Chapter 36
But the amount of suffering from such a persecution is not to be estimated merely by the number of those who have actually suffered death, when the fear of death hung like a naked sword over every man's head. Alva had expressed to Philip the wish that every man, as he lay down at night, or as he rose in the morning, "might feel that his house, at any hour, might fall and crush him!"[1069] This humane wish was accomplished. Those who escaped death had to fear a fate scarcely less dreadful, in banishment and confiscation of property. The persecution very soon took this direction; and persecution when prompted by avarice is even more odious than when it springs from fanaticism, which, however degrading in itself, is but the perversion of the religious principle.
Sentence of perpetual exile and confiscation was p.r.o.nounced at once against all who fled the country.[1070] Even the dead were not spared; as is shown by the process inst.i.tuted against the marquis of Bergen, for the confiscation of his estates on the charge of treason. That n.o.bleman had gone with Montigny, as the reader may remember, on his mission to Madrid, where he had recently died,--more fortunate than his companion, who survived for a darker destiny. The duke's emissaries were everywhere active in making inventories of the property of the suspected parties.
"I am going to arrest some of the richest and worst offenders," writes Alva to his master, "and bring them to a pecuniary composition."[1071]
He shall next proceed, he says, against the delinquent cities. In this way a round sum will flow into his majesty's coffers.[1072] The victims of this cla.s.s were so numerous, that we find a single sentence of the council sometimes comprehending eighty or a hundred individuals. One before me, in fewer words than are taken up by the names of the parties, dooms no less than a hundred and thirty-five inhabitants of Amsterdam to confiscation and exile.[1073]
One may imagine the distress brought on this once flouris.h.i.+ng country by this wholesale proscription; for besides the parties directly interested, there was a host of others incidentally affected,--hospitals and charitable establishments, widows and helpless orphans, now reduced to want by the failure of the sources which supplied them with their ordinary subsistence.[1074] Slow and sparing must have been the justice doled out to such impotent creditors, when they preferred their claims to a tribunal like the Council of Blood! The effect was soon visible in the decay of trade and the rapid depopulation of the towns.
Notwithstanding the dreadful penalties denounced against fugitives, great numbers, especially from the border states, contrived to make their escape. The neighboring districts of Germany opened their arms to the wanderers; and many a wretched exile from the northern provinces, flying across the frozen waters of the Zuyder Zee, found refuge within the hospitable walls of Embden.[1075] Even in an inland city like Ghent, half the houses, if we may credit the historian, were abandoned.[1076]
Not a family was there, he says, but some of its members had tasted the bitterness of exile or of death.[1077] "The fury of persecution," writes the prince of Orange, "spreads such horror throughout the nation, that thousands, and among them some of the princ.i.p.al Papists, have fled a country where tyranny seems to be directed against all, without distinction of faith."[1078]
Yet in a financial point of view the results did not keep pace with Alva's wishes. Notwithstanding the large amount of the confiscations, the proceeds, as he complains to Philip, were absorbed in so many ways, especially by the peculation of his agents, that he doubted whether the expense would not come to more than the profits![1079] He was equally dissatisfied with the conduct of other functionaries. The commissioners sent into the provinces, instead of using their efforts to detect the guilty, seemed disposed, he said, rather to conceal them. Even the members of the Council of Troubles manifested so much apathy in their vocation, as to give him more annoyance than the delinquents themselves![1080] The only person who showed any zeal in the service was Vargas. He was worth all the others of the council put together.[1081]
The duke might have excepted from this sweeping condemnation Hessels, the lawyer of Ghent, if the rumors concerning him were true. This worthy councillor, it is said, would sometimes fall asleep in his chair, worn out by the fatigue of trying causes and signing death-warrants. In this state, when suddenly called on to p.r.o.nounce the doom of the prisoner, he would cry out, half awake, and rubbing his eyes, "_Ad patibulum! Ad patibulum!_"--"To the gallows! To the gallows!"[1082]
[Sidenote: RESULTS.]
But Vargas was after the duke's own heart. Alva was never weary of commending his follower to the king. He besought Philip to interpose in his behalf, and cause three suits which had been brought against that functionary to be suspended during his absence from Spain. The king accordingly addressed the judge on the subject. But the magistrate (his name should have been preserved) had the independence to reply, that "justice must take its course, and could not be suspended from favor to any one." "Nor would I have it so," answered Philip, (it is the king who tells it;) "I would do only what is possible to save the interests of Vargas from suffering by his absence." In conclusion he tells the duke, that Vargas should give no heed to what is said of the suits, since he must be a.s.sured, after the letter he has received under the royal hand, that his sovereign fully approves his conduct.[1083] But if Vargas, by his unscrupulous devotion to the cause, won the confidence of his employers, he incurred, on the other hand, the unmitigated hatred of the people,--a hatred deeper, it would almost seem, than even that which attached to Alva; owing perhaps to the circ.u.mstance that, as the instrument for the execution of the duke's measures, Vargas was brought more immediately in contact with the people than the duke himself.
As we have already seen, many, especially of those who dwelt in the border provinces, escaped the storm of persecution by voluntary exile.
The suspected parties would seem to have received, not unfrequently, kindly intimations from the local magistrates of the fate that menaced them.[1084] Others, who lived in the interior, were driven to more desperate courses. They banded together in considerable numbers, under the name of the "wild _Gueux_,"--"_Gueux sauvages_,"--and took refuge in the forests, particularly of West Flanders. Thence they sallied forth, fell upon unsuspecting travellers, especially the monks and ecclesiastics, whom they robbed, and sometimes murdered. Occasionally they were so bold as to invade the monasteries and churches, stripping them of their rich ornaments, their plate and other valuables, when, loaded with booty, they hurried back to their fastnesses. The evil proceeded to such a length, that the governor-general was obliged to order out a strong force to exterminate the banditti, while at the same time he published an edict, declaring that every district should be held responsible for the damage done to property within its limits by these marauders.[1085]
It might be supposed that, under the general feeling of resentment provoked by Alva's cruel policy, his life would have been in constant danger from the hand of the a.s.sa.s.sin. Once, indeed, he had nearly fallen a victim to a conspiracy headed by two brothers, men of good family in Flanders, who formed a plan to kill him while attending ma.s.s at an abbey in the neighborhood of Brussels.[1086] But Alva was not destined to fall by the hand of violence.
We may well believe that wise and temperate men, like Viglius, condemned the duke's proceedings as no less impolitic than cruel. That this veteran councillor did so is apparent from his confidential letters, though he was too prudent to expose himself to Alva's enmity by openly avowing it.[1087] There were others, however,--the princes of Germany, in particular,--who had no such reasons for dissembling, and who carried their remonstrances to a higher tribunal than that of the governor-general.
On the second of March, 1568, the Emperor Maximilian, in the name of the electors, addressed a letter to Philip, in behalf of his oppressed subjects in the Netherlands. He reminded the king that he had already more than once, and in most affectionate terms, interceded with him for a milder and more merciful policy towards his Flemish subjects. He entreated his royal kinsman to reflect whether it were not better to insure the tranquillity of the state by winning the hearts of his people, than by excessive rigor to drive them to extremity. And he concluded by intimating that, as a member of the Germanic body, the Netherlands had a right to be dealt with in that spirit of clemency which was conformable to the const.i.tutions of the empire.[1088]
Although neither the arguments nor the importunity of Maximilian had power to shake the constancy of Philip, he did not refuse to enter into some explanation, if not vindication, of his conduct. "What I have done," he replied, "has been for the repose of the provinces, and for the defence of the Catholic faith. If I had respected justice less, I should have despatched the whole business in a single day. No one acquainted with the state of affairs will find reason to censure my severity. Nor would I do otherwise than I have done, though I should risk the sovereignty of the Netherlands,--no, though the world should fall in ruins around me!"[1089]--Such a reply effectually closed the correspondence.
The wretched people of the Netherlands, meanwhile, now looked to the prince of Orange as the only refuge left them, under Providence. Those who fled the country, especially persons of higher condition, gathered round his little court at Dillemburg, where they were eagerly devising plans for the best means of restoring freedom to their country. They brought with them repeated invitations from their countrymen to William that he would take up arms in their defence. The Protestants of Antwerp, in particular, promised that, if he would raise funds by coining his plate, they would agree to pay him double the value of it.[1090]
William had no wish nearer his heart than that of a.s.suming the enterprise. But he knew the difficulties that lay in the way, and, like a wise man, he was not disposed to enter on
In the mean time he was carrying on an extensive correspondence with the German princes, with the leaders of the Huguenot party in France, and even with the English government,--endeavoring to propitiate them to the cause, as one in which every Protestant had an interest. From the elector of Saxony and the landgrave of Hesse he received a.s.surances of aid. Considerable sums seem to have been secretly remitted from the princ.i.p.al towns in the Low Countries; while Culemborg, Hoogstraten, Louis of Na.s.sau, and the other great lords who shared his exile, contributed as largely as their dilapidated fortunes would allow.[1093]
The prince himself parted with his most precious effects, p.a.w.ning his jewels, and sending his plate to the mint,--"the fit ornaments of a palace," exclaims an old writer, "but yielding little for the necessities of war."[1094]
[Sidenote: ORANGE a.s.sEMBLES AN ARMY]
By these sacrifices a considerable force was a.s.sembled before the end of April, consisting of the most irregular and incongruous materials. There were German mercenaries, who had no interest in the cause beyond their pay; Huguenots from France, who brought into the field a hatred of the Roman Catholics which made them little welcome, even as allies, to a large portion of the Netherlands; and, lastly, exiles from the Netherlands,--the only men worthy of the struggle,--who held life cheap in comparison with the great cause to which they devoted it. But these, however strong in their patriotism, were for the most part simple burghers untrained to arms, and ill fitted to cope with the hardy veterans of Castile.
Before completing his levies, the prince of Orange, at the suggestion of his friend, the landgrave of Hesse, prepared and published a doc.u.ment, known as his "Justification," in which he vindicated himself and his cause from the charges of Alva. He threw the original blame of the troubles on Granvelle, denied having planned or even promoted the confederacy of the n.o.bles, and treated with scorn the charge of having, from motives of criminal ambition, fomented rebellion in a country where he had larger interests at stake than almost any other inhabitant. He touched on his own services, as well as those of his ancestors, and the ingrat.i.tude with which they had been requited by the throne. And in conclusion, he prayed that his majesty might at length open his eyes to the innocence of his persecuted subjects, and that it might be made apparent to the world that the wrongs inflicted on them had come from evil counsellors rather than himself.[1095]
The plan of the campaign was, to distract the duke's attention, and, if possible, create a general rising in the country, by a.s.sailing it on three several points at once. A Huguenot corps, under an adventurer named Cocqueville, was to operate against Artois. Hoogstraten, with the lord of Villers, and others of the banished n.o.bles, were to penetrate the country in a central direction through Brabant. While William's brothers, the Counts Louis and Adolphus, at the head of a force, partly Flemish, partly German, were to carry the war over the northern borders, into Groningen; the prince himself, who established his head-quarters in the neighborhood of Cleves, was busy in a.s.sembling a force prepared to support any one of the divisions, as occasion might require.
It was the latter part of April, before Hoogstraten and Louis took the field. The Huguenots ware still later; and William met with difficulties which greatly r.e.t.a.r.ded the formation of his own corps. The great difficulty--one which threatened to defeat the enterprise at its commencement--was the want of money, equally felt in raising troops and in enforcing discipline among them when they were raised. "If you have any love for me," he writes to his friend, the "wise" landgrave of Hesse, "I beseech you to aid me privately with a sum sufficient to meet the pay of the troops for the first month. Without this I shall be in danger of failing in my engagements,--to me worse than death; to say nothing of the ruin which such a failure must bring on our credit and on the cause."[1096] We are constantly reminded, in the career of the prince of Orange, of the embarra.s.sments under which our own Was.h.i.+ngton labored in the time of the Revolution, and of the patience and unconquerable spirit which enabled him to surmount them.
Little need be said of two of the expeditions, which were failures.
Hoogstraten had scarcely crossed the frontier, towards the end of April, when he was met by Alva's trusty lieutenant, Sancho Davila, and beaten, with considerable loss. Villers and some others of the rebel lords, made prisoners, escaped the sword of the enemy in the field, to fall by that of the executioner in Brussels. Hoogstraten, with the remnant of his forces, made good his retreat, and effected a junction with the prince of Orange.[1097]
Cocqueville met with a worse fate. A detachment of French troops was sent against him by Charles the Ninth, who thus requited the service of the same kind he had lately received from the duke of Alva. On the approach of their countrymen, the Huguenots basely laid down their arms.
Cocqueville and his princ.i.p.al officers were surrounded, made prisoners, and perished ignominiously on the scaffold.[1098]
The enterprise of Louis of Na.s.sau was attended with different results.
Yet after he had penetrated into Groningen, he was sorely embarra.s.sed by the mutinous spirit of the German mercenaries. The province was defended by Count Aremberg, its governor, a brave old officer, who had studied the art of war under Charles the Fifth; one of those models of chivalry on whom the men of a younger generation are ambitious to form themselves. He had been employed on many distinguished services; and there were few men at the court of Brussels who enjoyed higher consideration under both Philip and his father. The strength of his forces lay in his Spanish infantry. He was deficient in cavalry, but was soon to be reinforced by a body of horse under Count Megen, who was a day's march in his rear.
Aremberg soon came in sight of Louis, who was less troubled by the presence of his enemy than by the disorderly conduct of his German soldiers, clamorous for their pay. Doubtful of his men, Louis declined to give battle to a foe so far superior to him in everything but numbers. He accordingly established himself in an uncommonly strong position, which the nature of the ground fortunately afforded. In his rear, protected by a thick wood, stood the convent of Heyligerlee, which gave its name to the battle. In front the land sloped towards an extensive mora.s.s. His infantry, on the left, was partly screened by a hill from the enemy's fire; and on the right he stationed his cavalry, under the command of his brother Adolphus, who was to fall on the enemy's flank, should they be hardy enough to give battle.
[Sidenote: BATTLE OF HEYLIGERLEE.]
But Aremberg was too well acquainted with the difficulties of the ground to risk an engagement, at least till he was strengthened by the reinforcement under Megen. Unfortunately, the Spanish infantry, accustomed to victory, and feeling a contempt for the disorderly levies opposed to them, loudly called to be led against the heretics. In vain their more prudent general persisted in his plan. They chafed at the delay, refusing to a Flemish commander the obedience which they might probably have paid to one of their own nation. They openly accused him of treachery, and of having an understanding with his countrymen in the enemy's camp. Stung by their reproaches, Aremberg had the imprudence to do what more than one brave man has been led to do, both before and since; he surrendered his own judgment to the importunities of his soldiers. Crying out that "they should soon see if he were a traitor!"[1099] he put himself at the head of his little army, and marched against the enemy. His artillery, meanwhile, which he had posted on his right, opened a brisk fire on Louis's left wing, where, owing to the nature of the ground, it did little execution.
Under cover of this fire the main body of the Spanish infantry moved forward; but, as their commander had foreseen, the men soon became entangled in the mora.s.s; their ranks were thrown into disorder; and when at length, after long and painful efforts, they emerged on the firm ground, they were more spent with toil than they would have been after a hard day's march. Thus jaded, and sadly in disarray, they were at once a.s.sailed in front by an enemy who, conscious of his own advantage, was all fresh and hot for action. Notwithstanding their distressed condition, Aremberg's soldiers maintained their ground for some time, like men unaccustomed to defeat. At length, Louis ordered the cavalry on his right to charge Aremberg's flank. This unexpected movement, occurring at a critical moment, decided the day. a.s.sailed in front and in flank, hemmed in by the fatal mora.s.s in the rear, the Spaniards were thrown into utter confusion. In vain their gallant leader, proof against danger, though not against the taunts of his followers, endeavored to rally them. His horse was killed under him; and as he was mounting another, he received a shot from a foot-soldier, and fell mortally wounded from his saddle.[1100] The rout now became general. Some took to the mora.s.s, and fell into the hands of the victors. Some succeeded in cutting their way through the ranks of their a.s.sailants, while many more lost their lives in the attempt. The ground was covered with the wounded and the dead. The victory was complete.
Sixteen hundred of the enemy were left on that fatal field. In the imagination of the exile thirsting for vengeance, it might serve in some degree to balance the b.l.o.o.d.y roll of victims whom the pitiless duke had sent to their account. Nine pieces of artillery, with a large quant.i.ty of ammunition and military stores, a rich service of plate belonging to Aremberg, and a considerable sum of money lately received by him to pay the arrears of the soldiers, fell into the hands of the patriots. Yet as serious a loss as any inflicted on the Spaniards was that of their brave commander. His corpse, disfigured by wounds, was recognized, amid a heap of the slain, by the insignia of the Golden Fleece, which he wore round his neck, and which Louis sent to the prince, his brother, as a proud trophy of his victory.[1101] The joy of the conquerors was dimmed by one mournful event, the death of Count Adolphus of Na.s.sau, who fell bravely fighting at the head of his troops, one of the first victims in the war of the revolution. He was a younger brother of William, only twenty-seven years of age. But he had already given promise of those heroic qualities which proved him worthy of the generous race from which he sprung.[1102]
The battle was fought on the twenty-third of May, 1568. On the day following, Count Megen arrived with a reinforcement; too late to secure the victory, but not, as it proved, too late to s.n.a.t.c.h the fruits of it from the victors. By a rapid movement, he succeeded in throwing himself into the town of Groningen, and thus saved that important place from falling into the hands of the patriots.[1103]
The tidings of the battle of Heyligerlee caused a great sensation through the country. While it raised the hopes of the malecontents, it filled the duke of Alva with indignation,--the greater as he perceived that the loss of the battle was to be referred mainly to the misconduct of his own soldiers. He saw with alarm the disastrous effect likely to be produced by so brilliant a success on the part of the rebels, in the very beginning of the struggle. The hardy men of Friesland would rise to a.s.sert their independence. The prince of Orange, with his German levies, would unite with his victorious brother, and, aided by the inhabitants, would be in condition to make formidable head against any force that Alva could muster. It was an important crisis, and called for prompt and decisive action. The duke, with his usual energy, determined to employ no agent here, but to take the affair into his own hands, concentrate his forces, and march in person against the enemy.
[Sidenote: ALVA's PROCEEDINGS.]
Yet there were some things he deemed necessary to be done, if it were only for their effect on the public mind, before entering on the campaign. On the twenty-eighth of May, sentence was pa.s.sed on the prince of Orange, his brother Louis, and their n.o.ble companions. They were p.r.o.nounced guilty of contumacy in not obeying the summons of the council, and of levying war against the king. For this they were condemned to perpetual banishment, and their estates confiscated to the use of the crown. The sentence was signed by the duke of Alva.[1104]
William's estates had been already sequestrated, and a body of Spanish troops was quartered in his town of Breda.
Another act, of a singular nature, intimated pretty clearly the dispositions of the government. The duke caused the Hotel de Culemborg, where he had fixed his own residence before the regent's departure, and where the Gueux had held their meetings on coming to Brussels, to be levelled with the ground. On the spot a marble column was raised, bearing on each side of the base the following inscription: "Here once stood the mansion of Florence Pallant,"--the name of the count of Culemborg,--"now razed to the ground for the execrable conspiracy plotted therein against religion, the Roman Catholic Church, the king's majesty, and the country."[1105] Alva by this act intended doubtless to proclaim to the world, not so much his detestation of the confederacy--that would have been superfluous--as his determination to show no mercy to those who had taken part in it. Indeed, in his letters, on more than one occasion, he speaks of the signers of the Compromise as men who had placed themselves beyond the pale of mercy.
But all these acts were only the prelude to the dismal tragedy which was soon to be performed. Nearly nine months had elapsed since the arrest of the Counts Egmont and Hoorne. During all this time they had remained prisoners of state, under a strong guard, in the castle of Ghent. Their prosecution had been conducted in a deliberate, and indeed dilatory manner, which had nourished in their friends the hope of a favorable issue. Alva now determined to bring the trial to a close,--to pa.s.s sentence of death on the two lords, and to carry it into execution before departing on his expedition.
It was in vain that some of his counsellors remonstrated on the impolicy, at a crisis like the present, of outraging the feelings of the nation, by whom Egmont in particular was so much beloved. In vain they suggested that the two n.o.bles would serve as hostages for the good behavior of the people during his absence, since any tumult must only tend to precipitate the fate of the prisoners.[1106] Whether it was that Alva distrusted the effect on his master of the importunities, from numerous quarters, in their behalf; or, what is far more likely, that he feared lest some popular rising, during his absence, might open the gates to his prisoners, he was determined to proceed at once to their execution. His appet.i.te for vengeance may have been sharpened by mortification at the reverse his arms had lately experienced; and he may have felt that a blow like the present would be the most effectual to humble the arrogance of the nation.
There were some other prisoners of less note, but of no little consideration, who remained to be disposed of. Their execution would prepare the public mind for the last scene of the drama. There were nineteen persons who, at this time, lay in confinement in the castle of Vilvoorde, a fortress of great strength, two leagues distant from Brussels. They were chiefly men of rank, and for the most part members of the Union. For these latter, of course, there was no hope. Their trials were now concluded, and they were only waiting their sentences.
On the ominous twenty-eighth of May, a day on which the Council of Blood seems to have been uncommonly alert, they were all, without exception, condemned to be beheaded, and their estates were confiscated to the public use.
On the first of June, they were brought to Brussels, having been escorted there by nine companies of Spanish infantry, were conducted to the great square in front of the Hotel de Ville, and, while the drums beat to prevent their last words from reaching the ears of the by-standers, their heads were struck off by the sword of the executioner. Eight of the number, who died in the Roman Catholic faith, were graciously allowed the rites of Christian burial. The heads of the remaining eleven were set upon poles, and their bodies left to rot upon the gibbet, like those of the vilest malefactors.[1107]
On the second of June, ten or twelve more, some of them persons of distinction, perished on the scaffold, in the same square in Brussels.
Among these was Villers, the companion of Hoogstraten in the ill-starred expedition to Brabant, in which he was made prisoner. Since his captivity he had made some disclosures respecting the measures of Orange and his party, which might have ent.i.tled him to the consideration of Alva. But he had signed the Compromise.
On the following day, five other victims were led to execution within the walls of Vilvoorde, where they had been long confined. One of these has some interest for us, Casembrot, lord of Backerzele, Egmont's confidential secretary. That unfortunate gentleman had been put to the rack more than once, to draw from him disclosures to the prejudice of Egmont. But his constancy proved stronger than the cruelty of his persecutors. He was now to close his sufferings by an ignominious death; so far fortunate, however, that it saved him from witnessing the fate of his beloved master.[1108] Such were the gloomy scenes which ushered in the great catastrophe of the fifth of June.
[Sidenote: THE EXAMINATION.]
CHAPTER IV.
TRIALS OF EGMONT AND HOORNE.
The Examination.--Efforts in their Behalf.--Specification of Charges.--Sentence of Death.--The Processes reviewed.