rne was known, in a few hours after it took
place, to every inhabitant of Brussels; and the tidings soon spread to
the furthest parts of the country. "The imprisonment of the lords,"
writes Alva to the king, "has caused no disturbance. The tranquillity is
such that your majesty would hardly credit it."[990] True; but the
tranquillity was that of a man stunned by a heavy blow. If murmurs were
not loud, however, they were deep. Men mourned over the credulity of the
two counts, who had so blindly fallen into the snare, and congratulated
one another on the forecast of the prince of Orange, who might one day
have the power to avenge them.[991] The event gave a new spur to
emigration. In the space of a few weeks no loss than twenty thousand
persons are said to have fled the country.[992] And the exiles were not
altogether drawn from the humbler ranks; for no one, however high, could
feel secure when he saw the blow aimed at men like Egmont and Hoorne,
the former of whom, if he had given some cause of distrust, had long
since made his peace with the government.

Count Mansfeldt made haste to send his son out of the country, lest the
sympathy he had once shown for the confederates, notwithstanding his
recent change of opinion, might draw on him the vengeance of Alva. The
old count, whose own loyalty could not be impeached, boldly complained
of the arrest of the lords as an infringement on the rights of the
_Toison d'Or_, which body alone had cognizance of the causes that
concerned their order, intimating, at the same time, his intention to
summon a meeting of the members. But he was silenced by Alva, who
plainly told him, that, if the chevaliers of the order did meet, and
said so much as the _credo_, he would bring them to a heavy reckoning
for it. As to the rights of the _Toison_, his majesty has pronounced on
them, said the duke, and nothing remains for you but to submit.[993]

The arrest and imprisonment of the two highest nobles in the land,
members of the council of state, and that without any communication with
her, was an affront to the regent which she could not brook. It was in
vain that Alva excused it by saying it had been done by the order of the
king, who wished to spare his sister the unpopularity which must attach
to such a proceeding. Margaret made no reply. She did not complain. She
was too deeply wounded to complain. But she wrote to Philip, asking him
to consider "whether it could be advantageous to him, or d