The Gaul was singularly unchaste
     The vivifying becomes afterwards the dissolving principle
     The bad Duke of Burgundy, Philip surnamed “the Good,”
     The egg had been laid by Erasmus, hatched by Luther
     These human victims, chained and burning at the stake
     They had at last burned one more preacher alive
     Thousands of burned heretics had not made a single convert
     Thus Hand-werpen, hand-throwing, became Antwerp
     To think it capable of error, is the most devilish heresy of all
     To prefer poverty to the wealth attendant upon trade
     Torquemada’s administration (of the inquisition)
     Tranquillity of despotism to the turbulence of freedom
     Two witnesses sent him to the stake, one witness to the rack
     Tyrannical spirit of Calvinism
     Understood the art of managing men, particularly his superiors
     Upon one day twenty-eight master cooks were dismissed
     Villagers, or villeins
     We believe our mothers to have been honest women
     When the abbot has dice in his pocket, the convent will play
     William of Nassau, Prince of Orange
     Wiser simply to satisfy himself
     Would not help to burn fifty or sixty thousand Netherlanders

MOTLEY’S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, PG EDITION, 1566-1574, Complete THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC

By John Lothrop Motley
1855

Volume 2, Book 1., 1566
1566 [Chapter viii.]

Secret policy of the government—­Berghen and Montigny in Spain—­ Debates at Segovia—­Correspondence of the Duchess with Philip—­ Procrastination and dissimulation of the King—­Secret communication to the Pope—­Effect in the provinces of the King’s letters to the government—­Secret instructions to the Duchess—­Desponding statements of Margaret—­Her misrepresentations concerning Orange, Egmont, and others—­Wrath and duplicity of Philip—­Egmont’s exertions in Flanders—­Orange returns to Antwerp—­His tolerant spirit—­Agreement of 2d September—­Horn at Tournay—­Excavations in the Cathedral—­Almost universal attendance at the preaching—­ Building of temples commenced—­Difficult position of Horn—­Preaching in the Clothiers’ Hall—­Horn recalled—­Noircarmes at Tournay—­ Friendly correspondence of Margaret with Orange, Egmont, Horn, and Hoogstraaten—­Her secret defamation of these persons.

Egmont in Flanders, Orange at Antwerp, Horn at Tournay; Hoogstraaten at Mechlin, were exerting themselves to suppress insurrection and to avert ruin.  What, meanwhile, was the policy of the government?  The secret course pursued both at Brussels and at Madrid may be condensed into the usual formula—­dissimulation, procrastination, and again dissimulation.