flight —­the massacre—­the fire—­the sack—­and other details of the “Spanish Fury”—­Statistics of murder and robbery—­Letter of Orange to the states-general—­Surrender of Ghent citadel—­Conclusion of the “Ghent Pacification”—­The treaty characterized—­Forms of ratification—­Fall of Zierickzee and recovery of Zealand.

Meantime, the Prince of Orange sat at Middelburg, watching the storm.  The position of Holland and Zealand with regard to the other fifteen provinces was distinctly characterized.  Upon certain points there was an absolute sympathy, while upon others there was a grave and almost fatal difference.  It was the task of the Prince to deepen the sympathy, to extinguish the difference.

In Holland and Zealand, there was a warm and nearly universal adhesion to the Reformed religion, a passionate attachment to the ancient political liberties.  The Prince, although an earnest Calvinist himself, did all in his power to check the growing spirit of intolerance toward the old religion, omitted no opportunity of strengthening the attachment which the people justly felt for their liberal institutions.

On the other hand, in most of the other provinces, the Catholic religion had been regaining its ascendency.  Even in 1574, the estates assembled at Brussels declared to Requesens “that they would rather die the death than see any change in their religion.”  That feeling had rather increased than diminished.  Although there was a strong party attached to the new faith, there was perhaps a larger, certainly a more influential body, which regarded the ancient Church with absolute fidelity.  Owing partly to the persecution which had, in the course of years, banished so many thousands of families from the soil, partly to the coercion, which was more stringent in the immediate presence of the Crown’s representative, partly to the stronger infusion of the Celtic element, which from the earliest ages had always been so keenly alive to the more sensuous and splendid manifestations of the devotional principle—­owing to those and many other causes, the old religion, despite of all the outrages which had been committed in its name, still numbered a host of zealous adherents in the fifteen provinces.  Attempts against its sanctity were regarded with jealous eyes.  It was believed, and with reason, that there was a disposition on the part of the Reformers to destroy it root and branch.  It was suspected that the same enginery of persecution would be employed in its extirpation, should the opposite party gain the supremacy, which the Papists had so long employed against the converts to the new religion.