“Philip was lying dangerously ill at the wood of Segovia, when the happy tidings of the reduction of Haarlem, with its accompanying butchery, arrived.  The account of all this misery, minutely detailed to him by Alva, acted like magic.  The blood of twenty-three hundred of his fellow-creatures—­coldly murdered by his orders, in a single city—­proved for the sanguinary monarch the elixir of life:  he drank and was refreshed. ’The principal medicine which has cured his Majesty,’ wrote Secretary Cayas from Madrid to Alva, ’is the joy caused to him by the good news which you have communicated of the surrender of Haarlem.’”

I know nothing of the women of Haarlem to-day, but in the sixteenth century they were among the bravest and most efficient in the world, and it was largely their efforts and example which enabled the city to hold out so long.  Motley describes them as a corps of three hundred fighting women, “all females of respectable character, armed with sword, musket, and dagger.  Their chief, Kenau Hasselaer, was a widow of distinguished family, and unblemished reputation, about forty-seven years of age, who, at the head of her amazons, participated in many of the most fiercely contested actions of the siege, both within and without the walls.  When such a spirit animated the maids and matrons of the city, it might be expected that the men would hardly surrender the place without a struggle.”

Haarlem still preserves the pretty custom of hanging lace by the doors of houses which the stork is expected to visit or has just visited.  Its origin was the humanity of the Spanish general, during this great siege, in receiving a deputation of matrons from the town and promising protection from his soldiery of all women in childbed.  Every house was to go unharmed upon which a piece of lace signifying a confinement was displayed.  This was a promise with which the Duke of Alva seems not to have interfered.

The author of Through Noord-Holland thus eloquently describes the effect of Haarlem’s great organ—­for long the finest in the world:  “Vibrating rolls the tone through the church-building, followed by sweet melodies, running through each register of it; now one hears the sound of trumpets or soft whistling tunes then again piano music or melancholical hautboy tunes chiming as well is deceivingly imitated.”  Free recitals are given on Tuesdays and Thursdays from one to two.  On other days the organist can be persuaded to play for a fee.  Charles Lamb’s friend Fell paid a ducat to the organist and half a crown to the blower, and heard as much as he wanted.  He found the vox humana “the voice of a psalm-singing clerk”.  Other travellers have been more fortunate.  Ireland tells us that when Handel played this organ the organist took him either for an angel or a devil.

Among Haarlem’s architectural attractions is the very interesting Meat Market, hard by the great church, one of the most agreeable pieces of floridity between the Middelburg stadhuis and the Leeuwarden chancellerie.  There is also the fine Amsterdam Gate, on the road to Amsterdam.