tar. Stained
glass windows were broken with stones; entire churches were ransacked
and plundered of everything of value that they contained. The people at
last had turned in revolt, and "the image breaking" as this rioting was
called, was the first sign of it. And then, or shortly after, William
the Silent became a Protestant.

Frightened by the signs of revolt Margaret pretended to consent to the
wishes of the nobles and stated that the Inquisition should be
abolished in the Netherlands and the edicts against the Protestant
religion revoked. And she sent a secret letter to the King of Spain,
informing him of what she had done.

Philip was determined on the most bitter vengeance, but until he could
bring a powerful army into the Low Countries it suited him to have his
subjects there believe that he had actually consented to their demands.
So he pretended to agree to what Margaret had granted, and all through
the Low Countries the bells rang and the bonfires burned in rejoicing
that freedom from persecution had at last been gained.

But Philip had put a nobleman named the Duke of Alva in charge of the
army that was to subdue the Netherlands, and could not have chosen a
better or surer man to carry out his dark ends. The Duke of Alva was a
monster of cruelty, implacable as iron, and possessed of a skill in
warfare that few could equal. He had been ordered to seize William of
Orange as well as other leaders and bring them to instant execution,
and then so to punish the Netherlands that not a trace of the recent
rioting or rebellion should remain.

The Netherlands were not then in a position to offer a strong
resistance to such a highly organized, well trained army as the Duke of
Alva's, but secret preparations were going through the country for a
great struggle of which the recent rioting was only the smallest
beginning. The Duke of Alva, proud soldier that he was, did not
estimate the strength of the Lowlanders at its proper value. He boasted
that he had tamed men of iron in his time and could easily tame the men
of butter who were now opposed to him. And his first act was to carry
out King Philip's demands against the noblemen who were chiefly
implicated in the recent uprisings.

These were the Counts Egmont and Horn and rightly or wrongly William of
Orange. William himself had been shrewd enough to fly to Germany. He
knew Philip and he urged Counts Egmont and Horn to fly with him. But
they, foolishly feeling secur