History of the United Netherlands, 1600-09 | Page 7

and his advance upon Dunkirk,
according to the program so succinctly drawn up for him, and
meantime were holding meetings and drawing up comfortable
protocols with great regularity. Colonel Piron, on his part, who had
been left with several companies of veterans to hold Oudenburg and the
other forts, and to protect the rear of the invading army, was

accomplishing that object by permitting a large portion of his force to
be absent on foraging parties and general marauding. When the enemy
came before Oudenburg they met with no resistance. The fort was
surrendered at once, and with it fell the lesser sconces of Breedene,
Snaaskerk, and Plassendaal--all but the more considerable fort St.
Albert. The archduke, not thinking it advisable to delay his march by
the reduction of this position, and having possession of all the other
fortifications around Ostend, determined to push forward next morning
at daybreak. He had granted favourable terms of surrender to the
various garrisons, which, however, did not prevent them from being
dearly--every man of them immediately butchered in cold blood.
Thus were these strong and well-manned redoubts, by which Prince
Maurice had hoped to impede for many days the march of a Spanish
army--should a Spanish army indeed be able to take the field at
all--already swept off in an hour. Great was the dismay in Ostend when
Colonel Piron and a few stragglers brought the heavy news of
discomfiture and massacre to the high and mighty States-General in
solemn meeting assembled.
Meanwhile, the States' army before Nieuport, not dreaming of any
pending interruption to their labours, proceeded in a steady but
leisurely manner to invest the city. Maurice occupied himself in tracing
the lines of encampment and entrenchment, and ordered a permanent
bridge to be begun across the narrowest part of the creek, in order that
the two parts of his army might not be so dangerously divided from
each other as they now were, at high water, by the whole breadth and
depth of the harbour. Evening came on before much had been
accomplished on this first day of the siege. It was scarcely dusk when a
messenger, much exhausted and terrified, made his appearance at
Count Ernest's tent. He was a straggler who had made his escape from
Oudenburg, and he brought the astounding intelligence that the
archduke had already possession of that position and of all the other
forts. Ernest instantly jumped into a boat and had himself rowed,
together with the messenger, to the headquarters of Prince Maurice on
the other side of the river. The news was as unexpected as it was
alarming. Here was the enemy, who was supposed incapable of
mischief for weeks to come, already in the field, and planted directly on
their communications with Ostend. Retreat, if retreat were desired, was

already impossible, and as to surprising the garrison of Nieuport and so
obtaining that stronghold as a basis for further aggressive operations, it
is very certain that if any man in Flanders was more surprised than
another at that moment it was Prince Maurice himself. He was too good
a soldier not to see at a glance that if the news brought by the straggler
were true, the whole expedition was already a failure, and that, instead
of a short siege and an easy victory, a great battle was to be fought
upon the sands of Nieuport, in which defeat was destruction of the
whole army of the republic, and very possibly of the republic itself.
The stadholder hesitated. He was prone in great emergencies to hesitate
at first, but immovable when his resolution was taken. Vere, who was
asleep in his tent, was sent for and consulted. Most of the generals were
inclined to believe that the demonstrations at Oudenburg, which had
been so successful, were merely a bravado of Rivas, the commander of
the permanent troops in that district, which were comparatively
insignificant in numbers. Vere thought otherwise. He maintained that
the archduke was already in force within a few hours' march of them, as
he had always supposed would be the case. His opinion was not shared
by the rest, and he went back to his truckle-bed, feeling that a brief
repose was necessary for the heavy work which would soon be upon
him. At midnight the Englishman was again called from his slumbers.
Another messenger, sent directly from the States-General at Ostend,
had made his way to the stadholder. This time there was no possibility
of error, for Colonel Piron had sent the accord with the garrison
commanders of the forts which had been so shamefully violated, and
which bore the signature of the archduke.
It was now perfectly obvious that a pitched battle was to be fought
before another sunset, and most anxious were the deliberations in that
brief