Their chief, Kenau Hasselaer,
was a widow of distinguished family, and unblemished reputation,
about forty-seven years of age, who, at the head of her amazons,
participated in many of the most fiercely contested actions of the
siege, both within and without the walls. When such a spirit animated
the maids and matrons of the city, it might be expected that the men
would hardly surrender the place without a struggle."
Haarlem still preserves the pretty custom of hanging lace by
the doors of houses which the stork is expected to visit or has
just visited. Its origin was the humanity of the Spanish general,
during this great siege, in receiving a deputation of matrons from
the town and promising protection from his soldiery of all women in
childbed. Every house was to go unharmed upon which a piece of lace
signifying a confinement was displayed. This was a promise with which
the Duke of Alva seems not to have interfered.
The author of _Through Noord-Holland_ thus eloquently describes the
effect of Haarlem's great organ--for long the finest in the world:
"Vibrating rolls the tone through the church-building, followed
by sweet melodies, running through each register of it; now one
hears the sound of trumpets or soft whistling tunes then again piano
music or melancholical hautboy tunes chiming as well is deceivingly
imitated.
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