[983] "Et tamen hoc ferro sæpè ego Regis causam non infeliciter defendí." Strada, de Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 359.

[984] Clough, Sir Thomas Gresham's correspondent, in a letter from Brussels, of the same date as the arrest of Egmont, gives an account of his bearing on the occasion, which differs somewhat from that in the text; not more, however, than the popular rumors of any strange event of recent occurrence are apt to differ. "And as touching the county of Egmond, he was (as the saying ys) apprehendyd by the Duke, and comyttyd to the offysers: whereuppon, when the capytane that had charge [of him] demandyd hys weapon, he was in a grett rage; and tooke hys sword from hys syde, and cast it to the grounde." Burgon, Life of Gresham, vol. II. p. 234.

[985] Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 574.

[986] Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 359.—Meteren, Hist. des Pays-Bas, fol. 54.—Hechos de Sancho Davila, p. 29.—Ossorio, Albæ Vita, tom. II. p. 248.—Vandervynckt, Troubles des Pays-Bas, tom. II. p. 223.—Documentos Inéditos, tom. IV. p. 418.

[987] Vandervynckt, Troubles des Pays-Bas, tom. II. p. 226.

[988] "Toutes ces mesures étaient nécessaires, vu la grande autorité du comte d'Egmont en ces pays, qui ne connaissaient d'autre roi que lui." Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 582.

[989] Ibid., ubi supra.—Meteren, Hist. des Pays-Bas, fol. 54.

[990] "L'emprisonnement des deux comtes ne donne lieu à aucune rumeur; au contraire, la tranquillité est si grande, que le Roi ne le pourrait croire." Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 575.

[991] Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 359.

[992] Brandt, Reformation in the Low Countries, vol. I. p. 260.

[993] "Que, s'il apprenait que quelques-uns en fissent, encore même que ce fût pour dire le credo, il les châtierait; que, quant aux priviléges de l'Ordre, le Roi, après un mûr examen de ceux-ci, avait prononcé, et qu'on devait se soumettre." Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 578.

[994] "Adeò contracto ac penè nullo cum imperio moderari, an utile Regi, an decorum ei quam Rex sororem appellare non indignatur, iliius meditationi relinquere." Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 360.

[995] "Il vaut mieux que le Roi attende, pour venir, que tous les actes de rigueur aient été faits; il entrera alors dans le pays comme prince benin et clément, pardonnant, et accordant des faveurs à ceux qui l'auront mérité." Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 577.

[996] "An captus quoque fuisset Taciturnus, (sic Orangium nominabat,) atque eo negante dixisse fertur, Uno illo retibus non incluso, nihil ab Duce Albano captum." Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 360.

[997] "Grace à Dieu, tout est parfaitement tranquille aux Pays-Bas." Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 589.

[998] "Le repos aux Pays-Bas ne consiste pas à faire couper la tête à des hommes qui se sont laissé persuader par d'autres." Ibid., p. 576.

[999] "Os habemos hecho entender que nuestra intencion era de no usar de rigor contra nuestros subegetos que durante las revueltas pasadas pudiesen haber ofendido contra Nos, sino de toda dulzura y clemencia segun nuestra inclinacion natural." Documentos Inéditos, tom. IV. p. 440.

[1000] The ordinance, dated September 18, 1567, copied from the Archives of Simancas, is to be found in the Documentos Inéditos, tom. IV. p. 489 et seq.

[1001] "Statimque mercatores decem primarios Tornacenses è portu Flissingano fugam in Britanniam adornantes capi, ac bonis exutos custodiri jubet." Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 361.

[1002] "Mais l'intention de S. M. n'est pas de verser le sang de ses sujets, et moi, de mon naturel, je ne l'aime pas davantage." Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 576.

[1003] "Novum igitur consessum judicum instituit, exteris in eum plerisque adscitis; quem Turbarum ille; plebes, Sanguinis appellabat Senatum." Reidani Annales, (Lugdunum Batavorum, 1633,) p. 5.

[1004] "Les plus savants et les plus intègres du pays, et de la meilleure vie." Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 576.

[1005] Correspondance de Marguerite d'Autriche, p. 300.

[1006] Meteren, Hist. des Pays-Bas, fol. 54.

[1007] Viglius, who had not yet seen the man, thus mentions him in a letter to his friend Hopper: "Imperium ac rigorem metuunt cujusdam Vergasi, qui apud eum multum posse, et nescio quid aliud, dicitur." Epist. ad Hopperum, p. 451.

[1008] "Une activité toute juvénile." Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 583.

[1009] Ibid., ubi supra.

[1010] Bulletins de l'Académie Royale de Belgique, tom. XVI. par. ii. p. 58.

[1011] Vandervynckt, Troubles des Pays-Bas, tom. II. p. 242. Hessels was married to a niece of Viglius. According to the old councillor, she was on bad terms with her husband, because he had not kept his promise of resigning the office of attorney-general, in which he made himself so unpopular in Flanders. (Epist. ad Hopperum, p. 495.) In the last chapter of this Book the reader will find some mention of the tragic fate of Hessels.

[1012] "Letrados no sentencian sino en casos probados; y como V. M. sabe, los negocios de Estado son muy diferentes de las leyes que ellos tienen." Bulletins de l'Académie Royale de Belgique, tom. XVI. par. ii. p. 52, note.

[1013] "En siendo el aviso de condemnar á muerte, se decia que estaba muy bien y no habia mas que ver; empero, si el aviso era de menor pena, no se estaba á lo que ellos decian, sino tornabase á ver el proceso, y decianles sobre ello malas palabras, y hacianles ruin tratamiento." Gachard cites the words of the official document. Bulletins de l'Académie Royale de Belgique, tom. XVI. par. ii. p. 67.

[1014] Ibid., p. 68 et seq.

[1015] "Qu'ils seraient et demeureraient à jamais bons catholiques, selon que commandait l'Eglise catholique romaine; que, par haine, amour, pitié ou crainte de personne, ils ne laisseraient de dire franchement et sincèrement leur avis, selon qu'en bonne justice ils trouvaient convenir et appartenir; qu'ils tiendraient secret tout ce qui se traiterait au conseil, et qu'ils accuseraient ceux qui feraient le contraire." Bulletins de l'Académie Royale de Belgique, tom. XVI. par. ii. p. 56.

[1016] Ibid., p. 57.

[1017] Belin, in a letter to his patron, Cardinal Granvelle, gives full vent to his discontent with "three or four Spaniards in the duke's train, who would govern all in his name. They make but one head under the same hat." He mentions Vargas and Del Rio in particular. Granvelle's reply is very characteristic. Far from sympathizing with his querulous follower, he predicts the ruin of his fortunes by this mode of proceeding. "A man who would rise in courts must do as he is bidden, without question. Far from taking umbrage, he must bear in mind that injuries, like pills, should he swallowed without chewing, that one may not taste the bitterness of them;"—a noble maxim, if the motive had been noble. See Levesque, Mémoires de Granvelle, tom. II. pp. 91-94.

[1018] The historians of the time are all more or less diffuse on the doings of the Council of Troubles, written as they are in characters of blood. But we look in vain for any account of the interior organization of that tribunal, or of its mode of judicial procedure. This may be owing to the natural reluctance which the actors themselves felt, in later times, to being mixed up with the proceedings of a court so universally detested. For the same reason, as Gachard intimates, they may not improbably have even destroyed some of the records of its proceedings. Fortunately that zealous and patriotic scholar has discovered in the Archives of Simancas sundry letters of Alva and his successor, as well as some of the official records of the tribunal, which in a great degree supply the defect. The result he has embodied in a luminous paper prepared for the Royal Academy of Belgium, which has supplied me with the materials for the preceding pages. See Bulletins de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux Arts de Belgique, tom. XVI. par. ii. pp. 50-78.

[1019] "Hasta que vean en que para este juego que se comiença." Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 598.

[1020] "Car l'incertitude où celles-ci se trouvent du sort qu'on leur réserve, les fera plus aisément à consentir aux moyens de finances justes et honnêtes qui seront établis par le Roi." Ibid., p. 590.

[1021] "Porqué creo yo que, con la voluntad de los Estados, no se hallarán estas, que es menester ponerlos de manera que no sea menester su voluntad y consentimiento para ello.... Esto irá en cifra, y aun creo que seria bien que fuese en una cartilla á parte que descifrase el mas confidente." Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 590.

[1022] Ibid., p. 610.

[1023] "Para que cada uno piense que á la noche, ó á la mañana, se le puede caer la casa encima." Ibid., tom. II. p. 4.

[1024] "Esto se ha de proponer en la forma que yo propuse á los de Anvers los cuatrocientos mill florines para la ciudadela, y que ellos entiendan que aunque se les propone y se les pide, es en tal manera que lo que se propusiere no se ha de dejar de hacer." Documentos Inéditos, tom. IV. p. 492.

[1025] Thus, for example, when Alva states that the council had declared all those who signed the Compromise guilty of treason, Philip notes, in his own handwriting, on the margin of the letter, "The same should he done with all who aided and abetted them, as in fact the more guilty party." (Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 590.) These private memoranda of Philip are of real value to the historian, letting him behind the curtain, where the king's own ministers could not always penetrate.

[1026] Cornejo, Disension de Flandes, fol. 63 et seq.—Hist. des Troubles et Guerres Civiles des Pays-Bas, pp. 133-136.—Documentos Inéditos, tom. IV. pp. 428-439.—Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Nassau, tom. III. p. 119.

[1027] Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. II. p. 13.

[1028] "Non-seulement afin qu'il servît d'ôtage pour ce que son père pourrait fairs en Allemagne, mais pour qu'il fût élevé catholiquement." Ibid., tom. I. p. 596.

[1029] Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 372.—Vandervynckt, Troubles de Pays-Bas, tom. II. p. 261.

[1030] Strada, ubi supra.—Vandervynckt, Troubles des Pays-Bas, tom. II. p. 243.—Aubéri, Histoire de Hollande, p. 25.

[1031] Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Nassau, tom. III. p. 159.

[1032] "Or, il vaut beaucoup mieux avoir un royaume ruiné, en le conservant pour Dieu et le roi, au moyen de la guerre, que de l'avoir tout entier sans celle-ci, au profit du démon et des hérétiques, ses sectateurs." Correspondance de Philippe II. tom. I. p. 609.

[1033] This appears not merely from the king's letters to the duke, but from a still more unequivocal testimony, the minutes in his own handwriting on the duke's letters to him. See, in particular, his summary approval of the reply which Alva tells him he has made to Catherine de Medicis. "Yo lo mismo, todo lo demas que dice en este capitulo, que todo ha sido muy á proposito." Ibid., p. 591.

[1034] Ranke, Civil Wars and Monarchy in France in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, (Eng. trans.,) vol. I. p. 349.

[1035] The cardinal of Lorraine went so far as to offer, in a certain contingency, to put several strong frontier places into Alva's hands. In case the French king and his brothers should die without heirs the king of Spain might urge his own claim through his wife, as nearest of blood, to the crown of France. "The Salic law," adds the duke, "is but a jest. All difficulties will be easily smoothed away with the help of an army." Philip, in a marginal note to this letter, intimates his relish for the proposal. See Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 593.

[1036] The municipality of Brussels, alarmed at the interpretation which the duke, after Margaret's departure, might put on certain equivocal passages in their recent history, obtained a letter from the regent, in which she warmly commends the good people of the capital as zealous Catholics, loyal to their king, and, on all occasions, prompt to show themselves the friends of public order. See the correspondence, ap. Gachard, Analectes Belgiques, p. 343 et seq.

[1037] Documentos Inéditos, tom. IV. p. 481 et seq.

[1038] Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 583.

[1039] The king's acknowledgments to his sister are condensed into the sentence with which he concludes his letter, or, more properly, his billet. This is dated October 13, 1568, and is published by Gachard, in the Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. II., Appendix No. 119.

[1040] "Elle reçut," says De Thou with some humor, "enfin d'Espagne une lettre pleine d'amitié et de tendresse, telle qu'on a coûtume d'écrire à une personne qu'on remercie après l'avoir dépouillée de sa dignité." Hist. Universelle, tom. V. p. 439.

[1041] A copy of the original is to be found in the Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. II., Appendix No. 118.

[1042] The letter has been inserted by Gachard in the Analectes Belgiques, pp. 295-300.

[1043] "Suplicar muy humilmente, y con toda afeccion, que V. M. use de clemencia y misericordia con ellos, conforme á la esperanza que tantas vezes les ha dado, y que tenga en memoria que cuanto mas grandes son los reyes, y se acercan mas á Dios, tanto mas deben ser imitadores de esta grande divina bondad, poder, y clemencia." Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 603.

[1044] Ibid., loc. cit.

[1045] Ibid., tom. II. p. 6.

[1046] "Superavitque omnes Elizabetha Angliæ Regina, tam bonæ caræque sororis, uci scribebat, vicinitate in posterum caritura;" "sive," adds the historian, with candid scepticism, "is amor fuit in Margaritam, sive sollicitudo ex Albano successore." Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 365.

[1047] Historians vary considerably as to the date of Margaret's departure. She crossed the frontier of the Netherlands probably by the middle of January, 1568. At least, we find a letter from her to Philip when she had nearly reached the borders, dated at Luxembourg, on the twelfth of that month.

[1048] See, among others, Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 128; Guerres Civiles du Pays-Bas, p. 128; De Thou, Hist. Gen., tom. V. p. 439; and Renom de Francia, Alborotos de Flandes, MS., who, in these words, concludes his notice of Margaret's departure: "Dejando gran reputacion de su virtud y un sentimiento de su partida en los corazones de los vasallos de por acá el qual crecio mucho despues ansi continuo quando se describio el gusto de los humores y andamientos de su succesor."

[1049] De Thou, Hist. Gen., tom. V. p. 437.—Meteren, Hist. des Pays-Bas, fol. 54.—The latter historian cites the words of the original instrument.

[1050] "Voulans et ordonnans qu'ainsi en soit faict, afin que ceste serieuse sentence serve d'exemple, et donne crainte pour l'advenir, sans aucune esperance de grace." Meteren, Hist. des Pays-Bas, fol. 54.

[1051] Among contemporary writers whom I have consulted, I find no authorities for this remarkable statement except Meteren and De Thou. This might seem strange to one who credited the story, but not so strange as that a proceeding so extraordinary should have escaped the vigilance of Llorente, the secretary of the Holy Office, who had all its papers at his command. I have met with no allusion whatever to it in his pages.

[1052] "Au moyen de la patente de gouverneur général que le duc aura reçue, il pourra faire cesser les entraves que mettait le conseil des finances à ce qu'il disposât des deniers des confiscations." Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 609.

[1053] Bulletins de l'Académie Royale de Belgique, tom. XVI. par. ii. p. 62.

[1054] Ibid., ubi supra.

[1055] Ibid., p. 63.

[1056] "Le magistrat s'est plaint de l'infraction de ses privilèges, à cause de l'envoi dudit prévôt; mais il faudra bien qu'il prenne patience." Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. II. p. 13.

[1057] Vandervynckt, Troubles des Pays-Bas, tom. II. pp. 243-247.

The author tells us he collected these particulars from the memoirs and diaries of eye-witnesses,—confirmed, moreover, by the acts and public registers of the time. The authenticity of the statement, he adds, is incontestable.

[1058] See the circular of Alva to the officers charged with these arrests, in the Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. II., Appendix, p. 660.

[1059] "Et, affin que ledict duc d'Alve face apparoir de plus son affection sanguinaire et tyrannicque, il a, passé peu de temps, faict appréhender, tout sur une nuict, [le 3 mars, 1568,] en toutes les villes des pays d'embas, ung grand nombre de ceulx qu'il a tenu suspect en leur foy, et les faict mectre hors leurs maisons et lictz en prison, pour en après, à sa commodité, faire son plaisir et volunté avecque lesdicts prisonniers." Correspondance de Guillaume le Taciturne, tom. III. p. 9.

The extract is from a memorial addressed by William to the emperor, vindicating his own course, and exposing, with the indignant eloquence of a patriot, the wrongs and calamities of his country. This document, printed by Gachard, is a version from the German original by the hand of a contemporary. A modern translation—so ambitious in its style that one may distrust its fidelity—is also to be found in the Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Nassau, Supplément, p. 91 et seq.

[1060] "Se prendieron cerca de quinientos.... He mandado justiciar todos," says Alva to the king, in a letter written in cipher, April, 13. 1568. (Documentos inéditos, tom. IV. p. 488.) Not one escaped! It is told with an air of nonchalance truly appalling.

[1061] "Que cada dia me quiebran la cabeza con dudas de que si el que delinquió desta manera meresce la muerte, ó si el que delinquió desta otra meresce destierro, que no me dejan vivir, y no basta con ellos." Documentos Inéditos, tom. IV. p. 488.

[1062] "En este castigo que agora se hace y en el que vendrá despues, de Pascua tengo que pasará de ochocientas cabezas." Ibid., p. 489.

[1063] "Les Bourgeois qui estoyët riches de quarante, soixante, et cent mille florins, il les faysoit attacher à la queuë d'un cheval, et ainsi les faysoit trainer, ayant les mains liées sur les dos, jusques au lieu où on les debvoit pendre." Meteren, Hist. des Pays-Bas, fol. 55.

[1064] Ibid., ubi supra.

[1065] "Ille [Vargas] promiscuè laqueo, igne, homines enecare." Reidanus, Annales, p. 6.

[1066] Brandt, Reformation in the Low Countries, vol. I. p. 274.

[1067] "Hark how they sing!" exclaimed a friar in the crowd; "should they not be made to dance too?" Brandt, Reformation in the Low Countries, vol. I. p. 275.

[1068] It will be understood that I am speaking of the period embraced in this portion of the history, terminating at the beginning of June, 1568, when the Council of Blood had been in active operation about four months,—the period when the sword of legal persecution fell heaviest. Alva, in the letter above cited to Philip, admits eight hundred—including three hundred to be examined after Easter—as the number of victims. (Documentos Inéditos, tom. IV. p. 489.) Viglius, in a letter of the twenty-ninth of March, says fifteen hundred had been already cited before the tribunal, the greater part of whom—they had probably fled the country—were condemned for contumacy. (Epist. ad Hopperum, p. 415.) Grotius, alluding to this period, speaks even more vaguely of the multitude of the victims, as innumerable. "Stipatæ reis custodiæ, innumeri mortales necati: ubique una species ut captæ civitatis." (Annales, p. 29.) So also Hooft, cited by Brandt: "The gallows, the wheels, stakes, and trees in the highways, were loaden with carcasses or limbs of such as had been hanged, beheaded, or roasted; so that the air, which God had made for respiration of the living, was now become the common grave or habitation of the dead." (Reformation in the Low Countries, vol. I. p. 261.) Language like this, however expressive, does little for statistics.

[1069] Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. II. p. 4.

[1070] Sentences passed by the Council of Blood against a great number of individuals—two thousand or more—have been collected in a little volume, (Sententien en Indagingen van Alba,) published at Amsterdam, in 1735. The parties condemned were for the most part natives of Holland, Zealand, and Utrecht. They would seem, with very few exceptions, to have been absentees, and, being pronounced guilty of contumacy, were sentenced to banishment and the confiscation of their property. The volume furnishes a more emphatic commentary on the proceedings of Alva than anything which could come from the pen of the historian.

[1071] "Acabando este castigo comenzaré á prender algunos particulares de los mas culpados y mas ricos para moverlos á que vengan á composición." Documentos Inéditos, tom. IV. p. 489.

[1072] "Destos tales se saque todo el golpe de dinero que sea possible." Ibid., ubi supra.

[1073] Sententien van Alva, bl. 122-124.

[1074] "Combien d'Hospitaux, Vefues, et Orphelins, estoyent par ce moyen privés de leur rentes, et moyës de vivre!" Meteren, Hist. des Pays-Bas, fol. 55

[1075] Brandt, Reformation in the Low Countries, vol. I. p. 265.

[1076] Vandervynckt, Troubles des Pays-Bas, tom. II. p. 247.

[1077] Ibid., p. 245.

[1078] "Par laquelle auparavant jamais ouye tyrannie et persécution, ledict duc d'Albe a causé partout telle peur, que aulcuns milles personnes, et mesmement ceulx estans principaulx papistes, se sont retirez en dedens peu de temps hors les Pays-Bas, en considération que ceste tyrannie s'exerce contre tous, sans aulcune distinction de la religion." Correspondance de Guillaume le Taciturne, tom. III. p. 14.

[1079] "Que temo no venga á ser mayor la espesa de los ministros que el útil que dello se sacará." Documentos Inéditos, tom. IV. p. 495.

[1080] "El tribunal todo que hice para estas cosas no solamente no me ayuda, pero estórbame tanto que tengo mas que hacer con ellos que con los delincuentes." Ibid., ubi supra.

[1081] Vargas passed as summary a judgment on the people of the Netherlands as that imputed to the Inquisition, condensing it into a memorable sentence, much admired for its Latinity. "Hæretici fraxerunt templa, boni nihil faxerunt contrà, ergo debent omnes patibulare." Reidanus, Annales, p. 5.

[1082] "Quand on l'éveilloit pour dire son avis. il disoit tout endormi, en se frottant ces veux, ad patibulum, ad patibulum, c'est-à-dire, au gibet, au gibet." Aubéri, Mem. pour servir à l'Hist. de Hollande, p. 22.

[1083] Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. II. p. 12.

[1084] Brandt, Reformation in the Low Countries, vol. I. pp. 263, 264; et alibi.

[1085] Grotius, Annales, p. 29.—Vandervynckt, Troubles des Pays-Bas, tom. II. p. 450.

[1086] Campana, Guerra de Fiandra, fol. 38.—Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. IX. p. 555.

[1087] "Valde optaremus tandem aliquam funesti hujus temporis, criminaliumque processuum finem, qui non populum tantum nostrum, sed vicinos omnes exasperant." Viglii, Epist. ad Hopperum, p. 482.

[1088] Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. II. p. 15.

[1089] "Y quando por esta causa se aventurassen los Estados, y me viniesse á caer el mundo encima." Ibid., p. 27.

Philip seems to have put himself in the attitude of the "justum et tenacem" of Horace. His concluding hyperbole is almost a literal version of the Roman bard:—

"Si fractus illabatur orbis,
Impavidum ferient ruinæ."

[1090] Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Nassau, Supplément, p. 87.

[1091] "Il n'est pas seulement content de s'employer à la nécessité présente par le moyen par eulx proposé touchant sa vasselle, ains de sa propre personne, et de tout ce que reste en son pouvoir." Ibid., p. 88.

[1092] Ibid., ubi supra.