s
very time was given to the Counts Schwarzenberg and Holle in Breda, and
another shortly afterward in Hogstraten, drew many of the principal
nobility to these two places, and of these several had already signed
the covenant. The Prince of Orange, Counts Egmont, Horn, and Megen were
present at the latter banquet, but without any concert of design, and
without having themselves any share in the league, although one of
Egmont's own secretaries and some of the servants of the other three
noblemen had openly joined it. At this entertainment three hundred
persons gave in their adhesion to the covenant, and the question was
mooted whether the whole body should present themselves before the
Regent armed or unarmed, with a declaration or with a petition? Horn and
Orange--Egmont would not countenance the business in any way--were
called in as arbiters upon this point, and they decided in favor of the
more moderate and submissive procedure. By taking this office upon them,
they exposed themselves to the charge of having in no very covert manner
lent their sanction to the enterprise of the confederates. In
compliance, therefore, with their advice it was determined to present
their address unarmed and in the form of a petition, and a day was
appointed on which they should assemble in Brussels.

The first intimation the Regent received of this conspiracy of the
nobles was given by the Count of Megen soon after his return to the
capital. "There was," he said, "an enterprise on foot; no less than
three hundred of the nobles were implicated in it; it referred to
religion; the members of it had bound themselves together by an oath;
they reckoned much on foreign aid; she would soon know more about it."
Though urgently pressed, he would give her no further information. "A
nobleman," he said, "had confided it to him under the seal of secrecy,
and he had pledged his word of honor to him." What really withheld him
from giving her any further explanation was, in all probability, not so
much any delicacy about his honor, as his hatred of the Inquisition,
which he would not willingly do anything to advance. Soon after him,
Count Egmont delivered to the Regent a copy of the covenant, and also
gave her the names of the conspirators, with some few exceptions. Nearly
at the same time the Prince of Orange wrote to her: "There was, as he
had heard, an army enlisted, four hundred officers were already named,
and twenty thousand men would presently app