The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1568 part 1 | Page 3

power of the government, he was soon seized as a

hostage for the good behavior of the father. Granvelle appears to have
been the first to recommend the step in a secret letter to Philip, but
Alva scarcely needed prompting. Accordingly, upon the 13th of
February, 1568, the Duke sent the Seignior de Chassy to Louvain,
attended by four officers and by twelve archers. He was furnished with
a letter to the Count de Buren, in which that young nobleman was
requested to place implicit confidence in the bearer of the despatch, and
was informed that the desire which his Majesty had to see him educated
for his service, was the cause of the communication which the Seignior
de Chassy was about to make.
That gentleman was, moreover, minutely instructed as to his method of
proceeding in this memorable case of kidnapping. He was to present
the letter to the young Count in presence of his tutor. He was to invite
him to Spain in the name of his Majesty. He was to assure him that his
Majesty's commands were solely with a view, to his own good, and that
he was not commissioned to arrest, but only to escort him. He was to
allow the Count to be accompanied only by two valets, two pages, a
cook, and a keeper of accounts. He was, however, to induce his tutor to
accompany him, at least to the Spanish frontier. He was to arrange that
the second day after his arrival at Louvain, the Count should set out for
Antwerp, where he was to lodge with Count Lodron, after which they
were to proceed to Flushing, whence they were to embark for Spain. At
that city he was to deliver the young Prince to the person whom he
would find there, commissioned for that purpose by the Duke. As soon
as he had made the first proposition at Louvain to the Count, he was,
with the assistance of his retinue, to keep the most strict watch over
him day and night, but without allowing the supervision to be
perceived.
The plan was carried out admirably, and in strict accordance with the
program. It was fortunate, however, for the kidnappers, that the young
Prince proved favorably disposed to the plan. He accepted the
invitation of his captors with alacrity. He even wrote to thank the
governor for his friendly offices in his behalf. He received with boyish
gratification the festivities with which Lodron enlivened his brief
sojourn at Antwerp, and he set forth without reluctance for that gloomy
and terrible land of Spain, whence so rarely a Flemish traveller had
returned. A changeling, as it were, from his cradle, he seemed

completely transformed by his Spanish tuition, for he was educated and
not sacrificed by Philip. When he returned to the Netherlands, after a
twenty years' residence in Spain, it was difficult to detect in his gloomy
brow, saturnine character, and Jesuistical habits, a trace of the generous
spirit which characterized that race of heroes, the house of
Orange-Nassau.
Philip had expressed some anxiety as to the consequences of this
capture upon the governments of Germany. Alva, however, re-assured
his sovereign upon that point, by reason of the extreme docility of the
captive, and the quiet manner in which the arrest had been conducted.
At that particular juncture, moreover, it would, have been difficult for
the government of the Netherlands to excite surprise any where, except
by an act of clemency. The president and the deputation of professors
from the university of Louvain waited upon Vargas, by whom, as
acting president of the Blood-Council, the arrest had nominally been
made, with a remonstrance that the measure was in gross violation of
their statutes and privileges. That personage, however, with his usual
contempt both for law and Latin, answered brutally, "Non curamus
vestros privilegios," and with this memorable answer, abruptly closed
his interview with the trembling pedants.
Petitions now poured into the council from all quarters, abject
recantations from terror-stricken municipalities, humble intercessions
in behalf of doomed and imprisoned victims. To a deputation of the
magistracy of Antwerp, who came with a prayer for mercy in behalf of
some of their most distinguished fellow-citizens, then in prison, the
Duke gave a most passionate and ferocious reply. He expressed his
wonder that the citizens of Antwerp, that hotbed of treason, should dare
to approach him in behalf of traitors and heretics. Let them look to it in
future, he continued, or he would hang every man in the whole city, to
set an example to the rest of the country; for his Majesty would rather
the whole land should become an uninhabited wilderness, than that a
single Dissenter should exist within its territory.
Events now marched with rapidity. The monarch seemed disposed
literally to execute the