History of the United Netherlands, 1595 | Page 8

commissary--general of cavalry, Contreras, came up, rebuked
this unseemly dispute before the enemy had been fairly routed, and, in
order to arrange the quarrel impartially, ordered his page to despatch
De Villars on the spot. The page, without a word, placed his arquebus
to the admiral's forehead and shot him dead.
So perished a bold and brilliant soldier, and a most unscrupulous
politician. Whether the cause of his murder was mere envy on the part
of the commissary at having lost a splendid opportunity for
prize-money, or hatred to an ancient Leaguer thus turned renegade, it is
fruitless now to enquire.
Villars would have paid two hundred thousand crowns for his ransom,
so that the assassination was bad as a mercantile speculation; but it was
pretended by the friends of Contreras that rescue was at hand. It is
certain, however, that nothing was attempted by the French to redeem
their total overthrow. Count Belin was wounded and fell into the hands
of Coloma. Sanseval was killed; and a long list of some of the most
brilliant nobles in France was published by the Spaniards as having
perished on that bloody field. This did not prevent a large number of
these victims, however, from enjoying excellent health for many long
years afterwards, although their deaths have been duly recorded in
chronicle from that day to our own times.
But Villars and Sanseval were certainly slain, and Fuentes sent their
bodies, with a courteous letter, to the Duke of Nevers, at Amiens, who

honoured them with a stately funeral.
There was much censure cast on both Bouillon and Villars respectively
by the antagonists of each chieftain; and the contest as to the cause of
the defeat was almost as animated as the skirmish itself. Bouillon was
censured for grudging a victory to the Catholics, and thus leaving the
admiral to his fate. Yet it is certain that the Huguenot duke himself
commanded a squadron composed almost entirely of papists. Villars,
on the other hand, was censured for rashness, obstinacy, and greediness
for distinction; yet it is probable that Fuentes might have been defeated
had the charges of Bouillon been as determined and frequent as were
those of his colleague. Savigny de Rosnes, too, the ancient Leaguer,
who commanded under Fuentes, was accused of not having sufficiently
followed up the victory, because unwilling that his Spanish friends
should entirely trample upon his own countrymen. Yet there is no
doubt whatever that De Rosnes was as bitter an enemy to his own
country as the most ferocious Spaniard of them all. It has rarely been
found in civil war that the man who draws his sword against his
fatherland, under the banner of the foreigner, is actuated by any
lingering tenderness for the nation he betrays; and the renegade
Frenchman was in truth the animating spirit of Fuentes during the
whole of his brilliant campaign. The Spaniard's victories were, indeed,
mainly attributable to the experience, the genius, and the rancour of De
Rosnes.
But debates over a lost battle are apt to be barren. Meantime Fuentes,
losing no time in controversy, advanced upon the city of Dourlens, was
repulsed twice, and carried it on the third assault, exactly one week
after the action just recounted. The Spaniards and Leaguers, howling
"Remember Ham!" butchered without mercy the garrison and all the
citizens, save a small number of prisoners likely to be lucrative. Six
hundred of the townspeople and two thousand five hundred French
soldiers were killed within a few hours. Well had Fuentes profited by
the relationship and tuition of Alva!
The Count of Dinant and his brother De Ronsoy were both slain, and
two or three hundred thousand florins were paid in ransom by those
who escaped with life. The victims were all buried outside of the town
in one vast trench, and the effluvia bred a fever which carried off most
of the surviving inhabitants. Dourlens became for the time a desert.

Fuentes now received deputies with congratulations from the obedient
provinces, especially from Hainault, Artois, and Lille. He was also
strongly urged to attempt the immediate reduction of Cambray, to
which end those envoys were empowered to offer contributions of four
hundred and fifty thousand florins and a contingent of seven thousand
infantry. Berlaymont, too, bishop of Tournay and archbishop of
Cambray, was ready to advance forty thousand florins in the same
cause.
Fuentes, in the highest possible spirits at his success, and having just
been reinforced by Count Bucquoy with a fresh Walloon regiment of
fifteen hundred foot and with eight hundred and fifty of the mutineers
from Tirlemont and Chapelle, who were among the choicest of Spanish
veterans, was not disposed to let the grass grow under his feet. Within
four days after the sack of Dourlens he broke up his camp,