She also informed the King that the scheme for dividing the country was already arranged:  that Augustus of Saxony was to have Friesland and Overyssel; Count Brederode, Holland; the Dukes of Cleves and Lorraine, Gueldres; the King of France, Flanders, Artois, and Hainault, of which territories Egmont was to be perpetual stadholder; the Prince of Orange, Brabant; and so on indefinitely.  A general massacre of all the Catholics had been arranged by Orange, Horn, and Egmont, to commence as soon as the King should put his foot on shipboard to come to the country.  This last remarkable fact Margaret reported to Philip, upon the respectable authority of Noircarmes.

She apologized for having employed the service of these nobles, on the ground of necessity.  Their proceedings in Flanders, at Antwerp, Tournay, Mechlin, had been highly reprehensible, and she had been obliged to disavow them in the most important particulars.  As for Egmont, she had most unwillingly entrusted forces to his hands for the purpose of putting down the Flemish sectaries.  She had been afraid to show a want of confidence in his character, but at the same time she believed that all soldiers under Egmont’s orders would be so many enemies to the king.  Notwithstanding his protestations of fidelity to the ancient religion and to his Majesty, she feared that he was busied with some great plot against God and the King.  When we remember the ruthless manner in which the unfortunate Count had actually been raging against the sectaries, and the sanguinary proofs which he had been giving of his fidelity to “God and the King,” it seems almost incredible that Margaret could have written down all these monstrous assertions.

The Duchess gave, moreover, repeated warnings to her brother, that the nobles were in the habit of obtaining possession of all the correspondence between Madrid and Brussels; and that they spent a vast deal of money in order to read her own and Philip’s most private letters.  She warned him therefore, to be upon his guard, for she believed that almost all their despatches were read.  Such being the cases and the tenor of those documents being what we have seen it to be, her complaints as to the incredulity of those seigniors to her affectionate protestations, seem quite wonderful.

CHAPTER IX., Part 1., 1566

Position of Orange—­The interview at Dendermonde—­The supposititious letters of Alava—­Views of Egmont—­Isolation of Orange—­Conduct of Egmont and of Horn—­Confederacy, of the nobles dissolved—­Weak behavior of prominent personages——­Watchfulness of Orange—­ Convocation of States General demanded—­Pamphlet of Orange—­City of Valenciennes refuses a garrison—­Influence of La Grange and De Bray —­City, declared in a state of siege—­Invested by Noircarmes—­ Movements to relieve the place—­Calvinists defeated at Lannoy and at Waterlots—­Elation of the government—­The siege pressed more