"Too much choler, Marquis, too much choler,"-- said he reprovingly.

"Troppa colera, Signor Marchese, a questa." But Richebourg knew better.

He had, while still Viscount of Ghent, carried on a year previously a parallel intrigue with the royalists and the patriots.

The Prince of Parma had bid highest for his services, and had, accordingly, found him a most effectual instrument in completing the reduction of the Walloon Provinces.

The Prince was not aware, however, that his brave but venal ally had, at the very same moment, been secretly treating with William of Orange; and as it so happened that Colonel Pettin had been the agent in the unsuccessful negotiation, it was possible that his duplicity would now be exposed.