monarch in Christendom. Fortunately for him, that prince was in very
similar straits, for the pressure upon the public swindlers and the
auction sales of judicial ermine throughout his kingdom were not as
rapidly productive as had been hoped.

It was precisely at this moment, too, that an incident of another nature
occurred in Antwerp, which did not tend to make the believers in the
possibility of religious or political freedom more in love with the
system of Spain and Rome. Those blood-dripping edicts against heresy
in the Netherlands, of which enough has been said in previous volumes
of this history, and which had caused the deaths, by axe, faggot, halter,
or burial alive, of at least fifty thousand human creatures--however
historical scepticism may shut its eyes to evidence--had now been,
dormant for twenty years. Their activity had ceased with the
pacification of Ghent; but the devilish spirit which had inspired them
still lived in the persons of the Jesuits, and there were now more
Jesuits in the obedient provinces than there had been for years.
We have seen that Champagny's remedy for the ills the country was
enduring was "more Jesuits." And this, too, was Albert's recipe. Always
"more Jesuits." And now the time had come when the Jesuits thought that
they might step openly with their works into the daylight again. Of late
years they had shrouded themselves in comparative mystery, but from their
seminaries and colleges had gone forth a plentiful company of assassins
against Elizabeth and Henry, Nassau, Barneveld, and others who, whether
avowedly or involuntarily, were prominent in the party of human progress.
Some important murders had already been accomplished, and the prospect
was fair that still others might follow, if the Jesuits persevered.
Meantime those ecclesiastics thought that a wholesome example might
be by the spectacle of a public execution.