t without
despondency, the Harangue recalled the misfortunes of the past; and
depicted the gloom of the present. Earnestly, but not fanatically, it
stimulated hope and solicited aid for the future. "Although the appeals
made to the Prince," so ran a part of the document, "be of diverse
natures, and various in their recommendations, yet do they all tend to
the advancement of God's glory, and to the liberation of the fatherland.
This it is which enables him and those who think with him to endure
hunger; thirst, cold, heat, and all the misfortunes which Heaven may
send...... Our enemies spare neither their money nor their labor;
will ye be colder and duller than your foes? Let, then, each church
congregation set an example to the others. We read that King Saul, when
he would liberate the men of Jabez from the hands of Nahad, the Ammonite,
hewed a yoke of oxen in pieces, and sent them as tokens over all Israel,
saying, 'Ye who will not follow Saul and Samuel, with them shall be dealt
even as with these oxen. And the fear of the Lord came upon the people,
they came forth, and the men of Jabez were delivered.' Ye have here the
same warning, look to it, watch well ye that despise it, lest the wrath
of God, which the men of Israel by their speedy obedience escaped,
descend upon your heads. Ye may say that ye are banished men. 'Tis true:
but thereby are ye not stripped of all faculty of rendering service;
moreover, your assistance is asked for one who will restore ye to your
homes. Ye may say that ye have been robbed of all your goods; yet many of
you have still something remaining, and of that little ye should
contribute, each his mite. Ye say that you have given much already. 'Tis
true, but the enemy is again in the field; fierce for your subjugation,
sustained by the largess of his supporters. Will ye be less courageous,
less generous, than your foes."

These urgent appeals did not remain fruitless. The strength of the
Prince was slowly but steadily increasing. Meantime the abhorrence
with which Alva was universally regarded had nearly reached to frenzy.
In the beginning of the year 1572, Don Francis de Alava, Philip's
ambassador in France, visited Brussels. He had already been enlightened
as to the consequences of the Duke's course by the immense immigration of
Netherland refugees to France, which he had witnessed with his own eyes.
On his journey towards Brussels he had been met near Cambray by
Noircarmes. Even that "cruel