our days afterward
executed with terrible circumstances of cruelty, which he bore
as a martyr might have borne them. He was a native of Burgundy,
and had for some months lingered near his victim, and insinuated
himself into his confidence by a feigned attachment to liberty,
and an apparent zeal for the reformed faith. He was nevertheless
a bigoted Catholic and, by his own confession, he had communicated
his design to, and received encouragement to its execution from,
more than one minister of the sect to which he belonged. But his
avowal criminated a more important accomplice, and one whose
character stands so high in history that it behooves us to examine
thoroughly the truth of the accusation, and the nature of the
collateral proofs by which it is supported. Most writers on this
question have leaned to the side which all would wish to adopt,
for the honor of human nature and the integrity of a celebrated
name. But an original letter exists in the archives of Brussels,
from the prince of Parma himself to Philip of Spain, in which he
admits that Balthazar Gerard had communicated to him his intention
of murdering the Prince of Orange some months before the deed was
done; and he mixes phrases of compassion for "the poor man" (the
murderer) and of praise for the act; which, if the document be
really authentic, sinks Alexander of Parma as low as the wretch
with whom he sympathized.

CHAPTER XIII

TO THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER, PRINCE OF PARMA

A.D. 1584--1592

The death of William of Nassau not only closes the scene of his
individual career, but throws a deep gloom over the history of a
revolution that was sealed by so great a sacrifice. The animation
of the story seems suspended. Its events lose for a time their
excitement. The last act of the political drama is performed. The
great hero of the tragedy is no more. The other most memorable
actors have one by one passed away. A whole generation has fallen
in the contest; and it is with exhausted interest, and feelings
less intense, that we resume the details of war and blood, which
seem no longer sanctified by the grander movements of heroism.
The stirring impulse of slavery breaking its chains yields to
the colder inspiration of independence maintaining its rights.
The men we have now to depict were born free; and the deeds they
did were those of stern resolve rather than of frantic despair.
The present picture may be as instructive as the last, but it is
less thr