The Life and Death of John of Barneveld, Advocate of Holland, 1610a | Page 7

honour of thirty musketeers was standing before the door, and they
were conducted from their coaches by Spinola preceded by twenty-four
torch-bearers up the grand staircase to a hall, where they were received
by the Princesses of Mansfeld, Velasco, and other distinguished dames.
Thence they were led through several apartments rich with tapestry and
blazing with crystal and silver plate to a splendid saloon where was a
silken canopy, under which the Princess of Conde and the Princess of
Orange seated themselves, the Nuncius Bentivoglio to his delight being
placed next the beautiful Margaret. After reposing for a little while they
were led to the ball- room, brilliantly lighted with innumerable torches
of perfumed wax and hung with tapestry of gold and silk, representing
in fourteen embroidered designs the chief military exploits of Spinola.
Here the banquet, a cold collation, was already spread on a table
decked and lighted with regal splendour. As soon as the guests were
seated, an admirable concert of instrumental music began. Spinola

walked up and down providing for the comforts of his company, the
Duke of Aumale stood behind the two princesses to entertain them with
conversation, Don Luis Velasco served the Princess of Conde with
plates, handed her the dishes, the wine, the napkins, while Bucquoy and
Visconti in like manner waited upon the Princess of Orange; other
nobles attending to the other ladies. Forty- eight pages in white, yellow,
and red scarves brought and removed the dishes. The dinner, of courses
innumerable, lasted two hours and a half, and the ladies, being thus
fortified for the more serious business of the evening, were led to the
tiring-rooms while the hall was made ready for dancing. The ball was
opened by the Princess of Conde and Spinola, and lasted until two in
the morning. As the apartment grew warm, two of the pages went about
with long staves and broke all the windows until not a single pane of
glass remained. The festival was estimated by the thrifty chronicler of
Antwerp to have cost from 3000 to 4000 crowns. It was, he says, "an
earthly paradise of which soon not a vapour remained." He added that
he gave a detailed account of it "not because he took pleasure in such
voluptuous pomp and extravagance, but that one might thus learn the
vanity of the world." These courtesies and assiduities on the part of the
great "shopkeeper," as the Constable called him, had so much effect, if
not on the Princess, at least on Conde himself, that he threatened to
throw his wife out of window if she refused to caress Spinola. These
and similar accusations were made by the father and aunt when
attempting to bring about a divorce of the Princess from her husband.
The Nuncius Bentivoglio, too, fell in love with her, devoting himself to
her service, and his facile and eloquent pen to chronicling her story.
Even poor little Philip of Spain in the depths of the Escurial heard of
her charms, and tried to imagine himself in love with her by proxy.
Thenceforth there was a succession of brilliant festivals in honour of
the Princess. The Spanish party was radiant with triumph, the French
maddened with rage. Henry in Paris was chafing like a lion at bay. A
petty sovereign whom he could crush at one vigorous bound was
protecting the lady for whose love he was dying. He had secured
Conde's exclusion from Holland, but here were the fugitives splendidly
established in Brussels; the Princess surrounded by most formidable
suitors, the Prince encouraged in his rebellious and dangerous schemes
by the power which the King most hated on earth, and whose eternal

downfall he had long since sworn to accomplish.
For the weak and frivolous Conde began to prattle publicly of his deep
projects of revenge. Aided by Spanish money and Spanish troops he
would show one day who was the real heir to the throne of France--the
illegitimately born Dauphin or himself.
The King sent for the first president of Parliament, Harlay, and
consulted with him as to the proper means of reviving the suppressed
process against the Dowager and of publicly degrading Conde from his
position of first prince of the blood which he had been permitted to
usurp. He likewise procured a decree accusing him of high-treason and
ordering him to be punished at his Majesty's pleasure, to be prepared by
the Parliament of Paris; going down to the court himself in his
impatience and seating himself in everyday costume on the bench of
judges to see that it was immediately proclaimed.
Instead of at once attacking the Archdukes in force as he intended in
the first ebullition of his wrath, he resolved to send de Boutteville-
Montmorency, a relative of the Constable, on special and urgent
mission