[1217] "Le bruit public qui subsiste encore, divulgue qu'il est mort empoisonné." Vandervynckt, Troubles des Pays-Bas, tom. II. p. 285.—The author himself does not indorse the vulgar rumor.
[1218] Meteren tells us that Montigny was killed by poison, which his page, who afterwards confessed the crime, put in his broth. (Hist. des Pays-Bas, fol. 60.) Vandervynckt, after noticing various rumors, dismisses them with the remark, "On n'a pu savoir au juste ce qu'il était devenu." Troubles des Pays-Bas, tom. II. p. 237.
[1219] His revenues seem to have been larger than those of any other Flemish lord, except Egmont and Orange, amounting to something more than fifty thousand florins annually. Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. II. p. 115.
[1220] Ibid., Rapport, p. xxxvii.
It was reported to Philip's secretary, Erasso, by that mischievous bigot, Fray Lorenzo Villavicencio; not, as may be supposed, to do honor to the author of it, but to ruin him.
[1221] Correspondance de Philippe II. tom. I. p. 439.
[1222] See the letters of the royal contador, Alonzo del Canto, from Brussels. (Ibid., tom. I. pp. 411, 425.) Granvelle, in a letter from Rome, chimes in with the same tune,—though, as usual with the prelate, in a more covert manner. "Le choix de Berghes et Montigny n'est pas mauvais, si le but de leur mission est d'informer le Roi de l'état des choses: car ils sont ceux qui en ont le mieux connaissance, et qui peut-être y ont pris le plus de part." Ibid., p. 417.
[1223] "Autrement, certes, Madame, aurions juste occasion de nous doloir et de V. A. et des seigneurs de par delà, pour nous avoir commandé de venir ici, pour recevoir honte et desplaisir, estantz forcés journellement de véoir et oyr choses qui nous desplaisent jusques à l'âme, et de veoir aussy le peu que S. M. se sert de nous." Ibid. p. 498.
[1224] This letter is dated November 18, 1566. (Ibid., p. 486.) The letter of the two lords was written on the last day of the December following.
[1225] Her letter is dated March 5, 1567. Ibid., p. 516.