d of the confederacy.
He wrote to the king, conjointly with Counts Egmont and Horn,
faithfully portraying the state of affairs. The duchess of Parma
backed this remonstrance with a strenuous request for Granvelle's
dismission. Philip's reply to the three noblemen was a mere tissue
of duplicity to obtain delay, accompanied by an invitation to
Count Egmont to repair to Madrid, to hear his sentiments at large
by word of mouth. His only answer to the stadtholderess was a
positive recommendation to use every possible means to disunite
and breed ill-will among the three confederate lords. It was
difficult to deprive William of the confidence of his friends,
and impossible to deceive him. He saw the trap prepared by the
royal intrigues, restrained Egmont for a while from the fatal
step he was but too well inclined to take, and persuaded him and
Horn to renew with him their firm but respectful representations;
at the same time begging permission to resign their various
employments, and simultaneously ceasing to appear at the court
of the stadtholderess.

In the meantime every possible indignity was offered to the cardinal
by private pique and public satire. Several lords, following
Count Egmont's example, had a kind of capuchon or fool's-cap
embroidered on the liveries of their varlets; and it was generally
known that this was meant as a practical parody on the cardinal's
hat. The crowd laughed heartily at this stupid pleasantry; and
the coarse satire of the times may be judged by a caricature,
which was forwarded to the cardinal's own hands, representing him
in the act of hatching a nest full of eggs, from which a crowd
of bishops escaped, while overhead was the devil _in_propria_
_persona_, with the following scroll: "This is my well-beloved
son--listen to him!"

Philip, thus driven before the popular voice, found himself forced
to the choice of throwing off the mask at once, or of sacrificing
Granvelle. An invincible inclination for manoeuvring and deceit
decided him on the latter measure; and the cardinal, recalled
but not disgraced, quitted the Netherlands on the 10th of March,
1564. The secret instructions to the stadtholderess remained
unrevoked; the president Viglius succeeded to the post which
Granvelle had occupied; and it was clear that the projects of
the king had suffered no change.

Nevertheless some good resulted from the departure of the unpopular
minister. The public fermentation subsided; the patriot lor