alled act."

Barbara saw the bishop shake his head in dissent and, while she was
listening with strained ears to his explanation, Viglius, as if singing
bass to Granvelle's tenor, repeated again and again at brief intervals,
in a low tone, the one word, "Debts," while his green eyes sparkled,
sometimes as if asking assent, sometimes combatively.

He believed that the weight of financial cares was causing the Emperor
Charles's abdication. Like a wise man, he said, he would place his own
burden of debt upon his son's shoulders. His Majesty usually uttered
exactly the opposite of his real opinions, and therefore, in the outline
of his abdication speech, he twice emphasized how great a debt of
gratitude Don Philip owed him for the Heritage which while still alive
he bequeathed to him. True, besides the debts, crowns and kingdoms in
plenty passed to Charles's successor; but the father, so long as he drew
breath, would not give up the decision of the most important questions
of government, and therefore this abdication, after all, was merely
an excellent means of divesting himself of burdensome obligations,
embellished with a certain amount of humbug.

The Bishop of Arras made no weighty protest against this severe speech;
nay, he even said, in a tone of assent, that the Emperor Charles's
tireless intellect would continue to direct political events. Besides,
he could safely commit the execution of his conclusions and commands to
his obedient and dutiful heir.

"The world," he added, "will not fare badly by this arrangement; but
you, Viglius, can not forget the religious liberty which his Majesty
promised to the Germans."

"Not until the end of my life!" cried the Frieslander, his green eyes
flashing angrily.

Granvelle protested that this act of indulgence weighed heavily upon him
also; but at that time a refusal would have occasioned a new war,
which, according to human judgment, would have resulted in loss and
the establishment of heresy in the Netherlands. Maurice of Saxony, he
reminded the councillor, did not fall until a year later, and then as a
conqueror, on the battlefield.

His Majesty's abdication, he went on with calm deliberation, was,
however, not exactly as Viglius supposed. The desire to rid himself
of troublesome debts had only hastened the Emperor's resolution. The
principal motive for this momentous act he could state most positively
to be the increasing burden of his physical sufferings. To this was