The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1567 part 1 | Page 8

abandon the design. Five hundred of the most violent,
however, insisted upon leaving the gates, and the governors, distinctly
warning these zealots that their blood must be upon their own heads,
reluctantly permitted that number to issue from the city. The rest of the
mob, not appeased, but uncertain, and disposed to take vengeance upon
the Catholics within the walls, for the disaster which had been
occurring without, thronged tumultuously to the long, wide street,
called the Mere, situate in the very heart of the city.
Meantime the ardor of those who had sallied from the gate grew
sensibly cooler, when they found themselves in the open fields. De

Beauvoir, whose men, after the victory, had scattered in pursuit of the
fugitives, now heard the tumult in the city. Suspecting an attack, he
rallied his compact little army again for a fresh encounter. The last of
the vanquished Tholousians who had been captured; more fortunate
than their predecessors, had been spared for ransom. There were three
hundred of them; rather a dangerous number of prisoners for a force of
eight hundred, who were just going into another battle. De Beauvoir
commanded his soldiers, therefore, to shoot them all. This order having
been accomplished, the Catholics marched towards Antwerp, drums
beating, colors flying. The five hundred Calvinists, not liking their
appearance, and being in reality outnumbered, retreated within; the
gates as hastily as they had just issued from them. De Beauvoir
advanced close to the city moat, on the margin of which he planted the
banners of the unfortunate Tholouse, and sounded a trumpet of defiance.
Finding that the citizens had apparently no stomach for the fight, he
removed his trophies, and took his departure.
On the other hand, the tumult within the walls had again increased. The
Calvinists had been collecting in great numbers upon the Mere. This
was a large and splendid thoroughfare, rather an oblong market-place
than a street, filled with stately buildings, and communicating by
various cross streets with the Exchange and with many other public
edifices. By an early hour in the afternoon twelve or fifteen thousand
Calvinists, all armed and fighting men, had assembled upon the place.
They had barricaded the whole precinct with pavements and upturned
wagons. They had already broken into the arsenal and obtained many
field-pieces, which were planted at the entrance of every street and
by-way. They had stormed the city jail and liberated the prisoners, all
of whom, grateful and ferocious, came to swell the numbers who
defended the stronghold on the Mere. A tremendous mischief was afoot.
Threats of pillaging the churches and the houses of the Catholics, of
sacking the whole opulent city, were distinctly heard among this
powerful mob, excited by religious enthusiasm, but containing within
one great heterogeneous mass the elements of every crime which
humanity can commit. The alarm throughout the city was indescribable.
The cries of women and children, as they remained in trembling
expectation of what the next hour might bring forth, were, said one who
heard them, "enough to soften the hardest hearts."

Nevertheless the diligence and courage of the Prince kept pace with the
insurrection. He had caused the eight companies of guards enrolled in
September, to be mustered upon the square in front of the city hall, for
the protection of that building and of the magistracy. He had
summoned the senate of the city, the board of ancients, the deans of
guilds, the ward masters, to consult with him at the council-room. At
the peril of his life he had again gone before the angry mob in the Mere,
advancing against their cannon and their outcries, and compelling them
to appoint eight deputies to treat with him and the magistrates at the
town-hall. This done, quickly but deliberately he had drawn up six
articles, to which those deputies gave their assent, and in which the city
government cordially united. These articles provided that the keys of
the city should remain in the possession of the Prince and of
Hoogstraaten, that the watch should be held by burghers and soldiers
together, that the magistrates should permit the entrance of no garrison,
and that the citizens should be entrusted with the care of, the charters,
especially with that of the joyful entrance.
These arrangements, when laid before the assembly at the Mere by
their deputies, were not received with favor. The Calvinists demanded
the keys of the city. They did not choose to be locked up at the mercy
of any man. They had already threatened to blow the city hall into the
air if the keys were not delivered to them. They claimed that burghers,
without distinction of religion, instead of mercenary troops, should be
allowed to guard the market-place in front of the town-hall.
It was now nightfall, and no definite