FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   821   822   823   824   825   826   827   828   829   830   831   832   833   834   835   836   837   838   839   840   841   842   843   844   845  
846   847   848   849   850   851   852   853   854   855   856   857   858   859   860   861   862   863   864   865   866   867   868   869   870   >>   >|  
ould be induced peaceably to leave the country. It was long before the Prince and the estates could succeed in ridding themselves of this encumbrance. He created several riots in different parts of the province, and boasted, that he had many fine ships of war and three thousand men devoted to him, by whose assistance he could make the estates "dance after his pipe." At the beginning of the following year (1574), he was at last compelled to leave the provinces, which he never again troubled with his presence. Some years afterwards, he died of the bite of a mad dog; an end not inappropriate to a man of so rabid a disposition. While the Prince was thus steadily striving for a lofty and generous purpose, he was, of course, represented by his implacable enemies as a man playing a game which, unfortunately for himself, was a losing one. "That poor prince," said Granvelle, "has been ill advised. I doubt now whether he will ever be able to make his peace, and I think we shall rather try to get rid of him and his brother as if they were Turks. The marriage with the daughter of Maurice, 'unde mala et quia ipse talis', and his brothers have done him much harm. So have Schwendi and German intimacies. I saw it all very plainly, but he did not choose to believe me." Ill-starred, worse counselled William of Orange! Had he but taken the friendly Cardinal's advice, kept his hand from German marriages and his feet from conventicles--had he assisted his sovereign in burning heretics and hunting rebels, it would not then have become necessary "to treat him like a Turk." This is unquestionable. It is equally so that there would have been one great lamp the less in that strait and difficult pathway which leads to the temple of true glory. The main reliance of Orange was upon the secret negotiations which his brother Louis was then renewing with the French government. The Prince had felt an almost insurmountable repugnance towards entertaining any relation with that blood-stained court, since the massacre of Saint Bartholomew. But a new face had recently been put upon that transaction. Instead of glorying, in their crime, the King and his mother now assumed a tone of compunction, and averred that the deed had been unpremeditated; that it had been the result of a panic or an ecstasy of fear inspired by the suddenly discovered designs of the Huguenots; and that, in the instinct of self-preservation, the King, with his family and immedia
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   821   822   823   824   825   826   827   828   829   830   831   832   833   834   835   836   837   838   839   840   841   842   843   844   845  
846   847   848   849   850   851   852   853   854   855   856   857   858   859   860   861   862   863   864   865   866   867   868   869   870   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Prince
 

brother

 

estates

 
German
 
Orange
 

unquestionable

 
strait
 

difficult

 
equally
 

assisted


William

 

counselled

 

plainly

 

starred

 

choose

 

friendly

 
Cardinal
 

sovereign

 

conventicles

 

burning


heretics

 
hunting
 

marriages

 

advice

 

pathway

 
rebels
 

renewing

 

assumed

 

compunction

 

averred


unpremeditated

 

mother

 

transaction

 

Instead

 

glorying

 
result
 
instinct
 

Huguenots

 

preservation

 

immedia


family

 

designs

 

discovered

 
ecstasy
 

inspired

 
suddenly
 

recently

 

French

 

government

 

negotiations