was
all soon despatched; and the French troops, which waited outside
to the number of three thousand, rushed quickly in, furiously
shouting the war-cry, "Town taken! town taken! kill! kill!" The
astonished but intrepid citizens, recovering from their confusion,
instantly flew to arms. All differences in religion or politics
were forgotten in the common danger to their freedom. Catholics
and Protestants, men and women, rushed alike to the conflict.
The ancient spirit of Flanders seemed to animate all. Workmen,
armed with the instruments of their various trades, started from
their shops and flung themselves upon the enemy. A baker sprang
from the cellar where he was kneading his dough, and with his
oven shovel struck a French dragoon to the ground. Those who
had firearms, after expending their bullets, took from their
pouches and pockets pieces of money, which they bent between
their teeth, and used for charging their arquebuses. The French
were driven successively from the streets and ramparts, and the
cannons planted on the latter were immediately turned against
the reinforcements which attempted to enter the town. The French
were everywhere beaten; the duke of Anjou saved himself by flight,
and reached Termonde, after the perilous necessity of passing
through a large tract of inundated country. His loss in this
base enterprise amounted to one thousand five hundred; while
that of the citizens did not exceed eighty men. The attempts
simultaneously made on the other towns succeeded at Dunkirk and
Termonde; but all the others failed.

The character of the Prince of Orange never appeared so thoroughly
great as at this crisis. With wisdom and magnanimity rarely equalled
and never surpassed, he threw himself and his authority between
the indignation of the country and the guilt of Anjou; saving the
former from excess, and the latter from execration. The disgraced
and discomfited duke proffered to the states excuses as mean as
they were hypocritical; and his brother, the king of France, sent
a special envoy to intercede for him. But it was the influence of
William that screened the culprit from public reprobation and
ruin, and regained for him the place and power which he might
easily have secured for himself, had he not prized the welfare
of his country far above all objects of private advantage. A new
treaty was negotiated, confirming Anjou in his former station,
with renewed security against any future treachery on his