A stout smith, confronting the invaders at the gate, almost singly, with his sledge-hammer, was stabbed to the heart by Bossu with his own hand.  The soldiers having thus gained admittance, rushed through the streets, putting every man to death who offered the slightest resistance.  Within a few minutes four hundred citizens were murdered.  The fate of the women, abandoned now to the outrage of a brutal soldiery, was worse than death.  The capture of Rotterdam is infamous for the same crimes which blacken the record of every Spanish triumph in the Netherlands.

The important town of Flushing, on the Isle of Walcheren, was first to vibrate with the patriotic impulse given by the success at Brill.  The Seigneur de Herpt, a warm partisan of Orange, excited the burghers assembled in the market-place to drive the small remnant of the Spanish garrison from the city.  A little later upon the same day a considerable reinforcement arrived before the walls.  The Duke had determined, although too late, to complete the fortress which had been commenced long before to control the possession of this important position at the mouth of the western Scheld.  The troops who were to resume this too long intermitted work arrived just in time to witness the expulsion of their comrades.  De Herpt easily persuaded the burghers that the die was cast, and that their only hope lay in a resolute resistance.  The people warmly acquiesced, while a half-drunken, half-wined fellow in the crowd valiantly proposed, in consideration of a pot of beer, to ascend the ramparts and to discharge a couple of pieces of artillery at the Spanish ships.  The offer was accepted, and the vagabond merrily mounting the height, discharged the guns.  Strange to relate, the shot thus fired by a lunatic’s hand put the invading ships to flight.  A sudden panic seized the Spaniards, the whole fleet stood away at once in the direction of Middelburg, and were soon out of sight.

The next day, however, Antony of Bourgoyne, governor under Alva for the Island of Walcheren, made his appearance in Flushing.  Having a high opinion of his own oratorical powers, he came with the intention of winning back with his rhetoric a city which the Spaniards had thus far been unable to recover with their cannon.  The great bell was rung, the whole population assembled in the marketplace, and Antony, from the steps of the town-house, delivered a long oration, assuring the burghers, among other asseverations, that the King, who was the best natured prince in all Christendom, would forget and forgive their offences if they returned honestly to their duties.