This celebrated siege, undertaken by the Spaniards, lasted three years
and seventy-eight days, and, up to the moment of its termination,
doubts were entertained of their success. The besieged, constantly
succoured both by sea and land, were unable to tire out the courage
and patience of the besiegers, who pushed on their attacks without
relaxation, amidst the greatest obstacles. It would be difficult
to count the number of batteries they erected, the assaults they
made, or the mines they sprung. The last were so frequent, that they
might be said to work more beneath the earth than upon its surface.
All the resources of art were exhausted in the attack and defence.
Machines were invented. The earth and the ocean by turns favoured the
two parties, seconding and destroying alternately the works of the
Spaniards and the Dutch, who advanced no work upon the land which the
sea did not appear to hasten to destroy. This siege cost the Dutch more
than seventy thousand men, and more than ten millions of French money.
Their adversary likewise lost immensely. The slaughter was terrible on
both sides. Both parties were more eager to inflict death upon their
enemies than to save their own lives. At length the besieged, after
having seen nine commanders perish successively, did not abandon the
little heap of ruins on which they had concentrated themselves, and
which they contested foot by foot, until it seemed to disappear from
under them: an honourable capitulation was granted. The enemy was
surprised to see march from untenable ruins more than four thousand
vigorous soldiers, whom the abundance they had lived in during the
whole siege had kept in the best health. In addition to a numerous
artillery, a prodigious quantity of provisions and munitions was found
in the city. The archduke, who had begun this celebrated expedition,
with the infanta his wife, had the curiosity to go and view the
melancholy remains of Ostend. They found nothing but a shapeless heap
of ruins, and could trace no vestige of the besieged place. Spinola,
who had taken it, was loaded with honours and elevated to the highest
dignities. The Dutch, who during the siege had taken Rhenberg, Grave,
and Ecluse, very easily consoled themselves for their loss; and to mark
by a public monument that they thought they had received full amends,
had a medal struck, with the inscription, _Jehova plus dederat quam
perdidimus_:--God has given us more than we have lost.
In a work like this it would be impossible to pass by such a siege as
that of Ostend, but at the same time it is equally impossible for us
to do the subject justice: the interesting details of this siege would
fill a volume.