on pretext of a sudden indisposition, leaving the company still warmly engaged in their argument.  The council lasted till near seven in the evening.  As it broke up, Don Sancho d’Avila, captain of the Duke’s guard, requested Egmont to remain for a moment after the rest, as he had a communication to make to him.  After an insignificant remark or two, the Spanish officer, as soon as the two were alone, requested Egmont to surrender his sword.  The Count, agitated, and notwithstanding every thing which had gone before, still taken by surprise, scarcely knew what reply to make.  Don Sancho repeated that he had been commissioned to arrest him, and again demanded his sword.  At the same moment the doors of the adjacent apartment were opened, and Egmont saw himself surrounded by a company of Spanish musqueteers and halberdmen.  Finding himself thus entrapped, he gave up his sword, saying bitterly, as he did so, that it had at least rendered some service to the King in times which were past.  He was then conducted to a chamber, in the upper story of the house, where his temporary prison had been arranged.  The windows were barricaded, the daylight excluded, the whole apartment hung with black.  Here he remained fourteen days (from the 9th to 23d September).  During this period, he was allowed no communication with his friends.  His room was lighted day and night with candles, and he was served in strict silence by Spanish attendants, and guarded by Spanish soldiers.  The captain of the watch drew his curtain every midnight, and aroused him from sleep that he might be identified by the relieving officer.

Count Horn was arrested upon the same occasion by Captain Salinas, as he was proceeding through the court-yard of the house, after the breaking up of the council.  He was confined in another chamber of the mansion, and met with a precisely similar treatment to that experienced by Egmont.  Upon the 23d September, both were removed under a strong guard to the castle of Ghent.

On this same day, two other important arrests, included and arranged in the same program, had been successfully accomplished.  Bakkerzeel, private and confidential secretary of Egmont, and Antony Van Straalen, the rich and influential burgomaster of Antwerp, were taken almost simultaneously.  At the request of Alva, the burgomaster had been invited by the Duchess of Parma to repair on business to Brussels.  He seemed to have feared an ambuscade, for as he got into his coach to set forth upon the journey, he was so muffed in a multiplicity of clothing, that he was scarcely to be recognized.  He was no sooner, however, in the open country and upon a spot remote from human habitations, than he was suddenly beset by a band of forty soldiers under command of Don Alberic Lodron and Don Sancho de Lodrono.  These officers had been watching his movements for many days.  The capture of Bakkerzeel was accomplished with equal adroitness at about the same hour.