With such exacerbation of temper at the commencement of negotiations, their progress was of necessity stormy and slow.
The envoys now addressed three concise questions to the Governor.

Was he satisfied that the Ghent Pacification contained nothing conflicting with the Roman religion and the King's authority?
If so, was he willing to approve that treaty in all its articles?
Was he ready to dismiss his troops at once, and by land, the sea voyage being liable to too many objections?
Don John answered these three questions--which, in reality, were but three forms of a single question--upon the same day, the 24th of January.
His reply was as complex as the demand had been simple.

It consisted of a proposal in six articles, and a requisition in twenty-one, making in all twenty-seven articles.

Substantially he proposed to dismiss the foreign troops--to effect a general pacification of the Netherlands--to govern on the basis of the administration in his imperial father's reign--to arrange affairs in and with regard to the assembly-general as the King should judge to be fitting--to forgive and forget past offences--and to release all prisoners.

On the other hand he required the estates to pay the troops before their departure, and to provide ships enough to transport them, as the Spaniards did not choose to go by land, and as the deputies, at Luxemburg had consented to their removal by sea.
Furthermore, he demanded that the states should dismiss their own troops.
He required ecclesiastical authority to prove the Ghent Pacification not prejudicial to the Catholic religion; legal authority that it was not detrimental to his Majesty's supremacy; and an oath from the states-general to uphold both points inviolably, and to provide for their maintenance in Holland and Zealand.