the coasts of Spain, Portugal,
Africa, and the Canary Isles, this expedition, from which the
most splendid results were expected, was shattered, dispersed,
and reduced to nothing by a succession of unheard-of mishaps.

To these disappointments were now added domestic dissensions in
the republic, in consequence of the new taxes absolutely necessary
for the exigencies of the state. The conduct of Queen Elizabeth
greatly added to the general embarrassment: she called for the
payment of her former loans; insisted on the recall of the English
troops, and declared her resolution to make peace with Spain.
Several German princes promised aid in men and money, but never
furnished either; and in this most critical juncture, Henry IV.
was the only foreign sovereign who did not abandon the republic.
He sent them one thousand Swiss troops, whom he had in his pay;
allowed them to levy three thousand more in France; and gave
them a loan of two hundred thousand crowns--a very convenient
supply in their exhausted state.

The archdukes Albert and Isabella arrived in the Netherlands in
September, and made their entrance into Brussels with unexampled
magnificence. They soon found themselves in a situation quite as
critical as was that of the United Provinces, and both parties
displayed immense energy to remedy their mutual embarrassments.
The winter was extremely rigorous; so much so as to allow of
military operations being undertaken on the ice. Prince Maurice soon
commenced a Christmas campaign by taking the town of Wachtendenck;
and he followed up his success by obtaining possession of the
important forts of Crevecoeur and St. Andrew, in the island of
Bommel. A most dangerous mutiny at the same time broke out in
the army of the archdukes; and Albert seemed left without troops
or money at the very beginning of his sovereignty.

But these successes of Prince Maurice were only the prelude to
an expedition of infinitely more moment, arranged with the utmost
secrecy, and executed with an energy scarcely to be looked for from
the situation of the states. This was nothing less than an invasion
poured into the very heart of Flanders, thus putting the archdukes
on the defence of their own most vital possessions, and changing
completely the whole character of the war. The whole disposable
troops of the republic, amounting to about seventeen thousand
men, were secretly assembled in the island of Walcheren, in the
month of June; and setting sa