Ij6 DEFECTION OF THE NETHERLANDS 



exhauftible, and deprived him of all ability to acl in 

 the field. The german and Italian troops which no- 

 thing but the hope of plunder had allured to his frand- 

 ard, now broke out in mutiny for want of pay, and faith- 

 leffiy abandoned their leader in the decifive moment 

 when their activity was moll needful. Thefe formida- 

 ble inftruments of oppreffion now turned their pernici- 

 ous weapons agaifift himfelf, by har raffing and ravaging 

 the provinces that retained their fealty to him. That 

 unfortunate expedition againft Britain, in which, like 

 a defperate gamefter, he flaked the whole flrength of 

 his kingdom, completed his downfal ; with the armada 

 the tribute of both the Indies and the flower of the 

 fpanifh nobility went to the bottom. 



But in proportion as the power of Spain declined, 

 the republic acquired a brifker animation. The de - 

 feclions which the new religion had caufed ? the ty- 

 ranny of the fpiritual courts, the furious rapacity of 

 the foldierv, and the ravages of a tedious war without 

 intermiffion in the provinces of Brabant, Flanders, and 

 Hennegau, which had been the arfenals and maga- 

 zines of this expend ve war, naturally rendered it more 

 difficult every year to maintain and recruit the army. 

 The catholic Netherlands had already loft a million of 

 inhabitants ; and fields trodden down by the numerous 

 hofts, no longer fupplied the labourer with bread. 

 Even Spain itfelf could fpare but a few people more. 

 Thefe countries, poffeffed of a fudden opulence, which 

 always produces idlenefs, had fullered a great diminu- 

 tion in the number of their inhabitants, and could not 

 much longer furnifh the new world and the Nether- 

 lands with the require fupplies of men. Few of thefe 



i ever 



