The Life and Death of John of Barneveld, Advocate of Holland, 1619-23

Life of John of Barneveld,
1619-23

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Title: The Life of John of Barneveld, 1619-23
Author: John Lothrop Motley
Release Date: January, 2004 [EBook #4897] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on April 24,
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THE LIFE AND DEATH of JOHN OF BARNEVELD, ADVOCATE
OF HOLLAND
WITH A VIEW OF THE PRIMARY CAUSES AND MOVEMENTS
OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR
By John Lothrop Motley, D.C.L., LL.D.

MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg
Edition, Volume 97
Life and Death of John of Barneveld, v11, 1619-23
CHAPTER XXI
.
Barneveld's Execution--The Advocate's Conduct on the Scaffold--The
Sentence printed and sent to the Provinces--The Proceedings irregular
and inequitable.
In the beautiful village capital of the "Count's Park," commonly called
the Hague, the most striking and picturesque spot then as now was that
where the transformed remains of the old moated castle of those feudal
sovereigns were still to be seen. A three-storied range of simple,
substantial buildings in brown brickwork, picked out with white stone
in a style since made familiar both in England and America, and

associated with a somewhat later epoch in the history of the House of
Orange, surrounded three sides of a spacious inner paved quadrangle
called the Inner Court, the fourth or eastern side being overshadowed
by a beechen grove. A square tower flanked each angle, and on both
sides of the south-western turret extended the commodious apartments
of the Stadholder. The great gateway on the south-west opened into a
wide open space called the Outer Courtyard. Along the north-west side
a broad and beautiful sheet of water, in which the walls, turrets, and
chapel-spires of the enclosed castle mirrored themselves, was spread
between the mass of buildings and an umbrageous promenade called
the Vyverberg, consisting of a sextuple alley of lime-trees and
embowering here and there a stately villa. A small island, fringed with
weeping willows and tufted all over with lilacs, laburnums, and other
shrubs then in full flower, lay in the centre of the miniature lake, and
the tall solid tower of the Great Church, surmounted by a light
openwork spire, looked down from a little distance over the scene.
It was a bright morning in May. The white swans were sailing
tranquilly to and fro over the silver basin, and the mavis, blackbird, and
nightingale, which haunted the groves surrounding the castle and the
town, were singing as if the daybreak were ushering in a summer
festival.
But it was not to a merry-making that the soldiers were marching and
the citizens. thronging so eagerly from every street and alley towards
the castle. By four o'clock the Outer and Inner Courts had been lined
with detachments of the Prince's guard and companies of other
regiments to the number of 1200 men. Occupying the north-eastern
side of the court rose the grim, time-worn front of the ancient hall,
consisting of one tall pyramidal gable of ancient grey brickwork
flanked with two tall slender towers, the whole with the lancet-shaped
windows and severe style of the twelfth century, excepting a
rose-window in the centre with the decorated mullions of a somewhat
later period.
In front of the lower window, with its Gothic archway hastily converted
into a door, a shapeless platform of rough, unhewn planks had that
night been rudely patched together. This was the scaffold. A slight
railing around it served to protect it from the