History of the United Netherlands, 1585 part 3 | Page 9

the horrible
"Spanish fury," is remembered--that there were no scenes of violence
and outrage in the populous and wealthy city, which was at length at
his mercy after having defied him so long.
Civil and religious liberty were trampled in the dust, commerce and
manufactures were destroyed, the most valuable portion of the citizens
sent into hopeless exile, but the remaining inhabitants were not
butchered in cold blood.
The treaty was signed on the 17th August. Antwerp was to return to its
obedience. There was to be an entire amnesty and oblivion for the past,
without a single exception. Royalist absentees were to be reinstated in
their possessions. Monasteries, churches, and the King's domains were
to be restored to their former proprietors. The inhabitants of the city
were to practise nothing but the Catholic religion. Those who refused to
conform were allowed to remain two years for the purpose of winding
up their affairs and selling out their property, provided that during that

period they lived "without scandal towards the ancient religion"--a very
vague and unsatisfactory condition. All prisoners were to be released
excepting Teligny. Four hundred thousand florins were to be paid by
the authorities as a fine. The patriot garrison was to leave the city with
arms and baggage and all the honours of war.
This capitulation gave more satisfaction to the hungry portion of the
Antwerpers than to the patriot party of the Netherlands. Sainte
Aldegonde was vehemently and unsparingly denounced as a venal
traitor. It is certain, whatever his motives, that his attitude had
completely changed. For it was not Antwerp alone that he had
reconciled or was endeavouring to reconcile with the King of Spain,
but Holland and Zeeland as well, and all the other independent
Provinces. The ancient champion of the patriot army, the earliest signer
of the 'Compromise,' the bosom friend of William the Silent, the author
of the 'Wilhelmus' national song, now avowed his conviction, in a
published defence of his conduct against the calumnious attacks upon it,
"that it was impossible, with a clear conscience, for subjects, under any
circumstances, to take up arms against Philip, their king." Certainly if
he had always entertained that opinion he must have suffered many
pangs of remorse during his twenty years of active and illustrious
rebellion. He now made himself secretly active in promoting the
schemes of Parma and in counteracting the negotiation with England.
He flattered himself, with an infatuation which it is difficult to
comprehend, that it would be possible to obtain religious liberty for the
revolting Provinces, although he had consented to its sacrifice in
Antwerp. It is true that he had not the privilege of reading Philip's
secret letters to Parma, but what was there in the character of the
King--what intimation had ever been given by the
Governor-General--to induce a belief in even the possibility of such a
concession?
Whatever Sainte Aldegonde's opinions, it is certain that Philip had no
intention of changing his own policy. He at first suspected the
burgomaster of a wish to protract the negotiations for a perfidious
purpose.
"Necessity has forced Antwerp," he wrote on the 17th of August--the
very day on which the capitulation was actually signed--"to enter into
negotiation. I understand the artifice of Aldegonde in seeking to

prolong and make difficult the whole affair, under pretext of treating
for the reduction of Holland and Zeeland at the same time. It was
therefore very adroit in you to defeat this joint scheme at once, and
urge the Antwerp matter by itself, at the same time not shutting the
door on the others. With the prudence and dexterity with which this
business has thus far been managed I am thoroughly satisfied."
The King also expressed his gratification at hearing from Parma that
the demand for religious liberty in the Netherlands would soon be
abandoned.
"In spite of the vehemence," he said, "which they manifest in the
religious matter, desiring some kind of liberty, they will in the end, as
you say they will, content themselves with what the other cities, which
have returned to obedience, have obtained. This must be done in all
cases without flinching, and without permitting any modification."
What "had been obtained" by Brussels, Mechlin, Ghent, was well
known. The heretics had obtained the choice of renouncing their
religion or of going into perpetual exile, and this was to be the case
"without flinching" in Holland and Zeeland, if those provinces chose to
return to obedience. Yet Sainte Aldegonde deluded himself with the
thought of a religious peace.
In another and very important letter of the same date Philip laid down
his policy very distinctly. The Prince of Parma, by no means such a
bigot as his master, had hinted at the possibility of tolerating the
reformed religion in the places recovered