FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   465   466   467   468   469   470   471   472   473   474   475   476   477   478   479   480   481   482   483   484   485   486   487   488   489  
490   491   492   493   494   495   496   497   498   499   500   501   502   503   504   505   506   507   508   509   510   511   512   513   514   >>   >|  
itated where he should have acted. And as the storm thickened, he even retraced his steps, and threw himself on the mercy of the monarch whom he had offended. William better understood the character of his master,--and that of the minister who was to execute his decrees.[1178] Still, with all his deficiencies, there was much both in the personal qualities of Egmont and in his exploits to challenge admiration. "I knew him," says Brantome, "both in France and in Spain, and never did I meet with a nobleman of higher breeding, or more gracious in his manners."[1179] With an address so winning, a heart so generous, and with so brilliant a reputation, it is not wonderful that Egmont should have been the pride of his court and the idol of his countrymen. In their idolatry they could not comprehend that Alva's persecution should not have been prompted by a keener feeling than a sense of public duty or obedience to his sovereign. They industriously sought in the earlier history of the rival chiefs the motives for personal pique. On Alva's first visit to the Netherlands, Egmont, then a young man, was said to have won of him a considerable sum at play. The ill-will thus raised in Alva's mind was heightened by Egmont's superiority over him at a shooting-match, which the people, regarding as a sort of national triumph, hailed with an exultation that greatly increased the mortification of the duke.[1180] But what filled up the measure of his jealousy was his rival's military renown; for the Fabian policy which directed Alva's campaigns, however it established his claims to the reputation of a great commander, was by no means favorable to those brilliant feats of arms which have such attraction for the multitude. So intense, indeed, was the feeling of hatred, it was said, in Alva's bosom, that, on the day of his rival's execution, he posted himself behind a lattice of the very building in which Egmont had been confined, that he might feast his eyes with the sight of his mortal agony.[1181] The friends of Alva give a very different view of his conduct. According to them, an illness under which he labored, at the close of Egmont's trial, was occasioned by his distress of mind at the task imposed on him by the king. He had written more than once to the court of Castile, to request some mitigation of Egmont's sentence, but was answered, that "this would have been easy to grant, if the offence had been against the king; but against the f
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   465   466   467   468   469   470   471   472   473   474   475   476   477   478   479   480   481   482   483   484   485   486   487   488   489  
490   491   492   493   494   495   496   497   498   499   500   501   502   503   504   505   506   507   508   509   510   511   512   513   514   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Egmont

 

personal

 

brilliant

 
feeling
 
reputation
 

commander

 
claims
 

multitude

 

established

 

attraction


campaigns
 

favorable

 

jealousy

 

hailed

 

triumph

 
exultation
 

greatly

 

increased

 

national

 
itated

people

 
mortification
 

military

 

intense

 

renown

 

Fabian

 

policy

 
measure
 

filled

 

directed


imposed

 

written

 

Castile

 

distress

 

labored

 

occasioned

 

request

 

offence

 

mitigation

 

sentence


answered

 

illness

 

building

 

lattice

 

confined

 

shooting

 
posted
 

hatred

 

execution

 

conduct