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openly in crowds to listen to the fiery exhortations of favourite preachers; and a magistrate who rashly endeavoured to arrest one of these preachers who was addressing an open-air meeting of some thousands, was so furiously attacked by the populace with sticks and stones that he barely escaped with his life. Hermann Stricker, a quondam monk who had escaped from his convent, and Peter Dathan, a monk who had abjured his belief, were the most popular and influential among the preachers; and Ambrosius Ville, a French Calvinist, excited the Protestants of Tournay.

The boldness of the preachers and of the audiences increased with the sympathy they found. Besides Tournay, Valenciennes, and Antwerp distinguished themselves by the audacity with which they defied the laws against heresy. They soon got so far as to establish camps by making an enclosure of carts and waggons, within which their services were held, guarded by armed men ; and in many cases these meetings were defaced by the wildest extravagance. The Romish Church and its ceremonies, the doctrine of purgatory and the various dogmas were turned into ridicule, and made the subjects of coarse wit and buffoonery, the hearers expressing their approval by clapping of hands, as at a dramatic show. The wonted impunity increased the boldness of the sectaries; and after a short time they actually made a practice of conveying their preachers home in triumph, with a mounted escort, in open and contemptuous defiance of the law.

THE STORM BURSTS FORTH AT LAST.

The confederacy of the Gueux was meanwhile becoming stronger and stronger. The lower class of people became more and more turbulent, and in Antwerp the disturbance reached such a pitch that some of the great merchants meditated quitting the town altogether, fearful of being plundered by the unruly mob. Urgent messages were sent to Margaret of Parma, begging her by her personal presence to restore order in the distracted city, or at least to send the Prince of Orange, the only man of sufficient weight to control the jarring factions. Though it went against her inclination to entrust Antwerp to William, the Regent felt bound to comply with the latter of these requests, and the Prince was welcomed in Antwerp with the utmost enthusiasm. The whole city seemed to have turned out to meet him. Again the cry, "Long live the Gueux!" was raised with joyful shouts in honour of the Prince. "Look at him," cried others, "he it is who brings us liberty." "He is everything to us ! cried others; and thus, amid a jubilant clamour of young and old, the Prince rode into the city, grave and

anxious, and with words of warning on his lips to the excited populace, whom he adjured to be careful what they did lest they should one day repent it. Brederode meanwhile had taken advantage of the Regent's request that he would aid her in maintaining peace tɔ issue a general summons of the whole league of the Gueux, in the town of St. Truyea, whither Brederode and Ludwig of Nassar had betaken themselves, at the head of two thousand men, with the intention of obtaining new concessions from Margaret, who negotiated with them through the Prince of Orange and Count Egmont, and who bitterl complained of this display of force as unnecessary, and calculated to produce disterbances. The Gueux, on the other hand, defended the step they had taken by declaring that while they thanked the Regent for all she had done for them, they feared her commands for moderation were but il carried out, so long as they saw their fellowcountrymen dragged to prison and to death on account of their religion. They declared themselves loyal to the King; but at the same time they let it be plainly seen that they intended to stand together for their own defence, and were as inimical as ever to the Inquisition.

Meanwhile, in Spain, the envoys who had been sent to procure the consent of the King and Government to the Moderation, were able to effect nothing. The Council summoned to deliberate on the matter, among whom was the Duke of Alva, the most suspicious and unscrupulous of bigots, could see nothing in the demands of the Gueux but an organized attempt to create a rebellion, and a determination to overthrow all authority, and to obtain what they declared the King could not grant,-complete freedom of religious belief. The advice of the Council to the King was that His Majesty should refuse to grant the Moderation in the form demanded. but should grant some smaller concessions, while a partial amnesty might be given for past offences; and, on the other hand, all public preaching, all confederations, meetings, leagues, should be forbidden under the heaviest penalties; and that meanwhile the Regent should avail herself of the garrisons in the different towns, and, if necessary, raise fresh troops to combat any attempt at insubordination. The advice of the Council was taken. Philip made some trifling and valueless concessions that he might at any time revoke, but certainly promised some modification in the action of the Inquisition. The boon, such as it was, came too late, for the question had now assumed a new aspect.

KING PHILIP AND HIS COUNCILLORS;
ALVA.

The storm of popular fury that had been

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clasts and restoring tranquillity throughout the provinces. Margaret felt deeply humiliated at being thus obliged to treat with men whom she looked upon as the opponents and enemies of the King's authority; and in her letters to Philip excused herself by declaring that she had been little better than a prisoner in the capital where she nominally ruled. She was especially bitter against William of Orange, and her complaints were not likely to be passed unheeded by the vindictive tyrant to whom they were addressed. For the time, however, the danger was successfully encountered. The Prince of Orange did good service in putting down the riotous and sacrilegious despoilers of the churches. Some of the ringleaders were hanged, and various punishments inflicted on others, produced a salutary feeling of terror, and put an end to the work of plunder and destruction. Margaret of Parma, too, showed considerable skill and policy in mingling severity towards the most ruthless offenders with conciliation and compromise where these means could answer her purpose. Troops were obtained; and with forces hastily raised the rebellious town of Valenciennes, and somewhat later Antwerp itself, was reduced to obedience, and it seemed as if peace and tranquillity would succeed to the troubles that had so long

shaken the Netherlands. All depended on the course that should be decided on in Madrid.

In the Spanish capital, grave deliberations had been held on the state of things in the Netherlands. In the royal council, several were for a policy of strict justice, and for the removal of grievances, for this would deprive those who persisted in their opposition of all claim to support and sympathy. But the opposing faction, headed by the Duke of Alva, declared that the King would be showing culpable weakness by such a course; that it behoved him first to vindicate his authority, by the unsparing punishment of all who had opposed him, and that afterwards there would be time enough to think of the redress of grievances. This advice was too congenial to the despotic temper of Philip to be rejected; and in an evil hour for himself the King despatched Alva to enforce obedience with fire and sword; and the splendid and wealthy provinces, with their turbulent but warm-hearted and affectionate inhabitants, were at length goaded by the insolence of tyranny and oppression into desperate revolt,

The events of that revolt, its vicissitudes and ultimate success, must be told separately. H. W. D.

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A Scene in the Tower-Guy Fawkes-His Examination and Hearing-The King's Questions-English CatholicsOrigin of the Plot-The Family of Fawkes-Meeting in St. Clement's Danes-Vinegar House-The Mine-The Conspirators-Frank Tresham-The Warning-Check by the King-Checkmate-The Springing of the Mine-Arrest of Guy Fawkes-Run to Earth-The Executions-Search for the Priests-End of the Jesuits-Garnet's last EffortsConclusion.

IN THE TOWER OF LONDON.

T noon, upon a certain early day in November 1605, the inhabitants of the city of London were surprised to see some of the highest nobility of the land hurrying with anxicus mien to the

Tower. But their visit was not unexpected by the Lieutenant of that frowning pile. Sir William Waad was awaiting them; he met them as they arrived, and these great personages passed through to his house directly across the Green. They met in a small

apartment, now covered with__inscriptions and "plated" with records,-The Powder Plot Room!

This room is a small one, and the window looks upon the Thames. The apartment is constructed curiously upon the wall; and around it are (or were) certain inscriptions in Latin-one a prayer for "James the Great, King of Great Britain, his Queen and children, and for their protection." Other records are inscribed upon the wall, for this little chamber is the Powder Plot Room, and the great men have hurried from Whitehall to the Tower to examine a prisoner captured in Parliament Place upon the previous evening.

The prisoner was Guido Fawkes, his interrogators the Secretary of State, the Lord High Admiral, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and the Lord Privy Seal,-offices holden by men whose names carried with them all the weight of the English nation, viz., Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, Charles Howard, Earl of Nottingham, Charles Blount, Earl of Devon, and Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton. These noblemen had been instructed to question the man, who had given his name as John Johnson, and his master's as Thomas Percy, but whose identity had been discovered from a letter found upon the prisoner, written by Anne Vaux, of Harrowden, daughter of Lord Vaux, and whilom of White Webbs, in Enfield Chase, where English Jesuits and English ladies lived under assumed names, and in questionable relationship.

Sir William Waad was despatched to bring in the prisoner; and in a few moments he entered the room and confronted his accusers boldly, as boldly as he had joked the night before when caught all grimy and black from coal and dust in Parliament Place. This was the man whose name has been handed down to execration by generations as Guy Fawkes. It is with this man and his associates, his aiders and abettors, that we have now to do.

GUY FAWKES EXAMINED.

The prisoner entered calmly, and seemed not alarmed nor dismayed at the reception he had met with, or the fate that impended. He waited boldly and defiantly before the Commissioners. He had played for life or death, and lost the stakes. He was an upright, well-bearing soldier, bronzed and sandy of hue, with grey hair; his appearance -notwithstanding the circumstances in which he was placed-being that of a man of no low lineage. Even Cecil testified to his bearing. "He is no more dismayed," said he, "than if he were taken for a poor robbery upon the highway.

The King had set down certain questions,

and given certain instructions concerning the examination of the prisoner. "The gentler tortures are to be first used unto him," writes the King, "et sic per gradus ad ima tendatur, and so God speed you in your good work." The good work was not long in beginning, and a number of questions were put to Fawkes. The King's examination was as follows, as written by James himself:

"(1) Quhat he is, for I can neuer yett heare of any man that knowis him?

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'(2) Quhaire he uas borne?

(3) Quhat uaire his parents' names?

(4) Quhat aage he is of?

(5) Quhaire he hath liued?

(6) How he hath liued, and by quhat trade of lyfe?

"(7) How he ressaued those woundes in his breste?

"(8) If he was euer in seruice with any other before Percie, and quhat they uaire, and hou long?

"(9) Hou came he in Percie's seruice, by quhat meanes, and at quhat tyme?

"(10) Quhat tyme was this house hyred by his maister?

"(11) And hou soone aftir the possessing of it did he begin his deuillishe preparations?

"(12) Quhen and quhaire lernid he to speake frenshe?

"(13) Quhat gentlewoman's lettir it uas that uas found upon him?

"(14) And quairfore doth she giue him an other name in it than he giues to himself? "(15) If he was euer a Papiste, and if so quho brocht him up in it?"

Then follows a long list of other questions which the King wished to have put to Guy Fawkes.

The prisoner answered them all in the way that suited him best. A great many of his answers were untrue, and others only partially true. Some few were answered truly. But the Commission and the King were not satisfied; and Sir Edward Coke came down, and soon put Fawkes out of countenance. The rack was hinted at, and then Fawkes, though steadily refusing to bear witness against is accomplices, told the truth concerning himself. He confessed his birth, parentage, and cccupation, of which more hereafter.

When he was told that his friends had escaped, and that the very fact of their attempted flight condemned them, Fawkes said it would be superfluous for him to declare them. But next day we find Sir William Waad, the Lieutenant of the Tower, writing to Lord Salisbury as follows:

"This morning, when Johnson was ready

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