The high grounds of Doel, of Kalloo, and Beveren, where Alexander was established, remained out of reach of the flood.

Far below, on the opposite side of the river, other sluices had been opened, and the sea had burst over the wide, level plain.

The villages of Wilmerdonk, Orderen, Ekeren, were changed to islands in the ocean, while all the other hamlets, for miles around, were utterly submerged.
Still, however, the Blaw-garen Dyke and its companion the Kowenstyn remained obstinately above the waters, forming a present and more fatal obstruction to the communication between Antwerp and Zeeland than would be furnished even by the threatened and secretly-advancing bridge across the Scheldt.

Had Orange's prudent advice been taken, the city had been safe.

Over the prostrate dykes, whose destruction he had so warmly urged, the ocean would have rolled quite to the gates of Antwerp, and it would have been as easy to bridge the North Sea as to control the free navigation of the patriots over so wide a surface.
When it was too late, the butchers, and colonels, and captains, became penitent enough.