The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1577 part 2 | Page 5

the Governor would thus be enabled, laying his head tranquilly
upon "the pillow of the Antwerp citadel," according to the reproachful
expression subsequently used by the estates, to await the progress of
events.
The current of his adventurous career was not, however, destined to run
thus smoothly. It is true that the estates had not yet entirely lost their
confidence in his character; but the seizure of Namur, and the attempt
upon Antwerp, together with the contents of the intercepted letters
written by himself and Escovedo to Philip, to Perez, to the Empress, to
the Colonels Frondsberger and Fugger, were soon destined to open
their eyes. In the meantime, almost exactly at the moment when Don
John was executing his enterprise against Namur, Escovedo had taken
an affectionate farewell of the estates at Brussels for it had been
thought necessary, as already intimated, both for the apparent interests

and the secret projects of Don John; that the Secretary should make a
visit to Spain. At the command of the Governor-General he had offered
to take charge of any communication for his Majesty which the estates
might be disposed to entrust to him, and they had accordingly
addressed a long epistle to the King, in which they gave ample
expression to their indignation and their woe. They remonstrated with
the King concerning the continued presence of the German mercenaries,
whose knives were ever at their throats, whose plunder and insolence
impoverished and tortured the people. They reminded him of the vast
sums which the provinces had contributed in times past to the support
of government, and they begged assistance from his bounty now. They
recalled to his vision the melancholy spectacle of Antwerp, but lately
the "nurse of Europe, the fairest flower in his royal garland, the
foremost and noblest city of the earth, now quite desolate and forlorn,"
and with additional instructions to Escovedo, that he should not fail, in
his verbal communications, to represent the evil consequences of the
course hitherto pursued by his Majesty's governors in the Netherlands,
they dismissed him with good wishes, and with "crowns for convoy" in
his purse to the amount of a revenue of two thousand yearly. His secret
correspondence was intercepted and made known a few weeks after his
departure for that terrible Spain whence so few travellers returned.
For a moment we follow him thither. With a single word in anticipation,
concerning the causes and the consummation of this celebrated murder,
which was delayed till the following year, the unfortunate Escovedo
may be dismissed from these pages. It has been seen how artfully
Antonio Perez, Secretary of State, paramour of Princess Eboli, and
ruling councillor at that day of Philip, had fostered in the King's mind
the most extravagant suspicions as to the schemes of Don John, and of
his confidential secretary. He had represented it as their fixed and
secret intention, after Don John should be finally established on the
throne of England, to attack Philip himself in Spain, and to deprive him
of his crown, Escovedo being represented as the prime instigator and
controller of this astounding plot, which lunatics only could have
engendered, and which probably never had existence.
No proof of the wild design was offered. The language which Escovedo
was accused by Perez of having held previously to his departure for
Flanders --that it was the intention of Don John and himself to fortify

the rock of Mogio, with which, and with the command of the city of
Santander, they could make themselves masters of Spain after having
obtained possession of England,--is too absurd to have been uttered by
a man of Escovedo's capacity. Certainly, had Perez been provided with
the least scrap of writing from the hands of Don John or Escovedo
which could be tortured into evidence upon this point, it would have
been forthcoming, and would have rendered such fictitious hearsay
superfluous. Perez in connivance with Philip, had been systematically
conducting his correspondence with Don John and Escovedo, in order
to elicit some evidence of the imputed scheme. "'T was the only way,"
said Perez to Philip, "to make them unbare their bosoms to the
sword."--"I am quite of the same opinion," replied Philip to Perez, "for,
according to my theology, you would do your duty neither to God nor
the world, unless you did as you are doing." Yet the excellent pair of
conspirators at Madrid could wring no damning proofs from the lips of
the supposititious conspirators in Flanders, save that Don John, after
Escovedo's arrival in Madrid, wrote, impatiently and frequently, to
demand that he should be sent back, together with the money which he
had gone to Spain to procure. "Money, more money, and Escovedo,"
wrote the Governor, and Philip was quite willing to accept this most
natural exclamation as evidence