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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2012
This polemic against the prince of Orange's Advice of 7 February 1583 (Document 53) obviously comes from those circles at Ghent which had always been ill-disposed towards him and were inclining towards reconciliation with Parma and the king of Spain.
Let us deal briefly with the three courses of action which according to the prince of Orange are the only possible means of extricating ourselves from these troubles. The first one, reconciliation with the king, is, he says, objectionable because we would be accused of inconstancy. But would it not be better to redress the disloyalty into which he has forced us by shifting onto him the disgrace which he has brought on us in the eyes of the whole world in general and in particular? Is reconciliation with the king as pernicious as he says? It can, at any rate, not be worse than what he has brought upon us. We have better means of obtaining a good peace with the king than had the French who, in spite of all that had happened in France, did not fail to reconcile themselves with their king.
As to the great secret which thanks to his long experience in the affairs of princes the prince of Orange reveals to us, to wit that those among the Malcontents who propose reconciliation to us, do this with the full knowledge of the prince of Parma, was any of us so simple as to be unaware of this? And was any one so simple as to wish it were otherwise?
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