Thus, day after day, in almost countless addresses to public bodies and
private individuals, he made use of the crisis to pile fresh fuel upon
the flames. At the same time, while thus fanning the general
indignation, he had the adroitness to point out that the people had
already committed themselves. He represented to them that the edict,
by which they had denounced his Majesty's veterans as outlaws, and had
devoted them to the indiscriminate destruction which such brigands
deserved, was likely to prove an unpardonable crime in the eyes of
majesty. In short, they had entered the torrent. If they would avoid
being dashed over the precipice, they must struggle manfully with the
mad waves of civil war into which they had plunged. "I beg you, with all
affection," he said to the states of Brabant, "to consider the danger in
which you have placed yourselves. You have to deal with the proudest and
most overbearing race in the world. For these qualities they are hated
by all other nations. They are even hateful to themselves. 'Tis a race
which seeks to domineer wheresoever it comes. It particularly declares
its intention to crush and to tyrannize you, my masters, and all the
land. They have conquered you already, as they boast, for the crime of
lese-majesty has placed you at their mercy. I tell you that your last
act, by which you have declared this army to be rebels, is decisive.
You have armed and excited the whole people against them, even to the
peasants and the peasants' children, and the insults and injuries thus
received, however richly deserved and dearly avenged, are all set down.
to your account. Therefore, 'tis necessary for you to decide now,
whether to be utterly ruined, yourselves and your children, or to
continue firmly the work which you have begun boldly, and rather to die
a hundred thousand deaths than to make a treaty with them, which can only
end in your ruin. Be assured that the measure dealt to you will be
ignominy as well as destruction. Let not your leaders expect the
honorable scaffolds of Counts Egmont and Horn. The whipping-post and