Catalogue description AUDITOR GENERAL to LORD WILLOUGHBY.

--Having considered how much the "tuition" of the town of Berghen op Zoom imports to your Lordship's honour and the English nation (on whom the preservation of this country depends, although the most part will not believe it), and having in the course of my official duties had occasion for seven years past to note the causes which have led to the rendition or capture of many towns and fortresses besieged by the enemy, and abandoned or conquered in consequence of the laxity of my fellow-countrymen, I feel it my duty to warn your Lordship that if you mean to hold Bergen, you must have sufficient men of your own nation there to resist the enemy, and not trust to the soldiers of this country in combat, and especially in case of an assault, as they are so demoralised by lack of discipline and corrupted in various ways that they have not the virility required.

They will serve well enough mixed with the English, but the latter must be sufficiently strong to do without them if necessary. The people of the country, for want of experience and knowledge, make much of them and prefer them to the English, but although they are very brave when the enemy is at a distance, and sometimes get the better of him, they cannot be trusted to remain steady and firm in fight, like the English, as is known both by experience and the old histories; and if, by the fault of any, the enemy should gain possession of Bergen, both her Majesty's and your Lordship's reputations here would be lost, which God forbid. French. 1 p.

Postscript.--I hear the enemy means to go in good earnest against Bergen, and believe that more pioneers will be needed in the town, for fortifying it. If Holland and Zeeland cannot furnish a sufficient number, your Lordship would do well to make enquiries (through Geertrudenberge) for three or four hundred from La Campine, and have them brought to Bergen, notwithstanding the contributions, seeing that necessity knows no law. These are men who work better than any others in the Low Countries, know how to bear hardships, and live soberly, while those of Holland and Zeeland do not know how to work, and demand plenty to eat and drink, without any hardships at all. Slip of paper, enclosed in the letter.