and announcing his speedy coming,--all as usual; and he
added, that, in repressing the disorders of the country, he should use
no other means than those of gentleness and kindness, under the sanction
of the states.[853] These gentle professions weighed little with those
who, like the prince of Orange, had surer means of arriving at the
king's intent than what were afforded by the royal correspondence.
Montigny, the Flemish envoy, was still in Madrid, held there, sorely
against his will, in a sort of honorable captivity by Philip. In a
letter to his brother, Count Hoorne, he wrote: "Nothing can be in worse
odor than our affairs at the court of Castile. The great lords, in
particular, are considered as the source of all the mischief. Violent
counsels are altogether in the ascendant, and the storm may burst on you
sooner than you think. Nothing remains but to fly from it like a prudent
man, or to face it like a brave one!"[854]

William had other sources of intelligence, the secret agents whom he
kept in pay at Madrid. From them he learned, not only what was passing
at the court, but in the very cabinet of the monarch; and extracts,
sometimes full copies, of the correspondence of Philip and Margaret,
were transmitted to the prince. Thus the secrets which the most jealous
prince in Europe supposed to be locked in his own breast were often in
possession of his enemies; and William, as we are told, declared that
there was no word of Philip's, public or private, but was reported to
his ears![855]

[Sidenote: THE FEELING AT MADRID.]

This secret intelligence, on which the prince expended large sums of
money, was not confined to Madrid. He maintained a similar system of
espionage in Paris, where the court of Castile was busy with its
intrigues for the extermination of heresy. Those who look on these
trickish proceedings as unworthy of the character of the prince of
Orange and the position which he held, should consider that it was in
accordance with the spirit of the age. It was but turning Philip's own
arts against himself, and using the only means by which William could
hope to penetrate the dark and unscrupulous policy of a cabinet whose
chief aim, as he thought, was to subvert the liberties of his country.

It was at this time that his agents in France intercepted a letter from
Alava, the Spanish minister at the French court. It was addressed to the
duchess of Parma. Among other things, the writer says it is well
underst