REPRISALS
I
It is to the seigneur de Vaernewyck--that excellent and faithful
chronicler--that we are indebted for the most detailed account of all
the events which occurred in the city of Ghent during those few
memorable days in October.
The weather, he tells us, had been perpetually rainy, and the days were
drawing in rapidly, for it was then the 19th of the month, and what with
the sky so perpetually overcast it was nearly dark when close upon five
o'clock in the afternoon the ensigns of the companies of Walloon
soldiery first entered the city by the Waalpoort. They demanded
admittance in the name of the King, the Regent and the
Lieutenant-Governor, and the guard at the gate would certes never have
ventured to refuse what they asked.
At first the townsfolk were vastly entertained at seeing so many troops;
nothing was further from their mind than the thought that these had been
sent into the city with evil intent. So the gaffers and gossips stood
about in the streets and open places staring at the fine pageant, and
the women and children gaped at the soldiers from the windows of their
houses, all in perfect good humour and little dreaming of the terrible
misery which these soldiers were bringing in their train into the
beautiful city of Ghent.
No one thought of civil strife then.
In the forefront marched men and young boys who carried javelins in
their hands and had round shields swung upon their arm; these shields
were bordered with a rich fringe of crimson silk and they glittered like
steel in the damp atmosphere. After these men came a company of
halberdiers from the garrisons of Mechlin and Alost, and they looked
splendid in their striped doublets, their plumed bonnets slung behind
their backs, their enormous boots reaching half-way up their thighs. In
the midst of them rode the Master of the Camp on his cream charger; the
ends of his crimson and yellow scarf, soaked through with the rain and
driven by the wind, flapped unremittingly against his steel cuirass,
whilst the plumes on his felt hat hung--bedraggled--into his face.
Then came the arquebusiers, marching five abreast, and there were
several thousands of them, for it took half an hour for them all to
cross the bridge. These were followed by a vast number of elegant
foot-soldiers carrying their huge lances upon their shoulders,
well-armed, magnificently accoutred, their armour highly polished and
richly engraved and wearing gauntlets and steel bonnets. Finally came
three companies of artillery with culverines and falconets and with five
wagons, and behind them the massed drummers and fifers who brought up
the rear playing gay music as they marched.
The troops assembled on the Kouter which was thronged to overflowing
with gaffers and idlers. Everyone was talking and jesting then, no one
had a thought of what was to come, no one looked upon these gaily-decked
troops with any sinister prescience of coming evil. They were nearly
all Walloons, from the provinces of Antwerp and Brabant, and many of
them spoke the Flemish tongue in addition to their own--and when after
inspection they stood or walked at ease on the Kouter, the girls
exchanged jests and merry sallies with them.
II
Two hours later the Duke of Alva entered the city. It was a very dark
night, but the rain had left off. The Lieutenant-Governor had a company
of lancers with him, and these were Spanish, every man of them. One
hundred torch-bearers accompanied the Duke and his escort and they had
much difficulty in keeping their torches alight in the damp night air;
the flames spluttered and sizzled and the men waved the torches about so
that sparks flew about in every direction to the grave danger of the
peaceable citizens who were in the foremost ranks of the crowd.
It was to be supposed that the High-Bailiff and Sheriffs of the city had
been warned of the arrival of His Highness, for they met him at the
Waalpoort, attired despite the threatening weather in their magnificent
civic robes. The Duke who rode a black charger paused just inside the
gates and listened in silence to the loyal address which these
dignitaries presented to him. The sizzling torches threw a weird,
unsteady light upon the scene, distorting every form into a grotesque
shape, half-concealing, half-illumining the stern face of the
Lieutenant-Governor draped in his velvet robe.
When the loyal address had been duly presented, and further speeches of
welcome delivered by the senior sheriff and by the Schout, the
Lieutenant-Governor demanded that the keys of the city be within the
hour brought to him on the Kouter where he would be inspecting the
troops. This demand greatly astonished the sheriffs and aldermen, but
they did not dare to raise any objections and promised that they would
most dutifully comply with His Highness' request.
"With my commands," the Duke corrected them curtly.
Nor would he dismiss the grave seigneurs, but kept them kneeling there
before him in the mud, until they had humbly assured him that they would
execute his commands.
Whereupon the Duke proceeded to the Kouter.
The troops had been aligned for his inspection, and a very gay and gaudy
throng they looked in the flickering torch-light. All the houses round
the Place were lighted up from within by now, and crowds thronged in
from all the side streets. It was many years since Ghent had seen so
gay a sight. There were three hundred torch-bearers on the parade
ground by now, each with huge resin torches, and so brightly illumined
was the Place that you could have deciphered a letter out in the open
just as easily as you would in daylight. Lances and halberds held erect
formed a shimmering background to the picture like a forest of straight
tall stems, and their metal heads glimmered like little tongues of fire,
throwing out strange and unexpected flashes of light as the men moved
who held them.
In the centre of the picture the Duke of Alva on horseback. The
endurance of the man was absolutely wonderful! He had ridden all the
way from Brussels that day--starting at daybreak--a matter of nine
leagues and more. He had tired two horses out, but not himself--and he
was a man of sixty. The chronicler goes on to tell us that the Duke's
face looked grim and determined, but not fatigued, and in his prominent
eyes under their drooping lids was a glitter like steel--hard and cruel
and triumphant too.
He held the reins of his charger with one hand, the other was on his
hip. He wore a felt hat which he had pulled down upon his brow, and a
huge cape of dark woollen stuff lined with purple silk which covered his
shoulders and fell right round him over his saddle-bow. A group of
cavaliers surrounded him in fantastic multi-coloured doublets and hose,
all slashed and pinked, and enormous bonnets covered with gigantic
plumes, and behind these stood the standard bearers. The autumn wind
had caught the folds of the huge ensigns which were grouped in half
dozens close together, so that the great folds interlocked from time to
time and spread themselves out like a monster moving, waving mass of
crimson and yellow with the devices of the companies embroidered thereon
in black and silver.
It was indeed a fine and picturesque spectacle, arranged with a view to
making it impressive and to strike awe into the hearts of the citizens.
The civic dignitaries had returned by now, and the High-Bailiff had
brought the keys of the town upon a velvet cushion. He and the ten
sheriffs and the Schout, the fifteen Vroedschappen who were the city
councillors and the Schepens who were the aldermen all approached the
Lieutenant-Governor with back nearly bent double in their loyalty and
humility.
But when they were within speaking distance of the Duke they all had to
kneel--just as before--in the mud and the dirt. The Master of the Camp
was there to direct them and they had not the pluck to resist. Then the
High-Bailiff was made to advance alone with the cushion in both his
hands and upon the cushion the keys of the city, and he was made to
kneel close to the Duke's stirrup and humbly present him with the keys.
The Lieutenant-Governor said curtly: "'Tis well!" and ordered the chief
gentleman of his body-guard to take possession of the keys. Then he
said in a loud voice so that every one could hear:
"The gates of this city shall be closed this night, and will so remain
until such time as the order which I am about to give to the inhabitants
is complied with."
There was a prolonged roll of drums; and the gentleman of the bodyguard
rode away from the Place with a company of halberdiers, and he carried
the keys of the city with him. He was going to close the gates of the
city as the Lieutenant-Governor directed.
When the roll of the drums had died away there was a moment's silence on
the huge overcrowded Kouter through which you might have heard a
thousand hearts beating in sudden deathly anxiety. Here then was no
ordinary pageant, no mere display of soldiery and of arms such as the
Spaniards were overfond of. Something momentous was about to happen
which in these days of perpetual strife and continuous oppression could
but mean sorrow and humiliation to this proud city and to her
freedom-loving children. The High-Bailiff and the Schout and the town
councillors were all kept kneeling, though they were elderly men most of
them, and the ground was very damp; and the people crowded in all round
the soldiers, as near as they could, in order to hear what His Highness
wished to say.
"Citizens of Ghent," he began in his harsh and strident voice which
could be heard from end to end of the Kouter. "It has come to my
knowledge that William of Nassau Prince of Orange is dwelling in this
city, and that, contrary to the ordinance of our Sovereign Lord the
King, he hath attempted to levy troops within these gates for an
unlawful purpose. Those who have thus in defiance of all law and order
enrolled themselves under a standard of rebellion and have taken up arms
against our Sovereign Lord and King will be dealt with summarily. But
in the meanwhile understand that any one who henceforth harbours under
his roof the said William of Nassau Prince of Orange, or assists or aids
him to leave this city, is guilty of rebellion, and will be punished
with death. Understand also that it is my desire that the person of the
Prince of Orange be delivered unto me within forty-eight hours at the
Kasteel where I shall be lodging, and that I have ordered that the gates
of the city be closed until the expiration of that time. And finally
understand that if within forty-eight hours the person of William of
Nassau Prince of Orange is not delivered unto me, then will the whole
city of Ghent be guilty of treason and rebellion, and every man, woman
and child in it will be punishable with death; and the town itself will
be dealt with as summarily as were Mons and Valenciennes and Mechlin.
God bless our gracious and merciful King!"
He raised his hat and lifted his face up to heaven, and his lips were
seen to move as if in prayer. The Master of the Camp gave the signal
for a huge and prolonged roll of drums which echoed from end to end of
the Kouter and into every corner of the city, and all the soldiers set
up a lusty shout of "God bless our Sovereign Lord and King!" But the
people were silent. No one uttered a word, no one joined in the
shouting. Men looked at one another with scared, wide-open eyes; the
boldest had become as pale as death. Some of the women swooned with
terror, others broke into terrified sobs; even the children realised
that something very terrible had occurred; they clung weeping to their
mothers' skirts.
The Lieutenant-Governor, having spoken, wheeled round his horse and rode
slowly across the Kouter closely surrounded by his bodyguard and his
torch-bearers. Just then, so Messire de Vaernewyck assures us, the
wind, which had been very boisterous all the evening, suddenly dropped,
and the air became very still and strangely oppressive. A few huge
drops of rain fell making a loud patter upon the steel bonnets and
cuirasses of the soldiers, and then a streak of vivid lightning rent the
black clouds right out over the Leye and a terrific clap of thunder
shook the very houses of the city upon their foundation. The Duke of
Alva's horse reared and nearly threw him; there was momentary confusion,
too, among the bodyguard. Those who were devout Catholics promptly
crossed themselves; those who were superstitious at once saw in that
curious and unexpected phenomenon a warning from God Himself.
Then the rain came down in torrents and speedily dispersed the crowd.
The civic magistrates and councillors were at last able to struggle to
their feet--most of them felt cramped from the lengthy kneeling. They
assembled in groups and whispered with one another; the townsfolk looked
on them with eyes full of anxiety; it was to them that the poorer people
must look for help in this awful calamity which threatened them all.
III
After the Lieutenant-Governor and his cortege had left the Kouter the
soldiers broke ground and ran wild throughout the city. No special
lodgings had been allotted to them, but apparently they had been told
that they could quarter themselves where they listed. They began by
taking possession of the covered markets--and this could easily have
been tolerated; but many of them raided the houses of peaceful citizens
in a manner most unseemly and often brutal, making terrible noise and
confusion throughout the city. They treated the owners of the houses as
if the latter were nought but menials and they themselves the masters of
the place; so much so indeed that several families left their homes in
the possession of these soldiery, and took refuge with relations who had
not been thus inflicted.
Terror and misery had rapidly spread throughout the city. There were
many who had not heard the proclamation of the Lieutenant-Governor, and
when the rumour reached them that numbers of soldiers were billeted in
the town they made preparations for immediate flight. Some even went so
far as to load all their furniture and effects upon wagons, ready to go
out of the city this very night--for they remembered how five years ago
when first the Duke of Alva's troops were quartered in Ghent, how
abominably they had behaved toward all the citizens--robbing, looting,
and pillaging, for all the world as if they were bands of brigands,
rather than disciplined soldiers.
Great was the terror and consternation of those who wanted to flee now
when they understood that all the city gates were closed and that no one
would be allowed to go through them until the Prince of Orange, who was
said to be in Ghent, was delivered over to the Lieutenant-Governor.
This was indeed a terrible state of things and one destined to strike
hopeless terror in the hearts of most, seeing that hardly any one inside
the city knew aught of the Prince of Orange or of his comings and
goings, and yet they were liable to be punished for treason in which
they had had no share.
And in the meanwhile the soldiers ran riot throughout the city--even
though, with much ostentation, a great deal of to-do and much beating of
drums, their provosts read out at the four corners of the city a
proclamation forbidding all looting and marauding, and enjoining the men
under pain of hanging to take anything from the citizens without paying
for it.
This proclamation was of course a mere farce, for the soldiers, despite
the lateness of the hour, had at once raided the butchers', bakers', and
other provision shops, and though they professed to pay for everything
they took, they refused to give more than one sou for a pound of meat,
and then they cut out all the bone, and threw it back in the face of the
wretched butcher who tried to argue with them.
And all the while remember that these men were not Spaniards; they were
Walloons of the provinces immediately adjacent to the two Flanders, and
their kith and kin had also grievously suffered from Spanish arrogance
and oppression. But what will men not do for money or under
compulsion--or mayhap under that abject fear which the very name of Alva
had brought forth into the heart of people who had once been so proud
and so independent? The Seigneur de Vaernewyck puts it on record that
in his opinion the employing of Walloon troops to check the so-called
revolt of Ghent was an act of refined cruelty on the part of the Duke.
He liked to pit brother against brother, kinsman against his own kind.
He had cowed the Flemings and the Walloons to such an extent that now at
last he could use one against the other, and could rely on each side
being more cruel and relentless through that extraordinary perversion of
human nature which makes civil strife so much more brutal and horrible
than any war between the nations.