At the sight of the redoubtable Spanish infantry a panic seized these troops and they were routed with heavy loss.

The fight, however, gave Maurice time to unite his forces and draw them up in battle order in front of Nieuport.

Battle was joined the following afternoon, and slowly, foot by foot, after a desperate conflict the archduke's Spanish and Italian veterans drove back along the dunes the troops of the States.

Every hillock and sandy hollow was fiercely contested, the brunt of the conflict falling on the English and Frisians under the command of Sir Francis Vere.

Vere himself was severely wounded, and the battle appeared to be lost.