loved a foreign and tyrannical
king, he, in a lesser or greater degree, meditated rebellion. We are
now come to the last stage in the journey of the prince. Events had
more doom in them than he or any man could guess, and marched on like
an army at double quick. In March, 1567, came Philip's order
commanding every Flemish functionary (each of whom had taken oath at
the beginning of his reign) to take a new oath, demanding "every man in
his service, without any exception whatever, should now renew his oath
of fealty," said oath reading, "Demanding a declaration from every
person in office as to his intention to carry out His Majesty's will,
without limitation or restriction," which William, refusing to take,
offered his resignation to the regent; and the breach was made. On
April 10, 1567, Orange wrote Philip his intention of withdrawing from
the Royal Council, and on the day following, leaving his office vacant,
departed from Antwerp for Breda; and the breach was complete, and
William the Silent was calendared as a traitor. In May, Alva set out
from Spain with an army to subdue the rebellious Flemings; and Philip,
sinister, pugnacious, relentless, was seen a life-size figure. Philip
was now himself. In September, Prince Maurice was born and christened
with Lutheran rites, the Prince of Orange thus beginning his hegira
from the Church of Rome. In the spring of 1568, Orange formally took
up arms against these Spanish invaders; and in October, 1573, he
formally became a Protestant, thus becoming a civil and ecclesiastical
refugee.

Thus far events have been given in their chronological order, a process
needful no longer, the steps having been shown by which William of
Orange, a Catholic prince, loyal to and trusted by Charles V, has come
to be a rebel against the Church and Philip II, with a price put upon
his head. His remaining life is one long, bloody, tireless, valorous,
magnificent, though often hopeless, effort to consummate the freeing of
his native land from ecclesiastical and civil tyranny.

William the Silent must be studied as soldier, for such he
unquestionably was. Men are best pictured by comparisons. William was
cool, deliberate, judicial, eloquent on occasion, but not magnetic.
His qualities were not such as blaze in a battle-charge, such as
Marshal Murat knew to lead. Those methods were entirely foreign to
him. He has even been accused of cowardice, though, so far as I can
judge, without jus