History of the United Netherlands, 1588-89 | Page 2

succeeded in
reaching the shore--the chiefs of the expedition, Renty and Mansfeld,

having been with difficulty rescued by their followers, when nearly
sinking in the tide.
The Duke continued the siege, but the place was well defended by an
English and Dutch garrison, to the number of five thousand, and
commanded by Colonel Morgan, that bold and much experienced
Welshman, so well known in the Netherland wars. Willoughby and
Maurice of Nassau, and Olden- Barneveld were, at different times,
within the walls; for the Duke had been unable to invest the place so
closely as to prevent all communications from without; and, while
Maurice was present, there were almost daily sorties from the town,
with many a spirited skirmish, to give pleasure to the martial young
Prince. The English, officers, Vere and Baskerville, and two Netherland
colonels, the brothers Bax, most distinguished themselves on these
occasions. The siege was not going on with the good fortune which had
usually attended the Spanish leaguer. of Dutch cities, while, on the 29th
September, a personal incident came to increase Alexander's
dissatisfaction and melancholy.
On that day the Duke was sitting in his tent, brooding, as he was apt to
do, over the unjust accusations which had been heaped upon him in
regard to the failure of the Armada, when a stranger was announced.
His name, he said, was Giacomo Morone, and he was the bearer of a
letter from Sir Horace Pallavicini, a Genoese gentleman long
established in London; and known to be on confidential terms with the
English government. Alexander took the letter, and glancing at the
bottom of the last page, saw that it was not signed.
"How dare you bring me a dispatch without a signature?" he exclaimed.
The messenger, who was himself a Genoese, assured the Duke that the
letter was most certainly written by Pallavicini--who had himself
placed it, sealed, in his hands--and that he had supposed it signed,
although he had of course, not seen the inside.
Alexander began to read the note, which was not a very long one, and
his brow instantly darkened. He read a line or two more, when, with an
exclamation of fury, he drew his dagger, and, seizing the astonished
Genoese by the throat, was about to strike him dead. Suddenly
mastering his rage, however, by a strong effort, and remembering that
the man might be a useful witness; he flung Morone from him.
"If I had Pallavicini here," he said, "I would treat, him as I have just

refrained from using you. And if I had any suspicion that you were
aware of the contents of this letter, I would send you this instant to be
hanged."
The unlucky despatch-bearer protested his innocence of all complicity
with Pallavicini, and his ignorance of the tenor of the communication
by which the Duke's wrath had been so much excited. He was then
searched and cross-examined most carefully by Richardot and other
counsellors, and his innocence being made apparent-he was ultimately
discharged.
The letter of Pallavicini was simply an attempt to sound Farnese as to
his sentiments in regard to a secret scheme, which could afterwards be
arranged in form, and according, to which he was to assume the
sovereignty of the Netherlands himself, to the exclusion of his King, to
guarantee to England the possession of the cautionary towns, until her
advances to the States should be refunded, and to receive the support
and perpetual alliance of the Queen in his new and rebellious position.
Here was additional evidence, if any were wanting, of the universal
belief in his disloyalty; and Alexander, faithful, if man ever were to his
master--was cut to the heart, and irritated almost to madness, by such
insolent propositions. There is neither proof nor probability that the
Queen's government was implicated in this intrigue of Pallavicini, who
appears to have been inspired by the ambition of achieving a bit of
Machiavellian policy, quite on his own account. Nothing came of the
proposition, and the Duke; having transmitted to the King a minute
narrative of, the affair, together with indignant protestations of the
fidelity, which all the world seemed determined to dispute, received
most affectionate replies from that monarch, breathing nothing but
unbounded confidence in his nephew's innocence and devotion.
Such assurances from any other man in the world might have disarmed
suspicion, but Alexander knew his master too well to repose upon his
word, and remembered too bitterly the last hours of Don John of
Austria --whose dying pillow he had soothed, and whose death had
been hastened, as he knew, either by actual poison or by the hardly less
fatal venom of slander--to regain tranquillity as to his own position.
The King was desirous that Pallavicini should be invited over to
Flanders, in order that Alexander, under pretence