History of Protestantism in the Netherlands - James Aitken Wylie

pleasure. The State Council, into whose hands the
government of the Netherlands had fallen on the
sudden death of Requesens, were powerless, the
mutineers holding them prisoners in Brussels; and
though the Council prevailed on Philip to issue an
edict against his revolted army, denouncing them
as rebels, and empowering any one to slay this
rebellious host, either singly or in whole, the
soldiers paid as little respect to the edict of their
king as to the exhortations of the Council. Thus the
instrument of oppression recoiled upon the hands
that were wielding it. War now broke out between
the Flemings and the army. The State Council
raised bands of militia to awe the proscribed and
lawless troops, and bloody skirmishes were of
daily occurrence between them.
The carnage was all on one side, for the
disciplined veterans routed at little cost the
peasants and artisans who had been so suddenly
transformed into soldiers, slaughtering them in
thousands. The rich cities, on which they now cast
greedy eyes, began to feel their vengeance, but the
awful calamity which overtook Antwerp has
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