The deputations appointed by the different provinces to confer personally with the King received a reprimand upon their arrival, for having dared to come to Spain without permission.  Farther punishment, however, than this rebuke was not inflicted.  They were assured that the King was highly displeased with their venturing to bring remonstrances against the tax, but they were comforted with the assurance that his Majesty would take the subject of their petition into consideration.  Thus, the expectations of Alva were disappointed, for the tenth penny was not formally confirmed; and the hopes of the provinces frustrated, because it was not distinctly disavowed.

Matters had reached another crisis in the provinces.  “Had we money now,” wrote the Prince of Orange, “we should, with the help of God, hope to effect something.  This is a time when, with even small sums, more can be effected than at other seasons with ampler funds.”  The citizens were in open revolt against the tax.  In order that the tenth penny should not be levied upon every sale of goods, the natural but desperate remedy was adopted—­no goods were sold at all.

Not only the wholesale commerce oh the provinces was suspended, but the minute and indispensable traffic of daily life was entirely at a stand.  The shops were all shut.  “The brewers,” says a contemporary, “refused to brew, the bakers to bake, the tapsters to tap.”  Multitudes, thrown entirely out of employment, and wholly dependent upon charity, swarmed in every city.  The soldiery, furious for their pay, which Alva had for many months neglected to furnish, grew daily more insolent; the citizens, maddened by outrage and hardened by despair, became more and more obstinate in their resistance; while the Duke, rendered inflexible by opposition and insane by wrath, regarded the ruin which he had caused with a malignant spirit which had long ceased to be human.  “The disease is gnawing at our vitals,” wrote Viglius; “everybody is suffering for the want of the necessaries of life.  Multitudes are in extreme and hopeless poverty.  My interest in the welfare of the commonwealth,” he continued, “induces me to send these accounts to Spain.  For myself, I fear nothing.  Broken by sickness and acute physical suffering, I should leave life without regret.”

The aspect of the capital was that of a city stricken with the plague.  Articles of the most absolute necessity could not be obtained.  It was impossible to buy bread, or meat, or beer.  The tyrant, beside himself with rage at being thus braved in his very lair, privately sent for Master Carl, the executioner.  In order to exhibit an unexpected and salutary example, he had determined to hang eighteen of the leading tradesmen of the city in the doors of their own shops, with the least possible delay and without the slightest form of trial.