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Upon the following day the Earl of Leicester and his following rode
to Manningtree, and took boat down the Stour to Harwich, where the
fleet, under Admiral William Borough, was lying. Here they embarked,
and on the 9th of December sailed for Flushing, where they were
joined by another fleet of sixty ships from the Thames.
More than a year passed. The English had fought sturdily in Holland.
Mr. Francis Vere had been with his cousin, Lord Willoughby, who
was in command of Bergen op Zoom, and had taken part in the first
brush with the enemy, when a party of the garrison marched out and
attacked a great convoy of four hundred and fifty wagons going to
Antwerp, killed three hundred of the enemy, took eighty prisoners,
and destroyed all their wagons except twenty-seven, which they
carried into the town. Leicester provisioned the town of Grave,
which was besieged by the Duke of Parma, the Spanish commander
in chief. Axel was captured by surprise, the volunteers swimming
across the moat at night, and throwing open the gates. Doesburg
was captured, and Zutphen besieged.
Parma marched to its relief, and, under cover of a thick fog,
succeeded in getting close at hand before it was known that he
was near. Then the English knights and volunteers, 200 in number,
mounted in hot haste and charged a great Spanish column of 5000
horse and foot.
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