This eBook was produced by David Widger, widger@cecomet.net
1565. Up to this point the general peace had it appears been thesincere wish of the Prince of Orange, the Counts Egmont and Horn, andtheir friends. They had pursued the true interests of their sovereignas much as the general weal; at least their exertions and their actionshad been as little at variance with the former as with the latter.Nothing bad as yet occurred to make their motives suspected, or tomanifest in them a rebellious spirit. What they had done they had donein discharge of their bounden duty as members of a free state, as therepresentatives of the nation, as advisers of the king, as men ofintegrity and honor. The only weapons they had used to oppose theencroachments of the court had been remonstrances, modest complaints,petitions. They had never allowed themselves to be so far carried awayby a just zeal for their good cause as to transgress the limits ofprudence and moderation which on many occasions are so easilyoverstepped by party spirit. But all the nobles of the republic did notnow listen to the voice of that prudence; all did not abide within thebounds of moderation.
While in the council of state the great question was discussed whetherthe nation was to be miserable or not, while its sworn deputies summonedto their assistance all the arguments of reason and of equity, and whilethe middle-classes and the people contented themselves with emptycomplaints, menaces, and curses, that part of the nation which of allseemed least called upon, and on whose support least reliance had beenplaced, began to take more active measures. We have already described aclass of the nobility whose services and wants Philip at his accessionhad not considered it necessary to remember. Of these by far thegreater number had asked for promotion from a much more urgent reasonthan a love of the mere honor. Many of them were deeply sunk in debt,from which by their own resources they could not hope to emancipatethemselves. When then, in filling up appointments, Philip passed themover he wounded them in a point far more sensitive than their pride.In these suitors he had by his neglect raised up so many idle spies andmerciless judges of his actions, so many collectors and propagators ofmalicious rumor. As their pride did not quit them with theirprosperity, so now, driven by necessity, they trafficked with the solecapital which they could not alienate—their nobility and the politicalinfluence of their names; and brought into circulation a coin which onlyin such a period could have found currency—their protection. With aself-pride to which they gave the more scope as it was all they couldnow call their own, they looked upon themselves as a strong intermediatepower between the sovereign and the citizen, and believed themselvescalled upon to hasten to the rescue of the oppressed state, which lookedimploringly to them for succor. This idea was ludicrous only so far astheir self-conceit was concerned in it; the advantages which theycontrived to draw from it were substantial enough. The Protestantmerchants, who held in their hands the chief part of the wealth of theNetherlands, and who believed they could not at any price purchase toodearly the undisturbed exercise of their religion, did not fail to makeuse of this class of people who stood idle in the market and ready to behired. These very men whom at any other time the merchants, in thepride of riches, would most probably have looked down upon, now appearedlikely to do them good service through their numbers, their courage,their credit with the populace, their enmity to the government, nay,through t