[1091] "Il n'est pas seulement content de s'employer à la nécessité présente par le moyen par eulx proposé touchant sa vasselle, ains de sa propre personne, et de tout ce que reste en son pouvoir." Ibid., p. 88.
[1092] Ibid., ubi supra.
[1093] The funds were chiefly furnished, as it would seem, by Antwerp, and the great towns of Holland, Zealand, Friesland, and Groningen, the quarter of the country where the spirit of independence was always high. The noble exiles with William contributed half the amount raised. This information was given to Alva by Villers, one of the banished lords, after he had fallen into the duke's hands in a disastrous affair, of which some account will be given in the present chapter. Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. II. p. 27.
[1094] "Ipse Arausionensis monilia, vasa algentea, tapetes, cætera supellectilis divendit, digna regio palatio ornamenta, sed exigui ad bellum momenti." Reidanus, Annales, p. 6.
[1095] The "Justification" has been very commonly attributed to the pen of the learned Languet, who was much in William's confidence, and is known to have been with him at this time. But William was too practised a writer, as Groen well suggests, to make it probable that he would trust the composition of a paper of such moment to any hand but his own. It is very likely that he submitted his own draft to the revision of Languet, whose political sagacity he well understood. And this is the most that can be fairly inferred from Languet's own account of the matter: "Fui Dillemburgi per duodecim et tredecim dies, ubi Princeps Orangiæ mihi et aliquot aliis curavit prolixe explicari causas et initia tumultuum in inferiore Germania et suam responsionem ad accusationes Albani." It fared with the prince's "Justification" as it did with the famous "Farewell Address" of Washington, so often attributed to another pen than his, but which, however much it may have been benefited by the counsels and corrections of others, bears on every page unequivocal marks of its genuineness.
The "Justification" called out several answers from the opposite party. Among them were two by Vargas and Del Rio. But in the judgment of Viglius—whose bias certainly did not lie on William's side—these answers were a failure. See his letter to Hopper (Epist. ad Hopperum, p. 458). The reader will find a full discussion of the matter by Groen, in the Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Nassau, tom. III. p. 187.
[1096] "En quoy ne gist pas seulement le bien de ce faict, mais aussi mon honeur et réputation, pour avoir promis aus gens de guerre leur paier le dict mois, et que j'aymerois mieulx morir que les faillir à ma promesse." Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Nassau, Supplément, p. 89.
[1097] Mendoza, Comentarios, p. 42 et seq.—Cornejo, Disension de Flandres, p. 63.
[1098] Meteren, Hist. des Pays-Bas, fol. 56.—De Thou, Hist. Universelle, tom. V. p. 443.
[1099] "Ains, comme gens predestinez à leur malheur et de leur general, crierent plus que devant contre luy jusques à l'appeller traistre, et qu'il s'entendoit avec les ennemis. Luy, qui estoit tout noble et courageux, leur dit: 'Ouy, je vous monstreray si je le suis.'" Brantôme, Œuvres, tom. I. p. 382.