to his new enemy.  On the plains of Brabant, the Prince’s superiority in cavalry was sure to tell.  The season of the year, too, was an important element in the calculation.  The winter alone would soon disperse the bands of German mercenaries, whose expenses Orange was not able to support, even while in active service.  With unpaid wages and disappointed hopes of plunder, the rebel army would disappear in a few weeks as totally as if defeated in the open field.  In brief, Orange by a victory would gain new life and strength, while his defeat could no more than anticipate, by a few weeks, the destruction of his army, already inevitable.  Alva, on the contrary, might lose the mastery of the Netherlands if unfortunate, and would gain no solid advantage if triumphant.  The Prince had everything to hope, the Duke everything to fear, from the result of a general action.

The plan, thus deliberately resolved upon, was accomplished with faultless accuracy.  As a work of art, the present campaign of Alva against Orange was a more consummate masterpiece than the, more brilliant and dashing expedition into Friesland.  The Duke had resolved to hang upon his adversary’s skirts, to follow him move by move, to check him at every turn, to harass him in a hundred ways, to foil all his enterprises, to parry all his strokes, and finally to drive him out of the country, after a totally barren campaign, when, as he felt certain, his ill-paid hirelings would vanish in all directions, and leave their patriot Prince a helpless and penniless adventurer.  The scheme thus sagaciously conceived, his adversary, with all his efforts, was unable to circumvent.

The campaign lasted little more than a month.  Twenty-nine times the Prince changed his encampment, and at every remove the Duke was still behind him, as close and seemingly as impalpable as his shadow.  Thrice they were within cannon-shot of each other; twice without a single trench or rampart between them.  The country people refused the Prince supplies, for they trembled at the vengeance of the Governor.  Alva had caused the irons to be removed from all the mills, so that not a bushel of corn could be ground in the whole province.  The country thus afforded but little forage for the thirty thousand soldiers of the Prince.  The troops, already discontented, were clamorous for pay and plunder.  During one mutinous demonstration, the Prince’s sword was shot from his side, and it was with difficulty that a general outbreak was suppressed.  The soldiery were maddened and tantalized by the tactics of Alva.  They found themselves constantly in the presence of an enemy, who seemed to court a battle at one moment and to vanish like a phantom at the next They felt the winter approaching, and became daily more dissatisfied with the irritating hardships to which they were exposed.  Upon the night of the 5th and 6th of October the Prince had crossed the Meuse at Stochem.  Thence he had proceeded to Tongres, followed closely by the enemy’s force, who encamped in the immediate neighbourhood.  From Tongres he had moved to Saint Trond, still pursued and still baffled in the same cautious manner.  The skirmishing at the outposts was incessant, but the main body was withdrawn as soon as there seemed a chance of its becoming involved.