History of the United Netherlands, 1594 | Page 8

generals in times of civil war it was mainly owing that the siege of
Groningen was protracted longer than under other circumstances would
have been possible.
It is not my purpose to describe in detail the scientific operations during
the sixty-five days between the 20th May and the 24th July. Again the
commander-in-chief enlightened the world by an exhibition of a more
artistic and humane style of warfare than previously to his appearance
on the military stage had been known. But the daily phenomena of the
Leaguer--although they have been minutely preserved by most
competent eyewitnesses--are hardly entitled to a place except in special
military histories where, however, they should claim the foremost rank.
The fortifications of the city were of the most splendid and substantial
character known to the age. The ditches, the ravelins, the curtains, the
towers were as thoroughly constructed as the defences of any place in
Europe. It was therefore necessary that Maurice and his cousin Lewis
should employ all their learning, all their skill, and their best artillery to
reduce this great capital of the Eastern Netherlands. Again the scientific
coil of approaches wound itself around and around the doomed
stronghold; again were constructed the galleries, the covered ways, the
hidden mines, where soldiers, transformed to gnomes, burrowed and
fought within the bowels of the earth; again that fatal letter Y advanced
slowly under ground, stretching its deadly prongs nearer and nearer up
to the walls; and again the system of defences against a relieving force
was so perfectly established that Verdugo or Mansfield, with what
troops they could muster, seemed as powerless as the pewter soldiers
with which Maurice in his boyhood--not yet so long passed away --was
wont to puzzle over the problems which now practically engaged his
early manhood. Again, too, strangely enough, it is recorded that Philip
Nassau, at almost the same period of the siege as in that of
Gertruydenberg, signalized himself by a deed of drunken and
superfluous daring. This time the dinner party was at the quarters of
Count Solms, in honour of the Prince of Anhalt, where, after potations

pottle deep, Count Philip rushed from the dinner-table to the breach,
not yet thoroughly practicable, of the north ravelin, and, entirely
without armour, mounted pike in hand to the assault, proposing to carry
the fort by his own unaided exertions. Another officer, one Captain
Vaillant, still more beside himself than was the count, inspired him to
these deeds of valour by assuring him that the mine was to be sprung
under the ravelin that afternoon, and that it was a plot on the part of the
Holland boatmen to prevent the soldiers who had been working so hard
and so long in the mines from taking part in the honours of the assault.
The count was with difficulty brought off with a whole skin and put to
bed. Yet despite these disgraceful pranks there is no doubt that a better
and braver officer than he was hardly to be found even among the ten
noble Nassaus who at that moment were fighting for the cause of Dutch
liberty-- fortunately with more sobriety than he at all times displayed.
On the following day, Prince Maurice, making a reconnoissance of the
works with his usual calmness, yet with the habitual contempt of
personal danger which made so singular a contrast with the cautious
and painstaking characteristics of his strategy, very narrowly escaped
death. A shot from the fort struck so hard upon the buckler under cover
of which he was taking his observations as to fell him to the ground. Sir
Francis Vere, who was with the prince under the same buckler, likewise
measured his length in the trench, but both escaped serious injury.
Pauli, one of the States commissioners present in the camp, wrote to
Barneveld that it was to be hoped that the accident might prove a
warning to his Excellency. He had repeatedly remonstrated with him,
he said, against his reckless exposure of himself to unnecessary danger,
but he was so energetic and so full of courage that it was impossible to
restrain him from being everywhere every day.
Three days later, the letter Y did its work. At ten o'clock 15 July, of the
night of the 15th July, Prince Maurice ordered the mines to be sprung,
when the north ravelin was blown into the air, and some forty of the
garrison with it. Two of them came flying into the besiegers' camp, and,
strange to say, one was alive and sound. The catastrophe finished the
sixty-five days' siege, the breach was no longer defensible, the
obstinacy of the burghers was exhausted, and capitulation followed. In
truth, there had been a subterranean intrigue going on for many weeks,
which was almost as effective as the mine. A