Zutphen
had suffered a vengeance even more terrible than that of Mechlin.
Alva had ordered his son Frederick, who commanded the army that
marched against it, to leave not a single man alive in the city,
and to burn every house to the ground; and the orders were literally
obeyed. The garrison were first put to the sword, and then the
citizens were attacked and slaughtered wholesale. Some were stripped
naked and turned out to freeze to death in the fields. Five hundred
were tied back to back and drowned in the river. Some were hung
up by their feet, and suffered for many hours until death came to
their relief.
Ned put up at Antwerp for the night. The news of the destruction
of Zutphen, and of the horrors perpetrated there, had arrived
but a few hours before, and a feeling of the most intense horror
and indignation filled the inhabitants; but none dared to express
what every one felt. The fate of Mechlin and Zutphen was as Alva
had meant it to be, a lesson so terrible, that throughout the
Netherlands, save in Holland and Zeeland alone, the inhabitants
were palsied by terror. Had one great city set the example and risen
against the Spaniards, the rest would have followed; but none dared
be the first to provoke so terrible a vengeance. Men who would have
risked their own lives shrank from exposing their wives and children
to atrocities and death. It seemed that conflict was useless. Van
der Berg, a brother-in-law of the Prince of Orange, who had been
placed by the prince as Governor of Guelderland and Overyssel,
fled by night, and all the cities which had raised the standard of
Orange deserted the cause at once.
Pages:
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213