The day had gone by when the deputies of the states-general were wont to quail before the wrath of vicarious royalty.

The fiery words of Don John were not oil to troubled water, but a match to a mine.

The passions of the deputies exploded in their turn, and from hot words they had nearly come to hard blows.

One of the deputies replied with so much boldness and vehemence that the Governor, seizing a heavy silver bell which stood on the table, was about to hurl it at the offender's head, when an energetic and providential interference on the part of the imperial envoys, prevented the unseemly catastrophe.
The day thus unprofitably spent, had now come to its close, and the deputies left the presence of Don John with tempers as inflamed as his own.

They were, therefore, somewhat surprised at being awakened in their beds, after midnight, by a certain Father Trigoso, who came to them with a conciliatory message from the Governor.