Men who were
daily butchering their fellow-beings, and hanging their prisoners in
cold blood, affected to shudder at the enormity of the offence thus
exercised against graven images.
"After three days' cannonade, the assault was ordered, Don Frederic
only intending a rapid massacre, to crown his achievements at Zutphen
and Naarden. The place, he thought, would fall in a week, and after
another week of sacking, killing, and ravishing, he might sweep on
to 'pastures new' until Holland was overwhelmed. Romero advanced to
the breach, followed by a numerous storming party, but met with a
resistance which astonished the Spaniards. The church bells rang the
alarm throughout the city, and the whole population swarmed to the
walls. The besiegers were encountered not only with sword and musket,
but with every implement which the burghers' hands could find. Heavy
stones, boiling oil, live coals, were hurled upon the heads of the
soldiers; hoops, smeared with pitch and set on fire, were dexterously
thrown upon their necks. Even Spanish courage and Spanish ferocity
were obliged to shrink before the steady determination of a whole
population animated by a single spirit. Romero lost an eye in the
conflict, many officers were killed and wounded, and three or four
hundred soldiers left dead in the breach, while only three or four of
the townsmen lost their lives.
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