But these domestic victories of the prince of Parma were barren in any of those results which humanity would love to see in the train of conquest.  The reconciled provinces presented the most deplorable spectacle.  The chief towns were almost depopulated.  The inhabitants had in a great measure fallen victims to war, pestilence and famine.  Little inducement existed to replace by marriage the ravages caused by death, for few men wished to propagate a race which divine wrath seemed to have marked for persecution.  The thousands of villages which had covered the face of the country were absolutely abandoned to the wolves, which had so rapidly increased that they attacked not merely cattle and children, but grown-up persons.  The dogs, driven abroad by hunger, had become as ferocious as other beasts of prey, and joined in large packs to hunt down brutes and men.  Neither fields, nor woods, nor roads, were now to be distinguished by any visible limits.  All was an entangled mass of trees, weeds, and grass.  The prices of the necessaries of life were so high that people of rank, after selling everything to buy bread, were obliged to have recourse to open beggary in the streets of the great towns.

From this frightful picture, and the numerous details which imagination may readily supply, we gladly turn to the contrast afforded by the northern states.  Those we have just described have a feeble hold upon our sympathies; we cannot pronounce their sufferings to be unmerited.  The want of firmness or enlightenment, which preferred such an existence to the risk of entire destruction, only heightens the glory of the people whose unyielding energy and courage gained them so proud a place among the independent nations of Europe.

The murder of William seemed to carry to the United Provinces conviction of the weakness as well as the atrocity of Spain; and the indecent joy excited among the royalists added to their courage.  An immediate council was created, composed of eighteen members, at the head of which was unanimously placed Prince Maurice of Nassau (who even then gave striking indications of talent and prudence); his elder brother, the count of Beuren, now Prince of Orange, being still kept captive in Spain.  Count Hohenloe was appointed lieutenant-general; and several other measures were promptly adopted to consolidate the power of the infant republic.  The whole of its forces amounted but to five thousand five hundred men.  The prince of Parma had eighty thousand at his command.  With such means of carrying on his conquests, he sat down regularly before Antwerp, and commenced the operations of one of the most celebrated among the many memorable sieges of those times.  He completely surrounded the city with troops; placing a large portion of his army on the left bank of the Scheldt, the other on the right; and causing to be attacked at the same time the two strong forts of Liefkinshoek and Lillo.  Repulsed on the latter important point, his only hope