Note 1017 — Chapter II
Reading edition
Belin, in a letter to his patron, Cardinal Granvelle, gives full vent to his discontent with "three or four Spaniards in the duke's train, who would govern all in his name. They make but one head under the same hat." He mentions Vargas and Del Rio in particular. Granvelle's reply is very characteristic. Far from sympathizing with his querulous follower, he predicts the ruin of his fortunes by this mode of proceeding. "A man who would rise in courts must do as he is bidden, without question. Far from taking umbrage, he must bear in mind that injuries, like pills, should he swallowed without chewing, that one may not taste the bitterness of them;"—a noble maxim, if the motive had been noble. See Levesque, Mémoires de Granvelle, tom. II. pp. 91-94.