A memorable, but not an unusual instance of affection, and of female presence of mind, occurred in this city many years since, at a spot which is still shown with no little degree of national pride, whereon an ancient castle stood, the lord of which was severely pressed by the burghers of the town, who laid siege to it, on account of his tyrannical conduct towards them: driven to the last extremity, and when his life was upon the point of paying the forfeit of his crimes, his lady appeared on the ramparts, and offered to surrender, provided she might be permitted to bring out as much of her most valuable goods as she could carry on her back; which being complied with, she brought her husband out upon her shoulders, preserved him from the fury of the troops, and gave up to them possession of the castle: thinking in the language of Shakspeare,
“If I depart from thee, I cannot live;
And in thy sight to die, what were it else,
But like a pleasant slumber in thy lap?”
Henry IV. Part 2d. Act. 4.
History informs us, that Haarlem presented a glorious example of resistance to the Spanish yoke, so heroically imitated two years afterwards at Leyden, which experienced a better fortune than befel the wretched inhabitants of the former city. Whilst the provinces were bravely opposing their invaders, a long and memorable siege in 1573, which was carried on against Haarlem by Frederic of Toledo, the son of the sanguinary Duke of Alva, during which the female inhabitants, like those of Leyden, assisted the garrison in their duties, underwent every privation, faced every horror, and rushed to certain destruction in defence of the town, with an alacrity and fortitude which have rendered them immortal in the annals of their country. Those heroines, when the garrison refused with indignation the conditions which were offered them by the Spanish general, fought with unshaken courage by the side of the men, in their desperate sorties against the besieging army, and in their fury put every prisoner to death, whom they took in these attacks. This unjustifiable conduct, and the derision which from the ramparts they expressed of the Roman Catholic worship, induced the Spaniards to retort with terrible vengeance. In consequence of a correspondence which the besieged carried on with the Prince of Orange by means of carrier pigeons, being discovered by the Spaniards, they shot every pigeon which came within the reach of their musketry, which rendered the situation of the garrison hopeless, and they at length surrendered, on condition that the lives of the soldiers and inhabitants should be spared, to which Frederic of Toledo consented, entered the town at the head of his victorious troops, and in cold blood butchered two thousand of those who had submitted to his arms, and trusted to his honour.
When it is considered, that at this period, the Spanish monarchy was predominant in Europe, that its armies were mighty, its generals experienced, and its treasury overflowing, the triumphant prowess which the Dutch displayed in finally driving their powerful invaders back to their own frontiers, will render the Dutch name illustrious as long as the record of history endures. The Dutch ladies have rivalled in fame the most renowned heroines of Greece and Rome. The Hollanders treasure up these gallant exploits in their memories, they form the favourite subjects of their songs, and the old and the young recite with enthusiasm the great deeds of their ancestors.
The Haarlem lake which I mentioned, presented a very bleak and dismal sheet of water from the canal; it is about fourteen miles long, and about the same number broad, is said to be above six feet deep, and lies between Leyden, Amsterdam, and Haarlem: its waters are slimy, and abound with eels, some of which are of a prodigious size. This lake can have no charm but for a bleacher. The fuel used here is Newcastle coals and turf.
Having described what is worthy of notice at Haarlem, it would be indifference indeed to an art which I worship, were I to quit this city without briefly adverting to some of the principal distinguished artists which it had the honour of giving birth to. The first in chronological order was Philip Wouvermans, who was born at Haarlem in 1620, whose sweetness of colouring, correctness of design, beautiful choice of scenery, and perfect knowledge of the chiaro-scuro, or as it has well been defined, of light and black, have excited the admiration and applause of posterity: the subjects which he was particularly partial to were huntings, hawkings, encampments of armies, farriers’ shops, and all those scenes that admitted of his introducing horses, which he painted to great perfection. Notwithstanding his transcendent merit, for a considerable period he met with no encouragement, and encountered many difficulties which greatly depressed his spirits, of which the picture-merchants knew how to take every ungenerous advantage: at length he was relieved from his indigence and dependence, by the bounty of his confessor, who seeing his uncommon genius, was resolved to the extent of his power, to extricate it from the odious shackles which encumbered it, and accordingly advanced him six hundred guilders, by a judicious application of which he emancipated himself from his embarrassments: he now doubled the price of his pictures, and was enabled to give his daughter a marriage portion of twenty thousand guilders. As soon as he was enabled to pay his confessor, he sent the sum he had borrowed, accompanied with a chef-d’œuvre of his works, representing his holy benefactor in the character of St. Hubert kneeling before his horse. All connoisseurs agree that this picture is the finest he ever painted. Wouvermans resided in the Bakenessegragt, a short distance from the church. The depression of mind which his early disappointments excited, never quitted this great artist: a few hours before he died, he ordered a box filled with his studies and designs to be burned, saying, “I was so long unrewarded for my labours, that I wish to prevent my son from being allured by these designs, to embrace so unpromising and uncertain a profession as mine.”
The works of Wouvermans and Bamboccio were continually placed in competition by the best judges of art, and the latter having painted a picture which was much admired, John de Wilt prevailed upon Wouvermans to paint the same subject, which he executed in a brilliant manner: these pictures were soon afterwards exhibited together to the public, and De Wilt, when the room in which they were placed, was exceedingly crowded, exclaimed in a loud voice, “all our connoisseurs seem to prefer the works of those painters who have studied at Rome; but behold how far the work of Wouvermans who never saw Rome, surpasses the production of him who resided there several years.” This observation, which was received with general approbation, and seemed to receive the fiat of the company, so deeply affected the delicate spirits of Bamboccio, that it largely contributed to hurry him to his grave.