"Truly I will," he said. "His Eminence and I used to know each other well, and I cannot think that old friendship worn so thin that he would refuse me an hour's hospitality at La Fontaine."
Margaret saw that she had been betrayed into an imprudence.
"Do what you will," she said, "but on your own authority."
"Your Grace is vexed," remarked Hoorne, "but we have done nothing but our plain duty."
"God grant Your Grace may come to see it so," added the courteous Egmont.
"And may He set great prudence and clemency in your heart, Madame," said the Prince, still smiling, "for we stand on the edge of chance, and may easily mis-tread."
Margaret dismissed them as haughtily as she dared, and as soon as they had gone sat down to write an agitated letter to Philip, full of the obstinacy of the Netherlands, the insolence of the grandees, the impossibility of obtaining money, and the virtues of the much-abused Cardinal.
The three grandees mounted and rode along the city heights where their homes lay among pleasant parks and beautiful gardens; as they ascended the steep, winding streets they could look back at the town lying in the hollow, ornate and gorgeous, proud and serene beneath them.
The twin towers of Saint Gudule rose majestically from above the clustered house roofs, below them soared the immense spire of the Town Hall, and in the blue cloudiness and golden light of the late summer afternoon dozens of gilt weathercocks swung in the gentle breeze and glittered in the sun, and in and out of the crevices of the gables flashed the white wings of innumerable pigeons.
The Prince of Orange glanced often at this prospect of the fair town; but Lamoral Egmont's eyes were for the bending knee and lowered head of passers-by, the curtsies of women spinning at the doors, the bright eyes of maidens peeping with admiration from behind the chequered casement blinds; and the Admiral's gaze was straight before him, as if he saw nothing.