rown the noise of
the work-people. With dawn of day few traces remained of the night's
havoc; and although the bridge was restored only in appearance, it
nevertheless deceived the spy, and consequently no attack was made upon
it. In the meantime the prince contrived to make the repairs solid,
nay, even to introduce some essential alterations in the structure. In
order to guard against similar accidents for the future, a part of the
bridge of boats was made movable, so that in case of necessity it could
be taken away and a passage opened to the fire-ships. His loss of men
was supplied from the garrisons of the adjoining places, and by a German
regiment which arrived very opportunely from Gueldres. He filled up the
vacancies of the officers who were killed, and in doing this he did not
forget the Spanish ensign who had saved his life.

The people of Antwerp, after learning the success of their mine-ship,
now did homage to the inventor with as much extravagance as they had a
short time before mistrusted him, and they encouraged his genius to new
attempts. Gianibelli now actually obtained the number of flat-bottomed
vessels which he had at first demanded in vain, and these he equipped in
such a manner that they struck with irresistible force on the bridge,
and a second time also burst and separated it. But this time, the wind
was contrary to the Zealand fleet, so that they could not put out, and
thus the prince obtained once more the necessary respite to repair the
damage. The Archimedes of Antwerp was not deterred by any of these
disappointments. Anew he fitted out two large vessels which were armed
with iron hooks and similar instruments in order to tear asunder the
bridge. But when the moment came for these vessels to get under weigh
no one was found ready to embark in them. The engineer was therefore
obliged to think of a plan for giving to these machines such a
self-impulse that, without being guided by a steersman, they would keep the
middle of the stream, and not, like the former ones, be driven on the
bank by the wind. One of his workmen, a German, here hit upon a strange
invention, if Strada's description of it is to be credited. He affixed a
sail under the vessel, which was to be acted upon by the water, just as
an ordinary sail is by the wind, and could thus impel the ship with the
whole force of the current. The result proved the correctness of his
calculation; for this vessel, with the position of its sails reve