From first to last, he had expressed a deep and wise distrust, and justified it by ample proofs.

He was, with reason, irritated, therefore, at the haste with which the states had concluded the agreement with Don John--at the celerity with which, as he afterwards expressed it, "they had rushed upon the boar-spear of that sanguinary heart." He believed that everything had been signed and Sworn by the Governor, with the mental reservation that such agreements were valid only until he should repent having made them.

He doubted the good faith and the stability of the grand seigniors.

He had never felt confidence in the professions of the time-serving Aerschot, nor did he trust even the brave Champagny, notwithstanding his services at the sack of Antwerp.

He was especially indignant that provision had been made, not for demolishing but for restoring to his Majesty those hateful citadels, nests of tyranny, by which the flourishing cities of the land were kept in perpetual anxiety.