The hardened Mondragón refused to surrender and as a sign he set fire to a few houses and sent a messenger to William to let him know that dozens of locations in the city would be set on fire and he would go down fighting. William of Orange came up with a compromise and proposed a negotiation in Fort Rammekens with the conditions; an honorable capitulation and a 'retreat' with arms & colors. Mondragón was now concerned about the inhabitants given the light of recent events of which he was fully aware of the Spanish massacres of the populaces of Haarlem, Naarden, and Zutphen ordered by the Duke of Alba. He pleaded with the Prince that the inhabitants and the clergy were not to be harmed, and when this was agreed both William of Orange and Mondragón signed a transfer on 18 February. On 23 February the now ill-fed poorly-equipped Spanish garrison left the city of Middelburg along with the Catholic clergy.
