s departure, with Count Egmont, who,
Berty trusted, might be more successful. To this William readily
assented. This celebrated meeting took place at Willbroek, a village
between Antwerp and Brussels. Besides the two lords there were only
present Count Mansfeldt and the secretary.

After some discussion, in which each of the friends endeavored to win
over the other to his own way of thinking, William expressed the hope
that Egmont would save himself in time from the bloody tempest that, he
predicted, was soon to fall on the heads of the Flemish nobles.[894] "I
trust in the clemency of my sovereign," answered the count; "he cannot
deal harshly with men who have restored order to the country." "This
clemency you so extol," replied William, "will be your ruin. Much I fear
that the Spaniards will make use of you as a bridge to effect their
entrance into the country!"[895] With this ominous prediction on his
lips, he tenderly embraced the count, with tears in his eyes, bidding
him a last farewell. And thus the two friends parted, like men who were
never to meet again.

The different courses pursued by the two nobles were such as might be
expected from the difference of both their characters and their
circumstances. Egmont, ardent, hopeful, and confiding, easily
surrendered himself to the illusions of his own fancy, as if events were
to shape themselves according to his wishes. He had not the far-seeing
eye of William, which seemed to penetrate into events as it did into
characters. Nor had Egmont learned, like William, not to put his trust
in princes. He was, doubtless, as sincerely attached to his country as
the prince of Orange, and abhorred, like him, the system of persecution
avowed by the government. But this persecution fell upon a party with
whom he had little sympathy. William, on the other hand, was a member of
that party. A blow aimed at them was aimed also at him. It is easy to
see how different were the stakes of the two nobles in the coming
contest, both in respect to their sympathies and their interests. Egmont
was by birth a Fleming. His estates were in Flanders, and there, too,
were his hopes of worldly fortune. Exile to him would have been beggary
and ruin. But a large, if not the larger part of William's property, lay
without the confines of the Netherlands. In withdrawing to Germany, he
went to his native land. His kindred were still there. With them he had
maintained a constant correspondence, and there