turns on holidays. Although accused of having attempted to procure the
assassination of William Lewis Nassau, he was not considered ill-natured,
and he possessed much admiration for Prince Maurice. An iron-clad man,
who had scarcely taken harness from his back all his life, he was a type
of the Spanish commanders who had implanted international hatred deeply
in the Netherland soul, and who, now that this result and no other had
been accomplished, were rapidly passing away. He had been baptised
Franco, and his family appellation of Verdugo meant executioner. Punning
on these names he was wont to say, that he was frank for all good people,
but a hangman for heretics; and he acted up to his gibe.

Foiled at Ham, Fuentes had returned to the siege of Catelet, and had soon
reduced the place. He then turned his attention again to Dourlens, and
invested that city. During the preliminary operations, another veteran
commander in these wars, Valentin Pardieu de la Motte, recently created
Count of Everbecque by Philip, who had been for a long time general-in-
chief of the artillery, and was one of the most famous and experienced
officers in the Spanish service, went out one fine moonlight night to
reconnoitre the enemy, and to superintend the erection of batteries. As
he was usually rather careless of his personal safety, and rarely known
to put on his armour when going for such purposes into the trenches, it
was remarked with some surprise, on this occasion, that he ordered his
page to bring his, accoutrements, and that he armed himself cap-a pie
before leaving his quarters. Nevertheless, before he had reached the
redoubt, a bullet from the town struck him between the fold of his morion
and the edge of his buckler and he fell dead without uttering a sound.

Here again was a great loss to the king's service. La Motte, of a noble
family in Burgundy, had been educated in the old fierce traditions of the
Spanish system of warfare in the Netherlands, and had been one of the