A trader who is even suspected of dealing with such a victim of tyranny may be ruined by the mere imputation; his customers shun him from fear, and he is obliged to get a character from some notorious leaguer.
In June 1576 the long siege of Zierikzee, the capital of Schou.wen, ended in its surrender to the Spanish general Mondragon, after the failure of a gallant attempt by Admiral Boisot to break the leaguer, in which he lost The great his life.
In 1593 the leaguer of Geertruidenburg put the seal on Maurice's reputation as an invincible besieger.