e well informed upon; his natural
distrust not suffering him to have any confidential communication
with men.

Again the Spanish council appears to have interfered between
the people of the Netherlands and the enmity of the monarch;
and the offered mediation of the emperor was recommended to his
acceptance, to avoid the appearance of a forced concession to
the popular will. Philip was also strongly urged to repair to
the scene of the disturbances; and a main question of debate was,
whether he should march at the head of an army or confide himself
to the loyalty and good faith of his Belgian subjects. But the
indolence or the pride of Philip was too strong to admit of his
taking so vigorous a measure; and all these consultations ended
in two letters to the stadtholderess. In the first he declared
his firm intention to visit the Netherlands in person; refused
to convoke the states-general; passed in silence the treaties
concluded with the Protestants and the confederates; and finished
by a declaration that he would throw himself wholly on the fidelity
of the country. In his second letter, meant for the stadtholderess
alone, he authorized her to assemble the states-general if public
opinion became too powerful for resistance, but on no account
to let it transpire that he had under any circumstances given
his consent.

During these deliberations in Spain, the Protestants in the
Netherlands amply availed themselves of the privileges they had
gained. They erected numerous wooden churches with incredible
activity. Young and old, noble and plebeian, of these energetic
men, assisted in the manual labors of these occupations; and the
women freely applied the produce of their ornaments and jewels
to forward the pious work. But the furious outrages of the
iconoclasts had done infinite mischief to both political and
religious freedom; many of the Catholics, and particularly the
priests, gradually withdrew themselves from the confederacy,
which thus lost some of its most firm supporters. And, on the
other hand, the severity with which some of its members pursued
the guilty offended and alarmed the body of the people, who could
not distinguish the shades of difference between the love of
liberty and the practice of licentiousness.

The stadtholderess and her satellites adroitly took advantage of
this state of things to sow dissension among the patriots. Autograph
letters from Philip to the principal lords were distributed among