History of the United Netherlands, 1604-05 | Page 4

cannoneers, floundering through the bogs, made such an
outcry--especially when one of their guns became so bemired that it
was difficult for them to escape the disgrace of losing it--that the
garrison, hearing a great tumult, which they could not understand, fell
into one of those panics to which raw and irregular troops are liable.
Nothing would convince them that fresh artillery had not arrived, that
the terrible stadholder with an immense force was not creating
invincible batteries, and that they should be all butchered in cold blood,
according to proclamation, before the dawn of day. They therefore
evacuated the place under cover of the night, so that this absurd
accident absolutely placed Maurice in possession of the very
fort--without striking a blow--which he was about to abandon in
despair, and which formed the first great obstacle to his advance.

Having occupied St. Catharine's, he moved forward to Ysendyke, a
strongly fortified place three leagues to the eastward of Sluys and
invested it in form. Meantime a great danger was impending over him.
A force of well- disciplined troops, to the number of two thousand,
dropped down in boats from Sluy's to Cadzand, for the purpose of
surprising the force left to guard that important place.
The expedition was partially successful. Six hundred landed; beating
down all opposition. But a few Scotch companies held firm, and by
hard fighting were able at last to drive the invaders back to their sloops,
many of which were sunk in the affray, with all on board. The rest
ignominiously retreated. Had the enterprise been as well executed as it
was safely planned, it would have gone hard with the stadholder and
his army. It is difficult to see in what way he could have extricated
himself from such a dilemma, being thus cut off from his supplies and
his fleet, and therefore from all possibility of carrying out his design or
effecting his escape to Zeeland. Certainly thus far, fortune had favoured
his bold adventure.
He now sent his own trumpeter, Master Hans, to summon Ysendyke to
a surrender. The answer was a bullet which went through the head of
unfortunate Master Hans. Maurice, enraged at this barbarous violation
of the laws of war, drew his lines closer. Next day the garrison,
numbering six hundred, mostly Italians, capitulated, and gave up the
musketeer who had murdered the trumpeter.
Two days later the army appeared before Aardenburg, a well-fortified
town four miles south of Sluys. It surrendered disgracefully, without
striking a blow. The place was a most important position for the
investment of Sluys. Four or five miles further towards the west, two
nearly parallel streams, both navigable, called the Sweet and the Salt,
ran from Dam to Sluys. It was a necessary but most delicate operation,
to tie up these two important arteries. An expedition despatched in this
direction came upon Trivulzio with a strong force of cavalry, posted at
a pass called Stamper's Hook, which controlled the first of these
streams. The narrowness of the pathway gave the advantage to the
Italian commander. A warm action took place, in which the republican
cavalry were worsted, and Paul Bax severely wounded. Maurice
coming up with the infantry at a moment when the prospect was very
black, turned defeat into victory and completely routed the enemy, who

fled from the precious position with a loss of five hundred killed and
three hundred prisoners, eleven officers among them. The Sweet was
now in the stadholder's possession.
Next day he marched against the Salt, at a pass where fourteen hundred
Spaniards were stationed. Making very ostentatious preparations for an
attack upon this position, he suddenly fell backwards down the stream
to a point which he had discovered to be fordable at low water, and
marched his whole army through the stream while the skirmishing was
going on a few miles farther up. The Spaniards, discovering their error,
and fearing to be cut off, scampered hastily away to Dam. Both streams
were now in the control of the republican army, while the single fort of
St. Joris was all that was now interposed between Maurice and the
much- coveted Swint. This redoubt, armed with nine guns, and
provided with a competent, garrison, was surrendered on the 23rd May.
The Swint, or great sea-channel of Sluys, being now completely in the
possession of the stadholder, he deliberately proceeded to lay out his
lines, to make his entrenched camp, and to invest his city with the
beautiful neatness which ever characterized his sieges. A groan came
from the learned Lipsius, as he looked from the orthodox shades of
Louvain upon the progress of the heretic prince.
"Would that I were happier," he cried, "but things are not going on in
Flanders as I could wish. How easy it would have been