eyligerlee;
and at her friend's house the poor lady is said to have received the
first tidings of the fate of her lord.[1198]

The blow fell the heavier, that she was so ill prepared for it. On the
same day she found herself, not only a widow, but a beggar,--with a
family of orphan children in vain looking up to her for the common
necessaries of life.[1199] In her extremity, she resolved to apply to
the king himself. She found an apology for it in the necessity of
transmitting to Philip her husband's letter to him, which, it seems, had
been intrusted to her care.[1200] She apologizes for not sooner sending
this last and most humble petition of her deceased lord, by the extreme
wretchedness of her situation, abandoned, as she is, by all, far from
kindred and country.[1201] She trusts in his majesty's benignity and
compassion[1202] to aid her sons by receiving them into his service when
they shall be of sufficient age. This will oblige her, during the
remainder of her sad days, and her children after her, to pray God for
the long and happy life of his majesty.[1203]--It must have given
another pang to the heart of the widowed countess, to have been thus
forced to solicit aid from the very hand that had smitten her. But it
was the mother pleading for her children.

Yet Philip, notwithstanding his assurances to the duke of Alva, showed
no alacrity in relieving the wants of the countess. On the first of
September the duke again wrote, to urge the necessity of her case,
declaring that, if it had not been for a "small sum that he had himself
sent, she and the children would have perished of hunger!"[1204]

The misfortunes of this noble lady excited commiseration not only at
home, but in other countries of Europe, and especially in Germany, the
land of her birth.[1205] Her brother, the elector of Bavaria, wrote to
Philip, to urge the restitution of her husband's estates to his family.
Other German princes preferred the same request, which was moreover
formally made by the emperor, through his ambassador at Madrid. Philip
coolly replied, that "the time for this had not yet come."[1206] A
moderate pension, meanwhile, was annually paid by Alva to the countess
of Egmont, who survived her husband ten years,--not long enough to see
her children established in possession of their patrimony.[1207] Shortly
before her death, her eldest son, then grown to man's estate, chafing
under the sense of injustice to himself and his family, took