History of Protestantism in the Netherlands - James Aitken Wylie

apparently unbounded surrender; that condition
was the withdrawal of the Spanish troops. Instantly
Philip's countenance changed, and sinking into his
chair of state, with gloomy and wrathful brow, the
assembly saw how distasteful to Philip was the
proposition to withdraw his soldiers from the
Netherlands. The rest of the Estates followed; each,
in its turn, making the same offer, but appending to
it the same condition. Every florin of the three
millions demanded would be forthcoming, but not
a soldier must be left on the soil of the Provinces.
The king's face grew darker still. Its rapid changes
showed the tempest that was raging in his breast.
To ask him to withdraw his soldiers was to ask him
to give up the Netherlands. Without the soldiers
how could he maintain the edicts and Inquisition?
and these let go, the haughty and heretical
Netherlanders would again be their own masters,
and would fill the Provinces with that rampant
heresy which he had just cursed. The very idea of
such a thing threw the king into a rage which he
was at no pains to conceal.
But a still greater mortification awaited him
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