But when the Archdukes, as they were called, passed from town to
town on this Royal progress, the phantoms of war, pestilence, and
famine hung over the land. The great cities of Flanders had been
deserted by thousands of their inhabitants. The sea trade of the
country had been destroyed by the vigorous blockade which the Dutch
ships of war maintained along the coast. Religious intolerance
had driven the most industrious of the working classes to find a
refuge in Holland or England. Villages lay in ruins, surrounded
by untilled fields and gardens run to seed. Silent looms and empty
warehouses were seen on every side. To such a pass had the disastrous
policy of the Escurial brought this fair province of the Spanish
Empire! From all parts of Flanders the cry for peace went up, but
the time for peace was not yet come.[*]
[Footnote *: _L'Abbe Nameche_, xxi. 6-8.]
The new reign had just begun when Maurice of Nassau suddenly invaded
Flanders with a great force, and laid siege to Nieuport, the garrison
of which, reinforced by an army, at the head of which the Archduke
Albert had hurried across Flanders, was under the command of the
Archduke himself, and many Spanish Generals of great experience
in the wars.
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