In the year 1586,[i14] when that unfortunate stand was made against
the Spaniards before Zutphen, the 22nd of September, while he was
getting upon the third horse, having had two slain under him before,
he was wounded with a musket shot out of the trenches, which broke the
bone of his thigh. The horse he rode upon was rather furiously
choleric than bravely proud, and so forced him to forsake the field,
but not his back, as the noblest and fittest bier to carry a martial
commander to his grave. In which sad progress, passing along by the
rest of the army, where his uncle,[i15] the general, was, and, being
thirsty with excess of bleeding, he called for drink, which was
presently brought him; but, as he was putting the bottle to his mouth,
he saw a poor soldier carried along, who had eaten his last at the
same feast, ghastly casting up his eyes at the bottle, which Sir
Philip perceiving, took it from his head before he drank, and
delivered it to the poor man, with these words: “Thy necessity is yet
greater than mine.” And when he had pledged this poor soldier, he was
presently carried to Arnheim, where the principal surgeons of the camp
attended for him. When they began to dress his wounds, he, both by way
of charge and advice, told them that, while his strength was yet
entire, his body free from fever, and his mind able to endure, they
might freely use their art, cut, and search to the bottom; but if they
should neglect their art, and renew torments in the declination of
nature, their ignorance, or overtenderness, would prove a kind of
tyranny to their friend, and, {xxxiii} consequently, a blemish to
their reverend science. With love and care well mixed they began the
cure, and continued it some sixteen days, with such confidence of his
recovery as the joy of their hearts overflowed their discretion, and
made them spread the intelligence of it to the Queen, and all his
noble friends here in England, where it was received, not as
_private_, but _public_ good news.
At the same time Count Hollock was under the care of a most
excellent surgeon for a wound in his throat by a musket shot, yet did
he neglect his own extremity to save his friend, and to that end had
sent him to Sir Philip. This surgeon, notwithstanding, out of love
to his master, returning one day to dress his wound, the Count
cheerfully asked him how Sir Philip did? and he answered, with a
heavy countenance, that he was not well. At these words the worthy
prince, as having more sense of his friend’s wound than his own, cries
out: “Away, villain! never see my face again, till thou bring better
news of that man’s recovery, for whose redemption many such as I were
happily lost.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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