Maurice remained an hour or two on the field of battle, and then,
returning towards the village of Turnhout, summoned its stronghold. The
garrison of sixty, under Captain Van der Delf, instantly surrendered.
The victor allowed these troops to go off scot free, saying that there
had been blood enough shed that day. Every standard borne by the
Spaniards in the battle-thirty-eight in number--was taken, besides nearly
all their arms. The banners were sent to the Hague to be hung up in the
great hall of the castle. The dead body of Varax was sent to the
archduke with a courteous letter, in which, however, a categorical
explanation was demanded as to a statement in circulation that Albert
had decided to give the soldiers of the republic no quarter.

No answer being immediately returned, Maurice ordered the five hundred
prisoners to be hanged or drowned unless ransomed within twenty days, and
this horrible decree appears from official documents to be consistent
with the military usages of the period. The arrival of the letter from
the cardinal-archduke, who levied the money for the ransom on the
villagers of Brabant, prevented, however, the execution of the menace,
which could hardly have been seriously intended.

Within a week from the time of his departure from the Hague to engage
in this daring adventure, the stadholder had returned to that little
capital, having achieved a complete success. The enthusiastic
demonstrations throughout the land on account of so signal a victory
can easily be imagined. Nothing like this had ever before been recorded
in the archives of the young commonwealth. There had been glorious
defences of beleaguered cities, where scenes of heroic endurance and
self-sacrifice had been enacted, such as never can be forgotten so long
as the history of human liberty shall endure, but a victory won in the