saw the sea rapidly rising over the dyke, became panic-struck at being
thus enclosed between fire and water, and dashed off in precipitate
retreat along the slippery causeway and through the slimy and turbid
waters, which were fast threatening to overwhelm them. Many were drowned
or smothered in their flight, but the greater portion of the force
effected their escape in the vessels which still remained within reach.
This danger averted, Admiral de la Marck summoned all the inhabitants,
a large number of whom had returned to the town after the capture had
been fairly established, and required them, as well as all the population
of the island, to take an oath of allegiance to the Prince of Orange as
stadholder for his Majesty.
The Prince had not been extremely satisfied with the enterprise of De la
Marck. He thought-it premature, and doubted whether it would be
practicable to hold the place, as he had not yet completed his
arrangements in Germany, nor assembled the force with which he intended
again to take the field. More than all, perhaps, he had little
confidence in the character of his Admiral. Orange was right in his
estimate of De la Marck. It had not been that rover's design either to
take or to hold the place; and after the descent had been made, the ships
victualled, the churches plundered, the booty secured, and a few monks
murdered, he had given orders for the burning of the town, and for the
departure of the fleet. The urgent solicitations of Treslong, however,
prevailed, with some difficulty, over De la Marck' original intentions.
It is to that bold and intelligent noble, therefore, more than to any
other individual, that the merit of laying this corner-stone of the
Batavian commonwealth belongs. The enterprise itself was an accident,
but the quick eye of Treslong saw the possibility of a permanent
conquest, where his superior dreamed of nothing beyond a piratical foray.
Meantime Bossu, baffled in his attempt upon Brill, took his way towards
Rotterdam. It was important that he should at least secure such other
cities as the recent success of the rebels might cause to waver in their
allegiance. He found the gates of Rotterdam closed. The authorities
refused to comply with his demand to admit a garrison for the King.
Professing perfect loyalty, the inhabitants very naturally refused to
admit a band of sanguinary Spaniards to enforce their obedience.
Compelled to parley, Bossu resorted to a perfidious stratagem. He
requested permission for his troops to pass through the city without
halting. This was granted by the magistrates, on condition that only a
corporal's command should be admitted at a time. To these terms the
Count affixed his hand and seal. With the admission, however, of the
first detachment, a violent onset was made upon the gate by the whole
Spanish force. The townspeople, not suspecting treachery, were not
prepared to make effective resistance. A stout smith, confronting the
invaders at the gate, almost singly, with his sledge-hammer, was stabbed
to the heart by Bossu with his own hand. The soldiers having thus gained
admittance, rushed through the streets, putting every man to death who
offered the slightest resistance. Within a few minutes four hundred
citizens were murdered. The fate of the women, abandoned now to the
outrage of a brutal soldiery, was worse than death. The capture of
Rotterdam is infamous for the same crimes which blacken the record of
every Spanish triumph in the Netherlands.
The important town of Flushing, on the Isle of Walcheren, was first to
vibrate with the patriotic impulse given by the success at Brill. The
Seigneur de Herpt, a warm partisan of Orange, excited the burghers
assembled in the market-place to drive the small remnant of the Spanish
garrison from the city. A little later upon the same day a considerable
reinforcement arrived before the walls. The Duke had determined,
although too late, to complete the fortress which had been commenced long
before to control the possession of this important position at the mouth
of the western Scheld. The troops who were to resume this too long
intermitted work arrived just in time to witness the expulsion of their
comrades. De Herpt easily persuaded the burghers that the die was cast,
and that their only hope lay in a resolute resistance. The people warmly
acquiesced, while a half-drunken, half-wined fellow in the crowd
valiantly proposed, in consideration of a pot of beer, to ascend the
ramparts and to discharge a couple of pieces of artillery at the Spanish
ships. The offer was accepted, and the vagabond merrily mounting the
height, discharged the guns. Strange to relate, the shot thus fired by a
lunatic's hand put the invading ships to flight. A sudden panic seized
the Spaniards, the whole fleet stood away at once in the direction of
Middelburg, and were soon out of sight.
The next day, however, Antony of Bourgoyne, governor under Alva for the
Island of Walcheren, made his appearance in Flushing. Having a high
opinion of his own oratorical powers, he came with the intention of
winning back with his rhetoric a city which the Spaniards had thus far
been unable to recover with their cannon. The great bell was rung, the
whole population assembled in the marketplace, and Antony, from the steps
of the town-house, delivered a long oration, assuring the burghers, among
other asseverations, that the King, who was the best natured prince in
all Christendom, would forget and forgive their offences if they returned
honestly to their duties.
The effect of the Governor's eloquence was much diminished, however, by
the interlocutory remarks, of De Herpt and a group of his adherents.
They reminded the people of the King's good nature, of his readiness to
forget and to forgive, as exemplified by the fate of Horn and Egmont, of
Berghen and Montigny, and by the daily and almost hourly decrees of the
Blood Council. Each well-rounded period of the Governor was greeted with
ironical cheers. The oration was unsuccessful. "Oh, citizens, citizens!"
cried at last the discomfited Antony, "ye know not what ye do. Your
blood be upon your own heads; the responsibility be upon your own hearts
for the fires which are to consume your cities and the desolation which
is to sweep your land!" The orator at this impressive point was
interrupted, and most unceremoniously hustled out of the city. The
government remained in the hands of the patriots.
The party, however, was not so strong in soldiers as in spirit. No
sooner, therefore, had they established their rebellion to Alva as an
incontrovertible fact, than they sent off emissaries to the Prince of
Orange, and to Admiral De la Marek at Brill. Finding that the
inhabitants of Flushing were willing to provide arms and ammunition, De
la Marck readily consented to send a small number of men, bold and
experienced in partisan warfare, of whom he had now collected a larger
number than he could well arm or maintain in his present position.
The detachment, two hundred in number, in three small vessels,
set sail accordingly from Brill for Flushing; and a wild crew they were,
of reckless adventurers under command of the bold Treslong. The
expedition seemed a fierce but whimsical masquerade. Every man in the
little fleet was attired in the gorgeous vestments of the plundered
churches, in gold-embroidered cassocks, glittering mass-garments, or the
more sombre cowls, and robes of Capuchin friars. So sped the early
standard bearers of that ferocious liberty which had sprung from the
fires in which all else for which men cherish their fatherland had been
consumed. So swept that resolute but fantastic band along the placid
estuaries of Zealand, waking the stagnant waters with their wild beggar
songs and cries of vengeance.
That vengeance found soon a distinguished object. Pacheco, the chief
engineer of Alva, who had accompanied the Duke in his march from Italy,
who had since earned a world-wide reputation as the architect of the
Antwerp citadel, had been just despatched in haste to Flushing to
complete the fortress whose construction had been so long delayed.
Too late for his work, too soon for his safety, the ill-fated engineer
had arrived almost at the same moment with Treslong and his crew.
He had stepped on shore, entirely ignorant of all which had transpired,
expecting to be treated with the respect due to the chief commandant of
the place, and to an officer high in the confidence of the Governor-
General. He found himself surrounded by an indignant and threatening
mob. The unfortunate Italian understood not a word of the opprobrious
language addressed to him, but he easily comprehended that the authority
of the Duke was overthrown. Observing De Ryk, a distinguished partisan
officer and privateersman of Amsterdam, whose reputation for bravery and
generosity was known, to him, he approached him, and drawing a seal ring
from his finger, kissed it, and handed it to the rebel chieftain. By
this dumbshow he gave him to understand that he relied upon his honor for
the treatment due to a gentleman. De Ryk understood the appeal, and
would willingly have assured him, at least, a soldier's death, but he was
powerless to do so. He arrested him, that he might be protected from the
fury of the rabble, but Treslong, who now commanded in Flushing, was
especially incensed against the founder of the Antwerp citadel, and felt
a ferocious desire to avenge his brother's murder upon the body of his
destroyer's favourite. Pacheco was condemned to be hanged upon the very
day of his arrival. Having been brought forth from his prison, he begged
hard but not abjectly for his life. He offered a heavy ransom, but his
enemies were greedy for blood, not for money. It was, however, difficult
to find an executioner. The city hangman was absent, and the prejudice
of the country and the age against the vile profession had assuredly not
been diminished during the five horrible years of Alva's administration.
Even a condemned murderer, who lay in the town-gaol, refused to accept
his life in recompence for performing the office. It should never be
said, he observed, that his mother had given birth to a hangman. When
told, however, that the intended victim was a Spanish officer, the
malefactor consented to the task with alacrity, on condition that he
might afterwards kill any man who taunted him with the deed.
Arrived at the foot of the gallows, Pacheco complained bitterly of the
disgraceful death designed for him. He protested loudly that he came of
a house as noble as that of Egmont or Horn, and was entitled to as
honorable an execution as theirs had been. "The sword! the sword!" he
frantically exclaimed, as he struggled with those who guarded him. His
language was not understood, but the names of Egmont and Horn inflamed
still more highly the rage of the rabble, while his cry for the sword was
falsely interpreted by a rude fellow who had happened to possess himself
of Pacheco's rapier, at his capture, and who now paraded himself with it
at the gallows' foot. "Never fear for your sword, Seilor," cried this
ruffian; "your sword is safe enough, and in good hands. Up the ladder
with you, Senor; you have no further use for your sword."
Pacheco, thus outraged, submitted to his fate. He mounted the ladder
with a steady step, and was hanged between two other Spanish officers.
So perished miserably a brave soldier, and one of the most distinguished
engineers of his time; a man whose character and accomplishments had
certainly merited for him a better fate. But while we stigmatize as it
deserves the atrocious conduct of a few Netherland partisans, we should
remember who first unchained the demon of international hatred in this
unhappy land, nor should it ever be forgotten that the great leader
of the revolt, by word, proclamation, example, by entreaties, threats,
and condign punishment, constantly rebuked, and to a certain extent,
restrained the sanguinary spirit by which some of his followers disgraced
the noble cause which they had espoused.
Treslong did not long remain in command at Flushing. An officer, high
in the confidence of the Prince, Jerome van 't Zeraerts, now arrived at
Flushing, with a commission to be Lieutenant-Governor over the whole isle
of Walcheren. He was attended by a small band of French infantry, while
at nearly the same time the garrison was further strengthened by the
arrival of a large number of volunteers from England.
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Beggars of the sea, as these privateersmen designated themselves
Hair and beard unshorn, according to ancient Batavian custom
Only healthy existence of the French was in a state of war