d the masses who
repented. Any other course would confound the good with the bad, and
bring such calamities on the country as his majesty could not fail to
appreciate."[1044]--Well had it been for the fair fame of Margaret, if
her counsels had always been guided by such wise and magnanimous
sentiments.

The tidings of the regent's abdication were received with dismay
throughout the provinces. All the errors of her government, her acts of
duplicity, the excessive rigor with which she had of late visited
offences,--all were forgotten in the regret felt for her departure. Men
thought only of the prosperity which the country had enjoyed under her
rule, the confidence which in earlier years she had bestowed on the
friends of the people, the generous manner in which she had interposed,
on more than one occasion, to mitigate the hard policy of the court of
Madrid. And as they turned from these more brilliant passages of her
history, their hearts were filled with dismay while they looked gloomily
into the future.

Addresses poured in upon her from all quarters. The different cities
vied with one another in expressions of regret for her departure, while
they invoked the blessings of Heaven on her remaining days. More than
one of the provinces gave substantial evidence of their good-will by
liberal donatives. Brabant voted her the sum of twenty-five thousand
florins, and Flanders, thirty thousand.[1045] The neighboring princes,
and among them Elizabeth of England, joined with the people of the
Netherlands in professions of respect for the regent, as well as of
regret that she was to relinquish the government.[1046]

Cheered by these assurances of the consideration in which she was held
both at home and abroad, Margaret quitted Brussels at the close of
December, 1567. She was attended to the borders of Brabant by Alva, and
thence conducted to Germany, by Count Mansfeldt and an escort of Flemish
nobles.[1047] There bidding adieu to all that remained of her former
state, she pursued her journey quietly to Italy. For some time she
continued with her husband in his ducal residence at Parma. But,
wherever lay the fault, it was Margaret's misfortune to taste but little
of the sweets of domestic intercourse. Soon afterwards she removed to
Naples, and there permanently established her abode on estates which had
been granted her by the crown. Many years later, when her son, Alexander
Farnese, was called to the government of the Netherla