had hastened to Amsterdam, where the Duke was then quartered, that he
might receive the paternal benediction for his well-accomplished work.
The royal approbation was soon afterwards added to the applause of his
parent, and the Duke was warmly congratulated in a letter written by
Philip as soon as the murderous deed was known, that Don Frederic had so
plainly shown himself to be his father's son. There was now more work
for father and son. Amsterdam was the only point in Holland which held
for Alva, and from that point it was determined to recover the whole
province. The Prince of Orange was established in the southern district;
Diedrich Sonoy, his lieutenant, was stationed in North Holland. The
important city of Harlem lay between the two, at a spot where the whole
breadth of the territory, from sea to sea, was less than an hour's walk.
With the fall of that city the province would be cut in twain, the
rebellious forces utterly dissevered, and all further resistance,
it was thought, rendered impossible.

The inhabitants of Harlem felt their danger. Bossu, Alva's stadholder
for Holland, had formally announced the system hitherto pursued at
Mechlin, Zutphen, and Naarden, as the deliberate policy of the
government. The King's representative had formally proclaimed the
extermination of man, woman; and child in every city which opposed his
authority, but the promulgation and practice of such a system had an
opposite effect to the one intended. The hearts of the Hollanders were
rather steeled to resistance than awed into submission by the fate of
Naarden." A fortunate event, too, was accepted as a lucky omen for the
coming contest. A little fleet of armed vessels, belonging to Holland,
had been frozen up in the neighbourhood of Amsterdam. Don Frederic on
his arrival from Naarden, despatched a body of picked men over the ice to
attack the imprisoned vessels. The crews had, however, fortified
themselves by digging a wide trench around the whole fleet, which thus