houlder at the time of his abdication, when he
made his parting address to the states of the Netherlands. He showed
this still further by selecting him for the honorable mission of bearing
the imperial crown to Ferdinand.

On his abdication, Charles earnestly commended William to his successor.
Philip profited by his services in the beginning of his reign, when the
prince of Orange, who had followed him in the French war, was made one
of the four plenipotentiaries for negotiating the treaty of
Cateau-Cambresis, for the execution of which he remained as one of the
hostages in France.

While at the court of Henry the Second, it will be remembered, the
prince became acquainted with the secret designs of the French and
Spanish monarchs against the Protestants in their dominions; and he
resolved, from that hour, to devote all his strength to expel the
"Spanish vermin" from the Netherlands. One must not infer from this,
however, that William, at this early period, meditated the design of
shaking off the rule of Spain altogether. The object he had in view went
no further than to relieve the country from the odious presence of the
Spanish troops, and to place the administration in those hands to which
it rightfully belonged. They, however, who set a revolution in motion
have not always the power to stop it. If they can succeed in giving it a
direction, they will probably be carried forward by it beyond their
intended limits, until, gathering confidence with success, they aim at
an end far higher than that which they had originally proposed. Such,
doubtless, was the case with William of Orange.

Notwithstanding the emperor's recommendation, the prince of Orange was
not the man whom Philip selected for his confidence. Nor was it possible
for William to regard the king with the same feelings which he had
entertained for the emperor. To Charles the prince was under obvious
obligations for his nurture in early life. His national pride, too, was
not wounded by having a Spaniard for his sovereign, since Charles was
not by birth, much less in heart, a Spaniard. All this was reversed in
Philip, in whom William saw only the representative of a detested race.
The prudent reserve which marked the character of each, no doubt,
prevented the outward demonstration of their sentiments; but from their
actions we may readily infer the instinctive aversion which the two
parties entertained for each other.

At the early age of eighteen, William