History of Protestantism in the Netherlands - James Aitken Wylie

and carried off to Spain.
There was but one man to whom the
inhabitants, in the midst of their ever-accumulating
misery and despair, could look with the smallest
hope of deliverance. That was the man whom we
have just seen stripped of his property and declared
an outlaw. The eyes of the exiles abroad were also
turned to William of Orange. He began to be
earnestly importuned by the refugees in England,
in Germany, in Cleves and other parts, to unfurl the
standard and strike for his country's liberation.
William wished to defer the enterprise in the hope
of seeing Spain involved in war with some other
nation, when it would be more easy to compel her
to let go her hold upon the unhappy Netherlands.
But the exiles were importunate, for their numbers
were being daily swelled by the new horrors that
were continually darkening their native country.
William therefore resolved to delay no longer, but
instantly to gird himself in obedience to the cry
from so many countries, and the yet louder cry,
though expressed only in groans, that was coming
to him from the Netherlands.
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