[Footnote *: Motley, _Rise of the Dutch Republic_, part ii., chapter
vi.]
In the awful tragedy which soon followed, when Parma came upon
the scene, that 'spectacle of human energy, human suffering, and
human strength to suffer, such as has not often been displayed
upon the stage of the world's events' the town had its share of
the persecutions and exactions which followed the march of the
Spanish soldiery; but for more than ten years a majority of the
burghers adhered to the cause of Philip. In July, 1578, however,
Ypres fell into the hands of the Protestants, and became their
headquarters in West Flanders. Five years later Alexander of Parma
besieged it. The siege lasted until April of the following year,
when the Protestants, worn out by famine, capitulated, and the town
was occupied by the Spaniards, who 'resorted to instant measures
for cleansing a place which had been so long in the hands of the
infidels, and, as the first step towards this purification, the
bodies of many heretics who had been buried for years were taken
from their graves and publicly hanged in their coffins. All living
adherents to the Reformed religion were instantly expelled from
the place.'[*] By this time the population was reduced to 5,000
souls, and the fortifications were a heap of ruins.
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