Even the experienced.
Saint Aldegonde was deceived in his character, and described him after an hour and half's interview, as a Prince overflowing with bounty, intelligence, and sincerity.

That such men as Saint Aldegonde and the Prince of Orange should be at fault in their judgment, is evidence not so much of their want of discernment, as of the difference between the general reputation of the Duke at that period, and that which has been eventually established for him in history.

Moreover, subsequent events were to exhibit the utter baseness of his character more signally than it had been displayed during his previous career, however vacillating.

No more ignoble yet more dangerous creature had yet been loosed upon the devoted soil of the Netherlands.

Not one of the personages who had hitherto figured in the long drama of the revolt had enacted so sorry a part.