Trivulzio, was composed of only a few regular troops, and a large force
of guerillas, he gave notice that such combatants were not entitled to
quarter, and that if captured they would be all put to the sword. The
reply to this threat was not evacuation but defiance. Especially a
volunteer ensign mounted upon a rampart, and danced about, waving his
flag gaily in the face of the assailants. Maurice bitterly remarked to
his staff that such a man alone was enough to hold the fort. As it was
obvious that the place would require a siege in form, and that it would
be almost impossible to establish batteries upon that quaking soil, where
there was no dry land for cavalry or artillery to move, Maurice ordered
the nine guns to be carried back to Cadzand that night, betaking himself,
much disappointed, in the same direction." Yet it so happened that the
cannoneers, floundering through the bogs, made such an outcry--especially
when one of their guns became so bemired that it was difficult for them
to escape the disgrace of losing it--that the garrison, hearing a great
tumult, which they could not understand, fell into one of those panics to
which raw and irregular troops are liable. Nothing would convince them
that fresh artillery had not arrived, that the terrible stadholder with
an immense force was not creating invincible batteries, and that they
should be all butchered in cold blood, according to proclamation, before
the dawn of day. They therefore evacuated the place under cover of
the night, so that this absurd accident absolutely placed Maurice in
possession of the very fort--without striking a blow--which he was about
to abandon in despair, and which formed the first great obstacle to his
advance.

Having occupied St. Catharine's, he moved forward to Ysendyke, a strongly
fortified place three leagues to the eastward of Sluys and invested it in
form. Meantime a great danger was impending over him. A force of well-
disciplined troops, to the number of two thousand, dropped down in boats