husband might have committed." The reader can easily judge how much
effect such a tender appeal was like to have upon the heart of Philip.
From that rock; thus feebly smitten, there flowed no fountain of mercy.
It was not more certain that Montigny's answers to the interrogatories
addressed to him had created a triumphant vindication of his course, than
that such vindication would be utterly powerless to save his life. The
charges preferred against him were similar to those which had brought
Egmont and Horn to the block, and it certainly created no ground of hope
for him, that he could prove himself even more innocent of suspicious
conduct than they had done. On the 4th March, 1570, accordingly, the
Duke of Alva pronounced sentence against him. The sentence declared that
his head should be cut off, and afterwards exposed to public view upon
the head of a pike. Upon the 18th March, 1570, the Duke addressed a
requisitory letter to the alcaldes, corregidors, and other judges of
Castile, empowering them to carry the sentence into execution.

On the arrival of this requisition there was a serious debate before the
King in council. It seemed to be the general opinion that there had been
almost severity enough in the Netherlands for the present. The spectacle
of the public execution of another distinguished personage, it was
thought, might now prove more irritating than salutary. The King was
of this opinion himself. It certainly did not occur to him or to his
advisers that this consideration should lead them to spare the life of
an innocent man. The doubts entertained as to the expediency of a fresh
murder were not allowed to benefit the prisoner, who, besides being a
loyal subject and a communicant of the ancient Church, was also clothed
in the white robes of an envoy, claiming not only justice but
hospitality, as the deputy of Philip's sister, Margaret of Parma.
These considerations probably never occurred to the mind of His Majesty.
In view, however, of the peculiar circumstances of the case, it was