original letter exists in the archives of Brussels, from the prince of Parma himself to Philip of Spain, in which he admits that Balthazar Gerard had communicated to him his intention of murdering the Prince of Orange some months before the deed was done; and he mixes phrases of compassion for “the poor man” (the murderer) and of praise for the act; which, if the document be really authentic, sinks Alexander of Parma as low as the wretch with whom he sympathized.

CHAPTER XIII

TO THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER, PRINCE OF PARMA

A.D. 1584—­1592

The death of William of Nassau not only closes the scene of his individual career, but throws a deep gloom over the history of a revolution that was sealed by so great a sacrifice.  The animation of the story seems suspended.  Its events lose for a time their excitement.  The last act of the political drama is performed.  The great hero of the tragedy is no more.  The other most memorable actors have one by one passed away.  A whole generation has fallen in the contest; and it is with exhausted interest, and feelings less intense, that we resume the details of war and blood, which seem no longer sanctified by the grander movements of heroism.  The stirring impulse of slavery breaking its chains yields to the colder inspiration of independence maintaining its rights.  The men we have now to depict were born free; and the deeds they did were those of stern resolve rather than of frantic despair.  The present picture may be as instructive as the last, but it is less thrilling.  Passion gives place to reason; and that which wore the air of fierce romance is superseded by what bears the stamp of calm reality.

The consternation caused by the news of William’s death soon yielded to the firmness natural to a people inured to suffering and calamity.  The United Provinces rejected at once the overtures made by the prince of Parma to induce them to obedience.  They seemed proud to show that their fate did not depend on that of one man.  He therefore turned his attention to the most effective means of obtaining results by force which he found it impossible to secure by persuasion.  He proceeded vigorously to the reduction of the chief towns of Flanders, the conquest of which would give him possession of the entire province, no army now remaining to oppose him in the field.  He soon obliged Ypres and Termonde to surrender; and Ghent, forced by famine, at length yielded on reasonable terms.  The most severe was the utter abolition of the reformed religion; by which a large portion of the population was driven to the alternative of exile; and they passed over in crowds to Holland and Zealand, not half of the inhabitants remaining behind.  Mechlin, and finally Brussels, worn out by a fruitless resistance, followed the example of the rest; and thus, within a year after the death of William of Nassau, the power of Spain was again established in the whole province of Flanders, and the others which comprise what is in modern days generally denominated Belgium.