So far Louis of Nassau and his twelve apostles.  It must be confessed that, whatever might be thought of the justice, there could be but one opinion as to the boldness of these views.  The Duchess was furious.  If the language held in April had been considered audacious, certainly this new request was, in her own words, “still more bitter to the taste and more difficult of digestion.”  She therefore answered in a very unsatisfactory, haughty and ambiguous manner, reserving decision upon their propositions till they had been discussed by the state council, and intimating that they would also be laid before the Knights of the Fleece, who were to hold a meeting upon the 26th of August.

There was some further conversation without any result.  Esquerdes complained that the confederates were the mark of constant calumny, and demanded that the slanderers should be confronted with them and punished.  “I understand perfectly well,” interrupted Margaret, “you wish to take justice into your own hands and to be King yourself.”  It was further intimated by these reckless gentlemen, that if they should be driven by violence into measures of self-protection, they had already secured friends in a certain country.  The Duchess, probably astonished at the frankness of this statement, is said to have demanded further explanations.  The confederates replied by observing that they had resources both in the provinces and in Germany.  The state council decided that to accept the propositions of the confederates would be to establish a triumvirate at once, and the Duchess wrote to her brother distinctly advising against the acceptance of the proposal.  The assembly at St. Trond was then dissolved, having made violent demonstrations which were not followed by beneficial results, and having laid itself open to various suspicions, most of which were ill-founded, while some of them were just.

Before giving the reader a brief account of the open and the secret policy pursued by the government at Brussels and Madrid, in consequence of these transactions, it is now necessary to allude to a startling series of events, which at this point added to the complications of the times, and exercised a fatal influence upon the situation of the commonwealth.

1566 [Chapter VII.]

Ecclesiastical architecture in the Netherlands—­The image-breaking—­ Description of Antwerp Cathedral—­Ceremony of the Ommegang—­ Precursory disturbances—­Iconoclasts at Antwerp—­Incidents of the image—­breaking in various cities—­Events at Tournay—­Preaching of Wille—­Disturbance by a little boy—­Churches sacked at Tournay—­ Disinterment of Duke Adolphus of Gueldres—­Iconoclasts defeated and massacred at Anchin—­Bartholomew’s Day at Valenciennes—­General characteristics of the image-breaking—­Testimony of contemporaries as to the honesty of the rioters—­Consternation of the Duchess—­ Projected flight to Mons—­Advice of Horn and other seigniors—­