se
to the village of Mook. The royalists attacked with their usual
valor; and, after two hours of hard fighting, the confederates
were totally defeated. The three gallant princes were among the
slain, and their bodies were never afterward discovered. It has
been stated, on doubtful authority, that Louis of Nassau, after
having lain some time among the heaps of dead, dragged himself
to the side of the river Meuse, and while washing his wounds
was inhumanly murdered by some straggling peasants, to whom he
was unknown. The unfortunate fate of this enterprising prince
was a severe blow to the patriot cause, and a cruel affliction
to the Prince of Orange. He had now already lost three brothers
in the war; and remained alone, to revenge their fate and sustain
the cause for which they had perished.

D'Avila soon found his victory to be as fruitless as it was
brilliant. The ruffian troops, by whom it was gained, became
immediately self-disbanded; threw off all authority; hastened
to possess themselves of Antwerp; and threatened to proceed to
the most horrible extremities if their pay was longer withheld.
The citizens succeeded with difficulty in appeasing them, by
the sacrifice of some money in part payment of their claims.
Requesens took advantage of their temporary calm, and despatched
them promptly to take part in the siege of Leyden.

This siege formed another of those numerous instances which became
so memorable from the mixture of heroism and horror. Jean Vanderdoes,
known in literature by the name of Dousa, and celebrated for his
Latin poems, commanded the place. Valdez, who conducted the siege,
urged Dousa to surrender; when the latter replied, in the name of
the inhabitants, "that when provisions failed them, they would
devour their left hands, reserving the right to defend their
liberty." A party of the inhabitants, driven to disobedience and
revolt by the excess of misery to which they were shortly reduced,
attempted to force the burgomaster, Vanderwerf, to supply them with
bread, or yield up the place. But he sternly made the celebrated
answer, which, cannot be remembered without shuddering--"Bread I
have none; but if my death can afford you relief, tear my body
in pieces, and let those who are most hungry devour it!"

But in this extremity relief at last was afforded by the decisive
measures of the Prince of Orange, who ordered all the neighboring
dikes to be opened and the sluices raised, thus sweeping away t