their own misery. Moreover, it had long been exciting much indignation
in the ranks that veteran generals and colonels, in whom all men had
confidence, had been in great numbers superseded in order to make place
for court favourites, utterly without experience or talent. Thus the
veterans; murmuring in the wet trenches. The archduke meanwhile, in his
sullen retirement, brooded over a tragedy to follow the very successful
comedy of his antagonist.

It was not long delayed. The assault which had been postponed in the
latter days of December was to be renewed before the end of the first
week of the new year. Vere, through scouts and deserters, was aware of
the impending storm, and had made his arrangements in accordance with,
the very minute information which he had thus received. The
reinforcements, so opportunely sent by the States, were not numerous
--only six hundred in all--but they were an earnest of fresh comrades to
follow. Meantime they sufficed to fill the gaps in the ranks, and to
enable Vere to keep possession of the external line of fortifications,
including the all-important Porcupine. Moreover, during the fictitious
negotiations, while the general had thus been holding--as he expressed
it--the wolf by both ears, the labor of repairing damages in dyke, moat,
and wall had not been for an instant neglected.

The morning of the 7th January, 1602, opened with a vigorous cannonade
from all the archduke's batteries, east, west, and south. Auditor
Fleeting, counsellor and secretary of the city, aide-de-camp and right
hand of the commander-in-chief, a grim, grizzled, leathern-faced man of
fifty, steady under fire as a veteran arquebuseer, ready with his pen
as a counting-house clerk, and as fertile in resource as the most
experienced campaigner, was ever at the general's side. At his
suggestion several houses had been demolished, to furnish materials in