Lee-the Holy Lion. Sorely against his will,

buying a single meal, and advised that they should be taken to Spain and placed in a convent, where the daughters might take the vail.

Their estates were confiscated. The family he was forced by the impatience of his troops of Egmont were left in utter poverty. Alva to attack the enemy without waiting for his col-wrote to Philip that he did not believe there league. The Spaniards paid dearly for their was in the world so miserable a family as the overweening self-confidence. Hopelessly en-wife and eleven children of that wealthy noble. tangled among morasses and ditches, they were He doubted whether they had the means of shot down and cut to pieces. Aremberg made a last desperate attempt to retrieve the lost battle. At the head of a handful of cavalry he dashed into the midst of the patriot horse, The Duke was now ready to proceed against commanded by Adolphus of Nassau, a younger Louis. He acted with a vigor worthy of the brother of William. The two leaders met hand greatest captain of the age. By the middle of to hand. Aremberg shot his antagonist and July he had concentrated his forces within a clove his head with a sabre stroke. Of the five few miles of Groningen, where the insurgents noble brothers of the House of Orange, four were entrenched. Louis had been unable to were to meet a bloody death. Adolphus was the derive any solid advantage from his victory at first. Two more were to die on the field of Heiliger Lee. He had no money to pay his battle; the fourth, and noblest, was to fall by the mercenaries, and they were in a state of perhand of an assassin. Aremberg, sorely wound-petual mutiny. He was attacked by Alva, and ed, attempted to escape from the mêlée; but his after a sharp skirmish, ending in a virtual rout, horse fell dead under him; he was surrounded he retreated along the dykes and through the by a body of the enemy, and slain, fighting val- | marshes, toward the little village of Jemminiantly to the last. gen. This lies at the bottom of a peninsula, almost surrounded by the river Ems, and a deep arm of the sea. Here the Duke came up with them. Further retreat was impossible. Behind them was the broad river, which they had no adequate means of passing; before them were the veteran forces of Alva, through which the tumultuary bands of Louis must cut their way or perish. There was indeed one possible loophole for escape. Between Louis and Alva lay a tract lower than the sea, which was fenced

opened, and the country laid under water, the Spaniards would be unable to advance. Time at least would be saved. Louis commenced the work of cutting through the dykes; Alva dispatched a body of troops to prevent this. They were just in time. A breach had been made through which the waters were already rushing furiously. The Spaniards threw themselves upon those who were engaged in destroying the dykes, drove them off, and closed the openings. In vain Louis tried to recover possession of the ocean barrier. The Spaniards clung to this key of their position with a tenacity worthy of their renown, until strongly reinforced.

When the news of this disastrous defeat reached Alva, he prepared at once to take the field in person. But before doing so he had bloody work to perform at Brussels. A large batch of prisoners were ordered for immediate execution; and the protracted process against Egmont and Horn was brought to a summary close. The slow proceedings of the BloodCouncil in their case afforded a striking contrast to its usual celerity. It seems as though Alva was desirous to ascertain whether venge-out by strong dykes. If the sluices could be ance was sweeter when tasted drop by drop or swallowed at a draught. After they had been four months in close confinement, they were furnished with a copy of the charges against them. Bakkerzeel, the faithful secretary of Egmont, had been repeatedly put to the rack, in the vain hope of wringing something from him which might implicate his master. The accusations were drawn up respectively in sixty-three and ninety long articles, to which they were required to furnish written answers, without the aid of counsel, within five days. Afterward a commission was granted them to collect evidence for their defense, but before this could be completed the case was pronounced closed, and none of their testimony was introduced. It is useless to recount these charges, or to examine the foundations upon which they rested. The whole affair, from beginning to end, was a deliberate mockery. The fate of Egmont and Horn had been decided at Madrid before Alva had left Spain. On the 2d of June Vargas and Del Rio pronounced sentence of death against them. This was approved by Alva on the evening of the 4th; and on the morning of the 5th they were beheaded in the great square of Brussels. Their bodies were delivered to their friends; their heads, after having been exposed, stuck upon spikes, on the scaffold, were put in boxes. If common report is to be trusted, they were sent to Spain for the personal gratification of Philip.

Louis now advanced from his entrenchments, and resolved upon attempting to cut his way through the enemy. But the moment his troops came near the foe, they were seized with a sudden panic, and fled back to their camp, the Spaniards closely upon their heels. There was no longer a battle. It was a confused flight and massacre. The fugitives were driven into the river or slaughtered without resistance. Seven thousand insurgents were slain in a few hours. The Spanish loss is variously stated at from seven to eighty men. Count Louis escaped by swimming the Ems.

Alva returned in triumph to Brussels, and resumed his butchery with new vigor. But he was soon summoned to make head against William of Orange. These accumulated disasters had not shaken the constancy of the Prince.

The

failed to equal his anticipations. So far from affording a large surplus revenue for Philip, his administration did not pay its own expenses. Early in the spring of 1569 he issued a decree imposing new taxes to meet the deficiency. An extraordinary impost of one per cent. upon the value of all property of every description was to be paid at once. A perpetual tax was ordered of five per cent. upon every sale or transfer of real estate, and ten per cent. upon every transfer of personal property or merchandise.

He had succeeded in gathering a force of | brilliant success of the Duke's measures. 30,000 men in Germany, and early in October | net result of the confiscations had somehow marched into Brabant. He was resolved to risk all upon the issue of a single battle. One decisive victory would rally the whole country to his standard. Alva had also studied the posture of affairs, and had determined not to fight. He knew that William had no means of carrying on a long campaign, and that to him delay was equivalent to defeat. The chances of victory were indeed ten to one in his own favor; but he was unwilling to risk the one chance against him. He preferred a sure victory by delay to a probable one by fighting. The campaign on his part was a game of chess played by a consummate master. Wherever William moved, Alva was close at his side; yet so skillfully were his movements conducted that no opening for an attack was presented. The fiery Spaniards murmured at this apparent cowardice; but Alva was immovable. The young Baron de Chevreau dashed down his pistols before the Duke, as if to signify that under such a commander arms were useless. Alva smiled at his impetuosity, and told him that it was the business of a soldier to fight, but that of a general was to conquer; and a bloodless victory was the best of all.

Alva was right. A total defeat could scarcely have been as fatal to the Prince as these Fabian tactics. Winter was approaching. His troops, without pay or plunder, were distressed for food and forage. Without a victory there would be no rising in the Netherlands, and without a rising there would be no supplies. William saw that it was useless to try to keep his army longer in the Netherlands. He led them | to the French frontier, where he disbanded them, after vainly endeavoring to induce them to follow him into France, there to take part in the civil war then raging. The campaign had lasted barely a month.

Alva was justly elated at his brilliant success. His return to Brussels was greeted with hollow rejoicing. The great square, where Egmont and Horn had died—and many another victim, nobler if less known than these-was enlivened by a succession of gay tournaments. He caused the cannon taken at Jemmingen to be melted down and cast into a colossal statue of himself with a pompous inscription in his honor. It was hardly necessary for him to be his own eulogist. The Pope was duly sensible of his transcendent merits as a defender of the true faith. In testimony of these, he transmitted to him a jeweled hat and sword, accompanied by a letter written by the hand of the Holy Father. The Duke was bidden to remember that he was guarded by the hat as by the helmet of righteousness, and that it was symbolical of the heavenly crown ready for princes who should support the Holy Church. The sword bore this motto, in Latin: "Take this holy sword, the gift of God by which thou shalt overthrow the enemies of my people Israel."

There was one annoying exception to the

The Duke was a consummate strategist, but a poor financier. The extraordinary tax of one per cent. might perhaps be endured for once; but no trade or commerce could survive the perpetual five and ten per cent. upon sales; and trade and commerce were the life of the Netherlands. A house might be sold a score of times during the year; an article of merchandise might change hands ten times in a week; the cost of each would then be doubled within those periods by the tax. If these were to be enforced the country would be ruined, but the government would not be enriched. It would be killing the goose that laid the golden eggs. Alva could not see this. He wrote joyously to Philip that the extraordinary impost would give him five millions in hand, and that he might rely upon two millions of net yearly income from the perpetual taxes.

The Estates, however, resisted these impositions upon their property with a boldness greater than they had shown in defense of their lives. At length a temporary compromise was agreed upon. The extraordinary tax was to be paid, and two millions yearly should be accepted for two years, in lieu of the others.

The events of the next two years may be more briefly dispatched. The fury of the religious persecution had in a measure exhausted itself. The health of Alva began to break. The failure of his financial schemes had injured his credit at court. His enemies in Spain were undermining him. He knew that he was hated in the Netherlands; for this he cared little, but unmistakable signs showed that his favor with Philip was waning. The question of a general pardon began to be agitated at Madrid. Alva grew weary of his work, and begged to be recalled. He had fulfilled his errand, he urged, and had reduced the country to absolute submission.

In

Philip, who never made up his mind hastily, took Alva's request into consideration. the mean while he forwarded to him four programmes for a general amnesty in the Netherlands, from which the Duke was to take his choice. In July, 1570, this selection was made, and the terms were publicly proclaimed in Brus. sels. Full pardon was offered to all-with certain exceptions--who should within two months make peace with the Church and receive absolution. The exceptions, however, excluded all

He determined to make a descent

winds brought him to Brill. A bold idea suggested itself to the Sieur de Treslong, one of his captains. It was to take possession of the town, and hold it in the name of William of Orange. The magistrates neither quite consented nor quite refused to surrender the place. The wild Sea-Beggars cut the matter short. They built a bonfire before the gate; then battering down the half-burned portals with the fragment of a mast, entered in triumph, and took possession in the name of William.

heretical teachers, and those who had favored | starvation. or harbored them; all who had been implicated upon the coast of Holland. Chance and the in the destruction of the images; and all who had taken up arms or furnished money against the government. Those who fell within any of these classes might report themselves within six months, and were assured that they might hope for a favorable consideration of their case. The amnesty seems to have differed from the universal sentence of the Inquisition chiefly in this: By the sentence, all were condemned, with exceptions that practically included nobody; by the amnesty all were pardoned, with exceptions that practically included everybody. Alva declared that he had chosen the mildest of the four programmes sent to him. It is to be regretted that the severer ones have not been recorded for the instruction of posterity.

Meanwhile the time expired during which the two millions were to be paid, and Alva found himself again without money. He could burn and hang, but to raise funds passed his power. He insisted upon the payment of the taxes upon sales. The Flemings foiled him as our Revolutionary fathers nullified the tea-tax. They ceased to buy and sell. Shops were closed in the towns. Trade and industry were at an end. Bread, meat, and clothing were not to be had. The provinces seemed ruined. The troops of Alva clamored for their pay, and he had no money to give them. He at last resolved to give an impetus to traffic by hanging a score of the leading traders of Brussels who had dared to shut up shop. Just as he was on the point of trying this ingenious financial experiment, he received tidings from the little seaport-town of Brill, which gave him something to do better adapted to his genius. The narrative of this affair takes us back to William of Orange.

During these two years and more the Prince had been sometimes in France, sometimes in Germany. He had, with his brothers, fought under the banners of Condé and Coligny. The Huguenots had been overthrown at Jarnac and Moncontour, partly by means of aid furnished to Charles IX. by Alva. Then new changes were seen upon the cards. A peace was patched up between Charles and Coligny, and Alva was to be attacked in the Netherlands by French forces.

From this chance exploit of two or three hundred half-starved buccaneers rose in time the United Dutch Republic. The revolt spread like wild-fire. In a few weeks all the important towns in the six northern provinces declared for William, as Stadtholder for Philip. He had been appointed to this post in 1559, and still claimed it. Upon this slender fiction the whole government of the virtual republic rested until 1581, when the authority of Philip was solemnly renounced.

William was in Germany, busily engaged in turning to advantage the errors of Alva. He sent Sonoy as his lieutenant to Holland. Among the written instructions with which he was furnished, were strict directions to secure perfect toleration to the Catholics in that Protestant province. His negotiations in France and Germany seemed about to be crowned with success. The French Court, as well as the Huguenot leaders had promised him aid. His gallant brother Louis, by a sudden coup-de-main, had taken possession of the strong city of Mons, close by the French frontier, where he was soon joined by a body of Huguenots.

The

Success followed hard upon success. great Lisbon fleet had cast anchor at Flushing, ignorant that the town had declared for Orange. All its rich treasure and merchandise fell into the hands of the insurgents. Among this were half a million crowns in gold, and a large quantity of ammunition. A thousand Spanish soldiers were taken prisoners. William had meanwhile raised another army in Germany, and had promise of large succors from France. It seemed as though Alva was at last in his power.

The Duke confronted these disasters with a courage worthy of his renown. He dispatched his son, Don Frederick, to besiege Mons with what forces were at his command, while he set about providing reinforcements. Frederick routed a large force of Huguenots who were on their way to join Louis, and laid strict siege to the city. But with the northern provinces in arms against him, William making head in Brabant, and France ready to support him, the case of Alva seemed desperate.

William, who had been driven from the land, resolved to transfer the war to the ocean. He issued commissions to privateers to prey upon Spanish commerce. The "Sea-Gueux," as these privateers were styled, became formidable. They were the germ of that naval power which was in the next century to dispute the mastery of the sea with England. William de la Marck, a kinsman of Egmont, was the admiral of this fleet. He had sworn that his hair should not be cropped or his beard shorn until he had avenged He was saved by a great crime, in the comthe death of his kinsman. He had been allow-misssion of which he had no share. On the ed to furnish himself with supplies in the English ports; but early in 1572 Elizabeth issued a proclamation forbidding this, and La Marck was forced to put to sea almost in a state of

11th of August Coligny had written to William that he would join him, with the sanction of his king, at the head of 15,000 French troops. Two weeks from that day occurred the Massacre of

Saint Bartholomew. All hope of a French al- | Besiegers and besieged mined and countermined. liance was at an end. Charles and Philip were One defense was battered down only to show a reconciled; the blood of the slaughtered Hu- new and stronger one raised behind it. Regguenots was a pledge of amity between them. ular approaches were as vain as the sudden atHerod and Pilate had become friends. Alva tack had been. repaired to Mons to press the siege in person. But if arms could not win the city, famine The army of William again disbanded. Mons might. It was mid-winter, and the sufferings was recaptured. All the towns which had sur- of the Spaniards were hardly less severe than rendered to William shared the same fate. A those of the Hollanders. Don Frederick wished new chapter of executions followed of course. to raise the siege; but his iron father refused. William took his way to Holland, which alone If his son fell he himself would supply his place; remained faithful. He expected to perish. if he perished his wife should come from Spain "There," said he, "will I make my sepulchre." to share his fate. He wrote to Philip that such Thither he was followed by Don Frederick, with a war had never been seen on earth. The beorders to conquer this one remaining rebel prov- sieged made constant sallies. In March a thouince. The little town of Naarden, which lay in sand men burst out, drove in the enemy's outhis way, hesitated to surrender at the first sum- posts, burned three hundred tents, and killed mons. Though no formal resistance was offered eight hundred of the unsuspecting enemy, with it was doomed to destruction. The soldiers en- a trifling loss on their part. To their memory tered, and were sumptuously entertained. At they erected a trophy upon the ramparts-a the conclusion of the banquet the citizens were huge grave, with the taunting inscription, "Harsummoned to the church. When they were col-lem is the grave-yard of the Spaniards." The lected they were told to prepare for death. The door was flung open, and the Spaniards rushed with sword and dagger upon the unarmed herd. When all had been cut down, the church was set on fire, and dead and dying were consumed together.

The fate of Naarden was a warning of what was to be expected elsewhere. The ancient courage of the Batavi revived in the imminent peril, and they resolved to die with arms in their hands. Amsterdam had not yielded to William, and there Alva took up his position, as a point whence to recover the whole province. Ten miles from Amsterdam, on the opposite side of the narrow inlet leading from the Zuyder Zee to the Harlem Lake was the city of Harlem, which from its position was the key to the province of Holland. The city was almost destitute of defenses, and its garrison amounted to but four thousand fighting men. To these were added three hundred fighting women, who bore their full share in the fearful drama that was to be enacted. Over the ruins of Harlem it was the purpose of Alva to march to the conquest of Holland.

It was intended to make the siege a brief one, and Don Frederick concentrated before it a veteran force of 30,000 men. After a vigorous cannonade of three days an assault was ordered. The church-bells summoned the population to the walls to repel the assault. The stout burghers plied sword and musket; they pitched down heavy stones upon the heads of the assailants; live coals were showered upon them; hoops smeared with burning pitch were dextrously flung over their necks. The Spaniards were astounded at this unexpected resistance. Don Frederick saw that the town was not to be taken by assault, and recalled his soldiers from the trenches. Three hundred of them could not obey the summons, for they were cold in death. Only three or four of the defenders lost their lives. The assault was converted into a siegeone of the most memorable recorded in history.

Prince endeavored to succor the town by water, and the battle was waged by sea as well as by land. On the 28th of May, the Spanish fleet gained a decisive victory. This gave them the command of the lake, and cut off all supplies from the town. Famine now began to prevail. The store of bread, carefully husbanded, was exhausted. Every unclean animal was caught and eagerly devoured. The hides of horses, the leather of shoes, became delicacies. All hope of succor was gone. Death by sword or famine seemed inevitable. It was determiued to sally out in one body-the women and children in the midst-and either fight their way through or all die together.

This determination became known in the Spanish camp. Don Frederick had learned by experience what the besieged could dare and do. Rather than run this peril he offered absolute indemnity, upon condition of surrender. The offer was accepted, and Harlem yielded on the 12th of June, 1573, after a siege of seven months and two days. The garrison had been reduced from four thousand men to eighteen hundred.

The promise of indemnity was made only to be broken. Six hundred Germans who formed part of the garrison, were dismissed; the remaining twelve hundred were butchered to a man; at least an equal number of citizens shared the same fate. Alva himself, writing to his master, states the number butchered in cold blood at twenty-three hundred. Five executioners were kept busily at work, and when they were wearied with the toil, three hundred living wretches, tied in couples, back to back, were flung into the lake.

The Spaniards had little reason to congratulate themselves upon the conquest of Harlem. It had cost them 12,000 men, and seven months of time, to take a city defended by four thousand men. At this rate how many years, how many troops, how much treasure, would the conquest of Holland cost?

These multiplied disasters had brought Philip to a conclusion with respect to the petition of Alva for recall. At the end of the year 1573 his successor, Requesens, arrived and assumed the post. Alva, tortured with the gout, oppressed with age, and burdened with debt, left the Netherlands. In five years, by his own estimate, he had brought 18,600 victims to the stake and the scaffold, while those that perished by siege, and massacre, and starvation, defied computation. He survived for nine more years,

Equally memorable with the siege of Harlem | sideration of which he was to receive the prowas that of the little town of Alkmaar, upon tectorate, under stringent restrictions, over Holwhich Don Frederick next advanced, with a land and Zealand, and the sovereignty over such force of 16,000 men. Within the city were a other portion of the Netherlands as should be garrison of eight hundred soldiers, besides thir-wrested from the Spaniards. teen hundred burghers capable of bearing arms -twenty-one hundred men, all told, against sixteen thousand. The siege was opened in August. Alva seems to have somewhat reproached himself for his mildness at Harlem, and to have wondered that since some of the inhabitants had been spared, the whole province had not at once flung itself at his feet in a transport of joy and gratitude. He was resolved that since Harlem had witnessed his clemency, Alkmaar should be a monument of his just severity. "If I take Alkmaar," he wrote to Philip, "I am resolved not to leave a single creature alive; the knife shall be put to every throat. Since the example of Harlem has proved of no use, perhaps an example of cruelty will bring the other cities to their senses."

at the close of which he was attacked by a lingering fever, which reduced him so low that he was only kept alive by milk which he drank from a woman's breast. Such was the quiet close of the life of the bloody Duke of Alva. The administration of Requesens lasted three

years.

ing.

It was marked by negotiations and fightBut so evenly was success balanced that at its close the issue was as doubtful as ever. On the sea, the success of the Hollanders was almost unvarying; and they defended their towns with the obstinate pertinacity which they had displayed at Harlem and Alkmaar. On the land the iron discipline of the Spaniards gave them the superiority over the hasty levies which the Prince and his brother Louis could raise among the German and French mercena

For a while the story of the siege of Alkmaar is but a repetition of that of Harlem. The fierce attacks of the Spaniards were met by a determined resistance. Boiling water, blazing pitch, molten lead, fire-hoops, were rained down upon the assailants. The first assault cost the Spaniards a thousand lives. One officer who had gained the top of the rampart, and caught a glimpse of the defenders before he was hurled back into the moat, reported that he had seen neither helmet nor harness within; only a few plain-looking people, who appeared like fisher-ries. Both parties were constantly harassed men. Despair had made these plain fishermen more than a match for the veteran soldiers of Alva. Yet they soon manifested that they were capable of still higher daring. They ventured to call in the remorseless sea as an ally. The opening of a few dykes would let in the ocean over the province from which it had been won. The fields and meadows would be flooded and the harvests ruined; but the Spaniards would be drowned. A messenger from Orange, at peril of his life, made way through the besieging forces, with a promise that on a given day the dykes should be opened. The communication was inclosed in a hollow staff. The messenger lost this in his perilous passage, and it fell into the hands of the Spaniards. They knew that the Prince would fulfill his promise. A council of war was held, at which it was resolved that it was useless to contend with this new enemy. The siege was forthwith raised, after it had lasted seven weeks.

for want of money to pay their troops; and both armies ever and anon broke out into open mutiny; but with this difference, that the insurgents mutinied before going into action, and the Spaniards after they had won the victory. On the 14th of April, 1574, a great battle was fought at Mook, between the Spaniards under Avila, and a body of German and French troops led by Louis and Henry, the brothers of William. The Spaniards were completely victorious, and the two brothers were slain.

The siege of Leyden, which commenced late in May of this year, is still more noteworthy than those of Harlem and Alkmaar. This city, one of the most beautiful in the Netherlands, stood in the midst of broad pastures and green meadows that had been reclaimed from the sea. Over these fertile fields many an eager eye was soon to be cast, in the hope that the waters might be seen rolling again over the land, once their bed. From the first, preparations were Negotiations were renewed between William made for a long siege. All the food was put and the Court of France before the year had into the hands of the authorities and doled out closed. The elective throne of Poland had be- by weight, half a pound of meat, and as much come vacant, and the French King was desirous bread daily to a man, and a due proportion to to secure it for his brother, the Duke of Anjou. women and children. The Prince of Orange The influence of William was great among the implored the citizens to hold out for three German and Polish Protestants, and for the months, assuring them that within that time he sake of gaining this Charles was willing to would devise some means for their deliverance. throw Philip overboard. A treaty was actually He had no force with which to raise the siege, arranged, in virtue of which Charles was to but he held a position which would enable him supply William with men and money, in con- to cut through the dykes and allow the ocean