DEFENCE OF THE PRISONERS.
The attorney-general next prepared his accusation of Count Hoorne, consisting of sixty-three separate charges. They were of much the same import with those brought against Egmont. The bold, impatient temper of the[{359}] admiral made him particularly open to the assault of his enemies. He was still more peremptory than his friend in his refusal to relinquish his rights as a knight of the Golden Fleece, and appear before the tribunal of Alva. When prevailed on to waive his scruples, his defence was couched in language so direct and manly as at once engages our confidence. "Unskilled as I am in this sort of business," he remarks, "and without the aid of counsel to guide me, if I have fallen into errors, they must be imputed, not to intention, but to the want of experience.... I can only beseech those who shall read my defence to believe that it has been made sincerely and in all truth, as becomes a gentleman of honorable descent."[1125]
By the remonstrances of the prisoners and their friends, the duke was at length prevailed on to allow them counsel. Each of the two lords obtained the services of five of the most eminent jurists of the country; who, to their credit, seem not to have shrunk from a duty which, if not attended with actual danger, certainly did not lie in the road to preferment.[1126]
The counsel of the two lords lost no time in preparing the defence of their clients, taking up each charge brought against them by the attorney-general, and minutely replying to it. Their defence was substantially the same with that which had been set up by the prisoners themselves, though more elaborate, and sustained by a greater array both of facts and arguments.[1127] Meanwhile the counsel did not remit their efforts to have the causes brought before the tribunal of the Toison d'Or. Unless this could be effected, they felt that all endeavors to establish the innocence of their clients would be unavailing.
Alva had early foreseen the embarrassment to which he would be exposed on this ground. He had accordingly requested Philip to stop all further solicitations by making known his own decision in the matter.[1128] The king in reply assured the duke that men of authority and learning, to whom the subject had been committed, after a full examination, entirely confirmed the decision made before Alva's departure, that the case of treason did not come within the cognizance of the Toison d'Or.[1129] Letters patent accompanied[{360}] this note, empowering the duke to try the cause.[1130] With these credentials Alva now strove to silence, if not to satisfy, the counsel of the prisoners; and, by a formal decree, all further applications for transferring the cause from his own jurisdiction to that of the Golden Fleece were peremptorily forbidden.
Yet all were not to be thus silenced. Egmont's countess still continued unwearied in her efforts to excite a sympathy in her lord's behalf in all those who would be likely to have any influence with the government. Early in 1568 she again wrote to Philip, complaining that she had not been allowed so much as to see her husband. She implored the king to take her and her children as sureties for Egmont, and permit him to be removed to one of his own houses. If that could not be, she begged that he might at least be allowed the air of the castle, lest, though innocent, his confinement might cost him his life. She alludes to her miserable condition, with her young and helpless family, and trusts in the king's goodness and justice that she shall not be forced to seek a subsistence in Germany, from which country she had been brought to Flanders by his father the emperor.[1131] The letter, says a chronicler of the time, was not to be read by any one without sincere commiseration for the writer.[1132]
The German princes, at the same time, continued their intercessions with the king for both the nobles; and the duke of Bavaria, and the duke and duchess of Lorraine, earnestly invoked his clemency in their behalf. Philip, wearied by this importunity but not wavering in his purpose, again called on Alva to press the trial to a conclusion.[1133]
Towards the end of April, 1568, came that irruption across the borders by Hoogstraten and the other lords, described in the previous chapter. Alva, feeling probably that his own presence might be required to check the invaders, found an additional motive for bringing the trials to a decision.
On the sixth of May, the attorney-general presented a remonstrance against the dilatory proceedings of Egmont's counsel, declaring that, although so many months had elapsed, they had neglected to bring forward their witnesses in support of their defence. He prayed that a day might be named for the termination of the process.[1134]
SENTENCE OF DEATH.