Thus that famous fowl in every pot was to make its appearance, which
vulgar tradition ascribes to the bounty of a king who hated everything
like popular rights, and loved nothing but his own glory and his own
amusement. It was not until the days of his grandchildren and great-
grandchildren that Privilege could renew those horrible outrages on the
People, which were to be avenged by a dread series of wars, massacres,
and crimes, compared to which even the religious conflicts of the
sixteenth century grow pale.

Meantime De Bethune comforted his master with these financial plans,
and assured him in the spirit of prophecy that the King of Spain, now
tottering as it was thought to his grave, would soon be glad to make a
favourable peace with France even if he felt obliged to restore not only
Amiens but every other city or stronghold that he had ever conquered in
that kingdom. Time would soon show whether this prediction were correct
or delusive; but while the secret negotiations between Henry and the Pope
were vigorously proceeding for that peace with Spain which the world in
general and the commonwealth of the Netherlands in particular thought to
be farthest from the warlike king's wishes, it was necessary to set about
the siege of Amiens.

Henry assembled a force of some twelve or fifteen thousand men for that
purpose, while the cardinal-archduke, upon his part, did his best to put
an army in the field in order to relieve the threatened city so recently
acquired by a coarse but successful artifice.

But Albert was in even a worse plight than that in which his great
antagonist found himself. When he had first arrived in the provinces,
his exchequer was overflowing, and he was even supposed to devote a
considerable portion of the military funds to defray the expenses of his