The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1578 part 1 | Page 6

manner. The Catholic magistrates and friars escaped with their fright.

They were simply turned out of town, and forbidden, for their lives,
ever to come back again. After the vessel had proceeded a little
distance from the city, they were all landed high and dry upon a dyke,
and so left unharmed within the open country.
A new board of magistrates, of which stout William Bardez was one,
was soon appointed; the train-bands were reorganized, and the churches
thrown open to the Reformed worship--to the exclusion, at first, of the
Catholics. This was certainly contrary to the Ghent treaty, and to the
recent Satisfaction; it was also highly repugnant to the opinions of
Orange. After a short time, accordingly, the Catholics were again
allowed access to the churches, but the tables had now been turned for
ever in the capital of Holland, and the Reformation was an established
fact throughout that little province.
Similar events occurring upon the following day at Harlem,
accompanied with some bloodshed--for which, however, the
perpetrator was punished with death--opened the great church of that
city to the Reformed congregations, and closed them for a time to the
Catholics.
Thus, the cause of the new religion was triumphant in Holland and
Zealand, while it was advancing with rapid strides through the other
provinces. Public preaching was of daily occurrence everywhere. On a
single Sunday; fifteen different ministers of the Reformed religion
preached in different places in Antwerp. "Do you think this can be put
down?" said Orange to the remonstrating burgomaster of that city. "'Tis
for you to repress it," said the functionary, "I grant your Highness full
power to do so." "And do you think," replied the Prince, "that I can do
at this late moment, what the Duke of Alva was unable to accomplish
in the very plenitude of his power?" At the same time, the Prince of
Orange was more than ever disposed to rebuke his own Church for
practising persecution in her turn. Again he lifted his commanding
voice in behalf of the Anabaptists of Middelburg. He reminded the
magistrates of that city that these peaceful burghers were always
perfectly willing to bear their part in all the common burthens, that
their word was as good as their oath, and that as to the matter of
military service, although their principles forbade them to bear arms,
they had ever been ready to provide and pay for substitutes. "We
declare to you therefore," said he, "that you have no right to trouble

yourselves with any man's conscience, so long as nothing is done to
cause private harm or public scandal. We therefore expressly ordain
that you desist from molesting these Baptists, from offering hindrance
to their handicraft and daily trade, by which they can earn bread for
their wives and children, and that you permit them henceforth to open
their shops and to do their work, according to the custom of former
days. Beware, therefore, of disobedience and of resistance to the
ordinance which we now establish."
Meantime, the armies on both sides had been assembled, and had been
moving towards each other. Don John was at the head of nearly thirty
thousand troops, including a large proportion of Spanish and Italian
veterans. The states' army hardly numbered eighteen thousand foot and
two thousand cavalry, under the famous Francois de la None, surnamed
Bras de Fer, who had been recently appointed Marechal de Camp, and,
under Count Bossu, commander-in-chief. The muster-place of the
provincial forces was in the plains between Herenthals and Lier. At this
point they expected to be reinforced by Duke Casimir, who had been,
since the early part of the summer, in the country of Zutfen, but who
was still remaining there inglorious and inactive, until he could be
furnished with the requisite advance-money to his troops. Don John
was determined if possible, to defeat the states army, before Duke
Casimir, with his twelve thousand Germans, should effect his juncture
with Bossu. The Governor therefore crossed the Demer, near Aerschot,
towards the end of July, and offered battle, day after day, to the enemy.
A series of indecisive skirmishes was the result, in the last of which,
near Rijnemants, on the first day of August, the royalists were worsted
and obliged to retire, after a desultory action of nearly eight hours,
leaving a thousand dead. upon the field. Their offer of "double or
quits," the following morning was steadily refused by Bossu, who,
secure within his intrenchments, was not to be induced at that moment
to encounter the chances of a general engagement. For this he was
severely blamed by the more violent of the national party.
His patriotism, which was of such recent origin, was vehemently
suspected; and his death, which occurred not long afterwards, was
supposed to have alone prevented