The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1578 part 1 | Page 8

and all in favor of an open and generous support to the
provinces. Walsingham, Burleigh, Knollys, Davidson, Sidney,
Leicester, Fleetwood, Wilson, all desired that she should frankly

espouse their cause. A bold policy they believed to be the only prudent
one in this case; yet the Queen considered it sagacious to despatch
envoys both to Philip and to Don John, as if after what they knew of
her secret practices, such missions could effect any useful purpose.
Better, therefore, in the opinion of the honest and intrepid statesmen of
England, to throw down the gauntlet at once in the cause of the
oppressed than to shuffle and palter until the dreaded rival should cross
the frontier. A French Netherlands they considered even mere
dangerous than a Spanish, and Elizabeth partook of their sentiments,
although incapable of their promptness. With the perverseness which
was the chief blot upon her character, she was pleased that the Duke
should be still a dangler for her hand, even while she was intriguing
against his political hopes. She listened with undisguised rapture to his
proposal of love, while she was secretly thwarting the plans of his
ambition.
Meanwhile, Alencon had arrived at Mons, and we have seen already
the feminine adroitness with which his sister of Navarre had prepared
his entrance. Not in vain had she cajoled the commandant of Cambray
citadel; not idly had she led captive the hearts of Lalain and his
Countess, thus securing the important province of Hainault for the
Duke. Don John might, indeed, gnash his teeth with rage, as he marked
the result of all the feasting and flattery, the piping and dancing at
Namur.
Francis Duke of Alencon, and since the accession of his brother Henry
to the French throne--Duke of Anjou was, upon the whole, the most
despicable personage who had ever entered the Netherlands. His
previous career at home had, been so flagrantly false that he had
forfeited the esteem of every honest man in Europe, Catholic or
Lutheran, Huguenot or Malcontent. The world has long known his
character. History will always retain him as an example, to show
mankind the amount of mischief which may be perpetrated by a prince,
ferocious without courage, ambitious without talent, and bigoted
without opinions. Incapable of religious convictions himself, he had
alternately aspired to be a commander of Catholic and of Huguenot
zealots, and he had acquired nothing by his vacillating course, save the
entire contempt of all parties and of both religions. Scared from the
aide of Navarre and Conde by the menacing attitude of the "league,"

fearing to forfeit the succession to the throne, unless he made his peace
with the court, he had recently resumed his place among the Catholic
commanders. Nothing was easier for him than to return shamelessly to
a party which he had shamelessly deserted, save perhaps to betray it
again, should his interest prompt him to do so, on the morrow. Since
the peace of 1576, it had been evident that the Protestants could not
count upon his friendship, and he had soon afterwards been placed at
the head of the army which was besieging the Huguenots of Issoire. He
sought to atone for having commanded the troops of the new religion
by the barbarity with which he now persecuted its votaries. When
Issoire fell into his hands, the luckless city was spared none of the
misery which can be inflicted by a brutal and frenzied soldiery. Its men
were butchered, its females outraged; its property plundered with a
thoroughness which rivalled the Netherland practice of Alva, or
Frederic Toledo, or Julian Romero. The town was sacked and burned to
ashes by furious Catholics, under the command of Francis
Alencon,--almost at the very moment when his fair sister, Margaret,
was preparing the way in the Netherlands for the fresh treason--which
he already meditated to the Catholic cause. The treaty of Bergerac,
signed in the autumn of 1577, again restored a semblance of repose to
France, and again afforded an opportunity for Alencon to change his
politics, and what he called his religion. Reeking with the blood of the
Protestants of Issoire, he was now at leisure to renew his dalliance with
the Queen of Protestant England, and to resume his correspondence
with the great-chieftain of the Reformation in the Netherlands.
It is perhaps an impeachment upon the perspicacity of Orange, that he
could tolerate this mischievous and worthless "son of France," even for
the grave reasons which influenced him. Nevertheless, it must be
remembered that he only intended to keep him in reserve, for the
purpose of irritating the jealousy and quickening the friendship of the
English Queen. Those who see anything tortuous in such politics must
beware of judging the intriguing age of Philip and Catherine de' Medici
by the higher standard of