Yet the Grand Commander persuaded himself that religion had little or
nothing to do with the state of the Netherlands. Nothing more was
necessary, he thought; or affected to think, in order to restore
tranquillity, than once more to spread the net of a general amnesty.

The Duke of Alva knew better. That functionary, with whom, before his
departure from the provinces, Requesens had been commanded to confer,
distinctly stated his opinion that there was no use of talking about
pardon. Brutally, but candidly, he maintained that there was nothing to
be done but to continue the process of extermination. It was necessary,
he said, to reduce the country to a dead level of unresisting misery;
before an act of oblivion could be securely laid down as the foundation
of a new and permanent order of society. He had already given his advice
to his Majesty, that every town in the country should be burned to the
ground, except those which could be permanently occupied by the royal
troops. The King, however, in his access of clemency at the appointment
of a new administration, instructed the Grand Commander not to resort to
this measure unless it should become strictly necessary.--Such were the
opposite opinions of the old and new governors with regard to the pardon.
The learned Viglius sided with Alva, although manifestly against his
will. "It is both the Duke's opinion and my own," wrote the Commander,
"that Viglius does not dare to express his real opinion, and that he is
secretly desirous of an arrangement with the rebels." With a good deal
of inconsistency, the Governor was offended, not only with those who
opposed his plans, but with those who favored them. He was angry
with Viglius, who, at least nominally, disapproved of the pardon,
and with Noircarmes, Aerschot, and others, who manifested a wish for
a pacification. Of the chief characteristic ascribed to the people by
Julius Caesar, namely, that they forgot neither favors nor injuries, the
second half only, in the Grand Commander's opinion, had been retained.