Philip's plenipotentiary, he had given a warning of inestimable value to
the man who had been born to resist the machinations of Philip and of
Alva. William of Orange earned the surname of "the Silent," from the
manner in which he received these communications of Henry without
revealing to the monarch, by word or look, the enormous blunder which he
had committed. His purpose was fixed from that hour. A few days
afterwards he obtained permission to visit the Netherlands, where he
took measures to excite, with all his influence, the strongest and most
general opposition to the continued presence of the Spanish troops, of
which forces, touch against his will, he had been, in conjunction with
Egmont, appointed chief. He already felt, in his own language, that "an
inquisition for the Netherlands had been, resolved upon more cruel than
that of Spain; since it would need but to look askance at an image to be
cast into the flames." Although having as yet no spark of religious
sympathy for the reformers, he could not, he said, "but feel compassion
for so many virtuous men and women thus devoted to massacre," and he
determined to save them if he could!' At the departure of Philip he had
received instructions, both patent and secret, for his guidance as
stadholder of Holland, Friesland, and Utrecht. He was ordered "most
expressly to correct and extirpate the sects reprobated by our Holy
Mother Church; to execute the edicts of his Imperial Majesty, renewed by
the King, with absolute rigor. He was to see that the judges carried out
the edicts, without infraction, alteration, or moderation, since they
were there to enforce, not to make or to discuss the law." In his secret
instructions he was informed that the execution of the edicts was to be
with all rigor, and without any respect of persons. He was also reminded
that, whereas some persons had imagined the severity of the law "to be
only intended against Anabaptists, on the contrary, the edicts were to be
enforced on Lutherans and all other sectaries without distinction."
Moreover, in one of his last interviews with Philip, the King had given