part in the
war against the Spaniards. Philip, who may perhaps have felt some
compunction for the ungenerous requital he had made for the father's
services, not only forgave this act of disloyalty in the son, but three
years later allowed the young man to resume his allegiance, and placed
him in full possession of the honors and estates of his ancestors.[1208]

Alva, as we have seen, in his letters to Philip, had dwelt on the
important effects of Egmont's execution. He did not exaggerate these
effects. But he sorely mistook the nature of them. Abroad, the elector
of Bavaria at once threw his whole weight into the scale of Orange and
the party of reform.[1209] Others of the German princes followed his
example; and Maximilian's ambassador at Madrid informed Philip that the
execution of the two nobles, by the indignation it had caused throughout
Germany, had wonderfully served the designs of the prince of
Orange.[1210]

[Sidenote: SENTIMENT OF THE PEOPLE.]

At home the effects were not less striking. The death of these two
illustrious men, following so close upon the preceding executions,
spread a deep gloom over the country. Men became possessed with the idea
that the reign of blood was to be perpetual.[1211] All confidence was
destroyed, even that confidence which naturally exists between parent
and child, between brother and brother.[1212] The foreign merchant
caught somewhat of this general distrust, and refused to send his
commodities to a country where they were exposed to confiscation.[1213]
Yet among the inhabitants indignation was greater than even fear or
sorrow;[1214] and the Flemings who had taken part in the prosecution of
Egmont trembled before the wrath of an avenging people.[1215] Such were
the effects produced by the execution of men whom the nation reverenced
as martyrs in the cause of freedom. Alva notices these consequences in
his letters to the king. But though he could discern the signs of the
times, he little dreamed of the extent of the troubles they portended.
"The people of this country," he writes, "are of so easy a temper, that,
when your majesty shall think fit to grant them a general pardon, your
clemency, I trust, will make them as prompt to render you their
obedience as they are now reluctant to do it."[1216]--The haughty
soldier, in his contempt for the peaceful habits of a burgher
population, comprehended as little as his master the true character of
the men of the Netherlands.