The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1582-84 | Page 8

attack. Perhaps this was the main reason
for the result, which seems at first almost inexplicable. For protection
against the Spanish invasion, the burghers relied on mercenaries, some
of whom proved treacherous, while the rest became panic-struck. On
the present occasion the burghers relied on themselves. Moreover, the
French committed the great error of despising their enemy.
Recollecting the ease with which the Spaniards had ravished the city,
they believed that they had nothing to do but to enter and take
possession. Instead of repressing their greediness, as the Spaniards had
done, until they had overcome resistance, they dispersed almost
immediately into by-streets, and entered warehouses to search for
plunder. They seemed actuated by a fear that they should not have time
to rifle the city before additional troops should be sent by Anjou to
share in the spoil. They were less used to the sacking of Netherland
cities than were the Spaniards, whom long practice had made perfect in
the art of methodically butchering a population at first, before attention
should be diverted to plundering, and supplementary outrages. At any
rate, whatever the causes, it is certain that the panic, which upon such

occasions generally decides the fate of the day, seized upon the
invaders and not upon the invaded, almost from the very first. As soon
as the marauders faltered in their purpose and wished to retreat, it was
all over with them. Returning was worse than advance, and it was the
almost inevitable result that hardly a man escaped death or capture.
The Duke retreated the same day in the direction of Denremonde, and
on his way met with another misfortune, by which an additional
number of his troops lost their lives. A dyke was cut by the Mechlin
citizens to impede his march, and the swollen waters of the Dill,
liberated and flowing across the country which he was to traverse,
produced such an inundation, that at least a thousand of his followers
were drowned.
As soon as he had established himself in a camp near Berghem, he
opened a correspondence with the Prince of Orange, and with the
authorities of Antwerp. His language was marked by wonderful
effrontery. He found himself and soldiers suffering for want of food; he
remembered that he had left much plate and valuable furniture in
Antwerp; and he was therefore desirous that the citizens, whom he had
so basely outraged, should at once send him supplies and restore his
property. He also reclaimed the prisoners who still remained in the city,
and to obtain all this he applied to the man whom he had bitterly
deceived, and whose life would have been sacrificed by the Duke, had
the enterprise succeeded.
It had been his intention to sack the city, to re-establish exclusively the
Roman Catholic worship, to trample upon the constitution which he
had so recently sworn to maintain, to deprive Orange, by force, of the
Renversal by which the Duke recognized the Prince as sovereign of
Holland; Zealand; and Utrecht, yet notwithstanding that his treason
had- been enacted in broad daylight, and in a most deliberate manner,
he had the audacity to ascribe the recent tragic occurrences to chance.
He had the farther originality to speak of himself as an aggrieved
person, who had rendered great services to the Netherlands, and who
had only met with ingratitude in return. His envoys, Messieurs
Landmater and Escolieres, despatched on the very day of the French
Fury to the burgomasters and senate of Antwerp, were instructed to
remind those magistrates that the Duke had repeatedly exposed his life
in the cause of the Netherlands. The affronts, they were to add, which

he had received, and the approaching ruin of the country, which he
foresaw, had so altered his excellent nature, as to engender the present
calamity, which he infinitely regretted. Nevertheless, the senate was to
be assured that his affection for the commonwealth was still so strong,
as to induce a desire on his part to be informed what course was now to
be pursued with, regard to him. Information upon that important point
was therefore to be requested, while at the same time the liberation of
the prisoners at Antwerp, and the restaration of the Duke's furniture and
papers, were to be urgently demanded.
Letters of similar, import were also despatched by the Duke to the
states of the Union, while to the Prince of Orange; his application was
brief but brazen. "You know well,--my cousin," said he "the just and
frequent causes of offence which this people has given me. The insults
which I, this morning experienced cut me so deeply to the heart that
they are the only reasons of the misfortune which has happened today.
Nevertheless, to those who desire my friendship I shall show equal
friendship and affection. Herein