Women, children, old men, were killed in countless numbers, and still, through all this havoc, directly over the heads of the struggling throng, suspended in mid-air above the din and smoke of the conflict, there sounded, every half-quarter of every hour, as if in gentle mockery, from the belfry of the cathedral, the tender and melodious chimes.
Never was there a more monstrous massacre, even in the blood-stained history of the Netherlands.

It was estimated that, in the course of this and the two following days, not less than eight thousand human beings were murdered.

The Spaniards seemed to cast off even the vizard of humanity.

Hell seemed emptied of its fiends.

Night fell upon the scene before the soldiers were masters of the city; but worse horrors began after the contest was ended.