former, occasion for nearly a whole year, was the scene of much hard fighting.  It was gained at last by the signal valour of Edward Stanley, lieutenant to Sir William.  That officer, at the commencement of an assault upon a not very practicable breach, sprang at the long pike of a Spanish soldier, who was endeavoring to thrust him from the wall, and seized it with both hands.  The Spaniard struggled to maintain his hold of the weapon, Stanley to wrest it from his grasp.  A dozen other soldiers broke their pikes upon his cuirass or shot at him with their muskets.  Conspicuous by his dress, being all in yellow but his corslet, he was in full sight of Leicester and of fire thousand men.  The earth was so shifty and sandy that the soldiers who were to follow him were not able to climb the wall.  Still Stanley grasped his adversary’s pike, but, suddenly changing his plan, he allowed the Spaniard to lift him from the ground.  Then, assisting himself with his feet against the wall, he, much to the astonishment of the spectators, scrambled quite over the parapet, and dashed sword in hand among the defenders of the fort.  Had he been endowed with a hundred lives it seemed impossible for him to escape death.  But his followers, stimulated by his example, made ladders for themselves of each others’ shoulders, clambered at last with great exertion over the broken wall, overpowered the garrison, and made themselves masters of the sconce.  Leicester, transported with enthusiasm for this noble deed of daring, knighted Edward Stanley upon the spot, besides presenting him next day with forty pounds in gold and an annuity of one hundred marks, sterling for life.  “Since I was born, I did never see any man behave himself as he did,” said the Earl.  “I shall never forget it, if I live a thousand year, and he shall have a part of my living for it as long as I live.”

The occupation of these forts terminated the military operations of the year, for the rainy season, precursor of the winter, had now set in.  Leicester, leaving Sir William Stanley, with twelve hundred English and Irish horse, in command of Deventer; Sir John Burrowes, with one thousand men, in Doesburg; and Sir Robert Yorke, with one thousand more, in the great sconce before Zutphen; took his departure for the Hague.  Zutphen seemed so surrounded as to authorize the governor to expect ere long its capitulation.  Nevertheless, the results of the campaign had not been encouraging.  The States had lost ground, having been driven from the Meuse and Rhine, while they had with difficulty maintained themselves on the Flemish coast and upon the Yssel.

It is now necessary to glance at the internal politics of the Republic during the period of Leicester’s administration and to explain the position in which he found himself at the close of the year.

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     And thus this gentle and heroic spirit took its flight
     Five great rivers hold the Netherland territory in their coils
     High officers were doing the work of private, soldiers
     I did never see any man behave himself as he did
     There is no man fitter for that purpose than myself