now the satisfaction of having gained an important
city in Flanders; and on subsequently joining the army under his uncle,
he indulged the hope of earning still greater distinction.

Martin Schenk had meanwhile been successfully defending Rheinberg, for
several weeks, against Parma's forces. It was necessary, however, that
Leicester, notwithstanding the impoverished condition of his troops,
should make some diversion, while his formidable antagonist was thus
carrying all before him.

He assembled, accordingly, in the month of August, all the troops that
could be brought into the field, and reviewed them, with much ceremony,
in the neighbourhood of Arnheim. His army--barely numbered seven thousand
foot and two thousand horse, but he gave out, very extensively, that he
had fourteen thousand under his command, and he was moreover expecting a
force of three thousand reiters, and as many pikemen recently levied in
Germany. Lord Essex was general of the cavalry, Sir William Pelham--a
distinguished soldier, who had recently arrived out of England, after the
most urgent solicitations to the Queen, for that end, by Leicester--was
lord-marshal of the camp, and Sir John Norris was colonel-general of the
infantry.

After the parade, two sermons were preached upon the hillside
to the soldiers, and then there was a council of war: It was
decided--notwithstanding the Earl's announcement of his intentions to
attack Parma in person--that the condition of the army did not warrant
such an enterprise. It was thought better to lay siege to Zutphen. This
step, if successful, would place in the power of the republic and her
ally a city of great importance and strength. In every event the attempt
would probably compel Farnese to raise the siege of Berg.

Leicester, accordingly, with "his brave troop of able and likely
men"--five thousand of the infantry being English--advanced as far as
Doesburg. This city, seated at the confluence of the ancient canal of
Drusus and the Yssel, five miles above Zutphen, it was necessary, as a
preliminary measure, to secure. It was not a very strong place, being
rather slightly walled with brick, and with a foss drawing not more than
three feet of water. By the 30th August it had been completely invested.

On the same night, at ten o'clock, Sir William Pelham, came to the Earl
to tell him "what beastly pioneers the Dutchmen were." Leicester
accordingly determined, notwithstanding the lord-marshal's entreatie