At first Archduke Albert initiated negotiations with the United Provinces, but his proposals were received with contempt. He was forced to make war. A bloody battle was fought at Nieuport, where the Archduke courageously led his troops against the Dutch under Maurice of Nassau. Although not victorious, Albert decided to besiege Ostend, the only Belgian city left in the hands of the rebels. The siege of Ostend lasted three years, from 1601 to 1604. On both sides deeds of heroism were numerous. Three rings of fortifications had to be taken and every trench was stormed at the cost of many lives. At length Ostend, continuously battered by artillery, could no longer resist the energetic assaults of the soldiers of Spinola. It surrendered, but only its ruins were left in the hands of the victor. After the fall of Ostend, the Archduke, wishing to put an end to this war of exhaustion, again opened negotiations with the United Provinces, and succeeded in concluding a truce for twelve years (1609-21). During that time Albert and Isabella did their best to heal the wounds of their people. Their reign was one of peace and of reconstruction. The sovereign power was even stronger than before the crisis of the sixteenth century. No revolt troubled the happy years of the Archduke’s rule. National institutions were not disturbed, the re-establishment of order was attempted by law rather than by force. In 1611 a meeting of magistrates and lawyers was called in order to codify the judicial provisions and to inaugurate a reform of civil and criminal law. The fruit of that attempt was the _Édit perpétuel_, a judicial monument of great importance. At the same time the old customs, the unwritten law of the Belgian principalities and cities, were reduced to writing and published in definite form by order of the sovereign.