The tidings of despair created a terrible commotion in the starving city.  There was no hope either in submission or resistance.  Massacre or starvation was the only alternative.  But if there was no hope within the walls, without there was still a soldier’s death.  For a moment the garrison and the able-bodied citizens resolved to advance from the gates in a solid column, to cut their way through the enemy’s camp, or to perish on the field.  It was thought that the helpless and the infirm, who would alone be left in the city, might be treated with indulgence after the fighting men had all been slain.  At any rate, by remaining the strong could neither protect nor comfort them.  As soon, however, as this resolve was known, there was such wailing and outcry of women and children as pierced the hearts of the soldiers and burghers, and caused them to forego the project.  They felt that it was cowardly not to die in their presence.  It was then determined to form all the females, the sick, the aged, and the children, into a square, to surround them with all the able-bodied men who still remained, and thus arrayed to fight their way forth from the gates, and to conquer by the strength of despair, or at least to perish all together.

These desperate projects, which the besieged were thought quite capable of executing, were soon known in the Spanish camp.  Don Frederic felt, after what he had witnessed in the past seven months, that there was nothing which the Harlemers could not do or dare.  He feared lest they should set fire to their city, and consume their houses, themselves, and their children, to ashes together; and he was unwilling that the fruits of his victory, purchased at such a vast expense, should be snatched from his hand as he was about to gather them.  A letter was accordingly, by his order, sent to the magistracy and leading citizens, in the name of Count Overstein, commander of the German forces in the besieging army.  This despatch invited a surrender at discretion, but contained the solemn assurance that no punishment should be inflicted except upon those who, in the judgment of the citizens themselves, had deserved it, and promised ample forgiveness if the town should submit without further delay.  At the moment of sending this letter, Don Frederic was in possession of strict orders from his father not to leave a man alive of the garrison, excepting only the Germans, and to execute besides a large number of the burghers.  These commands he dared not disobey,—­even if he had felt any inclination to do so.  In consequence of the semi-official letter of Overstein, however, the city formally surrendered at discretion on the 12th July.