[1055] Ibid., p. 63.
[1056] "Le magistrat s'est plaint de l'infraction de ses privilèges, à cause de l'envoi dudit prévôt; mais il faudra bien qu'il prenne patience." Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. II. p. 13.
[1057] Vandervynckt, Troubles des Pays-Bas, tom. II. pp. 243-247.
The author tells us he collected these particulars from the memoirs and diaries of eye-witnesses,—confirmed, moreover, by the acts and public registers of the time. The authenticity of the statement, he adds, is incontestable.
[1058] See the circular of Alva to the officers charged with these arrests, in the Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. II., Appendix, p. 660.
[1059] "Et, affin que ledict duc d'Alve face apparoir de plus son affection sanguinaire et tyrannicque, il a, passé peu de temps, faict appréhender, tout sur une nuict, [le 3 mars, 1568,] en toutes les villes des pays d'embas, ung grand nombre de ceulx qu'il a tenu suspect en leur foy, et les faict mectre hors leurs maisons et lictz en prison, pour en après, à sa commodité, faire son plaisir et volunté avecque lesdicts prisonniers." Correspondance de Guillaume le Taciturne, tom. III. p. 9.
The extract is from a memorial addressed by William to the emperor, vindicating his own course, and exposing, with the indignant eloquence of a patriot, the wrongs and calamities of his country. This document, printed by Gachard, is a version from the German original by the hand of a contemporary. A modern translation—so ambitious in its style that one may distrust its fidelity—is also to be found in the Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Nassau, Supplément, p. 91 et seq.
[1060] "Se prendieron cerca de quinientos.... He mandado justiciar todos," says Alva to the king, in a letter written in cipher, April, 13. 1568. (Documentos inéditos, tom. IV. p. 488.) Not one escaped! It is told with an air of nonchalance truly appalling.
[1061] "Que cada dia me quiebran la cabeza con dudas de que si el que delinquió desta manera meresce la muerte, ó si el que delinquió desta otra meresce destierro, que no me dejan vivir, y no basta con ellos." Documentos Inéditos, tom. IV. p. 488.
[1062] "En este castigo que agora se hace y en el que vendrá despues, de Pascua tengo que pasará de ochocientas cabezas." Ibid., p. 489.