Romantic valor, unflinching fortitude, consummate skill, characterized them always.

What could half-armed artisans achieve in the open plain against such accomplished foes?
At Tisnacq, between Louvain and Tirlemont, a battle was attempted by a large miscellaneous mass of students, peasantry, and burghers, led by country squires.

It soon changed to a carnage, in which the victims were all on one side.

A small number of veterans, headed by Vargas, Mendoza, Tassis, and other chivalrous commanders, routed the undisciplined thousands at a single charge.

The rude militia threw away their arms, and fled panic-struck in all directions, at the first sight of their terrible foe.