secretary, Armenteros, to Spain, to acquaint the king with
the precise state of affairs in the Netherlands.[570]

After enlarging on the disorders and difficulties of the country, the
duchess came to the quarrel between the cardinal and the nobles. She had
made every effort to reconcile the parties; but that was impossible. She
was fully sensible of the merits of Granvelle, his high capacity, his
experience in public affairs, his devotion to the interests both of the
king and of religion.[571] But, on the other hand, to maintain him in
the Netherlands, in opposition to the will of the nobles, was to expose
the country, not merely to great embarrassments, but to the danger of
insurrection.[572] The obligations of the high place which she occupied
compelled her to lay the true state of the case before the king, and he
would determine the course to be pursued.--With this letter, bearing the
date of August twelfth, and fortified with ample instructions from the
duchess, Armenteros was forthwith despatched on his mission to Spain.

It was not long before the state of feeling in the cabinet of Brussels
was known, or at least surmised, throughout the country. It was the
interest of some of the parties that it should not be kept secret. The
cardinal, thus abandoned by his friends, became a more conspicuous mark
for the shafts of his enemies. Libels, satires, pasquinades, were
launched against him from every quarter. Such fugitive pieces, like the
insect which dies when it has left its sting, usually perish with the
occasion that gives them birth. But some have survived to the present
day, or at least were in existence at the close of the last century, and
are much commended by a critic for the merits of their literary
execution.[573]

It was the custom, at the period of our narrative, for the young people
to meet in the towns and villages, and celebrate what were called
"academic games," consisting of rhetorical discussions on the various
topics of the day, sometimes of a theological or a political character.
Public affairs furnished a fruitful theme at this crisis; and the
cardinal, in particular, was often roughly handled. It was in vain the
government tried to curb this licence. It only served to stimulate the
disputants to new displays of raillery and ridicule.[574]

Granvelle, it will be readily believed, was not slow to perceive his
loss of credit with the regent, and the more intimate relations into
which she had ente