Leyden was sublime in its despair.

A few murmurs were, however, occasionally heard at the steadfastness of the magistrates, and a dead body was placed at the door of the burgomaster, as a silent witness against his inflexibility.

A party of the more faint-hearted even assailed the heroic Adrian Van der Werf with threats and reproaches as he passed through the streets.
"A crowd had gathered around him, as he reached a triangular place in the centre of the town, into which many of the principal streets emptied themselves, and upon one side of which stood the church of St.Pancras, with its high brick tower surmounted by two pointed turrets, and with two ancient lime trees at its entrance.

There stood the burgomaster, a tall, haggard, imposing figure, with dark visage, and a tranquil but commanding eye.

He waved his broad-leaved felt hat for silence, and then exclaimed, in language which has been almost literally preserved, 'What would ye, my friends?
Why do ye murmur that we do not break our vows and surrender our city to the Spaniards ?--a fate more horrible than the agony which she now endures.