The Duke had contracted in Amsterdam an enormous amount of debt, both public and private.  He accordingly, early in November, caused a proclamation to be made throughout the city by sound of trumpet, that all persons having demands upon him were to present their claims, in person, upon a specified day.  During the night preceding the day so appointed, the Duke and his train very noiselessly took their departure, without notice or beat of drum.  By this masterly generalship his unhappy creditors were foiled upon the very eve of their anticipated triumph; the heavy accounts which had been contracted on the faith of the King and the Governor, remained for the most part unpaid, and many opulent and respectable families were reduced to beggary.  Such was the consequence of the unlimited confidence which they had reposed in the honor of their tyrant.

On the 17th of November, Don Luis de Requesens y Cuniga, Grand Commander of Saint Jago, the appointed successor of Alva, arrived in Brussels, where he was received with great rejoicings.  The Duke, on the same day, wrote to the King, “kissing his feet” for thus relieving him of his functions.  There was, of course, a profuse interchange of courtesy between the departing and the newly-arrived Governors.  Alva was willing to remain a little while, to assist his successor with his advice, but preferred that the Grand Commander should immediately assume the reins of office.  To this Requesens, after much respectful reluctance, at length consented.  On the 29th of November he accordingly took the oaths, at Brussels, as Lieutenant-Governor and Captain-General, in presence of the Duke of Aerschot, Baron Berlaymont, the President of the Council, and other functionaries.

On the 18th of December the Duke of Alva departed from the provinces for ever.  With his further career this history has no concern, and it is not desirable to enlarge upon the personal biography of one whose name certainly never excites pleasing emotions.  He had kept his bed for the greater part of the time during the last few weeks of his government—­partly on account of his gout, partly to avoid being seen in his humiliation, but mainly, it was said, to escape the pressing demands of his creditors.  He expressed a fear of travelling homeward through France, on the ground that he might very probably receive a shot out of a window as he went by.  He complained pathetically that, after all his labors, he had not “gained the approbation of the King,” while he had incurred “the malevolence and universal hatred of every individual in the country.”  Mondoucet, to whom he made the observation, was of the same opinion; and informed his master that the Duke “had engendered such an extraordinary hatred in the hearts of all persons in the land, that they would have fireworks in honor of his departure if they dared.”