The Duke not only furnished Catherine with advice, but with the musketeers which she had solicited. Two thousand foot and fifteen hundred horse, under the Count of Aremberg, attended by a choice band of the Catholic nobility of the Netherlands, had joined the royal camp at Paris before the end of the year, to take their part in the brief hostilities by which the second treacherous peace was to be preceded.
Meantime, Alva was not unmindful of the business which had served as a pretext in the arrest of the two Counts. The fortifications of the principal cities were pushed on with great rapidity. The memorable citadel of Antwerp in particular had already been commenced in October under the superintendence of the celebrated engineers, Pacheco and Gabriel de Cerbelloni. In a few months it was completed, at a cost of one million four hundred thousand florins, of which sum the citizens, in spite of their remonstrances, were compelled to contribute more than one quarter. The sum of four hundred thousand florins was forced from the burghers by a tax upon all hereditary property within the municipality.
Two thousand workmen were employed daily in the construction of this important fortress, which was erected, as its position most plainly manifested, not to protect, but to control the commercial capital of the provinces. It stood at the edge of the city, only separated from its walls by an open esplanade. It was the most perfect pentagon in Europe, having one of its sides resting on the Scheld, two turned towards the city, and two towards the open country. Five bastions, with walls of hammered stone, connected by curtains of turf and masonry, surrounded by walls measuring a league in circumference, and by an outer moat fed by the Scheld, enclosed a spacious enceinte, where a little church with many small lodging-houses, shaded by trees and shrubbery, nestled among the bristling artillery, as if to mimic the appearance of a peaceful and pastoral village. To four of the five bastions, the Captain-General, with characteristic ostentation, gave his own names and titles. One was called the Duke, the second Ferdinando, a third Toledo, a fourth Alva, while the fifth was baptized with the name of the ill-fated engineer, Pacheco. The Watergate was decorated with the escutcheon of Alva, surrounded by his Golden Fleece collar, with its pendant lamb of God; a symbol of blasphemous irony, which still remains upon the fortress, to recal the image of the tyrant and murderer. Each bastion was honeycombed with casemates and subterranean storehouses, and capable of containing within its bowels a vast supply of provisions, munitions, and soldiers. Such was the celebrated citadel built to tame the turbulent spirit of Antwerp, at the cost of those whom it was to terrify and to insult.
ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
Conde and Coligny
Furnished, in addition, with a force of two thousand prostitutes
He came as a conqueror not as a mediator
Hope deferred, suddenly changing to despair
Meantime the second civil war in France had broken out
Spendthrift of time, he was an economist of blood
The greatest crime, however, was to be rich
Time and myself are two
MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, PG EDITION, VOLUME 15. THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC By JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY 1855 [ [!-- H2 anchor --] ]
CHAPTER II. 1568
Orange, Count Louis, Hoogstraaten, and others, cited before the
Blood-Council—Charges against them—Letter of Orange in reply—
Position and sentiments of the Prince—Seizure of Count de Buren—
Details of that transaction—Petitions to the Council from Louvain
and other places—Sentence of death against the whole population of
the Netherlands pronounced by the Spanish Inquisition and proclaimed
by Philip—Cruel inventions against heretics—The Wild Beggars—
Preliminary proceedings of the Council against Egmont and Horn—
Interrogatories addressed to them in prison—Articles of accusation
against them—Foreclosure of the cases—Pleas to the jurisdiction—
Efforts by the Countesses Egmont and Horn, by many Knights of the
Fleece, and by the Emperor, in favor of the prisoners—Answers of
Alva and of Philip—Obsequious behavior of Viglius—Difficulties
arising from the Golden Fleece statutes set aside—Particulars of
the charges against Count Horn and of his defence—Articles of
accusation against Egmont—Sketch of his reply—Reflections upon the
two trials—Attitude of Orange—His published 'Justification'—His
secret combinations—His commission to Count Louis—Large sums of
money subscribed by the Nassau family, by Netherland refugees, and
others—Great personal sacrifices made by the Prince—Quadruple
scheme for invading the Netherlands—Defeat of the patriots under
Cocqueville—Defeat of Millers—Invasion of Friesland by Count
Louis—Measures of Alva to oppose him—Command of the royalists
entreated to Aremberg and Meghem—The Duke's plan for the campaign—
Skirmish at Dam—Detention of Meghem—Count Louis at Heiliger—Lee—
Nature of the ground—Advance of Aremberg—Disposition of the
patriot forces—Impatience of the Spanish troops to engage—Battle
of Heiliger-Lee—Defeat and death of Aremberg—Death of Adolphus
Nassau—Effects of the battle—Anger and severe measures of Alva—
Eighteen nobles executed at Brussels—Sentence of death pronounced
upon Egmont and Horn—The Bishop of Ypres sent to Egmont—Fruitless
intercession by the prelate and the Countess—Egmont's last night in
prison—The "grande place" at Brussels—Details concerning the
execution of Egmont and Horn—Observation upon the characters of the
two nobles—Destitute condition of Egmont's family.
Late in October, the Duke of Alva made his triumphant entry into the new fortress. During his absence, which was to continue during the remainder of the year, he had ordered the Secretary Courteville and the Councillor del Rio to superintend the commission, which was then actually engaged in collecting materials for the prosecutions to be instituted against the Prince of Orange and the other nobles who had abandoned the country. Accordingly, soon after his return, on the 19th of January, 1568, the Prince, his brother Louis of Nassau, his brother-in-law, Count Van den Berg, the Count Hoogstraaten, the Count Culemburg, and the Baron Montigny, were summoned in the name of Alva to appear before the Blood-Council, within thrice fourteen days from the date of the proclamation, under pain of perpetual banishment with confiscation of their estates. It is needless to say that these seigniors did not obey the summons. They knew full well that their obedience would be rewarded only by death.