was swept away. No argument was thenceforward to be permissible as to
the constitutionality of the edicts as to the compatibility of their
provisions with the privileges of the land. The cry of a people in its
agony ascended to Heaven. The decree was answered with a howl of
execration. The flames of popular frenzy arose lurid and threatening
above the house-tops of every town and village. The impending conflict
could no longer be mistaken. The awful tragedy which the great watchman
in the land had so long unceasingly predicted, was seen sweeping solemnly
and steadily onward. The superstitious eyes of the age saw supernatural
and ominous indications in the sky. Contending armies trampled the
clouds; blood dropped from heaven; the exterminating angel rode upon the
wind.

There was almost a cessation of the ordinary business of mankind.
Commerce was paralyzed. Antwerp shook as with an earthquake. A chasm
seemed to open, in which her prosperity and her very existence were to be
forever engulfed. The foreign merchants, manufacturers, and artisans
fled from her gates as if the plague were raging within them. Thriving
cities were likely soon to be depopulated. The metropolitan heart of the
whole country was almost motionless.

Men high in authority sympathized with the general indignation.
The Marquis Berghen, the younger Mansfeld, the Baron Montigny, openly
refused to enforce the edicts within their governments. Men of eminence
inveighed boldly and bitterly against the tyranny of the government, and
counselled disobedience. The Netherlanders, it was stoutly maintained,
were not such senseless brutes as to be ignorant of the mutual relation
of prince and people. They knew that the obligation of a king to his
vassals was as sacred as the duties of the subjects to the sovereign.