This naturally stirred up bitter resentment; and, even as they had risen against Joseph II, so a part at least of the Belgians rose against the French. This revolt is known as the War of the Peasants (1798-99), because it was mainly the people of the countryside in Flanders, Campine, and Luxemburg who fought in defense of their hearths and their religion. They fought heroically with old weapons, scythes, pikes, and guns of old pattern, under the leadership of a few nobles and burgesses. There is a close resemblance between their struggle and that of the French peasants in the Vendée. But what could they accomplish against the well-equipped armies of the Republic? The egotism of the educated classes, which gave them no support at all, and their lack of training and experience, soon brought their valiant resistance to an inglorious end. One after another their bands were exterminated, and those who did not fall on the battlefield died against a wall by the bullets of a firing squad. Their gallantry did not save the country. Belgium remained fifteen years longer under French domination. The Concordat concluded in 1801 between Pope Pius VII and Napoleon Bonaparte brought the religious persecution to an end, and the Catholic worship was restored. When Bonaparte had become Emperor Napoleon I, the glory which surrounded his name made a profound impression on the Belgians, and the great Emperor became very popular among them. Antwerp attracted all his attention; and it is due to him that the Scheldt, after a century and a half of being closed, was again opened to trade and was freed from the tyrannous control of the Dutch. As military conscription still prevailed, the Belgians filled the ranks of the imperial army, and their blood was shed for the fame and the power of Napoleon all over Europe. The conqueror left on the country, however, the impress of his spirit of organization in the famous _Code Napoléon_, that monument of civil law that still forms the basis of Belgian jurisprudence. The spell of his name appeared from the fact that after the defeat of his armies at Leipzig in 1813 there was no revolt against him in Belgium as there was in Holland. The fall of Napoleon ended the French domination of the Belgians (1814). However, the diplomats who rearranged the map of Europe, while the once mighty Emperor was sent to St. Helena, had determined that the country was not to be restored to its former political status. CHAPTER XII THE DUTCH RULE AND THE BELGIAN REVOLT OF 1830