s. The rapid appearance
of a numerous army under the orders of Don John gave strength to
the suspicions of his former dissimulation. It was currently
believed that large bodies of the Spanish troops had remained
concealed in the forests of Luxemburg and Lorraine; while several
regiments, which had remained in France in the service of the
League, immediately re-entered the Netherlands. Alexander Farnese,
prince of Parma, son of the former stadtholderess, came to the aid
of his uncle, Don John, at the head of a large force of Italians;
and these several reinforcements, with the German auxiliaries
still in the country, composed an army of twenty thousand men.
The army of the states-general was still larger; but far inferior
in point of discipline. It was commanded by Antoine de Goignies,
a gentleman of Hainault, and an old soldier of the school of
Charles V.

After a sharp affair at the village of Riminants, in which the
royalists had the worst, the two armies met at Gemblours, on the
31st of January, 1578; and the prince of Parma gained a complete
victory, almost with his cavalry only, taking De Goignies prisoner,
with the whole of his artillery and baggage. The account of his
victory is almost miraculous. The royalists, if we are to credit
their most minute but not impartial historian, had only one thousand
two hundred men engaged; by whom six thousand were put to the
sword, with the loss of but twelve men and little more than an
hour's labor.

The news of this battle threw the states into the utmost
consternation. Brussels being considered insecure, the archduke
Mathias and his council retired to Antwerp; but the victors did
not feel their forces sufficient to justify an attack upon the
capital. They, however, took Louvain, Tirlemont, and several other
towns; but these conquests were of little import in comparison with
the loss of Amsterdam, which declared openly and unanimously for
the patriot cause. The states-general recovered their courage, and
prepared for a new contest. They sent deputies to the diet of Worms,
to ask succor from the princes of the empire. The count palatine
John Casimir repaired to their assistance with a considerable
force of Germans and English, all equipped and paid by Queen
Elizabeth. The duke of Alencon, brother of Henry III. of France,
hovered on the frontiers of Hainault with a respectable army;
and the cause of liberty seemed not quite desperate.

But all the various chiefs had separ