These troubles in the Netherlands caused a change in the mind of William, prince of Orange. He saw the workings of Catholicism under a fearful aspect. He beheld his countrymen dragged from their firesides, driven into exile, thrown into dungeons, burned at the stake; and all this for no other cause than because they dared to dissent from the dogmas of the Romish Church. His parents had been Lutherans, his wife also was a Protestant, and William of Orange embraced the doctrines of the Reformation. We cannot follow his career. After quelling a mob at Antwerp, which threatened to destroy the city, realizing that he could place no reliance upon Philip, or Margaret his regent, and as they now looked upon him with suspicion, William of Orange determined to retire to his estates in Germany. He there occupied himself with studying the Lutheran doctrine, and making himself acquainted with the principles of the glorious Reformation of which he was one day to become the champion. The regency of Margaret continued in the Netherlands from 1559 to 1567; and in the last years she succeeded in putting down the revolt. Philip, through his regent, and the aid of the Pope, had now, by several successful contests in the Netherlands, quelled the rebellion, and the party of reform had disappeared, and its worship was everywhere proscribed. On its ruins the Catholic party had risen in greater splendor than ever. Margaret now resigned the regency, and the duke of Alva was appointed in her place. He created a new tribunal, which is known in history by the terrible name it received from the people, as the “Council of Blood.” [Illustration: PHILIP II., KING OF SPAIN.] In order to justify his cruel proceedings against the Netherlands, Philip now submitted the case to the Inquisition at Madrid, and that ghostly tribunal came to the following decision: “All who had been guilty of heresy, apostasy, or sedition, and all, moreover, who, though professing themselves good Catholics, had offered no resistance to these, were, with the exception of a few specified individuals, thereby convicted of treason in the highest degree.” This sweeping judgment was followed by a royal edict, dated on the same day, in which, after reciting the language of the Inquisition, the whole nation, with the exception above stated, was sentenced, without distinction of sex or age, to the penalties of treason,—death and confiscation of property; and this, the decree went on to say, “without any hope of grace whatever, that it might serve for an example and a warning to all future time!” Then followed the awful work of the “Council of Blood.” Men, women, and children were dragged to the gallows. Blood ran through the streets of the cities like a red river. The poor martyrs were tortured with horrible contrivances even at the scaffold, that their dying cries might cause merriment for their fiendish foes.