, prepared and published a document,
known as his "Justification," in which he vindicated himself and his
cause from the charges of Alva. He threw the original blame of the
troubles on Granvelle, denied having planned or even promoted the
confederacy of the nobles, and treated with scorn the charge of having,
from motives of criminal ambition, fomented rebellion in a country where
he had larger interests at stake than almost any other inhabitant. He
touched on his own services, as well as those of his ancestors, and the
ingratitude with which they had been requited by the throne. And in
conclusion, he prayed that his majesty might at length open his eyes to
the innocence of his persecuted subjects, and that it might be made
apparent to the world that the wrongs inflicted on them had come from
evil counsellors rather than himself.[1095]

The plan of the campaign was, to distract the duke's attention, and, if
possible, create a general rising in the country, by assailing it on
three several points at once. A Huguenot corps, under an adventurer
named Cocqueville, was to operate against Artois. Hoogstraten, with the
lord of Villers, and others of the banished nobles, were to penetrate
the country in a central direction through Brabant. While William's
brothers, the Counts Louis and Adolphus, at the head of a force, partly
Flemish, partly German, were to carry the war over the northern borders,
into Groningen; the prince himself, who established his head-quarters in
the neighborhood of Cleves, was busy in assembling a force prepared to
support any one of the divisions, as occasion might require.

It was the latter part of April, before Hoogstraten and Louis took the
field. The Huguenots ware still later; and William met with difficulties
which greatly retarded the formation of his own corps. The great
difficulty--one which threatened to defeat the enterprise at its
commencement--was the want of money, equally felt in raising troops and
in enforcing discipline among them when they were raised. "If you have
any love for me," he writes to his friend, the "wise" landgrave of
Hesse, "I beseech you to aid me privately with a sum sufficient to meet
the pay of the troops for the first month. Without this I shall be in
danger of failing in my engagements,--to me worse than death; to say
nothing of the ruin which such a failure must bring on our credit and on
the cause."[1096] We are constantly reminded, in the career of the
prince o