garrisons absolutely necessary to protect important places from surprise;
that a defeat would not be simply disaster, but annihilation; that
retreat without absolute triumph would be impossible, and that amid such
circumstances the archduke, in spite of his poverty and the rebellious
condition of his troops, would doubtless assemble a sufficient force to
dispute with reasonable prospects of victory, this invasion of his
territory.

Sir Francis Vere, too, was most decidedly opposed to the plan. He
pointed out with great clearness its dangerous and possibly fatal
character; assuring the Staten that, within a fortnight after the
expedition had begun, the archduke would follow upon their heels with an
army fully able to cope with the best which they could put into the
field. But besides this experienced and able campaigner, who so
thoroughly shared the opinions of Prince Maurice, every military man in
the provinces of any consideration, was opposed to, the scheme.
Especially Lewis William--than whom no more sagacious military critic or
accomplished strategist existed in Europe, denounced it with energy and
even with indignation. It was, in the opinion of the young stadholder of
Friesland, to suspend the existence of the whole commonwealth upon a
silken thread. Even success, he prophesied, would bring no permanent,
fruits, while the consequences of an overthrow, were fearful to
contemplate. The immediate adherents and most trusted counsellors of
William Lewis were even more unmeasured in their denunciations than he
was himself. "'Tis all the work of Barneveld and the long-gowns," cried
Everard van Reyd. "We are led into a sack from which there is no
extrication. We are marching to the Caudine Forks."

Certainly it is no small indication of the vast influence and the
indomitable resolution of Barneveld that he never faltered in this storm