of State of the general discontent throughout the country, of the deplorable results of the policy of force and repression, and urging the withdrawal of the troops, the mitigation of the edicts, and the appointment of a member of the royal house to the governorship.  To these representations and requests no answer was sent for months in accordance with Philip’s habitual dilatoriness in dealing with difficult affairs of State.  He did, however, actually nominate in April his bastard brother, Don John of Austria, the famous victor of Lepanto, as Requesens’ successor.  But Don John, who was then in Italy, had other ambitions, and looked with suspicion upon Philip’s motives in assigning him the thankless task of dealing with the troubles in the Low Countries.  Instead of hurrying northwards, he first betook himself to Madrid where he met with a cold reception.  Delay, however, so far from troubling Philip, was thoroughly in accordance with the whole bent of his character and policy.  For six months Don John remained in Spain, and it was a half-year during which the situation in the Netherlands had been to a very large extent transformed.

The position of Orange and his followers in Holland and Zeeland in the spring of 1576 had again darkened.  In June the surrender of Zierikzee to Mondragon was a heavy blow to the patriot cause, for it gave the Spaniards a firm footing in the very heart of the Zeeland archipelago and drove a wedge between South Holland and the island of Walcheren.  This conquest was, however, destined to have important results of a very different character from what might have been expected.  The town had surrendered on favourable terms and pillage was forbidden.  Baulked of their expected booty, the Spanish troops, to whom large arrears of pay were due, mutinied.  Under their own “eletto” they marched to Aalst, where they were joined by other mutineers, and soon a large force was collected together, who lived by plunder and were a terror to the country.  The Council declared them to be outlaws, but the revolted soldiery defied its authority and scoffed at its threats.  This was a moment which, as Orange was quick to perceive, was extremely favourable for a vigorous renewal of his efforts to draw together all the provinces to take common action in their resistance to Spanish tyranny.  His agents and envoys in all parts of the Netherlands, but especially in Flanders and Brabant, urged his views upon the more influential members of the provincial estates and upon leading noblemen, like the Duke of Aerschot and other hitherto loyal supporters of the government, who were now suspected of wavering.  His efforts met with a success which a few months earlier would have been deemed impossible.  The conduct of the Spanish troops, and the lack of any central authority to protect the inhabitants against their insolence and depredations, had effected a great change in public opinion.  In Brussels Baron de Heze (a god-child of the prince) had been appointed