Throughout the long and sanguinary wars which ultimately resulted in the deliverance of Holland from the dominion of Spain, the valiant behaviour of the Scots was very remarkable, and is honourably recorded in most of the old histories of the period. The brigade was originally commanded by General Balfour, and under him by Colonel Murray and Walter Scott, Lord of Buccleugh. It learned the business of war under those great masters of the art, the Princes Maurice and Frederick Henry of Orange. Its early history is one with that of the present Fifth and Sixth Regiments of the line, which then constituted the English Brigade, long commanded by the noble family of De Vere, afterward the illustrious House of Oxford. “King James VI. of Scotland having invited the States-General to be sponsors to his new-born son, Prince Henry, on the departure of the ambassadors, fifteen hundred Scots were sent over to Holland to augment the brigade.” At the battle of Nieuport, in 1600, the firmness of the Scots Brigade saved the army of Prince Maurice from imminent danger, and contributed largely in attaining the victory gained over the Spanish army of the Archduke Albert of Austria. “After having bravely defended the bridge like good soldiers, they were at length forced to give way, the whole loss having fallen on the Scots, as well on their chiefs and captains as on the common soldiers, insomuch that eight hundred of them remained on the field, amongst whom were eleven captains, and many lieutenants and other officers.” At the siege of Ostend the Scots, by their unflinching steadiness, helped so materially in the defence that the giant efforts of the enemy under the Marquis Spinola, one of the ablest of the Spanish Generals, failed to accomplish its reduction by force of arms. A capitulation, honourable alike to besieger and besieged, was agreed upon; “and the garrison marched out with arms, ammunition, and baggage, drums beating, and colours flying, after having held out three years and three months.” “According to a memorial found in the pocket of an officer of Spinola’s suite, after he was killed, the number of slain on the side of the Spaniards amounted in all to seventy-six thousand nine hundred and sixty-one men. The loss on the part of the States was not less than fifty thousand. When the remaining garrison, which consisted of only three thousand men, arrived at Sluice in Flanders, Prince Maurice received them with the pomp of a triumph; and both officers and private men were promoted or otherwise rewarded.”