Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2012
This pamphlet was written before 1 October 1578, the day of Don John's death. Peter Dathenus, the Calvinist minister officiating since September 1578 at Ghent, is the author of the Dutch translation. In this fragment the leading nobles of the Netherlands are attacked for being unreliable in the fight with the Spaniards.
You know the men who have helped to introduce, establish and execute the duke of Alva's tyranny and who have to the best of their ability supported and strengthened the authority and the violence of the cruel and haughty Spaniards. You know the men who in every one's opinion have brought the ensuing misery and calamities upon you but nevertheless you let them administer your most secret and important affairs. Are you really so simple as to think that they have so quickly turned from wolves into sheep, from tyrants into reasonable and humble rulers, from traitors to the fatherland and enemies to its freedoms into protectors and lovers of the country and its freedoms? Can a fountain give fresh and salt water at the same time? Do you not believe rather, what is the truth too, that they have turned their coats inside out and changed their speech but have kept the same duplicity and malevolence? Do you not see that some of these people who have done much harm and damage to the fatherland have been recently exposed? You may rest assured that there are still many around who await their opportunity for playing their game.
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