their own vessels, who were only too happy to carry on a private war. With commissions to cruise against the Duke of Alva and his adherents, these "Beggars of the Sea," as they called themselves, soon made their power felt.

From the ocean was struck the first blow which strengthened the hands of the Prince of Orange. Its effects were not then appreciated; in fact, it seemed like a misfortune; but it contributed somewhat to force England into the controversy, and also to bring about the consolidation of the Catholics and Protestants at home which was essential to a successful revolution. Early in 1569, some privateers, holding commissions from the Prince of Condé, chased into the ports of England several merchantmen belonging to Spain, with eight hundred thousand dollars in specie, borrowed from Italian bankers for the payment of Alva's troops. Remaining outside, they blockaded the harbor so that the trading ships did not dare to put to sea. The Spanish ambassador complained to Queen Elizabeth, who promised speedy redress. She granted it by seizing on the money and appropriating it to herself as a loan from its Italian owners. This high-handed act, committed while the two nations were at peace, infuriated Alva. He is sued a proclamation commanding the arrest of every Englishman in the Netherlands, and the seizure of all English property. Elizabeth retaliated by measures of the same character, to which Alva replied by forbidding all intercourse with England. Appeals were made to Philip in Spain, but it was four years before the controversy was finally arranged.*

Meantime, the Flemish manufacturers and merchants,

* Froude, ix. 371.

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deprived of English wool and excluded from an English market, suffered greatly. Hostilities were now brought to their very doors. It was no longer a question of murdering a few thousand heretics, but one which af fected directly their national prosperity. Upon England the effect was more marked, not only upon trade, but in other quarters. Elizabeth had no sympathy with the insurgents in the Netherlands, and had committed this act of spoliation simply in the spirit of a corsair queen, assuming that Spain was too much absorbed to make reprisals. She was right in thinking that Philip did not wish to add another enemy to his list, but neither he nor Alva ever quite forgave the outrage. With this event begin the plots for her dethronement and the substitution of her cousin, Mary Stuart. Shortly thereafter occurred the Catholic uprising in the northern counties, and the pope's bull of excommunication against Elizabeth.

While these results were working out across the Channel, Alva was not idle. He went on with his work as if possessed by the evil genius of Spain. Although the country was now at peace, no halt was called in the process of exterminating heresy. For some months, to be sure, a general pardon was promised; but when promulgated with a great parade, in the summer of 1570, the exceptions were found to be so numerous as to work its virtual cancellation. The fires still blazed around the stake, the scaffolds ran with blood, and the pits in which the victims were buried while alive multiplied on every side. And yet the rich mines to be opened by the Spaniards did not yield the promised treasure. Alva had. been obliged largely to increase his army, which now numbered over sixty thousand; he had manned all the old fortresses and built new citadels,

until the country looked like a camp of Spain. All this was necessary to keep the insurgent elements under foot, but it took large sums of money, and, although the confiscations were numerous enough, the expenses left no profits. The promised stream of gold flowed in the wrong direction for the royal coffers, and the duke had enemies at court whose tongues were never idle.

Of Alva's military ability there can be no question; he was now to show himself the most incapable of statesmen and financiers. In Spain, and in his own dukedom, there existed a very simple method of taxation. All the land paid one per cent. annually on its value, and when sold it paid five per cent. This latter tax was heavy, but that on the sales of personal property was twice as large, being one tenth of the selling price. Among an agricultural people, where land was rarely sold, and where the only sales of personal property were those of the produce of the soil, this system had worked without resistance. The brilliant idea now occurred to the Spanish general that, applied to the Netherlands, it would solve his financial problem and enable him to realize his promised stream of gold.

When this proposition was submitted to the assemblies of the states, in 1569, it was greeted with an indignant protest. Such a tax was not only violative of all the ancient charters, but it would be ruinous to trade. Among a manufacturing community an article is sold many times before it reaches the hand of the consumer. A tax of ten per cent. on every sale would amount to a substantial confiscation. These and kindred arguments were urged upon the duke, but he remained inflexible. His only answer was that it worked well among his people. At length all the representatives gave way except those from Utrecht. That prov

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ince was adjudged to have forfeited all its privileges and was subjected to an enormous fine. The people, however, were so aroused, and so great a pressure was brought to bear upon the governor, that in consideration of a large sum of ready money he consented, for two years, from 1570, to suspend the operation of the law. The two years rolled around, long enough for the persecuted Protestants, but far too short for the men of business, who foresaw impending ruin. When the time was up, Alva announced that there should be no more postponements.

Here, at last, the crisis of the struggle had arrived. Religious persecution must of necessity affect comparatively few, unjust taxation touches every member of society. Men may differ about articles of faith and theories of government, but all alike feel the burden when the tax-gatherer appears. Hence, sagacious statesmen glove the hand which fills the public purse. Of this wise policy, Alva, whose hands were cased in mail, knew nothing. The great difficulty in bringing about an uprising in the Netherlands had arisen from the fact that the Protestants for a long time were in a minority, and were mostly made up of the poorer classes. It was an age, too, when military discipline was all-important for conflicts in the field. The fortresses and walled towns with which the land was studded were mostly garrisoned by Spanish troops, and could be taken only by a general concert of action among the citizens. This concert of action, which had hitherto been impossible, the last act of Alva was now to bring about.

In 1570, the Huguenot war in France had come to an end by the ill-fated peace which led to the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. William of Orange had again retired to Germany. Ever watchful and untiring, he kept up a

constant communication with the Netherlands. There the work was going bravely on. The air was full of the electricity which precedes a storm. The discontent was universal, for the people foresaw the total destruction of their civil as well as their religious liberty. When the moment for action came, it developed a policy which America, two centuries later, followed in its resistance to the Stamp act. Rather than pay the tax of Alva, the people, by unanimous consent, suspended business. Every form of industry came to a sudden stand. Even the brewers refused to sell their beer, the bakers to make bread, or the hotel-keepers to furnish accommodations for their guests. Multitudes of workmen out of employment filled the streets; the Spanish soldiers went hungry because they could no longer purchase provisions. Alva, of course, was in a fury. Armed resisttance he could meet, but how make an entire people resume their occupations? At length he hit upon a plan in consonance with his whole course of conduct. Of yielding he had no thought, but he would make a terrible example of some of these refractory shopkeepers.

Early in April, 1572, he sent one night for the public executioner. To him he gave an order to arrest at once eighteen of the leading tradesmen of Brussels, and early in the morning hang them each in his own doorway. The ropes and extempore scaffolds were prepared, but before the morning dawned Alva was awakened to hear of something more important than the sale of bread and meat. It was the outbreak on the sea-coast which laid the foundations of the Dutch Republic.

In the latter days of March, a fleet of twenty-four vessels, belonging to the Beggars of the Sea, was lying off the southern coast of England. It was commanded by Admiral William de la Marck, a descendant of the