At the same period one William Knuttel was despatched by Orange on the forlorn hope of gaining the old Landgrave’s consent, without making any vital concessions.  “Will the Prince,” asked the Landgrave, “permit my granddaughter to have an evangelical preacher in the house?”—­“No,” answered Knuttel.  “May she at least receive the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper in her own chamber, according to the Lutheran form?”—­“No,” answered Knuttel, “neither in Breda, nor any where else in the Netherlands.  If she imperatively requires such sacraments, she must go over the border for them, to the nearest Protestant sovereign.”

Upon the 14th April, 1561, the Elector, returning to the charge, caused a little note to be drawn up on the religious point, which he forwarded, in the hope that the Prince would copy and sign it.  He added a promise that the memorandum should never be made public to the signer’s disadvantage.

At the same time he observed to Count Louis, verbally, “that he had been satisfied with the declarations made by the Prince when in Dresden, upon all points, except that concerning religion.  He therefore felt obliged to beg for a little agreement in writing.—­“By no means! by no means!” interrupted Louis promptly, at the very first word, “the Prince can give your electoral highness no such assurance.  ’T would be risking life, honor, and fortune to do so, as your grace is well aware.”  The Elector protested that the declaration, if signed, should never come into the Spanish monarch’s hands, and insisted upon sending it to the Prince.  Louis, in a letter to his brother, characterized the document as “singular, prolix and artful,” and strongly advised the Prince to have nothing to do with it.

This note, which the Prince was thus requested to sign, and which his brother Louis thus strenuously advised him not to sign, the Prince never did sign.  Its tenor was to the following effect:—­The Princess, after marriage, was, neither by menace nor persuasion; to be turned from the true and pure Word of God, or the use of the sacrament according to the doctrines of the Augsburg Confession.  The Prince was to allow her to read books written in accordance with the Augsburg Confession.  The prince was to permit her, as often, annually, as she required it, to go out of the Netherlands to some place where she could receive the sacrament according to the Augsburg Confession.  In case she were in sickness or perils of childbirth, the Prince, if necessary, would call to her an evangelical preacher, who might administer to her the holy sacrament in her chamber.  The children who might spring from the marriage were to be instructed as to the doctrines of the Augsburg Confession.