they will
enter the country, and which they will destroy as soon as they
have passed over it!"

On the 11th of April, a few days after this conference, the Prince
of Orange set out for Germany, with his three brothers and his
whole family, with the exception of his eldest son Philip William,
count de Beuren, whom he left behind a student in the University
of Louvain. He believed that the privileges of the college and
the franchises of Brabant would prove a sufficient protection to
the youth; and this appears the only instance in which William's
vigilant prudence was deceived. The departure of the prince seemed
to remove all hope of protection or support from the unfortunate
Protestants, now left the prey of their implacable tyrant. The
confederation of the nobles was completely broken up. The counts
of Hoogstraeten, Bergen, and Culembourg followed the example of
the Prince of Orange, and escaped to Germany; and, the greater
number of those who remained behind took the new oath of allegiance,
and became reconciled to the government.

This total dispersion of the confederacy brought all the towns
of Holland into obedience to the king. But the emigration which
immediately commenced threatened the country with ruin. England
and Germany swarmed with Dutch and Belgian refugees; and all the
efforts of the stadtholderess could not restrain the thousands
that took to flight. She was not more successful in her attempts to
influence the measures of the king. She implored him, in repeated
letters, to abandon his design of sending a foreign army into
the country, which she represented as being now quite reduced
to submission and tranquillity. She added that the mere report
of this royal invasion (so to call it) had already deprived the
Netherlands of many thousands of its best inhabitants; and that
the appearance of the troops would change it into a desert. These
arguments, meant to dissuade, were the very means of encouraging
Philip in his design. He conceived his project to be now ripe
for the complete suppression of freedom; and Alva soon began
his march.

On the 5th of May, 1567, this celebrated captain, whose reputation
was so quickly destined to sink into the notoriety of an executioner,
began his memorable march; and on the 22d of August he, with
his two natural sons, and his veteran army consisting of about
fifteen thousand men, arrived at the walls of Brussels. The
discipline observed on this march was a terrible for