"There will soon be a hard nut to crack," wrote Count Louis.

"The King will never grant the preaching; the people will never give it up, if it cost them their necks.

There's a hard puff coming upon the country before long." The Duchess was not yet authorized to levy troops, and she feared that if she commenced such operations, she should perhaps offend the King, while she at the same time might provoke the people into more effective military preparations than her own.

She felt that for one company levied by her, the sectaries could raise ten.
Moreover, she was entirely without money, even if she should otherwise think it expedient to enrol an army.

Meantime she did what she could with "public prayers, processions, fasts, sermons, exhortations," and other ecclesiastical machinery which she ordered the bishops to put in motion.
Her situation was indeed sufficiently alarming.
Egmont, whom many of the sectaries hoped to secure as their leader in case of a civil war, showed no disposition to encourage such hopes, but as little to take up arms against the people.