The warlike operations of the year 1599 were uneventful and in the main defensive, except on the eastern frontier where the Spanish forces under the command of the Admiral of Aragon, Mendoza, captured Wesel and Rheinberg.  The new rulers of the Netherlands, Albert and Isabel, did not make their entry into Brussels until the end of 1599; and almost before they had had time to organise the new government and gain firm possession of the reins of power in the Belgic provinces, they found themselves confronted with a serious danger.  The seaport of Dunkirk had for many years been a nest of pirates, who preyed upon Dutch commerce in the narrow seas.  The States-General, urged on by Oldenbarneveldt, resolved in the spring of 1606 to despatch an expedition to besiege and capture Dunkirk.  Both Maurice and William Lewis were opposed to the project, which they regarded as rash and risky.  The States-General, however, hearing reports of the archduke’s soldiery being mutinous for lack of pay, persisted in their purpose, and Maurice, against his better judgment, acquiesced.  A body of picked troops, 12,000 foot and 3000 horse, was assembled on the island of Walcheren.  A succession of contrary winds delaying the sailing of the force, it was determined to march straight through West Flanders to Nieuport and then along the shore to Dunkirk.  A deputation of the States-General, of which Oldenbarneveldt was the leading member, went to Ostend to supervise, much to Maurice’s annoyance, the military operations.  The stadholder, however, reached Nieuport without serious opposition and proceeded to invest it.  Meanwhile the Archduke Albert had been acting with great energy.  By persuasive words and large promises he succeeded in winning back the mutineers, and at the head of a veteran force of 10,000 infantry and 1500 cavalry he followed Maurice and, advancing along the dunes, came on July 1 upon a body of 2000 men under the command of Ernest Casimir of Nassau, sent by the stadholder to defend the bridge of Leffingen.  At the sight of the redoubtable Spanish infantry a panic seized these troops and they were routed with heavy loss.  The fight, however, gave Maurice time to unite his forces and draw them up in battle order in front of Nieuport.  Battle was joined the following afternoon, and slowly, foot by foot, after a desperate conflict the archduke’s Spanish and Italian veterans drove back along the dunes the troops of the States.  Every hillock and sandy hollow was fiercely contested, the brunt of the conflict falling on the English and Frisians under the command of Sir Francis Vere.  Vere himself was severely wounded, and the battle appeared to be lost.  At this critical moment the Spaniards began to show signs of exhaustion through their tremendous exertions in two successive fights under a hot sun in the yielding sand-hills; and the prince, at the critical moment, throwing himself into the midst of his retreating troops, succeeded in rallying them.  At the same