asurer. This man was growing so rich on his
peculations, on his commissions, and on his profits from paying the
troops in a depreciated coin, that Leicester declared the whole revenue
of his own landed estates in England to be less than that functionary's
annual income. Thus it was difficult to say whether the "ragged rogues"
of Elizabeth or the maimed and neglected soldiers of Philip were in the
more pitiable plight.

The only consolation in the recent reduction of Neusz was to be found in
the fact that Parma had only gained a position, for the town had ceased
to exist; and in the fiction that he had paid for his triumph by the loss
of six thousand soldiers, killed and wounded. In reality not more than
five hundred of Farnese's army lost their lives, and although the town,
excepting some churches, had certainly been destroyed; yet the Prince was
now master of the Rhine as far as Cologne, and of the Meuse as far as
Grave. The famine which pressed so sorely upon him, might now be
relieved, and his military communications with Germany be considered
secure.

The conqueror now turned his attention to Rheinberg, twenty-five miles
farther down the river.

Sir Philip Sidney had not been well satisfied by the comparative idleness
in which, from these various circumstances; he had been compelled to
remain. Early in the spring he had been desirous of making an attack upon
Flanders by capturing the town of Steenberg. The faithful Roger Williams
had strongly seconded the proposal. "We wish to show your Excellency,"
said he to Leicester, "that we are not sound asleep." The Welshman was
not likely to be accused of somnolence, but on this occasion Sidney and
himself had been overruled. At a later moment, and during the siege of
Neusz, Sir Philip had the satisfaction of making a successful foray into
Flanders.

The expedition had been planned by Prince Maurice of Nassau, and was his.
earliest military achievement. He proposed carrying by surprise, the city
of Axel, a well-built, strongly-fortified town on the south-western edge
of the great Scheldt estuary, and very important from its position. Its
acquisition would make the hold of the patriots and the English upon
Sluys and Ostend more secure, and give them many opportunities of
annoying the enemy in Flanders.

Early in July, Maurice wrote to the Earl of Leicester, communicating the
particulars of his scheme, but begging that the affair might be "very
secretly handled," and kep