On one side of this street was the "Old
Kirk," a plain, antique structure of brick, with lancet windows, and
with a tall, slender tower, which inclined, at a very considerable
angle, toward a house upon the other side of the canal. That house was
the mansion of William the Silent. It stood directly opposite the
church, being separated by a spacious court-yard from the street, while
the stables and other offices in the rear extended to the city wall. A
narrow lane, opening out of Delft Street, ran along the side of the
house and court in the direction of the ramparts. The house was a plain,
two-storied edifice of brick, with red-tiled roof, and had formerly been
a cloister dedicated to St. Agatha, the last prior of which had been
hanged by the furious Lumey de la Marck.[1]
[1] Francis, Duke of Anjou, the French accomplice of Catherine de'
Medici in persecution of the Protestants, is elsewhere described
by Motley as "the most despicable personage who had ever entered
the Netherlands."
The news of Anjou's death had been brought to Delft by a special
messenger from the French court. On Sunday morning, July 8, 1584, the
Prince of Orange, having read the despatches before leaving his bed,
caused the man who had brought them to be summoned, that he might give
some particular details by word of mouth concerning the last illness of
the Duke.
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