The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1566 part 1 | Page 8

couple of hundred thousand florins." Orange quietly
rebuked this truculent language, by assuring him both that such a
process would be more difficult than he thought, and that he would also
find many men of great respectability among the vagabonds.
The meeting separated at Hoogstraaten without any useful result, but it
was now incumbent upon the Prince, in his own judgment, to watch,
and in a measure to superintend, the proceedings of the confederates.
By his care the contemplated Request was much altered, and especially
made more gentle in its tone. Meghen separated himself thenceforth
entirely from Orange, and ranged himself exclusively upon the side of
Government. Egmont vacillated, as usual, satisfying neither the Prince
nor the Duchess.
Margaret of Parma was seated in her council chamber very soon after
these occurrences, attended both by Orange and Egmont, when the
Count of Meghen entered the apartment. With much precipitation, he

begged that all matters then before the board might be postponed, in
order that he might make an important announcement. He then stated
that he had received information from a gentleman on whose word he
could rely, a very affectionate servant of the King, but whose name he
had promised not to reveal, that a very extensive conspiracy of heretics
and sectaries had been formed, both within and without the Netherlands,
that they had already a force of thirty-five thousand men, foot and horse,
ready for action, that they were about to make a sudden invasion, and to
plunder the whole country, unless they immediately received a formal
concession of entire liberty of conscience, and that, within six or seven
days, fifteen hundred men-at-arms would make their appearance before
her Highness. These ridiculous exaggerations of the truth were
confirmed by Egmont, who said that he had received similar
information from persons whose names he was not at liberty to mention,
but from whose statements he could announce that some great tumult
might be expected every day. He added that there were among the
confederates many who wished to change their sovereign, and that the
chieftains and captains of the conspiracy were all appointed. The same
nobleman also laid before the council a copy of the Compromise, the
terms of which famous document scarcely justified the extravagant
language with which it had been heralded. The Duchess was astounded
at these communications. She had already received, but probably not
yet read, a letter from the Prince of Orange upon the subject, in which a
moderate and plain statement of the actual facts was laid down, which
was now reiterated by the same personage by word of mouth. An
agitated and inconclusive debate followed, in which, however, it
sufficiently appeared, as the Duchess informed her brother, that one of
two things must be done without further delay. The time had arrived for
the government to take up arms, or to make concessions.
In one of the informal meetings of councillors, now held almost daily,
on the subject of the impending Request, Aremberg, Meghen, and
Berlaymont maintained that the door should be shut in the face of the
petitioners without taking any further notice of the petition. Berlaymont
suggested also, that if this course were not found advisable, the next
best thing would be to allow the confederates to enter the palace with
their Request, and then to cut them to pieces to the very last man, by
means of troops to be immediately ordered from the frontiers. Such

sanguinary projects were indignantly rebuked by Orange. He
maintained that the confederates were entitled to be treated with respect.
Many of them, he said, were his friends--some of them his
relations--and there was no reason for refusing to gentlemen of their
rank, a right which belonged to the poorest plebeian in the land.
Egmont sustained these views of the Prince as earnestly as he had on a
previous occasion appeared to countenance the more violent counsels
of Meghen.
Meantime, as it was obvious that the demonstration on the part of the
confederacy was soon about to be made, the Duchess convened a grand
assembly of notables, in which not only all the state and privy
councillors, but all the governors and knights of the Fleece were to take
part. On the 28th of March, this assembly was held, at which the whole
subject of the Request, together with the proposed modifications of the
edicts and abolition of the inquisition, was discussed. The Duchess also
requested the advice of the meeting--whether it would not be best for
her to retire to some other city, like Mons, which she had selected as
her stronghold in case of extremity. The decision was that it would be a
high-handed proceeding to refuse the right of petition to a body of
gentlemen, many of them related to the greatest nobles in the