the whole of the cannon and baggage.  The entire province of Friesland was thus again reduced to obedience, and Alva hastened back to Brabant to make head against the Prince of Orange.  The latter had now under his command an army of twenty-eight thousand men—­an imposing force in point of numbers, being double that which his rival was able to muster.  He soon made himself master of the towns of Tongres and St. Trond, and the whole province of Liege was in his power.  He advanced boldly against Alva, and for several months did all that manoeuvring could do to force him to a battle.  But the wily veteran knew his trade too well; he felt sure that in time the prince’s force would disperse for want of pay and supplies; and he managed his resources so ably that with little risk and scarcely any loss he finally succeeded in his object.  In the month of October the prince found himself forced to disband his large but undisciplined force; and he retired into France to recruit his funds and consider on the best measures for some future enterprise.

The insolent triumph of Alva knew no bounds.  The rest of the year was consumed in new executions.  The hotel of Culembourg, the early cradle of De Brederode’s confederacy, was razed to the ground, and a pillar erected on the spot commemorative of the deed; while Alva, resolved to erect a monument of his success as well as of his hate, had his own statue in brass, formed of the cannons taken at Jemminghem, set up in the citadel of Antwerp, with various symbols of power and an inscription of inflated pride.

The following year was ushered in by a demand of unwonted and extravagant rapacity; the establishment of two taxes on property, personal and real, to the amount of the hundredth penny (or denier) on each kind; and at every transfer or sale ten per cent on personal and five per cent for real property.  The states-general, of whom this demand was made, were unanimous in their opposition, as well as the ministers; but particularly De Berlaimont and Viglius.  Alva was so irritated that he even menaced the venerable president of the council, but could not succeed in intimidating him.  He obstinately persisted in his design for a considerable period; resisting arguments and prayers, and even the more likely means tried for softening his cupidity, by furnishing him with sums from other sources equivalent to those which the new taxes were calculated to produce.  To his repeated threats against Viglius the latter replied, that “he was convinced the king would not condemn him unheard; but that at any rate his gray hairs saved him from any ignoble fear of death.”