The winter now set in with severe sleet, and snow, and rain, and furious tempests lashing the sea over the works of besieger and besieged, and for weeks together paralyzing all efforts of either army.  Eight weary months the siege had lasted; the men in town and hostile camp, exposed to the inclemency of the wintry trenches, sinking faster before the pestilence which now swept impartially through all ranks than the soldiers of the archduke had fallen at Nieuport, or in the recent assault on the Sand Hill.  Of seven thousand hardly three thousand now remained in the garrison.

Yet still the weary sausage making and wooden castle building went on along the Gullet and around the old town.  The Bredene dyke crept on inch by inch, but the steady ships of the republic came and went unharmed by the batteries with which Bucquoy hoped to shut up the New Harbour.  The archduke’s works were pushed up nearer on the west, but, as yet, not one practical advantage had been gained, and the siege had scarcely advanced a hair’s breadth since the 5th of July of the preceding year, when the armies had first sat down before the place.

The stormy month of March had come, and Vere, being called to service in the field for the coming season, transferred the command at Ostend to Frederic van Dorp, a rugged, hard-headed, ill-favoured, stout-hearted Zealand colonel, with the face of a bull-dog, and with the tenacious grip of one.

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HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS

From the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year’s Truce—­1609

By John Lothrop Motley

History United Netherlands, Volume 75, 1602-1603

CHAPTER XL.

Protraction of the siege of Ostend—­Spanish invasion of Ireland—­ Prince Maurice again on the march—­Siege of Grave—­State of the archduke’s army—­Formidable mutiny—­State of Europe—­Portuguese expedition to Java—­Foundation there of the first Batavian trading settlement—­Exploits of Jacob Heemskerk—­Capture of a Lisbon carrack—­Progress of Dutch commerce—­Oriental and Germanic republics —­Commercial embassy from the King of Atsgen in Sumatra to the Netherlands—­Surrender of Grave—­Privateer work of Frederic Spinola —­Destruction of Spinola’s fleet by English and Dutch cruisers—­ Continuation of the siege of Ostend—­Fearful hurricane and its effects—­The attack—­Capture of external forts—­Encounter between Spinola and a Dutch squadron—­Execution of prisoners by the archduke—­Philip Fleming and his diary—­Continuation of operations before Ostend—­Spanish veterans still mutinous—­Their