lliam's excessive power. The duke of Arschot
was therefore named governor of Flanders; and he immediately put
himself at the head of a confederacy of the Catholic party, which
quickly decided to offer the chief government of the country,
still in the name of Philip, to the archduke Mathias, brother of
the emperor Rodolf II., and cousin-german to Philip of Spain, a
youth but nineteen years of age. A Flemish gentleman named Maelsted
was intrusted with the proposal. Mathias joyously consented;
and, quitting Vienna with the greatest secrecy, he arrived at
Maestricht, without any previous announcement, and expected only
by the party that had invited him, at the end of October, 1577.

The Prince of Orange, instead of showing the least symptom of
dissatisfaction at this underhand proceeding aimed at his personal
authority, announced his perfect approval of the nomination, and
was the foremost in recommending measures for the honor of the
archduke and the security of the country. He drew up the basis of
a treaty for Mathias's acceptance, on terms which guaranteed to the
council of state and the states-general the virtual sovereignty,
and left to the young prince little beyond the fine title which
had dazzled his boyish vanity. The Prince of Orange was appointed
his lieutenant, in all the branches of the administration, civil,
military, or financial; and the duke of Arschot, who had hoped
to obtain an entire domination over the puppet he had brought
upon the stage, saw himself totally foiled in his project, and
left without a chance or a pretext for the least increase to
his influence.

But a still greater disappointment attended this ambitious nobleman
in the very stronghold of his power. The Flemings, driven by
persecution to a state of fury almost unnatural, had, in their
antipathy to Spain, adopted a hatred against Catholicism, which had
its source only in political frenzy, while the converts imagined it
to arise from reason and conviction. Two men had taken advantage
of this state of the public mind and gained over it an unbounded
ascendency. They were Francis de Kethulle, lord of Ryhove, and
John Hembyse, who each seemed formed to realize the beau-ideal
of a factious demagogue. They had acquired supreme power over
the people of Ghent, and had at their command a body of twenty
thousand resolute and well-armed supporters. The duke of Arschot
vainly attempted to oppose his authority to that of these men;
and he on one occ