Flanders and Brabant were still the richest and most flourishing
portions of the state. Some municipal fêtes given about this time
afford a notion of their opulence. On one of these occasions
the town of Mechlin sent a deputation to Antwerp, consisting
of three hundred and twenty-six horsemen dressed in velvet and
satin with gold and silver ornaments; while those of Brussels
consisted of three hundred and forty, as splendidly equipped, and
accompanied by seven huge triumphal chariots and seventy-eight
carriages of various constructions--a prodigious number for those
days.

But the splendor and prosperity which thus sprung out of the
national industry and independence, and which a wise or a generous
sovereign would have promoted, or at least have established on a
permanent basis, was destined speedily to sink beneath the bigoted
fury of Philip II. The new government which he had established
was most ingeniously adapted to produce every imaginable evil
to the state. The king, hundreds of leagues distant, could not
himself issue an order but with a lapse of time ruinous to any
object of pressing importance. The stadtholderess, who represented
him, having but a nominal authority, was forced to follow her
instructions, and liable to have all her acts reversed; besides
which, she had the king's orders to consult her private council
on all affairs whatever, and the council of state on any matter
of paramount importance. These two councils, however, contained
the elements of a serious opposition to the royal projects, in
the persons of the patriot nobles sprinkled among Philip's devoted
creatures. Thus the influence of the crown was often thwarted, if
not actually balanced; and the proposals which emanated from it