mon pays je dois la vie,
Il me devra sa liberte!"

The immense audience, roused to patriotic enthusiasm, took up the words
of the song and, rushing from the theatre _en masse_, paraded the
streets, attacking the residences of the Dutch ministers, which they
sacked and burned.

The few troops in the town were powerless to stem the revolt, which grew
until Brussels was entirely in the hands of the revolutionists, who then
proceeded to appoint a Council of Government, which prepared the now
celebrated Document of Separation.

William sent his son, the Prince of Orange, to treat with the Council,
instead of sending a force of soldiers with which the revolt might have
been terminated easily, it is claimed. The Prince entered Brussels
accompanied only by a half dozen officers as escort. After three days'
useless parley, he returned to King William with the "Document of
Separation."

The reply of the King to this message was made to the Dutch Chambers ten
days later. Denouncing the revolt, he declared that he would never yield
to "passion and violence." Orders were then issued to Dutch troops under
Prince Frederick of Holland to proceed to Brussels and retake the city.
The attack was made upon the four gates of the walled city on September
23rd. The Belgians prepared a trap, cunningly allowing the Dutch
soldiers to enter two of the gates and retreating towards the Royal Park
facing the Palace. Here they rallied and attacked the troops of William
from all sides at once. Joined by a strong body of men from Liege they
fought for three days with such ferocity that Prince Frederick was
beaten back again and again, until he was forced to retreat at midnight
of the third day.

In the battle six hundred Belgian citizens were slain, and to these men,
regarded now as the martyrs of the Revolution, a great monument has been
erected in the Place des Martyrs, near the trench in which they were
buried.

A provisional government was now formed which issued the following
notice: "The Belgian provinces, detached by force from Holland, shall
form an independent state." Measures were taken to rid the country of
the Dutch, who were expelled forcibly across the border.

Envoys to Paris and London presented documents to secure sympathy for
the new government, while the fight for independence was still going on
fiercely. Waelhern and Berchem, besieged by the Belgian volunteers, soon
fell, and the city of Antwerp was occupied by them befor