Title:  History of the United Netherlands, 1585

Author:  John Lothrop Motley

Release Date:  January, 2004 [EBook #4841] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on April 2, 2002]

Edition:  10

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

*** Start of the project gutenberg EBOOK history united Netherlands, 1585 ***

This eBook was produced by David Widger widger@cecomet.net

[Note:  There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the file for those who may wish to sample the author’s ideas before making an entire meal of them.  D.W.]

HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS From the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year’s Truce—­1609

By John Lothrop Motley

MOTLEY’S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Volume 41

History United Netherlands, v41, 1584

CHAPTER V., Part 3.

     Sainte Aldegonde discouraged—­His Critical Position—­His
     Negotiations with the Enemy—­Correspondence with Richardot—­
     Commotion in the City—­Interview of Marnix with Parma—­Suspicious
     Conduct of Marnix—­Deputation to the Prince—­Oration of Marnix—­
     Private Views of Parma—­Capitulation of Antwerp—­Mistakes of Marnix
     —­Philip on the Religious Question—­Triumphal Entrance of Alexander—­
     Rebuilding of the Citadel—­Gratification of Philip—­Note on Sainte
     Aldegonde

Sainte Aldegonde’s position had become a painful one.  The net had been drawn closely about the city.  The bridge seemed impregnable, the great Kowenstyn was irrecoverably in the hands of the enemy, and now all the lesser forts in the immediate vicinity of Antwerp-Borght, Hoboken, Cantecroix, Stralen, Berghen, and the rest—­had likewise fallen into his grasp.  An account of grain, taken on the 1st of June, gave an average of a pound a-head for a month long, or half a pound for two months.  This was not the famine-point, according to the standard which had once been established in Leyden; but the courage of the burghers had been rapidly oozing away, under the pressure of their recent disappointments.  It seemed obvious to the burgomaster, that the time for yielding had arrived.

“I had maintained the city,” he said, “for a long period, without any excessive tumult or great effusion of blood—­a city where there was such a multitude of inhabitants, mostly merchants or artisans deprived of all their traffic, stripped of their manufactures, destitute of all commodities and means of living.  I had done this in the midst of a great diversity of humours and opinions, a vast