or him never
to have urged it.[1014]

The jurisdiction of the court, within the limits assigned to it, wholly
superseded that of the great court of Mechlin, as well as of every other
tribunal, provincial or municipal, in the country. Its decisions were
final. By the law of the land, established by repeated royal charters in
the provinces, no man in the Netherlands could be tried by any but a
native judge. But of the present court, one member was a native of
Burgundy, and two were Spaniards.

It might be supposed that a tribunal with such enormous powers, which
involved so gross an outrage on the constitutional rights and
long-established usages of the nation, would at least have been
sanctioned by some warrant from the crown. It could pretend to nothing
of the kind,--not even a written commission from the duke of Alva, the
man who created it. By his voice alone he gave it an existence. The
ceremony of induction into office was performed by the new member
placing his hands between those of the duke, and swearing to remain true
to the faith; to decide in all cases according to his sincere
conviction; finally, to keep secret all the doings of the council, and
to denounce any one who disclosed them.[1015] A tribunal clothed with
such unbounded power, and conducted on a plan so repugnant to all
principles of justice, fell nothing short, in its atrocity, of that
inquisition so much dreaded in the Netherlands.

Alva, in order to be the better able to attend the council, appointed
his own palace for the place of meeting. At first the sittings were held
morning and afternoon, lasting sometimes seven hours in a day.[1016]
There was a general attendance of the members, the duke presiding in
person. After a few months, as he was drawn to a distance by more
pressing affairs, he resigned his place to Vargas. Barlaimont and
Noircarmes, disgusted with the atrocious character of the proceedings,
soon absented themselves from the meetings. The more respectable of the
members imitated their example. One of the body, a Burgundian, a
follower of Granvelle, having criticised the proceedings somewhat too
freely, had leave to withdraw to his own province;[1017] till at length
only three or four councillors remained,--Vargas, Del Rio, Hessels, and
his colleague,--on whom the despatch of the momentous business wholly
devolved. To some of the processes we find not more than three names
subscribed. The duke was as indifferent to forms, as he wa