Suddenly, as the bearers of the hatchets received the order to board and cut the chains, a crowd of grappling irons, thrown by invisible hands, seized hold of the French vessels.  The Flemings had forestalled the intended movement of the French.  Joyeuse believed that his enemies were offering him a mortal combat, and he accepted it with alacrity.  He also threw grappling irons, and the two lines of ships were firmly bound together.  Then, seizing a hatchet, he was the first to jump on a ship, crying, “Board them! board them!” All his crew followed him, officers and men, uttering the same cry; but no cry replied to them, no force opposed their advance.

Only they saw three boats full of men gliding silently over the water, like three sea-birds.

The assailants rested motionless on the ships which they had conquered without a struggle.

All at once Joyeuse heard under his feet a crackling sound, and a smell of sulphur filled the air.  A thought crossed his mind, and he ran and opened a hatchway; the vessel was burning.  A cry of, “To our ships!” sounded through all the line.  Each climbed back again more quickly than he had come in; but Joyeuse, this time, was the last.  Just as he reached his galley, the flames burst out over the whole bridge of boats, like twenty volcanoes, of which each ship or boat was the crater; the order was instantly given to cut the ropes and break the chains and grappling-irons, and the sailors worked with the rapidity of men who knew that their safety depended on their exertions.  But the work was immense; perhaps they might have detached those thrown by the enemy on their ships, but they had also to detach those which they themselves had thrown.

All at once twenty explosions were heard, and each of the French ships trembled to its center.  It was the cannons that defended the port, and which, fully charged and then abandoned by the Antwerpians, exploded as the fire gained on them, breaking everything within their reach.

The flames mounted like gigantic serpents along the masts, rolled themselves round the yards, then, with their forked tongues, came to lick the sides of the French vessels.

Joyeuse, with his magnificent armor covered with gold, giving calmly, and in an imperious voice, his orders in the midst of the flames, looked like a fabulous salamander covered with scales, and at every movement threw off a shower of sparks.  But the explosions became louder than ever; the gun-room had taken fire, and the vessels were flying in pieces.

Joyeuse had done his best to free himself, but in vain; the flames had reached the French ships, and showers of fire fell about him.  The Flemish barrier was broken, and the French burning ships drifted to the shore.  Joyeuse saw that he could not save his ships, and he gave orders to lower the boats, and land on the left bank.  This was quickly done, and all the sailors were embarked to a man before Joyeuse quitted his galley.  His sang-froid kept every one in order, and each man landed with a sword or an ax in his hand.  Before he had reached the shore, the fire reached the magazine of his ship, which blew up, lighting the whole horizon.