susceptible of a quibble, and the event had taken place upon All Fools'
Day.

"On April's Fool's Day,
Duke Alva's spectacles were stolen away,"

became a popular couplet. The word spectacles, in Flemish, as well as
the name of the suddenly surprised city, being Brill, this allusion to
the Duke's loss and implied purblindness was not destitute of ingenuity.
A caricature, too, was extensively circulated, representing De la Marck
stealing the Duke's spectacles from his nose, while the Governor was
supposed to be uttering his habitual expression whenever any intelligence
of importance was brought to him: 'No es nada, no es nada--'Tis nothing,
'tis nothing.

The Duke, however, lost not an instant in attempting to repair the
disaster. Count Bossu, who had acted as stadholder of Holland and
Zealand, under Alva's authority, since the Prince of Orange had resigned
that office, was ordered at once to recover the conquered sea-port, if
possible.

Hastily gathering a force of some ten companies from the garrison of
Utrecht, some of which very troops had recently and unluckily for
government, been removed from Brill to that city, the Count crossed the
Sluis to the island of Voorn upon Easter day, and sent a summons to the
rebel force to surrender Brill. The patriots being very few in number,
were at first afraid to venture outside the gates to attack the much
superior force of their invaders. A carpenter, however, who belonged to
the city, but had long been a partisan of Orange, dashed into the water
with his axe in his hand, and swimming to the Niewland sluice, hacked it