The nuptials of Parma with the Portuguese princess had been the cause of much festivity, not only in Brussels, but at Antwerp.

The great commercial metropolis had celebrated the occasion by a magnificent banquet.

There had been triumphal arches, wreaths of flowers, loyal speeches, generous sentiments, in the usual profusion.

The chief ornament of the dinner-table had been a magnificent piece of confectionary, netting elaborately forth the mission of Count Mansfeld with the fleet to Portugal to fetch the bride from her home, with exquisitely finished figures in sugar--portraits, it is to be presumed--of the principal personages as they appeared during the most striking scenes of the history.

At the very moment, however, of these delectations, a meeting was held at Brussels of men whose minds were occupied with sterner stuff than sugar-work.