As the work of death became
too fatiguing for the butchers, five hundred innocent burghers were
tied two and two, back to back, and drowned like dogs in the river
Yssel. A few stragglers who had contrived to elude pursuit at first,
were afterwards taken from their hiding-places, and hung upon the
_gallows by the feet_, some of which victims suffered four days and
nights of agony before death came to their relief."
On the day that I was in Zutphen it was the quietest town I had
found in all Holland--not excepting Monnickendam between the arrival
of the steam-trams. The clean bright streets were empty and still:
another massacre almost might just have occurred. I had Zutphen to
myself. I could not even find the koster to show me the church;
and it was in trying door after door as I walked round it that I
came upon the only sign of life in the place. For one handle at last
yielding I found myself instantly in a small chapel filled with many
young women engaged in a scripture class. The sudden irruption of an
embarrassed and I imagine somewhat grotesque foreigner seems to have
been exactly what every member of this little congregation was most
desiring, and I never heard a merrier or more spontaneous burst of
laughter. I stood not upon the order of my going.
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