Besides Prince Maurice himself, to whom the chief credit of the whole expedition justly belonged, nearly all the commanders engaged obtained great distinction by their skill and valour.  Sir Francis Vere, as usual, was ever foremost in the thickest of the fray, and had a horse killed under him.  Parker erred by too much readiness to engage, but bore himself manfully throughout the battle.  Hohenlo, Solma, Sidney, Louis Laurentz, Du Bois, all displayed their usual prowess; but the real hero of the hour, the personal embodiment of the fortunate madness which prompted and won the battle, was undoubtedly Marcellus Bax.

Maurice remained an hour or two on the field of battle, and then, returning towards the village of Turnhout, summoned its stronghold.  The garrison of sixty, under Captain Van der Delf, instantly surrendered.  The victor allowed these troops to go off scot free, saying that there had been blood enough shed that day.  Every standard borne by the Spaniards in the battle-thirty-eight in number—­was taken, besides nearly all their arms.  The banners were sent to the Hague to be hung up in the great hall of the castle.  The dead body of Varax was sent to the archduke with a courteous letter, in which, however, a categorical explanation was demanded as to a statement in circulation that Albert had decided to give the soldiers of the republic no quarter.

No answer being immediately returned, Maurice ordered the five hundred prisoners to be hanged or drowned unless ransomed within twenty days, and this horrible decree appears from official documents to be consistent with the military usages of the period.  The arrival of the letter from the cardinal-archduke, who levied the money for the ransom on the villagers of Brabant, prevented, however, the execution of the menace, which could hardly have been seriously intended.

Within a week from the time of his departure from the Hague to engage in this daring adventure, the stadholder had returned to that little capital, having achieved a complete success.  The enthusiastic demonstrations throughout the land on account of so signal a victory can easily be imagined.  Nothing like this had ever before been recorded in the archives of the young commonwealth.  There had been glorious defences of beleaguered cities, where scenes of heroic endurance and self-sacrifice had been enacted, such as never can be forgotten so long as the history of human liberty shall endure, but a victory won in the open field over the most famous legions of Spain and against overwhelming numbers, was an achievement entirely without example.  It is beyond all doubt that the force under Varax was at least four times as large as that portion of the States’ army which alone was engaged; for Maurice had not a foot-soldier on the field until the battle was over, save the handful of musketeers who had followed Vere and Bax at the beginning of the action.