ed to draft the sentences of the
two lords. He subsequently withdrew from the bloody tribunal, and
returned to his native province, where he became vice-president of the
council of Flanders. This new accession of dignity only made him a more
conspicuous mark for the public hatred. In 1577, in a popular
insurrection which overturned the government of Ghent, Hessels was
dragged from his house, and thrown into prison. After lying there a
year, a party of ruffians broke into the place, forced him into a
carriage, and, taking him a short distance from town, executed the
summary justice of _Lynch law_ on their victim by hanging him to a tree.
Some of the party, after the murder, were audacious enough to return to
Ghent, with locks of the gray hair of the wretched man displayed in
triumph on their bonnets.

Some years later, when the former authorities were reestablished, the
bones of Hessels were removed from their unhallowed burial-place, and
laid with great solemnity and funeral pomp in the church of St. Michael.
Prose and verse were exhausted in his praise. His memory was revered as
that of a martyr. Miracles were performed at his tomb; and the popular
credulity went so far, that it was currently reported in Ghent that
Philip had solicited the pope for his canonization! See the curious
particulars in Vandervynckt, Troubles des Pays-Bas, tom. II. pp.
451-456.

[1216] "Este es un pueblo tan facil, que espero que con ver la clemencia
de V. M., haciendose el pardon general, se ganaran los animos a que de
buena gana lleven la obediencia que digo, que ahora sufren de malo."
Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. II. p. 29.

[1217] "Le bruit public qui subsiste encore, divulgue qu'il est mort
empoisonne." Vandervynckt, Troubles des Pays-Bas, tom. II. p. 285.--The
author himself does not indorse the vulgar rumor.

[1218] Meteren tells us that Montigny was killed by poison, which his
page, who afterwards confessed the crime, put in his broth. (Hist. des
Pays-Bas, fol. 60.) Vandervynckt, after noticing various rumors,
dismisses them with the remark, "On n'a pu savoir au juste ce qu'il
etait devenu." Troubles des Pays-Bas, tom. II. p. 237.

[1219] His revenues seem to have been larger than those of any other
Flemish lord, except Egmont and Orange, amounting to something more than
fifty thousand florins annually. Correspondance de Philippe II., tom.
II. p. 115.

[1220] Ibid., Rapport, p. xxxvii.

It was reported to Philip's sec