[013]
[Sidenote: The Poems of Grotius.]
Three Generals had successively been entrusted with the siege of Ostend;
nine commanders had successively been entrusted with its defence: the
siege had cost the besiegers and besieged 100,000 lives: all the
historians of the times agree, that few important consequences were
derived to either side by the success of the Spaniards. The Archduke and
Infanta, had the curiosity to view the city, after it was taken. They
found in it nothing but heaps of ruins: little that shewed the former
state of the town; its ditches were filled, its fortifications
overthrown, its buildings, and the works of attack and defence, were
levelled with the ground. Spinola led them to the spots in which the
most remarkable events had taken place; and, finally to that, in which
the forces of the besieged had made their last stand; had, for want of
space, found themselves unable to raise military works, and had, on that
account, found themselves forced to surrender. The Archduke and the
Infanta were moved to tears at the melancholy sight; and declared that
such a victory was not worth its cost.
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