The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1577 part 2 | Page 4

at the castle gate. He entered the fortress with
the castellan, while one of the gentlemen watched outside, as the
ambushed soldiers came toiling up the precipice. When all was ready
the gentleman returned to the hall, and made a signal to Don John, as
he sat at breakfast with the constable. The Governor sprang from the
table and drew his sword; Berlaymont and his four sons drew their
pistols, while at the same instant, the soldiers entered. Don John,
exclaiming that this was the first day of his government, commanded
the castellan to surrender. De Froymont, taken by surprise, and hardly

understanding this very melo-dramatic attack upon a citadel by its own
lawful governor, made not much difficulty in complying. He was then
turned out of doors, along with his garrison, mostly feeble old men and
invalids. The newly arrived soldiers took their places, at command of
the Governor, and the stronghold of Namur was his own.
There was little doubt that the representative of Philip had a perfect
right to possess himself of any fortress within his government; there
could be as little that the sudden stratagem by which he had thus made
himself master of this citadel would prove offensive to the estates,
while it could hardly be agreeable to the King; and yet it is not certain
that he could have accomplished his purpose in any other way.
Moreover, the achievement was one of a projected series by which he
meant to re-vindicate his dwindling authority. He was weary of playing
the hypocrite, and convinced that he and his monarch were both
abhorred by the Netherlanders. Peace was impossible--war was
forbidden him. Reduced almost to a nullity by the Prince of Orange, it
was time for him to make a stand, and in this impregnable fastness his
position at least was a good one. Many months before, the Prince of
Orange had expressed his anxious desire that this most important town
and citadel should be secured-for the estates. "You know," he had
written to Bossu in December, "the evil and the dismay which the loss
of the city and fortress of Namur would occasion to us. Let me beseech
you that all possible care be taken to preserve them." Nevertheless,
their preservation had been entrusted to a feeble-minded old constable,
at the head of a handful of cripples.
We know how intense had been the solicitude of the Prince, not only to
secure but to destroy these citadels, "nests of tyranny," which had been
built by despots to crush, not protect, the towns at their feet. These
precautions had been neglected, and the consequences were displaying
themselves, for the castle of Namur was not the only one of which Don
John felt himself secure. Although the Duke of Aerschot seemed so
very much his humble servant, the Governor did not trust him, and
wished to see the citadel of Antwerp in more unquestionable keeping.
He had therefore withdrawn, not only the Duke, but his son, the Prince
of Chimay, commander of the castle in his father's absence, from that
important post, and insisted upon their accompanying him to Namur.
So gallant a courtier as Aerschot could hardly refuse to pay his homage

to so illustrious a princess as Margaret of Valois, while during the
absence of the Duke and Prince the keys of Antwerp-citadel had been,
at the command of Don John, placed in the keeping of the Seigneur de
Treslong, an unscrupulous and devoted royalist. The celebrated Colonel
Van Ende, whose participation, at the head of his German cavalry, in
the terrible sack of that city, which he had been ordered to defend, has
been narrated, was commanded to return to Antwerp. He was to present
himself openly to the city authorities, but he was secretly directed by
the Governor-General to act in co-operation with the Colonels Fugger,
Frondsberger, and Polwiller, who commanded the forces already
stationed in the city. These distinguished officers had been all summer
in secret correspondence with Don John, for they were the instruments
with which he meant by a bold stroke to recover his almost lost
authority. While he had seemed to be seconding the efforts of the
states-general to pay off and disband these mercenaries, nothing had in
reality been farther from his thoughts; and the time had now come
when his secret plans were to be executed, according to the agreement
between himself and the German colonels. He wrote to them,
accordingly, to delay no longer the accomplishment of the deed--that
deed being the seizure of Antwerp citadel, as he had already
successfully mastered that of Namur. The Duke of Aerschot, his
brother, and son, were in his power, and could do nothing to prevent
the co-operation of the colonels in the city with Treslong in the castle;
so that