A fourth, Ventimiglia, was degraded but allowed to escape with life, on account of his near relationship to the Duke of Terranova, while Governor Lanzavecchia was obliged to resign the command of Gertruydenberg.

The great commander knew better than to encourage the yielding up of cities and fortresses by a mistaken lenity to their unlucky defenders.
Prince Maurice sent off letters the same night announcing his success to the States-General.

Hohenlo wrote pithily to Olden-Barneveld--"The castle and town of Breda are ours, without a single man dead on our side.

The garrison made no resistance but ran distracted out of the town." The church bells rang and bonfires blazed and cannon thundered in every city in the United Provinces to commemorate this auspicious event.
Olden-Barneveld, too, whose part in arranging the scheme was known to have been so valuable, received from the States-General a magnificent gilded vase with sculptured representations of the various scenes in the drama, and it is probable that not more unmingled satisfaction had been caused by any one event of the war than by this surprise of Breda.
The capture of a single town, not of first-rate importance either, would hardly seem too merit so minute a description as has been given in the preceding pages.

But the event, with all its details, has been preserved with singular vividness in Netherland story.