the floating wreck of fascines and machinery, of planks and building materials, sounded far and wide over what should have been dry land.  The great ship channel, with the unconquered Half-moon upon one side and the incomplete batteries and platforms of Bucquoy on the other, still defiantly opened its passage to the sea, and the retiring fleets of the garrison were white in the offing.  All around was the grey expanse of stormy ocean, without a cape or a headland to break its monotony, as the surges rolled mournfully in upon a desolation more dreary than their own.  The atmosphere was mirky and surcharged with rain, for the wild equinoctial storm which had held Maurice spell-bound had been raging over land and sea for many days.  At every step the unburied skulls of brave soldiers who had died in the cause of freedom grinned their welcome to the conquerors.  Isabella wept at the sight.  She had cause to weep.  Upon that miserable sandbank more than a hundred thousand men had laid down their lives by her decree, in order that she and her husband might at last take possession of a most barren prize.  This insignificant fragment of a sovereignty which her wicked old father had presented to her on his deathbed—­a sovereignty which he had no more moral right or actual power to confer than if it had been in the planet Saturn—­had at last been appropriated at the cost of all this misery.  It was of no great value, although its acquisition had caused the expenditure of at least eight millions of florins, divided in nearly equal proportions between the two belligerents.  It was in vain that great immunities were offered to those who would remain, or who would consent to settle in the foul Golgotha.  The original population left the place in mass.  No human creatures were left save the wife of a freebooter and her paramour, a journeyman blacksmith.  This unsavoury couple, to whom entrance into the purer atmosphere of Zeeland was denied, thenceforth shared with the carrion crows the amenities of Ostend.

CHAPTER XLIV.

Equation between the contending powers—­Treaty of peace between King James and the archdukes and the King of Spain—­Position of the Provinces—­States envoy in England to be styled ambassador—­Protest of the Spanish ambassador—­Effect of James’s peace-treaty on the people of England—­Public rejoicings for the victory at Sluys—­ Spinola appointed commander-in-chief of the Spanish forces—­ Preparations for a campaign against the States—­Seizure of Dutch cruisers—­International discord—­Destruction of Sarmiento’s fleet by Admiral Haultain—­Projected enterprise against Antwerp—­Descent of Spinola on the Netherland frontier—­Oldenzaal and Lingen taken—­ Movements of Prince Maurice—­Encounter of the two armies—­Panic of the Netherlanders—­Consequent loss and disgrace—­Wachtendonk and Cracow taken by Spinola—­Spinola’s reception in Spain—­Effect of his victories—­Results of the struggle between Freedom and Absolutism—­