itated where he should have acted. And as the storm thickened, he
even retraced his steps, and threw himself on the mercy of the monarch
whom he had offended. William better understood the character of his
master,--and that of the minister who was to execute his decrees.[1178]

Still, with all his deficiencies, there was much both in the personal
qualities of Egmont and in his exploits to challenge admiration. "I knew
him," says Brantome, "both in France and in Spain, and never did I meet
with a nobleman of higher breeding, or more gracious in his
manners."[1179] With an address so winning, a heart so generous, and
with so brilliant a reputation, it is not wonderful that Egmont should
have been the pride of his court and the idol of his countrymen. In
their idolatry they could not comprehend that Alva's persecution should
not have been prompted by a keener feeling than a sense of public duty
or obedience to his sovereign. They industriously sought in the earlier
history of the rival chiefs the motives for personal pique. On Alva's
first visit to the Netherlands, Egmont, then a young man, was said to
have won of him a considerable sum at play. The ill-will thus raised in
Alva's mind was heightened by Egmont's superiority over him at a
shooting-match, which the people, regarding as a sort of national
triumph, hailed with an exultation that greatly increased the
mortification of the duke.[1180] But what filled up the measure of his
jealousy was his rival's military renown; for the Fabian policy which
directed Alva's campaigns, however it established his claims to the
reputation of a great commander, was by no means favorable to those
brilliant feats of arms which have such attraction for the multitude. So
intense, indeed, was the feeling of hatred, it was said, in Alva's
bosom, that, on the day of his rival's execution, he posted himself
behind a lattice of the very building in which Egmont had been confined,
that he might feast his eyes with the sight of his mortal agony.[1181]

The friends of Alva give a very different view of his conduct. According
to them, an illness under which he labored, at the close of Egmont's
trial, was occasioned by his distress of mind at the task imposed on him
by the king. He had written more than once to the court of Castile, to
request some mitigation of Egmont's sentence, but was answered, that
"this would have been easy to grant, if the offence had been against the
king; but against the f