He then requested to be appointed Bishop of Saint Omer, that see being vacant.

Parma advised the King by no means to grant the request--the Prior being neither endowed with the proper age nor discretion for such a dignity--but to bestow some lesser reward, in money or otherwise, upon the discomfited ecclesiastic, who had rendered so many services and incurred so many dangers.
The states-general and the whole national party regarded, with prophetic dismay, the approaching dismemberment of their common country.

They sent deputation on deputation to the Walloon states, to warn them of their danger, and to avert, if possible, the fatal measure.

Meantime, as by the already accomplished movement, the "generality" was fast disappearing, and was indeed but the shadow of its former self, it seemed necessary to make a vigorous effort to restore something like unity to the struggling country.

The Ghent Pacification had been their outer wall, ample enough and strong enough to enclose and to protect all the provinces.