The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1579-80 | Page 9

of the surviving officers besought Parma to put an end to the
carnage by recalling the troops; but the gladiator heart of the
commander was heated, not softened, by the savage spectacle. "Go
back to the breach," he cried, "and tell the soldiers that Alexander is
coming to lead them into the city in triumph, or to perish with his
comrades." He rushed forward with the fury which had marked him
when he boarded Mustapha's galley at Lepanto; but all the generals
who were near him threw themselves upon his path, and implored him
to desist from such insensate rashness. Their expostulations would have
probably been in vain, had not his confidential friend, Serbelloni,
interposed with something like paternal authority, reminding him of the

strict commands contained in his Majesty's recent letters, that the
Governor-General, to whom so much was entrusted, should refrain, on
pain of the royal displeasure, from exposing his life like a common
fighter.
Alexander reluctantly gave the signal of recal at last, and accepted the
defeat. For the future he determined to rely more upon the sapper and
miner, and less upon the superiority of veterans to townsmen and
rustics in open fight. Sure to carry the city at last, according to line and
rule, determined to pass the whole summer beneath the walls, rather
than abandon his purpose, he calmly proceeded to complete his
circumvallations. A chain of eleven forts upon the left, and five upon
the right side of the Meuse, the whole connected by a continuous wall,
afforded him perfect security against interruptions, and allowed him to
continue the siege at leisure. His numerous army was well housed and
amply supplied, and he had built a strong and populous city in order to
destroy another. Relief was impossible. But a few thousand men were
now required to defend Farnese's improvised town, while the bulk of
his army could be marched at any moment against an advancing foe. A
force of seven thousand, painfully collected by the Prince of Orange,
moved towards the place, under command of Hohenlo and John of
Nassau, but struck with wonder at what they saw, the leaders
recognized the hopelessness of attempting relief. Maestricht was
surrounded by a second Maestricht.
The efforts of Orange were now necessarily directed towards obtaining,
if possible, a truce of a few weeks from the negotiators at Cologne.
Parma was too crafty, however, to allow Terranova to consent, and as
the Duke disclaimed any power over the direct question of peace and
war, the siege proceeded. The gates of Bois-le-Duc and Tongres having
thus far resisted the force brought against them, the scene was changed
to the gate of Brussels. This adjoined that of Tongres, was farthest from
the river, and faced westwardly towards the open country. Here the
besieged had constructed an additional ravelin, which they had
christened, in derision, "Parma," and against which the batteries of
Parma were now brought to bear. Alexander erected a platform of great
extent and strength directly opposite the new work, and after a severe
and constant cannonade from this elevation, followed by a bloody
action, the "Parma" fort was carried. One thousand, at least, of the

defenders fell, as, forced gradually from one defence to another, they
saw the triple walls of their ravelin crumble successively before their
eyes. The tower was absolutely annihilated before they abandoned its
ruins, and retired within their last defences. Alexander being now
master of the fosa and the defences of the Brussels gate, drew up a
large force on both aides of that portal, along the margin of the moat,
and began mining beneath the inner wall of the city.
Meantime, the garrison had been reduced to four hundred soldiers,
nearly all of whom were wounded: wearied and driven to despair, these
soldiers were willing to treat. The townspeople, however, answered the
proposition with a shout of fury, and protested that they would destroy
the garrison with their own hands if such an insinuation were repeated.
Sebastian Tappin, too, encouraged them with the hope of speedy relief,
and held out to them the wretched consequences of trusting to the
mercy of their foes. The garrison took heart again, while that of the
burghers and their wives had, never faltered. Their main hope now was
in a fortification which they had been constructing inside the Brussels
gate --a demilune of considerable strength. Behind it was a breastwork
of turf and masonry, to serve as a last bulwark when every other
defence should be forced. The whole had been surrounded by a foss
thirty feet in depth, and the besiegers, as they mounted upon the
breaches which they had at last effected in the outer curtain, near the
Brussels gate, saw for the first time this new fortification.
The general condition of the defences,