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And shall the false dissembler cozen thus, And win a safe immunity from this That no avenger comes? By heavens she shall not! 'Tis the sure way to win the monarch's ear! A chamber in the royal palace. DOMINGO. Something to tell me! ALVA. Ay! a thing of moment, Of which I made discovery to-day, And I would have your judgment on it. DOMINGO. How! Discovery! To what do you allude?

The Duke of Alva was a man upon whose administrative prudence and military skill his sovereign could implicitly rely, nor was there a person in the ranks of the rebels capable of, conducting an enterprise of such moment.

The besieging army was rich in notabilities of elevated rank. Don Frederic of Toledo had hitherto commanded, but on the 27th of August, the Dukes of Medina Coeli and of Alva had arrived in the camp. Directly afterwards came the warlike Archbishop of Cologne, at the head of two thousand cavalry.

Alva continued to censure the foolhardiness which had risked so valuable an army on a single blow. Egmont's friends replied that it was easy for foreigners, who had nothing at risk in the country, to look on while the fields of the Netherlands were laid waste, and the homes and hearths of an industrious population made desolate, by a brutal and rapacious soldiery.

"Philip then sent the savage and relentless Duke of Alva to suppress the new religion in the Netherlands. Egmont and Horn were beheaded at Brussels, and the Prince of Orange retired into Germany, appealing to the Protestant princes for assistance.

Nevertheless he admitted that these same "master-beggars," as he called them, might prove too many for either general alone. Alva, in reply, expressed his confidence that four or five thousand choice troops of Spain would be enough to make a short war of it, but nevertheless warned his officers of the dangers of overweening confidence.

His envoys were refused an audience, and the Duke was taxed with presumption in venturing, as if he had been a sovereign, to send a legation to a crowned head. No satisfaction was given to Alva, but a secret commissioner was despatched to Spain to discuss the subject there. The wrath of Alva was not appeased by this contemptuous treatment.

Meantime the second civil war in France had broken out. The hollow truce by which the Guise party and the Huguenots had partly pretended to deceive each other was hastened to its end; among other causes, by the march of Alva, to the Netherlands.

They thanked him for his previous interposition in favor of the Netherlands, painted in lively colors the cruelty of Alva, and denounced the unheard-of rigor with which he had massacred, not only many illustrious seigniors, but people of every degree.

But since all else are silent And since the magic spell of beauty binds All other tongues, I dare to give it voice; Though well I know a son's warm protestations, A wife's seductive charms and winning tears Rise, Alva! thou hast now my royal promise; Rise, and speak fearlessly! Your majesty, Perchance, may bear in your remembrance still What happened in the garden at Aranjuez.