This was the issue in the first stricken field in the Netherlands, for the cause of religious liberty.  It must be confessed that it was not very encouraging to the lovers of freedom.  The partisans of government were elated, in proportion to the apprehension which had been felt for the result of this rising in the Walloon country.  “These good hypocrites,” wrote a correspondent of Orange, “are lifting up their heads like so many dromedaries.  They are becoming unmanageable with pride.”  The Duke of Aerschot and Count Meghem gave great banquets in Brussels, where all the good chevaliers drank deep in honor of the victory, and to the health of his Majesty and Madame.  “I saw Berlaymont just go by the window,” wrote Schwartz to the Prince.  “He was coming from Aerschot’s dinner with a face as red as the Cardinal’s new hat.”

On the other hand, the citizens of Valenciennes were depressed in equal measure with the exultation of their antagonists.  There was no more talk of seven sleepers now, no more lunettes stuck upon lances, to spy the coming forces of the enemy.  It was felt that the government was wide awake, and that the city would soon see the impending horrors without telescopes.  The siege was pressed more closely.  Noircarmes took up a commanding position at Saint Armand, by which he was enabled to cut off all communication between the city and the surrounding country.  All the villages in the neighborhood were pillaged; all the fields laid waste.  All the infamies which an insolent soldiery can inflict upon helpless peasantry were daily enacted.  Men and women who attempted any communication—­with the city, were murdered in cold blood by hundreds.  The villagers were plundered of their miserable possessions, children were stripped naked in the midst of winter for the sake of the rags which covered them; matrons and virgins were sold at public auction by the tap of drum; sick and wounded wretches were burned over slow fires, to afford amusement to the soldiers.  In brief, the whole unmitigated curse which military power inflamed by religious bigotry can embody, had descended upon the heads of these unfortunate provincials who had dared to worship God in Christian churches without a Roman ritual.

Meantime the city maintained, a stout heart still.  The whole population were arranged under different banners.  The rich and poor alike took arms to defend the walls which sheltered them.  The town paupers were enrolled in three companies, which bore the significant title of the “Tons-nulls” or the “Stark-nakeds,” and many was the fierce conflict delivered outside the gates by men, who, in the words of a Catholic then in the city, might rather be taken for “experienced veterans than for burghers and artisans.”  At the same time, to the honor of Valenciennes, it must be stated, upon the same incontestable authority, that not a Catholic in the city was injured or insulted.  The priests who had remained there were not allowed to say mass, but they never met with an opprobrious word or look from the people.