Lewis himself and a few others alone escaped by throwing themselves into the water and swimming for their lives.
The action at Heiligerlee, by compelling the governor-general to take the field, had hastened the fate of Egmont and Hoorn.

After their arrest the two noblemen were kept in solitary confinement in the citadel of Ghent for several months, while the long list of charges against them was being examined by the Council of Troubles--in other words by Vargas and del Rio.

These charges they angrily denied; and great efforts were made on their behalf by the wife of Egmont and the dowager Countess of Hoorn.

Appeals were made to the governor-general and to Philip himself, either for pardon on the ground of services rendered to the State, or at least for a trial, as Knights of the Golden Fleece, before the Court of the Order.

The Emperor Maximilian himself pleaded with Philip for clemency, but without avail.