and several saltwater creeks being complicated around it, and then
flowing leisurely, in one deep sluggish channel, to the sea. The wrath
of Leicester, when all his efforts to relieve the place had been baffled
by the superior skill of Alexander Farnese, has been depicted, and during
the seventeen years which had elapsed since its capture, the republic had
not ceased to deplore that disaster. Obviously if the present expedition
could end in the restoration of Sluy's to its rightful owners, it would
be a remarkable success, even if Ostend should fall. Sluy's and its
adjacent domains formed a natural portion of the Zeeland archipelago, the
geographical counterpart of Flushing. With both branches of the stately
Scheld in its control, the republic would command the coast, and might
even dispense with Ostend, which, in the judgment of Maurice, was an
isolated and therefore not a desirable military possession. The States-
General were of a different opinion. They much desired to obtain Sluy's,
but they would not listen to the abandonment of Ostend. It was expected
of the stadholder, therefore, that he should seize the one and protect
the other. The task was a difficult one. A less mathematical brain than
that of Maurice of Nassau would have reeled at the problem to be solved.
To master such a plexus of canals, estuaries, and dykes, of passages
through swamps, of fords at low water which were obliterated by flood-
tide; to take possession of a series of redoubts built on the only firm
points of land, with nothing but quaking morass over which to manoeuvre
troops or plant batteries against them, would be a difficult study, even
upon paper. To accomplish it in the presence of a vigilant and anxious
foe seemed bewildering enough.

At first it was the intention of the stadholder, disappointed at learning
the occupation of the Swint, to content himself with fortifying Cadzand,
in view of future operations at some more favourable moment? So meagre
a result would certainly not have given great satisfaction to the States,