thousand crowns; in gold. If he have committed any crime, however
heinous, we promise to pardon him; and if he be not already noble, we
will ennoble him for his valor."

Such was the celebrated ban against the Prince of Orange. It was
answered before the end of the year by the memorable "Apology of the
Prince of Orange" one of the moat startling documents in history. No
defiance was ever thundered forth in the face of a despot in more
terrible tones. It had become sufficiently manifest to the royal party
that the Prince was not to be purchased by "millions of money," or by
unlimited family advancement--not to be cajoled by flattery or offers of
illustrious friendship. It had been decided, therefore, to terrify him
into retreat, or to remove him by murder. The Government had been
thoroughly convinced that the only way to finish the revolt, was to
"finish Orange," according to the ancient advice of Antonio Perez. The
mask was thrown off. It had been decided to forbid the Prince bread,
water, fire, and shelter; to give his wealth to the fisc, his heart to
the assassin, his soul, as it was hoped, to the Father of Evil. The
rupture being thus complete, it was right that the "wretched hypocrite"
should answer ban with ban, royal denunciation with sublime scorn. He
had ill-deserved, however, the title of hypocrite, he said. When the
friend of government, he had warned them that by their complicated and
perpetual persecutions they were twisting the rope of their own ruin.
Was that hypocrisy? Since becoming their enemy, there had likewise been
little hypocrisy found in him--unless it were hypocrisy to make open war
upon government, to take their cities, to expel their armies from the
country.

The proscribed rebel, towering to a moral and even social superiority
over the man who affected to be his master by right divine, swept down