His new position considerably damaged his cause.

This forgiving spirit on the part of the malefactor was a little more than the states could bear, disposed as they felt, from policy, to be indulgent, and to smooth over the crime as gently as possible.

The negotiations were interrupted, and the authorities of Antwerp published a brief and spirited defence of their own conduct.

They denied that any affront or want of respect on their part could have provoked the outrage of which the Duke had been guilty.

They severely handled his self-contradiction, in ascribing originally the recent attempt to his just vengeance for past injuries, and in afterwards imputing it to accident or sudden mutiny, while they cited the simultaneous attempts at Bruges, Denremonde, Alost, Digmuyde, Newport, Ostend, Vilvoorde, and Dunkirk, as a series of damning proofs of a deliberate design.
The publication of such plain facts did not advance the negotiations when resumed.