History of the United Netherlands, 1597-98 | Page 6

a victory won in the
open field over the most famous legions of Spain and against
overwhelming numbers, was an achievement entirely without example.
It is beyond all doubt that the force under Varax was at least four times
as large as that portion of the States' army which alone was engaged;
for Maurice had not a foot-soldier on the field until the battle was over,

save the handful of musketeers who had followed Vere and Bax at the
beginning of the action.
Therefore it is that this remarkable action merits a much more attentive
consideration than it might deserve, regarded purely as a military
exploit. To the military student a mere cavalry affair, fought out upon
an obscure Brabantine heath between a party of Dutch carabineers and
Spanish pikemen, may seem of little account--a subject fitted by
picturesque costume and animated action for the pencil of a
Wouvermanns or a Terburg, but conveying little instruction. As
illustrating a period of transition in which heavy armoured
troopers--each one a human iron- clad fortress moving at speed and
furnished with the most formidable portable artillery then
known--could overcome the resistance of almost any number of
foot-soldiers in light marching gear and armed with the antiquated pike,
the affair may be worthy of a moment's attention; and for this
improvement--itself now as obsolete as the slings and cataphracts of
Roman legions--the world was indebted to Maurice. But the shock of
mighty armies, the manoeuvring of vast masses in one magnificent
combination, by which the fate of empires, the happiness or the misery
of the peoples for generations, may perhaps be decided in a few hours,
undoubtedly require a higher constructive genius than could be
displayed in any such hand-to-hand encounter as that of Turnhout,
scientifically managed as it unquestionably was. The true and abiding
interest of the battle is derived from is moral effect, from its influence
on the people of the Netherlands. And this could scarcely be
exaggerated. The nation was electrified, transformed in an instant. Who
now should henceforth dare to say that one Spanish fighting-man was
equal to five or ten Hollanders? At last the days of Jemmingen and
Mooker-heath needed no longer to be remembered by every patriot
with a shudder of shame. Here at least in the open field a Spanish army,
after in vain refusing a combat and endeavouring to escape, had
literally bitten the dust before one fourth of its own number. And this
effect was a permanent one. Thenceforth for foreign powers to talk of
mediation between the republic and the ancient master, to suggest
schemes of reconciliation and of a return to obedience, was to offer
gratuitous and trivial insult, and we shall very soon have occasion to
mark the simple eloquence with which the thirty-eight Spanish

standards of Turnhout, hung up in the old hall of the Hague, were made
to reply to the pompous rhetoric of an interfering ambassador.
This brief episode was not immediately followed by other military
events of importance in the provinces during what remained of the
winter. Very early in the spring, however, it was probable that the
campaign might open simultaneously in France and on the frontiers of
Flanders. Of all the cities in the north of France there was none, after
Rouen, so important, so populous, so wealthy as Amiens. Situate in
fertile fields, within three days march of Paris, with no intervening
forests or other impediments of a physical nature to free
communication, it was the key to the gates of the capital. It had no
garrison, for the population numbered fifteen thousand men able to bear
arms, and the inhabitants valued themselves on the prowess of their
trained militiamen, five thousand of whom they boasted to be able to
bring into the field at an hour's notice--and they were perfectly loyal to
Henry.
One morning in March there came a party of peasants, fifteen or twenty
in number, laden with sacks of chestnuts and walnuts, to the
northernmost gate of the town. They offered them for sale, as usual, to
the soldiers at the guard-house, and chaffered and jested--as boors and
soldiers are wont to do--over their wares. It so happened that in the
course of the bargaining one of the bags became untied, and its contents,
much to the dissatisfaction of the proprietor, were emptied on the
ground. There was a scramble for the walnuts, and much shouting,
kicking, and squabbling ensued, growing almost into a quarrel between
the burgher-soldiers and the peasants. As the altercation was at its
height a heavy wagon, laden with long planks, came towards the gate
for the use of carpenters and architects within the town. The portcullis
was drawn up to admit this lumbering vehicle, but in the confusion
caused by the chance medley going on at the