reat gate opened to admit the crush of men who rushed to the
assistance of Sir Philip and his valiant little band.

The scene inside told its own story. Sir Philip had surprised and slain
the guard and opened the gate to his men. Instantly the startled city
flew to arms, but it was too late. Over half the twelve hundred men who
garrisoned the town were put to the sword, a great quantity of riches
was captured, and a large amount of property destroyed. Besides this,
four neighboring citadels were attacked and forced to surrender. Sir
Philip then garrisoned the town with English soldiers, and cut the
dikes, flooding a vast tract of country to hamper the movements of the
Spanish.

When it was all over, Leicester wrote proudly to the queen, "My nephew,
Sidney, is to be thanked for the bravest deed yet done by the English in
the Low Countries."

But stanch old Sir Henry died a few weeks before his "darling Philip"
thus won his first laurels in war, and Lady Sidney passed away shortly
after the news of her boy's heroism reached her.

One would think that the knowledge of that heroism would have touched
the fickle queen to do, at least, simple justice to the young officer
who had stormed Axel; but unfortunately it did not. Not only could
Sidney not persuade her Majesty to give him the necessary troops and
money for better defences, but he could not move her to pay the wretched
soldiers their hire. The wages of his men were already months in
arrears, and the soldiers were daily threatening mutiny. So the time
dragged on, and nothing of importance was accomplished for several more
weary months.

Leicester had had as little patience with his nephew as the queen
herself, "bearing a hand over him as a forward young man;" but after
Sidney proved his sword at Axel, his uncle treated him with more
respect, and was at last brought to take counsel of him.

A few months after Sidney's capture of Axel, Leicester reviewed her
Majesty's troops at Arnhem; and it was then that Sir Philip at last
persuaded him to strike a decisive blow at the Spanish. Having actually
obtained his uncle's permission to fight, Sidney lost no time in
unsheathing his sword. Five days after the review at Arnhem, he and his
brother Robert and the young Earl of Essex, with a small force, stormed
and carried the fortress of Doesburg, each one of the three fighting
brilliantly.

The Earl of Essex was son to Sir Philip's old friend, and brother to
Penelope Deve