He soon dismissed him, after receiving his letters; and it may be supposed that the bombastic style of that epistle would not efface the unfavorable impression produced by Balthazar’s exterior.  The representations of Haultepenne and others induced him so far to modify his views as to send his confidential councillor, d’Assonleville, to the stranger, in order to learn the details of the scheme.  Assonleville had accordingly an interview with Gerard, in which he requested the young man to draw up a statement of his plan in writing, ani this was done upon the 11th of April, 1584.

In this letter Gerard explained his plan of introducing himself to the notice of Orange, at Delft, as the son of an executed Calvinist; as himself warmly, though secretly, devoted to the Reformed faith, and as desirous, therefore, of placing himself in the Prince’s service, in order to avoid the insolence of the Papists.  Having gained the confidence of those about the Prince, he would suggest to them the great use which might be made of Mansfeld’s signet in forging passports for spies and other persons whom it might be desirous to send into the territory of the royalists.  “With these or similar feints and frivolities,” continued Gerard, “he should soon obtain access to the person of the said Nassau,” repeating his protestation that nothing had moved him to his enterprise “save the good zeal which he bore to the faith and true religion guarded by the Holy Mother Church Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman, and to the service of his Majesty.”  He begged pardon for having purloined the impressions of the seals—­a turpitude which he would never have committed, but would sooner have suffered a thousand deaths, except for the great end in view.  He particularly wished forgiveness for that crime before going to his task, “in order that he might confess, and receive the holy communion at the coming Easter, without scruples of conscience.”  He likewise begged the Prince of Parma to obtain for him absolution from his Holiness for this crime of pilfering—­the more so “as he was about to keep company for some time with heretics and atheists, and in some sort to conform himself to their customs.”

From the general tone of the letters of Gerard, he might be set down at once as a simple, religious fanatic, who felt sure that, in executing the command of Philip publicly issued to all the murderers of Europe, he was meriting well of God and his King.  There is no doubt that he was an exalted enthusiast, but not purely an enthusiast.  The man’s character offers more than one point of interest, as a psychological phenomenon.  He had convinced himself that the work which he had in hand was eminently meritorious, and he was utterly without fear of consequences.  He was, however, by no means so disinterested as he chose to represent himself in letters which, as he instinctively felt, were to be of perennial interest.  On the contrary, in his interviews with Assonleville, he urged that he was a poor fellow, and that he had undertaken this enterprise in order to acquire property—­to make himself rich—­and that he depended upon the Prince of Parma’s influence in obtaining the reward promised by the Ban to the individual who should put Orange to death.