Contending armies trampled the clouds; blood dropped from heaven; the exterminating angel rode upon the wind.
There was almost a cessation of the ordinary business of mankind.
Commerce was paralyzed.

Antwerp shook as with an earthquake.

A chasm seemed to open, in which her prosperity and her very existence were to be forever engulfed.

The foreign merchants, manufacturers, and artisans fled from her gates as if the plague were raging within them.

Thriving cities were likely soon to be depopulated.