History of Protestantism in the Netherlands - James Aitken Wylie

Chapter 13
The Council of Blood
"WHIRLWINDS from the terrible land of the
South" -- in literal terms, edicts and soldiers from
Spain -- -were what might now be looked for. The
land had been subjugated, but it had yet to be
chastised. On every side the priests lifted up the
head, the burghers hung theirs in shame. The psalm
pealed forth at the field-preaching rose no longer
on the breeze, the orison of monk came loud and
clear instead; the gibbets were filled, the piles were
re-lighted, and thousands were fleeing from a
country which seemed only now to be opening the
dark page of its history. The future in reserve for
the Low Countries was not so closely locked up in
the breast of the tyrant but that the Prince of
Orange could read it. He saw into the heart and
soul of Philip. He had studied him in his daily life;
he had studied him in the statesmen and councillors
who served him; he had studied him in his public
policy; and he had studied him in those secret
pages in which Philip had put on record, in the
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