the fatherland in an act of religious toleration, what lofty hopes for
the future was not the Prince justified in forming; for it was the
Prince alone who accomplished this victory of reason over passion.
As a monument, not only of his genius, but of the elevated aspirations
of a whole people in an age of intolerance, the "closer Union of
Brussels" deserves especial place in the history of human progress.
Unfortunately, it was destined to a brief existence. The battle of
Gemblours was its death-blow, and before the end of a month, the union
thus hopefully constructed was shattered for ever. The Netherland
people was never united again. By the Union of Utrecht, seven states
subsequently rescued their existence, and lived to construct a powerful
republic. The rest were destined to remain for centuries in the
condition of provinces to a distant metropolis, to be shifted about as
make-weights in political balances, and only in our own age to come into
the honorable rank of independent constitutional states.

The Prince had, moreover, strengthened himself for the coming struggle by
an alliance with England. The thrifty but politic Queen, fearing the
result of the secret practices of Alencon--whom Orange, as she suspected,
still kept in reserve to be played off, in case of need, against Matthias
and Don John--had at last consented to a treaty of alliance and subsidy.
On the 7th of January, 1578, the Marquis Havre, envoy from the estates,
concluded an arrangement in London, by which the Queen was to lend them
her credit--in other words, to endorse their obligations, to the amount
of one hundred thousand pounds sterling. The money was to be raised
wherever the states might be able to negotiate the bills, and her
liability was to cease within a year. She was likewise to be
collaterally secured by pledges from certain cities in the Netherlands.
This amount was certainly not colossal, while the conditions were
sufficiently parsimonious. At the same time a beginning was made,