ed in his name. Alas,
he was only indignant that heretics had been suffered to hang who ought
to have been burned, and that a few narrow and almost impossible
loopholes had been left through which those who had offended alight
effect their escape.

And thus, while the country is paralyzed with present and expected woe,
the swiftly advancing trumpets of the Spanish army resound from beyond
the Alps. The curtain is falling upon the prelude to the great tragedy
which the prophetic lips of Orange had foretold. When it is again lifted,
scenes of disaster and of bloodshed, battles, sieges, executions, deeds
of unfaltering but valiant tyranny, of superhuman and successful
resistance, of heroic self-sacrifice, fanatical courage and insane
cruelty, both in the cause of the Wrong and the Right, will be revealed
in awful succession--a spectacle of human energy, human suffering, and
human strength to suffer, such as has not often been displayed upon the
stage of the world's events.

ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:

God Save the King! It was the last time
Having conjugated his paradigm conscientiously
Indignant that heretics had been suffered to hang
Insane cruelty, both in the cause of the Wrong and the Right
Sick and wounded wretches were burned over slow fires
Slender stock of platitudes
The time for reasoning had passed
Who loved their possessions better than their creed

MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, PG EDITION, VOLUME 14.

THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC

By JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
1855

1567 [Part III., ALVA, CHAPTER 1.]

Continued dissensions in the Spanish cabinet--Ruy Gomez and Alva--
Conquest of the Netherlands entrusted to the Duke--Birth, previous
career and character of Alva--Organization of the invading army--
Its march to the provinces--Complaints of Duchess Margaret--Alva
receives deputations on the frontier--Interview between the Duke and
Egmont--Reception of Alva by the Duchess of Parma--Circular letters
to the cities requiring their acceptance of garrisons--Margaret's
secret correspondence--Universal apprehension--Keys of the great
cities demanded by Alva--Secret plans of the government, arranged
before the Duke's departure--Arrest of Orange, Egmont, Horn, and
others, determined upon--Stealthy course of the government towards
them--Infatuation of Egmont--Warnings addressed to him by De Billy
and others--Measures to