e
property of a hundred of the richest merchants was seized and
appropriated by the government. Even the populace, like those animals
who fall upon and devour one of their own number when wounded, now
joined in the cry against the Reformers. They worked with the same
alacrity as the soldiers in pulling down the Protestant churches; and
from the beams, in some instances, formed the very gallows from which
their unhappy victims were suspended.[920] Such is the picture, well
charged with horrors, left to us by Protestant writers. We may be quite
sure that it lost nothing of its darker coloring under their hands.

So strong was now the tide of emigration, that it threatened to
depopulate some of the fairest provinces of the country. The regent, who
at first rejoiced in this as the best means of ridding the land of its
enemies, became alarmed, as she saw it was drawing off so large a
portion of the industrious population. They fled to France, to Germany,
and very many to England, where the wise Elizabeth provided them with
homes, knowing well that, though poor, they brought with them a skill in
the mechanic arts which would do more than gold and silver for the
prosperity of her kingdom.

Margaret would have stayed this tide of emigration by promises of grace,
if not by a general amnesty for the past. But though she had power to
punish, Philip had not given her the power to pardon. And indeed
promises of grace would have availed little with men flying from the
dread presence of Alva.[921] It was the fear of him which gave wings to
their flight, as Margaret herself plainly intimated in a letter to the
duke, in which she deprecated his coming with an army, when nothing more
was needed than a vigilant police.[922]

[Sidenote: TRANQUILLITY RESTORED.]

In truth, Margaret was greatly disgusted by the intended mission of the
duke of Alva, of which she had been advised by the king some months
before. She knew well the imperious temper of the man, and that, however
high-sounding might be her own titles, the power would be lodged in his
hands. She felt this to be a poor requital for her past services,--a
personal indignity, no less than an injury to the state. She gave free
vent to her feelings on the subject in more than one letter to her
brother.

In a letter of the fifth of April she says: "You have shown no regard
for my wishes or my reputation. By your extraordinary restrictions on my
authority, you have prevented my settlin