It was out of his power to execute the treaty and the edict, in the face of a notorious omission on the part of his adversary to enforce the one or to publish the other.

It comported neither with his dignity nor his safety to lay down his weapons while the Prince and his adherents were arming.

He should have placed himself "in a very foolish position," had he allowed himself unarmed to be dictated to by the armed.

In defence of himself on the third point, the seizure of Namur Castle, he recounted the various circumstances with which the reader is already acquainted.

He laid particular stress upon the dramatic manner in which the Vicomte De Gand had drawn his curtains at the dead of night; he narrated at great length the ominous warning which he had likewise received from the Duke of Aerschot in Brussels, and concluded with a circumstantial account of the ambush which he believed to have been laid for him by Count De Lalain.