JOURNEYS IN DIVERSE PLACES SI 



skins that we could have softened and stewed. And, In a 

 word, all the besieged were resolved to defend themselves 

 valiantly with all instruments of war; to set the artillery 

 at the entry of the breach, and load with balls, stones, cart- 

 nails, bars and chains of iron; also all sorts and kinds of 

 artificial fires, as barricadoes, grenades, stink-pots, torches, 

 squibs, fire-traps, burning faggots; with boiling water, 

 melted lead, and lime, to put out the enemy's eyes. Also, they 

 were to make holes right through their houses, and put 

 arquebusiers in them, to take the enemy in flank and hasten 

 his going, or else give him stop then and there. Also 

 they were to order the women to pull up the streets, and 

 throw from their windows billets, tables, trestles, benches, 

 and stools, to dash out the enemy's brains. Moreover, a 

 little within the breach, there was a great stronghold full of 

 carts and palisades, tuns and casks ; and barricades of earth 

 to serve as gabions, interlaid with falconets, falcons, field- 

 pieces, crooked arquebuses, pistols, arquebuses, and wild- 

 fires, to break their legs and thighs, so that they would be 

 taken from above and on the flank and from behind; and 

 if they had carried this stronghold, there were others where 

 the streets crossed, every hundred paces, which would have 

 been as bad friends to them as the first, or worse, and 

 would have made many widows and orphans. And if for- 

 tune had been so hard on us that they had stormed and 

 broken up our strongholds, there would yet have been seven 

 great companies, drawn up in square and in triangle, to 

 fight them all at once, each led by one of the princes, for the 

 better encouragement of our men to fight and die all to- 

 gether, even to the last breath of their souls. And all 

 were resolved to bring their treasures, rings, and jewels, 

 and their best and richest and most beautiful household 

 stuffs, and burn them to ashes in the great square, lest the 

 enemy should take them and make trophies of them. Also 

 there were men charged to set fire to all the stores and 

 burn them, and to stave in all the wine-casks; others to set 

 fire to every single house, to burn the enemy and us together. 

 The citizens thus were all of one mind, rather than see the 

 bloody knife at their throats, and their wives and daughters 

 ravished and taken by the cruel savage Spaniards. 



