Was it astonishing that murder was more common than fidelity?
With the subsequent career of Antonio Perez--his famous process, his banishment, his intrigues, his innuendos, his long exile, and his miserable death, this history has no concern.

We return from our brief digression.
Before narrating the issue of the plot against Antwerp citadel, it is necessary to recur for a moment to the Prince of Orange.

In the deeds and the written words of that one man are comprised nearly all the history of the Reformation in the Netherlands--nearly the whole progress of the infant Republic.

The rest, during this period, is made up of the plottings and counter-plottings, the mutual wranglings and recriminations of Don John and the estates.
In the brief breathing-space now afforded them, the inhabitants of Holland and Zealand had been employing themselves in the extensive repairs of their vast system of dykes.

These barriers, which protected their country against the ocean, but which their own hands had destroyed to preserve themselves against tyranny, were now thoroughly reconstructed, at a great expense, the Prince everywhere encouraging the people with his presence, directing them by his experience, inspiring them with his energy.