es. He had not
only refused his aid when asked to repress their violence, but had
repeatedly licensed their meetings, and allowed them to celebrate their
religious rites. Egmont was too stanch a Catholic to warrant his own
faith being called into question. It was only in connection with the
political movements of the country that he was supposed to have
countenanced the party of religious reform. Lastly he was charged, not
only with abetting the confederacy of the nobles, but with having, in
conjunction with the prince of Orange and his associates, devised the
original plan of it. It was proof of the good-will he bore the league,
that he had retained in his service more than one member of his
household after they had subscribed the Compromise. On these various
grounds, Egmont was declared to be guilty of treason.[1121]

The charges, which cover a great space, would seem at the first glance
to be crudely put together, confounding things trivial, and even
irrelevant to the question, with others of real moment.[1122] Yet they
must be admitted to have been so cunningly prepared as to leave an
impression most unfavorable to the innocence of the prisoner. The
attorney-general, sometimes audaciously perverting the answers of
Egmont,[1123] at other times giving an exaggerated importance to his
occasional admissions, succeeded in spreading his meshes so artfully,
that it required no slight degree of coolness and circumspection, even
in an innocent party, to escape from them.

The instrument was delivered to Egmont on the twenty-ninth of December.
Five days only were allowed him to prepare his defence,--and that too
without the aid of a friend to support, or of counsel to advise him. He
at first resolutely declined to make a defence at all, declaring that he
was amenable to no tribunal but that of the members of the order. Being
informed, however, that if he persisted he would be condemned for
contumacy, he consented, though with a formal protest against the
proceeding as illegal, to enter on his defence.

He indignantly disclaimed the idea of any design to subvert the existing
government. He admitted the charges in regard to his treatment of
Granvelle, and defended his conduct on the ground of expediency,--of its
being demanded by the public interest. On the same ground he explained
his course in reference to some of the other matters charged on him, and
especially in relation to the sectaries,--too strong in numbers, he
main