History of the United Netherlands, 1586a | Page 7

John Lothrop Motley

him on the quay. The burgomaster made him a Latin oration, to which
Dr. Bartholomew Clerk responded, and then the Earl was ushered to the
grand square, upon which, in his honour, a magnificent living picture
was exhibited, in which he figured as Moses, at the head of the
Israelites, smiting the Philistines hip and thigh. After much mighty
banqueting in Amsterdam, as in the other cities, the governor-general
came to Utrecht. Through the streets of this antique and most
picturesque city flows the palsied current of the Rhine, and every barge
and bridge were decorated with the flowers of spring. Upon this spot,
where, eight centuries before the Anglo-Saxon, Willebrod had first
astonished the wild Frisians with the pacific doctrines of Jesus, and had
been stoned to death as his reward, stood now a more arrogant
representative of English piety. The balconies were crowded with fair
women, and decorated with scarves and banners. From the Earl's
residence--the ancient palace of the Knights of Rhodes--to the cathedral,
the way was lined with a double row of burgher guards, wearing red
roses on their arms, and apparelled in the splendid uniforms for which

the Netherlanders were celebrated. Trumpeters in scarlet and silver,
barons, knights, and great officers, in cloth of gold and silks of all
colours; the young Earl of Essex, whose career was to be so romantic,
and whose fate so tragic; those two ominous personages, the deposed
little archbishop-elector of Cologne, with his melancholy face, and the
unlucky Don Antonio, Pretender of Portugal, for whom, dead or alive,
thirty thousand crowns and a dukedom were perpetually offered by
Philip II.; young Maurice of Nassau, the future controller of European
destinies; great counsellors of state, gentlemen, guardsmen, and
portcullis-herald, with the coat of arms of Elizabeth, rode in solemn
procession along. Then great Leicester himself, "most princelike in the
robes of his order," guarded by a troop of burghers, and by his own
fifty halberd-men in scarlet cloaks trimmed with white and purple
velvet, pranced gorgeously by.
The ancient cathedral, built on the spot where Saint Willebrod had once
ministered, with its light, tapering, brick tower, three hundred and sixty
feet in height, its exquisitely mullioned windows, and its elegantly
foliaged columns, soon received the glittering throng. Hence, after due
religious ceremonies, and an English sermon from Master Knewstubs,
Leicester's chaplain, was a solemn march back again to the palace,
where a stupendous banquet was already laid in the great hall.
On the dais at the upper end of the table, blazing with plate and crystal,
stood the royal chair, with the Queen's plate and knife and fork before it,
exactly as if she had been present, while Leicester's trencher and stool
were set respectfully quite at the edge of the board. In the
neighbourhood of this post of honour sat Count Maurice, the Elector,
the Pretender, and many illustrious English personages, with the fair
Agnes Mansfeld, Princess Chimay, the daughters of William the Silent,
and other dames of high degree.
Before the covers were removed, came limping up to the dais
grim-visaged Martin Schenk, freshly wounded, but triumphant, from
the sack of Werll, and black John Norris, scarcely cured of the
spearwounds in his face and breast received at the relief of Grave. The
sword of knighthood was laid upon the shoulder of each hero, by the
Earl of Leicester, as her Majesty's vicegerent; and then the ushers
marshalled the mighty feast. Meats in the shape of lions, tigers, dragons,
and leopards, flanked by peacocks, swans, pheasants, and turkeys "in

their natural feathers as in their greatest pride," disappeared, course
after course, sonorous metal blowing meanwhile the most triumphant
airs. After the banquet came dancing, vaulting, tumbling; together with
the "forces of Hercules, which gave great delight to the strangers," after
which the company separated until evensong.
Then again, "great was the feast," says the chronicler,--a mighty supper
following hard upon the gigantic dinner. After this there was tilting at
the barriers, the young Earl of Essex and other knights bearing
themselves more chivalrously than would seem to comport with so
much eating and drinking. Then, horrible to relate, came another "most
sumptuous banquet of sugar-meates for the men-at-arms and the
ladies," after which, it being now midnight, the Lord of Leicester bade
the whole company good rest, and the men-at-arms and ladies took
their leave.
But while all this chivalrous banqueting and holiday-making was in
hand, the Prince of Parma was in reality not quite so much "appalled"
by the relief of Grave as his antagonist had imagined. The Earl, flushed
with the success of Hohenlo, already believed himself master of the
country, and assured his government, that, if he should be reasonably
well supplied, he would have Antwerp back again and Bruges besides
before mid June. Never, said he,
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