History of the United Netherlands, 1584-86 | Page 9

upon herself and her child,
and she fixed her residence at Leyden.
But her position was most melancholy. Married in youth to the
Seigneur de Teligny, a young noble of distinguished qualities, she had
soon become both a widow and an orphan in the dread night of St.
Bartholomew. She had made her own escape to Switzerland; and ten
years afterwards she had united herself in marriage with the Prince of
Orange. At the age of thirty-two, she now found herself desolate and
wretched in a foreign land, where she had never felt thoroughly at
home. The widow and children of William the Silent were almost
without the necessaries of life. "I hardly know," wrote the Princess to
her brother-in-law, Count John, "how the children and I are to maintain

ourselves according to the honour of the house. May God provide for
us in his bounty, and certainly we have much need of it." Accustomed
to the more luxurious civilisation of France, she had been amused
rather than annoyed, when, on her first arrival in Holland for her
nuptials, she found herself making the journey from Rotterdam to Delft
in an open cart without springs, instead of the well-balanced coaches to
which she had been used, arriving, as might have been expected, "much
bruised and shaken." Such had become the primitive simplicity of
William the Silent's household. But on his death, in embarrassed
circumstances, it was still more straightened. She had no cause either to
love Leyden, for, after the assassination of her husband, a brutal
preacher, Hakkius by name, had seized that opportunity for denouncing
the French marriage, and the sumptuous christening of the infant in
January, as the deeds which had provoked the wrath of God and
righteous chastisement. To remain there in her widowhood, with that
six months' child, "sole pledge of her dead lord, her consolation and
only pleasure," as she pathetically expressed herself, was sufficiently
painful, and she had been inclined to fix her residence in Flushing, in
the edifice which had belonged to her husband, as Marquis of Vere.
She had been persuaded, however, to remain in Holland, although
"complaining, at first, somewhat of the unkindness of the people."
A small well-formed woman, with delicate features, exquisite
complexion, and very beautiful dark eyes, that seemed in after-years, as
they looked from beneath her coif, to be dim with unshed tears; with
remarkable powers of mind, angelic sweetness of disposition, a
winning manner, and a gentle voice, Louisa de Coligny became soon
dear to the rough Hollanders, and was ever a disinterested and valuable
monitress both to her own child and to his elder brother Maurice.
Very soon afterwards the States General established a State Council, as
a provisional executive board, for the term of three months, for the
Provinces of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Friesland, and such parts of
Flanders and Brabant as still remained in the Union. At the head of this
body was placed young Maurice, who accepted the responsible position,
after three days' deliberation. The young man had been completing his
education, with a liberal allowance from Holland and Zeeland, at the
University of Leyden; and such had been their tender care for the child
of so many hopes, that the Estates had given particular and solemn

warning, by resolution, to his governor during the previous summer, on
no account to allow him to approach the sea-shore, lest he should be
kidnapped by the Prince of Parma, who had then some war-vessels
cruising on the coast.
The salary of Maurice was now fixed at thirty thousand florins a year,
while each of the councillors was allowed fifteen hundred annually, out
of which stipend he was to support at least one servant; without making
any claim for travelling or other incidental expenses.
The Council consisted of three members from Brabant, two from
Flanders, four from Holland, three from Zeeland, two from Utrecht,
one from Mechlin, and three from Friesland--eighteen in all. They were
empowered and enjoined to levy troops by land and sea, and to appoint
naval and military officers; to establish courts of admiralty, to expend
the moneys voted by the States, to maintain the ancient privileges of
the country, and to see that all troops in service of the Provinces made
oath of fidelity to the Union. Diplomatic relations, questions of peace
and war, the treaty-making power, were not entrusted to the Council,
without the knowledge and consent of the States General, which body
was to be convoked twice a year by the State Council.
Thus the Provinces in the hour of danger and darkness were true to
themselves, and were far from giving way to a despondency which
under the circumstances would not have been unnatural.
For the waves of bitterness were rolling far and wide around them. A
medal, struck in