The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1567 part 2 | Page 5

of the Netherlands; and whose dreadful fate was to be
contemporaneous with the earliest successes of the liberal party.
With an army thus perfect, on a small scale, in all its departments, and
furnished, in addition, with a force of two thousand prostitutes, as
regularly enrolled, disciplined, and distributed as the cavalry or the
artillery, the Duke embarked upon his momentous enterprise, on the
10th of May, at Carthagena. Thirty-seven galleys, under command of
Prince Andrea Doria, brought the principal part of the force to Genoa,
the Duke being delayed a few days at Nice by an attack of fever. On the

2d of June, the army was mustered at Alexandria de Palla, and ordered
to rendezvous again at San Ambrosio at the foot of the Alps. It was
then directed to make its way over Mount Cenis and through Savoy;
Burgundy, and Lorraine, by a regularly arranged triple movement. The
second division was each night to encamp on the spot which had been
occupied upon the previous night by the vanguard, and the rear was to
place itself on the following night in the camp of the corps de bataille.
Thus coiling itself along almost in a single line by slow and serpentine
windings, with a deliberate, deadly, venomous purpose, this army,
which was to be the instrument of Philip's long deferred vengeance,
stole through narrow mountain pass and tangled forest. So close and
intricate were many of the defiles through which the journey led them
that, had one tithe of the treason which they came to punish, ever
existed, save in the diseased imagination of their monarch, not one man
would have been left to tell the tale. Egmont, had he really been the
traitor and the conspirator he was assumed to be, might have easily
organized the means of cutting off the troops before they could have
effected their entrance into the country which they had doomed to
destruction. His military experience, his qualifications for a daring
stroke, his great popularity, and the intense hatred entertained for Alva,
would have furnished him with a sufficient machinery for the purpose.
Twelve days' march carried the army through Burgundy, twelve more
through Lorraine. During the whole of the journey they were closely
accompanied by a force of cavalry and infantry, ordered upon this
service by the King of France, who, for fear of exciting a fresh
Huguenot demonstration, had refused the Spaniards a passage through
his dominions. This reconnoitring army kept pace with them like their
shadow, and watched all their movements. A force of six thousand
Swiss, equally alarmed and uneasy at the progress of the troops,
hovered likewise about their flanks, without, however, offering any
impediment to their advance. Before the middle of August they had
reached Thionville, on the Luxemburg frontier, having on the last day
marched a distance of two leagues through a forest, which seemed
expressly arranged to allow a small defensive force to embarrass and
destroy an invading army. No opposition, however, was attempted, and
the Spanish soldiers encamped at last within the territory of the
Netherlands, having accomplished their adventurous journey in entire

safety, and under perfect discipline.
The Duchess had in her secret letters to Philip continued to express her
disapprobation of the enterprise thus committed to Alva, She had
bitterly complained that now when the country had been pacified by her
efforts, another should be sent to reap all the glory, or perhaps to undo
all that she had so painfully and so successfully done. She stated to her
brother, in most unequivocal language, that the name of Alva was
odious enough to make the whole Spanish nation detested in the
Netherlands. She could find no language sufficiently strong to express
her surprise that the King should have decided upon a measure likely to
be attended with such fatal consequences without consulting her on the
subject, and in opposition to what had been her uniform advice. She
also wrote personally to Alva, imploring, commanding, and threatening,
but with equally ill success. The Duke knew too well who was
sovereign of the Netherlands now; his master's sister or himself. As to
the effects of his armed invasion upon the temper of the provinces, he
was supremely indifferent. He came as a conqueror not as a mediator.
"I have tamed people of iron in my day," said he, contemptuously,
"shall I not easily crush these men of butter?"
At Thionville he was, however, officially waited upon by Berlaymont
and Noircarmes, on the part of the Regent. He at this point, moreover,
began to receive deputations from various cities, bidding him a hollow
and trembling welcome, and deprecating his displeasure for any thing
in the past which might seem offensive. To all such embassies he
replied in vague and conventional language; saying, however, to his