.
But these heroic feats were not accomplished without a tremendous
carnage, and deeds of violence at which the soul sickened. At Sichem,
the indignation of the Burgundians against a body of French troops
which, after the battle of Gembloux, had pledged itself never again
to bear arms against Spain, caused them to have a hundred soldiers
strangled by night, and their bodies flung into the moat at the foot
of the citadel; after which the town was given up by Prince Alexander
to pillage and spoliation! Terrified by such an example, Diest and
Leeuw hastened to capitulate. And still, at every fresh conquest, and
while receiving day after day, and week after week, the submission of
fortresses, and capitulation of vanquished chiefs, the anxious
expectation entertained by Don John of an appeal to his clemency
accompanying the Venetian ring, was again and again disappointed!--
At times, his anxieties on Ulrica's account saddened him into utter
despondency. He felt convinced that mischance had overtaken her. All
his endeavours to ascertain the position of the Count de Cergny
having availed him nothing, he trusted that the family must be shut
up in Antwerp, with the Prince of Orange and Archduke; but when every
night, ere he retired to a soldier's rugged pillow, and pressed his
lips to that long fair tress which seemed to ensure the blessings of
an angel of purity and peace, the hopes entertained by Don John of
tidings of the gentle Ulrica became slighter and still more slight.
He did not the more refrain from issuing such orders and exacting
such interference on the part of Alexander Farnese, as promised to
secure protection and respect to the families of all such officers of
the insurgent army as might, in any time or place, fall into the
hands of the royalists.
To Alexander, indeed, to whom his noble kinsman was scarcely less
endeared by his chivalrous qualities than the ties of blood, and who
was fully aware of the motive of these instructions, the charge was
almost superfluous. So earnest were, from the first, his orders to
his Italian captains to pursue in all directions their enquiries
after the Count de Cergny and his family, that it had become a matter
of course to preface their accounts of the day's movements
with--"_No_ intelligence, may it please your highness, of the Count
de Cergny!"
The siege of Limbourg, however, now wholly absorbed his attention;
for it was a stronghold on which the utmost faith was pinned by the
military science of the States. But a breach having been made in the
walls by the Spanish artillery under the command of Nicolo di Cesi,
the cavalry, commanded in person by the Prince Alexander, and the
Walloons under Nignio di Zuniga, speedily forced an entrance; when,
in spite of the stanch resistance of the governor, the garrison laid
down their arms, and the greater portion of the inhabitants took the
oath of fealty to the king.
Of all his conquests, this was the least expected and most desirable;
in devout conviction of which, the Prince of Parma commanded a _Te
Deum_ to be sung in the churches, and hastened to render thanks to
the God of Battles for an event by which further carnage was spared
to either host.
Escorted by his _état major_, he had proceeded to the cathedral to
join in the august solemnization; when, lo! just as he quitted the
church, a way-worn and heated cavalier approached, bearing
despatches; in whom the prince recognised a faithful attendant of his
household, named Paolo Rinaldo, whom he had recently sent with
instructions to Camille Du Mont, the general charged with the
reduction of the frontier fortresses of Brabant.
"Be their blood upon their head!" was the spontaneous ejaculation of
the prince, after perusing the despatch. Then, turning to the
officers by whom he was escorted, he explained, in a few words, that
the fortress of Dalem, which had replied to the propositions to
surrender of Du Mont only by the scornful voice of its cannon, had
been taken by storm by the Burgundians, and its garrison put to the
sword.
"Time that some such example taught a lesson to these braggarts of
Brabant!"--responded Nignio, who stood at the right hand of Prince
Alexander. "The nasal twang of their chaplains seems of late to have
overmastered, in their ears, the eloquence of the ordnance of Spain!
Yet, i'faith, they might be expected to find somewhat more unction in
the preachments of our musketeers than the homilies of either Luther
or Calvin!"
He spoke unheeded of the prince; for Alexander was now engaged apart
in a colloquy with his faithful Rinaldo, who had respectfully placed
in his hands a ring of great cost and beauty.
"Seeing the jewel enchased with the arms of the Venetian republic,
may it please your highness," said the soldier, "I judged it better
to remit it to your royal keeping."
"And from whose was it plundered?" cried the prince, with a sudden
flush of emotion.
"From hands that resisted not!" replied Rinaldo gravely. "I took it
from the finger of the dead!"
"And when, and where?"--exclaimed the prince, drawing him still
further apart, and motioning to his train to resume their march to
the States' house of Limbourg.
"The tale is long and grievous, may it please your highness!" said
Rinaldo. "To comprise it in the fewest words, know that, after seeing
the governor of Dalem cut down in a brave and obstinate defence of
the banner of the States floating from the walls of his citadel, I
did my utmost to induce the Baron de Cevray, whose Burgundians
carried the place, to proclaim quarter. For these fellows of
Hainaulters, (who, to do them justice, had fought like dragons,)
having lost their head, were powerless; and of what use hacking to
pieces an exhausted carcass?--But our troops were too much
exasperated by the insolent resistance and defiance they had
experienced, to hear of mercy; and soon the conduits ran blood, and
shrieks and groans rent the air more cruelly than the previous roar
of the artillery. In accordance, however, with the instructions I
have ever received from your highness, I pushed my way into all
quarters, opposing what authority I might to the brutality of the
troopers."
"Quick, quick!"--cried Prince Alexander in anxious haste--"Let me not
suppose that the wearer of this ring fell the victim of such an
hour?"--
It was in passing the open doors of the church that my ears were
assailed with cries of female distresses:--nor could I doubt that
even _that_ sanctuary (held sacred by our troops of Spain!) had been
invaded by the impiety of the German or Burgundian legions!--As
usual, the chief ladies of the town had placed themselves under the
protection of the high altar. But there, even there, had they been
seized by sacrilegious hands!--The fame of the rare beauty of the
daughter of the governor of Dalem, had attracted, among the rest, two
daring ruffians of the regiment of Cevray."
"You sacrificed them, I trust in GOD, on the spot?"--demanded the
prince, trembling with emotion. "You dealt upon them the vengeance
due?"
"Alas! sir, the vengeance they were mutually dealing, had already
cruelly injured the helpless object of the contest! Snatched from the
arms of the Burgundian soldiers by the fierce arm of a German
musketeer, a deadly blow, aimed at the ruffian against whom she was
wildly but vainly defending herself; had lighted on one of the
fairest of human forms! Cloven to the bone, the blood of this
innocent being, scarce past the age of childhood, was streaming on
her assailants; and when, rushing in, I proclaimed, in the name of
God and of your highness, quarter and peace, it was an insensible
body I rescued from the grasp of pollution!"
"Unhappy Ulrica!" faltered the prince, "and oh! my more unhappy
kinsman!"
"Not altogether hopeless," resumed Rinaldo; "and apprized, by the
sorrowful ejaculations of her female companions when relieved from
their personal fears, of the high condition of the victim, I bore the
insensible lady to the hospital of Dalem; and the utmost skill of our
surgeons was employed upon her wounds. Better had it been
spared!--The dying girl was roused only to the endurance of more
exquisite torture; and while murmuring a petition for 'mercy--mercy
to her _father_!' that proved her still unconscious of her family
misfortunes, she attempted in vain to take from her finger the ring I
have had the honour to deliver to your highness:--faltering with her
last breath, 'for _his_ sake, Don John will perhaps show mercy to my
poor old father!'"--
Prince Alexander averted his head as he listened to these mournful
details.
"She is at rest, then?"--said he, after a pause.
"Before nightfall, sir, she was released."--
"Return in all haste to Dalem, Rinaldo," rejoined the prince, "and
complete your work of mercy, by seeing all honours of interment that
the times admit, bestowed on the daughter of the Comte de Cergny!"
Weary and exhausted as he was, not a murmur escaped the lips of the
faithful Rinaldo as he mounted his horse, and hastened to the
discharge of his new duty. For though habituated by the details of
that cruel and desolating warfare to spectacles of horror--the
youth--the beauty--the innocence--the agonies of Ulrica, had touched
him to the heart; nor was the tress of her fair hair worn next the
heart of Don John of Austria, more fondly treasured, than the one
this rude soldier had shorn from the brow of death, in the ward of a
public hospital, albeit its silken gloss was tinged with blood!--
Scarcely a month had elapsed after the storming of Dalem, when a
terrible rumour went forth in the camp of Bouge, (where Don John had
intrenched his division of the royalist army,) that the governor of
the Netherlands was attacked by fatal indisposition!--For some weeks
past, indeed, his strength and spirit had been declining. When at the
village of Rymenam on the Dyle, near Mechlin, (not far from the ferry
of the wood,) he suffered himself to be surprised by the English
troops under Horn, and the Scotch under Robert Stuart, the unusual
circumstance of the defeat of so able a general was universally
attributed to prostration of bodily strength.
When it was soon afterwards intimated to the army that he had ceded
the command to his nephew, Prince Alexander Farnese, regret for the
origin of his secession superseded every other consideration.
For the word had gone forth that he was to die!--In the full vigour
of his manhood and energy of his soul, a fatal blow had reached Don
John of Austria!--
A vague but horrible accusation of poison was generally
prevalent!--For his leniency towards the Protestants had engendered a
suspicion of heresy, and the orthodoxy of Philip II. was known to be
remorseless; and the agency of Ottavio Gonzaga at hand!--
But the kinsman who loved and attended him knew better. From the
moment Prince Alexander beheld the ring of Ulrica glittering on his
wasted hand, he entertained no hope of his recovery; and every time
he issued from the tent of Don John, and noted the groups of veterans
praying on their knees for the restoration of the son of their
emperor, and heard the younger soldiers calling aloud in loyal
affection upon the name of the hero of Lepanto, tears came into his
eyes as he passed on to the discharge of his duties. For he knew that
their intercessions were in vain--that the hours of the sufferer were
numbered. In a moment of respite from his sufferings, the sacraments
of the church were administered to the dying prince; having received
which with becoming humility, he summoned around him the captains of
the camp, and exhorted them to zeal in the service of Spain, and
fidelity to his noble successor in command.
It was the 1st of October, the anniversary of the action of Lepanto,
and on a glorious autumnal day of golden sunshine, that, towards
evening, he ordered the curtains of his tent to be drawn aside, that
he might contemplate for the last time the creation of God!--
Raising his head proudly from a soldier's pillow, he uttered in
hoarse but distinct accents his last request, that his body might be
borne to Spain, and buried at the feet of his father. For his eyes
were fixed upon the glories of the orb of day, and his mind upon the
glories of the memory of one of the greatest of kings.
But that pious wish reflected the last flash of human reason in his
troubled mind. His eyes became suddenly inflamed with fever, his
words incoherent, his looks haggard. Having caused them to sound the
trumpets at the entrance of his tent, as for an onset, he ranged his
battalions for an imaginary field of battle, and disposed his
manoeuvres, and gave the word to charge against the enemy.[18] Then,
sinking back upon his pillow, he breathed in subdued accents, "Let me
at least avenge her innocent blood. Why, why could I not save thee,
my Ulrica!"--
[Footnote 18: The foregoing details are strictly historical.]
It was thus he died. When Nignio de Zuniga (cursing in his heart with
a fourfold curse the heretics whom he chose to consider the murderers
of his master) stooped down to lay his callous hand on the heart of
the hero, the pulses of life were still!--
There was but one cry throughout the camp--there was but one thought
among his captains:--"Let the bravest knight of Christendom be laid
nobly in the grave!" Attired in the suit of mail in which he had
fought at Lepanto, the body was placed on a bier, and borne forth
from his tent on the shoulders of the officers of his household.
Then, having been saluted by the respect of the whole army, it was
transmitted from post to post through the camp, on those of the
colonels of the regiments of all nations constituting the forces of
Spain.--And which of them was to surmise, that upon the heart of the
dead lay the love-token of a heretic?--A double line of troops,
infantry and cavalry in alternation, formed a road of honour from the
camp of Bouge to the gates of the city of Namur. And when the people
saw, borne upon his bier amid the deferential silence of those iron
soldiers, bareheaded and with their looks towards the earth, the
gallant soldier so untimely stricken, arrayed in his armour of glory
and with a crown upon his head, after the manner of the princes of
Burgundy, and on his finger the ruby ring of the Doge of Venice, they
thought upon his knightly qualities--his courtesy, generosity, and
valour--till all memory of his illustrious parentage became effaced.
They forgot the prince in the man,--"and behold all Israel mourned
for Jonathan!"
A regiment of infantry, trailing their halberts, led the march, till
they reached Namur, where the precious deposit was remitted by the
royalist generals, Mansfeldt, Villefranche, and La Cros, to the hands
of the chief magistrates of Namur. By these it was bourne in state to
the cathedral of St Alban; and during the celebration of a solemn
mass, deposited at the foot of the high altar till the pleasure of
Philip II. should be known concerning the fulfilment of the last
request of Don John.
It was by Ottavio Gonzaga the tidings of his death were conveyed to
Spain. It was by Ottavio Gonzaga the king intimated, in return, his
permission that the conqueror of Lepanto should share the sepulture
of Charles V., and all that now remains to Namur in memory of one of
the last of Christian knights, the Maccabeus of the Turkish hosts,
who expired in its service and at its gates, is an inscription placed
on its high altar by the piety of Alexander Farnese, intimating that
it afforded a temporary resting place to the remains of DON JOHN of
AUSTRIA.[19]
[Footnote 19: Thus far the courtesies of fiction. But for those who
prefer historical fact, it may be interesting to learn the authentic
details of the interment of one whose posthumous destinies seemed to
share the incompleteness of his baffled life. In order to avoid the
contestations arising from the transit of a corpse through a foreign
state, Nignio di Zuniga (who was charged by Philip with the duty of
conveying it to Spain, under sanction of a passport from Henri III.)
caused it to be _dismembered_, and the parts packed in three budgets,
(_bougettes_,) and laid upon packhorses!--On arriving in Spain, the
parts were _readjusted with wires!--"On remplit le corps de bourre_,"
says the old chronicler from which these details are derived, "_et
ainsi la structure en aiant été comme rétablie, on le revétit de ses
armes, et le fit voir au roi, tout debout apuyé sur son bâton de
général, de sorte qu'il semblait encore vivant. L'aspect d'un mort si
illustre ayant excité quelques larmes, on le porta à l'Escurial dans
l'Eglise de St Laurens auprez de son père_."
Such is the account given in a curious old history (supplementary to
those of D'Avila and Strada) of the wars of the Prince of Parma,
published at Amsterdam early in the succeeding century. But a still
greater insult has been offered to the memory of one of the last of
Christian knights, in Casimir Delavigne's fine play of "Don Juan
d'Autriche," where he is represented as affianced to a Jewess!]