History of the United Netherlands, 1600-09 | Page 9

was with great difficulty that they
could be got into the saddle at all, and they positively refused to go
further than St. Albert fort.
What course should he now pursue? He had been sent to cut the
archduke's road. He had failed. Had he remained in his original
encampment his force would have been annihilated by the
overwhelming numbers of the enemy so soon as they reached the right
bank of Nieuport haven, while Maurice could have only looked
hopelessly on from the opposite shore. At least nothing worse than
absolute destruction could befal him now. Should he accept a combat
of six or eight to one the struggle would be hopeless, but the longer it
was protracted the better it would be for his main army, engaged at that
very moment as he knew in crossing the haven with the ebbing tide.

Should he retreat, it might be possible for him to escape into Fort
Albert or even Ostend, but to do so would be to purchase his own
safety and that of his command at the probable sacrifice of the chief
army of the republic. Ernest hesitated but an instant. Coming within
carbine-shot of the stream, where he met his cavalry which had been
sent forward at full speed, in the vain hope of seizing or destroying the
bridge before it should be too late, he took up a position behind a dyke,
upon which he placed his two field-pieces, and formed his troops in
line of battle exactly across the enemy's path. On the right he placed the
regiment of Scots. On the left was Van der Noot's Zeeland infantry,
garnished with four companies of riders under Risoir, which stood near
St. Mary's church. The passage from the stream to the downs was not
more than a hundred yards wide, being skirted on both sides by a
swamp. Here Ernest with his two thousand men awaited the onset of
the archduke's army. He was perfectly aware that it was a mere
question of time, but he was sure that his preparations must interpose a
delay to the advance of the Spaniards, should his troops, as he felt
confident, behave themselves as they had always done, and that the
delay would be of inestimable value to his friends at the haven of
Nieuport.
The archduke paused; for he, too, could not be certain, on observing the
resolute front thus presented to him, that he was not about to engage the
whole of the States' army. The doubt was but of short duration,
however, and the onset was made. Ernest's artillery fired four volleys
into the advancing battalions with such effect as to stagger them for a
moment, but they soon afterwards poured over the dyke in over
whelming numbers, easily capturing the cannon. The attack began upon
Ernest's left, and Risoir's cavalry, thinking that they should be cut off
from all possibility of retreat into Fort St. Albert, turned their backs in
the most disgraceful manner, without even waiting for the assault.
Galloping around the infantry on the left they infected the Zeelanders
with their own cowardice. Scarcely a moment passed before Van der
Noot's whole regiment was running away as fast as the troopers, while
the Scots on the right hesitated not for an instant to follow their
example. Even before the expected battle had begun, one of those
hideous and unaccountable panics which sometimes break out like a
moral pestilence to destroy all the virtue of an army, and to sweep away

the best-considered schemes of a general, had spread through Ernest's
entire force. So soon as the demi-cannon had discharged their fourth
volley, Scots, Zeelanders, Walloons, pikemen, musketeers, and
troopers, possessed by the demon of cowardice, were running like a
herd of swine to throw themselves into the sea. Had they even kept the
line of the downs in the direction of the fort many of them might have
saved their lives, although none could have escaped disgrace. But the
Scots, in an ecstasy of fear, throwing away their arms as they fled, ran
through the waters behind the dyke, skimmed over the sands at full
speed, and never paused till such as survived the sabre and musket of
their swift pursuers had literally drowned themselves in the ocean.
Almost every man of them was slain or drowned. All the
captains--Stuart, Barclay, Murray, Kilpatrick, Michael, Nesbit--with the
rest of the company officers, doing their best to rally the fugitives, were
killed. The Zeelanders, more cautious in the midst of their panic, or
perhaps knowing better the nature of the country, were more successful
in saving their necks. Not more than a hundred and fifty of Van der
Noot's regiment were killed, while such of the cavalry of Bruges and
Piron as had come to the neighbourhood