long a desperate conflict was maintained in the dark upon the narrow
space between the two barriers. Before daylight Kloet, who then, as
always, had led his men in the moat desperate adventures, was carried
into the town, wounded in five places, and with his leg almost severed at
the thigh. "'Tis the bravest man," said the enthusiastic Lord North,
"that was ever heard of in the world."--"He is but a boy," said Alexander
Farnese, "but a commander of extraordinary capacity and valour."

Early in the morning, when this mishap was known, an officer was sent to
the camp of the besiegers to treat. The soldiers received him with
furious laughter, and denied him access to the general. "Commander Kloet
had waked from his nap at a wrong time," they said, "and the Prince of
Parma was now sound asleep, in his turn." There was no possibility of
commencing a negotiation. The Spaniards, heated by the conflict,
maddened by opposition, and inspired by the desire to sack a wealthy
city, overpowered all resistance. "My little soldiers were not to be
restrained," said Farnese, and so compelling a reluctant consent on the
part of the commander-in-chief to an assault, the Italian and Spanish
legions poured into the town at two opposite gates; which were no.
longer strong enough to withstand the enemy. The two streams met in the
heart of the place, and swept every living thing in their, path out of
existence. The garrison was butchered to a man, and subsequently many
of the inhabitants--men, women, and children-also, although the women;
to the honour of Alexander, had been at first secured from harm in some
of the churches, where they had been ordered to take refuge. The first
blast of indignation was against the commandant of the place. Alexander,
who had admired, his courage, was not unfavourably disposed towards him,
but Archbishop Ernest vehemently, demanded his immediate death, as a
personal favour to himself. As the churchman was nominally sovereign of
the city although in reality a beggarly dependant on Philip's alms,