"And you?"
"I was much dismayed when first I heard from King Henry of this ruthless policy, for I knew it meant the ruin and death of many virtuous people; and then I resolved I would do what I could for them, especially in the Netherlands. And so I will."
Count John looked slightly surprised to hear his magnificent brother speak with such unwonted gravity.
"Why, who is to withstand King Philip and King Philip's men—such as Granvelle?" he asked rather hopelessly.
"The House of Nassau might do it," smiled William lightly.
"You do not mean to oppose the King?" cried the Count.
"Why, God forbid," said the Prince, in the same tone, "but I might oppose his policies, and I shall certainly put a stone or so in the path of my Lord Cardinal."
"I fear this marriage has done you little good after all," remarked his brother regretfully. "Here is the King and the Regent displeased, and the Landgrave of Cassel angered too. Apart from your religion, he says (his son told me), you have too many debts to take a wife."
"Those same debts must be looked to," said William, in the assurance of a man of unlimited wealth and unassailable position.
"And the story has got abroad," continued the Count ruefully, "of that banquet you gave with the cloth and plates and dishes all of sugar, and the Landgrave is spreading it round Saxony and Cassel as a proof of your great extravagance."