History of the United Netherlands, 1604-05 | Page 5

to save Sluys,
which we are now trying so hard to do, had we turned our attention
thither in time! But now we have permitted the enemy to entrench and
fortify himself, and we are the less excusable because we know to our
cost how felicitously he fights with the spade, and that he builds works
like an ancient Roman . . . . . Should we lose Sluys, which God forbid,
how much strength and encouragement will be acquired by the foe, and
by all who secretly or openly favour him! Our neighbours are all
straining their eyes, as from a watch-tower, eager to see the result of all
these doings. But what if they too should begin to move? Where should
we be? I pray God to have mercy on the Netherlanders, whom He has
been so many years chastising with heavy whips."
It was very true. The man with the spade had been allowed to work too
long at his felicitous vocation. There had been a successful effort made
to introduce reinforcements to the garrison. Troops, to the number of
fifteen hundred, had been added to those already shut up there, but the

attempts to send in supplies were not so fortunate. Maurice had
completely invested the town before the end of May, having undisputed
possession of the harbour and of all the neighbouring country. He was
himself encamped on the west side of the Swint; Charles van der Noot
lying on the south. The submerged meadows, stretching all around in
the vicinity of the haven, he had planted thickly with gunboats.
Scarcely a bird or a fish could go into or out of the place. Thus the
stadholder exhibited to the Spaniards who, fifteen miles off towards the
west, had been pounding and burrowing three years long before Ostend
without success, what he understood by a siege.
On the 22nd of May a day of solemn prayer and fasting was, by
command of Maurice, celebrated throughout the besieging camp. In
order that the day should be strictly kept in penance, mortification, and
thanksgiving, it was ordered, on severe penalties, that neither the
commissaries nor sutlers should dispense any food whatever,
throughout the twenty-four hours. Thus the commander-in-chief of the
republic prepared his troops for the work before them.
In the very last days of May the experiment was once more vigorously
tried to send in supplies. A thousand galley-slaves, the remnant of
Frederic Spinola's unlucky naval forces, whose services were not likely
very soon to be required at sea, were sent out into the drowned land,
accompanied by five hundred infantry. Simultaneously Count
Berlaymont, at the head of four thousand men, conveying a large
supply of provisions and munitions, started from Dam. Maurice,
apprised of the adventure, sallied forth with two thousand troops to
meet them. Near Stamper's Hook he came upon a detachment of
Berlaymont's force, routed them, and took a couple of hundred
prisoners. Learning from them that Berlaymont himself, with the
principal part of his force, had passed farther on, he started off in
pursuit; but, unfortunately taking a different path through the watery
wilderness from the one selected by the flying foe, he was not able to
prevent his retreat by a circuitous route to Dam. From the prisoners,
especially from the galley-slaves, who had no reason for disguising the
condition of the place, he now learned that there were plenty of troops
in Sluys, but that there was already a great lack of provisions. They had
lost rather than gained by their success in introducing reinforcements
without supplies. Upon this information Maurice now resolved to sit

quietly down and starve out the garrison. If Spinola, in consequence,
should raise the siege of Ostend, in order to relieve a better town, he
was prepared to give him battle. If the marquis held fast to his special
work, Sluys was sure to surrender. This being the position of affairs,
the deputies of the States-General took their leave of the stadholder,
and returned to the Hague.
Two months passed. It was midsummer, and the famine in the
beleaguered town had become horrible. The same hideous spectacle
was exhibited as on all occasions where thousands of human beings are
penned together without food. They ate dogs, cats, and rats, the weeds
from the churchyards, old saddles, and old shoes, and, when all was
gone, they began to eat each other. The small children diminished
rapidly in numbers, while beacons and signals of distress were fired
day and night, that the obdurate Spinola, only a few miles off, might at
last move to their relief.
The archdukes too were beginning to doubt whether the bargain were a
good one. To give a strong, new, well-fortified city, with the best of
harbours, in exchange for a heap of rubbish