. Sidney most generously rewarded from his own
purse the adventurous soldiers who had swum the moat; and it was to his
care and intelligence that the success of Prince Maurice's scheme was
generally attributed. The achievement was hailed with great satisfaction,
and it somewhat raised the drooping spirits of the patriots after their
severe losses at Grave and Venlo. "This victory hath happened in good
time," wrote Thomas Cecil to his father, "and hath made us somewhat to
lift up our heads." A garrison of eight hundred, under Colonel Pyron, was
left in Axel, and the dykes around were then pierced. Upwards of two
millions' worth of property in grass, cattle, corn, was thus immediately
destroyed in the territory of the obedient Netherlands.

After an unsuccessful attempt to surprise Gravelines, the governor of
which place, the veteran La Motte, was not so easily taken napping; Sir
Philip having gained much reputation by this conquest of Axel, then
joined the main body of the army, under Leicester, at Arnheim.

Yet, after all, Sir Philip had not grown in favour with her Majesty
during his service in the Low Countries. He had also been disappointed in
the government of Zeeland, to which post his uncle had destined him. The
cause of Leicester's ambition had been frustrated by the policy of
Barneveld and Buys, in pursuance of which Count or Prince Maurice--as he
was now purposely designated, in order that his rank might surpass that
of the Earl--had become stadholder and captain general both of Holland
and Zeeland. The Earl had given his nephew, however, the colonelcy of the
Zeeland regiment, vacant by the death of Admiral Haultain on the
Kowenstyn Dyke. This promotion had excited much anger among the high
officers in the Netherlands who, at the instigation of Count Hohenlo, had
presented a remonstrance upon the subject to the governor-general. It had
always been the custom, they said, with the late Prince of Orange, to
confer promotion according to seniority, without regard to social rank,
and they were therefore unwilling that a young foreigner, who had just
entered the service; should thus be advanced over the heads of veterans
who had been campaigning there so many weary years. At the same time the
gentlemen who signed the paper protested to Sir Philip, in another
letter, "with all the same hands," that they had no personal feeling
towards him, but, on the contrary, that they wished him all honour.

Young Maurice himself