n toward
the point of greatest danger. His embarrassment, however, became
every day more considerable. Lunoy's success was the signal of a
general revolt. In a few days every town in Holland and Zealand
declared for liberty, with the exception of Amsterdam and Middleburg,
where the Spanish garrisons were too strong for the people to
attempt their expulsion.

The Prince of Orange, who had been ou the watch for a favorable
moment, now entered Brabant at the head of twenty thousand men,
composed of French, German, and English, and made himself master
of several important places; while his indefatigable brother
Louis, with a minor force, suddenly appeared in Hainault, and,
joined by a large body of French Huguenots under De Genlis, he
seized on Mons, the capital of the province, on the 25th of May.

Alva turned first toward the recovery of this important place,
and gave the command of the siege to his son Frederic of Toledo,
who was assisted by the counsels of Noircarmes and Vitelli; but
Louis of Nassau held out for upward of three months, and only
surrendered on an honorable capitulation in the month of September;
his French allies having been first entirely defeated, and their
brave leader De Genlis taken prisoner. The Prince of Orange had
in the meantime secured possession of Louvain, Ruremonde, Mechlin,
and other towns, carried Termonde and Oudenarde by assault, and
made demonstrations which seemed to court Alva once more to try
the fortune of the campaign in a pitched battle. But such were
not William's real intentions, nor did the cautious tactics of
his able opponent allow him to provoke such a risk. He, however,
ordered his son Frederic to march with all his force into Holland,
and he soon undertook the siege of Haerlem. By the time that Mons
fell again into the power of the Spaniards, sixty-five towns
and their territories, chiefly in the northern provinces, had
thrown off the yoke. The single port of Flessingue contained
one hundred and fifty patriot vessels, well armed and equipped;
and from that epoch may be dated the rapid growth of the first
naval power in Europe, with the single exception of Great Britain.

It is here worthy of remark, that all the horrors of which the
people of Flanders were the victims, and in their full proportion,
had not the effect of exciting them to revolt; but they rose up
with fury against the payment of the new taxes. They sacrificed
everything sooner than pay these unjust exac