Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/195

 1570.] THE RISING OF THE NORTH. 181 own deserters on the walls at Barncastle. It is suine relief to find that the wives and children of those who were executed ' were favourably dealt with ; ' orders were given that ' not only they should have 110 cause to complain, but should be satisfied ' whatever that might mean. 1 But the hanging business itself went on rapidly and mercilessly ; ' the lingering bred offence ; ' and on the 23rd of January, Bowes reported that he had put to death 'about six hundred ' besides those who had been disposed of by Sussex. Among contemporary engravings representing the condition of Europe at this period, may be seen pictures, intended to excite the pity and the passions of the Pro- testants, representing the scenes in the French and Flem- ish towns when they were taken by the Catholic troops. There is death in all its horrors ; men torn in pieces by wild horses, children tossed to and fro upon the soldiers 7 pikes, families perishing amidst their own blazing houses. But chiefly noticeable are long rows of what once were living men, artisans and tradesmen, in their simple working dresses, dangling in seemingly infinite numbers as far as the eye can follow them down the narrowing streets. A hundred Huguenots were mur- dered in France for every Catholic in England. But in those Northern villages there were spectacles of the same description. The difference was in the degree of the cruelty, not in its kind. Sir George Bowes reported 'that the people were in marvellous fear/ and that the 1 Bowes to Sussex, January 8 : Memorials of the Rebellion.