Foxe
and his family being entertained by Master Gresham. After some time,
the preacher, finding that he had many enemies in Antwerp who might
deliver him up to the secular power as a heretic, proceeded with his
family to Frankfort. Thence he continued on up the Rhine till he
reached Basle in Switzerland, where were found great numbers of
Englishmen who had been driven from their homes by persecution. That
city was already famous for printing, and here Foxe began his
inestimable work, giving an account of the martyrs who had suffered for
the faith from the earliest times; but these matters Ernst Verner did
not hear for some time afterwards.

With much sorrow Ernst Verner saw that true and faithful servant of
Christ take his departure from Master Gresham's house. He won the
hearts of all who knew him, and no one esteemed him more than did Master
Gresham and Lady Anne. Yet the lessons of wisdom he had given were
greatly interrupted by the life which the young lad was now called on to
live. A great and important ceremony was about to be performed at
Brussels; and Master Gresham, desiring to go there in proper state, took
Ernst with him to attend on him as his page. The sober citizen's gown
which the merchant generally wore was now exchanged for one of richer
materials, and cut according to the Spanish fashion of the times. Ernst
too was habited in a richer dress than he had ever before worn.

All arrangements being made, Ernst and several servants set off in
attendance on Master Gresham for the capital city of the Netherlands.
It had been for some time known that the Emperor--Charles the Fifth--
purposed to abdicate the throne in favour of his son Philip the Second,
now titular King of England, as well as of several small kingdoms and
provinces. The day fixed was the 25th of October of the year 1555. In
the magnificent hall of the residence of the Dukes of Brabant, the great
ceremony was to take place. At one end a spacious platform had been
erected, below which was a range of benches for the deputies of the
seventeen provinces, while upon the stage were rows of seats covered
with tapestry for the knights and guests of high distinction. In the
centre of the stage was a splendid canopy, decorated with the arms of
Burgundy, beneath which were placed three gilded armchairs.

At an early hour the larger portion of the hall was filled with persons
whose magnificent dresses and general bearing showed that they belo