saw that his dreams of a larger union were not to be realised, that he
signed, on May 3, the Act of Union drawn up at Utrecht. By this time he
was well aware that Parma had succeeded in winning over the malcontent
nobles to accept his terms. On May 19 the Walloon provinces, whose
representatives had signed the Union of Arras, agreed to acknowledge,
with certain nominal reservations, the sovereignty of Philip and to
allow only Catholic worship. In fact the reconciliation was complete.

Thus, despite the efforts of Orange, the idea of the federation of all
the seventeen provinces on national lines became a thing of the past,
henceforth unattainable. The Netherlands were divided into two camps.
Gradually in the course of 1580 Overyssel, Drente and the greater part
of Friesland gave in their adherence to the Union of Utrecht, and
Groningen and the Ommelanden allied themselves with their neighbours. In
the rest of the Low Countries all fell away and submitted themselves to
the king's authority, except Antwerp and Breda in Brabant, and Ghent,
Bruges and Ypres in Flanders. William felt that Parma was constantly
gaining ground. Defection after defection took place, the most serious
being that of George Lalaing, Count of Renneberg, the Stadholder of
Groningen. Negotiations were indeed secretly opened with William
himself, and the most advantageous and flattering terms offered to him,
if he would desert the patriot cause. But with him opposition to Spain
and to Spanish methods of government was a matter of principle and
strong conviction. He was proof alike against bribery and cajolery, even
when he perceived, as the year 1580 succeeded 1579, that he had no
staunch friends on whom he could absolutely rely, save in the devoted
provinces of Holland and Zeeland.

For things had been going from bad to worse. The excesses and cruelties
committed by the Calvinists, wherever they found themselves in a