On the 5th of May, 1567, this celebrated captain, whose reputation was so quickly destined to sink into the notoriety of an executioner, began his memorable march; and on the 22d of August he, with his two natural sons, and his veteran army consisting of about fifteen thousand men, arrived at the walls of Brussels.  The discipline observed on this march was a terrible forewarning to the people of the Netherlands of the influence of the general and the obedience of the troops.  They had little chance of resistance against such soldiers so commanded.

Several of the Belgian nobility went forward to meet Alva, to render him the accustomed honors, and endeavor thus early to gain his good graces.  Among them was the infatuated Egmont, who made a present to Alva of two superb horses, which the latter received with a disdainful air of condescension.  Alva’s first care was the distribution of his troops—­several thousands of whom were placed in Antwerp, Ghent, and other important towns, and the remainder reserved under his own immediate orders at Brussels.  His approach was celebrated by universal terror; and his arrival was thoroughly humiliating to the duchess of Parma.  He immediately produced his commission as commander-in-chief of the royal armies in the Netherlands; but he next showed her another, which confided to him powers infinitely more extended than any Marguerite herself had enjoyed, and which proved to her that the almost sovereign power over the country was virtually vested in him.

Alva first turned his attention to the seizure of those patriot lords whose pertinacious infatuation left them within his reach.  He summoned a meeting of all the members of the council of state and the knights of the order of the Golden Fleece, to deliberate on matters of great importance.  Counts Egmont and Horn attended, among many others; and at the conclusion of the council they were both arrested (some historians assert by the hands of Alva and his eldest son), as was also Van Straeten, burgomaster of Antwerp, and Casambrot, Egmont’s secretary.  The young count of Mansfield appeared for a moment at this meeting; but, warned by his father of the fate intended him, as an original member of the confederation, he had time to fly.  The count of Hoogstraeten was happily detained by illness, and thus escaped the fate of his friends.  Egmont and Horn were transferred to the citadel of Ghent, under an escort of three thousand Spanish soldiers.  Several other persons of the first families were arrested; and those who had originally been taken in arms were executed without delay.

[Illustration:  STORMING THE BARRICADES AT BRUSSELS DURING THE REVOLUTION OF 1848.]