The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1580-82 | Page 9

extensively circulated. There were always natures base and brutal
enough to accept the calumny and to make it current among kindred
souls. It may be doubted whether Renneberg attached faith to the
document; but it was natural that he should take a malicious
satisfaction in spreading this libel against the man whose perpetual
scorn he had so recently earned. Nothing was more common than such
forgeries, and at that very moment a letter, executed with equal
grossness, was passing from hand to hand, which purported to be from
the Count himself to Parma. History has less interest in contradicting
the calumnies against a man like Renneberg. The fictitious epistle of
Orange, however, was so often republished, and the copies so carefully
distributed, that the Prince had thought it important to add an express
repudiation of its authorship, by way of appendix to his famous
Apology. He took the occasion to say, that if a particle of proof could
be brought that he had written the letter, or any letter resembling it, he
would forthwith leave the Netherlands, never to show his face there
again.
Notwithstanding this well known denial, however, Renneberg thought
it facetious to send the letter into Steenvayk, where it produced but
small effect upon the minds' of the burghers. Meantime, they had
received intimation that succor was on its way. Hollow balls containing
letters were shot into the town, bringing the welcome intelligence that
the English colonel, John Norris, with six thousand states' troops,

would soon make his appearance for their relief, and the brave Cornput
added his cheerful exhortations to heighten the satisfaction thus
produced. A day or two afterwards, three quails were caught in the
public square, and the commandant improved the circumstance by
many quaint homilies. The number three, he observed, was typical of
the Holy Trinity, which had thus come symbolically to their relief. The
Lord had sustained the fainting Israelites with quails. The number three
indicated three weeks, within which time the promised succor was sure
to arrive. Accordingly, upon the 22nd of February, 1581, at the
expiration of the third week, Norris succeeded in victualling the town,
the merry and steadfast Cornput was established as a true prophet, and
Count Renneberg abandoned the siege in despair.
The subsequent career of that unhappy nobleman was brief. On the
19th of July his troops were signally defeated by Sonny--and Norris,
the fugitive royalists retreating into Groningen at the very moment
when their general, who had been prevented by illness from
commanding them, was receiving the last sacraments. Remorse, shame,
and disappointment had literally brought Renneberg to his grave.
"His treason," says a contemporary, "was a nail in his coffin, and on his
deathbed he bitterly bemoaned his crime. 'Groningen! Groningen!'
would that I had never seen thy walls!" he cried repeatedly in his last
hours. He refused to see his sister, whose insidious counsels had
combined with his own evil passions to make him a traitor; and he died
on the 23rd of July, 1581, repentant and submissive. His heart, after his
decease, was found "shrivelled to the dimensions of a walnut," a
circumstance attributed to poison by some, to remorse by others. His
regrets; his early death, and his many attractive qualities, combined to:
save his character from universal denunciation, and his name, although
indelibly stained by treason, was ever mentioned with pity rather than
with rancor.
Great changes, destined to be perpetual, were steadily preparing in the
internal condition of the provinces. A preliminary measure of an
important character had been taken early this year by the assembly of
the united provinces held in the month of January at Delft. This was the
establishment of a general executive council. The constitution of the
board was arranged on the 13th of the month, and was embraced in
eighteen articles. The number of councillors was fixed at thirty, all to

be native Netherlanders; a certain proportion to be appointed from each
province by its estates. The advice and consent of this body as to
treaties with foreign powers were to be indispensable, but they were not
to interfere with the rights and duties of the states-general, nor to
interpose any obstacle to the arrangements with the Duke of Anjou.
While this additional machine for the self-government of the provinces
was in the course of creation; the Spanish monarch, on the other hand,
had made another effort to recover the authority which he felt slipping
from his grasp. Philip was in Portugal, preparing for his coronation in,
that, new kingdom--an event to be nearly contemporaneous with his
deposition from the Netherland sovereignty, so solemnly conferred
upon him a quarter of a century before in Brussels; but although thus
distant, he was confident that he could more wisely govern the
Netherlands than the inhabitants could do, and