his death. Years before, Antonio Perez had written to Don John that he must "finish Orange," if he desired to satisfy the King. And now Cardinal Granvelle, whilom the Prince's mentor, friend, colleague, and rival, kept urging Philip to offer a reward of 30,000 or 40,000 crowns to deliver the Prince dead or alive. "The very fear of it," wrote the deadly prelate, "will paralyse or kill him." The King listened to his counsel, wrote to Parma, by Granvelle's hand, to offer the sum for the death of l'homme si pernitieux, and issued his famous Ban, dated Maestricht, 15th March 1580, which may be thus condensed.
Philip, by the grace of God, King of Castile, and so forth, etc., etc., to all to whom these presents shall come. Whereas, William of Nassau, a foreigner in our realms, once honoured and promoted by the late Emperor and by ourselves, has by sinister practices and arts gained over malcontents, lawless men, insolvents, innovators, and especially those who were suspected of religion; and has instigated these heretics to rebel, to destroy sacred images and churches and profane the sacraments of God; and has promoted revolt by a long series of offences, encouraging the public preaching of heresy, and persecuting priests, monks, and nuns with a view to exterminate by impieties our Holy Catholic faith; whereas he has taken a consecrated nun and abbess in the lifetime of his own lawful wife, and still lives with her in infamy; whereas he has been the head of the rebellion against our sister, the Duchess of Parma, against the Duke of Alva, and our brother Don John, and still persists in this treason, refusing all our offers of clemency and peace, and supporting the "damnable League of Utrecht"; whereas the country can have no peace whilst "this wretched hypocrite" troubles it with his insinuations (as do those whose conscience is ulcered like Cain or Judas), and, foreigner as he is, puts his whole happiness in ruining our people:
Now we hereby declare this head and chief author of all the troubles to be a traitor and miscreant, an enemy of ourselves and our country. We interdict all our subjects from holding converse with him, from supplying him with lodging, food, water, or fire