their milk--besides
these an equal number of horses and sheep; but every day these
provisions were becoming more and more scanty, and unless they could
speedily be relieved, starvation threatened them. The burgomaster and
Council were assembled when a letter which had been sent in from Valdez,
with a flag of truce, was received. The burgomaster read it aloud. It
offered an amnesty to all Hollanders, except a few mentioned by name,
provided they would return to their allegiance; it promised forgiveness,
fortified by a Papal Bull which had been issued by Gregory the
Thirteenth to those Netherland sinners who duly repented and sought
absolution for their sins, even though they sinned more than seven times
seven. Besides this public letter were received epistles despatched by
the "Glippers" from the camp to their rebellious acquaintances in the
city, exhorting them to submission, and imploring them to take pity upon
their poor old fathers, their daughters, and their wives.

"What say you, my friends?" exclaimed the burgomaster, who read these
letters aloud. "The Spanish general offers us free pardon for defending
our hearths and homes as we have hitherto done, and by God's grace we
will continue to do. The same plausible offers Don Frederic made to the
citizens of Haarlem. And what happened? The slaughter which overtook
old and young alike, their city plundered, their homes ruined, can
testify as to the value of such offers. Shall we share their fate, or
shall we hold out like men until the relief, which assuredly will come,
arrives, although we have only malt cake to live upon, and but little of
that, and a few cows, horses, goats, and dogs; and as to the remark of
these `Glippers,' the best pity we can show our poor old fathers,
daughters, and wives is to keep them from the clutches of the Spanish
soldiery."

"We will fight to the last! We will fight to the last!" was the
unanimous response taken up by all the citizens in the streets. It was
agreed that no answer should be sent to the Spanish general; indeed some
proposed hanging the herald, who was glad to make his escape with a
single line in Latin, on a sheet of paper, handed to him--

"When the trapper seeks to lure his bird, he softly plays his pipe."

Good care was taken that the herald should see nothing going on within
the walls, or be able to report a word about the haggard countenances of
the defenders. From their frowning looks and taunting expre