almost boundless extent, till it loses itself in the flat and misty
horizon. On the other side of the stream, in the district called the
Veluwe, or bad meadow, were three sconces, one of them of remarkable
strength. An island between the city and the shore was likewise well
fortified. On the landward side the town was protected by a wall and moat
sufficiently strong in those infant days of artillery. Near the
hospital-gate, on the east, was an external fortress guarding the road to
Warnsfeld. This was a small village, with a solitary slender
church-spire, shooting up above a cluster of neat one-storied houses. It
was about an English mile from Zutphen, in the midst of a wide, low,
somewhat fenny plain, which, in winter, became so completely a lake, that
peasants were not unfrequently drowned in attempting to pass from the
city to the village. In summer, the vague expanse of country was fertile
and cheerful of aspect. Long rows of poplars marking the straight
highways, clumps of pollard willows scattered around the little meres,
snug farm-houses, with kitchen-gardens and brilliant flower-patches
dotting the level plain, verdant pastures sweeping off into seemingly
infinite distance, where the innumerable cattle seemed to swarm like
insects, wind-mills swinging their arms in all directions, like
protective giants, to save the country from inundation, the lagging sail
of market-boats shining through rows of orchard trees--all gave to the
environs of Zutphen a tranquil and domestic charm.

Deventer and Kampen, the two other places on the river, were in the hands
of the States. It was, therefore, desirable for the English and the
patriots, by gaining possession of Zutphen, to obtain control of the
Yssel; driven, as they had been, from the Meuse and Rhine.

Sir John Norris, by Leicester's direction, took possession of a small
rising-ground, called 'Gibbet Dill' on the land-side; where he
established a fortified camp, and proceeded to invest the city. With him
were Count Lewis William of Nassau, and Sir Philip Sidney, while the Earl
himself, crossing the Yssel on a bridge of boats which he had
constructed, reserved for himself the reduction of the forts upon the
Veluwe side.

Farnese, meantime, was not idle; and Leicester's calculations proved
correct. So soon as the Prince was informed of this important
demonstration of the enemy he broke up--after brief debate with his
officers--his camp before Rheinberg, and came to Wese