seems incredible that it could have been given in good faith; still more
amazing that its rejection by Maurice should have been bitterly censured.
Two-thirds of the army lay on the other side of the harbour, and it was
high water at about three o'clock. While they were deliberating, the sea
was rising, and, so soon as daybreak should make any evolutions possible,
they would be utterly prohibited during several hours by the inexorable
tide. More time would be consumed by the attempt to construct temporary
bridges (for of course little progress had been made in the stone bridge
hardly begun) or to make use of boats than in waiting for the falling of
the water, and, should the enemy make his appearance while they were
engaged in such confusing efforts, the army would be hopelessly lost.

Maurice, against the express advice of Vere, decided to send his cousin
Ernest, with the main portion of the force established on the right bank
of the harbour, in search of the archduke, for the purpose of holding him
in check long enough to enable the rest of the army to cross the water
when the tide should serve. The enemy, it was now clear, would advance
by precisely the path over which the States' army had marched that
morning. Ernest was accordingly instructed to move with the greatest
expedition in order to seize the bridge at Leffingen before the archduke
should reach the deep, dangerous, and marshy river, over which it was the
sole passage to the downs. Two thousand infantry, being the Scotch
regiment of Edmonds and the Zeelanders of Van der Noot, four squadrons of
Dutch cavalry, and two pieces of artillery composed the force with which
Ernest set forth at a little before dawn on his hazardous but heroic
enterprise.

With a handful of troops he was to make head against an army, and the
youth accepted the task in the cheerful spirit of self-sacrifice which
characterized his house. Marching as rapidly as the difficult ground