The wretches are growing proud enough, and forget that their chastisement, some fine morning, will yet arrive." On the 7th of August he addressed another long letter to the estates.
This document was accompanied, as usual, by certain demands, drawn up categorically in twenty-three articles.

The estates considered his terms hard and strange, for in their opinion it was themselves, not the Governor, who were masters of the situation.

Nevertheless, he seemed inclined to treat as if he had gained, not missed, the citadel of Antwerp; as if the troops with whom he had tampered were mustered in the field, not shut up in distant towns, and already at the mercy of the states party.

The Governor demanded that all the forces of the country should be placed under his own immediate control; that Count Bossu, or some other person nominated by himself, should be appointed to the government of Friesland; that the people of Brabant and Flanders should set themselves instantly to hunting, catching, and chastising all vagrant heretics and preachers.

He required, in particular, that Saint Aldegonde and Theron, those most mischievous rebels, should be prohibited from setting their foot in any city of the Netherlands.