for under this chieftain, who by life and manners is fitter to drive
swine than to govern pious and honorable men."

The event justified the prophecy. After a few trifling operations before
Groningen, Hohenlo was summoned to the neighbourhood of Coewerden, by the
reported arrival of Martin Schenck, at the head of a considerable force.
On the 15th of June, the Count marched all night and a part of the follow
morning, in search of the enemy. He came up with them upon Hardenberg
Heath, in a broiling summer forenoon. His men were jaded by the forced
march, overcame with the heat, tormented with thirst, and unable to
procure even a drop of water. The royalists were fresh so that the
result of the contest was easily to be foreseen. Hohenlo's army was
annihilated in an hour's time, the whole population fled out of
Coewerden, the siege of Groningen was raised; Renneberg was set free to
resume his operations on a larger scale, and the fate of all the north-
eastern provinces was once more swinging in the wind. The boors of
Drenthe and Friesland rose again. They had already mustered in the field
at an earlier season of the year, in considerable force. Calling
themselves "the desperates," and bearing on their standard an eggshell
with the yolk running out--to indicate that, having lost the meat they
were yet ready to fight for the shell--they had swept through the open
country, pillaging and burning. Hohenlo had defeated them in two
enchanters, slain a large number of their forces, and reduced them for
a time to tranquillity. His late overthrow once more set them loose.
Renneberg, always apt to be over-elated in prosperity, as he was unduly
dejected in adversity, now assumed all the airs of a conqueror. He had
hardly eight thousand men under his orders, but his strength lay in the
weakness of his adversaries. A small war now succeeded, with small
generals, small armies, small campaigns, small sieges. For the time, the
Prince of Orange was even obliged to content himself with such a general