over the insensate multitude; but he was at length taken and
imprisoned in an iron cage--an event which undeceived the greater
number of those whom he had persuaded of his superhuman powers.

The prosperity of the southern provinces proceeded rapidly and
uninterruptedly, in consequence of the great and valuable traffic
of the merchants of Flanders and Brabant, who exchanged their
goods of native manufacture for the riches drawn from America and
India by the Spaniards and Portuguese. Antwerp had succeeded to
Bruges as the general mart of commerce, and was the most opulent
town of the north of Europe. The expenses, estimated at one hundred
and thirty thousand golden crowns, which this city voluntarily
incurred, to do honor to the visit of Philip, son of Charles
V., are cited as a proof of its wealth. The value of the wool
annually imported for manufacture into the Low Countries from
England and Spain was calculated at four million pieces of gold.
Their herring fishery was unrivalled; for even the Scotch, on
whose coasts these fish were taken, did not attempt a competition
with the Zealanders. But the chief seat of prosperity was the
south. Flanders alone was taxed for one-third of the general
burdens of the state. Brabant paid only one-seventh less than
Flanders. So that these two rich provinces contributed thirteen
out of twenty-one parts of the general contribution; and all
the rest combined but eight. A search for further or minuter
proofs of the comparative state of the various divisions of the
country would be superfluous.

The perpetual quarrels of Charles V. with Francis I. and Charles
of Guelders led, as may be supposed, to a repeated state of
exhaustion, which forced the princes to pause, till the people