Excerpt from Supplement the Library of Historic Characters and Famous Events of All Nations and All Ages, Vol. 11

In May, I 567, the Duke of Alva, already notorious for his bigotry and cruelty, was appointed commander of the forces, though Margaret informed the king that the heretics had been subdued. On the approach of the dreaded Alva, thousands of the people sought refuge in foreign lands, but enough remained to satisfy his vindictive blood-thirstiness. One of his first acts was to arrest the Counts Egmont and Horn at a dinner given by the Duke's son. After a brief trial they were led to the scaffold. These noblemen had uniformly resisted the eu deavors of the Prince of Orange to induce them to take the field in resistance to the king's tyranny. They now obtained the reward Of their scrupulous fidelity to a faithless sovereign. The Prince of Orange had been summoned to trial before Alva came, but declined, on the ground that he was an inde pendent prince. None the less, he was condemned and de clared an outlaw.

One engine ofalva's cruelty was a Council of Disturbances, appointed to investigate the tumults throughout the country. In many Of these there had been destruction of images and church ornaments, which embittered the zeal Of the perse cutors. So terrible were the proceedings of this council, at which Alva presided, that it was soon called the Blood Tribunal. The whole country became a charnel-house. At last the Prince of Orange, filled with indignation at Alva's cruelty and butchery, published, in 1568, a declaration of his reasons for taking up arms against Philip. He sold his plate and jewels to hire troops in Germany, and in the following spring entered the Netherlands to carry on war. By this time the imperious Alva had thrust aside the Regent Margaret, who resigned her place, and was himself made governor-gen eral of the Netherlands. The Prince of Orange had planned attacks on three points. Two were unsuccessful; but in the third his brother Louis defeated Alva's lieutenant. But the troops were ill-paid, and Louis went into camp at Greningen. Alva, with men, marched thither, and completely routed the undisciplined mercenaries, while only seven Span iards were killed. Then the bloody work of the courts was renewed throughout the country.

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