e whole council of state, except John Baptist
Tassis, to a great dinner. He had prepared a paper to read to them in
which he represented the great dangers likely to ensue from such an
appointment as this of Fuentes, but declared that he washed his hands of
the consequences, and that he had determined to leave a country where he
was of so little account. He would then close his eyes and ears to
everything that might occur, and thus escape the infamy of remaining in a
country where so little account was made of him. He was urged to refrain
from reading this paper and to invite Tassis. After a time he consented
to suppress the document, but he manfully refused to bid the
objectionable diplomatist to his banquet.

The dinner took place and passed off pleasantly enough. Arschot did not
read his manifesto, but, as he warmed with wine, he talked a great deal
of nonsense which, according to Stephen Ybarra, much resembled it, and he
vowed that thenceforth he would be blind and dumb to all that might
occur. A few days later, he paid a visit to the new governor-general, and
took a peaceful farewell of him. "Your Majesty knows very well what he
is," wrote Fuentes: "he is nothing but talk." Before leaving the country
he sent a bitter complaint to Ybarra, to the effect that the king had
entirely forgotten him, and imploring that financier's influence to
procure for him some gratuity from his Majesty. He was in such necessity,
he said, that it was no longer possible for him to maintain his
household.

And with this petition the grandee of the obedient provinces shook the
dust from his shoes, and left his natal soil for ever. He died on the
11th December of the same year in Venice.

His son the Prince of Chimay, his brother, and son-inlaw, and the other
obedient nobles, soon accommodated themselves to the new administration,
much as they had been inclined to bluster at first about their
privileges. The governor soon reported that matters were proceeding very,
smoothly. There was a general return to the former docility now that such
a disciplinarian as Fuentes held the reins.

The opening scenes of the campaign between the Spanish governor and
France were, as usual, in Picardy. The Marquis of Varambon made a
demonstration in the neighbourhood of Dourlens--a fortified town on the
river Authie, lying in an open plain, very deep in that province--while
Fuentes took the field with eight thousand men, and laid siege to Le
Catelet. He had