Tenth, Eleventh, Twelfth and Thirteenth; and dated from the laſt mention'd City the Letters they wrote to clear themſelves, from the Imputation of being the Authors of ſo barbarous a Cataſtrophe.
'Tis beſides certain, and the Hamburghers themſelves don't deny it, that the Gates of their City were ſhut againſt ſeveral of the Inhabitants of Altena; againſt old Men, and big-belly'd Women, who came to implore an Aſylum; and that ſeveral of theſe unhappy Wretches expired under the Walls of Hamburgh, frozen with Cold, and oppreſs'd with Miſery, at the ſame time that their Country was burnt to Aſhes.
I was oblig'd to inſert theſe Particulars in the Hiſtory of Charles the Twelfth. One of the Perſons who furniſhed me with Materials, declares in his Letter, in the moſt poſitive Terms, that the Hamburghers had given Count Steinbok a Sum of Money, in order to engage him to deſtroy Altena, as being their Rival in Trade.
