Finally, he observed, that law was not his vocation.  He was no pettifogger, but he had endeavored loyally to conform himself to the broad and general principles of honor, justice, and truth.  In a very few and simple words, he begged his judges to have regard to his deeds, and to a life of loyal service.  If he had erred occasionally in those times of tumult, his intentions had ever been faithful and honorable.

The charges against Count Egmont were very similar to those against Count Horn.  The answers of both defendants were nearly identical.  Interrogations thus addressed to two different persons, as to circumstances which had occurred long before, could not have been thus separately, secretly, but simultaneously answered in language substantially the same, had not that language been the words of truth.  Egmont was accused generally of plotting with others to expel the King from the provinces, and to divide the territory among themselves.  Through a long series of ninety articles, he was accused of conspiring against the character and life of Cardinal Granvelle.  He was the inventor, it was charged, of the fool’s-cap livery.  He had joined in the letters to the King, demanding the prelate’s removal.  He had favored the fusion of the three councils.  He had maintained that the estates-general ought to be forthwith assembled, that otherwise the debts of his Majesty and of the country could never be paid, and that the provinces would go to the French, to the Germans, or to the devil.  He had asserted that he would not be instrumental in burning forty or fifty thousand men, in order that the inquisition and the edicts might be sustained.  He had declared that the edicts were rigorous.  He had advised the Duchess, to moderate them, and remove the inquisition, saying that these measures, with a pardon general in addition, were the only means of quieting the country.  He had advised the formation of the confederacy, and promised to it his protection and favor.  He had counselled the presentation of the petition.  He had arranged all these matters, in consultation with the other nobles, at the interviews at Breda and Hoogstraaten.  He had refused the demand of Madame de Parma, to take arms in her defence.  He had expressed his intention, at a most critical moment, of going to the baths of Aix for his health, although his personal appearance gave no indication of any malady whatever.  He had countenanced and counselled the proceedings of the rebel nobles at Saint Trond.  He had made an accord with those of “the religion” at Ghent, Bruges, and other places.  He had advised the Duchess to grant a pardon to those who had taken up arms.  He had maintained, in common with the Prince of Orange, at a session of the state council, that if Madame should leave Brussels, they would assemble the states-general of their own authority, and raise a force of forty thousand men.  He had plotted treason, and made arrangements for the levy of troops at the interview