with undying glory.

The townsmen, giving up every thought of personal property, devoted all
their goods, their houses, and their persons to the war, mingling with the
soldiers and the peasants to form one great garrison for the fortress into
which the whole city was transformed. In all quarters of the city massive
churches and convents rose like citadels, the various large streets
running into the broad avenue called the Cosso, and dividing the city into
a number of districts, each with its large and massive structures, well
capable of defence.

Not only these thick-walled buildings, but all the houses, were converted
into forts, the doors and windows being built up, the fronts loop-holed,
and openings for communication broken through the party-walls; while the
streets were defended by trenches and earthen ramparts mounted with
cannon. Never before was there such an instance of a whole city converted
into a fortress, the thickness of the ramparts being here practically
measured by the whole width of the city.

Saragossa had been a royal depot for saltpetre, and powder-mills near by
had taught many of its people the process of manufacture, so no magazines
of powder subject to explosion were provided, this indispensable substance
being made as it was needed. Outside the walls the trees were cut down and
the houses demolished, so that they might not shield the enemy; the public
magazines contained six months' provisions, the convents and houses were
well stocked, and every preparation was made for a long siege and a
vigorous defence.

Again, as before, companies of women were enrolled to attend the wounded
in the hospitals and carry food and ammunition to the men, the Countess
Burita being once more their commander, and performing her important duty
with a heroism and high intelligence worthy of the utmost praise. Not less
than fifty thousand combatants within the walls faced the thirty-five
thousand French soldiers without, who had before them the gigantic task of
overcoming a city in which every dwelling was a fort and every family a
garrison.

A month and more passed before the walls were taken. Steadily the French
guns played on these defences, breach after breach was made, a number of
the encircling convents were entered and held, and by the 1st of February
the walls and outer strongholds of the city were lost. Ordinarily, under
such circumstances, the city would have fallen, but here the work of the
assailants