His soldiers, ill-fed, half-clothed, unpaid, were fearfully overworked.

He was obliged to concentrate all the troops at his disposal around Antwerp.

Diversions against Ostend, operations in Friesland and Gelderland, although most desirable, had thus been rendered quite impossible.
"I have recalled my cavalry and infantry from Ostend," he wrote, "and Don Juan de Manrique has fortunately arrived in Stabroek with a thousand good German folk.

The commissary-general of the cavalry has come in, too, with a good lot of the troops that had been encamped in the open country.
Nevertheless, we remain wretchedly weak--quite insufficient to attempt what ought to be done.

If the enemy were more in force, or if the French wished to make trouble, your Majesty would see how important it had been to provide in time against such contingencies.