Page:The silent prince - a story of the Netherlands (IA cu31924008716957).pdf/66

 now over,” said the young advocate sternly. “The decrees of the Council of Trent are to be rigidly enforced, and the inquisitors are to be confirmed in their authority. In spite of all this, heresy continues to spread. The scaffold has its daily victims, but it fails to make a single convert. The truth is imported with every bale of merchandise. Bigotry or cruelty cannot devise a quarantine which will effectually exclude the religious germs, which are wafted to the Netherlands on every breeze. The terror and wrath of the people has reached a crisis. There is but one topic of shuddering conversation, and that is the Edicts and the Inquisition. The movement of the nobles is hailed with universal delight.”

“Does the Prince of Orange favor the federation of nobles?” inquired Dr. Chenoweth.

“I am sorry to say he regards it with distrust. When he learned of it he made the remark, ‘The curtain has opened upon a great tragedy.’ He thinks the action of the nobles savors too much of open rebellion.”

“Is it rebellion to insist that the King shall keep his sacred pledges, and to preserve the charters of a people which are older than the titles of his royal house?” asked Hilvardine with flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes.

“I think not,” replied the young advocate. “If all appeals to the King's clemency have proved