tyrdom from his competitors on the 10th of July, at Delft. He had been in the service of the duke of Anjou; brought letters from France to the prince of Orange; found easy access to his house, under the pretence of asking for the answers to bear back to France; and, taking advantage of the prince's passing from his dining-room to another apartment, discharged a pistol loaded with three bullets into his breast. He escaped the first guard, but was taken by the next. Upon being questioned as to his instigators or accomplices, he said he had none,— he acted by a divine inspiration.* New and horrible tortures were invented for him. He bore unutterable, inconceivable agonies, with a fortitude more than human, during four days: such is the force of diseased imagination over physical pain. The same jesuit, Strada, who admires his fortitude, and all but admires his crime, says, that he entertained the design of killing the prince of Orange from the moment of the prince's being proscribed by Philip, offered himself for the purpose to the prince of Parma, was rejected as incompetent, and yet persevered. The prince of Parma's rejection of his services, on the mere ground of his incapacity, compromises that prince's reputation ‡, but can surprise no one who considers the genius of the sixteenth century. The atrocious policy of that age put on the mask of religion to sanctify crime, in Italy, in France, in Spain, and-witness the case of the queen of Scots-in England. With Pius and Sextus, Catherine of Medicis and Philip II., the executive means were massacre and assassination; with Elizabeth, the sword of justice; and the crime in her case was not extenuated, but aggravated.

There are few nobler characters than William of Nassau, the deliverer of his country and founder of the republic of the United Provinces. Subjected to extraordinary casualties from his early youth, he acquired a

* Strad. de Bell, Belg. dec. ii. lib. v.

+ Operam in id suam Parmensi obtulerat, spretusque ut impar, haud desiit tamen."- Strad. dec. ii. lib. v.

It would appear, from other authorities, that the prince of Parma was more directly implicated. See Hist. of the Netherlands, CAB. CYC.

fund of enlightened piety and an elevation of soul, which fortune, prosperous or adverse, could not move.* Engaged in a cause full of difficulties and dangers, thwarted and defamed by envious and unworthy competitors and the blind injustice of the populace, he was tolerant of human infirmity, and loved the people. †

The prince of Parma, upon the death of William, made insidious offers of peace, which the Batavians in their extremity, says Grotius, had the admirable constancy to reject. Messages of consolation and promises of support were received from the king of France and queen of England. It became a matter of deliberation from which of the two nations protection should be solicited: the French were odious for their government in Italy, the English for their government in Ireland. Meanwhile, the prince of Parma was making rapid conquests: he took by force, stratagem, or famine, several of the towns and fortresses which formed the chief strength of the states out of Holland and Zealand, and began the blockade of Antwerp. The states could neither relieve Antwerp, nor had they troops to divert the attention of the prince of Parma, by attacking him in any other quarter. Their only hope was in foreign aid. From the reluctance of Elizabeth to embark frankly in the war, and even at her suggestion, application was made for assistance in men to Henry III. of France, whilst she promised aid in subsidies. The king of France, pressed by the league, which was secretly, and at this time strenuously, supported by Philip, was utterly powerless for any purpose beyond, and was reduced to extremity even within his kingdom. He received the deputies kindly, and

dismissed them with a recommendation to the queen of England. On the 9th of July, 1585, a deputation

* Grot. An. lib. iv.

+ Id. ibid.

+ Id. ibid.

Ibid. Camden says, that Elizabeth dissuaded the states from apply. ing to France; but Grotius is more likely to be correct. She had no longer to fear foreign conquest from Henry, at a moment when he was almost overwhelmed by the league. It would be her interest, and was doubtless her policy, to embark the king of France in open war with Philip.

from the states made a formal offer of the sovereignty to Elizabeth at Greenwich, with the condition that she should undertake to defend them against the Spaniards. She declined the sovereignty on the ground of her being advanced in years, childless, and without a prince of her house by whom the government might be exercised. It seems doubtful whether an unambitious prudence, the reluctance to give encouragement to subjects who had deposed their sovereign, or a parsimonious dread of taking upon her the whole charge of the war, and a mistaken estimate of the resources of the provinces within themselves, determined her to reject so tempting an accession to her dominion. The true motive in the actions of princes and governments lies sometimes on the surface. It is possible that her want of issue and her age really decided her. There was selfishness, but there was also reason, in not troubling her declining years, to increase the inheritance of the son of the queen of Scots. The fear of Philip entered not into her consideration: she promised the states such aids, in men and money, as to bring her into conflict with his resentment and his power. A treaty was entered into with them through the deputation and their resident envoy, Gryse, grand bailiff of Bruges. It bound the queen to aid them with 5000 foot and 1000 horse; the levy, transport, and pay of which should be reimbursed to her at the end of the war. Flushing, Ramekens, and Brille were to be placed in her hands as a security. The commanderin-chief of the auxiliaries was to be governor-general, and admitted, with two other English subjects chosen by the queen, into the council of state. The respective parties could enter into no treaty but by joint consent. The ports on both sides were to be reciprocally free. The naval force for the common defence was to be kept up in equal amount of ships at the common charge, but commanded by the high admiral of England.

This treaty re-animated the courage and hopes of the Netherlanders. So great was the joy of the state

and people of Zealand, that a coin was struck on the -occasion, with the arms of the province, the figure of a lion emerging from the waves, and the inscription "Luctor et emergo,' on one side; the arms of their several towns, and the inscription " Authore Deo, faSir John Norreys was

vente Regina," on the other. despatched immediately with 4000 men to relieve Antwerp. He arrived too late. After a siege and defence of thirteen months, maintained with a degree of courage, science, and perseverance, which placed the prince of Parma in the first rank of the captains of his time, and obtained for St. Aldegonde the governor, and the people of Antwerp, the sympathy and admiration of Europe, the town surrendered, on the 17th of August, by an honourable capitulation.

Elizabeth appointed to the command in chief of the expedition and government of the Netherlands her favourite, the earl of Leicester: a man notorious not only for incapacity, but cowardice, was thus opposed to the prince of Parma. The infatuation of a woman may be understood and pitied; but it is extraordinary that her counsellors, experienced, wise, and well aware of his incompetency, should have hazarded the honour and safety of their country in his hands. The motive of wishing to be relieved from his presence at court may account for their conduct, but degrades them from statesmen to intriguers.

Leicester left England with a retinue of individuals the most conspicuous for rank and reputation in the kingdom, and had with him a corps of noblemen and gentlemen 500 strong. On the 10th of December he landed at Flushing, which had been placed in the hands of the queen pursuant to the treaty. He was received there by the English governor, the celebrated sir Philip Sidney, his nephew, amidst the most explicit demonstrations of their joy by the people. On his arrival, he was not a little piqued to find the young prince Maurice of Nassau, second son of the prince of Orange, whose

eldest son was still a prisoner in Spain, appointed by the states governor, admiral, and captain-general of Holland, Zealand, and West Friesland. To remove his discontent, they made him governor-general of the Low Countries, with new and extraordinary powers. His authority was declared " supreme and absolute jointly with the council of state." The incapable and presumptuous minion spurned this last limitation. It was thought expedient to conciliate him, by declaring that the limitation subjected the council to him, not him to the council. He had more power than had been invested in any governor of Philip II. or Charles V. His vanity was so overweening and insatiable, that he would have nothing short of the emblems as well as the functions of sovereignty; and, to gratify him, his arms were put upon the great and lesser seals of the states. But his presumption was soon rebuked and trampled upon by Elizabeth. She learned the extent of power conferred on him with indignation, both against the states and Leicester, to whom she respectively addressed letters by Heneage, her vice-chamberlain. To Leicester she says, "We little thought that one whom we raised from the dust would thus contemn our orders; and we command you, on your allegiance to us, to do as shall be made known to you in our name by our vice-chamberlain, the bearer hereof." To the states she wrote, that they had treated her with contumely, in conferring upon Leicester, her subject, and without consulting her, the sovereignty which she had declined for herself; and admonished them to reduce him instantly from his absolute authority within the limits which she had prescribed. The states excused themselves by declaring, that notwithstanding the word "absolute," the supreme power was still, in its integrity, vested in the people, and that the power of Leicester was revocable; but they entreated her, for the public safety and tranquillity, not to insist on their revoking it at that moment. Leicester, mean as he was insolent, crouched under the queen's