History of the United Netherlands, 1595-96 | Page 8

Risban, or Rysbank, which entirely governed the
harbour, and the possession of which made Calais nearly impregnable,
as inexhaustible supplies could thus be poured into it by sea, had fallen
into comparative decay. De Gordan had been occupied in strengthening
the work, but since his death the nephew had entirely neglected the task.
On the land side, the bridge of Nivelet was the key to the place. The
faubourg was held by two Dutch companies, under Captains Le Gros
and Dominique, who undertook to prevent the entrance of the
archduke's forces. Vidosan, however; ordered these faithful auxiliaries
into the citadel.
De Rosne, acting with great promptness; seized both the bridge of
Nivelet and the fort of Rysbank by a sudden and well-concerted
movement. This having been accomplished, the city was in his power,
and, after sustaining a brief cannonade, it surrendered. Vidosan, with
his garrison, however, retired into the citadel, and it was agreed
between, himself and De Rosne that unless succour should be received
from the French king before the expiration of six days; the citadel

should also be-evacuated.
Meantime Henry, who was at Boulogne, much disgusted at this
unexpected disaster, had sent couriers to the Netherlands, demanding
assistance of the States-General and of the stadholder. Maurice had
speedily responded to the appeal. Proceeding himself to Zeeland, he
had shipped fifteen companies of picked troops from Middelburg,
together with a flotilla laden with munitions and provisions enough to
withstand a siege of several weeks. When the arrangements were
completed, he went himself on board of a ship of war to take command
of the expedition in person. On the 17th of April he arrived with his
succours off the harbour of Calais, and found to his infinite
disappointment that the Rysbank fort was in the hands of the enemy.
As not a vessel could pass the bar without almost touching that fortress,
the entrance to Calais was now impossible. Had the incompetent
Vidosan heeded the advice of his brave Dutch officers; the place might
still have been saved, for it had surrendered in a panic on the very day
when the fleet of Maurice arrived off the port.
Henry had lost no time in sending, also, to his English allies for
succour. The possession of Calais by the Spaniards might well seem
alarming to Elizabeth, who could not well forget that up to the time of
her sister this important position had been for two centuries an English
stronghold. The defeat of the Spanish husband of an English queen had
torn from England the last trophies of the Black Prince, and now the
prize had again fallen into the hands of Spain; but of Spain no longer in
alliance, but at war, with England. Obviously it was most dangerous to
the interests and to the safety of the English realm, that this threatening
position, so near the gates of London, should be in the hands of the
most powerful potentate in the world and the dire enemy of England. In
response to Henry's appeal, the Earl of Essex was despatched with a
force of six thousand men--raised by express command of the queen on
Sunday when the people were all at church--to Dover, where shipping
was in readiness to transport the troops at once across the Channel. At
the same time, the politic queen and some of her counsellors thought
the opening a good one to profit by the calamity of their dear ally,
Certainly it was desirable to prevent Calais from falling into the grasp
of Philip. But it was perhaps equally desirable, now that the place
without the assistance of Elizabeth could no longer be preserved by

Henry, that Elizabeth, and not Henry, should henceforth be its
possessor. To make this proposition as clear to the French king as it
seemed to the English queen, Sir Robert Sidney was despatched in all
haste to Boulogne, even while the guns of De Rosne were pointed at
Calais citadel, and while Maurice's fleet, baffled by the cowardly
surrender of the Risban, was on its retreat from the harbour.
At two o'clock in the afternoon of the 21st of April, Sidney landed at
Boulogne. Henry, who had been intensely impatient to hear from
England, and who suspected that the delay was boding no good to his
cause, went down to the strand to meet the envoy, with whom then and
there he engaged instantly in the most animated discourse.
As there was little time to be lost, and as Sidney on getting out of the
vessel found himself thus confronted with the soldier-king in person, he
at once made the demand which he had been sent across the Channel to
make. He requested the king to deliver up the town and citadel of
Calais to the Queen of England as soon as,