va went in person to the meeting of the
council. The sentences of the two lords, each under a sealed envelope,
were produced, and read aloud by the secretary. They were both of
precisely the same import. After the usual preamble, they pronounced the
Counts Egmont and Hoorne to have been proved parties to the abominable
league and conspiracy of the prince of Orange and his associates; to
have given aid and protection to the confederates; and to have committed
sundry malepractices in their respective governments in regard to the
sectaries, to the prejudice of the holy Catholic faith. On these grounds
they were adjudged guilty of treason and rebellion, and were sentenced
accordingly to be beheaded with the sword, their heads to be set upon
poles, and there to continue during the pleasure of the duke; their
possessions, fiefs, and rights, of every description, to be confiscated
to the use of the crown.[1136] These sentences were signed only with the
name of Alva, and countersigned with that of the secretary Pratz.[1137]

Such was the result of these famous trials, which, from the peculiar
circumstances that attended them, especially their extraordinary
duration and the illustrious characters and rank of the accused, became
an object of general interest throughout Europe. In reviewing them, the
first question that occurs is in regard to the validity of the grounds
on which the causes were removed from the jurisdiction of the _Toison
d'Or_. The decision of the "men of authority and learning," referred to
by the king, is of little moment considering the influences under which
such a decision in the court of Madrid was necessarily given. The only
authority of any weight in favor of this interpretation seems to have
been that of the president Viglius; a man well versed in the law, with
the statutes of the order before him, and, in short, with every facility
at his command for forming an accurate judgment in the matter.

His opinion seems to have mainly rested on the fact that, in the year
1473, a knight of the order, charged with a capital crime, submitted to
be tried by the ordinary courts of law. But, on the other hand, some
years later, in 1490, four knights accused of treason, the precise crime
alleged against Egmont and Hoorne, were arraigned and tried before the
members of the _Toison_. A more conclusive argument against Viglius was
afforded by the fact, that in 1531 a law was passed, under the Emperor
Charles the Fifth, t