orce
of reasoning, the convocation of the states-general. This was
replied to by an entreaty that they would still wait patiently for
twenty-four days, in hopes of an answer from the king; and she sent
the marquess of Bergen in all speed to Madrid, to support Montigny
in his efforts to obtain some prompt decision from Philip. The
king, who was then at Segovia, assembled his council, consisting
of the duke of Alva and eight other grandees. The two deputies
from the Netherlands attended at the deliberations, which were
held for several successive days; but the king was never present.
The whole state of affairs being debated with what appears a calm
and dispassionate view, considering the hostile prejudices of this
council, it was decided to advise the king to adopt generally a
more moderate line of conduct in the Netherlands, and to abolish
the inquisition; at the same time prohibiting under the most
awful threats all confederation assemblage, or public preachings,
under any pretext whatever.

The king's first care on, receiving this advice was to order, in
all the principal towns of Spain and the Netherlands, prayer and
processions to implore the divine approbation on the resolutions
which he had formed. He appeared then in person at the council of
state, and issued a decree, by which he refused his consent to
the convocation of the states-general, and bound himself to take
several German regiments into his pay. He ordered the duchess
of Parma, by a private letter, to immediately cause to be raised
three thousand cavalry and ten thousand foot, and he remitted to
her for this purpose three hundred thousand florins in gold. He
next wrote with his own hand to several of his partisans in the
various towns, encouraging them in their fidelity to his purpose,
and promising them his support. He rejected the adoption of the
moderation recommended to him; but he consented to the abolition
of the inquisition in its most odious sense, re-establishing
that modified species of ecclesiastical tyranny which had been
introduced into the Netherlands by Charles V. The people of that
devoted country were thus successful in obtaining one important
concession from the king, and in meeting unexpected consideration
from this Spanish council. Whether these measures had been calculated
with a view to their failure, it is not now easy to determine;
at all events they came too late. When Philip's letters reached
Brussels, the iconoclasts or imag