CHAPTER VII.

Various attempts upon the life of Orange--Delft--Mansion of the

Prince described--Francis Guion or Balthazar Girard--His

antecedents--His correspondence and interviews with Parma and with

d'Assonleville--His employment in France--His return to Delft and

interview with Orange--The crime--The confession--The punishment--

The consequences--Concluding remarks.

It has been seen that the Ban against the Prince of Orange had not been

hitherto without fruits, for although unsuccessful, the efforts to take

his life and earn the promised guerdon had been incessant. The attempt of

Jaureguy, at Antwerp, of Salseda and Baza at Bruges, have been related,

and in March, 1583, moreover, one Pietro Dordogno was executed in Antwerp

for endeavoring to assassinate the Prince. Before his death, he confessed

that he had come from Spain solely for the purpose, and that he had

conferred with La Motte, governor of Gravelines, as to the best means of

accomplishing his design. In April, 1584, Hans Hanzoon, a merchant of

Flushing, had been executed for attempting to destroy the Prince by means

of gunpowder, concealed under his house in that city, and under his seat

in the church. He confessed that he had deliberately formed the intention

of performing the deed, and that he had discussed the details of the

enterprise with the Spanish ambassador in Paris. At about the same time,

one Le Goth, a captive French officer, had been applied to by the Marquis

de Richebourg, on the part of Alexander of Parma, to attempt the murder

of the Prince. Le Goth had consented, saying that nothing could be more

easily done; and that he would undertake to poison him in a dish of eels,

of which he knew him to be particularly fond. The Frenchman was liberated

with this understanding; but being very much the friend of Orange,

straightway told him the whole story, and remained ever afterwards a

faithful servant of the states. It is to be presumed that he excused the

treachery to which he owed his escape from prison on the ground that

faith was no more to be kept with murderers than with heretics. Thus

within two years there had been five distinct attempts to assassinate the

Prince, all of them, with the privity of the Spanish government. A sixth

was soon to follow.

In the summer of 1584, William of Orange was residing at Delft, where his

wife, Louisa de Coligny, had given birth, in the preceding winter, to a

son, afterwards the celebrated stadholder, Frederic Henry. The child had

received these names from his two godfathers, the Kings of Denmark and of

Navarre, and his baptism had been celebrated with much rejoicing on the

12th of June, in the place of his birth.

It was a quiet, cheerful, yet somewhat drowsy little city, that ancient

burgh of Delft. The placid canals by which it was intersected in every

direction were all planted with whispering, umbrageous rows of limes and

poplars, and along these watery highways the traffic of the place glided

so noiselessly that the town seemed the abode of silence and

tranquillity. The streets were clean and airy, the houses well built, the

whole aspect of the place thriving.

One of the principal thoroughfares was called the old Delftstreet. It was

shaded on both sides by lime trees, which in that midsummer season

covered the surface of the canal which flowed between them with their

light and fragrant blossoms. On one side of this street was the "old

kirk," a plain, antique structure of brick, with lancet windows, and with

a tall, slender tower, which inclined, at a very considerable angle,

towards a house upon the other side of the canal. That house was the

mansion of William the Silent. It stood directly opposite the church,

being separated by a spacious courtyard from the street, while the

stables and other offices in the rear extended to the city wall. A narrow

lane, opening out of Delft-street, ran along the side of the house and

court, in the direction of the ramparts. The house was a plain,

two-storied edifice of brick, with red-tiled roof, and had formerly been

a cloister dedicated to Saint Agatha, the last prior of which had been

hanged by the furious Lumey de la Merck.

The news of Anjou's death had been brought to Delft by a special

messenger from the French court. On Sunday morning, the 8th of July,

1584, the Prince of Orange, having read the despatches before leaving his

bed, caused the man who had brought them to be summoned, that he might

give some particular details by word of mouth concerning the last illness

of the Duke. The courier was accordingly admitted to the Prince's

bed-chamber, and proved to be one Francis Guion, as he called himself.

This man had, early in the spring, claimed and received the protection of

Orange, on the ground of being the son of a Protestant at Besancon, who

had suffered death for--his religion, and of his own ardent attachment to

the Reformed faith. A pious, psalm-singing, thoroughly Calvinistic youth

he seemed to be having a bible or a hymn-book under his arm whenever he

walked the street, and most exemplary in his attendance at sermon and

lecture. For, the rest, a singularly unobtrusive personage, twenty-seven

years of age, low of stature, meagre, mean-visaged, muddy complexioned,

and altogether a man of no account--quite insignificant in the eyes of

all who looked upon him. If there were one opinion in which the few who

had taken the trouble to think of the puny, somewhat shambling stranger

from Burgundy at all coincided, it was that he was inoffensive but quite

incapable of any important business. He seemed well educated, claimed to

be of respectable parentage and had considerable facility of speech, when

any person could be found who thought it worth while to listen to him;

but on the whole he attracted little attention.

Nevertheless, this insignificant frame locked up a desperate and daring

character; this mild and inoffensive nature had gone pregnant seven years

with a terrible crime, whose birth could not much longer be retarded.

Francis Guion, the Calvinist, son of a martyred Calvinist, was in reality

Balthazar Gerard, a fanatical Catholic, whose father and mother were

still living at Villefans in Burgundy. Before reaching man's estate, he

had formed the design of murdering the Prince of Orange, "who, so long as

he lived, seemed like to remain a rebel against the Catholic King, and to

make every effort to disturb the repose of the Roman Catholic Apostolic

religion."

When but twenty years of age, he had struck his dagger with all his might

into a door, exclaiming, as he did so, "Would that the blow had been in

the heart of Orange!" For this he was rebuked by a bystander, who told

him it was not for him to kill princes, and that it was not desirable to

destroy so good a captain as the Prince, who, after all, might one day

reconcile himself with the King.

As soon as the Ban against Orange was published, Balthazar, more anxious

than ever to execute his long-cherished design, left Dole and came to

Luxemburg. Here he learned that the deed had already been done by John

Jaureguy. He received this intelligence at first with a sensation of

relief, was glad to be excused from putting himself in danger, and

believing the Prince dead, took service as clerk with one John Duprel,

secretary to Count Mansfeld, governor of Luxemburg. Ere long, the ill

success of Jaureguy's attempt becoming known, the "inveterate

determination" of Gerard aroused itself more fiercely than ever. He

accordingly took models of Mansfeld's official seals in wax, in order

that he might make use of them as an acceptable offering to the Orange

party, whose confidence he meant to gain.

Various circumstances detained him, however. A sum of money was stolen,

and he was forced to stay till it was found, for fear of being arrested

as the thief. Then his cousin and employer fell sick, and Gerard was

obliged to wait for his recovery. At last, in March, 1584, "the weather,

as he said, appearing to be fine," Balthazar left Luxemburg and came to

Treves. While there, he confided his scheme to the regent of the Jesuit

college--a "red-haired man" whose name has not been preserved. That

dignitary expressed high approbation of the plan, gave Gerard his

blessing, and promised him that, if his life should be sacrificed in

achieving his purpose, he should be enrolled among the martyrs. Another

Jesuit, however, in the same college, with whom he likewise communicated,

held very different language, making great efforts to turn the young man

from his design, on the ground of the inconveniences which might arise

from the forging of Mansfeld's seals--adding, that neither he nor any of

the Jesuits liked to meddle with such affairs, but advising that the

whole matter should be laid before the Prince of Parma. It does not

appear that this personage, "an excellent man and a learned," attempted

to dissuade the young man from his project by arguments, drawn from any

supposed criminality in the assassination itself, or from any danger,

temporal or eternal, to which the perpetrator might expose himself.

Not influenced, as it appears, except on one point, by the advice of this

second ghostly confessor, Balthazar came to Tournay, and held council

with a third--the celebrated Franciscan, Father Gery--by whom he was much

comforted and strengthened in his determination. His next step was to lay

the project before Parma, as the "excellent and learned" Jesuit at Treves

had advised. This he did by a letter, drawn up with much care, and which

he evidently thought well of as a composition. One copy of this letter he

deposited with the guardian of the Franciscan convent at Tournay; the

other he presented with his own hand to the Prince of Parma. "The

vassal," said he, "ought always to prefer justice and the will of the

king to his own life." That being the case, he expressed his astonishment

that no man had yet been found to execute the sentence against William of

Nassau, "except the gentle Biscayan, since defunct." To accomplish the

task, Balthazar observed, very judiciously, that it was necessary to have

access, to the person of the Prince--wherein consisted the difficulty.

Those who had that advantage, he continued, were therefore bound to

extirpate the pest at once, without obliging his Majesty to send to Rome

for a chevalier, because not one of them was willing to precipitate

himself into the venomous gulf, which by its contagion infected and

killed the souls and bodies, of all poor abused subjects, exposed to its

influence. Gerard avowed himself to have been so long goaded and

stimulated by these considerations--so extremely nettled with displeasure

and bitterness at seeing the obstinate wretch still escaping his just

judgment--as to have formed the design of baiting a trap for the fox,

hoping thus to gain access to him, and to take him unawares. He

added--without explaining the nature of the trap and the bait--that he

deemed it his duty to lay the subject before the most serene Prince of

Parma, protesting at the same time that he did not contemplate the

exploit for the sake of the reward mentioned in the sentence, and that he

preferred trusting in that regard to the immense liberality of his

Majesty.

Parma had long been looking for a good man to murder Orange, feeling--as

Philip, Granvelle, and all former governors of the Netherlands had

felt--that this was the only means of saving the royal authority in any

part of the provinces. Many unsatisfactory assassins had presented

themselves from time to time, and Alexander had paid money in hand to

various individuals--Italians, Spaniards, Lorrainers; Scotchmen,

Englishmen, who had generally spent the sums received without attempting

the job. Others were supposed to be still engaged in the enterprise; and

at that moment there were four persons--each unknown to the others, and

of different nations--in the city of Delft, seeking to compass

the death of William the Silent. Shag-eared, military, hirsute

ruffians--ex-captains of free companies and such marauders--were daily

offering their services; there was no lack of them, and they had done but

little. How should Parma, seeing this obscures undersized, thin-bearded,

runaway clerk before him, expect pith and energy from him? He thought him

quite unfit for an enterprise of moment, and declared as much to his

secret councillors and to the King.

He soon dismissed him, after receiving his letters; and it may be

supposed that the bombastic style of that epistle would not efface the

unfavorable impression produced by Balthazar's exterior. The

representations of Haultepenne and others induced him so far to modify

his views as to send his confidential councillor, d'Assonleville, to the

stranger, in order to learn the details of the scheme. Assonleville had

accordingly an interview with Gerard, in which he requested the young man

to draw up a statement of his plan in writing, ani this was done upon the

11th of April, 1584.

In this letter Gerard explained his plan of introducing himself to the

notice of Orange, at Delft, as the son of an executed Calvinist; as

himself warmly, though secretly, devoted to the Reformed faith, and as

desirous, therefore, of placing himself in the Prince's service, in order

to avoid the insolence of the Papists. Having gained the confidence of

those about the Prince, he would suggest to them the great use which

might be made of Mansfeld's signet in forging passports for spies and

other persons whom it might be desirous to send into the territory of the

royalists. "With these or similar feints and frivolities," continued

Gerard, "he should soon obtain access to the person of the said Nassau,"

repeating his protestation that nothing had moved him to his enterprise

"save the good zeal which he bore to the faith and true religion guarded

by the Holy Mother Church Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman, and to the

service of his Majesty." He begged pardon for having purloined the

impressions of the seals--a turpitude which he would never have

committed, but would sooner have suffered a thousand deaths, except for

the great end in view. He particularly wished forgiveness for that crime

before going to his task, "in order that he might confess, and receive

the holy communion at the coming Easter, without scruples of conscience."

He likewise begged the Prince of Parma to obtain for him absolution from

his Holiness for this crime of pilfering--the more so "as he was about to

keep company for some time with heretics and atheists, and in some sort

to conform himself to their customs."

From the general tone of the letters of Gerard, he might be set down at

once as a simple, religious fanatic, who felt sure that, in executing the

command of Philip publicly issued to all the murderers of Europe, he was

meriting well of God and his King. There is no doubt that he was an

exalted enthusiast, but not purely an enthusiast. The man's character

offers more than one point of interest, as a psychological phenomenon. He

had convinced himself that the work which he had in hand was eminently

meritorious, and he was utterly without fear of consequences. He was,

however, by no means so disinterested as he chose to represent himself in

letters which, as he instinctively felt, were to be of perennial

interest. On the contrary, in his interviews with Assonleville, he urged

that he was a poor fellow, and that he had undertaken this enterprise in

order to acquire property--to make himself rich--and that he depended

upon the Prince of Parma's influence in obtaining the reward promised by

the Ban to the individual who should put Orange to death.

This second letter decided Parma so far that he authorized Assonleville

to encourage the young man in his attempt, and to promise that the reward

should be given to him in case of success, and to his heirs in the event

of his death. Assonleville, in the second interview, accordingly made

known these assurances in the strongest manner to Gerard, warning him, at

the same time, on no account; if arrested, to inculpate the Prince of

Parma. The councillor, while thus exhorting the stranger, according to

Alexander's commands, confined himself, however, to generalities,

refusing even to advance fifty crowns, which Balthazar had begged from

the Governor-General in order to provide for the necessary expenses of

his project. Parma had made similar advances too often to men who had

promised to assassinate the Prince and had then done little, and he was

resolute in his refusal to this new adventurer, of whom he expected

absolutely nothing. Gerard, notwithstanding this rebuff, was not

disheartened. "I will provide myself out of my own purse," said he to

Assonleville, "and within six weeks you will hear of me."--"Go forth, my

son," said Assonleville, paternally, upon this spirited reply, "and if

you succeed in your enterprise, the King will fulfil all his promises,

and you will gain an immortal name beside."

The "inveterate deliberation," thus thoroughly matured, Gerard now

proceeded to carry into effect. He came to Delft; obtained a hearing of

Millers, the clergyman and intimate friend of Orange, showed him the

Mansfeld seals, and was, somewhat against his will, sent to France, to

exhibit them to Marechal Biron, who, it was thought, was soon to be

appointed governor of Cambray. Through Orange's recommendation, the

Burgundian was received into the suite of Noel de Caron, Seigneur de

Schoneval, then setting forth on a special mission to the Duke of Anjou.

While in France, Gerard could rest neither by day nor night, so tormented

was he by the desire of accomplishing his project, and at length he

obtained permission, upon the death of the Duke, to carry this important

intelligence to the Prince of Orange. The despatches having been

entrusted to him, he travelled posthaste to Delft, and, to his

astonishment, the letters had hardly been delivered before he was

summoned in person to the chamber of the Prince. Here was an opportunity

such as he had never dared to hope for. The arch-enemy to the Church and

to the human race, whose death, would confer upon his destroyer wealth

and nobility in this world, besides a crown of glory in the next, lay

unarmed, alone, in bed, before the man who had thirsted seven long years

for his blood.

Balthazar could scarcely control his emotions sufficiently to answer the

questions which the Prince addressed to him concerning the death of

Anjou, but Orange, deeply engaged with the despatches, and with the

reflections which their deeply-important contents suggested, did not

observe the countenance of the humble Calvinist exile, who had been

recently recommended to his patronage by Millers. Gerard, had, moreover,

made no preparation for an interview so entirely unexpected, had come

unarmed, and had formed no plan for escape. He was obliged to forego his

prey when most within his reach, and after communicating all the

information which the Prince required, he was dismissed from the chamber.

It was Sunday morning, and the bells were tolling for church. Upon

leaving the house he loitered about the courtyard, furtively examining

the premises, so that a sergeant of halberdiers asked him why he was

waiting there. Balthazar meekly replied that he was desirous of attending

divine worship in the church opposite, but added, pointing to, his shabby

and travel-stained attire, that, without at least a new pair of shoes and

stockings, he was unfit to join the congregation. Insignificant as ever,

the small, pious, dusty stranger excited no suspicion in the mind of the

good-natured sergeant. He forthwith spoke of the wants of Gerard to an

officer, by whom they were communicated to Orange himself, and the Prince

instantly ordered a sum of money to be given him. Thus Balthazar obtained

from William's charity what Parma's thrift had denied--a fund for

carrying out his purpose.

Next morning, with the money thus procured he purchased a pair of

pistols, or small carabines, from a soldier, chaffering long about the

price because the vender could not supply a particular kind of chopped

bullets or slugs which he desired. Before the sunset of the following day

that soldier had stabbed himself to the heart, and died despairing, on

hearing for what purpose the pistols had been bought.

On Tuesday, the 10th of July, 1584, at about half-past twelve, the

Prince, with his wife on his arm, and followed by the ladies and

gentlemen of his family, was going to the dining-room. William the Silent

was dressed upon that day, according to his usual custom, in very plain

fashion. He wore a wide-leaved, loosely-shaped hat of dark felt; with a

silken cord round the crown-such as had been worn by the Beggars in the

early days of the revolt. A high ruff encircled his neck, from which also

depended one of the Beggar's medals, with the motto, "Fideles au roy

jusqu'a la besace," while a loose surcoat of grey frieze cloth, over a

tawny leather doublet, with wide, slashed underclothes completed his

costume. Gerard presented himself at the doorway, and demanded a

passport. The Princess, struck with the pale and agitated countenance of

the man, anxiously questioned her husband concerning the stranger. The

Prince carelessly observed that "it was merely a person who came for a

passport," ordering, at the same time, a secretary forthwith to prepare

one. The Princess, still not relieved, observed in an under-tone that

"she had never seen so villainous a countenance." Orange, however, not at

all impressed with the appearance of Gerard, conducted himself at table

with his usual cheerfulness, conversing much with the burgomaster of

Leewarden, the only guest present at the family dinner, concerning the

political and religious aspects of Friesland. At two o'clock the company

rose from table. The Prince led the way, intending to pass to his private

apartments above. The dining-room, which was on the ground floor, opened

into a little square vestibule, which communicated, through an arched

passageway, with the main entrance into the court-yard. This vestibule

was also directly at the foot of the wooden staircase leading to the next

floor, and was scarcely six feet in width. Upon its left side, as one

approached the stairway, was an obscure arch, sunk deep in the wall, and

completely in the shadow of the door. Behind this arch a portal opened to

the narrow lane at the side of the house. The stairs themselves were

completely lighted by a large window, half way up the flight. The Prince

came from the dining-room, and began leisurely to ascend. He had only

reached the second stair, when a man emerged from the sunken arch, and,

standing within a foot or two of him, discharged a pistol full at his

heart. Three balls entered his body, one of which, passing quite through

him, struck with violence against the wall beyond. The Prince exclaimed

in French, as he felt the wound, "O my God; have mercy upon my soul! O my

God, have mercy upon this poor people."

These were the last words he ever spoke, save that when his sister,

Catherine of Schwartzburg, immediately afterwards asked him if he

commended his soul to Jesus Christ, he faintly answered, "Yes." His

master of the horse, Jacob van Maldere, had caught him in his arms as the

fatal shot was fired. The Prince was then placed on the stairs for an

instant, when he immediately began to swoon. He was afterwards laid upon

a couch in the dining-room, where in a few minutes, he breathed his last

in the arms of his wife and sister.

The murderer succeeded in making his escape through the side door, and

sped swiftly up the narrow lane. He had almost reached the ramparts, from

which he intended to spring into the moat, when he stumbled over a heap

of rubbish. As he rose, he was seized by several pages and halberdiers,

who had pursued him from the house. He had dropped his pistols upon the

spot where he had committed the crime, and upon his person were found a

couple, of bladders, provided with apiece of pipe with which he had

intended to assist himself across the moat, beyond which a horse was

waiting for him. He made no effort to deny his identity, but boldly

avowed himself and his deed. He was brought back to the house, where he

immediately underwent a preliminary examination before the city

magistrates. He was afterwards subjected to excruciating tortures; for

the fury against the wretch who had destroyed the Father of the country

was uncontrollable, and William the Silent was no longer alive to

intercede--as he had often done before--in behalf of those who assailed

his life.

The organization of Balthazar Gerard would furnish a subject of profound

study, both for the physiologist and the metaphysician. Neither wholly a

fanatic, nor entirely a ruffian, he combined the most dangerous elements

of both characters. In his puny body and mean exterior were enclosed

considerable mental powers and accomplishments, a daring ambition, and a

courage almost superhuman. Yet those qualities led him only to form upon

the threshold of life a deliberate determination to achieve greatness by

the assassin's trade. The rewards held out by the Ban, combining with his

religious bigotry and his passion for distinction, fixed all his energies

with patient concentration upon the one great purpose for which he seemed

to have been born, and after seven years' preparation, he had at last

fulfilled his design.

Upon being interrogated by the magistrates, he manifested neither despair

nor contrition, but rather a quiet exultation. "Like David," he said, "he

had slain Goliath of Gath."

When falsely informed that his victim was not dead, he showed no

credulity or disappointment. He had discharged three poisoned balls into

the Prince's stomach, and he knew that death must have already ensued. He

expressed regret, however, that the resistance of the halberdiers had

prevented him from using his second pistol, and avowed that if he were a

thousand leagues away he would return in order to do the deed again, if

possible. He deliberately wrote a detailed confession of his crime, and

of the motives and manner of its commission, taking care, however, not to

implicate Parma in the transaction. After sustaining day after day the

most horrible tortures, he subsequently related his interviews with

Assonleville and with the president of the Jesuit college at Treves

adding that he had been influenced in his work by the assurance of

obtaining the rewards promised by the Ban. During the intervals of repose

from the rack he conversed with ease, and even eloquence, answering all

questions addressed to him with apparent sincerity. His constancy in

suffering so astounded his judges that they believed him supported by

witchcraft. "Ecce homo!" he exclaimed, from time to time, with insane

blasphemy, as he raised his blood-streaming head from the bench. In order

to destroy the charm which seemed to render him insensible to pain, they

sent for the shirt of a hospital patient, supposed to be a sorcerer. When

clothed in this garment, however, Balthazar was none the less superior to

the arts of the tormentors, enduring all their inflictions, according to

an eye-witness, "without once exclaiming, Ah me!" and avowing that he

would repeat his enterprise, if possible, were he to die a thousand

deaths in consequence. Some of those present refused to believe that he

was a man at all. Others asked him how long since he had sold himself to

the Devil? to which he replied, mildly, that he had no acquaintance

whatever with the Devil. He thanked the judges politely for the food

which he received in prison, and promised to recompense them for the

favor. Upon being asked how that was possible, he replied; that he would

serve as their advocate in Paradise.

The sentence pronounced against the assassin was execrable--a crime

against the memory of the great man whom it professed to avenge. It was

decreed that the right hand of Gerard should be burned off with a red-hot

iron, that his flesh should be torn from his bones with pincers in six

different places, that he should be quartered and disembowelled alive,

that his heart should be torn from his bosom and flung in his face, and

that, finally, his head should be taken off. Not even his horrible crime,

with its endless consequences, nor the natural frenzy of indignation

which it had excited, could justify this savage decree, to rebuke which

the murdered hero might have almost risen from the sleep of death. The

sentence was literally executed on the 14th of July, the criminal

supporting its horrors with the same astonishing fortitude. So calm were

his nerves, crippled and half roasted as he was ere he mounted the

scaffold, that when one of the executioners was slightly injured in the

ear by the flying from the handle of the hammer with which he was

breaking the fatal pistol in pieces, as the first step in the

execution--a circumstance which produced a general laugh in the crowd--a

smile was observed upon Balthazar's face in sympathy with the general

hilarity. His lips were seen to move up to the moment when his heart was

thrown in his face--"Then," said a looker-on, "he gave up the ghost."

The reward promised by Philip to the man who should murder Orange was

paid to the heirs of Gerard. Parma informed his sovereign that the "poor

man" had been executed, but that his father and mother were still living;

to whom he recommended the payment of that "merced" which "the laudable

and generous deed had so well deserved." This was accordingly done, and

the excellent parents, ennobled and enriched by the crime of their son,

received instead of the twenty-five thousand crowns promised in the Ban,

the three seignories of Lievremont, Hostal, and Dampmartin in the Franche

Comte, and took their place at once among the landed aristocracy. Thus

the bounty of the Prince had furnished the weapon by which his life was

destroyed, and his estates supplied the fund out of which the assassin's

family received the price of blood. At a later day, when the unfortunate

eldest son of Orange returned from Spain after twenty-seven years'

absence, a changeling and a Spaniard, the restoration of those very

estates was offered to him by Philip the Second, provided he would

continue to pay a fixed proportion of their rents to the family of his

father's murderer. The education which Philip William had received, under

the King's auspices, had however, not entirely destroyed all his human

feelings, and he rejected the proposal with scorn. The estates remained

with the Gerard family, and the patents of nobility which they had

received were used to justify their exemption from certain taxes, until

the union of Franche Comte, with France, when a French governor tore the

documents in pieces and trampled them under foot.

William of Orange, at the period of his death, was aged fifty-one years

and sixteen days. He left twelve children. By his first wife, Anne of

Egmont, he had one son, Philip, and one daughter, Mary, afterwards

married to Count Hohenlo. By his second wife, Anna of Saxony; he had one

son, the celebrated Maurice of Nassau, and two daughters, Anna, married

afterwards to her cousin, Count William Louis, and Emilie, who espoused

the Pretender of Portugal, Prince Emanuel. By Charlotte of Bourbon, his

third wife, he had six daughters; and by his fourth, Louisa de Coligny,

one son, Frederic William, afterwards stadholder of the Republic in her

most palmy days. The Prince was entombed on the 3rd of August, at Delft,

amid the tears of a whole nation. Never was a more extensive, unaffected,

and legitimate sorrow felt at the death of any human being.

The life and labors of Orange had established the emancipated

common-wealth upon a secure foundation, but his death rendered the union

of all the Netherlands into one republic hopeless. The efforts of the

Malcontent nobles, the religious discord, the consummate ability, both

political and military, of Parma, all combined with the lamentable loss

of William the Silent to separate for ever the southern and Catholic

provinces from the northern confederacy. So long as the Prince remained

alive, he was the Father of the whole country; the Netherlands--saving

only the two Walloon provinces--constituting a whole. Notwithstanding the

spirit of faction and the blight of the long civil war, there was at

least one country; or the hope of a country, one strong heart, one

guiding head, for the patriotic party throughout the land. Philip and

Granvelle were right in their estimate of the advantage to be derived

from the Prince's death, in believing that an assassin's hand could

achieve more than all the wiles which Spanish or Italian statesmanship

could teach, or all the armies which Spain or Italy could muster. The

pistol of the insignificant Gerard destroyed the possibility of a united

Netherland state, while during the life of William there was union in the

policy, unity in the history of the country.

In the following year, Antwerp, hitherto the centre around which all the

national interests and historical events group themselves, fell before

the scientific efforts of Parma. The city which had so long been the

freest, as well as the most opulent, capital in Europe, sank for ever to

the position of a provincial town. With its fall, combined with other

circumstances, which it is not necessary to narrate in anticipation, the

final separation of the Netherlands was completed. On the other hand, at

the death of Orange, whose formal inauguration as sovereign Count had not

yet taken place, the states of Holland and Zealand reassumed the

Sovereignty. The commonwealth which William had liberated for ever from

Spanish tyranny continued to exist as a great and flourishing republic

during more than two centuries, under the successive stadholderates of

his sons and descendants.

His life gave existence to an independent country--his death defined its

limits. Had he lived twenty years longer, it is probable that the seven

provinces would have been seventeen; and that the Spanish title would

have been for ever extinguished both in Nether Germany and Celtic Gaul.

Although there was to be the length of two human generations more of

warfare ere Spain acknowledged the new government, yet before the

termination of that period the United States had become the first naval

power and one of the most considerable commonwealths in the world; while

the civil and religious liberty, the political independence of the land,

together with the total expulsion of the ancient foreign tyranny from the

soil, had been achieved ere the eyes of William were closed. The republic

existed, in fact, from the moment of the abjuration in 1581.

The most important features of the polity which thus assumed a prominent

organization have been already indicated. There was no revolution, no

radical change. The ancient rugged tree of Netherland liberty--with its

moss-grown trunk, gnarled branches, and deep-reaching roots--which had

been slowly growing for ages, was still full of sap, and was to deposit

for centuries longer its annual rings of consolidated and concentric

strength. Though lopped of some luxuriant boughs, it was sound at the

core, and destined for a still larger life than even in the healthiest

moments of its mediveval existence.

The history of the rise of the Netherland Republic has been at the same

time the biography of William the Silent. This, while it gives unity to

the narrative, renders an elaborate description of his character

superfluous. That life was a noble Christian epic; inspired with one

great purpose from its commencement to its close; the stream flowing ever

from one fountain with expanding fulness, but retaining all its original

pity. A few general observations are all which are necessary by way of

conclusion.

In person, Orange was above the middle height, perfectly well made and

sinewy, but rather spare than stout. His eyes, hair, beard, and

complexion were brown. His head was small, symmetrically-shaped,

combining the alertness and compactness characteristic of the soldier;

with the capacious brow furrowed prematurely with the horizontal lines of

thought, denoting the statesman and the sage. His physical appearance

was, therefore, in harmony, with his organization, which was of antique

model. Of his moral qualities, the most prominent was his piety. He was

more than anything else a religious man. From his trust in God, he ever

derived support and consolation in the darkest hours. Implicitly relying

upon Almighty wisdom and goodness, he looked danger in the face with a

constant smile, and endured incessant labors and trials with a serenity

which seemed more than human. While, however, his soul was full of piety,

it was tolerant of error. Sincerely and deliberately himself a convert to

the Reformed Church, he was ready to extend freedom of worship to

Catholics on the one hand, and to Anabaptists on the other, for no man

ever felt more keenly than he, that the Reformer who becomes in his turn

a bigot is doubly odious.

His firmness was allied to his piety. His constancy in bearing the whole

weight of struggle as unequal as men have ever undertaken, was the theme

of admiration even to his enemies. The rock in the ocean, "tranquil amid

raging billows," was the favorite emblem by which his friends expressed,

their sense of his firmness. From the time when, as a hostage in France,

he first discovered the plan of Philip to plant the Inquisition in the

Netherlands, up to the last moment of his life, he never faltered in his

determination to resist that iniquitous scheme. This resistance was the

labor of his life. To exclude the Inquisition; to maintain the ancient

liberties of his country, was the task which he appointed to himself

when a youth of three-and-twenty. Never speaking a word concerning a

heavenly mission, never deluding himself or others with the usual

phraseology of enthusiasts, he accomplished the task, through danger,

amid toils, and with sacrifices such as few men have ever been able to

make on their country's altar; for the disinterested benevolence of the

man was as prominent as his fortitude. A prince of high rank, and, with

royal revenues, he stripped himself of station, wealth, almost at times

of the common necessaries of life, and became, in his country's cause,

nearly a beggar as well as an outlaw. Nor was he forced into his career

by an accidental impulse from which there was no recovery. Retreat was

ever open to him. Not only pardon but advancement was urged upon him

again and again. Officially and privately, directly and circuitously, his

confiscated estates, together with indefinite and boundless favors in

addition, were offered to him on every great occasion. On the arrival of

Don John, at the Breda negotiations, at the Cologne conferences, we have

seen how calmly these offers were waved aside, as if their rejection was

so simple that it hardly required many words for its signification, yet

he had mortgaged his estates so deeply that his heirs hesitated at

accepting their inheritance, for fear it should involve them in debt. Ten

years after his death, the account between his executors and his brother

John amounted to one million four hundred thousand florins--due to the

Count, secured by various pledges of real and personal property; and it

was finally settled upon this basis. He was besides largely indebted to

every one of his powerful relatives, so that the payment of the

incumbrances upon his estate very nearly justified the fears of his

children. While on the one hand, therefore, he poured out these enormous

sums like water, and firmly refused a hearing to the tempting offers of

the royal government, upon the other hand he proved the disinterested

nature of his services by declining, year after year, the sovereignty

over the provinces; and by only accepting, in the last days of his life,

when refusal had become almost impossible, the limited, constitutional

supremacy over that portion of them which now makes the realm of his

descendants. He lived and died, not for himself, but for his country:

"God pity this poor people!" were his dying words.

His intellectual faculties were various and of the highest order. He had

the exact, practical, and combining qualities which make the great

commander, and his friends claimed that, in military genius, he was

second to no captain in Europe. This was, no doubt, an exaggeration of

partial attachment, but it is certain that the Emperor Charles had an

exalted opinion of his capacity for the field. His fortification of

Philippeville and Charlemont, in the face of the enemy his passage of the

Meuse in Alva's sight--his unfortunate but well-ordered campaign against

that general--his sublime plan of relief, projected and successfully

directed at last from his sick bed, for the besieged city of Leyden--will

always remain monuments of his practical military skill.

Of the soldier's great virtues--constancy in disaster, devotion to duty,

hopefulness in defeat--no man ever possessed a larger share. He arrived,

through a series of reverses, at a perfect victory. He planted a free

commonwealth under the very battery of the Inquisition, in defiance of

the most powerful empire existing. He was therefore a conqueror in the

loftiest sense, for he conquered liberty and a national existence for a

whole people. The contest was long, and he fell in the struggle, but the

victory was to the dead hero, not to the living monarch. It is to be

remembered, too, that he always wrought with inferior instruments. His

troops were usually mercenaries, who were but too apt to mutiny upon the

eve of battle, while he was opposed by the most formidable veterans of

Europe, commanded successively by the first captains of the age. That,

with no lieutenant of eminent valor or experience, save only his brother

Louis, and with none at all after that chieftain's death, William of

Orange should succeed in baffling the efforts of Alva, Requesens, Don

John of Austria, and Alexander Farnese--men whose names are among the

most brilliant in the military annals of the world--is in itself,

sufficient evidence of his warlike ability. At the period of his death he

had reduced the number of obedient provinces to two; only Artois and

Hainault acknowledging Philip, while the other fifteen were in open

revolt, the greater part having solemnly forsworn their sovereign.

The supremacy of his political genius was entirely beyond question. He

was the first statesman of the age. The quickness of his perception was

only equalled by the caution which enabled him to mature the results of

his observations. His knowledge of human nature was profound. He governed

the passions and sentiments of a great nation as if they had been but the

keys and chords of one vast instrument; and his hand rarely failed to

evoke harmony even out of the wildest storms. The turbulent city of

Ghent, which could obey no other master, which even the haughty Emperor

could only crush without controlling, was ever responsive to the

master-hand of Orange. His presence scared away Imbize and his bat-like

crew, confounded the schemes of John Casimir, frustrated the wiles of

Prince Chimay, and while he lived, Ghent was what it ought always to have

remained, the bulwark, as it had been the cradle, of popular liberty.

After his death it became its tomb.

Ghent, saved thrice by the policy, the eloquence, the self-sacrifices of

Orange, fell within three months of his murder into the hands of Parma.

The loss of this most important city, followed in the next year by the

downfall of Antwerp, sealed the fate of the Southern Netherlands. Had the

Prince lived, how different might have been the country's fate! If seven

provinces could dilate, in so brief a space, into the powerful

commonwealth which the Republic soon became, what might not have been

achieved by the united seventeen; a confederacy which would have united

the adamantine vigor of the Batavian and Frisian races with the subtler,

more delicate, and more graceful national elements in which the genius of

the Frank, the Roman, and the Romanized Celt were so intimately blended.

As long as the Father of the country lived, such a union was possible.

His power of managing men was so unquestionable, that there was always a

hope, even in the darkest hour, for men felt implicit reliance, as well

on his intellectual resources as on his integrity.

This power of dealing with his fellow-men he manifested in the various

ways in which it has been usually exhibited by statesmen. He possessed a

ready eloquence--sometimes impassioned, oftener argumentative, always

rational. His influence over his audience was unexampled in the annals of

that country or age; yet he never condescended to flatter the people. He

never followed the nation, but always led her in the path of duty and of

honor, and was much more prone to rebuke the vices than to pander to the

passions of his hearers. He never failed to administer ample chastisement

to parsimony, to jealousy, to insubordination, to intolerance, to

infidelity, wherever it was due, nor feared to confront the states or the

people in their most angry hours, and to tell them the truth to their

faces. This commanding position he alone could stand upon, for his

countrymen knew the generosity which had sacrificed his all for them, the

self-denial which had eluded rather than sought political advancement,

whether from king or people, and the untiring devotion which had

consecrated a whole life to toil and danger in the cause of their

emancipation. While, therefore, he was ever ready to rebuke, and always

too honest to flatter, he at the same time possessed the eloquence which

could convince or persuade. He knew how to reach both the mind and the

heart of his hearers. His orations, whether extemporaneous or

prepared--his written messages to the states-general, to the provincial

authorities, to the municipal bodies--his private correspondence with men

of all ranks, from emperors and kings down to secretaries, and even

children--all show an easy flow of language, a fulness of thought, a

power of expression rare in that age, a fund of historical allusion, a

considerable power of imagination, a warmth of sentiment, a breadth of

view, a directness of purpose--a range of qualities, in short, which

would in themselves have stamped him as one of the master-minds of his

century, had there been no other monument to his memory than the remains

of his spoken or written eloquence. The bulk of his performances in this

department was prodigious. Not even Philip was more industrious in the

cabinet. Not even Granvelle held a more facile pen. He wrote and spoke

equally well in French German, or Flemish; and he possessed, besides;

Spanish, Italian, Latin. The weight of his correspondence alone would

have almost sufficed for the common industry of a lifetime, and although

many volumes of his speeches and, letters have been published, there

remain in the various archives of the Netherlands and Germany many

documents from his hand which will probably never see the light. If the

capacity for unremitted intellectual labor in an honorable cause be the

measure of human greatness, few minds could be compared to the "large

composition" of this man. The efforts made to destroy the Netherlands by

the most laborious and painstaking of tyrants were counteracted by the

industry of the most indefatigable of patriots.

Thus his eloquence, oral or written, gave him almost boundless power over

his countrymen. He possessed, also, a rare perception of human character,

together with an iron memory which never lost a face, a place, or an

event, once seen or known. He read the minds even the faces of men, like

printed books. No man could overreach him, excepting only those to whom

he gave his heart. He might be mistaken where he had confided, never

where he had been distrustful or indifferent. He was deceived by

Renneberg, by his brother-in-law Van den Berg, by the Duke of Anjou. Had

it been possible for his brother Louis or his brother John to have proved

false, he might have been deceived by them. He was never outwitted by

Philip, or Granvelle, or Don John, or Alexander of Parma. Anna of Saxony

was false to him; and entered into correspondence with the royal

governors and with the King of Spain; Charlotte of Bourbon or Louisa de

Coligny might have done the same had it been possible for their natures

also to descend to such depths of guile.

As for the Aerschots, the Havres, the Chimays, he was never influenced

either by their blandishments or their plots. He was willing to use them

when their interest made them friendly, or to crush them when their

intrigues against his policy rendered them dangerous. The adroitness with

which he converted their schemes in behalf of Matthias, of Don John, of

Anjou, into so many additional weapons for his own cause, can never be

too often studied. It is instructive to observe the wiles of the

Macchiavelian school employed by a master of the craft, to frustrate, not

to advance, a knavish purpose. This character, in a great measure, marked

his whole policy. He was profoundly skilled in the subtleties of Italian

statesmanship, which he had learned as a youth at the Imperial court, and

which he employed in his manhood in the service, not of tyranny, but of

liberty. He fought the Inquisition with its own weapons. He dealt with

Philip on his own ground. He excavated the earth beneath the King's feet

by a more subtle process than that practised by the most fraudulent

monarch that ever governed the Spanish empire, and Philip, chain-mailed

as he was in complicated wiles, was pierced to the quick by a keener

policy than his own.

Ten years long the King placed daily his most secret letters in hands

which regularly transmitted copies of the correspondence to the Prince of

Orange, together with a key to the ciphers and every other illustration

which might be required. Thus the secrets of the King were always as well

known to Orange as to himself; and the Prince being as prompt as Philip

was hesitating, the schemes could often be frustrated before their

execution had been commenced. The crime of the unfortunate clerk, John de

Castillo, was discovered in the autumn of the year 1581, and he was torn

to pieces by four horses. Perhaps his treason to the monarch whose bread

he was eating, while he received a regular salary from the King's most

determined foe, deserved even this horrible punishment, but casuists must

determine how much guilt attaches to the Prince for his share in the

transaction. This history is not the eulogy of Orange, although, in

discussing his character, it is difficult to avoid the monotony of

panegyric. Judged by a severe moral standard, it cannot be called

virtuous or honorable to suborn treachery or any other crime, even to

accomplish a lofty purpose; yet the universal practice of mankind in all

ages has tolerated the artifices of war, and no people has ever engaged

in a holier or more mortal contest than did the Netherlands in their

great struggle with Spain. Orange possessed the rare quality of caution,

a characteristic by which he was distinguished from his youth. At fifteen

he was the confidential counsellor, as at twenty-one he became the

general-in-chief, to the most politic, as well as the most warlike

potentate of his age, and if he at times indulged in wiles which modern

statesmanship, even while it practises, condemns, he ever held in his

hand the clue of an honorable purpose to guide him through the tortuous

labyrinth.

It is difficult to find any other characteristic deserving of grave

censure, but his enemies have adopted a simpler process. They have been

able to find few flaws in his nature, and therefore have denounced it in

gross. It is not that his character was here and there defective, but

that the eternal jewel was false. The patriotism was counterfeit; the

self-abnegation and the generosity were counterfeit. He was governed only

by ambition--by a desire of personal advancement. They never attempted to

deny his talents, his industry, his vast sacrifices of wealth and

station; but they ridiculed the idea that he could have been inspired by

any but unworthy motives. God alone knows the heart of man. He alone can

unweave the tangled skein of human motives, and detect the hidden springs

of human action, but as far as can be judged by a careful observation of

undisputed facts, and by a diligent collation of public and private

documents, it would seem that no man--not even Washington--has ever been

inspired by a purer patriotism. At any rate, the charge of ambition and

self-seeking can only be answered by a reference to the whole picture

which these volumes have attempted to portray. The words, the deeds of

the man are there. As much as possible, his inmost soul is revealed in

his confidential letters, and he who looks in a right spirit will hardly

fail to find what he desires.

Whether originally of a timid temperament or not, he was certainly

possessed of perfect courage at last. In siege and battle--in the deadly

air of pestilential cities--in the long exhaustion of mind and body which

comes from unduly protracted labor and anxiety--amid the countless

conspiracies of assassins--he was daily exposed to death in every shape.

Within two years, five different attempts against his life had been

discovered. Rank and fortune were offered to any malefactor who would

compass the murder. He had already been shot through the head, and almost

mortally wounded. Under such circumstances even a brave man might have

seen a pitfall at every step, a dagger in every hand, and poison in every

cup. On the contrary, he was ever cheerful, and hardly took more

precaution than usual. "God in his mercy," said he, with unaffected

simplicity, "will maintain my innocence and my honor during my life and

in future ages. As to my fortune and my life, I have dedicated both, long

since, to His service. He will do therewith what pleases Him for His

glory and my salvation." Thus his suspicions were not even excited by the

ominous face of Gerard, when he first presented himself at the

dining-room door. The Prince laughed off his wife's prophetic

apprehension at the sight of his murderer, and was as cheerful as usual

to the last.

He possessed, too, that which to the heathen philosopher seemed the

greatest good--the sound mind in the sound body. His physical frame was

after death found so perfect that a long life might have been in store

for him, notwithstanding all which he had endured. The desperate illness

of 1574, the frightful gunshot wound inflicted by Jaureguy in 1582, had

left no traces. The physicians pronounced that his body presented an

aspect of perfect health. His temperament was cheerful. At table, the

pleasures of which, in moderation, were his only relaxation, he was

always animated and merry, and this jocoseness was partly natural, partly

intentional. In the darkest hours of his country's trial, he affected a

serenity which he was far from feeling, so that his apparent gaiety at

momentous epochs was even censured by dullards, who could not comprehend

its philosophy, nor applaud the flippancy of William the Silent.

He went through life bearing the load of a people's sorrows upon his

shoulders with a smiling face. Their name was the last word upon his

lips, save the simple affirmative, with which the soldier who had been

battling for the right all his lifetime, commended his soul in dying "to

his great captain, Christ." The people were grateful and affectionate,

for they trusted the character of their "Father William," and not all the

clouds which calumny could collect ever dimmed to their eyes the radiance

of that lofty mind to which they were accustomed, in their darkest

calamities, to look for light. As long as he lived, he was the

guiding-star of a whole brave nation, and when he died the little

children cried in the streets.

ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:

Bribed the Deity

Forgiving spirit on the part of the malefactor

Great error of despising their enemy

Mistake to stumble a second time over the same stone

Modern statesmanship, even while it practises, condemns

Preferred an open enemy to a treacherous protector

Reformer who becomes in his turn a bigot is doubly odious

Unremitted intellectual labor in an honorable cause

Usual phraseology of enthusiasts

Writing letters full of injured innocence

ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS, RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC, 1574-84

A terrible animal, indeed, is an unbridled woman

A good lawyer is a bad Christian

A most fatal success

A common hatred united them, for a time at least

Absurd affectation of candor

Agreements were valid only until he should repent

All the majesty which decoration could impart

All Protestants were beheaded, burned, or buried alive

All claimed the privilege of persecuting

Always less apt to complain of irrevocable events

Amuse them with this peace negotiation

Are apt to discharge such obligations--(by) ingratitude

Arrive at their end by fraud, when violence will not avail them

As the old woman had told the Emperor Adrian

Attachment to a half-drowned land and to a despised religion

Barbara Blomberg, washerwoman of Ratisbon

Beautiful damsel, who certainly did not lack suitors

Believed in the blessed advent of peace

Blessing of God upon the Devil's work

Breath, time, and paper were profusely wasted and nothing gained

Bribed the Deity

Care neither for words nor menaces in any matter

Character of brave men to act, not to expect

Claimed the praise of moderation that their demands were so few

Colonel Ysselstein, "dismissed for a homicide or two"

Compassing a country's emancipation through a series of defeats

Conflicting claims of prerogative and conscience

Confused conferences, where neither party was entirely sincere

Country would bear his loss with fortitude

Customary oaths, to be kept with the customary conscientiousness

Daily widening schism between Lutherans and Calvinists

Deadliest of sins, the liberty of conscience

Difficult for one friend to advise another in three matters

Distinguished for his courage, his cruelty, and his corpulence

Don John of Austria

Don John was at liberty to be King of England and Scotland

Dying at so very inconvenient a moment

Eight thousand human beings were murdered

Establish not freedom for Calvinism, but freedom for conscience

Everything was conceded, but nothing was secured

Fanatics of the new religion denounced him as a godless man

Ferocity which even Christians could not have surpassed

Forgiving spirit on the part of the malefactor

Glory could be put neither into pocket nor stomach

God has given absolute power to no mortal man

Great error of despising their enemy

Happy to glass themselves in so brilliant a mirror

He had never enjoyed social converse, except at long intervals

He would have no Calvinist inquisition set up in its place

He would have no persecution of the opposite creed

His personal graces, for the moment, took the rank of virtues

Hope delayed was but a cold and meagre consolation

Human ingenuity to inflict human misery

I regard my country's profit, not my own

Imagined, and did the work of truth

In character and general talents he was beneath mediocrity

Indecision did the work of indolence

Insinuate that his orders had been hitherto misunderstood

It is not desirable to disturb much of that learned dust

Its humility, seemed sufficiently ironical

Judas Maccabaeus

King set a price upon his head as a rebel

Like a man holding a wolf by the ears

Local self-government which is the life-blood of liberty

Logical and historical argument of unmerciful length

Made no breach in royal and Roman infallibility

Mankind were naturally inclined to calumny

Men were loud in reproof, who had been silent

Mistake to stumble a second time over the same stone

Modern statesmanship, even while it practises, condemns

More easily, as he had no intention of keeping the promise

Natural to judge only by the result

Necessary to make a virtue of necessity

Neither wished the convocation, while both affected an eagerness

Neither ambitious nor greedy

No man ever understood the art of bribery more thoroughly

No authority over an army which they did not pay

No man could reveal secrets which he did not know

Not so successful as he was picturesque

Not upon words but upon actions

Not to fall asleep in the shade of a peace negotiation

Nothing was so powerful as religious difference

Of high rank but of lamentably low capacity

On the first day four thousand men and women were slaughtered

One-half to Philip and one-half to the Pope and Venice (slaves)

Our pot had not gone to the fire as often

Peace was desirable, it might be more dangerous than war

Peace, in reality, was war in its worst shape

Perfection of insolence

Plundering the country which they came to protect

Pope excommunicated him as a heretic

Power grudged rather than given to the deputies

Preferred an open enemy to a treacherous protector

Presumption in entitling themselves Christian

Preventing wrong, or violence, even towards an enemy

Proposition made by the wolves to the sheep, in the fable

Protect the common tranquillity by blood, purse, and life

Quite mistaken: in supposing himself the Emperor's child

Rebuked the bigotry which had already grown

Reformer who becomes in his turn a bigot is doubly odious

Reformers were capable of giving a lesson even to inquisitors

Republic, which lasted two centuries

Result was both to abandon the provinces and to offend Philip

Sentimentality that seems highly apocryphal

She knew too well how women were treated in that country

Superfluous sarcasm

Suppress the exercise of the Roman religion

Taxes upon income and upon consumption

The disunited provinces

The more conclusive arbitration of gunpowder

There is no man who does not desire to enjoy his own

They could not invent or imagine toleration

Those who "sought to swim between two waters"

Those who fish in troubled waters only to fill their own nets

Throw the cat against their legs

To hear the last solemn commonplaces

Toleration thought the deadliest heresy of all

Unduly dejected in adversity

Unremitted intellectual labor in an honorable cause

Usual phraseology of enthusiasts

Uunmeaning phrases of barren benignity

Volatile word was thought preferable to the permanent letter

Was it astonishing that murder was more common than fidelity?

Word-mongers who, could clothe one shivering thought

Worn crescents in their caps at Leyden

Worship God according to the dictates of his conscience

Writing letters full of injured innocence

ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS THE DUTCH REPUBLIC, 1555-1584, Complete:

1566, the last year of peace

A country disinherited by nature of its rights

A pleasantry called voluntary contributions or benevolences

A good lawyer is a bad Christian

A terrible animal, indeed, is an unbridled woman

A common hatred united them, for a time at least

A most fatal success

Absolution for incest was afforded at thirty-six livres

Absurd affectation of candor

Achieved the greatness to which they had not been born

Advancing age diminished his tendency to other carnal pleasures

Advised his Majesty to bestow an annual bribe upon Lord Burleigh

Affecting to discredit them

Age when toleration was a vice

Agreements were valid only until he should repent

All offices were sold to the highest bidder

All denounced the image-breaking

All his disciples and converts are to be punished with death

All the majesty which decoration could impart

All reading of the scriptures (forbidden)

All Protestants were beheaded, burned, or buried alive

All claimed the privilege of persecuting

Altercation between Luther and Erasmus, upon predestination

Always less apt to complain of irrevocable events

Amuse them with this peace negotiation

An hereditary papacy, a perpetual pope-emperor

An inspiring and delightful recreation (auto-da-fe)

An age when to think was a crime

Angle with their dissimulation as with a hook

Announced his approaching marriage with the Virgin Mary

Annual harvest of iniquity by which his revenue was increased

Anxiety to do nothing wrong, the senators did nothing at all

Are apt to discharge such obligations--(by) ingratitude

Arrested on suspicion, tortured till confession

Arrive at their end by fraud, when violence will not avail them

As ready as papists, with age, fagot, and excommunication

As the old woman had told the Emperor Adrian

Attachment to a half-drowned land and to a despised religion

Attacking the authority of the pope

Attempting to swim in two waters

Barbara Blomberg, washerwoman of Ratisbon

Batavian legion was the imperial body guard

Beating the Netherlanders into Christianity

Beautiful damsel, who certainly did not lack suitors

Before morning they had sacked thirty churches

Beggars of the sea, as these privateersmen designated themselves

Believed in the blessed advent of peace

Bigotry which was the prevailing characteristic of the age

Bishop is a consecrated pirate

Blessing of God upon the Devil's work

Bold reformer had only a new dogma in place of the old ones

Breath, time, and paper were profusely wasted and nothing gained

Brethren, parents, and children, having wives in common

Bribed the Deity

Burned alive if they objected to transubstantiation

Burned, strangled, beheaded, or buried alive (100,000)

Business of an officer to fight, of a general to conquer

Care neither for words nor menaces in any matter

Character of brave men to act, not to expect

Charles the Fifth autocrat of half the world

Claimed the praise of moderation that their demands were so few

Colonel Ysselstein, "dismissed for a homicide or two"

Compassing a country's emancipation through a series of defeats

Conde and Coligny

Condemning all heretics to death

Conflicting claims of prerogative and conscience

Confused conferences, where neither party was entirely sincere

Consign to the flames all prisoners whatever (Papal letter)

Constitutional governments, move in the daylight

Consumer would pay the tax, supposing it were ever paid at all

Country would bear his loss with fortitude

Courage of despair inflamed the French

Craft meaning, simply, strength

Crescents in their caps: Rather Turkish than Popish

Criminal whose guilt had been established by the hot iron

Criminals buying Paradise for money

Cruelties exercised upon monks and papists

Crusades made great improvement in the condition of the serfs

Customary oaths, to be kept with the customary conscientiousness

Daily widening schism between Lutherans and Calvinists

Deadliest of sins, the liberty of conscience

Decrees for burning, strangling, and burying alive

Deeply criminal in the eyes of all religious parties

Democratic instincts of the ancient German savages

Denies the utility of prayers for the dead

Despot by birth and inclination (Charles V.)

Difference between liberties and liberty

Difficult for one friend to advise another in three matters

Dispute between Luther and Zwingli concerning the real presence

Dissenters were as bigoted as the orthodox

Dissimulation and delay

Distinguished for his courage, his cruelty, and his corpulence

Divine right

Don John of Austria

Don John was at liberty to be King of England and Scotland

Drank of the water in which, he had washed

Dying at so very inconvenient a moment

Eight thousand human beings were murdered

Endure every hardship but hunger

English Puritans

Enormous wealth (of the Church) which engendered the hatred

Enriched generation after generation by wealthy penitence

Enthusiasm could not supply the place of experience

Envying those whose sufferings had already been terminated

Erasmus encourages the bold friar

Erasmus of Rotterdam

Establish not freedom for Calvinism, but freedom for conscience

Even for the rape of God's mother, if that were possible

Ever-swarming nurseries of mercenary warriors

Everything was conceded, but nothing was secured

Excited with the appearance of a gem of true philosophy

Executions of Huss and Jerome of Prague

Fable of divine right is invented to sanction the system

Fanatics of the new religion denounced him as a godless man

Felix Mants, the anabaptist, is drowned at Zurich

Ferocity which even Christians could not have surpassed

Few, even prelates were very dutiful to the pope

Fiction of apostolic authority to bind and loose

Fifty thousand persons in the provinces (put to death)

Financial opposition to tyranny is apt to be unanimous

Fishermen and river raftsmen become ocean adventurers

For myself I am unworthy of the honor (of martyrdom)

For faithful service, evil recompense

For women to lament, for men to remember

Forbids all private assemblies for devotion

Force clerical--the power of clerks

Forgiving spirit on the part of the malefactor

Furious fanaticism

Furnished, in addition, with a force of two thousand prostitutes

Gallant and ill-fated Lamoral Egmont

Gaul derided the Roman soldiers as a band of pigmies

German finds himself sober--he believes himself ill

Glory could be put neither into pocket nor stomach

God has given absolute power to no mortal man

God Save the King! It was the last time

Govern under the appearance of obeying

Great Privilege, the Magna Charta of Holland

Great transactions of a reign are sometimes paltry things

Great science of political equilibrium

Great error of despising their enemy

Great battles often leave the world where they found it

Guarantees of forgiveness for every imaginable sin

Habeas corpus

Hair and beard unshorn, according to ancient Batavian custom

Halcyon days of ban, book and candle

Hanged for having eaten meat-soup upon Friday

Happy to glass themselves in so brilliant a mirror

Having conjugated his paradigm conscientiously

He did his best to be friends with all the world

He came as a conqueror not as a mediator

He would have no persecution of the opposite creed

He would have no Calvinist inquisition set up in its place

He had never enjoyed social converse, except at long intervals

He knew men, especially he knew their weaknesses

He had omitted to execute heretics

Heresy was a plant of early growth in the Netherlands

His imagination may have assisted his memory in the task

His personal graces, for the moment, took the rank of virtues

History shows how feeble are barriers of paper

Holland, England, and America, are all links of one chain

Holy Office condemned all the inhabitants of the Netherlands

Hope delayed was but a cold and meagre consolation

Hope deferred, suddenly changing to despair

Human ingenuity to inflict human misery

I would carry the wood to burn my own son withal

I regard my country's profit, not my own

If he had little, he could live upon little

Imagined, and did the work of truth

In Holland, the clergy had neither influence nor seats

In character and general talents he was beneath mediocrity

Incur the risk of being charged with forwardness than neglect

Indecision did the work of indolence

Indignant that heretics had been suffered to hang

Informer, in case of conviction, should be entitled to one half

Inquisition was not a fit subject for a compromise

Inquisition of the Netherlands is much more pitiless

Insane cruelty, both in the cause of the Wrong and the Right

Insinuate that his orders had been hitherto misunderstood

Insinuating suspicions when unable to furnish evidence

Invented such Christian formulas as these (a curse)

Inventing long speeches for historical characters

It is not desirable to disturb much of that learned dust

Its humility, seemed sufficiently ironical

Judas Maccabaeus

July 1st, two Augustine monks were burned at Brussels

King set a price upon his head as a rebel

King of Zion to be pinched to death with red-hot tongs

Labored under the disadvantage of never having existed

Learn to tremble as little at priestcraft as at swordcraft

Leave not a single man alive in the city, and to burn every house

Let us fool these poor creatures to their heart's content

Licences accorded by the crown to carry slaves to America

Like a man holding a wolf by the ears

Little grievances would sometimes inflame more than vast

Local self-government which is the life-blood of liberty

Logical and historical argument of unmerciful length

Long succession of so many illustrious obscure

Look through the cloud of dissimulation

Luther's axiom, that thoughts are toll-free

Lutheran princes of Germany, detested the doctrines of Geneva

Made no breach in royal and Roman infallibility

Made to swing to and fro over a slow fire

Maintaining the attitude of an injured but forgiving Christian

Man had only natural wrongs (No natural rights)

Mankind were naturally inclined to calumny

Many greedy priests, of lower rank, had turned shop-keepers

Meantime the second civil war in France had broken out

Men were loud in reproof, who had been silent

Mistake to stumble a second time over the same stone

Modern statesmanship, even while it practises, condemns

Monasteries, burned their invaluable libraries

More accustomed to do well than to speak well

More easily, as he had no intention of keeping the promise

Natural to judge only by the result

Necessary to make a virtue of necessity

Neither wished the convocation, while both affected an eagerness

Neither ambitious nor greedy

No qualities whatever but birth and audacity to recommend him

No man could reveal secrets which he did not know

No law but the law of the longest purse

No calumny was too senseless to be invented

No one can testify but a householder

No man ever understood the art of bribery more thoroughly

No authority over an army which they did not pay

Not strong enough to sustain many more such victories

Not to fall asleep in the shade of a peace negotiation

Not for a new doctrine, but for liberty of conscience

Not to let the grass grow under their feet

Not so successful as he was picturesque

Not upon words but upon actions

Not of the stuff of which martyrs are made (Erasmus)

Nothing was so powerful as religious difference

Notre Dame at Antwerp

Nowhere was the persecution of heretics more relentless

Obstinate, of both sexes, to be burned

Of high rank but of lamentably low capacity

Often much tyranny in democracy

Oldenbarneveld; afterwards so illustrious

On the first day four thousand men and women were slaughtered

One-half to Philip and one-half to the Pope and Venice (slaves)

One golden grain of wit into a sheet of infinite platitude

Only kept alive by milk, which he drank from a woman's breast

Only healthy existence of the French was in a state of war

Orator was, however, delighted with his own performance

Others go to battle, says the historian, these go to war

Our pot had not gone to the fire as often

Panegyrists of royal houses in the sixteenth century

Pardon for crimes already committed, or about to be committed

Pardon for murder, if not by poison, was cheaper

Pathetic dying words of Anne Boleyn

Paying their passage through, purgatory

Peace, in reality, was war in its worst shape

Peace was desirable, it might be more dangerous than war

Perfection of insolence

Perpetually dropping small innuendos like pebbles

Persons who discussed religious matters were to be put to death

Petty passion for contemptible details

Philip, who did not often say a great deal in a few words

Planted the inquisition in the Netherlands

Plundering the country which they came to protect

Poisoning, for example, was absolved for eleven ducats

Pope and emperor maintain both positions with equal logic

Pope excommunicated him as a heretic

Power to read and write helped the clergy to much wealth

Power grudged rather than given to the deputies

Preferred an open enemy to a treacherous protector

Premature zeal was prejudicial to the cause

Presumption in entitling themselves Christian

Preventing wrong, or violence, even towards an enemy

Procrastination was always his first refuge

Promises which he knew to be binding only upon the weak

Proposition made by the wolves to the sheep, in the fable

Protect the common tranquillity by blood, purse, and life

Provided not one Huguenot be left alive in France

Purchased absolution for crime and smoothed a pathway to heaven

Put all those to the torture out of whom anything can be got

Questioning nothing, doubting nothing, fearing nothing

Quite mistaken: in supposing himself the Emperor's child

Rashness alternating with hesitation

Readiness to strike and bleed at any moment in her cause

Rearing gorgeous temples where paupers are to kneel

Rebuked the bigotry which had already grown

Reformer who becomes in his turn a bigot is doubly odious

Reformers were capable of giving a lesson even to inquisitors

Repentant females to be buried alive

Repentant males to be executed with the sword

Republic, which lasted two centuries

Result was both to abandon the provinces and to offend Philip

Revocable benefices or feuds

Ruinous honors

Saint Bartholomew's day

Sale of absolutions was the source of large fortunes to the priests

Same conjury over ignorant baron and cowardly hind

Scaffold was the sole refuge from the rack

Scepticism, which delights in reversing the judgment of centuries

Schism which existed in the general Reformed Church

Science of reigning was the science of lying

Scoffing at the ceremonies and sacraments of the Church

Secret drowning was substituted for public burning

Sent them word by carrier pigeons

Sentimentality that seems highly apocryphal

Seven Spaniards were killed, and seven thousand rebels

Sharpened the punishment for reading the scriptures in private

She knew too well how women were treated in that country

Sick and wounded wretches were burned over slow fires

Slavery was both voluntary and compulsory

Slender stock of platitudes

So much responsibility and so little power

Soldier of the cross was free upon his return

Sometimes successful, even although founded upon sincerity

Sonnets of Petrarch

Sovereignty was heaven-born, anointed of God

Spendthrift of time, he was an economist of blood

St. Bartholomew was to sleep for seven years longer

St. Peter's dome rising a little nearer to the clouds

Storm by which all these treasures were destroyed (in 7 days)

Superfluous sarcasm

Suppress the exercise of the Roman religion

Tanchelyn

Taxation upon sin

Taxes upon income and upon consumption

Ten thousand two hundred and twenty individuals were burned

That vile and mischievous animal called the people

The noblest and richest temple of the Netherlands was a wreck

The Gaul was singularly unchaste

The vivifying becomes afterwards the dissolving principle

The bad Duke of Burgundy, Philip surnamed "the Good,"

The greatest crime, however, was to be rich

The more conclusive arbitration of gunpowder

The disunited provinces

The faithful servant is always a perpetual ass

The time for reasoning had passed

The perpetual reproductions of history

The egg had been laid by Erasmus, hatched by Luther

The illness was a convenient one

The calf is fat and must be killed

The tragedy of Don Carlos

There is no man who does not desire to enjoy his own

These human victims, chained and burning at the stake

They could not invent or imagine toleration

They had at last burned one more preacher alive

Those who "sought to swim between two waters"

Those who fish in troubled waters only to fill their own nets

Thousands of burned heretics had not made a single convert

Three hundred fighting women

Throw the cat against their legs

Thus Hand-werpen, hand-throwing, became Antwerp

Time and myself are two

To think it capable of error, is the most devilish heresy of all

To hear the last solemn commonplaces

To prefer poverty to the wealth attendant upon trade

Toleration thought the deadliest heresy of all

Torquemada's administration (of the inquisition)

Tranquillity of despotism to the turbulence of freedom

Two witnesses sent him to the stake, one witness to the rack

Tyrannical spirit of Calvinism

Tyranny, ever young and ever old, constantly reproducing herself

Understood the art of managing men, particularly his superiors

Unduly dejected in adversity

Unremitted intellectual labor in an honorable cause

Upon one day twenty-eight master cooks were dismissed

Usual phraseology of enthusiasts

Uunmeaning phrases of barren benignity

Villagers, or villeins

Volatile word was thought preferable to the permanent letter

Was it astonishing that murder was more common than fidelity?

We believe our mothers to have been honest women

We are beginning to be vexed

Wealth was an unpardonable sin

Weep oftener for her children than is the usual lot of mothers

When the abbot has dice in his pocket, the convent will play

Who loved their possessions better than their creed

William of Nassau, Prince of Orange

Wiser simply to satisfy himself

Wonder equally at human capacity to inflict and to endure misery

Word-mongers who, could clothe one shivering thought

Worn crescents in their caps at Leyden

Worship God according to the dictates of his conscience

Would not help to burn fifty or sixty thousand Netherlanders

Writing letters full of injured innocence