Title:  The Life of John of Barneveld, 1619-23

Author:  John Lothrop Motley

Release Date:  January, 2004 [EBook #4897] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on April 24, 2002]

Edition:  10

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

*** Start of the project gutenberg EBOOK life of John of Barneveld, 1619-23 ***

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.]

THE LIFE AND DEATH of JOHN OF BARNEVELD, ADVOCATE OF HOLLAND

WITH A VIEW OF THE PRIMARY CAUSES AND MOVEMENTS OF THE THIRTY YEARS’ WAR

By John Lothrop Motley, D.C.L., LL.D.

MOTLEY’S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Volume 97

Life and Death of John of Barneveld, v11, 1619-23

CHAPTER XXI.

     Barneveld’s Execution—­The Advocate’s Conduct on the Scaffold—­The
     Sentence printed and sent to the Provinces—­The Proceedings
     irregular and inequitable.

In the beautiful village capital of the “Count’s Park,” commonly called the Hague, the most striking and picturesque spot then as now was that where the transformed remains of the old moated castle of those feudal sovereigns were still to be seen.  A three-storied range of simple, substantial buildings in brown brickwork, picked out with white stone in a style since made familiar both in England and America, and associated with a somewhat later epoch in the history of the House of Orange, surrounded three sides of a spacious inner paved quadrangle called the Inner Court, the fourth or eastern side being overshadowed by a beechen grove.  A square tower flanked each angle, and on both sides of the south-western turret extended the commodious apartments of the Stadholder.  The great gateway on the south-west opened into a wide open space called the Outer Courtyard.  Along the north-west side a broad and beautiful sheet of water, in which the walls, turrets, and chapel-spires of the enclosed castle mirrored themselves, was spread between the mass of buildings and an umbrageous promenade called the Vyverberg, consisting of a sextuple alley of lime-trees and embowering here and there a stately villa.  A small island, fringed with weeping willows and tufted all over with lilacs, laburnums, and other shrubs then in full flower, lay in the centre of the miniature lake, and the tall solid tower of the Great Church, surmounted by a light openwork spire, looked down from a little distance over the scene.