ewarning to
the people of the Netherlands of the influence of the general and
the obedience of the troops. They had little chance of resistance
against such soldiers so commanded.

Several of the Belgian nobility went forward to meet Alva, to
render him the accustomed honors, and endeavor thus early to
gain his good graces. Among them was the infatuated Egmont, who
made a present to Alva of two superb horses, which the latter
received with a disdainful air of condescension. Alva's first
care was the distribution of his troops--several thousands of
whom were placed in Antwerp, Ghent, and other important towns,
and the remainder reserved under his own immediate orders at
Brussels. His approach was celebrated by universal terror; and
his arrival was thoroughly humiliating to the duchess of Parma.
He immediately produced his commission as commander-in-chief
of the royal armies in the Netherlands; but he next showed her
another, which confided to him powers infinitely more extended
than any Marguerite herself had enjoyed, and which proved to her
that the almost sovereign power over the country was virtually
vested in him.

Alva first turned his attention to the seizure of those patriot
lords whose pertinacious infatuation left them within his reach.
He summoned a meeting of all the members of the council of state
and the knights of the order of the Golden Fleece, to deliberate
on matters of great importance. Counts Egmont and Horn attended,
among many others; and at the conclusion of the council they
were both arrested (some historians assert by the hands of Alva
and his eldest son), as was also Van Straeten, burgomaster of
Antwerp, and Casambrot, Egmont's secretary. The young count of
Mansfield appeared for a moment at this meeting; but, warned by
his father of the fate intended him, as an original member of
the confederation, he had time to fly. The count of Hoogstraeten
was happily detained by illness, and thus escaped the fate of
his friends. Egmont and Horn were transferred to the citadel
of Ghent, under an escort of three thousand Spanish soldiers.
Several other persons of the first families were arrested; and
those who had originally been taken in arms were executed without
delay.

[Illustration: STORMING THE BARRICADES AT BRUSSELS DURING THE
REVOLUTION OF 1848.]

The next measures of the new governor were the reestablishment of
the Inquisition, the promulgation of the decrees of the Council
of Trent, the rev