The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1566 part 2 | Page 5

her consent to these two demands, not in the royal name, but in her own.
The King was not bound by her promise, and she expreesed the hope
that he would have no regard to any such obligation. She further
implored her brother to come forth as soon as possibe to avenge the
injuries inflicted upon the ancient church, adding, that if deprived of
that consolation, she should incontinently depart this life. That hope
alone would prevent her death.
This was certainly strong language. She was also very explicit in her

representations of the influence which had been used by certain
personages to prevent the exercise of any authority upon her own part.
"Wherefore," said Margaret, "I eat my heart; and shall never have peace
till the arrival of your Majesty."
There was no doubt who those personages were who, as it was
pretended, had thus held the Duchess in bondage, and compelled her to
grant these infamous concessions. In her secret Italian letters, she
furnished the King with a tissue of most extravagant and improbable
falsehoods, supplied to her mainly by Noircarmes and Mansfeld, as to
the course pursued at this momentous crisis by Orange, Egmont, Horn,
and Hoogstraaten. They had all, she said, declared against God and
against religion.--Horn, at least, was for killing all the priests and
monks in the country, if full satisfaction were not given to the demands
of the heretics. Egmont had declared openly for the beggars, and was
levying troops in Germany. Orange had the firm intention of making
himself master of the whole country, and of dividing it among the other
seigniors and himself. The Prince had said that if she took refuge in
Mons, as she had proposed, they would instantly convoke the
states-general, and take all necessary measures. Egmont had held the
same language, saying that he would march at the head of forty
thousand men to besiege her in that city. All these seigniors, however,
had avowed their determination to prevent her flight, to assemble the
estates, and to drag her by force before the assembly, in order to
compel her consent to every measure which might be deemed
expedient. Under all these circumstances, she had been obliged to defer
her retreat, and to make the concessions which had overwhelmed her
with disgrace.
With such infamous calumnies, utterly disproved by every fact in the
case, and unsupported by a tittle of evidence, save the hearsay reports
of a man like Noircarmes, did this "woman, nourished at Rome, in
whom no one could put confidence," dig the graves of men who were
doing their best to serve her.
Philip's rage at first hearing of the image-breaking has been indicated.
He was ill of an intermittent fever at the wood of Segovia when the
news arrived, and it may well be supposed that his wrath at these
proceedings was not likely to assuage his malady. Nevertheless, after
the first burst of indignation, he found relief in his usual deception.

While slowly maturing the most tremendous vengeance which anointed
monarch ever deliberately wreaked upon his people, he wrote to say,
that it was "his intention to treat his vassals and subjects in the
provinces like a good and clement prince, not to ruin them nor to put
them into servitude, but to exercise all humanity, sweetness, and grace,
avoiding all harshness." Such were the avowed intentions of the
sovereign towards his people at the moment when the terrible Alva,
who was to be the exponent of all this "humanity, sweetness, and
grace," was already beginning the preparations for his famous invasion
of the Netherlands.
The essence of the compact agreed to upon the 23d August between the
confederates and the Regent, was that the preaching of the reformed
religion should be tolerated in places where it had previously to that
date been established. Upon this basis Egmont, Horn, Orange,
Hoogstraaten, and others, were directed once more to attempt the
pacification of the different provinces.
Egmont departed for his government of Flanders, and from that
moment vanished all his pretensions, which at best had been, slender
enough, to the character of a national chieftain. During the whole of the
year his course had been changeful. He had felt the influence of Orange;
he had generous instincts; he had much vanity; he had the pride of high
rank; which did not easily brook the domination of strangers, in a land
which he considered himself and his compeers entitled by their birth to
rule. At this juncture, however, particularly when in the company of
Noircarmes, Berlaymont, and Viglius, he expressed, notwithstanding
their calumnious misstatements, the deepest detestation of the heretics.
He was a fervent Catholic, and he regarded the image-breaking as an
unpardon able crime. "We must take up arms," said he, "sooner or later,
to bring