letter of Armenteros, to persuade the envoy to any course which Philip might command.  Flattery without stint was administered.  More solid arguments to convince the Count that Philip was the most generous and clement of princes were also employed with great effect.  The royal dues upon the estate of Gaasbecque, lately purchased by Egmont, were remitted.  A mortgage upon his Seigneurie of Ninove was discharged, and a considerable sum of money presented to him in addition.  Altogether, the gifts which the ambassador received from the royal bounty amounted to one hundred thousand crowns.  Thus feasted, flattered, and laden with presents, it must be admitted that the Count more than justified the opinions expressed in the letter of Armenteros, that he was a man easily governed by those who had credit with him.  Egmont hardly broached the public matters which had brought him to Madrid.  Upon the subject of the edicts, Philip certainly did not dissemble, however loudly the envoy may have afterwards complained at Brussels.  In truth, Egmont, intoxicated by the incense offered to him at the Spanish court, was a different man from Egmont in the Netherlands, subject to the calm but piercing glance and the irresistible control of Orange.  Philip gave him no reason to suppose that he intended any change in the religious system of the provinces, at least in any sense contemplated by the liberal party.  On the contrary, a council of doctors and ecclesiastics was summoned, at whose deliberations the Count was invited to assist; on which occasion the King excited general admiration by the fervor of his piety and the vehemence of his ejaculations.  Falling upon his knees before a crucifix, in the midst of the assembly, he prayed that God would keep him perpetually in the same mind, and protested that he would never call himself master of those who denied the Lord God.  Such an exhibition could leave but little doubt in the minds of those who witnessed it as to the royal sentiments, nor did Egmont make any effort to obtain any relaxation of those religious edicts, which he had himself declared worthy of approbation, and fit to be maintained.  As to the question of enlarging the state-council, Philip dismissed the subject with a few vague observations, which Egmont, not very zealous on the subject at the moment, perhaps misunderstood.  The punishment of heretics by some new method, so as to secure the pains but to take away the glories of martyrdom, was also slightly discussed, and here again Egmont was so unfortunate as to misconceive the royal meaning, and to interpret an additional refinement of cruelty into an expression of clemency.  On the whole, however, there was not much negotiation between the monarch and the ambassador.  When the Count spoke of business, the King would speak to him of his daughters, and of his desire to see them provided with brilliant marriages.  As Egmont had eight girls, besides two sons, it was natural that he should be pleased to find Philip taking so