he would be welcomed by
troops of friends. It was a home, and no place of exile, that William
was to find in Germany.

Shortly after this interview, the prince went to his estates at Breda,
there to remain a few days before quitting the country.[896] From Breda
he wrote to Egmont, expressing the hope that, when he had weighed them
in his mind, he would be contented with the reasons assigned for his
departure. The rest he would leave to God, who would order all for his
own glory. "Be sure," he added, "you have no friend more warmly devoted
to you than myself; for the love of you is too deeply rooted in my heart
to be weakened either by time or distance."[897] It is pleasing to see
that party spirit had not, as in the case of more vulgar souls, the
power to rend asunder the ties which had so long bound these great men
to each other; to see them still turning back, with looks of accustomed
kindness, when they were entering the paths that were to lead in such
opposite directions.

William wrote also to the king, acquainting him with what he had done,
and explaining the grounds of it; at the same time renewing the
declaration that, wherever he might be, he trusted never to be found
wanting to the obligations of a true and faithful vassal. Before leaving
Breda, the prince received a letter from the politic regent, more
amiable in its import than might have been expected. Perhaps it was not
wholly policy that made her unwilling to part with him in anger. She
expressed her readiness to do him any favor in her power. She had always
felt for him, she said, the same affection as for her own son, and
should ever continue to do so.[898]

[Sidenote: WILLIAM LEAVES THE NETHERLANDS.]

On the last of April, William departed for Germany. He took with him all
his household except his eldest son, the count of Buren, then a boy
thirteen years old, who was pursuing his studies at the university of
Louvain.[899] Perhaps William trusted to the immunities of Brabant, or
to the tender age of the youth, for his protection. If so, he grievously
miscalculated. The boy would serve as too important a hostage for his
father, and Philip caused him to be transferred to Madrid; where, under
the monarch's eye, he was educated in religious as well as in political
sentiments very little in harmony with those of the prince of Orange.
Fortunately, the younger brother, Maurice, who inherited the genius of
his father, and was to carry down his great name to