The Story of William the Silent and the Netherland War, 1555-1584 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
affairs Alkmaar already Alva Alva's Anjou Antwerp army beggars Berghen bishops Blood Council Brussels burghers burned cardinal Cardinal Granvelle Catholic CHAPTER church citizens command Count Louis course death declared dikes Don Frederic Don John duchess duke Duke of Alva edicts Egmont Egmont and Horn emperor enemy envoys estates executed faith fight force France garrison gate Germany Ghent governor-general Granvelle hand Harlem heart heretics Holland and Zealand holy hundred image-breaking inquisition king land letter Leyden Louis of Nassau Low Countries majesty Margaret massacre matter Meanwhile months Montigny Netherlands never night nobles Noircarmes once Parma patriot perished person Philip Prince of Orange promised Protestant provinces regent religious reply resolved royal Saint Saint Aldegonde says Motley Schouwen seemed seigniors sent siege soldiers soon sovereign Spain Spaniards stadtholder thousand tion Tournay treaty Utrecht Valenciennes Viglius William of Orange William the Silent wrote young
Popular passages
Page 355 - Ye call us rat-eaters and dog-eaters," they cried, " and it is true. So long, then, as ye hear dog bark or cat mew within the walls, ye may know that the city holds out...
Page 241 - I should go. / see well enough that I am destined to pass this life in misery and labor, with which I am well content, since it thus pleases the Omnipotent, for I know that I have merited still greater chastisement. I only implore Him graciously to send me strength to endure with patience.
Page 354 - I know that we shall starve if not soon relieved ; but starvation is preferable to the dishonored death which is the only alternative. Your menaces move me not ; my life is at your disposal ; here is my sword, plunge it into my breast, and divide my flesh among you. Take my body to appease your hunger, but expect no surrender, so long as I remain alive.
Page 202 - The scaffolds, the gallows, the funeral piles, which had been sufficient in ordinary times, furnished now an entirely inadequate machinery for the incessant executions. Columns and stakes in every street, the door-posts of private houses, the fences in the fields were laden with human carcasses, strangled, burned, beheaded. The orchards in the country bore on many a tree the hideous fruit of human bodies.
Page 360 - ... every living person within the walls, all repaired without delay to the great church, stout Admiral Boisot leading the way. The starving and heroic city, which had been so firm in its resistance to an earthly king, now bent itself in humble gratitude before the King of kings. After prayers, the whole vast congregation joined in the thanksgiving hymn. Thousands of voices raised the song, but few were able to carry it to its conclusion, for the universal emotion, deepened by the music, became too...
Page 354 - Leyden was sublime in its despair. A few murmurs were, however, occasionally heard at the steadfastness of the magistrates, and a dead body was placed at the door of the burgomaster, as a silent witness against his inflexibility. A party of the more faint-hearted even assailed the heroic Adrian van der Werf with threats and reproaches as he passed through the streets. A crowd had gathered around him, as he reached a triangular place in the...
Page 289 - see that the Word of God was preached, without, however, suffering any hindrance to the Roman Church in the exercise of its religion '; to restore fugitives and the banished for conscience sake, and to require of all magistrates and officers of guilds and brotherhoods an oath of fidelity.
Page 323 - You ask if I have entered into a firm treaty with any great king or potentate, to which I answer that before ever I took up the cause of the oppressed Christians in these provinces I had entered into a close alliance with the King of kings ; and I am firmly convinced that all who put their trust in Him shall be saved by His almighty hand.
Page 322 - If I take Alkmaar,' he wrote to Philip, ' I am resolved not to leave a single creature alive ; the knife shall be put to every throat. Since the example of Harlem has proved of no use, perhaps an example of cruelty will bring the other cities to their senses.
Page 46 - That such perturbators of the general quiet are to be executed, to wit: The men with the sword and the women to be buried alive, if they do not persist in their errors; if they do persist in them, then they are to be executed with fire; all their property in both cases being confiscated to the crown.