Brussels, but at Antwerp. The great commercial metropolis had celebrated
the occasion by a magnificent banquet. There had been triumphal arches,
wreaths of flowers, loyal speeches, generous sentiments, in the usual
profusion. The chief ornament of the dinner-table had been a magnificent
piece of confectionary, netting elaborately forth the mission of Count
Mansfeld with the fleet to Portugal to fetch the bride from her home,
with exquisitely finished figures in sugar--portraits, it is to be
presumed--of the principal personages as they appeared during the most
striking scenes of the history. At the very moment, however, of these
delectations, a meeting was held at Brussels of men whose minds were
occupied with sterner stuff than sugar-work. On the wedding-day of
Parma, Francis Junius, a dissenting minister then residing at Antwerp,
was invited to Brussels to preach a sermon in the house of Count
Culemburg, on the horse-market (now called Little Sablon), before
a small assembly of some twenty gentlemen.

This Francis Junius, born of a noble family in Bourges, was the pastor
of the secret French congregation of Huguenots at Antwerp. He was very
young, having arrived from Geneva, where he had been educated, to take
charge of the secret church, when but just turned of twenty years.
He was, however, already celebrated for his learning, his eloquence,
and his courage. Towards the end of 1565, it had already become known
that Junius was in secret understanding with Louis of Nassau, to prepare
an address to government on the subject of the inquisition and edicts.
Orders were given for his arrest.

A certain painter of Brussels affected conversion to the new religion,
that he might gain admission to the congregation, and afterwards earn the
reward of the informer. He played his part so well that he was permitted
to attend many meetings, in the course of which he sketched the portrait