ntery, with the advice of Alva, to address a letter to the
citizens, urging them to surrender at discretion. The messenger was
hanged--a cruel but practical answer, which put an end to all further
traitorous communications. This was in the first week of December. On the
10th, Don Frederic, sent a strong detachment to capture the fort and
village of Sparendam, as an indispensable preliminary to the commencement
of the siege. A peasant having shown Zapata, the commander of the
expedition, a secret passage across the flooded and frozen meadows, the
Spaniards stormed the place gallantly, routed the whole garrison, killed
three hundred, and took possession of the works and village. Next day,
Don Frederic appeared before the walls of Harlem, and proceeded regularly
to invest the place. The misty weather favored his operations, nor did he
cease reinforcing himself; until at least thirty thousand men, including
fifteen hundred cavalry, had been encamped around the city. The Germans,
under Count Overstein, were stationed in a beautiful and extensive grove
of limes and beeches, which spread between the southern walls and the
shore of Harlem Lake. Don Frederic, with his Spaniards, took up a
position on the opposite side, at a place called the House of Kleef, the
ruins of which still remain. The Walloons, and other regiments were
distributed in different places, so as completely to encircle the town.

[Pierre Sterlinckx: Eene come Waerachtige Beschryvinghe van alle
Geschiedinissen, Anschlagen, 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