The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1567 part 2 | Page 8

without a remote intention of leaving Spain, and while the
messengers of his accumulated and long-concealed wrath were already
descending upon their prey. It was the deliberate intention of Philip,
when the Duke was despatched to the Netherlands, that all the leaders
of the anti- inquisition party, and all who had, at any time or in any way,
implicated themselves in opposition to the government, or in censure of
its proceedings, should be put to death. It was determined that the
provinces should be subjugated to the absolute domination of the
council of Spain, a small body of foreigners sitting at the other end of
Europe, a junta in which Netherlanders were to have no voice and
exercise no influence. The despotic government of the Spanish and
Italian possessions was to be extended to these Flemish territories,
which were thus to be converted into the helpless dependencies of a
foreign and an absolute crown. There was to be a re-organization of the

inquisition, upon the same footing claimed for it before the outbreak of
the troubles, together with a re-enactment and vigorous enforcement of
the famous edicts against heresy.
Such was the scheme recommended by Granvelle and Espinosa, and to
be executed by Alva. As part and parcel of this plan, it was also
arranged at secret meetings at the house of Espinosa, before the
departure of the Duke, that all the seigniors against whom the Duchess
Margaret had made so many complaints, especially the Prince of
Orange, with the Counts Egmont, Horn, and Hoogstraaten, should be
immediately arrested and brought to chastisement. The Marquis
Berghen and the Baron Montigny, being already in Spain, could be
dealt with at pleasure. It was also decided that the gentlemen implicated
in the confederacy or compromise, should at once be proceeded against
for high treason, without any regard to the promise of pardon granted
by the Duchess.
The general features of the great project having been thus mapped out,
a few indispensable preliminaries were at once executed. In order that
Egmont, Horn, and other distinguished victims might not take alarm,
and thus escape the doom deliberately arranged for them, royal
assurances were despatched to the Netherlands, cheering their
despondency and dispelling their doubts. With his own hand Philip
wrote the letter, full of affection and confidence, to Egmont, to which
allusion has already been made. He wrote it after Alva had left Madrid
upon his mission of vengeance. The same stealthy measures were
pursued with regard to others. The Prince of Orange was not capable of
falling into the royal trap, however cautiously baited. Unfortunately he
could not communicate his wisdom to his friends.
It is difficult to comprehend so very sanguine a temperament as that to
which Egmont owed his destruction. It was not the Prince of Orange
alone who had prophesied his doom. Warnings had come to the Count
from every quarter, and they were now frequently repeated. Certainly
he was not without anxiety, but he had made his decision; determined
to believe in the royal word, and in the royal gratitude for his services
rendered, not only against Montmorency and De Thermes, but against
the heretics of Flanders. He was, however, much changed. He had
grown prematurely old. At forty-six years his hair was white, and he
never slept without pistols under his pillow. Nevertheless he affected,

and sometimes felt, a light- heartedness which surprised all around him.
The Portuguese gentleman Robles, Seigneur de Billy, who had returned
early in the summer from Spain; whither he had been sent upon a
confidential mission by Madame de Parma, is said to have made
repeated communications to Egmont as to the dangerous position in
which he stood. Immediately after his arrival in Brussels he had visited
the Count, then confined to his house by an injury caused by the fall of
his horse. "Take care to get well very fast," said De Billy, "for there are
very bad stories told about you in Spain." Egmont laughed heartily at
the observation, as if, nothing could well be more absurd than such a
warning. His friend--for De Billy is said to have felt a real attachment
to the Count--persisted in his prophecies, telling him that "birds in the
field sang much more sweetly than those in cages," and that he would
do well to abandon the country before the arrival of Alva.
These warnings were repeated almost daily by the same gentleman, and
by others, who were more and more astonished at Egmont's infatuation.
Nevertheless, he had disregarded their admonitions, and had gone forth
to meet the Duke at Tirlemont. Even then he might have seen, in the
coldness of his first reception, and in the disrespectful manner of the
Spanish soldiers, who not only did not at first salute him, but who
murmured audibly that