Montigny returned late in December.  His report concerning the results of his mission was made in the state council, and was received with great indignation.  The professions of benevolent intentions on the part of the sovereign made no impression on the mind of Orange, who was already in the habit of receiving secret information from Spain with regard to the intentions of the government.  He knew very well that the plot revealed to him by Henry the Second in the wood of Vincennes was still the royal program, so far as the Spanish monarch was concerned.  Moreover, his anger was heightened by information received from Montigny that the names of Orange, Egmont and their adherents, were cited to him as he passed through France as the avowed defenders of the Huguenots, in politics and religion.  The Prince, who was still a sincere Catholic, while he hated the persecutions of the inquisition, was furious at the statement.  A violent scene occurred in the council.  Orange openly denounced the report as a new slander of Granvelle, while Margaret defended the Cardinal and denied the accusation, but at the same time endeavored with the utmost earnestness to reconcile the conflicting parties.

It had now become certain, however, that the government could no longer be continued on its present footing.  Either Granvelle or the seigniors must succumb.  The Prince of Orange was resolved that the Cardinal should fall or that he would himself withdraw from all participation in the affairs of government.  In this decision he was sustained by Egmont, Horn, Montigny, Berghen, and the other leading nobles.

ETEXT EDITOR’S BOOKMARKS: 

Affecting to discredit them
An inspiring and delightful recreation (auto-da-fe)
Arrested on suspicion, tortured till confession
Inquisition of the Netherlands is much more pitiless
Inquisition was not a fit subject for a compromise
Made to swing to and fro over a slow fire
Orator was, however, delighted with his own performance
Philip, who did not often say a great deal in a few words
Scaffold was the sole refuge from the rack
Ten thousand two hundred and twenty individuals were burned
Torquemada’s administration (of the inquisition)
Two witnesses sent him to the stake, one witness to the rack

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