The news of this disaster reached the States-General, as they were in the act of considering the draft proposals which had been submitted to them by the Ghent conference.  At the same time tidings came that Don John, who had travelled through France in disguise, had arrived at Luxemburg.  They quickly therefore came to a decision to ratify the pact, known as the Pacification of Ghent, and on November 8 it was signed.  The Pacification was really a treaty between the Prince of Orange and the Estates of Holland and Zeeland on the one hand, and the States-General representing the other provinces.  It was agreed that the Spanish troops should be compelled to leave the Netherlands and that the States-General of the whole seventeen provinces, as they were convened at the abdication of Charles V, should be called together to decide upon the question of religious toleration and other matters of national importance.  Meanwhile the placards against heresy were suspended, and all the illegal measures and sentences of Alva declared null and void.  His confiscated property was restored to Orange, and his position, as stadholder in Holland and Zeeland, acknowledged.  Don John was informed that he would not be recognised as governor-general unless he would consent to dismiss the Spanish troops, accept the Pacification of Ghent, and swear to maintain the rights and privileges of the Provinces.  Negotiations ensued, but for a long time to little purpose; and Don John, who was rather an impetuous knight-errant than a statesman and diplomatist, remained during the winter months at Namur, angry at his reception and chafing at the conditions imposed upon him, which he dared not accept without permission from the king.  In December the States-General containing deputies from all the provinces met at Brussels, and in January the Pacification of Ghent was confirmed, and a new compact, to which the name of the Union of Brussels was given, was drawn up by a number of influential Catholics.  This document, to which signatures were invited, was intended to give to the Pacification of Ghent the sanction of popular support and to be at the same time a guarantee for the maintenance of the royal authority and the Catholic religion.  The Union of Brussels was generally approved throughout the southern provinces, and the signatories from every class were numbered by thousands.  Don John, who was at Huy, saw that it was necessary to temporise.  He was willing, he declared, to dismiss the foreign troops and send them out of the country and to maintain the ancient charters and liberties of the provinces, provided that nothing was done to subvert the king’s authority or the Catholic faith.  Finally, on February 12, a treaty called “The Perpetual Edict,” a most inappropriate name, was signed, and the States-General acknowledged Don John as governor-general.  The agreement was principally the work of Aerschot and the loyalist Catholic party, who followed his leadership,