The private treaty by which the Walloon provinces of Artois, Hainault, Lille, Douay, and Orchies, united themselves in a separate league was signed upon the 6th of January, 1579; but the final arrangements for the reconciliation of the Malcontent nobles and their soldiers were not completed until April 6th, upon which day a secret paper was signed at Mount Saint Eloi.

The secret current of the intrigue had not, however, flowed on with perfect smoothness until this placid termination.  On the contrary, here had been much bickering, heart-burning, and mutual suspicions and recriminations.  There had been violent wranglings among the claimants of the royal rewards.  Lalain and Capres were not the only Malcontents who had cause to complain of being cheated of the promised largess.  Montigny, in whose favor Parma had distinctly commanded La Motte to be liberal of the King’s secret-service money, furiously charged the Governor of Gravelines with having received a large supply of gold from Spain, and of “locking the rascal counters from his friends,” so that Parma was obliged to quiet the Baron, and many other barons in the same predicament, out of his own purse.  All complained bitterly, too, that the King, whose promises had been so profuse to the nobles while the reconciliation was pending, turned a deaf ear to their petitions and left their letters unanswered; after the deed was accomplished.

The unlucky Prior of Renty, whose disclosures to La Motte concerning the Spanish sarcasms upon his venality, had so nearly caused the preliminary negotiation with that seignior to fail, was the cause of still further mischief through the interception of Alonzo Curiel’s private letters.  Such revelations of corruption, and of contempt on the part of the corrupters, were eagerly turned to account by the states’ government.  A special messenger was despatched to Montigny with the intercepted correspondence, accompanied by an earnest prayer that he would not contaminate his sword and his noble name by subserviency to men who despised even while they purchased traitors.  That noble, both confounded and exasperated, was for a moment inclined to listen to the voice of honor and patriotism, but reflection and solitude induced him to pocket up his wrongs and his “merced” together.  The states-general also sent the correspondence to the Walloon provincial authorities, with an eloquent address, begging them to study well the pitiful part which La Motte had enacted in the private comedy then performing, and to behold as in a mirror their own position, if they did not recede ere it was too late.