THE WORKS

 OF

 FREDERICK SCHILLER

 Translated from the German

 Illustrated

PREFACE TO THE EDITION. 

The present is the best collected edition of the important works ofSchiller which is accessible to readers in the English language. Detached poems or dramas have been translated at various times sincethe first publication of the original works; and in several instancesthese versions have been incorporated into this collection. Schillerwas not less efficiently qualified by nature for an historian than fora dramatist. He was formed to excel in all departments of literature, and the admirable lucidity of style and soundness and impartiality ofjudgment displayed in his historical writings will not easily besurpassed, and will always recommend them as popular expositions of theperiods of which they treat. 

Since the publication of the first English edition many corrections andimprovements have been made, with a view to rendering it as acceptableas possible to English readers; and, notwithstanding the disadvantagesof a translation, the publishers feel sure that Schiller will beheartily acceptable to English readers, and that the influence of hiswritings will continue to increase. 

THE HISTORY OF THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS was translated by Lieut. E. B. Eastwick, and originally published abroad for students' use. Butthis translation was too strictly literal for general readers. It hasbeen carefully revised, and some portions have been entirely rewrittenby the Rev. A. J. W. Morrison, who also has so ably translated theHISTORY OF THE THIRTY YEARS WAR. 

THE CAMP OF WALLENSTEIN was translated by Mr. James Churchill, and firstappeared in "Frazer's Magazine. " It is an exceedingly happy version ofwhat has always been deemed the most untranslatable of Schiller's works. 

THE PICCOLOMINI and DEATH OF WALLENSTEIN are the admirable version ofS. T. Coleridge, completed by the addition of all those passages whichhe has omitted, and by a restoration of Schiller's own arrangement ofthe acts and scenes. It is said, in defence of the variations whichexist between the German original and the version given by Coleridge, that he translated from a prompter's copy in manuscript, before thedrama had been printed, and that Schiller himself subsequently alteredit, by omitting some passages, adding others, and even engraftingseveral of Coleridge's adaptations. 

WILHELM TELL is translated by Theodore Martin, Esq. , whose well-knownposition as a writer, and whose special acquaintance with Germanliterature make any recommendation superfluous. 

DON CARLOS is translated by R. D. Boylan, Esq. , and, in the opinion ofcompetent judges, the version is eminently successful. Mr. TheodoreMartin kindly gave some assistance, and, it is but justice to state, has enhanced the value of the work by his judicious suggestions. 

The translation of MARY STUART is that by the late Joseph Mellish, who appears to have been on terms of intimate friendship with Schiller. His version was made from the prompter's copy, before the play waspublished, and, like Coleridge's Wallenstein, contains many passages notfound in the printed edition. These are distinguished by brackets. Onthe other hand, Mr. Mellish omitted many passages which now form part ofthe printed drama, all of which are now added. The translation, as awhole, stands out from similar works of the time (1800) in almost asmarked a degree as Coleridge's Wallenstein, and some passages exhibitpowers of a high order; a few, however, especially in the earlierscenes, seemed capable of improvement, and these have been revised, but, in deference to the translator, with a sparing hand. 

THE MAID OF ORLEANS is contributed by Miss Anna Swanwick, whosetranslation of Faust has since become well known. It has been. Carefully revised, and is now, for the first time, published complete. 

THE BRIDE OF MESSINA, which has been regarded as the poeticalmasterpiece of Schiller, and, perhaps of all his works, presents thegreatest difficulties to the translator, is rendered by A. Lodge, Esq. , M. A. This version, on its first publication in England, a few yearsago, was received with deserved eulogy by distinguished critics. To thepresent edition has been prefixed Schiller's Essay on the Use of theChorus in Tragedy, in which the author's favorite theory of the "Idealof Art" is enforced with great ingenuity and eloquence. 

 THE HISTORY

 OF THE

 REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

CONTENTS. 

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

BOOK I. ----Earlier History of The Netherlands up to the Sixteenth Century

BOOK II. ---Cardinal Granvella

BOOK III. --Conspiracy of the Nobles

BOOK IV. ---The Iconoclasts Trial and Execution of Counts Egmont and Horn Siege of Antwerp by the Prince of Parma, in the Years 1584 and 1585

THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 

Many years ago, when I read the History of the Belgian Revolution inWatson's excellent work, I was seized with an enthusiasm which politicalevents but rarely excite. On further reflection I felt that thisenthusiastic feeling had arisen less from the book itself than from theardent workings of my own imagination, which had imparted to therecorded materials the particular form that so fascinated me. Theseimaginations, therefore, I felt a wish to fix, to multiply, and tostrengthen; these exalted sentiments I was anxious to extend bycommunicating them to others. This was my principal motive forcommencing the present history, my only vocation to write it. Theexecution of this design carried me farther than in the beginning I hadexpected. A closer acquaintance with my materials enabled me todiscover defects previously unnoticed, long waste tracts to be filledup, apparent contradictions to be reconciled, and isolated facts to bebrought into connection with the rest of the subject. Not so much withthe view of enriching my history with new facts as of seeking a key toold ones, I betook myself to the original sources, and thus what wasoriginally intended to be only a general outline expanded under my handsinto an elaborate history. The first part, which concludes with theDuchess of Parma's departure from the Netherlands, must be looked upononly as the introduction to the history of the Revolution itself, whichdid not come to an open outbreak till the government of her successor. I have bestowed the more care and attention upon this introductoryperiod the more the generality of writers who had previously treated ofit seemed to me deficient in these very qualities. Moreover, it is inmy opinion the more important as being the root and source of all thesubsequent events. If, then, the first volume should appear to any asbarren in important incident, dwelling prolixly on trifles, or, rather, should seem at first sight profuse of reflections, and in generaltediously minute, it must be remembered that it was precisely out ofsmall beginnings that the Revolution was gradually developed; and thatall the great results which follow sprang out of a countless number oftrifling and little circumstances. 

A nation like the one before us invariably takes its first steps withdoubts and uncertainty, to move afterwards only the more rapidly for itsprevious hesitation. I proposed, therefore, to follow the same methodin describing this rebellion. The longer the reader delays on theintroduction the more familiar he becomes with the actors in thishistory, and the scene in which they took a part, so much the morerapidly and unerringly shall I be able to lead him through thesubsequent periods, where the accumulation of materials will forbida slowness of step or minuteness of attention. 

As for the authorities of our history there is not so much cause tocomplain of their paucity as of their extreme abundance, since it isindispensable to read them all to obtain that clear view of the wholesubject to which the perusal of a part, however large, is alwaysprejudicial. From the unequal, partial, and often contradictorynarratives of the same occurrences it is often extremely difficult toseize the truth, which in all is alike partly concealed and to be foundcomplete in none. In this first volume, besides de Thou, Strada, Reyd, Grotius, Meteren, Burgundius, Meursius, Bentivoglio, and some moderns, the Memoirs of Counsellor Hopper, the life and correspondence of hisfriend Viglius, the records of the trials of the Counts of Hoorne andEgmont, the defence of the Prince of Orange, and some few others havebeen my guides. I must here acknowledge my obligations to a workcompiled with much industry and critical acumen, and written withsingular truthfulness and impartiality. I allude to the general historyof the United Netherlands which was published in Holland during thepresent century. Besides many original documents which I could nototherwise have had access to, it has abstracted all that is valuable inthe excellent works of Bos, Hooft, Brandt, Le Clerc, which either wereimpossible for me to procure or were not available to my use, as beingwritten in Dutch, which I do not understand. An otherwise ordinarywriter, Richard Dinoth, has also been of service to me by the manyextracts he gives from the pamphlets of the day, which have been longlost. I have in vain endeavored to procure the correspondence ofCardinal Granvella, which also would no doubt have thrown much lightupon the history of these times. The lately published work on theSpanish Inquisition by my excellent countryman, Professor Spittler ofGottingen, reached me too late for its sagacious and important contentsto be available for my purpose. 

The more I am convinced of the importance of the French history, themore I lament that it was not in my power to study, as I could havewished, its copious annals in the original sources and contemporarydocuments, and to reproduce it abstracted of the form in which it wastransmitted to me by the more intelligent of my predecessors, andthereby emancipate myself from the influence which every talented authorexercises more or less upon his readers. But to effect this the work ofa few years must have become the labor of a life. My aim in making thisattempt will be more than attained if it should convince a portion ofthe reading public of the possibility of writing a history with historictruth without making a trial of patience to the reader; and if it shouldextort from another portion the confession that history can borrow froma cognate art without thereby, of necessity, becoming a romance. 

WEIMAR, Michaelmas Fair, 1788. 

INTRODUCTION. 

Of those important political events which make the sixteenth century totake rank among the brightest of the world's epochs, the foundation ofthe freedom of the Netherlands appears to me one of the most remarkable. If the glittering exploits of ambition and the pernicious lust of powerclaim our admiration, how much more so should an event in whichoppressed humanity struggled for its noblest rights, where with the goodcause unwonted powers were united, and the resources of resolute despairtriumphed in unequal contest over the terrible arts of tyranny. 

Great and encouraging is the reflection that there is a resource leftus against the arrogant usurpations of despotic power; that its best-contrived plans against the liberty of mankind may be frustrated; thatresolute opposition can weaken even the outstretched arm of tyranny; andthat heroic perseverance can eventually exhaust its fearful resources. Never did this truth affect me so sensibly as in tracing the history ofthat memorable rebellion which forever severed the United Netherlandsfrom the Spanish Crown. Therefore I thought it not unworth the while toattempt to exhibit to the world this grand memorial of social union, inthe hope that it may awaken in the breast of my reader a spirit-stirringconsciousness of his own powers, and give a new and irrefragible exampleof what in a good cause men may both dare and venture, and what by unionthey may accomplish. It is not the extraordinary or heroic features ofthis event that induce me to describe it. The annals of the worldrecord perhaps many similar enterprises, which may have been even bolderin the conception and more brilliant in the execution. Some states havefallen after a nobler struggle; others have risen with more exaltedstrides. Nor are we here to look for eminent heroes, colossal talents, or those marvellous exploits which the history of past times presents insuch rich abundance. Those times are gone; such men are no more. Inthe soft lap of refinement we have suffered the energetic powers tobecome enervate which those ages called into action and renderedindispensable. With admiring awe we wonder at these gigantic imagesof the past as a feeble old man gazes on the athletic sports of youth. 

Not so, however, in the history before us. The people here presented toour notice were the most peaceful in our quarter of the globe, and lesscapable than their neighbors of that heroic spirit which stamps a loftycharacter even on the most insignificant actions. The pressure ofcircumstances with its peculiar influence surprised them and forced atransitory greatness upon them, which they never could have possessedand perhaps will never possess again. It is, indeed, exactly this wantof heroic grandeur which renders this event peculiarly instructive; andwhile others aim at showing the superiority of genius over chance, Ishall here paint a scene where necessity creates genius and accidentmakes heroes. 

If in any case it be allowable to recognize the intervention ofProvidence in human affairs it is certainly so in the present history, its course appears so contradictory to reason and experience. PhilipII. , the most powerful sovereign of his line--whose dreaded supremacymenaced the independence of Europe--whose treasures surpassed thecollective wealth of all the monarchs of Christendom besides--whoseambitious projects were backed by numerous and well-disciplined armies--whose troops, hardened by long and bloody wars, and confident in pastvictories and in the irresistible prowess of this nation, were eager forany enterprise that promised glory and spoil, and ready to second withprompt obedience the daring genius of their leaders--this dreadedpotentate here appears before us obstinately pursuing one favoriteproject, devoting to it the untiring efforts of a long reign, andbringing all these terrible resources to bear upon it; but forced, inthe evening of his reign, to abandon it--here we see the mighty PhilipII. Engaging in combat with a few weak and powerless adversaries, andretiring from it at last with disgrace. 

And with what adversaries? Here, a peaceful tribe of fishermen andshepherds, in an almost-forgotten corner of Europe, which withdifficulty they had rescued from the ocean; the sea their profession, and at once their wealth and their plague; poverty with freedom theirhighest blessing, their glory, their virtue. There, a harmless, moral, commercial people, revelling in the abundant fruits of thrivingindustry, and jealous of the maintenance of laws which had proved theirbenefactors. In the happy leisure of affluence they forsake the narrowcircle of immediate wants and learn to thirst after higher and noblergratifications. The new views of truth, whose benignant dawn now brokeover Europe, cast a fertilizing beam on this favored clime, and the freeburgher admitted with joy the light which oppressed and miserable slavesshut out. A spirit of independence, which is the ordinary companion ofprosperity and freedom, lured this people on to examine the authority ofantiquated opinions and to break an ignominious chain. But the sternrod of despotism was held suspended over them; arbitrary powerthreatened to tear away the foundation of their happiness; the guardianof their laws became their tyrant. Simple in their statecraft no lessthan in their manners, they dared to appeal to ancient treaties and toremind the lord of both Indies of the rights of nature. A name decidesthe whole issue of things. In Madrid that was called rebellion which inBrussels was simply styled a lawful remonstrance. The complaints ofBrabant required a prudent mediator; Philip II. Sent an executioner. The signal for war was given. An unparalleled tyranny assailed bothproperty and life. The despairing citizens, to whom the choice ofdeaths was all that was left, chose the nobler one on the battle-field. A wealthy and luxurious nation loves peace, but becomes warlike as soonas it becomes poor. Then it ceases to tremble for a life which isdeprived of everything that had made it desirable. In an instant thecontagion of rebellion seizes at once the most distant provinces; tradeand commerce are at a standstill, the ships disappear from the harbors, the artisan abandons his workshop, the rustic his uncultivated fields. Thousands fled to distant lands, a thousand victims fell on the bloodyfield, and fresh thousands pressed on. Divine, indeed, must thatdoctrine be for which men could die so joyfully. All that was wantingwas the last finishing hand, the enlightened, enterprising spirit, toseize on this great political crisis and to mould the offspring ofchance into the ripe creation of wisdom. William the Silent, like asecond Brutus, devoted himself to the great cause of liberty. Superiorto all selfishness, he resigned honorable offices which entailed on himobectionable duties, and, magnanimously divesting himself of all hisprincely dignities, he descended to a state of voluntary poverty, andbecame but a citizen of the world. The cause of justice was staked uponthe hazardous game of battle; but the newly-raised levies of mercenariesand peaceful husbandmen were unable to withstand the terrible onset ofan experienced force. Twice did the brave William lead his dispiritedtroops against the tyrant. Twice was he abandoned by them, but not byhis courage. 

Philip II. Sent as many reinforcements as the dreadful importunity ofhis viceroy demanded. Fugitives, whom their country rejected, sought anew home on the ocean, and turned to the ships of their enemy to satisfythe cravings both of vengeance and of want. Naval heroes were nowformed out of corsairs, and a marine collected out of piratical vessels;out of morasses arose a republic. Seven provinces threw off the yoke atthe same time, to form a new, youthful state, powerful by its waters andits union and despair. A solemn decree of the whole nation deposed thetyrant, and the Spanish name was erased from all its laws. 

For such acts no forgiveness remained; the republic became formidableonly because it was impossible for her to retrace her steps. Butfactions distracted her within; without, her terrible element, the seaitself, leaguing with her oppressors, threatened her very infancy with apremature grave. She felt herself succumb to the superior force of theenemy, and cast herself a suppliant before the most powerful thrones ofEurope, begging them to accept a dominion which she herself could nolonger protect. At last, but with difficulty--so despised at first wasthis state that even the rapacity of foreign monarchs spurned heropening bloom--a stranger deigned to accept their importunate offer of adangerous crown. New hopes began to revive her sinking courage; but inthis new father of his country destiny gave her a traitor, and in thecritical emergency, when the foe was in full force before her verygates, Charles of Anjou invaded the liberties which he had been calledto protect. In the midst of the tempest, too, the assassin's hand torethe steersman from the helm, and with William of Orange the career ofthe infant republic was seemingly at an end, and all her guardian angelsfled. But the ship continued to scud along before the storm, and theswelling canvas carried her safe without the pilot's help. 

Philip II. Missed the fruits of a deed which cost him his royal honor, and perhaps, also, his self-respect. Liberty struggled on still withdespotism in obstinate and dubious contest; sanguinary battles werefought; a brilliant array of heroes succeeded each other on the field ofglory, and Flanders and Brabant were the schools which educated generalsfor the coming century. A long, devastating war laid waste the opencountry; victor and vanquished alike waded through blood; while therising republic of the waters gave a welcome to fugitive industry, andout of the ruins of despotism erected the noble edifice of its owngreatness. For forty years lasted the war whose happy termination wasnot to bless the dying eye of Philip; which destroyed one paradise inEurope to form a new one out of its shattered fragments; which destroyedthe choicest flower of military youth, and while it enriched more than aquarter of the globe impoverished the possessor of the golden Peru. This monarch, who could expend nine hundred tons of gold withoutoppressing his subjects, and by tyrannical measures extorted far more, heaped, moreover, on his exhausted people a debt of one hundred andforty millions of ducats. An implacable hatred of liberty swallowed upall these treasures, and consumed on the fruitless task the labor of aroyal life. But the Reformation throve amidst the devastations of thesword, and over the blood of her citizens the banner of the new republicfloated victorious. 

This improbable turn of affairs seems to border on a miracle; manycircumstances, however, combined to break the power of Philip, and tofavor the progress of the infant state. Had the whole weight of hispower fallen on the United Provinces there had been no hope for theirreligion or their liberty. His own ambition, by tempting him to dividehis strength, came to the aid of their weakness. The expensive policyof maintaining traitors in every cabinet of Europe; the support of theLeague in France; the revolt of the Moors in Granada; the conquest ofPortugal, and the magnificent fabric of the Escurial, drained at lasthis apparently inexhaustible treasury, and prevented his acting in thefield with spirit and energy. The German and Italian troops, whom thehope of gain alone allured to his banner, mutinied when he could nolonger pay them, and faithlessly abandoned their leaders in the decisivemoment of action. These terrible instruments of oppression now turnedtheir dangerous power against their employer, and wreaked theirvindictive rage on the provinces which remained faithful to him. The unfortunate armament against England, on which, like a desperategamester, he had staked the whole strength of his kingdom, completed hisruin; with the armada sank the wealth of the two Indies, and the flowerof Spanish chivalry. 

But in the very same proportion that the Spanish power declined therepublic rose in fresh vigor. The ravages which the fanaticism of thenew religion, the tyranny of the Inquisition, the furious rapacity ofthe soldiery, and the miseries of a long war unbroken by any interval ofpeace, made in the provinces of Brabant, Flanders, and Hainault, at oncethe arsenals and the magazines of this expensive contest, naturallyrendered it every year more difficult to support and recruit the royalarmies. The Catholic Netherlands had already lost a million ofcitizens, and the trodden fields maintained their husbandmen no longer. Spain itself had but few more men to spare. That country, surprised bya sudden affluence which brought idleness with it, had lost much of itspopulation, and could not long support the continual drafts of men whichwere required both for the New World and the Netherlands. Of theseconscripts few ever saw their country again; and these few having leftit as youths returned to it infirm and old. Gold, which had become morecommon, made soldiers proportionately dearer; the growing charm ofeffeminacy enhanced the price of the opposite virtues. Wholly differentwas the posture of affairs with the rebels. The thousands whom thecruelty of the viceroy expelled from the southern Netherlands, theHuguenots whom the wars of persecution drove from France, as well asevery one whom constraint of conscience exiled from the other parts ofEurope, all alike flocked to unite themselves with the Belgianinsurgents. The whole Christian world was their recruiting ground. The fanaticism both of the persecutor and the persecuted worked in theirbehalf. The enthusiasm of a doctrine newly embraced, revenge, want, andhopeless misery drew to their standard adventurers from every part ofEurope. All whom the new doctrine had won, all who had suffered, or hadstill cause of fear from despotism, linked their own fortunes with thoseof the new republic. Every injury inflicted by a tyrant gave a right ofcitizenship in Holland. Men pressed towards a country where libertyraised her spirit-stirring banner, where respect and security wereinsured to a fugitive religion, and even revenge on the oppressor. Ifwe consider the conflux in the present day of people to Holland, seekingby their entrance upon her territory to be reinvested in their rights asmen, what must it have been at a time when the rest of Europe groanedunder a heavy bondage, when Amsterdam was nearly the only free port forall opinions? Many hundred families sought a refuge for their wealth ina land which the ocean and domestic concord powerfully combined toprotect. The republican army maintained its full complement without theplough being stripped of hands to work it. Amid the clash of arms tradeand industry flourished, and the peaceful citizen enjoyed inanticipation the fruits of liberty which foreign blood was to purchasefor them. At the very time when the republic of Holland was strugglingfor existence she extended her dominions beyond the ocean, and wasquietly occupied in erecting her East Indian Empire. 

Moreover, Spain maintained this expensive war with dead, unfructifyinggold, that never returned into the hand which gave it away, while itraised to her the price of every necessary. The treasuries of therepublic were industry and commerce. Time lessened the one whilst itmultiplied the other, and exactly in the same proportion that theresources of the Spanish government became exhausted by the longcontinuance of the war the republic began to reap a richer harvest. Itsfield was sown sparingly with the choice seed which bore fruit, thoughlate, yet a hundredfold; but the tree from which Philip gathered fruitwas a fallen trunk which never again became verdant. 

Philip's adverse destiny decreed that all the treasures which helavished for the oppression of the Provinces should contribute to enrichthem. The continual outlay of Spanish gold had diffused riches andluxury throughout Europe; but the increasing wants of Europe weresupplied chiefly by the Netherlanders, who were masters of the commerceof the known world, and who by their dealings fixed the price of allmerchandise. Even during the war Philip could not prohibit his ownsubjects from trading with the republic; nay, he could not even desireit. He himself furnished the rebels with the means of defraying theexpenses of their own defence; for the very war which was to ruin themincreased the sale of their goods. The enormous suns expended on hisfleets and armies flowed for the most part into the exchequer of therepublic, which was more or less connected with the commercial places ofFlanders and Brabant. Whatever Philip attempted against the rebelsoperated indirectly to their advantage. 

The sluggish progress of this war did the king as much injury as itbenefited the rebels. His army was composed for the most part of theremains of those victorious troops which had gathered their laurelsunder Charles V. Old and long services entitled them to repose; many ofthem, whom the war had enriched, impatiently longed for their homes, where they might end in ease a life of hardship. Their former zeal, their heroic spirit, and their discipline relaxed in the same proportionas they thought they had fully satisfied their honor and their duty, andas they began to reap at last the reward of so many battles. Besides, the troops which had been accustomed by their irresistible impetuosityto vanquish all opponents were necessarily wearied out by a war whichwas carried on not so much against men as against the elements; whichexercised their patience more than it gratified their love of glory; andwhere there was less of danger than of difficulty and want to contendwith. Neither personal courage nor long military experience was ofavail in a country whose peculiar features gave the most dastardly theadvantage. Lastly, a single discomfiture on foreign ground did themmore injury than any victories gained over an enemy at home could profitthem. With the rebels the case was exactly the reverse. In soprotracted a war, in which no decisive battle took place, the weakerparty must naturally learn at last the art of defence from the stronger;slight defeats accustomed him to danger; slight victories animated hisconfidence. 

At the beginning of the war the republican army scarcely dared to showitself in the field; the long continuance of the struggle practised andhardened it. As the royal armies grew wearied of victory, theconfidence of the rebels rose with their improved discipline andexperience. At last, at the end of half a century, master and pupilseparated, unsubdued, and equal in the fight. 

Again, throughout the war the rebels acted with more concord andunanimity than the royalists. Before the former had lost their firstleader the government of the Netherlands had passed through as many asfive hands. The Duchess of Parma's indecision soon imparted itself tothe cabinet of Madrid, which in a short time tried in succession almostevery system of policy. Duke Alva's inflexible sternness, the mildnessof his successor Requescens, Don John of Austria's insidious cunning, and the active and imperious mind of the Prince of Parma gave as manyopposite directions to the war, while the plan of rebellion remained thesame in a single head, who, as he saw it clearly, pursued it with vigor. The king's greatest misfortune was that right principles of actiongenerally missed the right moment of application. In the commencementof the troubles, when the advantage was as yet clearly on the king'sside, when prompt resolution and manly firmness might have crushed therebellion in the cradle, the reigns of government were allowed to hangloose in the hands of a woman. After the outbreak had come to an openrevolt, and when the strength of the factious and the power of the kingstood more equally balanced, and when a skilful flexible prudence couldalone have averted the impending civil war, the government devolved on aman who was eminently deficient in this necessary qualification. Sowatchful an observer as William the Silent failed not to improve everyadvantage which the faulty policy of his adversary presented, and withquiet silent industry he slowly but surely pushed on the greatenterprise to its accomplishment. 

But why did not Philip II. Himself appear in the Netherlands? Why didhe prefer to employ every other means, however improbable, rather thanmake trial of the only remedy which could insure success? To curb theovergrown power and insolence of the nobility there was no expedientmore natural than the presence of their master. Before royalty itselfall secondary dignities must necessarily have sunk in the shade, allother splendor be dimmed. Instead of the truth being left to flowslowly and obscurely through impure channels to the distant throne, sothat procrastinated measures of redress gave time to ripen ebullitionsof the moment into acts of deliberation, his own penetrating glancewould at once have been able to separate truth from error; and coldpolicy alone, not to speak of his humanity, would have saved the land amillion citizens. The nearer to their source the more weighty would hisedicts have been; the thicker they fell on their objects the weaker andthe more dispirited would have become the efforts of the rebels. Itcosts infinitely more to do an evil to an enemy in his presence than inhis absence. At first the rebellion appeared to tremble at its ownname, and long sheltered itself under the ingenious pretext of defendingthe cause of its sovereign against the arbitrary assumptions of his ownviceroy. Philip's appearance in Brussels would have put an end at onceto this juggling. In that case, the rebels would have been compelled toact up to their pretence, or to cast aside the mask, and so, byappearing in their true shape, condemn themselves. And what a relieffor the Netherlands if the king's presence had only spared them thoseevils which were inflicted upon them without his knowledge, and contraryto his will. [1] What gain, too, even if it had only enabled him towatch over the expenditure of the vast sums which, illegally raised onthe plea of meeting the exigencies of the war, disappeared in theplundering hands of his deputies. 

What the latter were compelled to extort by the unnatural expedient ofterror, the nation would have been disposed to grant to the sovereignmajesty. That which made his ministers detested would have rendered themonarch feared; for the abuse of hereditary power is less painfullyoppressive than the abuse of delegated authority. His presence wouldhave saved his exchequer thousands had he been nothing more than aneconomical despot; and even had he been less, the awe of his personwould have preserved a territory which was lost through hatred andcontempt for his instruments. 

In the same manner, as the oppression of the people of the Netherlandsexcited the sympathy of all who valued their own rights, it might havebeen expected that their disobedience and defection would have been acall to all princes to maintain their own prerogatives in the case oftheir neighbors. But jealousy of Spain got the better of politicalsympathies, and the first powers of Europe arranged themselves more orless openly on the side of freedom. 

Although bound to the house of Spain by the ties of relationship, theEmperor Maximilian II. Gave it just cause for its charge against himof secretly favoring the rebels. By the offer of his mediation heimplicitly acknowledged the partial justice of their complaints, andthereby encouraged them to a resolute perseverance in their demands. Under an emperor sincerely devoted to the interests of the Spanishhouse, William of Orange could scarcely have drawn so many troops and somuch money from Germany. France, without openly and formally breakingthe peace, placed a prince of the blood at the head of the Netherlandishrebels; and it was with French gold and French troops that theoperations of the latter were chiefly conducted. [2] Elizabeth ofEngland, too, did but exercise a just retaliation and revenge inprotecting the rebels against their legitimate sovereign; and althoughher meagre and sparing aid availed no farther than to ward off utterruin from the republic, still even this was infinitely valuable at amoment when nothing but hope could have supported their exhaustedcourage. With both these powers Philip at the time was at peace, butboth betrayed him. Between the weak and the strong honesty often ceasesto appear a virtue; the delicate ties which bind equals are seldomobserved towards him whom all men fear. Philip had banished truth frompolitical intercourse; he himself had dissolved all morality betweenkings, and had made artifice the divinity of cabinets. Without onceenjoying the advantages of his preponderating greatness, he had, throughout life, to contend with the jealousy which it awakened inothers. Europe made him atone for the possible abuses of a power ofwhich in fact he never had the full possession. 

If against the disparity between the two combatants, which, at firstsight, is so astounding, we weigh all the incidental circumstances whichwere adverse to Spain, but favorable to the Netherlands, that which issupernatural in this event will disappear, while that which isextraordinary will still remain--and a just standard will be furnishedby which to estimate the real merit of these republicans in working outtheir freedom. It must not, however, be thought that so accurate acalculation of the opposing forces could have preceded the undertakingitself, or that, on entering this unknown sea, they already knew theshore on which they would ultimately be landed. The work did notpresent itself to the mind of its originator in the exact form which itassumed when completed, any more than the mind of Luther foresaw theeternal separation of creeds when he began to oppose the sale ofindulgences. What a difference between the modest procession of thosesuitors in Brussels, who prayed for a more humane treatment as a favor, and the dreaded majesty of a free state, which treated with kings asequals, and in less than a century disposed of the throne of its formertyrant. The unseen hand of fate gave to the discharged arrow a higherflight, and quite a different direction from that which it firstreceived from the bowstring. In the womb of happy Brabant that libertyhad its birth which, torn from its mother in its earliest infancy, wasto gladden the so despised Holland. But the enterprise must not be lessthought of because its issue differed from the first design. Man worksup, smooths, and fashions the rough stone which the times bring to him;the moment and the instant may belong to him, but accident develops thehistory of the world. If the passions which co-operated actively inbringing about this event were only not unworthy of the great work towhich they were unconsciously subservient--if only the powers whichaided in its accomplishment were intrinsically noble, if only the singleactions out of whose great concatenation it wonderfully arose werebeautiful then is the event grand, interesting, and fruitful for us, andwe are at liberty to wonder at the bold offspring of chance, or ratheroffer up our admiration to a higher intelligence. 

The history of the world, like the laws of nature, is consistent withitself, and simple as the soul of man. Like conditions produce likephenomena. On the same soil where now the Netherlanders were to resisttheir Spanish tyrants, their forefathers, the Batavi and Belgee, fifteencenturies before, combated against their Roman oppressors. Like theformer, submitting reluctantly to a haughty master, and misgoverned byrapacious satraps, they broke off their chain with like resolution, andtried their fortune in a similar unequal combat. The same pride ofconquest, the same national grandeur, marked the Spaniard of thesixteenth century and the Roman of the first; the same valor anddiscipline distinguished the armies of both, their battle array inspiredthe same terror. There as here we see stratagem in combat with superiorforce, and firmness, strengthened by unanimity, wearying out a mightypower weakened by division; then as now private hatred armed a wholenation; a single man, born for his times, revealed to his fellow-slavesthe dangerous Secret of their power, and brought their mute grief to abloody announcement. "Confess, Batavians, " cries Claudius Civilis tohis countrymen in the sacred grove, "we are no longer treated, asformerly, by these Romans as allies, but rather as slaves. We arehanded over to their prefects and centurions, who, when satiated withour plunder and with our blood, make way for others, who, underdifferent names, renew the same outrages. If even at last Rome deignsto send us a legate, he oppresses us with an ostentatious and costlyretinue, and with still more intolerable pride. The levies are again athand which tear forever children from their parents, brothers frombrothers. Now, Batavians, is our time. Never did Rome lie so prostrateas now. Let not their names of legions terrify you. There is nothingin their camps but old men and plunder. Our infantry and horsemen arestrong; Germany is allied to us by blood, and Gaul is ready to throw offits yoke. Let Syria serve them, and Asia and the East, who are used tobow before kings; many still live who were born among us before tributewas paid to the Romans. The gods are ever with the brave. " Solemnreligious rites hallowed this conspiracy, like the League of the Gueux;like that, it craftily wrapped itself in the veil of submissiveness, inthe majesty of a great name. The cohorts of Civilis swear allegiance onthe Rhine to Vespasian in Syria, as the League did to Philip II. Thesame arena furnished the same plan of defence, the same refuge todespair. Both confided their wavering fortunes to a friendly element;in the same distress Civilis preserves his island, as fifteen centuriesafter him William of Orange did the town of Leyden--through anartificial inundation. The valor of the Batavi disclosed the impotencyof the world's ruler, as the noble courage of their descendants revealedto the whole of Europe the decay of Spanish greatness. The samefecundity of genius in the generals of both times gave to the war asimilarly obstinate continuance, and nearly as doubtful an issue; onedifference, nevertheless, distinguishes them: the Romans and Bataviansfought humanely, for they did not fight for religion. 

[1] More modern historians, with access to the records of the SpanishInquisition and the private communications between Phillip II. And hisvarious appointees to power in the Netherlands, rebut Shiller's kind butnaive thought. To the contrary, Phillip II. Was most critical of hisenvoys lack of severity. See in particular the "Rise of the DutchRepublic" and the other works of John Motley on the history of the