had, not been repaid with corresponding confidence. We have already seen
that Lalain had been secretly in the interest of Anjou ever since his
wife and himself had lost their hearts to Margaret of Navarre; yet the
Count was chief commander of the infantry in the states' army then
assembled. Robert Melun, Vicomte de Gand, was commander of the cavalry,
but he had recently been private envoy from Don John to the English
Queen. Both these gentlemen, together with Pardieu De la Motte, general
of the artillery, were voluntarily absent from the forces, under pretext
of celebrating the wedding of the Seigneur De Bersel with the niece and
heiress of the unfortunate Marquis of Bergen. The ghost of that ill-
starred noble might almost have seemed to rise at the nuptial banquet of
his heiress, to warn the traitors of the signal and bloody massacre which
their treachery was soon to occasion. Philip Egmont, eldest son of the
famous Lamoral, was with the army, as was the Seigneur de Heze, hero of
the State Council's arrest, and the unstable Havre. But little was to be
hoped from such leaders. Indeed, the affairs of the states continued to
be in as perplexed a condition as that which honest John of Nassau had
described some weeks before. "There were very few patriots," he had
said, "but plenty of priests, with no lack of inexperienced lads--some
looking for distinction, and others for pelf."

The two armies had been mustered in the latter days of January. The Pope
had issued a bull for the benefit of Don John, precisely similar to those
formerly employed in the crusades against the Saracens. Authority was
given him to levy contributions upon ecclesiastical property, while full
absolution, at the hour of death, for all crimes committed during a whole
lifetime, was proclaimed to those who should now join the standard of
the Cross. There was at least no concealment. The Crescent-wearing
Zealanders had been taken at their word, and the whole nation of
Netherlanders were formally banned as unbelievers. The forces of Don