He was, moreover, not strong in the field, although he was far superior to the States at this contingency.  He had, besides his garrisons, something above 18,000 men.  The Provinces had hardly 3000 foot and 2500 horse, and these were mostly lying in the neighbourhood of Zutphen.  Alexander was threatening at the same time Ghent, Dendermonde, Mechlin, Brussels, and Antwerp.  These five powerful cities lie in a narrow circle, at distances varying from six miles to thirty, and are, as it were, strung together upon the Scheldt, by which river, or its tributary, the Senne, they are all threaded.  It would have been impossible for Parma, with 100,000 men at his back, to undertake a regular and simultaneous siege of these important places.  His purpose was to isolate them from each other and from the rest of the country, by obtaining the control of the great river, and so to reduce them by famine.  The scheme was a masterly one, but even the consummate ability of Farnese would have proved inadequate to the undertaking, had not the preliminary assassination of Orange made the task comparatively easy.  Treason, faint-heartedness, jealousy, were the fatal allies that the Governor-General had reckoned upon, and with reason, in the council-rooms of these cities.  The terms he offered were liberal.  Pardon, permission for soldiers to retreat with technical honour, liberty to choose between apostacy to the reformed religion or exile, with a period of two years granted to the conscientious for the winding up of their affairs; these were the conditions, which seemed flattering, now that the well-known voice which had so often silenced the Flemish palterers and intriguers was for ever hushed.

Upon the 17th August (1584) Dendermonde surrendered, and no lives were taken save those of two preachers, one of whom was hanged, while the other was drowned.  Upon the 7th September Vilvoorde capitulated, by which event the water-communication between Brussels and Antwerp was cut off.  Ghent, now thoroughly disheartened, treated with Parma likewise; and upon the 17th September made its reconciliation with the King.  The surrender of so strong and important a place was as disastrous to the cause of the patriots as it was disgraceful to the citizens themselves.  It was, however, the result of an intrigue which had been long spinning, although the thread had been abruptly, and, as it was hoped, conclusively, severed several months before.  During the early part of the year, after the reconciliation of Bruges with the King—­an event brought about by the duplicity and adroitness of Prince Chimay—­the same machinery had been diligently and almost successfully employed to produce a like result in Ghent.  Champagny, brother of the famous Cardinal Granvelle, had been under arrest for six years in that city.  His imprisonment was not a strict one however; and he avenged himself for what he considered very unjust treatment at the hands of the patriots, by completely abandoning a