The army reached Bussem, half a league distant from Naarden, in the evening.  Here Don Frederic established his head quarters, and proceeded to invest the city.  Senator Gerrit was then directed to return to Naarden and to bring out a more numerous deputation on the following morning, duly empowered to surrender the place.  The envoy accordingly returned next day, accompanied by Lambert Hortensius, rector of a Latin academy, together with four other citizens.  Before this deputation had reached Bussem, they were met by Julian Romero, who informed them that he was commissioned to treat with them on the part of Don Frederic.  He demanded the keys of the city, and gave the deputation a solemn pledge that the lives and property of all the inhabitants should be sacredly respected.  To attest this assurance Don Julian gave his hand three several times to Lambert Hortensius.  A soldier’s word thus plighted, the commissioners, without exchanging any written documents, surrendered the keys, and immediately afterwards accompanied Romero into the city, who was soon followed by five or six hundred musketeers.

To give these guests a hospitable reception, all the housewives of the city at once set about preparations for a sumptuous feast, to which the Spaniards did ample justice, while the colonel and his officers were entertained by Senator Gerrit at his own house.  As soon as this conviviality had come to an end, Romero, accompanied by his host, walked into the square.  The great bell had been meantime ringing, and the citizens had been summoned to assemble in the Gast Huis Church, then used as a town hall.  In the course of a few minutes five hundred had entered the building, and stood quietly awaiting whatever measures might be offered for their deliberation.  Suddenly a priest, who had been pacing to and fro before the church door, entered the building, and bade them all prepare for death; but the announcement, the preparation, and the death, were simultaneous.  The door was flung open, and a band of armed Spaniards rushed across the sacred threshold.  They fired a single volley upon the defenceless herd, and then sprang in upon them with sword and dagger.  A yell of despair arose as the miserable victims saw how hopelessly they were engaged, and beheld the ferocious faces of their butchers.  The carnage within that narrow apace was compact and rapid.  Within a few minutes all were despatched, and among them Senator Gerrit, from whose table the Spanish commander had but just risen.  The church was then set on fire, and the dead and dying were consumed to ashes together.

Inflamed but not satiated, the Spaniards then rushed into the streets, thirsty for fresh horrors.  The houses were all rifled of their contents, and men were forced to carry the booty to the camp, who were then struck dead as their reward.  The town was then fired in every direction, that the skulking citizens might be forced from their hiding-places.  As fast as they came forth they were put to death