Let not your Majesty impute the blame to me if we fail.

Verdugo also is uttering a perpetual cry out of Friesland for men--men and money." Yet, notwithstanding all these obstacles, the bridge was finished at last.

On the 25th February, (1585) the day sacred to Saint Matthew, and of fortunate augury to the Emperor Charles, father of Philip and grandfather of Alexander, the Scheldt was closed.
As already stated, from Fort Saint Mary on the Kalloo side, and from Fort Philip, not far from Ordain on the Brabant shore of the Scheldt, strong structures, supported upon piers, had been projected, reaching, respectively, five hundred feet into the stream.

These two opposite ends were now connected by a permanent bridge of boats.

There were thirty-two of these barges, each of them sixty-two feet in length and twelve in breadth, the spaces between each couple being twenty-two feet wide, and all being bound together, stem, stern, and midships, by quadruple hawsers and chains.