be spared..  He also received six pieces of artillery.  Six cannon, which the lovers of harmony had baptized with the notes of the gamut, ‘ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la’, were placed at his disposal by the authorities, and have acquired historical celebrity.  It was, however, ordained that when those musical pieces piped, the Spaniards were not to dance.  On the 22d, followed by his whole force, consisting of Braccamonte’s legion, his own four vanderas, and a troop of Germans, he came in sight of the enemy at Dam.  Louis of Nassau sent out a body of arquebusiers, about one thousand strong, from the city.  A sharp skirmish ensued, but the beggars were driven into their entrenchments, with a loss of twenty or thirty men, and nightfall terminated the contest.

It was beautiful to see, wrote Aremberg to Alva, how brisk and eager were the Spaniards, notwithstanding the long march which they had that day accomplished.  Time was soon to show how easily immoderate, valor might swell into a fault.  Meantime, Aremberg quartered his troops in and about Wittewerum Abbey, close to the little unwalled city of Dam.

On the other hand, Meghem, whose co-operation had been commanded by Alva, and arranged personally with Aremberg a fortnight before, at Arnheim, had been delayed in his movements.  His troops, who had received no wages for a long time had mutinied.  A small sum of money, however, sent from Brussels, quelled this untimely insubordination.  Meghem then set forth to effect his junction with his colleague, having assured the Governor-general that the war would be ended in six days.  The beggars had not a stiver, he said, and must disband or be beaten to pieces as soon as Aremberg and he had joined forces.  Nevertheless he admitted that these same “master-beggars,” as he called them, might prove too many for either general alone.

Alva, in reply, expressed his confidence that four or five thousand choice troops of Spain would be enough to make a short war of it, but nevertheless warned his officers of the dangers of overweening confidence.  He had been informed that the rebels had assumed the red scarf of the Spanish uniform.  He hoped the stratagem would not save them from broken heads, but was unwilling that his Majesty’s badge should be altered.

He reiterated his commands that no enterprise should be undertaken, except by the whole army in concert; and enjoined the generals incontinently to hang and strangle all prisoners the moment they should be taken.

Marching directly northward, Meghem reached Coeverden, some fifty miles from Dam, on the night of the 22d.  He had informed Aremberg that he might expect him with his infantry and his light horse in the course of the next day.  On the following morning, the 23d, Aremberg wrote his last letter to the Duke, promising to send a good account of the beggars within a very few hours.