The noise of cannon fire had died away. All the Dutch ships had gone by the enemy Spanish forts with their sea-borne prize. In the distance the strains of a battle hymn from 1568 were still audible:
Before God I will witness,
And all His angel host,
That I at all times have
The King of Spain despised,
Because I have Our Lord,
Who dwells in majesty,
Obeyed without demur
As righteousness decreed.
Towards the open sea these strains continued unabated while the proud sea beggar squadron sailed on with its prize and its bloody wounds and glory slid downstream in a fog that was becoming ever thicker.