concentrated themselves into a single body.

At this juncture, on the last day of July, the Marquis off Havre, brother
to the Duke of Aerschot, arrived out of Spain. He was charged by the
King with conciliatory but unmeaning phrases to the estates. The
occasion was not a happy one. There never was a time when direct and
vigorous action had been more necessary. It was probably the King's
desire then, as much as it ever had been his desire at all, to make up
the quarrel with his provinces. He had been wearied with the policy
which Alva had enforced, and for which he endeavoured at that period to
make the Duke appear responsible. The barren clemency which the Grand
Commander had been instructed to affect, had deceived but few persons,
and had produced but small results. The King was, perhaps, really
inclined at this juncture to exercise clemency--that is to say he was
willing to pardon his people for having contended for their rights,
provided they were now willing to resign them for ever. So the
Catholic religion and his own authority, were exclusively and
inviolably secured, he was willing to receive his disobedient
provinces into favor. To accomplish this end, however, he had
still no more fortunate conception than to take the advice of Hopper.
A soothing procrastination was the anodyne selected for the bitter pangs
of the body politic--a vague expression of royal benignity the styptic to
be applied to its mortal wounds. An interval of hesitation was to bridge
over the chasm between the provinces and their distant metropolis.
"The Marquis of Havre has been sent," said the King, "that he may
expressly witness to you of our good intentions, and of our desire,
with the grace of God, to bring about a pacification." Alas, it was
well known whence those pavements of good intentions had been taken, and
whither they would lead. They were not the material for a substantial
road to reconciliation. "His Majesty," said the Marquis; on delivering