History of the United Netherlands, 1600-09 | Page 3

invade Flanders, and lay siege, to
Nieuport. The States- General were sovereign, and Maurice bowed to
their authority. After the matter had been entirely decided upon the
state-council was consulted, and the state-council attempted no
opposition to the project. The preparations were made with matchless
energy and extraordinary secrecy. Lewis William, who meanwhile was
to defend the eastern frontier of the republic against any possible attack,
sent all the troops that it was possible to spare; but he sent, them with a
heavy heart. His forebodings were dismal. It seemed to him that all was
about to be staked upon a single cast of the dice. Moreover it was
painful to him while the terrible game, was playing to be merely a
looker on and a prophet of evil from a distance, forbidden to contribute
by his personal skill and experience to a fortunate result. Hohenlo too
was appointed to protect the southern border, and was excluded from,
all participation in the great expedition.
As to the enemy, such rumors as might came to them from day to day
of mysterious military, preparations on the part of the rebels only
served to excite suspicion in others directions. The archduke was
uneasy in, regard to the Rhine and the Gueldrian; quarter, but never
dreamt of a hostile descent upon the Flemish coast.
Meantime, on the 19th June Maurice of Nassau made his appearance at
Castle Rammekens, not far from Flushing, at the mouth of the Scheld,
to superintend the great movement. So large a fleet as was there
assembled had never before been seen or heard of in Christendom. Of
war-ships, transports, and flat-bottomed barges there were at least
thirteen hundred. Many eye-witnesses, who counted however with their
imaginations, declared that there were in all at least three thousand
vessels, and the statement has been reproduced by grave and
trustworthy chroniclers. As the number of troops to be embarked upon
the enterprise certainly did not exceed fourteen thousand, this would
have been an allowance of one vessel to every five soldiers, besides the
army munitions and provisions--a hardly reasonable arrangement.
Twelve thousand infantry and sixteen hundred cavalry, the consummate

flower of the States' army, all well-paid, well-clad, well-armed, well-
disciplined veterans, had been collected in this place of rendezvous and
were ready to embark. It would be unjust to compare the dimensions of
this force and the preparations for ensuring the success of the enterprise
with the vast expeditions and gigantic armaments of later times,
especially with the tremendous exhibitions of military and naval energy
with which our own civil war has made us familiar. Maurice was an
adept in all that science and art had as yet bequeathed to humanity for
the purpose of human' destruction, but the number of his troops was
small compared to the mighty hosts which the world since those days
has seen embattled. War, as a trade, was then less easily learned. It was
a guild in which apprenticeship was difficult, and in which enrolment
was usually for life. A little republic of scarce three million souls,
which could keep always on foot a regular well-appointed army of
twenty-five thousand men and a navy of one or two hundred heavily
armed cruisers, was both a marvel and a formidable element in the
general polity of the world. The lesson to be derived both in military
and political philosophy from the famous campaign of Nieuport does
not depend for its value on the numbers of the ships or soldiers engaged
in the undertaking. Otherwise, and had it been merely a military
expedition like a thousand others which have been made and forgotten,
it would not now deserve more than a momentary attention. But the
circumstances were such as to make the issue of the impending battle
one of the most important in human history. It was entirely possible
that an overwhelming defeat of the republican forces on this foreign
expedition would bring with it an absolute destruction of the republic,
and place Spain once more in possession of the heretic "islands," from
which basis she would menace the very existence of England more
seriously than she had ever done before. Who could measure the
consequences to Christendom of such a catastrophe?
The distance from the place where the fleet and army were assembled
to Nieuport--the objective point of the enterprise--was but thirty-five
miles as the crow flies. And the crow can scarcely fly in a straighter
line than that described by the coast along which the ships were to
shape their course.
And here it is again impossible not to reflect upon the change which
physical science has brought over the conduct of human affairs. We

have seen in a former chapter a most important embassy sent forth from
the States for the purpose of preventing the consummation