his name, and vindicated the ancient military renown of his nation, the
Duke was at liberty to employ the consummate tactics, in which he could
have given instruction to all the world, against his most formidable
antagonist. The country, paralyzed with fear, looked anxiously but
supinely upon the scientific combat between the two great champions of
Despotism and Protestantism which succeeded. It was soon evident that
the conflict could terminate in but one way. The Prince had considerable
military abilities, and enthusiastic courage; he lost none of his well-
deserved reputation by the unfortunate issue of his campaign; he measured
himself in arms with the great commander of the age, and defied him, day
after day, in vain, to mortal combat; but it was equally certain that the
Duke's quiet game was, played in the most masterly manner. His positions
and his encampments were taken with faultless judgment, his skirmishes
wisely and coldly kept within the prescribed control, while the
inevitable dissolution of the opposing force took place exactly as he had
foreseen, and within the limits which he had predicted. Nor in the
disastrous commencement of the year 1572 did the Duke less signally
manifest his military genius. Assailed as he was at every point, with
the soil suddenly upheaving all around him, as by an earthquake, he did
not lose his firmness nor his perspicacity. Certainly, if he had not
been so soon assisted by that other earthquake, which on Saint
Bartholomew's Day caused all Christendom to tremble, and shattered the
recent structure of Protestant Freedom in the Netherlands, it might have
been worse for his reputation. With Mons safe, the Flemish frontier
guarded; France faithful, and thirty thousand men under the Prince of
Orange in Brabant, the heroic brothers might well believe that the Duke
was "at their mercy." The treason of Charles IX. "smote them as with a
club," as the Prince exclaimed in the bitterness of his spirit. Under
the circumstances, his second campaign was a predestined failure, and
Alva easily vanquished him by a renewed application of those dilatory