History of Protestantism in the Netherlands - James Aitken Wylie

sword; then their wives and daughters were
brutally outraged, and afterwards nearly all were
massacred. The dwellings, the convents, and the
hospitals were ransacked for treasure and spoil; and
when the fiends had satiated to the utmost their
bloodthirstiness, lust, and greed, they drove out the
few miserable inhabitants that remained into the
open fields, and setting fire to Naarden they burned
it to the ground. A blackened spot covered with
charred ruins, ashes, and the remains of human
carcases marked where the city had stood. It was
amid these clouds and tempests that the year 1572
closed. What a contrast to the brilliant promise
with which it had opened, when city after city was
hanging out the banner of William upon its walls,
and men were congratulating themselves float the
black night of Spanish usurpation and oppression
had come to an end, and the fair morning of
independence had dawned! Smitten down by the
mailed hand of Alva, the cities of Brabant and
Flanders are again seen creeping back into their
chains.
Occupied in the siege of Mons and the
328