That gentleman was, moreover, minutely instructed as to his method of proceeding in this memorable case of kidnapping.  He was to present the letter to the young Count in presence of his tutor.  He was to invite him to Spain in the name of his Majesty.  He was to assure him that his Majesty’s commands were solely with a view, to his own good, and that he was not commissioned to arrest, but only to escort him.  He was to allow the Count to be accompanied only by two valets, two pages, a cook, and a keeper of accounts.  He was, however, to induce his tutor to accompany him, at least to the Spanish frontier.  He was to arrange that the second day after his arrival at Louvain, the Count should set out for Antwerp, where he was to lodge with Count Lodron, after which they were to proceed to Flushing, whence they were to embark for Spain.  At that city he was to deliver the young Prince to the person whom he would find there, commissioned for that purpose by the Duke.  As soon as he had made the first proposition at Louvain to the Count, he was, with the assistance of his retinue, to keep the most strict watch over him day and night, but without allowing the supervision to be perceived.

The plan was carried out admirably, and in strict accordance with the program.  It was fortunate, however, for the kidnappers, that the young Prince proved favorably disposed to the plan.  He accepted the invitation of his captors with alacrity.  He even wrote to thank the governor for his friendly offices in his behalf.  He received with boyish gratification the festivities with which Lodron enlivened his brief sojourn at Antwerp, and he set forth without reluctance for that gloomy and terrible land of Spain, whence so rarely a Flemish traveller had returned.  A changeling, as it were, from his cradle, he seemed completely transformed by his Spanish tuition, for he was educated and not sacrificed by Philip.  When he returned to the Netherlands, after a twenty years’ residence in Spain, it was difficult to detect in his gloomy brow, saturnine character, and Jesuistical habits, a trace of the generous spirit which characterized that race of heroes, the house of Orange-Nassau.

Philip had expressed some anxiety as to the consequences of this capture upon the governments of Germany.  Alva, however, re-assured his sovereign upon that point, by reason of the extreme docility of the captive, and the quiet manner in which the arrest had been conducted.  At that particular juncture, moreover, it would, have been difficult for the government of the Netherlands to excite surprise any where, except by an act of clemency.  The president and the deputation of professors from the university of Louvain waited upon Vargas, by whom, as acting president of the Blood-Council, the arrest had nominally been made, with a remonstrance that the measure was in gross violation of their statutes and privileges.  That personage, however, with his usual contempt both for law and Latin, answered brutally, “Non curamus vestros privilegios,” and with this memorable answer, abruptly closed his interview with the trembling pedants.