The Duchess soon afterwards entertained her royal brother with very detailed accounts of various acts of simony, peculation, and embezzlement committed by Viglius, which the Cardinal had aided and abetted, and by which he had profited .-- [Correspondence de Phil.

II, i.

318-320.]--These revelations are inestimable in a historical point of view.

They do not raise our estimate of Margaret's character, but they certainly give us a clear insight into the nature of the Granvelle administration.

At the same time it was characteristic of the Duchess, that while she was thus painting the portrait of the Cardinal for the private eye of his sovereign, she should address the banished minister himself in a secret strain of condolence, and even of penitence.
She wrote to assure Granvelle that she repented extremely having adopted the views of Orange.