[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of thefile for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making anentire meal of them. D. W. ]

MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, PG EDITION, VOLUME 4. 

THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC

JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, D. C. L. , LL. D. 

1855

PHILIP THE SECOND IN THE NETHERLANDS

1555-1558 [CHAPTER II. ]

 Sketch of Philip the Second--Characteristics of Mary Tudor--Portrait of Philip--His council--Rivalry of Rup Gomez and Alva--Character of Rup Gomez--Queen Mary of Hungary--Sketch of Philibert of Savoy-- Truce of Vaucelles--Secret treaty between the Pope and Henry II. -- Rejoicings in the Netherlands on account of the Peace--Purposes of Philip--Re-enactment of the edict of 1b60--The King's dissimulation --"Request" to the provinces--Infraction of the truce in Italy-- Character of Pope Paul IV. --Intrigues of Cardinal Caraffa--War against Spain resolved upon by France--Campaign in Italy--Amicable siege of Rome--Pence with the pontiff--Hostilities on the Flemish border--Coligny foiled at Douay--Sacks Lens--Philip in England-- Queen Mary engages in the war--Philip's army assembled at Givet-- Portrait of Count Egmont--The French army under Coligny and Montmorency--Siege of St. Quentin--Attempts of the constable to relieve the city--Battle of St. Quentin--Hesitation and timidity of Philip--City of St. Quentin taken and sacked--Continued indecision of Philip--His army disbanded--Campaign of the Duke of Guise-- Capture of Calais--Interview between Cardinal de Lorraine and the Bishop of Arran--Secret combinations for a league between France and Spain against heresy--Languid movements of Guise--Foray of De Thermes on the Flemish frontier--Battle of Gravelines--Popularity of Egmont--Enmity of Alva. 

Philip the Second had received the investiture of Milan and the crown ofNaples, previously to his marriage with Mary Tudor. The imperial crownhe had been obliged, much against his will, to forego. The archduchy ofAustria, with the hereditary German dependencies of his father's family, had been transferred by the Emperor to his brother Ferdinand, on theoccasion of the marriage of that prince with Anna, only sister of KingLouis of Hungary. Ten years afterwards, Ferdinand (King of Hungary andBohemia since the death of Louis, slain in 1526 at the battle of Mohacz)was elected King of the Romans, and steadily refused all the entreatiesafterwards made to him in behalf of Philip, to resign his crown and hissuccession to the Empire, in favor of his nephew. With thesediminutions, Philip had now received all the dominions of his father. He was King of all the Spanish kingdoms and of both the Sicilies. He wastitular King of England, France, and Jerusalem. He was "AbsoluteDominator" in Asia, Africa, and America; he was Duke of Milan and of bothBurgundies, and Hereditary Sovereign of the seventeen Netherlands. 

Thus the provinces had received a new master. A man of foreign birth andbreeding, not speaking a word of their language, nor of any languagewhich the mass of the inhabitants understood, was now placed in supremeauthority over them, because he represented, through the females, the"good" Philip of Burgundy, who a century before had possessed himself byinheritance, purchase, force, or fraud, of the sovereignty in most ofthose provinces. It is necessary to say an introductory word or twoconcerning the previous history of the man to whose hands the destiny ofso many millions was now entrusted. 

He was born in May, 1527, and was now therefore twenty-eight years ofage. At the age of sixteen he had been united to his cousin, Maria ofPortugal, daughter of John III. And of the Emperor's sister, DonnaCatalina. In the following year (1544) he became father of thecelebrated and ill-starred Don Carlos, and a widower. The princess owedher death, it was said, to her own imprudence and to the negligence orbigotry of her attendants. The Duchess of Alva, and other ladies who hadcharge of her during her confinement, deserted her chamber in order toobtain absolution by witnessing an auto-da-fe of heretics. During theirabsence, the princess partook voraciously of a melon, and forfeited herlife in consequence. 

In 1548, Don Philip had made his first appearance in the Netherlands. Hecame thither to receive homage in the various provinces as their futuresovereign, and to exchange oaths of mutual fidelity with them all. Andrew Doria, with a fleet of fifty ships, had brought him to Genoa, whence he had passed to Milan, where he was received with greatrejoicing. At Trent he was met by Duke Maurice of Saxony, who warmlybegged his intercession with the Emperor in behalf of the imprisonedLandgrave of Hesse. This boon Philip was graciously pleased to promise, --and to keep the pledge as sacredly as most of the vows plighted by himduring this memorable year. The Duke of Aerschot met him in Germany witha regiment of cavalry and escorted him to Brussels. A summer was spentin great festivities, the cities of the Nether lands vieing with eachother in magnificent celebrations of the ceremonies, by which Philipsuccessively swore allegiance to the various constitutions and chartersof the provinces, and received their oaths of future fealty in return. His oath to support all the constitutions and privileges was withoutreservation, while his father and grandfather had only sworn to maintainthe charters granted or confirmed by Philip and Charles of Burgundy. Suspicion was disarmed by these indiscriminate concessions, which hadbeen resolved upon by the unscrupulous Charles to conciliate the goodwill of the people. In view of the pretensions which might be preferredby the Brederode family in Holland, and by other descendants of ancientsovereign races in other provinces, the Emperor, wishing to ensure thesuccession to his sisters in case of the deaths of himself, Philip, andDon Carlos without issue, was unsparing in those promises which he knewto be binding only upon the weak. Although the house of Burgundy hadusurped many of the provinces on the express pretext that females couldnot inherit, the rule had been already violated, and he determined tospare no pains to conciliate the estates, in order that they might becontent with a new violation, should the contingency occur. Philip'soaths were therefore without reserve, and the light-hearted Flemings, Brabantines, and Walloons received him with open arms. In Valenciennesthe festivities which attended his entrance were on a most gorgeousscale, but the "joyous entrance" arranged for him at Antwerp was ofunparalleled magnificence. A cavalcade of the magistrates and notableburghers, "all attired in cramoisy velvet, " attended by lackies insplendid liveries and followed by four thousand citizen soldiers in fulluniform, went forth from the gates to receive him. Twenty-eighttriumphal arches, which alone, according to the thrifty chronicler, hadcost 26, 800 Carolus guldens, were erected in the different streets andsquares, and every possible demonstration of affectionate welcome waslavished upon the Prince and the Emperor. The rich and prosperous city, unconscious of the doom which awaited it in the future, seemed to havecovered itself with garlands to honor the approach of its master. Yeticy was the deportment with which Philip received these demonstrations ofaffection, and haughty the glance with which he looked down upon theseexhibitions of civic hilarity, as from the height of a grim andinaccessible tower. The impression made upon the Netherlanders was anything but favorable, and when he had fully experienced the futility ofthe projects on the Empire which it was so difficult both for his fatherand himself to resign, he returned to the more congenial soil of Spain. In 1554 he had again issued from the peninsula to marry the Queen ofEngland, a privilege which his father had graciously resigned to him. He was united to Mary Tudor at Winchester, on the 25th July of that year, and if congeniality of tastes could have made a marriage happy, thatunion should have been thrice blessed. To maintain the supremacy ofthe Church seemed to both the main object of existence, to executeunbelievers the most sacred duty imposed by the Deity upon anointedprinces, to convert their kingdoms into a hell the surest means ofwinning Heaven for themselves. It was not strange that the conjunctionof two such wonders of superstition in one sphere should have seemedportentous in the eyes of the English nation. Philip's mock efforts infavor of certain condemned reformers, and his pretended intercessions infavor of the Princess Elizabeth, failed entirely of their object. Theparliament refused to confer upon him more than a nominal authority inEngland. His children, should they be born, might be sovereigns; he wasbut husband of the Queen; of a woman who could not atone by her abjectbut peevish fondness for himself, and by her congenial blood-thirstinesstowards her subjects, for her eleven years seniority, her deficiency inattractions, and her incapacity to make him the father of a line ofEnglish monarchs. It almost excites compassion even for Mary Tudor, whenher passionate efforts to inspire him with affection are contrasted withhis impassiveness. Tyrant, bigot, murderess though she was, she wasstill woman, and she lavished upon her husband all that was not ferociousin her nature. Forbidding prayers to be said for the soul of her father, hating her sister and her people, burning bishops, bathing herself inthe blood of heretics, to Philip she was all submissiveness and femininedevotion. It was a most singular contrast, Mary, the Queen of Englandand Mary the wife of Philip. Small, lean and sickly, painfully near-sighted, yet with an eye of fierceness and fire; her face wrinkled by thehands of care and evil passions still more than by Time, with a big man'svoice, whose harshness made those in the next room tremble; yet femininein her tastes, skilful with her needle, fond of embroidery work, strikingthe lute with a touch remarkable for its science and feeling, speakingmany languages, including Latin, with fluency and grace; most feminine, too, in her constitutional sufferings, hysterical of habit, sheddingfloods of tears daily at Philip's coldness, undisguised infidelity, andfrequent absences from England--she almost awakens compassion and causesa momentary oblivion of her identity. 

Her subjects, already half maddened by religious persecution, wereexasperated still further by the pecuniary burthens which she imposedupon them to supply the King's exigencies, and she unhesitatinglyconfronted their frenzy, in the hope of winning a smile from him. Whenat last her chronic maladies had assumed the memorable form which causedPhilip and Mary to unite in a letter to Cardinal Pole, announcing not theexpected but the actual birth of a prince, but judiciously leaving thedate in blank, the momentary satisfaction and delusion of the Queen wasunbounded. The false intelligence was transmitted every where. Greatwere the joy and the festivities in the Netherlands, where people were soeasily made to rejoice and keep holiday for any thing. "The Regent, being in Antwerp, " wrote Sir Thomas Gresham to the lords of council, "did cause the great bell to rings to give all men to understand that thenews was trewe. The Queene's highness here merchants caused all ourInglishe ships to shoote off with such joy and triumph, as by men's artsand pollicey coulde be devised--and the Regent sent our Inglishe maronersone hundred crownes to drynke. " If bell-ringing and cannon-firing couldhave given England a Spanish sovereign, the devoutly-wished consummationwould have been reached. When the futility of the royal hopes could nolonger be concealed, Philip left the country, never to return till hiswar with France made him require troops, subsidies, and a declaration ofhostilities from England. 

The personal appearance of the new sovereign has already been described. His manner was far from conciliatory, and in this respect he was theabsolute reverse of his father. Upon his first journey out of Spain, in1548, into his various dominions, he had made a most painful impressionevery where. "He was disagreeable, " says Envoy Suriano, "to theItalians, detestable to the Flemings, odious to the Germans. "

The remonstrances of the Emperor, and of Queen Mary of Hungary, at theimpropriety of his manners, had produced, however, some effect, so thaton his wedding journey to England, he manifested much "gentleness andhumanity, mingled with royal gravity. " Upon this occasion, says anotherVenetian, accredited to him, "he had divested himself of that Spanishhaughtiness, which, when he first came from Spain, had rendered him soodious. The famous ambassador, Badovaro confirms the impression. "Uponhis first journey, " he says, "he was esteemed proud, and too greedy forthe imperial succession; but now 'tis the common opinion that hishumanity and modesty are all which could be desired. These humanequalities, however, it must be observed, were exhibited only in thepresence of ambassadors and grandees, the only representatives of"humanity" with whom he came publicly and avowedly in contact. 

He was thought deficient in manly energy. He was an infirmvaletudinarian, and was considered as sluggish in character, as deficientin martial enterprise, as timid of temperament as he was fragile andsickly of frame. It is true, that on account of the disappointment whichhe occasioned by his contrast to his warlike father, he mingled in sometournaments in Brussels, where he was matched against Count Mansfeld, oneof the most distinguished chieftains of the age, and where, says hisprofessed panegyrist, "he broke his lances very mach to the satisfactionof his father and aunts. "

That learned and eloquent author, Estelle Calvete, even filled thegreater part of a volume, in which he described the journey of thePrince, with a minute description of these feasts and jousts, but we mayreasonably conclude that to the loyal imagination of his eulogist Philipis indebted for most of these knightly trophies. It was the universalopinion of unprejudiced cotemporaries, that he was without a spark ofenterprise. He was even censured for a culpable want of ambition, andfor being inferior to his father in this respect, as if the love ofencroaching on his neighbor's dominions, and a disposition to foreign. Commotions and war would have constituted additional virtues, had hehappened to possess them. Those who were most disposed to thinkfavorably of him, remembered that there was a time when even Charles theFifth was thought weak and indolent, and were willing to ascribe Philip'spacific disposition to his habitual cholic and side-ache, and to hisfather's inordinate care for him in youth. They even looked forward tothe time when he should blaze forth to the world as a conqueror and ahero. These, however, were views entertained by but few; the general andthe correct opinion, as it proved, being, that Philip hated war, wouldnever certainly acquire any personal distinction in the field, and whenengaged in hostilities would be apt to gather his laurels at the hands ofhis generals, rather than with his own sword. He was believed to be thereverse of the Emperor. Charles sought great enterprises, Philip wouldavoid them. The Emperor never recoiled before threats; the son wasreserved, cautious, suspicious of all men, and capable of sacrificing arealm from hesitation and timidity. The father had a genius for action, the son a predilection for repose. Charles took "all men's opinions, butreserved his judgment, " and acted on it, when matured, with irresistibleenergy; Philip was led by others, was vacillating in forming decisions, and irresolute in executing them when formed. 

Philip, then, was not considered, in that warlike age, as likely to shineas a warrior. His mental capacity, in general, was likewise not veryhighly esteemed. His talents were, in truth, very much below mediocrity. His mind was incredibly small. A petty passion for contemptible detailscharacterized him from his youth, and, as long as he lived, he couldneither learn to generalize, nor understand that one man, howeverdiligent, could not be minutely acquainted with all the public andprivate affairs of fifty millions of other men. He was a glutton ofwork. He was born to write despatches, and to scrawl comments upon thosewhich he received. 

 [The character of these apostilles, always confused, wordy and awkward, was sometimes very ludicrous; nor did it improve after his thirty or forty years' daily practice in making them. Thus, when he received a letter from France in 1589, narrating the assassination of Henry III. , and stating that "the manner in which he had been killed was that a Jacobin monk had given him a pistol-shot in the head" (la facon qua l'on dit qu'il a ette tue, sa ette par un Jacobin qui luy a donna d'un cou de pistolle dans la tayte), he scrawled the following luminous comment upon the margin. Underlining the word "pistolle, " he observed, "this is perhaps some kind of knife; and as for 'tayte, ' it can be nothing else but head, which is not tayte, but tete, or teyte, as you very well know" (quiza de alguna manera de cuchillo, etc. , etc. )--Gachard. Rapport a M. Le Minist. De l'Interieur, prefixed to corresp. Philippe II. Vol. I. Xlix. Note 1. It is obvious that a person who made such wonderful commentaries as this, and was hard at work eight or nine hours a day for forty years, would leave a prodigious quantity of unpublished matter at his death. ]

He often remained at the council-board four or five hours at a time, andhe lived in his cabinet. He gave audiences to ambassadors and deputiesvery willingly, listening attentively to all that was said to him, andanswering in monosyllables. He spoke no tongue but Spanish; and wassufficiently sparing of that, but he was indefatigable with his pen. He hated to converse, but he could write a letter eighteen pages long, when his correspondent was in the next room, and when the subject was, perhaps, one which a man of talent could have settled with six words ofhis tongue. The world, in his opinion, was to move upon protocols andapostilles. Events had no right to be born throughout his dominions, without a preparatory course of his obstetrical pedantry. He could neverlearn that the earth would not rest on its axis, while he wrote aprogramme of the way it was to turn. He was slow in deciding, slowerin communicating his decisions. He was prolix with his pen, not fromaffluence, but from paucity of ideas. He took refuge in a cloud ofwords, sometimes to conceal his meaning, oftener to conceal the absenceof any meaning, thus mystifying not only others but himself. To onegreat purpose, formed early, he adhered inflexibly. This, however, wasrather an instinct than an opinion; born with him, not created by him. The idea seemed to express itself through him, and to master him, ratherthan to form one of a stock of sentiments which a free agent might beexpected to possess. Although at certain times, even this master-feelingcould yield to the pressure of a predominant self-interest-thus showingthat even in Philip bigotry was not absolute--yet he appeared on thewhole the embodiment of Spanish chivalry and Spanish religiousenthusiasm, in its late and corrupted form. He was entirely a Spaniard. The Burgundian and Austrian elements of his blood seemed to haveevaporated, and his veins were filled alone with the ancient ardor, which in heroic centuries had animated the Gothic champions of Spain. The fierce enthusiasm for the Cross, which in the long internal warfareagainst the Crescent, had been the romantic and distinguishing feature ofthe national character, had degenerated into bigotry. That which hadbeen a nation's glory now made the monarch's shame. The Christianheretic was to be regarded with a more intense hatred than even Moor orJew had excited in the most Christian ages, and Philip was to be thelatest and most perfect incarnation of all this traditional enthusiasm, this perpetual hate. Thus he was likely to be single-hearted in hislife. It was believed that his ambition would be less to extend hisdominions than to vindicate his title of the most Catholic king. Therecould be little doubt entertained that he would be, at least, dutiful tohis father in this respect, and that the edicts would be enforced to theletter. 

He was by birth, education, and character, a Spaniard, and that soexclusively, that the circumstance would alone have made him unfit togovern a country so totally different in habits and national sentimentsfrom his native land. He was more a foreigner in Brussels, even, thanin England. The gay, babbling, energetic, noisy life of Flanders andBrabant was detestable to him. The loquacity of the Netherlanders was acontinual reproach upon his taciturnity. His education had imbued him, too, with the antiquated international hatred of Spaniard and Fleming, which had been strengthening in the metropolis, while the more rapidcurrent of life had rather tended to obliterate the sentiment in theprovinces. 

The flippancy and profligacy of Philip the Handsome, the extortion andinsolence of his Flemish courtiers, had not been forgotten in Spain, nor had Philip the Second forgiven his grandfather for having been aforeigner. And now his mad old grandmother, Joanna, who had for yearsbeen chasing cats in the lonely tower where she had been so longimprisoned, had just died; and her funeral, celebrated with great pomp byboth her sons, by Charles at Brussels and Ferdinand at Augsburg, seemedto revive a history which had begun to fade, and to recall the image ofCastilian sovereignty which had been so long obscured in the blaze ofimperial grandeur. 

His education had been but meagre. In an age when all kings and noblemenpossessed many languages, he spoke not a word of any tongue but Spanish, --although he had a slender knowledge of French and Italian, which heafterwards learned to read with comparative facility. He had studied alittle history and geography, and he had a taste for sculpture, painting, and architecture. Certainly if he had not possessed a feeling for art, he would have been a monster. To have been born in the earlier part ofthe sixteenth century, to have been a king, to have had Spain, Italy, andthe Netherlands as a birthright, and not to have been inspired with aspark of that fire which glowed so intensely in those favored lands andin that golden age, had indeed been difficult. 

The King's personal habits were regular. His delicate health made itnecessary for him to attend to his diet, although he was apt to exceedin sweetmeats and pastry. He slept much, and took little exercisehabitually, but he had recently been urged by the physicians to try theeffect of the chase as a corrective to his sedentary habits. He was moststrict in religious observances, as regular at mass, sermons, and vespersas a monk; much more, it was thought by many good Catholics, than wasbecoming to his rank and age. Besides several friars who preachedregularly for his instruction, he had daily discussions with others onabstruse theological points. He consulted his confessor most minutely asto all the actions of life, inquiring anxiously whether this proceedingor that were likely to burthen his conscience. He was grosslylicentious. It was his chief amusement to issue forth at nightdisguised, that he might indulge in vulgar and miscellaneous incontinencein the common haunts of vice. This was his solace at Brussels in themidst of the gravest affairs of state. He was not illiberal, but, on thecontrary, it was thought that he would have been even generous, had henot been straitened for money at the outset of his career. During a coldwinter, he distributed alms to the poor of Brussels with an open hand. He was fond of jests in private, and would laugh immoderately, when witha few intimate associates, at buffooneries, which he checked in public bythe icy gravity of his deportment. He dressed usually in the Spanishfashion, with close doublet, trunk hose, and short cloak, although attimes he indulged in the more airy fashions of France and Burgundy, wearing buttons on his coats and feathers in his hat. He was not thoughtat that time to be cruel by nature, but was usually spoken of, in theconventional language appropriated to monarchs, as a prince "clement, benign, and debonnaire. " Time was to show the justice of his claims tosuch honorable epithets. 

The court was organized during his residence at Brussels on theBurgundian, not the Spanish model, but of the one hundred and fiftypersons who composed it, nine tenths of the whole were Spaniards; theother fifteen or sixteen being of various nations, Flemings, Burgundians, Italians, English, and Germans. Thus it is obvious how soon hedisregarded his father's precept and practice in this respect, and beganto lay the foundation of that renewed hatred to Spaniards which was soonto become so intense, exuberant, and fatal throughout every class ofNetherlanders. He esteemed no nation but the Spanish, with Spaniards heconsorted, with Spaniards he counselled, through Spaniards he governed. 

His council consisted of five or six Spanish grandees, the famous RuyGomez, then Count of Melito, afterwards Prince of Eboli; the Duke ofAlva, the Count de Feria, the Duke of Franca Villa, Don Antonio Toledo, and Don Juan Manrique de Lara. The "two columns, " said Suriano, "whichsustain this great machine, are Ruy Gomez and Alva, and from theircouncils depends the government of half the world. " The two were everbitterly opposed to each other. Incessant were their bickerings, intensetheir mutual hate, desperate and difficult the situation of any man, whether foreigner or native, who had to transact business with thegovernment. If he had secured the favor of Gomez, he had already earnedthe enmity of Alva. Was he protected by the Duke, he was sure to be castinto outer darkness by the favorite. --Alva represented the war party, Ruy Gomez the pacific polity more congenial to the heart of Philip. The Bishop of Arras, who in the opinion of the envoys was worth them allfor his capacity and his experience, was then entirely in the background, rarely entering the council except when summoned to give advice inaffairs of extraordinary delicacy or gravity. He was, however, toreappear most signally in course of the events already preparing. TheDuke of Alva, also to play so tremendous a part in the yet unborn historyof the Netherlands, was not beloved by Philip. He was eclipsed at thisperiod by the superior influence of the favorite, and his sword, moreover, became necessary in the Italian campaign which was impending. It is remarkable that it was a common opinion even at that day that theduke was naturally hesitating and timid. One would have thought that hisprevious victories might have earned for him the reputation for courageand skill which he most unquestionably deserved. The future was todevelop those other characteristics which were to make his name theterror and wonder of the world. 

The favorite, Ruy Gomez da Silva, Count de Melito, was the man upon whoseshoulders the great burthen of the state reposed. He was of a familywhich was originally Portuguese. He had been brought up with the King, although some eight years his senior, and their friendship dated fromearliest youth. It was said that Ruy Gomez, when a boy, had beencondemned to death for having struck Philip, who had come between him andanother page with whom he was quarrelling. The Prince threw himselfpassionately at his father's feet, and implored forgiveness in behalf ofthe culprit with such energy that the Emperor was graciously pleased tospare the life of the future prime minister. The incident was said tohave laid the foundation of the remarkable affection which was supposedto exist between the two, to an extent never witnessed before betweenking and subject. Ruy Gomez was famous for his tact and complacency, andomitted no opportunity of cementing the friendship thus auspiciouslycommenced. He was said to have particularly charmed his master, upon oneoccasion, by hypocritically throwing up his cards at a game of hazardplayed for a large stake, and permitting him to win the game with a farinferior hand. The King learning afterwards the true state of the case, was charmed by the grace and self-denial manifested by the youngnobleman. The complacency which the favorite subsequently exhibited inregard to the connexion which existed so long and so publicly between hiswife, the celebrated Princess Eboli, and Philip, placed his power upon animpregnable basis, and secured it till his death. 

At the present moment he occupied the three posts of valet, statecouncillor, and finance minister. He dressed and undressed his master, read or talked him to sleep, called him in the morning, admitted thosewho were to have private audiences, and superintended all thearrangements of the household. The rest of the day was devoted to theenormous correspondence and affairs of administration which devolved uponhim as first minister of state and treasury. He was very ignorant. Hehad no experience or acquirement in the arts either of war or peace, andhis early education had been limited. Like his master, he spoke notongue but Spanish, and he had no literature. He had prepossessingmanners, a fluent tongue, a winning and benevolent disposition. Hisnatural capacity for affairs was considerable, and his tact was soperfect that he could converse face to face with statesmen; doctors, andgenerals upon campaigns, theology, or jurisprudence, without betrayingany remarkable deficiency. He was very industrious, endeavoring to makeup by hard study for his lack of general knowledge, and to sustain withcredit the burthen of his daily functions. At the same time, by theKing's desire, he appeared constantly at the frequent banquets, masquerades, tourneys and festivities, for which Brussels at that epochwas remarkable. It was no wonder that his cheek was pale, and that heseemed dying of overwork. He discharged his duties cheerfully, however, for in the service of Philip he knew no rest. "After God, " saidBadovaro, "he knows no object save the felicity of his master. " He wasalready, as a matter of course, very rich, having been endowed by Philipwith property to the amount of twenty-six thousand dollars yearly, [atvalues of 1855] and the tide of his fortunes was still at the flood. 

Such were the two men, the master and the favorite, to whose hands thedestinies of the Netherlands were now entrusted. 

The Queen of Hungary had resigned the office of Regent of theNetherlands, as has been seen, on the occasion of the Emperor'sabdication. She was a woman of masculine character, a great huntressbefore the Lord, a celebrated horsewoman, a worthy descendant of the LadyMary of Burgundy. Notwithstanding all the fine phrases exchanged betweenherself and the eloquent Maas, at the great ceremony of the 25th ofOctober, she was, in reality, much detested in the provinces, and sherepaid their aversion with abhorrence. "I could not live among thesepeople, " she wrote to the Emperor, but a few weeks before the abdication, "even as a private person, for it would be impossible for me to do myduty towards God and my prince. As to governing them, I take God towitness that the task is so abhorrent to me, that I would rather earn mydaily bread by labor than attempt it. " She added, that a woman of fiftyyears of age, who had served during twenty-five of them, had a right torepose, and that she was moreover "too old to recommence and learn her A, B, C. " The Emperor, who had always respected her for the fidelity withwhich she had carried out his designs, knew that it was hopeless tooppose her retreat. As for Philip, he hated his aunt, and she hated him--although, both at the epoch of the abdication and subsequently, he wasdesirous that she should administer the government. 

The new Regent was to be the Duke of Savoy. This wandering andadventurous potentate had attached himself to Philip's fortunes, and hadbeen received by the King with as much favor as he had ever enjoyed atthe hands of the Emperor. Emanuel Philibert of Savoy, then about twenty-six or seven years of age, was the son of the late unfortunate duke, byDonna Beatrice of Portugal, sister of the Empress. He was the nephew ofCharles, and first cousin to Philip. The partiality of the Emperor forhis mother was well known, but the fidelity with which the family hadfollowed the imperial cause had been productive of nothing but disasterto the duke. He had been ruined in fortune, stripped of all hisdignities and possessions. His son's only inheritance was his sword. The young Prince of Piedmont, as he was commonly called in his youth;sought the camp of the Emperor, and was received with distinguishedfavor. He rose rapidly in the military service. Acting always upon hisfavorite motto, "Spoliatis arma supersunt, " he had determined, ifpossible, to carve his way to glory, to wealth, and even to hishereditary estates, by his sword alone. War was not only his passion, but his trade. Every one of his campaigns was a speculation, and he hadlong derived a satisfactory income by purchasing distinguished prisonersof war at a low price from the soldiers who had captured them, and wereignorant of their rank, and by ransoming them afterwards at an immenseadvance. This sort of traffic in men was frequent in that age, and wasconsidered perfectly honorable. Marshal Strozzi, Count Mansfeld, andother professional soldiers, derived their main income from the system. They were naturally inclined, therefore, to look impatiently upon a stateof peace as an unnatural condition of affairs which cut off all theprofits of their particular branch of industry, and condemned them bothto idleness and poverty. The Duke of Savoy had become one of the mostexperienced and successful commanders of the age, and an especialfavorite with the Emperor. He had served with Alva in the campaignsagainst the Protestants of Germany, and in other important fields. Warbeing his element, he considered peace as undesirable, although he couldrecognize its existence. A truce he held, however, to be a senselessparodox, unworthy of the slightest regard. An armistice, such as wasconcluded on the February following the abdication, was, in his opinion, only to be turned to account by dealing insidious and unsuspected blowsat the enemy, some portion of whose population might repose confidence inthe plighted faith of monarchs and plenipotentiaries. He had a show ofreason for his political and military morality, for he only chose toexecute the evil which had been practised upon himself. His father hadbeen beggared, his mother had died of spite and despair, he had himselfbeen reduced from the rank of a sovereign to that of a mercenary soldier, by spoliations made in time of truce. He was reputed a man of verydecided abilities, and was distinguished for headlong bravery. Hisrashness and personal daring were thought the only drawbacks to his highcharacter as a commander. He had many accomplishments. He spoke Latin, French, Spanish, and Italian with equal fluency, was celebrated for hisattachment to the fine arts, and wrote much and with great elegance. Such had been Philibert of Savoy, the pauper nephew of the powerfulEmperor, the adventurous and vagrant cousin of the lofty Philip, a princewithout a people, a duke without a dukedom; with no hope but in warfare, with no revenue but rapine; the image, in person, of a bold and manlysoldier, small, but graceful and athletic, martial in bearing, "wearinghis sword under his arm like a corporal, " because an internal malady madea belt inconvenient, and ready to turn to swift account every chancewhich a new series of campaigns might open to him. With his new salaryas governor, his pensions, and the remains of his possessions in Nice andPiedmont, he had now the splendid annual income of one hundred thousandcrowns, and was sure to spend it all. 

It had been the desire of Charles to smooth the commencement of Philip'spath. He had for this purpose made a vigorous effort to undo, as itwere, the whole work of his reign, to suspend the operation of his wholepolitical system. The Emperor and conqueror, who had been warring allhis lifetime, had attempted, as the last act of his reign, to improvisea peace. But it was not so easy to arrange a pacification of Europe asdramatically as he desired, in order that he might gather his robes abouthim, and allow the curtain to fall upon his eventful history in a grandhush of decorum and quiet. During the autumn and winter of 1555, hostilities had been virtually suspended, and languid negotiationsensued. For several months armies confronted each other withoutengaging, and diplomatists fenced among themselves without any palpableresult. At last the peace commissioners, who had been assembled atVaucelles since the beginning of the year 1556, signed a treaty of trucerather than of peace, upon the 5th of February. It was to be anarmistice of five years, both by land and sea, for France, Spain, Flanders, and Italy, throughout all the dominions of the French andSpanish monarchs. The Pope was expressly included in the truce, whichwas signed on the part of France by Admiral Coligny and Sebastianl'Aubespine; on that of Spain, by Count de Lalain, Philibert deBruxelles, Simon Renard, and Jean Baptiste Sciceio, a jurisconsult ofCremona. During the precious month of December, however, the Pope hadconcluded with the French monarch a treaty, by which this solemnarmistice was rendered an egregious farce. While Henry'splenipotentiaries had been plighting their faith to those of Philip, it had been arranged that France should sustain, by subsidies and armies, the scheme upon which Paul was bent, to drive the Spaniards entirely outof the Italian peninsula. The king was to aid the pontiff, and, inreturn, was to carve thrones for his own younger children out of theconfiscated realms of Philip. When was France ever slow to sweep uponItaly with such a hope? How could the ever-glowing rivalry of Valois andHabsburg fail to burst into a general conflagration, while the venerablevicegerent of Christ stood thus beside them with his fan in his hand?

For a brief breathing space, however, the news of the pacificationoccasioned much joy in the provinces. They rejoiced even in a temporarycessation of that long series of campaigns from which they couldcertainly derive no advantage, and in which their part was to furnishmoney, soldiers, and battlefields, without prospect of benefit from anyvictory, however brilliant, or any treaty, however elaborate. Manufacturing, agricultural and commercial provinces, filled to the fullwith industrial life, could not but be injured by being converted intoperpetual camps. All was joy in the Netherlands, while at Antwerp, thegreat commercial metropolis of the provinces and of Europe, the rapturewas unbounded. Oxen were roasted whole in the public squares; thestreets, soon to be empurpled with the best blood of her citizens, ranred with wine; a hundred triumphal arches adorned the pathway of Philipas he came thither; and a profusion of flowers, although it was February, were strewn before his feet. Such was his greeting in the light-heartedcity, but the countenance was more than usually sullen with which thesovereign received these demonstrations of pleasure. It was thought bymany that Philip had been really disappointed in the conclusion of thearmistice, that he was inspired with a spark of that martial ambition forwhich his panegyrists gave him credit, and that knowing full well theimprobability of a long suspension of hostilities, he was even eager forthe chance of conquest which their resumption would afford him. Thesecret treaty of the Pope was of course not so secret but that the hollowintention of the contracting parties to the truce of Vaucelles werethoroughly suspected; intentions which certainly went far to justify themaxims and the practice of the new governor-general of the Netherlandsupon the subject of armistices. 

Philip, understanding his position, was revolving renewed militaryprojects while his subjects were ringing merry bells and lightingbonfires in the Netherlands. These schemes, which were to be carried outin the immediate future, caused, however, a temporary delay in the greatpurpose to which he was to devote his life. 

The Emperor had always desired to regard the Netherlands as a whole, andhe hated the antiquated charters and obstinate privileges whichinterfered with his ideas of symmetry. Two great machines, the court ofMechlin and the inquisition, would effectually simplify and assimilateall these irregular and heterogeneous rights. The civil tribunal was toannihilate all diversities in their laws by a general cassation of theirconstitutions, and the ecclesiastical court was to burn out alldifferences in their religious faith. Between two such millstones it wasthought that the Netherlands might be crushed into uniformity. Philipsucceeded to these traditions. The father had never sufficient leisureto carry out all his schemes, but it seemed probable that the son wouldbe a worthy successor, at least in all which concerned the religious partof his system. One of the earliest measures of his reign was to re-enactthe dread edict of 1550. This he did by the express advice of the Bishopof Arras who represented to him the expediency of making use of thepopularity of his father's name, to sustain the horrible system resolvedupon. As Charles was the author of the edict, it could be always arguedthat nothing new was introduced; that burning, hanging, and drowning forreligious differences constituted a part of the national institutions;that they had received the sanction of the wise Emperor, and had beensustained by the sagacity of past generations. Nothing could have beenmore subtle, as the event proved, than this advice. Innumerable were theappeals made in subsequent years, upon this subject, to the patriotismand the conservative sentiments of the Netherlanders. Repeatedly theywere summoned to maintain the inquisition, on the ground that it had beensubmitted to by their ancestors, and that no change had been made byPhilip, who desired only to maintain church and crown in the authoritywhich they had enjoyed in the days of his father of very laudablememory. 

Nevertheless, the King's military plans seemed to interfere for themoment with this cherished object. He seemed to swerve, at starting, from pursuing the goal which he was only to abandon with life. The edictof 1550 was re-enacted and confirmed, and all office-holders werecommanded faithfully to enforce it upon pain of immediate dismissal. Nevertheless, it was not vigorously carried into effect any where. It was openly resisted in Holland, its proclamation was flatly refusedin Antwerp, and repudiated throughout Brabant. It was strange that suchdisobedience should be tolerated, but the King wanted money. He waswilling to refrain for a season from exasperating the provinces by freshreligious persecution at the moment when he was endeavoring to extortevery penny which it was possible to wring from their purses. 

The joy, therefore, with which the pacification had been hailed by thepeople was far from an agreeable spectacle to the King. The provinceswould expect that the forces which had been maintained at their expenseduring the war would be disbanded, whereas he had no intention ofdisbanding them. As the truce was sure to be temporary, he had nodisposition to diminish his available resources for a war which might berenewed at any moment. To maintain the existing military establishmentin the Netherlands, a large sum of money was required, for the pay wasvery much in arrear. The king had made a statement to the provincialestates upon this subject, but the matter was kept secret during thenegotiations with France. The way had thus been paved for the "Request"or "Bede, " which he now made to the estates assembled at Brussels, in thespring of 1556. It was to consist of a tax of one per cent. (thehundredth penny) upon all real estate, and of two per cent. Upon allmerchandise; to be collected in three payments. The request, in so faras the imposition of the proposed tax was concerned, was refused byFlanders, Brabant, Holland, and all the other important provinces, butas usual, a moderate, even a generous, commutation in money was offeredby the estates. This was finally accepted by Philip, after he had becomeconvinced that at this moment, when he was contemplating a war withFrance, it would be extremely impolitic to insist upon the tax. Thepublication of the truce in Italy had been long delayed, and the firstinfractions which it suffered were committed in that country. The artsof politicians; the schemes of individual ambition, united with theshort-lived military ardor of Philip to place the monarch in an eminentlyfalse position, that of hostility to the Pope. As was unavoidable, thesecret treaty of December acted as an immediate dissolvent to the truceof February. 

Great was the indignation of Paul Caraffa, when that truce was firstcommunicated to him by the Cardinal de Tournon, on the part of the FrenchGovernment. Notwithstanding the protestations of France that the secretleague was still binding, the pontiff complained that he was likely to beabandoned to his own resources, and to be left single-handed to contendwith the vast power of Spain. 

Pope Paul IV. , of the house of Caraffa, was, in position, the well-knowncounterpart of the Emperor Charles. At the very moment when theconqueror and autocrat was exchanging crown for cowl, and the proudestthrone of the universe for a cell, this aged monk, as weary of scientificand religious seclusion as Charles of pomp and power, had abdicated hisscholastic pre-eminence, and exchanged his rosary for the keys and sword. A pontifical Faustus, he had become disgusted with the results of a lifeof study and abnegation, and immediately upon his election appeared to beglowing with mundane passions, and inspired by the fiercest ambition of awarrior. He had rushed from the cloister as eagerly as Charles hadsought it. He panted for the tempests of the great external world asearnestly as the conqueror who had so long ridden upon the whirlwind ofhuman affairs sighed for a haven of repose. None of his predecessorshad been more despotic, more belligerent, more disposed to elevate andstrengthen the temporal power of Rome. In the inquisition he saw thegrand machine by which this purpose could be accomplished, and yet foundhimself for a period the antagonist of Philip. The single circumstancewould have been sufficient, had other proofs been wanting, to makemanifest that the part which he had chosen to play was above his genius. Had his capacity been at all commensurate with his ambition, he mighthave deeply influenced the fate of the world; but fortunately no wizard'scharm came to the aid of Paul Caraffa, and the triple-crowned monk satupon the pontifical throne, a fierce, peevish, querulous, and quarrelsomedotard; the prey and the tool of his vigorous enemies and his intriguingrelations. His hatred of Spain and Spaniards was unbounded. He raved atthem as "heretics, schismatics, accursed of God, the spawn of Jews andMoors, the very dregs of the earth. " To play upon such insane passionswas not difficult, and a skilful artist stood ever ready to strike thechords thus vibrating with age and fury. The master spirit and principalmischief-maker of the papal court was the well-known Cardinal Caraffa, once a wild and dissolute soldier, nephew to the Pope. He inflamed theanger of the pontiff by his representations, that the rival house ofColonna, sustained by the Duke of Alva, now viceroy of Naples, and by thewhole Spanish power, thus relieved from the fear of French hostilities, would be free to wreak its vengeance upon their family. It wasdetermined that the court of France should be held by the secret league. Moreover, the Pope had been expressly included in the treaty ofVaucelles, although the troops of Spain had already assumed a hostileattitude in the south of Italy. The Cardinal was for immediatelyproceeding to Paris, there to excite the sympathy of the French monarchfor the situation of himself and his uncle. An immediate rupture betweenFrance and Spain, a re-kindling of the war flames from one end of Europeto the other, were necessary to save the credit and the interests of theCaraffas. Cardinal de Tournon, not desirous of so sudden a terminationto the pacific relations between his, country and Spain, succeeded indetaining him a little longer in Rome. --He remained, but not inidleness. The restless intriguer had already formed close relations withthe most important personage in France, Diana of Poitiers. --Thisvenerable courtesan, to the enjoyment of whose charms Henry hadsucceeded, with the other regal possessions, on the death of his father, was won by the flatteries of the wily Caraffa, and by the assiduities ofthe Guise family. The best and most sagacious statesmen, the Constable, and the Admiral, were in favor of peace, for they knew the condition ofthe kingdom. The Duke of Guise and the Cardinal Lorraine were for arupture, for they hoped to increase their family influence by war. Coligny had signed the treaty of Vaucelles, and wished to maintain it, but the influence of the Catholic party was in the ascendant. The resultwas to embroil the Catholic King against the Pope and against themselves. The queen was as favorably inclined as the mistress to listen to Caraffa, for Catherine de Medici was desirous that her cousin, Marshal Strozzi, should have honorable and profitable employment in some fresh Italiancampaigns. 

In the mean time an accident favored the designs of the papal court. An open quarrel with Spain resulted from an insignificant circumstance. The Spanish ambassador at Rome was in the habit of leaving the city veryoften, at an early hour in the morning, upon shooting excursions, and hadlong enjoyed the privilege of ordering the gates to be opened for him athis pleasure. By accident or design, he was refused permission upon oneoccasion to pass through the gate as usual. Unwilling to lose his day'ssport, and enraged at what he considered an indignity, his excellency, bythe aid of his attendants, attacked and beat the guard, mastered them, made his way out of the city, and pursued his morning's amusement. ThePope was furious, Caraffa artfully inflamed his anger. The envoy wasrefused an audience, which he desired, for the sake of offeringexplanations, and the train being thus laid, it was thought that theright moment had arrived for applying the firebrand. The Cardinal wentto Paris post haste. In his audience of the King, he represented thathis Holiness had placed implicit reliance upon his secret treaty with hismajesty, that the recently concluded truce with Spain left the pontiff atthe mercy of the Spaniard, that the Duke of Alva had already drawn thesword, that the Pope had long since done himself the pleasure and thehonor of appointing the French monarch protector of the papal chair ingeneral, and of the Caraffa family in particular, and that the moment hadarrived for claiming the benefit of that protection. He assured him, moreover, as by full papal authority, that in respecting the recent trucewith Spain, his majesty would violate both human and divine law. Reasonand justice required him to defend the pontiff, now that the Spaniardswere about to profit by the interval of truce to take measures for hisdetriment. Moreover, as the Pope was included in the truce of Vaucelles, he could not be abandoned without a violation of that treaty itself. --The arts and arguments of the Cardinal proved successful; the war wasresolved upon in favor of the Pope. The Cardinal, by virtue of powersreceived and brought with him from his holiness, absolved the King fromall obligation to keep his faith with Spain. He also gave him adispensation from the duty of prefacing hostilities by a declaration ofwar. Strozzi was sent at once into Italy, with some hastily collectedtroops, while the Duke of Guise waited to organize a regular army. 

The mischief being thus fairly afoot, and war let loose again uponEurope, the Cardinal made a public entry into Paris, as legate of thePope. The populace crowded about his mule, as he rode at the head of astately procession through the streets. All were anxious to receive abenediction from the holy man who had come so far to represent thesuccessor of St. Peter, and to enlist the efforts of all true believersin his cause. He appeared to answer the entreaties of the superstitiousrabble with fervent blessings, while the friends who were nearest himwere aware that nothing but gibes and sarcasms were falling from hislips. "Let us fool these poor creatures to their heart's content, sincethey will be fools, " he muttered; smiling the while upon thembenignantly, as became his holy office. Such were the materials of thisnew combination; such was the fuel with which this new blaze was lightedand maintained. Thus were the great powers of the earth--Spain, France, England, and the Papacy embroiled, and the nations embattled against eachother for several years. The preceding pages show how much nationalinterests, or principles; were concerned in the struggle thus commenced, in which thousands were to shed their life-blood, and millions to bereduced from peace and comfort to suffer all the misery which famine andrapine can inflict. It would no doubt have increased the hilarity ofCaraffa, as he made his triumphant entry into Paris, could the idea havebeen suggested to his mind that the sentiments, or the welfare of thepeople throughout the great states now involved in his meshes, could haveany possible bearing upon the question of peace or wax. The world wasgoverned by other influences. The wiles of a cardinal--the arts of aconcubine--the snipe-shooting of an ambassador--the speculations of asoldier of fortune--the ill temper of a monk--the mutual venom of Italianhouses--above all, the perpetual rivalry of the two great historicalfamilies who owned the greater part of Europe between them as theirprivate property--such were the wheels on which rolled the destiny ofChristendom. Compared to these, what were great moral and politicalideas, the plans of statesmen, the hopes of nations? Time was soon toshow. Meanwhile, government continued to be administered exclusively forthe benefit of the governors. Meanwhile, a petty war for paltry motiveswas to precede the great spectacle which was to prove to Europe thatprinciples and peoples still existed, and that a phlegmatic nation ofmerchants and manufacturers could defy the powers of the universe, andrisk all their blood and treasure, generation after generation, in asacred cause. 

It does not belong to our purpose to narrate the details of the campaignin Italy; neither is this war of politics and chicane of any greatinterest at the present day. To the military minds of their age, thescientific duel which now took place upon a large scale, between two suchcelebrated captains as the Dukes of Guise and Alva, was no doubt esteemedthe most important of spectacles; but the progress of mankind in the artof slaughter has stripped so antiquated an exhibition of most of itsinterest, even in a technical point of view. Not much satisfaction couldbe derived from watching an old-fashioned game of war, in which theparties sat down before each other so tranquilly, and picked up pieceafter piece, castle after castle, city after city, with such scientificdeliberation as to make it evident that, in the opinion of thecommanders, war was the only serious business to be done in the world;that it was not to be done in a hurry, nor contrary to rule, and thatwhen a general had a good job upon his hands he ought to know hisprofession much too thoroughly, to hasten through it before he saw hisway clear to another. From the point of time, at the close of the year1556, when that well-trained but not very successful soldier, Strozzi, crossed the Alps, down to the autumn of the following year, when the Dukeof Alva made his peace with the Pope, there was hardly a pitched battle, and scarcely an event of striking interest. Alva, as usual, brought hisdilatory policy to bear upon his adversary with great effect. He had nointention, he observed to a friend, to stake the whole kingdom of Naplesagainst a brocaded coat of the Duke of Guise. Moreover, he had been sentto the war, as Ruy Gomez informed the Venetian ambassador, "with a bridlein his mouth. " Philip, sorely troubled in his mind at finding himself inso strange a position as this hostile attitude to the Church, hadearnestly interrogated all the doctors and theologians with whom hehabitually took counsel, whether this war with the Pope would not work aforfeiture of his title of the Most Catholic King. The Bishop of Arrasand the favorite both disapproved of the war, and encouraged, with alltheir influence, the pacific inclinations of the monarch. The doctorswere, to be sure, of opinion that Philip, having acted in Italy only inself-defence, and for the protection of his states, ought not to beanxious as to his continued right to the title on which he valued himselfso highly. Nevertheless, such ponderings and misgivings could not buthave the effect of hampering the actions of Alva. That general chafedinwardly at what he considered his own contemptible position. At thesame time, he enraged the Duke of Guise still more deeply by the forcedcalmness of his proceedings. Fortresses were reduced, towns taken, oneafter another, with the most provoking deliberation, while his distractedadversary in vain strove to defy, or to delude him, into trying thechances of a stricken field. The battle of Saint Quentin, the narrativeof which belongs to our subject, and will soon occupy our attention, atlast decided the Italian operations. Egmont's brilliant triumph inPicardy rendered a victory in Italy superfluous, and placed in Alva'shand the power of commanding the issue of his own campaign. The Duke ofGuise was recalled to defend the French frontier, which the bravery ofthe Flemish hero had imperilled, and the Pope was left to make the bestpeace which he could. All was now prosperous and smiling, and thecampaign closed with a highly original and entertaining exhibition. The pontiff's puerile ambition, sustained by the intrigues of his nephew, had involved the French monarch in a war which was contrary to hisinterests and inclination. Paul now found his ally too sorely beset toafford him that protection upon which he had relied, when he commenced, in his dotage, his career as a warrior. He was, therefore, only desirousof deserting his friend, and of relieving himself from his uncomfortablepredicament, by making a treaty with his catholic majesty upon the bestterms which he could obtain. The King of France, who had gone to waronly for the sake of his holiness, was to be left to fight his ownbattles, while the Pope was to make his peace with all the world. Theresult was a desirable one for Philip. Alva was accordingly instructedto afford the holy father a decorous and appropriate opportunity forcarrying out his wishes. The victorious general was apprized that hismaster desired no fruit from his commanding attitude in Italy and thevictory of Saint Quentin, save a full pardon from the Pope formaintaining even a defensive war against him. An amicable siege of Romewas accordingly commenced, in the course of which an assault or"camiciata" on the holy city, was arranged for the night of the 26thAugust, 1557. The pontiff agreed to be taken by surprise--while Alva, through what was to appear only a superabundance of his habitualdiscretion, was to draw off his troops at the very moment when thevictorious assault was to be made. The imminent danger to the holy cityand to his own sacred person thus furnishing the pontiff with an excusefor abandoning his own cause, as well as that of his ally the Duke ofAlva was allowed, in the name of his master and himself; to makesubmission to the Church and his peace with Rome. The Spanish general, with secret indignation and disgust, was compelled to humor the vanity ofa peevish but imperious old man. Negotiations were commenced, and soskilfully had the Duke played his game during the spring and summer, that when he was admitted to kiss the Pope's toe, he was able to bringa hundred Italian towns in his hand, as a peace-offering to his holiness. These he now restored, with apparent humility and inward curses, upon thecondition that the fortifications should be razed, and the Frenchalliance absolutely renounced. Thus did the fanaticism of Philip reversethe relative position of himself and his antagonist. Thus was thevanquished pontiff allowed almost to dictate terms to the victoriousgeneral. The king who could thus humble himself to a dotard, while hemade himself the scourge of his subjects, deserved that the bull ofexcommunication which had been prepared should have been fulminated. He, at least, was capable of feeling the scathing effects of suchanathemas. 

The Duke of Guise, having been dismissed with the pontiff's assurancethat he had done little for the interests of his sovereign, less for theprotection of the Church, and least of all for his own reputation, setforth with all speed for Civita Vecchia, to do what he could upon theFlemish frontier to atone for his inglorious campaign in Italy. Thetreaty between the Pope and the Duke of Alva was signed on the 14thSeptember (1557), and the Spanish general retired for the winter toMilan. Cardinal Caraffa was removed from the French court to that ofMadrid, there to spin new schemes for the embroilment of nations and theadvancement of his own family. Very little glory was gained by any ofthe combatants in this campaign. Spain, France, nor Paul IV. , not one ofthem came out of the Italian contest in better condition than that inwhich they entered upon it. In fact all were losers. France had made aninglorious retreat, the Pope a ludicrous capitulation, and the onlyvictorious party, the King of Spain, had, during the summer, conceded toCosmo de Medici the sovereignty of Sienna. Had Venice shown morecordiality towards Philip, and more disposition to sustain his policy, it is probable that the Republic would have secured the prize which thusfell to the share of Cosmo. That astute and unprincipled potentate, whocould throw his net so well in troubled water, had successfully duped allparties, Spain, France, and Rome. The man who had not only notparticipated in the contest, but who had kept all parties and all warfareaway from his borders, was the only individual in Italy who gainedterritorial advantage from the war. 

To avoid interrupting the continuity of the narrative, the Spanishcampaign has been briefly sketched until the autumn of 1557, at whichperiod the treaty between the Pope and Philip was concluded. It is nownecessary to go back to the close of the preceding year. 

Simultaneously with the descent of the French troops upon Italy, hostilities had broken out upon the Flemish border. The pains of theEmperor in covering the smouldering embers of national animosities soprecipitately, and with a view rather to scenic effect than to adeliberate and well-considered result, were thus set at nought, andwithin a year from the day of his abdication, hostilities were reopenedfrom the Tiber to the German Ocean. The blame of first violating thetruce of Vaucelles was laid by each party upon the other with equaljustice, for there can be but little doubt that the reproach justlybelonged to both. Both had been equally faithless in their professionsof amity. Both were equally responsible for the scenes of war, plunder, and misery, which again were desolating the fairest regions ofChristendom. 

At the time when the French court had resolved to concede to the wishesof the Caraffa family, Admiral Coligny, who had been appointed governorof Picardy, had received orders to make a foray upon the frontier ofFlanders. Before the formal annunciation of hostilities, it was thoughtdesirable to reap all the advantage possible from the perfidy which hadbeen resolved upon. 

It happened that a certain banker of Lucca, an ancient gambler anddebauchee, whom evil courses had reduced from affluence to penury, hadtaken up his abode upon a hill overlooking the city of Douay. Here hehad built himself a hermit's cell. Clad in sackcloth, with a rosary athis waist, he was accustomed to beg his bread from door to door. Hisgarb was all, however, which he possessed of sanctity, and he had passedhis time in contemplating the weak points in the defences of the citywith much more minuteness than those in his own heart. Upon the breakingout of hostilities in Italy, the instincts of his old profession hadsuggested to him that a good speculation might be made in Flanders, byturning to account as a spy the observations which he had made in hischaracter of a hermit. He sought an interview with Coligny, and laid hispropositions before him. The noble Admiral hesitated, for his sentimentswere more elevated than those of many of his contemporaries. He had, moreover, himself negotiated and signed the truce with Spain, and heshrank from violating it with his own hand, before a declaration of war. Still he was aware that a French army was on its way to attack theSpaniards in Italy; he was under instructions to take the earliestadvantage which his position upon the frontier might offer him; he knewthat both theory and practice authorized a general, in that age, to breakhis fast, even in time of truce, if a tempting morsel should presentitself; and, above all, he thoroughly understood the character of hisnearest antagonist, the new governor of the Netherlands, Philibert ofSavoy, whom he knew to be the most unscrupulous chieftain in Europe. These considerations decided him to take advantage of the hermit-banker'scommunication. 

A day was accordingly fixed, at which, under the guidance of this newly-acquired ally, a surprise should be attempted by the French forces, andthe unsuspecting city of Douay given over to the pillage of a brutalsoldiery. The time appointed was the night of Epiphany, upon occasion ofwhich festival, it was thought that the inhabitants, overcome with sleepand wassail, might be easily overpowered. (6th January, 1557. ) The plotwas a good plot, but the Admiral of France was destined to be foiled byan old woman. This person, apparently the only creature awake in thetown, perceived the danger, ran shrieking through the streets, alarmedthe citizens while it was yet time, and thus prevented the attack. Coligny, disappointed in his plan, recompensed his soldiers by a suddenonslaught upon Lens in Arthois, which he sacked and then levelled withthe ground. Such was the wretched condition of frontier cities, standing, even in time of peace, with the ground undermined beneath them, and existing every moment, as it were, upon the brink of explosion. 

Hostilities having been thus fairly commenced, the French government wasin some embarrassment. The Duke of Guise, with the most available forcesof the kingdom, having crossed the Alps, it became necessary forthwith tocollect another army. The place of rendezvous appointed was Pierrepoint, where an army of eighteen thousand infantry and five thousand horse wereassembled early in the spring. In the mean time, Philip finding the warfairly afoot, had crossed to England for the purpose (exactly incontravention of all his marriage stipulations) of cajoling his wife andbrowbeating her ministers into a participation in his war with France. This was easily accomplished. The English nation found themselvesaccordingly engaged in a contest with which they had no concern, which, as the event proved, was very much against their interests, and in whichthe moving cause for their entanglement was the devotion of a weak, bad, ferocious woman, for a husband who hated her. A herald sent from Englandarrived in France, disguised, and was presented to King Henry at Rheims. Here, dropping on one knee, he recited a list of complaints against hismajesty, on behalf of the English Queen, all of them fabricated orexaggerated for the occasion, and none of them furnishing even a decorouspretext for the war which was now formally declared in consequence. TheFrench monarch expressed his regret and surprise that the firm andamicable relations secured by treaty between the two countries shouldthus, without sufficient cause, be violated. In accepting the wager ofwarfare thus forced upon him, he bade the herald, Norris, inform hismistress that her messenger was treated with courtesy only because herepresented a lady, and that, had he come from a king, the languagewith which he would have been greeted would have befitted the perfidymanifested on the occasion. God would punish this shameless violationof faith, and this wanton interruption to the friendship of two greatnations. With this the herald was dismissed from the royal presence, buttreated with great distinction, conducted to the hotel of the Englishambassador, and presented, on the part of the French sovereign with achain of gold. 

Philip had despatched Ruy Gomez to Spain for the purpose of providingways and means, while he was himself occupied with the same task inEngland. He stayed there three months. During this time, he "did more, "says a Spanish contemporary, "than any one could have believed possiblewith that proud and indomitable nation. He caused them to declare waragainst France with fire and sword, by sea and land. " Hostilities havingbeen thus chivalrously and formally established, the Queen sent an armyof eight thousand men, cavalry, infantry, and pioneers, who, "all clad inblue uniform, " commanded by Lords Pembroke and Clinton, with the threesons of the Earl of Northumberland, and officered by many other scions ofEngland's aristocracy, disembarked at Calais, and shortly afterwardsjoined the camp before Saint Quentin. 

Philip meantime had left England, and with more bustle and activity thanwas usual with him, had given directions for organizing at once aconsiderable army. It was composed mainly of troops belonging to theNetherlands, with the addition of some German auxiliaries. Thirty-fivethousand foot and twelve thousand horse had, by the middle of July, advanced through the province of Namur, and were assembled at Givet underthe Duke of Savoy, who, as Governor-General of the Netherlands, held thechief command. All the most eminent grandees of the provinces, Orange, Aerschot, Berlaymont, Meghen, Brederode, were present with the troops, but the life and soul of the army, upon this memorable occasion, was theCount of Egmont. 

Lamoral, Count of Egmont, Prince of Gavere, was now in the thirty-sixthyear of his age, in the very noon of that brilliant life which wasdestined to be so soon and so fatally overshadowed. Not one of the darkclouds, which were in the future to accumulate around him, had yet rolledabove his horizon. Young, noble, wealthy, handsome, valiant, he saw nothreatening phantom in the future, and caught eagerly at the goldenopportunity, which the present placed within his grasp, of winning freshlaurels on a wider and more fruitful. Field than any in which he hadhitherto been a reaper. The campaign about to take place was likely tobe an imposing, if not an important one, and could not fail to beattractive to a noble of so ardent and showy a character as Egmont. If there were no lofty principles or extensive interests to be contendedfor, as there certainly were not, there was yet much that was stately andexciting to the imagination in the warfare which had been so deliberatelyand pompously arranged. The contending armies, although of moderatesize, were composed of picked troops, and were commanded by the flower ofEurope's chivalry. Kings, princes, and the most illustrious paladins ofChristendom, were arming for the great tournament, to which they had beensummoned by herald and trumpet; and the Batavian hero, without a crown oreven a country, but with as lofty a lineage as many anointed sovereignscould boast, was ambitious to distinguish himself in the proud array. 

Upon the north-western edge of the narrow peninsula of North Holland, washed by the stormy waters of the German Ocean, were the ancient castle, town, and lordship, whence Egmont derived his family name, and the titleby which he was most familiarly known. He was supposed to trace hisdescent, through a line of chivalrous champions and crusaders, up to thepagan kings of the most ancient of existing Teutonic races. The eighthcentury names of the Frisian Radbold and Adgild among his ancestors werethought to denote the antiquity of a house whose lustre had beenincreased in later times by the splendor of its alliances. His father, united to Francoise de Luxemburg, Princess of Gavere, had acquired bythis marriage, and transmitted to his posterity, many of the proudesttitles and richest estates of Flanders. Of the three children whosurvived him, the only daughter was afterwards united to the Count ofVaudemont, and became mother of Louise de Vaudemont, queen of the Frenchmonarch, Henry the Third. 

Of his two sons, Charles, the elder, had died young and unmarried, leaving all the estates and titles of the family to his brother. Lamoral, born in 1522, was in early youth a page of the Emperor. Whenold enough to bear arms he demanded and obtained permission to follow thecareer of his adventurous sovereign. He served his apprenticeship as asoldier in the stormy expedition to Barbary, where, in his nineteenthyear, he commanded a troop of light horse, and distinguished himselfunder the Emperor's eye for his courage and devotion, doing the duty notonly of a gallant commander but of a hardy soldier. Returning, unscathedby the war, flood, or tempest of that memorable enterprise, he reachedhis country by the way of Corsica, Genoa, and Lorraine, and was threeyears afterwards united (in the year 1545) to Sabina of Bavaria, sisterof Frederick, Elector Palatine. The nuptials had taken place at Spiers, and few royal weddings could have been more brilliant. The Emperor, hisbrother Ferdinand King of the Romans, with the Archduke Maximilian, allthe imperial electors, and a concourse of the principal nobles of theempire, were present on the occasion been at the Emperor's side duringthe unlucky siege of Metz; in 1554 he had been sent at the head of asplendid embassy to England, to solicit for Philip the hand of MaryTudor, and had witnessed the marriage in Winchester Cathedral, the sameyear. Although one branch of his house had, in past times, arrived atthe sovereignty of Gueldres, and another had acquired the great estatesand titles of Buren, which had recently passed, by intermarriage with theheiress, into the possession of the Prince of Orange, yet the Prince ofGavere, Count of Egmont, was the chief of a race which yielded to none ofthe great Batavian or Flemish families in antiquity, wealth, or power. Personally, he was distinguished for his bravery, and although he was notyet the idol of the camp, which he was destined to become, nor had yetcommanded in chief on any important occasion, he was accounted one of thefive principal generals in the Spanish service. Eager for generaladmiration, he was at the same time haughty and presumptuous, attemptingto combine the characters of an arrogant magnate and a popular chieftain. Terrible and sudden in his wrath, he was yet of inordinate vanity, andwas easily led by those who understood his weakness. With a limitededucation, and a slender capacity for all affairs except those relatingto the camp, he was destined to be as vacillating and incompetent as astatesman, as he was prompt and fortunately audacious in the field. Asplendid soldier, his evil stars had destined him to tread, as apolitician, a dark and dangerous path, in which not even genius, caution, and integrity could ensure success, but in which rashness alternatingwith hesitation, and credulity with violence, could not fail to bringruin. Such was Count Egmont, as he took his place at the-head of theking's cavalry in the summer of 1557. 

The early operations of the Duke of Savoy were at first intended todeceive the enemy. The army, after advancing as far into Picardy as thetown of Vervins, which they burned and pillaged, made a demonstrationwith their whole force upon the city of Guise. This, however, was but afeint, by which attention was directed and forces drawn off from SaintQuentin, which was to be the real point of attack In the mean time, theConstable of France, Montmorency, arrived upon the 28th July (1557), totake command of the French troops. He was accompanied by the Marechal deSaint Andre and by Admiral Coligny. The most illustrious names ofFrance, whether for station or valor, were in the officers' list of thisselect army. Nevers and Montpensier, Enghien and Conde, Vendome andRochefoucauld, were already there, and now the Constable and the Admiralcame to add the strength of their experience and lofty reputation tosustain the courage of the troops. The French were at Pierrepoint, apost between Champagne and Picardy, and in its neighborhood. The Spanisharmy was at Vervins, and threatening Guise. It had been the opinion inFrance that the enemy's intention was to invade Champagne, and the Duc deNevers, governor of that province, had made a disposition of his forcessuitable for such a contingency. It was the conviction of Montmorency, however, that Picardy was to be the quarter really attacked, and thatSaint Quentin, which was the most important point at which the enemy'sprogress, by that route, towards Paris could be arrested, was in imminentdanger. The Constable's opinion was soon confirmed by advices receivedby Coligny. The enemy's army, he was informed, after remaining threedays before Guise, had withdrawn from that point, and had invested SaintQuentin with their whole force. 

This wealthy and prosperous city stood upon an elevation rising from theriver Somme. It was surrounded by very extensive suburbs, ornamentedwith orchards and gardens, and including within their limits large tractsof a highly cultivated soil. Three sides of the place were covered by alake, thirty yards in width, very deep at some points, in others, ratherresembling a morass, and extending on the Flemish side a half mile beyondthe city. The inhabitants were thriving and industrious; many of themanufacturers and merchants were very rich, for it was a place of muchtraffic and commercial importance. 

Teligny, son-in-law of the Admiral, was in the city with a detachmentof the Dauphin's regiment; Captain Brueuil was commandant of the town. Both informed Coligny of the imminent peril in which they stood. Theyrepresented the urgent necessity of immediate reinforcements both of menand supplies. The city, as the Admiral well knew, was in no condition tostand a siege by such an army, and dire were the consequences which wouldfollow the downfall of so important a place. It was still practicable, they wrote, to introduce succor, but every day diminished the possibilityof affording effectual relief. Coligny was not the man to let the grassgrow under his feet, after such an appeal in behalf of the principalplace in his government. The safety of France was dependent upon that ofSt. Quentin. The bulwark overthrown, Paris was within the next stride ofan adventurous enemy. The Admiral instantly set out, upon the 2d ofAugust, with strong reinforcements. It was too late. The Englishauxiliaries, under Lords Pembroke, Clinton, and Grey, had, in the meantime, effected their junction with the Duke of Savoy, and appeared in thecamp before St. Quentin. The route, by which it had been hoped that themuch needed succor could be introduced, was thus occupied and renderedimpracticable. The Admiral, however, in consequence of the urgent natureof the letters received from Brueuil and Teligny, had outstripped, in hisanxiety, the movements of his troops. He reached the city, almost aloneand unattended. Notwithstanding the remonstrances of his officers, hehad listened to no voice save the desperate entreaties of the besiegedgarrison, and had flown before his army. He now shut himself up in thecity, determined to effect its deliverance by means of his skill andexperience, or, at least, to share its fate. As the gates closed uponColigny, the road was blocked up for his advancing troops. 

A few days were passed in making ineffectual sorties, ordered by Colignyfor the sake of reconnoitring the country, and of discovering the mostpracticable means of introducing supplies. The Constable, meantime, whohad advanced with his army to La Fore, was not idle. He kept up dailycommunications with the beleagured Admiral, and was determined, ifpossible, to relieve the city. There was, however, a constant successionof disappointments. Moreover, the brave but indiscreet Teligny, whocommanded during a temporary illness of the Admiral, saw fit, againstexpress orders, to make an imprudent sortie. He paid the penalty of hisrashness with his life. He was rescued by the Admiral in person, who, at imminent hazard, brought back the unfortunate officer covered withwounds, into the city, there to die at his father's feet, imploringforgiveness for his disobedience. Meantime the garrison was dailygrowing weaker. Coligny sent out of the city all useless consumers, quartered all the women in the cathedral and other churches, where theywere locked in, lest their terror and their tears should weaken thecourage of the garrison; and did all in his power to strengthen thedefences of the city, and sustain the resolution of the inhabitants. Affairs were growing desperate. It seemed plain that the important citymust soon fall, and with it most probably Paris. One of the suburbs wasalready in the hands of the enemy. At last Coligny discovered a route bywhich he believed it to be still possible to introduce reinforcements. He communicated the results of his observations to the Constable. Upon one side of the city the lake, or morass, was traversed by a fewdifficult and narrow pathways, mostly under water, and by a runningstream which could only be passed in boats. The Constable, in consequence of this information received from Coligny, set out from LaFere upon the 8th of August, with four thousand infantry and two thousandhorse. Halting his troops at the village of Essigny, he advanced inperson to the edge of the morass, in order to reconnoitre the ground andprepare his plans. The result was a determination to attempt theintroduction of men and supplies into the town by the mode suggested. Leaving his troops drawn up in battle array, he returned to La Fere forthe remainder of his army, and to complete his preparations. Coligny inthe mean time was to provide boats for crossing the stream. Upon the10th August, which was the festival of St. Laurence, the Constableadvanced with four pieces of heavy artillery, four culverines, and fourlighter pieces, and arrived at nine o'clock in the morning near theFaubourg d'Isle, which was already in possession of the Spanish troops. The whole army of the Constable consisted of twelve thousand German, withfifteen companies of French infantry; making in all some sixteen thousandfoot, with five thousand cavalry in addition. The Duke of Savoy's armylay upon the same side of the town, widely extended, and stretchingbeyond the river and the morass. Montmorency's project was to beexecuted in full view of the enemy. Fourteen companies of Spaniards werestationed in the faubourg. Two companies had been pushed forward as faras a water-mill, which lay in the pathway of the advancing Constable. These soldiers stood their ground for a moment, but soon retreated, whilea cannonade was suddenly opened by the French upon the quarters of theDuke of Savoy. The Duke's tent was torn to pieces, and he had barelytime to hurry on his cuirass, and to take refuge with Count Egmont. The Constable, hastening to turn this temporary advantage to account atonce, commenced the transportation of his troops across the morass. Theenterprise was, however, not destined to be fortunate. The number ofboats which had been provided was very inadequate; moreover they werevery small, and each as it left the shore was consequently so crowdedwith soldiers that it was in danger of being swamped. Several wereoverturned, and the men perished. It was found also that the oppositebank was steep and dangerous. Many who had crossed the river were unableto effect a landing, while those who escaped drowning in the water losttheir way in the devious and impracticable paths, or perished miserablyin the treacherous quagmires. Very few effected their entrance into thetown, but among them was Andelot, brother of Coligny, with five hundredfollowers. Meantime, a council of officers was held in Egmont's tent. Opinions were undecided as to the course to be pursued under thecircumstances. Should an engagement be risked, or should the Constable, who had but indifferently accomplished his project and had introduced butan insignificant number of troops into the city, be allowed to withdrawwith the rest of his army? The fiery vehemence of Egmont carried allbefore it. Here was an opportunity to measure arms at advantage with thegreat captain of the age. To relinquish the prize, which the fortune ofwar had now placed within reach of their valor, was a thought not to beentertained. Here was the great Constable Montmorency, attended byprinces of the royal blood, the proudest of the nobility, the very crownand flower of the chivalry of France, and followed by an army of herbravest troops. On a desperate venture he had placed himself withintheir grasp. Should he go thence alive and unmolested? The moral effectof destroying such an army would be greater than if it were twice itsactual strength. It would be dealing a blow at the very heart of France, from which she could not recover. Was the opportunity to be resignedwithout a struggle of laying at the feet of Philip, in this his firstcampaign since his accession to his father's realms, a prize worthy ofthe proudest hour of the Emperor's reign? The eloquence of the impetuousBatavian was irresistible, and it was determined to cut off theConstable's retreat. 

Three miles from the Faubourg d'Isle, to which that general had nowadvanced, was a narrow pass or defile, between steep and closely hanginghills. While advancing through this ravine in the morning, the Constablehad observed that the enemy might have it in their power to intercept hisreturn at that point. He had therefore left the Rhinegrave, with hiscompany of mounted carabineers, to guard the passage. Being ready tocommence his retreat, he now sent forward the Due de Nevers, with fourcompanies of cavalry to strengthen that important position, which hefeared might be inadequately guarded. The act of caution came too late. This was the fatal point which the quick glance of Egmont had at oncedetected. As Nevers reached the spot, two thousand of the enemy'scavalry rode through and occupied the narrow passage. Inflamed bymortification and despair, Nevers would have at once charged thosetroops, although outnumbering his own by nearly, four to one. Hisofficers restrained him with difficulty, recalling to his memory theperemptory orders which he had received from the Constable to guard thepassage, but on no account to hazard an engagement, until sustained bythe body of the army. It was a case in which rashness would have beenthe best discretion. The headlong charge which the Duke had been aboutto make, might possibly have cleared the path and have extricated thearmy, provided the Constable had followed up the movement by a rapidadvance upon his part. As it was, the passage was soon blocked up byfreshly advancing bodies of Spanish and Flemish cavalry, while Neversslowly and reluctantly fell back upon the Prince of Conde, who wasstationed with the light horse at the mill where the first skirmish hadtaken place. They were soon joined by the Constable, with the main bodyof the army. The whole French force now commenced its retrogrademovement. It was, however, but too evident that they were enveloped. Asthey approached the fatal pass through which lay their only road to LaFire, and which was now in complete possession of the enemy, the signalof assault was given by Count Egmont. That general himself, at the headof two thousand light horse, led the charge upon the left flank. Theother side was assaulted by the Dukes Eric and Henry of Brunswick, eachwith a thousand heavy dragoons, sustained by Count Horn, at the head of aregiment of mounted gendarmerie. Mansfeld, Lalain, Hoogstraaten; andVilain, at the same time made a furious attack upon the front. TheFrench cavalry wavered with the shock so vigorously given. The campfollowers, sutlers, and pedlers, panic-struck, at once fled helter-skelter, and in their precipitate retreat, carried confusion and dismaythroughout all the ranks of the army. The rout was sudden and total. The onset and the victory were simultaneous, Nevers riding through ahollow with some companies of cavalry, in the hope of making a detour andpresenting a new front to the enemy, was overwhelmed at once by theretreating French and their furious pursuers. The day was lost, retreathardly possible, yet, by a daring and desperate effort, the Duke, accompanied by a handful of followers, cut his way through the enemy andeffected his escape. The cavalry had been broken at the first onset andnearly destroyed. A portion of the infantry still held firm, andattempted to continue their retreat. Some pieces of artillery, however, now opened upon them, and before they reached Essigny, the whole army wascompletely annihilated. The defeat was absolute. Half the French troopsactually engaged in the enterprise, lost their lives upon the field. Theremainder of the army was captured or utterly disorganized. When Neversreviewed, at Laon, the wreck of the Constable's whole force, he foundsome thirteen hundred French and three hundred German cavalry, with fourcompanies of French infantry remaining out of fifteen, and four thousandGerman foot remaining of twelve thousand. Of twenty-one or two thousandremarkably fine and well-appointed troops, all but six thousand had beenkilled or made prisoners within an hour. The Constable himself, with awound in the groin, was a captive. The Duke of Enghien, after behavingwith brilliant valor, and many times rallying the troops, was shotthrough the body, and brought into the enemy's camp only to expire. TheDue de Montpensier, the Marshal de Saint Andre, the Due de Loggieville, Prince Ludovic of Mantua, the Baron Corton, la Roche du Mayne, theRhinegrave, the Counts de Rochefoucauld, d'Aubigni, de Rochefort, allwere taken. The Due de Nevers, the Prince of Conde, with a few others, escaped; although so absolute was the conviction that such an escape wasimpossible, that it was not believed by the victorious army. When Neverssent a trumpet, after the battle, to the Duke of Savoy, for the purposeof negotiating concerning the prisoners, the trumpeter was pronounced animpostor, and the Duke's letter a forgery; nor was it till after thewhole field had been diligently searched for his dead body withoutsuccess, that Nevers could persuade the conquerors that he was still inexistence. 

Of Philip's army but fifty lost their lives. Lewis of Brederode wassmothered in his armor; and the two counts Spiegelberg and Count Waldeckwere also killed; besides these, no officer of distinction fell. All theFrench standards and all their artillery but two pieces were taken, andplaced before the King, who the next day came into the camp before SaintQuentin. The prisoners of distinction were likewise presented to him inlong procession. Rarely had a monarch of Spain enjoyed a more signaltriumph than this which Philip now owed to the gallantry and promptnessof Count Egmont. 

While the King stood reviewing the spoils of victory, a light horseman ofDon Henrico Manrique's regiment approached, and presented him with asword. "I am the man, may it please your Majesty, " said the trooper, "who took the Constable; here is his sword; may your Majesty be pleasedto give me something to eat in my house. " "I promise it, " repliedPhilip; upon which the soldier kissed his Majesty's hand and retired. It was the custom universally recognized in that day, that the king wasthe king's captive, and the general the general's, but that the man, whether soldier or officer, who took the commander-in-chief, was entitledto ten thousand ducats. Upon this occasion the Constable was theprisoner of Philip, supposed to command his own army in person. Acertain Spanish Captain Valenzuela, however, disputed the soldier's claimto the Constable's sword. The trooper advanced at once to the Constable, who stood there with the rest of the illustrious prisoners. "Yourexcellency is a Christian, " said he; "please to declare upon yourconscience and the faith of a cavalier, whether 't was I that took youprisoner. It need not surprise your excellency that I am but a soldier, since with soldiers his Majesty must wage his wars. " "Certainly, "replied the Constable, "you took me and took my horse, and I gave you mysword. My word, however, I pledged to Captain Valenzuela. " Itappearing, however, that the custom of Spain did not recognize a pledgegiven to any one but the actual captor, it was arranged that the soldiershould give two thousand of his ten thousand ducats to the captain. Thusthe dispute ended. 

Such was the brilliant victory of Saint Quentin, worthy to be placed inthe same list with the world-renowned combats of Creqy and Agincourt. Like those battles, also, it derives its main interest from the personalcharacter of the leader, while it seems to have been hallowed by thetender emotions which sprang from his subsequent fate. The victory wasbut a happy move in a winning game. The players were kings, and thepeople were stakes--not parties. It was a chivalrous display in a warwhich was waged without honorable purpose, and in which no single loftysentiment was involved. The Flemish frontier was, however, saved for thetime from the misery which was now to be inflicted upon the Frenchborder. This was sufficient to cause the victory to be hailed asrapturously by the people as by the troops. From that day forth thename of the brave Hollander was like the sound of a trumpet to the army. "Egmont and Saint Quentin" rang through every mouth to the furthestextremity of Philip's realms. A deadly blow was struck to the very heartof France. The fruits of all the victories of Francis and Henrywithered. The battle, with others which were to follow it, won by thesame hand, were soon to compel the signature of the most disastroustreaty which had ever disgraced the history of France. 

The fame and power of the Constable faded--his misfortunes and captivityfell like a blight upon the ancient glory of the house of Montmorency--his enemies destroyed his influence and his popularity--while thedegradation of the kingdom was simultaneous with the downfall of hisillustrious name. On the other hand, the exultation of Philip was as keenas his cold and stony nature would permit. The magnificent palace-convent of the Escurial, dedicated to the saint on whose festival thebattle had been fought, and built in the shape of the gridiron, on whichthat martyr had suffered, was soon afterwards erected in piouscommemoration of the event. Such was the celebration of the victory. The reward reserved for the victor was to be recorded on a later pageof history. 

The coldness and caution, not to say the pusillanimity of Philip, prevented him from seizing the golden fruits of his triumph. FerdinandGonzaga wished the blow to be followed up by an immediate march uponParis. --Such was also the feeling of all the distinguished soldiers ofthe age. It was unquestionably the opinion, and would have been thedeed, of Charles, had he been on the field of Saint Quentin, crippled ashe was, in the place of his son. He could not conceal his rage andmortification when he found that Paris had not fallen, and is said tohave refused to read the despatches which recorded that the event had notbeen consummated. There was certainly little of the conqueror inPhilip's nature; nothing which would have led him to violate the safestprinciples of strategy. He was not the man to follow up enthusiasticallythe blow which had been struck; Saint Quentin, still untaken, althoughdefended by but eight hundred soldiers, could not be left behind him;Nevers was still in his front, and although it was notorious that hecommanded only the wreck of an army, yet a new one might be collected, perhaps, in time to embarrass the triumphant march to Paris. Out of hissuperabundant discretion, accordingly, Philip refused to advance tillSaint Quentin should be reduced. 

Although nearly driven to despair by the total overthrow of the French inthe recent action, Coligny still held bravely out, being well aware thatevery day by which the siege could be protracted was of advantage to hiscountry. Again he made fresh attempts to introduce men into the city. A fisherman showed him a submerged path, covered several feet deep withwater, through which he succeeded in bringing one hundred and fiftyunarmed and half-drowned soldiers into the place. His garrison consistedbarely of eight hundred men, but the siege was still sustained, mainly byhis courage and sagacity, and by the spirit of his brother Andelot. Thecompany of cavalry, belonging to the Dauphin's regiment, had behavedbadly, and even with cowardice, since the death of their commanderTeligny. The citizens were naturally weary and impatient of the siege. Mining and countermining continued till the 21st August. A steadycannonade was then maintained until the 27th. Upon that day, elevenbreaches having been made in the walls, a simultaneous assault wasordered at four of them. The citizens were stationed upon the walls, the soldiers in the breaches. There was a short but sanguinary contest. The garrison resisting with uncommon bravery. Suddenly an entrance waseffected through a tower which had been thought sufficiently strong, andwhich had been left unguarded. Coligny, rushing to the spot, engaged theenemy almost single-handed. He was soon overpowered, being attended onlyby four men and a page, was made a prisoner by a soldier named FranciscoDiaz, and conducted through one of the subterranean mines into thepresence of the Duke of Savoy, from whom the captor received ten thousandducats in exchange for the Admiral's sword. The fighting still continuedwith great determination in the streets, the brave Andelot resisting tothe last. He was, however, at last overpowered, and taken prisoner. Philip, who had, as usual, arrived in the trenches by noon, armed incomplete harness, with a page carrying his helmet, was met by theintelligence that the city of Saint Quentin was his own. 

To a horrible carnage succeeded a sack and a conflagration still morehorrible. In every house entered during the first day, every human beingwas butchered. The sack lasted all that day and the whole of thefollowing, till the night of the 28th. There was not a soldier who didnot obtain an ample share of plunder, and some individuals succeeded ingetting possession of two, three, and even twelve thousand ducats each. The women were not generally outraged, but they were stripped almostentirely naked, lest they should conceal treasure which belonged to theirconquerors, and they were slashed in the face with knives, partly insport, partly as a punishment for not giving up property which was not intheir possession. The soldiers even cut off the arms of many among thesewretched women, and then turned them loose, maimed and naked, into theblazing streets; for the town, on the 28th, was fired in a hundredplaces, and was now one general conflagration. The streets were alreadystrewn with the corpses of the butchered garrison and citizens; while thesurvivors were now burned in their houses. Human heads, limbs, andtrunks, were mingled among the bricks and rafters of the houses, whichwere falling on every side. The fire lasted day and night, without anattempt being made to extinguish it; while the soldiers dashed likedevils through flame and smoke in search of booty. Bearing lightedtorches, they descended into every subterrranean vault and receptacle, ofwhich there were many in the town, and in every one of which they hopedto discover hidden treasure. The work of killing, plundering, andburning lasted nearly three days and nights. The streets, meanwhile, were encumbered with heaps of corpses, not a single one of which had beenburied since the capture of the town. The remains of nearly all the ablebodied male population, dismembered, gnawed by dogs or blackened by fire, polluted the midsummer air meantime, the women had been againdriven into the cathedral, where they had housed during the siege, andwhere they now crouched together in trembling expectation of their fate. 'On the 29th August, at two o'clock in the afternoon, Philip issued anorder that every woman, without an exception, should be driven out of thecity into the French territory. Saint Quentin, which seventy yearsbefore had been a Flemish town, was to be re-annexed, and not a singleman, woman, or child who could speak the French language was to remainanother hour in the place. The tongues of the men had been effectuallysilenced. The women, to the number of three thousand five hundred, werenow compelled to leave the cathedral and the city. Some were in astarving condition; others had been desperately wounded; all, as theypassed through the ruinous streets of what had been their home, werecompelled to tread upon the unburied remains of their fathers, husbands, or brethren. To none of these miserable creatures remained a livingprotector--hardly even a dead body which could be recognized; and thusthe ghastly procession of more than three thousand women, many withgaping wounds in the face, many with their arms cut off and festering, of all ranks and ages, some numbering more than ninety years, bareheaded, with grey hair streaming upon their shoulders; others with nursinginfants in their arms, all escorted by a company of heavy-armed troopers, left forever their native city. All made the dismal journey upon foot, save that carts were allowed to transport the children between the agesof two and six years. The desolation and depopulation were now complete. "I wandered through the place, gazing at all this, " says a Spanishsoldier who was present, and kept a diary of all which occurred, " and itseemed to me that it was another destruction of Jerusalem. What moststruck me was to find not a single denizen of the town left, who was orwho dared to call himself French. How vain and transitory, thought I, are the things of this world! Six days ago what riches were in the city, and now remains not one stone upon another. "

The expulsion of the women had been accomplished by the express commandof Philip, who moreover had made no effort to stay the work of carnage, pillage, and conflagration. The pious King had not forgotten, however, his duty to the saints. As soon as the fire had broken out, he had sentto the cathedral, whence he had caused the body of Saint Quentin to beremoved and placed in the royal tent. Here an altar, was arranged, uponone side of which was placed the coffin of that holy personage, and uponthe other the head of the "glorious Saint Gregory" (whoever that gloriousindividual may have been in life), together with many other relicsbrought from the church. Within the sacred enclosure many masses weresaid daily, while all this devil's work was going on without. The saintwho had been buried for centuries was comfortably housed and guarded bythe monarch, while dogs were gnawing the carcases of the freshly-slainmen of Saint Quentin, and troopers were driving into perpetual exile itsdesolate and mutilated women. 

The most distinguished captives upon this occasion were, of course, Coligny and his brother. Andelot was, however, fortunate enough to makehis escape that night under the edge of the tent in which he wasconfined. The Admiral was taken to Antwerp. Here he lay for many weekssick with a fever. Upon his recovery, having no better pastime, he fellto reading the Scriptures. The result was his conversion to Calvinism;and the world shudders yet at the fate in which that conversion involvedhim. 

Saint Quentin being thus reduced, Philip was not more disposed to pushhis fortune. The time was now wasted in the siege of severalcomparatively unimportant places, so that the fruits of Egmont's valorwere not yet allowed to ripen. Early in September Le Catelet was taken. On the 12th of the same month the citadel of Ham yielded, after receivingtwo thousand shots from Philip's artillery, while Nojon, Chanly, and someother places of less importance, were burned to the ground. After allthis smoke and fire upon the frontier, productive of but slenderconsequences, Philip disbanded his army, and retired to Brussels. He reached that city on the 12th October. The English returned to theirown country. The campaign of 1557 was closed without a material result, and the victory of Saint Quentin remained for a season barren. 

In the mean time the French were not idle. The army of the Constable hadbeen destroyed but the Duke de Guise, who had come post-haste from Italyafter hearing the news of Saint Quentin, was very willing to organizeanother. He was burning with impatience both to retrieve his ownreputation, which had suffered some little damage by his recent Italiancampaign, and to profit by the captivity of his fallen rival theConstable. During the time occupied by the languid and dilatoryproceedings of Philip in the autumn, the Duke had accordingly recruitedin France and Germany a considerable army. In January (1558) he wasready to take the field. It had been determined in the French cabinet, however, not to attempt to win back the places which they had lost inPicardy, but to carry the war into the territory of the ally. It wasfated that England should bear all the losses, and Philip appropriate allthe gain and glory, which resulted from their united exertions. It wasthe war of the Queen's husband, with which the Queen's people had noconcern, but in which the last trophies of the Black Prince were to beforfeited. On the first January, 1558, the Duc de Guise appeared beforeCalais. The Marshal Strozzi had previously made an expedition, indisguise, to examine the place. The result of his examination was thatthe garrison was weak, and that it relied too much upon the citadel. After a tremendous cannonade, which lasted a week, and was heard inAntwerp, the city was taken by assault. Thus the key to the great Normanportal of France, the time-honored key which England had worn at hergirdle since the eventful day of Crecy, was at last taken from her. Calais had been originally won after a siege which had lasted atwelvemonth, had been held two hundred and ten years, and was now lost inseven days. Seven days more, and ten thousand discharges from thirty-five great guns sufficed for the reduction of Guines. Thus the lastvestige of English dominion, the last substantial pretext of the Englishsovereign to wear the title and the lilies of France, was lost forever. King Henry visited Calais, which after two centuries of estrangement hadnow become a French town again, appointed Paul de Thermes governor of theplace, and then returned to Paris to celebrate soon afterwards themarriage of the Dauphin with the niece of the Guises, Mary, Queen ofScots. 

These events, together with the brief winter campaign of the Duke, whichhad raised for an instant the drooping head of France, were destinedbefore long to give a new face to affairs, while it secured theascendancy of the Catholic party in the kingdom. Disastrous eclipse hadcome over the house of Montmorency and Coligny, while the star of Guise, brilliant with the conquest of Calais, now culminated to the zenith. 

It was at this period that the memorable interview between the twoecclesiastics, the Bishop of Arras and the Cardinal de Lorraine, tookplace at Peronne. From this central point commenced the weaving of thatwide-spread scheme, in which the fate of millions was to be involved. The Duchess Christina de Lorraine, cousin of Philip, had accompanied himto Saint Quentin. Permission had been obtained by the Duc de Guise andhis brother, the Cardinal, to visit her at Peronne. The Duchess wasaccompanied by the Bishop of Arras, and the consequence was a full andsecret negotiation between the two priests. It may be supposed thatPhilip's short-lived military ardor had already exhausted itself. He hadmistaken his vocation, and already recognized the false position in whichhe was placed. He was contending against the monarch in whom he mightfind the surest ally against the arch enemy of both kingdoms, and of theworld. The French monarch held heresy in horror, while, for himself, Philip had already decided upon his life's mission. 

The crafty Bishop was more than a match for the vain and ambitiousCardinal. That prelate was assured that Philip considered the captivityof Coligny and Montmorency a special dispensation of Providence, whilethe tutelar genius of France, notwithstanding the reverses sustained bythat kingdom, was still preserved. The Cardinal and his brother, it wassuggested, now held in their hands the destiny of the kingdom, and ofEurope. The interests of both nations, of religion, and of humanity, made it imperative upon them to put an end to this unnatural war, inorder that the two monarchs might unite hand and heart for theextirpation of heresy. That hydra-headed monster had already extendedits coils through France, while its pestilential breath was now waftedinto Flanders from the German as well as the French border. Philipplaced full reliance upon the wisdom and discretion of the Cardinal. Itwas necessary that these negotiations should for the present remain aprofound secret; but in the mean time a peace ought to be concluded withas little delay as possible; a result which, it was affirmed, was asheartily desired by Philip as it could be by Henry. The Bishop was soonaware of the impression which his artful suggestions had produced. TheCardinal, inspired by the flattery thus freely administered, as well asby the promptings of his own ambition, lent a willing ear to the Bishop'splans. Thus was laid the foundation of a vast scheme, which time was tocomplete. A crusade with the whole strength of the French and Spanishcrowns, was resolved upon against their own subjects. The Bishop's taskwas accomplished. The Cardinal returned to France, determined to effecta peace with Spain. He was convinced that the glory of his house was tobe infinitely enhanced, and its power impregnably established, by acordial co-operation with Philip in his dark schemes against religion andhumanity. The negotiations were kept, however, profoundly secret. A newcampaign and fresh humiliations were to precede the acceptance by Franceof the peace which was thus proffered. 

Hostile operations were renewed soon after the interview at Peronne. The Duke of Guise, who had procured five thousand cavalry and fourteenthousand infantry in Germany, now, at the desire of the King, undertookan enterprise against Thionville, a city of importance and great strengthin Luxemburg, upon the river Moselle. It was defended by Peter deQuarebbe, a gentleman of Louvain, with a garrison of eighteen hundredmen. On the 5th June, thirty-five pieces of artillery commenced thework; the mining and countermining-continuing seventeen days; on the22nd the assault was made, and the garrison capitulated immediatelyafterwards. It was a siege conducted in a regular and business-like way, but the details possess no interest. It was, however, signalized by thedeath of one of the eminent adventurers of the age, Marshal Strozzi. This brave, but always unlucky soldier was slain by a musket ball whileassisting the Duke of Guise--whose arm was, at that instant, resting uponhis shoulder--to point a gun at the fortress. 

After the fall of Thionville, the Due de Guise, for a short time, contemplated the siege of the city of Luxemburg, but contented himselfwith the reduction of the unimportant places of Vireton and Arlon. Herehe loitered seventeen days, making no exertions to follow up the successwhich had attended him at the opening of the campaign. The good fortuneof the French was now neutralized by the same languor which had markedthe movements of Philip after the victory of Saint Quentin. The time, which might have been usefully employed in following up his success, wasnow wasted by the Duke in trivial business, or in absolute torpor. Thismay have been the result of a treacherous understanding with Spain, andthe first fruits of the interview at Peronne. Whatever the cause, however, the immediate consequences were disaster to the French nation, and humiliation to the crown. 

It had been the plan of the French cabinet that Marshal de Thermes, who, upon the capture of Calais, had been appointed governor of the city, should take advantage of his position as soon as possible. Havingassembled an army of some eight thousand foot and fifteen hundred horse, partly Gascons and partly Germans, he was accordingly directed to ravagethe neighboring country, particularly the county of Saint Pol. In themean time, the Due de Guise, having reduced the cities on the southernfrontier, was to move in a northerly direction, make a junction with theMarshal, and thus extend a barrier along the whole frontier of theNetherlands. 

De Therlries set forth from Calais, in the beginning of June, with hisnewly-organized army. Passing by Gravelines and Bourbourg, he arrivedbefore Dunkerk on the 2d of July. The city, which was without agarrison, opened negotiations, during the pendency of which it was takenby assault and pillaged. The town of Saint Winochsberg shared the samefate. De Thermes, who was a martyr to the gout, was obliged at thispoint temporarily to resign the command to d'Estonteville, a ferocioussoldier, who led the predatory army as far as Niewport, burning, killing, ravishing, plundering, as they went. Meantime Philip, who was atBrussels, had directed the Duke of Savoy to oppose the Due de Guise withan army which had been hastily collected and organized at Maubeuge, inthe province of Namur. He now desired, if possible, to attack and cutoff the forces of De Thermes before he should extend the hand to Guise, or make good his retreat to Calais. 

Flushed with victory over defenceless peasants, laden with the spoils ofsacked and burning towns, the army of De Thermes was already on itshomeward march. It was the moment for a sudden and daring blow. Whosearm should deal it? What general in Philip's army possessed therequisite promptness, and felicitous audacity; who, but the mostbrilliant of cavalry officers, the bold and rapid hero of St. Quentin?Egmont, in obedience to the King's command, threw himself at once intothe field. He hastily collected all the available forces in theneighborhood. These, with drafts from the Duke of Savoy's army, and withdetachments under Marshal Bigonicourt from the garrisons of Saint Omer, Bethune, Aire, and Bourbourg, soon amounted to ten thousand foot and twothousand horse. His numbers were still further swollen by large bands ofpeasantry, both men and women, maddened by their recent injuries, andthirsting for vengeance. With these troops the energetic chieftain tookup his position directly in the path of the French army. Determined todestroy De Thermes with all his force, or to sacrifice himself, he postedhis army at Gravelines, a small town lying near the sea-shore, and aboutmidway between Calais and Dunkerk. The French general was putting thefinishing touch to his expedition by completing the conflagration atDunkerk, and was moving homeward, when he became aware of the lion in hispath. Although suffering from severe sickness, he mounted his horse andpersonally conducted his army to Gravelines. Here he found his progresscompletely arrested. On that night, which was the 12th July, he held acouncil of officers. It was determined to refuse the combat offered, and, if possible, to escape at low tide along the sands toward Calais. The next morning he crossed the river Aa, below Gravelines. Egmont, whowas not the man, on that occasion at least, to build a golden bridge fora flying enemy, crossed the same stream just above the town, and drew uphis whole force in battle array. De Thermes could no longer avoid theconflict thus resolutely forced upon him. Courage was now his only. Counsellor. Being not materially outnumbered by his adversaries, he had, at least, an even chance of cutting his way through all obstacles, and ofsaving his army and his treasure. The sea was on his right hand, the Aabehind him, the enemy in front. He piled his baggage and wagons so as toform a barricade upon his left, and placed his artillery, consisting offour culverines and three falconeta, in front. Behind these he drew uphis cavalry, supported at each side by the Gascons, and placed his Frenchand German infantry in the rear. 

Egmont, on the other hand, divided his cavalry into five squadrons. Three of light horse were placed in advance for the first assault--thecentre commanded by himself, the two wings by Count Pontenals and HenricoHenriquez. The black hussars of Lazarus Schwendi and the Flemishgendarmes came next. Behind these was the infantry, divided into threenations, Spanish, German, and Flemish, and respectively commanded byCarvajal, Monchausen, and Bignicourt. Egmont, having characteristicallyselected the post of danger in the very front of battle for himself, could no longer restrain his impatience. "The foe is ours already, " heshouted; "follow me, all who love their fatherland:" With that he setspurs to his horse, and having his own regiment well in hand, dashed uponthe enemy. The Gascons received the charge with coolness, and undercover of a murderous fire from the artillery in front, which mowed downthe foremost ranks of their assailants-sustained the whole weight of thefirst onset without flinching. Egmont's horse was shot under him at thecommencement of the action. Mounting another, he again cheered hiscavalry to the attack. The Gascons still maintained an unwavering front, and fought with characteristic ferocity. The courage of despair inflamedthe French, the hope of a brilliant and conclusive victory excited theSpaniards and Flemings. It was a wild, hand to hand conflict--generaland soldier, cavalier and pikeman, lancer and musketeer, mingled togetherin one dark, confused, and struggling mass, foot to foot, breast tobreast, horse to horse-a fierce, tumultuous battle on the sands, worthythe fitful pencil of the national painter, Wouvermans. For a long timeit was doubtful on which side victory was to incline, but at last tenEnglish vessels unexpectedly appeared in the offing, and ranging up soonafterwards as close to the share as was possible, opened their fire uponthe still unbroken lines of the French. The ships were too distant, thedanger of injuring friend as well as foe too imminent, to allow of theirexerting any important influence upon the result. The spirit of theenemy was broken, however, by this attack upon their seaward side, whichthey had thought impregnable. At the same time, too, a detachment ofGerman cavalry which had been directed by Egmont to make their way underthe downs to the southward, now succeeded in turning their left flank. Egmont, profiting by their confusion, charged them again with redoubledvigor. The fate of the day was decided. The French cavalry wavered, broke their ranks, and in their flight carried dismay throughout thewhole army. The rout was total; horse and foot; French, Gascon, andGerman fled from the field together. Fifteen hundred fell in the action, as many more were driven into the sea, while great numbers were torn topieces by the exasperated peasants, who now eagerly washed out theirrecent injuries in the blood of the dispersed, wandering, and woundedsoldiers. The army of De Thermes was totally destroyed, and with it, thelast hope of France for an honorable and equal negotiation. She was nowat Philip's feet, so that this brilliant cavalry action, although it hasbeen surpassed in importance by many others, in respect to the numbers ofthe combatants and the principles involved in the contest, was still, inregard to the extent both of its immediate and its permanent results, oneof the most decisive and striking which have ever been fought. TheFrench army engaged was annihilated. Marshal de Thermes, with a wound inthe head, Senarpont, Annibault, Villefon, Morvilliers, Chanlis, and manyothers of high rank were prisoners. The French monarch had not muchheart to set about the organization of another army; a task which he wasnow compelled to undertake. He was soon obliged to make the best termswhich he could, and to consent to a treaty which was one of the mostruinous in the archives of France. 

The Marshal de Thermes was severely censured for having remained so longat Dunkerk and in its neighborhood. He was condemned still more loudlyfor not having at least effected his escape beyond Gravelines, during thenight which preceded the contest. With regard to the last charge, however, it may well be doubted whether any nocturnal attempt would havebeen likely to escape the vigilance of Egmont. With regard to his delayat Dunkerk, it was asserted that he had been instructed to await in thatplace the junction with the Due de Guise, which had been previouslyarranged. But for the criminal and, then, inexplicable languor whichcharacterized that commander's movements, after the capture ofThionville, the honor of France might still have been saved. 

Whatever might have been the faults of De Thermes or of Guise, therecould be little doubt as to the merit of Egmont. Thus within elevenmonths of the battle of Saint Quentin, had the Dutch hero gained anothervictory so decisive as to settle the fate of the war, and to elevate hissovereign to a position from which he might dictate the terms of atriumphant peace. The opening scenes of Philip's reign were rendered asbrilliant as the proudest days of the Emperor's career, while theprovinces were enraptured with the prospect of early peace. To whom, then, was the sacred debt of national and royal gratitude due but toLamoral of Egmont? His countrymen gladly recognized the claim. Hebecame the idol of the army; the familiar hero of ballad and story; themirror of chivalry, and the god of popular worship. Throughout theNetherlands he was hailed as the right hand of the fatherland, thesaviour of Flanders from devastation and outrage, the protector of thenation, the pillar of the throne. 

The victor gained many friends by his victory, and one enemy. Thebitterness of that foe was likely, in the future, to outweigh all theplaudits of his friends. The Duke of Alva had strongly advised againstgiving battle to De Thermes. He depreciated the triumph after it hadbeen gained, by reflections upon the consequences which would haveflowed, had a defeat been suffered instead. He even held this languageto Egmont himself after his return to Brussels. The conqueror, flushedwith his glory, was not inclined to digest the criticism, nor what heconsidered the venomous detraction of the Duke. More vain and arrogantthan ever, he treated his powerful Spanish rival with insolence, andanswered his observations with angry sarcasms, even in the presence ofthe King. Alva was not likely to forget the altercation, nor to forgivethe triumph. 

There passed, naturally, much bitter censure and retort on both sidesat court, between the friends and adherents of Egmont and those whosustained the party of his adversary. The battle of Gravelines wasfought over daily, amid increasing violence and recrimination, betweenSpaniard and Fleming, and the old international hatred flamed morefiercely than ever. Alva continued to censure the foolhardiness whichhad risked so valuable an army on a single blow. Egmont's friendsreplied that it was easy for foreigners, who had nothing at risk in thecountry, to look on while the fields of the Netherlands were laid waste, and the homes and hearths of an industrious population made desolate, bya brutal and rapacious soldiery. They who dwelt in the Provinces wouldbe ever grateful to their preserver for the result. They had no eyes forthe picture which the Spanish party painted of an imaginary triumph of DeThermos and its effects. However the envious might cavil, now that theblow had been struck, the popular heart remained warm as ever, andrefused to throw down the idol which had so recently been set up. 

1558-1559 [CHAPTER III. ]

 Secret negotiations for peace--Two fresh armies assembled, but inactive--Negotiations at Cercamp--Death of Mary Tudor--Treaty of Cateau Cambresis--Death of Henry II. --Policy of Catharine de Medici --Revelations by Henry II. To the Prince of Orange--Funeral of Charles V. In Brussels--Universal joy in the Netherlands at the restoration of peace--Organization of the government by Philip, and preparations for his departure--Appointment of Margaret of Parma as Regent of the Netherlands--Three councils--The consulta--The stadholders of the different provinces--Dissatisfaction caused by the foreign troops--Assembly of the Estates at Ghent to receive the parting instructions and farewell of the King--Speech of the Bishop of Arras--Request for three millions--Fierce denunciation of heresy on the part of Philip--Strenuous enforcement of the edicts commanded--Reply by the States of Arthois--Unexpected conditions-- Rage of the King--Similar conduct on the part of the other provinces--Remonstrance in the name of States--General against the foreign soldiery--Formal reply on the part of the crown--Departure of the King from the Netherlands--Autos--da--fe in Spain. 

The battle of Gravelines had decided the question. The intrigues of thetwo Cardinals at Peronne having been sustained by Egmont's victory, allparties were ready for a peace. King Henry was weary of the losing gamewhich he had so long been playing, Philip was anxious to relieve himselffrom his false position, and to concentrate his whole mind and thestrength of his kingdom upon his great enemy the Netherland heresy, whilethe Duke of Savoy felt that the time had at last arrived when an adroitdiplomacy might stand him in stead, and place him in the enjoyment ofthose rights which the sword had taken from him, and which his own swordhad done so much towards winning back. The sovereigns were inclined topeace, and as there had never been a national principle or instinct orinterest involved in the dispute, it was very certain that peace would bepopular every where, upon whatever terms it might be concluded. 

Montmorency and the Prince of Orange were respectively empowered to opensecret negotiations. The Constable entered upon the task with alacrity, because he felt that every day of his captivity was alike prejudicial tohis own welfare and the interests of his country. --The Guises, who hadquarrelled with the Duchess de Valentinois (Diane de Poitiers), were notyet powerful enough to resist the influence of the mistress; while, rather to baffle them than from any loftier reasons, that interest wasexerted in behalf of immediate peace. The Cardinal de Lorraine had by nomeans forgotten the eloquent arguments used by the Bishop of Arras; buthis brother, the Due de Guise, may be supposed to have desired somelittle opportunity of redeeming the credit of the kingdom, and to havedelayed the negotiations until his valor could secure a less inglorioustermination to the war. 

A fresh army had, in fact, been collected under his command, and wasalready organized at Pierrepoint. At the same time, Philip had assembleda large force, consisting of thirty thousand foot and fifteen thousandcavalry, with which he had himself taken the field, encamping towards themiddle of August upon the banks of the river Anthies, near the border ofPicardy. King Henry, on the other hand, had already arrived in the campat Pierrepoint, and had reviewed as imposing an army as had ever been atthe disposal of a French monarch. When drawn up in battle array itcovered a league and a half of ground, while three hours were required tomake its circuit on horseback. All this martial display was only foreffect. The two kings, at the head of their great armies, stood lookingat each other while the negotiations for, peace were proceeding. Anunimportant skirmish or two at the out-posts, unattended with loss oflife, were the only military results of these great preparations. Earlyin the autumn, all the troops were disbanded, while the commissioners ofboth crowns met in open congress at the abbey of Cercamp, near Cambray, by the middle of October. The envoys on the part of Philip were thePrince of Orange, the Duke of Alva, the Bishop of Arras, Ruy Gomez deSilva, the president Viglius; on that of the French monarch, theConstable, the Marshal de Saint Andre, the Cardinal de Lorraine, theBishop of Orleans, and Claude l'Aubespine. 

There were also envoys sent by the Queen of England, but as the disputeconcerning Calais was found to hamper the negotiations at Cercamp, theEnglish question was left to be settled by another congress, and was keptentirely separate from the arrangements concluded between France andSpain. 

The death of Queen Mary, on the 17th November, caused a temporarysuspension of the proceedings. After the widower, however, had made afruitless effort to obtain the hand of her successor, and had beenunequivocally repulsed, the commissioners again met in February, 1559, at Cateau Cambresis. The English difficulty was now arranged by separatecommissioners, and on the third of April a treaty between France andSpain was concluded. 

By this important convention, both kings bound themselves to maintain theCatholic worship inviolate by all means in their power, and agreed thatan oecumenical council should at once assemble, to compose the religiousdifferences, and to extinguish the increasing heresy in both kingdoms. Furthermore, it was arranged that the conquests made by each countryduring the preceding eight years should be restored. Thus all the gainsof Francis and Henry were annulled by a single word, and the Duke ofSavoy converted, by a dash of the pen, from a landless soldier of fortuneinto a sovereign again. He was to receive back all his estates, and wasmoreover to marry Henry's sister Margaret, with a dowry of three hundredthousand crowns. Philip, on the other hand, now a second time a widower, was to espouse Henry's daughter Isabella, already betrothed to the InfantDon Carlos, and to receive with her a dowry of four hundred thousandcrowns. The restitutions were to be commenced by Henry, and to becompleted within three months. Philip was to restore his conquests inthe course of a month afterwards. 

Most of the powers of Europe were included by both parties in thistreaty: the Pope, the Emperor, all the Electors, the republics of Venice, Genoa and Switzerland, the kingdoms of England, Scotland, Poland, Denmark, Sweden; the duchies of Ferrara, Savoy and Parma, besides otherinferior principalities. Nearly all Christendom, in short, was embracedin this most amicable compact, as if Philip were determined that, henceforth and forever, Calvinists and Mahometans, Turks and Flemings, should be his only enemies. 

The King of France was to select four hostages from among Philip'ssubjects, to accompany him to Paris as pledges for the execution of allthe terms of the treaty. The royal choice fell upon the Prince ofOrange, the Duke of Alva, the Duke of Aerschot, and the Count of Egmont. 

Such was the treaty of Cateau Cambresis. Thus was a termination put toa war between France and Spain, which had been so wantonly undertaken. 

Marshal Monluc wrote that a treaty so disgraceful and disastrous hadnever before been ratified by a French monarch. It would have beendifficult to point to any one more unfortunate upon her previous annals;if any treaty can be called unfortunate, by which justice is done andwrongs repaired, even under coercion. The accumulated plunder of years, which was now disgorged by France, was equal in value to one third ofthat kingdom. One hundred and ninety-eight fortified towns weresurrendered, making, with other places of greater or less importance, atotal estimated by some writers as high as four hundred. The principalgainer was the Duke of Savoy, who, after so many years of knight-errantry, had regained his duchy, and found himself the brother-in-law ofhis ancient enemy. 

The well-known tragedy by which the solemnities of this pacification wereabruptly concluded in Paris, bore with it an impressive moral. Themonarch who, in violation of his plighted word and against the interestsof his nation and the world, had entered precipitately into a causelesswar, now lost his life in fictitious combat at the celebration of peace. On the tenth of July, Henry the Second died of the wound inflicted byMontgomery in the tournament held eleven days before. Of this weak andworthless prince, all that even his flatterers could favorably urge washis great fondness for war, as if a sanguinary propensity, even whenunaccompanied by a spark of military talent, were of itself a virtue. Yet, with his death the kingdom fell even into more pernicious hands, andthe fate of Christendom grew darker than ever. The dynasty of Diane dePoitiers was succeeded by that of Catharine de Medici; the courtesan gaveplace to the dowager; and France during the long and miserable period inwhich she lay bleeding in the grasp of the Italian she-wolf and herlitter of cowardly and sanguinary princes--might even lament the days ofHenry and his Diana. Charles the Ninth, Henry the Third, Francis ofAlencon, last of the Valois race--how large a portion of the fearful debtwhich has not yet been discharged by half a century of revolution andmassacre was of their accumulation. 

The Duchess of Valentinois had quarrelled latterly with the house ofGuise, and was disposed to favor Montmorency. The King, who was but atool in her hands, might possibly have been induced, had he lived, toregard Coligny and his friends with less aversion. This is, however, extremely problematical, for it was Henry the Second who had concludedthat memorable arrangement with his royal brother of Spain, to arrangefor the Huguenot chiefs throughout both realms, a "Sicilian Vespers, "upon the first favorable occasion. His death and the subsequent policyof the Queen-Regent deferred the execution of the great scheme tillfourteen years later. Henry had lived long enough, however, after theconclusion of the secret agreement to reveal it to one whose life was tobe employed in thwarting this foul conspiracy of monarchs against theirsubjects. William of Orange, then a hostage for the execution of thetreaty of Cateau Cambresis, was the man with whom the King had theunfortunate conception to confer on the subject of the plot. The Prince, who had already gained the esteem of Charles the Fifth by his habitualdiscretion, knew how to profit by the intelligence and to bide his time;but his hostility to the policy of the French and Spanish courts wasperhaps dated from that hour. 

Pending the peace negotiations, Philip had been called upon to mourn forhis wife and father. He did not affect grief for the death of MaryTudor, but he honored the Emperor's departure with stately obsequies atBrussels. The ceremonies lasted two days (the 29th and 30th December, 1558). In the grand and elaborate procession which swept through thestreets upon the first day, the most conspicuous object was a shipfloating apparently upon the waves, and drawn by a band of Tritons whodisported at the bows. The masts, shrouds, and sails of the vessel wereblack, it was covered with heraldic achievements, banners and emblematicmementos of the Emperor's various expeditions, while the flags of Turksand Moors trailed from her sides in the waves below. Three allegoricalpersonages composed the crew. Hope, "all clothyd in brown, with anker inhand, " stood at the prow; Faith, with sacramental chalice and red cross, clad in white garment, with her face nailed "with white tiffany, " sat ona "stool of estate" before the mizen-mast; while Charity "in red, holdingin her hand a burning heart, " was at the helm to navigate thevessel. Hope, Faith, and Love were thought the most appropriate symbolsfor the man who had invented the edicts, introduced the inquisition, andwhose last words, inscribed by a hand already trembling with death, hadadjured his son, by his love, allegiance, and hope of salvation, to dealto all heretics the extreme rigor of the law, "without respect of personsand without regard to any plea in their favor. "

The rest of the procession, in which marched the Duke of Alva, the Princeof Orange, and other great personages, carrying the sword, the globe, thesceptre, and the "crown imperial, " contained no emblems or imageryworthy of being recorded. The next day the King, dressed in mourning andattended by a solemn train of high officers and nobles, went again to thechurch. A contemporary letter mentions a somewhat singular incident asforming the concluding part of the ceremony. "And the service beingdone, " wrote Sir Richard Clough to Sir Thomas Gresham, "there went anobleman into the herse (so far as I codde understande, it was the Princeof Orange), who, standing before the herse, struck with his hand upon thechest and sayd, 'He is ded. ' Then standing styli awhile, he sayd, 'Heshall remayn ded. ' And 'then resting awhile, he struck again and sayd, 'He is ded, and there is another rysen up in his place greater than everhe was. ' Whereupon the Kynge's hoode was taken off and the Kynge wenthome without his hoode. "

If the mourning for the dead Emperor was but a mummery and a masquerade, there was, however, heartiness and sincerity in the rejoicing which nowburst forth like a sudden illumination throughout the Netherlands, uponthe advent of peace. All was joy in the provinces, but at Antwerp, themetropolis of the land, the enthusiasm was unbounded. Nine days weredevoted to festivities. Bells rang their merriest peals, artillerythundered, beacons blazed, the splendid cathedral spire flamed nightlywith three hundred burning cresaets, the city was strewn with flowers anddecorated with triumphal arches, the Guilds of Rhetoric amazed the worldwith their gorgeous processions, glittering dresses and bombasticversification, the burghers all, from highest to humblest, were feastedand made merry, wine flowed in the streets and oxen were roasted whole, prizes on poles were climbed for, pigs were hunted blindfold, men andwomen raced in sacks, and in short, for nine days long there was oneuniversal and spontaneous demonstration of hilarity in Antwerp andthroughout the provinces. 

But with this merry humor of his subjects, the sovereign had but littlesympathy. There was nothing in his character or purposes which owedaffinity with any mood of this jocund and energetic people. Philip hadnot made peace with all the world that the Netherlanders might climb onpoles or ring bells, or strew flowers in his path for a little holidaytime, and then return to their industrious avocations again. He had madepeace with all the world that he might be free to combat heresy; and thisarch enemy had taken up its strong hold in the provinces. The treaty ofCateau Cambresis left him at liberty to devote himself to that greatenterprise. He had never loved the Netherlands, a residence in theseconstitutional provinces was extremely irksome to him, and he wastherefore anxious to return to Spain. From the depths of his cabinet hefelt that he should be able to direct the enterprise he was resolvedupon, and that his presence in the Netherlands would be superfluous anddisagreeable. 

The early part of the year 1559 was spent by Philip in organizing thegovernment of the provinces and in making the necessary preparations forhis departure. The Duke of Savoy, being restored to his duchy, had, ofcourse, no more leisure to act as Regent of the Netherlands, and it wasnecessary, therefore, to fix upon his successor in this important post, at once. There were several candidates. The Duchess Christina ofLorraine had received many half promises of the appointment, which shewas most anxious to secure; the Emperor was even said to desire thenomination of the Archduke Maximilian, a step which would have certainlyargued more magnanimity upon Philip's part than the world could give himcredit for; and besides these regal personages, the high nobles of theland, especially Orange and Egmont, had hopes of obtaining the dignity. The Prince of Orange, however, was too sagacious to deceive himself long, and became satisfied very soon that no Netherlander was likely to beselected for Regent. He therefore threw his influence in favor of theDuchess Christina, whose daughter, at the suggestion of the Bishop ofArras, he was desirous of obtaining in marriage. The King favored for atime, or pretended to favor, both the appointment of Madame de Lorraineand the marriage project of the Prince. Afterwards, however, and in amanner which was accounted both sudden and mysterious, it appeared thatthe Duchess and Orange had both been deceived, and that the King andBishop had decided in favor of another candidate, whose claims had notbeen considered, before, very prominent. This was the Duchess Margaretof Parma, natural daughter of Charles the Fifth. A brief sketch of thisimportant personage, so far as regards her previous career, is reservedfor the following chapter. For the present it is sufficient to state thefact of the nomination. In order to afford a full view of Philip'spolitical arrangements before his final departure from the Netherlands, we defer until the same chapter, an account of the persons who composedthe boards of council organized to assist the new Regent in thegovernment. These bodies themselves were three in number: a state andprivy council and one of finance. They were not new institutions, havingbeen originally established by the Emperor, and were now arranged by hissuccessor upon the same nominal basis upon which they had before existed. The finance council, which had superintendence of all matters relating tothe royal domains and to the annual budgets of the government, waspresided over by Baron Berlaymont. The privy council, of which Vigliuswas president, was composed of ten or twelve learned doctors, and wasespecially entrusted with the control of matters relating to law, pardons, and the general administration of justice. The state council, which was far the most important of the three boards, was to superintendall high affairs of government, war, treaties, foreign intercourse, internal and interprovincial affairs. The members of this council werethe Bishop of Arras, Viglius, Berlaymont, the Prince of Orange, CountEgmont, to which number were afterwards added the Seigneur de Glayon, theDuke of Aerschot, and Count Horn. The last-named nobleman, who wasadmiral of the provinces, had, for the, present, been appointed toaccompany the King to Spain, there to be specially entrusted with theadministration of affairs relating to the Netherlands. He was destined, however, to return at the expiration of two years. 

With the object, as it was thought, of curbing the power of the greatnobles, it had been arranged that the three councils should be entirelydistinct from each other, that the members of the state council shouldhave no participation in the affairs of the two other bodies; but, on theother hand, that the finance and privy councillors, as well as theKnights of the Fleece, should have access to the deliberations of thestate council. In the course of events, however, it soon became evidentthat the real power of the government was exclusively in the hands of theconsulta, a committee of three members of the state council, by whosedeliberations the Regent was secretly instructed to be guided on allimportant occasions. The three, Viglius, Berlaymont, and Arras, whocomposed the secret conclave or cabinet, were in reality but one. TheBishop of Arras was in all three, and the three together constituted onlythe Bishop of Arras. 

There was no especial governor or stadholder appointed for the provinceof Brabant, where the Regent was to reside and to exercise executivefunctions in person. The stadholders for the other provinces were, forFlanders and Artois, the Count of Egmont; for Holland, Zeeland, andUtrecht, the Prince of Orange; for Gueldres and Zutfen, the Count ofMeghen; for Friesland, Groningen and Overyssel, Count Aremberg; forHainault, Valenciennes and Cambray, the Marquis of Berghen; for Tournayand Tournaisis, Baron Montigny; for Namur, Baron Berlaymont; forLuxemburg, Count Mansfeld; for Ryssel, Douay and Orchies, the BaronCoureires. All these stadholders were commanders-in-chief of themilitary forces in their respective provinces. With the single exceptionof Count Egmont, in whose province of Flanders the stadholders wereexcluded from the administration of justice, --all were likewise supremejudges in the civil and criminal tribunal. The military force of theNetherlands in time of peace was small, for the provinces were jealous ofthe presence of soldiery. The only standing army which then legallyexisted in the Netherlands were the Bandes d'Ordonnance, a body ofmounted gendarmerie--amounting in all to three thousand men--which rankedamong the most accomplished and best disciplined cavalry of Europe. They were divided into fourteen squadrons, each under the command of astadholder, or of a distinguished noble. Besides these troops, however, there still remained in the provinces a foreign force amounting in theaggregate to four thousand men. These soldiers were the remainder ofthose large bodies which year after year had been quartered upon theNetherlands during the constant warfare to which they had been exposed. Living upon the substance of the country, paid out of its treasury, andas offensive by their licentious and ribald habits of life as were theenemies against whom they were enrolled, these troops had become anintolerable burthen to the people. They were now disposed in differentgarrisons, nominally to protect the frontier. As a firm peace, however, had now been concluded between Spain and France, and as there was nopretext for compelling the provinces to accept this protection, thepresence of a foreign soldiery strengthened a suspicion that they wereto be used in the onslaught which was preparing against the religiousfreedom and the political privileges of the country. They were to be thenucleus of a larger army, it was believed, by which the land was to bereduced to a state of servile subjection to Spain. A low, constant, butgenerally unheeded murmur of dissatisfaction and distrust upon thissubject was already perceptible throughout the Netherlands; a warningpresage of the coming storm. 

All the provinces were now convoked for the 7th of August (1559), atGhent, there to receive the parting communication and farewell of theKing. Previously to this day, however, Philip appeared in person uponseveral solemn occasions, to impress upon the country the necessity ofattending to the great subject with which his mind was exclusivelyoccupied. He came before the great council of Mechlin, in order toaddress that body with his own lips upon the necessity of supporting theedicts to the letter, and of trampling out every vestige of heresy, wherever it should appear, by the immediate immolation of all heretics, whoever they might be. He likewise caused the estates of Flanders to beprivately assembled, that he might harangue them upon the same greattopic. In the latter part of July he proceeded to Ghent, where a greatconcourse of nobles, citizens, and strangers had already assembled. Here, in the last week of the month, the twenty-third chapter of theGolden Fleece was held with much pomp, and with festivities which lastedthree days. The fourteen vacancies which existed were filled with thenames of various distinguished personages. With this last celebrationthe public history of Philip the Good's ostentatious and ambitious orderof knighthood was closed. The subsequent nominations were made'ex indultu apostolico', and without the assembling of a chapter. 

The estates having duly assembled upon the day prescribed, Philip, attended by Margaret of Parma, the Duke of Savoy, and a stately retinueof ambassadors and grandees, made his appearance before them. After thecustomary ceremonies had been performed, the Bishop of Arras arose anddelivered, in the name of his sovereign, an elaborate address ofinstructions and farewells. In this important harangue, the states wereinformed that the King had convened them in order that they might beinformed of his intention of leaving the Netherlands immediately. Hewould gladly have remained longer in his beloved provinces, had notcircumstances compelled his departure. His father had come hither forthe good of the country in the year 1543, and had never returned toSpain, except to die. 

Upon the King's accession to the sovereignty he had arranged a truce offive years, which had been broken through by the faithlessness of France. He had, therefore, been obliged, notwithstanding his anxiety to return toa country where his presence was so much needed, to remain in theprovinces till he had conducted the new war to a triumphant close. In doing this he had been solely governed by his intense love for theNetherlands, and by his regard for their interests. All the money whichhe had raised from their coffers had been spent for their protection. Upon this account his Majesty expressed his confidence that the estateswould pay an earnest attention to the "Request" which had been laidbefore them, the more so, as its amount, three millions of gold florins, would all be expended for the good of the provinces. After his return toSpain he hoped to be able to make a remittance. The Duke of Savoy, hecontinued, being obliged, in consequence of the fortunate change in hisaffairs, to resign the government of the Netherlands, and his own son, Don Carlos, not yet being sufficiently advanced in years to succeed tothat important post, his Majesty had selected his sister, the DuchessMargaret of Parma, daughter of the Emperor, as the most proper person forRegent. As she had been born in the Netherlands, and had alwaysentertained a profound affection for the provinces, he felt a firmconfidence that she would prove faithful both to their interests and hisown. As at this moment many countries, and particularly the lands in theimmediate neighborhood, were greatly infested by various "new, reprobate, and damnable sects;" as these sects, proceeding from the foul fiend, father of discord, had not failed to keep those kingdoms in perpetualdissension and misery, to the manifest displeasure of God Almighty; ashis Majesty was desirous to avert such terrible evils from his ownrealms, according to his duty to the Lord God, who would demand reckoningfrom him hereafter for the well-being of the provinces; as all experienceproved that change of religion ever brought desolation and confusion tothe commonweal; as low persons, beggars and vagabonds, under color ofreligion, were accustomed to traverse the land for the purpose of plunderand disturbance; as his Majesty was most desirous of following in thefootsteps of his lord and father; as it would be well remembered what theEmperor had said to him upon the memorable occasion of his abdication;therefore his Majesty had commanded the Regent Margaret of Parma, for thesake of religion and the glory of God, accurately and exactly to cause tobe enforced the edicts and decrees made by his imperial Majesty, andrenewed by his present Majesty, for the extirpation of all sects andheresies. All governors, councillors, and others having authority, werealso instructed to do their utmost to accomplish this great end. 

The great object of the discourse was thus announced in the mostimpressive manner, and with all that conventional rhetoric of which theBishop of Arras was considered a consummate master. Not a word was saidon the subject which was nearest the hearts of the Netherlanders--thewithdrawal of the Spanish troops. 

 [Bentivoglio. Guerra di Fiandra, i. 9 (Opere, Parigi, 1648), gives a different report, which ends with a distinct promise on the part of the King to dismiss the troops as soon as possible: "--in segno di the spetialmente havrebbe quanto prima, a fatti uscire i presidij stranieri dalle fortezze a levata ogn' insolita contributione al paese. " It is almost superfluous to state that the Cardinal is no authority for speeches, except, indeed, for those which were never made. Long orations by generals upon the battle-field, by royal personages in their cabinets, by conspirators in secret conclave, are reported by him with muck minuteness, and none can gainsay the accuracy with which these harangues, which never had any existence, except in the author's imagination, are placed before the reader. Bentivoglio's stately and graceful style, elegant descriptions, and general acquaintance with his subject will always make his works attractive, but the classic and conventional system of inventing long speeches for historical characters has fortunately gone out of fashion. It is very interesting to know what an important personage really did say or write upon remarkable occasions; but it is less instructive to be told what the historian thinks might have been a good speech or epistle for him to utter or indito. ]

Not a hint was held out that a reduction of the taxation, under which theprovinces had so long been groaning, was likely to take place; but, onthe contrary, the King had demanded a new levy of considerable amount. Afew well-turned paragraphs were added on the subject of theadministration of justice--"without which the republic was a dead bodywithout a soul"--in the Bishop's most approved style, and the discourseconcluded with a fervent exhortation to the provinces to trample heresyand heretics out of existence, and with the hope that the Lord God, insuch case, would bestow upon the Netherlands health and happiness. 

After the address had been concluded, the deputies, according to ancientform, requested permission to adjourn, that the representatives of eachprovince might deliberate among themselves on the point of granting orwithholding the Request for the three millions. On the following daythey again assembled in the presence of the King, for the purpose ofreturning their separate answers to the propositions. 

The address first read was that of the Estates of Artois. The chairmanof the deputies from that province read a series of resolutions, drawnup, says a contemporary, "with that elegance which characterized all thepublic acts of the Artesians; bearing witness to the vivacity of theirwits. " The deputies spoke of the extreme affection which their provincehad always borne to his Majesty and to the Emperor. They had proved itby the constancy with which they had endured the calamities of war solong, and they now cheerfully consented to the Request, so far as theircontingent went. They were willing to place at his Majesty's disposal, not only the remains of their property, but even the last drop of theirblood. As the eloquent chairman reached this point in his discourse, Philip, who was standing with his arm resting upon Egmont's shoulder, listening eagerly to the Artesian address, looked upon the deputies ofthe province with a smiling face, expressing by the unwonted benignity ofhis countenance the satisfaction which he received from these loyalexpressions of affection, and this dutiful compliance with his Request. 

The deputy, however, proceeded to an unexpected conclusion, by earnestlyentreating his Majesty, as a compensation for the readiness thus evincedin the royal service, forthwith to order the departure of all foreigntroops then in the Netherlands. Their presence, it was added, was nowrendered completely superfluous by the ratification of the treaty ofpeace so fortunately arranged with all the world. 

At this sudden change in the deputy's language, the King, no longersmiling, threw himself violently upon his chair of state, where heremained, brooding with a gloomy countenance upon the language which hadbeen addressed to him. It was evident, said an eye-witness, that he wasdeeply offended. He changed color frequently, so that all present "couldremark, from the working of his face, how much his mind was agitated. "

The rest of the provinces were even more explicit than the deputies ofArtois. All had voted their contingents to the Request, but all had madethe withdrawal of the troops an express antecedent condition to thepayment of their respective quotas. 

The King did not affect to conceal his rage at these conditions, exclaiming bitterly to Count Egmont and other seignors near the thronethat it was very easy to estimate, by these proceedings, the value ofthe protestations made by the provinces of their loyalty and affection. 

Besides, however, the answers thus addressed by the separate states tothe royal address, a formal remonstrance had also been drawn up in thename of the States General, and signed by the Prince of Orange, CountEgmont, and many of the leading patricians of the Netherlands. Thisdocument, which was formally presented to the King before the adjournmentof the assembly, represented the infamous "pillaging, insults, anddisorders" daily exercised by the foreign soldiery; stating that theburthen had become intolerable, and that the inhabitants of Marienburg, and of many other large towns and villages had absolutely abandoned theirhomes rather than remain any longer exposed to such insolence andoppression. 

The king, already enraged, was furious at the presentation of thispetition. He arose from his seat, and rushed impetuously from theassembly, demanding of the members as he went, whether he too, as aSpaniard, was expected immediately to leave the land, and to resign allauthority over it. The Duke of Savoy made use of this last occasion inwhich he appeared in public as Regent, violently to rebuke the estatesfor the indignity thus offered to their sovereign. 

It could not be forgotten, however, by nobles and burghers, who had notyet been crushed by the long course of oppression which was in store forthem, that there had been a day when Philip's ancestors had been morehumble in their deportment in the face of the provincial authorities. His great-grandfather, Maximilian, kept in durance by the citizens ofBruges; his great-grandmother, Mary of Burgundy, with streaming eyes anddishevelled hair, supplicating in the market-place for the lives of hertreacherous ambassadors, were wont to hold a less imperious language tothe delegates of the states. 

This burst of ill temper on the part of the monarch was, however, succeeded by a different humor. It was still thought advisable todissemble, and to return rather an expostulatory than a peremptory answerto the remonstrance of the States General. Accordingly a paper of asingular tone was, after the delay of a few days, sent into the assembly. In this message it was stated that the King was not desirous of placingstrangers in the government--a fact which was proved by the appointmentof the Duchess Margaret; that the Spanish infantry was necessary toprotect the land from invasion; that the remnant of foreign troops onlyamounted to three or four thousand men, who claimed considerable arrearsof pay, but that the amount due would be forwarded to them immediatelyafter his Majesty's return to Spain. It was suggested that the troopswould serve as an escort for Don Carlos when he should arrive in theNetherlands, although the King would have been glad to carry them toSpain in his fleet, had he known the wishes of the estates in time. He would, however, pay for their support himself, although they wereto act solely for the good of the provinces. He observed, moreover, that he had selected two seignors of the provinces, the Prince of Orangeand Count Egmont, to take command of these foreign troops, and hepromised faithfully that, in the course of three or four months atfurthest, they should all be withdrawn. 

On the same day in which the estates had assembled at Ghent, Philip hadaddressed an elaborate letter to the grand council of Mechlin, thesupreme court of the provinces, and to the various provincial councilsand tribunals of the whole country. The object of the communication wasto give his final orders on the subject of the edicts, and for theexecution of all heretics in the most universal and summary manner. He gave stringent and unequivocal instructions that these decrees forburning, strangling, and burying alive, should be fulfilled to theletter. He ordered all judicial officers and magistrates "to be curiousto enquire on all sides as to the execution of the placards, " stating hisintention that "the utmost rigor should be employed without any respectof persons, " and that not only the transgressors should be proceededagainst, but also the judges who should prove remiss in their prosecutionof heretics. He alluded to a false opinion which had gained currencythat the edicts were only intended against anabaptists. Correcting thiserror, he stated that they were to be "enforced against all sectaries, without any distinction or mercy, who might be spotted merely with theerrors introduced by Luther. "

The King, notwithstanding the violent scenes in the assembly, took leaveof the estates at another meeting with apparent cordiality. Hisdissatisfaction was sufficiently manifest, but it expressed itselfprincipally against individuals. His displeasure at the course pursuedby the leading nobles, particularly by the Prince of Orange, was alreadyno secret. 

Philip, soon after the adjournment of the assembly, had completed thepreparations for his departure. At Middelburg he was met by theagreeable intelligence that the Pope had consented to issue a bull forthe creation of the new bishoprics which he desired for the Netherlands. --This important subject will be resumed in another chapter; for thepresent we accompany the King to Flushing, whence the fleet was to setsail for Spain. He was escorted thither by the Duchess Regent, the Dukeof Savoy, and by many of the most eminent personages of the provinces. Among others William of Orange was in attendance to witness the finaldeparture of the King, and to pay him his farewell respects. As Philipwas proceeding on board the ship which was to bear him forever from theNetherlands, his eyes lighted upon the Prince. His displeasure could nolonger be restrained. With angry face he turned upon him, and bitterlyreproached him for having thwarted all his plans by means of his secretintrigues. William replied with humility that every thing which hadtaken place had been done through the regular and natural movements ofthe states. Upon this the King, boiling with rage, seized the Prince bythe wrist, and shaking it violently, exclaimed in Spanish, "No losestados, ma vos, vos, vos!--Not the estates, but you, you, you!"repeating thrice the word vos, which is as disrespectful and uncourteousin Spanish as "toi" in French. 

After this severe and public insult, the Prince of Orange did not go onboard his Majesty's vessel, but contented himself with wishing Philip, from the shore, a fortunate journey. It may be doubted, moreover, whether he would not have made a sudden and compulsory voyage to Spainhad he ventured his person in the ship, and whether, under thecircumstances, he would have been likely to effect as speedy a return. His caution served him then as it was destined to do on many futureoccasions, and Philip left the Netherlands with this parting explosionof hatred against the man who, as he perhaps instinctively felt, wasdestined to circumvent his measures and resist his tyranny to the last. 

The fleet, which consisted of ninety vessels, so well provisioned that, among other matters, fifteen thousand capons were put on board, accordingto the Antwerp chronicler, set sail upon the 26th August (1559), fromFlushing. The voyage proved tempestuous, so that much of the richtapestry and other merchandise which had been accumulated by Charles andPhilip was lost. Some of the vessels foundered; to save others it wasnecessary to lighten the cargo, and "to enrobe the roaring waters withthe silks, " for which the Netherlands were so famous; so that it was saidthat Philip and his father had impoverished the earth only to enrich theocean. The fleet had been laden with much valuable property, because theKing had determined to fix for the future the wandering capital of hisdominions in Spain. Philip landed in safety, however, at Laredo, on the8th September. His escape from imminent peril confirmed him in the greatpurpose to which he had consecrated his existence. He believed himselfto have been reserved from shipwreck only because a mighty mission hadbeen confided to him, and lest his enthusiasm against heresy shouldlanguish, his eyes were soon feasted, upon his arrival in his nativecountry, with the spectacle of an auto-da fe. 

Early in January of this year the King being persuaded that it wasnecessary every where to use additional means to check the alarmingspread of Lutheran opinions, had written to the Pope for authority toincrease, if that were possible, the stringency of the Spanishinquisition. The pontiff, nothing loath, had accordingly issued a bulldirected to the inquisitor general, Valdez, by which he was instructedto consign to the flames all prisoners whatever, even those who were notaccused of having "relapsed. " Great preparations had been made to striketerror into the hearts of heretics by a series of horrible exhibitions, in the course of which the numerous victims, many of them persons of highrank, distinguished learning, and exemplary lives, who had long beenlanguishing in the dungeons of the holy office, were to be consigned tothe flames. The first auto-da fe had been consummated at Valladolid onthe 21st May (1559), in the absence of the King, of course, but in thepresence of the royal family and the principal notabilities, civil, ecclesiastical, and military. The Princess Regent, seated on her throne, close to the scaffold, had held on high the holy sword. The Archbishopof Seville, followed by the ministers of the inquisition and by thevictims, had arrived in solemn procession at the "cadahalso, " where, after the usual sermon in praise of the holy office and in denunciationof heresy, he had administered the oath to the Intante, who had dulysworn upon the crucifix to maintain forever the sacred inquisition andthe apostolic decrees. The Archbishop had then cried aloud, "So may Godprosper your Highnesses and your estates;" after which the men and womenwho formed the object of the show had been cast into the flames. --[Cabrera]. It being afterwards ascertained that the King himself wouldsoon be enabled to return to Spain, the next festival was reserved as afitting celebration for his arrival. Upon the 8th October, accordingly, another auto-da fe took place at Valladolid. The King, with his sisterand his son, the high officers of state, the foreign ministers, and allthe nobility of the kingdom, were present, together with an immenseconcourse of soldiery, clergy, and populace. The sermon was preached bythe Bishop of Cuenga. When it was finished, Inquisitor General Valdezcried with a loud voice, "Oh God, make speed to help us!" The King thendrew his sword. Valdez, advancing to the platform upon which Philip wasseated, proceeded to read the protestation: "Your Majesty swears by thecross of the sword, whereon your royal hand reposes, that you will giveall necessary favor to the holy office of the inquisition againstheretics, apostates, and those who favor them, and will denounce andinform against all those who, to your royal knowledge, shall act or speakagainst the faith. " The King answered aloud, "I swear it, " and signedthe paper. The oath was read to the whole assembly by an officer of theinquisition. Thirteen distinguished victims were then burned before themonarch's eyes, besides one body which a friendly death had snatched fromthe hands of the holy office, and the effigy of another person who hadbeen condemned, although not yet tried or even apprehended. Among thesufferers was Carlos de Sessa, a young noble of distinguished characterand abilities, who said to the King as he passed by the throne to thestake, "How can you thus look on and permit me to be burned?" Philipthen made the memorable reply, carefully recorded by his historiographerand panegyrist; "I would carry the wood to burn my own son withal, werehe as wicked as you. "

In Seville, immediately afterwards, another auto-da fe was held, in which fifty living heretics were burned, besides the bones of DoctorConstantine Ponce de la Fuente, once the friend, chaplain, and almoner ofPhilip's father. This learned and distinguished ecclesiastic had beenreleased from a dreadful dungeon by a fortunate fever. The holy office, however, not content with punishing his corpse, wreaked also an impotentand ludicrous malice upon his effigy. A stuffed figure, attired in hisrobes and with its arms extended in the attitude which was habitual withhim in prayer, was placed upon the scaffold among the living victims, andthen cast into the flames, that bigotry might enjoy a fantastic triumphover the grave. 

Such were the religious ceremonies with which Philip celebrated hisescape from shipwreck, and his marriage with Isabella of France, immediately afterwards solemnized. These human victims, chained andburning at the stake, were the blazing torches which lighted the monarchto his nuptial couch. 

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Consign to the flames all prisoners whatever (Papal letter)Courage of despair inflamed the FrenchDecrees for burning, strangling, and burying aliveI would carry the wood to burn my own son withalInventing long speeches for historical charactersLet us fool these poor creatures to their heart's contentPetty passion for contemptible detailsPromises which he knew to be binding only upon the weakRashness alternating with hesitationThese human victims, chained and burning at the stake