unswick, about this
time made in the vicinity, contributed to strengthen the general
suspicion that the Inquisition was to be forcibly imposed on the
Netherlands. Many of the most eminent merchants already spoke of
quitting their houses and business, to seek in some other part of the
world the liberty of which they were here deprived; others looked about
for a leader, and let fall hints of forcible resistance and of foreign
aid.

That in this distressing position of affairs the Regent might be left
entirely without an adviser and without support, she was now deserted by
the only person who was at the present moment indispensable to her, and
who had contributed to plunge her into this embarrassment. "Without
kindling a civil war," wrote to her William of Orange, "it was
absolutely impossible to comply now with the orders of the King. If,
however, obedience was to be insisted upon, he must beg that his place
might be supplied by another, who would better answer the expectations
of his majesty and have more power than he had over the minds of the
nation. The zeal which on every other occasion he had shown in the
service of the crown would, he hoped, secure his present proceeding from
misconstruction; for, as the case now stood, he had no alternative
between disobeying the King and injuring his country and himself." From
this time forth William of Orange retired from the council of state to
his town of Breda, where, in observant but scarcely inactive repose, he
watched the course of affairs. Count Horn followed his example.

Egmont, ever vacillating between the republic and the throne, ever
wearying himself in the vain attempt to unite the good citizen with the
obedient subject--Egmont, who was less able than the rest to dispense
with the favor of the monarch, and to whom, therefore, it was less an
object of indifference, could not bring himself to abandon the bright
prospects which were now opening for him at the court of the Regent. The
Prince of Orange had, by his superior intellect, gained an influence
over the Regent which great minds cannot fail to command from inferior
spirits. His retirement had opened a void in her confidence, which Count
Egmont was now to fill by virtue of that sympathy which so naturally
subsists between timidity, weakness, and good nature. As she was as much
afraid of exasperating the people by an exclusive confidence in the
adherents of the crown as she was fearful of displeasing the King by t