William of Orange became somewhat impatient under the official lecture of this secretary to the privy council, a mere man of sealing-wax and protocols.  The slender stock of platitudes with which he had come provided was soon exhausted.  His arguments shrivelled at once in the scorn with which the Prince received them.  The great statesman, who, it was hoped, would be entrapped to ruin, dishonor, and death by such very feeble artifices, asked indignantly whether it were really expected that he should acknowledge himself perjured to his old obligations by now signing new ones; that he should disgrace himself by an unlimited pledge which might require him to break his oaths to the provincial statutes and to the Emperor; that he should consent to administer the religious edicts which he abhorred; that he should act as executioner of Christians on account of their religious opinions, an office against which his soul revolted; that he should bind himself by an unlimited promise which might require, him to put his own wife to death, because she was a Lutheran?  Moreover, was it to be supposed that he would obey without restriction any orders issued to him in his Majesty’s name, when the King’s representative might be a person whose supremacy it ill became one of his’ race to acknowledge?  Was William of Orange to receive absolute commands from the Duke of Alva?  Having mentioned that name with indignation, the Prince became silent.

It was very obvious that no impression was to be made upon the man by formalists.  Poor Berty having conjugated his paradigm conscientiously through all its moods and tenses, returned to his green board in the council-room with his proces verbal of the conference.  Before he took his leave, however, he prevailed upon Orange to hold an interview with the Duke of Aerschot, Count Mansfeld, and Count Egmont.

This memorable meeting took place at Willebroek, a village midway between Antwerp and Brussels, in the first week of April.  The Duke of Aerschot was prevented from attending, but Mansfeld and Egmont—­accompanied by the faithful Berty, to make another proces verbal—­duly made their appearance.  The Prince had never felt much sympathy with Mansfeld, but a tender and honest friendship had always existed between himself and Egmont, notwithstanding the difference of their characters, the incessant artifices employed by the Spanish court to separate them, and the impassable chasm which now, existed between their respective positions towards the government.

The same common-places of argument and rhetoric were now discussed between Orange and the other three personages, the, Prince distinctly stating, in conclusion, that he considered himself as discharged from all his offices, and that he was about to leave the Netherlands for Germany.  The interview, had it been confined to such formal conversation, would have but little historic interest.  Egmont’s choice had been made.  Several months before he had signified