"His treason," says a contemporary, "was a nail in his coffin, and on
his deathbed he bitterly bemoaned his crime. 'Groningen! Groningen!'
would that I had never seen thy walls!" he cried repeatedly in his last
hours. He refused to see his sister, whose insidious counsels had
combined with his own evil passions to make him a traitor; and he died on
the 23rd of July, 1581, repentant and submissive. His heart, after his
decease, was found "shrivelled to the dimensions of a walnut," a
circumstance attributed to poison by some, to remorse by others. His
regrets; his early death, and his many attractive qualities, combined to:
save his character from universal denunciation, and his name, although
indelibly stained by treason, was ever mentioned with pity rather than
with rancor.

Great changes, destined to be perpetual, were steadily preparing in the
internal condition of the provinces. A preliminary measure of an
important character had been taken early this year by the assembly of the
united provinces held in the month of January at Delft. This was the
establishment of a general executive council. The constitution of the
board was arranged on the 13th of the month, and was embraced in eighteen
articles. The number of councillors was fixed at thirty, all to be
native Netherlanders; a certain proportion to be appointed from each
province by its estates. The advice and consent of this body as to
treaties with foreign powers were to be indispensable, but they were not
to interfere with the rights and duties of the states-general, nor to
interpose any obstacle to the arrangements with the Duke of Anjou.

While this additional machine for the self-government of the provinces
was in the course of creation; the Spanish monarch, on the other hand,
had made another effort to recover the authority which he felt slipping
from his grasp. Philip was in Portugal, preparing for his coronation in,