The country all around, once fertile as a garden, had been changed into a wild and wintry sea where swarms of gun-boats and other armed vessels manoeuvred and contended with each other over submerged villages and orchards, and among half-drowned turrets and steeples.

Yet there rose the great bulwark--whose early destruction would have made all this desolation a blessing--unbroken and obstinate; a perpetual obstacle to communication between Antwerp and Zeeland.

The very spirit of the murdered Prince of Orange seemed to rise sadly and reproachfully out of the waste of waters, as if to rebuke the men who had been so deaf to his solemn warnings.
Brussels, too, wearied and worn, its heart sick with hope deferred, now fell into despair as the futile result of the French negotiation became apparent.

The stately and opulent city had long been in a most abject condition.

Many of its inhabitants attempted to escape from the horrors of starving by flying from its walls.