good faith, peace, and friendship, firm and inviolable;
to mutually assist each other, at all times, in council and action;
and to employ life and fortune, above all things, to expel from
the country the Spanish soldiers and other foreigners.

That no one should be allowed to injure or insult, by word or
deed, the exercise of the Catholic religion, on pain of being
treated as a disturber of the public peace.

That the edicts against heresy and the proclamations of the duke
of Alva should be suspended.

That all confiscations, sentences, and judgments rendered since
1566 should be annulled.

That the inscriptions, monuments, and trophies erected by the
duke of Alva should be demolished.

Such were the general conditions of the treaty; the remaining
articles chiefly concerned individual interests. The promulgation
of this great charter of union, which was considered as the
fundamental law of the country, was hailed in all parts of the
Netherlands with extravagant demonstrations of joy.

CHAPTER XI

TO THE RENUNCIATION OF THE SOVEREIGNTY OF SPAIN AND THE DECLARATION
OF INDEPENDENCE

A.D. 1576--1580

On the very day of the sack of Antwerp, Don John of Austria arrived
at Luxemburg. This ominous commencement of his viceregal reign
was not belied by the events which followed; and the hero of
Lepanto, the victor of the Turks, the idol of Christendom, was
destined to have his reputation and well-won laurels tarnished in
the service of the insidious despotism to which he now became an
instrument. Don John was a natural son of Charles V., and to fine
talents and a good disposition united the advantages of hereditary
courage and a liberal education. He was born at Ratisbon on the
24th of February, 1543. His reputed mother was a young lady of
that place named Barbara Blomberg; but one historian states that
the real parent was of a condition too elevated to have her rank
betrayed; and that, to conceal the mystery, Barbara Blomberg had
voluntarily assumed the distinction, or the dishonor, according
to the different constructions put upon the case. The prince,
having passed through France, disguised, for greater secrecy or
in a youthful frolic, as a negro valet to Prince Octavo Gonzaga,
entered on the limits of his new government, and immediately
wrote to the council of state in the most condescending terms to
announce his arrival.

Nothing could present a less promising aspect to the prince than
the country at t