Ghent, saved thrice by the policy, the eloquence, the self-sacrifices of Orange, fell within three months of his murder into the hands of Parma.  The loss of this most important city, followed in the next year by the downfall of Antwerp, sealed the fate of the Southern Netherlands.  Had the Prince lived, how different might have been the country’s fate!  If seven provinces could dilate, in so brief a space, into the powerful commonwealth which the Republic soon became, what might not have been achieved by the united seventeen; a confederacy which would have united the adamantine vigor of the Batavian and Frisian races with the subtler, more delicate, and more graceful national elements in which the genius of the Frank, the Roman, and the Romanized Celt were so intimately blended.  As long as the Father of the country lived, such a union was possible.  His power of managing men was so unquestionable, that there was always a hope, even in the darkest hour, for men felt implicit reliance, as well on his intellectual resources as on his integrity.

This power of dealing with his fellow-men he manifested in the various ways in which it has been usually exhibited by statesmen.  He possessed a ready eloquence—­sometimes impassioned, oftener argumentative, always rational.  His influence over his audience was unexampled in the annals of that country or age; yet he never condescended to flatter the people.  He never followed the nation, but always led her in the path of duty and of honor, and was much more prone to rebuke the vices than to pander to the passions of his hearers.  He never failed to administer ample chastisement to parsimony, to jealousy, to insubordination, to intolerance, to infidelity, wherever it was due, nor feared to confront the states or the people in their most angry hours, and to tell them the truth to their faces.  This commanding position he alone could stand upon, for his countrymen knew the generosity which had sacrificed his all for them, the self-denial which had eluded rather than sought political advancement, whether from king or people, and the untiring devotion which had consecrated a whole life to toil and danger in the cause of their emancipation.  While, therefore, he was ever ready to rebuke, and always too honest to flatter, he at the same time possessed the eloquence which could convince or persuade.  He knew how to reach both the mind and the heart of his hearers.  His orations, whether extemporaneous or prepared—­his written messages to the states-general, to the provincial authorities, to the municipal bodies—­his private correspondence with men of all ranks, from emperors and kings down to secretaries, and even children—­all show an easy flow of language, a fulness of thought, a power of expression rare in that age, a fund of historical allusion, a considerable power of imagination, a warmth of sentiment, a breadth of view, a directness of purpose—­a range of qualities, in short, which would in themselves have stamped him as one