younger sons were retained in prison, but ultimately set at liberty.
The town and citadel were thus permanently acquired by their lawful king,
who was said to be more afflicted at the death of D'Humieres than
rejoiced at the capture of Ham.

Meantime Colonel Verdugo, royal governor of Friesland, whose occupation
in those provinces, now so nearly recovered by the republic, was gone,
had led a force of six thousand foot, and twelve hundred horse across the
French border, and was besieging La Ferte on the Cher. The siege was
relieved by Bouillon on the 26th May, and the Spanish veteran was then
ordered to take command in Burgundy. But his days were numbered. He had
been sick of dysentery at Luxembourg during the summer, but after
apparent recovery died suddenly on the 2nd September, and of course was
supposed to have been poisoned. He was identified with the whole history
of the Netherland wars. Born at Talavera de la Reyna, of noble
parentage, as he asserted--although his mother was said to have sold
dogs' meat, and he himself when a youth was a private soldier--he rose
by steady conduct and hard fighting to considerable eminence in his
profession. He was governor of Harlem after the famous siege, and
exerted himself with some success to mitigate the ferocity of the
Spaniards towards the Netherlanders at that epoch. He was marshal-
general of the camp under Don John of Austria, and distinguished himself
at the battle of Gemblours. He succeeded Count Renneberg as governor of
Friesland and Groningen, and bore a manful part in most of the rough
business that had been going on for a generation of mankind among those
blood-stained wolds and morasses. He was often victorious, and quite as
often soundly defeated; but he enjoyed campaigning, and was a glutton of
work. He cared little for parade and ceremony, but was fond of recalling
with pleasure the days when he was a soldier at four crowns a month, with
an undivided fourth of one cloak, which he and three companions wore by