The Rise of the Dutch Republic — Volume 12: 1567, part IMotley, John Lothrop
History
The Rise of the Dutch Republic — Volume 12: 1567, part I
Motley, John Lothrop
Netherlands -- Church history; Netherlands -- History -- Eighty Years' War, 1568-1648
and ill-armed mob would be unable to retrieve the fortunes of the day.
Many were persuaded to abandon the design. Five hundred of the most
violent, however, insisted upon leaving the gates, and the governors,
distinctly warning these zealots that their blood must be upon their own
heads, reluctantly permitted that number to issue from the city. The
rest of the mob, not appeased, but uncertain, and disposed to take
vengeance upon the Catholics within the walls, for the disaster which had
been occurring without, thronged tumultuously to the long, wide street,
called the Mere, situate in the very heart of the city.
Meantime the ardor of those who had sallied from the gate grew sensibly
cooler, when they found themselves in the open fields. De Beauvoir,
whose men, after the victory, had scattered in pursuit of the fugitives,
now heard the tumult in the city. Suspecting an attack, he rallied his
compact little army again for a fresh encounter. The last of the
vanquished Tholousians who had been captured; more fortunate than their
predecessors, had been spared for ransom. There were three hundred of
them; rather a dangerous number of prisoners for a force of eight
hundred, who were just going into another battle. De Beauvoir commanded
his soldiers, therefore, to shoot them all. This order having been
accomplished, the Catholics marched towards Antwerp, drums beating,
colors flying. The five hundred Calvinists, not liking their appearance,
and being in reality outnumbered, retreated within; the gates as hastily
as they had just issued from them. De Beauvoir advanced close to the
city moat, on the margin of which he planted the banners of the
unfortunate Tholouse, and sounded a trumpet of defiance. Finding that
the citizens had apparently no stomach for the fight, he removed his
trophies, and took his departure.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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