The depredations committed in the villages, the open country, and the cities were incessant--the Spaniards treating every Netherlander as their foe.

Gentleman and peasant, Protestant and Catholic, priest and layman, all were plundered, maltreated, outraged.
The indignation became daily more general and more intense.

There were frequent skirmishes between the soldiery and promiscuous bands of peasants, citizens, and students; conflicts in which the Spaniards were invariably victorious.

What could such half-armed and wholly untrained partisans effect against the bravest and most experienced troops in the whole world?
Such results only increased the general exasperation, while they impressed upon the whole people the necessity of some great and general effort to throw off the incubus..