With angry face he turned upon him, and bitterly reproached him for having thwarted all his plans by means of his secret intrigues.

William replied with humility that everything which had taken place had been done through the regular and natural movements of the states.

Upon this the King, boiling with rage, seized the Prince by the wrist, and, shaking it violently, exclaimed in Spanish, 'No los estados, ma vos, vos, vos!'-- Not the estates, but you, you, you!--repeating thrice the word 'vos,' which is as disrespectful and uncourteous in Spain as 'toi' in French." That was 26th August, 1559.

Philip's fleet consisted of ninety ships, victualled, among other articles, with fifteen thousand capons, and laden with such spoil as tapestry and silks, much of which had to be thrown overboard in a storm to lighten the labouring vessels.

It seemed at one time as if the fleet must founder, but Philip reached Spain in safety, and hastened to celebrate his escape, and emphasise his policy of a universal religion, by an extensive _auto da fe_.
Flushing did not actually begin the war, in 1572, after the capture of Brill at the mouth of the Maas, by the Water Beggars under De la Marck, but it was the first town to respond to that invitation of revolt against Alva and Spain.