aith, it was impossible."[1182] It was even said
that the duke was so much moved, that he was seen to shed tears as big
as peas on the day of the execution![1183]

[Sidenote: CONDUCT OF ALVA.]

I must confess, I have never seen any account that would warrant a
belief in the report that Alva witnessed in person the execution of his
prisoners. Nor, on the other hand, have I met with any letter of his
deprecating the severity of their sentence, or advising a mitigation of
their punishment. This, indeed, would be directly opposed to his policy,
openly avowed. The reader may, perhaps, recall the homely simile by
which he recommended to the queen-mother, at Bayonne, to strike at the
great nobles in preference to the commoners. "One salmon," he said, "was
worth ten thousand frogs."[1184] Soon after Egmont's arrest, some of the
burghers of Brussels waited on him to ask why it had been made. The duke
bluntly told them, "When he had got together his troops, he would let
them know."[1185] Everything shows that, in his method of proceeding in
regard to the two lords, he had acted on a preconcerted plan, in the
arrangement of which he had taken his full part. In a letter to Philip,
written soon after the execution, he speaks with complacency of having
carried out the royal views in respect to the great offenders.[1186] In
another, he notices the sensation caused by the death of Egmont; and
"the greater the sensation," he adds, "the greater will be the benefit
to be derived from it."[1187]--There is little in all this of
compunction for the act, or of compassion for its victims.

The truth seems to be, that Alva was a man of an arrogant nature, an
inflexible will, and of the most narrow and limited views. His doctrine
of implicit obedience went as far as that of Philip himself. In
enforcing it, he disdained the milder methods of argument or
conciliation. It was on force, brute force alone, that he relied. He was
bred a soldier, early accustomed to the stern discipline of the camp.
The only law he recognized was martial law; his only argument, the
sword. No agent could have been fitter to execute the designs of a
despotic prince. His hard, impassible nature was not to be influenced by
those affections which sometimes turn the most obdurate from their
purpose. As little did he know of fear; nor could danger deter him from
carrying out his work. The hatred he excited in the Netherlands was
such, that, as he was warned, it was not safe