History of Protestantism in the Netherlands - James Aitken Wylie

the earth-works, a bullet from the ramparts, shot
with deadly aim, tumbled its owner into the
trenches.
They again made the prince aware of the
misery to which they were reduced, adding that
unless succours were sent within a very short time
they would be compelled to surrender. William
turned his eyes to the Protestant Queen of England,
and the Lutheran princes of Germany, and
implored them to intervene in behalf of the heroic
little city. But Elizabeth feared to break with
Philip; and the tide of Jesuit reaction in Germany
was at that moment too powerful to permit of its
Protestants undertaking any enterprise beyond their
own borders; and so the sorely beleaguered city
was left wholly in the hands of the prince. He did
all which it was possible for one in his
circumstances to do for its deliverance. He
collected an army of 5,000, chiefly burghers of
good condition in the cities of Holland, and sent
them on to Haarlem, with 400 waggon-loads of
provisions, having first given notice to the citizens
by means of carrier pigeons of their approach. This
352