Of all the deeds of darkness yet compassed in the Netherlands, this was the worst.  It was called The Spanish Fury, by which dread name it has been known for ages.  The city, which had been a world of wealth and splendor, was changed to a charnel-house, and from that hour its commercial prosperity was blasted.  Other causes had silently girdled the yet green and flourishing tree, but the Spanish Fury was the fire which consumed it to ashes.  Three thousand dead bodies were discovered in the streets, as many more were estimated to have perished in the Scheld, and nearly an equal number were burned or destroyed in other ways.  Eight thousand persons undoubtedly were put to death.  Six millions of property were destroyed by the fire, and at least as much more was obtained by the Spaniards.  In this enormous robbery no class of people was respected.  Foreign merchants, living under the express sanction and protection of the Spanish monarch, were plundered with as little reserve as Flemings.  Ecclesiastics of the Roman Church were compelled to disgorge their wealth as freely as Calvinists.  The rich were made to contribute all their abundance, and the poor what could be wrung from their poverty.  Neither paupers nor criminals were safe.  Captain Caspar Ortis made a brilliant speculation by taking possession of the Stein, or city prison, whence he ransomed all the inmates who could find means to pay for their liberty.  Robbers, murderers, even Anabaptists, were thus again let loose.  Rarely has so small a band obtained in three days’ robbery so large an amount of wealth.  Four or five millions divided among five thousand soldiers made up for long arrearages, and the Spaniards had reason to congratulate themselves upon having thus taken the duty of payment into their own hands.  It is true that the wages of iniquity were somewhat unequally distributed, somewhat foolishly squandered.  A private trooper was known to lose ten thousand crowns in one day in a gambling transaction at the Bourse, for the soldiers, being thus handsomely in funds, became desirous of aping the despised and plundered merchants, and resorted daily to the Exchange, like men accustomed to affairs.  The dearly purchased gold was thus lightly squandered by many, while others, more prudent, melted their portion into sword-hilts, into scabbards, even into whole suits of armor, darkened, by precaution, to appear made entirely of iron.  The brocades, laces, and jewelry of Antwerp merchants were converted into coats of mail for their destroyers.  The goldsmiths, however, thus obtained an opportunity to outwit their plunderers, and mingled in the golden armor which they were forced to furnish much more alloy than their employers knew.  A portion of the captured booty was thus surreptitiously redeemed.