“We are always upon the alert,” wrote Parma, “with arms in our hands.  Every one must mount guard, myself as well as the rest, almost every night, and the better part of every day.”

He was quite aware that something was ever in preparation; and the nameless, almost sickening apprehension which existed among his stout-hearted veterans, was a proof that the Mantuan’s genius—­notwithstanding the disappointment as to the great result—­had not been exercised entirely in vain.  The image of the Antwerp devil-ships imprinted itself indelibly upon the Spanish mind, as of something preternatural, with which human valour could only contend at a disadvantage; and a day was not very far distant—­one of the memorable days of the world’s history, big with the fate of England, Spain, Holland, and all Christendom—­when the sight of a half-dozen blazing vessels, and the cry of “the Antwerp fireships,” was to decide the issue of a most momentous enterprise.  The blow struck by the obscure Italian against Antwerp bridge, although ineffective then, was to be most sensibly felt after a few years had passed, upon a wider field.

Meantime the uneasiness and the watchfulness in the biesieging army were very exhausting.  “They are never idle in the city,” wrote Parma.  “They are perpetually proving their obstinacy and pertinacity by their industrious genius and the machines which they devise.  Every day we are expecting some new invention.  On our side we endeavour to counteract their efforts by every human means in our power.  Nevertheless, I confess that our merely human intellect is not competent to penetrate the designs of their diabolical genius.  Certainly, most wonderful and extraordinary things have been exhibited, such as the oldest soldiers here have never before witnessed.”

Moreover, Alexander saw himself growing weaker and weaker.  His force had dwindled to a mere phantom of an army.  His soldiers, ill-fed, half-clothed, unpaid, were fearfully overworked.  He was obliged to concentrate all the troops at his disposal around Antwerp.  Diversions against Ostend, operations in Friesland and Gelderland, although most desirable, had thus been rendered quite impossible.

“I have recalled my cavalry and infantry from Ostend,” he wrote, “and Don Juan de Manrique has fortunately arrived in Stabroek with a thousand good German folk.  The commissary-general of the cavalry has come in, too, with a good lot of the troops that had been encamped in the open country.  Nevertheless, we remain wretchedly weak—­quite insufficient to attempt what ought to be done.  If the enemy were more in force, or if the French wished to make trouble, your Majesty would see how important it had been to provide in time against such contingencies.  And although our neighbours, crestfallen, and rushing upon their own destruction, leave us in quiet, we are not without plenty of work.  It would be of inestimable advantage to make diversions in Gelderland