iastics by others of his own choice, as
soon as the states broke up from their annual meeting; and for
this intention he had procured the secret consent and authority
of the court of Rome.

In support of these combinations, the Belgian troops were completely
broken up and scattered in small bodies over the country. The
whole of this force, so redoubtable to the fears of despotism,
consisted of only three thousand cavalry. It was now divided
into fourteen companies (or squadrons in the modern phraseology),
under the command of as many independent chiefs, so as to leave
little chance of any principle of union reigning among them. But
the German and Spanish troops in Philip's pay were cantoned on the
frontiers, ready to stifle any incipient effort in opposition to
his plans. In addition to these imposing means for their execution,
he had secured a still more secret and more powerful support: a
secret article in the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis obliged the
king of France to assist him with the whole armies of France
against his Belgian subjects, should they prove refractory. Thus
the late war, of which the Netherlands had borne all the weight,
and earned all the glory, only brought about the junction of the
defeated enemy with their own king for the extinction of their
national independence.

To complete the execution of this system of perfidy, Philip convened
an assembly of all the states at Ghent, in the month of July,
1559. This meeting of the representatives of the three orders
of the state offered no apparent obstacle to Philip's views. The
clergy, alarmed at the progress of the new doctrines, gathered
more closely round the government of which they required the
support. The nobles had lost much of their ancient attachment
to liberty; and had become, in various ways, dependent on the
royal favor. Many of the first families were then represented by
men possessed rather of courage and candor than of foresight and
sagacity. That of Nassau, the most distinguished of all, seemed
the least interested in the national cause. A great part of its
possessions were in Germany and France, where it had recently
acquired the sovereign principality of Orange. It was only from
the third order--that of the commons--that Philip had to expect
any opposition. Already, during the war, it had shown some
discontent, and had insisted on the nomination of commissioners
to control the accounts and the disbursements of the subsidies.
But it se