t of the
company; and as the new-comers pledged their friends in the wine-cup, it
was received with the same thundering acclamations of "_Vivent les
Gueux!_"[751] This incident, of so little importance in itself, was
afterwards made of consequence by the turn that was given to it in the
prosecution of the two unfortunate noblemen who accompanied the prince
of Orange.

Every one knows the importance of a popular name to a faction,--a _nom
de guerre_, under which its members may rally and make head together as
an independent party. Such the name of "_Gueux_" now became to the
confederates. It soon was understood to signify those who were opposed
to the government, and, in a wiser sense, to the Roman Catholic
religion. In every language in which the history of these acts has been
recorded,--the Latin, German, Spanish, or English,--the French term
_Gueux_ is ever employed to designate this party of malecontents in the
Netherlands.[752]

[Sidenote: THE GUEUX.]

It now became common to follow out the original idea by imitations of
the different articles used by mendicants. Staffs were procured, after
the fashion of those in the hands of the pilgrims, but more elaborately
carved. Wooden bowls, spoons, and knives became in great request, though
richly inlaid with silver, according to the fancy or wealth of the
possessor. Medals resembling those stuck by the beggars in their bonnets
were worn as a badge; and the "Gueux penny," as it was called,--a gold
or silver coin,--was hung from the neck, bearing on one side the effigy
of Philip, with the inscription, "_Fideles au roi_;" and on the other,
two hands grasping a beggar's wallet, with the further legend, "_jusques
a porter la besace_;"--"Faithful to the king, even to carrying the
wallet."[753] Even the garments of the mendicant were affected by the
confederates, who used them as a substitute for their family liveries;
and troops of their retainers, clad in the ash-gray habiliments of the
begging friars, might be seen in the streets of Brussels and the other
cities of the Netherlands.[754]

On the tenth of April, the confederates quitted Brussels, in the orderly
manner in which they had entered it; except that, on issuing from the
gate, they announced their departure by firing a salute in honor of the
city which had given them so hospitable a welcome.[755] Their visit to
Brussels had not only created a great sensation in the capital itself,
but throughout the country. Hither