History of the United Netherlands, 1602-03 | Page 4

the spring-tides of the North Sea, and the
batteries of Vere and Nassau. So he launched a manifesto, as highly

spiced as a pamphlet of Marnig, and as severe as a sentence of
Torquemada. Entirely against the advice of the States-General of the
obedient provinces, he denounced the mutineers as outlaws and
accursed. He called on persons of every degree to kill any of them in
any way, at any time, or in any place, promising that the slayer of a
private soldier should receive a reward of "ten crowns for each head"
brought in, while for a subaltern officer's head one hundred crowns
were offered; for that of a superior officer two hundred, and for that of
the Eletto or chief magistrate, five hundred crowns. Should the slayer
be himself a member of the mutiny, his crime of rebellion was to be
forgiven, and the price of murder duly paid. All judges, magistrates,
and provost-marshals were ordered to make inventories of the goods,
moveable and immoveable, of the mutineers, and of the clothing and
other articles belonging to their wives and children, all which property
was to be brought in and deposited in the hands of the proper
functionaries of the archduke's camp, in order that it might be duly
incorporated into the domains of his Highness.
The mutineers were not frightened. The ban was an anachronism. If
those Spaniards and Italians had learned nothing by their much
campaigning in the land of Calvinism, they had at least unlearned their
faith in bell, book, and candle. It happened, too, that among their
numbers were to be found pamphleteers as ready and as unscrupulous
as the scribes of the archduke.
So there soon came forth and was published to the world, in the name
of the Eletto and council of Hoogstraaten, a formal answer to the ban.
"If scolding and cursing be payment," said the magistrates of the
mutiny, "then we might give a receipt in full for our wages. The ban is
sufficient in this respect; but as these curses give no food for our bellies
nor clothes for our backs, not preventing us, therefore, who have been
fighting so long for the honour and welfare of the archdukes from
starving with cold and hunger, we think a reply necessary in order to
make manifest how much reason these archdukes have for thundering
forth all this choler and fury, by which women and children may be
frightened, but at which no soldier will feel alarm.
"When it is stated," continued the mutineers, "that we have deserted our
banners just as an attempt was making by the archduke to relieve Grave,
we can only reply that the assertion proves how impossible it is to

practise arithmetic with disturbed brains. Passion is a bad
schoolmistress for the memory, but, as good friends, we will recal to
the recollection of your Highness that it was not your Highness, but the
Admiral of Arragon, that commanded the relieving force before that
city.
"'Tis very true that we summon your Highnesses, and levy upon your
provinces, in order to obtain means of living; for in what other quarter
should we make application. Your Highnesses give us nothing except
promises; but soldiers are not chameleons, to live on such air.
According to every principle of law, creditors have a lien on the
property of their debtors.
"As to condemning to death as traitors and scoundrels those who don't
desire to be killed, and who have the means of killing such as attempt
to execute the sentence; this is hardly in accordance with the
extraordinary wisdom which has always characterized your
Highnesses.
"As, to the confiscation of our goods, both moveable and immoveable,
we would simply make this observation:
"Our moveable goods are our swords alone, and they can only be
moved by ourselves. They are our immoveable goods as well; for
should any one but ourselves undertake to move them, we assure your
Highnesses that they will prove too heavy to be handled.
"As to the official register and deposit ordained of the money, clothing,
and other property belonging to ourselves, our wives and children, the
work may be done without clerks of inventory. Certainly, if the
domains of your Highnesses have no other sources of revenue than the
proceeds of this confiscation, wherewith to feed the ostrich-like
digestions of those about you, 'tis to be feared that ere long they will be
in the same condition as were ours, when we were obliged to come
together in Hoogstraaten to devise means to keep ourselves, our wives,
and children alive. And at that time we were an unbreeched people, like
the Indians-- saving your Highnesses' reverence--and the climate here
is too cold for such costume. Your Highnesses, and your relatives the
Emperor and King of Spain, will