On his journey from the Netherlands, he is said to have boasted that he had caused eighteen thousand six hundred inhabitants of the provinces to be executed during the period of his government.  The number of those who had perished by battle, siege, starvation, and massacre, defied computation.  The Duke was well received by his royal master, and remained in favor until a new adventure of Don Frederic brought father and son into disgrace.  Having deceived and abandoned a maid of honor, he suddenly espoused his cousins in order to avoid that reparation by marriage which was demanded for his offence.  In consequence, both the Duke and Don Frederic were imprisoned and banished, nor was Alva released till a general of experience was required for the conquest of Portugal.  Thither, as it were with fetters on his legs, he went.  After having accomplished the military enterprise entrusted to him, he fell into a lingering fever, at the termination of which he was so much reduced that he was only kept alive by milk, which he drank from a woman’s breast.  Such was the gentle second childhood of the man who had almost literally been drinking blood for seventy years.  He died on the 12th December, 1582.

The preceding pages have been written in vain, if an elaborate estimate be now required of his character.  His picture has been painted, as far as possible, by his own hand.  His deeds, which are not disputed, and his written words, illustrate his nature more fully than could be done by the most eloquent pen.  No attempt has been made to exaggerate his crimes, or to extenuate his superior qualities.  Virtues he had none, unless military excellence be deemed, as by the Romans, a virtue.  In war, both as a science and a practical art, he excelled all the generals who were opposed to him in the Netherlands, and he was inferior to no commander in the world during the long and belligerent period to which his life belonged.  Louis of Nassau possessed high reputation throughout Europe as a skilful and daring General.  With raw volunteers he had overthrown an army of Spanish regulars, led by a Netherland chieftain of fame and experience; but when Alva took the field in person the scene was totally changed.  The Duke dealt him such a blow at Jemmingen as would have disheartened for ever a less indomitable champion.  Never had a defeat been more absolute.  The patriot army was dashed out of existence, almost to a man, and its leader, naked and beggared, though not disheartened, sent back into Germany to construct his force and his schemes anew.

Having thus flashed before the eyes of the country the full terrors of his name, and vindicated the ancient military renown of his nation, the Duke was at liberty to employ the consummate tactics, in which he could have given instruction to all the world, against his most formidable antagonist.  The country, paralyzed with fear, looked anxiously but supinely upon the scientific combat between the two great champions of