Hardly had the five or six hundred effected their entrance, than throwing off all control, they dispersed through the principal streets, and began bursting open the doors of the most opulent households.

The cries of "victory!" "gained city!" "down with the Spaniards!" resounded on all sides.

Many of the citizens, panic-struck, fled from their homes, which they thus abandoned to pillage, while, meantime, the loud shouts of the assailants reached the ears of the sergeant and his two companies who had been left in charge of the gate.

Fearing that they should be cheated of their rightful share in the plunder, they at once abandoned their post, and set forth after their comrades, as fast as their legs could carry them.
Now it so chanced--although there was no garrison in the town--that forty Burgundian and Italian lancers, with about thirty foot-soldiers, had come in the day before to escort a train of merchandise.

The Seigneur de Haultepenne, governor of Breda, a famous royalist commander--son of old Count Berlaymont, who first gave the name of "beggars" to the patriots-had accompanied them in the expedition.