Four days later, Sainte Aldegonde himself, together with M. de Duffel,
M. de Schoonhoven, and Adrian Hesselt, came to Parma's camp at Beveren,
as deputies on the part of the Antwerp authorities. They were
courteously received by the Prince, and remained three days as his
guests. During the period of this visit, the terms of a capitulation
were thoroughly discussed, between Alexander and his councillors upon one
part, and the four deputies on the other. The envoys endeavoured, with
all the arguments at their command, to obtain the consent of the Prince
to three preliminary points which they laid down as indispensable.
Religious liberty must be granted, the citadel must not be reconstructed,
a foreign garrison must not be admitted; they said. As it was the firm
intention of the King, however, not to make the slightest concession on
any one of these points, the discussion was not a very profitable one.
Besides the public interviews at which all the negotiators were present,
there was a private conference between Parma and Sainte Aldegonde which
lasted more than four hours, in which each did his best to enforce his
opinions upon the other. The burgomaster endeavoured to persuade the
Prince with all the eloquence for which he was so renowned, that the
hearts not of the Antwerpers only, but of the Hollanders and Zeelanders,
were easily to be won at that moment. Give them religious liberty, and
attempt to govern them by gentleness rather than by Spanish garrisons,
and the road was plain to a complete reconciliation of all the Provinces
with his Majesty.

Alexander, who knew his master to be inexorable upon these three points,
was courteous but peremptory in his statements. He recommended that the
rebels should take into consideration their own declining strength, the
inexhaustible resources of the King, the impossibility of obtaining
succour from France, and the perplexing dilatoriness of England, rather
than waste their time in idle expectations of a change in the Spanish