tions--_Omnia_dabant_,
_ne_decimam_darant_. The next important event in these wars
was the siege of Haerlem, before which place the Spaniards were
arrested in their progress for seven months, and which they at
length succeeded in taking with a loss of ten thousand men.

The details of this memorable siege are calculated to arouse
every feeling of pity for the heroic defenders, and of execration
against the cruel assailants. A widow, named Kenau Hasselaer,
gained a niche in history by her remarkable valor at the head of
a battalion of three hundred of her townswomen, who bore a part
in all the labors and perils of the siege. After the surrender,
and in pursuance of Alva's common system, his ferocious son caused
the governor and the other chief officers to be beheaded; and
upward of two thousand of the worn-out garrison and burghers
were either put to the sword, or tied two and two and drowned
in the lake which gives its name to the town. Tergoes in South
Beveland, Mechlin, Naerden, and other towns, were about the same
period the scenes of gallant actions, and of subsequent cruelties
of the most revolting nature as soon as they fell into the power
of the Spaniards. Strada, with all his bigotry to the Spanish
cause, admits that these excesses were atrocious crimes rather
than just punishments: _non_poena,_sed_flagitium_. Horrors like
these were sure to force reprisals on the part of the maddened
patriots. De la Marck carried on his daring exploits with a cruelty
which excited the indignation of the Prince of Orange, by whom
he was removed from his command. The contest was for a while
prosecuted with a decrease of vigor proportioned to the serious
losses on both sides; money and the munitions of war began to
fail; and though the Spaniards succeeded in taking The Hague,
they were repulsed before Alkmaer with great loss, and their
fleet was almost entirely destroyed in a naval combat on the
Zuyder Zee. The count Bossu, their admiral, was taken in this
fight, with about three hundred of his best sailors.

Holland was now from one end to the other the theatre of the
most shocking events. While the people performed deeds of the
greatest heroism, the perfidy and cruelty of the Spaniards had
no bounds. The patriots saw more danger in submission than in
resistance; each town, which was in succession subdued, endured
the last extremities of suffering before it yielded, and victory
was frequently the consequence of despair. This