council in Spain as cruel and sanguinary. Time was to show whether the
epithets thus applied to the advisers were not more applicable to the
monarch than the eulogies thus lavished by the blind and predestined
victim. It will also be perceived that this language, used before the
estates of Artois, varied materially from his observation to the Dowager
Duchess of Aerschot, denouncing as enemies the men who accused him of
having requested a moderation of the edicts. In truth, this most
vacillating, confused, and unfortunate of men perhaps scarcely
comprehended the purport of his recent negotiations in Spain, nor
perceived the drift of his daily remarks at home. He was, however,
somewhat vainglorious immediately after his return, and excessively
attentive to business. "He talks like a King," said Morillon,
spitefully, "negotiates night and day, and makes all bow before him."
His house was more thronged with petitioners, courtiers, and men of
affairs, than even the palace of the Duchess. He avowed frequently that
he would devote his life and his fortune to the accomplishment of the
King's commands, and declared his uncompromising hostility to all who
should venture to oppose that loyal determination.

It was but a very short time, however, before a total change was
distinctly perceptible in his demeanor. These halcyon days were soon
fled. The arrival of fresh letters from Spain gave a most unequivocal
evidence of the royal determination, if, indeed, any doubt could be
rationally entertained before. The most stringent instructions to keep
the whole machinery of persecution constantly at work were transmitted
to the Duchess, and aroused the indignation of Orange and his followers.
They avowed that they could no longer trust the royal word, since, so
soon after Egmont's departure, the King had written despatches so much at
variance with his language, as reported by the envoy. There was nothing,
they said, clement and debonair in these injunctions upon gentlemen of