Civil and religious liberty were trampled in the dust, commerce and
manufactures were destroyed, the most valuable portion of the citizens
sent into hopeless exile, but the remaining inhabitants were not
butchered in cold blood.

The treaty was signed on the 17th August. Antwerp was to return to its
obedience. There was to be an entire amnesty and oblivion for the past,
without a single exception. Royalist absentees were to be reinstated in
their possessions. Monasteries, churches, and the King's domains were to
be restored to their former proprietors. The inhabitants of the city
were to practise nothing but the Catholic religion. Those who refused to
conform were allowed to remain two years for the purpose of winding up
their affairs and selling out their property, provided that during that
period they lived "without scandal towards the ancient religion"--a very
vague and unsatisfactory condition. All prisoners were to be released
excepting Teligny. Four hundred thousand florins were to be paid by the
authorities as a fine. The patriot garrison was to leave the city with
arms and baggage and all the honours of war.

This capitulation gave more satisfaction to the hungry portion of the
Antwerpers than to the patriot party of the Netherlands. Sainte
Aldegonde was vehemently and unsparingly denounced as a venal traitor.
It is certain, whatever his motives, that his attitude had completely
changed. For it was not Antwerp alone that he had reconciled or was
endeavouring to reconcile with the King of Spain, but Holland and Zeeland
as well, and all the other independent Provinces. The ancient champion
of the patriot army, the earliest signer of the 'Compromise,' the bosom
friend of William the Silent, the author of the 'Wilhelmus' national
song, now avowed his conviction, in a published defence of his conduct