The cabals of Orange's secret enemies were again thwarted with the same adroitness to which his avowed antagonists were forced to succumb.

Matthias was made the exponent of the new policy, the standard-bearer of the new union which the Prince now succeeded in establishing; for his next step was immediately to impress upon the provinces which had thus united in casting down the gauntlet to a common enemy the necessity of uniting in a permanent league.

One province was already lost by the fall of Namur.

The bonds of a permanent union for the other sixteen could be constructed of but one material--religious toleration, and for a moment, the genius of Orange, always so far beyond his age, succeeded in raising the mass of his countrymen to the elevation upon which he had so long stood alone.
The "new or nearer Union of Brussels" was signed on the 10th of December, eleven months after the formation of the first union.

This was the third and, unfortunately, the last confederation of all the Netherlands.