The Silent Prince a Story of the Netherlands

ISBN: 9781330705667 出版年：2016 页码：292 Mrs Hattie Arnold Clark Forgotten Books

When the Emperor Charles entered the royai palace at Brussels, and leaning on the arm of Wil liam of Orange, delivered his valedictory address in broken accents to the assembled throng, the people wept and applauded. They forgot, in that hour, that it was his hand which had planted the Inquisition in their midst. His faithful subjects remembered only that he was a Fleming, and that his preference for the language and customs of his native land, neither the imperial crown of Ger many, nor the Spanish diadem which destiny had added. To the coronet of his fatherland, could dimin ish in the slightest degree. They readily took the oath of allegiance to support his son, and at the time they were sincere in their pledges Of fealty. Ten years wrought many changes. Philip the Second was soon detested by the Netherlanders as much as his father was revered. These provinces, so passionate in their desire for civil and religious liberty, had become the property of an utter stranger — a prince foreign to their blood, their tongue, their religion; to one whose oft-repeated maxim was, Better not rule at all, than to rule over a nation of heretics.