the escutcheons of the Golden Fleece, an order typical of Flemish industry, but of which Emperors and Kings were proud to be the chevaliers, decorated the columns.  The vast and beautifully-painted windows glowed with scriptural scenes, antique portraits, homely allegories, painted in those brilliant and forgotten colors which Art has not ceased to deplore.  The daylight melting into gloom or colored with fantastic brilliancy, priests in effulgent robes chanting in unknown language, the sublime breathing of choral music, the suffocating odors of myrrh and spikenard, suggestive of the oriental scenery and imagery of Holy Writ, all combined to bewilder and exalt the senses.  The highest and humblest seemed to find themselves upon the same level within those sacred precincts, where even the bloodstained criminal was secure, and the arm of secular justice was paralyzed.

But the work of degeneration had commenced.  The atmosphere of the cathedral was no longer holy in the eyes of increasing multitudes.  Better the sanguinary rites of Belgic Druids, better the yell of slaughtered victims from the “wild wood without mercy” of the pagan forefathers of the nation, than this fantastic intermingling of divine music, glowing colors, gorgeous ceremonies, with all the burning, beheading and strangling work which had characterized the system of human sacrifice for the past half-century.

Such was the church of Notre Dame at Antwerp.  Thus indifferent or hostile towards the architectural treasure were the inhabitants of a city, where in a previous age the whole population would have risked their lives to defend what they esteemed the pride and garland of their metropolis.

The Prince of Orange had been anxiously solicited by the Regent to attend the conference at Duffel.  After returning to Antwerp, he consented, in consequence of the urgent entreaties of the senate, to delay his departure until the 18th of August should be past.  On the 13th of that month he had agreed with the magistrates upon an ordinance, which was accordingly published, and by which the preachings were restricted to the fields.  A deputation of merchants and others waited upon him with a request to be permitted the exercises of the Reformed religion in the city.  This petition the Prince peremptorily refused, and the deputies, as well as their constituents, acquiesced in the decision, “out of especial regard and respect for his person.”  He, however, distinctly informed the Duchess that it would be difficult or impossible to maintain such a position long, and that his departure from the city would probably be followed by an outbreak.  He warned her that it was very imprudent for him to leave Antwerp at that particular juncture.  Nevertheless, the meeting of the Fleece-knights seemed, in Margaret’s opinion, imperatively to require his presence in Brussels.  She insisted by repeated letters that he should leave Antwerp immediately.