gen, Stormen, Schermutsingen oude Schieten
voor de vroome Stadt Haerlem in Holland gheschicht, etc., etc.--
Delft, 1574.--This is by far the best contemporary account of the
famous siege. The author was a citizen of Antwerp, who kept a daily
journal of the events as they occurred at Harlem. It is a dry, curt
register of horrors, jotted down without passion or comment.--
Compare Bor, vi. 422, 423; Meteren, iv. 79; Mendoza, viii. 174,
175; Wagenaer, vad. Hist., vi. 413, 414.]

On the edge of the mere the Prince of Orange had already ordered a
cluster of forts to be erected, by which the command of its frozen
surface was at first secured for Harlem. In the course of the siege,
however, other forts were erected by Don Frederic, so that the aspect of
things suffered a change.

Against this immense force, nearly equal in number to that of the whole
population of the city, the garrison within the walls never amounted to
more than four thousand men. In the beginning it was much less numerous.
The same circumstances, however, which assisted the initiatory operations
of Don Frederic, were of advantage to the Harlemers. A dense frozen fog
hung continually over the surface of the lake. Covered by this curtain,
large supplies of men, provisions, and ammunition were daily introduced
into the city, notwithstanding all the efforts of the besieging force.
Sledges skimming over the ice, men, women, and even children, moving on
their skates as swiftly as the wind, all brought their contributions in
the course of the short dark days and long nights of December, in which
the wintry siege was opened.

The garrison at last numbered about one thousand pioneers or delvers,
three thousand fighting men, and about three hundred fighting women. The
last was a most efficient corps, all females of respectable character,
armed with sword, musket, and dagger. 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. The Prince had assembled a force of three or
four thousand men at Leyden, which he sent before the middle of December
towards the city under the command of De la M