or him until this time to no purpose. I
was advised by the Cardinal de Lenoncourt and my first esquire,
the Chevalier Salviati, who were of the same party, not to stir
without a passport; but, as I suspected a plan was laid to entrap
me, I resolved to set out the next morning.

They now saw that this pretence was insufficient to detain me;
accordingly, the Chevalier Salviati prevailed with my treasurer,
who was secretly a Huguenot, to declare he had not money enough
in his hands to discharge the expenses we had incurred at Liege,
and that, in consequence, my horses were detained. I afterwards
discovered that this was false, for, on my arrival at La Fere,
I called for his accounts, and found he had then a balance in
his hands which would have enabled him to pay the expenses of my
family for six or seven weeks. The Princesse de Roche-sur-Yon,
incensed at the affront put upon me, and seeing the danger I
incurred by staying, advanced the money that was required, to
their great confusion; and I took my leave of his Grace the Bishop,
presenting him with a diamond worth three thousand crowns, and
giving his domestics gold chains and rings. Having thus taken
our leave, we proceeded to Huy, without any other passport than
God's good providence.

This town, as I observed before, belongs to the Bishop of Liege,
but was now in a state of tumult and confusion, on account of
the general revolt of the Low Countries, the townsmen taking
part with the Netherlanders, notwithstanding the bishopric was
a neutral State. On this account they paid no respect to the
grand master of the Bishop's household, who accompanied us, but,
knowing Don John had taken the castle of Namur in order, as they
supposed, to intercept me on my return, these brutal people, as
soon as I had got into my quarters, rang the alarm-bell, drew
up their artillery, placed chains across the streets, and kept
us thus confined and separated the whole night, giving us no
opportunity to expostulate with them on such conduct. In the
morning we were suffered to leave the town without further
molestation, and the streets we passed through were lined with
armed men.

From there we proceeded to Dinant, where we intended to sleep;
but, unfortunately for us, the townspeople had on that day chosen
their burghermasters, a kind of officers like the consuls in
Gascony and France. In consequence of this election, it was a
day of tumult, riot, and debauchery; every one in the town wa