they had been sent by their cruel taskmasters, some to relate their
sufferings in the horrible dungeons of Spain, where they had long been
expiating the crime of defending their fatherland, others to relate their
experiences as chained galley-slaves in the naval service of their
bitterest enemies, many with shorn heads and long beards like Turks, many
with crippled limbs, worn out with chains and blows, and the squalor of
disease and filth--that the hatred for Spain and Rome did not glow any
less fiercely within the republic, nor the hereditary love for the
Nassaus, to whose generosity these poor victims were indebted for their
deliverance, become fainter, in consequence of these revelations. It was
at first vehemently disputed by many that the admiral could be exchanged
as a prisoner of war, in respect to the manifold murders and other crimes
which would seem to authorize his trial and chastisement by the tribunals
of the republic. But it was decided by the States that the sacred aegis
of military law must be held to protect even so bloodstained a criminal
as he, and his release was accordingly effected. Not long afterwards he
took his departure for Spain, where his reception was not enthusiastic.

From this epoch is to be dated a considerable reform in the laws
regulating the exchange of prisoners of war.--[Grotius]

While Maurice was occupied with the siege of Grave, and thus not only
menacing an important position, but spreading, danger and dismay over all
Brabant and Flanders, it was necessary for the archduke to detach so
large a portion of his armies to observe his indefatigable and scientific
enemy, as to much weaken the vigour of the operations before Ostend.
Moreover, the execrable administration of his finances, and the dismal
delays and sufferings of that siege; had brought about another mutiny--on
the whole, the most extensive, formidable, and methodical of all that had
hitherto occurred in the Spanish armies.