another generation,
was allowed to receive his training under the paternal roof.[900]

Besides his family, William was accompanied by a host of friends and
followers, some of them persons of high consideration, who preferred
banishment with him to encountering the troubles that awaited them at
home. Thus attended, he fixed his residence at Dillemburg, in Nassau,
the seat of his ancestors, and the place of his own birth. He there
occupied himself with studying the Lutheran doctrine under an
experienced teacher of that persuasion;[901] and, while he kept a
watchful eye on the events passing in his unhappy country, he endeavored
to make himself acquainted with the principles of that glorious
Reformation, of which, in connection with political freedom, he was one
day to become the champion.

The departure of the prince of Orange caused general consternation in
the Netherlands. All who were in anyway compromised by the late
disturbances watched more anxiously than ever the signs of the coming
tempest, as they felt they had lost the pilot who alone could enable
them to weather it. Thousands prepared to imitate his example by
quitting the country before it was too late. Among those who fled were
the Counts Culemborg, Berg, Hoogstraten, Louis of Nassau, and others of
inferior note, who passed into Germany, where they gathered into a
little circle round the prince, waiting, like him, for happier days.

Some of the great lords, who had held out against the regent, now left
alone, intimated their willingness to comply with her demands. "Count
Hoorne," she writes to Philip, "has offered his services to me, and
declares his readiness to take the oath. If he has spoken too freely, he
says, it was not from any disaffection to the government, but from a
momentary feeling of pique and irritation. I would not drive him to
desperation, and from regard to his kindred I have consented that he
should take his seat in the council again."[902] The haughty tone of
the duchess shows that she felt herself now so strongly seated as to be
nearly indifferent whether the person she dealt with were friend or
foe.[903]

Egmont, at this time, was endeavoring to make amends for the past by
such extraordinary demonstrations of loyalty as should efface all
remembrance of it. He rode through the land at the head of his troops,
breaking up the consistories, arresting the rioters, and everywhere
reestablishing the Catholic worship. He loudly declared tha