History of the United Netherlands from the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce, 1600-02 by Motley, John Lothrop, 1814-1877

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Chapter Xxxix.

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HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS From the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce--1609

By John Lothrop Motley

MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Vol. 74

History of the United Netherlands, 1600-1602

CHAPTER XXXIX.

Effects of the Nieuport campaign--The general and the statesman--
The Roman empire and the Turk--Disgraceful proceedings of the
mutinous soldiers in Hungary--The Dunkirk pirates--Siege of Ostend
by the Archduke--Attack on Rheinberg by Prince Maurice--Siege and
capitulation of Meura--Attempt on Bois-le-Duc--Concentration of the
war at Ostend--Account of the belligerents--Details of the siege--
Feigned offer of Sir Francis Vere to capitulate--Arrival of
reinforcements from the States--Attack and overthrow of the
besiegers.

The Nieuport campaign had exhausted for the time both belligerents. The victor had saved the republic from impending annihilation, but was incapable of further efforts during the summer. The conquered cardinal- archduke, remaining essentially in the same position as before, consoled himself with the agreeable fiction that the States, notwithstanding their triumph, had in reality suffered the most in the great battle. Meantime both parties did their best to repair damages and to recruit their armies.

The States--or in other words Barneveld, who was the States--had learned a lesson. Time was to show whether it would be a profitable one, or whether Maurice, who was the preceptor of Europe in the art of war, would continue to be a docile pupil of the great Advocate even in military affairs. It is probable that the alienation between the statesman and the general, which was to widen as time advanced, may be dated from the day of Nieuport.

Fables have even been told which indicated the popular belief in an intensity of resentment on the part of the prince, which certainly did not exist till long afterwards.

"Ah, scoundrel!" the stadholder was said to have exclaimed, giving the Advocate a box on the ear as he came to wish him joy of his great victory, "you sold us, but God prevented your making the transfer."

History would disdain even an allusion to such figments--quite as disgraceful, certainly to Maurice as to Barneveld--did they not point the moral and foreshadow some of the vast but distant results of events which had already taken place, and had they not been so generally repeated that it is a duty for the lover of truth to put his foot upon the calumny, even at the risk for a passing moment of reviving it.

The condition of the war in Flanders had established a temporary equilibrium among the western powers--France and England discussing, intriguing, and combining in secret with each other, against each other, and in spite of each other, in regard to the great conflict--while Spain and the cardinal-archduke on the one side, and the republic on the other, prepared themselves for another encounter in the blood-stained arena.