Parma was highly gratified, as may be imagined, at such successful results.  “Thus Fort Zutphen,” said he, “about which there have been so many fisticuffs, and Deventer—­which was the real object of the last campaign, and which has cost the English so much blood and money, and is the safety of Groningen and of all those Provinces—­is now your Majesty’s.  Moreover, the effect of this treason must be to sow great distrust between the English and the rebels, who will henceforth never know in whom they can confide.”

Parma was very right in this conjuncture.  Moreover, there was just then a fearful run against the States.  The castle of Wauw, within a league of Bergen-op-Zoom, which had been entrusted to one Le Marchand, a Frenchman in the service of the republic, was delivered by him to Parma for 16,000 florins. “’Tis a very important post,” said the Duke, “and the money was well laid out.”

The loss of the city of Gelder, capital of the Province of the same name, took place in the summer.  This town belonged to the jurisdiction of Martin Schenk, and was, his chief place of deposit for the large and miscellaneous property acquired by him during his desultory, but most profitable, freebooting career.  The Famous partisan was then absent, engaged in a lucrative job in the way of his profession.  He had made a contract—­in a very-business-like way—­with the States, to defend the city of Rheinberg and all the country, round against the Duke of Parma, pledging himself to keep on foot for that purpose an army of 3300 foot and 700 horse.  For this extensive and important operation, he was to receive 20,000 florins a month from the general exchequer; and in addition he was to be allowed the brandschatz—­the black-mail, that is to say—­of the whole country-side, and the taxation upon all vessels going up and down the river before Rheinberg; an ad valorem duty, in short, upon all river-merchandise, assessed and collected in summary fashion.  A tariff thus enforced was not likely to be a mild one; and although the States considered that they had got a “good penny-worth” by the job, it was no easy thing to get the better, in a bargain, of the vigilant Martin, who was as thrifty a speculator as he was a desperate fighter.  A more accomplished highwayman, artistically and enthusiastically devoted to his pursuit, never lived.  Nobody did his work more thoroughly—­nobody got himself better paid for his work—­and Thomas Wilkes, that excellent man of business, thought the States not likely to make much by their contract.  Nevertheless, it was a comfort to know that the work would not be neglected.