The Life and Death of John of Barneveld, Advocate of Holland, 1618 | Page 7

in
which the hard-handed but half-artistic mechanics and shopkeepers of
the Netherlands loved to disport themselves was called, then exhibited
upon an opposite scaffold a magnificent representation of Jupiter
astride upon an eagle and banding down to the Stadholder as if from
the clouds that same principality. Nothing could be neater or more
mythological.
The Prince and his escort, sitting in the windows of the town-hall, the
square beneath being covered with 3000 or 4000 burgher militia in full
uniform, with orange plumes in their hats and orange scarves on their
breasts, saw still other sights. A gorgeous procession set forth by the
"Netherlandish Academy," another chamber of rhetoric, and filled with
those emblematic impersonations so dear to the hearts of Netherlanders,
had been sweeping through all the canals and along the splendid quays
of the city. The Maid of Holland, twenty feet high, led the van,
followed by the counterfeit presentment of each of her six sisters. An
orange tree full of flowers and fruit was conspicuous in one barge,
while in another, strangely and lugubriously enough, lay the murdered
William the Silent in the arms of his wife and surrounded by his
weeping sons and daughters all attired in white satin.

In the evening the Netherland Academy, to improve the general hilarity,
and as if believing exhibitions of murder the most appropriate means of
welcoming the Prince, invited him to a scenic representation of the
assassination of Count Florence V. of Holland by Gerrit van Velsen
and other nobles. There seemed no especial reason for the selection,
unless perhaps the local one; one of the perpetrators of this crime
against an ancient predecessor of William the Silent in the sovereignty
of Holland having been a former lord proprietor of Amsterdam and the
adjacent territories, Gysbrecht van Amatel.
Maurice returned to the Hague. Five of the seven provinces were
entirely his own. Utrecht too was already wavering, while there could
be no doubt of the warm allegiance to himself of the important
commercial metropolis of Holland, the only province in which
Barneveld's influence was still paramount.
Owing to the watchfulness and distrust of Barneveld, which had never
faltered, Spain had not secured the entire control of the disputed
duchies, but she had at least secured the head of a venerated saint. "The
bargain is completed for the head of the glorious Saint Lawrence,
which you know I so much desire," wrote Philip triumphantly to the
Archduke Albert. He had, however, not got it for nothing.
The Abbot of Glamart in Julich, then in possession of that treasure, had
stipulated before delivering it that if at any time the heretics or other
enemies should destroy the monastery his Majesty would establish
them in Spanish Flanders and give them the same revenues as they now
enjoyed in Julich. Count Herman van den Berg was to give a guarantee
to that effect.
Meantime the long controversy in the duchies having tacitly come to a
standstill upon the basis of 'uti possidetis,' the Spanish government had
leisure in the midst of their preparation for the general crusade upon
European heresy to observe and enjoy the internal religious dissensions
in their revolted provinces. Although they had concluded the
convention with them as with countries over which they had no
pretensions, they had never at heart allowed more virtue to the
conjunction "as," which really contained the essence of the treaty, than
grammatically belonged to it. Spain still chose to regard the
independence of the Seven Provinces as a pleasant fiction to be
dispelled when, the truce having expired by its own limitation, she

should resume, as she fully meant to do, her sovereignty over all the
seventeen Netherlands, the United as well as the obedient. Thus at any
rate the question of state rights or central sovereignty would be settled
by a very summary process. The Spanish ambassador was wroth, as
may well be supposed, when the agent of the rebel provinces received
in London the rank, title, and recognition of ambassador. Gondemar at
least refused to acknowledge Noel de Caron as his diplomatic equal or
even as his colleague, and was vehement in his protestations on the
subject. But James, much as he dreaded the Spanish envoy and fawned
upon his master, was not besotted enough to comply with these
demands at the expense of his most powerful ally, the Republic of the
Netherlands. The Spanish king however declared his ambassador's
proceedings to be in exact accordance with his instructions. He was
sorry, he said, if the affair had caused discontent to the King of Great
Britain; he intended in all respects to maintain the Treaty of Truce of
which his Majesty had been one of the guarantors, but as that treaty had
but a few more years to run, after which he should be