monarch

Before leaving her room, the governor left a few lines of text on the dressing table to the officials and advisers who remained in the city.At eleven o'clock in the evening, when the maid came to dress the Doge according to her usual schedule, she was surprised to find that the room was empty, and there was a sealed envelope on the dressing table with the seal of the Doge. coat of arms.

The news of the female governor's escape was immediately notified to more than a dozen advisers and officials who were still in the conference room at this time. They were already feeling a little uneasy because of the female governor's long absence. — they have been ruthlessly abandoned by the Viceroy and the Spanish government.

The meeting in the Governor's Palace ended hastily like this, and the people who participated in the meeting went home to find a way out of the city to escape.Naturally, the news spread like wildfire. After all, everyone knew that the escape of the female governor foreshadowed the coming terrible storm, and everyone had a few close friends and relatives to inform, so this The news quickly spread throughout the streets and alleys of the city as if it had wings.

The night of March 1557, 3 was unusually quiet. There was not a cloud in the sky, and there was no wind in the air. The stars were shining on the blue-black sky.However, hidden under this unexpected calm is a huge wave that is gathering strength.In this quiet night, the revolution did not rest, it only temporarily withdrew its fist, but this was only to be more powerful the next time it punched.Just like before the arrival of a tsunami, the tide in the harbor will always recede to the deep sea. The more obvious this retreat is, the more violent the huge waves that will hit the port behind will be.

When the sun rose in the sky on March 3 and illuminated the city again, the eager citizens were surprised to find that the Spanish ruling institutions in the city did not need them to overthrow, and had already collapsed on their own.The building of the bureaucracy is empty, and the documents that have been scribbled by countless bureaucrats are randomly thrown in the corridor like garbage and waste paper.Most of the soldiers in the city defense team dispersed after learning the news that the female governor had fled last night.

Today, the Spanish flag is still flying on the roof of the building, and only the Governor's Palace in the middle of the city remains. A Swiss Guard still guards the palace, as if nothing had ever happened.These loyal mercenaries, famous for their loyalty to their employers, continued to perform their duties when the Spanish army had disappeared, just as their descendants had gone in 1792. King Louis XVI, who took refuge in the National Assembly, defended the Tuileries Palace, and eventually all sacrificed.

Several advisers of the female governor who had no time to escape from Brussels are taking refuge in this palace, including De Balimon, who once called the nobles of the Netherlands "beggars" and made a big fool of himself during the war in The Hague. gentlemen.As the most hated figure in the entire Netherlands, Mr. de Balimont did not dare to risk crossing the blockade constructed by the citizens on the way out of the city, so he could only hide in this building that symbolizes Spanish rule and hope Iron bars, stone walls and the halberds of the Swiss guards kept him alive.

All the people in the Doge's Palace gathered around the windows, ears pricked up in horror, listening to the loud ringing of bells and the booming of drums from the surrounding neighborhood.There is no doubt that the citizens are gathering, and within a few hours, all of this will end in some way. For the people in this palace, there is a high probability that this ending will not be too good for them.

Those advisers and officials who were once deeply loved by the Spanish royal family were distraught at the moment. They stared blankly and wandered aimlessly from room to room like ghosts.When a large ship is about to sink, the passengers on board are just as they are now, stumbling on the deck, expecting some kind of miracle to happen.

Uneasy emotions spread in the palace. This palace is not an impregnable castle like in the Middle Ages. It is not a fortress or a barracks for resisting attacks, but a palace designed for the comfort of the owner who lives in it. architecture.Once the citizens outside start attacking the palace, it is nothing but self-deception to expect the palace to hold.This struggle has not yet begun, but its outcome is already preordained.

Drums, roars, and all kinds of strange roars rushed towards the palace from all directions, and in a blink of an eye, hundreds of lawyers, merchants, apprentices, and butchers, holding muskets, spears, etc. and the axe, advancing towards the palace, enclosing the whole palace, and uttering an angry roar into the interior of the palace through the iron bars, this is a loud protest against nearly a century of oppression and plunder, ruled by the House of Habsburg After more than seventy years in the Netherlands, the moment of reckoning is finally coming.

On the square directly in front of the palace, there is a bronze statue of Emperor Charles V riding a horse. The citizens climbed up the emperor's neck in a rebellious manner and waved the orange, white and blue tricolor flag of the Netherlands on it. The color of the flag comes from the three colors on the coat of arms of the Prince of Orange, so it is also called the "Prince's Flag". Now it has become a symbol of the resistance movement in the Netherlands.

The crowd continued to roar like thunder towards the palace, the glass on the windows rumbled because of this huge shout, and the portraits of the successive rulers of the Habsburg family hanging in the gallery seemed to be shaken on the wall shivering.Those iron fences were like the thin shells of walnuts, easily crushed by the iron tongs composed of thousands of people.

The Swiss guards tried to fight back. They formed a thin red line in front of the palace entrance. This was a dam made of rubble and branches facing the tsunami. It was smashed by the crowd in an instant. The heroic hired Soldiers were impaled with spears, and hacked by the butchers with their knives and axes, like cattle slaughtered in early winter, while their heads were stuck on the spears, and the jubilant crowd like It is held aloft like a holiday decoration.The musket bullets and the rain of stones shattered the windows of the palace, flew about in the corridors, and provoked another cry of terror.

The gate of the royal palace was shattered, and the citizens rushed up to the wide marble front hall and steps. Normally, only the carefully selected blue-blooded nobles could enter here, but now those who are usually in charge here The ceremonial officer who maintained order has long since disappeared.No one dared to stop this wave anymore, it went up the stairs, rushed wantonly between the halls and corridors, and easily pulverized all the people and things that stood in front of it.

The wave has finally reached its destination: the council chamber of the Lady Governor.The door of the room was roughly hacked into pieces by the intruders with axes. When the citizens rushed into the room, what they saw was a group of pale-faced dignitaries, huddled in a corner of the room in horror, as if suffering from Shaking violently like a fever.

These dejected officials became captives of the citizens. They were dragged out of the room by the collar like dead dogs, and countless fists and kicks fell on them along the way. had died, and the rest had their heads beheaded in front of the bronze statue of Emperor Charles V.Their heads were put on spears and paraded through the streets of the city, while the disembowelled bodies were hung under the sign of a luxurious hotel opposite the palace, facing the gaze of the statue of Emperor Charles V.

As for the most hated M. de Ballimon, the townspeople took him out alone, and it was suggested that he should be strangled so that he would "spit out all the gold he had taken from the Dutchmen."The female governor's adviser only inherited a declining manor from his father before coming to the Netherlands to serve, but after a few years of serving, he already owned 20 ducats of family property, and even he was in Brussels. The walls of the entire residence are covered in gold velvet.Naturally, Mr. de Balimont was strangled half to death, until his eyeballs were about to pop out, and the iron hand that was strangling his neck was released.

"All right, kind people, all right..." As soon as his neck was let go, Mr. de Balimont collapsed on the ground, coughing violently while hugging the neck of the nearest person The feet begged, and the tears and snot were all glued to the other's trouser legs.

"When the citizens of Antwerp begged you, did you let them go?" The man kicked Mr. de Ballimon in the chest, causing the other party to cry out miserable, "Where did you let the army go in The Hague?" Did you ever hesitate when our countrymen shot?"

"You're right, you're right!" The crowd echoed loudly, "We want revenge, we want revenge for Antwerp!"

Mr. de Balimont wanted to say something, maybe he wanted to beg, maybe he wanted to justify that he was just obeying the orders of the female governor, but all that was not important anymore. In the middle, his voice was like a small wave stirred up by the rough sea, and it disappeared in an instant. No one could hear what he said clearly. Even if they could hear clearly, no one would be sorry This is of interest.The citizens grabbed Mr. de Balimont's clothes and limbs with all their hands and feet, and carried Mr. de Balimont, who was screaming, towards the window.

As if he understood the fate he was about to face, Mr. de Balimont struggled violently, but it was in vain after all. The cold air from outside came in through the window and slapped his face, making his lower body wet , the suspicious yellow liquid fell on the ground drop by drop, and there were some semi-solid yellow mud dots mixed in it, and the people around covered their noses because of the stench.

M. de Balimont was thrown out of the window by the townspeople. He seemed to remain in the air for a moment, and then sank like a weight, and fell with a dull sound on the flagstone floor under the window. It's like someone punched a sandbag.

Mr. de Balimont, covered in blood, struggled and crawled a few times on the ground, leaving a dark trail behind him, and then remained motionless.When he died completely, another burst of violent cheers erupted from the crowd.

The Spanish flag on the roof was torn from its pole, whirled in the air like a piece of rag, fell limply to the ground, and was trampled underfoot and torn to pieces by hands. .The glorious Orange Tricolor was hoisted over the palace.When the Viceroy fled, the palace she left behind was nothing more than an empty shell of the Kingdom of the Spanish Netherlands, and today, the shell was crushed under the feet of the people of the Netherlands.

From the bell towers of all the churches in Brussels, the bells were ringing with joy.The bronze statue of Emperor Charles V in front of the palace has been a symbol of Spanish rule in the area for decades.In full view, the statue was dragged off its pedestal by the crowd, and smashed to pieces by strong men with hammers.These bronzes will be thrown into a fiery furnace and cast into cannons, which will one day be used on the battlefield against the Spanish army.No one should have any doubts about the determination of the Dutch people. Not only did Philip II's rule in the Netherlands come to an end, but the rule of the entire Habsburg family in the Netherlands came to an end.From March [-]nd, the Dutchmen became masters of the Netherlands.

On the evening of the day when the palace fell, the Viceroy finally arrived at the city of Tournai, the destination of her travels. The horses pulling the cart were foaming at the mouth, and the crude carriage was covered with dust, which was the hearse of Spanish rule.In Brussels it was a popular carnival, here it was a funeral in the Spanish Netherlands.

The female governor got a temporary refuge in the city hall of Tournai. The largest inhabitable building in the city that she chose for her was desolate. The cold wind poured into the room along the broken window panes. A door opened and closed with the creak like an old woman struggling to climb a wooden staircase.Soldiers of the Legion of Flanders, holding candlesticks, barely cobbled together a place for the Habsburg to spend the night.

The Viceroy seemed unaffected by her surroundings, falling from the sumptuous silk-veneered palace to the humble dusty stone house, the resplendent chandeliers gone, replaced by fireplaces The flames of a few candles shaking in the wind should be difficult for a royal family to get used to.But the female governor didn't seem to notice these insignificant things at all. The only thing she was thinking about was to see the commander of the army, the Duke of Alva, to give him orders in the name of the sisters of the Spanish king, or to beg him for help. Use this Spanish army as an instrument of her vengeance, and let the traitors who discredited her and her king brother pay with their heads.

"They chose war." On the way to Tournai, the female governor kept muttering, with a terrible look on her face, and the other two passengers in the carriage were on pins and needles, and no one dared to answer her words, "OK Ah, since they have chosen war, we will teach these citizens how to fight. I will burn Brussels, Antwerp, Liege, The Hague and Amsterdam to ashes, and use the blood of these citizens to douse the flames of rebellion. We will pay tribute to the dynasty Set an example for enemies all over Europe, so that future Dutch people will tremble when they hear the word "Brussels", just like those Mongols did in Eastern Europe!"

But to the disappointment of the female governor, when she arrived in Tournai, the Duke of Alva and his headquarters had left the small town the day before, and the main force stationed around them also left with them.The French King Henry II has personally led the French army into the Picardy region, and the Duke of Alva is about to fight an unprecedented battle with the French King. The result of this battle will directly determine the fate of the Netherlands.Therefore, although the female governor is dissatisfied, she can only temporarily live in the safe city of Tournai, and spend all her free time every day praying, praying to God to bless the Duke of Alva and Spain, and to win a battle. Hearty victory.