slippery-pathway, and might, even like Egmont and Horn, find a scaffold-
as the end and the reward of his career. So profound was that abyss of
dissimulation which constituted the royal policy, towards the
Netherlands, that the most unscrupulous partisans of government could
only see doubt and danger with regard to their future destiny, and
were sometimes only saved by an opportune death from disgrace and
the hangman's hands.

Such, then, were the sentiments of many eminent personages, even among
the most devoted loyalists. All longed for peace; many even definitely
expected it, upon the arrival of the Great Commander. Moreover, that
functionary discovered, at his first glance into the disorderly state of
the exchequer, that at least a short respite was desirable before
proceeding with the interminable measures of hostility against the
rebellion. If any man had been ever disposed to give Alva credit for
administrative ability, such delusion must have vanished at the spectacle
of confusion and bankruptcy which presented, itself at the termination of
his government. He resolutely declined to give his successor any
information whatever as to his financial position. So far from
furnishing a detailed statement, such as might naturally be expected
upon so momentous an occasion, he informed the Grand Commander that even
a sketch was entirely out of the question, and would require more time
and labor than he could then afford. He took his departure, accordingly,
leaving Requesens in profound ignorance as to his past accounts; an
ignorance in which it is probable that the Duke himself shared to the
fullest extent. His enemies stoutly maintained that, however loosely his
accounts had been kept, he had been very careful to make no mistakes
against himself, and that he had retired full of wealth, if not of honor,
from his long and terrible administration. His own letters, on the
contrary, accused the King of ingratitude, in permitting an old soldier