adopted by the council—­Wholesale executions—­ Despair in the provinces—­The resignation of Duchess Margaret accepted—­Her departure from the Netherlands—­Renewed civil war in France—­Death of Montmorency—­Auxiliary troops sent by Alva to France—­Erection of Antwerp citadel—­Description of the citadel.

The armed invasion of the Netherlands was the necessary consequence of all which had gone before.  That the inevitable result had been so long deferred lay rather in the incomprehensible tardiness of Philip’s character than in the circumstances of the case.  Never did a monarch hold so steadfastly to a deadly purpose, or proceed so languidly and with so much circumvolution to his goal.  The mask of benignity, of possible clemency, was now thrown off, but the delusion of his intended visit to the provinces was still maintained.  He assured the Regent that he should be governed by her advice, and as she had made all needful preparations to receive him in Zeland, that it would be in Zeland he should arrive.

The same two men among Philip’s advisers were prominent as at an earlier day—­the Prince of Eboli and the Duke of Alva.  They still represented entirely opposite ideas, and in character, temper, and history, each was the reverse of the other.  The policy of the Prince was pacific and temporizing; that of the Duke uncompromising and ferocious.  Ruy Gomez was disposed to prevent, if possible, the armed mission of Alva, and he now openly counselled the King to fulfil his long-deferred promise, and to make his appearance in person before his rebellious subjects.  The jealousy and hatred which existed between the Prince and the Duke—­between the man of peace and the man of wrath—­were constantly exploding, even in the presence of the King.  The wrangling in the council was incessant.  Determined, if possible; to prevent the elevation of his rival, the favorite was even for a moment disposed to ask for the command of the army himself.  There was something ludicrous in the notion, that a man whose life had been pacific, and who trembled at the noise of arms, should seek to supersede the terrible Alva, of whom his eulogists asserted, with, Castilian exaggeration, that the very name of fear inspired him with horror.  But there was a limit beyond which the influence of Anna de Mendoza and her husband did not extend.  Philip was not to be driven to the Netherlands against his will, nor to be prevented from assigning the command of the army to the most appropriate man in Europe for his purpose.

It was determined at last that the Netherland heresy should be conquered by force of arms.  The invasion resembled both a crusade against the infidel, and a treasure-hunting foray into the auriferous Indies, achievements by which Spanish chivalry had so often illustrated itself.  The banner of the cross was to be replanted upon the conquered battlements of three hundred infidel cities, and a torrent of wealth, richer than ever flowed from Mexican or Peruvian mines,