Next day Maurice began the regular investment of the city.  On the 26th, Count Lewis William arrived with some Frisian companies.  On the 27th, Maurice threw a bridge of boats from the Badmeadow side, across the river to the Weert before the city.  On the 28th he had got batteries, mounting thirty-two guns, into position, commanding the place at three points.  On the 30th the town capitulated.  Thus within exactly one week from the firing of the pistol shot by the supposed butterwoman, this fort and town, which had so long resisted the efforts of the States, and were such important possessions of the Spaniards, fell into the hands of Maurice.  The terms of surrender were easy.  The city being more important than its garrison, the soldiers were permitted to depart with bag and baggage.  The citizens were allowed three days to decide whether to stay under loyal obedience to the States-General, or to take their departure.  Those who chose to remain were to enjoy all the privileges of citizens of the United Provinces.

But very few substantial citizens were left, for such had been the tyranny, the misery, and the misrule during the long occupation by a foreign soldiery of what was once a thriving Dutch town, that scarcely anybody but paupers and vagabonds were left.  One thousand houses were ruined and desolate.  It is superfluous to add that the day of its restoration to the authority of the Union was the beginning of its renewed prosperity.

Maurice, having placed a national garrison in the place, marched the same evening straight upon Deventer, seven miles farther down the river, without pausing to sleep upon his victory.  His artillery and munitions were sent rapidly down the Yssel.

Within five days he had thoroughly invested the city, and brought twenty-eight guns to bear upon the weakest part of its defences.

It was a large, populous, well-built town, once a wealthy member of the Hanseatic League, full of fine buildings, both public and private, the capital of the rich and fertile province of Overyssel, and protected by a strong wall and moat—­as well-fortified a place as could be found in the Netherlands.  The garrison consisted of fourteen hundred Spaniards and Walloons, under the command of Count Herman van den Berg, first cousin of Prince Maurice.

No sooner had the States army come before the city than a Spanish captain observed—­“We shall now have a droll siege—­cousins on the outside, cousins on the inside.  There will be a sham fight or two, and then the cousins will make it up, and arrange matters to suit themselves.”

Such hints had deeply wounded Van den Berg, who was a fervent Catholic, and as loyal a servant to Philip ii. as he could have been, had that monarch deserved, by the laws of nature and by his personal services and virtues, to govern all the swamps of Friesland.  He slept on the gibe, having ordered all the colonels and captains of the garrison to attend at solemn mass in the great church the next morning.  He there declared to them all publicly that he felt outraged at the suspicions concerning his fidelity, and after mass he took the sacrament, solemnly swearing never to give up the city or even to speak of it until he had made such resistance that he must be carried from the breach.  So long as he could stand or sit he would defend the city entrusted to his care.