History of the United Netherlands, 1587c

History of the United
Netherlands, 1587c

The Project Gutenberg EBook History of The United Netherlands,
1587
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Title: History of the United Netherlands, 1587
Author: John Lothrop Motley
Release Date: January, 2004 [EBook #4853] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on April 5,
2002]

Edition: 10
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY
UNITED NETHERLANDS, 1587 ***

This eBook was produced by David Widger

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HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS From the Death of
William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce--1609
By John Lothrop Motley

MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg
Edition, Vol. 53
History of the United Netherlands, 1587

CHAPTER XVI
.
Situation of Sluys--Its Dutch and English Garrison--Williams writes
from Sluys to the Queen--Jealousy between the Earl and States--
Schemes to relieve Sluys--Which are feeble and unsuccessful--The
Town Capitulates--Parma enters--Leicester enraged--The Queen angry
with the Anti-Leicestrians--Norris, Wilkes, and Buckhurst punished--
Drake sails for Spain--His Exploits at Cadiz and Lisbon--He is rebuked
by Elizabeth.
When Dante had passed through the third circle of the Inferno--a desert
of red-hot sand, in which lay a multitude of victims of divine wrath,

additionally tortured by an ever-descending storm of fiery flakes--he
was led by Virgil out of this burning wilderness along a narrow
causeway. This path was protected, he said, against the showers of
flame, by the lines of vapour which rose eternally from a boiling brook.
Even by such shadowy bulwarks, added the poet, do the Flemings
between Kadzand and Bruges protect their land against the
ever-threatening sea.
It was precisely among these slender dykes between Kadzand and
Bruges that Alexander Farnese had now planted all the troops that he
could muster in the field. It was his determination to conquer the city of
Sluys; for the possession of that important sea-port was necessary for
him as a basis for the invasion of England, which now occupied all the
thoughts of his sovereign and himself.
Exactly opposite the city was the island of Kadzand, once a fair and
fertile territory, with a city and many flourishing villages upon its
surface, but at that epoch diminished to a small dreary sand-bank by the
encroachments of the ocean.
A stream of inland water, rising a few leagues to the south of Sluys,
divided itself into many branches just before reaching the city,
converted the surrounding territory into a miniature archipelago--the
islands of which were shifting treacherous sand-banks at low water, and
submerged ones at flood--and then widening and deepening into a
considerable estuary, opened for the city a capacious harbour, and an
excellent although intricate passage to the sea. The city, which was well
built and thriving, was so hidden in its labyrinth of canals and
streamlets, that it seemed almost as difficult a matter to find Sluys as to
conquer it. It afforded safe harbour for five hundred large vessels; and
its possession, therefore, was extremely important for Parma. Besides
these natural defences, the place was also protected by fortifications;
which were as well constructed as the best of that period. There was a
strong rampire and many towers. There was also a detached citadel of
great strength, looking towards the sea, and there was a ravelin, called
St. Anne's, looking in the direction of Bruges. A mere riband of dry
land in that quarter was all of solid earth to be found in the environs of
Sluys.
The city itself stood upon firm soil, but that soil had been hollowed into
a vast system of subterranean magazines, not for warlike purposes, but

for cellars, as Sluys had been from a remote period the great entrepot