century before it had stood a year's siege from the famous Charles the
Bold, who, after all, had been obliged to retire. It had also resisted
the strenuous efforts of Charles the Fifth; and was now stronger than it
ever had been. It was thoroughly well provisioned, so that it was safe
enough "if those within it," said Leicester, "be men." The Earl
expressed the opinion, however, that "those fellows were not good to
defend towns, unless the besiegers were obliged to swim to the attack."
The issue was to show whether the sarcasm were just or not. Meantime the
town was considered by the governor-general to be secure, "unless towns
were to be had for the asking."
Neusz is not immediately upon the Rhine, but that river, which sweeps
away in a north-easterly direction from the walls, throws out an arm
which completely encircles the town. A part of the place, cut into an
island by the Erpt, was strengthened by two redoubts. This island was
abandoned, as being too weak to hold, and the Spaniards took possession
of it immediately. There were various preliminary and sanguinary sorties
and skirmishes, during which the Spaniards after having been once driven
from the island, again occupied that position. Archbishop Ernest came
into the camp, and, before proceeding to a cannonade, Parma offered to
the city certain terms of capitulation, which were approved by that
prelate. Kloet replied to this proposal, that he was wedded to the town
and to his honour, which were as one. These he was incapable of
sacrificing, but his life he was ready to lay down. There was, through
some misapprehension, a delay in reporting this answer to Farnese.
Meantime that general became impatient, and advanced to the battery of
the Italian regiment. Pretending to be a plenipotentiary from the
commander-in-chief, he expostulated in a loud voice at the slowness of
their counsels. Hardly had he begun to speak, when a shower of balls
rattled about him. His own soldiers were terrified at his danger, and a
cry arose in the town that "Holofernese"--as the Flemings and Germans
were accustomed to nickname Farnese--was dead. Strange to relate, he was
quite unharmed, and walked back to his tent with dignified slowness and a
very frowning face. It was said that this breach of truce had been begun
by the Spaniards, who had fired first, and had been immediately answered
by the town. This was hotly denied, and Parma sent Colonel Tasais with a
flag of truce to the commander, to rebuke and to desire an explanation of
this dishonourable conduct.
The answer given, or imagined, was that Commander Kloet had been sound
asleep, but that he now much regretted this untoward accident. The
explanation was received with derision, for it seemed hardly probable
that so young and energetic a soldier would take the opportunity to
refresh himself with slumber at a moment when a treaty for the
capitulation of a city under his charge was under discussion. This
terminated the negotiation.
A few days afterwards, the feast of St James was celebrated in the
Spanish camp, with bonfires and other demonstrations of hilarity. The
townsmen are said to have desecrated the same holiday by roasting alive
in the market-place two unfortunate soldiers, who had been captured in a
sortie a few days before; besides burning the body of the holy Saint
Quirinus, with other holy relics. The detestable deed was to be most
horribly avenged.
A steady cannonade from forty-five great guns was kept up from 2 A.M. of
July 15 until the dawn of the following day; the cannoneers--being all
provided with milk and vinegar to cool the pieces. At daybreak the
assault was ordered. Eight separate attacks were made with the usual
impetuosity of Spaniards, and were steadily repulsed.
At the ninth, the outer wall was carried, and the Spaniards shouting
"Santiago" poured over it, bearing back all resistance. An Italian
Knight of the Sepulchre, Cesar Guidiccioni by name, and a Spanish ensign,
one Alphonao de Mesa, with his colours in one hand and a ladder in the
other, each claimed the honour of having first mounted the breach. Both
being deemed equally worthy of reward, Parma, after the city had been
won, took from his own cap a sprig of jewels and a golden wheat-ear
ornamented with a gem, which he had himself worn in place of a plume, and
thus presented each with a brilliant token of his regard. The wall was
then strengthened against the inner line of fortification, and all night
long a desperate conflict was maintained in the dark upon the narrow
space between the two barriers. Before daylight Kloet, who then, as
always, had led his men in the moat desperate adventures, was carried
into the town, wounded in five places, and with his leg almost severed at
the thigh. "'Tis the bravest man," said the enthusiastic Lord North,
"that was ever heard of in the world."--"He is but a boy," said Alexander
Farnese, "but a commander of extraordinary capacity and valour."
Early in the morning, when this mishap was known, an officer was sent to
the camp of the besiegers to treat. The soldiers received him with
furious laughter, and denied him access to the general. "Commander Kloet
had waked from his nap at a wrong time," they said, "and the Prince of
Parma was now sound asleep, in his turn." There was no possibility of
commencing a negotiation. The Spaniards, heated by the conflict,
maddened by opposition, and inspired by the desire to sack a wealthy
city, overpowered all resistance. "My little soldiers were not to be
restrained," said Farnese, and so compelling a reluctant consent on the
part of the commander-in-chief to an assault, the Italian and Spanish
legions poured into the town at two opposite gates; which were no.
longer strong enough to withstand the enemy. The two streams met in the
heart of the place, and swept every living thing in their, path out of
existence. The garrison was butchered to a man, and subsequently many
of the inhabitants--men, women, and children-also, although the women;
to the honour of Alexander, had been at first secured from harm in some
of the churches, where they had been ordered to take refuge. The first
blast of indignation was against the commandant of the place. Alexander,
who had admired, his courage, was not unfavourably disposed towards him,
but Archbishop Ernest vehemently, demanded his immediate death, as a
personal favour to himself. As the churchman was nominally sovereign of
the city although in reality a beggarly dependant on Philip's alms,
Farnese felt bound to comply. The manner in which it was at first
supposed that the Bishop's Christian request had; been complied, with,
sent a shudder through every-heart in the Netherlands. "They took Kloet,
wounded as he was," said Lord North, "and first strangled, him, then
smeared him with pitch, and burnt him with gunpowder; thus, with their
holiness, they, made a tragical end of an heroical service. It is
wondered that the Prince would suffer so great an outrage to be done to
so noble a soldier, who did but his duty."
But this was an error. A Jesuit priest was sent to the house of the
commandant, for a humane effort was thought necessary in order to save
the soul of the man whose life was forfeited for the crime of defending
his city. The culprit was found lying in bed. His wife, a woman of
remarkable beauty, with her sister, was in attendance upon him. The
spectacle of those two fair women, nursing a wounded soldier fallen upon
the field of honour, might have softened devils with sympathy. But the
Jesuit was closely followed by a band of soldiers, who, notwithstanding
the supplications of the women, and the demand of Kloet to be indulged
with a soldier's death, tied a rope round the commandant's necks dragged
him from his bed, and hanged him from his own window. The Calvinist
clergyman, Fosserus of Oppenheim, the deacons of the congregation, two
military officers, and--said Parma--"forty other rascals," were murdered
in the same way at the same time. The bodies remained at the window till
they were devoured by the flames, which soon consumed the house. For a
vast conflagration, caused none knew whether by accident, by the despair
of the inhabitants; by the previous, arrangements of the commandant, by
the latest-arrived bands of the besiegers enraged that the Italians and
Spaniards had been beforehand with them in the spoils, or--as Farnese
more maturely believed--by the special agency of the Almighty, offended
with the burning of Saint Quirinus,--now came to complete the horror of
the scene. Three-quarters of the town were at once in a blaze. The
churches, where the affrighted women had been cowering during the sack
and slaughter, were soon on fire, and now, amid the crash of falling
houses and the uproar of the drunken soldiery, those unhappy victims were
seen flitting along the flaming streets; seeking refuge against the fury
of the elements in the more horrible cruelty of man. The fire lasted all
day and night, and not one stone would have been left upon another, had
not the body of a second saint, saved on a former occasion from the
heretics by the piety of a citizen, been fortunately deposited in his
house. At this point the conflagration was stayed--for the flames
refused to consume these holy relics--but almost the whole of the town
was destroyed, while at least four thousand people, citizens and
soldiers, had perished by sword or fire.
Three hundred survivors of the garrison took refuge in a tower. Its base
was surrounded, and, after brief parley, they descended as prisoners.
The Prince and Haultepenne attempted in vain to protect them against the
fury of the soldiers, and every man of them was instantly put to death.
The next day, Alexander gave orders that the wife and sister of the
commandant should be protected--for they had escaped, as if by miracle,
from all the horrors of that day and night--and sent, under escort, to
their friends! Neusz had nearly ceased to exist, for according to
contemporaneous accounts, but eight houses had escaped destruction.
And the reflection was most painful to Leicester and to every generous
Englishman or Netherlander in the country, that this important city and
its heroic defenders might have been preserved, but for want of harmony
and want of money. Twice had the Earl got together a force of four
thousand men for the relief of the place, and twice had he been obliged
to disband them again for the lack of funds to set them in the field.
He had pawned his plate and other valuables, exhausted his credit, and
had nothing for it but to wait for the Queen's tardy remittances, and to
wrangle with the States; for the leaders of that body were unwilling to
accord large supplies to a man who had become personally suspected by
them, and was the representative of a deeply-suspected government.
Meanwhile, one-third at least of the money which really found its way
from time to time out of England, was filched from the "poor starved
wretches," as Leicester called his soldiers, by the dishonesty of Norris,
uncle of Sir John and army-treasurer. This man was growing so rich on
his peculations, on his commissions, and on his profits from paying the
troops in a depreciated coin, that Leicester declared the whole revenue
of his own landed estates in England to be less than that functionary's
annual income. Thus it was difficult to say whether the "ragged rogues"
of Elizabeth or the maimed and neglected soldiers of Philip were in the
more pitiable plight.
The only consolation in the recent reduction of Neusz was to be found in
the fact that Parma had only gained a position, for the town had ceased
to exist; and in the fiction that he had paid for his triumph by the loss
of six thousand soldiers, killed and wounded. In reality not more than
five hundred of Farnese's army lost their lives, and although the town,
excepting some churches, had certainly been destroyed; yet the Prince was
now master of the Rhine as far as Cologne, and of the Meuse as far as
Grave. The famine which pressed so sorely upon him, might now be
relieved, and his military communications with Germany be considered
secure.
The conqueror now turned his attention to Rheinberg, twenty-five miles
farther down the river.
Sir Philip Sidney had not been well satisfied by the comparative idleness
in which, from these various circumstances; he had been compelled to
remain. Early in the spring he had been desirous of making an attack
upon Flanders by capturing the town of Steenberg. The faithful Roger
Williams had strongly seconded the proposal. "We wish to show your
Excellency," said he to Leicester, "that we are not sound asleep." The
Welshman was not likely to be accused of somnolence, but on this occasion
Sidney and himself had been overruled. At a later moment, and during the
siege of Neusz, Sir Philip had the satisfaction of making a successful
foray into Flanders.
The expedition had been planned by Prince Maurice of Nassau, and was his.
earliest military achievement. He proposed carrying by surprise, the
city of Axel, a well-built, strongly-fortified town on the south-western
edge of the great Scheldt estuary, and very important from its position.
Its acquisition would make the hold of the patriots and the English upon
Sluys and Ostend more secure, and give them many opportunities of
annoying the enemy in Flanders.
Early in July, Maurice wrote to the Earl of Leicester, communicating the
particulars of his scheme, but begging that the affair might be "very
secretly handled," and kept from every one but Sidney. Leicester
accordingly sent his nephew to Maurice that they might consult together
upon the enterprise, and make sure "that there was no ill intent, there
being so much treachery in the world." Sidney found no treachery in
young Maurice, but only, a noble and intelligent love of adventure, and
the two arranged their plans in harmony.
Leicester, then, in order to deceive the enemy, came to Bergen-op-Zoom,
with five hundred men, where he remained two days, not sleeping a wink,
as he averred, during the whole time. In the night of Tuesday, 16th of
July, the five hundred English soldiers were despatched by water, under
charge of Lord Willoughby, "who," said the Earl, "would needs go with
them." Young Hatton, too, son of Sir Christopher, also volunteered on
the service, "as his first nursling." Sidney had, five hundred of his
own Zeeland regiment in readiness, and the rendezvous was upon the broad
waters of the Scheldt, opposite Flushing. The plan was neatly carried
out, and the united flotilla, in a dark, calm, midsummer's night, rowed
across the smooth estuary and landed at Ter Neuse, about a league from
Axel. Here they were joined by Maurice with some Netherland companies,
and the united troops, between two and three thousand strong, marched at
once to the place proposed. Before two in the morning they had reached
Axel, but found the moat very deep. Forty soldiers immediately plunged
in, however, carrying their ladders with them, swam across, scaled the
rampart, killed, the guard, whom they found asleep in their beds, and
opened the gates for their comrades. The whole force then marched in,
the Dutch companies under Colonel Pyion being first, Lord Willoughby's
men being second, and Sir Philip with his Zeelanders bringing up the
rear. The garrison, between five and six hundred in number, though
surprised, resisted gallantly, and were all put to the sword. Of the
invaders, not a single man lost his life. Sidney most generously
rewarded from his own purse the adventurous soldiers who had swum the
moat; and it was to his care and intelligence that the success of Prince
Maurice's scheme was generally attributed. The achievement was hailed
with great satisfaction, and it somewhat raised the drooping spirits of
the patriots after their severe losses at Grave and Venlo. "This victory
hath happened in good time," wrote Thomas Cecil to his father, "and hath
made us somewhat to lift up our heads." A garrison of eight hundred,
under Colonel Pyron, was left in Axel, and the dykes around were then
pierced. Upwards of two millions' worth of property in grass, cattle,
corn, was thus immediately destroyed in the territory of the obedient
Netherlands.
After an unsuccessful attempt to surprise Gravelines, the governor of
which place, the veteran La Motte, was not so easily taken napping; Sir
Philip having gained much reputation by this conquest of Axel, then
joined the main body of the army, under Leicester, at Arnheim.
Yet, after all, Sir Philip had not grown in favour with her Majesty
during his service in the Low Countries. He had also been disappointed
in the government of Zeeland, to which post his uncle had destined him.
The cause of Leicester's ambition had been frustrated by the policy of
Barneveld and Buys, in pursuance of which Count or Prince Maurice--as he
was now purposely designated, in order that his rank might surpass that
of the Earl--had become stadholder and captain general both of Holland
and Zeeland. The Earl had given his nephew, however, the colonelcy of
the Zeeland regiment, vacant by the death of Admiral Haultain on the
Kowenstyn Dyke. This promotion had excited much anger among the high
officers in the Netherlands who, at the instigation of Count Hohenlo,
had presented a remonstrance upon the subject to the governor-general.
It had always been the custom, they said, with the late Prince of Orange,
to confer promotion according to seniority, without regard to social
rank, and they were therefore unwilling that a young foreigner, who had
just entered the service; should thus be advanced over the heads of
veterans who had been campaigning there so many weary years. At the same
time the gentlemen who signed the paper protested to Sir Philip, in
another letter, "with all the same hands," that they had no personal
feeling towards him, but, on the contrary, that they wished him all
honour.
Young Maurice himself had always manifested the most friendly feelings
toward Sidney, although influenced in his action by the statesmen who
were already organizing a powerful opposition to Leicester. "Count
Maurice showed himself constantly, kind in the matter of the regiment,"
said Sir Philip, "but Mr. Paul Buss has so many busses in his head, such
as you shall find he will be to God and man about one pitch. Happy is
the communication of them that join in the fear of God." Hohenlo, too,
or Hollock, as he was called by the French and English, was much governed
by Buys and Olden-Barneveld. Reckless and daring, but loose of life and
uncertain of purpose, he was most dangerous, unless under safe guidance.
Roger Williams--who vowed that but for the love he bore to Sidney and
Leicester, he would not remain ten days in the Netherlands--was much
disgusted by Hohenlo's conduct in regard to the Zeeland regiment. "'Tis
a mutinous request of Hollock," said he, "that strangers should not
command Netherlanders. He and his Alemaynes are farther born from
Zeeland than Sir Philip is. Either you must make Hollock assured to you,
or you must disgrace him. If he will not be yours, I will show you means
to disinherit him of all his commands at small danger. What service doth
he, Count Solms, Count Overatein, with their Almaynes, but spend treasure
and consume great contributions?"
It was, very natural that the chivalrous Sidney, who had come to the
Netherlands to win glory in the field, should be desirous of posts that
would bring danger and distinction with them. He was not there merely
that he might govern Flushing, important as it was, particularly as the
garrison was, according to his statement, about as able to maintain the
town, "as the Tower was to answer for London." He disapproved of his
wife's inclination to join him in Holland, for he was likely--so he wrote
to her father, Walsingham--"to run such a course as would not be fit for
any of the feminine gender." He had been, however; grieved to the heart,
by the spectacle which was perpetually exhibited of the Queen's
parsimony, and of the consequent suffering of the soldiers. Twelve or
fifteen thousand Englishmen were serving in the Netherlands--more than
two thirds of them in her Majesty's immediate employment. No troops had
ever fought better, or more honourably maintained the ancient glory of
England. But rarely had more ragged and wretched warriors been seen than
they, after a few months' campaigning.
The Irish Kernes--some fifteen hundred of whom were among the
auxiliaries--were better off, for they habitually dispensed with
clothing; an apron from waist to knee being the only protection of these
wild Kelts, who fought with the valour, and nearly, in the costume of
Homeric heroes. Fearing nothing, needing nothing, sparing nothing, they
stalked about the fens of Zeeland upon their long stilts, or leaped
across running rivers, scaling ramparts, robbing the highways, burning,
butchering, and maltreating the villages and their inhabitants, with as
little regard for the laws of Christian warfare as for those of civilized
costume.
Other soldiers, more sophisticated as to apparel, were less at their
ease. The generous Sidney spent all his means, and loaded himself with
debt, in order to relieve the necessities of the poor soldiers. He
protested that if the Queen would not pay her troops, she would lose her
troops, but that no living man should say the fault was in him. "What
relief I can do them I will," he wrote to his father-in-law; "I will
spare no danger, if occasion serves. I am sure that no creature shall
lay injustice to my charge."
Very soon it was discovered that the starving troops had to contend not
only with the Queen's niggardliness but with the dishonesty of her
agents. Treasurer Norris was constantly accused by Leicester and Sidney
of gross peculation. Five per cent., according to Sir Philip, was lost
to the Zeeland soldiers in every payment, "and God knows," he said, "they
want no such hindrance, being scarce able to keep life with their entire
pay. Truly it is but poor increase to her Majesty, considering what loss
it is to the miserable soldier." Discipline and endurance were sure to
be sacrificed, in the end, to such short-sighted economy. "When
soldiers," said Sidney, "grow to despair, and give up towns, then it is
too late to buy with hundred thousands what might have been saved with a
trifle."
This plain dealing, on the part of Sidney, was anything but agreeable to
the Queen, who was far from feeling regret that his high-soaring
expectations had been somewhat blighted in the Provinces. He often
expressed his mortification that her Majesty was disposed to interpret
everything to, his disadvantage. "I understand," said he, "that I am
called ambitious, and very proud at home, but certainly, if they knew my
heart, they would not altogether so judge me." Elizabeth had taken part
with Hohenlo against Sir Philip in the matter of the Zeeland regiment,
and in this perhaps she was not entirely to be blamed. But she inveighed
needlessly against his ambitious seeking of the office, and--as
Walsingham observed--"she was very apt, upon every light occasion,
to find fault with him." It is probable that his complaints against the
army treasurer, and his manful defence of the "miserable soldiers," more
than counterbalanced, in the Queen's estimation, his chivalry in the
field.
Nevertheless he had now the satisfaction of having gained an important
city in Flanders; and on subsequently joining the army under his uncle,
he indulged the hope of earning still greater distinction.
Martin Schenk had meanwhile been successfully defending Rheinberg, for
several weeks, against Parma's forces. It was necessary, however, that
Leicester, notwithstanding the impoverished condition of his troops,
should make some diversion, while his formidable antagonist was thus
carrying all before him.
He assembled, accordingly, in the month of August, all the troops that
could be brought into the field, and reviewed them, with much ceremony,
in the neighbourhood of Arnheim. His army--barely numbered seven
thousand foot and two thousand horse, but he gave out, very extensively,
that he had fourteen thousand under his command, and he was moreover
expecting a force of three thousand reiters, and as many pikemen recently
levied in Germany. Lord Essex was general of the cavalry, Sir William
Pelham--a distinguished soldier, who had recently arrived out of England,
after the most urgent solicitations to the Queen, for that end, by
Leicester--was lord-marshal of the camp, and Sir John Norris was colonel-
general of the infantry.