kely to
be produced by so brilliant a success on the part of the rebels, in the
very beginning of the struggle. The hardy men of Friesland would rise to
assert their independence. The prince of Orange, with his German levies,
would unite with his victorious brother, and, aided by the inhabitants,
would be in condition to make formidable head against any force that
Alva could muster. It was an important crisis, and called for prompt and
decisive action. The duke, with his usual energy, determined to employ
no agent here, but to take the affair into his own hands, concentrate
his forces, and march in person against the enemy.

[Sidenote: ALVA's PROCEEDINGS.]

Yet there were some things he deemed necessary to be done, if it were
only for their effect on the public mind, before entering on the
campaign. On the twenty-eighth of May, sentence was passed on the prince
of Orange, his brother Louis, and their noble companions. They were
pronounced guilty of contumacy in not obeying the summons of the
council, and of levying war against the king. For this they were
condemned to perpetual banishment, and their estates confiscated to the
use of the crown. The sentence was signed by the duke of Alva.[1104]
William's estates had been already sequestrated, and a body of Spanish
troops was quartered in his town of Breda.

Another act, of a singular nature, intimated pretty clearly the
dispositions of the government. The duke caused the Hotel de Culemborg,
where he had fixed his own residence before the regent's departure, and
where the Gueux had held their meetings on coming to Brussels, to be
levelled with the ground. On the spot a marble column was raised,
bearing on each side of the base the following inscription: "Here once
stood the mansion of Florence Pallant,"--the name of the count of
Culemborg,--"now razed to the ground for the execrable conspiracy
plotted therein against religion, the Roman Catholic Church, the king's
majesty, and the country."[1105] Alva by this act intended doubtless to
proclaim to the world, not so much his detestation of the
confederacy--that would have been superfluous--as his determination to
show no mercy to those who had taken part in it. Indeed, in his letters,
on more than one occasion, he speaks of the signers of the Compromise as
men who had placed themselves beyond the pale of mercy.

But all these acts were only the prelude to the dismal tragedy which was
soon to be performed. Nearly nine mo