INTRODUCTION.
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n the morning of Thursday, September az, 1586,a body of two hundred English horsemen, with SirPhilip Sidney at their head, advanced, in the midst ofa thick mist, to attack a Spanish convoy on its way tothe town of Zutphen. As Sidney left the camp he hadmet its Marshal, Sir William Pelham, clad only in. light armour, and, with the emulation of a knight-errant had thrown aside his own cuisses, that hemight be no better protected- Now the fog lifted,and the little force found itself under the very walls ofZutphen, and confronted by the enemy's cavalrY, athousand strong. Twice the English charged, andonly retreated after hard fighting, during which Sidney'shorse was killed under him. Reinforced from thecamp, 3 third time they hurled themselves against theSpanish troops, once more to be forced to retire, afterhaving slain almost their own number of the enemy, iv INTRODUCTION. and lost in killed and wounded a fourth of their owt>men. Amongst the wounded in this last charge, wa^Sidney. A bullet, by some thought to have beer>poisoned, had struck his left leg, some distance abov^the knee, (where the discarded cuisses should havebeen his protection), and after shattering the bone,had torn the flesh far up the thigh. By an effort thewounded man kept his seat, and rode a mile and ahalf back to the camp, there, when parched withthirst, to show that spirit of fortitude and self-sacrificewhich has made the story of Philip Sidney and thecup of cold water among the best known anecdotes inEnglish history. From the camp he was borne in theEarl of Leicester's barge to Arnhem, and here helingered twenty-six days, suffering the most wearingagonies with a patience that won the admiration ofhis surgeons. During these days his thoughts were setalmost wholly on religion. " The guilt of sin " (hisfriend George Gifford records of him), " the presentbeholding of death, the terror of God's judgment seat,which seemed in hot displeasure to cut him down,concurring, did make a fear and astonishment in hismind, which he did overcome after conference had,touching both the doctrine and the example of theScripture in that matter." To the exhortations of the INTRODUCTION, v divine "he answered, in words expressive of hisunfeigned repentance, and of his firm resolution notto live as he had done ; for, he said, he had walked ^in a vague course. And these words he spake withgreat vehemence, both of speech and gesture, anddoubled it, to the intent that it might be manifest howunfeignedly he meant (should he recover) to turn more /^thoughts unto God than ever before." A strangeinterlude in these religious exercises was Sidney'scomposition of a poem on La Cuisse Rompue^ whichhe caused to be set to music and sung at his bed side.Another incident was the dictation of a will, whichdeserves all his friend Fulke Greville's encomiums ofits thoughtfulness, and love towards all with whomha had relations, especially his poorer dependants.But his chief thoughts were given to the preparationfor death, and when this came to him on the 17th ofOctober, it found him ready. Twice after his handsseemed to have lost all power, so stiff and cold hadthey become, he raised them bravely in answer to thechaplain's call for a sign of his faith, but the secondtime it was a friend who replaced them by his side ;for in that last act of devotion the soul of Sidney hadpassed away. When we think that he was but aprivate gentleman — only knighted, it may be said, by ^ \ ■ ■ ••' y r t '' • ) / » » » " r > V • e
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