Thus far the work had been comparatively easy.  To bridge the remaining open portion of the river, however, where its current was deepest and strongest, and where the action of tide, tempest, and icebergs, would be most formidable, seemed a desperate undertaking; for as the enterprise advanced, this narrow open space became the scene of daily amphibious encounters between the soldiers and sailors of Parma and the forces of the States.  Unfortunately for the patriots, it was only skirmishing.  Had a strong, concerted attack, in large force, from Holland and Zeeland below and from the city above, been agreed upon, there was hardly a period, until very late in the winter, when it might not have had the best chances of success.  With a vigorous commander against him, Parma, weak in men, and at his wits’ end for money, might, in a few hours, have seen the labour of several months hopelessly annihilated.  On the other hand, the Prince was ably seconded by his lieutenant, Marquis Richebourg, to whom had been delegated the immediate superintendence of the bridge-building in its minutest details.  He was never idle.  Audacious, indefatigable, ubiquitous, he at least atoned by energy and brilliant courage for his famous treason of the preceding year, while his striking and now rapidly approaching doom upon the very scene of his present labours, made him appear to have been building a magnificent though fleeting monument to his own memory.

Sainte Aldegonde, shut up in Antwerp, and hampered by dissension within and obstinate jealousy without the walls, did all in his power to frustrate the enemy’s enterprise and animate the patriots.  Through the whole of the autumn and early winter, he had urged the States of Holland and Zeeland to make use of the long winter nights, when moonless and stormy, to attempt the destruction of Parma’s undertaking, but the fatal influences already indicated were more efficient against Antwerp than even the genius of Farnese; and nothing came of the burgomaster’s entreaties save desultory skirmishing and unsuccessful enterprises.  An especial misfortune happened in one of these midnight undertakings.  Teligny ventured forth in a row-barge, with scarcely any companions, to notify the Zeelanders of a contemplated movement, in which their co-operation was desired.  It was proposed that the Antwerp troops should make a fictitious demonstration upon Fort Ordam, while at the same moment the States’ troops from Fort Lillo should make an assault upon the forts on Kowenstyn Dyke; and in this important enterprise the Zeeland vessels were requested to assist.  But the brave Teligny nearly forfeited his life by his rashness, and his services were, for a long time, lost to the cause of liberty.  It had been better to send a less valuable officer upon such hazardous yet subordinate service.  The drip of his oars was heard in the darkness.  He was pursued by a number of armed barges, attacked, wounded severely in the shoulder, and captured.  He threw his letters