to which of the Great Powers the sovereignty should be offered--
Secret international relations--Mission to England--Unsatisfactory
negotiations with Elizabeth--Position of the Grand Commander--Siege
of Zieriekzee--Generosity of Count John--Desperate project of the
Prince--Death and character of Requesens.

The Council of Troubles, or, as it will be for ever denominated
in history, the Council of Blood, still existed, although the Grand
Commander, upon his arrival in the Netherlands, had advised his sovereign
to consent to the immediate abolition of so odious an institution.
Philip accepting the advice of his governor and his cabinet, had
accordingly authorized him by a letter of the 10th of March, 1574,
to take that step if he continued to believe it advisable.

Requesens had made use of this permission to extort money from the
obedient portion of the provinces. An assembly of deputies was held at
Brussels on the 7th of June, 1574, and there was a tedious interchange of
protocols, reports, and remonstrances. The estates, not satisfied with
the extinction of a tribunal which had at last worn itself out by its own
violence, and had become inactive through lack of victims, insisted on
greater concessions. They demanded the departure of the Spanish troops,
the establishment of a council of Netherlanders in Spain for Netherland
affairs, the restoration to offices in the provinces of natives and
natives only; for these drawers of documents thought it possible, at that
epoch, to recover by pedantry what their brethren of Holland and Zealand
were maintaining with the sword. It was not the moment for historical
disquisition, citations from Solomon, nor chopping of logic; yet with
such lucubrations were reams of paper filled, and days and weeks
occupied. The result was what might have been expected. The Grand
Commander obtained but little money; the estates obtained none of their