brush placed in their hats as a trophy.

Moreover, there is no doubt that frequent threats of personal violence
were made against the Cardinal. Granvelle informed the King that his
life was continually menaced by, the nobles, but that he feared them
little, "for he believed them too prudent to attempt any thing of the
kind." There is no doubt, when his position with regard to the upper
and lower classes in the country is considered, that there was enough
to alarm a timid man; but Granvelle was constitutionally brave. He was
accused of wearing a secret shirt of mail, of living in perpetual
trepidation, of having gone on his knees to Egmont and Orange, of having
sent Richardot, Bishop of Arras, to intercede for him in the same
humiliating manner with Egmont. All these stories were fables. Bold as
he was arrogant, he affected at this time to look down with a forgiving
contempt on the animosity of the nobles. He passed much of his time
alone, writing his eternal dispatches to the King. He had a country-
house, called La Fontaine, surrounded by beautiful gardens, a little way
outside the gates of Brussels, where he generally resided, and whence,
notwithstanding the remonstrances of his friends, he often returned to
town, after sunset, alone, or with but a few attendants. He avowed that
he feared no attempts at assassination, for, if the seigniors took his
life, they would destroy the best friend they ever had. This villa,
where most of his plans were matured and his state papers drawn up,
was called by the people, in derision of his supposed ancestry,
"The Smithy." Here, as they believed, was the anvil upon which the
chains of their slavery were forging; here, mostly deserted by those who
had been his earlier, associates, he assumed a philosophical demeanor
which exasperated, without deceiving his adversaries. Over the great
gate of his house he had placed the marble statue of a female. It held
an empty wine-cup in one hand, and an urn of flowing water in the other.