power of expression rare in that age, a fund of historical allusion, a
considerable power of imagination, a warmth of sentiment, a breadth of
view, a directness of purpose--a range of qualities, in short, which
would in themselves have stamped him as one of the master-minds of his
century, had there been no other monument to his memory than the remains
of his spoken or written eloquence. The bulk of his performances in this
department was prodigious. Not even Philip was more industrious in the
cabinet. Not even Granvelle held a more facile pen. He wrote and spoke
equally well in French German, or Flemish; and he possessed, besides;
Spanish, Italian, Latin. The weight of his correspondence alone would
have almost sufficed for the common industry of a lifetime, and although
many volumes of his speeches and, letters have been published, there
remain in the various archives of the Netherlands and Germany many
documents from his hand which will probably never see the light. If the
capacity for unremitted intellectual labor in an honorable cause be the
measure of human greatness, few minds could be compared to the "large
composition" of this man. The efforts made to destroy the Netherlands by
the most laborious and painstaking of tyrants were counteracted by the
industry of the most indefatigable of patriots.

Thus his eloquence, oral or written, gave him almost boundless power over
his countrymen. He possessed, also, a rare perception of human character,
together with an iron memory which never lost a face, a place, or an
event, once seen or known. He read the minds even the faces of men, like
printed books. No man could overreach him, excepting only those to whom
he gave his heart. He might be mistaken where he had confided, never
where he had been distrustful or indifferent. He was deceived by
Renneberg, by his brother-in-law Van den Berg, by the Duke of Anjou. Had
it been possible for his brother Louis or his brother John to have proved
false, he might have been deceived by them. He was never outwitted by
Philip, or Granvelle, or Don John, or Alexander of Parma. Anna of Saxony
was false to him; and entered into correspondence with the royal
governors and with the King of Spain; Charlotte of Bourbon or Louisa de
Coligny might have done the same had it been possible for their natures
also to descend to such depths of guile.

As for the Aerschots, the Havres, the Chimays, he was never influenced
either by their blandishmen