The Prince hated Philip well, but he was able to judge him with an especial clearness; he was convinced in his heart that the King had already judged and condemned all these Netherlanders who had in any way opposed him.
At the Diendermonde meeting he had shown to Egmont and Hoorne an intercepted letter from D'Alava, Spanish envoy in Paris, to the Regent.
In this document was very plainly set forth the King's intention towards the three grandees, who were to be arrested the moment a Spanish army reached the Netherlands, and the writer further stated that the two envoys in Madrid "are met with smiling faces, but will be never permitted to leave Spain alive."
Egmont put this letter before the Regent, who declared it to be an impudent forgery; with this statement Egmont was satisfied.
But the Prince of Orange was not; even were the letter false he believed that it contained the true sentiments of the Government.
There was no one to share his views, to understand his attitude; he felt that very keenly now, when he stood at the parting of the ways.
Brederode and Louis thought him hesitating and cold, the Count party thought him disloyal, the people no longer trusted him; his German relatives were lukewarm in their attachment, his wife never saw him but she railed and scolded at the way he had allowed himself to be ruined for a parcel of heretics, and deafened him with complaints of the life at Breda castle.
The only man standing by him at that moment was Anthony Lalaing, Count Hoogstraaten, the gallant young noble who had been his right hand in the troublous Antwerp days.
But Hoogstraaten was at the Prince's feet, waiting to be instructed; he was nothing on which to lean.
Again William looked at the two papers which the March wind fluttered in his hand.