fight. It was obvious that the Prince would offer battle eagerly,
ostentatiously, frequently, but the Governor was resolved never to accept
the combat. Once taken, his resolution was unalterable. He recognized
the important difference between his own attitude at present, and that in
which he had found himself during the past summer in Friesland. There a
battle had been necessary, now it was more expedient to overcome his
enemy by delay. In Friesland, the rebels had just achieved a victory
over the choice troops of Spain. Here they were suffering from the
stigma of a crushing defeat. Then, the army of Louis Nassau was swelling
daily by recruits, who poured in from all the country round. Now,
neither peasant nor noble dared lift a finger for the Prince. The army
of Louis had been sustained by the one which his brother was known to be
preparing. If their movements had not been checked, a junction would
have been effected. The armed revolt would then have assumed so
formidable an aspect, that rebellion would seem, even for the timid,
a safer choice than loyalty. The army of the Prince, on the contrary,
was now the last hope of the patriots: The three by which it had been
preceded had been successively and signally vanquished.

Friesland, again, was on the outskirts of the country. A defeat
sustained by the government there did not necessarily imperil the
possession of the provinces. Brabant, on the contrary, was the heart of
the Netherlands. Should the Prince achieve a decisive triumph then and
there, he would be master of the nation's fate. The Viceroy knew himself
to be odious, and he reigned by terror. The Prince was the object of the
people's idolatry, and they would rally round him if they dared.
A victory gained by the liberator over the tyrant, would destroy the
terrible talisman of invincibility by which Alva governed. The Duke had
sufficiently demonstrated his audacity in the tremendous chastisement
which he had inflicted upon the rebels under Louis. He could now afford