ant and Flanders were scarcely
less mortifying than the total disorganization into which those
two provinces had fallen. They were ravaged by bands of robbers
called Picaroons, whose audacity reached such a height that they
opposed in large bodies the forces sent for their suppression
by the government. They on one occasion killed the provost of
Flanders, and burned his lieutenant in a hollow tree; and on
another they mutilated a whole troop of the national militia,
and their commander, with circumstances of most revolting cruelty.

The authority of governor-general, though not the title, was now
fully shared by the count of Fuentes, who was sent to Brussels by
the king of Spain; and the ill effects of this double viceroyalty
was soon seen, in the brilliant progress of Prince Maurice, and
the continual reverses sustained by the royalist armies. The king,
still bent on projects of bigotry, sacrificed without scruple men
and treasure for the overthrow of Henry IV. and the success of
the League. The affairs of the Netherlands seemed now a secondary
object; and he drew largely on his forces in that country for
reinforcements to the ranks of his tottering allies. A final
blow was, however, struck against the hopes of intolerance in
France, and to the existence of the League, by the conversion
of Henry IV. to the Catholic religion; he deeming theological
disputes, which put the happiness of a whole kingdom in jeopardy,
as quite subordinate to the public good.

Such was the prosperity of the United Provinces, that they had
been enabled to send a large supply, both of money and men, to the
aid of Henry, their constant and generous ally. And notwithstanding
this, their armies and fleets, so far from suffering diminution,
were augmented day by day. Philip, resolved to summon up all
his energy for the revival of the war against the republic, now
appointed the archduke Ernest, brother of the emperor Rodolf,
to the post which the disunion of Mansfield and Fuentes rendered
as embarrassing as it had become inglorious. This prince, of
a gentle and conciliatory character, was received at Brussels
with great magnificence and general joy; his presence reviving
the deep-felt hopes of peace entertained by the suffering people.
Such were also the cordial wishes of the prince; but more than
one design, formed at this period against the life of Prince
Maurice, frustrated every expectation of the kind. A priest of
the province of Namur, nam