had been few and of no great importance. After the pompous and elaborate
"homage-making" at Antwerp, he had, in the month of July, been formally
accepted, by writing, as Duke of Guelders and Lord of Friesland. In the
same month he had been ceremoniously, inaugurated at Bruges as Count of
Flanders--an occasion upon which the Prince of Orange had been present.
In that ancient and stately city there had been, accordingly, much
marching about under triumphal arches, much cannonading and haranguing,
much symbol work of suns dispelling fogs, with other cheerful emblems,
much decoration of ducal shoulders with velvet robes lined with weasel
skin, much blazing of tar-barrels and torches. In the midst of this
event, an attempt was made upon the lives both of Orange and Anjou. An
Italian, named Basa, and a Spaniard, called Salseda, were detected in a
scheme to administer poison to both princes, and when arrested, confessed
that they had been hired by the Prince of Parma to compass this double
assassination. Basa destroyed himself in prison. His body was, however,
gibbeted, with an inscription that he had attempted, at the instigation
of Parma, to take the lives of Orange and Anjou. Salseda, less
fortunate, was sent to Paris, where he was found guilty, and executed.
by being torn to pieces by four horses. Sad to relate, Lamoral Egmont,
younger son and namesake of the great general, was intimate with Salseda,
and implicated in this base design. His mother, on her death-bed, had
especially recommended the youth to the kindly care of Orange. The
Prince had ever recognized the claim, manifesting uniform tenderness for
the son of his ill-started friend; and now the youthful Lamoral--as if
the name of Egmont had not been sufficiently contaminated by the elder
brother's treason at Brussels--had become the comrade of hired
conspirators against his guardian's life. The affair was hushed up,
but the story was current and generally believed that Egmont had himself
undertaken to destroy the Prince at his own table by means of poison
which he kept concealed in a ring. Saint Aldegonde was to have been