from Egmont and nothing to fear. Granvelle knew the man well, and,
almost to the last, could not believe in the possibility of so
unparalleled a blunder as that which was to make a victim, a martyr,
and a popular idol of a personage brave indeed, but incredibly
vacillating and inordinately vain, who, by a little management, might
have been converted into a most useful instrument for the royal purposes.

It is not necessary to recapitulate the events of Egmont's career.
Step by step we have studied his course, and at no single period have
we discovered even a germ of those elements which make the national
champion. His pride of order rendered him furious at the insolence of
Granvelle, and caused him to chafe under his dominion. His vanity of
high rank and of distinguished military service made him covet the
highest place under the Crown, while his hatred of those by whom he
considered himself defrauded of his claims, converted him into a
malcontent. He had no sympathy with the people, but he loved, as a grand
Seignior, to be looked up to and admired by a gaping crowd. He was an
unwavering Catholic, held sectaries in utter loathing, and, after the
image-breaking, took a positive pleasure in hanging ministers, together
with their congregations, and in pressing the besieged Christians of
Valenciennes to extremities. Upon more than one occasion he pronounced
his unequivocal approval of the infamous edicts, and he exerted himself
at times to enforce them within his province. The transitory impression
made upon his mind by the lofty nature of Orange was easily effaced in
Spain by court flattery and by royal bribes. Notwithstanding the
coldness, the rebuffs, and the repeated warnings which might have saved
him from destruction, nothing could turn him at last from the fanatic
loyalty towards which, after much wavering, his mind irrevocably pointed.
His voluntary humiliation as a general, a grandee, a Fleming, and a
Christian before the insolent Alva upon his first arrival, would move our