Of the sixteen hundred Dutch and English but seven hundred remained.

At last a swimming messenger was sent out by the besieged with despatches for the States, to the purport that the city could hold out no longer.

A breach in the wall had been effected wide enough to admit a hundred men abreast.

Sluys had, in truth, already fallen, and it was hopeless any longer to conceal the fact.

If not relieved within a day or two, the garrison would be obliged to surrender; but they distinctly stated, that they had all pledged themselves, soldiers and burghers, men, women, and all, unless the most honourable terms were granted, to set fire to the city in a hundred places, and then sally, in mass, from the gates, determined to fight their way through, or be slain in the attempt.
The messenger who carried these despatches was drowned, but the letters were saved, and fell into Parma's hands.
At the same moment, Leicester was making, at last, an effort to raise the siege.