It is not so agreeable to contemplate the apparent intimacy which the Prince accorded to so disreputable a character, but Orange was now in hostility to the government, was convinced by evidence, whose accuracy time was most signally to establish, that his own head, as well as many others, were already doomed to the block, while the whole country was devoted to abject servitude, and he was therefore disposed to look with more indulgence upon the follies of those who were endeavoring, however weakly and insanely, to avert the horrors which he foresaw.  The time for reasoning had passed.  All that true wisdom and practical statesmanship could suggest, he had already placed at the disposal of a woman who stabbed him in the back even while she leaned upon his arm—­of a king who had already drawn his death warrant, while reproaching his “cousin of Orange” for want of confidence in the royal friendship.  Was he now to attempt the subjugation of his country by interfering with the proceedings of men whom he had no power to command, and who, at least, were attempting to oppose tyranny?  Even if he should do so, he was perfectly aware of the reward, reserved for his loyalty.  He liked not such honors as he foresaw for all those who had ever interposed between the monarch and his vengeance.  For himself he had the liberation of a country, the foundation of a free commonwealth to achieve.  There was much work for those hands before he should fall a victim to the crowned assassin.

Early in February, Brederode, Hoogstraaten, Horn, and some other gentlemen, visited the Prince at Breda.  Here it is supposed the advice of Orange was asked concerning the new movement contemplated by Brederode.  He was bent upon presenting a new petition to the Duchess with great solemnity.  There is no evidence to show that the Prince approved the step, which must have seemed to him superfluous, if not puerile.  He probably regarded the matter with indifference.  Brederode, however, who was fond of making demonstrations, and thought himself endowed with a genius for such work, wrote to the Regent for letters of safe conduct that he might come to Brussels with his petition.  The passports were contemptuously refused.  He then came to Antwerp, from which city he forwarded the document to Brussels in a letter.

By this new Request, the exercise of the reformed religion was claimed as a right, while the Duchess was summoned to disband the forces which she had been collecting, and to maintain in good faith the “August” treaty.  These claims were somewhat bolder than those of the previous April, although the liberal party was much weaker and the confederacy entirely disbanded.  Brederode, no doubt, thought it good generalship to throw the last loaf of bread into the enemy’s camp before the city should surrender.  His haughty tone was at once taken down by Margaret of Parma.  “She wondered,” she said, “what manner of nobles these were, who, after requesting, a year before, to be saved only from the inquisition, now presumed to talk about preaching in the cities.”  The concessions of August had always been odious, and were now canceled.  “As for you and your accomplices,” she continued to the Count, “you will do well to go to your homes at once without meddling with public affairs, for, in case of disobedience, I shall deal with you as I shall deem expedient.”