. In her extremity, Margaret had no resource but the one
so often tried,--that of invoking the aid of her brother. "I have no
refuge," she wrote, "but in God and your majesty. It is with anguish
and dismay I must admit that my efforts have wholly failed to prevent
the public preaching, which has spread over every quarter of the
country."[778] She bitterly complains, in another letter, that, after
"so many pressing applications, she should be thus left, without aid and
without instructions, to grope her way at random."[779] She again
beseeches Philip to make the concessions demanded, in which event the
great lords assure her of their support in restoring order.

It was the policy of the cabinet of Madrid not to commit itself. The
royal answers were brief, vague, never indicating a new measure,
generally intimating satisfaction with the conduct of the regent, and
throwing as far as possible all responsibility on her shoulders.

But besides his sister's letters, the king was careful to provide
himself with other sources of information respecting the state of the
Netherlands. From some of these the accounts he received of the conduct
of the great lords were even less favorable than hers. A letter from the
secretary, Armenteros, speaks of the difficulty he finds in fathoming
the designs of the prince of Orange,--a circumstance which he attributes
to his probable change of religion. "He relies much," says the writer,
"on the support he receives in Germany, on his numerous friends at home,
and on the general distrust entertained of the king. The prince is
making preparations in good season," he concludes, "for defending
himself against your majesty."[780]

Yet Philip did not betray any consciousness of this unfriendly temper in
the nobles. To the prince of Orange, in particular, he wrote: "You err
in imagining that I have not entire confidence in you. Should any one
seek to do you an ill office with me, I should not be so light as to
give ear to him, having had so large experience of your loyalty and your
services."[781] "This is not the time," he adds, "for men like you to
withdraw from public affairs." But William was the last man to be duped
by these fair words. When others inveighed against the conduct of the
regent, William excused her by throwing the blame on Philip. "Resolved
to deceive all," he said, "he begins by deceiving his sister."[782]

[Sidenote: MEETING AT ST. TROND.]

It was about the middle of July that a