Before he put this plan of voluntary banishment into execution, he and Egmont had a parting interview at the village of Willebroek, between Antwerp and Brussels.  Count Mansfield, and Berti, secretary to the stadtholderess, were present at this memorable meeting.  The details of what passed were reported to the confederates by one of their party, who contrived to conceal himself in the chimney of the chamber.  Nothing could exceed the energetic warmth with which the two illustrious friends reciprocally endeavored to turn each other from their respective line of conduct; but in vain.  Egmont’s fatal confidence in the king was not to be shaken; nor was Nassau’s penetrating mind to be deceived by the romantic delusion which led away his friend.  They separated with most affectionate expressions; and Nassau was even moved to tears.  His parting words were to the following effect:  “Confide, then, since it must be so, in the gratitude of the king; but a painful presentiment (God grant it may prove a false one!) tells me that you will serve the Spaniards as the bridge by which they will enter the country, and which they will destroy as soon as they have passed over it!”

On the 11th of April, a few days after this conference, the Prince of Orange set out for Germany, with his three brothers and his whole family, with the exception of his eldest son Philip William, count de Beuren, whom he left behind a student in the University of Louvain.  He believed that the privileges of the college and the franchises of Brabant would prove a sufficient protection to the youth; and this appears the only instance in which William’s vigilant prudence was deceived.  The departure of the prince seemed to remove all hope of protection or support from the unfortunate Protestants, now left the prey of their implacable tyrant.  The confederation of the nobles was completely broken up.  The counts of Hoogstraeten, Bergen, and Culembourg followed the example of the Prince of Orange, and escaped to Germany; and, the greater number of those who remained behind took the new oath of allegiance, and became reconciled to the government.

This total dispersion of the confederacy brought all the towns of Holland into obedience to the king.  But the emigration which immediately commenced threatened the country with ruin.  England and Germany swarmed with Dutch and Belgian refugees; and all the efforts of the stadtholderess could not restrain the thousands that took to flight.  She was not more successful in her attempts to influence the measures of the king.  She implored him, in repeated letters, to abandon his design of sending a foreign army into the country, which she represented as being now quite reduced to submission and tranquillity.  She added that the mere report of this royal invasion (so to call it) had already deprived the Netherlands of many thousands of its best inhabitants; and that the appearance of the troops would change it into a desert.  These arguments, meant to dissuade, were the very means of encouraging Philip in his design.  He conceived his project to be now ripe for the complete suppression of freedom; and Alva soon began his march.