mmand of the sovereign. Yet that command
was extorted by necessity, and so given as best to save the feelings and
the credit of the minister. Neither party anticipated that Granvelle's
absence would continue for a long time, much less that his dismissal was
final. Even when inditing the letter to the cardinal, Philip cherished
the hope that the necessity for his departure might be avoided
altogether. This appears from the despatches sent at the same time to
the regent.

[Sidenote: PHILIP'S LETTER TO GRANVELLE.]

Shortly after his note to Granvelle, on the nineteenth of February,
Philip wrote an answer to the lords in all the tone of offended
majesty. He expressed his astonishment that they should have been led,
by any motive whatever, to vacate their seats at the council, where he
had placed them.[589] They would not fail to return there at once, and
show that they preferred the public weal to all private
considerations.[590] As for the removal of the minister, since they had
not been pleased to specify any charges against him, the king would
deliberate further before deciding on the matter. Thus, three weeks
after Philip had given the cardinal his dismissal, did he write to his
enemies as if the matter were still in abeyance; hoping, it would seem,
by the haughty tone of authority, to rebuke the spirit of the refractory
nobles, and intimidate them into a compliance with his commands. Should
this policy succeed, the cardinal might still hold the helm of
government.[591]

But Philip had not yet learned that he was dealing with men who had
little of that spirit of subserviency to which he was accustomed in his
Castilian vassals. The peremptory tone of his letter fired the blood of
the Flemish lords, who at once waited on the regent, and announced their
purpose not to reenter the council. The affair was not likely to end
here; and Margaret saw with alarm the commotion that would be raised
when the letter of the king should be laid before the whole body of the
nobles.[592] Fearing some rash step, difficult to be retrieved, she
resolved either that the cardinal should announce his intended
departure, or that she would do so for him. Philip's experiment had
failed. Nothing, therefore, remained but for the minister publicly to
declare, that, as his brother, the late envoy to France, had returned to
Brussels, he had obtained permission from the regent to accompany him on
a visit to their aged mother, whom Granvelle had not s