History of The Reign of Philip The Second King of Spain History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain Part 80
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[1143] The original doc.u.ment is to be found in the archives of Brussels, or was in the time of Vandervynckt, who, having examined it carefully, gives a brief notice of it. (Troubles des Pays-Bas, tom. II. pp. 256, 257.) The name of its author should be cherished by the historian, as that of a magistrate who, in the face of a tyrannical government, had the courage to enter his protest against the judicial murders perpetrated under its sanction.
[1144] Among other pa.s.sages, see one in a letter of Margaret to the king, dated March 23, 1567. "Ceulx de son conseil icy, qui s'employent tout fidelement et diligemment en son service, et entre aultres le comte d'Egmont dont je ne puis avoir synon bon contentement." Correspondance de Marguerite d'Autriche, p. 235.
[1145] M. de Gerlache, in a long note to the second edition of his history, enters into a scrutiny of Egmont's conduct as severe as that by the attorney-general himself,--and with much the same result. (Hist. du Royaume des Pays-Bas, tom. I. pp. 99-101.) "Can any one believe," he asks, "that if, instead of having the 'Demon of the South'for his master, it had been Charles the Fifth or Napoleon, Egmont would have been allowed to play the part he did with impunity so long?" This kind of Socratic argument, as far as it goes, proves only that Philip did no worse than Charles or Napoleon would have done. It by no means proves Egmont to have deserved his sentence.
[1146] Relacion de la Justicia que se hizo de los Contes Agamont y Orne, MS.
[1147] "Marcharent dans la ville en bataille, et avecques une batterie de tambourins et de phiffres si pitieuse qu'il n'y avoit spectateur de si bon cur qui ne palist et ne pleurast d'une si triste pompe funebre."
Mondoucet, ap. Brantome, uvres, tom. I. p. 363.
[1148] De Thou, Histoire Universelle, tom V. p. 450.--Guerres Civiles du Pays-Bas, p. 172.--Meteren, Hist. des Pays-Bas, fol. 57.--Relacion de la Justicia que se hizo de los Contes Agamont y Orne, MS.
[1149] "Sur quoy le Duc lui repondit fort vivement et avec une espece de colere, qu'il ne l'avoit pas fait venir a Brusselle pour mettre quelque empechement a l'execution de leur sentence, mais bien pour les consoler et les a.s.sister a mourir chretiennement." Supplement a Strada, tom. I.
p. 259.
[1150] "Venian en alguna manera contentos de pensar que sus causas andaban al cabo, y que havian de salir presto y bien des.p.a.chados este dia." Relacion de la Justicia, MS.
[1151] "Voicy une sentence bien rigoureuse, je ne pense pas d'avoir tant offence Sa Majeste, pour meriter un tel traittement; neanmoins je le prens en patience et prie le Seigneur, que ma mort soit une expiation de mes peches, et que par la, ma chere Femme et mes Enfans n'encourent aucun blame, ny confiscation. Car mes services pa.s.sez meritent bien qu'on me fa.s.se cette grace. Puis qu'il plait a Dieu et au Roy, j'accepte la mort avec patience." Supplement a Strada, tom. I. p. 259.--These remarks of Egmont are also given, with very little discrepancy, by Meteren, Hist. des Pays-Bas, fol. 56; in the Relacion de la Justicia que se hizo de los Contes Agamont y Orne, MS.; and in the relation of Mondoucet, ap. Brantome, uvres, tom. I. p. 364.
[1152] "Et combien que jamais mon intention n'ait este de riens traicter, ni faire contre la Personne, ni le service de Vostre Majeste, ne contre nostre vraye, ancienne, et catholicque Religion, si est-ce que je prens en patience, ce qu'il plaist a mon bon Dieu de m'envoyer."
Supplement a Strada, tom. I. p. 261.
[1153] "Parquoy, je prie a Vostre Majeste me le pardonner, et avoir pitie de ma pauvre femme, enfans et serviteurs, vous souvenant de mes services pa.s.sez. Et sur cest espoir m'en vois me recommander a la misericorde de Dieu. De Bruxelles prest a mourir, ce 5 de Juing 1568."
Ibid., ubi supra.
[1154] "Et luy donna une bague fort riche que le roy d'Espaigne luy avoit donne lors qu'il fut en Espaigne, en signe d'amitie, pour la luy envoyer et faire tenir." Brantome, uvres, tom. I. p. 361.
[1155] "En apres, le comte d'Aiguemont commenca a soliciter fort l'advancement de sa mort, disant que puis qu'il devoit mourir qu'on ne le devoit tenir si longuement en ce travail." Mondoucet, Ibid., p. 366.
[1156] "Il estoit vestu d'une juppe de damas cramoisy, et d'un manteau noir avec du pa.s.s.e.m.e.nt d'or, les chausses de taffetas noir et le bas de chamois bronze, son chapeau de taffetas noir couvert de force plumes blanches et noires." Ibid., ubi supra.
[1157] Ossorio, Albae Vita, p. 287.--Guerres Civiles du Pays-Bas, p.
177.--Relacion de la Justicia, MS.
[1158] This personage, whose name was Spel, met with no better fate than that of the victims whose execution he now superintended. Not long after this he was sentenced to the gallows by the duke, to the great satisfaction of the people, as Strada tells us, for the manifold crimes he had committed. De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 387.
[1159] The executioner was said to have been formerly one of Egmont's servants. "El verdugo, que hasta aquel tiempo no se havia dejado ver, por que en la forma de morir se le tuvo este respeto, hizo su oficio con gran presteza, al qual havia hecho dar aquel maldito oficio el dicho Conde, y dicen aver sido lacayo suyo." Relacion de la Justicia, MS.--This _relacion_ forms part of a curious compilation in MS., ent.i.tled "Cartas y Papeles varios," in the British Museum. The compiler is supposed to have been Pedro de Gante, secretary of the duke of Naxera, who amused himself with transcribing various curious "relations"
of the time of Charles the Fifth and Philip the Second.
[1160] "Todas las boticas se cerraron, y doblaron por ellos todo el dia las campanas de las Yglesias, que no parecia otra cosa si no dia de juicio." Relacion de la Justicia, MS.
[1161] "Lesquelz pleuroient et regrettoient de voir un si grand capitaine mourir ainsi." Mondoucet, ap. Brantome, uvres, tom. I. p.
367.
[1162] "II se pourmena quelque peu, souhaytant de pouvoir finir sa vie au service de son Prince et du pais." Meteren, Hist. des Pays-Bas, fol.
58.
[1163] "Alz los ojos al cielo por un poco es.p.a.cio con un semblante tan doloroso, como se puede pensar le tenia en aquel transito un hombre tan discreto." Relacion de la Justicia, MS.
[1164] "En gran silencio, con notable lastima, sin que por un buen es.p.a.cio se sintiese rumor ninguno." Ibid.
[1165] "Fuere, qui linteola, contemplo periculo, Egmontii cruore conspa.r.s.erint, servaverintque, seu monumentum amoris, seu vindictae irritamentum." Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 394.
[1166] Meteren, Hist. des Pays-Bas, fol. 58.--Guerres Civiles du Pays-Bas, p. 177--Relacion de la Justicia, MS.
M. de Bavay has published a letter from one of the bishop of Ypres's household, giving an account of the last hours of Egmont, and written immediately after his death. (Proces du Comte d'Egmont, pp. 232-234.) The statements in the letter entirely corroborate those made in the text. Indeed, they are so nearly identical with those given by Foppens in the Supplement a Strada, that we can hardly doubt that the writer of the one narrative had access to the other.
[1167] "Que avia servido a su magestad veinte y ocho anos y no pensaba tener merecido tal payo, pero que se consolaba que con dar su cuerpo a la tierra, saldria de los continuos trauajos en que havia vivido."
Relacion de la Justicia, MS.
[1168] "Se despita, maugreant et regrettant fort sa mort, et se trouva quelque peu opiniastre en la confession, la regrettant fort, disant qu'il estoit a.s.sez confesse." Mondoucet, ap. Brantome, tom. I. p. 365.
[1169] "Il etoit age environ cinquante ans, et etoit d'une grande et belle taille, et d'une phisionomie revenante." Supplement a Strada, tom.
I. p. 264.
[1170] "The death of this man," says Strada, "would have been immoderately mourned, had not all tears been exhausted by sorrow for Egmont." De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 396.
For the account of Hoorne's last moments, see Relacion de la Justicia, MS.; Meteren, Hist. des Pays-Bas, fol. 58; Supplement a Strada, tom. I.
pp. 265, 266; Mondoucet, ap. Brantome, uvres, tom. I. p. 367; De Thou, Hist. Universelle, tom. I. p. 451; Ossorio, Albae Vita, p. 287.
[1171] "Plusieurs allarent a l'eglise Saincte Claire ou gisoit son corps, baisant le cercueil avec grande effusion de larmes, comme si ce fust este les saincts oss.e.m.e.ns et reliques de quelque sainct."
Mondoucet, ap. Brantome, uvres, tom. I. p. 367.
[1172] Arend, Algemeene Geschiedenis des Vaderlands, D. II. St. v. bl.
66.--Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 395.
[1173] "Les gens du comte d'Aiguemont planterent ses armes et enseignes de deuil a sa porte du palais; mais le duc d'Albe en estant adverty, les en fit bien oster bientost et emporter dehors." Mondoucet, ap. Brantome, uvres, tom. I. p. 367.
[1174] Mondoucet, the French amba.s.sador at the court of Brussels, was among the spectators who witnessed the execution of the two n.o.bles. He sent home to his master a full account of the tragic scene, the most minute, and perhaps the most trustworthy, that we have of it. It luckily fell into Brantome's hands, who has incorporated it into his notice of Egmont.
[1175] "La comtesse d'Aiguemont, qui emporta en cette a.s.semblee le bruit d'etre la plus belle de toutes les Flamandes." Correspondance de Marguerite d'Autriche, p. 364.
[1176] Gerlache, Hist. du Royaume des Pays-Bas, tom. I. p. 96.
[1177] "Qu'il avoit vu tomber la tete de celui qui avoit fait trembler deux fois la France." Supplement a Strada, tom. I. p. 266.
[1178] Morillon, in a letter to Granvelle, dated August 3, 1567, a few weeks only before Egmont's arrest, gives a graphic sketch of that n.o.bleman, which, although by no friendly hand, seems to be not wholly without truth. "Ce seigneur, y est-il dit, est haut et presumant de soy, jusques a vouloir embra.s.ser le faict de la republique et le redress.e.m.e.nt d'icelle et de la religion, que ne sont pas de son gibier, et est plus propre peur conduire une cha.s.se ou volerie, et, pour dire tout, une bataille, s'il fut este si bien advise que de se cognoistre et se mesurer de son pied; mais les flatteries perdent ces gens, et on leur fait accroire qu'ilz sont plus saiges qu'ilz ne sont, et ilz le croient et se bouttent sy avant, que aprez ilz ne se peuvent ravoir, et il est force qu'ilz facent le sault." Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Na.s.sau, tom. I. p. lxix.
[1179] "Je diray de lui que c'estoit le seigneur de la plus belle facon et de la meilleure grace que j'aye veu jamais, fust ce parmy les grandz, parmy ses pairs, parmy les gens de guerre, et parmy les dames, l'ayant veu en France et en Espagne, et parle a luy." Brantome, uvres, tom. I.
p. 369.
An old lady of the French court, who in her early days had visited Flanders, a.s.sured Brantome that she had often seen Egmont, then a mere youth, and that at that time he was excessively shy and awkward, so much so, indeed, that it was a common jest with both the men and women of the court. Such was the rude stock from which at a later day was to spring the flower of chivalry!
[1180] "Postea in publica laet.i.tia dum uterque explodendo ad signum sclopo ex provocatione contenderent, superatus esset Alba.n.u.s, ingenti Belgarum plausu ad nationis suae decus referentium victoriam ex Duce Hispano." Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 391.
[1181] Schiller, in his account of the execution of the two n.o.bles, tells us that it was from a window of the Hotel de Ville, the fine old building on the opposite side of the market-place, that Alva watched the last struggles of his victims. The _cicerone_, on the other hand, who shows the credulous traveller the _memorabilia_ of the city, points out the very chamber in the Maison du Roi in which the duke secreted himself.--_Valeat quantum._
[1182] "Qu'il avoit procure de tout son povoir la mitigation, mais que l'on avoit repondu que, si il n'y eut este aultre offence que celle qui touchoit S. M., le pardon fut este facille, mais qu'elle ne pouvoit remettre l'offense faicte si grande a Dieu." Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Na.s.sau, Supplement, p. 81.
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