After mounting three cannons on the barges, Gustoff began training crews to sail them and fire the cannons. When Hector arrived from Rotterdam with two additional boats, Gustoff labored to get them operational. Hector reported that Gustoff’s mother was meeting with every English smuggler in Rotterdam and Hector thought she was having some success in acquiring more guns. Hector flatly refused to leave Gustoff’s side. After failing to convince Hector to return to the shipyard, Gustoff appointed him his fleet’s deputy commander.
The “Gathering” was a spectacular moment in the Droger Land’s history. Never before had so many men come together to defend the realm. The sight of the assembled eighteen hundred local men on the common green was a sight to behold. With the Baron’s remaining two hundred cavalrymen and other patriotic volunteers, twenty-two hundred men would be available to defend the mainland. Most of these men thought the enemy forces to be only slightly more numerous. The Baron had kept the actual size of the enemy forces and the existence of a third column a secret. His men would learn the true size of their enemy after they were organized into an army able to confront any foe. The “Gathering” began appropriately with prayers. All knelt as the fiery Calvinist minister John Pascal and a more temperate but just as patriotic Catholic priest asked God’s blessing on the assembled army. Once the prayers were completed, the men spontaneously began singing Het Wilhelmus, the song about their martyred leader William of Orange and the fight for Dutch Independence. The song contained fifteen stanzas and would become the national anthem for the Netherlands. The lyrics were known by all who cherished independence. The song reminded the Baron that Prince William would have enjoyed a moment like this. After reviewing the horse and militia units, he spoke to the assembled multitude: “Sons of the Droger Land, today we unite for the defense of our homeland and the survival of free Holland. We defend the same sacred land our ancestors have defended for fifteen hundred years. They turned back all who invaded and so shall we. Our Lord Jesus and our ancient gods demand nothing less.”
After the address the organizing began. He directed all mounted men to form up with his troop of cavalrymen and five hundred horsemen rode off to an encampment prepared for them within the Lord’s Forest. Next archers were collected and they began a trek to the First Fort where Old Andries, a pretty fair archer himself, would mold them into an effective unit. The Baron called for those with woodworking skills and almost reluctantly two dozen men complied and were told to follow the column of archers. He ordered the remaining footmen under the age of thirty to gather behind him. It was the single largest group, most armed with muskets and pistols, and it took time to form them into columns but soon they too departed towards the Lord’s Forest.
After they had gone, the Baron motioned the remaining older men to form a semi-circle around him. In a soft voice he told the older men that they have the most difficult task during the coming conflict. It was their responsibility to protect the women and children sheltered within the walls of the town and villages. He told them, “No enemy force is to be allowed to breach your walls. You must keep them out until others come to your assistance or each of you has joined our ancestors. Remember, as you pass on to the next world, hand your weapon to one of our women so they may continue to resist. Everything relies on your stubborn defense. You must resist until your death. If the enemy sends men to parley, they are to be killed as they approach your walls.”
Within a week even the rural families had taken refuge within the town or village closest their home. The politicians at The Hague sent English troops to the Droger Land’s doorstep with orders to block and fortify the marshlands. These English mercenaries, commanded by a Dutch General, were assigned the task of building defensive fortifications to contain any further advance on central Holland following the inevitable fall of the Droger Land. They sent English soldiers, fearing Dutch troops, would disobey orders and join the Baron’s defenders. One ugly truth of this war was that both sides depended heavily on paid mercenaries. The Spanish favored Germans and Italians, the Dutch preferred Englishmen. Yet small groups of Frisian horsemen and other Dutch volunteers were arriving daily to join the defenders and these men were only driven by pure patriotism not pay. They had decided to ignore the politicians and help defend the Droger Land. Many of the arriving Frisian nobility had lost land and wealth in the previous struggles with Holland. Some became too poor to arrive on horseback. When one such nobleman arrived on foot, at the head of a small formation of archers, Lord Karl was so pleased to see the bowmen that he gave the poor knight a gift of his own horse.
In mid-November, as the weather grew colder, Henri Roulfs delivered the last six barges. These vessels were the last to use the canal. The English troops had begun obstructing the waterway with stones and other debris. Thanks to Reylana who arrived with her husband, the barges contained enough cannons to fully arm the fleet. Her prior relationships with smugglers had served her well. Reylana also acquired a battery of field guns, which Karl happily dispatched for deployment with the main army. The defender’s ranks had by this time swelled to twenty five hundred men. On that same day, the Baron received word that Jon had begun the war with a spectacular success. His small force of Gypsies and settlers had delivered a major blow to the enemy. They had miraculously killed the commander of the middle column.
After hiding the two swivel guns near the first causeway, Jon had traversed the swamp and reached the middle roadway without being discovered. He decided not to waste the element of surprise on a mere detachment of road builders. Instead, Jon waited patiently as his Gypsy scouts searched for the main enemy encampment and soon found it was built for comfort rather than defense. It was situated on a small plot of dry ground surrounded by dense woods. In this clearing the enemy had pitched scores of tents to protect themselves from the late autumn chill. The inexperienced Prince Werner had posted no pickets and left security to a few sleepy sentries. The Prince’s quarters, a magnificent stately tent, sheltered him and his officers of noble birth. It was purposely separated from the rest of the camp by a wall of supply wagons. Jon’s scouts reported the wagons contained more than the noble’s personal possessions. Some wagons carried the camp’s supply of munitions, including kegs of black powder.
Jon seized the opportunity by taking his men to an even more remote part of the swamp where they could freely gather highly flammable tree bark and dry swamp mosses, which were woven into sizeable balls. After dark, his men converged on all sides of the enemy camp. They used rope and tackle to bend back the tops of the surrounding trees, creating enough tension to propel the balls upon the camp when the ropes were cut. Jon waited until the encampment had settled in for the night. He and a few of his men crept silently into the camp and kill the unfortunate sentries. They left the camp undisturbed as they meticulously searched wagons until they found the black powder. They retreated to the camp’s perimeter, leaving a single trail of black powder to mark their visit. Upon reaching the tree line, Jon’s men set the birch and moss balls afire and flung them upon the camp. The burning bark emitted flaming oil which rapidly set fire to many tents. The smoke and flames caused pandemonium in the sleeping camp. Soldiers, awakened by the commotion, became excellent targets for the muskets of the raiders, as they fled burning tents. The Prince and his noblemen were beginning to stir when Jon ignited the powder trail with his pistol. For a moment, there was a bright line of burning black powder returning to its source. Suddenly there was a huge explosion. Most of the wagons disappeared. The blast sent the Prince’s tent high into the night sky, killing or severely burning everyone inside and all in the immediate vicinity. Prince Otto Von Werner of Thuringia, confidant of the Spanish King, his noble staff officers and many ordinary soldiers were dead.
As prearranged, Jon’s raiders faded into the swamp where they divided into even smaller groups. They hoped to escape to a rendezvous near the first causeway where they had left the swivel guns. Yet the veteran German field officers, who survived,
led their infuriated soldiers in relentless pursuit. Vicious dogs, relegated to another encampment because they disturbed the late Prince Werner’s sleep helped in the hunt. They kept to the scent, even in the wet conditions, and a quarter of Jon’s men were caught and killed. The survivors used the swivel guns on a few small detachments of Count Alschultz’s soldiers before Jon wisely ordered a retreat to the bank of the swamp. Here the gunboat fleet took his remaining men to safety. Despite killing the commander, Jon knew future raids would be less fruitful and more costly. He knew his father had been right. It would be up to the two fleets to halt the enemy advance as these columns reached the bank of Lake Derick. Despite his success, Jon knew he had only slowed and not stopped them.
At the castle, despite the anxiety about the eminent conflict, Reylana kept busy helping Sara host the Frisian knights who were arriving daily. Kahilli, who had come with Gustoff’s parents, were instructed by Gustoff to stay at his mother’s side and be as helpful as possible. Since Henri was assisting his son during the day, Reylana liked having the likeable boy around. She had only made the trip hoping her presence would keep Henri from joining the combatants and the plan seemed to be working; Henri seemed content in helping Gustoff outfit the barges. A week after Reylana’s arrival, the Baron left the encampment in the forest and made a rare appearance at the castle. It was then she learned about the threat in the east. She was present when a young nobleman from one of Delft’s finest families arrived at the head of a small unit of Dutch cavalry carrying an important dispatch. He brought a formal demand from the Estates General to evacuate the women and children. Reylana was surprised when the Baron refused and more astonished when the young officer, having fulfilled his duty to the Estate, received permission from the Baron for him and his men to join the defenders. She was even more startled when she heard the Baron tell his brother, “Men fight harder when the safety of their families is at stake.” She also witnessed the Baron’s delight when he learned of Jon’s successful raid. He jubilantly told his brother, “Nothing can disrupt an army’s morale than the death of a commander, even a foolish commander like Werner.”
The Baron knew the way he prepared the battlefield would ultimately win or lose the struggle. His scouts confirmed that Lutwaff’s engineers were completing the last section of causeway near the swale. They also reported soldiers were on the march, and now a total of fourteen hundred mounted men were in position to be the first to disembark. Victor Lutwaff planned to use his cavalry to rape, plunder and pillage the countryside, while the siege guns and infantry would begin surrounding the fortified places. The Baron had six hundred mounted men, eight hundred infantry, and a hundred bowmen to stop them. The First Fort’s high walls would keep it from being immediately overrun by the horsemen. For that reason alone, he wanted it to be an important part of the battlefield equation. Ordinarily, an attacker would leave a walled fort unmolested until their heavy guns pounded the fortification into submission. The Baron hoped to make the fort a focal point with his archers hidden inside. To do so, he would have to bait a trap by having the infantry form a line as near the fort as possible, looking as vulnerable as possible. For his plan to succeed, he needed an early snowstorm to hide the handy work of his wood-cutters. Their hard work had made the position of the infantry much stronger than it would appear to the enemy. He prayed to the old god’s for a blizzard.
That evening, the Baron confidently assured his military commanders that the gods of their ancestors favored them. He cited as proof the newly falling snow. When the council of war began, Jon announced that both fleets were prepared to attack the enemy columns as they emerged from the Great Swamp near Karl’s Isle. He and Gustoff planned to wait until the Germans began ferrying soldiers and equipment across the narrow strait. With the evacuation of the settlements, the fleets would be free to bombard anything that moved on either shoreline and they could return as often as necessary, until the relentless pounding forced the enemy to retreat back into the Great Swamp.
After Jon’s presentation, the Baron detected no objections to the plan. Jon’s exploits at sea and his recent success made questioning his son’s judgment by others nearly impossible. However the father knew that the best of plans usually failed in the reality of war. He cautioned Jon and Gustoff that a battle with such fierce opponents is bound to be filled with uncertainties. He reminded them their mission was to delay the enemy and inflict as many casualties as possible, not to win the war by themselves. To everyone’s surprise, he sternly told the two young men, “Your upcoming battle on the Lake Derick is to be one of attrition! Do not endanger your ships or your men with foolish heroics; we will need those men and boats before this crisis is over.” At this point, everyone was well aware of the greater threat posed by Prince Lutwaff’s advancing force. They listened carefully as the Baron explained his own battle plan. He wanted to use the eight hundred Droger Land infantrymen as bait to lure the enemy horsemen into an all out charge across the swale and turnip fields. By placing the infantry in the open field near the First Fort, they would appear highly vulnerable to an attack by cavalry. That would be an illusion, because the woodworkers were hard at work embellishing the swale and the adjacent farmland with sharpened oak stakes adept at disabling charging horses. The night’s gift of falling snow should hide any trace of their activities. He hoped the infantry would draw the enemy mounted formations to within range of the bowmen under Old Andries command and hidden within the walls. The archers could launch a volley of arrows over three hundred yards in any direction. The horsemen would also become targets for the battery of field artillery embedded on the line with the infantry and by the fort’s cannons firing chain shot. Once the forward element of the enemy cavalry impaled them upon the stakes, the initial charge would falter and the enemy would attempt to flank the infantry. It was at that moment that they would find themselves flanked by the Droger Land’s cavalry.
While the plan met with general agreement, a heated debate developed regarding the number of infantrymen needed to bait the trap. The Frisian lords and those responsible for protecting the women and children wanted part of the infantry held in reserve. Legitimate questions arose regarding the time needed to bring forward the cavalry units. The slightest delay would allow the Germans to annihilate the infantry. All knew footmen were no match for heavy cavalry on open ground. These deliberations were difficult. No one wanted to challenge the Baron or raise the unmentionable “what if question.” In the end, the Baron unpredictably compromised and agreed to use only half the infantry to bait the trap, allowing the rest to be held as a reserve against calamity. The Friesian knights volunteered to form up behind the infantry to challenge any attempt to flank the footmen before the main force arrived. The Baron agreed to secrete fifty of his own horsemen within the fortification for deployment if necessary. As the meeting ended, Henri whispered to Karl, “Your inflexible brother is growing wiser.”
The snowstorm was still in progress as the Baron left the next morning to return to his troops. As he exited the castle, he saw a line of about thirty mounted men approaching from the direction of the Keep. He could not distinguish their facial features in the falling snow but some helmets and breastplates seemed familiar. As the distance closed, he recognized the Magistrate and High Sheriff of Amsterdam and many of the other nobles and merchants who rode with him against the wild men. The Baron, struggling to maintain his composure, welcomed them profusely, promising each a warm seat by the castle’s fire after their long journey. The Magistrate smiled and told the Baron, “It had better be a big fireplace; the Clover Militia voted to defy the politicians and all three hundred horsemen, including the Catholics, will be here by nightfall, my lord.”
The German Count Victor Alschultz had been a professional warrior all his life, which was why the Duke of Parma recruited him for the invasion. Parma wanted the campaign to have some of the professional stability that the inexperienced Prince Otto Werner and the impulsive Prince Herman Lutwaff could nev
er provide. The two wealthy Princes had raised better equipped armies, but the Count’s men were the disciplined troops. Alschultz was not surprised when word reached him of Prince Werner’s demise and he found some aspects of his death advantageous. As commander of the western wing, he alone had nearly accomplished the goal of being the first to reach Lake Derick. Without consulting Lutwaff, he seized the moment and sent his second in command to divert Werner’s forces to his roadway. He knew Count Parma would reward his initiative if it helped conquer the Droger Land. Although Alschultz had never met his adversary Clifford van Weir, he knew and respected his reputation. Only a fool would think such a man would miss the movement of Lutwaff’s thousands of soldiers nearing his doorstep. If this formidable Dutch warlord found a way to stall Lutwaff‘s advance, his own force, now augmented by Werner’s men, might still gain the glory of capturing and plundering the once invulnerable Droger Land.
It was past midnight when word came from Gypsy scouts that Alschultz had completed his roadway and had begun ferrying troops to Karl’s Isle as expected. At dawn, Jon had his faster fleet in position and was awaiting the right wind conditions before sailing his gunboats against the ferrying operation. He had the oars secured, for he wanted his men’s hands free to bring as much musket and swivel fire upon the enemy as possible. He had divided his gunboat fleet into two groups of three boats each. A week before, the Boatswain and some sailors from Abraham’s Youngest Son had unexpectedly arrived to offer assistance. Jon sent the sailors to serve with Gustoff’s fleet but kept the trusted Boatswain to command this second group. Jon hoped to use the morning haze to hide his first approach and his first sweep did inflict massive casualties on the unsuspecting boats ferrying troops across the water. The enemy vessels provided little protection for the occupants who were at first defenseless against his gunboats. Any vessel his gunboats rammed capsized and the heavily armored occupants began to drown as they hit the water. The fire from his swivel guns and muskets devastated the stunned enemy. Yet, these veteran German mercenaries were quick to recover and by the time the wind conditions allowed for a second sweep, the channel was now empty of enemy craft and the experienced Germans on both sides of the strait were returning a massive amount of musket fire. The hulls of the gunboats no longer seemed as iron sided as they had once been, even with the new layers of plating. His fleet was being peppered by the sheer volume of enemy fire, and men were being wounded and killed but at the same time he was doing much greater harm to the enemy standing in the open. Jon was awaiting the proper wind for a third attack when the Germans began to cheer.
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