Meantime, while these schemes were flitting through his brain, and were yet kept comparatively secret by the Pope, Escovedo, and himself, the news reached him in Italy that be had been appointed Governor-General of the Netherlands.  Nothing could be more opportune.  In the provinces were ten thousand veteran Spaniards, ripe for adventure, hardened by years of warfare, greedy for gold, audacious almost beyond humanity, the very instruments for his scheme.  The times were critical in the Netherlands, it was true; yet he would soon pacify those paltry troubles, and then sweep forward to his prize.  Yet events were rushing forward with such feverish rapidity, that he might be too late for his adventure.  Many days were lost in the necessary journey from Italy into Spain to receive the final instructions of the King.  The news from the provinces, grew more and more threatening.  With the impetuosity and romance of his temperament, he selected his confidential friend Ottavio Gonzaga, six men-at-arms, and an adroit and well-experienced Swiss courier who knew every road of France.  It was no light adventure for the Catholic Governor-General of the Netherlands to traverse the kingdom at that particular juncture.  Staining his bright locks and fair face to the complexion of a Moor, he started on his journey, attired as the servant of Gonzaga.  Arriving at Paris, after a rapid journey, he descended at a hostelry opposite the residence of the Spanish ambassador, Don Diego de Cuniga.  After nightfall he had a secret interview with that functionary, and learning, among other matters, that there was to be a great ball that night at the Louvre, he determined to go thither in disguise.  There, notwithstanding his hurry, he had time to see and to become desperately enamored of “that wonder of beauty,” the fair and frail Margaret of Valois, Queen of Navarre.  Her subsequent visit to her young adorer at Namur, to be recorded in a future page of this history, was destined to mark the last turning point in his picturesque career.  On his way to the Netherlands he held a rapid interview with the Duke of Guise, to arrange his schemes for the liberation and espousal of that noble’s kinswoman, the Scottish Queen; and on the 3rd of November he arrived at Luxemburg.

There stood the young conqueror of Lepanto, his brain full of schemes, his heart full of hopes, on the threshhold of the Netherlands, at the entrance to what he believed the most brilliant chapter of his life—­ schemes, hopes, and visions—­doomed speedily to fade before the cold reality with which he was to be confronted.  Throwing off his disguise after reaching Luxemburg, the youthful paladin stood confessed.  His appearance was as romantic as his origin and his exploits.  Every contemporary chronicler, French, Spanish, Italian, Flemish, Roman, have dwelt upon his personal beauty and the singular fascination of his manner.  Symmetrical features, blue eyes of great vivacity, and a profusion of bright