The Count of Hoogstraaten, who was on his way to Brussels, had, by good
fortune, injured his hand through the accidental discharge of a pistol.
Detained by this casualty at Cologne, he was informed, before his arrival
at the capital, of the arrest of his two distinguished friends, and
accepted the hint to betake himself at once to a place of Safety.

The loyalty of the elder Mansfeld was beyond dispute even by Alva. His
son Charles had, however, been imprudent, and, as we have seen, had even
affixed his name to the earliest copies of the Compromise. He had
retired, it is true, from all connexion with the confederates, but his
father knew well that the young Count's signature upon that famous
document would prove his death-warrant, were he found in the country.
He therefore had sent him into Germany before the arrival of the Duke.

The King's satisfaction was unbounded when he learned this important
achievement of Alva, and he wrote immediately to express his approbation
in the most extravagant terms. Cardinal Granvelle, on the contrary,
affected astonishment at a course which he had secretly counselled.
He assured his Majesty that he had never believed Egmont to entertain
sentiments opposed to the Catholic religion, nor to the interests of
the Crown, up to the period of his own departure from the Netherlands.
He was persuaded, he said, that the Count had been abused by others,
although, to be sure, the Cardinal had learned with regret what Egmont
had written on the occasion of the baptism of Count Hoogstraaten's child.
As to the other persons arrested, he said that no one regretted their
fate. The Cardinal added, that he was supposed to be himself the
instigator of these captures, but that he was not disturbed by that, or
by other imputations of a similar nature.