After a few minutes a halt was made.  Ryhove then made his appearance at the carriage-window, and announced to the astonished prisoners that, they were forthwith to be hanged upon a tree which stood by the road-side.  He proceeded to taunt the aged Hessels with his threat against himself, and with his vow “by his grey beard.”  “Such grey beard shalt thou never live thyself to wear, ruffian,” cried Hessels, stoutly-furious rather than terrified at the suddenness of his doom.  “There thou liest, false traitor!” roared Ryhove in reply; and to prove the falsehood, he straightway tore out a handful of the old man’s beard, and fastened it upon his own cap like a plume.  His action was imitated by several of his companions, who cut for themselves locks from the same grey beard, and decorated themselves as their leader had done.  This preliminary ceremony having been concluded, the two aged prisoners were forthwith hanged on a tree, without-the least pretence of trial or even sentence.

Such was the end of the famous councillor who had been wont to shout “ad patibulum” in his sleep.  It was cruel that the fair face of civil liberty showing itself after years of total eclipse, should be insulted by such bloody deeds on the part of her votaries.  It was sad that the crimes of men like Imbize and Ryhove should have cost more to the cause of religious and political freedom than the lives of twenty thousand such ruffians were worth.  But for the influence of demagogues like these, counteracting the lofty efforts and pure life of Orange, the separation might never have occurred between the two portions of the Netherlands.  The Prince had not power enough, however, nor the nascent commonwealth sufficient consistency, to repress the disorganizing tendency of a fanatical Romanism on the one side, and a retaliatory and cruel ochlocracy on the other.

Such events, with the hatred growing daily more intense between the Walloons and the Ghenters, made it highly important that some kind of an accord should be concluded, if possible.  In the country, the Malcontents, under pretence of protecting the Catholic clergy, were daily abusing and plundering the people, while in Ghent the clergy were maltreated, the cloisters pillaged, under the pretence of maintaining liberty.  In this emergency the eyes of all honest men turned naturally to Orange.

Deputies went to and fro between Antwerp and Ghent, Three points were laid down by the Prince as indispensable to any arrangement—­firstly, that the Catholic clergy should be allowed the free use of their property; secondly, that they should not be disturbed in the exercise of their religion; thirdly, that the gentlemen kept in prison since the memorable twenty-eighth of October should be released.  If these points should be granted, the Archduke Matthias, the states-general, and the Prince of Orange would agree to drive off the Walloon soldiery, and to defend Ghent against all injury.  The two first points were granted, upon condition that sufficient guarantees should be established for the safety of the Reformed religion.  The third was rejected, but it was agreed that the prisoners, Champagny, Sweveghem, and the rest—­who, after the horrid fate of Hessels and Visch, might be supposed to be sufficiently anxious as to their own doom—­should have legal trial, and be defended in the meantime from outrage.