juvenile," with the apathy of others of the council.[1008] As Vargas was
unacquainted with Flemish, the proceedings of the court were conducted,
for his benefit, in Latin.[1009] Yet he was such a bungler, even in this
language, that his blunders furnished infinite merriment to the people
of Flanders, who took some revenge for their wrongs in the ridicule of
their oppressor.

As the new court had cognizance of all cases, civil as well as criminal,
which grew out of the late disorders, the amount of business soon
pressed on them so heavily, that it was found expedient to distribute it
into several departments among the different members. Two of the body
had especial charge of the processes of the prince of Orange, his
brother Louis, Hoogstraten, Culemborg, and the rest of William's noble
companions in exile. To Vargas and Del Rio was intrusted the trial of
the Counts Egmont and Hoorne. And two others, Blasere and Hessels, had
the most burdensome and important charge of all such causes as came from
the provinces.[1010]

The latter of these two worthies was destined to occupy a place second
only to that of Vargas on the bloody roll of persecution. He was a
native of Ghent, of sufficient eminence in his profession to fill the
office of attorney-general of his province under Charles the Fifth. In
that capacity he enforced the edicts with so much rigor as to make
himself odious to his countrymen. In the new career now opened to him,
he found a still wider field for his mischievous talents, and he entered
on the duties of his office with such hearty zeal as soon roused general
indignation in the people, who at a later day took terrible vengeance on
their oppressor.[1011]

As soon as the Council of Troubles was organized, commissioners were
despatched into the provinces to hunt out the suspected parties. All who
had officiated as preachers, or had harbored or aided them, who had
joined the consistories, who had assisted in defacing or destroying the
Catholic churches or in building the Protestant, who had subscribed the
Compromise, or who, in short, had taken an active part in the late
disorders, were to be arrested as guilty of treason. In the hunt after
victims informations were invited from every source. Wives were
encouraged to depose against husbands, children against parents. The
prisons were soon full to overflowing, and the provincial and the local
magistrates were busy in filing informations of the different cases,