“I do assure you,” wrote the honest Welshman to Leicester, “if you will come afore this town, with as many galliots and as many flat-bottomed boats as can cause two men-of-war to enter, they cannot stop their passage, if, your mariners will do a quarter of their duty, as I saw them do divers times.  Before, they make their entrance, we will come with our boats, and fight with the greatest part, and show them there is no such great danger.  Were it not for my wounded arm, I would be, in your first boat to enter.  Notwithstanding, I and other Englishmen will approach their boats in such sort, that we will force them to give their saker of artillery upon us.  If, your Excellency will give ear unto those false lewd fellows (the Captain meant the States-General), you shall lose great opportunity.  Within ten or twelve days the enemy will make his bridge from Kadzand unto St. Anne, and force you to hazard battle before you succour this town.  Let my Lord Willoughby and Sir William Russell land at Terhoven, right against Kadzand, with 4000, and entrench hard by the waterside, where their boats can carry them victual and munition.  They may approach by trenches without engaging any dangerous fight . . . .  We dare not show the estate of this town more than we have done by Captain Herte.  We must fight this night within our rampart in the fort.  You may sure the world here are no Hamerts, but valiant captains and valiant soldiers, such as, with God’s help, had rather be buried in the place than be disgraced in any point that belongs to such a number of men-of-war.”

But in vain did the governor of the place, stout Arnold Froenevelt, assisted by the rough and direct eloquence of Roger Williams, urge upon the Earl of Leicester and the States-General the necessity and the practicability of the plan proposed.  The fleet never entered the harbour.  There was no William of Orange to save Antwerp and Sluys, as Leyden had once been saved, and his son was not old enough to unravel the web of intrigue by which he was surrounded, or to direct the whole energies of the commonwealth towards an all-important end.  Leicester had lost all influence, all authority, nor were his military abilities equal to the occasion, even if he had been cordially obeyed.

Ten days longer the perpetual battles on the ramparts and within the mines continued, the plans conveyed by the bold swimmer, Captain Hart, for saving the place were still unattempted, and the city was tottering to its fall.  “Had Captain Hart’s words taken place,” wrote Williams, bitterly,” we had been succoured, or, if my letters had prevailed, our pain had been, no peril:  All wars are best executed in sight of the enemy . . . .  The last night of June (10th July, N. S.) the enemy entered the ditches of our fort in three several places, continuing in fight in mine and on rampart for the space of eight nights.  The ninth; he battered us furiously, made a breach of five score paces suitable for horse and man.  That day be attempted us in all, places with a general, assault for the space of almost five hours.”