History of the United Netherlands, 1584-86 | Page 8

the service of the state were not defrayed. The people
raised enormous contributions for carrying on the war; but they could
not afford to be extremely generous to their faithful servants.
Thus constituted was the commonwealth upon the death of William the
Silent. The gloom produced by that event was tragical. Never in human
history was a more poignant and universal sorrow for the death of any
individual. The despair was, for a brief season, absolute; but it was
soon succeeded by more lofty sentiments. It seemed, after they had laid
their hero in the tomb, as though his spirit still hovered above the

nation which he had loved so well, and was inspiring it with a portion
of his own energy and wisdom.
Even on the very day of the murder, the Estates of Holland, then sitting
at Delft, passed a resolution "to maintain the good cause, with God's
help, to the uttermost, without sparing gold or blood." This decree was
communicated to Admiral de Warmont, to Count Hohenlo, to William
Lewis of Nassau, and to other commanders by land and sea. At the
same time, the sixteen members--for no greater number happened to be
present at the session--addressed letters to their absent colleagues,
informing them of the calamity which had befallen them, summoning
them at once to conference, and urging an immediate convocation of
the Estates of all the Provinces in General Assembly. They also
addressed strong letters of encouragement, mingled with manly
condolence, upon the common affliction, to prominent military and
naval commanders and civil functionaries, begging them to "bear
themselves manfully and valiantly, without faltering in the least on
account of the great misfortune which had occurred, or allowing
themselves to be seduced by any one from the union of the States."
Among these sixteen were Van Zuylen, Van Nyvelt, the Seigneur de
Warmont, the Advocate of Holland, Paul Buys, Joost de Menin, and
John van Olden-Barneveldt. A noble example was thus set at once to
their fellow citizens by these their representatives--a manful step taken
forward in the path where Orange had so long been leading.
The next movement, after the last solemn obsequies had been rendered
to the Prince was to provide for the immediate wants of his family. For
the man who had gone into the revolt with almost royal revenues, left
his estate so embarrassed that his carpets, tapestries, household linen--
nay, even his silver spoons, and the very clothes of his wardrobe were
disposed of at auction for the benefit of his creditors. He left eleven
children--a son and daughter by the first wife, a son and daughter by
Anna of Saxony, six daughters by Charlotte of Bourbon, and an infant,
Frederic Henry, born six months before his death. The eldest son,
Philip William, had been a captive in Spain for seventeen years, having
been kidnapped from school, in Leyden, in the year 1567. He had
already become so thoroughly Hispaniolized under the masterly
treatment of the King and the Jesuits, that even his face had lost all
resemblance to the type of his heroic family, and had acquired a sinister,

gloomy, forbidding expression, most painful to contemplate. All of
good that he had retained was a reverence for his father's name--a
sentiment which he had manifested to an extravagant extent on a
memorable occasion in Madrid, by throwing out of window, and killing
on the spot a Spanish officer who had dared to mention the great Prince
with insult.
The next son was Maurice, then seventeen years of age, a handsome
youth, with dark blue eyes, well-chiselled features, and full red lips,
who had already manifested a courage and concentration of character
beyond his years. The son of William the Silent, the grandson of
Maurice of Saxony, whom he resembled in visage and character, he
was summoned by every drop of blood in his veins to do life-long
battle with the spirit of Spanish absolutism, and he was already girding
himself for his life's work. He assumed at once for his device a fallen
oak, with a young sapling springing from its root. His motto, "Tandem
fit surculus arbor," "the twig shall yet become a tree"--was to be nobly
justified by his career.
The remaining son, then a six months' child, was also destined to high
fortunes, and to win an enduring name in his country's history. For the
present he remained with his mother, the noble Louisa de Coligny, who
had thus seen, at long intervals, her father and two husbands fall
victims to the Spanish policy; for it is as certain that Philip knew
beforehand, and testified his approbation of, the massacre of St.
Bartholomew, as that he was the murderer of Orange.
The Estates of Holland implored the widowed Princess to remain in
their territority, settling a liberal allowance