John Lothrop Motley

The secret course pursued at Brussels and at Madrid may be condensed into the usual formula, dissimulation, procrastination, and again dissimulation.

Congeniality

If congeniality of tastes could have made a marriage happy, that union should have been thrice blessed.

Connection

Men elevated by powerful connection.

Contravention

In contravention of all his marriage stipulations.

Contribution

These sums, . . . and the forced contributions paid by luckless peasants, enabled him to keep his straggling troops together.

Conventional

The conventional language appropriated to monarchs.

Cothurn

The moment had arrived when it was thought that the mask and the cothurn might be assumed with effect.

Cramoisie

A splendid seignior, magnificent in cramoisy velevet.

Crown

To crown the whole, came a proposition.

Crypt

Priesthood works out its task age after age, . . . treasuring in convents and crypts the few fossils of antique learning.

Culminate

The house of Burgundy was rapidly culminating.

Deception

There was of course room for vast deception.

decoration

The hall was celebrated for . . . the richness of its decoration.

Decorous

A decorous pretext the war.

Decrepit

Already decrepit with premature old age.

Deep

An attitude of deep respect.

Defender

Provinces . . . left without their ancient and puissant defenders.

Degraded

The Netherlands . . . were reduced practically to a very degraded condition.

Delinquency

The delinquencies of the little commonwealth would be represented in the most glaring colors.

Denunciation

Uttering bold denunciations of ecclesiastical error.

Depict

Cæsar's gout was then depicted in energetic language.

Depopulation

The desolation and depopulation [of St.Quentin] were now complete.

Detail

The details of the campaign in Italy.

differential

For whom he produced differential favors.

Dilatory

Alva, as usual, brought his dilatory policy to bear upon his adversary.

Discharge

Indefatigable in the discharge of business.

Discordant

The discordant elements out of which the emperor had compounded his realm did not coalesce.

Discrown

The end had crowned the work; it not unreasonably discrowned the workman.

Disintegration

Society had need of further disintegration before it could begin to reconstruct itself locally.

Dismissal

Officeholders were commanded faithfully to enforce it, upon pain of immediate dismissal.

Domicillary

The personal and domiciliary rights of the citizen scrupulously guarded.

Doughty

Doughty families, hugging old musty quarrels to their hearts, buffet each other from generation to generation.

Downfall

Dire were the consequences which would follow the downfall of so important a place.

Drain

But it was not alone that the he drained their treasure and hampered their industry.

Dramatic

The emperor . . . performed his part with much dramatic effect.

Dramatize

They dramatized tyranny for public execration.

Ducal

His ducal cap was to be exchanged for a kingly crown.

Dune

Three great rivers, the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Scheldt, had deposited their slime for ages among the dunes or sand banks heaved up by the ocean around their mouths.

Embassage

Except your embassages have better success.

Exhaust

A decrepit, exhausted old man at fifty-five.

Foundation

The foundation of a free common wealth.

Fustigation

This satire, composed of actual fustigation.

Galleon

The galleons . . . were huge, round-stemmed, clumsy vessels, with bulwarks three or four feet thick, and built up at stem and stern, like castles.

Glass

Happy to glass themselves in such a mirror.

Honeycombed

Each bastion was honeycombed with casements.

Icy

Icy was the deportment with which Philip received these demonstrations of affection.

Imprecation

Men cowered like slaves before such horrid imprecations.

Impressionable

He was too impressionable; he had too much of the temperament of genius.

Improvise

Charles attempted to improvise a peace.

Internecine

Internecine quarrels, horrible tumults, stain the streets with blood.

Magnetize

Fascinated, magnetized, as it were, by his character.

Meager

His education had been but meager.

Moderation

The calm and judicious moderation of Orange.

Mouthpiece

Egmont was imprudent enough to make himself the mouthpiece of their remonstrance.

Name

The ministers of the republic, mortal enemies of his name, came every day to pay their feigned civilities.

Noon

In the very noon of that brilliant life which was destined to be so soon, and so fatally, overshadowed.

Patent

He had received instructions, both patent and secret.

Platitude

To hammer one golden grain of wit into a sheet of infinite platitude.

Putrescent

Externally powerful, although putrescent at the core.

Realm

The absolute master of realms on which the sun perpetually shone.

Reflective

His perceptive and reflective faculties . . . thus acquired a precocious and extraordinary development.

Temporary

Temporary government of the city.

Thoroughfare

A large and splendid thoroughfare.

Tithing

To take tithing of their blood and sweat.

Tonnage

A fleet . . . with an aggregate tonnage of 60,000 seemed sufficient to conquer the world.

Top-hamper

All the ships of the fleet . . . were so encumbered with tophamper, so overweighted in proportion to their draught of water, that they could bear but little canvas, even with smooth seas and light and favorable winds.

Toque

His velvet toque stuck as airily as ever upon the side of his head.

Tremendous

A tremendous mischief was a foot.

Vavasor

Vavasours subdivide again to vassals, exchanging land and cattle, human or otherwise, against fealty.

Verdure

A wide expanse of living verdure, cultivated gardens, shady groves, fertile cornfields, flowed round it like a sea.

Votive

Embellishments of flowers and votive garlands.