By the beginning of September the, mutiny was general.  All the Spanish army, from general to pioneer, were united.  The most important German troops had taken side with them.  Sancho d’Avila held the citadel of Antwerp, vowing vengeance, and holding open communication with the soldiers at Alost.  The Council of State remonstrated with him for his disloyalty.  He replied by referring to his long years of service, and by reproving them for affecting an authority which their imprisonment rendered ridiculous.  The Spaniards were securely established.  The various citadels which had been built by Charles and Philip to curb the country now effectually did their work.  With the castles of Antwerp, Valenciennes, Ghent, Utrecht, Culemburg, Viane, Alost, in the hands of six thousand veteran Spaniards, the country seemed chained in every limb.  The foreigner’s foot was on its neck.  Brussels was almost the only considerable town out of Holland and Zealand which was even temporarily safe.  The important city of Maestricht was held by a Spanish garrison, while other capital towns and stations were in the power of the Walloon and German mutineers.  The depredations committed in the villages, the open country, and the cities were incessant—­the Spaniards treating every Netherlander as their foe.  Gentleman and peasant, Protestant and Catholic, priest and layman, all were plundered, maltreated, outraged.  The indignation became daily more general and more intense.  There were frequent skirmishes between the soldiery and promiscuous bands of peasants, citizens, and students; conflicts in which the Spaniards were invariably victorious.  What could such half-armed and wholly untrained partisans effect against the bravest and most experienced troops in the whole world?  Such results only increased the general exasperation, while they impressed upon the whole people the necessity of some great and general effort to throw off the incubus.

1576-1577 [Chapter V.]

Religious and political sympathies and antipathies in the seventeen provinces—­Unanimous hatred for the foreign soldiery—­Use made by the Prince of the mutiny—­His correspondence—­Necessity of Union enforced—­A congress from nearly all the provinces meets at Ghent—­ Skirmishes between the foreign troops and partisan bands—­Slaughter at Tisnacq—­Suspicions entertained of the State-Council—­Arrest of the State-Council—­Siege of Ghent citadel—­Assistance sent by Orange—­Maestricht lost and regained—­Wealthy and perilous condition of Antwerp—­Preparations of the mutineers under the secret superintendence of Avila—­Stupidity of Oberstein—­Duplicity of Don Sancho—­Reinforcements of Walloons under Havre, Egmont, and others, sent to for the expected assault of Antwerp—­Governor Champagny’s preparations the mutineers—­Insubordination, incapacity, and negligence of all but him—­Concentration of all the mutineers from different points, in the citadel—­The attack—­the panic—­the