anchor in the bay
of Gibraltar, and he speedily prepared to offer them battle.
Before the combat began he held a council of war, and addressed
the officers in an energetic speech, in which he displayed the
imperative call on their valor to conquer or die in the approaching
conflict. He led on to the action in his own ship; and, to the
astonishment of both fleets, he bore right down against the enormous
galleon in which the flag of the Spanish admiral-in-chief was
hoisted. D'Avila could scarcely believe the evidence of his eyes
at this audacity: he at first burst into laughter at the notion;
but as Heemskirk approached, he cut his cables and attempted
to escape under the shelter of the town. The heroic Dutchman
pursued him through the whole of the Spanish fleet, and soon
forced him to action. At the second broadside Heemskirk had his
left leg carried off by a cannon-ball, and he almost instantly
died, exhorting his crew to seek for consolation in the defeat
of the enemy. Verhoef, the captain of the ship, concealed the
admiral's death; and the whole fleet continued the action with
a valor worthy the spirit in which it was commenced. The victory
was soon decided: four of the Spanish galleons were sunk or burned,
the remainder fled; and the citizens of Cadiz trembled with the
apprehension of sack and pillage. But the death of Heemskirk,
when made known to the surviving victors, seemed completely to
paralyze them. They attempted nothing further; but sailing back
to Holland with the body of their lamented chief, thus paid a
greater tribute to his importance than was to be found in the
mausoleum erected to his memory in the city of Amsterdam.

[Illustration: WILLIAM THE SILENT OF ORANGE.]

The news of this battle reaching Brussels before it was known
in Holland, contributed not a little to quicken the anxiety of
the archdukes for peace. The king of Spain, worn out by the war
which drained his treasury, had for some time ardently desired it.
The Portuguese made loud complaints of the ruin that threatened
their trade and their East Indian colonies. The Spanish ministers
were fatigued with the apparently interminable contest which
baffled all their calculations. Spinola, even, in the midst of
his brilliant career, found himself so overwhelmed with debts
and so oppressed by the reproaches of the numerous creditors
who were ruined by his default of payment, that he joined in the
general demand for repose. In the month of May, 1