The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1868-02-19

His skill in mathematics aud engin-
eering Was now to b. diEeetei- against
the hereditary foe assisting him
was LEWIS WILLIAM, Stakeholder Of
Freisland, quaint, rugged little
hero. young 10 years, but almost a
veteyan il the wars Of freedom, as
genial and intellectual in council as
he was reckless and impulsiye in the
field"
These two at once took steps to put
their little army in the best possible
condition, :, aud began the campaign
by surprising and capturing Breda,
AN important fortress and town, in
which PHILIP had left a strong gar
Prison for the purpose of keeping the
surrounding country in subsection.
The incidents connected with the
capture of Breda are romantic il
the extreme, and lose none of their
thrilling interest in Mr.. MoTLEYs
recital. We would like to. copy ex-
tracts, showing the power and skill
with which the author portrays ex-
citing historical incidents, but our
want Of space will not permit. The
battle of IVry, ia which HENRY of
Navarro overthrow and routed the
forces of the League, is described in
the third volume aud 50 wildly that
the reader albost realizes that he
beholds the whife plume of HENRY,
as he leads his squadrons into the
thickest of the fight.
10 the analysis Of character, Mr.
MOTLEY has y ven a master. His
portraituEe 81 PHnIPs is most skill
fully drawn, aud he refers to PH1LIP's
gigantic crimes, as illustrations of the
vices of despoeic systems. Few men
known to history have been able to
accomplish such vast amount oe
evil as this self-righteous monarch.
The conscientious research of The
author has not been able to discover in
him single virtue. IF there are any
vices from which he was exempt, it is
because human nature cannot attain
perfection even in evil. The only
plausible explanation of his infamous
career, is that he believed himself not
a king but a god
He was placed SO high above his
fellow creatures as, In good faith per-
haps, to believe himself incapable Of
doing wrong; so that, whether in
dulging his passions or enforcing
throughout the world his religious |
and political dogmas, he was ever
conscious of enbUdying divine in |
spiratIons and elemental laws. When |
providing for the assassination of a |
monarch, or commanding the massa- |
ere of town full of Protestants;
when trampling on every oath by |
which a human being can bind him /
self; when laying desolate with fire |
and sword, during more than a gener-
alton, the provinces which be had |
inherited as his private property, or in
carefully maintaining the flames
of civil war in foreign king
doms which he hoped to acquire;
while maintaining over all Christen-
4On q SASGnAAC G9oACA4 VI UAEDEAIs GUk- /
ruptiOn aEd espionage, keeping the
nOblest names of England aud Scot
land on his pension lists of traitors,
and iulpoverIshing his exchequer
with the wages of iniquity paid In
France to men of all degrees, from
princes of blood like Guise and May
enne down to the Obscurest of couatry
squires, he ever felt that these base
or bloody deeds were not crimes, but
the simple will of the godhead of
which he was portion. He never
doubted that the extraordinary theo-
logical system which he spent his life
in enforcing with fire and sword was
right, for it was part
of himself. The Holy Inquisition,
established as twas in his
ancestral Spain, was a portion of the
regular working machinery by which /
his absolute kingship and his super
human will expressed themselves. A
tribunal which performed its func-
tons with a celebrity, certainty, and
resembling the attributes
Of Omnipotence which, like the pes
llence, entered palace or howell at
will, and which smote the wretch |
guilty or suspected of heresy with a
precision against which no human in
yenuity or sympathy could guard
such an institution could not but be
lear to his heart. 1t was in
that the extension and
of what he deemed
is blessings throughout his domin-
ons should be his settled purpose.
Spain was governed by an esta blished
terrorism. 1t is a mistake to suppose
hat Philip was essentially beloved in