the lives both of Orange and Anjou.  An Italian, named Basa, and a Spaniard, called Salseda, were detected in a scheme to administer poison to both princes, and when arrested, confessed that they had been hired by the Prince of Parma to compass this double assassination.  Basa destroyed himself in prison.  His body was, however, gibbeted, with an inscription that he had attempted, at the instigation of Parma, to take the lives of Orange and Anjou.  Salseda, less fortunate, was sent to Paris, where he was found guilty, and executed. by being torn to pieces by four horses.  Sad to relate, Lamoral Egmont, younger son and namesake of the great general, was intimate with Salseda, and implicated in this base design.  His mother, on her death-bed, had especially recommended the youth to the kindly care of Orange.  The Prince had ever recognized the claim, manifesting uniform tenderness for the son of his ill-started friend; and now the youthful Lamoral—­as if the name of Egmont had not been sufficiently contaminated by the elder brother’s treason at Brussels—­had become the comrade of hired conspirators against his guardian’s life.  The affair was hushed up, but the story was current and generally believed that Egmont had himself undertaken to destroy the Prince at his own table by means of poison which he kept concealed in a ring.  Saint Aldegonde was to have been taken off in the same way, and a hollow ring filled with poison was said to have been found in Egmont’s lodgings.

The young noble was imprisoned; his guilt was far from doubtful; but the powerful intercessions of Orange himself, combined with Egmont’s near relationship to the French Queen saved his life, and he was permitted, after a brief captivity, to take his departure for France.

The Duke of Anjou, a month later, was received with equal pomp, in the city of Ghent.  Here the ceremonies were interrupted in another manner.  The Prince of Parma, at the head of a few regiments of Walloons, making an attack on a body of troops by which Anjou had been escorted into Flanders, the troops retreated in good order, and without much loss, under the walls of Ghent, where a long and sharp action took place, much to the disadvantage of Parma, The Prince, of Orange and the Duke; of Anjou were on the city walls during the whole skirmish giving orders and superintending the movements of their troops, and at nightfall Parma was forced, to retire, leaving a large number of dead behind him.

The 15th day of December, in this year was celebrated according to the new ordinance of Gregory the Thirteenth—­as Christmas.  It was the occasion of more than usual merry-making among the Catholics of Antwerp, who had procured, during the preceding summer, a renewed right of public worship from Anjou and the estates.  Many nobles of high rank came from France, to pay their homage to the new Duke of Brabant.  They secretly expressed their disgust, however, at the close constitutional bonds in which they found their