History of the United Netherlands, 1597-98 | Page 7

guard-house, the gate
dropped again before the wagon had fairly got through the passage, and
remained resting upon the timber with which it was piled.
At that instant a shrill whistle was heard; and as if by magic the twenty
chestnut-selling peasants were suddenly transformed to Spanish and
Walloon soldiers. armed to the teeth, who were presently reinforced by
as many more of their comrades, who sprang from beneath the
plank-work by which the real contents of the wagon had thus been

screened. Captain Dognano, his brother the sergeant-major, Captain
d'Arco, and other officers of a Walloon regiment stationed in Dourlans,
were the leaders of the little party, and while they were busily occupied
in putting the soldiers of the watch, thus taken unawares, to death, the
master-spirit of the whole adventure suddenly made his appearance and
entered the city at the head of fifteen hundred men. This was an
extremely small, yellow, dried up, energetic Spanish captain, with a
long red beard, Hernan Tello de Porto Carrero by came, governor of the
neighbouring city of Dourlens, who had conceived this plan for
obtaining possession of Amiens. Having sent these disguised soldiers
on before him, he had passed the night with his men in ambush until
the signal should sound. The burghers of the town were mostly in
church; none were dreaming of an attack, as men rarely do--for
otherwise how should they ever be surprised--and in half an hour
Amiens was the property of Philip of Spain. There were not very many
lives lost, for the resistance was small, but great numbers were tortured
for ransom and few women escaped outrage. The sack was famous, for
the city was rich and the captors were few in number, so that each
soldier had two or three houses to plunder for his own profit.
When the work was done, the faubourgs were all destroyed, for it was
the intention of the conquerors to occupy the place, which would be a
most convenient basis of operations for any attack upon Paris, and it
was desirable to contract the limits to be defended. Fifteen hundred
houses, many of them beautiful villas surrounded with orchards and
pleasure gardens,--were soon in flames, and afterwards razed to the
ground. The governor of the place, Count St. Pol, managed to effect his
escape. His place was now supplied by the Marquis of Montenegro, an
Italian in the service of the Spanish king. Such was the fate of Amiens
in the month of March, 1597; such the result of the refusal by the
citizens to accept the garrison urged upon them by Henry.
It would be impossible to exaggerate the consternation produced.
throughout France by this astounding and altogether unlooked for event.
"It seemed," said President De Thou, "as if it had extinguished in a
moment the royal majesty and the French name." A few nights later
than the date of this occurrence, Maximilian de Bethune (afterwards
Duke of Sully, but then called Marquis de Rosny) was asleep in his bed
in Paris. He had returned, at past two o'clock in the morning, from a

magnificent ball given by the Constable of France. The capital had
been uncommonly brilliant during the winter with banquets and dances,
tourneys and masquerades, as if to cast a lurid glare over the
unutterable misery of the people and the complete desolation of the
country; but this entertainment--given by Montmorency in honour of a
fair dame with whom he supposed himself desperately in love, the
young bride of a very ancient courtier--surpassed in splendour every
festival that had been heard of for years. De Bethune had hardly lost
himself in slumber when he was startled by Beringen, who, on drawing
his curtains in this dead hour of the night, presented such a ghastly
visage that the faithful friend of Henry instantly imagined some
personal disaster to his well-beloved sovereign. "Is the King dead?" he
cried.
Being re-assured as to, this point and told to hasten to the Louvre,
Rosny instantly complied with the command. When he reached the
palace he was admitted at once to the royal bed-chamber, where he
found the king in the most unsophisticated of costumes, striding up and
down the room, with his hands clasped together behind his head, and
with an expression of agony upon his face: Many courtiers were
assembled there, stuck all of them like images against the wall, staring
before them in helpless perplexity.
Henry rushed forward as Rosny entered, and wringing him by the hand,
exclaimed, "Ah, my friend, what a misfortune, Amiens is taken!"
"Very well," replied the financier, with unperturbed visage; "I have just
completed a plan which will restore to your Majesty not only Amiens
but many other places."
The king drew a great sigh of relief and asked for his project. Rosny,