[948] Meteren, Hist. des Pays-Bas, fol. 52.—Old Brantôme warms as he contemplates these Amazons, as beautiful and making as brave a show as princesses! "Plus il y avoit quatre cents courtisanes à cheval, belles et braves comme princesses, et huict cents à pied, bien en point aussi." Œuvres, tom. I. p. 62.
[949] "Ninguna Historia nos enseña haya passado un Exercito por Pais tan dilatado y marchas tan continuas, sin cometer excesso: La del Duque es la unica que nos la hace ver. Encantò à todo el mundo." Rustant, Historia del Duque de Alva, tom. II. p. 124.—So also Herrera, Historia General, tom. I. p. 650.—Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. VII. cap. 15.—Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 354.
[950] "Comme le Duc le vid de long, il dit tout haut; Voicy le grand hereticque, dequoq le Comte s'espouvanta: neantmoins, pource qu'on le pouvoit entendre en deux façons, il l'interpreta de bonne part." Meteren, Hist. des Pays-Bas, fol. 53.
[951] "Vimos los que allí estábamos que el Duque de Alba usó de grandísimos respetos y buenas crianzas, y que Madama estuvo muy severa y mas que cuando suelen negociar con ella Egmont y estos otros Señores de acá, cosa que fué muy notada de los que lo miraban."
A minute account of this interview, as given in the text, was sent to Philip by Mendivil, an officer of the artillery, and is inserted in the Documentos Inéditos, tom. IV. p. 397 et seq.
[952] This document, dated December 1, 1566, is not to be found in the Archives of Simancas, as we may infer from its having no place in the Documentos Inéditos, which contains the succeeding commission. A copy of it is in the Belgian Archives, and has been incorporated in Gachard's Correspondance de Philippe II. (tom. II., Appendix, No. 88.) It is possible that a copy of this commission was sent to Margaret, as it agrees so well with what the king had written to her on the subject.
[953] To this second commission, dated January 31, 1567, was appended a document, signed also by Philip, the purport of which seems to have been to explain more precisely the nature of the powers intrusted to the duke,—which it does in so liberal a fashion, that it may be said to double those powers. Both papers, the originals of which are preserved in Simancas, have been inserted in the Documentos Inéditos, tom. IV. pp. 388-396.
[954] "Par quoy requerrons à ladicte dame duchesse, nostre seur, et commandons à tous nos vassaulx et subjectz, de obéyr audict duc d'Alve en ce qu'il leur commandera, et de par nous, come aïant telle charge, et comme à nostre propre personne."—This instrument, taken from the Belgian archives, is given entire by Gachard, Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. II., Appendix, No. 102.
[955] "Despues que los han visto han quedado todos muy lastimados, y á todos cuantos Madama habla les dice que se quierre ir á su casa por los agravios que V. M. le ha hecho." Carta de Mendivil, ap. Documentos Inéditos, tom. IV p. 399.
[956] Ibid., p. 403.