THE year was 1559 of our Common Era. Prince William of the Netherlands and King Henry of France were in a hunting party on the outskirts of Paris. When, by chance, the two men were off by themselves, King Henry freely talked with the prince about a plan King Philip of Spain had formed to kill off all the Protestants in the Netherlands and in France. The executioners for the Netherlands were to be the Spanish troops stationed there.

All of this was shocking news to the Dutch prince, as he had not had the slightest inkling of such a plan.a Although himself reared a Catholic (with a Lutheran background), he felt keenly for all those Protestants that were slated to be slain. Most discreetly he betrayed no surprise nor any other emotion at learning of this murderous plan, for which reason he became known as “William the Silent.”

Before returning to the Netherlands, he was given specific orders as to his part in carrying out this terrible plot. But as soon as he got back to his homeland he aroused public sentiment for the departure of the Spanish troops from his country. In fact, he did all he could to frustrate that evil plan​—all of which, it might be observed, started him on the road to becoming “the Father of his country.”

In particular William had been given the names of certain “excellent persons suspected of the new religion” with instructions to make sure that these did not escape. Far from carrying out such instructions, he warned those “excellent persons,” enabling them to get away. As he later put it, he was “thinking it more necessary to obey God than men.” In all of this, William was truly displaying lifesaving neighbor love.b