History of the United Netherlands, 1588-89

From the opening

Alexander besieges Bergen-op-Zoom--Pallavicini's Attempt to seduce Parma--Alexander's Fury--He is forced to raise the Siege, of Bergen --Gertruydenberg betrayed to Parma--Indignation of the States-- Exploits, of Schenk--His Attack on Nymegen--He is defeated and drowned--English-Dutch Expedition to Spain--Its meagre Results-- Death of Guise and of the Queen--Mother--Combinations after the Murder of Henry III.--Tandem fit Surculus Arbor.

The fever of the past two years was followed by comparative languor. The deadly crisis was past, the freedom of Europe was saved, Holland and England breathed again; but tension now gave place to exhaustion. The events in the remainder of the year 1588, with those of 1589--although important in themselves--were the immediate results of that history which has been so minutely detailed in these volumes, and can be indicated in a very few pages.

The Duke of Parma, melancholy, disappointed, angry stung to the soul by calumnies as stupid as they were venomous, and already afflicted with a painful and lingering disease, which his friends attributed to poison administered by command of the master whom he had so faithfully served-- determined, if possible, to afford the consolation which that master was so plaintively demanding at his hands.

So Alexander led the splendid army which had been packed in, and unpacked from, the flat boats of Newport and Dunkerk, against Bergen-op-Zoom, and besieged that city in form. Once of great commercial importance, although somewhat fallen away from its original prosperity, Bergen was well situate on a little stream which connected it with the tide-waters of the Scheldt, and was the only place in Brabant, except Willemstad, still remaining to the States. Opposite lay the Isle of Tholen from which it was easily to be supplied and reinforced. The Vosmeer, a branch of the Scheldt, separated the island from the main, and there was a path along the bed of that estuary, which, at dead low-water, was practicable for wading.

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