DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.67375#0170
128
NAPLES AND ITS ENVIRONS.
succeeded each other. The Spaniards, the nobility, and
the people each strove for authority, and each labored
under disadvantages which seemed to be insurmountable;
and into the midst of this confusion the Duke of Guise
came and added his faction to the others. A lucid account
of the seven months which followed the arrival of Don
John of Austria demands a patient unravelling of claims
and counter-claims, and an account of sieges, battles,
victories, reverses, treaties, and various other matters
which belong to a different kind of story from this; the
details must be omitted here, and the principal results
alone be given.
The final action occurred on April 5, 1648, when Don
John of Austria, whose forces had been increased, put an
end to the rebellion in the same market-place in which it
had begun. Don John required his troops to confess and
take the sacrament. The plan for the day’s work had
been so made that the portions of the city held by the
rebels were surrounded by their opposers when the new
viceroy, the Count of Onate, came on with the cavalry.
The people made but slight resistance at the garrisons
which they held, and De Reumont tells us that—•
“ At the ninth hour of the day the Spaniards were masters of
the whole city. A Te Deum was sung in the cathedral, the
houses were adorned with tapestry, white flags and handker-
chiefs waved from the windows. In many places the image of
the king was set up and hailed with great rejoicings. Every
one appeared to rejoice in the restoration of peace ; the citizens
embraced each other in the streets. Nine months of mob
dominion, the insecurity, the war, the confusion and lawless-
ness, had made such an impression that the party of ‘Peace at
any price’ carried off the victory without a struggle.”
The Count of Onate had a task before him which would
have disheartened many brave men, but he was especially
fitted to cope with the momentous questions to be solved.
NAPLES AND ITS ENVIRONS.
succeeded each other. The Spaniards, the nobility, and
the people each strove for authority, and each labored
under disadvantages which seemed to be insurmountable;
and into the midst of this confusion the Duke of Guise
came and added his faction to the others. A lucid account
of the seven months which followed the arrival of Don
John of Austria demands a patient unravelling of claims
and counter-claims, and an account of sieges, battles,
victories, reverses, treaties, and various other matters
which belong to a different kind of story from this; the
details must be omitted here, and the principal results
alone be given.
The final action occurred on April 5, 1648, when Don
John of Austria, whose forces had been increased, put an
end to the rebellion in the same market-place in which it
had begun. Don John required his troops to confess and
take the sacrament. The plan for the day’s work had
been so made that the portions of the city held by the
rebels were surrounded by their opposers when the new
viceroy, the Count of Onate, came on with the cavalry.
The people made but slight resistance at the garrisons
which they held, and De Reumont tells us that—•
“ At the ninth hour of the day the Spaniards were masters of
the whole city. A Te Deum was sung in the cathedral, the
houses were adorned with tapestry, white flags and handker-
chiefs waved from the windows. In many places the image of
the king was set up and hailed with great rejoicings. Every
one appeared to rejoice in the restoration of peace ; the citizens
embraced each other in the streets. Nine months of mob
dominion, the insecurity, the war, the confusion and lawless-
ness, had made such an impression that the party of ‘Peace at
any price’ carried off the victory without a struggle.”
The Count of Onate had a task before him which would
have disheartened many brave men, but he was especially
fitted to cope with the momentous questions to be solved.