The government of the city was conferred upon Count Lewis William, with Gerard de Jonge as his lieutenant.  A substantial garrison was placed in the city, and, the season now far advanced Maurice brought the military operations of the year, saving a slight preliminary demonstration against Gertruydenberg, to a close.  He had deserved and attained—­considerable renown.  He had astonished the leisurely war-makers and phlegmatic veterans of the time, both among friends and foes, by the unexampled rapidity of his movements and the concentration of his attacks.  He had carried great waggon trains and whole parks of siege artillery—­the heaviest then known—­over roads and swamps which had been deemed impassable even for infantry.  He had traversed the length and breadth of the republic in a single campaign, taken two great cities in Overyssel, picked up cities and fortresses in the province of Groningen, and threatened its capital, menaced Steenwyk, relieved Knodsenburg though besieged in person by the greatest commander of the age, beaten the most famous cavalry of Spain and Italy under the eyes of their chieftain, swooped as it were through the air upon Brabant, and carried off an important city almost in the sight of Antwerp, and sped back again in the freezing weather of early autumn, with his splendidly served and invincible artillery, to the imperial city of Nymegen, which Farnese had sworn to guard like the apple of his eye, and which, with consummate skill, was forced out of his grasp in five days.

“Some might attribute these things to blind fortune,” says an honest chronicler who had occupied important posts in the service of the prince and of his cousin Lewis William, “but they who knew the prince’s constant study and laborious attention to detail, who were aware that he never committed to another what he could do himself, who saw his sobriety, vigilance, his perpetual study and holding of council with Count Lewis William (himself possessed of all these good gifts, perhaps even in greater degree), and who never found him seeking, like so many other commanders, his own ease and comfort, would think differently.”

CHAPTER XXV.

War in Brittany and Normandy—­Death of La Noue—­Religious and political persecution in Paris—­Murder of President Brisson, Larcher, and Tardif—­The sceptre of France offered to Philip—­The Duke of Mayenne punishes the murderers of the magistrates—­Speech of Henry’s envoy to the States-General—­Letter of Queen Elizabeth to Henry—­Siege of Rouen—­Farnese leads an army to its relief—­The king is wounded in a skirmish—­Siege of Rue by Farnese—­Henry raises the siege of Rouen—­Siege of Caudebec—­Critical position of Farnese and his army—­Victory of the Duke of Mercoeur in Brittany.

Again the central point towards which the complicated events to be described in this history gravitate is found on the soil of France.  Movements apparently