Having thus complied with these demands of external and conventional propriety, the indignant Duchess unbosomed herself, in her private Italian letters to her brother, of the rage which had been hitherto partially suppressed.  She reiterated her profound regret that Philip had not yet accepted the resignation which she had so recently and so earnestly offered.  She disclaimed all jealousy of the supreme powers now conferred upon Alva, but thought that his Majesty might have allowed her to leave the country before the Duke arrived with an authority which was so extraordinary, as well as so humiliating to herself.  Her honor might thus have been saved.  She was pained to perceive that she was like to furnish a perpetual example to all others, who considering the manner in which she had been treated by the King, would henceforth have but little inducement to do their duty.  At no time, on no occasion, could any person ever render him such services as hers had been.  For nine years she had enjoyed not a moment of repose.  If the King had shown her but little gratitude, she was consoled by the thought that she had satisfied her God, herself, and the world.  She had compromised her health, perhaps her life, and now that she had pacified the country, now that the King was more absolute, more powerful than ever before, another was sent to enjoy the fruit of her labors and her sufferings.

The Duchess made no secret of her indignation at being thus superseded and as she considered the matter, outraged.  She openly avowed her displeasure.  She was at times almost beside herself with rage.  There was universal sympathy with her emotions, for all hated the Duke, and shuddered at the arrival of the Spaniards.  The day of doom for all the crimes which had ever been committed in the course of ages, seemed now to have dawned upon the Netherlands.  The sword which had so long been hanging over them, seemed now about to descend.  Throughout the provinces, there was but one feeling of cold and hopeless dismay.  Those who still saw a possibility of effecting their escape from the fated land, swarmed across the frontier.  All foreign merchants deserted the great marts.  The cities became as still as if the plague-banner had been unfurled on every house-top.

Meantime the Captain-General proceeded methodically with his work.  He distributed his troops through Brussels, Ghent, Antwerp, and other principal cities.  As a measure of necessity and mark of the last humiliation, he required the municipalities to transfer their keys to his keeping.  The magistrates of Ghent humbly remonstrated against the indignity, and Egmont was imprudent enough to make himself the mouth-piece of their remonstrance, which, it is needless to add, was unsuccessful.  Meantime his own day of reckoning had arrived.