During the
war of freedom, so admirably described by our countryman, whereby rose
the Dutch Republic, the Huguenots, at the siege of Valenciennes, we are
told, "made forays upon the monasteries for the purpose of procuring
supplies, and the broken statues of the dismantled churches were used to
build a bridge across an arm of the river, which was called, in
derision, the Bridge of Idols."
But a more memorable historical bridge is admirably described in another
military episode of this favorite historian,--that which Alexander of
Parma built across the Scheldt, whereby Antwerp was finally won for
Philip of Spain. Its construction was a miracle of science and courage;
and it became the scene of one of the most terrible tragedies and the
most fantastic festivals which signalize the history of that age, and
illustrate the extraordinary and momentous struggle for religious
liberty in the Netherlands. Its piers extended five hundred feet into
the stream,--connected with the shore by boats, defended by palisades,
fortified parapets, and spiked rafts; cleft and partially destroyed by
the volcanic fireship of Gianebelli, a Mantuan chemist and engineer,
whereby a thousand of the best troops of the Spanish army were instantly
killed, and their brave chief stunned,--when the hour of victory came to
the besiegers, it was the scene of a floral procession and Arcadian
banquet, and "the whole extent of its surface from the Flemish to the
Brabant shore" was alive with "war-bronzed figures crowned with
flowers.
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