[860] "En fin s"et une femme nourie en Rome, il n"y at que ajouter foy."
Ibid., p. 401.
Yet Egmont, on his trial, affirmed that he regarded the letter as spurious! (Correspondance de Marguerite d"Autriche, p. 327.) One who finds it impossible that the prince of Orange could lend himself to such a piece of duplicity, may perhaps be staggered when he calls to mind his curious correspondence with the elector and with King Philip in relation to Anne of Saxony, before his marriage with that princess. Yet Margaret, as Egmont hints, was of the Italian school; and Strada, her historian, dismisses the question with a doubt,--"in medio ego quidem relinquo." A doubt from Strada is a decision against Margaret.
[861] Correspondance de Philippe II., tom I. p. 474.
[862] Ibid., p. 491.
[863] Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 282.
[864] Ibid., ubi supra.
[865] Hopper, Recueil et Memorial, p. 109.
[866] Ibid., p. 113.
[867] Archives de la Maison d"Orange-Na.s.sau, tom. II. p. 391.
[868] "Praeterea consistoria, id est senatus ac ctus, multis in urbibus, sicuti jam Antverpiae caeperant, inst.i.tuerunt: creatis Magistratibus, Senatoribusque, quorum consiliis (sed antea c.u.m Antverpiana curia, quam esse principem voluere, communicatis) universa haereticorum Resput.
temperaretur." Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I p. 283.
[869] Archives de la Maison d"Orange-Na.s.sau, tom. II. pp. 455, 456.
[870] Ibid., p. 496.
[871] I quote almost the words of William in his famous Apology, which suggests the same explanation of his conduct that I have given in the text.--"Car puis que des le berceau j"y avois este nourry, Monsieur mon Pere y avoit vescu, y estoit mort, ayant cha.s.se de ses Seigneuries les abus de l"Eglise, qui est-ce qui trouvera estrange si cette doctrine estoit tellement engravee en mon cur, et y avoit jette telles racines, qu"en son temps elle est venue a apporter ses fruits." Dumont, Corps Diplomatique, tom. V. part i. p. 392.
[872] "Il y a plus de trois mois, qu"elle se leve avant le jour, et que le plus souvent elle tient conseil le matin et le soir; et tout le reste, de la journee et de la nuit, elle le consacre a donner des audiences, a lire les lettres et les avis qui arrivent de toutes parts, et a determiner les responses a y faire." Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 496.
Sleep seems to have been as superfluous to Margaret as to a hero of romance.
[873] Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. pp. 289, 290.
[874] "J"aimerais mieux que my langue fut attachee au palais, et devenir muet, comme un poisson, que d"ouvrir la bouche pour persuader au peuple chose tant cruelle et deraisonnable." Chronique contemporaine, cited by Gachard. Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 561, note.
[875] "Suadere itaque illis, ut a publicis certe negotiis abstineant, ac res quique suas in posterum curent: neve Regem brevi affecturum ingenitae benignitatis oblivisci cogant. Se quidem omni ope curaturam, ne, quam ipsi ruinam comminentur, per haec vulgi turbamenta Belgium patiatur."
Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 295.
[876] "Nec ullis conditionibus flecti te patere ad clementiam; sed homines scelestos, atque indeprecabile supplicium commeritos, ferro et igni quamprimum dele." Ibid., p. 300.
[877] "Periere in ea pugna quae prima c.u.m rebellibus commissa est in Belgio, Gheusiorum mille ac quingenti: capti circiter trecenti, jugulatique paene omnes Beavorii jussu, quod erupturi Antverpienses, opemque reliquiis victae factionis allaturi crederentur." Ibid., p. 301.
[878] For the account of the troubles in Antwerp, see Correspondance de Marguerite d"Autriche, p. 226 et seq.--Archives de la Maison d"Orange-Naussau, tom. III. p. 59.--Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. pp 300-303.--Brandt, Reformation in the Low Countries, vol. I. p.
247.--Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. pp. 526, 527.--Vander Haer, De Initiis Tumultuum, pp. 314-317.--Renom de Francia, Alborotos de Flandes, MS.
[879] Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 310.
[880] Strada gives an extract from the letter: "Deinde si deditio non sequeretur, invaderent quidem urbem, quodque militum est, agerent; a caedibus tamen non puerorum mod, senumque ac mulierum abstinerent; sed civium nullus, nisi dum inter propugnandum se hostem gereret, enecaretur." Ibid., p. 311.
[881] "Quasi ver, inquit, vestra conditio eadem hodie sit, ac nudiustertius. Ser sapitis Valencenates: ego certe conditionibus non transigo cadente c.u.m hoste." Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 314.
[882] "Feruntque ter millies explosas murales machinas, mnium quam hominum majori strage." Ibid., ubi supra.
[883] So states Margaret"s historian, who would not be likely to exaggerate the number of those who suffered. The loyal president of Mechlin dismisses the matter more summarily, without specifying any number of victims. "El senor de Noilcarmes se aseguro de muchos prisioneros princ.i.p.ales Borgeses y de otros que avian sido los autores de la rebelion, a los quales se hizo luego en diligencia su pleyto."
(Renom de Francia, Alborotos de Flandes, MS.) Brandt, the historian of the Reformation, (vol. I. p. 251,) tells us that two hundred _were said_ to have perished by the hands of the hangman at Valenciennes, on account of the religious troubles, in the course of this year.
[884] For information, more or less minute, in regard to the siege of Valenciennes, see Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. pp. 303-315.--Vander Haer, De Initiis Tumultuum, pp. 319-322.--Meteren, Hist. des Pays-Bas, fol. 49.--Correspondance de Guillaume le Taciturne, tom. II. p.
501.--Renom de Francia, Alborotos de Flandes, MS.
[885] Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. pp. 315-323 et seq.
[886] "Il ne comprenait pas pourquoi la gouvernante insistait, apres qu"il lui avait ecrit une lettre de sa main, contenant tout ce que S. A.
pouvait desirer d"un gentilhomme d"honneur, chevalier de l"Ordre, naturel va.s.sal du Roi, et qui toute sa vie avait fait le devoir d"homme de bien, comme il le faisait encore journellement." Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 321.
[887] "Ferez cesser les calumnies que dictes se semer contre vous, ensamble tous ces bruits que scavez courrir de vous, encoires que en mon endroict je les tiens faulx et que a tort ils se dyent; ne pouvant croire que en ung cur n.o.ble et de telle extraction que vous estes, successeur des Seigneurs," etc. Archives de la Maison d"Orange-Na.s.sau, tom. III. p. 44.
[888] "Servir et m"employer envers et contre tous, et comme me sera ordonne de sa part, sans limitation ou restrinction." Ibid., ubi supra.
[889] "Je seroys aulcunement oblige et constrainct, le cas advenant, que on me viendroict a commander chose qui pourroit venir contre ma conscience ou au deservice de Sa Ma^{te} et du pays." Ibid., p. 46.
[890] "Vous a.s.seurant que, ou que seray, n"espargneray jamais mon corps ni mon bien pour le service de Sa Ma^{te} et le bien commun de ces pays." Ibid., p. 47.
[891] Ibid., p. 42.
[892] "In ansehung das wir in dissen landen allein seindt, und in hochsten noten und gefehrden leibs und lebens stecken, und keinen vertrauwen freundt umb uns haben, deme wir unser gemuthe und hertz recht eroffnen dorffen." Ibid., p. 39.
[893] Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 319.
[894] "Ora.s.se ilium, subduceret sese, gravidamque cruore tempestatem ab Hispania impendentem Belgarum Procerum capitibus ne opperiretur." Ibid., p. 321.
[895] "Perdet te, inquit Orangius, haec quam jactas dementia Regis, Egmonti; ac videor mihi providere animo, utinam falso, te pontem scilicet futurum, quo Hispani calcato, in Belgium transmittant." Ibid., ubi supra.
[896] The secretary Pratz, in a letter of the 14th of April, thus kindly notices William"s departure: "The prince has gone, taking along with him half a dozen heretical doctors and a good number of other seditious rogues." Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 526.
[897] "Tibi vero hoc persuade amiciorem me te habere neminem cui quidvis libere imperare potes. Amor enim tui eas egit radices in animo meo ut minui nullo temporis aut locorum intervallo possit." Archives de la Maison d"Orange-Na.s.sau, tom. III. p. 70.
It is not easy to understand why William should have resorted to Latin in his correspondence with Egmont.
[898] "Ayant tousjours porte en vostre endroit l"affection que je pourrois faire pour ung mien fils, ou parent bien proche. Et vous vous povez de ce confier, toutes les fois que les occasions se presenteront, que feray le mesme." Correspondance de Guillaume le Taciturne, tom. II.
p. 371.
[899] William"s only daughter was maid of honor to the regent, who made no objection to her accompanying her father, saying that, on the young lady"s return she would find no diminution of the love that had been always shown to her. Ibid., ubi supra.
[900] According to Strada, some thought that William knew well what he was about when he left his son behind him at Louvain; and that he would have had no objection that the boy should be removed to Madrid,--considering that, if things went badly with himself, it would be well for the heir of the house to have a hold on the monarch"s favor.
This is rather a cool way of proceeding for a parent, it must be admitted. Yet it is not very dissimilar from that pursued by William"s own father, who, a stanch Lutheran himself, allowed his son to form part of the imperial household, and to be there nurtured in the Roman Catholic faith. See Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 373.
[901] Archives de la Maison d"Orange-Na.s.sau, tom. III. p. 100.
[902] "Pour ne le jecter d"advantaige en desespoir et perdition, aussy en contemplation de ses parens et alliez, je n"ai peu excuser luy dire qu"il seroit doncques ainsy qu"il avoit faict, et qu"il revinst au conseil." Correspondance de Marguerite d"Autriche, p. 238.