By Pike and Dyke: a Tale of the Rise of the Dutch Republic

by G. A. Henty

  CHAPTER XXI

  THE SIEGE OF ANTWERP

  On the 10th of July, 1584, a deep gloom was cast over all Hollandand England, by the assassination of the Prince of Orange. Manyattempts had been made upon his life by paid agents of the Kingof Spain. One had been nearly successful, and the prince had lainfor weeks almost at the point of death. At last the hatred of Philipand Parma gained its end, and the prince fell a victim to the bulletof an assassin, who came before him disguised as a petitioner. Hismurderer was captured, and put to death with horrible tortures,boasting of his crime to the last. It was proved beyond allquestion that he, as well as the authors of the previous attempts,was acting at the instigation of the Spanish authorities, and hadbeen promised vast sums in the event of his success.

  Thus died the greatest statesman of his age; a pure patriot, adisinterested politician, a great orator, a man possessing at onceimmense talent, unbounded perseverance, a fortitude under misfortunesbeyond proof, and an unshakeable faith in God. But terrible as wasthe blow to the Netherlands, it failed to have the effect whichits instigators had hoped from it. On the very day of the murderthe Estates of Holland, then sitting at Delft, passed a resolution"to maintain the good cause, with God's help, to the uttermost,without sparing gold or blood." The prince's eldest son had beenkidnapped from school in Leyden by Philip's orders, and had beena captive in Spain for seventeen years under the tutorship ofthe Jesuits. Maurice, the next son, now seventeen years old, wasappointed head of the States Council.

  But the position of the Netherlands was still well nigh desperate.Flanders and Brabant lay at the feet of the Spaniards. A risingwhich had lately taken place had been crushed. Bruges had surrenderedwithout a blow. The Duke of Parma, with 18,000 troops, besides hisgarrisons, was threatening Ghent, Mechlin, Brussels, and Antwerp, andwas freely using promises and bribery to induce them to surrender.Dendermonde and Vilvoorde both opened their gates, the capitulationof the latter town cutting the communication between Brussels andAntwerp. Ghent followed the example and surrendered without strikinga blow, and at the moment of the assassination of the Prince ofOrange Parma's army was closing round Antwerp.

  Sir Edward Martin was at Antwerp, where he had gone by the queen'sorder, when he received the news of the murder of the prince, whomhe had seen a few days before. He was filled with grief and horrorat the loss of one who had been for six years his friend, and whomhe regarded with enthusiastic admiration. It seemed to him at firstthat with the death of the prince the cause of the Netherlands waslost, and had the former attempts of Philip's emissaries upon theprince's life been successful such a result would no doubt havefollowed; but the successful defence of their cities, and theknowledge they had gained that the sea could be made to fight forthem, had given the people of Holland strength and hope. Theirmaterial resources, too, were larger than before, for great numbersof the Protestants from the other provinces had emigrated there,and had added alike to their strength and wealth. At first, however,the news caused something like despair in Antwerp. Men went aboutdepressed and sorrowful, as if they had lost their dearest friend;but Sainte Aldegonde, who had been appointed by the prince to takecharge of the defence of Antwerp, encouraged the citizens, and theirdetermination to resist returned. Unfortunately there had alreadybeen terrible blundering. William de Blois, Lord of Treslong andAdmiral of the fleet of Holland and Zeeland, had been ordered tocarry up to the city provisions and munitions of war sufficient tolast for a year, the money having been freely voted by the StatesGeneral of these provinces.

  But Treslong disobeyed the orders, and remained week after week atOstend drinking heavily and doing nothing else. At last the States,enraged at his disobedience, ordered him to be arrested and throwninto prison; but this was too late to enable the needed stores tobe taken up to Antwerp. The citizens were under no uneasiness. Theybelieved that it was absolutely impossible to block the river, andthat, therefore, they could at all times receive supplies from thecoast. On both sides of the river below the town the land was lowand could at any time be laid under water, and Sainte Aldegondebrought the Prince of Orange's instructions that the great dyke,called Blauwgaren, was to be pierced. This would have laid thecountry under water for miles, and even the blocking of the riverwould not have prevented the arrival of ships with provisions andsupplies.

  Unfortunately Sainte Aldegonde's power was limited. The Butchers'Guild rose against the proposal, and their leaders appeared beforethe magistrates and protested against the step being carried out.Twelve thousand cattle grazed upon the pastures which would besubmerged, and the destruction of farms, homesteads, and orchardswould be terrible. As to the blocking up of the river, the idea wasabsurd, and the operation far beyond the power of man. The butcherswere supported by the officers of the militia, who declared thatwere the authorities to attempt the destruction of the dyke themunicipal soldiery would oppose it by force.

  Such was the state of things when the only man whom the democracywould listen to and obey fell by the assassin's knife, and hisdeath and the obstinate stupidity of the burghers of Antwerp sealedthe fate of the city. Sainte Aldegonde had hailed the arrival ofElizabeth's envoy, and consulted with him as to the steps to betaken for the defence of the city. He himself did not believe inthe possibility of the river being stopped. It was nearly half amile in width and sixty feet in depth, with a tidal rise and fallof eleven feet. Ned agreed with the governor or burgomaster--forthis was Saint Aldegonde's title--that the work of blocking thisriver seemed impossible, but his reliance upon the opinion of theprince was so great that he did what he could towards persuadingthe populace to permit the plans to be carried out. But Elizabethhad so often disappointed the people of the Netherlands that herenvoy possessed no authority, and the magistrates, with whom werethe ward masters, the deans of all the guilds, the presidentsof chambers and heads of colleges, squabbled and quarrelled amongthemselves, and nothing was done.

  The garrison consisted only of a regiment of English under ColonelMorgan and a Scotch regiment under Colonel Balfour, but these werein a state of indiscipline, and a mutiny had shortly before brokenout among them. Many of the troops had deserted to Parma and somehad returned home, and it was not until Morgan had beheaded CaptainLee and Captain Powell that order was restored among them. Besidethese were the burgher militia, who were brave and well trained,but insubordinate, and ready on every occasion to refuse obedienceto authority.

  The first result of the general confusion which prevailed in Antwerpwas that Herenthals was allowed to fall without assistance. Hadthis small but important city been succoured it would have enabledAntwerp to protract its own defence for some time.

  The veteran Mondragon as he took possession remarked, "Now it is easyto see that the Prince of Orange is dead;" and indeed it was onlyunder his wise supervision and authority that anything like concertedaction between the cities, which were really small republics, waspossible.

  Quietly but steadily the Duke of Parma established fortified postsat various points on both banks of the Lower Scheldt, therebyrendering its navigation more difficult, and covering in somedegree the spot where he intended to close the river. Nine milesbelow the city were two forts--Lillo and Liefkenshoek--one oneither side of the stream. The fortifications of Lillo was complete,but those of Liefkenshoek were not finished when Parma orderedthe Marquis of Richebourg to carry it by assault. It was taken bysurprise, and the eight hundred men who composed its garrison wereall killed or drowned. This first blow took place on the very daythe Prince of Orange was killed.

  Lillo was garrisoned by Antwerp volunteers, called the Young Bachelors,together with a company of French under Captain Gascoigne, and 400Scotch and Englishmen under Colonel Morgan. Mondragon was orderedto take the place at any cost. He took up his position with 5000men at the country house and farm of Lillo a short distance from thefort, planted his batteries and opened fire. The fort respondedbriskly, and finding that the walls were little injured byhis artillery fire Mondragon tried to take it by mining. Teligny,however, ran counter
mines, and for three weeks the siege continued,the Spaniards gaining no advantage and losing a considerable numberof men. At last Teligny made a sortie, and a determined action tookplace without advantage on either side. The defenders were thenrecalled to the fort, the sluice gates were opened, and the watersof the Scheldt, swollen by a high tide, poured over the country.Swept by the fire of the guns of the fort and surrounded by water,the Spaniards were forced to make a rapid retreat, struggling breasthigh in the waves.

  Seeing the uselessness of the siege, the attempt to capture Lillowas abandoned, having cost the Spaniards no less than two thousandlives. Parma's own camp was on the opposite side of the river, atthe villages of Beveren, Kalloo, and Borght, and he was thus nearlyopposite to Antwerp, as the river swept round with a sharp curve.He had with him half his army, while the rest were at Stabroek onthe opposite side of the river, nearly ten miles below Antwerp.Kallo stood upon rising ground, and was speedily transformedinto a bustling town. From this point an army of men dug a canalto Steeken, a place on the river above Antwerp twelve miles fromKalloo, and as soon as Ghent and Dendermonde had fallen, greatrafts of timber, fleets of boats laden with provisions, munitions,building materials, and every other requisite for the greatundertaking Parma had in view were brought to Kalloo.

  To this place was brought also by Parma's orders the shipwrights,masons, ropemakers, sailors, boatmen, bakers, brewers, and butchersof Flanders and Brabant, and work went on unceasingly. But whilethe autumn wore on the river was still open; and in spite ofthe Spanish batteries on the banks the daring sailors of Zeelandbrought up their ships laden with corn to Antwerp, where the pricewas already high. Had this traffic been continued Antwerp wouldsoon have been provisioned for a year's siege; but the folly andstupidity of the municipal authorities put a stop to it, for theyenacted that, instead of the high prices current for grain, whichhad tempted the Zeelanders to run the gauntlet of the Spanishbatteries, a price but little above that obtainable in other placesshould be given. The natural result was, the supply of provisionsceased at once.

  "Did you ever see anything like the obstinacy and folly of theseburghers?" Sainte Aldegonde said in despair to Ned, when, in spiteof his entreaties, this suicidal edict had been issued. "What possibleavail is it to endeavour to defend a city which seems bent on itsown destruction?"

  "The best thing to do," Ned replied in great anger, "would beto surround the town hall with the companies of Morgan's regimentremaining here, and to hang every one of these thick headed andinsolent tradesmen."

  "It would be the best way," Sainte Aldegonde agreed, "if we hadalso a sufficient force to keep down the city. These knaves thinkvastly more of their own privileges than of the good of the State,or even of the safety of the town. Here, as in Ghent, the peopleare divided into sections and parties, who, when there is no oneelse to quarrel with, are ever ready to fly at each other's throats.Each of these leaders of guilds and presidents of chambers considershimself a little god, and it is quite enough if anyone else expressesan opinion for the majority to take up at once the opposite view."

  "I looked in at the town hall yesterday," Ned said, "and such anuproar was going on that no one could be heard to speak. Twentymen were on their feet at once, shouting and haranguing, and payingnot the slightest attention to each other; while the rest joinedin from time to time with deafening cries and yells. Never did Isee such a scene. And it is upon such men as these that it reststo decide upon the measures to be taken for the safety of the city!"

  "Ah, if we had but the prince here among us again for a few hoursthere would be some hope," Sainte Aldegonde said; "for he would beable to persuade the people that in times like these there is nosafety in many counsellors, but that they must be content for thetime to obey one man."

  On the Flemish side of the river the sluices had been opened atSaftingen. The whole country there, with the exception of the groundon which Kalloo and the other villages stood, was under water.Still the Blauwgaren dyke, and an inner dyke called the Kowenstyn,barred back the water, which, had it free course, would have turnedthe country into a sea and given passage to the fleets of Zeeland.Now that it was too late, those who had so fiercely opposed the planat first were eager that these should be cut. But it was now outof their power to do so. The Lord of Kowenstyn, who had a castleon the dyke which bore his name, had repeatedly urged upon theAntwerp magistracy the extreme importance of cutting through thisdyke, even if they deferred the destruction of the outer one. Enragedat their obstinacy and folly, and having the Spanish armies allround him, he made terms with Parma, and the Spaniards establishedthemselves firmly along the bank, built strong redoubts upon it,and stationed five thousand men there.

  As the prince had foreseen, the opening of the Saftingen sluice hadassisted Parma instead of adding to his difficulties; for he wasnow no longer confined to the canal, but was able to bring a fleetof large vessels, laden with cannon and ammunition, from Ghent downthe Scheldt, and in through a breach through the dyke of Borghtto Kalloo. Sainte Aldegonde, in order to bar the Borght passage,built a work called Fort Teligny upon the dyke, opposite thatthrown up by the Spaniards, and in the narrow passage between themconstant fighting went on between the Spaniards and patriots. Stillthe people of Antwerp felt confident, for the Scheldt was stillopen, and when food became short the Zeeland fleet could at anytime sail up to their assistance. But before winter closed in Parmacommenced the work for which he had made such mighty preparations.

  Between Kalloo and Oordam, on the opposite side, a sand bar hadbeen discovered, which somewhat diminished the depth of the streamand rendered pile driving comparatively easy. A strong fort waserected on each bank and the work of driving in the piles began.From each side a framework of heavy timber, supported on thesemassive piles, was carried out so far that the width of open waterwas reduced from twenty-four to thirteen hundred feet, and strongblockhouses were erected upon each pier to protect them from assault.Had a concerted attack been made by the Antwerp ships from above,and the Zeeland fleet from below, the works could at this timehave been easily destroyed. But the fleet had been paralyzed by theinsubordination of Treslong, and there was no plan or concert; sothat although constant skirmishing went on, no serious attack wasmade.

  The brave Teligny, one night going down in a rowboat to communicatewith the Zeelanders and arrange for joint action, was captured bythe Spanish boats, and remained for six years in prison. His losswas a very serious blow to Antwerp and to the cause. On the 13thof November Parma sent in a letter to Antwerp, begging the citizensto take compassion on their wives and children and make terms.Parma had none of the natural bloodthirstiness of Alva, and wouldhave been really glad to have arranged matters without furtherfighting; especially as he was almost without funds, and theattitude of the King of France was so doubtful that he knew thatat any moment his plans might be overthrown.

  The States in January attempted to make a diversion in favour ofAntwerp by attacking Bois le Duc, a town from which the Spaniardsdrew a large portion of their supplies. Parma, although feeling theextreme importance of this town, had been able to spare no men forits defence; and although it was strong, and its burghers notablybrave and warlike, it seemed that it might be readily captured bysurprise. Count Hohenlohe was entrusted with the enterprise, andwith 4000 infantry and 200 cavalry advanced towards the place.Fifty men, under an officer who knew the town, hid at night nearthe gate, and when in the morning the portcullis was lifted, rushedin, overpowered the guard, and threw open the gate, and Hohenlohe,with his 200 troopers and 500 pikemen, entered.

  These at once, instead of securing the town, scattered to plunder.It happened that forty Spanish lancers and thirty foot soldiers hadcome into the town the night before to form an escort for a convoyof provisions. They were about starting when the tumult broke out.As Hohenlohe's troops thought of nothing but pillage, time wasgiven to the burghers to seize their arms; and they, with the littlebody of troops, fell upon the plunderers, who, at the sight of theSpanish uniforms, were seized with a panic.
Hohenlohe galloped tothe gate to bring in the rest of the troops; but while he was awayone of its guards, although desperately wounded at its capture,crawled to the ropes which held up the portcullis and cut them withhis knife. Thus those within were cut off from their friends. Manyof them were killed, others threw themselves from the walls intothe moat, and very few of those who had entered made their escape.

  When Hohenlohe returned with 2000 fresh troops and found the gatesshut in his face, he had nothing to do but to ride away, the enterprisehaving failed entirely through his own folly and recklessness; forit was he himself who had encouraged his followers to plunder. Hadhe kept them together until the main force entered, no resistancecould have been offered to him, or had he when he rode out to fetchreinforcements left a guard at the gate to prevent its being shut,the town could again have been taken. Parma himself wrote to Philipacknowledging that "Had the rebels succeeded in their enterprise,I should have been compelled to have abandoned the siege of Antwerp."

  But now the winter, upon which the people in Antwerp had chieflydepended for preventing the blocking of the stream, was upon thebesiegers. The great river, lashed by storms into fury, and rollinghuge masses of ice up and down with the tide, beat against the piers,and constantly threatened to carry them away. But the structurewas enormously strong. The piles had been driven fifty feet intothe river bed, and withstood the force of the stream, and on the25th of February the Scheldt was closed.

  Parma had from the first seen that it was absolutely impossibleto drive piles across the deep water between the piers, and hadprepared to connect them with a bridge of boats. For this purposehe had constructed thirty-two great barges, each sixty-two feetin length, and twelve in breadth. These were moored in pairs withmassive chains and anchors, the distance between each pair beingtwenty-two feet. All were bound together with chains and timbersand a roadway protected by a parapet of massive beams was formedacross it. Each boat was turned into a fortress by the erectionof solid wooden redoubts at each end, mounting heavy guns, and wasmanned by thirty-two soldiers and four sailors. The forts at theend of the bridge each mounted ten great guns, and twenty armedvessels with heavy pieces of artillery were moored in front of eachfort. Thus the structure was defended by 170 great guns.

  As an additional protection to the bridge, two heavy rafts, each1250 feet long, composed of empty barrels, heavy timbers, ships'masts, and woodwork bound solidly together, were moored at somelittle distance above and below the bridge of boats. These raftswere protected by projecting beams of wood tipped with iron, tocatch any vessels floating down upon them. The erection of thisstructure was one of the most remarkable military enterprises evercarried out.

  Now that it was too late the people of Antwerp bitterly bewailedtheir past folly, which had permitted an enterprise that couldat any moment have been interrupted to be carried to a successfulissue.

  But if something like despair seized the citizens at the sight ofthe obstacle that cut them off from all hope of succour, the feelingsof the great general whose enterprise and ability had carried outthe work were almost as depressed. His troops had dwindled to themere shadow of an army, the cavalry had nearly disappeared, thegarrisons in the various cities were starving, and the burghershad no food either for the soldiers or themselves.

  The troops were two years behindhand in their pay. Parma had longexhausted every means of credit, and his appeals to his sovereignfor money met with no response. But while in his letters to Philiphe showed the feelings of despair which possessed him, he kepta smiling countenance to all else. A spy having been captured, heordered him to be conducted over every part of the encampment. Theforts and bridge were shown to him, and he was requested to countthe pieces of artillery, and was then sent back to the town toinform the citizens of what he had seen.

  At this moment Brussels, which had long been besieged, was starvedinto surrender, and Parma was reinforced by the troops who hadbeen engaged in the siege of that city. A misfortune now befell himsimilar to that which the patriots had suffered at Bois le Duc. Hehad experienced great inconvenience from not possessing a port onthe sea coast of Flanders, and consented to a proposal of La Motte,one of the most experienced of the Walloon generals, to surpriseOstend. On the night of the 29th of March, La Motte, with 2000 footand 1200 cavalry, surprised and carried the old port of the town.Leaving an officer in charge of the position, he went back to bringup the rest of his force. In his absence the soldiers scattered toplunder. The citizens roused themselves, killed many of them, andput the rest to flight, and by the time La Motte returned with thefresh troops the panic had become so general that the enterprisehad to be abandoned.

  The people of Antwerp now felt that unless some decisive steps weretaken their fate was sealed. A number of armed vessels sailed upfrom Zeeland, and, assisted by a detachment from Fort Lillo, suddenlyattacked and carried Fort Liefkenshoek, which had been taken fromthem at the commencement of the siege, and also Fort St. Anthonylower down the river. In advancing towards the latter fort theydisobeyed Sainte Aldegonde's express orders, which were that theyshould, after capturing Liefkenshoek, at once follow the dyke upthe river to the point where it was broken near the fort at theend of the bridge, and should there instantly throw up strong works.

  Had they followed out these orders they could from this point havebattered the bridge, and destroyed this barrier over the river. Butthe delay caused by the attack on the Fort St. Anthony was fatal,for at night Parma sent a strong body of soldiers and sappers inboats from Kalloo to the broken end of the dyke, and these beforemorning threw up works upon the very spot where Sainte Aldegonde hadintended the battery for the destruction of the bridge to be erected.Nevertheless the success was a considerable one. The possession ofLillo and Liefkenshoek restored to the patriots the command of theriver to within three miles of the bridge, and enabled the Zeelandfleet to be brought up at that point.

  Another blow was now meditated. There was in Antwerp an Italiannamed Gianobelli, a man of great science and inventive power. Hehad first gone to Spain to offer his inventions to Philip, but hadmet with such insolent neglect there that he had betaken himselfin a rage to Flanders, swearing that the Spaniards should repenttheir treatment of him. He had laid his plans before the Councilof Antwerp, and had asked from them three ships of a hundred andfifty, three hundred and fifty, and five hundred tons respectively,besides these he wanted sixty flat bottomed scows. Had this requestbeen complied with it is certain that Parma's bridge would havebeen utterly destroyed; but the leading men were building a greatship or floating castle of their own design, from which theyexpected such great things that they christened it the End of theWar. Gianobelli had warned them that this ship would certainly turnout a failure. However, they persisted, and instead of grantinghim the ships he wanted, only gave him two small vessels of seventyand eighty tons.

  Although disgusted with their parsimony on so momentous an occasion,Gianobelli set to work with the aid of two skilful artisans ofAntwerp to fit them up.

  In the hold of each vessel a solid flooring of brick and mortar afoot thick was first laid down. Upon this was built a chamber ofmasonry forty feet long, three and a half feet wide, and as manyhigh, and with side walls five feet thick. This chamber was coveredwith a roof six feet thick of tombstones placed edgeways, and wasfilled with a powder of Gianobelli's own invention. Above was pileda pyramid of millstones, cannonballs, chain shot, iron hooks, andheavy missiles of all kinds, and again over these were laid heavymarble slabs. The rest of the hold was filled with paving stones.

  One ship was christened the Fortune, and on this the mine was tobe exploded by a slow match, cut so as to explode at a calculatedmoment. The mine on board the Hope was to be started by a pieceof clockwork, which at the appointed time was to strike fire froma flint. Planks and woodwork were piled on the decks to give to thetwo vessels the appearance of simple fireships. Thirty-two smallcraft, saturated with tar and turpentine and filled with inflammablematerials, were to be sent down the river in detachments of eightever
y half hour, to clear away if possible the raft above the bridgeand to occupy the attention of the Spaniards.

  The 5th of April, the day after the capture of the Liefkenshoek,was chosen for the attempt. It began badly. Admiral Jacobzoon, whowas in command, instead of sending down the fireboats in batchesas arranged, sent them all off one after another, and started thetwo mine ships immediately afterwards. As soon as their approachwas discovered, the Spaniards, who had heard vague rumours that anattack by water was meditated, at once got under arms and musteredupon the bridge and forts. Parma himself, with all his principalofficers, superintended the arrangements. As the fleet of smallships approached they burst into flames. The Spaniards silentlywatched the approaching danger, but soon began to take heartagain. Many of the boats grounded on the banks of the river beforereaching their destination, others burned out and sank, while therest drifted against the raft, but were kept from touching it by thelong projecting timbers, and burned out without doing any damage.

  Then came the two ships. The pilots as they neared the bridgeescaped in boats, and the current carried them down, one on eachside of the raft, towards the solid ends of the bridge. The Fortunecame first, but grounded near the shore without touching the bridge.Just as it did so the slow match upon deck burnt out. There was afaint explosion, but no result; and Sir Ronald Yorke, the man whohad handed over Zutphen, sprang on board with a party of volunteers,extinguished the fire smoldering on deck, and thrusting theirspears down into the hold, endeavoured to ascertain the nature ofits contents. Finding it impossible to do so they returned to thebridge.

  The Spaniards were now shouting with laughter at the impotentattempt of the Antwerpers to destroy the bridge, and were watchingthe Hope, which was now following her consort. She passed justclear of the end of the raft, and struck the bridge close to theblockhouse at the commencement of the floating portion. A firewas smoldering on her deck, and a party of soldiers at once sprangon board to extinguish this, as their comrades had done the fireon board the Fortune. The Marquis of Richebourg, standing on thebridge, directed the operations. The Prince of Parma was standingclose by, when an officer named Vega, moved by a sudden impulse,fell on his knees and implored him to leave the place, and not torisk a life so precious to Spain. Moved by the officer's entreatiesParma turned and walked along the bridge. He had just reached theentrance to the fort when a terrific explosion took place.

  The clockwork of the Hope had succeeded better than the slow matchin the Fortune. In an instant she disappeared, and with her theblockhouse against which she had struck, with all of its garrison,a large portion of the bridge, and all the troops stationed uponit. The ground was shaken as if by an earthquake, houses fell milesaway, and the air was filled with a rain of mighty blocks of stone,some of which were afterwards found a league away. A thousandsoldiers were killed in an instant, the rest were dashed to theground, stunned and bewildered. The Marquis of Richebourg and mostof Parma's best officers were killed. Parma himself lay for a longtime as if dead, but presently recovered and set to work to do whathe could to repair the disaster.

  The Zeeland fleet were lying below, only waiting for the signalto move up to destroy the rest of the bridge and carry succour tothe city; but the incompetent and cowardly Jacobzoon rowed hastilyaway after the explosion, and the rocket that should have summonedthe Zeelanders was never sent up. Parma moved about among histroops, restoring order and confidence, and as the night went onand no assault took place he set his men to work to collect driftingtimbers and spars, and make a hasty and temporary restoration, inappearance at least, of the ruined portion of the bridge.

  It was not until three days afterwards that the truth that thebridge had been partially destroyed, and that the way was open, wasknown at Antwerp. But by this time it was too late. The Zeelandershad retired; the Spaniards had recovered their confidence, andwere hard at work restoring the bridge. From time to time freshfireships were sent down; but Parma had now established a patrolof boats, which went out to meet them and towed them to shore farabove the bridge. In the weeks that followed Parma's army dwindledaway from sickness brought on by starvation, anxiety, and overwork;while the people of Antwerp were preparing for an attack upon thedyke of Kowenstyn. If that could be captured and broken, Parma'sbridge would be rendered useless, as the Zeeland fleet could passup over the submerged country with aid.

  Parma was well aware of the supreme importance of this dyke. Hehad fringed both its margins with breastworks of stakes, and hadstrengthened the whole body of the dyke with timber work and piles.Where it touched the great Scheldt dyke a strong fortress calledthe Holy Cross had been constructed under the command of Mondragon,and at the further end, in the neighbourhood of Mansfeldt'sheadquarters, was another fort called the Stabroek, which commandedand raked the whole dyke.

  On the body of the dyke itself were three strong forts a mileapart, called St. James, St. George, and the Fort of the Palisades.Several attacks had been made from time to time, both upon thebridge and dyke, and at daybreak on the 7th of May a fleet fromLillo, under Hohenlohe, landed five hundred Zeelanders upon itbetween St. George's and Fort Palisade. But the fleet that was tohave come out from Antwerp to his assistance never arrived; andthe Zeelanders were overpowered by the fire from the two forts andthe attacks of the Spaniards, and retreated, leaving four of theirships behind them, and more than a fourth of their force.

  Upon the 26th of the same month the grand attack, from which thepeople of Antwerp hoped so much, took place. Two hundred vesselswere ready. A portion of these were to come up from Zeeland, underHohenlohe; the rest to advance from Antwerp, under Sainte Aldegonde.At two o'clock in the morning the Spanish sentinels saw fourfireships approaching the dyke. They mustered reluctantly, fearinga repetition of the previous explosion, and retired to the fort.When the fireships reached the stakes protecting the dyke, theyburned and exploded, but without effecting much damage. But in themeantime a swarm of vessels of various sizes were seen approaching.It was the fleet of Hohenlohe, which had been sailing and rowingfrom ten o'clock on the previous night.

  Guided by the light of the fireships they approached the dyke, andthe Zeelanders sprang ashore and climbed up. They were met by severalhundred Spanish troops, who, as soon as they saw the fireships burnout harmlessly, sallied out from their forts. The Zeelanders werebeginning to give way when the Antwerp fleet came up on the otherside, headed by Sainte Aldegonde. The new arrivals sprang fromtheir boats and climbed the dyke. The Spaniards were driven off,and three thousand men occupied all the space between Fort Georgeand the Palisade Fort.

  With Sainte Aldegonde came all the English and Scotch troops in Antwerpunder Balfour and Morgan, and many volunteers, among whom was NedMartin. With Hohenlohe came Prince Maurice, William the Silent'sson, a lad of eighteen. With wool sacks, sandbags, planks, andother materials the patriots now rapidly entrenched the positionthey had gained, while a large body of sappers and miners setto work with picks, mattocks, and shovels, tearing down the dyke.The Spaniards poured out from the forts; but Antwerpers, Dutchmen,Zeelanders, Scotchmen, and Englishmen met them bravely, and atremendous conflict went on at each end of the narrow causeway.

  Both parties fought with the greatest obstinacy, and for an hourthere was no advantage on either side. At last the patriots werevictorious, drove the Spaniards back into their two forts, andfollowing up their success attacked the Palisade Fort. Its outworkswere in their hands when a tremendous cheer was heard. The sappersand miners had done their work. Salt water poured through thebroken dyke, and a Zeeland barge, freighted with provisions, floatedtriumphantly into the water beyond, now no longer an inland sea.Then when the triumph seemed achieved another fatal mistake was madeby the patriots. Sainte Aldegonde and Hohenlohe, the two commandersof the enterprise, both leapt on board, anxious to be the firstto carry the news of the victory to Antwerp, where they arrived intriumph, and set all the bells ringing and bonfires blazing.

  For three hours the party on the dyke remained unmolested. Parmawas at his camp four leag
ues away, and in ignorance of what had beendone, and Mansfeldt could send no word across to him. The latterheld a council of war, but it seemed that nothing could be done.Three thousand men were entrenched on the narrow dyke, covered bythe guns of a hundred and sixty Zeeland ships. Some of the officerswere in favour of waiting until nightfall; but at last the adviceof a gallant officer, Camillo Capizucca, colonel of the ItalianLegion, carried the day in favour of an immediate assault, and theItalians and Spaniards marched together from Fort Stabroek to thePalisade Fort, which was now in extremity.

  They came in time, drove back the assailants, and were preparingto advance against them when a distant shout from the other end ofthe dyke told that Parma had arrived there. Mondragon moved fromthe Holy Cross to Fort George; and from that fort and from thePalisade the Spaniards advanced to the attack of the patriots'position. During the whole war no more desperate encounter tookplace than that upon the dyke, which was but six paces wide. Thefight was long and furious. Three times the Spaniards were repulsedwith tremendous loss; and while the patriot soldiers fought, theirpioneers still carried on the destruction of the dyke.

  A fourth assault was likewise repulsed, but the fifth was moresuccessful. The Spaniards believed that they were led by a deadcommander who had fallen some months before, and this superstitiousbelief inspired them with fresh courage. The entrenchment wascarried, but its defenders fought as obstinately as before on thedyke behind it. Just at this moment the vessels of the Zeelandersbegan to draw off. Many had been sunk or disabled by the fire thatthe forts had maintained on them; and the rest found the watersinking fast, for the tide was now ebbing.

  The patriots, believing that they were deserted by the fleet, wereseized with a sudden panic; and, leaving the dyke, tried to wade orswim off to the ships. The Spaniards with shouts of victory pursuedthem. The English and Scotch were the last to abandon the positionthey had held for seven hours, and most of them were put to thesword. Two thousand in all were slain or drowned, the remaindersucceeded in reaching the ships on one side or other of the dyke.

  Ned Martin had fought to the last. He was standing side by sidewith Justinius of Nassau, and the two sprang together into a clumpof high rushes, tore off their heavy armour and swam out to one ofthe Zeeland ships, which at once dropped down the river and reachedthe sea. Ned's mission was now at an end, and he at once returnedto England.

  The failure of the attempt upon the Kowenstyn dyke sealed the fateof Antwerp. It resisted until the middle of June; when findinghunger staring the city in the face, and having no hope whateverof relief, Sainte Aldegonde yielded to the clamour of the mob andopened negotiations.

  These were continued for nearly two months. Parma was unaware thatthe town was reduced to such an extremity, and consented to givehonourable terms. The treaty was signed on the 17th of August. Therewas to be a complete amnesty for the past. Royalist absentees wereto be reinstated in their positions. Monasteries and churches to berestored to their former possessors. The inhabitants of the citywere to practice the Catholic religion only, while those who refusedto conform were allowed two years for the purpose of winding uptheir affairs. All prisoners, with the exception of Teligny, wereto be released. Four hundred thousand florins were to be paid bythe city as a fine, and the garrison were to leave the town witharms and baggage, and all honours of war.

  The fall of Antwerp brought about with it the entire submission ofBrabant and Flanders, and henceforth the war was continued solelyby Zeeland, Holland, and Friesland.

  The death of the Prince of Orange, and the fall of Antwerp, markedthe conclusion of what may be called the first period of the struggleof the Netherlands for freedom. It was henceforth to enter uponanother phase. England, which had long assisted Holland privatelywith money, and openly by the raising of volunteers for her service,was now about to enter the arena boldly and to play an importantpart in the struggle, which, after a long period of obstinatestrife, was to end in the complete emancipation of the Netherlandsfrom the yoke of Spain.

  Sir Edward Martin married Gertrude Von Harp soon after his returnto England. He retained the favour of Elizabeth to the day of herdeath, and there were few whose counsels had more influence withher. He long continued in the public service, although no longercompelled to do so as a means of livelihood; for as Holland and Zeelandfreed themselves from the yoke of Spain, and made extraordinarystrides in wealth and prosperity, the estates of the countessonce more produced a splendid revenue, and this at her death cameentirely to her daughter. A considerable portion of Sir EdwardMartin's life, when not actually engaged upon public affairs, wasspent upon the broad estates which had come to him from his wife.