rd of the regent.[757] Neither of the parties showed any
alacrity to undertake a commission which was to bring them so closely in
contact with the dread monarch in his capital. Bergen found an apology
for some time in a wound from a tennis-ball, which disabled his leg; an
ominous accident, interpreted by the chroniclers of the time into an
intimation from Heaven of the disastrous issue of the mission.[758]
Montigny reached Madrid some time before his companion, on the
seventeenth of June, and met with a gracious reception from Philip, who
listened with a benignant air to the recital of the measures suggested
for the relief of the country, terminating, as usual, with an
application for a summons of the states-general, as the most effectual
remedy for the disorders. But although the envoy was admitted to more
than one audience, he obtained no more comfortable assurance, than that
the subject should receive the most serious consideration of his
majesty.[759]

[Sidenote: THE EDICTS SUSPENDED.]

Meanwhile the regent was busy in digesting the plan of compromise to
which she had alluded in her reply to the confederates. When concluded,
it was sent to the governors of the several provinces, to be laid before
their respective legislatures. Their sanction, it was hoped, would
recommend its adoption to the people at large. It was first submitted to
some of the smaller states, as Artois, Namur, and Luxemburg, as most
likely to prove subservient to the wishes of the government. It was then
laid before several of the larger states, as Brabant and Flanders, whose
determination might be influenced by the example of the others. Holland,
Zealand, Utrecht, and one or two other provinces, where the spirit of
independence was highest, were not consulted at all. Yet this politic
management did not entirely succeed; and although some few gave an
unconditional assent, most of the provinces coupled their acquiescence
with limitations that rendered it of little worth.[760]

This was not extraordinary. The scheme was one which, however large the
concessions it involved on the part of the government, fell far short of
those demanded by the people. It denounced the penalty of death on all
ministers and teachers of the reformed religion, and all who harbored
them; and while it greatly mitigated the punishment of other offenders,
its few sanguinary features led the people sneeringly to call it,
instead of "moderation," the act of "_murderation_."[7