scarlet with indignation whenever the Cardinal's name was mentioned.
They heard her thank Heaven that she had but one son, because if she had
had a second he must have been an ecclesiastic, and as vile as priests
always were. They witnessed the daily contumely which she heaped upon
poor Viglius, both because he was a friend of Granvelle and was preparing
in his old age to take orders. The days were gone, indeed, when Margaret
was so filled with respectful affection for the prelate, that she could
secretly correspond with the Holy Father at Rome, and solicit the red hat
for the object of her veneration. She now wrote to Philip, stating that
she was better informed as to affairs in the Netherlands than she had
ever formerly been. She told her brother that all the views of Granvelle
and of his followers, Viglius with the rest, had tended to produce a
revolution which they hoped that Philip would find in full operation when
he should come to the Netherlands. It was their object, she said, to
fish in troubled waters, and, to attain that aim, they had ever pursued
the plan of gaining the exclusive control of all affairs. That was the
reason why they had ever opposed the convocation of the states-general.
They feared that their books would be read, and their frauds, injustice,
simony, and rapine discovered. This would be the result, if tranquillity
were restored to the country, and therefore they had done their best to
foment and maintain discord. The Duchess soon afterwards entertained her
royal brother with very detailed accounts of various acts of simony,
peculation, and embezzlement committed by Viglius, which the Cardinal had
aided and abetted, and by which he had profited.--[Correspondence de
Phil. II, i. 318-320.]--These revelations are inestimable in a
historical point of view. They do not raise our estimate of Margaret's
character, but they certainly give us a clear insight into the nature of
the Granvelle administration. At the same time it was characteristic of
the Duchess, that while she was thus painting the portrait of the
Cardinal for the private eye of his sovereign, she should address the