[6] An English officer named Grimstone, claiming to be a disaffected Catholic, had set up a trap during which a large Spanish assault was bloodily repulsed.

[7] An Anglo-Dutch relief column under the command Maurice of Orange arrived soon after and forced the Duke of Parma to retreat, thus ending the siege.

Parma sent a regiment under the Marquis de Renty, with troops numbering 8,000 men under Count Mansfelt, the Prince of Ascoli, and the Duke of Pastrana, in advance to attempt the capture of the island of Tholen.

[11][3][4] On it was an important town of the same name to the north of Bergen op Zoom, on the opposite side of the channel of the Scheldt separating the island from the mainland of Brabant.

[13] As the Spanish force advanced through Tholen they attacked the town but after several attempts were vigorously repulsed by Solmes and his Zealand troops who had inflicted nearly 400 casualties.

Several were made from September 23 with success and forced the Spanish to flee from their entrenchments having lost a great deal of supplies, prisoners, and equipment.

[12] Dutch militia cavalry under the command of Bergen op Zoom traders Paul and Marcellus Bax made a sortie on the Spanish lines all the way to Wouw, capturing a number of prisoners.

[7] During one of these sorties Robert Redhead, a sutler, had captured two very important Spanish prisoners: Cosimo d'Alexandrini and Pedro de Lugo a Commissary of the artillery.

[10] They had been captured not far from the North Fort by an English scouting party, Redhead was looking for items to sell to the troops inside when he stumbled across the Spanish officers checking the strength of the walls.

[16] The North Fort was a strong fortress which secured the entrance to Bergen op Zoom from the Scheldt on the north-east side.

[16] They secretly left the camp provided with letters from the two Spaniards to the Duke of Parma informing that everything was prepared for the admittance of the besiegers into the fort.

[18][13][17] To make matters worse the tide began to flow, and the soldiers who had easily waded across the moat were washed away - 300 were drowned in an attempt to reach the camp.

[4][5] The following morning however the Spanish rearguard was assaulted by a pursuing English force of twenty ensigns of foot and cavalry, capturing more prisoners and supplies.

[22] The following year the Spanish army mutinied for pay; the war chest was empty for the money which was to have been replenished had been lost in the galleons of the Armada and the capture by the English of the canal boat from Antwerp.

The Count of Mansfeld also captured the small town of Wachtendonck in Guelderland at the siege of which the bomb shell was first used having been invented shortly before by an artisan of Venlo.