The Rise of the Dutch Republic — Volume 16: 1569-70Motley, John Lothrop
History
The Rise of the Dutch Republic — Volume 16: 1569-70
Motley, John Lothrop
Netherlands -- Church history; Netherlands -- History -- Eighty Years' War, 1568-1648
memorial or letter which he might write, to the execution which was about
to take place. He was to use the language of a man seriously ill, and
who feels himself at the point of death. By this infernal ingenuity it
was proposed to make the victim an accomplice in the plot, and to place a
false exculpation of his assassins in his dying lips. The execution
having been fulfilled, and the death having been announced with the
dissimulation prescribed, the burial was to take place in the church of
Saint Saviour, in Simancas. A moderate degree of pomp, such as befitted
a person of Montigny's quality, was to be allowed, and a decent tomb
erected. A grand mass was also to be celebrated, with a respectable
number, "say seven hundred," of lesser masses. As the servants of the
defunct were few in number, continued the frugal King, they might be
provided each with a suit of mourning. Having thus personally arranged
all the details of this secret work, from the reading of the sentence to
the burial of the prisoner; having settled not only the mode of his
departure from life, but of his passage through purgatory, the King
despatched the agent on his mission.
The royal program was faithfully enacted. Don Alonzo arrived at
Valladolid; and made his arrangements with Don Eugenio. It was agreed
that a paper, prepared by royal authority, and brought by Don Alonzo from
Madrid, should be thrown into the corridor of Montigny's prison. This
paper, written in Latin, ran as follows:
"In the night, as I understand, there will be no chance for your
escape. In the daytime there will be many; for you are then in
charge of a single gouty guardian, no match in strength or speed for
so vigorous a man as you. Make your escape from the 8th to the 12th
of October, at any hour you can, and take the road contiguous to the
castle gate through which you entered. You will find Robert and
John, who will be ready with horses, and with everything necessary.
May God favor your undertaking.--R. D. M."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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