[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of thefile for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making anentire meal of them. D. W. ]

MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, PG EDITION, VOLUME 20. 

THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC

By John Lothrop Motley

1855

1572-73 [CHAPTER VIII. ]

 Affairs in Holland and Zealand--Siege of Tergoes by the patriots-- Importance of the place--Difficulty of relieving it--Its position-- Audacious plan for sending succor across the "Drowned Land"-- Brilliant and successful expedition of Mondragon--The siege raised-- Horrible sack of Zutphen--Base conduct of Count Van den Berg-- Refusal of Naarden to surrender--Subsequent unsuccessful deputation to make terms with Don Frederic--Don Frederic before Naarden-- Treachery of Romero--The Spaniards admitted--General massacre of the garrison and burghers--The city burned to the ground--Warm reception of Orange in Holland--Secret negotiations with the Estates-- Desperate character of the struggle between Spain and the provinces --Don Frederic in Amsterdam--Plans for reducing Holland--Skirmish on the ice at Amsterdam--Preparation in Harlem for the expected siege-- Description of the city--Early operations--Complete investment-- Numbers of besiegers and besieged--Mutual barbarities--Determined repulse of the first assault--Failure of Batenburg's expedition-- Cruelties in city and camp--Mining and countermining--Second assault victoriously repelled--Suffering and disease in Harlem--Disposition of Don Frederic to retire--Memorable rebuke by Alva--Efforts of Orange to relieve the place--Sonoy's expedition--Exploit of John Haring--Cruel execution of prisoners on both sides--Quiryn Dirkzoon and his family put to death in the city--Fleets upon the lake-- Defeat of the patriot armada--Dreadful suffering and starvation in the city--Parley with the besiegers--Despair of the city--Appeal to Orange--Expedition under Batenburg to relieve the city--His defeat and death--Desperate condition of Harlem--Its surrender at discretion--Sanguinary executions--General massacre--Expense of the victory in blood and money--Joy of Philip at the news. 

While thus Brabant and Flanders were scourged back to the chains whichthey had so recently broken, the affairs of the Prince of Orange were notimproving in Zealand. Never was a twelvemonth so marked by contradictoryfortune, never were the promises of a spring followed by such blight anddisappointment in autumn than in the memorable year 1572. On the islandof Walcheren, Middelburg and Arnemuyde still held for the King--Campveerand Flushing for the Prince of Orange. On the island of South Bevelaad, the city of Goes or Tergoes was still stoutly defended by a smallgarrison of Spanish troops. As long as the place held out, the city ofMiddelburg could be maintained. Should that important city fall, theSpaniards would lose all hold upon Walcheren and the province of Zealand. 

Jerome de 't Zeraerts, a brave, faithful, but singularly unlucky officer, commanded for the Prince in Walcheren. He had attempted by varioushastily planned expeditions to give employment to his turbulent soldiery, but fortune had refused to smile upon his efforts. He had laid siege toMiddelburg and failed. He had attempted Tergoes and had been compelledingloriously to retreat. The citizens of Flushing, on his return, hadshut the gates of the town in his face, and far several days refused toadmit him or his troops. To retrieve this disgrace, which had sprungrather from the insubordination of his followers and the dislike whichthey bore his person than from any want of courage or conduct on hispart, he now assembled a force of seven thousand men, marched again toTergoes, and upon the 26th of August laid siege to the place in forma. The garrison was very insufficient, and although they conductedthemselves with great bravery, it was soon evident that unless reinforcedthey must yield. With their overthrow it was obvious that the Spaniardswould lose the important maritime province of Zealand, and the Dukeaccordingly ordered D'Avila, who commanded in Antwerp, to throw succorinto Tergoes without delay. Attempts were made, by sea and by land, tothis effect, but were all unsuccessful. The Zealanders commanded thewaters with their fleet, --and were too much at home among those gulfs andshallows not to be more than a match for their enemies. Baffled in theirattempt to relieve the town by water or by land, the Spaniards conceivedan amphibious scheme. Their plan led to one of the most brilliant featsof arms which distinguishes the history of this war. 

The Scheld, flowing past the city of Antwerp and separating the provincesof Flanders and Brabant, opens wide its two arms in nearly oppositedirections, before it joins the sea. Between these two arms lie theisles of Zealand, half floating upon, half submerged by the waves. Thetown of Tergoes was the chief city of South Beveland, the most importantpart of this archipelago, but South Beveland had not always been anisland. Fifty years before, a tempest, one of the most violent recordedin the stormy annals of that exposed country, had overthrown allbarriers, the waters of the German Ocean, lashed by a succession of northwinds, having been driven upon the low coast of Zealand more rapidly thanthey could be carried off through the narrow straits of Dover. The dykesof the island had burst, the ocean had swept over the land, hundreds ofvillages had been overwhelmed, and a tract of country torn from theprovince and buried for ever beneath the sea. This "Drowned Land, " as itis called, now separated the island from the main. At low tide it was, however, possible for experienced pilots to ford the estuary, which hadusurped the place of the land. The average depth was between four andfive feet at low water, while the tide rose and fell at least ten feet;the bottom was muddy and treacherous, and it was moreover traversed bythree living streams or channels; always much too deep to be fordable. 

Captain Plomaert, a Fleming of great experience and bravery, warmly attached to the King's cause, conceived the plan of sendingreinforcements across this drowned district to the city of Tergoes. Accompanied by two peasants of the country, well acquainted with thetrack, he twice accomplished the dangerous and difficult passage;which, from dry land to dry land, was nearly ten English miles in length. Having thus satisfied himself as to the possibility of the enterprise, he laid his plan before the Spanish colonel, Mondragon. That courageousveteran eagerly embraced the proposal, examined the ground, and afterconsultation with Sancho Avila, resolved in person to lead an expeditionalong the path suggested by Plomaert. Three thousand picked men, athousand from each nation, --Spaniards, Walloons, and Germans, werespeedily and secretly assembled at Bergen op Zoom, from the neighbourhoodof which city, at a place called Aggier, it was necessary that theexpedition should set forth. A quantity of sacks were provided, in whicha supply of, biscuit and of powder was placed, one to be carried by eachsoldier upon his head. Although it was already late in the autumn, theweather was propitious; the troops, not yet informed: as to the secretenterprise for which they had been selected, were all ready assembled atthe edge of the water, and Mondragon, who, notwithstanding his age, hadresolved upon heading the hazardous expedition, now briefly, on theevening of the 20th October, explained to them the nature of the service. His statement of the dangers which they were about to encounter, ratherinflamed than diminished their ardor. Their enthusiasm became unbounded, as he described the importance of the city which they were about to save, and alluded to the glory which would be won by those who thuscourageously came forward to its rescue. The time of about half ebb-tidehaving arrived, the veteran, --preceded only by the guides and Plomaert, plunged gaily into the waves, followed by his army, almost in singlefile. The water was never lowed khan the breast, often higher than theshoulder. The distance to the island, three and a half leagues at least, was to be accomplished within at most, six hours, or the rising tidewould overwhelm them for ever. And thus, across the quaking anduncertain slime, which often refused them a footing, that adventurousband, five hours long, pursued their midnight march, sometimes swimmingfor their lives, and always struggling with the waves which every instantthreatened to engulph them. 

Before the tide had risen to more than half-flood, before the day haddawned, the army set foot on dry land again, at the village of Irseken. Of the whole three thousand, only nine unlucky individuals had beendrowned; so much had courage and discipline availed in that dark andperilous passage through the very bottom of the sea. The Duke of Alvamight well pronounce it one of the most brilliant and originalachievements in the annals of war. The beacon fires were immediatelylighted upon the shore; as agreed upon, to inform Sancho d'Avila, who wasanxiously awaiting the result at Bergen op Zoom, of the safe arrival ofthe troops. A brief repose was then allowed. At the approach ofdaylight, they set forth from Irseken, which lay about four leagues fromTergoes. The news that a Spanish army had thus arisen from the depths ofthe sea, flew before them as they marched. The besieging force commandedthe water with their fleet, the land with their army; yet had theseindomitable Spaniards found a path which was neither land nor water, andhad thus stolen upon them in the silence of night. A panic preceded themas they fell upon a foe much superior in number to their own force. Itwas impossible for 't Zeraerts to induce his soldiers to offerresistance. The patriot army fled precipitately and ignominiously totheir ships, hotly pursued by the Spaniards, who overtook and destroyedthe whole of their rearguard before they could embark. This done, thegallant little garrison which had so successfully held the city, wasreinforced with the courageous veterans who had come to their relief. His audacious project thus brilliantly accomplished, the "good oldMondragon, " as his soldiers called him, returned to the province ofBrabant. 

After the capture of Mons and the sack of Mechlin, the Duke of Alva hadtaken his way to Nimwegen, having despatched his son, Don Frederic, toreduce the northern and eastern country, which was only too ready tosubmit to the conqueror. Very little resistance was made by any of thecities which had so recently, and--with such enthusiasm, embraced thecause of Orange. Zutphen attempted a feeble opposition to the entranceof the King's troops, and received a dreadful chastisement inconsequence. Alva sent orders to his son to leave not a single man alivein the city, and to burn every house to the ground. The Duke's commandwas almost literally obeyed. Don Frederic entered Zutphen, and without amoment's warning put the whole garrison to the sword. The citizens nextfell a defenceless, prey; some being, stabbed in the streets, some hangedon the trees which decorated the city, some stripped stark naked; andturned out into the fields to freeze to death in the wintry night. Asthe work of death became too fatiguing for the butchers, five hundredinnocent burghers were tied two and two, back to back, and drowned likedogs in the river Yssel. A few stragglers who had contrived to eludepursuit at first, were afterwards taken from their hiding places and hungupon the gallows by the feet, some of which victims suffered four daysand nights of agony before death came to their relief. It is superfluousto add that the outrages upon women were no less universal in Zutphenthan they had been in every city captured or occupied by the Spanishtroops. These horrors continued till scarcely chastity or life remained, throughout the miserable city. 

This attack and massacre had been so suddenly executed, that assistancewould hardly have been possible, even had there been disposition torender it. There was; however, no such disposition. The whole countrywas already cowering again, except the provinces of Holland and Zealand. No one dared approach, even to learn what had occurred within the wallsof the town, for days after its doom had been accomplished. "A wail ofagony was heard above Zutphen last Sunday, " wrote Count Nieuwenar, "a sound as of a mighty massacre, but we know not what has taken place. "

Count Van, den Bergh, another brother-in-law of Orange, proved himselfsignally unworthy of the illustrious race to which he was allied. Hehad, in the earlier part of the year, received the homage of the citiesof Gelderland and Overyssel, on behalf of the patriot Prince. He nowbasely abandoned the field where he had endeavoured to gather laurelswhile the sun of success had been shining. Having written from Kampen, whither he had retired, that he meant to hold the city to the last gasp, he immediately afterwards fled secretly and precipitately from thecountry. In his flight he was plundered by his own people, while hiswife, Mary of Nassau, then far advanced in pregnancy, was left behind, disguised as a peasant girl, in an obscure village. 

With the flight of Van den Bergh, all the cities which, under hisguidance, had raised the standard of Orange, deserted the cause at once. Friesland too, where Robles obtained a victory over six thousandpatriots, again submitted to the yoke. But if the ancient heart of thefree Frisians was beating thus feebly, there was still spirit left amongtheir brethren on the other side of the Zuyder Zee. It was not whileWilliam of Orange was within her borders, nor while her sister provinceshad proved recreant to him, that Holland would follow their base example. No rebellion being left, except in the north-western extremities of theNetherlands, Don Frederic was ordered to proceed from Zutphen toAmsterdam, thence to undertake the conquest of Holland. The little cityof Naarden, on the coast of the Zuyder Zee, lay in his path, and had notyet formally submitted. On the 22nd of November a company of one hundredtroopers was sent to the city gates to demand its surrender. The smallgarrison which had been left by the Prince was not disposed to resist, but the spirit of the burghers was stouter than, their walls. Theyanswered the summons by a declaration that they had thus far held thecity for the King and the Prince of Orange, and, with God's help, wouldcontinue so to do. As the horsemen departed with this reply, a lunatic, called Adrian Krankhoeft, mounted the ramparts and, discharged aculverine among them. No man was injured, but the words of defiance, and the shot fired by a madman's hand, were destined to be fearfullyanswered. 

Meanwhile, the inhabitants of the place, which was at best far fromstrong, and ill provided with arms, ammunition, or soldiers, despatchedimportunate messages to Sonoy, and to ether patriot generals nearest tothem, soliciting reinforcements. Their messengers came back almost emptyhanded. They brought a little powder and a great many promises, but nota single man-at-arms, not a ducat, not a piece of artillery. The mostinfluential commanders, moreover, advised an honorable capitulation, ifit were still possible. 

Thus baffled, the burghers of the little city found their proud positionquite untenable. They accordingly, on the 1st of December, despatchedthe burgomaster and a senator to Amersfoort, to make terms, if possible, with Don Frederic. When these envoys reached the place, they wererefused admission to the general's presence. The army had already beenordered to move forward to Naarden, and they were directed to accompanythe advance guard, and to expect their reply at the gates of their owncity. This command was sufficiently ominous. The impression which itmade upon them was confirmed by the warning voices of their friends inAmersfoort, who entreated them not to return to Naarden. The advice wasnot lost upon one of the two envoys. After they had advanced a littledistance on their journey, the burgomaster Laurentszoon slid privatelyout of the sledge in which they were travelling, leaving his cloak behindhim. "Adieu; I think I will not venture back to Naarden at present, "said he, calmly, as he abandoned his companion to his fate. The other, who could not so easily desert his children, his wife, and his fellow-citizens, in the hour of danger, went forward as calmly to share in theirimpending doom. 

The army reached Bussem, half a league distant from Naarden, in theevening. Here Don Frederic established his head quarters, and proceededto invest the city. Senator Gerrit was then directed to return toNaarden and to bring out a more numerous deputation on the followingmorning, duly empowered to surrender the place. The envoy accordinglyreturned next day, accompanied by Lambert Hortensius, rector of a Latinacademy, together with four other citizens. Before this deputation hadreached Bussem, they were met by Julian Romero, who informed them that hewas commissioned to treat with them on the part of Don Frederic. Hedemanded the keys of the city, and gave the deputation a solemn pledgethat the lives and property of all the inhabitants should be sacredlyrespected. To attest this assurance Don Julian gave his hand threeseveral times to Lambert Hortensius. A soldier's word thus plighted, the commissioners, without exchanging any written documents, surrenderedthe keys, and immediately afterwards accompanied Romero into the city, who was soon followed by five or six hundred musketeers. 

To give these guests a hospitable reception, all the housewives of thecity at once set about preparations for a sumptuous feast, to which theSpaniards did ample justice, while the colonel and his officers wereentertained by Senator Gerrit at his own house. As soon as thisconviviality had come to an end, Romero, accompanied by his host, walkedinto the square. The great bell had been meantime ringing, and thecitizens had been summoned to assemble in the Gast Huis Church, then usedas a town hall. In the course of a few minutes five hundred had enteredthe building, and stood quietly awaiting whatever measures might beoffered for their deliberation. Suddenly a priest, who had been pacingto and fro before the church door, entered the building, and bade themall prepare for death; but the announcement, the preparation, and thedeath, were simultaneous. The door was flung open, and a band of armedSpaniards rushed across the sacred threshold. They fired a single volleyupon the defenceless herd, and then sprang in upon them with sword anddagger. A yell of despair arose as the miserable victims saw howhopelessly they were engaged, and beheld the ferocious faces of theirbutchers. The carnage within that narrow apace was compact and rapid. Within a few minutes all were despatched, and among them Senator Gerrit, from whose table the Spanish commander had but just risen. The churchwas then set on fire, and the dead and dying were consumed to ashestogether. 

Inflamed but not satiated, the Spaniards then rushed into the streets, thirsty for fresh horrors. The houses were all rifled of their contents, and men were forced to carry the booty to the camp, who were then struckdead as their reward. The town was then fired in every direction, thatthe skulking citizens might be forced from their hiding-places. As fastas they came forth they were put to death by their impatient foes. Somewere pierced with rapiers, some were chopped to pieces with axes, somewere surrounded in the blazing streets by troops of laughing soldiers, intoxicated, not with wine but with blood, who tossed them to and frowith their lances, and derived a wild amusement from their dying agonies. Those who attempted resistance were crimped alive like fishes, and leftto gasp themselves to death in lingering torture. The soldiers becomingmore and more insane, as the foul work went on, opened the veins of someof their victims, and drank their blood as if it were wine. Some of theburghers were for a time spared, that they might witness the violation oftheir wives and daughters, and were then butchered in company with thesestill more unfortunate victims. Miracles of brutality were accomplished. Neither church nor hearth was sacred: Men were slain, women outraged atthe altars, in the streets, in their blazing homes. The life of LambertHortensius was spared, out of regard to his learning and genius, but hehardly could thank his foes for the boon, for they struck his only sondead, and tore his heart out before his father's eyes. Hardly any man orwoman survived, except by accident. A body of some hundred burghers madetheir escape across the snow into the open country. They were, however, overtaken, stripped stark naked, and hung upon the trees by the feet, tofreeze, or to perish by a more lingering death. Most of them soon died, but twenty, who happened to be wealthy, succeeded, after enduring muchtorture, in purchasing their lives of their inhuman persecutors. Theprincipal burgomaster, Heinrich Lambertszoon, was less fortunate. Knownto be affluent, he was tortured by exposing the soles of his feet to afire until they were almost consumed. On promise that his life should bespared, he then agreed to pay a heavy ransom; but hardly had he furnishedthe stipulated sum when, by express order of Don Frederic himself, he washanged in his own doorway, and his dissevered limbs afterwards nailed tothe gates of the city. 

Nearly all the inhabitants of Naarden, soldiers and citizens, were thusdestroyed; and now Don Frederic issued peremptory orders that no one, onpain of death, should give lodging or food to any fugitive. He likewiseforbade to the dead all that could now be forbidden them--a grave. Threeweeks long did these unburied bodies pollute the streets, nor could thefew wretched women who still cowered within such houses as had escapedthe flames ever wave from their lurking-places without treading upon thefestering remains of what had been their husbands, their fathers, ortheir brethren. Such was the express command of him whom the flattererscalled the "most divine genius ever known. " Shortly afterwards camean order to dismantle the fortifications, which had certainly provedsufficiently feeble in the hour of need, and to raze what was left ofthe city from the surface of the earth. The work was faithfullyaccomplished, and for a longtime Naarden ceased to exist. 

Alva wrote, with his usual complacency in such cases, to his sovereign, that "they had cut the throats of the burghers and all the garrison, andthat they had not left a mother's son alive. " The statement was almostliterally correct, nor was the cant with which these bloodhoundscommented upon their crimes less odious than their guilt. "It was apermission of God, " said the Duke, "that these people should haveundertaken to defend a city, which was so weak that no other personswould have attempted such a thing. " Nor was the reflection of Mendozaless pious. "The sack of Naarden, " said that really brave andaccomplished cavalier, "was a chastisement which must be believed to havetaken place by express permission of a Divine Providence; a punishmentfor having been the first of the Holland towns in which heresy builtits nest, whence it has taken flight to all the neighboring cities. "

It is not without reluctance, but still with a stern determination, thatthe historian--should faithfully record these transactions. To extenuatewould be base; to exaggerate impossible. It is good that the worldshould not forget how much wrong has been endured by a single harmlessnation at the hands of despotism, and in the sacred name of God. Therehave been tongues and pens enough to narrate the excesses of the people, bursting from time to time out of slavery into madness. It is good, too, that those crimes should be remembered, and freshly pondered; but it isequally wholesome to study the opposite picture. Tyranny, ever young andever old, constantly reproducing herself with the same stony features, with the same imposing mask which she has worn through all the ages, can never be too minutely examined, especially when she paints her ownportrait, and when the secret history of her guilt is furnished by theconfessions of her lovers. The perusal of her traits will not make uslove popular liberty the less. 

The history of Alva's administration in the Netherlands is one of thosepictures which strike us almost dumb with wonder. Why has the Almightysuffered such crimes to be perpetrated in His sacred name? Was itnecessary that many generations should wade through this blood in orderto acquire for their descendants the blessings of civil and religiousfreedom? Was it necessary that an Alva should ravage a peaceful nationwith sword and flame--that desolation should be spread over a happy land, in order that the pure and heroic character of a William of Orange shouldstand forth more conspicuously, like an antique statue of spotless marbleagainst a stormy sky?

After the army which the Prince had so unsuccessfully led to the reliefof Mons had been disbanded, he had himself repaired to Holland. He hadcome to Kampen shortly before its defection from his cause. Thence hehad been escorted across the Zuyder Zee to Eukhuyzen. He came to thatprovince, the only one which through good and ill report remainedentirely faithful to him, not as a conqueror but as an unsuccessful, proscribed man. But there were warm hearts beating within those coldlagunes, and no conqueror returning from a brilliant series of victoriescould have been received with more affectionate respect than William inthat darkest hour of the country's history. He had but seventy horsemenat his back, all which remained of the twenty thousand troops which hehad a second time levied in Germany, and he felt that it would be at thatperiod hopeless for him to attempt the formation of a third army. He hadnow come thither to share the fate of Holland, at least, if he could notaccomplish her liberation. He went from city to city, advising with themagistracies and with the inhabitants, and arranging many matterspertaining both to peace and war. At Harlem the States of the Provinces, according to his request, had been assembled. The assembly begged himto lay before them, if it were possible, any schemes and means which hemight have devised for further resistance to the Duke of Alva. Thussolicited, the Prince, in a very secret session, unfolded his plans, andsatisfied them as to the future prospects of the cause. His speech hasnowhere been preserved. His strict injunctions as to secrecy, doubtless, prevented or effaced any record of the session. It is probable, however, that he entered more fully into the state of his negotiations withEngland, and into the possibility of a resumption by Count Louis of hisprivate intercourse with the French court, than it was safe, publicly, todivulge. 

While the Prince had been thus occupied in preparing the stout-heartedprovince for the last death-struggle with its foe, that mortal combatwas already fast approaching; for the aspect of the contest in theNetherlands was not that of ordinary warfare. It was an encounterbetween two principles, in their nature so hostile to each other that theabsolute destruction of one was the only, possible issue. As the fightwent on, each individual combatant seemed inspired by direct personalmalignity, and men found a pleasure in deeds of cruelty, from whichgenerations not educated to slaughter recoil with horror. To murderdefenceless prisoners; to drink, not metaphorically but literally, theheart's blood of an enemy; to exercise a devilish ingenuity in inventionsof mutual torture, became not only a duty but a rapture. The Liberty ofthe Netherlands had now been hunted to its lair. It had taken its lastrefuge among the sands and thickets where its savage infancy had beennurtured, and had now prepared itself to crush its tormentor in a lastembrace, or to die in the struggle. 

After the conclusion of the sack and massacre of Naarden, Don Frederichad hastened to Amsterdam, where the Duke was then quartered, that hemight receive the paternal benediction for his well-accomplished work. The royal approbation was soon afterwards added to the applause of hisparent, and the Duke was warmly congratulated in a letter written byPhilip as soon as the murderous deed was known, that Don Frederic had soplainly shown himself to be his father's son. There was now more workfor father and son. Amsterdam was the only point in Holland which heldfor Alva, and from that point it was determined to recover the wholeprovince. The Prince of Orange was established in the southern district;Diedrich Sonoy, his lieutenant, was stationed in North Holland. Theimportant city of Harlem lay between the two, at a spot where the wholebreadth of the territory, from sea to sea, was less than an hour's walk. With the fall of that city the province would be cut in twain, therebellious forces utterly dissevered, and all further resistance, it was thought, rendered impossible. 

The inhabitants of Harlem felt their danger. Bossu, Alva's stadholderfor Holland, had formally announced the system hitherto pursued atMechlin, Zutphen, and Naarden, as the deliberate policy of thegovernment. The King's representative had formally proclaimed theextermination of man, woman; and child in every city which opposed hisauthority, but the promulgation and practice of such a system had anopposite effect to the one intended. The hearts of the Hollanders wererather steeled to resistance than awed into submission by the fate ofNaarden. " A fortunate event, too, was accepted as a lucky omen for thecoming contest. A little fleet of armed vessels, belonging to Holland, had been frozen up in the neighbourhood of Amsterdam. Don Frederic onhis arrival from Naarden, despatched a body of picked men over the ice toattack the imprisoned vessels. The crews had, however, fortifiedthemselves by digging a wide trench around the whole fleet, which thusbecame from the moment an almost impregnable fortress. Out of thisfrozen citadel a strong band of well-armed and skilful musketeers salliedforth upon skates as the besieging force advanced. A rapid, brilliant, and slippery skirmish succeeded, in which the Hollanders, so accustomedto such sports, easily vanquished their antagonists, and drove them offthe field, with the loss of several hundred left dead upon the ice. 

"'T was a thing never heard of before to-day, " said Alva, "to see a bodyof arquebusiers thus skirmishing upon a frozen sea. " In the course ofthe next four-and-twenty hours a flood and a rapid thaw released thevessels, which all escaped to Enkhuyzen, while a frost, immediately andstrangely succeeding, made pursuit impossible. 

The Spaniards were astonished at these novel manoeuvres upon the ice. It is amusing to read their elaborate descriptions of the wonderfulappendages which had enabled the Hollanders to glide so glibly intobattle with a superior force, and so rapidly to glance away, afterachieving a signal triumph. Nevertheless, the Spaniards could never bedismayed, and were always apt scholars, even if an enemy were theteacher. Alva immediately ordered seven thousand pairs of skates, andhis soldiers soon learned to perform military evolutions with these newaccoutrements as audaciously, if not as adroitly, as the Hollanders. 

A portion of the Harlem magistracy, notwithstanding the spirit whichpervaded the province, began to tremble as danger approached. They werebase enough to enter into secret negotiations with Alva, and to sendthree of their own number to treat with the Duke at Amsterdam. One waswise enough to remain with the enemy. The other two were arrested ontheir return, and condemned, after an impartial trial, to death. For, while these emissaries of a cowardly magistracy were absent, the stoutcommandant of the little garrison, Ripperda, had assembled the citizensand soldiers in the market-place. He warned them of the absolutenecessity to make a last effort for freedom. In startling colors he heldup to them the fate of Mechlin, of Zutphen, of Naarden, as a propheticmirror, in which they might read their own fate should they be baseenough to surrender the city. There was no composition possible, heurged, with foes who were as false as they were sanguinary, and whosefoul passions were stimulated, not slaked, by the horrors with which theyhad already feasted themselves. 

Ripperda addressed men who could sympathize with his bold and loftysentiments. Soldiers and citizens cried out for defence instead ofsurrender, as with one voice, for there were no abject spirits at Harlem, save among the magistracy; and Saint Aldegonde, the faithful minister ofOrange, was soon sent to Harlem by the Prince to make a thorough changein that body. 

Harlem, over whose ruins the Spanish tyranny intended to make itsentrance into Holland, lay in the narrowest part of that narrow isthmuswhich separates the Zuyder Zee from the German Ocean. The distance fromsea to sea is hardly five English miles across. Westerly from the cityextended a slender strip of land, once a morass, then a fruitful meadow;maintained by unflagging fortitude in the very jaws of a stormy ocean. Between the North Sea and the outer edge of this pasture surged thosewild and fantastic downs, heaped up by wind and wave in mimicry ofmountains; the long coils of that rope of sand, by which, plaited intoadditional strength by the slenderest of bulrushes, the waves of theNorth Sea were made to obey the command of man. On the opposite, oreastern aide, Harlem looked towards Amsterdam. That already flourishingcity was distant but ten miles. The two cities were separated by anexpanse of inland water, and united by a slender causeway. The HarlemLake, formed less than a century before by the bursting of four lesser, meres during a storm which had threatened to swallow the whole Peninsula, extended itself on the south and east; a sea of limited dimensions, beingonly fifteen feet in depth with seventy square miles of surface, but, exposed as it lay to all the winds of heaven, often lashed into storms asdangerous as those of the Atlantic. Beyond the lake, towards the north, the waters of the Y nearly swept across the Peninsula. This inlet of theZuyder Zee was only separated from the Harlem mere by a slender thread ofland. Over this ran the causeway between the two sister cities, now sounfortunately in arms against each other. Midway between the two, thedyke was pierced and closed again with a system of sluice-works, whichwhen opened admitted the waters of the lake into those of the estuary, and caused an inundation of the surrounding country. 

The city was one of the largest and most beautiful in the Netherlands. It was also one of the weakest. --The walls were of antique construction, turreted, but not strong. The extent and feebleness of the defences madea large garrison necessary, but unfortunately, the garrison was evenweaker than the walls. The city's main reliance was on the stout heartsof the inhabitants. The streets were, for that day, spacious andregular; the canals planted with limes and poplars. The ancient churchof Saint Bavon, a large imposing structure of brick, stood almost in thecentre of the place, the most prominent object, not only of the town butof the province, visible over leagues of sea and of land more level thanthe sea, and seeming to gather the whole quiet little city under itssacred and protective wings. Its tall open-work leaden spire wassurmounted by a colossal crown, which an exalted imagination might haveregarded as the emblematic guerdon of martyrdom held aloft over the city, to reward its heroism and its agony. 

It was at once obvious that the watery expanse between Harlem andAmsterdam would be the principal theatre of the operations about tocommence. The siege was soon begun. The fugitive burgomaster, De Fries, had tho effrontery, with the advice of Alva, to address a letter to thecitizens, urging them to surrender at discretion. The messenger washanged--a cruel but practical answer, which put an end to all furthertraitorous communications. This was in the first week of December. Onthe 10th, Don Frederic, sent a strong detachment to capture the fort andvillage of Sparendam, as an indispensable preliminary to the commencementof the siege. A peasant having shown Zapata, the commander of theexpedition, a secret passage across the flooded and frozen meadows, theSpaniards stormed the place gallantly, routed the whole garrison, killedthree hundred, and took possession of the works and village. Next day, Don Frederic appeared before the walls of Harlem, and proceeded regularlyto invest the place. The misty weather favored his operations, nor didhe cease reinforcing himself; until at least thirty thousand men, including fifteen hundred cavalry, had been encamped around the city. The Germans, under Count Overstein, were stationed in a beautiful andextensive grove of limes and beeches, which spread between the southernwalls and the shore of Harlem Lake. Don Frederic, with his Spaniards, took up a position on the opposite side, at a place called the House ofKleef, the ruins of which still remain. The Walloons, and otherregiments were distributed in different places, so as completely toencircle the town. 

 [Pierre Sterlinckx: Eene come Waerachtige Beschryvinghe van alle Geschiedinissen, Anschlagen, Stormen, Schermutsingen oude Schieten voor de vroome Stadt Haerlem in Holland gheschicht, etc. , etc. -- Delft, 1574. --This is by far the best contemporary account of the famous siege. The author was a citizen of Antwerp, who kept a daily journal of the events as they occurred at Harlem. It is a dry, curt register of horrors, jotted down without passion or comment. -- Compare Bor, vi. 422, 423; Meteren, iv. 79; Mendoza, viii. 174, 175; Wagenaer, vad. Hist. , vi. 413, 414. ]

On the edge of the mere the Prince of Orange had already ordered acluster of forts to be erected, by which the command of its frozensurface was at first secured for Harlem. In the course of the siege, however, other forts were erected by Don Frederic, so that the aspect ofthings suffered a change. 

Against this immense force, nearly equal in number to that of the wholepopulation of the city, the garrison within the walls never amounted tomore than four thousand men. In the beginning it was much less numerous. The same circumstances, however, which assisted the initiatory operationsof Don Frederic, were of advantage to the Harlemers. A dense frozen foghung continually over the surface of the lake. Covered by this curtain, large supplies of men, provisions, and ammunition were daily introducedinto the city, notwithstanding all the efforts of the besieging force. Sledges skimming over the ice, men, women, and even children, moving ontheir skates as swiftly as the wind, all brought their contributions inthe course of the short dark days and long nights of December, in whichthe wintry siege was opened. 

The garrison at last numbered about one thousand pioneers or delvers, three thousand fighting men, and about three hundred fighting women. Thelast was a most efficient corps, all females of respectable character, armed with sword, musket, and dagger. Their chief, Kenau Hasselaer, was a widow of distinguished family and unblemished reputation, aboutforty-seven years of age, who, at the head of her amazons, participatedin many of the most fiercely contested actions of the siege, both withinand without the walls. When such a spirit animated the maids and matronsof the city, it might be expected that the men would hardly surrender theplace without a struggle. The Prince had assembled a force of three orfour thousand men at Leyden, which he sent before the middle of Decembertowards the city under the command of De la Marck. These troops were, however, attacked on the way by a strong detachment under Bossu, Noircarmes, and Romero. After a sharp, action in a heavy snow-storm, Dela Marek was completely routed. One thousand of his soldiers were cut topieces, and a large number carried off as prisoners to the gibbets, whichwere already conspicuously erected in the Spanish camp, and which fromthe commencement to the close of the siege were never bare of victims. Among the captives was a gallant officer, Baptist van Trier, for whom Dela Marck in vain offered two thousand crowns and nineteen Spanishprisoners. The proposition was refused with contempt. Van Trier washanged upon the gallows by one leg until he was dead, in return for whichbarbarity the nineteen Spaniards were immediately gibbeted by De laMarck. With this interchange of cruelties the siege may be said to haveopened. 

Don Frederic had stationed himself in a position opposite to the gate ofthe Cross, which was not very strong, but fortified by a ravelin. Intending to make a very short siege of it, he established his batteriesimmediately, and on the 18th, 19th, and 20th December directed a furiouscannonade against the Cross-gate, the St. John's-gate, and the curtainbetween the two. Six hundred and eighty shots were discharged on thefirst, and nearly as many on each of the two succeeding days. The wallswere much shattered, but men, women, and children worked night and daywithin the city, repairing the breaches as fast as made. They broughtbags of sand; blocks of stone, cart-loads of earth from every quarter, and they stripped the churches of all their statues, which they threw byheaps into the gaps. If They sought thus a more practical advantage fromthose sculptured saints than they could have gained by only imploringtheir interposition. The fact, however, excited horror among thebesiegers. Men who were daily butchering their fellow-beings, andhanging their prisoners in cold blood, affected to shudder at theenormity of the offence thus exercised against graven images. 

After three days' cannonade, the assault was ordered, Don Frederic onlyintending a rapid massacre, to crown his achievements at--Zutphen andNaarden. The place, he thought, would fall in a week, and after anotherweek of sacking, killing, and ravishing, he might sweep on to "pasturesnew" until Holland was overwhelmed. Romero advanced to the breach, followed by a numerous storming party, but met with a resistance whichastonished the Spaniards. The church bells rang the alarm throughout thecity, and the whole population swarmed to the walls. The besiegers wereencountered not only with sword and musket, but with every implementwhich the burghers' hands could find. Heavy stones, boiling oil, livecoals, were hurled upon the heads of the soldiers; hoops, smeared withpitch and set on fire, were dexterously thrown upon their necks. EvenSpanish courage and Spanish ferocity were obliged to shrink before thesteady determination of a whole population animated by a single spirit. Romero lost an eye in the conflict, many officers were killed andwounded, and three or four hundred soldiers left dead in the breach, while only three or four of the townsmen lost their lives. The signal ofrecal was reluctantly given, and the Spaniards abandoned the assault. Don Frederic was now aware that Harlem would not fall at his feet at thefirst sound of his trumpet. It was obvious that a siege must precede themassacre. He gave orders therefore that the ravelin should beundermined, and doubted not that, with a few days' delay, the place wouldbe in his hands. 

Meantime, the Prince of Orange, from his head-quarters at Sassenheim, onthe southern extremity of the mere, made a fresh effort to throw succorinto the place. Two thousand men, with seven field-pieces, and manywagon-loads of munitions, were sent forward under Batenburg. Thisofficer had replaced De la Marck, whom the Prince had at last deprived ofhis commission. The reckless and unprincipled freebooter was no longerto serve a cause which was more sullied by his barbarity than it could beadvanced by his desperate valor. Batenburg's expedition was, however, not more successful than the one made by his predecessor. The troops, after reaching the vicinity of the city, lost their way in the thickmists, which almost perpetually enveloped the scene. Cannons were fired, fog-bells were rung, and beacon fires were lighted on the ramparts, butthe party was irretrievably lost. The Spaniards fell upon them beforethey could find their way to the city. Many were put to the sword, others made their escape in different directions; a very few succeeded inentering Harlem. Batenburg brought off a remnant of the forces, but allthe provisions so much needed were lost, and the little army entirelydestroyed. 

De Koning, the second in command, was among the prisoners. The Spaniardscut off his head and threw it over the walls into the city, with thisinscription: "This is the head of Captain de Koning, who is on his waywith reinforcements for the good city of Harlem. " The citizens retortedwith a practical jest, which was still more barbarous. They cut off theheads of eleven prisoners and put them into a barrel, which they threwinto the Spanish camp. A Label upon the barrel contained these words:"Deliver these ten heads to Duke Alva in payment of his tenpenny tax, with one additional head for interest. " With such ghastly merriment didbesieged and besiegers vary the monotonous horror of that winter's siege. As the sallies and skirmishes were of daily occurrence, there was aconstant supply of prisoners, upon whom both parties might exercise theiringenuity, so that the gallows in camp or city was perpetually garnished. 

Since the assault of the 21st December, Don Frederic had been making hissubterranean attack by regular approaches. As fast, however, as theSpaniards mined, the citizens countermined. Spaniard and Netherlandermet daily in deadly combat within the bowels of the earth. Desperate andfrequent were the struggles within gangways so narrow that nothing butdaggers could be used, so obscure that the dim lanterns hardly lightedthe death-stroke. They seemed the conflicts, not of men but of evilspirits. Nor were these hand-to-hand battles all. A shower of heads, limbs, mutilated trunks, the mangled remains of hundreds of human beings, often spouted from the earth as if from an invisible volcano. The mineswere sprung with unexampled frequency and determination. Still theSpaniards toiled on with undiminished zeal, and still the besieged, undismayed, delved below their works, and checked their advance by sword, and spear, and horrible explosions. 

The Prince of Orange, meanwhile, encouraged the citizens to persevere, byfrequent promises of assistance. His letters, written on extremely smallbits of paper; were sent into the town by carrier pigeons. On the 28thof January he despatched a considerable supply of the two necessaries, powder and bread, on one hundred and seventy sledges across the HarlemLake, together with four hundred veteran soldiers. The citizenscontinued to contest the approaches to the ravelin before the Cross-gate, but it had become obvious that they could not hold it long. Secretly, steadfastly, and swiftly they had, therefore, during the long wintrynights, been constructing a half moon of solid masonry on the inside ofthe same portal. Old men, feeble women, tender children, united with theable-bodied to accomplish this work, by which they hoped still tomaintain themselves after the ravelin had fallen:

On the 31st of January, after two or three days' cannonade against thegates of the Cross and of Saint John, and the intervening curtains, DonFrederic ordered a midnight assault. The walls had been much shattered, part of the John's-gate was in ruins; the Spaniards mounted the breachin great numbers; the city was almost taken by surprise; while theCommander-in-chief, sure of victory, ordered the whole of his forcesunder arms to cut off the population who were to stream panic-struck fromevery issue. The attack was unexpected, but the forty or fifty sentinelsdefended the walls while they sounded the alarm. The tocsin bellstolled, and the citizens, whose sleep was not-apt to be heavy during thatperilous winter, soon manned the ramparts again. The daylight came uponthem while the fierce struggle was still at its height. The besieged, asbefore, defended themselves with musket and rapier, with melted pitch, with firebrands, with clubs and stones. Meantime, after morning prayersin the Spanish camp, the trumpet for a general assault was sounded. Atremendous onset was made upon the gate of the Cross, and the ravelin wascarried at last. The Spaniards poured into this fort, so long the objectof their attack, expecting instantly to sweep into the city with swordand fire. As they mounted its wall they became for the first time awareof the new and stronger fortification which had been secretly constructedon the inner side. The reason why the ravelin had been at last concededwas revealed. The half moon, whose existence they had not suspected, rose before them bristling with cannon. A sharp fire was instantlyopened upon the besiegers, while at the same instant the ravelin, whichthe citizens had undermined, blew up with a severe explosion, carryinginto the air all the soldiers who had just entered it so triumphantly. This was the turning point. The retreat was sounded, and the Spaniardsfled to their camp, leaving at least three hundred dead beneath thewalls. Thus was a second assault, made by an overwhelming force and ledby the most accomplished generals of Spain, signally and gloriouslyrepelled by the plain burghers of Harlem. 

It became now almost evident that the city could be taken neither byregular approaches nor by sudden attack. It was therefore resolvedthat it should be reduced by famine. Still, as the winter wore on, theimmense army without the walls were as great sufferers by that scourge asthe population within. The soldiers fell in heaps before the diseasesengendered by intense cold and insufficient food, for, as usual in suchsieges, these deaths far outnumbered those inflicted by the enemy's hand. The sufferings inside the city necessarily increased day by day, thewhole population being put on a strict allowance of food. Their supplieswere daily diminishing, and with the approach of the spring and thethawing of the ice on the lake, there was danger that they would beentirely cut off. If the possession of the water were lost, they mustyield or starve; and they doubted whether the Prince would be able toorganize a fleet. The gaunt spectre of Famine already rose before themwith a menace which could not be misunderstood. In their misery theylonged for the assaults of the Spaniards, that they might look in theface of a less formidable foe. They paraded the ramparts daily, withdrums beating, colors flying, taunting the besiegers to renewed attempts. To inflame the religious animosity of their antagonists, they attiredthemselves in the splendid, gold-embroidered vestments of the priests, which they took from the churches, and moved about in mock procession, bearing aloft images bedizened in ecclesiastical finery, relics, andother symbols, sacred in Catholic eyes, which they afterwards hurled fromthe ramparts, or broke, with derisive shouts, into a thousand fragments. 

It was, however, at that season earnestly debated by the enemy whether ornot to raise the siege. Don Frederic was clearly of opinion that enoughhad been done for the honor of the Spanish arms. He was wearied withseeing his men perish helplessly around him, and considered the prize toopaltry for the lives it must cost. His father thought differently. Perhaps he recalled the siege of Metz, and the unceasing regret withwhich, as he believed, his imperial master had remembered the advicereceived from him. At any rate the Duke now sent back Don Bernardino deMendoza, whom Don Frederic had despatched to Nimwegen, soliciting hisfather's permission to raise the siege, with this reply: "Tell DonFrederic, " said Alva, "that if he be not decided to continue the siegetill the town be taken, I shall no longer consider him my son, whatevermy opinion may formerly have been. Should he fall in the siege, I willmyself take the field to maintain it, and when we have both perished, theDuchess, my wife, shall come from Spain to do the same. "

Such language was unequivocal, and hostilities were resumed as fiercelyas before. The besieged welcomed them with rapture, and, as usual, madedaily the most desperate sallies. In one outbreak the Harlemers, undercover of a thick fog, marched up to the enemy's chief battery, andattempted to spike the guns before his face. They were all slain at thecannon's mouth, whither patriotism, not vainglory, had led them, and laydead around the battery, with their hammers and spikes in their hands. The same spirit was daily manifested. As the spring advanced; the kinewent daily out of the gates to their peaceful pasture, notwithstanding, all the turmoil within and around; nor was it possible for the Spaniardsto capture a single one of these creatures, without paying at least adozen soldiers as its price. "These citizens, " wrote Don Frederic, "doas much as the best soldiers in the world could do. "

The frost broke up by the end of February. Count Bossu, who had beenbuilding a fleet of small vessels in Amsterdam, soon afterwards succeededin entering the lake with a few gun-boats, through a breach which he hadmade in the Overtoom, about half a league from that city. The possessionof the lake was already imperilled. The Prince, however, had not beenidle, and he, too, was soon ready to send his flotilla to the mere. At the same time, the city of Amsterdam was in almost as hazardous aposition as Harlem. As the one on the lake, so did the other depend uponits dyke for its supplies. Should that great artificial road which ledto Muyden and Utrecht be cut asunder, Amsterdam might be starved as soonas Harlem. "Since I came into the world, " wrote Alva, "I have never, been in such anxiety. If they should succeed in cutting off thecommunication along the dykes, we should have to raise the siege ofHarlem, to surrender, hands crossed, or to starve. " Orange was fullyaware of the position of both places, but he was, as usual, sadlydeficient in men and means. He wrote imploringly to his friends inEngland, in France, in Germany. He urged his brother Louis to bring afew soldiers, if it were humanly possible. "The whole country longs foryou, " he wrote to Louis, "as if you were the archangel Gabriel. "

The Prince, however, did all that it was possible for man, so hampered, to do. He was himself, while anxiously writing, hoping, and waiting forsupplies of troops from Germany or France, doing his best with suchvolunteers as he could raise. He was still established at Sassenheim, onthe south of the city, while Sonoy with his slender forces was encampedon the north. He now sent that general with as large a party as he couldmuster to attack the Diemerdyk. His men entrenched themselves asstrongly as they could between the Diemer and the Y, at the same timeopening the sluices and breaking through the dyke. During the absence oftheir commander, who had gone to Edam for reinforcements, they wereattacked by a large force from Amsterdam. A fierce amphibious contesttook place, partly in boats, partly on the slippery causeway, partly inthe water, resembling in character the frequent combats between theancient Batavians and Romans during the wars of Civilis. The patriotswere eventually overpowered. 

Sonoy, who was on his way to their rescue, was frustrated in his designby the unexpected faint-heartedness of the volunteers whom he hadenlisted at Edam. Braving a thousand perils, he advanced, almostunattended, in his little vessel, but only to witness the overthrow andexpulsion of his band. It was too late for him singly to attempt torally the retreating troops. They had fought well, but had been forcedto yield before superior numbers, one individual of the little armyhaving performed prodigies of valor. John Haring, of Horn, had plantedhimself entirely alone upon the dyke, where it was so narrow between theY on the one side and the Diemer Lake on the other, that two men couldhardly stand abreast. Here, armed with sword and shield, he had actuallyopposed and held in check one thousand of the enemy, during a period longenough to enable his own men, if they, had been willing, to rally, andeffectively to repel the attack. It was too late, the battle was too farlost to be restored; but still the brave soldier held the post, till, byhis devotion, he had enabled all those of his compatriots who stillremained in the entrenchments to make good their retreat. He thenplunged into the sea, and, untouched by spear or bullet, effected hisescape. Had he been a Greek or a Roman, an Horatius or a Chabrias, hisname would have been famous in history--his statue erected in the market-place; for the bold Dutchman on his dyke had manifested as much valor ina sacred cause as the most classic heroes of antiquity. 

This unsuccessful attempt to cut off the communication between Amsterdamand the country strengthened the hopes of Alva. Several hundreds of thepatriots were killed or captured, and among the slain was Antony Oliver, the painter, through whose agency Louis of Nassau had been introducedinto Mons. His head was cut off by two ensigns in Alva's service, whoreceived the price which had been set upon it of two thousand caroli. It was then labelled with its owner's name, and thrown into the city ofHarlem. At the same time a new gibbet was erected in the Spanish campbefore the city, in a conspicuous situation, upon which all the prisonerswere hanged, some by the neck, some by the heels, in full view of theircountrymen. As usual, this especial act of cruelty excited the emulationof the citizens. Two of the old board of magistrates, belonging to theSpanish party, were still imprisoned at Harlem; together with seven otherpersons, among whom was a priest and a boy of twelve years. They werenow condemned to the gallows. The wife of one of the ex-burgomastersand his daughter, who was a beguin, went by his side as he was led toexecution, piously exhorting him to sustain with courage the execrationsof the populace and his ignominious doom. The rabble, irritated by suchboldness, were not satisfied with wreaking their vengeance on theprincipal victims, but after the execution had taken place they huntedthe wife and daughter into the water, where they both perished. It isright to record these instances of cruelty, sometimes perpetrated by thepatriots as well as by their oppressors--a cruelty rendered almostinevitable by the incredible barbarity of the foreign invader. It was awar of wolfish malignity. In the words of Mendoza, every man within andwithout Harlem "seemed inspired by a spirit of special and personalvengeance. " The innocent blood poured out in Mechlin, Zutphen, Naarden, and upon a thousand scaffolds, had been crying too long from the ground. The Hollanders must have been more or less than men not to be sometimesbetrayed into acts which justice and reason must denounce. [No! It was asevil for one side as the other. D. W. ]

The singular mood which has been recorded of a high-spirited officer ofthe garrison, Captain Corey, illustrated the horror with which suchscenes of carnage were regarded by noble natures. Of a gentledisposition originally, but inflamed almost to insanity by acontemplation of Spanish cruelty, he had taken up the profession of arms, to which he had a natural repugnance. Brave to recklessness, he led hismen on every daring outbreak, on every perilous midnight adventure. Armed only with his rapier, without defensive armor, he was ever foundwhere the battle raged most fiercely, and numerous were the victims whofell before his sword. On returning, however, from such excursions, he invariably shut himself in his quarters, took to his bed, and lay fordays, sick with remorse, and bitterly lamenting all that bloodshed inwhich he had so deeply participated, and which a cruel fate seemed torender necessary. As the gentle mood subsided, his frenzy would return, and again he would rush to the field, to seek new havoc and fresh victimsfor his rage. 

The combats before the walls were of almost daily occurrence. On the25th March, one thousand of the besieged made a brilliant sally, drove inall the outposts of the enemy, burned three hundred tents, and capturedseven cannon, nine standards, and many wagon-loads of provisions, allwhich they succeeded in bringing with them into the city. --Having thusreinforced themselves, in a manner not often practised by the citizens ofa beleaguered town, in the very face of thirty thousand veterans--havingkilled eight hundred of the enemy, which was nearly one for every manengaged, while they lost but four of their own party--the Harlemers, ontheir return, erected a trophy of funereal but exulting aspect. A moundof earth was constructed upon the ramparts, in the form of a colossalgrave, in full view of the enemy's camp, and upon it were planted thecannon and standards so gallantly won in the skirmish, with the tauntinginscription floating from the centre of the mound "Harlem is thegraveyard of the Spaniards. "

Such were the characteristics of this famous siege during the winter andearly spring. Alva might well write to his sovereign, that "it was a warsuch as never before was seen or heard of in any land on earth. " Yet theDuke had known near sixty years of warfare. He informed Philip that"never was a place defended with such skill and bravery as Harlem, eitherby rebels or by men fighting for their lawful Prince. " Certainly his sonhad discovered his mistake in asserting that the city would yield in aweek; while the father, after nearly six years' experience, had foundthis "people of butter" less malleable than even those "iron people" whomhe boasted of having tamed. It was seen that neither the skies of Greeceor Italy, nor the sublime scenery of Switzerland, were necessary toarouse the spirit of defiance to foreign oppression--a spirit which beatas proudly among the wintry mists and the level meadows of Holland as ithad ever done under sunnier atmospheres and in more romantic lands. 

Mendoza had accomplished his mission to Spain, and had returned withsupplies of money within six weeks from the date of his departure. Owingto his representations and Alva's entreaties, Philip had, moreover, ordered Requesens, governor of Milan, to send forward to the Netherlandsthree veteran Spanish regiments, which were now more required at Harlemthan in Italy. While the land force had thus been strengthened, thefleet upon the lake had also been largely increased. The Prince ofOrange had, on the other hand, provided more than a hundred sail ofvarious descriptions, so that the whole surface of the mere was now alivewith ships. Seafights and skirmishes took place almost daily, and it wasobvious that the life and death struggle was now to be fought upon thewater. So long as the Hollanders could hold or dispute the possession ofthe lake, it was still possible to succor Harlem from time to time. Should the Spaniards overcome the Prince's fleet, the city mustinevitably starve. 

At last, on the 28th of May, a decisive engagement of the fleets tookplace. The vessels grappled with each other, and there was a long, fierce, hand-to-hand combat. Under Bossu were one hundred vessels; underMartin Brand, admiral of the patriot fleet, nearly one hundred and fifty, but of lesser dimensions. Batenhurg commanded the troops on board theDutch vessels. After a protracted conflict, in which several thousandswere killed, the victory was decided in favor of the Spaniards. Twenty-two of the Prince's vessels being captured, and the rest totally routed, Bossu swept across the lake in triumph. The forts belonging to thepatriots were immediately taken, and the Harlemers, with their friends, entirely excluded from the lake. 

This was the beginning of the end. Despair took possession of the city. The whole population had been long subsisting upon an allowance of apound of bread to each man, and half-a-pound for each woman; but thebread was now exhausted, the famine had already begun, and with the lossof the lake starvation was close at their doors. They sent urgententreaties to, the Prince to attempt something in their behalf. Threeweeks more they assigned as the longest term during which they couldpossibly hold out. He sent them word by carrier pigeons to endure yet alittle time, for he was assembling a force, and would still succeed infurnishing them with supplies. Meantime, through the month of June thesufferings of the inhabitants increased hourly. Ordinary food had longsince vanished. The population now subsisted on linseed and rape-seed;as these supplies were exhausted they devoured cats, dogs, rats, andmice, and when at last these unclean animals had been all consumed, theyboiled the hides of horses and oxen; they ate shoe-leather; they pluckedthe nettles and grass from the graveyards, and the weeds which grewbetween the stones of the pavement, that with such food they might stillsupport life a little longer, till the promised succor should arrive. Men, women, and children fell dead by scores in the streets, perishing ofpure starvation, and the survivors had hardly the heart or the strengthto bury them out of their sight. They who yet lived seemed to flit likeshadows to and fro, envying those whose sufferings had already beenterminated by death. 

Thus wore away the month of June. On the 1st of July the burghersconsented to a parley. Deputies were sent to confer with the besiegers, but the negotiations were abruptly terminated, for no terms of compromisewere admitted by Don Frederic. On the 3rd a tremendous cannonade was re-opened upon the city. One thousand and eight balls were discharged--themost which had ever been thrown in one day, since the commencement of thesiege. The walls were severely shattered, but the assault was notordered, because the besiegers were assured that it was physicallyimpossible for the inhabitants to hold out many days longer. A lastletter, written in blood, was now despatched to the Prince of Orange, stating the forlorn condition to which they were reduced. At the sametime, with the derision of despair, they flung into the hostile camp thefew loaves of bread which yet remained within the city walls. A day ortwo later, a second and third parley were held, with no more satisfactoryresult than had attended the first. A black flag was now hoisted on thecathedral tower, the signal of despair to friend and foe, but a pigeonsoon afterwards flew into the town with a letter from the Prince, beggingthem to maintain themselves two days longer, because succor wasapproaching. 

The Prince had indeed been doing all which, under the circumstances, waspossible. He assembled the citizens of Delft in the market-place, andannounced his intention of marching in person to the relief of the city, in the face of the besieging army, if any troops could be obtained. Soldiers there were none; but there was the deepest sympathy for Harlemthroughout its sister cities, Delft, Rotterdam, Gouda. A numerousmass of burghers, many of them persons of station, all people ofrespectability, volunteered to march to the rescue. The Prince highlydisapproved of this miscellaneous army, whose steadfastness he could nottrust. As a soldier, he knew that for such a momentous enterprise, enthusiasm could not supply the place of experience. Nevertheless, as noregular troops could be had, and as the emergency allowed no delay, hedrew up a commission, appointing Paulus Buys to be governor during hisabsence, and provisional stadholder, should he fall in the expedition. Four thousand armed volunteers, with six hundred mounted troopers, underCarlo de Noot, had been assembled, and the Prince now placed himself attheir head. There was, however, a universal cry of remonstrance from themagistracies and burghers of all the towns, and from the troopsthemselves, at this project. They would not consent that a life soprecious, so indispensable to the existence of Holland, should beneedlessly hazarded. It was important to succor Harlem, but the Princewas of more value than many cities. He at last reluctantly consented, therefore, to abandon the command of the expedition to Baron Batenburg, the less willingly from the want of confidence which he could not helpfeeling in the character of the forces. On the 8th of July, at dusk, the expedition set forth from Sassenheim. It numbered nearly fivethousand men, who had with them four hundred wagon-loads of provisionsand seven field-pieces. Among the volunteers, Oldenbarneveld; afterwardsso illustrious in the history of the Republic; marched in the ranks, withhis musket on his shoulder. Such was a sample of the spirit whichpervaded the population of the province. 

Batenburg came to a halt in the woods of Nordwyk, on the south aide ofthe city, where he remained till midnight. All seemed still in theenemy's camp. After prayers, he gave orders to push forward, hoping tosteal through the lines of his sleeping adversaries and accomplish therelief by surprise. He was destined to be bitterly disappointed. Hisplans and his numbers were thoroughly known to the Spaniards, two doves, bearing letters which contained the details of the intended expedition, having been shot and brought into Don Frederic's camp. 

The citizens, it appeared, had broken through the curtain work on theside where Batenburg was expected, in order that a sally might be made inco-operation with the relieving force, as soon as it should appear. Signal fires had been agreed upon, by which the besieged were to bemade aware of the approach of their friends. The Spanish Commanderaccordingly ordered a mass of green branches, pitch, and straw, to belighted opposite to the gap in the city wall. Behind it he stationedfive thousand picked troops. Five thousand more, with a force ofcavalry, were placed in the neighbourhood of the downs, with orders toattack the patriot army on the left. Six regiments, under Romero, wereordered to move eastward, and assail their right. The dense mass ofsmoke concealed the beacon lights displayed by Batenburg from theobservation of the townspeople, and hid the five thousand Spaniards fromthe advancing Hollanders. As Batenburg emerged from the wood, he foundhimself attacked by a force superior to his own, while a few minuteslater he was entirely enveloped by overwhelming numbers. The wholeSpanish army was, indeed; under arms, and had been expecting him for twodays. The unfortunate citizens alone were ignorant of his arrival. Thenoise of the conflict they supposed to be a false alarm created by theSpaniards, to draw them into their camp; and they declined a challengewhich they were in no condition to accept. 

Batenburg was soon slain, and his troops utterly routed. The numberkilled was variously estimated at from six hundred to two and even threethousand. It is, at any rate, certain that the whole force was entirelydestroyed or dispersed, and the attempt to relieve the city completelyfrustrated. The death of Batenburg was the less regretted, because hewas accused, probably with great injustice, of having been intoxicated atthe time of action, and therefore incapable of properly, conducting theenterprise entrusted to him. 

The Spaniards now cut off the nose and ears of a prisoner and sent himinto the city, to announce the news, while a few heads were also thrownover the walls to confirm the intelligence. When this decisive overthrowbecame known in Delft, there was even an outbreak of indignation againstOrange. According to a statement of Alva, which, however, is to bereceived with great distrust, some of the populace wished to sack thePrince's house, and offered him personal indignities. Certainly, ifthese demonstrations were made, popular anger was never more senseless;but the tale rests entirely, upon a vague assertion of the Duke, and isentirely, at variance with every other contemporaneous account of thesetransactions. It had now become absolutely, necessary, however, for theheroic but wretched town to abandon itself to its fate. It wasimpossible to attempt anything more in its behalf. The lake and itsforts were in the hands of the enemy, the best force which could bemustered to make head against the besieging army had been cut to pieces, and the Prince of Orange, with a heavy heart, now sent word that theburghers were to make the best terms they could with the enemy. 

The tidings of despair created a terrible commotion in the starving city. There was no hope either in submission or resistance. Massacre orstarvation was the only alternative. But if there was no hope within thewalls, without there was still a soldier's death. For a moment thegarrison and the able-bodied citizens resolved to advance from the gatesin a solid column, to cut their way through the enemy's camp, or toperish on the field. It was thought that the helpless and the infirm, who would alone be left in the city, might be treated with indulgenceafter the fighting men had all been slain. At any rate, by remaining thestrong could neither protect nor comfort them. As soon, however, as thisresolve was known, there was such wailing and outcry of women andchildren as pierced the hearts of the soldiers and burghers, and causedthem to forego the project. They felt that it was cowardly not to die intheir presence. It was then determined to form all the females, thesick, the aged, and the children, into a square, to surround them withall the able-bodied men who still remained, and thus arrayed to fighttheir way forth from the gates, and to conquer by the strength ofdespair, or at least to perish all together. 

These desperate projects, which the besieged were thought quite capableof executing, were soon known in the Spanish camp. Don Frederic felt, after what he had witnessed in the past seven months, that there wasnothing which the Harlemers could not do or dare. He feared lest theyshould set fire to their city, and consume their houses, themselves, andtheir children, to ashes together; and he was unwilling that the fruitsof his victory, purchased at such a vast expense, should be snatched fromhis hand as he was about to gather them. A letter was accordingly, byhis order, sent to the magistracy and leading citizens, in the name ofCount Overstein, commander of the German forces in the besieging army. This despatch invited a surrender at discretion, but contained the solemnassurance that no punishment should be inflicted except upon those who, in the judgment of the citizens themselves, had deserved it, and promisedample forgiveness if the town should submit without further delay. Atthe moment of sending this letter, Don Frederic was in possession ofstrict orders from his father not to leave a man alive of the garrison, excepting only the Germans, and to execute besides a large number of theburghers. These commands he dared not disobey, --even if he had felt anyinclination to do so. In consequence of the semi-official letter ofOverstein, however, the city formally surrendered at discretion on the12th July. 

The great bell was tolled, and orders were issued that all arms in thepossession of the garrison or the inhabitants should be brought to thetown-house. The men were then ordered to assemble in the cloister ofZyl, the women in the cathedral. On the same day, Don Frederic, accompanied by Count Bossu and a numerous staff, rode into the city. The scene which met his view might have moved a heart of stone. Everywhere was evidence of the misery which had been so bravely enduredduring that seven months' siege. The smouldering ruins of houses, whichhad been set on fire by balls, the shattered fortifications, the felledtrunks of trees, upturned pavements, broken images and other materialsfor repairing gaps made by the daily cannonade, strewn around in alldirections, the skeletons of unclean animals from which the flesh hadbeen gnawed, the unburied bodies of men and women who had fallen dead inthe public thoroughfares--more than all, the gaunt and emaciated forms ofthose who still survived, the ghosts of their former, selves, all mighthave induced at least a doubt whether the suffering inflicted alreadywere not a sufficient punishment, even for crimes so deep as heresy andschism. But this was far from being the sentiment of Don Frederic. Heseemed to read defiance as well as despair in the sunken eyes whichglared upon him as he entered the place, and he took no thought of thepledge which he had informally but sacredly given. 

All the officers of the garrison were at once arrested. Some of themhad anticipated the sentence of their conqueror by a voluntary death. Captain Bordet, a French officer of distinction, like Brutus, compelledhis servant to hold the sword upon which he fell, rather than yieldhimself alive to the vengeance of the Spaniards. Traits of generositywere not wanting. Instead of Peter Hasselaer, a young officer who haddisplayed remarkable bravery throughout the siege, the Spaniards by. Mistake arrested his cousin Nicholas. The prisoner was suffering himselfto be led away to the inevitable scaffold without remonstrance, whenPeter Hasselaer pushed his way violently through the ranks of thecaptors. "If you want Ensign Hasselaer, I am the man. Let this innocentperson depart, " he cried. Before the sun set his head had fallen. Allthe officers were taken to the House of Kleef, where they wereimmediately executed. --Captain Ripperda, who had so heroically rebukedthe craven conduct of the magistracy, whose eloquence had inflamed thesoldiers and citizens to resistance, and whose skill and courage hadsustained the siege so long, was among the first to suffer. A naturalson of Cardinal Granvelle, who could have easily saved his life byproclaiming a parentage which he loathed, and Lancelot Brederode, anillegitimate scion of that ancient house, were also among these earliestvictims. 

The next day Alva came over to the camp. He rode about the place, examining the condition of the fortifications from the outside, butreturned to Amsterdam without having entered the city. On the followingmorning the massacre commenced. The plunder had been commuted for twohundred and forty thousand guilders, which the citizens bound themselvesto pay in four instalments; but murder was an indispensable accompanimentof victory, and admitted of no compromise. Moreover, Alva had alreadyexpressed the determination to effect a general massacre upon thisoccasion. The garrison, during the siege, had been reduced from fourthousand to eighteen hundred. Of these the Germans, six hundred innumber, were, by Alva's order, dismissed, on a pledge to serve no moreagainst the King. All the rest of the garrison were immediatelybutchered, with at least as many citizens. Drummers went about the citydaily, proclaiming that all who harbored persons having, at any formerperiod, been fugitives, were immediately to give them up, on pain ofbeing instantly hanged themselves in their own doors. Upon theserefugees and upon the soldiery fell the brunt of the slaughter; although, from day to day, reasons were perpetually discovered for putting to deathevery individual at all distinguished by service, station, wealth, orliberal principles; for the carnage could not be accomplished at once, but, with all the industry and heartiness employed, was necessarilyprotracted through several days. Five executioners, with theirattendants, were kept constantly at work; and when at last they wereexhausted with fatigue, or perhaps sickened with horror, three hundredwretches were tied two and two, back to back, and drowned in the HarlemLake. 

At last, after twenty-three hundred human creatures had been murdered incold blood, within a city where so many thousands had previously perishedby violent or by lingering deaths; the blasphemous farce of a pardon wasenacted. Fifty-seven of the most prominent burghers of the place were, however, excepted from the act of amnesty, and taken into custody assecurity for the future good conduct of the other citizens. Of thesehostages some were soon executed, some died in prison, and all would havebeen eventually sacrificed, had not the naval defeat of Bossu soonafterwards enabled the Prince of Orange to rescue the remainingprisoners. Ten thousand two hundred and fifty-six shots had beendischarged against the walls during the siege. Twelve thousand of thebesieging army had died of wounds or disease, during the seven months andtwo days, between the, investment and the surrender. In the earlier partof August, after the executions had been satisfactorily accomplished, DonFrederic made his triumphal entry, and the first chapter in the invasionof Holland was closed. Such was the memorable siege of Harlem, an eventin which we are called upon to wonder equally at human capacity toinflict and to endure misery. 

The Spaniards celebrated a victory, while in Utrecht they made an effigyof the Prince of Orange, which they carried about in procession, brokeupon the wheel, and burned. It was, however, obvious, that if thereduction of Harlem were a triumph, it was one which the conquerors mightwell exchange for a defeat. At any rate, it was certain that the Spanishempire was not strong enough to sustain many more such victories. If ithad required thirty thousand choice troops, among which were threeregiments called by Alva respectively, the "Invincibles, " the"Immortals, " and the "None-such, " to conquer the weakest city of Hollandin seven months, and with the loss of twelve thousand men; how many men, how long a time, and how many deaths would it require to reduce the restof that little province? For, as the sack of Naarden had produced thecontrary effect from the one intended, inflaming rather than subduing thespirit of Dutch resistance, so the long and glorious defence of Harlem, notwithstanding its tragical termination, had only served to strain tothe highest pitch the hatred and patriotism of the other cities in theprovince. Even the treasures of the New World were inadequate to pay forthe conquest of that little sand-bank. Within five years, twenty-fivemillions of florins had been sent from Spain for war expenses in theNetherlands. --Yet, this amount, with the addition of large sums annuallyderived from confiscations, of five millions, at which the proceeds ofthe hundredth penny was estimated, and the two millions yearly, for whichthe tenth and twentieth pence had been compounded, was insufficient tosave the treasury from beggary and the unpaid troops from mutiny. 

Nevertheless, for the moment the joy created was intense. Philip waslying dangerously ill at the wood of Segovia, when the happy tidings ofthe reduction of Harlem, with its accompanying butchery, arrived. Theaccount of all this misery, minutely detailed to him by Alva, acted likemagic. The blood of twenty-three hundred of his fellow-creatures--coldlymurdered, by his orders, in a single city--proved for the sanguinarymonarch the elixir of life: he drank and was refreshed. "The principalmedicine which has cured his Majesty, " wrote Secretary Cayas from Madridto Alva, "is the joy caused to him by the good news which you havecommunicated of the surrender of Harlem. " In the height of hisexultation, the King forgot how much dissatisfaction he had recentlyfelt with the progress of events in the Netherlands; how much treasurehad been annually expended with an insufficient result. "Knowing yournecessity, " continued Cayas, "his Majesty instantly sent for DoctorVelasco, and ordered him to provide you with funds, if he had to descendinto the earth to dig for it. " While such was the exultation of theSpaniards, the Prince of Orange was neither dismayed nor despondent. Asusual, he trusted to a higher power than man. "I had hoped to send youbetter news, " he wrote, to Count Louis, "nevertheless, since it hasotherwise pleased the good God, we must conform ourselves to His divinewill. I take the same God to witness that I have done everythingaccording to my means, which was possible, to succor the city. " A fewdays later, writing in the same spirit, he informed his brother that theZealanders had succeeded in capturing the castle of Rammekens, on theisle of Walcheren. "I hope, " he said, "that this will reduce the prideof our enemies, who, after the surrender of Harlem, have thought thatthey were about to swallow us alive. I assure myself, however, that theywill find a very different piece of work from the one which they expect. "

ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:

Enthusiasm could not supply the place of experienceEnvying those whose sufferings had already been terminatedLeave not a single man alive in the city, and to burn every houseNot strong enough to sustain many more such victoriesOldenbarneveld; afterwards so illustriousSent them word by carrier pigeonsThree hundred fighting womenTyranny, ever young and ever old, constantly reproducing herselfWonder equally at human capacity to inflict and to endure misery