Gamboa, its commandant, was severely wounded; many other officers dead or dying; the outworks were in the hands of the Hollanders; the slender piles on which the fortress rested in the water were rudely shaken; the victory was almost complete.
And now there was a tremendous cheer of triumph.

The beavers had done their work, the barrier was bitten through and through, the salt water rushed like a river through the ruptured dyke.

A few moments later, and a Zeeland barge, freighted with provisions, floated triumphantly into the waters beyond, now no longer an inland sea.

The deed was done--the victory achieved.

Nothing more was necessary than to secure it, to tear the fatal barrier to fragments, to bury it, for its whole length, beneath the waves.