[Sidenote: 1585] Practically the whole of the Southern confederacy had been reduced to obedience to the king of Spain.

The Protestant religion was forbidden by law but in each case when a city was conquered the Protestants were given from two to four years either to become reconciled or to emigrate.
{274} But the land that was reconquered was not the land that had revolted.

A ghastly ruin accompanied by a numbing blight on thought and energy settled on the once happy lands of Flanders and Brabant.
The civil wars had so wasted the country that wolves prowled even at the gates of great cities.

The _coup de grace_ was given to the commerce of Antwerp by the barring of the Scheldt by Holland.

Trade with the East and West Indies was forbidden by Spain until 1640.
[Sidenote: Freedom of the North] But the North, after a desperate struggle and much suffering, vindicated its freedom.