, burning what they list;
and happy were those whose offer of ransom was accepted, to escape
with plunder only.

There was no fixed plan. The murderous horde wandered along, turning
to right or left as fancy suggested. After burning five country towns,
they appeared at Alcmar, the chief town of North Holland, into which
the most precious possessions of the neighbourhood had been hurriedly
conveyed. By a heavy payment, the burghers purchased immunity from the
flames; but for eight days the town was given up to the lust and
ferocity of an uncontrolled soldiery, from whose senseless destruction
it took thirty years to recover. Egmond, with its great abbey, was
pillaged; and then it was Haarlem's turn to suffer. But by this time
resistance had been organized. Troops had been called back from
garrison work in Friesland, and a strong line drawn in front of
Haarlem. Headed off, the Black Band turned suddenly away. Passing
Amsterdam and Culemborg, it penetrated down into South Holland, whence
it would be easy to pass back into Gueldres. Asperen was its next
prey. Three times the citizens beat off the cruel foe: a few more to
man their walls, and they might have driven him right away, to
overwhelm others less fortunate and less brave.

But it was not to be. At the fourth attempt the marauders were
successful, and massacre ensued. Death to the men, worse than death to
the women: nor age nor innocence could touch those black hearts. A
schoolmaster with his boys fled into a church and hid trembling in the
rood-loft. Before long they were discovered. Thirsting for blood, some
of the monsters rushed up the steps and tossed the shrieking victims
over on to the pikes of their comrades below. When all the butchery
was finished, a few helpless and infirm survivors were dragged out of
hiding-places. The miserable creatures were driven out of the city and
the gates barred in their faces. For a month the Black Band held
Asperen as a standing camp, living upon the provisions stored up by
the dead. Then Nassau came with troops and drove them forth, pursuing
into Gueldres, where he burned '46 good villages' in revenge. The
sight of fire blazing to heaven is appalling enough when men are
ranged all on one side, and the battle is with the element alone. Our
peace-lapped imaginations cannot picture the terror of flames kindled
aforethought. As those poor fugitives scattered over the country,
cowering into the darkness out of the fire's searchin