important transactions, to penetrate the heart of the mystery which
enwrapped at this period the relations of the great powers with each
other. Enough has been seen to silence for ever the plea, often entered
in behalf of religious tyranny, that the tyrant acts in obedience to a
sincere conviction of duty; that, in performing his deeds of darkness,
he believes himself to be accomplishing the will of Heaven. Here we have
seen Philip, offering to restore the Prince of Orange, and to establish
freedom of religion in the Netherlands, if by such promises he can lay
hold of the Imperial diadem. Here also we have Charles IX. and his
mother--their hands reeking with the heretic-blood of St. Bartholomew--
making formal engagements with heretics to protect heresy everywhere,
if by such pledges the crown of the Jagellons and the hand of Elizabeth
can be secured.

While Louis was thus busily engaged in Germany, Orange was usually
established at Delft. He felt the want of his brother daily, for the
solitude of the Prince, in the midst of such fiery trials, amounted
almost to desolation. Not often have circumstances invested an
individual with so much responsibility and so little power. He was
regarded as the protector and father of the country, but from his own
brains and his own resources he was to furnish himself with the means of
fulfilling those high functions. He was anxious thoroughly to discharge
the duties of a dictatorship without grasping any more of its power than
was indispensable to his purpose. But he was alone on that little
isthmus, in single combat with the great Spanish monarchy. It was to him
that all eyes turned, during the infinite horrors of the Harlem sieges
and in the more prosperous leaguer of Alkmaar. What he could do he did.
He devised every possible means to succor Harlem, and was only restrained
from going personally to its rescue by the tears of the whole population
of Holland. By his decision and the spirit which he diffused through the