son of the forlorn pretender to Portugal, Don Antonio, who had at last
departed this life. Maurice was indignant that a Catholic, an outcast,
and, as it was supposed, a bastard, should dare to mate with the daughter
of William of Orange-Nassau; and there were many scenes of tenderness,
reproaches, recriminations, and 'hysterica passio,' in which not only the
lovers, the stadholder and his family, but also the high and mighty
States-General, were obliged to enact their parts. The chronicles are
filled with the incidents, which, however, never turned to tragedy, nor
even to romance, but ended, without a catastrophe, in a rather insipid
marriage. The Princess Emilia remained true both to her religion and her
husband during a somewhat obscure wedded life, and after her death Don
Emmanuel found means to reconcile himself with the King of Spain and to
espouse, in second nuptials, a Spanish lady. On the 4th of August,
Maurice arrived at Arnhem with a force of seven thousand foot and twelve
hundred horse. Hohenlo was with him, and William Lewis, and there was
yet another of the illustrious house of Nassau in the camp, Frederick
Henry, a boy in his thirteenth year, the youngest born of William the
Silent, the grandson of Admiral de Coligny, now about; in this his first
campaign, to take the first step in a long and noble career.

Having reduced the town and castle of Alphen, the stadholder came before
Rheinberg, which he very expeditiously invested. During a preliminary
skirmish William Lewis received a wound in the leg, while during the
brief siege Maurice had a narrow escape from death, a cannon-ball passing
through his tent and over his head as he lay taking a brief repose upon
his couch.

On the 19th, Rheinberg, the key to that portion of the river,
surrendered. On the 31st the stadholder opened his batteries upon the
city of Meurs, which capitulated on the 2nd of September; the commandant,