that the said treaty contains nothing derogatory to the Catholic religion—­and similar assurance from the State Council, the Bishop of Liege, and the imperial envoys, that the treaty is in no wise prejudicial to the authority of his Majesty.”  Here seemed, at last, something definite.  These conditions could be complied with.  They had, in fact, been already complied with.  The assurances required as to the two points had already been procured, as the deputies and as Don John well knew.  The Pacification of Ghent was, therefore, virtually admitted.  The deputies waited upon the Governor accordingly, and the conversation was amicable.  They vainly endeavoured, however, to obtain his consent to the departure of the troops by land—­the only point then left in dispute.  Don John, still clinging to his secret scheme, with which the sea voyage of the troops was so closely connected, refused to concede.  He reproached the envoys, on the contrary, with their importunity in making a fresh demand, just as he had conceded the Ghent treaty, upon his entire responsibility and without instructions.  Mentally resolving that this point should still be wrung from the Governor, but not suspecting his secret motives for resisting it so strenuously, the deputies took an amicable farewell of the Governor, promising a favorable report upon the proceedings, so soon as they should arrive in Brussels.

Don John, having conceded so much, was soon obliged to concede the whole.  The Emperor Rudolph had lately succeeded his father, Maximilian.  The deceased potentate, whose sentiments on the great subject of religious toleration were so much in harmony with those entertained by the Prince of Orange, had, on the whole, notwithstanding the ties of relationship and considerations of policy, uniformly befriended the Netherlands, so far as words and protestations could go, at the court of Philip.  Active co-operation; practical assistance, he had certainly not rendered.  He had unquestionably been too much inclined to accomplish the impossibility of assisting the states without offending the King—­an effort which, in the homely language of Hans Jenitz; was “like wishing his skin washed without being wet.”  He had even interposed many obstacles to the free action of the Prince, as has been seen in the course of this history, but nevertheless, the cause of the Netherlands, of religion, and of humanity had much to lose by his death.  His eldest son and successor, Rudolph the second, was an ardent Catholic, whose relations with a proscribed prince and a reformed population could hardly remain long in a satisfactory state.  The New Emperor had, however, received the secret envoys of Orange with bounty, and was really desirous of accomplishing the pacification of the provinces.  His envoys had assisted at all the recent deliberations between the estates and Don John, and their vivid remonstrances removed, at this juncture, the last objection on the part of the Governor-General.  With a secret sigh, he deferred the darling and mysterious hope which had lighted him to the Netherlands, and consented to the departure of the troops by land.