rendezvous again at San Ambrosio at the foot of the Alps. It was then
directed to make its way over Mount Cenis and through Savoy; Burgundy,
and Lorraine, by a regularly arranged triple movement. The second
division was each night to encamp on the spot which had been occupied
upon the previous night by the vanguard, and the rear was to place itself
on the following night in the camp of the corps de bataille. Thus
coiling itself along almost in a single line by slow and serpentine
windings, with a deliberate, deadly, venomous purpose, this army, which
was to be the instrument of Philip's long deferred vengeance, stole
through narrow mountain pass and tangled forest. So close and intricate
were many of the defiles through which the journey led them that, had one
tithe of the treason which they came to punish, ever existed, save in the
diseased imagination of their monarch, not one man would have been left
to tell the tale. Egmont, had he really been the traitor and the
conspirator he was assumed to be, might have easily organized the means
of cutting off the troops before they could have effected their entrance
into the country which they had doomed to destruction. His military
experience, his qualifications for a daring stroke, his great popularity,
and the intense hatred entertained for Alva, would have furnished him
with a sufficient machinery for the purpose.

Twelve days' march carried the army through Burgundy, twelve more through
Lorraine. During the whole of the journey they were closely accompanied
by a force of cavalry and infantry, ordered upon this service by the King
of France, who, for fear of exciting a fresh Huguenot demonstration, had
refused the Spaniards a passage through his dominions. This
reconnoitring army kept pace with them like their shadow, and watched all
their movements. A force of six thousand Swiss, equally alarmed and
uneasy at the progress of the troops, hovered likewise about their
flanks, without, however, offering any impediment to their advance.