History of Protestantism in the Netherlands - James Aitken Wylie

voyages by sea; he had fought four battles, won
victories, held Diets, framed treaties -- -so ran the
tale of work. He had passed nights and nights in
anxious deliberation over the growth of
Protestantism, and he had sought to alleviate the
mingled mortification and alarm its progress
caused him, by fulminating one persecuting edict
after another in the hope of arresting it.
In addition to marches and battles, thousands of
halters and stakes had he erected; but of these he is
discreetly silent. He is silent too regarding the
success which had crowned these mighty efforts
and projects. Does he retire because he has
succeeded? No; he retires because he has failed.
His infirm frame is but the image of his once
magnificent empire, over which decrepitude and
disorder begin to creep. One young in years, and
alert in body, is needed to recruit those armies
which battle has wasted, to replenish that
exchequer which so many campaigns have made
empty, to restore the military prestige which the
flight, from Innspruck and succeeding disasters
have tarnished, to quell the revolts that are
53