The proposition
was refused with contempt. Van Trier was hanged upon the gallows
by one leg until he was dead, in return for which barbarity the
nineteen Spaniards were immediately gibbeted by De la Marck. With
this interchange of cruelties the siege may be said to have opened.
"Don Frederic had stationed himself in a position opposite to the
gate of the Cross, which was not very strong, but fortified by a
ravelin. Intending to make a very short siege of it, he established
his batteries immediately, and on the 18th, 19th, and 20th December
directed a furious cannonade against the Cross-gate, the St. John's
gate, and the curtain between the two. Six hundred and eighty shots
were discharged on the first, and nearly as many on each of the two
succeeding days. The walls were much shattered, but men, women,
and children worked night and day within the city, repairing the
breaches as fast as made. They brought bags of sand, blocks of stone,
cart-loads of earth from every quarter, and they stripped the churches
of all their statues, which they threw by heaps into the gaps. They
sought thus a more practical advantage from those sculptured saints
than they could have gained by only imploring their interposition
The fact, however, excited horror among the besiegers.
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