nt of Hesdin--very lucrative offices, which the Viscount of Ghent
then held by commission of the states-general. That politic personage,
however, whose disinclination to desert the liberty party which had
clothed him with such high functions, was apparently so marked that the
Prior had caused an ambush to be laid both for him and the Marquis Havre,
in-order to obtain bodily possession of two such powerful enemies, now,
at the last moment, displayed his true colors. He consented to reconcile
himself also, on condition of receiving the royal appointment to the same
government which he then held from the patriot authorities, together with
the title of Marquis de Richebourg, the command of all the cavalry in the
royalist provinces, and certain rewards in money besides. By holding
himself at a high mark, and keeping at a distance, he had obtained his
price. Capres, for whom Philip, at Parma's suggestion, had sent the
commission as governor of Artois and of Hesdin, was obliged to renounce
those offices, notwithstanding his earlier "reconciliation," and the
"blood and water" of John Sarrasin. Ghent was not even contented with
these guerdons, but insisted upon the command of all the cavalry,
including the band of ordnance which, with handsome salary, had been
assigned to Lalain as a part of the wages for his treason, while the
"little Count"--fiery as his small and belligerent cousin whose exploits
have been recorded in the earlier pages of this history--boldly taxed
Parma and the King with cheating him out of his promised reward, in order
to please a noble whose services had been less valuable than those of the
Lalain family. Having thus obtained the lion's share, due, as he thought,
to his well known courage and military talents, as well as to the
powerful family influence, which he wielded--his brother, the Prince of
Espinoy, hereditary seneschal of Hainault, having likewise rallied to the
King's party--Ghent jocosely intimated to Parma his intention of helping
himself to the two best horses in the Prince's stables in exchange for
those lost at Gemblours, in which disastrous action he had commanded the
cavalry for the states. He also sent two terriers to Farnese, hoping that
they would "prove more useful than beautiful." The Prince might have
thought, perhaps, as much of the Viscount's treason.

John Sarrasin, the all-accomplished Prior, as the reward of his
exertions, received from Philip the abbey of Saint Vaast, the richest