On the 4th May, Louis issued a summons to the magistracy of Groningen, ordering them to send a deputation to confer with him at Dam.  He was prepared, he said, to show the commission with which he was provided.  He had not entered the country on a mere personal adventure, but had received orders to raise a sufficient army.  By the help of the eternal God, he was determined, he said, to extirpate the detestable tyranny of those savage persecutors who had shed so much Christian blood.  He was resolved to lift up the down-trod privileges, and, to protect the fugitive, terror-stricken Christians and patriarchs of the country.  If the magistrates were disposed to receive him with friendship, it was well.  Otherwise, he should, with regret, feel himself obliged to proceed against them, as enemies of his Majesty and of the common weal.

As the result of this summons, Louis received a moderate sum of money, on condition of renouncing for the moment an attack upon the city.  With this temporary supply he was able to retain a larger number of the adventurers; who were daily swarming around him.

In the mean time Alva was not idle.  On the 30th April, he wrote to Groesbeck, that he must take care not to be taken napping; that he must keep his eyes well open until the arrival of succor, which was already on the way.  He then immediately ordered Count Aremberg, who had just returned from France on conclusion of hostilities, to hasten to the seat of war.  Five vanderas of his own regiment; a small body of cavalry, and Braccamonte’s Sardinian legion, making in all a force of nearly 2500 men, were ordered to follow him with the utmost expedition.  Count Meghem, stadholder of Gueldres, with five vanderas of infantry, three of light horse, and some artillery, composing a total of about 1500 men, was directed to co-operate with Aremberg.  Upon this point the orders of the Governor-general were explicit.  It seemed impossible that the rabble rout under Louis Nassau could stand a moment before nearly 4000 picked and veteran troops, but the Duke was earnest in warning his generals not to undervalue the enemy.

On the 7th May, Counts Meghem and Aremberg met and conferred at Arnheim, on their way to Friesland.  It was fully agreed between them, after having heard full reports of the rising in that province, and of the temper throughout the eastern Netherlands, that it would be rash to attempt any separate enterprise.  On the 11th, Aremberg reached Vollenhoven, where he was laid up in his bed with the gout.  Bodies of men, while he lay sick, paraded hourly with fife and drum before his windows, and discharged pistols and arquebuses across the ditch of the blockhouse where he was quartered.  On the 18th, Braccamonte, with his legion, arrived by water at Harlingen.  Not a moment more was lost.  Aremberg, notwithstanding his gout, which still confined him to a litter, started at once in pursuit of the enemy.  Passing through Groningen, he collected all the troops which could