by Granvelle upon the position of the Prince—­Triumphant attitude of Alva—­Festivities at Brussels—­ Colossal statue of Alva erected by himself in Antwerp citadel—­ Intercession of the Emperor with Philip—­Memorial of six Electors to the Emperor—­Mission of the Archduke Charles to Spain—­His negotiations with Philip—­Public and private correspondence between the King and Emperor—­Duplicity of Maximilian—­Abrupt conclusion to the intervention—­Granvelle’s suggestions to Philip concerning the treaty of Passau.

The Duke having thus crushed the project of Count Bouts, and quelled the insurrection in Friesland, returned in triumph to Brussels.  Far from softened by the success of his arms, he renewed with fresh energy the butchery which, for a brief season, had been suspended during his brilliant campaign in the north.  The altars again smoked with victims; the hanging, burning, drowning, beheading, seemed destined to be the perpetual course of his administration, so long as human bodies remained on which his fanatical vengeance could be wreaked.  Four men of eminence were executed soon after his return to the capital.  They had previously suffered such intense punishment on the rack, that it was necessary to carry them to the scaffold and bind them upon chairs, that they might be beheaded.  These four sufferers were a Frisian nobleman, named Galena, the secretaries of Egmont and Horn, Bakkerzeel and La Loo, and the distinguished burgomaster of Antwerp, Antony Van Straalen.  The arrest of the three last-mentioned individuals, simultaneously with that of the two Counts, has been related in a previous chapter.  In the case of Van Straalen, the services rendered by him to the provinces during his long and honorable career, had been so remarkable, that even the Blood-Council, in sending his case to Alva for his sentence, were inspired by a humane feeling.  They felt so much compunction at the impending fate of a man who, among other meritorious acts, had furnished nearly all the funds for the brilliant campaign in Picardy, by which the opening years of Philip’s reign had been illustrated, as to hint at the propriety of a pardon.  But the recommendation to mercy, though it came from the lips of tigers, dripping with human blood, fell unheeded on the tyrant’s ear.  It seemed meet that the man who had supplied the nerves of war in that unforgiven series of triumphs, should share the fate of the hero who had won the laurels.

[Bor, Cappella, Hoofd, ubi sup.  The last words of the Burgomaster as he bowed his neck to the executioner’s stroke were, “Voor wel gedaan, kwaclyk beloud,”—­“For faithful service, evil recompense.”  —­Cappella, 232.]

Hundreds of obscure martyrs now followed in the same path to another world, where surely they deserved to find their recompense, if steadfast adherence to their faith, and a tranquil trust in God amid tortures and death too horrible to be related, had ever found favor above.  The “Red-Rod,” as the