Chapter 78
[1064] Ibid., ubi supra.
[1065] "Ille [Vargas] promiscue laqueo, igne, homines enecare."
Reida.n.u.s, 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. (Doc.u.mentos Ineditos, 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 mult.i.tude of the victims, as _innumerable_. "Stipatae reis custodiae, innumeri mortales necati: ubique una species ut captae civitatis." (Annales, p. 29.) So also Hooft, cited by Brandt: "The gallows, the wheels, stakes, and trees in the highways, were loaden with carca.s.ses or limbs of such as had been hanged, beheaded, or roasted; so that the air, which G.o.d 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 pa.s.sed 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 p.r.o.nounced 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 comenzare a prender algunos particulares de los mas culpados y mas ricos para moverlos a que vengan a composicion." Doc.u.mentos Ineditos, 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 prives de leur rentes, et moyes 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 persecution, ledict duc d'Albe a cause partout telle peur, que aulcuns milles personnes, et mesmement ceulx estans princ.i.p.aulx papistes, se sont retirez en dedens peu de temps hors les Pays-Bas, en consideration 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 a ser mayor la espesa de los ministros que el util que dello se sacara." Doc.u.mentos Ineditos, tom. IV. p. 495.
[1080] "El tribunal todo que hice para estas cosas no solamente no me ayuda, pero es...o...b..me tanto que tengo mas que hacer con ellos que con los delincuentes." Ibid., ubi supra.
[1081] Vargas pa.s.sed as summary a judgment
Reida.n.u.s, Annales, p. 5.
[1082] "Quand on l'eveilloit pour dire son avis. il disoit tout endormi, en se frottant ces veux, _ad patibulum_, _ad patibulum_, c'est-a-dire, au gibet, au gibet." Auberi, Mem. pour servir a 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 aventura.s.sen los Estados, y me viniesse a caer el mundo encima." Ibid., p. 27.
Philip seems to have put himself in the att.i.tude 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 ruinae."
[1090] Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Na.s.sau, Supplement, p. 87.
[1091] "Il n'est pas seulement content de s'employer a la necessite presente par le moyen par eulx propose touchant sa va.s.selle, ains de sa propre personne, et de tout ce que reste en son pouvoir." Ibid., p. 88.
[1092] Ibid., ubi supra.
[1093] The funds were chiefly furnished, as it would seem, by Antwerp, and the great towns of Holland, Zealand, Friesland, and Groningen, the quarter of the country where the spirit of independence was always high.
The n.o.ble exiles with William contributed half the amount raised. This information was given to Alva by Villers, one of the banished lords, after he had fallen into the duke's hands in a disastrous affair, of which some account will be given in the present chapter. Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. II. p. 27.
[1094] "Ipse Arausionensis monilia, vasa algentea, tapetes, caetera supellectilis divendit, digna regio palatio ornamenta, sed exigui ad bellum momenti." Reida.n.u.s, Annales, p. 6.
[1095] The "Justification" has been very commonly attributed to the pen of the learned Languet, who was much in William's confidence, and is known to have been with him at this time. But William was too practised a writer, as Groen well suggests, to make it probable that he would trust the composition of a paper of such moment to any hand but his own.
It is very likely that he submitted his own draft to the revision of Languet, whose political sagacity he well understood. And this is the most that can be fairly inferred from Languet's own account of the matter: "Fui Dillemburgi per duodecim et tredecim dies, ubi Princeps Orangiae mihi et aliquot aliis curavit prolixe explicari causas et initia tumultuum in inferiore Germania et suam responsionem ad accusationes Albani." It fared with the prince's "Justification" as it did with the famous "Farewell Address" of Was.h.i.+ngton, so often attributed to another pen than his, but which, however much it may have been benefited by the counsels and corrections of others, bears on every page unequivocal marks of its genuineness.
The "Justification" called out several answers from the opposite party.
Among them were two by Vargas and Del Rio. But in the judgment of Viglius--whose bias certainly did not lie on William's side--these answers were a failure. See his letter to Hopper (Epist. ad Hopperum, p.
458). The reader will find a full discussion of the matter by Groen, in the Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Na.s.sau, tom. III. p. 187.
[1096] "En quoy ne gist pas seulement le bien de ce faict, mais aussi mon honeur et reputation, pour avoir promis aus gens de guerre leur paier le dict mois, et que j'aymerois mieulx morir que les faillir a ma promesse." Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Na.s.sau, Supplement, p. 89.
[1097] Mendoza, Comentarios, p. 42 et seq.--Cornejo, Disension de Flandres, p. 63.
[1098] Meteren, Hist. des Pays-Bas, fol. 56.--De Thou, Hist.
Universelle, tom. V. p. 443.
[1099] "Ains, comme gens predestinez a leur malheur et de leur general, crierent plus que devant contre luy jusques a l'appeller traistre, et qu'il s'entendoit avec les ennemis. Luy, qui estoit tout n.o.ble et courageux, leur dit: 'Ouy, je vous monstreray si je le suis.'" Brantome, uvres, tom. I. p. 382.
[1100] Brantome has given us the portrait of this Flemish n.o.bleman, with whom he became acquainted on his visit to Paris, when sent thither by Alva to relieve the French monarch. The chivalrous old writer dwells on the personal appearance of Aremberg, his n.o.ble mien and high-bred courtesy, which made him a favorite with the dames of the royal circle.
"Un tres beau et tres agreable seigneur, surtout de fort grande et haute taille et de tres belle apparence." (uvres, tom. I. p. 383.) Nor does he omit to mention, among other accomplishments, the fluency with which he could speak French and several other languages. Ibid., p. 384.
[1101] See a letter written, as seems probable, by a councillor of William to the elector of Saxony, the week after the battle. Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Na.s.sau, tom. III. p. 221.
[1102] It is a common report of historians, that Adolphus and Aremberg met in single combat in the thick of the fight, and fell by each other's hands. See Cornejo, Disension de Flandes, fol. 63; Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 282, _et al._ An incident so romantic found easy credit in a romantic age.
[1103] The accounts of the battle of Heyligerlee, given somewhat confusedly, may be found in Herrera, Hist. del Mundo, tom. I. p. 688 et seq.; Campana, Guerra di Fiandra, (Vicenza, 1602,) p. 42 et seq.; Mendoza, Comentarios, (Madrid, 1592,) p. 43 et seq.; Cornejo, Disension de Flandes, fol. 66 et seq.; Carnero, Guerras de Flandes, (Brusselas, 1625,) p. 24 et seq.; Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 382 et seq.; Bentivoglio, Guerra di Fiandra, p. 192 et seq.
The last writer tells us he had heard the story more than once from the son and heir of the deceased Count Aremberg, who sorely lamented that his gallant father should have thrown away his life for a mistaken point of honor.