Nevertheless, the English still partially maintained the
tactics which had proved so successful, and resolutely refused
the fierce attempts of the Spaniards to lay themselves alongside.
tactics which had proved so successful, and resolutely refused
the fierce attempts of the Spaniards to lay themselves alongside.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v18 - Mom to Old
10384 (#212) ##########################################
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JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
Berlaymont, brave, intensely loyal, insatiably greedy for office
and wages, but who at least never served but or
party; the
Duke of Arschot, who was to serve all, essay to rule all, and to
betray all, a splendid seignior, magnificent in cramoisy velvet,
but a poor creature, who traced his pedigree from Adam accord-
ing to the family monumental inscriptions at Louvain, but who
was better known as grandnephew of the Emperor's famous
tutor Chièvres; the bold, debauched Brederode, with handsome,
reckless face and turbulent demeanor; the infamous Noircarmes,
whose name was to be covered with eternal execration for
aping towards his own compatriots and kindred as much of
Alva's atrocities and avarice as he was permitted to exercise; the
distinguished soldiers Meghen and Aremberg,- these, with many
others whose deeds of arms were to become celebrated through-
out Europe, were all conspicuous in the brilliant crowd. There
too was that learned Frisian, President Viglius, crafty, plausible,
adroit, eloquent,- a small, brisk man, with long yellow hair, glit-
tering green eyes, round, tumid, rosy cheeks, and flowing beard.
Foremost among the Spanish grandees, and close to Philip, stood
the famous favorite, Ruy Gomez,- or as he was familiarly called,
"Re y Gomez" (King and Gomez),—a man of meridional aspect,
with coal-black hair and beard, gleaming eyes, a face pallid with
intense application, and slender but handsome figure; while in
immediate attendance upon the Emperor was the immortal Prince
of Orange.
←
Such were a few only of the most prominent in that gay
throng, whose fortunes in part it will be our humble duty to
narrate; how many of them passing through all this glitter to a
dark and mysterious gloom! some to perish on public scaffolds,
some by midnight assassination; others, more fortunate, to fall
on the battle-field; nearly all, sooner or later, to be laid in bloody
graves!
All the company present had risen to their feet as the Em-
peror entered. By his command, all immediately after resumed
their places. The benches at either end of the platform were
accordingly filled with the royal and princely personages invited,
- with the Fleece Knights, wearing the insignia of their order,
with the members of the three great councils, and with the
governors. The Emperor, the King, and the Queen of Hungary,
were left conspicuous in the centre of the scene. As the whole
object of the ceremony was to present an impressive exhibition,
## p. 10385 (#213) ##########################################
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
10385
it is worth our while to examine minutely the appearance of the
two principal characters.
Charles the Fifth was then fifty-five years and eight months
old; but he was already decrepit with premature old age. He
was of about the middle height, and had been athletic and well
'proportioned. Broad in the shoulders, deep in the chest, thin in
the flank, very muscular in the arms and legs, he had been able
to match himself with all competitors in the tourney and the
ring, and to vanquish the bull with his own hand in the favorite
national amusement of Spain. He had been able in the field to
do the duty of captain and soldier, to endure fatigue and expos-
ure, and every privation except fasting. These personal advan-
tages were now departed. Crippled in hands, knees, and legs,
he supported himself with difficulty upon a crutch, with the aid
of an attendant's shoulder. In face he had always been extremely
ugly, and time had certainly not improved his physiognomy. His
hair, once of a light color, was now white with age, close-clipped
and bristling; his beard was gray, coarse, and shaggy. His fore-
head was spacious and commanding; the eye was dark-blue, with
an expression both majestic and benignant. His nose was aqui-
line but crooked. The lower part of his face was famous for its
deformity. The under lip, a Burgundian inheritance, as faithfully
transmitted as the duchy and county, was heavy and hanging;
the lower jaw protruding so far beyond the upper, that it was
impossible for him to bring together the few fragments of teeth
which still remained, or to speak a whole sentence in an intel-
ligible voice. Eating and talking, occupations to which he was
always much addicted, were becoming daily more arduous in con-
sequence of this original defect; which now seemed hardly human,
but rather an original deformity.
So much for the father. The son, Philip the Second, was a
small, meagre man, much below the middle height, with thin
legs, a narrow chest, and the shrinking, timid air of a habitual
invalid. He seemed so little upon his first visit to his aunts,
the Queens Eleanor and Mary, accustomed to look upon proper
men in Flanders and Germany, that he was fain to win their
favor by making certain attempts in the tournament, in which
his success was sufficiently problematical. "His body," says his
professed panegyrist, "was but a human cage, in which, however
brief and narrow, dwelt a soul to whose flight the immeasurable
expanse of heaven was too contracted. " The same wholesale
XVIII-650
## p. 10386 (#214) ##########################################
10386
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
admirer adds that "his aspect was so reverend, that rustics who
met him alone in a wood, without knowing him, bowed down
with instinctive veneration. " In face he was the living image of
his father; having the same broad forehead and blue eye, with
the same aquiline, but better proportioned, nose. In the lower
part of the countenance the remarkable Burgundian deformity'
was likewise reproduced: he had the same heavy, hanging lip,
with a vast mouth, and monstrously protruding lower jaw. His
complexion was fair, his hair light and thin, his beard yellow,
short, and pointed. He had the aspect of a Fleming, but the
loftiness of a Spaniard. His demeanor in public was still, silent,
almost sepulchral. He looked habitually on the ground when he
conversed, was chary of speech, embarrassed and even suffering
in manner. This was ascribed partly to a natural haughtiness,
which he had occasionally endeavored to overcome, and partly to
habitual pains in the stomach, occasioned by his inordinate fond-
ness for pastry.
Such was the personal appearance of the man who was about
to receive into his single hand the destinies of half the world;
whose single will was, for the future, to shape the fortunes of
every individual then present, of many millions more in Europe,
America, and at the ends of the earth, and of countless millions
yet unborn.
The three royal personages being seated upon chairs placed
triangularly under the canopy, such of the audience as had seats.
provided for them now took their places, and the proceedings
commenced. Philibert de Bruxelles, a member of the privy coun-
cil of the Netherlands, arose at the Emperor's command, and
made a long oration. He spoke of the Emperor's warm affection
for the provinces, as the land of his birth; of his deep regret
that his broken health and failing powers, both of body and
mind, compelled him to resign his sovereignty, and to seek relief
for his shattered frame in a more genial climate. Cæsar's gout
was then depicted in energetic language, which must have cost
him a twinge as he sat there and listened to the councilor's elo-
quence. Tis a most truculent executioner," said Philibert: “it
invades the whole body, from the crown of the head to the soles
of the feet, leaving nothing untouched. It contracts the nerves
with intolerable anguish, it enters the bones, it freezes the mar-
row, it converts the lubricating fluids of the joints into chalk;
it pauses not until, having exhausted and debilitated the whole
## p. 10387 (#215) ##########################################
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
10387
body, it has rendered all its necessary instruments useless, and
conquered the mind by immense torture. " Engaged in mortal
struggle with such an enemy, Cæsar felt himself obliged, as the
councilor proceeded to inform his audience, to change the scene
of the contest from the humid air of Flanders to the warmer
atmosphere of Spain. He rejoiced, however, that his son was
both vigorous and experienced, and that his recent marriage
with the Queen of England had furnished the provinces with a
most valuable alliance. He then again referred to the Emperor's
boundless love for his subjects; and concluded with a tremen-
dous, but superfluous, exhortation to Philip on the necessity of
maintaining the Catholic religion in its purity. After this long
harangue, which has been fully reported by several historians
who were present at the ceremony, the councilor proceeded to
read the deed of cession, by which Philip, already sovereign of
Sicily, Naples, Milan, and titular king of England, France, and
Jerusalem, now received all the duchies, marquisates, earldoms,
baronies, cities, towns, and castles of the Burgundian property,
including of course the seventeen Netherlands.
As De Bruxelles finished, there was a buzz of admiration
throughout the assembly, mingled with murmurs of regret that in
the present great danger upon the frontiers, from the belliger-
ent King of France and his warlike and restless nation, the prov-
inces should be left without their ancient and puissant defender.
The Emperor then rose to his feet. Leaning on his crutch, he
beckoned from his seat the personage upon whose arm he had
leaned as he entered the hall. A tall, handsome youth of twenty-
two came forward: a man whose name from that time forward,
and as long as history shall endure, has been and will be more
familiar than any other in the mouths of Netherlanders. At that
day he had rather a southern than a German or Flemish appear-
He had a Spanish cast of features, dark, well chiseled,
and symmetrical. His head was small and well placed upon his
shoulders. His hair was dark brown, as were also his mustache
and peaked beard. His forehead was lofty, spacious, and already
prematurely engraved with the anxious lines of thought. His
eyes were full, brown, well opened, and expressive of profound
reflection. He was dressed in the magnificent apparel for which
the Netherlanders were celebrated above all other nations, and
which the ceremony rendered necessary. His presence being
considered indispensable at this great ceremony, he had been
ance.
## p. 10388 (#216) ##########################################
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JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
summoned but recently from the camp on the frontier, where,
notwithstanding his youth, the Emperor had appointed him to
command his army in chief against such antagonists as Admiral
Coligny and the Duc de Nevers.
Thus supported upon his crutch and upon the shoulder of
William of Orange, the Emperor proceeded to address the States,
by the aid of a closely written brief which he held in his hand.
He reviewed rapidly the progress of events from his seventeenth
year up to that day. He spoke of his nine expeditions into
Germany, six to Spain, seven to Italy, four to France, ten to
the Netherlands, two to England, as many to Africa, and of his
eleven voyages by sea.
He sketched his various wars, victories,
and treaties of peace; assuring his hearers that the welfare of
his subjects and the security of the Roman Catholic religion
had ever been the leading objects of his life. As long as God
had granted him health, he continued, only enemies could have
regretted that Charles was living and reigning; but now that his
strength was but vanity, and life fast ebbing away, his love for
dominion, his affection for his subjects, and his regard for their
interests, required his departure. Instead of a decrepit man with
one foot in the grave, he presented them with a sovereign in the
prime of life and the vigor of health. Turning toward Philip, he
observed that for a dying father to bequeath so magnificent an
empire to his son was a deed worthy of gratitude; but that when
the father thus descended to the grave before his time, and by an
anticipated and living burial sought to provide for the welfare of
his realms and the grandeur of his son, the benefit thus conferred
was surely far greater. He added that the debt would be paid
to him and with usury, should Philip conduct himself in his ad-
ministration of the province with a wise and affectionate regard
to their true interests. Posterity would applaud his abdication,
should his son prove worthy of his bounty; and that could only
be by living in the fear of God, and by maintaining law, justice,
and the Catholic religion in all their purity, as the true founda-
tion of the realm. In conclusion, he entreated the estates, and
through them the nation, to render obedience to their new
prince, to maintain concord, and to preserve inviolate the Catho-
lic faith; begging them, at the same time, to pardon him all
errors or offenses which he might have committed towards them
during his reign, and assuring them that he should unceasingly
remember their obedience and affection in his every prayer to
## p. 10389 (#217) ##########################################
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
10389
that Being to whom the remainder of his life was to be dedi-
cated.
Such brave words as these, so many vigorous asseverations of
attempted performance of duty, such fervent hopes expressed of
a benign administration in behalf of the son, could not but affect
the sensibilities of the audience, already excited and softened by
the impressive character of the whole display. Sobs were heard
throughout every portion of the hall, and tears poured profusely
from every eye.
The Fleece Knights on the platform and the
burghers in the background were all melted with the same emo-
tion. As for the Emperor himself, he sank almost fainting upon
his chair as he concluded his address. An ashy paleness over-
spread his countenance, and he wept like a child. Even the icy
Philip was almost softened, as he rose to perform his part in the
ceremony. Dropping upon his knees before his father's feet, he
reverently kissed his hand. Charles placed his hands solemnly
upon his son's head, made the sign of the cross, and blessed him
in the name of the Holy Trinity. Then raising him in his arms.
he tenderly embraced him, saying, as he did so, to the great
potentates around him, that he felt a sincere compassion for the
son on whose shoulders so heavy a weight had just devolved, and
which only a lifelong labor would enable him to support. Philip
now uttered a few words expressive of his duty to his father
and his affection for his people. Turning to the orders, he signi-
fied his regret that he was unable to address them either in
the French or Flemish language, and was therefore obliged to
ask their attention to the Bishop of Arras, who would act as his
interpreter. Antony Perrenot accordingly arose, and in smooth,
fluent, and well-turned commonplaces, expressed at great length
the gratitude of Philip towards his father, with his firm deter-
mination to walk in the path of duty, and to obey his father's
counsels and example in the future administration of the prov-
inces. This long address of the prelate was responded to at
equal length by Jacob Maas, member of the Council of Brabant,
a man of great learning, eloquence, and prolixity; who had been
selected to reply on behalf of the States-General, and who now,
in the name of these bodies, accepted the abdication in an ele-
gant and complimentary harangue. Queen Mary of Hungary—the
"Christian widow" of Erasmus, and Regent of the Netherlands
during the past twenty-five years - then rose to resign her office,
making a brief address expressive of her affection for the people,
## p. 10390 (#218) ##########################################
10390
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
her regrets at leaving them, and her hopes that all errors which
she might have committed during her long administration would
be forgiven her. Again the redundant Maas responded, asserting
in terms of fresh compliment and elegance the uniform satisfac-
tion of the provinces with her conduct during her whole career.
The orations and replies having now been brought to a close,
the ceremony was terminated. The Emperor, leaning on the
shoulders of the Prince of Orange and of the Count de Buren,
slowly left the hall, followed by Philip, the Queen of Hungary,
and the whole court; all in the same order in which they had
entered, and by the same passage into the chapel.
THE SPANISH ARMADA APPROACHES ENGLAND
From the History of the United Netherlands. Copyright 1860, by John
Lothrop Motley. Reprinted by permission of Harper & Brothers
THE
HE blaze and smoke of ten thousand beacon-fires, from the
Land's End to Margate, and from the Isle of Wight to
Cumberland, gave warning to every Englishman that the
enemy was at last upon them. Almost at that very instant,
intelligence had been brought from the court to the Lord Admi-
ral at Plymouth that the Armada, dispersed and shattered by
the gales of June, was not likely to make its appearance that
year; and orders had consequently been given to disarm the four
largest ships and send them into dock. Even Walsingham, as
already stated, had participated in this strange delusion.
Before Howard had time to act upon this ill-timed suggestion,
even had he been disposed to do so, he received authentic
intelligence that the great fleet was off the Lizard. Neither he
nor Francis Drake were the men to lose time in such an emer-
gency; and before that Friday night was spent, sixty of the best
English ships had been warped out of Plymouth harbor.
On Saturday, 30th July, the wind was very light at southwest,
with a mist and drizzling rain; but by three in the afternoon.
the two fleets could descry and count each other through the
haze.
-
By nine o'clock, 31st July, about two miles from Looe on the
Cornish coast, the fleets had their first meeting. There were one
hundred and thirty-six sail of the Spaniards, of which ninety
## p. 10391 (#219) ##########################################
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
10391
were large ships; and sixty-seven of the English. It was a sol-
emn moment. The long-expected Armada presented a pompous,
almost a theatrical appearance. The ships seemed arranged for
a pageant, in honor of a victory already won. Disposed in form
of a crescent, the horns of which were seven miles asunder, those
gilded, towered, floating castles, with their gaudy standards and
their martial music, moved slowly along the channel, with an air
of indolent pomp.
Their captain-general, the golden duke, stood
in his private shot-proof fortress, on the deck of his great galleon
the St. Martin, surrounded by generals of infantry and colonels
of cavalry, who knew as little as he did himself of naval matters.
The English vessels, on the other hand, with a few exceptions
light, swift, and easily handled,- could sail round and round
those unwieldy galleons, hulks, and galleys rowed by fettered
slave gangs.
The superior seamanship of free Englishmen, com-
manded by such experienced captains as Drake, Frobisher, and
Hawkins, from infancy at home on blue water, was manifest
in the very first encounter. They obtained the weather-gage
at once, and cannonaded the enemy at intervals with considera-
ble effect; easily escaping at will out of range of the sluggish
Armada, which was incapable of bearing sail in pursuit, although
provided with an armament which could sink all its enemies at
close quarters.
"We had some small fight with them that Sun-
day afternoon," said Hawkins.
-
―――――――――
Medina Sidonia hoisted the royal standard at the fore; and
the whole fleet did its utmost, which was little, to offer general
battle. It was in vain. The English, following at the heels
of the enemy, refused all such invitations, and attacked only the
rear-guard of the Armada, where Recalde commanded. That
admiral, steadily maintaining his post, faced his nimble antago-
nists, who continued to tease, to maltreat, and to elude him, while
the rest of the fleet proceeded slowly up the Channel closely
followed by the enemy. And thus the running fight continued
along the coast, in full view of Plymouth, whence boats with
reinforcements and volunteers were perpetually arriving to the
English ships, until the battle had drifted quite out of reach of
the town.
Already in this first "small fight" the Spaniards had learned
a lesson, and might even entertain a doubt of their invincibility.
But before the sun set there were more serious disasters. Much
powder and shot had been expended by the Spaniard to very little
## p. 10392 (#220) ##########################################
10392
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
purpose, and so a master-gunner on board Admiral Oquendo's
flag-ship was reprimanded for careless ball-practice. The gunner,
who was a Fleming, enraged with his captain, laid a train to the
powder-magazine, fired it, and threw himself into the sea. Two
decks blew up. The great castle at the stern rose into clouds,
carrying with it the paymaster-general of the fleet, a large por-
tion of treasure, and nearly two hundred men. The ship was a
wreck, but it was possible to save the rest of the crew. So
Medina Sidonia sent light vessels to remove them, and wore with
his flag-ship to defend Oquendo, who had already been fastened
upon by his English pursuers. But the Spaniards, not being
so light in hand as their enemies, involved themselves in much
embarrassment by this manoeuvre; and there was much falling
foul of each other, entanglement of rigging, and carrying away
of yards. Oquendo's men, however, were ultimately saved and
taken to other ships.
Meantime Don Pedro de Valdez, commander of the Andalusian
squadron, having got his galleon into collision with two or three
Spanish ships successively, had at last carried away his fore-mast
close to the deck, and the wreck had fallen against his main-
mast. He lay crippled and helpless, the Armada was slowly
deserting him, night was coming on, the sea was running high,
and the English, ever hovering near, were ready to grapple with
him. In vain did Don Pedro fire signals of distress. The captain-
general-even as though the unlucky galleon had not been con-
nected with the Catholic fleet-calmly fired a gun to collect his
scattered ships, and abandoned Valdez to his fate. "He left me
comfortless in sight of the whole fleet," said poor Pedro; "and
greater inhumanity and unthankfulness I think was never heard
of among men. "
Yet the Spaniard comported himself most gallantly. Frobisher,
in the largest ship of the English fleet, the Triumph of eleven
hundred tons, and Hawkins in the Victory of eight hundred,
cannonaded him at a distance, but night coming on, he was able
to resist; and it was not till the following morning that he sur-
rendered to the Revenge.
Drake then received the gallant prisoner on board his flag-
ship, much to the disgust and indignation of Frobisher and
Hawkins, thus disappointed of their prize and ransom money,-
treated him with much courtesy, and gave his word of honor that
he and his men should be treated fairly like good prisoners
## p. 10393 (#221) ##########################################
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
10393
of war.
This pledge was redeemed; for it was not the English,
as it was the Spanish custom, to convert captives into slaves,
but only to hold them for ransom. Valdez responded to Drake's
politeness by kissing his hand, embracing him, and overpowering
him with magnificent compliments. He was then sent on board
the Lord Admiral, who received him with similar urbanity, and
expressed his regret that so distinguished a personage should
have been so coolly deserted by the Duke of Medina. Don Pedro
then returned to the Revenge, where, as the guest of Drake, he
was a witness to all subsequent events up to the 10th of August;
on which day he was sent to London with some other officers,
Sir Francis claiming his ransom as his lawful due.
Here certainly was no very triumphant beginning for the
Invincible Armada. On the very first day of their being in pres-
ence of the English fleet-then but sixty-seven in number, and
vastly their inferior in size and weight of metal-they had lost
the flag-ships of the Guipuzcoan and of the Andalusian squad-
rons, with a general-admiral, four hundred and fifty officers and
men, and some one hundred thousand ducats of treasure. They
had been outmanœuvred, outsailed, and thoroughly maltreated by
their antagonists, and they had been unable to inflict a single
blow in return. Thus the "small fight" had been a cheerful one
for the opponents of the Inquisition, and the English were pro-
portionally encouraged.
Never, since England was England, had such a sight been seen
as now revealed itself in those narrow straits between Dover and
Calais. Along that long, low, sandy shore, and quite within the
range of the Calais fortifications, one hundred and thirty Spanish
ships-the greater number of them the largest and most heavily
armed in the world—lay face to face, and scarcely out of cannon-
shot, with one hundred and fifty English sloops and frigates, the
strongest and swiftest that the island could furnish, and com-
manded by men whose exploits had rung through the world.
Farther along the coast, invisible, but known to be performing
a most perilous and vital service, was a squadron of Dutch ves-
sels of all sizes, lining both the inner and outer edges of the
sandbanks off the Flemish coasts, and swarming in all the estu-
aries and inlets of that intricate and dangerous cruising-ground
between Dunkirk and Walcheren. Those fleets of Holland and
Zeeland, numbering some one hundred and fifty galleons, sloops,
and fly-boats, under Warmond, Nassau, Van der Does, De Moor,
## p. 10394 (#222) ##########################################
10394
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
and Rosendael, lay patiently blockading every possible egress
from Newport, or Gravelines, or Sluys, or Flushing, or Dunkirk;
and longing to grapple with the Duke of Parma, so soon as his
fleet of gunboats and hoys, packed with his Spanish and Italian
veterans, should venture to set forth upon the sea for their long-
prepared exploit.
narrow seas.
It was a pompous spectacle that midsummer night, upon those
The moon, which was at the full, was rising calmly
upon a scene of anxious expectation. Would she not be looking,
by the morrow's night, upon a subjugated England, a re-enslaved
Holland-upon the downfall of civil and religious liberty? Those
ships of Spain, which lay there with their banners waving in the
moonlight, discharging salvos of anticipated triumph and filling
the air with strains of insolent music-would they not, by day-
break, be moving straight to their purpose, bearing the conquer-
ors of the world to the scene of their cherished hopes?
That English fleet, too, which rode there at anchor, so anx-
iously on the watch - would that swarm of nimble, lightly han-
dled, but slender vessels, which had held their own hitherto in
hurried and desultory skirmishes, be able to cope with their great
antagonist, now that the moment had arrived for the death grap-
ple? Would not Howard, Drake, Frobisher, Seymour, Winter,
and Hawkins be swept out of the straits at last, yielding an
open passage to Medina, Oquendo, Recalde, and Farnese? Would
those Hollanders and Zeelanders cruising so vigilantly among
their treacherous shallows dare to maintain their post, now that
the terrible "Holofernes," with his invincible legions, was re-
solved to come forth?
And the impatience of the soldiers and sailors on board the
fleet was equal to that of their commanders. There was London
almost before their eyes,- a huge mass of treasure, richer and
more accessible than those mines beyond the Atlantic which had
so often rewarded Spanish chivalry with fabulous wealth. And
there were men in those galleons who remembered the sack of
Antwerp eleven years before; men who could tell, from per-
sonal experience, how helpless was a great commercial city when
once in the clutch of disciplined brigands; men who in that
dread "fury of Antwerp" had enriched themselves in an hour
with the accumulations of a merchant's lifetime, and who had
slain fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, brides and bride-
grooms, before each other's eyes, until the number of inhabitants
-
## p. 10395 (#223) ##########################################
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
10395
butchered in the blazing streets rose to many thousands, and
the plunder from palaces and warehouses was counted by millions,
before the sun had set on the "great fury. " Those Spaniards,
and Italians, and Walloons were now thirsting for more gold,
for more blood; and as the capital of England was even more
wealthy and far more defenseless than the commercial metropolis
of the Netherlands had been, so it was resolved that the London
"fury" should be more thorough and more productive than the
"fury of Antwerp," at the memory of which the world still shud-
dered. And these professional soldiers had been taught to con-
sider the English as a pacific, delicate, effeminate race; dependent
on good living, without experience of war, quickly fatigued and
discouraged, and even more easily to be plundered and butchered
than were the excellent burghers of Antwerp.
And so these southern conquerors looked down from their
great galleons and galeasses upon the English vessels. More than
three quarters of them were merchantmen. There was no com-
parison whatever between the relative strength of the fleets. In
number they were about equal, being each from one hundred
and thirty to one hundred and fifty strong; but the Spaniards
had twice the tonnage of the English, four times the artillery,
and nearly three times the number of men.
As the twilight deepened, the moon became totally obscured,
dark cloud masses spread over the heavens, the sea grew black,
distant thunder rolled, and the sob of an approaching tempest
became distinctly audible. Such indications of a westerly gale
were not encouraging to those cumbrous vessels, with the treach-
erous quicksands of Flanders under their lee.
At an hour past midnight, it was so dark that it was difficult
for the most practiced eye to pierce far into the gloom.
But a
faint drip of oars now struck the ears of the Spaniards as they
watched from the decks. A few moments afterwards the sea
became suddenly luminous; and six flaming vessels appeared at
a slight distance, bearing steadily down upon them before the
wind and tide.
There were men in the Armada who had been at the siege
of Antwerp only three years before. They remembered with hor-
ror the devil-ships of Gianibelli,- those floating volcanoes which
had seemed to rend earth and ocean, whose explosion had laid so
many thousands of soldiers dead at a blow, and which had shat-
tered the bridge and floating forts of Farnese as though they had
## p. 10396 (#224) ##########################################
* 10396
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
been toys of glass.
at that moment in
In a moment one of those horrible panics which spread
with such contagious rapidity among large bodies of men, seized
upon the Spaniards. There was a yell throughout the fleet —
"The fireships of Antwerp! the fire-ships of Antwerp! " and in
an instant every cable was cut, and frantic attempts were made
by each galleon and galeasse to escape what seemed imminent
destruction. The confusion was beyond description. Four or five
of the largest ships became entangled with each other. Two oth-
ers were set on fire by the flaming vessels and were consumed.
Medina Sidonia, who had been warned, even before his departure
from Spain, that some such artifice would probably be attempted,
and who had even, early that morning, sent out a party of sailors
in a pinnace to search for indications of the scheme, was not sur-
prised or dismayed. He gave orders as well as might be — that
every ship, after the danger should be passed, was to return to
its post and await his further orders. But it was useless in that
moment of unreasonable panic to issue commands. The despised
Mantuan,. who had met with so many rebuffs at Philip's court,
and who owing to official incredulity-had been but partially
successful in his magnificent enterprise at Antwerp, had now, by
the mere terror of his name, inflicted more damage on Philip's
Armada than had hitherto been accomplished by Howard and
Drake, Hawkins and Frobisher combined.
They knew too that the famous engineer was
England.
――――
So long as night and darkness lasted, the confusion and up-
roar continued. When the Monday morning dawned, several of
the Spanish vessels lay disabled, while the rest of the fleet was
seen at a distance of two leagues from Calais, driving towards
the Flemish coast. The threatened gale had not yet begun to
blow; but there were fresh squalls from the W. S. W. , which, to
such awkward sailors as the Spanish vessels, were difficult to con-
tend with. On the other hand, the English fleet were all astir,
and ready to pursue the Spaniards, now rapidly drifting into the
North Sea.
## p. 10397 (#225) ##########################################
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
10397
THE ARMADA DESTROYED
From the History of the United Netherlands >
THE
HE battle lasted six hours long, hot and furious; for now there
was no excuse for retreat on the part of the Spaniards,
but on the contrary, it was the intention of the captain-
general to return to his station off Calais, if it were within his
power.
Nevertheless, the English still partially maintained the
tactics which had proved so successful, and resolutely refused
the fierce attempts of the Spaniards to lay themselves alongside.
Keeping within musket-range, the well-disciplined English mari-
ners poured broadside after broadside against the towering ships
of the Armada which afforded so easy a mark; while the Span-
iards on their part found it impossible, while wasting incredible
quantities of powder and shot, to inflict any severe damage on
their enemies. Throughout the action, not an English ship was
destroyed, and not a hundred men were killed. On the other
hand, all the best ships of the Spaniards were riddled through
and through; and with masts and yards shattered, sails and rig-
ging torn to shreds, and a northwest wind still drifting them
towards the fatal sandbanks of Holland, they labored heavily
in a chopping sea, firing wildly, and receiving tremendous pun-
ishment at the hands of Howard, Drake, Seymour, Winter, and
their followers. Not even master-gunner Thomas could complain
that day of "blind exercise " on the part of the English, with
"little harm done" to the enemy. There was scarcely a ship
in the Armada that did not suffer severely; for nearly all were
engaged in that memorable action off the sands of Gravelines.
The captain-general himself, Admiral Recalde, Alonzo de Leyva,
Oquendo, Diego Flores de Valdez, Bertendona, Don Francisco
de Toledo, Don Diego de Pimentel, Telles Enriquez, Alonzo de
Luzon, Garibay, with most of the great galleons and galeasses,
were in the thickest of the fight; and one after the other each of
these huge ships were disabled. Three sank before the fight was
over; many others were soon drifting helpless wrecks towards a
hostile shore; and before five o'clock in the afternoon, at least
sixteen of their best ships had been sacrificed, and from four to
five thousand soldiers killed.
Nearly all the largest vessels of the Armada, therefore, having
been disabled or damaged,- according to a Spanish eye-witness,-
## p. 10398 (#226) ##########################################
10398
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
and all their small shot exhausted, Medina Sidonia reluctantly
gave orders to retreat. The captain-general was a bad sailor;
but he was a chivalrous Spaniard of ancient Gothic blood, and
he felt deep mortification at the plight of his invincible fleet,
together with undisguised resentment against Alexander Farnese,
through whose treachery and incapacity he considered the great
Catholic cause to have been so foully sacrificed. Crippled, mal-
treated, and diminished in number as were his ships, he would
have still faced the enemy, but the winds and currents were fast
driving him on a lee-shore; and the pilots, one and all, assured
him that it would be inevitable destruction to remain. After
a slight and very ineffectual attempt to rescue Don Diego de
Pimentel in the St. Matthew-who refused to leave his disabled
ship- and Don Francisco de Toledo, whose great galleon the St.
Philip was fast driving, a helpless wreck, towards Zeeland, the
Armada bore away N. N. E. into the open sea, leaving those who
could not follow, to their fate.
But Howard decided to wrestle no further pull. Having
followed the Spaniards till Friday, 12th of August, as far as
the latitude of 56° 17', the Lord Admiral called a council. It was
then decided, in order to save English lives and ships, to put
into the Frith of Forth for water and provisions, leaving two
"pinnaces to dog the fleet until it should be past the Isles of
Scotland. " But the next day, as the wind shifted to the north-
west, another council decided to take advantage of the change,
and bear away for the North Foreland, in order to obtain a sup-
ply of powder, shot, and provisions.
Up to this period the weather, though occasionally threaten-
ing, had been moderate. During the week which succeeded the
eventful night off Calais, neither the Armada nor the English
ships had been much impeded in their manœuvres by storms or
heavy seas. But on the following Sunday, 14th of August, there
was a change. The wind shifted again to the southwest; and
during the whole of that day and the Monday, blew a tremen-
dous gale.
"Twas a more violent storm," said Howard, «< than
was ever seen before at this time of the year. " The retreat-
ing English fleet was scattered, many ships were in peril " among
the ill-favored sands off Norfolk," but within four or five days
all arrived safely in Margate roads.
Far different was the fate of the Spaniards. Over their In-
vincible Armada, last seen by the departing English midway
## p. 10399 (#227) ##########################################
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
10399
between the coasts of Scotland and Denmark, the blackness of
night seemed suddenly to descend. A mystery hung for a long
time over their fate. Damaged, leaking, without pilots, without a
competent commander, the great fleet entered that furious storm,
and was whirled along the iron crags of Norway, and between
the savage rocks of Faröe and the Hebrides. In those regions
of tempest the insulted North wreaked its full vengeance on the
insolent Spaniards. Disaster after disaster marked their perilous
track, gale after gale swept them hither and thither, tossing them
on sandbanks or shattering them against granite cliffs. The
coasts of Norway, Scotland, Ireland, were strewn with the wrecks
of that pompous fleet which claimed the dominion of the seas;
with the bones of those invincible legions which were to have
sacked London and made England a Spanish viceroyalty.
Through the remainder of the month of August there was
a succession of storms. On the 2d of September a fierce south-
wester drove Admiral Oquendo in his galleon, together with one
of the great galeasses, two large Venetian ships (the Ratta and
the Balauzara), and thirty-six other vessels, upon the Irish coast,
where nearly every soul on board perished; while the few who
escaped to the shore-notwithstanding their religious affinity
with the inhabitants—were either butchered in cold blood, or sent
coupled in halters from village to village, in order to be shipped
to England. A few ships were driven on the English coast;
others went ashore near Rochelle.
Of the four galeasses and four galleys, one of each returned
to Spain. Of the ninety-one great galleons and hulks, fifty-eight
were lost and thirty-three returned. Of the tenders and zabras,
seventeen were lost and eighteen returned. Of one hundred and
thirty-four vessels which sailed from Coruña in July, but fifty-
three, great and small, made their escape to Spain; and these
were so damaged as to be utterly worthless. The Invincible
Armada had not only been vanquished but annihilated.
Of the thirty thousand men who sailed in the fleet, it is prob-
able that not more than ten thousand ever saw their native land
again. Most of the leaders of the expedition lost their lives.
Medina Sidonia reached Santander in October, and as Philip for a
moment believed, "with the greater part of the Armada," although
the King soon discovered his mistake. Recalde, Diego Flores de
Valdez, Oquendo, Maldonado, Bobadilla, Manriquez, either per-
ished at sea, or died of exhaustion immediately after their return.
## p. 10400 (#228) ##########################################
10400
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
Pedro de Valdez, Vasco de Silva, Alonzo de Sayas, Pimentel,
Toledo, with many other nobles, were prisoners in England and
Holland. There was hardly a distinguished family in Spain not
placed in mourning; so that, to relieve the universal gloom, an
edict was published forbidding the wearing of mourning at all.
On the other hand, a merchant of Lisbon, not yet reconciled
to the Spanish conquest of his country, permitted himself some
tokens of hilarity at the defeat of the Armada, and was immedi-
ately hanged by express command of Philip. Thus-as men said
-one could neither cry nor laugh within the Spanish dominions.
This was the result of the invasion, so many years prepa
and at an expense almost incalculable. In the year 1588 alone,
the cost of Philip's armaments for the subjugation of England
could not have been less than six millions of ducats; and there
was at least as large a sum on board the Armada itself, although
the Pope refused to pay his promised million. And with all this
outlay, and with the sacrifice of so many thousand lives, nothing
had been accomplished; and Spain, in a moment, instead of seem-
ing terrible to all the world, had become ridiculous.
THE FATE OF JOHN OF BARNEVELD
From the Life and Death of John of Barneveld. Copyright 1874, by John
Lothrop Motley. Reprinted by permission of Harper & Brothers
B
ARNEVELD was about to enter the judges' chamber as usual,
but was informed that the sentence would be read in the
great hall of judicature. They descended accordingly to
the basement story, and passed down the narrow flight of steps
which then as now connected the more modern structure, where
the Advocate had been imprisoned and tried, with what remained
of the ancient palace of the Counts of Holland. In the centre of
the vast hall once the banqueting chamber of those petty sov
ereigns, with its high vaulted roof of cedar which had so often in
ancient days rung with the sounds of mirth and revelry — was a
great table at which the twenty-four judges and the three prose-
cuting officers were seated, in their black caps and gowns of
office. The room was lined with soldiers, and crowded with a dark
surging mass of spectators, who had been waiting there all night.
A chair was placed for the prisoner. He sat down, and the
clerk of the commission, Pots by name, proceeded at once to read
## p. 10401 (#229) ##########################################
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
10401
the sentence. A summary of this long, rambling, and tiresome
paper has been already laid before the reader. If ever a man
could have found it tedious to listen to his own death sentence,
the great statesman might have been in that condition as he
listened to Secretary Pots.
During the reading of the sentence the Advocate moved
uneasily on his seat, and seemed about to interrupt the clerk
at several passages which seemed to him especially preposterous.
But he controlled himself by a strong effort, and the clerk went
steadily on to the conclusion.
Then Barneveld said:
"The judges have put down many things which they have no
right to draw from my confession. Let this protest be added. "
"I thought too," he continued, "that my lords the States-
General would have had enough in my life and blood, and that
my wife and children might keep what belongs to them. Is this
my recompense for forty-three years' service to these provinces ? »
President de Voogd rose:
"Your sentence has been pronounced," he said. "Away!
away! " So saying, he pointed to the door into which one of
the great windows at the southeastern front of the hall had been
converted.
Without another word the old man rose from his chair. and
strode, leaning on his staff, across the hall, accompanied by his
faithful valet and the provost, and escorted by a file of soldiers.
The mob of spectators flowed out after him at every door into
the inner court-yard in front of the ancient palace.
IN THE beautiful village-capital of the "Count's Park," com-
monly called The Hague, the most striking and picturesque spot
then as now was that where the transformed remains of the old
moated castle of those feudal sovereigns were still to be seen. A
three-storied range of simple, substantial buildings, in brown
brickwork picked out with white stone, in a style since made
familiar both in England and America, and associated with a
somewhat later epoch in the history of the House of Orange,
surrounded three sides of a spacious inner paved quadrangle
called the Inner Court, the fourth or eastern side being over-
shadowed by a beechen grove. A square tower flanked each
angle; and on both sides of the southwestern turret extended the
commodious apartments of the Stadtholder. The great gateway
XVIII-651
## p. 10402 (#230) ##########################################
10402
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
on the southwest opened into a wide open space called the Outer
Court-yard. Along the northwest side a broad and beautiful sheet
of water, in which the walls, turrets, and chapel-spires of the
inclosed castle mirrored themselves, was spread between the mass
of buildings and an umbrageous promenade called the Vyverberg,
consisting of a sextuple alley of lime-trees, and embowering here
and there a stately villa. A small island, fringed with weeping
willows, and tufted all over with lilacs, laburnums, and other
shrubs then in full flower, lay in the centre of the miniature lake;
and the tall solid tower of the Great Church, surmounted by a
light openwork spire, looked down from a little distance over the
scene.
It was a bright morning in May. The white swans were
sailing tranquilly to and fro over the silver basin; and the mavis,
blackbird, and nightingale, which haunted the groves surround-
ing the castle and the town, were singing as if the daybreak
were ushering in a summer festival.
But it was not to a merry-making that the soldiers were
marching, and the citizens thronging so eagerly from every
street and alley towards the castle. By four o'clock the Outer
and Inner Courts had been lined with detachments of the
Prince's Guard, and companies of other regiments to the num-
ber of twelve hundred men. Occupying the northeastern side of
the court rose the grim, time-worn front of the ancient hall,
consisting of one tall pyramidal gable of ancient gray brickwork
flanked with two tall slender towers; the whole with the lancet-
shaped windows and severe style of the twelfth century, except-
ing a rose-window in the centre, with the decorated mullions of
a somewhat later period.
In front of the lower window, with its Gothic archway hastily
converted into a door, a shapeless platform of rough, unhewn
planks had that night been rudely patched together. This was
the scaffold. A slight railing around it served to protect it from
the crowd, and a heap of coarse sand had been thrown upon it.
A squalid, unclean box of unplaned boards, originally prepared as
a coffin for a Frenchman,- who some time before had been con-
demned to death for murdering the son of Goswyn Meurskens,
a Hague tavern-keeper, but pardoned by the Stadtholder, - lay
on the scaffold. It was recognized from having been left for
a long time, half forgotten, at the public execution place of The
Hague.
## p. 10403 (#231) ##########################################
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
10403
Upon this coffin now sat two common soldiers of ruffianly
aspect playing at dice, betting whether the Lord or the Devil
would get the soul of Barneveld. Many a foul and ribald jest
at the expense of the prisoner was exchanged between these
gamblers, some of their comrades, and a few townsmen who
were grouped about at that early hour. The horrible libels,
caricatures, and calumnies which had been circulated, exhibited,
and sung in all the streets for so many months, had at last
thoroughly poisoned the minds of the vulgar against the fallen
statesman.
The great mass of the spectators had forced their way by
daybreak into the hall itself to hear the sentence, so that the
Inner Court-yard had remained comparatively empty.
At last, at half-past nine o'clock, a shout arose, "There he
comes! there he comes! " and the populace flowed out from the
hall of judgment into the court-yard like a tidal wave.
In an instant the Binnenhof was filled with more than three
thousand spectators.
The old statesman, leaning on his staff, walked out upon the
scaffold and calmly surveyed the scene. Lifting his eyes to
heaven, he was heard to murmur, "O God! what does man
come to! " Then he said bitterly once more, «This, then, is the
reward of forty years' service to the State! "
La Motte, who attended him, said fervently: "It is no longer
time to think of this. Let us prepare your coming before God. "
"Is there no cushion or stool to kneel upon? " said Barneveld,
looking around him.
The provost said he would send for one; but the old man
knelt at once on the bare planks. His servant, who waited upon
him as calmly and composedly as if he had been serving him.
at dinner, held him by the arm. It was remarked that neither
master nor man, true stoics and Hollanders both, shed a single
tear upon the scaffold.
La Motte prayed for a quarter of an hour, the Advocate re-
maining on his knees.
He then rose and said to John Franken, "See that he does
not come near me," pointing to the executioner, who stood in
the background grasping his long double-handed sword. Barne-
veld then rapidly unbuttoned his doublet with his own hands,
and the valet helped him off with it. "Make haste! make
haste! " said his master.
## p. 10404 (#232) ##########################################
10404
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
The statesman then came forward, and said in a loud, firm
voice to the people:-
"Men, do not believe that I am a traitor to the country. I
have ever acted uprightly and loyally as a good patriot, and as
such I shall die. "
The crowd was perfectly silent.
He then took his cap from John Franken, drew it over his
eyes, and went forward towards the sand, saying:-
"Christ shall be my guide. O Lord, my Heavenly Father,
receive my spirit. "
As he was about to kneel with his face to the south, the
provost said:-
"My lord will be pleased to move to the other side, not
where the sun is in his face. "
He knelt accordingly with his face towards his own house.
The servant took farewell of him, and Barneveld said to the
executioner:
"Be quick about it. Be quick. "
The executioner then struck his head off at a single blow.
Many persons from the crowd now sprang, in spite of all
opposition, upon the scaffold, and dipped their handkerchiefs in
his blood, cut wet splinters from the boards, or grubbed up the
sand that was steeped in it; driving many bargains afterwards for
these relics to be treasured, with various feelings of sorrow, joy,
glutted or expiated vengeance.
It has been recorded, and has been constantly repeated to
this day, that the Stadtholder, whose windows exactly faced the
scaffold, looked out upon the execution with a spy-glass; saying
as he did so:-
"See the old scoundrel, how he trembles! He is afraid of the
stroke. "
But this is calumny. Colonel Hauterive declared that he was
with Maurice in his cabinet during the whole period of the exe-
cution; that by order of the prince all the windows and shutters
were kept closed; that no person wearing his livery was allowed
to be abroad; that he anxiously received messages as to the pro-
ceedings, and heard of the final catastrophe with sorrowful emo-
tion.
## p. 10405 (#233) ##########################################
10405
JOHN MUIR
(1836-)
OHN MUIR, an explorer and naturalist, whose field of work has
been particularly the western and northwestern mountain
regions of America, - where at least one great glacier now
bears his name,- - was born at Dunbar, Scotland, in 1836. With his
parents and a large flock of brothers and sisters, he came to the
United States in 1850, after some good common-schooling in Dunbar.
He began his study of nature in the region near Fort Winnebago,
Wisconsin, with an ever increasing interest and delight in whatever
belongs to the world of creatures, plants,
and stones, particularly in the waving soli-
tudes of forests and rock-and-snow tracts of
the northwestern Sierras.
Muir's freedom to devote himself to a
life of observation and record was delayed:
and in the story of his years of manual
work as a farmer, mechanic, lumberman,
sheep-herder, and what not besides, there
comes surprise at his power to find time
and energy for other pursuits in the nature
of an avocation; and with the surprise we
have a sense of pleasure that a man of
untiring muscles and mind could win free
of all that checked his natural preferences.
He studied grammar and mathematics while a farm hand, and read
through a library of books when in the fields. He earned enough as
a young man to give himself four years of special scientific study
in the University of Wisconsin. Then began an independent life,
in which he alternated seasons of hard work, wholly or much alone;
partly through the circumstances of his wanderings, partly by his
own choice. It is said that during ten years of mountaineering in the
remoter Sierras, he met no men except one band of Mono tribesmen.
JOHN MUIR
For some ten summers and winters prior to 1876, Mr. Muir was
settled near the Yosemite district. In the year named he became a
member of the Geodetic Survey of the Great Basin, and attempted
much botanical work. During 1879 and subsequently, after he reached
Alaska, he explored and charted its vast mountain ranges, discovered
## p. 10406 (#234) ##########################################
10406
JOHN MUIR
Glacier Bay and the Muir Glacier system; and with that expedition and
the two succeeding tours he became the foremost authority on Alas-
ka's geologic and other natural aspects. He also visited the Yukon
and Mackenzie Rivers, and traversed the cañon country of California.
He was of the party on board the Corwin in 1881, sent out to trace
the lost Jeannette, which enterprise added largely to his sketches.
and notes for scientific use. Since 1879, the year of his marriage,
Mr. Muir has had his home in California; but to find him in it at
other than a given time, is somewhat an accident, so indefatigable
is his industry as a naturalist. He is as ready to-day for an alpine
excursion of weeks or months as in the early period of a naturalistic
career exceptionally arduous and fruitful.
Mr. Muir has written much less than his explorations would
suggest: but as a contributor to the highest class of American and
foreign periodicals, and the author of volumes dealing with his expe-
riences, impressions, and discoveries, he is a writer of distinct and
unusual individuality. He is less a man of letters in his manner than
he is the direct, graphic, and sincere observer, whose aim is to write
down simply what he sees or feels, to ut the reader in the quickest
and closest touch with a topic or a scene. But the simplicity and
personal effect of his style give it a peculiar vigor and eloquence.
He has been spoken of as a naturalist whose observations "have the
force of mathematical demonstration. " In the study of glacial con-
ditions, botanic life, the fauna of the Northwest, and kindred subjects,
he is reckoned a specialist by the first scientists of the day; and his
personal traits have won him the esteem of the army of scientists
who have visited the Western country where he lives and works.
His most popular volume, 'The Mountains of California,' promises
to become a classic; his editorial contributions in Picturesque Cali-
fornia are thoroughly effective; and he has won wide favor through
descriptive pages, splendid for spontaneous and vivid prose pictures
of great scenery,— studies of the wind's movement of a pine forest,
or a delicate flower of California, or a wild-bird's lonely nest.
A WIND-STORM IN THE FORESTS
From The Mountains of California. Copyright 1894, by The Century
Company
THE
HE mountain winds, like the dew and rain, sunshine and snow,
are measured and bestowed with love on the forests, to
develop their strength and beauty. However restricted the
scope of other forest influences, that of the winds is universal.
The snow bends and trims the upper forests every winter, the
## p. 10407 (#235) ##########################################
JOHN MUIR
10407
lightning strikes a single tree here and there, while avalanches
mow down thousands at a swoop as a gardener trims out a bed
of flowers. But the winds go to every tree, fingering every leaf
and branch and furrowed bole; not one is forgotten: the Mount-
ain Pine towering with outstretched arms on the rugged but-
tresses of the icy peaks, the lowliest and most retiring tenant of
the dells, they seek and find them all, caressing them tenderly,
bending them in lusty exercise, stimulating their growth, pluck-
ing off a leaf or limb as required, or removing an entire tree or
grove, now whispering and cooing through the branches like a
sleepy child, now roaring like the ocean; the winds blessing the
forests, the forests the winds, with ineffable beauty and harmony
as the sure result.
-
After one has seen pines six feet in diameter bending like
grasses before a mountain gale, and ever and anon some giant
falling with a crash that shakes the hills, it seems astonishing
that any, save the lowest thick-set trees, could ever have found
a period sufficiently stormless to establish themselves; or once
established, that they should not sooner or later have been blown
down. But when the storm is over, and we behold the same
forests tranquil again, towering fresh and unscathed in erect
majesty, and consider what centuries of storms have fallen upon
them since they were first planted: hail, to break the tender
seedlings; lightning, to scorch and shatter; snow, winds, and
avalanches, to crush and overwhelm,- while the manifest result
of all this wild storm-culture is the glorious perfection we behold:
then faith in Nature's forestry is established, and we cease to
deplore the violence of her most destructive gales, or of any
other storm implement whatsoever.
There are two trees in the Sierra forests that are never blown
down, so long as they continue in sound health. These are the
Juniper and the Dwarf Pine of the summit peaks. Their stiff,
crooked roots grip the storm-beaten ledges like eagles' claws;
while their lithe, cord-like branches bend round compliantly,
offering but slight holds for winds, however violent. The other
alpine conifers- the Needle Pine, Mountain Pine, Two-leaved
Pine, and Hemlock Spruce-are never thinned out by this
agent to any destructive extent, on account of their admirable
toughness and the closeness of their growth. In general the
same is true of the giants of the lower zones. The kingly Sugar
Pine, towering aloft to a height of more than two hundred feet,
## p. 10408 (#236) ##########################################
10408
JOHN MUIR
offers a fine mark to storm-winds; but it is not densely foliaged,
and its long horizontal arms swing round compliantly in the
blast, like tresses of green, fluent algæ in a brook: while the Sil-
ver Firs in most places keep their ranks well together in united
strength.
The Yellow or Silver Pine is more frequently overturned
than any other tree on the Sierra, because its leaves and branches
form a larger mass in proportion to its height; while in many
places it is planted sparsely, leaving open lanes through which
storms may enter with full force. Furthermore, because it is
distributed along the lower portion of the range, which was the
first to be left bare on the breaking up of the ice-sheet at the
close of the glacial winter, the soil it is growing upon has been
longer exposed to post-glacial weathering, and consequently is in
a more crumbling, decayed condition than the fresher soils far-
ther up the range,
and therefore offers a less secure anchorage
for the roots. While exploring the forest zones of Mount Shasta,
I discovered the path of a hurricane strewn with thousands of
pines of this species. Great and small had been uprooted or
wrenched off by sheer force, making a clean gap, like that made
by a snow avalanche. But hurricanes capable of doing this class
of work are rare in the Sierra; and when we have explored the
forests from one extremity of the range to the other, we are
compelled to believe that they are the most beautiful on the
face of the earth, however we may regard the agents that have
made them so.
There is always something deeply exciting, not only in the
sounds of winds in the woods, which exert more or less influence
over every mind, but in their varied water-like flow as manifested
by the movements of the trees, especially those of the conifers.
By no other trees are they rendered so extensively and impress-
ively visible; not even by the lordly tropic palms or tree-ferns
responsive to the gentlest breeze. The waving of a forest of
the giant Sequoias is indescribably impressive and sublime; but
the pines seem to me the best interpreters of winds. They are
mighty waving golden-rods, ever in tune, singing and writing
wind-music all their long century lives. Little, however, of this
noble tree-waving and tree-music will you see or hear in the
strictly alpine portion of the forests. The burly Juniper, whose
girth sometimes more than equals its height, is about as rigid as
the rocks on which it grows. The slender lash-like sprays of the
## p. 10409 (#237) ##########################################
JOHN MUIR
10409
Dwarf Pine stream out in wavering ripples, but the tallest and
slenderest are far too unyielding to wave even in the heaviest
gales. They only shake in quick, short vibrations. The Hemlock
Spruce, however, and the Mountain Pine, and some of the tallest
thickets of the Two-leaved species, bow in storms with consid-
erable scope and gracefulness. But it is only in the lower and
middle zones that the meeting of winds and woods is to be seen
in all its grandeur.
One of the most beautiful and exhilarating storms I ever
enjoyed in the Sierra occurred in December 1874, when I hap-
pened to be exploring one of the tributary valleys of the Yuba
River. The sky and the ground and the trees had been thor-
oughly rain-washed and were dry again. The day was intensely
pure: one of those incomparable bits of California winter, warm
and balmy and full of white sparkling sunshine, redolent of all
the purest influences of the spring, and at the same time enliv-
ened with one of the most bracing wind-storms conceivable.
10384
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
Berlaymont, brave, intensely loyal, insatiably greedy for office
and wages, but who at least never served but or
party; the
Duke of Arschot, who was to serve all, essay to rule all, and to
betray all, a splendid seignior, magnificent in cramoisy velvet,
but a poor creature, who traced his pedigree from Adam accord-
ing to the family monumental inscriptions at Louvain, but who
was better known as grandnephew of the Emperor's famous
tutor Chièvres; the bold, debauched Brederode, with handsome,
reckless face and turbulent demeanor; the infamous Noircarmes,
whose name was to be covered with eternal execration for
aping towards his own compatriots and kindred as much of
Alva's atrocities and avarice as he was permitted to exercise; the
distinguished soldiers Meghen and Aremberg,- these, with many
others whose deeds of arms were to become celebrated through-
out Europe, were all conspicuous in the brilliant crowd. There
too was that learned Frisian, President Viglius, crafty, plausible,
adroit, eloquent,- a small, brisk man, with long yellow hair, glit-
tering green eyes, round, tumid, rosy cheeks, and flowing beard.
Foremost among the Spanish grandees, and close to Philip, stood
the famous favorite, Ruy Gomez,- or as he was familiarly called,
"Re y Gomez" (King and Gomez),—a man of meridional aspect,
with coal-black hair and beard, gleaming eyes, a face pallid with
intense application, and slender but handsome figure; while in
immediate attendance upon the Emperor was the immortal Prince
of Orange.
←
Such were a few only of the most prominent in that gay
throng, whose fortunes in part it will be our humble duty to
narrate; how many of them passing through all this glitter to a
dark and mysterious gloom! some to perish on public scaffolds,
some by midnight assassination; others, more fortunate, to fall
on the battle-field; nearly all, sooner or later, to be laid in bloody
graves!
All the company present had risen to their feet as the Em-
peror entered. By his command, all immediately after resumed
their places. The benches at either end of the platform were
accordingly filled with the royal and princely personages invited,
- with the Fleece Knights, wearing the insignia of their order,
with the members of the three great councils, and with the
governors. The Emperor, the King, and the Queen of Hungary,
were left conspicuous in the centre of the scene. As the whole
object of the ceremony was to present an impressive exhibition,
## p. 10385 (#213) ##########################################
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
10385
it is worth our while to examine minutely the appearance of the
two principal characters.
Charles the Fifth was then fifty-five years and eight months
old; but he was already decrepit with premature old age. He
was of about the middle height, and had been athletic and well
'proportioned. Broad in the shoulders, deep in the chest, thin in
the flank, very muscular in the arms and legs, he had been able
to match himself with all competitors in the tourney and the
ring, and to vanquish the bull with his own hand in the favorite
national amusement of Spain. He had been able in the field to
do the duty of captain and soldier, to endure fatigue and expos-
ure, and every privation except fasting. These personal advan-
tages were now departed. Crippled in hands, knees, and legs,
he supported himself with difficulty upon a crutch, with the aid
of an attendant's shoulder. In face he had always been extremely
ugly, and time had certainly not improved his physiognomy. His
hair, once of a light color, was now white with age, close-clipped
and bristling; his beard was gray, coarse, and shaggy. His fore-
head was spacious and commanding; the eye was dark-blue, with
an expression both majestic and benignant. His nose was aqui-
line but crooked. The lower part of his face was famous for its
deformity. The under lip, a Burgundian inheritance, as faithfully
transmitted as the duchy and county, was heavy and hanging;
the lower jaw protruding so far beyond the upper, that it was
impossible for him to bring together the few fragments of teeth
which still remained, or to speak a whole sentence in an intel-
ligible voice. Eating and talking, occupations to which he was
always much addicted, were becoming daily more arduous in con-
sequence of this original defect; which now seemed hardly human,
but rather an original deformity.
So much for the father. The son, Philip the Second, was a
small, meagre man, much below the middle height, with thin
legs, a narrow chest, and the shrinking, timid air of a habitual
invalid. He seemed so little upon his first visit to his aunts,
the Queens Eleanor and Mary, accustomed to look upon proper
men in Flanders and Germany, that he was fain to win their
favor by making certain attempts in the tournament, in which
his success was sufficiently problematical. "His body," says his
professed panegyrist, "was but a human cage, in which, however
brief and narrow, dwelt a soul to whose flight the immeasurable
expanse of heaven was too contracted. " The same wholesale
XVIII-650
## p. 10386 (#214) ##########################################
10386
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
admirer adds that "his aspect was so reverend, that rustics who
met him alone in a wood, without knowing him, bowed down
with instinctive veneration. " In face he was the living image of
his father; having the same broad forehead and blue eye, with
the same aquiline, but better proportioned, nose. In the lower
part of the countenance the remarkable Burgundian deformity'
was likewise reproduced: he had the same heavy, hanging lip,
with a vast mouth, and monstrously protruding lower jaw. His
complexion was fair, his hair light and thin, his beard yellow,
short, and pointed. He had the aspect of a Fleming, but the
loftiness of a Spaniard. His demeanor in public was still, silent,
almost sepulchral. He looked habitually on the ground when he
conversed, was chary of speech, embarrassed and even suffering
in manner. This was ascribed partly to a natural haughtiness,
which he had occasionally endeavored to overcome, and partly to
habitual pains in the stomach, occasioned by his inordinate fond-
ness for pastry.
Such was the personal appearance of the man who was about
to receive into his single hand the destinies of half the world;
whose single will was, for the future, to shape the fortunes of
every individual then present, of many millions more in Europe,
America, and at the ends of the earth, and of countless millions
yet unborn.
The three royal personages being seated upon chairs placed
triangularly under the canopy, such of the audience as had seats.
provided for them now took their places, and the proceedings
commenced. Philibert de Bruxelles, a member of the privy coun-
cil of the Netherlands, arose at the Emperor's command, and
made a long oration. He spoke of the Emperor's warm affection
for the provinces, as the land of his birth; of his deep regret
that his broken health and failing powers, both of body and
mind, compelled him to resign his sovereignty, and to seek relief
for his shattered frame in a more genial climate. Cæsar's gout
was then depicted in energetic language, which must have cost
him a twinge as he sat there and listened to the councilor's elo-
quence. Tis a most truculent executioner," said Philibert: “it
invades the whole body, from the crown of the head to the soles
of the feet, leaving nothing untouched. It contracts the nerves
with intolerable anguish, it enters the bones, it freezes the mar-
row, it converts the lubricating fluids of the joints into chalk;
it pauses not until, having exhausted and debilitated the whole
## p. 10387 (#215) ##########################################
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
10387
body, it has rendered all its necessary instruments useless, and
conquered the mind by immense torture. " Engaged in mortal
struggle with such an enemy, Cæsar felt himself obliged, as the
councilor proceeded to inform his audience, to change the scene
of the contest from the humid air of Flanders to the warmer
atmosphere of Spain. He rejoiced, however, that his son was
both vigorous and experienced, and that his recent marriage
with the Queen of England had furnished the provinces with a
most valuable alliance. He then again referred to the Emperor's
boundless love for his subjects; and concluded with a tremen-
dous, but superfluous, exhortation to Philip on the necessity of
maintaining the Catholic religion in its purity. After this long
harangue, which has been fully reported by several historians
who were present at the ceremony, the councilor proceeded to
read the deed of cession, by which Philip, already sovereign of
Sicily, Naples, Milan, and titular king of England, France, and
Jerusalem, now received all the duchies, marquisates, earldoms,
baronies, cities, towns, and castles of the Burgundian property,
including of course the seventeen Netherlands.
As De Bruxelles finished, there was a buzz of admiration
throughout the assembly, mingled with murmurs of regret that in
the present great danger upon the frontiers, from the belliger-
ent King of France and his warlike and restless nation, the prov-
inces should be left without their ancient and puissant defender.
The Emperor then rose to his feet. Leaning on his crutch, he
beckoned from his seat the personage upon whose arm he had
leaned as he entered the hall. A tall, handsome youth of twenty-
two came forward: a man whose name from that time forward,
and as long as history shall endure, has been and will be more
familiar than any other in the mouths of Netherlanders. At that
day he had rather a southern than a German or Flemish appear-
He had a Spanish cast of features, dark, well chiseled,
and symmetrical. His head was small and well placed upon his
shoulders. His hair was dark brown, as were also his mustache
and peaked beard. His forehead was lofty, spacious, and already
prematurely engraved with the anxious lines of thought. His
eyes were full, brown, well opened, and expressive of profound
reflection. He was dressed in the magnificent apparel for which
the Netherlanders were celebrated above all other nations, and
which the ceremony rendered necessary. His presence being
considered indispensable at this great ceremony, he had been
ance.
## p. 10388 (#216) ##########################################
10388
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
summoned but recently from the camp on the frontier, where,
notwithstanding his youth, the Emperor had appointed him to
command his army in chief against such antagonists as Admiral
Coligny and the Duc de Nevers.
Thus supported upon his crutch and upon the shoulder of
William of Orange, the Emperor proceeded to address the States,
by the aid of a closely written brief which he held in his hand.
He reviewed rapidly the progress of events from his seventeenth
year up to that day. He spoke of his nine expeditions into
Germany, six to Spain, seven to Italy, four to France, ten to
the Netherlands, two to England, as many to Africa, and of his
eleven voyages by sea.
He sketched his various wars, victories,
and treaties of peace; assuring his hearers that the welfare of
his subjects and the security of the Roman Catholic religion
had ever been the leading objects of his life. As long as God
had granted him health, he continued, only enemies could have
regretted that Charles was living and reigning; but now that his
strength was but vanity, and life fast ebbing away, his love for
dominion, his affection for his subjects, and his regard for their
interests, required his departure. Instead of a decrepit man with
one foot in the grave, he presented them with a sovereign in the
prime of life and the vigor of health. Turning toward Philip, he
observed that for a dying father to bequeath so magnificent an
empire to his son was a deed worthy of gratitude; but that when
the father thus descended to the grave before his time, and by an
anticipated and living burial sought to provide for the welfare of
his realms and the grandeur of his son, the benefit thus conferred
was surely far greater. He added that the debt would be paid
to him and with usury, should Philip conduct himself in his ad-
ministration of the province with a wise and affectionate regard
to their true interests. Posterity would applaud his abdication,
should his son prove worthy of his bounty; and that could only
be by living in the fear of God, and by maintaining law, justice,
and the Catholic religion in all their purity, as the true founda-
tion of the realm. In conclusion, he entreated the estates, and
through them the nation, to render obedience to their new
prince, to maintain concord, and to preserve inviolate the Catho-
lic faith; begging them, at the same time, to pardon him all
errors or offenses which he might have committed towards them
during his reign, and assuring them that he should unceasingly
remember their obedience and affection in his every prayer to
## p. 10389 (#217) ##########################################
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
10389
that Being to whom the remainder of his life was to be dedi-
cated.
Such brave words as these, so many vigorous asseverations of
attempted performance of duty, such fervent hopes expressed of
a benign administration in behalf of the son, could not but affect
the sensibilities of the audience, already excited and softened by
the impressive character of the whole display. Sobs were heard
throughout every portion of the hall, and tears poured profusely
from every eye.
The Fleece Knights on the platform and the
burghers in the background were all melted with the same emo-
tion. As for the Emperor himself, he sank almost fainting upon
his chair as he concluded his address. An ashy paleness over-
spread his countenance, and he wept like a child. Even the icy
Philip was almost softened, as he rose to perform his part in the
ceremony. Dropping upon his knees before his father's feet, he
reverently kissed his hand. Charles placed his hands solemnly
upon his son's head, made the sign of the cross, and blessed him
in the name of the Holy Trinity. Then raising him in his arms.
he tenderly embraced him, saying, as he did so, to the great
potentates around him, that he felt a sincere compassion for the
son on whose shoulders so heavy a weight had just devolved, and
which only a lifelong labor would enable him to support. Philip
now uttered a few words expressive of his duty to his father
and his affection for his people. Turning to the orders, he signi-
fied his regret that he was unable to address them either in
the French or Flemish language, and was therefore obliged to
ask their attention to the Bishop of Arras, who would act as his
interpreter. Antony Perrenot accordingly arose, and in smooth,
fluent, and well-turned commonplaces, expressed at great length
the gratitude of Philip towards his father, with his firm deter-
mination to walk in the path of duty, and to obey his father's
counsels and example in the future administration of the prov-
inces. This long address of the prelate was responded to at
equal length by Jacob Maas, member of the Council of Brabant,
a man of great learning, eloquence, and prolixity; who had been
selected to reply on behalf of the States-General, and who now,
in the name of these bodies, accepted the abdication in an ele-
gant and complimentary harangue. Queen Mary of Hungary—the
"Christian widow" of Erasmus, and Regent of the Netherlands
during the past twenty-five years - then rose to resign her office,
making a brief address expressive of her affection for the people,
## p. 10390 (#218) ##########################################
10390
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
her regrets at leaving them, and her hopes that all errors which
she might have committed during her long administration would
be forgiven her. Again the redundant Maas responded, asserting
in terms of fresh compliment and elegance the uniform satisfac-
tion of the provinces with her conduct during her whole career.
The orations and replies having now been brought to a close,
the ceremony was terminated. The Emperor, leaning on the
shoulders of the Prince of Orange and of the Count de Buren,
slowly left the hall, followed by Philip, the Queen of Hungary,
and the whole court; all in the same order in which they had
entered, and by the same passage into the chapel.
THE SPANISH ARMADA APPROACHES ENGLAND
From the History of the United Netherlands. Copyright 1860, by John
Lothrop Motley. Reprinted by permission of Harper & Brothers
THE
HE blaze and smoke of ten thousand beacon-fires, from the
Land's End to Margate, and from the Isle of Wight to
Cumberland, gave warning to every Englishman that the
enemy was at last upon them. Almost at that very instant,
intelligence had been brought from the court to the Lord Admi-
ral at Plymouth that the Armada, dispersed and shattered by
the gales of June, was not likely to make its appearance that
year; and orders had consequently been given to disarm the four
largest ships and send them into dock. Even Walsingham, as
already stated, had participated in this strange delusion.
Before Howard had time to act upon this ill-timed suggestion,
even had he been disposed to do so, he received authentic
intelligence that the great fleet was off the Lizard. Neither he
nor Francis Drake were the men to lose time in such an emer-
gency; and before that Friday night was spent, sixty of the best
English ships had been warped out of Plymouth harbor.
On Saturday, 30th July, the wind was very light at southwest,
with a mist and drizzling rain; but by three in the afternoon.
the two fleets could descry and count each other through the
haze.
-
By nine o'clock, 31st July, about two miles from Looe on the
Cornish coast, the fleets had their first meeting. There were one
hundred and thirty-six sail of the Spaniards, of which ninety
## p. 10391 (#219) ##########################################
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
10391
were large ships; and sixty-seven of the English. It was a sol-
emn moment. The long-expected Armada presented a pompous,
almost a theatrical appearance. The ships seemed arranged for
a pageant, in honor of a victory already won. Disposed in form
of a crescent, the horns of which were seven miles asunder, those
gilded, towered, floating castles, with their gaudy standards and
their martial music, moved slowly along the channel, with an air
of indolent pomp.
Their captain-general, the golden duke, stood
in his private shot-proof fortress, on the deck of his great galleon
the St. Martin, surrounded by generals of infantry and colonels
of cavalry, who knew as little as he did himself of naval matters.
The English vessels, on the other hand, with a few exceptions
light, swift, and easily handled,- could sail round and round
those unwieldy galleons, hulks, and galleys rowed by fettered
slave gangs.
The superior seamanship of free Englishmen, com-
manded by such experienced captains as Drake, Frobisher, and
Hawkins, from infancy at home on blue water, was manifest
in the very first encounter. They obtained the weather-gage
at once, and cannonaded the enemy at intervals with considera-
ble effect; easily escaping at will out of range of the sluggish
Armada, which was incapable of bearing sail in pursuit, although
provided with an armament which could sink all its enemies at
close quarters.
"We had some small fight with them that Sun-
day afternoon," said Hawkins.
-
―――――――――
Medina Sidonia hoisted the royal standard at the fore; and
the whole fleet did its utmost, which was little, to offer general
battle. It was in vain. The English, following at the heels
of the enemy, refused all such invitations, and attacked only the
rear-guard of the Armada, where Recalde commanded. That
admiral, steadily maintaining his post, faced his nimble antago-
nists, who continued to tease, to maltreat, and to elude him, while
the rest of the fleet proceeded slowly up the Channel closely
followed by the enemy. And thus the running fight continued
along the coast, in full view of Plymouth, whence boats with
reinforcements and volunteers were perpetually arriving to the
English ships, until the battle had drifted quite out of reach of
the town.
Already in this first "small fight" the Spaniards had learned
a lesson, and might even entertain a doubt of their invincibility.
But before the sun set there were more serious disasters. Much
powder and shot had been expended by the Spaniard to very little
## p. 10392 (#220) ##########################################
10392
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
purpose, and so a master-gunner on board Admiral Oquendo's
flag-ship was reprimanded for careless ball-practice. The gunner,
who was a Fleming, enraged with his captain, laid a train to the
powder-magazine, fired it, and threw himself into the sea. Two
decks blew up. The great castle at the stern rose into clouds,
carrying with it the paymaster-general of the fleet, a large por-
tion of treasure, and nearly two hundred men. The ship was a
wreck, but it was possible to save the rest of the crew. So
Medina Sidonia sent light vessels to remove them, and wore with
his flag-ship to defend Oquendo, who had already been fastened
upon by his English pursuers. But the Spaniards, not being
so light in hand as their enemies, involved themselves in much
embarrassment by this manoeuvre; and there was much falling
foul of each other, entanglement of rigging, and carrying away
of yards. Oquendo's men, however, were ultimately saved and
taken to other ships.
Meantime Don Pedro de Valdez, commander of the Andalusian
squadron, having got his galleon into collision with two or three
Spanish ships successively, had at last carried away his fore-mast
close to the deck, and the wreck had fallen against his main-
mast. He lay crippled and helpless, the Armada was slowly
deserting him, night was coming on, the sea was running high,
and the English, ever hovering near, were ready to grapple with
him. In vain did Don Pedro fire signals of distress. The captain-
general-even as though the unlucky galleon had not been con-
nected with the Catholic fleet-calmly fired a gun to collect his
scattered ships, and abandoned Valdez to his fate. "He left me
comfortless in sight of the whole fleet," said poor Pedro; "and
greater inhumanity and unthankfulness I think was never heard
of among men. "
Yet the Spaniard comported himself most gallantly. Frobisher,
in the largest ship of the English fleet, the Triumph of eleven
hundred tons, and Hawkins in the Victory of eight hundred,
cannonaded him at a distance, but night coming on, he was able
to resist; and it was not till the following morning that he sur-
rendered to the Revenge.
Drake then received the gallant prisoner on board his flag-
ship, much to the disgust and indignation of Frobisher and
Hawkins, thus disappointed of their prize and ransom money,-
treated him with much courtesy, and gave his word of honor that
he and his men should be treated fairly like good prisoners
## p. 10393 (#221) ##########################################
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
10393
of war.
This pledge was redeemed; for it was not the English,
as it was the Spanish custom, to convert captives into slaves,
but only to hold them for ransom. Valdez responded to Drake's
politeness by kissing his hand, embracing him, and overpowering
him with magnificent compliments. He was then sent on board
the Lord Admiral, who received him with similar urbanity, and
expressed his regret that so distinguished a personage should
have been so coolly deserted by the Duke of Medina. Don Pedro
then returned to the Revenge, where, as the guest of Drake, he
was a witness to all subsequent events up to the 10th of August;
on which day he was sent to London with some other officers,
Sir Francis claiming his ransom as his lawful due.
Here certainly was no very triumphant beginning for the
Invincible Armada. On the very first day of their being in pres-
ence of the English fleet-then but sixty-seven in number, and
vastly their inferior in size and weight of metal-they had lost
the flag-ships of the Guipuzcoan and of the Andalusian squad-
rons, with a general-admiral, four hundred and fifty officers and
men, and some one hundred thousand ducats of treasure. They
had been outmanœuvred, outsailed, and thoroughly maltreated by
their antagonists, and they had been unable to inflict a single
blow in return. Thus the "small fight" had been a cheerful one
for the opponents of the Inquisition, and the English were pro-
portionally encouraged.
Never, since England was England, had such a sight been seen
as now revealed itself in those narrow straits between Dover and
Calais. Along that long, low, sandy shore, and quite within the
range of the Calais fortifications, one hundred and thirty Spanish
ships-the greater number of them the largest and most heavily
armed in the world—lay face to face, and scarcely out of cannon-
shot, with one hundred and fifty English sloops and frigates, the
strongest and swiftest that the island could furnish, and com-
manded by men whose exploits had rung through the world.
Farther along the coast, invisible, but known to be performing
a most perilous and vital service, was a squadron of Dutch ves-
sels of all sizes, lining both the inner and outer edges of the
sandbanks off the Flemish coasts, and swarming in all the estu-
aries and inlets of that intricate and dangerous cruising-ground
between Dunkirk and Walcheren. Those fleets of Holland and
Zeeland, numbering some one hundred and fifty galleons, sloops,
and fly-boats, under Warmond, Nassau, Van der Does, De Moor,
## p. 10394 (#222) ##########################################
10394
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
and Rosendael, lay patiently blockading every possible egress
from Newport, or Gravelines, or Sluys, or Flushing, or Dunkirk;
and longing to grapple with the Duke of Parma, so soon as his
fleet of gunboats and hoys, packed with his Spanish and Italian
veterans, should venture to set forth upon the sea for their long-
prepared exploit.
narrow seas.
It was a pompous spectacle that midsummer night, upon those
The moon, which was at the full, was rising calmly
upon a scene of anxious expectation. Would she not be looking,
by the morrow's night, upon a subjugated England, a re-enslaved
Holland-upon the downfall of civil and religious liberty? Those
ships of Spain, which lay there with their banners waving in the
moonlight, discharging salvos of anticipated triumph and filling
the air with strains of insolent music-would they not, by day-
break, be moving straight to their purpose, bearing the conquer-
ors of the world to the scene of their cherished hopes?
That English fleet, too, which rode there at anchor, so anx-
iously on the watch - would that swarm of nimble, lightly han-
dled, but slender vessels, which had held their own hitherto in
hurried and desultory skirmishes, be able to cope with their great
antagonist, now that the moment had arrived for the death grap-
ple? Would not Howard, Drake, Frobisher, Seymour, Winter,
and Hawkins be swept out of the straits at last, yielding an
open passage to Medina, Oquendo, Recalde, and Farnese? Would
those Hollanders and Zeelanders cruising so vigilantly among
their treacherous shallows dare to maintain their post, now that
the terrible "Holofernes," with his invincible legions, was re-
solved to come forth?
And the impatience of the soldiers and sailors on board the
fleet was equal to that of their commanders. There was London
almost before their eyes,- a huge mass of treasure, richer and
more accessible than those mines beyond the Atlantic which had
so often rewarded Spanish chivalry with fabulous wealth. And
there were men in those galleons who remembered the sack of
Antwerp eleven years before; men who could tell, from per-
sonal experience, how helpless was a great commercial city when
once in the clutch of disciplined brigands; men who in that
dread "fury of Antwerp" had enriched themselves in an hour
with the accumulations of a merchant's lifetime, and who had
slain fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, brides and bride-
grooms, before each other's eyes, until the number of inhabitants
-
## p. 10395 (#223) ##########################################
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
10395
butchered in the blazing streets rose to many thousands, and
the plunder from palaces and warehouses was counted by millions,
before the sun had set on the "great fury. " Those Spaniards,
and Italians, and Walloons were now thirsting for more gold,
for more blood; and as the capital of England was even more
wealthy and far more defenseless than the commercial metropolis
of the Netherlands had been, so it was resolved that the London
"fury" should be more thorough and more productive than the
"fury of Antwerp," at the memory of which the world still shud-
dered. And these professional soldiers had been taught to con-
sider the English as a pacific, delicate, effeminate race; dependent
on good living, without experience of war, quickly fatigued and
discouraged, and even more easily to be plundered and butchered
than were the excellent burghers of Antwerp.
And so these southern conquerors looked down from their
great galleons and galeasses upon the English vessels. More than
three quarters of them were merchantmen. There was no com-
parison whatever between the relative strength of the fleets. In
number they were about equal, being each from one hundred
and thirty to one hundred and fifty strong; but the Spaniards
had twice the tonnage of the English, four times the artillery,
and nearly three times the number of men.
As the twilight deepened, the moon became totally obscured,
dark cloud masses spread over the heavens, the sea grew black,
distant thunder rolled, and the sob of an approaching tempest
became distinctly audible. Such indications of a westerly gale
were not encouraging to those cumbrous vessels, with the treach-
erous quicksands of Flanders under their lee.
At an hour past midnight, it was so dark that it was difficult
for the most practiced eye to pierce far into the gloom.
But a
faint drip of oars now struck the ears of the Spaniards as they
watched from the decks. A few moments afterwards the sea
became suddenly luminous; and six flaming vessels appeared at
a slight distance, bearing steadily down upon them before the
wind and tide.
There were men in the Armada who had been at the siege
of Antwerp only three years before. They remembered with hor-
ror the devil-ships of Gianibelli,- those floating volcanoes which
had seemed to rend earth and ocean, whose explosion had laid so
many thousands of soldiers dead at a blow, and which had shat-
tered the bridge and floating forts of Farnese as though they had
## p. 10396 (#224) ##########################################
* 10396
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
been toys of glass.
at that moment in
In a moment one of those horrible panics which spread
with such contagious rapidity among large bodies of men, seized
upon the Spaniards. There was a yell throughout the fleet —
"The fireships of Antwerp! the fire-ships of Antwerp! " and in
an instant every cable was cut, and frantic attempts were made
by each galleon and galeasse to escape what seemed imminent
destruction. The confusion was beyond description. Four or five
of the largest ships became entangled with each other. Two oth-
ers were set on fire by the flaming vessels and were consumed.
Medina Sidonia, who had been warned, even before his departure
from Spain, that some such artifice would probably be attempted,
and who had even, early that morning, sent out a party of sailors
in a pinnace to search for indications of the scheme, was not sur-
prised or dismayed. He gave orders as well as might be — that
every ship, after the danger should be passed, was to return to
its post and await his further orders. But it was useless in that
moment of unreasonable panic to issue commands. The despised
Mantuan,. who had met with so many rebuffs at Philip's court,
and who owing to official incredulity-had been but partially
successful in his magnificent enterprise at Antwerp, had now, by
the mere terror of his name, inflicted more damage on Philip's
Armada than had hitherto been accomplished by Howard and
Drake, Hawkins and Frobisher combined.
They knew too that the famous engineer was
England.
――――
So long as night and darkness lasted, the confusion and up-
roar continued. When the Monday morning dawned, several of
the Spanish vessels lay disabled, while the rest of the fleet was
seen at a distance of two leagues from Calais, driving towards
the Flemish coast. The threatened gale had not yet begun to
blow; but there were fresh squalls from the W. S. W. , which, to
such awkward sailors as the Spanish vessels, were difficult to con-
tend with. On the other hand, the English fleet were all astir,
and ready to pursue the Spaniards, now rapidly drifting into the
North Sea.
## p. 10397 (#225) ##########################################
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
10397
THE ARMADA DESTROYED
From the History of the United Netherlands >
THE
HE battle lasted six hours long, hot and furious; for now there
was no excuse for retreat on the part of the Spaniards,
but on the contrary, it was the intention of the captain-
general to return to his station off Calais, if it were within his
power.
Nevertheless, the English still partially maintained the
tactics which had proved so successful, and resolutely refused
the fierce attempts of the Spaniards to lay themselves alongside.
Keeping within musket-range, the well-disciplined English mari-
ners poured broadside after broadside against the towering ships
of the Armada which afforded so easy a mark; while the Span-
iards on their part found it impossible, while wasting incredible
quantities of powder and shot, to inflict any severe damage on
their enemies. Throughout the action, not an English ship was
destroyed, and not a hundred men were killed. On the other
hand, all the best ships of the Spaniards were riddled through
and through; and with masts and yards shattered, sails and rig-
ging torn to shreds, and a northwest wind still drifting them
towards the fatal sandbanks of Holland, they labored heavily
in a chopping sea, firing wildly, and receiving tremendous pun-
ishment at the hands of Howard, Drake, Seymour, Winter, and
their followers. Not even master-gunner Thomas could complain
that day of "blind exercise " on the part of the English, with
"little harm done" to the enemy. There was scarcely a ship
in the Armada that did not suffer severely; for nearly all were
engaged in that memorable action off the sands of Gravelines.
The captain-general himself, Admiral Recalde, Alonzo de Leyva,
Oquendo, Diego Flores de Valdez, Bertendona, Don Francisco
de Toledo, Don Diego de Pimentel, Telles Enriquez, Alonzo de
Luzon, Garibay, with most of the great galleons and galeasses,
were in the thickest of the fight; and one after the other each of
these huge ships were disabled. Three sank before the fight was
over; many others were soon drifting helpless wrecks towards a
hostile shore; and before five o'clock in the afternoon, at least
sixteen of their best ships had been sacrificed, and from four to
five thousand soldiers killed.
Nearly all the largest vessels of the Armada, therefore, having
been disabled or damaged,- according to a Spanish eye-witness,-
## p. 10398 (#226) ##########################################
10398
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
and all their small shot exhausted, Medina Sidonia reluctantly
gave orders to retreat. The captain-general was a bad sailor;
but he was a chivalrous Spaniard of ancient Gothic blood, and
he felt deep mortification at the plight of his invincible fleet,
together with undisguised resentment against Alexander Farnese,
through whose treachery and incapacity he considered the great
Catholic cause to have been so foully sacrificed. Crippled, mal-
treated, and diminished in number as were his ships, he would
have still faced the enemy, but the winds and currents were fast
driving him on a lee-shore; and the pilots, one and all, assured
him that it would be inevitable destruction to remain. After
a slight and very ineffectual attempt to rescue Don Diego de
Pimentel in the St. Matthew-who refused to leave his disabled
ship- and Don Francisco de Toledo, whose great galleon the St.
Philip was fast driving, a helpless wreck, towards Zeeland, the
Armada bore away N. N. E. into the open sea, leaving those who
could not follow, to their fate.
But Howard decided to wrestle no further pull. Having
followed the Spaniards till Friday, 12th of August, as far as
the latitude of 56° 17', the Lord Admiral called a council. It was
then decided, in order to save English lives and ships, to put
into the Frith of Forth for water and provisions, leaving two
"pinnaces to dog the fleet until it should be past the Isles of
Scotland. " But the next day, as the wind shifted to the north-
west, another council decided to take advantage of the change,
and bear away for the North Foreland, in order to obtain a sup-
ply of powder, shot, and provisions.
Up to this period the weather, though occasionally threaten-
ing, had been moderate. During the week which succeeded the
eventful night off Calais, neither the Armada nor the English
ships had been much impeded in their manœuvres by storms or
heavy seas. But on the following Sunday, 14th of August, there
was a change. The wind shifted again to the southwest; and
during the whole of that day and the Monday, blew a tremen-
dous gale.
"Twas a more violent storm," said Howard, «< than
was ever seen before at this time of the year. " The retreat-
ing English fleet was scattered, many ships were in peril " among
the ill-favored sands off Norfolk," but within four or five days
all arrived safely in Margate roads.
Far different was the fate of the Spaniards. Over their In-
vincible Armada, last seen by the departing English midway
## p. 10399 (#227) ##########################################
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
10399
between the coasts of Scotland and Denmark, the blackness of
night seemed suddenly to descend. A mystery hung for a long
time over their fate. Damaged, leaking, without pilots, without a
competent commander, the great fleet entered that furious storm,
and was whirled along the iron crags of Norway, and between
the savage rocks of Faröe and the Hebrides. In those regions
of tempest the insulted North wreaked its full vengeance on the
insolent Spaniards. Disaster after disaster marked their perilous
track, gale after gale swept them hither and thither, tossing them
on sandbanks or shattering them against granite cliffs. The
coasts of Norway, Scotland, Ireland, were strewn with the wrecks
of that pompous fleet which claimed the dominion of the seas;
with the bones of those invincible legions which were to have
sacked London and made England a Spanish viceroyalty.
Through the remainder of the month of August there was
a succession of storms. On the 2d of September a fierce south-
wester drove Admiral Oquendo in his galleon, together with one
of the great galeasses, two large Venetian ships (the Ratta and
the Balauzara), and thirty-six other vessels, upon the Irish coast,
where nearly every soul on board perished; while the few who
escaped to the shore-notwithstanding their religious affinity
with the inhabitants—were either butchered in cold blood, or sent
coupled in halters from village to village, in order to be shipped
to England. A few ships were driven on the English coast;
others went ashore near Rochelle.
Of the four galeasses and four galleys, one of each returned
to Spain. Of the ninety-one great galleons and hulks, fifty-eight
were lost and thirty-three returned. Of the tenders and zabras,
seventeen were lost and eighteen returned. Of one hundred and
thirty-four vessels which sailed from Coruña in July, but fifty-
three, great and small, made their escape to Spain; and these
were so damaged as to be utterly worthless. The Invincible
Armada had not only been vanquished but annihilated.
Of the thirty thousand men who sailed in the fleet, it is prob-
able that not more than ten thousand ever saw their native land
again. Most of the leaders of the expedition lost their lives.
Medina Sidonia reached Santander in October, and as Philip for a
moment believed, "with the greater part of the Armada," although
the King soon discovered his mistake. Recalde, Diego Flores de
Valdez, Oquendo, Maldonado, Bobadilla, Manriquez, either per-
ished at sea, or died of exhaustion immediately after their return.
## p. 10400 (#228) ##########################################
10400
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
Pedro de Valdez, Vasco de Silva, Alonzo de Sayas, Pimentel,
Toledo, with many other nobles, were prisoners in England and
Holland. There was hardly a distinguished family in Spain not
placed in mourning; so that, to relieve the universal gloom, an
edict was published forbidding the wearing of mourning at all.
On the other hand, a merchant of Lisbon, not yet reconciled
to the Spanish conquest of his country, permitted himself some
tokens of hilarity at the defeat of the Armada, and was immedi-
ately hanged by express command of Philip. Thus-as men said
-one could neither cry nor laugh within the Spanish dominions.
This was the result of the invasion, so many years prepa
and at an expense almost incalculable. In the year 1588 alone,
the cost of Philip's armaments for the subjugation of England
could not have been less than six millions of ducats; and there
was at least as large a sum on board the Armada itself, although
the Pope refused to pay his promised million. And with all this
outlay, and with the sacrifice of so many thousand lives, nothing
had been accomplished; and Spain, in a moment, instead of seem-
ing terrible to all the world, had become ridiculous.
THE FATE OF JOHN OF BARNEVELD
From the Life and Death of John of Barneveld. Copyright 1874, by John
Lothrop Motley. Reprinted by permission of Harper & Brothers
B
ARNEVELD was about to enter the judges' chamber as usual,
but was informed that the sentence would be read in the
great hall of judicature. They descended accordingly to
the basement story, and passed down the narrow flight of steps
which then as now connected the more modern structure, where
the Advocate had been imprisoned and tried, with what remained
of the ancient palace of the Counts of Holland. In the centre of
the vast hall once the banqueting chamber of those petty sov
ereigns, with its high vaulted roof of cedar which had so often in
ancient days rung with the sounds of mirth and revelry — was a
great table at which the twenty-four judges and the three prose-
cuting officers were seated, in their black caps and gowns of
office. The room was lined with soldiers, and crowded with a dark
surging mass of spectators, who had been waiting there all night.
A chair was placed for the prisoner. He sat down, and the
clerk of the commission, Pots by name, proceeded at once to read
## p. 10401 (#229) ##########################################
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
10401
the sentence. A summary of this long, rambling, and tiresome
paper has been already laid before the reader. If ever a man
could have found it tedious to listen to his own death sentence,
the great statesman might have been in that condition as he
listened to Secretary Pots.
During the reading of the sentence the Advocate moved
uneasily on his seat, and seemed about to interrupt the clerk
at several passages which seemed to him especially preposterous.
But he controlled himself by a strong effort, and the clerk went
steadily on to the conclusion.
Then Barneveld said:
"The judges have put down many things which they have no
right to draw from my confession. Let this protest be added. "
"I thought too," he continued, "that my lords the States-
General would have had enough in my life and blood, and that
my wife and children might keep what belongs to them. Is this
my recompense for forty-three years' service to these provinces ? »
President de Voogd rose:
"Your sentence has been pronounced," he said. "Away!
away! " So saying, he pointed to the door into which one of
the great windows at the southeastern front of the hall had been
converted.
Without another word the old man rose from his chair. and
strode, leaning on his staff, across the hall, accompanied by his
faithful valet and the provost, and escorted by a file of soldiers.
The mob of spectators flowed out after him at every door into
the inner court-yard in front of the ancient palace.
IN THE beautiful village-capital of the "Count's Park," com-
monly called The Hague, the most striking and picturesque spot
then as now was that where the transformed remains of the old
moated castle of those feudal sovereigns were still to be seen. A
three-storied range of simple, substantial buildings, in brown
brickwork picked out with white stone, in a style since made
familiar both in England and America, and associated with a
somewhat later epoch in the history of the House of Orange,
surrounded three sides of a spacious inner paved quadrangle
called the Inner Court, the fourth or eastern side being over-
shadowed by a beechen grove. A square tower flanked each
angle; and on both sides of the southwestern turret extended the
commodious apartments of the Stadtholder. The great gateway
XVIII-651
## p. 10402 (#230) ##########################################
10402
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
on the southwest opened into a wide open space called the Outer
Court-yard. Along the northwest side a broad and beautiful sheet
of water, in which the walls, turrets, and chapel-spires of the
inclosed castle mirrored themselves, was spread between the mass
of buildings and an umbrageous promenade called the Vyverberg,
consisting of a sextuple alley of lime-trees, and embowering here
and there a stately villa. A small island, fringed with weeping
willows, and tufted all over with lilacs, laburnums, and other
shrubs then in full flower, lay in the centre of the miniature lake;
and the tall solid tower of the Great Church, surmounted by a
light openwork spire, looked down from a little distance over the
scene.
It was a bright morning in May. The white swans were
sailing tranquilly to and fro over the silver basin; and the mavis,
blackbird, and nightingale, which haunted the groves surround-
ing the castle and the town, were singing as if the daybreak
were ushering in a summer festival.
But it was not to a merry-making that the soldiers were
marching, and the citizens thronging so eagerly from every
street and alley towards the castle. By four o'clock the Outer
and Inner Courts had been lined with detachments of the
Prince's Guard, and companies of other regiments to the num-
ber of twelve hundred men. Occupying the northeastern side of
the court rose the grim, time-worn front of the ancient hall,
consisting of one tall pyramidal gable of ancient gray brickwork
flanked with two tall slender towers; the whole with the lancet-
shaped windows and severe style of the twelfth century, except-
ing a rose-window in the centre, with the decorated mullions of
a somewhat later period.
In front of the lower window, with its Gothic archway hastily
converted into a door, a shapeless platform of rough, unhewn
planks had that night been rudely patched together. This was
the scaffold. A slight railing around it served to protect it from
the crowd, and a heap of coarse sand had been thrown upon it.
A squalid, unclean box of unplaned boards, originally prepared as
a coffin for a Frenchman,- who some time before had been con-
demned to death for murdering the son of Goswyn Meurskens,
a Hague tavern-keeper, but pardoned by the Stadtholder, - lay
on the scaffold. It was recognized from having been left for
a long time, half forgotten, at the public execution place of The
Hague.
## p. 10403 (#231) ##########################################
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
10403
Upon this coffin now sat two common soldiers of ruffianly
aspect playing at dice, betting whether the Lord or the Devil
would get the soul of Barneveld. Many a foul and ribald jest
at the expense of the prisoner was exchanged between these
gamblers, some of their comrades, and a few townsmen who
were grouped about at that early hour. The horrible libels,
caricatures, and calumnies which had been circulated, exhibited,
and sung in all the streets for so many months, had at last
thoroughly poisoned the minds of the vulgar against the fallen
statesman.
The great mass of the spectators had forced their way by
daybreak into the hall itself to hear the sentence, so that the
Inner Court-yard had remained comparatively empty.
At last, at half-past nine o'clock, a shout arose, "There he
comes! there he comes! " and the populace flowed out from the
hall of judgment into the court-yard like a tidal wave.
In an instant the Binnenhof was filled with more than three
thousand spectators.
The old statesman, leaning on his staff, walked out upon the
scaffold and calmly surveyed the scene. Lifting his eyes to
heaven, he was heard to murmur, "O God! what does man
come to! " Then he said bitterly once more, «This, then, is the
reward of forty years' service to the State! "
La Motte, who attended him, said fervently: "It is no longer
time to think of this. Let us prepare your coming before God. "
"Is there no cushion or stool to kneel upon? " said Barneveld,
looking around him.
The provost said he would send for one; but the old man
knelt at once on the bare planks. His servant, who waited upon
him as calmly and composedly as if he had been serving him.
at dinner, held him by the arm. It was remarked that neither
master nor man, true stoics and Hollanders both, shed a single
tear upon the scaffold.
La Motte prayed for a quarter of an hour, the Advocate re-
maining on his knees.
He then rose and said to John Franken, "See that he does
not come near me," pointing to the executioner, who stood in
the background grasping his long double-handed sword. Barne-
veld then rapidly unbuttoned his doublet with his own hands,
and the valet helped him off with it. "Make haste! make
haste! " said his master.
## p. 10404 (#232) ##########################################
10404
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
The statesman then came forward, and said in a loud, firm
voice to the people:-
"Men, do not believe that I am a traitor to the country. I
have ever acted uprightly and loyally as a good patriot, and as
such I shall die. "
The crowd was perfectly silent.
He then took his cap from John Franken, drew it over his
eyes, and went forward towards the sand, saying:-
"Christ shall be my guide. O Lord, my Heavenly Father,
receive my spirit. "
As he was about to kneel with his face to the south, the
provost said:-
"My lord will be pleased to move to the other side, not
where the sun is in his face. "
He knelt accordingly with his face towards his own house.
The servant took farewell of him, and Barneveld said to the
executioner:
"Be quick about it. Be quick. "
The executioner then struck his head off at a single blow.
Many persons from the crowd now sprang, in spite of all
opposition, upon the scaffold, and dipped their handkerchiefs in
his blood, cut wet splinters from the boards, or grubbed up the
sand that was steeped in it; driving many bargains afterwards for
these relics to be treasured, with various feelings of sorrow, joy,
glutted or expiated vengeance.
It has been recorded, and has been constantly repeated to
this day, that the Stadtholder, whose windows exactly faced the
scaffold, looked out upon the execution with a spy-glass; saying
as he did so:-
"See the old scoundrel, how he trembles! He is afraid of the
stroke. "
But this is calumny. Colonel Hauterive declared that he was
with Maurice in his cabinet during the whole period of the exe-
cution; that by order of the prince all the windows and shutters
were kept closed; that no person wearing his livery was allowed
to be abroad; that he anxiously received messages as to the pro-
ceedings, and heard of the final catastrophe with sorrowful emo-
tion.
## p. 10405 (#233) ##########################################
10405
JOHN MUIR
(1836-)
OHN MUIR, an explorer and naturalist, whose field of work has
been particularly the western and northwestern mountain
regions of America, - where at least one great glacier now
bears his name,- - was born at Dunbar, Scotland, in 1836. With his
parents and a large flock of brothers and sisters, he came to the
United States in 1850, after some good common-schooling in Dunbar.
He began his study of nature in the region near Fort Winnebago,
Wisconsin, with an ever increasing interest and delight in whatever
belongs to the world of creatures, plants,
and stones, particularly in the waving soli-
tudes of forests and rock-and-snow tracts of
the northwestern Sierras.
Muir's freedom to devote himself to a
life of observation and record was delayed:
and in the story of his years of manual
work as a farmer, mechanic, lumberman,
sheep-herder, and what not besides, there
comes surprise at his power to find time
and energy for other pursuits in the nature
of an avocation; and with the surprise we
have a sense of pleasure that a man of
untiring muscles and mind could win free
of all that checked his natural preferences.
He studied grammar and mathematics while a farm hand, and read
through a library of books when in the fields. He earned enough as
a young man to give himself four years of special scientific study
in the University of Wisconsin. Then began an independent life,
in which he alternated seasons of hard work, wholly or much alone;
partly through the circumstances of his wanderings, partly by his
own choice. It is said that during ten years of mountaineering in the
remoter Sierras, he met no men except one band of Mono tribesmen.
JOHN MUIR
For some ten summers and winters prior to 1876, Mr. Muir was
settled near the Yosemite district. In the year named he became a
member of the Geodetic Survey of the Great Basin, and attempted
much botanical work. During 1879 and subsequently, after he reached
Alaska, he explored and charted its vast mountain ranges, discovered
## p. 10406 (#234) ##########################################
10406
JOHN MUIR
Glacier Bay and the Muir Glacier system; and with that expedition and
the two succeeding tours he became the foremost authority on Alas-
ka's geologic and other natural aspects. He also visited the Yukon
and Mackenzie Rivers, and traversed the cañon country of California.
He was of the party on board the Corwin in 1881, sent out to trace
the lost Jeannette, which enterprise added largely to his sketches.
and notes for scientific use. Since 1879, the year of his marriage,
Mr. Muir has had his home in California; but to find him in it at
other than a given time, is somewhat an accident, so indefatigable
is his industry as a naturalist. He is as ready to-day for an alpine
excursion of weeks or months as in the early period of a naturalistic
career exceptionally arduous and fruitful.
Mr. Muir has written much less than his explorations would
suggest: but as a contributor to the highest class of American and
foreign periodicals, and the author of volumes dealing with his expe-
riences, impressions, and discoveries, he is a writer of distinct and
unusual individuality. He is less a man of letters in his manner than
he is the direct, graphic, and sincere observer, whose aim is to write
down simply what he sees or feels, to ut the reader in the quickest
and closest touch with a topic or a scene. But the simplicity and
personal effect of his style give it a peculiar vigor and eloquence.
He has been spoken of as a naturalist whose observations "have the
force of mathematical demonstration. " In the study of glacial con-
ditions, botanic life, the fauna of the Northwest, and kindred subjects,
he is reckoned a specialist by the first scientists of the day; and his
personal traits have won him the esteem of the army of scientists
who have visited the Western country where he lives and works.
His most popular volume, 'The Mountains of California,' promises
to become a classic; his editorial contributions in Picturesque Cali-
fornia are thoroughly effective; and he has won wide favor through
descriptive pages, splendid for spontaneous and vivid prose pictures
of great scenery,— studies of the wind's movement of a pine forest,
or a delicate flower of California, or a wild-bird's lonely nest.
A WIND-STORM IN THE FORESTS
From The Mountains of California. Copyright 1894, by The Century
Company
THE
HE mountain winds, like the dew and rain, sunshine and snow,
are measured and bestowed with love on the forests, to
develop their strength and beauty. However restricted the
scope of other forest influences, that of the winds is universal.
The snow bends and trims the upper forests every winter, the
## p. 10407 (#235) ##########################################
JOHN MUIR
10407
lightning strikes a single tree here and there, while avalanches
mow down thousands at a swoop as a gardener trims out a bed
of flowers. But the winds go to every tree, fingering every leaf
and branch and furrowed bole; not one is forgotten: the Mount-
ain Pine towering with outstretched arms on the rugged but-
tresses of the icy peaks, the lowliest and most retiring tenant of
the dells, they seek and find them all, caressing them tenderly,
bending them in lusty exercise, stimulating their growth, pluck-
ing off a leaf or limb as required, or removing an entire tree or
grove, now whispering and cooing through the branches like a
sleepy child, now roaring like the ocean; the winds blessing the
forests, the forests the winds, with ineffable beauty and harmony
as the sure result.
-
After one has seen pines six feet in diameter bending like
grasses before a mountain gale, and ever and anon some giant
falling with a crash that shakes the hills, it seems astonishing
that any, save the lowest thick-set trees, could ever have found
a period sufficiently stormless to establish themselves; or once
established, that they should not sooner or later have been blown
down. But when the storm is over, and we behold the same
forests tranquil again, towering fresh and unscathed in erect
majesty, and consider what centuries of storms have fallen upon
them since they were first planted: hail, to break the tender
seedlings; lightning, to scorch and shatter; snow, winds, and
avalanches, to crush and overwhelm,- while the manifest result
of all this wild storm-culture is the glorious perfection we behold:
then faith in Nature's forestry is established, and we cease to
deplore the violence of her most destructive gales, or of any
other storm implement whatsoever.
There are two trees in the Sierra forests that are never blown
down, so long as they continue in sound health. These are the
Juniper and the Dwarf Pine of the summit peaks. Their stiff,
crooked roots grip the storm-beaten ledges like eagles' claws;
while their lithe, cord-like branches bend round compliantly,
offering but slight holds for winds, however violent. The other
alpine conifers- the Needle Pine, Mountain Pine, Two-leaved
Pine, and Hemlock Spruce-are never thinned out by this
agent to any destructive extent, on account of their admirable
toughness and the closeness of their growth. In general the
same is true of the giants of the lower zones. The kingly Sugar
Pine, towering aloft to a height of more than two hundred feet,
## p. 10408 (#236) ##########################################
10408
JOHN MUIR
offers a fine mark to storm-winds; but it is not densely foliaged,
and its long horizontal arms swing round compliantly in the
blast, like tresses of green, fluent algæ in a brook: while the Sil-
ver Firs in most places keep their ranks well together in united
strength.
The Yellow or Silver Pine is more frequently overturned
than any other tree on the Sierra, because its leaves and branches
form a larger mass in proportion to its height; while in many
places it is planted sparsely, leaving open lanes through which
storms may enter with full force. Furthermore, because it is
distributed along the lower portion of the range, which was the
first to be left bare on the breaking up of the ice-sheet at the
close of the glacial winter, the soil it is growing upon has been
longer exposed to post-glacial weathering, and consequently is in
a more crumbling, decayed condition than the fresher soils far-
ther up the range,
and therefore offers a less secure anchorage
for the roots. While exploring the forest zones of Mount Shasta,
I discovered the path of a hurricane strewn with thousands of
pines of this species. Great and small had been uprooted or
wrenched off by sheer force, making a clean gap, like that made
by a snow avalanche. But hurricanes capable of doing this class
of work are rare in the Sierra; and when we have explored the
forests from one extremity of the range to the other, we are
compelled to believe that they are the most beautiful on the
face of the earth, however we may regard the agents that have
made them so.
There is always something deeply exciting, not only in the
sounds of winds in the woods, which exert more or less influence
over every mind, but in their varied water-like flow as manifested
by the movements of the trees, especially those of the conifers.
By no other trees are they rendered so extensively and impress-
ively visible; not even by the lordly tropic palms or tree-ferns
responsive to the gentlest breeze. The waving of a forest of
the giant Sequoias is indescribably impressive and sublime; but
the pines seem to me the best interpreters of winds. They are
mighty waving golden-rods, ever in tune, singing and writing
wind-music all their long century lives. Little, however, of this
noble tree-waving and tree-music will you see or hear in the
strictly alpine portion of the forests. The burly Juniper, whose
girth sometimes more than equals its height, is about as rigid as
the rocks on which it grows. The slender lash-like sprays of the
## p. 10409 (#237) ##########################################
JOHN MUIR
10409
Dwarf Pine stream out in wavering ripples, but the tallest and
slenderest are far too unyielding to wave even in the heaviest
gales. They only shake in quick, short vibrations. The Hemlock
Spruce, however, and the Mountain Pine, and some of the tallest
thickets of the Two-leaved species, bow in storms with consid-
erable scope and gracefulness. But it is only in the lower and
middle zones that the meeting of winds and woods is to be seen
in all its grandeur.
One of the most beautiful and exhilarating storms I ever
enjoyed in the Sierra occurred in December 1874, when I hap-
pened to be exploring one of the tributary valleys of the Yuba
River. The sky and the ground and the trees had been thor-
oughly rain-washed and were dry again. The day was intensely
pure: one of those incomparable bits of California winter, warm
and balmy and full of white sparkling sunshine, redolent of all
the purest influences of the spring, and at the same time enliv-
ened with one of the most bracing wind-storms conceivable.
