Those who attempted resistance
were crimped alive like fishes, and left to gasp themselves to death
in lingering torture. The soldiers becoming more and more insane, as
the foul work went on, opened the veins of some of their victims, and
drank their blood as if it were wine. Some of the burghers were for a
time spared, that they might witness the violation of their wives and,
daughters, and were then butchered in company with these still more
unfortunate victims. Miracles of brutality were accomplished. Neither
church nor hearth was sacred. Men were slain, women outraged at the
altars, in the streets, in their blazing homes. The life of Lambert
Hortensius was spared out of regard to his learning and genius, but he
hardly could thank his foes for the boon, for they struck his only son
dead, and tore his heart out before his father's eyes. Hardly any man
or woman survived, except by accident. A body of some hundred burghers
made their escape across the snow into the open country. They were,
however, overtaken, stripped stark naked, and hung upon the trees
by the feet, to freeze, or to perish by a more lingering death. Most
of them soon died, but twenty, who happened to be wealthy, succeeded,
after enduring much torture, in purchasing their lives of their inhuman
persecutors.
Pages:
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263