History of the United Netherlands, 1585 part 2 | Page 9

enemy so near their own borders, would be obliged to withdraw
their assistance from Antwerp. 'Tis pity to see how few Spaniards your
Majesty has left, and how diminished is our army. Now, also, is the
time to expect sickness, and this affair of Antwerp is obviously
stretching out into large proportions. Unless soon reinforced, we must
inevitably go to destruction. I implore your Majesty to ponder the
matter well, and not to defer the remedy."
His Majesty was sure to ponder the matter well, if that had been all.
Philip was good at pondering; but it was equally certain that the remedy
would be deferred. Meantime Alexander and his starving but heroic
little army were left to fight their battles as they could.
His complaints were incessant, most reasonable, but unavailing. With
all the forces he could muster, by withdrawing from the neighbourhood

of Ghent, Brussels, Vilvoorde, and from all the garrisons, every man
that could be spared, he had not strength enough to guard his own posts.
To attempt to win back the important forts recently captured by the
rebels on the Doel, was quite out of the question. The pictures he
painted of his army were indeed most dismal.
The Spaniards were so reduced by sickness that it was pitiful to see
them. The Italians were not in much better condition, nor the Germans.
"As for the Walloons," said he, "they are deserting, as they always do.
In truth, one of my principal dangers is that the French civil wars are
now tempting my soldiers across the frontier; the country there is so
much richer, and offers so much more for the plundering."
During the few weeks which immediately followed them famous
descent of the 'Hope' and the 'Fortune,' there had accordingly been
made a variety of less elaborate, but apparently mischievous, efforts
against the bridge. On the whole, however, the object was rather to
deceive and amuse the royalists, by keeping their attention fixed in that
quarter, while a great attack was, in reality, preparing against the
Kowenstyn. That strong barrier, as repeatedly stated, was even a more
formidable obstacle than the bridge to the communication between the
beleagured city and their allies upon the outside. Its capture and
demolition, even at this late period, would open the navigation to all the
fleets of Zeeland.
In the undertaking of the 5th of April all had been accomplished that
human ingenuity could devise; yet the triumph had been snatched away
even at the very moment when it was complete. A determined and
vigorous effort was soon to be made upon the Kowenstyn, in the very
face of Parma; for it now seemed obvious that the true crisis was to
come upon that fatal dyke. The great bulwark was three miles long. It
reached from Stabroek in Brabant, near which village Mansfeld's troops
were encamped, across the inundated country, up to the line of the
Scheldt. Thence, along the river-dyke, and across the bridge to Kalloo
and Beveren, where Parma's forces lay, was a continuous fortified road
some three leagues in length; so that the two divisions of the besieging
army, lying four leagues apart, were all connected by this important
line.
Could the Kowenstyn be pierced, the water, now divided by that great
bulwark into two vast lakes, would flow together in one continuous sea.

Moreover the Scheldt, it was thought, would, in that case, return to its
own cannel through Brabant, deserting its present bed, and thus leaving
the famous bridge high and dry. A wide sheet of navigable water would
then roll between Antwerp and the Zeeland coasts, and Parma's bridge,
the result of seven months' labour, would become as useless as a child's
broken toy.
Alexander had thoroughly comprehended the necessity of maintaining
the Kowenstyn. All that it was possible to do with the meagre forces at
his disposal, he had done. He had fringed both its margins, along its
whole length, with a breastwork of closely-driven stakes. He had
strengthened the whole body of the dyke with timber-work and piles.
Upon its river- end, just at the junction with the great Scheldt dyke, a
strong fortress, called the Holy Cross, had been constructed, which was
under the special command of Mondragon. Besides this, three other
forts had been built, at intervals of about a mile, upon the dyke. The
one nearest to Mondragon was placed at the Kowenstyn manor-house,
and was called Saint James. This was entrusted to Camillo Bourbon del
Monte, an Italian officer, who boasted the blood royal of France in his
veins, and was disposed on all occasions to vindicate that proud
pedigree by his deeds. The next fort was Saint George's, sometimes
called the Black Sconce. It had been built by La Motte, but it was now
in command of the