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