stipulation excited a tremendous uproar. The clerical bench regarded
the tax as both a robbery and an affront. "We came nearly to knife-
playing," said the most distinguished priest in the assembly, "and if we
had done so, the ecclesiastics would not have been the first to cry
enough." They all withdrew in a rage, and held a private consultation
upon "these exorbitant and more than Turkish demands." John Sarrasin,
Prior of Saint Yaast, the keenest, boldest, and most indefatigable of the
royal partisans of that epoch, made them an artful harangue. This man
--a better politician than the other prior--was playing for a mitre too,
and could use his cards better. He was soon to become the most
invaluable agent in the great treason preparing. No one could, be more
delicate, noiseless, or unscrupulous, and he was soon recognized both by
Governor-General and King as the individual above all others to whom the
re-establishment of the royal authority over the Walloon provinces was
owing. With the shoes of swiftness on his feet, the coat of darkness on
his back, and the wishing purse in his hand, he sped silently and
invisibly from one great Malcontent chieftain to another, buying up
centurions, and captains, and common soldiers; circumventing Orangists,
Ghent democrats, Anjou partisans; weaving a thousand intrigues,
ventilating a hundred hostile mines, and passing unharmed through the
most serious dangers and the most formidable obstacles. Eloquent, too,
at a pinch, he always understood his audience, and upon this occasion
unsheathed the most incisive, if not the most brilliant weapon which
could be used in the debate. It was most expensive to be patriotic, he
said, while silver was to be saved, and gold to be earned by being loyal.
They ought to keep their money to defend themselves, not give it to the
Prince of Orange, who would only put it into his private pocket on
pretence of public necessities. The Ruward would soon be slinking back
to his lair, he observed, and leave them all in the fangs of their
enemies. Meantime, it was better to rush into the embrace of a bountiful