obedience within limits previously designated, is not enough; behind
the functionary he claims the man. "All that may well be," he
replies, to whatever may be said in praise of him,[60] "but he does
not belong to me as I would like." It is devotion which he exacts,
and, by devotion, he means the irrevocable and complete surrender "of
the entire person, in all his sentiments and opinions." According to
him, writes a witness, "one must abandon every old habit, even the
most trifling, and be governed by one thought alone,. that of his
will and interests."[61] For greater security, his servitors ought to
extinguish in themselves the critical sense. "What he fears the most
is that, close to him or far off, the faculty of judging should be
applied or even preserved."

"His idea is a marble groove," out of which no mind should
diverge.[62] Especially as no two minds could think of diverging at
the same time, and on the same side, their concurrence, even when
passive, their common understanding, even if kept to themselves, their
whispers, almost inaudible, constitute a league, a faction, and, if
they are functionaries, "a conspiracy." On his return from Spain he
declares, with a terrible explosion of wrath and threats,[63] "that
the ministers and high dignitaries whom he has created must stop
expressing their opinions and thoughts freely, that they cannot be
otherwise than his organs, that treason has already begun when they
begin to doubt, and that it is under full headway when, from doubt,
they proceed to dissent." If, against his constant encroachments, they
strive to preserve a last refuge, if they refuse to abandon their
conscience to him, their faith as Catholics or their honor as honest
men, he is surprised and gets irritated. In reply to the Bishop of
Ghent, who, in the most respectful manner, excuses himself for not
taking a second oath that is against his conscience, he rudely turns