Page:The silent prince - a story of the Netherlands (IA cu31924008716957).pdf/134

 which is one of the bitter fruits of tyranny. The reformed preachers were as powerless to check the tumult as the Catholics. The mob recognized no authority but its own, and they gave the rein to their ungoverned passions.

Unfortunately for the cause of Protestantism, these turbulent and destructive elements of the city were for a time partisans of the “New Gospel.” The cause of the Reformation received a blow which retarded its progress for years, and which gave the enemies of the Reformed faith just cause for indignation. The record of this riot at Antwerp was the one dark stain on the banner of Protestantism in the Netherlands. Yet not a drop of blood was shed, not a human being seriously injured, not an article of treasure stolen, not a single church razed to the ground. It was simply a frenzy against images which symbolized to the Protestants inquisitorial tortures.

But the day of retribution was near. A Nemesis swift and relentless was approaching. These seven days and nights of image-breaking were the prelude of years of horror and bloodshed.