Having been forced to a defensive campaign, in which he was not likely at best to gain many additional laurels, he was the more determined to lay down his own life, and sacrifice every man he could bring into the field, before Spinola should march into the cherished domains of Utrecht and Holland.  Meantime the rain, which had already exerted so much influence on the military movements of the year, still maintained the supremacy over human plans.  The Yssel and the Waal, always deep, broad, sluggish, but dangerous rivers—­the Rhine in its old age—­were swollen into enormous proportions, their currents flowing for the time with the vigour of their far away youth.

Maurice had confided the defence of the Waal to Warner Du Bois, under whose orders he placed a force of about seven thousand men, and whose business it was to prevent Bucquoy’s passage.  His own task was to baffle Spinola.

Bucquoy’s ambition was to cross the Waal at a point as near as possible to the fork of that stream with the true Rhine, seize the important city of Nymegen, and then give the hand to Spinola, so soon as he should be on the other side of the Yssel.  At the village of Spardorp or Kekerdom, he employed Pompeio Giustiniani to make a desperate effort, having secured a large number of barges in which he embarked his troops.  As the boatmen neared the opposite bank, however, they perceived that Warner Du Bois had made effective preparations for their reception.  They lost heart, and, on pretence that the current of the river was too rapid to allow them to reach the point proposed for their landing, gradually dropped down the stream, and, in spite of the remonstrances of the commanders, pushed their way back to the shore which they had left.  From that time forth, the States’ troops, in efficient numbers, fringed the inner side of the Waal, along the whole length of the Batavian island, while armed vessels of the republic patrolled the stream itself.  In vain Count Bucquoy watched an opportunity, either by surprise or by main strength, to effect a crossing.  The Waal remained as impassable as if it were a dividing ocean.

On the other side of the quadrilateral, Maurice’s dispositions were as effective as those of his lieutenant on the Waal.  The left shore of the Yssel, along its whole length, from Arnhem and Doesburg quite up to Zwoll and Campen, where the river empties itself into the Zuyder Zee, was now sprinkled thickly with forts, hastily thrown up, but strong enough to serve the temporary purpose of the stadholder.  In vain the fleet-footed and audacious Spinola moved stealthily or fiercely to and fro, from one point to another, seeking an opening through which to creep, or a weak spot where he might dash himself against the chain.  The whole line was securely guarded.  The swollen river, the redoubts, and the musketeers of Maurice, protected the heart of the republic from the impending danger.