History of the United Netherlands, 1594 | Page 9

certain Jan to Boer had

been going back and forth between camp and city, under various
pretexts and safe-conducts, and it had at last appeared that the Jesuits
and the five hundred of Verdugo's veterans were all that prevented
Groningen from returning to the Union. There had been severe fighting
within the city itself, for the Jesuits had procured the transfer of the
veterans from the faubourg to the town itself, and the result of all these
operations, political, military, and jesuitical, was that on 22nd July
articles of surrender were finally agreed upon between Maurice and a
deputation from the magistrates, the guilds, and commander Lanckema.
The city was to take its place thenceforth as a member of the Union.
William Lewis, already stadholder of Friesland for the united States,
was to be recognised as chief magistrate of the whole province, which
was thus to retain all its ancient privileges, laws, and rights of self-
government, while it exchanged its dependence on a distant, foreign,
and decaying despotism for incorporation with a young and vigorous
commonwealth.
It was arranged that no religion but the reformed religion, as then
practised in the united republic, should be publicly exercised in the
province, but that no man should be questioned as to his faith, or
troubled in his conscience: Cloisters and ecclesiastical property were to
remain 'in statu quo,' until the States-General should come to a definite
conclusion on these subjects.
Universal amnesty was proclaimed for all offences and quarrels. Every
citizen or resident foreigner was free to remain in or to retire from the
town or province, with full protection to his person and property, and it
was expressly provided in the articles granted to Lanckema that his
soldiers should depart with arms and baggage, leaving to Prince
Maurice their colours only, while the prince furnished sufficient
transportation for their women and their wounded. The property of
Verdugo, royal stadholder of the province, was to be respected, and to
remain in the city, or to be taken thence under safe conduct, as might be
preferred.
Ten thousand cannon-shot had been fired against the city. The cost of
powder and shot consumed was estimated at a hundred thousand florins.
Four hundred of the besiegers had been killed, and a much larger
number wounded. The army had been further weakened by sickness
and numerous desertions. Of the besieged, three hundred soldiers in all

were killed, and a few citizens.
Thirty-six cannon were taken, besides mortars, and it was said that
eight hundred tons of powder, and plenty of other ammunition and
provisions were found in the place.
On the 23rd July Maurice and William Lewis entered the city. Some of
the soldiers were disappointed at the inexorable prohibition of pillage;
but it was the purpose of Maurice, as of the States-General, to place the
sister province at once in the unsullied possession of the liberty and the
order for which the struggle with Spain had, been carried on so long. If
the limitation of public religious worship seemed harsh, it should be
remembered that Romanism in a city occupied by Spanish troops had
come to mean unmitigated hostility to the republic. In the midst of civil
war, the hour for that religious liberty which was the necessary issue of
the great conflict had not yet struck. It was surely something gained for
humanity that no man should be questioned at all as to his creed in
countries where it was so recently the time-honoured practice to
question him on the rack, and to burn him if the answer was
objectionable to the inquirer.
It was something that the holy Inquisition had been for ever suppressed
in the land. It must be admitted, likewise, that the terms of surrender
and the spectacle of re-established law and order which succeeded the
capture of Groningen furnished a wholesome contrast to the scenes of
ineffable horror that had been displayed whenever a Dutch town had
fallen into the hands of Philip.
And thus the commonwealth of the United Netherlands, through the
practical military genius and perseverance of Maurice and Lewis
William, and the substantial statesmanship of Barneveld and his
colleagues, had at last rounded itself into definite shape; while in all
directions toward which men turned their eyes, world-empire, imposing
and gorgeous as it had seemed for an interval, was vanishing before its
votaries like a mirage. The republic, placed on the solid foundations of
civil liberty, self-government, and reasonable law, was steadily
consolidating itself.
No very prominent movements were undertaken by the forces of the
Union during the remainder of the year. According to the agreements
with Henry IV. it had been necessary to provide that monarch with
considerable assistance to carry on his new campaigns, and it was

therefore difficult for Maurice to begin for the moment upon