Of these the Germans, six
hundred in number, were, by Alva's order, dismissed, on a pledge
to serve no more against the King. All the rest of the garrison
were immediately butchered, with at least as many citizens.... Five
executioners, with their attendants, were kept constantly at work; and
when at last they were exhausted with fatigue, or perhaps sickened with
horror, three hundred wretches were tied two and two, back to back,
and drowned in the Haarlem Lake. At last, after twenty-three hundred
human creatures had been murdered in cold blood, within a city where
so many thousands had previously perished by violent or by lingering
deaths; the blasphemous farce of a pardon was enacted. Fifty-seven
of the most prominent burghers of the place were, however, excepted
from the act of amnesty, and taken into custody as security for the
future good conduct of the other citizens. Of these hostages some were
soon executed, some died in prison, and all would have been eventually
sacrificed, had not the naval defeat of Bossu soon afterwards enabled
the Prince of Orange to rescue the remaining prisoners. Ten thousand
two hundred and fifty-six shots had been discharged against the walk
during the siege. Twelve thousand of the besieging army had died of
wounds or disease during the seven months and two days between the
investment and the surrender.
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