the Diemer dyke, clambered on board the “Inquisition” and hauled her colors down.  The gallant but premature achievement cost him his life.  He was shot through the body and died on the deck of the ship, which was not quite ready to strike her flag.  In the course of the forenoon, however, it became obvious to Bossu that further resistance was idle.  The ships were aground near a hostile coast, his own fleet was hopelessly dispersed, three quarters of his crew were dead or disabled, while the vessels with which he was engaged were constantly recruited by boats from the shore, which brought fresh men and ammunition, and removed their killed and wounded.  At eleven o’clock, Admiral Bossu surrendered, and with three hundred prisoners was carried into Holland.  Bossu was himself imprisoned at Horn, in which city he was received, on his arrival, with great demonstrations of popular hatred.  The massacre of Rotterdam, due to his cruelty and treachery, had not yet been forgotten or forgiven.

This victory, following so hard upon the triumph at Alkmaar, was as gratifying to the patriots as it was galling to Alva.  As his administration drew to a close, it was marked by disaster and disgrace on land and sea.  The brilliant exploits by which he had struck terror into the heart of the Netherlanders, at Jemmingen and in Brabant, had been effaced by the valor of a handful of Hollanders, without discipline or experience.  To the patriots, the opportune capture of so considerable a personage as the Admiral and Governor of the northern province was of great advantage.  Such of the hostages from Harlem as had not yet been executed, now escaped with their lives.  Moreover, Saint Aldegonde, the eloquent patriot and confidential friend of Orange, who was taken prisoner a few weeks later, in an action at Maeslands-luis, was preserved from inevitable destruction by the same cause.  The Prince hastened to assure the Duke of Alva that the same measure would be dealt to Bossu as should be meted to Saint Aldegonde.  It was, therefore, impossible for the Governor-General to execute his prisoner, and he was obliged to submit to the vexation of seeing a leading rebel and heretic in his power, whom he dared not strike.  Both the distinguished prisoners eventually regained their liberty.

The Duke was, doubtless, lower sunk in the estimation of all classes than he had ever been before, during his long and generally successful life.  The reverses sustained by his army, the belief that his master had grown cold towards him, the certainty that his career in the Netherlands was closing without a satisfactory result, the natural weariness produced upon men’s minds by the contemplation of so monotonous and unmitigated a tyranny during so many years, all contributed to diminish his reputation.  He felt himself odious alike to princes and to plebeians.  With his cabinet councillors he had long been upon unsatisfactory terms.  President Tisnacq had died early, in the summer, and