[906] "Egit ipsa privatim magnæ Virgini grates, quòd ejus ope tantam urbem sine prælio ac sanguine, Religioni Regique reddidisset." Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 328.
[907] Brandt, Reformation in the Low Countries, tom. I. p. 254.
[908] Gachard has transferred to his notes the whole of this sanguinary document. See Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. pp. 550, 551.
[909] "La peine et le mécontentement qu'il a éprouvés, de ce que l'on a fait une chose si illicite, si indécente, et si contraire à la religion chrétienne." Ibid., ubi supra.
[910] Viglius was not too enlightened to enter his protest against the right to freedom of conscience, which, in a letter to his friend Hopper, he says may lead every one to set up his own gods—"lares aut lemures"—according to his fancy. Yet the president was wise enough to see that sufficient had been done at present in breaking up the preachings. "Time and Philip's presence must do the rest." (Epistolæ ad Hopperum, p. 433.) "Those," he says in another letter, "who have set the king against the edict have greatly deceived him. They are having their ovation before they have gained the victory. They think they can dispose of Flemish affairs as they like at Toledo, when hardly a Spaniard dares to show his head in Brussels." Ibid., p. 428.
[911] Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Nassau, tom. III. pp. 80-93.—Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 329.
[912] Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 332.
[913] Groen's inestimable collection contains several of Brederode's letters, which may remind one in their tone of the dashing cavalier of the time of Charles the First. They come from the heart, mingling the spirit of daring enterprise with the careless gayety of the bon vivant, and throw far more light than the stiff, statesmanlike correspondence of the period on the character, not merely of the writer, but of the disjointed times in which he lived.
[914] Brandt, Reformation in the Low Countries, vol. I. p. 255.—Meteren, Hist. des Pays-Bas, fol. 50.—Vander Haer, De Initiis Tumultuum, p. 327.—Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 533.
[915] Margaret's success draws forth an animated tribute from the president of Mechlin. "De manera que los negocios de los payses bajos por la gracia de Dios y la prudencia de esta virtuosa Dama y Princesa con la asistencia de los buenos consejeros y servidores del Rey en buenos terminos y en efecto remediados, las villas reveldes y alteradas amazadas, los gueuses reducidos ó huidos; los ministros y predicantes echados fuera ó presos; y la autoridad de su Magestad establecida otra vez." Renom de Francia, Alborotos de Flandes, MS.