him in captivity until they had compelled him to sign every paper which
they chose to lay before him. Such things had been done in the
Netherlands in former days, the Duke observed, as he proceeded to narrate
how a predecessor of his Highness and a prince of the land, after having
been compelled to sign innumerable documents, had been, in conclusion,
tossed out of the windows of his own palace, with all his retinue,
to perish upon the pikes of an insurgent mob below. The Governor
protested that it did not become the son of Charles the Fifth and the
representative of his Catholic Majesty to hear such intimations a second
time. After his return, he brooded over what had been said to him for a
few days, and he then broke up his establishment at Mechlin, selling off
his superfluous furniture and even the wine in his cellars. Thus showing
that his absence, both from Brussels and Mechlin, was to be a prolonged
one, he took advantage of an unforeseen occurrence again to remove his
residence.