Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 137.djvu/422

416 as celebrated for her dancing as Don John himself; and when these illustrious personages danced to- gether, they made a sight for spec- tators to remember –

"So stately his form, and so lovely her face, That never a hall such a galliard did grace."

The rose-coloured days and nights were, however, soon over. The warrior put this Helen of her day on board her boat for Liége, looked on her beauty for the last time as he bade her farewell, and went back to the cares and the fatigues that were robbing him of his youth and life.

Throughout his viceroyalty Don John seems to have kept up a correspondence, most insincere on both sides, with Queen Elizabeth of England. Don John, as we have seen, intended, if he could, to invade the Queen's dominions, raise her Catholic subjects, and dethrone her. Elizabeth, who quite suspected his designs, was aiding the Netherlander in their resistance to Don John's govern- ment. Yet the correspondence breathes only goodwill and flat- tery.

At the annual sports at Lou vain Don John appeared with his cross- bow and brought down the popin- jay. The enraptured multitude shouted; he was proclaimed king of the bowmen, and he enjoyed a temporary popularity during the holiday season.

We shall furnish an example of the real ability that was in the young man if we extract the ac- count of his dealing with a serious military revolt: –

"While he lay before Nivelle, Don John was called upon to suppress a mutiny. It arose from the old cause, long-deferred pay, and broke out in one of the German regiments. The demand of the soldiers was, immediate payment of arrears or leave to pillage the town; and the alternative was proposed to Don John by a deputation of the mutineers. He dismissed them with fair words, which gave them some hope of gaining one or other of their wishes, and then ordered the colonel, the Baron of Meghem, a courageous and trustworthy officer, to take the companies which had not joined the mutiny, and some other troops, and occupy certain points on the roads leading to Antwerp and Bruxelles. The malcontents, thus left isolated in their quarters, were soon after surrounded by an overwhelming force of other regiments, and ordered to give up their arms and the names of the ringleaders. The order was complied with, and twelve of the chief mutineers were arrested, of whom four, selected by lot, were condemned to death. Two of these were pardoned on the petition of the other regiments; and of the remaining two, one was also forgiven on account of his wounds and good service. The sedition was therefore quelled by the vigorous measures of the general, at the expense of a single victim."

Chiefly by the readiness and conduct of Prince Alexander of Parma, Don John, towards the end of his administration, gained a considerable military advantage over the rebel army at Gemblours. But it was not a success sufficient to turn the tide of his ill-fortune or to make him cling to life. From time to time, during his employment in the Low Countries, he suffered from weakening attacks of fever; and in the autumn of 1578 he was prostrated by a recurrence of the disease, which proved too much for his enfeebled constitution to withstand. He had repaired to a camp which he was constructing about a mile from Namur; and it was there, in an outbuilding which had been hastily made somewhat decent for his reception, that he underwent his last