had crossed the Rhine at
Duisburg, with fourteen thousand foot, seven thousand horse, enlisted in
Germany, besides a force of three thousand Walloons. On the 23rd of July,
he took the city of Roermond, after a sharp cannonade, at which place his
troops already began to disgrace the honorable cause in which they were
engaged, by imitating the cruelties and barbarities of their antagonists.
The persons and property of the burghers were, with a very few
exceptions, respected; but many priests and monks were put to death by
the soldiery under circumstances of great barbarity. The Prince, incensed
at such conduct, but being unable to exercise very stringent authority
over troops whose wages he was not yet able to pay in full, issued a
proclamation, denouncing such excesses, and commanding his followers,
upon pain of death, to respect the rights of all individuals, whether
Papist or Protestant, and to protect religious exercises both in Catholic
and Reformed churches.

It was hardly to be expected that the troops enlisted by the Prince in
the same great magazine of hireling soldiers, Germany, from whence the
Duke also derived his annual supplies, would be likely to differ very
much in their propensities from those enrolled under Spanish banners; yet
there was a vast contrast between the characters of the two commanders.
One leader inculcated the practice of robbery, rape, and murder, as a
duty, and issued distinct orders to butcher every mother's son in the
cities which he captured; the other restrained every excess to, the
utmost of his ability, protecting not only life and property, but even
the ancient religion.

The Emperor Maximilian had again issued his injunctions against the
military operations of Orange. Bound to the monarch of Spain by so many
family ties, being at once cousin, brother-in-law, and father-in-law of
Philip, it was difficult for him to maintain the attitude which became
him, as chief of that Empire to which the peace of Passau had assured
religious freedom. It had, however, been sufficiently proved that
remonstrances and intercessions addressed to Philip were but idle breath.
It had therefore become an insult to require pacific conduct from the
Prince on the ground of any past or future mediation. It was a still
grosser mockery to call upon him to discontinue hostilities because the
Netherlands were included in the Empire, and therefore protected by the
treaties of Passau and Augsburg. Well did the P