usual, he maintained a show of almost exaggerated respect for their
monarch. It was not to be presumed, he said, that his Majesty, "a king
debonair and bountiful," had ever intended such cruelties as those which
had been rapidly retraced in the letter, but it was certain that the Duke
of Alva had committed them all of his own authority. He trusted,
moreover, that the Emperor, after he had read the "Justification"
which the Prince had recently published, would appreciate the reason
for his taking up arms. He hoped that his Majesty would now consider
the resistance just, Christian, and conformable to the public peace.
He expressed the belief that rather than interpose any hindrance, his
Majesty would thenceforth rather render assistance "to the poor and
desolate Christians," even as it was his Majesty's office and authority
to be the last refuge of the injured.

The "Justification against the false blame of his calumniators by the
Prince of Orange," to which the Prince thus referred, has been mentioned
in a previous chapter. This remarkable paper had been drawn up at the
advice of his friends, Landgrave William and Elector Augustus, but it was
not the only document which the Prince caused to be published at this
important epoch. He issued a formal declaration of war against the Duke
of Alva; he addressed a solemn and eloquent warning or proclamation to
all the inhabitants of the Netherlands. These documents are all
extremely important and interesting. Their phraseology shows the
intentions and the spirit by which the Prince was actuated on first
engaging in the struggle. Without the Prince and his efforts--at this
juncture, there would probably have never been a free Netherland
commonwealth. It is certain, likewise, that without an enthusiastic
passion for civil and religious liberty throughout the masses of the
Netherland people, there would have been no successful effort on the
part of the Prince. He knew his countrymen; while they, from highest