d, hundreds of villages had
been overwhelmed, and a tract of country torn from the province and
buried for ever beneath the sea. This "Drowned Land," as it is called,
now separated the island from the main. At low tide it was, however,
possible for experienced pilots to ford the estuary, which had usurped
the place of the land. The average depth was between four and five feet
at low water, while the tide rose and fell at least ten feet; the bottom
was muddy and treacherous, and it was moreover traversed by three living
streams or channels; always much too deep to be fordable.

Captain Plomaert, a Fleming of great experience and bravery, warmly
attached to the King's cause, conceived the plan of sending
reinforcements across this drowned district to the city of Tergoes.
Accompanied by two peasants of the country, well acquainted with the
track, he twice accomplished the dangerous and difficult passage; which,
from dry land to dry land, was nearly ten English miles in length. Having
thus satisfied himself as to the possibility of the enterprise, he laid
his plan before the Spanish colonel, Mondragon. That courageous veteran
eagerly embraced the proposal, examined the ground, and after
consultation with Sancho Avila, resolved in person to lead an expedition
along the path suggested by Plomaert. Three thousand picked men, a
thousand from each nation,--Spaniards, Walloons, and Germans, were
speedily and secretly assembled at Bergen op Zoom, from the neighbourhood
of which city, at a place called Aggier, it was necessary that the
expedition should set forth. A quantity of sacks were provided, in which
a supply of, biscuit and of powder was placed, one to be carried by each
soldier upon his head. Although it was already late in the autumn, the
weather was propitious; the troops, not yet informed: as to the secret
enterprise for which they had been selected, were all ready assembled at
the edge of the water, and Mondragon, who, notwithstanding his age, had
resolved upon heading the hazardous expedition, now briefly, on the
evening of the 20th October, explained to them the nature of the service.
His statement of the dangers which they were about to encounter, rather
inflamed than diminished their ardor. Their enthusiasm became unbounded,
as he described the importance of the city which they were about to save,
and alluded to the glory which would be won by those who thus
courageously came forward to its rescue. The time of about