the rest would follow as a matter of course. "They intend," said he,
"to reduce the state into the form of a republic, in which the King shall
have no power except to do their bidding." He added, that he saw with
regret so many German troops gathering on the borders; for he believed
them to be in the control of the disaffected nobles of the Netherlands.
Having made this grave insinuation, he proceeded in the same breath to
express his anger at a statement said to have been made by Orange and
Egmont, to the effect that he had charged them with intending to excite
a civil commotion, an idea, he added, which had never entered his head.
In the same paragraph, he poured into the most suspicious ear that ever
listened to a tale of treason, his conviction that the nobles were
planning a republic by the aid of foreign troops, and uttered a complaint
that these nobles had accused him of suspecting them. As for the Prince
of Orange, he was described as eternally boasting of his influence in
Germany, and the great things which he could effect by means of his
connexions there, "so that," added the Cardinal, "we hear no other song."

He had much to say concerning the projects of these grandees to abolish
all the councils, but that of state, of which body they intended to
obtain the entire control. Marquis Berghen was represented as being at
the bottom of all these intrigues. The general and evident intention was
to make a thorough change in the form of government. The Marquis meant
to command in every thing, and the Duchess would soon have nothing to do
in the provinces as regent for the King. In fact, Philip himself would
be equally powerless, "for," said the Cardinal, "they will have succeeded
in putting your Majesty completely under guardianship." He added,
moreover, that the seigniors, in order to gain favor with the people and
with the estates, had allowed them to acquire so much power, that they
would respond to any request for subsidies by a general popular revolt.
"This is the simple truth," said Granvelle, "and moreover, by the same