The enemies were not destined to go farther.  From their own hand now came the blow which was to expel them from the soil which they had so long polluted.  No sooner was Zierickzee captured than a mutiny broke forth among several companies of Spaniards and Walloons, belonging, to the army in Schouwen.  A large number of the most influential officers had gone to Brussels, to make arrangements, if possible; for the payment of the troops.  In their absence there was more scope for the arguments of the leading mutineers; arguments assuredly, not entirely destitute of justice or logical precision.  If ever laborers were worthy of their hire, certainly it was the Spanish soldiery.  Had they not done the work of demons for nine years long?  Could Philip or Alva have found in the wide world men to execute their decrees with more unhesitating docility, with more sympathizing eagerness?  What obstacle had ever given them pause in their career of duty?  What element had they not braved?  Had not they fought within the bowels of the earth, beneath the depths of the sea, within blazing cities, and upon fields of ice?  Where was the work which had been too dark and bloody for their performance?  Had they not slaughtered unarmed human beings by townfuls, at the word of command?  Had they not eaten the flesh, and drank the hearts’ blood of their enemies?  Had they not stained the house of God with wholesale massacre?  What altar and what hearthstone had they not profaned?  What fatigue, what danger, what crime, had ever checked them for a moment?  And for all this obedience, labor, and bloodshed, were they not even to be paid such wages as the commonest clown, who only tore the earth at home, received?  Did Philip believe that a few thousand Spaniards were to execute his sentence of death against three millions of Netherlanders, and be cheated of their pay at last?

It was in vain that arguments and expostulations were addressed to soldiers who were suffering from want, and maddened by injustice.  They determined to take their cause into their own hand, as they had often done before.  By the 15th of July, the mutiny was general on the isle of Schouwen.  Promises were freely offered, both of pay and pardon; appeals were made to their old sense of honor and loyalty; but they had had enough of promises, of honor, and of work.  What they wanted now were shoes and jerkins, bread and meat, and money.  Money they would have, and that at once.  The King of Spain was their debtor.  The Netherlands belonged to the King of Spain.  They would therefore levy on the Netherlands for payment of their debt.  Certainly this was a logical deduction.  They knew by experience that this process had heretofore excited more indignation in the minds of the Netherland people than in that of their master.  Moreover, at this juncture, they cared little for their sovereign’s displeasure, and not at all for that of the Netherlanders.  By the middle of July, then, the mutineers, now entirely