in person before the council
within six weeks, under pain of perpetual banishment and confiscation of
his estates. He refused to come, and energetically denied that the
council had any jurisdiction over him. The same sentence was passed upon
all the other leaders who had placed themselves out of reach of Alva's
arm--Sainte Aldegonde, Hoogstraeten, Culemburg, Montigny, Lewis of
Nassau and others. Unable to lay hands upon the prince himself, the
governor-general took dastardly advantage of William's indiscretion in
leaving his eldest son at Louvain to pursue his studies at the
university. At the beginning of 1568 Philip William, Count of Buren in
right of his mother, was seized and sent to Madrid to be brought up at
the court of Philip to hate the cause to which his father henceforth
devoted his life. Already indeed, before the abduction of his son,
Orange from his safe retreat at Dillenburg had been exerting himself to
raise troops for the invasion of the Netherlands. He still professed
loyalty to the king and declared that in the king's name he wished to
restore to the provinces those liberties and privileges which Philip
himself had sworn that he would maintain. The difficulty was to find the
large sum of money required for such an enterprise, and it was only by
extraordinary efforts that a sufficient amount was obtained. Part of
the money was collected in Antwerp and various towns of Holland and
Zeeland, the rest subscribed by individuals. John of Nassau pledged his
estates, Orange sold his plate and jewels, and finally a war-chest of
200,000 florins was gathered together. It was proposed to attack the
Netherlands from three directions. From the north Lewis of Nassau was to
lead an army from the Ems into Friesland; Hoogstraeten on the east to
effect an entrance by way of Maestricht; while another force of
Huguenots and refugees in the south was to march into Artois. It was an
almost desperate scheme in the face of veteran troops in a central
position under such a tried commander as Alva. The last-named French
force and that under Hoogstraeten were easily defeated and scattered by
Spanish detachments sent to meet them. Lewis of Nassau was at first more
successful. Entering Groningen at the head of eight or nine thousand
undisciplined troops he was attacked, May 23, in a strong position
behind a morass by a Spanish force under the Count of Aremberg,
Stadholder of Friesland, at Heiligerlee. He gained a complete victory.
A