FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   589   590   591   592   593   594   595   596   597   598   599   600   601   602   603   604   605   606   607   608   609   610   611   612   613  
614   615   616   617   618   619   620   621   622   623   624   625   626   627   628   629   630   631   632   633   634   635   636   637   638   >>   >|  
hould come into the provinces with force, he would oppose him with 15,000 troops. He had said, if his brother Montigny should be detained in Spain, he would march to his rescue at the head of 50,000 men whom he had at his command. He had on various occasions declared that "men should live according to their consciences"--as if divine and human laws were dead, and men, like wild beasts, were to follow all their lusts and desires. Lastly, he had encouraged the rebellion in Valenciennes. Of all these crimes and misdeeds the procurator declared himself sufficiently informed, and the aforesaid defendant entirely, commonly, and publicly defamed. Wherefore, that officer terminated his declaration by claiming "that the cause should be concluded summarily, and without figure or form of process; and that therefore, by his Excellency or his sub-delegated judges, the aforesaid defendant should be declared to have in diverse ways committed high treason, should be degraded from his dignities, and should be condemned to death, with confiscation of all his estates." The Admiral, thus peremptorily summoned, within five days, without assistance, without documents, and from the walls of a prison, to answer to these charges, 'solos ex vinculis causam dicere', undertook his task with the boldness of innocence. He protested, of course, to the jurisdiction, and complained of the want of an advocate, not in order to excuse any weakness in his defence, but only any inelegance in his statement. He then proceeded flatly to deny some of the facts, to admit others, and to repel the whole treasonable inference. His answer in all essential respects was triumphant. Supported by the evidence which, alas was not collected and published till after his death, it was impregnable. He denied that he had ever plotted against his King, to whom he had ever been attached, but admitted that he had desired the removal of Granvelle, to whom he had always been hostile. He had, however, been an open and avowed enemy to the Cardinal, and had been engaged in no secret conspiracy against his character or against his life. He denied that the livery (for which, however, he was not responsible) had been intended to ridicule the Cardinal, but asserted that it was intended to afford an example of economy to an extravagant nobility. He had met Orange and Egmont at Breda and Hoogstraaten, and had been glad to do so, for he had been long separated from them. These interv
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   589   590   591   592   593   594   595   596   597   598   599   600   601   602   603   604   605   606   607   608   609   610   611   612   613  
614   615   616   617   618   619   620   621   622   623   624   625   626   627   628   629   630   631   632   633   634   635   636   637   638   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

declared

 

aforesaid

 

answer

 
defendant
 
Cardinal
 

denied

 
intended
 

evidence

 

essential

 

inference


treasonable
 

Supported

 

respects

 

undertook

 

boldness

 
triumphant
 

innocence

 

protested

 

complained

 
inelegance

jurisdiction

 
defence
 

weakness

 

advocate

 

statement

 

excuse

 

proceeded

 
flatly
 

desired

 

economy


extravagant

 

nobility

 

afford

 

livery

 

responsible

 

ridicule

 

asserted

 

Orange

 

Egmont

 

separated


interv

 

Hoogstraaten

 

character

 

attached

 

admitted

 

dicere

 
plotted
 

impregnable

 

collected

 

published