are banished men. 'Tis true: but thereby are ye not stripped of all
faculty of rendering service; moreover, your assistance is asked for one
who will restore ye to your homes. Ye may say that ye have been robbed of
all your goods; yet many of you have still something remaining, and of
that little ye should contribute, each his mite. Ye say that you have
given much already. 'Tis true, but the enemy is again in the field;
fierce for your subjugation, sustained by the largess of his supporters.
Will ye be less courageous, less generous, than your foes."

These urgent appeals did not remain fruitless. The strength of the
Prince was slowly but steadily increasing. Meantime the abhorrence
with which Alva was universally regarded had nearly reached to frenzy.
In the beginning of the year 1572, Don Francis de Alava, Philip's
ambassador in France, visited Brussels. He had already been enlightened
as to the consequences of the Duke's course by the immense immigration of
Netherland refugees to France, which he had witnessed with his own eyes.
On his journey towards Brussels he had been met near Cambray by
Noircarmes. Even that "cruel animal," as Hoogstraaten had called him,
the butcher of Tournay and Valenciennes, had at last been roused to
alarm, if not to pity, by the sufferings of the country. "The Duke will
never disabuse his mind of this filthy tenth penny," said he to Alava.
He sprang from his chair with great emotion as the ambassador alluded to
the flight of merchants and artisans from the provinces. "Senor Don
Francis," cried he, "there are ten thousand more who are on the point of
leaving the country, if the Governor does not pause in his career. God
grant that no disaster arise beyond human power to remedy."

The ambassador arrived in Brussels, and took up his lodgings in the
palace. Here he found the Duke just recovering from a fit of the gout,
in a state of mind sufficiently savage. He became much excited as Don