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## p. 10372 (#200) ##########################################


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JL MOTLEY
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## p. 10373 (#201) ##########################################

10373
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
(1814-1877)
BY JOHN FRANKLIN JAMESON
RESCOTT, in the preface to his 'Philip the Second,' dated in
1855, after speaking of the revolt of the Netherlands as an
An episode in his narrative well deserving to be made the theme
of an independent work, adds with characteristic generosity: "It is
gratifying to learn that before long such a history may be expected
from the pen of our accomplished countryman Mr. J. Lothrop Motley.
No one acquainted with the fine powers of mind possessed by this
scholar, and the earnestness with which he has devoted himself to
his task, can doubt that he will do full justice to his important but
difficult subject. " Aside from what these kindly words toward a pos-
sible rival reveal of the lovable Prescott, they show us plainly that
in 1855, when Motley was forty-one years old, his brilliant talents still
remained unknown save to a relatively small circle. Froude, review-
ing the Dutch Republic' a year later, said: "Of Mr. Motley's ante-
cedents we know nothing. If he has previously appeared before the
public, his reputation has not crossed the Atlantic. " But if Motley
came suddenly and somewhat late to his high fame as a historian,
there had never been room for doubting his unusual gifts, nor his
vocation to literature; he had had, however, a long period of uncer-
tainty and experiment, touching the stops of various quills until at
last he struck his true note. Born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, (now
a part of Boston,) on April 15th, 1814, he had a good inheritance of
mental qualities. His father, a Boston merchant of North-of-Ireland
descent, was a handsome, genial, and witty man, with a taste for let-
ters; his mother, a woman of singular beauty and charm, was the
descendant of several Puritan clergymen, who had enjoyed literary
repute in colonial and post-Revolutionary Boston. He was a hand-
some, genial, and straightforward boy, imaginative and impetuous,
fond of reading though not of hard study. The most important part
of his school life was spent at Round Hill, Northampton, where
Joseph G. Cogswell and George Bancroft had established a famous
school, and conducted it after a manner likely to give a quick-minded
boy, along with his preparation for college, a taste for European lit-
erature and culture.


## p. 10374 (#202) ##########################################

10374
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
From Round Hill Motley went to Harvard College, and was grad-
uated there in 1831. Wendell Phillips and Thomas G. Appleton were
his classmates. He did not win academic distinction, and appeared
to lack application and industry, being indeed only a boy when he
completed his course. But he was exceedingly clever; and his class-
mates were not surprised when later he became famous, though they
were surprised that his fame was won in a branch of literature in-
volving so much laborious drudgery. His first appearance in print
was a translation from the German, which came out in a little col-
lege magazine. But he did not often contribute to the college publi-
cations, and indeed kept somewhat apart from most of his classmates,
partly from shyness perhaps, partly from youthful pride. A few
months after his graduation he went to Germany. To go to a Ger-
man university to continue one's studies was not then a common
thing among American young men; but Bancroft and others at Cam-
bridge had lately given an impulse in that direction. Motley thoroughly
enjoyed his two years of life at Göttingen and Berlin. He followed
lectures in the civil law chiefly; but was by no means wholly en-
grossed in study, as may be guessed from the fact that one of his
most intimate companions at both places was the youthful Bismarck.
A year of travel in Germany, Austria, Italy, France, and England
followed; and in the autumn of 1835 Motley returned to Boston,
and resumed the study of the law. In March 1837 he married Mary
Benjamin, sister of Park Benjamin; a lovely woman, who for thirty-
seven years was a constant source of happiness to him.
Motley's legal studies had never so preoccupied his mind as to
turn it away from the love of literature and from literary ambitions.
Two years after his marriage he made his first venture in the literary
world, publishing a novel entitled 'Morton's Hope, or the Memoirs
of a Young Provincial,' of which the scene is the America of Revo-
lutionary times. The book was wholly unsuccessful. Indeed, it had
the gravest defects of plan and general form. Yet it had a certain
distinction of style, and contained, among its loosely woven scenes,
not a few passages of sufficient merit to justify those friends who
still prophesied final success in spite of an unpromising beginning.
Like many another first novel, Morton's Hope' is manifestly in
part autobiographic. It reveals to us a young man of brilliant gifts,
a strong appetite for reading, a marked inclination toward history,
a mind somewhat self-centred, an impetuous temperament, and an
intense but vague and unfixed ambition for literary distinction.
For a time, Motley's ambition was not even confined to literature
exclusively; he dallied with diplomacy and politics. In 1841, when
the Whigs for the first time had a chance at the federal offices, a
new minister was sent out to St. Petersburg, and Motley went with
·


## p. 10375 (#203) ##########################################

JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
10375
him as secretary of legation. He remained there less than three
months, and then abandoned the diplomatic career and returned to
Boston, his books, and his dearly loved family. In the campaign of
1844 he made some political speeches, and in 1849 he was a member
of the Legislature of Massachusetts. But he derived little satisfaction
from his connection with politics, and felt a passionate disgust with
the rule of the politicians.
A second novel, 'Merry Mount,' published in 1849, was of much
more merit than the first; and showed a liveliness of imagination and
a power of description that gave promise of success near at hand,
if not to be attained in precisely this direction. The field of work
for which he was best fitted had already been made manifest to the
writer and his friends by the striking excellences of certain historical
essays which he had of late contributed to American magazines,
especially an essay on Peter the Great in the North American Review
for October 1845. By the next year his mind was already possessed
with one great historical subject, that of the revolt of the Nether-
lands from Spain, the subject which he has forever associated with
his name. "It was not," he afterward wrote, "that I cared about
writing a history, but that I felt an inevitable impulse to write one
particular history. " Hearing that Prescott was preparing a history of
Philip II. , he thought of abandoning the ground; but Prescott gener-
ously encouraged him. After three or four years of serious study,
Motley concluded that no satisfactory work of the kind he planned
could be written save upon the basis laid by thorough researches in
Europe, especially in European archives. Accordingly in 1851 he went
to Europe with his wife and family, there to labor at his absorbing
task, and as it proved, there to spend most of his remaining days.
Destroying what he had already written, Motley immersed himself
for nearly three years in the libraries and archives of Dresden, The
Hague, and Brussels, and so produced the three volumes of the 'Rise
of the Dutch Republic. ' The great Murray declined the book; and
it was published in England at the author's expense by Chapman &
Hall, and in New York by Harper & Brothers, in April 1856. Its
success was immediate, and for the production of an almost unknown
author, prodigious. Nearly all the reviews, both British and Ameri-
can, praised it in most flattering terms. The author had written to
his father that he should be surprised if a hundred copies of the
English edition had been sold at the end of a year; in point of fact
the number sold within a year was seventeen thousand.
The theme of that famous book is the revolt of the Dutch, and
the struggle by which they won their independence from Spain. Its
narrative opens with the abdication of Charles V. in 1555, and closes
with the assassination of William of Orange in 1584. It relates the


## p. 10376 (#204) ##########################################

10376
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
story of Spanish misgovernment, tyranny, and religious persecution
under Philip II. : the uprising of the provinces, both northern and
southern, against the cruelty of the Duke of Alva; the efforts of
the Prince of Orange to keep the provinces united and to maintain
the war; the heroic sieges of Haarlem and Leyden; the wars and nego-
tiations by which, under the guidance of a great statesman, the seven
northern Dutch provinces raised themselves from the condition of
dependents upon a foreign despot into that of an independent and
permanent republic. No wonder that the theme took possession of
Motley's imagination with haunting power; for the story is an inspir-
ing and stirring one even in the pages of the sober annalists whom
he succeeded and superseded, or in the formal documents upon which
his work was based. It appealed moreover to higher qualities than
his imagination. It is plain that the main source of his interest in
the story is a generous love of liberty, and the warm sympathy of an
ardent and noble nature with all exhibitions of individual and national
heroism.
It is this enthusiasm and warmth of feeling which have given the
'Dutch Republic,' to most minds, its chief charm; which have done
more than anything else to make it, in the estimation of the world
at large, one of the most interesting historical books ever written in
any language. But it has also many elements of technical perfection.
It is written with great care. Many of the sentences are exquisite in
felicity and finish. The style is dignified, yet rich with the evidences
of literary cultivation and fertile fancy. The larger matters of com-
position are managed with taste and power. Rarely has any historian
in the whole history of literature so united laborious scholarship with
dramatic intensity. His pages abound in vivid descriptions, and in
narrations instinct with life and force and movement. Through all
runs that current of generous ardor which makes the work essentially
an epic, having William of Orange as its hero, and fraught, like the
'Eneid,' with the fortunes of a noble nation. No doubt this epic
sweep interfered with the due consideration of many important and
interesting elements in Dutch history. The historians of that gener-
ation were mostly political and not constitutional. Prescott confessed
that he hated "hunting latent, barren antiquities. " Though Motley's
early legal studies had made him more apt in these constitutional
inquiries, so essential in Dutch history, his predilection was always
rather toward the history of men than toward the history of institu-
tions. Neither did Motley entirely escape those dangers of partial-
ity which beset the dramatic historian. Under his hands William
of Orange, a character undeniably heróic, became almost faultless;
while Philip and those Netherlanders who continued to adhere to
him were treated with somewhat less than justice. But much was


## p. 10377 (#205) ##########################################

JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
10377
forgiven, and rightly, to one who had endowed literature with a book
so interesting and so brilliant,- so full of life and color that it
seemed to have caught something from the canvases of Rubens and
Rembrandt.
In
Uncertain as to the reception of a large book by an unknown
author, Motley had paused after the completion of the manuscript of
the Dutch Republic,' had spent a year with his family in Switzer-
land, and another in Italy, and had made a brief visit to Boston.
the summer of 1857 he returned to Europe, and began the preparation
of a work continuing the history of the Netherlands from the date
of William's death. From that time the history of the Netherlands
widens into a broader stream, constantly associated with that of sev-
eral other countries. Motley was obliged to make more extensive re-
searches, delving in the archives of London, Paris, Brussels, and The
Hague. He was in London during the London seasons of 1858, 1859,
and 1860; a famous author now, fêted everywhere, and everywhere
enjoying with genial appreciation the best of English society. In the
two intervening winters, in Rome and in England, he wrote the first
two volumes of the History of the United Netherlands from the
Death of William the Silent,' which in 1860 were published by Mur-
ray and by Harper. A few months before, the author had received
from the University of Oxford the honorary degree of D. C. L.
The two volumes now published dealt with the history of five
years only, but they were years of the greatest moment to the young
republic. In 1584 the mainstay of the Dutch had been taken from
them; and Philip's general, the Prince of Parma, was soon to recover
both Ghent and Antwerp. By 1589 the great Armada had been de-
stroyed, the chief of dangers had been removed, and the republic,
with Henry of Navarre on the throne of France, was assured of inde-
pendent existence. During these critical years the relations of the
Dutch with England were so close, that to describe duly the diplo-
matic intercourse, the governor-generalship of Leicester, and the alli-
ance in defense against the Armada, Motley was obliged to become
almost as much the historian of England as of the Netherlands.
Measured by the technical standards of the scholar, the tale was
more difficult than that which had preceded it, and the achievement
more distinguished. But Motley felt the lack of a hero; and the new
volumes could not, from the nature of the case, possess the epic
quality in the same form which had marked the Dutch Republic. '
No doubt the book has been less widely read than its predecessor.
Yet the epic quality was present nevertheless; and the story of a
brave nation conquering for itself an equal place among the kingdoms
of the world was inspiring to the reader and deeply instructive to
the writer.
1


## p. 10378 (#206) ##########################################

10378
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
Immediately there came an opportunity for Motley's inborn love.
of liberty, and that appreciation of heroic national action which his
recent work had brought him, to expend themselves on the objects of
real and present life. At the beginning of the American Civil War,
stirred deeply by the prevalent misunderstanding and want of sym-
pathy in England, he wrote to the London Times an elaborate letter,
afterward signally influential as a pamphlet, explaining clearly and
comprehensively the character of the American Union, and the real
causes of the war. Unable to remain away from his country in such
a crisis, he returned to the United States, but was presently sent by
Mr. Lincoln as minister to Austria. Here he made it his chief occu-
pation to promote in Europe a right knowledge of American condi-
tions and of the aims of the Union party at home, and to awaken
and sustain European sympathy. In the two delightful volumes of
his 'Correspondence' (published in 1889) nothing is more interesting,
nothing contributes more to the reader's high appreciation of the
man, than the series of letters written from Vienna during war-time.
They show us a gifted and noble American passing through that
transformation which came over many another of his countrymen,
through the heart-straining experiences of those wonderful days. He
who not many years before had looked upon the public affairs of his
country with fastidious scorn, as the prey of low-minded politicians,
was now warmed into ardent and even flaming patriotism by the
peril of the Union, the struggle and the victory.
Official life in Vienna did not often leave much leisure for histor-
ical composition; but in 1867 Motley saw through the press the two
volumes which concluded his History of the United Netherlands. '
They continued the narrative at a more rapid rate than had seemed
appropriate to the critical years previously treated, and brought it
down to the conclusion of the Twelve Years' Truce between the
Netherlands and Spain, arranged in 1609. Twenty years of Dutch
history-war against Spain, negotiation with France and England
were embraced in these two volumes. With Elizabeth and Philip II.
giving place to James I. and Philip III. , these years were not so
interesting nor so important as those which had preceded; but Mot-
ley's eloquence, and his extraordinary skill in presentation, prevented
new volumes from seeming inferior to the old. Moreover, to an
imaginative American mind, a new element of interest was added
as the young republic began to be a naval power, and, prosperous
and energetic, launched out into brilliant projects of commerce and
colonial expansion in the remote regions of the East and of the New
World.
-
Meanwhile, however, Motley's official connection with his own
country had ceased. Some one wrote to President Johnson a letter


## p. 10379 (#207) ##########################################

JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
10379
slandering Motley. Though the letter might well have passed un-
noticed, Secretary Seward requested explanations. Motley, sensitive
and impulsive, accompanied his denials of the slanders with the ten-
der of his resignation. It was accepted; and he left the diplomatic
service with an acute sense of the indignity. Returning to America
in 1868, he was, by the favor of President Grant and of Senator Sum-
ner, appointed in 1869 to the high post of minister to Great Britain.
A year later he was asked to resign, and refusing to do so, was
recalled. A biographical sketch in a book of literature is doubtless
not the place in which to discuss the merits or demerits of political
actions of recent times, still warmly debated. It has been said on
the one side that the minister had departed from his instructions
in the important matter of the Alabama claims, to a degree that im-
paired his usefulness to his government; on the other side, that the
action of President Grant and Secretary Fish was but an angry move
in their quarrel with Senator Sumner. What is certain is, that to
the high-spirited minister, wholly unconscious of any but the most
faithful and patriotic service, this second blow was crushing. Indeed,
it may be said to have been ultimately fatal.
The plan which Motley had had in mind while writing the 'His-
tory of the United Netherlands' had been to continue that narrative
through the period of the Twelve Years' Truce, and then to widen
it into a history of the Thirty Years' War, or of the war so called in
Germany, and the thirty remaining years of warfare between the
Dutch and Spain, both ending with the peace of Westphalia in 1648.
The only part of this extensive plan which he succeeded in carrying
out was that relating to the period of the truce. Throughout those
twelve years the leading matter of Dutch history is the contest be-
tween John van Oldenbarneveld and Count Maurice of Nassau. Not
neglecting other aspects of the time, the death of Henry IV. , the
struggle over Jülich and Cleves, the preparation for the Thirty Years'
War,- Motley gave to the two volumes which he published in 1874
a biographical form, and the title of 'The Life and Death of John of
Barneveld. ' Thorough and conscientious, interesting and valuable
as the book is, it is not to be denied that it takes sides with Olden-
barneveld, and that it is written with less freshness and brilliancy
than the earlier volumes. His proud and sensitive spirit had received
a lacerating wound, and his health had begun to fail. At the end of
this year his dearly loved wife was taken from him. He wrote no
more; and on May 29th, 1877. he died near Dorchester in England.
It is a familiar thought that history must be written over again
for the uses of each new generation. The present world of histori-
ans, critics, and readers is attentive to many things which in Motley's
time were less valued. It has grown more strenuous in insisting
upon perfect objectivity in the treatment of international and civil
----


## p. 10380 (#208) ##########################################

10380
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
conflicts. Where forty years ago, in all countries, history was chiefly
the work of men more or less engaged in public affairs, or at least
the offspring of political minds, it now in all countries, whether for
good or for ill, springs mainly from professors or from minds pro-
fessorial. Its fashions change. But it is difficult to imagine that
any changes of fashion can seriously diminish either Motley's general
popularity or the force of his appeal to cultivated minds. His books,
while nowise lacking in most of the highest qualities of scholarship,
are also literature,- eloquent, glowing, and powerful,— and have, one
must think, that permanent value which belongs to every finished
product of fine art.
ходим
سمم
THE ABDICATION OF CHARLES V. OF SPAIN
From The Rise of the Dutch Republic. ' Copyright 1855, by John Lothrop
Motley. Reprinted by permission of Harper & Brothers
ON
N THE twenty-fifth day of October, 1555, the estates of the
Netherlands were assembled in the great hall of the palace
at Brussels. They had been summoned to be the wit-
nesses and the guarantees of the abdication which Charles V. had
long before resolved upon, and which he was that day to execute.
The Emperor, like many potentates before and since, was fond
of great political spectacles. He knew their influence upon the
masses of mankind. Although plain even to, shabbiness in his
own costume, and usually attired in black, no one ever under-
stood better than he how to arrange such exhibitions in a strik-
ing and artistic style. We have seen the theatrical and imposing
manner in which he quelled the insurrection at Ghent, and nearly
crushed the life forever out of that vigorous and turbulent little
commonwealth. The closing scene of his long and energetic
reign he had now arranged with profound study, and with an
accurate knowledge of the manner in which the requisite effects
were to be produced. The termination of his own career, the
opening of his beloved Philip's, were to be dramatized in a man-
ner worthy the august characters of the actors, and the import-
ance of the great stage where they played their parts. The eyes
of the whole world were directed upon that day towards Brussels;


## p. 10381 (#209) ##########################################

JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
10381
for an imperial abdication was an event which had not, in the
sixteenth century, been staled by custom.
The gay capital of Brabant of that province which rejoiced
in the liberal constitution known by the cheerful title of the
"joyful entrance was worthy to be the scene of the imposing
show. Brussels had been a city for more than five centuries,
and at that day numbered about one hundred thousand inhabit-
ants. Its walls, six miles in circumference, were already two
hundred years old. Unlike most Netherland cities, lying usually
upon extensive plains, it was built along the sides of an abrupt
promontory. A wide expanse of living verdure-cultivated gar-
dens, shady groves, fertile cornfields-flowed round it like a
sea. The foot of the town was washed by the little river
Senne, while the irregular but picturesque streets rose up the
steep sides of the hill like the semicircles and stairways of an
amphitheatre. Nearly in the heart of the place rose the auda-
cious and exquisitely embroidered tower of the town-house, three
hundred and sixty-six feet in height; a miracle of needlework in
stone, rivaling in its intricate carving the cobweb tracery of that
lace which has for centuries been synonymous with the city, and
rearing itself above a façade of profusely decorated and brocaded
architecture. The crest of the elevation was crowned by the
towers of the old ducal palace of Brabant, with its extensive
and thickly wooded park on the left, and by the stately mansions
of Orange, Egmont, Aremberg, Culemburg, and other Flemish
grandees, on the right. The great forest of Soignies, dotted with
monasteries and convents, swarming with every variety of game,
whither the citizens made their summer pilgrimages, and where
the nobles chased the wild boar and the stag, extended to within
a quarter of a mile of the city walls. The population, as thrifty,
as intelligent, as prosperous as that of any city in Europe, was
divided into fifty-two guilds of artisans, among which the most
important were the armorers, whose suits of mail would turn a
musket-ball; the gardeners, upon whose gentler creations incred-
ible sums were annually lavished; and the tapestry-workers,
whose gorgeous fabrics were the wonder of the world. Seven
principal churches, of which the most striking was that of St.
Gudule, with its twin towers, its charming façade, and its mag-
nificently painted windows, adorned the upper part of the city.
The number seven was a magic number in Brussels; and was
supposed at that epoch- during which astronomy was in its
――


## p. 10382 (#210) ##########################################

10382
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
infancy and astrology in its prime-to denote the seven plan-
ets which governed all things terrestrial by their aspects and
influences. Seven noble families, springing from seven ancient
castles, supplied the stock from which the seven senators were
selected who composed the upper council of the city. There
were seven great squares, seven city gates; and upon the occas-
ion of the present ceremony, it was observed by the lovers of
wonderful coincidences that seven crowned heads would be con-
gregated under a single roof in the liberty-loving city.
The palace where the states-general were upon this occasion
convened had been the residence of the Dukes of Brabant since
the days of John the Second, who had built it about the year
1300.
It was a spacious and convenient building, but not distin-
guished for the beauty of its architecture. In front was a large
open square, inclosed by an iron railing; in the rear an extensive
and beautiful park, filled with forest trees, and containing gar-
dens and labyrinths, fish-ponds and game preserves, fountains and
promenades, race-courses and archery grounds. The main entrance
to this edifice opened upon a spacious hall, connected with a
beautiful and symmetrical chapel. The hall was celebrated for its
size, harmonious proportions, and the richness of its decorations.
It was the place where the chapters of the famous order of the
Golden Fleece were held. Its walls were hung with a magnifi-
cent tapestry of Arras, representing the life and achievements.
of Gideon the Midianite, and giving particular prominence to the
miracle of the "fleece of wool," vouchsafed to that renowned
champion, the great patron of the Knights of the Fleece. On
the present occasion there were various additional embellish-
ments of flowers and votive garlands. At the western end a
spacious platform or stage, with six or seven steps, had been
constructed, below which was a range of benches for the deputies
of the seventeen provinces. Upon the stage itself there were
rows of seats, covered with tapestry, upon the right hand and
upon the left. These were respectively to accommodate the
knights of the order and the guests of high distinction. In the
rear of these were other benches for the members of the three
great councils. In the centre of the stage was a splendid canopy,
decorated with the arms of Burgundy, beneath which were placed
three gilded arm-chairs. All the seats upon the platform were
vacant; but the benches below, assigned to the deputies of the
provinces, were already filled.
Numerous representatives from all


## p. 10383 (#211) ##########################################

JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
10383
the States but two- Gelderland and Overyssel had already
taken their places. Grave magistrates in chain and gown, and
executive officers in the splendid civic uniforms for which the
Netherlands were celebrated, already filled every seat within
the space allotted. The remainder of the hall was crowded with
the more favored portion of the multitude, which had been fortu-
nate enough to procure admission to the exhibition. The archers
and hallebardiers of the body-guard kept watch at all the doors.
The theatre was filled, the audience was eager with expecta-
tion, the actors were yet to arrive. As the clock struck three,
the hero of the scene appeared. Cæsar, as he was always desig-
nated in the classic language of the day, entered, leaning on the
shoulder of William of Orange. They came from the chapel, and
were immediately followed by Philip the Second and Queen Mary
of Hungary. The Archduke Maximilian, the Duke of Savoy, and
other great personages came afterwards, accompanied by a glitter-
ing throng of warriors, councillors, governors, and Knights of the
Fleece.
Many individuals of existing or future historic celebrity in the
Netherlands, whose names are so familiar to the student of the
epoch, seemed to have been grouped, as if by premeditated design,
upon this imposing platform, where the curtain was to fall for-
ever upon the mightiest Emperor since Charlemagne, and where
the opening scene of the long and tremendous tragedy of Philip's
reign was to be simultaneously enacted. There was the bishop
of Arras, soon to be known throughout Christendom by the more
celebrated title of Cardinal Granvelle,-the serene and smiling
priest, whose subtle influence over the destinies of so many indi-
viduals then present, and over the fortunes of the whole land,
was to be so extensive and so deadly. There was that flower of
Flemish chivalry, the lineal descendant of ancient Frisian kings,
already distinguished for his bravery in many fields, but not hav-
ing yet won those two remarkable victories which were soon to
make the name of Egmont like the sound of a trumpet through-
out the whole country. Tall, magnificent in costume, with dark
flowing hair, soft brown eye, smooth cheek, a slight mustache,
and features of almost feminine delicacy,- such was the gallant
and ill-fated Lamoral Egmont. The Count of Horn, too, with
bold, sullen face, and fan-shaped beard,—a brave, honest, discon-
tented, quarrelsome, unpopular man; those other twins in doom,
the Marquis Berghen and the Lord of Montigny; the Baron


## p. 10384 (#212) ##########################################

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,


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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


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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


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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.