For a time, therefore, the transfer of authority seemed to have been smoothly accomplished.  The Council of State conducted the administration of the country.  Peter Ernest Mansfeld was entrusted with the supreme military command, including the government of Brussels; and the Spanish commanders; although dissatisfied that any but a Spaniard should be thus honored, were for a time quiescent.  When the news reached Madrid, Philip was extremely disconcerted.  The death of Requesens excited his indignation.  He was angry with him, not for dying, but for dying at so very inconvenient a moment.  He had not yet fully decided either upon his successor, or upon the policy to be enforced by his successor.  There were several candidates for the vacant post; there was a variety of opinions in the cabinet as to the course of conduct to be adopted.  In the impossibility of instantly making up his mind upon this unexpected emergency, Philip fell, as it were, into a long reverie, than which nothing could be more inopportune.  With a country in a state of revolution and exasperation, the trance, which now seemed to come over the government, was like to be followed by deadly effects.  The stationary policy, which the death of Requesens had occasioned, was allowed to prolong itself indefinitely, and almost for the first time in his life, Joachim Hopper was really consulted about the affairs of that department over which he imagined himself, and was generally supposed by others, to preside at Madrid.  The creature of Viglius, having all the subserviency, with none of the acuteness of his patron, he had been long employed as chief of the Netherland bureau, while kept in profound ignorance of the affairs which were transacted in his office.  He was a privy councillor, whose counsels were never heeded, a confidential servant in whom the King reposed confidence, only on the ground that no man could reveal secrets which he did not know.  This deportment of the King’s showed that he had accurately measured the man, for Hopper was hardly competent for the place of a chief clerk.  He was unable to write clearly in any language, because incapable of a fully developed thought upon any subject.  It may be supposed that nothing but an abortive policy, therefore, would be produced upon the occasion thus suddenly offered. “’Tis a devout man, that poor Master Hopper,” said Granvelle, “but rather fitted for platonic researches than for affairs of state.”

It was a proof of this incompetency, that now, when really called upon for advice in an emergency, he should recommend a continuance of the interim.  Certainly nothing worse could be devised.  Granvelle recommended a reappointment of the Duchess Margaret.  Others suggested Duke Eric of Brunswick, or an Archduke of the Austrian house; although the opinion held by most of the influential councillors was in favor of Don John of Austria.  In the interests of Philip and his despotism, nothing, at any rate, could be more fatal than delay.  In the condition of affairs