ce each and all have been invited to join in the league."
The Cardinal's reasons for the existence of the unpopularity, which he
admitted to the full, have no bearing upon the point in the letter. The
fact was relied upon to sustain a simple, although a momentous inference.
It was for Philip to decide upon the propriety of the deduction, and to
abide by the consequences of his resolution when taken. As usual,
however, the monarch was not capable of making up his mind. He knew very
well that the Cardinal was odious and infamous, because he was the
willing impersonation of the royal policy. Philip was, therefore,
logically called upon to abandon the policy or to sustain the minister.
He could make up his mind to do neither the one nor the other. In the
mean time a well-turned period of mock magnanimity had been furnished
him. This he accordingly transmitted as his first answer to a most
important communication upon a subject which, in the words of the
writers, "admitted neither of dissimulation nor delay." To deprive Philip
of dissimulation and delay, however, was to take away his all. They were
the two weapons with which he fought his long life's battle. They summed
up the whole of his intellectual resources. It was inevitable, therefore,
that he should at once have recourse to both on such an emergency as the
present one.

At the same time that he sent his answer to the nobles, he wrote an
explanatory letter to the Regent. He informed her that he had received
the communication of the three seigniors, but instructed her that she was
to appear to know nothing of the matter until Egmont should speak to her
upon the subject. He added that, although he had signified his wish to
the three nobles, that one of them, without specifying which, should come
to Madrid, he in reality desired that Egmont, who seemed the most
tractable of the three, should be the one deputed. The King added, that
his object was to divide the nobles, and to gain time.

It was certainly superfluous upon Philip's part to inform his sister that
his object was to gain time. Procrastination was always his first refuge,
as if the march of the world's events would pause indefinitely while he
sat in his cabinet and pondered. It was, however, sufficiently puerile to
recommend to his sister an affectation of ignorance on a subject
concerning which nobles had wrangled, and almost drawn their swords in
her presence. This, however, was the King's statesmanship when