History of the United Netherlands, 1595 | Page 6

pie before leaving his quarters. Nevertheless,
before he had reached the redoubt, a bullet from the town struck him
between the fold of his morion and the edge of his buckler and he fell
dead without uttering a sound.
Here again was a great loss to the king's service. La Motte, of a noble
family in Burgundy, had been educated in the old fierce traditions of
the Spanish system of warfare in the Netherlands, and had been one of
the very hardest instruments that the despot could use for his bloody
work. He had commanded a company of horse at the famous battle of
St. Quintin, and since that opening event in Philip's reign he had been
unceasingly-- engaged in the Flemish wars. Alva made him a colonel of
a Walloon regiment; the grand commander Requesena appointed him

governor of Gravelines. On the whole he had been tolerably faithful to
his colours; having changed sides but twice. After the pacification of
Ghent he swore allegiance to the States-General, and assisted in the
bombardment of the citadel of that place. Soon afterwards he went over
to Don John of Austria, and surrendered to him the town and fortress of
Gravelines, of which he then continued governor in the name of the
king. He was fortunate in the accumulation of office and of money;
rather unlucky in his campaigning. He was often wounded in action,
and usually defeated when commanding in chief. He lost an arm at the
siege of Sluy's, and had now lost his life almost by an accident.
Although twice married he left no children to inherit his great estates,
while the civil and military offices left vacant by his death were
sufficient to satisfy the claims of five aspiring individuals. The Count
of Varax succeeded him as general of artillery; but it was difficult to
find a man to replace La Motte, possessing exactly the qualities which
had made that warrior so valuable to his king. The type was rapidly
disappearing, and most fortunately for humanity, if half the stories told
of him by grave chroniclers, accustomed to discriminate between
history and gossip, are to be believed. He had committed more than one
cool homicide. Although not rejoicing in the same patronymic as his
Spanish colleague of Friesland, he too was ready on occasion to
perform hangman's work. When sergeant- major in Flanders, he had
himself volunteered--so ran the chronicle-- to do execution on a poor
wretch found guilty of professing the faith of Calvin; and, with his own
hands, had prepared a fire of straw, tied his victim to the stake, and
burned him to cinders. Another Netherlander for the name crime of
heresy had been condemned to be torn to death by horses. No one could
be found to carry out the sentence. The soldiers under La Motte's
command broke into mutiny rather than permit themselves to be used
for such foul purposes; but the ardent young sergeant-major came
forward, tied the culprit by the arms and legs to two horses, and himself
whipped them to their work till it was duly accomplished. Was it
strange that in Philip's reign such energy should be rewarded by wealth,
rank, and honour? Was not such a labourer in the vineyard worthy of
his hire?
Still another eminent chieftain in the king's service disappeared at this
time--one who, although unscrupulous and mischievous enough in his

day, was however not stained by any suspicion of crimes like these.
Count Charles Mansfeld, tired of governing his decrepit parent Peter
Ernest, who, since the appointment of Fuentes, had lost all further
chance of governing the Netherlands, had now left Philip's service and
gone to the Turkish wars. For Amurath III., who had died in the early
days of the year, had been succeeded by a sultan as warlike as himself.
Mahomet III., having strangled his nineteen brothers on his accession,
handsomely buried them in cypress coffins by the side of their father,
and having subsequently sacked and drowned ten infant princes
posthumously born to Amurath, was at leisure to carry the war through
Transylvania and Hungary, up to the gates of Vienna, with renewed
energy. The Turk, who could enforce the strenuous rules of despotism
by which all secundogenitures and collateral claimants in the Ottoman
family were thus provided for, was a foe to be dealt with seriously. The
power of the Moslems at that day was a full match for the holy Roman
Empire. The days were far distant when the grim Turk's head was to
become a mockery and a show; and when a pagan empire, born of
carnage and barbarism, was to be kept alive in Europe when it was
ready to die, by the collective efforts of Christian princes. Charles
Mansfeld had been received with great enthusiasm at the court