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Rise of the Dutch Republic, the — Volume 10: 1566, part I by John Lothrop Motley
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their sovereign, and that the chieftains and captains of the conspiracy
were all appointed. The same nobleman also laid before the council a
copy of the Compromise, the terms of which famous document scarcely
justified the extravagant language with which it had been heralded. The
Duchess was astounded at these communications. She had already received,
but probably not yet read, a letter from the Prince of Orange upon the
subject, in which a moderate and plain statement of the actual facts was
laid down, which was now reiterated by the same personage by word of
mouth. An agitated and inconclusive debate followed, in which, however,
it sufficiently appeared, as the Duchess informed her brother, that one
of two things must be done without further delay. The time had arrived
for the government to take up arms, or to make concessions.

In one of the informal meetings of councillors, now held almost daily,
on the subject of the impending Request, Aremberg, Meghen, and Berlaymont
maintained that the door should be shut in the face of the petitioners
without taking any further notice of the petition. Berlaymont suggested
also, that if this course were not found advisable, the next best thing
would be to allow the confederates to enter the palace with their
Request, and then to cut them to pieces to the very last man, by means of
troops to be immediately ordered from the frontiers. Such sanguinary
projects were indignantly rebuked by Orange. He maintained that the
confederates were entitled to be treated with respect. Many of them,
he said, were his friends--some of them his relations--and there was no
reason for refusing to gentlemen of their rank, a right which belonged to
the poorest plebeian in the land. Egmont sustained these views of the
Prince as earnestly as he had on a previous occasion appeared to
countenance the more violent counsels of Meghen.

Meantime, as it was obvious that the demonstration on the part of the
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