Yet the effect of the riots was destined to be most disastrous for a time to the reforming party.  It furnished plausible excuses for many lukewarm friends of their cause to withdraw from all connection with it.  Egmont denounced the proceedings as highly flagitious, and busied himself with punishing the criminals in Flanders.  The Regent was beside herself with indignation and terror.  Philip, when he heard the news, fell into a paroxysm of frenzy.  “It shall cost them dear!” he cried, as he tore his beard for rage; “it shall cost them dear!  I swear it by the soul of my father!” The Reformation in the Netherlands, by the fury of these fanatics, was thus made apparently to abandon the high ground upon which it had stood in the early summer.  The sublime spectacle of the multitudinous field-preaching was sullied by the excesses of the image-breaking.  The religious war, before imminent, became inevitable.

Nevertheless, the first effect of the tumults was a temporary advantage to the Reformers.  A great concession was extorted from the fears of the Duchess Regent, who was certainly placed in a terrible position.  Her conduct was not heroic, although she might be forgiven for trepidation.  Her treachery, however, under these trying circumstances was less venial.  At three o’clock in the morning of the 22nd of August, Orange, Egmont, Horn, Hoogatraaten, Mansfeld, and others were summoned to the palace.  They found her already equipped for flight, surrounded by her waiting-women, chamberlains and lackeys, while the mules and hackneys stood harnessed in the court-yard, and her body-guard were prepared to mount at a moment’s notice.  She announced her intention of retreating at once to Mons, in which city, owing to Aerschot’s care, she hoped to find refuge against the fury of the rebellion then sweeping the country.  Her alarm was almost beyond control.  She was certain that the storm was ready to burst upon Brussels, and that every Catholic was about to be massacred before her eyes.  Aremberg, Berlaymont, and Noircarmes were with the Duchess when the other seigniors arrived.

A part of the Duke of Aerschot’s company had been ordered out to escort the projected flight to Mons. Orange, Horn, Egmont, and Hoogstraaten implored her to desist from her fatal resolution.  They represented that such a retreat before a mob would be the very means of ruining the country.  They denounced all persons who had counselled the scheme, as enemies of his Majesty and herself.  They protested their readiness to die at her feet in her defence, but besought her not to abandon the post of duty in the hour of peril.  While they were thus anxiously debating, Viglius entered the chamber.  With tears streaming down her cheeks, Margaret turned to the aged President, uttering fierce reproaches and desponding lamentations.  Viglius brought the news that the citizens had taken possession of the gates, and were resolved not to permit her departure from the city.