sinister interpolations, as had been done by the Prince of Orange.”  The Malcontent generals of the Walloon troops were inexpressibly anxious lest the cause of religion should be endangered; but the arguments by which Parma convinced those military casuists as to the compatibility of the Ghent peace with sound doctrine have already been exhibited.  The influence of the reconciled nobles was brought to bear with fatal effect upon the states of Artois, Hainault, and of a portion of French Flanders.  The Gallic element in their blood, and an intense attachment to the Roman ceremonial, which distinguished the Walloon population from their Batavian brethren, were used successfully by the wily Parma to destroy the unity of the revolted Netherlands.  Moreover, the King offered good terms.  The monarch, feeling safe on the religious point, was willing to make liberal promises upon the political questions.  In truth, the great grievance of which the Walloons complained was the insolence and intolerable outrages of the foreign soldiers.  This, they said, had alone made them malcontent.  It was; therefore, obviously the cue of Parma to promise the immediate departure of the troops.  This could be done the more easily, as he had no intention of keeping the promise.

Meantime the efforts of Orange, and of the states-general, where his influence was still paramount, were unceasing to counteract the policy of Parma.  A deputation was appointed by the generality to visit the estates of the Walloon provinces.  Another was sent by the authorities of Brussels.  The Marquis of Havre, with several colleagues on behalf of the states-general, waited upon the Viscount of Ghent, by whom they were received with extreme insolence.  He glared upon them, without moving, as they were admitted to his presence; “looking like a dead man, from whom the soul had entirely departed.”  Recovering afterwards from this stony trance of indignation, he demanded a sight of their instructions.  This they courteously refused, as they were accredited not to him, but to the states of Artois.  At this he fell into a violent passion, and threatened them with signal chastisement for daring to come thither with so treasonable a purpose.  In short, according to their own expression; he treated them “as if they had been rogues and vagabonds.”  The Marquis of Havre, high-born though he was, had been sufficiently used to such conduct.  The man who had successively served and betrayed every party, who had been the obsequious friend and the avowed enemy of Don John within the same fortnight, and who had been able to swallow and inwardly digest many an insult from that fiery warrior, was even fain to brook the insolence of Robert Melun.