The provinces were, however, assured by the King’s letters to the Brabant estates, to the State Council, and other, public bodies, as well as by the report of the Marquis, that efficacious remedies were preparing in Madrid.  The people were only too wait patiently till they should arrive.  The public had heard before of these nostrums, made up by the royal prescriptions in Spain; and were not likely to accept them as a panacea for their present complicated disorders.  Never, in truth, had conventional commonplace been applied more unseasonably.  Here was a general military mutiny flaming in the very centre of the land.  Here had the intense hatred of race, which for years had been gnawing at the heart of the country, at last broken out into most malignant manifestation.  Here was nearly the whole native population of every province, from grand seigneur to plebeian, from Catholic prelate to Anabaptist artisan, exasperated alike by the excesses of six thousand foreign brigands, and united by a common hatred, into a band of brethren.  Here was a State Council too feeble to exercise the authority which it had arrogated, trembling between the wrath of its sovereign, the menacing cries of the Brussels burghers, and the wild threats of the rebellious army; and held virtually, captive in the capital which it was supposed to govern.

Certainly, the confirmation of the Council in its authority, for an indefinite, even if for a brief period, was a most unlucky step at this juncture.  There were two parties in the provinces, but one was far the most powerful upon the great point of the Spanish soldiery.  A vast majority were in favor of a declaration of outlawry against the whole army, and it was thought desirable to improve the opportunity by getting rid of them altogether.  If the people could rise en masse, now that the royal government was in abeyance, and, as it were, in the nation’s hands, the incubus might be cast off for ever.  If any of the Spanish officers had been sincere in their efforts to arrest the mutiny, the sincerity was not believed.  If any of the foreign regiments of the King appeared to hesitate at joining the Alost crew, the hesitation was felt to be temporary.  Meantime, the important German regiments of Fugger, Fronsberger, and Polwiller, with their colonels and other officers, had openly joined the rebellion, while there was no doubt of the sentiments of Sancho d’Avila and the troops under his command.  Thus there were two great rallying-places for the sedition, and the most important fortress of the country, the key which unlocked the richest city in the world, was in the hands of the mutineers.  The commercial capital of Europe, filled to the brim with accumulated treasures, and with the merchandize of every clime; lay at the feet of this desperate band of brigands.  The horrible result was but too soon to be made manifest.