History of the United Netherlands, 1586a | Page 4

the camp in the States' army, with a
salary of twelve hundred and fifty guilders a month. He agreed to
resign his famous castle of Blyenbeek, but was to be reimbursed with
estates in Holland and Zeeland, of the annual value of four thousand
florins.
After this treaty, Martin and his free lances served the States faithfully,

and became sworn foes to Parma and the King. He gave and took no
quarter, and his men, if captured, "paid their ransom with their heads."
He ceased to be the scourge of Gelderland, but he became the terror of
the electorate. Early in 1586, accompanied by Herman Kloet, the young
and daring Dutch commandant of Neusz, he had swept down into the
Westphalian country, at the head of five hundred foot and five hundred
horse. On the 18th of March he captured the city of Werll by a neat
stratagem. The citizens, hemmed in on all sides by marauders, were in
want of many necessaries of life, among other things, of salt. Martin
had, from time to time, sent some of his soldiers into the place,
disguised as boors from the neighbourhood, and carrying bags of that
article. A pacific trading intercourse had thus been established between
the burghers within and the banditti without the gates. Agreeable
relations were formed within the walls, and a party of townsmen had
agreed to cooperate with the followers of Schenk. One morning a train
of waggons laden with soldiers neatly covered with salt, made their
appearance at the gate. At the same time a fire broke out most
opportunely within the town. The citizens busily employed themselves
in extinguishing the flames. The salted soldiers, after passing through
the gateway, sprang from the waggons, and mastered the watch. The
town was. carried at a blow. Some of the inhabitants were massacred as
a warning to the rest; others were taken prisoners and held for ransom;
a few, more fortunate, made their escape to the citadel. That fortress
was stormed in vain, but the city was thoroughly sacked. Every house
was rifled of its contents. Meantime Haultepenne collected a force of
nearly four thousand men, boors, citizens, and soldiers, and came to
besiege Schenk in the town, while, at the same time, attacks were made
upon him from the castle. It was impossible for him to hold the city, but
he had completely robbed it of every thing valuable. Accordingly he
loaded a train of waggons with his booty, took with him thirty of the
magistrates as hostages, with other wealthy citizens, and marching in
good order against Haultepenne, completely routed him, killing a
number variously estimated at from five hundred to two thousand, and
effected his retreat, desperately wounded in the thigh, but triumphant,
and laden with the spoils to Venlo on the Meuse, of which city he was
governor.
"Surely this is a noble fellow, a worthy fellow," exclaimed Leicester,

who was filled with admiration at the bold marauder's progress, and
vowed that he was "the only soldier in truth that they had, for he was
never idle, and had succeeded hitherto very happily."
And thus, at every point of the doomed territory of the little
commonwealth, the natural atmosphere in which the inhabitants existed
was one of blood and rapine. Yet during the very slight lull, which was
interposed in the winter of 1585-6 to the eternal clang of arms in
Friesland, the Estates of that Province, to their lasting honour, founded
the university of Franeker. A dozen years before, the famous institution
at Leyden had been established, as a reward to the burghers for their
heroic defence of the city. And now this new proof was given of the
love of Netherlanders, even in the midst of their misery and their
warfare, for the more humane arts. The new college was well endowed
from ancient churchlands, and not only was the education made nearly
gratuitous, while handsome salaries were provided for the professors,
but provision was made by which the, poorer scholars could be fed and
boarded at a very moderate expense. There was a table provided at an
annual cost to the student of but fifty florins, and a second and third
table at the very low price of forty and thirty florins respectively. Thus
the sum to be paid by the poorer class of scholars for a year's
maintenance was less than three pounds sterling a year [1855 exchange
rate D.W.]. The voice with which this infant seminary of the Muses
first made itself heard above the din of war was but feeble, but the
institution was destined to thrive, and to endow the world, for many
successive generations, with the golden fruits of science and genius.
Early in the spring, the war was seriously taken in hand by Farnese. It
has already