Grotius-of Van der Vynckt, Wagenaer, Van Wyn, De Jonghe, Kluit, Van
Kampen, Dewez, Kappelle, Bakhuyzen, Groen van Prinsterer--of Ranke and
Raumer, have been as familiar to me as those of Mendoza, Carnero,
Cabrera, Herrera, Ulloa, Bentivoglio, Peres, Strada. The manuscript
relations of those Argus-eyed Venetian envoys who surprised so many
courts and cabinets in their most unguarded moments, and daguerreotyped
their character and policy for the instruction of the crafty Republic,
and whose reports remain such an inestimable source for the secret
history of the sixteenth century, have been carefully examined--
especially the narratives of the caustic and accomplished Badovaro, of
Suriano, and Michele. It is unnecessary to add that all the publications
of M. Gachard--particularly the invaluable correspondence of Philip II.
and of William the Silent, as well as the "Archives et Correspondence" of
the Orange Nassau family, edited by the learned and distinguished Groen
van Prinsterer, have been my constant guides through the tortuous
labyrinth of Spanish and Netherland politics. The large and most
interesting series of pamphlets known as "The Duncan Collection," in the
Royal Library at the Hague, has also afforded a great variety of details
by which I have endeavoured to give color and interest to the narrative.
Besides these, and many other printed works, I have also had the
advantage of perusing many manuscript histories, among which may be
particularly mentioned the works of Pontua Payen, of Renom de France, and
of Pasquier de la Barre; while the vast collection of unpublished
documents in the Royal Archives of the Hague, of Brussels, and of
Dresden, has furnished me with much new matter of great importance.
I venture to hope that many years of labour, a portion of them in the
archives of those countries whose history forms the object of my study,
will not have been entirely in vain; and that the lovers of human
progress, the believers in the capacity of nations for self-government
and self-improvement, and the admirers of disinterested human genius and