was extremely disconcerted. The death of Requesens excited his
indignation. He was angry with him, not for dying, but for dying at so
very inconvenient a moment. He had not yet fully decided either upon his
successor, or upon the policy to be enforced by his successor. There
were several candidates for the vacant post; there was a variety of
opinions in the cabinet as to the course of conduct to be adopted. In the
impossibility of instantly making up his mind upon this unexpected
emergency, Philip fell, as it were, into a long reverie, than which
nothing could be more inopportune. With a country in a state of
revolution and exasperation, the trance, which now seemed to come
over the government, was like to be followed by deadly effects.
The stationary policy, which the death of Requesens had occasioned,
was allowed to prolong itself indefinitely, and almost for the first
time in his life, Joachim Hopper was really consulted about the affairs
of that department over which he imagined himself, and was generally
supposed by others, to preside at Madrid. The creature of Viglius,
having all the subserviency, with none of the acuteness of his patron,
he had been long employed as chief of the Netherland bureau, while kept
in profound ignorance of the affairs which were transacted in his office.
He was a privy councillor, whose counsels were never heeded,
a confidential servant in whom the King reposed confidence, only on the
ground that no man could reveal secrets which he did not know. This
deportment of the King's showed that he had accurately measured the man,
for Hopper was hardly competent for the place of a chief clerk. He was
unable to write clearly in any language, because incapable of a fully
developed thought upon any subject. It may be supposed that nothing but
an abortive policy, therefore, would be produced upon the occasion thus
suddenly offered. "'Tis a devout man, that poor Master Hopper," said
Granvelle, "but rather fitted for platonic researches than for affairs of
state."