Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/183

I572-] THE MASSACRE OF ST BARTHOLOMEW. 163 In England too, among the Protestants, there was some dissatisfaction. There was many a gallant gentle- man who would have rather died in fighting Spaniards than have shaken hands with the Duke of Alva, especially when Alva, having heen reproached for his gentleness at Mons, began to show himself again in his true colours. In return for the murder of the monks at Mechlin, he gave up the town to be sacked by the Spanish soldiers, and for three days it was a scene of horrors which sent a shudder through Northern Europe. One day, de Guaras said, the London people looked on him as their best friend, and the next they were ready to stone him, The sack of Mechlin revived the terror that the Pro- testants would be massacred in detail all over Europe, and at the end of October a sermon was preached at St Paul's to an enormous crowd, inflaming the passions of the people, appealing to Papists as well as Protest- ants to be true to their country, and threatening both alike with Philip's galleys. 1 But both in Spain and in England temperate coun- sels prevailed. Philip could not without a pang submit to have his piety suspected, but he allowed himself to be guided by Alva ; while pressing danger in Ireland, of which the reader will presently hear, the deeper detest- ation of France, the interests of commerce, the despair of the Prince's success, and the sincerity of Spain in the Pope and the English Catholics j otra manera vosotros y nosotros at Louvain.- iremos a remar en las galeras del 1 < Vosotros Papistas tened fuerte Rey Felipe.' De Guaras to Alva, con nosotros Protestantes, porque de October 28 : MSS. Simamcas.