Sociable Letters 279 



A LETTER FROM ANTWERP 



Madam, — I am so full of fear, as I write this letter 

 with great difficulty, for all this city hath been in an 

 uproar, and all through a factious division betwixt 

 the common council, and those they call the Lords, 

 which are the higher magistrates. The common people 

 gather together in multitudes, pretending for the 

 right of their privileges, but it is thought the design 

 is to plunder the merchants' houses, and the churches, 

 by the last they seem to regard, and covet more the 

 goods of the world than Heaven; indeed the world 

 makes men apt to forget Heaven, as loving mammon 

 more than God. The truth is, they have plundered 

 one of the chief magistrates, and were hardly kept 

 from plundering the bishop, which act expresses their 

 covetousness, and divulges their designs; and this 

 disorder causes the trumpets to sound, the drums to 

 beat, the souldiers to arm, and the women to weep, 

 and to make it the more fearful, the great bell, which 

 is only rung in time of danger, either in cases of fire, 

 or war, or mutinies, or the like, sounds dolefully, all 

 which makes me tremble fearfully; and that which 

 increases my fear the more is, that my maids being 

 possessed with the like fear, come often to me with 

 maskered faces, and tell me divers and different 

 reports, some, that the army is coming to destroy the 

 city, and others, that the souldiers have liberty to 

 abuse all the women, others, that all in the city shall 

 be put to the sword. The best report is, that all shall 

 be plundered, but for this last, my husband and I am 

 safe, for we are plunder-free, having had all our goods 

 and estate taken from us in our own country, so that 

 now we have no such goods or wealth as is worth the 

 taking; the truth is, we are rather in ^ condition to 



