In short, said Granvelle, he answered them with so much wisdom, that although they had never a high opinion of his capacity, they were silenced.

This conversation had been going on before all the servants, the Marquis being especially vociferous, although the room was quite full of them.

As soon as the cloth was removed, and while some of the lackies still remained, Berghen had resumed the conversation.

He said he was of the same mind as his ancestor, John of Berghen, had been, who had once told the King's grandfather, Philip the Fair, that if his Majesty was bent on his own perdition, he had no disposition to ruin himself.

If the present monarch means to lose these provinces by governing them as he did govern them, the Marquis affirmed that he had no wish to lose the little property that he himself possessed in the country.