THE DEFENSE OF LEYDEN
DECEMBER 31st, 1574. The story of Leyden, its terrible siege and brave defense, will, mother says, form a never-to-be-forgotten page of history, and yet I do not think that I shall find it easy to write down even a few of the things that happened during the dark, anxious days the siege lasted, days that grew into weeks, and even months, while we watched and waited for the relief that seemed so long in coming.
When I wrote last the siege had lasted four days, and even then some fear was expressed that provisions would run short. During the two months that followed the repulse of the Spanish army by our brave troops, under the command of Count Louis, brother to the Prince of Orange, they had withdrawn themselves, and we, too, blindly hoped they would trouble us no more; but the brave count has fallen on the battlefield. At least we know that he is dead; whether he lies among the heaps of slain, or was drowned in attempting to cross the river, or perished in the burning into which, with horrible cruelty, Alva's soldiers drove the conquered, no one seems to know, but we believe that, whichever way it was, he met death like a true Christian and the brave soldier he was.
We were not so well supplied with stores of food as we should have been. Perhaps our relief at the absence of the Spanish was so great that we would not believe they were likely to come again. So we spoke hopefully, and tried to believe that, after their repulse under the command of Count Louis of Nassau, the Spaniards would raise the siege. But the Duke of Alva was a man of iron will; he had received royal commands to stamp out heresy, and if it was not done, it should not, he determined, be any fault of his. So with a larger army he again attacked our city, and cannon roared, and large, heavy guns poured out a constant volley of shot and shell. Our walls are, however, as strong as they were on the first day of the siege, and we hope will remain in good condition for weeks to come; but the Spaniards have not been idle, and a circle of well guarded forts have grown up with what seems to us wonderful rapidity. Several times the principal citizens have been summoned by the burgomaster, and councils lasting several hours have been held, all, we were rejoiced to hear, being of one mind.
They will not listen to Alva's proposed conditions' of peace, or enter into any treaty, knowing only too well that it would be made only to be broken, and that if our gates are once opened to the foe, fire and sword will follow, leaving only smoking ruins to tell their own sad story. There' is just one, gleam of hope in the knowledge that the soldiers are divided among themselves; it is nearly two years since they received any regular wages, and though when a victory is gained they are, encouraged to plunder and, spoil to their hearts' content, they are, we hear, getting restless and discontented, and have more than once broken out into open mutiny.
Early in June famine seemed almost to stare us in the face. The councilors were buying up all the food the town contains. Large stores of grain, meat and other foods are being carried to the public buildings, and daily rations given out: half a pound, of meat with the same quantity of bread for each man, and less for women and children.
Small as the daily portion was, we noticed that Uncle Jacob ate only a very small part of his, Day after day he would insist upon shaming it with one or other of the orphans, and when we saw with tear-filled eyes how very thin he was, and tried to coax him into being just to himself, even if he could not so often indulge his love of giving, his gentle voice would answer, " Do not be anxious for me. My journey is almost ended. The children need the food more than I do; they may have many years of life before them; God is very good to me; I am not allowed to suffer from the keen gnawing of hunger. My strength is, I know, failing; before Leyden opens her gates to her long-looked-for deliverer, the Prince of Orange, I shall be safe home, ' where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest.' "And so it was, for only a few days before the horrors of actual famine were upon us, with tender good-byes to us all,, and the name of Jesus upon his lips, our dear old friend fell asleep. We felt his loss keenly, but for him all was, we knew, well. Like Stephen of old," devout men carried him to his burial," and while the noise of war raged around our walls, we laid him in a quiet grave with words of faith and hope, and returned to our home sorrowing, but yet rejoicing.
Food supplies failed, day by day the allowance grew smaller, and then ceased altogether. Truyken and Freda did their very utmost to keep the hunger wolf from our door, and displayed great skill and patience in trying to make wholesome and even tempting food of all manner of unsavory scraps. Sometimes the children and I would go out in search of food, but long lines of trees from which every leaf had been plucked told us that we were too late—others on the same, errand had been before us; 'grass too was very scarce, our baskets were not half filled, when we turned our steps towards the churchyard, 'where a few nettles still grew among the graves. How eagerly we gathered them, how proudly we carried them home, yet not without some attempts to conceal our treasure, lest anyone, perhaps more keenly pressed by hunger than ourselves, should rob us of our prize.
Aunt Ursel proved herself a. born nurse. Sometimes in the hospital, where her gentle touch and kind but firm manner did so much to relieve the wounded; sometimes on the ramparts, where, even though bullets were falling around her, she would carry water to the soldiers, or kneel to dress and bandage some gaping wound, never moving, till hex work was done. 'There was so much to be done at home that I could not be spared very often, but now and then I was free to go with her to the hospital, so glad of any small service I could render. I read to the sick and wounded, now and then I wrote their letters to loved ones in village homes, or took messages to and from the hospital. We all began to feel the pressure of hunger. The few horses that had not died of hunger were killed, and fox a few days we rejoiced in having a small allowance of horseflesh served out to each person; but that did not last long, and the starving people ate cats, dogs and rats. To add to the horrors of siege and famine, plague broke out in our midst, and it was said that nearly twenty thousand people died. We grew almost used to the sight of the dying and the dead.
One afternoon as Aunt Ursel and I were leaving the hospital, passing down one of the poorest streets in the town, our attention was arrested by the crying of an infant, such a low, piteous wail; we felt as if we could not go on without trying to find out if we could not do something to soothe and comfort it. We knocked several times, but getting no reply we opened the door and went in. Never can I forget the sight; an infant of not more than a few months old lay upon the low but clean bed, tightly clasped in the arms of its dead mother. We thought at first she had died from the plague, but found afterward that it was really from hunger. The infant, though very thin, appeared healthy; so having obtained permission of the proper authorities, we took it home till such time as it should be claimed by its relations, if it had any. But none came, and for more than six, months baby Matilde, as we call her, has been the pet of the entire household.
Twice or three times during the siege the prince was able, by the use of carrier pigeons, to send us letters, in one of which he asked if we could hold out for three months longer, by the end of which time he was almost sure of being able to come to our relief. “Three months!" what a long, weary time it seemed to look forward to, for we had only provisions enough to last four days. There was not much actual fighting all the time the siege lasted. Shots were fired at the walls, but the officers in command of the Spanish troops knew that we were very short of food, and as they thought' it would be easy to starve us into surrender, made no attempt to force the gates.
General Francesco de Valdez, to whom the Duke of Alva had entrusted the taking of Leyden, seemed at last to grow tired of waiting, and sent a flattering message to the citizens, in which he said that he quite admired the gallant way in which they had held the city, but begged them, in the 'name of King Philip, not to continue to suffer all the discomfort of having an army quartered just outside the walls. Would 'it not be better, he said, to open our' gates and accept a free pardon for having so, long rebelled against the authority of our lawful sovereign, King Philip of Spain. A meeting of the principal citizens: to consider his proposals was' held. The answer they sent was short and to the point. Mother was able to get a copy of it: "The fowler plays sweet music on his pipe while he spreads his net for the birds.”
Then they began to taunt us with being rat and cat eaters. The answer they got was, " While a dog barks or a cat mews within our walls, be sure we will not open our gates; and when the last is eaten, rather than surrender, every man will eat his own left arm, keeping the right hand still to hold his sword.”
And so the weeks went on, weeks that seemed like months, or even years, and the prince did not come. We knew that he had been very ill, the army he had collected at such cost had broken up; still he had not given up the, hope of being able to come to our relief, and begged us to hold out a little longer.
Strange news reached us at last, though we hardly knew at first whether to be glad or sorry. The prince had collected another army, small, but brave; but as the Spaniards had four men to every one of his, and were in possession of sixty-two forts, tall well garrisoned and supplied with large stores of arms and ammunition, the prince and his best generals were of one mind, namely, that it would be useless even to attempt to reach us by land; one hope and one only remained, to relieve us by water. But as Leyden lies fifteen miles from the sea this way of getting at us seemed at first sight almost, if not quite, impossible. It was certainly a remark able idea, but the Prince of Orange is a remarkable man, and he believed that it was God who had given him the thought, and he trusted in Him for the needed wisdom and strength to enable him to carry it out. The country for miles round lay lower than the sea, and had really been won from it at great labor and expense by building dykes. Why not let the sea have the land once more, and give the prince and his followers a chance of coming to our help?
The Government gave him leave to cut through the dykes, saying it was better to ruin the country than to lose it; so the prince set to work to form "The Beggars of the Sea" into a fleet sufficient to man two hundred flat-bottomed boats, many of which were well laden with provisions, and then the work of cutting away the dykes began.
But all this took time, the Spanish army was still outside our walls, and we were starving. How slowly the days seemed to pass! How truly we felt that if God did not deliver us, no one, not even the prince, could.