several councillors, is kept a prisoner in a house on the market-place.
The magistrates are all changed, the affairs of government conducted in
the name of the young Philip alone. Meantime, the estates of the other
Netherlands assemble at Ghent; anxious, unfortunately, not for the
national liberty, but for that of the Roman king. Already Holland, torn
again by civil feuds, and blinded by the artifices of Maximilian, has
deserted, for a season, the great cause to which Flanders has remained so
true. At last, a treaty is made between the archduke and the Flemings.
Maximilian is to be regent of the other provinces; Philip, under
guardianship of a council, is to govern Flanders. Moreover, a congress
of all the provinces is to be summoned annually, to provide for the
general welfare. Maximilian signs and swears to the treaty on the 16th
May, 1488. He swears, also, to dismiss all foreign troops within four
days. Giving hostages for his fidelity, he is set at liberty. What are
oaths and hostages when prerogative, and the people are contending?
Emperor Frederic sends to his son an army under the Duke of Saxony.
The oaths are broken, the hostages left to their fate. The struggle
lasts a year, but, at the end of it, the Flemings are subdued. What
could a single province effect, when its sister states, even liberty-
loving Holland, had basely abandoned the common cause? A new treaty is
made, (Oct.1489). Maximilian obtains uncontrolled guardianship of his
son, absolute dominion over Flanders and the other provinces. The
insolent burghers are severely punished for remembering that they had
been freemen. The magistrates of Ghent, Bruges, and Ypres, in black
garments, ungirdled, bare-headed, and kneeling, are compelled to implore
the despot's forgiveness, and to pay three hundred thousand crowns of
gold as its price. After this, for a brief season, order reigns in
Flanders.

The course of Maximilian had been stealthy, but decided. Allying himself