conquered, though perplexed and silenced, were not yet disposed to accept
their defeat. They were even ignorant that they were conquered. They
had been forced to abandon the field, and the patriots had entrenched
themselves upon the dyke, but neither Fort Saint George nor the Palisade
had been carried, although the latter was in imminent danger.

Old Count Peter Ernest Mansfeld--a grizzled veteran, who had passed his
childhood, youth, manhood, and old age, under fire--commanded at the
land-end of the dyke, in the fortress of Stabroek, in which neighbourhood
his whole division was stationed. Seeing how the day was going, he
called a council of war. The patriots had gained a large section of the
dyke. So much was certain. Could they succeed in utterly demolishing
that bulwark in the course of the day? If so, how were they to be
dislodged before their work was perfected? It was difficult to assault
their position. Three thousand Hollanders, Antwerpers, Englishmen--
"mad bulldogs all," as Parma called them--showing their teeth very
mischievously, with one hundred and sixty Zeeland vessels throwing in
their broadsides from both margins of the dyke, were a formidable company
to face.

"Oh for one half hour of Alexander in the field!" sighed one of the
Spanish officers in council. But Alexander was more than four leagues
away, and it was doubtful whether he even knew of the fatal occurrence.
Yet how to send him a messenger. Who could reach him through that valley
of death? Would it not be better to wait till nightfall? Under the
cover of darkness something might be attempted, which in the daylight
would be hopeless. There was much anxiety, and much difference of
opinion had been expressed, when Camillo Capizucca, colonel of the
Italian Legion, obtained a hearing. A man bold in words as in deeds, he
vehemently denounced the pusillanimity which would wait either for Parma