ecretary warned his correspondent of the
necessity of secrecy, adding that he especially feared "all the court
ladies, great and small, but that he in everything confided entirely in
Perez."

Nearly at the same time, Don John wrote to Perez in a similar tone. "Ah,
Senor Antonio," he exclaimed, "how certain is my disgrace and my
misfortune. Ruined is our enterprise, after so much labor and such
skilful management." He was to have commenced the work with the very
Spanish soldiers who were now to be sent off by land, and he had nothing
for it but to let them go, or to come to an open rupture with the states.
"The last, his conscience, his duty, and the time, alike forbade." He was
therefore obliged to submit to the ruin of his plans, and "could think of
nothing save to turn hermit, a condition in which a man's labors, being
spiritual, might not be entirely in vain." He was so overwhelmed by the
blow, he said, that he was constantly thinking of an anchorite's life.
That which he had been leading had become intolerable. He was not fitted
for the people of the Netherlands, nor they for him. Rather than stay
longer than was necessary in order to appoint his successor, there was no
resolution he might not take, even to leaving everything and coming upon
them when they least expected him, although he were to receive a bloody
punishment in consequence. He, too, suggested the Empress, who had all
the qualities which he lacked himself, or Madame de Parma, or Madame de
Lorraine, as each of them was more fit to govern the provinces than he
pretended to be. "The people," said he, plainly, "are beginning to abhor
me, and I abhor them already." He entreated Perez to get him out of the
country by fair means or foul, "per fas aut per nefas." His friends ought
to procure his liberation, if they wished to save him from the sin of
disobedience, and even of infamy. He expressed the most unbounded
confidence in the honor of his correspondent, adding that if nothing else
could procure his release, the letter might be shown to the King. In
general, the Governor was always willing that Perez should make what
changes he thought advisable in the letters for his Majesty, altering or
softening whatever seemed crude or harsh, provided always the main
point--that of procuring his recal--were steadily kept in view, in this,
said the Governor, vehemently, my life, my honor, and my soul are all at
stake; for as to the two first, I shall forfeit them both c