Don John made his solemn entry into Brussels on the 1st of May, and assumed the functions of his limited authority.  The conditions of the treaty were promptly and regularly fulfilled.  The citadels occupied by the Spanish soldiers were given up to the Flemish and Walloon troops; and the departure of these ferocious foreigners took place at once.  The large sums required to facilitate this measure made it necessary to submit for a while to the presence of the German mercenaries.  But Don John’s conduct soon destroyed the temporary delusion which had deceived the country.  Whether his projects were hitherto only concealed, or that they were now for the first time excited by the disappointment of those hopes of authority held out to him by Philip, and which his predecessors had shared, it is certain that he very early displayed his ambition, and very imprudently attempted to put it in force.  He at once demanded from the council of state the command of the troops and the disposal of the revenues.  The answer was a simple reference to the Pacification of Ghent; and the prince’s rejoinder was an apparent submission, and the immediate despatch of letters in cipher to the king, demanding a supply of troops sufficient to restore his ruined authority.  These letters were intercepted by the king of Navarre, afterward Henry IV. of France, who immediately transmitted them to the Prince of Orange, his old friend and fellow-soldier.

Public opinion, to the suspicions of which Don John had been from the first obnoxious, was now unanimous in attributing to design all that was unconstitutional and unfair.  His impetuous character could no longer submit to the restraint of dissimulation, and he resolved to take some bold and decided measure.  A very favorable opportunity was presented in the arrival of the queen of Navarre, Marguerite of Valois, at Namur, on her way to Spa.  The prince, numerously attended, hastened to the former town under pretence of paying his respects to the queen.  As soon as she left the place, he repaired to the glacis of the town, as if for the mere enjoyment of a walk, admired the external appearance of the citadel, and expressed a desire to be admitted inside.  The young count of Berlaimont, in the absence of his father, the governor of the place, and an accomplice in the plot with Don John, freely admitted him.  The prince immediately drew forth a pistol, and exclaimed that “that was the first moment of his government”; took possession of the place with his immediate guard, and instantly formed them into a devoted garrison.

The Prince of Orange immediately made public the intercepted letters; and, at the solicitation of the states-general, repaired to Brussels; into which city he made a truly triumphant entry on the 23d of September, and was immediately nominated governor, protector or ruward of Brabant—­a dignity which had fallen into disuse, but was revived on this occasion, and which was little inferior in power to that of the dictators of Rome.  His authority, now almost unlimited, extended over every province of the Netherlands, except Namur and Luxemburg, both of which acknowledged Don John.