No doubt the brunt of the conflict fell upon Vere, with his Englishmen and Frisians, for this advance-guard made up nearly one-half of the States’ army actually engaged.  And most nobly, indefatigably, did the hardy veteran discharge his duty.  Having personally superintended almost all the arrangements in the morning, he fought all day in the front, doing the work both of a field-marshal and a corporal.

He was twice wounded, shot each time through the same leg, yet still fought on as if it were some one else’s blood and not his own that was flowing from “those four holes in his flesh.”  He complained that he was not sufficiently seconded, and that the reserves were not brought up rapidly enough to his support.  He was manifestly unjust, for although it could not be doubted that the English and the Frisians did their best, it was equally certain that every part of the army was as staunch as the vanguard.  It may be safely asserted that it would not have benefited the cause of the States, had every man been thrown into the fight at one and the same moment.

During this “bloody bit,” as Vere called it, between the infantry on both sides, the little battery of two field-pieces planted on the highest hillock of the downs had been very effective.  Meantime, while the desperate and decisive struggle had been going on, Lewis Gunther, in the meadow, had again rallied all the cavalry, which, at the first stage of the action, had been dispersed in pursuit of the enemy’s horse.  Gathering them together in a mass, he besought Prince Maurice to order him to charge.  The stadholder bade him pause yet a little longer.  The aspect of the infantry fight was not yet, in his opinion, sufficiently favourable.  Again and again Lewis sent fresh entreaties, and at last received the desired permission.  Placing three picked squadrons in front, the young general made a furious assault upon the Catholic cavalry, which had again rallied and was drawn up very close to the musketeers.  Fortune was not so kind to him as at the earlier stage of the combat.  The charge was received with dauntless front by the Spanish and Italian horse, while at the same moment the infantry poured a severe fire into their assailants.  The advancing squadrons faltered, wheeled back upon the companies following them, and the whole mass of the republican cavalry broke into wild and disorderly retreat.  At the same moment the archduke, observing his advantage, threw in his last reserves of infantry, and again there was a desperate charge upon Vere’s wearied troops, as decisive as the counter charge of Lewis’s cavalry had been unsuccessful.  The English and Frisians, sorely tried during those hours of fighting with superior numbers in the intolerable heat, broke at last and turned their backs upon the foe.  Some of them fled panic-stricken quite across the downs and threw themselves into the sea, but the mass retreated in a comparatively orderly manner, being driven from one down to another, and seeking