Thus, on this particular point of time, many great events had been crowded. At the very same moment Zealand had been redeemed, Antwerp ruined, and the league of all the Netherlands against the Spaniards concluded. It now became known that another and most important event had occurred at the same instant. On the day before the Antwerp massacre, four days before the publication of the Ghent treaty, a foreign cavalier, attended by a Moorish slave and by six men-at-arms, rode into the streets of Luxemburg. The cavalier was Don Ottavio Gonzaga, brother of the Prince of Melfi. The Moorish slave was Don John of Austria, the son of the Emperor, the conqueror of Granada, the hero of Lepanto. The new Governor-general had traversed Spain and France in disguise with great celerity, and in the romantic manner which belonged to his character. He stood at last on the threshold of the Netherlands, but with all his speed he had arrived a few days too late. ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: A common hatred united them, for a time at least A most fatal success All claimed the privilege of persecuting Blessing of God upon the Devil's work Daily widening schism between Lutherans and Calvinists Dying at so very inconvenient a moment Eight thousand human beings were murdered Everything was conceded, but nothing was secured Fanatics of the new religion denounced him as a godless man Glory could be put neither into pocket nor stomach He would have no Calvinist inquisition set up in its place He would have no persecution of the opposite creed In character and general talents he was beneath mediocrity Indecision did the work of indolence Insinuate that his orders had been hitherto misunderstood King set a price upon his head as a rebel No man could reveal secrets which he did not know Of high rank but of lamentably low capacity Pope excommunicated him as a heretic Preventing wrong, or violence, even towards an enemy They could not invent or imagine toleration Uunmeaning phrases of barren benignity MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Vol. 26 THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC By John Lothrop Motley 1855 PART V. DON JOHN OF AUSTRIA. CHAPTER I. 1576-1577