under Colonel Pyron, was left in Axel, and the dykes around were then
pierced. Upwards of two millions' worth of property in grass, cattle,
corn, was thus immediately destroyed in the territory of the obedient
Netherlands.

After an unsuccessful attempt to surprise Gravelines, the governor of
which place, the veteran La Motte, was not so easily taken napping; Sir
Philip having gained much reputation by this conquest of Axel, then
joined the main body of the army, under Leicester, at Arnheim.

Yet, after all, Sir Philip had not grown in favour with her Majesty
during his service in the Low Countries. He had also been disappointed
in the government of Zeeland, to which post his uncle had destined him.
The cause of Leicester's ambition had been frustrated by the policy of
Barneveld and Buys, in pursuance of which Count or Prince Maurice--as he
was now purposely designated, in order that his rank might surpass that
of the Earl--had become stadholder and captain general both of Holland
and Zeeland. The Earl had given his nephew, however, the colonelcy of
the Zeeland regiment, vacant by the death of Admiral Haultain on the
Kowenstyn Dyke. This promotion had excited much anger among the high
officers in the Netherlands who, at the instigation of Count Hohenlo,
had presented a remonstrance upon the subject to the governor-general.
It had always been the custom, they said, with the late Prince of Orange,
to confer promotion according to seniority, without regard to social
rank, and they were therefore unwilling that a young foreigner, who had
just entered the service; should thus be advanced over the heads of
veterans who had been campaigning there so many weary years. At the same
time the gentlemen who signed the paper protested to Sir Philip, in
another letter, "with all the same hands," that they had no personal
feeling towards him, but, on the contrary, that they wished him all