History of the United Netherlands, 1585 part 1 | Page 4

its ample
harbours. The stream, nearly half a mile in width, and sixty feet in
depth, with a tidal rise and fall of eleven feet, moves, for a few miles, in
a broad and steady current between the provinces of Brabant and
Flanders. Then, dividing itself into many ample estuaries, and gathering
up the level isles of Zeeland into its bosom, it seems to sweep out with
them into the northern ocean. Here, at the junction of the river and the
sea, lay the perpetual hope of Antwerp, for in all these creeks and
currents swarmed the fleets of the Zeelanders, that hardy and
amphibious race, with which few soldiers or mariners could
successfully contend, on land or water.
Even from the beginning of the year 1584 Parma had been from time to
time threatening Antwerp. The victim instinctively felt that its enemy
was poising and hovering over head, although he still delayed to strike.
Early in the summer Sainte Aldegonde, Recorder Martini, and other
official personages, were at Delft, upon the occasion of the christening
ceremonies of Frederic Henry, youngest child of Orange. The Prince, at
that moment, was aware of the plans of Parma, and held a long
conversation with his friends upon the measures which he desired to
see immediately undertaken. Unmindful of his usual hospitality, he
insisted that these gentlemen should immediately leave for Antwerp.
Alexander Farnese, he assured them, had taken the firm determination
to possess himself of that place, without further delay. He had privately
signified his purpose of laying the axe at once to the root of the tree,
believing that with the fall of the commercial capital the infant
confederacy of the United States would fall likewise. In order to
accomplish this object, he would forthwith attempt to make himself
master of the banks of the Scheldt, and would even throw a bridge
across the stream, if his plans were not instantly circumvented.
William of Orange then briefly indicated his plan; adding that he had
no fears for the result; and assuring his friends, who expressed much
anxiety on the subject, that if Parma really did attempt the siege of
Antwerp it should be his ruin. The plan was perfectly simple. The city

stood upon a river. It was practicable, although extremely hazardous,
for the enemy to bridge that river, and by so doing ultimately to reduce
the place. But the ocean could not be bridged; and it was quite possible
to convert Antwerp, for a season, into an ocean-port. Standing alone
upon an island, with the sea flowing around it, and with full and free
marine communication with Zeeland and Holland, it might safely bid
defiance to the land-forces, even of so great a commander as Parma. To
the furtherance of this great measure of defence, it was necessary to
destroy certain bulwarks, the chief of (10th June, 1584) which was
called the Blaw-garen Dyke; and Sainte Aldegonde was therefore
requested to return to the city, in order to cause this task to be executed
without delay.
Nothing could be more judicious than this advice. The low lands along
the Scheldt were protected against marine encroachments, and the river
itself was confined to its bed, by a magnificent system of dykes, which
extended along its edge towards the ocean, in parallel lines. Other
barriers of a similar nature ran in oblique directions, through the wide
open pasture lands, which they maintained in green fertility, against the
ever-threatening sea. The Blaw-garen, to which the prince mainly
alluded, was connected with the great dyke upon the right bank of the
Scheldt. Between this and the city, another bulwark called the
Kowenstyn Dyke, crossed the country at right angles to the river, and
joined the other two at a point, not very far from Lillo, where the States
had a strong fortress.
The country in this neighbourhood was low, spongy, full of creeks,
small meres, and the old bed of the Scheldt. Orange, therefore, made it
very clear, that by piercing the great dyke just described, such a vast
body of water would be made to pour over the land as to submerge the
Kowenstyn also, the only other obstacle in the passage of fleets from
Zeeland to Antwerp. The city would then be connected with the sea and
its islands, by so vast an expanse of navigable water, that any attempt
on Parma's part to cut off supplies and succour would be hopeless.
Antwerp would laugh the idea of famine to scorn; and although this
immunity would be purchased by the sacrifice of a large amount of
agricultural territory the price so paid was but a slender one, when the
existence of the capital, and with it perhaps of the whole confederacy
was at stake.

Sainte Aldegonde and Martini suggested, that, as there would be