this is what Leicester did. Reingault was a Fleming. He was a bankrupt
merchant, who had been taken into the protection of Lamoral Egmont, and
by that nobleman recommended to Granvelle for an office under the
Cardinal's government. The refusal of this favour was one of the
original causes of Egmont's hostility to Granvelle. Reingault
subsequently entered the service of the Cardinal, however, and rewarded
the kindness of his former benefactor by great exertions in finding, or
inventing, evidence to justify the execution of that unfortunate
nobleman. He was afterwards much employed by the Duke of Alva and by the
Grand Commander Requesens; but after the pacification of Ghent he had
been completely thrown out of service. He had recently, in a subordinate
capacity, accompanied the legations of the States to France and to
England, and had now contrived to ingratiate himself with the Earl of
Leicester. He affected great zeal for the Calvinistic religion--an
exhibition which, in the old servant of Granvelle and Alva, was far from
edifying--and would employ no man or maid-servant in his household until
their religious principles had been thoroughly examined by one or two
clergymen. In brief, he was one of those, who, according to a homely
Flemish proverb, are wont to hang their piety on the bell-rope; but, with
the exception of this brief interlude in his career, he lived and died a
Papist.

Gerard Proninck, called Deventer, was a respectable inhabitant of Bois-
le-Duc, who had left that city after it had again become subject to the
authority of Spain. He was of decent life and conversation, but a
restless and ambitious demagogue. As a Brabantine, he was unfit for
office; and yet, through Leicester's influence and the intrigues of the
democratic party, he obtained the appointment of burgomaster in the city
of Utrecht. The States-General, however, always refused to allow him to
appear at their sessions as representative of that city.