Two days after the Kowenstyn affair, Alexander sent an expedition under Count Charles Mansfeld to take possession of the great Bugaboo.  The boat, in which were Count Charles, Count Aremberg, his brother de Barbancon, and other noble volunteers, met with an accident:  a keg of gun powder accidentally exploding, blowing Aremberg into the water, whence he escaped unharmed by swimming, and frightfully damaging Mansfeld in the face.  This indirect mischief—­the only injury ever inflicted by the War’s End upon the enemy—­did not prevent the rest of the party in the boats from taking possession of the ship, and bringing her in triumph to the Prince of Parma.  After being thoroughly examined and heartily laughed at by the Spaniards, she was broken up—­her cannon, munitions, and other valuable materials, being taken from her—­and then there was an end of the War’s End.

This useless expenditure-against the judgment and entreaties of many leading personages—­was but a type of the difficulties with which Sainte Aldegonde had been obliged to contend from the first day of the siege to the last.  Every one in the city had felt himself called on to express an opinion as to the proper measures for defence.  Diversity of humours, popular license, anarchy, did not constitute the best government for a city beleagured by Alexander Farnese.  We have seen the deadly injury inflicted upon the cause at the outset by the brutality of the butchers, and the manful struggle which Sainte Aldegonde had maintained against their cupidity and that of their friends.  He had dealt with the thousand difficulties which rose up around him from day to day, but his best intentions were perpetually misconstrued, his most strenuous exertions steadily foiled.  It was a city where there was much love of money, and where commerce—­always timid by nature, particularly when controlled by alien residents—­was often the cause of almost abject cowardice.

From time to time there had been threatening demonstrations made against the burgomaster, who, by protracting the resistance of Antwerp, was bringing about the absolute destruction of a worldwide trade, and the downfall of the most opulent capital in Christendom.  There were also many popular riots—­very easily inflamed by the Catholic portion of the inhabitants—­for bread.  “Bread, bread, or peace!” was hoarsely shouted by ill-looking mischievous crowds, that dogged the steps and besieged the doors of Sainte Aldegonde; but the burgomaster had done his best by eloquence of tongue and personal courage, both against mobs and against the enemy, to inspire the mass of his fellow-citizens with his own generous spirit.  He had relied for a long time on the negotiation with France, and it would be difficult to exaggerate the disastrous effects produced by the treachery of the Valois court.  The historian Le Petit, a resident of Antwerp at the time of the siege, had been despatched on secret mission to Paris, and had communicated to