Armenteros, a man of low, mercenary, and deceitful character, but a favorite of the Regent, and already beginning to acquire that influence over her mind which was soon to become so predominant, was no friend of the Cardinal.  It was not probable that he would diminish the effect of that vague censure mingled with faint commendation, which characterized Margaret’s instructions by any laudatory suggestions of his own.  He was directed to speak in general terms of the advance of heresy, and the increasing penury of the exchequer.  He was to request two hundred thousand crowns toward the lottery, which the Regent proposed to set up as a financial scheme.  He was to represent that the Duchess had tried, unsuccessfully, every conceivable means of accommodating the quarrel between the Cardinal and the seigniors.  She recognized Granvelle’s great capacity, experience, zeal, and devotion—­for all which qualities she made much of him—­while on the other hand she felt that it would be a great inconvenience, and might cause a revolt of the country, were she to retain him in the Netherlands against the will of the seigniors.  These motives had compelled her, the messenger was to add, to place both views of the subject before the eyes of the King.  Armenteros was, furthermore, to narrate the circumstances of the interviews which had recently taken place between herself and the leaders of the opposition party.

From the tenor of these instructions, it was sufficiently obvious that Margaret of Parma was not anxious to retain the Cardinal, but that, on the contrary, she was beginning already to feel alarm at the dangerous position in which she found herself.  A few days after the three nobles had despatched their last letter to the King, they had handed her a formal remonstrance.  In this document they stated their conviction that the country was on the high road to ruin, both as regarded his Majesty’s service and the common weal.  The bare, the popular discontent daily increasing, the fortresses on the frontier in a dilapidated condition.  It was to be apprehended daily that merchants and other inhabitants of the provinces would be arrested in foreign countries, to satisfy the debts owed by his Majesty.  To provide against all these evils, but one course, it was suggested, remained to the government—­to summon the states-general, and to rely upon their counsel and support.  The nobles, however, forbore to press this point, by reason of the prohibition which the Regent had received from the King.  They suggested, however, that such an interdiction could have been dictated only by a distrust created between his Majesty and the estates by persons having no love for either, and who were determined to leave no resource by which the distress of the country could be prevented.  The nobles, therefore, begged her highness not to take it amiss if, so long as the King was indisposed to make other arrangements for the administration of the provinces, they should abstain from appearing at the state council.  They preferred to cause the shadow at last to disappear, which they had so long personated.  In conclusion, however, they expressed their determination to do their duty in their several governments, and to serve the Regent to the best of their abilities.