and specious pretences.  He returned to Brussels with the favourable tidings, and the mutineers swarmed off to Assche.  Thither Montesdoeca was again despatched, with the expectation that he would be able to bring them to terms, but they drove him off with jeers and threats, finding that he brought neither money nor the mortgage of a populous city.  The next day, after a feint or two in a different direction, they made a sudden swoop upon Alost, in Flanders.  Here they had at last made their choice, and the town was carried by storm.  All the inhabitants who opposed them were butchered, and the mutiny, at last established in a capital, was able to treat with the State Council upon equal terms.  They were now between two and three thousand strong, disciplined, veteran troops, posted in a strong and wealthy city.  One hundred parishes belonged to the jurisdiction of Alost, all of which were immediately laid under contribution.

The excitement was now intense in Brussels.  Anxiety and alarm had given place to rage, and the whole population rose in arms to defend the capital, which was felt to be in imminent danger.  This spontaneous courage of the burghers prevented the catastrophe, which was reserved for a sister city.  Meantime, the indignation and horror excited by the mutiny were so universal that the Council of State could not withstand the pressure.  Even the women and children demanded daily in the streets that the rebel soldiers should be declared outlaws.  On the 26th of July, accordingly, the King of Spain was made to pronounce, his Spaniards traitors and murderers.  All men were enjoined to slay one or all of them, wherever they should be found; to refuse them bread, water, and fire, and to assemble at sound of bell; in every city; whenever the magistrates should order an assault upon them.  A still more stringent edict was issued on the 2nd of August; and so eagerly had these degrees been expected, that they were published throughout Flanders and Brabant almost as soon as issued.  Hitherto the leading officers of the Spanish army had kept aloof from the insurgents, and frowned upon their proceedings.  The Spanish member of the State Council, Jerome de Roda, had joined without opposition in the edict.  As, however, the mutiny gathered strength on the outside, the indignation waxed daily within the capital.  The citizens of Brussels, one and all, stood to their arms.  Not a man could enter or leave without their permission.  The Spaniards who were in the town, whether soldiers or merchants, were regarded with suspicion and abhorrence.  The leading Spanish officers, Romero, Montesdocca, Verdugo, and others, who had attempted to quell the mutiny, had been driven off with threats and curses, their soldiers defying them and brandishing their swords in their very faces.  On the other hand, they were looked upon with ill-will by the Netherlanders.  The most prominent Spanish personages in Brussels were kept in a state of half-imprisonment.