History of the United Netherlands, 1590b | Page 9

to paradise for the souls of the wretched victims
who fell daily, starved to death, upon the pavements. And the monks
and priests did their work nobly, aiding the general resolution by the
example of their own courage. Better fed than their fellow citizens, they
did military work in trench, guard-house and rampart, as the population
became rapidly unfit, from physical exhaustion, for the defence of the
city.
The young Duke of Nemours, governor of the place, manifested as
much resolution and conduct in bringing his countrymen to perdition as
if the work in which he was engaged had been the highest and holiest
that ever tasked human energies. He was sustained in his task by that
proud princess, his own and Mayenne's mother, by Madame
Montpensier, by the resident triumvirate of Spain, Mendoza,
Commander Moreo, and John Baptist Tasais, by the cardinal legate

Gaetano, and, more than all, by the sixteen chiefs of the wards, those
municipal tyrants of the unhappy populace.
Pope Sixtus himself was by no means eager for the success of the
League. After the battle of Ivry, he had most seriously inclined his ear
to the representations of Henry's envoy, and showed much willingness
to admit the victorious heretic once more into the bosom of the Church.
Sixtus was not desirous of contributing to the advancement of Philip's
power. He feared his designs on Italy, being himself most anxious at
that time to annex Naples to the holy see. He had amassed a large
treasure, but he liked best to spend it in splendid architecture, in noble
fountains, in magnificent collections of art, science, and literature, and,
above all, in building up fortunes for the children of his sister the
washerwoman, and in allying them all to the most princely houses of
Italy, while never allowing them even to mention the name of their
father, so base was his degree; but he cared not to disburse from his
hoarded dollars to supply the necessities of the League.
But Gaetano, although he could wring but fifty thousand crowns from
his Holiness after the fatal fight of Ivry, to further the good cause, was
lavish in expenditures from his own purse and from other sources, and
this too at a time when thirty-three per cent. interest was paid to the
usurers of Antwerp for one month's loan of ready money. He was
indefatigable, too, and most successful in his exhortations and ghostly
consolations to the people. Those proud priests and great nobles were
playing a reckless game, and the hopes of mankind beyond the grave
were the counters on their table. For themselves there were rich prizes
for the winning. Should they succeed in dismembering the fair land
where they were enacting their fantastic parts, there were temporal
principalities, great provinces, petty sovereignties, to be carved out of
the heritage which the Bearnese claimed for his own. Obviously then,
their consciences could never permit this shameless heretic, by a
simulated conversion at the critical moment, to block their game and
restore the national unity and laws. And even should it be necessary to
give the whole kingdom, instead of the mere duchy of Brittany, to
Philip of Spain, still there were mighty guerdons to be bestowed on his
supporters before the foreign monarch could seat himself on the throne
of Henry's ancestors.
As to the people who were fighting, starving, dying by thousands in

this great cause, there were eternal rewards in another world profusely
promised for their heroism instead of the more substantial bread and
beef, for lack of which they were laying down their lives.
It was estimated that before July twelve thousand human beings in
Paris had died, for want of food, within three months. But as there were
no signs of the promised relief by the army of Parma and Mayenne, and
as the starving people at times appeared faint-hearted, their courage
was strengthened one day by a stirring exhibition.
An astonishing procession marched through the streets of the city, led
by the Bishop of Senlis and the Prior of Chartreux, each holding a
halberd in one hand and a crucifix in the other, and graced by the
presence of the cardinal-legate, and of many prelates from Italy. A lame
monk, adroitly manipulating the staff of a drum major, went hopping
and limping before them, much to the amazement of the crowd. Then
came a long file of monks-Capuchins, Bernardists, Minimes,
Franciscans, Jacobins, Carmelites, and other orders--each with his cowl
thrown back, his long robes trussed up, a helmet on his head, a cuirass
on his breast, and a halberd in his hand. The elder ones marched first,
grinding their teeth, rolling their eyes, and making other ferocious
demonstrations. Then came the younger friars, similarly attired, all
armed with arquebusses, which they occasionally and accidentally