Under all the circumstances, one cannot insist strongly on the probability of the anecdote.
[1199] One of her daughters, in a fit of derangement brought on by excessive grief for her father's fate, attempted to make away with herself by throwing herself from a window. Relacion de la Justicia, MS.
[1200] This was the duplicate, no doubt, of the letter given to the bishop of Ypres, to whom Egmont may have intrusted a copy, with the idea that it would be more certain to reach the hands of the king than the one sent to his wife.
[1201] "La misère où elle se trouve, étant devenue veuve avec onze enfans, abandonnée de tous, hors de son pays et loin de ses parents, l'a empêchée d'envoyer plus tôt au Roi la dernière et très-humble requête de son défunt mari." Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. II. p. 31.
[1202] "De la bénignité et pitié du Roi." Ibid., ubi supra.
[1203] "Ce que m'obligerat, le reste de mes tristes jours, et toute ma postérité, à prier Dieu pour la longue et heureuse vie de V. M." Ibid., ubi supra.
[1204] "S'il ne leur avait pas donné quelque argent, ils mourraient de faim." Ibid., p. 38.
[1205] It seems strange that Göthe, in his tragedy of "Egmont," should have endeavored to excite what may be truly called a meretricious interest in the breasts of his audience, by bringing an imaginary mistress, named Clara, on the stage, instead of the noble-hearted wife, so much better qualified to share the fortunes of her husband and give dignity to his sufferings. Independently of other considerations, this departure from historic truth cannot be defended on any true principle of dramatic effect.
[1206] Raumer, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, vol. I. p. 183.
[1207] After an annual grant, which rose from eight to twelve thousand livres, the duke settled on her a pension of two thousand gulden, which continued to the year of his death, in 1578. (Arend, Algemeene Geschiedenis des Vaderlands, D. II. St. v. bl. 66.) The gulden, or guilder, at the present day, is equivalent to about one shilling and ninepence sterling, or thirty-nine cents.