istorians may be compared and calculated
on, the royalists had three thousand killed, and among them several
officers of rank; while the patriot army, including those who fell
in the morning action, lost something more than half the number.
The archduke, furnished with a fresh horse, gained Bruges in safety;
but he only waited there long enough to join his heroic wife,
with whom he proceeded rapidly to Ghent, and thence to Brussels.
Mendoza was wounded and taken prisoner, and with difficulty saved
by Prince Maurice from the fury of the German auxiliaries.

The moral effect produced by this victory on the vanquishers
and vanquished, and on the state of public opinion throughout
Europe, was immense; but its immediate consequences were incredibly
trifling. Not one result in a military point of view followed
an event which appeared almost decisive of the war. Nieuport
was again invested three days after the battle; but a strong
reinforcement entering the place saved it from all danger, and
Maurice found himself forced for want of supplies to abandon the
scene of his greatest exploit. He returned to Holland, welcomed
by the acclamations of his grateful country, and exciting the
jealousy and hatred of all who envied his glory or feared his
power. Among the sincere and conscientious republicans who saw
danger to the public liberty in the growing influence of a successful
soldier, placed at the head of affairs and endeared to the people
by every hereditary and personal claim, was Olden Barneveldt,
the pensionary; and from this period may be traced the growth
of the mutual antipathy which led to the sacrifice of the most
virtuous statesman of Holland, and the eternal disgrace of its
hitherto heroic chief.

The states of the Catholic provinces assembled at Brussels now
gave the archdukes to understand that nothing but peace could
satisfy their wishes or save the country from exhaustion and
ruin. Albert saw the reasonableness of their remonstrances, and
attempted to carry the great object into effect. The states-general
listened to his proposals. Commissioners were appointed on both
sides to treat of terms. They met at Berg-op-Zoom; but their
conferences were broken up almost as soon as commenced. The Spanish
deputies insisted on the submission of the republic to its ancient
masters. Such a proposal was worse than insulting; it proved the
inveterate insincerity of those with whom it originated, and
who knew it could not be ent