The revolution in Paris had an electric effect upon the irritated Belgians. On the 25th of August, 1830, Auber's opera, "The Dumb Girl of Portici," the revolt of Masaniello in Naples, was performed at the Brussels theatre and inflamed the passions of the audience to such a degree, that, on quitting the theatre, they proceeded to the house of Libry, the servile newspaper editor, and entirely destroyed it: the palace of the minister, Van Maanen, shared the same fate. The citizens placed themselves under arms, and sent a deputation to The Hague to lay their grievances before the king. The entire population meanwhile rose in open insurrection, and the whole of the fortresses, Maestricht and the citadel of Antwerp alone excepted, fell into their hands. William of Orange, the crown prince, ventured unattended among the insurgents at Brussels and proposed, as a medium of peace, the separation of Belgium from Holland in a legislative and administrative sense. The king also made an apparent concession to the wishes of the people by the dismissal of Van Maanen, but shortly afterward declared his intention not to yield, disavowed the step taken by his son, and allowed some Belgian deputies to be insulted at The Hague. A fanatical commotion instantly took place at Brussels; the moderate party in the civic guard was disarmed, and the populace made preparations for desperate resistance. On the 25th of September, Prince Frederick, second son to the king of Holland, entered Brussels with a large body of troops, but encountered barricades and a heavy fire in the Park, the Place Royal, and along the Boulevards. An immense crowd, chiefly composed of the people of Liege and of peasants dressed in the blue smock of the country, had assembled for the purpose of aiding in the defence of the city. The contest, accompanied by destruction of the dwelling-houses and by pillage, lasted five days. The Dutch were accused of practicing the most horrid cruelties upon the defenceless inhabitants and of thereby heightening the popular exasperation. At length, on the 27th of September, the prince was compelled to abandon the city. On the 5th of October, Belgium declared herself independent. De Potter returned and placed himself at the head of the provisional government. The Prince of Orange recognized the absolute separation of Belgium from Holland in a proclamation published at Antwerp, but was, nevertheless, constrained to quit the country. Antwerp fell into the hands of the insurgents; the citadel, however, refused to surrender, and Chassé, the Dutch commandant, caused the magnificent city to be bombarded, and the well-stored entrepot, the arsenal, and about sixty or seventy houses, to be set on fire, during the night of the 27th of October, 1830.[2] The cruelties perpetrated by the Dutch were bitterly retaliated upon them by the Belgian populace. On the 10th of November, however, a national Belgian congress met, in which the moderate party