command. Public faith and private probity
seemed alike destroyed. Pillage, violence and ferocity were the
commonplace characteristics of the times.

Circumstances like these may be well supposed to have revived
the hopes of the Prince of Orange, who quickly saw amid this
chaos the elements of order, strength, and liberty. Such had
been his previous affliction at the harrowing events which he
witnessed and despaired of being able to relieve, that he had
proposed to the patriots of Holland and Zealand to destroy the
dikes, submerge the whole country, and abandon to the waves the
soil which refused security to freedom. But Providence destined
him to be the savior, instead of the destroyer, of his country. The
chief motive of this excessive desperation had been the apparent
desertion by Queen Elizabeth of the cause which she had hitherto
so mainly assisted. Offended at the capture of some English ships
by the Dutch, who asserted that they carried supplies for the
Spaniards, she withdrew from them her protection; but by timely
submission they appeased her wrath; and it is thought by some
historians that even thus early the Prince of Orange proposed to
place the revolted provinces wholly under her protection. This,
however, she for the time refused; but she strongly solicited
Philip's mercy for these unfortunate countries, through the Spanish
ambassador at her court.

In the meantime the council of state at Brussels seemed disposed
to follow up as far as possible the plans of Requesens. The siege
of Zuriczee was continued; but speedy dissensions among the members
of the government rendered their authority contemptible, if not
utterly extinct, in the eyes of the people. The exhaustion of
the treasury deprived them of all power to put an end to the
mutinous excesses of the Spanish troops, and the latter carried
their licentiousness to the utmost bounds. Zuriczee, admitted to
a surrender, and saved from pillage by the payment of a large
sum, was lost to the royalists within three months, from the
want of discipline in its garrison; and the towns and burghs
of Brabant suffered as much from the excesses of their nominal
protectors as could have been inflicted by the enemy. The mutineers
at length, to the number of some thousands, attacked and carried
by force the town of Alost, at equal distances between Brussels,
Ghent, and Antwerp, imprisoned the chief citizens, and levied
contributions on all the country round. It was then