Thus had Maurice, after showing the world how strong places were to be
reduced, given a striking exhibition of the manner in which they were to
be saved.

Coeworden, after thirty-one weeks' investment, was relieved.

The stadholder now marched upon Groningen. This city was one of the most
splendid and opulent of all the Netherland towns. Certainly it should
have been one of the most ancient in Europe, since it derived its name--
according to that pains-taking banker, Francis Guicciardini--"from Grun,
a Trojan gentleman," who, nevertheless, according to Munster, was "a
Frenchman by birth."--"Both theories, however, might be true," added the
conscientious Florentine, "as the French have always claimed to be
descended from the relics of Troy." A simpler-minded antiquary might
have babbled of green fields, since 'groenighe,' or greenness, was a
sufficiently natural appellation for a town surrounded as was Groningen
on the east and west by the greenest and fattest of pastures. In
population it was only exceeded by Antwerp and Amsterdam. Situate on
the line where upper and nether Germany blend into one, the capital of
a great province whose very name was synonymous with liberty, and whose
hardy sons had clone fierce battle with despotism in every age, so long
as there had been human record of despotism and of battles, Groningen had
fallen into the hands of the foreign foe, not through the prowess of the
Spaniard but the treason of the Netherlander. The baseness of the
brilliant, trusted, valiant, treacherous young Renneberg has been
recorded on a previous page of these volumes. For thirteen years long
the republic had chafed at this acquisition of the hated enemy within
its very heart. And now the day had come when a blow should be struck
for its deliverance by the ablest soldier that had ever shown himself