Vitelli obtained permission to follow with 2000 additional troops. The
fifteen hundred who had already been engaged, charged furiously upon
their retreating foes. Some dashed across the blazing bridges, with
their garments and their very beards on fire. Others sprang into the
river. Neither fire nor water could check the fierce pursuit. The
cavalry dismounting, drove their horses into the stream, and clinging to
their tails, pricked the horses forward with their lances. Having thus
been dragged across, they joined their comrades in the mad chase along
the narrow dykes, and through the swampy and almost impassable country
where the rebels were seeking shelter. The approach of night, too soon
advancing, at last put an end to the hunt. The Duke with difficulty
recalled his men, and compelled them to restrain their eagerness until
the morrow. Three hundred of the patriots were left dead upon the field,
besides at least an equal number who perished in the river and canals.
The army of Louis was entirely routed, and the Duke considered it
virtually destroyed. He wrote to the state council that he should pursue
them the next day, but doubted whether he should find anybody to talk
with him. In this the Governor-general soon found himself delightfully
disappointed.

Five days later, the Duke arrived at Reyden, on the Ems. Owing to the
unfavorable disposition of the country people, who were willing to
protect the fugitives by false information to their pursuers, he was
still in doubt as to the position then occupied by the enemy. He had
been fearful that they would be found at this very village of Reyden.
It was a fatal error on the part of Count Louis that they were not.
Had lie made a stand at this point, he might have held out a long time.
The bridge which here crossed the river would have afforded him a retreat
into Germany at any moment, and the place was easily to be defended in
front. Thus he might have maintained himself against his fierce but wary