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close an understanding with the declared leaders of the faction, a
better object for her confidence could now hardly be presented than this
very Count Egmont, of whom it could not be said that he belonged to
either of the two conflicting parties.

Up to this point the general peace had, it appears, been the sincere
wish of the Prince of Orange, the Counts Egmont and Horn, and their
friends. They had pursued the true interest of their sovereign as much
as the general weal; at least their exertions and their actions had been
as little at variance with the former as with the latter. Nothing had as
yet occurred to make their motives suspected or to manifest in them a
rebellious spirit. What they had done they had done in discharge of
their bounden duty as members of a free state, as the representatives of
the nation, as advisers of the King, as men of integrity and honor. The
only weapons they had used to oppose the encroachments of the court had
been remonstrances, modest complaints, petitions. They had never allowed
themselves to be so far carried away by a just zeal for their good cause
as to transgress the limits of prudence and moderation, which on many
occasions are so easily overstepped by party spirit. But all the nobles
of the republic did not now listen to the voice of that prudence, all
did not abide within the bounds of moderation.

While in the council of state the great question was discussed, whether
the nation was to be miserable or not, while its sworn deputies summoned
to their assistance all the arguments of reason and of equity, and while
the middle classes and the people contented themselves with empty
complaints, menaces, and curses, that part of the nation which of all
seemed least called upon, and on whose support least reliance had been
placed, began to take more active measures. We have already described a
class of the nobility whose services and wants Philip, at his accession,
had not considered it necessary to remember. Of these, by far the
greater number had asked for promotion from a much more urgent reason
than a love of the mere honor. Many of them were deeply sunk in debt,
from which by their own resources they could not hope to emancipate
themselves. When, then, in filling up appointments, Philip passed them
over, he wounded them in a point far more sensitive than their pride.

In these suitors he had by his neglect raised up so many idle spies and
merciless judges of his actions, so m