Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/403

 1576.] THE SPANISH TREATY. 383 lined its quays for miles, a thousand houses and public buildings, were given to the flames. The banks were pillaged. The wealth of the richest city in the world became the prey of men who were no better now than the banditti of their own forests, and eight thousand men, women, and children, were either killed or flung into the river. Touched to the quick at last, the slow-moving Flemings sprung to arms. Ghent feared the same fate as Antwerp. Thousands of patriots poured in, and en- closed the Spanish garrison in the citadel. The States- General assembled there with representatives from the entire Netherlands. The Prince of Orange came in person out of Holland, and on the 8th of Novem- Nov. 8. ber, the seventeen Provinces were onoe more united in the Treaty of Ghent for common defence against the Spaniards. They pledged their faith to each other to expel all foreign troops, and never again under any pretence to admit them. They resolved to insist for the future on being governed under their own laws. In the heartiness of the first reunion they sus- pended everywhere the laws against heresy, the ultimate settlement of religion being referred to a special Con- vocation which was to meet when the liberation should be complete. Two days before the conclusion of this momentous treaty, Don John arrived at Luxemburg, and there he thought it prudent to remain. The Protestant and Catholic elements, hitherto in most deadly enmity, were for the present united against him. It was uncertain