--Anjou's
departure and manifesto--Elizabeth's letters to the states-general
with regard to him--Complimentary addresses by the Estates to the
Duke--Death of Bossu--Calumnies against Orange--Venality of the
malcontent grandees--La Motte's treason--Intrigues of the Prior of
Renty--Saint Aldegonde at Arras--The Prior of St. Vaast's exertions
--Opposition of the clergy in the Walloon provinces to the taxation
of the general government--Triangular contest--Municipal revolution
in Arras led by Gosson and others--Counter-revolution--Rapid trials
and executions--"Reconciliation" of the malcontent chieftains--
Secret treaty of Mount St. Eloi: Mischief made by the Prior of
Renty--His accusations against the reconciled lords--Vengeance taken
upon him--Counter movement by the liberal party--Union of Utrecht--
The Act analyzed and characterized.

A fifth governor now stood in the place which had been successively
vacated by Margaret of Parma, by Alva, by the Grand Commander, and by Don
John of Austria. Of all the eminent personages to whom Philip had
confided the reins of that most difficult and dangerous administration,
the man who was now to rule was by far the ablest and the best fitted for
his post. If there were living charioteer skilful enough to guide the
wheels of state, whirling now more dizzily than ever through "confusum
chaos," Alexander Farnese was the charioteer to guide--his hand the only
one which could control.

He was now in his thirty-third year--his uncle Don John, his cousin Don
Carlos, and himself, having all been born within a few months of each
other. His father was Ottavio Farnese, the faithful lieutenant of Charles
the Fifth, and grandson of Pope Paul the Third; his mother was Margaret
of Parma, first Regent of the Netherlands after the departure of Philip
from the provinces. He was one of the twins by which the reunion of
Margaret and her youthful husband had been blessed, and the only one that
survived. His great-grandfather, Paul, whose secular name of Alexander he
had received, had placed his hand upon the new-born infant's head, and
prophesied that he would grow up to become a mighty warrior. The boy,
from his earliest years, seemed destined to verify the prediction. Though
apt enough at his studies, he turned with impatience from his literary
tutors to military exercises and the hardiest sports. The din of arms
surrounded his cradle. The trophies of Ottavio, re