e league of the nobles.
It was the origin, it is said, of the device afterwards assumed by the
Seven United Provinces.[595]

[Sidenote: HE LEAVES THE NETHERLANDS.]

On the thirteenth of March, 1564, Granvelle quitted Brussels,--never to
return.[596] "The joy of the nobles at his departure," writes one of the
privy council, "was excessive. They seemed like boys let loose from
school."[597] The three lords, members of the council of state, in a
note to the duchess, declared that they were ready to resume their
places at the board; with the understanding, however, that they should
retire whenever the minister returned.[598] Granvelle had given out that
his absence would be of no long duration. The regent wrote to her
brother in warm commendation of the lords. It would not do for Granvelle
ever to return. She was assured by the nobles, if he did return, he
would risk the loss of his life, and the king the loss of the
Netherlands.[599]

The three lords wrote each to Philip, informing him that they had
reentered the council, and making the most earnest protestations of
loyalty. Philip, on his part, graciously replied to each, and in
particular to the prince of Orange, who had intimated that slanderous
reports respecting himself had found their way to the royal ear. The
king declared "he never could doubt for a moment that William would
continue to show the same zeal in his service that he had always done;
and that no one should be allowed to cast a reproach on a person of his
quality, and one whom Philip knew so thoroughly."[600] It might almost
seem that a double meaning lurked under this smooth language. But
whatever may have been felt, no distrust was exhibited on either side.
To those who looked on the surface only,--and they were a hundred to
one,--it seemed as if the dismissal of the cardinal had removed all
difficulties; and they now confidently relied on a state of permanent
tranquillity. But there were others whose eyes looked deeper than the
calm sunshine that lay upon the surface; who saw, more distinctly than
when the waters were ruffled by the tempest, the rocks beneath, on which
the vessel of state was afterward to be wrecked.

The cardinal, on leaving the Low Countries, retired to his patrimonial
estate at Besancon,--embellished with all that wealth and a cultivated
taste could supply. In this pleasant retreat the discomfited statesman
found a solace in those pursuits which in earlier, perhaps happier, days