Note 593 — Chapter VII
Reading edition
"Con la venida de Mons. de Chantonnay, mi hermano, á Bruxelles, y su determinacion de encaminarse á estas partes, me paresció tomar color de venir hazia acá, donde no havia estado en 19 años, y ver á madama de Granvella, mi madre, que ha 14 que no la havia visto." Ibid., p. 298.
Granvelle seems to have fondly trusted that no one but Margaret was privy to the existence of the royal letter,—"secret, and written with the king's own hand." So he speaks of his departure in his various letters as a spontaneous movement to see his venerable parent. The secretary Perez must have smiled, as he read one of these letters to himself, since an abstract of the royal despatch appears in his own handwriting. The Flemish nobles also—probably through the regent's secretary, Armenteros—appear to have been possessed of the true state of the case. It was too good a thing to be kept secret.