banished minister himself in a secret strain of condolence, and even of
penitence. She wrote to assure Granvelle that she repented extremely
having adopted the views of Orange. She promised that she would state.
publicly every where that the Cardinal was an upright man, intact in his
morals and his administration, a most zealous and faithful servant of the
King. She added that she recognized the obligations she was under to
him, and that she loved him like a brother. She affirmed that if the
Flemish seigniors had induced her to cause the Cardinal to be deprived of
the government, she was already penitent, and that her fault deserved
that the King, her brother, should cut off her head, for having
occasioned so great a calamity.--["Memoires de Granvelle," tom. 33,
p. 67.]

There was certainly discrepancy between the language thus used
simultaneously by the Duchess to Granvelle and to Philip, but Margaret
had been trained in the school of Macchiavelli, and had sat at the feet
of Loyola.

The Cardinal replied with equal suavity, protesting that such a letter
from the Duchess left him nothing more to desire, as it furnished him
with an "entire and perfect justification" of his conduct. He was aware
of her real sentiments, no doubt, but he was too politic to quarrel with
so important a personage as Philip's sister.

An incident which occurred a few months after the minister's departure
served, to show the general estimation in which he was held by a11 ranks
of Netherlanders. Count Mansfeld celebrated the baptism of his son,
Philip Octavian, by a splendid series of festivities at Luxemburg, the
capital of his government. Besides the tournaments and similar sports,
with which the upper classes of European society were accustomed at that