In the mean, time, the body of light troops which had received the fire from the musical pieces of Groningen was seen to waver.  The artillery was then brought beyond the cover of the wood, and pointed more fully upon the two main squares of the enemy.  A few shots told.  Soon afterward the ‘enfans perdus’ retreated helter-skelter, entirely deserting their position.

This apparent advantage, which was only a preconcerted stratagem, was too much for the fiery Spaniards.  They rushed merrily forward to attack the stationary squares, their general being no longer able, to restrain their impetuosity.  In a moment the whole van-guard had plunged into the morass.  In a few minutes more they were all helplessly and hopelessly struggling in the pools, while the musketeers of the enemy poured in a deadly fire upon them, without wetting the soles of their own feet.  The pikemen, too, who composed the main body of the larger square, now charged upon all who were extricating themselves from their entanglement, and drove them back again to a muddy death.  Simultaneously, the lesser patriot squadron, which had so long been sheltered, emerged from the cover of the hill, made a detour around its base, enveloped the rear-guard of the Spaniards before they could advance to the succor of their perishing comrades, and broke them to pieces almost instantly.  Gonzalo de Braccamonte, the very Spanish colonel who had been foremost in denunciation of Aremberg, for his disposition to delay the contest, was now the first to fly.  To his bad conduct was ascribed the loss of the day.  The anger of Alva was so high, when he was informed of the incident, that he would have condemned the officer to death but for the intercession of his friends and countrymen.  The rout was sudden and absolute.  The foolhardiness of the Spaniards had precipitated them into the pit which their enemies had dug.  The day, was lost.  Nothing was left for Aremberg but to perish with honor.  Placing himself at the head of his handful of cavalry, he dashed into the melee.  The shock was sustained by young Adolphus of Nassau, at the head of an equal number of riders.  Each leader singled out the other.  They met as “captains of might” should do, in the very midst of the affray.  Aremberg, receiving and disregarding a pistol shot from his adversary, laid Adolphus dead at his feet, with a bullet through his body and a sabre cut on his head.  Two troopers in immediate attendance upon the young Count shared the same fate from the same hand.  Shortly afterward, the horse of Aremberg, wounded by a musket ball, fell to the ground.  A few devoted followers lifted the charger to his legs and the bleeding rider to his saddle.  They endeavored to bear their wounded general from the scene of action.  The horse staggered a few paces and fell dead.  Aremberg disengaged himself from his body, and walked a few paces to the edge of a meadow near the road.  Here, wounded in the action, crippled by the disease which had so