to refuse a battle when:  offered.  Upon this occasion it would be difficult to retreat without disaster and disgrace, but it was equally difficult to achieve a victory.  Thrust, as he was, like a wedge into the very heart of a hostile country, he was obliged to force his way through, or to remain in his enemy’s power.  Moreover, and worst of all, his troops were in a state of mutiny for their wages.  While he talked to them of honor, they howled to him for money.  It was the custom of these mercenaries to mutiny on the eve of battle—­of the Spaniards, after it had been fought.  By the one course, a victory was often lost which might have been achieved; by the other, when won it was rendered fruitless.

Avila had chosen his place of battle with great skill.  On the right bank of the Meuse, upon a narrow plain which spread from the river to a chain of hills within cannon-shot on the north, lay the little village of Mook.  The Spanish general knew that his adversary had the superiority in cavalry, and that within this compressed apace it would not be possible to derive much advantage from the circumstance.

On the 14th, both armies were drawn up in battle array at earliest dawn, Louis having strengthened his position by a deep trench, which extended from Mook, where he had stationed ten companies of infantry, which thus rested on the village and the river.  Next came the bulk of his infantry, disposed in a single square.  On their right was his cavalry, arranged in four squadrons, as well as the narrow limits of the field would allow.  A small portion of them, for want of apace, were stationed on the hill side.

Opposite, the forces of Don Sancho were drawn up in somewhat similar fashion.  Twenty-five companies of Spaniards were disposed in four bodies of pikemen and musketeers; their right resting on the river.  On their left was the cavalry, disposed by Mendoza in the form of a half moon-the horns garnished by two small bodies of sharpshooters.  In the front ranks of the cavalry were the mounted carabineers of Schenk; behind were the Spanish dancers.  The village of Mook lay between the two armies.

The skirmishing began at early dawn, with an attack upon the trench, and continued some hours, without bringing on a general engagement.  Towards ten o’clock, Count Louis became impatient.  All the trumpets of the patriots now rang out a challenge to their adversaries, and the Spaniards were just returning the defiance, and preparing a general onset, when the Seigneur de Hierges and Baron Chevreaux arrived on the field.  They brought with them a reinforcement of more than a thousand men, and the intelligence that Valdez was on his way with nearly five thousand more.  As he might be expected on the following morning, a short deliberation was held as to the expediency of deferring the action.  Count Louis was at the head of six thousand foot and two thousand cavalry.  Avila mustered only four thousand infantry and not