The papers which the deputation had brought were finally laid before the states of Artois, and received replies as prompt and bitter as the addresses were earnest and eloquent.  The Walloons, when summoned to hold to that aegis of national unity, the Ghent peace, replied that it was not they, but the heretic portion of the states-general, who were for dashing it to the ground.  The Ghent treaty was never intended to impair the supremacy of the Catholic religion, said those provinces, which were already on the point of separating for ever from the rest.  The Ghent treaty was intended expressly to destroy the inquisition and the placards, answered the national-party.  Moreover, the “very marrow of that treaty” was the-departure of the foreign soldiers, who were even then overrunning the land.  The Walloons answered that Alexander had expressly conceded the withdrawal of the troops.  “Believe not the fluting and the piping of the crafty foe,” urged the patriots.  “Promises are made profusely enough—­but only to lure you to perdition.  Your enemies allow you to slake your hunger and thirst with this idle hope of the troops’ departure, but you are still in fetters, although the chain be of Spanish pinchbeck, which you mistake for gold.” “’Tis not we,” cried the Walloons, “who wish to separate from the generality; ’tis the generality which separates from us.  We had rather die the death than not maintain the union.  In the very same breath, however, they boasted of the excellent terms which the monarch was offering, and of their strong inclination to accept them.”  “Kings, struggling to recover a lost authority, always promise golden mountains and every sort of miracles,” replied the patriots; but the warning was uttered in vain.

Meantime the deputation from the city of Brussels arrived on the 28th of March at Mons, in Hainault, where they were received with great courtesy by Count de Lalain, governor of the province.  The enthusiasm with which he had espoused the cause of Queen Margaret and her brother Anjou had cooled, but the Count received the Brussels envoys with a kindness in marked contrast with the brutality of Melun.  He made many fine speeches —­protesting his attachment to, the union, for which he was ready to shed the last drop of his blood—­entertained the deputies at dinner, proposed toasts to the prosperity of the united provinces, and dismissed his guests at last with many flowery professions.  After dancing attendance for a few days, however, upon the estates of the Walloon provinces, both sets of deputies were warned to take their instant departure as mischief-makers and rebels.  They returned, accordingly, to Brussels, bringing the written answers which the estates had vouchsafed to send.