History of the United Netherlands, 1585 part 1 | Page 3

of
manhood, a fine martial figure, standing, spear in hand, full in the
sunlight, though all the scene around him was wrapped in gloom--a
noble, commanding shape, entitled to the admiration which the
energetic display of great powers, however unscrupulous, must always
command. A dark, meridional physiognomy, a quick; alert, imposing
head; jet black, close-clipped hair; a bold eagle's face, with full, bright,
restless eye; a man rarely reposing, always ready, never alarmed; living
in the saddle, with harness on his back--such was the Prince of Parma;
matured and mellowed, but still unharmed by time.
The cities of Flanders and Brabant he determined to reduce by gaining
command of the Scheldt. The five principal ones Ghent, Dendermonde,
Mechlin, Brussels Antwerp, lie narrow circle, at distances from each
other varying from five miles to thirty, and are all strung together by
the great Netherland river or its tributaries. His plan was immensely
furthered by the success of Balthasar Gerard, an ally whom Alexander
had despised and distrusted, even while he employed him. The
assassination of Orange was better to Parma than forty thousand men.
A crowd of allies instantly started up for him, in the shape of treason,
faintheartedness, envy, jealousy, insubordination, within the walls of
every beleaguered city. Alexander knew well how to deal with those
auxiliaries. Letters, artfully concocted, full of conciliation and of
promise, were circulated in every council-room, in almost every house.
The surrender of Ghent--brought about by the governor's eloquence,
aided by the golden arguments which he knew so well how to
advance--had by the middle of September (19th Sept. 1584), put him in
possession of West Flanders, with the important exception of the coast.
Dendermonde capitulated at a still earlier day; while the fall of Brussels,
which held out till many persons had been starved to death, was
deferred till the 10th March of the following year, and that of Mechlin
till midsummer.
The details of the military or political operations, by which the
reduction of most of these places were effected, possess but little

interest. The siege of Antwerp, however, was one of the most striking
events of the age; and although the change in military tactics and the
progress of science may have rendered this leaguer of less technical
importance than it possessed in the sixteenth century, yet the
illustration that it affords of the splendid abilities of Parma, of the most
cultivated mode of warfare in use at that period, and of the internal
politics by which the country was then regulated, make it necessary to
dwell upon the details of an episode which must ever possess enduring
interest.
It is agreeable to reflect, too, that the fame of the general is not polluted
with the wholesale butchery, which has stained the reputation of other
Spanish commanders so indelibly. There was no killing for the mere
love of slaughter. With but few exceptions, there was no murder in cold
blood; and the many lives that were laid down upon those watery dykes
were sacrificed at least in bold, open combat; in a contest, the ruling
spirits of which were patriotism, or at least honour.
It is instructive, too, to observe the diligence and accuracy with which
the best lights of the age were brought to bear upon the great problem
which Parma had undertaken to solve. All the science then at command
was applied both by the Prince and by his burgher antagonists to the
advancement of their ends. Hydrostatics, hydraulics, engineering,
navigation, gunnery, pyrotechnics, mining, geometry, were summoned
as broadly, vigorously, and intelligently to the destruction or
preservation of a trembling city, as they have ever been, in more
commercial days, to advance a financial or manufacturing purpose.
Land converted into water, and water into land, castles built upon the
breast of rapid streams, rivers turned from their beds and taught new
courses; the distant ocean driven across ancient bulwarks, mines dug
below the sea, and canals made to percolate obscene morasses--which
the red hand of war, by the very act, converted into blooming
gardens--a mighty stream bridged and mastered in the very teeth of
winter, floating ice-bergs, ocean-tides, and an alert and desperate foe,
ever ready with fleets and armies and batteries--such were the materials
of which the great spectacle was composed; a spectacle which
enchained the attention of Europe for seven months, and on the result
of which, it was thought, depended the fate of all the Netherlands, and
perhaps of all Christendom.

Antwerp, then the commercial centre of the Netherlands and of Europe,
stands upon the Scheldt. The river, flowing straight, broad, and full
along the verge of the city, subtends the arc into which the place
arranges itself as it falls back from the shore. Two thousand ships of the
largest capacity then known might easily find room in