strong enough to have resisted Count Hohenlo on a
former, occasion for nearly a whole year, was the
scene of much hard fighting. It was gained at
last by the signal valour of Edward Stanley, lieutenant
to Sir William. That officer, at the commencement
of an assault upon a not very practicable breach,
sprang at the long pike of a Spanish soldier, who was
endeavoring to thrust him from the wall, and seized
it with both hands. The Spaniard struggled to
maintain his hold of the weapon, Stanley to wrest it
from his grasp. A dozen other soldiers broke
their pikes upon his cuirass or shot at him with their
muskets. Conspicuous by his dress, being all
in yellow but his corslet, he was in full sight of
Leicester and of fire thousand men. The earth
was so shifty and sandy that the soldiers who were
to follow him were not able to climb the wall.
Still Stanley grasped his adversary’s pike,
but, suddenly changing his plan, he allowed the Spaniard
to lift him from the ground. Then, assisting
himself with his feet against the wall, he, much to
the astonishment of the spectators, scrambled quite
over the parapet, and dashed sword in hand among the
defenders of the fort. Had he been endowed with
a hundred lives it seemed impossible for him to escape
death. But his followers, stimulated by his
example, made ladders for themselves of each others’
shoulders, clambered at last with great exertion over
the broken wall, overpowered the garrison, and made
themselves masters of the sconce. Leicester,
transported with enthusiasm for this noble deed of
daring, knighted Edward Stanley upon the spot, besides
presenting him next day with forty pounds in gold
and an annuity of one hundred marks, sterling for
life. “Since I was born, I did never see
any man behave himself as he did,” said the
Earl. “I shall never forget it, if I live
a thousand year, and he shall have a part of my living
for it as long as I live.”
The occupation of these forts terminated the military
operations of the year, for the rainy season, precursor
of the winter, had now set in. Leicester, leaving
Sir William Stanley, with twelve hundred English and
Irish horse, in command of Deventer; Sir John Burrowes,
with one thousand men, in Doesburg; and Sir Robert
Yorke, with one thousand more, in the great sconce
before Zutphen; took his departure for the Hague.
Zutphen seemed so surrounded as to authorize the
governor to expect ere long its capitulation.
Nevertheless, the results of the campaign had not
been encouraging. The States had lost ground,
having been driven from the Meuse and Rhine, while
they had with difficulty maintained themselves on
the Flemish coast and upon the Yssel.
It is now necessary to glance at the internal politics
of the Republic during the period of Leicester’s
administration and to explain the position in which
he found himself at the close of the year.
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