to that country. As his course lay near to Geneva, Pope Pius V. desired him to turn aside and exterminate this "nest of devils and apostates." But he declined to deviate from his chosen route, maintained perfect discipline among his soldiers during the long and perilous march, and even gave a sort of organization to the hundreds of courtesans who followed his army. On his arrival, he endeavored to disarm suspicion, and gradually made known the extent of the authority committed to him, which was equivalent to that of a dictator. The Regent found herself wholly divested of real power. Egmont and Horn were decoyed to Brussels by gracious and flattering words, and then treacherously arrested and cast into prison. The terrible tribunal was erected, which was appropriately named by the people," the Council of Blood," and the work of death began. Soon the prisons were crowded with inmates, not a few of whom were dragged from their beds at midnight. The executioners were busy from morning till evening. Among the victims, the rich were specially numerous, since one end which Alva kept in view, was the providing of a revenue for his master. Every one who had taken part in the petitions against the new bishoprics or the Inquisition, or in favor of softening the edicts of persecution, was declared guilty of high treason. Every nobleman who had been concerned in presenting the petitions, or had approved of them; all nobles and officers who, under the plea of a pressure of circumstances, had permitted the sermons; every one who had taken part, in any way, in the heretical mass meetings, and had not hindered the destruction of the images; all who had expressed the opinion that the King had no right to take from the provinces their liberty, or that the present tribunal was restricted by any laws or privileges, were likewise made guilty of treason. Death and loss of property, were the invariable penalty. In three months eighteen hundred men were sent to the scaf

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fold. Persons were condemned for singing the songs of the Gueux, or for attending a Calvinistic burial years before; one for saying that in Spain, also, the new doctrine would spread; and another for saying that one must obey God rather than man. Finally, on the 16th of February, 1568, all the inhabitants of the Netherlands, with a few exceptions that were named, were actually condemned to death as heretics!

Orange was active in devising means of deliverance. His brother, Louis of Nassau, entered Friesland, in April, 1568, at the head of an army, and gained a victory over the forces commanded by Count Aremberg. In order to strike terror and to secure himself in the rear, Alva hurried through the process against Egmont and Horn, and they were beheaded in the great square at Brussels. Alva then marched against the army of Louis, which he defeated and dispersed. He succeeded, also, by avoiding a combat, in baffling William, whose army was composed of materials that could not long be kept together. The rule of Alva was the more firmly established by the unsuccessful attempts to overthrow it, and he pursued for several years longer his murderous work. The entire number of judicial homicides under his administration, he reckoned himself at eighteen thousand. Multitudes emigrated from the country; manufactories were deserted, and business was paralyzed. In 1569, he determined to put in operation a system of taxation that should fill the coffers of the King. He ordained that an extraordinary tax should be levied, of one per cent. on property of all kinds; and that a permanent tax should be paid, of five per cent. on every sale of real estate, and ten per cent. on every sale of merchandise. This scheme, as ill calculated for its end as it was barbarous in its oppressiveness, raised such a storm of opposition, that Alva himself was moved to make a compromise, which consisted in postponing the execution of it for two years. His enemies, Granvelle and others, were

continually laboring to undermine the King's confidence in him, and not wholly without success. In 1570, an act

of amnesty was solemnly proclaimed at Antwerp, which, however, left the old edicts in full force, and only ordained that those against whom nothing was to be charged, should go unpunished, provided within a definite time they should penitently sue for grace and obtain absolution from the Church! The spirit of resistance had been slowly awakening, and it gathered strength from these senseless proceedings. When, on the 31st of July, 1571, Alva commanded that the taxes should be levied according to his scheme, the shops were closed, and the people of all the provinces assumed so menacing an attitude that he deemed it best to except four articles-corn, wine, flesh, and beer -from the operation of his decree. But this did not produce the desired effect: labor and traffic were suspended. Alva was deeply incensed and ready to set the hangman at work again, when he heard of the capture of Briel by the "sea-beggars" as they were called; the hardy inhabitants of the coasts of Holland and Zealand, who had organized themselves into predatory bands, under their admiral, William de la Mark. The Prince of Orange was unremitting in his exertions to raise forces capable of effecting the deliverance of his country. Holland and Zealand threw off the yoke of Alva, and, in accordance with William's suggestions, adopted a free constitution. By the estates of Holland, William was recognized as the King's Stadtholder, the show of a connection with Spain being not yet abandoned. He was at the head of an army with every hope of success, when the news of the slaughter of St. Bartholomew and of the death of Coligny, which cut off the expectation of aid from France, disappointed this hope. Mons, where his brother was, had to be given up, and the army melted away. But Alva was weary of his office and began to be sensible of his failure to effect the result which he had been so confident

THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC.

of his ability to secure.

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The boundless hatred of the

people against him was daily manifest. He read it in the looks of all whom he met. Philip, though slow to learn, began to see that his hopes had not been fulfilled. Alva sought and obtained a recall, and, at the end of the year 1573, left the Netherlands, never to return.

From the capture of Briel may be dated the commencement of the long and arduous struggle which resulted in the building up of the Dutch Republic, and the ultimate prostration of the power of Spain. The most powerful empire in the world was kept at bay, and eventually defeated by a few small states which were goaded to resistance by unparalleled cruelty, and inspired with an unexampled degree of patriotic selfsacrifice. The hero of this memorable struggle was William of Orange. Requesens, the successor of Alva, equaled his predecessor in military skill, and was even more dangerous, in consequence of his conciliatory temper, which might divide and deceive his antagonists. A delusive amnesty was more to be dreaded than open and fierce hostility. In the field, the Spaniards were victorious. In 1574, Louis of Nassau was defeated and slain. But they experienced a reverse in the unsuccessful siege of Leyden, whose heroic defense is one of the most notable events of the long war. A new Protestant state was growing up in the North, under the guidance of Orange; and all negotiations looking to peace were fruitless, since Spain refused to grant toleration. This was the one thing which Philip would not yield. He could not consent to rule over heretics. In the South, where Catholicism prevailed, Requesens was more successful. But the death of this commander, in 1576, was followed by a frightful revolt of his soldiers in the various cities where they were stationed; and the scenes of murder and pillage that attended it, which were most appalling in populous and wealthy Antwerp, taught the southern prov

inces what they had to dread from Spanish domination. The nobles of Flanders and Brabant, instead of seeking help from Philip, applied to Orange and the northern provinces; and in the pacification of Ghent, for the first time, the Netherlands were united in an agreement to expel the Spaniards, and to maintain religious toleration. Don John, of Austria, the successor of Requesens, was brought to the point of issuing an edict which conceded the points contained in the Ghent pacification. The rejection of these terms by William of Orange has been considered, by his adversaries, proof positive that ambition, not patriotism, was his ruling motive. But the concessions of Don John involved the exclusion of the public profession of Protestantism from all places where it was not established at the date of the pacification; and, consequently, the banishment from their homes of thousands of peaceful families, as well as the insecurity of the provinces where Protestantism was allowed to continue. More than all, William distrusted the sincerity of Spain, and his suspicions, which had their ground in former experiences of false dealing, were strengthened by information acquired from intercepted letters. It was too late for a reconciliation with Philip. But the Flemish and Brabant nobles were jealous of the eminence conceded to the Prince of Orange. The Union was weakened, and the war broke out again, in which the troops of Don John gained the victory. But the same year, on the 1st of October, 1578, their leader died, wearied with the difficulties of his office, and disheartened by the treatment which he had received at the hands of Philip..

Alexander of Parma, perhaps the ablest general of the time, was next entrusted with the reins of government. Experience had shown the patriotic party that the nobility of the southern provinces were not to be relied on; and, in January, 1579, there was formed, in the North, 1 Motley, iii. 106.