fighting like a hero of Homer, single-handed, against a battalion, with a
courage worthy a better cause and a better fate. The sword by which he
received his final death-blow was that of the Seigneur do Haultain. That
officer having just seen his brother slain before his eyes, forgot the
respect due to unsuccessful chivalry.

The battle was scarcely finished when an advancing trumpet was heard.
The sound caused the victors to pause in their pursuit, and enabled a
remnant of the conquered Spaniards to escape. Meghem's force was thought
to be advancing. That general had indeed arrived, but he was alone. He
had reached Zuidlaren, a village some four leagues from the scene of
action, on the noon of that day. Here he had found a letter from
Aremberg, requesting him to hasten. He had done so. His troops,
however, having come from Coevorden that morning, were unable to
accomplish so long a march in addition. The Count, accompanied by a few
attendants, reached the neighborhood of Heiliger Lee only in time to meet
with some of the camp sutlers and other fugitives, from whom he learned
the disastrous news of the defeat. Finding that all was lost, he very
properly returned to Zuidlaren, from which place he made the best of his
way to Groningen. That important city, the key of Friesland, he was thus
enabled to secure. The troops which he brought, in addition to the four
German vanderas of Schaumburg, already quartered there, were sufficient
to protect it against the ill-equipped army of Louis Nassau.

The patriot leader had accomplished, after all, but a barren victory.
He had, to be sure, destroyed a number of Spaniards, amounting, according
to the different estimates, from five hundred to sixteen hundred men.
He had also broken up a small but veteran army. More than all, he had
taught the Netherlanders, by this triumphant termination to a stricken
field, that the choice troops of Spain were not invincible. But the