They embarked on board a vessel, and were
landed near the mouth of the Mark, as De Berg was this time going to
carry the peat up the river instead of down, fearing that the passage
of seventy men through the country would attract attention. The same
night Prince Maurice, Sir Francis Vere, Count Hohenlohe, and other
officers sailed to Willemstad, their destination having been kept a
strict secret from all but those engaged in the enterprise. Six hundred
English troops, eight hundred Dutch, and three hundred cavalry had been
drawn from different garrisons, and were also to land at Willemstad.
When Heraugiere's party arrived at the point agreed on at eleven
o'clock at night, Van de Berg was not there, nor was the barge; and
angry and alarmed at his absence they searched about for him for hours,
and at last found him in the village of Terheyde. He made the excuse
that he had overslept himself, and that he was afraid the plot had been
discovered. As everything depended upon his co-operation, Heraugiere
abstained from the angry reproaches which the strange conduct of the
man had excited; and as it was now too late to do anything that night,
a meeting was arranged for the following evening, and a message was
despatched to the prince telling him that the expedition was postponed
for a day.
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