During these same autumn months Philip furnished his sister with considerable sums of money for the levying of a strong mercenary force, German and Walloon.  Possessed now of a body of troops that she could trust, Margaret in the spring of 1567 took energetic steps to suppress all insurrectionary movements and disorders, and did not scruple to disregard the concessions which had been wrung from her on August 23.  The confederate nobles, satisfied with her promises, had somewhat prematurely dissolved their league; but one of the most fiery and zealous among them, John de Marnix, lord of Thoulouse, collected at Antwerp a body of some 2000 Calvinists and attempted to make himself master of that city.  At Austruweel he was encountered (March 13) by a Walloon force despatched by Margaret with orders to “exterminate the heretics.”  Thoulouse and almost the whole of his following perished in the fight.  In the south at the same time the conventicles were mercilessly suppressed and the preachers driven into exile.

Margaret now felt herself strong enough to demand that the stadholders and leading nobles should, on pain of dismissal from their posts, take an oath “to serve the king and to act for and against whomsoever His Majesty might order.”  Egmont took the oath; Hoorn, Hoogstraeten and Brederode declined to do so and resigned their offices.  Orange offered his resignation, but Margaret was unwilling to accept it and urged him to discuss the matter first with Egmont and Meghem.  The three nobles met accordingly at Willebroek, April 2.  William used his utmost powers of persuasion in an attempt to convince Egmont that he was courting destruction.  But in vain.  He himself was not to be moved from his decision, and the two friends, who had worked together so long in the patriot cause, parted, never to meet again.  Orange saw that he was no longer safe in the Netherlands and, on April 22, he set out from Breda for the residence of his brother John at Dillenburg.  Here in exile he could watch in security the progress of events, and be near at hand should circumstances again require his intervention in the affairs of the Netherlands.

Orange did not take this extreme step without adequate cause.  At the very time that he left the Netherlands Philip was taking leave of the Duke of Alva, whom he was despatching at the head of a veteran force to carry out without pity or remorse the stern duty of expelling heresy from the provinces and punishing all those, and especially the leaders, who had ventured to oppose the arbitrary exercise of the royal authority.  He had for some time been preparing this expedition.  He still kept up the pretence that he was coming in person to enquire into the alleged grievances, but he never had the slightest intention of quitting Madrid.  Alva sailed from Cartagena (April 27) for Genoa, and proceeded at once to draw together from the various Spanish garrisons in Italy a picked body of some 12,000 men.  With these he set out in June for his long