ntil he was dead, in return for which barbarity the
nineteen Spaniards were immediately gibbeted by De la Marck. With
this interchange of cruelties the siege may be said to have opened.

"Don Frederic had stationed himself in a position opposite to the
gate of the Cross, which was not very strong, but fortified by a
ravelin. Intending to make a very short siege of it, he established
his batteries immediately, and on the 18th, 19th, and 20th December
directed a furious cannonade against the Cross-gate, the St. John's
gate, and the curtain between the two. Six hundred and eighty shots
were discharged on the first, and nearly as many on each of the two
succeeding days. The walls were much shattered, but men, women,
and children worked night and day within the city, repairing the
breaches as fast as made. They brought bags of sand, blocks of stone,
cart-loads of earth from every quarter, and they stripped the churches
of all their statues, which they threw by heaps into the gaps. They
sought thus a more practical advantage from those sculptured saints
than they could have gained by only imploring their interposition
The fact, however, excited horror among the besiegers. 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