Nevertheless, on the 11th May, the dejected melancholy man had left Brussels, and joined his little army, consisting of three thousand Spaniards and five thousand of all other nations.  His veterans, though unpaid; ragged, and half-starved were in raptures to, have their idolized commander among them again, and vowed that under his guidance there was nothing which they could not accomplish.  The King’s honour, his own, that of the army, all were pledged to take the city.  On the success of, that enterprise, he said, depended all his past conquests, and every hope for the future.  Leicester and the, English, whom he called the head and body of the rebel forces, were equally pledged to relieve the place, and were bent upon meeting him in the field.  The Earl had taken some forts in the Batavia—­Betuwe; or “good meadow,” which he pronounced as fertile and about as large as Herefordshire,—­and was now threatening Nymegen, a city which had been gained for Philip by the last effort of Schenk, on the royalist side.  He was now observing Alexander’s demonstrations against Grave; but, after the recent success in victualling that place, he felt a just confidence in its security.

On the 31st May the trenches were commenced, and on the 5th June the batteries were opened.  The work went rapidly forward when Farnese was in the field.  “The Prince of Parma doth batter it like a Prince,” said Lord North, admiring the enemy with the enthusiasm of an honest soldier:  On the 6th of June, as Alexander rode through the camp to reconnoitre, previous to an attack.  A well-directed cannon ball carried away the hinder half, of his horse.  The Prince fell to the ground, and, for a moment, dismay was in the Spanish ranks.  At the next instant, though somewhat bruised, he was on his feet again, and, having found the breach sufficiently promising, he determined on the assault.

As a preliminary measure, he wished to occupy a tower which had been battered nearly to ruins, situate near the river.  Captain de Solis was ordered, with sixty veterans, to take possession of this tower, and to “have a look at the countenance of the enemy, without amusing himself with anything else.”  The tower was soon secured, but Solis, in disobedience to his written instructions led his men against the ravelin, which was still in a state of perfect defence.  A musket-ball soon stretched him dead beneath the wall, and his followers, still attempting to enter the impracticable breach, were repelled by a shower of stones and blazing pitch-hoops.  Hot sand; too, poured from sieves and baskets, insinuated itself within the armour of the Spaniards, and occasioned such exquisite suffering, that many threw themselves into the river to allay the pain.  Emerging refreshed, but confused, they attempted in vain to renew the onset.  Several of the little band were slain, the assault was quite unsuccessful, and the trumpet sounded a recal.  So completely discomfited were the Spaniards by this repulse, and so thoroughly at their ease were the besieged, that a soldier let himself down from the ramparts of the town for the sake of plundering the body of Captain Solis, who was richly dressed, and, having accomplished this feat, was quietly helped back again by his comrades from above.