Thus the burgomaster was already the object of suspicion to both parties.  The Antwerpers denounced him as having been purchased by Spanish gold; the royalists accused him of intending to overreach the King.  It was not probable therefore that all were correct in their conjectures.

At last it was arranged that deputies should be appointed by the broad council to commence a negotiation with Parma.  Sainte Aldegonde informed Richardot, that he would (5th July, 1585) accompany them, if his affairs should permit.  He protested his sincerity and frankness throughout the whole affair.  “They try to calumniate me,” he said, “as much on one side as on the other, but I will overcome by my innocence all the malice of my slanderers.  If his Highness should be pleased to grant us some liberty for our religion, I dare to promise such faithful service as will give very great satisfaction.”

Four days later, Sainte Aldegonde himself, together with M. de Duffel, M. de Schoonhoven, and Adrian Hesselt, came to Parma’s camp at Beveren, as deputies on the part of the Antwerp authorities.  They were courteously received by the Prince, and remained three days as his guests.  During the period of this visit, the terms of a capitulation were thoroughly discussed, between Alexander and his councillors upon one part, and the four deputies on the other.  The envoys endeavoured, with all the arguments at their command, to obtain the consent of the Prince to three preliminary points which they laid down as indispensable.  Religious liberty must be granted, the citadel must not be reconstructed, a foreign garrison must not be admitted; they said.  As it was the firm intention of the King, however, not to make the slightest concession on any one of these points, the discussion was not a very profitable one.  Besides the public interviews at which all the negotiators were present, there was a private conference between Parma and Sainte Aldegonde which lasted more than four hours, in which each did his best to enforce his opinions upon the other.  The burgomaster endeavoured to persuade the Prince with all the eloquence for which he was so renowned, that the hearts not of the Antwerpers only, but of the Hollanders and Zeelanders, were easily to be won at that moment.  Give them religious liberty, and attempt to govern them by gentleness rather than by Spanish garrisons, and the road was plain to a complete reconciliation of all the Provinces with his Majesty.

Alexander, who knew his master to be inexorable upon these three points, was courteous but peremptory in his statements.  He recommended that the rebels should take into consideration their own declining strength, the inexhaustible resources of the King, the impossibility of obtaining succour from France, and the perplexing dilatoriness of England, rather than waste their time in idle expectations of a change in the Spanish policy.  He also intimated, obliquely but very plainly, to Sainte Aldegonde, that his own fortune would be made, and that he had everything to hope from his Majesty’s bounty, if he were now willing to make himself useful in carrying into effect the royal plans.