It is almost superfluous to add that this circular remained fruitless.  The royal wrath, thus blasphemously identifying itself with divine vengeance, inspired no terror, the royal blandishments no affection.

The next point of attack was the city of Alkmaar, situate quite at the termination of the Peninsula, among the lagunes and redeemed prairies of North Holland.  The Prince of Orange had already provided it with a small garrison.  The city had been summoned to surrender by the middle of July, and had returned a bold refusal.—­Meantime, the Spaniards had retired from before the walls, while the surrender and chastisement of Harlem occupied them during the next succeeding weeks.  The month of August, moreover, was mainly consumed by Alva in quelling a dangerous and protracted mutiny, which broke out among the Spanish soldiers at Harlem—­between three and four thousand of them having been quartered upon the ill-fated population of that city.

Unceasing misery was endured by the inhabitants at the hands of the ferocious Spaniards, flushed with victory, mutinous for long arrears of pay, and greedy for the booty which had been denied.  At times, however, the fury of the soldiery was more violently directed against their own commanders than against the enemy.  A project was even formed by the malcontent troops to deliver Harlem into the hands of Orange.  A party of them, disguised as Baltic merchants, waited upon the Prince at Delft, and were secretly admitted to his bedside before he had risen.  They declared to him that they were Spanish soldiers, who had compassion on his cause, were dissatisfied with their own government, and were ready, upon receipt of forty thousand guilders, to deliver the city into his hands.  The Prince took the matter into consideration, and promised to accept the offer if he could raise the required sum.  This, however, he found himself unable to do within the stipulated time, and thus, for want of so paltry a sum, the offer was of necessity declined.

Various were the excesses committed by the insubordinate troops in every province in the Netherlands upon the long-suffering inhabitants.  “Nothing,” wrote Alva, “had given him so much pain during his forty years of service.”  He avowed his determination to go to Amsterdam in order to offer himself as a hostage to the soldiery, if by so doing he could quell the mutiny.  He went to Amsterdam accordingly, where by his exertions, ably seconded by those of the Marquis Vitelli, and by the payment of thirty crowns to each soldier—­fourteen on account of arrearages and sixteen as his share in the Harlem compensation money—­the rebellion was appeased, and obedience restored.