e Segundo,
lib. VII. cap. 15.--Meteren, Hist. des Pays-Bas, fol. 52.--Lanario,
Guerras de Flandes, fol. 15.--Renom de Francia, Alborotos de Flandes,
MS.

Chronological accuracy was a thing altogether beneath the attention of a
chronicler of the sixteenth century. In the confusion of dates in regard
to Alva's movements, I have been guided as far as possible by his own
despatches. See Documentos Ineditos, tom. IV. p. 349 et seq.

[947] Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 354.--Ossorio, Albae Vita,
tom. I. p. 241.

[948] Meteren, Hist. des Pays-Bas, fol. 52.--Old Brantome warms as he
contemplates these Amazons, as beautiful and making as brave a show as
princesses! "Plus il y avoit quatre cents courtisanes a cheval, belles
et braves comme princesses, et huict cents a pied, bien en point aussi."
OEuvres, tom. I. p. 62.

[949] "Ninguna Historia nos ensena haya passado un Exercito por Pais tan
dilatado y marchas tan continuas, sin cometer excesso: La del Duque es
la unica que nos la hace ver. Encanto a todo el mundo." Rustant,
Historia del Duque de Alva, tom. II. p. 124.--So also Herrera, Historia
General, tom. I. p. 650.--Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. VII. cap.
15.--Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 354.

[950] "Comme le Duc le vid de long, il dit tout haut; Voicy le grand
hereticque, dequoq le Comte s'espouvanta: neantmoins, pource qu'on le
pouvoit entendre en deux facons, il l'interpreta de bonne part."
Meteren, Hist. des Pays-Bas, fol. 53.

[951] "Vimos los que alli estabamos que el Duque de Alba uso de
grandisimos respetos y buenas crianzas, y que Madama estuvo muy severa y
mas que cuando suelen negociar con ella Egmont y estos otros Senores de
aca, cosa que fue muy notada de los que lo miraban."

A minute account of this interview, as given in the text, was sent to
Philip by Mendivil, an officer of the artillery, and is inserted in the
Documentos Ineditos, tom. IV. p. 397 et seq.

[952] This document, dated December 1, 1566, is not to be found in the
Archives of Simancas, as we may infer from its having no place in the
Documentos Ineditos, which contains the succeeding commission. A copy of
it is in the Belgian Archives, and has been incorporated in Gachard's
Correspondance de Philippe II. (tom. II., Appendix, No. 88.) It is
possible that a copy of this commission was sent to Margaret, as it
agrees so well with what the king had written to her on the subject.

[953] To this second commission, dated Januar