. The hour had come when, in the language
of the prince of Orange, his countrymen were to be bridled by the
Spaniard.

[Sidenote: POLICY OF THE DUKE.]

The conduct of Alva's soldiers underwent an ominous change. Instead of
the discipline observed on the march, they now indulged in the most
reckless licence. "One hears everywhere," writes a Fleming of the time,
"of the oppressions of the Spaniards. Confiscation is going on to the
right and left. If a man has anything to lose, they set him down at
once as a heretic."[971] If the writer may be thought to have borrowed
something from his fears,[972] it cannot be doubted that the panic was
general in the country. Men emigrated by thousands and tens of
thousands, carrying with them to other lands the arts and manufactures
which had so long been the boast and the source of prosperity of the
Netherlands.[973] Those who remained were filled with a dismal
apprehension,--a boding of coming evil, as they beheld the heavens
darkening around them, and the signs of the tempest at hand.

A still deeper gloom lay upon Brussels, once the gayest city in the
Netherlands,--now the residence of Alva. All business was suspended.
Places of public resort were unfrequented. The streets were silent and
deserted. Several of the nobles and wealthier citizens had gone to their
estates in the country, to watch there the aspect of events.[974] Most
of the courtiers who remained--the gilded insects that loved the
sunshine--had left the regent's palace, and gone to pay their homage to
her rival at Culemborg House. There everything went merrily as in the
gayest time of Brussels. For the duke strove, by brilliant
entertainments and festivities, to amuse the nobles and dissipate the
gloom of the capital.[975]

In all this Alva had a deeper motive than met the public eye. He was
carrying out the policy which he had recommended to Philip. By courteous
and conciliatory manners he hoped to draw around him the great nobles,
especially such as had been at all mixed up with the late revolutionary
movements. Of these, Egmont was still at Brussels; but Hoorne had
withdrawn to his estates at Weert.[976] Hoogstraten was in Germany with
the prince of Orange. As to the latter, Alva, as he wrote to the king,
could not flatter himself with the hope of his return.[977]

The duke and his son Ferdinand both wrote to Count Hoorne in the most
friendly terms, inviting him to come to Brussels.[978] But this
distrustful no