mutiny were so universal that the Council of State could not withstand
the pressure. Even the women and children demanded daily in the streets
that the rebel soldiers should be declared outlaws. On the 26th of July,
accordingly, the King of Spain was made to pronounce, his Spaniards
traitors and murderers. All men were enjoined to slay one or all of
them, wherever they should be found; to refuse them bread, water, and
fire, and to assemble at sound of bell; in every city; whenever the
magistrates should order an assault upon them. A still more stringent
edict was issued on the 2nd of August; and so eagerly had these degrees
been expected, that they were published throughout Flanders and Brabant
almost as soon as issued. Hitherto the leading officers of the Spanish
army had kept aloof from the insurgents, and frowned upon their
proceedings. The Spanish member of the State Council, Jerome de Roda,
had joined without opposition in the edict. As, however, the mutiny
gathered strength on the outside, the indignation waxed daily within the
capital. The citizens of Brussels, one and all, stood to their arms.
Not a man could enter or leave without their permission. The Spaniards
who were in the town, whether soldiers or merchants, were regarded with
suspicion and abhorrence. The leading Spanish officers, Romero,
Montesdocca, Verdugo, and others, who had attempted to quell the mutiny,
had been driven off with threats and curses, their soldiers defying them
and brandishing their swords in their very faces. On the other hand,
they were looked upon with ill-will by the Netherlanders. The most
prominent Spanish personages in Brussels were kept in a state of half-
imprisonment. Romero, Roda, Verdugo, were believed to favor at heart the
cause of their rebellious troops, and the burghers of Brabant had come to
consider all the King's army in a state of rebellion. Believing the
State Council powerless to protect them from the impending storm, they
regarded that body with little respect, keeping it, as it were, in
durance, while the Spaniards were afraid to walk the streets of Brussels