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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4874.txt b/4874.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3b83b8a --- /dev/null +++ b/4874.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1604 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook History of The United Netherlands, 1600-02 +#74 in our series by John Lothrop Motley + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + +Title: History of the United Netherlands, 1600-02 + +Author: John Lothrop Motley + +Release Date: January, 2004 [EBook #4874] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on April 15, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY UNITED NETHERLANDS, 1600-02 *** + + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + + + +[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the +file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an +entire meal of them. D.W.] + + + + + +HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS +From the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce--1609 + +By John Lothrop Motley + + + +MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Vol. 74 + +History of the United Netherlands, 1600-1602 + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + + Effects of the Nieuport campaign--The general and the statesman-- + The Roman empire and the Turk--Disgraceful proceedings of the + mutinous soldiers in Hungary--The Dunkirk pirates--Siege of Ostend + by the Archduke--Attack on Rheinberg by Prince Maurice--Siege and + capitulation of Meura--Attempt on Bois-le-Duc--Concentration of the + war at Ostend--Account of the belligerents--Details of the siege-- + Feigned offer of Sir Francis Vere to capitulate--Arrival of + reinforcements from the States--Attack and overthrow of the + besiegers. + +The Nieuport campaign had exhausted for the time both belligerents. +The victor had saved the republic from impending annihilation, but was +incapable of further efforts during the summer. The conquered cardinal- +archduke, remaining essentially in the same position as before, consoled +himself with the agreeable fiction that the States, notwithstanding their +triumph, had in reality suffered the most in the great battle. Meantime +both parties did their best to repair damages and to recruit their +armies. + +The States--or in other words Barneveld, who was the States--had learned +a lesson. Time was to show whether it would be a profitable one, or +whether Maurice, who was the preceptor of Europe in the art of war, would +continue to be a docile pupil of the great Advocate even in military +affairs. It is probable that the alienation between the statesman and +the general, which was to widen as time advanced, may be dated from the +day of Nieuport. + +Fables have even been told which indicated the popular belief in an +intensity of resentment on the part of the prince, which certainly did +not exist till long afterwards. + +"Ah, scoundrel!" the stadholder was said to have exclaimed, giving the +Advocate a box on the ear as he came to wish him joy of his great +victory, "you sold us, but God prevented your making the transfer." + +History would disdain even an allusion to such figments--quite as +disgraceful, certainly to Maurice as to Barneveld--did they not point the +moral and foreshadow some of the vast but distant results of events which +had already taken place, and had they not been so generally repeated that +it is a duty for the lover of truth to put his foot upon the calumny, +even at the risk for a passing moment of reviving it. + +The condition of the war in Flanders had established a temporary +equilibrium among the western powers--France and England discussing, +intriguing, and combining in secret with each other, against each other, +and in spite of each other, in regard to the great conflict--while Spain +and the cardinal-archduke on the one side, and the republic on the other, +prepared themselves for another encounter in the blood-stained arena. + +Meantime, on the opposite verge of what was called European civilization, +the perpetual war between the Roman Empire and the Grand Turk had for the +moment been brought into a nearly similar equation. Notwithstanding the +vast amount of gunpowder exploded during so many wearisome years, the +problem of the Crescent and the Cross was not much nearer a solution in +the East than was that of mass and conventicle in the West. War was the +normal and natural condition of mankind. This fact, at least, seemed to +have been acquired and added to the mass of human knowledge. + +From the prolific womb of Germany came forth, to swell impartially the +Protestant and Catholic hosts, vast swarms of human creatures. Sold by +their masters at as high prices as could be agreed upon beforehand, and +receiving for themselves five stivers a day, irregularly paid, until the +carrion-crow rendered them the last service, they found at times more +demand for their labor in the great European market than they could fully +supply. There were not Germans enough every year for the consumption of +the Turk, and the pope, and the emperor, and the republic, and the +Catholic king, and the Christian king, with both ends of Europe ablaze at +once. So it happened that the Duke of Mercoeur and other heroes of the +League, having effected their reconciliation with the Bearnese, and for a +handsome price paid down on the nail having acknowledged him to be their +legitimate and Catholic sovereign, now turned their temporary attention +to the Turk. The sweepings of the League--Frenchmen, Walloons, Germans, +Italians, Spaniards--were tossed into Hungary, because for a season the +war had become languid in Flanders. And the warriors grown grey in the +religious wars of France astonished the pagans on the Danube by a variety +of crimes and cruelties such as Christians only could imagine. Thus, +while the forces of the Sultan were besieging Buda, a detachment of +these ancient Leaguers lay in Pappa, a fortified town not far from Raab, +which Archduke Maximilian had taken by storm two years before. Finding +their existence monotonous and payments unpunctual, they rose upon the +governor; Michael Maroti, and then entered into a treaty with the Turkish +commander outside the walls. Bringing all the principal citizens of the +town, their wives and children, and all their moveable property into the +market-place, they offered to sell the lot, including the governor, for a +hundred thousand rix dollars. The bargain was struck, and the Turk, +paying him all his cash on hand and giving hostages for the remainder, +carried off six hundred of the men and women, promising soon to +return and complete the transaction. Meantime the imperial general, +Schwartzenberg, came before the place, urging the mutineers with promises +of speedy payment, and with appeals to their sense of shame, to abstain +from the disgraceful work. He might as well have preached to the wild +swine swarming in the adjacent forests. Siege thereupon was laid to the +place. In a sortie the brave Schwartzenberg was killed, but Colonitz +coming up in force the mutineers were locked up in the town which they +had seized, and the Turk never came to their relief. Famine drove them +at last to choose between surrender and a desperate attempt to cut their +way out. They took the bolder course, and were all either killed or +captured. And now--the mutineers having given the Turk this lesson in +Christian honour towards captives--their comrades and the rest of the +imperial forces showed them the latest and most approved Christian method +of treating mutineers. Several hundred of the prisoners were distributed +among the different nationalities composing the army to be dealt with at +pleasure. The honest Germans were the most straightforward of all +towards their portion of the prisoners, for they shot them down at once, +without an instant's hesitation. But the Lorrainers, the remainder of +the French troops, the Walloons, and especially the Hungarians--whose +countrymen and women had been sold into captivity--all vied with each +other in the invention of cruelties at which the soul sickens, and which +the pen almost refuses to depict. + +These operations and diversions had no sensible effect upon the progress +of the war, which crept on with the same monotonous and sluggish cruelty +as ever; but the incidents narrated paint the course of civilization more +vividly than the detailed accounts of siege and battle; mining and +countermining, assaults and ambuscades can do, of which the history books +are full. The leaguers of Buda and of other cities and fortresses in +Hungary went their course; and it was destined to remain for a still +longer season doubtful whether Cross or Crescent should ultimately wave +over the whole territory of Eastern Europe, and whether the vigorous +Moslem, believing in himself, his mission, his discipline, and his +resources, should ultimately absorb what was left of the ancient Roman +Empire. + +Meantime, such of the Walloons, Lorrainers, Germans, and Frenchmen as had +grown wearied of the fighting on the Danube and the Theiss--might have +recourse for variety to the perpetual carnage on the Meuse, the Rhine, +and the Scheld. If there was not bloodshed enough for all, it was surely +not the fault of Mahomet, nor Clement, nor Philip. + +During the remainder of the year not much was done in of the stadholder +or the cardinal, but there was immense damage done to the Dutch shipping +by the famous privateersman, Van der Waecken, with his squadron of twelve +or fourteen armed cruisers. In vain had the States exerted themselves to +destroy the robbers cave, Dunkirk. Shiploads of granite had been brought +from Norway, and stone fleets had been sunk in the channel, but the +insatiable quicksands had swallowed them as fast as they could be +deposited, the tide rolled as freely as before, and the bold pirates +sailed forth as gaily as ever to prey upon the defenceless trading +vessels and herring-smacks of the States. For it was only upon non- +combatants that Admiral Van der Waecken made war, and the fishermen +especially, who mainly belonged to the Memnonite religion, with its +doctrines of non-resistance--not a very comfortable practice in that +sanguinary age--were his constant victims. And his cruelties might have +almost served as a model to the Christian warriors on the Turkish +frontier. After each vessel had been rifled of everything worth +possessing, and then scuttled, the admiral would order the crews to be, +thrown overboard at once, or, if he chanced to be in a merry mood, would +cause them to be fastened to the cabin floor, or nailed crossways on the +deck and then would sail away leaving ship and sailors to sink at +leisure. The States gave chase as well as they could to the miscreant-- +a Dutchman born, and with a crew mainly composed of renegade +Netherlanders and other outcasts, preying for base lucre on their +defenceless countryman--and their cruisers were occasionally fortunate +enough to capture and bring in one of the pirate ships. In such cases, +short shrift was granted, and the buccaneers were hanged without mercy, +thirty-eight having been executed in one morning at Rotterdam. The +admiral with most of his vessels escaped, however, to the coast of Spain, +where his crews during the autumn mainly contrived to desert, and where +he himself died in the winter, whether from malady, remorse, or +disappointment at not being rewarded by a high position in the Spanish +navy. + +The war was in its old age. The leaf of a new century had been turned, +and men in middle life had never known what the word Peace meant. +Perhaps they could hardly imagine such a condition. This is easily said, +but it is difficult really to picture to ourselves the moral constitution +of a race of mankind which had been born and had grown up, marrying and +giving in marriage, dying and burying their dead, and so passing on from +the cradle towards the grave, accepting the eternal clang of arms, and +the constant participation by themselves and those nearest to them in the +dangers, privations, and horrors of siege and battle-field as the +commonplaces of life. At least, those Netherlanders knew what fighting +for independence of a foreign tyrant meant. They must have hated Spain +very thoroughly, and believed in the right of man to worship God +according to the dictates of his conscience, and to govern himself upon +his own soil, however meagre, very earnestly, or they would hardly have +spent their blood and treasure, year after year; with such mercantile +regularity when it was always in their power to make peace by giving up +the object for which they had been fighting. + +Yet the war, although in its old age, was not fallen into decrepitude. +The most considerable and most sanguinary pitched battle of what then +were modern times had just been fought, and the combatants were preparing +themselves for a fresh wrestle, as if the conflict had only begun. And +now--although the great leaguers of Harlem, Leyden, and Antwerp, as well +as the more recent masterpieces of Prince Maurice in Gelderland and +Friesland were still fresh in men's memory--there was to be a siege, +which for endurance, pertinacity, valour, and bloodshed on both sides, +had not yet been foreshadowed, far less equalled, upon the fatal +Netherland soil. + +That place of fashionable resort, where the fine folk of Europe now +bathe, and flirt, and prattle politics or scandal so cheerfully during +the summer solstice--cool and comfortable Ostend--was throughout the +sixteenth century as obscure a fishing village as could be found in +Christendom. Nothing, had ever happened there, nobody had ever lived +there, and it was not until a much later period that the famous oyster, +now identified with its name, had been brought to its bay to be educated. +It was known for nothing except for claiming to have invented the +pickling of herrings, which was not at all the fact. Towards the latter +part of the century, however, the poor little open village had been +fortified to such purpose as to enable it to beat off the great Alexander +Farnese, when he had made an impromptu effort to seize it in the year +1583, after his successful enterprise against Dunkirk and Nieuport, and +subsequent preparation had fortunately been made against any further +attempt. For in the opening period of the new century thousands and tens +of thousands were to come to those yellow sands, not for a midsummer +holiday, but to join hands in one of the most enduring struggles that +history had yet recorded, and on which the attention of Europe was for a +long time to be steadily fixed. + +Ostend--East-end--was the only possession of the republic in Flanders. +Having been at last thoroughly fortified according to the principles of +the age, it was a place whence much damage was inflicted upon the enemy, +and whence forays upon the obedient Flemings could very successfully be +conducted. Being in the hands of so enterprising a naval power, it +controlled the coast, while the cardinal-archduke on the other side +fondly hoped that its possession would give him supremacy on the sea. +The States of Flanders declared it to be a thorn in the Belgic lion's +foot, and called urgently upon their sovereign to remove the annoyance. + +They offered Albert 300,000 florins a month so long as the siege should +last, besides an extraordinary sum of 300,000, of which one third was to +be paid when the place should be invested, one-third when the breach had +been made, and one-third after the town had been taken. It was obvious +that, although they thought the extraction of the thorn might prove +troublesome, the process would be accomplished within a reasonable time. +The cardinal-archduke, on his part, was as anxious as the "members" of +Flanders. Asking how long the Duke of Parma had been in taking Antwerp, +and being told "eighteen months," he replied that, if necessary, he was +willing to employ eighteen years in reducing Ostend. + +The town thus about to assume so much importance in the world's eye had +about three thousand inhabitants within its lowly; thatch-roofed houses. +It fronted directly upon the seacoast and stretched backward in a +southerly direction, having the sandy downs on the right and left, and a +swampy, spongy soil on the inner verge, where it communicated with the +land. Its northern part, small and scarcely inhabited, was lashed by the +ocean, and exposed to perpetual danger from its storms and flood-tides, +but was partially protected from these encroachments by a dyke stretching +along the coast on the west. Here had hitherto been the harbour formed +by the mouth of the river Iperleda as it mingled with the sea, but this +entrance had become so choked with sand as to be almost useless at low +water. This circumstance would have rendered the labours of the archduke +comparatively easy, and much discouraged the States, had there not +fortunately been a new harbour which had formed itself on the eastern +side exactly at the period of threatened danger. The dwarf mountain +range of dunes which encircled the town on the eastern side had been +purposely levelled, lest the higher summits should offer positions of +vantage to a besieging foe. In consequence of this operation, the sea +had burst over the land and swept completely around the place, almost +converting it into an island, while at high water there opened a wide and +profound gulf which with the ebb left an excellent channel quite deep +enough for even the ships of war of those days. The next care of the +States authorities was to pierce their fortifications on this side at a +convenient point, thus creating a safe and snug haven within the walls +for the fleets of transports which were soon to arrive by open sea, laden +with soldiers and munitions. + +The whole place was about half an hour's walk in circumference. It was +surrounded with a regular counterscarp, bastions, and casemates, while +the proximity of the ocean and the humid nature of the soil ensured it a +network of foss and canal on every side. On the left or western side, +where the old harbour had once been, and which was the most vulnerable by +nature, was a series of strong ravelins, the most conspicuous of which +were called the Sand Hill, the Porcupine, and Hell's Mouth. Beyond +these, towards the southwest, were some detached fortifications, resting +for support, however, upon the place itself, called the Polder, the +Square, and the South Square. On the east side, which was almost +inaccessible, as it would seem, by such siege machinery as then existed, +was a work called the Spanish half-moon, situate on the new harbour +called the Guele or Gullet. + +Towards the west and southwest, externally, upon the territory of +Flanders--not an inch of which belonged to the republic, save the sea- +beaten corner in which nestled the little town-eighteen fortresses had +been constructed by the archduke as a protection against hostile +incursions from the place. Of these, the most considerable were +St. Albert, often mentioned during the Nieuport campaign, St. Isabella +St. Clara, and Great-Thirst. + +On the 5th July, 1601, the archduke came before the town, and formally +began the siege. He established his headquarters in the fort which bore +the name of his patron saint. Frederic van den Berg meanwhile occupied +fort Breden on the eastern side, with the intention, if possible, of +getting possession of the Gullet, or at least of rendering the entrance +to that harbour impossible by means of his hostile demonstrations. Under +Van den Berg was Count Bucquoy-Longueval, a Walloon officer of much +energy and experience, now general-in-chief of artillery in the +archduke's army. + +The numbers with which Albert took the field at first have not been +accurately stated, but it is probable that his object was to keep as many +as twenty thousand constantly engaged in the siege, and that in this +regard he was generally successful. + +Within the town were fifty-nine companies of infantry, to which were soon +added twenty-three more under command of young Chatillon, grandson of the +great Coligny. It was "an olla podrida of nationalities," according to +the diarist of the siege--[Meteren]. English, Scotch, Dutch, Flemings, +Frenchmen, Germans, mixed in about equal proportions. Commander-in- +chief at the outset was Sir Francis Vere, who established himself by the +middle of July in the place, sent thither by order of the States-General. +It had been the desire of that assembly that the stadholder should make +another foray in Flanders for the purpose of driving off the archduke +before he should have time to complete his preliminary operations. But +for that year at least Maurice was resolved not to renounce his own +schemes in deference to those so much more ignorant than himself of the +art of war, even if Barneveld and his subordinates on their part had not +learned a requisite lesson of modesty. + +So the prince, instead of risking another Nieuport campaign, took the +field with a small but well-appointed force, about ten thousand men in +all, marched to the Rhine, and early in June, laid siege to Rheinberg. +It was his purpose to leave the archduke for the time to break his teeth +against the walls of Ostend, while he would himself protect the eastern +frontier, over which came regular reinforcements and supplies for the +Catholic armies. His works were laid out with his customary precision +and neatness. But, standing as usual, like a professor at his +blackboard, demonstrating his proposition to the town, he was disturbed +in his calculations by the abstraction from his little army of two +thousand English troops ordered by the States-General to march to the +defence of Ostend. The most mathematical but most obedient of princes, +annoyed but not disconcerted, sent off the troops but continued his +demonstration. + +"By this specimen," cried the French envoy, with enthusiasm, "judge of +the energy of this little commonwealth. They are besieging Berg with an +army of twelve thousand men, a place beyond the frontier, and five days' +march from the Hague. They are defending another important place, +besieged by the principal forces of the archdukes, and there is good +chance of success at both points. They are doing all this too with such +a train of equipages of artillery, of munitions, of barks, of ships of +war, that I hardly know of a monarch in the world who would not be +troubled to furnish such a force of warlike machinery." + +By the middle of July he sprang a mine under the fortifications, doing +much damage and sending into the air a considerable portion of the +garrison. Two of the soldiers were blown into his own camp, and one of +them, strangely enough, was but slightly injured. Coming as he did +through the air at cannon-ball speed, he was of course able to bring the +freshest intelligence from the interior of the town. + +His news as to the condition of the siege confirmed the theory of the +stadholder. He persisted in his operations for three weeks longer, and +the place was then surrendered. The same terms--moderate and honourable +were given to the garrison and the burghers as in all Maurice's +victories. Those who liked to stay were at liberty to do so, accepting +the prohibition of public worship according to the Roman ritual, but +guaranteed against inquisition into household or conscience. The +garrison went out with the honours of war, and thus the place, whose +military value caused it to change hands almost as frequently as a +counter in a game, was once more in possession of the republic. In the +course of the following week Maurice laid siege to the city of Meurs, a +little farther up the Rhine, which immediately capitulated. Thus the +keys to the debatable land of Cleves and Juliers, the scene of the +Admiral of Arragon's recent barbarities, were now held by the stadholder. + +These achievements were followed by an unsuccessful attempt upon +Bois-le-Duc in the course of November. The place would have fallen +notwithstanding the slenderness of the besieging army had not a sudden +and severe frost caused the prudent prince to raise the siege. Feeling +that his cousin Frederic van den Berg, who had been despatched from +before Ostend to command the relieving force near Bois-le-Duc, might take +advantage of the prematurely frozen canals and rivers to make an +incursion into Holland, he left his city just as his works had been +sufficiently advanced to ensure possession of the prize, and hastened to +protect the heart of the republic from possible danger. + +Nothing further was accomplished by Maurice that year, but meantime +something had been doing within and around Ostend. + +For now the siege of Ostend became the war, and was likely to continue +to be the war for a long time to come; all other military operations +being to a certain degree suspended, as if by general consent of both +belligerants, or rendered subsidiary to the main design. So long as this +little place should be beleaguered it was the purpose of the States, and +of Maurice, acting in harmony with those authorities, to concentrate +their resources so as to strengthen the grip with which the only scrap of +Flanders was held by the republic, + +And as time wore on, the supposed necessities of the wealthy province, +which, in political importance, made up a full half of the archduke's +dominions, together with self-esteem and an exaggerated idea of military +honour, made that prelate more and more determined to effect his purpose. + +So upon those barren sands was opened a great academy in which the +science and the art of war were to be taught by the most skilful +practitioners to all Europe; for no general, corporal, artillerist, +barber-surgeon, or engineer, would be deemed to know his trade if he had +not fought at Ostend; and thither resorted month after month warriors of +every rank, from men of royal or of noblest blood to adventurers of +lowlier degree, whose only fortune was buckled at their sides. From +every land, of every religion, of every race, they poured into the town +or into the besiegers' trenches. Habsburg and Holstein; Northumberland, +Vere, and Westmoreland; Fairfax and Stuart; Bourbon, Chatillon, and +Lorraine; Bentivoglio, Farnese, Spinola, Grimaldi, Arragon, Toledo, +Avila, Berlaymont, Bucquoy, Nassau, Orange, Solms--such were the historic +names of a few only of the pupils or professors in that sanguinary high +school, mingled with the plainer but well known patronymics of the Baxes, +Meetkerkes, Van Loons, Marquettes, Van der Meers, and Barendrechts, whose +bearers were fighting, as they long had fought, for all that men most +dearly prize on earth, and not to win honour or to take doctors' degrees +in blood. Papist, Calvinist, Lutheran, Turk, Jew and Moor, European, +Asiatic, African, all came to dance in that long carnival of death; and +every incident, every detail throughout the weary siege could if +necessary be reproduced; for so profound and general was the attention +excited throughout Christendom by these extensive operations, and so new +and astonishing were many of the inventions and machines employed--most +of them now as familiar as gunpowder or as antiquated as a catapult--that +contemporaries have been most bountiful in their records for the benefit +of posterity, feeling sure of a gratitude which perhaps has not been +rendered to their shades. + +Especially the indefatigable Philip Fleming-auditor and secretary of +Ostend before and during the siege, bravest, most conscientious, and most +ingenious of clerks--has chronicled faithfully in his diary almost every +cannon-shot that was fired, house that was set on fire, officer that was +killed, and has pourtrayed each new machine that was invented or imagined +by native or foreign genius. For the adepts or, pretenders who swarmed +to town or camp from every corner of the earth, bringing in their hands +or brains to be disposed of by either belligerents infallible recipes for +terminating the siege at a single blow, if only their theories could be +understood and their pockets be filled, were as prolific and as sanguine +as in every age. But it would be as wearisome, and in regard to the +history of human culture as superfluous, to dilate upon the technics of +Targone and Giustianini, and the other engineers, Italian and Flemish, +who amazed mankind at this period by their successes, still more by their +failures, or to describe every assault, sortie, and repulse, every +excavation, explosion, and cannonade, as to disinter the details of the +siege of Nineveh or of Troy. But there is one kind of enginry which +never loses its value or its interest, and which remains the same in +every age--the machinery by which stout hearts act directly upon willing +hands--and vast were the results now depending on its employment around +Ostend. + +On the outside and at a distance the war was superintended of course by +the stadholder and commander-in-chief, while his cousin William Lewis, +certainly inferior to no living man in the science of war, and whose +studies in military literature, both ancient and modern, during the brief +intervals of his active campaigning, were probably more profound than +those of any contemporary, was always alert and anxious to assist with +his counsels or to mount and ride to the fray. + +In the town Sir Francis Vere commanded. Few shapes are more familiar to +the student of those times than this veteran campaigner, the offshoot of +a time-honoured race. A man of handsome, weather-beaten, battle-bronzed +visage, with massive forehead, broad intelligent eyes, a high straight +nose, close-clipped hair, and a great brown beard like a spade; captious, +irascible, but most resolute, he seemed, in his gold inlaid Milan corslet +and ruff of point-lace, the very image of a partizan chieftain; one of +the noblest relics of a race of fighters slowly passing off the world's +stage. + +An efficient colonel, he was not a general to be relied upon in great +affairs either in council or the field. He hated the Nassaus, and the +Nassaus certainly did not admire him, while his inordinate self-esteem, +both personal and national, and his want of true sympathy for the cause +in which, he fought, were the frequent source of trouble and danger to +the republic. + +Of the seven or eight thousand soldiers in the town when the siege began, +at least two thousand were English. The queen, too intelligent, despite +her shrewishness to the Staten; not to be faithful to the cause in which +her own interests were quite as much involved as theirs, had promised +Envoy Caron that although she was obliged to maintain twenty thousand men +in Ireland to keep down the rebels, directly leagued as they were with +Spain and the archdukes, the republic might depend upon five thousand +soldiers from England. Detachment after detachment, the soldiers came as +fast as the London prisons could be swept and the queen's press-gang +perform its office. It may be imagined that the native land of those +warriors was not inconsiderably benefited by the grant to the republic +of the right to make and pay for these levies. But they had all red +uniforms, and were as fit as other men to dig trenches, to defend them; +and to fill them afterwards, and none could fight more manfully or +plunder friend and foe with greater cheerfulness of impartiality than did +those islanders. + +The problem which the archduke had set himself to solve was not an easy +one. He was to reduce a town, which he could invest and had already +succeeded very thoroughly in investing on the land aide, but which was +open to the whole world by sea; while the besieged on their part could +not only rely upon their own Government and people, who were more at home +on the ocean than was any nation in the world, but upon their alliance +with England, a State hardly inferior in maritime resources to the +republic itself. + +On the western side, which was the weakest, his progress was from the +beginning the more encouraging, and his batteries were soon able to make +some impression upon the outer works, and even to do considerable damage +to the interior of the town. In the course of a few months he had fifty +siege-guns in position, and had constructed a practicable road all around +the place, connecting his own fortifications on the west and south with +those of Bucquoy on the east. + +Albert's leading thought however was to cut off the supplies. The freaks +of nature, as already observed, combined with his own exertions, had +effectually disposed of the western harbour as a means of ingress. The +tide ebbed and flowed through the narrow channel, but it was clogged with +sand and nearly, dry at low water. Moreover, by an invention then +considered very remarkable, a foundation was laid for the besiegers' +forts and batteries by sinking large and deep baskets of wicker-work, +twenty feet in length, and filled with bricks and sand, within this +abandoned harbour. These clumsy machines were called sausages,21 and +were the delight of the camp and of all Europe. The works thus +established on the dry side crept slowly on towards the walls, and some +demi-cannon were soon placed upon, them, but the besieged, not liking +these encroachments, took the resolution to cut the pea-dyke along the +coast which had originally protected the old harbour. Thus the sea, when +the tides were high and winds boisterous, was free to break in upon the +archduke's works, and would often swallow sausages, men, and cannon far +more rapidly than it was possible to place them there. + +Yet still those human ants toiled on, patiently restoring what the +elements so easily destroyed; and still, despite the sea; the cannonade, +and the occasional sorties of the garrison, the danger came nearer and +nearer. Bucquoy on the other side was pursuing the same system, but his +task was immeasurably more difficult. The Gullet, or new eastern +entrance, was a whirlpool at high tide, deep, broad, and swift as a +millrace. Yet along its outer verge he too laid his sausages, protecting +his men at their work as well as he could with gabions, and essayed to +build a dyke of wicker-work upon which he might place a platform for +artillery to prevent the ingress of the republican ships. + +And his soldiers were kept steadily at work, exposed all the time to the +guns of the Spanish half-moon from which the besieged never ceased to +cannonade those industrious pioneers. It was a bloody business. Night +and day the men were knee-deep in the trenches delving in mud and sand, +falling every instant into the graves which they were thus digging for +themselves, while ever and anon the sea would rise in its wrath and sweep +them with their works away. Yet the victims were soon replaced by +others, for had not the cardinal-archduke sworn to extract the thorn from +the Belgic lion's paw even if he should be eighteen years about it, and +would military honour permit him to break his vow? It was a piteous +sight, even for the besieged, to see human life so profusely squandered. +It is a terrible reflection, too, that those Spaniards, Walloons, +Italians, confronted death so eagerly, not from motives of honour, +religion, discipline, not inspired by any kind of faith or fanaticism, +but because the men who were employed in this horrible sausage-making and +dyke-building were promised five stivers a day instead of two. + +And there was always an ample supply of volunteers for the service so +long as the five stivers were paid. + +But despite all Bucquoy's exertions the east harbour remained as free as +ever. The cool, wary Dutch skippers brought in their cargoes as +regularly as if there had been no siege at all. Ostend was rapidly +acquiring greater commercial importance, and was more full of bustle and +business than had ever been dreamed of in that quiet nook since the days +of Robert the Frisian, who had built the old church of Ostend, as one of +the thirty which he erected in honour of St. Peter, five hundred years +before. + +For the States did not neglect their favourite little city. Fleets of +transports arrived day after day, week after week, laden with every +necessary and even luxury for the use of the garrison. It was perhaps +the cheapest place in all the Netherlands, so great was the abundance. +Capons, bares, partridges, and butcher's meat were plentiful as +blackberries, and good French claret was but two stivers the quart. +Certainly the prospect was not promising of starving the town into a +surrender. + +But besides all this digging and draining there was an almost daily +cannonade. Her Royal Highness the Infanta was perpetually in camp by the +side of her well-beloved Albert, making her appearance there in great +state, with eighteen coaches full of ladies of honour, and always +manifesting much impatience if she did not hear the guns. + +She would frequently touch off a forty-pounder with her own serene +fingers in order to encourage the artillerymen, and great was the +enthusiasm which such condescension excited. + +Assaults, sorties, repulses, ambuscades were also of daily occurrence, +and often with very sanguinary results; but it would be almost as idle +now to give the details of every encounter that occurred, as to describe +the besieging of a snow-fort by schoolboys. + +It is impossible not to reflect that a couple of Parrots and a Monitor or +two would have terminated the siege in half an hour in favor of either +party, and levelled the town or the besiegers' works as if they had been +of pasteboard. + +Bucquoy's dyke was within a thousand yards of the harbour's entrance, yet +the guns on his platform never sank a ship nor killed a man on board, +while the archduke's batteries were even nearer their mark. Yet it was +the most prodigious siege of modern days. Fifty great guns were in +position around the place, and their balls weighed from ten to forty +pounds apiece. It was generally agreed that no such artillery practice +had ever occurred before in the world. + +For the first six months, and generally throughout the siege, there was +fired on an average a thousand of such shots a day. In the sieges of the +American civil war there were sometimes three thousand shots an hour, and +from guns compared to which in calibre and power those cannon and demi- +cannon were but children's toys. + +Certainly the human arm was of the same length then as now, a pike-thrust +was as effective as the stab of the most improved bayonet, and when it +came, as it was always the purpose to do, to the close embrace of foemen, +the work was done as thoroughly as it could be in this second half of the +nineteenth century. + +Nevertheless it is impossible not to hope that such progress in science +must at last render long wars impossible. The Dutch war of independence +had already lasted nearly forty years. Had the civil war in America upon +the territory of half a continent been waged with the Ostend machinery it +might have lasted two centuries. Something then may have been gained for +humanity by giving war such preter-human attributes as to make its +demands of gold and blood too exhaustive to become chronic. + +Yet the loss of human life during that summer and winter was sufficiently +wholesale as compared with the meagre results. Blood flowed in torrents, +for no man could be more free of his soldiers' lives than was the +cardinal-archduke, hurling them as he did on the enemy's works before the +pretence of a practical breach had been effected, and before a reasonable +chance existed of purchasing an advantage at such a price. Five hundred +were killed outright in half-an-hour's assault on an impregnable position +one autumn evening, and lay piled in heaps beneath the Sand Hill fort- +many youthful gallants from Spain and Italy among them, noble volunteers +recognised by their perfumed gloves and golden chains, and whose pockets +were worth rifling. The Dutch surgeons, too, sallied forth in strength +after such an encounter, and brought in great bags filled with human fat +esteemed the sovereignst remedy in the world for wounds and disease. + +Leaders were killed on both sides. Catrici, chief of the Italian +artillery, and Braccamonte, commander of a famous Sicilian legion, with +many less-known captains, lost their lives before the town. The noble +young Chatillon, grandson of Coligny, who had distinguished himself at +Nieuport, fell in the Porcupine fort, his head carried off by a cannon- +ball, which destroyed another officer at his side, and just grazed the +ear of the distinguished Colonel Uchtenbroek. Sir Francis Vere, too, was +wounded in the head by a fragment of iron, and was obliged to leave the +town for six weeks till his wound should heal. + +The unfortunate inhabitants--men, women, and children--were of course +exposed to perpetual danger, and very many were killed. Their houses +were often burned to the ground, in which cases the English auxiliaries +were indefatigable, not in rendering assistance, but in taking possession +of such household goods as the flames had spared. Nor did they always +wait for such opportunities, but were apt, at the death of an eminent +burgher, to constitute themselves at once universal legatees. Thus, +while honest Bartholomew Tysen, a worthy citizen grocer, was standing +one autumn morning at his own door, a stray cannon-ball took off his +head, and scarcely had he been put in a coffin before his house was +sacked from garret to cellar and all the costly spices, drugs, and other +valuable merchandize of his warehouse--the chief magazine in the town-- +together with all his household furniture, appropriated by those London +warriors. Bartholomew's friends and relatives appealed to Sir Francis +Vere for justice, but were calmly informed by that general that Ostend +was like a stranded ship, on its beamends on a beach, and that it was +impossible not to consider it at the mercy of the wreckers. So with this +highly figurative view of the situation from the lips of the governor of +the place and the commander-in-chief of the English as well as the Dutch +garrison, they were fain to go home and bury their dead, finding when +they returned that another cannonball had carried away poor Bartholomew's +coffin-lid. Thus was never non-combatant and grocer, alive or dead, more +out of suits with fortune than this citizen of Ostend; and such were the +laws of war, as understood by one of the most eminent of English +practitioners in the beginning of the seventeenth century. It is true, +however, that Vere subsequently hanged a soldier for stealing fifty +pounds of powder and another for uttering counterfeit money, but +robberies upon the citizens were unavenged. + +Nor did the deaths by shot or sword-stroke make up the chief sum of +mortality. As usual the murrain-like pestilence which swept off its +daily victims both within an without the town, was more effective than +any direct agency of man. By the month of December the number of the +garrison had been reduced to less than three thousand, while it is +probable that the archduke had not eight thousand effective men left in +his whole army. + +It was a black and desolate scene. The wild waves of the German ocean, +lashed by the wintry gales, would often sweep over the painfully +constructed works of besieger and besieged and destroy in an hour the +labour of many weeks. The Porcupine's small but vitally-important +ravelin lying out in the counterscarp between the old town and the new, +guarding the sluices by which the water for the town moats and canals was +controlled, and preventing the pioneers of the enemy from undermining the +western wall--was so damaged by the sea as to be growing almost +untenable. Indefatigably had the besieged attempted with wicker-work and +timber and palisades to strengthen this precious little fort, but they +had found, even as Bucquoy and the archduke on their part had learned, +that the North Sea in winter was not to be dammed by bulrushes. +Moreover, in a bold and successful assault the besiegers had succeeded +in setting fire to the inflammable materials heaped about the ravelin to +such effect that the fire burned for days, notwithstanding the flooding +of the works at each high tide. The men, working day and night, +scorching in the flames, yet freezing kneedeep in the icy slush of the +trenches and perpetually under fire of the hostile batteries, became +daily more and more exhausted, notwithstanding their determination to +hold the place. Christmas drew nigh, and a most gloomy, festival it was +like to be, for it seemed as if the beleaguered garrison had been +forgotten by the States. Weeks had passed away without a single company +being sent to repair the hideous gaps made daily in the ranks of those +defenders of a forlorn hope. It was no longer possible to hold the +external works; the Square, the Polder, and the other forts on the +southwest which Vere had constructed with so much care and where he had +thus far kept his headquarters. On Sunday morning,--23rd December, he +reluctantly gave orders that they should be abandoned on the following +day and the whole garrison concentrated within the town. + +The clouds were gathering darkly over the head of the gallant Vere; for +no sooner had he arrived at this determination than he learned from a +deserter that the archduke had fixed upon that very Sunday evening for +a general assault upon the place. It was hopeless for the garrison to +attempt to hold these outer forts, for they required a far larger number +of soldiers than could be spared from the attenuated little army. Yet +with those forts in the hands of the enemy there would be nothing left +but to make the best and speediest terms that might be obtained. The +situation was desperate. Sir Francis called his principal officers +together, announced his resolve not to submit to the humiliation of a +surrender after all their efforts, if there was a possibility of escape +from their dilemma, reminded them that reinforcements might be expected +to arrive at any moment, and that with even a few hundred additional +soldiers the outer works might still be manned and the city saved. +The officers English, Dutch, and French, listened respectfully to his +remarks, but, without any suggestions on their own part, called on him +as their Alexander to untie the Gordian knot. Alexander solved it, not +with the sword, but with a trick which he hoped might prove sharper than +a sword. He announced his intention of proposing at once to treat, and +to protract the negotiations as long as possible, until the wished-for +sails should be discerned in the offing, when he would at once break +faith with them, resume hostilities, and so make fools of the besiegers. + +This was a device worthy of a modern Alexander whose surname was Farnese. +Even in that loose age such cynical trifling with the sacredness of +trumpets of truce and offers of capitulation were deemed far from +creditable among soldiers and statesmen, yet the council of war highly +applauded the scheme, and importuned the general to carry it at once into +effect. + +When it came, however, to selecting the hostages necessary for the +proposed negotiations, they became less ardent and were all disposed to +recede. At last, after much discussion, the matter was settled, and +before nightfall a drummer was set upon the external parapet of the +Porcupine, who forthwith began to beat vigorously for a parley. The +rattle was a welcome sound in the ears of the weary besiegers, just drawn +up in column for a desperate assault, and the tidings were at once +communicated to the archduke in Fort St. Albert. The prince manifested +at first some unwillingness to forego the glory of the attack, from +which he confidently expected a crowning victory, but yielding to the +representations of his chief generals that it was better to have his town +without further bloodshed, he consented to treat. Hostages were +expeditiously appointed on both sides, and Captains Ogle and Fairfax were +sent that same evening to the headquarters of the besieging army. It was +at once agreed as a preliminary that the empty outer works of the place +should remain unmolested. The English officers were received with much +courtesy. The archduke lifted his hat as they were presented, asked them +of what nation they were, and then inquired whether they were authorized +to agree upon terms of capitulation. They answered in the negative; +adding, that the whole business would be in the hands of commissioners to +be immediately sent by his Highness, as it was supposed, into the town. +Albert then expressed the hope that there was no fraudulent intention +in the proposition just made to negotiate. The officers professed +themselves entirely ignorant of any contemplated deception; although +Captain Ogle had been one of the council, had heard every syllable of +Vere's stratagem, and had heartily approved of the whole plot. The +Englishmen were then committed to the care of a Spanish nobleman of the +duke's staff, and were treated with perfect politeness and hospitality. + +Meantime no time was lost in despatching hostages, who should be at the +same time commissioners, to Ostend. The quartermaster-general of the +army, Don Matteo Antonio, and Matteo Serrano, governor of Sluys, but +serving among the besiegers, were selected for this important business +as personages of ability, discretion, and distinction. + +They reached the town, coming in of course from the western side, as +expeditiously as possible, but after nightfall. Before they arrived at +headquarters there suddenly arose, from some unknown cause, a great alarm +and beating to arms on the opposite or eastern side of the city. They +were entirely innocent of any participation in this uproar and ignorant +of its cause, but when they reached the presence of Sir Francis Vere they +found that warrior in a towering passion. There was cheating going on, +he exclaimed. The Spaniards, he cried, were taking advantage of these +negotiations, and were about, by dishonourable stratagem, to assault the +town. + +Astounded, indignant, but utterly embarrassed, the grave Spaniards knew +not how to reply. They were still more amazed when the general, rising +to a still higher degree of exasperation, absolutely declined to exchange +another word with them, but ordered Captains Carpentier and St. Hilaire, +by whom they had been escorted to his quarters, to conduct them out of +the town again by the same road which had brought them there. There was +nothing for it but to comply, and to smother their resentment at such +extraordinary treatment as best they could. When they got to the old +harbour on the western side the tide had risen so high that it was +impossible to cross. + +Nobody knew better than Vere, when he gave the order, that this would be +the case; so that when the escorting officers returned to state the fact, +he simply ordered them to take the Spaniards back by the Gullet or +eastern side. The strangers were not very young men, and being much +fatigued with wandering to and fro in the darkness over the muddy roads, +they begged permission to remain all night in Ostend, if it were only +in a guardhouse. But Vere was inexorable, after the duplicity which +he affected to have discovered on the part of the enemy. So the +quartermaster-general and the governor of Sluys, much to the detriment +of their dignity, were forced once more to tramp through the muddy +streets. And obeying their secret instructions, the escort led them +round and round through the most miry and forlorn parts of the town, so +that, sinking knee-deep at every step into sloughs and quicksands, and +plunging about through the mist and sleet of a dreary December's night, +they at last reached the precincts of the Spanish half-moon on the +Gullet, be-draggled from head to foot and in a most dismal and exhausted +condition. + +"Ah, the villainous town of Ostend!" exclaimed Serrano, ruefully +contemplating his muddy boots and imploring at least a pipe of tobacco. +He was informed, however, that no such medical drugs were kept in the +fort, but that a draught of good English ale was much at their service. +The beer was brought in four foaming flagons, and, a little refreshed by +this hospitality, the Spaniards were put in a boat and rowed under the +guns of the fort across the Gullet and delivered to their own sentries on +the outposts of Bucquoy's entrenchments. By this time it was midnight, +so that it was necessary for them to remain for the night in the eastern +encampment before reporting themselves at Fort St. Albert. + +Thus far Vere's comedy had been eminently successful, and by taking +advantage of the accidental alarm and so adroitly lashing himself into a +fictitious frenzy, the general had gained nearly twenty-four additional +hours of precious time on which he had not reckoned. + +Next morning, after Serrano and Antonio had reported to the archduke, it +was decided, notwithstanding the very inhospitable treatment which they +had received, that those commissioners should return to their labours. +Ogle and Fairfax still remained as hostages in camp, and of course +professed entire ignorance of these extraordinary proceedings, +attributing them to some inexplicable misunderstanding. So on Monday, +24th, December, the quartermaster and the governor again repaired to +Ostend with orders to bring about the capitulation of the place as soon +as possible. The same sergeant-major was again appointed by Vere to +escort the strangers, and on asking by what way he should bring them in, +was informed by Sir Francis that it would never do to allow those +gentlemen, whose feet were accustomed to the soft sand of the sea-beach +and downs, to bruise themselves upon the hard paving-stones of Ostend, +but that the softest and muddiest road must be carefully selected for +them. These reasons accordingly were stated with perfect gravity to the +two Spaniards, who, in spite of their solemn remonstrances, were made to +repeat a portion of their experiences and to accept it as an act of +special courtesy from the English general. Thus so much time had been +spent in preliminaries and so much more upon the road that the short +winter's day was drawing to a close before they were again introduced to +the presence of Vere. + +They found that fiery personage on this occasion all smiles and +blandishments. The Spaniards were received with most dignified courtesy, +to which they gravely responded; and the general then proceeded to make +excuses for the misunderstanding of the preceding day with its +uncomfortable consequences. Thereupon arose much animated discussion +as to the causes and the nature of the alarm on the east side which had +created such excitement. Much time was ingeniously consumed in this +utterly superfluous discussion; but at last the commissioners of the +archduke insisted on making allusion to the business which had brought +them to the town. "What terms of negotiation do you propose?" they +asked Sir Francis. "His Highness has only to withdraw from before +Ostend," coolly replied the general, "and leave us, his poor neighbours, +in peace and quietness. This would be the most satisfactory negotiation +possible and the one most easily made." + +Serrano and Antonio found it difficult to see the matter in that cheerful +light, and assured Sir Francis that they had not been commissioned by the +archduke to treat for his own withdrawal but for the surrender of the +town. Hereupon high words and fierce discussion very naturally arose, +and at last, when a good deal of time had been spent in the sharp +encounter of wits, Vere proposed an adjournment of the discussion until +after supper; politely expressing the hope that the Spanish gentlemen +would be his guests. + +The conversation had been from the beginning in French, as Vere, although +a master of the Spanish language, was desirous that the rest of the +company present should understand everything said at the interview. + +The invitation to table was graciously accepted, and the Christmas eve +passed off more merrily than the preceding night had done, so far as +Vere's two guests were concerned. Several distinguished officers were +present at the festive board: Captain Montesquieu de Roquette, Sir Horace +Vere, Captains St. Hilaire, Meetkerke, De Ryck, and others among them. +As it was strict fast for the Catholics that evening--while on the other +hand the English, still reckoning according to the old style, would not +keep Christmas until ten days later--the banquet consisted mainly of eggs +and fish, and the like meagre articles, in compliment to the guests. It +was, however, as well furnished as could be expected in a beleaguered +town, out of whose harbour a winter gale had been for many weeks blowing +and preventing all ingress. There was at least no lack of excellent +Bordeaux wine; while the servants waiting upon the table did not fail to +observe that Governor Serrano was not in all respects a model of the +temperance usually characteristic of his race. They carefully counted +and afterwards related with admiration, not unmingled with horror, that +the veteran Spaniard drank fifty-two goblets of claret, and was emptying +his glass as fast as filled, although by no means neglecting the beer, +the quality of which he had tested the night before at the Half-moon. +Yet there seemed to be no perceptible effect produced upon him, save +perhaps that he grew a shade more grave and dignified with each +succeeding draught. For while the banquet proceeded in this very genial +manner business was by no means neglected; the negotiations for the +surrender of the city being conducted on both sides with a fuddled +solemnity very edifying for the attendants to contemplate. + +Vere complained that the archduke was unreasonable, for he claimed +nothing less from his antagonists than their all. The commissioners +replied that all was no more than his own property. It certainly could +not be thought unjust of him to demand his own, and all Flanders was his +by legal donation from his Majesty of Spain. Vere replied that he had +never studied jurisprudence, and was not versed at all in that--science, +but he had always heard in England that possession was nine points of the +law. Now it so happened that they, and not his Highness, were in +possession of Ostend, and it would be unreasonable to expect them to make +a present of it to any one. The besiegers, he urged, had gained much +honour by their steady persistence amid so many dangers; difficulties, +and losses;--but winter had come, the weather was very bad, not a step of +progress had been made, and he was bold enough to express his opinion +that it would be far more sensible on the part of his Highness, after +such deeds of valour, to withdraw his diminished forces out of the +freezing and pestilential swamps before Ostend and go into comfortable +winter-quarters at Ghent or Bruges. Enough had been done for glory, and +it must certainly now be manifest that he had no chance of taking the +city. + +Serrano retorted that it was no secret to the besiegers that the garrison +had dwindled to a handful; that it was quite impossible for them to +defend their outer works any longer; that with the loss of the external +boulevard the defence of the place would be impossible, and that, on the +contrary, it was for the republicans to resign themselves to their fate. +They, too, had done enough for glory, and had nothing for it but to +retire into the centre of their ruined little nest, where they must +burrow until the enemy should have leisure to entirely unearth them, +which would be a piece of work very easily and rapidly accomplished. + +This was called negotiation; and thus the winter's evening wore away, +until the Spaniards; heavy with fatigue and wine, were without much +difficulty persuaded to seek the couches prepared for them. + +Next day the concourse of people around the city was Christmas, wonderful +to behold. The rumour had spread through the, provinces, and was on the, +wing to all foreign countries, that Ostend had capitulated, and that the +commissioners were at that moment arranging the details. The cardinal- +archduke, in complete Milanese armour, with a splendid feather-bush +waving from his casque and surrounded by his brilliant body-guard, +galloped to and fro outside the entrenchments, expecting every moment a +deputation to come forth, bearing the keys of the town. The Infanta too, +magnificent in ruff and farthingale and brocaded petticoat, and attended +by a cavalcade of ladies of honour in gorgeous attire, pranced +impatiently about, awaiting the dramatic termination of a leaguer which +was becoming wearisome to besieger and besieged. Not even on the famous +second of July of the previous year, when that princess was pleasing +herself with imaginations as to the deportment of Maurice of Nassau as a +captive, had her soul been so full of anticipated triumph as on this +Christmas morning. + +Such a festive scene as was now presented in the neighbourhood of Ostend +had not been exhibited for many a long year in Flanders. From the whole +country side came the peasants and burghers, men, women, and children, in +holiday attire. It was like a kermiss or provincial fair. Three +thousand people at least were roaming about in all direction, gaping with +wonder at the fortifications of the besieging army, so soon to be +superfluous, sliding, skating, waltzing on the ice, admiring jugglers, +dancing bears, puppet shows and merry-go-rounds, singing, and carousing +upon herrings, sausages, waffles, with mighty draughts of Flemish ale, +manifesting their exuberant joy that the thorn was nearly extracted from +the lion's paw, and awaiting with delight a blessed relief from that +operation. Never was a merrier Christmas morning in Flanders. There +should be an end now to the forays through the country of those red- +coated English pikemen, those hard-riding, hard-drinking troopers of +Germany and, Holland, with the French and Scotch arquebus men, and +terrible Zeeland sailors who had for years swept out of Ostend, at any +convenient opportunity, to harry the whole province. And great was the +joy in Flanders. + +Meantime within the city a different scene was enacting. Those dignified +Spaniards--governor Serrano and Don Matteo Antonio--having slept off +their carouse, were prepared after breakfast next morning to resume the +interrupted negotiations. But affairs were now to take an unexpected +turn. In the night the wind had changed, and in the course of the +forenoon three Dutch vessels of war were descried in the offing, and soon +calmly sailed into the mouth of the Gullet. The news was at once brought +to Vere's headquarters. That general's plans had been crowned with +success even sooner than he expected. There was no further object in +continuing the comedy of negotiation, for the ships now arriving seemed +crowded with troops. Sir Francis accordingly threw off the mask, and +assuring his guests with extreme politeness that it had given him great +pleasure to make the acquaintance of such distinguished personages, he +thanked them cordially for their visit, but regretted that it would be no +longer in his power to entertain any propositions of a pacific nature. +The necessary reinforcements, which he had been so long expecting, had +at last reached him, and it would not yet be necessary for him to retire +into his ruined nest. Military honour therefore would not allow him to +detain them any longer. Should he ever be so hard pressed again he felt +sure that so magnanimous a prince as his Highness would extend to him all +due clemency and consideration. + +The Spaniards; digesting as they best could the sauce of contumely with +which the gross treachery of the transaction was now seasoned, solemnly +withdrew, disdaining to express their spleen in words of idle menace. + +They were escorted back through the lines, and at once made their report +at headquarters. The festival had been dismally interrupted before it +was well begun. The vessels were soon observed by friend and foe making +their way triumphantly up to the town where they soon dropped anchor at +the wharf of the inner Gullet, having only a couple of sailors wounded, +despite all the furious discharges of Bucquoy's batteries. The holiday +makers dispersed, much discomfited, the English hostages returned to the +town, and the archduke shut himself up, growling and furious. His +generals and counsellors, who had recommended the abandonment of his +carefully prepared assault, and acceptance of the perfidious propositions +to negotiate, by which so much golden time had been squandered, were for +several days excluded from his presence. + +Meantime the army, disappointed, discontented, half-starved, unpaid, +passed their days and nights as before, in the sloppy trenches, while +deep and earnest were the complaints and the curses which succeeded to +the momentary exultation of Christmas eve. The soldiers were more than +ever embittered against their august commander-in-chief, for they had +just enjoyed a signal opportunity of comparing the luxury and comfortable +magnificence of his Highness and the Infanta, and of contrasting it with +their own misery. Moreover, it had long been exciting much indignation +in the ranks that veteran generals and colonels, in whom all men had +confidence, had been in great numbers superseded in order to make place +for court favourites, utterly without experience or talent. Thus the +veterans; murmuring in the wet trenches. The archduke meanwhile, in his +sullen retirement, brooded over a tragedy to follow the very successful +comedy of his antagonist. + +It was not long delayed. The assault which had been postponed in the +latter days of December was to be renewed before the end of the first +week of the new year. Vere, through scouts and deserters, was aware of +the impending storm, and had made his arrangements in accordance with, +the very minute information which he had thus received. The +reinforcements, so opportunely sent by the States, were not numerous +--only six hundred in all--but they were an earnest of fresh comrades to +follow. Meantime they sufficed to fill the gaps in the ranks, and to +enable Vere to keep possession of the external line of fortifications, +including the all-important Porcupine. Moreover, during the fictitious +negotiations, while the general had thus been holding--as he expressed +it--the wolf by both ears, the labor of repairing damages in dyke, moat, +and wall had not been for an instant neglected. + +The morning of the 7th January, 1602, opened with a vigorous cannonade +from all the archduke's batteries, east, west, and south. Auditor +Fleeting, counsellor and secretary of the city, aide-de-camp and right +hand of the commander-in-chief, a grim, grizzled, leathern-faced man of +fifty, steady under fire as a veteran arquebuseer, ready with his pen +as a counting-house clerk, and as fertile in resource as the most +experienced campaigner, was ever at the general's side. At his +suggestion several houses had been demolished, to furnish materials in +wood and iron to stop the gaps as soon as made. Especially about the +Sand Hill fort and the Porcupine a plentiful supply was collected, no +time having been lost in throwing up stockades, palisades, and every +other possible obstruction to the expected assailants. Knowing perfectly +well where the brunt of the battle was to be, Vere had placed his brother +Sir Horace at the head of twelve picked companies of diverse nations in +the Sand Hill. Four of the very best companies of the garrison were +stationed in the Porcupine, and ten more of the choicest in Fort Hell's +Mouth, under Colonel Meetkerke. It must be recollected that the first of +these three works was the key to the fortifications of the old or outer +town. The other two were very near it, and were the principal redoubts +which defended the most exposed and vulnerable portion of the new town on +the western side. The Sand Hill, as its name imported, was the only +existing relic within the city's verge of the chain of downs once +encircling the whole place. It had however been cannonaded so steadily +during the six months' siege as to have become almost ironclad--a mass of +metal gradually accumulating from the enemy's guns. With the curtain +extending from it towards east and west it protected the old town quite +up to the little ancient brick church, one of the only two in Ostend. + +All day long the cannon thundered--a bombardment such as had never before +been dreamed of in those days, two thousand shots having been distinctly +counted, by the burghers. There was but languid response from the +besieged, who were reserving their strength. At last, to the brief +winter's day succeeded a pitch-dark evening. It was dead low tide at +seven. At that hour the drums suddenly beat alarm along the whole line +of fortifications from the Gullet on the east to the old harbour on the +west, while through the mirky atmosphere sounded the trumpets of the +assault, the shouts of the Spanish and Italian commanders, and the fierce +responsive yells of their troops. Sir Francis, having visited every +portion of the works, and satisfied himself that every man in the +garrison was under arms, and that all his arrangements had been +fulfilled, now sat on horseback, motionless as a statue, within the Sand +Hill. Among the many serious and fictitious attacks now making he waited +calmly for the one great assault, even allowing some of the enemy to +scale the distant counterscarp of the external works towards the south, +which he had by design left insufficiently guarded. It was but a brief +suspense, for in a few moments two thousand men had rushed through the +bed of the old harbour, out of which the tide had ebbed, and were +vigorously assailing the Sand Hill and the whole length of its curtain. +The impenetrable darkness made it impossible to count, but the noise and +the surging fury of the advance rendered it obvious that the critical +moment had arrived. Suddenly a vivid illumination burst forth. Great +pine torches, piles of tar-barrels, and heaps of other inflammable +material, which had been carefully arranged in Fort Porcupine, were now +all at once lighted by Vere's command. + +As the lurid blaze flashed far and wide there started out of the gloom +not only the long lines of yellow jerkined pikemen and arquebuseers, with +their storm-hoods and scaling ladders, rushing swiftly towards the forts, +but beyond the broken sea dyke the reserved masses supporting the attack, +drawn up in solid clumps of spears, with their gay standards waving above +them, and with a strong force of cavalry in iron corslet and morion +stationed in the rear to urge on the infantry and prevent their faltering +in the night's work, became visible--phantom-like but perfectly distinct. + +At least four thousand men were engaged in this chief attack, and the +light now permitted the besieged to direct their fire from cannon, demi- +cannon, culverin, and snaphance, with fatal effect. The assailants, +thinned, straggling, but undismayed, closed up their ranks, and still +came fiercely on. Never had Spaniards, Walloons, and Italians, +manifested greater contempt of death than on this occasion. They knew +that the archduke and the infanta were waiting breathlessly in Fort St. +Albert for the news of that victory of which the feigned negotiations had +defrauded them at Christmas, and they felt perfectly confident of ending +both the siege and the forty years' war this January night. But they had +reckoned without their wily English host. As they came nearer--van, and +at last reserve--they dropped in great heaps under the steady fire of the +musketry--as Philip Flaming, looking on, exclaimed--like apples when the +autumn wind blows through the orchard. And as the foremost still pressed +nearer and nearer, striving to clamber up the shattered counterscarp and +through every practicable breach, the English, Hollanders, and +Zeelanders, met them in the gap, not only at push of pike, but with their +long daggers and with flaming pitchhoops, and hurled them down to instant +death. + +And thus around the Sand Hill, the Porcupine, and Hell's Mouth, the +battle raged nearly two hours long, without an inch of ground being +gained by the assailants. The dead and dying were piled beneath the +walls, while still the reserves, goaded up to the mark by the cavalry, +mounted upon the bodies of their fallen comrades and strove to plant +their, ladders. But now the tide was on the flood, the harbour was +filling, and cool Auditor Fleming, whom nothing escaped quietly asked +the general's permission to open the western' sluice. It was obvious, +he observed, that the fury of the attack was over, and that the enemy +would soon be effecting a retreat before the water should have risen too +high. He even pointed out many stragglers attempting to escape through +the already deepening shallows. Vere's consent was at once given, the +flood-gate was opened, and the assailants such as still survived--panic- +struck in a moment, rushed wildly back through the old harbour towards +their camp. It was too late. The waters were out, and the contending +currents whirled the fugitives up and down through the submerged land, +and beyond the broken dyke, until great numbers of them were miserably +drowned in the haven, while others were washed out to sea. Horses and +riders were borne off towards the Zealand coast, and several of their +corpses were picked up days afterwards in the neighbourhood of Flushing. + +Meantime those who had effected a lodgment in the Polder, the Square, and +the other southern forts, found, after the chief assault had failed, that +they had gained nothing by their temporary triumph but the certainty of +being butchered. Retreat was impossible, and no quarter was given. +Count Imbec, a noble of great wealth, offered his weight in gold for his +ransom, but was killed by a private soldier, who preferred his blood, or +doubted his solvency. Durango, marshal of the camp, Don Alvarez de +Suarez, and Don Matteo Antonio, sergeant-major and quarter-master- +general, whose adventures as a hostage within the town on Christmas eve +have so recently been related, were also slain. + +On the eastern side Bucquoy's attack was an entire failure. His +arrangements were too slowly made, and before he could bring his men to +the assault the water was so high in the Gullet that they refused to lay +their pontoons and march to certain death. Only at lowest ebb, and with +most exquisite skill in fording, would it have been possible to effect +anything like an earnest demonstration or a surprise. Moreover some of +the garrison, giving themselves out as deserters, stole out of the +Spanish Half-moon, which had been purposely almost denuded of its +defenders, towards the enemy's entrenchments, and offered to lead a body +of Spaniards into that ravelin. Bucquoy fell into the trap, so that the +detachment, after a victory as easily effected as that in the southern +forts, found themselves when the fight was over not the captors but the +caught. A few attempted to escape and were driven into the sea; the rest +were massacred. + +Fifteen hundred of the enemy's dead were counted and registered by +Auditor Fleming. The whole number of the slain and drowned was reckoned +as high as two thousand, which was at least, a quarter of the whole +besieging army. And so ended this winter night's assault, by which the +archduke had fondly hoped to avenge himself for Vere's perfidy, and to +terminate the war at a blow. Only sixty of the garrison were killed, and +Sir Horace Vere was wounded. + +The winter now set in with severe sleet, and snow, and rain, and furious +tempests lashing the sea over the works of besieger and besieged, and for +weeks together paralyzing all efforts of either army. Eight weary months +the siege had lasted; the men in town and hostile camp, exposed to the +inclemency of the wintry trenches, sinking faster before the pestilence +which now swept impartially through all ranks than the soldiers of the +archduke had fallen at Nieuport, or in the recent assault on the Sand +Hill. Of seven thousand hardly three thousand now remained in the +garrison. + +Yet still the weary sausage making and wooden castle building went on +along the Gullet and around the old town. The Bredene dyke crept on inch +by inch, but the steady ships of the republic came and went unharmed by +the batteries with which Bucquoy hoped to shut up the New Harbour. The +archduke's works were pushed up nearer on the west, but, as yet, not one +practical advantage had been gained, and the siege had scarcely advanced +a hair's breadth since the 5th of July of the preceding year, when the +armies had first sat down before the place. + +The stormy month of March had come, and Vere, being called to service in +the field for the coming season, transferred the command at Ostend to +Frederic van Dorp, a rugged, hard-headed, ill-favoured, stout-hearted +Zealand colonel, with the face of a bull-dog, and with the tenacious grip +of one. + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Constitute themselves at once universal legatees +Crimes and cruelties such as Christians only could imagine +Human fat esteemed the sovereignst remedy (for wounds) +War was the normal and natural condition of mankind + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY UNITED NETHERLANDS, 1600-02 *** + +************ This file should be named 4874.txt or 4874.zip ************ + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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