Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/366

 350 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 66. from which he had issued remained open. A party of horse plunged forward, killed the sentinels, and held the end of the street, while their comrades swarmed after them with shouts of ' Vive la messe ! Yive le Due d'Anjou ! Vive la messe ! tuez ! tuez ! tuez ! ' The affair did not last half-an-hour. As they dashed into the narrow streets, barricades rose as if by magic behind them. Maddened by the terrible recollections of the Spanish fury, and exasperated at the treachery, the citi- zens flew out on their false allies from alley and cross- way, while tiles, stones, and boiling water were rained upon their heads from the parapets. Before the night fell in which they had promised themselves a surfeit of lust and plunder, two hundred and fifty officers and fifteen hundred men lay dead on the pavement. Two rows of corpses, piled ten feet high, were at the gate where they had entered, and which they were trying in vain to recover. Of the whole number, about half escaped at last by springing from the walls, plunging into the ditches, and so miserably groping their way back into the camp. Alencon, craven as well as traitor, had not trusted his own precious person into danger. Not daring to abide till the morning, he started at once for Dendermonde, under cover of the darkness, followed by all of his men that were able to march. The alarm outran him : the citizens of Mechlin cut the dykes, and another thousand of the miserable wretches were drowned. Never had treachery encountered a more im- mediate or more absolutely disastrous retribution. Whatever else might follow, the catastrophe was