Prince was displeased.  “Too much choler, Marquis, too much choler,”—­said he reprovingly.  “Troppa colera, Signor Marchese, a questa.”  But Richebourg knew better.  He had, while still Viscount of Ghent, carried on a year previously a parallel intrigue with the royalists and the patriots.  The Prince of Parma had bid highest for his services, and had, accordingly, found him a most effectual instrument in completing the reduction of the Walloon Provinces.  The Prince was not aware, however, that his brave but venal ally had, at the very same moment, been secretly treating with William of Orange; and as it so happened that Colonel Pettin had been the agent in the unsuccessful negotiation, it was possible that his duplicity would now be exposed.  The Marquis had, therefore, been prompt to place his old confederate in the condition wherein men tell no tales, and if contemporary chronicles did not bely him, it was not the first time that he had been guilty of such cold-blooded murder.  The choler had not been superfluous.

The fortress of Lille was garrisoned by the Antwerp volunteers, called the “Young Bachelors.”  Teligny, the brave son of the illustrious “Iron-armed” La None, commanded in chief:  and he had, besides the militia, a company of French under Captain Gascoigne, and four hundred Scotchmen under Colonel Morgan—­perhaps two thousand men in all.

Mondragon, hero of the famous submarine expeditions of Philipsland and Zierickzee, was ordered by Parma to take the place at every hazard.  With five thousand men—­a large proportion of the Spanish effective force at that moment—­the veteran placed himself before the fort, taking possession, of the beautiful country-house and farm of Lille, where he planted his batteries, and commenced a regular cannonade.  The place was stronger than Liefkenshoek, however, and Teligny thoroughly comprehended the importance of maintaining it for the States.  Mondragon dug mines, and Teligny countermined.  The Spanish daily cannonade was cheerfully responded to by the besieged, and by the time Mondragon had shot away fifty thousand pounds of powder, he found that he had made no impression upon the fortress, while the number of his troops had been diminishing with great rapidity.  Mondragon was not so impetuous as he had been on many former occasions.  He never ventured an assault.  At last Teligny made a sortie at the head of a considerable force.  A warm action succeeded, at the conclusion of which, without a decided advantage on either side, the sluice-gate in the fortress was opened, and the torrent of the Scheldt, swollen by a high tide, was suddenly poured upon the Spaniards.  Assailed at once by the fire from the Lillo batteries, and by the waters of the river, they were forced to a rapid retreat.  This they effected with great loss, but with signal courage; struggling breast high in the waves, and bearing off their field-pieces in their arms in the very face of the enemy.

Three weeks long Mondragon had been before Fort Lille, and two thousand of his soldiers had been slain in the trenches.  The attempt was now abandoned.  Parma directed permanent batteries to be established at Lillo-house, at Oordam, and at other places along the river, and proceeded quietly with his carefully-matured plan for closing the river.