of their relative positions. "The English think they are going to do
great things," said he; "and consider themselves masters of the field."

Nevertheless, on the 11th May, the dejected melancholy man had left
Brussels, and joined his little army, consisting of three thousand
Spaniards and five thousand of all other nations. His veterans, though
unpaid; ragged, and half-starved were in raptures to, have their idolized
commander among them again, and vowed that under his guidance there was
nothing which they could not accomplish. The King's honour, his own,
that of the army, all were pledged to take the city. On the success of,
that enterprise, he said, depended all his past conquests, and every hope
for the future. Leicester and the, English, whom he called the head and
body of the rebel forces, were equally pledged to relieve the place, and
were bent upon meeting him in the field. The Earl had taken some forts
in the Batavia--Betuwe; or "good meadow," which he pronounced as fertile
and about as large as Herefordshire,--and was now threatening Nymegen,
a city which had been gained for Philip by the last effort of Schenk,
on the royalist side. He was now observing Alexander's demonstrations
against Grave; but, after the recent success in victualling that place,
he felt a just confidence in its security.

On the 31st May the trenches were commenced, and on the 5th June the
batteries were opened. The work went rapidly forward when Farnese was in
the field. "The Prince of Parma doth batter it like a Prince," said Lord
North, admiring the enemy with the enthusiasm of an honest soldier: On
the 6th of June, as Alexander rode through the camp to reconnoitre,
previous to an attack. A well-directed cannon ball carried away the
hinder half, of his horse. The Prince fell to the ground, and, for a
moment, dismay was in the Spanish ranks. At the next instant, though
somewhat bruised, he was on his feet again, and, having found the breach