History of the United Netherlands, 1595-96 | Page 3

still to be paid from
them; to the heirs of Balthazar Gerard, his father's assassin, he flamed

into a violent rage, drew his poniard, and would have stabbed the
president; had not the bystanders forcibly inteferred. In consequence of
this refusal--called magnanimous by contemporary writers--to accept
his property under such conditions, the estates were detained from him
for a considerable time longer. During the period of his captivity he had
been allowed an income of fifteen thousand livres; but after his
restoration his household, gentlemen, and servants alone cost him
eighty thousand livres annually. It was supposed that the name of
Orange-Nassau might now be of service to the king's designs in the
Netherlands. Philip William had come by way of Rome, where he had
been allowed to kiss the pope's feet and had received many
demonstrations of favour, and it was fondly thought that he would now
prove an instrument with which king and pontiff might pipe back the
rebellious republic to its ancient allegiance. But the Dutchmen and
Frisians were deaf. They had tasted liberty too long, they had dealt too
many hard blows on the head of regal and sacerdotal despotism, to be
deceived by coarse artifices. Especially the king thought that something
might be done with Count Hohenlo. That turbulent personage having
recently married the full sister of Philip William, and being already at
variance with Count Maurice, both for military and political causes,
and on account of family and pecuniary disputes, might, it was thought,
be purchased by the king, and perhaps a few towns and castles in the
united Netherlands might be thrown into the bargain. In that
huckstering age, when the loftiest and most valiant nobles of Europe
were the most shameless sellers of themselves, the most cynical
mendicants for alms and the most infinite absorbers of bribes in
exchange for their temporary fealty; when Mayenne, Mercoeur, Guise,
Pillars, Egmont, and innumerable other possessors of ancient and
illustrious names alternately and even simultaneously drew pensions
from both sides in the great European conflict, it was not wonderful
that Philip should think that the boisterous Hohenlo might be bought as
well as another. The prudent king, however, gave his usual order that
nothing was to be paid beforehand, but that the service was to be
rendered first; and the price received afterwards.
The cardinal applied himself to the task on his first arrival, but was
soon obliged to report that he could make but little progress in the
negotiation.

The king thought, too, that Heraugiere, who had commanded the
memorable expedition against Breda, and who was now governor of
that stronghold, might be purchased, and he accordingly instructed the
cardinal to make use of the Prince of Orange in the negotiations to be
made for that purpose. The cardinal, in effect, received an offer from
Heraugiere in the course of a few months not only to surrender Breda,
without previous recompense, but likewise to place Gertruydenberg,
the governor of which city was his relative, in the king's possession.
But the cardinal was afraid of a trick, for Heraugiere was known to be
as artful as he was brave, and there can be little doubt that the
Netherlander was only disposed to lay an ambush for the
governor-general.
And thus the son of William the Silent made his reappearance in the
streets of Brussels, after twenty-eight years of imprisonment, riding in
the procession of the new viceroy. The cardinal-archduke came next,
with Fuentes riding at his left hand. That vigorous soldier and politician
soon afterwards left the Netherlands to assume the government of
Milan.
There was a correspondence between the Prince of Orange and the
States- General, in which the republican authorities after expressing
themselves towards him with great propriety, and affectionate respect,
gave him plainly but delicately to understand that his presence at that
time in the United Provinces would neither be desirable, nor, without
their passports, possible. They were quite aware of the uses to which
the king was hoping to turn their reverence for the memory and the
family of the great martyr, and were determined to foil such idle
projects on the threshold.
The Archduke Albert, born on 3rd of November, 1560, was now in his
thirty-sixth year. A small, thin, pale-faced man, with fair hair, and
beard, commonplace features, and the hereditary underhanging
Burgundian jaw prominently developed, he was not without a certain
nobility of presence. His manners were distant to haughtiness and grave
to solemnity. He spoke very little and very slowly. He had resided long
in Spain, where he had been a favourite with his uncle--as much as any
man could be a favourite with Philip--and he had carefully formed
himself on that royal model. He looked upon the King of Spain as the
greatest, wisest, and best of created